senator mitt romney, inc. you very much. -- thank you very much. sen. romney: good to be with you.actly 1 year ago today that california senator kamala harris announced she was dropping out of the presidential race, citing a lack of funds. now, the vice-president-elect is poised to break barriers on multiple fronts, inspiring many along the way. yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. yamiche: in her victory speech, vice president-elect kamala harris spoke to the historic nature of her election. sen. harris: while i may be the first woman in this office, i will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. yamiche: harris represents many firsts -- the first woman, first black american, and first south asian american vice president-elect. she's the daughter of immigrants from jamaica and india. she proudly emphasized her roots with fellow indian-american mindy kaling, cooking dosa during her own presidential primary campaign. she is also a graduate of howard university ands a member of the nation's first black sorority, alpha

with romney. he's pointing out that historically -- remember, he is of the party of ronald reagan. ronald reagan is the president who led us with margaret thatcher and the pope to defeat the soviet union. we have never been the party that was for russia. and, in fact, that was the most pejorative thing you could say about democrats at the time, they're soft on russia. now the tables have flipped. i would just say not all the republican candidates who are bangering to be president are in the same mold as donald trump. larry hogan, governor of maryland, the formula that republicans should really look at, which is republicans who succeed overwhelming in blue states. that's the only kind of republican that can get elected nationally, with a national popular vote, in my view, and think we should take a note from him. >> one person. hopefully that number will continue to grow. >> and mitt romney. >> of course mitt romney. it's all on mitt romney. mitt romney, as you recall, was famously ridiculed in 201

. >> i'll talk to senator mitt romney of utah. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news chief white house correspondent hallie jackson, rich lowry, editor of "national review," and yamiche alcindor, white house correspondent for pbs newshour.i welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the n longest runni show in television history, this is "meet the press with chuck todd." >> good sunday morning. >>> there are two ways to look ate the covid-19 crisis today. once again, there is real reason for r optimism. americans have begun receiving the pfizer vaccine, and this weekend, moderna's vaccine was authorized for emergency use, adding millions more doses to be rolled out starting this morning, especially in more rural parts with normal freezers. all this offers the kindor of he we've beenth longing for throughout this crisis. at the same time, though, the pandemic continues to tear through the country, the four highest covid case counts since the coronavirus hitco were recorded just l

mitt romney, senator romney, former governor romney, former presidential nominee mitt romney, was sayinglican party is different now than the republican party that nominated him to be president in 2012. how different is it, do you think? >> well, i don't know about that. i don't know what to make of that statement. what i see is at least in ohio but i think also across the country republicans are -- we're winning in blue-collar communities in ohio that ten years ago we didn't have any chance of winning. we would have laughed at the idea that we could have won in steubenville, ohio or that we could have won jefferson county, belmont county, the whole eastern side of the mahoning valley. we're winning in those areas. and not only did the president win but a lot of local republican officials won. that's the positive. the negative is, you know, we're falling back in franklin county, columbus. we're falling back in some suburbs. so you know, we constantly, both parties, constantly try to -- >> i don't want to cut off but -- >> and meet people's needs -- >> i don't want to cut you off but i do

we also see senats manchin andli romney and c really leading us on capitol hill. joe: yeah. elections have consequences. and you look at the senate. it's a far different sene than it was in 2010 after the tea party members ca a far different than 2004 or 2006 when a lot of progressive democrats came in. k and, yw, over the past 15 years, you've seen more division. you've seen a more diverse senate. buthis is really the revenge of the moderates. joe manchin is right in th o midd things. and he's in the middle of kelly from arizona, kristin rk sinema who hasm voted with 90% of the time over the past few years, governor hicken looper who is going to be another moderate to conservative democratic senator. then you got mitt romney andsu n collins who won a state in maine by nine points that joe biden also won in -- by nine points. so you got six, seven, eight moderates on bo and people like lindsey graham and joni ernst saying they want to get involved i this covid deal. and i really would think of everything that'ss happened t week, the manchin coalition expanding out, manchin a

senator romney, welcome back to "meet the press." and you made a very impassioned plea for the president in particular to speak out, administration to speak out with what was going on with this russian hack. secretary pompeo did do that. i imagine what the president tweeted about china is not what you thought needed to be done. what do you make of the president's decision, i guess, to speculate on an alternative theory? >> well, you're absolutely right. i was disappointed in the president's comment but i think we've come to recognize the president has a blind spot when it comes to russia. and the reality here is the experts, the people who really understand how our sims work and how computers work and software and so forth, thousands upon thousands of cia and nsa and department of defense had determined this came can from russia and it is an extraordinary invasion of our cyberspace, and the implications of this as tom bossert, who was president trump's, if you will, adviser with regards to homeland security, you cannot overstate how

senator romney, good to see you. i want to get to the relief bill in one second.e to ask you, president trump held a meeting on friday in which he reportedly discussed with his disgraced former national security adviser michael flynn this deranged idea to declare martial law to force new elections, in states that biden won. they also have discussed appointing conspiracy theorist sidney powell as a special counsel to investigate her baseless claims of election fraud and issuing an executive order to seize voting machines. this is needless to say quite alarming and scary to a lot of people. what is your response, what will senate republicans do to make sure none of this madness happens? >> well, it is not going to happen. that's going nowhere. and i understand the president is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the american people. but it is really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing because the president could right now be writing the last chapter of this administration, with a victory lap with

romney's found over $300.00 skeletons in this area around this hill. trying to help the families of killed. and he's still looking for the ball and he'll never stop till we find the last victim of genocide. like our son ramis no catch also survived the death march through the wounds. 18 years ago he returned to his house which was completely destroyed in the war and rebuilt it. he found 4 more dead bodies among the ruins. today his son's family lives in the house they make a living from farming his son record through means his story is documenting the stories of the survivors for the memorial and bring its own and many of you know i did the hardest thing was when i had to run away and leave my wife and son he was just 7 years old he flung his arms around my neck and said papa don't leave me the serbian soldiers will kill me that broke my heart. i pushed him off and asked my wife to hold him and take him away. without looking back i left. on him for the romneys fled from the bosnian serb prosecutors who were hunting down all my own refugees he witnessed

but senator mitt romney said top republicans must now speak out

and son is meeting romney's new kids at response where it all happened. lives nearby and is another survivor. for many years ramez or spent his free time searching for a relic of the death march and once again he has found something. her son has to decide whether the objects ramis has found are of interest for this record and it's a memorial folk although this is part of a parachute and i think this jacket is from the humanitarian aid in srebrenica. this is the area where one of the worst attacks happened and where the most people were killed in one attack around a 1000 people were killed here. for years romney's new catch looked for the bodies of his father and 2 brothers he found many skeletons on his search later the remains of his family were found in a mass grave but he continued his search he often finds body found still today he goes on to inform the performer. who carry out forensic investigations on site. here is a femur a joint capsule and the bone of a hand. to fairly crude oil. i don't know if they're from the same body. the experts have to de

republicans are pushing back missouri senator roy blunt iowa, senator chuck grassley and utah senator mitt romney have all said they

on the bill as well as or a senator roy blunt iowa, senator chuck grassley and utah senator mitt romney arguing against the plan we can't you know have free money the republican majority senate could consider whether or not

joining is mitt romney. good to see you. thanks for joining us.t to get to that relief bill in one second. first i have to ask you president trump held a meeting on friday in which he reportedly discussed with his disgraced former national security adviser michael flynn martial law and force new elections in states that biden lost and discuss appointing sidney powell and issuing an executive order to seize voting machines. this is, needless to say, quite alarming and scary to a lot of people. what will senate to do to make sure this doesn't happen? >> it's going to happen. it's going nowhere. it's really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing because the president could, right now, be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine. he pushed aggressively to get the vaccine developed and distributed that is happening on a quick time frame. he could be championing this story but instead leaving washington with conspiracy theories and things so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head wonde

let's take a listen to what senator romney said this morning on "meet the press." >> you can bring ao its knees if people don't have electricity, don't have water and can't communicate. what russia appears to have done is put themselves in our system. they don't need rockets to take us out. they potentially have the capability to take out all of those things and doing it remotely at very small cost. >> listen to put that in perspective, it's like they could wage war on us without ever dropping a bomb if you think about it that way. what are your thoughts on the gravity of this cyber attack and just what might be at stake here how wide ranging is it? >> alex, thanks for having me on. and i think that's the question, it's really the range. at this point we don't know, but it's important that we anticipate what is happening. and so what we do know is that our networks are compromised, that we are identifying it as cyber espionage. but the challenge with cyber espionage and signer attacks right now is that they are espionage right up until the point that malware that was put on a network

if the gop, right, he just mentioned you that you worked on the romney, they were stunned by the romney result, is now the party of trump how does someone like hogan then stand a chance? >> look, i'm a little conflicted here because i worked for governor hogan in his campaigns and i love the guy. i love phil scott in vermont. >> i don't think anyone here is saying anything bad about hogan. they're saying he is doing a right thing but how does he stand a chance? >> i'm conflicted. what i want to say is of course. to be able to elect an incredibly popular governor in a state like maryland, a guy like that if he can be the nominee for a party, he would win big. but is there any appetite for it out there? i hope there is. but right now i just see a competition as to who can be more trumpy. >> go ahead. >> the core problem in our country is that hyperpartisanship is killing us. in a rational world the most popular governors of the country are blue state republicans. charlie baker, phil scott, larry hogan. and yet they don't even get mentioned in the republican party. they don't have a prepar

well mitt romney would use it directly you somebody was good and said that. he thinks that the president is wrong in a number of occasions and he has not been afraid to do that but for every one of them remember whether or not they have power is based on whether or not the people in their base support them in the let them do these seats in the congress and not that which is that jeopardize his or her own seat in the congress by go against donald trump don't throw up his you know got over 70000000 votes in the november election and so we're delap or worse no matter how people may feel about him on the other side at least among republican voters he has a lot of strip so those republican senators and members of congress are going to be very very slow to criticize him and they'll wait to see if they will to retain that threat in the coming weeks and months after he leaves office which they want to see happen joe what is always good to get your insight thanks so much for joining us from the u.s. thank you now the u.s. has reported a record number of cave in 1000 i

going to speak with senator mitt romney on a bipartisan effort he's been involved with to finally get americans relief. stay with me. we started by making the cloud easier to manage. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪ she always wanted her smile to shine. now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. (crowd cheering) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. >>> short time ago on the senate floor, majority leader mitch mcconnell recognized joe biden as president-elect for the first time and congratulated him for his win after the electoral college reaffirmed the victory yesterday. listen to him. >> many millions of us hoped the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on january 20th.

and senator mitt romney calling it madness. here's mary bruce. >> reporter: on the nation's deadliest day of the covid crisis, president trump hosted a packed holiday party inside at the white house, ignoring both the science of the virus and its deadly toll. >> four more years. >> reporter: the president is also ignoring the reality that he lost to joe biden by more than 7 million votes and is brazenly calling on the supreme court to overturn the election. >> if they have wisdom and if they have courage, we're going to win this election in a landslide. >> reporter: republican attorneys general in 17 states are backing him up, joining the texas a.g. and asking the supreme court to invalidate the results in four states trump lost, georgia, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin. the brief they submitted, riddled with factual inaccuracies and conspiracy theories. trump is also pressuring members of congress to sign on. republican congressman mike johnson telling his colleagues trump will be taking names and is "anxiously awaiting t

mitt romney said it's nuts to bring that into the senate this morning.re on capitol hill? >> reporter: what you had was democrats essentially not participating today in this hearing. while a fume members might have been listening, they were not asking questions or pressing the witnesses, in part, because they didn't want to give them any more time to espouse their views. you have gary peters giving opening statements saying while he was opening to hear other views, he did think it was the committee's responsibility, especially at a time when the coronavirus rollout is just around the corner to build public support in science and not so any doubt when it comes to the efficacy of vaccines. now you saw some republicans on the committee not even participating, including senator mitt romney, a republican from utah, who said it was, quote, nuts to have one of the witnesses testify today. now orient is a known vaccine skeptic and someone who throughout the hearing today pushed hydroxychloroquine as a vaccine and what has been made clear is not a cure for corona

>> yes. >> senator mitt romney, thank you so much for joining us. good luck with this economic stimulus legislation. the american people are counting on you guys to get the job done. you failed, all of you, democrats and republicans, before the election, and that was a pity. let's hope that can be done right now. appreciate it very much. >> thanks. >>> coming up, a cnn exclusive. we'll hear excerpts from the first joint interview by president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris talking to our own jake tapper. jake is standing by live. we'll have clips for you as soon as we come back. to gift yourself the smile you deserve. new patients, get started with a comprehensive exam and full set of x-rays with no obligation. and if you don't have insurance, it's free. plus, get 20% off your treatment plan. enjoy flexible payment options and savings when it matters most. we're here to make your smile shine bright so you can start the new year feelin' alright. call 1-800-aspendental 7 days a week or book today at aspendental.com ♪ ♪ you're all, you're

if you've covered mitt romney as long as i have, you can tell that tone of voice. but there's actually a lot of alarm and frustration under there. editor at large of the daily beast and author of "isis: inside the army of terror," joining us now, michael weiss. thank you so much for being with us here. let's start with the white house here and the point that senator romney is making, that they haven't said anything, they haven't taken any action. how extraordinary is this? you've covered a lot of these types of events over the years, for them to be silent in the face of something like this, for any white house to be silent? >> well, it's not extraordinary for donald trump to be silent about anything to do with malevolent actions by the russian government. i mean, he's busy tweeting about john mccain last night and this morning. look, this is an extraordinary cyber intrusion. you've had richard clark go on record saying that this is the biggest cyber espionage case he's seen in world history. 18,000 organizations, including u.s. government agencies, including our nu

senator mitt romney, as you pointed out, is the exception. this coming monday's electoral college vote. i'm quoting him here. this is madness. we have a process. recounts are appropriate. going to the court is appropriate, and pursuing every legal avenue is appropriate, but trying to get electors not to do what the people voted to do is madness. where are the other republican voices of reason? >> it really is madness. what senator romney says is correct, that, if you think the election was unfair or there was corruption or fraud in the election, then you would bring that evidence to court. now, trump has asserted over and over again that there's fraud, the fraud is obvious, everybody knows about the fraud, but they haven't brought any of that evidence to court. in fact, they filed in excess of 50 cases and lost every single one of those cases except for one which was a minor case in pennsylvania. congressman kelly's case which is absurd on its face was rejected by scalia and the supreme court in what effectively was a 9-0 decision. the reason

jason and his business partner romney saw the catering calendar collapsed during the lockdown. >> all of our events came to a screeching halt. >> the pair talked with other business owners and that nonprofit cultivate labs back in march. >> we were all sitting together and bring storming how we could kill two birds with one stone, feed the community and also help support local businesses. >> filipinos feed the front lines was born. they collected almost $120,000 in donations so filipino american-owned food businesses could cook more than 12,000 free meals for frontline, seniors and homeless folks. it started in san francisco's south of market and excelsior districts and expanded to filipino town in la and is now beginning in stockton. raining is one of a dozen chefs to say the program is their lifeline. >> we are doing something great for the community and we are being stabilized by the funds we get. >> be the front lines also helped romney and jason's businesses stay afloat for a few months. then they got chosen for another program, government funded great plates, cooking meals six d

i admire senator romney very much and he would have been a fine choice. i just bought we would spend the first 567 days coming out of the convention relitigating all of the mccain romney attacks on each other when they were competing during the primaries and it got a little heated at times. why do that? when he debated the choice in front of john, i advocating for pawlenty. >> an observation. one of the things in the book, senator mccain, in the same plane, i am not a very large person. what you touched on, the energy in his metabolism, i am only a year younger than senator mccain when he died and i can hardly imagine how he was able to keep up that pace and additionally because he had real physical injuries, he raised his arms, was that hereditary? >> that was all war related, down staircases, let gravity do the work. he had a gate, quickstep gate, compensated, to keep up with him. and extremely strong - to show he was in physical shape to run for president, 70, 71, 2008. he and his son jack in the grand canyon, quite a future for a guy in his 70s. she a

and some republican lawmakers, not mitt romney, are trying to walk a line i can't even see.n cornyn was asked about the president's lack of response and he said, i don't really care what he says, but i do care what he does. okay, i'll play ball. what's he doing? >> steph, we don't know what he's doing because he's not saying what he's doing. and it actually does matter what he says because other countries are listening, too. there are other threats -- there are other players, adversaries around the world, not just russia, who are looking to see how the u.s. responds to this russian hack because they may be wanting to do a hack or some other act of warfare against the united states in the future. and the risk, according to experts, has always been if the u.s. doesn't confront these drctly, the president doesn't speak out about it, it could encourage other adversaries to do the same. >> the president said he inherited a poor military and he was here protecting us. a hack of this nature is not protecting us. phil, thank you so much. i know i'm not the first to say it, that poin

mitt romney is right that masks have become political, never should have been. joe biden may be a lot of things, i doubt naive is one of them. the guy has been in washington my entire lifetime so he knows what's going on and he knows it hasn't been tried yet. no one has tried to go out there every day and say masks from the bully pulpit. we will see if that works out. very quickly i want to play what joe biden said when he was asked about whether or not he hopes donald trump comes to his inauguration. >> president trump has not said if he's going to attend your inauguration yet. do you think it's important that he's there? you're laughing. >> i think it would -- important only in one sense, not in a personal sense, important in the sense that we are able to demonstrate at the end of this chaos that he's created that there is peaceful transfer of power with the competing parties standing there shaking hands and moving on. i think that's an important -- what i worry about, jake, more than the impact on the domestic politics, i really worry about the image we're pr

romney: thank you, mark. i think the american people expect and hope to see groups like this work together. and you are seeing it. that is what makes me most encouraged about what we have accomplished but also most hopeful about what we can accomplish in the future. republicans and democrats in the house and senate can work together and take on a tough issue. this one looks particularly tough. on the one side, you have folks saying that anything less than $2 trillion was on acceptable. on the others, you had folks over $500thing billion was unacceptable. we had a dinner and i think it was dick durbin who said, this is an emergency provision, isn't it? we have people hurting right now, we have an emergency. let's take a look at what we can do to take care of the emergency. that is really this bill right here that joe just described. there is a lot of it i would change if i could and i am sure everyone of us has things we would do differently. this bill is less of an emergency but also very important. this last

remember, after the 2012 campaign where mitt romney lost to obama. and of course stewart worked on that campaign. many republicans were stunned by the out come. and immediately said about an autopsy at the party to try to say how can we appeal to a broader segment of americans. how can we appeal to more people of color. appeal to young people and women. and donald trump took that play book and trashed it. and did a backwards looking campaign to try to make the republican party the party of yesterday. he won the election. he drew hillary clinton fortunate for him. it didn't work this year. we don't see any sign. maybe it will come after december 14. the electoral college votes and joe biden takes over. maybe you'll see a republican party start to reconsider some of the assumptions. we toent see any sign that's happening now. >> i want to ask you, stewart, he has a good point. hogan is a trump critic a. if the gop -- stunned by the romney result. is the party of trump. how does hogan stand a chance? >> i'm conflicted. i worked for governor hogan and hi

susan collins, phil cassidy, all of you-- >> and mitt romney. >> and mitt romney, and lisa who i'm going to introduce. [laughter] >> and i knew the other ones before we started this journey, these i got to know after we started this journey. they truly are mentors now of mine how to be statesmen in the united states congress. so i thank you for that honor and that lesson. but as we go forward, i, too, echo the relief that we've come here to announce today. there's something that we're not done with. this has to get signed into law. as my colleagues in the house and us stood together and took a pledge a few weeks ago, we will not leave for christmas break until this relief is delivered to the american people. and as we talk about christmas miracles, let us remember, it's not christmas yet. and as josh alluded to, i think there's one more christmas miracle we hope to perform in the house and get these two bills into one. and with that, i just want to say, let us get it done. not for us, but for the people that we represent and the people who need this as soon as possible. and so, i do get

i agree with senator romney on the purpose of the foreign actors. we're looking forward to learning more about them. i think in terms of the measures that a biden administration would take in response to an attack like this, i think -- i want to be very clear: it is not just sanctions, it is also steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this sort of attack or engage in even more dangerous attacks. and now, margaret, i've lost you again. the connection has been severed once again. >> brennan: all right. just when i was going to ask you a followup there. ron klain, thank you very much for joining us. i'm sorry to our viewers for the continued technical problems on that. we're lucky because we do have our next guest here. and that is on the topic of covid-19. you all may remember that when president trump was diagnosed with covid-19 back in the fall, he was treated with a therapeutic antibody made by a company, regeneron. eli lilly has a similar drug. this morning we're joined by their chairman and c.e.o. david r

campaignsple in the for john mccain admit romney ercome involved in "nev trump." they endorsed joe biden for president in a way that was unusual. whohave a lot of people were sort of chagrined at the direction of the party, beginning with reagan, or in some cases george w. bush. in some cases it is a continuation of the party being more conservative is a problem for them, and certainly many democratic voters might feel that way. hogan, thely, larry governor of maryland, potentially looking at running for president in 2024, he seems to be that sort of blue state republican in the mold the did not like reagan or the bushes, but he has tried to cast himself as a reaganite and move the party from trump back toward reagan. some people who share his inclinations, and certainly maryland republicans at that time, feel differently about reagan, although at least reagan did carry maryland at least once in 1984. who iset's talk to john calling from pennsylvania on the republican line. caller: good morning and merry christmas, america. jim, i want to kind of go back over the

mr romney said the data breach was "extraordinarily damaging" and demanded a response. people have been killed and 15 injured in a car bombing in the capital kabul. the interior ministry says women and children are among the victims. the blast targeted the convoy of a member of the afghan parliament, who survived. the explosion was so powerful it caused significant damage in nearby buildings. several rockets have been fired into the heavily fortified green zone in baghdad, where several embassies and government buildings are located, causing minor damage to residential buildings at the us embassy. the iraqi military has blamed what it called an outlaw group for the attack, and said that one iraqi soldier was injured. and pope francis has complained that consumerism has "kidnapped" christmas. in his last sunday blessing before 25 december, he told a crowd in st peter's square that there was no consumerism in the manger in bethlehem, only reality, poverty and love. the italian authorities have destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars‘ worth of the amphetamine captagon, s

one of the architects of these bills is senator mitt romney. he will join us in a moment. first, cnbc's ylan mui now. what's in these bills, ylan? >> shep, let's start with the hard stuff first. democrats want to give more money to state and local governments. republicans want to protect businesses from getting sued over covid claims. today, that bipartisan group of lawmakers mapped out a potential compromise. states would get $150 billion but it would come in three installments over the next six months, based partly on population and partly on how much money they actually lost. the bill would also raise the bar for suing businesses, but those protections would only last through the pandemic. lawmakers acknowledge this approach may be far from perfect, but that's what negotiating is all about. >> this bill is not about sending a message. unless the message is that congress can work together to make something good happen to the american people at a time of incredible stress. >> reporter: less controversial items went into a second bill. $748 billion covering unemployment be

thanks it was but romney who signed off on the dreamliner batteries. and offered 2 failed and the f.a.a. grounded the dreamliner it was buff romney who signed it back into the. shortly after that he retired from the f.a.a. . 2 weeks later he was hired as vice president of the aerospace industries association which nobody's on behalf of boeing. one of the 1st things he did was to appear before congress to call for greatest so for regulation for companies like boeing for years the f.a.a. to allow greater use of delegation not only to take full advantage of industry expertise but to increase the collaboration that improves aviation safety mr but from a declined our interview request one day or regulating the airline in the next day you're working for it can't possibly be tough on the industry that you're regulating because you'll never get that plum job after you leave the regulators that the f.a.a. will rarely cross boeing is simply walked. into the washington influence game and boeing is a monster last year the company had over $100.00 registered lobbyi

. >> and have a listen to what senator mitt romney had to say. >> it is going nowhere.t is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the american people. but it is really sad in a lot of respects. and embarrassing because the president could right now be writing the last chapter of the administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaek seen. after all, he pushed aggressively to get the vaccine developed and distributed, and that is happening. he could be going out championing this extraordinary success. but instead he is leaving washington with a whole series of things that are on nutty saying what has gotten into this man. >> and so senator romney is pretty definitive. it is not going to happen. i mean, are you sure? >> senator romney is also right in terms of how the president has failed even in his last days in the white house to prioritize the coronavirus pandemic. this reporting in the "washington post" this morning about how the president has been an sernts from me absent from meetings and that trum

we have to decide over the coming years. >> it's really good to see you, senator romney. you for many things. how do you navigate that personally, mentally and physically? do you feel ostracized by your party? do you feel that you get a lot of support behind the scenes privately but maybe publicly people don't have the courage to say what many feel -- how many feel exactly the way you do? >> it's interesting. in my caucus among the republican senators i wondered after my vote on impeachment, for instance, how i would be received. i got a call the next day from john cornyn who is a leader and strong trump supporter. he said, mitt, i wouldn't want to be part of any group that didn't respect someone who told him to do what his conscious told him to do. that came from mitch mcconnell. there is respect within our party and frankly across the aisle. people like each other, get along with each other. it's a very positive aspect of the senate that i frankly hadn't anticipated. >> that's good to hear. do you ever say to donald trump, can we just sit down and have a private meeting

we don't think you actually deserve really anything here and so then you see republicans like mitt romney coming out over the weekend and saying well i just have a problem he says with putting 2000 dollars to each individual person that's just too much money that's too much debt that we're taking not really why don't we take away the money that's going to be out overseas because let's not forget it's not money that's just being created out of the middle of nowhere this is money that's coming from american taxpayers right we have been taxed this money and so you're actually just giving it back why not just give a moratorium on taxation for small businesses but none of that's happening and so the president should have walked away he didn't walk away and so now his name will also be on this as having gone along with this ridiculous between bill that it's again it's outrageous and it's disgusting well we already have this money like you said it's coming from us the taxpayers it's supposed to be a code really felt it has a lot of things and to trump a point last week when he said you know ther

we have heard an awful lot from mitt romney.terday i spoke with a republican congressman on this very issue. to his credit he has said that president-elect biden will be president-elect and he has accepted that. he has also been vaccinated and wants to spread the word on the need to vaccinate americans. but when i asked him about this breaking news out of this oval office fight, and discussions over martial law, he said he's not going to be riled up over a conversation that, hey. they're not taking part in a revolution yet. it's just a conversation. i'm not going to get upset about it. if we're going to have more republicans thinking along those lines what more can be done? >> it is really extraordinary. you have heard people say about republicans for so long, you know, at a certain point there will be a moment where they will break with trump, where they will take seriously some of the more erratic things that he says. and yet we don't see that happening. beyond mitt romney you don't see many republican officials proactively st

three years ago mid romney invited joe biden out to a summit in utah.y toweled our colleague manu raju that they had a good conversation at that event. ram any has been willing to cross his party and said he would be willing to give joe biden's nominees for his cabinet some deference to joe biden. the other who has congratulated joe biden is lisa murkowski, a moderate senator from alaska. she's also been willing to cross her party. that's another relationship to watch as we wait for the joe biden administration to begin. >> michael, thank you so much for taking us through that. we'll be watching it with you. >>> there's major new developments in the race for a vaccine, and they come at the same time that the cdc director is warning the next three months will be the most difficult in america's health history. >>> plus why would the president discuss pardons for family members who may not be under investigation? being a good father is important to me... ...so being diagnosed with advanced non-small cell lung cancer... ...made me think of all the things th