where are we, sam stein? >> well, so there's two sort of threads of thought here. one is that this will burn itself out, you need to let trump and his followers get this out of their system. the other thought is that this is scary stuff not just because of the long term implications that this has for our democratic process, democracy at large, also because all it takes is one sociopath to turn protests like that into something much more drastic. we already know there was a plot to kidnap the michigan governor. we have seen trump fans target members of the media with pipe bombs. we have had multiple cases of trump fans threatening violence. you can see a future in which that gets even further escalated if the president keeps going on this path. and i guess the only thing i would quibble with is there's no sense that i can pick up that trump is going to fade into oblivion which makes this even more scary. in fact, what i can ascertain through our reporting is that it is the opposite, he is actively plotting a proactive run for the white house in 2024 with events he m

sam stein, let's -- there's a lot here. chuck schumer frankly is under fire because he raised expectations extremely high for how he was going to do in the general election in the senate, he did not deliver. but on the flip side, you know, republicans have also been a complete divided mess, frankly, with the putting -- his supporters are saying don't even vote at all. i feel like my republican sources are pretty confident and my democratic sources are worried, but i'm curious your reporting and take? >> well, eddie went through the people he was glad to see, and i was last. i will never forget that, eddie. i should be first on your list. >> we do it in order of age. you're always the youngest on the screen. >> yeah. this is for alex, i can't believe you don't pivot and divot with a chip which is the perfect golf analogy. look, we went through the 2020 campaign and expectations were exceptionally high for all of the democrats and there were a lot of face plants and that was despite a historic amount of money raised. the demo

luckily still with us have sam stein and rick wilson. rick, i have seen my share of walk backs in my career and involved in a few myself, but that's river dance. this is like billy elliot meet scatman krugters. this is some professional walk back. is the lesson here you can't just lie and broadcast falsehoods? >> these people are back flipping faster than the romanian gymnast told their parents are going to the -- if she doesn't stick the landing. this is an astounding moment because the audience they've coveted so much, the audience is the pure trump audience. those people are turning on newsmax and oan now. and it is an astoundingly beautiful thing to watch. it is a magical moment because no one believes any of this is true inside these organizations. they know it's a lot of b.s. but now they've been caught and now the threat of legal action is pending upon them they have moved with dispatch to get out of this problem. >> and sam, speaking of people turning on people there's a graphic that's making the rounds on social media tonight. i

, with donald trump planning to go to georgia, sam stein and others wondering if you're hoping joe bidencome to georgia to help your company? >> i would love for the president-elect to come down. and for vice president-elect harris. we welcome them with open arms. i want to encourage them. if they want to take the time, but with their busy schedules, i understand. but as for president trump, he he come to georgia empty handed. he is not bringing stimulus, or relief for maryland's restaurant, mom's kitchen here. he is going to come and spread covid at one of his rallies. i'm not sure what they hope to achieve. i might rile up some of my voters support. but not to democrats. >> won't trump bring the message that votes don't matter, is that what he is saying about the republican votes? >> you know what this really is? this is an attack on black voters in georgia. purdue, trump and loeffler, they expected the apparatus of -- the will of the people boiled over. the strength of black turnout in georgia was so overwhelming that trump lost the state. he didn't believe it and perdue is forced in

joining us political director for the daily beast sam stein. ou grnggood morning. >> thanks. >> "the wall street journal" had pretty tough words for president trump. they went along with many of the things that the trump administration did over the course of his presidency, but he raised a good point that the president went along with policies that the journal has always basically supported. but he's kind of thrown that overboard here in the last couple of weeks. >> yeah. this is the second murdoch enterprise this week to editorialize against trump, the first being the "new york post." to their point, when trump is pushing $2,000 checks it does go against the hawk policies. and many on the hill have espoused for years and years. now, what's curious to me, the journal, a lot of republicans on the hill have bent their id ideolo ideology. in the last four years to accommodate trump. they must sense with his power coming to an end, they no longer need him, essentially. they recognize the reality of his loss, he doesn't, but, you know, come 2 1/2, 3

joining us now, politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein. sam, good morning.>> good morning. >> thanks for being up early with us. let's start in georgia where is the center of the political universe. we've got a couple weeks now until the runoffs. and it seems like president trump is going to take every opportunity he can to get in the way of what republicans are trying to do here, even as what happens in georgia is really going to determine the course of the first two years of biden's presidency. >> right. i mean, this just shows the chasm that has always existed between trump and the republican party at large. trump is entirely focused on his own election. or lack thereof. and he obviously is fundraising a ton off of it. these fundraising pitches, they're raising massive amounts of money, raised $250 million plus in the post-election. and that's real donor money here. that could be directed to causes that are more immediate than whatever president trump's long term political interests are. but that's not really what trump carries about. he cares about setti

and sam stein is here, politics editor for the daily beast and msnbc contributor.read the reporting and i have no words other than to bring the best of it to this broadcast, to share it and say what the bleep did people think was going to happen when donald trump was enabled by all of these people? >> he has been indulged for so long in his narcissistic fantasy that everyone is in office because he put them there. that no one would hold office if it wasn't for his benevolent nature and bestowing upon them his blessing. and here is the thing that is really weird about this, nicolle. is who is not in the room. you notice where jared is. jared is getting out of the country. mike pompeo is trying to get out of the country. pence is trying to hide under his desk. all of the people who have allowed this president to do thisker ossive damage to our democracy are now hiding from him. and he's beginning to fir out that the only people who are willing to be w him are crazy town. he's surrounded by crazy town and that is it. now the republican party deserves to pay a very ste

daily beast reported an incoming politico white house editor, sam stein, treated this on wednesday.n transition team appears to have disabled the public chat function on its transition zoom call, the place where i and others had been routinely complaining to them to take more questions." they used chat to call out the biden team after they only took five questions. and he wrote, "since this is only once a week, can we go longer or hold more frequent briefings?" zeke miller from the associated press added, "any chance he could take a few more questions connect there are a lot of folks here with questions." and andrew feinberg from the white house also chimed in saying, "is there a point in saying when we want to ask questions if you only call on the same small group every week?" last month the biden spokesperson said the president-elect valued the media. >> president-elect biden believes the media is a critical piece of our democracy, that transparency is incredibly important. he also believes the media's job is to hold him accountable, and he welcomed that relationship. >> julie: do

and sam stein, politics editor at the daily beast and an msnbc political analyst. welcome to both of you. christina, let me start with you. i am hopeful that there are lots of people like joyce warshaw out there. lots of people who identified themselves as republicans and have said this anti-fact weird thing that's going on right now does not represent me. i do wonder what happens to them later. i don't think it's healthy for america to be -- to have one party that sort of follows democratic rules and another one that just doesn't. what's your view of how this unfolds? >> well, it's really concerning to me, ali. i think it depends on how january 20th goes and sort of the rollout after that. i mean, joe biden honestly will spend a lot of time trying to reach across the aisle to see if republicans will work with him. i don't know if that's going to work. i don't know if mitch mcconnell, especially if he's senate leader, will actually work with his old friend from the senate. so that's one piece. it depends on how much oxygen donald trump continues to take out of the

>>> sam stein, to pick up on the conversation we were just having with dr., you have an amazing piece in the daily beast, that yes, the vaccine is a blessing and it means that health care workers and people on the front lines can rest assured they won't get it, but it doesn't make their jobs any easier. the ers are still overrun with cases in the piece you ran in providence, rhode island. >> yeah, it gets to the very strange, sad dichotomy we're living in which is we're at the moment with such an intense momentous breakthrough, a medical miracle that's coming at the same time we're at the literal worst time with the hospitals completely overwhelmed, nurses being forced into ppe shortages. just an unsurmountable amount of human suffering and it's tough to describe the emotions that you feel internally. we have such severe problems with our health care system caused by the pandemic. i have to bring my kid in for the covid test yesterday and they said it will take three to five days to turn them around because there's so much testing happening right now. so yea

and of course sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast and msnbc contributor whose byline is onhe piece we just quoted, thank you all very much for being here. sam, i have to ask you, are people seriously still surprised by how destructive president trump is being and behaving in the final days of his administration? >> so, the answer to that question is yes, which is surprising in its own right. >> yeah. >> but the level of destructiveness that trump has brought, the lengths to which he's flirting to go, have caught loyal advisers off gord. we're talking about the sidney powell and impounding voting machines and pushing to not certify the election results. pushing potentially endorsing martial law to redo the election in key swing states. these are measures that are so far beyond lower case "d" democracy. trump is not giving a hearing, he wants to hear it out. he wants to consider the case but not like he's embracing it. but even that fact, that he's hearing it out, that these people are on the white house premises talking to him about it has appalled some people. and the destr

joining me now is jake sherman, monica alba and sam stein, all nbc news contributors. three people who don't know the meaning of the words holiday or vacation. jake, we'll start with you. tell us what's happening on capitol hill. the $2,000 checks seemed to be gaining traction among some republican senators, but now there seems to be no path forward. >> there's no path forward. mitch mcconnell has decided he's not going to engage in this topic. he's put together the $2,000 checks with repealing a part of the law that shields tech companies from certain lawsuits and an election fraud commission. those issues when put together stand no chance or very little chance of getting through the senate and no chance of being put into law because the house is done for the year. mitch mcconnell had a choice. he either put the checks into law or not. he chose not to. frankly two things, donald trump has no more political capital left on hardly any issue. he didn't work this issue. he thought people would fall in line for him and no one fell in line for him. republicans in the house

he's the co-author of the widely read political playbook and sam stein. what we heard from the cdc, josh, why now with uk travelers? >> well, the trump administration has been closely watching this situation in the uk with this new variant strain of coronavirus which the cdc now says research shows could be as much as 70% transmissible than the variant we have gotten used to. they're trying to find out what the right compromise to strike was. many other yets have fully banned all travel from the uk. the trump administration did not want to go that far. back in march the president did put a ban on many air travelers who are foreign nationals coming -- asking if they had been in the uk in the last 14 days so what they settled on was the decision to require people to get this negative coronavirus test within three days of traveling to the united states. it was called for from a number of different corners including andrew cuomo who has many flights that come in to new york as passengers make a stopover there before they go on to other places. dr. fauci and o

msnbc contributor and friend of our show, sam stein, pointed out in a tweet that for these 106 house elections are fraudulent? opposition to the texas suit against four battleground states gained a few gop voices yesterday. nebraska senator ben sasse told "the washington examiner" that the suit was a publicity stunt, that the supreme court would probably, quote, swat away. sasse added that, to him, it looked like texas attorney general ken paxton filed, quote, a pr stunt, rather than a lawsuit, in an attempt to gain a pardon from president trump. paxton, currently the subject of an fbi investigation for illegally using the power of his office to benefit an austin real estate developer. texas congressman chip roy outlined his opposition in a string of tweets that read in part, quote, the case itself represents a dangerous violation of federalism and sets a precedent to have one state asking federal courts to police the voting procedures of other states. texas congresswoman kay granger called the case a distraction and told nbc news she's not supporting it. meanwhile, senator john corn

that's where we find josh letterman and with me, sam stein, editor at the daily beast and an msnbc news contributor. great to have you all with us for this hour. garrett, let me begin with you and talk about the republicans. you know them on capitol hill. do republicans have any clue about what the president is thinking right now? >> no. they've been trying to avoid a situation like this since early in the president's term when house republicans backed a health care repeal bill the president turned around and called mean. this is why for the last eight months or so, mitch mcconnell has largely delegated all the negotiating with speaker pelosi to the treasury secretary. he has said repeatedly the point was to get to a law, to something the president would sign and he would not move forward on anything that he was not assured had the president's support. now, he and all his republican colleagues in the house and senate are left in a lurch. they passed this bipartisan package that is the covid relief bill and government funding deep into next year with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, v

this is sam stein again saying hey, guys, there are tons of folks looking to ask questions and sinceis being done once a week could we please go longer at least hold more frequent briefings, zeke miller of the associated press says any chance you being take a few more questions? there are a lot of folks here with questions. andrew feinberg is there saying we want to ask questions if you can only call on the same small group every week? the flashback side i wanted to show you was t.j. duck low, biden's press secretary saying we need transparency. very important. this is in november. watch. >> transparency is incredibly important. he also believes though that the media's job is to hold him accountable. he is there to do the peoplens work. and, you know, he welcomes that relationship. he welcomes their role. the media's role in our democracy. i think it will be frankly the polar opposite of what we have seen over the last four years. i think you will see a huge change in the culture and the way that this white house treats the media. jason: that's one of the best laughs you will get thi

here's sam stein from the daily beast. consider the source.s is being done once a week. can we please go longer or at least hold more frequent briefings? ezekiel miller from the ep any chance you could take a few more questions? pete: there is a pleading nature to these chats. pete: my hand is up. andrew feinberg white house reporter point asking questions if you only call on the same group every week? we know biden and his team want to be in a cozy bubble so they call on certain people. it's not as if these reporters would ask tough questions either, jedediah. but, are you surprised by this at all? jedediah: will not surprised. i think i probably would have -- had i been one of those reporters would have done the same thing albeit a little less politely. i probably would have, you know, been bleeped or something in the zoom. but, i think it's indicative of frustration. and i think it's going to start off slow. you said they are all leftist. i don't know individually what those people's politics are even if they're inclined to agree with joe b

and sam stein is back, politics editor for "the daily beast." mike, take us through the reporting on rudy giuliani's need for a pardon. >> well, so, we don't know the full extent of giuliani's criminal exposure, but what we do know is that he's been under investigation for some time, at least a year or more, by the prosecutors in the southern district of new york. and what we found out is that as recently as last week, as giuliani has been out there pushing these claims about the election, him and trump had this discussion about the pardon. now, giuliani has told others that he's concerned that a biden justice department will simply resurrect these dormant investigations and use them to target him, but whatever the case, he thinks that he has some type of criminal exposure that could be a problem and that he needs to be insulated from with a pardon. now, the thing is is that the president has used his pardon power to really help out many of his close allies. a lot of presidents have done that in the past. the difference here is that some of the

sam stein, who has now been promoted to "politico"'s white house editor tweeted out in october that basicallyroud of the mainstream media for not covering the hunter biden story by way of which they suppressed russian propaganda and misinformation. we all know that is false now but the media seems satisfied with the biden campaign because they're on the biden campaign and they're for joe biden. stuart: i find this a difficult subject to address because i have great respect for the presidency, i have great respect for joe biden. he is a decent man. that is what i would say. i find it very difficult to describe his physical condition and his mental acuity without showing disrespect. that is where i'm coming from, but i think we have to point this out. it is very worrying for a lot of people. he doesn't appear very often. he does make gaffs. he does stumble. that is not what you want in a man who is 78 years old, just assuming the presidency. help me out, kelly. i don't want to show any disrespect for the office or the man. >> no, obviously we don't want to show any disrespect for joe biden and

sam stein puts in the zoom chat, guys there's tons of folks looking to ask questions since this is being from the associated press, any chance you can take a few more questions there are a lot of folks with questions, and raw fe inberg, is there a point in saying why do you talk to the same group every week? it sounds a little whiney to me, frankly, especially after maybe they are used to the access they had under the trump adminitration where questions were plentiful and now they are limited. >> you know, i think that that's absolutely something that's gone on here, for all of the complaints that journalists have had about the trump adminitration, you can't say that they've done things like cutoff access to the president or to his advisors, and obviously, they haven't done things like the obama administration did, when it came to spying on journalists. this is a situation that i think is only going to become more of a problem as the biden administration maybe comes into authority, because we can't anticipate that they're going to have any kind of different attitude towards it. the journ