Colorado. The fact that you have a virus that spreads more efficiently is something thats important and needs to be taken seriously. Consider this, by new years day, the country could hit a staggering 20 million infections. The numbers going in the wrong direction coast to coast across this country. Hospitalizations in l. A. For instance have stored 1,000 in just two months and with 800,000 people filing new unemployment claims this morning, Mitch Mcconnell dashing hopes for 2,000 stimulus checks but the outstanding question this morning, could that effort be revived in the new congress . Thats where were going to begin. Im joined by Steve Patterson in los angeles and dr. Derek haas. Steve, ill start with you on this one. The numbers surging there, hospitals struggling to keep up. Were learning that california is now the second state confirmed to have this more infectious version, this variant of the coronavirus. What can you tell us . Reporter that variant was found according to San Diego Health officials in a 30yearold san diego man who had no prior travel history, which may mean that it is circulating further in the community in southern california, news that nobody wants to hear, specifically in a region that is so hardhit. Here in l. A. County they have not confirmed that variant is in this county but they do say it could possibly be here and theyre doing testing to try to confirm that, as the moment goes on. They also say that it is maybe more could be tagious, it is no more deadly at least at this time and combating it using the same tactics that they would combining this original strain, but man, are they having a hard time battling against this coronavirus, specifically here in l. A. County, where theyve crossed over 10,000 deaths, where the average estimate is one person dies every ten minutes from covid19 here in l. A. County. The hospitals are overloaded. Mortuaries and morgues are packed. People that are being transported to these hospitals and ers and icus that are taking inness bl nesambulances sometim be treated in the ambulance before offloaded or treated in the waiting room. When they get into the hospital, many patients are being treated in the hospital hallways before they get into those ers and icus and now doctors and nurses are making tough decisions on who gets what treatment, who gets the intubator, who gets on an icu unit. Who has the available treatment plan from nurses to be able to see two or three or four patients at the exact same time. Weve been speaking to nurses here in l. A. County. One who says he feels there is a loss of control, something he hasnt felt before. Listen to what he said. Honestly its the first time in my nursing career i feel i dont have any control or we dont have control because its not in our hands. At this point its all in the publics hands on whether they conform to the rules or they dont. Reporter the messaging from the Health Department is begging people not to travel for new years, not to go and socialize even though it is a holiday, a lot of people want to see friends and family. They are now tweeting every ten minutes about the loss of a person in l. A. County, just as an example to the community about how devastating this virus is and if we dont do something, the community itself, if they dont do something, this could get worse in the coming weeks. Back to you. All right, Steve Patterson, thank you. Want to turn to an er Doctorate Columbia University medical center. As i was listening to steve, i dont know about you, it really caught me the grim picture thats painting especially in the state of california specifically los angeles, when you think about the icu numbers, the hospitals just being completely and totally overwhelmed, the picture that he paints for so many of us, and now in a position where doctors and nurses Front Line Health Care workers are having to choose who gets what treatment. Where does that put folks like you . So i want to be really clear about that. The most important thing for the state of california and l. A. County toe do is make the decisions before patients get to the door and they are working on that. Were seeing l. A. County ems put out notifications who should and should not be transported to the hospital if for some reason you die and you lose vital signs outside the hospital, whether you would be transported. Its really important for patients to understand the doctors and nurses on the front line are doing the best they can with what they have, but the most important thing patients can do is find out before they go to the hospital is it an emergency . Use the Telehealth Services and other resources to make sure they dont crowd those ers. Patients in l. A. Are waiting hours in the ambulance bay on stretchers just to get in the front door and those are the sickest of the sick patients. So please, help us help you, and stay out of the ers if you can and help us stop the spread of this virus. So i hear you on this. I totally understand what youre saying, but i need you to clarify something, because as you can understand, a lot of folks are scared, especially in that area, and weve heard about folks dying at home alone, and we know how this virus works. You can go from zero to 60 in a day, one day you report in to your physician, telehealth and youre fine, youre at home, youre quarantining. The next day youre hospitalized, and some folks feel like ten days later, youre dead. Nobody wants to be in that position, and so immediately feel uncomfortable going in the hospital. How do you judge that . Thats why preparation is key. What weve been saying in new york since the start and learned our lesson here in the spring is if this virus is in your community and it is in every community, prepare now for the idea that it could get in your family. Have a plan, have a way to contact your doctor, know the local telehealth service, get tested early, quarantine, stop the spread of the virus. Have a pulse ox, the finger tip oxygen machines that show you the numbers on so you know when to go to the hospital early. Have the data behind you. We want people to be empowered with information and get the patients to the hospital so we can take care of and save but realize that with stretched resources and no new physicians, nurses or respiratory therapists there will be a limit to how much care we can provide. I want to talk about this new variant while i have you, and one of the questions that i have is the fact that its much more infect, 70 more. What does that mean . Does that mean if you and i are in the same room together and dont have masks on the likelihood of me getting the virus from you if youre positive is a heck of a lot higher . Thats exactly what it means and thats the highest risk to the community is when we dont use those same Public Health measures of masking, distancing and staying only with the nuclear families, this virus will spread faster and although its not more deadly, its not causing more hospitalizations per the number of people thats infected, once you get to a higher number of infections, youre going to see those hospitalizations and deaths rise. So what were seeing about this new strain is very simple. Are Public Health measures working to stop this strain, too and hopefully so will our vaccine. Were still in a good place with the vaccinations so please, realize this will spread faster when we let our guards down, its another reason not to let your guard down. So you said something really important that i just want to finish on, hopefully so will our vaccines. Folks have been saying the vaccine covers this variant. Do we have any conclusive evidence to back that claim up, because it doesnt seem like studies have been done on this specific variant, since its new . Well thats the thing. This entire pandemic has been new questions asking for answers before we get a chance to have the data. This vaccine, there is no evidence this vaccine wont work and thats the best we can say and well move because we know what the protein variant has done. People are looking for certainty in Uncertain Times and i want to be clear. We need to move forward with the information we have, because this information will work if we use it. And that means get vaccinated when its your chance, stay home if you can, and wear a mask all the time. With that, we will be okay. Its so true what you said psychologically. 2021 is a little more certain. Happy new year to you, by the way. This morning, everybody, we got another reminder that millions of americans are looking for work. 787,000 people filed for Unemployment Benefits for the first time last week, more than 5 million filed continuing claims. Mitch mcconnell is blocking another stimulus check. The 600 checks signed into law after christmas are going out, some already inside peoples bank accounts. Im joined by Washington Post political reporter libby casey. Welcome to you all, good to see you once again. Im going to start with you on this one and i want to get to the Mitch Mcconnell note. Some folks tweeting i have 600, enough for food for the next two weeks or so but what about the rent and the rest of my expenses. Is there any open door in a 2021 congress . Reporter yazmin that depends on what happens next tuesday in georgia. If republicans hold at least one of the two seats, they will remain in control of the senate and Mitch Mcconnell will remain the majority leader. Hes not fond of its the 2,000 checks. Theres no reason to believe hes going to be willing to grant that wish to a democrat president. Trump and bide an debris the 2,000 checks should happen. Democrats are much more determined to continue that fight into the new year. I spoke to several of them including ed markey, the senator from massachusetts, this is just the beginning. Senator Bernie Sanders is going to fight this in the new year as well, according to all indications, so democrats win both those seats in georgia, they will capture control of the senate. They will have the house and the presidency, and theres good reason then to believe this issue will be alive. I think its going to come down to whether its divided government in which case unlikely to happen or a unified democratic control of government in which case the 2,000 check are a live political issue. Senator Lindsey Graham was talking about this on fox. I want to play a bit of what he said about the stimulus checks. So to my fiscal conservative friends, i understand your argument, but i think the facts on the ground throughout the country would require us to do more than 600. 600s not enough. S it 2,000 is about right in my opinion. Im willing to vote. Monica, its interesting, because the other day i said someone on the show. We know Lindsey Graham is one of the president s closest golfing buddies. Maybe if Mitch Mcconnell took a page out of Lindsey Grahams book and he got on board as well. Overall, where are we on this . Is this where Lindsey Graham has taken a page from the president . We do know he was with him over the weekend, down here in south florida golfing. What is also notable, yasmin, theres no more golf on the schedule at least here for the time being. The president is going to be leaving florida in the next 45 minutes or so, and heading back to washington, d. C. , so potentially he could be having more conversations with republican lawmakers on this issue, but youre right to point out that leader mcconnell has essentially said were not going to appease the president on the issue of just voting to increase those checks to 2,000. At least any time soon. Hes punting that because of how hes tried to tie that potential vote with other issues that by the way, the president of the United States is the one who had asked for them, but now all we know is that the president isnt pleased, because he does want to see this vote of 2,000 and that increase as soon as possible. Again, we dont have much more insight beyond that, because to your point, people who may have been down here on the links with the president or on phone calls in between holes are the only ones giving us readouts. The white house is not providing any of that kind of information. Once the president is back in washington maybe well get a different picture. He hasnt taken questions from reporters in more than three weeks. Getting on air force one or returning to the white house thats an an opportunity for the pool of reporters traveling with him to try to press him on some of the issues. Its possible well actually see him talk and take questions camera for the first time today. For the last week he hasnt addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the mounting deaths and cases, or the economic fallout, or this major issue of whats going to happen with these checks in any public fashion which is a contrast to what president elect biden has been doing the last couple of days. Libby, id like to think the president is headed back to washington because he wants to get this 2,000 passed for every single american that is in need right now but i am thinking its likely more about whats happening next week and the certification of the Election Results and specifically what josh hawley had to say and his plans going forward. Listen to what he said. Youve got 74 million americans who feel disenfranchised, who feel like their vote doesnt matter. This is my opportunity to stand up and say something, to stand up and point out that there were irregularities in this election. There needs to be an investigation. So before you respond, libby, i want to read pretty quickly what ben sass said. Lets be clear what is happening here, a bunch of ambitious politicians think theres a quick way to tap into the president s base without doing any longterm damage. Theyre wrong and adults dont point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate government. Hes talking about hawleys ambitions of running for president in 2024, might be part of the reason why hes going to object to the certification of the results next week. What do you make of all of this . I heard from moderate republican senator murkowskis office and planning on certifying the results like all the democrats and many republicans will have to make the choice to do as well. Her office is saying theyre concerned that objecting to these real results, these electoral results will undermine the confidence that americans have and states like alaska have in the Electoral College process. Were hearing from these two senators theyre not just concerned about what this means for next week, theyre concerned about what this means for american democracy and the systems in place. Its important to note that more than 90 judges at the state and federal level rejected challenges, over 50 attempts by President Trump and his allies to overturn results in states that have failed through the legal process, and so what were seeing josh hawley do is likely doomed to fail or going to fail. Dangerous to make predictions but the democratled house will certify the Election Results and republicans like Lisa Murkowski of course ill certify the Election Results, siding with the democrats in the senate to make sure that the legitimate process is upheld. This is going to put republicans in a difficult position of having to either choose between legitimately respecting the process or being seen as siding with President Trump, so josh hawley is creating this sort of false choice that they have to make. Thank you guys, happy new year. Coming up, the Georgia Senate candidates are making their final push ahead of todays election. What theyre doing on the ground, the big surrogates on their way and what to expect from the last day of early voting. Plus the latest on the investigation into the National Christmas bombing. The bomber believed in conspiracy theories. What investigators are learning. Thats ahead. 2020 thats it calling anyone with grit change this, change that, but dont ever quit 2020s done a new era has begun so keep pushing forward. Because this is twenty twenty won the future is still ours to win. Make a different future start different at godaddy. Com and look, it feels like im just wasting time. Thats why Td Ameritrade designed a firstofitskind, personalized education center. Oh. Their awardwinning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. And it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. So its like my streaming service. Well except now youre binge learning. See how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from Td Ameritrade. Visit tdameritrade. Com learn welcome back. Just hours left for early voting in the state of georgia and the Senate Runoffs with more than 2. 8 million ballots cast, well over the 2. 1 million vote record for a runoffcandidates make a pt out the vote, Vice President elect Kamala Harris and president elect joe biden and donald trump escalates his attack on republican Governor Brian Kemp demanding he resign over his refusal to overturn the Election Results. Priscilla thompson is in smyrna, georgia and also joining us is greg bluesteen, political report for the Atlanta Journal constitution. Good to see you on this new years eve. Priscilla, how is it looking out there especially the final day for early voting as i was just mentioning, and how are both parties interpreting the latest early voting numbers we have . Reporter folks arent letting the holiday stop them from getting out on this final day of early voting. The poll watcher here tells me the first voter in line was here at 4 00 a. M. This morning. Folks are waiting up to two hours to cast ballots. One of the voter just came out, melanie, talk to me about what it looked like when you got here and were you surprised by what you saw . The line was very long, wrapped all around the building and the link here and i wasnt surprised at all. I drove by yesterday and saw that it was very long so definitely was not surprised. I was prepared to wait. Reporter you chose to come out on the final day of early voting. Talk to me about why it was important for you to come out and why you didnt vote sooner . Well it was definitely important for me to go ahead and make my voice heard by voting early. I didnt come sooner because i really looked at the day and i had this planned out for an activity for me to do first thing this morning actually thought not that many people would be in line so that was my whole strategy. Reporter thank you very much. Thank you so much. Reporter and yazmin, i should point out that some of the voters that were seeing here are actually waiting in line and having to leave because they have to go to work or some other sort of event and didnt realize they would be waiting quite so long. Melanie was telling me online the wait times showed 30 minutes and she ended up waiting two hours here. Here we go, thank you, priscilla. Sorry that, got to me, greg. I wanted to jump to you real quick because here we go again. Were seeing the long voting lines that weve seen time and time again in the state of georgia, and once again, you have folks waiting online for hours and the weather not great, people wanting to get their early vote in. Youve been covering georgia. Ticks for a long time to say the least. We know what the fundraising numbers look like across the state. We know the recent numbers 3 million folks that voted early in this election. What are your predictions on this . Where are we on this . Where is this thing going . Priscillas report is so important. Shes at cobb county, used to be republican strong onhold, now one of the most important democratic leaning counties in the state and what she just reported reflects the dynamic of early voting. Democrats appear to have built a sizeable lead according to the campaigns and analysts and the analysis of numbers which means republicans have to rely on a huge tuesday runoff day turnout in order to defeat democrats jon ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The visits from president elect joe biden and President Donald Trump are key. This is a climadramatic finish. A celebrity pastor working for a wellknown preaching at a wellknown former Martin Luther king church, in the Atlanta Metro area. A lot of black folks living in atlanta and in the state of georgia know Raphael Warnock very well. Does he have the ability to drive out mcloughlin in the election considering how wellknown he is, also in the Christian Community . Yes, youre right. Even though this is the first time hes run for public office, hes been on the civic stage now for decades in atlanta and in georgia. Look, this is why its so important. This is why democrats when they recruited him thought this was so important. They always knew this race would go down to runoff. No one knew it would determine the control of the u. S. Senate. In georgia, democrats struggled in statewide runoffs precisely because the base of a party, which is overwhelmingly africanamerican has not turned back out in the same sort of any sort of same numbers as they had turned out in the november general. So they feel like with reverend warnock on the ballot they can reenergize africanamerican voters in a major way. The early numbers are bearing that out, africanamerican voters are voting in a disproportionately high rate when you compare it to previous elections in georgia. So i see though that you h e avoided my first question. A prediction on whats going to happen here. Do you not want to make a prediction . Ive talked to candidates, the campaigns, analysts. Everyone sees this as a coin toss. Its so close and as i mentioned at the beginning, its so important for republicans who are depending on good weather on tuesday, and a huge runoff day turnout and thats why trumps visit is so pivotal because if he continues to air his false claims of a rigged election and to further this internal republican fight over his own election grievances, then it gets continued to some conflicting messages to republicans who the senators need to turn out on tuesday. Seems like when it comes to the weather, the forecast for tuesday is sunny and 60 degrees, so that shouldnt necessarily be a problem. Greg bluestein, not on the record of his predictions what will happen in the special elections. Thanks for joining us happy new year and thanks to Priscilla Thompson as well. Come up, why the u. S. Is falling so short of its goal to vaccinate 20 million americans by the end of the year. Were going to go live to florida to look at some of the issues. Plus ill talk to senator Chris Van Hollen about the vaccine challenges and the fight for more stimulus relief. Well be right back. Dry, distressed skin that struggles . New aveeno® restorative skin therapy. With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. Who invented were car vending machinesnce. And buying a car 100 online. Now weve created a brandnew way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old. We wanna buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. And our techno wizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, thats it. So ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. Now to the emergency issues of vaccine rollout. Broward health booked through february within hours of opening appointments to those eligible this amid questions about distribution delays and possible ripple effects in the nations longerterm vaccination goals. Joining me from ft. Lauderdale, florida, is nbc news correspondent kerry sanders. Good to see you this morning. Thanks for joining us on this. Theres a lot of confusion about whats going on here. Operation warp speed admitting yesterday essentially theyre not living up to the goals they had initially set. The president saying the vaccines have been rolled out. Now its on the states shoulders and the state saying we dont have the resources. There is no federal plan in place. Talk us through what youre hearing on the ground there. Reporter well take a look at florida, which has 67 counties and so you have each of a Health Departments in the counties trying to organize this. They might have been able to organize this if they werent also responsible for taking care of all of the testing that was going on, plus the daily responsibilities they have when you look across the country, floridas no different. Health departments do not get the top billing when it comes to giving the budget. So theyre already pressed thin by doing the testing and now they have to handle the decisions on how folks are going to get this. Thats why youre seeing in florida, for instance, in Collier County and lee county on floridas west coast, people lining up aged 65 and older, literally sitting out for hours upon hours from the late night into the Early Morning to try to get vaccinated, whereas you just pointed out in broward county, which is where i am, ft. Lauderdale, they decided okay, the Health Department with the hospital, passed over to the hospital, Broward Health, were going to let people make appointments and they announced that and so many phone calls came in, it crushed their phone system. They were able to count 100,000 phone calls but so many of those calls never made it through and ive spoken to people who made calls who made more than 200 phone calls to try to get in, most of the time busy, when they finally got through sometimes it dropped out. So they had all the problems and add on the 30,000 emails that came in and you begin to understand there san overwhelming desire in the state like florida with a the lo of retirees, folks 65 or plus who want to get this vaccine, and then you look at the other part of this, which is Broward Health was able to get a certain number of people registered for appointments. In one day, its now filled to the end of february. This is not just in florida. This is going to be a problem around the country. As we know, Health Care Workers themselves are still trying to get their vaccinations, and for instance in new jersey, theyre trying to work this all out, and as things get delayed even for those first vaccinations for Health Care Workers, it then impacts everybody else. Take a listen to what one of the experts there had to say. If were not able to get through the first phase as fast as possible it pushes the whole chain down. Every day means lives, thousands of lives. When it comes to logistics of distributing vaccines, states are left hanging and hospital and Health Care Systems and therefore front line and Health Care Workers have been left hanging as well. Reporter so yazmin, disorganized at the local level, at the state level, and really at this point no major help from the federal level. Back to you. Disorganized it seems, is putting it mildly. Kerry sanders, thank you. Happy new year. Joining me now is democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of maryland who serves on the appropriations committee, among others. Senator, thanks for joining us on this. I know that youre listening to my colleague, kerry, report on the situation thats happening in florida, and it is a grim picture to say the least. Theres been so much reporting on this cliff, leading up to this. I remember reading a piece in the New York Times listening to the daily talking about the cliff wed hit and the operation warp speed in the Trump Administration was building up towards this vaccine rollout they had been anticipating it, talking about it. Trump thought it would be the savior hed get reelected basically because of this rack seen and they were going to hit this cliff when it came to distribution because they had no plan in place and that is exactly where we are. Lets talk about your state, for instance. Not quite 209,000 distributed so far, only 35,000 people have been vaccinated. The warp speed officials are saying the issue is not on the federal side. What is your understanding of this issue . Yazmin, its good to be with you and youre absolutely right. This rollout has been way too slow at the current base in order to vaccinate 80 of the population. Wed be talking ten years, which is obviously unacceptable, given the fact were trying to hit that target by june, and maryland is way behind. This is a combination of issues but clearly the Trump Administration did not have a good plan in place. Its really important that they now distribute the 4. 5 billion we just passed in the Coronavirus Relief measure to the states immediately, so that they can have Additional Resources to deploy this vaccine. Is there organizing happening on the local level especially when it comes to the money so these vaccines are distributed appropriately . How is this actually going to be done to make sure it happens versus just getting a check and going with it and hoping everything turns out well . No, thats a very good point and thats why there should have been more of a federal plan and more federal overnight here. Its important in the state of maryland that this, the state officials that Health Officials put together that plan. Weve been asking them for what measures they are taking, and were trying to make sure they get these resources to do that. But clearly a lot of big bumps along the road that i think could have been avoided with better planning at both the federal level and at the state level. I want to talk about you getting the vaccine. Turns out you havent. A lot of your colleagues have. Give me the reasoning here, senator, and talk me through when exactly you think youre going to get it. Sure. Look, this is a personal decision for every member. Ive decided that to wait until the priority atrisk populations are vaccinated, or Front Line Health Care workers who are putting their lives on the line, folks in nursing homes, Senior Citizens who are most vulnerable. Im looking forward to getting the vaccine. I encourage everybody to get it. In their priority order. That is my decision. Everybody has to make a decision based on what they think is best. Very personal one. I want to talk about the 2,000 stimulus payment. A lot of americans on the edge of their seats, some folks already having the 600 in their bank account but hoping for 1,400 more, a family of four a lot more. It could help in the time of need. Is there any movement to get this passed . Despite it being dead in the water as essentially said by senator mcconnell . Were continuing to call on a vote on the bill that passed the house that has the 2,000 relief. Im confident, we had a vote in the senate it would pass and the president can sign it into law today but Mitch Mcconnell has made no secret he opposes these 2,000 individual payments and is blocking the vote and run out the clock the next session of Congress Begins january 3rd, and hes made clear that he has no interest in doing anything about this. You were talking earlier about the Georgia Senate races republican senators perdue and loeffler its important to return to the senate and influence the process. This shows they have no influence over their own Republican Caucus and senator Mitch Mcconnell, just shows how ineffective they are at this moment of need. Just while i have you, your reaction to josh hawley essentially saying he is going to object to the certification of the results on january 6th . This is grossly irresponsible. It clearly is not going to work. Joe biden will be sworn in as president on january 20th but what it do is the poisonous false narrative that donald trump put out there, somehow joe biden won because of fraud, which is absolutely untrue, every court said not true. Election officials in georgia as we know republican Election Officials have said not true but what josh hawley is doing is feeding this narrative and its gross and undermines our democracy. Senator hawley often talks about how important it is that we promote democracy overseas and i agree with him on that issue but here he is undermining it at home. Senator, thank you. Happy new year to you and your family. Why officials are looking into whether the nashville bomber believed in lizard people. Yes, you heard that right, lizard people. Well be right back. Some things are good to know. Like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. Something else thats good to know . If you have medicare and medicaid you may be able to get more Healthcare Benefits through a humana Medicare Advantage plan. Call the number on your screen now and speak to a licensed humana sales agent to see if you qualify. Learn about plans that could give you more Healthcare Benefits than you have today. Depending on the plan you choose, you could have your doctor, hospital and Prescription Drug coverage in one convenient plan. From humana, a company with nearly 60 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Youll have lots of doctors and specialists to choose from. And, if you have medicare and medicaid, a humana plan may give you other important benefits. Depending on where you live, they could include dental, vision and hearing coverage. You may also get rides to planapproved locations; home delivered meals after an inpatient hospital stay; a monthly allowance for purchasing healthy food and beverages; plus an allowance for health and wellness items. Everything from over the counter medications and vitamins, to first aid items and personal care products. Best of all, if you have medicare and medicaid, you may qualify for multiple opportunities throughout the year to enroll. So if you want more from medicare, call the number on your screen now to speak with a licensed humana sales agent. Learn about humana plans that could give you more Healthcare Benefits. Including coverage for Prescription Drugs, dental care, eye exams and glasses, hearing aids and more. A licensed humana sales agent will walk you through your options, answer any questions you have and, if youre eligible, help you enroll over the phone. Call today and well also send this free guide. Humana, a more human way to healthcare. Welcome back, everybody. A bizarre, new twist in the nashville Christmas Day explosion. Investigators are now exploring several conspiracy theories as potential motives, including evidence the bomber believed in lizard people, and a socalled reptilian conspiracy. Want to go to Morgan Chesky who is in nashville for us. Morgan, good morning. Good to see you on this. This new reporting is really bizarre, just to be honest, considering these conspiracy theories are now involved in this whole thing. So talk us through what you know so far on this. Reporter yes, yazmin, good morning. Federal officials looking into several unfounded conspiracy theorys as potential meives for Anthony Quinn warner, the reptilian theory which basically says there are individuals on planet earth that are lizards sent here to do harm, that is just one of the theories theyre looking into, though. Others include the 5g internet theory, and also issues regarding at t, and that is an Important Note to remember here, because the at t data facility was one of the closest buildings in proximity to this rv when it exploded, and suffered extensive damage in the blast that right now authorities are saying warner was the sole perpetrator of, just a few blocks from that scene right now. Theyre trying to make it clear even though they released his name and some of his history, this is very much still an active investigation and while theyre looking at the theorys as potential motives theres a long way to go, diving into his digital devices looking at essentially a trove of online messages, pictures, writings that could give them a better idea as to what led this man, who grew up in this area, to Start Building the components of this bomb inside his rv that initially Nashville Police were at least told about in august 2019, but that Nothing Happened regarding that, until that blast went off early christmas morning. Yazmin . All right, Morgan Chesky, thank you. Happy new year to you, my friend. Want to go half way around the world, several countries ushered in 2021 with toned down celebrations because of course the pandemic. This was the scene in sydney, australia, showing off an awesome display of fireworks from the iconic harborside as you see there, but the area was eerily quiet with bans on crowds in the downtown area because of covid restrictions, and we usually see this type of thing with thousands if not millions of folks watching the celebration. Here is the fireworks celebration in auckland, new zealand. Crowds were allowed to gather there in fact, as the nation continues to record a low number of new coronavirus cases. We are just 20 days away from joe bidens inauguration and there are still key jobs open in his cabinet. Who is likely to be our next attorney general . Thats next. Ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoohoo great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. Subway is open and serving footlongs contactfree. Order in the app for quick and easy pickup. Or, get contactfree Curbside Pickup staying home . Get delivery so many ways to get footlongs contactfree subway. Eat fresh. So many ways to get footlongs contactfree vo this new year, get the phones Everyone Wants on the 5g americas been waiting for. Verizon 5g is next level. Now get one of our best 5g phones on us when you buy one and get 500 when you switch. Plus, select unlimited plans include disney , hulu, and espn . 100 obsessed with the mandalorian. man i watch a lot of sports. woman it has all my favorite shows. And right now, the gaming the whole family will love is also on us. Its like a gift on top of another gift. Gifts keep coming at you. Everywhere. This is 5g from americas most reliable network. Welcome back, everybody. This morning were just three weeks away from plekt joe bidens inauguration. There are still a number of key cabinet posts yet to be filled, positions that could change the shape of this administration and u. S. Policy over the next several years. What is the holdup . Nbcs mike memoli is with the president elect in rehoboth beach, delaware, this morning. What is the holdup, my friend, especially when it comes to attorney general . Its one position that everybody has their eyes on. What do we know . Reporter thats right, yasmin. Weve changed scenery from our familiar perch in wilmington as the president elect enjoys a little downtime heading into the new year before we know what is a busy week next week. Hes heading down to georgia to campaign for the two democrats in the senate runoff. Tuesday is the runoff. Wednesday, the tallying of the Electoral College votes in congress. The Biden Transition Team is also telling us we should expect more cabinet announcements next week including potentially that of the attorney general. If you look back at the timeline of when past president elects have announced their attorneys general, thats often been in the month of december. You can look at george h. W. Bush announced his choice as early as november. So we actually asked biden last week about the holdup here. I asked him, for instance, if it had to do with those georgia runoff elections, if he wanted to wait and see if he was going to have a democratic or republican senate. He said thats not the issue. He said hes focused on trying to pick somebody to restore the confidence especially the career professionals at the justice department. He wants to make sure theyre truly and independent body, not taking influence from the white house. As he put it at the time, theres not an obvious choice. Part of what biden will do this weekend is focus in on the choice. If you want to look at tea leaf reading, one of the favorites in contention is senator doug jones. Hes in something of a quarantine because his wife has contracted covid. If youre wondering you know the president elect has been trying to do these announcements in person with his choices as much as possible. So perhaps an indication that maybe jones is the favorite but they just cant get together just yet. Well be watching. Mike memoli, thank you. Happy new year to you. Happy new year. As we turn the page on 2020, we asked some of the familiar faces here at msnbc to reflect on the year that was and what theyre most looking forward to in 2021. Here is what our own Hallie Jackson had to say. Professionally for me, 2020 was a wild year, covering an impeachment, covering a covid crisis at the white house, covering a president ial election for weeks on end. But personally, im so grateful in 2020 to have welcomed my daughter, my healthy baby girl, Monroe Jackson thorpe. I got to introduce her here on msnbc. For that, i will be very thankful for this past year. As are we. That does it for me everybody this hour. Happy new year to you. Im going to see you in 2021. It cannot come fast enough. You can catch me here on the weekend from 3 00 to 5 00 eastern. Coming up, dr. Anthony fauci will join Andrea Mitchell to talk about the vaccine rollout. But first, craig melvin picks up our coverage after a short break. ringing hey kaleb, whats up . How you doing . Hey, im good, guess what, i just had my 13th surgery. Really . I just had my 17th surgery. Well, you beat me. Well, i am a little bit older than you. Yeah its true. How are you doing . Im doing good. Im encouraged by seeing how people are coming together to help each other during times like these. Kind of like how shriners hospitals for children is there for us. Imagine if i couldnt get my surgery. Who knows what would have happened. Same for me. I know my shriners hospitals family will continue to take care kids like us who need them most all because of caring people like you. Like me . No, the people watching us right now at home. Oh, those people. Hi people. Kaleb and i know not everyone can help right now, but for those of you who can, we hope youll this special number on your screen right now. Youll be making sure our amazing doctors and nurses can keep helping kids like us, who need them now and in the days to come. Your gift will make a huge difference for kids like us. Ooh, ooh, show them them the thank you gift. Okay, okay, hold on a second. With your gift of 19 a month well send you this adorable, love to the rescue blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the kids youre helping with your monthly support. So what are you waiting for . You can use your phone and call, or go to loveshriners. Org to give and join with thousands of other generous people who change lives with their gifts every day. I think thats about it buddy, good job. My pleasure captain. Please call now. If operators are busy with all the other caring people, please wait patiently, or you can go to loveshriners. Org to give right away. [alec] big or small, your gift helps us all. [both] thank you. giggling [both] thank you. Save without even leaving your house. Just keep your phone and switch to xfinity mobile. You can get it by ordering a free sim card online. Once you activate, youll only have to pay for the data you need starting at just 15 a month. There are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. Get a 50 prepaid card when you switch. Nationwide 5g is now included. Switch and save hundreds. Xfinity mobile. Good thursday morning to you, craig melvin here. Happy new years eve to