Transcripts For MSNBCW Way Too Early With Kasie Hunt 20201218

Live tv today. The question is, will it help build confidence in the safety of the vaccine . Its way too early for this. Good morning and welcome to way too early, the show that is definitely ready for the weekend. I am kasie hunt on this friday, december 18th. Well start with the news. Hackers broke into several u. S. Federal agencies and private companies, and were now learning more about the scope of the vast cyber attack that has been linked to russian intelligence. U. S. Officials fear that the hackers used an array of tools and previously unknown tactics to break into government networks. The state defense Homeland Security, commerce, and treasury departments were all targeted. That is quite a list. And yesterday, politico reported that the department of energy and its National Nuclear security administration, which maintains our nuclear stockpile, was also breached. The cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert yesterday, warning it, quote, has determined that the threat poses a grave risk, and, quote, removing this threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging. This is a patient, wellresourced, and focused adversary. Microsoft announced yesterday that it was also targeted in the cyber attack, among more than 40 other organizations. It started as early as march, and its not just apparently the federal government. The intercept is reporting Russian Hackers breached the city network of austin, texas. On capitol hill, the House Oversight and Homeland Security committees have announced a congressional investigation into the hack, sending a letter to the director of national intelligence, the fbi director, and dhs secretary to request a classified briefing thats set to take place later today. President trump has yet to comment on the cyber attack. In stark contrast to that, president elect joe biden strongly condemned the suspected russian hack yesterday in a statement. That Statement Reads in part, we will make dealing with this breach a top priority from the moment we take office. But a good defense isnt enough. We need to disrupt and deter our adversaries from undertaking significant Cyber Attacks in the first place. We will do that by, among other things, imposing substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks. And this morning, its a bit like deja vu all over again with congress, still talking about how close they are to getting a Coronavirus Relief bill. Watch. Like i said at the time yesterday, im heartened by our discussions and our progress. I believe all sides are working in good faith towards a shared goal of getting an outcome. We continue to move closer to a final agreement. While many, if not all of the difficult topics are behind us, a few final issues must be hammered out. Were very close to an agreement, but the details really matter. The sticking points at this point are related to limits on lending from the Federal Reserve and treasury, as well as money for fema, which democrats are trying to make sure is in as a way to try and help state and local governments. There are also issues with how to structure another round of relief checks, likely to be about 600 per person, based on income. Those checks and the whole deal were reportedly in peril yesterday as the Washington Post says the president was planning to demand that checks be as high as 2,000 per person. White house aides had to step in and prevent the president from issuing a statement for fear he could derail negotiations. Also causing problems for negotiators, a potential Government Shutdown. Government funding runs out tonight, unless congress can pass another shortterm spending deal, like what they did last week to give lawmakers more time to negotiate. And heres another way the president is throwing a lastminute wrench into things. Congress is gearing up for a veto showdown with President Trump over the National Defense authorization act. Nbc news has learned that the president plans to formally veto the 740 billion bill, rather than use whats known as the pocket veto, where he would simply not sign the bill for ten days. That count doesnt include sundays, however, so ten days minus whatever sundays are involved. Congress would have to come back from holiday recess to hold the override vote, if the president wants to wait until the last minute to veto it. Thats december 23rd, the last minute. Sources tell nbc news that though the bill passed with 335 votes in the house and 83 in the senate, some republicans are saying they wouldnt vote to override the president s veto. And failing to override it would sink the ndaa for the first time in 60 years. The president has tweeted several reasons for wanting to kill the bill, from demanding protections for National Monuments to including the repeal of a law that protects social media companies. Lets remember, this is the bill that funds paychecks for our troops. Joining us now, nbc news correspondent leigh ann caldwell. Leigh ann, good morning. Where to start. Its kind of amazing, the long list of nonsense and troubling stories that we have to deal with on this friday morning with one week to go until the christmas holidays, but why dont we start with the covid relief package . Walk us through what we know about what happened yesterday, how the president was or wasnt involved. I mean, we all woke up on thursday morning and thought, okay, were going to have a deal by the end of the day, and we had some grim faces by the afternoon. Yeah. Well, the good news, kasie, is that everyone has publicly said that they want some sort of deal. So its going to be really difficult for people to walk away from it at this point. So, that is really what is motivating people and getting people to continue to work through these issues. But the problem is, the longer that this takes, the more difficult it becomes. People tried to add more priorities into this bill, set more parameters or guide science into this legislation, and its becoming quite difficult. As you mentioned at the top, theres two big issues that are really hamstringing these negotiators, and that is fema disaster funds for states. Republicans think this is a back door for democrats to get in that state and local funding money that was left out of this bill. And the other issue is this Federal Reserve Lending Program that was created in the c. A. R. E. S. Act for small and medium businesses. Its set to expire at the end of the year. Already secretary mnuchin said its going to expire. Republicans want to make sure that joe bidens treasury secretary has no way to restart this program in the new year. Then theres all these other little brush fires that are happening, like republicans dont want an extension of the rents moratorium on evictions. Democrats do. And that list is pretty long, kasie. I know it definitely is. One thing i find interesting about this, leigh ann, is if the president was pushing for these 2,000 checks and there are also conservatives in congress, notably josh holly from missouri, who has said the same thing, that the checks should be bigger, that he might try to force a vote to include checks that are bigger. The other people that are saying that the checks should be bigger include alexandria ocasiocortez and bernie sanders. Its a really sort of interesting populist split here, and youve got leaders in a room saying, no, actually, 600 is the number that we can agree on. The politics of this are really and truly scrambled. And you know, i wonder i wonder how leaders are interpreting or misinterpreting, perhaps, whats really going on out in the country and the real demand for more help that they still have not sent. Whats your view on how all this is going to play out, both now and into the future . Well, mcconnell, when he told his colleagues in a phone call earlier this week about these direct stimulus payments and that another round is likely going to be in it, a lot of republicans balked, and he had to bring in the political race in georgia, the senate race for Kelly Loeffler and david perdue, saying that they are getting beaten over the head, theyre getting hammered down there, and that they need these checks politically to help them. So, theres a lot of immediate politics at play, too. But the direct stimulus checks these are something that are extremely popular. And a source told me last night that its no surprise that the president wants to play santa claus when he is headed out the door. And it is a strange bedfellows of the Progressive Left and some on the right, like the president and josh holly. But there are those in the middle who seem to be winning out at this point, who think that its money that is not well spent, that it should head, go more towards Unemployment Insurance and the people that need it most. But long term, as you mentioned, kasie, it is going to be a dynamic thats going to continue to play out, because you know, biden has said he wants another stimulus package when he enters office. And even mcconnell has indicated that there might need to be more after this, so this is just the beginning of a big battle over these issues. We can only hope that will be the case, because frankly, if we ever needed santa claus, its really this year. Nbcs leigh ann caldwell, thank you so much for getting up early with us on this friday, my friend. Really appreciate the conversation. Lets move now to the covid crisis. The u. S. Set a record for covid cases and hospitalizations for a second day in a row yesterday. Nbc news data shows more than 234,000 new cases were reported. While the covid tracking project reports some 115,000 people are currently hospitalized with the virus. The u. S. Nearly set a new high for deaths, the 3,293 deaths reported yesterday were just five shy of the Record Number that Record Number was reported just on wednesday. Meanwhile, california hospitals are reaching full capacity in the intensive care unit. According to the l. A. Times, the available of icu beds in Southern California was zero, 0 yesterday. Officials say once beds are full, hospitals go into surge mode, which can accommodate 20 more than the usual capacity. The state reported 52,000 new cases yesterday in a oneday record of 379 deaths. The number of people hospitalized has more than tripled since last month to more than 16,000. Wear a mask. Still ahead here, more historic nominations for the incoming biden administration. Well have that story and a check on the cleanup from that massive winter storm when way too early comes right back. Frustrated that your clothes get damaged when you wash them, and they just dont look the same . Well now theres a solution, with downy defy damage. Downy defy damage protects your clothes from the stretching, fading and fuzzing that happens throughout the wash process, all cycle long simply toss in detergent, add defy beads, then toss in your clothes. And downy defys unique formula conditions and protects fibers, so clothes stay looking newer, longer now you can protect your clothes so they look newer, longer, with downy defy damage. Women with metastatic we breast cancer. Rs. Our time. For more time. Has come. Living longer is possible and proven in postmenopausal women taking kisqali plus fulvestrant. In a clinical trial, kisqali plus fulvestrant helped women live longer with hr , her2 metastatic breast cancer. And it significantly delayed disease progression. Kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. It can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. Tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. Avoid grapefruit during treatment. Ask your doctor about living longer with kisqali. Help the world believe in holiday magic. Thing and this year was harder than ever. And yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. Its not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. Santa, santa, youre on mute just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for believing. Welcome back time now for sports. While the white house remains mum on russias suspected hacking of u. S. Government Computer Systems, moscow is being punished for doping violations. A ruling yesterday by the court of arbitration for sport bans the country from using its name, flag, and anthem at the next two olympics or any World Championship for the next two years. The ruling also blocks russia from bidding to host major sporting events. However, the court did say the name russia can be retained on uniforms, if the words neutral athlete or equivalents have the same prominence. Russian tlaeathletes can also rn their flag colors at major events. While it is half of the fouryear ban proposed last year by the world antidoping agency, it is the most severe penalty for russia since allegations of statebacked doping and coverups emerged after the 2014 sochi olympics. Now to the start of nfl week 15 and the raiders hosting the chargers on thursday night football. Lets go to las vegas, where the raiders may have been dealt the final blow to their playoff hopes amid a lateseason collapse after falling to los angeles in overtime. Las vegas backup Marcus Mariota played well in place of quarterback derek carr, who left during the second series of last nights game with a groin injury. But its chargers qb Justin Herbert who is emerging as a star, setting an nfl rookie record with his seventh 300yard game and matching another with 27 passing scores this season. And after the raiders took the lead with a field goal in the first possession of the overtime, herbert found his receiver for a 53yard reception, setting up his oneyard dive into the end zone for the 3027 victory. While the raiders aimed for success in their first season in las vegas after nearly 25 years in oakland, head coach jon gruden appeared to be living in the past last night, coming out, whoops, wearing an Oakland Raiders hat before making the appropriate wardrobe change later in the game. Oh, dear. And finally, 15time major champion tiger woods learned a lot from his father, earl, in his success as a golfer. You may remember all those old pictures of the two of them together. And it appears hes passing that down to his own son, charlie. Heres a look at the two warming up yesterday ahead of charlies public debut in a Golf Tournament at this weekends pnc championship. Displaying nearly identical swings. Wow. Look at that. They match right up the point is, if he plays anything like his dad, that 11yearold will likely wipe the floor with any of us on a golf course. Thats pretty cool. Well have to keep an eye on charlie. Time now for the weather. Lets go to meteorologist bill karins for a check on the forecast. Bill, what have you got . Hey, kasie. Good morning. Yeah, so, recovering from the huge, epic snowstorm in the northeast. Yesterday was a day for the kids to play and for everyone else to dig out. I mean, it was just insane. These numbers and totals that were coming in, you almost couldnt believe them, especially the areas in Central New York and northern pennsylvania. So, the binghamton area had 40 inches of snow. Pittsburgh was around 9, albany 22, boston about 12. And for a lot of these locations for binghamton, that was the biggest storm on record. Albany was their eighth biggest snowstorm on record. Boston, it was the fifth biggest, just in december. And for pittsburgh, it was the fifth snowiest december day youve had on record. As far as binghamton goes, top three storms in the last four years. It has been a very snowy period the last couple winters in Central New York. And behind that storm, its cold. I mean, its cold almost for everyone east of the rockies. Its 44 in orlando. And by your standards, thats very chilly. And look at burlington, vermont. Thats arctic air. Only 4 degrees this morning. So with any breeze, its negative windchills. Heres the good news. Theres really nothing thats going to cause any travel problems on the map today. You may even see some snow flurries in and around washington, d. C. Theres a new storm coming into the northwest. So as we look at your weekend forecast, we do have some rain down in areas of texas, also louisiana, into arkansas on saturday. The east coast looks sunny and cool. No problems there. A little bit of rain in the northwest. Then finally, for your sunday, some snow showers will move into areas of northern new england. But middle of the country looks perfect and a storm in the northwest. And that snow in the northeast will be no big deal on sunday. So, kasie, the next big weather event looks to be Christmas Eve. We have an arctic blast going into the middle of the country. Yay i know, right . Were going to see Rainy Weather on the east coast. And theres a potential for a big flash freeze event. Oh. So, well wait and see how this all plays out. But Christmas Eve could be one of those days, kasie, where you have like Rainy Weather, then all of a sudden, just boom, it gets really cold, and then we have to deal with what we call a flash freeze and horrible roads. So, well keep an eye on that for next week. Well, that sounds rather unpleasant as opposed to my nice white christmas. But fingers crossed that the forecast changes here in the meantime. Yes, well see. Bill karins, thank you so much. Happy friday and happy holidays to you. Still ahead here, new reporting on how Vice President mike pence will spend his final days in office. Heres a hint pretty far away from home. Plus, turnout surges in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Were going to tell you what that suggests about the state of those critical races. Were back in just a moment. Oses were back in just a moment. This year, we learned anythings possible. Even fast delivery on the perfect last minute gift from your walmart store. Really fast. Really perfect. Lets end the year nailing it. Teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. Does it worry me . Absolutely. Sensodyne sensitivity gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. Theres no question its something that i would recommend. 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™. My kids, they know im a scientist. But its hard to explain to them what i do every day. Right now, im working on purification technologies that help advance vaccine and Therapy Research for covid19. One day, theyll realize i wasnt just trying to help them go out and play again. I was trying to make it safer for the whole world to get back outside too. You can count on me ill be home for christmas if only in my dreams wow a new buick . For me . S to james, from james. Thats just what i wanted. Is this a new buick . I secret santaed myself. Oh i shouldnt have. But i have been very good this year. Wow wow wow dont forget you this holiday season, get an syouv, from buick. Celebrate the holidays with buick, now everyone can get gm employee pricing on most buick suv models. Use it to get over 76 hundred total value on this envision essence. When youre celebrating, keeping your devices safe sound isnt always easy. Add affordable protection to the devices that connect us. Walmart protection plans by allstate. But with walmarts low prices, you still know how to do it up. And keep costs down. Lets end the year enjoying more. You are all i need baby baby to get by welcome back. President elect joe bidens cabinet is taking shape with some historymaking nominations. Yesterday, biden announced he had chosen representative deb haaland to be his interior secretary and that North Carolina regulator Michael Regan is his pick to lead the Environmental Protection agency. If confirmed, haaland would become the first native american to seven as a cabinet secretary. And if regan is confirmed, he would be the first black man to head the epa. The second black epa chief in history following lisa jackson held the job during president Barack Obamas first term in office. In georgia, meanwhile, voters are coming out in Record Numbers for the highstakes senate runoffs. Early, inperson voting began monday for two senate seats and the turnout eclipsed the record set on the first day of early voting in the weeks before the november 3rd election. Wow. According to the New York Times, on monday, during the first day of inperson voting, about 168,000 georgia voters showed up at the polls. By comparison, nearly 129,000 people cast ballots on the first day of early voting for the general election, and nearly 91,000 people voted on the first day of the 2016 election. According to the atlanta journalconstitution, over 914,000 people have already cast ballots in the runoffs through wednesday. Wow. The Vice President , meanwhile, will spend his final days in office out of the country. Nbc news has learned that mike pence is set to head overseas on january 6th. That is the same day that he will preside over congress as it formalized president elect joe bidens victory. It is his First International trip since the start of the pandemic. Hes expected to visit bahrain, israel, and poland, and wont return until just days before the inauguration. It remains to be seen if the Vice President will attend bidens swearingin. Find out soon enough. Still ahead here, new reporting that the Agency Responsible for monitoring the u. S. Nuclear weapons stockpile was among those breached in that suspected russia hack. Politicos Natasha Bertrand joins us with that new revelation. But before we go to break, we want to know, why are you awake . Email your reasons for being up with us and watching to waytooearly msnbc. Com or drop me a tweet kasie. Use waytooearly, and well read all the best answers coming up later on in the show. Wers cominp later on in the show you love your pet. But hate wearing their hair. Did you know that your clothes can actually attract pet hair . With new bounce pet hair lint guard, your clothes can repel pet hair. One bounce mega sheet has 3x the hair fighting ingredients of the leading dryer sheet. Simply toss into the dryer to bounce out hair lint. Look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet pet hair is no match for bounce. Its available in fresh scent unscented. With bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. Littlefriend. S lost. She needs to be home. The rules have changed since you rode. How much you want for her . Shes not for sale. If they find you. They kill you. Jump johanna its hard finding your way home. You cant have her. And im taking her home. Audiences give the croods a new age an a. Dun, dun, dun. And now the croods are coming home. Thats my girl. Boom its 100 joy from start to finish. Heads up [ screaming ] [ gasps ] go go watchcroods. Com. Welcome back to way too early. Its 5 30 here on the east coast, 2 30 out west. Im kasie hunt. Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday admitted that Intelligence Officers were tracking the movements of a prominent opposition figure, alexei navalny, but denied that the kremlin was involved in poisoning him. Hmm. Putin did not, however, comment on the cyber attack against the u. S. Federal government that american Officials Say is linked to russian intelligence. Instead, putin said that relations between the u. S. And russia had become, quote, hostage to domestic politics, and putin had this to say about joe biden we expect that the new president elect of the United States will understand what is going on. He is an experienced man, both in domestic politics and in foreign policy, and we expect that all the problems that have arisen, if not at all, then at least some will be solved by the new administration. Hmm. Joining us now, National Security correspondent for politico and an msnbc contributor, Natasha Bertrand. Natasha, good morning its great to have you here on way too early. You broke the exclusive report for politico on this attack actually reaching into the agency that deals with our nuclear weapons, which i think for a lot of people is a pretty scary headline. What did you learn about the extent of this breach . Yeah, kasie, it was pretty alarming to hear, but essentially, the department of energy have found through its own investigation that its networks had been breached by attackers who had found their way into their networks through a back door. They dont know yet what the hackers were actually able to access, if anything, and they may not know for weeks. That is what their assessment is, is that right now, theyre just kind of still trying to figure out the extent of the damage. But this hack really targeted some pretty key agencies and key aspects of the department of energy. They targeted the National Labs that conduct research with Nuclear Power and weapons. They targeted the office of secure transportation 2009 the National Security administration, which is tasked with moving enriched uranium and other materials that are critical for maintaining the nuclear stockpile. So, these are major areas that the russians allegedly the russians the u. S. Government hasnt officially pointed the finger at them yet but that the hackers were able to at least find their way in the door. And now theyre just trying to figure out, well, were they able to steal anything . What were they actually able to access . What is the extent of the damage here . So, natasha, can you tell us understand why it is that it took so long to figure out that all of this was going on . The reporting suggests that they got in and were able to rummage around for quite some time before we even figured out that they were there. It was a very sophisticated operation in the sense that it was carried out by a unit of Russian Intelligence Services that focuses primarily on espionage. So, whereas the hackers in 2016 that were affiliated with the russians were focused on being very noisy and actually disrupting the election, these actors are focused primarily on spying. And so, they took every effort possible to remain completely silent. However, it is very concerning, according to many experts that ive spoken to, that a private Cybersecurity Firm was able to find this out before the u. S. Government was. The Intelligence Community released a statement the other day indicating that they just found out about this, and they found out about it from this Cybersecurity Firm, fireeye. So, it raises questions, obviously, if fireeye had not noticed that there was some suspicious activity happening on its own networks and then found out that this software that the u. S. Government was using was compromised, then we probably still would not know that these hackers are inside the systems and they could stay inside for who knows how long. So, this is clearly a supply chain issue. Theres going to be a lot of questions raised about how the federal government uses these software and how they can ensure that one weak link is not going to create this kind of chaos in the future. But, certainly, a lot of questions about how resources are allocated as well in the future. Yeah, this is some pretty scary stuff. Were going to talk more about the political and geopolitical, frankly, implications of all of this coming up later in the show. Politicos Natasha Bertrand, great reporting and thank you so much for explaining it to all of us this morning. Still ahead here, the unique farewell toast from an outgoing congressman on the house floor. The cooler is next. Way too early back in just a moment. Moment hi sabrina hi jen so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin . Exactly jen calm restore oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. And strengthens skins moisture barrier. Uh i love it aveeno® healthy. Its our nature. ™ welcome back. Time now to get to some of the things that are going to have people talking today. We have never seen a goodbye toast quite like this one. For the betterment of this country, we have to come together, we have to sit down and listen to each other, and maybe even have a beer. For the spirit of bipartisan and cooperation, i raise this glass to my colleagues, both democrats and republicans. That was outgoing representative Joe Cunningham of south carolina, cheersing bipartisanship during his Farewell Speech to congress yesterday. The democratic congressman who lost his reelection bid in november expressed frustration with his colleagues divisiveness before revealing that the beer was smuggled onto the house floor in his suit pocket, quoting his grandfather, cunningham said, the best way to get through a problem is by sharing a beer. He tried to get a sixpack on the house floor when he first showed up there and was denied, so, props to him for figuring out a way to secretly get a beer onto the house floor. Meantime, it seems new yorkers will endure anything, even a blizzard, to support one another these days. After Governor Andrew Cuomo banned Indoor Dining again on monday due to the rise in covid19 cases, some restaurants in desperate need of business remained open for outdoor seating through the brutal snowstorm wednesday night, and they had customers patrons bundled up to support the smith in the east village, dining at snowdusted tables under heat lamps. Look at that. At 314 in harlem, a woman ate a hot bowl of pasta and made room for her wine glass in the freshly fallen snow. Thats cute. This man even enjoyed a snowy dinner for one at patrizias. Check that out. Look at him hes sitting there all by himself. Thats awesome. Support small business, if you can, this holiday season. Meanwhile, after passing a rather strict new travel advisory for the state of maryland, governor larry hogan is making a special exception for a group of very special people. According to the governor, sanisanta claus and anyone affiliated with him, including his reindeer and his elves, are exempt from any travel testing and quarantine requirements. The travel advisory, as it is for the rest of us, requires any traveling to be limited to essential purposes only. In addition, anyone traveling in or out of the state will be required to obtain a negative covid19 result or quarantine for up to ten days. Hogan says santa told him he will be wearing a mask, despite adding that dr. Fauci has deemed old st. Nick as having a lot of good Innate Immunity from the coronavirus. He, of course, is going to set a great example for all of the rest of us. Merry christmas to all the children in maryland and across the rest of the country. Santa will still be here, even though theres a pandemic. Still ahead, more of the reaction from capitol hill as lawmakers call for a response to russias suspected cyber attack. As we go to break, lets take a look at this date in history. In 1998, the u. S. House debated articles of impeachment against president bill clinton. No one bothered to argue the president s innocence. Even democrats agreed that mr. Delineate ooe oon has commi moral action. Who among us has not sinned . What the president did was wrong. S not sinned what the president did was wrong. Time to start brushing with parodontax toothpaste . If your gums bleed when you brush, the answer is yes. The clock may be ticking towards worse. Parodontax is 3x more effective at removing plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums parodontax oh, i will rescue you what i find most astonishing is that a cyber hack of this nature is really the modern equivalent, almost of russian bombers reportedly flying undetected over the entire country. And they didnt drop bombs, but they had the capacity to show that our defense is extraordinarily inadequate, that our cyber warfare readiness is extraordinarily weak, that they think so little of our ability to fight back from a cyber standpoint that they do this with impunity. So, our National Security is extraordinarily vulnerable. And in this setting, not to have the white house aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really quite extraordinary. Senator mitt romney sounding off on the white houses silence about the suspected russian cyber attack. If youve covered mitt romney as long as i have, you can tell that tone of voice. It sounds relatively subdued, but theres 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. Lets start with the white house here and the point that senator romney is making, that they havent said anything, they havent taken any action. How extraordinary is this . Youve 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, its not extraordinary for donald trump to be silent about anything to do with malevolent actions by the russian government. I mean, hes busy tweeting about john mccain last night and this morning. Look, this is an extraordinary cyber intrusion. Youve had Richard Clark go on record saying that this is the biggest Cyber Espionage case hes seen in world history. 18,000 organizations, including u. S. Government agencies, including our nuclear program, have been compromised. And as you said in the last segment with natasha, this wasnt even discovered by the u. S. Government. This was disorder by fireeye, a Cybersecurity Firm which, itself, had been targeted by this piece of malware. So, they essentially nat mized their own compromise and then said, oh, wait, so everybody whos a client of this Solar Winds Software is likely also breached, and that turns out to be innumerable organizations. The reporting on this, kasie, is going to continue for months, because right now youve got private companies with shareholder concerns worried about the pr fallout of saying, look, all of our data has now been exfiltrated by the russian xvr, which is the foreign intelligence service. Its also interesting, about a month ago, maybe two months ago, there was a federal unsealed grand jury indictment of gru. Now, thats the military Intelligence Branch of the russian espionage services. They had conducted a devastating, not just the kind of espionage of stealing information type of attack, but an attack that shut down Global Commerce for the better part of, i think, two or three days, and cost billions of dollars in damages. So, now my question is, youve got 18,000 companies and organizations, which might have had very sensitive industrial information stolen by the russian government what kind of damage will that cost in terms of industrial espionage or intellectual property theft . We dont know. Its going to take a very long time to do an assessment. So, michael, what should the u. S. Government be doing . I mean, its pretty astonishing what you have just walked through, that we are so behind on all of this. Romney made that point, too, that, why have we not actually done something to prevent this . I think americans are used to leading the way, especially on questions of technology. I mean, this seems like an epic failure. How do we fix it . It is an epic failure. I mean, there was a program developed they code named it or actually not code named it publicly named it einstein to remark upon its supposed genius in deterring, or at least defending against these kinds of intrusions. That clearly failed. I mean, the difficulty is, look, in the realm of cyber warfare, the russians are both aggressive and theyre clever, right . You know, they are developing these malware programs which can be uploaded and then downloaded by millions of people as Software Updates on seemingly innocuous, or indeed, defensive software, antivirus programs, essentially. So, its very difficult to prevent against these kinds of attacks. Now, a few years ago, youll remember in the obama administration, the svr, the same cyber hacking unit, in fact, penetrated the state department, i think the office of Personnel Management, and several otherdepartment, the office of Personnel Management and several other u. S. Federal organizations. At the time, the question is what should we do in retaliation and the determination made them was look, they werent doing any disruptive, they were just spying. Every government in the world spies on each other, so lets not raise too much of a fuss. But now, you have seen, you know, the russians they like to escalate when theyre not pushed back against, when theres not any kind of retaliatory measures taken. The only thing i can recall happening before the 2020 election, the New York Times reported that basically, washington told moscow, if you do anything like you did in 2016, meaning not just steal information but then try to sway the electorate by using the hack and leak allegations well shut down the power grid in moscow. It was to secure and to safeguard our election which as mr. Krebs pointed out it was a secure and safe election just this past month. But six to nine months, russian spies are in the Computer Networks of 18,000 organizations and god knows what they have stolen and god knows who else has been infected. John holequest told me the problem is even if we delete the malware the russian attackers have figured out back doors into these systems. So theres still literally inside the Computer Systems and people who have been infiltrated. Its entirely scary and how you deal with russians its kind of like dealing with a bully on the playground. You cant use the deescalation strategy very well with them. Michael wise, please come back to help us better understand this story. It will be months that were talking about this. So thank you very much. Earlier on in the show here, we asked why are you awake . I think my neighbors above me are on the olympic stomping team. Oh, dear. Another viewer tweeted this, im up way too early with my sweet but crazy boxer pup, 9 weeks old today. Pretty tree in the background too. Karen, email the sleepy emoji, sitting outside an ice rink with my mom while my son has practice. Its 42 degrees in tampa and gracie may wanted to go out and play in the cold. Hi, gracie. And this one from another viewer, time to transition our dining room back to Home School Academy because of distance learning, due to yesterdays storm. I got to tell you, i have such strong feelings about the idea that snow days are going to go away. I think its just a nationwide travesty. I got this note also from a woman who made 25 pounds of fudge and 8 dozen chocolate dipped rum balls yesterday. Today is package up day to deliver it to friends, family and coworkers. Man, a lucky bunch. Wed love some of that here at way too early. Coming up next, a look at the axios 1 big thing and coming up on morning joe, former Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson who will weigh in on the largest espionage attack in u. S. History. Morning joe, just moments away. 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Tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. Avoid grapefruit during treatment. Ask your doctor about living longer with kisqali. Your happy place. Find your breaking point. Then break it. Every emergenc gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergenc. Welcome back. Joining us with a look at axios, political reporter for axios, alexi mccammond. What is the 1 big thing for this morning . Well, happy friday, kasie. Todays 1 big thing for axios is about joe biden. His Transition Team has been laying the groundwork to strike what could be his first big bipartisan deal in congress which would be around infrastructure. And this matters for two reasons. The first is of course that infrastructure manufacturing were two key parts of build back better, the marquee legislative platform he put out in the last stretch of the campaign. Lets say that republicans still control the senate when hes president , an infrastructure bill is probably one of the biggest legislative achievements he could realistically get through even with a divided government. Sounds like infrastructure week is back again. Except back for real this time. Under a new administration. Yeah, actually happening. Alexi, you have been reporting on congresswoman deb holland who is going to be named as bidens interior secretary and getting to this point very interesting because of course nancy pelosi has an incredibly narrow majority in the house and there was a push not to take any house members, not just deb holland. But in the end, this is the pick that the biden team went with. Theyre willing to take that risk. Why . Yeah, thats right. Progressive activists and tribal leaders and allies and organizers have been privately and publicly pushing for congresswoman deb holland to be select as the interior secretary. They have been taking the argument in private meetings directly to the Transition Team. I have talked to folks who have been involved in the conversations but the thing that it sounds like it came down to, kasie, those folks were having conversations with pelosis team in the kind of final 24 hours before this announcement was made. Really trying to reassure here they told me that they could do this in a way that wouldnt totally mess up her narrow majority in the house, that wouldnt threaten her speakership. They said congresswoman holland would stay in her seat under shes confirmed so they would give her a few new months in congress and shell be around in the seat for longer than congressman Cedric Richmond or marcia fudges is filled. Theres nothing to worry about there. It had a they had lot of the conversations and the final thing that these folks who talked with pelosis team said they were making the argument that Speaker Pelosi could be one of the key Decision Makers in really helping make history happen with this announcement and they thought she was receptive to that argument. All right. Alexi mccammond, thank you so much for being with us early this morning. And before we wrap up here, its the friday before christmas. We have got one week till christmas and donald trump is still turning over tables on his way out of the party. Hes about to veto the defense bill that pays our troops and the negotiations for covid relief are going well, until he said he was potentially going to get involved. Now we could be facing a brief Government Shutdown the weekend before christmas. On that happy note, thanks for getting up way too early with us. Dont go anywhere. Morning joe starts right now. I want you to be confident about your vote. Our great state chairman David Schaefer and the senators will tell you were on them this time. Were watching. Were going to secure the ballots. Were going to secure the dropboxes and were going to make that every absentee ballot is counted for the people of georgia. Dont wait. Request that ballot and vote today. If you dont want to vote by