And as u. S. Senators play cultural warrior on twitter top chef on the National Emergency for restaurants and all who work in them. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. The president ial election has been over for a while now, but now it is overer, if that makes sense. Even more over, over again. After weeks of stalling trumps General Services administration, a fairly obscure but quite powerful federal agency has now informed president elect joe biden that indeed the administration is ready to begin the formal transition process as prescribed by law. Trump himself seemed to imply some sort of concession in a tweet saying the gsa decision was his idea, quote, in the best interest of our country im recommending the gsa had emily murphy and her team do what needs to be done in regards to initial protocols and have told my team to do the same. The orchestra even before that moment is clearly starting to play donald trump off the stage. This weekend a federal judge aggressively shot down the trump campaigns failing attempt to block the certification of votes in pennsylvania. Another court loss in an impressive long series of abject legal failures for the trump campaign. Failures so embarrassing they had to start distancing themselves from their own crack pot lawyers. Both georgia and the state of michigan have certified their Election Results in joe bidens favor. Republican senators including Lamar Alexander and rob portman have said the transition to biden should begin. Blackstone ceo stephen shartsman, one of trumps biggest backers also saying its time to move on. General motors said itll no longer back trumps emissions plans knowing that, well, trump is on his way out. And with this acknowledgement by the gsa the biden transition can fully begin to actually build the Biden Administration. You know, from the very beginning of his candidacy in a very crowded democratic primary field the core of joe bidens campaign was basically a promise to restore competence, experience, decency, Public Service to the highest office in the land. He was explicitly not the candidate of revolutionary change. He was not the candidate of overthrowing the establishment. He was a candidate of experience, lots of experience. I mean, heres a guy who literally spent more than 40 years in washington. As a senator, as a Vice President hes been working in politics since he was 29 years old and got elected to the senate. And ultimately that message of competence won the day in both the primary and general election. Probably not totally separated from the backdrop of one of the worst calamities to defall the nation in a hundred years with an administration thats been utterly incapable of handling it. There were 150,000 new cases today. Thats a monday which is a low reporting day. And nearly 1,000 deaths today which is twice what it was just a week ago on monday. We also had 85,000 people hospitalized with covid, a new record for the 14th consecutive day in a row. You know, the first person president elect biden announced as part of his new administration was his incoming chief of staff ron klein, youve seen him on this program who probably has as much relevant pandemic experience as any nonpublic Health Government person after serving as president obama czar during that outbreak. The wall street journal reported this afternoon biden plans to name janet yellen as the treasury secretary. And also announced long time biden aid tony blinken as secretary of state. He previously served as deputy secretary of state. Alejandro mayorkas who previously served as deputy secretary. Jake sullivan as National Security advisor, he was previously bidens top National Security aide while he was Vice President and 35year Foreign Service veteran linda thomas greenfield to be nominated as u. N. Ambassador and former senator and secretary of state john kennedy as president ial envoy on climate. Thats a list with not a ton of surprises. This is the tried and true establishment leadership of the democratic party. It is exactly the promise that joe biden ran onto be the opposite of the trump administration. Tonight joe biden and his team can formally start working to actually take power away from donald trump. Michelle goldberg, an opinion columnist in the new york times. Robert gibbs, a former Senior Advisor for the obamabiden transition in the white house under president barack obama. There was a growing sense we went into today our a block tonight was going to be all right, lets wrap it up here, theyre playing you off. And an hour before you finally get this ascertainment. This does seem like a big deal to me. And also a trag aeld it had to be a big deal. Yeah, the majority of americans who voted against donald trump dont deserve to be held in weeks and weeks of suspense about whether or not the administration is going to agree to a peaceful transfer of power. You know, right before the news broke id been working on a column about how emily murphy should be held in contempt, kill that column, its no longer necessary. But one thing i learned while i was talking to people for it is really how much damage this delay was doing. I spoke to someone today whos been advising the biden transition on covid and was really struck by the amount of just like Key Information that you need to develop a Covid VaccineDistribution Plan that is being kept from them. I sort of expected to hear Something Like we have a lot of back channels, you know, we can do this, and that was not really what i was hearing. So this didnt come a moment too soon. You know, robert, i remember when i first got a job in prime time that i felt like when you get into a batting cage and someone puts the speed up, like 70 miles an hour, and youre like, whoa, that really got on me fast. Like every day femt like that in the beginning. 8 00 already, and i feel thats the experience most new administrations have. I mean i was like, whoa, things are happening very fast. I dont imagine thats doubly true here with less time, but also we have a lot of people who know their way around. Well, chris, imagine you just stepped into that batting box, you put your quarters in and five pitches came in at the same time all going really, really fast because i think thats exactly what this administration is facing as you said in your entry, we havent had an administration facing this level of challenge in probably 100 years. We didnt have security clearances happening, and to michelles point we didnt have basic information sharing going on thats necessary to ensure that the things going to happen in both administrations, right, how do we get out of this economic downturn, how do we distribute this vaccine, that has to be shared and that knowledge has to be gamed by the incoming team in order to ensure this continues smoothly. Again, to michelles point today marked a little more than the fifth of the Transition Party having expired with nothing actually having happened from a legal standpoint. Its so striking what robert just said, and ive been thinking about this throughout this year, it was 12 years ago covering the last Republican Administration on its way out the door leaving the country in wreckage, in crisis, in a multidecade, once in a century calamity. Exactly, we thought and then being like, again, everyone says the Bush Administration was really went above and beyond the transition and everyone in the obama world said that. But the objective conditions of the country was like, okay, here you guys go. And it was just remarkable to me. 12 years later and here we are again. Right, and i just hope that some lesson is learned about the wages of Republican Administrations, and the wages specifically of administrations that have contempt for government. Right, it wasnt just a fluke the first time around. You try this and this is how it ends up, but now have the same people, the same people who already have experience trying to cleanup after one calamitous coming to cleanup after more calamitous republican presidency. Robert, so you were there from day one, right, in that first time around. And my experience with obama world folks such as yourself is youre a thoughtful but proud people who dont like to say we screwed that up. Well, it was hard which is stipulated, but it does seem there are some lessons, the whole crew of establishment folks who are at policy and governing, having learned from the last time like what are those lessons . Whats the lesson this time that you learn from going through this . Something similar 12 years ago . Well, look, i think theres probably an enormous number of lessons. The lesson is this is a lessen i think something the biden people are going to learn, and that is when you make an investment in the workings of government you probably inherent something that works pretty well. My hunch is when they open up the closet and look inside theyre going to see a hollowed out government, a bure ockraes just missing. And i think one of the lessons i think theyre going to learn is that regardless of what we inherited from george w. Bush, there was a belief and structure in that government that operated. It may not have operated the way we wanted it to or the values we wanted it to operate on, but my real hunch is theyre going to look into some of these departments and find morale is super low. I cant imagine what tony is going to wack into the state department or imagine how much the cdc has been beaten back during all of this covid pandemic and not being allowed to speak their minds, and i think in some ways theyre going to breathe real life back into this bure ocacy that allows it to function the way we need it to in order to meet all these challenges. And michelle, i was struck today theres always personnel policy fights around staffing administrations. The two things i thought stood out to me tony blinken getting the nod, long time biden confidant advisor and a guy i really respect i think is really, really smart said this is good choice, the president elect, the knowledge and experience of the important work of rebuilding democracy. And aly mayorkas, representative jayapl says its a very strong smart voice, he led the effort to make daca real. Hell help us restore humanity going forward. Hes not the sanders left but hes not out of his way hostile to it, and i think that has served him well and interesting to see those responses here. Right. And thats what really struck me, too, is that these were consensus choices. Not necessarily a consensus between the center and the right although theyll probably be acceptable at least to a couple of republicans. But really consensus choices within the democratic party, right . People who are certainly members of the establishment, members of the obama white house, but people who are broadly acceptable to most of the left. You dont have kind of bruce reid or other people the left would regard as really a kick in the face, right . These are all people if certainly not the people that Bernie Sanders would have chosen but all people that most of the left wing of the party can feel comfortable with. And kerry, also last thing for you, robert gibbs, so much of governing is prioritization. And then the big first domestic thing was health care. And theres lots of signals being sent from biden that climate is the place where the big priority pushes are going to be, and kerry to me sends that signal. I wonder what you think. Absolutely. I think its interesting, too, that secretary kerry is going to be a staffer at the National Security council inside the white house. I think thats remarkably important because that puts the center of that Climate Action inside the Main Building of our government, and from that can emanate all that has to be done in each department to make progress on government. Look, i think you cant have anybody as passionate as somebody like john kerry but also somebody who has the understanding of what its going to do to bring the world back together to this cause, right . Bring folks back to the table because quite frankly when the u. S. Left that table, the chinese occupied it. And now were going to have to reestablish ourselves, reassert ourselves and really make progress to bring other nations along. He, of course, oversaw the paris accord that the administration left. Its funny you said National Security council. The one thing i learned from being around the white house reporting on it and my wife working there is like 85 of the white house is National Security council. Its basically like a National Security operation. You guys go talk to the press and you guys maybe that is so essential the nervous system of that place. Michelle goldberg and robert gibbs, thank you both for making time. Thank you. Tonight now that donald trump has all but conceded to joe biden what does that mean for his campaigns continued faltering legal challenges. That and the white house transition next. That and the white house transition next. Taxsmart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. Personalized advice. Unmatched value. At fidelity, you can have both. Unmatched value. Lets see. Whoa . Ot, oculus. Someone please help of course. Youre tenacious, ill give you that [heavy breathing] product not yet rated. Could be all your softf odor surfaces . Ome. Odors get trapped in your homes fabrics and resurface over time. Febreze fabric refresher eliminates odors. Its waterbased formula safely penetrates fabrics where odors hide. Spray it on your rugs, your curtains, your furniture, all over your home to make it part of your tidying up routine. Febreze fabric refresher, for an allover freshness youll love. And now your copilot. Still a father. But now a friend. 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We have a clear legal duty to certify the results of the election as shown by the return that was given to us. In pennsylvania some counties missed todays certification deadline. The delays are minor. They are not expected to change anything about bidens win there. Georgia certified its election last friday. Nevada is expected to certify tomorrow. And trumps battles in those swing states are coming up just completely empty. His big legal fight in pennsylvania, remember the one headed up by giuliani, that was tossed by a federal judge over the weekend in a scathing 30page decision that sidney powell, the lawyer that spouted some truly outlandish conspiracy theories about hugo chavez and venezuela pulling the strings behind all this, shes now gone from the trump legal team. Tom perez, the chair of the democratic committee, joins me now. I think theres going to be an interesting debate as we go forward and i think as now its clear, you know, the show is over. Like on one hand, see, the system helped, it held. The judges ruled under the law. The canvassing board certified. The secretaries of state of both parties did their job, and the other part of the debate is going to be like that was close, and that was a stress test that showed real points of weakness. Where are you on that . This election ended saturday, november 7th and over the last two weeks weve seen a series of baseless lawsuits. 35 lawsuits lost by this president , and frankly, they werent even close. You mentioned pennsylvania. That was a lifelong republican who was the judge in that particular case. Michigan has now certified. Georgia certified last week. This election ended, again, over two weeks ago. And we are a nation in crisis. Weve got to get to work. And thats what needs to be done. Right, my question for you, though, is if the election ended two weeks ago, which i agree three weeks ago, what does it say to you about the institutional vibrancy of american democracy that we have this process play out where people felt a certain amount of uncertainty . I think you can go both ways. The courts ruled the way they should have and people did the right thing in the end, but also i dont know if it was 3,000 votes in one state, pennsylvania. You think they wouldnt try to get in there and steal it . What we know about this president is he has no respect for democracy or democratic institutions. I mean, we go around the world monitoring elections because we are the worlds greatest democracy. This has not been the finest hours of the worlds greatest democracy because of donald trump. This is unconscionable what took place. And at the same time, chris, i think its really important to take a step back. Joe biden won with record turnout. Hes now over 80 million votes. Were going to be closer to 160 Million People turning out than 150 Million People turning out. We had heroic people across america administering elections in the middle of a pandemic. Thats what i hope we reflect on, is the heroism day in and day out of people across america who were making sure that folks were able to cast their vote. And the other lesson we should take away from this, chris, is when we give voters options. And thats what we did this election. You could vote by mail, you could inperson early vote. You could vote the da