Republican party . And another vaccine heads for approval. Why estimates for hitting herd immunity are creeping upwards. I say between 75 and 80, 85 of the population. If we get that, we would develop an umbrella of immunity. All in starts now. Good evening from washington, d. C. Im mehdi hassan in for chris hayes. We still have 23 more days of donald trump as president. 23 more days where he will continue to do great damage to this nation, and that damage will extend well into the future. Just today, president elect joe biden said that trump and his political appointees at the department of defense and elsewhere are even now refusing to share crucial information with the incoming biden administration. Right now we just arent getting all the information that we need for the on from the Outgoing Administration in Key National Security areas. Its nothing short in my view of irresponsibility. Trump has spent the past four years flooding the zone with outrage after outrage, from praising neonazis to separating children from their parents to causing tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of american deaths with his botched response to the pandemic, to name just a few of his lowest points. But what he did this weekend is up there with the worst of the worst. In a stark illustration of his cruel indifference to the suffering of millions of americans, the president spent the past few days golfing in florida amid a temper tantrum driven by the refusal of some republicans to aid his efforts to overturn the election and basically end american democracy. The tantrum resulted in a heartless and pointless delay that earned him nothing but have disastrous consequences for millions of americans. The president refusing to sign a covid relief bill negotiated by his own administration with congress until it was simply too late too late. Too be clear, trump was trying to score some cheap political points by insisting on 2,000 direct payments to americans instead of the 600 agreed in the bill. It was a number that Many Democrats had long pushed for, but which his own administration and his own party had opposed. So trump refused to sign the bill as soon as it passed in congress. And then basically just golfed and tweeted the weekend away, and there was no grand plan here. Cnn reported that aides had prepared for president to sign the bill as early as christmas eve. In fact, the smaller of maralagos two ballrooms was prepped for a 7 00 p. M. Ceremony with a desk prepared and pens at the ready. But trump then just decided not to go through with it. Instead, the man we were told was the blue collar billionaire, the champion of working people waited to sign the bill until late last night. And as a result, millions of americans are expected to lose an entire week of jobless benefits, because benefits cannot be paid for a week that began before the bill was signed. And trump outrageously, cruelly, pointlessly did not sign the bill until the start of the week on sunday. Dealing with a president whonr has been missing in action and who througuiu 0v duration of this pandemic has oftenp, engaged in depraved and indifference tos7 human life amidst all the pain and suffering and death that the n experiencing. And then Mitch Mcconnell had long that they mcconnell had would gonr no higher than 5 million. nis7t so we were short of a trillion, but itnie1 has to xn a recognit at the end of the day that were dealing withjf ans on nat senat republican maoiity led by ther obstruction, Mitch Mcconnell, and a president whot on his best days is on the golf course, and on his worst days is families, middle class folks and those who aspire to be part of the middle class. Indeed. Its a step in the right direction, much more needs to be done on the joe biden leadership. Jf it isfa ac step in the right direction. And any fairminded observer would agree that Mitch Mcconnell is to blame here and is tn n req block. Im completely with you on that, congressman. But given that Mitch Mcconnell was also the senateq leader in october when nancy pelosice sai im not going budge from 2. 2 trillion, and those negotiations then did kind of comove, didnto quite according to plan, given you also lost seats in the house that many say you really shouldnt have, do fellow new york democraticco congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez and others are saying its time fo top . Speaker pelosi has had a good run, 17 years leading your party in the house. Faces, maybe even yourself. Well, i lookr to once again placing the namer pelosi into nomination. She has beent a historic one a led us through a lot of trials and tribulations and consistently our values and priorities have come out on top, given the circumstacf qahahat w find ourselves fain. Wec defeated mt7ko9z but we st o deal with ovingr ah h anything in the house . While we will certainly be leaner,fa were going peopleq on the hard left, peopl in the senateni have all said tt this is going to have to bring g us closer kntogether. Its going tolpfafa have to face more collaboration. At the end of the day, as democrats, what brings us together is fighting for everyday qamericans, working families, for middle class folks, forxd seniors, the poor, the sick and the afflicted. And wdkco can findok the highes common denominator together. Were still going to have toco[ that we are going to be unified behind the presidency ofc joe biden, Vice President s Kamala Harris. Were lookingco forward to that. Ive been in exileok from the white house for four years. Ufr i lookq forward to having awoyw friendly voice for Everyday Americans back at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Xdryfani well, we have to leavee1 the ime. What happens to the americanxd finally been signed by the Police Department . I wantco to bringxdc in top ecot rob reich. Fa he is the authorw3 of the book get america out of out of lonf we needed a relief bill in the n trilles, didnt we . Ok i] we certainly do need a relf bill. Its very, very similar to what nancy am osi and theco democrat oskginally proposed. O you left out 3qj3 particular o element,i] and that is covid. Now that is the big, big el vanity in t room because we r dont know how long its going l tolpok go on. We hope byok june or maybe july enough americans are vaccinateds so that the economynb can actuay move onward. But between nowc anduandu then,e got five or six months and youve got millions, tens of know how theyre going to make it between now and then. nq so thats where the real issue comesqin uhow do we make sure tens of millions of people have enough money to get throughn when the economy starts up again. And were nowhere close. 5xqh lc bis weow cant affordqod that it was not that long ago r an almost 2jf trillion tax cut for the rich andx for big corporations, and they never they neverxdblinked. They didnt say well, we cantl so a debt problem weve gotlp to when republicans come tot thei 9of whether a tax cut aju big corpor rjju can becxd afforded, there is neverlp a problem. When they come to a question of for the people who are really in need in this niountry, or anyt kind of other 2,000 per person, 2,000 per person is nott goin nearly make it over the next si you try took pay the rent and ao p n food on the tableq and do Everything Else you need with w 2,000. Well, you just cant. 0ost people cant do it. Yeah. co well, and yet you have these tone deaf republicanse1 on the houseco floor today. T lpxd better spend more, some saying no, we spent moreconi than othe did. Isnt the real problem, robert, that stimulus money in the u. S. Compared to canada or germany because wenr have Health Care Costs that they dont. We dont have thexd kind of socl safety nets that they already have in place. Isnt that the i]issue . Exactly. Its comparing apples to pp oranges. Almost everyxd 9d19country innr1 this world has safety nets that are really thick safety nets. I] they pay for health care. N they paya5 for unemplo u9q insurancefa tofa a much greaterk extent. O they provide acfa paid family leave. They provide all sorts of things the harsh5 n form of capitalismjf existingxd among e advanced nation. Compare us to what we spentni or what theynikospent o covid really doesnt make much d sense. Ok have not spent very 3wmuch. They haveco spent much more. And if you include all of theib expending huge amounts. They arejfi] keeping people employed, or if theyre notlp employed, theyre at least keeping people on payrolls. They arew3 doing a very better t alleviating the anxiety and the okxdunderlying problems of insecurity that affect the american workforce. Faxdfa yeah. And i wonder, robert,lpt xd isr though, to this debate over 2,000 checks specifically, that nowe1o have republican buyin the form of ae1nr republican president f direct cashxd transfers from th government to ordinary americans, somethingq republicas have recoiled from for qyears. Now surely democrats can come odd for republicans to act as if its some sort of crazy socialist idea when its been publicly endorsed by their own former president a its going ton determine a lot of this really turns on january 5jfth. Letsxd face it. If you get two senators in tk5n that the senatejf flips and kama deciding vote in the senate. Everything i}different. Were in a very diff ifer Mitch Mcconnell is still tl controlling force in the senate, ifnr Mitch Mcconnell continues m do what he has been doing since the beginning of the obama administration, remember, this is the man who saidq my number one priority isni to make obama oneterm president , well, he is goingw3 obstruct everything. And anything that is done with regardt to covid, getting peop through this,fa providing survil benex uaknixd pro a 9 that getsrttt economy backi] on track, anything that isfafrtjat goingxd to have to probably be done by executive order or by regulation. Bablt yeah, orjf whether joe biden will be willing to use those executive orders, lets wait and seattle. Robert reich, lets thanks soqe much fornoqe h much fornk your time andfa tho incites tonight. We appreciate it thank you, mehdi. Next, the cruelty of President Trump holding the coronaviruk reliefxdhostage ah golfed in palm beach historian michael beschlossrnet the president s tantrum in perspective, after this. ni and its awesome. Its an allinone so its ready to go when i am. The cleaning solution actually breaks down dirt and grime. And the pad absorbs it deep inside. So, it prevents streaks and haze better than my old mop. Plus, its safe to use on all my floors, even wood. Glad i got that off my chest and the day off my floor. Try wet jet with a moneyback guarantee boy r hhelping kids. S. dad helping families. women helping pets. vo these are the lives subaru retailers have impacted in our communities, through our support of over fourteen hundred Hometown Charities. In fact, subaru and our retailers will have proudly donated over two hundred Million Dollars to national and Hometown Charities through the subaru share the love event. vo get 0 for 63 months and subaru will donate 250 dollars to charity. Its moving day. And are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. It only takes about a minute. Wait, a minute . But what have you been doing for the last two hours . Delegating . Oh, good one. Move your Xfinity Services without breaking a sweat. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Xfinity makes moving easy. Go online to transfer your services in about a minute. Get started today. Has been the benchmark for afe historically terrible president. His own official white house biography describesc ow in the midstt ez the dark days of t depression, hoovers viewcwas that caring for hungry and cold americans, fat uote, must be primarilynia local andxdvolun leading his a opponents in congress to unfairly paint him as a callous and cruel president. Whether or not that was really an unfair characterization, hoovers name became synonymous with heartlessness and3w indifference to the suffering of ordinary americans. T ujtdbehavior, causing mps millions of struggling americans to lose their Unemployment Benefits for a weekt for no re reason, nonei] whatsoever, doese nownico top Herbert Hoover when comes tot jf callousness and cruelty . And as the covid death toll continues to rise, is he no longer just one of the president s in american history, but the worst . U history, but the worst . U who better to ask than michael beschloss, president ial historianco for nbc news and nd msnbc. He joins me now. Fa michael, thank you so much for coming on the show. Pleasure. co p does President Trump make oover look like mother xdteres . It doese1 make Herbert Hoove look like mother xde1teresa. Compassionate person. He helped people get48 oodcot world war i and after world war ii, but he did believe at the b time of the Great Depression witht millions ofxd americans l starving and dying infa someni o henbfelt it wast notxd the fed governmentsfa job to help them. That was somethingi]c rpa xdfdr feel. And what it leads to, mehdi, you always want someone asq presidet who has compassion andq empathy. A nilincoln, for instance, who early in the civil war there were so many uniono[ soldiers being killed that they said we want it . I] lincoln saidxd build it near my summer housea a because i want see the graves being dug. I want to see the weepingc widows. Itsni goingingc to be very pai for brcy but i want to always se thecot results of the terrible decisions im making. Thats what a real leader does. Thats what a real president yeah, as opposed to ther confronted with the covid death toll said it is what it is. C michael, many president s have sadly caused harm to the american xdlppeople, or been indifferent to the suffering of ordinary americans. But can youni point to another president who has done the kind of thing trump n this weekend,c delaying Financial Aid tot unemployed americansq for no other reason than he was having other reason than he was having a tantrum an there was no ideological or policy reason for doing what he did yesterday. Ogiccoe1 trump is thee1 kind oi u never, ever seen before in the presidency, and i hope we never, ever see again. And what i mean by that is someone who most of us, mehdi, when you get to thexd ag of 6, yj begin to care for other people and see the world through their eyexojf especial when theyreni suffering. You particularlyiq want that ina president of the united states. Dwight eisenhower was the Supreme Commander onw3cdday. The decisions he madexd meant te 6eth of a lot of Young Americans and others, and he knew it. For the rest of his life, eisenhower was a tough guy. Vt whenever he spoke in pu i]men, mostly men, some women onxd dday, hefa would cr chief over his face. Johnson knew what it was like for black people to be beaten u in the streets of the citi jof thisl country, and it mad na h want utdo something about it. When you go÷ ssv a president s no empathy, who has no compassion, you see a spectacle like what weve seen this week study the biographies of these men as you have, and of course theyve all been men, do you come across them open ply taly g about their legacies and wondering ho yes, they do. But they do it in terms of what can i do to make this country better so that 50 years from now people will say this is something that this president id did that was distinctive and maybe he did it against his own selfish political selfinczsl t. Hard to think of a case where donald trump has ever done that, and also, harry truman once saio he couldnt imagine a president who does not read history, because the only way a president he said can get any benefit from all the successes and failures of earlier president s and earlier citizens is to know where they succeeded and failed in history. He said that every reader will not be a leader, but every leader must be a reader. If truman came back and saw a president as completely ignorant and indifferent to history as er donald trump, i think he would have been shocked. Tory michael, arent you being unfair to donald trump . He says he studied history and s hes the best president since lincoln . Okay, well, im the king of romania, mehdi. I got ask you before i let you go, ive asked you this before, but ill ask you again. When do we go beyond saying donald trump is among the worst in history and within days of his leaving office, he is basically the worst . Well, a historian always has to account for the possibilitiet that 50 years later a president would look better in some ways than he did to his own generation. That having been said, donald trump is not goingen to change e record. He was largely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of americans who did not need to die. Millions of others who suffer from covid who did not need to suffer. An economic calamity that is afflicting people tonight in a way that is not going to be alleviated by 600 or 2,000 while the president sits in palm beach and the Vice President sits in vail on a ski slope andk the secretary of the treasury is in Cabo San Lucas in mexico. This is merely fiddling while rome burns. Indeed. America is burning in so many ways today. At that. Thank you so much for the member pleasure of your time. So much from you. Thank you. The same with me. Appreciate it, michael. Still to come, as marco rubio gets hammered for his covid hypocrisy, why we should all be nevertheless paying attention to the shifting numbers regarding herd immunity. Thats next. Ifting [phone rings] hello, how can i sore throat pain . Try new Vicks Vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for a fastacting rush of relief like youve never tasted in. Honey lemon ahh woo Vicks Vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill marco rubio is doing that thing again where he annoys everybody by trying to play both sides of an issue. On covid, the republican senator played down the virus for months, including speaking maskless at a Campaign Event last month in georgia for kelly loeffler. But he nevertheless managed to skip to the h