Of relief . Tonight we ask congresswoman i ya Ayanna Pressley of massachusetts. This is american voices. It was two weeks ago today that joe biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election. Today social media giants, twitter and facebook, announced that theyll hand over institutional handles to team biden in acknowledgment of his win. As of this hour, only a handful of republicans have publicly congratulated the president elect. And General ServicesAdministration Head emily murphy is still refusing to grant full access to the Transition Team. That is despite georgia certifying its Election Results friday. With the states 16 electoral votes going to biden. More key dates are coming hard and fast in the days and weeks ahead. Monday is the deadline for michigan and pennsylvania to certify with nevada following suit on tuesday. Three more states have certification deadlines just after thanksgiving. On december 8th, governor sends certified results to congress, certified electors meet to cast their votes less than a week later on december 14th. After that, it is less than a month until inauguration day. As bidens Transition Team keeps emphasizing time is short, and while the president throws the kitchen sink at the electoral process, americans continue to suffer. This isnt a game who gets to talk to whom. Our inability to start our formal Agency Review process has the potential to have real impacts on families across the country. In fact, theres a growing chorus of National Leaders who are calling upon gsa to move forward with the transition, in sounding the alarm about the potentially harmful impact of further delays. Lets turn now to nbcs ali vitali who was on the ground for us in wilmington, delaware. Ali, good to see you, always no major events for the biden Transition Team, but you had biden meet with nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer, a lot of talk about the economy, about this pandemic, what more tell us . Talk about the economy and the pandemic because for the biden team, those issues have always been inextricably linked. So the focus of the conversation yesterday between now the top four democrats come january is going to be how do you get covid relief, and more stimulus money out to americans who are struggling right now. Thats something that biden transition advisers have been clear the president elect wants to see that happen in the lame duck session. A both parties are far apart on the hill in these negotiations, and they have been at a stalemate for several weeks over this issue. Yesterday, a sign that biden is engaging on policy. Hes definitely also engaging on personnel. Thats because in terms of actually getting into the nuts and bolts of this transition, he is still blocked from coordinating on an agency level, having his staff talk to people who are in the government in the way that they can try to prioritize the Coronavirus Response and actually get some work flow in place for them when they get there in january to have a plan to, for example, disseminate a potential vaccine that we know a lot of advancements are being made in. Still, biden talking to the league of cities the other day, mentioning just how important theyre going to be in the covid response, and theyre going to have a seat at the table once hes in the white house. Listen. Covid is straining your health care systems, burning out your health care providers, essential workers are putting their lives and health at risk to keep your communities running but youre not getting the support you need to be able to keep paying your teachers, your police officers, firefighters, first responders, providing ppe, keeping everyone safe. You know, and the congress has passed the money, passed the money that was designed to do this. Its not coming forward, i know it must be frustrating. And alicia, no major events today or we expect tomorrow for the president elect. There was a lid put on earlier this morning which is basically saying to the group of reporters who follow as the protective pool that there is not going to be any public outings for the applica president elect today. It was put off this afternoon due to a late scheduling change. The president elect went to church this evening as he often does over the weekend. In this instance, he didnt take his pool with him. They didnt make it in time. As they were being swept by secret service, they saw bidens motorcade go right by him. Zeke miller tweeting instantaneously, the pool exists to provide the independent account of the activities of a president or in this case a president elect that the American People deserve. This is a norm that we held the Trump Campaign to in 2016. I remember, i was aoften a part of that pool, a norm we hope the biden trarns si biden transition continues it abide by. The other reason you have a pool of reporters following representatives and politicians is to ask them questions. As biden was leaving church, one of the pool reporters who caught up with him asked if he thought all americans should be able to attend religious services during pandemic. Biden responded, yes, safely. Alicia. Before i let you go, i do want to ask you, theres some buzz that we might hear the name of who the president im sorry, the president elect will be nominating to be his secretary of treasury. Can you tell us a little bit about the timing of that, and any names that youre hearing batted around . Alicia, this really is speculation season. We were warned early on in the process that they were first going to prioritize hiring people who would deal directly with the coronavirus. Thats why we saw the task force on the First Official day of this transition, be the first list of names that were announced. Then we saw them filling out key white house positions and now we heard from biden this week that hes actually chosen who he wants to be his treasury secretary, a few names that were hearing put about, lael brainard, whos an economist, and who was also a treasury under secretary as well as Roger Ferguson who was on the Federal Reserve board. He recently resigned as ceo. So a lot of speculation if were going to see that announcement soon and if those are some of the names we could see. Really, the time line that were on is at or around thanksgiving to start hearing these names officially put forward. Weve seen some deadlines come and go. These things really are Shifting Sands in biden world, at least from a planning perspective, were expecting to see them at some point in the coming days and even a week from now, alicia. Ali vitali, no season like speculation season. Thank you for being with us. For more, lets bring in grace panetta, a business insider, senior politics reporter and alexei is an axios political reporter and msnbc contributor. Good to see you both. Grace, i want to start with you. We have the biden team doing what it can to act around the constraints that are imposed by emily murphy refusing to ascertain the Election Results, biden receiving a National Security briefing from former officials, for example, i mean, how is that different from a proper National Security briefing from intelligence agencies and how concerned is the Biden Administration about the fact that theyre not getting access to those briefings . Yeah, its certainly fascinating and interesting that Kamala Harris as a member of the senates panel on intelligence has access to higher level intelligence briefing than biden does as the president elect in that capacity because of the refusal to ascertain. Thats an interesting imbalance there. It helps that both of them have extensive experience on capitol hill but there really is no substitute for, you know, an actual transition briefing, and as we drag on, you know, now two weeks after most major news outlets called the election, most states have certified their results, definitely the biden team is now, you know, getting answerier abo antsier about it, and put out a call for fundraising resources, the longer it goes on, the more strain it puts on their already limited resources. Alexi, you heard me talking with ali vitali about that meeting with biden, schumer, pelosi, were watching whats happening on capitol hill, the ongoing conversation about another round of covid relief during the lame duck session, and then we have this conversation about what is or isnt happening with the president ial transition. Do you have a sense of how much each of those is affecting the other . Well, look, the democrats that i talked to on the hill are incredibly frustrated at the fact they cant cut a deal with republicans or President Trump to get covid leaf to americans. We know its not enough to blame the opposite party and wash your hands of any responsibility of getting it done, but the interesting thing you see is that in spite of the transition not being certified, not having ascertainment from the gsa, president elect joe biden, Vice President elect Kamala Harris and the team that they have assembled around them so far are continuing to operate to the best of their ability as if the transition is going on as it normally would throughout history. Thats evidenced by the fact that they had this meeting with speaker pelosi, minority leader schumer yesterday to try to talk and signal that they are working amongst themselves, looking ahead to the next congress, to when president elect biden becomes President Joe Biden and can really work with his party in congress to get something done. Theyre not going to wait to have those conversations because they know the urgency with which these crises need to be met, and so theyre getting to work now. Of course that doesnt mean were going to see a deal cut right away. Theres still hope something could shake out next week. Of course thats what were seeing, what these leaders meeting in wilmington, delaware, signaling that theyre looking ahead to the next congress, to be able to deliver as quickly as possible by getting the work done or starting it rather now. Grace, there has been a lot of talk about who joe biden is going to appoint to his cabinet, and uyou have a number of group urging him to put more leaders from communities of color in those positions of power, and can you give me a sense of what that maneuvering looks like, and the names that you are hearing most frequently . Yeah, so definitely obviously as ali vitali was mentioning, treasury is the one people are most looking towards. Its very interesting, after what we saw in the house of representatives, the democrats lost seats but a lot of ones who did were more moderate democrats, the progressives have this new leverage, and they will definitely absolutely be pushing for the bidens treasury secretary to be not a white man, as it has been throughout history. So it will be the first thing coming down the pike, and then you also have names that people are pushing back harshly on, rahm emanuel, for transportation secretary, thats something that progressives took issue with, due to his tenure as chicago mayor. They definitely, you know, have leverage in the sense that progressives have more power in the u. S. House and the democrats just picked up a couple of seats in the senate, biden will have to engage with that constituency and work with them. I want to pick up there. You have some democrats that are pushing president elect biden to use executive power to advance goals like Climate Change. I want you to take a listen to what aoc said at a climate rally on friday. We have worked with the Biden Administration to secure a commitment on a 2 trillion climate plan. 2 trillion. But were not going to stop there. Were not going to stop with a piece of paper. We have to organize for it. We have to bring the heat for it. You hear the congresswoman there. The you hear about Climate Change, the idea of using executive action, and a host of other issues. I wonder what you were hearing as you talked to members of congress. I was at that demonstration with congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez and that bit you played is exactly the posturing that they have right now. Theyre sort of saying, look, joe biden, we showed up and voted for you, organized for you, now we want you to keep the promises you made not just on the campaign trail, whether it was on Climate Change or otherwise, working hand in glove with the biden folks, the progressive world in a way that they just werent in the 2016 election, and so theres of course an urgency that they want to see from president elect joe biden and from Vice President elect Kamala Harris to actually deliver on these things. When i asked congresswoman ocasiocortez, what is one of the things you need to see from president elect, its not going to be one person or two people he might elect to the cabinet, its the tenor and background of the people appointing to different positions, whether its hhs or department of transportation, these things that progressive activists and members of congress say are intersectional and have a climate angle to them. They want to see certain types of folks as grace was saying, not former mayor, rahm emanuel, folks kwhof folks who have an eye to the climate crisis. They want to see those types of folks implemented across the board. Not just a traditional spot, like the epa where climate is the only issue, they want to see it across the board, and thats a tall order. Progressives want every cabinet position to be filled by a progressive person. Thats simply not going to happen, given the way joe biden wants to have bipartisan appeal but theyre pushing and making their demands heard, and what will be interesting if they dont get what they want in personnel, how hard will that make them push on policy . All right. Grace and alexei, thank you both. Still ahead for us, Ayanna Pressley of massachusetts is here to talk about what has got to give to give more covid relief to the American People. And the duel threat this pandemic poses to our holiday season. Gathering to see loved ones coming at a higher risk than you may think. Youre right on the cusp of things going from ugly to horrible. And thats where theyre living right now. The emotional and physical stress, its exhausting, absolutely exhausting. I dont know how we are getting through it. Austing. I dont know how we are getting through it did you know that your clothes can actually attract pet hair . With new bounce pet hair lint guard, your clothes can repel pet hair. 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But now it feels like its even worse than its ever been. I think its incredibly frustrating. I think theres a sense that no one is listening to us. Its not over. Its far from being over. Its not going anywhere. We have to look out for one another. We cant be selfish. Our most precious resources, nurses, theyre stretched very thin right now.