Blocked state officials from further carrying out this weeks certification of the election results. The lawsuit sought to invalidate millions of mailedin votes or direct the state legislature to choose the presidency electors. All those motions denied as the transition is finally in full swing. Emily murphy and the General Services administration have given the Biden Administration and green light, meaning our next president and Vice President can begin receiving intelligence briefings. On this Small Business saturday, vpelect Kamala Harris addressed where she and biden plan to aim their focus once they take office. The American People deserve that the Incoming Administration focuses on whats important and what is important is getting a handle on this virus, opening back up our Small Businesses, and focusing on the experts in all areas. As you know, weve been meeting with everyone from labor leaders to heads of fortune 500 companies. Were meeting with mayors, governors, bipartisan, and thats what were going to continue to do. The transition is happening as the president and his legal team run short on options to overturn a fair election. Just yesterday the president falsely claimed there was, quote, massive fraud as a federal Appeals Court in philadelphia shot down the campaigns latest effort on friday. The trumpappointed judge wrote free Fair Elections are the life blood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious, but it doesnt make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. Its where we begin tonight with nbcs carol lee. Carol, lets start with the breaking news, another blow for the trump camp as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tonight rejected a lawsuit that would have invalidate millions of mailin votes. Where can the trump camp go from here. Reporter its a really great question, alicia. Good to be with you. I got to say, this narrows a path that was already exceedingly narrow for the president in terms of Legal Options here. They have just gotten setback after setback when it comes to their lawsuits. This is another one and it comes on the heels of a previous setback yesterday from an Appellate Court in pennsylvania that did not rule in favor of the president and his legal team. And the president s legal team in response to that said theyll take this to the Supreme Court. So thats where they think this is headed with this one case now that this other one, brought by a congressman in pennsylvania, essentially saying the whole idea of noexcuse mailin voting in the state was unconstitutional. Thats been thrown out, so theyre left with this other potential option. But again, its so narrow. As you just said, the judge in that case, who is a trump appointee, this is not a democraticappointed judge that the president can say is biased against him, but thats the argument his team is making. He said theres no evidence, the judge said in the decision, of what the president and his team is alleging, and yet theyre saying theyre going to go fight on in the Supreme Court. Kayleigh mcenany, the White House Press secretary, said perhaps the judge didnt understand the case. Take a listen to that. I think this Third Circuit court judge misunderstood the argument. Its an equal protection argument, the one weve been making in court. We have presented affidavits. There are declarations made as well. So there is evidence there. Its important for the Supreme Court, we feel, to take a look at this. Reporter so you hear them saying that theyre going to try to move this case to the Supreme Court. Its not even clear that would actually happen, alicia. But thats what their path is now. Now that this other case has been tossed out by the state Supreme Court khrushchev it Supreme Court, its really their only option here. How is trump planning to use his remaining 53 days in the white house . Reporter hes obviously continue to wage this legal battle and these efforts to undermine joe bidens victory, in any number of ways in terms of what hes saying, in terms of lawsuits. Hes going to campaign, he said, this week in georgia for those Senate Runoff for the two incumbent republican senators there. He was supposed to head there december 5th. We saw him pardon his former National Security adviser, Michael Flynn, this week. Thats expected to be the first of many pardons of any range of individuals who are jockeying for a pardon from the president , whether its someone hes known for a long time and then theres policies. Theres obviously this escalating standoff with iran. The president s already announced that hes going to withdraw troops from afghanistan and iraq five days before joe bidens inauguration and we expect him to sign executive orders on immigration, lastminute teammates move his policies forward. We expect hell be busy, even though we havent seen him very much since the election. Even as he continues to try to wage this fight to in his mind overturn the results of the election, which nobody, including him privately thinks is actually going to happen. Carol lee, i like that music behind you. It adds a special something to this live shot. Thank you so much for spending some time with us tonight. Lets bring in our panel. Emmy luis, former Senior Adviser to the Kamala Harris president ial campaign. Camoan felix a former adviser to the Elizabeth Warren 2020 president ial campaign. And jamil smith is a Senior Writer at rolling stone. The Trump Campaign wants the legal efforts to go all the way to the Supreme Court despite the fact that nearly every ruling like the ruling i was just reading from pennsylvania highlights theres no evidence to back up their claims of fraud. So whats the end game here . The end game, of course, is for them to undermine our faith in the electoral process. I mean, think about what theyre trying to accomplish here. Theyre simply attacking, you know, democratic strongholds, detroit, atlanta, milwaukee, cities that were key to his defeat. It seems almost like a revenge ploy to attack these black electorates. In a way to invalidate their votes and simply to say their votes, in fact, dont matter. And i think, really, its Voter Suppression after the fact. And i think what theyre trying to do is say that, hey, you know, everything would have been fine if these cities werent a part of the vote. And what theyre trying to do is to establish a standard Going Forward for republican candidates to say if you lose, what you need to do is to challenge these particular strongholds Going Forward and say, hey, these particular votes dont matter. And i think were going to see these patterns emerging. In fact, were already seeing them emerging here in los angeles in karen bassets race in michigan. Weve seen other republican candidates say on paper ive lost but we still got to challenge these votes. Its really, really problematic for our democracy. Yeah. I agree with jamils assessment of what is motivating all of this. For better or worse, that is what, then, both president elect biden and vicepresident elect harris are going to be walking into once they take the oath. Theyre going to have a segment of the electorate that is still asking questions, which is what donald trump wants to see happen. Stlel they also have the reality of plays out. Where does that leave team biden and harris as they begin to wrap their mind around what it looks to actually govern in this environment . You know, i think what jamil is saying is exactly right. Its Voter Suppression, democracy suppression after the fact, after the civil action has already been called and completed. I think that president elect biden and vicepresident elect harris have been very clear on their mission, and that is to get this country back on track. You know, that has been a lot of the message that they have delivered to the foreign leaders that theyve spoken to that america is back, and theyre going to do everything that they can to make sure that we right the ship, starting with covid and the economy, climate, and some of the other issues theyve already mentioned. But big part of that, if you will remember a few weeks ago when president elect biden delivered his acceptance address, he made it very clear that we have to Work Together as a nation and that hes going to be a president for everyone. And so i think what we can see and expect in the next 50 plus days and, of course, as they are inaugurated is a lot of work thats going to be done to repair the damage this administration has done at every single level and are continuing to do. A lot of the dynamics of working together and what actually is able to be legislated will come down to the runoffs that were all watching in georgia. On top of that, you have republicans making this pivot back to austerity, all of a sudden talking about deficit hawks, even though they have green lit a number of bigticket items from this administration. I mean, how does that pivot on the part of republicans impact, not just what biden and harris are going to be doing, but what Senate Democrats think they can get done in this cycle . Yeah. Thats a great question. One thing that comes to mind is governments priority should be about the administration of governance. Its as much as an ethical priority as well as an executional priority. If republicans are blocking the ability to administrate, that means getting vaccine, making sure were tracking this virus, theyre not going to have a lot of room to talk in this conversation. Right now people are focused on keeping people alive. Austerity flies in the face of that and the focus right now needs to be not just on getting control of the senate. The focus needs to be on getting control of the senate so we can make sure people are getting the vaccine when its time for it to be distributed and we know that republican lawmakers are going to do their best to prevent that from happening. Jamil, the daily beast reports trump is already talking about another run in 2024, even planning a possible event to counterprogram biden on inauguration day. I want your general take on that, also how that whether you call it a side show or whatever, is going to complicate the legislating agenda of this new administration. Thats kind of my take. I think that, you know, america is going to be focused on the next president of the United States. America is going to be focused on the millions of people sick with this virus. And, frankly, the millions of people who are recovering from this virus. I think people need to understand that this is not just were worried about the soul of this nation and saving that. We need to be talking about the physiology of this nation. People recovering from this virus are going to be dealing with the symptoms of this for years to come, possibly for the rest of their lives. And, you know, the last thing we need to be worried about is whether or not, you know, this outgoing president is going to stage some sideshow about whether he might run for president in four years. We need to be focused on whats going on right now and the money that we need to spend in order to rebuild all the things from all the damage that he has caused. Lets forget about this man as much as we can to the extent that we can, unless he is talking about things that are going to stir up violence. Then, only then, is when we need to Pay Attention to him. Im going to take a wild guess that you agree with jamils assessment there. And so when he talks about the physiology of the nation, how the pandemic has affected the health of the American People, how much is that going to be factoring into the agenda that this president elect, vicepresident elect are coming in with . I mean, they made it front and center in their campaign, in their transition. I mean, if you look at even the announcement today, they added members to their covid19 council, so its going to be front and center. Of course i agree. The longterm impact of this pandemic is still to be seen, not just the physiological, the economic, the generational impact on kids that have been unable to go to school, and the divide that is being further caused in our communities. And so i think that the Biden Harris Administration is not going to be distracted by trump being trump. Theyre going to do everything they can to get our country back on track. Even if you accept the assessment that you should ignore this, that you should not be distracted by this, there are 53 days left. And so im wondering in the final stretch of this administration, what this is, cam, that you are watching for. Donald trumps goal is to sabotage our institutions and systems of governing and leave behind as much chaos and disarray as possible to ensure that the Incoming Administration has a hard time setting themselves up for success, which flies in the face of the oath he took when he entered office. Thats what im paying attention to, and the Biden Harris Administration understands that this kind of disarray can be detrimental to the American People, especially as we look to the next 53 days of transition. What we need to focus on is to make sure Something Like this can never offer again. Our constitution offers of plenty of guardrails so that someone like donald trump doesnt have to disrupt governance. We have to make sure that come 2024, even if a republican president is being sworn into office, this kind of disarray is not something that is possible under our constitution. Thank you all. Up next, the raging pandemic and the toll it is taking on rural hospitals. Plus, a big win for religious groups in their fight against covid19 restrictions could be a sign of things to come from the Supreme Court. Later in the hour, a look at what your aunts and uncles are really seeing on their facebook pages all ahead on american voices. First to richard lui standing by with a look at the other big stories were watching this hour at msnbc. Richard . Good evening to you, alicia. These are the stories were watching. Iran Supreme Leader vowing to retaliate for killing of the nations top nuclear scientist. Iranian leaders blame israel for that attack. Israel nor the United States has commented. The Catholic Church has its first blackamerican cardinal. Wilton gregory of washington, d. C. , has been installed to the high rank today. The ceremony was scaled back due to the pandemic. History on the gridiron as well. Vanderbilts sarah fuller became the first woman to play in a power 5 football game. Fuller came in as the kicker in the second half. More american voices right after this break. Break centrum helps your immune defenses every day, break with vitamin c, d and zinc. Season, after season. Ace your immune support, with centrum. Lexus has been celebrating driveway moments. Heres to one more, the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2021 is 300 for 339 a month for 36 months and well make your first months payment. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Before we talk about taxsaudreys expecting. New . Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. Itscan it help with snoring . Sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem. And done. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus 0 interest for 60 months. Ends cyber monday. As the coronavirus tons surge across the u. S. , another grim milestone. Cases have now topped more than 13 million, and there is no slowdown in sight. Just about every part of the country seeing covid spikes. Some areas are having a harder time controlling the spread. Places like rural appalachia, nbcs da sha burns is in tennessee with more. How is that area dealing with the surge . Reporter this is the largest hospital in this part of appear la cha, part of valid health systems, the only hospital provider in 21 counties in northeast tennessee and southwest virginia. In the last month this region has seen hospitalizations more than double. And theyve seen about 15 of deaths since the pandemic began in just the last week. What that translates to is grim outcomes in this building behind me. Nurses are making calls to Funeral Homes just about every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. There are factors specific to this region that make the battle against covid19 especially difficult here. First, there is a largely rural area, which means patients are coming to hospitals like this sometimes from many miles away. This is also a population that has a lot of comorbidities, which means people already have conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, even opioid addiction. All those factors make those folks particularly vulnerable to hospitalization and to death from this virus. Lastly, something ive been hearing from doctors and nurses here is the crisis of misinformation. That is rampant in this area as it is in many pockets of this country. Some folks dont believe covid is real or it is as serious as it is. So theyre not wearing masks, social distancing, and limiting gatherings. That is especially a c