Behind closed doors, spending his morning tweeting false claims about Election Results while continuing to block the biden team from accessing the tools they need to ramp up the transition. Joining me now, nbcs mike memoli and nbc white house correspondents Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander, cohosts of weekend today. Kristen, youre there in wilmington as mike is. Tell us about the latest moves from the biden transition team. Some of the movement were seeing from leading republicans as well. Reporter thats right. President elect joe biden is moving forward with his transition. We saw that overnight when he announced his new chief of staff ron klain. Of course klain served as his chief of staff when he was Vice President. But as you point out, andrea, they are really putting the focus on policy right now, as he builds out his team, that 12member Covid Task Force that he announced on monday, talking about health care on tuesday, so really trying to strike a note of calm in the face of President Trump refusing to concede and refusing to acknowledge the Election Results. And what we are seeing is a growing number of republicans essentially saying that the Election Results are not going to change, breaking with the president. Right now its really just a few cracks, but its more and more by the day. We saw that in a wall street journal oped by karl rove, ill read you part of what he wrote, the president s efforts are unlikely to move a single state from bidens column. We also saw that with oklahomas republican senator James Lankford who effectively said biden should be receiving his Intelligence Briefings and if he didnt soon, he plans to intervene. Take a listen to lankford. Theres nothing wrong with Vice President biden getting the briefings to be able to prepare himself and so that he can be ready. And if thats not occurring by friday, i will step in as well to be able to push and say, this needs to occur. Reporter and andrea, just within this hour, Chuck Grassley also saying he believes biden should get his Intelligence Briefings, saying i would think especially on classified briefings, the answer is yes. So a growing number of republicans saying that basically biden needs to have the tools necessary to move forward with his transition, andrea. Very interesting in terms of a cracking of the united republican front, mostly united republican front under mitch mcconnell. Mike memoli, lets take a closer look at ron klain. We know him well, hes been a close adviser to joe biden for years and years and a top democratic staffer for decades, Supreme Court clerk, as well as key lawyer in bush v. Gore. Reporter yeah, andrea, i mean, it wasnt a surprise that ron klain received this appointment. Kristen and i and others on our team had been reporting all week he was seen as the likeliest choice for chief of staff. Its an important signal from joe biden about the kind of administration he wants to run, given that the coronavirus will be the challenge he faces. Ron klain headed the obama response to the ebola crisis. Steve bannon talked about destructing the administrative state. The biden team knows the potential of the government. They want to harness it to face the challenges theyre facing. Klain knows how to work across the government to achieve these challenges. The support that he received from democrats, including progressives in the party given his history, but also across party lines as well. The next step, as we understand it, andrea, the biden team is going to fill out some additional west wing roles in the coming weeks. That includes some of those core biden advisers who have been with him a long time. Steve richetti has been in the trenches with him for decades as jen omalley dillon, were understanding shes being encouraged to join as well. Congressman Cedrick Wilson from louisiana as well, hes been a cochairman of bidens campaign and is expected to get a broad portfolio working in the west wing, as part of working across coalitions and across government, helping to advance bidens agenda, andrea. Peter alexander, the president is spending his days tweeting. Hes venting over the election while keeping the biden team from taking the traditional steps towards taking over. Is he still in denial or what stage of denial is he in . Reporter as we talk about states won and lost, its clear the president remains in that state of denial, still in the residence as we speak this morning. Hes been tweeting excessively over the course of the day, complaining about fox news, which doesnt happen in a vacuum. Theres new reporting today by a separate outlet saying among other things that the president is considering a Digital Media empire Going Forward after this. But thats the sense that i get in conversations with aides and allies. One white house official telling me that the president is very aware that there is no path to victory, but that he is in effect trying to give he says, to his 72 million voters, those who voted for him, deserve a fight. So this battle right now is almost a form of theater for them. There have been meetings with the president just yesterday, talking to some of his top advisers about the path forward. Today, a little bit more on the schedule for the president and the potential for some of these tougher conversations to begin. Vice president mike pence meeting today for lunch with the president , secretary mnuchin, secretary pompeo also meeting with the president over the course of this day. But as we have heard him amplifying on twitter, he still is citing a variety of things just not based in fact. He says in arizona, if there were an audit, he would come back and win the race there. Yesterday we heard from the Republican Arizona attorney general saying there was no evidence and no facts that give them any reason to believe that the race in arizona would be overturned. But as the president does look to the future, its worth considering the fact that he also has now started this leadership political pac, as we describe it, a Political Action committee, to raise money, fundraising dollars so he can sort of continue Political Activities in the future here. And as he looks to his own future, im struck by what one of his aides said to me in recent days, they said, consider all the monetization, the commercialization opportunities for this president right now. His brand has never been so big. This trump ally said to me, you could have trump riyadh, even trump moscow that hes wanted all these years, andrea. Peter alexander, mike memoli, Kristen Welker, thanks for starting us off today. And the first excerpts from president obamas new memoir are appearing in the atlantic with an audio clip of him speaking about the crises facing the u. S. Today. What i didnt fully anticipate was the way events would unfold during that three and a half years after that last flight on air force one. As i sit here, the country remains in the grips of a Global Pandemic and the accompanying economic crisis, with more than 178,000 americans dead, businesses shuttered, and millions of people out of work. Across the nation, people from all walks of life have poured into the streets to protest the deaths of unarmed black men and women at the hands of the police. Perhaps most troubling of all, our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of crisis, a crisis rooted between two opposing visions of what america is and what it should be, a crisis that has left the body politic divided, angry, and mistrustful and has allowed for an ongoing breach of institutional norms, procedural safeguards, and the adherence to basic facts that both republicans and democrats once took for granted. Valerie jarrett served as a Senior Adviser to president obama and is the author of finding my voice, and joins me now. Valerie, this book so long awaited, its actually because it took a long time, and because there was so much he wanted to say, and he was feeling it as he wrote. We know what a literary presence he is from his past books. Its now two volumes. What were learning about his time in office includes how selfdeprecating he is, how questioning he is about going into public service. He considers whether his first wanting to run for office was not so much about serving but his envy of those more successful. Thats extraordinary in the leading democratic figure, such a major figure, to be so selfexamining. Is that the barack obama you know . Good afternoon, andrea, yes, indeed, thats exactly the barack obama ive known for nearly 30 years. He is very honest, including honesty about himself. And i think this book, which is beautifully and eloquently written, is also very intimate. It gives the reader insight into not only what it was like in the situation room and the oval office and his travels around the world and his meetings with extraordinary americans across our country, but it also describes what it was like for him as a member of a family and what this time in office put his family through, and his responsibility to them. And so its honest, its forthright, its clear, it has a lot of grace in it. I think the reader is going to have a real enjoyment. I lived it, and i still enjoyed reading the book. One of the things that just struck me, was when he got the nobel prize, and in the book he is incredulous, according to the New York Times review. Tell me about that. What was his reaction . It was just that, it was like, my goodness, i havent had a chance to do all the things i want to do yet. So he was as surprised as anyone, but gave a very he took that opportunity on the world stage to give a speech about what it meant to be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize when you are a wartime president. And so i think each of these accolades hes received, hes trying to use that platform to be a force for good and to push that arc of progress if the. Further. You talk about how intimate it is, what about him writing about sneaking cigarettes . Well, you know, what, thats something he did, and i think he thought, if im going to write a book, i have to be honest and that includes not just being honest, as he is, about those who opposed him, both here in the United States and around the world, but he has to be honest about himself and what his shortcomings were. And i have always observed that he is the first to say, what could i have done better. His willingness to be introspective, to be tough on himself yet show grace to others, is, i think, one of the Leadership Qualities that others should look up to. What do you think is the most surprising revelation in his book . Well, you know what, im not going to get out ahead of whats been put into the public yet. People will feel what its like to be in the room when it happens. Thats an education. It will become a history book. It is entertaining, it is deeply personal. And so i could not stop turning the pages, as i said, even though i knew what was going to be on the next page, it still is so beautifully written that i think everyone will find it fascinating and it will withstand the test of time and become i think one of the most important descriptions of his presidency from his unique vantage point. And we all lived from the outside the transition from president obama to President Trump. We watched the welcoming of the trumps to the white house, the welcoming by the girls, that they had experienced of course from the bushes as well. So the tradition of transition was intact until now. Its been intact for decades, even in hostile takeovers, eisenhower and nixon were not close at all, besides being from the same party, they were not at all close, yet and eisenhower and kennedy, that was a very rough personal moment for the two of them. But weve never seen anything like this. What is your experience from the transition, what does it tell you about what is happening now, with no clearances possible, no foreign calls being facilitated by the state department, with proper translation, proper recordkeeping . How does this slow down joe biden . Well, ill make a few points. First, as you heard from president elect biden earlier in the week, he is confident that hell be prepared to move forward. Hes served as Vice President for eight years, just four years ago. Hes surrounded by people including his extraordinary pick for chief of staff ron klain, who are wellsteeped in the workings of government. He was responsible for overseeing the recovery act and for being a part of every major decision that president obama made while he was in office. And so i think hes positioned well to take on the challenges that hes identified, getting our arms around the covid19, rebuilding our economy. And i will say this, though, having cochaired president obamas transition, i remember being pleasantly surprised by how unbelievably cooperative, from president bush down to everyone in the white house, in the agencies, were to us, appreciating that one of the strengths of our democracy, andrea, is that smooth transition of power. And when President Trump was elected, president obama said to all of us, i expect you to show President Trump and his team the exact same courtesy that was shown to us, because this isnt about politics, its about governance. So would it be helpful if the agencies were opening up and sharing nonpublic information . Yes. Would it help if there were resources to pay the staff who are working so hard on the transition . Sure. Would it be helpful if president elect biden and Vice President elect harris and their teams had access to security information . Yes, it would be. But we have one president at a time, which the president elect also said this week. And so come january 20, im confident hell be able to hit the ground running. But it is disturbing, and im heartened to see an increasing number of republicans speaking up to say, okay, now, the election is over, and if we want to be as strong as america should be, lets not be vulnerable at this particular moment in time and ensure you have that smooth transition. As the 9 11 commission pointed out, there was a vulnerability that george w. Bush had because of how long that transition took. Finally, what about the president ial daily brief . Wouldnt that be extraordinarily helpful to joe biden who is wellversed on these issues but has not been getting intelligence for four years . Of course it would be helpful. But as he said, hes confident that in time hell have it. We still have a ways to go before january 20. Im hoping people close to President Trump will put pressure on him to say, look, the election is over, the lawsuits are frivolous, there hasnt been any evidence of vote fraud, so now it is time for you to rise to this occasion and be supportive of your successor because thats whats good for the country. So yes, the president ial daily briefings would be helpful, but i am sure that in time he will have them, certainly well in advance of the time he takes office. Thank you so much, valerie jarrett, author of finding my voice, another mustread. Thanks again for being with us. The rapid spread of covid19 across the country has Health Officials sounding the alarm. How board it could get. An exclusive look inside a covid ward in minneapolis. A young woman who just got off a ventilator takes her first steps on the road to recovery. Teps on the road to recovery. For what you need . Just get a quote at libertymutual. Com. Really . Ill check that out. Oh yeah. I think i might get a quote. 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In minnesota, new cases have soared by more than 125 in the last two weeks. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez got an inside look inside one minneapolis hospital strained with threequarters of their covid beds full right now. Reporter what most worries you over the next couple of months . Having enough beds for the patients. Reporter 36yearold kelly meeker, hospitalized a month and a half, now in recovery and out of isolation. She was in a ventilator less than a week ago. I was feeling miserable. I knew something was wrong. I knew i had covid from the very first day that i had symptoms. But i just kept getting worse and worse. I just kept feeling sicker and sicker. Reporter kelly coaches gymnastics, loves her family, including her cats. Ive never been more grateful to be alive. Reporter as a mother, how hard is it to not be able to see your daughter in person when shes that sick . Its really cant describe it. You want to be there, thats your job. But you cant, so youre just so helpless. Reporter in just the last two weeks, minnesota has seen new covid cases spike by more than 125 . But that statistic doesnt come close to capturing what nurse katy oneill sees every shift. I dont really think of numbers. I just think of my patients. Reporter Abbott Northwestern Hospital granted us rare access to show the pandemics deadly impact. This hospital has 30 covid icu beds. And rig