Be patient, to treat all sensational and unverified claims with skepticism. President elect joe biden continuing to keep his focus on the coronavirus, speaking after today with front line workers, fighting the pandemic throughout the country. This hour, ill be speaking with former National Security adviser susan rice about chris krebs out offer and with admiral brett giroir, leading of the coronavirus testing effort, but the new home rapid test, the nationwide spike in coronavirus cases, and of course the latest advances in vaccines. Joining me now, weekend today cohost kristen welker, reporter ashley parker, and reporter january jonathan lemire. Whats the latest, kristen . Reporter andrea, i can tell you theyre reacting to the out offer of chris krebs, this coming from a spokesperson with president elect joe bidens Transition Team. Let me read it to you and we can do some analysis on the other side. He says chris krebs should be commented for his service in protecting elections, not fired for telling the truth. You also heard anger and outrage overnight from congressman Cedric Richmond who is of course going to be joining the Biden Administration, effectively saying that krebs was ousted for doing his job, for keeping the election safe. So there is frustration not only with this ouster but with what is happening more broadly from the perspective of the president elects Transition Team which is this attempt to try to undercut the election results. And of course weve seen that in tweets by trump. And then weve seen it directly impact the transition with the fact that joe biden is not getting critical briefings on National Security, intelligence, and covid19. And so the strategy right now, andrea, seems to be to try to turn up the pressure on President Trump to reverse course, to at the very least if not concede, give him these critical briefings. Yesterday he met with a team of National Security officials, although not government officials, to really try to highlight the disconnect here. And youre going to see that again today, hes going to be meeting with Front Line Health Care workers all aimed at making the point that yes, he is continuing to move forward with his transition, but at the same time not getting the information that he needs to really be able to address some of these critical issues. On that point of covid, you are hearing pressure mount from within the medical community, medical organizations saying, echoing what we heard from president elect joe biden that lives could be lost if they dont get the information they need about the vaccine and about fighting this virus, andrea. Absolutely essential. Jonathan, this morning you mentioned that the president is abandoning his job, almost on a selfimposed lockdown in the white house, out of sight. We havent seen anything like this from the president of the United States since Richard Nixon in the final days as recounted by bob woodward and carl bernstein. Reporter thats right, andrea, im at the white house now in a rather humble booth here for the associated press. It is a ghost town. There is very few in the way of senior staff here, in part because of the coronavirus outbreak that took place, seeming stemming from the Election Night party. Chief of staff mark meadows has returned to work, hes been on capitol hill today but not yet been spotted in the west wing. Press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany was briefly outside but rebuffed reporters attempts to ask her questions. The president himself remains indeed out of sight, where he has been almost entirely since the election day, with a few brief exceptions. We havent laid eyes on him at all since last week when he appeared at Arlington National cemetery and then had an event to tout some progress on vaccines. But he has yet to field a question from reporters since indeed the Election Night itself. And it has created a real leadership vacuum here, andrea. As you well know, the coronavirus pandemic is surging out of control in most of this country. While president elect joe biden is certainly attempting to step into that void, having these meetings and talking to Front Line Health Care workers today, with the transition not being authorized just yet and the Trump Administration being unwilling to help, right now it is a dangerous situation. And the longer this plays out, the more it endangers americans during a time of real crisis. And ashley, youve been writing recently about the president , what hes been doing on twitter, his persistent false statements, the lies, really, for four years. Thats been continuing on his twitter feed since the election. And now weve confirmed that the Trump Campaign has decided to ask for a partial recount in wisconsin, where theyre asking for this recount in basically the milwaukee and madison areas, a heavily diverse, heavily democratic areas. Its going to cost 7. 9 million that theyre supposedly going to pay for, i guess they have election funds to use to pay for it. What does this tell us about him doubling down on wisconsin and trying to falsely to contest michigan last night . Reporter it shows what he is saying in his tweets is what he actually legitimately believes. Even though donald trump seems to understand at his core that he will not be the president come inauguration day, that he will vacate the white house and president elect joe biden will enter, he does not believe that he lost the election fairly. He does believe that it was rigged or it was stolen from him. And here is where i pause to say what you always say, which is that there is no evidence that any of that happened. It looks like voters chose joe biden over donald trump. But donald trump truly cannot wrap his head around the idea that he lost fairly and squarely to joe biden. There are some people in his orbit who sort of understand the reality. There are other people who enable his worst instincts. But him doubling down is him, again, being enabled by people around him to pursue this world view that if only things were counted accurately and there was no, quote unquote, fraud, which we know there is no evidence of widespread fraud, that he would win the election. And people feel like he has to run each of these avenues down to their most extreme point before he will be able to finally move on. Again, that doesnt mean he will concede or be gracious, but just sort of accept the results and begin that transfer of power. And kristen, among the transition issues, youve certainly covered the issues that they are not getting access to in terms of covid, but the National Security issues as well. I know youre covering that, this withdrawal from afghanistan, something that joe biden might have agreed with, but at a time when the taliban have not met any of the conditions theyre supposed to meet, also new sanction against iran today, again, making it harder for the president incoming to unwind the ran nuclear deal because theres a lot more hell have to figure out with iran to even get back to square one if he wants to reset relations with europeans and with iran in the middle easeas east. Mike pompeo is in india today doubling down on their antipalestinian posture. What do they do with all of this . Reporter i think youre absolutely right, thats why you see so much frustration among democrats on capitol hill and among those close to president elect biden. Publicly biden has said theres only one president at a time, so hes not speaking directly to President Trumps decision yesterday to draw down troops in an iraq and in afghanistan. But i can tell you within the inner circle this is frustration and concern that such a monumental decision would have been made with just 64, now 63 days until the inauguration, and reason concerns about whether that might hamstring president elect biden when he gets into office, and his Foreign Policy as it relates to those critical issues. And youre absolutely right, andrea, it doesnt necessarily run counter to his Foreign Policy. Weve heard candidate biden talk about the fact that he wants to draw down troops in those same areas but he had a different scenario for doing that, a different backdrop and different conditions that he felt needed to be met. And so i think that its safe to say there is some concern, albeit president elect biden not speaking out directly about this yet. But well have to see what he has to say today, andrea. Kristen welker, ashley parker, jonathan lemire, thank you so much. Jonathan, stay safe there in that cubicle in that hot zone. We dont really have a great deal of confidence in the way the white house is handling covid and the spread there in the white house. Thanks for being there for us today. And joining me now, john brennan, former director of the cia in the obama administration, a man who knows a lot about transitions and about briefing the incoming president elect, as you did at trump tower. John, lets talk about how concerning, first of all, the firing of chris krebs. He was the top cyber official in homeland. We know that the nsc, since tom bossert left, has not really built up its cyber capability as well. How concerning is this . I think its very troubling, andrea. First of all, i think chris krebs carried out his responsibilities quite capably. Also i think he showed great leadership in terms of trying to debunk and refute all the specious allegations out there about fraudulent activity during this election, at least from the computer and technical side. But this is also very disruptive of the u. S. Governments cybersecurity activities, because our cybersecurity vigilance should not end with the election. Theres an ongoing battle that the u. S. Government faces in terms of trying to stop and deter and to undermine those attempts to undermine our cybersecurity. And so chris krebs and his organization was working very well with the nsa and other elements of the Intelligence Community to try to keep our technical infrastructure safe from these types of foreign intrusions that could do great damage to us, not just politically but also economically. And lets talk about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and iraq, announced without consulting the allies. It was certainly telegraphed, and we ourselves reported in october, our colleagues Courtney Kube and carol lee reported that this was imminent. The military apparently talked him out of the christmas scenario, but its 2,500 by midjanuary. Hes doing it without briefing joe biden and without consulting key allies who have troops on the grounds there. This is consistent with what his behavior has been in the past, which has been rash and impulsive. Im sure that general milley and other u. S. Military officers will try to conduct this retrograde, which is the drawing down of deployed u. S. Forces, in a secure and safe manner. However, the fact that we werent consulting with allies, because its the interNational Security force, isaf, that the United States leads in afghanistan and a lot of other countries have contributed troops and effort to this. Also, i dont know as a result of this drawdown, when we get to 2,500 troops, how many of those will be conducting worthwhile missions, whether it be Counterterrorism Missions or trade and assist missions, because all of those troops will be involved in logistics, protection, supplies, medical. How many out of that remaining force will really be making a difference as far as afghanistans future is concerned . So i dont know, i think theres been a lot of Unanswered Questions that unfortunately the way this white house operates, decides to move forward with decisions and actions before thoroughly discussing and reviewing those implications of such actions. Theres also a drawdown, a smaller drawdown in iraq. And we understand, you know, the iraqis didnt want us there because of the way we incite revenge from iranianbacked militias, among other things. Is that also concerning . There was already firing in the green zone last night and five civilians were wounded, a child was killed. Well, absolutely. I think the same concerns apply to iraq, because what is the number of troops that give you confidence that youre going to keep our troops safe and secure, and at the same time make a contribution to, again, whether it be the counterterrorism mission, the intelligence collection mission, helping to train and assist those iraqi forces that are required in order to stave off a lot of these efforts to try to kill iraqis and americans . And also, as you point out, iranians are very active in terms of their working with the local militias in iraq. So again, i think there needs to be a lot more explanation given and im hoping the congressional committees will be asking for those explanations, because on the face of it, it looks like this is just, again, another rash decision by donald trump to try to wield the authorities of the president , however he may deem fit. And finally, iran. Mike pompeo is in israel today, doubling down on the antiiran, you know, posture, the proisraeli, antipalestinian posture. And the treasury is announcing new sanctions today, making it a lot harder for joe biden to try to resume the iran nuclear deal. It also makes it a lot harder for him to do anything in the middle east with israel. Well, yes, and recent reports that donald trump was actively considering a Major Military strike against iranian targets really is quite disturbing, because what we dont want to do is to trigger some type of conflict right now during this transition period when joe biden has to pick up the pieces on january 20. So mike pompeo has demonstrated time and again hes willing to do Donald Trumps bidding irrespective of what the implications are for u. S. National security interests. So im hoping there will be no activity that really is going to make it more difficult for us to try to repair the damage done over the last four years in terms of Donald Trumps actions on middle east policies. It really needs to be addressed very carefully. And thats why i think it is outrageous that joe biden and his team have not been allowed to have insight into what is currently under way in the middle east and around the world. This transition period is so critically important to ensure that u. S. National security interests are going to be protected. John brennan, as always, thank you so much. Thanks for being with us today. Thanks, andrea. Well have a lot more on the firing fallout ahead with former National Security adviser susan rice. First, more promising news on Pfizers Covid vaccine. And an internal white house memo with a sobering prediction of the dark days before a vaccine is distributed widely. Here . Nah. Introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. Here . Nope. Here. 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Youll also get this free beneficiary planner. Use this valuable guide to record your Important Information and give helpful direction about your final wishes to your loved ones. And its yours free. Its our way of saying thank you just for calling. So call now. We have reached a grim milestone. More than a quarter million americans have now died from coronavirus. As the cases continue to surge in all 50 states. Pfizer announcing today results from its phase iii trial are even better than what the Company First reported this week. Its ready to seek fda authorization for emergency use, saying it could have 50 million doses by the end of the year. As states struggle to manage the skyrocketing number of positive cases, though, nbc news has obtained the White House Coronavirus task forces latest weekly report, which warns that there is now, quote, aggressive, unrelenting, expanding Broad Community spread without evidence of improvement but rather further deterioration. This as the nations top Infectious Disease expert is expressing regret for not pressing harder for mass testing earlier. I thought we should be flooding the system with testing and not just testing people. There werent enough tests then. But deep down, you know, perhaps i should have been much more vocal about saying we really absolutely have got to do that. You know, i said it, it went nowhere, and maybe i should have just kept pushing the envelope on that. Joining me now, admiral brett giroir, assistant secretary for health at the department of health and Human Services and