Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20201123 : vi

MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports November 23, 2020

Former assistant secretary of state, expected to be the next u. N. Ambassador. That would be restoring a professional diplomat to the u. N. Post. The president elect will continue to focus on the coronavirus pandemic during a meeting with the u. S. Conference of merritts later this afternoon mayors later this afternoon where there is nothing on President Trumps schedule again. After a weekend filled with more false claims about the Election Results and more rounds of golf. This time while other World Leaders were taking part in the g20 virtual summit. That was of course hosted by saudi arabia this year. President trump did take part in opening statements. Joining me, nbc White House Correspondent geoff bennett, in delaware, nbc political reporter monica alva, at the white house. Reuters White House Correspondent mike jeff mason, and New York Times washington correspondent michael schmidt, author of donald trump versus the united states. Welcome all. Geoff bennett, lets talk about the expected choices. Im also told that avril haines is the top contender to be the new director of National Intelligence. Shes an experienced intelligence professional, worked for years at the cia, has been handling the National Security team, the transition for joe biden on National Security and is a respected intelligence professional. That would be a big change from congressman john radcliffe, the partisan republican now in the post, and before that as acting d i former spokesman for john bolton at the u. N. And former ambassador to germany. Yeah. Thats right. I think its worth noting the intent behind president elect joe biden building out his cabinet by starting first based on our reporting with his pick for secretary of state. It is a signal to the world, a signal to the federal bureaucracy to use joe bidens phrase, that america is back, and that repairing americas footing on the world stage is an urgent goal, its a primary goal. To your point, tony blinken is a longtime biden aide. He served as bidens National Security adviser when he was Vice President. Before that he was a trusted aide when joe biden was a senator. Blinken himself, as you know, served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama Administration. Hes also elevating Jake Sullivan to National Security adviser. Jake sullivan is 15 years younger than tony blinken, but the two im told are close friends. And sullivan himself is an experienced state department, former state department official, and then youve got linda thomas greenfield. She is a Career Foreign Service officer, experienced in Subsaharan Africa policy. And the fact that she is now being appointed u. N. Ambassador in that role as were told will be restored to a cabinet position, is really seen as boosting morale within the foreign service, andrea. And i want to play tony blinken last speaking to us on october 23rd, geoff, during the campaign, an adviser often traveling with joe biden. This is what he had to say to me about how things would change if joe biden were president. You know, andrea, President Trump has weaponized the state department in service of the reelection. And secretary pompeo seems to be allowing that to happen, to allow the department and our Foreign Policy to be politicized in service of President Trumps political ambitions. So again, he needs to choose. He either needs to stand up for whats right, to stand up for the men and women of the department, history get out of the way. And michael schmidt, you and the New York Times colleagues have been working on this rollout tomorrow, were expecting the National Security team. Lets talk about intelligence. Haines and rest of the team, as well, and what you would expect what would you expect would be different . Well, this is sort of like a return to the pretrump era in many ways. To what we basically very similar to what we saw under president obama. Someone like haines is someone whos had wide experience working in different parts of the Intelligence Community, at the forefront of the Obama Administrations cybersecurity stuff, stuff about targeted killings. The sort of the front lines of that. And thats just a very different departure than what weve seen over the past four years which has been a use of the Intelligence Community to help the president domestically politically publicly in ways that president obama had not done. So that would certainly be a change in that respect. The other thing that we have to look at on these folks is how likely it will be that theyll be confirmed. How you know, will the senate be open to confirming the president s, you know, incoming president s picks. And there were rumblings over the weekend that republicans in the senate will try and do Everything Possible to stand in the way of that. Now, if we remember here, traditionally the senate, if you know, the opposition to the senate usually allows the president to pick their cabinet and to fill it out as such. But that could be sort of the first front lines between biden and the senate. If the Senate Remains in republican hands and this is the fight that they want to have, that right off the bat filling the seats could be difficult. Now look, theres obviously a lot to play out and a lot of give and take there. But you have to wonder, you know, if you are the biden folks, how much of that is going into the calculations in these picks. And jeff mason and monica alba, lets talk about the president. Here there was a g20 summit this weekend. He was out playing golf. He did participate but then had larry kudlow sitting in the chair. We dont know whether he took part in the pandemic conversation s that the g20 had. The president largely over the last few weeks hasnt been taking part in Coronavirus Task forces Task Force Meetings here at the white house. So it doesnt sound like he participated in the g20 part of that over the weekend. Although youre right to say he did take part in the summit broadly by video conference. But in general, i think what weve seen since the election is a president who is completely focused on trying to fight the results and trying to overturn those results despite the fact that all of the legal nearly all of the legal challenges that his team has made have been overturned in court. And someone whos just, you know, not ready to concede and not focusing on governing at the same time. And monica, what about the president s mood and the fact that one of the members of this team, the legal team has been eliminated from the team, the Rudy Giuliani team . What are you seeing there . There have been now 34 cases that they have filed, and most of them have been dismissed or rejected with scorching comments by the judges who pointed out that they havent even alleged fraud which is what the president s saying publicly . Exactly, andrea. Not one instance of fraud in those more than 30 cases that you reference. 24 of which have been denied, dismissed, or thrown out according to our own pete williams. But the president were now learning about some behindthescenes conversations and frustration that he is expressing about just how slap dash his legal effort is on behalf of his attorneys. And the team that you saw at the Republican National Committee Headquarters just a couple of days ago, Rudy Giuliani, sidney powell, and jenna ellis, all of whom were there in their capacity at least at the time as the president s own lawyers representing both him and the campaign, in these lastditch legal efforts that dwindle and fizzle out. Were learning that sydney powell has been removed officially from appearing on the president s behalf. Thats after a dramatic weekend where she went out and continued to make controversial baseless claims of widespread voter fraud of which there is no evidence. They decided to physically and public distance says this from her saying she wont be appearing at these events. The president isnt just upset with her and her performance, were also learning hes not that pleased with Rudy Giuliani. The fact he was in the press Conference Last Week sweating, appearing to have a brown substance, hair dye or makeup running down his face. He did not appreciate that either. And the president is telling people he wishes he had a stronger legal team around him. It seems to be whatever team is a part of it, theyre not being successful in court. Thats part of the frustration on the president s part, as well telling aides and allies over the weekend that hes not happy and would like to see that fixed. Of course, weve seen over the last few weeks that people he wanted were sidelined because they came down with coronavirus or couldnt be part of it. Chief of staff mark meadows and longtime aid dave Bernie Sanders on dave bossey. And njoe biden won by such significant margins, its hard to see that there will be any change there. And republicans are privately hoping that helps other republicans come out, senators for example, to say and acknowledge the reality here which is that joe biden has won the election, and its time for a transition to take place. You saw a group of those republican senators over the weekend express that, not quite a chorus altogether. But it seems if michigan and pennsylvania do this and this process continues this week, it may be heading that direction if ever so slowly. Andrea . And the New York Times is breaking some news. Michael schmidt, over to you. I dont know if youve been able to check your emails, but the New York Times breaking the news that john kerry will be the new environmental czar, climate czar. A president ial a90 minutppointm does not require this would be john kerrys fundamental really a dream job for him, frankly. Long before he was secretary of state, long before he was Foreign Relations chairman. I would go to seminars with john kerry when he was a senator back in the late 80s, early 90s, talking about climate. This was his passion, and this i think is what he hopes would be his legacy. Michael . Fascinating decision. Yeah. And you know, kerry, someone who thought about running for president the most recent time, had certainly had this president ial ambitions. Im sure he still has some of them somewhere down deep inside. This would certainly give him a very narrow portfolio, away that he could continue to define his career. You know, since being secretary of state. And continued to, you know, make an impact on an issue that he really cares about. And keep himmel are skprent within the conversation keep him relevant and within the conversation and continue to position himself politically in the years to come. So certainly something that i think had been thought about and talked about and rumored about. And seems to make a lot of sense. Just sort of shows the sort of broader thing thats going on here which is in many ways the return to what the Obama Administration or what a Clinton Administration would have looked like. These are the similar people, similar character, similar views of the world, and its really just simply a pivot back to that, back to a pre2017 government that we had in washington. And there is the beginnings of a break in the republican ranks, jeff mason. Let me play a little bit of Chris Christie yesterday on abc. Whats happened here is, quite frankly, the concept the president s legal team has been a National Embarrassment. Ive been a supporter of the president s, i voted for him twice. But elections have consequences. And we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didnt happen. So are we beginning to see more senators joining until Mitch Mcconnell says anything, nothings going to happen in terms of the transition. I think thats exactly right. I mean, its not until somebody who is as powerful as senator mcconnell weighs in that it makes a big difference. And yet, nonetheless, seeing someone who is a huge supporter of President Trump like governor christie make that statement is significant. And as monica was saying, its a small group of republicans, but a growing group. And well see if that continues to grow in the coming weeks. The key thing here, though, is its not voices like Chris Christie that President Trump is listening to. Hes listening to others who are encouraging him to keep fighting and who are continuing to basically agree with him that the election was stolen, which, of course, is false. And geoff bennett, i think this is going to be tomorrow we dont have a time yet, but this is when the rollout will be in wilmington, correct . Reporter say it again, i had a hard time hearing you here in windy wilmington. You were asking about the rollout . Its also windy in d. C. At least im indoors. We dont know what time . Reporter no, it is expected tomorrow keeping with what ron klain said on the sunday shows, that this would be officially rolled out tomorrow. Our reporting is such that beale likely have the names today. Indeed. Youve got most of those names today. Thank you so much, jen bennegeo monica, michael, and jeff. Thanks to all of you. And coming up next right here were going to talk about the pandemic. A third Coronavirus Vaccine showing promising results in trials, but how will states distribute them . The governor of Delaware Joining us next. Stay with us. Implore everyone to wear masks. Stay safe, stay socially distanced. I know with the holidays thats tough, but please protect your families and protect your loved ones because we dont want to meet them here in the hospital. L another bundle in the books. Got to hand it to you, jamie. Your knowledge of victorian architecture really paid off this time. Nah, just got lucky. So did the thompsons. That faulty wiring couldve cost them a lot more than the mudroom. Thankfully they bundled their motorcycle with their home and auto. Theyre protected 24 7. Mm. What do you say . One more game of backgammon . [ chuckles ] not on your life. [ laughs ] when the lights go down less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Infections that can cause shingles have occurred. Dont stop steroids unless told by your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. May cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. Ask your doctor about nucala at home. Find your nunormal with nucala. Welcome back. Ads coronavirus cases skyrocket across the country, theres some more hope on the vaccine front today. Drug Company Astrazeneca says its new vaccine developed with the university of oxford is at least 70 effective and does not require extreme refrigeration. Researchers think this could be up to 90 effective in preventing the disease with proper dosing. Meanwhile, pfizers vaccine could be given the First Americans in about three weeks if everything goes as scheduled. This as thanksgiving travelers are ignoring Public Health warnings not to travel during this covid surge. Millions of people are packing t the airports. The tsa has process the more than three million trampers as of friday, saturday, and sunday. Delaware democratic governor john carney, part of president elect bidens meeting with the governors on covid on thursday, governor, thank you so much for being with us. What was the message from the governors to president elect biden . What was his message back to you about the pandemic and the rollout of the vaccine . Yeah, so we had probably a dozen or more governors from democrat and republican, from states across the country, and the message that we had for the president was really pretty clear and consistent. Weve been at this now for nine months, every states a little bit different. We need leadership from the office of the president , from the president himself. We need guidance, we need financial support. We need a good, strong plan at the federal level for the distribution of the vaccine. And we need flexibility at the state level. I think consistent among all those governors, democrat and republican, the president elects message back to us was he was is the president , will be the president for every state, red state and blue states. Theres no distinction from his perspective. He will provide the support, and he will provide the example, mask wearing, social distance events, and things like that. People have clearly been ignoring the warnings not to travel by air. Are you worried about a spike in delaware . Were having a spike in delaware and have for over a month or so now. Were about four times the number of cases we had at the end of the summer. This was a lower level of cases. On the hospitalization side which is really a big concern, i know for every governor in every state, were about half of where we were at the peak back in april. So thats very concerning. So our message has been very clear to delawareans, lets stay at home ove

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