Nor mask wearing around him. Ill talk to dr. Michael osterholm about what needs to be done to smooth the vaccine rollout. But we begin with nbc reporter monica alba. Phil rucker anbc justice correspondent Pete Williams. Pete, first you, michigan and then georgia, in whatever order, the decision is the same, the trump forces lose. Reporter right, whats happening here, andrea, these two lawsuits were filed by Sidney Powell both in michigan and georgia theyre running up the iron law of political challenges which is the longer you wait after the election, the harder it to get a judge or a court to change how the state is doing its business of conducting an election and certifying a vote. Now, in both cases, the court said, number one, there really isnt strong evidence. When you go into court and say we want an injunction. We want you to decertify the votes. We want you to call into election all of those sorts of things, youre having a federal judge for an extraordinary amount of relief. You better really have the goods. And what the judge in michigan said this morning is, theres a lot of supposition. Theres witnesses who say we believe this happened. This is what we think happened but thats not good enough at this stage to get the kind of release that theyre asking for. And secondly, the judges are saying, you know, number one, dont come to federal court with these problems. If youve got a problem with how the state is following state law, go to state court. And number three, you just waited too long. The lawsuit in michigan was filed 21 days after the election. Thats just too long. The judge said, for all of these reasons, not enough evidence. Waiting too long. Wrong court to go to. All of those legal reasons, in addition to evidentiary reasons these lawsuits are flaming out. It seems like law school 101, really on every issue. Monica, what were hearing today, Rudy Giuliani is in charge of this whole legal task force, hes now in the hospital. You know, unfortunately for him and for everyone around him, with covid. Reporter and experiencing mild symptoms, we understand, andrea. He did tweet overnight saying he was receiving great care at a Georgetown University affiliated hospital. And that he was feeling okay. And he felt he would be able to make a full recovery. But, of course, the fact that hes 76 years old and has been hospitalized shows you that this is a case that isnt just mild where youre asymptomatic or not experiencing any difficulties, you wouldnt need to be hospitalized. But we know from the president s own diagnosis of coronavirus, when you get access early to an excellent treatment, say an antibody cocktail or something similar which weve seen other White House Associates and advisers have access on early on, you can do very well. So, we are waiting to understand sand learn a little bit more about the former new york city mayors condition. But it does come as he was traveling the country. He was in three battleground states just in the last week or so. Never wearing a mask or face covering. In fact, others who were wearing them if theyd be comfortable removing them. This is somebody who has defied any of the cdc or White House Administration guidelines when it comes to coronavirus which reflects really what this white house has been doing over the last few months, as they continue to hold indoor holiday parties with dozens, sometimes, hundreds of people without social distancing or wearing masks. But Rudy Giuliani is just one of the latest of people close to the president to test positive. Of course, we know that the president s eldest son donald trump jr. Tested positive recently so it Rudy Giulianis son, Andrew Giuliani who worked at the white house. Its another striking example. Were now up to 53 people just since the beginning of october, in the president s orbit, campaign or affiliated with the white house who have tested positive for covid. Andr andrea. Its really striking. Phil, you and carolina, your coauthor, are writing a new book on the final year of the Trump Presidency become thats been announced. Congratulations. A year consumed by exits, there may be another exit soon, bill barr. You may actually write a year this is a sequel to your book, a very stable genius. This could be the final month of donald trump. We could call it an unstable genius, perhaps . Well have to see, well take that title idea, andrea, under consideration. But you mentioned attorney general bill barr, theres a great deal of attention to him and the president and the president s comments last week where he said that the Justice Department has found no evidence to support the claims of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome of the election. That is not a statement that this president wanted to hear from this Justice Department. He has been on bill barr since back in the summer, to try to use the power of the Justice Department, to use federal investigative resources to do his political bidding. First to investigate the bidens and bring into light some of the findings of that inquiry and the russia investigation before the november 3rd election. And then since, to try to help the president in his crusade to investigate these fantasies of fraud. Theres no evidence, of course, to support it. But the president still wants some sort of an investigation that could uncover some sort of fantastical fraud that could somehow overturn the results of the election. Well, the attorney general is not going along with it. Because of that he very well could lose his job from the president. And theres even some reporting that bill barr is considering possibly resigning the post between now and the inauguration on january 20th. And, pete, you cover bill barr, would he be thinking about leaving just to get out before he gets fired on to witter . Well, i suspect thats part of the calculation here. The people weve talked to say that barr was actually thinking about stepping down before the kerfuffle of last week. Im sure that hasnt hemmed matters any. And may enter into his calculus. He told me in october if trump were reelected that he would stay for at least a couple years into the next term. So, i dont think its surprising that hes thinking about leaving before the end of the term. He did stay all the way to the end before he was attorney general and most a. G. S, not all, do stay until inauguration day. But i would think if hes thinking about this, this would certainly cause him perhaps to think about it harder. And can you briefly talk to us about safe harbor day. Youve been writing nab about t as well. I guess thats tomorrow. Sure, mark your calendars. Under federal law, the safe harbor day, its a law on the books well over 100 years. If a state gets its slate of president ial electors chosen by tomorrow which is six days before the Electoral College meets on the 14th, then this Congress Must count those votes. Obviously, if the state does tell after tuesday, congress can still count it, but its kind of a belt and suspenders extra security thing. Thats why states are rushing to resolve certification questions, get lawsuits settled, by tomorrow to meet that safe harbor deadline. Now, some states are not going to date them or at least have a tough time making them. Because there are active lawsuits in wisconsin, for example, so they may have a hard time meeting the safe harbor deadline. So its something is that the states really want to try to do. Thanks for all of that. Pete williams, phil rucker and monica alba at the white house. Bob bower is a Senior Campaign advicer in the white house. Bob havent seen you for a while. Congratulations in the result. Thank you, thank you very much. You were active in the transition. And with these battles, so far i think 50 or 51 cases have been filed. And just the majority have been rejected, dismissed. The federal jumdges, even the trump jump was very stringent in his comments about the whole case. So, where does it stand now . Are you going to keep filing cases and you have to keep showing up in court . Its not clear what theyre doing, other than embarrassing themselves. Youre quite right, the judge in the third circuit, by the way, i think youre referring to the pennsylvania case is a trump appointee saying they present nod allegations, no proof. A judge in wisconsin said the allegations were absolutely bizarre. And we know now that the attorney general of the united states, has said he sees no evidence of fraud that would affect the outcome of the election. The president has fired him and previously fired the official responsible for Cyber Security and infrastructure security at the department of Homeland Security which said it was the most secure election in history. Trump fired him for saying that. Its not clear what they hope to about accomplish here. As i said, i think theyre embarrassing themselves. The courts are dmiismissing the cases as rapidly fundamentally as theyre filing them. Theyre really setting records for failures in this area. Just abject failures in this carry. I just want to amend one piece that Pete Williams said, not that anything said was inaccurate. It was all accurate. He made a point of saying there were all sorts of technical reasons including delays that account for how the courts are responding negatively to them. But i want to add theres an overriding reason that the suits were failing. Theyre failing because theres absolutely no evidence in any of these cases and that would come screaming to all of these decisions, the judges are scratching their heads, asking them what case are you bringing forward . And there is no case. Theres no evidence. Its all a fantasy. And thats why its crashing and burning in sort of the publicly embarrassing way that it is. In fact, agency pes pete and us have been reporting in some of these cases, in one case particularly they said to giuliani, are you claiming fraud . I think it was the pennsylvania case. He said, no, were not claiming fraud. So theyre not saying in court because they know they cant lie to a judge, theyre not saying what theyre saying publicly in the socalled hearings being held in hotel suites or in front of the four seasons whatever the name of that place was. Yes, thats very important. To add to this let me ask you about bill barr go ahead. Im sorry. Go ahead. No problem. To add to his perverse legal carnival that were seeing, your point is exactly right. There are lawyers inside the courtroom that have to say the opposite of the public messaging that are being put out by jenna ellis and Sidney Powell and others. They have to say, no, in fact, were not alleging fraud. Thats not what were doing here because they are in a position where they cant lie to the judge. But they make outlandish claims in the pleadings before theyre asked by the judge. And they make outlandish pleadings in their messaging. And there are law firms that represent the campaign at the outset of this supseudo challen and theyve resigned. Now its a ragtag group of lawyers who are creating this monumental spectacle of failure. Let me ask you about the attorney general because weve seen a complete breakdown of any firewall between the white house and the Justice Department in terms of prosecutions, pardons, or what cases to proceed with. What cases to drop. Whom to go after. Special counsels being brought in and other former, you know, u. S. Attorneys being brought in to look into things. The enemies list. Bill barr now split with the president on whether there was election fraud. And now the president pressuring him publicly saying making a decision he feels about is him, while he still has confidence in him, he said to kristen welker, depending on what happens in the next couple weeks, switch your position on selection fraud and maybe i wont embarrass you by firing you which certainly the implication. I mentioned early earlier he fired Christopher Krebs for saying the election, there was no fraud. Does he imagine that legislators are not hearing, the members of congress are hearing, the pressure hes putting on his own officials to lie about the outcome of the election . I mean, this is only adding to the clear cut view everybody has of the complete baselessness of all of this. The complete pressure to apply to state officials who turned away most recently in georgia, just refusing to do his bidding. It is just an extraordinary public collapse of these claims. And everything he does makes it look even worse and prejudices his position in every possible direction. The trump League Strategy seems to be also targeting major cities that are majority black when they talk about whats happening in philadelphia, detroit and other cities. Is there a civil rights case at all against them . Theres no question that the targeting of these cities, and these particular communities and the code words that theyre using for the kind of quote unquote fraud that they say is typical in those communities exposes i think the dark underside of what theyre doing here, absolutely exposes it. At this point, however, the election is lost. He be leaving the scene. People worried for some time whether donald trump would refuse to leave, what we have seen is really quite remarkable pri i do want to pause here particularly in honor of officials like jocelyn benson. Across the country, democrats and republicans have showed up for this. Hes going to leave. The election was held, the voters were heard, its over. I do think the legal claims made and the other place about the conduct of the lawyers and the principals in this case, including the president himself, one thing stands out very clearly which is the system held together extraordinarily well. And also did so in an election held under extraordinarily challenging circumstances in the middle of a pandemic. So, for all of that, you know, he huffed and he puffed, but he could not blow the house down. Do you have any Legal Recourse when even after the gsa basically declared that joe biden won and the Electoral College is about to meet next week, even then, the Transition Team cant get into the pentagon to meet with their counterparts who are going to be dealing with military intelligence because nbc is reporting, as others now, that the official in charge, cash patel is not letting them meet with the proper people. Well, as you know there was a delay here that was simply inconsistent with law. Nonetheless, the administration persisted with a very robust transition, or the incoming transition. That is to say, the Biden Harris Administration, incoming administration, persisted with a very robust transition that i think moved things along very smartly. And regardless of what, you know, impediments may be thrown up in their path here and there, i think theres general agreement that this transition will take place. And it will be successful. And that the Biden Harris Administration will be ready to govern. Well see what happens in these reports and how significant any one of these problems may be. Im fairly optimistic at the end of the day that this will be a Successful Transition as, frankly, it has been from the very beginning, at least son the part of the biden harris transition. Taking all of the steps necessary to get ready to govern. Thank you so much, bob bauer, thanks for being with us today. And the biden Team Announces the team that will lead the Covid Response when the new Administration Takes office in 44 days. Plus, the vaccine, state officials at work and how to distribute the Covid Vaccine to millions. Whos going to get the potentially lifesaving shot first . Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports. I do is help new homes overcome this. What is that, an adjustable spanner . Good choice, steve. Okay, dont forget youre not assisting him. You hired him. If you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. Who else reads books about submarines . My dad. Yeah. Oh, those are progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Look at that. So why wait to screen for colon cancer . Because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of colon cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Ill do it. Good plan. President elect biden announcing the team that will be on the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic after he takes office, of course. Thats going to be made official it was made official today. And hes going to announce it, i guess, in person, in an afternoon event tomorrow. Hes reached out to former congressman and attorney general Javier Becerra to lead the health and human services. And hes picked an internationally known Infectious Disease expert from Massachusetts Hotel dr. Rochelle walensky to take over the cdc which has been widely criticized under President Trump. The rollout continues as we see another deadly surge, increases in cases in 43 state including the district of columbia. 33 million californians are entering in lockdown to try and slow the president. On meet the press sunday dr. Deborah birx issued this dire warning. This fall winter surge is combining everything that we saw in the spring with everything that we saw in the summer. I think thats why dr. Redfield made this absolute appeal to the american people. This is not just the worst Public Health event. This is the worst event that this country will fa