Commences. President elect joe biden announcing a slate of experienced and diverse candidates in Key National Security posts, including the first latino to lead the department of Homeland Security and the first woman to serve as the director of National Intelligence. Heres joe biden today on his vision for the Incoming Administration. Its a team that reflects the fact that america is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Once again, sit at the head of the team. Ready to confront offed adversis and not reject our allies. Ready to stand up for our values. In fact, in calls from World Leaders that ive had, about 18 or 20 so far, in the weeks since we won the election, ive been struck by how much theyre looking forward to the United States reasserting its historic role as a global leader. The team meets this moment, this team behind me. They embody my core beliefs that america is strongest when it works with its allies. President elect bidens new team will finally be able to begin the official work of a transition after trump and the gsa administrator both sought to take credit for finally unleashing the approval for transition funds and other resources to be released to president elect biden. The New York Times reports on the nonconcession concession from the president this way. Quote, mr. Trump did not concede and vowed to persist with efforts to change the vote, which have so far proved fruitless. But the president said on twitter on monday night that he accepted the decision by emily murphy, the administrator of the General Services administration, to allow a transition to proceed. The move comes after nearly three dozen legal setbacks in court and a series of public displays from a band of misfits that were spreading wild conspiracy theories about venezuelan election interference as well as a growing core us can of onetime trump allies who sought to move on. The New York Times and the Washington Post both reported on an intervention of sorts late yesterday at the white house in which the chief of staff, the white House Counsel and an outside attorney, among others, urged trump to face the music. In the end, though, it was not patriotism or love of country that pushed trump to acknowledge his defeat, it was feeling dissed by members of the Business Community. Washington post writes this, quote, trump was described as angry about the situation, particularly over comments from blackstone chairman stephen schwarzeman, one of the president s closest allies in the Business Community, made to axios acknowledging that the election outcome was that very certain and that biden had won and the country should move on. Moving on is precisely what the Biden Administration will seek to do. But the damage done by a president who mainlined disinformation, conspiracy theories and fictional claims of voter fraud to his millions of supporters and still refuses to concede, will be a headwind that the Biden White House will have to contend with. The president elect commencing his official transition is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Shes been on the transition beat. Also joining us, Washington PostWhite House Bureau chief phil rucker is back and David Plouffe is here, as well. I want to show everyone what all of these nominees sound like, they spoke today. Lets listen. America at its best still has a greater ability than any other country on earth to bring others together to meet the challenges of our time. To end this crisis, the whole world must come together. My fellow career diplomats and Public Servants around the world, i want to say to you, america is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back. The department of Homeland Security has a noble mission, to help keep us safe and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome. You know that i have never shied away from speaking truth to power. And that will be my charge as director of National Intelligence. I worked for you for a long time and i accept this nomination knowing that you would never want me to do otherwise. To the American People, i had the honor of serving as joe bidens National Security adviser when he was Vice President. I watched him pair strength and resolve with humanity and empathy. That is the person america elected and that is also america at its best. You know, i dont know if its just a sign of this moment, but to talk about diplomacy being back, to talk about joe bidens empathy and humanity, to talk abdi phone si being back, it is all about implicit rebuke of Donald TrumpsForeign Policy stewardship over the last four weeks. Thats right chlgt and just saying theyre going to do their job and be good stewards of americas role in the world, that in and of its being a rebuke of President Trump is underscored what weve all been living through in the last four years, a president that wanted to be more isolationist, who wanted to pull back. What we saw today, i was sitting in that room in wilmington, i was thinking about the fact that joe biden in some ways, for his supporters, is fulfilling the promises he made on the gan trail. He said he wanted to have a cabinet that looked like america and there were people there on that stage, of course talking about all of their different accolades and their experience, but they were talking about their families who survived the holocaust, who survived coming from cuba, talked about having g gumbo diplomacy, cooking southern food. All of those are what america is about, the melting pot. A democrat that i was talking to also said it felt like the avengers, we are being rescued from the craziness and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all. You know, David Plouffe, to that point, i had this i felt emotional thinking about the idea of Public Service being back and not demonized and not vilified. Donald trump has been at war against the truth, hes been at war against the deep state and anyone that works in government knows that in Donald Trumps imagination is the deep state is the men and women you and i came across when we walked for president s who are subject matter experts, who could make a lot more money in the private sector, who choose to serve, who made sacrifices to serve Government Agencies instead of pursuing careers in the private sector, because they believe in everything that these nominees talked about today. Just talk about what it means now that all these folks will go into agencies that donald trump has maligned for the last four years and help build them back up. Well, nicolle, it was so refreshing to see professionals on that stage, people who believe in the power and role of government, who believe in competence and experience. You know, donald trump, for the most part, kind of surrounded himself with the worst of the worst, people who actually were in agencies and seemed like they were bound and determined to destroy them. Joe biden, i think, is going to add real talent. Nobody, by the way, today, or my guess is in any meeting we ever witness, will feel like they need to bow down and kiss joe bidens feet. You know, trumps cabinet meetings tended to be a ridiculous affair where people just tried to one up each other, say whag an amazing lead eer donald trump was. Its refreshing. And we have massive challenges with the pandemic, the economy, climate change, spiraling deficits, and its going to take everybody. So, one, the Civil Servants who will remain in government and have been maligned by donald trump, will feel renewed. And you need to review tremendous talent into your administration and i think joe biden, you look at that group on the stage tonight, thats going to send a powerful signal, that americas back and that your talent and expertise are going to be cherished and wanted and desired and thats what its going to take to build the kind of team to dig us out of this hole. So, phil rucker, there was some news today that donald trump felt compelled to be apart of, the stock market closed above 30,000 for the first time and in what has been described by many of our favorite reporters and friends as the most bizarre appearance by donald trump of his presidency in the press office, he popped in, basically, said a tweet out loud and then popped back out. Explain. Yeah, nicolle, the white house announced this briefing at 12 30 today, very last minute set of remarks and the first thought i had, oh, my goodness, the president is going to give his speech about the transition of power and about how hes instructed the administration to work hand in glove with the biden team, but no, it was a celebratory set of remarks, just a little over a minute, trying to take credit, apparently, for the gains in the stack market, im not a stock market analyst, but im not sure its because of trump. Anyhow, he said nothing about the election, he refused to take questions, we reporters in the press corps have not been able to ask him questions since the election and then he went back into retreat behind those closed doors. He made another appearance an hour or two later for the turkey pardon ceremony, but again, we have not heard directly from him about the election or about the beginning of this transition and what appears to be a retreat from his protests over the vote other than the tweets that hes issued late last night and the randy quaid video this morning. Words that im sure none of us ever thought wed utter here on a newscast. I want to talk about phils excellent reporting, your excellent reporting, reporting from own our carol lee about how we got here and we should be clear about where we are. The president , as phil rucker just pointed out, did not go to the Briefing Room today to concede. He still has abont conceded an hes tweeting things about persisting among things about randy quaid. But there is a lot of reporting about the recognition that where he was heading was truly to an island where he and rudy and whoever the other lawyer is that they havent fired yet by tweet, would be on an island alone, without any backup from fox news in terms of the success of the legal effort, because there isnt any, and with fewer and fewer republican allies. So, they went into the oval office, we understand from the Washington Post that mark meadows was there, jay secokulo was there, people forcing him to accept reality has grown. I think ivanka and jared have been reported to have been in there. Talk about where we are. So, while we have ascertained the win and transition funds have been released and joe biden can start to begin to do that p transfer, we still dont have a concession and you still have millions of trump voters who leave the lies hes been telling them for three weeks. Thats right. What we saw yesterday was a culmination of pressure being applied to President Trump as well as pressure being applied vocally to the gsa from people including republican officials, were speaking out more and more about the fact that the transition needed to get started. You saw senator rob portman, you saw pat toomey of pennsylvania, Business Leaders coming out and saying, look, we need to get this under way. And you saw Health Officials say, if this transition didnt get under way, the covid19 vaccine might be slowed down and american live s could be lost, because were waiting for President Trump to process the fact that he lost. And thats when you saw the president tweeting that, but i should say, sources tell me that it wasnt so much that he gave emily murphy a heads up to say, yes, go ahead with this, but it was also emily murphy who had been prepared to make this decision herself. I was told that emily murphy and officials at the gsa literally had prepped their resignation letters and packed up their offices, in case they would never go back to that office. They were expecting to be fired last night. The president didnt do that. But there is a sense that, yes, President Trump was pushed by people inside the white house, but the gsa also was in a position where they had to act. Emily murphy, her reputation was on the line to say, what are you going to do now that the facts are there, that michigan and other states are certifying . There were two things going on last night and emily murphy said in a letter last night her decision was made independently. And David Plouffe, quintessential trump, the disgrace of waiting three weeks is now something that emily murphy and donald trump are fighting for credit for. I want you to speak, though, to this headwind, that for three weeks and im sure in a lot of corners of conservative media, theyll continue to carry Donald Trumps water, joe biden has made it clear that uniting the country is his top priority and hes not ruled out working with republicans, but the cold hard fact is that until last night, only about five had even acknowledged the result of a resounding victory on joe bidens part. He didnt win in a squeaker, he didnt win in a recount, he won an electoral landslide. And until today, only five republican senators had acknowledged that. Who does the hard work of holding those republicans accountable so that joe biden can be joe biden and try to work with them where he can . Well, nicolle, i think even in a scenario where trump had conceded, which is probably very unlikely, you know, youre still facing down the prospect of Mitch Mcconnell, you know, being the secondmost powerful person in washington. So, you know, theres not going to be an era of cooperation breaking out. If the polls are right, about 40 of the country does not believe the election was legitimate so where that will, i think, be most problematic is republicans who fear primaries in 22, whether they in the senate or the house and the 2024 republican president ial field, who will feel, i think, that they have to Carry Forward with a lie that donald trump won the election, it was stolen from him, joe bidens not a legitimate president. Now, over time, joe biden will be acting as president , he will be introducing legislation, he will be conducting Foreign Policy on the global stage, he will be announcing executive orders, so over time, even though that may not think the election was legitimate, will see him as the president , so but i think it adds to the complexity, but at the end of the day, Mitch Mcconnell has to decide whether its immigration, inf infrastructure, stimulus package to help with the pandemic, is he going to cooperate with joe biden . And Mitch Mcconnells viewpoint on that will not be who is right for the country, hes thinking about the 2022 election already and how can he retain his senate majority, if he doesnt lose it in georgia . Hes got ron johnson up, hes got up seat in pennsylvania, marco rubios up, open seat in north carolina. At the end of the day, what Donald Trumps done right now, of all the things hes done, and he is the worst american president weve had by a huge margin, this, to me, is the worst thing hes done, because it is such a fundamental attack on the bedrock of this country. And i would suspect that in future years, youre going to see other republicans try and do this, say, i didnt lose, you know, it was stolen from me. The other thing is, hes basically casting asper shuns on anyone who isnt a trump supporter, that their votes arent legitimate, and youll see more up forts in states that are controlled completely by republicans to restrict the right to vote even further. So, the damage will be with us for a long time. Im not sure at the end of the day how much its going to effect legislation, but it certainly is a factor. Youre going to see primary debates in 2022 for the house or senate where someone is going to attack their republican opponent by saying, you know what, nicolle wore a mask. Nicolle said joe biden won the election. Nicolle is not fit to be our nominee. Thats what youre going to see. Nicolle would lose every primary in a Republican Party. I would like to associate myself with everything you just said, i think its a conversation well be having for a long, long time. I want to add to the conversation, though, an adviser to president elect joe bidens transition team, you have been, if i could just be blunt, on fire on twitter and in your public comments, ive been riveted by everything youve had to say. And really, i just want your thoughts on the announcement made today by president elect biden on what jeff bennett from nbc news is now reporting just this hour, to be the transition, as representing joe bidens team in contact with every cabinet member, but as David Plouffe just said, theres a president that hasnt conceded with millions of followers who believe his lies. Well, nicolle, i think a lot of us are feeling its a day of hope. We finally have been relieved from these last four years and donald trump is receding into the rearview mirror, very slowly, but he is receding. And these are all really great people who were on that stage in wilmington today. They are Public Servants, in government for the right reasons, they are very smart and experienced and theyre sophisticated about