Defeated president incapable of accepting the fact of his loss. With the gop paving the way for trumps lies, standing up for the truth falls on Public Servants like chris krebs. He was fired for doing his job and refusing to participate in the president s big lie that the election was hacked. There is no foreign power that is flipping votes. Theres no domestic actor flipping votes. I did it right. We did it right. This was a secure election. Krebs appeared on 60 minutes last night and inspired another round of rage viewing from donald trump, who is holed up in the white house ranting and fuming about his loss. The Washington Post in a stunning piece of reporting from the weekend, writing that his isolation at this point resembles that of a mad king. Quote, the facts were indisputable, President Trump had lost, but trump refused to see it that way. Sequestered in the white house and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delegal yus in a torrent of private conversations, trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like mad king george, muttering, i won, i won, i won. However cleareyed aides may have been to his loss of president elect biden, many of them indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting. They were happy to scratch his itch, this adviser said. If he thinks he won, its like, shh, we wont tell him. And while the republican secretary of state of georgia retuesdayed to be corrupted by georgia and local Elections Officials declined to deny the will of the voters in their states and judges hearing the prif louse lawsuits brought by the trump team have laughed them out of court and scolded them on the way out the door, republican elected officials are still carrying the mad kings water. You think the president should officially concede . Well, i i understand the legal reason why he should not, because he has some appeals that are going, so, i recognize that, but beyond that, its president elect biden. We had problems all the way back at the primary. We had investigations going on. Now weve got more investigations. We need to get to the bottom of it and hold people accountable. I dont think it was rigged, but i do think there are some things that were done that shouldnt have been done and i think there was some element of voter fraud, as there is in every election, but i dont have any reason to believe that the numbers are there that would have made that difference. It was not rigged, there was no voter fraud, there are no more appeals and theres nothing to investigate. So, for all the americans desperate to turn the page on trumpism, the refusal to acknowledge joe bidens win is causing significant damage to those of us who live in reality. Including to our children. The Washington Post reports on West Virginia social studies teacher and his struggle against disinformation in his classroom. Quote, never before, cruey said, has he seen such a high level of emotion from children, such blind devotion to their frommer iffed candidate, most often donald trump. Nor has he seen anything like this level of mistrust, which he said is persisting among students weeks after the results of the election supposedly were finalized. Donald trump poisoning the publics faith in our elections is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Michael steele, former rnc chairman and msnbc political analyst is here. Also joining us, jonathan swan, reporter for axios, and yamiche yacindor. Michael, i have talked to people that have tried to reality of the loss, people who have been in the political arena and im sure you have a lot more insight than i do, but what is the state of the effort to introduce the reality into the president s world view . Well, the way it typically happens is, trump has a conversation with these aides in which hell you know, ill give you one example, i was talking to a Senior Administration official last week and they were part of what was supposed to be a policy conversation with the president but it was actually impossible, because he was getting sidetracked, you know, every other breath, talking about the dominion Conspiracy Theory and Everything Else. So, he is still on this idea of, you know, the election was stolen and fraud, but in the next breath, hell say, well, it doesnt matter, im going to run in 2024, no one will beat me, et cetera, et cetera, so, he has actually processed reality on some level, but its sort of irrelevant, because what hes doing publicly, as you described at length in your introduction, is, he is still and there are tens of millions of people that believe him, he is still telling them that election was stolen, even his own government is making now preparations for the incoming min stray and is acting like a government and an iner circle thats known its lost. You know, jonathan, in your tremendous interview with the president , you were in this role of introducing reality, in terms of data, scientific information about the pandemic and intelligence, its been reported on about russia, to him, and i wonder if you could just offer your analysis of what you thi think what percentage of his mind do you think accepts the reality that this was a decisive defeat, free from fraud, that if you understand the way ballots are counted, there is no way that you can get away with cheating, because they are paper ballots. So, even if you think there was cheating, and chris krebs explained this on 60 minutes last night, someone who was fired for securing our election and not allowing fraud can you explain what that collision of reality, the reality is, there was no fraud, republicans are saying nothing, none of that is real. Its just a man who cannot come to grips with the fact that he lost decisively. Well, one thing that i was surprised with is there is actually a line that can be crossed in terms of the level of Conspiracy Theory. So, you know, its okay for Rudy Giuliani to say theres mass freud everywhere, et cetera, but apparently the line, you know, which that cannot be crossed is to say, actually, this is an International Conspiracy involving hugo chavez, venezuelan front companies, the cia, bribes to republicanelected officials to throw elections to communists. That was apparently a bridge too far for President Trump and they sort of pushed sydney powell off to the side. But Everything Else is in his mind acceptable. I have no way of knowing what he truly believes. I can tell you, he is privately saying no different, in terms of saying the fraud, its fraud, i won, it was stolen, i havent ive been talking to people ever since the election who were in conversations with him in his inner circle and im yet to identify a single conversation in which he said, oh, actually, i think i legitimately lost. He, to my knowledge, has never said that privately. Michael steele, this matters and i am as interested in moving on from donald trump as anybody, but when you read the story in the Washington Post and i think we all know this in our own lives, trump has convinced his voters of the most dangerous lie yet. It was dangerous when donald trump told everyone that reporters like jonathan and yamiche are the enemies of the people. It was dangerous when donald trump told people he believed Vladimir Putin over the american intelligence agencies. It was dangerous when he tweeted threats against andy mccabe and his wife and jim comey. It is always dangerous when he lines to his voters, but it is creating an unprecedented and perhaps unsustainable instability to make his supporters, to make half of this country doubt the validity of joe bidens victory. Nicolle, the way you led into this conversation was so expertly done and touched on a number of chords that resonate in the question. And i think we have to step back a moment and say that donald trump didnt have to do a lot of convincing here. Donald trump didnt have to do a lot of lying to the supporters. He picked a scab in which they already believed a lot of this. It was beneath the surface. It has been there for a long time, this this overwhelming sense of mistrust of our institutions and our executive and political leadership. Its been there. Weve seen it. It manifests itself during my watch during the rnc, it was in place during the bush years. It goes back to Newt Gingrichs uprising in the house of representatives back in 1994 and even before that. So what donald trump was able to do was to give it legitimacy, to give it voice, to give it actual voice in the body of the president , in the body of the presidency. And i think we have to understand that this is so much less the work of the mad king than the mad king actually reflecting his mad people. And by that, i mean angry, frustrated. Suffering victimhood and all of that. So, i you know, theres a lot that we want to put in Donald Trumps doorstep and deservedly so, but i think we also have to contextualize where a lot of that originated from, not with him, but what makes what hes done so bad is that he is the president and most president s, all president s, up to him, understood that this was there, but still guided the country away from that. Did not give into those feelings and tried to address them in other ways. This president said to hell with that, were all in on it. And here we are. 70plus million votes later. Michael steele, i understand the how, what i dont understand is the why. Because this isnt just, you know, an antielite world view, stick it to the mainstream media, theyre out to get us. This is a lie. It is a lie. And i dont understand why roy blunt goes along with the lie. I dont understand why Asa Hutchinson says, oh, we got to let this play out. Theres nothing to play out. Judges appointed by democratic and republican president s have thrown every lawsuit out. Kelly loeffler said that we have to let the investigation finish. There is no investigation. There was no fraud. No widespread fraud, no foreign conspiracy, there was no fraud. The recounts have turned up votes that are by and large exactly in line with the vote on election day, so i understand the how and i understand that longstanding institutional distrust. I dont understand the why. Why are republicans willing to sell their soul for a big lie . Because theyre afraid of the realities of it. Theyre afraid of the very people that they have sold this lie to. This goes back look. You have broken promises. These are folks, and ive had these conversations where theyve had, you know, you guys lied to us about overturns roe versus wade, you lied to us about, you know, unfettered spending and that you wouldnt engage in that and on all of these things now, albeit, trm drm is, you know, had a share in that lot of that, but heres the rub, for those individuals you named, those elected officials, theyre afraid of those people behind donald trump with their pitch forks. Thats why they do what they do. Thats how they perpetuate the lie, instead of coming out and speaking to the why. And heres the example of it. Georgia. So, the lie yeah. And the conceit has been, oh, you know, vote by mail is bad and they all bought into that, right . Why . Because they thought it would serve a particular narrative that would leave them unscathed. But now, they need those very voters to vote by mail and they dont believe them. And thats the problem. Yamiche, georgia is going to bring all of this into sharp relief for all of us, to see how voters have processed all of this disinformation from the president and a lot of his supporters, as well as standing up for the truth, which are also trumpbacked republicans in the state, the governor and the secretary of state, their lives are threatened. I want to show you more of the 60 minutes interview from chris krebs last night. Lets watch and well talk about it on the other side. This is him being asked about rudys press conference. As you watched Rudy Giulianis News Conference at the Republican National committee headquarters, what were you thinking . It was upsetting, because what i saw was a apparent attempt to undermine confidence in the election. To confuse people, to scare people. Its not me. Its not just us. Its the tens of thousands of election workers out there that had been working nonstop, 18hour days, for months, that are getting death threats. For trying to carry out one of our core Democratic Institutions . An election . And that was, again, to me, a press conference that i just i didnt make sense. What it was actively doing was undermining democracy. And thats dangerous. Yamiche, chris krebs is not some deep state actor, he went to work in the trump administration, political appointee, nonpolitical job, as lots of National Security posts are. Has there been any background filled in on why he was fired and why the president continues to be soer talted by him simply affirming that he secured our election and spared it from foreign interference . Well, President Trump has been really open about why krebs was fired, and its because he went against the lie that the president is telling that the election was stolen from him. Christopher krebs decided that he wanted to risk everything, including his career and his job in order to tell the American People, no, in fact, the integrity of this election should not be questioned. In fact, people were given a proper way to vote and a proper means to vote and this election went by and large went without a hitch in terms of the way things happened. The thing that Christopher Krebs is taking in is this idea that Rudy Giuliani is doing the thing we were preparing when we thought it was going to be russia and china and iran and all these places that were going to come into the United States and try to convince the American People not to believe in the institutions of merge. In fact what it is is the president of the United States himself doing that. So, what Christopher Krebs is trying to describe there is a Disinformation Campaign playing out before our eyes, with the white house and with the president s allies being these Center People who are doing this and so the president fired Christopher Krebs because he didnt want to go along with the lie. And it goes back to what michael was just saying. There is this feeling, when i talk to republicans, that theyre very scared of the voters that believe donald trump. They want these people to continue to be republicans, to continue to show up in future elections and as a result they dont want to cross the president , who will probably have an outside insfluns in the Republican Party long after he is he leaves office. Jonathan swan, im sure you follow the sort of few profiles in standing up to the president and in some instances, theyre just people who have already been to war with him and lived to tell. John bolton is one of them. And while he is still a die hard conservative, he has been speaking out since the election about the dangers to our democracy and he writes this. Rather than aligning with principle, which trump lacks, longstanding conservatives torqued themselves uncomfortably to support his positions. This sun natural and unwise and we must stop it. Is there any conversation happening around protecting local elected republicans whose job it is to certify the votes in their state ahead of most of that certification is early this week and the whole vote is certified at the beginning of this month. Is there any concern that by targeting these people by name in places where they dont have motorcades and secret service protection, that theyre endangering some of these officials, fellow republicans . Well, some of these state officials have talked about that openly, i mean, theyre having to get security, simply for doing their job and so yes, not only have these conversations had to happen, but steps have had to be taken to protect them physically, which is chilling. It is remarkable to me at this point so far after the election that we havent seen more i did think by this point we would have seen more elected officials congratulate joe biden, describe him as the president elect and it is remarkable, i mean, i know we keep, you know, its been one of the themes of the last three and a half years of, you know, donald trump controlling the party and dominating the party and people being afraid to cross him but it really is quite striking that that persists this deep into the lame duck, into the period where you would normally, you know, any normal universe, you would have everyone recognizing joe biden as the president elect and moving forward. It is quite stunning. Jonathan swan, i think it is the current standing that no elected republican in a leadership position in the house or senate has acknowledged joe bidens win and Donald Trumps defeat except liz cheney. Is that your reporting . And is there any indication they ever will . Will joe biden ascend to the presidency with the other party not giving him the legitimacy he deser deserves . I do think when the electors come together and when the states are all certified that you probably will see a grudging admission from leadership that the results are in and looks like joe bidens going to be the president elect, but you know, i wouldnt even necessarily bet on that. Mitch mcconnell has stayed right away from this. Hes worried about this georgia runoff, the two runoffs on january 5. Theyre in this awful predi predicame predicament, which Michael Steele described earlier, where youve got youve got to motivate the trump voters but at the same time, the president has told them that the election was stolen and its fraudulent and i dont think theres many things that are more demotivating for a voter than to know that your vote doesnt count because the whole things a fraud and its going to be stolen from you. So, whats happening behind the scenes, when i talk to republicans who are working behind the scenes on these senate races is, theyre quite worried they need turnout, obviously. Its going to be crucial, and theyre quite worried that these conspiracy theories are actually coming back to bite them and could really harm them in these january runoffs. Jonathan swan, unbelievable state of affairs. Thank you for your reporting and spending some time with us. Michael and yamiche are sticking around. When we come back, president elect joe biden changing the game. An allfemale communications staff, a Diverse Group on his Economic Team. The very latest on the biden transition with 51 days to go until he is sworn in as president. Plus, the race for a Coronavirus Vaccine is on. Cant come soon enough. News today that another company is ready to ask the fda for the green light on its vaccine, a critical step that could have two vaccines ready by the end of the year. A live report on just how we make sure all americans can get one. And republicans in georgia, as weve been discussing, with the high wire act in their quest to hold onto the senate. How to ask voters there to put their trust in the same system trump claims is rigged . All those stories and more when deadline white house continues after this. Dont go anywhere. Its down to the wire, the teams been working around the clock. Weve had to rethink our whole approach. Were going to give togetherness. Logistically, its been a nightmare. Im not sure its going to work. Itll work. I didnt know you were listening. A big first today for president elect joe biden. He will receive his first president ial Daily Briefing since winning the election. It comes as he continues to build out a team that stands out for its diversity. Earlier today, he named key members of his Economic Team and officially nominated janet yellen as treasury secretary. If shes confirmed, she will be not just the first woman to serve as treasury secretary in this country, but the only person history to have held all three top economic posts in the u. S. Government. Chief white house economist, Federal Reserve chair and treasury secretary. And on sunday, joe biden announced the team that will be responsible for speaking on behalf of the administration, it will be led entirely by women, i know most of them. Jen psaki as press secretary. Our friend Karine Jeanpierre as Deputy White House spokesperson. Joining our conversation is ashia mills, former president and ceo of the lgbtq victory since constitute where she led the president ial appointments project for the lgbtq movement. Yamiche is still here. Im so excited about this team of women, this team of moms, this smart and accomplished group who will be not just speaking for the president , which as dana perino had that post, dede myers, but really coming up with strategies for how to communicate with the whole country. Joe biden has said he will be a president for all americans, even the ones who didnt vote for him and this team will be responsible, ayesha, for crafting those messages for the president and Vice President. What do think . Well, i think this is fantastic and i want to thank you, nicolle, for leading with resumes, because it is exciting that we have such a diverse cabinet thus far and appointees thus far. I love that its a bunch of women who are going to be doing the communications strategy. But it is also important to remember that these are women who have a depth of experience. Ashley etienne, who you just put up a picture of there, actually ran point for nancy pelosi on the hill for many years as her lead Communications Person there and she was the person who crafted all of the impeachment narrative and language. Youve got a lot of people on the team who know what theyre talking about and how to connect with voters, which is a thing thats really important. And yes, i do appreciate that there are a lot of moms. There are women who all walks of life who can connect with and empathize with what we are going through and the conversations we just had at thanksgiving around the kitchen table. So, to be able to communicate in a way that is connected, humanizing and full of life experience, i think is going to be really powerful for this administration. And we didnt mention our friend Simone Sanders is also taking on a very senior role. You know, yamiche, the first team that comes in has the job of not just figuring out how to Work Together and figuring out how to you know, theyre going to have to be turning a lot of these functions back on. A press briefing that functions as an information and i dont know how to put this delicately so ill just be blunt, that doesnt function like a segment on fox news in prime time, when theyre off from a campaign gig. This is going to be a team of communicators devoted to the job of communicating on behalf of a president and Vice President who are doing the countrys business. That has not been the job of any of the people that have had some of these titles for this team, this president , donald trump. Thats right, and this is going to be a team with all their life experience, with all their work experience, with all their diversity and the diversity of thought and racial diversity, as well as gender diversity in terms of their skill set, i think that what we see here is a group of women who are going to have to really build back the credibility of the white house. We for years now, weve seen a press shop that was adversarial with reporters, that was really about, at times lying to reporters, that was about misinformation and spreading disinformation at times. I think theyre really going to have to come back and prove, i think, in some ways the white house functions as a way of giving real information, Accurate Information to the American People. I think, of course, the relationship is still going to be tense. Its supposed to be tense between reporters and public figures in the white house, were going to be asking tough questions, but i think that given the experience that these women have had, im thinking of ashley and simone, jen, kate, they are straight shooters. They have not been people who are giving you information thats not wrong. They might be people who dont want to give you information when youre asking, pushing for information they dont want to give out, but theres not this feeling that were going to be lied to. And i think that is possibly a really, really good thing going in, because there is, of course, going to be that tension with all sorts of hard questions coming their way. You know, yamiche, while you were talking, i remember when i was named White House Communications director coming off the campaign and into the white house in 2005, in the transition, elizabeth miller, the Washington Bureau chief of the New York Times wrote a piece and i think it said, white house aide aims to defrost the briefing room. And of course, i did not have that effect, because a press operation usually takes on the personality of the principle. And one of the personalities of the Biden Campaign was that it didnt leak. And i always had this pet theory that had something to do, you know, the tone is always set on leaks at the top and i always felt it had something to do with now president elect biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris just not tolerating leaks. What can you tell us about how they sort of fill lof sickly dealing with reporters like yourself . Well, i can say that obviously reporters are going to be pushing for information, but i think given, again, my experience with most of these women, when i ask them a question, they the answer is something that i feel like i can trust that theyre answer is accurate. That their answer might not always been forthcoming, theres going to be real questions about transparency and what we can and cant find out, reporters are always going to be pushing to kind of get background information, off the record information, with that big said, i think that when jen takes the stage, takes the podium there, theres going to be this feeling that at least in the beginning, her word has been her bond and that she will be able to start with a credibility that has been eroded. There was this feeling, you might remember, in the first briefing, she said, i will not lie to you. Of course that has been really, really complicated, because she has shared information from the podium that we know, in fact, not to be true, but i think there is this feeling, when i think about these women, that they are coming in with this feeling that we can trust them at least in the beginning and i think that really is going to be a relationship thats going to have to be nurtured because there is going to be this question about, how much information are we going to get . Reporters are going to want to call everyone in the white house to try to get information. We have seen some of the names of the appointees come out before the official announcements, so, its going to be a little adversarial, but its going to be respectful. And that is probably the underlying thing theres been this real lack of respect, if i can be frank, between the reporters and the white house, with President Trump and his allies saying they wanted to make the media the opposition party, making us the enemy of the people. When the president himself is going after people and being nasty and being critical of reporters, it goes down the line and you see the relationship there is fractured. So, i dont think joe biden is going to have that same tone with reporters and as a result, youre not going to see, i think, these ladies have that same tone as well. You know, ayesha, it is a good microcosm of everything that was wrong with the trump white house. Never understanding that this wasnt trumps political operation, this wasnt trumps Legal Defense fund, this wasnt trumps team to defend him from a special counsel. And you go back and you look at the way mike mccurry dealt with the job, where he offloaded legal questions, you look at the way that that job, that these press functions have traditionally been done and really serious questions get asked by people like yamiche about, i mean, i was in a white house the years and months after 9 11 about whether we were safe, about whether there were imminent attacks, about whether intelligence could be declassified to help people where the threats were to our homeland. They turned this job into a laughing stock. And i stopped airing Sarah Huckabeesanders press conferences, because it was gaslighting from a podium with a seal on it that used to meant something. I wonder what you think the hill is that needs to be climbed just to restore the office, to restore the symbols of the presidency, to what they were before trump and his team moved in. Precisely. The thing thats so exciting about this group of women also is that they dont just simply have the job of relaying what the business of the administration. That, you know, would be fun and nice if thats all they had to do, but the reality is that theyre coming in to also be apart of the administration thats going to need to heal america. And everything that trumpism has done was attempted to destroy trust, with the American Public and all of our institutions, and certainly the media. So, while he was kind of ba buffoning to celebrate himself and put himself out there in everybodys households, he at the same time was bashing it and wanting americans not to believe anything that the press tells us. Well, heres the thing. Freedom of the press is certainly important and we, as americans, need to trust the institution so that we can feel comfortable listening to the information, understanding how it effects and shapes our lives and believing again. And so, the charge that everybody in this administrations going to have, but certainly the messengers, which is so difficult, has so much to do with social impact and connecting with communities all across this nation that are far beyond just let me report what the president s going to do tomorrow. That is not an easy feat. I think that this group is up to the task, though. Aisha, yamiche, i love talking to both of you. Thank you for spending some time with us today. Up next for us, companies are lining up for Regulatory Approval of their Coronavirus Vaccines. Good news for sure. But rolling out these vaccines to billions of people around the world will be a Herculean Task at a scale never even attempted before. Jacob soberoff next from one hospital ready to take on that challenge. Stay with us. E. Stay with us see yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this is not just a mirror. Its an unstoppable community. Come on jessie one more. Its a race across time zones. Come on you two, lets go. A gift for the whole family. So join in now and see your best self in the mirror. Chicago okay, so, magnificent mile for me i thought i was managing my moderate to severe Crohns Disease. Until i realized something was missing me. You okay, sis . My symptoms were keeping me from really being there for my sisters. So i talked to my doctor and learned thats us. reacting to boarding announcement humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. The majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. And many achieved remission that can last. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma,. Have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening Heart Failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. As coronavirus cases spike all across this country, some good news could be on the horizon. Moderna announces today it is seeking emergency fda approval for its vaccine. Modernas ceo says the vaccine could be ready to roll out within 24 hours of approval. Moderna joins pfizer as one of two vaccine candidates that could be distributed to americans as early as next month. Lets bring in nbc news and msnbc correspondent jacob soboroff, hes in los angeles. Cedars sinai was listed as one of the Distribution Sites for the pfizer vaccine. Jacob, talk about what makes a hospital and or a city a candidate to have this vaccine and does that mean it wont be available in other parts of the country . No, it doesnt, nicolle. Thats a great question. The centrality, logistically speaking, is why cedars sinai was so wellequipped. They have these ultra cold storage freezers. Its a hospital thats accessible to many people in los angeles. My two kids, as a matter of fact, were born here. Were looking right now at t the those cold stoerj freezers. Minus 85 degrees celsius and that is required for these Pfizer Vaccines that we are being sent to chicago by united airlines. And it couldnt come at a more critical time for los angeles. The state of california saw an alltime high in hospitalizations. 7,4 00 people on saturday alone. 2,800 in los angeles. A new stay at home order. You are not allowed to gather in los angeles with people outside of your immediate family. Because they have these freezers, they can hold 200,000 doses of this vaccine. This will be one of the primary points, not the only point, but one of the primary points for distribution and that could come as soon as that authorization happens, nicolle. Jacob, who gets the first vaccines . How do we get one . Talked to the coo today of cedars sinai, the chief pharmacist here at cedars sinai. First and foremost, the people on the front lines. The nurses, here comes one right now, walking past. There have been people working day in and day out keeping the operations of this hospital going. It serves so many people in los angeles county, the most popular louse county in the country. Were talking about people of advanced age, comorbidities. Really, its all going to be, ultimately, in the details and the county is awaiting guidance from hhs, from the federal government, so, we know for sure, First Responders will be up first and after that, theyre going to go with the cdc recommendations. And we would expect folks in Nursing Homes and seniors and anyone with immune compromised situations to be ahead of all of us. We will stay on this story. Jacob, thank you so much for your reporting on this. Its nice to see you. When we come back, georgia voters head back to the polls in just six weeks. Democrats might have a shot at overtaking the senate there thanks to republicans spending their precious time confusing their base voters and undermining american democracy. That story next. If youre on medicare, remember, the annual Enrollment Period is here. The time to choose your coverage. Begins october 15th and ends december 7th. So call unitedhealthcare. And take advantage of a wide choice of plans. Including an aarp Medicare Advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. It can combine your hospital and doctor coverage. With part d Prescription Drug coverage, and more, all in one simple plan. For a low monthly premium or in some areas, no plan premium at all. 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Now more than ever, count on unitedhealthcare to help you get the care you need, when you need it. We can even help schedule appointments or find a specialist. Enrollment ends december 7th. Call unitedhealthcare or go online today. We make it easy to enroll, too. Its time to take advantage of all the benefits of. The only Medicare Advantage plans with the aarp name. [sfx mnemonic] the buck stops with the t secretary of state. Hes supposed to run a trusted, free, fair election. David purdue and i have called for him to step down, because georgians have lost faith in our elections here. We cant have that, not in america. Thats not fair to georgians who stood in line, waited at the polls. That was kelly leffler, one of the two Georgia Republican incumbents kaunting on votes in her favor in januarys Senate Runoff election while saving face in the dwindling gop fight to convince america and georgia that the 2020 election was a total fraud. Which it wasnt. As trump and his allies continue efforts to shame georgias republican governor and republican secretary of state, still with zero evidence to back their baseless claims of fraud in georgia where biden won by more than 12,000 votes. This ongoing republican clash is threatening to turn off the votes that their party needs to win these two runoffs. Washington post writes this, quote. Therein lies the conundrum. Per due and loeffler are traveling with state pleading with voters to turn out on january 5th, effectively asking Trump Supporters to put their faith in the same Voting System their president claims was manipulated. Joining us now, robert costa and Michael Steele is back with us. Bob costa, what is going on for the voters who donald trump was pretty popular there and he is now making the two republicans who are elected statewide, Governor Kemp and the secretary of state, the villains in the story of his defeat. Nicolle, he is pretty popular there, its true, with Republican Voters. Its president elect biden thats won georgia. And thats indicative of the challenge facing senator loeffler and perdue at this crossroads. They need that trump voter to come out on january 5th. Its about energy, its about grassroots enthusiasm. At the same time, theyre looking at a georgia thats changing. This is not the georgia that elected newt gingrich. This isnt really the georgia that elected brian kemp as governor. You see the Stacey Abrams Coalition Rising in the state. The whole play is to try to get President Trump to come down and get the white voters in the suburbs of atlanta to come out, but theyre going against a rising tide and new democratic coalitions. Michael steele, ill save my rude question for you. For you. The two republicans there are tainted with Investigative Journalism that raise a lot of questions about ethics to put it delicately. Theyre terrible candidates in a state that as bob said is very much trending toward the democrats. What do you think . Yeah, but theyre trump candidates so it works. I mean, talk about taint. It didnt work for trump. No, but the point is it worked for the base to roberts point, you got to look at constituency that is being addressed here. It is not the broader stacy Abram Coalition of voters out there. Now Governor Kemp is looking at that, all right, because he sees what the horizon is for him in the next election. He knows where this goes. So you cant be on the wrong side of that narrative. But for the moment, right now, loeffler and others, and perdue, theyre speaking if a very narrow space. And they find themselves caught on a particular hook and that is the one that again that roberts pointed out is that you now need the voters to get excited about an election in which they both these candidates were appeared earlier that they now say was somehow tainted or fraudulent, right. They now need them to come back and trust this very same system over seen by a republican governor and a republican secretary of state, even while think call for the secretaries of states resignation to come out and get behind them and it is a conundrum they cant overcome. And so while the coalition outside of the gop continues to grow, and vote by mail, some over 850,000 i understand requests have been made for that january 5th ballot, right. And you know that is not republicans. Right. Because theyve been told not to trust that system. Right. What are they going to do . Right. And so here they are asking for people to resign and trying to get the base stirred up another way to get excited about an election that they themselves have painted as fraudulent and not something that they should support. Bob costa, i dont start a lot of sentences with saying there were a couple of republican heroes or one but secretary of state raffensperger is one, for not, and the bar is low to be a republican hero these days, but for not bending to the Pressure Campaign from the two republican senators and the president. Chris krebs, the National Security official in charge of securing the election was asked about georgia on 60 minutes last night. Lets watch and well talk about it on the other side. Look at what happened in georgia. Georgia has machines that tab late the vote. They then held a hand recount in the outcome was consistent with the machine vote. And that tells you what . That tells that you there was no manipulation of the vote on the machine count side. And so that pretty thoroughly in my opinion debunked some of the sensational claims out there that ive called nonsense and hoax that there is some hacking of these election vendors and in their software. So robert costa, that was such an important articulation for why it is impossible tofr rigged Voting Machines because when a state or counties count is recounted there is paper and you check to see if the paper matched the machine count and what chris krebs is saying there is that in georgia there was a recounts and it matched the vote. How on earth and on what grounds does Kelly Loeffler get off saying he should be fired. Those are baseless statements by senator loeffler. Raffensperger said he believes bad actors, his words, are trying to damage the credibility and erode credibility in the election and the challenge now for senator levelloeffler and p is they come from the Republican Party in georgia. This is a state republican electorate that is not all trump rally goers going just to everything President Trump said and echoing it. This is a Republican Party in georgia that comes out of that atlanta mindset, the tom price republicans and the david perdue republicans, that trace talks like senator perdue and loeffler. Ive covered georgia elections with people like raffensperger and that is important in the coming weeks. Who did the Republican Voters actually believe. Robert costa, what do you think make of the sort of impact or the weight of some of the investigative reporting in your paper and in others about the ethics questions around both senators purdue and loeffler. Serious questions. More investigations need to be done. And the post will continue to pursue it. Whether it is senator loeffler and perdue, making active trades as members of the u. S. Senate, it deserves the hottest possible spotlight whether they republicans or democrats because theyre elected members of the senate. Not necessarily trading on inside information but they have quite a perch inside washington to understand the turn of events. It is incredibly swampy, michael steel. It is a definition of a swamp. And that is the whole trump experience. The guy to come in to clean the swamp, not only brought fresh swamp water with him but enticed those flinside to play more body and that starts with head. Im sorry, as say they, the fish rots from the head down and the reality of it is when the president is excusing the constitution requirements around emoluments and dont put up the personal walls to cut off his personal roles from president and he has his children serving in administrative roles while at the same time continue to run the family business. Yeah, this is ironic. Thats one word for it. We will stay on these races in georgia. The last cliff hanger of the 2020 election cycle if you will. Thank you both for spending some time with us. It is great to see you. For us, the next hour of deadline white house starts after a quick break. Dont go anywhere, were just getting started. Arted. Not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa i got it all from you im always pushing through i know well make it to the finish line i know youre waiting on the other side im like you ondemand glucose monitoring. Because theyre always on. Another lifechanging technology from abbott. So you dont wait for life. You live it. We expect unfortunately as we go for the next couple of weeks into december that, we might see a surge superimposed upon that surge that were already in. We saw what happened post memorial day. Now we are deeply worried about what could happen post thanksgiving. If your family traveled, you have to assume that you are exposed and you became infected and you really need to get tested in the next week. I want to be straight with the American People. It is going to get worse over the next several weeks. Hi, again, everyone. It is 5 00 in the east. And a nation bracing for impact in the wake of the thanksgiving holiday. Readying for a coronavirus surgeon top of the one were already experiencing. Virus cases in the u. S. Now over 13. 5 million with more than 268,000 lives lost. Over the past three weeks the u. S. Has seen between 120 and 200,000 cases every single day. And no area is safe. New york times reports, quote, the u. S. Map shows a country where almost every region is a hot spot. States that were once spared like montana and wyoming have reported record deaths and those states pummels are straining anew. But what has Health Officials even more worries is that those numbers are set to rise following travel and gatherings over the thanksgiving weekend. More from the times, quote. According to Transportation Safety administration data, 800,000 to 1 Million People pass through tsa checkpoints in each day before and after the holiday, far lower than the same period last year. But likely far higher than epidemiologists had hoped to see. It it is a frightening thoughts when hospitals are pushed to their limits. According to the covid tracking project, in the past two weeks hospitalizations are up more than 36 . Right now 93,000 americans are hospitalized with covid. At the marrow clinic in wisconsin, one top doctor there called an open bed a gift and added, quote, ill take all of them. Meanwhile the president has been holed up in the white house since election day. Leaving americans alone to dig themselves out of this devastation that his virus policy has brought. He has made only six public appearances since november 3rd and the one window we have floor his thoughts, his twitter feed reveals a complete preoccupation with his lies an fraudulent lawsuits designed to over turn his defeat. Over the holiday weekend, he tweeted or retweeted about the Election Results 42 times and how many times did he tweet about the virus you wonder, three. The nation approaching Holiday Season with spiking virus cases overwhelm hospitals and a president who is m. I. A. Is where we start this hour with lori garrett, and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, also joining us dr. Lipi roy and msnbc medical contributor and our friend john heilman is back, nbc news and msnbc National Analyst executive editor of the recounts and host of the hell and high water podcast with other news that well get to at the end of the segment. But i start with you, lori garrett, and the losing battle against the pandemic. Where are we and where are we heading . Were in very bad shape, nicolle. We were in bad shape even back in september before this whole third surge started. At that point, according to a newly published study, about 10 of samples submitted for medical diagnosis for noncovid reasons came up positive for covid antibodies. So that is kind of a rough way of saying about 10 of americans, not evenly distributed across the country were already infected before the surge started and now with the surge, were seeing infection rates coming back on tests every single day that range as high as half in some states are coming back positive. Were over 200,000 new cases every day. And a brandnew centers for Disease Control forecast that pools the estimates in about 30 different models, executed across the United States and in different Study Centers says by december 15th, that week we could look at an additional up to as many as 3 million new cases in the country. You know, lori, i always want to ask you sciencey questions but i end up with the psychological questions of why cant we do this . And i guess the specific question for you is i have thought that the news about vaccines from pfizer and moderna would make it easier for americans to sort of gurd themselves for the long dark winter knowing there was hope on the other side of the winter season perhaps in this the spring and spring vaccinations. Do you think that news of the vaccine has people moving the other direction or what is behind the defiance of the few things that we could do to protect ourselves. Really good question. Because it is one all of us have been scratching our heads about it. I did all of the math and crunched the data from the tsa and triplea and other sources and close to 8 million americans defied all recommendations to stay home and have traveled between last sunday and this sunday putting a huge burden on all of our systems and certainly increasing the likely load of spreading. For as dr. Fauci has put it, a surgeon top of a surge. So that in a sense wed had a fourth wave occurring right on top of a third wave. Why is this happening . Well, i think there are several things. I think that the vaccine good news has been misinterpreted by very many people to that there is a vaccine for every american just around the corner and that is not true. Yeah. If youre very lucky and youre part of that first group designated to receive vaccines, there may be a sort of dose level available between now and new years to satisfy about 10 to 15 Million People. Remember, you have to take two doses. So when you hear the numbers, cut them in half. We wont see large scale vaccination rolling out across america until well into the spring. So we need to build a bridge. And we need a bridge that gets us from today to that, you know, point when americans could get vaccinated. And that bridge is really scary. It is not really there. It doesnt really exist. If you havent added anything on to the recommendations that government has been making for many months. And there are not any must weapons in the toolkit. So it is all about america. When will you take this message seriously, when will you wear those masks, and avoid all of those occasions and the problem is if there is anything that we all want to do during campus time, during the hanukkah, during thanksgiving, this whole Holiday Season right up to new years eve, it is be with people we love and lot and jump up and down and scream and hug and drink champagne together and do all of the things that are very intimate. An it is just too dangerous this year. You know, and dr. Roy, i read the Washington Post story they were allowed inside the Mayo Hospital system in wisconsin and eau claire, wisconsin, and youd think that if in your Community Members of your community were dying alone, with an overwhelmed nurse staying and holding your hand until you take your last breath on earth, and then getting up because she had to go do the same thing for someone elses mom or dad in the next room in another bed. You think that those stories happening in your community would have the impact of changing our behavior. But it is not. And i guess i wonder, you read about these world class Hospital Systems that simply cant take care of everyone theyre sent, when hospitals send the ambulances away and dont even take patients. What are we looking at if we have what dr. Fauci and lori predict is the surgeon t on top of a surge. It is good to be with you. And youre raising such Critical Issues right now. Look, i just want to follow up on what lori just said. What were talking about right now, not only is it not rocket science, it is really simple and the beauty of it and the truth of it is if every state mandated a mask it would save so many lives. We have studied that the states have that mandated masks have fewer cases. Kansas released data showing that the counties that mandated masks there was a 6 reduction in cases. And 100 increase in all other counties. And Public Health measures actually work, nicolle. We have evidence of this. When we when Tobacco Cessation was resulting in less tobacco abuse and less respiratory diseases in asthma in children because of less secondary hand smoke. Well see a real instance of just my fellow Health Care Workers and doctors and nurses facing the pain. Were already seeing that. But over the course of the next four to eight weeks, two or three months actually, it is going to really get worse. As a doctor who is worked hours, ten, 12, 30 plus hours in the hospital every third, fourth night, it is hard seeing a parents struggle to breathe. It is hard seeing a patient with chest pain because of coronavirus. It is hard telling a patient and frankly telling their loved one and now by ipad that their loved one is not going to make it. And right now, doctors and nurses are the family members. In addition to their professional roles, they are now the ad hoc informal family members conveying this news. And not just to covid patients, but now so many other people with other chronic illnesses who are unfortunately not being turned away from hospitals. This is preventible, nicolle. It really is. We need leadership at every state level, at the federal level and we need fellow citis to really take this seriously and do what is best for one another as well as themselves, nicolle. You know, john, listening to dr. Roy and lori talk, i just keep thinking that we are not the country that we used to be. We are not the country that we think we were. I think of all of the things that we asked americans to do after 9 11. Take off their shoes, throw away their 7 bottle of fiji water before they get on an airplane and subject themselves to invasive pat downs all in the name of making it safe to get back on airplanes because we were told that subsequent bombs make come in the form of a liquid or in someones shoe. I do not i understand that some people need to move around in their community or go to jobs i dont understand the defiance of a mask or a picture of a bar half a mile from a hospital where people are crowded around indoors drinking, where do you think the fracture is in our politics or leadership that we couldnt do the few things that are known to protect us and our communities from covid . Oh, boy, that is a big question, nicolle. That is not a true false question, that is a essay question. Hi, good to see you. Happy thanksgivings. I hope your thanksgiving was good with your family and stuff. Yeah. I have food because nobody was here. Yeah. I know. I know. Its really deep, this fracture. And weve all been thinking about it and talking about it. Now for nine months, i think about the you just cited 9 11, i lived in london for a period of time when the ira was in the middle of a Bombing Campaign and the british were having to deal with regular closures of tube stops because there were bomb threats like once a week or so for about a year when i lived in london. I think about what the british went through during world war ii and i think about countries that have [ inaudible ] than this. This is a hard thing. It is not the hardest thing. Even though nurn our lifetimes people have had to live through in terms of threats and in terms of shared National Mutual sacrifice and i think there is a deep fracture in the country in how we understand reality now. Ill talk about trump in a second. But i do think this notion that we live we have different realities and different understanding and we have different beliefs and different basis for what we think is fak youll in the world. These are profound [ inaudible ]. You know, the deepness and the depth of this fracture that we are experiencing that this pandemic has made clear, has laid bear in a way that even all of our political struggles and our polarize is africa tation, gap between the blue and red, this has laid it bare how deadly it is and then i come to trump, right. What you need in these situations is you need someone to stand up and say, we are all we have a lot of differences because were all going to pull together and understand the nature of the threat and ill be honest with you and lay it bare, im not going to turn this to my political advantage or drive the divisions deeper or create a culture war around science or mask wearing, around common sense. But we had instead a president would did all of those things and now after four years of behavior that you and i have discussed at great length in our upset about it and how disgusting what the president has done, a lot of his lies and his ignorance and his hate spreading and all of that, in some ways what hes doing now is the worst thing hes ever done. Because to spend this time in the middle of this surge that is so pap panelly all around us, the surge on top of the surge and to check out Public Discourse and basically say i dont care, how many of you die, im going to go golfing and the only time i pop up is not to not to exhibit any lapse of leadership, im going to pop up to poison the body of politics with more lies and conspiracy theories about the election. I thought i had seen the worst of donald trump. Many times over the last four years. But i really think people have said there is fno bottom. I think were there. This is the bottom the way hes behaving in the face of this pandemic. You know, lori, i think about when i was in the white house, there was fear of the avian flu and precipitating a Global Pandemic and we prepped on saturday, george w. Bush was focused on the threat and tony fauci was revered and inspired some of the preparations and i dont remember ever factoring in that half of the country wont believe there was a threat of a Global Pandemic from the flu and i ran communications for the grills and it never happened, it didnt happen on our watch, tragically it happened on Donald Trumps, but i wonder if scientists or people like dr. Fauci or deborah birx factors in the notion that sticking a mask on somebodys face would be a highly political statement and going to rallies would become an act of communal defiance. I wonder if any of the model for how were doing so much worse than anyone else have to take into account that donald trump refused to lead the country in a way that would suggest he has any interest if protecting anyone . Well, nicolle, when you were in the white house, president george w. Bush initiated the most dramatic, boldest foreign aid emergency plan for aids relief and that has brought life to millions of people, mostly in sub Saharan Africa who would have perished from aids. Tomorrow is worlds aids day and in a socalled normal year we would have had a white house ceremony, you see the red ribbon on the white house lawn that is a reminder about hiv. Well now we have 63 million covid cases in the world and because of this burden of covid worldwide, all of the ancillary disease treatments are falling apart. Measles, mull aria and tuberculosis and hiv because people are afraid to go to Health Service and Health Services are so disrupted by the burden on the the Health Care Workers to deal with the coronavirus, that there is in adequate attention and ability to handle the other burdens of disease. And so i mean just today, the World Health Organization said we need somehow to revive the entire global malaria program. Were suddenly seeing surges there. I think one of the things that were seeing in addition to this great divide that john was just talking about, is were also seeing that some of the great heart and soul of americans, that made us the great generous ones on the planet, that brought Global Health programs and funded them all over the world, somehow that is also disappearing. That is also fading away. So that were no longer, you know, great beacon of hope the planet but the great sad disaster of the planet, both in how we are handling our own epidemic and inability to maintain attention to the health needs of the poorest of the poor in the rest of the world. Wow. You have blown my mind as you are apt to do, lori garrett. Well stay on that. I think about that in my own life and my son hasnt been to the pediatrician and i havent been to the doctor so it is happening in our household so it is happening on a global scale. Thank you four bringing attention though that. Lori and dr. Lipi roy, thank you. John heilemann had some Technical Glitch thats were working out in the era of zoom and home studios. Ee hell be back. When we come back, donald trump is suggesting his hand picked heads of the fbi and Justice Department are out to get him. The latest president ial airing of grievances brought to by his friends at fox oobdser or what is left of them. And fantasy and failure, that is a headline from the Washington Post over the weekend. Chronicling Donald Trumps desent into trying to do the impossible, over turn the results of an election he clearly lost. And with much of the republican establishment staying silent on the outgoing president s fraudulent claims of election fraud, a small group of local and state wide elected Republican Leaders resisted and persisted in staying true to the will of the American People and our democracy. Well cover that story. Deadline white house continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. T go anywhere. Dshea i live in south jamaica, queens, born and raised. Im a doordasher, im a momma with a special needs child, she is the love of my life. Doordash provides so much flexibility. If something happens with her, where i need to be home, i can just log out and just say okay, my family needs me. I dont have to answer to nobody. I dont want to be nobodys employee. I do what i want, im independent. Independent lady. Thats what i like about it. [whats this . ] oh, are we kicking karly out . We live with at t. It was a lapse in judgment. At t, we called this house meeting because you advertise gigspeed internet, but we cant sign up for that here. Yeah, but im just like warming up to those speeds. Youve lived here two years. The personal attacks arent helping, karly. Dont you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something . [ muffled scream ] stop living with at t. Xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. Could doj investigate. Missing in action. Cant tell you where they are. I asked are they looking at it. Everyone said yes,er th theyre looking at it. You would think if youre in the fbi or the department of justice, this is the biggest thing you could look at. Where are they in . Ive not seen anything. They just keep moving along and go on to the flext president. Theyve been there for a long time. People dont understand there. Theyve been there for a long time. That was President Trump who went on fox news on sunday for what was called an interview. But it was really something different. More like just muttering in your recliner but it was on tv. But it is important to note what he said there. He suggested that federal Law Enforcement isnt refusing to participate in his fraudulent and doomed attempt to overturn an american election, but he suggested in that thing that theyre calling an interview, that the fbi and doj are actively conspiring against him. That is a new level of bat bleep crazy. He said the fbi and doj are, quote, missing in action. As he put it. And it may be because there is no evidence of any fraud or vote tampering or crimes. That might explain why theyre not around. National Security Officials have said that this election was the most secure in our countrys history. Listen to chris krebs. Hes the cybersecurity official who was fired by trump for doing his job and telling the truth. We could go on and on with all of the farcical claims that allege interference in the 2020 election. But the proof is in the ballots. The recounts are consistent with the initial count and to me that is further evidence, that is confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected and the American People should have 100 confidence in their vote. Joining our conversation, former maryland congresswoman Donna Edwards, also a Washington Post columnist and phil rucker is here, White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post and a msnbc political analyst. Phil, let me start with you and well talk about your stunning piece of reporting from the weekend in a minute. But i want to ask you about this specific claim. Because this is new. Donald trump is accusing, i think hugo chavez a week ago who is dead who was in charge of some International Conspiracy. But yesterdays conspiracy was that the fbi and doj conspired with who to what is the rest of that thought on trumps part that doj and fbi are now somehow conspiring to rig the election against him . Well, nicolle, the president s allegation there yesterday on fox that was the first ive heard that one from him. Weve heard a lot of theories that are not true from this president. But that was a new one. Bringing in the fbi and the Justice Department into it. It is worth pointing out, by the way, that in that hour long monologue on fox news, the anchor of the show didnt correct the record in any way or try to point out to the millions people who might have been viewing that that was nonsense and not true. But that is where were at right now, in this situation and our reporting shows that the president continues now almost a full month after the election to be talking to aides and advisers and friends and allies or anyones ear he could bend about how he thinks vote was stolen an rigged and that vote is somehow that people intended to vote for trump and ended up showing up as votes for biden. There is no evidence of that. But it continues to be the preoccupation of the president of the United States. Donna, in that interview with 60 minutes, it is important to understand, there is paper. So if you allege voter fraud, which donald trump has done now as phil rucker just said for a month, if you wanted to get to the bottom of that you could because there is paper. And chris krebs said where there is a hand recounts, of the paper ballots, it has matched. Now we shouldnt have to explain to the toddler who currently occupies the oval office how that works. But it does seem like we may need to explain that to the millions of voters who listen to that nonsense and have some doubts about the legitimacy and integrity of the 2020 election. Well, okay, i feel like every conversation nethese days i hav to start with joe biden won the election. And there was no fraud. And had there been fraud, there was a way as chris krebs described, of getting to that. You know, nicolle, what also was up underneath this is what has been consistent throughout this presidency and that is that donald trump views the instrumentalities of government, whether it is the department of justice and the fbi and Homeland Security, as part of his personal cadray of people that are supposed to look out for him personally. And that is what is up underneath this frustration that the frustration is expressing, that, by god, i believe there was fraud, and those people who work for me have failed because they didnt back me up. They didnt have my back. And what the American People should know is, well say it again, joe biden won, there was no fraud, there was the most secure election in history. According to the department of Homeland Security and it is over. I think there is a great Carrie Bradshaw line that is we need it over. And donald trump continues to be in receipt of any of our countrys secrets when he leaves office. This is from an nbc report from jack golds smith said hes shown as president that he doesnt take secret keeping terribly seriously. He has a tendency to disrespect rules related to National Security and he has a known tendency to like to sell thing that are valuable to him. This seems like it would maybe also include Jared Kushner, who i think is on route to foreign capital this week, ivanka trump, there were concerns from the cia about both of them background checks but donald trump gave them clearances. What is the preparation for these individuals being out of the government but still possessing the nations most sensitive secrets . Well, nicolle, im not sure that there is any preparation under way. Perhaps there is in the intelligence world and we just dont know about it yet. But it is true that President Trump has a record of being indiscrete to describe it with the nations top secrets. It was only a couple of weeks into his presidency when he blurted out some classified information to the Russian Ambassador in the oval office. When he was visiting with Sergey Lavrov and that caused a huge certain within the intelligence community. Fast forward to where we are today and hes been gathering secrets about the countrys intelligence operations and National Security plans and Nuclear Weapons arsenal for f r years now and as the New York Times reporting hes leaving office with a tremendous amount of debt. He owes, you know, a lot of money to a lot of people and im not suggesting that he might do to try to pay back those debts but it is certainly seeming like a legitimate concern that some in the intelligence world might have that he could potentially try to go down the road that goldsmith was just alluding to. Might turn out to be a good thing that he didnt read his pdb but obviously as the countrys president he knows a lot of super secret stuff. Donna and phil are sticking with us. Up next, the must read account of trumps nearly threeweek long effort to overturn the election based on fraudulent false claims of voter fraud. Well ask phil about his reporting on the president s bumbling and chaotic attempt to endanger american democracy. That story is next. She needs to. The rules have changed since you rode. How much you want for her . Shes not for sale. If they find you, they kill you. Jump johanna its hard finding your way home. You cant have her. And im taking her home. Save for being a new customer, for adding drivewise, and for driving safely. Whatever you drive, start driving down the cost of insurance. The Washington Post is calling it 20 days of fantasy and failure. That three week stretch between the election, back on november 3rd, thwhich feels like months o and it is one of the most bizarre periods in political history and few publications have been a better john chronicling every back door twist and turn than the Washington Post piece. They assembled terrific reporting based on 32 Senior Administration officials and Campaign Aides and advisers and here is what though found. Quote, a golf paralyzed by the president president s fragile emotional state and expletive and a per nishs blurring of truth and truth and fantasy and that is behind closed doors but look at what is happening out in the open. This weekend in pennsylvania, two more legal defeats for donald trump an his allies and in one of the instances it was a trump appointed judge who delivered the scathing opinion writing free, Fair Elections are the life blood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. Rear back with one of the authors of that stunning piece of reporting, phil rucker. Donna is here as well. Phil, it was an incredible piece but i have to say, the mad, mad king george was the one that jumped off the page for me. Take me inside what you and your colleagues are reporting. Well, first of all, thank you for the kind words of the piece. It is a story i did. And we spent the week trying to get to the bottom of what was going on behind the scenes. We didnt see the president for so many days after the election. But we kept hearing about his rages, about his plots, about the fantasies he was cooking up in his mind and what we found is that according to one advise, he was like mad king george ranning i won, i won, even as the states were certifying joe biden as the winner. Even as the state like georgia did a hand recount that again showed that joe biden was the winner. Trump was losing in court. There was a real feud among the lawyers representing the president in the first few days after the election, there were a lost professional republican lawyers teed up to try to lead some of the legal challenges but a few days into it, it became clear this is a futile effort that is the president s delusions were just that, delusions and he ended up with the legal team of Rudy Giuliani and jenna alice and sydney powell who have sacrificed their profession professional reputations to push this ahead and continuing to do so as weve seen in arizona today. You know, phil rucker, the thing i wondered when i got to the end of it was, you know, trump is the drunk driver, the car hes driving is our democracy. Hes trying to crash it. He didnt care who gets hurt. And the people handle him the keys are Jared Kushner, ivanka trump and mark meadows do those people have any remorse about undermining the confidence that the 70 Million People who voted for donald trump have in the legitimacy of an election that has been certified by National Security and homeland Security Officials as, quote, the most secure in american history. Yeah, you know, theyve not shown any remorse, at least as far as we could detect in our reporting. But it is interesting, the people you just mentioned have taken a bit of a backseat here. It ras reported that Jared Kushner is traveling this week to the middle east. So he is the guy who was leading the trump campaign, the person inside of the white house who was most involved in the president s political operation. Hes going to be out of the country this week. So he finds a way to disappear. Mark meadows has not been out in public. Weve not seen him defending these tactics and these legal challenges and these protests from the president. Mnuchin, same thing and not willing to publicly put their necks on line and you could ainclude Kayleigh Mcenany who is moonlighting as a Campaign Spokesperson and advancing a lot of the theories on behalf of her boss. And according to one person familiar with this whole operation, he said, look, these people are performing for the audience of one. Theyre just trying to please the president no matter what it does to them professionally. I mean, theyre not doing karaoke. Theyre taking a wrecking ball to our democracy and i think it is remarkable that they think just because theyre not the ones with hair dye streaking down their faces that theyre going to be not held accountable for the damage that theyve done. It is a stunning piece of reporting, phil rucker, thank you to you and your colleagues and sharing it with all of us. Still to come for us, republican government officials at the local level, statewide level playing a Critical Role in standing up to this Current White House to uphold our fragile democracy. That story is next. Renew active. Only from unitedhealthcare. Lift it press it downward dog it watch it sweat it bend and stretch it renew active gives you so many more ways to be healthy. Get medicare with more. Renew active gives you so many more ways to be healthy. Ill be eating chicken tikka masala with garlic naan. [doorbell chimes] cheers. I win again, patrick. Thats siiir patrick. Oooooow. Sir. Now, theres skyrizi. I have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 3 out of 4 people achieved. 90 clearer skin at 4 months. After just 2 doses. Skyrizi may increase your risk of infections. And lower your ability to fight them. 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Managing Heart Failure starts now with understanding. Call today or go online to understandheartfailure. Com for a free Heart Failure handbook. With Republican Leaders in the house and senate still silent on the president s Disinformation Campaign about the american election, or worse for many of them outright defending his claims, the New York Times this weekend decided to shine a spotlight on the bravery of a few state and local republicans whose names you might not know. They worked over time in the week since the election to save the democratic process from its own from their own party leadership. From the times, beet maker and kathleen gray, in the end the system stood firm against the assault from an aggrieved president in the nations history because of a Republican City clerk in michigan, a republican secretary of state in georgia, and a republican county supervisor in arizona and republican appointeed judges in pennsylvania and elsewhere. They refuted conspiracy theories, certified results, dismissed lawsuits and repudiated a president of their o own party about a supposed plot that would include people who voted for him or donated to him or appointed by him. Joining our conversation in the nick of time, is tim miller from Republican Voters against trump and Donna Edwards is back as well. Tim, i know not to expect anything from the republicans, but i am had sort of lulled myself into this belief that doing nothing would be the way they would go out but theyre doing something. Theyre spreading a lie that is dangerous. They are nodding their head, asaw hutchinson said there was appeals, Kelly Loeffler saying we need to investigate. There was no fraud. And i wonder who else could be done . I mean these are lies that are as dangerous as a lie in a courtroom is to carries a criminal penalty of perjury. Why isnt anyone calling them out . More dangerous and plenny of examples of perjury. And i am so happy for secretary of state raffensperger and the others that were mentioned. But the sad part is all theyre doing is their job. Isnt it crazy that New York Times now writes a feature story on you if you simply do your job without breaking the law, without advancing a preposterous lie along the way. That gets a profile now. So good on him. But it is insane that this has not been stopped in its tracks. I think that poor foam that watch the network and dont use news max and fox and read right wing Media Outlets i dont think they talk about dump trucks with millions of ballots dropped off and every hour, three or four five times theyre pressuring republican state legislatures to not respect the vote and try to turn over the vote in the electoral college. Now this isnt going to happen. But there are millions of viewers that are watching and reading of this, tens of millions people who think this election is being stolen. The longterm consequences of that are grave and the entire Republican Senate and house is silent. Rand paul, send a tweet saying he was intrigued by some of the possibilities that maybe there was a vote switch in these counties. This is madness, nicolle. So congratulations to secretary of state raffensperger, but it is crazy that we have to get down the pecking order to find somebody who did the right thing. Why are spine to be found in republican elected official in the senate or house . I think only liz cheney is the only member of Republican Leadership to have acknowledged the result. And let me tell you something, if the shoe were on the other foot, if donald trump had won by, what, 6, 7, 8 million votes and the popular vote, a decisive 300plus electoral vote win and joe biden had refused to concede. You know exactly what republicans would be doing. Theyd be trying to criminalize speech as slander. Yeah. I cannot overstate the asymmetry of how each party fights. And this is a fight that needs to be fought. On the democrats part because letting this lie stand from donald trump and from the republicans in congress means that joe biden will inherit a country with millions of people who do not think hes a legitimate president. Yeah. Look, the asymmetry is real. I think people forget this, you know, president obama greeted donald trump at the white house, like, two days i think after the election was called. I mean, very quickly. Tried to help with his transition. I mean, the reason for this asymmetry, though, nicolle, is its bottom up. I hate to say it, but this is what Republican Voters want, and democratic voters just didnt demand these sort of insane lies out of their candidates. And thats whats happening. These republican elected officials are responding to what their voters want. Thats why newsmaxs ratings are going up. Thats why rand paul gets 35,000 retweets when he just spreads absolutely crazy lies. This is this is what the Republican Base is looking for. The republican candidates are still scared of them. Theyve been scared of them ever since donald trump won the nomination and they didnt understand how he could have won, and so now, you know, theyve got their tails between their legs and the only ones that have any courage, which are just, you know, like you said, a couple like liz cheney or, you know, mitt romney, you know, are because they feel secure enough in themselves that they can do this. Its truly madness. You know, donna, joe bidens victory was so decisive and so clear that there is nothing at a political or legal standpoint, but there is this mandate that he seems to have for his presidency. He campaigned as someone who was a proud democrat but running to be the president of all americans. And i wonder how you think he navigates something thats obviously still very much on former president obamas mind. He wrote a lot and talked a lot in his book tour about truth decay and trying to govern a country when the information contamination made such large swaths of the american electorate closed off to even hearing the facts around a debate. Yeah, i do think that this is a tough one, nicolle. You know, joe biden comes out of the old school senate, and the senate that hes that he will have at his disposal, even if it has a margin in january for for democrats, it will be a slim one, will be navigating those republicans in the senate who have remained silent, even about acknowledging his victory. But i think that joe biden has already demonstrated that he is intent on governing as a president who wants unity. And i think hes not going to let the things that he does in the white house or the way that he presents himself be swayed by these republicans in the senate. But these are going to be tough waters ahead. Tim miller, Donna Edwards, two of my favorite people to talk to about all of these things. Thank you so much for spending some time with us. When we come back, as we do every day, remembering lives welllived. Health testing you do at home. Know your health. Know yourself. Now, get 40 off at letsgetchecked dot com how did you know . Mom. That was taken at the farm. It was in this small little village. In connemara . Right connemara it is. Honestly, we went there oh, oh look at that look at that. We live in the mountains so i like to walk. Im really busy in my life; im always doing something. Im not a person thats going to sit too long. In the morning, i wake up and the first thing i do is go to my art studio. A couple came up and handed me a brochure on prevagen. Ive been taking prevagen for about four years. I feel a little bit brighter and my mind just feels sharper. I would recommend it to anyone. It absolutely works. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. To save you up to 60 . These are all great. And when you get a big deal. You feel like a big deal. Priceline. Every trip is a big deal. So often with grief it is the Little Things that just stay with you. Especially when you lose somebody important. Those day to day reminders, they can sting the most. This is rhona goertz. She was a loving grandmother, a kind heart. She died of the coronavirus a few months ago. Viewers of our program might know her soninlaw, the editorinchief of the pennsylvania capital star. Our friend john writes, hell miss the meals, the ballet performances, the road trips, the phone calls, the moments in conversation, the way rhona glowed just looking at her grandchildren. On one particular Holiday Season, quote, to this day, im not sure how she managed to bend the laws of physics to fit that many bags of gifts into her car, but it was her granddaughter and it was a holiday and einstein could take a flying leap if he didnt like it. The small moments to remember them can hurt, but john points out they can also be a blessing, a consolation. Quote, well tell these stories over and over, keeping her memory alive. Thank you for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. Were grateful. The beat with ari melber begins after a short break. Well be right back. Experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. For members like martin. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa welcome to the beat. Im ari melber. I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. We have a lot of news with everything kicking back off on this monday evening. More states certifying their Election Results. Arizona locking in joe bidens win as Donald Trumps legal team urged the state to simply overturn the results which continues this string of baseless voter fraud claims theyve made which have gone reti
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