And we were on the air on saturday when joe biden crossed the vote threshold to become the president elect and to willies point about the pandemic, bidens first order of Business Today will be announcing the team that will help him get the virus under control and that team will have its work cut out for it as u. S. Cases continue to surge at record levels. Now surpassing the 10 million mark and deaths again on the rise. Well, willie, if you looked at the celebrations on over this weekend, there were some in times square that were fine. You had people wearing mask, there was some distanced and spacing and there were other places that people were crowded in. It was dangerous and you can expect the spread of infections. Like we said from the beginning of the year, the virus doesnt care about trumps politics, or bidens politics, you dont crowd in like that. And i stayed up past midnight to watch an incredible football game. Notre dame and clemson. What an incredible game. Went into overtime. But then, everybody jammed on to the field. And i think sonny bunch wrote something along the lines after watching that i hope there arent Senior Citizens in south bend, indiana, because again we have to keep our heads about us. Yeah. You can understand on both counts, both the election of joe biden and notre dames big win over clemson why people were excited, why they wanted to gather and celebrate. But saw a lot of Public Health officials looking at the crowds, lets not forget where where we are, which is as mika alluded to an exploding Public Health crisis. Every day the number went up and all over 100,000 new cases per day in this country, setting new records almost every single day. Joe biden does inherit this problem, the pandemic, but hell announce a pandemic board and i think for a lot of people watching his speech on saturday night they herd unity, but they also heard competence. Oh, right, you can lead with scientists, lead with doctors. The first thing youll do is assemble a group of scientists to tackle the problem that remains at the center of our lives and thats accelerating as we speak. Confidence is back and science is back, but it will be the knows important thing he faces when he takes office. Well, you know, some of the conspiracy theories that were on facebook and unfortunately some of my friends said to me, oh, this virus is going to be over right after november 3rd. This virus is just a concoction to help defeat donald trump. For those of you who are thinking that, i told you you were wrong then and im telling you now i have very bad news for you. A lot of Public Health officials believe well go into the worst phase that we have gone in to yet on the coronavirus especially across the north where people are going to be shut inside the houses and a lot of doctors fear an explosive growth in the coming months. Well talk about that in a little bit, mika, but first, lets bring in the panel and talk about joe biden being elected the 46th president of the United States. From the associate press, jonathan lemire, washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay and host of Msnbcs Politicsnation and president of the National Action network, reverend al sharpton. And nbc news capitol hill correspondent, and host of way too early kasie hunt is still with us. And contributor shawna thomas. Good to have you on board. So jonathan lemire, the election is over. You can look at the data, just like, you know, i looked at the data in florida and knew right away it was over. There was no way that biden was going to catch up there. Looked at the data in philadelphia, and realized there was no way that donald trump was going to catch up there and just like you guys at the a. P. Looked at the data coming out of arizona back in june and figured there was no way that just joking, you are all going to be right in the end. You looked at but it was a close one, jonathan. It was a close one. But you look at those numbers and arizonas a perfect example for the a. P. And fox news. But arizona is the perfect example why these clowns that go on tv and say, oh, donald trump has a pathway back, they know theyre lying. And by the way, the clowns you see on tv expect them to be on the short list of running for the republican nomination in 2024. Because you take a state like arizona, you have to get within 200 votes for a recount and then the campaigns cant call the recounts. Only state officials can. You look at the numbers. Donald trumps not going to get within 200 votes there. Hes behind in pennsylvania as much as he beat Hillary Clinton by, about 43,000, 44,000 votes right now. Those numbers are going to go up even more as we get the last of the ballots out of philadelphia. Georgia, its over 10,000 votes right now. Theres no way hes going to be able i mean, recounts usually find you if youre lucky, 10,000, votes, they all know this is over, and what are they doing to try to move the president out of this contentious state so they can start focusing on winning the senate and winning those two seats in georgia. They may know its over but theyre not acting like it. At least not quite yet. Youre certainly right to bring up the recount thresholds in a number of states and the margins are such its not clear if the president will fall within them, to have a recount trigger. He asked for one in wisconsin but youre right. They usually find a few dozen votes. Maybe 100 or 200 if youre lucky. Looking at the florida 2000 situation it doesnt apply here. Not only was that only 500 odd votes, it was in one state. Here were talking thousands of votes and a number of the battlegrounds including pennsylvania with which the president really cant win without. Its not pennsylvania, but several states. So the trump aides privately concede that these legal challenges really arent going to go anywhere. Even if they happen to be successful in one state that seems unlikely that wouldnt be nearly enough. So now the question is, what next . As much as the Biden Harris Transition Team is hitting the ground running, they already announced the coronavirus pandemic, and well hear from the president elect later on today, we heard him on saturday calling for unity, eyes are on the president. He had two trips to his golf course, in fact, he was on his golf course saturday when the race was called for joe biden. Aides are figuring out whats next. Theyre waiting to see if Mitch Mcconnell will start signaling, look, time to give this up. He has received statements of support from senator graham and others who say he should keep fighting and indeed the results of the race are invalid. Those close to the president as we reported in the a. P. Dont believe hell formally concede. The question is how much of a fight does he want to put up . There are conversations he should start having rallies in the states again where the vote is being counted and contested and others suggest taking a quieter path. And let this process go, and perhaps then even some aides suggest decamp to maralago for much of the transition. Theyre watching what fox news say and if the anchors are signaling to tell him what to do. It should be noted for a campaign that had such sound and fury it may have come to an end in a landscaping facility in a rough part of philadelphia, where this ride that began with the golden escalator may have ended in fact at a rather more humble location. Next to a porn shop in the strip mall right off of i95 which of course, willie, i just described a good part of your life. Im joking, kids. Im joking. How did i know that was coming . You knew that was coming. So, willie, what doesnt make sense is for donald trump to know or to have one challenge after another. Hell lose every single challenge. Theres not a challenge out there that he can win. I was going to say, hes lost these states by the same margin that he won the states four years ago, but actually hes going to lose pennsylvania in the end by more votes than he won it in 2016. Of course, hes going to hes going to lose michigan by far more votes than he won it in 2016. You go out to arizona, theres just unless something bizarre happens in the final votes there he wont get close to the 200 votes that he needs for the state to then decide whether he has a recount or not. Hes got republicans running the operations in arizona, hes got republicans running the operations in georgia. And so, you know, is he really going to accuse brian kemp of rigging the election or ducey of rigging the elections against him. And by the way, if youre in georgia and you have two senate races coming up, and literally the future of American Government rests on those two seats because if they make jackasses out of themselves in georgia and voters are turned off then democrats can win both of the seats and then democrats control washington, d. C. So it doesnt make sense for them to keep, you know, driving the car off the cliff for donald trump because hes lost. Its over. Rupert murdoch is saying it through the wall street journal and through the New York Post. I mean the world is saying it. George w. Bush is saying it. Other republicans are saying it. Theres no upside for Mitch Mcconnell to continue this charade. No. These lawsuits that we have seen already time and again have been rejected not just at the state level, but by the Supreme Court in some cases and i want to underline the point you made about recounts. There was a recount in 2016 in the state of wisconsin because that state was so close, it was actually jill stein who initiated it and then Hillary Clintons campaign joined it. Donald trump actually picked up votes so his margin got bigger in a recount so thats a lesson that the Trump Campaign might remember as they ask for recounts. But shawna thomas, joe is right, that the more time republicans spend on this, the more time they go down this path that has no end to it and less time theyre looking at the senate seats in georgia and Mitch Mcconnell knows that. Its a little bewildering why more republicans you basically have two camps. You have republicans saying, well, we have to respect the election, but the campaign has a right to ask for recounts and to file lawsuits. Thats their right and then you have others like ted cruz and Lindsey Graham is saying theres something wrong here, theres something scandalous, something is rigged here. Going full trump on the argument and theyre in the same group, theyre wasting the time not only of the country but their own party to focus on the two seats that will swing the senate. Yeah. Focus on the transition and how theyre going to work with a President Biden. But i think we have to understand that President Trump still has the word president in front of his name and he is and will be presumably after he leaves office on january 20, 2021 the head of the Republican Party. I think they are trying to balance that out. This is youre sort of seeing the idea of like what is the Republican Party going to be post a President Trump play out in front of us as they work through this transition as they work through President Trump, you know, contesting some of these vote counts. They are trying to figure out who they have to who they have to hold up, basically. For now, with the Republican Party, President Trump is the head of it. So they dont want to necessarily get on his bad side. As for georgia, well see what happens with those recounts, but theres a possibility that the two people who are running on the republican side in those races are going to want President Trump possibly to show up for them. He garnered lots and lots of votes in this country. It is very, very close in georgia on the president ial left and very close on the senate level. They may actually need him. So i think that is kind of the path that they are trying to walk. Now the mitt romneys of the world seem to be walking it in a fairly more sane way since there is almost no actually, there is none, there is no evidence of voter fraud in these cases. But what were seeing now is politics and the politics despite the end of the president ial election havent really changed and the Republican Party isnt necessarily sure which direction it needs to go. Well, the problem with the Republican Party, chasing donald trump, mika, down this very dangerous path, which of course you do actually have some people whose name i wont even because theyre doing it to try to get attention on the National Stage because they want to run in 2024. But what theyre doing is theyre insulting republicans as well as democrats when they say this process was rigged. This is the most transparent election in the history of this country and we have all been concerned for the past six months, the past nine months, there would be problems. So we had cameras all over the place. Look at allegheny county, we had observers, democrats and republicans alike and they said that the process was fair and it was good americans making sure that everybodys vote got counted. And, mika, you know, again, when the president insults the vote counting in georgia hes insulting republicans. When hes saying its rigged in arizona hes insulting the republicans running that state. If he says it in philadelphia, you know there was a republican that was involved in the recounts talking to 60 minutes. Talking about how it was insulting there. Again, we have the cameras in there. We have the observers in there. I know. This is nonsense. You dont have to ask where Mitch Mcconnell is. Mitch mcconnell knows how to count votes. Mitch mcconnell knows this elections over. Hes concerned about winning those two georgia seats, which he should win, unless republicans really foul things up over the next several weeks which they could do. They could. It would follow the madness of Donald Trumps claims. It would traitorous to the peaceful transition and any republicans who try to do that might find themselves in the wrong location from across an adult bookstore and that actually happened. By the way, do they want to follow the path of Rudy Giuliani . Giuliani is one of the voices supposedly saying that the president should fight on. How much do republicans want to continue shaming themselves with guys who find themselves in a landscaping business on the most important supposed day of the entire Campaign Next to a porn shop and making a fool out of himself. Thats what it thats sort of symbolic thats what its devolved to right now. By the way, that guy, thats the guy that donald trump and Jared Kushner wanted to be americas secretary of state four years ago. Wow. I want to get to kasie on who the republicans might still be at this point, but first, katty kay. The problem trump has is, number one as joe mentioned, this is the most transparent election in american history. Number two, the world is resoundingly confirming these results and thats important too. Yeah. Look, i think americans are resoundingly confirming these results. It was interesting talking to republican strategists during the course of saturday and how the mood changed in the country as soon as you started to get people out celebrating on the streets, as soon as those congratulatory telegrams started to come in from around the world, at that point, joe biden looks the president and taking that back from him becomes quantifiably harder. You know, obviously theres no evidence of fraud but theyre letting the Legal Process come out. But its important to note how much the narrative shifted just on saturday. I mean, i was in touch with people on the campaign on friday who sounded kind of sanguine who were saying, look, you know, we have to let the legal path play out, we owe it to the voters. We know its tricky. Then suddenly after all of the celebrations and announcements were made, they started to get more hunkered down, this cant be the Fake News Media that calls this election, the president has to fight this on. Its kind its schizophrenia in the Trump Campaign is what im hearing about how and i guess that comes from the president on down. Thats the president s mood is dictating the mood of the campaign. They know this is over, they know the lawsuits arent going anywhere and they know because of all of the scenes around the country and the trappings of government which have moved to joe biden they have lost control of the narrative. It is over. The smart people know it, at least. Kasie, its fascinating though. A couple of things. First of all, i love all of the republicans that are parroting the president , saying the Fake News Media doesnt call the winners. Why are they celebrating . It has to be certified. You know, ted cruz when he was called the winner in texas by the Fake News Media immediately celebrated. I wonder if Lindsey Graham is still not celebrating his victory or Mitch Mcconnell is still not celebrating because they were called earlier in the evening by the fake news. Theyre creating new standards, oh, we have to wait until hes certified until we determine if he can be start planning. Again, its crazy, but you know and mika and i know and other people, katty, who have been around washington understand that when the votes are counted and when its obvious who the next president of the United States is, boom, the door closes on the last president. Modi of india, immediately congratulated joe biden. Boris johnson of great britain, another close ally of the president , immediately congratulated