I had 206 to 223 in the Electoral College. 306 to 223. Im saying to myself, wait a minute. I just won one of the greatest elections of all time in the history of this country. 306223 thats a big shellacking. Then it got bigger and bigger and wilder and wilder and then we won by a lot. Dont forget it was 306223. Thats a lot. We had a landslide, 306223. 306 electoral votes. Well, on friday, nbc news called the georgia race for president elect biden which brings his projected electoral vote to 306. Identical to trumps tremendous landslide victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, one of the greatest elections of all time in the history of this country. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is monday, november 16th. With us we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early kayleigh mcenasie hu. And reverend al sharpton and from the american presidency at Vanderbilt University and unofficial adviser to joe biden, jon meacham is with us. What we need to do on this monday morning is ignore all of the noise that makes no difference and dive right into the latest with the coronavirus pandemic which is making a huge difference in this country. As of yesterday, infections across the country topped 11 million. 1 million of those cases were recorded just this past week alone, including more than 156,000 on saturday. It took over two weeks for the u. S. To go from 8 million cases to 9 million. That was at the end of october and then it took only ten days to go from 9 million to 10 million. Surgeon general jerome adams warned in a tweet yesterday that record cases over the past week will mean record hospitalizations soon adding that communities and hospitals cannot sustain highlevel care at this rate of increase. Right now the death toll from coast to coast is nearing 250,000 people. In minnesotas star tribune yesterday, the obituary section took up 10 1 2 pages of the newspaper. Heres dr. Anthony fauci and his warning yesterday. University of washington model projects that the u. S. Will reach 439,000 deaths due to covid by march 1st. Is that really possible . Another 200,000 deaths in the next four months . Yeah, it is possible, jake. And the issue is the models as i have said so often are as good as the assumptions you put into the model. And we have got to change those assumptions. We have to say were going to turn it around by very, very vigorously adhering to the Public Health measures and we dont need to get to that number. All right. So several states are rolling out new restrictions and shutdowns in an effort to curb the spike. In michigan, Governor Whitmer has ordered all high schools and the colleges to halt facetoface classes for at least three weeks starting on wednesday. In washington, governor jay inslee ordered a shutdown and further restrictions for restaurants and indoor gatherings. In new mexico, there was a stay at home order going in effect today for two weeks. And will close gyms, restaurant dining and limiting social gatherings to more than six week. In virginia, governor expanded the mask mandate to children as young as 5. In puerto rico, there was a 10 00 p. M. Curfew monitored by the National Guard and limited the capacity of gyms and restaurants to 30 . And in north dakota, the governor limited the size of social gatherings until december 13th, days after he suggested asymptomatic nurses with the virus should go to work with the virus. And the city of philadelphia is planning to add more restrictions this morning as the city reached over 1,100 new cases on friday alone. This is getting really bad once again. Joining us now dr. Ben gupta, a pulmonologist and an nbc news contributor. I appreciate you being on. Well go through it. I know President Trump as of friday was talking about no lockdowns. Were not doing lockdowns but the reality is the biden team cant wait to get in there and to start doing things that might put a dent in this pandemic. Right now its happening state by state. What worries you the most . Good morning, mika. You know, what we worries me the most here is you cant have 50 different approaches here and youre seeing here in Washington State and what governor inslee did thats a framework for what makes sense if Health Systems are about to undergo complete a complete overrunning and filling up their icus. This is the type of action one must take if theyre leading a state, one to two weeks before a catastrophe is expected. We see a complete spike from where we were as the initial epicenter. You see similar trends in missouri where icus are near capacity, utah, and south dakota. The concern is 50 different approaches and some cases no approach at all. In south dakota again in the dakotas, places like iowa, no action on basic things like masks. So this is not going to get control if were going to have maybe no approach or an aggressive approach. We need a unified approach and thats why theres a delayed impact on the planning over the next two weeks. You have a delayed transition happening, dr. Gupta, and testing very much hodgepodge. If you want to test, you can maybe get one. It might take a while and then takes a while potentially, sometimes way too long to get your results as the virus is potentially being spread. I mean, this is a cluster of epic proportions. You know, make no mistake, mika, actually we have heard from colleagues in seattle that drivethrough testing which is an off ramp, make an appointment theyre booked out for the next eight days here in seattle. We had a couple that was trying to get their child tested to see whether or not they were potentially safe to go back into the child care setting. Thats where were at now. Were back to delays in testing. Were back to families not being able to plan their lives if both parents work potentially. That is the challenge right now. So thats a huge issue here. What i thought governor inslee did was interesting because with holidays approaching he said his department of health said no indoor gatherings whatsoever outside your home unless you have tested within 48 hours and that was negative. How are americans able to do that if theres not durable access to timely testing and how do you enforce it . Thats the difficult piece there. You need public cooperation. Yeah. The other problem is that this has been dragged out so long. I mean, its very hard were about to do a report, well be talking to the a. P. s Jonathan Lemire about the president s indifference. He hasnt been to the coronavirus meeting in months. So if he doesnt care, his followers, the American People seem distracted as well, having parties, going places, planning thanksgiving. Theres a sense this isnt happening when in reality, it is more than ever. Now, can we see ourselves going back to where we were at the very worst where hospitals are overrun and they have no places to put the bodies or are we in a different place . If so, what is that place and what are the basics that people should do no matter what state theyre in . Thanks, mika. Unfortunately, this is not intended to spare anybody, but i think this were in a worse situation than we were in march because of the cold, dry air, its just colder in general, the immune systems dont like cold weather. So we are in a much worse position now with 1,500 deaths on average over the last few days. 140,000 cases. Thats why i to me im predicting about 2,200 deaths a day, starting january 1st. This is no better where we were in march, could get worse. In terms of the basics now we know surface transmission of covid19, covid19 can last on places like plastic, on wood, for up to two weeks if its cold enough. So you have to make sure you wash your hands, soap and water and Hand Sanitizer and in terms of masking, you want a three ply surgical mask if you can find it. If not, a hybrid mask with a few types of fabric, a high thread count cotton. You want multiple layers of cloth mask, a three ply personal masks. No neck gators, please, i have seen too many of those. Dont travel for the holidays. I think we have enough evidence now that this is getting too bad. This is getting flights unfortunately, there could be outbreaks on flights. Dont travel if you can avoid it. All right. Ben, thank you. President trump is reportedly as i said, quote, indifferent to what the doctor is talking about here, indifferent to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead hes focused on his failed reelection campaign. Whether theres literally no options for him there but hes focused on it. Thats according to the Washington Post. Speaking to more than a dozen administration officials, trump allies, Health Advisers and others familiar to the pandemic response. Two officials told the post that many federal officials believe more needs to be done to curb the pandemic, but most are too afraid to call publicly for firmer action. Top medical experts in the Trump Administration have infrequently visited the white house in recent weeks. Heres dr. Fauci yesterday. When is the last time President Trump attended a White House CoronavirusTask Force Meeting . You know, it was months ago, but, you know, when we have our Task Force Meeting its run by Vice President pence and the Vice President then translates that to the president himself. But the last time the president was physically at a Task Force Meeting was several months ago. So i would just clarify that. I mean, its sort of President Trump keeps saying i won the election, i won the election, wanting the attention, its not worth giving him that since he didnt. But the reports hes indifferent to this coronavirus is i think not giving it enough credence. Pennsylvania is seeing a surge right now. A massive surge. Because of his super spreader events. Because of the election. There are surges in little hot spots around the country because of his super spreader show that he took on the road, not only is he indifferent, he made sure he spread it. And by the way, his own white house is a super spreader event in itself. So its hard to be shocked at this point, but it is pretty flagrant abuse of a situation that could be rectified and rather, Jonathan Lemire, this president continues to work hard to make it worse. I feel indifference is not really a fair word because that seems almost light and lackadaisical. Hes pushing this thing out there. Mika, as the president has been solely focused on his reelection, failed reelection effort, hes largely stopped his day job and that nowhere more striking than this, managing the coronavirus pandemic where dr. Fauci said he hasnt attended a meeting of the Task Force Briefing in months and according to our reporting hes not receiving regular updates anymore. Hes been largely shut off from the process and where we are now as the nation deals with this terrible wave and we are seeing states suffer Record Number of infections theres no real federal leadership at all. Theres a vacuum. When were back to where we were in march and april and the states were left to fend for themselves but now we have a president who with his refusal to cooperate with the transition is actively slowing down with the federal response could be. Not just now in the short term, but what may happen when Joe Biden Takes Office in january, as he likely takes office as this virus is surging out of control. Theres been little public rhetoric on any subject other than his reelection. Its where his focus is, both publicly and privately. We have seen of course the tweets. But were also now seeing other than his remarks friday in which he touted the development of the vaccine and assigned more credit to the federal government than deserved for the breakthroughs from pfizer and other companies, his own rhetoric on the virus has been what we heard from him in the campaign when he made the baseless claims that the nation was rounding the corner on the pandemic which of course is not the case and now democrats tell me and advisers to joe biden tell me theyre concerned that this if transition if the white house doesnt engage further on this matter, that it will hamper their efforts come january, particularly when they need to roll out safely a distribution mechanism for this vaccine. Ideally the donald trump and Biden Administrations would be working together to make that happen, as those first doses come out and instead thats not happening and the president who sits largely alone in a west wing that has been emptied out because of the coronavirus outbreak there is not lifting a finger to help. Well, joe bidens probably more prepared, jon meacham, than anybody for a transition like this which is not shocking at all that the Trump Administration is in denial and will probably be damaging to the process of transition. I mean, i can imagine trump just leaving, headed to maralago or not leaving. But its not going to be as it usually is done. And its not going to be in a productive way that has the good of the nation in the forefront of every effort. Having said that, what are some of the concerns you have historically about what is so valuable in a proper transition . Well, governance and history dont stop on a calendar, right . And so when we look back at american history, we find again and again moments where even the bitterest of rivals manage to at least cooperate enough to continue the peaceful transfer of power or the unfolding story of the republic. I have been thinking about three winters, 1800 to 1801 when jefferson and adams one friends and then rivals. They became friends again later, but that election went deep into february in the house of representatives. And in fact, adams left washington at 4 00 a. M. On Inauguration Day in 1801 because he just wanted to get out of town. And he in that interregnum appointed John Marshall chief justice of the United States which was a particularly tough political move because marshall was a cousin of jeffersons, and had been discussed as an interim president if jefferson and adams couldnt resolve it. So there was a political nature to it, but it happened. What was called the revolution of 1,800 which was the first moment where we were trying to recover the principles of 1776 was in fact a transfer however tense. The secession of winter of 1861 which of course ended in the cataclysm and yet ultimately the Union Victory of the civil war, immensely important. 193233, as the depression took hold and roosevelt was not interested in cooperating with hoover because he wanted total freedom of action. But thats a different thing than what were seeing here. Herbert hoover was not questioning the legitimacy of roosevelts election. So this is a difference not simply of degree but of kind. Yeah. It is. And theres the ongoing question of what republicans in the senate are doing about all of this. Kasie hunt is reporting on that ahead. Plus, mike pompeo is on another world trip right now. One that a british newspaper describes as the most surreal world tour by a secretary of state in modern times. Nbcs keir simmons joins us to explain why. And why obama fears for our democracy. The Atlantics Jeffrey Goldberg will join us for his new exclusive interview with barack obama and talk to reverend al sharpton about what the former president is warning. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. K. How about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. Pizza. Tacos. Pizza what about subway . Its a good call and everyone loves it. We raised our kids on it. So it stopped the bickering . mocking tone mom, jjs copying me grow up. Mom knock it off try the new subway buffalo chicken or bbq chicken. Oh my gosh you made it oh shoes i thought yall got lost or something. Did you put some ah, kale in the greens . Oh thank you we didnt forget about you welcome to the family. Thank you. Wooooow. I love it laughter thank you dad children laughing music swells music fades exhales 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. We use 11. Eleven. Why do an expense report from your phone when you can do it from a machine that jams . I just emailed my wifes Social Security number to the entire company instead of hr, so. Please come back. How hard is your Business Software working for you . With paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easytouse software. Visit paycom. Com for a free demo. Hon . First off, we love each other. What is your advice in this moment for President Trump . Well, a president is a public servant. They are temporary occupants of the office, by design. And when your time is up, then it is your job to put the Country First and think beyond your own ego and your own interests and your own disappointments. You write in the book, our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of a crisis. What do you mean . We have gone through a presidency that disregarded a whole host of basic institutional norms, expectations we had for a president that had been observed by republicans and democrats previously. And maybe most importantly, and most disconcertingly what we have seen is what some people called truth decay. Something thats been accelerated by outgoing President Trump. This sense that not only do we not have to tell the truth, but the truth doesnt even matter. Actually, i think thats at the bottom of the root of all of this. Fo