Covering the biden campaign, shannon pettypiece, and kat aie glick on the biden beat as well. I want to start with the comments from michelle obama. Today, were hearing from michelle obama. She wrote a lengthy post on instagram about the transition. Tell us what she had to say. Right, and the former first lady is not extraordinarily outspoken, so when she does speak, it does warrant some attention. She talked about the difficulty she had setting aside some of the personal feelings from the 2016 campaign and welcoming Melania Trump into the white house in 2016, answering her questions, you know, telling her everything she needed to know to be able to assume the responsibilities of first lady. She then wrote in her post, she said, our love of country requires us to respect the results of an election, even when we dont like them or wish it had gone differently. The presidency does not belong to any one individual or any one party. To pretend it does or play along with these groundless conspiracy theories whether for personal or political gain is to put our countrys health and security in danger. This isnt a game. So adding to this chorus of people urging the president to get this transition under way, you mentioned National Security adviser robert obrien. Seeming to acknowledge that biden will be the incoming president. The First Administration official we have heard make comments like that. And as well, a growing number of republicans, of course, taking baby steps, though, in trying to urge the president to acknowledge that biden will be the incoming president and to get this transition process under way. Yeah, i was going to say, you bring up a good point. The chorus is getting louder. It seems so far its falling on deaf ears with the person in the oval office at this hour. Mike, let me come to you real quick. What do we expect to hear from biden today after the meetings that he had with labor leaders . Well, first, i can report that biden standard time is alive and well even as the president elect, we have had a twominute warning for a 1 45 speech. This is a little bit par for the course with the president elect, but what we expect to hear from joe biden today is obviously, they have advised these as focused on the economy, but for joe biden, the economy and the pandemic are so closely linked. Even as we have more good news on the vaccine front this afternoon, biden has been being realistic in terms of setting expectations for the country. And part of what hes also going to say is the importance of coming together at this point. Youll remember that biden laid out a fourpoint economic plan over the course of the summer. It ranked in the trillions of dollars. Hes not going to necessarily focus on the details of the plan today, but the need for business and labor to come together. Earlier today, he did a roundtable discussion with some top ceos as well as labor leaders. This is part of the tone biden is trying to set for what a Biden Administration is going to look like. Trying to bring two sides that are often at odds with one another together, as hes trying to make headway in even just getting access to the transition funding and resources he should. Its a sort of message to republicans on capitol hill that yes im going to extend an olive branch to you directly sknr hope to work with you, but theres also the opportunity to bring pressure from the outside in. Hes counting on Business Leaders to lean on republicans, if they wont listen to joe biden, perhaps theyll listen to some of their allies in the Business Community in terms of doing what needs to be done. Bidens economic plan is not necessarily something Mitch Mcconnell is going to sign on for, but he will make the case for it, as you heard senator harris last week, the Vice President elect say, every vote for joe biden was a vote for his vision for the economy as well as for handling the pandemic. Katie, lets look ahead because there are about 50 days left until Georgias Senate runoff elections which will decide who controls the chamber and whether any of this agenda joe biden would like to get done in the senate legislatively gets done. How does the Senate Factor into president elect bidens plans overall . Do we expect to see him campaigning in georgia . So joe biden, of course, served in the u. S. Senate for 36 years as a senator from delaware, and in fact, a big part of his Campaign Message throughout was that he is someone who, as mike was noting, hes someone who can bring both sides together. He wants to look for ways to find common ground, but he declared victory, he talked about it as a mandate from the American People to try to look for areas of compromise, including and especially in congress. All right, i fear that we may have lost katie there. Let me cross back over to shannon. Shannon, to pick up on the point that we were hearing there, this chorus that is getting louder around the president. The biggest news today was that the National Security adviser hinted it would most likely be a biden transition. Give us some thinking into, if you have it, the calculus into what the president is perhaps waiting for. Is it to strengthen his position among his base to try to launch something personally . You know, financially, media wise. What is it that we know is factoring into his decision to not yet concede and move on . Well, our reporting indicates that a big part of this is about preserving his brand. His brand of winning. And not being essentially a loser. So that the expectation is that the president may never admit that he lost the election. He may say, well, the Electoral College has voted the way they voted. I disagree with that, but that seems to be the final vote. But continue to insist that the election was stolen from him. Of course, theres been a lot of speculation in the last few days about the president potentially wanting to run again, and so that is something that could also be in the back of his mind as he makes these considerations. Hey, katie, im glad we got you back because i wanted to ask your latest piece. You said joe biden has a mandate to be joe biden. Explain to our viewers what you mean by that. A lot of people might be reading that depending on where you are on the political spectrum and you may see a joe biden no one else sees. Hes someone who has been in american politics for a long time and its known to many as of course, Barack ObamasVice President and many who followed him on the campaign trail as well, but hes really a vivid figure in american politics. Hes someone who all right, our apologies. We may have lost katie glueck once again. Well see if we can reestablish that. Mike memoli, shannon pettypiece, thank you for sticking around. We appreciate your time this afternoon. And president elect joe bidens incoming chief of staff is urging the Trump Administration to begin cooperating with the transition so nothing jeopardizes the distribution of coronavirus vaccines. Watch. We now have the possibility, we need to see if it gets approved, of a vaccine starting perhaps in december. January. There are people at hhs making plans to implement that vaccine. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so Nothing Drops in this change of power. All right, joining us now is duthese turner roth, former administrator for the General Services administration from 2015 to 2017. Were lucky to have her because she was involved in the transition between the obama and Trump Administration. She has that firsthand experience. Great to have you with us. The current General Services administration, as you very well know, has still not formally determined that biden won the election. There are 65 days left in this transition period. What happened in 2016, and what should be happening right now in this timeframe . In 2016, it took place the next morning after the election. And this is a significant time in the government overall. And in our history. But in terms of the transition itself, its a moment where if you think about the fact theres about 4 Million People, theres a lot under way. This is an opportunity for the transition leadership, the Biden Transition Team to work with the leadership in the administration to see whats currently happening, the context behind the existing policy, and at that stage, none of that activity will take place until the ascertainment is finalized. And certainly, this is important moment in our history in that we are facing a pandemic. And theres a lot of transition that needs to take place. And we dont want that to happen just on january 20th. To utilize these days as best as we can. Im really curious, did you have to wait for president obama back in 2016 to give his okay to the election to ascertain that Donald Trumps victory, you know, or his transition could move forward . Was it even a significant thing on anyones radar back then . The concession is not necessary in order for the administrator to move forward. Its certainly in the leadup to the election, we thought about all of the possibilities of scenarios that could come to play. When youre looking at the case that most of the states have actually reported and have been clear about the elections, there are no pending lawsuits that are even in question or items that question the number of electoral votes that biden team has received at this point, the news reporting that is also the election as well, all of those factors go into play and can allow for it to go forward. Is it possible to play catchup in the sense that once this does get approved or gets sent over to the gsa administrator for ascertainment, how much work can biden get done in these short amount of time that he has left . You know, you dont know what you dont know. And for each administration, they have about 4,000 people that they need to have that is through security and confirmed and put into place. At the end of the darx each of those days count, and the clock is ticking each day. And you lose that, and especially at this moment, you dont want to be at risk of what people didnt finish, what policy reviews had time to discuss, which context they did not understand coming in. We dont want that to be the risk. Former gsa administrator, thank you so much for your time and expertise this afternoon. There is another look at the stock market. Driven higher by the big vaccine news from moderna. Later in this hour, im going to be speaking to modernas chief medical officer to discuss some of the Science Behind the development and what it means for the country. But first, the pandemic challenges facing the biden team. A member of the biden president transitionelects Coronavirus Panel joins me next. Youre watching msnbc. Watching. Or more effective against pain than salonpas patch large theres surprising power in this patch salonpas dependable, powerful relief. Hisamitsu. 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Were breaking out of the commercial break to go straight to wilmington, delaware, to listen to Kamala Harris speak to reporters. An important conversation about the impact this pandemic has had on workers. Especially essential workers, frontline workers. Who have risked their own health and the health of their families and many whom have given their own lives to keep us safe and keep our economy running. And we all know that this pandemic and this recession have hit communities of color particularly hard. Black americans and latinos are three times as likely to contract covid as others and more likely to die. Native americans are more than four times as likely to be hospitalized as others. And last month, the Unemployment Rate for black americans was almost twice the rate of others. And we have also had a conversation about the impact this pandemic has had on our economy as a whole, from the fortune 500 to the Small Businesses that so many communities rely on. Over the past few months, on the campaign trail, the president elect and i saw that impact firsthand. In state after state, we met with workers who shared their struggles and told us about their pain. Essential workers who have had to stay on the job even as they worry about their families wellbeing and their own. Small Business Owners who are dipping into their own savings to make payroll and keep their doors open. And many others who have had to close their doors and fear never reopening at all. Their stories have stayed with us. And the president elect and i are focused on building our country back better, for them and all americans. And as i said the night we won this election, now is when the real work begins. The necessary work, the good work. Of getting this virus under control, saving lives, and beating this pandemic. And opening our economy responsibly while rebuilding it so that it works for working people. And we will do it by protecting the health and safety of our workers. And creating millions of good paying union jobs from auto and construction jobs to Domestic Workers and caregiving jobs, to service and hospitality jobs. The road ahead, it will not be easy. But the president elect and i are hitting the ground running. Because we all know the challenges facing America Today are great. The American People deserve no less. And we dont have a moment to waste. And now, it is my incredible and great honor to introduce our president elect joe biden. Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Vice president harris and i just met with a group of americas top Business Leaders and labor leaders. And i must tell you, it reenforced what i thought from the beginning. Were ready to come together. Unity was astounding. I want to go back and talk about the people who actually participated in that. Im going to list all of the people just so you know who we spoke with. Number one, there was mary barra, ceo of general motors, brian cornell, kree eof target, mr. Nudell, ceo of microsoft, rory gamble, president of the uaw, mary kay henry, president of sciu, mark perone, lee saunders, and sonya single, president of gap, the president of the aflcio. It was really encouraging, quite frankly too, get people, business and labor, together agreeing on the way forward. Which im convinced the American People will rally to do when they hear what we have in mind. Im very pleased it all came together around the same table to advance areas of common ground, and we agreed were going to continue these conversations. They represent very different perspectives, but im convinced we can all come together around the same table to advance areas of common ground, which are really i wish you could have all heard the conversation. It was really encouraging. And thats what we were ready to discuss today. We all agreed that we want to get the economy back on track. We need our workers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control. Were going in a very dark winter. Things are going to get much tougher before they get easier. And that requires sparing no effort to fight covid so we can open our businesses safely, resume our lives and put this pandemic behind us. Its going to be difficult, but it can be done. And they all agreed that means rallying the country behind a National Strategy with Robust Public Health measures like mandatory masking, widely available testing with rapid results, scaled up production of life saving treatments and therapeutics and safe, equitable, and free distribution of the vaccine. Its great news that moderna and pfizer have each come up with vaccines that are in excess of 90 effectiveness, and getting a vaccine and a vaccination, though, are two different things. Everyone on our call today in our zoom today agreed that the sooner we have access to the administrations Distribution Plan, the sooner this transition would be smoothly moved forward. And you know, as we battle covid, we also make sure that the businesses and workers have the tools, the resources, the National Guidance and health and Safety Standards to operate safely. And we can do that. We can bring democrats and republicans together, work with business and labor to deliver those necessary resources. And for millions of americans who have lost hours and wages or have lost their jobs, we all agreed on our call that we can deliver immediate relief and it needs to be done quickly. Affordable health care for millions of people who have lost it or are in danger of losing it. Child care, sick leave, family leave. So workers dont have to choose between work and family. Corporate america agreed on this today. The folks on the call. We need support o