So no word yet, of course, from Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell and how hes going to handle this whole thing. Were also waiting to see if the senate will follow the houses lead and hand donald trump the first and only veto override of his presidency to enact into law a mustpass defense bill. Our team is spread out with the latest on every single angle. Garrett haake is with the president in florida in Leigh Ann Caldwell is on capitol hill. Leigh ann, i want to ask you a big question that hopefully you can answer which is, what is going to happen today with the senate . Oh, yasmin, i so wish i could answer that question outright and tell you exactly what was going to happen. Heres what we do know. Theres a lot of moving parts. The senate is going to open the floor today at 12 00 noon, shortly after which we should hear from senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell. The big question is what does mcconnell say, especially regarding this 2,000 stimulus check because he has kind of a big decision to make. Is he going to let the senate vote on this legislation or is he going to allow his members or is he himself going to block it because what we do know is Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is going to try to pass that 2,000 stimulus check bill, but what we call around here by unanimous consent. But if any one senator blocks it, then the deal is done. And we are expecting some republicans to do so. But things are going to get a little more complicated as well. Senator Bernie Sanders has said that he is going to slow down the process on an unrelated measure. The National Defense authorization veto override, a Defense Authorization bill that he doesnt want to go through unless he gets an up or down vote on this 2,000 stimulus check bill. So where do republicans stand is the big question today. Theres overwhelming support of democrats, you know, in the house of representatives. More than 40 republicans sided with democrats to support this 2,000 stimulus check. Were seeing a little sign of support in the senate as well. Senator marco rubio tweeted that he would support it despite the nearly half a trillion dollars its going to add to the deficit. But mcconnell is all in his court and we have no idea what hes going to do yet, yasmin. Leigh ann caldwell saying what republicans say is the best question today. Thats been the best question for the latter part of the last four years since 2016 to be frank. I just played that sound from Chuck Schumer saying, mr. President , step up to the plate here if you want these 2,000 direct pay stimulus checks, you have to convince republicans to sign onto this in the senate and the president just tweeting moments ago, im not going to read the whole thing, but attacking the president over the ndaa saying weak and tired Republican Leadership will allow the bad defense bill to pass. Say goodbye to vital section 230. Hes attacking the republicans here, and he goes on. How involved today are you expecting the president to be . Do you think hes going to appeal to the president excuse me, to the republicans to get to the 2,000 relief bill passed . Well, what weve seen from the president over the last four years is the extent of his legislative involvement tends to be these public protestations that he makes on twitter or through videos released by the white house. He has been quite vocal really since last tuesday in pushing for these 2,000 direct payments. He continues to do so even today. We dont really know if hes twisting arms behind the scenes, but these public blasting of Mitch Mcconnell tends to be the kind of thing that unites the Senate Republican conference around something that isnt donald trump. You have other republicans, not directly involved, im looking at the wall street journal editorial page here, essentially accusing the president of splitting republicans. They argue that this 2,000 payments arent conservative in any meaningful sense of that word and that the president shouldnt be pushing for them. What youve got now is you have the president putting the Georgia Senate candidates in a tough spot, Senate Leadership in a tough spot and youre already seeing this split between folks like marco rubio coming out and saying hell support this to somebody like pat toomey, a traditional small c conservative republican who said over the weekend he wont. So whether the president is able to effectively whip his members behind the scenes or whether its just going to be the tweets could make a big difference here, as you pointed out. Very few House Republicans who supported those 2,000 checks in that body. You have to wonder if the senate will be much different. Yeah wall street journal editorial page goes as far as to say 2,000 direct payments wont even help the economy which has me scratching my head on that one. A lot of folks watching want to know the tick tock of all of this. How is it all going to play out . When are people going to see their money in their Bank Accounts . When are they going to get checks . Can you walk us through some of what you know on that . Especially with this 2,000 direct payment . We know the 600 payment has already passed. Are they going to wait to see what happens with this 2,000 before they send checks out . No. So the Treasury Department is pretty bullish on the idea theyll start moving the 600 payments, more or less immediately. A senior treasury official told us they think people who got their if you got your last stimulus by direct deposit you may see it in your bank account by the end of this week or early next week. If the Senate Passes these 2,000 payments the treasury would send out a separate check, separate direct deposit, a separate check. If theres one thing weve learned through this entire process of watching this rescue bill, this stimulus bill move through congress to the president s desk, now back into congress is every stage of this takes longer than weve anticipated. Just quickly, gairrrett, do folks have to recertify their Employment Status considering for so many their benefits have run out . For the direct payments, no. This is all based on the same information, the same data, the same system that was set up previously. Thats part of the reason treasury thinks they can move so quickly. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Always good information from the two of you. With me now, i want to bring in democratic congressman jamie raskin from maryland. Thanks for joining me on this. The big question i started reigh ann with is what is your sense here when it comes to this 2,000 direct payment. If you are a family of four, thats a huge jump and could be a major boost to your household, right, for two adults, youll get 2,000 a piece. Thats 4,000. If you have two children essentially youd get 1200 extra. That could help a lot. It would help a lot of people hugely, and beyond that, we had the new legislation apply to all family dependents, whether or not youre under 18. So that includes, you know, millions of young people who are off in college and struggling under their College Loans and so on. So this is, you know, the 2,000 is meaningful legislation that would mabke a vast difference fr tens of millions of people in the country. So the Senate Republicans are now caught between their rhetoric of right wing austerity for the wealthiest people in the country to rule over everybody else and then their cultish impulse to follow whatever Donald Trump Tells them to do. It will be interesting to see where they go. What hangs in the balance is the fortunes of millions of people in the country who are waiting to see whether theyll get this meaningful infusion. So are you willing to make a prediction on whats going to happen in the senate here . Well, the word among republicans, at least the ones willing to talk to democrats yesterday, was that mcconnell wants to use this moment to declare his independence from donald trump to say hes been reelected for another six months. Donald trump is on his way out. And this may be their moment to remove the Republican Party from the direct authoritarian control of donald trump. Well see whether or not that happens. Hes obviously threatening people and claiming credit for peoples elections, but so far, they have walked the plank with donald trump for the last four years. And thats why this really is a moment of reckoning for their party. This moment, this moment when millions upon millions of americans are struggling, not the moment when it was appropriate to declare joe biden the president elect, when he had a free and Fair Election when joe biden had won the election yet Mitch Mcconnell not stepping out and declaring joe biden the president elect. Wanting to use this moment with americans that are struggling that cannot pay their rent, that cannot put food on the table. Why is it they cant get on board with this thing . I know how republicans feel about a ballooning debt, right . But the wall street Journal Editorial Board essentially summed it up how do they feel . Well, let me just read for you a quote from the wall street Journal Editorial Board. Never mind that the 2,000 would go to tens of millions of americans who have kept their jobs and maintained their incomes during the pandemic. It would also add some 350 billion or more to a federal deficit already into the trillions of dollars. The economy wont benefit since the recipients arent going to change their behavior knowing its a merely onetime check. This doesnt make any sense. Given 5200 to a family of four would actually help the economy and encourage them to then spend. Imagine for a moment had they gotten this money before the christmas holiday. Do you think theyd be out spending . Especially for those still employed. It doesnt mean just because you have a job you have job security in an uncertain economy. Look, they care about debts and deficit only when the spending would help the vast majority of working people in the country. But when its about giveaways to the wealthiest people in the country and the wealthiest corporations they never utter a peep about debts and deficits. Weve seen giveaways of a 1. 5 trillion in their tiserrible ta plan. We saw it in the last round of federal aid where they tucked in all these tax giveaways to the wealthiest. Its only when you talk about investing in the majority of the working people that they begin their tired old rhetoric about deficits and debt. They dont really care about it. And thats been established by the trump administration. Yeah, established over the last four years. Stand by for me, congressman. I do want to ask you about some developments from the biden transition but i want to go to mike memoli with what were hearing from the biden camp when it comes to the transition. And basically what the trump team is not helping with, specifically, about the pentagon. Talk us through this. Thats right. These transitions from one administration to the next are really difficult even in the best of circumstances. What weve seen for the biden team and its hard to believe, eight weeks ago was election day, and since then, theyve faced a series of delays and road blocks as they try to stand up a new government to be ready on january 20th. And the latest issue here, the agency reviewed teams on the part of the biden team meeting with various departments across the department for the most part, according to the president elect himself yesterday, are getting the cooperation they expect and are entitled to under the law. The obstakele here is from the pentagon. Biden raising concern especially given what we saw in that Solarwinds Hack recently that the Pentagon Team is not briefing his team fully to be ready on day one. Take a listen to what he said yesterday. Weve encountered road blocks from the Political Leadership at the department of defense and the office of management and budget. Right now, we just arent getting all the information that we need for the ongoing from the Outgoing Administration in Key National Security areas. Now yasmin, we should note that biden, for one, has really been one to lower the sort of temperature whenever possible, downplay the concerns. And so to hear him with that rhetoric yesterday is significant. The pentagon, the acting defense secretary downplaying this saying they will continue to work with the biden team but the biden team is saying that cooperation is still not where it needs to be, yasmin. All right, mike, thanks for jumping on that. Good to see you. Want to go back to the congressman who has been standing by for us. You heard mikes report. Not necessarily getting cooperation from the pentagon during this really difficult, shall we say, transition. How worried are you from a National Security perspective . I am very worried and im as worried as ive been for the last four years. Since when did donald trump care about the National Security, the people, the land and the outlies of the united states. The administration begin by denying this terrible assault levelled by Vladimir Putin on our 2016 election. He has proceeded to pardon everybody who was involved in covering up that attack and that involvement with russia, and now hes completely turned the other cheek with the russian solarwind attack on the security of our entire government. So this should not be surprising to anybody, but it is definitely alarming that the biden team has been so stymied to the point where joe biden is publicly complaining about the fact that theyre not turning over information and documents but how could they . Donald trump is still in denial about the fact that he lost this election. 306232 in the Electoral College and by more than 7 million votes across the country. Its been certified by more than 50 courts in the land. Still, hes acting in denial and taking tens of millions of people with him on this propaganda wild goose chase that he somehow won it. Skcongressman, thank you so much. We had a lot to cover and didnt get to it, but we ran out of time. I do want to talk about your league Louie Gohmert who is trying to overturn the election by suing the Vice President. Would be my pleasure. Coming up next new this morning, dr. Fauci says january will be worse than december when it comes to new cases of covid19 and deaths, but some hospitals are now allowing visitors. Well take you live to michigan to see exactly how it works. Plus, the Georgia SenateRunoff Election is just one week away. And more than 2 million georgians have already voted. Steve kornacki will join us to break down where the race stands right now. Well be right back. Hi sabrina hi jen so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin . Exactly jen calm restore oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. And strengthens skins moisture barrier. Uh i love it aveeno® healthy. Its our nature. ™ five blades and a pivotingglide flexball aveeno® designed to get virtually every hair on the first stroke, while washing away dirt and oil. So youre ready for the day with a clean shave and a clean face. If your child doesnt seem themself at times, they may not be hydrated enough. Plantpowered creative roots gives kids the hydration they need, with the fruit flavors they love. And one gram of sugar. Find creative roots in the kids juice while. Welcome back, everybody. The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating so fast right now. One of president elect bidens top covid19 advisers says the country needs to brace for one of the worst months in this nations history. And then just this morning, this stark warning from dr. Anthony fauci. Thats what were concerned about that in addition to the surge, were going to have an increase superimposed upon that surge which could make january even worse than december. I hope not. I hope that doesnt happen, but it certainly is possible. An increase superimposed on a surge. So that ominous prediction coming as hospitalizations have reached a record level with over 121,000 Covid Patients being treated across the country as we speak. At this very moment. On monday alone, more than 220,000 new Coronavirus Infections were reported with more than 1900 americans dying from the virus. 1900 americans. Just days after the christmas holiday. And then new this morning, Vice President elect Kamala Harris and her husband are set to receive the covid19 vaccine. I want to go to ellison barber in michigan, where theyre letting Family Members inside the hospital to visit their loved ones being treated for covid. Good to see you. Thanks for joining us on this. There are so many hospitals around this country that are not allowing any visitors at this moment. Why is this hospital changing the rules at this point . So this hospital says this is not the right decision or the right time for every hospital, but they believe that it is the right thing to do at sparrow hospital. And they say a lot of factors went into making this decision. And that a lot of things have changed for them in recent weeks. When this pandemic started, they, like so many hospitals, were not sure if theyd have enough protective equipment for their own health care workers. Now they say they have enough resources, enough ppe to not only protect their staff but also to allow one visitor for Covid Pa