Vaccine day. Health workers and the elderly first in line today for vaccine injections in the uk. Ended up actually being a very emotional day, finally for the first time some hope in. Were going to have more coming up on that. Including some of the british News Coverage that aired in britain in prime time tonight, some of the first people who received the injections and how that was covered in the british press. You will want to see that, i promise that. Weve got that coming up in awe moment. Meanwhile, nbc news has obtained a new document from the White House Coronavirus task force that warns that even with the expected start of a Vaccination Program here too sometime soon, according to the White House Task force tonight, quote, the current vaccine implementation will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations or fatalities until the 100 million americans with comorbidities can be fully immunized, which will take until the late spring. Again, this thing wont have a dent in it until 100 million americans are vaccinated. That will take number of months. Behavioral change and aggressive mitigation policies are the only widespread prevention tools we will have to address this winter surge. Quote, this surge is the most rapid increase in cases, the widest spread of intense transmission and the longest duration of rapid increase that we have yet experienced. The Coronavirus Task force continues, quote, despite the severity of the surge and the threat to the hospital systems, many state and local governments are not implements the same mitigation policies that stemmed the tide of the summer surge. That must happen now. Again, this is a new warning to the states from the White House Coronavirus task force, a document that nbc news has obtained tonight. I want to show you this from this same document. Look at this. These are the maps of new cases per capita that they just included in this document, in this sort of warning document to the states. This first one shows new cases per capita three months ago. Thats three months ago. Then they show this same map. But this is two months ago. So, from three months ago to two months ago, you can see how its getting worse, particularly in the upper midwest and in the plains states. That one on the right is two months ago. Now look at this one. This is one month ago. Look at how much worse it got between two months ago and one month ago and now look at this. This is now. Gulp. Yeah. Its not its not anywhere in particular. Its everywhere. We are just overrun. This is new cases per capita right now. Three months ago, two months ago, one month ago, now. Look how much worse its getting and how fast. The first vaccine being tered to the first regular folks in the uk today, the prospect that the u. S. May approve the same vaccine and potentially another quite soon, it is for sure reason for hope. But its not yet. And we are going to talk tonight with a Public Health modeler, a mathematical modeler whos an expert on how to implement a Vaccine Program so it actually does start saving lives as quickly as possible. Its not as simple as discover vaccine, manufacture vaccine, bingo, youre all set. Just put that last map up there again for a second. This is the current tsunami of new cases that we are getting hit with. The more cases we have, the more work the vaccine has to do, the harder it will be for even a great Vaccination Program to knock this thing down. And this is a tall task. So, thats the work at hand now. As i said, were going to get some expert advice on that coming up this hour on what amounts to vday, the first day at least in the uk, where vaccines have gotten into arms. Hopefully that will happen soon in this country. It is still a remarkable challenge ahead. Today president elect biden hosted an event to introduce his key choices for leadership against covid and health care more generally. He and his nominees talked about the challenges of how hard its going to be to get this largest Vaccination Program ever up and running. President elect biden said today that in his first hundred days he wants the country to commit to Wearing Masks for 100 days. He said in his first 100 days he also wants the first 100 million vaccine shots into the arms of americans. And he said today he also wants in the first 100 days a majority of u. S. Schools to open if congress can take action quickly enough to help and fund schools to do that safely. President elect biden, after this rollout today of his covid and health advisers, also tonight is making more selections to fill up the rest of his cabinet. Longtime and wellrespected ohio congresswoman marcia fudge will apparently be bidens nominee for secretary of housing and urban development. There had been speculation marcia fudge might end up being secretary of agriculture, but hell be tapped for had you hud. It will be tom vilsack tapped for the Agriculture Department instead. He held that job in the obama administration. Weve got no definitive order on who president elect biden might choose as his attorney general, but theres intriguing reporting on the short list there, the shorted short list for that job today, reports that president elect biden is considering sally yates, former Deputy Attorney general, who of course was fired about five minutes into the Trump Administration for saying that she wouldnt defend trumps proposed ban on muslims. Also merritt garland in the mix. Republicans in the senate would not even talk with merritt garland, let alone hold hearings or vote on his nomination. They instead held that seat open for a year so trump could fill it instead. Judge merritt garland remains a very wellrespected, acome accomplished Appeals Court judge in washington, d. C. According to reporting today, he is also reportedly in contention to be attorney general under president biden. As is, doug jones, also reportedly in contention. Doug jones a former u. S. Attorney with a storied civil rights career in alabama. Doug jones lost reelection as a democratic u. S. Senator from alabama, but he is known to be close to president elect biden. He is certainly very well regarded by his peers in the senate. Doug jones, sally yates, merritt garland all described as in contention for ag tonight. We shall see. But the Justice Department of course is not going to be a typical cabinet pick this time around, if ever it could be. Its always hugely important. Its always a dramatic choice that says a lot about the president elect or the president making that nomination. But this time, picking somebody to be attorney general, i mean, theyre going to be walking into the proverbial smoking wreck of a Justice Department thats been left behind by the successive disastrous trump era tenures of jeff sessions, the first trump attorney general who trump of course fired. And then remember there was that guy Matthew Whitaker who trump installed, again, for like five minutes, the one with the company accused of fraud that marketed toilets for big men. Matthew whitaker, he was attorney general for a minute. And then of course Matthew Whitakers successor, william barr who is reportedly eyeing the exits, potentially considering quitting even before Inauguration Day next month. You think about the consequences of that, that presumably would give President Trump the opportunity to name, like, his daughter tiffany to be the next attorney general before he finally leaves office. Or maybe that lady who he has been having unleash the cracken in his lawsuits to contest him losing the election. Maybe shell be attorney general for a day if bill barr leaves before biden is sworn in. Today William Barrs disastrous legacy as attorney general was given another black mark when a federal judge in washington, d. C. Formally acknowledged President Trumps pardon of Trump National security adviser mike flynn. Youll recall that mike flynn twice pled guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with the russian government about sanctions. But trump has pardoned him. That makes that whole case and that whole that whole guilty plea and the controversy over it all go away. Before flynn got that pardon from trump, you will also recall that attorney general william barr intervened in flynns case to try to have the prosecution of flynn dropped even though flynn had already twice pled guilty. That all happened after flynn hired the kraken lady, that same lady from that same lawyer from the trump election disputes. Flynn hired her as his lawyer. She started spinning these remarkable conspiracy theories about flynns case, much as shes spun remarkable conspiracy theories about the election. But william barr apparently bought all of it, bought it hook, line and sinker and maneuvered to have the flynn prosecution dropped along the crazy conspiratorial lines that she suggested. Well, today judge sullivan in washington, d. C. Acknowledged the trump pardon of flynn, acknowledging that the whole flynn case goes away. But in so doing, he just excoriated the Justice Department. He just excoriated that decision by william barr to intervene to try to make the flynn case go away. The ruling from judge sullivan today cited the, quote, breakdown of the traditional independence of the Justice Department from the president. It said, the Justice Departments reasons for why it decided to reverse course and seek dismissal in this case appeared to be a pretext, meaning hes accusing the Justice Department of effectively lying about what was motivating their actions when barr waded in to get the charges against flynn drop. Judge sullivan said, quote, the corrupt dismissal of politically wellconnected individuals could constitute an abuse of discretion by the Justice Department. As i said, there are multiple reports now that bill barr may quit as attorney general before Inauguration Day. If so, he will drag this, the intervention in the flynn case and his intervention in the stone case and so much more behind him as a tenton weight. That will be his legacy. And whoever joe biden picks as the next attorney general really is going to have to go in that first night with a broom and a flashlight to start cleaning up just the ongoing rotting mess that bill barr has left there in his wake. But i want to stick a pin in something tonight as we get to this difficult moment for the outgoing president. Now that the president s pseudolegal disputing of the Election Results is coming to what it seems like will have to be an end, hes sort of his campaign has distanced himself from the lawsuit lady. Rudy giuliani, hes in the hospital with covid. His other lawyer who he got from fox news also now says shes just tested positive with covid. All three of them are sort of out of contention. And today we hit the safe harbor day after which all the states votes for the Electoral College are basically baked in and every state in the country has completed the process of choosing its electors and having gotten those in before the safe harbor deadline. Nobody can mess with those Electoral College choices anymore. Today to put a final nail in the coffin, today the United StatesSupreme Court spent a hot minute looking at a trump case that they finally got up to the Supreme Court to try to throw out the Election Results in pennsylvania. The Supreme Court looked at that for a hot minute and then just said, no unanimously in a onesentence order, they were not taking this thing up. Now that its clear that even the u. S. Supreme court with a 63 conservative majority with three trump appointed justices on it, the Supreme Court is not going to help advance this fantasy either. And the safe harbor deadline is here. And all of the Trump Lawyers on this stuff are sidelined. And the Electoral College vote is basically assured. Now that we are getting to the to the end of this nonsense by necessity, theres one last dynamic here at the end that i think is turning into a bit of a livewire. I think it does affect the lastditch efforts to try to overturn the election by the president and his supporters. I think it does affect how the president is spending his last days and what he wants to do with his last control of president ial prerogative. I think it also may affect the Justice Department, which, again, just got excoriated by a federal judge today for its intervention to help one of the president s guys. Its interesting, in this same ruling today from judge sullivan about bill barr wading in to try to get the charges dropped against flynn and how improper the judge seems to have thought that was, in this same ruling, judge sullivan today also talked about pardons. And flynn did receive a pardon here. And judge sullivan doesnt question that. The pardon power is in the constitution and president s can pardon who they want. But judge sullivan in his ruling raised the prospect that judges might take issue with some of the ways that President Trump appears to be considering pushing the limits of his constitutional ability to pardon people, whether its an attempted pardon for himself or potentially preemptive pardons for future crimes not yet committed. Judge sullivan suggested bluntly today in this ruling that the president cant really invent new forms of pardons that are outside the constitutions scope. He suggested in blunt terms today that the courts will stand ready to referee that and push back if the president tries it. Thats important with this president having more than 40 days still in office given the way hes been musing about using his pardons as a sort of party favor for everybody he meets in his last days. In todays news, we got a sort of perfect inkaps lags about how all of this mess may come together in the end for this president and for people seeking his favor in this sort of desperate time. And the story that we got today, it comes out of texas. It starts a few years ago. Summer of 2015. In the summer of 2015, believe it or not the attorney general of the state of texas had to turn himself in to police to get his mug shot taken. Texas attorney general ken paxton was indicted on securities fraud charges. The charges were that mr. Paxton, while he was in the state legislature running for attorney general, he was also running a side hustle. He allegedly got friends and colleagues to invest hundred of thousands of dollars in a certain company, failing to mention to him that that company was paying him to do just that, paying him to scout investors. Thats illegal. Paxton denied the charges. But its interesting, these allegations werent exactly new terrain for him. Just one year before, the same guy, ken paxton, had admitted in engaging in a remarkably similar illegal scheme involving a Different Company and securities fraud involving that other company. In that earlier case, he had admitted what he did, they let him off with a 1,000 fine. But that made it hard for him to argue that he didnt understand what the law was here. When he came up on these second round of charges, he wasnt going to get off on a 1,000 fine. The second round of charges carried a possible punishment of up to 99 years in prison. And so it was this kind of remarkable summer day in 2015, ken paxton, attorney general of the state of texas, he gets fingerprinted, gets his grinning mug shot taken. He was ultimately released on bond within just a few minutes. He made a quiet get away out of the back of the courthouse that allowed him to avoid the press and throng of protesters out of the front of the courthouse Holding Signs saying paxton must go, give pax the ax, not above the law, time resign. Ken paxton didnt resign. He continued to serve as Texas Attorney general. And then in 2018, texas in its infinite wisdom reelected him attorney general while still under indictment under the securities fraud charges. Hes still attorney general in texas today. That case has not been resolved. Ken paxton, while serving attorney general of that state remains under indictment of those charges with a potential 99 year prison term hanging over him. But then this year, in 2020, just a few weeks ago, things with ken paxton started to get worse and weird. It started with the Austin American statesman obtaining a letter from paxtons office. Now, this letter was signed by seven of ken paxtons top deputies, all his top staff in his office as attorney general. Those seven top deputies to ken paxton said in this letter that they had reported their boss to Law Enforcement authorities. And not for the old securities fraud thing for which hes still under indictment. No, they believe they have him on a whole new set of crimes. We have a good faith belief that the attorney general is violating federal and or state law including abuse of office, bribery and other potential criminal offenses. Each signatory below has knowledge of facts relevant to these offenses and has provided statements concerning those facts to the appropriate Law Enforcement. That was the totality of the information when that letter comes out, right . The attorney general already under indictment of federal securities fraud charges. Okay.