Constitutional lawyer and law professor in his own right. He is also, as a member of congress, on the judiciary committee. And tonight with things getting slightly nutty in the republican effort to somehow try to use the courts to overturn the president ial election and install the loser instead of the winner of that election as the next president , we called congressman raskin tonight on short notice to help us with some of these latest developments here. I will tell you were going to get into this in detail but those latest developments involve, among other things, the fbi turning up at the office of the Texas Attorney general to serve a federal subpoena on him. The Texas Attorney general is the guy who has brought this case to the u. S. Supreme court to try to overthrow the election on the president s behalf. Turns out dude has some has his own very serious legal problems back home, and his personal legal problems and this Supreme Court case hes waging on behalf of the president , those two things may be related, like related closely enough that for Health Reasons perhaps, those two kissing cousins should not be allowed to get together and reproduce. As i said, we will have more on that coming up in just a moment. We will also be talking this hour about the pivotal, historic decision to green light the first vaccine against the coronavirus in the united states. This is the Pfizer Vaccine, which is already being administered this week in the uk. This is the vaccine that canada just approved yesterday. The outside independent panel that advises the fda on vaccine safety and efficacy, they voted today that the fda should approve this vaccine. It was not a unanimous vote, and well get some expert advice on how to interpret that part of this in just a moment. But its worth noting that this isnt this isnt just the trump fda that came to this recommendation about the vaccine today on their own. After all, the Trump White House has pressured the fda to do dumb and antiscientific things throughout the Coronavirus Crisis just as they have pressured and corrupted the cdc and any other Government Agency working on coronavirus that theyve been able to get their claws into. Because of the white house pressure on the fda and how the fda has sometimes caved to that during this pandemic, the fact that there is an outside panel that advises the fda on this crucial question about this vaccine is is good. Thats good news. And its the kind of people who you want making this decision. Its like the editor in chief of the new england journal of medicine, the most influential medical journal in the world. He himself is an esteemed Infectious Disease doctor associated with harvard medical school. Also theres the researcher from the university of pennsylvania who actually invented the row tow virus vaccine. Row tow virus vaccine is currently in use around the world. It is on the global list of essential medicines. It saves literally hundreds of thousands of lives versus per year. The guy who invented that vaccine is on this panel advising the fda on the safety and efficacy of the Coronavirus Vaccine. Also the university of iowa researcher who is not just a worldrenowned virologist. Theyve got several of those on this panel. Hes actually a worldrenowned coronavirologist, which means he doesnt just study viruses. He specifically studies coronaviruses. He has been studying coronaviruses for nearly 40 years. Hes one of less than a dozen working coronavirologists in the entire world. Hes at the university of iowa. He is on this panel that voted today to affirm the safety and efficacy of this Coronavirus Vaccine for use in the united states. So im just its just worth knowing that this Advisory Panel making this decision is for real. I know that donald trump is still president , but this is not one of those things where they like gave jared one of the jobs or don junior or ivanka or whatever. Like this is the real deal. So much so that if you, like me, tried to follow along today in the Advisory Panels long, long, long Public Meeting while they reviewed the evidence and listened to the and debated the pros and cons of the vaccine today and talked about their vote and talked about the grounds on which they were going to make their vote if you tried to follow along with this Public Meeting today about the vaccine, you might have felt a little snowed under by the highgrade science talk. I certainly did. You know, but right. Yes, that seems appropriate. Thats not only who should be making these decisions. Its how decisions like this should be made as well. So were going to get some expert help, as i said, tonight on what we should make of that decision by that very highlevel Scientific Expert Panel that gave the fda the advice that they should approve this thing today. And what we should expect at the start of the vaccine rollout. The fda will follow that advice, and the vaccine will be approved, and the actual injections will start rolling out very soon. Well get expert advice on what to expect about that now as this starts to move quickly. But its not moving quickly enough for the hundreds of thousands of americans who weve lost already to covid. According to the covid tracking project numbers, today was the second straight day in which we had more than 3,000 americans die in one 24hour period. 3,000 americans dying in today, 3,067 americans dying. Thats more than double the number of people who died in the sinking of the titanic, right . But thats just today. And were getting more than 3,000 deaths each day for multiple days now. You wouldnt know it from the behavior of the white house and the president. The president is hosting a Congressional Ball tonight at the white house, indoors. Nobodys really expecting them to have people wear masks or socially distance. Why not . They didnt last night at the packed indoor White House Hanukkah Party where the president talked about how hes going to win reelection. People also didnt wear masks or socially distance for the most part at the 200person state department indoor party. That was the night before last as well. The president s personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, got out of the hospital today, bragging that he had received the exact same drug cocktail as the president , and he feels great. He attributed his ability to get those drugs, to get in particular the rare super expensive Monoclonal Antibody treatment that he says he received he attributed that to the fact that in his words, hes a, quote, celebrity. Housing and urban Development Secretary ben carson also bragged that when he got covid, President Trump personally intervened to make sure that secretary carson would also get this expensive Monoclonal Antibody treatment that the president got but that nobody else seems to be able to get their hands on. This is the headline in the New York Times now. Quote, trump and friends got coronavirus care many others couldnt. Rudy giuliani becomes the latest in President Trumps inner circle to boast about the treatment he received for covid19 as hospitals across the country ration care. According to the times, quote, some top officials at the fda, both career officials and political appointees, have privately expressed concern that people with connections to the white house appear to be getting access to these antibody treatments. The treatments are so scarce that officials in utah have developed a ranking system to determine who is most likely to benefit from the drugs. In colorado, theyre using a lottery system for access to these drugs. The scarcity is such a problem that the National Academy of science is holding a session next week to help medical professionals sort through rationing questions. Quote, mr. Giuliani appeared unaware of the scarcity issues, telephoning interviewers that politicians have taken masks and business closures too far now that covid19 is, in his words, quote, a treatable disease. For him it was treatable. Its treatable maybe if you can get these magical elixirs that arent available to the general public and that the president reserves for his friends while nobody else can get it and while more than 3,000 americans each day are now dying from this thing without access to those kinds of treatments. Today congressman jim clyburn released witness testimony from a senior career scientist at the cdc. According to her testimony, she was directed by trumps appointed cdc director Robert Redfield, to delete an email from a trump appointee. This was a misspelled email sent in multiple different font colors using weird language. Cie findings about covid transmission among kids. The trump appointee wrote to cdc scientists, quote, this is designed to hurt the presidnet. They cdc, comma, work for him. This guy was a trump appointee. Hes since been fired. He used to be an assistant professor at a small Canadian College which now disowns him. For some reason this guy was brought in by the Trump Administration to review all the covidrelated work of the cdc and to demand changes to cdc scientific findings however he saw fit because he was an unemployed former assistant professor from a small Canadian College . What was he doing there in the first place is a question for the ages. But this particular wackadoo email from him demanding that the cdc change or withdraw its scientific reports on transmission, i mean its one thing for trump appointees to be sending stuff like that. But its actually a federal crime to tell federal employees to destroy the evidence that that document exists by deleting that email. Congressman jim clyburn and his Oversight Committee on covid issues say thats exactly what happened at the cdc. They are on it. Clyburn is demanding an explanation from the cdc director Robert Redfield and also alex azar, trumps outgoing secretary of health and human services. Imagine youre the incoming secretary of health and human services, right, or the incoming director of the cdc, knowing this is what youre going to have to clean up. I mean its one thing to be taking over the most important agencies in the country in charge of handling this this gigantic pandemic that is this out of control with a new vaccine to administer, 3,000 americans dying, and 15 Million People infected and all the rest of it, right . But then to know that on top of that, youre also going to be cleaning up inside those agencies from this experience of the past four years in which all the career experts and scientists in these crucial agencies have spent the past four years of this administration having to answer to, like, literally rando, nobody, unemployed exassistant professors who write to them in multicolored ink saying, this is designed to hurt this presidnet. Rescind the guidelines tout de suite, you hussies, cuz i said so. Ive been appointed by the Trump Administration to ride herd on you science folk. I mean this is how trump has run this part of the government. That is the most important part of the government for dealing with this pandemic that is killing thousands of us every day. This is how theyve been running it. Then the director comes in and says, can we delete those emails . People who work at the cdc are like, officially no. Government records, youre not supposed to destroy them. I mean the biden folks coming into these agencies, theyre not going to be starting at square one. Its going to be a long time before we can even get to square one given whats happened there under the last four years. Along these lines, the Washington Post now reporting on yet another Trump Administration cabinet scandal as if theres time for just one more while theyre on their way out the door. Turns out the trump secretary of Veterans Affairs was referred to the Justice Department this fall for potential criminal prosecution this. Is from the Washington Post. Quote, the Veterans AffairsInspector General informed federal prosecutors this fall of possible criminal conduct by secretary Robert Wilkie stemming from an investigation into whether he worked to discredit a congressional aide who said she was sexually assaulted. Despite that referral, though, quote, the Justice Department has not pursued a case against secretary wilkie. Were going to have more on this story coming up in just a moment. But if this is sounding familiar, this is because this isnt the first time this has happened with a disgraced trump cabinet official. Remember it was less than a freaking month ago that the New York Times reported basically the same thing about trumps interior secretary, ryan zinke. It was just last month the times reported that although ryan zinke was also referred to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution just like the veterans secretary was apparently. Just like the veterans secretary, bill barrs Justice Department decided they would take a pass and not pursue those criminal charges. Like i said, more on that coming up. But heres where we are in what appears to be the culminating effort by the president and by the Republican Party to try to throw out the Election Results and instead somehow install President Trump for a second term despite the fact that joe biden just beat him in the president ial election. Again, all 50 states have now certified their Election Results. All 50 states have certified their results. Joe biden earned 306 electoral votes to only 232 for President Trump. You need 270 electoral votes to be president. Joe biden will be sworn in as the next president 41 days from now. But on earth two, the republican effort to try to pretend that didnt happen proceeds apace with what seems to be renewed confidence or some other word i could use. The attorney general of texas has brought a case to the Supreme Court that President Trump is calling, quote, the big one. Hes telling his supporters that this texas case, this case brought by the Texas Attorney general, this will be it. This will be the way he gets the Election Results thrown out and gets a second term in office. Its now been reported by multiple News Agencies that President Trump has personally asked texas u. S. Senator ted cruz if senator cruz will himself do the oral arguments at the Supreme Court if the court, in fact, takes up the case. Senator cruz has reportedly said yes, he will. Texas has now been joined by 17 other republican state attorneys general, who are all joining forces with the texas a. G. To tell the u. S. Supreme court that the Election Results from four states that went for biden should just be thrown out. They should just be nullified. The Electoral College vote shouldnt happen, and the vote in those four states shouldnt count. In addition to that, its now more than 100 republican members of congress i believe its 106 of them who have now signed on to a friend of the court brief in this Supreme Court case in support of what the Texas Attorney general and these other republican states are asking from the court, which is to throw out the Election Results from georgia, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin, all of which were won by joe biden. The republican congressman who whipped for signatures on that brief told all the republicans in congress when he was asking them to sign on to that thing that President Trump was, quote, anxiously awaiting the final list to review, meaning President Trump is watching to see if you sign on to this brief or not. You better sign on. And then more than 100 of them did. The president himself tonight brought the Texas Attorney general, ken paxton, and other republican state attorneys general who are supporting this texas case he brought them all to the white house tonight, presumably to thank them for supporting the Supreme Court effort and maybe, i guess, to strategize with them. Maybe theyre just going to cough at each other in a tight, unmasked circle. Who knows what they do up there these days . But while all of this is happening, while the four defendant states who are defending their elections here from this attack, while theyre filing their own defense to the Supreme Court, thei