U. S. Senate. Republican senators david perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing democratic challengers jon ossoff and the reverend Raphael Warnock respectively. Georgia has not elected a democrat to the senate since 1996. Last month joe biden became the first democrat to win georgia in a president ial race since 92. Now, President Trump spent this evening rallying supporters in valdosta, georgia. He urged the crowd of course to vote for the incumbents, while also saying that the election he just lost was rigged. That contradictions pretty glaring. Urging people to take part in a process he maintains is irredeemably fraudulent. But that narrative is everywhere. Even behind the scenes. This was the wifi password for reporters at tonights rally. Rigged election. Exclamation point. The president s push to overturn the election is going nowhere. He continues to lose in court, most recently in georgia, and in wisconsin. This morning mr. Trump called georgias governor, brian kemp. He asked him again to persuade the state legislature to over turn the election results. Governor kemp declined. One reason for this focus on congress is whats happening right now. The todo list before the holiday break is short but very significant. Congress needs to pass a defense spending bill, a Government Spending bill, and coronavirus relief. Unemployment benefits will run out for 12 Million People the day after christmas. Lets begin with the president s rally in georgia. Valdostas not far from the Florida State line, not far from where my familys from, in fact. Just over three hours drive south of atlanta. Joining us are nbcs Deepa Shivaram and Vaughn Hilliard. What have we heard at the rally so far . Anything unusual for the president or has he kind of kept up the same line of arguments hes been on the for the last few weeks . Reporter joshua, its pretty much exactly i think what we expected. Donald trump started off his rally that was supposed to be on behalf of senators david perdue and Kelly Loeffler talking about himself and talking about his own election and making fraudulent claims basically saying that he won georgia. Fact check, he didnt win georgia. And saying that the election was rigged, that the secretary of state in georgia whos republican, the governor in georgia whos republican arent working with him, theyre not competent, theyre not strong enough. Take a listen to some of what he said tonight. We won georgia, just so you understand. Weve never lost an election. Were winning this election. And i will say were fighting very hard for this state when you look at all of the corruption. Make sure that when they collect the ballots and they start bragging about how many ballots they already have, youve got to make sure your secretary of state knows what the hell hes doing. And youve got to make sure your governor gets a lot tougher than hes been. They cheated and they rigged our president ial election. But we will still win it. We will still win it. Well still win it. And theyre going to try and rig this election too. Reporter so joshua, a lot of all over the place rhetoric there from President Trump saying a lot of things that we know are absolutely not true. But something he just said behind me a minute ago kind of struck me. He said that the senate race with these two incumbent senators who need to retain their seats, at left one of them, in order for republicans to hold on to control in the senate, he said that they would be the last line of defense against democrats. And that stood out to me because mike pence actually used that exact same line yesterday when he was campaigning in georgia. And its interesting because its kind of threading the needle here. Right . Hes not outwardly saying that joe biden won the election and there will be a joe Biden Administration. But hes acknowledging that senate the Republicans Holding the senate would be in some way republicans last stand in control of this body. So its a lot of confusing messages that hes sending to voters. And i will say overall theres pretty much been a lack of talking about these deadlines for early voting. This is a special election. Its coming up in just one month. I havent heard the president talk about the process of, you know, asking for absentee ballots, making sure theyre registered. He hasnt really been talking about that and looking forward. And instead hes been absolutely looking backward at his own election, which he seems to still think that he won. Joshua . Von hilliard, youve been reporting on whats led up to this rally this week, whats been unfolding in georgia. What have you learned . Yeah, joshua, ive been on the ground in the past week in georgia and i think whats telling 46 days away from inauguration when joe biden will be sworn in is that this is more than a campaign for donald trump of litigating the election that he thinks he won. This is a campaign for him against truth. You know, early on in this administration back in 2017 when i was on the road traveling talking to predominantly trump voters i constantly heard about this idea of fake news and the lack of trust in us and the press. But then that attention really in 2018 turned to this idea of the deep state and the conspiracy against donald trump. But now what were facing here at the end of 2020 heading into 2021 is a campaign by the president of the United States to sow division and sow mistrust in our election system here. And i think what is more telling is the fact that you have senators david perdue and Kelly Loeffler that are in that crowd there tonight with the president that are not pushing back and instead are campaigning right alongside of him. You know, theres been a lot of talk about these lawsuits and the litigation across the country here. But its really these local officials, it was the likes of gabe sterling, who oversees the state elections system in the state of georgia that five days ago called on Kelly Loeffler, called on david perdue to, quote, step up and speak against this sort of rhetoric undermining peoples faith in our elections. And then you see in arizona yesterday it was the arizona speaker of the house, a republican, who said, it would violate the basic principles of the republican government and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the peoples vote based on unsupported theories of fraud. Again, these are two statewide officials here. Not federal Office Holders that the American Public knows. And i think that is the most concerning part here in these 46 days, is what he has done to voters minds. I was around the state of georgia talking to these republican voters. One after the other do not believe that donald trump actually lost this election. So while folks can shake their head at these Rudy Giuliani hearings or meetings, theres a great part of this republican electorate that believes this. That believes this president. And that is a question of where does this republic go from here . Because david perdue and Kelly Loeffler, yes, theyre trying to hold on to the Senate Majority but right now what is at stake, at least for voters in these conversations, is a belief in what is the truth, belief in our election system and where does this country go from here. Before i let you go, deepa, talk about the crowd a little bit. I wonder if youre seeing any efforts at social distancing, mask wearing, as the pandemic continues to get worse in georgia and elsewhere, before we go. Reporter right, joshua. Ive got to tell you, its pretty uncomfortable here. I havent seen a lot of people Wearing Masks. There is absolutely no social distancing going on within the crowd. Its extremely packed. I saw more people Wearing Masks as they were standing in line and entering, but it almost seemed like once they got in here it became almost entirely maskless. Its a pretty nice day in georgia. So a lot of people are just kind of crowded together. Not a lot of social distancing. Again, not a lot of mask wearing. And you did see the president come on stage wearing a mask which we havent seen a lot from him at all entirely. Georgia has seen the highest number of cases go up today and as we head into the Holiday Season we know from experts that thats going to get worse. So it is a pretty concerning scene here on the ground. Georgias Voter Registration deadline is this monday. Nbcs Deepa Shivaram and Vaughn Hilliard watching the senate race theres. Thank you both. Much appreciated. The campaign trail may still be busy in georgia but in washington folks are trying to wind down for the holidays. Theres not usually much work to get done between thanksgiving and christmas, but Congress Needs to pass three critical bills before the recess. Heres where things stand right now. This week President Trump threatened to veto the bill that funds the military unless Congress Changes the laws governing Tech Companies like social networks. Mr. Trump wants to get rid of section 230 of the Communications Decency act. Section 230 protects companies from liability for content posted by their users. Republicans made it clear they are not open to this demand and they moved forward with the defense bill. Meanwhile, government funding is set to run out on december 11th. But congressional budget watchers thankfully do not expect a shutdown. Yesterday House Speaker nancy pelosi announced that she wants to attach a coronavirus stimulus plan to a 1. 4 trillion spending package. Pelosi said that Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell agrees with this proposal. This would be the first time in weeks that these lawmakers have discussed another round of covid relief. Here to break this all down for us is amber phillips, political reporter for the washington post. Amber, good evening. Hey, joshua. Hows the path look for getting these three bills done . Are there any major road blocks or do we actually have room for hope . Oh, gosh. The path looks super rocky but also possible. Let me say that. And i say that as time is ticking really, really close toward the end. You mentioned december 11th as kind of the main date for almost everything. Thats in particular because thats when the government runs out of money. Thats friday. And as you just said, House Speaker nancy pelosi has said essentially the only which she sees congress being able to move forward on coronavirus stimulus is to tie it, this big almost 1 trillion bipartisan bill on coronavirus stimulus, to tie it to spending. Because no one in Congress Actually wants a shutdown. They just cant deal with another crisis right now. And then in addition to that you have something that Congress Almost always agrees with all the time for the past 60 years. Which is a defense spending bill to continue to fund our troops, gives this year troops another pay raise among many other things, coronavirus presentation thats at risk because of President Trump. As you said, throwing in his battle against big tech in there that has nothing to do with defense spending. It does look like republicans are going to call his bluff on that. But all these things are tied together politically in a way that if you pull on one string you could pull all of it apart. And they dont have much time to figure it out. So i wonder what that means, for example, in terms of, say, funding the government or getting covid relief. If republicans in congress were not willing to accede to the president s demand over fighting big tech as a condition of funding the United States military, does that bode well for the rest of these measures . I mean, granted, they could just pass a shortterm spending bill, basically a continuing resolution, say keep funding the government at the level were funding it right now until we get back and then well fix it. But even that will be better than the government shutting down. Does that give us more room to believe theyll get it done . Yeah, i think youre right. Its possible, what im hearing in my reporting, is they just kick the can down the road for a spending bill and they also do that for a defense bill. Which like i said would be the first time in 60ish years theyve done that rather than fund it at new levels. So that would be notable. But there are ways out of this. If we get to like thursday or friday morning and they dont have a deal. But you mentioned republicans. And i think republicans in the senate in particular play a really Important Role in all of these negotiations and thats because theres a sizable chunk of conservatives who do not want to spend any new money beyond funding the government in the defense bill. They do not think there needs to be an injection of stimulus money even after really poor jobs numbers that came out on friday for the month of november. So Mitch Mcconnell has to negotiate around that. And what were really seeing come out of that is this rise of centrists. People like mitt romney and Susan Collins on the republican side and joe manchin on the democratic side tried to exercise power that they really havent had in these broad bipartisan in these broad negotiations because they just havent been partisan in the past. And so what im watching for is whether republicans call trumps bluff on some of these veto threats but also some of their conservative republicans bluffs and just say okay, we dont need you, were going to find a way to pass all this stuff without you. This week a Bipartisan Group of lawmakers unveiled a 908 billion bill for . Relief to the American People. That Bipartisan Group that made the announcement did not include Mitch Mcconnell or Chuck Schumer, but it seems like they say that there is enough support on both sides to maybe have that conversation. What do you think of that particular bill in terms of being able to get . Relief to the American People . Does it look like its got a chance . I would say, joshua, were the closest weve been since this summer when negotiations fell apart to actually getting coronavirus stimulus aid to americans. And what that would mean according to this bill which is still being worked out is about 300 extra in Unemployment Insurance for millions of americans, money to help schools, hungry children, paycheck protection act to help small businesses, but no stimulus checks for now of about 1,200 for a wider swath of americans. I was so interested this week, let me say this, to see the top House Democrat nancy pelosi and Top Senate DemocratChuck Schumer come out in a joint statement and say okay, were willing to consider this, because its about half of what theyve been saying is their absolute bottom line since july. 2 trillion or bust. Well, here they are saying you know what, 900 billion is something were willing to talk about. What i have not seen yet is Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell be as publicly open to it. We know he spoke with pelosi this week. Thats significant. But thats the next step im watching for. Does he say okay, you know what, im okay spending money for this unemployment, for example, or to help fund state and localities that are really struggling in the name of getting something done. I havent seen that yet. Amber phillips, political reporter for the washington post. Amber, thanks very much. Thank you. Weve got more on the latest covid measures ahead this hour. We will check in on california. Parts of that state are preparing for a new stayathome order. Also, president elect joe biden continues to put his cabinet together. An Obama Administration veteran will serve as the countrys top doctor. We expect more announcements this week on the team that will play key roles in the pandemic response. Were live in delaware where mr. Bidens spending the weekend. Also President Trump has raised more than 200 million since election day in his unsuccessful efforts to overturn the results. What happens to all that money . And whos donating it . Nbc news legal analyst danny suvalose has been doing some digging. He will share what hes found. And it took nearly two years, but the boeing 737 max will start carrying passengers again after two fatal crashes. Whats being done to reassure everyone that the plane is safe now . Thats all coming up as the week continues on msnbc. Week continues on msnbc humira patients,. This ones for you. You inspired us to make your humira experience even better. With humira citratefree. It has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, theres less liquid, and a thinner needle. With less pain immediately following injection. Ask your doctor about humira citratefree. And you can use your copay card to pay as little as 5 a month. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections,. Including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,. As ha