Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20201117

Greatest dream in the world is that joe biden wins because the winner of this vote was decided by a fair and open election. Therefore, i humbly concede to joe biden. The American People have responded and they said to me, youre fired. Get out. Its funny i missed that concession speech from the president. Well said. Good morning and welcome to morning joe on this tuesday, november 17th. We have a lot to get to this morning. The latest with the president ial transition. We have reached the point now where the National Security adviser is openly referring to biden as the president elect. Thats very big news. Plus, some stunning allegations coming out of the state of georgia. The states republican secretary of state claims senator Lindsey Graham asked him if he could throw out absentee ballots that were cast legally. Is that a crime . Graham denies this. Well get into that. The other harsh words georgia secretary of state said about members of his own party and again, this is a republican were talking about. And well discuss the reports that President Trump wants to significantly draw down troops from International Hot spots and asked about options for attacking iran. Is trump hurting u. S. National security on his way out of office . And willie, a lot of it amid the nationwide surge in coronavirus cases. Yeah. Thats the story here. President elect biden turning up the pressure on President Trump and the administration for failing to move ahead with a peaceful transition of power. Speaking at a News Conference in wilmington, delaware, yesterday, biden warned that more americans will die from coronavirus if his Team Continues to face delays in working with current government agencies. What do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now given President Trumps unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power . More people may die if we dont coordinate. If we have to wait until january 20th to start that planning it puts it us behind by over a month, a month and a half. Its important theres coordination now. I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to january 20th. Were moving along knowing what the outcome will be. And as i said earlier, i probably shouldnt repeat it but i find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started. Meanwhile, president elect biden will receive a National Security briefing today, though no government officials will participate. Joe biden and Kamala Harris instead will meet with intel and diplomatic experts because the General Services administration continues to refuse to certify president elect bidens win. Lets bring four reporters, nbc news correspondent mike memoli from delaware and nbc news correspondent heidi przybyla. Mike, let me begin with you. President elect biden and his team are taking the posture that everything is okay. Hes moving forward and the country ought to move forward with the expectation hes going to be the president on january 20th, but what is the sense of the internal alarm theyre not having a speedy transition in a time where this coronavirus pandemic is spiking again . Well, willie, i think you see the Biden Transition Team walking a very fine line here in how theyre at least messaging publicly about what this ongoing delay means. One, you see the former Vice President , the president elect, sort of speaking almost to an audience of one, something that we have seen so often during the trump era. As you just played saying its more embarrassing for the country than it is debilitating for his ability to get going. Hes speaking to the president. He knows the president is watching every word he says publicly. Theres a sense that the more biden digs in and sounds the alarm himself about this, the more the president is more likely to dig in on this. So thats why you see him trying to downplay it and what the human cost of lives. We expect to see from biden later on today doing a virtual briefing with his own group of National Security and Foreign Policy experts sending the message that you can cooperate or you cant, but reminding them hes someone who is going to be surrounded by a very experienced team once hes in the white house and echoing what we have heard from the National Security adviser now that he should be or is expected to be the president on january 20th, that hes messaging continuity of government to the country. Showing hes on the job even if he doesnt have the cooperation thats necessary. But behind the scenes there are increasing discussions both on the campaign said, the transition side, and on capitol hill about additional ways to make to ratchet up this a bit more, especially some of the tools that they may have on capitol hill with some of the legislation that moves forward in this lame duck period. That you get the sense that Vice President biden are reaching out to senators . Many of them former colleagues and friends to try to get this moving, to get them to move up the heat on this administration . Biden has at least a dozen republican senators who he served with in the u. S. Senate. Those are natural points of contact for him. They have been very careful in terms of his contact with senator Mitch Mcconnell the majority leader at the moment. I think they dont want to put too much pressure on the relationship but these are absolutely critical discussions. Biden hopes that the democrats win the runoff elections in georgia, and yes it puts them 5050 and with a tie with Kamala Harris. That means he can put things on the floor and the legislation and he also knows if he can pick off two or three republicans at a time, that gives him a lot more wiggle room in terms of his legislative agenda. Putting pressure on Mitch Mcconnell to bring things to the floor and so those are conversations that are absolutely critical right now, but especially so in this lame duck period to try to get more pressure on the gsa as well. All right. Heidi przybyla, youre looking at the impact of these delays. Tell us about them. Right, mika, so were going to the second week now of this situation and certainly this is having agency wide impact. First s the Vaccine Distribution effort. I have talked with several former officials who are advising the Biden Transition Team. The Trump Administration is also trying to play this down, look, we have a vaccination plan thats public. Thats such a bare bones version of what the Biden Campaign needs to be working with now because they are telling me they dont want to do this back with the first wave if you remember when we had all of those ppe shortages. We had a melee of states competing against each other and dispirit supply chains. So the Biden Campaign says they want a unified plan to distributing this. We have never done this before on this scale. So the Biden Transition Team says theyre hampered meaning they cant have the internal communications that have specific numbers in them. For instance, about whats happening at the state level. We know we have for instance shortages with some of the tools that will be needed to administer the vaccines such as gloves. Potentially for syringes. The most important thing here is also who is going to administer this. Who is going to go into the remote areas where its very rural or who is going to go into the Nursing Homes and do this. Were talking about doing this on a very rapid scale. Even though the trump folks may have put out a very bare bones distribution plan, that does not have the specificity that is needed if we really want to get this done early in the new year. Heidi, talking about the General Services administration, the organization that is holding up this entire process led by a woman who was appointed by President Trump about three years ago, can you explain for our viewers why exactly theyre doing this . What is their rationale because we should say again, its highly irregular for them not to recognize what is plain for everybody else to see that joe biden is the next president elect and not to allow the transition process to move forward. Willie, they have not given us any good reason other than the states have not certified the votes. They are going at the behest of the white house on this. A lawyer was sent in there to work with the gsa and the gsa administrator hasnt give us anything. And the communications cannot take place and as mike rightly pointed out earlier conversations had been taking place prior to the election and now im told that there is really a Chilling Effect that a lot of those conversations have really ground to a halt and that folks are worried, willie. Back in october, the president passed a new executive order that would allow him or any of his officials to start arbitrarily moving around Civil Servants in any agency. That has also created a Chilling Effect on the individuals who are worried that if they do do some of the back channeling conversations or informal chats that theyre going to get nailed for it and possibly be moved around or lose their jobs and that is a real concern thats happening across all agencies. We should point out in 2016 the gsa released the funds and began the transition process the day after another close election. Heidi przybyla and mike memoli, thank you both. On that slowness, we should point out that yesterday on morning joe, we had a member of president elect bidens Coronavirus Task force. We had that person saying that on day one, on day one, the president will enact the defense production act to nationalize uniformly ppe, testing, probably concerning vaccines. Everything gets jump started once that trigger is pulled. Something President Trump has refused to do and these delays are going to make it slower as we get into the process where theres a president in place who actually wants to look at this problem from 20,000 feet on a uniform level and make sure that everybody every state gets what it needs. You know, every regulation and all the different rules that are put out there to help mitigate the virus are in tandem with other states. There will be organization finally, but the gsa and these delays and President Trump dont even care and seem to just want to wait until the very last minute. New state and city regulations are continuing to roll out as the country continues to break daily coronavirus case records. In new jersey, Governor Phil Murphy ordered a limit on indoor gatherings from 25 people down to ten. And outdoor gathering from 500 people down to 150. In iowa, governor kim reynolds issued a mask mandate for everyone over the age of 2 which will last until december 10th. Jump to oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt required all bars and restaurants to close at 11 00 starting thursday. In california, governor gavin new some said yesterday that the state will be pulling an emergency brake on the Coronavirus Response and will be issue new restrictions in varying degrees depending on location. In philadelphia, mayor jim kenney announced new restrictions including a ban on indoor gatherings, indoor dining. A shift for high schools and colleges to remote learning. And a cancellation of all youth sports. Lets bring in Infectious Disease physician and medical director of the special pathogens unit at the school of medicine, dr. Naveed bhadelia, a medical contributer. Will this work . Is it it better to have localities specifically focusing on specific issues pertaining to them in terms of the coronavirus . Good morning, mika. So, you know, the trouble here is its not just that theyre all doing Different Things but theyre doing Different Things at in place of the same level of virus transmission, right, thats where some of the strategy comes in. Its a regional issue, at least, if not a national issue. Its a regional issue at least and what we know is that hhs is collecting the daily data for cases and for utilization and even states surrounding other states are not getting information about whats going on around them. And thats the type of sort of alignment in National Strategy that we need that can help the restrictions be a bit more powerful. I dont know, i dont know whats going to happen. Except for the fact that the cases are going up and the hospitalizations are going up and are we going to have a lockdown . Its unclear, you know, because to me, a lockdown is a stay at home order and no commerce. The biggest impact is indoor gatherings and what i would like to see is some sort of uniformity in the way that all states heavily all states are rolling back indoor capacity and mandating masks. That is the number one strategy i think that they can get us out and in states heavily affected they can take the extra steps depending on how overwhelmed their Health Care Systems are. Dr. Bhadelia, we learned 1 million children have been diagnosed with covid19, making up 11 of all cases in the United States. The weekly report is a collaboration between the american pediatrics and the Hospital Association and it reflects the oneweek increase in covid19 cases since the pandemic began. Last week alone, nearly 112,000 children were diagnosed. The true number of those infected is much higher because its often mild in kids and may go undetected. What did you make of this number, dr. Bhadelia, as so many places including here in new york city are trying to walk that line and find the balance of whether its safe to have schools open right now. What we know is that kids can get infected. You know, they may not have the same type of symptoms, they could be milder or asymptomatic and maybe they dont transmit at the same level as the younger children may not transmit at the same level as the older children, but they reflect community transmission. Tons of highlevel transmission going on in the community, children are more likely to get reflected and they represent what goes on in their household. You see a lot more disease in household, theyll get exposed to have that infection. States have a tough time in front of them. Some are keeping the schools open and rolling back closing the bars and the gyms and i think were getting to the point in some states where both may have to switch to being the school being more remote and bars and restaurants and gyms rolling back capacity or closing completely at least until we get a handle on this stuff. Depends on where you are. I think were in for a rough few weeks in my opinion. Dr. Bhadelia, thank you very much. Im sure well see you again very soon. Now to the Foreign Policy decisions that President Trump is reportedly looking to make at the very end of his term. While hes switching jobs out from top defense positions. President trump is expected to withdraw thousands of u. S. Troops from afghanistan, iraq and somalia before he leaves office in january. The New York Times is reporting that a draft order circulating at the pentagon proposes that troop levels in afghanistan be cut in half to about 2,500. While in iraq, u. S. Commanders would cut the number of troops to just under 3,000 and in somalia almost all 700 u. S. Soldiers would leave. Nbc news is reporting that military officials briefed President Trump last week on three options. One was complete withdrawal. The second option cut troop levels in half and the last option kept all remaining troops and the president reportedly picked the second option despite previously calling for all troops in afghanistan to be home by christmas. Meanwhile, President Trump asked senior advisers if he had options to take axtion against the nuclear program. And there was an increase in the stockpile of the Nuclear Material, however, the advisers including Vice President mike pence, secretary of state mike pompeo, acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, and joint chief of staffs chairman general mark milley dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike warning it could easily escalate into a broader conflict. According to the times official left the meeting thinking the military attack was off the table, however, President Trump still may be looking at ways to strike iranian allies including militias in iraq. The white house declined to comment on this report. Nbc news has yet to verify the New York Times reporting. Lets bring in the columnist from the associated press, David Ignatius. The author of the book, the world, a brief introduction richard haass. David, let me begin on the first story that mika walked us through about the troop withdrawals. This is something that you and others and nbc news has been reporting for some time that president was looking at this, drawing down to about 3,000 in afghanistan and about 2,500 in iraq. We heard protests from several members of congress, including Mitch Mcconnell saying this is a bad idea, especially in the middle of negotiations with the taliban. Whats your assessment of the news . My assessment is that this is an argument thats been going on for several months. Departing defense secretary mark esper wrote a memo to the president urging him not to make additional cuts below the 4,500 u. S. Troops now in afghanistan because the conditions simply didnt warrant that reduction. President trump demanded the promise that hed end the endless wars. Clearly wants to go forward despite that advice. Hes gotten similar advice from general mark milley the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who is worried that the conditions are too turbulent to go forward. Im told that the number theyre talking about, 2,500, is sufficient to maintain a fairly robust counterterrorism presence to go after those in the american homeland. But in terms of maintaining support for the broader united mission, nato troops, coalition there, theres not enough left to support them. So the pushback is strong. I think the most important thing maybe, willie, is that the number zero for the moment is out. There was some who thought the president wants to go to zero by january 20th. Hes talking about 2,500. Theres a big difference between the two. Richard haass, a military strike against iran advisers to the president including mike pence and mike pompeo acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, they dissuaded the president from this. But its clearly on his mind. Is there any reason in which Something Like this could be anything less than a Massive International move to deflect from whats going on with the election or is there a good Foreign Policy advice that would be behind this . Well, mika, the one rationale to do it is that iran now has more Nuclear Material than it had several years ago. Its probably useful to point out the triggering event was the United States exiting the 2015 Nuclear Agreement with iran. Since then iran has increased the quantity and the quality of the Nuclear Material it has. It probably has about a fifth of what it had before the agreement was signed. But using military force would have all sorts of consequences not just for retaliation, but it would strengthen the Iranian Regime which would wrap itself in nationalism. I think the efforts to rein in iran wound disappear and the only difference is the next time it would build it, it would do it far deeper underground where israel cant get at it. The big question is whether the next administration will figure out a diplomatic path and to do this in doing consequential that would complicate the life of the United States. David ignatius, do you agree and what do you make of the timing . I think these are both legacy issues for donald trump. Hed love to get troops down to zero in afghanistan but hes been told over and over again its just not practical. It didnt make good sense, it puts american lives at risk. He would love to leave office having done something himself to set back the Iranian Nuclear program in a way that would take them even longer to recover. He is being told in each case by his top military advisers led by general milley, reality that you cant pull the troops out of afghanistan without significant consequences. If you strike iran, you begin a process you cannot predict. And a president who wants to end wars to start one in his last two months against iran, probably the most heavily armed nation in that part of the world doesnt make sense and hes been told that and i have been hearing warnings since last week, like as the New York Times has, this is an area that there could be lastminute president ial action. With trump he comes back to the legacy goals. We have seen that for four years. So i think we should still have our eyes on iran and iran options for the president. Just as we have been talking here the secretarygeneral of nato said the price for leaving too soon talking about afghanistan, or an uncoordinated way could be very high. Reacting to the news that donald trump is considering the drawdowns in afghanistan. Richard, you understand policy well and you understand the importance of the transition of one administration to the next, what do you see right now in these two months that sit before us where President Trump is holding the reins of power. Theres not a whole lot president elect biden can do right now other than to prepare. What are the dangers, what are the perils as there is no transition at this point . Well, its two sides. One is what were talking about. Theres all sorts of things this administration could do. All the things we just talked about. Perhaps pull u. S. Forces out of germany or start something with south korea, introduce new sanctions or tariffs. Traditionally, administrations during transitions, they always hold themselves back, but thats a norm. As we have seen, this is an administration that breaks through any and every norm. The other part is there isnt the cooperative dimension of the transition. There ought to be things in preparations and when you take over, its quite extraordinary. I remember walking in on several transitions on the first day of the new term and you inherit just so much. Its tough. Its just really hard to understand exactly what the policy is. What the threats are and so forth. And thats under the best of circumstances. To take over when its two different parties without a cooperative transition it really means the new administration inevitably gets off to the slower start. Richard haass and David Ignatius, thank you both for being on this morning and david, well be reading your latest piece for the Washington Post entitled the globalist advice for joe biden. Georgias secretary of state, a republican, says Party Leaders like Lindsey Graham have pressured him to throw out legal ballots. The very latest on the mounting tensions and infighting among republicans out of that state and a note that joes new book, saving freedom truman, the cold war, and the fight for western civilization is out on november 24th, next tuesday. You can preorder it now. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. soft chimes [announcer] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. Shark iq robot deep cleans and empties itself into a base you empty as little as once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. Did you try it yet . Comparing plans . Oh yeah. They sure can change year to year. I found lower premiums and lower prescription costs. And those new insulin savings hundreds of plans, 35 a month. Thatll save you money. So uh, mark . On medicare. Gov now. Open enrollment ends dec 7th. Comparing plans. Really pays. Paid for by the u. S. Department of health human services. Paid for by the u. S. Department when panhe doesnt justs mmake a pizza. He uses fresh, clean ingredients to make a masterpiece. Taste our delicious new flatbread pizzas today. Panera. [announcer] meet the make familysized meals fast. And because its a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away. The ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away. Senator kane rumored up for dni dunner the Biden Administration . Well, thats up to the president elects decision. I havent had time to talk to with him about it. But i get along with him well. He called him president elect. Are you seeing that biden is the president elect right now . Thats what the preliminary reports seem to indicate. Its now becoming news when republicans refer to joe biden as the president elect which is what he is. Joining us now nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early, kasie hunt. Associated editor of the Washington Post and political analyst Eugene Robinson joins us us as well. Gene, i want to get to your great column in a second. But kasie, you know, its a fine line for some of these republicans now because he is the president elect and theyre going to have to work with him beyond, you know, Inauguration Day and beyond the time that President Trump at some point figures out that he has lost this election. Well, mika, i mean, you could hear there in that rubio interview that it just sort of slipped out. You know . Theyre used to using formal titles for people and tells you what theyre saying behind the scenes and there was a followup question from the reporter after that, saying, wait a second, you referred to him as president elect. Does that mean that this is where we are and rubio had to sort of the offer the contorting explanation, yes, thats probably whats going to happen. But people who are serious in thinking of National Security challenges and remember, rubio is the acting director of the Intelligence Committee and thats why hes having that conversation, theyre aware of the long list of threats that are facing our country. And they recognize the importance of dealing with it and making sure that this transition is correct. But what theyre not willing to do so far as we have pointed out is do it in public. And, you know, they have made the calculation that that doesnt mean theres additional damage being done, but i think its clear and we have seen this morning a new report from a group that studies president ial transitions and is warning about the potential effects of this that the president this isnt it may be about his feelings and his ego and that may be why republicans are doing this. But that doesnt mean it doesnt have an impact on all of us and the country as a whole. And one of the looming challenges here, you touched on this earlier, you know, republicans have not been happy with President Trump on National Security matters. Its been the one way place that they have broke within him consistently. And i do think that there is going to be increasing pressure if the president continues to move forward with plans related to afghanistan, continues to ask questions about iran and other things that you may see this change directions a little bit, mika. Gene to the point of your column while this pandemic rages on, the president is acting like a mad king raging only about himself, think about this. Because this is literally the worst of the pandemic which we thought we had seen a few months ago, but because, ill say it quite frankly as fact, it was so pathetically handled and people are still here and people are still dying and almost 250,000 fatalities due to the coronavirus and many of those fatalities were not necessary. Could have been mitigated, could have been prevented by good leadership and the president is raging on. While i told Jonathan Lemire yesterday on the show, were past his stupid tweets. I mean, its not even worth reading them on the air, its a waste of time, its insulting to the intelligence of the viewer. The fact hes raging on twitter, i won the election like a little boy stamping his foot because he didnt get what he wants, people are dying and while that platform could be used to show empathy and compassion. While that platform could be used to lead on this, he is abusing it. Its malpractice. Its beyond unpresident ial. Its almost well, its a complete disservice to the American People. Yes, it is, mika, and we know hes not going to change. We know hes going to continue doing this. He rants and raves only about how cruelly he is being treated by i guess the American People who voted him out of office. And, you know, as you said, the stamping of the feet is disgraceful and ridiculous and just stupid. But it is unconscionable that leading republican republican officials, sitting senators and the house of representatives and the governors go along with this. Go along with this fiction and help him impede a necessary transition that is taking place in the midst of a huge crisis, a Huge Public Health crisis. You know, governors republican governors who tried to stay on his good side by not earlier imposing the kinds of restrictions and measures and mask mandates that they should have are now having to backpedal. Theres a new mask mandate in iowa where the governor refused to impose one. Simply because their Health Systems are rapidly approaching the point of collapse under the weight of coronavirus cases. We went from 10 million cases to 11 million cases in let than a week in six days. So this is look, the curve is vertical at this point. And this is the worst of the crisis and at least for the next while it will surely get worse and the president is actively impeding a reasonable response, a compassionate response, a good response to the virus and thus is killing people. Its going to kill people. Meanwhile, the eyes of the political world are on the state of georgia. Theres a recount there. A couple of senate races going to the runoff and georgias republican secretary of state raffensperger has come under the question of republicans and in an effort to reverse President Trumps loss in the state. He expressed exaspiration from trump. The piece goes on the atmosphere had grown so contentious that he and his wife tricia have received death rates in recent dates and he told the paper, other than getting angry its disillusioning particularly when it comes from people on my side of the aisle. Everyone needs to elevate their speech and be careful of what we say and he saved his harshest language for doug collins whom he has called a liar and a charlatan. Collins has accused him of capitulating to democrats by not backing the allegations of voter fraud more strongly and raffensperger said that Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked him on friday if he had the power to toss out ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures. Senator graham questioned if poll workers had accepted ballots with nonmatching signatures due to their political bias. Raffensperger said he was stunned that graham appeared to suggest he find a way to cast legally cast ballots. It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road, raffensperger said. Senator graham denied that interaction to nbc news. Were you surprised he has any power to throw out any ballots i never said that. I said do you have power as secretary of state to require bipartisan verification of the signature. Because right now they dont. What i want to see happen all over the country, if were going to use mailin voting that affect federal elections, when it comes to verifying signature that you have a process thats bipartisan. Both sides can look at the signature, if theres a dispute about whether or not we think its valid, you put it in some kind of field system. Senator Lindsey Graham there. Lets bring in the political reporter, greg bluestein. Good to see you this morning. So this secretary of state, again, a republican is under incredible pressure not only inside the state of georgia, but nationally. The two republicans have called on him to resign. You have a sitting congressman, doug collins, trying to get raffensperger to claim anyway that theres voter fraud in the state and raffensperger said theres not. He called collins a failed candidate and a liar. So can you speak to that dynamic and how hes holding up so well under this heat . Yeah. This is an extraordinary rift in georgia at a time when republicans can ill afford it. We have runoffs for control of the u. S. Senate and not long ago it was secretary raffensperger was under attack by democrats for upholding what they believe would be laws that were sporting voter suppression. Now he is kind of the last bulwark between the integrity of the vote and pro Trump Supporters who are leveling claims of widespread fraud and theres no evidence whatsoever of these claims. Yeah. Kasie hunt, ill let you take it away but it seems what Lindsey Graham was asking the georgia secretary of state to do doesnt i mean, is it legal . Well, i mean, thats my question for greg. Frankly, i mean, we saw this back and forth with Lindsey Graham denying to one of my colleagues here at nbc that he ever said what the secretary of state says that he said. I have covered Lindsey Graham for a long time and, you know, understand how he has these kinds of phone conversations and how he talks about this kind of thing, but were you surprised by this . Do you think what he was asking the secretary of state to do was a legal a legal thing, even under his own interpretation of it, even if you are the most generous to Lindsey Graham as you can be. It seems problematic, no matter what. It sounds like hes asking him to toss out legally cast ballots absentee ballots that were the subject of the agreement between republicans and democrats that all of the rules that were talking about when it comes to verifying signatures were the subject of an agreement by republicans and democrats that were signed off by all of the state Republican Leaders and now theyre coming under scrutiny by President Trump and the allies. But this is a compact that was agreed upon, it was a consensus here in georgia. So greg, lets talk about the actual recount itself. Its moving forward quickly and in fact ahead of schedule in some of these counties. It looks like if you look at the reports that come in that the recount vote is matching up well to the original vote. The hand vote is matching up to the can computer vote. There was one exception in floyd county where 2,600 votes were missing from a memory card. They turned up. Gave donald trump maybe 800 more votes there. But still, he trails by more than 13,000 votes in the state. Do you see any evidence that the vote is going to change because of this hand recount . None whatsoever, but more importantly the state Election Officials say that the margin is still going to be about 13,000. They were furious about the revelation theres 2,600 untallied ballots that are now being tallied in floyd county which is a very republican area. As you mentioned, its a net gain of about 800 votes for President Trump. But not going to change the outcome of the race here in georgia. So Republican Leaders have sounded the alarm ahead of the senate runoffs. According to the Washington Post, there was concern about the partys ability to stave off two democratic challengers. Reverend Raphael Warnock and jon ossoff, the blunt assessments were made on a november 10th phone call with donors hosted by the National Republican senatorial committee. The post notes during that call, some expressed particular concern about georgias fastchanging electorate, driven by the increasingly liberal metro and atlanta region and the push by 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to register more voters of colors and they described President Trump as a political burden who despite his false claims of victory was the likely loser of the 2020 election. Despite trumps continued insistence he won, they cast it as an understandable but potentially futile protest. On so many levels, trump is becoming a burden and you even heard it in marco rubios voice. Like ive got i have to work with joe biden, yes, hes the president , sorry, trumpee, but i cant do this anymore. Yeah. And more republicans are going to have to come to that realization, because yes, they have to work with joe biden and hes going to be the president of the United States. And thats a big deal. You need to be able to work with the president. But, you know, my question with greg for greg is looking ahead to the january 5th elections, we would think of georgia, we were accustomed to thinking of georgia, the state that has republican dna and normally you say even despite what happened this month you favor republicans going into this runoff. However, from a distance, it looks like the Republican Party is kind of in disarray in georgia with a lot of internal sniping and perhaps potential for depressed turnout and it looks like the democrats have momentum. How do you read going in to january . I think its a tossup. Youre going to have a smaller electorate voting in the statewide runoff, but still an enormous amount of voters. At the same time, republicans are concerned that all of the president s talk of Election Fraud will depress a segment of the loyal trump voters. Theyll have a lot of the democrat voters that will come out who are energized but republicans are turned off and believing that the race is rigged. We interviewed voters who parrot back the same talking points and some republicans here are concerned that if trump comes down to georgia and focuses all of his attention on that race an not on the senate races, then theyre in trouble. The Atlanta Journal constitutions greg bluestein, thank you. Coming up, president elect joe biden made a strong call for more relief funds yesterday. Steve rattner takes us through his charts, next. R takes us thrh his charts, next like martin. When a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa usaa. What youre made of, were made for. You can crush ice, make nismoothies, and do even more. Chop salsas, spoon thick smoothie bowls, even power through dough, and never stall. The ninja foodi power pitcher. Rethink what a blender can do. For people with Heart Failure taking entresto, it may lead to a world of possibilities. Entresto is a Heart Failure medicine prescribed by most cardiologists. It was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. Heart failure can change the structure of your heart so it may not work as well. Entresto helps improve your hearts ability to pump blood to the body. And with a healthier heart, theres no telling where life may take you. Dont take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if youve had angioedema with an ace or arb. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low Blood Pressure kidney problems, or high blood potassium. Ask your doctor about entresto for Heart Failure. Entrust your heart to entresto. Were going in a very dark winter and things are going to get much tougher before they get easier that requires sparing no effort to fight covid. So that we can open our businesses safely. Resume our lives and put this pandemic behind us. It will be difficult but it can be done. For millions of americans who lost hours of wages or lost their jobs we all agree on our call that we can deliver immediate relief and a need be done quickly. President elect joe biden yesterday speaking about revitalizing the economy. And joining us stands amid the raging pandemic. Steve, the president says he has the best economy in the whole world and the best economy thats ever been, but i mean, the numbers are so interesting because there are deep, deep pockets of people in this pandemic whose businesses have been decimated indefinitely or permanently. There are many people who have been hurt badly and in some cases as you say permanently. It looked like we were getting out of this for a while and the data is very early but its worrisome. The huge rise in infections is beginning to take its toll and we look at how people move around in order to have the economic recovery, people need to be out of the house and shopping and so forth and what you can see is the huge dropoff in mobility in the march near shutdown we had. You can see the climb back, this is americans spending time out of the house and you can see on the dotted line how this peaked on october 7th and its come down. It went from 7. 1 below where it had been at the end of january so this is a worrisome trend. If you look at the next chart, you can see how this translates into peoples actual spending. This tracks credit card data by chase bank and not surprisingly amount of spending using credit cards followed a similar pattern to what you just saw. And on the right where i put the dotted line you can see a few weeks ago, it almost got back to where it had been before and then it kind of rolled over. And it is now down 2. 7 Percentage Points from where it almost got it almost got back to. So people are spending less money on the credit cards not only by the way in stores but also online. If you take a look at the last chart, you can see that there is potentially some impact of all of this on jobs. So this shows you the dark blue line and the blue dots are what the monthly job figures are that are actually announced by the government. And the orange line is a measure that jpmorgan used to predict or track on a more realtime basis whats happening in jobs and you can see how close they were throughout this pandemic. Again, if you go to the right and see the last jobs number and you see the blue dot essentially on top of the orange dot, and what you see since then, the orange line, what you see since then is the orange line drifting down. And that could even suggest the possibility that in the next month or two we could begin to actually start to lose jobs in this country based on the department of labor reports. I would say that this data while its as close to realtime as we can make it, it doesnt include all of the very recent huge upsurge in the virus that you have been talking about this morning. All the new shutdowns being imposed by the governors so its early data and joe biden was right to be out there calling for more stimulus. Thats the big xfactor, a stimulus package, something we havent seen for several months and every Small Business owner, everyone who runs a restaurant, needs right now. And as we plunge deep into winter and theres full shutdowns in some places. The idea was to get some money at the beginning of this, to get them through the shortterm crisis. Now this is going to turn the corner into the new year, what happens to all of those restaurants . What happens to all of those Small Businesses . What happens to mom and pop shops or even bigger businesses if theres not another stimulus package here . Yes, willie, youre absolutely right. It is very scary. If i were a Small Business owner i would be very, very scared. The ppp program did provide them with a bridge across a fairly temporary chasm, kept many businesses going actually from all of the anecdotal and other reports that we have. Now again, so far, the data the Real Time Data is pretty anecdotal. You see the businesses shutting down, you do see restaurants and Stores Closing and saying theyll never reopen. Essentially they cannot operate on an economy thats still this far from normal and without government help. So we need another version of the ppp program to help smalled by and the individuals who are hurt, the extended Unemployment Benefits, the special Unemployment Benefits that congress passed, expired at the end of july and congress hasnt been able to agree on anything else for those people either. Thats the key elements, as well as the state and local aid. The state and local governments are hurting from the loss of revenue and the costs they have had to bear as part of this. If we want to put them into the financially sound position, have them in the position to help distribute this virus, we need to do something for them too. All right. Steve rattner, thank you very mitch. Its now the top of the hour, and kasie hunt and Eugene Robinson are still with us. Joining the conversation, we have msnbc contributor Mike Barnicle. Joe has the morning off. We begin with a look at the impact, the surge of coronavirus cases across the country and what its having on the nations hospitals which are facing their worst fear of being overrun and small town hospitals are being overwhelmed by covid19 deaths with some patients dying while waiting for space at bigcity hospitals. Usa today reports the current wave which has surpassed 2,000 deaths a day frightens Public Health officials because its tearing into the frayed Health Care Safety net of rural america. Many of the nations nearly 1,800 rural hospitals lack the equipment, workforce and expertise to handle a surge of covid19 patients. The daily beast reports that in a Small Community in rural kansas with just over 10,000 people a single nurse is triaging more than 600 covid19 positive cases over the phone because the Community Hospital where she works has no space left to accept new patients. Health administrations in the county said theres no room left at the closest regional hospitals more than an hour away either. Meanwhile, joe biden is warning that more americans will die from coronavirus if his transition Team Continues to face delays in working with government agencies. What do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now given President Trumps attempted to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power . More people may die if we dont coordinate. If we have to wait until january 20th to start that planning it puts us behind by a month, month and a half. Its important that it the be done, that there be coordination now. Lets bring in now surgeon writer and Public Health expert a professor at Harvard Medical School and a member of president elect bidens team. Doctor, before we get into what youre doing on the Transition Team lets set the stakes from where you sit. Where are we in this crisis . We see the numbers on the screen, 248,000 deaths, we know hospitals are spiking and we know hospitals are overrun and were headed into the deep fall and winter period that you have been warning us about since back in march. Where are we right now . One thing to put into the mix, this week we had two incredible pieces of news that we have an end point to this. So we have two vaccines that are likely quite effective. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it is bright, by second quarter, spring and summer, the general public can see the distribution of the vaccine. That means we have to come together and get every american we can through the tunnel, alive, with these jobs intact. That means a comprehensive National Plan. We havent had that, but that includes relief for those who are going to be in jobs that are the facetoface jobs where people dont want to go in to stores and other settings. They want to go to the movies while the virus is rampant. And then we need masks, testing and our preparations with therapeutics and Vaccine Distribution. And unfortunately we have established over nine months theres not going to be a National Plan until you guys get in there on january 20th. We have again discussing this morning you cant get your transition started here. Is there anything you can do back channel, are you talking to people to set yourselves up, if you cant have the official transition because it is being blocked by President Trump and the gsa to really be ready on january 20th, the minute President Biden is sworn in . As part of the Advisory Board advising the Transition Team, what i have seen is that the Transition Team is ready to deal with whatever cards they are dealt come january 20th. But there are basic lines of information that we can gather from outside talking to outside stakeholders, whether its the manufacturers of vaccines, the pharmacies, the suppliers of governments and masks but we dont have the core kinds of information that only comes to talking to the agencies themselves. What is the status of mask and glove supplies and other critical equipment. What are the stockpiles, what are the plans under way for Vaccine Distribution, whats going to be handed off all of that cant wait. So you dont have that, doctor, at this point. No. As a matter of fact, its just incredible. On day one, i know that dpa, the defense production act, will be used in the case of president elect joe biden for ppe, for masks, for testing, which can help get this all under control. I mean, even testing right now is a mess and theres all different types of testing. You cant get tests, if you can, you get false positives or false negatives. We have been through this. It certainly needs to be improved in a more uniform way, in a more effective way. What about getting the vaccine to the American People . Will the dpa be a part of that because thats a complicated set of, you know, factors to get the vaccine actually to everybody. If necessary, the dpa would be invoked to get the supplies, for example, the certain kind of ingredients necessary and in short supply. The transition would love to hear from the Operation Warp Speed Team directly. We know that they have significant plans under way that theyre moving closely with any number of partners out there. Its just that we have to have the pieces to the information to know which parts are moving nicely, which ones still have work to do and theres bound to be understand, we are aiming to deliver a not only discover a vaccine but make sure an entire country is vaccinated in less than a year. That is an extraordinary undertaking. Its not anything we have attempted to do in health care at this kind of scale and speed for the sake of the entire economy. So that work needs a handover and there are pieces that are bound to be incomplete and were going to pick up the ball from there. Mike barnicle has the next question. Mike . As you just pointed out, we have some great news from moderna and pfizer and Johnson Johnson is coming up in the far turn apparently. So were going to have vaccines at some point fairly soon. My question to you is, are you at all concerned about the distribution chain . The states are nearly bankrupt. Who is going to distribute the vaccine . First responders will get it first, the elderly, Nursing Homes, nurses, medical personnel, such as yourself, but who where does it go . Where does the vaccine plan and transportation and distribution go . Who distributes it . Well, so let me break this down. Theres at least a couple of concerns. Number one is that the supply of vaccine, which moderna said yesterday and pfizer has said theyll have ready to go by the end of december. Doesnt start moving until the fda has reviewed the data and confirmed that its effective and the signs are that its safe. And then the production would be enough for somewhere around 10 to 20 million people. Thats not enough for the First Responders and atrisk Health Care Workers to begin with so we have to have Important Communications for the public about who gets it first, and why and be incredibly transparent. Im not worried about the reports of people being hesitant to take the vaccine. Im worried about the clamoring for the vaccine thats there. The second part of it is that you have one of the two vaccines that look quite promising requires dry ice. You know, what is the status of the dry ice factories and their ability to bring that bring whats needed forward and then how much is going to get distributed by the National Government to chains like the pharmacies, cvs, walmart, walgreens, et cetera, who are an important part of distributing to the Nursing Homes but then also through state and local Health Authorities to the hospitals, to the clinics, directly to Nursing Homes. That i i know theres planning under way. We dont know whats incomplete and how what the big bottle necks and concerns are. Its still information we look forward to receiving. Kasie hunt, you have the next question. Good morning, youre not concerned about the hesitancy people may feel to take the vaccine. I just wondered if you could explain that a little more, because andrew cuomo, governor of new york, was on with us yesterday and talked about how he and some other states want to make an independent review process of these vaccines because theyre concerned about politicization at the fda and the cdc and dr. Fauci seemed to suggest when he talked to Savannah Guthrie yesterday we could see an emergency use authorization before tend of the year when donald trump is still going to be in the oval office. So do you have work to do in terms of convincing people that this is something that they should be doing for themselves, for their families, for all of us or do you think that thats a not a challenge youre going to face . Its going to be a challenge but i think the bigger challenge is distribution because those who are not hesitant we dont have enough to get to those people. Along the way, well build confidence. We have not had a consistent demonstration that science, Public Health and peoples concerns about safety and effectiveness are driving the decision making. Fda has stepped forward in the last six to eight weeks to make really clear and transparent the process of approving the vaccine is not going to be politicized and i have been impressed by the scientists at the fda demonstrating that they will under tremendous fire, under accusations under claims that they will be fired for sticking to the science they have stayed fast. That gives me confidence about their judgment as they bring it forward. I dont blame states for saying they want to review that and they may feel they can step back from the requirement. Then we need consistent messaging about what its like, what works. You know, getting two of the shots, there are side effects, you know, a number of people develop fevers, muscle aches and it can be, you know, those are going to be normal parts of receiving the vaccine and we have to tell the story of what to expect out of this. I have no question that in the new administration theres going to be much more consistent messaging, commitment that the science and the Public Health are going to drive this and transparency so people understand that information. That makes me less concerned about the vaccine hesitancy. Especially as we see doctors themselves taking the vaccine, nurses themselves taking the vaccine as the very first people to receive this. Were nine days out from thanksgiving now. This is a period that Public Health experts have been concerned about as Family Gatherings come up as we go into the holidays. Theres new polling that shows some people in this country who didnt believe coronavirus was real or at least didnt believe it was as bad as the media was telling us it was are now coming to terms with it as it hits their communities. What is your basic advice for the American People as we head into thanksgiving and into the holidays. Yeah, my advice has to do with facing our reality that the virus is rampant. Next holidays, we have every sign well be back to something much closer to normal. These holidays know i got off the phone just the other day with my family, we had been planning to gather across generations and figure out the ways to do that and we cant. It just you know, coming from across the country this isnt possible in the kind of large Family Gathering we have been used to. This is going to be a different thanksgiving and a different christmas as the virus spreads. If you are getting together with folks, the best way to make it work, the cdc tells us, is quarantine two weeks before you gather with family. And if you can get tested, testing is more available right now and if you get tested and know that youre negative than that also helps to make it safer to get together. Yeah. Were just waiting till next year as you say. Thank you. Former First Lady Michelle Obama is speaking out against President Trumps refusal to concede the election saying quote, this isnt a game. She urges the president to follow the tradition of a peaceful transition of power writing in part this. Our democracy is so much bigger than anybodys ego. 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 doesnt belong to any one individual or any one party. To pretend that it does, to 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 i want to urge all americans especially those regardless of party to do your part to encourage a small transition of power. Just as sitting president s have done throughout our history and she began that post by saying, you know, here she was four years ago in that position and, yes, it hurt, but the peaceful transition of power was more important than anything. Lets bring in msnbc contributor Jonathan Capehart who we are excited to announce yes, you will be sitting down with president barack obama for a special interview following the release of the former president s new book and theyll be joined by members of the my brothers Keeper Initiative for a candid conversation on how a divided country can heal the exclusive interview will air this thursday at 10 00 p. M. Eastern right here on msnbc. Jonathan, thats amazing. We really look forward to that and also just your thoughts on Michelle Obamas post as she tries to carefully place her words and she comes out when its really important and it is when you listen to the doctor who just preceded this interview, the coronavirus is running rampant in this country. Its a pandemic that other countries have been able to get under control and this presidency for whatever reason refuses to do so but now refuses to hand over information to help the president elect and his team do the job that needs to be done. You know, mika, thank you very much for having me on and thank you for the kudos on the very exciting special that were going to do on thursday. You know, people have followed the obamas both president obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama know their relationship, particularly her relationship to politics is very fraught. She doesnt like politics, she doesnt like how the games are played. So what we have seen this year alone, we have heard more from Michelle Obama in these past in this past calendar year than related to politics than during their entirety of the eight years in the white house. That signals, one, her concern for the country, for democracy, what President Trump and his Administration Means to who we are as a people and also the foundation of our country. But also, in that lengthy Instagram Post what comes through in that post, in her convention speech, in the digital ad she put out just before the election is her upset and her justified anger over what President Trump did in terms of attacking her husband, attacking her family. And what that did to the safety and security of her family which she gets into in that Instagram Post, you know for former Lady Michelle obama, in this year, what were seeing is the personal the political is personal. Its personal for her because these attacks on her family have a direct impact, but its also personal for her because she loves this country and she doesnt like to see the impact of what trump is doing especially as the former first lady of the United States. You showed the pictures of her standing on the east front of the capital on january 20, 2017, being a part of the american apparat apparatus. Being a part of the system that keeps this country and this democracy going. She played she was an active participant. The idea that President Trump refuses to continue that tradition is galling. Yeah. Its also really dangerous and its going to impact the coronavirus efforts. Gene robinson, jump in. Jonathan, congratulations on the interview. Thanks, gene. So youll be talking to president obama at an interesting time. Hes publishing the book, were in this weird interregnum. Hes had a lot of time to and the necessity to think a lot about his term in office and the country he led and the country we see now. What do do you want to know from him . What do you want to try to get him to focus on in this interview . Do you have a sense yet . I have a little bit of a sense. I mean, the president in his book, im continually making my way through it, its 700 some pages but i want to get him to talk more fully and openly about race than he did when he certainly when he was president. He does get into it in his book and particularly with the participants of the my brothers Keeper Initiative who will be there with us, to have this conversation about where we are as a country when it comes when it comes to race, also in the wake of the black lives matter demonstrations that erupted around the country in the wake of the killing of george floyd in minneapolis in late may. So i want to hear him talk about that, but also in reading the book, the parallels that im seeing between, you know, his campaign, the transition, and what we have lived through in the last four years and also the campaign and the or the nontransition that were going through going through now would love to get him not to go tit for tat with President Trump over whats happening, but to talk about more fully how dangerous this period were in is. How dangerous it is not to have the commander in chief, the president of the United States, the occupant of the oval office, the outgoing president not participate in the peaceful transfer of power. In terms of were seeing the real life impacts, the real minutes of a president whos checked out. This administration is doing nothing in terms of addressing the coronavirus pandemic. And as president elect biden said yesterday, more people are going to die. We have got a little more than 60 days before hes inaugurated as president of the United States. Thousands of people are going to be infected with the virus in that time. Thousands more are going to die in that time because of the inaction, inattentiveness and checked outness of President Trump. Theres a line that keeps jumping out to me. He writes it was as in my very presence in the white house had triggered a deepseated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted and he talks about how donald trump started that Birther Movement and rode into the white house. Ill be interested to hear him flesh that out. Its not like hes blaming himself for something, but understanding what happened in this country and what was on the underbelly that donald trump exposed. You know, that line jumped out at me as well. Thats what i meant about getting the former president getting to talk more fully about race in this country. You know, i covered the entirety of his eight years in office and gene knows this, race was even though he didnt talk about it a lot as president of the United States, it was omni present. You knew in sitting with him and interviewing with him that he understood the role of race and also what the symbolism of having him, a black man in the white house, this black family in the white house, what that meant to the country. It was great in terms of the 2008 campaign and the hope and change and the symbolism of what they meant during the election. But what he discovered and what we all discovered during his presidency that once they were inside suddenly reality hit for a big chunk of this country and they didnt like what they saw and he knew that, he understood it and tried to navigate for eight years trying not to roil the passions out in the country. But unfortunately what happened, donald trump as you said saw it, seized it, used it as a big wave to ride himself into the white house and i think he if i remember correctly in the book he also recognizes that donald trump is a symptom. Hes not the disease. And that what donald trump exposed and what hes taking advantage of are deepseated issues, deepseated problems that have been here since before the founding of the republic. Since 1619. Jonathan capehart, thank you so much. You can watch jonathans exclusive cable interview with former president obama this thursday at 10 00 p. M. Eastern right here on msnbc. We look forward to that. Still ahead on morning joe, with the election of joe biden, there are some democrats who are calling for more investigations in to President Trump. Will biden be supportive of that move . Nbcs carol lee joins us with her new reporting ahead on morning joe. Renew active. Only from unitedhealthcare. Lift it press it downward dog it splash it walk it with one of the largest medicare gym networks, renew active gives you so many ways to be healthy. Get medicare with more. Renew active gives you so many ways to be healthy. children laughing music swells dog barking music fades exhales experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. With sweet potato fries. Eating a falafel wrap doorbell rings thanks splitsies . Oooh. You meant the food, didnt you . Some Companies Still have hr stuck between employeesentering data. A. Changing data. More and more sensitive, personal data. And it doesnt just drag hr down. It drags the entire business down with inefficiency, errors and waste. Its ridiculous. So ridiculous. With paycom, employees enter and manage their own data in a single, easy to use software. Visit paycom. Com, and schedule your demo today. [announcer] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. Shark iq robot deep cleans and empties itself into a base you empty as little as once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. Welcome back to morning joe. Beautiful live picture of the white house, coming up on 7 30 in the morning in washington on the east coast. Lets bring in nbc news correspondent carol lee. You have a new piece talking about joe biden and his wishes that his administration be forward looking and not be looking back at donald trump. Not looking at investigations from his Justice Department. What exactly is he talking about and what is his posture toward all of the things that could be investigated about donald trump . Well, willie, one of the questions facing president elect biden is how he handles this pressure from within his own party to investigate President Trump, members of his administration, some of his policies and what were told is that privately biden has told aides hes wary of a flurry of investigations into President Trump, that he feels it will be divisive at a time when hes trying to unify the country and he doesnt want every day of his presidency to be about donald trump. And he would really like to as one adviser told us just move on. At the same time, he is saying that his aides are saying he wants an independent Justice Department and that may wind up being how he threads this needle, saying that hes not going to tell his attorney general who to investigate or who not to investigate. And so if hes not doing that, then he has no control over whether or not there are investigations into trump, but democrats they have really they have wanted investigations into the president s taxes, into obstruction of justice. Various sorts of issues, whether its his child separation policies and things like that and president obama faced a similar sort of dilemma when he came into office about whether or not he was going to prosecute the Bush Administration officials over his torture policy and he came out by april of 2009 and said, im not going to do that. So it will be interesting to see how biden sort of navigates this and its worth mentioning, willie, regardless of what he does, it wont have any baring on state investigations like the one by the attorney general of new york. He was actually asked about this at one of the democratic primary debates and heres what joe biden said. Would you support a potential criminal investigation into President Trump after he leaves office even if you thought it might further inflame the countrys divisions . Look, i would not direct this Justice Department like this president does, i would not dictate who should be prosecuted or exonerated. Thats not the role of the president of the United States. Let them make the independent judgment, if he violated the law and he should be in fact criminally prosecuted, then so be it. Mike barnicle, thats a yearinyear ago. He doesnt want to be mired in trump for the four years of his term but he wont get in the way of the Justice Department investigating and there are other investigations outside his purview in places like manhattan, for example. Yeah. Youre right, willie. Off of the behavior of the Transition Team for the president elect and not for the behavior of the president elect himself, this is literally going to be the difference in night and day in terms of the department of justice, but carol, in talking to your sources within the biden team, there are 63 days left in the trump presidency. Did you get a sense from talking to any of your sources the that they live with a degree of apprehensi apprehension, about this erratic to put it mildly president in office right now could do to the function of government . Well, theyre concerned about any number of things that President Trump could do, particularly in the National Security space and you hear from people working for biden dont have a sense of what could be going on because they dont have any eyes in the administration right now. And so theres growing concern about not just the National Security issues, but also in terms of how theyre going to deal with the pandemic and ive got to say the other thing is this is a transition thats very wary of sending a message to this administration that the Vice President president elect biden is not interested in investigating him in part because they dont want to think they have impunity to do whatever they want in the next nine weeks. So thats why you have seen this sort of delicate balance between how theyre talking about this privately and publicly and what we have heard from the president elect so far. But there is concern about what could be going on within the administration and on any number of fronts and just things that you hear about are what are they doing with documents, are they being preserved or various policies that might be implemented before President Trump leaves office. Is he going to do immunity for his staff. Carols new piece is up on nbcnews. Com. Thank you so much. All right. Coming up, connecticut is one of several states seeing a spike in coronavirus hospitalizations and fix positivity rates right now. Well be joined by Governor Ned Lamont who is selfquarantining after a senior staff member tested positive for covid19. Morning joe is back in a 340e789. 340e789. Kids, what do you want for lunch . Pizza. Tacos. Pizza what about subway . Its a good call and everyone loves it. We raised our kids on it. So it stopped the bickering . mocking tone mom, jjs copying me grow up. Mom knock it off try the new subway buffalo chicken or bbq chicken. Try the new subway businesses today are looking to tomorrsetting the course. Ating. But new ways of working demand a new type of network. One thats more than just fast. You need flexibility to work from anywhere and manage from everywhere. Advanced technology. With serious security. And reliable coverage, nationwide. Forwardthinking enterprises deserve forwardthinking solutions. And thats what we deliver. So bounce forward, with comcast business. So several colleges and universities have exploring different strategies on how to handle thanksgiving break amid an uptick in cases nationwide. The university of South Carolina, Syracuse University and Emory University are among those planning to end inperson instruction ahead of the holiday. The university of missouri has told students to stay home until january. Amid a recent rise of cases in the state. On the other hand, some states are advising students not to leave and Boston University is asking students to remain on campus and host friends gively. And Penn State University is encouraging students to get tested before leaving campus and to finish their studying online. These thanksgiving strategies come as a researcher from ball State University found that thousands of students on spring break trips were responsible for Community Outbreaks earlier in the year. Joining us now the governor of connecticut, democrat, ned lamont. He is currently selfisolating after one of his staffers tested positive for the coronavirus. Governor, i hope your staffer is doing okay. Thank you so much for being on the show with us this morning. What is your warning to students in connecticut coming home for thanksgiving . Hey, good morning, mika. We got together with all of the governors from pennsylvania up through massachusetts and we all issued a directive. If you want to come back to your home state from wherever youre going to college, say in south dakota or north dakota, you must get tested before you leave. Wed like you to quarantine before you leave as well. I think thats going to keep all of our people safe and keep their families safe when they get home. Okay. But lets and lets talk about theres a lot of different factors here. For example, kids who come home are told to isolate for two weeks. Can we be honest, is that really possible for all families and all kids coming home from college over thanksgiving or going back to college . Either there isnt the space for it, or the mindset for it. I havent seen anybody do it. Okay. I was 18, i know. But look, thats why were saying at least the testing is so important. Thats why you test before you take off if youre in an airplane, you want to show youve tested negative. Its a little bit of a good faith and also when you get back, we want you to get tested as well. But look, mika, im not going to dismiss quarantining its so important because you can be infectious for 14 days. So heres the bottom line with that though. Can we be honest, testing. You can test negative and actually end up having coronavirus but it doesnt show up in the test. There are false negatives, false positives, also its too early in the virus. Testing is as sketchy as quarantining. It almost seems like the only thing that is possibly helpful on a uniform level is uniform mask wearing. Well, dont let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I mean, testing makes a big difference before you leave, after you get here, but youre absolutely right. Nothing more important than mask wearing. I have to say, im very thankful for the people of connecticut. They showed me a heat map the other day. I thought we were doing better and then it indicated that we are more likely to wear the mask than just about any other state and i think thats served us well but right now we see the storm clouds coming again. Hey, governor lamont, its willie geist. Im curious at how youre looking at the balance between business and Public Health that are inextricably tied right now. I know you are back to 50 capacity for restaurants and they have to be closed by 10 00 p. M. At night. Yes, we need all of the people employed, we cant have more people out of work, but also youre looking at the positivity rates. How do you balance that as a governor . Man that is tough. I mean, in our state, if the restaurants were to close down or just for Outdoor Dining that could make 100,000 jobs. As you know, theres no supplemental right now for unemployment so thats really hard. At the same time, were seeing that with more community spread, willie, restaurants can be a source of the contagion. Were trying to get that balance right, really emphasizing outdoors. Everybody if they can are putting in tents with heaters and see how that goes for another week and by the way, no serving after 9 30 because sometimes bars restaurants become bars at that hour. Governor, do you have money in your budget to help the Small Businesses if they do have to in fact close . A lot of states have said frankly, we just dont have the cash to cover this any longer and we need the federal government to step in. What are your finances looking like in connecticut and how urgent do you believe a stimulus package is out of washington . Look, its really urgent. This is not a blue states red states, we need money to get the vaccine out there. We need money to help the Small Businesses keep going. In the meantime, were sending out 5,000 checks to 10,000 very Small Businesses this week. Just doing everything we can to give them more to get by and hopefully well have something clear by the federal government in the next month or two. Thats wishful thinking. Yeah. Maybe at this point. Mike barnicle has a question for you. Hey, governor, i want to follow up on that theme, the revenue shortage that connecticut is suffering, massachusetts, all of the states are suffering a revenue shortage. We had earlier today we had dr. Gawande on. How would connecticut deal with distribution of vaccines if it came to the state being responsible for distributing the vaccines when you dont have enough money right now and youre laying people off perhaps. What would you do . What does the immediate future look like in terms of revenue for the state of connecticut . Yeah, mike. I mean, the feds are giving us the vaccine at no cost. Refrigeration and other types of distribution has been taken care of. But theres hundreds of millions in distribution costs we have just to make sure we monitor this on a careful basis. Make sure we have the infrastructure to do it. Look, we need the feds to step up, but we cant wait. Thank goodness that connecticut has a prebillion dollar rainy day fund, this is a rainy day and wed tap that in the meantime until the feds step up and we wont delay the distribution of the vaccine. Governor lamont, thank you very, very much for being on the show. Coming up, the mayor of chicago, Lori Lightfoot will discuss her plans to fight back against the latest coronavirus surge. Morning joe is coming right back. Look limu someone out there needs help customizing their Car Insurance with liberty mutual, so they only pay for what they need. False alarm. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Im a peer educator,. A fitness buff,. And a champion for my own health. I talked with my doctor. And switched to. Fewer medicines with. Dovato. Prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv1 treatment or replacing their current hiv1 regimen. With. Just 2 medicines. In 1 pill, dovato is as effective as a 3drug regimen to help you reach and stay undetectable. Research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed. And get to and stay undetectable. Can no longer transmit hiv through sex. Dont take dovato if youre allergic to any of its ingredients. Or if you take dofetilide. Hepatitis b can become harder to treat while taking dovato. Do not stop dovato without talking to your doctor,. As your hepatitis b may worsen or become lifethreatening. Serious or lifethreatening side effects can occur, including allergic reactions,. Lactic acid build up, and liver problems. If you have a rash and other symptoms of an allergic reaction,. Stop taking dovato and get medical help right away. Tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis b or c,. Or if you are, may be, or plan to be pregnant. Your doctor may prescribe a different medicine. Than dovato if you plan to be pregnant or if pregnancy is confirmed during the first trimester. Dovato may harm your unborn baby. Use effective Birth Control while taking dovato. Most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping,. Tiredness, and anxiety. So much goes into who i am. Hiv medicine is one part of it. Ask your doctor about dovatoi did. Republicans who are backing up the president s refusal to concede . You clearly need to work with them going forward. My message is i will work with you. I understand a lot of your reluctance because of the way the president operates, but i have been in contact with them, will be in contact with more of them as we move along. If it has to wait until january 20th to get actually become operational, thats a shame, but maybe thats the only way to get it done. Wow. Joe bidens message to republicans who are still backing trumps refusal to concede. As for that refusal to admit defeat in the two weeks since election day, the Trump Campaign and other republicans have filed at least 24 election lawsuits in six key swing states alleging violations of law during voting as well as the counting process. But so far no court has found a single instance of fraud. Of the 24 cases, at least 15 have either been denied, dismissed, settled or withdrawn. And at least three republicans failed to provide a factual basis or any evidence for their claims. Yesterday, a lawsuit filed by some voters in wisconsin and backed by the firm filing other cases for the Trump Campaign was withdrawn. The suit was dismissed the same day plaintiffs in three lawsuits filed in georgia, michigan, and pennsylvania dropped their legal challenges. And a conservative group dropped lawsuits in several states that had alleged voters were disenfranchised by illegal ballots cast for president elect biden. They did not offer evidence of their claims. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Elections commission puts the estimated cost of a statewide recount at 7. 9 million. A total that must be paid upfront if one is requested. At least 68 of wisconsins 72 counties have canvassed and certified their results. The Trump Campaign cannot formally request a recount until all 72 counties certify election results. I mean, its beyond embarrassing and it would be funny, gene, if it wasnt such a mess and such an abuse of our systems of government, a waste of money, and, you know, aside from the fact that on various trumpbacked media networks, organizations, they are parroting this and going on and on and on about it when the fact is that joe biden is the president elect. Yeah. These are specious timewasting lawsuits that do nothing but further what is obviously clearly and definitively a false narrative about alleged voter fraud on a massive scale involving hundreds of thousands of votes in at least six states. I mean, its ridiculous on its face, and no evidence is being provided. There is an interesting date coming up, as you mentioned. 7. 9 milli 7. 9 million is what its going to count to, cost to do a recount in wisconsin upfront. The margin of error is 20,000 votes. Thats not going to be overturned in a recount. Its ridiculous. It will be fascinating to see if the Trump Campaign ponies up that money, you know, throws good money after bad in that way knowing that its not going to have an impact. If they are willing to put their own actual dollars behind this sort of ridiculous ego massage for President Trump. Its incredibly damaging to the country. Its damaging to the transition. It damages faith in democracy. Its appalling, and who knows how much longer we will have to go through it . I think republicans gradually will begin dealing with the reality as we know it, but it shouldnt have to be that way. It shouldnt have to be that way. No. Still a ahead, more republicans begin to come to terms with the fact that Joe Biden Kwon twon t election, including Donald Trumps own National Security advisor. Plus, the president elect turns up the heat on President Trump to begin cooperating with the transition, saying if he doesnt, more people will die from coronavirus. Morning joe is coming right back. Right back ah sugar, ah honey honey you are my candy girl and youve got me wanting you applebees 2 for 20. Its date night in the neighborhood. Applebees 2 for 20. Introducing the iphone 12 pro with 5g. Now at tmobile, unleash the 5g power of the epic iphone 12 pro in more places. Get 2 iphone 12 pro max 2 lines of unlimited 5g for just 100. Only at tmobile. No uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. Working, parenting, problem solving. Nnnnono at new chapter vitamins weve been busy too. Innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. Fermenting . Yeah like kombucha or yogurt. And we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. Thats what we do, so you can do you. New chapter wellness, well done. To fight wrinkles . Its what i use neutrogena®. The 1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists. Rapid wrinkle repair® visibly smooths fine lines in 1 week. Deep wrinkles in 4. So you can kiss wrinkles. And other wrinkle creams goodbye rapid wrinkle repair®. Pair with our most concentrated retinol ever for 2x the power. Neutrogena®. A new buick . For me . To james, from james. Thats just what i wanted. Is this a new buick . I secret santaed myself. I shouldnt have. But i have been very good this year. Wow wow wow this year, turn black friday into buick friday all month long. Now during buick friday, pay no interest for 84 months on most 2020 buick suv models. Its a dark, lonely place. This is art inspired by real stories of People Living with bipolar depression. Emptiness. A hopeless struggle. The lows of bipolar depression can disrupt your life and be hard to manage. Latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. Latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms, and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. Now im feeling connected. Empowered. Latuda is not for everyone. Call your doctor about unusual mood changes, behaviors or suicidal thoughts. Antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. Elderly dementia patients on latuda have an increased risk of death or stroke. Call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be lifethreatening, or uncontrollable muscle movements as these may be permanent. These are not all the serious side effects. This is where i want to be. Talk to your doctor and ask if latuda could make the difference youve been looking for in your bipolar depression symptoms. My fellow americans, a short time ago joe biden beat me in the election and not only did he win, he won by a lot, actually. Therefore, it is time for me to step aside because, lets face it, i wasnt probably on my game and i wasnt doing so well. I am the only president in history to lose the popular vote twice and to get impeached. Its time for a change. The greatest dream in the world is that joe biden wins because the winner of this vote was decided which a fair and open election. Therefore, i humbly concede to joe biden. The American People have responded, and they said to me, youre fired. Get out. Its funny, i missed that concession speech from the president. Well said. Good morning, and welcome to morning joe on this tuesday, november 17th. And we have a lot to get to this morning. The latest with the president ial transition. We have reached the point now where the National Security advisor is openly referring to biden as the president elect. Thats very big news. Plus, some stunning allegations coming out of the state of georgia. The states republican secretary of state claims senator Lindsey Graham asked him if he could throw out absentee ballots that were cast legally. Is that a crime . Graham denies this. We will get into that. And the other harsh words georgia secretary of state said about members of his own party and, again, this is a republican were talking about, and well discuss the report that President Trump wants to significantly draw down troops from International Hot spots and asked about options for attacking iran. Is trump hurting u. S. National security on his way out of office . And, willie, a lot of it amid the nationwide surge in coronavirus cases. Yeah, thats the story here. President elect biden turning up the pressure on President Trump and his administration for failing to move ahead with a peaceful transfer of power. Biden warned more americans will die from coronavirus if his Team Continues to face delays in working with current government agencies. What do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now given President Trumps unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power . More people may die. If we dont coordinate, if we have to wait until january 20th to start that planning, it puts us behind, over a month, month and a half. And so its important that it be done, that there be coordination now. I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to january 20th. Were moving along knowing what the outcome will be, and as i said earlier, and i probably shouldnt repeat it, but i find this more embarrassing for the country than debilitating for my ability to get started. Meanwhile, president elect biden will finally receive a National Security briefing today, though no government officials will actually participate. Joe biden and Kamala Harris instead will meet with intel defense and diplomatic experts because the General Services administration continues to refuse to certify president elect bidens win. Lets bring in our reporters. Nbc news correspondent mike memoli from delaware and nbc news cooperate heidi pris bilia. President biden and his team are taking the posture that everything is okay, but they are moving forward, the country ought to move forward with the expectation he will be president on january 20th, but what is their sense of internal alarm about the fact that they are not getting internal briefings, not having a speedy transition in a time where this coronavirus pandemic is spiking again . Well, willie, i think you see the Biden Transition Team walking a fine line here in how they are messaging publicly about what this ongoing delay means. One, you see the former Vice President , the president elect, sort of speaking almost to an audience of one, something that we have seen so often during the trump era where he is using the word embarrassing to describe what this ongoing delay is. As you just played, its more embarrassing for the country than it is debilitating for his ability to get going. He is speaking the president. He knows the president is watching every word he says publicly. There is a sense that the more biden digs in about this, the more the president is more likely to dig in on this. Thats why you see him trying to downra play it, even though he sounded the alarm about what this might mean in terms of a human cost of lives, not being able to work with them. You also see what we expect to see from biden later today which is going doing a virtual briefing with his own group of National Security and Foreign Policy experts, sending the message you can cooperate or you cant, but reminding him he is somebody with deep experience in Foreign Policy who is going to be surrounded by a very sentenced experienced team in the white house. Echoing what we heard from the National Security advisor, he is messaging continuity of government to the country, showing he is on the job even if he doesnt have the cooperation thats necessary. But behind the scenes, willie, there are increasing discussions both on the campaign side, the transition side, and on capitol hill about additional ways to make ratchet up this a bit more, especially some of the tools that they may have on capitol hill with some of the legislation that moves forward in this lame duck period. Do you get the sense that Vice President biden, they are reaching out to senators, many friends, to try to get this moving, to try to get them to turn up the heat on this administration . Biden has at least a dozen republican senators who he served with in the u. S. Senate. Those are natural points of contact for him. They have been very careful in terms of his contact with senator Mitch Mcconnell, the majority leader, at the moment. I think they dont want to put too much pressure on that relationship. These are absolutely critical discussions. Biden hopes two democrats win the runoff elections in georgia puts democrats in a 50 50 tie with republicans. That would mean the world in terms of his ability to put things on the floor, nominations and legislation. But he also knows if he can pick off two or three republicans at a time, that gives him a lot more wiggle room in terms of his legislative agenda, putting pressure on Mitch Mcconnell to bring things to the floor. So those are conversations that are absolutely critical right now. But especially so in this lame duck period to try to get more pressure on the gsa as well. All right. Heidi, you are looking at the impact of these delays. Tell us about them. Right. So we are going to the second week now of this situation. Certainly this is having agencywide impact but there is particular impact on two areas. First is the Vaccine Distribution effort. I have talked with several former officials advising the Biden Transition Team. The Trump Administration is trying to play is down saying we have a Vaccine Distribution plan. That is such a bare bones version of what the Biden Campaign needs to be working with at this time, mika, because they tell me they do not want to do this like the Trump Administration did pack with the first wave, if you remember, when we had all of those ppe shortages, we have a may lay of states competing against each other and disparate supply chain channels. Each state now is in much worse shape financially with the budget shortfalls. The Biden Campaign wants a unified plan to distributing this. We have never done this before on this scale. So the Biden Transition Team says they are really hampered given that they cant have these internal communications in these documents that have very specific numbers in them. For instance, about whats happening at the state level. We already know that we have, for instance, shortages with some of the tools that will be needed to administer the vaccine such as gloves, potentially syringes. The most important thing is also who is going to administer this . Who is going to go into these remote areas where its very rural or who is going into the Nursing Homes and doing this . We are talking about doing this on a very rapid scale. Even though the trump folks may have put out a very bare bones distribution plan, that does not have the specificity that is needed if we really want to get this done early in the new year. Heidi, talking about the General Services administration, the organization that is holding up this entire process led by a woman appointed by President Trump about three years ago, can you explain for our viewers why exactly they are doing this . What is their rationale, because we should say again its highly irregular for them not to recognize what is plain for every j one else to see that joe biden is the next president elect and not to allow this transition process to move forward . They have not given us any good reason other than that the states have not officially certified the votes. They are very much going at the behest of the white house on this. We reported earlier that a lawyer was sent in there, mr. Ben scheck, to work with the gsa and the gsa administrator is a political appointee. She hasnt given us any good explanation. However, it is a legal stipulation that these documents cannot be officially transferred, willie, and the communications cannot take place. As mike rightly pointed out earlier, conversations have been taking place prior to the election, and now i am told that there is really a Chilling Effect that a lot of those conversations have really ground to a halt and that folks are worried, willie. Back in october, the president passed a new executive order that would allow him or any of his officials, for that matter, to just start arbitrarily moving around Civil Servants in any agency. That has also created a Chilling Effect on the individuals who are worried if they do some of these backchanneling conversations or informal chats that they are going to get nailed for it and possibly be moved around or lose their jobs. And that is a real concern happening across all agencies. We should point out in 2016 the gsa released those funds and began the transition process the day after another close election. Heidi, mike, thank you for your reporting this morning. Mika. Still ahead, more than 1 million children in the United States have been diagnosed with covid19, and doctors believe the number is actually much higher. Dr. Ba delia joins the conversation next on morning joe. Joins the conversation next on morning joe. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa new state and city regulations are continuing to roll out as the country continues to break daily coronavirus case records. In new jersey, Governor Phil Murphy ordered a limit on indoor gatherings from 25 people down to 10, and outdoor gathering from 500 people to 150. In iowa, Governor Reynolds issued a mask mandate for everyone over the age of 2 which will last to december 10th. Jump in oklahoma, Governor Stitt required all bars to close thursday. In california Governor Newsom said the state will be pulling an emergency brake on the Coronavirus Response and will be issuing new restrictions in varying degrees depending on location. In philadelphia, mayor jim kenney announced new restrictions, including a ban on indoor gatherings and indoor dining, a shift for high schools and colleges to remote learning. And a cancellation of all youth sports. Lets bring in Infectious Disease physician and medical director of the special pathogens unit of Boston University school of medicine, dr. Nahid bhadelia, a nbc news and msnbc medical contributor. I just listed off a couple of states that are doing a couple of different, in some cases, random things to mitigate the virus. Will this work . Is it better to have localities specifically focusing on specific issues pertaining to them in terms of the coronavirus . Good morning, mika. So the trouble here is its not just that they are all doing Different Things, but they are also doing Different Things in face of the same level of virus transmission, and thats where some of the strategy and the alignment comes in. It is a regional issue if its not a national issue. Its a regional issue at least. What we know is that hhs is collecting those daily data at the facility level for cases and utilization and states surrounding other states are not getting information about whats going on around hthem and that the alignment and National Strategies that we need that i think could help these restrictions be a bit more powerful. I dont know whats going to happen. Except for the fact that the cases are going up and hospitalizations are going up and are we going to have a sort of lockdown . Its unclear. To me a lockdown is a stayathome order and no commerce. What we know is that the biggest impact is indoor gatherings. What id like to see is at least some sort of uniformity in the way that all states, heavily affected states and all states are rolling back indoor capacity and mandating mask. That is the number one strategy i think can get us out. In states that are heavily effected, they can take the extra steps depending how overwhelmed their Health Care Systems are. We learned yesterday more than 1 million children in the United States have been diagnosed with covid19 making up at least 1 in 11 of all reported cases in the United States. The weekly report on pediatric cases is a collaboration between the american cadmy of pediatrics and the childrens hospitalization. The new numbers reflect the largest oneweek increase in pediatric covid19 cases since this pandemic began. Last week alone nearly 112,000 children were diagnosed. Pediatricians believe the true number of children infected with the virus is much higher because the illness is often mild in kids and may go undetected. So what did you make of this number, dr. Bhadelia, as so many places, including here in new york city, are trying to walk that line and find the balance of whether its safe to have schools open right now . Willie, what we know is that kids can get infected. They may not have the same type of symptoms. They can be milder, asymptomatic, and maybe they dont transmit with the same level as the other children, may not transmit at the same level as older children, but they reflect community transmission. If there are tons of, you know, high ln level transmission going on in communities, children are more likely to get infected. They also represent what goes on in their household. If you are seeing more disease in households, kids will potentially get exposed. I think the states have a tough time in front of them. Some states have made the choice of keeping schools open and rolling back other indoor gatherings such as bars and restaurants and gyms and some have done the opposite. I think we are getting to a point in some states where both may have to switch to being, the school being more remote and bars and restaurants and gyms, rolling back capacity or closing completely, at least while we are trying to get a handle on all this stuff. It depends where you are. I think we are in for a rough few weeks, in my opinion. Dr. Nahid bhadelia, thank you very much. I am sure we will see you once again very soon. Coming up, he only has a few weeks left in office, but President Trump is reportedly considering actions that could have long lasting repercussions. That is next on morning joe. What is this . Discover. We call that a window. Window. Dundundaaa the first big screen. We really need to limit thunks window time. Not now. The birds are on. In my day we fought them. Let me live my life birds flyin high, you know how i feel. Breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. Its a new dawn. If youve been taking copd sitting down, its time to make a stand. Start a new day with trelegy. No oncedaily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. With three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. It also helps prevent future flareups. Trelegy wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Do not take trelegy more than prescribed. Trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. Call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. Take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. Ask your doctor about oncedaily trelegy. And save at trelegy. Com. So let me just ask you . This aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin . Exactly jen calm restore oat gel was designed for sensitive skin. Uh its incredible we formulated it with a super nurturing ingredient. Prebiotic oat. It soothes skin and strengthens its moisture barrier, too. Uh i love it i love it aveeno® healthy. Its our nature. ™ oh. Wait wait sabrina theres a serum, too . Of course, there is. Of course, there is. I knew that. Its time sleep numbermate sleep360 smart bed. On the sabrina theres a serum, too . Of course, there is. Can it help with snoring . Ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem, and done. And now, during the ultimate sleep number event, save 50 on the sleep number 360® limited Edition Smart bed. Only for a limited time. Now to the Foreign Policy decisions that President Trump is reportedly looking to make at the very end of his term. While he is switching jobs out from top defense positions, President Trump is expected to withdraw thousands of u. S. Troops from afghanistan, iraq, and somalia before he leaves office in january. The New York Times is reporting that a draft order circulating at the pentagon proposed that troop levels in afghanistan be cut in half to 2,500, while in iraq u. S. Commanders would cut the number of troops to just under 3,000, and in somalia almost all sen hundred u. S. Soldiers would leave. Nbc news is reporting that military officials briefed President Trump last week on three options. One was complete withdrawal. The second option cut troop levels in half, and the last option kept all remaining troops. The president reportedly picked the second option despite previously calling for all troops in afghanistan to be home by christmas. Willie. Meanwhile, President Trump asked senior advisors whether he had options to take action against irans main nuclear site in the coming weeks during a meeting thursday in the oval office. That was reported by the New York Times. The meeting occurred day after International Inspectors reported a significant increase in the countrys stockpile of Nuclear Material for current and former u. S. Officials said monday. The advisors, including Vice President mike pence, secretary of state mike pompeo, acting defense secretary Christopher Miller and joint chiefs of staff chairman general mark milley disquaid dissuaded the president from moving ahead from a military strike. According to the times, the official left the meeting believing a missile attack inside iran was off the table according to Administration Officials with knowledge of that meeting. However, President Trump hey be looking at ways to strike iran allies including militias in r n iraq. Nbc has yet to verify the New York Times reporting. Lets bring in editor for the Washington Post David Ignatius and president of the council on Foreign Relations and author of the book of the world a brief introduction, richard haus. David, on the first story that mika walked us through about the troop withdrawals, this is something you, others, nbc news has been reported that the president was looking at drawing down to about 3,000 in afghanistan, 2,500 in iraq. We have heard protests yesterday from several members of congress, including majority leader Mitch Mcconnell saying this is a bad idea, especially in the middle of negotiations with the taliban. Whats your assessment of the news . My assess suspect that this is an argument going on for several months. Departing defense secretary mark esper wrote a memo to the president urging him not to make additional cuts below the 4,500 u. S. Troops now in afghanistan because the conditions simply didnt warrant that reduction. President trump, t the man who promised he would end the endless wars, wants to go forward despite that advice. Similar add rice from mark milley who is similarly worried that the conditioon the ground turbulent to go forward. I am told that the number that they are talking about, 2,500, is sufficient to maintain a fairly robust counterterrorism presence to go after the people who would target americans and american homeland. But in terms of maintaining support for the broader united mission, nato troops, coalition there, there wont be enough left to support them. So the pushback is strong. I think the most important thing maybe, willie, is the number zero for the moment is out. There was some some thought the president may nt want to go to zero by january 20. He is talking about 2,500. There is a big difference between the two. Richard haus, a military strike against iran advisors to the president , including mike pence and mike pompeo, acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, they dissuaded the president from this. But its clearly on his mind. Is there any reason in which Something Like this would be anything less than a Massive International move to deflect from whats going on with the election, or is there a good Foreign Policy advice that would be behind this . Well, mika, the one rationale to do it is iran now has more Nuclear Material than it had several years ago. Its probably useful to point out the triggering event was the United States exiting the 2015 Nuclear Agreement with iran. Since then iran has increased the amount of Nuclear Material, the quantity and the quality. It probably has about a fifth of what it had before the agreement was signed. But using military force would have all sorts of consequences, not just retaliation, but it would strengthen the Iranian Regime, it would wrap itself in nationalism. I think the International Efforts to rein in iran would disappear and iran would rebuild its nuclear capability. The difference is next time it would do it far, far deeper underground when the United States and israel couldnt get at it. So i dont think it would be wise by any measure. The real question is i think the next administration will figure out a diplomatic path. To do this during the transition, talk about doing something consequential that would really complicate the life of the United States. Thank you both very much for being on this morning. Coming up, the mayor of chicago, Lori Lightfoot, is standing by. How her city is responding to the new surge of coronavirus. Thats next on morning joe. On. We did it. Americans from both parties. Turned out to vote in numbers like we havent seen in a hundred years. And Election Officials counted those votes carefully, transparently and in accordance with the law. So, no matter who you voted for, if you cast a ballot, or counted them. Thank you for showing the world that even in times like these, america is still going strong. Thank you for showing the world that even in times like these, [announcer] meet the make familysized meals fast. And because its a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away. The ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away. children laughing music swells dog barking music fades exhales experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Tmobiles been building its 5g network for a moment like this. Introducing the iphone 12 pro with 5g. Now at tmobile, you can unleash the power of the epic iphone 12 pro in more places. Get 2 iphone 12 pro max 2 lines of unlimited 5g for just 100. Only at tmobile. Americas largest 5g network. Our essential mist transforms fragrance infused with natural essential oils to create a mist. To invite the scents, comfort and warmth of the season into your home. Its air care, redefined. Connect to nature this holiday season. Welcome back to morning joe. A live look at 30 rock. The Christmas Tree is going up. The s p 500 and the dow jones closed at alltime highs yesterday after news of modernas promising coronavirus vaccine. Moderna released trial data showing its Covid Vaccine was 94. 5 effective, further raising expectations for a sharp economic recovery. It marks the second positive announcement about coronavirus and a vaccine for it in a week. After pfizer and buyen tech said on november 9th their vaccine was more than 90 among participants. The market likes it, but there is concern about Vaccine Distribution. Incoming Biden White House chief of staff ron klain tells the associated press, quote, we now have the possibility of a vaccine starting perhaps in december or 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. The Trump Administration pushed back in a statement saying, in part, the cdcs distribution playbook is publicly available and state plans were produced by governors weeks ago and published online. But our next guest disagrees with the notion that the Trump White House has the country ready. You ask is there enough money for state and local government . The answer is unequivocally no. This has to be one of the priorities of the new administration to make sure the hard work is done. We have the infrastructure. We have all of the things that are necessary to distribute the vaccine once we get it, but of course right now the federal government under this Current Administration has no real plan. And the mayor of chicago, democrat Lori Lightfoot joins us now. Chicago is under another stayathome advisory which began yesterday morning and will last for the next month as covid cases in the state hit 11 Straight Days of more than 10,000. I mean, this is running rampant. We are hearing stories across the country of hospitals concerned about being overwhelmed. We are back where we were in many cases, and if you look at the screen, mayor lightfoot, almost 250,000 dead, we are almost at that marker. So, first of all, what do you want to communicate to the people, to your constituents about what they need to do to try and mitigate this virus . Well, first of all, they have got to break out of a covid fatigue that i think all of us, many of us are under. When we started looking at projections of what our death rate would be between now and the end of the year, we saw numbers conservatively that if we did nothing else, another 1,000 chicagoans would die. That was a wakeup call and its a wakeup call for all of us. We understand that people are sick and tired, but death is real, and it is on the horizon for us if we dont dig down and do more. So we are urmging peopging peop home, to not be in large crowds, to wear face coverings, and really take responsibility for their own lives, for the lives of their family members and for the lives of other people in the city. We have to rise above the me and get to the we. We have a larger obligation to each other that we have got to get to. And, obviously, its great news that vaccines are on the horizon, but as we were just reporting, there are going to be a lot of challenges in terms of distribution, where the money is going to come from for that, and i worry and wonder if you agree with that, that the great headlines about a vaccine also adds to a bit of complacency like, oh, this is going to be over soon. I do worry about that. I think there is a couple of things going on here. Number one, this is obviously great news and we dont want to undercut that, but the reality is for the ordinary american, those vaccines, even if they come online in december and january as predigged, the rest of us wont see those vaccines until probably mid next year. So there is a long way to go between we get to a place where we see mass production of a vaccine and mass distribution. So we have got to be leaning into it and be diligent with the things we know. Masks, social distancing, limiting crowd size. We have got to just keep preaching that gospel. The other thing i worry about, aside from making sure that we have got the money to be able to implement the plans that are already in place, is the trust factor. Unfortunately, because this Current Administration in washington, d. C. , has politicized absolutely everything about the pandemic, about the cures, about the tools that we use to try to save peoples lives, we have got to build confidence in the American Public that these vaccines are in fact safe. If we only have a small portion of the population take the vaccine, we will have accomplished nothing. So we have a lot of work to do to build confidence in the people that were heading in the right direction. But that starts with today making sure that we do the right things and save ourselves, save our families, save our cities and towns. Mayor lightfoot, its willie geist. Good to see you. You mentioned in your remarks yesterday you were looking ahead to the next administration. The truth is there are still two critical months left in this administration and you dont have a minute to waste here. So what would you say, as you laid out the budget shortfall youre facing, proposing new property taxes, but you wont see that money until next year, what do you say to a Small Business owner, a Restaurant Owner terrified about the next couple of months here because they may not make it to a Biden Administration if they have to close their restaurant . Unfortunately, that is a very real thing. People are fearful. Small Business Owners will risk everything, who invested their life savings, particularly in our restaurant and hospitality industry, they are hanging on life support. And we have done everything that we can here in the city. We have now put out about 150 million between grants and loans. We have put in a new 10 million grant just to get people over the latest hurdle, but youre 100 right. We have got to get beyond the partisan divide. The time to act, to save our Small Businesses, is yesterday. And so we need, even in this lame duck session, and i think president elect biden got it right, act now. Dont wait. Do it now. Businesses livelihoods are on the line. Meanwhile, we are not seeing the urgency that you are showing from congress, unfortunately. Mayor lightfoot, Mike Barnicle has a question for you. Mike. Sure. Mayor lightfoot, you just mentioned the trust factor with regard to the vaccine, and its certainly out there. But there is also something within the fabric of a city, any city, but specifically now chicago, because we are talking to you. The trust factor between the community and the Police Department. The Police Department in chicago has had a tenuous relationship with some neighborhoods. Thats on the record. What is the status right now of the trust factor between communities in chicago, neighborhoods in chicago, and the chicago Police Department . Has it improved . I think its still a work in progress. But one of the things that our new superintendent has done is required every single public facing officer to be engaged in a Service Project in a neighborhood every week. People have to see the police for who they are. They are our neighborhoods. They are our sons, they are our daughters. They are not just these armed intruders that come into a neighborhood to have an enforcement action, but the police have to take more steps in the direction of a community, and that is what our current chief is really emphasizing. And i think its starting to see and pay dividends. But, look, we are not going to erase the sad history of policing in this country, in our city, overnight. We have got to keep building those real authentic relationships and look for opportunities to connect with residents where you are not just coming in in an enforcement way, and thats what we are really trying to emphasize and build upon. We are making some progress, but its slow and painful and hard, but its absolutely necessary. There is no shortcuts. Gene robinson, you take the next question. Mayor lightfoot, with covid cases rising so rapidly in illinois and in chicago, are you concerned about the possible strain on the medical system, on the hospitals in your city . Have you seen any, you know, is there any question about icu capacity at this point . Are you seeing patients coming from other parts of the state, chicago, where medical facilities are concentrated . Whats the status there . Its a number that we look at every day, hospitalizations, icu beds, the number of people on ventilators and we are seeing a fairly dramatic uptick, not to the levels of the spring, thankfully, even though the case are in some instances higher than in the spring. I think thats for a couple of reasons. We know so much more about this virus than we knew in the spring. Our Hospital System where before individual hospitals were competitors were each other. Throughout this pandemic, they have really worked collaboratively and made sure that they are stretching themselves to meet the needs. But we are definitely concerned about it because the cases are so much higher. If you think about where we were in october, at the beginning of the month we were averaging, in the mid 200s new cases every day. We are going to report today that we are at 2,200 new cases every day. So this surge is just off the charts, and so of course we worry about that, but because we went through the spring, were better, weve got better ways of treating patients, and we have got a backup system that we developed in the spring in the event that our Hospital System really reached the maximum. We are not there yet, but we are concerned for sure. All right. Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, thank you so much for being on. We look forward to speaking again with you very soon. And up next, one of the morning joe originals, oscarwinning screenwriter john ridley joins the conversation. And as we go to break, over a 27hour journey, the resilience crew has successfully boarded the International Space station. The crew dragon capsule docked late last night around 11 00 p. M. Eastern time, roughly 262 miles above idaho. All four astronauts made it safely where the crew will stay on the iss for six months, coming back to earth when the next spacex taxi arrives with a replacement crew in april. [narrator] with the ninja foodi power pitcher, you can crush ice, make smoothies, and do even more. Chop salsas, spoon thick smoothie bowls, even power through dough, and never stall. The ninja foodi power pitcher. Rethink what a blender can do. Keeping your oysters growing while keeping your business growing has you swamped. you need to hire i need indeed indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base so you can start hiring right away. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com promo this is the feeling of total protection now that we protect your identity, and mobile phone, as well as auto home and life youve never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today its fooand minitronsat subway got some new news youve never been in better hands allstate contactless Curbside Pickup is here just tap for tasty in the app. And pickup contactless. Cause its safety first. Right, tiny car . You wearing your seatbelt little man . Subway. Eat fresh. No uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. Here . Nah. Introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. Here . Nope. Here. When the middle of nowhere, is somewhere. The all new chevy trailblazer. Making lifes journey, just better. This is qatana. Shes got my back. She can cut you all in half with one sword stroke just like mowing the lawn. Id advise not getting killed by her. Her sword traps the souls of its victims. Harley quinn. Nice to meet ya. Love your perfume. What is that . The scent of death . That was a brief introduction to qatama in suicide squad. Most know the famous superheroes like batman, superman, the flash and green lantern. But our next guest is rewriting the story of the d. C. Universe adding to it anyway to give an insight into the lives of perhaps lesser known superheroes. Especially those of color. The new fiveissue miniseries is titled the other history of the d. C. Universe. Joining us, author and oscarwinning screen writer and our dear friend, john riddley. So great to see you. Mika referenced you as a morning joe original. Back in 2007 it was yo you, me, joe and mika in an empty studio in new jersey taking any callin guest we could get. You are indeed an original. Great to see you. Great to see all of you. And a lot of people, willie, they probably think youre joking. Its the truth. Because what you guys have done with the show over the years is making a landmark of morning television. As soon as i left. We can talk about undercover brother another time. I want to talk about your comic book series. Its so cool. First, going back to those early days, you had such great insights on the country and on our politics. We havent talked to you for a while. Where do you think we are right now with joe biden, the president elect, donald trump with still two months in office. Where do you see the country right now . You know, willie, i honestly think that were still in a very difficult place. You obviously look at the pandemic. The vaccines out there. How are we going to get them to people . How do we recover the economy . What gives me some hope is that more people than since i dont know when chose to vote. We may not agree on those votes, but they embrace democracy. Even in this awkward and unprecedented transition. Its largely peaceful. People may not agree with the outcome, but they are largely accepting of it, even when others are not. So weve got a lot of work to do, but i really, truly, honestly believe that we as americans have the capacity to get it done. Amen to that. A ton of people turned out and it was, despite all the noise were hearing, a secure election. So tell me about this fiveissue comic book series for d. C. Universe. Youre not retelling the story but giving sort of the spotlight to characters who probably deserve more than theyve gotten in the past. Tell us about it. As you know, i love history. Red tails, 12 years a slave. Its not just black american history. Its all of our huistory. As you also know, history is often told by the prevailing culture. So black and brown people, women, people from the lgbtq community, various faiths, we share these stories. Were integral to these stories. We help create the tapestry that is american history. But oftentimes, if you arent just changing that lens a little bit and allowing us to include our struggles, our setbacks, our successes and personal failures as part of that tapestry, were not telling the whole story. So this is taking an amazing mythology, making it real. Using it as somewhat of an oral history. You showed the suicide squad. A lot of people dont know who she is. In the comic book, she has a real name. She has a history. She was a mother. She lost her family. Those are all the kinds of things we talk about in her story in particular, but also if you dont know who vincent chin was. If you dont know his tragic story in american history, read that one issue in particular. Youll learn a few things. Same as youd learn about latasha harlands. If you dont remember what it was like watching arthur ashe win wimbledon for the first time as a black man, those stories are part of thirks. Its a story of struggle but also five stories of hope. I cant wait to read all of these. John, Gene Robinson has a question for you. Congratulations on this new project. Did you grow up with these histories or are these histories that you yourself had to learn and imagine . Gene, very good to talk to you. I did grow up with these histories. And the first character that we talk about, jefferson pierce, was the first black hero in the d. C. Universe to have his own ongoing series. So i was a young kid in the mid1970s. Heres jefferson pierce, a hero that, you know, except that hes younger and more muscular and handsome, looks like me. In his other identity, he was a teacher, like my mother. All of these elements of his life where i love stories. I love embracing that phraseology of truth, justice and the american way on the page. But as you would know, gene, seeing yourself, being able to see a little bit more of ones self in these stories, it makes all the difference in the world. And the guy who created black lightning, tony isabella, a white guy of a certain age, he had no idea that he was inspiring me. And one of the reasons im sitting here talking to you at all is reading a story like black lightning. We all contribute to other peoples inspiration. We have to keep that in mind. Absolutely. Its fascinating. The window that the comic book universes have become, actually, on the world, on the contemporary world, i think this takes it a step further by making it a more diverse universe and making people understand that these diverse superhero characters into have histories and do have agency and have identity. Yeah, we lost an amazing young man this year, Chadwick Boseman who played real people. He played Thurgood Marshall and james brown and Jackie Robinson and did it so well. You think about the impact he had around the world playing tchawa. Hard to get him excited about six years a slave or guerrilla or american crime. They love me to death. They are amazing kids, but as a family going to see black panther and what that meant, for me growing up in the d. C. Universe, to be able to share these stories with young men, young women, certainly for anyone, but to talk about jefferson pierce, tatsuyama, pierce, rene montoya, i feel so fortunate in a career where ive been blessed to still have the opportunity to share in these Amazing Stories that have become part of the global mythology of storytelling. Speaking of morning joe originals. Mike barnicle is here with a question for you. Mike. How are you . Hey, john. Listen, barack obama is out with the first volume of his memoirs. And in it he alludes to and in some cases, more than alludes to has hesitancy on address something cultural racial issues in this country for fear of really igniting the racial card even more in this country. If you were sitting down and talking to barack obama about this, what would you ask him about that . If im sitting with barack obama, i think my mouth is just open so i dont know if im asking many questions. I think for a lot of us, for people of color, it was very we felt the frustration of president obama. That there were moments where we wish i remember talking to spike lee once and he used the phraseology that we use among ourselves. I cant really use on television, about, you know, its okay to get angry. Its okay to show that passion, but as a black man and as the first president who identified as black, you know, do you become the angry black man even though we see other president s who, you know, get indignant and thats just sometimes part of literally using that bully pulpit as president. So i get it. I understand it. I think im in a different position. I have gotten angry. Ive said things. Some people agree with it. Some people dont. There were certainly moments when i wish that he would use his agency, but hes president of the United States. And hes leader of this country and frankly, the free world. And it would be very difficult for me to second guess some of the things that hes done, but i look forward to our next president of color and i hope that she expresses herself the way she wants to, when she wants to, and, yes, im talking about senator harris. Or Vice President elect. John ridley, we miss you. Hope to see more of you. Congratulations on the fiveissue miniseries. The other history of the d. C. Universe. Check it out. It comes out next week. Great to see you, john. Everybody, be well. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now hi there. Im stephanie ruhle. Its tuesday, november 17th. Lets get smarter. With two Covid Vaccines now on the horizon, attention is turning to the process and the politics of getting this medicine to those who need it most. And right now, there are a