Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20201214

Call them right now. That was way too early for a monday morning. Dont go anywhere. Morning joe starts right now. We have an announcement to make, joe biden is president elect of the United States. In the state of georgia, where theres currently a hand recount being done, joe biden is the apparent winner. Nbc news is projecting that when every last vote is counted in the state of arizona, joe biden will be awarded 11 electoral votes. Joe biden is again confirmed as the winner of the state of georgia. Trump Campaign Paid for a recount and that has ended for 3 million. They picked up 87 votes. Joe biden actually. Georgias secretary of state recertified the results after the second recount which once again found that joe biden is still the winner. Joe biden has officially received enough electoral votes to become president as california certifies the results. The United States Supreme Court has denied a challenge from a republican congressman to nullify the certification of pennsylvanias election votes over the mailin voting law. Breaking news. The Supreme Court has formally rejected the gop lawsuit that had tried on a long shot bid to argue that states should overturn over states results that should result in joe biden being president elect. I want to note, is he tired of being winning yet . Hes got to be exhausted. I heard that expression years ago, do you get tired of winning . Damn straight. It took five years for you to come through on that, mr. President. But yes, i think most of americans are just tired of winning. Watching joe biden, day after day after day and the lawsuits getting crushed by your own trump appointed federal judges who you were so sure would rig the election for you. Keeps letting you down. You really, really should have read the constitution and a little bit of history before you got into office. I heard you had mein kamp by your bedside, you should have had the constitution. The supreme justices they cant do what you want them to do. From the pricey recounts to the Supreme Court slapdowns this mornings meeting of the Electoral College when joe biden and Kamala Harris will once again win the white house. Going to win the day. Biden going to win the day. You know, he really could have he could have handled this in a way, actually, that would have been in his best interests. My gosh. Go ahead and say it was rigged and dada dada, mailin ballots and blah blah blah and locusts descending from the heavens, blah blah blah, give your statement and then say, im going to move on. Then finish strong over your last two months. And dont set yourself up for losing every single day which you still keep doing. It does not work. It makes you look week and pathetic for all the countries you want to go around to and grift off of. You think the saudis want somebody that loses like 50 or 60 times . I know you want to go there and make money. You think the chinese, the russians want like a 30 or 40 time loser . Youre playing this all wrong. The back drop oh, lets get the guy thats lost 50 times and make a speech for 10 million. Like youre hurting your own grifting schemes in the future by setting yourself up to lose every single time. So today, joe biden and Kamala Harris are expected to easily amass the 270 electoral votes needed for victory and the first states vote at 10 00 a. M. The next step is january 6th when a joint session of congress meets to count the votes. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is monday, december 14th. And with us we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press jonathan lemire. Nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early u kasie hunt. And host of Msnbcs Politicsnation and president of the National Action network, reverend al sharpton. Jonathan lemire, how do you expect today to go . I think a couple of people didnt vote for trump back in 16, we expecting any strays out there . Joe, were looking for that. Thats always a possibility. But what i can guarantee you will happen today is more rage and fury from the white house and baseless allegations of a rigged process, indeed. Electors are going to meet in all 50 states today and the District Of Columbia to cast their ballots. These are ones that are certified in the first week of january. That is yet another point where trump and his allies perhaps will play a stunt thats when congress meets to certify the result. None of this will change of course the ultimate result. More defeats for President Trump, but again, more dangerous efforts to undermine the faith in the electoral system and the credibility of joe bidens election. Yeah. A lot of crack pots who actually would have been crack pots regardless of what donald trump did. Like democrats have crack pots and they have had crack pots in the past. We thought george w. Bush was on the inside of the 9 11 attacks, dont get pissed at me. Ive got the polls, democrats. But yeah, but the difference there is it was crack pots, in the far reaches of the internet who were pushing that. Here, kasie, we have the president of the United States acting in a more dangerous way. He had over 100 members of congress who were calling for sedition. Calling for sedition against the United States of america. Who were calling to undermine an American Democratic process. Its not an overstatement, it really isnt. And these people are posing the greatest risk, the greatest threat to american democracy. The greatest challenge since the civil war. They suck at what theyre doing. They really suck at this. Theyre just horrible. Its all gestures. And the losers that signed on to this bill, they suck at this too. But again, its all gestures. That said, its a horrible precedent because there may be a totalitarian in waiting thats going to go to school on everything that donald trump has done. Hey, republicans, guess what, it might be a democrat. It might be an independent. Might be a fascist, a marxist, you dont know. Youre being stupid as hell sniffing this guy, following him around until the very end. All that said, kasie, how is that a leadup for this question. What are you hearing on capitol hill . Well, i have a feeling ill be hearing more after that, but no, look, these members of congress are still afraid of donald trump. And they are more afraid of what he may do to them than they are of what they are doing to the country. Which i think tells you a lot. You know what about their own reputation . Doesnt wait. Do they not really care what their children think of them, what their spouses think of them . What their grandchildren think of them, what history is going to think of them . Are they really so afraid whats gonna happen over the next four weeks that theyre willing to shame themselves . Like this is they do know historians are going to write about this chapter in American History and theyre going on on the side of sedition. Theyre the modernday Benedict Arnolds trying to undermine democracy. Theyre more scared about a reality tv host than they are being that dramatically wrong about american democracy and history . I feel like i have been asking that a version of that question to so many people of these members of the Republican Party, both privately and publicly, in public interviews and privately and they all find a way to push back against it. I think privately, yeah, they realize that history is going to judge this period likely in a very harsh way. But that doesnt seem to change their public actions and theres a handful of exceptions as we know. But every time, right, every single time its a little worse than the time before. In the beginning it was nasty insults, things outside the norm but not necessarily full of, you know, policy heft or significant consequences that youre laying out now. Eventually it was the bible across Lafayette Square and then i ive said this to you as we were heading into the election that all of my reporting indicated that they werent going to go down this road. They werent going to take down the republican, trash the republican brand in the name of donald trump if it was clear that he lost the election. They just werent going to do it and here we are and thats whats happening. This status quo of deferring to donald trump just has not ended and to the point that theyre signing on to lawsuits like this. So i mean, at this point its really hard to believe for me to believe even when i hear people say, yeah, we understand how bad this is yeah, this is obviously a huge problem it doesnt reflect america or my values but were trying to figure out how to live with it. I cant its hard to believe them anymore. The republican leader of the state of texas, reverend al, called in effect for secession. That they secede from the union because the United States Supreme Court followed the law. They had no choice but to follow the law and as the new as the National Review pointed out last night, i believe it was, even when the Trump Lawyers go before the judges they have no facts to support their outrageous claims and in fact call no witnesses because they have no witnesses. Introduce no evidence because they have no they stipulate to the facts on the record at the beginning of the case which means we agree with the biden camp, we have nothing here. Weve got nothing here, judge, because they know of course if they put out a false claim they will be sanctioned by the court. And yet, texas is going to secede from the nation . Im wondering how does that do for Business Development . Like what Companies Want to move into the state where the most dominant party is now calling for the state of texas to secede from the union. When you walk through the halls of congress as you have as a member of congress, when you walk through the hallowed halls of the senate or the white house, the consistent thing is is the great pictures of the people throughout the nations history. Do they really think anyone will when they get to this period and look at their pictures think of them as anything but symbols of disgrace, of people that tried to rip this country apart because of their personal fears of a demagogue . I dont understand how you walk through history every day to your job and never think of how youre going to look in history. This will be one of the pivotal moments in American History and in the middle of a pandemic and election. This will be a real point where history stops and takes an observation. And they will be permanently recorded as cowards and people that bow to someone who was a shallow and in many ways selfserving and megalomania and they didnt have the courage to stand up to him because were not talking about evidence here. Were not debating which way america should go conservative or liberal. Were talking about people that is too cowardly to stand up for the constitution that they put their hand on the bible and swore to uphold. They carry around the cute Little Pocket institution and dont believe in anything there and perversely enough actually claim to be dedicated to the original intent of the framers. Well, the original intent of the framers is not for them to subvert democracy, to undermine american institutions. Theyre making fools of themselves every day and yes, mika, the president Everybody Knows the president is lying in congress. Yet, they sign on to these seditious letters and trying to undermine an election that they know is legitimate when they get off the record theyll tell you that. What is it doing . Well, its inspiring actually violence. White supremists roamed through the streets of washington, d. C. And beat up and knifed people in washington, d. C. And thats the sort of violence that donald trump has been encouraging thats the sort of violence that the republicans are responsible for because again theyre spreading this lie. And preachers are responsible for it. Theyre spreading this lie. Death beth moore yesterday condemned Christian Nationalism where, you know, basically Christian Nationalism being code words for being instead of being a fellowship of christ, being part of a trump personality cult. Very dangerous. And beth moore said it. Other people have said it. But you have religious leaders across america who were lying to their people. Lying to their flock, buying into the trump derangement cult that theyre a part of and they know its a lie. The blood of people getting beaten up by white nationalists as well and they know it. Well, look at the number on the screen as we get so close to 300,000 dead from the coronavirus. Thats your back drop with ers that are overflowing with patients. Some that are maxed out. And this happening across america. As long as trump is enough, as long as hes there, this damage will continue and you get the feeling every day that he doesnt plan on leaving. Hes going to leave, as we said, hes going to leave, hes got no choice. Right now, the very first doses of coronaviruss vaccine are making their way to hundreds of hospitals across the country. Health care workers and nursing home residents are expected to get the very first shots today. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez captured not only the rollout of the first vials in michigan, but also low the vaccines are being transport. Reporter this a rare look at the painstaking process, sub arctic freezers holding the potentially life saving vaccines and then vials packed into the boxes and shipping containers filled with dry ice. A reminder of how tough this mission is. Gingerly rushing a medical marvel to all 50 states and 80 degrees below zero. This is a historic moment. The first trucks carrying the vaccine, pulling out of the pfizer plant escorted by u. S. Marshals. Its the moment so Many Americans have been waiting for after such a devastating year thats taken the lives of nearly 300,000 people across this country. That is delight ahead of us you hear the cheers behind gabe as the trucks are rolling out. Yeah. With good reason, joe. For good reason, and jonathan lemire, we heard that the white house may be getting the first vaccines which of course doesnt make a lot of people happy. But i must say, if you want to make sure you prioritize things, yes, probably be good to have the white house and the joint chiefs and the leaders of Congress Getting vaccines early. Well, joe, what happened yesterday was more of the mixed messaging weve heard from this white house throughout this pandemic. Lets remember of course, from the beginning they poured a lot of money into the vaccine and the president would say this is the end game, the vaccine is what theyre working towards even as they were blatantly disregarding health and Safety Measures throughout the pandemic. Then but by doing so, by downplaying the threat of course, he planted a lot of doubt in the supporters minds about whether or not how real this virus is, how seriously they should be taking it and theres real concern on the Coronavirus Task force, among dr. Fauci and others that the antiscience view that the white house has taken throughout the pandemic may in fact discourage people from taking the vaccine. That they dont want to trust it. They dont think they need it, arguments along those lines. So yesterday, of course as the first shipments start to roll out, word gets out the National Security council said among the first doses as well as the Front Line Health Care workers and Senior Citizens that the top officials across the federal government to keep this country going, would indeed be among some of the first to get those doses. That includes white house staff. There was some blow back to that. And in many cases they didnt take this seriously, but this is safeguarding the continuity of government, the people who work around the president and then last night President Trump counters that, saying thats not the case. He does not believe the white house officials should be getting the vaccine at the beginning which appeared to be according to our reporting a blowback to some of the Media Coverage. Suggesting no, we dont need it right away. He didnt want that sort of black eye in terms of pr and this further muddles the conversation and further confuses the messaging to his supporters about whether or not this vaccine is needed. If the white house doesnt need it, why should we . That is of course of great concern and this complicates things for the Biden Administration coming in. Very of course trying to push the use of the vaccine including among their own staff, worried about the president elects health and others. This comes as the white house is launching a more than 200 million very tardy ad campaign to boost awareness of the vaccine, to suggest that americans need to use it, because they have been hearing on the show though its a modern miracle that the vaccine is ready so quickly, it doesnt do anybody any good if people dont take it and further confusing messaging from the white house only hurts that cause. Of course, when it first came out, i thought thats going to put President Trump in a difficult position because a lot of the antivaxxers, people spreading conspiracy theories like Anthony Fauci has three heads and killed a lot of people during the aids epidemic, he has the vaccine that he and bill gates and the Trilateral Commission are going to make trillions of dollars on. Well, isnt that interesting so theyll get to the First Responder i think they should. I think the Biden Transition Team should. I think the Supreme Court should. I think joint chiefs should, they run our country, so no fake populism here from the peanut stands if thats okay. Then the president backs off, says, oh, wait, no, were not going to do this after all. It is classic donald trump. He creates a situation that when it is caught in a wrong or negative category, he makes it worse and he stirs the pot that he keeps boiling himself in. It is amazing. I think that we have enough to do in this country to deal with those that have doubts. Some legitimate, some just based on their own cynicism. Some Conspiracy Theory. But weve got to deal with that and then make sure theres fair distribution. If at the highest level of government and those with influence can set the example, thats all the more necessary given these things that i just outlined and that were going to have to deal with. This is no time to play games as mika reminds us every morning. We are dealing with over 3,000 people a day dying. This is not an academic study here. This is real. 3,000 people and more are dying daily. We need to all put our egos, agendas, cynicism, suspicions aside, superstitions, when grandma told us in the rocking chair and deal with we are in the middle of a disaster. How do we get out of this . 9 11 every day. Were having a 9 11 every day and yes, donald trump should be the first person getting this shot with the cameras on him and joe biden should be the second getting this shot with the cameras on him and send a message to america that this vaccine is safe. And good luck getting that vaccine to the people that even i saw over the weekend gathering at concerts without masks and all over the place in bars. I took a drive with my daughter and couldnt believe my eyes. I dont think theyre going to believe it and these going to be half the problem. Once again, thanks to this president. I want to take a moment to talk about a column that was printed in the wall street journal over the weekend. That garnered a lot of attention. Oh holy cow. It got all of the attention for the wrong reasons. Maybe they were look for clickbait, i dont know. It was low brow. The journals editorial page published an article. Madam jill biden, kiddo, a bit of advice on what may be a small but i think is not an unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the doctor before your name . Dr. Jill biden. Sounds and feels fraudulent. Not to say a touch comic. And the column goes downhill from there. He was dead serious when he wrote that. The piece hit quite a dubious trifecta and an attack on jill bidens doctorate that managed to be petty, elitist and misogynist all at once. Triple crown winner there. The staggeringly accomplishment to the 69yearold woman was to toll the kiddo who received two masters as well as a doctorate she shouldnt use the term doctor unless she delivered a baby. We dont have to ask if this would have been written about a man. It never is. Thank you. Yeah. It would have been never is. You actually had somebody that you have loved in your life who oh, i dont know. People have called a doctor for decades. Nobody ever called dr. Brzezinski a kiddo. It defies the journals own standards. The same paper referred to dr. Kissinger what, did he deliver babies . Dr. Kissinger is an ob, really . I never knew that side of dr. Kissinger. Earlier this year, the wall street journal quoted a conversation the president elect had with my father when biden was in the senate. Quote, doctor, doctor, we should have you here more often. I appreciate you taking the time. We have two distinguished panelists who are going to reset and go vote again. Doctor its a pleasure to have you here. Dr. Brzezinski. Dr. Brzezinski, they have no problem with that. Dr. Kissinger, they have no problem with that. No. But dr. Biden, lets see. A problem. How are they different . Hold on. You keep going, mika. She cares about shes a woman, actually, okay. Kiddo. So like the wall street journal and the president elect, the New York Times has always been comfortable using the hon rick like doctor, choked with emotion several times and the obit piece upon my fathers passing did as well. Dr. Brzezinski was a captivating lecturer. Tell me, did your father deliver you . No. Did he ever deliver any babies . Did not deliver a baby. Im fairly certain that dr. Kissinger didnt deliver a baby either. This writer epstein may not take issue with my father and Henry Kissinger being called by doctor because they earned their degrees back in the good old days, the columnist dismisses dr. Bidens academic feat because she only acquired hers 15 years ago. Long after the days when as he describes in this piece a secretary sat outside the room where these examinations were administered and a pitcher of water and a glass on her desk. The water and glass were there for the candidates who fainted and note the gender he assigns to the secretary. So lets just be clear about the true worth of dr. Bidens title. One she earned at the age of 55 when she returned to school to get her doctoral degree she never gave up on her career and her dreams no matter what, even after raising children and continuing to support her husbands career as well. Dr. Biden is an educator who chose to teach even during the eight years that she served as second lady of the United States. In fact, she continued teaching when her husband was running for the senate, for the vice presidency, and for the presidency. She would fly to iowa and fly back and make it to class. I know jill biden well. Shes all wanted her Staff Members to call her jill. They call her dr. Biden out of respect for a highly accomplished woman who deserves much more than the condescending column that the wall street journal stooped to public this weekend. This is a woman who knows her value and with her in the white house, she will help so many others do the same. For more on dr. Jill biden go to knowyourvalue. Com and as for the wall street journal, you owe the future first lady an apology. Well be right back. Dr. Bartlett, when did i stop being bartlett . When did i decide that women were that stupid . Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Infections that can cause shingles have occurred. Dont stop steroids unless told by your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. May cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. Ask your doctor about nucala at home. Find your nunormal with nucala. Ask your doctor about nucala at home. We pray. We pray kids dont go hungry. And those whove lost jobs can keep the lights on. Now is the time to put hands and feet to our prayers. 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Voice solutions that connect you from anywhere. And expert advice here, here, or even here. Be fast. Be flexible. Bounce forward with comcast business. Get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just 64. 90 a month. Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Switch today. Great news. Millions of real americans are switching from fox news to newsmax because newsmax tells them the truth that donald trump could still win this election and because of our recent success were launching sports max. Sports max is the network for real giving you the truth about americas favorite football team. Listen, i have in my hand right here sworn affidavits from 500 where they witnessed a jets win. Only a really bad team would only score three points in a Football Game and the jets are the greatest team ever. So somethings not adding up here. The whole house of cards collapses. Long story short, the jets are going to the super bowl. Thats a promise. Place your bets no now. All of our broadcasts are guaranteed to end in a death win. That is so good. That is so good. Its so awful. All right. So lets get back, speaking of awful, lets get back to the wall street journal editorial page and the response they had a response. There was a response i have to admit, i said it all along. I mean, this is the oped page i have been reading my whole life. So its quite an embarrassment to see them acting the way theyve acted over the past four years. Too often, apologizing for donald trump and forgiving the unforgivable. So oh, my god, the biden people are attacking us, because its like Donald Trumps people, they have written letters and tweeted things, its terrible. Can you imagine a tweet just as bad as trumps. Wait a second, hold on. Donald trump borrowed stalins phrase enemy of the people to talk about the press. Lets see, he actually donald trump actually applauded violence against the press, encouraged the violence against the press, and anybody in the wall street journal get beaten up this weekend or have a stalinist phrase thrown at them . I dont think so. Lets see. Oh, how about this one. Did anybody accuse you of murder . Anybody accuse you of murder because thats actually what donald trump did with me 11 times. You know anybody in your life, paul, who died . Anybody ever worked for you who died . Because donald trump actually is still terrorizing the family of a woman who worked for me 20 years later and slandering her name. Im just curious, did that happen to you, paul, this weekend . Because if so, you should probably keep your mouth shut. When youre drawing these false equivalencies between what donald trump does. Whats happened to them . And i mean, what happened with your stupid little article . Just like trump. Its a joke. Its not even close. You got a long way to go. If youre going to write this broken down pony into town, its going to be a long four years for you. Theres no comparison and you know it. So stop lying to your readers. Stop acting like your readers are that stupid and also the kiddo thing. Paul, you said it was okay that he called a 69yearold woman widow . Who has two masters degree and a doctorate degree. An educator who continued to work while she was in the white house for eight years, continued to work when she was campaigning. She would wake up at 4 00 a. M. In iowa, and fly so she didnt miss her class. Classes that morn on the east coast. Kiddo. Hey, heres the thing, paul. Like mika, i dont really want to get personal but you know when were alone in our house, sometimes i call her baby. Oh, my god. Dont say that. Sometimes i call her honey or sweetie. She says the same thing back to me. You know, you know that doesnt give you a right to actually call mika sweetie in an oped. Or honey. I mean, you can do it, if youre like a gutter internet publication. But youre not and you know that. So my point is, kasie, let me bring you in here. They should really donald trump has made all of us look foolish. Ill start with myself over the past five, six years. You admit the mistake you made, right . Like he should just admit the mistake he made, say hes sorry to dr. Biden. Doctor, doctor, and then just move on. Instead of twisting himself up in knots over an oped that was just outrageous on its face. That hes defending himself, saying you should be able to call a 69yearold accomplished woman kiddo. And talk about secretaries sitting outside of rooms with glasses of water, female women, to hand it to tough men like dr. Brzezinski going in its really this was there are really no words for this. I too, got stuck on the word kiddo reading through that script this morning. Thats how that they would refer to someone i mean, can you imagine if i mean, Melania Trump doesnt have the educational credentials but i doubt that theyd ever refer to Melania Trump in their pages as anything but mrs. Trump or with her full name, whatever she deserves to have. I mean, they also cite in this journal response a story, that oh, well, some other newspaper had mentioned it before, that a longtime political reporter that a story that joe biden told that she was frustrated all of the mail was addressed to mr. And mrs. Joe biden and she wanted it to be a addressed to dr. And senator and that helped motivate her. It was important to her have this credential. They cite that as evidence she shouldnt get that credential. I think for every woman thats ever worked really hard for Something Like this, you know, its very easy to understand whats going on here. And, you know, i would also just say, joe, you mentioned shed fly back from iowa to teach at her class, we know shes continuing to do it as first lady in the white house. Thats Ground Breaking. Shes going to be the first person to do that. The first first lady to do that and its such an example to women and girls and that was true regardless of political party. Laura bush was the first lady to have a masters degree in the white house. And again, its not a partisan thing. Its reflective of the way families work now, the way women work now. To try and undermine that with this argument is really i think its something else. I mean, kiddo, really . Shes committed to her career and the reason she kept going was that shes committed to her students who the professors working and teachers working as Community College educators are helping these young people, some of them adults going back to school and trying to get a leg up in life and trying to achieve the american dream. She wants to be a part of that. Yeah. Shes received the credentials to do so and she continues to use them even with everybody pulling at her from all sides, now becoming the first lady. Shes committed to her career. Whats wrong with that . Yeah. Yeah. I mean, its a good question and reverend al, again, its just painful. Yeah, its just painful, really. I dont know if they were trying to just trying to inflame their base. Just i mean, so much more to write about. Just a stupid attack. It is shameful also in the broader context of the misogyny theyre trying to normalize. You know, dr. Biden has certainly earned that and has been respected as that. I know her in the eight years of the obama and Biden Administration, i was privileged to be around her a lot. She is all that and a bowl of chips, but to show the misogyny they will not treat the husband of the Vice President like that whos the first second husband in history. They will not deride his achievements because this is clearly because shes a woman and as long as we have periodicals of respect like the wall street journal its offensive not only to women, but to me the father of two daughters. You cannot normalize this at the highest level of american society. The first lady of the United States is just kiddo, not the earned doctor she is and the first lady that everyone should aspire to be like her in both ways. By the way, they defend it by saying the attacks are just identify politics, stupid. Im critical of the identity politics, im skeptical of identity politics, call it out. But the second i read it, 64 white guy born in the suburbs of atlanta, going to two Southern State schools who again thinks Political Correctness and identity politics are actually bad for this country, i didnt get past the first paragraph where im like what . I did, because i thought it was a joke. Insanity. Just no identity politics here. Just really stupid Decision Making on your part, paul. And on the part of everybody that let that be published in the wall street journal on, again, on an in a part opinion page that i had been reading my entire life. All right. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the question of american decline has taken on renewed urgency. Our next guest is looking at chinas role in the world on the world stage and how to measure a countrys level of power. Joining us now distinguished professor of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins school of advanced and internal studies cal brands, his latest column for bloomberg, chinas global power atops the u. U. S. Also with us from the council of foreign relationships, richard haass. Good to have you both. Hal brands, thank you so much being here. Greatly appreciate it. So hal, im so glad to read this article. Actually read some of the connected studies because i have been hearing about how were going to collapse at the feet of china for years. Just like i have read in 1987, 1988, 1999 that we were going to collapse at the feet of a rising japan and that we were going to be japans granary in 30 years. I know this is the far greater challenge to the United States, but explain how we havent collapsed to second place quite yet and that we actually other than our political system we actually wont for quite some time. Sure. I think the historical comparison that you mentioned are quite apt. Ever since the United States became the worlds leading power after world war ii we have gone through the fear of decline where we worried that the soviet union was going to catch us or japan was going to overtake us and the United States would be relegated to second place. That manifested itself in that china is ten feet tall and is destined to zip past the United States, but thats probably not the case. Whether you look at questions of Overall Economic power as opposed to just figures like gdp which are essentially snapshots in time and not particularly accurate ones, if you look at the degree of power the United States wields by being at the center of International Financial networks or International Alliances like nato and our asian alliances or if you look at the way that the ideals of the United States has traditionally represented free markets and democracy enjoy far greater esteem around the world than the authoritarian values that china espouses there are a lot of good reasons to think that the United States will have a significant power advantage over china for years to come. Richard haass, we often bring up things like hong kong, human rights abuses in china. Concentration camps for the uighurs. We often bring that up and bring it up just in terms of our concerns as it pertains to human rights. But those exact a great price on china on the International Stage as well. Hal was just talking about Financial Centers being in places like new york and london. You have hong kong on that list, but not good when the Security Services come in and occupy it and actually break treaties that they had with the british and the rest of the world. Look, joe, thats all true. But i think rather than thinking of this as a competition between the United States and china which is which it is in some ways i prefer to think of it as a competition between the United States and itself. Well do just fine visavis china or anyone else, also long as we do what we need to do. That means anything from dialing with our dysfunction and improving our school and i think the real competition is here at home. If we get that right, then well do just fine in the world. My only question is whether it makes sense to be you know churchills line about americans could be counted on to do the right thing, after they have done everything else. I think it the question is whether were still in the position to do the right thing. Yeah. Thats of course what we how you look at whats going to happen over the next four years. It seems to me that joe biden and republicans have a real responsibility to explain to the United States has an Important Role on the International Stage. We have to be engaged after four years of retreat and then before that eight years of a president who was focused on not being bush and cheney and not doing stupid stuff and leading from behind and then eight years before that we were ensnarled in wars. I mean, its been a rough 20 years in the first in the first fifth of the 21st century. We have a lot of cleanup to do. I think thats right. I would agree with what richard said with respect to the fact that alarm can actually be a good thing. So if you look back at the reforms that the United States made in the early 1990s to clean up what was by a standard at the time a pretty significant budget deficit part was motivated by the fear of falling behind japan. During the cold war, the United States tackled segregation in part part of the ideologies that the cold war generated. I think the biden generation have an opportunity to once again use the prospect of competition with in this case china to spur the United States to do things that it ought to be doing anyways, whether thats reinvesting in infrastructure, tackling corruption or trying to improve the vitality of our own political system. Jonathan lemires with us and he has a question for you, richard. Richard, first of all, condolences on your giants yesterday, but i wanted to drill down further on this relationship with china that the Biden Administration is obviously inheriting, its certainly a low water mark right now. At least for some decades considering the pandemic and the harsh rhetoric from President Trump towards beijing. What sort of challenges do you see here . What steps would you recommend the Biden Administration take as they try to walk this delicate balance between you know, threat and friendly overture toward beijing and what is a defining relationship for the next decade and beyond . First, since you mentioned the giants, its dr. Haass to you, not richard, kiddo. Look, with china, i think a couple of things. One, we need to approach them with allies. One of the things that hal writes about in his article is the structural advantage of Foreign Policy. We have partners and allies lets use them. Whether its to deal with the chinas economic challenge or a strategic challenge. We need to avoid overreach. Secretary pompeo i think is dead wrong when he trains his guns so to speak on getting rid of chinas communist party. We wont change china that fundamentally. We ought to emphasize the behavior and how do we push back against china everywhere we must over what theyre doing with human rights, with what theyre doing with taiwan or the South China Sea or stealing intellectual property. How do we keep open the cooperation where it serves the american interests . Say visavis north korea or on climate. Thats the structure of the American Foreign policy and we need a real private dialogue with china to begin to set that up. All right. Dr. Haass and dr. Brand doctor, doctor. Thank you. Kasie hunt, where does do things stand on capitol hill in terms of relief as we edge towards christmas and toward 300,000 dead and palpable pain and suffering happening across the u. S. Especially at the many ground zero locations across the u. S. And that is our nations ers . Just an unbelievably difficult Holiday Season for so many families who are either going to be celebrating with people they have lost or who are struggling right now with people who are in the hospital and as you point out these benefits expire the day after christmas. So the whole thing right now is on pretty thin ice. They had to give themselves another week to try to figure it out. Were going to hear a proposal today from the Bipartisan Group negotiating. Theyre trying to split off the contentious pieces of this, so the democrats want money for state and local governments and republicans want protections for businesses from lawsuits around covid. Theyre going to put it in a separate package and keep the Unemployment Benefits and other things in a separate bill. Theyre going to try to attach it to the government funding bill, but again, we just dont know if theyre actually going to be able to come to some sort of agreement. The circumstances seem like they should be right. Theres a deadline, people actually agree something needs to be done. That is a bipartisan across the board situation, so thats the good news. The bad news is that we have been in this stalemate for so long and chris coons the senator from delaware was on sunday saying that he puts blame for this at the feet of Mitch Mcconnell and hes somebody who really tries to work across the aisle thats a pretty partisan way to put it. So i view that as a little bit of a warning sign about how this week going to go. Mika . All right. Still ahead, the first covid vaccinations could be administered as early as today. The inside story on how the vaccine was developed in record time. Morning joe is coming right back. If your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, inflammation in your eye might be to blame. Looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes overthecounter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. Ha these drops probably wont touch me. Xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. What is that . Xiidra, noooo it can provide lasting relief. Xiidra is the only fda approved treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. One drop in each eye, twice a day. Dont use if youre allergic to xiidra. Common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. Dont touch container tip to your eye or any surface. After using xiidra, wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. Got any room in your eye . Talk to an eye doctor about twicedaily xiidra. I prefer you didnt xiidra. Not today, dry eye. I understand were finally getting some good news. Yes, the vaccine is approved. Im officially joining the Biden Administration to continue the fight against covid. And i think ill be joining as well. Right . Remember when donald trump said to inject bleach and i did a stanky little face and i almost whispered no. Welcome back to morning joe. It is monday, december 14th. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for being with us. Hey, so we have some news that kasie, mika and were on a call during the break. Lets go through the details of what it looks like is going to come up on the senate floor, according to our sources. Two bills. One for 748 billion. Theres your source, our source says total agreement on that. Emergency funding for ppe, unemployment, vaccines, all the rest. Then a second bill for 160 billion where new state and local money will be in there as well as liability limits. Our source again saying some democrats are going to actually be on that bill. So that will allow the liability limits part to pass as well. So mika and kasie and my source say we are going to see great confidence those two bills are going to pass separately. The problem solvers are going to try to pass it all in one bill. But that is not expected to be successful. So kasie, based on what you have heard and breaking news here, what does it look like to you . Whats happening . Well, joe, theyre trying to get over those pieces that they hadnt been able to agree on. We talked about this on the show last week, liability and state and local money and Mitch Mcconnell had suggested, throw that all out. Well just do the stuff we all agree on and democrats are like, we need to get the state and local much out. This is how theyre trying to break the logjam. Theyre putting everything we know they agree on in the larger package that youre talking about and then theyre going to break off these smaller pieces. The contentious pieces and put them together. It sounds to me based on what you have learned like there are a few democrats who would be willing to sign on to that compromise on liability. And that seems significant to me because perhaps it would allow them to wrap this in, give them the opportunity for a separate vote. If there were enough democrats willing to go along with that, then perhaps they could there would be a mechanism for them to move that. Of course, this is all going to hinge on what leadership wants to do. And how theyre going to move forward with it on the floor and i think some of the details are still evolving. Because it does seem like theres certainly the possibility of promise here that they could actually get this done. Even if that liability and state and local money gets hung up, if they can do the rest of it thats really going to send a lot of help to americans thats the extension of the Unemployment Benefits. Thats more money for ppp, help keep food on the peoples tables. Its encouraging, you got a phone call like that this morning, that there are people saying okay, i think we have a path forward. Obviously, as you know well, nothing is done until everything is agreed on so well have to follow this closely through the week. But seems like were starting off with some good signs. Well, jonathan lemire, the roadblock has been for some time the new local and state money as well as the liability limits. Republicans are very skeptical about the new local and state money. Democrats were critical of just an umbrella basically liability really. Looks like the logjam has been broken based on what we have heard this morning by them dividing the bills. The thing that everybody agrees on. They pass that in the 700 base basically 750 billion bill. The remaining 160 billion. They pass that by doing state and local funding and also doing the liability limits. And picking up some conservative to moderate democratic votes on that. So they get over they get up to the 50 votes they need and everything passes and all of this moves forward. Not in the way that people on the far left and far right are going to be happy about. But does look like a compromise that most members of the senate can live with. Yeah. This is certainly seeming to be a promising step towards that compromise although ill echo kasie. Its not done until its done. We have seen recently the white house reengaging on these talks putting some more effort behind the bigger number for relief over 900 billion. The president said that again over the weekend. During the interview during the army navy Football Game. But youre right. This is something that perhaps could put some money into the pockets of americans who so desperately need it. Who are suffering so greatly during this pandemic. Well need to see how it plays out in the coming days, but it shouldnt be lost that how frankly, how disgraceful it is its come to this point. Some sort of a package, some sort of relief wasnt agreed to long before then. This is a country so many people, millions of people have been hurting, really devastated their lives economically because of the virus. Seeing their businesses close or lose most of their customers. Wondering where their next paycheck is coming from and the fact its here in the middle of december before this potentially positive step is taken towards that compromise its sad its taken this long. All right. So amid the Ground Breaking news from the food and drug administration, allowing emergency use for the Pfizer Vaccine, the american death toll is quickly closing in on 300,000. Yesterday, the United States reported over 205,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths. Currently almost 110,000 people are hospitalized with covid19. Meanwhile, all 50 states are preparing to set up vaccination sites as early as today. According to the chief operating officer behind the federal effort to develop a vaccine, 145 sites across the country set to receive the Pfizer Vaccine today. Followed by 425 on tuesday and 66 on wednesday. Joining us now former acting director of the cdc, president and ceo of the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, dr. Richard belser. Explain the process that we are witnessing this week. A lot of hope in the vaccine but i think also wondering when its going to get into the arms of all americans. Yeah. Mika this is monumental that less than a year after this virus was discovered we have a vaccine starting to go into people. For those who receive it, it will start to provide some protection, you know, not fully protected until you have had two doses but thats really exciting for most of us and the nation. This is not going to change the trajectory this winter. Those horrendous numbers that you just shared, hospitals that are overwhelmed. Thats going to be changed by us coming together and Wearing Masks and staying apart and washing our hands and Congress Passing legislation to support people so everyone can protect themselves. Its also not going to help those people who dont trust in the vaccine or the vaccine practice so some of the money coming to them will help them in the outreach and that peoples questions could be understood and addressed. Very, very important. And as we work on the next couple of days and of course give great credence to the unbelievable task that has been accomplished, what though is the time line for people at home watching for normalcy . For this vaccine to get to everybody its still a process that of course the next president will be taking over with his Coronavirus Task force. Will it move more methodically, more quickly or do we have roadblocks ahead . Well, this is going to be a very bumpy process. This is the most complex Vaccination Campaign in u. S. History. And we dont know all of the bumps that are going to happen. There needs to be full transparency between the administrations so that when the Biden Administration comes in, they understand fully whats been plan and and what hasnt. Its hard to predict when everyone will get the vaccine. You hear the predictions of late spring early summer. It will depend on how much the Companies Pfizer which does have emergency reuss and moderna which is up for consideration for this week, how much vaccine they can produce. But a number of other vaccines are coming. We havent seen the results of those large Clinical Trials but if they turn out to be really good and they can produce them in big numbers then well get the vaccines sooner. But i worry, mika, people will see all of the enthusiasm this week and theyre not going to remember that this winter its really doing those things that we keep talking about, that people are tired of hearing about. But its Wearing Masks, its saying that this year, you know, for the Holiday Season, were going to were not going to get together. We recognize how dangerous that is and for our loved ones. We are not going to get together. Its just too risky. Doctor, how discouraging was it to you to see the white house chief of staff it was abhorrent, ahead of the fda saying you have to approve this vaccine by the end of friday or in effect youre going to be fired. The disservice that does. Well everybody involved, its just remarkable. Talk about that. Yeah, if the goal is to engender trust and we need trust. People dont believe that the process has been free of political interference, then theyre not going to want the vaccine. As a pediatrician, as a parent, as a son, im not going to want to recommend the vaccine to my family members, i wont recommend it to my patients. If i dont feel the process has been straight up. I watched a lot of the hearing of the scientific advisers to the fda they asked tough questions and i came out feeling great. You know, they voted overwhelmingly to approve this. I think its safe and effective. Let fda write up the emergency use authorization and get going but its a process. I was very disturbed to see political pressure on that. You have to let the fda do their thing. It was a matter of another day or so. And what came out i think is appropriate, the fact sheets are appropriate. But it damages trust when you see that kind of behavior. Absolutely. Dr. Richard besser, thank you for coming on the show this morning. Today the Electoral College is expected to make joe biden and Kamala Harris white house win official. The nations 538 president ial electorals will meet in the separate states and District Of Columbia that will seal Donald Trumps fate of having lost the election, again and again. But this is official. Its also because its a unanimous vote. The Supreme Court on friday dismissed the hail mary attempt to invalidate key victories in four states won by joe biden. The justices issued a short, unsigned order denying oral arguments in the texas lawsuit that was joined by the president and backed by 17 states and more than 100 gop members of congress. The order said the plaintiff had no standing adding texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections. Justice samuel alito added a statement joined by Justice Clarence thomas saying he didnt think the court had the discretion to deny it by another state so he would have granted oral argument. The two added however, they would not have upheld the claim to toss out the electoral votes. Joining us now, Donny Deutsch. U. S. National editor at financial times, ed luce. Political science of fordham university, Christina Greer and rev and sharpton as well. So ed luce, we have been talking about the institutions over the last five years if theyd hold up whether President Trump became president and in the last four years if theyd hold up to the attacks from all sides. It seems to me these latest spate of court cases ending with the Supreme Court case really does show that in my opinion, at least, that the institutions did hold up. That while the Republican Senate acted shamefully and continues to act shamefully that in the end we are as the Supreme Court has been saying for hundreds of years, we are a nation of laws, not men. And in what was first written by justice john marshall, it was proven again this weekend. We are a nation of laws and not men. Yeah. I think its particularly striking and useful in demonstrating the point that you just made that a large number of i think its now 59 cases that the Trump Campaign has bought to the states and 58 have been thrown out. There was one very minor technical victory in pennsylvania but i think its very, very useful that a large number of the judges are not just republican judges, but trump appointed judges. And the thinly concealed contempt with which theyve thrown out the petitions has i think been a very useful teachable moment for the large number of trumpians out there claiming this is a stolen election. Of course it wont persuade them because theirs is based on revelation, not reason and judges have to operate on reason. The larger concern here though, maybe its an opportunity for those who want to reform the Electoral College, is that they are discrediting the larger system and theyre discrediting their to it. If you want to replace wit the National Popular vote, the case is being made by the Trump Campaign which is ironic because its a system that benefits them. Yeah. Christina greer, one institution thats not held up has been one of the two political Major Political parties, the Republican Party has shown itself to be post democratic, antidemocratic. And more committed to overturning the results of an election than defending american democracy. What is the Lasting Impact of that . Well, i think we might be looking at a Party Realignment at some point in time. You know, joe, i keep going back to George Washingtons farewell address where he warned us about the moment and he warned us about having a president thats susceptible to power and he warned us about the polarization of the parties. As was mentioned, yes, our institutions help, but we have not emerged on the other side just yet. And we dont know what our democracy will look like. I mean, this sets a really dangerous precedent for a future president to come forward with a much more capable and competent legal team to try and make some of the challenges that donald trump has put forth in these past few weeks. You know, the only thing i think thats saving this nation right now is the gross incompetence of many of the lawyers and theyre setting a blueprint and a dangerous precedent for someone else either a governor or a future president to try and just ignore the will of the people and thats what i think is really dangerous. And its really long standing effects. As for the Republican Party moving forward, i mean, we dont know if the trump factions will dissolve and go away when donald trump is no longer on the television every day. Hopefully he will not be because he wont be the president after january 20th or will we see the faction of the Republican Party essentially subsume what was once a party that actually believed in policy, that believed in science. That believed in sort of real robust debates about the future of american democracy and we have not seen that from the party on sadly local, state and the federal level. So Donny Deutsch, new polling from cbs news shows most voters, 62 of them, believe that the election is over and settled. However, 79 of trump voters disagree with this and believe the election should be contested. Only 18 of trump voters believe biden is the legitimate winner. Meanwhile, a fox news poll asked registered voters if the election was stolen from trump, 77 of trump voters and 68 of republicans said yes. So lets look at those numbers and the fact that you know donald trump, you know him well. You know the people around him well. And i think its safe to say you would agree he doesnt accept losing. He doesnt he cant even he cant even accept it as a concept and that this behavior will keep going. These norms will keep being broken and the question is how far will he go. Will he go, meaning will he leave and how does biden govern with these numbers . He will leave and, you know, im going to quote karl rove which i often do. I have karl rove quotes next to my bed. You know, america doesnt like a sore loser, they like a comeback story but something in our culture, who we are, what were about that a sore loser is kind of the bottom of the food chain. I think thats going to stick with trump. You know, we have seen you mentioned the polls, the gallup poll hes lost six points in Approval Ratings since the election whereas most candidates who actually lost an election they grow in approval ironically. Trump has gone backwards and i think this kind of sore loser whiny little im going to use a word im not going to use because i wont be able to be on the show anymore, but sticks with him. As the vaccine gets into peoples arms and as the economy continues to grow, i think it will continue to stay strong. As we are dealing with a little peace as opposed to chaos, i think donald trump will be a moment in time. I dont think donald trump is permanent. I dont think donald trump is the future of the Republican Party. I think he will go back to that kind of like maggot infested place he was in, like the p. T. Barnum circus reality critter and if you look at him, i challenge everyone at home, as you watch donald trump and images, i used to see the images and i would squirm and get angry and i would get frightened. Now, you kind of chuckle and he looks weak. He feels weak. He sounds weak. And as the great karl rove said, hes just a little baby sore loser. Okay. Well, first of all, Donny Deutsch with a light touch its bedbugs. Well, there they be bedbugs in bed minister and theres a lot in doral. Wait. So many bedbugs. So itchy. Let me go to reverend al and lets take this to the higher level. Thank you. A lot of bedbugs at doral. So reverend al, you wrote this weekend about what happened to my party over the past 50 years. What happened to the conservative movement over the past 50 years. A lot of us that grew up in the baptist church, Southern Baptist church and other main line protestant denominations are asking what in the world is happening with our church . With the evangelical movement. And beth moore for those of you who are outside of the evangelical movement, beth moore has had long had an extraordinary voice. I remember being in pensacola, florida, shed go to the Pensacola Civic Center and fill it up. Women all across the area, men would go there and fill it up. Shes had an extraordinary following among evangelical women especially over the past 30, 40 years. She wrote this yesterday, rev. I do not believe these are days for mincing words. Im 63 1 2 years old. And i have never seen anything in these United States of america, i found more astonishingly seductive and dangerous to the saint of god than trumpism. This Christian Nationalism is not of god. Move back from it. Good for her. The thing im having trouble with, rev, and i guess you are not as quite as shocked because i have heard that, you know, before my time, white preachers across the south would also support segregation and also some would justify slavery. So maybe this isnt quite so shocking to you for a kid like me that grew up in a church after that time period, at least the churches i went to, ill call them out, First Baptist in chamblee, georgia, First Baptist in meridian, mississippi. First baptist in pensacola, florida, calvary in tuscaloosa, alabama. We were, you know a lot of matthew 25 christians there and its shocking to me to see whats happened to the church i grew up in and i dont have the following in that church like beth moore but to hear beth moore say what no other evangelical pastor, leader, like this is there is dangerous, folks. This is dont believe the lies. And yet, youve got preachers that are repeating these lies that even Amy Comey Barrett and the six conservatives on the Supreme Court are saying are absolutely garbage. You cant fire them. The most stunning and painful thing for me during this period of the Trump Presidency and his rise has been to see the evangelical and faith leaders that have surrounded him literally anointing him and putting their hands on him in the oval office while he lied to the American Public about a pandemic and admitted it to woodward on tape and admitted it. At what point do you make it look like a lie and those of us preach with a certain passion, when you can just anoint someone who is committed to wickedness. This is not a guy who has made a mistake and did some wicked things. Hes committed to this and continues to show that and how he is fighting this election. Lets not forget, joe, you mentioned those in the south who from the pulpit supported segregation and ill go to professor grier on this because she can give us the real historical references here, but the historical letter from a birmingham jail from Martin Luther king jr. He wrote from a cell with walker was to white men and moderates in birmingham. It was not to the ku klux klan. It was to clergymen who would not stand up against segregation, dr. Grier. I agree, rev, its not just the clergymen but he warned us in future writings about white liberals who stood by while these things were occurring. Latte liberals. When it comes to the evangelical community we have seen consistently these are people who have at once said they believe in the sanctity of life and they believe in equality yet and still they continue to support a president who has upheld violence when we talk about charlottesville and both sides, an innocent woman was killed in the name of hatred, the president was silent. He was silent after kenosha, when kyle witten house shot and killed someone. As we see the anointing of donald trump in this false godlike caricature, we know that donald trump has never walked into the religious institution and never cared about anyone but himself. For those of us in new york we have seen this for decades. This is a man who is emotionally bankrupt. Hes been financially bankrupt several times but hes spiritually bankrupt. The corruption that has been allowed by the evangelical community is something as we we move forward, the effects of a donald Trump Presidency will be felt for not just years, but possibly at least a generation. Where does the evangelical movement go, right . What can they say after donald Trump Leaves Office . You know, looking at what they have done and refused to do. Now they sat by silently while hes said and done the most egregious things not just domestically but abroad as well. We have to think about what hes done with the treaties that are broke within the environment. We can start there. So i think the question is moving forward how do we heal as a nation and how do we look at people who are once held in high esteem and look at them and try to move forward with them and thats a much harder question. Well, some religious leaders said evangelicals are now out on the tip of the spear spreading the Conspiracy Theory saying theyre ready to die for donald trump and other people should be ready to die for donald trump. This is not christian theology. This is jonestown theology. Look at the facts. Its crazy. Its basic. Ed luce, tell me, were kind of grappling with whats happened in the United States over the past four years. And looks like britains still stumbling towards possibly a no deal brexit. Whats happening there . And when are the british people and when are british politicians going to get their act together . Thats like waiting for gadot. Theyre not showing any signs of that. There was a farcical dinner last week between boris johnson, britains prime minister, and ursula van delion, and he turned up and made a couple of jokes about the french. Tried to appeal to here as a german and just slumped into silence and let the officials do the talking over the dinner. It was a comic book display. They have since yesterday which was supposedly the last deadline to prevent a no deal crashout, they since agreed to go the extra mile and continue more negotiations. I suppose from the british point of view the fact they said mile and not kilometer is a good thing. Also a mile is longer than kilometer so its quite far to go. But the chances that this will this will no deal brexit is going up, and, you know, i guess the fact that britain has had a vaccine being distributed over the last week is the Silver Lining of everything. This dark winter is affecting us on both sides of the atlantic and that Silver Lining is becoming more of a problem. I think today it will be the first vaccine administered that we find somebody called mark twain or John Steinbeck to give it to. Britain started with William Shakespeare as you know. Exactly. Ed luce and Christina Greer, thank you for being on the show on this monday morning. Lets get to some of the other stories making headlines this morning. Russian hackers broke into u. S. Federal agencies and private companies as part of a global month Long Cyber Espionage Campaign according to u. S. Officials. The fbi is now investigating the cyber attack which the Washington Post cited sources of saying appears to be the work of russias foreign intelligence service. The targets included internal email traffic at the treasure and commerce departments which sources speaking to reuters believe is only the beginning. Without naming a culprit a spokesman for the National Security council said quote the United States government is aware of these reports and we are taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to this situation. The Russian Foreign ministry denied the allegations saying it was an unfounded attempt to blame russia for Cyber Attacks against u. S. Agencies. Country music legend Charley Pride passed away over the weekend due to covid19 complications. Pride died at the age of 86 on saturday in dallas while in hospice care. As a black singer in the largely white music genre, pride broke multiple barriers including placing 52 records on the top ten charts from the 60s to the 80s in a career that saw him sell more than 25 million records. Of his 29 singles to reach number one on the Country Music charts, some of his most popular were kiss an angel good morning. He was second in record sales only to elvis at his label at rca. Another notable passing, the Legendary British novelist john lecarre died this past weekend after a short battle with pneumonia at 89. Lecarre whose real name was David Cornwell wrote 29 novels after working for British Intelligence in 1949. Among the best known novels was the 1963 book the spy who came in from the cold about a spy carrying out a risky operation in germany where he had been based for mi6. The others were a perfect spy the constant gardiner and one that was adapted into the Academy Award winning film in 2011. Still ahold on morning joe, the inside story of the all hands on deck mission that resulted in the fastest developed vaccine ever. Plus our next guest is beloved in her community which is why the boston globe is asking, quote, can reverend liz walker persuade people of color to take the vaccine as they face the perfect storm of distrust . Well talk to the iconic news woman turned pastor who is working to do just that. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Smooth driving pays off. With allstate, the safer you drive the more you save. You never been in better hands. Allstate. Click or call for a quote today. 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. Balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoohoo great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. My kids, they know im a scientist. But its hard to explain to them what i do every day. Right now, im working on purification technologies that help advance vaccine and Therapy Research for covid19. One day, theyll realize i wasnt just trying to help them go out and play again. I was trying to make it safer for the whole world to get back outside too. Dr. Corbett, Kizzie Corbett is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine. So the first thing you might want to say to my africanamerican brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that youre going to be taking was developed by an africanamerican woman. And that is just a fact. Dr. Anthony faucis message to africanamericans who may be wary of getting the Coronavirus Vaccine. Joining us now long time news anchor turned Senior Pastor at roxbury senior Presbyterian Church dr. Liz walker. Shes a member of the massachusetts coronavirus advisory board. Good to see you again, and in this role i think you work every day on figuring out how to communicate effectively. What will be the challenge to africanamericans pertaining to this vaccine . Well, the biggest challenge and im delighted to be on this program with you and joe this morning, thank you for having me. The biggest challenge for my community is trust. People just dont trust systems, they dont trust what they are told and theres lots of reasons for that. So what were trying to do is to begin to stem the tide of that distrust and mistrust thats in our community. People not only know this from history. The stories of the tuskegee experiment or the u. S. Government experiment on men in tuskegee, its not just the Historical Perspective on things that have been used to abuse black people, but its the day to day experiences of not being or the perspective of not being respected, not being heard, not being listened to in doctors offices, in health care systems. So its an enormous challenge. Very valid reasons that people dont trust, not to mention the politicization of this virus and the remedy for this virus. So theres just so many things that have come together and people simply dont trust what theyre hearing. Reverend al sharpton, jump in. Reverend walker, you know, im very glad youre on this morning because doesnt it also speak to what we were talking about in another subject about courage among evangelicals politically. Doesnt it require courage for faith leaders and influencers in the Africanamerican Community to have the courage to stand up even though we may be questioned, challenged and even criticized when we see the disproportionate amount of people that are dying and infected in our community to say lets go by the science. Like dr. Fauci said, there was a black woman that is part of this vaccine and yes, theres reason for us to have doubt, but weve got to stand up at this point in history and deal with if the science is there, we need to go with the science. Even if were going to take some clapback in the beginning. Reverend sharpton, you are absolutely right. I try to remind my congregation, luke was a medical man and to say this is science versus religion this is a flawed debate because we need to look to god makes scientists, and god uses everybody. It does take courage, and thats what faith is about, right, dr. Al . Thats right. I think youre right. I think that faith is courage and i think that if you dont have courage, you ought not to be in the pulpit and if you dont have courage you ought not to be a leader with influence and if there ever was a time in the history of our lives to show courage and stand up this pandemic really will be the test on that. Absolutely. Theres a great risk that i have been talking about with people about this in my community that were going have to take a risk and so the leaders of the community are doing that first. Were speaking out and were saying its not just me. There are many people who are working on this in boston and all over the country, of course. Were going to have to say, yeah, im taking a risk, and you have to take a risk. But love is risk, faith is risk and nows the time to stand on what you believe and im willing to stand there, youre willing to stand there and were asking other people to stand with us, but i believe people need information. Theres so much stuff out there and if we get the right information and the correct and true information, we can make the right decisions. Reverend liz walker, thank you very, very much for being on this morning. We really appreciate it. We want to turn now to Science Writer for the the atlantic magazine, ed yong. He has a new article called the Manhattan Project and he explores how arguably the most important science project of our time came to be and boy, did it ever. I know that President Trump is taking a lot of credit for this, but a lot of the Vaccine Companies pulled together something in record time. Tell us about how it happened and why it was such an astounding feat. So i think its more than just the vaccines. We have learned about this virus so much in such a short period of time because at the start of this year while the rest of us were worrying about the pandemic, a huge flood of scientists pivoted to studying this virus and never before has a disease been so thoroughly scrutinized in a short a amount of time. There were good and bad sides to it, but the positives are clear. You know, we understand as far as much better than many others that have been known about for a longer time and in less than a year, we have developed a multiple effective vaccine against it. Those vaccines hinge on investments and work and research that preceded the rise of sarscov2 and it will help us to develop vaccines more quickly against future threats and we should be thankful for it. Jonathan lemire, next question. Ed, i wanted to focus on what you just said there. Your final point. Not to be particularly gloomy, but this wont be our last pandemic. So tell me, talk to us about a little bit about this search for a vaccine for covid19. Is there something in particular about this virus that made it that made a vaccine more easily developed . Is this sort of a unique situation or are we learning techniques that the science is so good and Getting Better that the next time and lets hope its a long time from now that Something Like this happens we would be able to put together a vaccine this quickly . Well, previously, vaccines were built sort of bespoke, in a very artis natural way and they have been investigating on the platform technologies which means you have essentially the same payloads that you customize to every new threat. And these new vaccines, the pfizer and moderna ones work like that. You take a small piece of the viruss genetic material, you load it into the body and the body uses that to build a small noninfectious fragment of the virus and that the immune system can look at and use to prepare its own defenses ahead of time. That approach should be very easy to customize to whatever pathogen arises in the future which means that we should be entering this new era of much faster vaccine development. The flip side to that i think is that we the Biomedical Sciences as a whole have been overly focused on technofixes like drugs and vaccines. Having a vaccine in december is fantastic. But we have so many months in write the lives of all of us depended on social interventions, using things like masks, uses of inequity, of poverty. Things that actually help the spread of viruss and that were well recognized in 19th century and get overlooked in the purely biomedical lens in the fights between the individual and the virus. I think if medicine can restore that social side to complement the biomedical aspects we will be in much better states to deal with pandemics in the future and in the time that we wait for a vaccine to be developed. The new issue of the atlantic is out today. A worthy read. Ed yong, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. And coming up, after failing to reclaim his seat in what will once again become the only republican district in new york, congressman max rose is setting his sights on a different way to represent new yorkers. He joins us the conversation next on morning joe. I got uh sausage you can do better, steve get a freshly made footlong, from subway® you can even order on the subway® app did i just get picked off by Deion Sanders . You sure did now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. Because its footlong season™ it makes our lipton leaves better. Which makes this smooth tea taste better. And time spent together. Even better. And drinking lipton every day. Can help support a healthy heart. Joe. Ten minutes before the top of the hour. A live look at new york city. We are on the cusp of the vaccine beginning to get to the american people. Donny deutsche, we were just talking about the trust issue. What should be the branding or the ad campaign to help people feel comfortable taking this vaccine . You know, in the most simplest term, we overuse the word influencers. Remember the nike commercial be like mike . We need to take leaders in every business leaders, celebrities, everybody, and almost do live scenes. Every hour on the hour watching a different popular person, kids, people get this vaccine. Its a word of mouth. That will make people comfortable, seeing others do it. This a great opportunity for tech companies, facebook, google to put billions and billions behind in terms of ad messaging because you have got it give people permission. Give people permission. And its got to come from the tech comes. Use the best influencers. Just do it s. Something action oriented. Democratic congressman max rose of new york is a veteran in the war in afghanistan and is a recipient of the bronze star and purple heart. And he has Just Launched an exploratory bid to run for new york city mayor. Max, great to have you back on the show. Tell us why this is the direction you want to go in and what are you finding out . Thanks for having me. Look, when you look at new york city, and i say this as a proud new yorker, someone raising my family in new york city, somebody who is a fourthgeneration new yorker, covid has completely decimated new york from a public healthy perspective as well as economic perspective, and we need someone to lead us out of this crisis, someone willing to rip up the playbook and who is willing to risk it all, who does in the care about the next election. Lets also not forget about what new york city, what the promise of new york is. Its a place where underdogs make it, and that promise, that no matter where you come from, what you loike, you can live yor dream in new york city. Previous to covid that was slipping through new yorks fingers a fingers and for many it was long gone. Fwhaes we have to rescue. We will do that with bold policies, with policies that set the example not just for america, but for the world. Things like a universal basic income for working new yorkers, things like k through 14 for all. And, most importantly, Infrastructure Projects that will end our community nightmare. Its been killing outer borough new yorkers commuting three hours day. This is possible in new york city if we have vision and leadership. Thats why i am exploring, consideration for a mayoral bid. We have to rescue our city and show the rest of the country and the world why new york city remains the greatest city in the history of the world. All right. Jonathan lemire, you have got the next question for max rose. Hey, max. As you know, whoever the next mayor of new york city is going to be is going it inherit an extraordinary amount of challenges. The economy has taken a beating during the pandemic and there is questions raised about its future. We also have a crowded field of potential candidates, some from within city government, some from without. How do you make your case . How do you make your case, you know . There is going to ablot of voices to the left running for this job and you are someone who is, you know, represents largely associated with staten island. The most conservative borough of new york city. How do you make the case that you are the right person for this job in a city that is growing deeper blue by the year . First of all, jonathan, good to see you. Lets not forget during times of crisis new york city does have a tendency to elect short mayors, whether its laguardia or bloomberg. So history is on my side here, my friend. But whoever you consider in this mayoral race, this cannot be about lanes. People are sick and tired of this type of politics where someone says thats my lane, i am going to slice and dice the electorate accordingly. What new yorkers desperately want is someone not playing games, someone who rises above the fray, and someone who is not going to play this insider game, where they are going to talk about a tale of two cities and proceed to reward power brokers and reward insiders. I am the guy that in a district that donald trump won twice by double digits who impeached him. I have risked everything to do what i think is right. Thats what new york needs right now. And we need someone who is resolutely, unequivocally on the side of those hardworking new yorkers who have been ignored all too long. And when they are not getting ignored, they are getting ripped off. Wages have stagnate while rents skyrocket, people getting displaced. Thats why we need a universal basic income in new york city so desperately. We see hundreds of thousands of open jobs in new york city, and our educational system does not is not wet quipping them to get those jobs. Thats why k through 14 is so urgently needed in new york city. New york can set the sample. But you cant to that saying i am the progressive, not the moderate, i am the moderate, not on the progressive. I am on the side of working people. I am unafraid to say that and thats the only people who ill care about when im the mayor. If we proceed with this. Max, reverend sharpton. How are you . I am fine. We know each other while you were you went to my daughters school. You have obvious talents. Let me ask you this. If you run, what will be the message . Im hearing different policies, you laid them out when we met in person. What will be the message you think resonates even at this time . You would be going into a primary that we would still be in the middle of coming out of this pandemic. What message do you think will resonate with new yorkers of all political persuasions, races in the middle of these dire times . Well, rev, great to see you again. It was an honor to sit down and speak with you. Plain and simple, new york has got to be put back on the side of working people who have been ignored and ripped off. You see folks throughout new york city whether in queens. The bronx, brooklyn, who have seen developments rise up all around them and they never get to share in the gains. You see politicians who over and over and over again say i am going to do something for you, and then all they do when they get elected is give a massive giveaway to the wealthy, a massive giveaway to insiderers and power brokers and they dont do a damn thing for that person commuting three hours each way except for call them essential. It is time that all new yorkers get to share in the gains of new york city being the best and most prosperous city in the history of the world. We have seen people talk about it, but then they buckle once they have power. I am the guy who day after day did what i thought was right, politics be damneds, electoral consequences, i dont care. We need a mayor who is going to say the day he or she is elected i am not leaving new york city for at least two years. We have had an absentee mayor whose head has been in the cloud. Sweetie, if you want a vacation, we are going to breezy point. City island, if we want to have a special time, thats what we need. And thats who i would be. So, congressman, one of the reasons why you have this opportunity to run for mayor is because of your election bid, reelection bid in congress. What do you think the prescription is for keeping democrats like you in the congress . Well, when it comes down to it, and every race is different, a lot of folks have been saying that i lost because of the defund argument, and did i take a hit for the allegation, the false allegations that i wanted to defund the police . Of course. But what the Democratic Party cannot afford to do is retreat. The Democratic Party cant afford to look at and say we are going to take a step back from pursuing justice for all, we are going to take a step back from economic equity, we are going to take a step back from criminal justice reform. The Democratic Party wins when it focuses on trust building and when it focuses on simple and nonetheless bold policies that will be there for all americans. And i believe now more than ever that that is the pathway not just for electoral success, because this cant be about elections. This has got to be about helping people. And thats the pathway for the Democratic Party. Congressman, max rose, thaws so much. Donny deutsche, i am going to ask you the same question. It doesnt just have to be about winning, but one needs to win to help people. What is the prescription Foreign Policy the democrats to keep these seats . Step away from socialism. 75 Million People voted for trump. A lot of those people are i am afraid we are going too hard left, 80 taxes, defunding the police, all that. Step away from socialism. This country lives right of center, so you better be moving towards that center. All right. Up next, Health Care Workers are expected to be the first in the u. S. To receive the Coronavirus Vaccine as early as today. More on the medical marvel ahead on morning joe. Plus, the constitutional formality thats getting extra attention as the Electoral College meets today to make joe bidens win official. For many, it is deja vu all over again. We have an announcement to make. Joe biden is president elect. Of the United States. In the state of georgia where there is currently a hand recount being done, joe biden is the apparent winner. Nbc news is projecting that when every last vote is counted in the state of arizona joe biden will be awarded 11 electoral votes. Joe biden is again confirmed as the winner of the state of georgia. Trump Campaign Paid for a recount and that has ended for 3 million. They picked up 87 votes. Joe biden, actually. Georgias secretary of state recertified the results after the second recount, which once again found that joe biden is still the winner. Joe biden has officially received enough electoral votes to become president as california certifies its results. The United States Supreme Court has denied a challenge from a republican congressman to nullify the certification of pennsylvanias Election Results over its mailin voting law. Breaking news. The Supreme Court has just formally rejected this gop lawsuit that had tried on a long shot bid to argue states should overturn other secretaries of state results. I wanted to know. Is he tired of winning yet . He has to be exhausted. Win, win, win. I heard that expression. You get tired of win sng damn straight. It took five years to come through, mr. President. But, yes, i think most of americans are just tired of winning. Watching joe biden day after day after day and the lawsuits, getting crushed by your own trumpappointed federal judges who you were so sure would rig the election for you. They keep letting you down. You really should have read the constitution and a little bit of history before you got into office. I heard you had mein kampf near your bedside. Should have been the constitution. Should have been a little bit of history and you would understand that Supreme Court justices cant they cant do what you are asking them to do. You cant fire them. We have institutions in this country that actually have not folded to a failed reality tv host. From pricey recounts to Supreme Court slapdowns, this mornings meeting of the Electoral College when joe biden and Kamala Harris will, once again, win the going to win again today. You know, he really could have handled this in a way, actually, that would have been in his best interest. Absolutely, my gosh. Say its rigged and dadada and mailin ballots and blah, blah, blah and locusts descending from the heavens, blah, blah, blah. Give your statement and say i am going to move on and then finish strong your last two months and dont set yourself up for losing every single day, which you still keep doing. And it does not work. Makes you look weak and pathetic. For all the countries you are going to want to go around to and grift off of, you think the saudis wants somebody that loses like 50 or 60 times . I know you want it to go there to make money. You thigh the chinese, the russians want a 0, 40time loser . The background lets get the guy to come over and make a speech for 10 million. You are hurting your own grifting schemes in the future by setting yourself up to lose every single time. So today joe biden and Kamala Harris are expected to easily amass the 270 electoral votes needed for official victory. The first states begin voting at 10 00 a. M. The next step comes january 6th when a joint session of congress meets to count the votes. Good morning, and welcome to morning joe. It is monday, december 14th. With us we have White House Reporter for the associated prets jonathan lemire, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early kasie hunt, and host of Msnbcs Politicsnation and president of the National Action network reverend al sharpton. Jonathan lemire, how do you expect today go . I think a couple of people didnt vote for trump back in 16. Do we expect any strays out there . Joe, we are looking for that. Thats always a possibility. What i can guarantee what will happen today is more rage and fury from the white house and baseless allegations of a rigged process. Electors are going to meet in all 50 states today, joe, and the District Of Columbia to cast their ballots. They will be certified in the first week of january. That is yet another point where jump and his allies perhaps will play a stunt that will be when the congress meets to certify the vote. None of this will change the ultimate result. These awill be more defeats for President Trump and more dangerous efforts to undermine faith in the electoral system and the credibility of joe bidens election. Yeah. A lot of crack pots who actually would have been crack pots regardless of what donald trump did, like democrats have crack pots in the past. George w. Bush was on the inside in the 9 11 attacks. Dont get mad at me. I have got the polls, democrats. But, yeah. But the difference there, it was crack pots, the far reaches of the internet pushing that. Here, kasie, we have the president of the United States acting in a more dangerous way. You got over 100 members of congress who are calling for sedition, calling for sedition against the United States of america, who are calling to undermine an American Democratic process. Folks, its not an overstatement. It really isnt. These people are posing the greatest risk, the greatest threat to american democracy, greatest challenge since the civil war. They suck at what they are doing. Dont get me wrong. They really suck at this. They are just horrible. Its all gestures, and the losers that signed on to this bill, they suck at this, too. But, again, its all gestures. That said, it seems a horrible precedent because there may be a totalitarian in waiting that actually knows what they are doing thats going to go to school on everything that Donald Trumps done and, hey, republicans, guess what . It might be a democrat. Might be an independent. Might be a fascist, a marxist, you dont know. You are being stupid as hell sniffing this guy, following him around until the very end. All that said, kasie, how is that for a leadup to this question . What are you hearing on capitol hill . Well, i have a feeling i am going to be hearing some more after that. No, but, look, these members of congress are still afraid of donald trump and they are more afraid of what he may do to them than they are of what they are doing to the country, which i think tells you a lot. Doesnt anybody do they not really even care what their children think of them, what their spouses think of them, what their grandchildren think of them, what mysterys goi historys going to any of them . Are they so afraid whats going to happen the next four weeks they are willing to shame themselves . They do know historians are going to write about this chapter in American History, and they are going to be on the side of sedition. They are going to be the modernday Benedict Arnolds trying to undermine american democracy. They got to understand that, kasie, right . They are really more scared about a reality tv host than they are being that dramatically wrong about american democracy and history . I feel like i have been asking that, a version of that question to so many of these members of the Republican Party, both privately and publicly, in public interviews and privately, and they find bay to push back against it. Privately, yeah, they realize that history is going to judge this period likely in a very harsh way. But that doesnt seem to change their public actions. And there is a handful of exceptions, as we know. But every time, right, every single time seems to be a little worse than the time before. In the beginning, it was nasty personal insults, things that were offensive and outside of the norm, but not necessarily full of, you know, policy heft or significant consequences that you are laying out now. Eventually, it was the bible across Lafayette Square. And then, and i said this to you as we were heading into the election, that all of my reporting indicated that they werent going to go down this road. They werent going to take down the republic and trash the republican brand in the name of donald trump if it was clear that he lost the election. They just werent going to do it, and here we are, and thats whats happening. The status quo of deferring to donald trump just has not ended to the point that they are signing on to lawsuits like this. So, i mean, at this point its hard for me to believe when i team say, yeah, he with understand how bad this is, this is a huge problem, it doesnt reflect america or my values, but we are trying to figure out how to live with it, i mean, i cant its hard to believe them anymore. Ahead, all the evidence you could possibly need to see one elected republican after another throwing away their reputations to follow donald trump into the dust bin of history. Reverend al weighs in next on morning joe. Is now a good time for a flareup . Enough, crohns. For adults with moderate to severe crohns or ulcerative colitis, stelara® can provide relief, and is the only approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. You, getting on that flight . Back off, uc. Stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flulike symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. Rpls, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. Some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. Lasting remission can start with stelara®. If youve been financially impacted by covid19, janssen may be able to help. My body is truly powerful. I have the power to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. And trulicity activates my body to release it, lowering my blood sugar from the first dose. Onceweekly trulicity responds when my body needs it, 24 7. Trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. Its not insulin. It isnt for people with type 1 diabetes. Dont take trulicity if youre allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. Side effects include indigestion, fatigue, belly pain, decreased appetite, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting which can lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. I have it within me to lower my a1c. Ask your doctor about trulicity. The republican leader of the state of texas, reverend al, called, in effect, for secession. That they she is seed from the union because the United States Supreme Court followed the law. They had no choice but to follow the law, and as the new as the National Review pointed out last night, i believe it was, even when Trump Lawyers go before trump judges, they have no facts to support their outrageous claims. In fact, call no witnesses because they have no witnesses. Introduce no evidence because they have no they stipulate to the facts on the record at the beginning of the case, which means we agree with the biden camp. We got nothing here. We got nothing here, judge, because they know, of course, if they put out a false claim, they will be sanctioned by the court. And yet texas is going to he se . Who wants to move where the most dominant party is calling for the state of texas to he secede from the union . When you walk through the halls of congress, when you walk through the hallowed halls of the senate or the white house, the consistent thing is the pictures of great people throughout the nations history. Do they really think anyone will, when they get to this period and look at their pictures, think of them as anything but symbols of disgrace, of people that tried to rip this country apart because of their personal fears of a demagogue . I just dont understand how you walk through history every day to your job and never think of how you are going to look in history. This will be one of the pivotal moments in American History. In the middle of a pandemic, an election, this will be a real point where history stops and takes an observation. And they will be permanently recorded as cowards and people that bowed to someone who was a shallow and, in many ways, selfserving and megalomania, and they didnt have the courage to stand up to him. We are not talking about evidence here. Wi we are not debating which way america should go, conservative or liberal. We are talking about people too cowardly to stand up for the constitution that they put their hand on the bible and swore to uphold. They carry around the cute Little Pocket constitutions. Dont believe in anything there. Perversely enough, actually claim to be dedicated to the original intent of the framers. Well, the original intent of the framers is not for them to subvert democracy to undermine american institutions. They are making fools of themselves every day. Yes, mika, the president , Everybody Knows the president s lying in congress, yet they sign on to these he seditious letter and they are trying to undermine an election that they know is legitimate when ne get off the record, theyll tell you that. And what are they doing . Its inspiring, actually, violence, White Supremacists roam through the streets of washington, d. C. This weekend beating up and knifing people across washington, d. C. , and, of course, thats the sort of violence that donald trump has been encouraging. Thats the sort of violence that these republicans are now responsible for because, again, they are spreading this lie. And preachers are responsible for it. They are spreading this lie. Beth moore yesterday condemned Christian Nationalism where, you know, basically Christian Nationalism being code words for being part of, instead of a fellowship of christ, being part of a trump personality cult. Very dangerous. Beth moore said it. Other people have said it. But you have religious leaders across america who are lying to their people, lying to their flock, buying into this trump derangement cult that they are a part of, and they know its a lie. The blood of people getting beaten up by white nationalists on their hands, as well, and they know it. Coming up, will the trucks shipping the Coronavirus Vaccine make a pit stop at the white house . The latest on the mixed messages from the administration that top Trump Officials will be among the first to get the doses. Morning joe is back in a moment. Still warm. Thanks, maggie. Oh, alice says hi. For some of us, our daily journey is a short one. Save 50 when you pay per mile with allstate. Pay less when you drive less. 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Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez captured not only the rollout of the first vials in michigan, but also how the vaccines are being transported. Reporter this a rare look at the painstaking process. Hundreds of sub arctic freezers holding the potentially lifesaving vaccine, then trays of vials carefully packed into boxes and shipping containers filled with dry ice. A searing reminder of just how tough this mission is. Gingerly rushing a medical marvel to all 50 states at 80 degrees below zero. This is a historic moment. The first trucks carrying the vaccine, pulling out of the pfizer plant, escorted by u. S. Marshals. The its the moment so Many Americans have been waiting for after such a devastating year thats taken the lives of nearly 300,000 people across this country. That is the light ahead of us. You could hear the cheers behind gabe as the trucks were rolling out. Yeah. Good reason, joe. Yeah, good reason. Jonathan lemire, we heard that the white house may be getting the first vaccines, which, of course, doesnt make a lot of people happy. I must say, if you want to make sure you prioritize things, yes, probably be good to have the white house and the joint chiefs and the leaders of Congress Getting vaccines early. Well, joe, what happened yesterday was more than mixed messaging we heard from the white house throughout the pandemic. Lets remember, of course, from the beginning they poured a lot of money into the vaccine and the president would say, look, this would be the end game, the vaccine was what they were working towards even as therapy blatantly disregarding other health and Safety Measures throughout the pandemic. But by doing so, by downplaying the threat, of course, he planted a lot of doubt in the supporters minds about whether or not how real this virus was, how serious they should be taking it. There is concern in the west wing on the Coronavirus Task force, dr. Fauci and others, that this antiscience view that the white house has taken throughout this pandemic may, in fact, discourage people from taking the vaccine, that they wont didnwant to trust it, the dont think they need it. So yesterday, of course, as these first shipments start to roll out word gets out that the National Security council, other places acknowledge, yes, among the first doses as well as with those Front Line Health Care workers and some going to Senior Citizens, of course, that the top officials across all branches of government, the federal government, to keep this country going would, indeed, be among some of the first to get those doses. That includes white house staff. There was some blowback to that. The white house staff in many ways did in the take this virus seriously. As you say, this is a safeguarding the upper levels of government, the continuity of government, people who work around the president. But then last night President Trump tweets and counters that and says that will not be the case, that he does not believe white house officials should be getting the vaccine at the beginning, which appeared to be, according to our reporting, a blowback to some of the Media Coverage saying we dont need it right away. He didnt want that to sort of black eye in terms of pr. This further mudles the situation. It further confuses the messaging to his supporters about whether or not this vaccine is needed. If the white house doesnt need it, why should we . That is, of course, a great concern. It also complicates things for the Biden Administration coming in. Of course, trying to push the use of the vaccine, including among their own staff worried about the president elects health and others. This comes as the white house is launching a more than 200 million, frankly, very tardy ad campaign to boost awareness of the vaccine, to suggest to the americans to use it. As you have been hearing on this show for months now, though it is a modern miracle that the vaccine is ready so quickly, it doesnt do anybody any good if people dont take it. Confusing messaging from the white house confuses that. We will talk about the herculean effort to vaccinate the country against the coronavirus. Doug brinkley wrote the book on jfks moonshot and he weighs in on todays massive undertaking. Morning joe is coming right back. Lactaid is 100 real milk, just without the lactose. So you can enjoy it even if youre sensitive. Yet some say it isnt real milk. I guess those cows must actually be big dogs. Sit i said sit less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Infections that can cause shingles have occurred. 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Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. With zero down, zero due at signing, youre choosing to get connected to the most to xfinity mobile, Reliable Network nationwide, now with 5g included. Discover how to save up to 400 a year with shared data starting at 15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. Come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. You can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. We are a nation of laws and this is the constitution, this is the law, and this is how it breaks out and the courts have ruled then president elect biden is going to be the next president. As Abraham Lincoln said, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Our nation, our conservative movement, our Republican Party cant stand if we are divided against ourselves. So at some point we have to come together for all of those reasons. Republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana with that call for republicans to unite under the realization that joe biden won the election. But the Division Within the party will take a lot longer to heal as members and movements continue to blindly follow Donald Trumps refusal to admit defeat. Among those are some members of the evangelical community. Yesterday on twitter the prominent Southern Baptist evangelical leader beth moore called out to people of faith for not moving away from trumpism. She tweeted, quote, i do not believe these are days for mincing words. I am 63 1 2 years old and i have never seen anything in these United States of america i found more astonishingly seductive and dangerous to the saints of god than trumpism. This Christian Nationalism is not of god. Move back from it. She went on. Fellow leaders, we will be held responsible for remaining passive in this day of seduction to save our own skin while the saints weve been entrusted to serve are being seduced, manipulated, used, and stirred up into a lather of zeal devoid of the holy spirit for political gain. Wow. Lets bring in Senior Editor at the dispatch, a columnist for time, david french is out with his own warning against fealty to the president entitled the dangerous idolty of christian trumpism. Also with us historian and rogers chair in the american presidency at Vanderbilt University jon meacham, who unofficially advises president biden. And republican strategist and Senior Advisor to the lincoln project, susan del percio joins us. Good to have you all here. David french, i am not sure. I dont know if beth moore is a baptist or not. We just assume in the south that everybody is a Southern Baptist. But its a pretty good assumption. Occasionally, when you have somebody to tahat talks real pr, they are episcopalian, thats why we got meacham here. Beth is a fascinating case because i grew up, you know, First Baptist church, i never met beth burks she had come to pensacola and i was like, yeah, she fills up the Pensacola Civic Center. She was really she has been one of the most important voices in the evangelical movement for a very long time, especially among women. And i thought what she said was really consistent with what she has been saying over the past few years, except she was just a lot more direct with it. I will be really honest with you. A lot of people i have looked up to my entire life have just acted shamefully over the past four years in trumpism, a lot of pastors in pensacola, florida, that i know and love acted shamefully during the age of trump. Let me say it again, shamefully guiding their flock in the direction they know is a lie. But this obviously is heavy on your heart, as well. Tell me about it and your column. Yeah, you know, i think both beth and me and it was incredibly brave of her. She has been brave throughout this entire process speaking truth here. And i think a lot of this, me included, beth included, others watched what happened in the gare comarch in d. C. Which included other christian leaders. What we saw there was was it, you know, normal what you would call normal political normal christians involved in politics or normal vochld of christianity in politics. We saw dangerous fanaticism. This is something that i think people need to be aware of. There is a subset of christians who support trump, certainly not all. I dont think most. But a subset of christians who support trump who believe that god has a very specific call on his life and that any intent any effort to stop him from having a second term is demonically inspired, its satanically inspired and its breeding this degree of fanaticism, this degree of religious fanaticism that i think could have real danger. I dont think its any coincidence that we have seen violence later that same night. This is something that needs to be addressed squarely and directly and condemned squarely and directly, including by christian leaders who supported donald trump. So, david, this is just its nauseating because you and i both were are you Southern Baptist, by the way . No, im presbyterian. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. Holy cow you are a lefty. Anyway no, no, no. Sorry. Thats true. Exactly. Okay. So, you and i in the 1990s, how many sundays did we go to sunday school and have people telling us, you know, Character Counts and you cant have a godly nation if bill clinton is in the white house. And we heard it from the pulpits and we heard it on wednesday night supper and we heard it in training in our kids. We heard it everywhere. It permeated all of Christian Culture from 1992 to 2000, when character mattered. Its all we heard. And now, and now you have people saying, like, i am going to say former christian leaders saying, you must die for donald trump. This is worth dying for, for a man who i judge nobody twice divorceders all right . If i figure this out, twice divorced. My god, have mercy on these other people who are perfect saints. Every beautidue, donald trump is the anthesis. He is not a little off on the beattitudes. He is the anthesis of every beattitude by the standard that they use on public, by the standard they used on every leader theyve ever voted for. Donald trump fails time and again, and now they are saying he is worth dying for . Oh, and even worse. One compared people who are letting this election normal transition occur lawfully to germans who acquiesced or enabled the rise of hitler. I mean, this is the level of discourse we are talking about here. And it wasnt just 1992 to 2000 that evangelicals valued character. Evangelical we evangelicals placed character the highest value of all of the american religious subgroups in evaluating leaders until around late 2015 early 2016. I wonder what happened then . And then since that time it is one thing to say trumps republican, i am a republican, he supports my policies, i may not like his character, but i am making a tough, tough choice. Thats not what we have been seeing lately. What we have been seeing people willing to demolish the constitution, the rule of law to keep this person in power. I know many of the 126 members of congress. I am very aware of many of these 126 members of congress who signed this connecticut shenable amicus brief trying to reverse the election in four states. Most guys would say that they are absolutely christians. The texas gop, which called for secession is saturated with christians. So this is a level of commitment to the man donald trump that the whole argument about holding your nose, thats over. That is yesterdays news. These people are all in on him, believing he has a very specific mission from god, and that america will fall, america will fall. Again, not all christians, but his core. They believe that the fate of the church and the fate of the United States are inextricably bound up together with donald trump. Its a stunning argument and its creating dangerous fanaticism and i am very worried about its effect now and in the future. Dangerous fanaticism. Jon meacham, he is right. David is right. This went far back before we had bill clinton in the white house and the hypocrisy there. But how absolutely revolting that you have a movement that actually started in earnest in 1980 that was supposed to prote protect evangelicals against the radicalism of american politics, the radicalism of the left, and they have become the radicals. They have been the ones that have undermined the constitution, that are undermining americans faith in democracy, that are doing all of the things that they have long accused their critics of doing. Yeah. You know, the initial wall of separation between church and state was not supposed to protect the state from the church, but the church from the state. That was the original image Roger Williams talked about, protecting the garden of Christs Church from the wilderness of the world. And the conflation of the two in this, as david was talking about, in this particular man and moment is remarkable. Its also unscriptchural, put not thy trust in princes. God shows no partiality. There is neither slave, nor jew, we are all one in christ jesus. The scriptchural its that your loyalty as a believer is not to caesar but to a larger order, and that larger order has different rules and different aspirations articulated, as you just did in the sermon on the mount, and thats what a believer is called to do, is to follow a law that creates a certain conduct in space and time, but which is are just a law grounded beyond space and time. And what were seeing now is this conflation of worldly power with the symbolism and language. But i would argue not really the genuine sentiment. At least the called for sentiment thats called for in the tradition. Its an enormous mess. Thats a technical term from st. Paul. I dont know how that would translate to greek. But it really is. And what it calls for is not and i go back and forth on this, so i throw this to you all. It calls for clarity and a kind of honesty, if you think what i just said is true, but i, we, have to be careful about judgment. And what is it that makes these folks so disassociated from history that they are using this sacred story to find their kway within time and space . What is that . Is there anything we can do about that . And so i dont want to cast stones here. I understand that about judgment burks there are a lot of republicans, jon meacham, who know exactly what they are doing. Susan delpressio, you have a piece thaw wrote about trump loving republicans basically saying, wait, hold my beer. Yeah. You know, the issue of judgment is very interesting because what i find so amazing, no matter who you look at that supports donald trump, is that you usually support someone whom you stand by their convictions, their principles, their morals. Donald trump has none. So i dont understand where their face comes forward with donald trump. On the other hand, when you look at the actions of some of these politicians, especially those in congress who got behind that bogus lawsuit or the seditious 17 toeattorney generals that go behind the attorney general from texas lawsuit, is that they just are trying to survive. They look for publicity stunts, anything to make donald trump happy, to maybe stay out of jail, like the attorney general from texas who is now under investigation by the fbi, or perhaps the state legislator who decided it was a good idea to succeed for texas to secede from the nation. He probably wants a better standing with leadership coming into the statehouse. So i find them all false. I find their devoutness to donald trump based in very little, ex set for what helps them. So, david french, what do people like you and i do . Those a these are not i can talk about this and be very angry generally, but these are my friends. These are my loved ones. These are may family members. These have been my friends for 57 years. And when i sit and talk to them, its not like, you know, its not like theyve got forked tongues. They all have their reasons and all of their reasons they all stink, but still, you know, what do you and i do, because we know that this secular nonsense is temporal. The bigger prize, at least in your eyes and if in n my eyes, well beyond any political election in aur lifetime. So what do beth moore, what do you do moving forward . Yeah, you know, i think we have to draw a distinction between the people all in on the conspiracies and all in on sort of the treatments and vision that is donald trump is god specific man for this specific time and opposition to him is demonic thats what i am talking about. Those folks, there is not a lot to do. There are a lot of people i would call conspiracy cure kbio. They sort of process the election like this. Yeah, i think it was stolen. What was the score of the alabama game . In other words, its not a closely held belief. There are other things that they are prioritize in normal life. A lot of these folks i think where you need to concentrate your efforts because if you are talking about people who are all in on the conspiracy, your brainwashed. These are people who believe that they have a specific kind of knowledge that i just must be totally ignoring. Why would i ignore a dream or a vision about donald trump . I would call them the conspiracy curious and these are the people that can be reached. These are the people that can be reached with evidence. These are the people that can be reached with scripture and theology and i think you just keep plugging. You just keep trying and the whole thing doesnt end when joe biden is sworn in. Theres going to be weeks, months, years and you just keep trying. A lot of people all in, they just kind of have to burn out. Like we see happen with other fundamentalist movements. And thats what this is. This is much like a fundamentalist movement than a political movement. David, thank you for being on. As we follow todays start of americans getting the Coronavirus Vaccine, the race for the vaccine has become an international endeavor similar to the cold war effort to dominate space. Why choose this as our goal and they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain . Fly the atlantic. Why does rice play texas . We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard. That was president john f. Kennedy at rice university. Joining us now, douglas brinkley. Among his many books is his most recent american moonshot. John f. Kennedy and the great space race. So doug, we said, we were talking at the beginning of this pandemic. What an extraordinary thing it would be to have all of the most gifted minds in the world focussing for the most part on the one thing. But i must say, i dont think any of us ever expected it to be turned around this quickly as it has. Compare the moon shot to what weve seen over the past nine, ten months. You know, they both grow out of world war ii when we learn to do things quickly that we started trusting in scientists and the engineering community. So as youre writing about harry truman, joe, you know all those people that serve truman came out of world war ii experience to build up on the Atomic Energy commission. Dwight eisenhower created nasa in 1958. Its a response to sputnik and the soviets getting icbms. They were able to get the talent. The head of nasa, james webb, was a marine radar expert in the Pacific Theater where he really learned his chops, and then kennedy knew that he did not want a korean war. Kennedy did not want a, you know, to have a Nuclear Showdown with the soviet union so why not put it in a football rivalry like you just showed. My university. That was september 12th, 1962 and kennedy said, we believe in the scientists. Joe, in 1960, scientists were chosen as time magazines persons of the year. This year fauci easily could have been chosen. They picked biden and Kamala Harris, and probably rightfully so, but at least a lot of the public believes in the scientists today. Jon meacham, let me ask you the same thing. Compare this to the moon shot but also compare how scientists were viewed then in the early 60s and how they had been viewed by donald trump and unfortunately, too many people in this country over the past four years. Well, theres an ebb and flow in American Life between a reverence for expertise and a skepticism of it. After sputnik, as doug is saying, into the 60s you had this sense that as kennedy said on another occasion, mans problems could be solved by man. And then it turned out that maybe that was harder and so you had a conservative reaction to that. But, doug, where do you think we stand on this question. In many ways seems to me that the success of the space race, the excitement of it, helped raise a certain level of confidence in the Public Sector in critical years. Do you think that the vaccine plus, god willing, a successful distribution would create any kind of capital for more of the Public Sector or are we at a point tribally where people just dont bank that kind of capital and faith in the government. What a great question, jon. I think it depends on whether the Vaccine Distribution works and how quickly it works. Were an impatient people. We want results. We dont want failure. If i i eventually believe that people believe in our research and development in our country, in our medical infrastructure, at least at the very top levels, but we were prepared for this pandemic just like perhaps we were militarily prepared for the japanese attack at pearl harbor. There may be more pandemics down the line so we are going to have to build a medical infrastructure in this country and start celebrating our doctors and nurses, find ways to have stockpiles of surgical gowns and medicines that can be used, even in the 90s with bill clinton these medical stockpiles around the country were in pretty good shape but they got depleted by 2020. So im hopeful, jon, that joe biden created the cancer moonshot before he decided to run for president that maybe we can all take on eradicating cancer. Hopefully bidens leadership will start pulling the country together on tackling some of these medical, you know, quandaries of our time like alzheimers which were starting to make some breakthroughs on. Doug, weve been talking a lot about joes book. You mentioned his book on president truman saving freedom and weve been talking a lot on this show about what joe biden can learn from past presidencies. Bad and good. Who do you think he should draw from to look toward the future and perhaps bring with him some form of blueprint. Well, its an amazing book. Ive read it all. I think biden is doing what harry truman did. Truman built this amazing apparatus around him to have at your disposal people like George Marshall and dean atchison and averell harriman and others and john mccloy and Robert Lovett and people like that. Theres a story i did my doctorate at georgetown and my dissertation was on dean atchison and i came across a story where truman picked atchison to be secretary of state. He said dean kind of modestly said, look, i know four or five better people than me for the job and truman glared at him and said, i dont know those people. There are probably 100 better. I know you. Youre it. People he knows and trusts, which is a good sign. Youre building a cohesive administration right out of the gate. Doug brinkley, thank you so much. His latest book is american moonshot john f. Kennedy and the great space race. We appreciate your being on. Thank you so much. Lets get final thoughts. Susan del persio, well start with you. Just looking at dougs book and thinking about the patriotism that came out of the moonshot and maybe this is a time that the country can get behind our president elect as he starts this big, tremendous project of distributing the vaccine and getting us all together because i think we need to have an american moment. And this could be it. Jon meacham . The Electoral College meets today in the various states, according to the constitutional procedure. And, god willing, by the end of the day, we will have seen the triumph of the rule of law over the cult of personality. All right. Jon meacham, susan del persio, thank you for being with us. One final note. We asked beth moore to be on the show to following her tweet. I believe weve asked her to be on many times. Shes not doing press and we certainly understand and respect that. But just know that she has been invited on the show, and we welcome her on the show any time. And we appreciate her voice and what shes been saying, especially given that it must be tough, given the environment shes in. And that does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi there. Im stephanie ruhle, live in new york city at msnbc headquarters. It is good to be back with you on this monday, december 14th. A huge day in this country for the presidency and the pandemic. As we will watch history unfold in the coming hours. On the very same day the Electoral College is expected to officially make former vp joe biden the next president of the United States, the first doses of Pfizers Covid vaccine has been arriving at hospitals and Distribution Sites all across this nation. A longawaited moment. A moment of hope after a very long and very difficult year. 3 million doses are going out to 145 Distribution Sites. U. P. S. And