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For use in the united kingdom. This particular vaccine is cheaper to make and easier to store than the pfizer and moderna vaccines. And americans hurt by the pandemics economic fallout are starting to finally get just a little bit of help. Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin says those 600 stimulus checks are rolling out right now. The big question this morning, is more on the way . And ha is where we start. Nbcs sahil kapur is on capitol hill. Monica alba is in west palm beach. Shes traveling with President Trump. Sahill, let me start with you. Well be speaking to senator nancy pelosi. The bill would increase the amount of cash americans get to 2,000. At this hour, what do we know about where things stand in the Upper Chamber on those checks . Reporter craig, those 2,000 payments are in a precarious place in the Republicanled Senate for two reasons. Yesterday, senator mcconnell, the republican leader blocked a unanimous consent request to simply raise those 600 to 2,000. That signals hes not willing to bring that up by itself, that bill known as the cash act which passed the house of representatives by a twothirds majority. Instead, what mcconnell has signaled he will do is pack skaj that along with two other unrelated items that President Trump demanded, repeal of section 230, and the creation of a commission to study voter fraud and investigate the 2020 election. Democrats have suggested they view those other two provisions as poison pills. Senator chuck schumer, the democratic leader, has called this a cynical gambit by mcconnell to ensure the 2,000 checks fail. Mcconnell is facing competing pressure. President trump demanded the additional payments be passed. Many of Mcconnells Senate republican members do not support them. Hes got an election coming up in georgia for two of his members that will determine control of the senate. Theyre under a lot of pressure from democratic rivals to support those 2,000 payments which they just yesterday came out for, craig. Sahil, stand by for me. Speaker pelosi is talking about the 2,000 checks right now. Lets listen in. The democrats and republicans in the house have passed that legislation. Who is holding up that distribution to the American People . Mitch mcconnell and the senate republicans. Democratic leader schumer yesterday asked for unanimous consent to bring it up in the senate which was blocked by Mitch Mcconnell and the republicans in the senate. In blocking it, they are in denial of the hardship that the American People are experiencing now, healthwise, financially, in every way. Their lives and livelihood in many cases are on the brink. So theyre in denial of that need in denying this benefit. I do hope that in the days ahead we only have a few days left in this session that they will see the light and understand what the suffering the suffering going on in our country now. Ive said before, its amazing to see the patience that some people have with other peoples suffering. These republicans in the senate seem to have an endless tolerance for other peoples sadness. We urge Mitch Mcconnell to stop his obstruction and to bring that legislation to the floor of the senate, and we urge republicans in the senate to encourage him to do so. Its really important to note how important this money in the pockets of American People are. If they have the resources, they spend it. They inject demand into the economy. That is job creating. Its important to note that with the bill that we passed last week that the president signed, was sent over last week and that the president signed on sunday evening, brought us up to nearly a trillion dollars for Small Businesses in our country, a trillion dollars just about 950 billion. We support that. We know that Small Business is the lifeblood of our economy. The most optimistic thing you can do is start a Small Business, your hopes and dreams, your ideas, your vision. But for those Small Businesses to take advantage of that money, they have to have customers. Its not enough to keep the doors open if nobody is walking through, and thats why these direct payments are so necessary. For those Small Businesses to thrive, they must have Services Provided by state and local government. Our health care providers, our heroes, health care providers, transportation, sanitation, First Responders, police and fire, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. And thats why in this next session of congress, in the new congress with the president president , we must pass legislation that, not only honors our heroes, but recognizes the services that they provide, enable our lives to function, our businesses to thrive, our economy to prosper and our people to be healthy. That will be a very important part of what we do next. You would think that there would be an immediate recognition of the money in the pocket of the American People helps those Small Businesses thrive. Ive had the poster here before. Its a bigger number now than before, about 950 billion. Nearly a trillion dollars to Small Business. 160 billion, 160 billion to state and local government, 950 160. State and local government, health care workers, teachers, sanitation, food workers. 160 950. We need more here to exploit the opportunity that is here. And in the meantime, this 2,000 will go a long way not only to sustain the Financial Security of americas working families, but will help Small Business to thrive as well. So these things are all connected. At the same time as we had a good day on monday passing in bipartisan fashion the cash act, the cash act, caring for americans with supplemental help, the c. A. S. H. Act, we also that day had an overwhelming vote to over vied the president s veto we have been watching and listening to House Speaker nancy pelosi there, talk about what we were just talking about, what so Many Americans are talking about right now, potentially more help on the way for the millions who have been struggling since the start of this pandemic. Of course, treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin indicating that those 600 checks are, shall we say, in the mail. There is a bill that has passed the house that will increase that amount to 2,000. The president supports it. Senate republicans not so much. Monica alba standing by. Shes in florida. Shes traveling with President Trump. Monica, we just heard the speaker there call out Mitch Mcconnell by name a number of times there. Of course, it was mcconnell that schat down the straight upanddown vote on the 2,000 checks. The president tweeting this morning 2,000 asap. That was his tweet. Do we know at this hour, monica alba, whether anyone from the administration is working with the Senate Majority leader . Whats happening behind the scenes . Do we know . Reporter we dont have a public sense of whats happening apart from the president s tweets, craig. Thats probably frustrating some lawmakers on capitol hill. Some republicans were looking for guidance in terms of where they should go in terms of this critical vote. They can look to the president on social media yesterday perhaps for insight into he said to republicans specifically, his words were, unless you have a death wish, you have to support increasing these payments to 2,000. I think we can read between the lines in miss message today where he said he wants those checks to be raised asap, as soon as possible. Hes sending a message to leader mcconnell, that hes not pleased he sidestepped the vote by linking together the social media liability provisions, potential investigation into claims of voter fraud that the president continues to make even though theres no widespread evidence for it. That doesnt seem to be something the president is thrilled with. He has president come out and said thats how he wants it to be handled. Instead, he wants to see a vote quickly. We do know from some republican senators, like the two up for reelection next week in the georgia runoff, they have now endorsed the payments to be raised to 2,000 even though thats something senator david perdue said five months ago he opposed. Were seeing all this Political Landscape become a little bit more rocky with that critical control of the Senate Next Week in georgia. We know the president will be heading there. We dont know much more from him or his top officials because the president has been spending the majority of his time on the golf course. We know some of his golf pasters in like senator Lindsey Graham have urged him to take more action. We dont know more than that because the president isnt coming out or having events on camera. This is Something Like the fifth or sixth straight day where instead of coming out and speaking to the American People through any media other than his twitter account, the president is spending almost all his time on the links and the white house saying that shouldnt change over the next couple days as he winds up his time as president of the United States. To your point, it really is striking considering how often over the last four years we saw and heard from this president on matters large and small. His sigh lengs and lence and ab striking. Monica alba, sahil kapur, thanks to both of you. L. A. County hospitals are in an absolute crisis. Right now nearly every hospital in Los Angeles County is being forced to divert ambulances away. Some are transforming Conference Rooms and gift shops to treat patients. Even thats not enough. Nbcs Steve Patterson is outside the Martin Luther king, jr. Community hospital in los angeles. Steve, i understand the ceo there is now warning they may need to start rationing care. How is the staff handling this crisis . Reporter craig, this hospital is at the epitome of desperation. Most hospitals in this region are feeling, at the epicenter of this countrys crisis. This hospital, the staff can barely keep their heads above water because of the incoming tide of patients. They have 131 beds and 215 patients. As you said, theyre looking for just about every available space, every corner is being scoured for more additional space. Theyve converted conference room, the gift shop, the chapel at this hospital has been converted into patient space. Inside there, theyre trying to retrofit different areas of the hospital to create makeshift icus. Inside those icus, trained nurses used to oneonone care are now seeing two, three, four patients. The ceo of the hospital now talking about rationing that care which is just as bad as it sounds. Its the difference between using all available resources, doing everything you can to save one person patient by patient by patient and spreading those resources to save as many people as possible. We spoke to a nurse recently, not at this hospital, but one going through much the same things. Here is what theyre saying about the desperation inside some of these covid wards and icus. Listen to this. The one thing i see more of now than ive ever seen in the past is a look of fear. Were scared. We dont know what were walking into. But we do know when we walk in, were not going to have enough staff. Were not going to be able to give the care that i would want to give to my own family. Reporter there is also a crisis of resources, one in particular. Oxygen which is very crucial in treating extremely sicko individual patients. Covid patients take exponentially more oxygen. They need more. Hospitals are having a problem procuring it, distributing it, a problem storing it which has led to some hospitals declaring an internal crisis which means theyre no longer taking ambulances. The worst thing about all this is every held official in this area says everything you and i have been talking about, craig, is expected to get worse over the next few weeks. Back to you. Steve, really quickly while i have you, this stayathome order that affects a good chunk of california where you are, is it being enforced . Obviously Governor Newsom has issued this stayathome order, but are people actual willy adhering to it . Is there any punishment if they dont . Reporter its very difficult to enforce not seeing your friends and family, to try to get rid of small gatherings entirely, to try to keep a quarantine on traveling in and out of the county as what youre supposed to do. What they can do is what they can keep a handle on, enforcing capacity limbs at businesses, trying to keep indoor and Outdoor Dining shut down, just trying to get rid of as many public and large scale gatherings as humanly possible. The rest really is on the community to do as much as they can. Theyre using messaging to try to get that across because this could get much worse, especially when you factor in the christmas and new year holidays. In two to three weeks well see the ramifications of that rather quickly. Back to you. Steve patterson there in los angeles where the headline at this hour appears to be a shortage of oxygen. I want to dig into some jarring new nbc news analysis. Here is the headline, operation warp speed at a crawl. Adequately vaccinating americans will take ten years at current pace. We turn to dr. Ka rita patel, the former Health Policy director in the obama administration, also an msnbc medical contributor. Before we get to the vaccinations in speeding things up there, dr. Patel, this reporting from Steve Patterson in l. A. That there appears to be perhaps a shortage of oxygen. How surprising is that . Sadly, craig, its not surprising. This happened, by the way, in parts of florida, parts of texas, parts of new york. Its often not spoken about, to be honest. So we dont hear it because were really trying to deal with the fact that were out of icu beds or putting at mlk hospital, my old stomping ground, i trained there. Mlk hospital, they are putting patients in gift shops as youve heard, hallways. Oxygen shortages craig eerngs thin even things like normal saline are on a crisis standpoint because of shortages of these supplies. With the most essential supply being the Health Care Professionals which were obviously aware theres a severe shortage of in southern california. Lets talk about this vaccination that seems to be moving far slower than anyone anticipated. Ten years according to our math. What tools do we need to use to speed this thing up . How can we get more people vaccinated more quickly . Craig, first of all, we need the most basic tool is a national strategy. Weve already talked about how federal government has repeatedly, and President Trump tweeted this, that we got the vaccines developed. Its up to the states and local jurisdictions to distribute them. We need to reverse that in a little bit we need to give assistance of cash and logistics support. Were 0e78d, craig. These are the same people that have been dealing with the testing and tracing. Theyre upped funded as it is. Most Public Health departments had their budgets slashed upwards of 20 . What we need to do to reverse course is getting resources to the local jurisdictions. Simply put, we cant continue with the piecemeal plans where counties are waiting for states, states are waiting for the federal government and the federal government is not necessarily giving clear directions or being as forthcoming. I know well hear from operation warp speed. Im sure theyre disappointed at missing all sorts of targets. We need to kind of accelerate this and get creative, craig. Weve already heard around the country about people turning stadiums, drivethrough vaccination spots. You would think we would have learned through the testing, but it appears we havent. We need to ramp up immunization strategy to consider, craig, within a year or more we might need another vaccine. We need to have a record almost national of who has gotten varks nated, which vaccine and understand, did any of these people get covid infections even years later. That requires, again, kind of federal resources. This is when the federal government has an appropriate place and we can still give flexibility to states to do what they need to do. Dr. Patel, really quickly, the uk approving the Astrazeneca Covid vaccine for distribution there. This particular vaccine, as i understand it, doesnt require the deep Freeze Technology that so of o the other vaccines seem to, but the results show that its average effectiveness is around 70 . Thats lower than moderna and pfizer. Are you at all concerned about that, a lower efficacy . No, im not concerned. Ill quickly say, craig, were waiting to see the full data in the United States and the other parts of the world. Im hoping we can parse out a little bit more about whos got higher efficacy, might be in younger people, craig. It might be after the first dose where we heard reports that the reduced first dose could give you a higher efficacy. Whats interesting about the uk is theyre going all in on a Public Health approach. Theyre going to try to get as much vaccine out for that first dose, craig. Theyre willing to wait up to 12 weeks to get that second dose so they dont have any doses sitting in a fridge or freezer somewhere. So, no, im not worried about 70 . Thats a good goal. Thats higher than what we see in the flu shots for vaccines. We just need to get as many people vaccinated as possible around the world. Dr. Kavita patel, thank you. Happy new year if i dont see you before. Thank you. President elect joe biden getting back on the campaign trail. Can he make a difference in those Georgia Senate races . Well take a look just six days out from the runoff there. Also, one highrisk Group Beginning to get the coronavirus vaccine, inmates. How one state is working to get prisoners and prison staff protected. Now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. crowd cheering therabreath, its a better mouthwash. At walmart, target and other fine stores. Its time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. Powerful relief so you can restore and recover. Theraflu hot beats cold. Prisons across this country are being excluded from Covid Vaccine plans, despite guidance from the cdc recommending the opposite. A new study shows that incarcerated people in the United States are four times as likely to contract covid19, and theyre twice as likely to die from it. Nbcs Valerie Castro is outside the department of corrections in cranston, rhode island. Valerie, rhode island one of the few states that seems to be prioritizing vaccinating correctional facility staff and incourse rated people who are at high risk. How is it working there . Reporter well, craig, the process has already started. It actually started last week on tuesday when they began vaccinating staff here at the department of constructions. Were told about 107 individuals have been vaccinated so far. As for inmates, they have identified those that are high risk, and so far about 150 of them were vaccinated over the weekend. In the same way the vaccine is not available to the general public for the most part at this point, it is not available to every inmate. The department has identified those people who are considered high risk, perhaps 65 and older with underlying medical conditions. They may be immunocompromised. Those are the people that are the focus of this initial rollout. The medical director here tells us there was some recitation from those incarcerated individuals. He says ultimately three of them decided they didnt want to get the vaccine at this point, but he said otherwise its been widely and well received. Take a listen to what he had to say. We had a twohour clinic at the medium facility behind us where in two hours we were able to immunize almost every highrisk individual thats incarcerated. Were going to be able to, in that two hours, reduce the numbers of death, likely by 50 . Reporter in other states its been controversial. Some arguing why would we give the vaccine to someone convicted of committing a crime versus those who havent. Many of these people will be released and go back into the community to their family and friends. Its just as important to make sure those people are vaccinated as well as those in the highrisk population. Valerie, thank you. Now to the reckoning in our country over policing and race. One of the names the black lives Matter Movement has never stopped saying is that of 12yearold tamir rice. Tamir rice would have turned 18 this year. On tuesday, the Justice Department said it would not be bringing federal criminal charges against the two Cleveland Police officers at the scene of rices killing. The Department Says Surveillance Video of the shooting is too poor of quality for prosecutors to conclusively establish what happened. Rice was playing with a pellet gun outside a Recreation Center back in 2014 when he was shot and killed by a white officer seconds after the officer and his partner arrived. In a 2015 statement the Cleveland Police union said it maintained from day one that the officers took appropriate action based on law and the facts and circumstances they were aware of at the time. I want to bring in eddie glaude, chair of the department of africanamerican studies at princeton university, also an msnbc contributor. Eddie, again, to remind folks, this was a 12yearold boy at the time. Your reaction to the news as it came down yesterday, last evening. Well, it enraged me. My mind went to samir rices mother, samaria where she has to go through this again. She has lost her baby, she has to deal with that every day. Here you have the federal government making this decision, so only ways opening up that wound even more. So my heart goes out to her. One of the things that came to my mind, craig, really quickly, is that this is part of the contradiction. Folk tell us we shouldnt protest, that we should trust the process. Here is the process playing itself out. This is not the exception. This is the rule. The burden that prosecutors have to meet in order to prosecute Police Officers is so high that its damn near impossible to hold them accountable. Here you have a 12yearold boy dead within seconds, and the police are fired. Thats all. Lets remember this is happening against the backdrop of andre hill who was just killed in columbus, casey goodson, just killed in columbus, walter wallace, just killed in philadelphia. So my heart goes out to his mother and i understand why people dont have faith in the process, because look what just 457d. To your proioint, professor. To bring federal civil rights charges, the department of justice has to prove than an officers actions willfully broke the law, willfully being the appropriate word, rather than a result of mistake, bad judgment. What does this say to you about that part of our justice system, this idea of willful disregard . In some ways it allows Police Officers to act with impunity without the fear of being held to account. As long as Police Officers can engage in the use of deadly force in the way that they do and not feel a sense of hesitation because they know theyre protected in this way look, im not trying to downplay the dangers that Police Officers face. They put themselves put their lives on the line every sing dale for us. Im deeply grateful for that. But they ought to be held accountable when they act wrongly, when they act badly, when they engage in this sort of egregious use of deadly force. So it seems to me that part of the argument, the debate that we must have is not just simply around criminal justice reform, but police reform. And that involves Holding Police accountable if they know, craig, theyre going to go to prison, if they unjustly use deadly force, they will think twice. I think thats important for us for that to happen. All right. Professor eddie glaude, thank you. Stick around. I want to you in just a moment about georgia. We just learned that both president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris will be campaigning for democrats in the Senate Runoff races there. Well go live to Gwinnett County where ballots are already being verified. First, though, across this country more than 700 people have died of the coronavirus in just the last 24 hours. One of them was luke letlow, a newly elected republican congressman from louisiana. He was set to be sworn into office just days from now. Father of two small children. Letlow announcing less than two weeks ago he tested positive. Moments ago House Speaker nancy pelosi offering her condolences. Sadly, the congress received the news last evening of the passing of a new 34e78 bmembers congress, luke letlow from louisiana due to be sworn in this sunday, but taken by the coronavirus yesterday. He leaves his wife and two babies, and we extend great sympathy to his family. So sad. 41 years old, coronavirus, blood clot complication. It could happen to anyone. From our resume database. Claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed. Com home. To give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you dont. [grunting noise] ill take that. Woohoo 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. With nutrients to support immune health. Arizona governor announced its next phase, people 75 and older will be next to get the vaccine, likely around mid january. Nbcs Vaughn Hillyard is in the phoenix suburb of sun city, arizona. Vaughn, how is that going to work . Whats the situation like for hospitals there . Reporter exactly, craig. As we watch phase 1a continue, obviously these Nursing Homes and longterm care facilities are still upped going getting vaccines to their residents. The planning is under way, not only in arizona, but other states, for phase 1b. It comes down to every decision of each state of who is included in 1b. The cdc put out the recommendation that all folks 75 and older be included. The governor in state of arizona made the decision yesterday to follow that advice. This group will include teaching staff, law enforcement, others living in large congregate settings. Thats why this planning process is under way. I should note i had a conversation with Maricopa County official yesterday who said those conversations started just yesterday about how best to get folks in communities like this, sun city, a retirement community, those vaccines. I want you to take a listen to a few conversations i had with folks in the community here this morning. I would like to. Reporter youre a little anxious about it . A little anxious about it. I will talk to my doctor about it, and if she thinks that i could, i would be willing. I will talk to my doctor and see what she says. If its available and she recommends it, i would get it. I say give it to the First Responders and the young people first. Im sorry. Im 81. Im not going to be around that much longer. Reporter hopefully that vaccine will be readily available to everybody, including the last woman you heard from. The first two women you heard from made it clear theyre looking at voitss, affirmation of people they trust, their doctors. Thats of utmost importance especially as news is coming out today about that mutated strain in colorado that was first reported out of the uk. Just in the last 4 hours, because Health Officials are concerned about this mutated strain that is 70 more infectious, we should note, in which they believe this vaccine will still cover. But to what extent has the new mutated strain spread through colorado and potentially other parts of the country. Craig. Vaughn hillyard, sun city, arizona, thank you for that report. Folks, weve all seen the Long Food Bank lines, millions of americans struggling to feed their families this holiday season. Black and brown communities are being hit especially hard. I recently met some urban farmers in brooklyn who are turning to ageold solutions to help. Theres a patch of green in red hook, brooklyn. You can find it on an abandoned ball field across the street from ikea and a future amazon warehouse. Behind the chain link fencing grows row afro of fruits, herbs and vegetables. The urban farmers have been at it for years. Nefratia coleman is part of it. Our ancestors did it. I feel connected from that. A calling shes answered at a time of great need across the country, weve seen the food lines. More than 50 million americans are projected to go without enough healthy food in 2020. That is up more than 13 million than 2018. Nefratia and her colleagues have seen it. Imagine your elders during covid. Imagine women who have just given birth. Imagine people who have disabilities. People in red hook live in whats often called a food desert, areas that lack access to affordable, healthy foods. So the farm offers an alternative. People the buy produce at the Farmers Market or can get a fresh food box delivered. Between march and october the farm delivered more than 7,800 free food boxes to residents in need. But theyre not just growing craps here. Theyre cultivating futures for young people in the area, people like 18yearold alex rivera. What have you learned here . I learned all the different vegetables on the farm. I learned about preserving the seeds for the farm. The paid apprenticeship he went to teaches the ins and outs of farming, as well as basic employment skills that are useful in any field. But how do you help a community where there is no farm . They found an answer to that in washington, d. C. With a program called healthy corners, run by d. C. Central kitchen, they buy produce from farms in virginia in bulk, then distribute it for sale in Corner Stores. Why Corner Stores . A lot of residents visit their Corner Stores every single day. Its a way they access some of their basic necessities. During the pandemic, theyre also able to access fresh fruits and vegetables on that daily basis. Reporter healthier options could not come at a better time for many in black and brown communities, already dealing with a greater risk of chronic hemgts conditions. Health Officials Say those conditions are more likely to land a person who also contracts the coronavirus in the hospital. Back in brooklyn, they hope the work theyre doing will uproot some of the nations most deep seeded disparities. Ive heard the term food desert for years. You used a new term, food apartheid. Its the same definition, access to healthy food. Its saying we dont have that choice. Its not like, oh, we want to live in an area where theres only Liquor Stores and bodegas. Youre very passionate about urban farming. I feel like food brings people together. We dont have to speak the same language or grow up in the same place, but were talking through this food. Amen to that. By the way, both red hook farms and healthy corners also run nutrition programs to educate the community about healthier food options. Straight ahead, ill talk to a stanford professor who says our divided politics are actually the perfect opportunity for empathy. Used to have bad b. Now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. combative yelling therabreath, its a better mouthwash. At walmart, target and other fine stores. Some things are good to know. Like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. Something else thats good to know . If you have medicare and medicaid you may be able to get more Healthcare Benefits through a humana Medicare Advantage plan. Call the number on your screen now and speak to a licensed humana sales agent to see if you qualify. Learn about plans that could give you more Healthcare Benefits than you have today. Depending on the plan you choose, you could have your doctor, hospital and Prescription Drug coverage in one convenient plan. 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Including coverage for Prescription Drugs, dental care, eye exams and glasses, hearing aids and more. A licensed humana sales agent will walk you through your options, answer any questions you have and, if youre eligible, help you enroll over the phone. Call today and well also send this free guide. Humana, a more human way to healthcare. With oscar mayer deli fresh its not just a sandwich, far from it. Its a reason to come together. Its a taste of something good. A taste we all could use right now. So lets make the most of it. And make every sandwich count. With oscar mayer deli fresh biden visiting atlanta on monday. Nbcs Priscilla Thompson is in lawrenceville, georgia, and back with me eddie glaude, msnbc contributor. Priscilla, ill start with you on the ground. Early voting winding down. Youre in Gwinnett County, theyre working on matching signatures on ballots that have already been cast. Take us through the process. Reporter thats right, craig. We just got a new batch of ballots in here. As you can see, theyve unloaded them, beginning to load them into these machines to get them counted, counted again. Once they know for sure how many ballots are here, they can send those over to a team of folks on this side of the room who are actually going to look at the signatures on those envelopes, make sure they match the signatures they have in the voter records and files on their computer screens. Once theyre able to verify that the voter who submitted the ballot then those ballots get passed to these folks down here which were going to show you in a second, actually opening those ballots, opening those envelopes, taking the ballots out, and making sure that everything is filled out correctly and they can be scanned. This process is taking place ahead of election day but the ballots wont actually be tabulated until polls closely on election night. Right now theyve gone through around 74,000 of the ballots that have come in here. Theyre getting through about 3,000 of those per day. All of this is taking place in preparation for the runoff. But just late last night, the secretary of States Office actually released an audit as it relates to the signature matching that occurred during the general election. And i want you to take a listen to have been the results of that audit found. Listen to what the Georgia Bureau of investigations said earlier today. During the course of the audit there were no fraudulent absentee ballots identified during the process. Reporter you heard him there, they only found two cases of voter fraud of the 10 or roughly 15,000 ballots they audited in cobb county. Nevertheless the president was tweeting overnight, continuing to cast doubt on the election system here and attacking the governor and secretary of States Office, craig. Priscilla, i thoroughly enjoyed the walk and talk there, thank you for the up close look at the sausage being made in georgia. Professor glad you, president elect biden, Vice President elect harris heading to georgia in the coming days. Whats the Bumper Sticker message they need to leave with voters to make sure they show up and vote . Turnout. We need the senate. If were going to have a transformative agenda, we need to put Mitch Mcconnell on the bench. He needs to be the minority leader. So make Mitch Mcconnell the face, the avatar, as it were, of all that is wrong with washington. We see record numbers, we know project south, we know Stacey Abrams organization, there is still the excitement. I think, craig, as muhammad ali said against sonny liston, somebodys going to shake up the world. I think. Thats my intuition. I always love a good ali quote. Professor glad you, thanks as always, happy new year to you, see you next year. Two Stanford University psychology professors and two students are out with this appeal in the washington post. Here it is. Our divided times are an opportunity for empathy. Really. Quote, during fractious times, empathy can seem as effective as bringing cotton candy to a gun fight. When the other side is viewed as an existential threat, meeting opponents halfway can feel dangerous, equivalent to betraying your side and giving up your ideals. Still, empathy should have a place in our national discourse. I want to bring in one of the authors of that piece. He is also the author of the war for kindness building empathy in a fractured world. Professor, you study how we lose empathy. And in this oped, you and your colleagues argue that this moment of division in our country is also an opportunity to get it back, to get empathy back. How do we go about doing that . Thats right, craig, and first, thanks for having me. We have a stereotype of empathy as a weakness, especially when we disagree with people, where theres a conflict, we think listening to them or trying to understand where theyre coming from is the same as giving up on our own ideals. We need to get over that idea because its almost entirely backwards. In fact empathy is a strength. When we listen to others, we disarm them and oftentimes become more persuasive advocates of our own side. One example of this is whats known as deep canvassing where canvassers, instead of pelting people with statistics and facts, try to share stories with this other person, ask them what they care about and the canvasser shares their own stories as well. This might sound hopelessly mushy, but it turns out that deep canvassing is far more effective at persuading people than other forms of political advocacy. It turns out that empathy, far from being a weakness, is actually a great way to fight for what we believe in by getting people to see our side as well as we see theirs. You note in the piece, professor, that hate we view from the other side, whatever side that may be, that hate is probably overestimated. You say that the 2020 Election Results revealed areas of Common Ground in which empathy could be rooted. What are some of those areas of Common Ground . Well, i mean, i think in the 2020 election, for instance, even in states that skewed republican, for instance higher minimum wage won with a super majority. There are a lot of material factors on which people agree across the board to a surprising extent. Sometimes media, not you, but some media sources might make people feel like the disagreements are bigger than they are. So researchers have looked at what they call meta prejudice, where they ask republicans and democrats, how do you feel about the other side and how do you think the other side feels about you. And yes, each side, folks on each side are prejudiced against the other. But they imagine that the other side hates them way more than the other side actually does. This type of meta prejudice when we imagine the other side as full of hateful people, that stops us from engaging in conversations. It short circuits the process of finding Common Ground that could be helpful in the end. Jamil zaki, it really is a fascinating piece in the washington post, i encourage folks watching or listen on serious satellite radio to read the piece. Were out of time but i hope youll agree to come back next year because its a fascinating topic and i think you may be on to something, professor. Thank you for your time. That does it for me in this hour. Andrea mitchell reports picks up our coverage after a short break. Our coverage after a sho break. Good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington, as the Trump Administration is playing defense. At this hour were expecting a briefing on why their vaccine rollout is much slower than promised. So far the u. S. Has vaccinated just 2 million americans, falling far short of its promised goal of 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year. Now the administration is focusing instead on how many vaccine doses they have distributed, 11. 4 million, to the states, blaming the states instead for not getting more shots into peoples arms. The president is also blaming the states on twitter after president elect biden slammed the trump rollout tuesday. The Trump Administrations plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind, far behind. Its going to take years, not months, to vaccinate

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