Got a glimpse of democratic candidate jon ossoff visiting a polling place. This race is so tight that his opinion point, senator david perdue who has been stuck in quarantine used the time to attack ossoff and align closer with the president. Kelly loeffler is facing off against Rafael Warnock says shes going to challenge the november election certification in congress tomorrow. Well go live to capitol hill for the latest on that push to challenge president elect joe bidens victory. But we are going to, in fact, start in georgia. I have a great team of reporters with me to dig into the stakes of this race. They are incredibly high. Nbcs blayne alexander is at a polling station in atlanta in the democratic stronghold of fulton county. Nbcs Shaq Brewster is in carrington county. Also with us, patricia murphy, political reporter for the Atlanta Journal constitution. Blai blayne, start us off with a 30,000 look from above on the state of georgia as were nine hours away from polls closing. Reporter i certainly dont have to remind anybody who has been paying attention to our coverage how much is at stake when it comes to this pair of runoff elections. The candidates know it. We know it. Whats interesting today is that voters seem to know it, too. When ive spoken to voters at this polling location in southwest atlanta, theres almost in sense of urgency among the people i talked to. One woman told me she was abc making it her business to be here today. Another man said his responsibility didnt end in november, it continues until today. One woman tiered up when i asked her how important it was for her to be out here. Its not lost on the voters and that the implications spread far beyond the state of georgia the people ive spoken to, very enthusiastic to come out, we havent seen tremendous wait times. Ive spoken to most people who say theyve been in and out in five minutes. That has to do in large part with early voting. Consider this. More than 3 Million People across the state have already voted. Thats record shattering when it comes to runoff elections in the state of georgia and shows you just how many people are eager to have their voices heard. I talked with a couple of voters here today. Here is a little bit about what they said about their wait time and why theyre out here today. Take a look. How long did it take you to vote today . Maybe three to five minutes. It was real fast. Theres been a whole lot going on in the world. I feel like if i can make a change for the better, thats what im going to do. Reporter yasmin, two quick points to make. This is fulton county, the most populous county in the state of georgia. Its a place that overwhelmingly went blue in the november election. Early voting numbers shows that it tends to favor democrats. Talking about younger voters, voters of color. Those are the voters who usually come out when it comes to early voting. Republicans rely on dayof voting. We can see those numbers fluctuate as we see more people come out to the polls today. The other thing ill mention is, if youre hoping to see results by the end of the night, we likely wont see that. The secretary of state has already said we can probably expect to see something maybe tomorrow. Remember how long it took for the president ial results to come in from georgia. Thats because we saw an audit and a recount. The audit wont happen this time around, but the recount is always a possibility. State law says if the margin is less than. 5 , the candidate can request a recount. Yasm yasmin. 2021 shaping up just like 2020. Well have to wait it out as we did in november. Shaq, the big question here, the president pushing these claims of voter fraud across the board which we know is completely baseless. That said, there was always this question in our minds as to whether or not Republican Voters were going to turn out based on some of these claims the president was making. For your part, shaq, you are in a republican stronghold, what kind of turnout are you seeing today . Well, specifically at this voting location, yasmin, youre seeing the longer lines than what you saw with blaynes location. You see lines have been about 30 minutes to a half hour long. I this is probably the longest that weve seen all day long. It was extensive at the beginning of the day when polls were opening. You see now it wraps all the way down the street and up to the other end of the parking lot. The point that you were making, the fact that there had been doubts about what happened in november. We talked about what the secretary of States Office said yesterday when he came out and tried to debunk many of the claims. Its clear that is something that many Republican Voters are also feeling here as they come up to vote, but they say theyre not letting that stop them from the process. I want you to listen to a conversation i had with a voter about 20 minutes ago. Something fishy happened because for me to be watching it the entire night and somehow randomly they get another 10,000, 50,000 votes in certain states, certain swing states, something is not right. Reporter why didnt that stop you today . Because if i dont vote for who i think needs to be in office, then im just letting the other side win. Reporter weve seen this race have a lot of attention, not just with the candidates and their campaign schedules, but who they have been bringing to the state. Just yesterday alone we saw Vice President pence, president elect biden, President Trump with that evening rally last night. The key thing you hear from both sides of the aisle is voter turnout, getting them to turn out to numbers as close as they can to what we saw on election day. Many voters are comparing their vote in november to what theyre doing now. I had a lady tell me this is even more significant to her than what she did in november. With that, patricia, i want to bring you into the conversation. We just heard some sound from blayne and from shaq drawing the dynamics of what were experiencing in the state of georgia right now. It seems like the Playing Field has changed a bit since november. The president , the president elect, they were in the state of georgia campaigning last night. I want to play a bit of sound from them and then i want to hear from gabe sterling. Lets listen. So then we see also while the monitors and the press are still in the room, they bring out the carriers which are normal absentee ballot carriers. I will admit when i listened to the audio of the phone call and the president brought it up again, i wanted to scream well, i did scream at the computer and in my car at the radio talking about this because this has been thoroughly debunked. Power is literally in your hands unlike any time in my career. One step, one state can chart the course, not just for the next four years, but for the next generation. Each of you is going to vote in one of the most important runoff elections in the history of our country. Our country is depending on you. The whole world is watching the people of georgia. Gosh, patricia, the dynamics are astounding to me as i listen to some of that sound. Gabe sterling, the election official from georgia, someone we never would have known if it werent for what took place in that state in turning blue. Listening to the president and the president elect campaigning last night, and then the voters that we heard from. Do you think all these dynamics and the change in the landscape that we have seen in your state is what is driving folks to the polls more so than ever today . Yes, yes and yes. We also have to put in there 800 million that have been spent in this state in the last nine weeks to get voters back out to the polls, to push them, to persuade them, to convince them to get out for one side or the other. So this is a highly formed electorate, a sophisticated electorate. People know whats on the ballot. They know its both these senate races but also control of the u. S. Senate. Thats going to affect how president elect bidens presidency goes, what he can do in his administration, how much leeway hell have or how much obstruction hell have. Voters know why this is so important. The strangest and most difficult and most bizarre dynamic, even though these are two huge races and they would have been very high profile, the president s insistence on inserting himself every single day into the news cycle and blowing up the Republican Party here in georgia at the same time has just made this such a dynamic, almost impossible to predict situation today. We do not know whats going to happen. Ive never seen an election like this where its just like flying in a snowstorm with no instruments. Theres no indication of who is turning out, who is not going to turn out and do voters even h e believe the results once theyre in. Even after the votes are counted, well see the president changed politics and elections in the state for some time. You bring up a really good point here. We heard from the president last night, essentially waging war on the Republican Party inside the state of georgia while campaigning on behalf of david perdue and Kelly Loeffler. What type of position does that put perdue and loeffler when you have the president attacking the georgia secretary of state and the governor, which hes done for the last couple months but specifically last night, when he said ill see you back here in georgia campaigning against these folks in just ai years time. Kelly loeffler was next to the president. She had been appointed by governor brian kemp, a republican. Governor kemp could not be at that rally last night because he was not invited to that rally last night. Had he gone, the president probably would have attacked him verbally while he was there. Its created this very bizarre dynamic. Its all the same pot of Republican Voters that all of these leaders are going after. Kelly loeffler at one time is saying go vote in januarys election, go vote tomorrow. By the way, im going to challenge the results of last months election. We know shes going to challenge the Electoral College results that will have to include georgias electoral results. Its the tightrope shes having to walk to win the trump voters that she cant win without and also to try to win this election even when President Trump is attacking other republicans in the state at the same time. Blayne alexander, Shaq Brewster, patricia murphy, thank you all guys. During that rally in georgia, President Trumps mind was clearly on what happens tomorrow when congress meets in a joint session. Its going to officially cement joe bidens win two weeks before the inauguration. Nbcs Garrett Haake is on capitol hill and monica alba is covering the white house for us. Monica, i want to start with you on this one. As were talking about the rally, the president mentioning his own Vice President last night during that rally, putting a heck of a lot of pressure on him. Lets play what he said and talk about it on the other end. I hope mike pence comes through for us, i have to tell you. I hope that our great Vice President , our great Vice President comes through for us. Hes a great guy. Of course, if he doesnt come throu through, i wont like him quite as much. You cant help but laugh a little bit. Hes a great guy, but, of course, if he doesnt come through, i wont like him so much, he went on to say. Talk us through, monica, what the role is precisely of the Vice President tomorrow and frankly the dynamic between these two at this point going into tomorrow. Its a position that mike pence has really found himself in repeatedly over the last four years which is a politically precarious one, yasmin. He wants to appear completely loyal to President Trump which is something he has worked very hard to maintain intact over this administration. But he also understands his constitutional duty here. His role tomorrow is really a very ceremonial one. Hes literally supposed to come in as the president of the senate and oversee the proceedings, but not have any actual impact on the outcome or the Electoral College count which we know will certify tomorrow for president elect joe biden. However, just as weve been on the air and the president has been tweeting in the last few minutes, he is the one who continues to spread completely false information that im even reluctant to repeat here because of how outlandish it is about what mike pence could come in tomorrow and do in some lastditch effort. We need to tell viewers, that is not accurate. The Vice President earlier today, his office had to clarify whether he was even going to be there, because senator chuck grassley, a republican, indicated if he wasnt there for some reason that grassley would be the one that would have to step in. We need to step in and say we fully expect mike pence to be there tomorrow. The New York Times put it best. They said this is akin to somebody at the Academy Awards presenting best picture. Hes going to open an envelope and say these are the vote tallies for joe biden and Kamala Harris which is the last step in this long process before inauguration on january 20th. The length and the amount of time between when he starts this process and ends it is really what is in question here with all of those republicans objecting, that thing now could take hours and hours. But we still expect the outcome to be the same which is not to change anything for the results despite mike pences loyalty test here. All right. So, garrett, lets get to tomorrow as well, and speaking of the fracture inside the Republican Party, it seems, going into the session tomorrow. You have what the president is deeming the surrender caucus of republicans, and then you have folks like Kelly Loeffler who has come forward and said shes going to object to the certification of the Election Results tomorrow. Take us through where folks stand at the moment. Mitch mcconnell, the Senate Majority leader went to great pains to avoid this moment happening, trying to not split his republican conference, particularly in the senate in half. Thats exactly where we find ourselves now with a group of about a dozen republican lawmakers, varying degrees of commitment to the cause, super gloouing themselves to President Trump on the way out. Its not a surprise to see Kelly Loeffler on the list of those who say theyll object to the electoral count because she needs the president s support and needs the president s supporters to back her. A far larger number of republican senators are coming out saying they wont vote to back these electoral challenges including close president ial allies like tom cotton, kevin cramer. A majority of krk senators have said nothing either way. As tom cotton has explained, nobodys idea of a secret resistance liberal here, this effort will fail. It cannot make President Trump president again. Theres nothing mike pence can do to make President Trump president again. This is a performative ak shun here these republican lawmakers are doing, some on behalf of their constituents they want to address, perhaps on behalf of their own political agendas, but this will fail in the congress tomorrow. Just a matter of when. The cleavage here is between those who want to be seen going down fighting and those who just want to turn the page. Its super important, garrett, as you said, to make those distinctions as were heading in here. Facts first. Facts matter in all this as we well know. Quickly, garrett, im seeing this tweet from the president how we know Kelly Loeffler is essentially is going to object to the certification of the results tomorrow. What about david perdue here . The president is saying hes going to object as well. Have we heard specifically from his camp on this . Reporter as a matter of fact, david perdue is currently a former United States senator. His term has expired. He cant be here on the floor to object any more than i can walk on the floor and object. Kelly loeffler because shes filling an un, pierd term in a special election, technically shes still a senator. Perdue said he would object if he could, but he cant. Right. Thank you, garrett. Thank you, monica. Cog up, well have much more including a checkin with Steve Kornacki. What to watch and why the early vote can be so critical. The coronavirus in california is getting worse by the day. Ambulance counties in l. A. County have been told they should not transport patients with little chance of survival as icus are desperate for space. Well be right back. Oh, oh, oh, ozempic® announcer onceweekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. A majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. Heres your a1c. Oh my a1c is under 7 announcer and you may lose weight. Adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. I lost almost 12 pounds oh announcer for those also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. It lowers the risk. Oh and i only have to take it once a week. Oh oh, oh, oh, ozempic® announcer ozempic® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Do not share needles or pens. Dont reuse needles. Do not take ozempic® if you have a personal or Family History of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to ozempic®. Stop taking ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, itching, rash, or trouble breathing. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Tell your doctor if you have Diabetic Retinopathy or vision changes. Taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase low blood sugar risk. Common side effects are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, and constipation. Some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. Onceweekly ozempic® is helping me reach my blood sugar goal. Oh, oh, oh, ozempic® you may pay as little as 25 for a 1month or 3month prescription. Ask your Health Care Provider today about onceweekly ozempic®. Ythey customize yours lcar insurance. So you only pay for what you need. Wow. That will save me lots of money. This games boring. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Right now there are more americans hospitalized with covid than ever before. Less than a third of all covid vaccines distributed have been administered. Here are the facts on this pandemic at this hour. We lost another 2,600 americans to this virus on monday. The nationwide death toll is now more than 354,000. To put that in perspective, our country not only has more deaths than any other nation, but now has more deaths from covid than the two next countries combined. This morning the uk is under a new national lockdown, the nations most strict restriction since march. That new more infectious variant has been found in a fourth u. S. State, this time in upstate new york in a man in his 60s with no recent travel history. Right now in l. A. , the outbreak is overwhelming hospitals like never been. L. A. County ambulance crews are now officially being told to not transport patients who have little chance of survival. With that i want to go to nbcs Erin Mclaughlin outside st. Joseph providence medical Health Center in burbank. Erin, thank you for joining us on this. The hospital youre outside of is so full, they have had to create makeshift triage tents in the hospital parking lot. What are officials saying about the kriegs sis there . Reporter this is by all accounts a desperate situation. You mentioned that edict issued by l. A. s Emergency Services it was a propronged licht telling crews if a patient is deemed very unlikely to survive, not to be taken to hospitals such as the one behind me. Thats how overwhelmed the hospitals are in l. A. County. They also told the ambulance crews to start rationing oxygen. Were familiar with select hospitals reporting issues with their oxygen. The army corps of engineers sent in personnel to help address those systems at select hospitals in southern california. Now were hearing of oxygen issues on the ambulances themselves. Theyre telling ambulance crews to save the oxygen for only the most critical of patients. Overall, a completely bleak picture being painted here in southern california. Take a listen to what one doctor had to say. There is so much traffic of ambulances coming to hospitals that you have to look for hospitals that can take you in quickly. But, as you can imagine, every hospital e. D. Has so many patients in them right now, so it can lead to slower offflow times. You may risk more of a delay in getting the care yu need because the hospitals are so full. Reporter that doctor was telling me that that would have a serious impact on not just covid patients, but all patients seeking medical care in this area, and the system is so fragile that hospital officials are warning that the entire Health Care System could collapse if in the coming days we see the kind of christmas surge that authorities have been fearing for weeks and months now. Yasmin. Erin mclaughlin, thank you. Good to talk to you this morning. I want to bring in dr. Clifton hastings, a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeons at northeast Health Department systems. Thank you for joining us. Ive got to say, hearing from erin on this and the direction these Ambulance Services are getting, its incredibly troubling. It really puts into perspective the situation in which the state of california and los angeles specifically is dealing with right now. What do you make of that directive . Theyre saying, if someone does not have a good chance of survival, do not bring them in because we dont have any way to treat them. Thank you for having me. Its an unfortunate situation when the Health Care Resources are stretched to the point that we cant take care of everyone thats needed. We also have had episodes here where we have ambulances waiting outside the emergency room. Typically when you get this situation, you just conserve the resources and provide the best care for the most number of people you can. Unfortunately in l. A. It sounds like theyve reached the breaking point to where theyre not able to do that. I imagine its happening in multiple places throughout the country. We continue to see covid cases increase. Were just hopeful we can continue to expand to take care of all the patients as needed. Its difficult for the frontline workers. And its not just covid thats killing folks, right . There was a headline from the New York Times saying, quote, 2020 was especially deadly and covid was not the only culprit. They found more than a quarter of deaths above normal last year were from other causes and that many are most likely indirectly related to the virus and caused by disruptions from this pandemic. Do you worry that because hospitals are so overwhelmed and folks are so scared in this third wave that they wont address the issues that they have, they wont seek out treatment that they need, and they will subsequently die, not because of covid but because of the conditions that theyre dealing with at this very moment . Absolutely. Thats the problem, when you have the excess patients that the coronavirus has brought to the hospitals, youre not limited as to what youre able to do with all the other problems the other medical problems have not gone away. All the heart disease, strokes, cancers and such are still here. We have seen patients that have been scared to come to the hospital and are resulting in the fact that they dont get the timely treatment. That continues to be a concern. We encourage everyone to continue to seek medical care whenever you have a problem. Were expanding to try to adapt to that. So the head of operation warp speed said maybe a solution to the vaccine rollout in making sure more folks are getting the vaccine and said maybe give half doses. The fda said we shouldnt even be having a conversation as of yet. What do you make of this recommendati recommendation, a. B, is the problem that theyre not able to get the vaccines in folks arms . You have some Hospital Systems that have only distributed 20 to 30 of the Vaccines Available to them because they dont have the resources to do it. Thats a very good concern. Were fortunate weve gotten 4,800 vaccines and have been able to give around 4,000. Weve been able to keep up. Were getting more and more, and i think the state has mobilized to get more and more. The reality is the vaccines dont solve the problem. Its the actual vaccination. We have to get those doses into the arms of patients, Health Care Providers, First Responders to protect them. Hopefully that will get us to the longterm effects of this virus. Dr. Clifton hastings, thank you. Appreciate it. Coming up, everybody, georgia on everybodys mind. Well take a closer look at the senate races with Steve Kornacki at the big board. What the early vote numbers could mean for the democrats and where republicans are focused on turnout today. That is next. A job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com groomer ive been involved in. Communications in the media for 45 years. Ive been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. For me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. And i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. It has helped me an awful lot. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. And mines unlisted. Try boost® high protein. With 20 grams of protein for Muscle Health versus only 16 grams in ensure® high protein. And now enjoy boost® high protein in cafe mocha flavor. Oh, this is how it starts lightning strikes the heart the day has just begun brighter than the sun oh, we could be the stars falling from the sky shining how we want brighter than the sun i swear you hit me like a vision but who am i to tell fate where its supposed to go . Oh, this is how it starts lightning strikes the heart the day has just begun brighter than the sun oh, we could be the stars falling from the sky shining how we want brighter than the sun oroweat bread. Gathering, baking and delivering the goodness of nature. From one generation to the next and from seed to slice. Welcome back. Right now voters across georgia are lining up outside polling locations to cast their vote in todays crucial runoff election. It will decide the fate of the u. S. Senate. Republicans are expecting a major turnout for inperson voting while democrats have been pushing early voting and mailin ballots across the state. Steve kornacki, good to see you this morning. You usually get two years off, my friend. Youre back at the big board. Here we go. Its overtime. Its overtime. Exactly. What areas should we be focusing on today . We heard blayne earlier in the show essentially say we may not get the results tonight. This might be day, but were used to that at this point from 2020. Georgia did take days. Hope springs eternal. Maybe the Election Officials will be a little quicker, maybe learned lessons from november. Lets start with where you were showing the pictures from in Cherokee County. This is a core republican area. In fact, republicans typically will get a bigger margin. Trumps was 56,000 votes. Theyll get a bigger margin out of this county, Cherokee County, than any other county in the state typically. When you talk about republicans trying to really turn out their vote today, really run up the score on election day, this is exactly the kind of place where they need it. The wildcard is Cherokee County, you can see theres this outer range kind of in the Atlanta Metro area. Its more exurban, a little more removed from atlanta that has been starting to trend away from republicans. Here is what i mean. Here is Cherokee County. 39point victory for donald trump in november. Check out what it was in 2016. That was a 50point margin for donald trump, 39, 50 back in 2016. Go back one more election to 2012, this was a 58point margin. So the republican margin in big Cherokee County has come down from nearly 60 points to under 40. Does that go down even further today . Has there been Even Movement since november . This is one of those areas that republicans always look at to run up the score in, one of the areas where democrats think they can maybe shrink that republican margin a little more. Its something to keep an eye on. We talked so much about atlanta and the immediate suburbs. Theres also an outer ring here where democrats have been chipping away at that republican margin. Thats one thing to look at. We talked about the Atlanta Metro area. Democrats trying to run up the score there. One other thing to keep an eye on. Its in a place like doherty county. This is where albany, georgia is, large black population in this county in southwest georgia. Democrats think that from november to now, they think they can do better at turning out the black vote, particularly in southwest georgia. In fact, they think maybe they succeeded at that in the early voting period. Thats something were going to see. Do they do better in terms of turnout . Does the 69 number go even higher. Even the areas that are already blue, can they do better in the runoff than in november . Thats something to be looking at tonight. Well be watching. Steve kornacki, good to see you. You, too. Coming up, long lines across the country as americans wait to get the coronavirus vaccine. Well get the latest on the challenges in the state of texas and why some hospitals still havent gotten any doses at all. First ill talk to senator Chris Van Hollen about his colleagues plan to jam up the process for joe biden tomorrow. Well be right back. E. Learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse Mortgage Loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio and so much more. A reverse Mortgage Loan isnt some kind of trick to take your home. Its a loan, like any other. Big difference is how you pay it back. Find out how reverse mortgages really work with aags free, noobligation reverse mortgage guide. With a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. Discover the option thats best for you. Call today and find out more. Im proud to be a part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. Family not getting clean . Get new charmin ultra strong. Go get em. It just cleans better. With a diamond weave texture, your family can use less while still getting clean. Goodbye itchy squirm hello clean bottom we all go. Why not enjoy the go with charmin. Who invented were car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Now weve created a brandnew way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old. We wanna buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. And our techno wizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, thats it. So ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. Welcome back, everybody. This morning nearly 200 ceos from Companies Like jetblue, pfizer and master card have signed on to certify joe bidens Electoral College win. Attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy. It comes ahead of tomorrows joint session of congress to certify the results. Right now the list of republican lawmakers who said publicly they will challenge the results now includes 13 senators and several house republicans. I want to bring in democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of maryland. Thanks for joining us on this. Good morning to you. Good to be with you. Youve got the president tweeting out all morning these baseless claims giving power they do not have to the Vice President for tomorrow, giving power to david perdue that he does not have tomorrow. You have folks like Kelly Loeffler now, senator ted cruz joining on to object to the certification of the Election Results ahead of tomorrow as well. How do you expect tomorrow to play out . Yasmin, its good to be with you. What were seeing is so reckless. You have the president and these republican senators essentially taking a flame thrower to our democracy when it comes to Public Confidence. Its not going to change the election. It could be a very long day. It depends on how many states they decide to challenge. It could be up to six states, and we will then have separate votes in the house and the senate on all of those. At the end of the day, the result will not change. On january 20th, joe biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in. But in this process they are doing an enormous amount of damage to our democracy by undermining Public Confidence in the process. So you said it there, the most important thing coming out of what you said is the results are not going to change. This isnt going to change anything. The efforts of these senators is not going to change anything. That said, do you think after the fact they will be held accountable . Do you think this move is even going to change anything for their constituents, for the trump base that they so covet . Well, what weve seen time and again, unfortunately, is republican senators bending to do Donald Trumps will to aid and abe stncht in his fraudulen schemes. They have not been held accountable. You have a number of republican senators like ted cruz, like hawley are putting their own personal political ambition over the good of the country, and they want to become the trump wannabes. They want to inherit these trump followers and have been willing to put the country through this in order to accomplish that. Look, i hope that our system will ultimately hold people accountable in one way or another. But what weve seen again and again is that that has not happened. So lets hope this time is different. I know that joe biden, when he is sworn in, is going to work very hard to heal the country, to bring people together. These republican senators are making that task all the more difficult. So lets stick with accountability here and looking ahead and how we move ahead as a country. You have two House Democrats that have written a letter to fbi director Christopher Wray asking to open up an investigation into the phone call made to the georgia secretary of state by the president , the phone call that we all heard and read the transcript of from over the weekend. Do you agree with this move, or do you think its time for the country to heal and move on . I think an investigation is warranted. Of course, there are already on going investigations into the president s misconduct on both the criminal front and on the civil front. I do believe that in order to send a message that this undemocratic conduct is unacceptable, people need to be held accountable, and that is one way of doing it. Now, of course, a future Justice Department will have to make a decision as to whether to proceed. One thing we know about the incoming president , joe biden, is that he will ensure an independent attorney general and will have nothing to do with that kind of decision. But i do think we need more systems to hold people accountable. This is unprecedented, to see a statement from former secretaries of defense, including secretary cheney and secretary mattis and secretary rumsfeld, making it clear that an attempted coup is unacceptable by the president. What have we come to in this country . We definitely need more accountability in our system. I think theres a lot of americans asking themselves that question daily, what have we come to as a country. Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you. Appreciate your time today. Good to be with you. This afternoon and tomorrow protests are expected in washington against the certification of the 2020 Election Results. One of the groups expected to attend, the proud boys. The leader of the far right group will not be there. The chairman was arrested on monday, accused of destroying a black lives matter sign at an Historic Black Church last month. Hes also facing an additional gun charge after two highcapacity magazines were found during his arrest. Kyle rittenhouse is set to appear virtually in court. Hes accused of killing two men this summer during and after the shooting of jacob blake, a black man, in kenosha, wisconsin. The city is expected to announce whether the officers involved in his shooting will face criminal charges. The Wisconsin National guard has been called in to support local Law Enforcement ahead of that announcement. Still ahead, everybody, the vaccine confusion spreading across this country intensifies in the state of texas specifically. Some areas, theyre ramping up Vaccine Distribution while other hospitals have not gotten any doses at all. Now an adviser to president elect joe biden is warning that states and cities, they need more help now. Theres been a real lack of resources to state and local Health Departments who will be responsible for vaccinating largely all the rest of the population. If we dont see that kind of change soon in terms of resources coming to these departments to hire vaccinators, hire the people who can actually do the registration work, to make sure people know where to go, when to go somewhere to get their vaccine, this problem could get only worse. Worse but come ye back when su mom, dad. Whys jamie here . Its sunday. Sunday sing along. And he helped us get a home and auto bundle. Hes been our insurance guy for five years now. He makes us feel like were worth protecting. [ gasps ] why didnt you tell us about these savings, flo . Ive literally told you a thousand times. Oh, danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling im just gonna. From glen to glen when you have diabetes, managing your blood sugar is crucial. Try boost glucose control. The patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. Boost glucose control products contain high quality protein and key nutrients to support immune health. Try boost. Less sick days cold coming on . Zicam® is clinically proven to shorten colds highly recommend it zifans love zicams unique zinc formula. It shortens colds zicam zinc that cold welcome back, everybody. This is a live look at daytona beach, florida. Youre looking at a line of Senior Citizens who have been waiting since before dawn to receive their coronavirus vaccine. Some folks camped out in their cars overnight to make sure they got a spot in line. The county Health Department says it has about 1,000 doses to give out today. Right now in the state of texas, the distribution of the vaccine can be summed up in one word confusing. The governor says a significant portion of the states vaccine is just sitting on shelves. But the State Hospital Association Says thats just not true. Its led to a chaotic rollout and Big Questions about who can actually get a vaccine there as we speak. Nbcs dasha burns is at a vaccination site in texas. Dasha, thanks for joining us. What are you hearing from people on the ground who are administering this vaccine right now . Reporter hey, yasmin, there are a lot of factors at play here but what were hearing from providers like here at University Health which is putting shots in arms today, is that they need more supply, that there is not an excess. In fact just about every dose they have is scheduled to go into arms like these here in just the next a couple of weeks. Adding to some of the confusion is the announcement that came from the state last week, opening up, expanding those who are eligible for the vaccine. Theyre now on to group 1b which means folks 65 and older and those with Chronic Health conditions. Thats a much bigger pool than just those 1a front line workers. Yasmin, theyve already vaccinated about 400 people or so here today. Theyll be vaccinating 1,500. When they opened up that online portal last week, within five hours, they had 17,000 slots fill up within five hours. They actually have to shut down registration. Theyre asking for patients as they await more supply. And that really does seem to be the bottleneck here. I want you to hear from the chief pharmacy officer at University Health about the issue of supply and distribution. Take a listen. The best scenario would be a plan that we would know what vaccine we were getting and when. Right now we dont know that. So we have to make best plans as possible. So yes, weve had to shut down our scheduling here because we wouldnt have vaccine to do more people than what we have scheduled. As soon as we know we have an additional supply, we can reopen. Reporter and yasmin, because of the states approach to the rollout that has been very decentralize decentralized, it means a range of circumstances for different hospitals. You have this one vaccinating folks 65 and older or with Chronic Health conditions. Meanwhile other providers arent able to even get through those front line workers yet, they need more supply. The texas Hospital Association tells me right now there are 68 hospitals that have not been able to give a single dose out, even to their front line workers, yasmin. Wow. Dasha burns, thank you for that, appreciate it. That does it for me, everybody, for this hour. Catch me on weekends from 3 00 to 5 00 p. M. Eastern. We have special coverage of course of the georgia runoff, kicking off with nicolle wallace. Tomorrow, we have special coverage as congress certifies the Electoral College vote, that starts tomorrow 9 00 a. M. Eastern right here. But up next, Andrea Mitchell reports starts after a short break. Good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington, on an election day in georgia where two contests will determine who controls the senate and president elect bidens ability to confirm his cabinet and future judicial choices as well as passing his top priorities. Democratic candidates jon ossoff and Raphael Warnock need to improve their margins from the november election in order to defeat republicans david perdue and senator Kelly Loeffler. The races are so important, both President Trump and president elect biden campaigned in georgia yesterday and last night. The power, the power is literally in your hands, unlike any time in my career. One state, one state can chart the course not just for the next four years but for the next generation. Each of you is going to vote in one of the most important runoff elections in the history of our
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.