Except more splitsville. The new reporting on the public and private Party Disarray happening less than 24 hours into the new congress. We start off 2021 like we ended 2020 with an avalanche of news this morning. Monica alba is at the white house, Garrett Haake on capitol hill, Blaine Alexander live in atlanta and matthew sanderson, a republican election lawyer is with us. Monica, let me start with you. Before we do, a refresher for folks on what went down on that 62minute call between President Trump and the georgia Elections Officials. Why did they put the votes in three times . They put them in three times . They did not put that. We did an audit of that and proved they were not scanned three times. They are shredding ballots in my opinion, based on what ive heard. Were saying not at all what youre describing. The dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their machinery. No, dominion is not moving the machinery out of fulton count. No, but have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts . No. You sure, ryan . Im sure. Im sure. So what are we going to do here, folks . I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, i need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. So monica, take us inside the white house this morning. We havent heard much from President Trump since that call was released. Even as we get new reporting from sources familiar about that call, tell us what youre hearing from your sources at the white house. We really havent heard from the president publicly in a very long time, hallie. Thats why this extraordinary more than hourlong phone call that we heard that now we know took place on saturday is such a revealing insight into this continued desperation, really, on the part of the president to spread conspiracy theories that have been debunked and to continue to make baseless claims about this election. He continues to insist there was widespread voter fraud when we know there hasnt been a single instance of that found, at least by any of the judges. Some of them we should point out trumpappointees. His campaign mounted. Dozens and dozens of lawsuits that went all the way up to the Supreme Court which were ultimately dismissed. This phone call is also showing us that this president actually had wanted to get in touch, we understand, with this republican secretary of state. The white house had tried to make this call happen. The operator telling us 18 times and actually saturday was the first time these two men ever connected over the phone. At times the president was meandering and making repeated false claims. Chief of staff mark meadows who also made some pleas about potential cooperation was on the call. Essentially here you have the white house continuing to go down a path to make a lastditch effort to somehow alter the results even though, of course, georgia has certified them multiple times. All of this with the background that on wednesday the president expects some of his republican colleagues and lawmakers to object to the Election Results, but really, hallie, we have to put it into context for everybody. None of this is expected to change what we know will happen on january 20th, the inauguration of president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris. Blaine, youre live in atlanta. Talk about the context youre learning and our team based in this georgia. How it came about, who recorded it and the potential fallout . Reporter right before i get to that, ill say i reached out to the local District Attorney here, the Fulton CountyDistrict Attorney to ask her what, if any, action her office plans to take on this call, whether they plan to investigate. So ill let you know if i get any response from her. But yeah, were learning more context about this call. As you heard monica say, 18 times the white house tried to reach out to secretary of state. And its interesting, weve seen a repeated barrage of tweets from President Trump attacking the republican secretary of state and attacking the governor. So we know the tweets were essentially coming at the same time that the white house was trying to reach out and establish some sort of communication between the two. We also know that according to a republican source that this call was actually recorded by the secretary of States Office and he said he did not want any portion of the call released unless the president in some way misrepresented the call. So an interesting bit of context there. Secretary of state spoke again earlier this morning. Heres what he had to say. Take a look. I never believed it was appropriate to speak to the president , but he pushed out, and i guess he had his staff push us. He did most of the talking. We did most of the listening, but i wanted to make their points that the data he has is plain wrong. Reporter and hallie, i think two crucial bits of information to get in here, that really just make this call even more stunning, especially for folks in georgia and those of us who covered the state. One, the secretary of state is a longtime republican. He is somebody who not only supported President Trump, voted for the president twice, he says, but donated money to his campaign. This isnt somebody who has been vocal against the president. In fact, he said in a number of news conferences the count was being counted and recounted and recounted again. That as a republican, he wishes that the outcome was different. But again, the votes and, again, what his office has found, no evidence of widespread voter fraud show that that wasnt the case. And blaine, he was even asked this morning, the secretary of state, would he vote for President Trump again. He said i am a republican and will probably be. Those credentials are not in question. Garrett, youve heard a dichotomy. You have some allies of the president saying why was the call recorded and leaked in the first place. Others are saying privately look at the contents of the call. Now that we know its out here, look what it says. And thats on top of those inside the gop worried about this effort to challenge president elect bidens victory on wednesday. Reporter yeah. Theres a lot going on. This fissure the president is continuing to widen here in the Republican Party. I was watching kevin cramer, republican senator from north dakota on our Sister Network saying look, this is how the president talks and were used to it by now. A way for republicans to try to just keep plowing ahead, at least until they can get through the fa georgia election. What were seeing now is perhaps even more interesting, the divide thats developing on capitol hill about the idea of challenging the electoral count. Over the weekend there was a statement from former speaker of the house paul ryan, one of the most powerful people in washington when he was here saying this is antidemocratic and anticonservative and doing so can cause significant damage to americas democracy. And while paul ryan is out of the mine stream of the trump controlled Republican Party, theres also a division among is that rights, a dozen senators now saying they will object at least in some form to the votes on electoral college. Including all four new members of the Senate Republican class. Then theres another group of republican senator who we know have spoken out. A dozen on that side who say theyre against it. Look at the person in the center of the graphic. Mitch mcconnell is makes it his personal business that lists like this never exist and he not be on the list of any division between republicans add all. That is how he runs this conference. The fact that you have a dozen members including all four of these new incoming members willing to say thanks for the advice, mitch mcconnell, were going the other way is extraordinary. It shows this im going to go back to the word, the fissure in the Republican Party in the sort of end of the trump era. And where it goes from here is fascinating, but to monicas point at the beginning of the segment, all of this is academic. The effort will fail. The math guarantees it. Its fascinating to see what the Republican Party is doing to itself. Monica, speaking of you, i want to come back to you. Were hearing from every living former defense secretary speaking out together now. New today with a very forceful message for anybody trying to challenge the Election Results. Right . Yeah. Ten of them coming together to say the time for contesting any of these Election Results is over. And that Everybody Needs to move on. Of course, the message being aimed at the president. And accusing him of engaging in this activity that is really undemocratic and potentially dangerous, particularly when you hear some of the suggestions that the president himself has entertained, that his allies have made about possibly involving the military in this effort to thwart his own election defeat, hallie. Whats notable here is that the actual person who came up with the idea, were learning from one of the authors, is former Vice President and defense secretary dick cheney. Also notable here, two of the authors are, of course, secretary of defenses who conserved under President Trump. You have this Bipartisan Group here stressing and the fact they came together for this joint effort really should not be missed. Trying to urge caution in these final weeks of the trump administration. Monica, as you were speaking something happened that has happened a lot on this show over the last four years. President trump tweeted about the thing were talking about. And gary, youre on deck. I think it relates to your beat. The president is continuing to be upset about the certification of the accurate Election Results, saying youll see the real numbers during his speech. A reference to that rally hes holding in georgia, despite what some sources have told us, as you know, that there are those in the president s circle saying focus on rallying the voters tonight and not talking about what you consider the stolen election. Whats interesting is he specifically called out senator tom cotton saying republicans have pluses and minuses but they never forget. This is shots fired at somebody that theres been a lot of speculation around a 2024 run surrounding him. A major ally of the president. His name as come up repeatedly when there was speculation about open jobs in the trump administration. He put out a statement over the weekend saying he will not join the electoral vote challenges. The president is keeping close track of his perceived friends and enemies. The context here. One of the names that most surprised me on the list of abjean objectors, james langford. Someone you wouldnt typically see with the most fringe elements of the party is up for reelection in 2022. You see the reelection politics of various lawmakers here, and how theyre potentially making these decisions. Garrett, monica, thank you to all of you. Matt, i want to get back to something blaine was saying a moment ago. The idea that shes reached out of course to the Fulton CountyDistrict Attorneys office, but the states attorney is saying what happens its appropriate to look at the call. Could they build a case against President Trump here . Did he break the law . Well, a prosecution under criminal statutes that have high state of mind requirements could be difficult. Prosecutors under federal law, for example, would essentially need to prove that President Trump personally knows definitively that he lost and is nonetheless trying to overturn the election. That could be a challenging case to bring against someone who seeps almost pathologically unwilling to acknowledge his electoral failure. I think we get caught up in discussing the technicalities of criminal law and lose sight of the fact that President Trump has committed an act against the public trust that a criminal defense isnt designed to address it. Explain that. Elaborate on that. So i mean, you have the president , a sitting american president on record trying to intimidate a state official into recalculating Election Results almost two months after the fact. He wants the secretary to find 11 ,780 new trump votes through any means necessary. A sitting american president wants to reck the foundation of our government of free and chair elections without so much as a second thought. Thats antithetical to the american process, the american experiment thats been a beacon of hope for the world for over two centuries, and this is an egregious wrong. It might not fit within a common criminal statute, but one obvious legal remedy would be for the house to now, again, advance articles of impeachment that would disqualify the president from Holding Office once his first term ends. Thats one of the legal remedies provided for just such egregious misconduct. The political appetite for that is in question. Matt, thank you so much for your interequity i and expertise on this issue. We appreciate you being on the show. Matt sanderson, thank you. Were talking about that phone call the president made. He denies the false claims came from social media. He calls it trump media. Those exact conspiracy theories are pushed at qanon, you name it. A closer look at where it started with new reporting from the top distopia beat reporter. Democrats live already out campaigning on the last day of the race in georgia. Were talking about the latest predictions and potential for that president ial phone call to shake up the race. Call to shakupe the race. My bladder leak pad . I thought it had to be thick to protect. But always discreet protects differently. With ultrathin layers, that turn liquid to gel. And lock it inside. For protection i barely feel. Always discreet. Right now in georgia an all out push for two of the most Expensive Senate races in senate history. On the left, jon ossoff, Raphael Warnock holding a joint event. You also have david perdue, no longer a senator as of yesterday sidelined still in quarantine. More than 3 million early votes are already in including from more than 100,000 people who sat out novembers election. And the president and president elect will both be heading there in a few hours separately, obviously. Against that explosive backdrop of President Trumps call with georgias secretary of state. Its all setting up a faceoff of sorts over, frankly, democracy. And what it means. Just hours before election day. Mike memoli is in atlanta. Mike, a packed schedule for the candidates today. Does it come down to turn out . What do you think . Ive heard that rumor, maybe. Reporter weve heard that a time or two in the past, havent we . And really, it is all about georgia today. The next 48 hours, we know the stakes could determine the control of the u. S. Senate, and for joe biden, that could mean everything. It could mean for his agenda. I means the world for his nominees, the ability to get both judges and executive appointments through a democratic controlled senate or republican where they have veto power. Thats where we see the candidates out with their biggest surrogates in tow. Joe biden in the heart of atlanta later this afternoon. About 9d 0 miles to the north tonight well see President Trump with loeffler and potentially perdue just saying a few moments ago hes going tro try to virtually campaign. And mike pence also part of the action about 50 miles to the south. The biden team as ive been talking to them have been cleareyed about the challenge for a democrat two democrats in this case in a Runoff Election without the president ial turnout at the top of the ticket. But there are democrats in the state who are feeling bullish based on what were seeing in terms of the early voting numbers. Strong turn out amorning African American voters and among younger voters. They say it looks like the Biden Coalition that helped joe biden become the first democrat to win this state since 1992. But a cautionary note from one top biden adviser. They say i wish folks could stop overreading the early vote data. It is designed to break your heart, as he put it. I think thats why youre seeing biden here doing everything they can to try to keep the momentum from the early vote into election day. What was the difference in the general election . We were looking at early vote data across the country that looked great for democrats, but then there was a surprising level of day of turnout for the republican candidates across the board that led to that very narrow democratic majority in the house, and yes, the very closely divided number in the senate. Thats why you can see the political strategy in the geography of where the candidates are today trying to get that base turnout to show up tomorrow for in person voting. And any discussion or anything from the sources so far on any impact that phone call the president had with obviously somebody there in georgia, the secretary of state and other officials could have on this race . Well, we certainly saw Vice President elect Kamala Harris raising this quickly after the audio was leaked talking about the desperation you heard in the president s voice, but the biden team has been careful. They know to overescalate this situation might provoke republican turnout. At this stage, theyre looking at the potential that especially given what we might see from the president tonight, the opportunity to depress republican turnout is something they dont want to stand in the way of. They dont want to energize the Republican Base by coming out too strongly themselves. Mike memoli live for us in atlanta. Coming up, the u. S. Falling short of the Covid Vaccination goal with the concerns of another coronavirus crush after the holidays. In florida thats a line stretching as far as you can see. What is the holdup with the shots . A live report next. Ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. So dad bought puffs plus lotion, and rescued his nose. 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Now under discussion by some, cutting the Moderna Vaccine shot in half to more people can get the shot sooner. Over in the uk, the first dose of astrazenecas vaccine went into the arm of an 82yearold dialysis patient. Its cheaper and easier to use since it doesnt need that super cold storage that other vaccines do. We also have an update on larry king who has been hospitalized after coming down with the coronavirus. The longtime broadcaster is out of the intensive care unit. Thats according to a source close to the family. The person confirms to nbc news that king who is 87, has been hospitalized for about ten days at a Medical Center in los angeles. We have coast to coast coverage this morning. Kerry sanders in south florida, erin is in southern california. Frontline Health Care Workers are getting second doses to the vaccine where you are, but youve been looking at the issues with rolling out the first dose, too. Reporter yeah. You know, hallie, theres a real disconnect here in the state of florida. You have Health Care Workers that have been getting their vaccines since pfizer was approved and then moderna. Then you had the governor in the state of florida open it up to those ages 65 and older. And thats where the chaos began. The chaos is a result of we have 67 counties in the state of florida. Each Health Department in the state of florida is using a different system. Some are doing first come first serve. So this morning daytona beach, 1,000 people in cars in lines trying to get the vaccine. The police had to turn people away. They didnt have that many vaccines. In other counties like here in broward county, theyve set up a system where people can go online to make an appointment. Sounds like a great system. Unfortunately the online system, the website has been crashing. Its not working either. Then you have the other side like the health care side. And were here at Memorial Health care systems. Latonya forbes is with us. What are you doing here today in terms of where they are in the order of getting the vaccines . Today were seeing a lot of Health Care Providers coming back for their second dose. They received their first dose the week of december 14th, and i received mine that day as well. Today was actually my second dose. Reporter were talking about the pfizer 21days, come back and get it . Yes. We have video of you getting yours. As we look at the video and you clapped after, give me a sense of the protection you feel you have now . I feel this is the best way to start any new year. I feel like this is going to put me on the road to health. Our Health Care Providers fight this pandemic. Weve seen a lot of grimness in the last few months and this is giving us hope. Okay. Thank you very much for joining us live. One of the things i should point out, while theyre doing the second dose here, there are some Health Care Systems in the state of florida that did give that first vaccine, the pfizer and now theyre waiting for the arrival of the second doses to give. Theres a little anxiety of whether they have the supplies they need when it comes to giving the Health Care Workers the second dose. Understandable anxiety. Keri live for us. Thank you. I want to go to erin outside providence Medical Center. Health officials are getting ready to perhaps ration treatment there . Whats up . Reporter yeah. Thats true for hospitals in this area. And ive been speaking to Health Officials here. They tell me they are a surge away from that possibility which is why the next week will be so critical in the battle against covid19 here for southern california. Because this is the week in which they expect to see the numbers from the christmas gatherings, people not following the rules, meeting with friends and family, and spreading covid19. This is when they expect to see those numbers materialized. Authorities here are bracing for the worst. The system, according to one chief medical officer is already on the brink. Take a listen. We thought we were at the limit last month. And maybe we keep finding new ways to stretch here, and this is like apollo 13, the movie. Where every hour the ship could blow up but a team of people puts their brains together and finds a way to keep you going until tomorrow. Thats what this has been like for the last 28 straight days. Now, hospitals are preparing for whats called crisis standard of care mode. It means Different Things to different hospitals. For example, when were speaking to one hospital who is telling us that that essentially means that doctors will rank patients according to perceived benefit of intensive treatments. The rankings go to a Hospital Committee and the committee decides who gets to leave and enter the icu, taking the decision out of the hands of families in the case of Brad Spellburg who you heard him, his hospital, theyre staying away from the math formulas if they have to enter the crisis standard of care mode, it will mean Different Things to different Public Hospitals based on resources available. He said the resource most in need is people to fight on the frontlines. Hallie . Erin live for us there in burbank. Erin, thank you. I want to bring in dean of the school of Public Health at brown university. Doctor shah, thank you for being on the show. Happy new year. Good morning. Happy new year to you. Thank you for having me back. Of course. Lets start with the waits to get the shots into arms. I want to go through numbers. More than 13 million vials of vaccine distributed. Only 4. 3 million have been administered. That comes out to 33 . Just about a third of the shots actually being used. I want to talk about how you fix that. How do you speed things up . There are different perspectives. Operation warp speed says theyre looking at maybe giving two half doses of the moderna. Youre suggesting delaying the second dose. Dr. Fauci is saying waiting isnt necessarily backed up by the science. What do you do, doctor . First, we need to fix the bottle necks. The bottle necks are around distribution. They are critical. We didnt do the planning we needed to. Ive been talking to states for much of the past week, and they dont have a very well detailed plan of how theyre going to get vaccines into arms and they also dont have the resources. Now, some money is coming from congress. The federal government needs to get involved here. It needs to help set targets. It needs to sit down with states and counties and ask what do you need to meet the targets and then deploy federal resources to bolster states to get the vaccines out. The idea that a vast majority of the vaccines weve produced are sitting in freezers across the country and not getting into peoples arms is a crisis in the context of how much disease we have in the community. Well, let me ask you about the health secretary. You talked about leadership here. He was asked this morning about a slow vaccine rollout. Listen to what he had to say. This is the largest Vaccination Campaign in the history of the United States. Im actually surprised there havent been more glitches than weve seen. Our states are on it. Were working with our governors and providing help. It sounds like, doctor, perhaps you do not share secretary azars optimism on this. Well, i certainly agree this is the most complicated Vaccination Program weve had. Were in the middle of the Biggest Health crisis weve had in a century. Its not like vaccines are a surprise. Weve had many months to plan for that. The only thing i would say to secretary azar is two weeks ago we were hearing wed have 20 Million People vaccinated. Were way behind. Whatever help theyre offering the governors is not enough. From the state side, they feel like theyre not getting the kind of help they need from the federal government. Its not working and we need a new plan and a more aggressive approach from the federal government to bolster state capacity. Okay. So on the bottle necks, we talked about the first doses of the astrazeneca vaccine being districted in the uk. We showed that moments ago in the segment. If its approved by the fda, and what would that mean . Wouldnt that help this whole situation or no . Yes. We definitely need more vaccines. There are a couple issues. I think j and j, Johnson Johnson is going to have a vaccine available in the United States before astrazeneca. S a tra zen ka may be a couple months away because theyre running brand new clinical trials. There is no doubt that having a lot more vaccines is going to be critically important. But one of the things were learning is that its not just about having more vaccines. We have to fix our distribution problems. If we can do those things, we can move the needle on this. But we need both of those things, more vaccines and better distribution. Quickly here, as we talk about the uk, i want to talk about this more infectious strain of the virus that was first detected. Its here in the u. S. As you well know, and the New York Times has a graph that shows how cases in the uk and south africa spike affidavit the variant was first detected. Are you reading into this, and if so what, and are we possibly in for something similar here . I think most people are underestimating how much of a problem this variant can be. I am really worried about it. A virus thats 30 to 50 more contagious will mean things are really going to potentially take off in a lot of communities that have actually managed to bring the virus under control. Im pretty concerned. Were going to have to track this closely. One of the reasons im anxious to get the vaccines out as quickly as possible, to protect peoples lives. That makes sense, although it is certainly a grim warning there. Doctor, thank you. Great to have you on the show. Appreciate it. Just ahead, get your mud boots ready. Were trekking through the fever swamps of the internet with ben collins to show you where President Trump is getting the twisted and persisting conspiracy theories he pushed in the call with the georgia Elections Officials. Plus news just in from our White House Team. Who is about to add president ial medal of freedom recipient to the resume. Its about to go to some of the president s top defenders. What our sources are saying next. What our sources are saying next disappears on me. Dad dad you are so fast i discovered a new land with magical creatures was it under the porch . Yup ugh. Ill never see everything she sees. Thats why we use new tide hygienic clean. It gets between fibers to remove visible and invisible dirt. Hey dad i discovered an aquatic kingdom ugh. If its got to be clean, its got to be tide i wasnt sure. Was another around the corner . Or could things go a different way . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. 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So the letter to the fbi is coming from a couple house members. They write in part, quote, as members of congress and former prosecutors, we believe donald trump engaged in solicitation of or conspiracy to commit a number of election crimes. They continue, we ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president. Again, that is coming from a couple democrats on capitol hill to the fbi director. Well keep you posted on what else we hear on that. Were confirming other news. The white house today sources telling our White House Team that President Trump is set to give the nations highest civilian honor, the president ial medal of freedom to one of his biggest allies, congressman devin nunez. Peter alexander is at the white house. Anything on timing. When is this supposed to be officially con officifirmed by white house . Reporter no public statement. I anticipate it will happen in the matter of hours. Its expected to happen here at some point at the white house. Whats notable about this, of course, is the Republican Congress member from california has been one of the president s biggest allies. Hes been one of the biggest supporters in some of the president s most outlandish conspiracy theories. He was one of the most vocal supporters in the president undermining the Mueller Investigation of russian interference in the 2016 election. Back in 2018 the president was just showering praise, lavishing nunes with praise. He basically at the time accused the fbi, nunes did, and Justice Department investigators of being biassed against the president. He said on fox news back then what hes gone through and his bravery, he should get a very important medal. Well, it appears clear thats going to happen later today. On this topic, its notable theres reporting the president is also expected to deliver, to give a medal of freedom to another one of his closest allies in congress, jim jordan, the republican from ohio. To give you background on sort of the way this normally works, these medal of freedoms, highest civilian honor go to those who have contributed to culture, world peace, to the u. S. In terms of security or national interest. The president earlier in his term giving it to rush limbaugh. Compared to others who received it, president obama giving the medal of freedom to among others, warren buffet, billy jean king, george w. Bush giving it to hank aaron, Pope John Paul ii. The president focusing on closest allies who benefitted him the most politically. Peter live for us there on the north lawn. Thank you. This morning dpa georggeorg secretary of state is talk act the very long list of conspiracy theories, things that arent true that President Trump said in the phone call, trying to overturn joe bidens win. Listen. The last two months weve been fighting a whack amole. We debunked every one of the theories but President Trump continues to believe them. Those are conspiracies that by the way, he also tried to take on directly during the call. Warning the president not to believe everything he reads on the internet. Mr. President , the problem you have with social media is they can people can say anything. No, this isnt social media. This is trump media. Its not social media. The reality of the things to dras back to social media. And the murkier corners of the internet. But it does speak to one thing. And to be clear, theyve all been debunked. It speaks to one thing. That is the idea that this misinformation that the president continues to amplify can be serious consequences more broadly. I want to bring in ben collins who traced the origins of some of the conspiracy theories. Before i get to the specific ones, broadly as we talk about the idea of misinformation here, ben, i thought it was interesting. You spoke i believe with somebody who talked about the point, President Trump can take this slew of junk from the internet and manage to condense it into one quick monologue. Hes got this sort of strange skill of being able to do that. Yeah. I mean, the technical term is hes high in his own supply. He has this pipeline of garbage thats fed to him over time. Its hard to differentiate what hes feeding into that pipeline and what hes receiving from it. And thats the point. Its to create an alternate reality where he is an solved at all times and every day theres a new way in that part of the internet. The big thing to focus on here is the change of how the qanon pipeline works. Its a Conspiracy Theory that the world is run by child eating satanists or something. That the core tenet of that Conspiracy Theory has moved on. But the people who were interested in it previously despite realizing all of it is garbage, it racreated a factionn twitter and blogs and on fortune that push new election conspiracies every day. Their goal is to kweep keep their god emperor in office. And the president which we know from this phone call, is almost exclusively getting information from that pipeline now. So talk about that pipeline. One of the claims he talked about is the idea about dominion, saying the Voting Machines he described as corrupt. That inner parts were moved to other machines. Things that on that phone call Elections Officials say not true. Whats the reality check and where did it come from . Sure. So the dominion conspiracy was primarily pushed by qanon influencers. Theres a guy named ron watkins that runs a website where q from qanon posts in the digital cult. A lot of people believe he is q, because he can post as q at any time. He runs the website and has the ability to post as this account whenever he wants to. So some people believe thats him. Ron watkins on the election day said im not interested in akin. Im interested in voter fraud and dominion. He posed as an election and voting machine expert on oan. And the president tweeted this segment several times with ron watkins in it saying he can find all the problems of the dominion conspiracy himself. Obviously these networks have backed off this substantial in the last couple weeks because of the threat of litigation. Do minion said you keep doing this, were going to sue you. So they have backed away from this over time, but not the people on the internet to feel impervious to this sort of litigation. It feeds the president directly on twitter through a pipeline that has nothing to do with regular mainstream media. Let me get another one from you. He repeated false claims about suitcases or trunks stuffed with votes. This has real world implications or does too . This one is really particularly insidious. He cites a hash tag that targets one woman in georgia. A woman in says that shes a kn scammer on this phone call. This woman runs a kiosk at the mall. She sells handbags on instagram. This is not a known scammer. This is a person volunteering to help with the election. Now, the suitcases, what is he talking about . You probably know nothing about this if youre living in reality. So some of these people, some of these election workers went home because there were so many ballots to count. They put them in suitcases to lock them up overnight. They came back and opened up the suitcases. If you watch the video of them opening up suitcases of ballots, it looks nefarious and terrible. Guess what . Thats not the whole story. They were packing up ballots from the night before that they couldnt count. They had to go to sleep. These people had to, you know, be regular people. Conspiracy theories dont make room for regular people, only enemies. Thats what the president was trying to create here. This hashtag he mentioned was exclusively used by qanonacco t qanon accounts. It is weird that he knows about it, frankly. He is not an expert at the internet. It is weird he knows about this conspiraciy rat all. You have to imagine, too, ben, that the president s rebrar rebranding of social media as, quote, trump media, only makes it harder to combat the misinformation. Ben collins on the dystopia beat for us. Thank you for all of that. Appreciate you breaking it down. Up next, a huge decision overseas on whether Julian Assange will come to the United States to stand trial. The latest in a live report. L. The latest in a live report. Thousands of women with metastatic Breast Cancer, which is Breast Cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. 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Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Be in your moment. Ask your doctor about ibrance. Tonight, try pure zzzs all night. Unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. And longer. Zzzquil pure zzzs all night. Fall asleep. Stay asleep. This morning, a british judge is denying a u. S. Request to extradite Julian Assange to the u. S. To face trial. The wikileaks found ser waer is by u. S. Officials for his leaking of classified government documents. The judge in the uk citing suicide risk and Mental Health risks for the reasons of denying extradition. U. S. Lawyers are expected to appeal. Keir simmons is live with us. Weve been covering assange for quite some time. What does this mean for his future . You had a chance to speak with people close to assange. Reporter yeah, thats right. Look, its a huge, huge deal, because this has been going on for so long, for a decade. For some people, Julian Assange is a journalist, champion of the first amendment, a man who revealed the bloody secrets of afghanistan and iraq war, shifting opinions. To others, he conspired to hack military secrets and put out information that could have gotten people killed. At worse, is a rapist. Those charges by sweden were dropped, and he always denied them. The judge, as you say today, saying simply his Mental Health is not in any state for him to be extradited to the u. S. The battle isnt over. The doj saying now that they will appeal, saying they won this court case on every argument, aside from the question of his Mental Health. Theyll come back and argue he will be safe in an emergency pris american prison. Keir simmons live from london. Thank you. Thank you all for watching this hour of msnbc live. Busy start to 2021. I expect it will continue that way for the rest of the week. We have more on this network. Yasmin vossoughian picks it up after the break. Its moving day. And while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. It only takes about a minute. Wait, a minute . But what have you been doing for the last two hours . Delegating . Oh, good one. Move your Xfinity Services without breaking a sweat. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Xfinity makes moving easy. Go online to transfer your services in about a minute. Get started today. Good morning. Im i cant syasmin vossoughian craig melvin at nbc headquarters in new york. Right now, we are having a bit of deja vu. A controversial phone call by the president has him under an intensifying microscope. In audio first reported by the Washington Post and obtained by nbc news, you can hear the president in an hour long call, asking georgias secretary of state to overturn the Election Results. Listen to this. The ballots are corrupt, and youre going to find that they are which is totally illegal. Its more illegal for you than it is for them. Because you know what they did, and youre not reporting