Outgoing chief of staff mark meadows called the head of the fda to the white house today. There he is, steven hahn, going in, to ask him why the fda hasnt moved faster to approve the pfizer vaccine. It is a political move when incoming biden Health Advisers say the last thing we need is to politicize this vaccine, undermine confidence in it. Meanwhile, joe biden himself is looking ahead to economic recovery, both before and after a vaccine is widely available. And unveiled his nominees for key economic appointments today where they outline their plan to, as the president elect always puts it, build back better after the pandemic. Lets not forget who built this country. Middle class and working class people built this country and unions built the middle class. From the most unequal economic and job crisis in modern history, we can build a new American Economy that works for all americans. Not just some, all perform. Lost lives, lost jobs, Small Businesses struggling to stay alive or closed for good. So many people struggling to put food on the table and pay bills and rent. Its an american tragedy. And its essential that we move with urgency. Inaction will produce a selfreinforcing downturn causing yet more devastation. Joining me now is nbc White House CorrespondentGeoff Bennett and acting labor secretary during the obama administration, selt harris, former economic adviser, jason furman, a member of the biden covid19 advisory board, dr. Gounder, and hhs pandemic and emerging threats coordinator dr. Ramirez. We have to talk about the vaccine, the pandemic and the economy, theyre intertwined. Lets start with geoff. I was watching this entire News Conference online, and i was struck that every single nominee came up and in accepting the nomination, told the story about how they individually dealt with hardship in their families when they were younger and dealt with layoffs and dealt with and how they needed government help and they all talked about how social programs came in, lifted them up and helped them get back to recovery and how they want to give to those looking for recovery, looking for some help. Was this intentional by the Biden Campaign to choose people who had been through this themselves . I think so. It was certainly intentional to allow bidens nominees to link between the personal and the resulting policy. Thats especially important for people like nira tandon, she was raised by a single mother who for a time used federal Housing Assistance and food stamps and she made the case that shes the beneficiary of that, and if confirmed would be overseeing and implementing similar policies. You have six people specifically tasked by joe biden to achieve his stated goal of trying to reorient, reorder the u. S. Economy in favor of working people. So, from janet yellen to Wally Adeyemo to cecilia forgive me, im foregetting her last name. Rouse. Jared bernstein rouse, thank you. These are people based on their previous work in Public Comments have talked about promoting labor unions. So, you know, joe biden made the case that he doesnt necessarily think that the government needs to solve americans problems but the government does need to understand americans problems. Certainly this group that hes amassed, hes making the case that these are folks who get it. Who get it and can be about the work of creating an economy that works for working people. Seth, they have a lot of hurdles in front of them. It is a very big job to try to bring this economy back and start to bring it back while the pandemic is still raging. What should the first order of business be, or what do you expect the first order of business is going to be . The biden administrations focus is going to be the pandemic pain. Theres going to be a push on the Covid Recovery legislation, both funding the distribution of the vaccine and also trying to help the parts of the economy that have been hurt most deeply to recover as much as possible to provide support to unemployed workers and their families as well as to foodinsecure families and to schools and state and local governments and others. That will be a starting place. But the larger question is, how do they build back better . How do we get an economy with a strong and burgeoning middle class with people able to support themselves and their families in a Sustainable Way in good, quality jobs. Thats going to require a substantial investment and president elect biden during the campaign laid out a detailed plan for doing that. These are the people with one or two exceptions, these are the people that helped develop that plan working with the president elect. I expect to see that plan advance. It will have a struggle in congress, but i think theyre going to push forward with it. Republicans do not want the state and local spending to be in that relief bill. They want a much smaller number and democrats say it has to be in there. Can you get to recovery if there isnt money for state and local budgets in a federal relief bill . Are there other ways that say janet yellen can go about trying to boost local economies without that necessary funding that states say they need so much . Its going to be a substantial challenge without Congress Opening up the Purse Strings for state and local governments. That was actually one of the lessons of the great recessions and the long recovery after the great recession, is that state and local governments lost huge numbers of workers and their economies suffered because you didnt have local spending that came from state and local government revenue and state and local government revenue. So, with he had a longer, slower recovery because state and local governments didnt come back as quickly as they needed to. So part of the economic recovery, particularly for people who depend upon state and local government for the services they need, depends upon investments from the local government. Remember, state and local governments cant borrow to make their deficits disappear. The federal government can. So, it really is incumbent on the federal government to provide state and local governments with the money they need, with the support they need so they can employ those doctors and nurses and cops and firefighters and librarians and teachers who help our local economies to grow. And they dont have the option of bankruptcy either. Dr. Gounder, again, all of these things are intertwined. The recovery is reliant on the recovery from the pandemic. When youre looking at what state and local governments need for the vaccine and also to treat patients who are currently suffering with this because were still a long way off from enough people getting vaccinated to where we can rely on herd immunity, what sort of financing is the biden team looking to get out to state and local governments . One of the major priorities of the campaign has been to scale up the new administration will be to scale up testing dramatically. The current administration, unfortunately, has really discouraged testing, and weve been undertesting. We dont really have a good handle right now on transmission by people who have little or no symptoms from this, and so thats going to be an important area of investment because you have to scale up Public Health capacity at the local and state levels to do that. When you look at whos being affected by the economic fallout and affected by the pandemic, its front line workers, and those are predominantly black and brown communities and they are suffering from the disease. Theyre finding themselves in a harsher Economic Situation because of this. How do you tackle that specific group . How do you make sure you lift them up . Is it a stimulus check . Is it more Unemployment Benefits . Is it making sure they get the vaccine first so that they can be out there continuing to do their jobs and keeping the economy afloat . What would be your recommendation . Absolutely the brunt of the economic problems are being borne by the people most vulnerable in our economy. That means anything we can do to strengthen the overall economy will disproportionately help people, like black and brown workers, who have lost their jobs, maybe getting lower wages and the like. The problem we have is that the Federal Reserve has already done almost everything it can do, and a lot of its tools work better with the Financial Sector than they do for main street. Its a good thing the fed used those tools. If we had a financial crisis now, it would be even worse than what we already have. But its really congress that has the power to do something. The good news for policy is anything you do that helps people directly that most need the help, whether its unemployment insurance, nutritional assistance, the aid to state and local governments weve been talking about, all of that both provides a direct benefit and gives money or gives money to people or states and localities most likely to spend that money, help the overall economy and create jobs. So theres no tradeoff. The Economic Strategy for working people is an Economic Strategy for the economy as a whole, a strategy that helps the economy as a whole will help disproportionately the most vulnerable workers. Jason, what about the eviction crisis that is looming . All of the people out there who have been putting off paying rent, not just individuals but also businesses who are finding themselves in a position where rent is just not affordable any longer. What can this Economic Team do to mitigate that crisis, to keep people in their homes, to keep businesses in their location so that entire city blocks dont shut down, local communities dont find themselves without a local economy . The eviction crisis, like so many crises were facing, shouldnt wait for january 20th. Id be thrilled with nothing more than watching President Trump sign a solution to this right now instead of having to wait two months for President Biden to sign it. You know, we just cant wait to get this done. For Something Like evictions, theres two halves to it. One is people dont have money to pay the rent, they need money. And the second is, you need to continue the moratorium until were out of the woods, and were very far from be, out of the woods. But this is something that needs to be done now and the president elect has said that. He wants congratulations not to wait for him. He wants them to act now. Dr. Ramirez, the cdc is meeting right now on a set of guidelines for who it things who it recommends get the vaccine first. What is your sense of how that meeting will go . Were going to know more at 4 40. Thats when the committee is scheduled to take their vote. Up until this point, most of the signaling from the Public Health groups, whether that was the National Academies or even some early signals from this group where Health Care Workers and folks living in homes were going to be the first priority. But if you listen to what secretary azar has said, what the chief of staff has said, what the president has said, he said they want to prioritize elderly folks. So, i think depending on which way the vote splits, it will have a critical determination on what the rest of this calendar year looks like. Certainly if they choose to prioritize elderly americans, the rollout will look different than if they choose to prioritize Health Care Workers. Certainly. And there are more elderly americans and even more Health Care Workers than we know theres going to be vaccine, at least in the first few days or few weeks of this. Final question to you, seth. Wrap this all up. Do you feel hopeful about where were going economically . You know, i do. Despite all the numbers were seeing, when i saw those outstanding men and women take the stage with the president elect today, i was really filled with enthusiasm. Like jason, these folks are people ive worked with, and also several of them very good friends of mine. I know what their values are, i know what their ideals are, i know what their lives have been dedicated to. I know working people are not just in their hearts, in their minds, its where theyre going to put their labors. That is rebuilding our country and theyre going to make decisions based on facts and evidence, not on politics. And theyre going to help the president elect, i think, to bring our country back. I would say that if i had just been looking at the numbers, i would be pretty pessimistic because i think were in a pretty deep hole, but looking at those people on the stage, theyre going to lift us out of the hole and push the vehicle forward to our economy, im enthusiasm about it. Seth harris, thank you. Dr. Gounder, dr. Ramirez, a whole lot of expertise in reporting in a very short amount of time. We appreciate it. Thank you very much, guys. In the last 24 hours, this country saw a new Record Number of covid hospitalizations. 93,000. Doctors expect that number will only keep growing in the days ahead. Later, bipartisan legislators have put together a plan to get americans much needed economic relief. But with leadership not on board yet, will it go anywhere . First up, though, President Trumps campaign attorney called for the public shooting, the execution of former dhs Cyber Security chief chris krebs. It is a threat, krebs says, he is taking seriously. Ive got an Exceptional Team of lawyers that win in court, and i think theyre probably going to be busy. E busyne rings] hello, how can i sore throat pain . Try new Vicks Vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for a fastacting rush of relief like youve never tasted in. Honey lemon ahh woo Vicks Vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill how did you find greatgrandmas recipe . Were related to them . Were portuguese . I thought we were hungarian . Grandpa, can you tell me the story again . Behind every question is a story waiting to be discovered. Dangerous language, more dangerous behavior, and the way i look at it is that we are a nation of laws, and i plan to take advantage of those laws. Ive got an Exceptional Team of lawyers that win in court, and i think theyre probably going to be busy. Yesterday one of Donald Trumps lawyers said that chris krebs should be executed. He said this on radio. On today this morning krebs responded by saying a lawsuit could be coming, and the lawyer says it was obvious his remarks were made in jest and he wishes no harm. I dont know how obvious it is when you say someone should be executed that its a joke or ever funny. President trumps Legal Advisers are running out of targeting for their frustration as they rack up legal defeats. Lawyers filed yet another lawsuit in wisconsin appealing election results, which were made official yesterday. Meanwhile, lead attorney Rudy Giuliani has reportedly discussed a preemptive pardon for himself with the president , according to the new york times. Giuliani tells nbc news that quote is a lie 100 . Joining me now is Nbc News National Political reporter monica alba and nbc News National security and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. I want to start with this krebs stuff. I just find it incredible, incredible that one of the president s lawyers can go out and say Something Like that and not immediately get fired by the president. Even today, even after all thats happened, i still find it incredible that he can say that ask not get fired, or at the very least not get condemned by the whole of the Republican Party who is supporting this president in his attempts to continue to say that this election was not fair. Reporter remember just a couple weeks ago when Sidney Powell made some baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, that of course she could provide no evidence for. She was acting at the time in her role as a Trump Campaign attorney. When that happened, they publicly distanced themselves with her. The president was so ib fewer ated with her performance in interviews she was giving to conservative outlets that he directed the campaign to put out a statement saying she no longer reps me. In this case, that has not happened with the attorney. In fact, the white house hasnt commented at all. The Trump Campaign has only pointed us to this stay that he has now issued claiming he was being sarcastic and the comments were in jest. I should point out, thats something the president often uses as an excuse for something when hes quite serious about it as a defense if its something not well received. You know that very well, as i believe that was his explanation for russia, if youre listening, in terms of the 30,000 emails in that press conference with you all those years ago. He said he was kidding about that. Putting that aside, this is a situation where this is what the main headline is out of this. The president s lawyers and attorneys continue to just create these distractions and problems, putting aside again all these cases that have completely failed. Yao you are right, they have not denounced these really inflammatory comments. When you look at the numbers, theyre not having much success in the courtroom either. It is really a dwindling legal team. As we look at this, the attorney hasnt been a part of many of these cases. Its been far more giuliani and jenna ellis who continue to go to these very strange events in battleground states, seeking to overturn the election when theres absolutely no evidence or reason to do so. As we saw with the latest certifications, really all of the battleground states where they thought they had a shot of altering anything, have been pretty tied up with these latest developments, can. A. Ty. The Associated Press has just come out with an interview with attorney general bill barr where he said that the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 election. So, its not just chris krebs who oversaw elections, saying theres no fraud. Its not just rafens be raffens georgia saying theres no fraud. Its now the attorney general, his quote unquote, protector saying there was no fraud. How much longer can this go on . How much longer can this be sustainable in terms of the apparatus surrounding the president . I know he only has a few days left, or a couple dozen days left, but its still very detrimental and dangerous. It is, katy, it absolutely is. I dont think its ever going to stop in terms of donald trump and the things he is saying because hes raising money to fund a legal defense, and also potentially a leadership pac as a result of this. It seems like he plans to take this false story into his expresidency. Youre absolutely right. I mean, if onetenth of the things donald trump and his legal team have been saying were true, we would have seen fbi agents raiding polling places. We havent seen that. And now bill barr has made an explicit why. They have no evidence. Even though barr broke with precedent and authorized his u. S. Attorneys to investigate claims of fraud, even before the election was certified. That was widely criticized. But they have nothing. And what chris krebs has been saying, i think hes hes a Public Servant who has been doing yet another public service, even having left office, by going around and making the media rounds and pointing out he was asked by Savannah Guthrie on the today show, how can you explain to skeptics why you know there was no fraud . He said very simply, because 90 of the votes cast in this election had a paper backup. Every place where those paper ballots have been examined, they have been consistent with the machine count. Nose who believe Dominion Software somehow changed votes from biden to trump, thats just fantasyland and manifestly disproven. Good Public Servants like chris krebs, and now william barr, are essentially saying that, but donald trump is going to continue to repeat these baseless claims long into his expresidency. Hes increasingly on an island when it comes to this, but its still very remarkable that Mitch Mcconnell hasnt come out and said anything, the leader of the Republican Party beneath donald trump. Mitch mcconnell has said nothing about this. There is widespread silence from a number of Top Republican leaders in congress. If it hasnt been silence, a lot have come out and supported the president s efforts. Monica, are you hearing anything from the white house about any discomfort with all of this or what the strategy is after donald trump leaves the white house . Reporter no. Im struck by what you just read in the new statement from the attorney general. That is the statement that chris krebs put out that got him fired, saying this was the most secure election in modern American History and the president made no secret of linking the two, that he didnt like that statement so much that he decided to terminate him. Thats probably not something hell do with his attorney general, whos his close ally but there may be angry tweets from the president this afternoon, hard to say. In terms of a bigger or larger strategy, the campaign has pursued these legal avenues which have continued to fizzle out but they did launch and announce a new lawsuit in wisconsin today, which has to do with the specific number of mailin ballots. Youve already seen, recounts are expensive. They did a 3 million partial one in the state of wisconsin which yielded former Vice President , now president elect joe biden, 87,000 more votes. The fact they continue to raise a Staggering Amount of money, theyve sent nearly 500 emails, that that if you read the fine print, 75 is going to the president s new leadership Political Action committee, save america, so he can take all of this when he leaves office and use that money for rallies, for travel, to pay Political Consultants as he continues to mull a run for 2024, which we know is being actively discussed and certainly has not been ruled out, katy. A bait and switch. Ken, you made such a good point about paper ballots. That was one of the goals of cisa, was to make sure there was confidence in the election and they were doing this well ahead of time. They wanted it in for the 2018 midterms and for primaries to make sure there were paper ballots that ensured people could trust the vote. Also, i just want to take a step back and consider that everybody all of the people who have gotten Death Threats because they disagreed with the president , its not just the media, its now officials in his own administration that he disagrees with, it is rival politicians he disagrees with, it is his health care leaders, his Health Care Officials like dr. Fauci, who are working on ending the pandemic that are getting Death Threats. He needs armed guards. I mean, its just completely insane were living in a time where if you disagree with the president of the united states, youre going to get Death Threats and feel like your life is in danger just because youve said the truth or just because youre trying to help people. Ken, thank you so much. Monica, thank you as well. Thanks for that moment of personal privilege there at the end. Coming up, hospitalizations due to covid19 are on the rise in 43 states. Well have two live reports on how u. S. Hospitals are responding next. As a technical director at 3m, im committed to making a difference in peoples lives. My team helped expand the benefits of reflective technology, so its highly visible when it needs to be, and less visible when it doesnt. Whether youre hard at work or heading home for dinner, its there when it matters most. We know that what we do helps more people get home safely. At 3m, we aspire to improve lives. With priceline, you can get up to 60 off amazing hotels. And when you get a big deal. You feel like a big deal. Priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Im frlocker room manager best din the league. Nt im here to help you protect your clothes from getting damaged in the wash. Thats why i use new downy defy. Thats whats up we have an assistant locker room manager . Help protect your clothes with new downy defy damage. People. People while in while in and from south dakota. Dash that burns. We also have a bit of breaking news from bill barr were working on. Pete williams has come into the camera, so if this ends up having to be cut a little short, i do apologize. Rehema, i to start with you. New york has been in this position before. What are they trying to do to head off any severe overload of the hospitals in this city . What theyre trying to do is say places like this hospital behind me, which was inundated with cases back in the spring when new york really was epicenter of the pandemic and people were dying at an alarming rate here. This hospital was overwhelmed. The governor is now warning hospitals across the state that they have to cooperate, because while this hospital was overwhelmed, about 20 miles from here, they had free beds but there wasnt a system of cooperation to transfer those patients. And so to your point, theyve been through this before. The governor sees this could be coming again and he wants to do something about it. The mayor is also sounding the alarm to do something. Listen to what he said this morning, a warning to those who are at the greatest risk. If youre older, you have preexisting continues, to take additional precautions. We need to keep people alive and that is not only an issue when it comes to fighting the coronavirus, its also so crucial when it comes to anyone who ends up in the hospital, a moment literally of life and death. Reporter the other thing that that the governor is saying, hes telling his folks to get ready with their plans for field hospitals. That can increase bed capacity by 50 . They dont know that its going to come to that, but the numbers here of the positive cases have increased, he told us, over the weekend of 3,500. That was the level back in may. While he says were not at a crisis point just yet, were moving into a point he doesnt like, nobody likes, and theyre trying to prepare themselves in the event it becomes critical. Katy . So, thats whats happening in new york. Dasha, in south dakota theyre going in a bit of a different direction. Tell us what theyre doing there. Reporter my team and i were in their Sanford Medical Center in their Outpatient Care facilities where right now they are giving experimental antibody treatment to Covid Patients in the hopes it will keep them out of the hospital, out of the icu. This is largely viewed as a bridge to the vaccine. While one is coming, its not necessarily coming quickly enough for communities like this one. Where south dakota right now has the most hospitalizations per capita, according to the covid tracking project. Experts here tell us they are worried about whats coming in a week or so when we see the consequences of what happened over the thanksgiving holiday. This program really could not come at a more critical time. They launched this about a week and a half ago. Heres how it works. If you are a highrisk patient, which means if you are 65 or older with a chronic condition or if youre 55 or older with multiple chronic conditions, you will get a call within 24 hours of your covid positive test and you will offered this experimental therapy. This is the similar style to therapy that donald trump, chris christie, ben carson received when they tested positive. We got a quick look at what that process is. It takes about three hours from getting screened to getting the iv infusion to then a period of monitoring to ensure you dont have any adverse reactions. Look, this coming to communities like this one here is critical. I spoke to a patient who recently got the infusion and the chief medical officer here. I want you to take a listen to what they hope this treatment can do here. Listen. When we got this phone call, even though we know that the infusion is still being studied, but we thought, if this is something that can help us, to, like i said, mitigate those symptoms and stay out of the hospital, we were all for it. Its a really exciting time for us, to move upstream in the disease and prevent hospitalizations is a new stage in treating this virus. If we can identify highrisks patients, get them this mono clonal antibody and prevent hospitalizations by 70 , thats a winwin for our staff and our patients. Reporter and, katy, its still early stages. This received emergency use authorization from the fda. When talking to these experts, doctors and patients, i got a sense of almost empowerment, because after months of feeling helpless, they feel like it can finally take some sort of action to mitigate risks. The chief medical officer here told me she feels like they can finally take their future into their own hands. Katy . They can do something. That says a lot when you can do something, you feel empowered, as you were just saying. Thank you. And lets go back to that breaking news. The Associated Press reporting that in a new interview, attorney general bill barr says that the doj has not uncovered evidence of voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election. Joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. Pete, i want to read a little more from this article. In an interviewed with the Associated Press, bill barr said u. S. Attorneys and fbi agents have been working to follow up on specific complaints and information they received, but they have uncovered no evidence that would change the outcome of the election. Quote, to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election, bill barr told the Associated Press. Pete, you sat down with bill barr a number of times. You know that he is very deliberate in what he says. Is he sending a message directly to the president with this interview . You know, i cant say that for sure. Perhaps not directly to the president , perhaps more to the people who have been following the president s comments. In a sense this is bill barr announcing all the cats that didnt go up a tree, because the fact this was the Justice Department and fbis conclusions is selfevident from the fact they havent done anything since he originally sent that memo out, empowering local prosecutors to look into allegations of fraud, and the Justice Department has disclosed the complaints, some of the complaints theyve gotten, for example, the one that people in nevada were voting who were not residents. There was a claim of fraud. There was a letter sent to the attorney general claiming that was fraud. And the Justice Department said at the time that they would look into it and nothing ever came of it. So, i mean, this is this was to some extent a foregone conclusion but i think youre right, it does have some force when the attorney general himself says, okay, weve looked into these allegations of fraud and we dont see anything. Now, i think its also important to say that the Justice Department investigates crimes, and fraud is a crime. Its an intentional act. Now, thats a lot different than some of these claims that have been made in a lot of election lawsuits that the system wasnt followed right or county clerks did something wrong. These are allegations of specific fraud. I guess you could say one of the biggest allegations has been one that states intentionally used a Voting System that would allow them to dump in votes for biden. This was the claim advanced by Sidney Powell, for example, about the electronic Voting Systems. As you note, mikes interview with the attorney general, he says the a. G. Says both the department of Homeland Security and Justice Department have looked into that and so far, he says, we havent seen anything to substantiate that. So, you know, clearly he knows whos listening to him when he speaks, but i also think hes saying the obvious. They have looked into this and they dont find anything. Well, chris krebs has said the reason when he said it when he was at dhs and said it when hes no longer at dhs, there are paper ballots to make sure you cant just change vote counts in the system. There are paper ballots to back up the vote counts. Pete, though, is he trying to put the genie back in the bottle here . He was also one of the people who were who was undermining the confidence of mailin votes ahead of the election, saying they were ripe for fraud. Now hes saying there is no fraud. It is its a bit of whiplash. Yeah. My guess is what hes trying to do is just answer the questions from the ap. I dont know that he has a larger agenda than that. Youre right, i think he raised the spectre, at least, that there was something nefarious by saying people should look into it. Now hes saying it isnt. You could also view that as, i guess, squaring the circle, closing the circle, saying, okay, weve heard these complaints, weve looked into them, we empowered our u. S. Attorneys to look into them and we havent found anything. But, pete, he diplomat have to sit down and do this interview with the Associated Press. He could have said no. Am i reading too much into it to think the attorney general saying yes to an interview, he doesnt often do that, about this specific topic, is it does it go too far to say that i mean, this is its the president s the guy he chose to be attorney general i get where youre coming from. I see your point. Im with you just maybe one or two degrees back. Were pretty much in the same place. I think you could read this as, you know, he opened the door to this and now hes closing it. Yeah. Pete williams, always great to have you. Especially on anything to do with bill barr since you know him better than most. Thanks so much. We appreciate it. Up next, a group of bipartisan lawmakers put together a new plan to get americans much needed economic relief. But will leadership even give it a vote . Another bundle in the books. Got to hand it to you, jamie. Your knowledge of victorian architecture really paid off this time. Nah, just got lucky. So did the thompsons. That faulty wiring couldve cost them a lot more than the mudroom. Thankfully they bundled their motorcycle with their home and auto. Theyre protected 24 7. Mm. What do you say . One more game of backgammon . [ chuckles ] not on your life. [ laughs ] when the lights go down the one thing we all agree on is we dont have time for messaging games. We dont have time for lengthy negotiations. The issue is, do we want to get it resolved . And i like to remind everybody that the way you get it resolved, you have to have a president ial signature. That was Republican Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell expressing some caution on the latest Coronavirus Relief deal. Earlier today Bipartisan Group of lawmakers laid out a temporary 908 billion proposal. Joining me is nbc news capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. A Bipartisan Group of senators who are trying to meet in the middle here to get folks some relief. Why is Mitch Mcconnell not on board . Reporter because he says it will take too long, is the bottom line here. I just came from this News Conference of leader mcconnell, i asked him about that proposal and hes choosing to go a different routed. Hes es 13esh8ly working backwards, talking to the white house, talking to republicans to find out what relief measures precisely that the president would be willing to sign into law, and then working backwards to attach those bills or those measures to probably this mustpass spending bill, the bill that will keep the government from shutting down in the next two weeks, just to get something done across the finish line here. It was notable he was very cool to that bipartisan proposal. He said he received another proposal overnight from Speaker Pelosi and leader schumer that he was also cool to. Essentially saying, weve got this president for another month or so. Weve got this government. Its what he will sign that matters. Lets reverse engineer this thing and try to get something across the finish line. Okay. Is there a new timeline where they do they expect it to happen before the inauguration . What can americans who are in need of that relief, what can they expect . Reporter look, heres whats extraordinarily frustrating here. Weve been in the same place on these negotiations since july. I think were seeing the results of the election in november. Democrats thought they would gain seats in the house and senate. They thought they would strength. Their hands. Republicans seeing thats not the case, saying, okay, this is the government we have now. Were going to try to work on this quickly. Theres wide agreement this is an emergency and needs to be dealt with and no one has no one has treated it this way up until this point and majority leader is saying lets do this now and he talked about what the new administration would do next year. Thats as far as Mitch Mcconnell has gone in recognizing the reality that there will be a new Administration Next year, saying, well talk about next years government, the next administration when its here but lets try to get this done with the government and president who we have now who has proven so unpredictable what he will sign daytoday and sometimes hourtohour. Thank you so much. More than half americas dmirn low children in low income families are living in homes without books. Theres one group trying to fix that and how you can help. Were going to talk to them next. Talk to them next today is giving tuesday, a day focused on helping out a neighbor or a stranger to spread some kindness at a time when people need it most, especially right now as the pandemic has only widened the divide between the haves and have notes. Take something as simple as books, access to Reading Materials has been harder for millions of kid whos are now learning from home. One nonprofit called first book is trying to fix that, the group sent nearly 2 million books to children at food banks, shelter and other community programs. Joining me now kyle zimmer, the president and ceo and cofounder of first book. Ive got a young kid here at home. I read to him every single night. You can just tell how much he is learn and taking in even at this very young age. Books are so important and the idea that, you know, homes dont have them is hard to grapple with. I think what youre do something nothing short of remarkable. Tell me more about it. Thank you so much. Thanks for inviting us, katey. Youve captured it perfectly, you know, books in the hands of parent and kairgs caregivers and in the lives of kids it changes everything. It elevates their experience. It makes them learners. It elevates their vocabulary. It changes their life trajectory and its fun. I can see on your face just describing what it means to you reading with your child and i know what it means to them. First book is a nonprofit that is dedicated to elevating Educational Opportunities for kids in poverty, ages zero to 18 years old. And weve done this by assembling a community, an Online Community of over half million teachers, educator, caregivers from every imaginable setting, from classrooms, homeless shelters, from food centers and libraries and health care centers. If you can imagine it and there are people there caring for kids in need we want to be there to help them. And in fact, i should mention that if any of your viewer whos are listening viewers who are listening are working or volunteering in a facility helping kids in needs go to firstbook. Org and sign up with us, its free, theres no obligation, were just there to serve you and make your work that much more powerful w powerful. We have a range of services for you there. Whats the best way for people to help if they want to get involved . Well, right now first book as Just Launched a Wonderful Campaign called give a million. And give a million is where publishers have come together and said every dollar that we raise they will give a book that we can then put in the hands of child in need. And you know, i think during 2020 the news has been overwhelming, i certainly dont need to tell you this, it is negative and it is overwhelming and its hard to know sometimes how to help and how to make a tangible and real in the lives of kids and people in your own community and this is one way to make a very powerful commitment. Even if you can give one dollar, what that means is first book will make sure that one kid in this great country of ours will get a book right in their hand and it will be because of you. We have some great supporters most who im sure you have enjoyed his books, dont let the pigeon drive the bus and, you know, weve all laughed with our own kids with these books. Mull and his wife cher have stepped up with a matching contribution. And jimmy fallon has also just joined the cause and is helping us really elevate it and really get the word out. So this is something we really are trying to do between now and the end of the year because we know that kids are waiting for them. As i was watching the news that you were just running i was thinking lets not forget the kids, you know. Lets not forget the kids. With all of the bad news thats going on, with all of the crisis. There are kids in all those family whos need us. Youre going to make me cry. Lets not forget the kids. Im so happy we can bring this to you, our small of helping out, im certainly going to donate, i think its so important. Dr. Suess is our favorite in this house. Mine too. Theres a woket in my pocket is teddys personal favorite. Kyle zimmer, we thank you for your time, thank you so much. Thats going to do it for me. Youre going outside wear a mask. More coverage after a quick break. Quick break. Good afternoon, everyone, from new york, breaking news a at this hour, from Associated Press, attorney general william barr telling the wire service that the Justice Department has not uncovered widespread voter fraud that could have changed 2020 president ial elections directly under cutting President Trumps consistent