Stimulus bill was a glimmer of hope, an important step for many people who are struggling. But last night after congress had already passed the bill and lawmakers went home for the holidays, President Trump threw a Monkey Wrench into the entire thing by saying he might not actually sign it. Heres what President Trump tweeted last night. Im asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low 600 to 2,000 or 4,000 for a couple. Im also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation. And to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package. Sure, on the surface, more money might sound good, but it is not that easy. This bill is more than 5,500 pages long. It took eight months to pull it together, and while the president had all of that time to get involved in the negotiations, he never did. The other big story in the last 24 hours, President Trump using his remaining time in office to hand out pardons and commute prison sentences for 20, many would say, notorious people. The list includes aides caught up in the president s probe, as well as a number of convicted murders and corrupt politicians, several of them who were early trump supporters. Hallie jackson is in washington, and anna palmer, senior washington correspondent for politico and the coauthor of the political play book. This threat from the president seems to have come out of nowhere. Did anyone know about this possibility . Let me take this in two pieces, let me take the public piece first, what happened on sunday night after the deal came together, i have been reporting this along with our team all week long. The question was congress had a deal, Mitch Mcconnell announced it, we heard it from chuck schumer, speaker pelosi, would the president get on board. We reached out to sources and white house officials and on the record, the white house came back and said the president looks forward to receiving this bill essentially. You also had a Top White House spokesperson, steph, 90 minutes before the president released that twitter video that threw a massive wrench in this whole thing on fox business not only talking about the president s indications to sign the bill but explaining why the president would sign the bill, including, according to this staffer, for those stimulus checks to help the American People, the same checks that the president railed against. There is a public dichotomy, its not the first time the white house and staffers have been undercut by one of the president s last minute changes as he is taping the video. Meantime on the other side of the white house in a different room from these people, i will say, though, that i have talked to sources over the last 12 hours since this happened and the president im told had been unhappy with the way the deal was coming together as early as a week, week and a half ago, and had been musing about this very possibility. It is not all together shocking for some inside the west wing, but i can tell you there are people, Administration Officials who just dont understand it. Right . Even though theyre part of the process who dont get what the president is doing here. Keep in mind, this is a president who is very attuned to what he sees on the media and to sort of the press coverage reviews. Conservative media had been in many ways hammering this deal. Because in the eyes of some, it increased the debt too much. Heres the confusing piece, the president wants to add money with the stimulus checks which would increase the debt even further. It is, i think, an indication that over the next 12, 24, 48 hours, theres going to be a lot of questions and answers at the white house that the president has to come up with. He leaves for maralago in eight hours. Oftentimes he has stopped, talked to the media on his way out of town. If he does that today, hes definitely going to have Big Questions on this. If the president didnt like it over the last week and a half, hes had months and months to work on this, between the time the c. A. R. E. S act was signed and today, 8 million more americans slipped into poverty. Anna, help me. Why would he refuse to sign this bill . What i dont get is what part of his constituency, who does this serve . Whos watching this going right on, man . Yeah, its really unclear to understand what his motivations are here. Particularly because he has spent months railing against, you know, election fraud, making false claims. He could have gotten into the game on this covid deal. He could have gotten that 2,000 if he had pressured republicans on that. If you look at the fact of what is to come here, we have a government funding bill right now that goes until december 28th. There is no pathway forward for him right now to get this 2,000 and to actually make that come into that package. The speaker has said that shes willing to do that, but theres likely to be objections and thats basically a nonstarter in the senate. Its very unclear to me what he is doing, what he is thinking and we are trying to figure that out as i speak to you. The objections to increasing that number are going to come from republicans, so leann, what does this mean for all of these members of congress that thought they had this thing over and done with, and they went home. Do they have to come back. If youre Mitch Mcconnell today, what are you doing . Well, steph, were in the wild wild west of legislating. This is unprecedented territory. After months after negotiation, they finally reached an agreement and the president is monday morning quarterbacking in the most extreme sense, possibly derailing the entire process. Speaker pelosi follows through on her tweet last night saying that she is going to offer a 2,000 stimulus payment by unanimous consent on the house floor tomorrow, thursday, christmas eve, then it is up to she is daring the republicans to object, to go against the president and to limit the amount of money that these americans get. Lets just say, for example, it does pass by unanimous consent in the house of representatives, then it gets kicked over to the senate, and what is Mitch Mcconnell going to do . Mcconnell has been clear that he does not want a billion more than a trillion dollars. Of course this would put that over that threshold. Also last week, senator josh hawley, a republican, senator sanders, an independent of vermont, they tried to pass on the senate floor a 1,200 stimulus check and that was objected to by republicans in the senate. So, you know, everyone is trying to figure out their game plan here. Mcconnells office has been silent. We havent gotten an official response from them yet. Again, steph, this is just uncharted territory that we are in. Can we go back to i dont get it. In the last few days alone, President Trump has attacked Mitch Mcconnell, threatened to primary the number two republican, john thune, and if this gets passed thats going to help republicans in this all Important Senate runoff in georgia. Is the president basically saying if i cant win my election, i dont want anyone else to, and im going to burn this house down if i dont live here . Hes really daring republicans to have a loyalty oath to him right now. Thats the real question, you know, what do republicans do, are they going to stick with this president , which they largely have done or are that i going to say listen, this is not the time, this is not the lapla. This could be a big win for him. You have the vaccine getting distributed to emergency workers, to the elderly, its going to be going across the country in the months to come. He could go out on a strong note of covid relief, getting money to people, and hes just choosing not to do that right now, and even some of his closest aides didnt know he was going to be doing this, right. Mitch mcconnell would not have put this bill on the floor and passed it if he didnt think and didnt have the confirmation that the president was going to sign it into law. His own Administration Officials, secretary mnuchin, the treasury secretary was one of the people that was negotiating this deal, so it really feels like its hard to know what exactly his end game is here, particularly as hes about to leave and go on a holiday vacation and leaving everybody kind of up in the air wondering whats going to happen. A loyalty test. It was two days ago secretary mnuchin took to the air waves to say those stimulus checks are most likely going to get to people early next week. Thats not going to happen now. Remi reminder, the president didnt think we needed this. He has said this is a beautiful v shaped recovery, and the economy is as Jared Kushner put it back in june, rocking and rolling. Thank you all so much. Now i want to turn to the other big news from the white house, president ial pardons and commutations. 20 in all, among the most notable receiving one, remember this name, george papadopoulos, the former campaign aide, trumps team called him a coffee boy, charged with lying in the mueller probe. In addition, four military contractors who were also given pardons despite the fact that they were convicted in the deaths of more than a dozen iraqi civilians including two children back in 2007. Also three former republican congressmen who were either convicted or pleaded guilty to financial crimes. They were all granted clemency, and people you have never heard of, people like phillip esformes, probably never heard of him, neither did i. This guy was a central figure in the biggest Medicare Fraud case in american history. It involved assisted care facilities. President trump, he commuted that guys sentence too. I want to bring in chuck rosenberg, former u. S. Attorney and senior fbi official, also the host of one of the best podcasts out there the oath, chuck, please unpack this for us. The president could pardon anyone, and there are stacks of people who are deserving of it. What do you make of the 20 people he picked . Right. Well, first of all, stephanie, youre exactly right. There are lots and lots of people who deserve it. Who deserves a pardon, i mean, traditionally its people who have paid their debt to society, who have shown remorse, who have made amends, and a pardon is an act of compassion and mercy, and it usually comes long after someones sentence has been served and the problem here is the president has flipped the process on its end, now pardons apparently go to friends and allies. Now pardons apparently go to people who can help the president to undermine the mueller investigation. Not every president has used pardons wisely all of the time, but no president has ever used them so corruptly. Simply to reward friends and allies, that is what is so distressing and disturbing about what President Trump is doing and has done. Is there any particular pardon, particular name on the list that stood out to you the most in terms of being outrageous. Theyre all outrageous, but what struck me is three Republican Former members of congress, all convicted in various fraud and dishonesty type schemes got pardons, two of them were early supporters of President Trump, and so those bug me because its clearly about their politics and their support for the president and this is a very easy way to see the president simply rewarding political allies. Look, i have nothing against pardons generally. They are acts of mercy and compassion. And they are appropriate in many many cases, right, particularly as i said earlier, for people who at the end have made amends and shown remorse and have accepted guilt, accepted responsibility. None of that stuff applies here, and so each in their own ways are disturbing but when you see sort of this rank reward of, you know, political favor going to allies of the president , that bugs me a lot, stephanie. Yes, we just had those lawmakers up there a moment ago, and just as a reminder, chris collins, an early supporter of the president , he was on the right, he was caught on tape, on the phone at a party at the white house in the garden calling his son about some information about a business. He had information he shouldnt have and they traded the stock in that company. And thats how he got in all of this trouble, while he was at a party at the white house. I do want to talk to you about bill barr. People not realize that today is his last day on the job. The incoming head of the d. O. J. Will be someone named Jeffrey Rosen. Most people dont know him but there seems to be some consensus out there that barr leaving means President Trump has no restraints anymore. Tell us who rosen is. Is this a guy thats going to serve at the whims of President Trump no matter what he asks for . First, he has been the Deputy Attorney general under bill barr and served in a similar capacity at the department of transportation. By all accounts hes a pretty thoughtful guy, but well see whether or not he has the spine for the job. You know, stephanie, in the last month or so of an administration and particularly this administration, things get pretty nutty, and so does Jeffrey Rosen have the spine and the ability to say no to a president who has literally gone, or is literally going mad. Thats what worries me. Theres lots of things the president can do without the justice department. Pardons is a great example. The president doesnt need anybodys permission to grant a pardon. There may be also lots of things that the president wants to do, announce investigations or open investigations or charge people where he would need the justice department, so its going to fall on Jeffrey Rosens shoulders. If things are inappropriate, he needs to say so. Barr, i think, facilitated many of trumps worst instincts, and i hope Jeffrey Rosen has the spine to say no to a president who is trying to coopt and corrupt our department of justice. Were in the middle of a pandemic. Were in the middle of an economic crisis. Weve got a cyber attack, and things are getting nutty in the white house. Thats where we are. Chuck, always good to see you. Happy holidays. Same to you. When we come back, weve got to talk about covid and whats ahead, despite warnings from Health Officials to stay home and stay safe, millions are rushing to be with family for the holidays, even as covid cases surge. Were going to take you live to an airport with the holiday rush, as president elect biden warns the American People our darkest days of this pandemic are still ahead. Were going to speak to a member of the Biden Covid Task force about what her team is walking into when they take over in just a few weeks. Want to sell the best burger in every zip code . Add an employee. Or ten. Then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. That means. World domination or just the west side. Run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. Plus have high Blood Pressure. They may not be able to take just anything for pain. Thats why doctors recommend tylenol®. It wont raise Blood Pressure the way that advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. For trusted relief, trust tylenol®. Our bargain detergent couldnt keep up. With us. That advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. Turns out its mostly water. So, we switched back to tide. One wash, stains are gone. 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In just the past week, people have died from the virus at a faster rate than any other time during the pandemic, and officials are urging americans to just stay home. Thats tough at this time of year. Already, more than a million passengers have gone through tsa check points for three Straight Days leading into the week. That is the highest three day total since the start of this pandemic. More cases could mean more pressure on our hospitals. Just look at los angeles. The projection for new years eve is 1,400 hospitalizations a day. Nbcs Megan Fitzgerald is in l. A. For us, and nbc blayne alexander is in atlanta. Hospitalizations are off the charts. What is going on . Reporter yeah, steph, a situation incredibly bleak. Hospitals just spiraling out of control. When you break down the numbers, you start to understand a little bit better of why the situation is what it is. Lets start with hospitalizations. October we were seeing on average, 150 people being hospitalized a day. November, that number jumped to 300. Here in december, were looking at 700 people on average being admitted to the hospital, and then as you mentioned, by next week, new years eve, that number is expected to double to 1,400 hospitalizations a day. And then of course you take a look at the infection rate over the last seven days here in los angeles county, and youre seeing 13,000 people on average getting new infections. We know hospitals will see that two weeks later, so by next week, even more people will be coming in. So truly really no end in sight. We know across southern california, icu capacity has been at 0 . Youre seeing doctors and nurses having to treat people in different parts of the hospital where theyre not equipped to treat icu patients. Were seeing tents being put up in parking lots in california where icu patients are being treated. Take a listen to what one doctor had to say about the situation hes seeing in his hospital. Theres an overall feeling of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty as we head into christmas and the new year. I think many of us are very concerned that as we head into the holidays, our resources will be out stripped by the incredible demand. Reporter and this is why these doctors and nurses are pleading with people not to travel, not to gather over the holiday season. They just dont know how this will be sustainable. Steph. But still, many many people are traveling. Blayne, tell us whats going on with that . Well, thats exactly what people are fearing, what megan just talked about. Theyre fearing that the surge we saw after the thanksgiving travel rush is only going to get worse once we look past the christmas holiday. Consider this, stephanie, between today and january 3rd, acres acr triple a is predicting 85 Million People are going to travel across the country. Thats trouble because they have spent weeks ulnaring peoprging stay home. There are areas that have mandatory quarantines for people who come in from out of town or return from trips, the question there is how exactly do you go about enforcing it, and will that be effective. The cdc Health Officials have all been saying stay at home if at all possible. They are giving guidance for what people can do to try and travel, if they are traveling to be a little safer. One of those things, get tested before you go and get tested on the back end, once you get to your destination. Theyre add vivising people to three days. Wear a mask, especially those at high risk. The big message for everybody is to stay at home this season. Stephanie. Thank you, blayne. Thank you, megan. Joining us to explain why this needs to matter to you at home, dr. Celine gounder, the clinical professor of medicine at the nyu school of medicine and bellevue hospital, also a member of the Biden Harris Covid advisory board. Thank you so much for joining us. We have just set a new record for daily covid deaths. President elect biden warns our darkest days of battling this pandemic are still ahead. What specifically is your team doing right now for what you could be walking into in 28 days . Stephanie, were doing what we can to plan, but i think whats really did i feel is that we are on the sidelines up until january 20th, watching this unfold, and its very anxietyprovoking to see what is happening in hospitals right now, to see hospitals full, icus full, doctors and nurses are burned out. We have been fighting on the front lines of this for months now. Many of us have not taken time off to visit family ourselves. And were looking at having to work double time over these upcoming holidays when others are traveling, continuing to transmit the virus, and that will lead to a surge on top of a surge on top of a surge. Were going to have people lining hallways and hospitals and parking lots and one thing we cannot defense production act our way out of is a lack or scarcity of health care providers. If you dont have enough doctors and nurses, you cant manufacture those. You might be able to promote medical students to intern status or bring people out of retirement but thats really playing around the edges and so we are as front line staff going to have to be making some very difficult decisions about triaging unfortunately who gets what care, and who does not, and so we do anticipate this next month is going to be horrible, and the next administration will be assuming aufoffice at one ofe worst times in Public Health in this country ever. Medical students and retirement. It reminds me of a story earlier this year. There was a nurse who came out of retirement to be an instructor for other nurses. She lost her life to covid. Its really important to remind people that while of course we dont want to miss our holidays, health care professionals, doctors, nurses, people cleaning hospitals, they have missed their entire year. So have their families, and many have gotten sick and lost their lives. I do want to talk about the vaccine, though, because the Trump AdministrationJust Announced its going to purchase an additional hundred million doses of pfizers vaccine, great news, 70 million by on30th. Heres the thing, the manufacturers have said there could be a shortage of components to make the vaccines. You were mentioning the defense production act. Could that solve this . Defense production act will likely be invoked not just to force more production of personal protective equipment but also of some of these components of vaccines. There is a challenge, though, because you have two different vaccine manufacturers, pfizer and moderna, that require some of these same components for each of their vaccines. And so it doesnt really help you if all of those supplies go to one manufacturer. We need to scale up broadly so that both of those companies can scale up production of vaccines. And we really need to be administering vaccines at rates much higher than we have been. We only did a few tens of thousands in the first week. We need to be doing a million a day, if we want to reach 100 million doses in a hundred days. That means a massive ramping up of capacity, and again, this goes back to the Health Care Worker issue. If theyre taking care of sick patients, who is doing the vaccinating. Thats a great point and a reminder, that vaccine is great news. For most of us, its months away, you could get sick today. Take care of yourselves, your family, your community, doctor, thank you so much for all you do. I appreciate it. When we come back, we got to go back to the stimulus package. Now that the president has thrown a last minute Monkey Wrench into it, this covid bill is leaving millions of families struggling, families who are already struggling to survive. Were going to give you the details of the impact this delay will have on our economy heading into 2021. Plus, new reporting on a lastminute push by the Trump Administration thats flying under the radar. How joe biden may not be able to do anything about it even after he takes office. Pay attention to the details. Ak. Pay attention to theet dails traditionally, black people have been shut out [music playing throughout] of the financial system. My grandfather founded Industrial Bank in 1934 so black people would have a bank that would work with them. Because our doors are open, other doors are opening to more opportunities for our community. Were excited to work with citi, so we can realize our dreams of expanding our reach and impact. 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Why is the market shrugging it off . Well, investors are assuming the president is just putting on a show. Theyre taking the watch what he does, not watch what he says approach. But remember, what he says today has real life impact on millions of americans. Investors, they can afford to shrug it off. None of them are at risk of losing their homes or having their utilities cut off in the next few weeks. None of them have kids that arent getting a present this christmas. Meanwhile, lets talk about that because right now millions of americans are hanging on by a thread, and with President Trump blowing up this relief bill, what is left of their safety net could soon be gone too. All of these programs are set to expire if trump doesnt sign the bill. They have been helping americans keep food on the table and roofs over our heads. The rug just got pulled from underneath them, a huge blow to the most vulnerable americans waiting for some relief to come, like this woman who lost her job. 600, i wasnt happy about it but i said you know what, its something. At least when i get evicted it will help with the hotel room. Something is better than nothing, and Everybody Needs something right now. We are not okay. I want to bring in my dear friend, nyu marketer, and pivot podcast host scott galloway, the author of post corona from crisis to opportunity, scott, you have been saying this for months, people need money, not businesses. That was going to happen, at least 600 bucks, are you surprised that the president is looking to blow this up . I mean, him saying, no, i want it to be 2,000, you cant just scratch out the 600 and fill in a bigger number. It doesnt work that way. Yeah, its sort of several hundred billions dollars too late. Its no accident, today is typical of our response to the pandemic in general, and that is were not taking care of people. We have a third of renters who are worried about being evicted. One in six households are food insecure, but the markets are up. It feels as if our National Character is revealed and whats happened with the stimulus, we have decided that americans going hungry, americans potentially having the despair of not having a roof over their heads is bad. What would be tragic is if the nasdaq goes down. Our government officials have decided that its more important to prevent a tragedy of corporations as opposed to a tragedy of the commons. If you look at the money going to Small Business, and i know you and i have differing viewpoints on this and the money going to airlines, theres more money going to corporations than individuals. Capitalism needs to rest on a base of empathy. We need to protect people, not cooperations. The nasdaq going up is cold comfort for what is taking place out there, stephanie. The ceos know President Trumps phone number, people who have lost their houses, got their phones cut off, its not easy to call them. Put into context, how much damage is done to our economy each day without relief to struggling americans . I said it before, the market could be like, oh, wait a day, hes going to sign it. Its just a show. What does that show do today, delaying one more day from people getting help . If you look at whats required here, we need a couple of things. We need to increase demand. The best way to come out of this economy or repair it, if you will, is to increase demand, and the people who will spend the money they get. If you give 10,000 for a Small Business owner, you would like to think it ends up in the hands of employees and very well publicized examples of that. The best way to stimulate the multiplier, the velocity effect, take the bottom quartile, approximately 30 million, if you took the extension in ppp loans, and divided it amongst households, youre talking about 10,000 in the hands of the neediest households, you probably immediately address homeless threats, Food Insecurity threats, and middle income consumer households when they get 10,000 bucks, they spend it. In addition, probably the best thing for Companies Move forward to ensure were moving businesses and not peers, is total will people decide, consumers decide, which restaurants, stay in business. But every day we are deteriorating more acreating more and more of a society of 350, i worry this money is not only not preventing a tragedy, but its not helping our economy. We have too many depths of despair, people who need more money. We need to protect people, not corporations. This is exactly what capitalism is not supposed to be. Capitalism is supposed to be full body contact violence, and friction and competition at a corporate level creates prosperity, so we can be more empathetic with people. We decided in this economy, we need to be harsh on darwinistic individuals, and loving and empathetic on corporations. Corporations are an abstract, let them go out of business, and take the money and protect americans. The concentration of super wealth influences a whole lot of bad policy. Before we go, your number one prediction for 2021. The sector that will have the greatest disruption will be health care, 17 of our economy. Its the Silver Lining the size of the cloud. Might we be able to extend or disburse Health Care Away from doctors offices and hospitals, to smartphones and smart cameras and the mother who spends 8 to 12 weeks of a year taking care of a child with childhood diabetes, might we decide to leave emissions and commuting behind so we can spend more time working, more time with our kids, could we have a healthier and happier and wealthier america. I like those kind of Silver Linings, scott. Take this crisis, and find an opportunity to get smarter and better and stronger because right now, we are none of those things. Scott, always good to see you. Thank you so much. Thank you. And while you werent looking, the Trump Administration has been rushing to let private Companies Profit off of public lands. Just what scott was talking about with less than half a month left of President Trumps term, hes been granting approval for mining and energy firms to use taxpayer funded sites. This is happening in states across the country like arizona, utah, nevada, and West Virginia. And its not just happening with land, big money influencing every corner of our government, and its going to keep happening, and were going to keep covering it. I want to bring in New York TimesInvestigative Reporter eric lipton, explain this to us. What is President Trumps motivation for pushing through all of these projects now . Its been an objective of the Trump Administration to try to increase the United States supply of Minerals Like copper and lithium, and uranium, but its taken them a long time to get these projects going, and so they are rushing to execute on some final approvals for some really massive projects like a copper mine in arizona or a lithium mine in nevada, and theres only a certain number of weeks left and they want to get them approved to a point that it would be hard to stop them, exchange land, give them final permits. Thats whats happening right now . But why . Why is this such an Important Initiative . Why are people like wilbur ross, the commerce secretary, massive business guy, stepping in to move this forward . Hes not the interior secretary. I mean, there are some Important Reasons why the United States wants its own lithium supply. I mean, lithium is used sure, but wilbur ross specifically. The commerce has an interest in seeing an increased supply of Critical Minerals that are essential for lithium, which is used in solar batteries and in electric cars, is a really important material, so you want the supply. The question is whats the environmental cost, whats the cost to native American Communities and sacred lands that its going to destroy, and thats where the balance comes in, and theres some real questions about some of these projects that are outstanding. So theres questions that are outstanding, when president elect biden takes office, will it be too late to get those questions answered . I mean, for example, with the lithium project in nevada, that may get a record of approval in the next couple of weeks, and they would basically then have the permission they need from the United States government to begin the construction of this massive, one of the Worlds Largest lithium mines that we have built in an area where there are these threatened species of birds called the sage grous and where they are concerned that the sulfuric acid is going to contaminate ground water splice. This is a project close to having final approval from the federal government, and expected to occur before january 20th. So in arizona, there is a proposal thats about to get final approval from the Forest Service that would Exchange Part of a National Forest and give it to rio tinto, one of the Worlds LargestMining Companies to build one of the largest copper mines in the United States. It happens to be the same land thats considered so sacred by the local native american tribe that its actually on the National Register of Historic Places and this spot would be destroyed. It would cave in once they build the mine. Thats a project that once that land is transferred, and it would be transferred once they do this final approval, then that would be hard to ever get that land back. Protected sacred land going to rio tinto, and the new interior incoming secretary is deb holland, a native american. Were going to keep asking questions for the next 29 days. Eric, amazing reporting. Thank you so much for joining us. When we come back, i cant wait to share this story, educators saved this one time gang member when he was young. Now he has just been named missouris teacher of the year, and hes next. Teacher of the y and hes next. Are you managing your diabetes. Using fingersticks . With the new freestyle libre 2 system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose with a painless, onesecond scan. And now with optional alarms, you can choose to be notified if you go too high or too low. And for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 2 system is now covered by medicare. Ask your doctor for a prescription. You can do it without fingersticks. Learn more at freestyle libre 2 dot u. S. What would you call a guy who takes all the odds stacked against him and turns it into an opportunity that inspires others. Heres an idea, how about missouris teacher of the year, Darrion Cockrell had a turbulent at best childhood. His mother was an addict. His father was killed selling drugs when he was only 4 years old. He was in and out of foster care his entire life and his grandmother, she worked to support him and his siblings, even as he was drawn into gangs and on a bad track himself, he found a better path. It was his chance playing sports, and ultimately through playing sports, educators in his life changed his life. That set him on a path that would take him to the football field and to college and then back to the classroom where he could be a positive force in kids lives as a teacher himself. I want to introduce you to this inspiring man, mr. Cockrell, im chok choked up looking at your face, teacher of the year, mr. Dc, at crest Wood Elementary School in st. Louis. Your coworkers who know you best say you always know how to put a smile on a persons face. What do your family and friends, and Education Community as you know, what have they said about you being teacher of the year . They know how goofy i am, and how silly, and i think thats the reason why. I think with me, im just so grateful to be alive. I have a job that i love. I love the people i work with. And im always just so happy, and i want to push positivity and love and happiness on everyone else, and i think, you know, thats a reflection of why im missouri teacher of the year. Help us understand that because theres a lot of people out there, especially now, who feel hopeless. In your acceptance speech you talked about what it was like as a child when you were in a gang. Can you speak a little bit about your path because some people cant see the light. You always have. You know, there were some tough times, and i can honestly say there were days where i didnt feel like there was any hope, but, you know, my faith definitely kept me going. There were times when we didnt have food, didnt have water, the lights were off, and you know, i feel like there was nothing that i could do, but just keeping that faith, and just having people come into my life and support me, and being open to their support helped me get to the next level of my life and understand that, you know, with these people changing my life, i have the aboility when get older to do the same thing, and thats what im trying to do now as a teacher. I can feel what a source of positive energy you are, but how do you feel about the fact in a lot of the press coverage youre getting it does say former gang member . Actually, im okay with that. You know, when i gave my speech, when i became missouri teacher of the year, i wanted to put my story out there because wii wand to get the attention of not only all of america, but same boys and girls in the same predicament as i was as a kid, to let them know there is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Even though you might be in this position right now, that is not the end all, be all. You have the ability and you have the choice to get yourself out of that situation. But you have to change your mindset in order to get out of that situation. It was coaches. It was playing sports that helped you change that mindset. How strange is it for you to be teacher of the year during a pandemic when physical education isnt something millions of kids are getting . They dont have any extracurricular sports. How worried are you about the importance of sports in kids lives and that so many arent getting them this year . Im extremely worried about that. Because its like a double edged sword. You have to be online and virtually and use your devices to stay connected with these kids. At the same time, you dont really want them on the devices the entire time. When theyre losing activities, theyre also losing the social aspect of life, and its really important that we can start getting vaccines out and getting people healthy so the kids can get back to being active. Child hood obesity is a real thing. The longer theyre inactive, the harder it is. Im looking at video of you with these kids. I love it. Id have liked it if you had done a cart wheel. Congratulations. Merry christmas to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. God bless. Bless you. After the break, we need to talk about this pandemic before we go. We need to remember some of the extraordinary lives lost this year. And in the next hour, senator Amy Klobuchar will be here on whether the senate will vote on 2000 in stimulus checks and if she supports it. You can do better, steve get a freshly made footlong, from subway® you can even order on the subway® app did i just get picked off by Deion Sanders . You sure did now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. Because its footlong season™ open. Remember having that feeling for the first time . The first day you opened. The first day you had a customer, the first day you taught a class, had a client, a patient, a session. Open. Remember the night before you opened . Who could ever sleep . Open. But theres a different question we are being asked now. Are you going to remain open . Even when your doors are closed . Open. Thats how we show who we are. And theres another way to be open, to pull together or push, depending on the door. And we are making it work and we will continue to make it work together. Because open we stand. Each febreze car vent clip gives you up to 30 days of fresh air. So, you can have open window freshness. Even with all the windows up. Enjoy fresh, any time, with febreze. Before we go, i want to take a moment to recognize the tremendous loss we have suffered as a country in 2020. The holidays are here and there are over 322,000 mothers, fathers, siblings, children and friends who have lost their lives to this pandemic. And many, many people wont get a chance to celebrate with their loved ones. I want to shine a light on a few of the people we lost. This is adrian gomez. He worked at a shelter in texas. Helping to make sure the young people he supervised were housed and educated while they were seeking asylum or until they were reunited with their families. His daughter says he always wanted to make a difference in other peoples lives. Well, he did make a difference. But he died at only 52. This is brandy houser, she was a hospice care worker in california whose career was built off of her empathy. She loved being a helpful resource to families in their times of need. Her friends and family remember her as someone who always made every day an adventure. That is my kind of girl. Oftentimes including a round of karaoke. She died at only 41. And this is januariette williams parker, the first nurse to die in the state of West Virginia from the coronavirus. Her daughter describing her as someone who always went above and beyond the job description. You could find her listening to rock music from the 80s and 90s, specifically ac dc and prince. Thats good taste in music. She was 48. I think of her and so many other people who lost their lives this year. Over the holidays, i think of you. Holidays are wrarm and exciting, but theyre lonely and hard. Thinking of you, thank you for watching. Reminding everyone, if you need help, ask for it. The you can give help, please give it. That wraps us up this hour. Hallie jackson is next. R. [ chuckles ] whoo. Im gonna grow big and strong. Yes, you are. Im gonna get this place all clean. Ill give you a hand. And im gonna put lisa on crutches wait, what . Said shes gonna need crutches. She fell pretty hard. You might want to clean that up, girl. Excuse us. When owning a Small Business gets real, progressive helps protect what you built with customizable coverage. And im gonna eh, eh, eh. Donny, no. Oh. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. Help for millions of americans up in the air as we come on the air. Unemployment benefits set to dry up saturday. The government