Concede the election, but the math does not lie. Nbc news projects joe biden as the winner of arizona and the apparent winner of georgia, as there is a recount going on there. That puts bidens final projected Electoral College vote total at 306 to Donald Trumps 232. For mr. Trump, actions speak louder than words. He tweets endlessly about Election Results, but hes doing very little. He went golfing earlier today, as he likes to do on the weekends, and hes held few official meetings for the American People in the oval office since the election. As for the media, total avoidance during yesterdays press conference. And those election lawsuits filed by his campaign or on his behalf, theyve all but fallen apart. All of this leaving an Incoming Biden Administration with no daily Intelligence Briefings and no guidance on how the Current Administration is fighting the fastspreading and deadly coronavirus. So, lets get right to our panel. Meira tenden, president and ceo of the center for American Progress and former Senior Adviser to president obama, michael steele, former rnc chair and Senior Adviser to the lincoln project, peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times and an msnbc political analyst and nbcs heidi prisbala. Thank you for joining me pi afternoon. I want to read from politico, where they say, the white house is eyeing executive orders and regulations on immigration, trade, health care, china, and school choice. What exactly can the president do in the next 70 days before joe biden is sworn in . Well, he can issue a series of executive orders, and if there are regulations in process, he can finalize his regulations. But i want to be very clear about this. On executive actions, you know, where hes really just signing memoranda, joe biden can undo those very quickly. And what weve learned in the regulatory process is that, often, the Trump Administration has not followed the right processes, and theyve often been thrown out in the courts. So, i think he can do a lot to signify that hes acting, but the impact and its ability to really limit what a Biden Harris Administration can do is pretty limited. Michael, lets talk about this idea that some folks are saying, essentially, the president is checked out. Normal ornstein, who is a political scientist at the conservative American Enterprise institute saying that the president is essentially checked out of his public duties. Are you concerned at all about that . Is this a good thing or a bad thing . Well, we should all be concerned about it, and i believe norm is right. I think he has checked out. And i think hes checked out because thats the nature of the man. He didnt win, and so, hes going to do everything that he can to sort of, a, not acknowledge that, and b, put on a different kind of front, and thats why he has all these supporters out here along the streets of washington today without masks, sort of, you know, championing a cause that is not just over but done. So, the president knows this. He doesnt want to play anymore. He wants to take his marbles and go and pout, and thats what hes going to do. So, joe biden has to do what he has to do to get ready to become president. And Mitch Mcconnell and Senate Republicans have to do two things one, stay out of the way of all of those magaloving individuals out there, to not get their eyre fired up because theyve got an important race in georgia that they need to have everybody just kind of stay calm so they can do what they need to do to hold the senate. And then secondly, look at the fact that in about a months time, the government runs out of money. And so, theyve got some pressing issues that will have to be addressed as well. And so, you know, theyll bring it to the president when they need him to sign it, but otherwise, i dont see them engaging him that much. So, you bring up a really good point, michael. And peter, i want you to weigh on this, right . Because you have Mitch Mcconnell essentially not stepping out and saying that joe biden is the president elect because it seems as if he is really centered, really focussed on that georgia race, and he understands the power that donald trump still has. You have folks like lindsey graham, essentially, doing the same thing. If the president is checked out, you have covid raging across this country. Just yesterday, 180,000 people testing positive in this country for covid, and it seems like its just going to get worse, as Anthony Fauci has told us. Will it fall on the shoulders of the republicans, the gop, who seem like theyre ignoring whats actually happening in this country overall . What could we actually see happen over the next month or so . Well, its a very perilous time, obviously, in terms of the virus. The caseloads are just rocketing through the roof. This is five and six times what we saw back in april when we thought we were at the worst of this. Were no longer, you know, no longer debating whether there is a second or third wave. This is way much worse than the first one, at least in terms of number of cases, now hospitalizations are hitting a peak as well. What youre afraid is going to happen, of course, is that the death total will quickly follow, as it often does. Were significantly above where we were just a few weeks ago in terms of the number of people dying each day from it, and two weeks from now, obviously, we could see a much higher toll. Now, the vaccine, the promise of the vaccine, obviously, has people feeling pretty good. The president did make his first appearance after his, you know, election week statement yesterday to come out and tout the results of the pfizer test, take credit for it, he said that he could, but its still going to be a while before most americans are going to be able to get that vaccine. Were going to start, obviously, with Health Care Workers and nursing home residents and people who are particularly vulnerable, which makes sense, but obviously leaves a lot of america still out, you know, vulnerable until they can get, ramp up production. So youve got a president whos not saying much about this, doesnt seem to be, you know, leading any kind of Task Force Meetings or messaging to the public beyond yesterdays event, and instead, as you point out, hes on the golf course and hes tweeting about the election. So, i think it is a very perilous time when theres not, you know, sort of leadership at the top on an issue that is so existential for so many americans. I want to stick with this slow walk of this transition. I know that you have some new reporting about the head of the gsa slowwalking this transition. What do you have . All right, yasmin. So, it appears that this is potentially going to go on for a while. Ive spoken with biden officials now who acknowledge that it could last for up to a month. Now, in the case of most functions of government, thats not going to be a big issue. A lot of these people are career officials. Theyve been there before, but there are two areas in particular that these transition aides identified to me is a significant problem the longer this goes on. The first one is the lack of those classified briefings and the Intelligence Exchange of information that is so vital and that you see already some republicans on the hill. And the second is this planning for this distribution of the vaccine. Look, the first part of this is already off and running, and theres nothing that trump can do to either help it or hinder it. This is all in the hands of private companies now that are developing these vaccines. Its taking them and distributing them where this becomes problematic if the biden team is not allowed in on some of the more detailed information in the coming weeks. And that is specifically regarding, for instance, what is the state of the Health Infrastructure in various states, yasmin, because, take you back to april, june, july, when we had some of these significant problems with distribution of medical supplies, masks, gowns. Well, think about that as relates to, for instance, gloves. We already know we have a shortage of gloves. We know that syringes might be a problem. So, its really the distribution side of this that is the concern. Again, not to overstate this, the biden people are confident that if theyre able to get this information relatively soon, they can really help them get on the way, but its the longer that it drags out that those two areas are of specific concern. And thats key to what you just said, the idea of if theyre able to get this information soon, and the with eis when theyre actually going to be able to get this information. What do you make, neera, of the fact that the gsa is refusing to certify the Election Results . I mean, i think its absurd, obviously. I think that donald trump put people throughout the government who would be, essentially, apara aparachet to follow his orders, and joe biden will obviously become the next president by any reasonable standard. Gsa should follow the normal protocols to do this. But i really just want to emphasize the point about the virus, which is, we know it will take a long time to distribute the vaccine, but we also know distributing the vaccine will save lives, you know, assuming its all working exceptionally well, which is all the data. So, just the slow walking of this process means that we are going to be in a situation come this spring where people could have possibly their lives could have been saved if the distribution took place starting now. We know its a complicated distribution. We know that the federal government has to work with the private sector to ensure ordering syringes, perhaps a freezing mechanism for the distribution. So, its a complicated issue. And the fact that we have but it doesnt necessarily go ahead. Finish. No, i was just saying, the fact that people are playing politics on something that really could ultimately be life or death is really i mean, theres no words for it shocking. But peter, it doesnt necessarily seem as if this slow transition is at all going to affect getting emergency authorization use of this vaccine from pfizer that could go into being reviewed by the fda by some time as early as december. Yeah, pfizer said it would put in an application within i think another week or so, and President Trump has clearly made, you know, made clear his desire is to have this approved very quickly and that they have promised that they would get as many as 20 million doses out there by the end of the year. So, he intends to, or at least his bureaucracy intends to fasttrack this, assuming that final results turn out to be what pfizer has found so far. And you know, so, that process could begin, obviously, under President Trump. And you saw him yesterday wanting to make sure he claimed credit for it, even though pfizer didnt take federal money for the development of this vaccine. You know, hes claiming its part of operation warp speed because they did get a contract for distribution once it was ready. So you know, look, obviously, having this happen in the middle of a transition thats in dispute like this is not an ideal situation, and its obviously something that, you know, anybody would want to have clean and smooth cooperation between Outgoing Administration and an Incoming Administration on something so vital, so important, so life, you know, so important to peoples lives, but thats not where were at right now. So, Companies Like pfizer and the infrastructure of the government is going to have to do what they can do to make a smooth process as they can, regardless of the politics of it. I just think go ahead. Oh, sorry. Theyre distributing go ahead. The vaccine to over 300 million americans is a duplicated task that the government should be planning around now. And thats one thing. It just takes a long time to actually create a structure where you can ensure that thats happening rapidly. Yeah, absolutely. Michael steele, talk to me about the grip that you feel. Or do you feel that donald trump has a grip on the Republican Party . And what do you make of trumpism . Is it growing at this point, does it seem . And this idea that donald trump has a plan to create a super pac once he leaves the white house . Well, all of thats in play. Yes, he has a grip on the party and on a lot of folks who arent necessarily republicans. We know that because he got, you know, 8 million more votes than he got the last time. So, that tells you theres a lot of juice out there. Secondly, yeah, hes looking to set up his next act to pay his bills. Hes got 400 millionplus worth of debt that we know about, and thats got to get paid. And certainly, the political infrastructure doesnt necessarily allow that, but a media platform, particularly a streaming one, since that seems to be the new frontier, is one that he will command. Thats why hes suddenly now done the 180 on fox. Its not just because fox and its polls called arizona and all of that. This is part of a strategy for some time. Hes milked fox for as long as he could. Hes milked that audience for as long as he could. Hes generated the connection with them. And now well watch him systemically move them off of fox as hes already started to do. Oh, go watch oan, go watch, you know, this other channel. And thats part of the process. So, all of that is going to be a part of the next wave of trump and trumpism. It is alive. It is strong. And it will have to be confronted in any number of political forums going forward, not just by democrats, but especially by republicans who still try to hold on to some semblance of the Republican Party. But do you expect him to have a lot of, michael, legislative and monetary influence over a lot of republicans that still have seats in washington right now . Do you expect that going forward, that were going to hear a lot more from donald trump . Thats a very good question, because its one that i really kind of put in the box of lets see. Lets just see how much of a tether he will have to a number of senators and congressmen who are up in 2022, particularly in the senate, and to see whether or not he tries to influence the outcome of things, particularly if you see an effort towards cooperation with joe biden. I suspect that youre going to hear a lot of brushback from trump and his allies, not necessarily in the house or the senate, but on the streets, the folks who are out here in washington right now screaming and shouting about Election Fraud will be the same ones screaming and shouting about, you know, supporting socialism and all that crazy. So, yeah, i think thats something to wait and see how it plays out and whether or not these guys really kind of buck up a little bit more without trump actually in the position as president , but rather, as one as a former president with a twitter account. Hey, peter, final question to you here. I think a lot of folks were scratching their heads when they heard mike pompeo essentially say well be ready for a transition to a second term of donald trump, when they see bill barr also going along with the way the claims that the president is making with regards to fraudulent votes happening. What do you make of these decisions by these two men . And what are the issues with using the federal powers to fight Election Results . Yeah, well, both these two men came under enormous pressure from the president prior to the election to act on his behalf in the campaign. Remember, the president was tweeting out there and publicly saying that bill barr should be indicting somebody, meaning, specifically, joe biden, his opponent, or even barack obama, his predecessor, before the election, which bill barr, of course, didnt do. And he wanted mike pompeo to release Hillary Clintons emails from four years ago. Remember that one. We werent done with that one. Pompeo said he would, but i dont think he actually ever did. So, these two people have been on the hot seat with this president for a while and i suspect their postelection actions are meant to placate a president by suggesting that theyre still with him, even though they understand, like everybody else understands, that theres no way this outcome is going to be anything other than what it is, which is to say that joe biden will be president on january 20th, 2021. Now, there is a consequence to this, obviously, because it opens all kinds of pandoras boxes, and i think it undermines credibility of the election process to suggest that there is something there when there isnt. And i think that thats now the longerterm impact youll have. Youve seen the elections chief at the Justice Department resign over attorney general barrs memo just the other day. And youve seen a number of attorneys send him a letter yesterday saying there is no basis there to investigate. So i think there is consequences to this, but i think its about trying to placate President Trump. Were going to talk about some of these consequences as well, as we see mike pompeo on a sevenday tour of the world right now after having said that at the state department and how the United States continues to promote democracy around the world while they question their own Election Results here in the United States. Neera tanden, michael steele, peter, heidi przybilla, thank you for joining me. Much more on come this hour, including the covid crisis in el paso, texas. The county judge enacted a shutdown for the city, but an Appeals Court shut that down. He joins us next with reaction about whats happening on the ground there. And as the race for a vaccine continues as we were just talking about, what do we know about president elect bidens covid task force, and do they have the tools to successfully handle this pandemic . Well be right back. Still fresh unstopables inwash scent booster downy unstopables my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. Im having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. So were using a speakerphone in the store. Is that a good idea . One of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. Youre looking for a grout brush, this is garth, did he ask for your help . No, no. No. We all see it. We all see it. He has blue hair. Okay. Blue. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Keep it coming. You dont know him. Its our most dangerous addiction. So we took our worst vice, and turned it into the dna for a better system. We created bionic and put the word out with godaddy. What will you change . Make the world you want. Unlike ordinary memory want supplementster . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. Welcome back. Coronavirus cases are being diagnosed at an alltime high across this country, according to data from Johns Hopkins university. Daily Coronavirus Infections in the u. S. Have now topped 184,000. Thats a new record and a 20 increase from the previous day. But the Current Administration remains unmoved by the nations ballooning cases, which are now approaching 11 million nationwide. Unbelievable. President trump warning yesterday that the administration could withhold access to promising vaccine treatment from new york, claiming that Governor Andrew Cuomo does not want to immediately distribute the drug. Meanwhile, around the country, cities and states, they are racing to impose coronavirus restrictions that at this point may do little to curb the spread of the virus. Such is the case in texas where one nurse says the situation in el paso was the worst that she has seen. Watch this. Texas has surpassed new york. We had four freezer trucks four that had to show up because it was so many people dying. Like, you dread doing cpr on these patients because you know theyre not going to make it. Yall, i felt like i was tortured. I called home about a week ago. I talked to my best friend. She said, lawanna, you just need to leave. Why dont you just leave . I said, because they still need me. All right, joining me now to discuss the situation in el paso county, judge saminiego. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. That was really troubling to see that nurse talking about the situation in el paso right now with so many folks dying, as she mentioned freezer trucks full of bodies, of individuals dying of covid. What did you make of that and the situation in your city right now . Well, were in a difficult situation. Weve got today we had 50 more deaths, weve got 30,000 positive cases at this point in time, weve got, you know, a saturated. We made space from a regular hospital to maybe 575 additional spaces, including tents, including the convention center. We also have a huge, very difficult situation with our mortuaries and Funeral Homes that are being backed up. And of course, we have our four mobile units. And so, if you look at all these Different Things i guess, the mobile units really allows people to understand our difficult situation. As for the University Medical hospital, we have one of the best Trauma Centers in the country, and so, its difficult for me to understand that component. Ive really looked into it. But you know, its a difficult situation for el paso. Then if you enter the you know, my only tool that i felt at the time was to be able to have a stayathome order, and obviously, that went through our district court, judge moody. It t was slowed down by the eighth circuit court, but then it was, you know, challenged. And so, here we are, pretty much trying to figure out what to do under these circumstances. And its difficult. Its difficult for a community. Were a community that is coming out of our First Anniversary of the tragedy in walmart. So, a Beautiful Community that was asked to come out and be united and now being asked to come back and stay at home. And so, you know, all of these things are a challenge at this time, and weve got this symbiotic relationship with our beautiful neighbors to the so h south, and theyre really being challenged. Theyve had shutdowns, complete shutdowns over weekends, all essentials, everything shut down for the weekend. Weve got donyana county from new mexico right there. So, when you have all these variables and these factors, its a difficult challenge for this region, complete region. So, judge samaniego, i know that you have faced some opposition for your efforts to save your community throughout texas because you issued the order of the shutdown of nonessential businesses. That order has now been blocked, and it seems like nonessential businesses can now reopen when you have these numbers continuing to increase in your area. What do you think needs to be done to stop the spread of covid in el paso right now and keep people from dying . Well, i can continue working on my order. I still have Legal Authority to make more restrictions. Im working on that. Im pleading to the community. Obviously, more of a collective consciousness of going, trying to do the best we can without the order, but that order was very important. When we did the curfew, that stopped a lot of our young adults crossing into juarez. People were getting back home. We started to see a flattening a little bit of the positive cases. And so, we know it will work. So im very surprised. Governor abbott at one time issued a stayathome order when it was never even close to the acuteness that we have here in el paso. And so, im not using anything. I know the attorney general said i was a tyrant and going against law, but my opportunity was to be able to do something that he did, governor abbott. Everything thats in my order, other than the curfew, is something that hes tried when things have gotten out of hand in san antonio, austin, ft. Worth, and so forth. So, its very difficult to understand why i wouldnt be able to use it when my numbers or the numbers here in our community are much more acute than weve ever seen. And you know, the numbers tell the story. The nine trailers that we have trying to, you know, somehow find some kind of indignation, you know, a dignity, a dignity, you know, indignation right now is horrible in our funeral process. And so, im not sure why the attorney general would do that, to throw a wedge and sort of gloat that i was a tyrant for trying to do what i was you know, i was elected here in el paso. People feel im a trusting voice. And for him to sort of break a little bit of my validity as a leader didnt help at all. All right, judge ricardo samaniego, we appreciate you joining this afternoon and wish you the best of luck in your community and appreciate your work as well. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it. I want to bring in. Of course. I want to bring in dr. Nahid bhadelia, an msnbc medical contributor and an Infectious Diseases physician and with the special pathogens unit. Dr. Bhadelia, thank you for joining us on this. I really appreciate it. We were just hearing from judge samaniego, who ordered nonessential businesses closed, especially when looking at the spiking numbers in el paso and the troubling numbers across this country. Are those the types of actions that at this point, from your perspective, that need to happen in order to slow the spread of this thing . Good afternoon, yasmin. We definitely need to roll back reopenings, right . Because there is no mystery about what causes new infections. It is indoor, large capacities, large groups of people together and not wearing of the masks. And at least looking at efforts that can slow those things down in most places rolling back reopenings, so places like el paso, places that have really surpassed their Health Care Capacity or are hitting the limit, theres very few options left. What this tells me is that theres two separate issues here, right . One is that you have a portion of this country that, with the disinformation, political division, regardless of the type of mandates weve put out there, what we need to do is not just put things into action with policy, but really follow it up with Community Engagement and really have a nationallevel gop bipartisan push about why this is important. We need to, you know, to actually affect the hearts and minds of the people to effect change in behavior. Thats one part. Also, a lot of this is tied to economic instability. When we say to someone, stay at home, a great colleague of mine wrote a paper on this, about equity in covid19 this week. And they said, when we tell people to stay home, we forget that for some cases, home is a onebedroom apartment with five other people staying there and one person is an essential worker. So we have to sort of look at the economic component of this. And the fact that we havent passed a covid relief act. We need to put the two together so its easier for people to roll back reopenings and businesses to survive. So, it seems like this is part of the tough decision thats happening across this country right now, because they see so much suffering when it comes to the economic ramifications or consequences that weve seen from the covid shutdowns across this country, right . But theyre also seeing the hundreds of thousands of people that are testing positive for covid and the thousands of people that are dyeing in this country every single day, hearing that nurse talk about the refrigerated trucks as well. Lets take a look at new york, for instance. We are on the cusp in this city of shutting down schools, possibly on monday. Were hovering around 3 Positivity Rate over the last seven days or so. The mayor may make the call at any moment. There is this idea, especially as you look to europe, that schools and Daycare Centers are deemed essential services and that it seems as if they are seeing now that children are not necessarily superspreaders. Do you think that cities like new york should be making this decision to shut down schools amidst this pandemic instead of taking this extra effort to shut down restaurants when we see more of a spread in situations like that, versus in the School System . Yasmin, im with you. In my perception, schools are also a downturn to economic production. If you close down schools, then parents cant go to work, right . Thats the additional benefits, so its definitely a balance there. And as you said, there is less data. There is evolving data. Its not like kids cant ever transmit disease, but it seems that schools dont pose the same level of risk, for example, than other indoor activities such as dining or gyms or other aspects where people are gathering and there is little ventilation and no use of mask. The trouble is that, i commend Governor Cuomo in taking some of the steps that they already have, in limiting capacity, because cities in particular, once you have a spread of disease, is much harder to control. But i am with you in the fact that i would support the schools staying open for the reasons you mentioned and rolling back indoor capacity on bars sooner than before they stop the schools, i would say. All right, dr. In heed badala, thank you so much. We really appreciate you joining us this afternoon. Tomorrow, Richard Engel takes us inside the International Race for a Covid Vaccine that could save millions of lives. He brings us unprecedented access to experts paving the way towards what could be a lifesaving breakthrough. Dont miss on assignment with Richard Engel race for the vaccine tomorrow at 10 00 p. M. Eastern right here on msnbc. Still ahead, everybody, how World Leaders are reacting to the lessthangraceful transition from trump to biden and the challenges they face in contacting the biden team. Well be right back. Acting the. Well rbeight back. Its still warm. Thanks, alice says hi. For some of us, our daily journey is a short one. Save 50 when you pay per mile with allstate. Pay less, when you drive less. Youve never been in better hands. Allstate. Click or call for a quote today. We started by making the cloud easier to manage. But we didnt stop there. We made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. No matter what it does, or how it changes. And we kept going. So you only pay for what you use. Because at dell technologies, we stop. At nothing. Here . Nah. Introducing the all new chevy trailblazer. Here . Nope. Here. When the middle of nowhere, is somewhere. The all new chevy trailblazer. Making lifes journey, just better. Welcome back. A number of International Leaders spent the week sending graduatery messages to the president elect, notably, russia and mexico have withheld well wishes, both vowing to wait until trumps election legal challenges end. For more on the geopolitical fallout of the American Election and the dangers of a delayed transition, i want to bring in david ignatius, associate editor and Foreign Affairs columnist for the Washington Post and fellow with the Harvard Kennedy school of government. David, thank for joining us on this. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. We have been in this country historically absolutely we have been a country historically that has promoted democracy around the world. We have invaded countries in order to put our own politics in place and our own leaders in place in some of those countries, many of which those countries resisted. You can agree with this policy decision or not to do this, right, to spread democracy around the world, whether or not thats the role of americans. But now you have the secretary of state, mike pompeo, on this weeklong tour, essentially, around the world, trying to push some of the president s agenda while he still has time in office, and this is on the heels of him at the state department essentially saying, we are ready whether he was joking or not, who knows we are ready and willing and able for a second trump presidency. What is the damage that has been done here . Well, i think, first of all, its confusion for the world. We have one president at a time and the world has to deal with donald trump and his secretary of state until january 20th. Just the fact. So, its not inappropriate for the secretary of state to be traveling. Its bizarre that there has not been more of an effort by officials who are supposed to be responsible for our countrys welfare and Foreign Policy to make way for the kind of steady, smooth process of transition that, as you rightly say, we advocate in every country, central to our Foreign Policy is the idea of democratic transfer of power. Dictators who hold onto power, who dont give way to their elected successors, something that we have historically opposed. So, it is a very strange moment. I can only imagine what the countries that secretary pompeo is visiting, many of which have congratulated president elect joe biden, are thinking about this visit, but its an unusual situation. Bidens trying to, i think, wisely, act as if this is all going to work itself out, folks, you know, nothing to be scared about here. At some point soon, i think hes going to have to change his tone. David, what are you hearing about picks for secretary of state, if anything . Some of what im hearing is the possibility of a gail burns, a susan rice or a wendy sherman. What is the signal that the Biden Administration is sending in whoever it is that they end up choosing as secretary of state . So, yasmin, i hear the same names. I hear some others chris coons, a friend of joe bidens. He would be a worthy secretary of state. Its conceivable that biden might want to have a republican as secretary of state. The thing that im hearing from people at the top of the transition is that they really want to be serious about this Campaign Slogan of a Foreign Policy that puts our middle class first. What does that mean in terms of actual Foreign Policy . Well, it means getting more voices around the table. It means reaching out more to international organizations. It means thinking more about trade and economic policies that do keep jobs at home. Theyre thinking about those ideas. I dont think theyve settled on the people who are going to have these top jobs. The people closest to biden on Foreign Policy have been tony blinken, who was his adviser when he was in the white house, campaign adviser, susan rice historically has been close to the president elect. There are a number of other people who certainly have earned the right to be considered. Wendy sherman was an outstanding diplomat during the iran negotiations. But i dont think, to be honest, i dont think the decisions been made yet. I also want to read a quote for you from h. R. Mcmaster, who is warning biden on a possible iran deal. We know joe biden has repeatedly said hed like to reenter the jcpoa. What that looks like, whether or not iran would actually even agree to reenter the agreement is a big question, i think, and what the United States will agree to as well, and the parameters surrounding that. H. R. Mcmaster saying the deal forged with the tehran regime with then secretary of state john kerry failed to consider the hostile ideology of iran in the 40 years they have fought against america. These big payoffs to iran when the deal was signed, as well as relief to sanctions, what did they do with that money . They applied that money to sectarian violence across the region in an effort to put a proxy army on the border of israel. What do you think about the deal heading into a Biden Administration, especially with a country like iran that wont necessarily trust the United States going into a second deal when donald trump essentially tore up the last one . Well, i think both sides are going to be slow to reenter a process that was mutually frustrating. I think that biden recognizes that iranian behavior in the middle east has continued to be disruptive, aggressive. Their support for rebels in yemen, their support for hezbollah in lebanon, their support for the regime in syria that has oppressed and killed so many people, those are significant concerns that the Biden Administration will have. I think the idea of just opening the door to return to the status quo ante isnt likely, that biden will want to have some process that requires, first, that iran return to compliance with the jcpoa, within the Nuclear Agreement, but second, addresses regional issues. I think the iranians, similarly president obama made a bet that this Nuclear Agreement would open the door to a process of modernization that would make iran less threatening in the region. That didnt work out. You can have lots of arguments about why it didnt work out, but it didnt work out. There still is destabilizing forces there and biden knows it. So, i think probably steady as she goes in the beginning. One thing i just would note that im hearing from people i take seriously on Foreign Policy the risk of a military confrontation with iran in the final days of the Trump Administration is real. And that is a scary thought, to say the least. David ignatius, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us this afternoon. So good to talk to you, my friend. Thanks. Still ahead, everybody, deadly flash flooding in North Carolina. Plus, tiktok avoids a shutdown. Those stories and more. Many stories that you have missed in the run, coming up. E missed in the run, comg inup for over 30 years, lexus has been celebrating driveway moments. Heres to one more, the lexus december to remember sales event. Lease the 2021 rx 350 for 419 a month for 36 months and well make your first months payment. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. To help you build a flexible wealth plan. Youll have access to taxsmart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. Personalized advice. Unmatched value. At fidelity, you can have both. Welcome back. Now for the run, some of the stories that you may have missed with all of the other news going on this week. At least six people are dead as Tropical Storm eta soaked the southeast and made landfall for the second time. Five died, including a 1yearold child, after a campground in North Carolina flooded. And more than 30 others were rescued from the rising water. Another person died in a crash after a bridge was washed out by the flooding. Also wanting to get to historic news out of florida. The Miami Marlins announced kim eng will be the next general manager, making her the first woman and first east Asian American to hold the position in Major League Baseball history. She served the last nine years as Senior Vice President with the league. She previously broke records when she was hired as assistant general manager of the new york yankees at age 29, the youngest person to hold the position at the time. And also, there is good news for fans of tiktok. The videosharing app will not be shutting down. The Commerce Department now says that it will not enforce its previous order to ban the app. This all started when President Trump issued an executive order last summer banning u. S. Transactions with the app, claiming that tiktok was a National Security threat. All your favorite memes are safe, for now. Judges sided against trump in two lawsuits, but the white house is appealing it. When we come back, a historic victory that reaches beyond the Lgbtq Community. First muslim millennial nonbinary lawmaker elected to Oklahoma State legislature joins me next to talk about her historic win and what she hopes to accomplish. Well be right back. Nd what she to accomplish. Well be right back. 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Get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. Dont stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, or your asthma worsens. Headache and sore throat may occur. Could you be living a bigger life . Ask an asthma specialist about fasenra. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Up at 2 00am again . 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. Welcome back, everybody. The 2020 election brought notable firsts for the Lgbtq Community and government. Delaware elected the first transgender state senator. Tennessee has openly gay politicians to the state legislature, and verbatim elected its first transgender member to the house of representatives. Among that wave of historic firsts, my next guest wins arguably stands out for the number of barriers it broke and where it happened. Joining me now is the first nonbinary state legislator in u. S. History and first minimums lawmaker in Oklahoma State representativeelect mauree turner. Thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. Congratulations, by the way, on your win. Good to see you. According to the Oklahoma State election board, you won 71 of the votes in your race against republican kelly bar lean. Were you expecting such a win . Yes, candidly speaking, yes. So this district is historically democratic and historically progressive. And so i knew going into it that our biggest hurdle was going to be our primary. When we turned out a Record Number of voters for a president ial primary vote, i definitely expected House District 88 to show up in the general election, especially with so many things on the ballot outside of this race. Before you won, you actually spent most of your life fighting for Immigration Rights and racial justice. What compelled to yyou to run n . I spent the majority of my time working in criminal justice reimagining and rebuilding. One of those sections is immigration work. And so what prompted me to run for office is when i started doing direct policy advocacy. I had been doing Community Organizing outside of the legislature, but about three years ago i started working with the aclu of oklahoma and was able to do that direct policy advocacy to see how bills were written and what that really looks like and the lobbying process and everything. And i saw that oklahomans really got middleoftheroad solutions to things we deal with every day, and that happened because we didnt have someone with our shared lived experiences running representing us. I started looking for people to run and the, folks, started asking me when i was going to run and why i hadnt run yet, so i decided to answer the call to action. I think Community Action is answering a call to action. House district 88 started asking me to run, so i answered that call and i decided to listen to the advice im giving everybody else why its important to see ourselves in the systems that make decisions about our everyday lives. Mauree, i want to give you some numbers. Almost 600 lgbtq candidates appeared on the November Ballot this year. Do you think your victory and those numbers that i just mentioned are going to inspire more people, especially from the Lgbtq Community, to get involved in government . Absolutely. One of the big things that im continuously hearing, whether its coming from folks in the district or from folks across america or from folks outside of the u. S. Altogether is that representation really does matter. There are so Many High School students that have reached out to me and said that they didnt think that politics was a place for them just because they hadnt seen it. There were so many older folks, right, folks older than me that didnt think it was a possibility that are really excited and so many messages about, folks, wanting to run for office now. So absolutely. State representativeelectricity mauree turner, thank you. Good luck. Well be watching. That wraps up this hour. Im yasmin vossoughian. Ill be back tomorrow at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Reverend al shoprite and politicsnation is up next after a quick break. Snation is after a quick break. Just dont look the same . Well now theres a solution, with downy defy damage. Downy defy damage protects your clothes from the stretching, fading and fuzzing that happens throughout the wash process. Protect your clothes, with downy defy damage we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. 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