Of joe biden as the 46th president of the United States. Tonight as we move ever closer to a second Covid Vaccine we are also on the threshold of a sad new milestone. Almost 17 million confirmed coronavirus cases in our country. Sadly, over just the past 24 hours, weve lost another 3200 people, roughly one death now every 27 seconds in america. The onslaught of the virus has hospitals in this nation under siege as coronavirus admissions are reaching new record levels. Consider this. Exactly six months ago today in an oped piece for the wall street journal, do you remember . Vice president mike pence downplayed what was then the summer surge as we referred to it back when medical experts were warning everyone of the risks of not getting the virus under control. Heres what pence wrote back then, and we quote. The media has tried to scare the American People every step of the way, and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different. The truth is whatever the media says our whole of america approach has been a success. Weve slowed the spread. Weve cared for the most vulnerable. Weve saved lives. And weve created a Solid Foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. Just a reminder, mike pence chairs the Coronavirus Task force. Tonight a former pence aide was asked about that upbeat forecast now ten months into our uncontrolled pandemic. I was involved in that oped. I was asked to work on it. I was told to work on it with another staffer who struggled with me to figure out how we were going to do this when we were watching rising cases. And we did push back. But we were overruled by the Vice President s chief of staff who really wanted this published. Now a bit of good news and that starts tomorrow with an Fda Advisory Committee meeting to consider the Moderna Vaccine for emergency authorization just like the pfizer version. Meanwhile, in another happy discovery, hospitals say theyve managed to squeeze extra doses out of vials of the already approved pfizer vaccine, expanding the already short supply. It seems it is just this basic. The vials contain more volume of liquid than just one shot. One of those pfizer doses will be going to joe biden soon a transition official tells nbc news hell get his vaccine sometime early next week. I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American People that it is safe to take. When i do it, ill do it publicly so you all can actually witness my getting it done. Mike pence will get his vaccination on television on friday. Today we learned more disturbing details about the mismanagement of this pandemic. A house subcommittee has released emails from a former trump appointee Paul Alexander in which he urges Top Health Officials to allow millions of americans to go ahead and become infected in order to develop herd immunity. Quote, infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions, etcetera, have zero to little risk, so we use them to develop herd we want them infected. We want them to establish herd immunity. This is what we were told by the Current Administration and the president about herd immunity. Herd immunity, socalled theory, was something made up in the fanciful minds of the media. That was never something that was ever considered here at the white house. With time and youll develop herd, like a herd mentality. It is going to be herd developed and that is going to happen. Herd immunity has never been a strategy here at the white house. The president last night was noting herd immunity is over a period of time. Herd immunity is not the strategy of the u. S. Government with regard to coronavirus. You develop immunity over a period of time and i hear were close to 15 . Im hearing that. That is terrific. That is a very powerful vaccine in itself. Theres also a new report out from the New York Times that quotes two trump appointees who describe the slow crushing of the cdc by the trump administration. As one of them puts it, damage has been done to the cdc that will take years to undo. In the meantime your elected representatives are reported to be closer to a deal for a new round of coronavirus relief. The roughly 900 billion package said to include direct aid and enhanced unemployment benefits. Tonight the lame duck president remains holed up in the white house. This afternoon he did manage to hold his 25th Cabinet Meeting of his presidency closed to the press this time and without several key officials from the justice, defense, and intelligence agencies. There were a couple empty seats. There are now multiple reports trump is pushing to appoint special counsels to investigate hunter biden and to look at socalled Election Fraud. Reuters news agency reporting the incoming attorney general wont say what he plans to do in regard to that. The incoming president today added one more nominee to his cabinet choices. Joe biden introduced his former campaign rival Pete Buttigieg as his secretary, his choice for transportation secretary. My view of this opportunity is also shaped by being the youngest member so far named to this cabinet and the first millennial invited to a seat at that table. Im also mindful that the eyes of history are on this appointment. Knowing that this is the first time an american president has ever selected an openly lgbtq cabinet member to the senate for confirmation. With that lets bring in our leadoff guests on this wednesday night peter baker chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times, dr. Irwin redliner the founding director of the Columbia National center for National Preparedness with expertise in pandemics and former u. S. Attorney joyce vance who spent a quarter century as a federal prosecutor. Good evening and welcome to you all. Peter, in your paper tonight the former Homeland Security adviser to this president , tom besser, writes this in an oped. President trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government and perhaps a large number of Major Industries compromised by the russian government. He must use whatever leverage he can muster to protect the United States and severely punish the russians. Headline, i was the Homeland Security adviser to trump. Were being hacked. Peter, to review, we are under an active electronic attack from the russians. We have over 300,000 of our fellow citizens dead in an as yet uncontrolled pandemic. We have millions in need of relief and waiting on congress. What has the president been up to . Well, you know, the answer of course, brian, hes been focused still on his election, the fact that he has lost, the fact he doesnt want to admit that he lost, the fact he is still trying to punish those who said he lost. He is angry at Senate Republicans particularly Mitch Mcconnell for having acknowledged that president elect biden is the president elect. He, you know, is not in fact at least publicly has not made any comments about the russian attack much like he basically passed over the intelligence reports suggesting there were russian bounties on american soldiers. He basically is letting it go by without any public display of anger or promise of retribution or any discussion whatsoever about what we should do to harden our defenses or prevent this kind of attack in the future. I think that, you know, completes four years for this president where he has taken a relatively quiet, you could say, friendly even approach toward russia overlooking, you know, acts of hostility, even though the administration below him at times has taken very tough action he himself continues to, you know, seemed to court Vladimir Putins friendship, now having recognized president elect biden as the next president of the United States. Doctor, a dual question to you considering we now all live at the intersection of politics and medicine. Number one, is this spike were seeing now the thanksgiving spike . And, number two, can you believe there was an appointed Government Official in this administration talking seriously about herd immunity among the population . Hi, brian. Lets talk about the second question first because, you know, it is very egregious. In fact, there was not only people in the administration but donald trump himself as weve heard in the clips talking about herd immunity which is basically a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of americans if that were allowed to happen. Fortunately the brakes have been put on that particular idea, thank goodness. You think about this, even if we dont have that theory in practice right now were talking about say by july 4th which is about 200 days from now if we continue the clip of 2500 fatalities from covid a day were talking about several hundred thousand more people seccumbing to this virus because i dont know that well have enough vaccinated people to reel sto stop or slow down i hope we will right now we are facing a terrible crisis. Trumps management of course has been a disaster and dishonest at that from day one. Nothing really should surprise us about what he said and what hes saying. Were in a fix here and it is another 30 plus days until we get the new team in town. I think we are very much looking forward to that. Joyce vance over to the intersection of politics and law we hear talk about appointing special counsels to look into Election Fraud that doesnt exist to investigate hunter biden. It sounds petty and small and would be both. It is also a chance for barr to cement his legacy on the way out the door or challenge the new guy acting a. G. Rosen when he takes over on christmas eve. Am i correct in assuming were the special counsels one or both appointed they would be embedded, enshrined, cemented in the doj in a way the president would be unwilling and unable to affect . Well, certainly they would be established in a way that would circumvent dojs rules a little bit. But whether or not theyre appointed legally it would be difficult as a matter of politics to remove them. When i say its not necessarily legal, i say that because the special counsel provisions are meant to come into play when there is a conflict of interest at doj that requires the use of someone from outside of the Justice Department to decide upon cases to investigate to make prosecutive decisions. Right now there is no apparent conflict of interest. We have a sitting u. S. Attorney in delaware appointed by President Trump pursuing the hunter biden matter. No conflict of interest. No need for special counsel right now. When you think about the way we got bob mueller that happened over after direct fbi director comey was fired and trump in essence bragged about relieving pressure on himself by doing that firing. A clear conflict of interest that mandated the need for a special counsel. When senator cotton says there needs to be a special counsel right now because republicans who are prosecutors might be fired down the road it is a little bit premature. We should wait and see what happens. There is a lot of precedent for these political investigations continuing from one administration to another. The john edwards investigation started under president bush, continued on, was indicted after president obama took over. Same u. S. Attorney stayed in place. So i think theres a lot of politics, very craven politics going on here, an effort to stick it to the Biden Administration not to see justice done. Well, that is to date the best explanation ive heard. Peter baker you mentioned the president s rage at his fellow republicans or as weve come to call it, wednesday. What is your reporting on how long a walk it is from where we are now to getting elected republicans on the hill to mouth the words, to say the words, president elect joe biden . You see more of them do it, not a floodgate after the vote of the Electoral College but at least the beginning of a trickle. Slowly but surely it is the reality people are accepting even if they dont want to go out there and push trump off the ledge in effect. I mean, everybody understands this except basically the president , his blood relatives, and the people out there in the country he has convinced something happened. No judge has agreed anything happened on the scale the president talks about. His own attorney general has said there was no widespread fraud that would have overturned the election. His own Cyber Security chief agreed with the statement that it was the most secure election in recent times. Basically this is a president flailing against the wind and the members on the hill for the most part at least the senate are letting him do it even as they begin to do business with the new president elect. They are calling him, talking about his nominees, meeting and discussing some of his nominations. I think, you know, basically increasingly they are ignoring the guy in the oval office whos only got 30 some days left. Doctor, if memory serves, back in the 1950s there was a bad batch of the salk polio vaccine and people died as a result. This country collectively decided to keep on walking, to get up and keep immunizing people after it was found to be in fact a bad batch. Now, the Antivaccine Movement then was not what it is now. They didnt have social media as we do now. I am asking this because of this report of a bad reaction in alaska. How do you in Public Health push people, point people to keep on going through the darkness to get to the other side with all else that is out there . Yeah, brian, so this is really a complicated question. How are we going to message all this . If you compare one horrible reaction, you know, this was not good, to a dose of the vaccine, to if you compare that to the number of people who are getting sick every day in america and the number of deaths were experiencing, it is kind of no comparison. Again, this is not a war of facts. This is a war of words and a war of messaging. We have as you pointed out a very, very powerful antivaks movement that is getting stronger by the day it seems and bolstered by a lot of message from the white house that is really challenging and undermining how americans feel about their government and messages from the government. This is going to be a messaging contest and hopefully, you know, cooler heads, smarter heads will prevail and some of the conspiracy theories, the Antivax Movement etcetera will give way to an understanding of what the reality is and what the comparison is. Yes, it was a bad reaction. But no it doesnt even come close to the natural realities of a wildly out of control covid pandemic. Joyce, you get the last word. Courtroom lawyers like yourself are trained in law school never to ask a question you dont already know the answer to during a trial. Im going to violate that. I have no idea of your answer to this but im going to try anyway. Whats on your list of fears in the weeks remaining in this administration in your bailiwick, the area of law . Is it pardons . Is it any more skullduggery on the part of the department of justice and so on . We know we have a president who is fundamentally not committed to the rule of law. He is willing to burn things down to protect himself. Hes demonstrated that over and over. We also know the antidote for that, brian. In large part its the American People staying focused, understanding what is going on, demanding better from their government. We saw it over the summer when there were problems at the post office. They were exposed. And the public really single handedly is responsible for getting us through that situation by staying attentive, by demanding better. Along with the media, along with democrats on the hill. And the point i would make is whatever is coming down the road, as americans, pulling together, we can get through this and to the other side on january 20th. A reporter, doctor, and a lawyer walk into the 11th hour and we are better for it as a result. Our thanks to our starting three. We appreciate it very much. Coming up for us, this countrys most populous state home to 40 million americans is in its own state of emergency tonight. Well talk to an icu doc on the front lines on the day when california hit a terrible new record high. And later, five weeks to the day until joe biden takes the oath of office. We have a necessary reminder tonight as per our discussion with joyce that a lot can happen in five weeks. 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Watch me get real relief with cosentyx. Every hour on average two of our neighbors, family members, and friends are dying from covid19. The surge in covid19 cases in l. A. County continues unabated and it is a near vertical line over the last several weeks. From november 1st through december 8th average daily cases increased by 656 . What a scary graphic that arrow at the end there. Tonight california as you heard surging past its single day coronavirus records, adding over 41,000 new cases and, sadly, 300 new deaths to the totals. The state has activated what it calls its mass fatality program. That means the order of thousands of body bags, dozens of refrigerated Storage Units for temporary morgue use. We welcome the codirector of the icu at Dignity Health california hospital and Medical Center in downtown los angeles. Doctor, i note l. A. County today all time high in terms of deaths and cases. The average wait time for an ambulance now 45 to 75 minutes. Does this feel like the thanksgiving, post thanksgiving spike to you . Has this been a fast ramp up or a gradual climb . So compared to the past two surges this is definitely a rapid surge. And that is basically consistent with what we expected. And what has it been like to be at the center of this, to go from weeks where you thought you may have it handled, weeks where you thought maybe we dont have to move to that new icu ward, maybe we dont have to do tri aj in the parking lot. How much margin of error do you have now . Well, weve been i kind of see the first two surges as a dress rehearsal for what were going through now. We have expected this to come. Weve been planning for this. And right now were able to handle it. So were pretty confident with where were at honestly. Give us some good news. If i arrive at the icu presenting with coronavirus symptoms, difficulty breathing and the like, what is my survivability in the hands of your professionals now as opposed to the first cases through the door say in march . So i think weve learned a lot about this virus over the course of the past nine months. I think weve realized that miracle cures are really not the answer to this. Weve got to go back to the basics of icu care and weve been focusing on that and its really been working for us. Our mortality rate, our morbidity rate is lower than average actually in our hospital. Thats what were focusing on. We know what we need to do for these patients and how to do it and its just all about, you know, going back to basics in terms of icu care. Is it still true that ventilators in way too many cases result in fatal cases . I think thats a big misconception the public has is that ventilators kill people or that there is something wrong with the ventilator. A ventilator is a great tool. Used properly it allows patients to rest, it allows the body to heal. The best tool you have is your own body. What were doing is just supporting the healing process of the body. I think around here we just heard so many medical professionals at the height of it say the minute you put a patient on a ventilator that reduces the odds that that patient is going to walk out of the hospital just speaking to how sick they were. Final question, is there a date you carry in your head where you are hoping through Public Health and the vaccine finally reaching enough people is it summer of 2021 where you expect to see life something closer to normal in Southern California . Yeah, im definitely hoping that by well, i think in the short term im looking at the end of january. I think were going to continue to surge through the holidays. And i am hoping that by the end of january that kind of peaks and then begins to trough and then definitely looking forward to the spring and summer as we will be able to start vaccinating the general public and hopefully getting this under control. Thank you very much for making time for us tonight and taking our questions. Its been very instructive. Dr. Simon mates from los angeles with us. Coming up, one of our next guests says getting donald trump out of the white house still wont bring back normal. Well ask him what will. Taxsmart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. Personalized advice. Unmatched value. At fidelity, you can have both. Senator do you plan to join with members of the house to object to joe bidens electors on january 6th . Well, january 6th is a long ways off. Do you acknowledge biden will be the president . Look, the president has a right to every legal recourse. Thats whats playing out right now. But have you acknowledged biden is going to be president . Look, my focus is on winning this race right now. Will you ever acknowledge biden will be president . Look, there will be a time for that if that becomes true. So what have we learned there . First of all she likes answering questions with the word look. 40 right there. Second, senator Kelly Loeffler playing directly to donald trump via the news media. While a growing number of republicans are publicly acknowledging what we already know, some of the president s staunchest supporters still refuse to call joe biden the president elect. On trumps refusal to concede, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post writes this. Quote, his campaign to comfort his bruised ego and reinforce his precious brand by disputing his election lost long past the bitter end means his legacy will poison our politics long past inauguration day. Lets talk about it with two of the best political minds we know including the aforementioned Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post and mike murphy veteran republican strategist, strategic adviser to Republican Voters against trump and also cohost of the hacks on tap podcast a dandy way to spend time. Eugene, dual question for you. Is it a finite list of things that are broken beyond repair . And talk for a minute about the responsibility on the news media to remove the oxygen donald trump will depend on starting on and thereafter january 21st. Well, just for the first question, the list of things that are broken is very long and it will take a long time to repair them. I dont think i wont say never but things do not immediately snap back to the way they were. Norm after norm has been pulverized by this president and this administration and it is going to take time and effort and patience to try to reestablish them and probably some of them will never come back. But, yes. In answer to your second question, absolutely it is our responsibility to treat as 12 01 on january 20th it is our responsibility to treat donald trump the way we treat all former president s, which is basically to pay him not very much attention at all. I mean, because he will no longer be president. You know . Full stop. And, you know, i suppose there is a very small chance that we will end up covering his bodily removal from the white house, but i tend to doubt that. I think that is a small chance. I think he will have left before that becomes necessary. And then afterwards, you know, as my colleague at the post Margaret Sullivan our great media columnist writes, no maralago bureaus, no daily reports on President Trump and his family and what theyre up to and, yes, there could be legal cases to follow and he will be continued to communicate with his many followers through social media or alternative social media or whatever but we should apply our normal news standard. You know, not a big deal. Mike murphy as i keep saying at the intersection of politics and medicine im going to play for you a Public Service announcement that went up just tonight. This message isnt for everyone. Its for all of those people who refuse to wear a mask. You know, lying in isolation in icu for seven days i thought about how wrong i was to remove my mask at the white house. Today i think about how wrong it is to let mask wearing divide us especially as we now know youre twice as likely to get covid19 if you dont wear a mask. Because if you dont do the right thing, we could all end up on the wrong side of history. Please, wear a mask. So, mike, there is a trump republican. There is a rare plea from a trump republican. Is it too late and if so what is the crime in that as a political matter . Well, no. Excuse me. I give him credit for doing it. Its the right message. I think hes been slowly trying to turn himself into a former trump republican over the last six months or so. So i think politically he is on a rehab mission. He is a little late but i applaud him for doing this psa. It is the right thing to do. Im sure he did it for legitimate reasons. His road to damascus was at a turtles pace. Let me ask you, mike. Are republicans you think starting on january 21st going to contend, hey, were just republicans, weve always been republicans. Were still here. All evidence to the contrary. All of them having signed away their seats, their votes, their reputations to donald trump. Can they just insist its the same Old Republican Party despite the destroy the gop chant that went up at the maga rally in d. C. Over the weekend . Well, i think that maga rally was kind of the hard core of the hard core. I think it was a bit of a side show. I think the bulk of the party particularly the leadership of the party is still trying to figure out what to do. They have been, most of them, in a terrified, defensive crouch afraid of about, you know, half to twothirds of their own primary voters. You saw that in the Kelly Loeffler clip where she is caught in the horrible space between reality and the voters she is going to need. And that turned into the look, look, look answer which is just painful to watch. So i think what theyll watch is what happens in georgia, that is one leader, politicians at least in the Republican Party are ruthlessly pragmatic when not being cowardly about trump. Then theyll kind of watch trump. Hell literally leave the white house kicking and screaming. It wont be a metaphor. Probably have to put a falcon hood on him and roll him up in a carpet. But then it will be over. As gene spoke about before it is critical that the oxygen come down because he will go build a Fake Oval Office in the back yard of maralago by the, you know, by the puttputt golf course or whatever and have aides calling him mr. President and hell issue proclamations and try to be president in exile. It is going to be up to the media to decide what kind of oxygen to give him. Then youve got a bunch of ambitious politicians the Republican Party of all stripes, pro trump, semi trump, antitrump who want him gone because he is in the way of their ambition. I do think the trump grip will fade a bit but it is going to be slow. Theyre going to be very cautious about it because theyve been fear driven on trump and it wont go away overnight much like the damage gene wrote about. Not a lot gets to me after four years of this but i got to admit the falcon hood rolled up on a carpet and puttputt golf at maralago, he shoots, he scores. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us. Coming up its democrat against democrat. Meaning democrats being democrats even before joe biden gets to decide on the new drapes for the oval office. With coldeeze® lozenges. Coldeeze® can shorten your cold by 42 . It releases zinc ions that some scientists believe inhibit cold viruses from replicating. Try coldeeze® the number one bestselling zinc lozenge. If your gums bleed when you brush, the answer is yes. The clock may be ticking towards worse. Parodontax is 3x more effective at removing plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums parodontax i and nothing has really worked mifor me. Until now. Nd years. With nurtec odt, i have felt such relief. I am able to go about my day as if nothing happened. 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Travel in my mind is synonymous with growth, adventure, even love. So much so that i proposed to my husband in an airport terminal. Dont let anybody tell you ohare isnt romantic. Ohare quickly changed their twitter handle to add the word romantic today. President elect bidens pick for transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg still with us. Eugene robinson, mike murphy. Hey, mike, using secretary designate buttigieg as our jumping on point do you see any show stoppers, deal breakers among these biden picks thus far . Well, general austin in the pentagon is going to be a tricky one because the system doesnt like generals. When it was jim mattis, you know, they have to get a special waiver from congress. There was always unease about that and other candidates in the beltway world which is a big echo chamber but talks to the media a lot, were kind of more comfortable with. I dont think anybody has anything against general austin. He served with great distinction. But politically this could have some capital. Then there is neera tanden. A lot of republicans have been offended by her partisanship and penchant for rough tweeting. I think the gop has lost its shirt on nasty tweeting for a while. Actually ideologically neera is a pretty pro Business Senate democrats which is what you want at omb watching the budget. If the republicans can get over the tweets there is a case for her but right now she is kind of targeted and theres a lot of teeth grinding on the Republican Senate on pushing back on her nomination. Those are the two i think will get the most resistance. You know, well see. Eugene, i got one for you. I give you a new York Democratic congresswoman a. O. C. Well talk about it on the other side. Are you ready to say pelosi and schumer need to go . I think so. The question is like this year for example the hesitancy that i have is that i want to make sure that if were pointing people in a direction that we have a plan. And my concern, and this i acknowledge as a failing, as something we need to sort out, is that there isnt a plan. How do we fill that vacuum . So, eugene, what is she saying there other than further endearing herself to Democratic Party leadership and isnt it a tad early for blue on blue fratricide five weeks before biden raises his right hand . Its not early at all, brian. This is the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has a long and illustrious history. Some of them, you know, our greatest and most successful president s have come out of the Democratic Party, but this is the Democratic Party. It is not an organized Political Organization as will rogers once said. There is always this push between the more moderate wing and the progressive wing. There are always the questions, you know, aoc has the sort of charisma and star power that adds some spice to this to whats basically just a very normal situation. In fact, i find it comforting. Its like getting back to normal politics exactly what you would expect from an Incoming Democratic administration. Weve seen it every single time and well see it again in the future. I dont think it is anything to write home about. Im sure nancy pelosi finds it just as comforting as well wherever she is tonight. One note to our audience. She knows how to take care of things. If you ever have to have a center seat on an Airline Flight you better hope murphys got the window and robinsons got the aisle because you know youll have a good flight with these two guys. We always do. Our thanks to our friend Eugene Robinson, mike murphy for joining us for tonights conversation. Greatly appreciate it, guys. Coming up, when a trump pet peeve turns into Actual National policy, because it is something trump talks about all the time. It has happened. Well explain it after the break. [ engines revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. She said it was like someone else was controlling her mouth. Her doctor said she has tardive dyskinesia, which may be related to important medication she takes for her depression. Td can affect different parts of the body. [narrator] in todays trying times, were here to help you manage td. Visit talkabouttd. Com for a doctor discussion guide to prep for your next appointment in person, over the phone, or online. We were so relieved to learn there are treatments for td. Help the world believe in holiday magic. Thing and this year was harder than ever. And yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. Its not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. Santa, santa, youre on mute just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for believing. Over 300,000 dead americans yet as we head into the holidays and the final days of the Trump White House dont say donald trump hasnt tried to do something to improve the quality of your life. Just today his department of energy loosened up the water flow standards for shower heads, dish washers, and washing machines. The standards will just be put back when Biden Takes Office but you still have to admire trumps determination and you have to wonder would we have 300,000 dead if he had been this diligent, this persistent about our uncontrolled pandemic . Also note as you watch the following, once the president believes something is true, it becomes a kind of repetition tic and no amount of exaggeration is enough. We have a situation where were looking very strongly at sinks and showers. You turn it on no water comes out. You got soap. You cant get it off. They take a shower and the water comes dripping out. Its dripping out very quietly dripping out. Drip, drip. Drip, drip. Drip is no good for me. And me. I want that hair to be so beautiful. Sinks, right . Showers . What goes with a sink and a shower . People flushing toilets ten times, 15 times. Ten. 15. Ten times, right . Ten times. Not me. Of course not me. But you. Remember the dish washer you press it, it would be like an explosion. Now you press it 12 times. Women tell me again, you know, they give you four drops of water. Ten times or five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. So theyll, you know, scoff and say who cares about that . Very big stuff. These are big things. It is an easy word but very complicated word when you think of it. Its called water. These are things no other president would be doing. No other president frankly would even be thinking about it. Donald trump on water pressure and an actual action his administration actually took today. When we come back after a break, an unusual letter to parents and children during an unusual time reminding them what normal is. 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Strengthening lipids and antioxidants, in pantenes nutrientrich formulas, are like superfood for your hair. Building its immunity, preventing up to 90 of future damage. Damage, do your worst this hair can take it all. Pantene last thing before we go tonight there is a great place called charlestown, West Virginia not far from Harpers Ferry in the far Northeast Corner of the state. Charlestown was named after its founder Charles Washington little brother of george washington. Charlestown is the headquarters of the County School district in that part of West Virginia and we are highlighting them tonight because of this. A letter sent out anticipating todays snow day. It was sent to parents and children from the superintendent dr. Gibson and it reads, dear jefferson County Schools community. For generations families have greeted the first snow day of the year with joy. It is a time of renewed wonder at all the beautiful things that each season holds. A reminder of how fleeting a childhood can be. An opportunity to make some memories with your family you can hold on to for life. For all these reasons and many more jefferson County Schools will be completely closed for tomorrow, december 16th, in honor of the first snow day of the year. Closed for students, closed for virtual, closed for staff. It has been a year of seemingly endless loss and the stress of trying to make up for that loss. For just a moment we can all let go of the worry of making up for the many things we missed by making sure this is one thing our kids wont lose this year. So please enjoy a day of sledding and hot chocolate and cozy fires. Take pictures of your kids in snow hats they will out grow by next year and read books you have wanted to lose yourself in but havent had the time. We will return to the serious and urgent business of growing up on thursday but for tomorrow go build a snowman. Sincerely, biondi shay gibson superintendent. Thank you dr. Gibson for stressing all the right things in a snowstorm that happens to coincide with an uncontrolled pandemic. I am guessing dr. Gibson is a former child and was a better than average student and we hope today has been a cozy family day in that small but cozy center of West Virginia and wherever you live. For us thats our broadcast on this snowy wednesday night here in the northeast. Thank you so much for being here with us. On behalf of all the men and women at the networks of nbc news, good night. World war ii came to an end in 19 ha. Victory in europe with the sender of germany, may of 1945. Surrender of japan didnt come until months later in august. That means at the very beginning of 1945 the u. S. And our allies were still very much at war. Right at that point we were years into what had been that long and excruciating ordeal. In january of 1945 the United States of america also needed to hold a president ial inauguration. President franklin roose