Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 20201222

Plans to join them. One White House Coronavirus Task Force Member today explained what u. S. Officials know so far. The variant thats being discussed was first identified in september. So its not something that just arose in the last week. There is no evidence of nor reason to believe it is not anymore lethal or anymore dangerous than the normal coronavirus. Theres also no evidence to suggest nor reason to believe that it would evade our vaccines that we have right now. Possible, though, if the updates come in we might ban travel from the United Kingdom . I think everything needs to be on the table. The news about this new strain comes as the number of cases in our country now tops 18 million and our death toll now stands at over 320,000 souls. It also coincides with day one of the rollout of the Moderna Vaccine, which received, youll recall, that emergency approval last week. Meanwhile president elect joe biden rolled up his sleeves for the first dose of his first shot. He got the pfizer shot, offered praise for the vaccine effort. I think that the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground with operation warp speed. And all this unfolding as donald trump appears to be opening up a new front in his fight to hang onto power and not leave the white house. This evening his chief of staff, mark meadows, posted this. Quote, several members of Congress Just finished a meeting in the oval office with President Trump preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned. This is the chief of staff to the president. There have been reports that trump allies in the house are planning to challenge the Electoral College certification of bidens victory during a session on january 6. That was all but confirmed tonight by republican congressman jody hice of georgia who was at the meeting and also confirmed pence was there. Quote, big meeting today with donald trump, the president s legal team, freedom cottess, other members of congress. I will lead an objection to georgias electors on january 6. The courts refuse to hear the president s legal case. Were going to make sure the people can. Earlier trump again made false claims about a massive election victory when he called into a conference for Young Conservatives in florida. We won this election in a landslide. They drops hundreds of thousands of ballots for each state. Its all documented. The problem is we need a party thats going to fight and we have some great congressman going to do it. But we won this in a landslide. They know it. And we need backing from like the Justice Department and other people have to finally step up. Tonight the Washington Post reports, quote, President Trump has turned to a ragtag group of conspiracy theorists, media hungry lawyers and other political misfits in a desperate attempt to hold onto power after his election loss. Members of the group assembled in the oval office on friday for a marathon meeting that lasted for more than four hours and included discussion of tactics ranging from imposing martial law in swing states to seizing Voting Machines through the executive through executive fiat. The meeting exploded into shouting matches and outside advisers and white house aides clashed over the lack of Cohesive Strategy and disagreed about the constitutionality of some of the proposed solutions. The white House Counsel Pat Cipollone and white house chief of staff mark meadows repeatedly and aggressively pushed back on the ideas being proposed. Mr. Cipollone told mr. Trump there was no Constitutional Authority for what was being discussed. One of the lawyers at that friday meeting in the oval was Sidney Powell whos promoted the false claim that venezuelan communists somehow programmed u. S. Voting machines to flip votes for biden. The times also reports trump entertained the idea of naming her as special counsel to investigate election fraud. Today attorney general bill barr with two days left on the job threw coldwater on that suggestion as well as the idea of the feds seizing Voting Machines. Does the president have the Legal Authority to order the seizure of Voting Machines around the country . I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. Do you believe theres enough evidence to warrant a special counsel to investigate that perhaps Sidney Powell or perhaps someone else . Well, if i thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, i would name one. But i havent and im not going to. Barr also said he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate the hunter biden matter. For his part trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is now and this is important distancing himself and his client from Sidney Powell. Let me say definitively Sidney Powell is not part of our legal team. She hasnt been for five week. Shes not a special counsel for the president. She does not speak for the president nor does she speak for the administration. She speaks for herself. Rudy giuliani reached in a dark room today by news max. Giuliani may soon be facing a ramped up federal investigation. Nbc news reporting prosecutors in Southern District of new york have spoken to the Justice Department about making a legal request for giulianis emails. Its been reported the feds were reviewing giulianis bank records as part of an investigation into his dealings in ukraine. Also tonight a late breaking report from the new york times. Suspected Russian Hackers who penetrated the United States Government Agencies broke into the email system used by the treasury departments most senior leaders. Earlier today attorney general barr contradicted trump and made it clear he believes the russians were behind this attack. From the information i have, you know, i agree with secretary pompeos assessment. It certainly appears to be the russians, but im not going to discuss it beyond that. With that, lets bring in our lead off guests on this back to work monday night. Phil rucker, pulitzer prizewinning White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post, co author of the long time bestseller, a very stable genius. His forthcoming work will be on trumps last year in office assuming it ends. Former u. S. Attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. And dr. Louis hasseltine, a founder of the universitys cancer and hiv aids Research Department who now serves as chair and president of the Access Health International Think tank. Good evening and welcome to you all. Phil rucker, one of my favorite books over the last couple of decades by Walter Isaacson and evan thomas is the wiseman. Its about the informal advisers to the president , east coast establishment types who guided the country in the postwar era. Assuming a new title should be produced, circle of sycophants around the president currently, what is as your reporting tells you the state of play tonight on this fight which the election result shows he lost . Well, brian, what you have right now is a president feeling under siege and wanting to reverse the outcome of this election. He has exhausted every legal avenue and failed there. He has exhausted political avenues and failed there. He now is looking for solutions and, you know, many of the senior officials left in this government have not been able to provide him solutions because they dont exist. Theyre not constitutional to do what he wants to do. And so thats why you see Sidney Powell, this outside attorney who had such kind of crazy conspiracy theories a month ago that she was fired from the trump campaign, shes now back in the orbit visiting with the president , meeting with him multiple times these last few days to try to encourage the president to believe that theres some way he can overturn this election. Perhaps with some effort by his allies in congress on january 6th when the Electoral College results are certified on capitol hill, thats what that meeting that you mentioned with those Republican House members was all about today. But, look, this is a president looking for people who are going to tell him what he wants to hear, which is that he won in a landslide and the Election Results are going to be overturned and hes not going to have to vacate the white house on january 20th. We all know thats not true, but the president is still as of this hour a few days before christmas unwilling to accept that reality. Hey, counselor, i am assuming you dismiss talk of martial law as while dangerous, unserious. Im assuming you view the talk of the seizure of Voting Machines the same way. Im also assuming you consider it serious the story broken tonight on the Rachel Maddow show that Rudy Giuliani indeed looks like hes facing an accelerated federal investigation. So all pretty good assumptions for somebody who hasnt been to law school. I think that youre dead on the money here, brian. What were seeing in the white house is really deeply concerning. And it is worth noticing whats going on and calling it out for the serious effort it is by this white house to infringe upon our constitutional republic. The reality is the guardrails that we spent so much time talking about early on in the Trump Administration that didnt seem to exist then have now been reinvigorated. And its the traditional institutions of our democracy, the military, some folks in the Justice Department who now seem committed to making sure this president leaves office on schedule. And of course you know weve talked a lot about the fact that doj walks away from engaging in investigative tactics that could influence the outcome of investigations. Theres supposed to be a very sharp hold on that activity around an election, so its not surprising that we would see a little bit of talk about an investigation involving Rudy Giuliani. We know that thats been in progress at least since october of 2019 when two of his business colleagues were indicted for conduct that involved foreign contributions, illegal foreign contributions being made in connection with u. S. Elections. It looks like that investigation is live again. And Rudy Giuliani should be concerned. We see reporting hes talking with the president about a pardon, which indicates he really is concerned. Dr. Hasalteen, over to your bailiwick. Were very fortunate to have you back on our broadcast tonight. The question is how concerned should the folks watching tonight be when they hear this talk of a newly emerged strain coming out of south eastern United Kingdom . I think the word would be alert rather than concerned. We dont know whether the vaccines are going to protect against it. It probably will. But it means on top of the fuel this is adding fuel to a fire. This virus is already more easily transmitted than it was when it originated. This is the second step up, and its not the only place in the world the virus is more transmissible has occurred. Theres recently a new report out of south africa that a related but different strain has many of the same properties as this one. And i think we know where theyre coming from. Were creating them by treating people who have long lingering infections mostly immuno suppressed people with convalesce want serum. That actually creates a stew where the virus has a lot more chances to emerge to mutate to get around and to change. And its a paradox. Were trying to save people, but our efforts to save them seem to be creating these new viruses with some pretty dangerous possibilities. Not only more transmissible, but there is a possibility and suggestion in south africa that it is more lethal as well especially to young people. Well, phil rucker, if that isnt scary enough we learn undersustained hacking attack by the russians. The president s been mostly silent on that save a tweet that was designed to throw the russians a lifeline. See all previous tweets on the russians. On the virus, phil, its vaccine rollout time. Were also in the middle of a horrendous spike. We have care rationing going on in some hospitals and communities in this country. So the president s silence on both fronts is odd. Why a total lack of engagement on his part . Well, brian, my colleagues and i spent the last few weeks actually trying to answer that question. How did we end up in this dark winter that were in now . And why is the president so completely disengaged from the Public Health crisis facing the country . And the simplest answer we came across is something one of his closest advisers said, which is that the president has given up on covid, that he sort of created a personal timetable for himself how many months he would stay engaged on this crisis, how long he thinks covid would be around, and the virus has outlived that timetable, so the president has turned onto other matters. Hes not really paying much attention at all to covid. We dont hear him talk about it. We dont see him tweet about it. We dont see him appear at those task force meetings. And nonetheless the doctors who are helping to try to guide the federal government response are trying to sound alarms in the white house, and theyre falling in some cases on deaf ears. And thats one of the reasons why the spike has become so bad after thanksgiving and right now in the runup to the christmas and new years holidays. But the president is fixated on promoting and taking credit for that vaccine on operation warp speed without doing what the experts think is necessary to control the spread right now today. To our viewers, by the way, the Washington Post piece that phil referenced that we just showed on the screen is one of those towering pieces of work long enough to make sure youre comfortable before you embark on it. But please seek it out if you havent read it already. Joyce, over to you and your former employer, the u. S. Department of justice. I noted the attorney general had his Farewell Press Conference today. I also noted only dry eyes in the house. He did take a pass on appointing a special counsel in the election matter or in the hunter biden matter. Should that be applauded, or should we be fearful that will get kicked down the road to the new acting a. G. , mr. Rosen, a man with no evident prosecutorial experience . Barrs comments today might have been a little bit more praiseworthy if he had made them when any of these controversies were fresh. But now the issues have been exposed. We know that theres no reason to have appointed a special counsel either for voter fraud or for hunter biden, frankly, because you only appoint a special counsel when youve got an issue that the Justice Department has a conflict of interest on and needs to get out of. And that simply didnt exist here. So bill barr is a little bit of a flatterer who suddenly discovered and acknowledging publicly that the earth is round to be making these comments today. You know, theres always the possibility that the issue we could just be kicking the can down the road and that the acting attorney general could do something, but the clock is ticking out fast on this administration. There would certainly be legal challenges if there was a special counsel appointed at this point in time. And i think we would find his hands were tied both by legal challenges but also by the fact the simple sheer fact theres just not probable cause to take some of the action that the president wants and that theres really no rationale for a special counsel investigation. Dr. Hasseltine, you get the last word. Its been theorized what were living through right now is the thanksgiving surge. Do you fear an equal christmas surge that will hit mid to late january . I think thats clearly in the cards. You could see it in the travel bookings, you could see it in the actual travel today. These people are traveling despite the fact that they are given every evidence that they should not. The infection rate is sky high and its even increasing. People are going to get together, and its a puzzle to many, many people why people are endangering themselves, endangering their families, endangering their loved ones and endangering their communities when they have all the information to know that they should not do that this christmas. There will be other christmases but not for some of those who are taking these risks today. Well go out on a powerful statement from a powerful man in this field. With our thanks to phil rucker, joyce vance and dr. William hasseltine. Thank you so much all of you for starting us off on this back to work monday night. Coming up for us, does it all have to get worse before it gets better . Standing by for us one of the warriors of the Lincoln Project and a leading washington journalist. They have a Damage Assessment for us tonight. And later, on this the meteorological darkest day of the year how much optimism should we have as these two vaccines now make their way across the country and into arms across america . All of it as the 11th hour is just getting under way on this monday night. With allstate, you can really save. Save for being a new customer. Save more for adding drivewise. Save even more for driving safely. See how much you can save with allstate. Visit allstate. Com or contact your local agent today. They use stamps. Com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. For the better. Whatever question i have i feel like theres an avenue to seek the answer. Hit that app and you start a story, youre on an adventure. Download a new book within seconds and its ready to go. Theres something for everybody on audible. I like short stories. Short stories are easy. Theyre quick. 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We intend to work across party lines. The biggest challenges, the crises that are front and center in our nation dont see party lines. And if we are truly leaders each of us in these positions, weve got to find a way to work together. New reporting from the Washington Post today says trump is leaving behind a mess and undermining joe biden as he prepares to take office. The post puts it this way. In his final weeks in office trump is making a series of moves aimed at cementing his legacy and handicapping bidens presidency. From abruptly pulling troops from war zones to cracking down on iran to encouraging the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies. Back with us again tonight sam stein, veteran journalist, politics editor over at the daily beast. And rick wilson, long time republican strategist whos since left the party, also author and cofounder of the Lincoln Project against trump and trumpism. Rick, id like to begin with you. What kind of burden does this put on biden . How real damage is going on right now . And is it just a matter of ron klain keeping a list of which wildlife areas to shut back down to drilling and exploration in the west, which committees to get Cory Lewandowski off of, et cetera . Yeah, i think a lot of this is administerial function you could address a lot of it in a fairly straightforward way. But there will be things they leave behind, the damage they will have done that will lead to these knock on litigation against various things like some of the wildlife areas, for instance. So some of its administerial, but its all malicious. And its all going to have as i said a sort of knockon effect that will not be pretty. Sam, for the folks watching who intellectually know better but want their fears doused, can you guarantee everyone watching that january 6th will come and go with only the certification of the result of the electors, and january 20th will come and go and we will witness joe biden one hand in the air, the other on a bible quickly moving onto move into the white house . You cant guarantee anything, but i think its almost assured that this will happen. Keep in mind that the house is run by democrats. Just tonight you have Senate Republicans including the Number Two Senate republican saying this has no chance in their chamber, but that doesnt mean this is without consequence or that its not scary. Certainly there are elements of this that will have profound lingering impacts on our democracy for generations to come. And then on top of that if youre a Senate Republican why would you ever want to even have to take this vote in the first place . I mean, youre being asked to choose essentially whether to cross donald trump or support his efforts at basically overturning the democratic elections in our country. And its not really a place where you can find yourself a good in between route. Its either one or the other. So theres great damage that will be inflicted i think reputationally but also to the Republican Party if it does get its hearing january 6th. But ultimately i think well end up in a place we all expect, which is joe biden will end up being inaugurated on january 20th. Rick wilson, you tweeted over the weekend, i would love for reporters to ask every republican member of the u. S. Senate the following question, should donald trump declare martial law . Rick, absent the ability to do that, what do you think the result would be . All of them would never have heard of twitter or donald trump. They would all be so far in the tall grass that, you know, trained hunters couldnt find them. This is the kind of thing he has forced them into over and over again because theyre too cowardly to faceup to his impact on what was their party and is now his party. And so the idea that they would be forced into this situation, it highlights not only their weakness but the absurdity of his position on this. The idea were even discussing it in a tangential way of martial law in this country it is a diminishment of the entire role of the leadership in washington by every elected republican. The only one of them whos really stood up on this is liz cheney. And when youve got almost nobody in the Republican Party willing to say, hey, this talk of martial law, this talk of overturning a Democratic Free and Fair Election is absurd, you dont have a functioning party anymore. You have basically a cheer leading section for donald trump, and they are so terrified it was a great thought experiment because i would love to see the hemming and hawing of everybody from portman to johnson to rubio to cruz, to holly to sasse, all of them trying to answer that question. They didnt know donald who, they would do the same thing they always do which is to sort of cower in the face of corrosive absurdity. And theres a theres a unique embarrassment and anger in the active duty and retired military field knowing this guy suggesting martial law once wore three stars on both shoulders and represented this country in uniform around the world. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us. Well fit in a quick break here. When we come back, a lesson for some of the president s Favorite Television networks. Playing for an audience of one is not without peril. Hey, i just got a text from my sister. You remember rick, her neighbor . Sure, hes the 76yearold guy who still runs marathons, right . Sadly, not anymore. Wow. So sudden. Um. Were not about to have the we need Life Insurance conversation again, are we . woman no. Were having the were getting coverage so we dont have to worry about it conversation. So youre calling about the 9. 95 a month plan from Colonial Penn . I am. We put it off long enough. Were getting that 9. 95 plan today. jonathan is it time for you to call about the 9. 95 plan . Im jonathan from Colonial Penn Life Insurance company. Sometimes, we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. If youre age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole Life Insurance starting at just 9. 95 a month. There are no Health Questions, so you cant be turned down for any health reason. The 9. 95 plan is Colonial Penns 1 most popular whole life plan. Options start at just 9. 95 a month. Thats less than 35 cents a day. Your rate can never go up, its locked in for life. Call today for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner. So call now. soft music hello, Colonial Penn . To your friends. Your family. To your teachers. In that spirit of giving, chevys proud to give our employee discount to everyone. The chevy price you pay,. Is what we pay. Not a cent more. Because giving,. And giving back, is what the holidays are all about. Use the chevy employee discount for everyone to get a total value of over eight thousand four hundred dollars on this silverado. Get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. Since election day various guests, attorneys and Election Officials have appeared on news max and offered opinions and claims about systems. Both companies that offer voting systems in the u. S. , and news max would like to clarify its news coveraging note it has not reported as true certain claims about these companies. No evidence dominion uses Smartmatic Software or vice versa. No evidence has been offered they used reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election. The protrump Network Newsmax is debunking its own reporting and guests on new existent voter fraud in the 2020 election. Thats what you just saw there. Fox news aired a similar mea culpa over the weekend after threats of legal action. Quote, the clarification came after smartmatic, a Voting Software company sent letters demanding to news max demanding they correct inaccuracies and innuendos of their coverage of the president ial election and any role smartmatic may have played in the voting process. Luckily still with us have sam stein and rick wilson. Rick, i have seen my share of walk backs in my career and involved in a few myself, but thats river dance. This is like billy elliot meet scatman crothers. This is some professional walk back. Is the lesson here you cant just lie and broadcast falsehoods . These people are back flipping faster than the romanian gymnast told their parents are going to the if she doesnt stick the landing. This is an astounding moment because the audience theyve coveted so much, the audience is the pure trump audience. Those people are turning on newsmax and oan now. And it is an astoundingly beautiful thing to watch. It is a magical moment because no one believes any of this is true inside these organizations. They know its a lot of b. S. But now theyve been caught and now the threat of legal action is pending upon them they have moved with dispatch to get out of this problem. And sam, speaking of people turning on people theres a graphic thats making the rounds on social media tonight. Ill try to simplify this to the nth degree. This was sent to mostly republicans on the hill. This is one of trumps favorite graphics. Its designed to show that but for trump interceding in the Kentucky Senate race Mitch Mcconnell might not have been so lucky. So theyre trolling the majority leader in the senate. They last time i checked, they need a guy like that. They need friends in the Republican Party. What is going on here . Well, first off im having trouble squaring ricks gulag line with the festive background he has there. The two things dont compute for me. Secondarily, onto the graphic. I had a source on the hill who was in disbelief over the graphic that was sent out to republicans. It makes absolutely no sense from a practical standpoint. Theres just no universe in which a tweet and a robo call helped Mitch Mcconnell score almost a 20point election victory. But beyond that i think you get to a bigger point, which is, you know, for trump its always transactional, right . Mitch mcconnell did appear to offend him once he acknowledged biden was president elect. And that was enough to essentially teardown any larger relationship the two men may have shared whether it be through judicial confirmations or the Upcoming Senate elections in georgia, the special elections in georgia in which Mitch Mcconnell does need donald trump to, you know, get engaged and fire up the base. So this goes to show me everything is transactional with trump. Its always been the case, and its going to be very interesting to see how this plays out in the weeks ahead when there are ostensibly going to be many more cases where republicans are being asked to take a side between respecting the outcomes of the election and trumps inner feelings. One more to rick wilson in Christmas Village where hes been joined by the cat. Sams employer the daily beast reporting from sources that the president is musing out loud about which airport might be named after him. Knowing youre a pilot and you know from aviation i remember today the faa may have the last laugh. Remember we give airports three letter abbreviations in this country. Anything come to mind . Nothing i can say on the air right now. Okay. I dont know of an available airport. I think as a queens guy trump needs to have if theyre going to name an airport after him then the la guardia experience will go on with his name attached to it. It will be as luxurious and fancy as it has always been. Ah, la guardia, you come for the customer service. You stay for the great restaurants. Sam stein, rick wilson, thank you gentlemen both so much. Appreciate you coming on tonight. Coming up for us, back in may our next guest said he had never seen anything like what we were going through in a 40year career in medicine. Tonight well get his take on where we are right now as our nation crosses over 18 million known cases of this coronavirus when we come back. Alizations every minute. Understanding how to talk to your doctor about Treatment Options is key. Today, we are redefining how we do things. 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In desperate need of brown sugar. Meaning, you. Youre the one we made mywalgreens for. With pickup in as little as 30 minutes. Hiya get 30minute pickup at walgreens. Com over time, you go noseblind to the odors in your home. background music but others smell this. upbeat music thats why febreze plug has two alternating scents and eliminate odors for 1200 hours. Breathe happy febreze. La la la la la. This is what we went through with covid back in the spring when it ambushed new york and the rest of the country. Why the United States after what we went through watching 120 other countries, why you wouldnt take action and require that people who fly to this country be tested first is beyond me. I mean, how many times do you have to make the same mistake in life . Six flights a day from the u. K. To new york. Concerns tonight around this more transmissible strain of the coronavirus in the u. K. Growing list of countries including canada have cut off flights from the u. K. , which may soon see widespread Food Shortages as shipments are cut off from the rest of europe. As for the brits traveling here, delta, virgin atlantic, british air, will require travelers from london to test negative for coronavirus before boarding flights bound for new york. Well see. For more we welcome to the broadcast dr. Steven corwin, cardiologist and hes president and ceo of new york presbyterian, one of the nations largest medical groups where he has worked since 1991. Doctor, thank you very much for a few minutes of your time. How concerned are you . How concerned should the folks watching be about this new strain . Very concerned. I mean i think you have a situation, brian, as the governor said, we missed it in the spring. The virus was coming over from europe. We were focused on travel from china. And then we had Community Spread and all hell broke loose as you well know. So i think that between Human Behavior and the transmissibility of the virus, weve got to be extremely careful about this latest revelation from the u. K. And take it extremely seriously. We cant get back to where we were in the spring. I think the governor got it exactly right. How hard or easy has it been to get the vaccine for your front line employees . Well, you know, we had a little glitch over the weekend in terms of the pfizer vaccine. We got the Moderna Vaccine first shipment today. Weve given out over 5,000 doses to the front lines. Ive got to tell you the enthusiasm on our front lines for getting the vaccines is extraordinary. We have not yet seen the skepticism that some have predicted. Everyone has seen the necessity of doing this, the need to protect themselves, our patients, and weve had great uptick from this. How do you compare today with the bad old days in march . And go by these two metric, number one, what weve learned as far as treatment. And number two, just plain patient load. Well, the patient load is much better for us. And unfortunately, its not the case around the country. So the Biggest Issue were going to have now as a country is staffing because you cant get staff from other parts of the country. And it breaks my heart to see whats happened in parts of texas and southern california. I know what theyre going through. Were at about 25 of where we were in the march, april time frame. So we can handle that load, but we all have to be concerned about what happens over christmastime. I know that people are fatigued with the pandemic, they want to see their relatives. But the goal of this christmas should be lets get to next christmas. And lets make sure that were safe. We expect to see a surge in january. Were concerned about it, and you can see other parts of the country really having difficulty especially with icu care. In terms of the care itself were better at it. No two ways around it. When youre overwhelmed, when you dont really understand the disease the mortality is higher. Our in hospital mortality deaths was about 20 in the spring. Its now about 5 . Thats still horrific, but its dramatically better. We understand the disease bet, but weve got to get vaccinated. This is the only way we can get out of this thing. And the more vaccine we can put into arms the better off were going to be. Well take that change in percentage as a change for the better. Dr. Steven corwin, thank you very much for the explanation and taking our questions tonight. Have a happy holiday ahead. Coming up for us, word has just arrived your United States senate has passed the relief bill. Were going to take a look inside at whats really in it to actually help real americans. These folks dont have time to go to the post office they use stamps. Com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. For the better. Whatever question i have i feel like theres an avenue to seek the answer. Hit that app and you start a story, youre on an adventure. Download a new book within seconds and its ready to go. Theres something for everybody on audible. I like short stories. Short stories are easy. Theyre quick. I like long and like intricate stories, thats really what i love. Audible originals. I like biographies. Selfhelp. Fantasy. True crime podcasts. I love it so much. I can literally listen to anything. I can do it any time. And any place. And you know, for as long as i like. Getting really into a story can totally transform where you are and your mindset. Its really cool. Every time i learn something new, it just fuels the curiosity to explore more, to learn more. Theres anything and everything. To start your free 30day trial, just text listen 17 to 500500. To your friends. Your family. To your teachers. In that spirit of giving, chevys proud to give our employee discount to everyone. The chevy price you pay,. Is what we pay. Not a cent more. Because giving,. And giving back, is what the holidays are all about. Use the chevy employee discount for everyone to get a total value of over eight thousand four hundred dollars on this silverado. Get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. Well, we mentioned before the break long delayed help for americans struggling in this pandemic will finally be on the way now. As we just mentioned congress has just voted late tonight to approve the relief package. While we are duty bound to note that for some this will be both too little and too late. And we have grown to expect nothing more from this congress. We have a report on what people can expect tonight from nbc news correspondent stephanie ruhle. Reporter with the months long standoff over covid aid finally at an end, help will be on the way soon for struggling businesses and families. Whats in the 900 billion bill . First, direct payments. 600 checks for individuals who make up to 75,000. 1,200 for couples who make under 150,000. Plus an additional 600 for each child. Money that could hit Bank Accounts in days. Well be sending out next week direct deposit. I expect well get the money out by the beginning of next week. Reporter the deal also includes an extra 300 a week in Unemployment Benefits starting in late december and lasting through midmarch. 325 billion to help Small Businesses, an extension of had Small Business ban and 25 billion in aid for renters. I had no income. Reporter Rachel Alvarez was furloughed from her waitressing job in april and hasnt worked since. Before the pandemic she was making over 6,000 per month. Now alvarez and her kids are living on 255 a week. Im hurting for my children. They shouldnt have to struggle like this. Reporter she hasnt been able to buy her kids a single Christmas Present this year. Were you happy when yowl saw congress did come to an agreement . For everyone in america, yes very much so. Something is better than nothing. And Everybody Needs something right now. We are not okay. Reporter brian, this rescue package is an important step to prevent more economic pain. But whats important, its only a step. The majority of relief expires in early spring. And we know mass distribution of the vaccine isnt even expected until the summer. So already before a stimulus check has even been cut lawmakers are talking about what needs to be in the next bill. And with the next bill in mind, that makes the Georgia Senate race which by the way is two weeks from tomorrow all the more important. That race is going to decide who controls congress in 2021. Indeed, it will. Stephanie ruhle with our report tonight. Coming up, the history being made above us right now. We will bring it down to earth for you when we come back. You can really save. Save for being a new customer. 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Others call the duo collectively the christmas star. The good news is the show is clearly visible to the naked eye. Other than the moon these two will be the brightest objects in the night sky. Any kind of telescope, even a good pair of binoculars will show you details like saturns rings, even jupiters moons. The bad news is if its cloudy where you live these photos are going to have to suffice. They will both remain up there just not as close as they are tonight. These two running mates have been dancing closer together across the sky since this summer. Like any two siblings they are quite different. One more graceful and mysterious with iconic rings. The other known for its sheer girth and unique birthmark. One had a line of cars named after it. The other can claim a town in florida. Theyve never been terribly close but they get together on big occasions like the one tonight about every other 800 years in the skies above our troubled world. If youre watching us here in the east youve got a few hours of viewing left. We wish you good weather. If you watch us at 8 00 p. M. Out west, youre in luck. You have hours of quality viewing ahead of you. You may also catch a meteor on this, the peak night of the urseds meteor shower. Theres also the winter solstice to talk about. Here in the northeast it means were basically living in minsk. Its cold, nasty, starts to get dark around noon. Were in our furthest seasonal tilt away from the sun, of course. But this right now is the worst of it. Tomorrow we get a few more seconds of daylight and so on and so on. And by june theres almost six hours more daylight each day than there is now. So weve got that going for us. We just have to survive a dark winter. And i have it on Good Authority that 2021 is going to be better. Thats our broadcast for this back to work monday night, officially the darkest day of the calendar year. Our thanks for spending part of it with us. On behalf of the men and women at the networks of nbc news, good night. Tonight, maga world floats insurrection wanted to, he could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states. Tonight, trump obsession with overturning the election, the people helping him plot and the distress signals from inside the white house. Then one of the companies is smartmatic. Smartmatic. The lies about voter fraud that left certain rightwing media in certain legal jeopardy. As biden gets the vaccine, new concerns about a u. K. Super spreader strain. It may be up to 70 more transmissible