Transcripts For MSNBCW Way Too Early With Kasie Hunt 20201130

Christmas. Plus, president elect joe biden suffers an injury to his foot while playing with one of his german shepherds over the weekend. The question is, how serious is it . And more historic hires as the president elect continues to fill out his cabinet. An allwomen Communications Team and a first to lead the influential white house budget office. The question is, will biden have to fight Senate Republicans to get the Economic Team he wants . Its way too early for this. Good morning and welcome to way too early, the show that is definitely still eating turkey sandwiches for breakfast. I dont know about you. Im kasie hunt on this monday, november 30th. Well start with the news. The president elect will be walking in a boot for the next few weeks. Joe biden suffered a hairline fracture in his midfoot while playing with his rescue dog, major, on saturday. His personal physician confirmed the diagnosis, which was initially believed to be a twisted ankle. Biden was seen leaving the Doctors Office last night with a bit of a limp. He celebrated his 78th birthday less than two weeks ago and is set to become the oldest president next month. Biden was given a clean bill of health by his physician last year. His doctor called him healthy, vigorous, and fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency. The current president even tweeted about biden, writing, get well soon. Hmm. Meanwhile, two election lawsuits in pennsylvania went down in defeat over the weekend for the president and his republican allies, and both decisions were unanimous. The Third Circuit court of appeals on friday rejected the president s motion to overturn certification of the states results on the grounds that republicans are disadvantaged by democraticleaning counties, allowing voters to correct errors on their mailin ballots. It was a scathing opinion from a trumpappointed judge. He said in part, charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. He added, the campaigns claims have no merit. And it never claims fraud or that any votes were cast by illegal voters. Trump campaign attorney jenna ellis tweeted that they intend to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the president acknowledges that the justices may not take the case at all. And in harrisburg on saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit that was led by republican congressman mike kelly. That one argued that a law permitting noexcuse mail voting violated the state constitution, and the suit sought to invalidate millions of mailin votes, which could have ceded a key state won by president elect biden to President Trump. The court criticized plaintiffs for filing the suit more than a year after universal mailin voting was established in the state, and they said it lacked due diligence. Meanwhile, for the very first time in public, President Trump talked about leaving the white house in january. If the Electoral College votes for joe biden on december 14th, will you concede the election . I its going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud. Just to be clear, if the Electoral College votes for joe biden, will you concede . Well, if they do, they made a mistake, because this election but will you was a fraud. Just so you understand, this election was a fraud. If the Electoral College does elect president elect joe biden, are you not going to leave this building . Just so you certainly, i will. Certainly, i will. And you know that. But i think that there will be a lot of things happening between now and the 20th. When asked whether he would attend joe bidens inauguration, trump said, i know the answer, but declined to provide it. Okay. President trump, despite what you just saw, continues to grasp at baseless conspiracy theories as his time left in office comes to a close. Trump called into fox news yesterday and accused the fbi and department of justice of helping to rig the election and harped on the Supreme Court for not getting involved in his legal battles to overturn the results. This is total fraud. And how the fbi and department of justice, i dont know, maybe theyre involved. But how people are allowed to get away from this, with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. Shouldnt this be something that the fbi is investigating . Are they . Is the doj investigating . Missing in action. Missing in action. Cant tell you where they are. I asked, are they looking at it . Everyone says, yes, theyre looking at it. You would think, if youre in the fbi or department of justice, this is the biggest thing you could be looking at. Where are they . I have not seen anything. The problem is, its hard to get into the Supreme Court. Ive got the best Supreme Court advocates, lawyers, that want to argue the case, if it gets there, but they said its very hard to get a case up there. We should be heard by the Supreme Court. Something has to be able to get up there. Otherwise, what is the Supreme Court . Okay, theres a lot there, including a lot of things that arent true. After that appearance, trump tweeted in part, biden can only enter the white house as president if he can prove that his ridiculous 80 million votes were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. Just to stop right there for a second. That is simply not the case. They have had opportunities in state after state after state after state after state to show that there was fraud or problems with the vote, and they have not been able to provide that evidence. And we just walked you through some of the latest cases that were thrown out. Joining us now, the author of the washington posts earlymorning newsletter, power up, jacqueline alemany. Jackie, good morning to you. Lets start, i guess, with this Maria Bartiromo interview over the weekend. And her show has become something of a magnet for conservatives who are focused on the trump conspiracy theories and kind of that associated universe, but this, of course, came from the president , himself. And the accusation is explosive, that the fbi and doj were involved in, quote, rigging the election. We, again, know here theres no evidence of that. We also know that President Trump has his own people in charge of the doj and the fbi. Where does this go . And how dangerous is it to throw this out there when we know already he has been, you know, kind of stoking his base with conspiracy theories that have, polling shows, undermined at least republicans faith in our elections . Yeah, this doesnt go anywhere. Its simply over an hour, nearly an hour and a half of unfettered and unsubstantiated claims that trump gets to spew out on bartiromos show. As you noted, trump is 02 in recounts and 139 in postelection litigations. There is no shortage of investigations here. Theyre just not amounting to anything. And we should remember that not too long ago, trumps attorney general, bill barr, who has, you know, in many cases previously raised eyebrows for some of the actions hes taken, have seemed to coalesce to the president s wishes, took the unusual step of authorizing u. S. Attorneys general to actually open Election Fraud investigations into cases of quote unquote clear and apparently credible allegations of irregularities that could affect the outcome of the federal election, but were not seeing those investigations from the doj, because thats just not the case. They dont exist. But again, this is already a departure from the doj practice of not launching fullscale investigations into allegations of such fraud. You know, the president didnt even address the coronavirus pandemic until nearly an hour into the interview with bartiromo, which is the real issue thats going on here, as, you know, dr. Fauci is warning of a surge superimposed on top of a surge post thanksgiving holiday. Yeah, its a good reminder that this election is, in fact, over, and we do have major crises that we are all still dealing with and experiencing in our own lives. Weve also heard, jackie, that the president has suggested that he is thinking or talking about a president ial run in 2024. There have been some reports or some speculation, i should say, about starting rallies over Inauguration Day, perhaps. You saw the president give that cryptic answer, well, you know, i know what im going to do or where im going to be at bidens inauguration, but essentially, im not going to tell you. Is this something lets just talk about for a second what this means for the Republican Party, to have to deal with President Trump running for reelection right out of the gate, ginning up his base day in and day out. But then, i guess my other question is whether, if, in fact, you have a fallen president like that, that image that he has been trying to avoid for his entire life, that of someone who is a loser, quote unquote i mean, he literally lost this election does he lose any luster in the eyes of those people that he has always said, well, i could walk down fifth avenue shooting people and they wouldnt abandon me . Yeah, its a really good question, and its something that i think is on top of mind for most republicans as the president continues to have a really tight grip on the party. But look, ive had a number of Trump Campaign officials also speculate that this is what the president was going to do in order to sort of steal the thunder from president elect joe biden, announce a 2024 run on Inauguration Day and refuse to participate, you know, in unprecedented manner, in the inauguration. But look, what were already seeing in the past few weeks is the president inch by inch, step by step, take steps towards, you know, admitting that he is a loser and that joe biden hes the outgoing president and that joe biden will come into office. As you noted at the beginning of the program, trump made his accompli explicit commitment to evacuate the office if it didnt go his way, which it didnt, during a spray on thanksgiving. But i think republicans are worried that with this continued rhetoric, hes going to continue to depress turnout, especially in the two runoffs in georgia, which are key for republicans to maintaining control of the senate majority. So, well see just how far other republicans let the president run here. All right, the washington posts jacqueline alemany, thank you, as always, for being here on this monday morning with us. We really appreciate it. And still ahead here, the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the United States hits another grim milestone 4 million cases in the month of november alone. Plus, another defeat for President Trump, as wisconsins recount reaffirms joe bidens victory. Well have those stories and much more when we come right back. Much more when we come right back an official message from medicare. Did you try it yet . Comparing plans . Oh yeah. They sure can change year to year. I found lower premiums and lower prescription costs. And those new insulin savings hundreds of plans, 35 a month. Thatll save you money. So uh, mark . On medicare. Gov now. Open enrollment ends dec 7th. Comparing plans. Really pays. Paid for by the u. S. Department of health human services. 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Time now for sports and the packers hosting the bears on sunday night football. The packers played in front of spectators at Lambeau Field for the first time this season. The team invited a group of employees and their families to help evaluate the stadiums covid19 protocols, in case fans are admitted to games later on this season. It might have been the boost green bay needed, scoring on each of its first three possessions last night. Six different packers found the end zone with quarterback Aaron Rodgers tossing four touchdown passes in the game. His final touchdown throw, a 39yarder to tight end robert tonian makes rodgers one of the only with 50,000 career passing yards. Green bay moves closer to a title with a 4125 victory over the bears. Now to tampa, florida, where the chiefs tyreek hill draws single coverage against the buccaneers and comes away with one of the best receiving games in league history, now just the fifth receiver ever to tally 260 yards and three touchdowns. Hill leads the league with more than 1,000 yards and 13 receiving touchdowns. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes logged his fifth career 400yard game, including 359 yards in the first half, the most for an nfl opening half in two decades, as the reining champs clinched their fifth sevenwin season under andy reid with the 2724 victory over the bucs. Out in l. A. , the 49ers remain in the nfc playoff picture with yesterdays 2320 win over the rams, the first victory in what will have to be a string of contests on the road, after Santa Clara County on saturday announced a threeweek ban on all Contact Sports starting today, in order to combat a surge of coronavirus cases in california. The niners will need to figure out where they will practice and where their next two originally scheduled home games are going to be played. In denver, practice squad receiver Kendall Hinton got the start under center for the broncos after all of the teams quarterbacks were disqualified over coronavirus concerns. Hinton, a high school qb who started two games at the position in college for wake forest, played for just more than half of the broncos snaps during yesterdays 313 loss to the nfc leading saints. Espn reports Baltimore Ravens receiver willie snead, meanwhile, tested positive for the coronavirus yesterday. The teams seventh projected starter on offense that will go on the reserve covid19 list. The ravens added 18 prayers lay the list over the past week and will reportedly put two more on the list after positive tests on saturday. Despite eight Straight Days of at least one positive test for baltimore, the team is still set to travel to pittsburgh for tuesday nights matchup against the undefeated steelers. And finally, we have to give a shoutout to Vanderbilt University senior sarah fuller, who made history as the first woman to play in a power 5 Football Game, when the commodores faced the university of missouri over the weekend. Fresh off soccer season as vanderbilts starting goalkeeper, fuller helped capture the teams first s. E. C. Title in womens soccer since 1994 and she joined saturdays Football Game after halftime as vandys place kicker, following absences from players who were exposed to covid19. Missouri won the game, 410. Still ahead here, new questions about who else President Trump might grant clemency to after he pardoned his former National Security adviser, michael flynn. Were back in just a moment. Min were back in just a moment. My husband and i have never eaten healthier. Shingles doesnt care. I logged 10,000 steps today. Shingles doesnt care. I get as much fresh air as possible. Good for you, but shingles doesnt care. Because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. But no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age, increasing your risk for getting shingles. So what can protect you . Shingrix protects. For the first time ever, you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90 effective. Shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. Shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. The most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about protecting yourself with shingrix. Shingles doesnt care. Shingrix protects. Shingles doesnt care. [announcer] meet the make familysized meals fast. And because its a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away. The ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away. In connemara. Right connemara it is theres one gift the whole family can share this holiday season, their story. Give the gift of discovery, with an ancestrydna kit. You can count on me ill be home for christmas if only in my dreams lets get checked for if those around us. S lets get checked for a full range of conditions. Introducing letsgetchecked a Health Testing you do at home. Lets get round the clock support from a team of nurses. Lets get fast, accurate results. Know your health. Know yourself. For a limited time only, get 40 off at letsgetchecked dot com welcome back. The National Coronavirus outbreak is escalating sharply. This month alone, u. S. Cases have surpassed 4 million. Thats more than double the record 1. 9 million cases set in october. And deaths are at their highest levels since april and may. Hospitals are facing a crisislevel shortage of beds and staff to provide adequate care for patients. And over the weekend, hospitalizations set yet another record. Meanwhile, california reports more covid19 patients in state hospitals than theyve had at any other point during the pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, nearly 13. 5 million cases have been reported, and there have been 268,000 deaths. To washington now, though. Not long after we were abuzz here with reports about an impending pardon for former National Security adviser michael flynn, the president made it official by tweet. The wednesday afternoon grant of a full pardon included a congratulations to the retired army general and his family, noting, i know you will have a truly happy thanksgiving. Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about conversations with a russian diplomat and later sought to withdraw his guilty plea. In may, the Justice Department moved to drop the case against him altogether, saying there was no basis for the interview in which he lied. The unusual move prompted a federal suit and appeal over the summer after the presiding judge was unwilling to grant the governments motion without an explanation for the request. A Justice Department official told nbc news that trumps actions was, quote, an appropriate use of the president s pardon power, but that the agency wasnt consulted about the move. The flynn reprieve may begin a wave of pardons and commutations with the mostanticipated candidates being president ial associates, like former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort and his deputy, rick gates. I guess well find out soon enough. Still ahead here, president elect joe biden appears to be sticking to his promise of putting together a diverse white house team. His new Communications Staff is one for the history books. Nbcs ali vitali joins us with more on that. But before we go to break, we want to know, why are you awake . Email us your reasons to waytooearly msnbc. Com or send me a tweet kasie. Use waytooearly, and we will read some of your best answers later on in the show. Nswers later on in the show my nunormal fewer asthma attacks. Less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Infections that can cause shingles have occurred. Dont stop steroids unless told by your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. May cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. Ask your doctor about nucala at home. Find your nunormal with nucala. Our own hopes and dreams. Well pass many milestones. Moments that define you. And drive you. To achieve even more. So, celebrate every one. Because success isnt just about where you want to get to. Its also about how you get there the all new 2021 cadillac escalade. Never stop arriving. Its also about how you get there the teams been working around the clock. Wire, weve had to rethink our whole approach. Were going to give togetherness. Logistically, its been a nightmare. Im not sure its going to work. Itll work. I didnt know you were listening. Others see cracked concrete, broken backboards,here. Rundown courts. I see a way to bring pride back to communities. Art can change it all. Bright colors, a bold vision, and it can be somewhere that brings people together. For games or hangouts or whatever. A place that makes people proud like this is my neighborhood. Thats why i made project backboard and a site with godaddy. How will you make your mark . Make the world you want. Welcome back to way too early. Its 5 30 here on the east coast, 2 30 out west. Im kasie hunt. After paying 3 million for a recount in wisconsin, President Trump fell short yet again. President elect joe biden maintaining his lead of about 20,600 votes in that state. While trump picked up 45 extra votes in dane county, biden gained 132 votes in milwaukee county, adding 87 more votes to his winning margin. Wisconsins Election Commission is expected to certify the results later today, but the Trump Campaign vows to push ahead with its legal challenges there, anyway. Over the weekend, the president tweeted in part, the wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, its about finding people who have voted illegally. Again, they have provided no evidence of that. Arizonas secretary of state, meanwhile, will officially certify the results of the 2020 election today, and this will officially award arizonas 11 electoral votes to joe biden. The final tally shows he received about 10,500 more votes than President Trump in the state. State law allows the president to challenge results within five days, but federal law says any legal challenges must be resolved by december 8th. All states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on december 14th. So far, florida is the only one of the four most populous states to certify. California, texas, and new york are scheduled to do so in early december. And of course, President Trump hasnt conceded he lost the 2020 election, but he is reportedly already making plans for 2024. According to bloomberg, President Trump recently told his National Security adviser, robert obrien, secretary of state mike pompeo and Vice President mike pence that he planned to run for president again in 2024, if he couldnt overturn his november loss to joe biden. Two people briefed on the conversation say that obrien responded, telling the president , quote, if you do that, and i think i speak for everyone in the room, were with you 100 . Pompeo and pence, who are both regarded as contenders for the 2024 republican nomination, reportedly smiled but said nothing. And according to the daily beast, President Trump hasnt just talked to close advisers and confidantes about a potential 2024 run, but also about the specifics of a campaign launch. Two sources tell the daily beast that in the past two weeks, President Trump has floated the idea of doing a 2024related event during bidens inauguration week, possibly on Inauguration Day. Joining us now, senior politics editor for nbc news and msnbc, beth fouhy. Beth, good morning. Its always good to see you. Lets start with what we may see from the president. I mean, this is, as we have pointed out over and over again, someone who came out of the Reality Television world. He is focused on how to program or counterprogram so that hell end up in the headlines, which, of course, is potentially what an Inauguration Day event may do. But im a little obsessed with the image of him in the oval office with two people that are, you know, have been dying to run against him, against each other, in the next president ial contest. I mean, im stuck between i cant decide if he completely paralyzes the 2024 field, if were just doing the trump show all over again, or if the fact that he has lost to joe biden really does turn him into what he fears that he is, a loser who doesnt have that option. Well, we know that he is an attention junkie and that he has to be on everybodys mind and the main topic of conversation. Whats the expression . The bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. So, thats what were seeing here. But kasie, i think the other thing weve come to notice about President Trump, certainly in the last few months, is that hes not exactly keen on aspects of the job that are hard and difficult and challenging. Hes sort of walked away from the covid crisis. He was never much for negotiating with the hill. He sort of, you know, pushed forward on executive orders and other things that he could do on his own. So, actually, executing the job has not necessarily been the president s main sort of goal of all of this. He really just wants to be the person who can sort of dictate terms and throw democrats and activists, you know, into a tizzy over every tweet that he sends and to sort of have that spell that he casts over his own base. I have to say, well see. When he steps off the stage, out of the oval office, just by definition, hes going to lose a lot of attention. Hes just going to be somebody who recently held office, whos got a big twitter following, but there are others waiting in the wings who want to run in 2024, as you said pompeo, mike pence, marco rubio. Theyre not just going to sort of cede the stage to trump, at least at this point. Theyre all going to sort of test different messages, see if they can sort of pull together a winning coalition. And whether President Trump wants to step back in there and run a Grueling Campaign four years from now is really an open question. Yeah, and lets talk about those people who are waiting in the wings. I mean, weve seen marco rubio already out there criticizing joe bidens nominees after he announced his National Security slate, saying that theyll oversee americas decline, calling them elitists. He clearly has a vision of the Republican Party as the party of working people and has talked about how that may actually be demographically diverse in a way that, you know, democrats used to think it was their success was demographic destiny. Others seem to be taking a pretty trumpian approach. Tom cotton, of course, is focused on china. I mean, what vision of what the Republican Party is do you think is going to win out over the next two to four years . Well, something President Trump has certainly proven is that the old republican sort of establishment message, you know, held by paul ryan, john boehner, sort of the leaders of old, mitt romney, even, to some degree, is not super popular with the base. The whole notion that a party should stand for cutting entitlements for working people in order to give tax cuts to rich people was a message that resonated with a lot of republican donors but not necessarily a lot of republican voters. And when trump came along with that more populist message, talking about trade, you know, running into sort of the racially tinged aspect of the trump message on immigration and such, found a really resonant audience. So, republicans moving forward know that they cant just sort of go back to the old establishment ways. They need to find ways to sort of grab the trumpian connection to working people, working americans, that sort of populist economic message, but figure out a way to sort of take it away from the more controversial aspects of President Trumps record, certainly, around race. Youre right, marco rubio is really kind of going the route of trying to speak to those working people, bringing in a coalition of latino voters who, as we saw in 2020, could be receptive to a republican message. President trump won many more latino voters this time than he did in 2016, and thats perhaps a winning path for marco rubio. I guess we may be about to find out. Nbcs beth fouhy, thank you so much for getting up early with us this morning. We really appreciate your insights. Still ahead here, bidens plan to restore a tradition of president ial pets that we havent seen in over a decade. Plus, as mysteriously as it appeared, the monolith discovered in utahs red rock desert has vanished. Those stories next in the cooler. Way too early back in just a moment. Back in just a moment this is an athlete, twenty reps deep, sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. Shes confident, protected, her strength respected. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. 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Time now to gather around the water cooler for some of the things that will have people talking today. When the bidens move into the white house, theyll be bringing along another fourlegged friend, in addition to their dogs, major and champ. In an interview earlier this month, future first lady dr. Jill biden hinted that they planned on getting a cat to live with them at the white house. Now, jane pauley of cbs sunday morning said the bidens confirmed that a feline will be joining them. The biden cat would be the first to live in the white house in over a decade. The latest cat was president george w. Bushs cat, india. Other famous white house cats include the clintons beloved socks, tom kitten, who belonged to caroline kennedy, and misty malarkey ying yang, who belonged to president carters daughter, amy. Thats fun. And now to this quintessentially 2020 story. Remember the mysterious monolith that was found in utahs red rock desert last week . We talked about it here. Its gone now, and no one knows who removed it. The federal bureau of land managements utah office announced that the threesided metal structure was removed, adding that they didnt do it. They didnt remove the monolith, because its considered private property. And in a sincedeleted instagram post, the Utah Department of Public Safety speculated that the structure was removed by aliens using an alien emoji to describe it, which, frankly, this year doesnt really sound too farfetched. Okay, thats bizarre. I guess well watch to see whether or not it comes back. You never know and onto this story. Star wars icon david prowse, who played darth vader in the original trilogy has died. Prowses Management Company confirmed his death on twitter, saying that the actors passing has brought heartwrenching sadness to millions of fans around the world. The actor was cast for his former bodybuilder physique and he wore the infamous black suit and helmet to play the dark lord of the sith, while, of course, James Earl Jones played the voice of darth vader. Prowse was 85 years old. And he will be very missed. Still ahead here, the new names picked for president elect joe bidens incoming cabinet, including a historic allfemale white house Communications Team. And as we go to break, a look back at this date in history. In 1993, president bill clinton signed the brady bill, which required a fiveday waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks for prospective buyers. 12 years after he was shot and permanently disabled in an attempt on president reagans life, jim brady was back in the white house for the signing of a gun control law that bears his name. It will be step one in taking our streets back, taking our children back, reclaiming our families and our future. Reclai families and our future. Welcome back. President elect joe biden continued to fill out his cabinet over the weekend by announcing hes planning to hire an allfemale Communications Team and adding even more diversity to his top Economic Team. Seasoned democratic spokeswoman jen psaki will serve as White House Press secretary, while Biden Campaign Communications Director Kate Bedingfield will serve in her position in the same capacity, but for the white house. Former obama Senior International economic advise a adayamo will be the treasury secretary and cecelia rouse will chairman the council of economic advisers. And center for American Progress head neera tanden has been slated to lead the office of management and budget. That move, however, was met with criticism from republican senator john cornyns team, whose spokesperson tweeted that tanden, quote, stands zero chance of being confirmed. Joining us now, nbc news political reporter ali vitali. Ali, good morning to you lets start with the historic nature of this allwomen Communications Team that joe bidens announced. What are your takeaways from how this has been playing out . Can we expect more announcements from the biden team as well . Reporter well, more announcements coming. We were told a few days ago to buckle up for the month of december, so i think that means something a little different in a Biden Administration than it would in a trump administration, but nevertheless, we know that more news is coming as they start to fill out their cabinet. I think the really striking thing here, as you look at the allfemale Communications Team, as well as the other slate of picks that you just laid out on the economic front, its that, obviously, theres a premium being put on government experience. A lot of these people are old faces in washington, and theyre the kinds of people who, in many cases, cut their teeth at various points in the Obama Administration. Im sure youve been hearing these similarities, too, that people are musing about, is this what a third term of the Obama Administration would have looked like . The biden team not super big fans of that comparison. They would argue that this is a cabinet and a slate of picks with bidens own print on them, as well as the fact that the stakes have just really changed throughout washington, both in terms of the partisan landscape as well as the issues that theyre dealing with. Youve got a onceinalifetime pandemic happening right now as well as a recession thats ongoing because of it. But the other thing that really strikes me here is that diversity is obviously a big priority for this group of people, but not just in terms of race and gender, but its in terms of lived experience. Even if you just look at the Communications Team, youve got a slate of women there, black, white, latina, lgbtq, many of them are mothers. Its reflective of the female experience in this country, not just in terms of race and gender. And so, that, i think, is the thing thats striking, both as we heard the cabinet nominees talk about their own journey to their post, and now as you start seeing this Communications Staff. Its not just representation physically, its going to come out in policy, too. Jen psaki noted six moms of young children, which is pretty cool, because it does make you think about the world in a different way. The other thing i wanted to ask you about, ali, is neera tanden, who, of course, a longtime washington hand, the pick to be omb director. We had cornyns spokeman out there saying she cant get confirmed, a tweet from josh holmes as well, a top mcconnell hand, saying there was no way this was going to happen. What is what is the biden team telling you behind the scenes about pushback on her . I would anticipate there might be pushback from the left as well because she has been a critic of the Bernie Sanders wing at times. Do they think this is something theyll have to reevaluate in the long run . Im really interested too in how this plays out on the Progressive Side because this is really the first pick where we head pretty immediate outcry from the right. I know you talked about marco rubio, not surprising he was one of the few voices on that, but to hear the immediate pushback on neera tandem, yes, an Old Washington hand. The center for American Progress has played a role as trying to parse out the middle of the democratic party, so im interested in seeing the progressive reaction as well. But the fact that people are citing she has over 80,000 tweets because she chose to engage on that platform it does give more fodder for a potential confirmation battle, but theyre readying to get on this battle, and theyre beginning to see the contours of what the confirmation battle is going to look like. You have to imagine this is pushback that they were expecting. They knew they were headed into the contentious field on capitol hill. For sure. Of course, so much of it depends on what happens in those runoffs in georgia. Nbcs ali vitali, thank you so much. Always great to see you. Earlier on in the show we asked why are you awake . We got this adorable photo from malcolm. My 3 week old woke me up two hours ago and i have to log into work in two hours so i have to stay up so i dont oversleep. And from kimberly, today is my sons 2nd birthday, im making him pancakes. Another viewer, im up because of four days of great food, numerous christmas movies and a cold rain moving in last night, i was done. In bed before 8 00 a. M. , awake before the alarm. And kathy said she was up shopping before the big two foot snowfall hits central ohio and its my 74th birthday. Happy birthday. We have a look at the axios 1 big thing and then on morning joe, the dire warning as the u. S. Tops 4 million new cases of the coronavirus in november alone. Plus Veronica Escobar of texas will join the conversation. Morning joe, just moments away. Hi . burke happy anniversary. customer for what . burke every year youre with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. Its a policy perk for being a farmers customer. customer do i have to do anything . burke nothing. customer nothing . burke nothing. customer nothing . burke nothing. customer hmm, that is really something. burke you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. 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Joining me with a look at axios 1 big thing, alexi mccammond. Always great to see you. Whats the 1 big thing this morn . Well, good morning. I had a chance to catch up with Shawn Patrick moloney who is running against cardenas to lead up the dccc and he said hes considering one change in the rules that would make progressives happy. He would do away with the ban that bars any outside democratic consultants or pollsters or otherwise from working with that National Campaign arm and in an official capacity if they had done work with outside challengers to sitting democrats. Now, that of course made a lot of progressive challengers like alexandria ocasiocortez and others unhappy. Those are all people whose vendors and consultants wouldnt be allowed to actually help the party ahead of 2022. But congressman moloney said hed consider replacing it with something that works better because he said it removes some of the best talent in the digital and media space from even helping democrats in the last cycle in the house efforts. I would be interested to see where nancy pelosi comes down on that issue. It was something that while behind the scenes generated i think a lot of frustration and anger among democrats and of course the and the unexpected losses i should say are causing a lot of that a lot of that introspection and reevaluation here. Lets talk about Something Else youre reporting, talking about rahm emanuel who the biden team is considering to run the department of transportation. Progressives have been pretty out front saying they dont want the biden team to nominate rahm emanuel for anything. What does this fight look like and how serious is the biden team about doing this . As you and i have talked previously, the progressive wing is aware of the power that they have and dont have. So while they might be pushing for different folks to be blocked or lobbying for others to be considered, they havent really secured a proper progressive win in the announcements that biden has made. Former chicago mayor emanuel is someone they have lobbied against him publicly and started a petition against him, but the biden team is weighing the progressive concerns theyre hearing from the left wing flank of the party and also his former Infrastructure Spending in chicago and his experience with infrastructure and one of the biggest and greatest american cities. Thats something, you know, to your conversation with ali vitali now, he reflects someone who has experience in this space, who would be able to hit the ground running. That is a concern that biden has, compared to the concerns of the progressive folks who are looking at Rahm Emanuels policing record, the way hes handled policeinvolved shootings in chicago and taking issue with him on that. The other thing, kasie, progressives like ocasiocortez and others talk a lot about how they view the department of transportation as being a climate issue. Thats of course something they dont view rahm emanuel as a leader on and something they would want to see represented in the person in the post but thats not totally how the biden team is thinking about that position. It makes sense. I just wonder how many of the fights they are going to be willing to pick. Alexi mccammond, thank you so much for being here early with us today. We really appreciate it. And as Congress Comes back post thanksgiving, im looking to see if they can do anything to help americans who are still struggling with coronavirus. We have officials out in states pleading with them to please do something. Meanwhile, they have just now shut down their inperson lunches for republicans this week because theyre losing people to coronavirus. Hopefully its a lesson that gets people focused on what the American People really need. Thanks for getting up way too early with us. Dont go anywhere. Morning joe starts right now. For god made all of us, not some of us in his image. All of us, not just some of us are his children. Let us keep this thanksgiving day sacred. Let us thank god for the bounty for the goodness of off nation. Were thankful for the love our families and thankful for the generosity of our fellow citizens. We are thankful for the freedoms off our country. Here in america, we rise our fall together as one natnnd