Is a move Attorney General bill barr knocked down today, saying he stands by his earlier comments to the a. P. That theres no evidence of widespread fraud. Heres the outgoing a. G. Just today. I was commenting on the extent to which we had looked at suggestions or allegations of systemic or broadbased fraud that would affect the outcome of the election, and i already spoke to that, and i stand by that statement. Do you believe theres enough evidence to warrant a Special Counsel to investigate that, perhaps Sydney Powell or someone else . 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. Trump also flirted with invoking martial law this weekend. Yeah, he hosted his former National Security adviser, Convicted Felon Michael Flynn, who trump recently pardoned, and who thinks martial law is a good idea. From the New York Times reporting on this, quote, during an appearance on the conservative news max channel this week, mr. Flynn pushed for mr. Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to rerun the election. At one point in the meeting on friday, mr. Trump asked about that idea. But trumps assault on the country he leads didnt stop there. He also undermined his own Secretary Of State, mike pompeo, who called out russia for the brazen cyberattack on the u. S. Trump tweeting this weekend, quote, the cyber hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, russia, russia is the Priority Chant when anything happens because lamestream is for mostly financial reasons petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be china. It may. End kweet. On those comments, Washington Post writes this, quote, his tweet saturday raised fresh concerns that he will seek to shrug off what may turn out to be a cyber hack of unprecedented scale. And that russia will not be held to account. The president has complained to advisers who believe russia is culpable that the intrusions are a fake narrative meant to damage him. Confirmed by nbc news, first reported in the a. P. , that officials at the white house had been prepared to put out a statement friday afternoon that accused russia of being the main actor in the hack. But were told at the last minute to stand down. Its a move that has echoes of trumps extraordinary and pattern and record of failure, failure to hold russia accountable for their years of aggression, and from reports about russian bounties placed on the heads of u. S. Soldiers to the poisoning of russian dissident alexei navalny, to actions in ukraine, and of course, meddling in the 2016 election to boost his own candidacy, which is why former fbi counterintelligence agent peter strzok described it this way, dancing with the girl who brought him to the end. Thats where we start today, with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Associated press White House Reporter Jonathan Lemire is back, White House Bureau chief phil rucker is here, and pete strzok is here, former fbi counterintelligence agent and author of the book compromise. If you had submitted this in a screen play, its too neat. Its too clean. But he does look compromised. What do you make of his conduct this weekend . Its bordering on ludicrous. It is, and its exactly where we started and wetient be surprised. From the beginning, if you look at trumps reaction to russia, we have general mike flynn back in the white house, back in the oval office, and with russia all over our Information Systems and networks, and the administration refusing to lift a finger, refusing to say a word about this massive, massive compromise of our systems. And two big issues i think here. The first is that at some point we have got to figure out what the reasons were for the past four years of Trump Administration refusing to do anything about russia. And the second big issue is the enormous issue that is laying in wait for the Biden Administration to get their hands around what the vulnerabilities are that we have that have gone unaddressed by this administration, how we shore up our defenses, and how we fix all the things that have not only been left unlooked at but have become progressively worse over the past four years. You know, pete, i spend a lot of time wondering what the look back is going to be on this chapter and on the coverage of it, and i think from the press side, trump was so successful at bullying the media, that with all due respect to the other two guests here, i think the look back will be that we were too timid. It took us about 18 months to start calling lies lies. It took us way too long to stop broadcasting his paid propaganda. But i wonder if you think theres an analog on the russia question. People are going to look back and say, these people were fired for investigating his ties to russia . He wore them like a badge of honor. What do you think about that . I think its absolutely true. I dont think that is that behavior is limited to the media. There was a very telling editorial written by a member of the Department Of Justice who was speaking about the pressures of working On The Inside and the temptation to say we can do our job professionally and resist the politicization. That pressure of the administration and of trump has proven to be so effective across every aspect of our society, all the natural checks and balances, whether its within the executive branch, whether its in congress or the court or the media, we have seen weaknesses in some of the things we assumed would push back and corral and keep this unfettered abuse of power havent worked as they should. Again, we had a real reckoning, no matter where you sit, about whats been done, but i absolutely thing there was an effort to stifle voices, anybody who would push back for any reason against what trump was trying to achieve. And to the heroes in the effort are also here. Jonathan lemire, i want to show you two pieces of sound. One from bill barr, one from mike pompeo, neither one of them friends or allies of transparency or truth or frankly the rule of law, but both of them now acting more truthy, acting more loyal to the fact of the russia atact and the fact the election was free from fraud than donald trump, and with want to show it as an example of how far trump has fallen even from his below ground level perch over the last four weeks. Well talk about it on the other side. This was a very significant effort, and i think its the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. If you come to the conclusion the russians were responsible, and what responses we might see . From the information i have, you know, i agree with secretary pompeos assessment. Its certainly appears to be the russians. So Jonathan Lemire, theres no doubt that the intelligence is clearly pointing to russia. I think microsoft has been the most aggressive and forward leaning disseminator of information, actually, about the nature and the scope and the source of the hack. Not the federal government, but these two men who have really done everything and anything trump has asked them to do, and being more effective at pulling the levers of power than trump himself, they have probably done more damage than any two members of the cabinet, even these two saying it was russia. What is behind what you guys reported friday, trump pulling back the statement . Well, first of all, youre absolutely right that Attorney General Barr and Secretary Of State pomp peyo are two of the president s most loyal allies. Hes had a falling out with barr over his refusal to publicize an investigation into hunter biden and to go along with the baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, but its so striking to have the two of them being so clear about this, and be contradicted by President Trump whose time in office is ending as it began, by being oddly deferential to President Putin and russia. When he took office in 2017, be dismissive of the russia hoax, to siding with putin in helsinki over the u. S. Intelligence agencies about their conclusion it was indeed russia that hacked the 2016 election, to not challenge him at all about the bounties on u. S. Soldiers. The list goes on and on. And this is the latest example where on friday, my colleagues reported they were about the white house was about to agree with the assessment it was indeed russia and it was shot down. We know through our reporting throughout his term, advisers to the president are afraid to even say the word russia around him for fear of what it will set off, for him to erupt in anger. Lets also remember what else happened on friday. Michael flynn was in the oval office as part of the president s meeting about the election fraud. Michael flynn suggesting that martial law might be called for here as an effort to overturn the results of the election. Michael flip, who of course, was fired 28 or so days into the president s term because he lied about contacts with russia. This is continuing a pattern here, and in the president s final days in office, it seems nothing is going to change, and he is now leaving the response up to President Elect biden and his administration to try to send a stern message to russia thats what happened here wont be tolerated further. At this point, nothing from President Trump has dissuaded them from acting like this. You know, so much to unpack from what you just said. Let me just pick two things. Im going to i want to move on to biden and im going to show you what ron klain had to say about just that, but you talked about mike flynn pitching, i think i guess is the best way to describe it, martial law. A beautiful sound of a train in one of your rooms. So this began with you, pete strzok. He told the lie about his conversations with kislyak to you, and i wonder if you can pull a thread for us through lying to his white house colleagues and the fbi about conversations with kislyak, to proposing martial law. How did mike flynn end up back in the oval in the first place, and is this idea of sort of obliterateing the rule of law on the way out, is it consistent with anythingia saw when you spoke to him . Well, i think its clear that as people have tried to work with the administration that they have continued depending on their level of responsibility to have left the administration, and that we find ourselves at the very end of this four years with only people who are willing to be and enter into the president s inner santm to have folks proposing these outrageous ideas. Mike flynn is not some 18yearold private. Hes a threestar general, he was the head of the National Defense agency. He was the National Security adviser to the president of the United States. He has known to tell the truth. Hes taken the Oath Of Office enoo enumerable times. To propose martial law and redo elections in swing states, and furthermore, hes claiming at least on a fox news interview that he has intelligence from friendly foreign governments that he can bring to the president , so hes acting as an intelligence cutout, allegedly, nobody has seen this information, but it goes to the point and something i point out to your viewers, those inside the beltway, readers of the New York Times or axios, they dont provide a key, a decoder ring to what theyre saying. The statements and these concerns arent being raised by senior republican strategists. Theyre not being raised by grayhaired senators on the republican side of the hill. Theyre coming from people inside the administration. I mean, these are like the inmates in the asylum saying these other folks are crazy. So i dont think we should think for a minute that this is anything even in the realm of normal or acceptable, and its something we ought to be extraordinarily concerned about. Well, thats such a great point, phil rucker. And i promise im going to get to ron klains comments, but so much to pull in that. I mean, mike flynn is someone who is two things. One, he owes trump his freedom. Two, hes still keeping the secret for trump as to why he lied to pete strzok about his conversations with the russians. He had the authority once he was the countrys National Security adviser to turn russian policy and u. S. russian relations however he wanted. It seems like donald trump was willing. So why he lied about those conversations with the Russian Ambassador remains one of the enduring mysteries. But if Hillary Clinton had been president , none of these people ever held any power, they would just be nut jobs on the mark levin show, but these were People Holding the levers of power with top clearances, with pipelines to the United States military, and one of those people was in the oval office on friday pitching martial law. Phil rucker, your paper has an incredible story. I think it went up yesterday about all the places that all of trumps, i dont know a good word for it, maybe extra judicial, autocratic. One is the military, milley put out a statement, the army put out another, but this idea of martial law seemed to really, really spook people this week. It did. A couple things, nicolle. First of all, with regard to former Lieutenant General flynn, we dont know much about his current status. We know he was the National Security adviser for a certain number of days at the beginning of this administration. And obviously, trump granted him clemency a couple months ago, but we dont know whos paying his income right now. We dont know who hes working for. We dont know where hes getting his information. When he goes into the oval office to talk to the president about matters like this, we simply dont have his ability into the other kind of work hes doing and what sorts of influence hes been under. And remember, in 2016, shortly after the election when he was the president s National Security adviser dez igny, he was at the same time working on behalf of the turkish government and doing lots of business on the side. Lets just keep that in perspective. The broader point about the other people inside the white house, its important to know who was in that room friday and who was resisting some of the conversation, some of the things that flynn and Sydney Powell were advocating with the president. According to a number of reports, both the white House Counsel Pat Cipollone and the white house Chief Of Staff, mark meadows, resisted this. Explained to the president , theres no constitutional basis for him to declare martial law or to rerun the election or to seize these voting machines. And these are not people who have not gone along with trumps antics before. Meadows and cipollone have been two of the biggest enablers of the president over the last few months and the last few months in particular, but they recognize that whats being proposed friday in the oval office was wrong, illegal, and unconstitutional. I mean, wrong, illegal, and unconstitutional being proposed in the oval office is something for the History Books, phil rucker. I mean, what is your sort of theory of the case for whos around him and what hes capable of in the next 35 days . Well, hes capable of a lot because hes still the president of the United States. And has extraordinary power and you know, i wouldnt want to speculate what could happen between now and january 20th, but certainly, there are probably going to be more chapters in this book before its over. But you know, in terms of the people around the president , we should just keep in mind that the circle is tightening. As these weeks go on and he digs in deeper with his resistance to the election, with his determination to subvert the vote, hes looking for those people who are going to continue giving him options. Hes run out of legal options. Hes basically run out of pr political options because even republican governors arent having this. And so the people left at this point are Sydney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Flynn. Theyre presenting him options. But other serious people in the president s orbit are not going along with this anymore, and are not coming up with new plans for trump to turn this election around. Jonathan lemire, i want to show you ron klain on some of what a President Biden will have to clean up when hes sworn in about 30 days from now. We should be hearing a clear and unambiguous allocation of responsibility from the white house, from the Intelligence Community. Theyre the people in charge, the ones who should be making those messages. And delivering the ascertainment of responsibility. Instead, what we have heard is one message from the Secretary Of State, a different message from the white house, a different message from the president s twitter feed. We have been briefed on this. But again, i think in terms of publicly communicating the position of our government, that has to come from the current government, and it should be coming in a clear and unambiguous voice. I think in terms of the measures that a Biden Administration would take in response to an attack like this, i want to be clear, its not just sanctions. Its also steps and things we could do to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this sort of attack or were still engaged in even more dangerous attacks. You know, Jonathan Lemire, were exactly where we were this week four years ago. It was president obama at the time, but talking in almost eerily hauntingly similar words and sentences about what was due to russia. Four years of donald trump, what do you think biden is dealing with . Harsh words for russia before trump and harsh words for russia after trump, but none from trump. I mean, that has been the issue here, and joe biden has now dealt a pretty tough hand where russia and Vladimir Putin in particular has had free reign for four years to do whatever he wants, faced little in the way of consequences. Some sanctions here or there, but nothing of real note. No real challenge from the oval office. Now, President Elect biden will take office 30 days from now, and have to confront this head on. Deliver a stern warning to putin that this is unacceptable, and cant happen again. Perhaps consider some sort of retaliatory espionage or, you know, cyber measures of their own to declare that this wont be tolerated. Also, remember, its not just russia. This is free reign right now, and other nations are watching the United Statess response or lack thereof, and there are other countries who would love to exhibit similar attacks here and perhaps may in the next 30 days. So biden will take office needing to send a firm message that this wont be tolerated, as he works to repair alliances and reassure allies that america is back on the world stage to undo the harm his advisers say that President Trump has done. Pete strzok, just try to frame this effort that the Biden Administration will have to undertake to assess the damage done from four years, and all we have to work with, you were inside the government for some of the Trump Administration, but all of those of us in the public have are the public statements which seems like four years of subservience and cheering and literally ticking off what would appear to be putins todo list for u. S. Foreign policy changes and reversals in some instances to strengthen and please russia. What is, in your assessment, what does the operation look like for an incoming biden team just to assess the damage and begin to turn things around . Well, i think theres three big things, nicolle. The first thing is they need to take stock of the atmosphere and morale within the u. S. Intelligence community. They need to see what is being done, what isnt being done, whether things were stopped or not and to assess any changes needed and to reassure the Intelligence Community that they are a vital, critical component of the u. S. National security. The second thing they need to do is reach out to all of our partners, people who have been shunned, turned off, spoken critically about by this Current Administration, embrace them, reestablish those intelligence relationships because some of the most critical information we get as a nation comes not only from u. S. Sources but from our friends and allies abroad. And then the third thing they need to do is look at all of the things that may not have been addressed, emerging threats, its clear that the cyber front, whether its intrusions into our networks, attacks on social media, there are a host of things that were largely ignored in this administration. And so getting an idea of emergent threats, not only what exists today but what have been going on over the past four years, prioritizing those and addressing those across the u. S. Intelligence community cant start soon enough and im sure theyre digging into that right now. Pete strzok, Jonathan Lemire, two people who know about as much about this topic as anyone that anyone gets to talk to, im grateful i got to talk to you. Phil rucker is sticking around for more. When we come back, President Elect joe biden receiving a dose of the Coronavirus Vaccine and hoping to inject a dose of Public Confidence in it by doing so. As the virus continues to set new records. There was another stunning piece of reporting in the Washington Post On The Inside story of how we got here, how we got to this dark winter of covid. Plus, trumps lies about the election possibly taking down an unexpected group of his enablers. Reporter ben smith writes that this group is learning the hard way that only trump, trump might be the only one who could get away with all those lies. Hell join us on that story. And those in congress who thought it was okay to flaunt covid safety precautions now trying to set an example by jumping to the front of the vaccine line . Hmm. All those stories when deadline white house continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. My team helped expand the benefits of reflective technology, so its highly visible when it needs to be, and less visible when it doesnt. Whether youre hard at work or heading home for dinner, its there when it matters most. We know that what we do helps more people get home safely. At 3m, we aspire to improve lives. To all the businesses tmake it through 2020. Thank you for going the extra mile. And for the extra pump of caramel. Thank you for the good food. And the good karma. Thank you for all the deliveries. Especially this one. Youve reminded us that no matter what, we can always find a way to bounce forward. So thank you, to our customers and to businesses everywhere, from all of us at comcast business. Audiences give the croods a new age an a. Dun, dun, dun. And now the croods are coming home. Thats my girl. Boom its 100 joy from start to finish. Heads up [ screaming ] [ gasps ] go go watchcroods. Com. We owe these folks an awful lot. The scientists and the people who put this together and frontline workers and the people who were the ones who actually did the clinical work, just amazing. I think that the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground. Operation warp speed. I also think that its worth saying that this is great hope. Im doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when its available to take the vaccine. Theres nothing to worry about. Im looking forward to the second shot. That was President Elect joe biden today, once again exemplifying bipartisanship, graciousness toward the Current Administration, leadership in a pandemic. And leading by example. He and dr. Jill biden receiving their Coronavirus Vaccines today in wilmington, delaware. As trump continues to sit out the very public vaccine encouragement campaigns happening all around him, including from his own vp. But while the virus spreads uncontrollably in more than half of this country, and near Capacity Hospitals in california start to consider Rationing Care, the Washington Post points out, trump was allegedly already, quote, done with covid last month after almost a year of, quote, denial, mismanagement, and magical thinking. And that the first glimmers of hope, the two vaccines approved in one week, will do nothing to reverse history and what we are known for many months, it did not have to be this way. It did not have to be this bad. The post piece goes on, quote, that triumph of scientific ingenuity and bureaucratic efficiency does not conceal the difficult truth. That the virus has caused proportionately more infections and deaths in the United States than in most other developed nations, a Result Experts say of a dysfunctional federal response led by a president perpetually in denial. With trump out of the picture in most things, we have news to report out of capitol hill, however. Lawmakers have finally submitted a nearly 6,000page bill on emergency Economic Relief on covid as well as Government Funding and tax cuts, likely to be one of the largest bills ever by congress. Theyre expected to vote on it later today with trump expected to sign it into law after that. Joining our conversation is axios political reporter hahn nichols, phil rucker, and covifd is with us as well. I want you to take us through, i mean, everybody should read it. Its a tour deforce of the reporter, the pushing of the vaccines, and the bad, trump knowingly lying about the risks of covid. Thank you, nicolle. I appreciate that. We took a look at the really tenmonth, 11month period where the administration has been battling covid, and found first of all that the president has basically given up as of this fall. He, according to one of his advisers, doesnt care about covid right now. Hes sort of set a timetable for himself of how much covid would have his interest as the president and the virus has exceeded the time limit that the president gave it. So hes focused on other things like subverting democracy and overturning the election as we talked about in the prior segment. But when you look at the coronavirus, there are a lot of doctors in the government who are continuing to try to get this administration to change its approach, to increase testing, to more forcefully advocate the usage, the wearing of masks. And social distancing around the country, following the health guidelines, and theyre meeting a lot of resistance at the top in the west wing. We report that a number of doctors, including anthony fauci, right before thanksgiving, they knew that the surge was coming. They could see the data growing. And they together went to mark meadows, the white house Chief Of Staff and other top officials in the white house, to sound the alarm, to get them to do something more dramatic that would prevent what has become this postthanksgiving surge. And they were not listened to effectively. Meadows didnt believe them. Not believing the science is our national emergency, hans nichols. And the coming front in that emergency is faith and trust in the vaccine. Donald trump has followers that will believe his lies and they will believe the truth, and the truth is that the vaccine as far as we know is safe, and it will prevent the kinds of deaths were seeing, which is more than 3,000 a day. Our latest reporting, hans, is trump is, quote, not scheduled to take it, the vaccine. Do you have a sense as to whether or not theres an effort to get trump to take the vaccine, and to do so publicly as his Vice President and as the President Elect did today . I dont have a sense, nicolle, but if there were, as we know from phils reporting and others reporting, its exceedingly difficult to get this president to do something, even when his advisers are telling him its in his own interest. So its clear that President Donald Trump doesnt see that its in his interest or for whatever reason he doesnt want to do a public show of this vaccine, where as others have suggested, it could be a victory lap for him, right . You mentioned it. The Vice President , the President Elect joe biden, just gave this Current Administration credit for Operation Warp speed for accelerating this. And yet it was mike pence that was out there publicly taking this. So, you know, i dont quite know how the Biden Campaign is going to work through all this. They are just going to continue with their public messaging, i suspect. And what we saw the President Elect do there is probably going to be one of the easiest things he does on covid, and that is the symbolism. When you look at the substance of whats going to be awaiting this next administration, not just on the economic front but on the Public Health front, on the Global Pandemic front, i dont think im going too far to say theyre terrified by what awaits them, and theyre ready to get to work, but thats going to be a challenge. I mean, on that topic, hans, let me read you this also from the Washington Post. In his final weeks in office, trump is making a series of moves aimed at cementing his legacy and handicapping bidens presidency from abruptdly pulling troops from war zones to cracking down on iran to encouraging the Justice Department to investigate his political enemies. The results is a situation without precedent in american history. One president ending his term amid crisis is seeking to delegitimize his successor and floating the process spkt of a four Year Campaign to return to power. Forget about being a sore loser and a nongracious person handing over one of the most prestigious public roles in the world. This is sabotage, isnt it, hans . That would be one way to describe it. Its surgecertainly going to sl things down for the Biden Administration in a perilous time. Its very unlikely there will be a nice hand written letter written in the Resolute Desk to help the new president. So you know, when you talk to biden officials, they are awarn that theyre not going to get much help, that the assistance isnt going to be coming. That theyre going to have to figure this out on their own and they have to figure it out on the fly, and again, it just adds to the whole set of challenges that they are getting prepared for. And both challenges that they sort of know are around the corner but also ones they dont because, you know, they need to get in there, look at the books, get cooperation from the civil servants. Theyre getting that with the review teams but theres a broader sense of dread on what they dont know. And what theyre going to find out as they start trying to run the country. And so yes, i mean, guys like phil, our own Jonathan Swan have been documenting the lack of cooperation, whether or not its pentagon briefings, a whole hoesh of things. Im not in a position to rank on which ones are the most deleterious to democracy, thats a tough call, but in general, this is another challenge for the biden team. Theyre aware of it, but they dont quite know the size of the problem, and thats a problem in itself. Its such a good point. Well continue to talk about it over the next 35 days, but youre right. A lot of the story cannot be reported out by folks like yourselves until theyre actually in there doing those assessments. Hans nichols and phil rucker, phil rucker, unbelievable weekend for the History Books in the reporting from the Washington Post this weekend. Congratulations to you. And all your colleagues. And as you said, Jonathan Swan, all over all that at axios as well. Thank both of you for spending some time with us. Up next, voting machine companies, theyre the ones fighting back against trump and his allies. A new twist in this story of the phony rigged election talk. Thats next. announcer do you want to reduce stress . 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What you just saw was a snippet of a segment that aired on at least three fox news programs. Its a segment that debunks some of the lies about voter fraud made by Rudy Giuliani and Trump Campaign lawyer Sydney Powell on those very same programs over and over and over again. So why is fox finally incorporating a little bit of reality in its programming . Well, long after officials begged for the misinformation to stop with election workers across the country facing death threats, that segment aired after Voting Technology company smartmatic demanded that fox news as well as other protrump outlets like news max and one america retract claims made about their company and retain documents for a possible Defamation Lawsuit. New york times describes it this way, quote, these are legal threats any company, even a giant like fox corporation, would take seriously. And they could be fatal to the dream of a new trump tv, a giant new Media Company in the president s image, and perhaps contributing to his bottom line. News max and own appear likely to face the same fate as so many of trumps sink oofants who hav watched him lie who find out hes the only one who can get away with it. Mr. Trump benefits from president ial immunity, and also he has an experienced fabulous sense of where the legal red lines are, something his allies often lack. News max denies making claims of improprietary against smartmatic, but it has also put up a story on the web page. Joining us now is the author of the piece of reporting, New York Times media columnist, ben smith. I think so many people who cover the trump story have wondered how they all get away with telling lies that, as you write, endanger peoples lives. You have republican Election Officials in georgia warning that someone is going to get shot, and in walk companies. Explain why companies have protections against lies that people dont. Well, you know, Defamation Law is a very specific area of law here. And you have to show that there are financial damages in particular to you, not just that somebody said something mean about you. Not that youre a public figure who somebody called lazy or tired or something. And these are companies with big global businesses who sell election integrity. This was this extremely direct attack on their businesses. And in smartmatics case, the attack is particularly crazy because they do almost no business in the United States of america. This caused them a huge crisis around the world, where they have customers in brazil and places like that. The only place in the u. S. They work is los angeles county, which wasnt relevant at all to this election. When they first saw this, they couldnt believe it was happening. Ben, you quote some of the lawyers. Tell me about the legal strategy to defend companies who have been smeared as part of a larger effort by trump to delegitimize his loss. Well, smartmatic and dominion, the other company, both hired very aggressive experienced Defamation Lawyers. Smartmatic hired the guy who won this massive verdict against abc news, sorry, settlement, the biggest settlement in Media Defamation in what is referred to as the pink slime case. It was a case brought by a beef producer in south dakota, where they have incidentally food Defamation Laws so watch out. And hes basically saying, i dont think this is just about clearing their names. I think that they see dollar signs and think theres quite a bit of money to be wrung from these companies for damaging their reputations. Defamation lawsuits are messy. If they have dirty laundly they dont want aired, they might not go through with it, but theyre certainly moving in that direction. Im going to read a little bit from the reporting, because i think it was such an aha. I read your piece a couple times last night. This stuck to me. This is on the point youre making about damages. We have gotten to this point where theres so much falsity thats being spread on certain platforms and you may need a message where you send a message, and thats what punitive damages can do in a situation like this, one of the lawyers said. The way i understood this, and this is decided by juries usually. Damages are its an emotional area of the law, right . Theres precedent for massive punitive damages where they feel like harm has been done. I imagine it depends obviously whos on a jury, but that seems to get political, too. If you have a sense that what trump has done over the last 37 days damaged our very democracy, this seems to be an area, the area of punitive damages seems like it could represent some exposure for these companies. Yeah, once you get to a jury, who knows. Its a very, very scary thing in most of this litigation is the parties sparring to keep it away from a jury, because the defendant generally doesnt want that. And i think, you know, this is a case where for two of the companies, for news max, its a huge threat. Right now, theyre burning money. Theyre trying to create a new fox, to the right of fox. They need to keep raising money. And its very hard to raise money if you have a huge Defamation Claim Hanging over you. And you have to explain how this could play into it, but just the number of times that theyre making a defamation case, you guys note this. Fox news and fox business, which have mentioned dominion 792 times, and smartmatic 118 times between them, according to a search on tvis, they have been hyping trumps bogus election claims. Own has even been trying to get to news maxs right to continue to reject joe bidens status as President Elect. They seem to be the editorial choice not to call joe biden President Elect. Youre making this point that might be lost on a political audience, but new businesses have to attract funds. And they have to attract investment. If you are mired in litigation and defamation litigation seems like one of the murkiest and perhaps most drawn out, might that be the repellent for starting up something if youre on the side of facts and truth, more dangerous than fox . Oh, yeah. I think for the news max and own, if they sue, its a huge problem. Theyre money losing companies trying to raise more money, trying to sell themselves. And you dont want to buy something that could wind up being owned by a Voting Machine Company after some jury in florida breaks against you. I just think its a huge threat to those companies. Its a big threat to fox. They aired that bizarre segment on lou dobbs, maria bartiromo, their shows. Theyre worried about it but theyre a huge company with lot of insurance and cash if it comes to this. Want to ask you to step back and as the times media columnist, what do you make of the last 37 days in media. You have seen a major shift in some of the viewers off fox to these outlets you talk about, you see them trafficking in a completely fabricated version of whats happening in this country. From where you sit, whats your analysis of where we are and where we might be heading . I mean, i think theres obviously an appetite for this story, and by the way, its pretty depressing if youre a republican watching fox now. Youre watching this depressing story about how your guy lost and is gradually leaving office. Its not surprising people arent watching it. A lot of people tuned out of msnbc after the last election. They came back. And i think news max and o. W. N. Are peddling an exciting story about an election that hasnt been decided. This lawsuit is forcing them to make contact with reality. Im not sure those audiences stick around when the exciting fantasy is done. Theres always netflix for that. Ben smith, a great piece of reporting. I was really glad you had time to talk to us about it. Thank you for spending some time with us. Thank you. Up next, should those in Congress Young and healthy who also downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic by shunning lockdowns and dismissing the importance of Wearing Masks be among the first to get vaccinated . Well ask that question next. [ Thunder Rumbles ] [ Engine Rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know theres a 30minute limit, right . Tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Im going to take the mask off because im ghoting to be 15 minutes long but you want me to wear a mask. I work with 99 strange people from all across the country. Marco rubio there last month indoors at a rally for the Georgia Senate Runoff Elections making light of mask wearing. He is one of the many republicans who have downplayed the severity of the pandemic since march but despite the insistence that mask wearing wasnt necessary many of the same republicans jump at the chance to get the vaccine themselves. Rubio and Lindsey Graham and Mitch Mcconnell were some of the first people to receive the limited quantity of the vaccine over the last few days, before front line essential workers. Lets bring into our conversation elise jordan and a former aid to the george w. Bush white house and State Department and donna edwards, columnist to the Washington Post and an msnbc contributor. Donna, what do you think . Well, you know im of mixed mind. If i were just deciding tor myself, i probably wouldnt give them the vaccine. But for continuity of congress, it is important for every member to be vaccinated. Were going into a year at beginning of the year, where important decisions need to be made, choosing a speaker of the house and then the elections in georgia and down to legislation in advance of joe biden taking the Oath Of Office. I also think it is important for them to demonstrate even if theyre late comers the importance of taking the vaccine and the importance of continuing to wear mask wearing and not joke about it. This is no joke. People are dying. And we need to make sure that we get all of our front line workers vaccinated. Im worried about whether well have enough vaccine in enough time to make sure were fully vaccinated across the country. You know, elise, i think donna put it perfectry but the problem is theyve been such jerks so it makes it feel wrong. Marco rubio is now to me the embodiment of Republican Cheesiness and hypocrisy. Both on the pandemic and on civility and conduct and language if you will. What do you make of about people who have been dismissive of the Public Safety measures and who really havent been rushing into the towers, if you will, to save either their constituents or the country when it comes to the economic pain getting bumped to the front of the line for vaccines . You know, im with you, nicolle and donna, too. In my heart, i am so annoyed and i just find it absolutely galling that elected officials who have been among the greatest superspre superspreaders and have been Flaunting Social Distancing Moreays and who have not been wearing ma Wearing Masks that they get to head to the front of the line. But i understand why Members Of Congress should be vaccinated. That said, at least they are not purveyors of misinformation about the vaccine and by getting the vaccine, are demonstrating theyll put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the vaccine and they wont spread misinformation about taking the vaccine. So i guess that is just the small the small bit of benefit from these senators who and congressmen who have gone out of their way to be on north korea sh to be obnoxious about the pandemic. What helped President Elect biden the most in terms of getting to maximum Vaccination Levels in this country, to protect all americans, would be if donald trump rolled up his sleeve and were vaccinated on television. There is reporting that there are no plans for him to do so. Do you think he will get vaccinateds and do so publicly, donna . Oh, that is just never going to happen and we need to accept that and move on. It is not going to happen. We have to other lawmakers, people who have influencing communities really demonstrating both the importance of Evacuation Vaccinati vaccination and mask wearing and social distancing. Donald trump is not a purveyor of what it takes to lead and especially what it takes to lead on covid. The sooner were rid of him the better. Elise, what do you think . Same . I agree. But you know, just over this Holiday Season i feel like every day you see pictures of prominent republicans who are denying mask wearing and in a pandemic and were just going to see so many partying pictures from maralago of people who have been vaccinated and we should prepare ourselves for how d disgusting it is going to be. And i think the opposite is happening with the Incoming Administration with the President Elect getting his vaccine today and having the grace to give the Outgoing Administration some credit. Change is coming. Thank you both for spending some time with us. The next hour of deadline white house starts after a very short break. Dont go anywhere. We are just getting started. For me. Until now. With nurtec odt, i have felt such relief. I am able to go about my day as if nothing happened. Nurtec is the only quick dissolve treatment for migraine attacks that can get many people back to normal activities and last up to 48 hours with just one dose. Dont take if allergic to nurtec. The most common side effect was nausea. For more information, go to nurtec. Com theyre unique among militaries. We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oeblg oath to a country or tribar religion. We take an oath to the constitution. Hi, again, everyone. It is 5 00 in the east. Remarkable statements like that one from last month becoming Por Sa Salient by the day. General mark milley having to distance himself and the u. S. Military from its own commanderinchief. One who is growing more and more desperate to cling to power and with just 30 days until joe bidens inauguration day, is weighing any possible avenue to invalidate bidens win. From the Washington Post, President Trump has intensified efforts to over turn the election raising a series of rad kel with a appeal to the supreme court. Trump discussed the ideas on friday and more from the post, kwoeft, trump met with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and National Security adviser Michael Flynn and flynn had suggested on news max that trump could authorize the military to rerun the election. The next day flynn was in the oval office to discuss the idea. Sidney powell, who has promoted outlandishly false claims about this years election, including a disproved allegation to flip votes for joe biden, was also at the meeting. While officials told the Washington Post that mark meadows and Pat Cipollony pushed back on theoid why of martial law and there have been no efforts in the white house to deploy the military. United states army felt it was necessary to get on the record anyway. Saying this, quote, there is no role for the u. S. Military in determining the outcome of the an american election. That is from secretary of the Army Ryan Mccarthy and its top officer general james c. Mcconnell. But the president didnt stop at martial law. Nbc news confirmed during the friday meeting, trump also discussed tapping powell, who as we said was fired from his legal team just a few weeks ago for being too crazy, as a special council to investigate voter fraud in the election. Powell was spotted back at the wouse yesterday. Although she reportedly did not meet with trump and she was there again today. As Maggie Haberman of the New York Times notes, you cant just walk into the white house. You have to be cleared to come in. An interesting point as more reporting this weekend revealed a growing sense of alarm among those in the administration. Jonathan swan of axios said he could not recall hearing more intense concern over the president considering what senior officials described as, quote, blatant abuse of power. Swan adds what is different is these are not the never trumper types. These are people who have thrown thur lot in with trump but worry the about his receptivity to flynns and powells idea and Conspiracy Theories. One month seems like an eternity. And the military having to publicly announce it Wont Take Part in a coup is where we are and it is where we start this hour with our favorite reporters and friends. Yamiche alcindor and olivia troy who works in the Trump Administration until august on the Coronavirus Task force as an adviser to Vice President mike pence. As well as an adviser on Homeland Security and count counterterrorism and now tom nicolles is here writer for the atlantic speaking here with us today and in a personal capacity. Hes the author of the upcoming book our own worst enemy, the assault from within our modern democracy. Your thoughts on the assault that donald trump leads. The idea that the u. S. Military have to say out loud there is no role for the military in politics tells that you we are in a slowmoving crisis. The military shouldnt have to say that. That should be assumed and part of our democracy and not something that we need reassurance about every day. It is clear that president has decided to talk to people who tell him what he wants to hear and will tell him that theyre not talking about a military coup, theyre just talking about the military rerunning an election. So that the president could walk out and say im not any thinking about a coup. But in trumps head, those two different things. To people in Representative Democracy like the United States, constitutional democracy, this is appalling and terrifying. But this is where we are and it is going to be a really long month. Hes still the commanderinchief right up until january 20th. He still has the Nuclear Codes and he still is the president with all of the article two pouters until then. And i just want to know where the Republican Leaders are that are supposed to be going to the white house and tell him he has to stop attacking our own constitution and our own democracy. And let there be no mistake, they have the power to do that. They could shut this down and make it really what it is, it is a story of a mad king who stopped taking the calls of the people in his circle who told him he was being bat bleep crazy when he came out at 3 00 in the morning and said i won. Hes cut those people out. And he has got his children and son in in Jared Kushner who are all terrified of being written out of the will and then the people he pardoned, that is about it. And Sidney Powell who was fired from his legal team for saying things that were too crazy for trump when she suggested that hugo chavez was involved in trumps election loss. So this is now republicans complicity that is allowing this to go on. They could shut it down. Tom, why dont they . Because theyre afraid of them and some of them dont want to. Mitch mcconnell and the Republican Leadership could do to the white house tomorrow, tonight, in the next hour, and say enough of this or you actually can be removed from office by constitutional means. But i think theyre all holding their breath and hoping to make it through the next 30 days praying that somehow they dont have to actually do anything or make any decisions or defend the constitution or do any of those things that were part of their oath as elected leaders. Theyre just hoping to ride it out and get through it just like they did with impeachment, just like with every other crisis that involves donald trump. But youre absolutely right, the republicans could put a stop to this tomorrow if they really wanted to. I would like for you to describe to our viewers what this weekend was like as a White House Reporter. Because i saw some of this and i follow you and Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman on twitter, i didnt see this level of alarm in the coverage of the white house even around impeachment, even around some of the hairiest days offer helsinki. Describe the level of alarm at the white house. The level of alarm at the white house is sky high because of two things. The first is that the president is, as weve laid out here, trying to use every lever of power that he has as president to try to overturn this election. He seemingly has to limits and led on by conspiracy theer yifts and people that wanted to see President Trump win the election or are afraid of thinking of Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, people who they think have nefarious means and plans for the american democracy as a whole. The second thing that was happening this weekend was that the pandemic was raging and there was this russia hack that we were learning more and more about. So there is real crises brewing in america that needed leadership, that needed the president s attention and the president simply was not interested in looking at the covid relief bill, he was not interested in looking at the Covid Vaccine and assuring americans that it was safe and not interested if trying to figure out how to push back on russia because they are now trying to infiltrate all sorts of critical departments including the department of Homeland Security and the department of state and instead what the president was doing was really trying to downplay the role that russia is playing and then of course doing what he has always done which is leaning on his instincts to try to drive chaos to find a way to win back the election. It is a very scary period with a month to go until january 20th and with the president s own allies very alarmed by him continuing to lean into the idea that he could somehow steal back this election. It is remarkable it is already in some ways attentiongetting but the president was trying to do this, but hes doing this with a back drop of the different crises that really need his attention. Those there is not much i could add to her perfect description of what is going on. But let me throw into our conversation some of Jonathan Swans reporting. Quote, there were raised voice levels and animated conversation. It is basically sydney versus everybody, the source said. That is why voices were raised. There is literally not one mother expletive in the staunchest group of supporters and allies who doesnt think that Sidney Powell should be on the first rocket to mars. I guess thanks to donald trump and this space force that is actually a policy option. But how did Sidney Powell end up in the white house three days in a row, including today. She did that by telling the president what he wants to hear and by leaning into Conspiracy Theories that are too farfetched even for people who thought it was okay for the president to do be doing all sorts of other things including trying to get information on hunter biden and joe biden from ukraine. This is someone who is way, way, way out. Shes not on earth, too, which is i think a lot of people around trumps orbit, shes on a mars 3 or 4. When they think about the fact that the president , someone who didnt want her to be on the legal team and then you mention ugoh chavez, he should remind everybody that he is dead. That is who she thinks was at the heart of trying to steal the election for democrats. Man has gone and has been gone for several years. It is so stupid that it is funny. But it is so scary that being so stupid that it is funny isnt enough to wake up the republicans and to that end, olivia, i have this for you. In the New York Times Opinion Section today, this is written, quote, im haunted by what i did. As a lawyer in the trump Justice Department. From erica newland. She writes, quote, watching the Trump Campaigns attacks on the Election Results i now see what might have happened if, rather than nip and tuck the trump agenda, responsible Justice Department attorneys had collectively, ethically and lawfully refused to participate in President Trumps systematic atacks on our democracy from the beginning. The attacks would have failed. Ollia, how does that hit you as someone who did eventually refuse to participate . Do you feel her in what shes writing there . I do. Very much so. Because i feel like all of these people who have enabled the Trump Machine to continue moving forward are part of this. And anybody who has been a part of this should be haunted. Because this is enabling a want to be dictator in the white house who continues to undermine our democracy, who continues to hurt us when it comes to foreign adversaries, who continues to hurt us on this covid pandemic and it never stops. Hes been threatening to use the Insurrection Act numerous times before. He threatened it on the protests during the summer. He used military as a tool to whatever he sees fit. Bup these are people who have served our country and have been in their lives and sacrificed so much to protect us. And im grateful theyre speaking out now against his basic approach to what i think is almost a approach to fascism. Lets call it that. And anyone who is allowing this to happen is part of it. Olivia, i think there has been this debate for the last four years about good people like yourself and like erica new mand who wrote this Piece Feeling like the reason to be inside was to make sure someone worse didnt come up behind them. And i think there is you could argue that and you could prove that out. But i think that that has been proven wrong. There was no limit. There was nothing that he wouldnt do. He used people like you, people like erica, to do bad things. What do you think the argument is Going Forward for republicans to stay silent and do you agree with that analysis . You know, i do. It is certainly a struggle for anyone who is in this situation when youre faced with it. And you kind of sit down and you think am i making a better defense by trying to be in the room so there is a voice of reason. And then the problem with this is that the president doesnt want The Voice Of Reason in the room. Hes going to pull the voices that are going to enable him and support his idea of the truth. Weve seen this. S in why you have scott atlas comes in and side lines the experts on the task force and you see Sidney Powell suddenly making a come back and mike flynn is suddenly behind the scenes advising once again. So i think that at some point you have to sit down and say, am i enabling or taking a stand. And at this point, given what is happening and the obstruction of the Biden Transition and everything going on, if youre not taking a stand and calling him on it every single day and making his life miserable so this petulant child could get over his loss and move on, then youre enabling it. And you know, tom, i want to come back to the last 30 days. Because as you pointed out, he is the countrys commander in chief. The only one we have until inauguration day. Play out the tape. Where are we heading . You know, its going to get worse. He can i mean, he could possibly start a military conflict. I think one of the reasons hes doing all of these things is because he desperately wants to distraction us from what happened with the russian hack. The only constant in It Presidency is that donald trump is deathly afraid of the kremlin. He wants to create an atmosphere of crisis and chaos. When we were in somalia almost 20 years ago, an american official had a great line. He said normalcy is the enemy of people like war lords and people who just want chaos and destruction. For trump, normalcy is the enemy. And he will do anything to make every day as abnormal as possible because then that makes all of his machinations credible, at least to him and to his inner circle. And think about how far weve sunk that weve just gotten used to the idea that the nations military leadership has to reassure us that the military is staying out of politics. Hes going to create a situation, i think, in the next 30 days, where he might end up engaging the military. He loves that commanderinchief role and hes done it before. So we may be facing some kind of crisis like that. Because that is the role that he defaults to of being in charge and ordering people to do things. One of the things that is driving trump crazy is he cant just order people to do even william barr, even barr who has put up and enabled so much, today was clearing his throat and trying to explain why he couldnt didnt see any reason to do the things that the president was doing. Hes not going to trump is not going to take that for an answer and that crisis ra atmosphere will go down to the wire for the next weeks. And to your point, and to olivias william barr and mike pompeo, the who men as who the enablers have probably donemore damage to this country than anyone else serving in the trump cabinet. Today both said that russia is responsible for the hack and bill barr went even further and said there is no need for a special council to look at voter fraud. So that is where we are to your point as well. An extraordinary day in politics and extraordinary day for our country. No three better people with whom to talk to about it than all three of you. Thank you so much to all of three of you for starting us off today. When we return, as we mention, donald trump once again contradicting his own top officials on, you guessed it russia. As we said, barr and pompeo, contradicting him while trump Is Giving Moscow a pass on the massive cyber attack against multiple branches of the federal government he oversees. Well get reaction from a top United States senator who sits on the Intelligence Committee next. Plus Kamala Harris campaigns in georgia for democrats who are hoping to use the Coronavirus Relief deal to drive voters to the polls. And that mutated strain of the coronavirus that has shut down christmas for millions of people in england, well have a doctor what that means for us if it could come here and to the fight to control pandemic. Deadline white house continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. [ Engines Revving ] its amazing to see them in the wild like th shhh. 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Prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium, serious infections, which could need hospitalization, skin problems, and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. Dont wait for a break, call your doctor today, and ask about prolia®. To all the businesses make it through 2020. Thank you for going the extra mile. And for the extra pump of caramel. Thank you for the good food. And the good karma. Thank you for all the deliveries. Especially this one. Youve reminded us that no matter what, we can always find a way to bounce forward. So thank you, to our customers and to businesses everywhere, from all of us at comcast business. I was disappointed in the president s comment. But i think weve come to recognize that the president has a blind spot when it comes to russia. I think that he feels that anything that suggests that russia is being malef lent, why, we obviously backs away from that. He doesnt want to recognize russia as the problem they are and extraordinarily bad actor they are on the world stage because it reflects poorly on him and perhaps in his own mind. And the reality is russia really is a geopolitical adversary. In his own mind, being the operative fr operative phrase there. As mitt romney put it, it became apparent once again this weekend and the president downplayed the severity of a massive cyber attack believes to be carried out by russia. The president has even tried to suggest without any evidence that china could be behind the attack. Even as two of his most prominent cabinet members, mike pompeo and bill barr have said russia is responsible. Joining us now, independent senator angus king of maine, a member of the senate Intelligence Committee. It is so nice to see you. Would you go further than mitt romney and it is more than a blind spot. It is a free pass for russia to do whatever they want. Well, that is been the pattern for the past four years, nicolle. And john bolton was on a program and he thought the explanation was that he believes that any time the administration is critical of russia or anything about russia comes up, it is somehow refers back to russias activities in the 2016 election and delegitimized his election. That is what seems to be in his head. There may be other factors but we dont know. Time will tell. But it is rather odd that at every turning over the past four years, if russia has been offending against us, which they have, he turns a blind eye and this is only the most recent. This is a very this hack is really serious, nicolle. What can you tell us about the confidence the Intelligence Community has . I imagine it is sky high if you have mike pompeo and william barr as members of the cabinet, both coming out today and affirming it was indeed russia. Are folks quite certain that it was russia . What do you think donald trump is hanging his delusion on about china . Well, ive seen the intelligence but i cant talk about it so im not going to share what ive seen. But i will say if you have the Secretary Of State and the Attorney General affirming pretty muchin equivocally that it was russia u, you could take that to the bank. They have no reason to say anything other than what they know and that is what theyve said. So i think that part of the question is resolved. The other thing the president said that was disturbing is that this is no big deal. That the somehow the media, this is fake news and the media is making a big deal about it. This is a big deal. It has been going on for at least a year before we discovered it. That in itself is a serious problem. But the other problem is we dont really know what the intent is. Is this simply an effort to get intelligence to learn some of our secrets, or is it an intent to do what they call active measures, to do something malicious while being in these networks. We dont know that yet. But that is what makes this such a serious intrusion. And we are obviously a country in crisis dealing with one of the worst covid outbreaks and dealing with distrust as the vaccine is approved and begins to be rolled out. What would your advice be to the Incoming Administration, not about resetting the relationship with russia per se, but about sort of girding ourselves for which you just described, an unknown scope of damage done by russia in an attack that could be ongoing it sounds like youre suggesting . Well for the past year and a half ive been working with a group of my colleagues and private sector and Administration People on the cyber threat. Who set up by the congress two years ago called the National Cyberspace sell airum commission and weve been working on this issue explicitly. The first advice is this is damn serious. The threat of a cyber attack or intrusion or cyber manipulation is very serious. It is most serious external threat that we face right now. Secondly, weve got to do a better job of defending ourselves. As i said, one of the disturbing things about this is we didnt even detect it. For almost a year. The final piece, though, nicolle, is very important. This kind of thing has been going on for years. China has done it. Russia has done it. There has been some indication that iran has done it. The problem is, were a cheap date. We dont respond. And as long as we dont respond and our adversaries dont have any fear of us, of consequences, of anything coming back on them, theyre going to keep doing it. Why not . It is cheap. Putin could hire 8,000 hackers for the cost of one jet airline. So why wouldnt they keep doing this. I want someone in the kremlin sitting that table saying boss, i dont know if we should do that because if we do theyre going to whack us. Right now they dont have that fear. Well speaking of cheap dates and russia and having no fear, mike flynn was in the oval office on friday. He had been pitching the idea of invoking martial law to rerun the elections. Donald trump reported asked questions about that. Sidney powell has been in the west wing the last three days, including today. The army put out a Statement Saying that they have no intention of getting involved. Bill barr seems to be using his final hours as Attorney General to push back against donald trump, what is your degree of alarm by the president s statements that have seeped out of a reportedly very alarmed inner circle . Well, there are two one is thank goodness we live in a country where our military swears their oath to the constitution. Not to a president. Not to the congress. Not even to the country. They swear their oath to the constitution of the United States. And it is a shame that the army has to put out a Statement Saying theyre going to honor that oath. That tell you where we are. Im concerned about the martial law stuff but that is pretty far out and it would take a lot of military people violating their oaths and i dont think they will do it. But the other piece in plain sight is the president s incredibly powerful and persistent effort to undermine our democracy itself. The bedrock of our democracy is elections. I dont mind what the president said, what i mind is that millions of people are listening to him. And he is going to make it very difficult for the next president to to govern. Hes undermined that. But also when we lose confidence in elections, you know, where are we . That is what were that is what this country is built on. Of all of the things that hes done that i disagree with, this is the worst. He is systematically undermining the basic functioning of our democratic system. I hear from a lot of National Security folks that i talk to, the very same thing. Of all of the things that hes done it is the conduct over the last 37 days that may have done the most damage. Senator, thank you so much for spending some time with us. Were always grateful when we get to talk to you, my friend. When we return, Vice President President Elect Kamala Harris is in georgia ahead of the critical Senate Runoff elections. That story when deadline white house continues. Dline white house continues you know, 2020 has been a difficult year. 2020 has been rough. People making jokes about 20 like we want this thing to be over. But you know, what as far as im concerned, georgia, clolumbus, 2020 aint over until january 5th. That is what 2020 will be over. Thats when well get this thing done. For the Vice President elect and democrats across the country, it is all eyes on georgia. Voters there understand that control of the senate is on a knifes edge. And as of this morning, nearly 1. 5 million georgians have already voted and a number not that far off from the general election back in november. Which joe biden won. The Washington Post went through all of the latest voter data and right now, quote, democratic voters have an edge in the early turnout. But republicans are closing the gap and the current democratic lead is slightly smaller than it was at this point in the general election. Joining our conversation, the Reverend Al Sharpton and president of the National Action network and democratic strategy aisha mills. I want to start with Vice President harris. This is such a tight race that the strategy seems to be called in from on high and it has so far featured president obama, President Elect biden, and Vice President elect harris. They seem to be sort of the Power Trifecta in Democratic Politics right now. Do you agree with that . Well, sure. They are. They are certainly the people who are at the top of the ticket right now. Of course president obama is still very much beloved in democratic party. It is interesting, though, that we arent seeing a broader swath of people show up and show out for georgia in terms of the progressive end. I know that is a conversation and the grumblings. But in georgia, what matters is who is going to appeal to people to get them engaged and out to vote and certainly that is barack obama. I thought that Kamala Harris today was on fire and that this was one of the best speeches ive seen her give in some time. So i think theyre doing the right thing because we know that Georgia Matters because the Balance Of Power in the senate is at stake right now. It would be a complete gamechanger if the democrats win in georgia come january and change what biden is able to do in hirz presidency. It matters that they got the big guns out. Talking about Kamala Harris being n fire, rev, lets watch more of that speech. So we again ask as it relates to january 5th the question we asked in november. Why are so many powerful people trying to make it so difficult for us to vote . We have to ask the question why . And we know the answer. Because they know our power. They know when we vote, things change. They know when we vote we win. Rev, it is such a powerful message in november, the results bear that out. Talk about what is happening on the ground and why that message matters so much right now . The message matters particularly in georgia because you must remember georgia was one of the states that the battle for Voting Rights happened in. Georgia was the home state of john lewis, who was the personification with Jose Williams who was an official in georgia, it is where Martin Luther king jr. Is buried and where the southern christian Leadership Conference he led is headquartered. So even though were not alive at that time, their children and grandchildren was raised with this around Voting Rights. So if youre going to get turnout in georgia, to have that kind of fiery speech by the first black woman, first woman period to be Vice President , reminding them in the Battleground State of Voting Rights about they want to deny us Voting Rights. This couldnt be a better message. Especially when the republicans are doing all kinds of personal petty attacks. She brings it to a higher level that this is about more than this pettiness and foolishness that theyre raising. Shes raising it to the right level. And i think that that is what is going to bring the vote out. And we have 1. 5 Million People voted and we dont know who those votes are with. We know donald trump has announced hell be there the night before. We dont know what drive that would be. So i think theyre doing the right thing to put all efforts in with the right message of what is at stake here and that is Voting Rights. Donald trump going back maybe met with a mixed reaction on his one trip to the state, his speech was more about his own desire, his own war against all of the statewide elected republicans, the governor, the Secretary Of State, the lieutenant governor, there is even been this real moment that broke through gabriel sterling, an election official warning that someone will get shot because of the kind of rhetoric the president and his allies are using against the election result. How do you think that is playing out in georgia . What are you hearing from democratic sources about whether republicans are hurting themselves or just firing up the crazies . Well we know that the Democratic Base continues to be fired up. The fact that turnout at this Point Is Rivaling General Election turnout is huge for a Runoff Election over the Holiday Season. And here is Something Interesting as well that we learned. Is that a significant proportion of the people who are Casting Ballots didnt vote in november. And theyre thinking that there are young people who became of age since the november election who are now eligible to vote in this election that are churning out and showing up and i assure that most of the young people, based on every poll, theyre not turning out for the republicans there, theyre showing up for the democrats. So i would say that Donald Trumps rhetoric or lack of settling with results and walking away as a man would and saying, okay, i lost this election and passing the torch. That that is continuing to frustrate people and really continuing to motivate and bring people out. You know, rev, i want your take on this. There is sort of two schools of thought. That republicans fight dirty and this is a dirty way, youve got the two Senate Candidates aligning themselves with the trump view that the election was stolen from him. But youve got every statewide elected republican who also won in the state of georgia on the other side of that fight. How do you think that manifests itself on january 5th . I think that the way it will manifest itself is that you have to have the message that brings your base out if youre the democrats. The last thing democrats need to do is to tell people were doing well because that will not drive them out. I think you need to tell people it is close. And that, yes, there are new voters but we need everybody to come out because you dont want to, as we go through the holidays and january 5th is right after the first, for people to relax. People need to know their vote may be the deciding vote. An that is what i think the republicans that other lawmakers are going to do. Even though biden and harris won georgia in the general election, everyone under them outpolled the democracies in terms of the statewide Office Holders including the fact these both republican Senate Candidates didnt get to 50 and they were a lot more than the democrats so not take any of this for granted. Dont relax and say were doing well if were the democrats. To, we need everybody to come out, it is too close to call. That has to be the message. Two very experienced political voices. The rev al sharpton and aisha mills, thank you for spending time with us today. When we return, doctors in the u. K. Identify a new variant of the coronavirus and it might be driving infections up in that country. Well ask ann infectious diseas specialist. Back after a quick break. E specialist back after a quick break pars of the United Kingdom on a Strict Lockdown as officials there warn of a newly identified mutation of the coronavirus and say it is spreading quickly in parts of the country. Experts estimate that the new strain could be up to 70 more transmissable across the world and british Scientists Say it could be higher in children than previous strains. 28 countries have banned travel to and from the u. K. But not the United States. Where just this hour here we surpassed 18 million total infections and a record average more than 2600 americans are dying every single day from the virus. So far more than 319 th,000 liv have been lost. Our hospitals are still short on protective equipment and expected vaccines and space. Many near capacity, hospitals in california are contemplating Rationing Care as the first shipments of the Moderna Vaccine start to arrive across the country today. Joining our conversation, dr. Gnaw henahid bhadelia and Medic Director of the Special Pathogens Unit at boston medical senator and a the school of medicine. The question ive been asking my team and my family all day, is how could this virus become more contagious . It is already the most distinguishing thing that is it could take down a whole wedding or a restaurant. What does more contagious look like . Nicolle, great question. And i think it is sort of important to note in general that every time a virus or bacteria goes from one host to another, it evolves ever so slightly. That is why when we do disease vee investigations, we look at what has happened. And theyre noting multiple mutations in the spike protein of the virus that is uses to enter the human cell and the concern as you said is that this strain is more transmissible. This means it could transmit with greater ease between people and part of what theyre basing that on is two things. One theyre noticing that it is becoming the predominant straight in a lot of new infections and theyre seeing the number of infections that they have go up. However, that latter part could be just that people are letting their guard town and potentially there could be other explanations but it is worrisome enough to roll back that reopening. What this says to me is it again to me, it really puts the importance of why we need to keep the number of new infections down, because every time this virus infects new people it gets the chance to mutate. So if we have mask and distancing and keep the number of people getting infected low, we keep giving the virus fewer chances to mutate and again it also makes it important that people get vaccinated as soon as possible because that is the other way we mutating. So, two questions. One, have there been any mutations that have not traveled around the world . And i ask that because we have not banned travelers from the uk to this country. It could be here any moment, right . For all we know, nicole, it might already be, right . So theyve been seeing cases go up and travel is open. Its always a doubleedged sword with these Travel Restrictions. On one hand you think you might reduce the number of people come in, but the minute you put those Travel Restrictions in, people rush to travel somewhere, particularly around the holidays. And thats what happened with the first restrictions as well. One thing i want to go back and say is that even though we know potentially this could be a strain thats more transmissi l transmissible, it doesnt tell us about the lethality. Its just that its a bit more contagious than what were seeing in other strains. There are probably multiple variants that are out there. To me, the importance of finding the strain is that we immediate to make sure that were keeping our ears to the ground scientifically to a laboratory capacity, to keep looking at the genetics of this virus, to make sure we pick up these mutations exactly for these Public Health reasons. Just really quick, do the vaccines that have been approved in this country protect against this new strain of coronavirus . Yeah. This is a concern for a lot of folks. Let me start off by saying both the cdc and others have said that theyre going to look into this, but theyre not as concerned. And the reason why is because, you know, dr. Tom frieden has used the example that vaccines are like an email that gives the photograph to your body and recognize the culprit and attack it. If you change one small detail in that photograph, your body will still recognize the virus. Small mutations dont really matter. The vaccines are likely to be effective. We really worry about over the years, if tons of details change in that photo, if tons of mutations occur, the vaccine may not give the right instructions to the body. Right now its not a concern but it is something were looking into. Dr. Nahid bhadalia, you always have answers to the questions ive been grappling with for days now. Thank you so much for spending time with us. When we return, as we do every day, well remember lives well lived. Remember lives well lived my husband and my water broke. At only 23 weeks. Andrew we had to stay in the hospital for 10 weeks, 1000s of miles from family. Our driver kristin came along in our most desperate hour. Suzanne bringing us homecooked meals and gifts. Andrew day after day. We wanted to show you something. Kristin oh my god Andrew Kristin is the most uncommonly kind person that weve met. Suzanne thank you so much. 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. Nurtec is the only quick dissolve treatment for migraine attacks that can get many people back to normal activities and last up to 48 hours with just one dose. Dont take if allergic to nurtec. The most common side effect was nausea. For more information, go to nurtec. Com kids laughing dog barking sanctuary music its the final days of the wish list sales event sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. [ Engine Rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know theres a 30minute limit, right . Tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Right now, there are literally thousands of dogs stretched out in living rooms all across california and beyond who owe their lives to this woman, valerie luis. For 25 years she rescued forgotten and abandoned dogs, many of them from socalled highkill shelters. After that, she would match each one of them with a warm and loving family somewhere in the bay area, even during the pandemic. Valerie changed lives. Generosity, determines and, according to the New York Times, the patience of a member of the clergy. And valerie had a day job, too. She was a nurse, in oakland, for some 32 years. Her last position, coordinator of advanced life support. Valerie died of covid last month at the young age of 60. Were thinking tonight of her son, a young man also passionate about animals, studying to be a nurse himself. Valerie left this world a much better place than she found it. And, for that, we are all grateful. We will be right back. Ateful we will be right back. When you switch to xfinity mobile, youre choosing to get connected to the most Reliable Network nationwide, now with 5g included. Discover how to save up to 400 a year with shared data starting at 15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. Come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. You can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. Thank you for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. Were grateful. The beat with ari melber, ayman mohyeldin. Anxious trump staffers who worry he is latching on to extreme ideas as time on his presidency runs ou