Days. Inheriting a country divided, a country still ravaged by covid19. But tonight a hopeful north star. A vaccine is finally on its way. This is american voices. Tonight after nonstop defeats in federal court, donald trump is taking his flailing voter fraud theorys to georgia. He is desperate. And in just an hours time, the American Public will hear their president attack the very democratic system he has sworn to protect. What a normal president would be doing tonight is getting to georgia to turn out the vote for republican senators Kelly Loeffler and david perdue. Both are in runoffs that determine which Party Controls the chamber. But tonight the president has made it clear he is less concerned about his partys future. He is only worried about staying in office, which will not happen. And because he is still sore over his defeat, the president is now risking his partys only chance of legislative power, calling everything, shaking the system so hard that republicans are now asking fellow republicans if voting is even worth it. If Kelly Loeffler and david perdue do not do it, they have not earned your vote. Dont you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election . For god sakes, fix it. How are we going to get money and work when its already decided . Its not decided. This is the key. How do we know . Its not decided. And then there is this. In yet another attempt to bypass the will of the people, the Atlanta Journal constitution said trump calls Georgia Governor Brian Kemp this morning for help in overturning georgias win for biden. In a moment we know about how the governor responded. What is clear, the president s desperation. To call the governor just hours after his campaign suffered six legal blows, all of them in the states they view as critical to reversing this election. Thats one part of what we call tonight a trump hangover, a hangover that is now spreading behind bogus claims and into the next administrations ability to prepare for office. Tonight reporting reveals the Trump Administration is blocking the biden transition from access at the pentagon, and the president has been appointing personal favorites to defense advisory boards. And then there is covid fatigue, which is real, albeit dire. The president spells out his plans this week and calling on congress now to act now to get relief to struggling americans. Well be in dire trouble if we dont get cooperation. I believe we will. At this hour, its not clear if a bipartisan agreement can be reached. Congressional republicans are complicating stimulus negotiations. Many of them wont even admit trump lost the election. Get this. Of 249 Congressional Republicans surveyed by the Washington Post, 27, 27 acknowledge bidens win. So you can see why there is some doubt about congress ability to agree on anything, and yet they must. American lives and livelihoods depend on it. Eviction protections and more about to expire. As Health Officials warn americas death toll could reach 500,000 by the end of bidens first 100 days in office, even with a rapid vaccine rollout. With me now to discuss former federal prosecutor renato mariot mariotti, author in time magazine, charlotte alter, haze brown, and Deepa Shivaram in georgia. The Atlanta Journal constitution reporting that trump called the governor this morning, tried to pressure him in to overturning bidens victory. What are you hearing there . Alicia, its pretty extraordinary. Thats right. We did see reporting from the Washington Post and of course the Atlanta Journal constitution as well saying that trump essentially called governor brian kemp, also a republican, asking him to go out of his way to overturn the results of the election in georgia, which biden won. This is a state that democrats havent won since 1992 with bill clinton. So it was a pretty extraordinary win for democrats here, now calling georgia a battleground state. But what donald trump is trying to do is essentially bring up several different kinds of arguments to invalidate the vote count. And one of the things hes been tweeting about consistently is signature matching. He is essentially asking the signatures on file to be matched with those on the absentee ballot envelopes. Its a process that brian kemp has repeatedly said he asked for. Its one of the things thats likely not going to happen. But its just another way for donald trump to continue to sow division and to continue to cast doubt on this election, saying things like its rigged, that there was massive voter fraud and providing absolutely no evidence to back that up whatsoever. But its putting republicans in the state in a really tricky position, especially with the Senate Runoff races copping up. Perdue and loeffler arent really able to criticize the president , arent able to call him out. But at the same time they need his base, they need his support, they need people to come out and vote for them despite the president is out here calling it a rigged system. Its mixed messaging at best. You can see even in the press file right now, the wifi for us to connect is literally rigged election. There is a consistency in the messaging coming out. It is a little tightrope the republicans are going to have to watch as they move forward into the next month. Alicia . Mixed messaging is just rouse, deepa. How are Republican Voters where you are grappling with whether they plan to participate in the upcoming Runoff Election given that they have a president who is saying that the last election was rigged . I talked to a number of voters here today in line. I got to tell you, most of them were here to see President Trump. No one was out here telling me they were here to see david perdue or Kelly Loeffler. In terms of the paraphernalia people are wearing, its 2020 trump hats and signs. There is pretty much no mention of david perdue and Kelly Loeffler. It really does seem like a Trump Campaign rally 2. 0, right . Even though the election is over, donald trump hasnt actually conceded, but it seems to be more of a trumpcentered show here tonight. In terms of the runout election coming up, most folks i talked to say they plan to vote, but they also acknowledge that they think their system is flawed. They think their system is rigged. I talked to one young woman who told me she totally understands the argument republicans shouldnt vote because its so fraudulent and the system is rigged. But she also feels she wants her voice to be heard in any way, shape and form. There is some talk republicans going become to paper ballots. Thats something really important to them. But overall again, that mixed messaging coming from voters as well. Deepa, i would be remiss if i did not comment on the soundtrack behind you, which i believe is memories from the Andrew Lloyd Weber rock musical cats which really sets the phone, renato. What is the legality of what President Trump is even asking Governor Kemp to do here . Its impossible, as she just mentioned. Absolutely impossible for them to do, because they separate the envelopes from the ballots so that this way the ballots remain secret. So its impossible. Its not going to happen. And calling any of this a legal strategy is being overly generous. A lot of these lawsuits are would have been just as valid if they were written in crayon. We just had another lawsuit in georgia tossed out because the person who filed it had no standing to bring a claim. Courts are finding that this is completely moot, that there is no way they can proceed because the voters have already spoken and the electors have been certified. Really, as a practical matter, there is no viable legal path forward. Right. There is nowhere to go. So then, if youre the trump legal team, it time to admit defeat . Well, thats in the mind of their client. These are people that the attorneys who are left are ones who have so little ethical scruples that their own names, their own reputations mean nothing to them. Theyre willing to say anything to a court of law. Theyre willing to put their names on legal documents that most reputable attorneys wouldnt. I think for people like Rudy Giuliani or jenna ellis, theyll say anything to keep trump happy. But as a practical matter, i would think of it more as a political and pr and manipulation and Division Strategy rather than a legal strategy at this point. Hayes, i think there is an additional element in that trump and the rnc have raised over 200 million since election day, according to the Trump Campaign. How much are these false claims really about that . A lot i would say. I would say that aside from the president s ego, that is the biggest other factor here about why the president hasnt conceded the election, why he is still keeping things going, because they want to be able to raise money. This isnt money going to the lawsuits that renato was just mentioning. The money for that is coming from somewhere else. This money is going to pay down Trump Campaign debts. Its going to the rnc. So its all part of basically a grift. One last big grift of the Trump Administration where theyre trying to raise these small dollar funds from trump supporters, and lying to them, saying there is still a chance that trump can become president. And you see that with the people who are turned out at this rally in georgia right now. A lot of them out there are still im sure believe that the election was stolen, and that trump can still pull this out. That somehow, some way that legally the Supreme Court, somebody can overturn this and give to it President Trump, even if that is not the case. And joe biden will be president on january 20th. Charlotte, i want to pull up for you this reporting from the Washington Post. It found two republicans consider trump the winner, despite all evidence showing otherwise. And another 220 gop members of the house and senate, nearly 90 of all republicans serving in congress will simply not say who won the election. Charlotte, it is kind of striking that on one hand, he is unwilling to go to georgia and simply do what needs to be done for loeffler and perdue, and on the other hand, you have a vast number of republicans who are still incredibly loyal to him, charlotte. Yeah. I mean probably the reason that so Many Republican members of congress are reluctant to acknowledge that biden won this election is because the republican electorate is still vastly trump supporter, overwhelmingly trump supporters. So its not necessarily that trump is twisting arms in congress. Its that trump still has an iron grip on the republican base. And these members of Congress Know that if they were to break from trump at this point, that they would very likely trigger the ire of their base. Now im not so sure that that will necessarily be true two or three months from now when biden takes the oath of office and when this is effectively settled. Its possible that after this i want interregnum period that things will clear up little bit. Heres what biden said about republican senators calling him to congratulate him privately. Take a listen. There. Have been more than several sitting republican senators who privately called me to congratulate me. And i understand the situation they find themselves in. And until the election is clearly decided in the minds where the Electoral College votes, they get put in a very tough position. Hayes, i wonder what you make of the substance of that answer, both what we can glean about the relationship biden is trying to build with these gop senators seeing that he wont reveal their names, and the fact that you have those gop senators making that call. Yeah, i completely agree with what charlotte was saying is that the base, the people that the republicans need right now to stay in office are still extremely loyal to trump. I think that speaks a little to how much congress has divested over the years to the executive branch. The fact that they feel they cannot stand on their own, that they need the person at the top of the president ial ticket to be the one to pull them over the line, to rally the base, to get them into office again, that does not speak well for how much people who are in congress appreciate their own jobs, appreciate their own legislative branch that theyre in. They believe that without the president , at least at this moment, that theyll be at risk in two years when their jobs are up again, especially in the house. I think that this is a terrible sign for what it means to actually be a senator or a congress person. And i appreciate joe biden is trying to make relationships with these republican senators and trying to make sure that they dont feel too attacked by him before he is even in office. But i think its just embarrassing for them. I think it would be embarrassing if i were david perdue or Kelly Loeffler, and people were not showing up to vote for me. They were showing up for the person at the top of the ticket months ago. I think Congress Needs to get their act together on this. And remember, theyre a legal branch. Renato, so much of what joe biden is going to be inheriting on day one is really an undoing of the Trump Administration. And some of that is playing out in realtime. You have attorney general bill barr who has appointed u. S. Attorney john durham as a special counsel to investigate the origins of the fbis probe of russian interference in the 2016 election, an investigation that may continue into bidens administration. What is the political calculus for biden of choosing whether or not to remove him . Well, i think that if you remove durham, i think it is going give the impression that maybe there was something there that you were scared of. I mean, the practical implication of this as far as i can tell is that it just increases the political cost. If there was no special counsel appointed, durham would complete his investigation and perhaps a manager over him might curtail something. But the special counsel regulations indicate that if the attorney general overrules an action or a decision by the special counsel, that report goes to congress. Also, if a special counsel is removed, it needs to be for cause. And that would also of course be a Public Statement and known publicly. I think it just raises the political stakes for boyden. Suspect that what may happen is he lets that be, because the cost of taking that on and removing durham may be more trouble than its worth, given that its not clear theyre going to find anything of substance. Deepa, renato, charlotte and hayes, thank you all. Still ahead, sign of Hope Congress may be inching closer to delivering covid relief. 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President elect joe biden addressing americans as the nation continues to grapple with the Ongoing Health and Economic Crises caused by this pandemic, a crisis that became the number one killer of americans this week. A crisis that slowed job growth for the fifth straight month. The u. S. Adding only 240,000 jobs in november. And in just weeks americans are at risk of losing critical help including Unemployment Benefits, and the eviction moratorium. After months of stalled negotiations this week, a bipartisan effort to pass a 908 billion covid relief bill got support from Top Democrats as a basis for a package, one that Speaker Nancy Pelosi says has momentum. There is momentum. There is mom