Disease doctor says this is where the country is right now. Is this worse than even you feared . I think its at least as bad as i had feared. Dr. Fauci this morning on today. Also accepting a job offer from the incoming president and praising joe bidens new plan for his first day in office. Im going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask. Not forever. 100 days. And with millions of americans in a desperate situation, we are live on capitol hill. We will hear from nancy pelosi this hour. The question, will americans and businesses get Economic Relief before we hit 2021 . Were going to ask pelosis number two in the house in just a minute live on the show. Im Hallie Jackson in washington with a lot to cover today starting off with nbcs jake ward in oakland, california. Ellison barber in janestown, north dakota and mike memoli covering from wilmington, delaware. Dr. Anthony fauci is accepting a new role in the Incoming Biden Administration with a lot of discussion about the first 100 days with joe biden and what hes going to ask americans to do. Reporter yeah. This was a conversation months in the making. Youll remember that as far back as june, joe biden said one of the very first calls he planned to make as the president elect was to dr. Anthony fauci to ask him to serve in his administration in the same role. And finally, yesterday we knew dr. Fauci was going to be speaking with members of bidens landing team, the teams going across the administration to meet with the sitting officers across the federal government. As part of that conversation, he also spoke with Vice President biden, now the president elect. He said biden, did, he asked him to serve in his administration as the chief ep deem yolgs but even as a chief medical adviser. Savannah guthrie had the first chance to ask him about that conversation. Lets listen. He also said when he spoke to you, he asked you to continue under your role, but also to serve as his chief medical adviser. Will you do that . Did you say yes . Absolutely. I said yes right on the spot. Yeah. Reporter so there it is. He said yes, and also talking about that asked that the president elect is going to make about americans wearing a mask just for his first 100 days. This is about what biden has said is a patriotic duty. She asked if that was enough. He said he thought it was a good idea. This is an important tone biden is setting in terms of how hes presenting it. There was talk about mandates and requirements. Biden is presenting this differently as something that the American People should do as a patriotic act and dr. Fauci is on board with the way biden is talking about it. Jake, let me go to you. Youre in california finding yourself at home like a lot of californians might be finding themselves today because of the new restrictions we talked about at the top of the show. Talk about those and why the governor is issuing them now. Thats right. You know, this is what life is going to look like for those of us in california for at least the next three weeks. The governor was intimating for several weeks he was imposing some sort of statewide restriction. Were seeing what it looks like. Were looking at california making all nonessential businesses close if Hospital Capacity drops below 15 of icu beds. That will also mean that restaurants will only do delivery and takeout, hair salons, gyms, all that is closed. The schools will remain open if they are already open, and the governor made a point of emphasizing we should go outside. This is california after all. Thats how well get through this from a Mental Health perspective. Let me show you where across the country the problem lies. Across this country, really is california right . 40 Million People divided into five regions under this order. All five of those regions are expected to basically run out of icu capacity by the middle of the month if action is not taken. So once each region falls below 15 capacity, that means that these restriction wills go into effect for about three weeks. Hallie, this is not going to be as easy as everyone just doing it. Weve already seen at the federal level the Supreme Court making decisions about new yorks efforts to try to restrict indoor places of worship. Well, yesterday a federal judges rule on that here in california was vacated essentially by the Supreme Court, setting up a fight. It may mean that some churches will refuse to do it. Some counties may not choose to comply. Thats why the governor is talking about possibly maybe denying state funding to counties that dont comply. And certainly when it comes to things like churches, theres going to be gritty enforcement questions to sort out here. A lot of restrictions going into place. All of a sudden to head off a crisis in california. So california is one thing. Rural areas of the country are another. Ellison, thats where you are. Covid is taking a different toll on people. Talk about that. Reporter weve been spending time with paramedics in janestown, north dakota. Theyve been incredibly busy. They say right now the number of calls theyre running, about 70 or 80 are true covid calls. Theyre not suspected covid. Theyre finding out before or after they deal with this patient that they are a confirmed positive covid19 case. You can see some of the paramedics getting things ready, getting things together to take this truck on calls when they can. They tell us here that they not only have seen their call volumes increase, but they also are having to spend a lot more time getting ready to respond to calls, needing to dawn the appropriate ppe and a lot more time having to decontaminate after. Also, what theyre having to do more and more is travel a lot further than normally because they are trying to take patients to some of the smaller hospitals in areas like this. And then theyre being told they dont have beds with the level of care necessary for some of the severe cases of covid19 that these paramedics are dealing with. It falls on the services and the paramedics to make those trips. Fargo is about an hour and a half away. Were being told not only are their resources being pushed to the brink but for many Ambulance Services in Rural America, money is running low. Listen here. Were a profession that has to roll with the punches. Weve always been that way and were good at it. So when we say that were struggling to run with or roll with the punches at this point, its bad. These guys are tired. These guys are conditioned to do a very difficult job. These are probably some of the strongest people youll ever meet in your life, so for them to say theyre tired, that means something. Reporter the American Ambulance association sent a letter to the department of health and Human Services saying 911 services across the country are at a breaking point and if they dont get some sort of relief soon, they could break. People we are talking to tell us many Ambulance Services in Rural America are at that breaking point or they have already gone past it. This ambulance company, this Ambulance Service that we are with in janestown said they received federal aid in april but havent gotten anything since then, and most states dont list Ambulance Services as an essential service. Its the desperation for some kind of help in the government that is evident across the country that cues us up next well for the House Democratic caucus. Jake, alison, mike, thank you. As we discuss the pandemic, also have to discuss the economy. The november jobs report is out. Its worse than experts thought it would be showing 245,000 jobs added last month. Thats a lot less than expected. The Unemployment Rate edged down to 6. 7 . Bottom line, its still a slowing economic recovery. Prompting the pace of action on capitol hill to pick up. Our nbc hill team is reporting Speaker Pelosi and leader mcconnell are talking for the First Time Since the election about covid relief. With aides and lawmakers sounding more optimistic than they have in months. There seeps to be more of a focus on the bipartisan framework. Framework being the word. Leaders made progress on the bottom line number, but as john kennedy said, the details. Not everybody sees eye to eye on policy disagreements getting hammered out. The number two democrat in the house joins me now, a democrat from maryland with the big question. When will relief come for americans. Thank you for being back with us . It needs to come sooner rather than later. We need to get this done as soon as possible. I hope we work every hour. It may not be every member voting on the floor, but we need to work every hour between now and next week. And hopefully ive urged us to get something done by the end of next week. So leader, any plans for direct talks today with Mitch Mcconnell . Is that going to happen . Well, youd have to ask the speaker whether there are going to be direct reports, conference between the two of them. I dont know. But i talked to senator mcconnell on monday and wednesday, and i expect to talk to him today. Great. And where is that conversation going to go . What are you starting with in those conversations that youre going to be having with senator mcconnell . I think they indicated the 908 Million Program which lasts for approximately four months that has been put on the table by a Bipartisan Group of senators and house members is certainly a starting place, and frankly, we ought to get to agreement on those provisions and provisions perhaps that one wants to add or subtract, and we need to do that very soon. Obviously we have millions and millions of americans at dire risk whether its paying their rent, whether its putting food on their tables, whether this is having some enhanced unemployment, we have to act and we have to act now. We have a responsibility to do that. And put aside any other interest and work solely on that objective as well as funding the government. Its also critical not only to the economy but also to the Disaster Relief program. So let me get into the nittygritty. We were showing what was included in the framework. Some of the notable points, nearly 300 million to help out small businesses. 45 billion transportation. 300 per week supplemental unemployment benefit. The total is about 908 billion. Is that the lowest the democrats are comfortable going to . Is that the floor . I think thats the lowest we should go to. We think it needs to be more. The head of the Federal Reserve thinks it ought to be more. The fact of the matter is 908 ought to be a floor. Bipartisan agreement and go from there. And if 908 billion over four months is what we agree on, that ought to be passed. Hopefully well get there soon. We need to. One of the sticking points that is potentially involved in this framework, it does include this temporary liability to protect companies from covidrelated lawsuits. Fit came down to it, this bill, this framework, is that something you could support, a bill with that in it . I have not seen specifically what it requires. I talked to mark warner, a part of the group of eight in the senate about what that meant. If its a moratorium on filing suits, we could look at that. Obviously we dont want to change the rules of the game in terms of how people are compensated for wrong doing of others, but if its just a moratorium, thats possibly something we could consider in my view. Okay. What about no stimulus checks . You okay with that . No direct payments . We ought to have direct payments but we ought not to have a waiting period before we can agree on that. I think we need to have the family payments as i call them, the 1200 and the 500 for children. People need money in their pockets so that businesses can grow and create more jobs. As you indicated, the economic report this morning was disappointing in terms of the creation of jobs. Weve lost more jobs than weve created. So i think that we need to move forward quickly. We ought to have the family money, but this is a fourmonth program. And well have a new president , a new congress, and were not going to stop working. But certainly we ought to do something in the shortterm and the only way were going to do that is to come to agreement. Yeah. It sounds like theres a lot of optimistic signaling if im picking up on the tea leaves. If republicans conveyed if they know whether or not President Trump is going to support Something Like what this framework lays out . Well, President Trump what he says one minute, you dont know that he means the next minute. Having said that, hes indicated that he would sign something that senator mcconnell could get through the senate. If thats the case, then senator mcconnell ought to get something through the senate quickly. We passed a bill in may of 15, david brooks had a column that said cares stopped a depression, and gave a lifeline to millions of people. We need to do that now. I have to ask before you go about the National Defense authorization act, that important defense bill that pays our service members. We have to talk about section 230 also. The protection that makes sure Big Companies like facebook and twitter are not held legally liable for the things posted by other people on their platforms. The nda does two things President Trump does not want in what is a rebuke to him. It does not repeal the section. Are you confident that this is going to have enough bipartisan support to override a president ial veto . I am. First of all, the republican chair of the Armed ServicesAuthorization Committee said 230 did not belong in the bill. Thats a policy thats not in the venue of their committee. And as a result he thinks it ought not to be in there and urged the president not to veto over that. On the base naming part of the bill, i said i would not put the bill on the floor if that Senate Approved, 93 of the Senate Approved the bill that had that language on there. I said i would not put it on the floor unless that language is in there. Im glad the senators, the great leadership on this issue, made sure the provision providing for the renaming of bills of bases from the names of those who committed treason against the United States and fought to enslave the black soldiers and sailors and marines and air force personnel that serves on the bases wont have to serve on a base thats named for somebody who wanted to enslave them. Okay. Go ahead. Sorry to cut you off. Theres a bit of a delay. Youre kind not to do that. I think all right, thank you. Thank you. It speaks to the values of got it. Okay. A lot of headlines on that and the covid relief bill. Were going to be hearing now from nancy pelosi later this hour with interesting details on where democrats heads are at. Leader hoyer, thank you. New details emerging on the suspected pardon scheme involving associates of President Trump. The New York Times naming those being investigated by the Justice Department based on their reporting. Next up, well talk to one of the people behind the scoop. And barack obama diving into Georgias Senate runoffs today. The head of the States Democratic Party will talk with us about president obamas impact on the race there just ahead. Just ahead. Let me help you. Hi mr. Charles, we made you dinner. Ahh, thank you ready to eat . Yes i am vicks vapopatch. Easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. Trusted soothing vapors, from vicks new details this morning of a potential pay to pardon scheme involving associates of President Trump. The New York Times is reporting names of those linked to the Justice Department investigation which may include a top trump fundraiser. Nobody has been charged but heres the deal and check out this flowchart to help explain. According to sources abbe lowell, a lawyer for Jared Kushner and elliot brudi were invest nated. Sanford dealer baras was handed a prison sentence for tax evasion. The Court Documents showed somebody approached the White House Office to make sure the clemency petition got into the right hands. President trump said its fake news. A lawyer denies the allegations saying mr. Broidy is not under investigation and has not been accused of any wrong doing, and abbes lawyer says his role was honorable and predictable. Theres this from the donk. No Government Official was or is currently a subject or target of the investigation disclosed in this filing. The documents are heavily redacted associated with the investigation. They dont put any names. Thats why folks, reporters are trying to figure it out. Michael schmidt is joining us now. He has the lead by line on the story. Michael, great to have you on the show. Thanks for being back. We gave the headlines from your reporting. Take us deeper into the players allegedly involved and what theyre accused of doing. That was a good way of laying it out. I like that graphic. It made a lot of sense. It was helpful. At the most basic level, the problem with this attempted sc