Times both reported, quote, mr. Barrs authorizization prompted the Justice Department official who oversees investigations of voter fraud to step down. The move came on the same day the Trump Administration launched a lawsuit to stop the certification of Election Results in pennsylvania. Nbc news among those reporting tonight that those around the president are concerned his current rage will hurt his party and his legacy. Though in fairness a big part of that legacy of course is his takeover of the Republican Party, the incredible obedience his acolytes show him like Mitch Mcconnell who in refusing to acknowledge the Biden Victory today said everything the president wanted him to say right there on the senate floor. Our institutions are actually built for this. We have the system in place to consider concerns, and President Trump is 100 within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options. Jonathan swan over at axios reports the president has already told those around him hes thinking about running for president again in 2024, adding, quote, this is the clearest indication yet trump understands he has lost the 2020 election to joe biden. Meanwhile the president fired his defense secretary mark esper on twitter today writing, quote, mark esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service. The president named chris miller who served as director of the National CounterTerrorism Center as acting defense secretary. Video today showed miller tripping while arriving at the pentagon. Hes then seen taking off his mask before going into the building. The New York Times reports, quote, two white house officials said mr. Trump was not finished and that christopher wray, the fbi director and gena haspel, the cia director could be next in line to be fired. Removing these senior officials in effect decapitating the Nations National security bureaucracy would be without parallel by an outgoing president who just lost reelection. Meanwhile, over the weekend the United States passed a grim milestone. Over 10 million total coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic. Virus now reaches a new peak every day. Its surging in 43 of our 50 states. There have been over 240,000 deaths and over 131,000 new covid19 daces reported just today. 131,000. Over the past week the country has been averaging about 110,000 per day, and ironny of ironnies the president is surrounded by coronavirus once again. His chief of staff mark meadows has it, and then today we learned housing secretary dr. Ben carson has it. So does david bosse, the guy heading up the legal challenges to the Biden Victory. Then there was todays good news on the vaccine front. It came from pfizer which notably did not take part in operation warp speed. Pfizer for its part says its vaccine is 90 effective, that if it holds would be historic. But a lot needs to happen before we can say we have any kind of cure on our hands. Dr. Fauci had this to say about the vaccine earlier today. Its extraordinary, wolf. It is really a big deal. Now, obviously we need to go over the details of the data, but this is highly Reputable Company that has extensive experience in the development of Counter Measures including vaccines. The news is really good all the way around. This is something that we should really feel good about, but i want to make sure people understand is that its good because we know theres light at the end of the tunnel, but that doesnt mean were going to give up the Important Health measures that we continually still have to do every single day. Today president elect biden to that end named 13 Public Health experts to his coronavirus Advisory Board. They include former Surgeon General vivic murphy and Infectious Disease expert micha michaelolester home. The president elect delivered remarks on the pandemic and made an urgent plea for all americans to wear a mask. This is a crisis that affects everyone. As ive said throughout it this campaign i will be a president for every american. This election is over. Its time to put side the partisanship and the rhetoric thats designed to demonize one another. Its time to end the politicization of basic Public Health steps like mask wearing and social distancing. We could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone just wears a mask for the next few months. Not democratic or republican lives, american lives. So thats what a bit of today look like. And before we bring in our big three guests for the top of tonights broadcast, and we hope this wont be triggering to anyone at all, but back at the big board tonight is Steve Kornacki to update us on the states we havent yet called and the race that wont end. Hey, steve. Nice to see you back. You, too, brian. Yeah, well, we do still have some vote counting going on. Biden right now sitting at 279 electoral votes. The question is will that go higher . How high could it go . Lets start in arizona where weve got a few more updates tonight. Joe bidens lead over donald trump sitting now just under 15,000 votes. The story here in arizona the last couple days has been as this last sort of bucket, this last batch of votes throughout the state is tabulated kind of one day at a time. That biden lead has continued to shrink. The question has been what is the pace donald trump is shrinking that lead at it. It continues to look like trump could cut further into that. But whether he could actually catch biden go over the top in arizona, he still doesnt seem to be on pace for that. But certainly looks like itll be close. If the margin gets close you could be in recount territory in arizona. But if biden does hang on in arizona that would be 11 more electoral votes for him. Alaska, by the way, has remained uncalled for a long time. Georgia, though, this is another biggy outstanding. Heres joe biden now sitting on a lead of 12,000 votes and change. Again, most of the vote counting right now at least initially is done. They are in this rekountd zone so you can anticipate that will happen and take a bit of time. But the bottom line for joe biden if youre a candidate going into recount thats a pretty good place to be. The final piece of business is north carolina. That trump lead again sits at 75,000. Not called yet though it is tough to see where biden would get the numbers there. I think realisticly its a question can biden hang on in arizona, can he hang on in georgia . If he does that then 279 would become 306. Oh, yes, by the way, 306 was trumps number four years ago. It all works out including the math sometimes. Steve kornacki at the big board. Greatly appreciate it. Its great to see you again tonight and here we are past 11 00 eastern time. Here for our lead off discussion on a monday night ashley parker, pulitzer prizewinning White House Reporter for the washington post. Shannon pettypiece, senior White House Reporter at nbc news digital. And John Heilemann, author and journalist, our National Affairs analyst, cohost of the circus on show time, the season of which i was sad to see end last night. And executive editor of the recount. Good evening and welcome to you all. Ashley, id like to begin with you. Think of this white house, think of this president floating out stories that he may run again in 2024. Think of how that fill in the blank blocks all other 2024 candidates in a party thats already scared to death of this guy. But think of it in the other way, a gradual begrudging acceptance that he might have lost. Any concrete signs that he may know he lost this . Well, thats exactly right, and we can talk about how it freezes the Republican Party and what it must feel like to be mike pence right now. But him talking about running in 2024 was one of two signs his advisers now have pointed to me today to say his head space is in a place where hes coming to terms with having lost. You dont think youre going to run in 2024 if you think youre going to serve between 2020 and 2024 because you cant run for a third term then. The second indication is he fired esper by tweet. We know he likes to fire people by tweet, but someone pointed out to me. They said it shows he has a time urgency. He has 2 1 2 months left, and if he wants to do whatever it is that he wants to do, esper this firing may be the opening salvo where you read in your intro sort of the decapitation of the security team. And this is person who understands come january 20th biden will go from being president elect to president. And whatever trump wants to stand up or setup or punish enemies or do whatever, he has a limited time. And so he is taking action with an urgency we dont typically see from him. Shannon, same question but keyed off your reporting. This is bad look around the world. Theres one guy responsible for it. Richard engel will be doing that story for us later in this broadcast, in fact. According to your reporting, sharon, where is the president on this personal journey . You know, i think weve been hearing a lot of things from different aides, different advisers, people in the campaign and the white house. You know, i really get the sense that no one really knows whats going to happen over these next two months, not even the president. I dont get the sense that he has even decide what is going to happen because theres been so much gyrating back and forth between lets fight it and fielding redinations, that excellent point ashley made feeling like lee has to take moves now because he could be running out of time. Were about its been about five days since weve seen or heard from the president publicly. Itll be five days as of yesterday. And theres definitely a sense not only among the president and among his aides, among his allies that we do not know where things are going. Theres certainly a sense among people around the president that, you know, this fight is over and that now it is about trying to convince him to preserve his legacy, whether that be for 2024 run or just his legacy for the history books. A sense that people around him want to urge him to go out gracefully. The president , though, indicating as he often does that he is going to go out his way. You know, firing esper, potentially firing wray, firing gena haspel at the cia as a number of people have reported, essentially shooting people on the titanic as they are going down does not sit with that preserve your legacy in the history books or position yourself for a 2024 run. So the president is going to act on his instincts, and despite everything everyone around him might be telling him and telling us, we still have a lot in store the next 70 days. And its so hard to pin down the direction whats going down even though i know thats the question Everyone Wants answered. No, i understand it. And john, to shannons point it looks like this is someone who with his minions wants to settle all family business. Im not sure you want to becunio or strauchy right about now. I want you to feast your ears on something very central Steve Schmidt wants to see happen. It is unacceptable for the Senior Leaders of the Republican Party to be doing what they are doing. Joe biden has won. Pick up the phone and congratulate the president elect of the United States and do better in four years. Maybe if theres a nominee with a modicum of confidence and isnt crazy they wont such a decisive defeat next time. So, john, part of the problem in the president s journey from where he is tonight to that place is the continuing warm bath of loyalty hes enjoying with the big names in the Republican Party. Lets just decide that Mitch Mcconnell is all about january 5th. Two Georgia Senate elections. He will do virtually anything to keep his title, majority leader and not minority leader and switch with schumer. But these others in the party, john, is this loyalty or a fear of being tweeted about a forever thing . Hi, brian. Yes, ill focus on two words. Theres one shannon used. She said something about Donald Trumps people around donald trump wanting him to exit gracefully. Since the president elect has never done anything graceful in the whole period of time hes been in office, i think the notion hes going to leave office in a graceful way is sort of beyond anyones wildest dreams. And then ill focus on the words you just put in front of me which is loyalty. And i do think loyalty is the wrong word in this sense. Maybe its the right word in the sense that it means they stick with him, but its really all driven by fear. Donald trump has ruled by fear and come to a position of extraordinary dominance and dominion over the Republican Party. And i hear my friend Steve Schmidt calling out, crying out, demanding what hes demanding. And i want to call him and say, steve, i know youre doing this, i know you know better. You are not going to get what you want. Because it is the case that donald trump, brian, just got elected failed to get reelected, lost this election, but got 8 million more votes than he got in 2016. Got 70 million votes, the second most votes that any president ial candidate has ever gotten in the history of the country. If youre a republican right now and look at what it is that has made you loyal and supplicant to donald trump for the last four years its been his grip over a large swathe of the Republican Party. That grip has not loosened. They witnessed four years of his incompetence and corruption and p perfity and meanness and malice. If the Republican Party has not abandoned donald trump at this point they will not abandon him, and if they do not abandon the senior ranks of Republican Leadership will not abandon him because they know there are only two places to be in the world Going Forward between now 2024 or 2022 and the Georgia Senate runoffs and thats is youre with donald trump or against donald trump. And theyre afraid of being against donald trump even after he lost a decisive president ial election theyre still afraid of being on the wrong side of him. In the Republican Party that has not changed. Ashley parker, thats a lot to take in. I guess if youre the cia director or the fbi director tonight youre changing the combination of that lockable desk they both have in their offices. I guess tonight youre making sure your affairs are in order. Tell us what we know about chris miller, a name unknown to most here to for before the day, suddenly, poof, hes running the pentagon and 3 million employees around the world. Yeah, theres a lot of concern, brian. Not about him specifically. Were sort of just learning about him. And its not that people, again, have anything bad to say about him specifically. Its more that his resume is fairly thin for this sort of sudden elevation. He hasnt served in the senior ranks of the pentagon before, i dont believe. And also the uncertainty and the way in which the president is doing this that has worried people. Very much it feels like score settling. The esper firing really comes back to a disagreement between President Trump and now former defense secretary esper in the handling of Lafayette Square where you remember the president staged that photoopth that involved ultimately the gassing and shooting of rubber bullets at Peaceful Protesters and esper was one of the few people who pushed back against the president. Also publicly he said he disagreed, he didnt think federal authorities should have been brought in, that wasnt their role. And trump never fraorgave him f that. So what people are worried about is not specifically so much chris miller, but in the 72 days the president has left hes getting ready to settle scores, decimate his National Security apparatus and for what end people arent quite sure yet, but theyre worried. And shannon, indeed ashley just used the phrase that pays, score settling. Late today the white house fired the scientist who does the climate assessment. And thats obviously petty. You dont need a degree in psychology to figure it out, but its another thing the president elect and a transition staff if its ever fully funded will have to go to work on. But isnt score settling to your first point, shannon, going to be what we see for 72 days . And theres only going to be so many things the president has control over in these last few days. You know, a policy, foreign affairs, any of that. The one thing he has control over is firing people. And so if he wants to exercise power and authority, it appears hes going to do it, and that is one of the few places left he can still show hes the president and has some authority over this country and government. John heilemann, final question. Dirty little secret from Election Night is that aside from the top of the ticket the democrats had a bad outing. Whats the early talk about whos going to run the party . Whats the early talk about finding democrats who know how to speak to latino voters, finding democrats who know how to speak to folks who dont shop at whole foods, folks who dont plug their car into the wall at the end of the day . Brian, i think the party has a lot of comp