This is a plan that trump now supports. And Senate Democrats are ready to make it law but today, Mitch Mcconnell is blocking holding a vote on just that. Now, this part is a familiar story. Mcconnell obstructing a bill. Hes proud of that kind of thing but some democrats say they have more leverage this time, this time could be different and the reason its the calendar. It the end of the year. Congress wants to go home like everyone else around the holidays and senator Bernie Sanders is invoking that leverage warning hell use the rules to force senators to be stuck in d. C. With the senate open over new years unless Mcconnell Green lights an up or down vote. We have got to raise the direct payment to 2,000. So that is where we are right now in this historic moment. Do we turn our backs on struggling working families or do we respond to their pain . Republicans looking at a tough choice. If they vote against the money, they buck trump and oppose this clearly vital help for americans during the pandemic. If they vote for the money, they break what this small government ideology and controlling the deficit. Democrats need 12 republicans for this measure to pass. Tonight, there are five republican senators that say with trump meanwhile back at the gulf course today showing however much he claims to care about the issue isnt enough to make him up up to work like the rest of congress including people in both parties. The president has not been there and president elect harris is back with senate dems pushing their message, pushing mcconnell to hold the vote while getting her Covid Vaccine dose you see there on camera for all americans to see the leadership. It may seem odd after so Many Republican delays on covid relief all this year that this particular funding showdown comes down to the wire with this deadline in this holiday week at the end of the year. But lets be clear about why this is happening. This isnt some accident. This isnt as i mentioned just a late in the year type of thing. This is a reflection of what Mitch Mcconnell does. He prefers to obstruct and stall. He calls himself the grim raeapr for a reason and a reflect of Donald Trumps pension for erratic governing and shows some democrats are using a level of vigor using whatever tools they have to force a vote. Bernie sanders wont be popular with his colleagues threatening to keep them so you see how the year ends. A stark contrast. The president golfing his way through the life and death dilemma and congress at work finally and the Incoming Administration applying pressure and modelling a more serious approach to covid while warning that for far too Many Americans in this trump era, it is already too late. Our coverage kicks off tonight with the New York Times mara gay. Co conservative bill crystal and shay who has worked for the obama and clinton campaigns. Good to see each of you. Bill, there are many aspects to this including as mentioned this serious stakes for americans but its also something of a trump versus republican chaotic civil war thing and thats sort of your thing, would you agree . Its been your thing for the last four years. Yeah, unfortunately. Im looking forward to the ending on january 20th. There you go. Maybe other people will join you in looking forward to that. I go to you first on breaking down what is happening here on an issue that matters. I mean, the questions is just a clever thing pressuring republican senators and pressuring health care comcconn see evidence. Hes golfing, one or two tweets urging something. We know what president s can do if they care, we know what trump can do. There are a heck of a lot of republican senators that dont want to get on the wrong side of him and i see no evidence hes doing any more than wants to go out looking as if hes a generous guy and buckled and sienl signed the covid bill and the government with the funding of the government which is good. Hell get on the defense bill tomorrow. I think this show boating by trump. Mara . Well, you know, the thing thats interesting to me is that the democrats, as you eluded to, ari, seem to have a pep in their step in terms of understanding not just the leverage and the power that they have but far more importantly politics of the situation understanding the importance and impact of what 2,000 would mean for the American People and really putting the ownous on republicans to make it happen or to fail the American People. I think thats something that they have really struggled to do for a long time. I think they have struggled to articulate a cohaerent policy platform and message at times around the everyday issues that impact working class americans of all races and backgrounds, and this is something that they really are understanding how to do better. Their messaging has improved around it and more important than the messaging, they really are essentially sticking this to Mitch Mcconnell and saying do you want to deny this to the American People . Thats, i think thats politically right and more important, i think its morally the right thing to do. There is also just an acknowledgement the Current Situation is just not enough for people. Its not even going to make a dent into the real expenses that americans are facing. So i think its the right move. Shay . Yeah, i mean, i think that the only way to read these events is that trump was sending a Ballistic Missile directly to Mitch Mcconnell and it was mainly an apt of revenge and anger at the fact that mcconnell acknowledged bidens victory. Thats the on reason hes done it and taken the democratic position and gone full aoc on the stimulus effort all that time. What occurred, i believe, probably, if Lindsey Graham is telling the truth is that Lindsey Graham perhaps others made it clear to him that georgia is not in the bag for the republicans. There are Early Warning signs in the state. There is a very light republican turnout in northwest georgia thats a great concern and very high African American turnout in the early vote of that state. Enough to concern the republicans that a failure to pass this bill would lose them the senate. And i think graham and others made it clear if republicans lose the senate, trump will be blamed. His future in the gop will be in jeopardy. Trump 2024 may not happen if that is the case. Its interesting, shay, with your knowledge of campaigns reminding us where that hangs in the balance and i think youre associating yourself with bills interpretation a lot of this matter as great deal. Were covering it for the significance and yet, the und underlying motivations of the players are incredibly petty because its shay, ill try to go christmas here but you know thats not my personal specialty. I have less personal knowledge of the faith. It sounds like you and bill arguing that you have, as far as working people are concerned, you have a real scrooge in donald trump and what makes scrooge potentially generous on paper is not generosity. You and bill arguing he doesnt actually care whether people get this much needed relief but rather the only thing that scrooge could get generous over is the pettiness of trying to burn someone that hes mad at and that if the pettiness and the revenge is motivating enough, he will be less stingy, shay. If you look back on the last four years of this presidency, you know, you talk a lot about how trump has violated norms but he always violated norms almost always to help himself. To shield his taxes, to shield his finances, to shield transparency and make sure the Trump Organization made more money. He never violated norms to advance privacy calls. Thats not something he did. It was always about himself. So were entering a new year but the same trump. Trump only thinks about himself and perhaps we should be grateful because somebody who really thought about the country and thought about what they could do with the power of the president could perhaps be a lot more dangerous over the last four years than trump has actually ended up proving to be. Its funny making that point, i dont know if you popped on a grudge report today which is an influential writer, well put up the report on the screen here. They go at the fact that as they put it, okay, give out the money. Debt nears 28 trillion and have the ticker tape record. It was down below 20 trillion when trump took office. The point, bill, made very simply that i think reinforces which shay is saying, its not about fiscal conservatives to begin with. That the for sus for sure w. Look, i will get back to maras point about the democrats. They have done a descent job of framing this. They could do more. President elect biden can say ill submit this on january 21st and ask Speaker Pelosi to bring it back up and ask democrats and republicans i believe in senator mcconnell as a courtesy of the new president to allow for an up or down vote. This news about the bad and worse version of covid coming here, the more the one thats more unfortunately more contagious and with the general apparent, i think its temporary but still halting rollout of the vaccine, Speaker Pelosi could pass and there is not much money in the covid bill for the states to actually do manage the vaccine rollout. Its 8 billion. Thats a big thing to get this thing done right. Speaker pelosi can pass 20 billion, 40 billion for the states just for [ inaudible ]. This is a case to throw money at a problem do good. We know how to do this, we just dont quite have enough assets going right towards this and see if mcconnell doesnt take that up and pass it again in the new Congress Next week and have again, the president elect biden say im going to do this right away. I think for now, its a little happen hazard because the 2,000 thing emerge in a weird way and fighting about the other, the covid bill so im not sure how much effect, im not sure how fearful mcconnell is. I dont think he thinks hell lose georgia because of this. He may lose georgia anyway. The democrats up in the air in georgia with a massive ad buy saying two things, mcconnell, they tell you you want a republican senate. Mcconnell is stopping you from getting the money and b, donald trump thinks you should have this money. Why arent leffler and purdue insisting on it and go to trump voters with democratic advertising to attack them for not supporting President Trump . I think the democrats arent quite all in on punishing republicans as they might for this. Mara . Yeah, i agree with that and just to continue that thought, i mean, i think there is an opportunity here to do the right thing if you can really capitalize on this economic populism but actually cuts across both parties right now. There is an opportunity to do that and i think its the job of everybody in congress in this case when we really do need to just throw money at a problem to make sure that they do that. They need to make this happen. If they cant make it happen, i think they risk all of them looking extraordinarily out of touch with the reality on the ground, which is just an immense amount of suffering. So, you know, i think there is an opportunity here. Yeah, bill mentions the covid outlook. Chay, thats something president elect biden hit today. Take a look. The trump administrations plan for vaccines is falling behind, far behind with only a few days left in december, weve only vaccinated a few million so far. Chay, the argument being its not exactly warp speed. No, its not and this is a thing that, you know, if you are somebody who is giving trump advice and thankfully im not one of those people but if you were one of those people giving trump political advice, one of the things you say is hey, you should be doing victory laps about this vaccine. You should be out there toting your success at the vaccine. If you really care about trump 2024 and the future, the best thing to do is go out graciously and extent the olive branch of joe biden and do victory laps and make sure everybody in america knows youre working the hardest you can to get the vaccine out there. Thats not who he is. He thinks about the vaccine only in that it helps him politically, personally but never about the country. That is just never something thats ever entered his mind. So it is very sad for the country because we dont know fully what the damage has been done but trumps inaction during this period of transition but i think by the spring or summer we will know and it might be very trag tragic. Yeah, and chay, you talk about giving that advice and youve worked for these campaigns. How would you teach donald trump to be gracious . Are you that good at your job, if you had to do it as an operative, how would you do it . One of the things, thats something you cant really teach your candidate from within and you choose candidates because they have those qualities inside of themselves rather than the other way around thinking you can go in reverse but i dont think we should under estimate the psychological drama about trump were watching. His inability to concede here really speaks to something very deep about his life. When candidates lose president ial elections, it is a humiliating personal rejection. It is a tremendous failure and they need family and friends around them to help them cope with that defeat. You know, donald trump doesnt have that. I remember the crushed Hillary Clinton embracing Chelsea Clinton after she conceded. Mitt romney surrounded by his family as hes about to call obama to concede. Does donald trump have any of that . Who will give him a hug. Lou dobbs . I dont know who can reach him in that way. In many ways, if that is a christmas lesson to be learned there, its exactly that. Trump may on paper seem like a winner in life. He has money, power and status but what we really see is this man is a loser. He has nobody. Very strongly put. And bill crystal as the saying goes in washington, sometimes you start out with scrooge and you end up with a hug from lou dobbs and thats it. Chay, bill sometimes start up the scrooge and end up a scrooge. Yeah, sometimes its scrooges all the way down. Thanks to each of you important stuff but with a little wait along the way. We have our 30second break and you have democrats trying to demote mcconnell and also, trumps former Attorney Michael Cohen told me its making waves and news on the pardonspree backfiring and before were done tonight, Chelsea Handler the great comedian is here for a new conversation were excited to air for the first time but first, next, Michael Beschloss on lame duck when we come back. Im joined by president ial historian Michael Beschloss author of ten books on the presidency. Happy holidays. Thanks for being here, michael. Same to you, ari. Nice to see you. Great to see you. I wanted to actually pick up on something that our other guest was disdiscussing, how you deal with that rejection and same number who once work for the trump but become more critical makes this new comment trump is no longer the celebrity mogul mandate he was in new york. Now hes part of the exclusive jimmy Carter George h. W. Bush one term president club. Your thoughts on that part of history here . Yeah, i dont know why all these republicans seem to be so afraid of donald trump in retirement. Look what happens to president s who were defeated for reelection. They fade out pretty quickly and they are not very powerful. So anyone who is fanaticizing that a year from now that donald trump is going to be this for rowo political figure everyone has to consult and every tweet and speech he gives at a county fair, thats not going to happen. I think hes likely to be distracted by legal problems. I dont think he will be remotely the figure in the Republican Party that he is today, and thats why i think Republican Leaders right now should move on, look to the future, not to the past. Very interesting. You mention legal problems. Thats something former trump lawyer Michael Cohen just brought up on this very program last night. It made headlines today for folks who havent seen orbi or busineor busy with holiday leftovers, here is the crux of the announcement last night. This produce as very significant problem for donald trump in the fact that once he received that pardon power, once you get the pardon, youre no longer able to invoke the fifth amendment of selfincrimination because you cannot be charged. So all of these people may ultimately be his down fall simply because theyll be testifying against him. Michael . I saw it. I thought that was well said and who better than Michael Cohen to be an authority on what problems donald trump is going to have legally . I think hes going to be a velcro for lawsuits if he pardons himself assuming that the courts decide its possible for a president to pardon himself, which im not so sure about. Yeah. Do you think then that donald trump based on what past president s have done has a route . I mean, is there i ists fun to say but is there a carter route you received from a political world that has ultimately rejected you and focused on other things . I mean, for trump its not going to be presumably based on the past building houses for the needy but maybe some other project to occupy him. Okay. Im trying to do this with a straight face. No, i do not think that donald trump will be building houses for the needy. No, i do not think he will start a foundation. He tried that once and it turned out to be corrupt. This is someone who has big financial problems, big legal problems, hes going to probably be overwhelmed by them, maybe very soon after he leaves office. Yeah, thanks for joining us, as always. Great to see you, a rirri, h holidays. We have a lot more to