you're done. that's all you have to do. there it is, one more time. the upside down version of "bag man." 12:00 noon eastern tomorrow, andrea mitchell and rachel maddow, i will be watching. >> thank you, my friend, lawrence. thank you, i appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. well, saturday was christmas tree day for many of us around the country. i bought one at the place we've been buying our christmas trees for most of the last 20 years. we decorated the tree, just like jocelyn benson and her 4-year-old son did on saturday. but we didn't have anyone standing outside with guns, like the people who gathered outside michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson's home in the dark on saturday after donald trump had given an hour and 40-minute rant in georgia, centered on the lie that democrats stole the election from donald trump. and the people with trump merch and guns outside jocelyn benson's home were very scary looking as they chanted "stop the steal." but in the end, they simply stopped chanting and went home. earlier tonight jocelyn benson said, "i am proud to stand guard over our voters." michigan state representative, cynthia johnson, a detroit democrat, has received threatening phone calls including one that threatened lynching. now, i will not play for you the audio of that call, which is filled with racist poison and includes the very specific threat of lynching from the woman making that profane, threatening phone call. other democrats in michigan have also been threatened. michigan's governor, gretchen whitmer, was the subject of a kidnap-and-murder conspiracy that was penetrated by informers and led to the arrest of 14 people on federal and state charges, it was today governor whitmer said this. >> i want to end by discussing the recent threats against the secretary of state, jocelyn benson, representative cynthia johnson, and house speaker lee chatfield. yesterday we learned that dozens of protesters gathered outside of secretary benson's house as she was finishing putting up christmas decorations with her 4-year-old son. representative cynthia johnson shared voicemails containing death threats after last week's hearing with rudy giuliani. speaker chatfield said that threats have been made against him and his family. this is unacceptable. threats against our elected officials or any officeholder, no matter their party, are not acceptable. they are unlawful, and they are unacceptable. hate and violence have no place in michigan. secretary benson has worked 24 hours, 7 days a week to ensure a safe, fair election in michigan. the people spoke and it is time to put the election behind us. it is time for us to come together against our common enemy, the virus known as covid-19. i ask for people of goodwill in all parts of our state, on all sides of the aisle, to come together. >> and that is exactly what most people in michigan have actually done. people on both sides of the presidential vote have come together in the complete acceptance of the fact that joe biden is going to be the next president of the united states and kamala harris is going to be the next vice president of the united states. think about these numbers. 2,804 -- i'm sorry. 2 2,649,852 voted for donald trump in michigan. 2.5 million people in michigan. 74 million people voted for donald trump nationwide. 74 million. and just a couple dozen of those people showed up on saturday to get in front of the cameras and yell silly trump slogans at jocelyn benson and her 4-year-old son before they went home, presumably to decorate their own christmas trees. more than 99% of trump voters completely accept the fact that joe biden is going to be the next president of the united states. they might not be happy about it, but they accept it. nothing donald trump says can get them into the streets to protest that fact, that joe biden is going to be the next president. when the votes are being counted for that week after election night, a couple dozen people gathered outside a counting facility in arizona a couple of nights in a row and then they disappeared. another couple of dozen briefly protested vote counting that week in detroit before they disappeared. the tiny number of scary and threatening-looking trump supporters are also threatening some republican officials. they have been threatening republican election officials in georgia, especially including georgia's governor, georgia's secretary of state, and republican gabriel sterling who is in charge of election technology in the georgia secretary of state's office. >> okay. like the simple one that is kind of stuck with me was, you know, i turned 50 on november 14th. so somebody tweeted out, enjoy your last birthday cake. you know, those kind of things. but then my cellphone number is out there publicly. i used to be a public elected official, on the city council in sandy springs. it is sort of out there in the internet world so i started getting text messages. i talked to the state patrol guys here and my local police chief, which was helpful for being on the city council formerly, i knew him personally. i have police protection around me, and that is when it started to get a little nut-ball crazy town around us, you know. >> the leader of nut-ball crazy town, donald trump, continues to try to illegally change the results of the election with the latest report from "the washington post" in this category being tonight's reporting about pennsylvania. president trump called the speaker of the pennsylvania house of representatives twice during the past week to make an extraordinary request for help reversing his loss in the state, reflecting a broadening pressure campaign by the president and his allies to try to subvert the 2020 election result. the most important piece of that "washington post" reporting tonight is that pennsylvania's republican speaker of the house, brian cutler, twice told the president that it is impossible for the pennsylvania legislature to overturn the election. impossible. that's what georgia's republican governor has repeatedly told the president and said publicly, that it is legally impossible and that it is unconstitutional for the governor or the state legislature to try in any way to reverse joe biden's win in georgia. arizona's republican governor certified arizona's vote giving its 11 electoral college votes to joe biden. every single republican in the country who has any legal responsibility for the counting of votes and the certifying of votes has fulfilled that duty. most elected republicans are happy to play donald trump's game and pretend joe biden did not win the presidential election decisively. "the washington post" survey of every republican member of the united states senate and every republican member of the house of representatives found that 90% of them were unwilling to admit publicly that joe biden is the president-elect and will be inaugurated on january 20th. even while pennsylvania's republican speaker of the house did the right thing in explaining to donald trump that there is absolutely nothing he or this pennsylvania legislature can do to change the outcome of the election, that same house speaker put his name on a letter with other pennsylvania legislators to pennsylvania's congressional delegation in washington, telling them that they should challenge pennsylvania's electoral votes being awarded to joe biden when the electoral college reports its results to the congress. so pennsylvania's house speaker will put his name on a stunt, on a phony letter to congress pretending that there's a reason to overturn joe biden's victory in pennsylvania, and he does that at the very same time that he's on the phone with donald trump twice telling donald trump that there is absolutely nothing he can do or will do in the state legislature to change the outcome of the election. so we have two tracks on this story tonight. republicans being responsible, republicans being irresponsible, and in the case of pennsylvania's republican speaker of the house being both. but where it counts, he is responsible, certifying those election results in pennsylvania. pennsylvania, georgia. georgia is certifying joe biden's win, which they did once again today when joe biden won the second recount of votes in georgia after winning the previous two counts of the votes in georgia. republican house speaker in pennsylvania being responsible and faithful to the oath of office when he's on the phone telling donald trump that there is absolutely nothing that he can do and that the legislature can do to reverse the results in pennsylvania. arizona's governor certifying the election results showing joe biden won and facing an attack from donald trump for doing that. we have 74 million trump voters in this country quietly, peacefully, calmly staying at home, decorating their christmas trees, watching football games and accepting the fact -- not enjoying the fact -- but accepting the fact that joe biden is going to be the next president of the united states and kamala harris is going to be the next vice president of the united states. we have a few dozen people here and there around the country who will go out, not just to protest joe biden's win but to demand that the results of the election be changed and some of them make those demands while carrying guns. if there is no kyle rittenhouse in those gun-carrying trump supporters, then by february this will all be mostly forgotten. threats of lynching will fade from memory except for the people who received those threats, and all of this seemingly violent, threatening behavior, if we're lucky, if we're lucky, will not end in any actual violence. but it will leave yet another permanent stain on the worst president in american history because donald trump has never once condemned the violent threats made in his name, and donald trump wants, he wants his followers to believe that those godless democrats are once again this year, as in every year, in a war on christmas. what would a war on christmas look like? would it look like a bunch of guys outside your window threatening you with guns while you and your 4-year-old son are decorating a christmas tree? that's what donald trump wants for you this christmas if you have any role in standing guard over our voters. leading off our discussion tonight is michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson. thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate this. i just want to know what it was like for you in your house on saturday with your 4-year-old son decorating a christmas tree, a scene we all know well. we have lived through as 4-year-olds ourselves, some of us as parents ourselves. and to have that scene out in front of your house. >> well, thanks for having me and certainly it was a unique time and typically a very peaceful time. for that reason, as we're putting our young son to bed, it is important to maintain that peace around him and the serenity and the calm. so as noise may have escalated outside, the goal was simply to enable him to feel safe and secure as he very much did at that moment. so, you know, we made sure that he was able to watch his favorite show, "the grinch who stole christmas," he got to stay up a little bit later doing that. i think he enjoyed that. we were maintaining -- at the same time -- protect everyone in our house -- importance for everyone. >> secretary benson, this notion of protector of the vote and protector of voters, that is not how i have ever seen states secretaries of state before this year when it has really become a different kind of job stylistically anyway because you have to contend with this outside protest against what you are doing. >> yes, it certainly is -- i mean, in my view the state's chief election officer always has served as the guardian of the democratic process, the guardian of our elections and our voters. in fact, as things escalated on saturday, that also is quite clear to me that these individuals may have been attacking me in my role as the state's chief election officer, but they really were aiming their threats, as you mentioned, at the voters themselves, at our democracy. as the defender of those voters, i'm proud to ensure and stand guard against any threats to minimize their voice or otherwise attempt to overturn the results of the election. so any result or outcome of saturday really just strengthened my fortitude to continue to guard the vote, to continue to protect the sankty tuesday of our democratic process. and i know many of my colleagues around the country feel the same. >> donald trump won your state four years ago by about 10,000 votes. joe biden won your state this time by about 150,000 votes. in both of those vote counts did you have any doubt about either one of them, the 10,000 vote win margin by donald trump or the 150,000 vote win margin by joe biden? >> well, no, particularly this year. our election was as secure as it has ever been. in fact, the greatest threat to the security of our elections have really been through this misinformation and false rhetoric designed to sow seeds of doubt among the electorate about the sanctity of the process. but truly the process itself was secure and accurate. despite an unprecedented scrutiny of the process, it has withstood and results have been certified. at this point a month out of the november 3rd election of the polls closing that night, it is important for us to recognize that and for everyone with a platform or in position of authority to note that every moment that this misinformation and hateful rhetoric continues leads to more moments like we experienced, i experienced, my son experienced on saturday night. >> i want to listen to something that congressman james clyburn said tonight. he represents a district in south carolina where through his whole life he has seen attempts at voter suppression and at attempts basically to devalue voters and votes. let's listen to what he said about what he is seeing now. >> i never thought i would see the day that duly elected people will be so shallow in their thinking to try and overturn an election. you talking about a difference of 7 million votes. anyplace else in the world that would be recognized as a landslide victory for whoever got the votes. for them to fly in the face of that, they're really trying to invite insurrection. >> secretary benson, where do you see yourself in the flow of history? do you feel a connection to what you're having to deal with this year, to what others struggling for getting all votes recognized in the past in this country have been struggling for? >> yes, certainly. i mean, i started my career in montgomery, alabama. investigating hate groups and hate crimes throughout the country. it was there i was instilled with a deep sense of responsibility to carry on the work of those who worked to defend our democracy throughout history, sacrificing certainly a great deal. it is not lost on me, those sacrifices that are borne by anyone seeking to protect voters, protect our democracy and guard the will of the people. in many ways secretaries of state and election administrators across the country are on the front line doing that under significant spotlight this year, but i think you will find from all of us regardless of what side of the aisle we are on we are proud to do that. that's our job. that's the oath of office we take when we step up as election administrators, so that pride is just increases as we feel connected with all of those who have come before us to defend and protect voters, our citizens and democracy. >> michigan secretary of state, jocelyn benson, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> thank you. up next, life after trump. political life. will donald trump in effect be the republican leader of the united states senate whether the republicans are in the majority or the minority in the senate? and what will that mean to the biden/harris agenda? mary trump, donald trump's niece, joins us next. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? protect it today, enjoy it for years. with walmart protection plans by allstate. protect it today, enjoy it for years. the we have to find just nosomething else.it. good luck! what does that mean? we are doomed. [laughter] that's it. i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [laughing] that works. trying to confirm members of the cabinet and trying to pass legislation for economic relief and the expansion of health care coverage during a pandemic? axios is reporting president trump is considering a made for tv grand finale, a departure of marine one an unfinal air force one flight to florida for a rally opposite joe biden's inauguration sources familiar with the discussion tell axios. but if president trump has pardoned himself and his family and rudy giuliani and who knows who else and if he still ends up as a criminal defendant in the state of new york where his federal pardon cannot protect him who will still be listening to donald trump? joining us now is mary trump, author of "too much and never enough." mary, thank you very much for joining us again tonight. i want to get your vision of donald trump next year, donald trump january 21st. is he still trying to control the operations of the united states senate? and then what happens eventually when or i should say if, if he becomes a criminal defendant in the state of new york? >> i think part of that depends a lot on what happens on january 5th in georgia honestly. i think that the silence of republicans in congress as donald continues to commit sedition on a practically daily basis is unforgivable. however, from a tactical point of view i'm pretty sure it is because mitch mcconnell believes he needs to keep donald's base riled up in order to increase republican turnout in georgia. so the question -- one big question i think is how much use is the republican party going to continue to get out of donald. post-inauguration what should happen, because this is what usually happens, is that the outgoing president decreases in relevance, is no longer the center of the show, and that's what should happen now but it depends on us. donald at that point is going to be even more desperate than he is now because clearly once joe biden is in office donald no longer has the protection of the oval office. so on january 21st, he should indeed be looking at state-level charges in new york, and who knows what else? the question then becomes what is he going to do to change the subject. >> i wanted to get your reading as someone trained in psychology about this line that your uncle delivered on saturday, which to me seems to be boiling it all down to its most basic essence, the essence of the trumpian message, where he said to his crowd in georgia, "we are all victims, everybody here, all these thousands of people here tonight, they are all victims, every one of you." >> it is one of the most extraordinary things about donald, is he has always considered himself somebody who has never been treated properly, even though he is one of the most privileged people on the planet from the time he was born. he was born into great wealth. he had everything at his disposal. he was entirely supported for his entire life by his parents and then the media and now the republican party. so his politics of grievance are pretty grotesque. however, he is attempting to strike a chord with his audience, which also considers themselves a victim of an unfair system and of, you know, i guess some liberal, democratic conspiracy. the truth of the matter is they're all donald's victims, and it is a way for him to flex his power and demonstrate the control he has over the people he is deliberately misleading. >> there's a question -- i guess it is a social psychology question in this conversation he is having with his followers there because he's gone from telling them that they are winners and he's the greatest winner in the world, that's all he does, and telling them they're going to get tired of winning. it was winning, winning, winning, and he switches that now in his very first public speech really after losing the election by saying, "we are all victims." how would a social psychologist explain the way the crowds are processing that switch? >> well, i'm not a social psychologist so i will do my best. >> yes. >> i think that these people are so invested in the myth that is donald trump that they will follow him to the ends of the earth no matter. they will follow any argument he makes, no matter how contradictory, no matter how hypocritical, because without him what are they? you know, he has taken the politics of grievance -- and i hate to give him credit for anything, but he has taken it to an art form and they are right there with him, feeling just as aggrieved on his behalf but also on their own. >> does that "axios" reported vision of inauguration day read as possible to you, that donald trump will fly off on air force one to florida in the morning, of course, not go to the inauguration -- which i always said he won't do -- but then have a rally in florida at noon time, at the same time as the inauguration? >> absolutely. i agree with you. it is much more likely that he counter programs the inauguration in some melodramatic way than it is that he shows up because, again, showing up would mean conceding something that he is never going to concede. it is though incumbent upon us no matter what he does, no matter how extravagant and ridiculous his stunt that we ignore him and pay attention to what's important, which is the incoming administration and what they are going to do to help us get out of the messes that donald has put us in. >> mary trump, you and i will be ignoring together whatever donald trump does on inauguration day. mary trump, the book is "too much and never enough." thank you for joining us again tonight. we always appreciate it. >> thank you so much, lawrence. it is great to be here. >> thank you. coming up, the georgia senate elections on january 5th. as mary trump just said, they are going to be so important. they will determine much of the future of the biden presidency, everything from cabinet confirmations to legislation is at stake. julian castro campaigned in georgia with georgia senate candidate jon ossoff today and he will join us next. you can really save. save for being a new customer. save more for adding drivewise. save even more for driving safely. take another look at allstate - and start saving. ♪ ♪ you're still the one ♪ that i love to touch ♪ still the one ♪ and i can't get enough ♪ we're still having fun, ♪ and you're still the one applebee's 2 for $20. now that's eating good in the neighborhood. early voting in georgia for the january senate elections begins one week from today on december 14th. debates for both georgia senate races were held last night in atlanta. here is republican senator kelly loeffler and democrat reverend raphael warnock. >> my question is pretty simple. yes or no, senator loeffler, did donald trump lose the recent presidential election? >> you know, president trump has every right to use every legal recourse available. in our own state we have seen time and again that we have investigations that need to be completed. >> the trump campaign has filed 53 frivolous lawsuits claiming election fraud. courts -- actually, the lawsuits did not ever claim fraud, not in a single one of those lawsuits did they claim fraud once they got in a court. courts found zero instances of fraud. that includes one case in georgia that was dismissed today by a federal judge appointed by president george w. bush. georgia's republican senator david perdue, who is facing allegations of insider trading, just refused to show up to debate his challenger, democrat jon ossoff, who appeared next to an empty lectern. >> my message for the people of our state at this moment of crisis is your senator feels entitled to your vote. your senator is refusing to answer questions and debate his opponent because he believes he shouldn't have to. he believes this senate seat belongs to him. the senate seat belongs to the people. >> today jon ossoff held a campaign event in littleburn, georgia. >> imagine being a u.s. senator afraid of answering questions in public for fear that he might incriminate himself. at a moment like this when people are hurting. >> joining us is julian castro, the former secretary of housing and urban development in the obama administration, former mayor of san antonio, texas. secretary castro, thank you for joining us tonight. you are back on the campaign trail today for jon ossoff, tomorrow for raphael warnock. what are you seeing out there, especially in response to this weekend's debate, last night's debate where david perdue did not even show up? >> it's good to be with you, lawrence. what i'm seeing is a lot of enthusiasm. i think that the people of georgia understand how important the stakes are here. they understand that what happens here in georgia is going to affect not only all georgians but also all of us as americans. i think most folks get, and what they saw in the debates last night reinforced this, that in senators loeffler and perdue they've had two people that in georgia's most critical moment of need have chosen to serve themselves, to enrich themselves, to benefit their friends, instead of working on behalf of the people of georgia. what they see in raphael warnock and in jon ossoff are two folks who are committed to serving the people of georgia, who are talking about the issues that matter, health care, jobs, getting small businesses back up and going, housing opportunity, as many people are facing eviction, making sure we tackle climate change, and the biggest challenges of our generation. so the differences here couldn't be more clear. >> let's listen to more of what jon ossoff had to say on the campaign trail today and how these campaigns, these two democratic campaigns, sound like a partnership. let's listen to this. >> you got the young, jewish journalist son of an immigrant running alongside a black preacher who holds the same pulpit as dr. king at ebenezer baptist church, building a movement for health, jobs and justice for the people at a moment of crisis, because health, jobs and justice are what the people need right now. we are running against the bonnie and clyde of political corruption in america. >> secretary castro, that kind of teamwork is unusual. most people when they're running for office they're just trying to get themselves over that hurdle. >> well, it is. i think we're fortunate that we have these runoffs going on at the same time. as you know, lawrence, this doesn't often happen where you have two united states senate seats in a runoff up at the same time. you know, i think they've done a very good job as a team, campaigning, making sure that their message is clear about what they're going to do for the people of georgia to get us past this pandemic, to work to make sure that folks have good opportunities here in georgia, and that's how they're going to govern. they're going to govern in a much stronger way for the people of georgia than loeffler and perdue have. >> i want to listen to something that reverend warnock said last night in his debate because, interestingly, both democratic campaigns are running against republican candidates, credibly accused of insider trading, using their senate positions for insider trading. let's listen to the way reverend warnock put it last night. >> she was only there three weeks. i'm not sure she was fully unpacked when she started dumping millions of dollars of stock trying to protect herself. she purchased that seat. it has done well for her. the issue is that the people who sold it to her don't own it, and the people of georgia are coming back to get their seat. >> secretary castro, is that issue getting traction on the campaign trail? >> it is, especially because here is somebody in kelly loeffler who was not elected, who last night in the debate you could tell just said the same thing over and over and over again. instead of addressing the issues basically just tried to label raphael warnock as too liberal for georgia when he was there actually talking about the things that we hear people talking about at their kitchen table, being able to afford the rent, you know, when is their job going to come back online, what is washington, d.c. doing to work to make sure that they have opportunity and to make sure that everybody can get past this pandemic. it's night and day the way that warnock and ossoff are addressing the issues that people are talking about, that they care about right now, and how disconnected loeffler and perdue are. >> senator julian castro, live from the campaign trail in georgia, thank you very much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> great to be with you. up next, "the new york times" reported that donald trump refused the opportunity to buy more covid vaccine for the united states from pfizer earlier this year. that vaccine is likely to be approved by the fda soon, but there could be a shortage of it in the united states because of that trump decision. trump administration whistle-blower dr. rick bright joins us next. with allstate, you can really save. save for being a new customer. save more for adding drivewise. save even more for driving safely. see how much you can save with allstate. ♪ >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple was onan save a camping trip...e. ...when their windshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? 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[doorbell chimes] cheers. i win again, patrick. that's siiir patrick. oooooow. sir. tonight "the new york times" reports trump administration officials passed when pfizer offered in late summer to sell the u.s. government additional doses of its covid-19 vaccines. now pfizer may not be able to provide more of its vaccine to the united states until next june because of its commitments to other countries. in a news conference today with new york governor andrew cuomo, dr. anthony fauci, who will serve as joe biden's chief medical adviser on covid-19, said this. >> when you have 75%, 80% of the people vaccinated you have an umbrella of protection over the community that the level of community spread will be really, really very low. the virus will not have any place to go. when that happens, governor, is going to be entirely dependent upon how well we do, how well i do, you do, your health officials in getting the message out of why it is so important for people to get vaccinated, because if 50% of the people get vaccinated, then we don't have that umbrella of immunity over us. >> joining us now is rick bright. he is a member of the president-elect's coronavirus advisory board. thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. you have gone from being a trump administration whistle-blower, saying that the trump administration was not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously enough, to now being an adviser to the incoming president. i want to get your reaction to this "new york times" report tonight that the trump administration was offered more of the pfizer vaccine, which is now very close to being approved here, turned it down and now won't be able to get more until the summer possibly at the earliest. >> well, lawrence, thanks for having me on tonight. the news is really concerning, as you might imagine, and we are still looking into that now. we are assessing to see what actually has been ordered and what still needs to happen to ensure that we have enough vaccine doses for all americans as quickly as possible. now, this highlights something i have been talking about for many months as a vaccine expert. making vaccines is very complicated. it's a very complex process. it takes time to make the vaccines, to evaluate the vaccines, and then we have to, of course, review the vaccines, which the fda will be doing on thursday for their safety and how well they work. then the really hard work starts in distributing those vaccines and getting them out into the health care centers and hospitals and communities so people can be vaccinated. we have a lot of work ahead of us. one of the greatest concerns i have, as you heard dr. fauci share at the same time, if we don't have enough vaccine soon enough to create that level of immunity in our community, then we will be faced with dealing with this pandemic and the consequences of the pandemic for much longer. >> let's listen to more of what dr. fauci had to say today. >> more people are going to travel over christmas. they're going to have more of those family-and-friend gatherings that you accurately said are an issue. if those two things happen and we don't mitigate well, we don't listen to the public health measures that we need to follow, that we could start to see things really get bad in the middle of january for any state or city that is facing similar problems without substantial mitigation. the middle of january can be a really dark time for us. >> do you see that same vision of the middle of january that dr. fauci sees? >> it's getting worse every day unfortunately. we are in the middle of the dark winter we project we would be at if we didn't take those public health measures earlier in the year. if our government didn't lead by example and really encourage people to follow the public health guidelines by wearing masks and avoiding crowds. that didn't happen. we are now in what i described in may as what would be the darkest winter in modern history and it is likely to get much worse. i do want to say that many people are wearing their face mask and many people are following the public health guidelines and social distancing and actually reports i saw in the last week said more people are wearing the mask regularly when they leave their home. that is encouraging and very, very grateful for those people following the guidelines. we need to get many more people to do that. we need 95% or more of the population wearing a face mask every time you leave the house. outside and inside now. and keeping out of crowds and keeping away from others in the small grouping as much as possible. that is how we're going to control the spread of this virus until we have sufficient vaccine available to provide that community protection that we need so desperately. >> when we see dr. fauci appearing with governor cuomo that seems like a certain kind of concession by donald trump. that would be imaginable if donald trump had been re-elected. >> well, i can say that we need leadership now and i'm so glad that we have a president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris coming into office. i think you saw the news today announcing that nominee for hhs secretary and a whole group of scientists coming in to lead hhs so i'm convinced now we have leadership coming in, science is back, and we are going do get a hold of this virus and control the pandemic and end it in january. >> rick bright, thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. >> thank you. up next, tonight's special last word. you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'll do it. good plan. with sweet potato fries. eating a falafel wrap i'll do it. (doorbell rings) thanks! splitsies? ♪ oooh...you meant the food, didn't you? coto build a house, you need ary ststrong foundation. [music playing throughout] the same is true for building a business. black-owned businesses are an integral part of america's foundation. they lay the groundwork for other black businesses like mine - that turns concrete into something beautiful. i'm kimberley robles, and i'm the owner and founder of robles concrete design. the citi foundation is helping our community partners facilitate more loans to black-owned businesses. [what's this?] oh, are we kicking karly out? we live with at&t. it was a lapse in judgment. at&t, we called this house meeting because you advertise gig-speed internet, but we can't sign up for that here. yeah, but i'm just like warming up to those speeds. you've lived here two years. the personal attacks aren't helping, karly. don't you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something? [ muffled scream ] stop living with at&t. xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. it was last wednesday at this hour that we last talked about the k.i.n.d. fund to deliver desks to schools in africa where the kids have never seen desks and scholarships for girls to attend harland sanders in malawi where high school attendance is not guaranteed. you have continued your generous surge of support for the k.i.n.d. fund even in this difficult year. as this country and the world suffer the health and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. andrew koh tweeted thank you for your efforts. i am a former peace corps teacher so i have seen the plight of underfunded schools firsthand. i am tapped out this year but next year i will remember k.i.n.d. i understand it's an impossible time for many of you but even in this difficult year viewers have been able to contribute almost $500,000 to the fund just since we last discussed it on wednesday. this person was sent home from high school when her parents could not afford the school fees in the freshman year. but your generosity is now going to enable her to graduate from high school. paula tweeted thank you for the reminder. my daughter has two s.t.e.m. degrees. we are happy to help again this year. michael tweeted, lawrence, thank you for kind. i just purchased a desk and i'm just super excited to do it. you can go to lastworddesks.msnbc.com and give a desk or a scholarship to anyone on your gift list and they'll get an acknowledgement to the gift. no contribution to a desk or a scholarship is too small. uriter was sent home from school when the coronavirus pandemic shut down all malawi schools in march. there was virtually no remote learning for students there except for some classes held of the radio. but most kids in malawi do not have access to a radio. classrooms reopened in october. i will still be able to reach for my dreams. ♪ and good evening once again, day 1,418 of the trump administration, 30 days since the election was called for joe biden, 44 days remain until joe biden is sworn in. we should also add this, 79 years ago today, 2,403 americans were killed by the japanese at pearl harbor, roosevelt's words calling it a day that will live in infamy have stood the test of time. who would havegi