Going to be covering on the show tonight all the current and forthcoming nuttiness of this week, because of that, i think we should start tonight right here with something that i think is the opposite of nuts. Following on chris discussion earlier tonight with dr. Anthony fauci about the challenges of the Vaccination Program and how slow it is going, and how hard it is apparently to get vaccines into american arms now that weve got it approved and the Vaccine Program up and running. Given that, tonight i would like to start by introducing you to ms. Maureen weil. She lives in the Great American city of new orleans, and, trust me, you are going to be happy to meet her. Do you mind if i ask how old you are . 79. So youre in that group . Oh, yeah. How does it feel to be one of the first people in excited, and i feel im blessed to be one of the few that can get it because people are standing in line trying to get it. You said you feel excited. Why . Because i have a chance to see a few more days on this earth, because im protected. I believe in science. And what do you tell all these people who question the vaccine and dont want to take it . I call them stupid because that or either buffoon because thats the only other thing i could think of that would justify their stupidity. You didnt hesitate . Huh . You didnt hesitate . Oh, i dont hesitate period. I never have. This was the first one. Youre going to get two shots. I know. How did it go . Wonderful. I mean a little prick and boop. The medicine, you felt it going in, but it didnt hurt. Are you concerned over this pandemic . Yes, very concerned. There are a lot of people who dont believe they listen to the man thats in washington, d. C. Thats on his way out the door, talking about its all a hoax and all that bull corn, and he shouldnt be doing that because thats peoples lives. Look at the parents who have died and left young children. I mean its sad. So now you having this shot, is that like a weight off your shoulders . Yes. Does it give you peace of mind . Yes, it does. It gives me a lot of peace of mind. I believe in science, and i dont think dr. Fauci would be on tv every day telling people to take the vaccine if it wasnt good for them because thats how much respect i have for him. Do you feel like youre kind of being in the first wave like this, that youre kind of helping the science of this as it plays out . I dont know if im helping the science, but i know one thing for sure. Im going to save somebody elses life by protecting myself. Tell me about that. Why do you say that . Because then i wont get the corona, so i cant spread it to anybody else. So that gives me a little satisfaction that im doing it not just for myself but for others. Do you think that the way this vaccine has been rolled out, that thats been going okay from what youve seen . Well, i can say that if you had asked me last year what a pandemic was, i wouldnt have known. I had to look it up. And to see everybody in the whole, wide world is suffering, thats scary. So we have to believe in science. Theres no other way. Are you optimistic . Do you see light at the end of the tunnel . Oh, yeah. Only when we didnt have a vaccine, we really were up the creek, werent we . And we had a hole in the boat. But we got a vaccine, so we got safety. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Youre welcome. Youre welcome. We were really up the creek, werent we . And we had a hole in the boat. But we got the vaccine, and so we got safety. Ms. Maureen weil of new orleans here tonight to buoy all of us, to give us all a Mental Health boost with some straightup sanity at the start of a few days that, im telling you, are going to be crazy. Ms. Weil got vaccinated at University Medical center in new orleans. She is indeed one of the lucky few. Despite the Trump Administration insisting that they would have 20 million americans vaccinated by the end of december, twothirds of the vaccines shipped out already have still not actually been administered to anyone. 15 million doses have shipped out thus far, but less than 5 million of those 15 million doses have actually been used to inoculate anyone. Were going to be talking tonight about the situation in what is now the worst epicenter in the country in terms of hospitalizations. Los angeles, california. Ambulance crews in los angeles are now being advised to not bring patients in to l. A. County hospitals if, when they encounter the patient in the field, that patient is unlikely to survive. The army corps of engineers being brought in to upgrade oxygen supply lines inside l. A. Hospitals because those hospitals are now using so much oxygen for so many respiratory patients that the oxygen lines inside the hospitals are freezing. Tonight there are more people hospitalized with covid than on any other day since the pandemic began. And you know how this goes. First the case numbers go up. Then the hospitalization numbers follow, and then the death numbers follow that. Hospitalizations, in fact, set a new record within the past 24 hours, which is terrible. The president s on it, though. Over the new years holiday, he said that as far as hes concerned, not only the case numbers but the death numbers are all made up. He says theyre all exaggerated. Yeah, thats one way to cope with the fact that 2 in 3,000 americans are dying every day. Just plug your ears and say its not true. Thats apparently how the president is coping at least. And if that seems like an indication that he might not be working his hardest to try to keep 2 in 3,000 americans a day from dying, well, rest assured i want to show you this. This is his official schedule today according to the white house. This is exactly what they released for his schedule today, monday, january 4th, 2021. It says, verbatim quote, President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings, period. Thats what they released for his schedule today. And actually just as i sat down to start the show tonight, they just sent out the president s schedule for tomorrow, and its going to sound familiar to you. Daily guidance and press schedule for the president , tuesday, january 5th, 2021. So this is for tomorrow. Once again, President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings. Thats what the president s doing. Many calls, many meetings. So no need to worry, then. Were obviously in great hands. At this point, though, after the story the Washington Post broke this weekend, we have to wonder how many of those many, many calls the president is having might sound anything like this little bundle of crime. So what are we going to do here, folks . I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, i need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know what they did, and youre not reporting it. You know, thats a criminal thats a criminal offense. And, you know, you cant let that happen. Thats a big risk to you and to ryan, your lawyer. Thats a big risk. And the people of georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry, and theres nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that youve recalculated. Its not fair to take it away from us like this, and its going to be very costly in many ways. And i think you have to say that youre going to reexamine it, and you can reexamine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people that dont want to find answers. You cant let it happen, and you are letting it happen. You know, i mean, im notifying you that youre letting it happen. So, look, all i want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes. I just want you to find, find enough votes to declare me the winner of the election in your state. And if you dont, what does he call it . He says, thats a big risk, a big risk to you, right . Ill call that a criminal offense by you if you dont do this. Say youve recalculated. Say youve reexamined it and i won, or else. Heres my question. Who does the president think is going to prosecute georgias state Election Officials if they refuse his demand that they must forge new fake Election Results that say he won . Hes threatening them, right . He says, i am im notifying you that you are letting it happen. Thats a criminal thats a criminal offense. You cant let that happen. Thats a big risk to you. Thats a big risk. Risk to whom . How in what sense is that a criminal offense by those state officials . Whos supposed to bring those charges that the president is threatening against these state officials . This audio was first obtained and published this weekend by the Washington Post. Since then multiple news organizations have obtained it and made their own transcriptions of the recording. In the recording, aside from some of those clips that i just played you, which have been widely circulated, there was one other thing that you should hear tonight. It was a sort of parenthetical aside from the president. In fact it seemed like such a throwaway line in the conversation that this line didnt even make it into all the transcripts that news organizations drew up from listening to the tape. But its definitely there, and now, even though it seemed like sort of a parenthetical throwaway, with what happened in todays news, it now seems like this might be very important. Its this single line from the president at the end of him going back and forth with republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell. We had ours magnified out. But, you know, but nobody can make a case for that, brad. Nobody. I mean, look, thats youd have to be a child to think anything other than that, just a child. I mean you have your never trumper u. S. Attorney there. I mean you have your never trumper u. S. Attorney there, he says, as Cleta Mitchell comes back into the conversation, starts talking over him. You have your never trumper u. S. Attorney there. Whats he talking about there . U. S. Attorney is a federal prosecutor, right . U. S. Attorneys in georgia were all appointed by trump, but he said one of them is a never trumper. This call by the president was on saturday, two days ago. The president telling georgias Election Officials that they need to change the Election Results to make it so that he won, or else, or else theyre doing something criminal. Thats the threat from him, that these state officials might find themselves criminally charged if they dont generate counterfeit Election Results that say trump won instead of biden. Well, who would bring those criminal charges . How is the president expecting to carry out this threat . How does he want these state Elections Officials to interpret that threat . When hes telling them, youre liable to criminal charges unless you do this, who does he want them to think is going to charge them . Its left unsaid. But in that same call, the president sort of randomly, sort of parenthetically throws out a complaint that, in his words, a u. S. Attorney, a federal prosecutor in georgia, who he, himself, appointed is somehow a never trumper. That was two days ago. Now today, suddenly and without explanation, the u. S. Attorney for the Northern District of georgia has just resigned without explanation. He had reportedly previously said that he would stay on the job in georgia until inauguration day, but now he has unexpectedly stepped down, reportedly citing unforeseen circumstances as the reason hes leaving today rather than january 20th. Would you count it as unforeseen circumstances for this president to threaten to use criminal charges as a means of extorting Elections Officials into stealing an election for him . Is that unforeseen . Is it unforeseen that he would denounce you as a prosecutor, as a never trumper if you didnt want to go along with a scheme like that . B. J. Pak is the georgia u. S. Attorney who has unexpectedly resigned, and its an immediate resignation. He announced it today. It was sudden and unexpected. Its effective immediately. He has not explained why hes left. We will let you know if he does. But with 16 days left, things are just going to be nutty from here on out. Theyre at least going to be nutty for the next few days. The president being caught on tape demanding that Elections Officials falsify the results of the election, that they find enough ballots to declare him the winner instead of joe biden, that has led already to a proposed resolution of censure against the president in congress. Now, obviously republicans are not going to go along with Something Like that for the most part, but democrats hold the majority in the house and presumably could pass a censure resolution in the house against the president. That effort is being led by georgia democrat hank johnson. The president being caught on tape trying to pressure Elections Officials into falsifying the Election Results has also led in some quarters to calls for the president to face another impeachment, again, a quick last impeachment before he goes. The president pressuring Elections Officials to falsify Election Results could be a crime under both federal law and state law. The state prosecutor in georgias most populous county, fulton county, says shes already received complaints asking her to investigate the president s call to state Elections Officials as a potential felony under georgia law. But the president is in georgia tonight, onstage right now, campaigning for the republican candidates in Georgias Senate elections tomorrow. This despite the fact that he says no one should trust Election Results in georgia. For some reason, he even said this Holiday Weekend that the Senate Elections tomorrow in georgia are illegal. The elections themselves are illegal . Okay. So there he is tonight. Theoretically hes there to tell republicans to turn out and vote for Republican Senate candidates, but hes telling them to do so in a state where he says their votes wont count and the election shouldnt be happening. And honestly nobody knows how that kind of crazy pantsness a technical term how that kind of crazy pantsness is going to affect whether or not Republican Voters turn out and vote tomorrow in those Senate Elections. Those Senate Elections which will determine which Party Controls the senate, which will determine whether or not the Biden Harris Administration are able to pass any legislation and get judges put on the courts and get their cabinet members confirmed, right . Its sort of everything in terms of whether or not the biden and Harris Administration is going to actually be able to govern, whether its Mitch Mcconnell running the senate or Chuck Schumer running the senate. Thats all hanging on whether or not the Democratic Candidates in those Senate Elections tomorrow are able to pull off wins. I mean nobody knows how the craziness at the top of republican politics is going to affect republican turnout for those elections. Nobody knows what to expect at all from this Senate Runoff tomorrow. The last rounds of polling in georgia do look good for the Democratic Candidates, for jon ossoff and Raphael Warnock. But its close even though they look like theyre narrowly ahead in recent polling. Also polling is notoriously difficult for special elections. Also polling is notoriously, notoriously difficult over the holidays. So giant grains of salt for even that close polling. The early voting numbers also look good for democrats. In general, the early voting turnout numbers in georgia for this election are very high. Theyre approaching the number of people who turned out to vote early in the general election in november. Traditional high turnout is good for Democratic Candidates. But then again, nobody knows what counts as normal. Early voter turnout now in the covid era, since theres so much more reason for people to vote early, its honestly created a sort of new normal in terms of voter turnout numbers that we dont necessarily understand yet. Similarly the proportion of early votes from democraticleaning areas in georgia, those look good for the Democratic Candidates. The demographic numbers in terms of whos turning out to vote early, those look good for the Democratic Candidates. But that doesnt tell you anything about what the democrat to republican ratio of voters is going to look like tomorrow on actual voting day and how thats going to stack up against any lead that the democrats might have accumulated already with early voting, the early voting population. What im trying to say is be humble about setting expectations in either direction for these senate races tomorrow in georgia. Im going to be part of our coverage of the senate races tomorrow in georgia at msnbc, and were expecting a long night. Were at least planning on a long night. Well see. If its an early call, that will be a windfall, but were expected to be hunkered down for the long, long night. Biden and trump were both campaigning in georgia tonight. Pence and harris were both there this weekend. All the National C