i'm joshua johnson. it is good to be with you tonight, despite this incredibly busy weekend of news. congressional elect leks candidates were sworn into office and the loser of the presidential office trying to stay in office with a phone call to the secretary of state of georgia k we blunt? he asked the secretary of state to cheat his way into a second term as president. that's what happened. what happened on that call? what happened on capitol hill today, and what happens next? from msnbc's world headquarters in new york, welcome to "the week." the president's phone call may be shocking, but it's not surprising. he tweeted about it this morning. mr. trump wrote that he spoke yesterday with georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger. the secretary was, according to the president, unable or unwilling to answer questions about numerous conspiracy theories. an hour and a half later, mr. raffensperger tweeted that the president's account was false and, quote, the truth will come out. hours later, the truth did. "the washington post" broke the story of this phone call, a 4 1/2-minute excerpt of this phone call. >> i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. so, tell me, brad, what are we going to do? we won the election. and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. and it's going to be very costly in many ways. and i think you have to say that you're going to re-examine it. you can re-examine it, but re-examine it with people who want to find answers, not people who don't want to find answers. >> that's just one excerpt of the call. we'll be playing more excerpts of the call, including longer excerpts at the top of the next hour. if you've been discussing this with people you know, chatting about it on social media, let them know we're going to go through longer chunks of this. there's more to this call that we think you should definitely hear. that's at the top of the next hour. pushback now from every living former secretary of defense. all ten of them sign ed on to a op-ed in "the washington post" that came out this evening. it reads in part, quote, the time for questioning the results has passed. the time for the formal counting for the formal electoral college votes as prescribed by the constitution has arrived, end quote. the headlines make their oath even more noteworthy. here is how the oath begins. quote, i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. unquote. contrast that oath with the plans of more than 140 gop members of the house, they say they will reject the electoral college results in a vote this wednesday. now the odds of this presenting joe biden from being president look incredibly slim. so what's the point of it? we'll ask democratic senator gary peters of michigan in just a moment. let us begin this busy night of news in georgia with the senate run-off. election on tuesday will determine control of the senate. it will also make the biden administration's policy agenda easier or harder to achieve. no wonder the vice president-elect, kamala harris, was in garden city, georgia, today. she campaigned in garden city, near savannah, for both democratic challengers, reverend warnock and john osoff. that call with the state's election officials might give us an indication of what he plans to talk about. >> what are we going to do? we won the election, and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. and it's going to be very costly, in many ways. and i think you have to say that you're going to re-examine it. you can re-examine it, but re-examine it with people that want to find answers, not people that don't want to find answers. honestly, this should go very fast. you should meet tomorrow, because you have a big election coming up, and because of what you've done to the president, you know, the people of georgia know that this was a scam. >> joining us now is tia mitchell, washington correspondent for "the atlanta journal constitution." tia, good evening. >> good evening. >> what's the conversation like in georgia right now about this phone call? >> well, republicans have mostly been silent. the only republican we really heard from so far is david chaffer, chairman of the republican party of georgia, who is faulting what he considers the secretary of state breaching confidentiality for recording the conversation itself. so, republicans have mostly been silent, but democrats, as you can imagine, are very critical of the contents of this conversation. we've had representative hank johnson say that the president should be cen suchlt red but others saying there should be conversation about impeaching the president again. >> impeaching him again? how do you characterize that conversation? i mean, he's going to be out of office in 17 days basically. >> yeah. i think it's, you know, very unlikely to happen, because it's way too much of a bother for someone who is going to be out of office soon. but the fact that there's even a conversation about actions of a president that members think is an impeachable offense is always serious. again, it's mostly on the democratic side, but they're talking about were crimes committed in this phone call? >> what are we expecting from the president's visit from georgia tomorrow? >> that's the thing. the president has always been a concern for republicans that he is muddying the message. the run-offs are tuesday. so in this final hour right before the polls open, republicans hope that the president would focus on turning out the vote and getting republican voters energized to participate on tuesday. now the question is, will he show up on monday, you know, wanting to criticize republican leaders, criticize the integrity of georgia's election? and those messages don't necessarily encourage participation. they may encourage people to stay home on tuesday, who republicans need in order to win both of these senate seats. >> i do want to get your thoughts on the senate races on tuesday, particularly this push to overturn the electoral college results. we have a clip of both senators, senator david perdue and kelly loeffler, the two incumbents who are running for re-election when asked about wednesday's vote to confirm the results of the electoral college. here is a cut of both of those senators reacting to that questio question. >> i'm looking very, very closely at it. i have been one of the first to say everything is on the table. i'm fighting for this president because he has fought for us. he's our president and we're going to keep making sure that this is a fair election. and i'm looking very closely at it. none of it matters if i can't win on january 5th. >> the only thing left for the president is for us to object. and i agree that i would do that. the technical problem is that i won't be certified until this election is certified, so a week to ten days after the election when we win on tuesday, but i'm encouraging my colleagues to object. this is something that the american people demand right now. >> so, mr. perdue says he's encouraging his colleagues to object. miss loeffler says she's looking at it. not a hard yes from either of them. what howe do you think this will factor into what georgians are thinking about come tuesday? >> i think it factors in that the republican base is behind the challenge of the election outcome. for them to say they want to support president trump, i think, is a messaging they think will help them on election day. the question is, as we know, senator loeffler will be in place to do so on wednesday. senator perdue won't. the question will be, even after the election, when she no longer is on the line, so to speak, will she still vote fo contest the election as a way to, you know, reward president trump for supporting her as she participates in these run-offs? >> tia mitchell, washington correspondent for "atlanta constitution journal." thank you so much. >> thank you. democrat representing michigan, sworn in for his second term today. senator peters, good evening. >> good evening. thank you for having me, joshua. >> good to have you back. what do you think senate should do about this call if anything? >> right now it's up to the voters of georgia to assess this call and if this is the type of prn they want as president and a senate basically backing up this president. it's up to the voters. the thing we have to focus on -- clearly i'm focused on and my colleagues are focused on, we have to get through this covid crisis. we hear about a president focused on putting out misinformation, false allegations, and taking his eye off the real ball, which is getting this pandemic under control, making sure that we can get the immunization s out to people across the country, do it more efficiently. it's the only way we get through this health crisis. it's the only way we get our economy up and running. that's what i'm focused on, what my colleagues are focused on. in the senate, for example, we have mitch mcconnell refuse to provide official relief to the families, wouldn't even bring it to the floor. it's a real problem if you have a republican majority in the senate. you can't provide $2,000 of additional help to people who are fighting to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. that is what is the issue right now. yet we have a republican senate that refuses to help people. we have a president focused on misinformation as opposed to dealing with the crisis, making sure immunizations are getting into the arms of people who need it. >> right. >> we need serious leadership right now. once again, we have these distractions that are taking us away from dealing with problems that everyday americans are facing. >> i wonder what the mood is like in the senate right now, particularly in light of this effort that 12 republican senators have said they will mount on wednesday. there was a somewhat testy exchange today on "meet the press" between my colleague chuck todd and ron johnson, one of the senators who says he will challenge the results. here is how part of that exchange went. >> you made an allegation that there was widespread fraud. you have failed to offer specific evidence of that widespread fraud but you're demanding an investigation on the grounds that there are allegations of widespread fraud. so, essentially, you're the arsonist here. >> this was started when the mainstream media stop dropped any pretense of being unbiased and chose sides during this election. this fire was started when you completely ignored, for example, our investigation of the hunter biden. >> what the senateer senator is saying in plain english is because of the press did not duly investigate the hunter biden investigation that all of a sudden there is fraud in the election that needs to be dealt with. that is a strip of il logic that is flat out -- don't think about it too hard or you'll wake up unconscious in your bathtub and don't know how you got there. this doesn't make sense. what is going on in the senate right now? it feels like we're going off a cliff in some ways. a lot of people, myself included, are concerned about what the next few weeks will feel like. senator peters, what's going on in the senate right now? >> it's incredibly concerning, particularly when you hear those comments from senator johnson. i serve with him on the senate committee, is he the ranking chair. he's not dealing with the security threats we face in the homeland, from the pandemic to cyber security threats. we've had a major cyber hack. we're not dealing with that in the committee. instead i have a chairperson who wants to deal with a variety of conspiracy theories. hopefully that's not where most of the republican caucus is. i think it's a small group of folks and i'm certainly very disappointed that they're engaged in continuing to put out misinformation that the president wants to put out. in michigan they may challenge the results in michigan that have been widely litigated. we've had 11 court cases, all of them have been thrown out, with the exception of one that's in process but has really no path forward. it's been rejected by the court system. there's been recounts, certifications. there's no basis for fact of what happened in michigan. >> i'm sorry, senator. i'm sorry to interrupt you. there might be a challenge of results in michigan. i think a lot of people's hearts sank when they heard you say that. can you elaborate on that briefly? come january 20th, are you optimistic this will basically stop? >> oh, yeah. >> or do you think in states like michigan, georgia, pennsylvania and elsewhere, that there may be an effort to carry this even past the inauguration? this stops on the 20th, right? >> i believe it will, absolutely. i'm saying the court cases haven't gone anywhere. there's one that hasn't been resolved but has no path for success whatsoever. basically, they failed every single court case in michigan will end up being a failure. there were conspiracy theories in one county in michigan that became widespread. they did a hand count that resulted in a few votes being changed. there's no basis of fact from what we're hearing from the republicans, yet we may hear that on the senate floor, that there's something wrong with michigan votes. let's be clear, although president trump did win michigan by a little over 10,000 votes, he lost michigan this time by 1 150,000 votes. that's not close. you know, it's time to get past this. enough is enough. i want to go back to how i started this conversation. we are in the middle of a pandemic. we are in the middle of a health care crisis, an economic crisis. some of my senate colleagues are still putting out this nonsense and refusing to provide assistance to families who are struggling right now. i'm hoping we will see a small number of republicans go along with the president's charade here, and a majority of the caucuses with us but we'll have to wait and see. >> senator gary peters of michigan, appreciate you making time tonight. thank you very much. >> good to be with you. now that we've had time to listen to more of the president's call over the last few hours, we have found some excerpts that we think you should hear. those include how georgia's secretary of state responded to mr. trump's demands, and threats. we'll play more excerpts, including some extended cuts throughout the program, including at the top of the next hour. so, again, if you've been chatting about this with others that you know on social media, have them tune in. we have more cuts that might add context that you should know about. we have a ton to get to in addition to that, with this call, for example, did the president break any federal laws? we'll speak to one of the former house impeachment managers. congressman crow of colorado will join us. the president is focused overturning the election at the of looking at the covid vaccination effort. how some nursing homes are suffering the consequences. about to face a big test, new york's economy. we'll tell you what new york and the buffalo bills are up to. a member of president-elect biden's covid task force will take your questions about the vaccines. all that and any more developments that come up about that now infamous call by the president when "the week" continues. "the week" continues. 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. serious allergic reactions like low blood pressure, trouble breathing, throat tightness, face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe jaw bone problems may happen. or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. speak to your doctor before stopping, skipping or delaying prolia®, as spine and other bone fractures have occurred. prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium, serious infections, which could need hospitalization, skin problems, and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. don't wait for a break, call your doctor today, and ask about prolia®. nicoreyou get advice like: smoking is hard. try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette the sleep number 360 smart bed. prices of the season on can it help with snoring? i've never heard snoring. ...exactly. no problem. ...and done. and now, the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is only $899. plus, no interest until january 2024. ends monday. (burke)stomer) happy anniversary. (customer) for what? (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too? (burke) sure. your parents have maintained a farmers home policy for twelve consecutive months, right? ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (burke) start with a quote at 1-800-farmers. it's moving day. and are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. the people of georgia are angry. the people of the country are angry. and there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, you've recalculated. so, look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find, uh, 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. >> that was more of president trump's call with georgia's secretary of state, brad raffensperger. the president urged mr. raffensperger to change georgia's election results, claiming that the secretary committed an illegal offense. the president asking someone to fudge the results of an elect n election, what does the law say about that? joining us now, former u.s. acting u.s. solicitor general and msnbc legal analyst. neil, good evening. >> good evening. >> let me get to another clip from that call with one passage in particular i would like you to word smilth for us. listen. >> we won the election, and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. and it's going to be very costly, in many ways. and i think you have to say that you're going to re-examine it. and you can re-examine it, but re-examine it with people who want to find answers, not people who don't want to find answers. >> it's going to be very costly, and i think have you to say that you're going to re-examine it. what do you make that have passage in particular, especially kind of the if then within it, like it's not going to go well for you, but you need to re-examine this. what do you make of that? >> before getting to the potential criminal, impeachable offenses there, we should spend a moment just on the cray-cray, delusion of the president. he's making accusations here that his own fbi has rejected, that his own department of homeland security has rejected that, his own attorney general bill barr has rejected that 60 different courts, federal and state across the country, have rejected, including opinions written by his own nominees to those courts, and he's still pedaling this nonsense. i worry about the president's mental acuity, for one. number two, absolutely, that langua language, and in conjunction with other language in the phone call paints a very disturbing picture of a president who is trying to brow beat state officials into doing his bidding. and, you know, at one point he even says to them, you know, that -- he threatens two of the georgia officials with criminal prosecution and says that they leave the vote count intact it will, quote, be a big risk. this is not the way a president behaves. this is not the way a ceo of a company behaves. this is not the way any employee of a company behaves. this is the language of mafia dons and the like. it's so beneath the presidents of the united states, it's incalculable. >> there's a section of federal law that has to do with interfering with elections that refers to it being a crime if any person, including an election official, any election for federal office knowingly and willfully deprives or defrauders attempts to deprive or defraud residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process. there are certain legal standards that don't apply to the presidency as an office. does this mean that donald trump gets away with it? >> no. so, in our american system no, person is above the law. and at most the president has a temporary immunity from being indicted while in office. that's the result of a 1973 and 2000 justice department opinion. i disagree with that, but that is what protected trump last time around with the ukraine investigation. but in 17 days, he's not going to have that protection anymore. when you read that statute 52 u.s.c, 20511, you're absolutely right, it applies to a circumstance like this. look, maybe there are facts that might exculpate him in some way, i don't know. that's exactly why you have a criminal investigation. i suspect it's basically impossible not to have both a federal and state investigation at this point. and notably on the call and in the room were a bunch of trump attorneys and, you know, trump attorneys will not have any sort of attorney/client privilege because of the exception if crimes were being committed here. that's all the more reason why you want to have an investigation. you want to interview these people, figure out not just what was said on the call, but what was said around the call by this president. and i suspect, you know, we're only at the tip of the iceberg right now. >> is there any logical path forward in terms of either the justice department, federal prosecutors or congress in terms of what to do about this? again, this is presuming there's even the will, political or juris prudential or otherwise, to be done about this. there may be people once donald trump is no longer in office who will say thank goodness he's gone. let sleeping dogs lie and let's get on with our life. what's the most logical path look like to you? >> the most logical one will be that the justice department will open an investigation. hopefully it's been opened already. if not it will be opened january 20th if there's been some political interference with that investigation and that will look into this. and then at the state level you may have a similar counterpart investigation, because georgia has its own potential crimes when a federal official tries to get into a state election and say certain things need to happen and the like. you'll have both of those. then, yes, this possibility of impeachment. everyone is sick of impeachment. no one wants to think about trump again after january 20th but i think there will be a serious call to do so because we cannot have presidents behaving like this. and donald trump, susan collins famously said that donald trump learned his lesson and voted to acquit him in his first impeachment trial. i think that, you know, history will not look kindly on those words and it may just be even though we don't want to do it and want to hold our nose thinking about donald trump again in 2021, and 2022, we may need to have an investigation, a serious one in the house and potentially the senate. >> nbc legal analyst neil catio, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> no, we don't want to think about impeachment, but we should talk about it, particularly with our next guest. we'll have more on this call with one of the former house impeachment managers. congressman jason crow of colorado joins us next. jason ow colorado joins us next your blood sugar is crucial. try boost glucose control. the patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. boost glucose control products contain high quality protein and key nutrients to support immune health. try boost. ♪and if we win, we get to tell you how liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need. isn't that what you just did? service! ♪ stand back, i'm gonna show ya ♪ ♪ how doug and limu roll, ya ♪ ♪ you know you got to live it ♪ ♪ if you wanna wi... [ music stops ] time out! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ 2020's done a new era has begun so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com they're going around, playing you and laughing at you behind your back, brad. whether you know it or not, they're laughing at you. you've taken a state that's a republican state and you've made it almost impossible for a republican to win because of cheating, because they cheated like nobody's ever cheated before. i don't care how long it takes me. >> we are continuing to follow developments around president trump's call with georgia's secretary of state. joining us now to discuss it is colorado congressman jason crow. his district is just east of denver. he was a house impeachment manager during last year's proceedings against president trump. congressman, good evening. >> good evening, joshua. >> i can only imagine what went through your mind when you heard about this call, particularly in light of the fact that the impeachment proceedings were touched off, in part, by a phone call between president trump and people in ukraine that began to raise questions about the nature of the security of -- raise a lot of questions. it's hard to narrow them down. what do you make of this call in light that have call? >> you know what's amazing to me is after years of this, i actually wasn't surprised by this call, which says a lot. na we have 2 1/2 weeks left in this presidency and this presidency has yet to find its bottom, which is pretty shocking. but the president has shown us a long, long time ago who he is, whether it's bribing a foreign president to meddle in our elections, whether it's inviting the russians or chinese to meddle in our elections and so on and so on. the president has made himself very known and very clear. the story in my book, at this point, is the story of the enablers. our founders envisioned a donald trump, and that's why they developed the system that they did. but none of this happens without people around the president who are willing to let it happen. i took my oath a couple of hours a ago, one of many oaths i took in my life. used to be an army ranger. i enlisted when i was a teenager in the army. i take these oaths very seriously. we took our oath and even went as far as to sign an oath card. on wednesday it looks like many of my colleagues are going to turn their back on that oath and support the president's wild and fantastical theories about this electi election, and that is more than a shame. it's a dereliction of duty. >> congressman, what would you like to see done about all of this? >> first of all, i think we have to recognize that in 2 1/2 weeks, we're going to have a vice president-elect -- i'm sorry, president-elect biden, a man who has dedicated his life to the rule of law, to this country, to fulfilling his oaths in the constitution. he will raise his right hand, take his oath and he will mean it. we have to make sure that we are supporting the president-elect, in helping to rebuild the executive branch. but at the same time on capitol hill, we have a long task ahead of us of trying to rebuild civility, trying to find ways to rebuild the guardrails of our democracy, and that includes legislati legislation, like our rules package tomorrow that will be passed, enhancing subpoena powers, whistle-blower protections and other things we've taken for granted in decades past thashs we now have to codify and put into rules to normalize our democracy. >> i asked representative peters what it's like in the senate. what's it like in the house with so many members showing up, bright eyed and bushy tailed, new lawmaker smell on them, and this is day one on the job, this call? what's it like on capitol hill right now? >> i was looking back, joshua, at pictures from two years ago today when i arrived as a freshman, and i think i looked about 20 years younger than i look right now. it certainly has been an interesting two years, no doubt about it. but it was a tense day. i'm not going to lie. there were some tensions on the house floor about wearing a mask. i was very disappointed in mr. mckar mccarthy's comments today when we could have had an opportunity to come together and show civility and set a positive tone, mccarthy set a very negative tone. of course, the speaker got up and, i think, set the tone that was necessary. but there's no doubt in my mind that we have our work cut out for us to try to find ways to bridge the gap and do things for the american people. >> to be clear, he did say he basically supports the effort to try to challenge the results of the electoral college. what do you think is the next step from here, congressman? do you expect the dust to settle fairly soon? is this going to be with us for a while? where do we go from here? >> wednesday apparently there's going to be a challenge of the electoral college vote counting. let's be very clear about what this process is. this is largely a pro forma process. it's not the job of the congress to determine the eligibility of the electors. it's not the job of congress to conduct some investigation into electoral votes that are sent to us by the states. it's our job to count the votes. that's exactly what we're going to do. we're going to count the votes, certify them. president-elect biden has won the election, and we're going to go forward. >> democratic congressman jason crow of colorado. congressman, appreciate you making time. thank you. >> thanks, joshua. next up, we will shift gears to covid-19 and to new york state's test run for reviving its economy. if it works, it might help revive your state's economy, too. revive your state's economy, too. ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. so dad bought puffs plus lotion, and rescued his nose. with up to 50% more lotion puffs bring soothing softness and relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. caspers new year sale is here! on a new cozy bedroom and wake up on the right side of the bed this year. from the fluffiest down duvet you'll ever feel. crisp and light percale sheets, to cool, supportive mattresses and plush pillow for your best nights sleep. treat yourself to a new year of comfort and shop the new year sale with up to 15% off at casper.com i had this hundred thousand dollar student debt. two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. ah, sofi literally changed my life. it was the easiest application process. sofi made it so there's no tradeoff between my dreams and paying student loans. student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. thank you for allowing me to get my money right. ♪ but these days, i'm not getting out as much as i'd like to. that's why i take osteo bi-flex. it helps with occasional joint stiffness, while it nourishes & strengthens my joints for the long term. osteo bi-flex, find our coupon in sunday's paper. moeamerica is bracing for a post-holiday surge of covid cases thanks to people who refused to stay home. new york state just passed 1 million confirmed case, the fourth state to pass that mark after california, texas, and florida. despite an uptick in cases, new york's numbers are way down from last spring's peak. now its governor, andrew cuomo, is focusing partly on reopening. >> we can't take six months, nine months, 12 months of a close closed-down economy. we can't take the economic cost. we can't take the psychological cost. we can't take the emotional cost. >> every state wants to tackle covid. new york might find a way to do that through football. on wednesday, the governor announced a deal with the buffalo bills. the team can have fans in the stands at its first playoff home game next week. attendance will be capped at about 10% of capacity. fans will have to be tested, wear masks and maintain social distance. governor cuomo calls it a test run for a wider opening up of the economy. the idea is if you can do it with a pro football game, you could do it with other industries like broadway. the theater district has been dark since march, and all the shows are cancer canceled thro at least. author of "big game: the nfl in dangerous times." also with us, john cohen, bio reference laboratories, in charge of testing for the bills game. good to have both of you with us, gentlemen. mark, what does this mean for the nfl and new york state if, indeed, this test is successful? >> if it's successful it's an important psychological boost and a great statement. buffalo bills are a civic institution in western new york other than maybe green bay or pittsburgh or maybe a couple of other markets, buffalo is known for -- their fans are known for their loyalty, community embrace of the team and vice versa. even if it's a very small portion of the capacity, i think it could be important statement that there is some, at least, very, very hesitant resumption of normalcy. look, the bills haven't made the playoffs -- made it a couple of years ago, but it's been a period for the time. it will be good to see some fans in the stands and tut the year the nfl, like every sports league harks done their best through a difficult circumstance. i think the nfl, more than any other sport, has really missed the excitement of having full stadiums of excited people and just communities together. >> dr. cohen, as we mentioned, your organization handles testing for this game and also for the nfl. talk about the logistics of the testing. how would that work, particularly the aspects of this test that might be applicable to other places or other industries? >> sure. so, thanks, joshua. the way the processes work, when you buy a ticket that will happen is as soon as we know when and where -- when the game will be -- they haven't decided as of tonight. the bills will be playing in indianapolis. two days or three days before the game you'll have the opportunity to get tested. you'll get a link to bio reference laboratories, go online and schedule throughout hour-long blocks when you can have your testing done. it will be done at stadium. we'll run 30 different lanes of traffic to get people in and out within several minutes. when you drive up, you'll already be preregistered, get swabbed. that swab will be put in a bag and shipped to our laboratory and then we will turn around that result within 48, if not closer to 24 hours. once you get that result, you have to bring that negative result, proof of it, to the stadium before you can get into the stadium. there will be a secured email link, which you will show at the game to let you into the stadium. that's the overall process for the -- to get people to the game. >> you have to go to the stadium twice? once to get the test taken and once to come back with the result, is that right? >> you have to go -- yes. you have to get tested and come the day of the game. we're going to test 6700 fans. as you said, this is the first mandatory fan testing program in the nfl that's ever been performed across the country. and i want to -- would be remiss if i didn't con dprat late the buffalo bills, their fans, particularly the support of josh allen and the amazing job he has done this year as what we call their most valuable player. >> mark, what is your sense of how the nfl community is dealing with this? different sports leagues have taken different approaches to covid-19, testing, whether they want players to play in a bubble. we've seen outbreaks with college football teams. we've seen some players who were playoff bound who have been sidelined now on the injured reserve list because they've tested positive. everyone has not been equally on board with this. is the economic argument enough, do you think, to get people to do what we should have been doing since march or is there more that we'll have to do? >> i think it's an ongoing thing. these are such unchartered waters for everyone. the nfl has achieved a great deal by getting through the regular season. a lot of people didn't think they could manage this. look, there are great advantages and disadvantages to having a bubble. same with the nfl, major league baseball has done. i mean, obviously there's been some flare-ups, some real challenges, schedule reshuffling. but it has largely worked, sort of. and i think no one thought it was going to be perfect. it wasn't. hopeful hopefully, this won't be a process by which people are trying to perfect this thing for maybe longer than a few months. that this is going to be a finite thing and by next season maybe we can get back to some normalcy. this is the larger economic discussion that's hit all aspects of the culture, not just sports. that's one of the many areas that's been disturbed. >> dr. cohen, i fear some fans will go to this game and figure, oh, they're just going to test me at the stadium. i can do what i want beforehand. i'm going to get a test at the stadium and then i'll know one way or another. it feels like it could be license for people to let their guard down on purpose because they know a test is coming. is that a concern? >> yeah. but no. let me reiterate. this is one of multiple mitigation strategies for a large-scale event. fans will be required to wear masks, social distance. they have to prove their test is negative. as mentioned by mark, the nfl, we are the exclusive provider for the nfl for testing for the entire season. we've done close to over a million tests for the nfl. the last game is tonight. the incidence rate has been very, very low. it's been recorded, it's lower than -- less than 1%. we also ran the testing for the bubble for orlando for the nba and nhl where they had essentially zero cases. sochl these mechanisms actually work, but they're different. they're different use cases. as we talk about time. fan testing is one use case, retail is another use case. airline, hospitality is another use case. new york city public schools and colleges, that's a different use case. public facing, retail is different. so, the point is that this is just one other mechanism to begin to open up the economy. as you heard from mark and as you stated, the governor is correct. we can't just wait for everybody to get vaccinated, which could take another six months or maybe it's nine months, and sit around and wait for the economy to open up. >> yeah. >> so we're hoping there will be other mechanisms, either pcr or rapid testing to begin to have people's lives return to normal. >> right, right. certain certainly, definitely hope that this works. by the way, my producer would like me to add that his beloved cleveland browns made the congratulations on to my producer who will now not hold that over my head head because i said it. check. dr. cohen, good luck at the playoff game with testing. and thank you both very much. much appreciated. >> thanks, josh. >> coming up front line workers are refusing to get the coronavirus vaccines, the serious problem this creates for nursing homes, when we come back. the trump administration vaccine system is called operation warp seed, so far, it's not living up to that name, so far, the plan was to have 20 million americans vaccinated and so far, only 4 million have been vaccinated. dr. fauci discussed this with chuck todd on meet the press. >> what is yoexplanation of why the government's plan fell short? >> there's the allocation, there's the shipping. there's the distribution and there's finally getting it in peep's arms. no excuses, we are not where we want to be. but hopefully we will pick up momentum and get about back to where we want to be with regard to getting it in to people's arms. >> health care workers are not the only ones getting the first vaccines in the u.s. people who work and live at long-term care facilities across the country are on the list. but, many front line workers and hospitals and nursing homes are refusing to get immunized. in riverside county california, that is southeast of los angeles, it's estimated that half of front line workers say they will not get vaccinated. half. in ohio, about 60% of nursing home staff are also refusing. also, according to the new york times. there are ethical concerns about how nursing homes can get consent to vaccinate people who are unable to make their own medical decisions. let's discuss all of this with former kansas governor mark park inson, he is the president and ceo of the american health care association and the nationalent kr ee eer -- the national cente assisted living. what are you hearing from them about it? >> there's been good news t the roll-out has been too slow, i agree with dr. fauci on that. the good news is, that some governors have proven that you can get this done. there are, west virginia for example, every single facility has had their first refund of vaccine. but, as you know, if there's a hesitat hesitatence among staff, 50% of the staff are taking the vaccine. the good news is 90% of the residents are taking the vaccine. so, we have got good news with the residents but we have a lot on work to do with the staff. >> what is your sense of some staff members hesitating to get vaccinated? >> there's a hesitation of things. there was a push a month or so ago to do divulge what the side affects could be, and frankly i think we scared the hell out of people without needing to do that. now with having 4 million people vaccinated we know that the side affects are rare. 100 facilities have had clinics and no side affects at all have taken place other than sore arm. so we over stated the possible side affects of the vaccine. our hope is that when the second clinics cure occur in the facilities, that will be in three weeks the staffs will see that the side affects did not occur and they will be then willing to take the vaccine. >> what about the logistics of getting people vaccinated? there's been concerns of staff members having to call out from side affects or residents of the nursing home get side affects or making sure that the staff is get tlg had and their shifts are timed properly so everyone can get the vaccine. how do you deal with the logistics of it. >> it's complicated as you point out and added on top of everything that you said. the fact that it's two doses. and the pfizer vaccine, it has to be stored in extremely cold temperatures. it makes it hard and it's not impossible. as a country, we have done harder things and we have succeeded in them. so, our real challenge to every governor in the country is do what is happening in west virginia, get your act together and make sure that every resident is vaccinated on or has a chance for the vaccine by tend of january. let's get the second doses in everyone and in february, and if we can do that, we can cut the covid death rate in the united states by 40%. because, you know, even though less than 1% of the publiclives in the facilities, 40% of the deaths occurred there. if we just get our act together and do something that is difficult, which we can do in america, we can really start to solve the problem. >> can you pay me a quick picture of something that goes on in nursing facilities. you mention a small, small portion of the population lives there. it's easy to forget them and not think about them. can you paint me a quick picture of what nurse iffing home residents and workers are dealing with uniquely in getting vaccinated that may be people who don't deal with nursing homes on a daily basis would think about? what about the unique challenge there? >> well, i think that the unique challenge in many cases has to do with the residents. the average residents is 85 years old, has multiple comorbiditys and 70% have dementia is issues. we need to get them vaccinated and get consents for guardians to get vaccinated and it adds another layer of complication. it's possible, we can do, this we can save lives. people take the organers and the public health officials to get the act together and do what happened in west virginia, what happened in connecticut, where already, most of the facilities have received their first dose of vaccine. former kansas governor mark park inson is the ceo and president of the american health care association and national center for assisted living. thank you for taking time. >> thank you. >> the next hour of the week starts now. >> hey, there, joshua johnson good to be with you on this very busy night. quote, i just want to find 11,780 votes, unquote. president trump was recorded saying that, in a remarkable phone call. he pleaded with georgia officials to help him win an election he already lott. we are dedicating the first half of the hour to a special report about the president's call. this the recording captures a poen call made yesterday, with georgia's republican secretary of state, brad rathensburger, he encouraged him to find enough votes to overturn his election defeat there. >> i just want to find 11,780 votes.