good afternoon. i'm ayman mohyeldin in new york. it's noon on the west coast where we're awaiting a major announcement from the governor of california who is talking about drastic actions to stop the spread of the coronavirus in his state. yesterday the united states had a record 2,777 deaths worse than during the first peak last spring. a record 200,000 positive tests bringing the total number of u.s. cases to more than 14 million. it took just six days for the u.s. to record another million

new cases after it took 99 days to reach that first million. the number of cases have doubled since september 24th. it is also exactly one month since election day and president trump continues to demand the results be overturned just 24 hours after his attorney general said the justice department found no fraud. the president posted a 46-minute propaganda video to facebook. the media was not present for those remarks. this afternoon the president said william barr was wrong. >> well, he hasn't done anything. so he hasn't looked. >> do you still have confidence in bill barr? >> ask me that in a number of weeks from now. >> joining us is monica alba across from the white house and white house correspondent yamish

alsinder. monica, this isn't the first time the president has threatened attorney general barr. back in october he talked about bringing charges against people in the obama administration. watch. >> unless bill barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we're going to get little satisfaction unless i win. i won't forget it. >> what's the read on bill barr this afternoon? is barr's job on the line? >> reporter: it could be, ayman. this is a president who has acted erratically when it comes to personnel changes. on a whim he decided to fire certain cabinet members. he often terminates them via tweet alarming most aides or the

people being removed themselves. bill barr has been such a close ally of the president that it did surprise many around the president, but also he has continued to spread these baseless claims of voter fraud, which his own attorney general is completely rejecting as false. now that you have such intense pushback continuing on the unsubstantiated claims, the president has no choice but to say he's displease with bill barr. we're told by sources in the white house that he is considering removing him, but then there are also voices around him who are stressing he shouldn't do that and there isn't much upside to it. i thought it was notable today when kristin welker was pressing him, the president said ask me in a few weeks. he'll be gone in less than seven weeks. whether he does this in the next 40 days, it's not clear how much

of a difference it would make. the department of justice continues to search for any irregularities or issues of voter fraud, but we cannot stress this enough, there haven't been any. >> senator lindsey graham was at the white house today. i want to play how he reacted to that presidential propaganda video last night. watch this. >> to the trump legal team, you're making all these claims. you gotta prove it. doing a video is not proof. you need to take these claims into a court of law and get relief. >> yamish, is the trump team listening to lindsey graham, who is one of the most loyal members of the senate that has been very close to this president throughout all this? >> the trump legal team is taking the -- the claims to

court. the problem is they're losing. lindsey graham is saying take the evidence you found into a court of law. let the judges decide. the issue is the judges are

already deciding. you've seen in two dozen cases the trump campaign in wisconsin, michigan, arizona, georgia go to judges, including to some appointed by president trump and each time they're smacked down. the president yesterday, he called it his most important speech. it was one of his most dishonest speeches. he pulled out charges that didn't make sense. when we look at the language he's using with the attorney general let's step back a bit and realize this is a u.s. president saying he may or may not fire the department of justice head because he's telling the truth saying there is no widespread election fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election. that's remarkable.

>> the transition team isn't commenting on those names. we're seeing president-elect joe biden rolling out people who can get a handle on the covid pandemic. >> we'll wait for those announcements. thank you to you both for starting us out. earlier today dr. anthony fauci talked to andrea mitchell. he shared that he agrees with

cdc director robert redfield who says we might see 450,000 deaths come this february. >> as the cdc said, you know, i have to agree with them we're in for a very difficult couple months of december and january. i'll be meeting virtually, as you said, talking about just substantive, uncomplicated transition issues like vaccines and the state of the epidemic and things like that. i'm looking forward to it. it likely will be the first of a series of normal type of transition undertaking. >> joining me now is andrea mitchell. andrea, dr. fauci raised a good point with you saying while we look ahead to christmas and other holidays, we have yet to see the surge from thanksgiving travel. what else did he have have to say about this? >> reporter: he said don't travel unless it's absolutely

necessary. we've not seen the effects of thanksgiving of the gatherings, the travel. once we see them, then we'll see an impact on hospitalizations. then tragically on deaths. that will all start happening as we're going into christmas. the worst thing we could do now with hospitalizations at all-time highs with the hospitals and health care workers totally strapped, reaching capacity, reaching stress levels is further impact the system and have more travel arguably for christmas and new year's, more people getting together. don't do it he's saying. don't despair. help is on the way. the vaccines remarkably are almost here with far more efficacy than anyone expected. he's saying hang on. of course, he's counter-acting a lot of the myths, the hoaxes, all the false statements from

the very top. he can't say that, but that's what he's suggesting. >> i want to ask you about that specifically. you asked him about the vaccine strategy which according to a g gallup 42% of the public said they would not take. listen to this. >> there are two in ingredients to a program. one is the vaccine, the other is taking the vaccine. the surveys you are quoting are correct. we need to engage the community and convince them of the truth. the truth is that as quickly as we went, safety was not compromised and scientific integrity was not compromised. >> the question is did he seem confident in where we are in terms of getting the american people willing to take a

vaccine? >> not yet, no. in fact that's why he's on television. that's why you saw dr. redfield. the cdc hasn't been briefing since the beginning of the pandemic. they were shut down by the white house. dr. redfield was out. you saw the surgeon general. they're trying to tell people this is critical. you now have former presidents obama, bush and clinton saying they will take the vaccine on camera. he talked about children. i was asking what about kids. pfizer has tested children 16 and above. moderna is going to start testing with kids 12 to 16 and then he said by january, february we could start being able to be confident that children can also be vaccinated. that's important. you don't have to have test groups of 15, 20, 30,000 people to know that the children will

be safe once you know that perhaps a test group of 1,000 children could be tested and then bridge that with what you know from older adults testing. you're be able to by february and march be able to do testing. >> what a game-changer for schools. >> reporter: exactly. i think the important thing is we won't be safe if we have the vaccine if people don't take it. 60% to 70% of americans have to be vaccinated for us to do what we want. baseball, football, concerts, all the things -- small dinners even. being able to go to restaurants again. the economy will follow that. he's meeting with the transition today. he didn't confirm it because

it's not his to confirm. we know from other sources that jeff zientz who did so much for the obama minutes is likely to be covid czar. that will be announced in a couple days. >> let me ask you quickly about dinners. >> you asked dr. fauci about secretary of state mike pompeo inviting hundreds to holiday parties. you covered the state department. how does this reflect the attitude pompeo has brought to the state department at large? >> reporter: well, it's one rule for himself and his wife and their parties and not for the rest of the workforce. it's not doing much for moral. they put out a network to do things virtually. to have competitions for masks, holiday christmas masks and

christmas decorations for your office door. get on the internet. have group gatherings. he's inviting 900 people to the ben franklin room. a beautiful room to entertain diplomats. that's the way the holidays are going to go as they head out the door. >> you can find more of andrea's reporting tonight on nbc nightly news. vice president mike pence is getting a covid reality check in tennessee today. speaking of the vice president, why he's distancing himself from president trump's claims about election fraud. we're keeping an eye on california where governor newsom is expected to make a big

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vice president mike pence is in tennessee today. state officials there are seeing a record number of new cases as hospitals warn of a lack of available icu beds. as cases rise, keep in mind back in june pence wrote an op-ed saying alarms of a second wave

were being overblown by the media. joining me now from vanderbilt medical center is mara barrett. what can you tell us about the vice president's trip there? >> reporter: vice president mike pence is in tennessee meeting with officials and with fedex executives. they're part of "operation warp speed" and shipping those vaccines at the cold storage they need. take a listen to what the vice president said. >> because of the efforts at the state and federal level and because of the great work of our research companies and pharmaceutical companies and because of a great partnership with fedex and other companies

around the country, help is on the way. we are just a matter, we believe, of days away from when we will begin to distribute tens of millions of doses of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine to the american people. >> reporter: pence saying help is on the way. doctors telling me they're looking at this vaccine as a light at the end of the tunnel. mitigation is still a problem here in tennessee. they don't have a statewide mask manda mandate. only 170 icu beds available across the state. elective surgeries have had to shut down again and we're seeing nearly all 95 counties in tennessee in the dangerous red

zone. doctors tell me they're seeing overcapacity in rural areas and that trickles into metro areas as well. doctors emphasizing we still need to work on simple mitigation efforts we've been focusing on. >> mara, thank you. while the vice president is focusing on the pandemic response he's notably absent in supporting president trump's claims of election fraud, baseless claim. since november 25th not a single fund-raising email from the trump campaign has featured pence's name in the from field. this week that rnc committee made a subtle change. the trump/pence campaign logo

has been swapped out with just president trump's name. what are your sources telling you about the changes here? they're miner but significant. what do they mean? >> it's not just pulling back from using vice president pence's name. it's also what is going on behind the scenes and the way the vice president is presenting himself to the public on this specific issue, especially when you contrast in with fire breathers like donald trump or rudy giuliani. when it comes to sources we've spoken to, they will routinely

tell you that he thinks the giuliani-led legal operation is akin to a joke, it's a waste of time, it's a distraction. he would much rather the republican party and the president be focusing on the georgia senate run-offs which could be critical in determining who controls the senate and how. when it comes to his public statements, if you look at his tweets and speeches, if you look at the written statements he puts out, you'll see it's more toned down and sticking to a strict list of talking points. the only issue there is they are not president trump's talking points and definitely not his legal team's talking points. there's a massive intention among vice president pence and his team of how he messages. they try to veer away from the massive -- what they consider

counter productive conspiracy theory mongering that others have been going about with. it focuses on we want every legal vote to be counted and illegal votes thrown out. kind of a wishy washy version of what the president has said. his spokes people will say pence is standing by president trump. he always has and will do so. the other side is, no matter how privately reserved pence wants to be he is all in all things trumpism. >> let me jump in here real quick. sorry to interrupt. i want to get to this important question about what pence -- looking ahead, you write that pence is uncomfortable with trump attacking republican governors and he's even served as a mediator at times.

what's the disconnect there? why doesn't trump listen to pence? >> because pence for years has been what we would consider a standard party guy in the context of the modern conservative movement and republican party. he has his eyes far more geared towards the future, not only his own political future but the future of the republican party. trump sees the republican party as a vessel that must be subordinated into his trumpism. obviously there's a difference between the two messages. >> thank you for your excellent reporting. election day may be in our rearview mirrors. some critical congressional races still haven't been called. steve kornacki back at the big board with a break down of those numbers. we're just minutes away from a news conference with governor

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it has been one month since election day. in iowa's second district rita hart is challenging the results which shows her trailing by six votes. new york's congressional race is

up in the air also. joining me now is senior national correspondent steve kornacki. two important races still uncalled. what's the latest on these two and what do the outcomes mean? >> the make-up of the house, ayman, we talk so much about the presidential race. this was a big story that emerged, a surprise story. democrats had 233 seats in the house. all talk was that democrats would expand that in the election. would they get to 245 or 250? the democrats lost seats. the question is how many are they going to lose? right now the democrats have 222, the republicans 209. what you're talking about is four uncalled races right now. four races remain to be decided when it comes to control of the u.s. house. remember, right now it's 222 to

209. the first is a formality. this is a run-off in louisiana in a very republican district. two republicans qualified for the run-off. this will be a republican victory. here's another uncalled race, california, 25th district. mike garcia the republican trying to hang on to his seat. he won that earlier this year. a lead of several hundred votes for him. then you mentioned it this is an open seat held by democrats. democrat and republican separated by six votes rita hart is challenging the results. the result hands certified by the state of iowa. hart is going to bring this to the house of representatives. the house is empowered to judge its own elections if it wants to. that's a long shot to take a challenge. it's a very close race. it's been certified to bring

that to the house and ask them to overturn the election, there was a case about 35 years ago, but that might be a long shot. new york's 22nd district a mess when it comes to vote counting. the republican trying to unseat the democrat. she leads by 12 votes. there were more votes discovered this week. it's unclear if they're included in the count. the bottom line is it's not impossible the republicans go 4-4 in this. if they do they end up with 213, the democrats 222. that's a nine-seat majority. >> talk about razor thin there. a reminder of how many of these races are coming down to a dozen votes. ste steve, always a pressure. republicans are shooting down the president's attempt to

hijack the remainder of this session of congress. jim i mhoff was overheard tellig the president he won't get the spending he wants. the president wants to block efforts to rename military places named for confederates. joining me now is jake sherman. jake, stay with me for a second. i don't know if we'll cross-over to gavin newsom. let's go ahead and listen to gavin newsom. >> 15,121, the seven-day average, the highest we have seen since the beginning of this

pandemic. the effects of thanksgiving they have not yet been felt. they'll be felt in a number of weeks. dr. fauci says we should anticipate a surge on top of a surge. take a look at what's been happening. these are pre-thanksgiving numbers, the 14-day rate has grown from 5.2% to 7%. the seven-day positivity rate even higher. we could see hospitalizations have increased 86% in the last 14 days. icu admissions 67% over a similar period of time. we've seen death rates increase significantly over the course of the last number of weeks. look at this slide. a month ago on november 2nd we reported tragic loss of 14 lives

related to this pandemic. in the last 24 hours, similar to the previous 24 hours, we've reported back to back days with 113 deaths. just in the last 14 days chose to 1,000 californians have lost their lives due to covid-19. the bottom line is if we don't act now, our hospital system will beoverwhelmed. we'll continue to see a death rate climb and movre lives lost. today we're pursuant to the blueprint we put out of pulling the emergency brake. we're doing it in a much more broad and comprehensive way today. we're announcing and introducing a regional stay-at-home order in the state of california predicated on the need to stop gathering with people outside of

your household, to do what you can to keep most of your activities outside and of course always most important wear a mask. here's what we are introducing today. regions where the icu capacity is falling below 15% we are now mandating that we are implementing a stay-at-home order for three weeks. these regions are defined by this slide. we have five regions in this state. these regions are considered and constructed based upon pre-existing mutual aid system in the state of california. you may recall in imperial county we had a situation where their icus and hospitals were overwhelmed. we had preplanned strategies for mutual aid and surge capacity. all part of a regional strategy

well defined within the hospitals. we've defined these five regions, northern california, greater sacramento valley and the larger region in southern california. look at what our projections suggest. the five regions that we have highlighted, most of these, four out of the five, we anticipate as early as the next day or two, as earlier or late as the next week or so, that the greater sacramento northern california region and southern california regions will have reached that 15% or less icu capacity. the bay area may have a few extra days. our current projections suggest mid, late december. all within just the next few weeks. our icu capacity in the state of

california will drop in these five regions. not just in the aggregate, but in these regions where we all reside, 40 million of us. the icu capacity in all of these regions by the end of this month will drop based on current projections below 15% in total capacity. what does a stay-at-home order mean? what is on that list in terms of augmentation and new protocols and new guidelines? take a look here. we're looking attem temporary closures of bars, wineries, personal services, hair salons and the like will be temporarily closed. those sectors that remain open include schools, bars closed

schooled opened. critical infrastructure broadly defined on the previous guidances we have put out retail, occupancy 20% capacity. we want to avoid concentrating in large box retail too much of concentrated retail activity that would induce more mixing not less, thus the decision by our health professionals and advisers which are ample. we've been reaching out for a number of days to get valuable consideration that we put into play, made that determination on retail and restaurant will continue to be open for take-out and delivery. i want to acknowledge the california restaurant association. as a restaurateur myself, i opened a small retail business

and restaurant right out of college, i deeply understand the difficulties our restaurants have had. i know how difficult and challenging this is. i want to thank them for their insight and for their recognition of this current moment that the state of california is in. we are also establishing a framework where all nonessential travel is temporarily restricted statewide. here's what we want to emphasize. none of us are naive, i certainly am not, of the mental stress all of us are under, not just the financial distress that many are under and more still with this stay-at-home order. we want to encourage activity. activity that's focussed not indoors, not in congregate facilities, not where there's

mixing, but outdoors. we encourage you to take your dog for a walk. we want you to exercise and go on a run with a partner within your household. go sledding in the winter. go to a walk on the beach or in our state parks or your local parks. we encourage that. take a bike ride. go fishing. those that are learning to m meditate and yoga, we encourage that. it's important to take care of your physical and mental health, to get the exercise that is required to get us through this temporary moment. this is not a permanent state. this is what many had projected. we had predicted the final surge in this pandemic. there's light at the end of the tunnel. we are a few months away from truly seeing real progress with the vaccine, real distribution,

real accessibility, real availability. we don't anticipate having to do this once again. we really all need to step up. we feed to meet this moment head on and we need to do everything we can to stem the tide, to bend the curve and to give us the time necessary by bending that curve to get those vaccines in the hands of all californians, all across the state. we're doing everything in our power as well, not only to message and recognition and importance of minding your physical and mental health, but also to prepare. we need to prepare hospitals, to prepare our capacity within our hospitals, but outside of it which i'll talk about in a moment, to do what we can to support the small businesses that will not receive this news favorably and i can deeply understand and appreciate that

and to make sure that workers that are impacted, not just businesses are getting support. i want to remind everybody of what that preparation has been. we've not been sitting by passively. you can see on this slide -- we talked about the 11 facilities outside our health care delivery system that the state has prepared -- >> you're listening to california governor gavin newsom updating the public on new measures the state is going to be taking as a result of the surge there and the capacity of hospitals that are continuously being overrun, or at least getting close to capacity. joining me now is jake ward. also dr. mario ramirez at

opportunity labs. jake, let's start with you. tell us what we were hearing from the governor. what led to these new measures that the governor is announcing? >> reporter: ayman, we've been seeing the signs of this for a couple weeks. go governor newsom made no secret he was going to impose some broad restriction across the state. to hear it in oakland, california and to look at what we're facing now it's startling. we had got piecemeal state and countywide instructions up until now. these are big broad instructions dividing a state of 48 million people into five regions and saying the bay area, where i am now, we only trail the other four regions by a few days when it comes to overrunning our

hospitals. a big statewide pronouncement here. when you look at the national numbers, i got used to this narrative that california was the safest place to be. not anymore. in the last 14 days we've seen an 84% increase in death. that's incredible. it leads the nation. we top arizona. we certainly to states like florida. to see us as the new hot spot makes you understand why the governor is taking this action. >> dr. ramirez, when you look at what was announced, bars, wineries, personal services, barber shops, schools, retail limited to 20%, restaurants, limitations on each one, nonessential travel restricted. is that going to be enough to try and reverse this tide we're

seeing? >> there's going to be a long tail on this, ayman. we've been trying to get at this with a piecemeal approach. i look to europe. they've been a lead indicator for the united states. one of the things we observed in germany is they tried to follow a similar targeted closure approach. their counts have stayed high. other countries like belgium, czech republic and the uk saw significant declines. the closures in california are probably the first domino to fall. we have several states approaches similar surges in crisis standards. this level of closure will bring the counts down, but not as we've seen in europe. this is going to take several weeks to reverse. >> you saw the governor, doctor, talk about the end is near or the final surge before we get some relief, assuming he was talking about the vaccinations.

is it a realistic timeline to think that march in 2021 with the challenges of distributing the vaccines and the public appetite getting people to take the vaccines, is that a realistic timeline? >> i think it is, ayman. it probably is a march or april event. we ultimately need to get about 70% of the population vaccinated to reach herd immunity. we really need to have about 30 to 40% of the population vaccinated before the numbers really start to come down and we feel like things are approximating in real life. production capacity and other vaccines coming online, march is a realistic timeframe. >> jacob, let me get your thoughts on the situation in california.

broadly speaking, the governor was talking about part of the reason why there was this -- it was that hospital capacity, certainly the icus were getting within 15% of being full. why has that happened in california? california was one of the first states to implement a lockdown in early march, maybe march 19th. they have the benefit of warmer climate year round. what are experts in the state of california explaining why we're back in this surge? >> reporter: i think as california goes, so goes the nation, ayman. california almost its own nation of 40 million people has people who believed this was not really affecting them or it might be okay to travel or be in enclosed spaces. we're right where experts didn't want us to be. one thing that's interesting to me is the out right

encouragement of outdoor activity. obviously trying to get in touch -- get ahead of the surge of mental health difficulties that the whole nation is experiencing. we've seen governor newsom ate out at a restaurant. the next day san francisco mayor ate at the same restaurant. the san jose mayor doing something similar. even the people getting detailed daily briefings are straining under the fatigue of this. trying to encourage people to get out with your partner suggests how hard this has been for everyone. >> jake ward, dr. ramirez, thank you for joining us. we have some more breaking news we're following out of egypt. three detained human rights activists have been released signaling a major break through in the country.

nbc news hasn't confirmed these reports. a growing problem president-elect joe biden will have to face when he takes office. staff members of the group who were arrested sparking backlash worldwide. the organization advocates for legal reforms in a dictator ship that's the second highest recipient of foreign aid from the united states. >> they all face bogus charges that could lead to many more years in prison. in fact their only crime has been to stand up for the dignity of egyptians, a truly democratic government would celebrate these men, not imprison them. >> joining me now from london is rod sanchez who spoke to the wife of one of the men arrested.

what did she tell you in light of what we learned about the release of these men? how could this pose a challenge for joe biden when he takes office? >> reporter: ayman, good afternoon. as you can imagine she was elated. she was able to speak to her husband for the first time in three weeks. she said he's in good spirits. this situation is far from over. these men are out on bail. they still face very serious accusations of terrorism, accusations they strongly deny. their families have felt since the beginning that they were pawns in a much bigger game. as you said the president of egypt has been a close ally of president trump. president trump refers to him as my favorite dictator. the two men spoke earlier this evening and the trump administration has been pretty quiet on the issue of human rights in egypt. now joe biden says he's going to take a different tact.

he said he won't be afraid to call out egypt on human rights, a close ally. when i spoke to jess kelly, she said the arrest of her husband and his colleague was a challenge by the egyptian government to the incoming joe biden administration and their release is also an international sign signal. this is what she said. >> i think the decision to release my husband and his colleague is a message from the egyptian government saying that we are listening. we're listening to the international pressure. i don't want to put myself in their minds. i don't know what they're thinking. i think they made the right decision and i'm looking forward to seeing kareem and for him to be 100% free.

>> reporter: now, this does seem to be good news out of egypt tonight. this whole episode is a reminder of how quickly joe biden may find his stated commitment to human rights in the middle east will be tested when he gets into the oval office. ayman. >> rod, thank you. vice president mike pence returns to the campaign trail for the candidates in georgia. when pence visited last month, he was met with cries of no for suggesting republicans use absentee ballots. >> first thing i want to ask you to do -- i heard that ballots are already being sent out, absentee ballots. vote, georgia! >> this as the atlanta journal reports that leffler and purdue are encouraging republicans to vote by mail.

vaughn hillyard is live in gainesville, georgia. looks like you moved to atlanta, vaughn. i can see the capitol behind you. what's the latest with these run-off campaigns? >> reporter: everything is coming together. we're four weeks out from january 5th, but rudy giuliani -- we need to remind everybody -- he represents the president of the united states in his campaign appeared unexpectantly in atlanta. he's here to talk about the elections. the president, for anybody following his twitter account, seems to be watching the play by play of this. when you're talking about the stakes, not only is the president more focussed on his own race, which he continues to want to litigate, kelly leffler and david perdue are flying back from washington, d.c.

there's a fundraiser over at the atlanta braves ballpark. this is the karl rove led group. senators lindsey graham and tim scott are expected here as well. this all is coming to a head ahead of the president's trip here on saturday. i was talking a little earlier today with former republican senator who told me it's imperative the president sticks to focusing on this message of electing kelly leffler and david perdue. i've had conversations with republican voters who are questioning whether they're going to vote at all. you saw not only rudy giuliani calling into question the election integrity in georgia, but also sidney powell was here telling folks not to vote. that's what these republican senators are up against here.

the democrats are pounding the pavement. i was talking to eduardo, a democrat who said he felt like his vote really meant something after joe biden's win here. democrats believe in the state they can further that by calling into question kelly leffler and david perdue's effectiveness on capitol hill and whether they're the best partners for joe biden in 2021. >> vaughn live in atlanta. vaughn, thank you. that wraps up this hour for me. "deadline white house" starts after this quick break. starts after this quick break it's smay for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. we started by making the cloud easier to manage. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes.

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>> it's 4:00 in new york. america is at a breaking point. we're out of words to describe how much suffering is taking place in our country as coronavirus fills our hospitals to capacity, drains our health care workers and takes from us as many lives as september 11th or pearl harbor. the death toll reported wednesday appears likely only to worsen experts say as the t delayed effects of thanksgiving travel are felt and many americans are weighing how to celebrate christmas. if they live in california,