good afternoon, everybody. i'm ayman mohyeldin in new york. as the fda is set to grant emergency approval for moderna's coronavirus vaccine, many of the nation's leaders are being vaccinated against the virus. the biden transition team says president-elect joe biden and his wife jill will get their shots on monday. house speaker nancy pelosi

distributed these images of her getting vaccinated at the capitol this afternoon. hours after vice president mike pence and second lady karen pence and surgeon general jerome adams all got their shots on live television. no word yet on president trump and whether he'll get his vaccination anytime soon or much else from the oval office on the virus today, to be honest. as the u.s. once again sets new records for deaths, hospitalizations, and the number of cases being reported. we're going to talk about it with biden covid advisory board member dr. michael osterholm. >> we also know president trump has been briefed on a suspected russian hacking campaign that has targeted dozens of government agencies with the full extent of the attack still unclear. the president, though, this hour, remaining silent. we're going to talk to a member of congress who was briefed on that matter. >> we're also going to begin, though, this hour at the white house. for that, we turn to nbc news senior digital white house

correspondent shannon pettypiece. good to have you with us. we heard some disturbing things from the president and his allies in the wake of the election, but these comments made last night by michael flynn and white house trade addviser peter navarro may be among the most alarming. take a listen. >> he could -- within the swing states if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states. >> what i think we need to do tomorrow is appoint a special prosecutor to look at this issue. i think the georgia race needs to be postponed to february. we need to do something before inauguration day. otherwise, we're going to have an illegal and illegitimate president. >> has there been any serious consideration of these ideas? and has there been an effort made to try and tone down the rhetoric that is coming out from the president's allies? >> well, our reporting certainly does not indicate there's any

plans to send the military into swing states like michael flynn is suggesting. he outright called for martial law or suggested that at least. or peter navarro suggesting that the georgia election be delayed. of course, that election is run by the governor and the secretary of state, which have certified results in the november election and are proceeding as planned with this georgia runoff election. but of course, the president continues today, again, to be tweeting. we have not heard from him or seen him publicly in days now. but tweeting his continued accusations of voter fraud, these false allegations that the election was illegitimate, and he actually retweeted a sort of report by peter navarro, again, the trade adviser, so not having anything to do with elections here. about election fraud. so the president sort of amplifying these messages we're hearing from peter navarro. of course, all of this comes as we're seeing the president with fewer and fewer allies in

washington among governors, of course, on the hill, we saw very prominent republican senators coming out and congratulating joe biden on his election victory. referring to him as the president-elect. so this is really the small group of allies the president has left around him who are the ones speaking out at this point. >> the president has been far from silent on the election, as you noted, and certainly his twitter feed has told us, but he hasn't said a word about the suspected russian hacking effort. why haven't we heard from him about that yet? >> it's a real notable silence. he's not been talking about the pandemic either, the other crisis gripping this country. you mentioned a few moments ago that the white house has really only said that the president has been briefed on this. and you would certainly hope he has been briefed on it. but beyond the white house has not been giving any sort of background guidance to reporters about what it might be trying, trying to signal, sending any messaging. nothing like that. a deafening silence from the

white house on this issue. the president is meeting with the acting defense secretary at 3:30 today. it is possible that that issue could come up. maybe we'll get some insight into that, but it really, as i mentioned before, has been days since we have seen or heard from the president aside from his twitter feed. >> shannon pettypiece, across from the white house this afternoon, thanks, shannon. >> turning back to the coronavirus pandemic. roughly 312,000 americans have died as we are now seeing more than 3,000 deaths every day. and we have this sobering prediction from the centers for disease control that somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 americans could die in the next three weeks. joining us now to talk about this is dr. michael osterholm, director of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. and a member of president-elect joe biden's covid advisory board. great to have you with us once again. >> thank you. three weeks after thanksgiving, we saw over 3200 deaths in a single day. what could that daily number reach by this time next month,

roughly three weeks after christmas? >> well, that number is compl e completely democrat on what we as a population do. do we actually try to reduce our risk? we don't expose our loved ones at the holidays, and we're mindful that when we swap air with someone, we're putting ourselves and potentially them at risk. if we start to adhere to those kind of measures that will reduce that risk, then this number may level off. if not, this number could go substantially higher than it is now. >> president-elect joe biden appeared on the late show with stephen colbert last night, and he had this to say about president trump's decision to seemingly go it alone when it comes to fighting the pandemic. >> one of the things i'm pleading with the president to do now is order more -- we stepped off the world stage. we walked away from the world health organization. we decided we weren't going to cooperate with any other nations and participate. that's a big mistake. >> what is the united states

missed out on by stepping back from the world health organization during this pandemic? >> well, first of all, i applaud the president-elect and the administration, incoming, for what they're stating. it clearly is global priority. we must be part of the w.h.o. we must be part of the action to bring vaccines to the entire world. from that perspective, we will be a leader, i'm convinced, over the weeks and months ahead, to bringing vaccines to the rest of the werorld, which in turn will have an impact on what happens here. if we have the covid-19 raging in middle and low income countries that virus will keep leaking into the united states. it's critical from an altruistic standpoint and a strategic stand point that we're involved with this at the w.h.o., and it's very good news to those of us in public health to hear the president-elect speak as he is.

>> let me ask you about a report from "the washington post" which is reporting that officials in several states were told earlier this week that their second shipments of the pfizer vaccine scheduled for next week had been drastically reduced, sparking widespread confusion and conflicting statements from pfizer and federal officials over who is to blame. secretary alex azar said this is a misunderstanding. and that there's nothing to fix here. what do you make of this? what's going on from your understanding? >> well, i can't speak on behalf of the biden/harris transition team. because i have not been involved with their discussions on this issue. but i have advised several states in terms of their plans for rolling out the vaccine, and i can tell you this is a very disruptive situation. there were real efforts made to lay out that last mile of vaccine delivery, getting it to those high-risk groups of health care workers and those in long-term care. this is a very disruptive

situation. it needs to be clarified, and it's not in the words of our local public health officials, it's more than just a misunderstanding. >> of course, the fda says it intends to grant an emergency use authorization for moderna's vaccine as soon as today. what does that mean from your perspective for ending the pandemic and is from your understanding one vaccine better than the other? not necessarily in fighting the disease, but is there one that has in your expertise a preference over another? >> you know, this is the message of the day. we live in the best of times and the worst of times. the best of times is the fact that vaccines are coming. the worst of times, of course, is what we just talked about in terms of the cases rising as they are. in terms of these vaccines right now, they are really just nothing short of modern medical miracles. they can be the game changer with this pandemic. i think these two vaccines, assuming that the fda does go

ahead and through emergency use authorization approve the vaccine, will be very important. at this point, i would be very happy to have myself or my family or colleagues take either one of the vaccines. they're extraordinarily powerful in preventing the disease, and everything i have seen in the safety profile says to me i can't wait to get my shot. i'll wait until my turn in line comes up, but i can't wait. >> dr. michael osterholm, always a pleasure, sir. thank you so much for your time this afternoon. >> thank you. and the white house says that president trump has been briefed on a suspected russian hacking campaign, which microsoft says targeted at least 40 organizations, including some sensitive u.s. government agencies. members of two house committees received a classified briefing on the situation earlier today. and lawmakers from both parties say they were not satisfied with what they heard. >> we're very disturbed. we didn't get the information we

wanted. >> their briefings were obtuse. sorely lacking in detail. and really seemed an attempt to provide us with the barest of minimum in information. >> according to "the new york times." >> joining us now, congressman stephen lynch of massachusetts. who was among those briefed today. congressman, thank you so much for your time. what do you make of this lack of information and transparency that is coming out from the briefers as i understand it, certainly the administration in this particular matter? and the lack of response from president trump? >> well, it's mystifying, really. this was a major, major hack. it's affected the entire government, basically. i'm told the amount of damage and the president has been absolutely silent on this, so i don't know. it could be that president trump is going to return to being a

hotel owner in about a month. and he doesn't want to anger putin. but this is a serious bit of damage to the united states government. and also as many as 18,000 companies and entities, both within government and in private business that use the solo winds software. so an extensive universe of people who are hurt here. >> i know you can't discuss what was said in the brief, but can you tell us what questions you had that were unanswered about this? >> well, some of it was fairly technical, but i would say that the ucg, this united coalition group, which is just several of the agencies have combined for this -- to address this hack. the briefing was fairly lame, i

would say. so our effort, my colleagues, republicans and democrats, were trying to pull information out of the briefers. as mr. massey indicated, we got much more useful information from "the new york times," from "the washington post," from "the journal" in the last few days than we did in that briefing this morning. so we ask them to step up their efforts and increase the level of specificity that was necessary, because if congress is going to deal with this, and we have to, we have to have the best information available. and that's just not coming right now from our intelligence agencies, unfortunately. >> why do we believe collectively that it may have been russia? we say suspected russian attack. have you seen anything or have you been briefed on anything besides what has been written in other media outlets to make you believe that it was in fact the

russians? >> well, the trade crafts -- i was the chair of the terrorist financing task force before i took the current chairmanship of the national security committee. so it looks a lot like russia. i would be dumbfounded if it wasn't. based on the data that we have seen, so 80% of the hacks and the infections and infiltrations that happen in the united states of our government and businesses, zero, zero infestations inside of russia. which is one good indicator. but also, the tradecraft involved, the sbr, which is an elite russian intelligence group within the government, they are very, very good. and it has all the markings of the russian intelligence group, the sbr. >> let me ask you if i can, the

national defense authorization act provides the tools needed to respond to incidents like this and prevent future cybcybe cyber intrusions. the president says he will veto that bill. how could that hamper efforts to respond to this hacking? what is your reaction to the president's veto threat? >> well, obviously, we have to try to scrub, you know, the networks of 18,000, up to 18,000 companies and government agencies. that's going to take a lot of resources and a certain amount of time. so the ndaa by providing the authorization and the resources to do that, is critical to us in defending the united states national security. so i mean, the president had no basis for vetoing the ndaa originally. he's trying to get at some of these data providers and internet companies. his objectives were not jermage.

so no with this threat he has not spoken to publicly, he's handcuffing our government, our national security apparatus from doing its job, from protecting the american people and american business. so it's unconscionable in my opinion, but hopefully the president will change his mind and not veto the ndaa. >> all right, congressman stephen lynch of massachusetts, thank you so much for your time this afternoon. greatly appreciate it. >> thank you. and u.s. cybersecurity officials are scrambling to determine the extent of the hack as we were just hearing from the congressman there, and to try to get a handle on the grave risk it poses to our national security going forward. we're going to have more on that after the break. you're watching msnbc. passed down, along with the recipes. three generations on the wall... with room to grow.

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president-elect joe biden says he will work with allies to take retaliatory action following the suspected russian hack of the u.s. government, saying in a statement, quote, our adversaries should know as president i will not standidally by in the face of cyberassaults on our nation. meanwhile, president trump remains silent on the suject, as republican lawmakers begin to speak out against the attack. >> a cyber hack of this nature is really the modern equivalent of almost of russian bombers reportedly flying undetected over the entire country. in the setting, not to have the

white house aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really quite extraordinary. >> joining me now is the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass, former director of policy planning for the state department and an nbc news contributor. great to have you with us. let's pick up on that point that mitt romney there, senator mitt romney was talking about, the silence of the president. give us a sense of the scope of this attack and what it means that the president of the united states is silent on this situation. >> well, i think it's important to distinguish, i don't think we know the answer yet, was this quote/unquote simply espionage in which case the techniques have changed, but espionage has been going on for thousands of years. and we have to look at what we're carrying out and we could look if we want to try to stop it, how we respond in ways to raise the price to russia, or is more than that? are these attacks designs to

interfere with the operation of some of these u.s. agencies inthat goes way beyond espion e espionage. that would be a real attack, and then again, we would be, i think, perfectly in our rights to respond, and we could respond proportionally or disproportionally. we could respond using cyber, we could respond using sanctions. we could put pressure on mr. putin. >> do you think from your vantage point and your expertise that in this cyber war, or the cyber battlefield to be more specific, that there is a balance of power that obviously the united states is not the sole superpower when it comes to suber espionage and cyber tools that makes us reluctant to escalate counterattacks kind of the way we talk about conventional war, bought as the sole superpower, our power is never really challenged on that front? >> well, we're not the sole

superpower, great power here. the cost of entry, the ease of entry, the costs are low. the ease is obvious. china, if you recall, years ago probably reached, what, 20 million personnel files in the office of personnel management. there may have been other successful entries that we're not even aware of. so again, this is simply a fact of life. this argues we ought to be putting much more emphasis on defending and protecting ourselves. and we ought to think about how we -- you know, what are your ways to deter these attacks or respond to them, but we have to be honest here, this is a part of international relations where the technology is far ahead of the law. there's no equivalent of arms control here. there really isn't a sense of deterrence. even words like cyber warfare. is this an act of warfare or an act of espionage. >> let's switch gears if we can

to afghanistan for a moment because according to the associated press, this week the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, mark milley, met with taliban leaders and shortly after that, he met with afghanistan's president, emphasizing to both parties the need to reduce levels of violence. does this represent how u.s. priorities have shifted in afghanistan from fighting a war to attempting to maintain a fragile peace? >> even fragile peace is too much. i want to maintain the government and its control in the capitol and major cities. i don't believe the taliban is interested in peace. fragile or otherwise. and what i'm hoping is the new administration will keep a small number of u.s. forces there, introduce forces periodically when necessary, provide the government with economic and intelligence and military support. but i think we're kidding ourselves. we can't win a military victory, but if we depart, the taliban

will take over the country, once again turning afghanistan into a potential or actual venue for terrorism. what we need to figure out, and i think we have it, is a way to stay in a manner that keeps our costs down military and human, and i think we have achieved that. >> let me switch one more time, and this is to subject of iran. the associated press released satellite photos showing iran has begun construction at its underground nuclear facility. how much could this situation escalate in the waning days of the trump station which is keen on putting more and more pressure on iran? >> we saw the reports a few weeks back that the administration at least was considering military attacks. they thought better of it. i think correctly, they held back. but this shows that iran is increasingly acting outside the confines of 2015 agreement. and i think one of the big early questions for the new administration will be what to do about it. they lean in the direction of getting back ourselves into that agreement. i'm not sure iran is prepared

to. i'm not sure at all that would be wise. we may have to live with the situation where there is no formal agreement, but one way or another, we communicate to iran, backed by israel and the saudis and others, here are the red lines. if you go across them in terms of your nuclear capability, you will face real consequences. >> richard haass with our round robin of international issues facing the outgoing and incoming administration. always a pleasure, richard. thank you. >> thanks. a history of distrust and disenfranchisement have contributed to the reasons communities of color might not want to get the covid vaccine. after the break, i'm going to talk with a black doctor who participated in one of the vaccine trials. why she chose to volunteer, and the message she hopes to get across by sharing her story. you're watching msnbc. introducing fidelity income planning.

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here are the latest facts on the coronavirus pandemic as we know them this hour. michigan governor gretchen whitmer announced today she's lifting the ban on in-person high school instruction in her state. letting high schools reopen on january 4th. and even though the u.s. set a record for the second day in a row for new cases, dr. anthony fauci said earlier today that we are on the right path. >> i think this is doable. that by the time we get to several months into this year, we will have enough people protected that we can start thinking seriously about the return to normality. >> the carter center says former

president jimmy carter will get the covid-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to him and he's looking forward to it. >> and a tragedy in suburban milwaukee where eight nuns who lived at a retirement home died in the last week due to complication of the coronavirus. four on the same day. >> right now, the fda is working towards finalizing an emergency use authorization for moderna's covid-19 vaccine. a breakthrough thanks to hundreds of thousands of volunteers participating in trials. one of these brave participants is dr. valerie fits hue. i did not make the decision lightly. i'm a wife and mom to two young kids. admittedly, my husband was not happy. joining me now is the doctor, who is also an associate professor and interim chair of pathology at rutgers new jersey medical school. doctor, it's great to have you with us. thank you so much for your time. i know you cannot say which trial you're taking part in, but tell us a little bit, explain to

our viewers what motivated you to volunteer, given the fact that there were so many risks associated with what we don't know. >> thanks. you know, i think what was so essential for me in watching so much news and consuming so much information and data about the vaccine trials was continuously hearing that people of color, minority communities needed more representation. as a person who belongs to the black community and finds it to be such an embraced and loving community, and how important it is to be represented in the trials, i thought to myself, all right, i read up. let's take the risk. >> and so to that point, have you experienced any adverse symptoms throughout the process so far? >> i have had what you would call normal side effects, you know, to a shot. so after the first shot, it wasn't so bad, just some arm pain. after the second shot, you know, i did develop a fever and some chills about a day after the second injection.

i had a little bit of fatigue. muscle aches, headache. but that all went away about 24 hours later. so i did okay. >> and to that point, you talked about the importance of vaccination within minority communities. how can local health workers like yourself and officials on the state and federal level help alleviate some of the mistrust that has built up over the years among minority communities? because we know that it is going to be an uphill battle to try to convince them to take the vaccine? >> i think the most important step is acknowledging the mistrust, acknowledging why it's there. you know, we have unfortunately a sad history in this country of black and brown people being experimented on in all kinds of medical trials, most commonly without their consent. until we have that trust back, the first thing we need to do is acknowledge that these things happened. acknowledge that's why the mistrust is there. and then inform as best we can, not to try to force people to be vaccinated but rather give

informed information. explain why this vaccine is important. and what we can do as a community for those of us who can receive the vaccine to move that process forward. >> all right, doctor, thank you so much for answering some of these questions. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure, thank you. up next, a report that georgia election officials inflated claims of investigations into voting irregularities there. plus, the state's republican governor says pro-trump conspiracy theorists are now harassing his family because he refuses to back president trump's false claims over voter fraud. you're watching msnbc. let's get checked for a full range of conditions.

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after being targeted by president trump, georgia's republican governor brian kemp is speaking out about painful conspiracy theories being hurled at his daughter in the wake of a family tragedy. according to the atlanta journal constitution, kemp told reporters that a vaccine, rather after a vaccine event yesterday, quote, it has gotten ridiculous.

from death threats, claims of bribes from china, the social media posts that my children are getting, kemp singled out the invective targeting his daughter, lucy, who has received hate filled messages about the inane false conspiracies about the death of her longtime boyfriend who was killed in a traffic accident this month. he doesn't blame president trump who has fanned the flames of conspiracies and shared posts that kemp is going to jail. kemp said, quote, as far as i know, my relationship with the president is fine. i know he's frustrated. front page of atlanta's journal constitution finds overstated claims of election fraud added to conclusion. the paper finds that even as secretary of state brad rapsen brger assured the public the election was fair, he undermined his own assertions by saying his office had 250 investigations

into voter fraud. the claims are only 130 and most involved procedural matters unrelated to fraud or isolated cases involving single voters. they note it took ten days for his office to correct the record. joining me now is the ceo of the new georgia project. it's great to have you with us. i appreciate your time. what do you make of this report, which says that even the secretary of state, who has been fighting claims of voter fraud himself, was somehow or somewhat inflating claims of voter fraud? >> i mean, first of all, this is on brand. we have been talking about republican misinformation and disinformation for a number of years. and we have seen the incidents sort of escalate over the past couple of months. the idea that there is rampant

voter fraud is insane. i think it is a part of republican fan fiction. it is a part of trump fan fiction. and i'm really sorry that the kemp family has been visited by these sort of violent, aggressive attacks. i don't wish that on anyone. and it is all because of misinformation and disinformation that our president and our state and country's republican party has trafficked in, that they continue to lose credibility as legitimate actors. and this is a predictable result of these kinds of attacks on our democracy. and attacks on the truth. >> you expressed sorrow for the kemp family for what they're going through in terms of attacks. i have to ask you about what you guys are going through. has the new georgia project and other voting rights activist groups in georgia been getting

death threats or suffering other forms of harassment? >> yes, all of the above. it starts from these bogus allegations and this bogus investigation into the new georgia project and our voter registration work. we have this lovely postcard campaign where volunteers remind georgians to go out and vote with a hand-written note on the back of a postcard. some of them ended up to the wrong recipient, and the secretary of state used that to launch a criminal investigation into our voter registration work. claiming that we're trying to register people who don't live in the state of georgia. there's nothing to support that at all. and people saw that and have been responding, calling us unpatriotic, un-american, trying to get my address. threatening my life.

threatening the lives of our volunteers and board members and staff. again, a predictable and -- a predictable outcome of these kinds of attacks on the truth and on our elections infrastructure. and it's being -- those flames are being fanned by members of his own party. >> let me ask you quickly, we have about 30 seconds left. nearly 76,000 new voters have register for the runoffs. you group is suing to enact saturday voting. tell us a little bit about that effort. >> yeah. georgia law allows saturday voting. actually requires at least one saturday voting day during the early voting period, and there are several counties in the state of georgia that are not observing that saturday vote day during the early voting period. and we think that they have the resources in order to make it happen. the people of georgia want to see it happen. there is elevated enthusiasm

about participating in our elections. and they should just do it. like, i hate that we have to sue in order to get them to comply with the law, but that is where we are now. >> yeah, incredible that we don't make voting easier in every sense of the word in this country, thank you so much for your time this afternoon. >> thanks. >> president-elect joe biden's cabinet choices include a historic number of firsts but it's also leaving speaker nancy pelosi with the slimmest margin possible in the house. is he putting her control of the chamber in peril? >> plus, remembering the day that turned joe biden's life upside down. we'll tell you about that. you're watching msnbc. that's right! subway is open and serving footlongs contact-free. order in the app for quick and easy pickup.

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with president-elect joe biden's selection of democratic congresswoman deb haaland for secretary of the interior, he's plucked three members out of an already slimmed down house majority, which could create vacancies for the first several months of his administration and leave democrats with just one seat above the 218 majority to pass bills and keep nancy pelosi in the speaker's chair. joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. good to talk to you again. is there any concern that biden is jeopardizing legislation in the only chamber the democrats currently control? >> there is real concern it's going to be harder to make the house function and pass things with that slim majority. we heard it from steny hoyer,

some other rank and file democrats expressing their worry about the ability to get things done. although there's also a concession that unless democrats pick up the senate, you could find yourself in a position much like we have now, where a much more comfortable democratic house majority passes lots of material and sends it to the upper chamber where it dies on mitch mcconnell's desk. some of these things could be a moot part, but for the sheer governance of the house, larger majority is better. speak eer pelosi has made the argument having joe biden in the white house gives her a pourm whip hand for controlling membership, when you know the president is watching and when it's a presidential priority, democrats are more likely to fall in line as opposed to voting against the party to make a point on something. >> yeah, for sure, i can think of a few or a handful of democrats who would normally buck the trend but in this case, the president is watching. "the washington post" is reporting white house aides stopped the president from weighing in at that last minute for a larger stimulus check. what is the latest on passing a covid relief bill? be warned, i gave you several

hours to come up with a new analogy. >> unfortunately, the afamily that is most important is this has become somewhat of a dumpster fire. a deal that we three days now appears unlikely to happen today. there's a lot of discussion up here about lawmakers in both chambers here of extending the congressional funding deadline for another two days so they can work through the weekend without the government shutting down while they continue to fight about some smaller provisions in this bill including a federal reserve lending program that republicans want to close up. eamon, it is a mess and going to be a long weekend up here. >> certainly seems so. garret haake on capitol hill. president-elect joe biden had no public events today. instead spending the morning at church to visit the graves of his late wife and daughter whose

deaths hoyea deaths 40 years ago today changed his life forever. >> you may be the last man on the totem pole of the senate. >> just as quickly as joe biden's career took off -- >> they gave a surprise party for joe biden who will make history because of his age. >> reporter: it nearly came to an abrupt end. >> it i mean the world completely turned upside down in a nano second. >> reporter: just weeks after being elected one of the youngest senators in u.s. history biden was in washington setting up his office when tragedy struck. >> my brother jimmy biden called and said come home there's been a really bad accident. and i said how bad. he said to come home. >> reporter: biden's family was driving home after picking out a christmas tree when their station wagon was struck by a tractor-trailer. >> my most vivid memory of that day is walking out of the russell senate office building because no one was there, and i

remember it's all marble, it's cavernous and just hearing our footsteps. and he looked at me and he said she's dead, isn't she? >> reporter: his wife and infant daughter were killed. his sons beau and hunter, critically injured. >> sense the accident he's been living at a hospital in wilmington, delaware, taking care of his sons. >> reporter: the senator elect considered not even taking the oath of office. he eventually would at beau's bed side. >> i hope i can be a good senator. i make this one promise if in six months or so there's a conflict between my being a good father and being a good senator which i hope will not occur, i promise you that i will contact governor elect as i had earlier and tell him we can always get another senator but they can't get another father. >> reporter: biden's close-knit family stepped in at home.

>> the immediate time afterwards was walking through molasses. and i watched my brother with such awe that he got up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other. but it wasn't he was struggling for himself, but the greater thing it was beau and hunt. >> i wanted to get home to see my boys. i commuted every day for 36 years. >> reporter: in washington biden would find an unexpected support system, too, giants of the senate took the political newcomer under their wings. >> i was prepared to walk away in 1973 from that opportunity, but men like ted kennedy and mike mansfield and hubert humphrey -- they convinced me to

stay, just stay six months, joe. >> reporter: in one early meeting mansfield instilled in biden a lesson he would account for decades. >> from that moment i tried to look past the caricatures of my colleagues and try to see the whole person. never once have i questioned another man's or woman's motive. >> reporter: it set the course for a career reaching across the aisle. >> he views his competitors as competitors, and he's been able to cultivate many unlikely friendships across the aisle with jesse helms, with strong thurman, with me. >> reporter: in the face of tragedy in 1972 and again in 2015 biden took on a new role as an ambassador of grief. >> you know it's going to be okay when the first instinct is you get a smile to your lips

before you get a tear to your eye. >> reporter: that moment 48 years ago a formative one on biden's long road to the white house. >> mike memoli with that report. and exactly one year ago tonight the house of representatives approved two articles of impeachment against donald j. trump. trump is only the third u.s. president in history to be impeached in the more than 232 year history of the office. meanwhile president-elect joe biden is offering hope for where we will be a year from today. watch this. >> do you think this time next year when you're both in the white house we will have what you could call a normal christmas? will the country be back to normal? >> i believe we'll be awfully close to that if not there. i do believe that. because the combination in the first 100 days i'm going to ask everybody to wear a mask for 100 days and where i can dictate that in federal property, i've

been on with 45 governors asking them to think about it. just 100 days we're going to get the 100 million vaccinations out there and get to a place we can open schools. and there's things we can do, and i think we can really -- it's not going to be quick, but i think by next christmas we'll be close to normal. >> all right, that wraps up this hour for me and "the week" as well. deadline white house with nicolle wallace starts right after this quick break. ts right after this quick break ♪ ♪ still warm. ♪ thanks, maggie. oh, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate.

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hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. with new records being set every single day for hospitalizations and death from coronavirus the vaccine is our best hope that this is the last holiday season we will endure largely in isolation and fear. today throughout the day a steady stream of images some of this country's top federal officials, people like vice president mike pence getting their vaccines publicly to inspire confidence. house speaker nancy pelosi and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell affirming today their confidence in the vaccine by getting it ethemselves. news president-elect joe biden and the incoming first lady dr. jill