all right, that does it for us tonight. rachel's likely back here tomorrow, but as you heard from her own mouth, it will be soon. i'm going to see you saturday morning on my show, "velshi" at 8:00 eastern. "way too early" with my friend, kasie hunt, is up next. we have to have masks. we have to limit indoor crowded spaces. if we do not do that, we will lose tens of thousands of americans by the time the vaccine is out and widely distributed. so, i am urging everyone, and you will hear every doc on the task force saying the same thing, that this is really crunch time. this is not crying wolf. this is a time that we need to really double down, because we are at the most serious and dangerous part of the pandemic that we have been in, in the united states, until this time. >> a dire warning from the assistant u.s. health secretary as the covid crisis rages ahead of the thanksgiving holiday, as the u.s. hits 250,000 deaths and

with cases still climbing. the question is, how long before hospitals and morgues reach a breaking point? plus, new reporting on donald trump's last-ditch effort to take the election away from joe biden. but given that the plan is illegal in the state that delivered biden's win, the question is, what's the real end game here? and the president-elect increases pressure on the trump administration to officially green-light his transition. the question is whether the general services administration is breaking the law by delaying the certification of biden's win. it's "way too early" for this. good morning, and welcome to "way too early." i'm kasie hunt on this thursday, november 19th. we'll start with the news. the united states has now reported more than 250,000

deaths from covid-19. that's 19% of total covid deaths worldwide, and it comes nine months after the first u.s. fatality from the virus back in early february. covid deaths have increased by 42% over the last four weeks. that's a pace we haven't seen since mid-august. and the number of new infections also continues to climb at an alarming rate. the seven-day average for new cases now more than 171,000. however, the "washington post" reports on a model from scientists at columbia university that predicts more than 3 million people in the u.s. are estimated to have active coronavirus infections right now, much higher than the official number, since it accounts for those who are undiagnosed. the "post" puts that 3 million figure in perspective, reporting that it's equal to the number of public school teachers in the

u.s. and the number of truck drivers. that is a lot of people. and as these inphysicifections across the country, conditions inside our nation's hospitals are deteriorating. america's frontline workers face growing fatigue and frustration, and overwhelmed hospitals are starting to convert chapels, cafeterias, and waiting rooms into treatment areas. alison johnson, director of critical care at johnson city medical center in tennessee told the "associated press," "we are depressed, disheartened, and tired to the bone." adding that she drives to and from work some days in tears. in el paso, texas, their morgue is so overwhelmed by the number of people dying that inmates from the county's detention facility are being paid $2 an hour to help transport the bodies of virus victims. and last week, a medical center in reno, nevada, had to turn a

parking garage into a unit for covid-19 patients. in st. louis, missouri, metro hospitals have been forced to start turning away patients that are needing care in rural areas and hospitals in idaho warned this month that there's a closing window of opportunity to avoid rationing care. in just the past two weeks, more than 900 mayo clinic staff members in the midwest have been diagnosed with covid-19, and the staffing shortage has forced the medical center to shuffle health practitioners across state lines and even call retired staff back into service. wear a mask, everybody. do it for yourselves, for your family, and for all of those heroes working on the front lines. they are disheartened and discouraged that we're not doing it. meanwhile, it's now been 12 days since joe biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, and the failure of the general services administration

to recognize his victory is taking a real toll. >> i am optimistic, but we should be further along. one of the problems that we're having now is the failure of the administration to recognize -- the law says that the general services administration has a person who recognizes who the winner is and then they have to have access to all the data and information that the government possesses to be prepared. and it doesn't require there to be an absolute winner. it says "the apparent winner." >> biden was speaking to a group of frontline workers, and he also acknowledged, there's a whole lot he doesn't know. and unless the government makes it available soon, his administration is going to be weeks or even months behind. at least some in the white house

recognize just how damaging this could be. nbc news has learned that a few current and former administration officials have reached out privately to the president-elect's transition team, but the biden team says that's in no way a replacement for the actual briefings that they need. meanwhile, with rudy giuliani now at the helm of the trump campaign's legal team, the strategy to pull victory from the jaws of defeat has changed from disqualifying votes to trying to disrupt the electoral college. the "washington post" reports the trump campaign wants to delay certification of the vote long enough to cast doubt on the legitimacy of joe biden's win and change the process for selecting electors. two anonymous republican sources tell the "post" giuliani wants to pressure gop lawmakers and officials around the country to stall vote certification, then have republican lawmakers choose

electors to disrupt the electoral college meeting next month. and trump is in favor of the plan. but the "post" reports, that outcome appears impossible. it is against the law in pennsylvania. wisconsin law gives no role to the legislature in choosing presidential electors. and there is little public will in other states to pursue such a path. carrieding to several people familiar with this conversation, giuliani is regularly conferring with former white house strategic adviser steve bannon, who was one of the architects of trump's 2016 victory. he is currently awaiting trial for fraud. joining us now, congressional reporter for politico, andrew des dario. good to see you, good morning. >> good morning. >> i want to set giuliani aside for a second and talk about the republicans that he is talking to. and i know you were on the hill yesterday and there was a quote from john cornyn, who finally

seemed to acknowledge what all of us have been wondering for so long. he said, i don't even know what normal is anymore. but at what point do you think this -- i mean, they're dealing with this coronavirus outbreak on the hill that sent them home early, they're trying to manage a president who is disputing an election that they all know that joe biden won. what's the end game here for republicans, for mitch mcconnell? at what point do they finally say, okay, yes, joe biden won the election? >> i think privately, even they don't know the answer to that, right? obviously, the president and his team are trying to delegitimize the results of the election and hamstring joe biden as he comes into office, and that involves making a bunch of impulsive decisions, meaning firing senior officials like the top cybersecurity official in the government that we saw a couple of days ago, and making these erratic policy decisions, like for example, this swift drawdown in afghanistan and iraq, which

the vast majority of republicans oppose and believe it would be a deadly mistake. in addition, the administration is trying to jam through a new massive $23 billion arms sale to the united arab emirates. these are things that republicans don't support, and they're kind of figuring out how to juggle this publicly. and something that senator mike braun, republican of indiana, told us yesterday that i thought was interesting, was that, you know, one or two firings here or there is nothing. but if it starts to look like there is, in his words, a flurry of firings, it will raise more questions for republicans. those are his words. he said it would raise questions. now, what they would do about it is an entirely different question, but republicans are starting to really acknowledge the fact that, you know, the president has a goal here, and it's to delegitimize the results of the election and to hamstring the incoming biden administration.

>> so, speaking of confusion and chaos, which is kind of how this has been framed by some on the hill, let's talk for a second about making sure the government is funded. and you know, ideally, some coronavirus help may also be sent with that, but mark meadows was on the hill yesterday meeting with mitch mcconnell, said he couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be a government shutdown on december 11th. i think you and i both know the fact that they're talking about pulling a big bill together on both sides of the capitol says that, if left to their own devices, congress is going to get this done in time, but the question is the wild card of president trump. how concerned do you think lawmakers are that he may do something so dramatic and disruptive that we would see a government shutdown heading into the christmas holiday? >> look, i think they're very concerned about that possibility or even that likelihood. on capitol hill, republicans and democrats are talking, which is

a good thing this early, you know, before the funding runs out for the government. senate appropriations committee chairman richard shelby has been talking with speaker nancy pelosi and representative nita lowey, who heads up the house appropriations committee. these are all positive steps for getting something done on capitol hill, maybe something longer term, in terms of funding. but of course, the wild card is the president. we don't know what he might want to do. there's a bunch of other things at the end of the year, of course, too -- the national defense authorization act, the annual defense policy bill that could become a hiccup for republicans on capitol hill as well. there's a lot yet to be done in this lame duck period. >> all right, politico's andrew desiderio, thank you very much for getting up early with us. and we touched on it a little bit, but we will also check out your reporting on how republican lawmakers have reacted to president trump's latest purge of government officials. and coming up here, president trump may have lost the election, but at least one top republican doesn't think he'll be going away any time

soon. we'll explain that. plus, the 2020 nba draft finally takes place, months after it was originally scheduled. we'll show you last night's top picks. we've got those stories and a check on the weather when we come right back. back. wow! a new buick? for me? to james, from james. that's just what i wanted. is this a new buick? i secret santa-ed myself. i shouldn't have. but i have been very good this year.

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with the first pick in the 2020 nba draft, the minnesota timberwolves select anthony edwards from the university of georgia. >> yeah! [ cheers and applause ] >> time now for sports! the minnesota timberwolves taking guard anthony edwards as the first pick of the nba draft. the s.e.c. freshman of the year just out of georgia joins a young timberwolves core led by star center karl-anthony towns and point guard d'angelo russell. with the number two pick, the golden state warriors get their

bigman, selecting 7'1" center james weisman out of the university of memphis. and the charlotte hornets bring on some potential star power using the number three pick for 19-year-old guard lamelo ball, younger brother of new orleans pelicans guard lonzo ball, the second pick in the 2017 draft. according to the alieas sports bureau, they're the first pair of brothers in nba history to be drafted in the top five. that's pretty cool. congrats, mom. the las vegas raiders, meanwhile, placed seven more players on the reserve covid-19 list yesterday, as high-risk, close contacts with a teammate who tested positive and was placed on the list the day before. it brings the number of players on the raiders' list to 11, now just three days before they're scheduled to host the kansas city chiefs. testing across the nfl last week revealed 52 confirmed positives, 17 of them among players, bringing the league's total to 95 players and 175 other

personnel since august 1st, and that doesn't count the new cases this week. to try and mitigate the risk, the league is now placing all teams in intensive protocol starting tomorrow. it means the use of masks will be mandatory at all times at team facilities. this wasn't already mandatory? including during practice and in weight rooms. meetings have to be held virtually or in the largest indoor space with approval by the league. meals have to be made available for grab-and-go, and time spent in the locker room also has to be limited. so far, 28 teams have entered intensive protocol at some point and 16 teams have done it more than once. according to the nfl, clubs that were in the intensive protocol had a more than 50% reduction in overall close contacts with other people at the facility. it seems fairly obvious to me. this story's a little bit more fun. turning now to the nhl, where the vancouver canucks' newly signed goalie braden holtby

needs some help getting across the u.s./canada border, and it's not because the washington capitals won't let him go, but because he is apparently trying to travel with contraband, a pair of pet torres yoiss. his wife, brandy, took to twitter asking if anybody had connections with the fish and wildlife service to push along paperwork for their two tortoises, honey and maple, trying to across the border. it turns out, the holtbys forgot about an exit permit, leaving the star goalie stranded with his two reptiles. oh, dear. time now for the weather. let's go to meteorologist bill karins for the forecast. bill, good morning. happy thursday. >> that's the most random 2020 story we've heard, and it's been a crazy year. >> it has. >> yeah, honey and maple, yes. honey and maple. love those names. all right, let's get to the forecast. every meteorologist from coast to coast in the united states,

we've dealt with an incredible active year of the hurricane season. we've got a lot of severe weather. we had the wildfires in the west. this is literally the quietest weather week we've had, and all of us are like, thank you, about time. the only thing we're talking about is the temperatures. it's another cold morning in areas of the east, all the way down to charlotte, north carolina, a freeze this morning at 32 degrees, but it's going to warm up from here. this is the coldest it's going to be probably for at least the next week. today looks pretty nice. this afternoon we'll be in the 50s in washington, d.c., atlanta crisp, 62 degrees with no humidity, sounds good. and look how warm it is in the middle of the country. a nice 75 degrees today and tomorrow in dallas. chicago at 60 heading towards friday afternoon. and even the east coast warms up for your friday afternoon. so, let's get into the weekend forecast. and we are going to see mostly sunny conditions in areas of the west. the warm-up continues on friday. notice there's hardly any rain or snow on the map. on saturday, some rain does develop for you in kansas city through missouri, into illinois, st. louis, and indianapolis included. on sunday, a little bit windy and wet in areas of the ohio

valley and possibly some snow mixing in upstate new york and western new york. and kasie, we've been teasing it all week long, the thanksgiving day forecast. it does look warm across much of the country. we could have a little bit of rain early in the day in the east. the only question mark is how long will that rain linger in areas of the northeast, especially in new england? we'll fine tune that forecast. it's a week from today. but i don't see any huge issues. >> i'm not sure i've ever worried so much about what the weather was going to be like on thanksgiving, but here we are. >> i know. >> bill karins, thank you so much. really good to see you. it will be friday tomorrow and we'll see you then, my friend. still ahead, with a tight runoff election coming up, georgia senator david perdue is again facing scrutiny over stock trades. we're going to have that new reporting next. we're going to have that new reporting next vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family.

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voter fraud in states that he won? >> we've got a whole team looking at things, so i can't really speak to that. >> white house chief of staff mark meadows brushed off several questions from reporters about president trump's unfounded allegations of voter fraud, after he met with senate republicans yesterday. according to the "associated press," meadows has encouraged senate republicans to, quote, make the most, end quote, of their remaining time with trump. that's according to two senators. meanwhile, house minority leader kevin mccarthy doesn't think president trump is going to fade into oblivion after leaving office. when asked during an interview with "the new york times" about trump's role going forward, the california republican said, quote, i don't think trump goes away. if at the end of the day, he does not win the presidency -- spoiler, he's not going to win -- he will still be a player and he will still have a base. and if you sit back, if trump was not on the ticket, would we have won seats this year?

he brought turnout. that's the conventional wisdom that has emerged among republicans, that trump brought turnout that they wouldn't have otherwise had, and that that explains why they lost fewer seats, or at least explains in part why they lost fewer seats in the house, and that means there are fewer republicans willing to break or criticize former president trump, when he becomes former president, or potentially, members of his family. and amid a contentious re-election battle, georgia republican senator david perdue's finances are coming under new scrutiny. according to "the daily beast," just before purdue was put in charge of the senate armed services committee on seat power, last year, he bought stock in bws technologies. it's a firm that holds lucrative contracts with the u.s. navy. and a few months later, perdue helped secure $4.7 billion in contracts for virginia class

submarines as part of his role in shaping the national defense authorization act. that's the massive bill that funds the defense department. bwx works with the pentagon to design and make parts for submarines. perdue later began selling off all of his shares of bwx and it earned him between $15,000 and $50,000. a spokesperson for perdue denied the allegations, saying that the georgia republican, quote, doesn't manage his trades. they are handled by outside financial advisers without his prior input or approval. perdue also came under scrutiny for a similar issue earlier this year when he traded stock after a january briefing that was focused on the coronavirus. the ethics committee later cleared him of any wrongdoing. still ahead here, despite little hope of turning over joe biden's 2020 victory, president trump's campaign is now requesting a partial recount in wisconsin, and it's expensive. we'll talk about the president's

apparent effort to sow doubt about the election results. but before we go to break, as always, we want to know, why are you awake? email your reasons to w waytooearly@msnbc.com or send me a tweet @kasie. use #waytooearly and we will read the best answers coming up later on in the show. coming up later on in the show you're strong. you power through chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, ...each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. so, if you haven't tried botox® for your chronic migraine, ...check with your doctor if botox® is right for you, and if samples are available. effects of botox® may spread hours to weeks after injection ...causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, ...speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness... ...can be signs of a life-threatening condition. side effects may include allergic reactions... ...neck and injection site pain... ...fatigue, and headache. don't receive botox® if there's a skin infection. tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions... ...and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.

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welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 here on the east coast, 2:30 out west. i'm kasie hunt. georgia's audit of the

presidential election results is officially complete. following the midnight deadline, officials are expected to announce the results of the hand recount of nearly 5 million ballots this afternoon. joe biden's lead over president trump dipped slightly to just under 13,000 votes. officials overseeing the audit found minor discrepancies in four counties, three of which are republican-leaning, and they were all fixed before the state certification process. despite georgia's secretary of state finding no evidence of voter fraud, trump continued to push baseless conspiracy theories in the final hours of the recount efforts. and now to wisconsin, where the trump campaign yesterday filed a petition for a partial recount, specifically, in milwaukee and dane counties. biden won milwaukee county by 69% and dane county by 75%. the trump campaign wired the state elections commission $3

million to conduct a recount in those counties, which the campaign says, quote, were selected because they are the locations of the worst irregularities. again, with no evidence of this. in a statement, the campaign also referred to illegally altered absentee ballots, illegally issued absentee ballots and illegal advice given by government officials allowing wisconsin voter i.d. laws to be circumvented. meanwhile, wisconsin elections officials have said there are no reports of widespread problems or wrongdoing. joining us now, senior politics reporter for "business insider," grace panetta. grace, good morning to you. you've done some reporting on the recount in georgia, and you talked to brad raffensperger, the secretary of state there who has been so incredibly vonageal -- vocal in pushing back against his party. and i think, certainly for those of us who have been covering the trump administration here in washington, i mean, the most surprising thing is just how

aggressively he's willing to push back against president trump, and he seems to be the only one in his state. the republican establishment in georgia seems to be with the two senators who have called for him to resign. what did you learn kind of behind the scenes about what's motivating raffensperger? because you know, i spent a lot of time trying to explain to people how power politics and hanging on to politics explains why people do what they do or say what they say or don't say anything about this president. and this totally breaks the mold. >> yeah, absolutely. and so, i think the main thing is, as a secretary of state, secretaries of state are in a really unique position because they can't be hired or fired by a president. they are directly accountable to the voters. and it's the voters who ultimately decide whether to re-elect him or not. and for raffensperger, he really is a straight down the middle, you know, very much a stickler. he's very concerned with election integrity and election security. and so, when he hears unfounded claims about his state, you know, after all the work that he

and his office have done to secure the process, he really doesn't have any tolerance for that and is not unwilling to really be blunt and push back on members of his own party who make false claims about the election. >> how do you see this playing out? you know, we're about to hit these two critical runoffs that are going to determine control of the senate majority come january 5th. what role does raffensperger play in those elections? and how is he thinking about how to handle that, especially considering the criticism he's gotten from the republicans in his own party? >> yeah, so, i think in his view, he did succeed to deliver a transparent and fair, accurate election in november, and he plans to go and do the same for the runoffs. he said he voted for the two republican senators, even though they did subsequently call for him to step down. and you know, one of the interesting things that he told me is that he really hopes that, you know, republican senators kelly loeffler and david perdue do not scare-monger about mail

voting. he wants the republicans to take advantage of the fact that georgia offers mail voting and early voting, unlike a lot of other southern states, and he wants them to sort of embrace that in order to keep up with the democrats and sememphasize of the security measures they have in place, like signature matching and requiring people to submit a copy of their i.d. when they apply online. >> yeah, i mean, it seems like -- i mean, if republicans, if kelly loeffler and david perdue win these elections, i mean, what are they going to say, that that vote was rigged or that there was fraud? >> yeah, exactly! and it also puts them in an interesting position, because they -- in order to sort of make the case that they need to be a check on an incoming biden administration, which is probably their, one of their strongest arguments in these runoffs, they have to acknowledge that biden did, in fact, win, and that the election wasn't rigged. so it's already a bit of an awkward position for them. and yeah, actually, down-ballot

republicans did quite well this year and surpassed expectations. both lefler and perdue, they didn't lose or win outright, but you know, they are going to runoffs. so, it is interesting for republicans to try to thread the needle and maybe go along with the president's claims that the election was fraud leapt but say, oh, my own race was fine. >> yeah, no, it's a good point that they've lost -- if they can't acknowledge that joe biden won the election, they lose a major messaging point in this critical couple of months to try and say, hey, we'll be a check on this administration. if you can't even say that new administration's coming in, good luck to you on that. business insider's grace panetta, thank you very much. i appreciate you getting up early with us. come back any time. still ahead here, oscar-winner and governor? what matthew mcconaughey is saying about a potential run for office, next in "the cooler." "way too early" back in just a moment. oo early" back in just a moment we are the thrivers.

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welcome back. we've got a live look at the christmas tree at rockefeller center. it's on its way up. this is my favorite, absolute favorite time of year. and those of you that are criticizing the tree need to go watch "a charlie brown christmas" again. but this first starry about the tree is quite a hoot. a crew member helping to put up the tree in new york found a tiny owl in the tree's branches. it was more than 170 miles from home. the crew member put the owl in a box and took it to a wildlife center in new york. the center determined it was an adult male saw-whet owl. he was dehydrated and hupgry, but one of the workers said he's had an all you can eat buffet of mice and is ready to go. he was named rockefeller and now

has a clean bill of health and will be released into the wild near the center very soon. so cute. all right, all right, all right! actor matthew mcconaughey, a texas native, said he's not taking a gubernatorial run in texas off the table. >> you're kind of center-right in the view of people. you could be governor of texas. are you ever going to run for anything? >> i don't know. i mean, that would be up to the people more than it would be me. i would say this, look, politics seems to be a broken business to me right now. and when politics redefines its purpose, i could be a hell of a lot more interested. >> mcconaughey, of course, wouldn't be the first person in hollywood to dip their toe into politics, potentially following in the footsteps of arnold schwarzenegger, jesse ventura, and of course, ronald reagan. oh, boy. all right, what do you get when you put a veterinarian, a dog behaviorist, and a composer in one room?

a christmas song specifically designed for dogs. the dog food company tails.com is claiming to have made the first ever howliday song, specifically designed for dogs. "raise the woof" was developed using sounds dogs enjoy, such as squeaky toys, bells, and basic commands. the company used over 500 sounds and a focus group of 25 dogs to get it just right, and the song was recorded at abbey road studios, made famous by the beatles. with any luck, it will be wagging its tail all the way to the top of the charts. i don't know about that. i feel like that would set my dog off, barking and god knows what. all right, this is definitely -- we've had a lot of great stories this morning in "the cooler," but this is by far my favorite. big board master, fashion icon, and now one of 2020's sexiest men of the year. that's right, our very own steve kornacki has been named to

"people" magazine's sexiest men of the year list. they write, quote, never before have khakis and a striped tie gotten so many hot under the oxford collar. the msnbc journalist's tireless coverage tracking the long post-election day vote tallying process earned him the title of chart-throb with celebrity fans from chrissy teigen to leslie jones and even caused a significant spike in gap's khaki sales. congratulations, steve. still ahead here, nbc news has brand-new details this morning on the trump administration's policy towards migrant families separated at the border. we're going to talk to julia ainsley on that tough, new reporting, coming up next. h, new reporting, coming up next. this is an athlete, twenty reps deep, sprinting past every leak in our softest, smoothest fabric. she's confident, protected, her strength respected. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you.

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welcome back. as we follow the ongoing devastating story of families separated at the border, nbc news has learned that the white

house killed an $8 million deal to provide mental health services to children taken from their parents under the administration's zero tolerance immigration policy. the justice department sent the $8 million pretrial agreement to the white house counsel's office for approval back in october of 2019, where it was rejected without explanation, according to two current and two former members of the administration. joining us now to talk more about her reporting on this, nbc news correspondent julia ainsley. julia, good morning to you. this is tenacious reporting, as always, on this topic. can you explain how this came about, why this was on the table in the first place? obviously, something that seems incredibly necessary for these children who are facing such difficulties because of a policy that the u.s. government took. and what we know about how it got thrown out. >> yeah, kasie, it was actually

one of the rare times we've seen in this administration where the justice department, the william barr justice department, is unanimously agreed on something that the white house completely struck down. they were at odds with each other on this. and what happened here was there was a federal case, a civil lawsuit in california brought on behalf of families that had actually been reunited and were still in the united states. we're not talking about more than 600 families that are still yet to be found. these are people who had been reunited and it was possible to reach them and provide them with some kind of relief. and after nine months of negotiations between lawyers representing those families and justice department lawyers, they finally came to what someone told me was sort of an agreement in principle. those lawyers went back to the justice department, back to washington, to get what they thought would be a cursory sign-off, and then they would move forward. in large part, the lawyers representing the families thought that the government would go for this because it would keep them out of discovery. it would keep them out of having to interview the families and come up with these very painful and tragic stories and keep that

out of the press. instead, when they came back, they said, you know what, we got a no. we can't go for this, no matter the figure. and so, in the end, the judge ordered a $14 million settlement. he said that you have to pay this. and it wasn't a matter of negotiations at that point, so the government ended up paying $6 million more. and what's more is what it meant for the children. the people, the company seneca families that did the counseling said that, really, this delay meant more trauma for children. some of these children were young enough to think that their parents had deliberately abandoned them. they needed some kind of relief, a mental health professional to come in, screen them, counsel them. that counseling is ongoing now, kasie, but it was delayed in large part because of the white house. and when we talk to sources about what happened inside, many of them say it is because the white house counsel's office turned to stephen miller, the president's senior adviser, his immigration guru, who said, we

are not going to pay this. now, the white house has pushed back and said miller did not have anything to do with this, but other sources say he was deliberately involved and it was miller, himself, who squashed this deal. and that miller himself squashed this deal. >> there had been so many instances where we have seen miller's fingerprints in decisions like this. so julia, just to underscore the time line, the kids, they're separated, some of them incredibly young. how long were they waiting with no counseling, with no understanding or explanation of what had happened? >> so let's see. the end of the zero tolerance policy was in june in 2018 and this fell apart in 2019 and the counseling did not begin until six months after that. it was almost two years by the

time that the children were separated to the time anyone started talking to them about what happened to them. >> just absolutely horrible. julia ainsley, thank you so much. we are all indebted to you and your colleagues for continuing to follow this story so diligently. thank you. let's do something a little bit more cheerful now. earlier in the show we asked why are you awake? one of our viewers tweeted this toy poodle hamilton saying he loved to start with msnbc. hi, hamilton. doing homework before my shift tonight at the hospital at new jersey. shout-out to those nurses and doctors keeping us safe. wear your masks. thank you. from gabriel, if i can get paid for snarky remarks and for binge watching netflix shows i'd be asleep. but since they don't, i'm off to

work. thank you. coming up next here, we'll look at the axios "1 big thing." coming up on "morning joe" as the u.s. coronavirus death toll sur passes 250,000 lives lost, a check-in with dr. richard besser and a member of president-elect biden's covid board, dr. michael osterholm. plus, debbie mucarsel-powell said her loss is more nuanced than the fear of socialism. she'll join the conversation. "morning joe," just moments away. "morning joe," just moments away dry, distressed skin that struggles? new aveeno® restorative skin therapy. with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat

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to make a masterpiece. taste our delicious new flatbread pizzas today. panera. welco♪ welcome to my house live. do you wanna see something really cool? my man cave. another sharma? it's a place to relax. it's hot in here. uh, you might be more comfortable if you removed your fur pelt. i already did. oh. welcome back. joining me with a look at axios a.m., the editor-in-chief, nicholas johnston. good morning. what do you have for the "1 big thing"? >> today's "1 big thing," trump is helping biden win. the frantic legal maneuverings post election now are helping to

solidify his victory. what they're creating is a public record and a legal trail of victories and defeats for each side that is sort of solidifying exactly what the results were. kind of a solid biden victory. go through the states, they're creating a trail of records that lead to the conclusions that we've reached, that he's president-elect. his hand recount is coming in the same as it was, and in wisconsin, the paper recount is unlikely to move the results. in pennsylvania, the state supreme court has rejected the allegations that the trump -- saying all the votes in philadelphia were cast properly. in arizona, the trump's lawyers have come out and said they have seen no cases of systemic fraud and finally, michigan, where there's that contentious meeting canvassers are agreeing to certify the votes. we're seeing the courts and

public record validate joe biden's victory. so all of the machinations are not leading to any way to any kind of moving the stakes a any at all or changing the outcome of the race, which remains for president-elect joe biden. one little history thing we have in reporting this, if you do back to 2000, the recount there actually increased george bush's margin in that same -- to his election. so we're seeing a lot of things in history aren't going to change the outcome at all. kasie? >> very succinct rundown of all the ways in which -- >> what we're knowing for. >> -- trump continuing to lose. thank you for that. let's talk for a second about -- you guys have some interesting reporting on the business community. basically, looking around and saying this is hurting all of us. this is a community that typically has a lot of sway with republicans. i mean, i'm wondering how this potentially affects how republicans talk about the

president-elect. what have you guys learned and compiled on this front? >> some breaking news this morning. the ceo, the chamber of commerce, a business group very historically that's very close to the republicans he's telling axios that biden is the president-elect and that they need to start cooperating on the transition. the national association of manufacturers has said that president-elect is joe biden. jamie dimon, ceo of the world's largest banks said yesterday the transition needs to get moving and the business roundtable was very early in the process, saying that vice president biden has won the election and time for the trump administration to move forward with this. and this is more of the drip, drip, drip and those who are moving slowly saying that joe biden is the president-elect and that the trump administration needs to get moving along on the transition. of course we haven't seen that trickle in and the trump campaign is still fighting the

election results on all these fronts. >> they sure of. of course the chamber of commerce had a flap with senate republicans right before the election, so some questions about where they stand with them now. nicholas johnston, thank you very much as always. great to see you. and on this front, i mean, i'm watching to see how congress is going to handle a coronavirus outbreak. we have had at least seven members of the house since last thursday test positive and the senate left early for the thanksgiving break because they didn't have the votes because of people who are quarantining with covid. all while they have been unable to strike a deal to send help to the american people. so our government pretty broken right now with a president that's refusing to accept the election results and a congress that's having trouble functioning in the pandemic. thanks for getting up "way too early" with us on this thursday morning. stick around, don't go anywhere because "morning joe" starts right now.

mr. meadows, are you looking at voter fraud in states that he won? >> we have a whole team looking at things. so i can't really speak to that. >> he can't really speak to it. white house chief of staff mark meadows after meeting with senate republicans yesterday, brushing off several reporter questions concerning president trump's unfounded allegations of voter fraud. the associated press reports that meadows has encouraged senate republicans to make the most of their remaining time with trump, according to two senators. so the problem is that the biden transition team, joe, is waiting for -- is waiting desperately, actually, for vital information pertaining to the coronavirus. >> well -- >> and people will lose their lives if this information isn't handed over. >>