Summary
An independent panel of experts has overwhelmingly voted to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration authorize Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in people ages 16 and older. CDC Director predicts growing COVID surge. President Donald Trump is still raging over election as COVID deaths spike. More than two dozen states filed motions with the Supreme Court opposing Texas' bid to invalidate President-elect Joe Biden's wins in four battleground states, a long-shot legal move that Pennsylvania blasted as a "seditious abuse of the judicial process." 106 GOP lawmakers back lawsuit to steal Biden win. Biden puts a premium on personal relationships in his cabinet picks. Recommendation signals formal FDA approval for Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the U.S. could be imminent, health care workers to receive first vaccine doses.
Transcript
LAWRENCE O'DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: That's just this week to kids in need of desks. That is tonight's last word the 11th Hour with Brian Williams starts now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Well, good evening once again, day 1,421 of the Trump administration, 33 days since the election was called for Joe Biden, 41 days until the inauguration of Joe Biden.
As we come on the air, the latest NBC News data are showing the daily death toll from coronavirus is now on par with the number of people who died in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire the attacks on 9/11, the attack on Pearl Harbor, that makes the latest milestone in the battle against this virus even more important.
Federal advisors and medical experts have now paved the way for the first U.S. vaccines and the initial doses may soon be on the way. The panel recommended the FDA go ahead and give emergency approval for the vaccine developed by Pfizer.
The green light came after an all-day meeting on its safety and effectiveness. All of its streamed live on the web, the FDA may give that official emergency approval as early as tomorrow, vaccines could then start going into arms of Americans on Monday, approval will mean millions of doses will be deployed moving out to states within 24 hours, needle syringes, PPE are already in motion.
U.S. confirm cases now north of 15 and a half million with nearly 300,000 of our fellow citizens gone. And please listen to this as the Director of the CDC today described the stark reality of what we're about to face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: COVID-19 now is the leading cause of death, surpassing heart disease and other causes of death, probably for the next 60 to 90 days we're going to have more desperate day than we had in 9/11 where we had a pearl harbor. And the reality is the vaccine approval this week's not going to really impact I think any degree for the next 60 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: As our nation sags beneath the load of a 10 month slog with the darkest months, as you just heard still ahead of us, the outgoing president was thinking about this today, "The Supreme Court has a chance to save our country from the greatest election abuse in the history of the United States."
Donald Trump is placing what may be his last attempt at overturning the results of our election on a lawsuit from the Attorney General of Texas, a man currently under FBI investigation himself. This Texas lawsuit seeks to throw out votes and seeks to put off certification of the vote in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan all of which the President lost, 18 Republican state attorneys general have joined this suit. Trump had lunch with some of them at the White House earlier today. 106 Republican House members are now also behind the lawsuit. They filed their own court document today. To be clear that means over 100 of your elected representatives are supporting the effort to overturn the will of the voters in these four key states.
Here is how Pennsylvania's Attorney General responded to the Texas lawsuit, "nothing in the text, history or structure of the Constitution supports Texas' view that it can dictate the manner in which four other states run their elections. The court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process."
Even Texas Senator John Cornyn, a reliable Trump, acolyte and a member of the Republican leadership in the Senate, sounded downright cautious.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): It's unprecedented. I do not understand the legal theory. I don't want other states having a chance to change Texas law based on a similar effort. I don't expect the Supreme Court to agree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: John Cornyn was a judge before he became a senator. So here's where we are tonight amid all the false claims of rigged votes and fighting to overturn an election that's been decided, the economic damage from this pandemic just gets worse. Today we learned another 853,000 of our fellow citizens filed for first time unemployment benefits last week. That's a higher number than expected, negotiations on a relief bill appear to have stalled again, and many members of Congress it being Thursday night have left town and until Tuesday as they often do.
As for the incoming administration, President-elect Joe Biden as tap to more Obama alumni for key jobs, Susan Rice, former National Security Adviser will serve as head of his Domestic Policy Council. Obama's former chief of staff Denis McDonough is his nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Biden's also planning to wade into the fight for those Georgia Senate seats. He will campaign there next Tuesday for Democratic Senate candidates. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock that run off to decide control of the Senate is January 5.
With that, let's bring in our leadoff guests on this first night of Hanukkah Thursday exactly two weeks until Christmas Eve, Jonathan Lemire, White House reporter with The Associated Press who was at today's rare White House Coronavirus Taskforce briefing, Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, an Infectious Disease Physician, Medical Director of the Special Pathogens Unit up at Boston University School of Medicine. She worked with the World Health Organization back when we were a member nation during the Ebola outbreak, she's among our medical contributors. And Melissa Murray, she's an NYU Law Professor clerked for Judge Sonia Sotomayor while she was on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Well, good evening, and welcome to you all. Doctor, this is an excitement dichotomy we have in front of us, we want to be excited about the arrival of the vaccines. And yet the predictions for the dark, dark winter we are in for don't get much more grim than what we just heard from the head of the CDC, as unfair as this question may be to you, can you give us a ballpark estimate by the month, when will most of the souls watching a broadcast like this one be inoculated at least their first of two inoculations?
DR. NAHID BHADELIA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES PHYSICIAN: Good evening, Brian, and since you mentioned the WHO, I'll start by saying it depends on what country you're in, and 2021 in the U.S. We're probably looking at if everything holds true, the manufacturing holds through, the distribution and actually getting people to take the vaccine. And if more vaccine candidates come through and are successful, because it doesn't look like the supplies of the only available vaccines currently on the horizon will be enough, then potentially by the end of summer, early fall is when we're looking at achieving that kind of vaccine induced herd immunity.
The hard part though is, Brian, this is the darkest of our nights, as you said. We lit a candle tonight. But the only miracle that we're going to find in the next few months is our own actions and really wearing those masks, and distancing and not traveling if we don't have to. And eventually, I think the biggest challenge is going to be vaccine hesitancy and COVID denialism.
But even when we have the tools, we may get to a position in six months or eight months where we might have communities that might have the vaccine coverage. And could that go back to normal and others that are still suffering from this pandemic, because they don't have the same kind of vaccine uptake as other communities do?
WILLIAMS: Well, I hope everyone watching heard what the Doctor just said and takes those words to heed.
Counselor, over to you, this legal matter we have before us. Donald Trump came to office with close to zero institutional knowledge of how the three branches of government work. There is reason to believe he views his appointment of fully one third of the U.S. Supreme Court as something that's redeemable to him something transactional. I want to play for you a sampling. We'll discuss on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need nine justices. You did that with the unsolicited millions of ballots at this ending. It's a scam. It's hoax.
I think this will end up in the Supreme Court. And I think it's very important that we have nine justices, because I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling, it's a scam. The scan will be before the United States Supreme Court. And I think having a four, four situation is not a good situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you counting on the Supreme Court, including a Justice Barrett to settle on a dispute?
TRUMP: Yeah, I think I'm counting in them to look at the balance, definitely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So, Counselor, a lawyer told me last night this lawsuit is not a serious document that was certainly underscored today, when someone discovered that had misspelled the State of Louisiana. What is your view?
MELISSA MURRAY, NYU LAW PROFESSOR: Well, this is a really unusual challenge. And as you say, the President has put stuff in what could only be described as a Hail Mary effort really is misguided on this particular point. The Supreme Court very rarely grants original jurisdiction in these cases, it has the option to have original jurisdiction in cases involving two states, but it doesn't have to necessarily take up the case. And in this particular situation, it's not clear that Texas or any of the parties that are seeking to intervene in the matter, including President Trump have standing to sue on this particular account. And then substantively, as well as procedurally, there are a number of really troubling aspects on at this point. Many of the votes and a number of the states that are being challenged like Pennsylvania have already been certified. So for the Supreme Court to take action on this point, it would essentially be disenfranchising millions of voters across the country in those states.
WILLIAMS: Professor, I won't ask you for a prediction. But would you be surprised if we got a very terse just like the last time we heard from the court, one sentence denial, and perhaps even a one sentence mandatory denial?
MURRAY: I think it's likely that it will be very curt into the point and swiftly get this out of the courts and back to the work of actually doing democracy.
WILLIAMS: All right, Jonathan Lemire, I've got a play for you, a clip of the White House press secretary, with Sean Hannity, tonight. We'll discuss on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I don't really see a path where they can just kick the can and not deal with an issue of such legal importance, this should be a no brainer, in my opinion, in terms of them taking up this case.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It should be a no brainer. There's original jurisdiction here with some states suing other states, it's very clear that they have standing, it's very clear that they deserve to be heard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So, Jonathan, a member of the New York bar said to me tonight reminded me Kayleigh McEnany, went to Harvard Law School and said, "She knows better." What is going on here and how many in the West Wing are hanging any real hopes on this case that, again, is being described as an unserious document.
JONATHAN LEMIRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: She does know better, Brian, and it's a good reminder of just how small the circle is around the president right now. Most of those who would ever speak up to him or challenge him on these beliefs have long since left, or certainly in the last couple of weeks, as the West Wing is totally hollowed out, because of COVID cases, and at the election results becoming obvious to some in the building.
He is now just surrounded by the true believers, the loyalists that includes the Press Secretary, and very few are suggesting to him that he should stop but also no one ever in there thinks it could change the result of the election.
This is about the fight. But it's more than that. It's obviously this is a dangerous moment right now for the democracy where the President is bucking democratic tradition, not adhering to the very tenant of our electoral process, the peaceful transfer of power with these long shot lawsuits that have or seem doomed to fail. And what it's doing instead is simply undermining the confidence of many men, many millions of Americans into the incoming administration, many of whom believe that Joe Biden was not duly elected.
WILLIAMS: On that point, Dr. Bhadelia, this is the era of disinformation and you raised the specter of anti-vaxxers already, which is going to be the enemy of public health in these next few months. Why wasn't the vote by the advisory panel today, again, all of it very forthrightly streamed live, anyone could watch it and see the expertise and the old-fashioned rigor that went into this process. Why wasn't the vote unanimous?
BHADELIA: Brian, to some extent, there are two people who dissented who spoke out aloud. The other two, we don't really quite know the reason for it. The ones that spoke out mentioned that it was because they wanted the wording of the approval to be a little bit different as currently approved for those 16 and over and they felt that there wasn't enough evidence for 16 and 17 year olds, because there weren't enough participants of that age in that group.
Now, it's unclear when FDA actually passes the EUA if they're going to change that wording to kind of meet that consensus. But overall, you know, there was a lot of discussion not just about that, but also the ethics of releasing an emergency use authorization because now you have a vaccine that's available under that. But now when you have new vaccine candidates, will other people want to take part in those trials? And how do we even with this EUA being passed? How does Pfizer continue the study of the people that are already in its trials so that we can get answers like long term protection, or even getting a sense of, does is protect us just from infections, but also asymptomatic infections that are also only from disease, which is what we currently know from the trial.
WILLIAMS: And asking forgiveness for ping ponging among subjects, Professor Murray, back to you. This is where I work in a plug for your alma mater Yale Law School by way of saying you've spent your adult lifetime and the law, what's your reaction to seeing, not just 100 plus members of the duly elected House of Representatives sign on to this case, but 1718 state attorneys general put their reputations, their good names onto this case?
MURRAY: Well, it is surprising. Again, it is unprecedented and unorthodox, but so has much of the last four years under this administration. And I think it's really clear that at least around the Republican Party, Donald Trump is still calling many of the shots. And, again, I don't expect the Supreme Court to take this case seriously, certainly not in the way the President would hope. But it's really dispiriting to see individuals who have been elected to Congress individuals who are licensed and barred and have sworn an oath to uphold constitution signing on to something that every legal scholar I've spoken to believes is truly meritless.
WILLIAMS: Jonathan Lemire, two items here, number one, potential trigger for Donald Trump to learn that tonight, Time Magazine has in fact named their people of the year, a lot of people expected frontline medical workers it was taken as an article of faith in fact, not so it is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, that coveted slot in the life of Donald Trump that has always and will continue to elude him.
Number two, Wall Street Journal report out tonight about the 100 Biden tax investigation. And this story would have us believe that Attorney General Barr did not want to make this public during election season. You'll forgive any cynicism. You'll forgive any skepticism. A good many people are going to say this doesn't match the Attorney General Barr we have come to know, is this another attempt to try to salvage the smoldering rubble of his reputation?
LEMIRE: Well, first, Brian, there are a few people I think, who spend more time thinking about the Time Person of the Year award than Donald Trump, who you might recall at rallies would pull the crowd whether he -- they thought it should be Time Person of the Year or Time Man of the Year. So, I'm certain he won't be very happy with tonight's result.
In terms of the Attorney General, yes, the reporting suggests that he adhered to the Department of Justice guidelines, which suggests that there should not be overt action publicity of an investigation when it comes so close to an election rule that of course, many people will notice what James Comey ran afoul of in 2016. In fact, it was enforced after that, when he talked about the Hillary Clinton investigation saying that while she was not being charged any wrongdoing, he held this extraordinary press conference and sort of scolded her behavior. And it was seen as very damaging to her and an effort to not have something like that happen, again, DOJ has these guidelines. But you're right, we embark has spent most of his time in his position doing it appears to most Donald Trump's bidding from the very beginning when he framed the findings of the Mueller report in a way that seemed to exonerate the president than the actual text of the report.
So, this would indeed see run as a surprise that he would not do something that would be politically advantageous to the president and publicize these investigations into hunter Biden.
What is clear is this, that we haven't heard a reaction from the president, we will. We already know he's angry at Barr, for Barr's insistence there wasn't widespread election fraud. This was certainly just ratchet up the tension between the two men as the president. We report tonight, privately fuming that more wasn't done to publicize his investigations before the election.
WILLIAMS: Three friends of this broadcast to start us off tonight a premier journalist, a premier physician, a premier lawyer, Jonathan Lemire, Dr. Nahid Bhadelia and Professor Melissa Murray, thank you all for helping us start things off.
Coming up for us, how much damage can an outgoing president do to his own political party? James Carville, Mike Murphy standing by to join us.
And later, should feeding America be a cabinet level job in this country. We'll talk to one of the most famous chefs in the world who says we need a secretary of food in this nation and in the president's cabinet. All of it as the 11th Hour is just getting underway on this Thursday night.
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SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) TEXAS: I'm going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump. This man is a pathological liar. He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist. The man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So fast forward to now and what a difference four and a half years can make this week Donald Trump offered Ted Cruz the job of arguing this attempt to overturn the election before the Supreme Court if it ever gets to the Supreme Court. Ted Cruz, one of the many Trump's supplicants in the Republican Senate said yes, sir, I'm your man. And then there's this, a new poll from Quinnipiac finds 34% of all voters say Biden's win is not legitimate.
It's a lot but we have two men who can handle it back with us tonight, James Carville, Veteran Democratic Strategist who rose to national fame with the Clinton Presidential Campaign and his co-host to the Politics War Room podcast, and Mike Murphy, Veteran Republican Strategist and Strategic Advisor to Republican Voters against Trump.
Gentlemen, good evening to you both. Hey, Mike, if John F. Kennedy, may he rest in peace, were still among us. I'm aware he'd be 103 years old. But if he embarked on writing up Volume Two of profiles and courage, wouldn't it have to be more of a pamphlet? Do you see any examples out there these days?
MIKE MURPHY, REPUBLICAN VOTERS AGAINST TRUMP: I think the Republican chapter would be only one page long and list a few people like Mitt Romney and Larry Hogan, but to me, this is incredible. I've been in fighting for Republicans for over 35 years. I joined the cause for a reason. And this is the lowest ebb I think this week of the pretty awful Trump presidency. Because, you know, we have this lawsuit, which on one hand is kind of the rubber chicken of lawsuits, they're going to throw it at the Supreme Court is going to get thrown right back. It's ludicrous. There's no standing. But the idea behind it is toxic and real. And to think of the 106 Republican members of Congress, plus, you know, 17 Attorney General's would sign on to something that is essentially, an attempt to overturn a legitimate American election is something I couldn't even imagine four years ago.
So I think it is that the stain on the Republican Party is tremendous. And there are so many people on that amicus curiae. Dan Crenshaw of Texas knows better. Some of those other congressmen do but they've let their narrow political ambition and their gutless fear of Donald Trump run wild now they're getting close to the treason business. It is unthinkable to me.
WILLIAMS: Well, Mike, let's keep going right there on what you just said Crenshaw's name stood out to me too, as I peruse that list of over 100 duly elected members of the House, forgive my French, these are grown ass men and women, these are elected Republican representatives, I have never seen people so scared of an individual in my lifetime. But think of what they've done to weaponize the Republican voting base. And think of the expectations now on what we used to call traditional Republicans trying to run for re election.
MURPHY: Yeah, they declared a war on the institutions of democracy. And they're telling our hardcore third of the country that the election is illegitimate. It is massively irresponsible beyond anything you could suspect and again, people like Dan Crenshaw have served the country well earlier in their careers. I don't know how they can look in the mirror right now.
WILLIAMS: James Carville, your guy won this election, of course, and it made you and your fellow Democrats very happy we've got this polling though, 70% of Republicans say Biden's victory is a legitimate. There's your shadow government not so much coming out of the shadows for the next four years. What amid the good news from election night, James, what worries you right now?
JAMES CARVILLE, VETERAN DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Everything. I can't think of a single thing that didn't work. And I'm gratified that President Biden is going to be president, but the reaction to this pandemic direction to this election. Everything that happened is just staggering. I mean, if you look at this lawsuit, Ken Paxton is under federal investigation. This is a ploy for a party. This is all this is. And you got 100 elected Republican congressmen sign up to this.
Ted Cruz is an educated intelligent man. Trump attacked his wife and attacked his father. I mean, if anybody in the world knows better than Ted Cruz, I have -- I can't explain it. And I don't know if it's going to get any better. I think it may be the explanation is they've all gone nuts. Because there's no other -- there's no other logical explanation that someone can come to. But I mean, it just isn't every judge every person, of course, is throughout every lawsuit, and they're going to keep on going.
And I guess if somebody, if a political party wants to, you know, do itself then you can't stop them. Mike Murphy can't stop them. But the hardest he tried it, they just seem intent on, you know, pulling a pin on the grenade and pulling their hand and watching it (inaudible). I don't know it. But there's a lot of troubling things going on in the country, the Republican Party being at the top of the list.
WILLIAMS: Well, as they say, if this ain't a mess, it'll do till the mess gets here. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us. While I fit in a break when we come back what to make of the criticism that the Biden administration might look a lot more like Obama's third term and those who are wondering, what would be bad about that.
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WILLIAMS: As Joe Biden continues to fill top jobs, we got this headline from the New York Times and we quote, team of rivals? Biden's cabinet looks more like a team of buddies. Still with us two buddies, James Carville and Mike Murphy.
So James, the times does some kind of tisk, tisk reporting that Democrats are worried about the lack of new faces, I have to say, just as an observer, the rigor and expertise of the opening statements, especially the economic and national security team was striking after the four years we've just lived through. Do you have any real concerns about this? Or this is just democrats being democrats?
CARVILLE: Well, first of all, we didn't nominate a new face. And I think he's governing exactly like he ran exactly who he is. I mean, nobody can be surprised that he's picking kind of experienced people that have some experience in government that he has personal relationships with. That's who he is. And when people voted for him, he branded given his truth and package and it was truth in advertising, he ran is exactly what he is. And he appears to be selecting his team is exactly who he is.
And I suspect that he's gotten pretty close to exactly. I mean, this is no surprise here at all. And I don't want to expected him to bring a lot of fresh faces and new people into Washington at all that. I had no expectation of that and I'll take care of a claim that he would. So it's pretty predictable.
WILLIAMS: Mike Murphy -- Mike, I'm guessing that next to the blockbuster video card in your wallet is your Republican Party membership card, because you are after all, a still a card carrying member of the Republican Party. Have you had any vehement disagreements or differences with any of the early rollout choices that you've seen?
MURPHY: No, the card goes back to 1980 Georgetown College Republicans but, you know, look, I'm a conservative so I can find stuff to quibble with, but I'm not seeing the loonie left, which is alive and well, and parts of the Democratic Party. And I'm quite happy about that.
I think James is right. Biden's been in this business a long time. That's no secret. And he's got a team that's been with him for a long time. They know how to anticipate what he's thinking. There's loyalty there. So you know, he's bringing his folks in and I think it's a pretty good model.
It was funny I was talking to a longtime, very wise foreign policy expert, who's observed this stuff for a long time kind of getting his sense. He said, you know, these things are always the same. It's like a game of musical chairs. And there are a lot more people standing around than there are chairs.
So after a little bit of that you start getting the leaks to the paper and, you know, there's kind of the sniping because you can't please everybody, but I think Biden with a few kind of optical fetishes sometimes that I think are unnecessary. His staff and administration that seems like him and that's what you want out of a president get what you voted for.
WILLIAMS: James Carville, your prediction on the presidential election was right. You were sure of it. You were vehement. How do you see the two Georgia races? No pressure, but only control of the Senate is resting upon the result?
CARVILLE: Well, I see polling, I do calculations all the time. I don't think anyone can really know because first of all, we don't know how the Republicans are going to react or come out wolf of chocolate or Democrats do react, but they also have a horrible COVID problem in Georgia. They're going to have -- this going to have some effect on the staffing of this election. And if it continues in a direction is gone, then it could have some effect on turnout and prop that might even be adverse to Democrats.
But I don't think anyone knows I spent time on the phone with people, you know, and some people say well, you lose to or spare a beat and I don't take that is a good model that can tell us what's going to happen at this point in Georgia. I honestly don't. I wish I could say man, I'm very confident that we're going to learn about these more confident we're going to lose. I'm just confident that I don't know.
WILLIAMS: OK, when you do know, you know to call your friends, Michael and Brian, please. James Carville, Mike Murphy, our thanks to two longtime friends of this broadcast, greatly appreciate it.
Coming up, one of the best known chefs in all the world says the cabinet is missing something a job title the president's cabinet that is Jose Andres says our country needs a secretary of food. He joins us next to make his case.
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JOSE ANDRES, CHEF: I believe that food is a national security issue. We need to be having people in the White House, in Congress, what they see the problems that food can create in the world. We take food for granted. We need to make sure that when something like this happens, we have people on top of distribution, farming output. Our food sources should be part of the national security conversation in the same way we talk about missiles protecting us.
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WILLIAMS: That was our next guest back at the beginning of the pandemic. In an op-ed calling for a cabinet level secretary of food in this country. Chef Jose Andres writes this, it's not just that our priorities are wrong, food is not a national policy priority at all. We invest in and care more about the energy that drives our cars and trucks than the energy that drives our bodies.
And for more, we are indeed so pleased to welcome back to this broadcast Jose Andres, founder of the World Central Kitchen, and chef and owner of the Think Food Group. His organization has been feeding Americans who need help during this pandemic. And following natural disasters, I'm here to tell you he's often up and running before FEMA has even left the gate at the airport.
Chef, thank you very much for coming on. Just a quick question at the top throw modesty aside. Tell our viewers how many meals you reckon you've served people in need.
ANDRES: The organization I found it was Central Kitchen so far on this pandemic alone, we've gone already 35 million meal.
WILLIAMS: Oh, my goodness. Well, that sets the scene nicely for the question I wanted to ask you. If I donated a jumbo jet was 535 seats, one seat for the entire Congress, Senate and House, of course we'd have to take this trip during their rigorous three-day workweek some point from Tuesday to Thursday. But if you could take them, to show them what you see, to introduce them to the people and show them the faces you see during this pandemic, what could you teach them? What would they learn?
ANDRES: Well, number one, we need to recognize that on top of their health crisis and their economic crisis. The reality is that right now, we have a hunger food crisis in America. So we need them to recognize this issue.
We have big NGOs, a small NGO, torture, synagogue, every small nonprofit took pictures right here in Washington, DC, places like DC Central Kitchen on Martha's Table. I've been in many cities in many states in this pandemic, and I can tell you one thing, America is suffering. And we need the support of the federal government. Because we cannot spend to keep America, we've charity dollars. We need the government to step up.
And food actually is a great way to tackle the problem of hunger, and in the process, keep restaurants running, keep restaurants working, making sure that the restaurants can keep employing their people, making sure that we can keep paying our brand. And we can keep buying food from our farmers.
We are in a moment that we have, on one side, farmers throwing away their potato crop, milk producers throwing their milk way. And at the same time, we have millions of Americans going hungry. Food should be a top priority for this administration. And I know the incoming administration are going to be taking food seriously. So let's make sure that food is not the problem, but the food becomes the solution.
WILLIAMS: The waste of food during the hunger that a pandemic has caused you are right is absolutely obscene. We were seeing some of it as you spoke. Make your case to the folks watching about why at every cabinet meeting, having one of those chairs occupied by a secretary of food, how that would keep the subject front and center.
ANDRES: We're facing issues like for example, FEMA will be in charge after hurricanes or fires to make sure that people in need are fed. I was data (ph) during this pandemic. FEMA is being missing in action. We we've been using 3,000 restaurants across America, across more than 45 states to precisely the hospitals, the elderly, the homeless, feed anybody in need of food, why we don't make sure that FEMA can be part of that solution.
That's why we've been proposing the feedback, which is bipartisan, where we are these already passed Congress and we are waiting the Senate to do their part why we can on made sure that we put the restaurants work in supported by the federal government using the FEMA resources, money that is already there, to make sure that restaurants that are suffering right now, who better than cooks, who better than restaurants, who partner with FEMA to partner with governors and mayors of every city and made sure that nobody will be hungry.
We forget that even before this pandemic, a vast majority of Americans, over 80 percent of Americans believe that no American should be ever be hungry. Why we don't make sure that we understand that food is a bipartisan issue that for, is we the People, Republicans and Democrats, were no American, especially to a pandemic like this should be going hungry.
And in the process, we can create a better food system where actually people don't want our pity. People want our respect. Why do we need to have Americans all across waiting long hours online for a plate of food, for a box of vegetables? Why giving America which is a big enterprise that brings together all the food banks of America? Why are we only giving them $500 million?
This is almost only $20 per hungry American per year, the federal government should be doing more, can be doing more. And we need to make sure that understand that put is not only a USDA issue, or FEMA issue is many different departments where food is essential. And if the all of them work together, all of the sudden we can maximize the power of the federal government to take us through this pandemic. And look at the future with go.
WILLIAMS: Well put. Chef, I know you can't hear all of our viewers thanking you for your hard work on behalf of all these people. But trust me, they are. Thank you for always being so generous with your time on this broadcast. Chef Jose Andres, thank you. Good luck in your work ahead. Thank you very much.
Coming up for us, the frontline workers who are now at the front of the line for the first vaccine shots and rightfully so.
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DR. STEPEHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: We need to get to herd immunity. And that requires a substantial percentage of Americans to be vaccinated. So that's why we've been transparent. It's why we want this public discussion of the data. It's why we've been very careful about the review of the data. And we'll make a very careful decision understanding of course, the importance of the situation and the urgency.
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WILLIAMS: So let's circle back up and around to our lead story tonight. As we mentioned, the FDA could issue its emergency clearance for this Pfizer vaccine as early as tomorrow, that starts a chain of events. Within 24 hours of that decision the rollout likely begins. NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez spoke to health care workers in Michigan who could be among the first to be inoculated in the United States.
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GABE GUTIERREZ, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight in Kalamazoo, Michigan, just a few miles from this Pfizer plant. The staff at WMed is preparing these ultra cold freezers for some of the first doses of the vaccine.
(on camera): You're essentially one of the first parts of the supply chain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, this is very cutting edge.
DR. ADAM LADZINSKI, WMU HOMER STRYKER M.D. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: To be able to be one of those first people that potentially could get that vaccine is something extraordinary.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Extraordinary because it feels like something out of the movies.
DR. TOM FLYNN, WMU HOMER STRYKER M.D. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: We expected vaccine rates and rollouts of vaccines and studies to take two to five years and the best of situations. This is six to nine months. This is like Star Trek. This is amazingly fast.
GUTIERREZ: Some health care workers have told us they feel some guilt taking the vaccine first but they know they need it to better care for their patients. The medical community hoping to show anyone skeptical the vaccine and it's safe.
Is this the beginning of the end of the pandemic?
ALYSSA ERSKINE, WMU HOMER STRYKER M.D. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: I sure would like to hope so. Let's go ahead and take a deep breath for me/
GUTIERREZ: For Dr. Alyssa Erskine, the hardest part of treating COVID is not always those infected. It's their families.
ERSKINE: I have one patient I took care of in the ICU that her son came to visit every day. And it was glass doors there so he could come stand in the hallway and stare at her, and he would come every evening and just watch his mom for an hour. And it's heartbreaking.
GUTIERREZ (on camera): Here in Michigan this huge Pfizer plant is at the ready that the FDA approves some hospitals across the country are preparing to get their first vaccine doses as early as Monday.
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WILLIAMS: And our thanks to Gabe Gutierrez for that report tonight from Michigan. Coming up for us. It turns out what's so often true in life is true in respect to coronavirus treatment. It's who you know.
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WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go tonight is this sentiment expressed by our friend the brilliant presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss. He reminded us today that in autocracies, the friends and family of the dictator often get the best medical care.
Michael wrote that following the news that Rudy Giuliani is home from the hospital and is now a huge booster of early treatment for COVID-19. The problem with that, of course, is the millions of people who would love to have early treatment for themselves, for their loved ones, but of course they can't because in plain English, that kind of thing is mostly available for the wealthy and connected.
The New York Times headline is quite direct on this score. Trump and friends got coronavirus care many others couldn't. Here's how they put it quote. Ben Carson, Chris Christie and Donald Trump are not the sturdiest candidates to conquer the coronavirus, older in some cases overweight male and not particularly fit, yet all seem to have gotten through COVID-19 and all have gotten an antibody treatment in such short supply that some hospitals and states are doling it out by lottery.
Now Rudy Giuliani, the latest member of President Trump's inner circle to contract the virus has acknowledged that he received at least two of the same drugs the president received. He even conceded that his celebrity status had given him access to care that others did not have.
Well, indeed, you can hear him make that last point for yourself. It seems Rudy took time out from his recovery and his efforts to overturn the election and called into WABC Radio in New York and promptly said the quiet part out loud.
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RUDY GIULIANI, DONALD TRUMP PERSONAL ATTORNEY: I had very mild symptoms. I think if it wasn't me, I would have been put in hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really? Yes, well, I mean --
GIULIANI: Sometimes when you're, you know, you're a celebrity. They're worried if something happens to you. They're going to examine it more carefully and to do everything right.
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WILLIAMS: Noted celebrity Rudy Giuliani commenting on his successful early treatment. Make no mistake here. All cases of COVID are scary. They're all potentially fatal. As we mourn the dead, we also pray for the sick. And we also applaud those who are recovering including the President's friend Rudy but remember how we started this segment a minute ago. In autocracies, the friends and family of the dictator often get the best medical care.
We'll close out on that this Thursday night along with our thanks for being here with us, for all the men and women at the networks of NBC News. Good night.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END
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