Summary
The U.S. Supreme Court brushed aside the lawsuit filed by Texas that sought to overturn Joe Biden's election victory in four battleground states. FDA clears Pfizer COVID vaccine for use in U.S. President-elect Joe Biden introduces key domestic policy officials. The Black community's distrust of the vaccine and the nation's medical establishment is rooted in a long record of mistreatment.
Transcript
ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: On the next stop of Velshi across America: Surviving The Next Wave, I'm going to hear about how a black owned winery. Here in Houston Texas is bringing small businesses together and how a Peruvian bakery is catering virtual celebrations during COVID. That is -- that's it for me tonight. But Brian Williams is going to be up with the 11th Hour right after this.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Well, good evening once again. Day 1,422 of the Trump administration. It's been 34 days since the election was called for Joe Biden, 40 days remained until the inauguration of Joe Biden.
There are two headlines, big ones this evening and let's state them plainly. Number one, the rule of law has held. Number two medical science has one. Now some background as we come on the air tonight, two history making stories are unfolding. First, the president who lost the election over a month ago lost again tonight in decisive fashion before the Supreme Court.
Also, tonight on the humanity front, the FDA officially signed off on emergency use of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine. Here is a portion of the White House video that was timed to be released after the FDA announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our nation has achieved a medical miracle. We have delivered a safe and effective vaccine in just nine months. This is one of the greatest scientific accomplishments in history. It will save millions of lives and soon end the pandemic once and for all. God bless the United States of America and God bless the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Preparations are now underway across the country to start giving those first shots that can't happen soon enough with a death toll quickly approaching 300,000 souls.
Washington Post reported the White House ordered the FDA Chief, Dr. Stephen Hahn to authorize this vaccine by close of business tonight or resign and that the agency did in fact speed up the process. The FDA denied that said it was quote encouraged to continue working expeditiously on Pfizer-BioNTech's emergency use authorization request.
But early warning messages from the President made clear he wanted it done today he wrote, "Heavily bureaucratic FDA is still a big old slow turtle. Get the damn, misspelled, vaccines out now, Dr. Hahn. Stop playing games and start saving lives."
That was followed by this drama. I just want to stop the world from killing itself. As we mentioned, the Supreme Court has dismissed the Texas Attorney General's bed to overturn election results in Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Trump called that case the big one indeed. It's his second loss in a week before the court. Michigan's Attorney General had this reaction to the court's decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA NESSEL, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: The fact that we even find ourselves in this place where we have to be relieved that something ridiculous didn't occur that should never have occurred, you know, is it it's a sad chapter in American history that we really need to put behind us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who by the way is under FBI investigation and happens to be the mastermind of this lawsuit called the Supreme Court decision not to take the case unfortunate. The state's Republican chairman had this response tonight, "This decision will have far reaching ramifications for the future of our constitutional republic. Perhaps law-abiding state should bond together and form, wait for it, a union of states that will abide by the Constitution." Dwell on that for a moment we'll discuss in a bit.
Also, today Wisconsin judge rejected yet another Trump appeal saying he found no credible evidence of misconduct or wide scale voter fraud. The Trump campaign is appealing that decision. The Electoral College will meet Monday to officially deliver the presidency to Joe Biden. Trump made what may have been a Freudian slip when describing the president elects White House writing this, "the Biden administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come." And with that he effectively admitted defeat, and it didn't go unnoticed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the President recognize that Joe Biden won the election, and he will he acknowledge it on Monday when the electors vote certify the election?
BRIAN MORGENSTERN, WHITE HOUSE DEP. PRESS SECRETARY: I think that was a sort of couched in terms of you know, if in fact, but I don't think he was conceding anything in particular, he's still litigating his case in the courts and looks forward to that process playing out.
KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS: The president has not won any of this court cases, claiming fraud. He has yet to prove fraud in any court.
MORGENSTERN: He believes there are still important, legal and constitutional questions to be answered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Meanwhile, the New York Times reports the Manhattan District Attorney's Office investigation into Trump's finances has intensified. Prosecutors have interviewed several employees of Trump's bank and his insurance broker in recent weeks a reminder here, no pardon can save Donald Trump from that case.
The Times also reports materials from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani fueled a federal investigation into Hunter BIDEN. Prosecutors in Pittsburgh, PA opened that inquiry at the request of Attorney General Bill Barr. Earlier this week, Hunter Biden revealed he was the subject of another federal investigation in Delaware focused on his federal taxes.
The President-elect is continuing to fill out his administration today he introduced his choices for big domestic policy positions and reminded the nation of the tough road ahead in the fight to end this pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: This nation needs presidential leadership right now. Presidential leadership is willing to model the steps we should be taking for - to save of our own lives and lives of our families. You know, we can wish this away but we have to face it head on.
With that, let's bring in our leadoff guests on this Friday night after this week we've had, Susan Page, Veteran Journalist, bestselling author USA Today, Washington Bureau Chief who of course was Moderator of the VP Debate during this cycle. She is Barbara Bush's biographer. Her next book will profile Speaker Pelosi. Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, Dr. Celine Gounder, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious disease at the NYU School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital in New York, she was recently named to the President-elect Coronavirus Advisory Board, which is exactly why I would like to begin with you, doctor, The New York Times calling tonight the FDA approval, historic turning point in the pandemic. The question to you what needs to happen now?
CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER OF BIDEN'S COVID-19 TASK FORCE: Well, I think first of all, we have not had much good news over the last year. And I do think this is a moment to pause and truly celebrate what scientists and doctors have been working extremely hard diligently over the last several months to bring about. This is truly a miracle. And I do think we need to sit back and appreciate that.
Now, there is a lot of hard work ahead. The company, Pfizer, and then some of the other companies that will soon have their own vaccines online, do have a lot of work to do in terms of manufacturing. And we and the incoming administration, as well as the current administration have much to do in terms of vaccine distribution. So there is a lot of work ahead. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. And I do think we should be celebrating that.
WILLIAMS: Here, here, it would be nice to take the briefest pause to celebrate this colossal achievement. Peter Baker, no pressure to perform. But if you were indeed assigned, the A1 lead front page of your newspaper tonight, how would you sum up this day in this presidency?
PETER BAKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a great question. I think it's sort of the end of denialism and effect. You know, the president of United States can no longer pretend to the Supreme Court is going to somehow swoop in and overturn the will of the voters. And after months and months of, you know, denying that the coronavirus is a serious threat, we now at least have a genuine light at the end of the tunnel. The president of course told us before the election that we're rounding the corner and just in the last two days alone, we've seen more people die in United States each of the last two days than we saw on 9/11 with many, many more deaths that come.
The problem, of course, is it doesn't necessarily mean that the pain is over, either the political pain or the medical pain, right? The pet the president is not necessarily giving up Rudy Giuliani telling my colleagues tonight we're not finished, believe me. So, they're still trying to find some way to salvage a victory that doesn't seem to be happening. And between now and the Time that most Americans get that vaccine, there's going to be a lot of sickness, though there's going to be a lot of deaths still. We have literally 10s of 1000s of deaths still to go before most Americans get that vaccine. So, the vaccine is a great hope. It is a great turning point, no question about it. But there's a lot to be done between now and the time that most people get that shot in their arm to try to prevent and contain this virus from further spreading.
WILLIAMS: And, Susan, my question to you is indeed the President's been spending all his time trying to overturn the results of the election, in ways is as if he just realized this is an achievement. He can attach his name to and claim credit for. Do you think the administration realizes this is still a net tragedy for those of us watching all of this? And there are 300,000 Americans who are not around to share in our joy at this news.
SUSAN PAGE, USA TODAY WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: I think President Trump has not focused from the start on the human costs of this pandemic. He's focused on the politics, he promised. The vaccine, we're all glad that day has finally arrived. But he has not participated in national days of mourning for all these lives lost.
And since the election, as we see 1000s and 1000s of Americans die, the death rate just keeps getting higher. The President has been focused instead, on overturning the results of the election that is going to take him out of office. One big reason he lost in November is because of the human and economic costs associated with the pandemic and questions about how well he handled it, Brian.
WILLIAMS: Doctor, indeed, we've lost over 16,000 of our fellow citizens. This week, the clock is ticking you lost valuable time, you members of team Biden with the transition getting held up. It occurs to me most of this vaccine rollout is going to occur on your time, on your calendar, are you content with the organization that's in place?
GOUNDER: Well, this is really an exercise of passing on the baton. So, the current administration has some plans in place for the very initial phase of vaccination, which includes health care workers, including myself, as well as the residents and staff of nursing homes. But there's still a lot to be done after that. The next phase is after that would be critical infrastructure workers. And there's still a lot of decisions that have to be made about who those people are in which industries that will be prioritizing vaccination. And then after that people over 65 people with chronic medical conditions, so we won't even be reaching the general public probably until April or May. So there really are very long months ahead of a lot of logistical planning and working with the public to both encourage them to get vaccinated, but also to be patient until it is their turn.
WILLIAMS: And Doc, let me back up one topic, and that is today's pressure on the FDA, the American people want and need this vaccine, we all do to be perfectly safe as medical science can make it. We wake up to a tweet from the president pressuring the FDA to just approve it today, period. That doesn't help the effort. So what do you do as a public health matter?
GOUNDER: Well, I think what I, as a public health, as a doctor, as an epidemiologist, you know, what matters to me is how did the process run? And the process ran as business as usual. You had the internal vetting by the FDA. You then had an external scientific body advising the FDA that also conducted their business as usual, vetting 1000s of pages of clinical trial data, and coming to the conclusion that this vaccine was safe and effective, where they could confidently issue an emergency use authorization.
So I think that corners were not cut. And that we should feel confident that the FDA really just did its typical bureaucratic job. And I mean bureaucratic in the best possible way, just doing science the way it should be done.
WILLIAMS: Peter Baker, I want to play for you mentioned, Rudy Giuliani earlier. This was Rudy's appearance tonight on the, what appears to be the new network of choice for the Trump crowd, and that's Newsmax. We'll discuss on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP PERSONAL ATTORNEY: President's reaction is to look at other options. I mean, we always knew that this was an option that we would have to convert this into fact originally, we thought about this is possibly four or five separate cases. We allow them to roll over this lecture floor, it's just going to get worse and worse and worse. This has the worst in our history so far, and it's got to be stopped. And I think the only person who has the courage to stand up to it is Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So Peter, you hear it in Rudy's voice, fresh from bragging about the level of early care he received at Georgetown Hospital for the coronavirus. This isn't going to stop, since we've been on the air, the Wall Street Journal is reporting the President mulling over appointing a special counsel to investigate the election. And Hunter Biden, none of this is going to stop, Peter, so how on earth does the President-elect keep his head down and focus on the Bible is going to place his hand on and the oath to follow and the job to follow after January 20?
BAKER: Yeah, I think President-elect has shown a certain discipline during this transition period of patience, obviously with the outgoing president, rather than engage in the kind of back and forth that Trump kind of cherishes, relishes. Biden is more or less kept quiet and focused on his administration, building his team outlining his plans for what he intends to do once he does take office.
In effect, you know, all but ignoring the noise, as if basically he knows that it's just noise, and it's going to go away and won't stop him from becoming president, rather than justifying or, you know, dignifying an effect with a sort of campaign style back and forth, which is, I think what the President would like to see, you know, he's going to be chosen on Monday, we believe, by the electors who have been chosen by the American people in all 50 states, that will be a significant moment, the idea that something is going to happen after that, assuming those electors do cast their ballots for President-elect Biden as we expect them to, 360 vote majority in the Electoral College, same as President Trump got four years ago.
There's very little that you can imagine that will change that between now and Inauguration Day. It doesn't mean they're going to stop, as you say, and as Rudy Giuliani is now vowing to do, they may continue to keep coming back to the court. But remember, this is the President said that he was counting on the Supreme Court to be the refuge of last resort to overturn the will of the public and the Supreme Court just said basically nothing to know, we don't see any merit of this.
WILLIAMS: And Susan, with the Republican Party right now full of packs of matches, along comes the chairman of the GOP in Texas with kind of loose talk in a press release about seceding from the union. Tonight, Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, has said this, "I believe, the Texas GOP should immediately retract this apologize and fire Allen West, their Chairman, and anyone else associated with this. My guy Abraham Lincoln and the Union soldiers already told no." Obviously is having a little fun there. But, Susan, these are potentially dangerous times.
PAGE: You know, this Texas case look comical, a legal expert of all stripes described it as having virtually no chance of succeeding in the Supreme Court. But that doesn't mean it's without a loss. And we had a situation where 18 states and a majority of the Republican members of the U.S. House signed on to an appeal to overturn a democratic election, because they didn't like the outcome, was charging fraud when they provided no evidence of fraud.
And that has led to cost I think, to our democracy and to our president-elect, who will take office at a time of national crisis with a significant portion of the American public. A majority of the supporters of his opponent, saying he is not legitimately elected. That is one more hurdle for a president who is going to be facing a lot of other ones when he takes office on January 20.
WILLIAMS: We've been showing the names of those house Republicans they will stand for all time as having joined this court brief. Great thanks on a Friday night after the week we've all had and witness to our big three guests for starting us off, Susan Page, Peter Baker, Dr. Celine Gounder. Thank you all for your work.
And coming up, it was over before tonight, but it really is over now. The Trump Supreme Court slams the book shut on Trump's defeat. That can't be good news for his beleaguered Attorney General. I'll talk to a former federal prosecutor up next.
And later, the television anchor turned Presbyterian pastor and lists America's top doctor to reassure a very skeptical population that the COVID vaccine is indeed safe. It's indeed for real. All of it as the 11th Hour is just getting underway on this consequential Friday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Our friend Neal Katyal, who has argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court reacted to this evening's Supreme Court decision this way. He wrote, "It is a strong nine nothing loss for Trump. It's impossible to lose more."
Back with us tonight is Daniel Goldman, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, also General Counsel for the House Intelligence Committee during the Trump impeachment. He was among the questioners, we watched during those hours of live national television coverage of the hearings.
Counselor first and foremost, the story that is just now breaking from the Wall Street Journal, it would be easy to pass this off as another kind of crazy Venezuelan, you know, conspiracy theory. But if the President is mulling over the naming of a special or independent council, there's the headline, to look at Hunter Biden say nothing of the election returns. Does that not mean, and this is where you can fill in my lack of Justice Department knowledge, that it's possible such a role could be codified, so that Joe Biden's presidency could have within its Justice Department, this office constantly investigating his son that the President would not be able to touch or influence.
DANIEL GOLDMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE FORMER DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATION: Well, there's -- it certainly would cause problems. Joe Biden has said that he will not interfere in anything going on in the Justice Department and Donald Trump cannot appoint a special counsel, only Bill Barr can do so.
But yes, it does appear that the President in all of his pettiness and vengefulness is trying to do everything possible to make the transition and make the Biden administration as difficult as possible to accomplish anything.
And what, you know, this dovetails exactly with what happened in this Texas case and what is going on right now with the election, which is I think the headline is less that the Supreme Court rejected this Texas lawsuit nine to nothing and more as you just discussed that so many House Republicans, so many States Attorneys General, joined in this. This is -- this was a P.R. stunt. It wasn't an actual legal claim. There was zero chance of winning. But it's not going to end right now as we're seeing from this Wall Street Journal reporting and as we're seeing from other reporting, this may just be the beginning.
And when you have 75 or 77%, of the Republican voters or Republican, registered Republicans believing that there was voter fraud when every court that has addressed this issue has stated, resoundingly, that there are no, there's no evidence, there's no facts to support the allegations of voter fraud. We're living -- at least 75% of the Republicans are living in an alternative universe. But as long as 75% of those Republicans are living in that alternative universe, what we're going to see is what we have seen, which is nearly 75%, or almost close to that of the House Republicans are also going to go into that alternative universe, and their objective is going to be pure obstruction of Joe Biden.
WILLIAMS: So if we reasonable people can agree that this was an unserious lawsuit misspelled the State of Louisiana for good measure, by the way, that this was not a serious document. We hear Rudy tonight saying, well, at least we didn't lose on the merits. Well, we can go back and re argue at the circuit court level, does this drive you mad as a member of the bar in good standing?
GOLDMAN: It's incredibly frustrating. These are very frivolous lawsuits that in any other circumstance would be sanctionable, which means there's a way in court that lawyers actually can be sanctioned, because they're the officers of the bar, they are the officers of the court. They can be sanctioned for bringing frivolous lawsuits.
But in some respects, these lawsuits are so absurd, that they're not really sanctionable because there's no precedent and judges generally are reluctant to sanction lawyers when there's no precedent. So they actually benefit from their own ineptitude in some ways, because I think judges will generally be reluctant to sanction them.
There is recourse with sanctions, and I am somewhat surprised that we haven't seen any sanction motions in any of these cases. But yes, it's incredibly frustrating from a legal perspective, but also just fundamentally, Brian, from a rule of law and a democratic perspective. The voters have spoken, take your loss, take your lumps, move on. But the notion that we're going to make up claims of voter fraud or some allegations with no substantiation that there was something wrong with this election, because Donald Trump is a sore loser and everyone is going to follow him like little ducklings, and lemmings is incredibly disillusioning for the democracy that we have built in this country over 240 some odd years.
So yes, as a lawyer, as a citizen more frustrated because of the tremendous toll this is taking on our democracy and honor institutions, and the one last bastion that has really stood up has been the judiciary. And that is by design. They are that life tenure means something and they're not beholden to the populace. They're not beholden to the politicians. And we have seen that facts matter in court.
WILLIAMS: Indeed, the rule of law held tonight to your last point, Dan Goldman, thank you for lending your voice to our broadcast tonight, continue to stay inside, stay safe. Thanks for having us into your beautiful home. Dan Goldman, our guest tonight.
Coming up for us, vaccines could be days away, but a significant part of the population is still not on board with it. We'll talk about what's at stake in changing American minds that need to be changed when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you feel about the coming vaccine?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not something that I'm implementing --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- even have my children taken. The American community we just not trusting because we do feel like we're the first thing that they want to test it on. And we're being experimented on.
REV. ROBIN HOOD, REDEEMED OUTREACH MINISTRIES: We're used to being mistreated. We used to being experimented on. And we used to be last in any category when it comes to healthcare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Two words to start off here. Remember Tuskegee, public health officials are focused on countering distrust toward this vaccine, particularly in black communities in our country. Michele Norris, from the Washington Post puts the conundrum this way, quote, vaccine hesitancy from black Americans is different from an anti-vaxxer stance. It's not that black Americans don't believe in vaccines. They don't trust a public health system that has in too many cases engaged in grievous harm by experimenting on black bodies without consent or ignoring the specific needs of black people.
Here to talk about it. We welcome to our broadcast tonight. Dr. Peter Hotez. He's a vaccine scientist working with a team to develop a low cost COVID-19 version for global distribution. He happens to serve as co director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's and he is the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Also with us tonight, the Reverend Liz Walker, we are proud to say she started as did a number of us in local news, notably as the first African American weeknight news anchor in Boston, and is now senior pastor at Roxbury Presbyterian. She's been at the center of an effort and listing Dr. Fauci's help and others to build trust in the vaccine among members of her congregation and the larger city at large.
Dr. Hotez, I'd like to begin with you and your reaction to this FDA authorization tonight.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, VACCINE SCIENTIST: Well, it's certainly important news and a critical first step towards vaccinating our way out of this epidemic. You know, we are hoping not to have to completely rely on biotechnology solutions, but in the absence of a national COVID-19 strategy, by this White House, it's really backed us into a corner and now we pretty much have no other major tools now to halt the screaming epidemic where we're looking at 200,000 new cases a day and 3,000 deaths per day.
So we're in a dire situation and having this vaccine is going to be an absolutely critical tool. And I hope it's going to be the first four or five vaccines that we'll have in the coming months, because I don't think we're going to be able to vaccinate the U.S. population with these two mRNA vaccines alone. So a major first step, but a pretty long road ahead.
WILLIAMS: Here, here and time is of the essence. Reverend Walker, it's great to have you. I'm looking at Pew Research, polling says 61 percent of white Americans are prepared to have the vaccine, 42 percent of black Americans, I'm going to make a sweeping assumption about all of our viewers, the folks smart enough to watch this hour every night know their history. So we have established the fear and distrust. Tell us what you're hearing in your congregation however.
REV. LIZ WALKER, ROXBURY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Well, some people are saying they want to wait it out and see what's going to happen, which gives me a little hope. This is a very tragic situation if we don't take the vaccine, and a lot of people, as you have already pointed out, simply do not trust systems.
And not just because of history, but because of their daily experiences, people who feel that they have been abused, and they have been disrespected. They have been ignored by hospitals, by systems in general.
So you know, getting that to change is not going to be an overnight situation. So we're taking this very seriously. And we're trying to get out and get information to as many people as possible.
WILLIAMS: Dr. Hotez, I know that behind you, there are copies of the book you wrote about your autistic daughter and your fight with the anti-vaxxer community is what promoted that book, what prompted you to write it. And we should point out as we did in the lead in, in a way, this is two different arguments. But also, in a way this makes you uniquely equipped to talk about a public health campaign to get folks to accept this vaccine. So what from your prior battles will you take into the next fight?
HOTEZ: Well, Brian, yes, a really important question. There's a couple of moving parts to this. First of all, you know, Operation Warp Speed has been a great program in terms of scientific rigor and integrity of the clinical trials. The one piece that we haven't seen is really a communication strategy or plan that that's always been missing. And so there's been a gap.
And the gap has been filled by the pharma CEOs who I think are well intentioned, but have really botched the messaging. And, you know, we keep on hearing about the stock trading and the adverse events that come around -- that we learn about through phone calls with JP Morgan investors, all of that is had a damaging effect.
Then we have also the fact that we have a pretty aggressive anti-vaccine lobby, and I've got been going up against this for years since I have a daughter with autism. And as you point out and wrote this book, vaccines do not cause Rachel's autism, which is made me sort of public enemy number one, by the anti-vaccine lobby.
Now I know what we're talking about with the African American community, that there's a much larger piece than simply the anti-vaccine movement from the structural racism, historic race and racism. But there is that piece because one of the things we've learned over the last year or two is the anti vaccine lobby. And the major groups have been specifically targeting specific ethnic groups. They targeted the Somali immigrant community in 2017, the Orthodox Jewish community in 2019, using very inflammatory language around the Holocaust, and they have been specifically targeting the African American communities, staging rallies in Harlem, they, had a rally, I don't know how they did this at the Riverside Church and iconic church in this in the history of the civil rights movement, you know, really piling on the language around Tuskegee very provocative. And so this also has caused a lot of damage.
So we're going to have to really improve on how we communicate with people and to build trust. I think a component of that is really building out a communication strategy. And I really congratulate my colleague here for her efforts. This is so important. I'm glad Tony Fauci is involved with this.
But at the same time, we're going to have to figure out how to launch some counter offensive measures against this very aggressive anti-vaccine lobby, and there is a component of racism to that as well.
WILLIAMS: And Reverend Walker, you point out, you're up against history, you're up against the lives, the members of your congregation live in America every day. You're also up against a virus that has ravaged way over indexed in communities of color in this country.
Tony Fauci spoke to your gathering. Tell us the one element of his talk that was reassuring about someone who played a role in the development of this vaccine.
WALKER: I think the most important thing about Dr. Fauci his presentation to our congregation and the larger community in Boston, we had almost 3,000 people who registered for this event, was the fact that he showed up. And he was very transparent. He was very aware of the problems and he spoke that, but then he, you know, he said he would take the vaccine. He would suggest his family take the vaccine. And he talks about the dangers of not taking it.
I talked to a lot of people in my congregation who heard him, they found him to be credible, they found him to be trustworthy. And that really counted.
But. you know, it's going to take more than Dr. Fauci, it's going to take people in the community. So we are hoping that community leaders will follow Dr. Fauci's lead, and speak out doctors and nurses who are in the community, community health center representatives, and all of those people are working in the Boston area I know, to talk to people to get information to them.
I believe that an informed community can make their own decision. So, this is not about anything other than giving you all the information that you need to make informed decisions. There's a lot of misinformation. There are rumors or speculation. People are listening to Molly and Joe down the street. And so, we want to get the facts out and let people make their own decisions.
WILLIAMS: Liz, let me just say televisions loss is your congregations' game clearly. And let me ask you both. Let's do this same discussion. Once we get down the road a bit and start getting some vaccine out, we'll come out and do a progress report. Our thanks to Dr. Peter Hotez and the Reverend Liz Walker, greatly appreciate it.
Another break for us and coming up after what we've witnessed this week for that matter this year. It's a fair question to ask what is the Republican Party anymore? Who is the Republican Party these days? We'll put those questions to our next guest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Before the Supreme Court rejected the Texas lawsuit, nearly 130 congressional Republicans decided to back the effort they put their names on it. Susan Glasser of The New Yorker wrote just today, quote, I'm quite sure we will remember that Donald Trump is a sore loser, the Saurus loser in fact, whoever was president. But what about the Republican Party is this the moment when the GOP abandons its belief in democracy and the simple non-negotiable principle that the losing party must accept the results of an election?
It is a great night to have with us Bill Kristol, a veteran of the Reagan and bush administration's these days, the editor-at-large over at the Bulwark.
Bill, as they say on Sesame Street, tonight's broadcast is brought to you by the number 126. That was the number of Republicans who put their names on this. Also, the number of words it took the U.S. Supreme Court to send this case away as an unserious document. For you, I have tough questions. As of tonight, right now, what is the Republican Party? And who is the Republican Party?
BILL KRISTOL, THE BULWARK EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes, as of now, the Republican Party parties, mostly Donald Trump's party, about three quarters of Republicans think the election was stolen from Donald Trump, according to the poll, I just saw that today. Two-thirds of the House Republicans signed that document you're discussing, but two-thirds of the Republicans, attorney, Republican attorneys general went to join that lawsuit, actually, you know, as actually, as attorney general of real estate, put their names on this ludicrous lawsuit that was dismissed nine to zero.
So right now, it's Trump's party. And, you know, people hoped November 3, or November 7, when the election was called, you know, he'll be a lame duck. Finally, you might see some liberation, some encourage, some separation of the Republicans from Trump. We've almost see the opposite, haven't we? We've seen a kind of, even though he's a lame duck, even though he's really making arguments, conspiracy theories, anti-democratic arguments that go beyond most of what he did as President, actually, for most of those four years, the Republicans have signed on.
WILLIAMS: Did you think you live long enough to hear loose talk of succession from the chairman of the GOP in the state of Texas as we did tonight?
BRISTOL: It's amazing, right? It's Texas to not a fringe state. Exactly. I mean, no, no, some, maybe this will be the sort of the height of the wave and the fever will break whatever metaphor you want. But the way I put it as a fever breaks is still an underlying illness here. It might add for a while. Trump will go to Mar-a-Lago. There'll be some business as usual. They'll fight with the Biden administration.
But you've seen a kind of underside of the Republican Party for four years now, five years, but now most vividly and most biologists most vividly and most worse and late, really, that I don't think is it can be dismissed. And so yes, I think there are three major political parties in America, the Democratic Party, the Trump party, and then a smallest of the three, the old fashioned Republican Party.
WILLIAMS: And the 45 seconds I have remaining in this segment, how clear how present is the danger right now tonight to democracy do you think?
BRISTOL: It's not present right now, but I think it's very foolish to for everyone to hear too many sides of belief. Good news today with a vaccine in the Supreme Court. There'll be happiness, I assume, no, January 20. People try to water -- there'll be polls showing maybe 60 percent even 58 percent of the public wants to give Joe Biden the chance.
But we have a real problem and it really needs to be addressed and every level of political, cultural, social, intellectual over the next months to years of because this will come back and it can come back like a disease like an infection. It can come back worse the second time.
WILLIAMS: Bill Kristol, you're welcome on this broadcast anytime. Thank you very much for staying up with us on this Friday night. Coming up for us, getting a COVID vaccine is one thing, getting it into your arm where it can work is quite another look at another of the many challenges ahead of us coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Well, talking about tonight's news now that the FDA has officially signed off on emergency use of this vaccine, the rollout now gets underway. But think about this. The Federal Aviation Administration is warning commercial aircraft operators that the volume of dry ice we now need to fly around the country to preserve Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine may present risks for crew members.
The sub-arctic temperatures required to transport and preserve this vaccine is driving up the demand for dry ice for starters. NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez shows us how that demand is complicating distribution efforts.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GABE GUTIERREZ, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight in Michigan it's a cold rush.
(on camera): How does it feel to be part of this now global supply chain?
BRETT PITTMAN, DRY ICE COMPANY OWNER: Frightening but pretty amazing.
GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Brett Pittman and Samantha Ghazi run a small dry ice company here. The wait for FDA approval has been daunting.
PITTMAN: That's the uncertainty right now we've got calls from tri state area. People waiting for shipments they don't know exactly what day they're going to get it.
GUTIERREZ: Since the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at 80 degrees below zero across the country demand for dry ice is surging.
BRUCE KRANZ, THERMO KING: Temperature starts to go up rather quick. So time is of the essence once this lid is off.
GUTIERREZ: Pfizer plans to ship 100 million doses by the end of March. Inside these massive freezers. Each of Pfizer's trays holds 975 doses. To ship them, they'll be moved to thermal containers with about 50 pounds of dry ice pellets. Each container can store the doses for up to 30 days. If the dry ice is refilled every five days.
SAMANTHA GHAZI, DRY ICE COMPANY OWNER: I've always loved helping out.
GUTIERREZ: Tonight companies big and small are scrambling to keep an unprecedented supply chain on ice.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
WILLIAMS: And our thanks to Gabe Gutierrez for that report. Coming up we think we have found the perfect way to send you off on your weekend. I'm looking right at you Leslie Jones.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Last thing before we leave you tonight like dinner time on a really hot summer night we thought it best to keep it light as we send you off into the weekend. For starters how about this? Here is your chairman of the Coronavirus Task Force. Mike Pence prance clapping as he arrived at a Georgia Senate rally. It was immediately theorized that he was perhaps the next contestant on the prices right. It rightfully launched 1000 memes, but there it is.
Our second topic is Leslie Jones, national treasure. Working at 30 Rock, Leslie Jones was that rare cast member on Saturday Night Live in that you could tell when she was in the building. These days she's the host of Supermarket Sweep and during the pandemic she's doing what we're all doing. She's staying home and watching TV.
As far as we can tell, she watches a whole lot of this network and we're happy about that. Her approach is both low tech and high volume. She shoots video of the video on her TV and supplies commentary. Not all of it family friendly, but at least it lets you know you're alive and it makes you question why you'd ever want to hang out with boring people.
She loves a good home camera backdrop. She gives nicknames to her on air favorites. Here is a sampling of her work during Nicole Wallace's broadcast just today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LESLIE JONES, COMEDIAN: Come on, coach. Tell us.
MICHAEL STEELE, FORMER RNC CHAIRMAN: Stand up and said, dude, you lost.
JONES: You lost.
STEELE: Go home. Go back to Mara-a-Lago, look, we'll come help you pack.
JONES: Go help your pack.
STEELE: It's not what they're doing.
JONES: Yes.
STEELE: Hiding behind --
JONES: Oh Nikki, you look so cute today.
STEELE: And they're acting like petulant little children --
JONES: Petulant.
STEELE: -- hiding to their own shadows.
JONES: Petulant.
STEELE: Grow up. Be the congressmen and women who were elected.
JONES: That's right.
STEELE: Represent the American people --
JONES: Tell them, coach.
STEELE: -- excuse yourself or recuse yourself --
JONES: Recuse yourself.
STEELE: -- and get behind solving COVID-19 with the incoming administration --
JONES: Thank you.
STEELE: Get your act together, decide to get the country more than $960 billion because you know they need that. Balanced the nation's budget, handle the nation's --
JONES: Tell them, coach.
STEELE: -- and stop acting like little Trumplets who can't figure out how to put on their own pants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: And that's why she has over a million Twitter followers. I would be remiss if I didn't say what Leslie Jones wants us all to do. And that is have joy in our lives and in your hearts, take care of one another, stress the positive. And we'll all get through this and come out the other side, alive and well. So let us follow the advice of the essential Leslie Jones.
That is our broadcast for this Friday night and for this week. Thank you for spending this time with us. Have a good weekend unless you have other plans. On behalf of the men and women or 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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