1 00:00:02,166 --> 00:00:04,433 JUDY WOODRUFF: President-elect Biden spoke today, as we reported, in Delaware. He addressed 2 00:00:04,433 --> 00:00:09,233 the pandemic surge and the relief package ahead of the holiday. 3 00:00:09,233 --> 00:00:13,333 Yamiche Alcindor was at the event. And she joins us now from Wilmington. 4 00:00:13,333 --> 00:00:15,333 So, hello, Yamiche. 5 00:00:15,333 --> 00:00:20,100 Tell us about what -- more about what the president-elect had to say in these days leading 6 00:00:21,466 --> 00:00:25,400 up to Christmas. He had a pretty dire warning, didn't he? 7 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,100 YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right. 8 00:00:28,100 --> 00:00:33,100 President-elect Joe Biden really issued a stark warning to Americans, as, of course, 9 00:00:35,166 --> 00:00:38,500 320,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus pandemic. He said that Americans are going 10 00:00:40,533 --> 00:00:43,666 to need to steel their spines and be ready, because he said the darkest days are ahead 11 00:00:43,666 --> 00:00:45,766 of us, not behind us. 12 00:00:45,766 --> 00:00:49,666 That, of course, is remarkable, thinking about all the things people lived through in 2020. 13 00:00:49,666 --> 00:00:53,066 But he said, I'm going to give it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth about this. 14 00:00:53,066 --> 00:00:56,700 He said, look, the vaccine, the COVID vaccine, is great, it's promising. We're hoping to 15 00:00:56,700 --> 00:01:01,033 get it to as many Americans as possible, but he said the vaccine is not going to stop people 16 00:01:01,033 --> 00:01:03,000 from dying. 17 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,200 And he was making, of course, that contrast because President Trump has downplayed the 18 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:09,633 coronavirus pandemic, has been accused of spreading disinformation about the pandemic, 19 00:01:09,633 --> 00:01:12,766 so that was Joe Biden in some ways separating himself from the administration that he's 20 00:01:12,766 --> 00:01:14,966 going to be taking over from. 21 00:01:14,966 --> 00:01:19,133 He also said that he's willing and wanting to work with Congress to try to get more COVID 22 00:01:19,133 --> 00:01:23,400 relief done. Of course, we have been covering this all week, with Lisa giving us the play-by-play. 23 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,966 And he said that he -- once he comes into office, he wants to see a new bill. He says 24 00:01:26,966 --> 00:01:29,033 that this is really just a down payment. 25 00:01:29,033 --> 00:01:32,900 I should remind people that, a few weeks ago, Joe Biden told me that -- when I was questioning 26 00:01:32,900 --> 00:01:37,900 him, that he wanted to see billions of new dollars poured into the economy, not trillions, 27 00:01:38,500 --> 00:01:39,933 but billions. 28 00:01:39,933 --> 00:01:41,600 So, we have to keep watching what exactly he does. 29 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,033 JUDY WOODRUFF: Different subject, Yamiche. 30 00:01:45,033 --> 00:01:50,000 He addressed the reported, suspected hack by the Russians of U.S. government agencies, 31 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:56,966 private companies. What are we learning, what are you learning about how he plans to respond 32 00:01:56,966 --> 00:01:59,033 himself to all this? 33 00:01:59,033 --> 00:02:03,433 YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, president-elect Biden really left this squarely in the fault of 34 00:02:05,366 --> 00:02:08,400 President Trump. He said this happened under President Trump's watch. He said that these 35 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:13,400 hackers that look like they are Russian hackers - - experts say that -- that they are really 36 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:17,266 people who caught the United States off-guard and unprepared. 37 00:02:17,266 --> 00:02:21,666 He said that President Trump, while he's still in office for these 20-odd days left, that 38 00:02:21,666 --> 00:02:25,200 he really needs to do something about this. He also said that he pledged he would get 39 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,600 ready and get the country and the government more protected. 40 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:33,266 I questioned him specifically, can you ensure Americans that these government agencies that 41 00:02:33,266 --> 00:02:37,200 were targeted, including the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, will 42 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,100 they be safe when you are president? And he said, Judy, "I cannot." 43 00:02:41,100 --> 00:02:45,033 That in some ways is a really remarkable statement, thinking about the fact that there's so much 44 00:02:45,033 --> 00:02:49,733 at stake and that experts have said that we're not sure we will know whether or not Russia 45 00:02:49,733 --> 00:02:53,633 is continuing to be in those networks and whether or not we will be able to remove them 46 00:02:53,633 --> 00:02:57,733 in a quick time period or if it is going to take years to do so. 47 00:02:57,733 --> 00:03:02,700 JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, more broadly, Yamiche, we are expecting the president-elect to announce 48 00:03:04,733 --> 00:03:09,100 more of his picks for his Cabinet this week, including for secretary of education. 49 00:03:09,100 --> 00:03:10,800 What are you hearing about all that? 50 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,400 YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right. 51 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,666 The Biden administration, the Biden transition team, they're continuing to make picks, continuing 52 00:03:19,666 --> 00:03:21,733 to do the work, even though, I should say, president-elect Biden said today they're not 53 00:03:21,733 --> 00:03:25,466 getting all the cooperation they want to, especially when it comes to the Defense Department, 54 00:03:25,466 --> 00:03:27,566 as well as other pockets of the government. 55 00:03:27,566 --> 00:03:31,800 That being said, we know that president-elect Biden is expected to pick Miguel Cardona. 56 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,900 And I want to put up for people a little bit about his background. He's a Puerto Rican 57 00:03:35,900 --> 00:03:40,900 education official. He was Connecticut's education commissioner. He was also a former public 58 00:03:43,266 --> 00:03:45,366 school teacher and principal. This is a -- he's seen as a lifelong champion for public school, 59 00:03:45,366 --> 00:03:48,866 which is much different than Betsy DeVos, the current education secretary. 60 00:03:48,866 --> 00:03:53,866 Also, he has pushed for schools to reopen during COVID. Now, people who are allies of 61 00:03:55,866 --> 00:03:58,233 Cardona say that he's someone who's really going to be trying to turn the U.S. government 62 00:03:58,233 --> 00:04:01,933 and the Education Department back to supporting public schools. There are a lot of critics 63 00:04:01,933 --> 00:04:06,466 of Betsy DeVos, the current education secretary, who say she was focused too much on school 64 00:04:06,466 --> 00:04:10,666 choice, focused too much on the private sector, and not doing enough to really help public 65 00:04:10,666 --> 00:04:12,833 schools, especially during the pandemic. 66 00:04:12,833 --> 00:04:16,833 I also think it's very interesting that he is pressing for schools to be reopened during 67 00:04:16,833 --> 00:04:20,633 the pandemic. He's saying, essentially, that there are too many students, too many children 68 00:04:20,633 --> 00:04:22,600 who are being left behind in the middle of the pandemic. 69 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:26,933 This is, in some ways, a controversial idea. But there are, of course, people who want 70 00:04:26,933 --> 00:04:30,966 to see more students in schools and others of course, who say it's just not safe. 71 00:04:30,966 --> 00:04:35,966 JUDY WOODRUFF: And finally, Yamiche, turning to President Trump, he is continuing to push 72 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:42,333 these unfounded claims of widespread fraud in the election that led to his defeat. 73 00:04:44,366 --> 00:04:48,266 But, today, we see two of his prominent allies in the media backing away from that. What 74 00:04:50,866 --> 00:04:53,366 have you learned about what's happened here? 75 00:04:53,366 --> 00:04:56,533 YAMICHE ALCINDOR: This is pretty remarkable. 76 00:04:56,533 --> 00:05:01,533 We saw really unusual walk-backs from FOX News, as well as Newsmax, which is a smaller 77 00:05:03,466 --> 00:05:06,400 conservative network. They both backed away from reporting that they were doing that was, 78 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:11,133 in some ways, insinuating that voting machines, somehow, the votes may have been changed because 79 00:05:11,133 --> 00:05:13,233 of those machines. 80 00:05:13,233 --> 00:05:17,133 What we saw were two companies then threaten those networks with legal action, saying that 81 00:05:19,133 --> 00:05:22,700 you are essentially lying about our companies. We then saw FOX News and Newsmax say, in fact, 82 00:05:25,133 --> 00:05:27,000 that there is no evidence that voting machines have been changed or that there was any sort 83 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,133 of fraud there. 84 00:05:29,133 --> 00:05:31,800 It's really important, because President Trump has continued to make the case, even though 85 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,900 there's no evidence, even though he has lost in court case after court case, he continues 86 00:05:35,900 --> 00:05:39,466 to make the case that these voting machines were messed with and that that's -- somehow, 87 00:05:39,466 --> 00:05:41,600 that's the reason why he lost the 2020 election. 88 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:45,500 So, in some ways, we're seeing these media outlets back away from the president's claims. 89 00:05:45,500 --> 00:05:48,833 I also think it's notable because there are allies of the president who tell me, as well 90 00:05:48,833 --> 00:05:52,933 as other reporters, that they are increasingly worried about the fact that the president 91 00:05:52,933 --> 00:05:56,900 wants to go through even more means to try to take back this election, thinking about 92 00:05:56,900 --> 00:06:01,100 putting in a special counsel to oversee election fraud and other means. 93 00:06:01,100 --> 00:06:04,933 There are a lot of people who are very worried about the president's actions. He hasn't taken 94 00:06:04,933 --> 00:06:08,833 those actions yet. But this -- these media companies walking that back, as well as the 95 00:06:08,833 --> 00:06:12,200 president continuing to really say things that could be very scary, tells us where we 96 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:15,766 are in this moment, where the president now has about 29 days left in office. 97 00:06:15,766 --> 00:06:20,766 JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, it sounds like this threat of legal action had something to do with what 98 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:24,666 happened. 99 00:06:24,666 --> 00:06:28,633 Yamiche Alcindor reporting again on the outgoing president and the incoming one. 100 00:06:28,633 --> 00:06:29,500 Thank you, Yamiche.