By Dan Donahue, NBC Nightly News |
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Good Monday afternoon. The pace of Covid vaccinations in the U.S. remains frustratingly slow, President Trump was caught on tape pressuring Georgia’s top election official to overturn the election, and the U.K. is refusing to extradite Julian Assange to the U.S. |
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Here is what’s in our Nightly Rundown. |
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Fewer than 5 million have received Covid vaccine in U.S. |
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As of today, the CDC reported that more than 4.5 million initial doses of the two authorized Covid-19 vaccines have been administered — far short of the 20 million projected by Operation Warp Speed. |
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Warp Speed's chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui maintained that “nothing has gone wrong” with the vaccine rollout, but acknowledged there has been a “lag,” in an interview today with CNN. |
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The nation has now reported more than 350,000 deaths from Covid-19, and has surpassed 20 million cases. |
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The staggering milestones comes as health officials fear a new surge, after many Americans ignored health officials’ pleas to avoid traveling and gatherings over the holidays. |
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On Sunday, the TSA screened more than 1.3 million travelers at airport checkpoints, the most since the pandemic began. |
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California may already be feeling the impact of a Christmas surge. The state, now the nation’s epicenter, reported nearly 30,000 new cases today. |
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Hospitals are so overwhelmed in Los Angeles County, ambulances are waiting up to eight hours to offload patients. |
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· The U.K. became the first country today to begin rolling out the vaccine developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca. |
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· Famed interviewer Larry King remains hospitalized with Covid in Los Angles, but has now been moved out of the ICU. |
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· The NCAA will hold its entire March Madness tournament in Indiana this year. Last year’s tournament was canceled due to the pandemic. |
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· An inflatable “air-powered” Christmas costume may be linked to a Covid outbreak at a California hospital that killed one employee and infected dozens of others |
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U.K. expands fight against Covid-16 with new Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine |
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Democrats demand FBI investigation into Trump’s leaked phone call |
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Two House Democrats, Reps. Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice, are asking FBI Director Chris Wray to open a criminal investigation after President Trump was heard on a leaked phone call pressuring Georgia’s top election official to overturn his state’s results. |
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NBC News has obtained a recording of the call, first reported by the Washington Post, in which Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overtake President-elect Joe Biden’s margin of victory. |
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“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump said on the call, which took place on Saturday. “Because we won the state.” |
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During the conversation, Trump made a litany of false and unsubstantiated claims about the election, as he scolded Raffensperger. |
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Raffensperger said today that he “never believed it was appropriate to speak to the president” about the 2020 election results, but ultimately agreed after the White House pushed for it. |
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With 16 days left in office, and his legal options all but exhausted, Trump has thrown his hopes behind a longshot GOP effort to challenge the certification of the Electoral College vote when Congress meets on Wednesday. |
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More on Trump’s last stand: |
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A dozen Republican senators and senators-elect are threatening to object during Wednesday’s Electoral College count, citing baseless allegations of voter fraud — a move that may delay the certification of Biden’s victory, but is highly unlikely to be successful.Also on Wednesday, Trump’s supporters are planning to hold protests against his loss in Washington, D.C. The president has indicated that he will make an appearance.In an extraordinary op-ed, all 10 living former secretaries of defense called on the military to stay out of the election dispute. |
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Trump and Biden rally in Georgia on eve of critical Senate elections |
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Both President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden are appearing in Georgia today, just hours before the polls open in the critical runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. |
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This afternoon, Biden is attending a drive-in rally in Atlanta for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. |
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Later in the evening, Trump will appear at a rally for Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Dalton. |
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Perdue is unable to attend because he is quarantining after coming in close contact with someone on his re-election team who tested positive for Covid-19. |
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For Democrats to take control of the Senate, both Ossoff and Warnock must win their races. |
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U.K. declines to extradite Julian Assange to the U.S. |
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A judge in the U.K. has rejected a request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges, citing concerns over his mental health and the risk of suicide. |
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“I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,” District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said in her decision. |
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U.S. prosecutors say Assange conspired with former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files. |
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Assange has maintained that he was acting in the capacity of a journalist by publishing those files, and says he is facing a politically-motivated prosecution. |
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Attorneys for the U.S. government have said they will appeal the decision. |
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Assange faces 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse. If he is ultimately extradited and convicted, he could receive up to 175 years in prison. |
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Assange supporters celebrate ruling not to extradite WikiLeaks founder to U.S. |
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What else we’re watching: |
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$10 million negligence claims have been filed on behalf of two men shot during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, against the city and county of Kenosha, Wisconsin.A “hoax device” inside a Tesla parked near a New York City mall caused a scare today. Authorities rescued a dog that was trapped in the vehicle.Tanya Roberts, who starred in the 1985 James Bond movie “A View to a Kill,” and later in “That ‘70s Show,” has died at 65.More than 200 Google employees have formed a union — a rare move in Silicon Valley.Which diet tops the U.S. News & World Report list for the best of 2021? |
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Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app. |
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