ROBERT COSTA: A new year, a new Washington.

PRESIDENT-ELECT JOSEPH BIDEN: (From video.)

This is just the beginning.

COSTA: A new year begins with a new president, Cabinet, and Congress.

JON OSSOFF: (From video.)

Georgia has the power to set the tone for the next several decades in this country.

COSTA: And a showdown in Georgia.

SENATOR KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): (From video.)

We're the firewall.

This is the battleground for the entire country.

COSTA: Is just days away.

Can a divided Washington address the challenges of a divided nation?

Next.

ANNOUNCER: This is Washington Week.

Once again, from Washington, moderator Robert Costa.

COSTA: Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

It is a new year and immense challenges are ahead just days before a divided Congress is sworn in and just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The pandemic still rages, and millions of Americans are out of work, and Biden's agenda could hinge on two Senate runoffs in Georgia on Tuesday.

Republicans currently hold 50 seats in the Senate.

Democrats hold 48.

And with Kamala Harris poised to be the next vice president and the tiebreaker in the Senate, Democrats could capture the majority if they win both seats.

Biden and President Trump recently traveled to Georgia.

Let's hear their pitches.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: (From video.)

This is something that's very important.

And you have to get out.

And you have to vote.

You have to make sure you have ever vote counted.

They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it.

(Cheers.)

And they're going to try and rig this election too.

PRESIDENT-ELECT JOSEPH BIDEN: (From video.)

You all did something extraordinary in November.

You voted in record numbers.

You voted to improve the lives of every Georgian.

And you voted as if your life depended on it.

Well, guess what?

Now you're going to have to do it again come January 5th.

COSTA: Now, that isn't the only big story at the Capitol.

Next Wednesday, a day after Georgia, Congress will certify the electoral count.

But there will likely be challenges from Republican supporters of President Trump.

Joining us tonight to discuss the new Washington are three of my favorite regulars on this program - Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour; Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times; and Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today.

Yamiche, let's start with Georgia.

Stacey Abrams and other Democrats down there helped Biden win the state in the presidential election.

Can that coalition be reassembled in early January?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Democrats are really, really hoping they can get that coalition back together.

The pitch from Democrats is this: That this is really an extension of the 2020 general election.

You heard Vice President-elect Harris when she went down to Georgia.

She said: This year isn't over - 2020 isn't over until January 5th.

Making the pitch that her agenda and, of course, the agenda of President-elect Biden could not really go forward in a robust way without the help of Democrats in Georgia turning out to elect both those Democratic senators.

And when I talk to Biden sources in the transition, they say the Senate Republican control - the Senate being controlled by Republicans is really the difference between a Biden agenda having big backing, being able to have a robust agenda and possible not only a hostile Senate to him, and having to broker deals - bipartisan deals and having to make compromise with Senators - but also possibly a hostile Senate that will then be investigating him, possibly investigating his son Hunter Biden.

So not only is the Senate - this Senate race really a pivotal part of the Biden agenda.

It's also whether or not Biden is going to be able to bogged down with all sorts of things he doesn't want to deal with in the middle of a pandemic, or whether or not he's going to be able to have a friendly Senate that allows him to do some of the things he wants to do.

COSTA: Peter, Yamiche just outlined the stakes, especially for President-elect Biden.

He could face a hostile Republican Senate, or he could have a Democratic Senate.

What's President Trump doing in the final days?

PETER BAKER: Well, President Trump, of course, is sending mixed messages, as he often does.

He's undercutting his own Republican candidates, even though he says he's for them winning and plans to go back for one last rally.

By playing the game he did with the COVID relief bill and insisting after it already passed, with votes from Senators Loeffler and Perdue - denouncing it as a disgrace and insisting that they then raise the stimulus checks to individual Americans from $600 to $2,000, he put both those senators in a very awkward position.

Both of them then, of course, then came out and said they agree with the president and they, you know, oppose, in effect, a bill they just voted on and were now for the $2,000 payments that he was insisting on.

But the mixed messages obviously are a concern.

If you talk to Georgia Republicans, as I have, what they'll tell you off the record - not on the record - is that they are concerned that the Democrats are unified, and they have a singular obvious message.

Which is, you know - you know, defeat the Republicans and give Biden a chance in the Senate.

Versus the Republican side which has, you know, sort of a mixed situation where you've got a president saying he wants these two Republican senators to hang on at the same time he's saying you can't trust the system.

That the system is rigged, that it's corrupt, that in fact the elections are - you know, were stolen from him last month, and therefore the implication is, of course, it could be stolen from Republicans in January.

If that simply depresses the vote by even, say, 2 percent, that's a huge advantage for Democrats.

Now, it's still a Republican state that's trending Democratic.

And I think Republicans have a lot of advantages in this state.

But you're right.

And Yamiche is absolutely right.

Everything is one the line here.

COSTA: Susan, candidates matter too.

What's your assessment, what's your sources' assessment of Senator Perdue running against Jon Ossoff - the young Democrat down there - and Reverend Raphael Warnock, the Democrat challenging Senator Loeffler?

What's the actual state of the race?

SUSAN PAGE: Well, the state of the race is pretty close.

And all of us have learned to be a little skeptical of statewide polls.

You know, the fact is both of the Republican incumbent senators are candidates with problems, with problems that involve controversies over their stock trades.

The Democratic candidates have some controversies of their own about their positions.

But in the end, it seems to me, this is a race that comes down less to the strength of the individual candidates and more to the broader message of the parties.

For instance, it is hard to imagine that these two races go in different directions, that one Democrat and one Republican is elected.

That would require voters to go to the polls and split their ballot.

This is more, I think, effectively nationalized.

If you want evidence of that, just look at the money that's been raised.

Both of the Democratic candidates raised more than $100 million in the last quarter of fundraising.

That is an unprecedented and phenomenal amount of money.

It shows how Democrats in particular across the country are focused on this state.

COSTA: Yamiche, Peter mentioned how the president signed the congressional stimulus package on Sunday, but only after first threatening not to sign it.

And he's still refusing to concede the election, suggesting that he could take action when Congress considers the electoral count.

So what is this whole situation - the handling of President Trump of January 6th, the stimulus?

Tell us about Washington in 2021.

ALCINDOR: What it tells us about Washington in 2021 is that it's going to be a place that is possibly dominated by the influence of President Trump, but that also has its limits.

When you think about what happened with President Trump, he was off, in some ways, really focused more on his own political futures.

Trying to, again, falsely say that the election was stolen from him while the stimulus bill was being negotiated.

He sent, of course, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin up to the Hill.

And Democrats and Republicans assumed that he was representing the will of the White House.

But then the president got mad - got mad at the fact that he - the one thing that he was really talking about and had talked about was bigger checks for Americans.

Mainly because he wanted to message that he, as a president, was doing all he could do for Americans.

But Republicans didn't back him.

And that, to me, is something that was in some ways really, really remarkable.

When you look at the House vote, they were able to pass this $2,000 check bill, but largely Republicans were the ones who were opposed to it.

That tells me that as the president is still having enormous influence over the Republican Party, that there are policy limits that Republicans are willing to go to bat for when it comes to the president.

That, to me, tells me that in 2021, when the president leaves office - as he will leave office - he will be able to still have influence over the Republican Party.

He will have a big fundraising base.

He'll be able to - still be able to wield some power there.

But in terms of actual positions that Republicans take, I think it's interesting to see Republicans find ways, especially when it comes to the deficit, to break from the president and say: This is a step too far.

COSTA: And, Peter, one person who would like to also have influence in 2021 in the Republican Party is Vice President Mike Pence.

He's going to be sitting there at the lectern in the Senate when the January 6th count is certified.

How is Pence going to handle that test?

BAKER: Yeah.

It's a great question, right?

The Constitution and the statutes that have been set out governing how this day will proceed require the president of the Senate - that happens to be the vice president of the United States in this case, Mike Pence - to preside over this joint session of Congress as they open these votes.

A very awkward position.

Now, he's not the first vice president to be in an awkward position that way.

Al Gore, of course, had to preside over the Electoral College count in 2001 that declared George W. Bush the victor over Al Gore.

That was certainly painful and awkward.

But the situation here is worse in a lot of ways for Mike Pence, because he's got the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who has been - you know, who he has always been deferential to for four years - calling this a crooked election and demanding that Republicans do something to stop it in this event, even though that's not going to happen.

And Mike Pence will be the one presiding over it.

It's very awkward for him.

He doesn't want to anger President Trump.

On the other hand, of course, he has a constitutional legal duty to be there and to preside over a - you know, a smooth and orderly event - at least, as smooth and orderly as it can be.

And so I think that this would be not something that Mike Pence wants to have on his shoulders, but he will - I'm sure he'll take it on, and he'll do what he can.

But you know, the other thing I want to say, by the way, coming back to this election in Georgia, about Biden, is just, you know, if the Democrats win it's still not necessarily, you know, an easy path for Joe Biden.

If Democrats are to control the Senate 50 to 50, with Kamala Harris being the tiebreaker, that's a really, really, really narrow majority, obviously, to have.

Any single Democratic senator at that point, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Mark Kelly, Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, more moderate, more, you know, conservative even Democrats, could hold up any kind of legislation, and that means that there'll be a lot of pressure on President-elect Biden from the left to do things that they would like him to do, that he might like to do.

He may not have the votes to do it and there'll be disappointment if he can't.

COSTA: Susan, could you build on that, how you see based on your reporting the dynamics inside of the Democratic Party?

PAGE: Well, I think Peter makes a great point that even if Democrats win both of these Georgia seats and have control of the Senate, that is better than not having control of the Senate, but we may see a Washington in which the moderates really rule on both sides.

Moderates like Mitt Romney from Utah, for instance, who's been one of the few Republicans to defer with - to break with Trump while Trump was in office.

Joe Manchin, who has also been willing to cross party lines.

We're going to have a different kind of situation than we've seen over the past couple years, where Republicans really had very tight control of their troops.

Nancy Pelosi in the House, very tight control of her troops.

Of course, in the House the speaker still has a lot of control, even with the very narrow majority the Democrats are going to have then.

But one of the messages we've heard from Joe Biden from the start is he sees a path for a more bipartisan Washington.

A lot of people think that that is naive.

The conventional wisdom is that's naive.

It's either naive or it's brilliant, because if he can do that that might be a way to not only get things done in Washington, but also to bring our divided country more together.

COSTA: Let's dig into that point Susan just made about will the centrists rule Washington or not, because President-elect Biden faces a daunting slate of issues this year, starting with the pandemic and its economic fallout.

And as December closes, let's not forget more than 330,000 Americans had died.

More than 20 million Americans remained out of work.

Businesses shuttering nationwide.

Biden has struck a confident tone.

PRESIDENT-ELECT JOSEPH BIDEN: (From video.)

We look forward to the start of a new year, fresh with hope and possibilities for better days to come, but clear-eyed - clear-eyed about the challenges that will not disappear overnight.

We've overcome incredible challenges as a nation, and we've done it before, and we will do it again.

This is the work that lies ahead of us, and I know we're up to the task.

COSTA: And Biden has been assembling a Cabinet to tackle the obstacles awaiting him.

Many of Biden's picks will be historic firsts, but it hasn't been all smooth sailing for him or his team, with some progressives frustrated by his nominees.

Yamiche, how do you see the Cabinet rollout in the Senate proceeding in February and March?

ALCINDOR: Well, the way that I see it rolling out and proceeding is that Joe Biden - President-elect Biden is going to continue to make the case that he's assembling some of the most experienced people in their fields.

And they're also, a lot of them, alums of the Biden - the Obama-Biden administration.

But what you're going to hear from progressives, and what he's going to be up against, and why that slim majority in the Senate is something to really keep their eye - keep our eye on, as Susan mentions, is the fact that he's going to be facing progressives who want more say in the party.

A lot of the people that he's picking are seen as people who are not very progressive, who are seen as moderate Democrats or Democrats who are in the mold of the former Biden-Obama administration.

And as a result, there are people, I think, who are going to be very, very concerned.

Now, Biden, I should say, as he's talking about the fact that he is going to have bipartisanship, he's also making the case that he's going to be able to really bring together the Democratic Party, where you have progressives who are pushing still for more.

Many people saying that President-elect Biden still was not their first choice, a lot of people still very upset about Bernie Sanders and his loss to President-elect Biden.

So he's going to really be navigating a bunch of different things, including how to tackle vast issues when it comes to not, of course - not only the coronavirus pandemic, but race, and climate.

There are some real big differences between the way that progressives see that and the way that more moderate Democrats see that in terms of how they will deal with those issues.

You're also going to be seeing, I think, a real fight in the House when it comes to Nancy Pelosi.

Yes, she's, of course, very, very powerfully still the speaker of the House, as of now, but there are still some incoming freshmen, progressive Democrats, who are saying they don't want to back her.

We should be watching that space to see how Joe Biden is going to have to deal with the Democratic caucus that may break with him on some key issues.

COSTA: This is Biden's moment, Peter, but also McConnell's moment.

Does he extend a hand to Biden on most of these nominees?

Or is it total political war from the start?

BAKER: Yeah.

That's a great question.

I really think that that's one of the first tests for this new Republican majority or minority, whichever they are.

I think they're definitely going to try to take their shots at a few of them.

You know, obviously the Republicans have already signaled that they plan to oppose, or at least take shots at, Neera Tanden, who is the president-elect's nominee for the Office of Management and Budget.

She's a Hillary Clinton team veteran who has been the president of the Center for American Progress over the last few years.

Outspoken person.

Her Twitter account has offended some Republicans and some Bernie Sanders supporters on the left.

They may take some shots at a few others as well.

Xavier Becerra at the Department of Health and Human Services.

It's not clear, though, that they'll go across the board and try to deny him, you know, the rest of his team.

I think a lot of these are people he's putting forward who have respect on the Republican side of the aisle, even if they're not necessarily, you know, close friends.

The question with McConnell, though, going forward is going to be: How much is he going to want to deal with Joe Biden, and how much is the noise from outside his chamber going to influence things?

Just take a - think about this for a second, about what we just saw with this COVID relief package.

We saw President Trump, while still in the White House, manage to blow up a deal that McConnell had negotiated with his own administration.

What's going to happen when McConnell negotiates a deal with the Biden administration and Trump is on the outside weighing in if he decides to, perhaps even at the last minute throwing a grenade at a deal that both sides have come together on, and then creating a real ruckus for Republicans who might have to worry about offending the base that he has such command over or going along with a deal that McConnell had just negotiated.

It's going to be a tricky situation for Mitch McConnell, whether they win these Georgia seats or not.

COSTA: Susan, we all can't wait for your upcoming book on Speaker Pelosi.

Which issues do you believe she would like to see the new president focus on in 2021?

Is it infrastructure, a stimulus, what else?

PAGE: Well, I think that she, like the president-elect, think that the first job has got to be getting the coronavirus under control.

Nothing else can happen - nothing else good can happen until that happens.

One of her big priorities is protecting and rebuilding the Affordable Care Act.

You know, she was the one who muscled that through the House during the Obama administration at a time that many people thought it was dead.

And she is very interested in taking care of the Affordable Care Act.

It's taken a lot of hits in the last four years from President Trump and the Republican Congress.

She think it's important, and especially in the aftermath of this pandemic, to rebuild it to give some opportunities.

Just one quick comment on the point that Peter was making.

You know, the safe bet with McConnell is that he does the political thing.

But consider this, which president is Mitch McConnell personally closer to - Donald Trump or Joe Biden, with whom he served so long in the Senate.

And I would say he is probably personally closer to Joe Biden.

And maybe that gives a glimmer of hope that he'll be less partisan when it comes to these early confirmation hearings, and on legislation that will follow.

COSTA: Well, I'll be keeping an eye on that.

So will everybody in the reporting ranks.

But to close out the show tonight, let's keep on that theme.

I want to ask you all about your outlook on this new year, as reporters.

Let's begin with you, Yamiche.

In a minute, which story will you be watching and why?

ALCINDOR: I'll be watching the coronavirus pandemic.

And specifically, of course, it's the biggest story of 2020.

It will be the one in 2021, I imagine.

But specifically I'm looking at how is President-elect Biden going to deal with Republicans?

How is going to navigate trying to get another COVID relief bill passed?

The last one took months and months of negotiations.

Biden is claiming that he's going to be able to work with Republicans.

This is going to be the first big test of that promise.

I think the other thing I'm looking at - I know you said one - but the other thing is related to the pandemic.

How is Joe Biden going to convince more and more Americans to take the vaccine, to trust it?

A lot of that's going to include trying to get African Americans who are more vulnerable to the pandemic.

How are they - how is going to convince them to get more vaccinated?

That's also going to be a test of his promise to really bring this country together when it comes to racially - race relations and other things dealing with those - with those real scares that people have, those real concerns that people have over the vaccine because of the country's history with racism and health care.

So those are the two big things, both related to the pandemic.

COSTA: Peter, in about a minute or so, what are you watching?

BAKER: (Laughs.)

Well, Yamiche said two stories.

So quickly I would say, first of all, watching what kind of a force President Trump is from the outside, how much Republicans are still going to defer to him - because he does have a great following among the base.

Or are the Republican elected officials ready to move on?

The second story I would say is Russia.

We've had so many provocations and so many, you know, instances like this cyberattack just the last few weeks.

What will Joe Biden do in terms of confronting them in the year to come?

COSTA: And when you talk about the Republicans, Peter, who do you think is the frontrunner for 2024?

BAKER: (Laughs.)

I would not hazard a guess.

Absolutely not.

You could not pay me to make that guess.

(Laughs.)

COSTA: Susan, what are you watching?

PAGE: I'm watching whether democracy has been damaged by the last eight or nine weeks - in the weeks since the election.

You know, we've had close elections before.

We've had disputed elections before.

We have never had an election in modern times in which the losing candidate refused to accept the results, when the incumbent president declined to commit himself to the peaceful transfer of power, when he launched dozens of lawsuits in battleground states and encouraged governors, state officials, and state legislatures to overturn the certified results in their state.

Does this become a kind of accepted political practice?

And does that cost the trust of voters in the sanctity of democracy, and their faith in democracy, and their belief in the system that we have?

I think we've got no bigger question to watch this year - this next year than that.

COSTA: You think the scars are even deeper now than they were in 2000, Susan?

PAGE: You know, we did a USA Today end of the year poll.

And we found that more than a third of Americans say Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president.

That creates a huge hurdle for a president who is taking over at a time of unprecedented national crisis.

COSTA: And I'm going to be watching Joe Biden.

It's a story that's so obvious, the president-elect of the United States, but this is a man who was elected to the Senate in 1972, not even 30 years old, endured tragedy, has endured run after run, health issues, and now he's finally president.

What can he do?

What will he do?

This is his moment, as we've discussed on so many programs.

And we will be keeping a close eye, here on Washington Week and as reporters, on that important story.

We're going to have to leave it there.

Many thanks to our reporters for coming by tonight, and on so many Friday nights in recent years.

Yamiche Alcindor, Peter Baker, and Susan Page.

Thank you so much.

We will keep chatting in the Extra, on our social media and on our website.

But before we go, a personal message.

This is my final broadcast.

I'm heading off to co-author a book with Bob Woodward.

It was a very difficult decision, as you might imagine, to leave this wonderful show.

But I want to express my gratitude to WETA, which produces Washington Week, and its CEO, Sharon Rockefeller.

She always urged me to have the best possible conversation.

And together with the whole team at Washington Week, we have brought new and diverse voices to this table, and have worked to bring you, our viewers, as close to the news as possible.

And thanks to the generous support we received from you, our viewers, PBS, WETA, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and sponsors nationwide.

The future is very bright for Washington Week.

I've so enjoyed being welcomed into your homes.

It has been an honor.

I'm Robert Costa.

Good night from Washington.