News Information and Media Site: A new president-elect ... and how Biden won

From NBC's Ben Kamisar

If it's Sunday, America has a president-elect — and a sitting president who refuses to accept that.

A day after former Vice President Joe Biden was projected as the president-elect, President Trump is still digging in, floating false or unproven accusations of fraud.

On today's "Meet the Press," we spoke with the last Republican to find himself on the losing side of a presidential race — Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.

While Romney said that Trump was well within his rights to explore every "legal avenue" to ensure the election was conducted properly, the Republican warned that Trump could be playing with fire if he doesn't dial down the rhetoric.

"When you say that the election was corrupt or stolen or rigged, that that's unfortunately rhetoric that gets picked up by authoritarians around the world. And I think it also discourages confidence in our democratic process here at home."

—Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney on "Meet the Press."

Romney also shared his view of what he felt Biden's mandate was after his election — "to bring the country together."

But he pointed to Republicans outperforming the polls in both House and Senate races to suggest Biden's mandate is not for a "sharp left turn in terms of public policy."

Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager, told "Meet the Press" that the Democratic ticket got the most votes of any ticket in presidential history because "people are hungry for change, they want to unify, they want to come together."

And when asked whether progressives should be concerned divided government will keep their aims from being achieved, Bedingfield called Biden's agenda "incredibly progressive and aggressive."

"Take a look, for example, at his climate plan. It's the boldest, biggest climate plan that's ever been put forward by a nominee running for president and now a president-elect. He's going to make good on those commitments."

—Kate Bedingfield, Biden deputy campaign manager, on "Meet the Press."

Click on the photos below to watch the full interviews with Bedingfield and Romney.

AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Clyburn talks Democrats' underperformance in House races

While Democrats were most focused on defeating Trump on Election Day, the party's underperformance down-ballot has left it in an unexpected place heading into 2021.

The Senate majority is still up for grabs, but a Democratic flip would require the party to pull off two upsets in some combination of the still-to-be-decided Alaska Senate race (votes take a while to come in from The Last Frontier), and the likely runoffs in Georgia.

And while most expected Democrats to expand their majority in the House, they may instead hold a slimmer majority when all the votes are counted.

The underperformance has sparked some infighting among House Democrats in recent days. On "Meet the Press," South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn argued that the progressive push as part of the "Defund the Police" movement cost Democrats seats.

"These headlines can kill a political effort. We are all about making headway. And I just hope that going forward we'll think about each one of these congressional districts and let people represent their districts."

—South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn on "Meet the Press."

Click on the image below to watch the full interview with Clyburn.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

TWEETS OF THE DAY: Running out of time

DATA DOWNLOAD: How three key voter groups helped Joe Biden win

There's always a lot of post-game analysis surrounding any election, particularly one decided by close margins in key states.

But it's clear that Biden's overperformance with young voters, diverse urban voters and suburban voters helped power him to victory.

Click on the graphic below for this week's Data download, a guide to how those key groups made big marks in key swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

ICYMI: What's still left to call?

The presidency was the big prize on Election Day. But days later, there are still a number of important races yet to be called by NBC's Decision Desk.

Here's a look at some of those key races:

Presidential: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Alaska
Senate: Alaska, North Carolina and whether the second Georgia seat is headed for a runoff
House: CA-21 (incumbent: Dem Rep. TJ Cox), CA-25 (GOP Rep. Mike Garcia), CA-39 (Dem Rep. Gil Cisneros), CA-48 (Dem Rep. Harley Rouda), CA-50 (open), IA-02 (open), IL-14 (Dem Rep. Lauren Underwood), NV-03 (Dem Rep. Susie Lee), NY-02 (open), NY-11 (Dem Rep. Max Rose), NY-19 (Dem Rep. Antonio Delgado), NY-22 (Dem Rep. Anthony Brindisi), NY-24 (GOP Rep. John Katko), PA-07 (Dem Rep. Susan Wild), PA-08 (Dem Rep. Matt Cartwright), PA-17 (Dem Rep. Conor Lamb), TX-24 (open), UT-04 (Dem Rep. Ben McAdams), VA-07 (Dem Rep. Abigail Spanberger).

Keep up-to-date on all the latest developments with Decision 2020.