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american life and became a cultural icon. she died from parkinson's disease in new york, her publisher says. she was a pioneer at the time what was known as new journalism. her numerous bestselling books included "slouching toward bethlehem" and "the year of magical thinking," following the death of her husband, writer john gregory dunne. she wrote, when we mourn our losses, we mourn for better or worse ourselves, as we were, as we are no longer, as we will one day not be at all. she was 87. the news continues. let's hand it over to michael smerconish and "cnn tonight." >> john, thank you. i am michael smerconish. welcome to "cnn tonight." on this eve of christmas eve with omicron spreading far and wide and not nearly enough testing to meet the massive demand, a new report from "vanity fair" suggests the biden

administration dismissed a bold plan months ago to ramp up testing ahead of the holidays. characterized by the magazine a blueprint for how to avoid what is happening at this moment, a scramble nationwide to get a covid test nearly two years into this pandemic, endless lines, hours of people waiting so they can celebrate safely with others. but is that what really happened? the white house says they didn't dismiss anything. we're about to talk to a doctor who attended the white house meeting where that very proposal was made on october 22nd. "vanity fair" says it got hold of the ten-page plan that included a testing surge to prevent holiday covid surge. the idea was to push the administration to get out rapid home covid testing to americans so that they could screen themselves and reduce transmission before the holidays. the proposal purportedly called for an estimated 732 million tests per month, a number that would require a major ramp-up of manufacturing capacity.

but that didn't happen, not at that scale. now the administration is scrambling to catch up with demand. president biden promised tuesday that half a billion free, at-home tests would be sent out to any americans who wanted one. but no contract has been signed yet to purchase the new tests. the white house says it's still working to finalize it. the website to sign up for them isn't running yet because the tests aren't ready yet. and it's also not clear how americans who don't have internet access can get one. so what he's promising to do may be too late to pull off before the variant further divides and conquers. when questioned this week about the lack of availability of tests nationwide with the pandemic worsening, president biden said this. >> if you go to the pharmacy, we hear this over and over again, empty shelves, no test kits. is that a failure? >> no, i don't think it's a failure. i think it's a -- you could argue that we should have known a year ago, six months ago, two months ago, a month ago. i've ordered half a billion of

the pills, 500 million pills -- i mean, excuse me, 500 million test kits that are going to be available to be sent to every home in america for anybody who wants them. but the answer is, yeah, i wish i had thought about ordering a half a billion pills two months ago before covid hit here. i didn't get it wrong. nobody saw it coming. nobody in the whole world. who saw it coming? >> he said that he wished he thought about ordering 500 million at-home tests two months ago. but three months ago he promised 300 billion. his spokesperson addressed the concerns earlier. >> the president and the team did take steps to increase capacity. of course if there would have been 500 billion tests and we would have known there were these, you know, very transmissible variants, that's one thing. the president using the defense production act and investing $3 billion allowed for there to be an increase in production so we could order the huge number of

supply that we're ordering now. >> i want to bring in a longtime advocate for rapid testing who attended that october white house meeting we just told you about. he told "vanity fair," quote, it's undeniable the administration took a vaccine-only approach and the government, quote, didn't support the notion of testing as a proper mitigation tool. that expert is dr. michael minha, chief science officer at emed, former assistant professor of epidemiology at harvard school of public health. was there a plan of mass distribution for testing at that meeting of october 22? if so, why wasn't it acted upon? >> the meeting was an informal and informative meeting to try to suggest to the administration there are certain actions that can be taken to help us not end up where we are today. but i want to emphasize that actually i would say that the administration did start acting

in the couple of months since then. and it's easy for us to put together a document that says that we need a lot of tests, but we didn't have the tests at the time. and i would say in fairness, the administration has been ramping up testing since. and i have been probably the greatest critic about the united states not having enough tests, but i also do recognize that those tests have in fact existed. >> "vanity fair" is pretty definitive in saying there was a document, it was ten pages long. the advocacy was for 732 million tests per month. was it raised with that level of specificity? >> well, the actual amount was raised, yes. but what i would say is there's been massive efforts since then, so i don't want to be too critical.

i've been very critical in the past. but, you know, the administration has put aside 3 billion since then plus the additional 500 million that's been suggested. so that's been a massive, forward-looking plan. i guess what i'm trying to do is see what has happened since then. the bold initiative, had it come to fruition, would have been amazing. but it would have been very, very difficult in the last two months. i had started talking about this a year and a half ago, and so we ended up in october, and since then i would say there has been a lot of forward momentum. so i do think it's important to give credit where credit is due in this particular case. >> okay. i'm not going to continue to drill down on it other than to say i think you've confirmed it, and have said thereafter there was a turn for the better. >> yes, i would argue that there has been, and i'm looking forward to americans getting these. >> dr. mina, has there been a de-emphasizing of testing in

part out of the belief that if we're talking about testing, we're not talking about vaccination, and we need to be talking about vaccination first and foremost? >> i would say that that has existed, yes. we did early in this year, we got the vaccine started. and, you know, there's an argument to be made for putting all of our effort into vaccines. i think probably there should have been a lot, the majority of efforts put into vaccines. but we should always keep our eye on the ball, that this virus is a pandemic virus that can change and morph and shift at any time, as we're seeing. so we always need to keep all the mitigation strategies that we can. i've said in the past we probably shouldn't have all of our eggs in the vaccine basket. and i think now we're seeing some evidence of why that's important. but certainly having the vaccines is front and center. i think any epidemiologist or physician would argue that that's the most critical. i've argued of course over two

years now that testing is one of the most fundamental tools that we could have in our public health response to this virus. >> so what needs to be done now? >> well, i think we can't materialize 2 or 5 billion tests overnight to get frequent testing out into americans' hands. we have to recognize that. so given the hand that we're dealt at the moment, i think we need to be very strategic about how we use the rapid tests that we have at our disposal. thus far the rapid tests have been sort of spread out across the country, but not in a very strategic and careful manner. and i think if we use strategy around these in the same way that when we go to war with another country, we have strategy, we don't just send troops all over the place, we can do that here, and we can make the tests go much further. we can make them very valuable

if we put a limited number of tests where they will be most effective. >> dr. michael mina, thank you so much for your time. >> absolutely, thank you. looking for more perspective on this right now as to where it leaves us, and what we can see in the weeks ahead, retired admiral brett giroir, point man during testing for the trump administration. admiral, why is this testing issue so important? what will we do with the results of the tests once they're administered? >> thank you very much for having me on. dr. mina worked with me very closely when i was in the administration and i appreciate his support. tests will be helpful for two reasons. number one, to screen individuals who may come in contact with high risk individuals to make sure those individuals like college students can't pass the virus to an elderly person or a person with cancer, but secondly, and extremely important in the last 48 hours, we need early testing for those high risk people who

could benefit from those oral drugs from merck and from pfizer. this is part of that strategic placement of tests. until we have a billion per month, we're going to have to give the tests to people that can benefit from them most. and part of those are the high risk people who are eligible for oral therapy, and secondly, as dr. mina always said and as i always said, to test people to prevent them from spreading the virus to others who are at high risk. >> 500 million doesn't sound like enough, right? and that's the number the president is speaking of. >> yeah, 500 million, remember, before i left the trump administration, we distributed 180 million rapid tests through the states for free. these are the same tests, they're just now for home use. 500 million, you can't blanket the country. you're going to need about a billion per month, which was our goal, to have a billion per month. for the 500 million you're going to have to be strategic and that means use those tests wisely. for example, in our

administration, we sent them to nursing homes, assisted livings, historically black colleges, the tribes, very high risk group, certain inner city groups. for the 500 million now, i think you're going to have to distribute them to the elderly, to the people with co-morbid conditions. we know who they are, right? we have the medicare rolls, we can send them specifically. and anyone who would meet the criteria for oral antivirus. because remember, the earlier you can test and get on those oral antivirals, you can save a life. so we need to do them strategically. 500 million is not enough. >> right. how realistic is it, if the contract hasn't been signed and we're not ramped up for the manufacturer, that there could really be 500 million in january or even february? >> i'm not in the administration now. i don't think you can do that, right? there was a lull in investment between january and october. and now the pieces are coming

together, i guess dr. mina and group kind of catalyzed the administration. that's when you saw lines like the abbott line shutting down because of a lack of demand. and it's very hard to catch up from behind. if we had invested during that time consistently, we might be at that level, and in fact we projected we should have been at a billion by july or august. but we're not at that level now. so we're playing catch-up. so that 500 million is not enough to give everybody tests. >> the "vanity fair" story to which i made story, pretty hard-hitting with regard to the approach taken by the biden administration. it also begs the question was enough done on donald trump's watch, on your watch to set the stage for where we are today. >> i really think we did. we sent out 120 million rapid tests by january of 2020 and we were on a pace to be at a level of rapid tests at least 2 to 300 million by april, probably half a billion by june. we had made the investments. but, you know, you've got to constantly invest.

it's not only the federal government's fault. there was a low demand from the public. and remember, the states had about $30 billion in testing money and before i left, we put these tests in what's called the gsa schedule, so every state could buy as many as they want for $5 a test, and they didn't do that. the federal government didn't do that. and the industry cratered. that's why we're behind right now. we have to play catch-up. let's use those 500 million strategically to protect the elderly and vulnerable and make sure everybody who can get the oral drugs from merck and pfizer can get them. >> i also learned from "vanity fair" maybe something i should have already known, that in europe there are 200 different types of rapid tests. they sell for about $1.50 and they're plentiful. what are they doing that we're not doing? >> so this is a regulatory issue. and dr. mina has spoken about this and i certainly worked from inside the administration. there are regulatory standards

here that approach these more as an individual test to make a diagnosis versus a public health measure. and i do agree that although the fda has done a great job, we do need to approve more very quickly. that's one reason at the end of the administration we allowed eua authority to be under me, as the assistant secretary, to rapidly approve these kinds of tests, to get them on the market. that was reversed, so i think we're back where we started at the early part of 2020. there needs to be regulatory reform and it needs to happen quickly. >> admiral giroir, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. social media reaction already coming in to tonight's program. what do we have? we have a long one. that's what it is. it's too little, too late. the debacle that is testing should have been resolved in 2020, not 2022. the source of the problem isn't a lack of tests, it's a bureaucratic bottleneck at the

fda, a problem the president should be able to solve. admiral giroir just addressed that issue. i don't know if the rest of you were aware of this, i learned it from reading that piece and i assume it to be true, that tests are much more plentiful in europe, up to 200 where we have 13, 15 that have been approved. they sell for a buck 50 and they're all over the place. he just confirmed what you're saying, that it is a regulatory issue. i also heard dr. mina say while things have gotten better, there was indeed a meeting on october 22nd and a proposal that was made for 700 plus million tests and it wasn't acted on, for whatever reason. we'll continue to follow this story. something unusual has been happening this week. that is that donald trump joined the war on disinformation, meaning he's on the side of truth, at least when it comes to vaccine conspiracies. so what is trump up to? insight from a great political mind, scott jennings, is here next. this...

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ones that don't take their vaccine. but it's still their choice. and if you take the vaccine, you're protected. look, the results of the vaccine are very good. and if you do get it, it's a very minor form. people are aren't dying when they take the vaccine. >> traditional political wisdom is to play up your accomplishments and the vaccines certainly are that for trump. so the advice he's getting directly from people like bill o'reilly makes perfect sense to me. >> i told him that today, he called me and i said, this is good for you. this is good that people see another side of you, not a political side. you told the truth. you believe in the vax. your administration did it. and you should take credit for it because it did save, i don't know, hundreds of thousands of lives? >> but just this week o'reilly saw firsthand that some trump loyalists don't like hearing that he got the booster. >> both the president and i are vaxed and did you get the booster? >> yes. >> i got it too. okay.

so -- >> oh, don't, don't, don't. no. it's a very tiny group over there. >> scott jennings joins me now to dissect. what's going on here, scott? >> well, i think president trump first of all should be credited for saying the right thing. and i think to be fair to him, he has said this throughout the year, not as forcefully as he had in the past week, but in february, everybody get your shot, march, i would recommend it, april, the vaccine is a great thing, july, i recommend you take it, august, once you get the vaccine, you get better. so throughout the year, since he left office, he has said the right thing on the vaccine. what's true this week, i think, michael, it's been far more forceful and it's been done in the face of some booing and it was done in an interview in which the interviewer, candas owens, was about to unfurl a massive conspiracy theory and misinformation about the vaccine and he interrupted her and he stopped her and he corrected her and he forcefully made the case for the vaccine. that's what's different, is the

forceful nature of it and i think, frankly, it's because he sees advantage in this. he thinks joe biden is failing. he thinks he's flailing. he thinks there's room to run politically and he is taking advantage of it. >> i don't question the legitimacy of your citations. i just wish he had been doing this all along. and politically speaking, i've always thought it was the stronger play. that base is not going to abandon him. and why wouldn't he take credit for what is arguably the greatest accomplishment that occurred on his watch? i mean, maybe it's a realization now of what i just said, that he's in a very good position to take that nomination if he wants it so why not go ahead and lay claim to it? >> you raise a point about his relationship with his base. and in many cases, he didn't lead the base, the base led him. it's one of the core reasons he was never able to make a big deal on immigration. a deal was there to be made but he feared backlash from his base. i think on this particular case

what's noteworthy is he's apparently set that fear aside and he's decided to be more forceful about something on which his base feels very passionate which is this vaccine hesitancy or antivaccination altogether. it's noteworthy he's standing up to them and trying to lead them. the question is will it cause anybody to change their behavior? i'm always skeptical that people who don't want a vaccine today are waiting for any politician to tell them what to do. but he's not allowing himself to be led down a very, very negative road when it comes to -- this point she was making, people took the vaccine, more people are dying, it's ridiculous, it's bunk, he knows it. >> my view is, he ought to be speaking more about this issue in the very manner that he did and not another issue for which we're going to see an anniversary in the first week of january. let me put on the screen something karl rove wrote in "the wall street journal" that resonates with me. he said, still mr. trump's political sway won't be measured only in primary victories but

also in how many of his favorites fare in general elections in swing states and competitive districts. here's the key part. all these candidates face a critical choice. should they focus on mr. trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen to protect their endorsement or should they make their race about providing a check on president biden and risk incurring trump's wrath? my point, scott, is this. trump ought to be talking all about, you know, operation warp speed and not relitigating the events of january 6th. what are your thoughts? >> yeah, totally agree with you. the operation warp speed was his greatest achievement, one of the greatest achievements of any recent presidency, especially in the face of what we were looking at with the coronavirus, unprecedented crisis facing the country. his continued focus on january 6th is going to hurt him in the future because if he does run for president again, there's going to be a reckoning. and the reckoning is this. will the american people entrust someone who frankly in my opinion violated their oath of

office on that particular day with the most awesome political power on the face of the earth once again? if he runs, he will reckon with that question. if he doesn't run, a republican will have to reckon with that question as well. i don't know that it will be as impactful in the midterms. i agree with karl that you should focus on being a check on biden, not being a conspiracy theorist about the election. where the reckoning comes, though, is in 2024 when the race for the white house demands an answer. will you act the way you acted on january 6th or will you put that aside and admit you were wrong, it was wrong, and the election was fair? >> never. never do i see him saying that, even though it's the right answer. scott jennings, thank you so much for being here. >> and by the way -- of course. and by the way, that makes him the most limiting republican to be nominated. because if you're unwilling to admit what you did was a violation of your oath of office, it limits the number of

votes you can get. >> o'reilly gave him good advice. i say this to my radio audience and sometimes they misinterpret what i'm saying. you may not agree with his list of accomplishments because ideologically you don't buy into them, but he has a list of accomplishments starting with the supreme court and he ought to be talking politically about that and not this. thank you, appreciate your being here. social media. what do we got? it will move his supporters toward desantis. it might. it might. i'm not sure. i mean, desantis is obviously not doing what trump is now doing in this regard, desantis is not alone, but i think desantis can't pursue the nomination if trump wants it. i've said consistently that if donald trump wants it and is healthy, solvent, unindicted, then it's his. and nobody could stop him from securing the nomination. and i'll stand by that. as for a general, i have no

idea. for the second time this year a white former minnesota police officer convicted in the death of a black man. what do the guilty verdicts in kim potter's manslaughter trial mean for police nationwide as she said she mistakenly drew a gun instead of a taser and killed daunte wright? legal perspective from paul callen is next. meet stuart and byron, owners of sml, a tiny home architecture firm. they were getting ready to travel to portland, maine for a pitch when their 3d-printer broke. luckily, sml is with american express business platinum,

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remember, back in april she shot and killed 20-year-old daunte wright during a traffic stop after she said she accidentally drew her gun instead of a taser as seen in this disturbing body cam video. >> i'll tase you! i'll tase you! taser, taser, taser! oh, my [ bleep ]! i just shot him. >> cnn legal analyst paul callen joins me now. paul, i was wrong about the outcome in this one. i thought they were hung. how about you? >> you know, michael, i had the same feeling, that it was going to be a hung jury. and, you know, i felt that way, and probably you did as well, because historically, jurors give cops the benefit of the doubt when it's a close case. her immediate reaction and sorrow for the shooting suggested that it was in fact an accident. but sometimes, as the prosecutor said, an accident can be a crime as well. and that's what the jury found

in this case. >> one of the outs that jurors could have given her was to accept the defense argument that even if it were the gun she intended to use, that was justified, but they didn't buy that. >> yes, they could have gone with that defense, because daunte wright, when they were trying to handcuff him, and he was picked up for a legitimate reason, they made the stop and found out he had an outstanding warrant and it was a warrant actually for waving a gun in a public place. and he then jumped back into the car and was going to pull away. and that's only when she intervened with what she thought was a taser but of course it was her glock, and killed daunte wright. >> do you give advice to clients about how to look for a mug shot, and if so, what is it? >> well, i've had some celebrity

clients in the past, and so i can't comment on that. >> wait. wait a minute. was nick nolte one of them? because we all remember the nick nolte shot. >> no, those mugshots always become classics. no, i can't say that i ever have given advice to them. i can tell you this, my brother who worked for the nypd and takes mugshots, the advice he gives people, if they don't do what he tells them, they can come back in 24 hours and he sends them back to a cell and they're very cooperative when they come back. >> paul, i don't know if you have what we call return. i don't know if you can see the kim potter mugshot that was taken today. but i don't know, it's just -- it's not what we're accustomed to. she's smiling, she looks good. she's just been convicted on both counts. it's not what we're accustomed to seeing. i just wondered what your reaction would be. >> you know, i don't have a return so i can't see what you're seeing onscreen. i know when the verdict came down this afternoon, i was surprised at her utter lack of emotion.

now, remember, she broke down after firing the fatal shot. but she also broke down for an expensive period of time in court. here the jury comes back with guilty on all counts and she doesn't react to it at all. she's in a strange place after the conviction. >> no doubt. thank you, paul. wish you all the best for the holidays. >> you too, michael. take care. next, a much different kind of legal battle underway right in my hometown of philadelphia. a mass exodus of prosecutors in the d.a.'s office while the murder rate soars. is this about clashing with the man in charge or a larger pattern nationwide? my guest, a former prosecutor, will tell us why he left and what he's seeing now and what it means for our justice system. that's next. lets people buy a car-- get this-- from their couch. oh, how disruptive. no salesman there to help me

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a new breed of progressive prosecutors has taken the reins in major cities on both coasts. philadelphia d.a. larry crassner is one of them, and now his city is being rocked by crime. a congresswoman carjacked in the city just yesterday. the carjackings are more than triple the number in 2019, that's on top of the city's already-high murder rate. "the wall street journal" says criminals feel it's urban hunting season.

even if police catch the criminals, there may not be enough manpower to put them behind bars. "the philadelphia inquirer" started digging into what it calls the disarray of the district attorney's office. it says the office lost 261 attorneys during crassner's first term. about 70 of those were recruited by him. the office employees a total of only 340 lawyers. we asked the d.a. for comment but there was no response. my next guest is a former assistant district attorney who worked under crassner. chris, is this a managerial issue or an ideological issue? because the most stunning thing i read in "the inquirer" coverage said that crassner would hire people who would cry after convicting someone. >> first of all, thank you for having me on, michael. and it's both. it's a managerial issue that

bleeds into the ideology. the top management, larry crassner, is just unaware of what line prosecutors need to do every day to make sure justice is done in philadelphia courtrooms. and the ideology of the office has nothing to do with solving serious violent crime in the city of philadelphia and everything to do with conviction, integrity, exoneration, which is about 2% of what the office does. it bleeds over and makes it an unbearable place to work if you're interested in trial work and serving the people of philadelphia well. >> nearly 60% of the lawyers in the office have joined the office in the last four years. how could those who are trying cases have the requisite experience that's necessary? >> they don't. and i worked with these people so i don't want to disparage them at all because they're working really hard. but the fact is the office has undergone a massive brain drain.

you've seen people with high seniority, tons of trial experience, leave in droves. there's no one to go to. when i was in jury trials, i had only been there for four years, and i was one of the most senior attorneys in the unit. that was a stressor for me and for my colleagues. it was a stressor too on the victims. they had to deal with inexperienced prosecutors. they didn't pick the prosecutors, we were just assigned to them. that made them question whether they should participate in the justice system at all. >> another quote from the piece from a prosecutor no longer there. crassner more interested in protecting defendants than everyday citizens and crime victims. it sounds like the sort of thing you would say in a 30-second commercial against someone you were running against but in this case it's people in the office who were saying it. >> absolutely. and they're people who really care and really work hard. and it's interesting, you reference a 30-second commercial. everything in the office is politics. it's like every meeting is a public speech for larry to advertise his campaign.

it's never about, here is the new technology you have to make your cases easier to try. here is the new support system we have for you to make sure your victims get correct outreach. here is the new technology that will make it easier to present cases to juries. so it was really just all about ideology and nothing about getting the people on the ground what they needed to do the jobs that they needed to do. >> chris, a final thought. it's not just philadelphia. there's been this trend toward electing progressive prosecutors across the country. i just happen to know better what's going on in my own backyard than i do the other cities we see so much about in the news. what do you think accounts for this pendulum swing and will it swing back, given stories like this? >> i think there's a great risk that it could swing back, because the fact is, is that it's one of those things where you had an issue of mass

incarceration for nonviolent crimes. now the issue is can these progressive prosecutors bring in people to try these cases fairly and justly so people can trust the process. so far in philadelphia that answer is clearly no. chris lynett, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you very much for having me, have a great holiday. >> you too. okay. favorite story of the week. i have an early holiday treat for you. check this out . so why are those students cheering so wildly for third grade teacher kathleen fitzpatrick? she is here, and i'll show you what led to that incredible moment of joy, next. ebenezer. ebenezer.

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it started with a proposal ms. fitz promised her students hot chocolate for everyone if she made the full court shot. watch for yourself. [ cheering ] ms. fitz, as she is known, is kathleen fitzpatrick and she joins me now. ms. fitz, 8 million views, the last time i checked. i'm good for a million of them because i can't stop watching. who's more excited, you or those kids? >> i think it was a tie between who was more excited. i think like i was shocked when it went in. i knew it was going to go in but

at the same time i was hoping, because i had promised them hot chocolate. so it had to go in. >> hey, i know you are the pride of delco, you're the biggest thing to come out of delco since the mayor of east town. am i right you're doing a little am i right you're doing a little bit of a rocky dance there? is that a philly thing? >> you know, i guess you could say it's a philly thing. i think it's just my pure excitement that i had made the shot. >> you played basketball at both st. joe's and rutgers. did you ever hit a buzzer beater? >> i have, yeah. >> which was more exciting? this one or whichever one you're thinking of? >> i had -- i had a buzzer buzzer beater at rutgers, but i think this was more exciting than the buzzer beater at rutgers. >> who is reaching out to you? i have to believe everyone who knows you is like, oh, my god, i saw the video.

so i assume it's old friends and stuff, but anybody famous? tell me what's going on in your world? >> you know, i am not very good on social media. i don't even have a twitter. i have an instagram, so my few friends have been updating me like these people are tweeting this, these people are posting it. so i've been hearing it from like my closest friends and brothers who are keeping me updated on everything, but it's just -- it's pretty crazy and surreal that it's gotten to this point. >> so when did it hit you? this was what two days ago, right? i think you were on break today. today's the first day of break. >> yeah. >> so when did you realize, oh, my god, that shot gnat i made is now being viewed around the planet? >> the shot happened on friday, and i promised them the hot chocolate on monday. and the video was posted on our

school's account i think it was sunday night. so it really like monday and a little tuesday it was kind of slow, and then yesterday in school a lot of kids were saying things like ms. fitz, this video has gone viral. and kids can exaggerate like no way, no way, and my friends and family started reaching out like this thing is viral. so it really was yesterday and then today that it really hit me, like, oh, this thing has gone pretty viral. >> well, you paid the debt. that was my next question. i'm glad you've settled it. and one just time point, if i might. you know, we live in difficult times for a variety of reasons not the least of which is the pandemic, and this gave me such joy and has given so many people -- it's the craziest thing like you sunk this long shot on a playground in washington, and it just takes my mind off everything else i've

been discussing here tonight. so thanks for that moment of joy. >> of course. i think we can all use a bit of joy and laughter these days, so we were glad we can do that for everyone. >> have a great holiday. thank you so much kathleen fitzpatrick. >> you as well. thank you. >> we'll be right back with reaction to tonight's program. (burke) this is why you want farmers claim forgiveness... [echoing] claim forgiveness-ness, your home premium won't go up just because of this. (woman) wow, that's something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. [echoing] get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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thanks so much for watching. here's some of the social media reaction that's come in during the course of the program. they haven't even sign signed a contract with the manufacturers but we'll have until 30 days. if all it takes is 30 days why hasn't joe done this sooner when we really needed them? this is bs.

i don't think we're getting them. that's pretty clear. they haven't signed a contract. that was reported today. the website is not yet functional because they haven't signed a contract. how could it be et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. so 500 million doesn't seem like it's going to get here anytime soon, and perhaps when we do have them the omicron wave would have passed. i hope they're able to turn it around. i hope they're able to generate it quickly. i found it interesting tonight because we had dr. mena who was one of the participants of that october 22nd white house online meeting when they talked about 700 plus million being necessary, but they didn't order them at that time either. so sounds like there's enough blame to go around. let's hope they get it sorted out jiffy quick. what else came in tonight? smerconish, people are giving 45 credit for his pivot on vaccines. i see it as damage control. he's trying to cleanup his position on things because he is seriously considering a 2024 run. people please don't be fooled.

so that, broadway costume guy, love your handle, by the way, look, i talked about this with scott jennings and scott very quickly rattled off a number of instances where donald trump has spoken of the need for vaccination in the past. i'd love to go through each one of those. i'm sure he did say it, but i bet he was questioned before it was prompted, right? here's the bet i'm trying to make. i wish president trump had been saying that all along. that would be in the nation's best interest, and frankly in his own political best interest. i thought he'd just been afraid to offend his base because i remember him saying something previously i think it was alabama and there was blow back. i remember lindsey graham in south carolina doing an event outdoors at a country club i want to say referencing vaccination. the audience reacted negatively. he backed off. so i'll take what president trump is offering, and frankly i

wish he'd been saying it a heck of a lot sooner. and maybe he realizes now you know what, it's not only good for the country but there's a political upside as well because the base isn't going to go anywhere. those are just my two cents. thank you so much for watching. i'll be back monday night. don lemon tonight starts with laura coates sitting in. >> i can't get behind the johnny-come-lately. it's hard for me to embrace the epiphanies that have seen so obvious all along. i believe in giving credit where it's due. i call balls and strikes, but i got to tell you i like you wish it had come much sooner because i'm looking at a death toll of 800,000 people and i'm thinking every moment counted, every comment counted, still counts. >> yeah, it never made sense to me he didn't lay claim i think appropriately so for operation warp speed and continue to just say it happened on my watch and we got it done in nine months, why that hasn't been a consistent theme of his, i don't understand and doesn't make political sense. but i'm happy to have him aboard now. not forgetting, but i'm happy to have him aboar