captioning sponsored by cbs >> brennan: i'm margaret brennan in washington, and this week on "face the nation," president biden wound up a rough week with a big win. will it be enough to end the perception that democrats can't get anything accomplished? calling it a monumental step forward, mr. biden applauded the passage of one of his signature economic plans, a $1.2 trillion bill to update the nation's infrastructure. >> i want us to deliver. democrats, they want us to deliver. >> brennan: last tuesday's off-year election were a symbolic debacle for party, and a harbinger of potential losses in next year's midterms when control of congress is at stake. >> and the trends are

unmistakable. a republican wave is under way. >> i think the one message that came across was get something done. it's time to get something done. y'all stop talking. get something done. >> brennan: but the president's social spending program, "build back better" is still the subject of intraparty haggling, unlike the bipartisan infrastructure bill, democrats who hold razor-thin margins in congress will have to go it alone. we'll talk with white house senior adviser cedric richmond, and virginia senator tim kaine, just one of several democrats worried that congressional inaction will sink the party's majority on capitol hill. we'll have analysis from devon dickerson and amy walter, the editor in chief of the cook political report. plus we'll hear from former f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb about major developments in the fight against covid-19. covid-19, as children between five and 11 are finally eligible for vaccines.

there is good news on the economic front as we added over half a million new jobs last month. but inflation continues to rise, and worker shortages and supply chain disruptions are still affecting our recovery. we'll talk about all that, plus we'll get an answer to a question the commerce secretary couldn't give us last week. >> you know, people say to me, will christmas gifts be delivered? to which i say, call fedex. >> brennan: and so we did, fedex c.e.o. frederick w. smith will be here. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." >> brennan: good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." on this crisp fall morning in washington, it finally feels like we're starting to move beyond the pandemic on a number of fronts. but before we begin, we want to note the sobering milestone that the u.s. reached last week.

750,000 americans dead from covid-19. our senior national correspondent mark strassmann reports about the optimism that some are feeling, and it starts with our nation's children. >> put your hands up in the air? >> yay! >> halfway there! >> reporter: one shot down, one to go as pfizer's pediatric vaccine sinks into the arms of kids 5-11. >> awesome job! >> i thought it would hurt, but it didn't. >> reporter: that rollon the boosted a 72-hour, good-news cycle, an overall overdue sense of breakthrough. >> this is going to be the end of the pandemic. the moment that we get the kids vaccinated. >> reporter: surveys show most parents want someone else's kid to go first, but to others, their child gets the shot. they get relief. >> i've just been so scared, so, sorry, i'm a little emotional. i just-- i just wanted him to be

safe. >> reporter: more progress, experimental antiviral pills to treat covid patients. merck and pfizer have drugging in last-stage trials that stop the virus from replicating. both need f.d.a. approval. but pfizer says even among high-risk patients, its pill reduces by 89% the chance of hospitalization or death. companies with at least 100 employees face a new mandate: make sure workers are fully vaccinated or tested regularly. otherwise, face stiff osha fines. potentially affected-- 84 million employees, roughly one-third of whom are believed to be unvaccinated. in a rhapsody of resentment, at least 26 states have sued the biden administration, and a federal appeals court has blocked implementation. >> we won't stand for it. osha has never used its authority like this, and it's

absurd. >> reporter: enforcement could be a problem. osha doesn't have an army of inspectors to go from company to company. instead, it may have to rely on whistleblowers, workers willing to expose their noncom pliant employers. for many employers put in a tough spot, here's the positive: their deadline is january 4, after the december holidays, when companies like u.p.s. want to add workers. >> the company is trying to hire 100,000 seasonal employees nationwide. >> reporter: both amazon and walmart want to hire 150,000 seasonal workers, target: 100,000, fedex 90,000. that's on top of october's umbeat jobs report released on friday. more than 500,000 workers joined payrolls. >> i think economist rlz pleased with this report, shows a nice bounce-back after a somewhat weakened report in the previous two months. >> reporter: america's unemployment rate down to 4.6%.

rising consumer prices remain worrisome, but for many americans eager for a pick-me-up, that's a worry for next week. >> brennan: our rkstrassmann reporting from atlanta. president biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill is finally headed to the white house for his signature. it contains $110 billion for repairing roads and bridges across the country, as well as money for public transit and railway systems, and for upgrading the nation's water systems. the bill includes funding to expand internet access and to pay for green energy projects, like charging stations for electric cars. we turn now to senior adviser to the president cedric richmond. he joins us from new orleans. good morning to you. >> good morning, and thanks for having me. >> brennan: the president said we could see shovels in the ground in two to three months. how certain are you, you will have shovel-ready projects by the spring? >> we're very optimistic, almost

certain. remember, the president oversaw the american rescue plan, which we saw after the last great recession under the obama administration that he oversaw, and it was very effective. he knows what he's doing. this is his plan. we have administration expertise to get it done. so i'm very confident we can get it done. >> brennan: but this will only really work if you can fix some of the bottled necks in the globlg supply chain to get the cement, to get all the workers hired here. we're seeing a record number of workers quitting their jobs. companies are saying they can't even find laborers. so how do you deal with the fact that you have all these economic headwinds, including rising consumer prices? can you unstick those? >> well, you put a lot in there. let's start with the people leaving their jobs. people are leaving jobs, but they're leaving jobs for better jobs. they're not leaving the job market. they are getting better jobs under this biden economy. and part of the what the bipartisan infrastructure bill does is it will ease supply

chain issues, and it will also ease the inflationary pressures, which is why you see so many critoo ts that wek recovery in louisiana, we have workers out there, and we have people that are willing to work. and so we're not going to look at this from a standpoint of why we can't do it. we know that it's important to do. we know that we have the workers out there. and we're going to start fixing this nation's crumbling infrastructure. >> brennan: well, the labor participation rate is still a problem. but your fellow democrat, virginia congressman abigail spanberger, warned thi week, that the president and his party aren't really being transparent about some of these economic issues. she said we're not willing to say inflation is a problem, the supply chain's a problem. we don't have enough workers in our workforce. we gloss over that, and only like to adnit to problems in spaces we dominate. do you agree?

>> absolutely not. because i think we're dominating st t united states, you at unemployment as 4.6%, the congressional budget office projected getting down to 4.6% in 2023. we did it two years faster. we know that wages are rising, unemployment is going down. we're creating somewhere around 620,000 jobs a month. and so, i just don't agree with that premise whatsoever. and i think the president acknowledged that some prices are going up, and we're going to-- we're going to deal with that, which is why this bill was so critical. and the "build back better" bill. so i think the president and his economy is right on track. i think his three-prong approach has always been correct: the rescue plan, the infrastructure plan, and the human capital plan-- are all critical to continuing moving this economy

in the right direction. >> brennan: as i mentioned, participation is a problem. some people cannot go back to the workforce, and that brings us to that question of paid medical and maternity leave. the president said yesterday time will tell whether four weeks of paid leave ends up in this broader spending bill that you're talking about. are you going to go to the mat this time to get senators to keep it in? >> well, we put it in. >> brennan: and then you gave it up. >> i will remind all of my congressional friends that we put all of these things in both. this is the president's agenda. >> brennan: but it wasn't in the framework. >> our commitment was-- >> brennan: that the president announced. >> the president's commitment was that he would put stuff in the framework that he thought had 50 votes in the senate. and so community college didn't make it. he cares about community colleges. so what's more important is what's in the plan, what's not in the plan. and right now, paid medical leave is in. and you talk about it in an economic framework.

we view paid family and paid medical leave as a value proposition because we know what families go through inthis country when children and family members get sick. onowt prsonally. the administration knows it personally. we are for paid medical and family leave. and that's why you see the president bringing so many senators down to the white house to make sure that it can stay in, in the senate. but right now, it does not have 50 votes in the senate. >> brennan: so, it sounds like you're saying you will go to the mat for it this time, that you do want it in the final bill. >> no, what i'm saying is we've always gone to the mat for it. >> brennan: i want to ask you about some things when you look at polling right now. multiple polls have shown that summit from key constituent groups for democrats has receded a bit, particularly black voters. the administration walked away fom police reform, the john lewis voting rights act, as you

know, failed this week. how long do black voters have to wait for the president to deliver for them? because this seems to be a problem in some of these races. we saw this past week, particularly in a state like virginia. >> margaret, with all due respect, you're just wrong. i mean, let's start here. congress was unable to come to an agreement on police reform, so you know who acted? the president of the united states and the department of justice. >> brennan: the democrats walked away from those negotiations. >> well, now are you talking democrats or areul talking about the president? you asked about the president. let me finish. the president and d.o.j. banned choke holds. the president and d.o.j. limited restrictions of no-knock warrant. the president made sure that he is acting when congress cannot. so if you look at voting rights, we doubled the size of the volting rights division in the department of justice so that we could challenge these unconstitutional laws in court. >> brennan: democratic strategist james carville pointed this week to the loss of

suburban voters in a state like virginia, when he said, "what went wrong was is the stupid wokeness." he argued democrats are being defined by the progressives. you're not defining your own message, particularly when it comes to issues like the economy. aren't republicans using that to their advantage? >> well, the republicans will use anything to their advantage, whether it's true or not. theatre party of misinformation. we see it with vaccines. we see it with everything. and what they've been able to do is weaponize things and define it in their own way. the president has been very clear, that his budget included $300 million more for community policing because we know that every community wants to be safe, while he's talked about making sure we have significant police reform. and so we're not defined by all of those things out there. but i think that the real issue is not exactly what james is saying. i think it's the fact that wa republics wi weaponnize anything, fact or fiction. >> brennan: in your home state

department of louisiana, a federal appeals court just yesterday temporarily halted the nationwide implementation of the administration's decision to mandate testing or vaccination for private businesses. they cited grave statutory and constitutional issues. are you confident you're on solid legal ground? >> absolutely. we're very confident we're on statutory and legal grounds. if you look the e.e.o.c., if you look at d.o.j., they both think we are. and remember, the purpose of the osha rule is to make sure that we keep employees safe in the workplace. and, look, the job of being president is not doing the easy stuff. it's doing what's right. it's having the courage to fllow through with it, and this president has done that time and time again. but the carnage that is out there, the families that are losing loved ones, it's at an we courage to implement it. >> brennan: cedric richmond, thank you for your time this

morning. >> thanks for having me. >> brennan: and "face the nation" will be back in one minute with democratic virginia senator tim kaine. so stay with us. nationally ranked hospitals, th five including two world-renowned academic medical centers, in boston, where biotech innovates daily and our doctors teach at harvard medical school, and where the physicians doing the world-changing research are the ones providing care. there's only one mass general brigham. this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road.

this is "the planning effect" from fidelity. good morning to you, senator. >> hey, margaret, good to be with you. >> brennan: the president said he is confident, the spending bill the build back better bill will pass next month. prescription drug pricing is back in it, modification to state and local taxes. doesn't this reopen another battle front? >> well, i-- margaret, i think the president got the infrastructure bill to his desk this week. that's going to do great in virginia. port improvements, broadband improvements, transportation, both doing good things for the economy in hiring people into good jobs. and then the education and workforce bill that i've worked very hard on, it's going to pass. i think congressional democrats blute timing.

we should have passed these bills in early october. if we had, it would have helped terry mcauliffe probably win the governor's race. it would have been good for president biden. but we are going to get these bills done. they're great for every zip code in this country, and i'm really excited to be working on them. >> brennan: but on that issue of paid family leave, does it end up in or out of this bill? it wasn't quite clear from the white house. you did hear cedric richmond say there just aren't the votes. will there be? >> well, i would say-- i would say cedric is wiles not to completely predict what 50 democratic senators will do. as you know, this bill will get zero republican votes, just like the american rescue plan in march that produced such good benefits for every zip code, no republicans would support it. and this bill won't get republican votes, either. so what will 50 democrats agree to? i am a strong supporter of paid child and family leave, but remember this, margaret, everybody who cares about paid child and family leave also cares about the child tax

credit. they care about affordable child care. they care about prekindergarten. and in that bucket of issues that matters to family and children, without being able to predict that everything everyone wants will be fully funded for as long as we want, that bucket of issues for family and kid is going to be so powerful, i think this will be the biggest pro-child bill that will have been done in the history of this country. it will be to children what social security was to seniors. so i'm confident about that, even if some pieces of it are still being negotiated. >> brennan: right. well, those pieces are important since all 50 senators have to be on board with it. but let's talk about the state that you are a senator from and used to run as governor. last week, a republican took it for the first time since 2009. how worried should democrats? what are the lessons that they need to learn from what happened in your state? >> well, first, it was a republican win, a close win, two point. and i gotta give it to the

republicans. after being shut out for 12 years in every presidential, federal, and state race, they were hungry. that's what happens when a party loses. they get hungry, and then they win a close race. but here's what i think really, really was tough-- and i mentioned this earlier. i think congressional dems just blew the timing of the infrastructure and workforce and education bills. bluntly, we blew it. and i'm not talking about progressives or moderates or the house or the senate. the congressional democrats have majorities in both houses, and the american public expects us to deliver. we delivered big in march, but that was eight months ago. if we had done both of these bills in early october, terry mcauliffe would have had so much to sell-- relief is coming in terms of lowering child care costs, pre-kindergarten. there is going to be infrastructure to fix our ports and air airports and improve our roads. instead, with a narrow majorkt a lot of people start to think,

let's see, i can hold out for the one thing i most want, or i can hold out to kick out this one thing i don't like. and democrats blute timing. and as you know, margaret, in politics, timing is important. we'll get the bills done, but we're going to get them done weeks after the election. we should have got them done weeks before the election. >> brennan: over the summer, terry mcauliffe said part problem was that president biden is just not very popular. is the president a drag on the party? >> well, look, if a president can get two legislative houses of his own party to deliver, the president suddenly becomes pretty popular. and i know the president and the white house has been frustrated with this as well. here's my prediction, margaret: you're going to see the infrastructure bill-- it's on its way to the president's desk-- he'll sign it. i hope he does a bipartisan signing ceremony. you're going to see us get this education and workforce bill to his desk. and then what people will be saying about joe biden is he had probably the most consequential

first year of anybody who has been president in recent times. last week, the elections on tuesday weren't good. but you also had a record job report, vaccines available for children, infrastructure bill going to the president's desk. we think a foundation is being laid to really move us ahead for president biden and the american people. again, i'm just-- i just regret that even though senator warner and i were telling our colleagues, "guys, don't belet dithering and delaying party, be the doer party," folks didn't wake up to it. they're waking up to it now. >> brennan: let's look at the messaging from the republican candidate, who didn't run a single ad against the president, actually. he didn't even talk about joe biden. what he did talk about, the things that showed up in our exit polling here. he led on the economy in jobs. led on education. led on taxes. and in fact, the soon-to-be governor, mr. youngkin, performed very well in the suburbs. he did very well with white women voters. that message seemed to really

work for him. so how do you beat that playbook? >> well, here's what i would say. virginia is the best state for business in the united states. we have one of the lowest unemployment rates and one of the highest median incoming in the u.s. under democratic leadership. so maybe what we need to do is be better at selling our accomplishments. i've certainly said that to the white house. when we get the infrastructure bill and the education workforce bill done, we have to make sure that we implement it right. joe biden did that as vice president when we did the recovery package at the beginning of the obama administration. we have got to implement it right, and then we have to go out and sell our success. you're right, glenn youngkin did okay in the suburbs. but some of the sushes we're talking about, terry mcauliffe won louden by 10 points. we won handily. we won prince william handily. we won fairfax overwhelmingly. you're right, there were some jurisdiction where's we didn't

perform the way we used to. but i do attribute that to democrats in congress not delivering. and, again, the republicans were hungry. when you lose every year-- we have an election every year. when you lose 12 years in a row, people want to win. more power to them. >> brennan: quickly, how do you assess the trump factor here? is that what drove rural voter turnout? you had this sort of endorsement from afar? >> it's-- it's an interesting one. i-- i think the fact that youngkin kept trump up on the of the state proved smart because virginia's a battleground state. it's not a blue state, but virginia republicans are no dummies, and they saw trump coming a mile off. he was not a virginia republican kind of candidate, because they viewed him as kind of an antiscience know-nothing. so youngkin's decision to basically keep trump out of the state was smart. >> brennan: yeah, senator. >> the trump voters still wanted thoim win, but trump was locked

on the sidelines. >> brennan: senator, i have to, unfortunately, cut you off, because i have to hit this break. thank you very much for all of your insights. and we'll talk more about this later on in the show. t ♪ ♪ now listen to the beat ♪ ♪ kinda pat your feet ♪ ♪ it's all right ♪ ♪ have a good time 'cause it's all right ♪ ♪ oh, it's all right ♪ psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen, painful. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms

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we any now to former f.d.a. commissioner dr. scott gottlieb, who is also on the board of pfizer. good morning to you. >> knrm. >> brennan: so, doctor, would you say a partially vaccinated child across the table from their grandparents at thanksgiving dinner? is that safe now? >> i think it's safe now. look, we have the tools right now to protect that environment. and i don't think there's any reason why people can't get together for the holidays. we need to look at what the local prevalence is, what the risk is in their community. they need to look at the risk in the setting in which they're gathering. if you have older individuals vulnerable to the virus despite vaccination or people who