more and more complicated, but hopefully, closer to a resolution. ali vitali, thank you. and thank you for watching this really busy hour. i'm stephanie ruhle. and don't forget, today at noon, dr. anthony fauci will be joining andrea mitchell to discuss this major news from pfizer on the new covid variant. but right now, jose diaz-balart picks up breaking news coverage. good morning, it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart on what is shaping up to be a very busy wednesday. we have breaking news on the omicron variant. pfizer says that early lab tests suggests that the booster shot of its vaccine protects against the variant. on capitol hill, congress appears to be making progress toward dealing with two big items on its to-do list. we'll talk about where things stand with michigan democratic senator, debbie stabenow. as two key witnesses say they will not cooperate with the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection.

we'll look at also what president vladimir putin does after his high-stakes call with president biden. and we'll be talking with russian chess legend and pro-democracy activist, garry kasparov. and turning now to that breaking news on the pandemic, the ceo of pfizer says the company's covid booster shot is effective in neutralizing the omicron variant for those who get the third shot. >> three doses against omicron are almost equivalent to the two doses effectiveness we had against the original variant. this is very good news. >> joining me now is nbc news correspondent, sam brock, as well as dr. nahid bhadelia, she is an infectious diseases physician and the medical director of the special pathogens unit at boston medical center.

also an msnbc medical contributor. sam, what else are we learning out of pfizer this morning? >> reporter: jose, good morning. it does get a little bit confusing, but here is the essence of it. what scientists are measuring right now is antibody production, when this vaccine is presented with the omicron variant. here's what they're finding. the difference between the second dose and the third dose is 25x, which is to say that if the antibody level starts at 6 after the second dose, it is now up to 154, and i'm told that number is a really good number and it correlates very highly with protection against infection. so that's that part of the equation. you also right now jose have to look for a frame of reference, that it's roughly the equivalent of receiving two shots against the original strain that came from china. so that's sort of your basis of comparison. as we talk about two shots, the question then becomes, if i have two shots, what kind of a position do find myselves in? and scientists say right now, the early indications are that two shots would prevent severe

disease or death, which is at the end of the day the bottom line for the medical community, the most important issue here, are we avoiding the worst-case scenarios? it appears that two shots does that, but the third booster is key, offering protection one month out after that shot, jose. >> reporter: i want your reaction to this news. is the definition of fully vaccinated going to be changing to three shots instead of two? >> reporter: yeah, jose, i think that there was already a question before omicron. because what we were noticing is that that third dose not just increased your antibodies, but because the first two doses were so close together, the third dose, the spacing of it was offering a more mature immune response that we were hoping would then mean that those antibodies would last for longer, and the t-cell response and the full immune response would be something that would provide more protection. and so i do think this is one more step towards potentially saying, look, that third dose might actually offer more protection against infection in the setting of omicron, and so

that would make us all safer, if everybody who was considered fully vaccinated got that. i think there are elements about whether it's going to lead to greater inequity, right? what does this mean for the rest of the world, where they haven't even gotten one dose in terms of their ability to sort of meet that requirement? i think this is one point in that favor. i do want to stress one thing, though. is that the data that's coming out from multiple studies is showing exactly what we expected. that this is a variant that has mutations that we knew was going to cause immune evasion. and so although the protection against an infection is going down, again, the greatest protection is those with three doses or, as other studies have shown, a natural infection in two doses -- or rather, unfortunately, an infection as well as two doses of those vaccines might be the greatest protection, but the protection against severe disease probably lasts much, much more, even beyond just the protection against infection in two doses and the booster. >> and of all of these different

studies that are coming out, there's a new lab experiment from south africa, that shows that the antibodies produced by people who have pfizer doses are less successful in fighting omicron. sam was talking about that a second ago. what does this mean for people who have already gotten two doses? should they feel that they are in a sense not protected against omicron? >> i think that overall, the data tells us that we're going to see more breakthrough cases among people who have had prior infection, among people who have been vaccinated with two doses, and even in some cases, people who have been vaccinated with three doses in new york else and where with boosted people. and that protection against infection is greatest in people who had three doses, but i think that people should feel that as we're seeing this data come in, that they should want to get that third dose, because that is offering the greatest protection against infection among vulnerable people, i think it's going to be even more people to ensure that we increase those booster doses, because the protection waning against severe disease with omicron is going to be noticed with the greatest

extent and people who are probably over 60 and people who have medical conditions, similar to what we've seen with delta. >> and doctor, what about kids? >> yeah, i think we have to consider that in the setting of omicron, we haven't seen any studies yet. you know, if i were to predict, you might see a similar decrease in protection against infection among children, as well. and so this is -- as there's the consideration of whether kids should be considered for a booster or not, i think that, again, the question is going to be, what is the risk benefits more them with that extra dose. we just don't have the data yet, jose. i do think that this does raise the question of whether protection against infection may go down among children with omicron, as well. >> well, dr. bhadelia and sam brock, thank you very much for being with me this morning. and now to washington where we have breaking news on the january 6th commission. the committee chairman just announced that they will move to hold president trump's former chief of staff, mark meadows, in contempt of congress. so far, meadows has not appeared for a scheduled deposition this

morning. he had originally cooperated with the committee, but then reversed course this week. with me now, capitol hill correspondent ali vitali and ana palmer, founder of punch bowl news and an msnbc contributor. thank you for being with me. ali, i was just hearing you with stephanie ruhle with some breaking news. what do we know? >> reporter: yeah, jose, just a few minutes ago, we got this letter from chairman bennie thompson that was sent to mark meadows' attorney, effectively confirming where this goes next, and it's sort of where we expected, which is to a contempt referral, to a man who was trump's chief of staff, but also a former member of congress. there are a few pieces in this letter that caught our attention. i want to highlight them for you here. we'll start at the end of the letter, which confirms that they're going to move forward on contempt, saying that they are left now with no choice but to advance those proceedings and recommend that the body in which mr. meadows once served refer him for criminal prosecution. he's likely going to miss this deposition today. it's after 10:00 a.m. that's when it was around,

supposed to begin. and again, this is a deposition that he had asked for. meadows said that he was going to cooperate with the committee. there was some skepticism on the part of lawmakers when he said that, because they don't -- they didn't believe that he was actually going to follow through. clearly, in terms of showing up for this deposition, that's not going to happen. but they did get documents from him, and some of those documents are detailed in this letter. specifically, thompson mentions that there was a text exchange from meadows' private cell phone that was turned over to the committee, that talked about, and i'm quoting here, appointing alternate electors in certain states that part of a plan would be, quote, highly controversial, and to which mr. meadows apparently replied, quote, i love it. he also mentions text message exchanges between organizers of the january 6th rally on the ellipse, as well as text messages about the need for then president trump to issue a public statement that could have stopped the january 6th attack on the capitol. so we're starting to get a sense

here of the information that the january 6th committee was able to obtain from meadows, even though he's not showing up in person here. and there's also another piece of this, too, because the national archives is currently tied up in court right now, documents that the committee wants to obtain, that will allow them to get some insight into the west wing on january 6th and in the days before it, that's currently tied up in court. the thinking was that meadows' information would be wrapped up in that and that the committee could still get at it, if the court ruled in their favor, but there's something else in this letter that caught my attention, where thompson notes that the identification of executive privilege issues that meadows cited here, came from meadows' personal email account and personal cell phones, which raises the questions of whether these materials have been transferred to the national archives, in compliance with the presidential records act. so a lot of different threads here for us to follow, as we move forward here. the committee, again, underscoring that they would rather have this information from these witnesses. it's why they've allowed people

like jeffrey clark and mark meadows the opportunity to come before them, even as they seemed on the precipice of moving forward with contempt referrals, but at least in the case of mark meadows, that's now where this is likely to go. >> meanwhile, ana, democrats were able to find a novel but complicated solution to deal with the debt limit issue, at least for now. tell us more about how it works. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. this has been the wrangling we've been covering, every twist and turn for the past couple of weeks here, because the debt limit needs to be raised and the republicans are steadfastly against helping democrats out on this, but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has come to a deal with democrats on this, where they're going to vote for a procedural motion. a one-time procedure that will allow democrats to pass on that 51-vote threshold, instead of the typical 60-vote threshold. and so you're going to see mcconnell have to get ten republicans to support this so far. he says he has the votes.

there is some disgruntled republicans in the republican conference right now, who are upset with mcconnell more basically allows democrats to, yes, move forward on their own, but allowing them to do this and to raise the debt ceiling in the fall of 2022. >> and ali, meanwhile, yesterday, there was an event right outside the capitol, where dozens of people actually met, asking for immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship, for the undocumented in the united states. i understand that more than 30 people were detained in this rally, and you can see some members of congress spoke at this rally. this is all as we wait, the parliamentarian and the senate's decision, one way or another, whether to include immigration in the big provision. what do we know? >> reporter: yeah, jose, they are still waiting for the parliamentarian's provisions on those immigration provisions. but a lot of those arguments

were the same ones in the house that pressured to make sure that there was immigration language included in the house's version of the build back better act. whether or not that language actually survives is again up to the parliamentarian. but remember, this is the second time that senate democrats and immigration advocates have gone before the parliamentarian to argue for some version of immigration reform to be included in this sweeping package. this latest salvo is a more limited scope. it does not at this point include a pathway to citizenship. instead, it's worker protections that could roughly impact about 6.5 million undocumented immigrants, if it's allowed to stay in this bill. immigration advocates have said in the past that this might be the formal process to adjudicate whether or not it can stay in, but to them, it's not the final package. at the same time, though, this is a very important decision, one of the key things we're looking at, whether or not it's going to stay in the ultimate version of this package or if it's going end to up falling out because of parliamentary reasons. >> and we don't even know when

the parliamentarian will decide one way or another on this specific issue, do we? >> that's exactly right. >> thank you both for being with me. go ahead, ali. >> reporter: i was going to say, i'm sorry for the noise here, but that's exactly right. we don't know when the parliamentarian is going to rule. and the grassroots activism that you saw on this yesterday has been similarly echoed on other things, immigration as well as child care as well as paid leave. advocates really right to use this moment to keep their priorities in. >> no noise that can get you offfocus, ali vitali, and that's why you're great. thank you, ali, thank you, ana, for being with me this morning. by the way, we'll get more on all of the developments on capitol hill when we talk to senator debbie stabenow next. plus, it's a case that sparked protests. opening statements begin today in the trial of kim potter who claims she grabbed her gun instead of her taser when she shot and killed a black man during a traffic stop. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." top. you're watching "jose diaz-baralt reports. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪

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17 past the hour, now back to capitol hill where congress may be close to ticking off two key items on its to-do list. but there are questions about when the senate will vote on a nearly $2 trillion bill to reshape the social safety net and fight climate change. senate majority leader chuck schumer says there will be a vote before christmas, but west virginia senator joe manchin appeared to tell "the wall street journal" yesterday, not so fast. >> the unknown we're facing

today is much greater than the need that people believe in this aspirational bill that we're looking at. and we've got to make sure we get this right. we can't just continue to flood the market as we've done. >> and to talk more about this with me is debbie stabenow who sits on the budget and finance committee. senator, great to see you. thanks for being with me. let's start with where things are on the build back better. >> jose, first of all, it's great to be with you this morning. and let me say, we are working, put our heads down, we are working every single day to get as much done, to get this bill done, to complete the other things on the agenda by the end of the year and we'll start in january and keep on going. and talking about build back better, let me layer that on the fact in the last 11 months of our being in the majority and the president being in office, we have done the american rescue

plan, money in people's pockets to survive the pandemic, children back in school safely. by the way, no republican voted for any of that, then innovation and infrastructure and now we go to the important piece of lowering costs for people, the costs that keep them up at night, prescription drugs. we're on the side of bringing down costs. child care, on and on. so at this point, we are in the final days of negotiation, as you've heard, my friend, senator manchin has a different view about whether lowering costs for people helps or hurts. i believe it helps. we use that to lower the costs of everybody's prescription drugs and their child care and caring for their families at home, and making sure in the future, folks that got the

opportunities to make it and were competitive in the global economy while we tackle climate change. yes, there's a lot happening, starting with lowering folks' costs. we'll do our best to get it done, by the end of the year. every single day, i'm in multiple meetings, pieces of this that i'm leading. and in addition to all of that, you know, we averted a government shutdown by what i call the republican chaos caucus. and we've now averted the country defaulting by the chaos caucus. so just every day, it's about putting people first, it's about getting things done, about letting folks know that somebody's got their back. >> so senator schumer said by the end of the year, he expected to have the build back better act on the president's desk. you were commenting on, you guys were going to be work straight through december and in january. you get a sense that this is going to go on into 2022?

>> i think we have a great chance of getting build back better done now. and that's my priority, and i absolutely believe that that needs to happen and so i'm confident after all the hard work, that we're going to get to that point where we can get that done. but there's also a lot more things that folks care about. we've got to keep going. and it's just step by step by step. but that's what it's been all year. that's what it's been all year. and by the way, voting rights is also right in front of us, protecting people's freedom to vote. and that's also very high in our agenda, doing whatever we can to restore the rules of the senate, to be able to get that done and protect people's freedom to vote. >> senator, any sense on when the parliamentarian, speaking about the rules, could rule on whether provisions in the house version of the build back better act could provide protection more millions of undocumented

immigrants. any thoughts on if and when the parliamentarian will come back with the ruling can m >> i strongly support that. of course, i support comprehensive immigration reform, it's long overdue. and i support any every to move forward in that. it's great for the economy, it's great for people, it's the right thing to do. and at this point, there is this complicated process, as you know, because we're doing everything through this budget process. and my guess is we're -- you know, i don't know for sure. my guess is we'll probably into next week to know for sure. but each of the committees, eight of our 12 committees that are involved in writing build back better have gone through the process, gotten their language to the parliamentarians and so on, and now we're into the big questions on immigration, on the health committee, the finance committee, and we're doing, again, doing this as fast as we

can. >> senator debbie stabenow, thanks for being with me. let's continue this conversation going forward. really appreciate your time. >> absolutely. still ahead, we're live with why convicted killer scott peterson is back in court. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." in court. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. of the great highway. all they need is a bike and a full tank of gas. their only friend? the open road. i have friends. [ chuckles ] well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. that's jeremy, right there! we're literally riding together. he gets touchy when you talk about his lack of friends. can you help me out here? no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. well, we're new friends. to be fair. eh, still. (chloe) wireless family plans save you money, but then you have to deal with family. (aunt 1) chloe... (aunt 2) still single, dear? (chloe) so i got visible. team up with friends and get unlimited data for as low as $25 a month. no family needed. (dad vo) is the turkey done yet?! (mom vo) here's your turkey!

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26 past the hour. any moment, another high-profile trial in a minneapolis courtroom. opening statements are about to get underway in the trial of former police officer kim potter. she faces charges in the death of 20-year-old black man daunte wright following a traffic stop. police body cam footage shows potter shooting wright after he pulled away from officers. she said she meant to use her taser, but pulled her handgun by mistake. joining me outside the courtroom is shaquille brewster. good morning. what can we expect today? >> reporter: when court comes in session, and it should happen any minute now, we can expect those opening statements to begin. this is when jurors will essentially get a road map of what this trial and what this case will look like. they can expect to hear and get

a preview of the witnesses that will take the stand. they know they will know the evidence that will be brought up by the prosecution. and they could, if the defense decides to give their opening statements, they could get a preview of what kim potter's defense will be when she ultimately takes the stand. we're not expecting that to happen until at least next week. now, potter is facing two counts of manslaughter, one in the first degree, the other in the second degree. the maximum penalty is about 15 years in prison, and that is what will be determined in this trial. and last week, the jury was officially seated. this is a jury that is evenly split between men and women, 14 jurors have been seated, 7 are men, 7 are women, but 11 are white, 2 are asian, and 1 is black. this is a county that is about 74 to 75% white. so that is the breakdown that we're having. those are the jurors who will hear this case. but two of them will be dismissed just before deliberations. of course, this trial is expected to go on for about two weeks, jose.

>> shaquille brewster in minneapolis, thank you very much. closing arguments are now underway in the trial of actor jussie smollett. smollett took the stand in his own defense this week to deny allegations that he staged the 2019 hate crime attack in chicago. the actor charged with six counts of plan disorderly conduct and prosecutors say that he made a false report about the alleged attack. with more on this, i'm joined by nbc news correspondent, rahema ellis. good morning, rahema. what can we expect to hear? >> reporter: well, pretty much what you have said, and that is to the point of just moments ago, the prosecution began its closing arguments in this case, following that we'll hear from the defense. and this may be a he said/she said story.

jussie smollett maintaining his innocence when he was grilled by the prosecutor about why he maintained such close contact. when jussie was coming back to chicago on a flight, he was in contact with these two brothers. he said it was because he had a training session with them later. he also testified that he had posted his information about his delayed flight on his instagram account, because he wanted his friends and followers to know about his whereabouts and what he was up to. so the jury has got to decide, what do they believe in all of this? smollett is facing six counts of felony disorderly conduct and making false statements to the police. if convicted, he could face up to three years in prison. so that jury could get the case sometime today, after these closing arguments, the case is charged by the judge to the jury, and it will be up to those six men and six women to decide who they believe. jose? >> rahema ellis, thank you so much. and over to the west coast,

where the stage is set for an emotional day in a california courtroom, where convicted killer scott peterson is expected to be re-sentenced to life in prison without parole in the 2002 murders of his wife, lacey, and their unborn child. joining me now with more, nbc news correspondent, guad venegas. guad, good morning. what's the latest there? >> reporter: jose, good morning. so the california supreme court made this decision to do the resentencing after they ruled that the original jury was not screened for bias against the death penalty. so, now, here we are with this resentencing, expected to be short, but very emotional, just like you said. in court filings, the district attorney said that they spoke to laci peterson's family and after having discussions, they agreed to this life in prison with no parole. the judge has allowed 16 seats for supporters of scott peterson to be in the courtroom and 16 seats for laci peterson's family, her mother, her sister, and her brother is expected to

be present. we do expect a written or a spoken statement by the family members. meanwhile, scott peterson's attorney has said that peterson is ready to speak if the judge will allow it, something he did not do during the trial, in which he did not testify. all of that happening in just hours here in redwood city, in california, jose. >> guad venegas, thank you very much. still ahead, president biden's warning to vladimir putin. we'll talk about whether putin got the message. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. like pulsing, electric shocks, sharp, stabbing pains, or an intense burning sensation. what is this nightmare? it's how some people describe... shingles. a painful, blistering rash that could interrupt your life for weeks. forget social events and weekend getaways. if you've had chickenpox, the virus that causes shingles is already inside of you.

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scholz as the next chancellor. he's the social democrat in the center left who has been the nation's vice chancellor and finance minister since 2018. let's go to mexico, puebla, an explosion at a fireworks factory killed at least 6 people, injuring 11 others, according to the state government. this is the second blast of its kind this week. and they become more frequent during the holiday season in central mexico, which produces the bulk of the country's fireworks, in many times unregulated factories. and for the latest on the tension at the russia/ukraine border, i want to bring in nbc's matt bradley, live from london. matt, good morning. what do we know? >> reporter: hey, good morning, jose. well, what we know right now is that there's about 70,000 russian troops supposedly aligned along the border with ukraine. there's another 100,000 that the russians are reportedly planning on deploying to that border. now, all of this sounds like a very threatening escalation, but remember, jose, we've been here before, over the summer, the

russians pulled a similar move. they marshaled troops along their border and eventually as tensions grew, they withdrew. there were also major war games in that same region by the russians over the fall. this is not new, what's new now is that both sides, the u.s. and the russians are saying that the tensions are reaching sky-high levels. and that's why we heard that vladimir putin and joe biden met virtually to have a discussion about what was going along on the border. and these discussions, they didn't yield any breakthroughs. there were no major decisions. nobody made any big agreements, but it was the first time that these two met in a couple of months, and it shows that there is some level of dialogue. it was kind of almost a throwback to that cold war dance, where both sides raised tensions and then kind of meet and diffuse them together. but it doesn't sound as if there were any major breakthroughs like that this time around, though this meeting of the minds did yield what a lot of good

diplomacy does, which is more diplomacy. they agreed to more talks, and it looks like there's more dialogue, there is a path out of this, however unlikely it is that these two leaders are going to blink in front of one another. jose? >> matt bradley in london, thank you. joining me now, garry kasparov, founder and chairman of the renewed democracy initiative, a russian pro-democracy leader, a former world chess champion, and author of "deep thinking," where machine intelligence ends and human intelligence begins. garry, a pleasure to see you this morning. my first question to you is, garry, why ukraine, why now? >> it's not now, it started a long time ago and if you go all the way back to 2017, munich security conference, when putin talked about dividing the world and europe in his first influence, he clearly made a

statement and mentioned ukraine and other independent states as a part of the russian. and in 2014, he made good on his promise by annexing crime and launching war in eastern ukraine. so russian's and if you follow, so they always deny ukraine's rights to be a sovereign state. putin always had a dream of bringing ukraine back, either as the part of russia or a state, and that's why nobody should be survived by him amassing troops on the ukrainian border, right to break ukraine once and forever. that was why i was not happy to hear the report of the correspondent from london, who someone made it look like it's part of the cold war, it's the moral equivalence. and i think it's just a fact

that putin talks to america about ukraine, without ukraine being in the room. and other eastern european states, not being consulted directly. it reminds us of really dark days of the '30s. >> speaking of the '30s, 1932, 1933, when millions of people died because of starvation, under the orders of stalin. is this something, garry, that putin looks up to? >> thank you for reminding of the genocide of people. and putin still keeps in mind that with ukraine as a strong independent state an ally of

europe and america, he dreams about restoring the russian imperial power would not materialize. and what he did, last spring, the amassing of troops and forcing biden into this summit in geneva, which i believe personally was a big blunder for the u.s. president. so he reestablished his status as a global leader, who talked directly to americans over the heads of europeans and ukrainians. and hopefully, the last conversation, yesterday, was better than geneva, because it seemed that in geneva, biden missed an opportunity to make an ultimatum. following again russian propaganda this morning, so they were not that happy. not as happy as after geneva. and it meant to me that biden was probably much stronger in warning putin this time. >> interestingly. and you know, as putin looks to the past and looks up to many aspects of the soviet union, you

know, in the past, they were never shy about invading, right? 1956 in hungary, 1968 in czechoslovakia. and on and on and on. and this fear of influence. i mean, if we're going to go back to this fear of influence soviet union, ukraine is probably not the only place that should be worried. >> looking at the baltic states, we should remember, they were the members of the nato. and putin recognizes that crossing nato members, that should be a different ball game. but we should not forget in 1994, ukraine under american pressure gave up its peculiar arsenal. ukraine had more warheads, nuclear warheads than china, france, and the uk combined at that time. more than 2,000 warheads. and they relinquished them, basically giving it back to russia, under the guarantees that their borders would be protected. and it seemed that, you know, putin basically, you know,

ignored this agreement, as many other international treaies that russia signed, and he's always willing to break if he believes that he can get away with this. >> garry kasparov, it's a pleasure to be able to speak with you. let's continue our conversation going forward. thanks for your time. >> thank you. still ahead, president biden is about to hit the road yet again to promote the new infrastructure law. this time, a trip to kansas city, missouri. we'll talk to the mayor of that city about what that money could do for his community. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." community you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. yeah. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪

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the towel washed with downy is softer, fluffier, and gentler on your skin. try downy free & gentle. recognized by the national psoriasis foundation and national eczema association. 48 past the hour. now back to washington, where president biden is scheduled to leave the white house any moment now to head to kansas city to make another pitch for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and what it will mean for the kansas city area. with me now to talk about this is kansas city mayor, quentin lucas. mayor, it's great to see you. what are your top infrastructure priorities in kansas city? >> well, today in kansas city, the president is coming to talk about bus transportation. public transportation is a key part of what we're doing, and this isn't just a story about bridges and roads. it's a story about how we get people to work. and how we can invest in things

like zero fare transit, something we have systemwide in kansas city. i see that they've done more work on it in boston lately and we hope with these funds, we'll also be talking about broadband, and importantly and interestingly, i've gotten outreach from rural mayors in missouri as well about how excited they are for their community. so we'll kind of talk about the human interest side of what infrastructure is and how this bill really is transformative for a lot of our communities. >> look, the digital divide is so large and impactful and meaningful for so many people in our country. what are some of the things -- and you spoke about transportation, the digital died. in your city, specifically, war your top priorities when you deal with infrastructure? >> you know, priority number one is to address the crumbling infrastructure that we have. i know, jose, i've seen you report for years on stories like the collapse of the i-35 bridge in minneapolis. and in every city in america, you have some bridge or some

road that is incredibly dangerous and needs to be replaced today. so this is money that will be an immediate cash infusion for that. that's number one. number two is how do we build up our public reputation systems, both subways, bus systems, et cetera. that's key is key for us and an important part of what we're doing in kansas city. and the real final part of this is the president sees this as a jobs bill. we continue to need that generation of skills for the next work force. we're talking about other types of challenges and you need people that are working in courts, you need to build more courts, and that is another part of kansas city. we have a workforce development challenge and we're hoping that a lot of the funds allow us to focus our efforts on how we're training people, and get them to work for our bus systems, heavy constructers, et cetera.

>> thank you for being with me this morning, i look forward to having you on shortly again. coming up, using art to help the suffering, a documentary explains how one artist did just that. we'll talk to the producer of "paper and glue" next. you're watching jose diaz billart reports. iaz billart reports. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen and then i started taking it about two years now. started noticing things a little sharper, a little clearer. i feel like it's kept me on my game. i'm able to remember things. i'd say give it a try. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. (kids playing) pnc bank believes that if your phone can help you track your pizza come on, cody. where are you, buddy? then your bank should help you track your spending. virtual wallet® is so much more than a checking account.

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presents "paper and glue" the jr product. it follows him as he visits places like a prison and brazil. it breaks the rules, challenges the status quo. in this clip, they explain the oversides -- oversized clip, everybody looked at it and said you had a gun? yeah, it's your camera, yeah, it's crazy. it was just a whole day of taking photos. there with all of those photos,

we didn't know what to do with them. let's just do it. >> joining me now is sarah bernstein. there is years of details work from his days of teaching students, talk to us about the concept and gathering all of those areas of footage. >> yes, there was many, many years. thank you for having me. we're so thrilled this will be premiering this friday night. it was an interesting process. i think jr himself being sort of an illusive character who you will meet in the film, getting a sense of why he is leek that as an artist, i think he was a little reluctant director. but this project started about three years ago when we went to

visit jr in his studio. my producing partner just ten and ron howard, our executive producer, we just launched imagine entertainment. we had prior relationships with them and we just started talking, and around the same time he launched the incredible retrospective. and we started talking about all of these activations, and the idea that he defies borders, his art other the past 15 or 20 years has really been giving the voiceless and the faceless a face. and i think truly celebrating the impact that art can have on community. and we just thought you know what? you never really told your

storefully earnest and now could be the time. >> as we look at the images, i love that little child, the photo blown up and put on the border wall. and then you have the, i mean look at that shot, and then a drone shot of the two eyes on each side of the border. those are actually tables where people had meals? >> yes, and i mean this is sort of the beauty and the power of jr. he went from a grafitti artist to a graphic artist. he just saw the fence and he started thinking about well, who lives around here. and that lead to a family that had this younged toer will and he started to take pictures of

them. and then he thought what can we do with this? and he is known for these huge scale pastings, and we have this little boy peeking over this border fence. i don't think he even actually knew the kind of impact that it would have or the people that would come to visit to take pictures of it. so there was a ground swell that ultimately resulted in this kind of celebration that he staged at the fence that spanned both sides of it. there was people on the u.s. side, the mexican side, and they were talking and celebrating

celebrating that they could come tonight. >> i think art is really the language of the soul. we're looking forward to seeing this documentary. thank you for being with us today. you can catch "paper and glue friday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. thank you for the privilege of your time. make sure you watch dr. anthony fauci when he joins andrea mitchell at noon. good wednesday morning to you, craig melvin here, another jam packed hour because we're following big news from pfizer. it could be a relief for folk that's got that pfizer booster. they say it neutralizes the new omicron variant, but the