thank you for your support. may you continue have that heart and may god bless you. >> joyce gets tonight's "last word." "the 11th hour" starts now. good evening. i'm stephanie ruehl. the fate of mark meadows is now up to the biden justice department, which will decide whether to prosecute him on criminal charges of contempt. earlier today, the president was asked about meadows. >> what is your reaction to congress holding meadows in contempt? >> i have not spoken to anyone, but it seems to me he's worthy of being held in contempt. >> and tonight, there's new

information about who might have been behind the text messages turned over to the committee, made public ahead of this week's votes to hold meadows in contempt. today, jim jordan confirmed he personally sent a message to meadows the day before the riot that appears to detail how the white house may stop the confirmation of joe biden's win. trying to keep donald trump in power. meanwhile, politico reports the january 6th panel is weighing whether trump himself violated obstruction law. liz cheney raised that possibility when she said this. >> did donald trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede

congress' official proceedings to count electoral votes? >> tonight, another committee member was asked if a criminal referral for trump was a possibility. >> we will go wherever we need to, to get the information that we need in order to understand what happened in the run-up to january 6th and what happened on january 6th, to make sure that no one feels like they're above the law. and that this never happens again. we will follow the facts to whoever they lead. >> also today, the man who actually did win the 2020 election spent much of his afternoon in the state of kentucky. offering hope and comfort to victims of last weekend's devastating storms. more than 30 tornadoes hit, killing dozens and dozens of people. biden promised whatever is needed to help those communities

rebuild. >> the government will cover 100% of the costs for the first 30 days, for all the emergency costs. >> tonight, we're tracking more severe weather moving through the central part of this country. reports of damage and power outages. and tomorrow, the president will sign the bill raising the debt ceiling. he's also expected to sign a new defense bill that increases the pentagon's budget. i'm going to say this again, increases the pentagon's budget by $24 billion more than the white house requested. the white house also keeping a close watch on the omicron variant. today, dr. anthony fauci had some reassuring words about the

vaccines. >> our booster vaccine regimens work against omicron. at this point, there's no need for a variant specific booster. if you are unvaccinated, you are very vulnerable. not only to the existing delta surge that we're experiencing, but also to omicron. >> a reminder, get vaxed and get your booster. white house officials also said, there's no reason to reintroduce lockdowns, and that schools and businesses will remain open. we'll have much more on this later in the hour. let's bring in our leadoff guests, phil rucker, peter baker, and barbara mcquaid. she worked with the department of justice during the biden transition, and she's a professor at the university of

michigan's law school. peter, i have to start with you. your colleagues at "the new york times" wrote, the group settled on a strategy that would become a blueprint for mr. trump's supporters in congress. hammer home that the election was tainted, announce legal actions, and bolster the case with allegations of fraud. i want to talk to you about how the white house chief of staff was involved in all of this. despite the fact that joe biden won the election and is in office, those efforts were successful. they're continuing the nonsense voter fraud claims, and three people in the villages in florida, trump supporters, were just found to have placed

fraudulent votes. >> yes, trying to overturn the will of the voters based on completely unfounded allegations. the story that my colleagues have written fills out this picture a little bit more. we knew that the president was pressuring the justice department to simply declare there was corruption. the notes taken by rich donahue say, just say it was corrupt and leave the rest up to the republican congressmen and me. and led by jim jordan and five other members of the freedom caucus who has president trump's foot soldiers, in this partisan effort to find a way to overturn the will of the voters. they were trying to find a pretext, find some way they could justify declining to accept electors from states that biden won, that trump was trying to claim that he had won. this obviously culminated in

january 6th with the effort to push mike pence into denying some of the electors. he said he didn't have that constitutional power no matter what donald trump said. and with mark meadows inside the white house, helping to coordinate the effort with these members of congress to find a way to keep donald trump in power, even though the voters had decided to throw him out. >> phil, let's say we get every single name from the next messages, it's humiliating and embarrassing. we had four years of embarrassing, unethical conduct from trump and his administration. and they faced no consequences aside from losing the election. when the names come out, will it make an actual difference? >> it makes a difference for history, and for truth, and for americans' understanding of what actually happened in reality here in washington on january

6th. politically speaking, i can't imagine it will make much of a difference for most of these house members. remember, many of them were elected in very heavily republican leaning congressional districts. in a republican primary, when polling tells us that a majority of republican voters believe the election was rigged and believe biden is an illegitimate president, in an republican primary environment, these text messages and communications and efforts behind the scenes to try to rig the election at the end, to send the electors back to the states, it could help them with some republican primary voters. it will certainly help endear them to former president trump. so i don't think they will pay a

price. >> hold on, it could help them. for someone like jim jordan, it could help him in his next election? >> you know, loyalty, fealty to former president trump is the currency in the republican party today. if you're a republican member of congress, and you're trying to win re-election and trying to fend off any potential primary challenge in the republican primaries next year, standing with trump is the way to win. >> loyalty to the guy that lost. barbara, talk to us about how the doj going after meadows is different from going against steve bannon. >> i think meadows will be a very different character in all of that. i think steve bannon relishes the role of a martyr. i think meadows wants to have

life after trump. but i think in some ways, the decision is a little bit more difficult for the justice department about charging meadows criminally. because he was part of the trump inner circle. there is some argument there is some residual executive privilege that belongs to donald trump. but it's a loser of the argument. president biden is the one who holds executive privilege, and he's waived it. you have to at least show up and respond to questions when you're subpoenaed by congress. you can't just disengage and blow off the questions. so i think the justice department will be well within its rights to file criminal charges. but i think if they really want his testimony, they may be better off filing a civil action which coerces compliance. he would sit in jail, but could be released if he testifies.

i think they have some decisions to make about the strategy of getting him to testify. because i think they're willing to give up the testimony of bannon to make an example of him but with meadows, it looks like he has a lot of important information that they're going to want to get. >> peter, this information is hugely important in terms of the preservation of our democracy. but it's going to be pushed into 2022. the year of the midterms. what does that do politically for biden? >> well, obviously, this creates a different scenario than people had imagined. the original idea was to get this done by early enough in the year that it wouldn't necessarily be front and center in the fall campaign. republicans, that's why they opposed the original plan for a bipartisan independent commission. but now, because of the delaying action, it almost seems to encourage the idea that we'll push this into the fall, and make it more of a campaign

topic. that may or may not help the democrats. democrats have learned, i think, in this election in virginia, new jersey, and elsewhere, focusing on trump isn't necessarily a winning strategy. in fact voters want to hear about other subjects. so it may or may not factor into the voting in november, 2022. the worry for democrats is that this gets pushed beyond that election. they fear they'll lose control of the house, maybe the senate. if they do lose the control of the house, this commission presumably goes away. and we don't get a final report that would tell us what really happened on that day and the days leading up to it. >> phil, take us inside, what clues are you seeing about trump himself in the evidence, and what are you hearing about his current relationship with meadows? he gave 90,000 pages. >> that's right. i'll start with the relationship

with meadows. my colleagues have a great piece out tonight on this topic. they report that trump is irate with meadows on his book, because he reveals a lot of sensitive personal information about the president in the book, including a description of his physical ailment when he was hospitalized with the coronavirus, how weak he appeared when he was lying in bed. that infuriated former president trump according to the reporting. and the relationship has been icy because of meadows' in and out cooperation with the committee. even though meadows is being held in contempt of congress, he was participating or cooperating to some degree, to a greater degree than trump wants any of his allies to cooperate.

>> barb, trump doesn't use email or text messages. he lets other people do the dirty work like tony soprano. how hard would it be given that to tie trump to what the committee is investigating? >> it is a good tactic, but it's not impossible to prosecute him. the more evidence that keeps coming out is sounding very loudly to me like what is known as a klein conspiracy, to obstruct the functioning of government. and this could be responsible for that. even those who did not themselves commit an overt act, they would need people on the inside to testify about the role of donald trump in that conspiracy. once you start charing people,

some would decide they want to plead guilty and cooperate rather than face a long prison sentence. >> all right, i know you just helped me a lot, but before i let you go, peter, you said something that i want to follow up on. you talked about the new jersey and virginia election. people aren't interested in what donald trump did or voting for or against him. people vote on what affects them, not offends them. that's the economy. and joe biden has a lot of good economic data on his side. gdp is strong, jobs are strong. but just 72% of americans think the government is not doing enough to tamp down inflation. given the situation biden finds himself in, how can they change this messaging? because the data is there for a strong economy. but the feeling from the american people isn't. >> yeah, that's right. one of the things they'll have to do is do something about

inflation. as long as it's at a high of the last 30 years, people will focus on that. gas prices, grocery prices are up. a lot of different -- consumer prices heading into the holiday season are up. and you're right, there are lots of good economic indicators. joblessness and claims are at the lowest they've been in 50 years. and growth is good. so, will 2022 see a change in inflation? this will post-lockdown phase of covid begin to stabilize the economy and make inflation go down? that will make the biggest difference. messaging, obviously biden needs to get out and talk more about the positives of the economy. one thing president trump did really well was sell the economy beyond what the numbers said. he got a lot of people to

believe the economy was really good, even beyond the good that it really was. and that's something that biden hasn't been able to do so far. >> barbara, peter, phil, thank you so much for being our leadoff guests tonight. coming up next, it's beginning to feel a lot like the covid of one year ago. we've got a doctor standing by to ask about today's troubling headlines, a year after the first vaccine. and later, the delays and divisions on capitol hill threatening the president's agenda. "the 11th hour" just getting under way on this wednesday night. way on this wednesday night. wealth plan across your full financial picture. a plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. this is the planning effect. your plain aspirin could be hurting your stomach.

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early data suggests that omicron is more transmissible than delta, with a doubling time of about two days. given the increase in transmissibility, this means continuing to be vigilant about masking. this represents about 90% of all counties in the united states. >> hospitals are still overwhelmed by delta cases. but overseas, the uk recorded its highest daily number of cases, saying that omicron is the highest threat yet to public

health. doctor, thank you for staying up late with us. it's a really important night. we keep hearing about this new variant spreading across the country, and the world. but should we be focused on cases or hospitalizations? >> yeah, stephanie, i think both of them matter. you have to look at it from two different frames of reference. if you're somebody watching the show, and you are healthy and not somebody who is elderly and not immunocompromised, you've already been boosted, data shows you're really protected even against omicron. so you're probably wondering, if that's the case, why should i worry about all the information about omicron? when you look at it from a population perspective, because

omicron is so much more transmissible, the sheer number of more people that it might infect, you're looking at not just people who are boosted and healthy, who may get mild infections as breakthroughs, it may also affect people who are vaccinated. and there is a subgroup of people who are high risk, who haven't been able to mount that high response. and it's always a numbers game, because of the sheer number of possible cases like the uk is seeing, you're likely to see more hospitalizations, which will affect all of us. >> if you put high risk vaccinated individuals aside, and you say the overwhelming risk is for those who are

unvaccinated, they're unvaccinated by choice. that's where we are in this pandemic. a year ago, i wasn't willing to celebrate christmas or travel because i didn't want to get my unvaccinated parents sick. that's not the case now. for people who have done all the things right, why can't they go back and live their normal lives? unvaccinated people are choosing to roll the dice. >> we don't decide who we pass the infection to. in fact, two steps down that road, if the hospitals are overwhelmed, think of omicron as throwing lighter fluid on the surge that was already delta that is going on. if that's the case, every vaccinated person, every booster, mask, rapid test, is a method of tamping down that

fire. so that is sort of the concern from a public health perspective. >> except we're all not doing our bit. many people still choose to be unvaccinated, and we're always looking for ways to motivate people to get the vaccine. i want to share this with you, the left side are the lungs of a vaccinated person with covid. the right side, an unvaccinated person with covid. i mean, vastly different. do we need to show more images like this to convince the staunchly unvaccinated, or do they believe so deeply that covid isn't real, they wouldn't even believe those images are real, and they're going to keep on trucking? >> i hope not. because they're at the highest risk. in that group that is unvaccinated right now, omicron carries the highest risk.

and what this virus does is, it doesn't just infect your body. it makes your immune system ravage your own body. all that you're seeing in the lungs is the damage that the virus does. and also the damage that your own immune system does, because it's so revved up and out of control because of what the virus is doing. it should be reason enough that people are ending up in the icu, requiring oxygen, saying i can't breathe. if that's not enough, do it for your family members, because you can't control who you may pass on the infection to. >> given how hypertransmissible this is, how effective are indoor masks? >> i think good, quality masks are always a better bet. right? and we've seen that over and over again during the course of this pandemic. i would be -- at this point, getting on a flight, i would choose a kn-95 or n-95 in doors,

with people who are traveling. good quality masks help, adding ventilation is another layer, decreasing the number of people, that's why a large amount of indoor gatherings are being rescheduled. and the last bit is testing. rapid tests, this is their goal. if you can catch enough people who might be positive, you will reduce the number of people who are transmitting in a gathering to people. >> should we be cancelling or scaling back indoor parties? we know the white house is. >> i think family gatherings, if you're vaccinated and boosted, you are taking care as you travel to wear a mask so you're

keeping yourself safe, and you're using rapid tests, we're in a better place this year than last year in terms of making sure we ensure small gatherings are safer. what is more uncontrollable is large, large venues with hundreds of people whose vaccination status you don't know, and there not be good ventilation. those, in my humble opinion, we may just want to avoid during this winter surge. >> public health messages and guidelines should be a lot more universal than they are. but when you look at things like in the state of california, if i went to a theme park, i need to be masked up. if i went to that same theme park in florida, i don't need to take those precautions.

how challenging is that? >> i think it's really frustrating and i think it's confusing, what confuses the public. we're all trying to do the right thing. when you see the same evidence being taken and instituted a different way in different states, it downplays the threat of the virus. people say, why would the state not do this? not only that, there are nuances. you want to -- what may work in a very isolated place with no covid transmission may be different in a dense city. that's why the cdc has tried to assess for the communities. but dr. walensky said 90% of our communities are showing high transmission. >> better standardization would be fantastic. public health and preserving our democracy. two things that should not be

political. but, alas, that's where we are. welcome to 2021. try to do better next year. doctor, thank you, you made us smarter tonight. coming up, what to watch in the investigation into the insurrection. tion

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patriotism and principle by liz cheney, but also by jamie raskin, by chairman thompson and the others. this committee, as it's functioning, is going to get to the bottom and lay this all out for the american people. >> steve schmidt, after the house voted to hold mark meadows in contempt of congress. but this boomberg op-ed said, the committee finally struck a better balance between fighting to compel cooperation and telling a public story about what trump and his allies did. we're joined by david plouffe, and matthew dowd. matthew, to you first.

getting to the bottom of what happened on the 6th should be hugely important to every single american. but how do you balance that with the fact that many, many americans do not know or even care who mark meadows is? people are living their lives, they're concerned about their school, crime, money. they're not thinking about the preservation of our democracy, despite how important it is. how do you get people to care? >> i actually think the steps that have been gone forward in the last three or four days have advanced that greatly. in the preservation of a democracy, there are things that come before the preservation of democracy, which all of us talking right now are very concerned about. the first step is, what is the truth, and what is a common set of facts. if you don't have that, then you don't have a democracy, and democracy is broken. you can't even get to the common good, the basis of democracy.

those are steps towards it. but we have to ask ourselves the questions, whether it's people in the media, whatever it is, are we focusing enough in a direct, clear way, on what is imperilled in our country today? the theory of democracy is not the way to talk about this. it's the practicality of democracy that has to be discussed. i would put the pressure and onus on candidates across the country. i know they have many consultants who hear a lot of different things from voters on this. but sometimes a leader's responsibility is to lead voters, and so all of us have to ask the question, are we focusing on it enough? which i don't think we are. as a whole. and are we focusing on it in a way that people can understand, what does that mean to my life?

if we do fundamentally lose our democracy and we don't get to the truth? >> here's the problem with this idea of a common set of facts. the truth matters, but only if you hear it. and millions of americans are either tuned out completely or they're tuned in to something like fox news that is not sharing any of these actual facts. >> right, stephanie. but the fact is, we've probably got 25% to 30% of the country. it's almost like there's a chinese censorship wall around them, and it will be hard to penetrate. for the other 70%, that's what you need, a coalition to save democracy. it's not so much about democrats and republicans anymore, about tax rates or health care expansion, are you pro-democracy, or do you want an autocracy? the last few days are really important, i agree. so the facts are what matters. if the people who organized this

coup aren't held to account, we're going to have another one, and it will be successful. but also, we need the stage management. liz cheney reading those texts was dramatic, a lot of people shared it on social media. we need to get more on primetime, doing something sunday night, you have to reach people. you won't reach everybody, but you need to reach everybody you can. you have to think about, how are we reaching everybody possible? and that is reading texts, info graphics, getting cooperation from witnesses that people will not expect. but the most important thing is, people have to understand how close it came to happening once, and that it can't happen again. i think there are a lot of people who think trump lost, and we're okay now. and the forces are being

gathered in state capitols all over the country to mount another coup. >> how important is liz cheney to this investigation? she continues to hold this very unflattering mirror up to her own party. she's truly putting country over party right now. >> i think she's incredibly important. any voice that comes from the tribe that is doing this, which is the republican party, any voice that speaks truth to power from that tribe lands with incredible great weight in this. i think the way she's conducted herself in the course of this committee, she should be given tremendous plaudits. i've criticized her in the past, but her weight in this moment, because she comes from that tribe that is in the middle of this, and she's fighting that tribe with her words and actions in this, she is, she's one of the stand up for democracy.

many people are trying to do this. all of us, our responsibility is to give them support. build the tent as big as big. we may disagree on many different things. but we can all agree with david that there's a pro-democracy movement, and make the table big enough for people to sit at, even if we disagree with them on 22 other issues. >> you got to build that bigger tent louder and bigger every day. because what is happening is more and more restrictive voter laws being put in place when people aren't paying attention. matthew, david, stick around. because when when we come back, why senate democrats are

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this week, democrats also continued working at getting the senate in a position where we can vote on the president's build back better legislation. and we continue to work on the john lewis voting rights advancement act. >> the hopes of a pre-christmas vote appear to be dashed. sources telling nbc, talks between joe biden and joe manchin have been going very poorly, and they're far apart on an agreement. instead, democrats are shifting their focus to voting rights. still with us, david plouffe and matthew dowd. with build back better at least temporarily on the back burner, that means today the final

expanded child tax credits have gone out. given how much more expensive things are across the country, gas, groceries, essential goods. and about 60 million kids' families have been receiving checks, that money goes away in january. do they need to do something else, carve it out of build back better, to ensure that families still get that money? >> i think so. yes. the risk would be it jeopardizes the entire package. but i think so. build back better has to pass. if it doesn't, maybe it will take to january or february. and i think a lot of people will be rightly unhappy if it doesn't. but most importantly, it's important for the country. but voting rights is essential. we can build bridges, provide

child care and elder care. but if it's in an autocracy, what would it matter? the most important thing is to erect safeguards so that republican state legislators in 2024 can't decide, no matter what happens in their voting in their state, to give the election to donald trump or a republican nominee. they're right to focus on this. sinema and manchin have every permission structure to say, i did not want to do a carve-out on the filibuster for this. but it's clear republicans are intent on another coup, so we have to do this. we just had another carve-out on the debt limit. so there's every reason to say, we're going to protect democracy, but that doesn't mean that build back better doesn't get done. just the order may change.

>> matthew, is it time to make voting rights the number one priority? >> i think the time to make that a priority was january 7th. this has been my criticism, and i'm very happy joe biden is president, and not the former guy. but we have to remind people we've drifted worse than the day after election day in 2020, we're in a place today in where we are, and what is being pushed. it fundamentally is about where we are as a country, not donald trump. and i think joe biden's overall message, this is a fight for the soul of america. my thinking is, any time we talk about any issue, it ought to be related to democracy and voting rights. when we talk about why we can't get build back better done, and why you won't get child care and health insurance, it's directly related to the flaws and the

failings of democracy that exist today. why is that? because of the attacks on democracy in state after state. so if voters are unhappy and they want that, the administration needs to connect all of the issues they talk about, include build back better to voting rights and democracy. and fault the republicans every time, keep reminding people, they don't want you to get your child tax credit, this is why they're attacking democracy, they don't want you to have child care. relate it to the singular issue that builds a building block towards it. >> david, i want to ask you about something that gets people pretty angry, especially angry about not liking the way that lawmakers operate. i want to play this, from nancy pelosi, earlier today in response to a report about some members of congress and capitol hill staff having violated the stock act. watch this.

>> should members of congress and their spouses be banned from trading individual stocks? >> no. this is a free market, and we're a free market economy. they should be able to participate in that. >> a free market economy? if you work at an investment bank, at an asset manager, you can't simply invest in anything you want. and lawmakers impact policy, and policies impact how businesses operate. what is your take on nancy pelosi saying this? >> i hope she gets a redo. in the executive branch, if you're a political appointee, you're not allowed to own individual stocks. what kevin mccarthy should do is say, if we retake the house, we're going to ban house members from individual stock trades.

there's enough evidence now, not just in the last year, but over a number of years. major scandals with two republican senators just heading into 2020. trading on insider investigation around the pandemic. the cleanest thing to do, and democrats will have a lot of accomplishments to run on, you always want to say, how can we improve our pitch to the american people? having a better argument around ethics, particularly given those republican senators i mentioned, would be very smart. i assume she'll get a lot of pressure to revisit that answer, not all of them, by the way, but enough of them that perhaps she revisits that. i hope she does. >> thank you for joining us. coming up, what we're hearing from the nfl after covid outbreaks sideline dozens of

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the surge of covid cases is hitting professional sports teams hard. dozens of nfl and nba players and coaches have been sidelined by the virus. sam brock has our report tonight. >> reporter: for some of pro sports' biggest stars, the covid hits keep on coming. odell beckham jr., scoring on monday night, then landing on the covid reserve list, along with eight other l.a. rams players. >> this has definitely been the most uniquely challenging situation we've dealt with, with covid. >> reporter: the nfl just set a record, with 37 positive cases on monday. 14 members of the cleveland browns now in covid protocols. plus kevin stefanski testing positive. in the nba, giannis

antetokounmpo and james harden out. nearly 95% of the nfl players and 97% of nba players and staff are fully vaccinated. and it comes in the midst of successful seasons with fans back in the stands. >> they don't want to postpone games this year. they've made that very clear. last year, it was easy to move games around because you didn't have fans. >> reporter: but last night, the brooklyn nets nearly didn't take the court due to lack of healthy players. the nfl commissioner spoke about working with the players' association. and the nfl says there are no conversations going on about changing the status of any games. >> sam brock, thank you. coming up, we'll meet some of the youngest warriors in the battle against covid. ovid

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you know i wasn't going to leave tonight before getting a little jersey in. nearly 1 in 5 children have received a dose of the covid vaccine. the pandemic has included remote learning and time away from friends. i visited with a bunch of kids in new jersey on what the pandemic has been like for them. what do you miss from before covid? >> i missed, we could go out more, and we didn't have to worry about what is happening or our surroundings. >> what do you miss? >> going on cruises. >> going to the trampoline place. >> i miss, like, going, like, to my grandma and grandpa's house. because i don't really get to see them. >> what do you miss?

>> i miss visiting my cousins in india. that's what i miss the most. >> does it frustrate you that more people aren't getting the vaccine? >> yes, because a lot of people are dying. and it's making the covid rate go up again. and and for now that is it for our broadcast, on this wednesday night. with our thanks for being with us on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news good evening. >> reporter published a book called