>> 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 the trail.

basically about great unraveling about the white house at the end of the trump presidency. the final act of the trump show was the sub head of that book. it hasn't even been a year since trump left office, but there have already been a bunch of significant and we'll republished book. but in the jonathan karl book, there is one anecdote from him that has really stuck with me from that book in particular. and it was the part about rescuing the cia director. because she had been wounded in germany. remember this? i mean, spoiler alert. cia director was fine. she wasn't in germany. nor was she wounded. but this was the way jonathan karl reported that out in his book. page one 70 of his. book pentagon official, quote, received a call from sydney powell who was advising president trump and promoting some of the crazies theories about the election. paul called the pentagon official with a bizarre request. her request was specific,

urgent, highly sensitive. it was also completely insane. quote, cia director gina haspel has been hurt. and taken into custody in germany. she told the official. you need to launch a special operations mission to go get her. the official had never before spoken with sydney powell and was shocked that she had called him on her direct phone line in his office. it's a phone that only rang with calls from within the pentagon or from the white house. it was an unpublished number that somebody with access to the internal directory had to have given her. sydney powell went on to explain on the call that cia director, had been hurt while on a secret cia operation to seize a computer server from a company name scytl. it contained about hundreds of thousands of votes had been switched using rigged voting machines. so pal believed that gina had

embarked in a secret mission to get the societal server, and destroy the evidence. in other words the cia director was part of the conspiracy. [laughs] >> that is why sydney powell wanted the pentagon to send the special operations team over to germany immediately. they needed to get the server and also force cia director gina to confess. panic on official who took the call from paul, thought that paul sounded, quote, out of her mind. you think. if jonathan calls reporting is correct. this is the actual pentagon being told by this trump lawyer that the cia director was wounded in germany because in addition to running the cia, which is a large agency, she is apparently also some kind of commander herself. who cares out secret missions personally. and delta force has to go get her. and interrogate her. and sees the server from her.

and then force or to confess her role in this conspiracy to steal the election which he was covering up by personally stealing the -- i mean, this is not just bananas. this is bananas talked with cuckoo for cocoa puffs. it is just absolutely insane to the point of being funny. and we have since, kind of figured out where it came from. thanks to material from trump white house chief of staff, mark meadows, handed over to the january six investigation. he did handover like 9000 pages of material before something spoke to him. and he decided to change his mind and stop cooperating. the committee, let it be, known that one of the things mark meadows had handed over to them was a 30 something page power point presentation. on supposed fraud in the election. soon after, they made it public that that is one of the documents mark meadows had given them. versions of that document

started circulating online. and now we have access to it. and it does seem to be with the committee was describing. at least a version of what the committee was describing. to be fair here, there is no evidence that trump white house chief of staff, mark meadows, or anybody else in the trump white house actually did anything with this document. there is no evidence, for example, that they had anything to do with writing. it there is not any new evidence that they have passed this document on to other people. but the washington post was able to track down the man who claims credit for creating the document. and he says that he was in frequent touch with trump white house chief of staff, mark meadows. he also said he made multiple trips to the white house after the election. he also says he briefed republican members of congress on his ideas and theories the day before january six. the day before the u.s. capital was attacked by trump supporters. he said he briefed republican members of congress using this

document on january 5th. and this document, this powerpoint document that he apparently used for this briefing, is insane. it demands that the president should declare a national security emergency. whatever that is. it demands that he should federalize the national guard all over the country. how the national guard sees ballots. to seize votes. he should declare all votes cast on voting machines to be invalid. [laughs] >> okay. and the powerpoint points out that once all those ballots are ticking away. not only does, quote, trump almost certainly win. but additionally u.s. senators, u.s. house races, state and local races, now turn to republican as well. now turn to republican. see, if you just declare numbered and, see how troops go take all the ballots and declare that most votes don't count that it's easy.

republicans win everywhere. and it's got this really weird stuff about how it is china who really ran the election except when we say china, kind of what we mean has been [inaudible] . even though those are very far apart on the globe. it's the same. the powerpoint has an inside picture of the brother of the vice president of venezuela. it describes him as the likely mastermind of the whole election plot. that said it also says that china is the mastermind of the election plot. it least, that's what i think that this means. quote, china has leverage. venezuela, as well. china uses venezuela like a fork. so it's venezuela who is the mastermind, but he is just a tool being used by china. again, this is something that is reportedly briefed to

republican members of congress that they before january six. it says that on january 6th, vice president mike pence should just seat republican electors over the objections of democrats. just seek republican electors in all the states where fraud occurred. meaning, declare that trump was the winner and all the states where we see the election shouldn't count. and of course you can tell which states those are because it's the once where biden won. and clearly, that was the doing of the vice president of venezuela masterminding the plot while also being used as a tool by the chinese communist. and it's all there in black and white, in a powerpoint. so clearly, why are you even resisting? but look here. i said it's 30 something pages. this is page 11 of the document. [laughs] >> honestly, feast your eyes on that. this is a birds eye view theory

of why trump is secretly still president. remember, 68% of republican voters believe this now. they think that this is the truth. and you see, the title of this page. where and how it's done. high level view of voting system and networks. and right under the headline, kind of on the center, right it says societal server in frankfurt. remember that word, scytl? my favorite part is the arrow pointing to that from the right a dust error for some reason. what do the dashes mean? other malicious actors access this. oh the other malicious actors. the newfoundland or's. in the malaysians. maybe the lizard people, the other malicious actors. they got to that settle server in frankfurt. that is the go gina rescued, think that is where we get that

hilarious call to the actual pentagon from telling the pentagon that they needed to dispatch the green beret. to go say the wounded cia director because she has been hurt in germany while she's on a secret cia operation to goes deal the societal server. which is all the evidence of her involvement in the plot to -- >> the guy who is taking credit for this power point presentation, right? which ended up after all with the white house chief of staff. which is how we got it because he handed it over to the january six investigation. the guy, who is claiming credit for having assembled most of these documents which reportedly was briefed republican members of congress on january six. this guy who is behind the theory that somehow the cia director needed to be rescued in germany and interrogated. and then sent to guantánamo or something? i don't know. and this isn't even like a normal conspiracy theory. it is like a run-of-the-mill

conspiracy theory took acid, took ellis d, and the result did not go well. this is so insane. it is funny. but the guy who claims credit for inventing all of this stuff. for having compiled that document. guess what he is doing now? yesterday republicans in the state legislator of the great state of louisiana invited that man, that guy to come brief then, to come to the louisiana state capital and give lawmakers a 90 minute official briefing on his thoughts, his ideas, his theories. for the state commission that they have formed in louisiana to reshape their state system. they have decided that he is their kind of expert, and they want to know from him what they need to do. >> this has got a uv, a bar code, uv printing in the back. i don't have my little black light. i think it's over in the back.

it's gotta seal. it's got a rare earth minerals detector, so, that you know, if there's questions about the validity of ballots. there's a little won that you could scan over this. >> there's a little wand. it's a rare earth mineral detector wand. that will take care of the venezuelans. this guy, this past week is publicly taking credit for this powerpoint document that turned up in the january six investigation. that literally calls for the declaration of a national security emergency to justify the national guard seizing ballots all over the country. it calls for mike pence to just a trump won states that biden won. it calls for what we think the election results were is actually an illusion because of a spell cast by the venezuelan vice president's brother and a computer server in germany which is now in gina haspel's purse. this guy is claiming credit for

that this past week. and then yesterday, louisiana republicans bring him into the state capital as their expert witness. to tell the state of louisiana how it should administer elections now. because clearly, he's got some inside information. washington post reports that he received lots and lots of applause during his presentation, yesterday. the republican secretary of state, who is unattended for his presentation said out loud that lots of members of the louisiana state commission are members of the guys, quote, fan club. that is the image in which they want to rebuild america's elections. or at least the ones in louisiana. there is a lot going on in the news right now. quite a lot of it that is a little hard to wrap your head around sometimes. if you ask me. and we've got a lot to get to. we've got the top science adviser, president biden on the

covid response. joining us tonight to talk about the new news that has come out today about the new variant, this omicron variant. it's a lot to take in. it's a lot of bad news, it's some news that appears to be good news but i don't know quite how to calibrated against the bad news. doctor david has been an incredible streak shooter with us from the very beginning. he is going to be joining us. i am really looking forward to having that conversation with. them we also continue to keep an eye tonight on new development in congress. including on voting rights. which we talked about it length on last night show, which appears there may be some movement along the lines that we are talking about on last night show. we will also be talking about the main economic agenda to see what will happen there. we are also watching developments that are coming sort of fast and furious not out of the january six investigation. here for example is the lead tonight at politico.com. see the headline there, january six investigators mall whether trump violated obstruction laws. quote, members of the january six investigation are homing in

on a politically explosive question. did donald trump's actions amid the capitol attack amount to criminal obstruction of congress? twice this week, committee vice chair, list cheney, has raised the possibility that trump's conduct while a mob of his supporters overtook the capitol. could qualify as an effort to obstruct the certification of joe biden's victory. cheney described as a key topic facing the investigation, particularly as it seeks its testimony of one of trump's one-time closest aides, former white house chief of staff, mark meadows. cheney asked twice this week, quote, did donald trump through action or inaction corruptly seek to obstruct or impede congress's official proceeding to count electoral votes? politico continues, quote, cheney statement includes precise terminology from the criminal obstruction statute. to convict someone of that crime a jury determined that a defendant took an obstructive action affected on a -- and acted with corrupt intentions.

there are several obstruction statutes in the criminal code but the one deployed by prosecutors in january six cases thus far, meaning among the rioters thus far, have been the obstruction statute that is among the most severe that carries a whopping 20-year maximum sentence. some january six defendants have challenged the justice department claim that the january 6th session of congress meets the legal definition of an official proceeding. but a trump appointed federal judge -- rejected that claim in a recent opinion. courts have long held that congress is not permitted to investigate for the steak of law enforcement, but lawmakers are permitted to share the results of its probes with the justice department if they believe they have uncovered evidence of a crime. that is nearly tonight on politico.com. january 6th investigation does seem all of a sudden, like it is turning more and more clearly towards finding criminal liability. potentially of members of congress, potentially of the

former president. which means, i think we are about to move into a whole new are out for our country, a whole new era of debate over the wisdom and practicality of potentially bringing federal criminal charges against -- never been done before. like i said, it's a little hard to get your head around it sometimes. but here is one way to start, at least to start to be able to do that. this is something you may not have known that is going on this week. i want to show you the front page from the milwaukee journal sentinel this weekend most constant of course. you see the headline there across the very top of -- key republican slams election review. republican state senator kathy bernie or calls exercise that baseless, comment dangerous. state senator got the bernie or a republican that leads the state elections committee says the republican commission review of the 2020 election results in wisconsin is firing up people who don't understand

elections. a republican state senator criticizing the republican review of the election results in wisconsin. that was page one of the journal sentinel earlier this week. the following day, the journal sentinel oratorio bottled -- wrote a blistering editorial cheering for that republican. cheering for that republican, and her willingness to take that stand. look at this, quote, kathy burning stood up for the truth on monday. the republican chair of the state senate elections committee knows it may lead to vile threats against her and almost certainly will come out a political cost. she did it anyway. that is courage. finally, a republican leader in wisconsin stood for democracy. bernie, of lake haley, eviscerated the partisan review of the 2020 election that republican assembly speaker robbyn postlaunch to appease former president donald trump. she called the republican inquisition exactly what it is, a charade. she knows far more than the man

conducting the review does about the subject of which she speaks. kathy rainier oversaw elections for 12 years as the county clerk in the county. she has seen a plain as day, repeated lies by trump and republican politicians in washington d.c. to madison in wisconsin. those lies are undermining -- in the most basic of american institutions, a ballot box. all the licensees those provocation competitors cost, 68% of republicans nationwide do not have confidence in the 2020 election according to a november fall. what they are doing is dangerous. in addition to threatening a marquee, some people are also threatening a left shin officials. top officials in both milwaukee and madison have been menaced as the lies spread and take root. it has never been harden wisconsin or in the nation to do the hard work of actually ensuring election integrity. and it's never been harder to do the harder work of actually telling the truth about telling the threats to our democracy. but on monday, senator kathy

rainier told the truth, and every citizen of our state should think. that is the milwaukee journal sentinel again this week shining a light on and standing up and cheering for a republican that was being brave on the subject. the whole rest of her party nationwide and statewide is indulging in this stuff. she is standing up, and she is the chair of the elections committee in the senate. she standing up as a republican and thing actually, you know, i know. this is all nonsense. i'm not going along with it. it cannot be an easy thing for a republican to do, but she is doing it. >> this is a charade. there is a simple explanation for almost every single thing, that people accuse election officials of doing. these are made up things that people do to jazz up the base is just despicable and i don't think any elected legislator

should ever play that game. we have a great system here, and no one should falsely accuse election officials of cheating. they say but we don't have confidence in milwaukee, and we don't have confidence in madison. just remember, you take it down to the micro level, there are volunteer poll workers practically volunteer, working every single poll. and every single poll has people who are just as honest as you and i working that people. no election is perfect, but there is not evidence of intentional malfeasance, no evidence that the election in 2020 wasn't accurate. could when benjamin franklin came out of the convention and our constitution was created, he was asked, what kind of government do we have?

key and he said, a republic if we can keep it. key we are in jeopardy of losing it. >> you can hear the emotion in her voice that the end. it can't be easy. republican senator, taking on her party and the way they are still trying to undermine the election results. republicans in the wisconsin legislator announced just today that their election review in 2020, they will extend it. it was supposed to end it by the end of the calendar year, they now say it will extend into 2022 and give it lots more taxpayer funding. state senator kathy bernie are standing up and saying no this should not be happening and it is dangerous. and that clip that i just showed you, those clips that we just showed you have senator bernie, the van thought which she was speaking there was an unusual one, and i think an unusual one.

it was held in wisconsin along with two of the most famous politics lawyers in the country from opposite sides of the aisle. ben ginsburg is one of the most recognizable republican lawyers in the country, who was the national council for the george w. bush presidential campaign for mitt romney's presidential campaign. bob bauer on the other side of the aisle is one of the most recognizable democratic lawyers in the country. he was white house counsel to president obama, counsel to both obama campaigns and also the biden campaign. earlier this year, you might remember us covering at the time, these two lawyers, the republican and democrat. these two veteran very high-level war lawyers. -- formed together a bipartisan legal defense network. specifically for election officials. the elections official legal defense network they formed as find up top shelf a list lawyers and law firms all over

the country to volunteer their services to represent and defend election workers that all levels, who get threatened now because of their work. who are facing intimidation and potentially malicious legal actions or prosecution because they work on elections. this week, we ginsburg and bauer went to wisconsin saying their network that they formed to defend election workers as noticed an intensification of threats against election officials in wisconsin. in an op-ed they publish together before they arrived, wisconsin has become ground zero for attempts where political actors to achieve partisan control over his state's election process. in conjunction with this part is then 2020 election review, the republicans have been carrying out, bauer and construe said that wisconsin has, quote, featured baseless threats of criminal prosecution against election officials. they showed up in wisconsin this week basically saying, we

are here to help. they showed up there this week to backstop that republican senator got bernie or who was willing to sit there with them and take that stand. they showed up there this week also to publicly warn that the trump election deniers, who are now threatening public servants in that state, they should think twice, they might need to backup off of that. >> those election officials who should be defended, and are looking for a defense, will be defended. the network is available to provide them with that legal counsel should they need it. we will do so quickly, we have pressure tested it, we have been able to do this for election officials around the country. we will continue to do that. i should also point out that those who are issuing those threats, should understand that properly represented election officials who are defending themselves, will have something to say about abusive process, about malicious prosecution, about people in law enforcement who have lotteries who are

disregarding the constraints on their behavior imposed by the barr rules. they can face a call for disciplinary action for misusing their licenses, or in the case of public officials misusing their official responsibility for partisan political purposes to try and subvert the electoral process by undermining the ability of election officials through threats and intimidation to do their jobs. >> in other words, if you are coming for elections officials, if you are threatening and intimidating elections officials, you better come correct. because that is not a free punch, that is not something -- these are not folks that you can freely swing at, and freely and family in this way. there will be consequences for people who maliciously do this. i know this is a time where it is sometimes hard to wrap your head around what is going on in the news. a lot of what is going on is unprecedented stuff and so wacky you can't believe it is at the center of the news, but

it is. sometimes it is hard to believe that some of this really is happening. i do believe that one way to get a grasp on is to make sure you are following the efforts of people who are fixing this, and standing up for what is right, and bringing up the other side of the fight. bob bauer joins us next, stay with us. sta with us. ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide.

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they spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on it already. it was due to end up by the end of this year, but surprise wisconsin republicans have announced that they are going to extend into next year. and spend more taxpayer dollars to keep it going. bob bauer, the former white house counsel, former legal counsel to the biden campaign. mr. bauer has just returned from wisconsin. where he and republicans, ben ginsburg, have been lining up pro bono legal defense for election workers. who, as one of the consequences of this election revision that they are doing in the state, are facing what bauer calls, quote, baseless personal attacks for doing their jobs. joining us now is bob bauer, former white house counsel. senior adviser to the campaign. he is now law professor at nyu. thank you for making time to be here tonight. >> it's a pleasure to be here, thank you. >> what is the relationship between this, now apparently

indefinitely extended review of this partisan revision that republicans are doing in wisconsin? and the kind of threats to election workers that you and mr. ginsburg have said about trying to help people to defend themselves from? >> yes. the audit is one of the tools in the current toolkit for intimidating and harassing election officials. these are not professional audits. the assembly directed by michael gableman, his name hope aired on your screen. this mr. gableman has acknowledged that he doesn't know anything about running an election. but however he did come into the audit with a view that the 2020 election had resulted in theft. it was fraudulent. voters had been stolen from. so he knows nothing about elections but he had an opinion. and he is the person of the assembly chose to put in charge of this audit. we have seen this before. we have seen this in the state of arizona with the so-called, cyber ninjas audit. that was also an embarrassment.

once again, involve people who did not know anything about running an election. much less one after the fact. election officials now understand that this is the key point. that partisan actors are seeking to subvert nonpartisan elections administration. and i came to know ben ginsburg very well. we've been on the side together. so i think to know him very. well when we would coach president obama's condition on election administration. and we understood that that the country was supposed to be moving and the commission was meant to help the country continue to move in the direction of non partisan election administration. what we are seeing is a 180-degree radical turn in the opposite direction towards potters in control of the electoral process. >> you have been sounding an alarm for that for months now. not just the intimidation of election workers which you and ben ginsburg are taking

concrete action to try and defend those folks but specifically the partisan hijacking of election administration processes. what do you think? what have you come to believe is the best bulwark against that? >> we need to do a number of things. we need really an all systems approach to solving the problem. we need to give election administration is around the country, protection. which is why we are through the network offering them pro bono legal defenses. and as you point out, those who would attack them know that it is not a free punch. that is certainly part of it. we need to resist the enactment of laws that are designed to allow partisans to take over the polling place and limit the ability of polling place workers to actually create a safe space for voting. and we are seeing that problem develop. states with enacting statues that could have extremely harmful consequences for the conduct in the polling place in the united states.

congress certainly should look at the electoral counter act. and that is in desperate need of reform. we saw what happened on january six even before the rioting began. the baseless objections of the call on vice president pence's president of the senate to falsify the tally in some way. so there is an enormous amount to be done here to bring back what we thought we would see after the florida presidential recount in 2000. which is a country that was fully committed to non partisan election administration. now we see of movement that just has to be resisted towards putting partisan in control to be electoral process where they clearly have a state in counting the results in the way they want to see them counted. >> bob, one last very quick question. it is something that you mentioned earlier this week. am i correct that the election officials legal defense network that you and mr. ginsburg have formed, that you are still soliciting volunteers? you are still looking for

lawyers and law firms to do representation for election workers when they are threatened? you are still looking for people to help? >> we are very much welcoming the help. we have recruited now hundreds of lawyers. we have deployed them in particular circumstances to help and consult with election officials under attack. our view however, as a presidential campaign for 2024, as it approaches even in 2022, we have to have a massive force available to provide this. so yes, we welcomed the help and we are continuing to look for. in >> the election officials legal defense network, a truly bipartisan effort. bob bauer, former white house counsel. thank you so much for being with us mr. bauer, it's nice to see you. thanks. >> thank you very much. it's a pleasure. >> all right, we've got much more ahead tonight, stay with us. , stay wit us along with your statin medication. the brand i trust is qunol.

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washington national cathedral in d.c. tonight. they told the bell 800 times tonight. in recognition of the 800,000 americans who have now died from covid as of this week. 800,000. there is of course a lot of talk now about the new variant of coronavirus, the omicron variant. and what it will mean. first we are going to talk about that with the top science adviser of the white -- and before we bring the doctor, and i just want to show you one thing. even before omicron has fully taken hold here. we have of course recently been seeing covid numbers should back up. and a lot of states hospitals have been overwhelmed more than they have been, ever. but i want to show you something, that to me at, least puts a really fine point on the question of how we are going to be able to get out of this. and how we are going to be able to get out of what we are in right now. as this data released today by the cdc, the newly reported

cases of cases in nursing homes. and if you look on the axis on the bottom of your screen, those are dates. it starts in early october. the first column there is october 2nd. and as you go further to the right on the graphic through and forward in time, it carries all the way into last week. so what this shows is that over time nursing homes, case numbers are going. up and of course, they have been the epicenter of the pain and the death in this pandemic. seeing no seeing homes sharply climb back up again since the end of october is really worrying. because especially, when they get them, they are in for the worse outcome. they are very often secure populations. people in nursing homes are people who you really don't want to have get infected. but i want to be specific about what you are looking at here. the sign on your screen that we are showing you right here. this is the increase in nursing home covid infection

specifically among people in nursing homes who have not been vaccinated. now, here, look. this line is better. a little flatter. this is still a line that is rising. it still shows covid case numbers rising but not a steeply. this line shows covid cases in nursing home residents who have a baseline level of vaccination. so the really bad numbers are for the unvaccinated people in nursing homes. better numbers, frankly still bad, still, rising our nursing home residents would baseline vaccination. but now look at this. the good news in this graph is this third line. this green. line that you see on the bottom line of your screen. that green line is nursing home residents who have gotten a booster shot. that is case numbers reported in the population. their numbers are not going up at all. it is flat. that is boosted nursing home

residents. about half of all nursing homes residents have been boosted. imagine if they all were. that is about as blunt of a case as i can make for why people ought to get booster shots. certainly in nursing homes. but presumably you can extract relate to the broader population from that. we are being told by the experts now that boosters are also our best defense against the omicron variant about which there have been a ton of news today. joining us to get through some of it now is doctor david kessler he has helped guide us on the show like questions from this many times. he is the top science adviser to the biden administration covid response. doctor, it is an honor to having you here. thank you for making time to be here tonight. you did a great job of that rachel. let me ask if it's fair to extrapolate from the. our booster shots as clearly helpful as that nursing home data would seem to suggest? should that guide us not just for that specific population

but for all of us? >> absolutely. no question. let me explain how it works. so if you boost the immune system with a third dose after a pause that produces enhanced community. and that is what you saw in those graphs. that was important in the nursing homes and it's especially important as we face omicron. >> in terms of omicron, it seems like you and the other experts have told us that it is taking hold if. us the cdc says omicron has made up about 3% of what is known to be circulating in the country right now. do you think that that is a fair estimate? do we have a good way of measuring that? and do you think that that number is going to rise rapidly? >> i think that we have to expect that there is going to be a lot of cases in the united states. i think that the current number, while you said it's 3% nationwide, i think it's secondary new york it's

estimated to be about 13%. and it's doubling every two days. so there are going to be a lot of omicron cases but with vaccines and boost, more of those cases will be mild. so extrapolate from that graph to omicron. yes we have to be prepared over the next weeks, a lot of the omicron cases strategy vaccines take care of the question, more of those cases will be mine. we talked a few weeks ago when omicron -- a few weeks ago -- when omicron variant was first emerging about the question of whether or not there is any difference and how sick, on average, people get when they are infected with the omicron variant, versus how sick they got on average with the delta variant. do we have any further clarity on that? it seems like we do know that omicron is looking to push out delta, that it is more transmissible, that it will become the dominant variant quickly. it seems like we have clarity on that, but to have clarity on

weather causes any difference in the symptom profile compared to what we have been living with? >> clarity no. certainly some preliminary evidence from the south african scientists who have been absolutely terrific them sharing their data with us. you see about a 30% reduction, right, in severity. so i think we have to see a lot of cases in the uk right now just spent the last hour looking at hospitalizations over the next two weeks let's see what happens to those hospitalizations and we will know -- it is possible this might be modeled -- but i'm speculating at this point. and i appreciate you being honest what is known and not known there getting the data is ultimately going to show -- with that said we are all operating from behind the sort of veil of ignorance here.

and we are seeing cases surge in lots of states across the country right now, on a kind of last week, christmas does intend days, new year's is the week after that. given what we know, and what we don't know, and what we are seeing in terms of the numbers in terms of hospitalizations, tell us doctor kessler, what should we be doing right now? should we be gathering with friends and family? should we be canceling like last year? should we avoid seeing our elderly relatives or people who are immune suppressed or vulnerable? how should we calibrate our personal risk now, especially given the time of year? >> i can only tell you what i'm telling my own family, and that is to be a little more cautious. certainly when you are out, when you don't know people you are with, indoors, mask up. get vaccinated. get boosted. let's get through the next 6 to

8 weeks, maybe this is milder, but until we have proven it is mild or i would ask you to be just a drop more cautious than you have been. >> doctor david kessler, chief science advisor -- chief science officer to the biden administration's covid response, a former fda commissioner, doctor kessler, as always, we are grateful for you being here. thanks for taking the time to be here tonight. >> thank you, rachel. >> all right, we will be right back. stay with us. stay with us wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. this is your home. this is your family room slash gym. the guest bedroom slash music studio. the daybed slash dog bed. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash classroom. and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs

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it, why can't we change that 60 vote rule to pass voting rights to. senator told us last night that he has been making that case in person to his democratic senators, particularly joe manchin who has refused over and over again to allow any kind of change like that to pass voting rights legislation. but now, after months of stonewalling on this. some cracks are potentially appearing, maybe. multiple news outlets including nbc news today reporting that senate democratic chuck schumer is hoping to move on voting rights by the end of the year. sources telling nbc news that a group of moderate democrats including manchin have been engaging on discussions in recent days about approaches to changing the rules, changing the filibuster to allow voting rights to pass with a simple majority. one source familiar saying that, senator schumer hopes to find a path forward in the coming days. meaning, before the end of the year. schumer will need the support of every democratic senator to carve out filibuster rule for

voting rights. i should tell you that after meeting with some of her democratic colleagues on the issue, conservative the democratic senator kirsten sinema -- reluctance to -- voting rights which is hard to reconcile because she is saying simultaneously that she really wants to pass voting rights, they are really important, and also that you definitely won't let voting rights pass. she will personally stand in the way. so we will see. democrats do look like they will move on this before they move on anything else, which presumably means they do see some cracks in the stone wall. i mean, hack, we are part of the plot where we are changing the filibuster rule all the time now. so who knows what is possible? watch this. >>

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longer. i know right? we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening. >> good evening rachel. i have a suspicion that the president of the united states has been watching your show. and possibly heard senator warnock on your show discussing the importance of voting rights. because in kentucky today. it just moved up to the top of the biden agenda. he said that it is the most important thing. he said that today when he was in kentucky. that there is just nothing more important than voting rights. that is the new shape of the biden agenda and the priorities. >> i doubt -- i would never take anything for credit myself. i would not put it past the president that he watched southerner warnock giving that speech, or maybe he watch just clip it. but yes. the democrats in the united

states senate and every calls that senator raphael warnock says, beliefs in. he is lucky to have them as their messenger. is he a good spokesperson for what he believes in. and he made that case so effectively last night, i could hardly stand it. >> yes. it's a fascinating turn. we will see whether this actually is an agenda ship. it appeared to be in the way he said it today. but we will see. >> yes indeed. thanks lawrence. >> thank you rachel. >> as i would just sing it does seem as if the biden agenda shifted today. when the president spoke in kentucky. president biden traveled to kentucky today to survey the tornado devastation there. the lieutenant governor of kentucky will be joining us tonight. before leaving kentucky. president biden said, quote, there is nothing domestically more important than voting rights. it's the single biggest issue. the single