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tv   Jose Diaz- Balart Reports  MSNBC  December 16, 2021 7:00am-8:00am PST

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you could definitely take mine. thank you so much for joining me. i know you're going to have a very, very busy next few weeks. the holiday shopping and shipping season isn't over. that wraps this very busy hour up. i'm stephanie ruehl. my friend and colleague jose diaz-balart picks up breaking news coverage right now. and good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm joe biden on indeed a busy thursday morning. the cdc says we could see a massive spike in covid infections as americans say they're getting worn out by the pandemic. an cop toll hill the senate will try again to pass a voting rights bill which means biden's build back better bill will have to wait, talk about with new mexico democratic senator ben ray lujan. a new round of powerful storms spawned tornadoes in the midwest. more weather could hit places after last week's catastrophic tornado outbreak. changes coming to the
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military justice system but do they go far enough? we'll talk with congressman veronica escobar. live in afghanistan is already very difficult. how the omicron variant could make the situation even worse. right now there is growing concern about a double covid surge as the omicron variant sweeps across the u.s. while the delta variant continues to spread. cases, hospitalizations and deaths all coming leading to indoor mask mandates in places like new york and california. outbreaks of cases even among the vaccinated forcing several colleges like cornell to abruptly go remote for finals. broadway is canceling some shows. the nfl, nba and nhl are working to contain cases on their teams. dr. fauci says the booster shot
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provides protection against the omicron variant and addressed its prominence last night on msnbc. >> if you do the math on that, and you have it in your community, pretty soon it's going to be totally dominating. that's what happened in south africa. that's what's going on in the uk, and i think we can expect the same thing to happen here in the united states within the next few weeks. >> in all of this of course is happening as families prepare to gather for the holidays. joining me from new york city is nbc's rehema ellis. good morning. some broadway shows have closed this week and we're seeing some colleges moving classes and finals online. what's going on? >> reporter: good morning, jose. what i can tell you is that here on the campus of nyu can is joining a growing number of colleges throughout our area which is increasing their covid safety measures because they are not happy with the direction these covid positivity numbers are going. so here at nyu, they have
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basically canceled large in-person events and moved finals to online. beyond that, nyu is requiring that students and staff when they come back following the holiday break next year for the spring semester, they all have to have their booster shots. students as well as staff. now, this is something that not only nyu is doing but other colleges here in new york, fordham university is doing it, ithaca college, not ithaca, cornell university and ithaca is doing it as well as princeton in new jersey and cornell earlier this week essentially shut down its campus because of what they called an alert level red this week, an outbreak of something like 469 active student cases of positive covid tests that came through and it sent an alarm through the campus and they essentially shut it down. booster shots required there like here. we talked to some students about the fact they have to have their booster shot before coming back to campus. here's what one student told us.
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>> for the most part, it's been in person, so we just got the announcement yesterday that everything was going to be online. it's pretty surprising. i was not expecting it honestly. especially since finals are literally next week. it's for the best i think. at the end of the day, nobody wants to get covid. >> reporter: and so with the noise behind me, it's almost like that alarm bell sounding here on campus. students are moving out, a little bit sooner than they expected, again, final exams for this term are going to be online as they prepare themselves for what the reality will be when they come back and everybody, jose, will have to show proof they've gotten that booster shot. row shea? >> rehema ellis in new york city, thank you. joining me now is miguel almaguer. >> jose, good morning. we're looking at several issues
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creating this convergence for a recipe for disaster. hospitals are already dealing with an overwhelming influx of delta patients. now omicron cases are on the rise and we've got these new predictions out from the cdc. take a look at this. by the end of christmas week, the cdc predicts that variants will fuel a massive spike in new cases up to a 55% increase or 1.3 million new infections in just seven days, but the grimmest prediction the death toll could shoot up 71% the cdc says to well over 15,000 lives lost in just seven days. today hospitals are already facing a crushing wave of delta patients as new predictions cause even more concern for them, and now our future is beginning to look a lot more like more past. long lines are forming for covid testing and shutdowns are being ordered in different places across the country. broadway, for example, is starting to close some of its shows because of covid concerns,
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and apple has closed some recent stores. of course, omicron is spreading quickly overseas in the uk and also in france. many predict that will be a foreshadow of what's to come in the u.s. jose, back to you. >> thank you. joining me is dr. blackstock, founder and ceo of advancing health equity and msnbc medical contributor. doctor, it's great seeing you. andy slavitt tweeted that omicron is doubling every two to four days. 400,000 by new years. is it as miguel almaguer was saying maybe the future is going to look like the past in this pandemic? >> good morning, jose. thank you so much for having me on. i would say we are in a crisis within a crisis. we are already in a delta surge and now we have omicron which is only more transmissible, it
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replicates faster and it can reinfect people who already have been infected or are fully vaccinated, and so those numbers are incredibly alarming, and also more alarming is that we only have seven or eight states that have indoor mask mandates. we don't have the testing capabilities that we need to meet this crisis. rapid tests still are not likely available. so i think that is going to compound the situation. >> it really does seem as though there is so much we don't know. we do know, doctor, that omicron is not as lethal, right? >> well, we don't even have all of that data yet. we have some early data from south africa and that was done probably one of their private insures, the patient population was mostly young, they were insured. most people in south africa use the public system, they don't have health insurance so we need to look and wait because we know
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that hospitalizations and deaths are a lagging indicator. we need more real live clinical data to say whether or not omicron is lethal or not. >> what about the booster? again, there are so many mixed messages or no messages, so if i get a booster shot, will i be protected, doctor? >> the message needs to be clear. everyone needs to get the first two doses and also need to get boosted as well. what we know from the data so far is a booster shot will cover omicron. can produces a robust immune response that is likely able to cover any variant that emerges, and so that's why people need to be encouraged and the message needs to be clear, you need to go out and get boosted as soon as possible. you're not fully boosted until two weeks after you get your booster shot. >> what about kids like say under 16, because they just
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increased it so 16 and 17-year-olds, but kids under 16 should they not be getting boosted, too? >> i think data will come out very soon, that also needs to be studied so i think eventually children under 16 will require boosting. we'll see that probably over the next few months. >> doctor, nearly two years into this pandemic, a new monmouth poll shows many americans worn out by covid. what is your message to all of us? >> we are tired of it, worn out but the virus is not done with us and i think we need to fall back on the foundations of public health. we need to use those mitigation strategies, masking, testing, ventilation, vaccinating but we need policies to enforce those measures as well. we will get out of this, but we also need a collective response so everyone needs to do their part and need our local, state and federal leaders to that do
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their part as well. >> let's get boosted. >> let's get boosted. >> thanks for being here. always a pleasure to see you. coming up democrats delay passing president biden's build back better plan. we'll have senator ben ray lujan why. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. [♪♪] did you know you can shorten your cold with cold-eeze® lozenges? cold-eeze® can shorten your cold by 42% try cold-eeze® the number one best-selling zinc lozenge. and try new cold-eeze® ultramelt™ chews in a great-tasting orange flavor that quickly dissolves on your tongue. (upbeat music) - [narrator] this is kate. she always wanted her smile to shine. now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. (crowd cheering) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. at progressive, we love your pets as much as you do, like this guy in a hat. that's why progressive car insurance
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14 past the hour. now to washington where it looks like senate majority leader chuck schumer will not be able to fulfill his promise of passing that huge bill aimed at reshaping the social safety net and fighting climate change before christmas. schumer plans to push back a vote on the bill until early next year and instead the senate will try to make another attempt to act on voting rights before the holiday recess which president biden said was a hop
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priority touring his trip to kentucky yesterday. >> if we could get the congressional voting rights done, we should do it. if we can't, we're going to keep going. there's nothing domestically more important than voting rights. it's the single biggest thing. >> with me to talk about this, nbc news capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell and sam stein, political white house editor and msnbc contributor. leigh ann, democrats have been down this road several times before and been unsuccessful. do they believe things are now going to be different? >> reporter: well, jose, when president biden just said if they can get it done in that clip you just played, if is the critical word here because it's going to be very difficult. all 50 democrats agree on the voting rights legislation but what they don't agree on is that the rules of the senate have to change in order to pass that voting rights legislation because they don't have the republican support in order to
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get 60 votes to pass it. there are these negotiations that are going on between senator manchin, a big critic of changing the senate rules with other people with senator tester, senator cain and senator king as well and other people having separate conversations to try to come up with a way to pass these voting rights through the senate rule process. senator kirsten gillibrand put a hamper on negotiations when her person put out a statement she believes the 60-vote threshold in the senate should remain and so it's unclear how they'll get this done, even though they are going to make this pivot to voting rights, because they think that it is exceptionally important especially as redistributing gets under way. jose? >> the president said it's the most important item on his domestic agenda right now.
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if this doesn't work, is there going to be another chance? >> no, this is it. there's some stuff you can do on the margins, the department of justice has notably filed suit to intervene in texas redistributing. there's lawsuits going on around the country with respect to different voting reforms that state legislatures have passed. the big enchilada is getting federal legislation done that could set some standards, increase access to polls, make sure there's no partisan tampering with the election officials. if they can't get it done, it's hard to see where else they can go from here. they can mount an aggressive pr campaign, make it an issue ahead of the 2022 elections but this comes down to whether they can find an avenue for getting it through the senate and as leigh ann notes there's no avenue.
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it's not just manchin and sinema. other democrats are skeptical or against the rules to pass legislation like this. it's very difficult to see a path forward right now. >> wasn't the biggest enchilada for a time for the president to build back better act? what happened to that? >> we have a joe manchin problem. two ways to read what's happening in the senate, if you're a democrat a skeptical read, manchin is saying i don't want to pass this with haste. the cost is hidden. we need to revamp the way we consider these programs. can't just be over one year, has to be ten. this is problematic. they are not close. the more optimistic view is manchin is at the table, talking about what he wants to see in the bill's text, talking about the granular changes he wants to
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see made and as long as he's at the table, his vote is gettable. they need to find a way to get manchin to yes. it goes back to the house of representatives where you convince the members already stomached a pared down bill to a more pared down bill. it will be longer than democrats hoped for. >> bottom line, there are a lot of obstacles within the democratic part proposals done r side to deal with. >> yes, right. they're trying to pass the build back better act with democratic votes, that's how the process was set up, and as sam mentioned, that is what some democrats are saying, at least joe manchin is at the table still, so he has not yet walked away. there are problems. they can't get him to commit.
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there are some senates, senators warren, durban and others and want to force manchin's hand. doesn't seem like schumer going to take that path. he'll let manchin and the president negotiate but this is likely not going to even happen in january. my sources up here on capitol hill the talk is they won't bring it up march or april so there's still a long runway here before most likely until they're able to get this done and negotiate the problems some senators still have with this legislation. >> leigh ann caldwell and sam stein, thank you for being with me. now to continue this conversation is new mexico democratic senator ben ray lujan. always a pleasure to see you. thanks for being with us. >> good morning, jose. good to be with you as well. >> senator, you're a leading advocate for voting rights in the senator. democrats say the only way to
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get this through the senator is change the filibuster trulz create a carve out for voting rights. senators manchin and sinema are opposed to changing the filibuster for this. what happens if this effort fails? >> first off, jose, from my perspective it's absolutely essential that the united states senate lead and move and move timely. we only have a few days left before christmas and whatever it takes, whether it's christmas or new year or early into next year we should stay until we get this done. from my perspective it's inexcusable that we are standing by while republican-led state legislatures are passing laws to make it harder for people to vote. to date, 19 states have already passed 33 laws to make it harder for people to vote, to disenfranchise voters and this is not something new. our republican colleagues have been doing this for some time, even during the last
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redistributing, many republican maps drawn in different states were challenged because the republicans said they were drawing them for partisan advantage. now they just admitted they say they're drawing these for partisan advantage after the enforcement provisions of the voting rights act were gutted out by the supreme court in 2013. so for me, this has to change. i think there should be a vote brought to the floor and we should get this done. i stand with raphael warnock, with senator durban and colleagues who want to get this done. i don't understand why my republican colleagues don't want to help make things better. it's clear washington republicans feel there's a political advantage to make it harder for people to vote and keep people from the ballot box. >> senator, you think there is a need for the federalization of all of the state voting
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guidelines, principles and structures? >> for federal elections those are the rules that we should be working on together. when you have one state like in georgia making it harder for people to drop off their ballot boxes, jose and what they're doing there in several states is eliminating drop boxes. who are the drop boxes for? people that work the graveyard shift or working families that have to get back home to their kids or get the kids off to school or whatever it may be or work that shift, it makes it easier for them to be able to cast that ballot. what about the long lines in the heat and different parts of america, why is it in georgia you can't give them water or food when they're in line. why are there lines to begin with? yes, i believe there needs to be rules put in place based on the action of the united states supreme court who told us in 2013 that congress needed to fix this, with enthey gutted out the
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enforcement provisions, so even the u.s. supreme court is showing congress we need to act and so i think we got to get this done. it's inexcusable for us not to do it. >> senator, this goes as a growing number of companies, general electric, amtrak, say they're temporarily suspending vaccine mandates because of a labor shortage. this happens at the same time we have millions of undocumented immigrants who have been here for years, some more than ten years, they've been vetted, paying their taxes and they could make an immediate difference. the senate parliamentary ejected the build back better plan, individuals in the country vetted and yet can't go and get a job in the places where there are so many job openings. >> jose, another place that is inexcusable not comprehensive
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action in both chambers, sending bills to the president of the united states to fix a broken immigration system in america, every one of us across america, democrat, republican, independent, libertarian, we depend on our undocumented brothers and sisters every day, many of them on the front lines during this health pandemic, whether it was helping to keep us healthy, they were out keeping communities clean, helping to teach our students, providing day care services to get to work. they were on the front lines when it came to food preparation in america. there is no reason why we cannot get this done, and i fundamentally disagreed with the opinion from the parliamentarian in that first review and here's why. there's no question that this is budgetary. every analysis of major comprehensive immigration reform legislation shows the major
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economic impact that passing this package would result in. the most recent estimates $900 billion infusion to the u.s. economy and jose, here is the other thing. what are we going to do with the labor shortage in america, if we don't solve this challenge and we don't find a path forward for certainty and for a path to citizenship for the undocumented people in america that are going to follow these tough rules, they have to follow the stringent structure put in front of them but where are we going to be? we've got to get this done for the good of our economy, the good of our country, and also the humanitarian responsibility that we have in the united states of america. >> senator ben ray lujan, always a pleasure to show you. thank you for being with me this morning. >> always an honor, sir. >> thank you. coming up, hundreds of national guard troops are on the ground in kentucky helping in the tornado recovery and cleanup. we're live with the latest on the efforts. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports."
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it's 30 past the hour. 75 people are now confirmed dead in kentucky from this weekend's
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tornado outbreak. dozens are still missing. thousands have lost their homes. they've lost everything. 26,000 buildings have no electricity, 10,000 have no water. there are more than 400 national guard members on the ground right now, many searching for people within the rubble. yesterday president biden visited kentucky, pledged to help the state for as long as it takes. nbc news correspondent jay gray is in mayfield, kentucky, reporting on the story. good morning. what is the situation there like today? >> reporter: jose, they're two very difficult missions under way in mayfield right now. one you've got the search you talk about and the cleanup of debris and that stretches for miles. the other supporting where we are today at a distribution center, where they're providing just the necessities for so many people who have lost so much. take a look, water obviously key to helping folks out there loading up the truck here.
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this is fish and wildlife enforcement officer who is going to take things to people who can't make it here to the center. on the other side, you have all the food they're donating and people need food obviously to move on. there's no restaurants that are available here. no grocery stores at this point, so the food is key as well. we talked about the water, jose. look across here, how many cases of water have been donated to those who need it the most. we have a big load off to another truck. i want to make sure you can see that. basic necessities, toothpaste, socks, shoes, you can see people getting what they can here what, they need to keep going. this is an area that really provides hope for a lot of people right now, with so much going on with everything that they're dealing with. this is the kind of place that gives people that spark to move
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forward. that's what survivors are telling us here and what is the governor is telling us the support is overwhelming. he's never seen so many volunteers doing what they can, giving so much to those right now jose who need so much. >> jay, i'm heartened by when we are seeing the structure with the signs in english and spanish. there is a large latino community in that area. >> reporter: yes. >> they've been working in the tobacco fields and the candle factory and throughout that entire state. >> reporter: absolutely. >> i see they have them in english and spanish. can i see those signs again, jay? >> reporter: take a look, look at the signs here. you can see they have it both ways everywhere.
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that was a key point to the folks setting this up, they wanted it available for everyone who needed it. we're in a part of the country, you know this, where these people aren't used to asking for help. they get out, they do their work every day, they're self-sufficient. they don't need help. now they do, and so those that are providing the help want to make sure that they make it as easy as possible for those folks to get that help. >> jay gray, thank you very much for being with me this morning. appreciate it. coming up, the defense bill heading to president biden's desk includes changes how the military handles sexual assault cases but does it go far enough? we'll ask congressman veronica's owe bar next. good to see you. thank you for being with me. we'll chat in a minute. hen my w. the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪
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nation is heading to the president's des tock become law. under the new policy, military commanders would no longer have the power to decide web to prosecute servicemembers for serious crimes. vanessa guillen went missing before her body was found two months later. a fellow soldier took his own life as police moved to arrest him. guillen reported sexual harassment by a superior officer to no avail but says it was unrelated to her killing. joining me now is texas democratic congresswoman flon veronica's owe bar. you fought over a year calling for reform. looks like there will be some measure of reform, something for vanessa. >> that's right, jose. first it's an honor to be on your show. thank you for talking about this issue. we were horrified all of us in
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congress especially those of us on the house armed services committee when we learned of the tragedy of vanessa guillen. i want to say that her family has been relentless, and they deserve a significant amount of credit for the gains that we made in talking about sexual assaults, sexual harassment and other crimes against our servicemembers especially against women, because while men in our military are sexually assaulted, sexually harassed as well, predominantly this is happening to servicemembers who are women. so i want to thank the guillen family for their courage, their strength and their relentless advocacy i want to recognize jackie speier, my colleague. i serve as the vice chairwoman on the military personnel subcommittee and jackie has been
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for the last decade fighting. it's taken decades to get these reforms across the line. congresswoman sylvia garcia from houston. it is the right thing to do and long past time. jose, sexual harassment and sexual assault are things i constantly hear from servicemembers. these reforms help make incredibly headway, they are historic, the most sweeping changes in several decades and i'm very proud of our work. >> indeed, estimated 20,000 assaults within the military every year. this act is going to make a difference. >> it will. it absolutely will. what it does for folks at home, they know it is so important, it removes investigations from the chain of command so you get eyes
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and investigatory powers outside of the natural chain of command so we get justice. not just for those assaulted or allegedly assaulted but also to ensure those who are accused get a fair shot at due process. these are changes that a lot of folks resisted especially the house armed services committee. when we first debated some reforms two years ago, three years ago, my first time as a freshman in congress, there was little appetite for them. it really took the channeling dioftragedy of vanessa guillen for a loud wake-up call. >> thank you that her name will
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never be forgotten because of efforts of people like yourself making a difference. thank you for being with me. >> thank you. the defense in the kim potter trial is expected to start calling witnesses today. one of those witnesses could be the former police officer herself. we're live at the courthouse with the update. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." ♪ [laughing and giggling] (woman) hey dad. miss us? (vo) reflect on the past, celebrate the future. season's greetings from audi.
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it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. 46 past the hour. the trial of former brooklyn center police officer kim potter is back under way. right now the defense is questioning its first witness after the prosecution rested its case. potter faces first and second-degree manslaughter charges for fatally shooting daunte wright during a traffic stop in april. joining us is nbc news correspondent ron allen. good morning. what's going to be happening today? >> reporter: the defense just put on their first witness and he is a use of force expert, a police expert essentially, who is going to present the defense's side of the story, essentially says that they stopped daunte wright because of a traffic violation and that he resisted arrest and got into the car and that is the problem
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here. he's probably also going to testify that officer potter and the others followed police training, followed their procedures when they were trying to arrest him. the question, how is he going to explain the use of firearm instead of a taser. unclear how he will explain that. the bottom line, what the defense has been saying is that even though she did fire her gun, that in those circumstances, a gun was justified, because he was a, they say wright was fleeing, that he was someone who was subject to an arrest warrant and that he was fleeing and the warrant had to do with the weapons violation, so that that added to the seriousness, the intensity of the moment is what the defense is going to argue. the prosecution of course has been saying just the opposite, that in fact he was stopped, that he even if he did resist arrest that they did not need to use this kind of force to bring him into compliance, and that by firing a taser or a weapon, they
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were making the situation worse and essentially that's what the jury has to decide here. everybody has seen what happened on the videotape. the question is, was it a crime or was it proper police procedure, and to what extent is daunte wright responsible for what happened to himself, which is what the defense has been trying to say. they said their opening statement if he just stopped, just surrendered that none of this would have happened which is of course what defense attorneys will do in these sorts of cases, sort of turn it on the victim. so after that, we expect to hear from the former police chief of brooklyn center who is also going to testify for the defense about whether or not potter and the others followed proper procedure and also expect to hear from character witnesses, friends, colleagues of former officer potter to talk about her as a person, as a woman, as a mother, and to try and humanize her, and to try and put, give the jury some positive attributes about her as the defense begins to lay out its case which should take probably a few days.
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jose? >> thank you so much, ron, for being with me this morning, ron allen from minneapolis. time for a look at headlines out west. overnight the midwest was pummeled by more dangerous weather including hurricane-force wind and gusts. tens of thousands of people remain without power this witho morning. in iowa, possible tornados brought down power lines in sioux city. and in kansas city, authorities were forced to close i-70 in both directions. take a look at this. what's the latest on these storms? >> reporter: jose, good morning. at least one person has died. that person was the driver of a semi that was struck by high winds and rolled on its side. you had some semi-trailers blown over by the wind. you see the dust that reduced visibility to zero in some parts
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of the state. this morning more than 400,000 homes and businesses were left without power in michigan, wisconsin, iowa, and kansas. there have been more tornadoes, more than 20 scattered through nebraska and iowa. according to the national weather service, the storm is now shifting toward canada with wind, snow, and more hazardous conditions. >> juan, meanwhile a houston-based oil company were involved in an oil spill off of southern california. >> reporter: right. this happened right off the coach of long beach back in october. ultimately it spilled 25,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean. the company now faces fines that could cost millions of dollars. amplify that with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil. investigators believe rupture
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was caused by a cargo ship's anchor, but they failed to respond to a leak detection system with alarms over a 13-hour period of time. they believe that faster action could have minimized the spichl workers on and off shore responded to what they believe were false alarms because the system wasn't working properly. they say it was signaling a leak on a platform where no leak was. and there's a new host for super bowl liv right. this stadium opened last year. it's completely air-conditioned with an open space that the fans just love. they generate it would generate
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money for the region and the date is set for february 11th, 2024, jose. >> any chance the miami dolphins will be there? >> reporter: that's going to be very difficult, but we have a few more years for every team to make changes and possibly get there. we'll wait and see. we still have time. >> thanks for being with me. still ahead, afghanistan's health care system appears on the brink of collapse. nbc's richard engel joins us with a look at what's happening in the capitol tall capital of afghanistan. capital of afghanistan. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide.
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or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. . there is word afghanistan is on the brink of collapse. they have only one covid-19 facility. essential medicine is running out and so is the diesel fuel needed to produce life-saving oxygen. i'm joining by msnbc news chief correspondent richard engel. talk to us about how bad this situation is. >> well, we're really seeing an economic collapse in afghanistan. there's no money in circulation. you can't go to banks to get money, people aren't selling
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things, unemployment is through the roof. about 20% to 30% of the country is on the brink of starvation, with malnutrition running rife. and in the one hospital -- as if things weren't getting worse -- this one hospital where we're all facing omicron, doctors aren't receiving salaries or hospital or nursing staff, but they say it doesn't even have enough money to buy the diesel fuel for the generators to produce the oxygen, nor does it have medicine. so we're seeing a collapse of the health care system suns they took over. after the taliban took over, the taliban aren't corrupt, by the way. it's not that they're stealing money. they were living on aid before, and now since the taliban
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government hasn't been recognized the internationally basically by no governments, the aid money has dried up, and some countries including united states are still holding afghan funds, billions of dollars from the previous government locked up in accounts, effectively a sinking the taliban, and the people from the health care sector to feeding themselves to trying to basically -- engage in basic commerce are suffering tremendously. >> the suffering ones are the ones that don't have access to government or help. it's such a strategy. -- tragedy. thank you so much. that wraps up the hour for me. be sure toe follow the show online @jdbalart on msnbc. thanks for your time. christine picks up with more
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news here on msnbc. good morning. i'm chris jansing in for craig melvin at world headquarters in new york city. right now we're dealing with a disturbing dose of deja vu with covid. cancellations, school closings, travel restrictions are once again being put in place, and just in time for the christmas rush. folks who are traveling say to take in a broadway show may find that much of the anticipated performances have been canceled because breakthrough cases are now plaguing fully vaccinated cast and crews. the nba, nfl, and nhl have not been spared either, forcing to sideline players, including

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