♪♪ good afternoon, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. coming to you live from msnbc world headquarters. we have got a lot going on at this hour. major developments in covid, a surge in cases causing broadway

shows to shut down. nfl games to be postponed. and have everybody worried about the holidays. we're going to answer your questions about what's going on. then there's new revelations about who's been testifying to the january 6th committee. we're going to have a live report on that. this, as the clock is ticking on a decision on the manhattan d.a. on whether to charge former president donald trump. plus, a tale of two very different trials. former police officer kim potter takes the stands in the killing of dwayne wright. >> while ghislaine maxwell decides he will not speak in her sex trafficking trial with jeffrey epstein. a white house official telling nbc news that the president spending the weekend in delaware will in fact deliver a speech next week to address the rising cases of the omicron variant

here in the united states. nbc's josh lederman is in wilmington, delaware, covering this for us. josh, good to see you this afternoon. talk to us. what can we expect to hear from the fred breaking in the last hour or so. >> reporter: that's exactly right. you're going to hear from president biden an update on how the administration plans to deal with the rising numbers of cases that we're seeing specifically from the omicron variant. and a white house official tells our senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell that president biden will have new announcements to make during that speech on tuesday, about additional steps that the white house intends to take, specifically to help communities that are dealing right now with the surge in covid-19. now, president biden had already laid out a pretty comprehensive plan, before dealing with the winter and covid-19. but white house officials say now with the surge in omicron, he felt the need to go farther. he wanted to communicate more with the american people about where things stand right now.

and what can be done about it, with white house spokeswoman jen psaki tweeting just in the last few minutes we are prepared for the rising case levels. and the president will detail how he will respond to the challenge. she goes on to say she will remind americans they can protect themselves from severe illness from covid-19 by getting vaccinated. getting their booster shot where they are eligible. we also heard from jeff zients, the white house coordinator, offering a preview of the message. going to hear from biden tomorrow, here's what jeff zients said yesterday during the coronavirus task force briefing. >> this is not a moment to panic because we know how to protect people. and we have the tools to do it. we are intent on not letting omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. we've done the right thing, and we will get through this. for the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe

illness and death. >> it's going to be a similarly dire message from president biden on tuesday, with the white house telling us he will issue a stark warning about what is to lie ahead. and one reason the white house is doing this now, yasmin, so many americans across the country who are just about to embark on their holiday travel, trying to figure out whether it's still safe or advisable to be able to spend time indoors masked or unmasked with family members during the holiday. the white house wanted to make sure they're getting the best and up-to-date with omicron out to the american people. >> we're going to dig now into this, josh lederman, thank you. so this omicron variant has spread in parts of the united states in an incredibly alarming way in just the last few days. in cases across the country, cases ones rice, coast to coast.

new york now reporting the single largest day of infections since the start of the pandemic, by the way, with more than 21,000 new cases in one day. schools, broadway, may have sporting events among those postponing due to omicron variant. here's dr. anthony fauci. >> omicron is more transmissible. everything we know about it, from what we're seeing, not only in south africa, but its distribution throughout the world. and as well as in our own country, we see what's going on in new york city, where we're getting beyond double digits of omicron being the primary variant there in that percentage. >> all right. with that i want to bring in nbc's scott cohn who is in california for us and dr. aneesh adelja. what's happening there on the ground? >> reporter: officials here, yasmin, are incredibly nervous

about this. california has not yet seen the surge of cases that we've seen elsewhere in the country, it's fresh in our minds last year the surge beginning around this time that had intensive care units full, almost beyond capacity in any parts of the states and here we have a strain that's far more virulent, sites like this are incredibly busy, people are embracing the vaccines and testing but still behind when it comes to booster shots. in this county, santa clara, 80% is vaccinated, that's great. only about a third have booster shots. it's a similar situation nationwide. less than the population vaccinated. less than 60%. a little less than a quarter with booster shots. that's not good enough. and with omicron surging, officials here are bracing themselves. >> so, when i look around the corner ahead what i see is a

deluge of omicron. what i see is perhaps one of the most challenging moments that we've had yet in the pandemic. it's because right now, omicron is really taking hold across europe. and i believe it will do the same here in the united states. >> reporter: and just in this county, last week at this time, we were talking about the first omicron case. now, they know that it's everywhere. how do they know? they test the sewage here to see where the virus is. last week, it was in one sewage capacity in the county. this week, it's in every one. yasmin. >> wow. dr. adalja, let's get into this a little bit more. i think it's incredibly troubling for so many folks to watch how the omicron variant has progressed. it really went from zero to 60 quite quickly considering the progression of this variant. but we're in a different place. and i kind of want to take --

put the brakes on for a moment. we're in a much different place in this pandemic than in march 2020. i think we're comparing this moment to march 2020. it's not that. we have the tools to fight this thing, this time around? >> exactly, this isn't setting the clock back. this is a challenging variant. but we, as a human species, have really progressed since march 2020. not only in the tools that we have the vaccine, the mon known monoclonal antibodies and we know so much more about this virus, which ones are risky, we know that masks work. we know that outdoors are safer than indoors. we don't panic. anytime we hear about a new variant, we have to set the context, we're really in a much better place even now with what omicron and delta are doing to us a year ago. i can remember what the hospitals were like back then, it was a lot different when we

have nothing, we have so much more now. >> despite the fact that we're seeing thousands and thousands of people test positive for covid. we're not seeing equal numbers of hospitalizations and subsequent death as we saw with the omicron variant in the first wave especially in new york? >> if there has been some decoupling, it's not complete. there are some hospitals that are definitely in a surge status where they're looking at how to manage their capacity. largely because there's too many unvaccinated people, especially with high-risk condition. that's why we still have a regional problem with hospitals. and it's going to get worse before it gets better. i don't think it will be like december of 2020 where we have nobody vaccinated. we have a lot of the population vaccinated right now. >> we just heard in dr. vance, part of the white house response team, essentially saying we don't want to shut down schools, we don't want to shut down businesses but it's happening.

it's happening in new york, for instance, just yesterday, they shut down the rockettes through the end of the season. so, how do we avoid that going forward considering how this thing is spreading? >> we have to realize that covid is not going anywhere. we're going to have cases and these cases are not disruptive and there are ways to keep things going with vaccinations, and rapid tests and masking and distancing. we know how to do this, we've seen it with schools for a long time, especially in europe when they didn't close the schools during the height of the pandemic. i think we have the tools. we have to get people attuned to the fact that they have to recalculate. and they can't get covid down to zero but with foresight and planning i think you can navigate through this without major disruptions. there's going to be some. it doesn't have to be all blunt tools, all or nothing, we've got

ways to navigate through this a little bit more adeptly. >> i've got to ask you this last question on behalf of parents of all young children. coming out of pfizer, from the internal review, saying it seems as if the vaccine for children under the age of 5, the trials that they were watching and testing didn't necessarily turn out the way they wanted, in that there was really no protection for young kids because of the number, the levels to which these vaccines were being administered. and they're going to have to go further, go at least until march to add on a third shot. to see if that's effective. that's pretty disheartening for a lot of parents right now. >> yeah, it is disappointing but it should give parents the confidence that this trial, they're not rushing through it. and they want to get things right in that age group which is important. people can be assured the lower the age of a child, the less likely they're to have a severe disease.

that's one thing to remember. we will get to this, with a routine pediatric evaluation, things will take longer, but it will increase the uptick because people are seeing how meticulous the companies are in getting this right. if two doses is not sufficient for that age group, we need to do three doses. >> any understanding how the omicron variant is affecting children, younger children? >> it's unclear right now. we've seen some data from south africa that there was increased admissions. to me, that's a little muddled because many of those kids were getting tested when they were going to the hospitals for other reasons. in general, yes, it's going to affect people who are unvaccinated more than people who are vaccinated. in general, covid-19 showed up in severe instances of disease, although it's disruptive, if they can be vaccinated they should be. >> scott, thank you. dr. adalja, i'm going to ask you

to stick around because i've asked viewers to submit a question for the new variant, omicron. so, if you have questions submit them to me at my twitter @yasminv. dr. adalja is going to come back and answer them all, or as many as he can get through. thank you for that. we're following a number of leads into the investigation, former official ken cuccinelli is speaking with the select committee. however, roger stone has chosen to plead the fifth. but there is another trump loyalist speaking, politico with information. julie tsirkin on capitol hill and barbara mcklee. >> tell us what you have learned and is the committee any closer to getting allies to speak?

>> yasmin, there's a clear distinction between ken cuccinelli and others subpoen and that's because cuccinelli was not subpoenaed. he testified voluntarily. remember the track planned a couple months ago. they said they were going to issue subpoenas for those who they thought would play ball and save those subpoenas for those who would take it seriously. cuccinelli appeared for 4 1/2 hours this week, we learned overnight. he basically answered questions on what the department of homeland security did in preparation for the rally january 6th. and cuccinelli also answered questions from communication he had with former president trump with ex-chief of staff mark meadows. and remember, cuccinelli came to capitol hill to survey the damage, to look at what happened here, the pieces that were left

in the capitol after the rioters stormed it. now, the other individuals subpoenaed the trump allies like john easeman, jeffrey clark, we know they're cooperating with the committee. but both of them said they're intending to plead the fifth amendment. we knoll other allies like mark meadows who wouldn't cooperate anymore he was referred to the department of justice for criminal contempt but before he did that, he gave the committee a present by turning over 240u thousands of pages of documents and key information that led them down the list of another names to subpoena like phil waldron, the ex-military colonel who was subpoenaed by the committee just this past week before they left time. he, of course, was reportedly the one who send that memo, outlining all of the ways the president could overturn the see election. all the ways for the president, for example, to declare a national emergency and so on. and these folks will be coerced

to talk after they come back in january. >> barbara, expand on that for me, mark meadows stonewalling, john easeman and jeffrey clark pleading the fifth. roger stone pleading the fifth. what tools did the investigatory committee have in getting the information that they need. >> well, depends on the privilege a little bit. for executive privilege, we've seen them go down this route of either filing criminal contempt charges which could result in criminal punishment or they could also use civil contempt which is really a tool for coercion to jail someone until they agree to testify. that could be a good tool using against someone like mark meadows whose testimony i think they very much want to have. now, for those invoking the final amendment, that's a little harder. roger stone wants it both ways, saying i haven't really committed a crime, and so i'm

invoking my fifth amendment right. that's not how it works with a well-grounded fear of criminal prosecution. most of the time, when someone invokes their fifth amendment rights judges will typically honor that. and then the only option is considering whether to grant immunity to those witnesses who have invoked the fifth amendment. it just means you can't use the statements against them in a criminal case. as we saw in the oliver north years ago, once someone in a high-profile case talks about it, it's very difficult to prove that other witnesses who testified at the trial did so completely independently, and completely free of anything they might have heard in the media or in the public, that originated with that person themselves. and so, it can be difficult to prosecute someone after they've again given immunity. so, it might require a decision about whether you want to grant them immunity and whether their information is worthy enough. maybe it is. maybe you see someone like a

roger stone as a pawn in all of this. sometimes, you have to sacrifice your pawns if you want to capture the king. >> so, at this point, considering where we are with mark meadows in this process, would they even be having those subsequent conversations where they conceivably grant him immunity if in fact he's found to be culpable in the january 6th insurrection? >> yeah, that would be at a different stage. and so far, he has not invoked his fifth amendment right. he's only invoked executive privilege. he may at some point invoke fifth amendment. that would be a different privilege. but he's refusing to testify unless he does. the ball is in the justice department court right now in deciding whether to bring criminal charges against him. and it could be -- it could be a slightly more challenging charge, i think than the one they've brought against steve bannon just because as chief of staff, mark meadows likely has a stronger claim of executive privilege. but the thing he has failed to

do is to show up in response to that subpoena and answer the questions on a question-by-question basis. and tell them which will questions over which will he intends to assert the executive privilege so that they have a record and take that to court. so, his complete refusal to play ball, i think, is why they referred him to criminal prosecution. but it might be that a civil claim is more effective than actually coercing his testimony which is what they want here in the end. >> julie tsirkin, think. >> barbara mcquade, thank you as well. still to come, ghislaine maxwell will not take the stand as her trial draws to a close. what she says about her decision not to testify. plus, closing arguments expected on monday in the trial of a former police officer be kufd of killing daunte wright. how her emotional testimony could impact the case. >> and then i remember yelling taser, taser, taser, and nothing happened.

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welcome back. so, we are just two days away from closing arguments set to begin in the sex trafficking trial of ghislaine maxwell, the girlfriend of jeffrey epstein.

maxwell refusing to take the trial. nbc's kathy park has more on this. >> reporter: yasmin, after two days of testimony presented by maxwell's attorneys, prosecutors rested and defense attorney has no rebuttal. maxwell rests without bail. ghislaine maxwell's sex trafficking trial is headed into its final stretch. her defense team resting its case after a rocky start friday. and with no testimony from maxwell. she told the judge, your honor, the government has not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, so there's no reason for me to testify. maxwell's lawyers planned to call a trio of women friday, saying they were running into problems, including one witness who they say ignored a subpoena. maxwell's attorney pleaded for more time saying our client's life is on the line. the judge refused to delay the trial. >> when it's time to call your

witness and they're not in the courtroom or available, the judge is very likely to say, well, that time has now passed. >> reporter: maxwell is accused of helping jeffrey epstein recruit, groom and abuse underage girls. her lawyers argue she was targeted by prosecutors because they could no longer bring epstein to justice. he was found dead in a manhattan prison two years ago while waiting his own trial for sex trafficking. >> look for the defense in closing to point to an empty chair where jeffrey epstein should be sitting and look for them to say they, the government, are trying to blame maxwell for epstein's sins. >> reporter: eva dubin said they started dating in 1983 and remained friends after splitting in the '90s. after marrying and having kid, she said epstein was fond of his

children. after nearly two weeks of testimony, maxwell's fate could rest with a jury in a matter of days. now, maxwell's trial wrapped up much sooner than expected. it was scheduled to last up to six weeks. if maxwell is convicted on all of her charges she could face up to 70 years in prison. yasmin. >> all right, thank you to nbc's kathy park for that. coming up, everybody, could the editor of "forbes" be closing in on former president trump, the latest on the investigation and whether the manhattan d.a. can make his case before leaving office. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will help you create a comprehensive wealth plan for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. the airport can be a real challenge for new homeowners who have become their parents... okay, everybody, let's do a ticket check.

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welcome back. the former police officer who shot daunte wright during a traffic stop in minnesota has told jurors her side of what happened on april 11th when she said she mistook her service

revolver as a taser. potter broke down during her testimony as prosecutors pressured her on why she did not try to get help for wright after shooting him. >> i'm sorry it happened. i'm sorry. >> for more on this, i'm joins by nbc's stephanie stanton who is in minneapolis covering this for us. stephanie, good to see you this afternoon. talk us through what you're hearing, and reaction to potter's incredibly emotional testimony? >> reporter: yeah, well, hello to you, yasmin. it was incredibly emotional. and we did see kim potter break down several times throughout the day yesterday. as she took the stand in her own defense, trying to explain what happened in those fateful moments last april when she shot and killed 20-year-old daunte wright during that traffic stop.

you know, she was in training, she was working with a trainee, she said, on the stand. and she said it really wasn't her idea to pull over daunte wright's vehicle, she even testified had she been alone she probably would have never pulled over the vehicle. nonetheless, they pulled over the car, there was a tag violation, an air freshener violation. as we heard from kim potter on the stand, she laid out that chain of events that she said ended up going horribly wrong. >> we were struggling. we were trying to keep him from driving away. it just -- it just was panic. chaotic. and then i mean, i remember yelling taser, taser, taser. and nothing happened. and then he told me i shot him.

>> reporter: and potter is 49 years old. she, of course, was a veteran when all of this happened. she is currently facing one count of first degree manslaughter. and one count of second degree manslaughter. as you said, yasmin, the defense has wrapped up its case and closing arguments are set to begin on monday. >> stephanie stanton for us. thank you. meanwhile, the manhattan d.a.'s investigation into the trump organization's business practices appears to be picking up steam after much resistance. reporters from "forbes" magazine were ordered to testify on details of a cover story they published on donald trump in 2015, with his apparent fixation with the magazine's estimate of his net worth. the testimony arrived just two weeks before manhattan d.a. cy vance is said to leave office,

december 31st, to be exact. on what could be a historic note by possibly bringing charges against a former u.s. president. with me the founder of d.a. report.org and author of "the big cheat." david, thank you for joining us. i want to offer up some of what was offered up. trump told me i look better if i'm look better if i'm worth 10 billion than 4 billion. and specifically, a number was, quote-unquote, good for financing. also trump reported that during the early 1990s, "forbes'" estimates were actually high as trump put it and he deserves to be off the list. what could this mean, david, for cy vance's case?

>> well, i anticipate they're going to bring a racketeering charge against trump. new york state racketeering charge. and it's one thing to assert to local property tax officials or a banker, you're trying to get a loan from that your worth is, let's say, $100 million. but if you claim it's $1 billion, that's fraud. and valuations matter. and in trump's case, we know that he has, for example, argued that his golf course in westchester county, new york. is worth $1.4 million. but he says 50 million and in interviews says more than $100 million. well, those numbers aren't reconcilable. so what they're doing is showing that trump knowingly, deliberately with malice after

thought with intent to deceive, when you sign that you usually sign under penalty of perjury. >> it's one thing, right, to have the conversations with "forbes" magazine. obviously, the president was already a figure, incredibly astute and aware of his net worth, always talking about it, not only in instances like this, but late night television. why can't trump say this was my accountant. he was the one filing the papers, he was the onal plying for these loans. he was the one inflating my net worth or deflating my net worth, considering what you're talking about. why not that? >> well, first of all, at the end of the day, when you sign a document like your tax return, you're responsible for it, even if it was prepared by somebody else. and donald trump, as i broke the sorry moment five years ago,

once actually forged his own tax return. he didn't file the one his tax lawyer prepared for him, he substituted a different one, and he was found have committed civil tax fraud in two different trials involving that tax return. now, certainly, trump's team, when he's indicted, and i'm certain, he will be indicted, is going to try to lay the blame on everybody else. soful prosecutors want to show allen weisselberg phonied up documents it was at the direction of donald trump which is, by the way, exactly what was charged and confessed to in the michael cohen case. >> right. >> that he acted at the direction of donald trump. >> so you're certain he's going to be indicted, then what? >> oh, yeah, they would not have done all of this and many things i know about. mark palmer asked his special prosecutor to shut down his very lucrative law office to work for government pay?

yeah, they'll indict him. i think there will be a tax charge, but the key charge will be racketeering. >> do you think, considering knowing cy vance, how he's investigated trump for the better part of two years it will happen before his term ends which is december 31st. and if so, if the indictment comes down, whether or not in the next two weeks or the new year, what happens next? >> well, how quickly it's going to come is a matter of how quickly they can go through the 5 million pages of documents they got after trump lost a second time before the supreme court. they were expecting about 1 million documents they got about five times that many. they have to look at them all. once he's indicted, trump will have to surrender himself to be booked. i'm sure he'll be released on his own recognizance. and then we'll see a tactic of trying to delay a trial. everything he can. you will see donald saying this is corrupt, the prosecutors are corrupt, the police are corrupt.

that's because the way he was talking as a young man, accuse law enforcement and then delay, delay, delay. >> david cay johnson, you were perfect for this conversation. thank you. happy holidays. coming up, everybody, the upcoming holidays are feels like deja vu with the covid cases. after the break, i'm bringing in dr. amesh adalja with the most pressing answers to the questions should you be changing your holiday plans. ng your holiday plans at least my shoes look good! looking good start with bounce wrinkleguard, the megasheet designed to prevent wrinkles in the dryer. firefighter maggie gronewald knows how to handle dry weather... ...and dry, cracked skin. new gold bond advanced healing ointment. restore healthy skin, with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin.

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over the uncertainty and variant and impact on your holiday plans. we thought this weekend would be a good time to answer some of those questions we have with everything going on with the pandemic. with that, i want to bring in dr. amesh adalja with the help with that literally, you know the answers to all the questions and i know none of them. i want to get to rapid fire, we're getting questions in my twitter feed as well. first question, if i am fully vaccinated and i got my booster shot, how worried should i be about possibly giving covid to my grandparents or anyone who is high risk? >> well, we know you're protected against serious disease yourself, but there's some risk you could transmit because omicron can get around us, with protection from vaccine, it's lower risk, if you're vaccinated and fully boosted. make sure that the people you're around are also themselves vaccinated and boosted if they're eligible. that's going to be important. think about using rapid tess

decrease that risk as well. >> next question from louis, short of complete isolation is avoiding infection mainly about minimizing risk now? >> definitely, we have to teach people how to risk calculate. learn what's safe, what's not safe. and what tools to navigate in this world. and the best tool is the vaccine. >> i got j&j back in march and decided to get boosted with another j&j. how protected am i protected? >> you are protected against honks and death. if you're talking what about matters protection against serious disease, i think you're probably in a good position with the j&j vaccine. you still may get a breakthrough infection. >> this is from sheila, any news on boosters from 12 to 15 year olds my young teen is 16 from his second dose in a few weeks.

>> they're studying this. pfizer has not applied for emergency use authorization. again in that age group, it may not be that necessary because they're generally spared from severe disease. so this is a discussion that's going to happen society-wide, within the infectious disease community as well whether or not that's necessary but in the works. >> what about boosters for kids 5 and up? >> that's, again, going to be something far off in the distance, relatively speaking because that group is at even lower risk than the 12 to 15 for serious illness, hospitalization and death. we've got to think about what our booster policy is. for me, the biggest thing is preventing serious illness. but there are others trying to prevent any infections and that kind of puts us at butting heads over what the best booster policy may be. >> another viewer asking if we're going to need more than the third shot, or are we going to need more boosters in the future? >> it's too early to know. we have to see what happens with covid-19, what happens with the

technology. there are other vaccines in the works that may be more like measles vaccins nasal vaccines. >> talk about holiday plans, i have a woman tweeting me here about singing in church. obviously, a lot of people want to go to midnight mass. they want to sing in church and gather with other members of the congregation. is it safe? >> there's going to be no activity that is completely safe for covid-19, you can minimize that risk by having fully vaccinated people, using masks, rapid tests. singing is a high risk event. you can be careful. >> are you basically saying wear a mask while in church, and especially if you're singing? >> i do thankful there's singing going on, you can anticipate getting infected, unless people have been rapid tested just before the performance because that's just a place where the

virus aerosols. >> you know what i find interesting, that i've been noticing regularly here, and 30 rock that has the christmas tree and a lot of tourists because we have people visiting which we love and adore. nonetheless, people seem more masked under than ever. they're wearing masks outside. just a few weeks ago, none of us would wear masks outside. i would walk outside this building and take the mask off to breathe fresh air. are we having to take those masks off in outdoor settings. >> no, we still know that outdoor transmission is not common. obviously, if you're clumped together with people maybe at a political rally or something, that may be different. but in general, outdoor activities, the transmission rate is low. i wouldn't necessarily wear a mask. >> another question about boosters, a lot of questions about johnson & johnson, i think

it's confusing, dr. adalja, especially what we heard from the guidance saying, listen, if johnson & johnson is the only thing available, fine. if you can get pfizer, if you can get moderna, that's the better choice when it comes to vaccinations. i'm hearing from someone who said i had the j&j back in march and then have the moderna booster. >> you're likely to be protected against severe disease against omicron. we have to realize, with many of the combinations, including the mrna, breakthroughs are going to be extremely common. just from people who have been boosted. the goal is to prevent omicron from causing serious disease. i think in that situation, j&j followed by moderna, you're going to protected against serious disease. that's the important thing to remember. >> let's finish up with can

people gather safely with their families for holidays. >> i think if people use the tools things like rapid tests, getting vaccinated, boosted. making sure that you've not been exposed to anybody. i think all of that can make a holiday safe. i think the rapid tests are a key part about that. >> i have about 90 more questions, you're going to stick with me for the next three hours, is that okay? >> i will lose my voice. >> dr. adalja, i'm going to need you on speed dial. thank you, dr. adalja sticking with us for that rapid fire round. thank you. please continue, by the way, to send me your questions. we're going to be answering more of them tomorrow. if you didn't hear the questions today, i'll get them in tomorrow. still ahead, an update from kentucky as communities ravaged by the deadly tornadoes begin the road to recovery.

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nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. welcome back. the death toll from record-breaking tornadoes is still on says rise in kentucky. governor andy beshear says the latest fatality brings that state's total to 78 now making this the deadliest storm in kentucky's history. in total, 91 people in six states have died, and one week into this disaster residents, they're still struggling to dig out of the destruction. want to bring you in with wendy

in mayfield. thanks for joining us on this. what more are you seeing there in the cleanup process, the recovery process? and what else did the governor have to say about this unbelievable tragedy that area is still dealing with? >> reporter: yasmin, good afternoon to you, as well. the rain has really slowed things down a bit, and the temperatures have dropped significantly since we got here this morning. i continue to be amazed by the sentiment of the people here. everyone we've spoken to over last week say they are thankful to be alive. you can replace stuff but not people. but governor andy beshear still got emotional during his press conference this afternoon when talking about the approximately 2,000 families who will be without their homes the week before christmas and the people who lost their lives in this storm ranging in age from two months to 86 years old.

>> we are now one week exactly from the worst tornado disaster -- worst tornado event, most destructive in our history. right now missing persons based on this tornado event are at zero. our hope is that means we won't say many, maybe any more death, but remember there are still a number of people in the hospital. of i don't a report on how significant injuries are. so it could grow. >> reporter: western kentucky, that was formed by governor beshear, has raised a staggering $19.7 million already. that money will go to help people rebuild the homes and also the funeral expenses for families who have lost loved

ones. they have one thing they do need now. they need volunteers for the shelters that they have in place for all of the state parks in the state. they need people from christmas day on. so if people are looking for something to do and to help out, the governor today asked go to their website, it's kentucky.gov, and you can do what they need and with these people who need so much as we approach christmas. >> that is some really good information, kentucky.gov, if you want to help in the shelters. thank you. unimaginable tragedy. coming up in our next hour, everybody, texts, lies, and insurrection. the january 6th investigation uncovers messages detailing efforts to overturn the election. how republican lawmakers along with trump's chief of staff fought to keep the former president in power. and speaking of the former

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hi, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian from msnbc world headquarters. if you are just joining us, welcome. if you're still with us, thank you. this hour it is