could, but she -- she's definitely a big influence there. >> reporter: and inspired your love of them. >> uh-huh. she -- she definitely did, but -- so i -- i have her to thank for what i'm going down this sunday, the new covid surge. >> i think we're looking at a rate of cases that's so large that we still overwhelm our hospitals. >> the omicron variant exploding across the globe -- >> what we're seeing in some of these other countries is doubling times of about every two days or so. >> -- and across the united states. >> as we know, there will be plenty of breakthrough infections, that's for sure. >> cases rising sharply with a spike in deaths likely to follow. >> we're tired. the hospitals are stretched. resilience is low. please get vaccinated.

>> my guests this morning, dr. anthony fauci and the governor of colorado, democrat jared polis. >> the house votes to charge mark meadows with criminal contempt. >> we won't let the facts be buried by a coverup. >> the former trump chief of staff refusing to comply with the january 6th committee. >> the executive privilege is donald trump's to wave, not mine to wave. >> this as january 6th texts from the former president's allies come to light. >> one of the president's sons texted mr. meadows, quote, he's got to condemn this [ bleep ] asap. he is destroying his legacy, laura ingraham wrote. >> and build back when? if president biden couldn't get build back better or voting rights done this year -- >> nothing more domestically important than voting rights. the single biggest thing. >> -- why would next year be any different? joining me for insight and analysis, pbs newshour's amna nawaz, "washington post" senior correspondent phil rucker,

former democratic congresswoman donna edwards, and new york post columnist john podhoretz. >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> -- good sunday morning. well, it's beginning to look a lot like a covid christmas and beyond. for millions of americans this christmas could be like a rerun. nfl games are being rescheduled. back to work plans are being scrapped and some schools including harvard returning to remote learning. deaths, still almost entirely from delta, are occurring at a faster rate than any other time other than last winter's surges. in fact, the seven-day case average is nearly 130,000. that represents a nearly 35% increase over the case average

since thanksgiving. omicron appears to be far more contagious than delta, meaning a spike in cases could once again overwhelm hospitals, hospitals that are already a bit overwhelmed in some parts of this country. at the same time, months after president biden all but declared independence from covid, americans are simply fatigued with being fatigued. his administration has felt deflated, begging the unvaccinated to get shots. they're not even doing daily briefings. >> mr. biden will address the country on tuesday in response to this latest coronavirus crisis. we said it a year ago, as covid goes, so goes mr. biden's presidency. though the president is not responsible for this latest wave, he may well wind up paying the political price for it. >> for unvaccinated, we're looking at a winter of severe illness and death. >> with hospitals already at their breaking point, the rise of omicron is fueling worries about another covid winter. >> growing concerns over the spread of the omicron variant. >> doctors say omicron could

soon be our dominant variant. >> 80% of covid cases tested are now the omicron variant. >> the surge forcing a wave of cancellations. the nfl postponing games after a cluster of outbreaks. the rockettes canceling the rest of their season. there are growing concerns about this week's holiday travel. >> the flights are full. the lobby is full. all the planes are full. >> where does that leave us heading into the holidays? >> well, not in a good place. >> the cdc predicts covid cases could spike this week by 55%, up to 1.3 million infections by christmas day. during the first week of january, deaths could rise to up to 15,600 over seven days. >> for the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death, for yourself, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm. >> experts say those who have had booster shots are largely protected from severe illness, but hospitalizations are up 20% over the past two weeks. many hospitals nearing capacity.

>> last friday i had a doctor that just sobbed on the phone with me and said to me, debbie, people are dying, not because of covid, because we can no longer take patients. >> in a new study, 40% of nurses and nearly one in four doctors said they are moderately, likely, or definitely planning to quit the profession within two years. >> we're tired. the hospitals are stretched. resilience is low. please get vaccinated. >> just 61% of americans are fully vaccinated, two doses, trailing more than 50 other countries. many republicans have declined to push back against vaccine skeptics in their own party, instead ignoring or catering to a flood of misinformation. >> vitamin d., zinc, keep yourself healthy. by the way, standard gargle, mouthwash has been proven to kill the coronavirus. even if you get it, you may reduce viral replication.

why not try all these things? >> president biden's vaccination or testing requirements are under assault by republicans. >> democratic politicians are authoritarians. >> you can't just have these bureaucracies that are running amuck. >> they really have gone too far. >> on friday a federal appeals court reinstated the president's vaccine or testing mandate for large businesses, setting up a likely showdown at the supreme court, but believing that the white house has lost the political fight, even some democrats are souring on vaccine requirements. >> i truly believe there should be a vaccine mandate for federal government. private sector is a whole different -- which i do not support. >> i would have probably done it different myself. look, hindsight is always 20/20. >> you can't at the end of the day force people to do something they don't want to do. >> and a reminder, despite its recent court victory, the biden administration plans to delay the implementation of the covid vaccine mandates by a month. joining me now is the director

of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, dr. anthony fauci. dr. fauci, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> let me start with the issue of omicron in this sense. on friday you suggested that it might be less severe. we've seen a lot of -- a new study out of the uk that seems to be perhaps sending a mixed signal. what can you share with us this morning on where omicron is and how much of a threat it is? >> well, the one thing that's very clear, and there's no doubt about this, is its extraordinary ability of spreading its transmissibility capability. it's raging through the world really. if you look here in the united states, you have some regions that start off with a few percent of the isolates that are positive, now going up to 30,

40, and in some places 50%. so, yes, there is this issue of whether or not it is more or less severe. the information we're getting from our south african colleagues still suggests that when you look at it totally, the hospitalization-to-case ratio is less than with delta. there seems to be less durability of symptomatology, less requirement for oxygen. but you've got to be careful. that might be due really to the fact that their population has so much experience with prior infections that its might be underlying immunity that's making it look like it's less severe. and as a virus, it inherently may not be less severe. no matter how you look at it, chuck, when you have so many, many infections, even if it is less severe, that overcomes this slight-to-moderate diminution in severity. our hospitals, if things look like they're looking now in the

next week or two, are going to be very stressed with people. again, we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated. that's going to be a real problem for a stress on the hospital system. >> do we have the right protocols in place? are we traveling -- do you believe the amount of travel that's going to take place in the next two weeks is reasonable considering the situation we're in, or should folks be making -- be rethinking their travel plans? >> well, i think people just need to be prudent. clearly, when you travel, there's always a risk of increased infection. that just goes with respiratory illnesses. if people need to travel and want to travel for the obvious family reasons during this holiday season, if you're vaccinated and you're boosted and you take care when you go into congregate settings like airports, make sure you

continually wear your mask, you should be okay. we're going to see breakthrough infections, chuck, there's no doubt about that. the difference between a vaccinated and boosted person and someone who has an infection never vaccinated, a major difference with regard to the risk of severity. >> well, let's start -- i want to go through a few of these scenarios because people are trying to figure out what should they do if something happens in their household. you have a covid-positive breakthrough of a vaccinated person. how many times do they need to test negative before they should feel comfortable going back into society? >> well, you know, the general rule is if it's about seven to ten days following the onset of symptoms, they're going to be okay. if you want to get tested to show that, that's fine. but it really is duration from the time you initially get symptoms. that's one of the things that i

think people need to understand. you want to quarantine yourself in the sense of isolating yourself from the rest of the family so you don't spread it around, but that's the general rule of thumb. >> all right. what about if you're vaccinated, you don't have covid, but you've been exposed to covid? what is your responsibility? what is your recommendation? >> if you're vaccinated and exposed, you don't need to isolate yourself. some people, i think it would be prudent to wind up getting tested. testing now is so much more available, chuck, than it was in the past, and we're going to be doing better looking forward over the next few weeks to a month. again, you don't need to isolate yourself or quarantine yourself for sure if you're vaccinated, but you might want to get a test a couple days later to make sure you have not had a breakthrough infection if, in fact, you're vaccinated and hopefully boosted. >> well, you've kind of answered my follow-up, which is, look, we've seen this ourselves.

there's a positive in the house, somebody tests negative -- a brother or sister tests negative, and the next day they test positive. how many days from exposure should you feel comfortable that a negative test is truly a negative test? >> yeah, you want to wait at least three and up to five days following it. you might want to get a couple of tests, test one three to five days and one a little bit later. the tests that are now available, the point-of-care antigen tests are not as sensitive as the pcr test. but if you do them sequentially, one or two or more, you'll get a result that would be an accurate result. >> what should we expect from president biden on tuesday -- i ask this question, what more can be done that you haven't done in your mind? >> well, what you're going to hear from the president -- i

don't want to get ahead of the president, but he's going to stress several of the things and upscaling several things we talked about. we came out with this winter plan, which is really a good plarngs getting people boosted who are vaccinated, getting children vaccinated, making testing more available, having surge teams out because we know there are going to need having surge teams out because vaccinated, making testing more available, having surge teams out because we know there are going to need because there will be an increased demand on hospitalization, strengthening thesafety of travel, and providing vaccines for the rest of the world so that we can look at this as a global problem, not only a problem here in the united states, because what happens globally certainly impacts us. you're going to be hearing a bit

more about that. we're looking forward to the president's speech on tuesday. >> i'm curious, on the issue of boosters, you and i have had a conversation multiple times in the last four months and i've asked you multiple questions on boosters. are we getting ahead of the science? are we behind the science? president biden said, hey, we should probably do it after five months after talking to israeli officials. some thoughts in april it should be eight months. there was confusion about six months. there's been a lot of ambiguity, if you want. now all of a sudden omicron is here and there's no more ambiguity. how much did this booster confusion set us back? >> i don't think it set us back, chuck. it became very clear we said six months or more. after at least six months, go get boosted. if it's j&j, it's two months. i think those recommendations from the cdc were pretty clear. the one thing we want to make sure people understand right now is when your time comes to get boosted, get boosted. when you look at omicron, all the data in omicron indicate that even with the good protection that you get certainly against severe disease from a two-dose mrna, when you look at what it does against omicron, it's down considerably to a level where you really need to get boosted. if we're going to deal with omicron successfully, vaccinated people need to get boosted, and

obviously people who are not vaccinated clearly need to get vaccinated now more than ever. >> well, let's talk about what the definition of fully vaccinated is. number one, should we expect that definition to change? i know that's not your decision. i assume that's a cdc decision. but let me ask you this, if you're advising a private company that does have a vaccine mandate -- or a vaccine requirement, would you tell them that they should make boosters part of the requirement? >> you know, i would tell them if they want their enterprise, their place of employment optimally protected, you should get boosted. as you said, there is this technicality of a definition for requirement purposes. if someone comes to me and says what is the best thing i could do, i would tell them to get people boosted, no doubt about that, particularly in the environment of omicron. the data are very clear about

omicron. it really needs to get boosted. >> i'm curious. is there a lot to learn from all the professional sports leagues about two issues, one, the issue of boosters, and, two, the issue of the j&j vaccine? because i know now we're not really recommending it. it seems the j&j vaccine was very popular with athletes. i know they get tested more than most of the rest of the population. is that why it's been so many breakthrough cases? >> you know, that is possible. there is no doubt now as we get more and more data that when you look at the data in general, that the mrna are preferable to the j&j. the reason the cdc made that recommendation very explicit was not only the degree of efficacy, chuck. it was the risk of getting thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, that blood clotting issue that generally women who are between a certain

age get it. it isn't seen very often in men, almost exclusively in women. so when you put together the two things, the risk of the blood clot and the lesser of an efficacy, when you compare them head to head, that's why the cdc came out clearly that it's preferable to get an mrna. >> is it -- how likely is it that omicron will replace delta, the way delta replaced alpha? or are we really going to have two of these variants circulating simultaneously? >> you know, we don't know yet, chuck, for sure. you have to see how it rolls out. but if you look at what's happening, what happened in south africa, what's happening in the uk, and what's beginning to happen now, i would not be surprised if omicron bumped delta off the table because, for example, in certain regions in the country, there's up to 50% of the isolates that are

omicron. that's a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days. when you have a doubling time that's that short a period, pretty soon that isolate is going to take over. >> i want to ask you to react to one thing. the vice president said in an interview on friday, we didn't see delta coming. i think most scientists did not, upon whose advice and direction we've relied. we didn't see delta coming, didn't see omicron coming. and that's the nature of what this awful virus has been, as it turns out has mutations and variants. dr. fauci, perhaps nobody could have seen the specifics of delta and omicron, but did you not see variants coming, or did you? >> yeah, i did. and i think that the vice president's statement was taken a bit out of context. i believe she was referring to the fact that the extraordinary number of mutations and amino acid substitutions, particularly with omicron, nobody had expected it that much.

but we were well prepared and expected that we were going to see variants, there's no doubt about that, but i believe that the vice president was referring to the fact that if you look at the number of mutations in omicron, it's unprecedented. there are about 50 of them, 30 of them in the spike protein and about 10 to 12 of them in the receptor binding domain. we've never seen anything like that before. so in that context she was correct. >> all right. dr. anthony fauci, i'll admit i have like 17,000 other questions, but we don't have that much time. i'm sure we'll be seeing you in the days to come. appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise. >> thank you, chuck. good to be with you. up next, how are states going to deal with this new dangerous covid wave? are we about to see more mask mandates? i'm going to ask the governor of colorado, democrat jared polis, when we come back. colorado, democrat jared polis, when we come back.

there is no question we've been whip-sawed by covid news.

good news, tens of millions are vaccinated. bad news, omicron means a third shot is more essential. good news, omicron appears to cause less severe disease. bad news, out of the uk, maybe not. the science is not that clear. that makes the job of promoting public health more difficult. jared polis was asked a week ago why he opposed a mandatory mask mandate in his state. >> the emergency is over. you know, public health doesn't get to tell people what to wear. that's just not their job. you don't tell people to wear a jacket when they go out in the winter and force them to. if they get frostbite, it's their own darn fault. governor polis joins me now. governor, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> always a pleasure, chuck. >> look, a lot has changed since you made those comments on the issue of omicron literally in the last 72 hours. i know you've clarified when it means emergency meaning state action on the emergency.

given everything you've heard from dr. fauci and everything you've seen, are you having any second thoughts about the state intervening here temporarily whether it's a mask mandate or something else? >> you know, chuck, we're two years into this thing. and i think it's really important that our leaders, whether they're governors, mayors, local influencers, lead with facts rather than fear. people just don't react well to this ongoing environment of fear for two years, the science-driven information people need to keep themselves safe with the individual freedom and local control that we deserve. that's where we are at this point. we know how to stop this thing. getting three doses of the vaccine is highly effective and all but negates any risk that you face. we need to make sure people go out and do it. >> are you going to change the definition of fully vaccinated in your state?

i know you have had -- there's some specific entities you want to see have vaccinated. based on what you've heard, are you going to change those definitions? >> that's certainly where it's headed, chuck. it looks like from everything we know that to significantly reduce the risk of the omicron variant, three doses of the vaccine are needed. by the way, chuck, this is normal with many other vaccines. i have young kids who has the dtap vaccine, three kids with the diphtheria and tetanus. i wish they'd stop talking about it as a booster. it is a three-dose vaccine. every piece of data we're seeing shows that's the case. >> how about your testing capacity? all over the east coast, particularly in the east over the last 48 hours, there's been a run on the at-home tests. can't find enough of them. by the way, they're pretty

pricey. if they're considered something that essential, should they be priced as high as they are, and we've seen a few public places to get tested. do you need more resources on that? what's the situation in colorado? >> we've made free at-home testing available to every coloradoan for months now. we've sent out 1.2 million right to your doorstep. you get the free test. it's a popular program. we're certainly planning on continuing it for the time being. it's also important to note that while the northeast is going up in cases, our region in the rocky mountain west has been going down for several weeks. we peaked in october, early november. we have a lot less hospitalizations than we did a few weeks ago. that can change on a dime with the omicron variant. we're in a better place than we were a month ago. absolutely the free at-home tests have been very popular with the people of colorado. >> if president biden calls you up tomorrow and says what do you want to hear from me on tuesday night, what's important -- what

helps you do your job in getting things better in colorado? what would you tell the president? >> i would say stop talking about the vaccine as a booster, talking about three doses as a prevention. people who have gotten those three doses in our colorado data, which is similar to the national data, are 47 times less likely than people that are unvaccinated. it essentially negates the risk. nothing is risk-free in life. if you're boosted, you can feel very confident that if you get covid, it will be a minor case. we need to focus on increases in prices and costs that people across the country are facing. people are frustrated. therapy thanksgiving turkey cost 50% more, gas is $3.80 a gallon. let's show relief. in colorado it's cutting vehicle registration fees, making it free to start a business. we're trying to cut taxes twice. these kinds of things show we're doing what we can to make sure the families can get by and

thrive. >> interesting you bring up the inflation issue. it feels like the rise of omicron is only going to set us back on that since the supply chain seems to be the biggest impediment when it comes to the inflation issue. you've talked about some things you've done. is there anything outside what the federal reserve does that can impact inflation in your mind? >> you know what public policymakers can do, governors, legislators, president, congress? we can save people money. if you save people money on child care, that makes a real difference in people being able to work, and also the development of the child. if you can save people on vehicle registration fees, taxes, wherever you can save people money -- the child tax credit is another excellent example for folks. so, yes, we can do something. i mean, i'm not an expert in the fed and macro-economic policy and most people aren't, but we can do very concrete things that actually reduce the costs for americans. >> let me go back to the issue

of the unvaccinated. i know you had said, hey, you can't make somebody wear a coat. but frostbite isn't contagious. this virus is. do you have any other new ideas in your head of how you deal with the unvaccinated here? should there be a penalty? it does seem as if there's more attention being paid to protect the unvaccinated than there is to reward those who have played by the rules. >> well, i think we want to address the unvaccinated with facts, first and foremost, also with compassion and love. they are often victims of misinformation. we need to do our best to get the very best information from front of them that they need to protect themselves and their family. we've also made monoclonal antibody treatment widely available in colorado. anybody that needs it, we have ten mobile buses. while it can reduce your hospitalization risk from 70% -- that's from the delta variant. the monoclonal antibody treatment isn't as effective against the omicron variant. the data is still pending. it's still not nearly as effective as getting the

three-dose vaccine, which all but lessens your risk of dying. again, a few people get severely ill from anything, certainly still possible, but essentially you have a very, very low risk if you get fully vaccinated. >> one quick political question. senator joe manchin has indicated this morning he's not going to support build back better. done. he's done with it. what is your advice to senate democrats? is there anything you think they have to get done next year before the november 2022 elections of which you'll be running for re-election? >> yeah, really deliver on saving people money and reducing costs. that might mean preschool and child care. it might mean the child tax credit, other tax reductions or payroll tax deductions. it might mean saving people money on a variety of things that affect their everyday life. i'd love to see the senate go big and tackle climate change that help states like colorado and others that are taking this

seriously because we have several climate-dependent industries, agriculture, the ski industry. yes, our ski season is open, chuck, but we don't have the normal amount of snow. part of the nation has seen drought. we'd love to see congress step up and take action on those issues. >> i hear you, but it sounds like if they have to pick a priority, you would pick the economy over the climate provisions if that's the only politically feasible route to go? >> you know, those are not mutually skplus irv. i think our climate destiny is our economic destiny. certainly showing relief for families on costs, preschool, child care does that, other things that can reduce costs, save money. that's certainly a big part of our focus here in colorado. we welcome any help from the united states congress. >> governor jared polis, democrat of colorado, appreciate you coming on and sharing your views. i hope you can enjoy the holiday season. we're all hopefully covid doesn't become as disruptive as it was last year. thank you, sir.

when we come back, build back better is not just in real trouble, it may now be dead. voting rights hasn't past. is next year going to be any easier for the president's priorities? the panel is next. dead. voting rights hasn't

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welcome back. we're glad to see our panelists, although, we're back in our remote locations. i'm in a remote location because i've come into close contact with someone who tested positive in the last 48 hours in my household. also with us, pbs "newshour" chief correspondent amna nawaz. phil rucker from "the washington post," former democratic congresswoman donna edwards, and john podhoretz, editor of the "commentary." we have a lot to get to. amna, i'm going to begin with you. it already was arguably a deflating political end for the biden administration, and an explanation this morning from joe manchin saying he's done with build back better. now we have omicron. when you think about the first six weeks of 2022, i don't know how the biden administration focuses on anything else.

>> you're absolutely right, chuck. i mean, this latest news from senator manchin, this latest statement, is a massive blow. we know the president wanted build back better done as quickly as possible. we know the senate democrats have been saying we wanted it done by christmas. but, look, even if you look in the last few days, none of those really self-imposed deadlines made a difference to senator manchin, not the holiday deadline, not the imminent expiration of the child tax credit, even though some experts say it could push children back into poverty. senator manchin's concerns, to be clear about this, have been consistent over time. it's the size of the package. it's inflation which has only gotten worse. the president has been clear, they wanted negotiations to continue. even as recently as last night white house officials were saying this is a president biden who knows how to get big historic pieces of legislation through, even with two of the narrowest majority in the house and senate.

but this latest from senator manchin is a massive blow. it's hard to see a path forward for this now. >> hey, donna edwards, how big of a blow is this to the democratic base? >> i think it's a big blow, frankly. there's no other way to put it. this was a major -- a central piece of the president's agenda. it is something he campaigned on, all of the elements of build back better. and it was his priority. now we know that senator manchin, one senator is going to deny the president of the united states his major policy priority. and so i don't know where it goes from here. i know that there are probably house progressives right now who are saying to themselves that's why we wanted to tie the bipartisan infrastructure plan to build back better, because we were afraid all along that senator manchin would back away from this. so there's probably a lot of

regret going on, and there are promises that will not be kept to the american people. >> john podhoretz? >> yeah. i don't know how joe manchin could have made it any clearer beginning in march of this year that he was not going to support this bill. he said, a trillion-five, that's what i'm in for. then the bill comes out. it's $6 trillion, $3.5 trillion. now it's either $2.2 trillion, $1.75 trillion. he told chuck schumer, my number is a trillion-five. he wrote an op-ed saying my number is a trillion-five. that is joe manchin. it's been joe manchin all year. it's now political malpractice

on the part of the biden administration that they did not take him at his word. they do not have a big majority. they have a 50/50 senate. he said, if you go this way, i'm a no, and they kept saying don't say you're a no, let's negotiate, let's negotiate, let's negotiate. they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. they had victory on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and they held it until way later than they could have had it and then touted it, and here they are right now with a huge loss at the end of the year. this is very bad politics, and the idea that what this demonstrates is that biden has some kind of political talent for getting big bills through, that has now been exposed as a sham and a delusion. this is a terrible political outcome, one of the worst i think we've seen for a first-year president ever. >> you know, phil rucker, i have to say the head-scratcher for me is this idea they thought --

they chose to basically negotiate with everybody else first and hope the pressure campaign would work. i never understood it at the time, and now obviously it looks like a total strategic miscalculation. >> yeah, chuck. we should keep in mind the backdrop here. the pressure campaign doesn't work if the american people are not behind the president, and the polling for the last several months has indicated a declining popularity for president biden. gallup had numbers recently showing he's nearly as polarizing as president trump was during his presidency with a huge gap in approval between registered republicans and registered democrats, and that's the data that somebody like senator manchin is looking at when he's thinking about whether he's going to put his neck on the line, representing a conservative state like west virginia to get behind this agenda. biden was unable to sell these policy proposals with the

american people. >> i want to bring up something -- president biden spoke at south carolina state, gave the commencement, and he talked voting rights. take a listen to it. >> maybe most important of all, we have to protect that sacred right to vote, for god's sake. folks, as john lewis said, it is the only -- without the right to vote, there is no democracy. >> you know, amna, in hindsight now, the decision -- he was pretty strong on voting rights on friday. he gave a strong speech in july. in between he focused on build back better. you know, he was elected arguably for two reasons, to deal with covid and to deal with donald trump. not prioritizing voting rights versus the way they did build back better obviously looks like a strategic mistake here. can they revive this at all in 2022 before the elections? >> well, i think you're starting to see some early signs of that

already. you're seeing the president there talking strongly about voting rights, which white house officials will say he's said from the beginning is a priority. we know the vice president has been leading those efforts. i don't you see what happens with the bills when it comes to lawmakers. democrats have twice tried to move forward and stopped by republicans when it comes to expanding voting rights or codifying them. you have to look back over the last year. the white house has done what they can from an executive position. right? they've directed federal agencies to do what they can to expand access. the department of justice has ramped up, i think, doubling the staffing of voting enforcement agencies and are already fighting states where they believe those rights are being challenged. democrats believe there's a fundamental, existential issue here with a spate of legislatures making it harder for people to vote. now we know senate democrats are starting to prioritize it again. we've learned about this meeting that they held on friday, trying

to talk about what sort of amendments, carve-outs, changes could that make to try to get 50 votes. i'm told all options are on the table, schumer has been working on this for month and they do see it as a priority goings into the new year. >> well, between now -- hang on, i've got to get going here. between now and the state of the union it's going to be interesting to see what do they prioritize in the wake of omicron, how much is the child tax credit, what will they try to accomplish before the election season starts? that's an unknown. when we come back, our annual tribute to those we lost in the past year. >> thank you. and instead of goodbye, how about so long. could be hurting your stomach. new vazalore is the first liquid-filled aspirin capsule clinically shown to cause fewer ulcers than plain aspirin. vazalore is designed to help protect...

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my hygienist cleans with a round head. so does my oral-b my hygienist personalizes my cleaning. so does my oral-b oral-b delivers the wow of a professional clean feel every day. welcome back. as we do every year, we want to take a moment to look back at some of the iconic people in politics, culture, and media whom we've lost in the past 12 months. >> don't let anyone ever tell you you are limited because you came from the inner city, because you're black, because you didn't come from the right schools. the only thing that should ever be a limitation is your own dream. ♪♪ >> as you know, you go to war

with the army you have and not the army you might want or wish to have at the right time. ♪♪ >> my grandfather was a slave. my father was a share cropper. my mother, a maid. because this is america, i am now a congresswoman.

♪♪ >> i thought history would judge the campaign as an honorable campaign, and i believe i will be judged that way. ♪♪ >> good day from washington. i'm roger mudd. ♪♪

>> mom, i know you didn't want me to do this, but i did; and here it is. >> i don't know what to say except to you, my audience, thank you. instead of goodbye, how about so long? ♪♪ >> i leave you all tonight with a full heart and a fervent prayer that we'll meet again and we'll meet often.

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welcome back. the panel is with us again. one of the things we learned this past week was how involved president trump's chief of staff mark meadows was involved in the events of january 6th. it turns out the january 6th committee is looking more closely into all the planning that led to the january 6th capitol riot. mark meadows, at a minimum, was the concierge for everybody that either had an idea or event they wanted to do. donna edwards, it brings to me, it's sort of like where is congress heading? i want to quote lisa murkowski who simply said -- let me get this right -- it's been a horrible year, hasn't it. it began with an insurrection, it ended with a 4:00 a.m. adjournment, and a lot of not-so-good stuff in between. >> it's been a really tough year. and i think it also began with us still fighting covid, and we're ending the year, you know,

in the same place. the reality is that whether we're talking about the economy or, you know, politics, what will help get us back to normal is getting people vaccinated, getting the economy going. and on january 6th, we're approaching the anniversary, and the really important thing here is for this january 6th committee to continue to plug away doing its work so that we can create the record that we need for the accountability of everyone from mark meadows to maybe even the former president and on down the line. >> john podhoretz, i found mitch mcconnell's support of what he's learning from the january 6 committee intriguing for this reason. he stopped at the chance of making this fully bipartisan and bicameral. is that a sense that he basically miscalculated, that he thought -- on january 7th he thought donald trump would be less of an issue in the republican party, and it turns out he was wrong? >> i think pretty much that's it.

i think he thought trump would be in the rear view mirror. he isn't. one of the hopes for the future of the republican party with the independence that it needs to bring it back into power is for trump not to be the future as he was the past, and we know that because he was a one-term president, and the support that he needed from people who were not hard-lined, hard and fast, dyed-in-the-wool republicans wasn't there in 2018 when the midterms were or in 2020 at the end of his presidency, and this commission, particularly if it finds actual hard facts that don't have to be massaged or overly hysterically characterized bipartisan democrats, but simply lays out very calmly and rationally what happened in a way that just seems as inexplicably horrible will have the net effect of poisoning a trump future with the independents that can put

well, it's interesting. i guess, phil, does it look like it does anything to change the republican party? what looked like a bunch of rogue individuals that may have had one or two people in the white house winking and nodding, it turns out this felt a little more organized. is that going to chasten any more republicans other than mitch mcconnell? >> more than a little, chuck. we see mark med does was the chief enabler of a lot of these conspiracy theories and a plot to subvert the vote in the weeks and days leading up to january 6th and aided, by the way, by a number of house republicans, elected house republicans. the polling shows us that a majority of republican voters believe the lie from former president trump, that this election was rigged.

as long as that lie is believed as if it were fact by the republican base, then we're going to continue to see republican leaders in lockstep with the former president? >> amna, this gets us back to what the heck is next year going to look like. you sit there and we won't have full agreement on what the narrative of january 6th is. we've got covid that's just punching us in the face. there's a congress that doesn't seem very functional. what's this election year going to look like? >> it's going to be one to watch, chuck. i mean, look, i don't think any of us are lying if we say we know what the next year is going to look like. even an hour ago we thought we might have a very different scenario ahead. the most striking thing i think coming from the january 6th committee going into the new year is not only the depth of sort of the organized planning from inside, but also the fact

that people saw and could believe what they saw with their own eyes. the messages that we've seen now reveal from the documents that mark meadows shared about the president's own son and fox primetime hosts expressing concern about the level of violence, about the threats to the capitol building, and then publicly going out and saying the exact opposite. these are all things that will carry over into the new year. phil is right. if you believe the election was stolen, nothing about this committee will change your mind. if you believe covid is a hoax, nothing about the new year is going to change your mind. and that's a tough, tough set of circumstances for the president. >> well, it's been a tough year, a tough december, and it's going to be perhaps a tough start of 2022. let's hope we all take the omicron precaution seriously. i have a special note about a special holiday series on the chuck todd cast feed. meet the alternative history. each episode looks at how things might have changed if one single event would have been different. for instance, what if bill

clinton had resigned in 1998 during the lewinsky scandal? or how the 2016 election might have been different had supreme court justice antony scalia not died. that's all for today. we'll see you next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." i've always said this, brett. if i can't go home and explain to the people of west virginia, i can't vote for it, and i cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation, i just can't. i've tried everything humanly possible. i can't get there. >> you're done. this is a no. >> this is a no. on this legislation. i have tried everything i know to do. >> this is a no. president biden left negotiations with senator joe manchin last week, thinking a deal on his massive spending package was in sight, but then the bombshell on fox, that