good to be with you, i'm katy tur. president biden is about to get briefed by his health experts, and after that he's going to speak to the public on the dizzying spread of omicron, a spread so far and wide now it is forcing shutdowns across the

country. doctors warned we would get here, and we did. 1 million new cases reported in the last 24 hours, a single day record. omicron now accounts for 95% of all new cases of covid in the united states. that's according to the cdc. all of them. from schools and workplaces, hotels and restaurants, to flights and even the new york city subway system, so many people are testing positive there aren't enough workers to keep things running. hospitalizations are climbing as fast as cases, and that is the good news, but omicron is still hitting hospitals hard not only because of an influx of patients but also a shortage of staff. thousands of health care workers staying home to isolate. >> we now have well over 100 staff out due to covid in my hospital and the issue is if you're in a hospital bed, you need nurses.

you need environmental services folks. you need food service workers. you need physicians. you need an entire team caring for you. >> that's a hospital in new jersey, we're going to get more on that state in just a moment. also, one of my next guests argues that omicron may ultimately prove to be one of the greatest public health challenges not only of the pandemic but also of our lifetime. there are ways to mitigate the risks, he says, we're going to walk you through them, including what sort of mask you should be wearing and how to spot a fake. we'll also hear more from the president and his plans to fight the omicron crisis, which increasingly looks more like a staffing issue across the country than a severe illness and death crisis, at least among the vaccinated. joining me now is nbc news digital senior white house reporter shannon pettypiece and from new jersey nbc's dasha burns. as we're reporting, there are shutdowns all across the country, not because officials are forcing everybody to stay home but because there are so many sickouts because omicron is

spreading so rapidly. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, katy, it's almost like an involuntary shutdown that's going on at schools and businesses, certainly not where the administration wanted to be even just a month ago. as you noted, we are expected to hear from the president soon. there's a bit of news coming out of the white house ahead of his remarks. the white house announcing on their twitter feed that u.s. is going to increase its order for these pfizer antiviral pills that prove to be very effective at keeping people out of the hospital. they're going to double those so eventually the u.s. will have 20 million courses of therapy so enough to treat 20 million people. a big question, though, is when they're going to be able to get all of those pills because pfizer has said in the past it's a slow ramp up in production. this is a complex pill to make. it could be some time before the u.s. has a real plentiful supply of this pfizer pill. in the meantime, other things we expect to hear from the white house today another push again for people to get vaccinated. the president is expected to say if you are vaccinated and

boosted, particularly boosted, that's the key element here, you're at a very low risk of having severe disease, ending up in the hospital or dying. it's a message, though, we've been hearing from the white house really for months now this push to get people boosted. the administration says they have been making some progress there. they've been doing about a million booster shots a day, but of course we continue to see these infection numbers go up and the hospitalization numbers corresponding there. so covid once again on the front of the president's burner as he starts off 2021, and we hope to get a little more insight into what else the federal government is doing to try and address these shutdowns and closures. >> there's so many sickouts across the country, across all industries, but most concerningly perhaps is what's happening at hospitals and dasha, you're in new jersey. we just heard from a hospital in new jersey that's having an issue because of their staffing. what's being done to make sure these hospitals can still run? >> reporter: yeah, katy, this is

a huge challenge. the governor of new jersey recently called this covid wave the omicron tsunami. that is how severe and significant this wave is becoming in this state. right now in new jersey there are more people hospitalized at this point than at any other point in the last year of the pandemic. in fact, the most since may of 2020 and the experts, the doctors we've been speaking with say this is due to the transmissibility of this virus. even though it's less severe, less deadly, especially for those who are vaccinated and boosted, this virus is just spreading so rapidly now among more and more of the population that that is driving those hospitalizations up. right here at university hospital in newark, new jersey, where you heard from that doctor of the ceo of the hospital here, they have seen their hospital admissions double in the last seven days. it's important to think about and to understand who is getting hospitalized and who is most critically ill. i want you to hear from

dr. andrew berman, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor we just spoke with moments ago. take a listen to what he told me. >> of our sickest patients, most of them are unvaccinated or unknown vaccinated status. it's really clear, the message is get your covid vaccines, get your booster shots. wear your masks, treat this like it was the first wave. don't get comfortable. even healthy people can get very sick. >> reporter: and katy, they're emphasizing those measures, those tools we have in the tool kit even more now because this hospital is getting hit with a one-two punch, more people in their beds, but fewer staff members to care for them because staff themselves are getting sick. they're getting exposed. they're having to isolate, and so that is really putting that strain on the hospital system, and they don't want it to get overwhelmed, really emphasizing those measures more than ever. >> with me now is dr. ezekiel

emmanuel, the provost at the university of pennsylvania, author of the book "which country has the world's best health care." he also co-authored that "washington post" op-ed about why omicron could be the worst public health challenge of our lifetimes. thanks so much for being here. let's talk about what you go through in this op-ed. you lay it out, a step by step process to basically mitigating the risks, but at first you talk about our testing system. we keep talking about how many cases we're seeing, a million cases in the last 24 hours. you warned this could happen, but is looking at the case number right now the best way to figure out how this disease is affecting us? >> no, and because many of the omicron cases are very mild or even asymptomatic, that's the first thing. the second thing is a lot of people aren't being tested because they can't get a test. local public health agencies

that have to report positive tests are way behind because of the holidays, and so those case numbers are artificially low inherently. we have well more than a million cases, but what we really need to look at and the sort of weak link in the system at the moment as your reporters have pointed out, is the health care system. we look at hospitalizations, hospitalizations where people are requiring oxygen for covid, that's a much more important measure, and again, as your reporters have pointed out, 3/4 or more of the patients in the hospital with covid are patients who are unvaccinated. and as you get sicker and sicker in the hospital into the intensive care unit, into the intensive care unit with a breathing tube, you know, more and more of those patients are the unvaccinated. and that's really what we have to look at. >> we just got a three-minute warning to the president. i want to get through a couple more questions with you as quickly as we can. testing, a lot of people are relying on the at-home test

kits. what should they know about them? >> that they're in short supply, that we're not 100% sure how accurate they are. if you have a positive, you have a positive, and you should definitely isolate yourself, and if you go out, you should not intersect with other people, especially older people or immunocompromised. if you have a negative, it doesn't mean you're negative and you should probably go around with a good high quality n95 mask. >> let's talk about masks. you have n95s, k n95s, kf 94s. how do you know if the mask you have is authentic, is actually a good version of those masks? >> well, let me -- yes, you should be wearing a n95, a k n95 or a kf 94. you should also look for certain items. i don't know if your audience can see. down here there's a bunch of words. you should look at that word

niash. make sure it has this band at the top around the nose that will pin down. that you have bands here that go around your head and not on your ears. what you should not wear is this kind of mask, which just said k n95 on it, no other wording. probably a fake mask. it's also got ear loops, which are not very effective at sealing in your face. you can have these foldable masks that have good properties. here's one from honeywell, i have no stock in any of these, and if you want good approved masks go to projectn95.org and they have lots of high quality niash approved masks. wear those, those are the best protection you can have of not getting infected. >> i'm looking at the mask i've been wearing that i thought was a good one. it says k n95, gb 26262019.

it's a foldable mask. it has ear loops, are you telling me this mask which i have 100 of at home is no good? >> i would not rely on it, no. i would switch. i will tell you that what i wear is this what's called a cup mask with this band and around my head and that's the only one i wear. again, they're readily available. if yours doesn't say niash, i would not be confident in it. i also to make sure and decrease the chances of having a forged mask, try to buy only a mask made in the united states and i think that's the best way to go. >> i'm going to see if i get my money back, number one, and number two, can you tell us the name of that website that you mentioned a moment ago? because i'm actually going to write this down. >> projectn95.org, and it has lots of different manufacturers. i have no interest in that site either.

i just think it's a good source of products, and again, they're relatively cheap, and also these masks can be used multiple times over multiple days, you let them dry out and they're fine. >> and what about -- a lot of folks are still wearing regular surgical masks, cloth masks which were pretty popular. my stage manager is wearing a cloth mask right now just waving his hand, are you telling me -- you're saying don't wear those? >> you should not be wearing a cloth mask in this day and age, and surgical masks are at best second rate, n95 k n95. >> i'm going to interrupt to go to the president. i'm sorry. >> so let me provide a quick update and talk about three specific topics, and i'll give it to you straight as i promised you i always would. we're going to see as you all have been hearing continued rise in cases. omicron is very transmissible,

transmissible variant, but much different than anything we've seen before, and -- but you can protect yourself. and you should protect yourself, quite frankly. get vaccinated. get boosted. there's plenty of booster shots. wear masks while you're in public because what we know is this. the impact from the rising cases depends on the effect of the person based on what their vaccination status is. you can control how big of an impact omicron is going to have on your health if you get omicron. you know, those are fully vaccinated, especially those with the booster shots, and by the way, we have booster shots for the whole nation, okay? you can still get covid, but it's highly unlikely, very unlikely that you become seriously ill, and we're seeing covid-19 cases among vaccinated in workplaces across america including here at the white

house, but if you're vaccinated and boosted, you are highly protected. you know, be concerned about omicron, but don't be alarmed. if you're unvaccinated, you have some reason to be alarmed. many of you will, you know, you'll experience severe illness in many cases if you get covid-19 if you're not vaccinated. some will die, needlessly die. unvaccinated are taking up hospital beds and crowding emergency rooms and intensive care units. that's displacing other people who need access to those hospitals. so please, please, please get vaccinated now. you know, we've reduced the number of american adults without any shots from 90 million to about 35 million in the past six months, but there's still 35 million people not vaccinated. and let me be absolutely clear.

we have in hand all the vaccines we need to get every american fully vaccinated including the booster shot. there's no excuse. no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated. this continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated, so we've got to make more progress. for patients who still haven't gotten your kids vaccinated, please get them vaccinated. look out for their interests here. it's the best way to protect them, and for parents with kids too youngo bevaccinated, surround your kids with people who are vaccinated and make sure you're masking in public so you don't get covid and give it to your kids. look, we have no reason to think at this point that omicron is worse for children than previous variants. we know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. that's why i believe schools should remain open.

you know, they have what they need because of the american rescue plan the first month we were in office, the second month that i signed in march, we provided the states with 130 billion with a b, billion dollars to specifically keep our students safe and schools open. funding for ventilation, ventilation systems in the schools, social distancing classrooms, even larger classrooms on buses and everything from bus drivers to buses, the actual bus. in all this process, we also included an additional $10 billion for testing for schools. that money went out to the states, and the states and the school districts have spent this money well, many of them. but unfortunately some haven't, so i encourage the states and school district to use the funding that you still have to

protect your children and keep the schools open. countries across the world are seeing rising cases. here in the united states our team has been working around the clock during the holiday weeks. in the last two weeks, we have developed hundreds of military -- we have deployed, i should say, hundreds of military doctors and nurses to staff the hospitals in our states that are overrun and overworked because of unvaccinated covid-19 patients primarily. the federal emergency management association -- agency, fema, is also working at our direction in every state and hospital capacity including whether they need beds. i've directed fema to be ready provide emergency hospital beds wherever and whenever they're needed. the federal government will be there. we've shipped nearly 2.4 million pieces of protective equipment to hospitals from gowns to gloves, and we're doing whatever we can to protect communities

from the surge of hospital cases that are likely to see from the unvaccinated population. look, let me address three specific updates before i get my full brief from my team. first, booster shots. i know dr. fauci -- like an echo chamber here, okay, i know it, but repeating myself what dr. fauci said very clearly, booster shots work. they significantly increase the protection, they provide the highest level of protection against omicron. americans, we've given out over 70 million booster shots, importantly two out of three eligible seniors have received their booster shots. booster shots are free. they're safe and available. at over 90,000 vaccination sites. let me say that again. they're free, available, and at

over 90,000 sites. we have added sites, added hours, added appointments, added walk-in capacity. we have booster shots for every american in the country. it's easier than ever to get a booster shot and more important than it's ever been. the fda has also now authorized booster shots for children ages 12 to 15, so with the final approval from the center for disease control and prevention, the cdc, young people when that occurs, young people ages 12 to 15 will be able to get booster shots later this week. second, on testing, i know this remains frustrating, believe me, it's frustrating to me, but we're maing improvements. in the last two weeks we've stood up federal testing sites all over the country. we're adding more each and every day.

google covid tests near me to find the nearest site where you can get a test most often and free. look, more capacity for in-person tests, we should see waiting lines shorten and more appointments freed up. look, if you want to test yourself at home we have three options now. drugstores and online websites are restocking. two, you know, well, actually, so the more tests are available or going to continue to become available. next week our requirement that your insurance company reimburse you for at-home test takes effect so you can get reimbursed. so if you're insured, you can buy the test and get paid for it. the second thing i want to mention is many states and local governments and health care providers are passing out free at-home tests that you can pick

up. just find out where they are, and finally, as i announced recently, the federal government is launching a website this month where you can get tests shipped to your home for free upon your request. the third point i like to speak about is -- also is on treatments. for those at high risk who do get covid-19, they now have a new pfizer pill that greatly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death. i'm pleased to say that on christmas eve we shipped out the first batch of these pills that we received, we purchased and received and more will be shipped this week. they're already saving lives, but due to the complex chemistry of the pills to make the pill, it takes months literally to make a pill. production is in full swing. the united states has more pills than any other country in the

world, and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months as more of these pills are manufactured. today i'm directing my team to work with pfizer to double our order from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses to be delivered in the months ahead. we may need even more. that's the estimate we need right now. we've already placed the largest order in the world. now i'm doubling that order. these pills are going to dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19. they're a game changer and have the potential to dramatically alter the impact of covid-19, the impact it's had on this country and our people. look, let me conclude with a quick recap. if you are vaccinated and boosted, you may get covid, but you are highly protected against severe illness. schools can and should be open this winter. we have all the tools to keep

kids safe. unvaccinated kids are at risk, yet the vaccinated are going to have a way to protect them. get vaccinated. if you're vaccinated, get boosted. folks, i know we're all tired and frustrated about the pandemic. these coming weeks are going to be challenging. please wear your mask in public to protect yourself and others. we're going to get through this. we're going to get through it together. we have the tools to protect people from severe illness due to omicron if people choose to use the tools. we have the medicines coming along that can save so many lives and dramatically reduce the impact that covid has had on our country. there's a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020. for god sake, please take advantage of what's available. please. you're going to save lives, maybe yours, maybe your child's.

please take advantage of what we already have, okay? so thank you, now i'm going to get this briefing started. thank you very much. >> okay. so that was the president of the united states, again, saying schools should be kept open. he's imploring people to wear masks. he is imploing people to get the vaccine, to get the booster shot, for parents to get their children if they are eligible to get the vaccine.

dr. let's talk about what the president just said, let's talk about vaccines in particular. there are still quite a subset of this population that is not getting it, and there are a lot of parents who aren't anti-vaxxers but are a little concerned about giving their kids this shot. what are you going to say to them? >> get the shot. i think the president's 100% right. certainly with omicron either your child's going to get the shot or your child is going to get covid, and you want them to get the shot. covid is much more dangerous than the shot in any circumstances and so we know that the shot protects people. unfortunately, if they haven't been vaccinated already, if you gave them the shot today, it will still take at least 14 days to begin to have an antibody and protective response, and you need two shots. so do it immediately and don't delay. if you're delaying because

you're worried that somehow there's side effects. remember, covid's out there. it's highly contagious at the moment. they will get covid if they don't have a vaccination. >> kids are not eligible for the vaccination right now, how quickly might they be able to get the shot? i think there was at some point we were talking about maybe the spring of this year? >> yes, well, the first test of the vaccine for kids under 5 did not work from pfizer. moderna is out in the field. i know that because my grandson is in the -- my two grandchildren are in the study, and yes, we're hoping that it will be towards the middle or end of spring, but you know, this is research. it's not guaranteed and we have to see if they, in fact, produce the antibodies and immune protection that we expect in younger children. >> it should give you hope that if the doctors say it's not ready it means they're being vigorous about the testing. >> yeah. >> let's talk about how this

ends. there are a lot of think pieces out there today looking at past pandemics, the spanish flu for one, how they've ended. omicron there's this idea out there that it is so highly contagious that so many people are going to get it, that we're going to find some semblance of herd immunity. it will peak really high. it will come down fast like we saw in south africa, and then socially speaking people are going to be tired of this and they are going to move on. what is your opinion? what is your expectation for what happens in the coming months? >> i think some of my colleagues have been overly rosy and not just on omicron, but have a history of being a little too rosy about how fast this is going to end. i think what we can be very sure of is that we're going to be in this sort of very explosive area, maybe it won't be new york. it will move south to florida and atlanta or something like that, but we are going to be in this situation probably for the next six to eight weeks in the

country as a whole. then it's going to decline, but we're going to have some subsequent surges. we already know there are variants of omicron out there, how serious they are we don't know yet. and we are going to definitely have some more surges coming along. this is not the end. we're all weary. what we have to do is get back to a situation of some near normalcy, and what is near normalcy? we take precautions. precautions are we're vaccinated. everyone in our school and our workplace is vaccinated and boosted. when we're in crowds and indoors if there's an upswing in covid we're wearing high quality masks we went through, but we can still engage in our normal activities. >> i like that you're saying not only get vaccinated and get boosted but only if there is an upswing are we going to need to be wearing masks indoors. i think a lot of people -- >> last june before delta hit,

we were down low, and we could have a more normal situation. the reason we went up is not that we had the old virus, it's that we had a new variant, delta, that people weren't prepared for. if we actually take care and put into effect these protective measures, we can actually get back to a near normal situation. >> let's get the rest of the world vaccinated so we can stop these variants, these mutations from happening. dr. ezekiel emmanuel, thank you so much for joining us and walking us through that and thank you for telling me my mask is junk. i'm going to go buy a new one. thank you very much. we're going to stick to the topic of covid, and we want to focus on kids, pediatric covid cases continue to climb. here is an important note, though, for worried parents out there, hospitalizations, severe illness, and death among kids remain uncommon. still the uptick in cases is a

new complication for schools as students return to the classroom after the holiday break. here's nbc's stephanie gosk with more. >> reporter: across the country the vast majority of students are back in in-person classes but new numbers from the american academy of pediatrics show just how fast covid case numbers are rising among children. in the week leading up to christmas, pediatric covid cases reached nearly 200,000, but troubling new numbers from the american academy of pediatrics show an even more dramatic statistic. the very next week a 60% jump in cases of children getting covid, more than 300,000. >> i simply have never seen anything like what we're experiencing now. >> reporter: according to an nbc tally, the case numbers are leading to record hospitalizations of children with covid in nine different states, and while some of those children are being treated for other conditions when they test positive, doctors say a significant number are getting serious cases of covid. >> covid in a very short period of time has become one of the

leading medical causes of death for children in this country. so i think it's about time that we stopped down playing the significance of covid for children. >> reporter: the omicron variant is even having an impact on the unborn, holy cross in fort lauderdale is temporarily shutting down its maternity ward because of a surge in covid cases among the hospital's staff. the at the texas children's hospital, there were zero pediatric cases when december began. now there are 70. >> today's hospitalization numbers have surpassed our peak of patients during the recent delta surge. >> reporter: the problem say health experts, low vaccination rates for young children. >> we are beginning to vaccinate our 5 to 11-year-olds, but when you look at who's been in the hospital, it's actually those 5 to 11-year-olds who have not yet received the vaccine. >> reporter: as the omicron variant has surged in recent weeks, the fda authorized pfizer boosters for children ages 12 to 15 and third doses for those 5

to 11 with compromised immune systems. some parents hopeful the extra dose of protection will help their kids stay in school. >> i just would like it if everybody felt confident in the booster and all the kids got vaccinated because then i think, you know, i don't only want my kids to be safe. >> reporter: another semester of uncertainty for school children are families facing difficult choices in the weeks ahead. stephanie gosk, nbc news new york. with me now is dr. susanna hill, a pediatric airway surgeon at columbia university. you are unique because not only are you a pediatric airway surgeon, but your husband is a teacher at new york city public school. tell me how you guys are navigating the current surge? >> yeah, it's really interesting being in those two different areas that have been so affected by this pandemic, and you know, i get a whole lot of information from my husband and his experience at schools and, frankly, it's been really difficult, i think, for teachers

who want to be in school, they want to be teaching, they want kids to show up and be healthy, and it's been hard. and then, you know, i'm seeing those kids who are getting sick in my outpatient clinic, and then unfortunately the new who are getting very sick when they end up in the hospital. >> when you see the kids who are getting very sick, are they vaccinated kids? are they kids with underlying conditions? what can you tell us so parents know what to expect? >> yeah, katy, i agree with the same information that others are relaying. in our experience here in new york city, as others are saying around the country, it's the unvaccinated kids and largely the unvaccinated unboosted adults who are ending up in the hospital. that's what we're seeing here as well. in fact, you're 15 times more likely to end up in the hospital with covid here in new york city whether you're a kid or an adult if you're unvaccinated. so vaccinations are playing a huge role. >> if you have a kid, though, who can't get vaccinated who is

under 5, how would you be living your life right now? >> that's really challenging, and so i think the key to that is getting everybody around that individual vaccinated and protected and using all those layered protective measures we've been talking about. that's why masking is so important outside that close bubble of people who you know are safe for that child to be around, and that's where it gets really difficult with the schools being open. you know, it's -- i am in favor of schools being open, and i think things like providing masks and tests can keep schools safe, but i think it's very difficult to ask those children to are immunocompromised who are unvaccinated or unable to be vaccinated to be in that environment right now. so it's a difficult position, and i certainly would understand if families with an immunocompromised kid wanted to keep their child out of the classroom for the next few weeks while this surge is progressing and hopefully peaking. we'll see. >> yeah, i mean, i would

understand that too. and i would want some sort of offering for remote learning for my kid if i was in that position. dr. hills, thank you so much for joining us. good luck to you, good luck to your husband. thank you both for all that you do. and still ahead, it has been nearly a year since rioters stormed the capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. in moments the capitol police will detail what they've done to make sure it doesn't happen again. and senate democrats meet as the party shifts its focus to a new push to pass voting rights.

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the united states capitol police board is holding a news conference right now to discuss the improvements made to secure the u.s. capitol. in the year since the deadly january 6th insurrection, the force dedicated to protecting the premier symbol of american democracy has attempted to transform itself. the leaders who were in charge that day are now gone. the intelligence failures that left the legislative branch vulnerable have been identified, but staffing shortages dwindling morale and slow progress making recommended changes has renewed questions on whether the force

adequately -- is adequately equipped to protect the capitol. this as the number of threats aimed at members of congress and the capitol itself rises to an all-time high. joining me now is "new york times" justice department reporter and msnbc contributor, katie benner and university of michigan law professor and former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade, she's also an msnbc legal analyst. a lot of recommendations on what the capitol police needed to do. what are you expecting to hear today? >> you know, i think we're going to expect to hear more about -- more questions about were the capitol police prepared enough, what could be done in the future? can the capitol police rectify those mistakes and also i think we might hear about some of the long-term impacts. we have stories coming out talking extensively about how the capitol police, many people on that force, several suffer from trauma that reverberating a year later, and how is that exacerbated by the fact that there are many people in america who don't believe the attack was serious or don't believe the way

it occurred was accurately portrayed in the press. >> there's also going to be a news conference tomorrow from attorney general merrick garland, and there's been a lot of pressure to more forcefully hold those responsible for the insurrection and the people who have been responsible for the rhetoric that led up to the insurrection more fully accountable. what sort of reaction are we expecting to get from the attorney general, and i guess what's going on behind the scenes from what your reporting suggests? >> sure, two things, one, i think that we can expect merrick garland to say the things he has said ever since he took office, he will not speak to specific cases. he will not get into whether the justice department will try to investigate or prosecute people at the ellipse that day making speeches, people who were participating in events that led up to the january 6th attack which was meant of course to overturn the election or any of the other occurrences in the weeks before january 6th meant to, of course, overturn the election. he's not going to speak to that. he will only say that the department will follow the rule

of law. our sense within the department are from our reporting is that there are a couple of things in play. there is, of course, the house investigation, and the house has already said if it finds criminal activity within its purview of its investigation, it will refer that to the justice department and then the justice department debate about what to do in terms of a prosecution. now, i think that the public seems to think that it would be easy to charge somebody like a mark meadows or the former president simply because of what we saw play out on our television screens that day. the justice department would need to secure a conviction not just at the district level but at the appeals level, and perhaps even before the supreme court, so any case would have to be beyond airtight, generally speaking, when i speak with former prosecutors they say this is not the time to do novel legal theory. this is not the time to stretch because you don't want to weaken yourself. this is something you don't want to lose if it's a case that you worked to bring. >> barbara, what do you think of

that legal theory? because there are folks out there who say, listen, we are up for something even worse come the next election, and if there's not a -- if the charges are not deterrents for these crimes, it's just not enough. >> i agree with that assessment. as katie said, i don't think prosecutors are going to craft creative arguments here out of whole cloth, but i think if there are laws that have been violated, they have a duty to prosecute those violations. what i'll be looking for from merrick garland tomorrow is certainly a recap of the cases that they have brought and certainly i wouldn't expect him to do the things that we complained to jim comey about or william barr about which is talking about people under investigation. but what i would like to hear from him is some assurance to the public that they are looking into everybody who may have been involved in the january 6th insurrection as well as events leading up to it, excluding nobody, that everybody's on the table. people who plotted, who organized, who funded. all of those people, i'd like to

hear that. i'd also like to hear that the justice department is paying attention to what's happening in congress and will utilize the evidence that's coming out of that process for any criminal case because although the justice department policy is to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation, there is also a provision that says except when necessary to assure the public. so i think now in the light of this catastrophic event on january 6th that threatens democracy, i think it behooves him to assure the public they're on the job. >> the capitol police chief, thomas menger is answering questions. he says he does not have any safety of the campus on thursday. he does concede there are a number of current threats and they're going up every year,

9,600 right now. adam schiff will join my colleague hallie jackson in the next hour. stay tuned for that. and chuck schumer is invoking the first anniversary of the january 6th insurrection as a reason to act right this minute on voting rights. >> the attack on january 6th was not a one-off. it did not materialize out of the blue. on the contrary, january 6th was a symptom of a much broader illness that has now infected the modern republican party, an effort to delegitimize our elections rooted in donald trump's big lie. >> schumer is promising to bring a bill to the floor by january 17th, martin luther king day, or he says the senate could vote on a filibuster rule.

joining me now capitol hill correspondent, leanne caldwell, and msnbc contributor anna palmer. voting rights are upfront for senator schumer, leanne. what are the chances, though, that it's going to pass this senate? they have no majority, slim majority. >> reporter: yeah, they have a slim majority, and they need more than that at least to pass -- change the senate rules, and two members of that slim majority aren't there yet. senator joe manchin, he gaggled with reporters earlier today where he was asked over and over again where he stands on this issue. there's a couple of things here. he said that he's continuing to talk with his colleagues and he did not rule out any sort of rule change, but he was not enthusiastic about it either. let's listen to what he had to say. >> let me just say that to being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option, it's a very, very difficult. it's a heavy lift. >> i'm not agreeing to any of

this to the extent i want to talk and see all the options we have open, and that's what we're looking at, so they're bringing all the experts in what type of options, what we can do. we think that for us to go it alone, no matter what side does it, it ends up coming back at you pretty hard. >> and so senator manchin is going to talk. he's actually meeting with senator schumer and other advocates of changing the rules to get voting rights later today in an ongoing discussion on this issue. though senator schumer just held a press conference, too, and he admitted he's not there yet. he doesn't have all 50 senators in order to do this. senator manchin and senator sinema are going to get a lot of pressure from republicans. senator mcconnell just held a press conference and his opening statement was that the majority leader chuck schumer is hell bent on ruining the senate by changing the rules. and so we could see this very -- this messaging from republicans trying to persuade manchin to

walk back from this cliff. >> i know the idea is that you don't want to lose the 60-vote threshold because you want there to be compromise in the senate, but there is so little compromise in the senate right now, anna, and so little actually gets done in terms of major legislation because of partisanship, because no one's willing to go to the other side to vote on legislation any longer because all elections are now settling national elections. >> yeah, i mean, i think your point is worthwhile in the sense that there isn't a lot that happens, but institutionalists like a senator mcconnell would say that that is actually what's supposed to happen. it should be a slower moving body than what it is the house where things kind of shift every two years, oftentimes with power, and you're really kind of just a partisan voting block. i think the other thing mcconnell will point to is the fact that there has been some bipartisan legislation over the past year or so when it comes to certainly the infrastructure

bill, a massive bill. several republicans to go with democrats on as well as some of the more recent, you know, big spending bills around covid relief. so yes, there's not a lot that does happen, but i think you're going to see a big push by republicans, and also, i think it's a really kind of a controversial move by schumer to set this state. when he tried to force senator joe manchin to do a vote on the bbb before the end of the year, it didn't work in his favor, and it's unclear if this is going to have any different type of result. >> and joe manchin is still saying he's not talking about bbb, anna palmer, thank you so much, leanne caldwell, thank you as well. coming up, attorneys for prince andrew go back to work to try to get a civil sexual assault lawsuit against the british royal thrown out. out ofn for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein.

calling conditions that led to a stand it still on i-95 a perfect storm. hundreds of drivers trapped on a 50-mile stretch of highway in northern virginia overnight when a snowstorm hit the area. some are still stuck right as we speak in the cold without access to food, water or bathrooms. among those in that backup is virginia senator tim kaine, still on the road, 25 hours

after he left for what is usually a two-hour drive to washington, d.c. our own josh letterman was also trapped, and he described a scary situation earlier on "today." >> no signs of any emergency vehicles that we could see. now, you don't know if that's because they can't get to where you are but you really start to think if there was a medical emergency, someone out of gas and heat. it's 26 degrees, and there's no way that anybody can get to you in this situation. >> josh, and crew, waiting for help for disabled vehicles. what a mess. lawyers for prince andrew back in court trying to get a civil sex calle assault lawsuit thrown out filed by virginia giuffre claims she was sexually

assaulted by jeffrey epstein and prince andrew. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley joins me. what happened today? >> reporter: katy, prince andrew's lawyering hoping for a settlement. not staffed. probably a couple days before they hear anything at all about this but we heard from prince andrew's lawyering insisting that settlement you mentioned, the one between jeffrey epstein and virginia giuffre only unsealed yesterday, 2009 settlement, saw ms. giuffre was paid half a million from jeffrey epstein, lawyers for prince an due say he shouldn't be subject to any further claims. essentially saying this very sort of -- very unspecific

settlement language and one of the settlement terms in this, potential defendants. virginia giuffre saying took that half a million from jeffrey epstein wouldn't be pursuing further cases against epstein or any of her associates. now, prince andrew wasn't mentioned specifically in that settlement though did mention royalty, academics, politicians. certain career paths and sort of subjects that could have said certain people weren't going to be accused, but these lawyers say that basically this unsealed document means prince andrew should be getting off scot-free. the next couple of days we'll probably hear a final decision from the judge in manhattan about this. >> we'll be watching. thank you so much. that is going to do it for me today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. is

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try nervivenerve relief. zuriel: st. jude gave us hope. stephanie: all you've got to do is take care of your child, focus on her healing, give her a life. that for mother means a lot. and-- and thank you to st. jude. we are coming on the air here. president biden announcing a new ramp-up in the fight against covid saying the government is adding now testing sites across the country doubling amount of tests on the market. the president says schools should stay open this winter, but not all cities an states are doing that. this hour our heidi przbyla with our exclusive interview with the secretary of education. what he's saying about opening schools and different testing el