preserve his communications related to the january 6th attack on the capital, including his communications with former president trump, and others at the trump white house. they are asking him to come in for a transcribed interview, asking him to commit a transcri interviewed. they are not subpoenaing him, nor are they raising that prospect, of course, that kind of prospect looms in an investigation in which lots of other people have been subpoenaed. in this letter to the cable news host, they released a series of his texts. his communications with trump white house chief of staff mark meadows in particular. the reason they have released those texts it appears is to make the case both to him and the public. that he is an important fact witness for the investigation. and they need to ask him asks about what he knows. he may know stuff other people don't. now the tv host in question is a man named sean hannitity. he's a prime time week night host at the fox news channel.

and regardless of whether or not you have heard of him or seen his commentary about january 6th or about trump more broadly, it does appear from what the investigation released tonight that mr. hannity was kind of in the thick of it, at least with the white house chief of staff, and apparently with the president himself. they say quote, the select committee now has information in its possession indicating you had a advanced knowledge regarding president trump's and his legal teams planning for january 6. it also appears that you were expressing concerns and providing advice to president trump at certain white house staff regarding that planning. you also have relevant communications while the riot was underway and the days thereafter. these communications make you a fact witness in our investigation. the select committee is in possession of dozens of text messages you sent to and received from former white house chief of staff mark meadows and others related to the 2020

election and president trump's efforts to contest the outcome of that vote. for example, on december 31, 2020, you texted mark meadows the following. quote, we can't lose the entire white house counsel office. i do not see january 6 happening the way he is being told. he presumably meaning the president? after the 6th, he should announce he will lead the nationwide effort to reform voting integrity. go to fl -- presumably, that's florida. and watch joe, joe biden, mess up daily. stay engaged when he speaks people will listen. this text suggests you had knowledge of concerns by president trump white house counsel office regarding the legality of the former president's plans for january 6. these facts are directly relevant to our inquiry. similarly, on january 5th, the night before the violent riot you sent and received a stream of texts you wrote, quote, i'm

very worried about the next 48 hours, but the counting of the electoral votes scheduled for the following day january 6th, 1:00 p.m., why were you concerned about the next 48 hours? also on the evening of january 5, you texted white house chief of staff quote pence pressure. white house counsel will leave. what communications or information led you to conclude white house counsel would leave? what precisely did you know at that time? the committee continues, quote, it also appears from other text messages that you may have had a conversation directly with president trump on the evening of january 5th, and perhaps other times regarding his planning for january 6th. we're aware of and interested in your communication to mr. meadows and others during the violent attack on january 6. as the rioters were attempting to occupy the capitol building. for example on january 6 you texted to mark meadows, press coverage relating to a potential effort by members of trump's

cabinet to remove him from office using the 25th amendment. as you may recall secretary devos and secretary chou both resigned following president trump's conduct on january 6th. as did members of the president's white house staff. we would like to question you regarding any conversation you had with mark meadows or others about any effort to remove president trump using the 25th amendment. additionally you appear to have had a discussion with president trump on january 10, that may have raised a number of specific concerns about his actions in the days before the inauguration january 20. you wrote to mark meadows and congressman jim jordan on january 10th, quote, guys, we have a clear path to land the plane in nine days. he can't mention the election again. ever. i did not have a good call with him today. and worse i'm not sure what is left to do or say. i don't like not knowing if it's truly understood. ideas? then that text message sent to

white house chief of staff mark meadows and republican congressman jim jordan. the committee continues, quote, in the communications are subject to privilege. they bare directly on the issues before the committee. we cannot in good faith fail to question you on these and specific issues relevant to the vgs. including an investigation into the facts and circumstances relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power. this is interesting. again this gentleman is a cable news host. the committee says quote, we stress that our goal is not to seek information regarding any of your broadcasts. or your political views. or commentary. we have deep respect for the first amendment to our constitution. as we detailed above, you appear to have factual information directly relevant to the events of january 6th and the attack on institutions of our democracy. we have a duty to understand all of the under lying facts and make legislative recommendations. please identify for the select committee the name of your counsel. we'll work closely with the person as soon as possible.

to schedule a time for a transcribed interview. we're also interested in any other communications you may have had with the white house, president trump or any other persons involved in the events of january 6th. we now ask you to preserve all records of such communication. we have no doubt that you love our country and respect our constitution. now is the time to step forward and serve the interest of your country. we thank you in advance for your cooperation. and it is signed bennie thompson, the chairman and liz cheney, vice chair of the investigation. what a world we're in. again this letter sent tonight to a cable news host at the popular fox news channel. we don't know how he will respond. we don't know if he'll provide information to the committee or not. the committee should be noted they had previously released another of his text messages to the white house. he pleaded for president trump to tell supporters to leave the

capitol on january 6th. so, we know from this man's private communications that he believed at the time of the attack on the capitol that trump was responsible for and he could control the behavior of the trump-supporting mob that day. for what it's worth that sentiment, that trump was responsible that he could have stopped january 6 if he wanted to, that is not something this gentleman articulated publicly about january 6. although his private communications at the time suggest that is what he actually knew to be the case, so, we will see. his lawyer says that he's reviewing the request from the committee. and there's been no substantive response yet. we shall see. in terms of connecting the dots here, though, there had been previous reporting including from testimony to the senate that trump's white house chief of staff pat cipollone had said at a white house meeting on

january 3rd that he would resign as white house council, he is reportedly to have said that in a meeting in the oval office where trump was discussing the possibility of installing a new attorney general so he could use the justice department to basically force the falsification of the election results. we knew previously from other testimony that cipollone had threatened to resign over that thought, about the justice department being used that way. these new texts from hannity released tonight suggest the white house counsel also threatened to resign. even earlier than that. four days earlier. last new year's eve, what was that threat to resign about? also, from the texts from mr. hannity released by the investigation tonight it would appear the white house council mr. cipollone was renewing the threats to resign. on days later on january 5.

the night before the attack on the capitol. according to texts that threat to resign would appear to have been a response to the pressure that was being put on vice president pence. by trump and his co-conspirators, and his pressure to try to get him to effectively spoil the counting of the electoral college votes. in congress. on january 6. did pat cipollone threaten to resign on new year's eve on january 3rd, on january 5th? again we do not know if hannity will respond to this request for him to provide information to the committee. to flesh out the facts around the previously unknown details about what happened. it is interesting they are appealing to his patriotism. and asking him to give information to the committee. i don't know. i think regardless of party, regardless of cable news outlet of your choice, all americans would like to know what mr. hannity knew on january 5th that made him text to the white house, i am very worried about the next 48 hours. what did he know about what was going to happen in the next 48

hours that made him tell the white house chief of staff he was very worried. we shall see. but tonight we have something else new. the publication of a book today. by a member of the january 6 investigation. who was also the lead impeachment manager appointed by house speaker nancy pelosi. to prosecute the case against former president trump in the second impeachment, the impeachment for inciting the attack on the capitol this time last year. as you will recall, it feels like it's been five minutes and also 50 years. this time last year the house in fact voted to impeach trump. that vote in the house was january 13th. one month later, a majority of the u.s. senate 57 senators also voted to convict the former president. that was the largest bipartisan vote for an impeachment in american history. but a 58 -- 57 vote majority is

not enough to secure a conviction in the senate. to get a conviction you need two-thirds. 67 senators to vote. not 57. looking back on that i mean, it's pretty -- the historical consequences that are really stark, right, had enough republican senators that day voted to obtain that formal conviction, had it been 67 senators is voting to convict and not 57, former president donald trump would not just be the only president twice impeached in u.s. history which he is, he would also become the law from ever running for any public office again. had they actually convicted him. had they got 67 votes he would have been barred from running for public office ever again. he was not convicted. 57 votes not 67. because he was not convicted, he is not barred from running for office again. he is likely to run for president again.

even as the justice department and the january 6th investigation weigh the question right now of whether -- could ever be held criminally liable. for his role in the conspiracy to stop the transfer of power to the new president. and thereby overthrow the united states government. the january 6 attack on the capitol was part of the plan. we know it. thanks to a year of investigation that it was only part of the plan. it was an integral part of the plan. it was just part of it. three term maryland congressman jamie raskin sits on the january 6th investigation now. he also was the lead impeachment manager. he personally led the effort against trump for the january 6 attack. the week the capitol was attacked last year, jamie raskin lost his beloved 25 year-old son tommy to suicide. tommy died on december 31. he was buried on january 5.

january 5th last year. congressman raskin was with his daughter and son-in-law at the u.s. capitol the following day, the day after his son's funeral, january 6th when the attack at the capitol happened. congressman raskin's new book out today which "unthinkable:trauma, truth and the trials of american democracy." the book is in some sense it's a biography of his son. a love letter to his son. it's also an astonishing very difficult loving account of losing his son. it is also a memoir about his life. his own leap in particular from being a constitutional law professor to being a very high profile member of congress. it's also a searing and original and at times very surprising account of the attack on january 6. and the impeachment that followed. a lot of insider information about the impeachment effort we never had before. it's also a clarion call about

the ongoing threat from trump and from the authoritarian anti-democratic forces that he has unleashed in this country that are more dangerous now than they've ever been. in jamie raskin's new book out today we learned among other things that he had initially proposed a motion that senators should vote on trump's impeachment by secret ballot. they shouldn't stand up and vote in their own name ts. but conduct the vote in secret. a lot of americans believed that had it been a secret ballot the conviction of trump wouldn't have just been assured. it might have been unanimous. raskin proposed that senators should sit alphabetically. rather than by party. to break senators apart from their partisan bonds at least a little bit, at least in that one physical sense so they could more easily vote their conscience, when it came time to convict or acquit. we learn that he's come to see

the attack on january 6 as three coinciding rings. the first ring, the outer ring were the rioters who came to scream and smash things. the second ring the middle ring was the insurrectionists who came to actually stop the congressional vote counting process. including the paramilitaries who were trained and in some cases brought arms to the capitol region. to try to achieve that goal. the innermost ring is the ring of the coup. quote in my mind it was here in the bull's-eye center of the action that trump operated likely along with chief of staff, rudy giuliani, house minority leader, michael flynn. senator josh hawley, representative jim jordan and the most extreme elements of the gop house and senate conferences. the strategy for trump to stay in power. the most basic idea from

specific states. if in when pence did that, by vaguely citing allegations of fraud in those states and quote returning their votes to the state legislature, pence would succeed in lowering biden's electoral vote total to below 270. which would immediately trigger under the 12th amendment a contingent election. the house contingent election the one place where trump could still, quote, win the election. again, those are the three rings of sort of the attack that jaskin i think presciently describes in terms of what was going on, on january 6. of course there is tonight ahead of attorney general speech tomorrow. merrick garland, 2:30 p.m. will give an address to justice department staff and the american public about the january 6th investigation and prosecution. there's tonight still a wide open pressing question, as to whether anybody in that inner

most ring, the ring of the coup, the people who actually devised and tried to implement the plan to overthrow the government, there remains an open question tonight as to whether they'll get off scot-free. efforts will go unanswered. the question remains. whether they will have to answer for that -- for what they did. with anything more than more chance tos try to do it again. here's how jamie raskin writes it. from that day, from the floor of the house. he says, quote, boom. i hear the sound i will never forget. a sound like a battering ram. the sound of a group of people barrelling up against the central door. with some huge hard thick object. hell-bent on entering the house chamber. the members nearby press furniture up against the door and a number of us run to the door to protect it.

we are then quickly told to get back by capitol police officers. who rush in and defend the entrance with their guns drawn. the pounding accelerates and we can hear the sound of angry macho chanting out there, too "hang mike pence, hang mike pence." also "we want trump, we want trump." someone official calls upon us to evacuate. calmly. everyone moves. some people run. to the speakers lobby. carrying gas masks. i look up to the gallery to see our colleagues who have been frozen in place on the democratic side crouching and sliding through the rows to make their way to the galleria above the republican side. i see new hampshire representative and california representative gera jacobs, only her fourth day on the job crueling their way over to the gallery above the republican side. we escape and reunited later a colleague tells me they decide ds to cross over to the republican side because they thought a mass shooter who entered would be less likely to aim the republican side of the house. meantime the officers up there

have locked all the doors to keep the rioters from breaking in but they will now presumably unlock them to get our colleagues out. i feel strange about leaving them up there. who knows where we're going. where will any of us find safety on january 6? a bloodthirsty mob of hundreds has entered the building outside the medal detectors and with no security check. who knows what weapons they are carrying. what if one of the rioters is carrying an ar-15? many of us are thinking the same thought. i wonder where all the chaos is taking us. whether my daughter tabitha, my son-in-law, hank, chief of staff are safe at the capitol and they will be rescued soon. whether i should try to turn back and find officers. whether the insurrectionists have firearms. and allies plan to escalate the violence. facing an insurrection a coup or civil war. whether we will finally impeach the traitor for setting loose the dogs of war upon us and perhaps invoke at last the unsung 25th amendment.

whether deer america will survive this fall of head first descent. i feel curiosity, anger and resolve. we travel down down down. faster. please hurry. down, down, down into the dark complex basement passage way of the capitol. one thing i don't sense as we're jostled this way and shepherded that. there's one emotion i have not experienced at all on this persistlently gloomy and objectively terrifying day and that i will not experience all through the night. that is fear. i feel no fear. i felt no fear today at all. but we have lost our tommy raskin and the very worst thing that could ever have happened to us has already happened. i'm still in the land of the living. and tommy is with me somehow every step of the way. occupying my heart and filling my chest with oxygen. showing me the way to some kind of safety. my beautiful son is giving me courage. as we flee the u.s. capitol

building for our lives. my trama, my wound. has become my shield of defense. and my path of escape. and all i can think of is my son propelling me forward to fight. joining us now is congressman jamie raskin. democrat of maryland. the author of the new book "unthinkable:trauma, truth and the trials of american democracy." congressman, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me, rachel. >> so i have to ask you, reading the book and knowing you a little bit and having talked to you over the course of the last few years. you are incredibly articulate. unimaginably articulate about your choice to stay public and to keep working and indeed write this book in the middle of the grief and challenge. now that you are putting it out to the world, and able to talk about it, does it still feel like the right thing to do? does it feel like you had to do

it? >> well, tommy was a young man. indeed, he was a boy who was filled with extraordinary moral and political passions. and i think if feels right because of who he was and what he wanted for the world. tommy was in his second year at harvard law school. when we lost him. and he was deeply engaged in movements for human rights against war, or animal rights and welfare and to defend and expand democracy. he was asking a lot more of democracy. not less. and so i did feel him very much in my heart and chest. through the entire period. and it's been a tough year, rachel, as you know. and i wasn't getting a lot of sleep for a long time. i was up at nighttime, and there were very few people left to call even on the west coast when i was up so late. and i decided that i could

either spend the rest of my life obsessed with this 50 day period in my life where i could try to record it for my daughters, for my family, for my constituent constituents, for my friends and fellow countrymen and women. and i would do that and try to make sense of what happened. >> a year on now, how do you think tommy would feel about the work that's happened in the country? in response to the attack, in the effort to try to investigate what happened and pursue accountability. obviously, the first step to pursue accountability is the effort that you led, the impeachment. you're a member of the january 6 investigation. we have learned so much more since. there's open questions about what happened and how it will be accounted for. how do you think he would view our progress over the year? >> well, when tommy was not under the darkness of his

depression, he was the life of the party. and he was radically optimistic. and buoyant about our prospects for changing things in america and all over the world. and i think he would be looking on the bright side of how many people are cooperating. with our investigation. how many people are coming forward to tell the truth. about what happened and how many people really want to solidify the institutions of american democracy. there's no doubt we get closer to donald trump there's a coderry of people like steve bannon and mark meadows who are very much protecting the secrets of what took place but i think the truth will prevail. i think that tommy had confidence that in democracy, you're not going to be able to fool all of the people all of the time, the truth is going to resurface.

>> you're hard on yourself throughout the book. both in terms of seeing the sign of what was going on with your son. in terms of seeing the signs of what was going on with the country. and with the democracy. you write in detail about how speaker pelosi in the spring of 20 had asked awe some of your colleagues to basically game-out all of the ways that the election could be messed with. the ways that trump and his cohort might try to corrupt the election result, or try to steal it. you describe the different scenarios you prepared for her, but then you say this, we predicted every maneuver except for one. the unleashing of mob violence to intimidate the vice president in congress. and stop the vote. to provide a pretext and context for trump to potentially intervene with military force under the insurrection act to put down the uprising he himself had helped to organize.

hindsight is 2020. if if you had the thing you beat yourself up for is not seeing that coming. had you been act to predict that as a potential out come, is there something that could have been done proactively to stop it? >> we just spent countless hours figuring out every possible parliamentary maneuver and countermaneuver, if vice president pence, in fact, decided to declare the extra constitutional lawless powers to reject and rebuff the college votes. if the gop pursued their objections to particular states or states to walk out. we didn't try to predict every possible parliamentary maneuver, but of course being democrats and liberal-minded people, we were thinking completely within the context of the constitution and legal system. and that's why i quote some of the right wings favorite philosophers. like carl-h schmidt who said

sovereign is he who controls the exception. that's why we moved out of the rule of law and twilight land of exception. they were talking about invoking the insurrection act. they were making things up about the electoral count. making things up about the constitution. and that we had not prepared for. that, indeed, i fault myself for. just like i said i fault myself for not talking about suicide to tommy. and i liken not talking to a depressed person about suicide to not talking to a teenager about sex. you think somehow you are being clever. and you are suppressing a reality that you don't want to materialize. but in fact, you're making it worse because when you don't speak these words it endows them with more power. i likened not talking about suicide to not talking about fascism. and i think we have to talk about fascism which madeline albright has reminded us is not

a specific ideological system with a particular content. it's a strategy for taking power and maintaining power against the rule of law. and against the majority. in a democracy. >> something that doesn't happen all at once. it starts as you describe and madeleine albright has observed it starts in places that you might not expect in creeps. if you ignore it while it's starting, it only grows. we're going to have a take a quick break. i hope you don't mind if i ask you to stay through the break. i want to ask you about the breaking news that i just described. the investigation into january 6 has asked somebody in my job of cable news host to testify and provide documents to the committee. obviously that's a sort of a red hot question. and a live prospect for a lot of reasons. if you don't mind, sir, we're going to take a quick break and i'd love to ask you about that when we come back.

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we are back with congressman jamie raskin of maryland.

whose really incredible new book is out today called "unthinkable:trauma, truth and trials of american democracy." congressman, thank you for sticking with us. i appreciate you being here. there is a surprise news tonight that the january 6 investigation you are a member of that nine member investigation. is seeking the cooperation of a fox news channel host named sean hannity. because of texts with white house chief of staff mark meadows and communications with other people at the trump white house and january 6th. tur a constitutional law professor. you have an acute sensitivity to not only the first amendment. but to all the rights inshrined in the constitution in the bill of rights. are there any first amendment concerns that you have or any first amendment concerns that you think should be aired around this request to mr. hannity that he provide the information to the investigation? >> well, the premium court has repeatedly said everybody owes the honest truthful testimony to

congress. or a court. when we come calling. you can be a truck driver and elementary school teacher, you can be a doctor or you can work for msnbc or fox news. but if you have evidence that is relevant to a congressional investigation or court case, you turn over the evidence. we were very clear in this letter that was sent to mr. hannity it was not about anything he said on the air. and he's not going to be in trouble for any view political viewpoint he's taken. that, of course, would trouble me a lot. this is about what he knew about plans to attack the peaceful transfer of power on january 6. he has to testify like everybody else does. >> it does seem from the text messages attributed to mr. hannity that were released by the information tonight it is advancing the story for us a little bit. it had previously been described to the senate actually, by witnesses testifying to the

senate, that the white house counsel had threatened to resign on january 3rd, in reaction to trump some plan by which he would have the justice department, essentially act to falsify the election results. and again previously had been described publicly in that testimony that the white house counsel was going to resign over that. hannity's text messages suggest there were a couple of instances in which the white house counsel was threatening to resign. one on january -- described on new year's eve, december 31st. another the night before the january 6th attack. am i correctly reading into those that he's describing sort of new standoffs within the administration? new nerves about the potential legality of the president's course that we didn't previously know about? >> well, we knew that trump's own appointed leadership at the department of justice for example was threatening to resign if he indeed go forward

with the plan to install richard clark as new attorney general. so he could proclaim the big lie as justification for getting mike pence to reject the electoral college votes and kick the whole thing into a contingent election. this is the exact same process. there were people who saw the constitutional danger of what donald trump was doing. and they tried to blow the whistle a little bit in their way, they tried to act as a restraining force. of course, they didn't go out and talk to the department of justice. they didn't go out to talk to the media. they didn't blow the whistle publicly, but at least they were doing what they could behind the scenes to try to stop it. it tells us a lot about what was taken place there. and about how we might be able to avoid a situation like this in the future. of course, that's the charge of the january 6th committee to tell the truth in a comprehensive and painstaking

and fine grain way about what took place. to make recommendations legislative and policy. recommendations about how to avoid a future attack on american democracy. >> congressman, one last question about the investigation. again you're the only constitutional law professor in congress. and it's comes in handy way more often than it's comfortable to come in handy these da. but given your unique perspective on it, i wonder whether or not you have a view on congress has the power to subpoena its own members for the an investigation like this. congressman jordan, perry of pennsylvania. both refused or at requests to voluntarily provide information and testimony of the investigation. if you and your fellow members of the investigation decide that you want to subpoena them, do you believe you have the power to do that? it's never been done before. >> well, without saying anything about what the committee may or may not do, i think it's clear that we do have such a power under article 1, we have the power to define the rules of our

own proceedings. we have the power to discipline and potentially expel members. also the speech and debate clause says that members of congress shall not be questioned anywhere else other than congress. about conduct they may have engaged in. and i think that clearly indicates permission for questioning our own members which is something, of course, we do you the time in the ethics committee. >> congressman jamie raskin, democratic congressman from maryland. author of a really, really excellent, heartbreaking new book which is called "unthinkable:trauma, truths and trials of american democracy." congressman, thank you for speaking to us tonight. i know that nothing is easy at this point. including conversations like this. bless you for having them. thanks for being here. >> thank you very much for reading my book and having me rachel. >> appreciate it. we have more ahead. stay with us.

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among the vaccinated in workplaces across america including here at the white house. but if you're vaccinated sp boosted, you are highly protected. you know, be concerned about omicron but don't be alarmed. >> be concerned, check. but not alarmed. i'll get back to you about that part. ask me in five minutes. let's see. president biden today met with the covid response team at the white house. he said the omicron wave that is crashing over the country now is something we should be concerned about. but not alarmed about if we are vaccinated. still, the distance between concern and alarm is a fine distance -- is a small distance for a lot of us. the great state of maryland today, for example, declared a 30-day state of emergency to mobilize the military to help health officials respond to the

virus and save maryland hospitals. we also learned today that new military medical teams are fanning out to yet more states. military medical personnel are working in ten states across the country. here's my worry, the hospitalization numbers are tracking dramatically upward in multiple states now. on trajectories that look basically as steep as the incredible and unprecedented rise in case numbers that we're seeing now. infection numbers going up like crazy is one thing but seeing the graphs of hospitalization numbers going up just as steeply that is unsettle, too. the white house today announced they are doubling the size of the order they placed for pfizer very effective by scarce antiviral pill. the u.s. is ordering 20 million course of that pfizer treatment. instead of ten. the administration changed guidelines on boosters. saying pfizer booster five months after your second shot. rather than six. the fda is just approved booster

shots for kids age 12 to 15. so, there's a lot going on, there's a lot of movement, there's a lot of action happening in terms to response to this wave but the hospitalization numbers and the case numbers are both looking scary right now, honestly. joining us now is dr. david kesler who has been a great source of guidance for us here over these past few months. he's the chief science advice to the biden administration, dr. kesler, thanks for making time tonight. >> thank you for having me, rachel. >> the president said if you are vaccinated and boosted you should look at the rising case numbers and current wave with concern. but not alarm. i will tell you honestly i feel alarmed looking at the hospitalization numbers rising so steeply. i was not alarmed about the case numbers rising because we've been told and you've explained that the cases in many cases are more mild.

not necessarily as threatening. seeing the hospitalization numbers go up so steeply when the hospitals were so taxed, i'm worried about that. >> so let's go through what we know. first, cases are everywhere. and, yes, there's an increase in hospitalizations and my friends in the icu units, they are crushed. no question, increase in hospitalization. but i think we are seeing something fundamentally different. that could change. it could be due to the variant. i mean, it could be to the extent of the immunity, but if you look at the rate of hospitalization, all these people now infected, the number of hospitalizations is reduced. and most importantly, and this is key, this and this should comfort you, rachel, when you get into the hospital there's

less chance you're going to end up on a breathing machine or in the icu and there's less death. that's key. we're going to get through this. this is fundamentally something is different in the lung pathology with this variant. yes, enormous number of cases. but i think we'll get through this and i think the president is exactly right. >> to be clear, what you're saying is even among those who are hospitalized, we're seeing less clinical severity. in terms of progression to having to be intubated. having to be put on a ventilator, progression to death. the clinical severity is less among those who are hospitalized. is that what you're saying? >> that's exactly correct. now, that doesn't mean these hospitals aren't very strained. but the fact is there is less death, less advancement to the

icu. and that is very good news. >> it is good news and something i feel like i have seen sort of preliminary data and foreign data and everything hearing you put it in simple terms that is a significant thing. obviously, part of what is different now in the hospitals and even in outpatient setting compared to, say, a year ago, when we were seeing huge numbers of a different kind and a different variant, one of the things that's different is the means that we have to treat people. we did just see this announcement that we're doubling the order for the new therapeutics for the new very promising pfizer antiviral pill. i have to ask you, are we getting it any sooner? obviously, that means we'll get more in the end, but are we getting access to that dose faster? >> we're getting some sooner but

supply is tight in the near term. we'll have about 200,000 courses this month. next, we go to the 650,000 courses in march. by april, we get to 2 million in that month, and that's when things open up. by june, we'll have the first 10 million and by september, we'll have 20 million. but the most important thing, in the meantime, even if you don't have access to that pfizer pill, there are three other treatments. and we talked about that. there's over 4 million doses of those treatments available this month. and don't forget, most important thing, even if you haven't had your first dose of vaccine, please go get that. that's absolutely key. there are a lot of treatments available, more on the way. >> dr. david kessler, chief science adviser to the biden administration's response. i know there's a lot going on in terms of policy response, trying to to be nimble in response to this gigantic new wave. thank you for spending time with

us sand sort of talking me down off the ledge. i appreciate it, sir. >> my pleasure, rachel. >> all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 36 months when you add an adjustable base. only for a limited time.

when you see cars sitting back to back at a standstill like this one you expect that the people in those cars have been waiting in traffic for a while, maybe even for a few hours if it is bad. you do not expect they have been stuck like that for more than a day. but that's where we are. hundreds of drivers traveling along i-95 in virginia outside of washington, d.c., got stranded on that road for more than 24 hours overnight last night after a fast, unexpected snowstorm resulted in hundreds of accidents along the section of the i-95 corridor. people lucky enough not to be involved in those accidents were stuck and indefinitely. people were rationing food and

water and fuel and in some cases medicine, waiting in freezing conditions for emergency rescue teams to respond. among those stranded were virginia u.s. senator tim kaine who had been on his way back to washington after the winter break. it's usually a two-hour drive. one of nbc's congressional reporters julie tsirkin took this photo of a very road weary tim kaine arriving at the capitol after 26 hours in his car, the senator selling julie, it was 26 hours and the only thing i ate was one orange and the only liquid i had was one 16-ounce dr pepper. virginia governor ralph northam writes all vehicles have been removed from i-95 and the interstate will open shortly but still telling people to avoid the road. hopefully by now all of the stranded drivers have been able to get themselves a warm meal and perhaps something a little stiff tore drink than a 16-ounce dr pepper. man. epper. man.

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tomorrow attorney general merrick garland is due to give a speech about the progress the justice department in prosecuting crimes that took place at the capitol on january 6th last year. as you can imagine there's lots of anticipation about it's speech particularly to the question about whether the justice department is only going to prosecute low-level people or

whether they will actually bring prosecutions against anybody who devised or tries to implement the overall attempt to overthrow the government. msnbc will carry that speech when it happens at 2:30 eastern. watch this space. that's going to do it for now. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is up next. so, this week, we commemorate the fallen. we thank everyone who came to democracy's defense across the country and in our great capital city. but we know this is round one. we know that authoritarians rarely give up. and we know that they aren't doing their preparation for the next coup in hiding. they are doing it all in plain sight, and they must be stopped. speaking about the january 6th attack on the capitol. that's democratic senator brian schatz, warning the next attem