tells his wife. >> the best way to succeed is to write which you know. this sunday the cdc under fire. >> we had all winter break to have this planned out and here we are. >> with cases spiking, hospitals overwhelmed -- >> it's been a lot of uncertainty, and i'm tired. >> -- air travel disrupted, widespread labor shortages including teachers staying home. >> i would just appreciate being able to work in an environment where at least the students are all pcr tested weekly. >> criticism is growing over the government's covid response. >> we have to reorient our goal so we get into a manageable state and we can continue with our normal life while covid is around. >> my guests this morning, doctors ezekiel emanuel, celine

gounder and mayor lori lightfoot of chicago where schools have closed. president biden hits back on january 6th. >> the former president of the united states of america has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. >> amid worries about the future of american democracy -- >> when you've 9,600 threats against members of congress, that's not a small thing. that is january 6th continued. >> -- republicans overwilliamingly pledge their loyalty to donald trump. >> by removing the fraud, donald trump won. >> i'll be joined by congress plan adam kinzinger, a member of the january 6th committee. >> joining me are nbc chief white house correspondent peter alexander, anna palmer, founder of "punchbowl news," democratic pollster cornell belcher, and

former white house political director under george w. bush, sara fagen. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. as we've said before, as covid goes, so goes joe biden's presidency. right now covid is a major health and political problem. a combination of new variants like delta and omicron and stubborn vaccine refusal among millions has led to an all-time high in cases. the seven-day average has blown past previous records. that doesn't begin to account for people who don't report results of at-home tests or who are asymptomatic. hospitalizations are spiking as well. but the death rate so far has ticked up much more slowly, owing in part to a less severe illness caused by omicron. the public is in a different place than it was a year ago, and the biden administration is desperately trying to catch up. the cdc has offered confusing

and at sometimes contradictory advice. the supreme court seems skeptical about the best tool in biden's toolbox, the vaccine mandates, and stay-at-home guidelines and school closures have given us a feeling of a recurring nightmare. all of it adds up to a big political problem for the president who pledged to restore confidence in the government's ability to competently handle this crisis. >> the new normal is not going to be what it is now. it's going to be better. >> president biden, elected promising to shut down the virus -- >> the first step i will take will be to get control of the virus. >> -- now faces an unprecedented surge. >> the largest influx of patients we've ever taken care of. >> nearly one in four hospitals report a critical staff shortage. at the luminis health doctors community medical center in maryland, covid cases are up 925% since thanksgiving. 70% of the patients are unvaccinated. >> it's very tough. a lot of times you have to take a break. you cry and come back and do it all over again. >> as omicron spreads, it's

already crippling schools including in chicago where schools were canceled this week over an ongoing conflict with the teachers union. >> i want my students to learn, i want my children to learn, but i also want us to stay safe. >> we will not pay you to abandon your post and you children at a time when they and their families need us most. >> nationwide flights have been canceled. >> how are you feeling? >> angry, because i was supposed to be home yesterday. >> mass transit disrupted. in los angeles so many ambulance crews are out sick, some covid patients have been brought to the hospital by fire truck. >> we're in the middle of a tsunami. and in that tsunami, there are a lot of things that are going to get wet that wouldn't in a normal wave. >> president biden is promising 500 million free at-home rapid test kits, but he's promised to fix testing for a year. >> we're also expanding testing. >> we continue to work on making at-home testing available. >> we're committing $2 billion to purchase 300 million rapid tests. >> believe me, it's frustrating to me, but we're making

improvements. >> and though mr. biden promised to restore confidence after the trump white house manipulated public health guidance for political ends, the cdc is under fire for messaging confusion. >> it's about the cdc toeing the line of whether or not we're basing our guidelines on science. >> on masking -- >> once you're fully vaccinated, two weeks after your last dose, you can shed your mask. >> the window for boosters. >> for up to six, eight -- perhaps, we don't know. >> six months. >> five months. >> most recently a change to recommendations that people infected with the virus isolate for five days instead of ten without a testing requirement. >> that antigen test was actually not authorized for this purpose, and it's -- its information may not be useful. >> people are getting concerned about why not test people at that time. i, myself, feel that's a reasonable thing to do. >> now half a dozen former members of president biden's covid-19 transition advisory

board are calling for a new approach. >> it does feel like a bit of a "choose your own adventure." >> they argue the country needs a national strategy for a new normal, and for covid testing, surveillance, vaccines, and therapeutics. >> joining me now is mayor lori lightfoot of chicago. chicago's public schools canceled class last week because of a dispute with the teachers union. mayor lightfoot, welcome to "meet the press." >> my pleasure to be here. >> in some ways, what's happening in chicago is an outsized version of what's happening in a lot of cities and communities. let me start with this. are kids going to be in school this week in chicago? >> i'm doing everything i can to make sure that that happens. to be clear, what the chicago teachers union did was an illegal walkout. they abandoned their posts and abandoned kids and their families. we're working diligently every single day at the bargaining

table to narrow the differences and get a deal done. our team has been working every single day. they're back at it again here sunday. they were at it yesterday. we can get a deal done if there's good will on both sides. fundamentally what we cannot do is abandon the science. we know that the safest place for kids to be is in-person learning in schools. wet spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make our schools safe. they are safe. we've got the data to demonstrate that. we've got to get the teachers union to get real and get serious about getting back to in-person learning. >> i know you're making these demands. what leverage do you have? how can you force this to happen? or are you a little bit at the whim of the teachers union. >> the leverage i think we have is we've got the will of the people. parents are outraged and making

their outrage known to the teachers union. this is a very different dynamic than ever before. we've got enormous amount of parent activism. they are writing letters, emails, protests, holding press conferences. this is an unprecedented level of parent activism all in support of returning to in-person learning. we know why. we live in a district where 70% or more of our kids qualify for free or reduced lunch, which means they live in households that are poor and working class, which also means they live in households of single parents, mostly women of color, who have to work to be able to keep the home together. this walkout by the teachers union, which is illegal, has had cascading, negative ripple effects, not only on the students, their learning, social and emotional welfare, but also on the families themselves. it's making them have tenuous financial status because they have to work, but they also have to take care of their kids. this is an untenable situation and completely utterly avoidable.

i'm going to be on the side of the parents fighting every single day to get our kids back in school. >> what do you do this week, though? the teachers union, they've sent you a proposal, some of the things the public school system have said no to include, for instance, a metric for when remote learning would be triggered. you think it should be -- would you accept a school-by-school metric versus a district one? what do you think is a fair compromise here? >> we already sent them a school-based metric on tuesday when they walked out which they rejected without a response, just saying it's not good enough. last night my team turned around a point-by-point response that deals with school metrics, which deals with testing and a number of the other things that, frankly, we don't have disagreement on.

the biggest issue is remote testing, remote learning which we categorically reject. we have set up and i think responded to many of their issues regarding testing. i think we can get agreement there. we have put together a revised proposal for a school-by-school metric, which really mirrors what we've been doing, chuck, all along this year. we haven't sat idly by and let covid rage through our schools. when there's been a necessity to shut down a classroom or school, to go to remote learning, we've done that. i think what's really important is of the cases that we can tie to schools, it's 53 outbreaks. and an outbreak is defined as two or more. our average is 2.5 kids in the school setting where we believe they may be related to schools. so we're doing what we need to do. we're following the science. what i won't do is allow the teachers union to politicize this surge or the pandemic in general. people are nervous. they are scared. we get that.

but the thing to do is to lean in to the facts and the science and not abandon them in a panic. >> there does seem to be reports that you are short of tests, or the school system is short of tests. the governor apparently made a request to the white house. i know the way the funding mechanism works, that you'd have to find the extra money. is that going to happen? are you working with the governor for more testing? are you willing to sort of flood the zone even more with certain tests that may not be the same tests that the system is using now? >> yeah. we've been doing that all along. i'm happy to report our public health director found additional tests this week which we notified the union about and we're immediately putting into action. the governor yesterday announced that he would sell us 350,000 additional tests. but what we need is the support of our school nurses who the union has not allowed to be activated to help on the front

lines with this fight. if they're agreeing to support the school testing regime that we are willing to set up, we can get this done. again, we need their cooperation and support and not have them be on the sidelines being critical, throwing bombs. we need them in this fight with us. >> where do you find the extra staff, though, that's needed right now? let's say you didn't have this dispute. you'd still have staff shortages. we're seeing it in schools all over the country. is there a good plan to fill that gap, or as a nation do you think we should be pausing for a week or two? >> no, i don't think we should be pausing. again, we've got to follow the science, and the science tells us the schools where safe and our kids learn best and are safest in person. what we're doing regarding staffing is providing even more incentives for substitute teachers. we're doing everything we can to

continue getting our staff healthy. the reality is the teachers and the staff -- we've got 92% of them that are vaccinated. so we've got a very highly vaccinated workforce. that, again, isn't the issue. we can't play into fears. we've got to deal with the science and the data and the reality. yes, there's a lot of concern. there's a lot of concern about the spread, but if we work together collaboratively, we can address this issue. no question. >> i've got to let you go. any chance school opens tomorrow? unlikely? >> we're working like the dickens to make sure we get a deal done today, so i remain hopeful. >> all right. mayor lori lightfoot of chicago, illinois, madam mayor, thanks for coming on "meet the press." >> thank you, sir. this week six members of president biden's covid-19 transition advisory board published opinion articles calling for the administration to take a new approach in fighting covid. two are joining me now. dr. ezekiel emanuel is the vice provost of global initiatives at the university of pennsylvania. by the way, he's authored a

book, "which country has the best health care." dr. celine gounder is an epidemiologist at the nyu grossman school of medicine and bellevue hospital in new york. welcome to both of you. zeke, i want to put up, basically, almost a thesis you had here in these articles. you write this. without a strategic plan for the new normal with endemic covid-19, more people in the u.s. will unnecessarily experience morbidity and mortality. health inequities will widen and trillions will be lost from the u.s. economy. this time the nation must learn and prepare effectively for the future. you say this is not a pandemic anymore, it's an endemic. what changes have to happen now? zeke, you first. >> well, first, chuck, i would say we're not yet in the endemic stage. we're still in the pandemic stage if you've got 1,500 people a day dying from the pandemic

and omicron is spreading. we think that over the course of 2022 we will get to an endemic stage, and the plan is -- the proposal is we need a strategic plan for that, that covers vaccines, getting more people vaccinated. and the only way to do that, as we've been very clear over time, is mandates. we got voluntarily to about 60%. to get beyond that w ee going to need the employer mandate that osha has put out, the health care mandate that cms has put out. we need to improve our ventilation system. we need to get more therapies and get the link between a positive test and getting a therapy much closer so you can actually start in three days, and not only the rich and well off get it. those are the kinds of things we need to put in place over the next three months to be prepared when covid is really just in the air, like rsv, other respiratory viruses, influenza, adenovirus. all the other respiratory viruses. it going to be here.

we're going to learn to live with it. >> dr. gounder, should we be prepared that this is going to be a seasonal thing? meaning -- and, frankly, it means we'll probably have a yearly variant? is that how our public health community has to face this? >> chuck, that may well be in our future and how often we need to vaccinate people, we're still not yet certain. i think this also depends on what are the goals of our public health programs. are we trying to prevent all infections and transmission? to be clear, that's going to be exceedingly difficult even with everybody vaccinated because of the nature of this virus. this is a virus that has a very short incubation period. so unless you keep reboosting everybody every four to six months, you're not going to be able to prevent all infections. so what we're really proposing is let's focus on what matters the most, hospitalizations and deaths. that's what we focus on for other respiratory illnesses, like the flu, like rsv.

how do we do a better job at preventing those hospitalizations and deaths particularly among the most vulnerable, the elderly, people who are immunocompromised, people in long-term care facilities and communities of color and others who have been highly vulnerable during this pandemic. >> zeke, you brought up the issue of mandates and how important it would be. i'm sure you've seen all the reports. at best, maybe the health care mandate makes it through the supreme court. the workplace one may not. what does that mean -- if the vaccine mandate is the best tool in the toolbox and you can't use it as aggressively on the federal level. does that mean testing becomes a bigger priority? >> look, the supreme court has to recognize that covid in the workplace is a real health threat and really does affect many people. unfortunately, many frontline workers have died from covid and contracting covid in the workplace.

they need protection, and mandating vaccination is a quite reasonable protection. i've called for six or eight months now for mandates among health care workers. these are our best tools to get to 90% vaccinated. testing lets us know who is infectious, but it doesn't intervene in the virus, whereas, vaccines do intervene. they make sure that people who get infected don't get hospitalized at such a high rate and are very, very, very unlikely to die. that's an important protection for people, and we have to make sure that people get it. we will never get to 70%, 80%, 90% of the american population vaccinated without a mandate. it's just that simple. and for the supreme court to take that away in the midst of an emergency seems to me to be very wrong. i signed on to an amicus brief

because i think it's legal and absolutely vital for the health of the country. >> dr. gounder, i want to talk about the cdc messaging issues and how much of this is on the cdc or how much of this is on the white house. look, we've seen just in the month of december, i want to put up here, on december 20th, we were told to stay home until after ten days have passed since your positive viral test. a week later people with covid-19 should isolate for five days, no mention of whether you should test negative before getting out of that. on tuesday, the best approach is to use an antigen test towards the end of a five-day isolation period, says the cdc, although, the cdc director two weeks ago dismissed whether antigen tests are worthwhile there. how much of this is on the cdc, and how much of this is on washington, if you will? >> chuck, this is a great question. i think all of us could have done a much better job from the beginning of saying, look, the

one and only thing you can count on is that the recommendations and guidelines are going to change over time. that is the one thing you can count on. but let's take this example of isolation policy. yes, the cdc came out with rather confusing -- in a sense overly tailored advice, trying to fit its advice for every single possible setting, health care, schools, travel, the general public health. yes, the cdc could have done a better job, but there are many other parties that contributed to this issue. you have the fda under both trump and the biden administrations that has dragged their feet of authorizing this rapid antigen tests for the purpose of assessing are people contagious or not. many of us have been advocating for that. they have yet to do that. we have real world evidence that they're a method of containing contagiousness. the fda has to authorize, then the cdc makes recommendations about their use. then you have the manufacturers, the private sector. they have not been manufacturing enough rapid tests.

the white house and the administration certainly could have done more earlier to work with the private sector to create a more stable demand by putting in large-volume orders. then finally on the back end, you have the private sector, everyone from walmart to health care systems that are misinterpreting -- willfully misinterpreting the cdc isolation guidance saying, glow have to go back to work at five days. that guidance is to indicate who is infectious, contagious, a threat to others, not when you're well enough to go back to work. >> very quickly, zeke, are we ready for the next variant? we weren't ready for omicron. are we ready for the next one? >> i think we have to prepare more and get better -- get more vaccines out there, more tests, but also better air quality. people have to wear better masks and be more scrupulous about it. if it's like omicron where we're not that infectious, i think

that we can learn to live with it. that's the important point, learn to live with it. >> risk management. it seems like we all need a course in risk management there. zeke emanuel, celine gounder, thank you for coming on. when we come back, changing subjects here, i'll talk to congressman adam kinzinger about what do the republican party he once new ut what do the republican party he once new zicam. zinc that cold! why does walgreens offer prescription copays as low as zero dollars? ♪ ♪ so you won't have a medicare in the world. ♪ ♪ plus, 90-day refills and same day delivery.

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welcome back. a year ago after the sacking of the u.s. capitol, we asked this: is this the end of something or the beginning? an aberration or harborer over where trumpism is headed? donald trump lost the election but insists it was stolen still, has never conceded. elected republicans, most of them at least, tend to believe him because the voters already do, at least on that side of the aisle. on thursday, january 6th's anniversary, the republicans

are divided into three groups, the conspiracy spreaders, those who condemn the riot of the day day, and a few who call it what it was, a violent attack on our democracy. joining me is republican adam kinzinger, one of two republicans on the house committee investigating january 6th. congressman kinzinger, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be with you. >> i'm a pretty cynical guy. i've been doing this a long time. on january 7th, 2021, i think -- i'm guessing you were there, too. i really thought, okay, this is it. this is the breaking point. lindsey graham, enough is enough, count me out. that, it all felt like a moment. how did a year later we go to a republican party that is more in the grips of donald trump than what it was on january 7th, 2021? >> you know, i think we can probably spend a half hour on it.

i'll give you kind of the most recent. there's a lot of stuff that led up. but the most recent is january 7th. i'll tell you within my republican caucus there was a lot of discussion. something happened two weeks later, which was kevin mccarthy went to mar-a-lago. it caught everybody off guard. everybody was shocked. in the picture he had with donald trump -- kevin told us something like, oh, i happened to be in florida and he wanted to meet so i was going to meet with him. no, that was an intentional meeting. that took the paddles you see on the tv show and resurrected donald trump back to life. i think when history looks back, it will be kevin's meeting with donald trump, which actually made him an immediate of a force as he was. he may have come back, but i think that was a very important meeting. >> did donald trump reveal what the republican party is or change it? >> you know, i think it's actually a little of both. i think on the one hand donald trump is a symptom of years and

years of leaders, profit-driven radio shows, whatever, turning the base into this angry, fearful, victimized group of people saying, look, you can never get a fair shot. as time goes by, you're going to lose more and more political power. keep in mind republicans still won just about half of every race. but then donald trump came along and unintentionally because he wanted to be that guy, unintentionally got in the wave where people wanted somebody to blow stuff up. i think it's a little of both, it's fed off each other. the problem is leaders have to interdict this fear and anger cycle and they're not doing it. they're instead hiding. >> you're one of the few republicans that wants to fight within the republican party to change it. i want to play a video you put out earlier this week and ask you about it on the other side.

>> on this anniversary of january 6th, let's confront the anger, fear and hopelessness that brought that dark day about. victory won't come in a day, a month, or even a year, but a victory will come, i promise you that. >> you've started your country's first organization. i've got to ask, what are you running for? you announced you're not running for re-election, you announced earlier this week you would not be a candidate for governor. and i think there are republicans sort of who would like to see the trumpist wing out of the party, who want to see you run for something and combat this and push back. what are you running for? >> i think that was part of the battle, do you stay in the house? do you deal with every day the kind of stupid arguments we have that are the same and trying to get your 200 views on c-span by arguing on the house floor. that's an important role. i've done it for 12 years after this and i'm more passionate

about this country. what is that role next in terms of running for anything? i don't know. i know this country first -- by the way, country1st.com. it's blown up. i know it's a force of people who are angry. i'm going to go with this. we're going to get involved in primaries. we're announcing a program at the end of january. it's not even just about the republican party. it's about restoring our ability to talk to each other and calling out the abuse that is happening to our voters every time they get that email that says send me 20 bucks, otherwise, x, y, z, pelosi is going to kill your family. that's abuse of our voters and they need to hear it. >> the biggest problem you have is the echo chamber, people saying you in the media need to stand up and tell the truth. there's a good portion of us that do, but 30% of the country doesn't watch it.

you have an algorithm that facebook has essentially mainlined this garbage into people's intellectual veins, if you will. how do you change that? >> you know, i wish i had the answer. that is -- especially in the last year something i've been increasingly concerned about. i believed there would be enough crossover that truth would kind of prevail. the last year has taught me that there are people that live in a totally different reality. all you can do, all i can do is tell the truth and talk about the abuse. i think if people wake up to the fact that they're being financially, emotionally abused by leaders, maybe that will be enough to awaken this giant, this change. i'll tell you, if there's nothing to interdict this cycle in five or ten years, we're in trouble. >> let me move to the january 6th committee. you're very hesitant to get in front of the chair and the vice chair. i'll get that caveat out of the way.

if you got no more information submitted to this committee right now, how much of the story do you think you have? >> i think a significant part. i think where we're at right now, we know a lot of the narrative, and as i've said,i think the most important thing is not even the day of january 6. it's what led to it. we have a lot of what's out there in the public venue, what the president himself said, the fact that he was watching for three hours on tv probably gleefully while this happened. i think if everything shut down today, we'd be able to put out a powerful and substantive narrative. we still have more information obviously we want to get. >> give me one thing you don't have yet that you really think you need, a witness or -- that you need to understand that would make this a stronger report. >> i think the one thing that, if i could wave a magic wand and have more information on, it would certainly be what did the president know about january 6 leading up to january 6. i think what's important is,

it's the difference between was the president absolutely confident or a coward on january 6th when he didn't do anything, or did he know what was coming? that's a difference between incompetence with your oath and possibly criminal. that's where i want to get more information. we do have obviously some things leading up to that, but the more important we can get obviously the better. >> adam kinzinger, republican from illinois. i think the last time i had you on i made mention that you represented a part of where my family grew up anyway. it's a wonderful part of the state. thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> it's cold. you bet. when we come back -- >> i will stand in this breach. i will defend this nation. i will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy. >> president biden during thursday's january 6th anniversary, taking rhetorical aim at former president trump. when we come back, mr. trump's tightening grip on the gop. the panel is next. the panel is next.

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welcome back. the panel is with us welcome back. the panel is with us remotely, but thank you omicron. anna palmer, founder of punchbowl news, chief white house correspondent peter alexander, democratic pollster cornell belcher, and republican strategist sara fagen, former white house political director for former president george w. bush. i think the most fitting coda on january 6th was the ted cruz moment with tucker carlson. i have two parts here of ted cruz and his relationship with donald trump. here is how he described january 6th this week. >> we are approaching a solemn anniversary this week, and it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the capitol. >> the way i phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy, and it was, frankly, dumb. >> it's not the first time we have heard ted cruz say something harsh and walk back. here is a highlight reel. >> donald, you're a sniveling coward, and leave heidi the hell

alone. >> he's laughing at his supporters, mocking his supporters because hep's lying to them. >> do we get behind a campaign that is based on yelling and screaming and cursing and insults. >> do you want to turn on the television and see a president, republican or democrat, who embarrasses you? >> this man is a pathological liar, a caricature of a braggadocious, arrogant buffoon. morality doesn't exist for him. a narcissist at a level i don't think this country has ever seen. >> i am honored that president trump is here endorsing and supporting my campaign and i look forward to campaigning alongside him in 2020 for his re-election as president of the united states. >> sara, i'm certain you're very thankful i'm coming to you first on this one. >> of course. >> is he emblematic of what every elected republican has had to do in the age of trump? >> yeah, it's very challenging. all of these candidates running for office have to constantly be

looking over their shoulder for a primary. so that is the calculus. it's actually on the left and the right, by the way. but speaking in terms of the republican party, that's what you saw play out there. what ted cruz said on the floor of the senate is what he thought, and it's what was accurate. tucker carlson challenged him, challenged his language, and he backed down. it was an easy political calculus. >> is that healthy? >> he could have swapped out the words -- no, it's not, but it's where we are, and it's where both parties are. so this is not a unique republican challenge. but le could have easily used a different word than terrorist, and it wouldn't have been an issue.

that's what he recognized. >> anna palmer, how afraid are elected republicans in congress of their voters right now? >> i think what ted cruz did is emblematic of where the party is. that's where the energy of the party is. that's where people that are going to win in 2022, it's really that base vote which is supremely behind trump. it's why they continue to kowtow to him and shift their positioning to be in line with him because they do not want to have to go up against him in primaries or in the general election. >> peter alexander, donald trump had been doing this for a year, and the president had sort of tried to stay above it. then january 6th came. let me play one more bite from that speech. >> the former president of the united states of america has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. he's done so because he values power over principle. >> why did they wait? >> well, the white house says it was selective on purpose on this issue in conversations with

officials over the course of the last several days. they insist the president wasn't elected to go after donald trump, that americans want to see him get things done here. chuck, what struck me watching the president speak this week on the january 6th anniversary, that in a lot of ways that was the real state of the union speech. that's what our state of the union is. whatever he says on march 1st can focus on the agenda, on build back better. but that's the status right now. and there is this burning frustration, as it was described to me by some aides, that they're witnessing this growing number of americans, 40%, i think it is, of republicans, who say it's okay to use violence against the government right now. the question is how much more will the president implement this messaging perhaps leading up to the midterms. they say the primary focus has to be on getting things done. >> cornell, the ignore-trump strategy, whether it's with biden, with mitch mcconnell, there's a lot of people in washington, even mainstream

media, even at twitter and facebook, if we pretend he's not there, if we don't quote his stuff, it doesn't grow. it turns out that is the wrong calculus. what do you do now? >> i think you have to do what the president has done. what they've pivoted and started to do right now, and i think it's important, one, you do have to fire up the base. we've talked about this before. part of president biden's problems with his job polling numbers have been, quite frankly, they've dropped among democrats. not enough democrats see him as someone who is fighting, a strong leader taking on the issues. i thought his speech the other day was a very important speech. he will stand on that bridge, not allow someone to hold a dagger to the neck of democracy. that is firing-up-base sort of language and laying out for americans, quite frankly, what are the articles. you can either choose democracy or choose authoritarianism, and i think it will play out more heading into the midterms.

>> sara fagen, is there anything in significant committee could come up with that would turn 75% of the republicans that support trump right now and his mission down to, say, 50? >> i think adam kinzinger said if he knew, that perhaps could change something. i think most people are conditioned in politics now to disbelieve what comes out of either partisan side of the aisle. so no matter what that committee puts out, because there are so few republicans involved and most republicans have dismissed it, the base isn't going to believe anything that comes out of it anyway. but, you know, look. here we're focused on trump, understandably so in the aftermath of the one-year anniversary. but we're heading into a year away from primary season. perhaps he runs.

perhaps he doesn't. right now 55% of republicans would like somebody else to be the standard barer of the republican party. so while he is still the dominant force, a year from now is that 65%? you know, he is ultimately at some point going to become a fading member of the party. someone new will emerge. >> sara, i've heard this from a lot of republicans. we want a year of this. maybe you're right. anna palmer, it seems like mitch mcconnell has been betting on the fade for a year, and it didn't come to fruition. >> i think that's right. i also think what's an important point is whether it's trump who runs or not, it's the brand of politics he represents, and that is a growing part of the house conference in particular and also the senate. when you look at some of these other republicans who could potentially run, they're also running in that same vein. it's not as if establishment republicans will see some

resurgence here. >> all right. i'm going to pause it there. >> but i do. >> go ahead, real fast, sara. it's tough doing remote. >> i know. i think that many of these republicans, though, when you think of ron desantises, the chris christies of the world, they're a nice bridge between president bush and donald trump rhetorically. their policies are more like a president bush than donald trump. so i don't necessarily agree with that. >> all right. i'm going to pause it there. when we come back, does america, the nation of immigrants, need actual more immigrants? what falling immigration means for our job market. that's next. that's next.

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welcome back. "data download" time. a look into one factor that could be contributing to the worker shortages we've been seeing as we've entered 2022. it's led to simply what's known now as the great resignation. there's another factor we might be overlooking. that's this: fewer immigrants coming into the country looking for work and filling some of these jobs. look at this. over the last six years, net international migration into the united states, we were at a million in 2016. as you know, immigration got heavily politicized over this six-year period. look what it's dribbled down to, 247,000 through midyear 2021. so what does this mean?

well, foreign-born workers work more often in the service industries than native-born working. also in natural resources and construction work, more foreign-born workers work there than native-born. we're seeing labor shortages into service industries than here. when you have fur immigrants looking for these jobs, it adds to the problem. then you can talk about the cost. we've heard plenty of companies say, well, rising wages mean rising costs. native born workers make more money. foreign-born immigrants, they make less. we can have a longer conversation about that distinction. the fact of the matter is this, in the united states this is what has kept our economy growing, if you will. it's been more immigrant labor. the politicization of immigration has made members of both parties not want to deal with the fact that we're short of workers, and the biggest

reason why is a lack of immigration. when we come back, democrats are forcing a senate vote on voting rights. is the effort real, or is this just a january show? stay with us. stay with us theyyyy're loooaded! turns out, michael buffer speaks like that all the time. and it turns out the general is a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. and in this corner, coconuuuut shriiiiiimp! for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage - make the right call - and go with the general. let's get rrready for garlic breeeaaad! why does walgreens offer prescription copays make the right call - and go with the general. as low as zero dollars? ♪ ♪ so you won't have a medicare in the world. ♪ ♪ plus, 90-day refills and same day delivery.

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welcome back. peter, you blade reference to the state of the union. in some days you said january 6th was that. we have an official date for it, march 1st. tuesday the president goes to georgia to talk about voting rights. is this a real push to get it passed, or is this convenient timing because, one, build back better is on ice and two, it's january -- between january 6th and the mlk holiday, they think they should be talking about this issue? >> it's not clear they'll make progress on build back better or march 1st state of the union. white house officials they acknowledge this is an issue that animates the base. they say they're in lockstep

with chuck schumer as relates to voting rights. the reason they're going to georgia is because of the recent election disputes that have taken place down there, the cradle of the civil rights movement. the president would support a filibuster carveout if necessary. white house officials acknowledge they're still in the same place. they can't get joe manchin and kyrsten sinema on board with this. it's not clear they're anywhere different than they were many months ago on this. there are voting rights groups in georgia, chuck, right now saying, don't come unless you have a concrete plan. there is no better concrete plan to get those folks on board, and how do they do that? >> cornell, has anything changed in the last six months on this issue? is there a new strategy that we don't know about that's going to magically pass this bill? >> well, look, one of the things that's important coming from the white house is actually when the president gets behind something and if he gets behind something, you can roll out and make

change, right? it is an all-hands-on-deck effort by the white house to move this along because they do see the urgency. senator schumer talked about last week that, look, there's a threat to our democracy. look, this actually sort of buttonholes well with the conversation pivoting off january 6th. the majority of americans right now think our democracy is weaker than it was before. you have over 70% of americans who think january 6th was, in fact, an attack on our democratic. this is not about even sort of just the base, although you've got to animate the base around this fight. there's a swath of middle america, chuck, that thinks our drats is under attack and the president needs to politically talk to them and mobilize them as well. i think if the president and vice president are out there barnstorming, making this a top-of-the-list issue concern, i think we can get movement on it. >> cornell, we don't live in a vacuum. how much does covid basically complicate -- the calendar is

the calendar, this is an even-numbered year. it just seems unrealistic. >> covid is a giant x factor. i sat in focus groups -- i actually got to do it online now. i sat at my laptop looking at focus groups, covid is a big well blanket over americans. they're concerned about when the next shoe is concerned, concerned about whether or not we're going go back into lockdown. a lot of anxiety about that. the president is doing the best he can. a lot of this entrenchment is coming from the republicans. a third of the republicans say they definitely won't get the vaccination. also, you brought up ron desantis up earlier. he's on the hot seat now for allowing a stockpile of tests to go to waste. so there is this big covid problem that's a wet blanket over the presidency. >> sara fagen, is there any penalty for republicans being seen as not on the side of this issue?

>> i think -- first of all, overwhelmingly it's easier to vote in the united states than it ever has been. so much of the rhetoric around voting rights is really about animating the democratic base. americans overwhelmingly support voter id. it's easy in the united states and it's free if you can't afford it. so much of this is about mobilizing the base. for most americans, particularly independent americans, they recognize that. this is an issue that's not going to pass, and i think this is just about the base. >> anna palmer -- >> i've got to get in here chuck. >> go ahead. >> i've got to push back on my friend sara about how easy it is to vote in america. it's not easy, if you look like me and in georgia, standing in line six or seven hours to vote. it's not easy to vote in america if you happen to look like me.

that's been done intentionally. republicans have intentionally shut down voting polls for places that cater to minorities and people who actually vote democratic. you've seen over 200 laws pass over this last year since the power of young people and black voters turned and flipped states and hispanic votes flipped states. that's not by accident, sara. it's harder to vote in american than it ever was. >> the facts are, though, it's more open in the south than it is even in the northeast, cornell. the reality is early vote, absentee vote, these have been growing for the last decade. every year more and more people vote by these means. i just don't think that's accurate. >> it's been growing, but have you seen what the state legislative bodies have been doing? it has been growing, and more americans have been voting, and now they're pulling those things back. >> i hate having to stop, but unfortunately that is what happens when you some have a

one-hour show. that's all we have for today. a terrific panel. thank you all. we'll be back next sunday. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." a massive fire breaks out in new york city. 19 people including nine people are dead after flames ripped through an apartment building in the bronx. the question this morning, is a malfunctioning space heater to blame? plus, the u.s. is averaging 7,000 new coronavirus cases per day. the question is how are hospitals holding up. a legal victory for now for tennis star novak djokovic. a judge has reinstated his visa, but the question is does that mean he gets to play