i'm katy tur. president biden is experiencing mild symptoms after he tested positive for covid today. we were expecting a press conference right about now with an update from the white house press secretary and white house covid czar dr. ashish jha. biden is taking an anti-viral drug while he isolates. the president's physical, kevin o'connor, says he is experiencing fatigue, a runny nose and an occasional dry cough. biden put out this tweet showing him working at his desk. he said he's doing great behind is keeping busy. the president was scheduled to fly to pennsylvania today for a gun violence speech and then travel to his home in wilmington. this is him from yesterday. though that is not. both of those trips have been cancelled. vice president harris has tested negative. she was last with the president on tuesday. the first lady, who is a close contact, is also testing

negative as of this morning. joining me now is nbc news correspondent mike memoli. this is not the same as getting covid a year ago or two years ago. there are therapeutics, which the president is on. people have had multiple boosters at this point, it is a different world that we are living in today than the beginning or even mid way through the pandemic. >> that's a really important point, katy. it's part of what i've been hearing from white house officials, not just today but for the last several months. we've seen a number of outbreaks here in d.c. and even in white house officials the last few months, especially around the white house correspondent dinner and the like. white house officials have stressed to me for once that should the president get covid and of course now he has, there was a very thorough plan in place with how to deal with it, that he would be given the best treatment and because he's double vaccinated and double boosted, they expected that the president would ultimate live see through this well. this is a much different story than what happened with former

president trump was diagnosed with it. i remember the biden campaign at the time and the degree to which covid itself and the way the campaigns were carried out was an issue. the white house message today has been steady as she goes. here's the vice president just in the last hour laying out what she has said in her perspective speaking for the president as well today. >> i do want to speak about our incredible president, joe biden. this morning he and i spoke by phone. he is in good spirits, he is feeling well, he is doing well. he is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and of course he is. and as everyone who would encourage, who is eligible to do the same and he is working from the white house residence. >> now, katy, just as we were playing that sound, the white house has posted a video now of the president speaking from the

truman balcony, reiterating the message we saw in the tweet earlier today that he's feeling fine. i want to read from a letter we were shared by our colleague peter alexander that went out to white house staff this morning from the white house staff ron klain. he says i've spaen to him already about an array of matters, he is focused on our pending business. he said we have said there is a substantial possibility that the president like anyone else could get covid. we have prepared for this possibility. we are executing on our plan so that the president can continue to work seamlessly from the residence. so this is quite a departure from what we saw in october of 2020 when president trump of course was diagnosed with covid and all that followed that. the white house is stressing at all points that the president is going to be continuing to do his business and we'll do more from

the white house press secretary and dr. ashish jha in about 15 minutes or so. >> we'll go there as soon as it begins. we'll turn around the video of the president as soon as we can get it on the air. we will go to the white house at 2:15 when this briefing starts. in the meantime we want to go to the other big story of today. the january 6 committee is holding a primetime hearing tonight, focusing on the 187 minutes from the time donald trump wrapped up his speech and told his supporters to march to the capitol until he finally told rioters to go home in a video posted to twitter. this video here. this committee is expected to argue the president's inaction is beyond neglect and they will put forward never before seen evidence to justify their claims. and two former staffers handed

in their resignation on the day of the riot. we'll hear more about what mark meadows did on that day. he's fought tooth and nail to avoid testifying and hand over key documents and to the panel. our reporters tried to ask him questions about why he's not cooperating. here's what he said. >> the january 6th committee, are you cooperating with the committee? do you believe you should provide more documents to the committee, testimony? do you think donald trump committed a crime for his inaction on january 6th? >> i'm not commenting on anything that relates to the president running or january 6th. >> lots of no comments and then a small comment saying no comment. in the 18 months since the attack on the capitol, the d.o.j. has charged almost 900 defendants from all 50 states but what about donald trump himself? what is the purpose of this investigation, these hearings, this powerful testimony if it

means the man at the center will face no consequences that's a question that a lot of folks are asking, especially within the democratic party. in the most direct comments yet, attorney general merrick garland reiterated just because we're not hearing about it doesn't mean it isn't happening. >> there is a lot of speculation about what the justice department is doing, what it's not doing, what our theories are, what our theories aren't and there will continue to be that speculation. that's because a central tenant in the way in which the justice department investigates, a central tenant to the rule of law is that we do not do our investigations in public. no person is above the law in this country. nothing stops us -- >> even a former president? >> i'll say that again. no person is above the law in this country. i can't say it any more clearly than that. there is nothing in the

principles of prosecution, in any other factors which prevent us from investigating anyone, anyone who is criminally responsible for an attempt to undo a democratic election. >> for more coverage of past investigations, that's pretty standard for the d.o.j. but i'll ask joyce vance about it. breaking just moments ago, the dhs investigation into those missing secret service tex messages sought by the january 6 committee, dhs has ordered any internal probes into the wiping of the messages to stop so they can ensure the integrity of its investigation. joining me is capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, washington correspondent and moderator of "washington week," yamiche alcindor, joyce advance

and -- joyce vance and former chairman michael steele and we are trying to get julia ainsley up on the reporting from dhs. let me begin with ali vitali. we're learning more about what's going to happen tonight, learning more about the secret service text messages and what might have happened to them and the intense behind losing those. walk us through, give us a primer for what we're going to see in just a few hours. >> reporter: just a few hours from now, it's going to be the 187 minutes, a sharp contrast between the chaos and violence happening on the hill and the inaction from former president donald trump. they're going to use people who were inside the white house who were appearing there in person, those witnesses, but also people in their taped testimony who are going to be able to talk about how the former president was being urged to do more and instead he sat there and watched television to the point where

congresswoman laura, one of the people leadings these hearings told me they're probably going to be using footage from fox news, the network we know is a favorite of the president. you have two people leading this hearings who are veterans, who served in uniform for this country. so when they call this a dereliction of duty, it means something even deeper. for congresswoman luria, one of the themes for tonight will be seeing the former aides who found their breaking points, in the case of matt pottinger, served four years in the trump administration only to say he had to resign after what he saw on january 6th. elaine luria is running as a democrat in a tight case.

her participation in the committee means she may not get her seat again. she told me if it means shedding light on this moment, she's okay, she said this isn't about hersh it's about democracy. >> reporter: what's the calculation for you personally in terms of participating in this committee and that it might make it harder for you back home? >> this is singular the most tragic event that has happened within my lifetime and the most dangerous. we've got to get to the bottom of the facts about this and the responsibility of being on this committee, this work, being on the right side of history is important. it's not whether elaine laura gets reelected, i'll work very hard for that but i'll sleep at night if i can work on this

commission and not get re-elected. >> is to stick with the threat here, josh, i want to go to your reporting on the speech that donald trump gave when he told everybody to go home. you write in "the washington post," president donald trump's advisers urged him to give an address to condemn the violence, demand accountability for those who stormed the hall of congress. he struggled to do it over the course of an hour trying to tape the message, he resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots and refused to say the election was over. josh, could we see some outtakes from those -- from that taped address that he gave? we know it was from an iphone, i believe, on the white house lawn instead of an official address from the oval office with the tv crew that's always on standby there. >> katy, i think we will see some outtakes, that speech in particular on january 7th the next day where he was asked by his aides to heal and brung the country together. he was resistant to a lot of the

language they wanted him to give. we know what the committee is going to show on january 6th is multiple advisers, including his daughter, including several of his top officials in the white house, repeatedly urging him, some in writing on the afternoon of january 6th to speak out, to tell these folks to go home, to repudiate the violence and some of these even came in writing to say you could say this, you could do this. and the former president didn't want to. what the committee is going to show tonight according to our reporting is just a litany of folks who are really urging him to do something long before he did and him being resistant for various reasons. they're going to interpose the testimony of a number of his former top white house officials on video with the. of two folks in the room who quit that day because they were so appalled by what they saw. you saw what kissinger put out this morning, various advisers on camera to the former president, his former press

secretary kayleigh mcenany, his former assistant right outside the oval office, the national security adviser all saying on tape he was watching television. and the video -- what they're going to try and depict tonight is all of these video clips of his closest advisers saying we wanted him to do more, tried to get him to do more, he resistant and he was watching television. that's what you're going to see time and again tonight. >> let's talk about the new investigation at dhs. i was talking with a high-level official earlier from a democratic president who said to pump the brakes on what we're talking about with the secret service, that they don't believe that this was a nefarious deletion, that the secret service has never been good according to this person at this back office stuff that they're paid to take a bullet for the president not to save texts. but what you're reporting now from dhs is that it is a little bit more serious than that.

>> yeah, that's right, katy. we can now report that actually this investigation has turned criminal. every inspector general across various government agencies is a little different. you have to go back and make sure they're talking about authorities, they have a division where they can turn an investigation into a criminal investigation if they believe that some criminal statute might have been violated. it turns out in this case they do believe so. they informed the secret service that it has turned criminal. they said because of the criminal nature, they need to stop doing internal investigations and don't interview your own people, don't do anything, freeze as you are, we need to come in because this is now a criminal investigation. but from sources who have talked to me and pete williams, they've been telling us that's complicated because the inspector general's office is not the only office looking in. you have the national archives.

they'll want to review whether or not the federal act that would preserve all of those key text messages, they want to make sure that that was not violated. you also have the january 6th committee itself looking into that. there are a number of bodies asking for these materials. so it's hard for the secret service not to respond to anyone purely because the inspector general has now turned to this criminal. what are they supposed to do with this material now? i do think this definitely raises the bar here. we've been talking about was this nefarious, could this just have been wiped because they were doing a big data migration, resetting phones to factory settings. now it looks like from the attorney general's perspective, something criminal happened here. they can refer that to the u.s. attorney's office in d.c. and it could be prosecuted, katy. >> we'll see what dhs finds on

that. again, even if it's not nefarious, it certainly was not responsible considering that they were told you're supposed to back up your data, especially if you work in a government agency. the hearing tonight, we're going to hear some new information according to the reporting. josh talked about potential outtakes from donald trump's speech. what will you be looking out for? >> this is the culmination that the lawmakers wanted to make the case to the american people that former president trump was someone who not only formed this mob against the capitol but also was someone who refused -- who basically ignored once violence had broken out and, by the way, tried to direct the mob at the vice president by tweeting out his anger to vice president pence as he was quite literally being evacuated from the capitol. you might call it the white house black box, 187 minutes. penny thompson has been burning those numbers into all of our heads because he wanted to know

specifically what in the world president trump was doing while this mob was breaking in and while he was not calling any sort of agency to try to stop that. i'll be looking out for new information, new video, as well direct information from matthew pottinger and sarah, who is have been talking to a lot of republicans. mark pottinger is the highest ranking to resign after january 6th. you can't write off pottinger as someone who barely knew president trump which is how president trump has pushed this off when it comes to other witnesses matthew pottinger was in the room, sarah matthews was in the west wing. i'm looking for any sort of direct conversations, direct knowledge. i will also say overall i'm wondering when we think about sort of where this hearing lies and it being another primetime hearing, how much of an impact

is it going to make and not just sort of talking about out in the real world but also lawmakers, do they feel after they're done with this hearing, do they feel they have done the things they set out to do? i talked to judge ludig, the conservative judge who testified during the third hearing who issued the warning in 2024 form recall president trump could try to overturn the election. and he thinks lawmakers have been successful in making case that donald trump was trying to overturn the election and lawmakers are trying to get at exactly what president trump was thinking at the time. i'm looking to see if anyone says president trump admitted at some point it's true he lost the election. it clear people told him he did. >> i wonder if it matters. at some point does it matter? you've been told over and over

and over again, does itmatter if he refused to believe the truth? does it matter your intent was not to commit the crime, even though you did commit the crime. i want to go now quickly to michael steele before we potentially get interrupted by this white house briefing. michael steele, i'm talking about people who might be convinced -- i'm hesitant to have this kfrs because i think these hearings are more important than that. they're to get it out in the public sphere period, to have a record of what happened and come what may after that. but are there folks out there that are not diehard trumpers that are still convincible, people that are not going to be watching fox news primetime tonight, where they're not going to be airing the hearings? >> yeah, i believe they are. i think that's been reflected in some of the polling that if you look at it as independent polling, you're going to say you

don't necessarily see the picture. in my space, in my world, i try to connect the dots. so little things like the generic ballot has changed significantly in the favor of democrats. remember, the president of the united states is at 33% job approval and yet the american people are now coming to the conclusion they prefer democrats to keep the house by a 7-point margin to your favor this november. it's not dispositive of what's going to happen, but what it says to me at least and a lot of other folks is that there are dots out there that the american people are connecting and these hearings have been a very, very good story that's been told to them. not a lot of hyperbole, not a lot of crazy noise, people screaming and showboating, they just laid it out very much look a fact pattern that joyce knows very well that a very good prosecutor would do to a jury that she is trying to convince of the evidence that would lead

them to a point where they go, yeah, he did it. and i think more and more americans are now coming to that conclusion. does that translate into votes in the fall? we'll see. but they've made a dent here and there are a lot of people, whether they're watching or not who were engaged peripherally at least in conversations with friend and families who are watching. >> and does also potentially matter to who we see running right now and who's been nominated so far across the country. at least 120 election deniers have already won the gop nomination in races across the country. this is according to analysis from 538. could this be a problem for the gop nominating these folks who are the extreme of this? >> yes! look what just happened in maryland. we've had the most successful republican governor in the

history of the state get potentially replaced by a qanon crazy. yes, it's had an impact. this is what mitch mcconnell has been warning i've been on the record saying i think the democrats are in a much better position than most want to give them credit for despite their ineptitude in politics to hold the house. largely because the president is at 33% approval. they're looking at the people being nominated to run against democrats in the fall and they're going, well, i'm not about all that crazy. right? i don't like the way the economy is but i'm not going down that road and that's why you're seeing in generic ballots the democrats having a better than slight edge. >> there are no normal rules out there. those political gravity rules we all abided by, i think they've all been thrown out the window.

we are living in weird times and we have been since 2015. >> i just want to say when you're looking at what michael is talking about with what happened in maryland, it's also happening in illinois and pennsylvania. and look at someone who overturned the election results in arizona. he's being censured by the republican party in that state saying it would be a miracle if he won his election. they go directly back to the january 6th committee's work and back to the mid-term elections and sort of 2022 and 2024. >> joyce, i know you've been waiting patiently. i do want to get into what's happening at the d.o.j., merrick garland saying because you're not hearing about it doesn't mean it's not happening. correct me if i'm wrong, that is standard. i rather hearing that in early

2015, late 2016 and early 2017. >> usually we wake up and hear news that the charges have been unsealed. it's a frustrating message for those don't know what the ending will look like but the message is that the process matters. we can't expect justice if we don't conduct our investigations according to the rule of law. we've heard the promises he's made. he's committed that the investigation will follow the facts into evidence no matter where it leads, that everyone involved in trying to undermine the election will be held accountable, but because the president has such a successful track record of eluding legal justice, think there's a question about whether d.o.j. is up to the task. i would say that based on the

evidence that the january 6th committee has pretty fasterfully put in front of all of us, it's clear that there is plenty for d.o.j. to investigate. there is a very good case to be made for prosecution of the former president for interfering, attempting to interfere with the outcome of an election. the real question is how d.o.j. will get there, will they continue to work from the bottom up, flipping witnesses. there are some great candidates out there, people like roger stone, you're a prosecutor, you'd like to flip and have his testimony. >> i'm sorry to cut you off. we're going to go to the white house live. mostly a runny nose and fatigue with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening. given that he meets usa food and drug administration emergency use authority criteria, i have recommended initiating such

treatment. the president is fully vaccinated and twice boosted, so i anticipate that he will respond favorably as most maximally patients do. he will isolate in accordance with cdc recommendations. i will keep your office updated with any changes in his condition or treatment plan. i also wanted to provide you with a brief readout of the president's activities today. the president has been working from the residence, like so many of us have during this pandemic, doing calls with senior staff, including the chief of staff, myself and dr. jha who is here with us. the president also called senator casey, representative cartwright, mayors of scranton,

mayor of wilkesboro and representative clyburn and he called a few of his cousins from scranton who were set to attend today's event in pennsylvania and he spoke with ambassador cornyn. you have seen the video just released to all of you out of transparency moments ago. the president will continue to work from the residence. today, as you all know, as i just mentioned and we sent out earlier, dr. ashish jha is joining us today in the briefing room. and as i tweeted out earlier, dr. jha and i spoke to the president earlier this morning and he said he's feeling fine. he has a little drive cough, as i just mentioned from the doctor's letter, a little runny nose. he's feeling tired but he's working very hard on behalf of the american people. and with that, dr. jha. good afternoon, everybody.

pleased to be with you. so as mentioned, i spoke to the president earlier. and i spoke at length with dr. o'connor, who is the president's personal physician, and i'm happy to share the readout of these conversations with you and then i'm happy to take questions. in terms of my conversation with the president, he sounded great. i asked him, mr. president, how are you feeling? he said i'm feeling fine. he said he was feeling fine, he had been working all morning. he hadn't even been able to finish his breakfast because he had just been busy. i encouraged him to finish his breakfast. in terms of my conversation with dr. o'connor, we talked at length about what happened this morning. as corine mentioned, pred got his regular testing on his regular cadence. after he tested positive, he reported the symptoms, the doctor examined him thoroughly,

found his exam to be normal and at his baseline. he recommended the president take medication and has started his first course already. i want to take a minute to sort of mark this moment. because the president is fully vaccinated, double boosted, he's risk of serious illness is dramatically lower. he's also getting treated with a very powerful anti-viral, and that further reduces his risk of serious illness. and it's a reminder of the reason that we all work so hard to make sure that every american has the same level of protection that the president has, that every american has the same level of immunity and why we have worked so hard to make sure that people have access to life

saving treatments. these are incredibly important things for the president to have and for every american to have. we have worked very hard over the last 18 months to make sure we have plenty of vaccines, that we have plenty of therapies, that people can get tested on a regular basis as the president does because testing allows you to identify an infection early and get started with treatment early. and we all know from medicine that early treatment is always better. let me also take a moment to talk about ba.5. you've heard me talk a lot about this subvariant of omicron, which is now 70 to 80% of all infections in the united states. it's a reminder to everyone, if you are over 50 the way i am, the way many of you might be, if you are over the age of 50 and if you've not gotten a vaccine shot in the year 2022, you need to go get one now because it will dramatically improve your

level of protection, reduce your risk of having serious illness. it's the best thing that people can be doing. let me just finish by saying obviously we work hard to protect the president, make sure he's been vaccinated and boosted and has access to treatments. we also have been working very, very hard to make sure every american has access to the same things. every american deserves access to the best vaccines, the best treatments and they are widely available. i want to use this moment to remind everybody of that and to remind everybody to avail themselves of that. get vaccinated. if you have a breakthrough infection, get treated. let me stop and take questions. >> thank you so much, dr. jha. has the president been tested to determine which variant he has? is it ba.5 and if so, what does that say about his prognosis?

>> great question. the virus has been isn't out for sequencing. it takes usually about a week for that sequencing to come back. that's under normal circumstances. he's the president, that will get prioritized. but you can't tell from a regular test what kind of variant. the sequencing results will be back at some point in less than a week from now. >> has the president had to hold any of his regular medications and what are you doing to it gate -- >> he's on el cor and a a very standard thing we do when we give people paxilvid and it's totally fine and pretty normal practice. >> reporter: where exactly was the [ inaudible ].

>> where was he infected? i don't think we know. i certainly don't know. unless you have any thoughts on it. >> look, i don't think that matters. i this i what matters is we prepared for this moment. i think what matters is what dr. jha just laid out. if we look at where we were a year and a half ago and we look to today and more and more people are getting closer to having a more normal life. vaccines are available and as dr. jha said, if you have not gotten vaccinated, please do. if have you not gotten boosted, please do. these are treatments that are going to keep you safe. and i think that's what matters here is making sure we continue to do the work and the good thing is that the president, again, has been vaccinated and double boosted. >> reporter: we know that rebound covid cases have been a

concern in some individuals. are there any precautions you can take to try and prevent that and how concerned are you that could potentially hinder his return to the office? >> it's a great question. let me tell you what we know about rebounds. so we've looked at the clinical data on this because if you look at twitter, it feels like everybody has rebound but it turns out there's clinical dwrat if you look at major health systems that, rebound rates are around 5%. some studies say 7, 8%, some say 2% but it's in the single digits. here's the key point about rebound, which is when people have rebounds, they don't end up in the hospital and don't end up particularly many sick. his physician is in charge of taking care of him. obviously the president will continue to be monitored as he

is but the paxilvid is working really well. >> you mentioned the symptoms so far, runny nose, fatigue, dry cough. what other symptoms are you looking out for at this point? what would warrant hospitalization? >> so right now he fells really well and he's going to be monitored for his symptoms. i asked him, how is he feeling? is he having other symptoms? he's not. we're going to continue monitoring that and like i think that is the plan right now is that he's going to get care the way he would -- he's the president so obviously he gets extra attention but i don't think we have any expectations of any other symptoms at this point. i'm going to go to the back. >> if the president's oxygen

level went down, wouldn't he be a candidate to go to the hospital? >> i don't -- so at this point -- i generally want to avoid hypotheticals. he is breathing well, his oxygen level is normal and he is -- i was going to say he was resting comfortably but he's not, he's working comfortably in his residence. >> the next question, we understand that the incubation of covid is two to 14 days. has the white house reached out to those the president has been in contact with in that period of time? >> so cdc has very clear protocols on this. in terms of when people are contagious presymptoms. the white house medical unit is conducting right now a contact trasing and they are contacting every person who meets the cdc definition of a close contact.

>> this last question. the cdc says if you are in a high risk area and a large swath of the nation is in high risk area, they recommend wearing masks indoors. in this white house we're still seeing people back and north in -- forth. is there a push to have people wear masks? >> i off the top of mile-per-hour head can't remember where d.c. is on the orange, yellow, green map. so i'm not going to do this off -- but the bottom line is we follow cdc guidelines and the policy at the white house is based on covid community levels. >> reporter: will the president resume public events in five days if he it is.

>> we actually go beyond cdc guidelines. he's certainly going to be for at least five days and will return to activities after he's had a negative test. >> what precaution did you take for the person who filmed the video in. >> i just want to touch on a couple of things. look, right now we heard from the doctor, dr. o'connor, his personal doctor and he has mild symptoms and he's continuing to do the work of the presidency from his residence. and i think that's important. and, you know, to your question, april, every person reacts to covid differently. so it is a hypothetical. we're going to keep app eye. the doctor is going to keep an eye on him. i think what's important, though, and i really want to take this opportunity to say this, dr. jha said this as well, is that he is vaccinated and he is double boosted, which gives him protection.

what makes it -- puts him in a good physician just luke to make sure we had a comprehensive covid plan to get everybody vaccinated and boosted. he has mild symptoms and he is going to continue to do his work as we've seen from the video. ashley, i'm going to take your question right now. in the video that you saw, his videographer was there with him in the same situation as well with the photo. as you saw in the video, he was outside so we did that outside. with the photo he took off his mask so that the american people could see him and see directly, see the work that he's doing and that he's sitting at his desk continuing to do his work. i just wanted to give that. >> can i ask whether there was

any consideration given to any other treatment? it's unclear how the two work together. can you walk through that? >> i think there will are two good choungs for hair pis. >>. >> >> i know the doctor spoke with medical experts at walt early reed and that was the plan, if the president got infected, we would consult with experts. he did and that was a recommendation that dr. o'connor made. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]. >> first of all, dr. connor is going to drive that process with consultation with experts, not just as those institutions, really around the country and i think he's going to make decisions based on what is

happening with the president in his condition. right now the president is feeling well. i described it himself as feeling fine with mild symptoms. >> and we've seen, in other words, tested positive after testing negative get a second -- >> a lot of hypotheticals there of lots of things that might happen down the road. the president feels fine right now. i don't think, you know, i think we will cross that bridge if that happens but at this point really focus on just macking. >> on a hugh teen screening testnd then as opposed to saying, hey, i anz on

questioning roar r. you guys saw him yesterday, he was in the afternoon in somerset, and he was feeling fine. where most of us were looking for water and trying not to pass out, the president was delivering remarks on a very important issue of climate change. you all will hear and get daily updates from dr. o'connor of how he's doing. i just wanted to add that. >> was the president ever identified as a close contact to anybody else in the course of the last 72 to 100 hours? >> not that i know of. >> we are starting our protocol process on close contact? >> was he identified as a close contact to someone else? >> to someone else? that part i would have to find out. i would say our process because

as we all stated, we we are doing our close contacts. >> how many have been identified as close contacts to him? >> we're just starting our process. i don't have a number to read out to you. i told you that he called the congressional members that traveled with him yesterday, but we're just starting out our process right now. >> has anyone else at the white house tested positive this week? >> as we normally do, if they are a close contact to the president, we normally provide that information. when i tested positive and i was a close contact -- out of abundance to caution, i was not but because i had traveled with him we shared that information. but we have a protocol here that we will continue to follow when it comes to who is a close contact to the president and making sure that we make that clear and in december of last year when he -- when there was

a -- when he was traveling and there was somebody who was a close contact to him, we shared that as well. so he'd been transparent on that. >> is anyone else in the white wing positive right now? >> our protocol is if they are close contacts to any principals -- >> reporter: you can't say. for americans who are in public always wear a mask if they tested positive for covid. >> people should isolate and if they're going to be in close

contact, they should be wearing a mask. the president was more than sucks feet away from a reporter who was wearing an n-95. >> i'm going to call on everybody. go ahead. >> can you explain the testing cadence and the rationale behind it? given the raise of ba.5, why doesn't he get a daily test? >> the testing cadence is determined by dr. o'connor, his personal physician. he gets tested very regularly. i don't really think there's a huge advantage of testing like every day. >> had he tested yesterday morning, he might have tested positive in time to not have gone on that trip and exposed any number of people, right? >> the protocol behind the president's testing has been both developed by dr. o'connor but also has gone through a lot of vetting. it's what we use to protect the

president and those around him and i don't have anything else to say beyond the protocol we have. >> look, like dr. jha said, it is between him and his personal doctor on that protocol. he has a regular cadence as we have spoken about before. we shared with all of you on tuesday that he tested negative. and the reason why -- you saw him yesterday, i just said, he was speaking in front of many of your colleagues outside on a very, very hot day and it wasn't until later in the day, in the evening that he was feeling a little tired and he was tested today. look, this goes back to where we have come from where we started. we have -- the president has done the work to make sure that more than 200 million people in this country have been vaccinated. more than 100 million people in this country have been boosted. that's because we have a

comprehensive plan to make sure people get vaccinated so that they can be protected. and so that is what's most important here. he has mild symptoms, he continues to work, and like many americans this is, you know, we have to make sure that we send that message to make sure to get vaccinated and boosted if you haven't yet. >> reporter: the president and the white house, are there any regrets about the amount of time in the past week that we've seen him unmasked, shaking hands with people, fist bumping, close contact with crowds? >> i've said this before from this podium. we have an incredibly contagious variant. and we had a protocol that i think has done a very good job of protecting the president. the most important part of that protocol, by the way, is making sure he was up to date on his vaccines, that he had access to treatments. the president wants to get out

there and be with and meet the american people and engage and we always said that this was a possibility. i think i even said it from this stage that this was a possibility. and i think that the protocols have kept him from getting infected and but we knew this was a possibility with this incredibly contagious variant. the good news is his immune system is very well protected given the four vaccine shots he's gotten, he's getting treatment, he has mild symptoms, he's feeling fine, his words. >> dr. jha, if i could please ask you about the president's age. he's 79 years old. what level of concern does that add when someone like him tests positive? >> very simpl i would begin with what's his immune status and what are his access to treatments and the bottom line

is given how much immunity he has from vaccines, given that he was started on treatments right away, like literally had symptoms this morning and got started on treatment this morning, all of those things very dramatically reduce his risk of serious illness and that's really the goal here is to prevent serious illness, to keep that risk as low as possible. i think he's gotten that full set of protections. >> in terms of monitoring his oxygen, is that something that will be done hourly, a couple times a day? just walk us through, if you could, his oxygen levels and the concern that could raise. >> i don't actually know how often. what i will say is that he's monitored very regularly, he's feeling well, his oxygen level was checked this morning, it was normal and the exact sort of frequency of that is a decision between him and his if i sis and -- physician and dr. o'connor

is making that call. >> how could it not matter where he got it that is involved in contact tracing? >> i think what i was trying to say is what's important now is that he has mild symptoms, is that he is working from the residence on behalf of the american people. that's our focus look, we knew this was going to happen. when he joined me from the briefing room, he said at some point everyone is going to get covid. what is important is to make sure you get the treatment that we have provided for folks. and then we have paxlovid made available because of this president. the moment that we're in right now is what matters as we're talking about the president and his treatment and how he's

feeling and how he's continuing to work on behalf of the american public. i'm going to move around. i can say he told us this morning he had a runny nose, he had a dry cough. he was a little bit fatigued. he did say he had restless sleep and when that occurred, he got the antigen test and then was given a pcr test. i cannot pinpoint the exact moment. we were transparent. i got the letter, we the information so we were transparent in giving out the

statement. we were transparent in sendingo letter and we will have daily updates from his doctor on his status. >> in terms of the search for close contacts, i understand that's under way now, but there should still be able to be some confirmation of at least some individuals who are in close contact. he was with multiple members yesterday, on air force one, he was with the first lady of ukraine as well on tuesday. you know, can you tell us if the vice president close contact, if the members on the plane are considered close contact? >> so when it comes to the vice president, she spoke to this earlier today, she just gave comments and she spoke with the president. i will let her speak to that. you heard from the first lady, of course, she's the first lady and she spoke -- she said she tested negative and clearly she is a close contact. look, you know, i'll say this, our commitment since last july is to disclose when the president or one of the four principles is a close contact of staff who tested positive as

defined by the cdc, this is the definition by the cdc, or when he tests positive. which is what we're doing to all four of you today. we're transparent -- >> that's karine jean-pierre at the white house. the risk is lower now for the president because of all the therapeutics. this is a reason, one of the reasons this country has been working so hard to get to this point and they want to make sure every american has the same access to the same quality of care that the president is getting, including all the vaccines and the boosters, and access to the therapeutic paxlovid. we'll turn back to the january 6th committee hearing that is later tonight, because we have democratic congressman from maryland, jamie raskin, here with us. he's also on the committee, a member of the committee. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. what should we expect tonight? >> well, in the chronology of

things, this final hearing in this batch of hearings will take us right up until january 6th, from the president's speech on the ellipse, all the way through the day, through the nightmare of the insurrection, the violence against the officers, the smashing of windows, the breaking into the building. but it will juxtapose the events on the ground with what was taking place in the white house. and specifically with donald trump at the time as well as what was taking place with the joint session of congress on the floor of the house of representatives, so you'll have to kind of keep track of the street violence that breaks into the capitol, what is going on with the house and the senate, as we were forced to flee our chambers and then what donald trump was doing in response to all of these events that he had unleashed against us. >> so we saw in some previous hearings, from cassidy hutchinson in particular, she testified the president said something to the effect of i don't care that the crowd is armed, they're not out there to hurt me, are we going to hear

any more directly from the president or about what the president might have said in those 187 minutes about whether he cared about what was happening to lawmakers, whether he cared about what was happening on capitol hill? did he say any more about the chants of mike pence to hang him? >> you know, i think that people watching will be able to record their impressions of either the president's continuing enthusiastic explore incitement of the mob on the one hand and his manifestations of indifference and apathy of the endangerment and risk that members of congress, vice president pence and other people were put in. including, i should say, members of the media who were caught up in it too. >> i want to ask, are we going to see more outtakes or any outtakes from the video that was

recorded of donald trump telling his supporters to go home? >> well, stay tuned. it is just a few hours away now. but we think that there is a comprehensive and meticulous documentary record of this president's continuing incitement of the mob, his targeting of vice president pence, and his shocking, startling and unprecedented from the standpoint of other presidents indifference to the fate of coordinate branch of government and the people in it, as well as his own vice president. so i think all of that is well shown, but also i hope that people will get the sense both from the witnesses who appear, the documentary evidence and the statements of the members who are speaking tonight about the continuing danger that is posed to our constitutional republic. >> is this the last hearing? >> no, it is the -- it is

definitely the last in this series of hearings. evidentiary hearings what happened. we have more work to do, in terms of making recommendations to the american people and congress about what needs to be done. and there may be further evidentiary hearings as the pace of revelations actually continues and more people continue to come forward as the evidence of this president's culpability becomes so overwhelming. >> did you see what merrick garland said about the doj investigation or maybe a doj investigation? he said that these are not done in public, that no person in this country is above the law, he repeated that. he also said we have to get this right. does that indicate anything to you? >> well, i actually have been hearing him say those things for several months, but what was amazing to me was that it took on a new resonance in the context of the hearings we have been doing and i think america started to hear him for the first time and started to believe that, hey, maybe the

department of justice really is on top of not just the people who assaulted our officers and smashed our windows and our members of the proud boys and oath keepers and 3%ers, but also people at the very top of this plot to overthrow the 2020 presidential election. >> when will we see the final results of this investigation? a final report? will it be before the midterms? >> well, the -- the committee lasts up until january, but, of course, we, you know, are very conscious of the fact that the clock is ticking on this congress. the house of representatives, unlike the senate, basically expires after two years. so we're like cinderella, like, it goes away. unlike the senate, you know, which is a continuing body because of the overlapping terms. so we have a very strong sense that we need to get this done. we will be working, albeit at a different pace over the month of

august, but all of us are determined to see the investigation through and there is still a lot more information coming out, and we have got to write this report and we have to, you know, talk among ourselves to make sure we can concur and operate with still the wonderful consensus we had on the recommendations that we want to make to the american people. >> we have 30 seconds left. will we see the one text message from the secret service that you've been able to recover? >> i'm not sure if that's part of the presentation tonight. look, we're determined to get all of those text messages that were mysteriously lost for january 6th. that's quite a coincidence. and all of the evidence related to what had happened. the good news is that the overwhelming number of people have been very forth coming with evidence and have come forward to testify and it is a tiny handful that continues not to cooperate with the january 6th committee. >> congressman jamie raskin, member of the january 6th committee, thank you very much for previewing tonight's

coverage for us. we appreciate it. >> you bet. and msnbc is going to have special coverage of tonight's hearing, beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern with expert analysis from rachel maddow, joy reid, nicolle wallace, and more, and then tomorrow beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern, andrea mitchell and i will host special coverage of what the committee found and what happens next. that is going to do it for me today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage right now. thank you. we're going to take you back in now to the other big story of the day, president biden testing positive for covid with that briefing still happening over at the white house. let's listen in. >> so isolation, yes, just for everybody, isolation is when you're positive, and you're isolating, quarantining is if you've been exposed. so that's the kind of difference in terminology. the isolation protocols, he's going to stay in his residence, we're going to minimize the -- i don't actually know what the plans are with the first lady in terms of -- i'm assuming she's going to stay isolated from the