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good morning. i'm lindsey reiser at msnbc world headquarters in new york and this morning we are following the reaction and big implications for both parties after democratic senator raphael warnock's big win in georgia over his trump-backed challenger herschel walker. warnock is the first black man elected from georgia for a full senate term. >> i want all of georgia to know whether you voted for me or not that every single day i am going to keep working for you. >> we're all winners. and that's what i want to say. we're all winners. >> as democrats 51st vote in the senate, warnock gives the party much more political power in the upper chamber, drastically changing the dynamic of the democrat's razor-thin majority.

the "new york times" puts it this way, he's poised to be a more predominant national figure as a supporter of voting rights, and a next-generation voice in the party. for republicans, this means more soul-searching after a disappointing defeat for a trump-backed candidate. >> i still think it's kind of proof that trump can't just back candidates and have them win with no substance. also this morning, we're keeping an eye on the supreme court. right now justices are hearing arguments in a case that could radically impact our future elections. and we're also following new movement around the january 6th investigation. what new subpoenas from the doj special counsel reveal about the investigations just as the house committee acknowledges it's weighing criminal referrals. echoes of january 6th overseas. german authorities have carried out one of the biggest counterterrorism operations in

its history. what we're learning about an alleged plot by far-right extremists to overthrow the government partly influenced by the qanon movement. we're going to start with raphael warnock's win in georgia, giving democrats that 51st vote in the senate and more wiggle room within their caucus when it comes to legislating. steve kornacki is at his big board, vaughn hillyard is in georgia, also with me, greg bluestein and former congressman david jolly who is no longer affiliated with the gop. steve, take us through what we saw last night, some of the trend lines that you're seeing. >> it ends up being for raphael warnock a three-point victory over herschel walker. i think there's a couple major stories here in terms of how this came about for warnock. remember, initially back in november in the preliminary, warnock finished a little less than a point ahead of walker. he expanded to nearly three

points. how did he do it? he squeezed more votes, more support out of the core democratic area which is the immediate atlanta metro area. warnock getting 62% of the vote in gwinnett county. this county has been zipping from republican to democrat. it voted in the 2004 election for george w. bush by well over 25 points. now it's a core democratic county. warnock got 62% there last night in november. he got about 59%. so he increased -- he improved his performance in a major vote-producing democratic county. that was part of the story we saw throughout this atlanta metro area here. warnock exceeding his november totals. the other part of the story and the other place where walker fell short is when you get outside the metro area here to more of these sort of fringe atlanta metro counties here, a

place like forsyth county, you see walker wins the county, but take a look here. how does that compare to how he did in november? it's a little bit better than how he did in november. but, of course, warnock also managed to improve in forsyth county. there was a libertarian who got 3% of the vote but not last night. this is how brian kemp, the republican governor who easily won the governor's election in november, this is how he did in forsyth county. he got 72%. that was walker's other challenge coming into last night. in a place like forsyth county, big republican county where he had run far behind kemp in november, he needed to get his number last night up close to where kemp's was. and he didn't do that. he didn't do it in forsyth. he didn't do it next door in cherokee county. he didn't do it in this whole set of counties kind of ringing

the outer edge of the atlanta metro area here. in fact, on top of that, when you break down the turnout levels, in forsyth, cherokee county, they were relative to november's turnout, these had two of the lowest turnouts of any -- 159 counties in georgia. these were in the bottom six in terms of turnout yesterday relative to november general election. i think it strongly suggests that one thing that was happening here is that that republican voter that voted for brian kemp, that voted for republican statewide candidates last november, but that didn't vote for herschel walker, you saw a lot of those voters, it looks like a lot of them just did not show up yesterday and did not vote. >> wow. fascinating to see how it all shook out. chuck schumer just spoke last hour about how this win gives democrats more raw power and breathing room on the hill. how will the next term be different? >> reporter: for the past two

years, really, whenever there's a critical vote in the senate, the drama has been around where joe manchin and kyrsten sinema stand. and that's not the case anymore. that's a huge game changer for democrats because it gives them this vote cushion to be able to lose one vote and still get key legislation passed. they won't have to be -- they won't have to call vice president kamala harris in to be that critical tie-breaking vote as often. it gives them control over key committees, more power to subpoena and investigate what they want to. it also gives them control over how quickly nominations are passed through the senate. we can expect a lot more judicial nominations to be pushed through by democrats over the next two years. despite having this extra power that was gained last night with this win in georgia, senate majority leader chuck schumer says he's willing to work across the aisle with republicans to get things done over the next two years. take a listen to what he had to

say earlier. >> there are a good number of republicans in the senate and the house who are not maga republicans. it's my intention to reach out to them and say, how can we work in a bipartisan way? and you say, that will never happen. look at what happened this summer with 50-50 of the six major bills we passed, five were bipartisan. it wasn't that every republican went along with us. but most did. >> lindsey, the real gut check here is, we know whatever passes in the house -- sorry in the senate, then has to go to the house to be okayed. a house that is going to be controlled by republicans. so this is teeing up what's likely to be a very interesting next two years here on capitol hill, lindsey. >> warnock's win gives democrats a new path through a big battleground. the "new york times" reports that warnock appeared to improve on biden's margins in suburban counties and the -- in 2012,

romney won 56 of those counties. what does it say about georgia's political shift now and in the years to come? >> i love that. those are the suburban white independent voters who used to be solidly republican before the trump era and have changed. cobb county, they're now the foundation of the democratic bloc here in georgia. it shows you that senator warnock has found a way to claim the center in georgia politics right now, in a way that herschel walker didn't. he was appealing to transgender sports, these were the issues that he was making a mainstay of his stump speeches. senator warnock was talking about working across party lines, working with ted cruz, working with marco rubio, showing he can find ways to work

with the republicans. that allowed him to get the swing vote that steve was talking about, that kemp vote stayed with warnock in the second round of voting. >> you were at warnock's headquarters last night. one gop strategist who worked in the republican primary on a different campaign told "politico" that georgia is a red state when we can pick the best candidate rather than the rich one or the celebrity. until we learn that lesson, we will be treated to more train wrecks like this one as our nominee gets vetted in the general election, like a slow-motion spanish inquisition. what have you been hearing in the wake of this result? >> right, it's hard not to go back to 2016, though. more than 6 1/2 years ago, lindsey graham tweet in which he said at the time, if we nominate trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it. 6 1/2 years later, the republican party is still getting destroyed. it's not because the likes of

lindsey graham didn't try to come in and boost his candidacy. the republican party apparatus time and again, even after learning the sequences of 2020 have continued to try to prop up these candidates, including herschel walker, who were drafted by donald trump to run in the republican party primary and is go on and compete in these general elections. you saw herschel walker loose by a greater margin than the republican candidates, david perdue and kelly lef ler did, in the 2020 runoffs. i want you to hear from herschel walker last night. it was a little bit of a different herschel walker than we were accustomed to hearing over the greater part of the last year. >> i want you to believe in america and believe in the constitution and believe in our elected officials most of all. there's no excuses in life, and i'm not going to make any excuses now. we put up one heck of a fight. >> reporter: this is a candidate who was plagued by serious and difficult allegations him, but

there was a recognize from the stage last night in which he conceded there and it appears that herschel walker will be leaving the political scene here. where does the republican party go from here? does it try to go and follow the likes of governor brian kemp who beat stacey abrams by 8 percentage points? it's not quite clear. donald trump is the only candidate running for 2024. means he will have a major stake in this party here. but at the same time it's the voters who will decide. republican voters and that will be left up to them. lindsey? >> these are great questions, vaughn. this is going to lead to soul-searching in the parties. the "new york times" says walker's loss will lead to soul-searching for a party who must decide how firmly to tether itself to a former president who has absorbed powerful political blows in three successive campaign cycles.

it wasn't that long ago that walker was the one that could unit the party. how extensive do you expect the soul-searching to be? >> they cannot win nationally with donald trump, but you can't win without donald trump. if donald trump takes his voters out of republican party, you're at a loss. that's the wilderness that republicans find themselves in. this is a party in some ways without a leader because donald trump's grip is slipping. but you have that power of donald trump and his brand. so, look, i think republicans what you say, with better candidates and without donald trump, republicans can win in a state like georgia. i think what democrats have learned in this is we saw the emergence of a new coalition in '18. democrats, disaffected republicans and independents swung hard towards democrats and said we don't want donald trump. that same coalition was available in '20.

biden wins, democrats hold the house. in '22, there was no red wave. that coalition is there. what you heard from schumer this morning is maybe we should be reaching out and grabbing that coalition. democrats have an opportunity to solidify a new coalition that wasn't available to them in the past. this makes the republicans' road, the return to power much more quickly. >> do you think donald trump's announcing another run for presidency was too early? >> i think he had to stop the emergence of ron desantis and this leads to the question about desantis, pence, pompeo and others. now is the time for a leader to emerge and say i'm taking the party past trump. we're coming off a month of anti-semitism, white supremacy and big national losses under donald trump's hand-picked candidates. if someone could get past trump, now is the time.

i would suggest that donald trump's grip is still ironclad. >> thank you so much. we appreciate all of you. still to come, should state legislatures be able to run elections however they want, unchecked by courts. the supreme court case being argued right now. plus, a jury just found former president trump's family company guilty of a sprawling 15-year criminal tax fraud scheme. what kind of financial and potential legal trouble does that spell for the former president? it's one of the scariest things a parent can face, a baby struggling to breathe. i'm going to talk to jimmy allen whose six-week daughter got rsv, about what parents should know. , about what parents should know so am i. because i'm at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. i'm asking about prevnar 20® because there's a chance pneumococcal pneumonia could put me in the hospital.

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this morning the supreme court is hearing a major case out of north carolina that could upend election law and

potentially impact the 2024 presidential race. justices are considering whether to reinstate gop drawing congressional districts in north carolina in an appeal filed by state republicans. they're asking the court to embrace a legal argument which could strip state courts of the power to strike down certain election laws. joining me now is julia ainsley. also with me, former attorney general harry litman. walk us through what north carolinians want the supreme court to do? >> reporter: at the heart of the case is the independent state legislature that used to be a fringe tear during the 2000 election that was also decided right here behind me at the supreme court. but now it's starting to pick up prominence inside some conservative legal circles and this is being brought by a republican state legislature from north carolina who tried to

redraw those states districting maps before the 2022 midterms. the court overturned that. they said the court should not have had that power. it should be left up to state legislatures and they point to the elections clause which does specifically say that the state legislature should have that authority. but traditionally, courts, as well as governors and other state governmental bodies have had the ability to be able to put checks on legislatures to make sure that the laws that they're coming up with are actually coinciding with that state's constitution. right now this case is about the redistricting, but the theory could be spread depending on how the supreme court rules, it could also go to voter i.d.s, how the voting process works at all, and it wouldn't just help conservative state legislatures, it would essentially help whoever wins the party, whoever is controlling the legislature, then makes the rules. whether that be republican or democrat. >> the north carolina state

supreme court ruled that these redrawn maps were unconstitutional. state republicans are asking for that unchecked power to change election law. explain the implications of that kind of power. >> they are radical and far-reaching. it means unlike every other area where state legislatures have to act consistent with the law and the constitution, it would just be by raw political fiat. they would be completely unencumbered, do whatever they want and say, no, we think the -- imagine this in the context of the 2020 election. the state legislature could go by majority rule and say, we're going to do new electors, they're going to be for trump. we're not going to do this kind of law, et cetera. it's only -- as julia points out, there's this word that says the legislature can direct how electors are appointed, but that, like every other action of

a state legislature, is always been as consistent with state law and the state constitution. so this would enact a state law free zone for everything involving elections. it could be profound, a complete revolution in election law. >> complete revolution, wow. thank you. harry is going to stay with us. north carolina governor roy cooper will join my colleague chris jansing to talk about this supreme court case. that's today at 1:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. right now at the white house, doug emhoff is hosting a round table to combat the recent rise of anti-semitism. he's meeting with jewish leaders and orthodoxed members of the jewish faith. and it comes after comments made by kanye west.

west's remarks drew a strong rebuke from president biden who implored all political leaders to call out and reject anti-semitism. coming up, power should be on by tonight for thousands of people in north carolina who lost electricity saturday after that targeted attack on power stations. but are police any closer to figuring out who did it? plus a jury just found the trump organization guilty of a 15-year tax fraud scheme that went to the highest levels of the company. so will the prosecutor who led the case charge the former president himself next. >> the investigation is ongoing. this is one chapter. estigation . this is one chapter. ter network. 'tis the season to switch to verizon. they'll give you the new iphone 14 pro. (scrooge) amazing phone! (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro. plus an apple gift, like apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. that's a value of up to $1900. (scrooge) wow!

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former president trump is vowing to appeal after a new york jury found the trump organization guilty of all charges in a sweeping 15-year tax fraud scheme. jurors deliberated for just over a day before convicting the company on 17 charges. yesterday prosecutors say the scheme was orchestrated by top company executives to avoid paying income tax on perks like apartment and is luxury cars. the company could be fined up to

$1.6 million and sentencing is set for january 13th. trump himself was not charged in this case. turning now to big developments in the house and justice department's parallel investigations into january 6th and attempts to overturn the 2020 election. jack smith who is overseeing the doj's probe has issued subpoenas to local officials in these five counties in several key swing states. while in a separate house investigation, there are new questions as to who will be named in a criminal referral to the doj from the committee. zoe lofgren confirmed it will be part of the panel's final report on msnbc. >> we're looking at everything. our charge as a subcommittee was not just criminal referrals but consequences for individuals whose behavior fell short of requirements. we'll be done, you know, today or tomorrow, i'm pretty sure.

justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian has more and back with us is harry litman. both of these developments broke on the same day. help us understand what they say about the tempo of these dual investigations. >> the subpoenas, it was a significant moment. it's the first action at least that we've seen publicly by the new special counsel jack smith, or at least under his direction. and what this shows is that the justice department is seeking all sorts of communications records with a -- with donald trump and the trump campaign and a number of people working for trump, including rudy giuliani, mitchell, other lawyers involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election in these various local election officials in contested states who were under pressure to try to change the results. and the doj already has the communications records of a lot of these trump figures. now they want the other end of the conversation, they're looking for government records,

to perhaps compare notes and make sure that they have everything and create a full picture. it suggests that this investigation, this january 6th justice department criminal investigation has some ways to go because it will take awhile for them to gather records and make sense of them. so that's an important development. in terms of the criminal referrals, there would really be two types here. one more symbolic. if the january 6th committee issues a number of criminal referrals referring to potential misconduct, the justice department is already investigating that. they don't need the committee to tell them where to go. if there are new allegations, for example, of witness tampering or perjury before the committee, that could be deeply significant because as far as we know, the justice department has not been investigating along those lines. if they send the doj a new direction that's significant, if they don't, it's really more of a symbolic move by the committee. >> harry, you know jack smith. can you help us understand this and what move could this say

about the trajectory of the investigation. >> i think it's a collaborative strategy. these subpoenas are unlikely to provoke a big extended court fight. they're going to turn over the materials. in addition, i think they're not deep trump loyalists or at least they want to, you know, have ambitions in their own states so they're unlikely to fall on the sword. it's clear if you pierce it that this is about the fake elector scheme and that's the very scheme, for example, that resulted in the finding by that federal court judge that john eastman and clark probably had engaged in criminal conduct. so that shows that it's -- they're zeroing in on that for now. i agree 100% with ken, january 6th in general is a sprawling set of various schemes as the committee showed us. this is one, a very important one, but that case has a lot of -- a lot of work to go to

actually be ready to charge. >> harry, we don't want to put the cart before the horse. yesterday, you said that a potential criminal referral of trump related to january 6th would be sort of crossing the rubicon. you tweeted it in a tweet that may or may not have me looking something up in the dictionary. can you explain that and what you think the doj would be doing with something that seismic. >> it goes to ken's point, there are some referrals they could make that would be new and they would be the victim. for example, perjury to them that the doj doesn't know about, maybe. trump is in the category overall as -- that can -- well, they can identify, anyway. nevertheless, it would be thunderous, it would be something that would be heard around the country and the world and it would just kind of make it more plausible and soften the ground it seems to me for those charges to be brought. so even though it doesn't change doj's mind set, it nevertheless,

i think, makes it more plausible, brings, you know -- crosses a line that makes people think, wow, trump may well be being charged unprecedented in doj history. >> we know that much of the doj investigation centers on those sensitive documents found at mar-a-lago. "the washington post" reports this morning that the trump team searched two of his other properties, including bedminster and trump tower in new york. writing that an outside team did not turn up any new classified information during their search according to people familiar with the process and it's said they utilized a firm that had expertise in searching for documents. what do these additional searches suggest? >> my interpretation of this reporting is that the justice department suspects that there may have been additional classified material. they've said that as much in court records and this is the trump team trying to demonstrate that they're in full compliance with grand jury subpoenas as officers of the court and taking

the steps to show the doj that they're not finding any classified material to forestall a potential search warrant. the doj would need evidence of a crime in order to get a judge to approve a search warrant on any of those other properties. apparently they don't have it because they haven't conducted a search. this suggests that the doj is looking in other areas and doesn't have all the answers about where all these classified documents that donald trump took with him after his presidency, where they all reside, lindsey. >> i got to be quick with you. to circle back, the trump organization got that guilty verdict yesterday. trump himself wasn't charged but this will still impact him. can you explain how? >> for one, it's a body below against his company which is his sort of, you know, brand that he's a guy that cares a lot about brand. but collateral consequences in trying to get loans and maybe contracting with the government and then there's this very big new york ag civil investigation into the organization.

it will dovetail with that. >> ken dilanian, harry litman, thank you so much. residents in north carolina may finally get their power back tonight, days after an intentional attack disabled two substations. a spokesperson for the local power company duke energy says all customers should have power restored by the end of the day. it's now been four days since someone fired a gun at two separate substations leaving tens of thousands of people in moore county in the dark, in the cold and under a state of emergency. so far the investigation has not yielded any suspects or a possible motive. antonia hylton joins me now. any updates on the investigation? >> reporter: right now, lindsey, still no suspect and still no motive. we expect to hear from county officials at about 4:00 p.m. eastern time today. and we hope that there are more updates on this investigation. you know, right now people are just waiting as the hours go by

on this day for everyone in the county to get their power back. i'm hearing from some residents they were able to get some power back this morning and those folks are relieved. people have been describing to me driving to other counties, trying to visit family, just to take a shower, just to get warm for a little while. there have been emergency reports of elderly people who have needed oxygen to be connected, who have needed to refrigerate medications. the actions of whoever did this on saturday night, it's really continued to bring chaos to this community. we still expect for kids here, for example, to not be able to get back in school until friday. teachers are going to be back in the classroom, it looks like, tomorrow, but they're not going to be able to be back and up and running until the end of this week. this community has lost a lot of precious time for businesses, people to go to work and kids to be in school. take a listen to a conversation i had with one moore county resident. >> this is just a surreal experience to have this happen and to think that someone did

this intentionally, i would imagine they were hoping to do something large. but the knock-on effect of -- there are a lot of people on well water that require an electric pump. they don't have water. you have seniors who need refrigerated medicine. you have kids out of school with nothing to do because there's no internet and you can't do homework. this is worse than the pandemic because you don't even have the access to that kind of online community. >> reporter: lindsey, there's really two tracks to this story, a community trying to get back on its feet, patiently waiting for the power to be back on, to be heat in their homes and then, you know, people waiting for the results of this investigation. people really don't want this story to end up like the attack on a substation in california in 2013 with no resolution, no suspects ever named. people really feel like, you know, frankly many have described to me that they're used to hurricanes, they're used to crises coming through this county. but this is unlike anything else they've dealt with because of the uncertainty, because of what this potential threat represents for infrastructure here, but

around the united states and people want to feel safe right now. >> such important context. thank you so much. still to come, an end to some of china's harshest covid lockdown rules after widespread protests. we'll have the latest from beijing. dozens of people arrested in germany after an alleged terror plot to try to overthrow the country's government. what we know about the investigation and the group behind it with beliefs similar to qanon similar to qanon after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. stand up to your symptoms with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain, stiffness, swelling. for some, rinvoq significantly reduces ra and psa fatigue. it can stop further irreversible joint damage. and rinvoq can leave skin clear or almost clear in psa. that's rinvoq relief. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal;

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my most important kitchen tool? my brain. so i choose neuriva plus. unlike some others, neuriva plus is a multitasker supporting 6 key indicators of brain health. to help keep me sharp. neuriva: think bigger. this morning, we're following a major shift in china. the government is officially easing its strict zero covid policies that have constrained life there for nearly three years. the announcement follows massive protests across the country demanding an end to the restrictions in a rare act of defiance against the communist party and president xi jingping. janis mackey frayer has more

from beijing. >> after three years, some of the harsher aspects of the zero covid are being lifted. being able to quarantine at home, it's huge. and it removes the dread of possibly being taken away to a government facility. that's something that's haunted most people here throughout the pandemic. some of the measures were just excessive to begin with, like not allowing over the counter medicined like cough syrup because authorities didn't want people trying to mask their symptoms. they're reducing the need to test as often, travel between cities may be easier. the government is changing the way that people will use it. these changes were likely to happen any way but they come after extraordinary protests that called for the end of zero covid and then grew into calls for greater political freedoms here. and that seemed to jar the leadership. xi jingping still hasn't said anything publicly about the

unrest. still, with having these unpopular rules dropped, people here will be satisfied. though, it does bring new anxieties because most people here are now confronting the actual virus like never before. restrictions have been relaxed in the past, but the difference now is that things are reopening and there is a lot more covid. infections are going to surge, people aren't entirely prepared and the health care system has had no stress test for the wave of cases that's going to come. the sense is the road to reopening in china is going to be a bumpy one as people head into this next phase of the pandemic, one a lot of people are likely to get sick. >> thank you. this morning, we're also following breaking news in germany. authorities have arrested 25 people suspected of planning to violently overthrow the government and install its own leaders in a far-right extremist plot. germany's interior minister says

more than 3,000 officers, including special forces, were involved making it one of the biggest counterterrorism operations in the country's history. we're following the developments. officials say these suspects are part of a terrorist group. their beliefs alarmingly similar to the qanon movement in the u.s. what more do we know? >> that's right. the federal prosecutor said that this group in particular was formed in november 2021. a little more than a year ago. and it's kind of a group of people, there are some far-right extremists, some anti-semitic extremists, some people who believe in conspiracy theories like the one spread by qanon but also most of those people that were arrested today belong to a movement that in germany is called the reichsburger which believes that the federal government in germany is controlled by foreign powers and

that it's not legitimate and they want to replace it. in this particular case, the prosecutor says they wanted to overthrow the government with a violent coup, with an armed group and they wanted to replace it with some self-rule government led by the ringleader who was arrested. the ringleader in this case is a 71-year-old aristocrat. and he is the descendent of the german royal family that used to rule over many parts of germany for hundreds of years after the beginning of the 20th century. also the prosecutor said that among the people arrested are a militia group made up of reservists of former members of the armed forces including one who is still an active soldier. that's why they decided to move in and act and do the raids to stop them from carrying out this violent coup that they were plotting, lindsey. >> thank you so much.

this morning, a new honor for ukraine. "time" magazine revealed it has named ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy and the spirit of ukraine as the person of the year. they credited him with galvanizing companies and people around the world since the war started in february. in an interview with "time" zelenskyy said, later we will be judged. i have not finished this important action for our country, not yet. coming up, you may know jimmy allen for hits like "down home." after his daughter got sick and hospitalized last year with that respiratory virus rsv, he's singing a new tune, raising awareness about the virus. >> i was on tour and my wife called me and said zara's breathing had become erratic and she lost consciousness in my wife's arms.

>> they join us with what parents need to know about rsv straight ahead. rsv straight ahead

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fruition. covid cases have risen nearly 18% over the last two weeks. new data shows we are in the worst flu outbreak in over a decade. rsv cases are peaking. hospitalizations remain high nationwide. this morning, former acting director of the cdc dr. richard besser offered this guidance on "today." >> if you have respiratory symptoms, you should stay away from people. wear a mask. coming into the holidays, coming into the season, get your vaccines, get covid booster, flu shots. >> so many families across the country are dealing with this or have faced it, including jimmy allen. his wife and their daughter, last year, she was six weeks old lost consciousness after having a coughing fit. she was diagnosed with rsv and was hospitalized for six days. they are using their experience to raise awareness. they join me now.

they are both spokespersons for knowing rsv. thank you so much for joining us. i want to talk to you about your experience with zara. how did you know something was wrong? >> for about a couple days, she was having this coughing spell. just couldn't catch her breath. it seemed like it was worse than just a common cold or the flu in kids. we just really took her to the hospital to figure out what was going on. her doctors then a couple days later diagnosed her with rsv. >> jimmy, what was it like seeing zara coughing and struggling to breathe. >> i was on tour. i was about to film the macy's day parade. they transferred to delaware. seeing her laying on the hospital bed with all these breathing tubes, it was a scary feeling as a parent. even for a second we thought --

i was preparing myself to lose my daughter. this is something i've never heard of. it's really, really scary. >> alexis, this is something that you know about because you are a trained nurse here. obviously, this hit really close to home. nobody wants to see their own baby in a hospital. >> yeah. >> when you heard this year all of this talk of rsv, did it start ringing some bells here that that's exactly what you experienced last year? >> yeah. i feel like it's always been around. it's just more things are coming up. with the holidays happening and everybody trying to be around people, it's spreading like wildfire kind of. it's just been -- i'm just so glad we could share our story and knowing rsv to help people get awareness and understand how serious this respiratory virus is. >> alexis, what should parents be on the lookout for?

>> looking out for the coughing fits or just really that gut feeling, when you know they are not able to catch their breath or their oxygen levels -- they look funny. it's really just a judgment. it's kind of just like any other thing that you would see, but it's -- i don't really know how to -- the definition is different from actually looking at your child. there can be many symptoms happening. it's really case by case. >> jimmy, you are a busy guy. you are a busy family. you are on tour and obviously you have your thriving music career here. why be a part of this? what's your message to people who are watching? what do you want them to know? >> how we advance as people and what knowledge comes from is when someone goes through it, they share what they know. i'm big on that. so when we had the opportunity

to partner with sanofi, i wanted to do it. rsv is serious. watching my daughter literally almost -- that almost be it, it was scary. i never want any other parent to go through that. just trust your gut, like my wife said. you know your child. take them to your health care professional. there's tons of information on knowingrsv.com. equip yourself with knowledge. >> hopefully people know what to look for and keep it in the back of their mind. we appreciate you coming on. we are happy that zara is thriving today. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> have a great day. >> you too. that does it for me. i will be back tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. "andrea mitchell reports" starts next. "andrea mitchell reports" s next need a better network. 'tis the season to switch to verizon.

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