right now on "andrea mitchell reports," a christmas surprise. ukraine's president zelenskyy flying at this hour to washington. the first time he left ukraine since putin invaded his country. seen switching trains in poland as he heads to the white house to meet with president biden later this afternoon. in a dramatic wartime appearance, reminiscent of churchill, zelenskyy will address a joint session of congress, a joint meeting of congress tonight at 7:30 eastern. bringing with him a flag he received from front line soldiers yesterday to present to the president and congress. also here in washington, january 6 committee releasing its final report today as we learn the committee is fully cooperating with the justice department. we are expecting new details about alleged pressure on key witnesses to withhold information and the slow emergency response in deploying the national guard.

after years of fighting all the way to the supreme court to stop exposing his taxes, donald trump's tax returns will be made public. we know that the former president paid no federal income taxes in 2020 and did not receive the mandatory irs audits required for all presidents for decades. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president zelenskyy's meeting this afternoon will focus on a show of solidarity. no matter how long it takes the president said. all this ahead of his trip tonight to capitol hill, with the administration and ukraine worried the house republican takeover could lead to less support for the war effort.

zelenskyy said in a tweet earlier today he was traveling to the u.s. to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of his country. president biden responding, i hope you are having a good flight. i'm thrilled to have you here. much to discuss. let's bring in ben rhodes, former obama deputy national security advisor to kiss us off. how significant is president zelenskyy's visit to washington at this critical point in the conflict when russia is continuing to struggle and warning of a big offensive to come and billions he received, he has not received the offensive weapons, the long range weapons he has been looking for? >> it's an extraordinary moment. first of all, as you said, zelenskyy has not left ukraine since the war began. him coming to the united states i think solidifies and certifies the extent to which the united states has been the central supporter for ukraine in this war, a life line for ukraine. i think they are two enormous

things to watch. first is, this is a precarious moment for ukraine. after significant gains in the offensives in the fall, as the fighting grinded to a halt for the winter, russia pulverized the energy grid. those additional mobilized troops that putin called up have had some impact in at least stemming some of the russian losses. you see potentially an offensive from belarus, another run at kyiv is something they have been worried about. ukraine needs support. they need it now. they need to figure out how to deal with the hard winter. they need to deal with the planning for the spring, how they're going to hold the gains they have made and potentially make more. critically, i think this is why it's smart this is happening, they need more support from the u.s. congress. there's an enormous bill before the congress right now. ukraine needs to know congress is going to be there for them going forward. with kevin mccarthy coming in

and saying, there's no more blank check for ukraine, that's going to look ridiculous with zelenskyy standing there addressing congress. he put his life and his family's life on the line. i think it's going to make it very hard for republicans to deny his initial request and hopefully for the ukrainians it will create momentum for republicans to not play games with assistance. we need to ask questions and accountability and transparency, but the core idea that the united states is in ukraine's corner and president zelenskyy's corner should be solidified. >> he is getting the patriot missile system that he has long sought. that's important. it does take time to train the ukrainian troops there to run it outside the country. he wants more. he wants long range weapons. the u.s. has been concerned that will expand the border, give

him -- the war, rather. give him the option of going into russian territory, possibly enlarging the war and engaging nato. how does president biden handle that balancing act? >> pretty clearly, the u.s. has not just been supplying weapons. i think the u.s. has been consulting with ukraine on its own plans. that's another reason why it's so important for them to be able to sit down face to face like this and their advisers will continue the conversations. what do you need right now? missile defense is a priority, because it's those russian air attacks and missile attacks on ukrainian infrastructure that have had an impa wh missile defense. they need to deal with their next offensive and what capabilities do they need to push the offensive into those areas of eastern and southern ukraine? this consultation provides an opportunity not just to talk about weapons and list of weapons, but to compare plans.

if the u.s. has some assurance that these longer range artillery or these systems like patriots that can be fired at a great distance, if we have some assurance we know what ukraine is doing with those weapons and is not going to use those to attack, for instance, into russian territory in ways that could escalate the war, it gives president biden and the leadership in congress more assurance that we can support ukraine and help them win this fight without risking greater escalation between the u.s. and russia. it's about weapons, but it's also about the plans. i think that's why this kind of consultation is so important. >> john kirby said diplomacy is on the table. not that they are changing the policy of they're not going to negotiate anything about ukraine without ukraine. there has to be an end game at some point when the u.s. and ukraine believe that he has the leverage. how do you define that? you don't want to -- president

biden doesn't want to appear to be pressuring zelenskyy. but he needs to know what the bottom line is. is it giving up crimea to russia and retaining the rest? where do you see this going? >> he is going to have to explore those questions, andrea. particularly because president biden has a bunch of european allies dealing with a greater energy crunch and much greater cost of living issues. nothing compared to what the ukrainian people are going through. but the pressure for diplomacy is going to be building in the coming months, particularly from europe. these are not conversations that they're going to publicize. it's why it's so important for them to sit down, maybe even just one on one, and for president biden to kind of probe these issues. when would ukraine be comfortable entering into some kind of negotiations? ukraine's position publically is going to be, we need to retake every inch of our territory. privately, president biden will explore, when can we get

channels moving? what are your bottom lines? ukraine has to be at the table, but you will have president macron, who wanted to engage in diplomacy as well. i think their capacity to not be on a phone -- no matter what secure communication you have, you don't trust someone isn't listening in. when you sit in the oval office, you know conversations won't leak out. i think this question around howdy -- how diplomacy takes place is important. >> thank you so much for teeing us off today. really great transition. joining us now from the white house is john kirby. the visit comes as zelenskyy has been warning about a renewed russian offensive in the east. does the u.s. have the same

concerns? >> we do. you will see where president zelenskyy visited yesterday, there's fighting. we all focused on the south in recent weeks and forgot about the fighting very active in the east, in the donbas area. i suspect that's why. of course, president zelenskyy went there to visit with his troops that are pushing back on the russians in that particular area. all along that front, from the east all the way down to the south, even though the russians have largely dug in and made defensive lines, there is still active fighting going on. >> in addition to the patriot system, the battery that's being announced today, and the training in a third country, the ukrainians really want long range weapons. is the u.s. willing to provide those? >> we are going to continue to work with the ukrainians step by step, andrea, every day talking to them about what their needs are. i won't get ahead of future

decisions, certainly not ahead of the president here. we are working with them every single day to try to address their needs as best we can. we want to make sure that they are able to defend themselves and their territory, all of it, from the onslaught of russian attacks. right now, the focus is very keenly on air defense. putin's tactics are all about these cruise missile and drone assaults on civilian infrastructure, civilian population areas and killing innocent ukrainian citizens. we want to make sure they have the ability to defend themselves from those attacks. the war has changed over time, as you know. when it first started, we were talking about anti-tank missiles, javelins in the march up to the battle for kyiv. over time it changed towards artillery. now air defense. we will keep those conversations going with ukrainians. i would highlight that secretary austin running the contact group, more than 50 nations, every time he meets, come together to try to address urgent needs by the ukrainians. this decision here, this was

part and parcel of that effort by secretary austin to evolve the needs with what's going on on the battlefield. >> zelenskyy has long said the needs have evolved to require long range weapons. is the president concerned? is there a u.s. concern that if he hits targets across the border, russian targets, that that could enlarge the war and potentially involve nato? >> we are certainly not encouraging attacks inside russia. the president has been clear, we don't seek conflict with russia. we want to make sure that ukraine can defend itself and win back its territory inside ukraine. that's appropriate. that's what our focus is on. we are not encouraging attacks outside of ukraine. i think -- we have talked about this many times. we don't believe that an escalation beyond what has been an escalated conflict, in terms of what putin is doing against civilian targets, we don't think

escalation beyond that is good for the people of ukraine, certainly not good for europe, for the people of russia and it's not good for our national security interests. >> do you know how long it will take for the patriot missile battery to become operational? >> it's going to take some time. we will let the two militaries sort of work out the exact timing. part of that is going to be the training required. it's a fairly advanced system. it requires quite a bit of intense training to make sure it can be operated safely and effectively. the pentagon will work that out with the ukrainian armed forces, how long it's going to take, how many people will participate and when that can get into ukraine. it's going to take a little bit of time. >> of course, zelenskyy is looking for economic assistance. the infrastructure has been wiped out. the power grid. this doesn't even mean the long-term rebuilding. they need more money. they want more money. you have the republicans taking over. you have warnings against a blank check from kevin mccarthy,

senator hawley. how concerned are you? is that the broader message of the visit, to try to rally congress in support of ukraine? >> i suspect president zelenskyy will talk to lawmakers about the urgent needs ukraine has. i would say a couple of things. there's never been a blank check. everything we have done, every dollar we have spent, every system we have sent into ukraine has been done with a full collaboration and consultation with members of congress. there has been strong bipartisan support over the last ten months. the president expects that that support will continue. he believes it should continue. they will have a chance to hear directly from president zelenskyy today about that. >> i want to ask you about -- you said you acknowledged that diplomacy is part of the agenda as it would be. not that anyone is undermining zelenskyy and ukraine. diplomacy is on the table. is there an end game? this can't go on forever.

does the president need to understand -- does president biden need to understand what president zelenskyy's bottom lines are and how to get putin to the table and what happens to crimea and the territory that putin has had since 2014? >> i think clearly today they will talk about an end to this war. they will talk about the just peace that president zelenskyy has articulated that he wants to pursue, we want to pursue. we think that diplomacy will be part and parcel of what's discussed today. this won't be about, however, forcing president zelenskyy to negotiate or describing or dictating to him what the terms of a negotiation might look like. he is the commander in chief. it's his country. he gets to determine if and when he goes to the negotiating table. he determines the conditions for that, what he is willing to put on the table with the russians. i think, sadly, we are just not

there, andrea. mr. putin has shown no indication that he is willing to negotiate or engage in any kind of diplomatic talks. in fact, you could say quite the opposite. everything he is doing tells you that he wants to continue to prosecute this war. he wants to continue to kill ukrainians. he wants to knock out the lights and turn off the heat as winter sets in across ukraine to try to bring the ukrainian people to their knees. hundreds now, missiles and drones, just barrage after barrage into ukraine, all across the country. no indication mr. putin is willing to sit down and talk. we aren't going to force that conversation at all on president zelenskyy. >> you have a military background, john. you know all of the risks involved. how challenging in terms of security is it to bring -- for zelenskyy to leave his country for first time since putin invaded and worry about getting him back in? >> certainly, we understand that he takes a certain risk in leaving his country at this

particular time. i think it speaks to how important this meeting is, how important american support for his efforts are to him and to the ukrainian people, that he was willing to embark on this journey. i won't get into his personal security or force protection or how that's handled. we want to make sure he has a safe and secure trip coming and going. we will continue to work with him and his staff to do what we can for that end. we want to keep him safe. obviously, we recognize this is not without risk for him. i think it speaks to the -- it stands as a testament to the importance of this meeting and the important of the strong relationship between the united states and ukraine. >> ukraine has long wanted vladimir putin and russia to be declared a state sponsor of terror. now there are reports there's a step below that that is being considered, an aggressor state. is that something that is on the table today as well?

>> well, i'm not going to speak for members of congress. i suspect that they will have conversations about that, perhaps this evening. we have been very clear that we don't believe that the state sponsor of terrorism designation is the most effective way to hold russian accountable for its atrocities inside ukraine. we have heard from many non-profits and aid organizations that that would actually make their job harder inside ukraine and in the region. we don't support that. we do support and we are willing and are in fact talking to members of congress about other accountability tools that we could use to hold russia further accountable for what they're doing, short of that sst designation. >> as we say, that's a perfect segue into our next guest, senator murphy. john kirby, thank you very much on a busy day for taking the time to talk to us. >> my pleasure. thank you. joining us now is senator chris murphy, who serves on the appropriations and foreign relations committees.

senator, what do you expect to hear? what do you want to hear from president zelenskyy in this address? what about his request, his hope for offensive weapons? >> this is going to be an extraordinary evening. i am so proud to welcome my friend president zelenskyy to ukraine. i've had the chance to visit with him a number of times over the years. i think this is going to be an evening to cement this remarkable partnership between the american people and the ukrainian people. we have in common a love of democracy, a love of self-determination. that's why you see ukrainian flags flying all over the united states today. in blue states and red states. we support their right to be its also coming at a time when congress is supplying a new

record amount of funding to ukraine. we are going to pass, perhaps in the next 48 hours, a new $46 billion aid package for ukraine. the president will announce an immediate $2 billion new investment in ukraine when president zelenskyy arrives. it will be a clear signal both to russia, but also to our friends that the united states isn't going away. that we are going to stand with ukraine to make sure they win this war. i think it will be an extraordinary emotional evening. i can't wait to be in the chamber for it. >> is that additional $2 billion you talked -- you talked about $46 billion. is that in addition to the $2 billion economic and weapons, a combination? >> the president is announcing a new $2 billion -- $1.8 billion commitment based upon previous authorizations by congress. at the heart of that is this new commitment to provide anti-missile patriot systems to ukraine.

we will authorize perhaps later today in the united states senate a new $46 billion package. part of that package will include about $16 billion in economic and humanitarian support. this is really important. i think this is why we want to make this commitment now. house republicans have made noises that they might be willing to continue to support military assistance to ukraine but not be willing to support economic assistance. that plays into putin's hands. what putin is trying to do is economically ruin kyiv and ukraine, if he can't own it militarily. this package that we are approving this week will be both military assistance and economic and hopefully enough to last ukraine all through 2023. >> senator, without pressuring zelenskyy, john kirby just said, of course, diplomacy and a way out of the war is on the table. how to get putin to the table, what are the red lines?

how does the u.s. do that without appearing to pressure zelenskyy into concessions? >> i heard john kirby. i thought he was incredibly strong. he said it a number of different ways. we say it in congress as well. this is not the united states' call as to when ukraine sits down at the table. we are going to support their mission to beat back this invasion. of course, if zelenskyy decides he wants to entertain a discussion with the russians, we will help him. of course, when that moment arrives, the united states will be a great and important partner in that effort. i do hope the president -- president biden and president zelenskyy talk about the path forward to a diplomatic solution. but i think they both have eyes wide open that that is not coming in the short term, that this winter we're going to be fighting. the ukrainians are going to be fighting. by showing putin what his line

is, showing him the limits of his power, that's the best way to ultimately achieve a good diplomatic result for the people of ukraine. >> we know you have to go. you mentioned in the next 48 hours, so you're not going to finish the omnibus and other legislation today, tomorrow? there's a storm coming. there's christmas. >> there's a storm coming. both republicans and democrats, especially from the midwest, are reminding us of our duty to finish up in a way that gets everybody home for the holidays. i think the senate can complete its business tonight. the house would have to act on the am -- they need to act on the omnibus bill.

>> senator chris murphy, thank you very much. >> thank you. trump's taxes. the truth comes out about donald trump's false claims he was being audited by the irs. this is "andrea mitchell reports." you are watching msnbc. s "andrel reports. you are watching msnbc you hear about cancer, but you don't ever think that it will be your child. it was your was your worst fear coming to life. the doctor tells us your son has a large tumor. and he said, well, that's not the only tumor. we thought my son had one tumor. he had hundreds. marlo thomas: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. at st. jude, it went from so hard to we're going to take care of this. what they have done for me, my son, my family, i have no words for it. marlo thomas: join st. jude with your debit or credit

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the house ways and means committee released a stunning report showing for years and years the irs violated its own

mandatory requirement and failed to audit former president trump's taxes. he was president at the time. only began auditing on the very day that house democrats first asked to see an audit. the long awaited revelations which trump fought all the way to the supreme court also show that he paid no federal income tax at all in 2020 and included thousands of dollars in write-offs made in cash without any documentation. democrats will be releasing six years of trump's tax returns in the coming days after removing social security numbers and other private details. joining us now is jimmy gomez who helped write the report and was in the meetings yesterday. i want to dig into details with you. trump started his presidency in the red. his fortunes turned in 2018 and 2019 and he reported big losses during the pandemic. he paid zero dollars in federal tax in 2020.

he paid only $750 in 2016 and 2017. the average american would say, how am i paying more than a claimed billionaire? maybe he is not. maybe he is just a multimillionaire. the answer is deductions. your report says many of trump's were not substantiated. i want to ask you about the irs and their audits. there's a lot to say. >> it was shocking. when i read the report from the committee as well as the report on the -- from the joint committee on taxation, my jaw dropped. how does somebody claim $100 million in income one year but only pay as little as $1,000 in taxes? the way they do it is they have all these claims of losses and deductions but provide no evidence. one of the things in the report, it points out, the agents from the ways and committee and the joint committee on taxation were expecting to find boxes and boxes of information.

he has over 500 past through entities. they found one box for his 1040s and two boxes for all the other entities combined. it shows that he wasn't providing any substantiating effort that supports his losses or deductions and questions if he paid his fair share in taxes. >> your committee's stated goal was to check the audit procedure and come up with legislation, which you have. your report says congress has been given no details about the audit program since the irs adopted it in 1977. other presidents -- all other presidents have -- since nixon have voluntarily opened up their taxes. now it's mandatory, under irs rules. your committee is recommending codifying this into law. there isn't very much time until house republicans gain control. they all voted against releasing the tax returns. where do you stand? >> i think this is something that is essential to restore confidence, that the american people have in the president.

the president is no ordinary citizen. they want to know, one, is that individual a crook or not? are they paying their fair share of taxes? do they have conflicts of interest that impact their decision making process or the enforcement of the laws? are they compromised by a foreign agent? every president in order to give that confidence to the american people voluntarily released their taxes, except donald trump. the failsafe, mandatory audit program, didn't work. they didn't start until two years after donald trump took office. after the congress started doing its oversight of the administration and this program. we need to pass those laws so we can -- and codify it so that it can say when do taxes of a president have to be reviewed, started and finished? what happens if they find discrepancies? kind of set it out and provide resources. right now, the american people

shouldn't have confidence this is working. if a president doesn't voluntarily release their taxes, they don't have those conflicts that i mentioned earlier. >> congressman jimmy gomez, thank you. we will await the tax returns, six years you are releasing, very shortly. do you know when those are coming out? >> they should be out shortly. they have to just redact some personal information. like i said, it's not that many boxes. i think they should be done within the next week. >> you have looked at them. have you seen any other red flags like the charitable contributions without any documentation? >> i think a lot of red flags were for me is just the number of entities that donald trump has and how it seems like they're not controlled by him but they are. why is that set up that way? why are loss deductions spread out over multiple entities? is it to confuse and muddy the deductions to make it harder to

review? there's a lot of questions that these returns have caused us to have. i think we need to follow through on answering those questions. >> thank you very much, congressman. happy holiday to you. safe travels as well. >> thank you. as we await the final report from the january 6 committee, expected at any time, nbc can exclusively report an inforant warned the fbi about a tweet from donald trump, inviting his supporters to a wild protest in d.c. the informant spoke to nbc on the condition of anonymity, saying he warned the fbi about a big threat of violence. we are hoping to learn about potential witness tampering and why it took so long for the national guard to be deployed. joining me now is garrett haake, former deputy assistant attorney general and us attorney harry

lipman and frank figliuzzi, former assistant fbi director. frank, your reaction to the reporting that the fbi was warned that trump's tweet was call to arms by the far right online in their chatter. >> it's significant. it's not a surprise, because we all sat at home seeing what was going on for weeks prior. this is the first confirmation an active informant, still someone being utilized by the fbi, was reporting directly to his fbi handler about the concern. this raises all kinds of issues about the degree to which the committee has dug into this, whether the committee possesses this data and how many more informants? how far up was this? during my experience as an assistant director, every single morning, the fbi director and

the rest of us briefed the attorney general or the deputy attorney general inside a sealed room at fbi headquarters. what we need to know -- those minutes of the meetings were documented. what we need to know is, did the fbi, weeks before january 6, brief up to the doj, the acting attorney general, jeff rosen, for example, or his deputy, did they say, we're getting streams of reporting that there's going to be violence on january 6? did someone tell the fbi, lay low on this? don't take this that seriously? those are the answers we need to these questions. >> garrett, what new information are we expecting to learn in the final report? >> reporter: i think the summary report that came out monday largely covered the broad outlines of the plot, everything directly donald trump related. i think in the report itself, particularly in the appendixes, we will learn things in a couple of categories. a little more on the question of the law enforcement failures. the security prep failures.

basic xs and os of protecting the capitol and why that was not done better on that day and in the lead-up to january 6. that will be delved into more deeply in the report. i think we will learn more about the process by which the committee gathered their information. whether that includes efforts to obstruct or to lean on witnesses and their testimony. we might get more on why the committee said in the summary version that they felt that some witnesses were less than candid. hoping they can show their work here a little bit about how they gathered the information that they got and where they ran into roadblocks. whether it comes to roadblocks specifically, i think the one incident that's not adequately described in the summary report, that we have not gotten sufficient answers to, where does the committee fall on cassidy hutchinson's testimony on the efforts of the secret service to maybe bring trump to the capitol on the 6th, maybe not? that was one of the few areas that was a bit confusing, left up in the air over who the committee thought was more

credible and why. now we will get their materials. i think we will judge for ourselves. >> harry, one of the most gripping moments was cassidy hutchinson testifying that she was told by tony ornato, former secret service lead agent, by then the deputy chief of staff, unprecedented career switch, that donald trump was angry when he was told he could not go to the capitol with the rioters and he lunged at the driver. >> the president had very strong, very angry response to that. tony described him as being irate. the president said something to the affect of, i'm the fin' president, take me up to the capitol now. to which bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the west wing. the president reached up towards

the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. mr. engel grabbed his arm, said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. we're going back to the west wing. we're not going to the capitol. mr. trump then used his free hand to lunge towards bobby. when mr. ornato recounted the story to me, he motioned toward his clavicle. >> harry, the committee, first of all, when they releasereleas transcripts, there's some conflict there, where engel says he does not recall -- not that he doesn't recall, that that did not happen, the lunging. ornato says he doesn't recall, which is a difference. we want to see what those transcripts really say. also, there's reporting that someone tried to influence hutchinson's testimony. "the new york times" and cnn reporting that person is a

former trump white house ethics lawyer. put that together for us and the importance of him and what difficulty he could be and if that was some alleged witness tampering. >> sure. both these things are really big. they are an example of what we will see in the report. we have the executive summary, a pretty big executive summary. now we're going to see the document for history. things we didn't see that happened behind the scenes are very good examples. we will have ornato. the committee says he was not credible. he didn't recall. there are other people, not just hutchinson, who make clear that trump is irate, absolutely insistent about going up to the rally and make it clear whether or not he lunges for the wheel or not.

wow, is he in trouble. this is a lawyer who is paid for by the trump team before she replaces him. he has to be faithful to her as a client. supposed by, she says, i remember this and he said, that's okay, you can say you don't recall. that is immediate disbarment and a potential crime under 1001, one of the crimes they are alleging trump committed. if this pans out -- he has been scrubbed from his firm's website -- is basically dead in the water as a lawyer. it's a very good example of how team of trump, in ways that weren't necessarily presented to us in the hearing, were skewing the account. >> garrett, frank, harry, we are waiting for the report. breaking news. ukraine president zelenskyy has landed in the u.s. this is his second visit here.

certainly the first since the war. he has not left his country before this during the war. ahead of his big meeting with president biden and his address to a special meeting of congress tonight. across the street from the white house, blair house, with ukrainian flag, the blue and yellow ukrainian flag over blair house, the historic residence for presidential guests and for president harry truman while the white house was being rebuilt. heads of state do stay there on official visits. more as we learn it. this is quite a day in washington. we have all of it for you right here on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

the trump era covid immigration policy known as title 42 was supposed to expire today. it was implemented during the pandemic to make it easier for the government to turn away asylum seekers on public health grounds. the biden administration is telling the supreme court it should stay in place for a short period of time so they have time to plan for an expected surge of migrants at southern border. julia ainsley has been at the border speaking to a woman named natalie. she traveled from venezuela with her daughter rosa who lost her shoes on the journey. is dealing with the frigid temperatures. >> reporter: they fell off, natalie says.

her cheeks are burned from the trip and the cold. >> nbc's homeland security correspondent julia ainsley is outside the sacred heart shelter. that mother was surprised she was able to walk across the border in el paso without anyone stopping her. explain what's going on there. >> reporter: that's right. some were able to come in. border patrol is stretched here. others are being stopped as the governor here, governor abbott, put up barbed wire. we are outside the sacred heart church. some of the migrants were able to come in. they haven't seen the end of their hardships. a lot of women and children here spent the night outside the shelter. it reached capacity last night. temperatures were in the 30s. all of these people were grabbing whatever food, clothing they could that was dropped off by local residents trying to

keep warm. we were here with them until late. it was a hard thing to see. you could see some of the children are just toddlers and babies. they try to take as many women and children inside as they could. not everyone could make it inside. the city is stretched thin. they are opening up more shelters this weekend. for now, a lot of these people are looking at really cold, cold temperatures, well below freezing coming in tonight. it's questionable whether or not they will have a place to sleep. >> what's going to happen -- depending on what the supreme court does with title 42, is the administration prepared for what's going to happen next? >> reporter: that's the big question. we know they are surging resources down here. people i have spoken to, including city officials, say they need more. they need them to open more facilities. look at military bases like fort bliss, especially as they look at more people who could cross when title 42 is lifted. we know the administration asked

the supreme court if they do lift the stay, they give them a few days to plan, so it's not lifted all of a sudden over the holiday weekend. >> thank you so much for being there. joining us now is aclu attorney lee galert. the supreme court paused title 42. does this make sense to you legally? the white house is acknowledging the end of 42 will lead to disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful crossings. how do you handle that? >> right. what we are focused on is not the few days the administration is asking for notice so that if the court rules, they have a few days' notice so they can transition. the bigger issue is that both we and the biden administration are in lockstep that title 42 needs

to end. it was never intended to be permanent. it was always temporary. i don't think anybody thinks it's necessary any longer, including the cdc and the states. what i would stress about title 42, which i think is not widely understood, is that it does no give people any chance, any hearing to show that they have a valid claim. i think if you are going to support title 42, then you have to be taking the position that no one is entitled to asylum no matter how much danger they are in. that's untenable for the united states. we need to go back to regular processing. the other misconception out there is there's no way for the federal government to remove people quickly if they don't have valid asylum claims. there are expedited removal procedures. the supreme court has blessed two. they are there. they at least, unlike title 42,

give people a chance to show how much danger they are in. we know the danger has been horrific. we have documented with our partners thousands of cases of persecution, rape, torture and death. the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit said it was stomach churning evidence of harm. it's like the families are walking a plank into the hands of cartels. we can have a debate whether we want to tweak the asylum laws. we can't use misuse public health laws. it's danger to misuse public health laws. it's clear the states don't believe it's necessary for covid. the same states that are trying to intervene have opposed every single restriction except when it comes to asylum seekers. >> lee, you have been at the forefront of this. thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> appreciate it. averting a government shutdown. the january 6 report unveiled. the president of ukraine

visiting. a former u.s. president's taxes about to be released. i would call that a busy day. as busy as anyone can remember on capitol hill. we will have more coming up. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ortsc create something new? our dell technologies advisors can provide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring out the innovator in you. listen, i'm done settling. because this is my secret. i put it on once, to bno more touch ups!ator secret had ph balancing minerals; and it helps eliminate odor, instead of just masking it. so pull it in close. secret works. this holiday master your kitchen with wayfair. ♪ ♪ keep it fresh with colorful cookware. whip up holiday treats with ease. slice and dice with the best of them. and with wayfair, you can express yourself.

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this just moments ago. we see the ukrainian president zelenskyy arriving in his motorcade in washington. the ukrainian flag now flying over blair house where presidential guests historically stay. the capitol today is practically the center of the diplomatic universe as we await president zelenskyy's speech tonight and the release of the january 6th final report. donald trump's tax records and the omnibus spending bill. so let's just get right to capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles. ryan, normally the days leading up to christmas are quiet. it's been known that people kind of sneak out to do some last-minute shopping. not so today. >> no shopping being done today. i feel bad for my colleagues who have long christmas and holiday lists ahead. it's remarkable how much is

happening here today. you mentioned the visit of president zelenskyy. this was a week, a couple months ago we would have expected to be very quiet. most lawmakers back in their home districts, all the work for the year settled, but now we have this major address here tonight. an hus torque address. it will be the last time speaker pelosi will be in front of a joint meeting. and the final report of the january 6th committee. this is something that's more than a year and a half in the making. there won't be any bomb shelling out of this report, but to see this final narrative all-in-one final package will be important. and will be interesting to see how they lay everything out. the revelation of the former president's tax returns prove to be noteworthy and news worthy given the ways and means committee discovered about the lack of taxes that he paid and also the form and fashion this which the irs handled husband tax returns while in office.

there's a lot going on here. and we didn't even mention the spending bill yet, which could be settled by this evening. it's a very busy day here on capitol hill. >> and the storm that's approaching, which as you well know that as well as christmas is a highly motivating factor to people who have to get home or want to get home for christmas. susan n your latest piece, you say that the january 6th panel ranks among the most effective congressional investigations into a generation and more. when the full report does drop today, what are you going to be reading first? >> one thing we're going to be looking when they release transcripts of interviews is whether witnesses were saying behind the scenes. were they the psalm as what they were telling us in public. is it the same of what they were telling investigators. that will be what doj will be watching for. there's a couple things we don't know that we'd like to though more about. we'd like to me more firmly whether the president did demand

to be taken to the hill to join the rioters. that's something on which there's mixed testimony. but we have the broad outline from the release the other day that what is really a stunning investigation against the odds. they didn't have the full participation of republicans. they had resisted with people from the trump administration. the fact that they have turned this around in 18 months is really quite extraordinary. >> inteed. and president zelenskyy's arrival at the white house in about ab hour ahead of his address to congress, he's going to have a news conference after the krut call meetings in the oval office with the president and his team.critical meetings oval office with the president and his team. getting some new weapons, not all he wants, and clearly the president wants to talk about diplomacy. >> yes, absolutely. because the united states knows, as does ukrainians that this war needs to end at some point.

how does it end? what is the process by which it will come to a conclusion. if you're ending a war, even if you're not responsible for starting it, probably involves making compromises. that's probably one of the things that we expect the president and president zelenskyy to be talking about in private. we talk about this because the united states is not publicly pressuring ukraine to make concessions, but that is the reality of trying to bring to a conclusion this conflict. >> susan, thank you so much. in 15 seconds, ryan, what are you looking for in that report? >> i think the apen dexs, the reports about the security failures and the foreign influence, that could be new relevant information in the january 6th report that we haven't seen yet. i'm going to dive right there and sculpt over the first 800 pages and dpo there first. >> okay, that's good speed reading. thank you both so much. and coming up in our next hour,

what new information could be in the pages of that report. what it could mean for the department of justice going forward and how are the prosecutors looking at it. stay with us for all that on chris jansing, after a quick break. i'll be right back. fter a quick break. i'll be right back ♪ music (“i swear”) plays ♪ jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. [buzz] you can always spot a first timer. gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. (woman) oh. oh! hi there. you're jonathan, right? the 995 plan! you can always spot a first timer. yes, from colonial penn. your 995 plan fits my budget just right. excuse me? aren't you jonathan from tv, that 995 plan? yes, from colonial penn. i love your lifetime rate lock.

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good day. i'm ann droe ya mitchell. the long awaited report from the january 6th committee is about to be released a at any moment. the summaryocin