to be vacated by justice stephen breyer, who announced his retirement earlier this week nbc's josh letterman is at the white house. josh, what do we know about this judge? >> her name is j. michelle childs, and she's a federal judge in south carolina. normally the white house wouldn't discuss who is being being considered or not, but childs is unusual. she's already been nominated for the d.c. appeals court. the white house says that more than three candidates are being considered, but a few republicans are pushing back on president biden's promise to nominate a black woman, comparing it to affirmative action childs would also bring academic diversity to the bench she'd be one of just two justices who didn't attend an ivy league school. jose >> josh letterman at the white house. thank you. >>> president biden is planning to build up forces in eastern europe, as ukraine prepares for a possible russian invasion. our matt bradley is in that country's capital, kyiv, and spoke to its president who tells him they are ready >> reporter: new propaganda video from russia shows the arrival of missile

i have josh letterman back with us from the white house. ons that he is not focused on inflation, he called it quote malarkey. mike memoli who keeps track of these, resident biden whisperer saying this is the second time the president used the word malarkey in formal rema,s but seemed to be defending the administration a fair amount there. >> reporter: he did. you called ate victory lap. i think that's the way to describe this. in stark contrast to the portrait republicans paint of this jobs report calling it the worst of biden's presidency but the president had political argument today to make, too, talking about how republicans in his view don't want to acknowledge the economic progress biden said the country is making because so many voted against the very pieces of legislation that the president said are responsible for the progress he says we're making so you see him sort of trying to reframe the debate. hifr lighting the efforts taken on supply chains, the shipping around the holidays. the president made a brief reference to the build

josh letterman at the white house, thank you. let me move over to heidi przbyla because the next two parts of this is on the impact on schools and, look, i heard it from the secretary of education, we heard it from the president of the united states. they don't want to shut down schools. i know that's bad for learning. but the problem the schools have is a staffing shortage. what is the plan, heidi? >> yeah, so, kids can't go to school if there is no one to drive them there and teach them and feed them. that's where we are in a number of districts. talking some of the nation's largest systems with up to 10% of their staff calling out sick this week in places like chicago the issue is access to testing. but nationwide about 2,100 schools are closing for in-person learning for part of this week. what is the administration doing about it? he told me two things, chuck. first the administration wants to double down on encouraging vaccine clinics in schools. right now the rate for 5 to 11 year olds is still very low. about 20%. take a

nbc's josh letterman has more. >> reporter: this morning, thousands expected at the washington monumentest covid vaccine mandates as a political movement that took root online shifts to the real world. the defeat the mandate's rally organized on facebook, and extremist websites that spread covid misinformation. organizers insisting they're not against vaccines per se, just forcing people to take them. >> we should look at this as a ramp up to 2024 in some ways. these people are absolutely coming together around an issue they believe in more than a lot of cases more than any other political issue in their lifetime. >> reporter: today's big draw, dr. robert malone, a virologist who approved on joe rogan's hugely popular podcast. >> there are two hills i'm willing to die on. one is stopping the jabs in the children. and one is, you know, resisting the erosion of free speech. >> reporter: that interview went viral, taken down by youtube as social media sites fight covid misinformation. today's protest just two days after pros biden's vaccine push suffered another blow. a federal judge block

be his first solo news conference in the united states since march of last year, lindsay. >> josh lettermanondent is in the bullseye for a major ice accumulation as the massive storms continues to intensify. we'll go on the ground, next. , e to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ why does walgreens offer prescription copays ♪ as low as zero dollars? ♪ ♪ so you won't have a medicare in the world. ♪ ♪ plus, 90-day refills and same day delivery. larry? that's even less to medicare about. fill your medicare prescriptions with walgreens and save. ♪ ♪ do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervivenerve relief from the world's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief. have you ever sat here and wondered: "couldn't i do this from home?" with letsgetchecked, you can. it's virtual care with home health testing and more. all from the comfort of... here. letsgetchecked. care can be thi

josh letterman is covering the letterman. leann caldwell is on capitol hill and i'm also joined by alyssa muria, nyu law professor. mr. letterman, we'll start with you. we now know when the president wants to make a decision. a lot of time between now and the end of february. what's happening inside the white house right now to make this decision? >> i can assure you the white house counsel's office is a buzz this morning. this started nearly two years ago when president biden as a candidate made that pledge that he would put a black woman on the supreme court if he were to elected president. since around that time, his cam campaign staff had a list of folks they would likely consider if there were an opening. a lot of that vetting has been done. a lot of them have been vetted, such as ketanji brown jackson, was vetted a year ago. the white house will be reaching out to candidates on this list as well as seeing if there's anyone they may have left off or not known about that they want to add at the last minute to that list. v

nbc correspondent sam brock joins us on the scene in colleyville, texas, white house reporter josh lettermans with president biden in delaware. sam, we go to you first on this fast moving and developing story, what are we learning at this hour? >> alex, we're learning more right now about the man who was at the center of this entire situation. the fbi dallas field office revealing his identity, malik faisal akram, 44 years old, a british citizen, the fbi saying they're not aware at this point of anyone else who was involved with the situation. the joint terrorism task force is continuing to follow up according to the fbi on all possible leads. that's what we know about the person at the center of this. president biden weighing in today and here is where it gets confusing, alex. think about how meticulous and careful the fbi has been with every single detail of what has unfolded and where they stand with the investigation, not wanting to jeopardize anything. president biden just moments ago describing what he said was what he believes are some of the facts at this point that akram had landed

mandates, as a new nbc news poll shows americans losing confidence in the president's virus response josh letterman has more from washington >> reporter: tonight, the vaccine battle reaching a fever pitch in the nation's capital. >> if there is risk, there must be choice >> reporter: thousands rallying on the national mall for the defeat the mandates protest, featuring some of the nation's most prominent anti-vaxers. >> we got turned away because we didn't have a proof of vaccination card >> i'm fully vaccinated, but not this vaccine the main reason being, because it's quote, unquote experimental >> reporter: that's not true covid-19 vaccines are fully approved more scrutinized for safety than any vaccine in history supporters say mandating vaccines is the only way to get life back to normal, and to protect those most vulnerable. but a new nbc news poll shows deep pessimism that may be hampering the vaccine effort 7 in 10 believe the country is on the wrong track. 53% disapprove of joe biden's handling of covid. his worst numbers yet. and just 45% say they're vaccinated and boosted. >> everybody wa

we also heard from nbc's josh letterman, he himself got stuck starting at 5:30 last night.talked to him on the "today" show this morning, still stuck in traffic. >> people are starting to look at how much supplies do you happen to have in your car? i had a lot of gum, but not anything -- not enough granola bars, which is what you really want in that situation. and, you know, people trying to scroll through twitter, find what information they can get, maybe from local authorities or local radio, but really it was just a mystery how long is this going to last. >> reporter: yeah, josh talked about local radio. wtop here in town, the big news channel, they've been hearing constantly from people who are stuck on the roads. now, they've been this touch and we have also been in touch with the virginia department of transportation, vdot as it's known, is trying to dig cars and trucks out. they've got fire department, rescue personnel going car to car trying to reach people who have a medical issue, but this is a massive backlog and it's going to take some time to free it up. they'r

i'm hallie jackson in washington wore joined by pete williams and josh letterman and leigh ann caldwell and joined by two former u.s. attorneys, now msnbc contributors chuck rosenberg and barbara mcquade. and we've been listening to this speed from attorney general garland in which he made clear that the department of justice will follow the facts as it relates to the investigation into the january 6 insurrection, but said something interesting, pete that stands out which is that the department of justice remains committed to holding all january 6 perpetrators at any level accountable, which seems to be a signal that there are bigger fish to fry yet to come. what stood out to you? >> well that is undoubtedly true. but who those bigger fish are is unknown, i think it is safe to say. for starters, we know that there are potentially are bigger fish on this central question that has yet to be answers, which is did somebody actually have a plan in advance to storm the capitol. now there have been conspiracy charges against many of the white supremacists groups, the oath keepers, the proud bo

josh letterman is at the white house with more on this. josh, good morning to you. >> reporter: kristen, good morning. the former president's lawyers fought for months in court to shield these documents from the committee. claiming executive privilege, but it didn't work. this morning, the january 6th committee combing through former president trump's papers. more than 700 pages that mr. trump tried to block them from getting. the national archives handling them over less than two days after the supreme court gave the green light. >> i would say the supreme court decision is probably the single biggest day of the investigation so far. >> reporter: the committee sought his calendars, emails with state election officials and a draft of an executive order on election integrity. politico obtaining that document which would have directed the military to seize voting machines. mr. trump never signed the order. this as multiple investigations swirling around mr. trump on his inner circle. new york's attorney general laying out evidence she's gathe

let's bring into our conversation, josh letterman, now safely at home.happening at the time? did they go -- i mean, obviously, you have 27 hours, you can walk down or drive down and tell people what's going on or hand out water, see if there are any medical emergencies. did any of that happen? >> almost none of that was happening, nicole, because nobody knew what was happening or whether or not in two minutes we were all going to be clear and start driving our cars. it was also the middle of the night on the interstate. people didn't really feel safe. you didn't know who was in other vehicles so people were largely keeping to themselves, taking their dogs or children out every few hours but mainly trying to conserve gas. there was a point around maybe 11:00 or 12:00 p.m. where it became pretty clear we were spending our night in the car where people kind of all at once started to turn their cars off to conserve gasoline and that fear set in. i was lucky to have about three quarters of a tank of gas when i started this but if you had run out of gas, it wa

josh letterman is traveling with president biden, he's in wilmington, this morning. josh, good morning. >> reporter: peter, good morning. voting rights activists had pleaded with president biden all last year to make this issue his urgent priority but the president waited until his build back better plan fizzled last month to pivot to voting rights. now it looks too little too late. >> this morning, president biden's voting rights push in peril, and barrelling toward failure in the senate. the president insisting he's not defeated, just disappointed. >> a lot of talk about disappointment in things we haven't gotten done. >> reporter: democrats will miss their self-imposed deadline of monday, mlk day, for a vote changing senate rules to pass voter protections with no republicans. >> the united states will, for the first time this congress debate voting rights legislation beginning on tuesday. >> reporter: that vote almost certain to fail, doomed to opposition from the rules change dy senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. >> there's been a lot of attention to a speci

through, you are on your own out here and that's not a safe situation for us to have. >> yes. >> josh letterman, we'll check in with you, thank you very much. stay as safe as you can. thank you so much for checking in with us. >> man, i tell you what, i really think about josh is doing all right right now. think of the people who expected to be there for a few hours until now or seniors or somebody who needed medical attention. it seems that nobody can seem to help. it's remarkable they have not been able to move people in that road for hours. >> yeah, ten hours, you would think they would move a lane or something. young kids expected to head to school right now but been sitting in that traffic for ten hours. we'll reach out and find out what's going on here. behalf of those people, my gosh, think of all the people in those cars where they expected to be this morning certainly not sitting right there. >> no. you think of people who are not going to be able to get into work today. maybe people who have child care issues or people who are left and get home and get their kids ready for school. but

i want to bring in josh letterman. call it a set back, but it's obviously not something that the white house would have wanted to see, certainly they would have preferred for it to go the other way, although you did hear the press secretary jen psaki in the last few minutes say, listen, most of the federal workforce is vaxxed any way. >> reporter: it feels like it's two steps forward, one step backwards. the biden administration had just gotten this small silver lining of the supreme court saying, no, you can't mandate this for all large employers, but, yes, it is okay to mandate it for health care workers at facilities that take medicare and medicaid funding. now this judge saying that it is a bridge too far in his words to say that millions of federal employees should be required to undergo a medical procedure simply because the federal government wants them to. no now, we know that the biden administration through the justice department is expected to appeal this ruling and jen psaki, the white house spokeswoman say

josh letterman is in delaware. what do we expect to hear from president biden on wednesday? >> reporter: aaron, there are some weeks that the white house remind you of the awesome powers of the presidency and then other weeks it is obvious now limited the powers can be. particularly if you're president biden with a 50-50 senate and the conservative supreme court, president biden took hits on every parent out agenda wrapping up year one and begins the second year of the administration be it the moves by the supreme court flow throwing out the vaccine mandate for businesses or getting through the voting right legislation. so that's kind of the atmosphere as president biden prepares for this major news conference on wednesday. first time at the white house since march of last year. and white house officials very mump know that democrats are very anxious right now seeing the poll numbers in the low 40s. they look for president biden to use this as a reset moment. to really articulate what democrats are going to stand for in the next nine months leading to this midterm. if you as

we begin with josh letterman and natasha, the reporter behind the story. josh, the white house is trying to fight these democratic jitters by focusing on accomplishments, not their failures or the stuff they haven't done yet. that's easier said than done obviously. what's the plan? >> it reminds me of that old song, if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with. the biden administration clearly would like to be running on having gotten build back better through or having passed major voting rights legislation and all these other core components of what president biden as a candidate ran on but ultimately hasn't been able to deliver and likely won't be able to deliver. the white house finds this narrative unfair, not what have you done for me not in your first four years in office but in the first 20 minutes. they say the president isn't getting the credit for the bipartisan infrastructure law and all of that covid stimulus spending that they credit with having the economy be where it is. that said, they're very aware of the political dynam

like we talked about with josh letterman just a moment ago, joe manchin and krysten sinema may not agreee, the manchin whisperer. senator manchin is a friend of yours. can you tell us other ways to get him on board? >> he is a friend of mine. my wife and his wife, we socialize together. listen, one thing about joe manchin is, he says what he believes. he is not trying to dissemble, he is fairly straightforward. the folks taking the lead are tim kaine, angus kester. they have a lot more knowledge on voting rights than i do. anything i can help nudge or be an assist or give joe my independent analysis, i'm going to do that, but they are the three lead negotiators i'm looking towards. >> anything you can say that this time it would be different for senator manchin? are you getting an indication that maybe there is some daylight here, because one thing -- don't read anything into that, let's not start a twitter feed off of that, but in this job you have to remain hopeful. anything i can do to help my colleagues with senator sinema and senator manchin. >> if you and i were talking friday abou

nbc's josh letterman was also trapped and described the scene. >> no signs of any emergency vehicles,u don't know if that's because they can't get to where you are, but you really start to think, if there was a medical emergency, someone that was out of gas and out of heat, you know, it's 26 degrees and there's no way that anybody can get to you in this situation. >> joining me now with more is nbc's gary grumbach, he is live at reagan national airport. gary, great to see you this morning. tell us what you're seeing at the airport. >> reporter: yeah, jose. it's a mess on the roads and a mess here at the airport, as well. usually after a snow day like we saw yesterday, it takes a few days to get things back to normal. it's no easy task to clean up 7 to 8 inches of snow, especially in the d.c. region. but i want to take you through some of the numbers that we're seeing right now. we have more than 1,400 flight delays today, according to flight aware, more than 1,400 cancellations, and it's not even 11:00 a.m. this is after 88% of all flights out of reagan here in d.c. were canceled yest

nbc's josh letterman is covering the white house on this friday. george floyd justice and policing act stopped in september. what do we know about the new executive actions the president is going to sign? >> they could come this month. possibly time to coincide with the start of black history month next month in february. and while we don't know exactly what president biden is considering that would go beyond some of the administrative actions, he's already taken on show colds, for example, on no knock warrants. we know that the biden administration is really looking for places that they can notch wins on things that have been central to president biden's agenda. and what he campaigned on. because so many of the big legislative pushes, build back better, voting rights, are stalled in congress along as you pointed out with the policing reform bill that last year lost momentum. now, there's some talk on the hill about trying to bring that back as well. in the meantime, as we get into this election year, the biden administration wants to show that wher

. >> let's go now to nbc news correspondent josh letterman joining us from the white house and julie sirkin at the capitol. we begin with you, josh. what do we expect to hear from the president and vice president when they heard to georgia this week? >> you will hear a full-throated endorsement of legislation to protect and expand voting rights including the john lewis legislation and people for the voting acts. whether joe biden has a strategy for getting that passed is what every democrat wants to know, so much that a group of prominent civil rights and voting rights organizations tolded biden, don't even bother coming if you don't have a plan to articulate for how you're actually going to get this through the senate ahead of this vote that chuck schumer, the senate majority leader, is threatening to change the senate rules if republicans won't get on board with some type of voting rights legislation. now as the president and the vice president are in georgia for that speech, we will have these russia/u.s. talks taking place simultaneously in europe against the backdrop of this fear

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. >> now let's go to nbc's josh letterman at the white house. very busy week ahead, let's just look chronologically at tomorrow. the upcoming talks between uggs and the u.s. what do we know about them? >> typically ahead of high-stakes diplomatic negotiations, alex, the u.s. likes to keep its cards pretty close to the vest. but in this case, the biden administration is really taking the opposite approach. they are laying out publicly in advance a set of carrots and sticks. the carrots are what could be on the table for these negotiations, including scaling back or limiting a u.s. and nato military exercises in europe as well as agreeing not to position missiles into ukraine. and on the stick side, the u.s. laying out what it would do to punish russia if it were to go ahead with a potential invasion of ukraine. as the u.s. has been fearing. there, they are talking not only about sweeping sanctions and trade restrictions, but also potentially sending more nato troops to the eastern flank of nato. anthony blinken, the secretary of state saying that

let's bring in nbc news correspondent josh letterman traveling with the president in capitol hill. , the next week here marks president biden's one year in office. he says he's going tofighting this battle. there's no real clear path right now. >> it's a remarkable reflection of where we're at, if you ask white house officials right now how they are going to get these voting rights bills past congress and signed into law, they cannot give you a clear answer of what that strategy would look like. they say they're going to keep fighting, they have not given up. all of those kinds of optimistic forward-looking statements, but nothing that speaks to any kind of a strategy. the reality is, we know who the votes that are needed on these bills are, they're the same votes that democrats have needed all yearing on on all of their other agenda items and after president biden met on thursday evening at the white house, with senators manchin and sinema for more than an hour, there were no indications that any minds had been changed from just a few hours earlier when both of them had made it cle

nbc's josh letterman is at the white house with details. >> reporter: good morning. president biden preparing for a major speech in atlanta on voting rights which he hopes will give fresh momentum in the white house. they picked georgia as the backdrop for the role in the civil rights movement and recent election disputes but a group of georgia voting rights groups have actually asked biden not to come to the state until he has a firm plan to get legislation passed. and, of course, that's still a long way off. there are multiple voting rights bills on the table. right now none of them have enough support topass. chuck schumer has set martin luther king day as the deadline for republicans to stop blocking voting rights or he'll force an historic vote to change senate rules allowing democrats to pass voting rights with just 50 votes sidestepping the filibuster. biden says he supports changing the rules, but it would mean every democrat on board. and sinema and manchin are resisting that plan. >> and they've been clear about that. they don't want to scrap the filibuster

josh letterman, nan caldwell on capitol hill and ashley parker from "the washington post." mr. letterman, we're getting a clearer picture of when biden will nominate the replacement. what are you learning? >> reporter: good morning, stephanie. president biden saying he will nominate his candidate for the supreme court by next month, one month from now, which will also coincide with black history month. and the president is not going to be starting from scratch because he and his team have had a list of potential candidates in place since really the campaign days and shortly after president biden made that announcement during the campaign that he pledged to nominate a black woman to the supreme court if he were elected. over the coming days and weeks, the white house is going to start reaching out to a number of those candidates likely to include the ones on your screen right now, to start setting up meetings for president to actually have a chance to interview them. we are also told that president biden plans to really work closely with lawmakers of both parties, senators from

our own josh letterman was also trapped, and he described a scary situation earlier on "today." >> noigns of any emergency vehicles that we could see. now, you don't know if that's because they can't get to where you are but you really start to think if there was a medical emergency, someone out of gas and heat. it's 26 degrees, and there's no way that anybody can get to you in this situation. >> josh, and crew, waiting for help for disabled vehicles. what a mess. >>> lawyers for prince andrew back in court trying to get a civil sex calle assault lawsuit thrown out filed by virginia giuffre claims she was sexually assaulted by jeffrey epstein and prince andrew. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley joins me. what happened today? >> reporter: katy, prince andrew's lawyering hoping for a settlement. not staffed. probably a couple days before they hear anything at all about this but we heard from prince andrew's lawyering insisting that settlement you mentioned, the one between jeffrey epstein and virginia giuffre only unsealed yesterday, 2009 settlement, saw ms. giuffre was paid h

joining me now from the white house is josh letterman, meghan fitzgerald is in chicago where classes were cancelled for the fourth day, and also the director of vaccine education center at the children's hospital of philadelphia, a member of the fda's vaccine advisory committee. josh, the former covid advisers to the president are now starting to press the administration on this idea of shifting strategy. trying to prepare the public for some kind of new normal with covid. but is the white house there yet? >> reporter: i think the white house is trying to figure out how to thread the needle in talking about this. they are coming to the conclusion that they need to talk about covid in a way that's different than they were several months ago. yet, they don't want to play into the hands of critics who are going to say if they move to a different type of rhetoric about talking about this, the biden administration is conceding covid is going to be here with us forever, that it's the job has failed. so you hear president biden, for example, when he had his jobs remarks on friday, he was as

let's discuss and bring in nbc's josh letterman covering the white house, matt bradley inside ukrainevering the russian side and joe rubin, former assistant u.s. secretary of state. how close are we to sending real troops to eastern europe? >> closer than we were a few days ago, stephanie. president biden hovering over the weekend with his national security team. he was briefed via secure video conference by lloyd austin about potential options to shore up u.s. military resources in the region, including, according to our colleague, the possibility of flying bomber flights over the region as well as ship visits to the black sea and also moving equipment and also potentially u.s. troops into poland, into romania, other neighboring countries as the u.s. tries to show what the potential military costs for vladimir putin would be if he launches this invasion that is so feared across the west right now. i think we should say that over the last few days we've seen a real shift in tone from the biden administration, which just, you know, a week or two ago was really focused on the diplomatic

josh letterman cover tgs white house. leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill. pete williams, who broke this story, because pete williams is the absolute best. youniche nelson and a former federal and state prosecutor, served for merrick garland on the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit and the u.s. supreme court justice sandra day o'connor. pete, what are you hearing about the timing of this decision? >> we understand he made the decision several weeks ago and planned to formally notify the white house today with a formal letter, normally the way things work. i think the factors are these. remember, last term there was heavy pressure on him from progressives to step down after what happened with ruth bader ginsburg. she was urged to retire because of her bouts with cancer. she ended up staying on the court. that gave donald trump the chance to move the court further to the right with the nomination of amy coney barrett to replace ginsburg, and last time these called stiffened his resolve to stay bup i think this term is different. he knows how washingto

josh letterman is with us, and national correspondent for politico and contributor and former u.s.orney and msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg. chuck, typically i would want to hear from our reporters here. i think what's interesting on this particular charge, as it relates to this justice department news is what this means. you're so good at breaking that down. put it into context for us. >> sure. thanks hallie. so, sedition is an attempt to overthrow or to, you know, hinder the government. it meaning rebelling against the authority of the government. so, a seditious conspiracy, which is what 11 defendants have now been charged with, including stewart rhodes, the leaders of the oath keepers, is agreeing, coordinating efforts to prevent or hinder the counting of electoral votes. when you allege conspiracy, as the prosecutors did here, they -- what laws the conspirators attempt to hinder. it was two amendments to the constitution, involving the counting of electoral votes and the date and time when a new president takes office, as well as one federal statute involving the counting of

nbc correspondent sam brock joins us on the scene in colleyville, texas, white house reporter josh lettermanhis fast moving and developing

joining us now nbc news correspondent josh letterman who covers the white house. josh, good to see you this morning. present made an explicit promise to democratic voters, first in south carolina, remember, where he was reeling coming out of new hampshire and won thank to black voters in south carolina, thanks to jim clyburn in south carolina and said, "i will pick a black woman to be my first supreme court justice." well, here we are. who is out there, who is on the board and how is he looking at this? >> you think back to that moment in the campaign and the jump start to president biden's campaign and his declaration if elected president he would name the first black woman to the supreme court, those two things are so rolled up in one, willie, it is easy to see why now the white house is looking at this moment as a real opportunity, especially when they look ahead to the mid terms. it is right they know this is likely to be a big fight, but it is a fight the white house would rather be having than, for example, a fight between progressives and moderates over buil

e nbc's josh letterman is at the white house with more what the president is saying. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. republicans called it president biden's worst jobs report ever but the president sees it as the glass half full, saying the unemployment rate is the lowest since the pandemic and calling it proof his economic plan is working this morning, president biden confident america is getting back on its feet >> good morning. >> reporter: after new figures show the unemployment rate dropping to a pandemic low >> america is back to work >> reporter: but a lukewarm jobs report shows the pandemic is still the president's biggest challenge and an ongoing drag on the economy as his first year nears an end. >> we're going to be able to control this >> reporter: still biden promising the new normal won't be worse than the old one. >> covid, as we're dealing with it now, is not here to stay. >> reporter: those comments after cdc director rochelle walensky said this to savannah guthrie. >> we are looking at a time ahead of us where covid will be an endemic virus.

following the updates on the winter storm around washington, d.c., josh letterman who works for nbc has's still stuck. he's been stuck on i-95, about 30 minutes south of washington, d.c. for nine hours in his car. cheryl: i was looking at the updates from last night. that's all we know right now. we're waiting for the sun to come up to figure out what the situation is there. dagen: cars littered all over i-95, the busiest artery east of the mississippi and the traffic cams are out because of the power outages. and where is the governor of virginia, not the incoming one, but the current one. has he checked out? because again, leaving people stranded for nine hours in their car, it's just -- cheryl: it's dangerous. very dangerous. dagen: thank you, cheryl. tensions rising in the middle east, a series of attacks on u.s. allies shows the reach of iran aligned militias, this on the second anniversary of the america's killing of general qassem soleimani. rebels seized a ship in the red sea, armed drones targeted an air a port. -- airport. this coincided with a massive memorial in tehran for s