announced with much fanfare the dreaded omicron variant, chris cillizza has been convinced that he willthe first person to die from omicron. after watching the omicron coverage, cillizza writes, i felt emotionally raw, everything from anger, resignation sits heavier on me than thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago. any optimism i had for the future is shaky at best. life under omicron, turns out, is barely worth living. in the theory leave vaccinated sex in household, it means wearing masks in the living room. no joys in with dread of foreboding. it's been a long december and i need a reason to believe that next year i can look forward to. it's exhausting paid by the time you are weary, the like albert kim is watching the bubonic plague sweep through algeria. that's what cnn did to the normally cheerful chris cillizza. imagine what it's doing to the rest of the country. damian stafford doesn't need to imagine. he's a parent in an indiana school district whose administrators are patently watch cnn joins us now to explain his experience with that. thanks so much for coming on. to summarize

chris cillizza has a piece about that on cnn.com. so walk us through how real this morning is that threat for mitch mcconnell, chris? >> sure, erica. let's start with what we definitely know. point one, donald trump does not like mitch mcconnell. he has gone after him many times. point two, donald trump has tried to recruit someone within the senate to challenge mitch mcconnell for that leadership role and so far has been unsuccessful. what is he doing now? well, kelly shibaka, the republican running against lisa murkowski from alaska, came out on monday and said, if i'm elected, i will not vote for mitch mcconnell to be the next leader. she's not the first republican candidate to say that. missouri's former senator said he, too, would not vote for mcconnell if he wins. why does this matter? well, there is an obvious rival to mitch mcconnell right now. that's why mitch mcconnell is mitch mcconnell. he's done a really good job of beating back any potential people who are going to beat him in a leadership race. but what is worrisome for