nbc's josh lederman is at the white house. what can you tell us about how the president and first lady are spending the day. >> typically this would be the time when the white house would be throwing a series of holiday parties here at the white house. the bidens have a long-standing family tradition of going to the virgin islands for christmas. none of that is happening because of omicron. the parties for the most part are canceled, and the bidens are staying right here at the white house for christmas, although, we do expect that they will be going to delaware for some point in time between now and new year's. we saw the president and the first lady yesterday when they paid a surprise visit to national children's hospital just about two miles from here. they were able to spend time with some of the children who are in the hospital for the holidays. and then later in the evening the president and the first lady also taking calls from the norad track santa program, which was a lot of fun to see yesterday. so far it's been a qu

military service branches. >> all right, josh lederman reporting there. thanks, josh. >>> we want to turn now to the coronavirus pandemic as the u.s. surpasses 52 million cases today. nbc's liz mclaughlin is in charlotte, north carolina. this is the second christmas that we are all clouded by covid. the omicron variant is having a ripple effect across the country. i see cars behind you at this testing facility you're at. how busy has it been? >> reporter: lindsey, this morning before the sun was rising, cars started lining up to get a test. that's fife hours before they even opened. limited hours today because it is christmas day and coming for various reasons. some people had to get on a flight tomorrow. others for work or to see family. the demand for testing has gone through the roof and worries over omicron has really been part of that. that's also led to a lot of travel woes for folks who are trying to get somewhere by plane this holiday weekend. we saw thousands of flights grounded according to flight aware, a flight tracking website. on christmas ev

. >> joining me now from the white house is nbc news correspondent josh lederman. he's going to run again, even wants to more if donald trump runs. >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right. you know, the white house says that president biden has been fairly consistent on this, saying he always has planned to run again unless of course there was some reason not to. but it was particularly interesting there, katy, to hear him talk about how president trump running again would sort of goad biden into running again, which makes sense on one hand, he did defeat the former president in the election and a lot of democrats feel that joe biden is the only democrat who was running who could have actually defeated the former president, trump. but i think we all know who the elephant in the room here is in this conversation. it's vice president kamala harris. and all of these questions that have been swirling in recent weeks about her viability in a presidential primary, the staff departures from her office. there was a pretty brutal take in "the new york times" this morning ab

nbc's josh lederman is at the white house. what's the white house plan when it comes to getting some parts of that agenda across the line? >> reporter: hi, joe. the democrats know they have a limited window before the midterm elections and it becomes impossible to get anything done in washington. the to-do list for president biden remains the unfinished business from 2021. it's the build back better agenda and voting rights. now, on build back better, they essentially have to go back to the drawing board, try to figure out what joe manchin might be willing to support that would at least meet some of what these democratic priorities have long been on childcare, on pre-k, on climate change funding. but whether or not they're going to be able to get anywhere near the amount of funding that the biden administration has said is critical to be able to meet any of those goals is really an open question. and on voting rights, there's even less of a clear pathway forward. they can't use reconciliation, meaning they need either 60 votes

nbc's josh lederman is in wilmington, delaware, covering this for us. , good to see you this afternoon. talk to us. what can we expect to hear from the fred breaking in the last hour or so. >> reporter: that's exactly right. you're going to hear from president biden an update on how the administration plans to deal with the rising numbers of cases that we're seeing specifically from the omicron variant. and a white house official tells our senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell that president biden will have new announcements to make during that speech on tuesday, about additional steps that the white house intends to take, specifically to help communities that are dealing right now with the surge in covid-19. now, president biden had already laid out a pretty comprehensive plan, before dealing with the winter and covid-19. but white house officials say now with the surge in omicron, he felt the need to go farther. he wanted to communicate more with the american people about where things stand right now. and what can be done about it, with whit

nbc's josh lederman has more from the white house, and leigh ann caldwell is live on capitol hill.reporter: it's been percolating for years, but it's gotten particularly bad with the covid-19 pandemic. there are parts of the country where trucks are the only wash to get goods in and out. a few months ago they took the steps to increase the hours of the ports of long island and long beach, it moved the bottleneck to other parts of the process some of they were time get more of these shipping containers unloaded at the ports, but then there came a backup to try to get them on trucks to bring them to the places where they need to go. that's one of the reasons the white house now says it's focusing particularly on this trucker shortage. take a look at what transportation secretary pete buttigieg said why they're taking on this issue right now. >> remember, these truck drivers are the definition of essential workers. you can't do that job from home. we do have a lot of people ready and willing to join the profession. that's why we're trying to clear the red tape in the short term, but i

joining me now to walk through where democrats go from here is nbc news white house correspondent josh ledermankaty tugman, and tyler pager, white house reporter for "the washington post." josh, i'm going to start with you. part of the statement from the white house says, quote, senator manchin promised to continue conversations in the days ahead and to work with us to reach that common ground. if his comments on fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort, they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator's colleagues in the house and senate. josh, do you think manchin's announcement truly came as a shocker as everybody is describing it, to the white house? >> it certainly did. and according to our reporting, katie, the white house only learned about a half an hour before joe manchin went on television when they were notified not by manchin himself but by a congressional staffer about what president -- what senator joe manchin intended to say on television. and in fact once the white house got word of

. >> nbc's josh lederman is in washington, delaware, where president joe biden is staying the weekendsh. welcome to you. so how is the president reacting, first of all, to the senate shelving his build back better bill, at least until early 2022? >> yeah, the senate adjourning at 4:00 in the morning after they were able to get through some of president biden's much delayed nominees for key positions, but without an actual vote on the build back better bill or on those voting rights protections that the white house has pivoted to in the last week or so, alex, after it became clear that senator chuck schumer's goal of getting that bill done by christmas was not going to happen. the position from the white house has been, look, it doesn't matter exactly when this passes. it matters that it does pass at some point in time. and so they are maintaining optimism that this is going to happen in the new year and saying that it's just a matter of a bit more time they need to continue to work with senator joe manchin on some type of an agreement that would get his support for this critical piece

back to josh lederman covering the white house. and i'm going to ask our director rob to put up the comment by press secretary jen psaki. is there a next step for the white house? didn't we expect, despite people being on break, didn't we expect that joe biden and joe manchin would be having some sort of conversations whether in person or over the phone or facetime or whatever it would be during this holiday break to try to move this forward? what's happened to those? >> right. white house officials had told us that the white house and president biden would remain working throughout this week all the way up to christmas with senator manchin. now i think that there is going to be probably a bit of a pause. i mean, this is a very different tone from a white house that has really tried to be deferential to joe manchin, not to question him or criticize him. at the end of the day they need his vote if they're going to get this bill passed, as we know, and yet here you have this really caustic statement basically accusing him of lying to

let's go to nbc's josh lederman joining us from wilmington, delaware.here, it means we're not going to see any progress on these bills until the new year. that's one thing. also, i understand at least you have some information about the president when it comes to covid and something he's going to say. what's happening there? >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right. we have just learned via kelly o'donnell that president biden will give a major speech on tuesday on the next phase of fighting the covid-19 pandemic. white house officials telling nbc news that biden in those remarks on tuesday will announce new steps the administration is taking to help communities who are needing assistance and also issuing a stark warning about what this winter will look like for americans who are unvaccinated. that of course follows those very dire comments from the president just a few days ago where he said that we are facing a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated. now, you'll recall the president has already issued a winter plan for fighting covid-1

joining me is josh lederman from the white house, nbc news correspondent steve patterson from los angeles international airport, nbc news producer gary grumbach in washington, dc and the co-director for the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital, dr. peter hotez. gentlemen, really good to see you. josh, let's start with you at the white house. they're unveiling this plan to try and combat the spread by getting more tests in the hands of people but also they're trying to help out hospitals that are going to be overwhelmed or are having issues themselves with covid infections among their staff members by sending members of the military to help out at these hospitals. does the white house feel like they're in a good position right now to get the american public what it needs? >> they feel like they're in the best position they could be, given the fact that this new variant really kind of crept up on them, both president biden and vice president harris conceding they did not anticipate seeing a variant quite as infectious as omicron has turned out to be. so they're trying

. >> joining us now, josh lederman in wilmington, delaware, covering the president. julie tsirkin on capitol hill, and also reaction from the chair of the house financial services committee, california congresswoman maxine waters. we're going to start with you josh in wilmington. to some degree, the manchin news felt like a foregone conclusion. however, the definitive nature of his remarks sent a ripple through much of the capitol. you're there with the president. did they know this was coming? and how big a loss is this for the biden agenda and in fact it democrats as a whole? >> well, this is a devastating blow to democrats' agenda. no other way to put it, alex. not only for some of the specific provisions that we have been talking about, the child tax credit, the climate change provisions, but this really was the vehicle for all of the campaign promises that president biden made that were not contained in the much smaller infrastructure bill or the covid relief funding. so without this bill, if it's really dead, it's really hard to see how president biden is able t