the point raised by another lawyer earlier tonight about a lack of punishment and deterrence of this stuff, and what we ve been covering several nights in the lenient sentencing of those january 6th convicts who have been sentenced thus far, about half evading jail time entirely? again, there has been a lot of criticism. there was recently a sentencing in the courtroom of judge jackson where they did not receive jail time, but rather probation. these are difficult cases, but many people believe that there should be some kind of public accountability for what happened on january 6th, so the idea that there isn t something like jail time for what is essentially an attempted coup of the government strikes some as being too little and too late, given everything that has happened. so the idea that the doj is taking a more forceful response to these threats before they can materialize into the kind of
have a unit to handle international and domestic terrorism, but it s been subject to criticism from civil rights groups that they have not dealt with the threat of domestic terrorism as seriously as they have the prospect of international terrorism. the fact of this new unit is really a way to move forward to address the domestic terrorist attacks, but this was needed not just as early as january 6th, but maybe in june of 2016 with the standoff in oregon, which was another effort by anti-government extremist to take a stand on particular issues. so this is a really interesting move forward. it may be the most significant thing to come out of the aftermath of january 6th, and that of course all depends on what will happen with the january 6th subcommittee and all of these pending civil lawsuits against those involved in the insurrection. where does this dovetail with
we say by the way, manchin is not alone as politico notes this morning, other democratic senators, manchin, sinema, mark kelly in arizona, john tester have at least raised questions or expressed hesitation about this. that puts them well short of the votes they need. i say it is time to call a question, jim. put it on the floor. let s see where people stand. let s see how they vote. let s see if they choose between an antiquated, outmoded filibuster that is being used, or whether they re going to stand in light of january 6th, in light of this tsunami of voter suppression laws in favor of and in support of the protection of american democracy. it is time to call the question in the united states senate and i hope that the president is going to say that today. let s let the senate have a vote. let s see where people stand.
will not participate or attend in the president s speech. we ll have more on why in a moment. lots to get to this morning. our reporters, correspondents, guests, standing by to bring you the latest. but we begin this morning with the new covid infection surging to near record levels. cnn s senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us with more and, elizabeth, breakthrough infections now account for a growing share of hospitalizations. but we should note the risk to the unvaccinated still remains very high. that s right, bianna. the bottom line here is that with omicron, if you re fully vaccinated or even better fully vaccinated and boosted, your chances of ending up in the hospital are really teeny tiny. if you re unvaccinated, omicron poses a much, much more serious threat to you. so, hospitalizations as we can see in this graph, hospitalizations are surging, surging, surging. i do want to add some context to this. these are hospitalizations of
united in that outcome. i think that s what we ought to keep the focus on. today is important because we have been encouraging, demanding, asking, please ding, begging, saying to the president and the vice president it is time to put all of the prestige and power of the presidency behind this existential threat to the future of the nation, which is what the attacks represent. this speech, it has got the prestige, certainly has the symbolism, things like being in john lewis home district here. but what is the plan is the question, right? because the president democrats don t have the votes. they don t have the votes. what is the plan to get it passed? it is going to come down to the will of the senate and the will primarily of the senate democrats. their courage and their conviction, as to where they stand in this moment of american history. don t we know that. don t we know that, though, when