in just two days, 118 congress will be sworn in with republicans in the majority in the house and kevin mccarthy is vowing to fight to become house speaker until the very end. but the question remains. could a group of heart rate lawmakers keep them from reaching the magical number of 219 votes. also one of the most controversial members of the new congress, new york republican george santos said take his seat lying about everything for his family history to his finances. we ll talk to another new yorker, democratic congressman richie torres, with reprising which insulation to make in a crime for candidates to lie. in the new year brings new concerns about a new variant. new covid variant. according to the cdc. it now presents over 40% new cases. well astronauts prior to what we should do to protect our family and ourselves. we bring with you begin with you with some for some breaking news out of new york city. where three police officers were injured in a machete attack
and lows. he s celebrating the new year with his family in the virgin islands, but when he returns to the white house he faces a big list of key agenda items to tackle. and that will have to go through a new republican controlled house. biden is also facing questions about his future, and whether he is officially divided to seek reelection in 2024. and his approval rating has increased, it is still under 50%. nbc s mike redland joins us with more, i know you had the hardest time of being in the virgin islands this morning happy new year mike. so tell us a little bit about what you are hearing from your white house sources about president biden and how he is preparing a deal with his new house that is going to be controlled, of course, by republicans. yeah, how do you, michigan if you re going to have to work during this holiday week, you might as well be here we are here in beautiful st. croix. but it is really interesting to see how the white house is setting up these next two years
climactic family conversation, but sort of a series of rolling conversations. but really, we were the first to report here at nbc in october that the first lady, jill biden, who of course has a major role in influencing the presidents future here as well, other members of family are fully on board with the president seeking a second term. and so we are what we are looking at now is that the timeline for an announcement or at least filing some paperwork could be really in the weeks ahead at this stage, i ve been told that we expect the president will have been made his intentions about 2024 by the time he delivers his state of the union address which is usually in the month of february. so we will be closely looking for those filing and that potential announcement in the months to follow, unitia. well great reporting with the air in your hair and the water at your back, mike, i am a little jealous that you are in the virgin islands, but happy new year again and thank you so much. th
going to see other administration officials this week fanning out across the country as well. vice president harris traveling in chicago, the transportation secretary buttigieg is in connecticut, and mitch who is leading the structure will be joining the speaker american, out nancy pelosi, in san francisco for an infrastructure project around that iconic golden gate bridge. so expect to see a lot of travel in the year ahead across the administration, unitia,. and with all that travel, mike, what we know about president biden s possible decision for when he might run again? i wonder if it all might we hear an announcement on that decision? so, you may, shot when the president was defy deciding to run against president trump for the first time there was sort of a big family gathering that happened around the holiday season at which the family really had a chance to talk through what that would look like it s 2020 through campaign, no one would be a tough race against the incumbent pr