experts over whether there is a safety cost. >> the trouble is for the unvaccinated, the data doesn't really back up that they become noninfectious at five days. >> reporter: the isolation guidance doesn't differentiate between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. it does say everyone should mask up for five days following isolation. and there's mounting pushback from union leaders from nurses -- >> this is when you should be tightening your controls, not lessening them. >> to flight attendants. >> the cdc should be loud and clear about impleltation here because no workers should be forced to come to work when they're still sick and that is what i believe we'll see here. we're very concerned about that. >> the wave of infections sweeping the country causing staffing shortages and forcing cancellations of thousands of flights during the busy holiday period. apple closing its new york city stores for browsing. maryland cutting back federal court operations. the cdc says the fast-moving omicron variant accounts for fewer than 60% of covid cases nationwide, down from a previous estimate of 73%. both variants expected to fuel a post-holiday spike, the wait for tests still insufferably long in some areas. while the shortage of at-home tests won't get fixed quickly enough. >> i hope we fix it in january and february but we'll have to have a real effort to make sure there's plentiful, cheap, ubiquitous testing everywhere in the country. that's where we should be in this pandemic now. >> jake, the biden administration is lifting travel restrictions on eight southern african countries later this week. those restrictions were implemented last month. the administration now noting the restrictions are no longer necessary, pointing to the fact that omicron is now present in about 100 countries and prevalent right here in the u.s. >> alexandra field, thanks. let's go live to one of those testing sites now. leyla santiago is at one of the busiest locations in south florida. i understand officials there are seeing a massive increase in people wanting tests, even bigger than from the peak of the delta surge? >> that's correct. you're talking about a 50% increase in the demand for testing, compared to the peak of what we saw during that delta wave. so let's go over the numbers. where we are right now, the busiest testing site in south florida. they administered nearly 9,000 tests yesterday. 60,000 across all the sites that are run by the county here. and when i talked to workers today about this, they expect this level of demand to continue into the new year. >> it's almost like covid started all over again. with the influx of patients coming through. a lot of people aren't feeling well. that's why they're coming to us. and then we also understand we have a lot of patients that are concerned. just, oh, i was exposed or i was next to somebody who was exposed. i just want to make sure that i'm okay. >> so how long will you wait if you come to this testing site? that will vary anywhere from three to five hours in the car line. >> miami-dade was giving out at-home covid tests at public libraries, but you tell us they've run out after only two days? >> right. they did two days of distribution at 27 public libraries. they distributed about 152,000 at-home test kits, and they've run out. so they have a new request now into the department of health for more of those test kits. >> all right. leyla santiago, thank you. joining us to discuss is irene bosch, a scientist at massachusetts institute of technology. she's featured in a article by pro publica titled "this scientist created a rapid test just weeks into the pandemic." here's why you still cannot get it, unquote. dr. bosch, i want to ask you about your covid test in a second but i want to start with where we are right now as a country. people struggling to find covid tests if they can find sites. some are forced to wait hours to get tested. we're nearly two years into this pandemic. surely we should have figured this out by now, no? >> absolutely. we are really behind, for sure. we are really behind in comparison to europe and asia. so, yes, we are not doing well. but that's not new. we know that. >> so let's discuss the test that you came out with. when was your test finished? how quickly could you have had it mass produced? >> yeah, so everything started around april of 2020, and by, let's say, august, we had made our first kind of test and then we made by, let's say october, september, this other kind of test that everybody knows that shows the two bands when you have covid. so for sure we're talking about a test that could have been in the public in the hands of the public very much early and in 2020. and now we are finalizing 2021 and there's not enough tests as we all know. so, yeah, it is a huge delay. >> i assume you did trials with covid patients to see how effective the test could have been in a real world situation. tell us about that. >> yeah, so we were lucky enough to work with three hospitals in florida and those hospitals report the data. we collected the data and submitted that to the fda. at the time, the fda was looking for a 90% corresponding positives of antigen test with pcr which is a hard thing to understand but basically how many positives are in the pest and also positive in pcr? and today, a year later, they downgraded that 90% to 80%. so evidently there were probably in the wrong track of asking too much for these tests to be accurate. and they are really accurate. as matter of fact, they're very accurate. if you do it more than one day. so 24 hours you do the first test. that can reach the same accuracy as pcr. so that's super remarkable. >> so, obviously, to get this to market, you needed sign off from the fda, the food and drug administration. what happened when you tried to get them to offer -- to allow that under emergency use authorization. obviously there's a lot of bureaucracy that happens in the government in general but when there's an emergency like this they speed it up. they did that with the vaccines. what happened with your tests? >> so the main problem was to understand that in order to validate a test, depends on how much virus that person has and that also depends on the day and the course of the disease. you start with little virus. the next day, huge amount of virus and you steady that amount of virus for about six days. not five. like we just heard today. actually five is too short. it should be seven to be honest. so then it starts tapering down. so what we wanted fda to hear us is to show that we wanted to show fda that depending on the viral load, the test was excellent but if you go to the tails, that test does not perform. no test can perform in those tails, either the beginning or the end of the disease. and they were not considering that. they were actually asking for just a number, a bulk number of performance, regardless of where the amount of virus was. >> so the fda declined to -- go ahead. i'm sorry. >> no, no, that was basically a huge problem. and in order to do that, there is a technique called pcr. and that pcr has actually a number, ct, cycle numbers. and you know how much virus you have. in a test like antigen tests, it's similar. you can see how much virus you have by looking at the intensity of a band. so if you look at like a band that comes up in here -- >> right. >> the more red. so basically they were not interested in that. they were interested in just like a bulk result which, by the way, you know, that's a problem because depending on where you are in your patient population, your performance will change. >> the fda declined to specifically comment on your exact test to pro publica, but they said in a statement, unfortunately many submissioned the fda received for home tests include incomplete or poor data and it is the fda's responsibility to protect the public health by declining to authorize poorly performing tests or those without complete data. if the fda received a home test that the data and science supported in early to mid-2020, we would have quickly authorized it, unquote. so they seem to be suggesting that there was something lacking with the data at the very least. >> yeah, well, i am -- they were making the best they could. unfortunately, they did not have the experience that is necessary to tackle a pandemic. they are good at like diagnostic tests but for pandemic mitt ga mitigation you also need tests that are not just diagnostic but monitoring, tracking, sending them home. they didn't have any of those. so unfortunately that statement, what is missing is the fact that fda did not acknowledge they did not look at pockets of viral load. they were just looking at a whole performance. they could have said, okay, how good is your test for this amount of virus? how good is your test for this middle amount of virus? they didn't ask for that. they were lacking that knowledge of how to validate a test. >> irene bosch, thank you so much. appreciate your time. coming up, a timeline that we might get for when we might get the answers to who was behind the insurrection. what we know now and when we'll learn more. plus, tragedy caught on camera. the family responds to the new police body cam video showing how their daughter was killed in a department store dressing room apparently by accident. works on that too, and lasts 12 hours. 12 hours?! who studies that long? mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs. your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board... and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪ in our politics lead, the committee investigating the deadly january 6th insurrection plans to share its findings with the public around the middle of next year. a source tells cnn that a report with initial findings, an interim report, will be released this summer before the final report due in the fall. joining us now cnn's justice correspondent jessica schneider. what should we expect to see in this interim initial report? >> this will be about the committee finally pulling back the curtain to showcase all of the work it's been doing over the past several months because almost all of its work so far has been behind closed doors. the committee as we know has conducted hundreds of private interviews with witnesses, including former trump aides, stop the steal rally organizers and election officials pressured by trump aauthorize overturn the 2020 election results but so far the public has only been privy to one public hearing. that was back in july and it featured that gripping testimony from officers who were defending the capitol january 6th. so this initial report is expected by summer. a final report expected in the fall. this will really flesh out more of what the committee has uncovered and committee members are planning for public hear,s next year. members say that will help outline the real story of what unfolded january 6th. 2022 will jump-start a new phase for the committee. really ramps up its investigation and focuses on laying out all it's found out for the public. >> we're also learning a federal judge, one appointed by former president trump, has greenlit a case to move forward with prosecution against four leaders of the pro trump extremist group the proud boys. tell us the significance of this ruling. >> this is one of those marquee cases from january 6th. four leading members of the proud boys have been charged in this conspiracy case and now the judge is telling prosecutors the case can move forward and he won't dismiss it, despite arguments from the proud boys that they claim their actions were constitutionally protected. you mentioned this is a trump-appointed judge. he's rejected the proud boys claim that the riot was protected by the first amendment. this is what judge timothy kelly wrote. defendants are not as they argue charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black arm bands or participating in sit-ins or protests. even if it had some expressive aspect it lost whatever first amendment protection it may have had. interestingly, judge kelly is now the fourth federal judge to side with prosecutors allowing a case like this to move forward. and it really gives a win and some momentum for prosecutors as they gear up for the first trials about january 6th. those are set to start up in february very soon. >> jessica schneider, thank you. joining us to discuss, abigail spanberger. thanks for joining us. let's start with the insurrection investigation. you're not on the committee but you are a former federal law enforcement officer. do you expect that the committee -- the interim report or the final report, will offer an undeniable link between trump's actions or inactions and an actual crime? >> i think what we'll see come out of the committee, and as your reporter mentioned, there have been hundreds of interviews, thousands of documents that have been subpoenaed, and so laying that out for the public is going to be incredibly important for us, for the american public, to be able to understand what happened that day and certainly i was in the house chamber when the attack began. i was there for the entirety of the insurrection until police were able to take control of the building and it was an awful day. and so to have that information laid out publicly, to have public hearings, will put forth video and documentation that hasn't proofsly been seen by the public and make a very clear argument and understanding of what happened on that day and leading up to it. so i am appreciative of the committee's work, and i look forward to the public hearings that they'll be having in the spring for that purpose. so that we as an american public can understand without eq equivocation what happened on that day. >> your republican colleagues, jim jordan of ohio and scott perry of pennsylvania, have been called in to speak with the house committee investigating the insurrection. but both of them have essentially said they're not going to come. they're not going to testify. should the committee in your view subpoena them if they keep refusing or ultimately even vote to hold them in criminal contempt of congress if they refuse to cooperate? what do you think? >> i think that congress, this select committee was tasked with the duty of understanding what led up to january 6th, what occurred on that day, and they have put calls out to individuals who have knowledge, who have information and who may be connected with the events of that day or certainly the planning and lead up to it. i would hope that any concern, particularly an elected member of congress who had any knowledge of or information that might be of use to the select committee would willingly come forward and provide it. particularly if that's information that might exonerate them. so it's deeply troubling that any member of congress would not want to present themselves willingly and provide whatever information that they may have. and i do think that it's appropriate that we, members of congress, take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the duty of this select committee, that the subpoena power of this select committee, is respected and that anyone who wants to disobey the law is treated accordingly. it's as simple as that, frankly. >> are you worried at all about a precedent being set, given the fact that house republicans are already anticipating that they will, if history is any guide, recapture the house in november 2022 and seek revenge? they've already been talking about kicking democrats off committees the way that paul gosar and marjorie taylor greene have been kicked off committees under a democratic majority. >> the concerns i have about precedent being set is the fact we have people who are elected members of congress that deny the events of january 6 .that's a dangerous precedent. the fact fact we have elcted members of congress who deny it was violent, that there were police officers who were beaten, who make outrageous claims against the brave men and women of law enforcement, capitol police and metropolitan police department officers who were beaten with flag poles, fire extinguishers, more than 150 of them who required medical care. and some of whom were -- have been unable to return to the job. so i think we're already in a place where there's terrible precedent being set by the fact there are colleagues on the other side of the aisle who deny that reality, deny the danger and certainly do not respect the constitutional duty that congress had to certify the election and continue to traffic in dangerous conspiracy theories that continue to propagate throughout our communities and make light of what was one of the most dangerous days for our american democracy. >> do your constituents still ask you about january 6th and the insurrection? >> it depends on the environment, the place, the topic that's coming up and where i'm visiting. certainly i think in the early days, in the aftermath, when it was all over the news, it was a topic that was raised very frequently. certainly with the ebbs and flows of the pandemic, the delta, omicron variant, the challenges people are facing with kids returning to school in the fall and challenges across the board that americans continue to face. most of my conversations do impact and focus on the issues that impact, you know, the economy, the pocketbook, the kitchen table issues for my constituents. but it is an issue that i hear about across the board and particularly with veterans, particularly with those who have served and particularly with those who know what it is to raise their hand in obligation, swearing an oath to a constitution, those who understand the danger that we faced on that day and the danger that continues to exist for our democracy as long as there are elected members of congress and a former president who deny that danger. i do hear about it across my district in that context. >> i know there's redistricting going on in virginia and your congressional seat and whether you'll stay in the seventh district or be moved into the first. but is it your intention, generally speaking, to run for re-election, whether you're in the 7th or 1st or whatever district you end up in? >> jake, the maps just came out a few minutes ago. i'm definitely running for re-election. i intend to continue my service to our country, to my community and to the commonwealth of virginia. >> democratic congresswoman abigail spanberger of virginia, appreciate your time today. >> thank you so much. how the response to covid could shape political power in washington and define the biden presidency. stay right there. ssed, dry and . strypaper? luckily, there's biotrue hydration boost eye drops. biotrue uses naturally inspired ingredients. and no preservatives. try biotrue! i lost 26 pounds and i feel incredible. with the new personalpoints program, i answer questions about my goals and the foods i love. i like that the ww personalpoints plan is built just for me. start the new year with three months free. join today at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 3rd. we're having a baby, so the new law came at a perfect time. for less than 30 a month, the whole family is covered. i love my job and it pays really well. there's just no health coverage. for $182 a month, i found the perfect plan. all that stress about coverage just went away. for $14 a month, my plan covers my meds, vision and dental. now, more people can get financial assistance. what you pay depends in part on how much you make. new law. lower prices. more people qualify. at healthcare.gov some of my best memories growing up, were cooking with mom. she always said, “food is love.” so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ i want to make the most of every meal we have together. ♪ at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com want to save on your home internet? xfinity is proud to support the emergency broadband benefit program. for a limited time, you may be eligible to qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service through this program. that's right! you could qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service and equipment. for even more value, switch to xfinity mobile, and you could pay as little as $15 a month for wireless. click, call, or visit a store to learn more. how not to be a hero: because that's the last thing they need you to be. you don't have to save the day. you just have to navigate the world so that a foster child isn't doing it solo. you just have to stand up for a kid who isn't fluent in bureaucracy, or maybe not in their own emotions. so show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com in our politics lead, president biden's political future is tied to getting the virus under control and to keeping the u.s. economy moving. so what does that mean? given the new cdc guidance and the quarantine times and employees and everything going on with omicron. let's discuss. kirsten, back in january, the biden administration vowed to shut down covid. it appears that they underestimated the virus' staying power. what do you make of how they are handling it these last-minute changes to travel restrictions, quarantine lengths, testing, how is this going to affect his re-election chances and the democrats' chances in 2022? >> well, in terms of re-election, it's too soon to be making predictions about that. we're only one year into his presidency. and i think in terms of the midterms, we'll have to see because i have to say, i don't think that it's been that stellar in terms of how they've handled things and, obviously, the biggest problem has been the testing. and this is something that the administration was really caught flat footed on and the president has admitted as much. but it's still not entirely clear why that happened when other countries were able to be prepared for this in a way the united states wasn't. and to have it, you know, it shouldn't be a shock to anybody that during the holidays people will be traveling, right? and that's when people do test the most. when they are traveling and they're going to be exposed to a lot of different people. so i think that this does not reflect well in terms of the handling at least of that aspect of the situation. >> it appears the biden administration thought that we could, as a country, vaccinate our way out of this crisis. which i understand why one might think that and certainly "operation warp speed" started under trump and then the expedited push of the vaccines by the biden administration has been a great success. but there's been a lot of other things that have not gone as well. what do you think? >> so i agree with kirsten. i think that the lack of cheap, rapid mass testing is looking like a worse and worse failure of u.s. policy. under now we've had a republican and a democratic administration running our covid policy. and we've got this continuing problem. and it just shows up in area after area. so, for example, we've got the cdc with its new guidelines saying you only have to isolate for five days. the big question mark there is why isn't there a requirement for a negative covid test before you come out of isolation? and the answer is because we don't have the mass testing capacity. but that's a choice. it's not something that we were fated to have to have. >> yeah, and -- >> and something that biden rightly criticized the last administration for and then didn't come up with a better answer. >> and kirsten, less than a year from the midterms. do you think the democrats will be affected one way or another by whether or not the virus can get under control and whether or not the economic recovery is hindered or continues at least in a bolder way? >> yeah, well, definitely it will be affected by what happens with the virus. and definitely it will be affected by the economy. the economy is always the biggest driver in elections, and i think right now the pandemic is one of the biggest drivers in the election. and so it matters more, i think, where -- you know, what it's like when we start going into the new year. and as we get closer to the election, because memories are quite short. you know, if there's a quick turn around from this and it sort of is in the rear-view mirror, then i think it's something that will have less of an impact. but if this is the trajectory and there continues to be problems like this. we keep hearing about new variants as they come up. is there another variant? we don't know what's going to happen. there's a lot of unknowns. so i do think if he was able to -- the president was able to get this under control, if we're able to have adequate testing, and all of these things and people could have a somewhat normal life, and the economy is doing reasonably well, then he's in good shape. >> ramesh, there's this interesting dynam identical the republican right after donald trump came out in favor of not just the vaccines, in a bigger way than he had before. but also talked about how he's gotten the booster and then had a showdown with candice owens, and it does seem like these almost being outflanked on the right if other people decide to run against him and assuming he does run for president, by governors who are not as pro-vaccine. >> well, of course, there are always going to be nuances there because former president trump continued to say he's not for any kind of vaccine mandate which puts him in sync with a lot of those republican governors. i really do think that one thing that we're seeing here, though, is a shift of covid from being a pandemic to being endemic and the politics of being -- facing the covid pandemic were in some ways really hard for the republican coalition to address, but i think the shoe may be on the other foot now that, as you shift to endemic covid, it may be the case that the democratic coalition has a hard time abandoning sort of lockdown and masking and school shutdown policies that have now, at the very least, outlived their usefulless. >> ramesh, kirsten, thank you. happy new year. a chaotic scene caught on camera. new video camera footage showing the tragic killing of a 14-year-old girl. hear her parents' response. that's next. this holiday is all about t-mobile. let's go to diane. new and existing customers can trade up to the new iphone 13 pro and t-mobile will pay for it. t-mobile is bringing it all together for the holidays. upgrade to the iphone 13 pro on us. plus get a free year of apple tv plus. only at t-mobile. my name is douglas. i'm a writer/director and i'm still working. in the kind of work that i do, you are surrounded by people who are all younger than you. i had to get help somewhere along the line to stay competitive. i discovered prevagen. i started taking it and after a period of time, my memory improved. it was a game-changer for me. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. if you wanna look fresh, fresh. you gotta eat fresh. eat fresh. that's why subway bought time in my shampoo ad. to talk about the new baja chicken & bacon. body, bounce, and baja. bounce. eat fresh. in our national lead, the grief-stricken parents of the 14-year-old girl killed by what apparently was a stray police bullet in a department store dressing room spoke out today at a press conference a short while ago. the family of valentina orellana-peralta demanded justice as they described the pain of losing their daughter under such circumstances. yesterday, los angeles police released edited body cam and surveillance footage of the events leading to this tragedy. they show a very difficult situation as officers responded to multiple calls about a possible shooting in progress. and encountered a different victim, a woman on the floor covered in blood. as josh campbell reports, for valentina's family, many questions remain about what exactly happened inside that department store. this morning, some of the video is disturbing. >> reporter: 14-year-old valentina orellana-peralta was shopping with her mother when she was killed last thursday. shot in a dressing room where police say they couldn't see her behind a wall as lapd officers pursued an assault suspect at a los angeles department store. the lapd released these edited body cam and store surveillance videos late monday showing the deadly shooting of the suspect. the shot that police believe killed valentina and the events leading up to the tragedy. tuesday valentina's mother spoke at an emotional press conference. we heard screaming. we sat down and hugged each other when something hit my daughter and it threw us to the ground. she died in my arms. police say they believed valentina was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off the tile floor and entered the dressing room wall. they had the attorney read a statement on what she remembered that day. >> all of a sudden, we felt an explosion that threw us both to the ground. that's when i saw white powder coming out of valentina's body as she started having convulsions. i had no idea she had been shot. her body went limp. >> reporter: valentina dying from a gunshot wound to the chest. earlier surveillance video shows the suspect daniel lopez assaulting several women at a burlington department store before police arrive. 911 and radio calls thursday report the assault in progress. then reports of a possible shooting. >> be advised there are customers and employees hiding inside the location. >> reporter: police body cam footage shows officers moving up an escalator, guns drawn and finding a woman on the ground after she was hit repeatedly by a metal bike lock. one officer fires three shots killing the suspect. no gun was found near the body. then they found valentina in a dressing room. >> a 14-year-old girl was in the changing room behind a wall behoond the suspect and out of the officer's view. >> reporter: valentina's father breaking down talking tuesday about valentina's life and her dreams. her father's attorney says valentina's family wants justice. >> what does justice mean to them? >> justice is trying to examine and investigate thoroughly. they want to see accountability. >> now, jake, the attorney for the family says they're looking into a possible lawsuit against the lapd. the department wouldn't comment on any pending litigation but we're hearing from the los angeles police union today expressing their utter sorrow in their words, they are praying for the valentina family and praying for this officer who they described as completely devastated by what happened. jake, tragedy does not begin to describe what happened here in los angeles last week. today looking into the eyes of the parents who had just lost their child, i get the sense of just unbelievable loss. >> josh campbell, thanks so much. the district attorney in westchester county, new york, has decided to not press charges against former governor andrew cuomo over alleged inappropriate conduct we learned today. two women came forward with accusations against cuomo. one a state trooper who worked on the governor's detail when she says the governor asked if he could kiss her. she was worried about the consequences of rejecting him and said sure. she says cuomo then kissed her on the cheek. she also accused him of other inappropriate touching. the second woman said in a separate incident cuomo grabbed her arm and kissed her on the cheek without asking for permission. the da's office says it found credible evidence that both of those instances did happen. it called the former governor cuomo's conduct concerning. but the office said they could not pursue criminal charges due to the, quote, statutory requirements of the criminal laws of new york. multiple investigations into cuomo's actions are still under way, including one by the manhattan district attorney's office. we've not yet heard back. here to discuss is richard roth, an attorney and founding member of the roth law firm. can you explain to us in simple terms the logic of the westchester district tattorney' decision here? >> sure, jake. the logic is very simple. he literally kissed a woman on the cheek. that is not enough to warrant criminal misconduct. was it appropriate? was it -- yes, but certainly it wasn't forceable to the extent that it's outrageous. you hear stories like the last one which is so sad and it's just a shame that in westchester county -- it was also not sufficient to warrant criminal conduct. the albany county police officer filed a charge without the district attorney's knowledge. there's a lot going on here which is unfortunate. it just is a single guy, maybe a little bit -- if you will, forward, but criminal conduct for kissing a woman on the cheek? i would think that the district attorney's office in nassau, westchester would have something better to do. >> the state trooper alleged more inappropriate touching than just the kissing on the cheek, but i suppose what you're saying would apply to her other allegation as well. >> that's right. there's a state trooper who alleged a little more than kissing on the cheek and the second person is a woman in the white plains high school where apparently they said she alleges, apparently the women are both credible which is great they came out but she alleges he grabbed her arm, pulled her in and kissed her on the cheek. and, yeah, the conduct is not criminal conduct. is it inappropriate? did he make them feel uncomfortable? absolutely. but i think the westchester county got this -- the district attorney's office got this right and the nassau county district attorney's office last week got it right. now what's left is essentially two more jurisdictions, both new york county and then the federal courts, the federal u.s. attorneys office will see if any misconduct is inappropriate. and this all stems again from letitia james' report, 168-page report issued in august of 2021. and these are all, if you will, ramifications of that report. >> richard roth, thank you so much. still ahead -- a wrngarning that iran is playing with fire. an inside look at the high stakes talk to keep the peace. stay with us. in our world lead, the threat from iran is real and growing more dire. that's the conclusion in a new deep dive in "the new yorker" magazine revealing what's at stake in a new round of international talks aimed at halting iran's ambitions. the man a let's discussion it with robin wright. you just published this article. lay it out for our viewers. what's the real threat that iran poses right now? >> iran has achieved enormous advances in its nuclear program. president trump tried to use maximum pressure. iran has instead exaccelerated t just its nuclear program but its missile program. it has the largest missile program in the middle east. at a lot of levels, iran is a threat for today than at the time of the nuclear deal in 2015, which was one of the most important non-proliferation pacts in the history of arms control. >> the deal that the obama administration did only survived for two years. how much has iran's nuclear weapon capabilities caught up to its ambitions? what are they able to do right now? >> at the time of the deal, iran would have take an year to produce enough fuel tore a bomb. today, it's only three weeks. the acceleration of iran's capabilities is very alarming. iran has cut off access to the monitoring -- the international inspectors who follow what iran is producing at home, which is part of the deal. that's been cut off for the past year after one of the key nuclear scientists in iran was assassinated allegedly by israel. it's achieved a lot in the last two years at a pace that in a matter of months, if it decides to cross the threshold, it could be the tenth country in the world to have a nuclear capability. >> you highlight rob malley who president biden appointed to be the person to deal with. we are not going to agree to a worse deal. trying to revive the deal would be tantamount to trying to revive a dead corpse. it's more plausible, possible and probable that iran will try to become a threshold nuclear state. what does that say about the stakes involved as the talks resume? is there any hope? >> i think there's hope. but i think it's fading very fast. remember, this was biden's first major foray into diplomacy as he became president. the assumption was they could get back to the point of the nuclear deal and roll back some of iran's technological advanced. iran has so many advances that what nation that achieved breakthroughs wants to give it up or give up part of it? b getting back to what the united states promised, there's no guarantee the next president won't walk away from the deal again. that's what makes iran reluctant to give up what it has achieved. i think the ultimate challenge is even if we get back to the deal, even if both sides comply, iran still has the knowledge of how to move forward. that's something that we can't undo. >> robin wright, another great story in "the new yorker." a shooting spree across a city ends with several wound and kil killed. that's ahead. studies that long? mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs. (kate) this holiday, verizon has the deal that gets better and better and better. get iphone 13 pro, on us, when you trade in your old or damaged phone. (kate) better? (guy) better. (kate) hey. (kate) and up to $1,000 when you switch. (carolers) ♪better♪ (kate) because everyone deserves better. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. do your eyes bother you? my eyes feel like a combo of stressed, dry and sandpaper. strypaper? luckily, there's biotrue hydration boost eye drops. biotrue uses naturally inspired ingredients. and no preservatives. try biotrue! with ww, i lost 30 pounds and i feel incredible. i love the new program because the app does all the work for you. it's never too late to start. start the new year with three months free. join today at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 3rd. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. how not to be a hero: because that's the last thing they need you to be. you don't have to save the day. you just have to navigate the world so that a foster child isn't doing it solo. you just have to stand up for a kid who isn't fluent in bureaucracy, or maybe not in their own emotions. so show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com happening now, breaking news. the u.s. just shattered a pandemic record for covid-19 cases. the number of children hospitalized is sto skyrocketin. the january 6th committee is standing down after the biden administration pushed back at the panel apparently for first time. graphic video released of the police shooting of a teenage girl in los angeles. her family is speaking out about her death as officers pursued a suspect as a department store. they are sharing their grief and demanding transparency. welcome to our viewers around the world and the united states. i'm jim acosta and you are in "the situation room." we begin with the record breaking surge of covid-19 cases in the united states fuelled by the omicron variant. tom, this is ver