i kind of take offense to that. because what if one of your white anchors said, "well, white people eat this on new year's day?" i don't think it was appropriate that she said that. she was being very asian and, i don't know. she can keep her korean to herself. >> wow. cari? >> ridiculous. ridiculous. and, by the way, i think kudos to michelle. i know this story very well. she played that because it is ridiculous, and i'm sure it's not the first time she heard this in her career, as a woman of color. trust me, i know. i'd like to add, for the record, i, too, loved black-eyed peas for new year's day because it is good for you. this woman made it about her. you do tell me what you'd like to eat. that's fine. but good for michelle. i love the way in which the hashtag very asian became something positive, in the way people responded. it is unfortunate we live in a day and age where we can't say what we like culturally, and it becomes a versus type of situation. and it is sad. because we deal with it often. guess what? the beauty of it is the resilience. michelle showed what you can do when people come together. right, john? >> look, i eat black-eyed peas on new year's day. >> yeah. >> the collard greens. one brings luck. one brings money. my wife makes both. >> john, you're in the know, as are your viewers now. everyone should be doing it, okay? get some black-eyed peas and some greens. everyone, calm down. >> to be fair, it is my wife. my wife is in the know on new year's. she makes that. yeah, that's why we have it. cari champion, thank you so much. >> hi, john's wife. thank you so much. have a good one, guys. "new day" continues right now. >> welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. hi, john's wife, as well. it is tuesday, january 4th. i'm brianna keilar with john berman. this morning, record highs in the number of coronavirus cases. the u.s. seven-day rolling average of cases standing at a record 400,000. now, more than 103,000 people in the u.s. are hospitalized with coronavirus. it's the first time that this total has reached six figures in nearly four months. states are also reporting surges in child hospitalizations. very alarming here. they're now the highest they have ever been, with more than 500 children being admitted daily. this as the omicron variant complicates the return to school with some of the largest districts shifting to remote learning and others relying on more robust testing. in chicago, the third largest school district in the country, the teachers union is gearing up for a potential woalkout as cass there skyrocket. today, they'll hold an emergency meeting to vote on measures they deem safe. now, students are eligible for booster shots. the fda authorized pfizer's coronavirus vaccine boosters for children ages 12 to 15. the agency shortened the timing of booster shots from at least sick six months to five months after the initial vaccine series for everyone 12 and older. today, president biden is set to speak about omicron's rapid spread and discuss steps his administration is taking to fight it. the white house still hasn't issued details on the plan to distribute 500 million tests for free. >> let's bring in our medical correspondent sanjay gupta. it is the first time we've spoken. >> morning. >> good morning to you. since the omicron has surged. you have cases nearing almost 500,000 per day on average. where do we stand as you see it? >> yeah. happy new year, guys, right? this is going to sound familiar. i mean, what we're seeing here is obviously a significant increase in the overall number of cases. at the same time, as people have sort of eluded to almost since the beginning, when we started looking at the data out of south africa, that there is a decoupling or fewer, if you will, hospitalizations and deaths associated with this. so those are the numbers. 90%, the cases sort of compared to january 2021. but 27% lower hospitalizations. the concern, though, is if you look at sort of the trend over the past couple of years, and look at where the peaks have been, that was a peak that we were talking about. 90% of a peak. the numbers are still going up, obviously, in this country. even if you have something that is less severe, and that may be because of pre-existing immunity out there or because of the nature of this omicron variant itself, if you have absolute numbers of cases that continue to go up, that's going to cause a significant pressure on the hospital system. you know, we've talked about cases, hospitalizations, deaths. which one of these is going to be the truest measure, the thing that is going to sort of be the biggest thing to watch? it is hospitalizations. as you see more and more hospitalizations, that's going to be the real pressure on the system. not just for covid patients but for all patients who are trying to access care. that's going to be the big concern, i think, over the next several weeks. >> sanjay, there is news which is big in my household with two 14-year-olds. i think you have someone in this age, as well. children ages 12 to 15, the fda now says they're authorized to get the pfizer booster shot. cdc has to sign on, which i guess happens wednesday. what's the significance of this, in your mind? >> well, you know, i think, overall, you're look at a percentage of people. we can show the number of people who have already been vaccinated sort of in this group. you have about 39%. 51% fully vaccinated. 39%, i think, partially vaccinated. sorry, unvaccinated. see the numbers there. this would be an opportunity to give additional protection, at least to the people who have been fully vaccinated already. you know, this is a group of people who are already at lower risk of hospitalization, of death, but we are in the middle of a significant viral storm right now. we know that the hospitalizations overall for this population have been increasing. again, as more and more people get infected, because there is so much of this virus around and it is so contagious, you're going to have an increase in hospitalizations. hopefully this can help mitigate that to some extent. we're not going to be in this situation forever. at some point, hopefully the cases will start to come down again. the demand, i think, you know, in terms of the pressure on the hospital systems, will hopefully start to reduce a bit. but for right now, anything we can do to try and reduce that demand, i think, is really critical. >> and florida's surgeon general, sanjay, says that states should limit testing, specifically looking at his, and focus on high-value testing. i want to listen to some of this. >> we're going to be working to unwind the sort of testing psychology that our federal leadership has managed to, unfortunately, get most of the country in over the last two years. we need to unwind this testing sort of -- sort of planning and living one's life around testing. without it, we're going to be sort of stuck in this same cycle. >> what do you think about that strategy? >> where heell, i mean, you kno original sin here is still we have not been doing enough testing in this country. i mean, it's really hard to believe. three years now we've been talking about this, going into the third year, and we still haven't been doing enough testing. i think what he is reacting to is the idea that they're trying to justify, look, we don't have enough testing and aren't doing enough testing. florida's positivity rate is 30 kt 30%. when a positivity rate is that high, that means you're not doing enough testing. you're not nearly catching the number of people out there who actually are carrying this virus. now, if you don't have enough testing, yeah, makes sense that you have to sort of figure out who should most likely be tested. but the problem still is, we need more testing. when people talk about the idea we should be doing 30 million tests a day in this country, that was something we were talking about, you know, last year. summer of last year. we're still, like, you know, about a million tests a day opposed to 30 million tests a day. so the problem still is that we don't have enough tests out there period. not that we should start to roll back tests. again, florida specifically, positivity rate is 30%. that is a clear indicator that not enough testing is happening. >> yeah, just speaks to how overwhelmed the testing systems and health care systems in general are getting here. sanjay, thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you. coming up, we're going to speak with the surgeon general of the u.s., dr. vivek murthy, as omicron continues to set record highs and impact schools across the country. breaking right now, we have a live look near fredericksburg, virginia. this is travel on one of the busiest stretches of interstate 95. it's been at a near total standstill for hours because of snow, debris, and accidents. this is much more movement than we've seen from a long, long time there. emergency crews are trying to tow away vehicles blocking the road. officials believe three dozen trucks were stuck. some people were stranded in vehicles overnight, and the temperatures kept dropping outside. joining us now, stranded in her car, is suzanne fallen. can you hear me? >> i sure can. how are you, john? >> how are you? >> i'm a little tired and a little grumpy. >> how long have you been sitting there? >> i left the house in fredericksburg at 8:00 last night. i moved to where i am, just south of stafford, virginia. i've been sitting in the exact same spot for just over 10 hours now. >> 10 hours? >> yeah. thankfully, i'll have a full tank of gas. i've got a couple little dogs in the car with me, and so we're hitting the point of no return. people are getting out of their cars. not in mass quantities, but hinhind i hiding behind car doors and doing their business. there's no place to go. >> i think i know what you're describing there. i won't ask a follow-up on that. but, you know, the dogs, what are you all doing to pass the time 10 hours in? >> well, i've never been much of a tweeter, but i've been trolling through tweets to try to keep updated on what is going on. i've been tweeting updates from where i sit. it's been passing the time. people are interacting on twitter and asking how we're doing. i mean, it's terrifically boring, but i've been stuck in worse places. >> are you getting any kind of official communication from authorities on how much longer it is going to be? >> we're not. we're not even seeing any official cars, like the cars with the lights and siren cars. whether they're construction or whether they're police or rescue workers. they're about a mile ahead of me, and they turn on for a while and i see them up there, and now they're gone. traffic is still not moving. every now and then, traffic in the southbound direction will move a little bit. seems they'll let 40 or 50 cars go through, and then they'll stop it again. i must just be south of the bottleneck, but i don't know how long the bottleneck lasts. could be one choke point or a choke point that lasts miles. i have no idea, and i'm not seeing any of that information on the vdot, virginia department of transportation, page. we're going to -- i'd say we're flying blind out here, but we're actually just sitting blind out here. have no idea. >> i can't imagine what it was like to see the sunrise after sitting in your car 10 hours overnight. how cold did it get? >> it got down into the 20s. you know, a lot of people have been turning their cars -- a lot of people in the vicinity where i am have been turning their cars off to save gas. then they'll turn the car back on to heat it up a bit. i've made friends with the people in the car behind me. they have food and water. if we get into a jam, i'm sure people in the cars around us are willing to help. at this point, everybody has been staying in their cars because it's pretty darn cold outside. >> well, susan phalen, i hope things start to move there quickly. i can't imagine what that's been like. please hug your dogs. walk your dog around the car? i don't know what advice to give you at this point, but hang in there. >> yeah. i took the dogs out on a snow bank here that had been plowed. they're not at all interested. they're 5 pound dogs, so they're really tiny and not used to be cold. but they had their chance. >> all right, susan. hang in there. stay safe. >> thanks, john. >> we hope you get moving soon. >> thanks. have a good one. >> 10 hours, unbelievable. i can't believe that. documents recently turned over to the january 6th committee reveal a plan by donald trump's allies to target the offices and the homes, the homes of state and local officials in the days and weeks following the 2020 election. the document outlined the need for a targeted plan to put pressure on officials in states like arkansas, georgia, and michigan. joining me now is michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson. good morning to you, secretary. we appreciate you being with us. >> good morning. thank you for having me and shedding a light on this very critical issue. >> it's pretty, you know -- as much as one can be stunned these days. these are documents from bernard carrick, a trump ally to the january 6th committee. what it shows is this really orchestrated campaign of harassment and almost stalking of officials. folks like yourself. what's your reaction in learning of this? >> i think -- i mean, this is what life has been like for nearly two years now as we've lived through this moment, this attack on democracy. as election officials, we personify democracy. so to the extent that democracy itself is under attack right now as it is, those who personify it, the election administrators whose job it is to make sure people get ballots, they're counted accurately, we're the ones being targeted by those who want to target and dismantle democracy. if they can take out us, then they can, you know, have a significant victory along their path. then we're also seeining effort to potentially replace the election officials with partisans who are are willing to overturn results simply because they don't agree with the outcome. >> what do you say to people who planned and supported this? >> first, it failed. you know, we as election officials, we are resolute. i am nothing but emboldened to continue to work to protect democracy and work harder than ever to ensure that every person's vote is counted and every voice is heard. at the same time, i worry deeply about people leaving our industry because they no longer want to be subject to these threats, and their families as well. it is a harrowing ordeal. it is abhorrent. it is sad because these are people who -- those attacking democracy are those responding to lies, falsehoods, deceit, misinformation for months, for years. it's this cycle that really won't end until there is accountability for the leaders who are lying to individuals about our election realities, our election procedures. when there are consequences for those leaders, then i believe we can start to see the end of this. >> look, we've already heard about people who are leaving this profession, good people, right? they're concerned for their safety. they're concerned for the safety of their families, and they're being pushed out of this. when you think of that, how do you think about these folks, as you said, being in charge of elections, you know, governing democracy? what does that say about the state of democracy. ♪ in the country? >> as i said before, this is a five-alarm fire. this is a moment where every single citizen, regardless of your political affiliation, needs to prioritize protecting the truth and protecting democracy and protecting those whose job it is to guard and enforcement and defend democracy. this is the moment that we all must prioritize that or else our democracy will wither on the vine. i'm very saddened to see so many of professionals who i work with and admire on both sides of the aisle, people who stood guard and held the line in 2020 to protect democracy leaving the profession. the bright, shining hope is that there are also many people coming into the profession, prioritizing protecting democracy. not for a partisan goal but for protecting our constitution, our country. if we see more people willing to step up and prioritize democracy right now, and even serve on the front lines as election workers and more, then we can save it. >> look, it is an incredibly alarming trend on the state level, the local level we're seeing this. michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson, thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. coming up, absurd capitol riot lies from trump supporters. >> january 6th attack was not the republicans nor trump. it was the democrats were behind it all. plus, what an anchor admitted live on the air about fox and the network's ratings. and life on mars. a top nasa scientist plans to make it happen. i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. ♪ got my hair ♪ ♪ got my head ♪ ♪ got my brains ♪ ♪ got my ears ♪ ♪ got my heart ♪ ♪ got my soul ♪ ♪ got my mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪ trelegy for copd. [coughing] ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on by... ♪ if you've been playing down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day,... ♪ ...it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. ♪...and i'm feelin' good. ♪ no once-daily copd medicine... has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, and save at trelegy.com. switching wireless carriers is easy with xfinity. just lean on our helpful switch squad to help you save with xfinity mobile. they can help break up with your current carrier for you and transfer your info to your new phone. giving you a fast and easy experience that can save you hundreds a year on your wireless bill. visit your nearest xfinity store and see how the switch squad can help you switch and save. get $200 off a new eligible 5g phone when you switch to xfinity mobile. talk with our helpful switch squad at your local xfinity store today. a fox host saying this live on the air. >> i work at fox. i want to see disarray on the left. it's good for america. it's good for our ratings. >> joining us now, cnn political commentator s.e. cupp. i'm filing this under stuff we already knew, i guess? >> yeah, it's the quiet part. he said the quiet part. i never would have imagined calling jesse waters a scholar. however, i think what he just did is really articulate sort of the three pillars of the new american right. the first is that there are two americas, not one. he talks about, you know, wanting to see disarray on the left as if it is somehow also not wanting to see disarray in america. and not just in a political party, but wants real pain in the streets. that's because we are not the united states anymore on the right. there are two americas. one is righteous. one needs to be sort of excised. number two is the cruelty is the point, right? they want to see the pain and the disarray. they want people like joe biden and aoc and pelosi and liberals to suffer. they're not interested in changing hearts and minds with ideas. they want to see the pain because the cruelty is the point. and, thirdly, ratings above all else. that's true at fox. certainly, ratings have seemed to trump public health and safety and also, like, facts, but it is also true of the attention economy that has really gripped the right, for people like trump and marjorie taylor greene and lauren boebert. getting attention is the most important thing. >> you talk about the attention economy and what people will do for ratings. mark green talked about joe rogen and his wildly popular podcast. he said rogen is paid to have controversial opinions and guests because a lot of people really like the feeling of being independent from or looking down on main street people and perspectives. look at him through that lens, and it makes sense. is that what you're talking about? >> sure. listen, there is nothing new about being contrarian or shocking, right? we had shock jocks. howard stern. that's a thing. you know, it's been a thing for a long time here. the problem is, i don't think joe is very careful with his platform, right? during a global pandemic, it might not be the right time to give medical advice, which, by the way, i think joe knows is not sound. because he sort of walked it back a few months ago, saying, listen, i'm not a doctor. don't listen to me. but that hasn't stopped him from giving it out. look, i don't think joe rogan is cruel, like alec jones is cruel. i don't think he is manipulative intentionally, the way i think tucker carlson intentionally manipulates his audience. i think joe rogan has a huge platform, and he is not careful with it. >> also, let's talk about something that conan o'brien said. he was on his podcast. he said that he was thinking about when he first saw january 6th. i think we all know how that moment went for us. this is what he said. >> in the background, i'm watching our country start to come apart at the seams. i said, "i don't think we're doing a podcast right now. i think the american experiment is ending right now on cnn, live." >> right. >> that was insanity. >> do you think it was the american experiment cracking? >> it was breaking. luckily, it didn't end, but it was breaking by people who want to break it. look, there were a lot of people there that day who didn't know why, and there were a lot of people there that day because they thought they could overturn a democratic election, somehow procedurally. i think there were a lot of people there that day who admit wanting to overturn a democratic election, violently, if necessary. they went ahead and tried it. those people, that wing really do want to break democracy. it's not that they just want someone else in charge of our country. it's that they want a different country. to get it, they have to break it. they have to break democracy. and they're willing to do that and go to the extreme to do that, that's really horrifying. because it is not just, like, five or six. it is, like, tens of thousands. they are in the military. they are in intelligence. they are in law enforcement. they are in qanon. they're your next door neighbor in some cases. this is a group that really believes this is a cause, it's a righteous cause, and it is one potentially worth dying for. so i don't think that was the beginning. i think -- i don't think that was the end or the last attempt. i think that was the beginning of this attempt to break democracy. >> as we sit here on the anniversary, s.e. cupp, thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> thank you, guys. just hours from now, chicago teachers take a crucial vote. will they refuse to work in the classroom because of covid? plus, apple goes where no u.s. company has ever gone before. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. find your rhythm. your happy place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. psoriasis really messes with you. try. hope. fail. no one should suffer like that. i started cosentyx®. five years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infection, some serious and a lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reaction may occur. best move i've ever made. ask your dermatologist about cosentyx®. it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 36 months when you add an adjustable base. only for a limited time. it's my woke-up-like-this migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. one dose can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within 2 hours. don't take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. i always dreamed of having kids of my own. ♪ ♪ now i'm ready for someone to call me mom. at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. all right. apple just hit a major milestone. for a time, it was worth more than $3 trillion. chief business correspondent christine romans joining us now. romans, $3 trillion, which i am told is a lot of money. >> yeah. it is the most valuable company in the -- public company in the history of the world. $3 billion. how about them apples? i pulled out an apple pun. it is the world's first $3 trillion, bigger than walmart, disney, coke, exxonmobil, and the eight other giant companies you see there combined. apple is still worth more. imagine, if apple were a country, it would be the fifth biggest. only the u.s., china, japan, and germany have gdps larger than apple's value as a company. okay, gdp and market cap, that's comparing apples and oranges, i know, but you get the idea. apple shares up nearly 35% last year. apple, john, is making a fortune on the iphone 13 and the services, apple ltv, music, the store. the store hit the all-time high, and later closed at $2.99 trillion in value. still, that figure is even more astounding considering how fast apple got there. it took 42 years from its launch in a bay area garage for apple to reach its first $1 trillion in value. then just two years to hit $2 trillion. just 16.5 months to hit the big 3-t. it is a value unheard of even a few years ago. now, it may have some company in the $3 trillion club. microsoft is worth $2.5 trillion. google owner alphabet is right around $2 trillion. >> the 3-t club. i bet there is a secret handshake for that one. gm, though, on the subject of companies moving in a different direction, what is going on there? >> yeah, we'll get u.s. auto sales today, and it looks like toyota will retake gm in auto sales in the u.s. for the year. that would be the first time in 100 years. it shows a couple of things. it shows that the american automakers have been dethroned as the leaders in the u.s. auto market. it also shows that chip shortage has really affected production. i think gm and toyota sales are both going to fall substantially in the fourth quarter. that is because they couldn't get the chips to make the cars they needed. they needed to idle some production. some think gm can retake toyota maybe next year, but it is a big shift. first time in 100 years. >> christine romans, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. new york's new mayor starting the year in a standoff over schools. mayor eric adams will join us live. next, disturbing denials about the insurrection one year after it happened. >> it was the democrats were behind it all. they're the ones that caused it all. >> you really believe that? >> i know it. (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. here, the phone everyone wants, on america's most reliable network. better? (guy) better. (kate) that's not all. the new iphone, and up to 7 entertainment subscriptions for your family. like apple music, apple arcade, and more. better? (family) better. (kate) not done. the new iphone, the entertainment, and up to $1,000 when you switch. (carolers) ♪better♪ (kate) this year, holiday better, with verizon. because everyone deserves better. my nunormal? fewer asthma attacks with nucala. a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. moving is a handful. no kidding! fortunately, xfinity makes moving easy. easy? -easy? switch your xfinity services to your new address online in about a minute. that was easy. i know, right? and even save with special offers just for movers. really? yep! so while you handle that, you can keep your internet and all those shows you love, and save money while you're at it with special offers just for movers at xfinity.com/moving. nearly one year after the violent and well documented attack on the u.s. capitol, some people are still deflecting blame from donald trump and his supporters and are pointing fingers at democrats and the fbi. cnn's donie o'sullivan is joining us now from washington. donie, it is astounding, what people believe. >> reporter: yeah, brianna, ever since the capitol attack, there has been an effort, a campaign, to alter, to warp americans' understandings of what really happened here in washington on that day. in many ways, that disinformation campaign is working. take a look. >> january 6th attack was not the republicans nor trump. it was the democrats were behind it all. they're the ones that caused it all. >> reporter: do you really believe that? >> i know it. and there is no way that a republican would act that way. and there is no way that trump had anything to do with what happened on january 6th. >> reporter: what about all the trump supporters that have been charged and indicted? >> because it's all democratic judges and people that were on the take from the democrats. >> reporter: it's been a year since the attack on the u.s. capitol. >> this is our capitol! >> reporter: and because of disinformation, denial, and diversion, americans don't have a shared history, a shared understanding of what happened here on that day. >> i think the whole reporting of it is a giant hoax. >> we are very peaceful people. it was a setup to me. it was the fbi had set it up. >> i don't believe they were trump supporters that did that. >> reporter: you said the whole thing is a setup. you don't really believe that, do you? >> i do. i do. because trump won the election. they've proven it over and over again. >> reporter: i really don't think trump had much to do, other than people that were supporters more him somewhere involved. i thinkes enticed by the fbi and undercover agents. >> reporter: when i spoke to trump supporters here in washington on january 6th, most were in denial about the results of the 2020 election. do you accept that biden won the election? >> absolutely not. biden did not win this election. >> reporter: on january 6th, we walked with trump supporters who marched from the white house, where trump was doing his speech, here to the u.s. capitol. as we arrived here, that is when the first security barrier was breached. at the time, some trump supporters told me they were happy with what happened here at the capitol. are you proud of what happened here today? >> absolutely. i think we should have gone on in and yanked our senators out by the hair of the head and drug them out and said, "no more." >> i absolutely stand behind 100% what happened here today. 1,000%. it's terrible, how this election was stolen. >> reporter: federal prosecutors have charged more than 700 people in connection with the capitol riot and repeatedly documented the rioters' support for president trump. but some people in right-wing media have pushed the dangerous idea that it was all an fbi plot. >> fbi operatives were org organizing the attack on the capitol. >> reporter: there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that this was some kind of false flag event staged by the democrats or the fbi. what would you say to people who say january 6th was the biggest attack on american democracy since the civil war? >> absolute rubbish. >> reporter: amid all the denial and deflection, i met one trump supporter who said it was important to be real about what happened on that day. what do you think of the trump supporters that stormed the capitol? >> you talk about mis-found feelings. seeing the folks from my side of the state that were there, and they're not the part of the campaign that we would like to have. >> reporter: do you think some trump supporters that say it's antifa, it's black lives matter, that they know that that's bull shit but they just don't want to admit it? it's easier to blame someone else? >> everyone is afraid to, you know, take the blame. it's that simple. >> reporter: you know, i think this failure to learn from or even acknowledge what happened on january 6th, along with what we're seeing now, this sort of campaign to get election deniers, to make them election officials, it really doesn't bode well for the upcoming midterms and for future elections in this country, brianna. >> no, it certainly doesn't. it is an alternative reality that we see you unveiling there. thank you so much, donie. >> thanks. joining us now is mark bowden, contributing writer for the "atlantic." we have the co-authors of the book "the steal," the attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the people who stopped it. first, i don't know if you had a chance to hear that piece from donie o'sullivan. the certitude from some trump supporters there, the belief, the utter belief in things that are just lies. i wonder what your reaction is to that. >> well, i've heard it a lot, and it doesn't surprise me at all. i think for many people, the core belief has nothing to do with facts. they have been led to the point where they distrust information from media, from experts. so there's really no way to argue with folks like that. you know, they have their belief that you're not going to change their mind. >> it's interesting, one of the continuing themes throughout your book is that distrust. the effort to create it, to foment it. in some ways, again, to make stuff up. you have a bunch of examples here, matthew. i want to start with ruby freeman, who was a georgia election worker who people just started spreading these lies about her. you write, it did matter that the confession -- this is things she allegedly did -- was cartoonish or the evidence clearly concocted, or even the mug shot featured a different woman all together. it confirmed the preferred reality for many trumpists, and they passed it along. that seems to be what donie just heard on the street there, too. >> yeah. i think that's right. all ruby freeman did was volunteer her time to work on elections in georgia. because of the nature of the way technology is moving right now and politics are moving, she became a lightning rod, where things that she would do sort of innocently in her work were able to be pulled apart, dissected, and disseminated around the world in a moment. people sort of held her up as an example that she didn't deserve. >> mark, you talk about the efforts to overturn the election. not just the riot itself on january 6th but the longer, more concerted effort there. you say what the president and his cronies did there was a blunder bust strategy. can you explain what you mean by that? >> yeah. like a blunder bust, which should say, you know, everything you load into it. the strategy, it didn't matter much what specific allegations were, only that there were a lot of them. it was never really about the truth. it was about creating a cloud of susp suspicion which undermined american belief in the voting system. >> yeah. and you really saw that. i didn't matter what they said, and it edd a dilemma. do you have to fact-check everything? or in the act of fact-checking, are you playing into their hands by giving voice to the absolutely absurd claims that were being made there? matthew, there were heros here, and you talk about this. the people who stood up to these efforts, it wasn't just democrats. >> no, that's right. most of the heros in our book were republicans, actually. even trump supporters. that gave me some hope as i came away after doing the reporting. i went into this expecting it to be red versus blue, things like that, but in truth, it was honesty versus lies. that's sort of a line that cuts through every human heart. you can stand up and say there was no fraud. that's not true. >> will that still be there in 2022 and 2024? >> human nature doesn't change. >> listen, mark and matthew, the book is "steal." it is terrific. some really good stories, specifics that people can read and learn, i think, a lot about. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. join jake tapper and anderson cooper for an unprecedented gathering inside the capitol with police, lawmakers, and leaders. "live from the capitol, january 6th, one year later" begins thursday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. and we have a new special at 9:00 p.m. eastern on sunday with zakaria on "american democracy." cdc changes how long you should stay isolated? what are the maybe, a key nasa scientist says we can make it more like earth. ♪ baby got back by sir mix-a-lot ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ limu emu and doug.♪ and it's easy to customize your insurance at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows several different whistles. doug blows several different whistles. [a vulture squawks.] there he is. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪ it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. what if i sleep hot? ...or cold? no problem, the sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. and it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? yes! you'll know exactly how well you slept, night after night. we take care of the science. all you have to do is sleep. and now, save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 36 months when you add an adjustable base. only for a limited time. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn... claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now, she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? i like that my plan is built just for me. arugula, you get an extra... with the new ww personalpoints program, you take an assessment, enter your goals, the foods you love and what fits into your lifestyle. you don't have to eat diet food. i can enjoy the things that i really love like wine, cheese. you can add points for eating vegetables or being active. i lost 26 pounds and i feel incredible. the all new ww personalpoints program. join today for 50% off at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 10th. you booked a sunny vrbo ski chalet. with endless views of snow-covered peaks. but the thing they'll remember forever? grandpa coming out of retirement to give a few ski lessons. the time to plan your get together is now. find it on vrbo. at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ life as we know right now impossible on mars. but what if mars were more like earth? the now former chief scientist at nasa, james green, says it could be possible to terraform mars, make it livable for people, when conjures up the scene from "the martian" when matt damon gets stuck on mars and has to figure out how to survive. >> i got to make water and grow food on a planet where nothing grows. i am the greatest botanist on this planet. >> joining us now to discuss is astrophysicist who -- an astrophysicist who worked with green. what james green is talking about here is using a magnetic shield so it isn't so difficult for matt damon/the astronaut to grow potatoes on mars. >> what jim is doing here is solving a few of the problems associated with mars. so one thing about planetary atmospheres, mars or the earth, there is a balance in the atmosphere's mass. they lose mass, typically due to erosion from sunlight, but the atmosphere also gains mass. on earth, from volcanos, but basically comes out of the ground. you have a system where air is leaving and air is coming in. so what jim proposes to do is to cut off the source of erosion, so what you can do is between mars and the sun, between any planet and the sun, there is a low point in the gravitational field that you can orbit, that is directly in the line between them. so if you put a spacecraft there, and you have a big magnetic field, then it can deflect that solar wind away from the planet and you stop the erosion. so once you stop the erosion, the atmosphere begins to gain mass. and when the pressure of the gas increases, it becomes hotter. so he solves the problem of mars being too cold, and he also solves the problem of getting rid of a lot of the radiation that reaches the surface. >> so, professor, i'm a dreamer. i'm a dreamer. i want to believe everything is possible. but what you're describing here is like a giant space shield, like a space visor, like -- how big does a car have to be to have a visor that will block the sun from, you know, shining on mars? >> well, the devil's in the details. because what you're looking at is the angular size, that means that as you move something farther away, the angular size becomes smaller. so here there is a very specific location where this spacecraft has to be, between mars and the sun. so you have to do the calculation based on that location to determine how much deflection you're actually going to get. it is like an umbrella for a planet. >> like an umbrella for a -- that's one big umbrella. you're -- jim, as you call him, he says that he's putting together a paper, right, putting together a paper to talk about how a magnetic shield would work. he said there is several scenarios for that. he also said, though, it is not going to be well received. why is that? >> well, because, you know, in some ways it is a zero sum game, in science, you have communities of scientists that get behind particular ideas that determine where the funding is going to go years in advance. so we call these things a decadal survey. you come up with your decadal survey, here is what we should do for the next decade, here is our big priorities, and, you know, that determines where money goes, that determines how careers are developed because there are competing ideas. so now he's going to throw his idea into that competition. and it doesn't really fit well anywhere, and, you know, it is a really new idea. it is something that hasn't been done before. and one of the things that we do judge on is technical feasibility. so it doesn't matter what your new idea is when you're a scientist. typically when you propose it, your fellow scientists say, no, not going to work, you suck. >> your umbrella sucks is what they're going to say, i think. >> jim is a proven fact, but, you know, the default setting among scientists is skepticism, right? and so you have to prove yourself to everyone. even when you do prove yourself, they still don't admit you're right. so, you know, it is a tough sell. >> professor, this is delightful. i had no idea that terraforming was so controversial, nor did i have any idea what terraforming was. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you for having me. "new day" continues right now. good morning to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. it is tuesday, it is january 4th. it says december on my screen. >> it does say december. >> i caught it. it is january 4th. it is 2022. and i'm john berman and that's brianna keilar. >> i am. >> this morning, record highs in the number of coronavirus cases. the u.s. seven-day rolling average of cases is now standing at a record 400,000. now, more than 103,000 people in the u.s. are hospitalized with coronavirus. that's the first time the total reached six figures in nearly four months. states are reporting surges in child hospitalizations, the highest they have ever been. 500 children being admitted daily. >> that is the scene, right, as the omicron variant is complicating a return to school, with some of the largest districts actually shifting to remote learning. others relying on more robust testing. in the meantime, many students are now eligible for booster shots. the fda authorized pfizer's coronavirus vaccine booster for children ages 12 to 15. and the agency also has shortened the timing of booster shots from at least six months to five months after the initial vaccine series for everyone 12 and older. today president biden is set to speak about omicron spread, the rapid spread we're seeing and to discuss steps that his