the house committee investigating the insurrection now says it wants to interview the former vice president about the january 6th ininsurrection. we begin this story in chicago where the nation's third largest school district canceled classes after the teachers union voted to refuse in-person work. they voted to switch to remote learning due to a surge in covid cases, the move leaving tens of thousands of students ca-- it comes as the rapid spread of omicron shows no sign of slowing down. the united states now averaging more than 550,000 cases per day. that's an increase of 358% since last month. about 113,000 americans, and it's important to stress nearly all unvaccinated -- are currently hospitalized with covid, up 90% over the last month. we expect to hear from the white house pandemic response team in just moments. let's start with cnn's omar jimenez live in chicago for the latest on the showdown between the teachers union and the district. we're hearing teachers are being locked out of the online platform. >> reporter: that's right, bianna. the teachers union reporting that teachers tried to log in to their remote teaching platforms and have been locked out. we asked the school district about it. they didn't explicitly confirm that's what was happening, but did reiterate they considered this vote a work stoppage, and in the communication they sent out to families in the aftermath of this vote, they called it an unfortunate decision and said they now worry about the well-being of students, as they also said teachers will not be paid for this. part of the concern from the chicago teachers union is they don't think the current measures in place for returning to school in person are safe enough for staff and students. and what they want is more access to testing and specifically for people to test negative within 48 hours of returning to a classroom, ready access to masks. they want agreed-upon thresholds for a move to remote learning which the school district has said isn't practical from a district-wide level. but at the end of the day, leadership within the chicago teachers union says that, on top of increased vaccinations, is what it's going to take to get them back in the classroom. take a listen to chicago teachers union leader jesse sharkey. >> we've been failed by the mayor, failed by the public health health office. the only thing we can control is whether we go into the buildings. >> reporter: over the last year, the school district received over a billion dollars in federal funding to address covid safety issues in the classroom just like this, but the district maintains that going to class in person is safe because of mitigation measures and because they say there are no signs of widespread transmission in classrooms. >> a billion dollars later, many vaccines later. one could argue a big disservice for students and their families as well. omar jimenez, thank you so much. all across the country overwhelmed hospitals are looking for outside help as the ongoing surge leads to full icus and staffing shortages. in states such as ohio, the governor has called in the national guard to provide much-needed assistance. cnn's gary tuchman reports from a cleveland hospital getting help from the national guard. >> reporter: good morning, bianna. national guard members are now working at hospitals in many states, including here in ohio. we're invited to spend overnight hours at one of the hospitals in cleveland, the metro health system's main campus. metro health system has 5,500 employees, and hundreds have not been able to work because they've tested positive for covid-19. the hospitals are full, the icus are full. they're very grateful for help from the national guard. this hospital has 28 army and national guard members working there. some have medical training, so they're helping the doctors and nurses with patients. others don't have medical training and are doing things like deliveries and cleaning. it comes with a risk being a national guard member working in the hospitals because of covid. since friday, already four of those national guard members have tested positive for covid and they're not able to work. we talked with three of the national guard members. they're clearly kind and noble people. >> you decided to join the national guard after seeing what happened on 9/11 when you were in kindergarten. >> uh-huh. i wanted to help my community. >> are patients surprised when you tell them you're in the military and you're helping them? >> yeah. they're like, really? they think it's cool. i feel that way. >> there's a sense of pride that swells up in you when you know you're helping your community. it's a beautiful feeling, honestly. >> reporter: at this hospital, national guard members are scheduled to work only for about two weeks. that two weeks can be extended if there is a need. it seems fairly clear there will be a need. bianna. >> our hats off to them for extending their help. joining me, dr. megan ran any, associate dean of public health at brown university and dr. michael min nah from e med, a health care company that provides at-home covid testing. let's begin with chicago public schools canceling classes today after teachers voted to go virtual. more districts across the country are going remote or at least delaying the return to class due to these on going surges. earlier this morning, dr. leana wen said if they're wearing a high quality mask and if they're vaccinated and boosted, the chance of racketing the virus is low low. >> i think our priority needs to be keeping in kids in school. we're in a very different situation now than we were a year ago, much less two years ago. vaccinations, masks, ventilation and, of course, testing are critical parts of keeping schools open, keeping kids and teachers safe, but it's also about keeping down community spread. the reality is when covid is out of control in a community, we're going to have too many teachers and support staff who are sick to be able to keep schools open safely. it's a combination of both making sure our schools are equipped to be safe. i will say, bianna, i have chosen to send both of my children to my public school system. there's certainly a chance for exposure for them and their teachers, but the chance of them getting sick is low with the combination of vaccinations and masks. we also need to prioritize the kids and the teachers by doing things in the larger community to keep cases down. >> listen, it's all about the risks, right? there's always a risk in sending kids to school. i got my kids an n95 masks. they were wearing cloth before. we're wearing new masks. dr. mina, what role should testing play? in some cities like new york it's not mandatory. in los angeles they are requiring students get tested before they come back to class. what role do you think that should play? >> whether we close down schools is ultimately going to be in some ways -- going to be driven societily, about what risk associatity is willing to take. closing down schools just like the rest of the pandemic is the information problem. the information problem is we don't know who is positive when. so we end up closing things down or we quarantine people because we don't know if they're infected, rapid tests are a good solution to this problem because we can know with very high accuracy if somebody is walking into school is positive and infectious before they do so. so that's the whole idea of test-to-stay programs. we don't have to close things down. i personally don't feel we should be closing schools again. we do have the tools, whether through masks. of course the vaccines are helping and, of course, if we have testing before school for kids who are at high risk or just more generally for students before they enter school, especially at the beginning of the year, we can keep outbreaks to a minimum in these environments. >> let me ask you about that. as you know, there's a lot of confusion about what we're hearing out of the cdc, the cdc updating its isolation guidance. it does not include a testing requirement, but it does say that people can test after five days if they would like. dr. mina, as you just said, you're a proponent of rapid tests. how big of a difference do you think it would make for the trajectory of the surge if the cdc would require a rapid test to get out of isolation after those five days? >> if we look at all sectors of soes so it, there's one population which is clearly the highest risk for spreading the virus, and those are people who are known to be infected. a large fraction of them are still infectious after five days of onset, especially with this variant. if we know people are already infectious, have at the very least, try to do everything we can to stop those individuals who are extremely high risk of spreading to others from doing so. i think we should have testing as a part of that. unfortunately the cdc is painted a bit into a corner because they have trouble creating guidance around tools that unfortunately the u.s. has had trouble actually making accessible to our country. >> that's just it. not everyone has access to these rapid tests. dr. ranney, you say that's part of the problem in this guidance being confusing. i'm going to stop you right now because we're going to go to the briefing right now. let's take a listen and we'll come back to you if we can. >> the coming weeks are going to be challenging. we're going to see cases continue to rise because omicron is a very transmissible variant, but it's important to stay focused on three things. first, we have the tools to keep ourselves, our loved ones and our communities safe. and importantly, we have the tools we need to keep our schools open. the biden administration has provided $130 billion in american rescue plan funding to schools to implement proven prevention measures including ventilation and social distancing and an additional $10 billion to support testing in schools. last march we put teachers and school staff at the front of the line to get vaccinated before most adults. most teachers are vaccinateed and now el available for boosters. all kids ages 5 and older are eligible for vaccinations. so we have the tools. we know how to keep our kids safe in school. about 96% of schools are open. parents want schools open. experts are clear that in-person learning is best for kids' physical and mental health and for their education. the president couldn't be clearer. schools in this country should remain open. second, the impact of rising cases depends on a person's vaccination status. while we are seeing covid cases among the vaccinated, if you're fully vaccinated and if you've gotten the booster shot, you're highly protected and it's very unlikely you'll get seriously ill. if you're unvaccinated, you have a good reason to be concerned. you have a high risk of becoming severely ill, being hospitalized and even dying. please get vaccinated, get your kids vaccinated. if you're eligible for a of the booer, get a booster shot. the biden administration has deployed every measure to help states, communities and hospitals confront this omicron challenge. military doctors, nurses and emts are now in place assisting local hospital staff in states across the country with additional teams ready to deploy as needed. we've shipped 2.4 million pieces of personal protective equipment, p pfrmtse in the last two weeks to help keep health care workers safe. we've established free testing locations across the nation with additional new sites opening soon in maine, maryland, nevada, delaware, texas and washington state. we've worked aggressively to s stock our nation's medicine cap net with a diverse portfolio of treatments. it's important to note that we have more treatments available now than at any point during the pandemic. yesterday the president announced he's instructed the team to double the u.s. government's purchase of the pfizer antiviral pill from 10 million treatment courses to 20 million. in addition, we're working with pfizer to accelerate the delivery of these pills and will now have the first 10 million treatment cycles, courses, by the end of june instead of the end of september. these pills can dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths and are a game-changer with the potential to impact the outcome of covid on people and our nation. bottom line, we have the tools we need to manage the surge in omicron cases. with that i'll turn it over to dr. walensky. >> thank you, jeff, and good morning everyone. i'd like to start by walking you through today's state that. current seven-day daily average is about 491,700 cases per day, an increase of about 98% from the previous week. the seven-day average of hospital admissions is about 14,800 per day, an increase of about 63% over the previous week. the seven-day average of daily deaths are about 1,200 per day, which is an increase of about 5% over the prior week. over the last several weeks and over the holidays we have seen a significant and rapid increase in covid-19 cases. this increase reflects both cases caused by the delta variant and more importantly now cases surging from the omicron variant. over the past month, we have seen the percentage of omicron cases increase and the percentage of delta cases decrease. based on cdc genomic sequencing, we now estimate that omicron represents about 95% of the cases in the country and delta represents the remaining 5%. the sharp rise in cases and the emergence of the more transmissible omicron variant emphasizes the importance of vaccinations and boosters. this week the fda made several vaccine authorizationtion, and cdc followed these authorizations by making additional vaccine recommendations. first, cdc authorized -- fda authorized and cdc recommended shortening the window in which people who receive the pfizer covid-19 vaccine can get a booster dose from six months to five months. second, fda authorized and cdc recommended that children ages 5-11 who are moderately or severely immunocompromised should get an additional primary shot of the pfizer covid-19 vaccine 28 days after their second shot to provide them additional protection. and today, cdc's advisory committee on immunization practices is meeting to discuss boosters for those 12 to 15 years old after fda e's authorization on monday. i look forward to listening to the committee's discussion that will take place this afternoon. current data demonstrate that receiving a booster dose is critical to provide protection against covid-19 and the omicron variant. cdc surveillance data and other studies from around the world have demonstrated the benefit of a booster dose after receiving only a primary series including decreased risk of infection, severe disease and death caused by covid-19. in large national studies from israel, comparing those who are boosted with those who are fully vaccinated, a booster dose decreased infection by ten times in all age groups. similarly, in those studies, boosters resulted in a decrease in severe disease in individuals over 60 years old by 18 times and decreased severe disease in people age 40 to 59 years old by 22 times. and people who received a booster shot had 90% lower mortality due to covid-19 than those who did not receive a booster shot. while these studies were done while delta was the dominant variant in israel, we expect to see a similar trend of increased protection of those boosted from omicron. it's protecting people from the severe and tragic outcomes that can occur from covid-19 infection. we're asking everyone to follow these four steps, get vaccinated and get boosted if you're eligible, wear a mask, stay home when you're sick and take a test if you have symptoms or are looking for greater, extra reassurance before you gather with others. with that, thank you. i will now turn things over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, dr. walensky. what i'd like to do over the next couple minutes is talk about the omicron variant and some concerns particularly in the area of severity of disease, if i can have the first slide. i'm going to focus predominantly on severity, but let me make a few comments to underscore many of the things that dr. walensky said. first of all, without a doubt, unequivocally, we are dealing with a highly, highly transmissible variant that spreads rapidly. the data are overwhelming in that regard. number two, immune evasion. oechl cron evades vaccine protection against symptomatic disease and to some extent severe disease. however, as underscored by dr. walensky again, laboratory and clinical data indicate that booster shots reconstitute vaccine protection even against omicron. let's spend a moment now on severity of disease which is less likely that omicron will cause severe disease, i'm going to give you data from four separate sources just to underscore that, but then to end with a caveat. next slide. these are data from south africa. if you look at the three variants in blue, red and yellow with omicron being yellow and take a look at admissions, oxygen necessity, severe disease and death, in each case the yellow bar is significantly less than the red and the blue bar which represent beta and delta. next slide. if you look at data from the united kingdom from three separate sources, the uk security agency, the university of edinburough at scotland and imperial college, each of these show that in various parameters of disease severity, omicron appears to be less than delta. next slide. although this data is a bit more preliminary, but nonetheless indications from houston, texas, indicate that we're seeing similar situations here in the united states. next slide. this slide is from canada, again showing that the risk of hospitalizations or death were 65% lower only month omicron compared to delta and the risk of intensive care was 83%. next slide. if you go to in vitro animal studies, these are interesting. remember, there's always a caveat associated with animal studies. in a number of studies, ones that have done individually and cooled in mice and hamster models, it was shown the virus of omicron pro live rates very well in the upper airway and bron kai, but very poorly in the lungs, which actually goes along with -- doesn't prove but goes along with the concept that you have a very transmissible virus with upper airway secretion, but a virus that has less pathogenicity in the lung. next slide. let's look at the bottom line of what i said, and i'll get to the caveat in a moment. multiple sources of now preliminary data indicate a decreased severity with omicron. however, we really do need more definitive assessment of severity with longer-term followup here and in different countries. but the big caveat is we should not be complcomplacent. since the increased transmissibility of omicron might be overridden by the sheer volume that may be of reduced severity, but could still stress our hospital system. a certain proportion of a large volume of cases, no matter what, are going to be severe. so don't take this as a signal that we can pull back from the recommendations that you just heard from dr. walensky about the need for vaccination, for boostering, for wearing masks and all the other cdc recommendations. so let me close with the final slide, just a word about children because we're getting asked about that. the omicron variant so far appears to be less severe than the delta, but remember the caveat. rapid community spread is seeing larger numbers of children being hospitalized, again mostly among the unvaccinated. about vaccination, just to refresh your memory, the pfizer biontech is authorized and recommended for children from 5-17. children from 12-17 can get a booster. the fda authorized 12-15, as dr. walensky said. today the acip will meet about that for recommendation. finally, a question that many ask, and i'm sure many of the reporters who have children are asking this. what about kids from six months to 5 years? those studies are on going now to get the right dose and regimen to get to where we want to be, and likely the clinical trial are on going in individuals less than five years, hopefully in the first half, hopefully towards the earlier part of the first half we may have some information so that we can vaccinate children of that age. i'll stop there, and back to you, jeff. we've been listening to the white house pandemic response team really taking time to reassure americans that the government has the tools it needs to fight this omicron surge. a bit of detail that we heard today. omicron now makes up 95% of all reported cases in the united states. only 5% of the cases are now attributed to the delta variant. the omicron continues to surge in the country. also hearing that the national guard will be sent out to hospitals if need be, and that 96% of schools are all open. jeff zients reiterating that the schools have the tools including $130 billion in federal funding to help mitigate against the spread of covid in schools across the country right now, and still more data coming out on studies, on the severity of omicron compared to delta. it does appear that omicron is less severe and they address how this is impacting children as well. back to discuss this is dr. megan ranney. you heard from the doctors saying this does appear to be less severe in children. that's good news. >> it's terrific news. the messaging from dr. fauci and dr. walensky i thought was tremendously clear. the takeaways are omicron, particularly for those of us who are vaccinated, is not as severe as prior variants of covid. that's part of what makes right now different from 2020. but if you're unvaccinated you're still at risk. no one wants to get covid. wear a good mask if you're out and about. i really applaud the administration both on purchasing more of that paxlovid and on scaling up and national guard. as an er doc, i can tell you how desperately short staffed hospitals are across the country. i also want to reemphasize dr. fauci's point, which is that although omicron is more mild, in those of us fully vaccinated, it's not nothing. it still is overwhelming hospital systems. my plea to those who are out there who are listening is, if you are symptomatic, please stay home. please don't come to an er for testing unless you're severely short of breath, feeling light headed or having chest pain or other emergency systems. use testing centers in your area rather than coming to the hospital for testing. >> we also heard how boosters continue to work, right, 90% effective in mortality. in addressing children under the age of 5 who don't have the opportunity to get vaccinated, the most important thing is that the adults around them do get vaccinated and boosted. >> that's exactly right. i'm getting questions from people about what to do with their under 5-year-old kid. for those who are 5 and up, get your kid vaccinated. there have been huge studies across the united states showing virtually no children who are fully vaccinated get admitted to the hospital with covid except for those who are immuno suppressed. vaccination protects our kids. for those under 5, make sure caregivers are vaccinated. make sure caregivers are masked. if you can, check with a day-care or preschool to see if they can improve ventilation, either by opening windows or having good filters, hepa filters in place. we're not in 2020. we've got to get through this surge and there is hope on the other side. >> the government reiterating once again that the country has the tools it needs to keep schools open. dr. ranney thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. coming up, a city in mourning, this is a devastating story. 13 people are killed in a fire in philadelphia. seven of them are children. we'll have more details for you coming up next. sorry, one sec. doug blows several different 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>> it's horrific, no question about that. 13 dead, seven kids. that's 13 that we know of now. they haven't thoroughly gone through the building yet, the second and third floor. hopefully they don't find anyone else. they did take a couple people to the hospital, and my understanding is they're in critical condition. the only thing we can do is pray for their recovery. in the meantime, it's a devastating loss for everyone. >> we'll be learning more in the hours and days to come. what we learned from brynn, public housing. one of the apartments, 18 people were residing there. is that striking to you? is that common in the area there? >> license and inspections here in philly are better to answer a question as to occupancy. i think it's pretty obvious, 18 people, that's an awful lot. we've had bad weather. so how many of those people actually were being provided shelter temporarily because of the cold weather? i don't know the answer to that. all of those will be questions. one thing i really found striking from the press conference was the way in which the fire chief described the way in which the buildings were divided up. the entire first floor is one family, but the back half of the second floor was that same family. the front half of the second floor and the entire third floor the second family. my concern and worry is whether or not people on the second floor had an exit other than the front. the fire originated in the front of the building, and i don't know if they got trapped in there and couldn't get out. all that is going to be part of the investigation that will take place. atf is on the scene as well as the philadelphia fire marshal. when it's safe to enter, they'll go in and determine the cause of the fire. >> we hear they were very quick to respond as well. as you said, fridge it conditions there. i would imagine that part of the investigation will focus on the fact that it appears none of the smoke detectors in the building went off. what do you make of that? >> people say it over and over again, at least fire officials. a good time is right now, first of the year, to change batteries in your smoke detectors. whether you think you need it or not, change the batteries. it's worth it to do that. what good are they if they don't work? this is a philadelphia housing authority property. you would think during their inspections -- and according to the press conference, the last inspection was 2020 -- that they would make sure the smoke detectors are working. it's up to every individual's responsibility to make sure in your home right now, you ought to check to make sure your smoke detectors are working properly. >> really an important psa to all of our viewers. it just takes a moment to check. obviously, it could make a difference between life and death. charles ramsey, thank you so much for joining us on just this sad, sad story. our thoughts are with you and the city of philadelphia and obviously all of the victims and their families there. >> thank you. well, a year later, we still don't know who planted two pipe bombs ahead of the insurrection. up next, new reporting on that investigation. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate to severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? 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>> reporter: bianna, by all measures it's been an extraordinary law enforcement operation to arrest more than 700 people. for the fbi, there is still a couple of things they're focusing on, the hundreds of people that assaulted police officers and the people you see in the video who left behind bombs at the rnc and dnc buildings just a couple of blocks from the u.s. capitol which were discovered just as the insurrectionists were entering the building. i sat down with stephen dan tuano, the head of the fbi's washington field office and we talked about their efforts to find this person. >> we've seen the videos, the hooded sweatshirt, the face mask, the backpack, the nike shoes. are you surprised that none of this has yielded the tip that brought this forward. >> in prior covid times, in any neighborhood in the country, if you saw an individual hooded, masked, glasses, it would have been a red flag. in this case it isn't because of the environment we're living in during covid times. >> one of the things we wonder is why didn't the bombs go off? >> the bombs could have gone off. they just didn't. in this area, if they did go off, they could have caused some serious harm or death. >> bianna, we are expecting in the coming hours, in the next couple of hours to hear from attorney general merrick garland. we expect him to talk about the efforts made to defend american drats. we're not going to hear vf much about specific cases that the justice department is focusing on. look, we expect this investigation is going to go n on for years and we expect well over 1,000 people in the end will be charged. >> as we mentioned, attorney general garland scheduled to speak later this afternoon. evan perez, thank you. and at this hour, one year ago, then president trump sent out his first tweet of the day, pressuring vice president mike pence to overturn the 2020 election. at 11:06 a.m., january 5th, quote, the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors. the house committee on the january 6th insurrection is hoping that vice president penn wo would voluntarily speak to them about this. >> hang mike pence! hang mike pence! >> trump would also go on to tout the, quote, thousands of people pouring into d.c. ahead of the vote. the committee wants to ask fox host sean hannity about this text, quote, i'm very worried about the next 48 hours. the text, tone, very different from the tv tone that same night when hannity was predicting a, quote, big day to come. cnn's whitney wild has more on the committee's efforts to talk to hannity and pence. >> the house select committee investigating the january 6th insurrection now wants to talk to former vice president mike pence and fox news host sean hannity. the chairman of the select committee told cnn he wants pence to voluntarily speak to the panel about what he witnessed one year ago tomorrow, and the conversations leading up to that day. >> i would hope that he would do the right thing and come forth and voluntarily talk to the committee. >> reporter: representative bennie thompson said pence certified the election despite the extreme risk from rioters on january 6th, rioters who heard for day then president trump's pressure campaign on his vp to halt the process. >> his life was at risk. the vice president could not leave the capitol of the united states because of the riot. >> hang mike pence! >> reporter: thompson said the risk to pence's life didn't seem to motivate trump to act while the capitol was under attack. >> to take 187 minutes to say to rioters you need to stop and go home because my vice president is in the building and is life is in danger is an absolute shame. >> reporter: a spokesman for pence declined to comment. the committee also wants to speak with fox news host sean hannity saying he texted with >> we have so many of these texts and pieces of evidence indicating that he was outside of his role as a press person acting as a political operative. >> publicly, hannity was saying this ahead of january 6. >> a big day tomorrow, big crowds apparently showed up to the point where the west wing could hear the music and the chanting of the people that were there already. >> but privately, hannity sent a message to meadows the night before the insurrection reading, i'm very worried about the next 48 hours. the committee wants to know why hannity was worried and what, if any, prior knowledge he may have had before the capitol riots. >> i want to make sure everybody knows this isn't a subpoena. we've asked him to cooperate with us as a fact witness out of his sense of patriotism. >> reporter: members also believe the fox news host has detailed knowledge of trump's state of mind following the january 6 attack. hannity texted jim jordan and meadows about a conversation he had with trump four days after the insurrection. the text reads, guys, we have a clear path to land the plane in nine days. he can't mention the election again ever. i did not have a good call with him today, and worse, i'm not sure what is left to do or say, and i don't like not knowing if it's truly understood. ideas? >> thanks to whitney wild reporting there. joining me now to discuss more, cnn's chief political correspondent dana bash, co-host of "state of the union." great as always to see you, dana. let's start with the vice president. despite the very real threats to former vice president's pence's life, it's really an open question, isn't it, if he's willing to speak to the house committee investigating this insurrection. if he does, how significant would that be, coming forward voluntarily as the panel would really hope he will? >> it would be hugely significant to ahave a former vice president go in to discuss any of the details with the congressional panel because it would say this is an important factor and that he wants to commit to. we're unclear if that's going to happen. we do know, brianna, that the former chief of staff who was in the capitol with him that day will go, maybe within the next few weeks, to the hill to meet behind closed doors with the committee. so will his chief counsel. those were the two individuals who were the closest to mike pence who were helping make the deci decisions, including, especially, the big decision, the fateful decision, to go ahead and preside over certifying over the electoral college as he decided was his constitutional duty. so my understanding, in talking to sources around the former vice president is to wait and see what happens with those two individuals and then to look forward to see if there is any chance that the vice president will go. i mean, people i'm talking to are saying they're not really sure if an actual discussion could happen. it is possible. there might be an option for questions and answers in writing, but it is too early to say whether or not any of that will come to fruition. >> as you were speaking, we're showing video of the former vice president and his family being rushed down the stairs out of the capitol, their life really just in danger with those protesters just minutes away from him, as we would come to find out. what a difference one year can make, right, from what was happening to him then to how he would describe that day just a few months later. that sort of leads us to how republicans are dealing with this anniversary tomorrow. we know the democratic leadership, they're going to be observing it, but what guidance is republican leadership giving its members as to how they should approach this anniversary, and could they really avoid having to not talk about trump at all and his role in this? >> they're trying. they're trying as hard as they can to not talk about trump and his role. but it is incredibly hard. it's impossible. and you've seen, for really a year now, a lot of republicans just hide from answering questions about this as much as they can. other republicans have told our colleagues in the hallways from senator joni ernst to senator shelly moore-capito that they didn't want the former president to have the press conference. he was scheduled to have one tomorrow on the anniversary of january 6. but for the most part, what they are hoping inside the republican lead leadership, particularly in the house republican leadership, is that they can continue to do some mind tricks on the american people and on the republican base in particular to try to either avoid discussion or to continue to try to turn it around falsely on democrats and the democratic leadership when they have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that there was an insurrection that happened a year ago tomorrow on the united states capitol while congress was doing its constitutional duty, and it was inspired, provoked by the former president and his allies telling lies that they continue to tell. and there's no other way to put it. >> there's no other way to put it, and i thought it was a really interesting tactic for the committee to publicly put forward those text messages, right, from sean hannity, expressing how he was feeling that day, in the past with other fox hosts, ingram as well, they were expressing what they thought would be private in text messages that day, quite different in terms of their reporting that night. it was really giving a sense of what they wanted to portray to their viewers on fox news as opposed to how they felt personally. dana, always great to see you. a really big important solemn day tomorrow and i know you'll be covering it as well. thank you so much. we appreciate it. >> thank you. and thank you for joining me today. "inside politics" with john king begins right after the break. ready to turn your dreams into plans and your actions into achievements? explore over 75 programs and four-week classes at national university. your future starts today at nu.edu. ♪ ♪ ♪ easy tools on the chase mobile app. simplicity feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. so at at&t, everyone gets our best deals, aren't others doing that? others say that, but not everyone gets the best deal. like what if i give you a lollipop? then i give you our best lollipop? that's not fair. at at&t. we think it's only fair that all customers get our best deals and you get a choice of plans. she said. everyone, it's not complicated. only at&t gives both new and existing customers are saying best deals, like up to $1000 off our most popular smartphones hello and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. omicron reviews a clash in schools. teachers refuse to go to their classrooms and there is a new restriction that is more confusing than ever. sean hannity was saying one thing to outsiders but something very different