family lived and went to church. that person found the judge's home, shot and killed her son, and injured her husband. these acts and threats of violence are not associated with any one set of partisan or ideological views. but they are permeating so many parts of our national life that they risk becoming normalized and routine if we do not stop them. that is dangerous for people's safety, and it is deeply dangerous for our democracy. in a democracy, people vote, argue, and debate. often vociferously in order to achieve the policy outcomes they desire. but in a democracy, people must not employ violence or unlawful threats of violence to affect that outcome. citizens must not be intimidated from exercising their constitutional rights to free expression and association by such unlawful conduct. the justice department will continue to investigate violence and illegal threats of violence, disrupt that violence before it occurs, and hold perpetrators accountable. we have marshalled the resources of the department to address the rising violence and criminal threats of violence against election workers, against flight crews, against school personnel, against journalists, against members of congress, and against federal agents, prosecutors, and judges. in 2021, the department charged more defendants in criminal threat cases than in any year in at least the last five. as we do this work, we are guided by our commitment to protect civil liberties, including the first amendment rights of all citizens. the department has been clear that expressing a political belief or ideology no matter how vociferously is not a crime. we do not investigate or prosecute people because of their views. peacefully expressing a view or ideology no matter how extreme is protected by the first amendment. but illegally threatening to harm or kill another person is not. there is no first amendment right to unlawfully threaten to harm or kill someone. as justice scalia noted in rav versus city of st. paul, true threats of violence are outside the first amendment because laws that punish such threats quote protect individuals from the fear of violence, from the disruption that fear engenders and from the possibility that the threatened violence will occur. the latter point hits particularly close to home. for those of us who have investigated tragedies ranging from the oklahoma city bombing to the january 6th attack on the capitol, the time to address threats is when they are made, not after the tragedy has struck. as employees of the nation's largest law enforcement agency, each of us understands that we have an obligation to protect our citizens from violence and fear of violence, and we will continue to do our part to provide that protection. but the justice department cannot do it alone. the responsibility to bring an end to violence and threats of violence against those who serve the public is one that all americans share. such conduct disrupts the peace of our public spaces and undermines our democracy. we are all americans. we must protect each other. the obligation to keep americans and american democracy safe is part of the historical inheritance of this department. as i have noted several times before, justice department was to battle violent extremist attacks on our democratic institutions. in the midst of reconstruction following the civil war, the department's first principle task was secure the civil rights promised by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. this meant protecting black americans seeking to exercise their right to vote from acts and threats of violence by white supremacists. the framers of the civil war amendments recognized that access to the ballot is a fundamental aspect of citizenship and self-government. the voting rights act of 1965 sought to make the promise of those amendments real, to do so it gave the justice department valuable tools with which to protect the right to vote. in recent years, however, the protection of the voting rights act have been drastically weakened. the supreme court's 2013 decision in the shelby county case effectively eliminated the preclearance of section 5 which had been the department's most effective tool for protecting voting rights over the past half century. subsequent decisions have substa substantially narrowed the reach of section 2 as well. since those decisions, there has been a dramatic increase in legislative enactments that make it harder for millions of eligible voters to vote and to elect representatives of their own choosing. those enactments range from practices and procedures that make voting more difficult, to redistricting maps drawn to disadvantage both minorities and citizens of opposing political parties, to abnormal post-election audits that put the integrity of the voting process at risk, to changes in voting administration meant to diminish the authority of locally elected or non-partisan election administrators. some have even suggested permitting state legislators to set aside the choice of the voters themselves. as i noted in an address to the civil rights division last june, many of those enactments have been justified by unfounded claims of material vote fraud in the 2020 election. those claims which have corroded people's faith in the legitimacy of our elections have been repeatedly refuted by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of both the last administration and this one, as well as by every court, federal and state that has considered them. the department of justice will continue to do all it can to protect voting rights with the enforcement powers we have. it is essential that congress act to give the department the powers we need to ensure that every eligible voter can cast a vote that counts. but as with violence, and threats of violence, the justice department even the congress cannot alone defend the right to vote. the responsibility to preserve democracy and to maintain faith in the legitimacy of its essential processes lies with every elected official and with every american. all americans are entitled to free, fair elections that ensure they can select the representatives of their choice. all americans are entitled to live in a country in which their public servants can go about their jobs of serving the public free from violence and unlawful threats of violence. and all americans are entitled to live in a country in which the transition from one elected administration to the next is accomplished peacefully. the justice department will never stop working to defend the democracy to which all americans are entitled. as i recognized when i spoke with you all last march, service in the department of justice is more than a job and more than an honor. it is a calling. each of us, you and i came to work here because we are committed to the rule of law and seeking equal justice under law. we came to work here because we are committed to ensuring the civil rights and civil liberties of our people. we came to work here because we are committed to protecting our country as our oath says. all enemies foreign and domestic. together we will continue to show the american people by word and by deed that these are the principles that underlie our work. the challenges that we have faced and that we'll continue to face are extraordinary but i am moved and humbled by the extraordinary work you do every single day to meet them. i look forward to seeing more of you in person soon and our continued work together. thank you, all. [ applause ]. >> that's attorney general merrick garland delivering remarks on the eve of the insurrection anniversary, but really the scope much broader than january 6th, he talked about the scourge of violence against school officials and flight attendants, public servants, and of course finishing with voting rights. let's now broaden the conversation with cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez, senior law enforcement analyst, andrew mccabe who was deputy direction of the fbi, senior political analyst, nia-malika henderson, and jeffrey toopin, and cohost of "state of the union" dana bash. the scope of the remarks initially were sold as discussing the investigation, but they went far beyond that in close to 30 minutes. what stood out to you? >> it was a really interesting speech. he gave us a lot of detail on the extent of the investigation. we got a lot of numbers and figures about things, offenses that had been charged and sentences that had been leveed, and he came close to answering i think the biggest question we all have about many people's frustration about a lack of senior level people organizers, co coconspirators charged in the case. we are committed to holding all people at any level responsible, whether they were present on january 6th or not. i think that's about as close as you're ever going to get this attorney general to say, yes, we are considering more complicated charges against individuals who may not have stepped up on the capitol grounds that day but might have been responsible for getting others there or planning those events. to me that was the most interesting thing he had to say about january 6th. >> jeffrey, i thought that it was clear he had heard the criticism, and heard people's frustration because he was addressing it directly, and it was almost as if he had heard your explanation for the way that they were proceeding because he epidchoed what you s last hour, we are following practices going after the low hanging fruit first, hoping that they offer more information about the big fish. what jumped out to you from everything he just said? >> i think if you missed the speech, i can sum it up in three words, please be patient. that was the argument about january 6th that garland made, and like andy, the phrase that jumped out at me was we will hold people at any level, the people accountable at any level, and that means the people who organize, paid for, planned the riot that took place at the capitol. that's a promise they have the evidence to make it real. i have to say there's another thing that jumped out to me where he said, well, this isn't just one political party. really? one political party i'm aware of, the republican party that's been leading the effort to undermine the rule of law and undermine the right to vote, and i thought, you know, in this effort to seem bipartisan he engaged in some bogus both s sider-ism when it's one political party that's defending the people who rioted on january 6th. >> dana, what stood out to you? >> i hear what jeffrey is saying. in that context, when he was talking about the violence that is out there, he actually seemed to get, you know, a little emotional, and we talked about the federal judge who had somebody come to her house and kill her son, and severely injure her husband. it's broadly about the violence and threats of violence going on across the country, and i mean, if i were to put into laymen's terms what he was trying to do, we need to take a national chill pill. people need to somehow, some way calm down. we as the law enforcement, the chief law enforcement officer effectively of this country, we're goinged to do our best an prosecute. this is a societal issue we need to address. and it was extraordinary to hear the attorney general of the united states make that kind of speech as you were saying, victor, and alisyn, that we thought was really going to be focused on january 6th, trying to explain himself, trying to defend himself, and the justice department, he took it much more broad and much more pointed at society than i don't think -- certainly i didn't expect. >> and nia-malika, he also reminded us and it bears repeating every day, how many police officers were grievously injured. and he just laid out again the assault that they had to deal with and how violent and heinous it all was. it reminded me when senator ron johnson tried to claim a month after the attack that it wasn't an armed insurrection, and he just obviously, you know, once again highlighted that lie and talked about the things that they're still dealing with, how many police officers lost their lives afterwards in connection with this. and he was -- i mean, i found it really powerful in some ways because he has such a straight no frills delivery but was talking about such dramatic, hideous things. i thought that it just was, you know, a year later, powerful. >> and what we've seen over this last year is a real attempt to really rewrite what happened on january 6th. but he made it real again. we've seen these horrific instances of police officers being caught in doors. he talked about a police officer being dragged down the stairs and of course that moment of silence for the five officers who lost their lives that day. you've got a country that really admires police officers and particularly party as well, with republicans are always talking about the blue line, always talking about law and order. it was very, i thought, moving and poignant that he talked about how this was an assault on democracy, but an assault specifically on many many police officers. and it just brought back those images from a year ago that we all witnessed on television. i thought the big takeaway was american democracy is still in peril. right? we saw the immediate peril on january 6th, but it continues throughout different states. we're really trying to change laws, make it more difficult for americans to vote, make it so that a certain party has more power in counting the votes as well. and he talked about having a role to play, really safeguarding our democracy, safeguarding people's right to the vote, but also, and dana pointed this out as well, it is up to americans as well to really think about not only what happened on january 6th but what continues to happen in state after state in really trying to upend american democracy. >> evan, we talked about the top of the last hour about some of the kcritics in the democratic party who say this is moving too slowly. reuben gallego calling the attorney general weak and feckless, they of course did not address the name calling from n the democratic party, but he did get to some of the critics. let's listen to what he said about the pace of the investigation. >> we understand that there are questions about how long the investigation will take, and about what exactly we are doing. our answer is and will kocontin to be the same answer we would give with respect to any ongoing investigation, as long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done consistent with the facts and the law. >> we've talked about how broad this investigation is, but evan, a year ago when he was announced as the choice for the ag, what he talked about was returning norms to the department. he talked about his history there, some of his heroes in the department of justice, and to now have to lead this investigation in this political context, this is not the environment in which he wants to be and the environment he wants to deliver this speech. >> right, victor. this is an attorney general who's not very comfortable in the political sphere, and you can see that. but he has heard to criticism, this is an attorney general who has heard some of that criticism. it's hard to avoid, and so what he was trying to do there is respond to some of that but still sticking to his guns which is the idea that under the justice manual, which is the book, the bible, so to speak, that guides u.s. attorneys and prosecutors here is you don't talk about ongoing investigations. you know, one of the things that i think maybe merrick garland also might want to remember is there's also a part of the justice manual that says that sometimes it's in the interests of justice and in the interests of the american public to know that something is being done about an important investigation, and so what he was trying to do is in just oblique terms, address some of that criticism, but also not going so far. and i think he needed to do the speech to address the idea that, you know, this was an attack on american democracy that happened a year ago, and we need to know that the justice department is trying to figure out how to make everyone accountable for that. and i think the largest thread in the speech was also talking about some of the things that nia-malika just talked about that there are states around the country that are taking elections out of the hands of officials, local officials, and secretaries of state and putting it in the hands of legislators, which is a recipe, potentially a recipe for disaster, and of course also restricting people's rights to vote, and those things are all tied together to perhaps produce another instance in another couple of years when there's a national election that is going to be tightly contested and perhaps, you know, you're going to have -- it's going to come down to a couple of states. i think he was trying to accomplish a couple of things here. answer his critics, but also make the call that there's a bigger problem here, and our political leaders need to solve that. >> jeffrey, quickly, did you have something? >> could i just add a point to what evan was saying. i thought his point about voting rights, a judge who knows better than anyone what the supreme court has done to voting rights in the last decade or so, and he recognized that the justice department's hands are much more tied than they used to be. there used to be section 5 of the voting rights act, which essentially has been eliminated by the supreme court. the fact is as these states restrict voting rights, the justice department has filed one lawsuit against texas. they are doing what they can with the tools that they have are much less than they used to be. congress is supposedly weighing changes on the voting rights act. it's very hard to get that through a filibuster. but, you know, the fact is he is not only pleading for patience on january 6th and the criminal prosecutions, he's saying, look, recognize the way the supreme court has taken away the tools that we used to use to protect voting rights around the country. >> okay. evan, nia-malika, jeffrey, dana, thank you all for the analysis. really helpful. now to this, the capitol police chief told lawmakers today the force is quote absolutely better prepared to defend the capitol. but the challenge is dealing with those threats to lawmakers. >> cnn's whitney wild joins us from washington. tell us what more did the chief say? >> reporter: he pointed out there are dueling issues, issues that the capitol has to protect against a large scale demonstration, the event that there's going to be a january 6th seems minimal. the reality is they have to deal with a flood of people all the time so the capitol police chief is trying to weigh how to make sure to shore up the capitol, and he says he's done that through this 25-page blueprint that they have to prepare for tomorrow. basically what they have done is created a blueprint for these big large scale events. we saw it september 18th when there was a demonstration, justice for january 6th, a way to bring justice to the rioters that had been mistreated in the d.c. jail, a falsehood, by the way, nonetheless, there was an event that ended up being basically a scrimmage because there's so few people who came out to protest. however on that day, the capitol police showed their immense force and also their partnerships, showed for the world how many law enforcement agencies they can rally if there's an issue. that was the first thing he needed to do. and he tells lawmakers that that's why the capitol is safer today than it was on january 6th, 2021. meanwhile, he's also dealing with this reality that there is a growing number of threats, 9,600 threats they tracked in 2021 against members. multiple threats a day. and what they're trying to do now is figure out what is just noise, someone sounding off on social media, what is somebody just saying something but with no real intention of actually causing harm, and what is the real threat. that's a challenge throughout law enforcement. but capitol police to drill down on that because the members are their responsibility. both in washington as well as making sure that they're protected when they go to their home districts. the point is there are these two challenges i have laid out. they come down to a single issue, which is the manpower. capitol police is down 447 officers. he points out that without increased funding, without increased recruitment, they simply will be continued to be challenged in trying to navigate the threat landscape as well as making sure that their officers are well rested and not exhausted by immense overtime. those are the major challenges he laid out, and those will be challenges that the department is grappling with for years to come. >> yeah, those challenges and those numbers that you just reminded us of are truly sobering, whitney wild, thank you for that report. >> and remember to join jake tapper and anderson cooper for an unprecedented gathering inside the capitol with police, lawmakers and leaders. it's live from the capitol, january 6th, one year. one year later, i should say, and it begins tomorrow night at 8:00 here on cnn. newly revealed texts show fox's sean hannity was saying one thing to white house insiders but something very different on tv. we'll discuss next. do your eyes bother you? 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>> that's true. that is true. >> okay. good. let's start with that. former fox channel politics editor, chris, great to see you. before we ask you any questions, victor, and i are going to do a dramatic recreation. >> we do that so well. >> the difference between what hannity was saying. >> here's what sean hannity texted the night before the insurrection to former president trump's chief of staff mark meadows. i'm very worried about the next 48 hours. now, later that night he seemed to express big concern about the pressure on the vice president and that the white house legal team would jump ship. he text pence pressure white house counsel will leave. >> okay. now listen to what hannity said on the air the day before the attack. >> big day tomorrow, big crowds apparently showed up to the point where the west wing could hear the music and the chanting o of the people that were there already, and this all kicks off in the morning tomorrow? >> well, sean, that's right, and tomorrow is an important day. >> like he's acting like it's a tailgate party, okay, on the air, but before that he was saying he was really worried. then on january 6th, he began pushing the false claim that the rioters weren't trump supporters and they were somehow antifa or some other group. >> we knew there's always bad actors that will infiltrate large crowds. those who truly support president trump, those that believe they are part of the conservative movement in this country, you do not -- we do not support those that commit acts of violence. peacefully protest, and we had the reports that groups like antifa, other radical groups, i don't know the names of all of them, that they were there to cause trouble. >> so now let's go to january 10th, hannity here seems to -- he sent this to meadows, and trump ally, jim jordan, he sent this, 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? >> okay. so that sounds to me like he's questioning trump's mental state. but then on the air that night, hannity continued his steadfast defense of donald trump who at that time was facing calls for his second impeachment. >> it is a desperate last minute attempt to smear, slander, to try to get the political advantage. they know they're not going to do it. they want to hurt the president politically. >> okay. now let's bring in chris stirewalz. >> i'm glad you enjoyed that. >> i enjoyed the reenactment. chris, i know it brings you no joy to talk about our former colleagues at fox, but i do think it's important to try to understand why hannity was saying one thing, really expressing dire concerns privately and then putting that mask on to the public, to the viewers who could really have used hearing some of his concerns. why is there that hypocrisy? >> well, this is, you know, there's a good reason to not point your chocolate and your peanut butter when it comes to being a broadcaster and being a partisan operative, and hannity's gotten that tangled up pretty consistently. he appeared at a rally with trump in 2018. he has functioned basically and there were other fox personalities who were functioning basically as trump's kitchen cabinet and doing all that stuff. when you do that, obviously yo you're not in a position to be honest with the people you're broadcasting to, your audience, because you're doing two things at one once. we should point out that everything sean hannity was accurate, not just accurate, it was good. good advice for donald trump would have been to shut up about the november 2020 election. that would have been very helpful for donald trump. it would have been good for republicans. you hear kevin kramer, you hear these other people talk about how somehow donald trump is going to want to do what's good for the republican party, i don't think that's what donald trump is going to do, but the advice hannity was giving was good and his insight is correct, this is a toxic thing to talk about, and we've got to move away from it. he didn't have the kind of influence he thought he once did. >> and let's talk about that because we've gotten this response now through a spokesperson from the former president specifically in response to the texts that donald trump should not talk about election again ever, he says that i disagree with sean on that, and the facts are proving me right. that's not true, but what's this tell us about their relationship now? >> i don't know. i mean, and for goodness sakes, if we have to keep track of who has more hurt feelings on a given day between a cable news host and a former president, this is not a high tide mark for the american experiment. so that's not a good sign. maybe in and to itself. it's also very clear, though, and this is unmistakable, trump cancelled the press conference he was going to have to try to rebut january 6th. i don't know who told him to try to counter program a memorial for this attack. but he decided to cancel that. trump is trying to figure out how can he exploit this in a way that will keep the republican party hopelessly divided and therefore exploitable because he needs this issue, and it's going to be the litmus test that every republican candidate in 2022 is going to have to face as they go through these primaries. will you say the election was stolen or not and that's going to be the sheep goat separator for the republican party that facing an uncertain future. >> good to have you on. thank you. >> great to see you. >> you bet. happening now, a cdc advisory panel is considering whether to authorize those booster shots for kids 12 to 15 years old as data from israel gives fresh insight into the importance of that booster shot, the third dose. for everyone every day including customers on sprint. tell us more dianne. new and existing customers on the magenta max plan can trade up to the new iphone 13 pro and t-mobile will pay for it. customers can also get a free year of apple tv plus. i know you love ted lasso, george. guilty as charged. 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. 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 mass general brigham. when you need some of the brightest minds in medicine, this is the only healthcare system in the country with five nationally ranked hospitals, including two world-renowned academic medical centers, in boston, where biotech innovates daily and our doctors teach at harvard medical school, and where the physicians doing the world-changing research are the ones providing care. there's only one mass general brigham. 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. cdc vaccine advisers are meeting right now to decide if they will recommend boosters for kids age 12 to 15 as omicron surges. the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky said the variant now makes up about 95% of all u.s. cases. >> here's the good news, dr. anthony fauci said that studies continue to show that omicron leads to less severe disease but the unvaccinated, including children, are making up the majority of people hospitalized with this virus. joining us now, west michigan emergency room physician dr. rob davidson, he's also executive director of the committee to protect health care. thank you for being back with us. how should we approach this now with the numbers that we're seeing growing at hospitals when we know that most of those people are unvaccinated. >> well, i've been beating this drum as so many other people. we need to get more people vaccinated. i've got a 15-year-old at my house asking me is it time to schedule the booster. she's ready to do it. parents need to get on board and get ready to do it. we may be at a point, and i think we are that vaccine mandates are the only way to do that, and frankly, the biden administration has been trying to do this, but with disinformation being spread about vaccines, from too many places, and then lawsuits trying to challenge those mandates, they have been hitting these road blocks. >> yeah, dr. davidson, i'm always interested in reading your twitter feed, and you basically think that twitter and social media have not done doctors any favors because, why, i mean, from where you sit, how dangerous is what you have been reading on social media? >> it's terrible, and the reality is, you know, people on twitter say and do whatever they do, and i don't have a lot of time for that on a daily basis but when it shows up in the hospital where i'm working in the moment, that's when it really matters. i had a patient come in who was in their 60s. should have been vaccinated, wasn't. sick at home for over a week. they were checking their oxygen at home, which is in the 50% range, which is critically low. finally came in, gasping, pulled them out of the car, laying them on their belly, trying to prone them, trying to get oxygen. this person was terrified. didn't want to be on a ventilator, because they heard that ventilators kill people. i spent 20 minutes talking to this patient and their spouse about the fact that ventilators are there as a last ditch effort when someone is going to die from this horrible disease, and it's our best bet at trying to save them, and eventually they came around, they said they weren't vaccinated because they heard vaccinations kill people. senator ron johnson, tweeted that out a couple of days ago. trying to get twitter to take that down. this is real, it happens in the real world, and it's taking people's lives or making them extremely sick when they don't have to be. >> let me ask you something from a personal perspective but i think it really will help a lot of people as we see hundreds of thousands of people test positive for covid every day. i tested positive for covid in the week before christmas. and since then i have tested negative through a pcr test. i have been vaccinated, boosted since november, why do i still need to wear a mask? i don't have it. i'm not going to transmit it. is it just so other people are comfortable or is there some public health argument that i should still be wearing a mask? >> listen, for people who just were infected and really aren't carrying the virus, and aren't going to spread the virus, maybe the mask isn't really necessary. i don't know, i would argue that trying to figure out exactly where those people are in the disease, you know, progress as the pathology plays out particularly with delta, then omicron, and any new variant, these change and how long you're infected changes, i just wear the mask. i my daughter just had covid, similar situation, she hasn't had a negative pcr but had a negative rapid test suggesting she's not contagious, she'll go back to school in new york in january later this month, and we'll be wearing a mask because, you know, i think it's just what we do. it's such an easy thing. it's such a simple thing to do. you know, public health is hard. i had a good friend of mine dd dr. charles holmes at georgetown tweeted this, public health is hard, and people are doing their best, and folks on twitter who aren't doing that need to give some grace because it's tough. >> we hear you. dr. rob davidson, thank you for all you do. we appreciate it. >> . as of february 1st, children in new orleans public schools will be required to have both doses of the covid-19 vaccine, along with all the other required student immunizations. the rule covers all students 5 and up. the public schools in new orleans are also keeping mask requirements. the superintendent henderson lewis joins us now. welcome, sir. let's start with new orleans in this new rule is an outlier as it relates to the big city school districts. why require for 5 and up full vaccination? >> yes, and the first thing i'll share is that the health and safety of our students is our top priority, especially as we have been in this pandemic for almost two years. but when you think of the vaccination, one, it keeps our community safe. the second thing that we know, it limits the disruptions in our school, especially around quarantine. and the third thing, it's just the right thing to do at this time. >> okay. so you require 5 and up to be fully vaccinated. do you know at this point how many or what percentage of your students there are vaccinated? >> so right now in the city of new orleans, our adult population is about 80% fully vaccinated. and our young people here in the city of new orleans is about 35%. and that's the entire youth population. >> okay. >> and so -- go ahead. >> so 35%. let's say, you know, this now mandate requires -- urges people, for 50% increase. you're still right about 50% of those 5 to 17, school-aged children, who are vaccinated. what do you do with and for the other half of students who, according to your rule, can't come into the building? >> so our rule is not that they cannot come into the building. in the state of louisiana, for all of our vaccinations, in addition to having required vaccinations, there san opt-out form that can be filled out. a waiver for our families. any family, whether it's relidge yurks medical, or philosophical, they have the opportunity to opt out. but that's for any of the required vaccinations in the state of louisiana that they can opt out to taking those vaccines. >> so let me understand this. you have a mandate for the vaccine. however, if a parent decides not to have their child vaccinated, as tait appears now that 65% of parents in new orleans have decide, they can come in, fill out the form and their children can come into school without being vaccinated? >> correct. that's the same way of all the vaccines that are required in the state of louisiana. >> understood. >> but we know -- go ahead. >> continue with your point. >> yes, i was going to say that right now, of course, we're doing a lot of testing as soon as our students are returning back to school and our schools will continue to do drives over the next several weeks to continue to get that number up. for example, we know high schoolers, they receive authorization earlier, but we have some high schools that are actually 80% already vaccinated at this time. so we're very optimistic in the state, in the city of new orleans that is, that our students and our school system, many of them will continue to get vaccinated because, again, it's going to keep our community safe, keep our schools safe and also count down to quarantine it will limit the number of days they have to be at home. >> henderson lewis, thank you so much. so the white house is calling the holiday shopping season a success. despite early supply chain issues. can this trend continue? we'll ask a key member of the biden administration about that. - realtor.com's new collaboration tools made it easy for romeo and i to find the right home together. - 'cause we can see each other's favorites all in one place. - and go back and forth with comments. oh romeo, romeo, i love our new home. - realtor.com, to each their home. real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ the white house is talking up a record-breaking holiday shopping season. despite the supply chain bottlenecks we saw in the fall. the white house says delivery times from the postal service, u.p.s. and fedex were actually shorter than before the pandemic. with me now is the port envoy to the biden administration's supply chain disruptions task force. john, great to see you. so you have this banner sales season, you're saying, for christmas. are you saying that the supply chain disruptions are over? >> no, alisyn. we're not saying the supply chain disruptions are over. we're saying that we made real progress in the last few months, including unprecedented movement of goods and availability on shelves for the holidays. now we need to build on that success and take it to the next level. and we're going to have opportunities together to do that. in part by the bipartisan infrastructure that provides funding for the long overdue physical improvements. >> i wanted to share some of the perspective from smrth places because bank of america, goldman sachs say that they don't see it that way. bank of america just yesterday put out this memo, logistics bottlenecks showing no signs of easing with u.s. port congestion near record highs and north europe hitting new highs. so what are you seeing that they're not seeing? >> well, first, this worldwide supply chain issue is not solved. no one is saying that it is. what we are saying, and what the evidence shows, is that adding 20% more goods movement during the pandemic to an already strained system brought it to its knees temporarily. but now it is functioning much better than it did a few months ago. we need to take this better functioning system, this more fluid goods movement system and build it into a much more durable, much more resilient system for the future. and we don't have a day to lose here. >> i remember when president biden came out and had that press conference basically about what he was going to do to pull every lever of the government available to try to juice the supply chain. and one of the things he said was that he was going to have the ports operating on a 24-hour cycle. >> so was there one thing that you would say helped this holiday season? >> well, no doubt the most important single thing was president biden's leadership in it. the president early on saying that those ports needed to operate more 24/7. started the ball rolling and started the cooperation rather than finger pointing that had plagued the goods movement chain prior to that. and it's not like a lightswitch. you don't go 24/7 overnight. we're seeing unmistakable signs of 24/7 operation which is where the capacity is in the goods system. whether it's the ports, highway system, rail or the last mile delivery. and that's an important step forward. the president's relentless, persistent leadership in this actually broke the logjam. >> so what is your prediction for 2022? what can all of our viewers expect in terms of getting their packages and getting the supplies they need and grocery store food items, all of that. >> well, we expect continued improvement, but we should all expect the unexpected as well. we clearly had a goods movement chain where the pandemic bared the underlying reality. it was brittle and not resilient at all. we need to build this more resilient goods movement chain for the next foreign economic upset, natural disaster or anything else worldwide that could cause this again. to build a more resilient goods movement chain. we don't have a day to waste, and we have now the tools through the bipartisan infrastructure legislation at our disposal. let's get going. >> john porcari, thank you. this just in to cnn. the 64th annual grammy awards ceremony has been postponed because of the surge of omicron cases. in a statement, cbs and the recording academy say, quote, the health and safety of those in our music community, the live audience, the hundreds of people who work tirelessly to produce our show remains top priority. holding the show on january 31st simply contains too many risks. >> this is a really big deal that now it's been shifted. we also know that there's a new date for the ceremony. it will be announced soon. but it's not the only major entertainment event affected by covid this month. the sundance film festival just announced that it has moved entirely online. >> it feels like, victor, we're close to the light at the end of the tunnel. it feels like -- but i felt this way before. >> yes. >> and then the rug gets pulled out. but it feels like if we can get through january, things might get better. that's my latest thought. >> we're told the peak is a couple of weeks away and then we'll be on the down side. let's hope. >> "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. a pandemic of confusion. "the lead" starts right now. backlash growing as the cdc updates its isolation guidance causing only more bewilderment again. why this makes it so much harder for schools and businesses to reopen. and on the eve of the insurrection anniversary, the january 6th house committee turns its focus to trump's former press secretary as it waits to hear from former vice president mike pence. a member of the house select committee will tell us more. plus, no love in australia for one of