and will he or won't he play? that's still a question for novak djokovic and the australian open, why his travel documents are now taking center court. thanks for being here, everyone. let's begin this hour with the cdc director, dr. rochelle we wa len ski and dr. anthony fauci facing congress. the top republican on the committee set the tone early when senator bird said today is going to be a tough hearing. the senate committee has just started grilling officials about the federal response to the resurgent pandemic and the confusing messaging coming from the cdc on things like testing, face masks, and isolation guidelines. this also comes as the united states shattered another pandemic record. more than 145,000 americans are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus. the vast majority of them unvaccinated. the previous high was set one year, a year ago, and this number more than doubling since christmas. we're also following the aspects of this pandemic and the fallout from it. big news in chicago. the teachers union and the school district there reaching a tentative deal to get kids back into the class after a fight over covid safety protocols left students and families stranded. cnn's elizabeth cohen is standing by for us watching the senate hearing with the nation's fop health officials. let's start there. elizabeth, what have you heard so far? >> kate, they've just had the opening statement, they're now beginning the questioning. and what we heard was the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky doubling down on the cdc's advice that if you have covid, and you're feeling better, or you're asymptomatic, that after five days, you can get out of isolation, even if you don't test, dr. walensky says look, a part of our point of public health here is to get essential workers including hospital and health care workers back to work. so she doubled down on that. we also heard dr. fauci talk about the need for a universal coronavirus vaccine. that's so important, because we can't keep, you know, sort of dealing with variant after variant after variant, and the universal vaccine would work on all of them, they've been trying to do that for flu for many, many years, and that hasn't happened. hopefully it could happen with coronavirus. and also, kate, what we're expecting now is for the senators to grill hhs, the department of health and human services, and the fda, about why we are experiencing a shortage of home tests two years into the pandemic. kate? >> elizabeth, thanks so much. we will be sticking close to this and bring you all of the big moments as there are some tough questions coming at these officials. appreciate it, elizabeth. let's focus in right now though on chicago where hundreds of thousands of students are expected to return to class tomorrow. the school district and teachers union reaching a tentative deal overnight, on these safety protocols, that had been keeping everyone out of class to this point. cnn's adrian broadus is live in chicago with more on this. what are the details here? >> reporter: well, i can tell you, kate, the union's rank and file members will begin voting on this proposed agreement later this afternoon. the mayor and the union representative expect this deal to pass. and let's take a look at some of the key points. first and foremost, there will be an upgrade to testing at schools across the district. we're talking about weekly testing, there will be more kn95 masks, paid contact tracing team, and perhaps the most significant, when you ask members of the union, there will be a thresh hold that triggers schools to switch to remote learning, we're talking about individual schools, if they are experiencing a surge in covid cases. and when we talk about a surge, they're talking about high transmission rates, outlined by the cdc. the mayor said her focus now is moving forward. listen in. >> we've been through a hell of a lot in almost two years of covid. and economic meltdown. civil unrest. increased violence. this has been a really hard stressful and traumatic time on all of us. and it falls heavily on our children and vulnerable families. the thing we need to do is unite, to support them, because they need us. >> reporter: and before getting to this point, governor pritzker said his office helped retain and supply at least 350,000 rapid tests and when we heard from members of the union last night, they said that's something they were pleased with, also pleased parents -- >> adrienne, we will jump in and head over to capitol hill, senator rand paul now questioning. >> there is one position in peoria, then the mistakes would only affect that position's patient, physician's patient, the people who chose that physician, but when the planner is a government official, like yourself, who rules by mandate, the errors are compounded, and become much more harmful. a planner who believes he is the science, leads to an arrogance that justifies in his mind using government resources to smear, and to destroy the reputations of other scientists who disagree with him. in an email exchange with dr. collins, you conspire, and i quote here directly from the email, to create a quick and devastating published takedown of three prominent epidemiologists from harvard, oxford and stanford, apparently there is a lot of fringe epidemiologists at harvard, oxford and stanford. and you quote, in the email, that they were from dr. collins, and you agree, that they are fringe. immediately there is this takedown effort. a published takedown doesn't exactly conjure the image of a dispassionate scientist. instead of engaging them on the merits, you and dr. collins thought to smear them as fringe and take them down. and not in journals, in lay press. this is not only antithetical to the scientific method it is cheap politics and it's rep hencive dr. fauci. do you really think it is appropriate to use your $420,000 salary to attack scientists that disagree with you? >> the email you're referring to was an email of dr. collins to me, if you look at the email -- >> that you responded to and hurry up and said i can do it, i can do it, we got something in the wires -- >> oh, no, i think in usual fashion, senator, you are distorting everything about me. >> did you ever object to dr. collins's characterization of them as fringe? did you write back to dr. collins saying no they're not fringe, it is esteemed scientists and it would be beneath me to do that. >> i did not -- >> you responded that you would do it and you immediately got an article on the wire and said hey look, i've got them, i nailed them and wired it in all publications. >> there you go again. just do the same thing every hearing. >> that was your response. >> this wasn't the only time. so your desire to take down people, incorrect as usual, senator, you are incorrect almost anything you said. >> you deny, you deny that the emails tell the truth of this. >> no. >> this wasn't the only time. your desire to take down those who disagree with you, didn't stop with harvard, oxford and stanford, you conspired with peter dazak who you communicated with privately and other members of the scientific community that wrote opinion pieces for nature, five of them signed an opinion piece for nature, 17 signed a paper that called it speergs theory, the idea that the virus could have originated in the lab. do you think words like experience theory should be in a scientific paper? >> senator, i never used that word, when i was referring to, it you're distorting virtually everything -- >> did you communicate with the five scientists who wrote the opinion piece in "nature," where they were jibe describing oh, there is no way that this could happen from a lab. >> that was not me. >> did you talk with any of them privately? >> you keep -- >> did you? >> did you talk to any of the scientists privately -- >> >> he who wrote the opinion. >> you did. what were they telling you privately? >> let me explain, you know you're going back to that original discussion, when i brought together a group of people to look at every possibility with an open mind, so not only are you distorting it, you're completely turning it around, as you usually do. >> did they come to you privately, did they come to you privately and say no way this came from a lab? or was their initial impression, dr. gary and others involved, was it initial impression that it looked very suspicious that the virus came from a lab? >> senator, we are here at a committee to look at a virus now that has killed almost 900,000 people, and the purpose of the committee was to try and get things out, how we can help to get the american public, and you keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance to reality. >> you think anybody has had more influence ever over this than you have? do you think it's a great success what's happened so far? with the lockdown? for your kids? do you think we slowed down the death rate? more people have died now under president biden than did under president trump. you are the one responsible. you are the architect. you are the lead architect for the response from the government. and now, 800,000 people have died. do you think it's a winning success what you've advocated for government? >> senator, first of all, if you look at everything that i said, you accused me of in a monolithic way telling people what they need to do. everything that i've said has been in support of the cdc guidelines, wear a mask, get boosted -- >> and you've added -- >> take -- >> everything to be done by mandate. you've advocated that your infallible opinion be dictated by law. >> so again, madam chair i would like a couple of minutes because this happens all the time, you personally attack me, and with absolutely not a shred of evidence of anything you say. so i would like to make something clear to the committee. he's doing this for political reasons. what you need to do is, he said in front of this committee -- >> you think your takedown of prominent epidemiologists was not political? >> let me finish my question. you know what i'm going to say. >> senator, we will -- >> taking down three prominent epidemiologists. >> senator paul, if you would please, i'm going to allow dr. fauci to respond, we have a number of senators who would like to ask questions and i would like him to be able to respond, please. >> so the last time we had a committee, or the time before, he was accusing me of being responsible for the death of four to five million people, which is really irresponsible. and i say why is he doing that? there are two reasons why that's really bad. the first is, it distracts from what we're all trying to do here today, is get our arms around the epidemic and the pandemic that we're dealing with. not something imaginary. number two, what happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue, is that all of a sudden that enkindles the crazies out there and i have threats upon my life, harassments of my family, and my children, with obscene phone calls, because people are lying about me. now, i guess you could say, well, that's the way it goes, i can take the hit. well, it makes a difference, because as some of you may know, just about three or four weeks ago, on december 21st, a person was arrested who was on their way from sacramento to washington, d.c., at a speed stop in iowa, and they asked the police, the police asked him where he was going and he was going to washington, d.c., to kill dr. fauci. and they found in his car, an ar-15, and multiple magazines of ammunition. because he thinks that maybe i'm killing people. so i ask myself, why would the senator want to do this? so go to rand paul web site, and you see fire dr. fauci with a little box that says, contribute here, you can do $5, $10, $20, $100, so you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain. so the only -- >> politically attacked your colleagues and in a politically reprehensible way to tarnish their reputation. you won't defend. it you won't argument. it you have turned around the attack. >> we have a number of questions from others. >> one more minute, please, if i -- >> dr. fauci, i really appreciate your response and we have a number of questions from senators and we have a second round and we do have a number of questions. so thank you. >> thank you very much, madam chair. >> we will move to senator murphy. >> thank you madam chair. dr. fauci thank you. thank you for what you do. you shouldn't have to put your life at risk. you shouldn't have to put your family's live at risk to simply stand up and do your job, to try to protect my constituents from a pandemic disease. and thank you for calling out this agenda, for what it is. and an attempt to score political points, to build a political power base, around the denial of science. and around personal attacks on you and your family. on social media, i follow many of president trump's advisers, and family members, and they make a sport out of attacking you personally, and some of the most vicious hateful ugly ways that are possible, and they do it because it gets clicks. they don't do it because they're legitimately engaged in an honest debate about the science surrounding covid. those people attack you because it gains them political followers. and so i appreciate the fact that you're willing to stand up for yourself, and for your colleagues who have been dragged into the political muck, not because those that follow president trump are interested in an honest science-based debate about how to attack covid, but because they see political opportunity. so thank you, dr. fauci, for your work, for the panels work and for sticking up for yourself which is not always easy. dr. walensky, i want to take my time to do just a little bit of an update on best practices for schools. i know we talk about this a lot here. but you know, part of what i think is frustrating for a lot of parents is that the guidance they're getting from their schools changes, and i get it, educators are sort of adjusting as the variant changes, as technology changes, but what has changed since the last time? has anything changed since the last time you were here, about what you are recommending for schools to stay open? i appreciate what you said during the last hearing is schools should be the first places to open and the last places to close, as the parent of two public school kids, i couldn't agree more, the trauma on these kids, during this pandemic, has been significant, and the data tells us that especially for poorer kids and kids of color, distance learning just doesn't work. so i'm grateful that i've got a governor that has gone through extraordinary lengths to make sure that the federal dollars are used to keep schools open. but anything new that you can share with us about what you're recommending for schools to stay open for the rest of the year. >> thank you, senator murphy. and the fact that you took the words right out of my mouth. schools should be the first places to open and the last places to close. we have a delta surge in the fall, and 99% of our schools were safely opened. and one of the things that's majorly different between september of 2021 and today is we have pediatric vaccinations. we have vaccines that are available for every child over the age of five, and the children who are in the hospital now are largely those who are unvaccinated, so foirirst and foremost one of the most important things that has changed is we should be getting our children and our teenagers vaccinated and if our teenagers are eligible, we have boosters available for our teenagers as well. so we saw through the delta surge ha we were able to keep our children safely in school before we have vaccines. so now, today, what do we have for our children? we have vaccines, of course, that we can use, and we have school testing programs, we have new science that demonstrates tests to stay, and this is where a child might be exposed in the classroom, but if they're exposed, they don't have to stay home in quarantine, they can test every other day or twice a week, and stay in the classrooms safely, and what that has demonstrated is hundreds of thousands of person days. of children in school rather than at home. we have new science that has demonstrated the value of masking. three 1/2 times increased risk of school outbreaks if you're unmasked in schools versus if you're masking in schools. and just this week, we updated our k-12 guidance so that it is consistent with our isolation and quarantine guidance, with the general public so people can come back to school after isolation, after five days. >> thank you, dr. walensky, for that. and for your commitment to keeping our schools open. final quick question, for you, talking about inhome tests, obviously a lot of focus on inhome tests today, these are antigen tests, there are some interesting research going on about the ability to make pcr tests available at home, and there's companies all over the country, including one in connecticut, that, you know, believe that with some additional investment, to bring those tests to scale, we could get pcr tests into families hands at home, for a cost that is at or below what we're currently charging or companies are currently charging for antigen tests. is that a possibility? >> senator murphy, thank you. we share your interest of course in seeing as many tests available for the american people as quickly as possible and at barta have worked very closely with several manufacturers that you had mentioned for these at home pcr tests. we contracted with one of them and have reached five million per month manufacturing capacity, in contract with them. and continue to look at the others, in ways that we can support them. i would also like to say, nih colleagues in a program called rad-x, the rapid acceleration of diagnostics is working very closely with many of these companies as well as they go through the development stages so we remain very committed to the work these companies are doing and look forward to partnering with them as they begin to bring these products forward. >> thank you. >> senator? >> thank you. ms. o'connell, over the past two years, congress has appropriated $82.6 billion specifically for -- >> we're going to pull off from the hearing now and continue listening to the senate hearing as it place out. as you can see, some of the helpful information that can come out of the senate hearings with top officials but some of the unhelpful his takes and drama that can come from this as well. joining me for now is dr. jean maroszzo director of infectious diseases at the university of birmingham. i know you were lizzing to that along with me, doctor. your reaction, to this i think kind of round four or five, between dr. rand paul, a medical doctor, also a senator, and dr. anthony fauci, and this personal animosity that continues coming from rand paul. your reaction to it? >> yes, thanks, kate. my reaction is really one of the completely disspirited and i think that you know, the fact that you even have to count the number of rounds and can't remember what round we're all sort of says it all because i think political theater at its worse, at a time where the fact that we're being distracted from the number of people who are hospitalized and the complete, really limited arsenal we have to treat the people that we have, especially outpatients, you know, and when you talk about that, if we have time, so the fact that they're wasting time, particularly senator paul is wasting time, using really very high caliber accusatory words, sort of says it all to me. why are we even spending our time talking about this, when the urgency to get us out of this really difficult phase of the pandemic could not be more acute right now? so you know, it's exhausting, and i wish that i could give dr. paul a tour of our icu right now. >> you were saying it best right there. one thing that is very true is that senator paul, fundraises off of his fights with dr. fauci almost constantly, you can see those email, but let's talk about what you are seeing in your icu, the urgency of now, in this moment, and where this hearing will hopefully likely refocus. right now, as we just looked this morning, it's 41.2% positivity rate in alabama right now. what does that reflect? talk to me. >> exactly. so i would say that the urgency that we're seeing right now, i think of it in terms of three major dimensions. the third dimension is that we, the first dimension is we have a majority of unvaccinated people, right? we are not at the 50% threshold. we're getting there. we have some indications that people are taking the vaccine a little bit more, but i want to emphasize, we still have an extraordinarily vulnerable population. remember, not just because of lack of vaccination, but because of co-morbidities and lack of access to health care. so that's number one. the second thing is that with this deluge of infections, we like many places, are having compromised staffing issues, right? so we are really struggling to cover our clinics, we're struggling to cover all of our hospital services, from environmental services to the people who deliver meals to the nurses because people are infected and they got to stay home, which is why the cdc's efforts to get back to work safely really resonate with me very strongly. and then the third dimension, as i alluded to before, is we really got nothing to treat omicron, right? we don't have -- >> and that's despite all of the antibodies -- >> and i think that's -- >> it's not just promise, the approvals, we've got coming these anti-viral pills that everyone seems very excited about, we've got now only one, if you will, monoclonal antibody treatment that seems to be effective, when it comes to omicron, and you're saying, the reality right now, is you need it now, and you've got nothing? >> we've got nothing. now, the pill in fairness, remember that clinical trial study with the pill was stopped early because it looked so good, so you could sort of contextualize that and say may, they weren't ready to ramp up and get the supplies we need. when they get those supply, i will be incredibly grateful. i can't wait to be able to have access to that particular pill. the monoclonal antibody on the other hand, i think can be pumped out a lot more quickly. it would be very helpful to get allocations of that, really geared up. we had 16 doses of that last week, and that was gone very quickly. >> so nationally, the country, as i said at the top of the show, has topped the all time pandemic high for covid hospitalizations and those who are sick enough with covid to need hospital care are by and large still people who are unvaccinated. what does it look like, you talked about the stresses of course on the staff, and just the exhaustion with being this far into the pandemic, and not having treatment, but is that still part of the big story here, which is yes, hospitalizations are really high, and part of it is people are testing positive when they're in the hospital for other reasons. but those who need treatment for covid, there's still the unvaccinated. >> that's absolutely true. i do want to come back to your point about this incidental covid detection, and that's because we're screening everybody who comes into the hospital, to protect our staff, and to protect the other patients, and we are finding that about 40% of people who test positive are coming to the hospital for another reason, and that just says how extraordinarily common this infection is. that said, the people who are in the hospital for covid-related reasons are largely unvaccinated. so those are the people who are still experiencing by far the worst consequences of this process. so it does continue to make it really challenging and it does make us sort of say please, if you can do it, get vaccinated and get boosted. >> until we're blue in the face. you say that, i'm sure. doctor, great to see you as always. thank you so much. also happening right now, we're watching very closely, president biden is traveling to atlanta very shortly to give what is being billed as a major speech on voting rights but one of the most prominent voting rights advocate in the country, stacey abrams and other activists will not be there. the president just spoke before leaving the white house. let's get over. there john harwood is standing by at the white house. what does the president say, john? >> this is a big moment for the president. he is heading down as part of a broad effort by democrats in the run-up to the martin luther king holiday to try to get voting rights legislation passed. he gave a tough speech on the insurrection last week. he will give a tough speech going after republicans on voting rights today. he is getting that boycott as you mentioned from some of activists who said they have not seen enough of a plan from joe biden how to pass voting rights legislation and stacey abrams isn't going to be there, the president addressed that to reporters a few minutes ago. take a listen. >> i spoke to stacy this morning. we have a great relationship. we got our scheduling mixed up. i talked with her at length this morning. we're all on the same page. and everything's fine. >> about the other points -- >> say that again. >> what did you risk politically when you know -- >> i risk not saying what i believe. that's what i risk. this is one of those defining moments. it really is. people are going to be judged, where were they before and where were they after the vote. this is the exact consequences, and so the risk is, making sure people understand just how important this is. just how important this is. >> mr. president, are you concerned overall about the progress on the pandemic right now? do you feel like your administration is not meeting the targets it needs to meet? >> i have concerns about the pandemic because it's worldwide, it's not slowing up very much, and thank god what we've been able to do, has been able to, we have been able to generate significant federal help in terms of both coming in to the hospitals and administering all the help that these states need. that's what we're doing now. i'm confident we're on the right track. thank you all. >> now, of course, the president's obviously juggling the pandemic, as well as this push for voting rights. as for the stacey abrams absence, it does not seem plausible that they simply mixed up their schedules on this event. it's too important to joe biden and stacey abrams for that. but it also doesn't matter whether she's there. the only possible plan for getting this through the senate is to get all a democrats to agree to sidestep the filibuster. the frustration of activists is understandable but joe biden doesn't have the power to force 50 democrats to do that. any individual democrat can hold it up. and so far, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, among others, have been resistant to attempts to change the fill buster. until that changes this legislation is not going anywhere. >> thank you very much. and joining me for more on this is patricia murphy, a political reporter and journalist and natasha brown, one of the voting rights activists kipping joe biden's skeech. and manu raju is here. >> the co-founder of your group told cnn this morning this. we don't need another speech. what we need is a plan. talk to me why not attending, not welcoming the president's visit is the way to get action from him in congress? >> let me just start by saying, he's welcome to georgia, right? we welcome him to georgia. what we're saying is that this is at the moment, this is a time, where we're seeing, it is important to recognize the significance of this moment, and how frustrated those of us who have been working diligently on the ground, election after election, and here we are a year later and there are still not voting rights -- >> it looks like we might have an issue with natasha's connection. we will work on that. patricia, let me go to you as we try to get natasha to connect back with us. the headline on this, from this morning, and i saw this, stacey abrams won't be with joe biden and kamala harris in atlanta today. you heard joe biden just there, in that tape that john harwood played, say that they got their schedules mixed up. everything is fine. is that what you see? and how important is this aspect of this? >> i would say everything is not fine. when stacey abrams is not with the president. when he comes to georgia. she certainly was with him when he campaigned for president. she was with him after he was president. she's been at nearly everything that he's done here in georgia, and the president really was able to use stacey abrams to benefit from the kind of grass roots activism that she and so many other black rights groups worked to really seed the territory in georgia for democrats in the white house and the two u.s. senate seats and we're hearing from activists, when they gave and feel like they helped give control of the senate to democrats, that they felt that their priorities would be top priorities. certainly, the president has been focused on covid, but while he's been focused on covid, georgia has passed its own restrictive voting measures here in the state, and the activists say you would be preaching to the choir, coming here and talking to us, give the speech in the senate, give it in west virginia, give it where you need to convince people instead. >> and natasha, i think we're reconnected, gosh darn those gremlins always getting us but thank you for sticking with me. is there something that you think you could hear from joe biden today to make you feel differently about where things stand? because i heard you say that you do not think that voting rights is a priority for president biden. could he say something to make today, to make you feel differently? >> i think one of the things that he would make a commitment that we're going to have voting rights legislation passed. when he talked about the infrastructure bill, he talked about build back better. he has been very adamant about not just sending that bill to me and sign it, but he said he had a full throat support of it, and said we're going to have voting rights legislation in the country, that's what i want to hear him say, i want him to say that i am willing to do everything i have in my power as president to make sure that bill gets to my desk. that's what i want to hear him say. he is willing to committee, whatever he needs to do get it passed. >> i'm a flative of selma, alabama, those 600 people in selma, alabama, have far less political leverage than what we have right now and they still stood for principle and voting rights and i think we need to see the same kind of commitment and prioritization of making sure this policy passes. >> manu, the big focus turns to the hall where you are right now. a big part of the problem for joe biden here is he didn't have the votes, he doesn't have the votes from republicans and the democrats and i want to play for you what he said last week about a key element of this, which is the idea of changing the voting rules in the senate, to make it easier to pass these voting bills. listen to this, everyone. >> the reason i say it's a heavy lift is that once you change a role or you have a carve-out, i've always said that, any time there is a carve-out, you eat the whole turkey. there's nothing left. because it comes back and forth. >> so manu, what is the next step here? is there a compromise to be had? >> certainly not with senator manchin about the process for changing the rules. he reiterated again this morning that he does not support the process. remember, the democrats are united about the policy here, but they are not united how to actually enact that policy, because in order to move through the regular order, it would require 60 votes to overcome a republican-led filibuster. there simply are not 60 votes because there are not ten republicans to back the larger plan. there are zero republicans to back the more sweeping measure. but there is also this push to get manchin and kyrsten sinema to change their view about how to overhaul the senate filibuster rules, to actually make it a simple majority, that could actually pass the legislation, but in order to do that, they need to have manchin and kyrsten sinema on board to agree to what invoke what is known on capitol hill as the nuclear option to change the rules and manchin said again he is not in favor of that and with kyrsten sinema as well, that means 48 democrats at the most to agree to change the rules, leaving the democrats with essentially nothing. on the republican side, too, kate, they have their own fight, their own issues, while they're united against the democratic plan, they are still dealing with donald trump's lie that he won the election. that is just in the last day, donald trump attacked a fellow republican, over simply saying the facts that donald trump lost the election and the election was not widespread fraud that could have changed the election. i just caught up with mike moments ago, and i asked him about this, and he made clear that he said this because he wants to restore faith in voter's view of the electoral process. he believes the rhetoric here is important. so both sides dealing with their own issues here, but as the president goes to georgia and wants to get his big bill passed, that appears increasingly doubtful, amid resistance within his own party. >> so interesting. all right, thank you so much. while the center of the universe, hen it comes to voting rights and the fight for voting protections returns to georgia again today. we will continue to follow that. all right, so will former vice president mike pence provide testimony to congressional investigators looking into the insurrection? 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>> i think former vice president's pence's testimony would be very critical in the investigation, because after all, he was the one that was certifying the vote. he was also the one that the insurrectionists were threatening to hang. so i think that it would be really critical to have information from him. and also from his senior staff, from his chief and others, about what he had, the conversations he had had with the president before that, and what was expected that he was going to do, and what he thought of it, and ultimately, why he decided to go ahead and certify the results. >> do you think there is a case against donald trump without mike pence's testimony and cooperation? >> absolutely, i do. we concluded that during the impeachment trial, the evidence is overwhelming that then president trump, he incited the people to come, when they came he pretty much told them to come down to the capitol and stop the counting. we unearthed so much evidence just in the impeachment trial, but the more evidence we can get, the better, and surely, vice president pence would be a critical witness to talk about in conversations that he might have had with the president. i think it's very disturbing, i read the "times" article, too, and i was very disturbed to see that he is now maybe getting cold feet because of this political ambitions. this just shows to me that donald trump has an uncanny and very, very disturbing control over the republican party. vice president pence needs to keep the same gumption that he had when he came over to the capitol and certified the election on january 6th. >> the committee wants to speak to one of your colleagues, republican congressman jim jordan, and he is insisting, the latest that he says that he has quote nothing relevant to offer the committee. why do you think that he doesn't want to talk to the committee? >> well, congressman jordan and others, they doth protest too much, if they don't have anything to offer, why don't they come over and say what they know? i think they're trying to hide things. and i think that the committee is working very hard and effectively to get to the bottom of this. >> yesterday, a dc federal judge who is handling one of the lawsuits trying to hold donald trump accountable for january 6th repeatedly referred to trump's silence during the insurrection, in a way that let me quote what the judge said, because it's very interesting, what do i do with the fact that the president didn't denounce the conduct immediately? and sent a tweet that arguably exacerbated things? isn't that from a plausibility standpoint that the president plausibly agreed with the conduct of the people inside the capitol that day? that from a district judge. is it possible that civil lawsuits may be the only way former president will be held accountable? >> well, there's a number of ways the president can be held accountable, and all of them should be pursued robustly. you know, when we were doing the impeachment trial, we had a question of should we call witnesses. and in particular, should we call mark short, the vice president's chief of staff. we ultimately concluded not to, because we felt we had enough evidence, and we didn't want them trying to slow-walk this. that is exactly what they're trying to do now with the select committee. they're trying to slow-walk it, to not show up, to cause litigation, and so that's where i think some of these civil suits are helpful, and also, some of the other, the new york attorney general criminal investigation, and others, i think that we need to look at this from every angle. donald trump's m.o. has always been to just try to delay, delay, delay. and we can't let that happen here. the future of our democracy is too important. >> and if it delays, through the midterms, there is a possibility that this committee will be no longer, if republicans take over the majority in the house. that's exactly a part of the timing that our you a -- that you're looking up for them. congresswoman, thank you for your time. coming up for us, novak djokovic is back on the court preparing for the australian open while border officials are looking at whether the tennis star lied on a document in other words to enter the country. the latest next. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. you inspired the new lexus es to be... well, more you. so thank you. we hope you like your work. get $1,500 lease cash toward a 2022 es 350. ♪ with less moderate-to-severe eczema, why hide your skin if you can help heal your skin from within? 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joining me now is cnn sports analyst christine brennan and also a columnist for "usa today." christine, what do you think of this whole thing right now? >> kate, there's one person who could have prevented all of this and that's novak djokovic. if he had gotten vaccinated none of this would have been happening. he has created it, and it's all self-induced. now, that said, here we are with the latest twist which is that the australian authorities believe that djokovic lied when he said he had not been in another country before coming to australia. that's question everyone gets when you're traveling these days in covid, and if he was in spain, there are pictures, there's videos, of course, he's also maskless after he said he tested positive, including an event where he was with kids, maskless, after testing positive, so that's where we are, and, you know, the story keeps kind of spinning and turning and who knows where it's going to end up. >> exactly. it could change even today. i mean, i want to play something for you. some interesting perspective i think from former professional tennis player james blake speaking to anderson cooper last night. >> i think for him to get through the australian open, if he's able to play this year, would be one of the greatest accomplishments any tennis player has ever done mentally because of what he's been through. not able to train or be -- be able to be active at all for the last five days, go through all of this that he's been through and i can only imagine what he's going to walk out to in the first match and really every match in australia with all the fans that have been through what they have been through. i have a feeling it's going to be really, really difficult to focus strictly on the tennis. he's proven to be the best in the world at that, but i think this is a challenge like you've never seen before. >> if he ends up playing in the open next week, what is the challenge that he's going to be up against? >> i think james blake is right. it would quite an achievement. i guess i'm focused more on the citizens of australia who have been doing everything right, and melbourne especially with, of course, the host city of the australian open, kate, where for 260 days the folks there were locked down, and so you can imagine the booing. you can imagine the anger, understandable, all of it, and, yeah, i mean, i think djokovic has already lost frankly in terms of his reputation worldwide. there are those who want to cheer him on, obviously. the anti-vaxxers, what have you, but my goodness, we've learned a lot about this man and i think australia knows enough now, even though it's been a mess on all sides, i think the australian people know that this is a guy who just thought he was going to saupter into their country unvaccinated, a country that's been hit so hard by covid and has been so diligent, its citizens, so diligent to do the right thing while this guy walks right in having done so many wrong things. >> i've heard from -- well, we heard from james blake this also last night as well as the -- well, the main rival now for djokovic, rafael nadal at this tournament, both saying that the best thing for the sport is always to have the best players playing, the best players on the court, and i -- i'm wondering though if this is going to, despite, leave some kind of a black mark on the tournament, the sport, the player, kind of all in. >> oh, for sure. this is -- i don't know that you can handle anything in covid well. this is all new territory for government officials, for everyone, but certainly there have been mistakes and missteps by the australians apparently, and it has not been a good look for anyone, and, yes, you know, the idea of having one of the four grand slam tournaments is to have the top players there and that's the push here, kate. that's what the pressure is for the australians now. do they want to be seen as the country that refused to have the number one men's player in the world come and play in the tournament that they care so much about. >> yeah. >> that's where it stands, but i do think djokovic is at the heart of this he could have solved this long ago and he did not by not getting vaccinated. >> thank you, christine. as always, i appreciate it. >> thank you all so much for being here today. i'm kate balduan. "inside politics" with john king begins after a quick break. 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 what can i du with less asthma? with dupixent i can du more... yardwork... teamwork... long walks.... that's how you du more, with dupixent, which helps prevent asthma attacks. dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems. it's an add-on-treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as two weeks. and can reduce, or even eliminate, oral steroids. and here's something important. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection, and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? just ask your asthma specialist about dupixent. i didn't have health insurance, not because i didn't want it. i worried it was too expensive and i was having a hard time paying our other bills. but now for the first time in our lives, i can do both. covered california makes health insurance easier in every way with financial help for millions of us and free assistance to compare your options. covered california. this way to health insurance. enrollment ends january 31st. go to coveredca.com hello and welcome to i-polltic. i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. president biden faces a boycott from his own base. the president in atlanta today for a big voting rights push, but many activists say they are in no mood for another speech and demand presidential action in washington. >> this is one of those defining moments. it really is. people are going to be judged. where were they before -- >> and a new pandemic record, 145,000 people are