>> do democrats have a plan b to save the biden agenda. i'll speak to house minority whip jim clyburn and republican senator bill cassidy next. next the biden administration may not get people tests until after omicron peaks. >> clearly there was more needed because of the extraordinary demands of omicron. >> is this too little too late? the u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy joins me ae hid. plus russia seems increasingly likely to invade ukraine. are the u.s. and russia entering a new cold war? i'll speak to the top republican on the house foreign affairs committee, congressional michael mccaul, on that and the successful rescue of four hostages overnight in a synagogue in texas. >> hello. i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is grateful four hose sajs are sfree after a nearly 11-hour standoff at a synagogue in colleyville, texas. the lone suspect is now dead. in a statement, president biden thanked law enforcement and decried anti semitism in the rise of extremism in america. as the nation marks the birth this weekend of the reverend martin luther king, jr., someone who fought to end hate and expand civil rights, the president and democrats are facing the difficult reality that their hopes to pass sweeping election reform bills are all but dead. tuesday the senate will take up their legislation, but it is expected to fail without the support of any republicans, and the refusal by two democratic senators to change the rules of the senate to pass the bill with just 51 votes as opposed to 60. it will be a devastating blow for president biden's agenda and also his political capital, after president biden put the weight of his office and his reputation as a unifier behind the rules change, delivering a withering speech in atlanta, aimed at opponents of election reform and the filibuster change, and going to capitol hill thursday to rally his party and still failing to convince senators kyrsten sinema and joe manchin as well as perhaps other democratic senators to change the filibuster rules. joining me now someone fighting for election reform and voting rights his entire career, house majority whip jim clyburn, democrat from south carolina. majority whip clyburn, thanks very much for joining us. before it we dive into the issues, tomorrow is martin martin luther king day. what do you think about the last prominent civil rights leaders from that era? >> thank you. i spent a lot of time yesterday the actual birthday reflecting on king's letter from the birmingham city jail. that letter -- i reread the letter every year and i always get something out of it, that i didn't see there before. and i spoke with yesterday on this whole question of why we can't wait, all these questions that are left with us. he said to us in that letter something that is very, very -- i would call it consequential today and that is this. silence is consent. we have too much silence in the face of what's going on around us today. i remember corporations stepping up when georgia was passing those draconian voter laws down there. all of a sudden now, they have gone silent. and king told us in that letter that we are going to be made to repent, not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people. that's what i was thinking about all yesterday. >> that's interesting, because hillary clinton tweeted a famous quote from that letter, from the birmingham jail, and it was about the white moderate. hillary clinton tweeted "martin luther king, jr., said "i had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exists for the purposes of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that blow the flow of social progress." then hillary clinton added "this is a subtweet." a subtweet is when you're talking about somebody without naming them. presumably secretary clinton was talking about senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. as you know, much of that letter is about how allies of the civil rights movement could be more problematic than enemies of the civil rights movement, the white moderate. do you agree with that comparison, and is that what's happening today in the u.s. senate? >> i do believe -- agree with that. today is sunday. remember, king was sitting in jail, he received a letter from eight white clergymen who wrote him about their concern. they asked him to leave birmingham, and they said that they thought his cause was right, but his timing was wrong and king said to them, time is neutral. time can either be used destructively or constructively, and that's when he said that he was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society were making a much better use of time than the people of good will, so i would say that to my friends in the senate now. people of ill will demonstrated on january 6th how effectively they can use their time. are we going to step up, the people of good will and use our time more effectively? that letter, you know, i always say, jake, that aside from the bible, i do believe that letter may be the most finest document i've ever read. >> president biden went to georgia this week to push for sinema and manchin and others to get rid of the filibuster in order to pass these two election reform bills, and the president asked this question, "do you want to be on the side of abraham lincoln or jefferson davis?" what do you say to democrats who say that that went too far, to compare somebody who opposes changing the filibuster with a traitor who fought a war for slavery? >> i would ask those people, what do you think is going too far? is it going too far to criminalize giving somebody a bottle of water, standing in line trying to vote, standing in line for four or five hours, is that going too far? is it going too far to put in place mechanisms to nullify a vote when people cast their votes if you don't like the outcome, then you've got to nullify that. is that going too far? everything we've seen coming out of georgia violates the constitution of the united states of america, and alexander hamilton told us in federalist paper number 59, that we cannot leave federal elections and their results up to states. you have 50 applications of what the law is. so that is what's going too far. so if anybody's going to focus on the speech and pay no attention to the actions, that violates this difficult purpose. it's their deeds that really matter, not the words. for us to focus on the president's words and not pay any attention to the deeds of those legislators in texas, in georgia and 17 other states that passed 35, 34 laws that are draconian when it comes to voting, that's where our attention ought to be. >> now, democrat senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema both support the two election reform legislation bills. they just say they oppose sidestepping the filibuster. i want you to listen to what senator sinema said during her floor speech this week. >> eliminating the 60-vote flesh hold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy from threats in the years to come. >> her basic argument is that republicans are going to take over the chamber at some point, and democrats are going to need that filibuster. just last night, donald trump called for republicans to pass stricter laws when it came to the election, voter i.d. restrictions, to ban drop boxes, stop no excuse absentee voting. doesn't she have a point, the democrats might need that filibuster as soon as 2025 to stop republicans from imposing even harsher voting restrictions? >> look, no, she is not right about that. we just got around the filibuster to raise the debt limit. why? because we don't want to put the full faith and credit of the united states at risk. no one has asked her to eliminate the filibuster. the filibuster is there for all of these issues that may be policy issues, but when it comes to the constitution of the united states of america, no one person sitting downtown in the spa ought to be able to pick up the telephone and say you are going to put a hold on my ability to vote. and that's what's going on here. i would wish they'd stop that foolishness, because if we do not protect the vote with everything that we've got, we will not have a country to protect going forward. i don't know where we got the notion from, that this democracy is here to stay no matter how we conduct ourselves. our job -- we took the oath of office to protect this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic. there are domestic enemies that showed up on january 6th, and they didn't stop there. they're still going on and you hear it when the president tweets out or whatever he said about getting rid of people's convenient voting places, saying to paraplegics that we can't make it convenient for to you vote, saying to 90-year-old you got to stand in line four and five hours to vote, and if anybody gives you a glass of water, they will be put in jail. that's third world stuff. we had better be careful. >> democratic congressman ruben gal laying go is not ruling out a primary challenge of senator sinema in 2024. do you think senator sinema should face a primary challenge? >> i'll stay out of that. i yo ruben. i like ruben. we worked closely on these issues in the house and his re-election, he hasn't said to me he is going to run for the united states senate. i've been supporting him for re-election. he hasn't said he's going to run. i've been sut supporting him for house of representatives, but we'll see what happens. he's a good guy. >> quickly, before we go, sir, are the election reform bills ted, do you think? >> no, i don't. they may be on life support, but you know, john lewis and others did not give up after the '64 civil rights act. that's why he got the '65 voting rights act. i want to tell everybody, we're not giving up. we're going to fight, and we plan to win, because of people of good will are going to break their silence and help us win this battle. >> majority whip jim clyburn, i hope you have a peaceful and meaningful martin luther king day tomorrow. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much for having me. president biden's words this week outraged a lot of republicans. one of them, louisiana senator bill cassidy, responds next. up next, staggering new omicron numbers this week. is this starting to peak? 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get relief finally, with magnilife® leg and back pain relief. and get living. available at your local retailer. welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. on tuesday, senate democrats plan to take up the election reform bills they say are needed to protect american democracy but they will fail, those bills, because the legislation is opposed by every republican senator and two democrats join them in not wanting to change the filibuster rules. joining us to talk about why is republican senator bill cassidy of louisiana. senator, thanks for joining us. so president biden held a rally in georgia this week, urging senators to pass democrats election reform legislation and change the filibuster rules to allow them to do so. take a listen. >> i asked every elected official in america, how do you want to be remembered? do you want to be on the side of dr. king or george wallace? do you want to be on the side of john lewis or bull connor? do you want to be on the side of abraham lincoln or jefferson davis? >> you just heard congressman clyburn say those remarks in his view do not go too far, the real focus are the discriminatory election laws being passed in places like georgia, not on biden's words. what do you think? >> most of what -- in all due respect, most of what respective clyburn said was wrong or misleading. if these laws are constitutional, they'll be struck down. he's implying they won't be. they're not criminalizing giving people water. they're just saying you can't walk up to them just before they walk in, give them a piece of water and tell them who to vote for. you can still give water to the people working at the poll. they can distribute it. several other things that are misleading and so did president biden. now if you are trying to call the united states of america to unity, trying to get us to where we will come to common ground, you don't end up spreading things that are untrue or frankly lies. and that's why people think we need the filibuster, otherwise you're just totally rolled by somebody willing to sacrifice truth to pursue their agenda. >> the senate's going to take up the democrats' election reform bills this week. a key part, one of them is the john lewis voting rights act which would restore provisions of the landmark 1965 voting rights act that protect against discriminatory state election laws. when the senate reauthorized that law just a decade ago, it passed 98-0. why don't republicans, including yourself, support restoring those -- the voting rights act now? >> so the supreme court decided, the supreme court decided that the conditions in 1965 are different than they are now. imagine that. we've had an african american-elected president of the united states, and african american elected to the vice presidency and african american elected to the senate in south carolina. if anyone can't see the circumstances have changed, they're just not believing their lying eyes. the reality is that in louisiana we have the highest percent of african american officials in the nation. we've had a white mayor of a predominantly black city and a black mayor of a predominantly white city. there's been incredible progress in our country. there's more to do, absolutely. we need safeguards, but to argue we are still the same as we were in 1965 is to deny facts that are clearly before us. >> but isn't the argument not that it's the same as 1965 but that discrimination and prejudices continue to exist, voting rights activists will point to for example the state of texas moved to ban drive-through and 24-hour early voting which were heavily used by minority voters in '22 to limit the number of drop boxes to one per county and georgia where the atlanta region went from having more than 100 drop boxes to 23 and strict new i.d. requirements for absentee ballots that disproportionately impact minority voters, and beyond that, there were some of the pieces of legislation that were parts of that, those voting reform packages in texas and georgia that did not ultimately pass, but seemed to really have ill intent at their root. for example, banning sunday voting which would have disproportionately affected souls to the polls movements by black churches to go from church to get people to vote. ultimately that didn't become law, but that really alarmed a lot of people at what the intent might have been. >> i don't know what to say. this proves the system works. my gosh, now georgia has two days of sunday voting that is optional, that you can do it. and by the way, there are no drop boxes before the pandemic. there were none. and now we still have drop boxes. so an accommodation made for a pandemic are going to continue in the future when theoretically the pandemic is over, and shall i point out that georgia has more early voting days than does delaware or new york by far. they have no-excuse absentee voting. so when representative clyburn says a 90-year-old woman has to stand in line for four hours, in georgia she doesn't. i think in delaware she might have to or new york. maybe we need to look at the blue states which have not been nearly so reactive and supportive of voting as opposed to a state like georgia, which clearly has relative to them. >> this push by democrats as senators in dozens of states are taking steps to restrict voting in many cases with republicans invoking the big lie that the election was stolen as justification. just to be clear so our viewers know, you have said that joe biden won the election fair and square and called the big lie the big lie, but we did see trump last night in arizona trying to pressure legislators to decertify the 2020 election. on friday he called for an effort to get vote counters, more in office who are supporters of his. take a listen. >> we have to be a lot sharper the next time when it comes to counting the vote. a famous statement, sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate. and we can't let that ever, ever happen again. they have to get tougher and smarter. >> we know what he means by tougher and smarter, right? i get you don't support the democrats' legislation. let's talk about another path forward. what do you support in order to secure our elections to make sure there isn't any fraud and to make sure the efforts we saw in 2020 are not successful? >> first, i think we are seeing the success of state and local government in protecting the election. they've been doing it for over 200 years. we've also seen the federal courts were incredibly active in making sure that suits were heard in a timely fashion and challenges were considered. and by the way, they ruled in the right direction every time. and these were trump-appointed judges in many cases. the other thing to point out is that elections supervisors, the folks former president trump are speaking about electing, they don't count the vote. it's not some back room where you can either toss it out or keep it. it's a public process in which both sides are represented, and there's votes counted. so those that think there's a back room and you vote for the counter, it's just not true. lastly, i can imagine a campaign slogan, vote for me, i'm gonna cheat in the election. we should not underestimate the american people. the american people are not going to vote for a cheat. if someone says i'm voting because i want to flip an election, they're going to lose their election. and so i think we have to kind of give credit to the american people in the elections, in the process that we've gone to. those ill intents didn't pass and as i pointed out in georgia, they have more permissive laws than delaware and new york. >> lastly, sir, i do want to ask you about covid, which half of the residents of your home state of louisiana are still unvaccinated. now, i understand you don't support vaccine mandates. what do you propose instead? how can we ever get out of this pandemic, if millions of people throughout the country, including louisiana, continue to refuse to get the vaccine? >> couple things. i do not support federal vaccine mandates. that's never been the case before. on a state and local level, a business and a school, they have a right to do so. the federal government never has before and i oppose that, number one. number two, we should acknowledge the medical literature does previous infection grants immunity. so when we speak of statistics, let's also include those previously infected. now they may not, they may still be infected with omicron but not going to go to the hospital. and by the way, we also have to acknowledge that someone who is elderly and vaccinated is at greater risk of death from omicron than someone who is younger and not vaccinated. so if we're honest with the american people, i think they'll start responding a little bit better. lastly, this whole kind of test, shortage of tests, the administration's lost focus. that's not something you deliver just in time. it's something you have a big warehouse, whenever you need it, you shove it out but you immediately refill it, and the administration needs to get warp speed back going, warehouse full of labs and statistics that are meaningful to the american people as opposed to those they think are trying to roll them. >> senator cassidy, thanks so much. i want to note that while previous infection does provide some protection against another infection, vaccines as i'm sure you'll agree, provide more protection than having been infected. >> i don't know that. i don't know that. >> that's according to -- >> medical literature suggests that previous infection can be quite as effective as vaccine. >> all right, i've seen cdc studies that suggest otherwise but senator cassidy, dr. cassidy, thank you so much for your time today. we appreciate it. >> thank you. is the u.s. about to enter a new cold war with russia, and is there anything biden can do to stop it? 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to be brave. to show up. for staying connected. the questions they weren't able to ask. show up for the first day of school, the last day at their current address. for the mornings when everything's wrong. for the manicure that makes everything right, for right now. show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. international tensions on high this weekend after a report you heard first on cnn that russia may be working to fabricate a reason to invade neighboring ukraine, a false flag. that news after a series of high-level meetings with top u.s. officials did not appear to dissuade russia from a potential invasion. the big question for the u.s., how should president biden respond if russia actually acts and invades ukraine again? joining us the top republican on the house foreign affairs committee, congressman michael mccaul of texas. congressman, thanks for joining us. i do want to first get your reaction to the situation yesterday in your home state of texas, where a gunman, an anti-semite apparently held four jews hostage as a synagogue in colleyville, texas. the fbi has not released the name of the suspect. he demanded the u.s. free aafia siddiqui, convicted of attacking american troops, in jail not far from ft. worth. that's a frequent call of islamists the freeing of this woman. have you seen any evidence that what happened at the synagogue in texas was part of any sort of larger international plot? >> well, you know, the hostage-taker -- first of all, this is a disturbing case that demonstrates anti-semitism is unfortunately alive and well. siddiqui, the lady al qaeda they call her, is being detained in a ft. worth prison facility, to answer your question, the fbi has now fanned their investigation out to london and tel aviv, so this has turned into an international investigation, so there's something more here, and the fact he's calling for lady al qaeda's release from prison has been, as you said, in the jihadist world, kind of a cause celeb, and so i think we're going to find out a lot more in the next 24, 48 hours. he is british. i wouldn't be surprised if he's pakistani, just like siddiqui, and we need to get to the bottom of this. we haven't seen one of these radicalized attacks in a few years now, and it's disturbing to see it raise its ugly head again. >> indeed. let's turn back to russia and the united states. talks between the two countries concluded this week without any resolution to the tension over what seems an imminent russia invasion of ukraine. a top u.s. official warned "the drumbeat of war is sounding loud." what do you think, if anything more joe biden and american allies can do to prevent a russian invasion of ukraine or do you think it's inevitable at this point? >> well, the key is deterrence. if putin sees deterrence coming back from the united states and our nato allies, he may second-guess this calculation to invade ukraine. now, ukraine is a bread basket of russia. putin wants to restore the glory of the old soviet empire. he's been wanting to do this for quite some time. he invaded crimea right next to, with the lamb bridge. he liked the port of odessa to control the black sea, but i'm not seeing a lot of deterrence. i'm seeing tough rhetoric but not a lot of action. i talked to deputy secretary wendy sherman prior to her negotiations, that you know, you have to put things on the table, like sanctions. you have to talk about more arms sales, weapon sales to ukraine, and this nord stream 2, the idea the president waived mandatory sanctions on putin's pipeline, i don't know how that's in the national interest of the united states. it just emboldened and empowered putin to start completing his pipeline. and i think most importantly, jake, you and i talked about afghanistan over the summer -- >> um-hum. >> last summer. i think people, foreign adversaries like putin, president xi in china, the ayatollah and kim jong-un all view that as a moment of weakness. we are not projecting strength as reagan talked about but rather projecting weakness, which historically going back to hitler and chamberlain, always invites aggression and i think you're going to see a lot more of it. >> russian president putin previously warned of a complete rupture of u.s.-russia ties if the biden administration were to retaliate against any military action they take against ukraine. russia's also hinted they could take more direct action against the u.s., whether through cyberattacks on the u.s., by taking steps to move nuclear weapons closer to north america. is that just bluster, or do you think that is a real threat from putin? >> i think it's a real threat. they put this -- they have the cyber attack on the ukrainian government web page basically saying be afraid and expect the worst. that's pretty straightforward. the false flag operation you talked about, i do credit the administration for calling that to the international community's attention. false flag being to have killers go in and have a hoax-like operation against their own troops and justifying an invasion into ukraine. jake, i've seen the plans in the classified space as well. they're very specific. the most specific i've ever seen with ukraine, and they're very aggressive in the timetable. i think you're going to see this play out very quickly, and rather than threatening after an invasion takes place, we ought to be providing deterrence before an invasion takes place. that's my biggest criticism of the administration. >> do you think we are in a new cold war with russia? >> i do. i do, because i think putin again smells weakness here. he knows that if he's ever going to invade ukraine, now is the time. i hope he doesn't make that miscalculation, but the fact is, if he does invade ukraine, what is the united states, what is our commander in chief prepared to do to stop it? i'm not seeing a lot of details or action that could deter him from that critical step. this would be the largest invasion in europe since world war ii. that's how big of a deal this is. >> before you go, sir, the beijing olympics begin in just a few weeks. you've criticized the international olympic committee for letting china host despite its horrific record on human rights abuses. you've called for the games to be moved. you also support the biden administration's diplomatic boycott, no government officials are going to go there though american athletes will be allowed to participate and compete. do you think it's a mistake for nbc to even air these olympics given the human rights record of china? does that still give china the propaganda win it so desperately wants? >> yes. i mean, it does give them the propaganda victory. i would hope that a corporate responsibility would come into play here and point out the abuses, human rights violations taking place in the xinjiang province where the chinese commit genocide. my bill passed the house almost unanimously condemning the ccp for what is taking place that, is genocide in china, and i would hope that the networks would actually have some responsibility and call attention to that. i think the athletes may actually start talking about this. i did agree with the boycott diplomatically. i asked ioc move the olympics. that's not going to happen. i don't think we should punish the athletes but i think they're going to stand up solidarity against the human rights violations and take home the gold, too. like jesse owens showed hitler the arian nation was not superior, show the chinese that we're going to take home the gold and not them. >> thank you very much and oh, happy birthday and happy 60 there to you. the biden administration has a new plan for americans to get rapid covid tests but will they come in time to combat the omicron wave? we'll talk to the surgeon general next. stay with us. some people have joint pain, plus have high blood pressure. they may not be able to take just anything for pain. that's why doctors recommend tylenol®. it won't raise blood pressure the way that advil® aleve® or motrin® sometimes can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®. narrator: on a faraway beach, the generation called "our greatest" saved the world from tyranny. in an office we know as "oval," a new-generation president faced down an imminent threat of nuclear war. on a bridge in selma, alabama, the preacher of his time marched us straight to passing voting rights for every american. at a gate in west berlin, a late-generation american president demanded an enemy superpower tear down a wall and liberate a continent. american generations answering the call of their time with american ideals. freedom. liberty. justice. for today's generation of leaders, the call has come again to protect our freedom to vote, to fortify our democracy by passing the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act because america - john lewis: we are not going back, we are going forward. i lost 26 pounds and i feel incredible. with the new personalpoints program, i answered questions about my goals and the foods i love. i like that the ww personalpoints plan is built just for me. don't pay until spring! join today at ww.com hurry! offer ends january 17th! welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. daily covid cases in the united states are topping 800,000 for the first time, and the biden administration is rolling out a new plan to try to help americans track down rapid covid tests, but is that new push coming too late? joining me now the u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. thanks so much for joining us. case numbers have soared past 800,000 cases per day for the first time today. hospitalizations are the highest they've ever been. are we at the peak of this surge right now do you think or if not, when do you think we should expect the peak to come? >> well, jake, this is a very difficult time during this surge. we are seeing high case numbers and hospitalization rates as you mentioned and we're also seeing strain in many of our hospitals around the country. but the good news is that there are parts of the country, new york in particular, and other parts of the northeast where we are starting to see a plateau and in some cases an early decline in cases. the challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace. the omicron wave started later in other parts of the country. we shouldn't expect a national peak in the next coming days. the next few weeks will be tough. jake, this is also why it's so important that we are surging our resources to hospitals that are struggling. it's important we double down on precautions we're taking. one thing we're learning during this surge is that our vaccines are still working very well to keep people out of the hospital and to save their lives. it's why we want everyone to get vaccinated, to get boosted as soon as they can. >> one of the big challenges about containing the pandemic is that there are not enough tests right now. take a listen to what then president-elect joe biden said about testing in december 2020. >> we need to scale up testing, so anyone who needs one can get a test. after ten months of the pandemic, we still don't have enough testing. it's a travesty. >> testing has been scaled up, but it is not the case that everybody who wants a test can get a test. we're still not where we need to be. if not having a test, enough tests then was a travesty, is it a travesty now? >> well, jake, testing certainly has been an area of focus and you heard the president just a few weeks ago say that we've made tremendous progress on testing over the last year, but that we have more work to do to make sure that the increased demand and the surge really in demand that we saw with omicron can be met. it's important, jake, we also step back and look at the broader picture. earlier in 2021 the administration used the dpa and investment of billions of dollars to expand the manufacturing capacity for tests. that in combination with rigorous work around expanding testing production led to a quadrupling of supply in testing in the fall, but when omicron came it created an extraordinary rise in demand that created shortages not just in the u.s. but in other countries as well, and that's why we've had to take additional measures. we have a billion tests that will become available to people that they can order through the website, starting january 19th. we have 50 million tests we've sent to community health centers around the country and starting january 15th, yesterday, people will be able to get coverage, private insurance coverage for up to eight tests per person per month that they order. all of these together will help us close a gap in testing and make sure that everyone does, in fact, have a test who needs it. >> but it does seem like the state of testing is not yet acceptable. a new study out from kaiser this week showed out of almost 500 searches for at-home coronavirus tests, that online retailers just last week tests were only available 43 times. that's just 9% of the time. we're nearly two years into this pandemic. president biden has been in office for almost a full year. would you agree it's not yet at an acceptable level? >> well, jake, as the president said, we certainly have more we need to do on testing, and that's a message that's very clear from him to the public, to the team we need to pull every lever possible. that's why you see so many additional spigots open when it comes to testing and supply in the months ahead. we can't allow to lose sight of the bigger picture. in addition to testing, there are other tools that are so important that people are aware of. we have more therapeutics this month that are available than at any other month during the pandemic of because of early investments in treatments that were made. we have now oral and intravenous tests. we have more people vaccinated now than at any other point, more than 200 million fully vaccinated and millions more boosted. these are the tools that are going to help keep people safe. we have to make sure people know about them and double down on these tools during this omicron wave. >> so you just talked about how many people are fully vaccinated. george washington university professor, cnn analyst dr. jonathan reiner tweeted this over the weekend, "the cdc refuses to redefine fully vaccinated as the primary series plus boost, because if they did that, they would have to acknowledge that only 24% of the u.s. population is fully vaccinated, but that's the truth and that's why we're seeing packed hospitals and 1 million cases per day." why hasn't the biden administration reclassified fully vaccinated to include the booster? >> well, jake, what the cdc has said is that to be up to date on your vaccinations, you need to have your primary series plus the booster. that is the key, we need everybody up to date. it's absolutely right we need to get more people boosted in this country. that's why i and many other clinicians inside and outside government have been urging everybody to get boosted as quickly as possible. here's what we see in the data, if you had your primary series, two shots of moderna or shot of the johnson & johnson vaccine, that you still have decent protection against hospitalization and death, but you increase that protection even more and increase your protection against all infection by getting that booster shot. to anyone out there who hasn't gotten boosted it, if you're at your five-month mark of primary series of moderna and pfizer or post six months from johnson & johnson, please get boosted as soon as you can. >> dr. vivek murthy, thank you so much for your time today. >> thanks so much, jake. good to be with you. did a man in a biking helmet and speedo almost overthrow our democracy? we'll take a look at that claim and the real threat next. intuit quickbooks helps you easily run payroll in less than 5 minutes... ...so you can stay... one step ahead. some of my best memories growing up were cooking with mom. so when she moved in with us, a new kitchen became part of our financial plan. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com ♪ my name is austin james. as a musician living with diabetes, fingersticks can be a real challenge. that's why i use the freestyle libre 2 system. with a painless, one-second scan i know my glucose numbers without fingersticks. now i'm managing my diabetes better and i've lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us living with metastatic breast cancer means being relentless. because every day matters. and having more of them is possible with verzenio. the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopause status. verzenio + fulvestrant is for hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after hormone therapy. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor start an anti-diarrheal and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor about any fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. life-threatening lung inflammation can occur. tell your doctor about any new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. serious liver problems can happen. symptoms include fatigue, appetite loss, stomach pain and bleeding or bruising. blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath, chest pain, and rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you're nursing, pregnant or plan to be. every day matters. and i want more of them. ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. woman: i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer ♪ ♪ yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin, yeah that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ woman: keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. most who achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months had lasting clearance through 1 year. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin at 3 years. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ woman: talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. nyquil severe gives you powerful relief for your worst cold and flu symptoms, on sunday night and every night. nyquil severe. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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(excited yell) woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and nutrients to support immune health. over the weekend, while martin luther king iii was in arizona rallying to expand voting rights, donald trump was the same day in the same state doing the exact opposite, continuing to push his big lie. >> last year we had a rigged election, and the proof is all over the place. they always talk about the big lie. they're the big lie. >> there is a reason trump was in arizona, to push the legislature to disenfranchise the state's voters based on all of these deranged election lies. >> hopefully your attorney general and state legislators will be smart and fair and decisive and let the world know what the hell happened in arizona. >> steve bannon said this is part of a nationwide effort to hurt biden going into the midterms. >> decertify biden electors in arizona, in wisconsin, in the commonwealth of pennsylvania, in the great state of georgia, those great states we will decertify all those electors. >> of course, there's no constitutional way to do that. and trump delivered this message to the republican party in pennsylvania. pay attention to this part -- >> we have to be a lot sharper next time when it comes to counting the vote. there's a famous statement, sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate and we can't let that ever happen again. we have to get tougher and smarter. >> democrats are very focused right now on capitol hill about beating back republican efforts at the state level that make it tougher to vote. while it's true many of those efforts are predicated on trump's big lie, the focus of the seditious conspiracy we all witnessed was more focused on the counting, not the casting, of the votes. because when trump says, quote, we have to be a lot sharper the next time when it comes to counting the vote, unquote, it's pretty clear he means stop counting the votes when he's up and when democrats are in the lead, vote counters need to find votes for him, as he instructed georgia republican secretary of state brad raffensperger to do. >> there's nothing wrong with saying that you've recalculated. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. >> this plan to put loyalists in key positions where they can do this for him is going on right now with trump-backed candidates for governor, secretary of for governor, secretary of state and more in key states. and there are also more organic, lower level efforts as well for adherence to the big lie to slip into key posts. edward mcalanis of lancaster county, pennsylvania, was running for local judge until his campaign hit a snag, charged with four offenses related to his role on the attack on the capitol january 6th. in pennsylvania rally attendee who has not been charged with a crime won his race to be the mount joy township judge of elections. senator marco rubio, republican of florida a few days ago, condemned the events of january 6th as a terrible thing that never should have happened, but also suggested the anniversary was getting too much attention and seemed to downplay its seriousness. >> you're not going to convince most normal and sane people that our government last year was almost overthrown by a guy wearing a viking hat and speedos. >> the senator is correct our government was not almost overthrown by a guy wearing a viking hat and speedos but by armed military conspiracists and others throughout the country seeking to invalidate election results based on the wide lies of unhinged team of conspiracy theories and by maga media that spread those lies and about more than 140 house and senate republicans who voted to disenfranchise all of the voters of pennsylvania and arizona. and make no mistake, the conspiracy could have worked and might work next time. pay attention to who they're lining up to count the votes, and on this martin luther king weekend, think about those votes they don't want to count. thank you for spending your sunday morning with us. "gps with fareed zakaria" starts next. this is "gps," the global public square. welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria coming to you live from new york. today on the program, what to do