again to join security alliances around the world. there's certain requirements that need to be met. those are well known. the united states supports that path. >> quick question under passage of the republican bill yesterday to overturn president biden's vaccine mandate for private employers. are you concerned that given the democratic support of the bill was able to get, are you concerned that perhaps it will actually be able to, you know, get some house democrats to join in and secure a vote on that? i once the white house has said it's not on the president's desk. >> it's important for people to know that the reason why the president proposed these requirements which include not just a vaccine requirement but a testing option, which we feel and i think the american people feel is quite reasonable in order to keep workplaces safe, schools safe and stores safe for people out there christmas shopping and holiday shopping safe. we also know that it's steps that economists support, steps that 60% of businesses have already put in place. so we're hopeful this doesn't come to the president's desk. i can't make a prediction of that. i'd leave that to the vote counters or the whip counters in the house. if it comes to his desk, he will veto it. >> apart from what president zelensky has asked the president for today, can you clarify what ukraine has formally requested of the u.s. as they prepare for any potential invasion? have they requested support for air and naval defense or electronics? >> we're not getting to specific requests from diplomatic and defense channels from the ukrainian government. if they want to speak to that, they can. i would note there were requests or have been requests over the course of time and the united states has provided over the course of some time now, i guess, $400 billion, i believe -- 400 million in security assistance that we've committed to ukraine this year as a part of our efforts to support their sovereignty and that includes $60 million of security assistance that we announced during the president's visit in september, which we're still providing. still delivering to the ukrainians. so in terms of their specific requests, what they want to convey privately. >> the head of ukraine's military intelligence service is quoted in "the new york times" saying there's not sufficient military resources for repelling a full scale attack without the support of western forces. has ukraine expressed a similar sense to the administration and do you have a response? >> again, i'm not going to get to private diplomatic conversations. i will convey to you and what the president would convey, is conveying to president zelensky, our objective is to make clear the significant, severe and economic consequences if russia were to invade. it's up to president putin to decide how he responds to that. what steps he may or may not take as it relates to that. i think what the public should see clearly, whether it's the ukrainian public or the global public is that the united states is standing up for what we believe our democratic values for the territorial sovereignty of the ukraine and our objective is to prevent that from happening. >> a point on vaccines. based on conversations pfizer has had, should americans be mentally preparing for a fourth shot? >> i would point you to what the cdc and health and medical experts have conveyed. they will evaluate hand assess what is needed for the american people and the keep people safe. i don't what get ahead of their data. >> thanks, jen. on vaccines, amtrak announced that they will have to cut long distance routes because they don't have enough employees to operate when the federal mandate takes effect. 94% of their employees are vaccinated. amtrak got $66 million in the infrastructure deal and making cuts. is this policy undermining the president's own legislation? >> you touched on this, jacqui. it's great news that 94% of their work force is vaccinated. that's an enormous percentage of their work force. they still have about a month before the deadline for federal contractors on january 4th or a couple of weeks, four weeks approximately. what we have conveyed to employers is that most deadline we expect employers will follow their standard h.r. process. that means for employees not in compliance, they will go through education, accommodations and enforcement. that's the process to play out. of course, these requirements, we don't expect they will cause disruption to services that people depend on. there's time to implement it. we're working with all federal contractors and federal employees and parts of the federal government to implement this moving forward. >> on ukraine, there are some reports that the u.s. is pressuring ukraine to cede land to russia as a way to deter them from invading. is that true? >> that is false. >> thank you. staying on ukraine. russian troops are still amassed along the border. do you have any indication at this point that the president's strategy is working? >> kristin, i think it's going to be up to president putin -- >> martha: good afternoon. some questions on ukraine there at the end. the question from jacqui heinrich is something that has been circulating. is there any proposal on the part of the united states to ukraine to cede certain parts of landin ukraine to russia and jen psaki, the white house press secretary said no, absolutely not. but obviously this is the afternoon when the president is talking to president zelensky of ukraine. there's been ongoing conversations. he will be speaking with our allies including france later on today about exactly what is expected in terms of help for ukraine with these russian troops all along the border. so we'll continue to keep a close eye on developments and what that might look like. so an exclusive also for you this hour, the attorney who is representing parents of two sisters that were victims of the oxford high school shooter. these parents are launching two separate $100 million lawsuits against the school for negligence essentially. so we're going to talk to their attorney about that. it's a very big case. we want to talk to him about whether or not it's a feasible case in terms of these two clients that suffered a tremendous amount of trauma and one of the girls was shot in the neck. they witnessed the killing of their friend in that hallway. we'll speak with him. and also today, major retailers telling lawmakers that they need to do something about what they call "the growing impact of organized retail crime and what it's doing to the communities that they so proudly serve." here's a list as the government looks at the problems of the smash and grabs and retail crime. they've done a bunch of things starting in the summer. as you can see the scroll, 17.5 million, 139 million, all of this is aimed at tamping down crime across the country. but the problem is that so far there's no real evidence that it is working. because these are the dozen major cities in the country that have just hit all-time murder records in a one-year period. as you can see, they span across the country. violent crime and the smash and grabs are clearly something that is feared by families and communities and certainly retail store owners across the country who are trying to get through the christmas season and being reprimanded by chicago mayor lori lightfoot that you're not doing enough to keep your place safe. we'll also be speaking with chicago alderman, anthony napolitano who has compared his city to a war zone. he's done what he's can to crack down on crime, get people behind bars, do what they can to make the city safer. first, let's bring in aishah hasnie on this story. hi, aishah. >> hi, martha. the past several weeks here, democrats on the hill have been spending quit a bit of time talking about their social spending plan, even though the spending plan really has nothing in it to offer any more protection for any of these citying that are suffering these crime waves. very little time is being spent talking on crime. 12 large metros like chicago and l.a. are seeing a rash of retail thefts. congress woman alexandria ocasio-cortez just take a lot of heat nor doubting that any of this was happening. so i asked democrat caucus hakeem jefferys what house leadership thinks about all of this. >> i don't want to comment on what leadership's position is. president biden has been very clear that he's going to provide all the help. >> this week the white house said they were sending additional support from the fbi but one law enforcement group, the national sheriff's association immediately disputed that by saying officers in california were not seeing any federal help and now the doj has just announced that they're awarding 17.5 million in grant money for a safe neighborhood program. meanwhile, this whole thing has turned in to a big campaign issue for the gop ago they set their sights on the mid-term. >> this is the direct result of direct attorneys, democrat prosecutors all the way to the white house saying to criminals, you know, do what you want. they a big mistake. >> now they have to respond because of the letter from the major retailers. we have not seen an agreement on the new budget from president biden. the white house says the budget would include more money to boost police forces across the country. no agreement yet. martha? >> martha: aishah, thank you. as promised, anthony thomas is here, a former chicago police officer for five years, a firefighters for ten years. when you hear the records that they're working on 17.5 million that is going to a lot of different community services, grants across the country to try to get at this problem, do you feel like they are looking for a solution to the actual problem that you're seeing on the city streets? >> no, i don't think it's a solution. i think -- you touch base on it. you said you have 12 cities across the country seeing astronomical homicide rates. if you pull back the screen a little bit and ask yourself, who is the common denominator in that, it's the state's district attorneys. the majority of them. they're radical district attorneys that believe that putting criminals back on the street is the way back to fixing the problems in crime. we have a revolving door effect here in chicago with criminals that are right back on the street committing crime over and over. any funds -- we'll have task forces. we have atf and fbi task forces. dea. the problem in chicago is we need a chicago city council task force where aldermen come together with a majority of voters that says we're going to stick to fighting crime. if we don't, we won't help the administration push any objectives forward for any future projects until crime is the number 1 and only priority taken care of in the city. they're not holding anybody accountable there. >> i'm going to play this sound bite from lori lightfoot as we look at this video of the smash and grabs. here's what she had to say to the owners of the stores. >> i'm disappointed that they're not doing more to take safety and make it a priority. for example, we still have retailers that won't institute plans like having security officers in their stores. making sure that they have cameras that are actually operational. >> martha: yeah, alderman. why don't they just hire more security? >> yeah, nonsense. listen, you can hire 20 or 30 more security guards. when they lock them up and put their name on the piece of paper to prosecute, that offender is back on the street the next day threatening the security guards. means nothing. this is a ripple effect. you throw a pebble in the water, the ripple effect is the criminals know they'll be back on the street. if we're not getting ahead of it, we won't fix it on our streets. the mayor knows that. this solely falls on a lack of strength in our administration to combat crime. biggest thing -- everyone is worried we're going to fall apart like detroit. chicago is a economic hub. if it fails, it's because of our leadership. it falls on us as electives not to step up and do something about it. >> a great point. you can easily see these stores shutting down and not being able to stay in business, a lot of them can't afford the security that she recommends on top of all of the difficulties that they've had during covid and trying to keep their heads above the water and have to deal with this. this video is so disturbing. thanks, anthony napolitano. great to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up, the parents of two sisters that were victims of the oxford high school shooter. they say the school in their opinion clearly knew that he was a threat and they have launched two $100 million lawsuits against oxford high school and the superintendent. their attorney is going to lay out the case as he sees it in this story exclusive up next. >> riley and bella along with their friend who was murdered and who is buried yesterday were in the bathroom. they exited the bathroom and they were shot down like they were in a war zone. again. ped it's time to refinance. newday's low rate refi offers their lowest rate in history. two and a quarter percent. just 2.48 apr. save thousands every year and there are no upfront costs. not one dollar. the newday low rate refi. take advantage of these record low rates so you and your family can save. entresto is the number one heart failure brand prescribed by cardiologists and has helped over one million people. it was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. 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(cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 >> martha: a "the story" exclusive with the attorney whose parents are suing over the deadly school shooting in michigan. their 17-year-old daughter was shot in the neck. she's expected to recover. her 14-year-old sister was next to her at the time. they were also with 14-year-old hanna st. juliana whose funeral was yesterday. the lawyer of the two girls said the parents had warned the school about the suspect two weeks before the shooting saying he posted threats on social media that parents and students were a made of and made one student afraid to go to school. we reached out to the school about this for a response but have not heard back for their response to this lawsuit. attorney geoffrey fieger is her with us. he resented jack kevorkian and a lot of high profile cases. tell us briefly, give everybody a look at what happened to these two sisters who you're representing. >> unfortunately i represent two of the victims of the columbine shooting, too. it's horrific now that 20 years later we're going through it over and over and over again. two sisters, they're honor students, riley was accepted to six colleges. she should have been planning her christmas vacation. choosing one of the six that accented her. instead she's just gotten out of the hospital now after narrowly surviving gunshot wouldn't to her neck. less than 2% of children that suffer that kind of wound survive. miraculously it hit nothing major and she's at home the next weeks recovering. her sister is traumatized beyond belief. you can imagine, they stepped out of a bathroom and shot down. the sister avoided the gun shots bus she as traumatized as you can imagine. >> martha: i can believe it. i want to play for you this sound bite from timothy thorn, one of the named defendants that your suit goes after. here's what he said thursday, december 3. >> there's been a lot of talk about the student that was apprehended. he was called up to the office and all that kind of stuff. no discipline was warranted. >> martha: do you agree with that? >> no. of course not. >> martha: based on what you know and what you've seen. >> of course not. it was recognized that he was drawing photographs of mayhem. they were aware of posts on the internet indicating that he was intending to commit mayhem. he drew pictures, indicating that he was going to engage in a murderous rage. he said oxford high, here i come. he had a gun and ammunition in his backpack. they recognized it enough where they pulled him out of class. instead of calling the police liaison officer, they called him parents. told his parents to take him out of school. the parents refused. they said okay. he can stay here and go to class. he went to the bathroom, loaded the new gun given to him by his parents and began slaughtering students. there's certainly responsibility here. it's time that we stop giving lip service to all of this and hold people responsible. if we're not going to hold the second amendment people responsible for gunning down our students over the last 20 years and we're going to do nothing in that regard, let's hold the other people responsible so it's very painful to allow this type of slaughters to continue to happen. >> martha: well, it really comes down to the question of evidence in terms of what the school had. we know that the night before the shooting ethan crumbley tweeted now i have become death, the destroyer of the world. see you tomorrow, oxford. this was on his open twitter account. that was after he was disciplined. so that was a public thing. but the problem is something that you just touched on and then i want to ask you about the responsibility of the school and how suable the school is for this. this is what sheriff bouchard told me when i asked him why didn't the school contact you. wouldn't that have been the right thing to do? watch this. what would you say to the school about when they should have contacted your department? >> as soon as behavior is described or considered troubling by the school teachers, the administrators. bring us in to that consult. it triggers a whole series of protocols that we almost do sadly every day but didn't have an opportunity to do that day. >> martha: so they didn't have an opportunity to do their job because they weren't told by the school. so you have to prove that the school was grossly negligent or is showed reckless disregard. tell me how you're going to do that. >> or because they created a danger. because they're state employees. that's the allegation in the federal court case. i'm not under no grand illusions. the powers that be in the state of michigan and many other states what a tragedy this is and then they insulate governmental employees from any liability for making these type of tragic negligent mistakes. but in this case, when it was so obvious and the school officials were so aware of something that a normal person or reasonable person would consider a threat and having had him brought down to the principal's office, the counselor's office and recognizing that threat was made, seeing cartoons inkating a mass slaughter and saying he should be removed and have counselling but not calling the school liaison officer, which was just indicated to you, could and should have been done was a tragic mistake. instead, he went in a bathroom, loaded up for war and came out shooting and killed four, injured eight and traumatized that school forever. that's one in the last 300 shootings we've had in 20 years since columbine. >> martha: there should be an expectation of common sense on the part of the school administrators that when they see -- we've seen them jump the gun in a knee jerk way over much more small transgressions than a kid who is buying ammo on his phone in class and then is drawing pictures and saying essentially that he wants to shoot up the school. the cave to the parents because they say we don't want him to be brought home is also i think just a huge question in this case. geoffrey fieger, the parents and the children are so lucky to survive this. good to have you here. we'll follow it with interest. thank you. >> thank you. >> martha: okay. so moments ago, the white house vowing to veto a repeal of president biden's private sector vaccine mandate after republicans and now some democrats on capitol hill voted down. they want to bar the vaccine mandates that are coming from the white house. this is a stunning development. texas senator john cornyn next. >> in is not about whether people should choose to get vaccinated or not. they should. that's their choice. not mine or president biden's. s. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ [uplifting music playing] ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ as i observe investors balance risk and reward, i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. it's my 4:05 the-show-must-go-on migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes, without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrp protein, believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. ask about ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. >> martha: the white house reiterating the president's vow that he will nix any beal that repeal his administration's effort to put vaccine mandating for covid-19 across the country. that after republican senators and two democratic senators voted to strike it down on the senate side. watch this reaction from jen psaki. >> i think what is most important for people to know out there and to understand is the reason why the president proposed these requirements, which includes not just a vaccine requirement but also a testing option. testing once a week, which we feel and the american people feel is quite reasonable in order to keep workplaces safe, schools safe, keep stores safe where people are out there christmas shopping and holiday shopping safe. >> martha: republican senator john cornyn of texas joins me. good to see you. good to have you with us this afternoon. so she is saying that these mandates have to stay put and that just because you have a majority of senators that think that the mandates are unfair, perhaps unconstitutional, movement like that in the house as well, the president won't sign anything that would overturn these. >> i think it's useful to put on record, members on congress as an issue as important as this. the administration thinks the constitution does not apply to them. if the president has this sort of authority, unilaterally, what other things could he do for our good that he thinks we should do that we don't want to do? so the founding fathers knew that the bigger government got the more intrusive it got, our freedom, individual freedom is diminished. that's why they created a system of checks and balances. frankly president biden has been striking out in almost every single federal court across the country. there's other things that people can and should do. first of all, it's a good idea to get vaccinated. i've been vaccinated. i recommend that to my friends and family. but this has to do with government power and what sort of precedent this sets for the future, which may result in some unintended consequences. >> martha: so with regard the china. a couple topics here. the chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushing back on this contention of the united states that we'll do a diplomatic boycott of the olympics. now the u.k. and australia is doing the same thing. here's what the foreign ministry had to say. they said the united states will pay the price for this kind of action. watch this. i want to read this to you. the u.s. always thinking that it's destined to lead the world, to bring its value and system everywhere around the world. when leadership is imposed, it's actually autocracy, calling the united states an autocratic government for these actions. your thoughts, senator. >> president xi and the chinese communist party have called themselves a democracy, which they are not. they're so aggressive not only in international waters in the south china sea, threatening to invade taiwan, forcing uighurs, the muslim minority in to slave labor, engaing in forced abortions, this is not a democracy. they're trying to pretend like this is not happening but the facts are right there in front of us. so i think this is an appropriate response by the administration. frankly i'd like there to be more than a diplomatic response. i think standing up to this regime, the chinese communist party is something that we have to do and we have to find a way to deter them from taking some of this aggressive action including making war in taiwan. >> martha: it's interesting the things that we're seeing some bipartisan support on in congress these days. the vaccine mandate being against that, which we mentioned, also there's some bipartisan support for banning imports from where the uighur camps insist. why is it so difficult for the white house to be on board with that because from what i've heard, they would like a watered down version of that ban against imports coming from that part of china. >> i think the administration has misred the results of the 2020 election. we're a divided country but they're acting like president biden is delanor roosevelt. on the big things that the base want to do like the build back better program, i prefer build back broke or build back bad, but these simply are misreading the last election and i think frankly joe manchin and kristin sinema are doing their fellow democrat as favor but not making them vote on this bad legislation in the run up to the 2022 election. >> martha: john tester from montana, the democrat, also on board against the president's vaccine mandates. so interesting. senator, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> martha: good to see you. from texas where more than 200 million lethal doses of fentanyl have been seized so far this year. enough to kill every man, woman and child in the states of texas, new york and california. it's stunning move across the certain border. dps lieutenant chris oliveras who provided these numbers to us next. with their two and a quarter refi. that's 2.25%, with an apr of 2.48. this is their lowest rate in history. the newday two and a quarter refi can cut thousands of dollars off your mortgage payments. there's no money out of pocket and no up front costs. lock in your rate. - hi, i'm steve. - i'm lea. and we live in north pole, alaska. - i'm a retired school counselor. 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>> good to be with you, martha. the numbers are astonishing. not only what we've seen as far as a state agency but what the customs and border protection has seized as well. so one thing that i have to urge and stress to the american people, we have to focus on the criminal element. we have to divert from mass migration and focus on the drug traffickers. they're smuggling this lethal drug in to our country and affecting the state of texas but the entire country. one thing we've been doing since the beginning of the year, the fact that the federal government has not taken any action, governor abbott recognized the issues. that's why he launched operation lone star, deployed thousands of state resources, the dps, national guard, barriers, fencing and now with the texas law and signing in to law stiffer penalties for the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl. so we're going after these drug trafficking organizations. what hurts them the most, seizing the drugs, which will then hurt their profits that is our primary focus, to try to remove the drug from the streets as much as possible and from killing americans that's been doing every day. thousands of americans are dying from this drug. >> martha: you know, it's interesting. i watched an interview that john roberts did with the president of guatemala yesterday. the president of guatemala said one of the issues is the u.s. is one of the biggest customers for these drug lords. that isn't something that he felt he could change. in terms of coordination from the white house and you guys have felt that you don't get enough and that's why governor abbott has stepped up, but listen to what he said about how much interaction he's had with the top levels of the white house. >> is the biden administration not speaking with you? >> not yet. >> not yet? >> not yet. >> not yet. >> other than your meeting with kamala harris in june. >> that's the only one. >> that's the only communication you had with the biden administration about illegal immigration? >> yep. >> martha: so he said that they had heard from the ambassador and secretary mayorkas but no real engagement on the part of president biden or vice president harris who was supposed to be overseeing this root cause issues. what do you think about that? >> that goes to show you how serious the federal government is -- what's taking place around the southern border. we're talking about this drug killing thousands of americans and no action is being done by the a federal governments to security the border. that's why the state of texas, dps has stepped in to combat this serious drug coming across our borders. most importantly that i want to stress to the american people is that we have to focus on the seriousness of this drug and how it's pouring in. the precursors are coming from china, going to mexico and the drug trafficking organizations are smuggling this drug in to the united states and other metropolitan areas and as well. so again, the whole focus, the whole objective from these drug trafficking organizations is to get americans a dicked to this drug so they continue to go back and buy it because it's all profit. that's what we're trying to do, go after seizing the drugs and hurting the profits. >> martha: well, i know you guys feel like you're on your own and you've had to do a lot to put boats in the rio grande and the truck barriers along the border. it's a pressing problem and we would like to see more engagement from the top. you would as well. thanks, lieutenant. best of luck to you. we're watching the courtroom in chicago because any moment from now the jury could announce they have reached a decision on whether the actor jussie smollett staged a hate crime against himself or not. we'll go live to chicago for that an for an update and we're about to here from the white house covid response team since the shift in the goal posts on what it means to be "fully vaccinated". >> i don't think anybody would argue that optimum protection is with a third shot. whether it officially gets changed, i think that will be considered daily. it's always on the table. it's a matter of when, not if. >> martha: dr. brett giroir after this. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® is a pill that lowers blood sugar in three ways. increases insulin when you need it... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. >> man: what's my safelite story? 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(crowd) business! i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... ...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with crohn's disease. humira helps people achieve remission that can last. and the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. learn how abbvie could help you save on humira. >> martha: president biden and his covid-19 response team are set to address the issue of omicron as the head of the cdc sets the variant has called for mostly mild illness and no deaths. we're also expecting to hear a push for booster shots, which we've heard before from the white house, the third shot. we're talking about that after the fda approved a request from pfizer that could see people as young as 16 getting a third dose of the shot. here now dr. brett giroir, the former hhs secretary and former covid czar. what was your reaction to what we just heard from the cdc with regard to what they learned so far about omicron? >> it's still very early. hospitalizations have gone up in south africa. it reinforces that we need to be calm. the cases in the united states, if you've been investigated and you get the sniffle for two days, that's not a failure. it's a success. all the cases have been mild. as they expand, we'll have more severe cases. keep calm. we have weapons. we can keep this under control. >> martha: so what is your message for parents? your background is in pediatrics. this is how parents feel about getting vaccinated themselves and their kids according to this latest survey from kaiser family foundation. it says 63% are confident that it's okay for adults. kids 12 to 17, 52% are confident. high number. 5 to 11 it drops to 43% about how they feel about it and no recording for kids younger than 5. what is your message to them? >> my message is please talk to your doctor, nurse, pharmacist. the calculus is easy. if you're over 60 or have multiple conditions, you absolutely need to get both doses and boosted. that's shown. if you're a healthy 11-year-old, 14-year-old, 15-year-old, you've gotten two doses of vaccine, particularly considering a moderna vaccine which may have a higher risk in young males about myocarditis, the calculus is not so simple. i think parents should be concerned. they should go to credible sources though and believe me, the credible sources are still your doctor, nurse, pharmacist, healthcare provider. all children are not equal. if they have diabetes, that enters into the calculus. it's not one side fits all no matter your age or condition. talk to your healthcare provider. >> martha: it's interesting that congress is pushing back on his vaccine mandates. what did you think about that, doctor? >> i thought it was fantastic. the dems want to create the narrative that if you're against a federal vaccine mandate, you're against vaccines. that's not true. that's what everyone is saying. i'm the most pro vaccine person on the planet but i'm against federal mandates particularly by one branch of government. you can be both. the senate has push back, a lot of the house will and i think a majority of americans feel the same way. >> martha: great advice. thanks, dr. giroir. so we are waiting for a potential verdict in the jussie smollett trial. the actor accused of staging his own hate crime. he said the claims that its a hoax are 100% false. so far the jury has asked one question. matt finn is outside the courthouse. it's been quiet in there. we wait for the verdict. hi, matt. >> hi, martha. we're approaching the 8 hour mark of the jury being in the deliberation room. so far no questions, no difficulties that we're aware of. very quiet. yesterday before the jury left, they asked for one thing. they asked for a copy of the prosecution's calendar, which had red x marks on dates that the prosecution felt were significant. like every other day, jussie smollett is not in the courthouse. we're told he will come with his family and supporters. he's charged with six low level counts of felony lying to police and lying about aggravated battery. smollett said he wants constitutional warriors in the deliberation room. if convicted, smollett faces up to three years in prison, probation and community service is also on the table. we'll keep you updated. >> martha: thanks very much. matt finn in report as we await a verdict in the jussie smollett case, which could come any day. it's thursday, of course. friday is typically when we would expect something there. we'll see how this jury feels. thanks for being with us today, this thursday, december 9 as we move through this month of december. as always, "the story" goes on. thanks nor being with us today. look forward to seeing tomorrow at 3:00. meantime, a lot ahead. "your world" starts right now. have a great day, everybody. see you tomorrow. >> martha: this was the scene in the bronx, new york. video just released from the nypd showing masked gunman in a bmw pulling alongside an open car and firing, a 21-year-old man was killed, a teenage girl injured. it's happening across the country. homicides reach record levels in at least 12 major u.s. cities. district attorneys accused of going easy on crime are under increasing fire including in los angeles. but in the case of