accelerated timetable for making a decision. and then at least this new publicly released audio of the former president talking about january 6th. a taped interview with abc's jonathan karl, recorded at march a -- maralago. his own vice president ran from the insurrectionists as they closed in. >> were you worried about him during that siege? >> no, i knew he was well-protected and i heard that he was in good shape, because, uh, i had heard he was in very good shape. >> because you heard those chants. that was terrible. >> he could have -- well, the people were very angry. >> they were saying hang mike pence. >> it's common sense. it's common sense that you're supposed to protect -- how can you -- if you know a vote is fraudulent, right, how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to congress? >> which raises yet another question. if that's what the former president is willing to say publicly, what could be in the documents he's trying to keep secret? documents, of course, are just one piece of this investigative puzzle, because simultaneously you have subpoenas and the testimony of those closest to trump on january 6th now in the committee's crosshairs. insiders like his former chief of staff mark meadows. earlier today meadows didn't show up for an ordered morning deposition on capitol hill, making meadows the latest trump world figure facing a potential contempt complaint from the january 6th committee. it's been 22 days since the house voted to hold former trump adviser in contempt of congress for refusing to comply with his subpoena. and so far, there has been no movement, no indictment from the justice department. joining me, politico national correspondent betsy woodruff swann, punchbowl founder jake sherman, and nbc legal analyst carol lamb. good to see all of you. betsy, there is an argument to be made at the very least that trump's comments to jon karl are callous, at worst maybe incriminating potentially in a court of law, defending his supporters when they chant "hang mike pence." what do you make of that interview and does it tell us anything potentially about what might be in those records he so desperately wants to keep from congress? >> it's as ton-ishing audio. but it's also very much consistent with the way that trump has talked about the january 6th attacks. one message he's been saying repeatedly is the actual insurrection was election day and what happened on january 6th wasn't necessarily an attack. he's trying to sort of rearrange verbiage there to try to downplay the gravity and the horrific violence that played out that day. so him suggesting that this "hang mike pence" chant was a reasonable response to pence following his basic constitutional duties is -- for trump it's very much in character. as far as the documents that the select committee is trying to reach, one of the documents that i think is likely to be the most interesting, at least as the national archives has described it in court filings, is a draft executive order that the national archives said circulated. we don't know who drafted this order or why the president didn't sign off on it. but we do know, according to the archives, that it contained language about, quote unquote, election integrity. what exactly trump was trying to do on that front or was considering doing on that front in the final weeks of his presidency, that's something that that particular document could possibly cast a lot of light on. that's why there's just such an immense focus on the very high stakes court battle playing out right now as trump and his lawyers trying to keep that document and many others from seeing the light of day. >> which brings us, jake, to the question of the folks who might have the information that betsy was just asking about, like who was behind a document like that and why didn't it get signed. mark meadows is a no-show, that we know. does he have any reason to appear in that? if nothing's happened to bannon yet, why should anyone feel compelled to comply? >> well, there's a big question, chris. i would say this, having known mark meadows for ten years or however long when he first came to congress, eight years i guess that would be, he's a fighter. i don't say that in a good or bad way. but he relishes being in the spotlight and in some sort of combative situation. i have seen this dozens and dozens of times. and this -- although he's not talking, i can imagine his demeanor right now, which is probably, based on my experience, that he likes being in the mix. again, you can't ignore congressional subpoenas. just because his lawyer, george twilliger, who is well-known here on capitol hill and dc, just because he says its a valid subpoena, that's for courts to decide, not for him or for mark meadows to decide. but i imagine he will participate as little as possible until forced to. again, doj will have to make its decision. right now the costs are minimal, but mark meadows is not a rich man, not like trump is a billionaire or whatever he is. mark meadow has modest means. unless somebody else is going to pay for his lawyer or for a trial, that's going to be a difficult ask for him. >> so carol, to jake's point, if you're a lawyer for steve bannon or mark meadows, do you say, look, they don't have any teeth behind those subpoenas, you don't have to go right now, let's wait and see what if anything doj does and then we'll deal with that now? >> that is absolutely the dialogue that's going on right now, chris, between these witnesses or potential witnesses and their lawyers. and frankly, it's not a big surprise. the applicability and the scope of the executive privilege i think to many people's surprise has not been well-hammered-out. and there is a reason for that. the reason for that is that courts have traditionally said this is really a dispute between the legislative, that is congress, the legislative branch of government, and the executive branch of the government, the presidency, and we want you to work it out because this is a political issue. and, you know, what's both troubling but not surprising about this scenario is because of this increased polarization of views, more is getting pushed to the courts. and the supreme court is ultimately going to have to make a decision about the applicability and the scope of the executive privilege. and whatever they say may please one party right now and it may not please that same party in the future, because the president is going to get sick. >> the doj will say, we don't want to be part of the politicization, we want to judge things on the facts. what do you make in this delay in bringing criminal charges against steve bannon? what would the department of justice be considering? >> bringing a criminal indictment, even with the recommendation of congress that there should be a criminal indictment brought, is not a matter to be taken lightly. i think, you know -- i think what former prosecutors always find remarkable is that people say, oh, well, let's just prosecute them criminally, which is sort of ironic, because remember that criminal cases have a higher burden of proof that have to be met by the prosecutors than other types of cases, civil cases or administrative cases. and they also require that 12 jurors find with unanimity that the defendant is guilty. so it is not at all surprising to me that the department even over 22 days has not determined whether they feel comfortable bringing a criminal indictment in a case like this where you not only have to show -- and this is true for all criminal cases, you not only have to show that you can prove your criminal case but that all defenses will be rejected by the jury. in areas where there's ambiguity like this, it's very tough to bring a criminal case with confidence that you're going to win. so that's what the department of justice is struggling with right now. it's going to be very interesting to see what they decide. >> so i'm curious then, betsy, about the confidence level of the committee members themselves and the committee chairman. obviously over the last week they've expanded the breadth of what they're looking for, the people that they want to talk to. but how are they feeling about the likelihood that they're going to get what they think they need to come to a conclusion in all of this? >> they're already getting tons and tons and tons of material. we know that upwards of 150 people have talked to the committee without the committee having to go to extraordinary lengths to get their testimony. and we know at least one federal judge has signaled that the people who actually attacked the capitol on january 6th and are convicted and are facing prison sentences for their role in that attack could get some level of leniency if they do cooperate with the select committee. so that means all these folks who all of a sudden are facing, you know, the prospect, the very unpleasant prospect of going to prison, have a big motivator to communicate with committee members and staff and tell them what they know. i think that's something of a wild card here in terms of the level of information that the committee gets. that said, some of the folks who probably have the most detailed inside information, people like mark meadows, the fact that they're not cooperating is a big deal. one other tidbit people should be aware of regarding doj and the way they handle these congressional referrals is that it typically takes months for doj to decide whether or not to prosecute. i've been in touch with former members of the office within doj that fields these queries who said that 22 days is something like, you know -- it's the blink of an eye in doj time. it's frustrating to congress because not only do they need people like bannon and meadows to cooperate, they need them to cooperate on a reasonably quick timeline because the point of this committee is to legislate. if it takes years and years for the committee to get the facts it needs, that will shape its ability to recommend what steps congress needs to take to change the law to keep this type of attack from happening again. that's part of the reason for the mounting tension between capitol hill and doj on this hugely consequential decision. >> and the timeline is so critical, as betsy just pointed out, jake, and we said at the top of the show, the court of appeals did set up this sort of accelerated timeline that they're going to start working and they have a plan to work through fairly quickly. but "quickly" is a relative term when it deals with the law and certainly when it deals with capitol hill. what are you hearing, what's expectation in terms of when this might all get wrapped up? >> no one that i've talked to thinks this all gets wrapped up, meaning the entire investigation, anywhere short of somewhere in the third or fourth quarter of next year, which is an election year, obviously. so the politics are complicated. and by the way, republicans could have had a committee that sunset at the end of this year if they had cooperated with nancy pelosi's initial proposal which would have sunsetted the committee at the end of this year. so a double edged sword there for republicans who rejected that. but i just cannot -- i'll defer to the legal experts here, but i cannot imagine just politically, just knowing how much work needs to be done and how much they need to do and how much they're looking for, i can't imagine that it will last -- that it will stop before the end of next year. >> carol, we only have a few seconds left, but in terms of the timeline for the appeals court which has set up this schedule but then the possibility that this could go to the supreme court, at least this one specific legal part of it, how long could it take? >> so what we're talking about here is the appellate court decision with respect to the release of documents by the national archives. we're not talking about steve bannon or mark meadows. but the national archives was supposed to produce documents today and last night the court, the appellate court, said we're going to grant an administrative injunction. they set up a very aggressive schedule for briefing and hearing that case argued on november 30, plowing right through the thanksgiving holidays, those poor lawyers. so there will be an appeal taken to the supreme court, and the supreme court may deny, they may decide not to grant that hearing, and then that will be that. or, if the supreme court does say yes, we'll hear the case, they might put it on an accelerated schedule, or if it goes on the regular schedule, it will then take months, and i agree, it will go well into the next year. so we just don't know at this point. >> carol lam, jake sherman, betsy woodruff swan, thanks to all of you. up next, comments made by an attorney of a defendant in the trial of the defendants accused of killing ahmed arbery. and closing arguments expected on monday in the kyle rittenhouse time. but today, there's another big fight in the courtroom over how the judge will instruct the jurors. and are we looking at yet another covid surge? 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>> well, arbery's family has described this as a monday lynching. the defense is using a citizens arrest law that dates back to the 1860s that was used to catch runaway slaves, justify the catching of runaway slaves. there's a jury that's 11 white residents, one back resident. everywhere you look there is a huge racial cloud hanging over this entire situation. today there is an agent from the georgia bureau of investigation testifying, which is a reminder that the three men were not even arrested until months after this incident happened because of a leak of the video where we see arbery shot and killed. it's everywhere you look, it's inescapable. the comment by the attorney about back pastors, for so many people had so much -- it was really unbelievable to a lot of people to hear him say that. and then jesse jackson -- anyway, it's hard to explain the amount of negative reaction that has garnered, so much so that one of the other defense attorneys came out of the courtroom this afternoon at lunchtime -- we never hear from these attorneys -- to give his take on what happened. we also spoke to arbery's mother. >> can i just stop you there? what was his take? the idea that there's context to this. >> he called it, quote unquote, asinine, the comment. and he insisted that there is not a racial thing here going on. the defense has been very concerned, they have said on a number of occasions about the gatherings out here, the protests out here, outside the courtroom, wondering if the jury hears that. they feel like the attorney who made the comment about lack pastors has said a number of times that he doesn't feel his client can get a fair trial because of the atmosphere this is happening in. when i spoke to arbery's mother, she said she accepted the apology but didn't think it was sincere. she just thought it was very inappropriate. remember, this is a family that's grieving, and that has been supported by this entire community for almost the past two years, just to get to trial. and so she and others see it as a very insensitive remark. the testimony in court for the last couple of days has been all about the neighborhood where this happened, where arbery was shot and killed. and at every turn the defense has been trying to cast arbery as a criminal element that was lurking in the neighborhood because he's seen on this home security video on a number of occasions, while on the other side the prosecution has been insisting he never committed a crime, he's never seen robbing anybody or burglarizing a house, and that's what they have been saying. so, you know, there's racial overtones to that too because people see this criminalization of the victim as a racist tactic by the defense. so it's there too as well. everywhere you look, chris. >> so john, members of the public are allowed in the courtroom as long as they're not disruptive. have you ever heard anything like this? the woman who was sitting next to the lawyer reacts like she's awfully uncomfortable with what she hears him saying. i mean, at one point she just puts her head in her hands, like she can't believe what she's hearing. >> this is the most shocking and disturbing thing i've ever heard. in my view it's a question of intimidation, trying to prevent an african-american from showing up. but more importantly, i think if the racial card was played, it was played in the jury selection of this case. how can you not have a racial component to it when in point of fact, he played the race card when he knocked off 11 african-american jurors which the judge even thought was discriminatory in its impact. now he wants to cleanse the whole environment. he can't keep anybody from the courtroom unless they're disruptive, and the judge said that. i always say, bring your family, bring your friends, bring everybody you can to support the position because the jurors need to know that people care about that person and you do that by having your friends there, your relatives there, all of them sitting there, so the jury understands that people are watching this and care about this and they get a better sense that this person came from a good community, a good family, he's a good kid. that part is important from my perspective as a former prosecutor as well, you want family members there, you want people from the community there, all of this can be helpful, at least in making sure the jurors know about this individual. >> joe, the kyle rittenhouse trial in wisconsin, the defense rested, closing arguments will begin on monday. the judge denied the prosecution's request that the jury consider lesser charges. anything surprising about that? >> that's very surprising. just about every case, whether it's a homicide, particularly a murder charge, there's always an instruction that goes to a lesser defense, as in manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter. you can have a voluntary manslaughter case here where you could say the young man had a good faith but unreasonable belief that his life was in danger. that is pretty standard law that exists and i'm shocked, the judge is basically saying you're either going to convict on murder or you get nothing, which that is clearly wrong, that he should in fact allow for an involuntary or voluntary manslaughter conviction. this is another case where the community should feel this is a railroad case going on here, this judge is patently unfair to the prosecution and by definition to the people in the community, when he made those crazy statements that you can't refer to the victims at victims but as rioters, that sends a clear message to the jury. that's the part that is unfortunate here, that he's sending a certain message to the jury but then disallowing other evidence that should have been allowed in. this young man's prior statements, using a fake ar-15 rifle against rioters in chicago, that goes to his mental state and the judge could have easily allowed that in. i think all the judge's decisions in this case clearly are consistent with dictating an acquittal on all these charges when in point of fact he should be convicted of at least one, when he shot the young man who was on the ground. >> john burris, ron allen, thank you, gentlemen, appreciate it. up next, president biden moments away from a meeting with his cabinet as he prepares to sign the hard infrastructure bill into law. it comes as a daunting task is is facing the west wing, what to do about inflation and the rising cost of just about everything. if you wake up thinking about the market and want to make the right moves fast... get decision tech from fidelity. 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is there sort of, i guess, strategy to just try to get the messaging right at this point? what, hearing? >> it's two things, really. it's messaging and it's what steps can the president take. and we have seen the president addressing this more directly, talking about the pain that americans are feeling as they're having to put gas in their cars and pay for their groceries. and we are also seeing it tie into the next phase of trying to sell their agenda. part of what we will see is that the president believes that by having the first piece, the infrastructure agenda, that that will flood new money and spending into parts of the economy that will increase jobs. and with jobs comes money in one's pocket, increasing buying power. that will help some americans who will be the recipients of those jobs and communities where that will benefit. they are also arguing that the build back better agenda, as they have described it, is a chance to, if that can be passed, and they know that will be a difficult fight, and there's resistance certainly, that the idea in that is that if you can reduce childcare costs, if you can reduce taxes through the child tax credit and other kinds of everyday expenses for americans, that that too makes other things more affordable, as we have seen grocery prices going up, cost of cars, cost of gasoline, all those different things in the consumer realm that have clearly gone up. the president has been grappling with the issue of what to do about gas prices, what steps can he take, trying to pressure opec nations to put more supply into the marketplace, considering the sort of short term step of using the strategic petroleum reserve to release some of the stockpile that the u.s. keeps to try to make more supply available to drop gas prices down. they have not done that yet. so one would imagine this would be a part of the conversation happening in the cabinet room today as especially those cabinet officials who are directly connected to these issues will be at the table with the president. so it is both action and message that the white house needs to deal with this, and they certainly know it is a pressure point, chris. >> let's talk about that conversation, because economists agree this is going to level out with time, but people are feeling this right now. what do you imagine the conversation is like inside that cabinet meeting where everybody knows americans want something done right now? >> they clearly have a messaging problem. they've been saying this will be short-lived and it obviously isn't. the general consensus among economists is this is likely to get worse before it gets better. that will be especially the case if we have a cold winter in many parts of america. that's probably going to cause energy prices to go even higher, which has ripple effects across the economy. so the real question, though, is this build back better package. is it going to help or hurt inflation? the general view is, over the long term, so by, say, 2025, it probably will lower costs for many of the reasons that we were just talking about, it's supposed to bring down the cost of childcare, it's supposed to bring down the cost of elder care. but what about these next six months that's already undermining this recovery in many ways? we saw the big plunge in consumer confidence, in the latest data that was out just a few hours ago, showing a big -- another big drop in confidence because of this rising prices that people are feeling. and -- >> can i ask you about another stat that just came out, heather? this came from the bureau of labor statistics, a record 4.4 million americans quit their jobs in september, bringing the total so far this year to a whopping 34.5 million americans who aren't going back to their jobs. how does this fit into the broader economic picture you're talking about? >> yeah, i mean, on the one hand, this is incredibly good news, because workers finally feel empowered enough that they can quit their jobs if they feel they aren't getting paid enough or if they're burned out and feel their mental health is at stake, they feel that they can quit. and pretty quickly, find another job, because we also learned this morning that there remain over 10 million job openings for about 7 million unemployed. so there are a record number of opportunities for people who are looking for a job right now. but on the other hand, as we're talking about inflation, obviously we have a huge number of supply chain issues. but some of that is also being caused by staffing shortages. not enough workers in some of these lower end paying jobs like meat processing plants to process various poultry and beef in order to get more of that on the shelves. or truckers, we obviously need more truckers right now. that's not going to happen in the next four weeks before the holidays hit. so it's a good sign overall that we're seeing a lot of people quit and feeling empowered. but obviously it's just one more likelihood that we're going to prolong some of these higher prices and tensions throughout the economy. >> heather long, kelly o'donnell, thank you both. a big consequence of this record inflation is fuel costs are spiking nationwide, which means more pain at the pump and at your home too. nbc's tom costello has more on just how bad this could get this winter. hey, tom. >> reporter: hey, chris, good day. what a difference a year makes. you know, a year ago we didn't have that much traffic on the road because we were in the economic downturn from the pandemic. kids were going to school virtually. people working from home. sporting events were canceled. fast forward to today, and the economy is humming and turning on all cylinders. the trouble is we have now surged with our demands for fuel and that is simply something that the oil companies are struggling to keep up with. mid-november in new england. temperatures are falling, and edward is making the rounds, delivering heating oil and sticker shock to his customers. >> as much as i hate to show them the bill, they gasp, but they understand what's going on. >> reporter: from the northeast to the midwest meteorologists predict a cold winter which would make it an expensive one too. >> you have to heat your home. and, you know, you just have to pay the higher cost. >> reporter: prices have already jumped dramatically. natural gas up 130% from a year ago. heating oil up 59%. prices could move even higher as the months get colder. for americans warming their homes and filling their tanks. >> gas prices are bananas. i drive my car for a living. so yeah, $4 a gallon, you're like, really? >> i don't have enough money to pay for gas every day. this is crazy. >> reporter: the national average for unleaded now $3.41 a gallon, a seven-year high, up from $2.11 last year. during the pandemic economic slowdown. filling up on the west coast right now, even worse. $3.87 in washington, $3.96 in nevada, $4.64 in california. some lawmakers are calling on president biden to tap into the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. but experts say america is largely at the mercy of global markets and the reserve is only meant for short term emergencies. >> keep in mind any release from the petroleum reserve would only satisfy a small portion of global daily demand. this is a much bigger picture than just the u.s. alone. >> reporter: there are some things we can all do to cut down on heating costs. i've done all of these, and really, they work. when you're asleep at night or away during the day, turn the thermostat down seven to eight degrees. if you do that consistently for eight hours a day, you can save 10% on your heating bills. add thicker drapes or curtains. have a home audit, they can come in and determine where you're leaking air and seal all of that up. some states give an incentive or deal to do that. add more insulation to your attic, blow insulation in. all of that will help drive down the costs of heating your home in the winter. chris, back to you. another family, an unfathomable tragedy. the new lawsuits piling up after that tragedy in texas. britney spears could be free from the conservatorship she's lived under for 13 years. everything felt like a "no". but then paul went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows how food affects his glucose. and he knows when to make different choices. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us (chloe) wireless family plans save you money, but then now you know. you have to deal with family. 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"the houston chronicle" has obtained new police audio recorded as chaos unfolded at the scene. >> folks are coming out of the crowd, complaining of difficulty breathing, crushing-type injuries. seems like the crowd is compressed. >> there's a lot of people trampled and passed out at the front stage. >> the latest confirmed victim of the tragedy, 22-year-old bharti shahani. the texas a&m student died after spending days in the hospital on a ventilator. her family, understandably heartbroken, held a really emotional news conference yesterday. her mother in shock. her cousin blaming concert organizers for her death. >> i don't know what it was, but it was not a concert, you know? because my baby didn't come back. >> they had us packed in on all three sides with barricades. they suffocated us. they did this to bharti. they suffocated bharti. >> joining me, nbc's shaquille brewster from houston and law enforcement analyst carmen best, author of "black in blue." shaq, let's start with the fact that we're also hearing from travis scott's attorney for the first time. a lot of people have been pointing the finger at him. what can you tell us? >> yeah, those comments coming overnight from the attorney of travis scott. to put it in a little bit of context, this comes as the lawsuits against travis scott, against live nation, continue to mount. we heard from attorneys this morning filing a lawsuit or saying they represent more than 200 plaintiffs filing more than 90 different lawsuits this morning. so the pressure and the focus on travis scott and why that performance lasted so long, that only continues to grow. and in that context, we did hear for the first time from his attorney. listen to a little bit of what he had to say. >> he's devastated. he's not in any different condition than he was saturday morning when he really realized the magnitude of what went on. i'm pretty sure he hasn't left his house since he got home. and he is devastated. the reports in the news are absolutely true. he's especially devastated because this was in his hometown. he has a lot of ties to houston, a lot of love for houston. and he's just really hurting right now. >> that devastation extending to members of the community. you mentioned the death toll in this did rise when 22-year-old bharti shahani passed away. we learned that from her family last night. you saw that emotional press conference. and then we also got an update a little bit from the family of the 9-year-old, the other patient who is in critical condition right now in the hospital. last we heard is that he was in a medically induced coma. benjamin crump, the family's attorney, saying while they're not going to get into specifics about his condition, he does remain hospitalized, and the family is asking for prayers so that this tragedy doesn't continue to expand, chris. >> carmen, we know there will be a lot of lawsuits, we could have figured that out from the first moment. without oversimplifying it, is, at the heart of any of these suits, going to be an answer to the question, could this have been prevented? >> that's going to be the question, of course. what could have been done, who knew what when, what could have been done better. there's a large amount of folks, there wasn't enough space, they were compressed together, there was the potential for tragedy and obviously that's what we saw. >> we're hearing more stories every day from people who were there, and you just heard from the cousin who said we were basically penned in, we were suffocated. what questions do you have for concert organizers who put this event together, and frankly, for city officials who said we have a problem, 40 minutes before the concert actually ended? >> i think there's going to be, like i said, who knew what when, what was the exit strategy. as was mentioned, it was difficult to move that number of people on a moment's notice. you would need an exit strategy for how to do that to prevent the loss of life. >> carmen best, shaquille brewster, thanks to both of you, we appreciate it. we'll continue to follow that. there's pivotal hearing kicking off just a couple of hours from now in california for pop star britney spears. the judge will decide whether spears can take back control of her money and her life after living under a conservatorship for 13 years. spears' father, who had been responsible for all her personal and financial decisions, was suspended as conservator in september. a month later, the pop star formally asked the court to end the legal arrangement entirely. today the judge will rule on that petition, which also requests that spears not be required to undergo further mental health evaluations. up next, it's mostly good news on the covid front. but there are places where the coronavirus is surging right now. what doctors fear this winter, next. ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to 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non-steroid treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. >> addresses the press before a cabinet meeting. let's take a listen. >> $89 billion worth of losses just this year consequence of those environmental events to fortifying our bridges, our power lines and i said our levees. also to one of our biggest responsibilities to make sure all the money is used efficiently. and effectively. and i have a lot of experience in doing that. when i was vice president, i was given the responsibility of oversees my now department and the former chief of staff, dennis can tell you, implementing recovery act which was nearly $900 billion stimulus package. and in the process, i'm proud to say the president gave me authority which i will be signing, as well, to use whatever assets the federal government had, put together a good team because when we finished implementing the recovery act, it was determined that it had less than 0.02 of waste or fraud, period. i was, that's how i became known. the president started calling me sheriff joe. president obama at the time. because i made it a point every day to stay on top of how exactly the money was spent, what projects were being built and what projects were not being built and how it was functioning. it was one of the most efficient implementations of a program in modern history. it is my attention to see to it that the act that we just passed that we're going to sign on monday meets the same standard. we owe it to the american people to make sure the money in this infrastructure plan and the build back better plan god willing we'll be able to still finish and will be able to be used for purposes intended. so, that's what i want to talk to my cabinet about today and the high obligation and responsibility that we all have to make sure this money is used wisely, used well and used for the stated purp purposed for th american people. because if we do it right, we know what it will mean. we know what it will mean. it will create million of new jobs and grow the economy and we'll win the world economic competition that we're engaged in in the second quarter of the 21st century with china and many other countries around the world. and we're going to see ease and i say, yes, ease, lower inflationary pressures on our economy. and we'll be carrying this out what i call the blue collar blue print for america. one that builds the economy from the bottom up and one not from the top down. i want to thank you all for being here and that's what is discussed today and next week i'll have further announcements of who will be put in charge of how we do this. thank you all so very much. >> thank you, thank you. let's go. >> so, clearly the president is not going to answer any of those many shouted questions, but he did talk about the infrastructure bill that he's going to sign on monday before he goes into his cabinet meeting acknowledging that one of the things they have to talk about is that in spite of what they see as a good economic outlook aided by the infrastructure bill and the average americans who are seeing it as we talked about in this hour higher heating prices, higher food prices. we'll continue to follow that and get any reports that we're able to get out of that cabinet meeting today. meantime, the cdc is hitting new vaccine milestones. nearly 99% of people over 65 have gotten at least one dose. 72% of people over 12. and nearly 59% of all americans are now fully vaccinated. those numbers come as public health experts are warning that a winter covid surge is on a horizon as we see the number of cases going back up in places like new mexico, colorado, illinois, minnesota and more kids meantime are getting vaccinated leading states and cities to ease up on state mask mandates but some argue too soon. sam brock is in miami for us. hey, sam. >> chris, good afternoon on a rainy day in florida. a couple things going on. one the arrival of the child vaccine and also lower infection rates in many different communities means more schools right now are dropping mare mask mandates here in miami-dade. starting today parents can opt their kids out of having to wear a mask. this comes as 15 states right now have double-digit increases in covid cases and concerns that things can get worse. in the one time covid epicenter of south florida, infections are falling. but some parents with young kids don't see that as cause to start relaxing mask rules just yet. >> one of the main reasons it went down is because probably everybody is wearing masks. >> new concerns another wave of the virus is coming as we head into winter. 15 states have seen a double-digit increase the last two weeks including some where vaccination rates are above average. cold weather states like minnesota, michigan and illinois showing sizable upticks but some warm weather states like arizona and new mexico have also seen an increase, too. then there's california. it's central valley still coping with busy covid wards. >> it still tells us that we may be at the tip of this winter surge that is going to hit the rest of the state and possibly the rest of the nation. >> reporter: some parts of the country already feeling a surge. like colorado where the governor signed an executive order overnight declaring everyone at high risk for exposure and making anyone 18 and older eligible for a booster. while hospitalizations nationwide are down about 7%, deaths dropping around 9% and breakthrough cases are increasingly common with only one-third of eligible seniors so far getting critical booster shots. >> something that we always want to keep track of and that is the first indicator of what may be to come. >> reporter: an encouraging 7 in 10 adults are fully vaccinated with fresh optimism that kids will help cut down transmission. a million already have received a shot. >> the only ones that have broken any laws are right in that building right there. >> reporter: this week two of the biggest school districts in the country miami-dade and broward giving parents the choice about masking their kids. this family now rushing to get their kids vaccinated before sending them back to classrooms with unmaxed students. >> if they're not vaccinated and they're not wearing masks, i might feel a little uncomfortable around them and maybe ask them to wear their masks. >> that little girl, obviously, the best interview of the day. back to the booster shots and so many seniors choosing not to get them. doctors say absolutely critical, not just optional. top health officials pushing to make the boosters more available. but a lukewarm reception to that from cdc director. chris, let me send it back to you. >> sam brock with clearly the best interview of the day. thank you, sam. that will do it for me today and i have very important note for all of you. katy tur will be back in the anchor chair on monday. she is returning from maternity leave. make sure to tune in monday at 2:00 p.m. eastern and until then, hallie jackson will pick up our coverage next. have a great weekend. ssolves qu. instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. now available for fast sinus relief. this is elodia. she's a recording artist. 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. as we come on the air on msnbc here. president biden finishing up a meeting entering president biden's meeting with his cabinet at the white house. reporters in the room with the president facing a lot of questions but notably no comments on a couple of key issues, like, for example, the person you're about to see. why the president's new pick to head the