length with members of the select committee about a notorious january phone call with trump in which raffensperger refused the then-president's demands to find enough votes in georgia to overcome his deficit. tomorrow the committee is expected to begin contempt of congress proceedings against this guy, jeffrey clark. he is the former doj official said to have been involved in trump's effort to overturn the election. clark has already appeared before the committee but refused to answer any questions. the committee is also awaiting a decision from an appeals court on its request for trump's white house documents from january 6th. that court heard today from trump's lawyers about his claim of executive privilege and why he should be allowed to keep those documents secret from that day. nbc news reporting the judges seemed skeptical of trump's claim. a good many lawyers who were listening in agreement. the committee argues those documents are essential for a final report on what led to the insurrection. >> ultimately, our goal here is to produce a document, to gather as much information as possible, both through witness interviews and in those documents from the national archives, that will help tell the story of january 5th and january 6th and the rallies leading to the insurrection and the assault on democracy. >> also tonight the biden white house trying to get ahead of the omicron covid variant, ramping up efforts to detect the new strain in our country. there are still no cases reported here in the united states, but officials are increasing surveillance across the country, especially at all cities with international airports like new york, atlanta, newark, san francisco, but in plain english it is a matter of time before it gets here. white house officials tell nbc news tighter requirements for international travel are also under consideration. that could include stricter testing rules. today the president was asked what else might be on the table. >> mr. president, are you considering any new vaccine requirements or efforts to try to get more americans vaccinated? you said that is the key to protecting against omicron. is there anything you are going to do? >> i will be talking about that on thursday. >> today came work that the omicron strain may have been detected in europe days before any other travel restrictions were imposed. the emergence of this new variant is also raising questions about the protection we get from our existing vaccines, prompting this from dr. fauci. >> vaccines, and particularly boosters, give a level of antibody that even with variants like delta give you a degree of cross protection, particularly against severe disease. >> moderna's ceo was among those suggesting today that the current vaccines might be less effective in battle inthe new variant. his comments, as well as fed chair jerome powell's remarks today during a senate hearing about potential economic impacts, well, that all helped to shave over 650 points off the dow. nice to know wall street feels the same way about new variants as the rest of us. this is also the eve of what is likely to be a history-making day before the supreme court. tomorrow morning the justices will hear oral arguments in a case involving a mississippi abortion law that makes it practically impossible to obtain an abortion in that state after 15 weeks of pregnancy. today mississippi's governor outlined his state's case. >> there's no guarantee to an abortion in our u.s. constitution, but i would go a step further and tell you that not only is there not a guaranteed right, there's also nothing in our united states constitution that would prevent a state, a state like mississippi, from implementing and placing reasonable restrictions on abortions. >> this mississippi case has been described as the biggest challenge to abortion rights in this country in decades. it will be among our topics of discussion here tonight. with that, it is a good time to introduce our starting line on this tuesday evening. ashley parker, pulitzer prize winning white house bureau chief for "the washington post." carol leonnig, also with the post, co-author with our friend phil rucker of "the new york times" best seller "i alone can fix it." and paul butler, former federal corruption prosecutor at the department of justice, currently a professor at georgetown law. good evening and welcome to you all. ashley, i would like to begin with you. this is a great headline for the committee, the potential cooperation of mark meadows. they were quick to get out there the fact that he shared 6,000 e-mails, but 3,000 of those could be from wayfair. i guess this story is yet to be told as his cooperation rolls out. >> that's exactly right. it is unclear exactly how cooperative he is going to be. mark meadows is one of former president trump's staunchest allies who just the other day was floating trump for speaker of the house should republicans regain it. what is fascinating to me is that having covered mark meadows when he was in congress and then when he was in the trump white house, republicans, all republicans, some who have worked for him, worked with him, worked on opposing sides of him, have almost unilaterally come to believe that he is dishonest. one told me, and this is a verbatim quote, he is a stone cold liar. several in the white house told me they believed -- and, again, these are people who worked with them, some had known him for a long time, he was the worst chief of staff in history, though it also remains unclear just how forthcoming he will be to the committee. if history is any indication and how the committee deals with a challenge like that, which is something journalists who covered the trump white house grappled with for a very long time. what do you do when you can't trust what the chief of staff is telling you? >> carol leonnig, what does it tell us that the committee spent four hours talking to the georgia secretary of state? >> i think it is a pretty important amount of time. four hours is not a trifling amount. it means you want to get to the bottom. you want the details. you want the nuances. let's keep in mind that this georgia state official's account of events has been well reported, especially in the pages of "the washington post", i might add, by our colleague amy gardner. a lot of news was broken. so much of his story is known. the fact that they want to detail what was your conversation like with donald trump says to me that they're fascinated about that line, what was donald trump asking of you. we all know what that was, find me x number of votes that are my deficit for winning georgia, but he also is critical to understanding jeff clark. remember, brian, as your network has reported and "the post" has reported and other organizations, jeff clark is on the chopping block at the moment because that former doj official, one of the only department of justice officials under donald trump who was willing to push the lie that georgia's election was corrupted, the only one willing to press the georgia governor to reconvene the legislature secretly so as to stop the certification of biden's election, that individual is being voted on by the committee tomorrow for criminal -- forgive me, for contempt. he will be the second only held in contempt after steve bannon. presumably, that's a lot what's going on with mark meadows. he want to do the right legal dance to show he is engaging, he is not just completely blocking the committee, because he does not want that pink slip of contempt either. >> hey, paul, what is to stop a mark meadows from claiming privilege on some questions and just not answering them, taking the fifth on other questions and just not answering them, and the can gets kicked down the road further? >> nothing's to stop that, and that is likely what will happen. so the threat of criminal contempt seems to be lighting a little bit of a fire. so steve bannon might be more scared of donald trump than he is of going to prison, but mark meadows has some decisions to make. so the key issue is exactly what cooperation means. mark meadows apparently still will assert trump's claim of executive privilege, which means that he could testify about january 6th except he would still refuse to answer questions about donald trump's involvement. the committee would have to decide whether that's good enough. >> ashley parker, let's turn to the intersection of health and politics where so often our conversation returns. what's the level of concern you have been able to gauge at the white house over this new variant? politically, of course, it rolls up and over any of the best laid plans. >> well, president biden said publicly that there is cause for concern and not panic, and that's from a health perspective, he was saying. but from a political perspective there absolutely is reason for panic within this white house because this is a white house who for months, as i and others on my team have reported out, tried to report out the cause behind biden's falling polling numbers, the reason why democrats believe they could likely lose the senate and the house. just about every white house official says publicly and sometimes privately as well that it all comes down to covid, and if they can get covid under control everything will turn around just like that. of course, some of the other things that are bedevilling them politically and as well hurting actual americans such as the economy, inflation, supply chain issues, are all inextricably bound with covid. so while that is their theory of the case and it may even be the reality on the ground that they have to deal with, it is incredibly risky when your political strategy is sort of based on the eradication of a once-in-a-lifetime deadly pandemic that has been mutating and giving us new variations since it arrived on the scene. this is just yet another issue where you wanted to be out promoting infrastructure, other end-of-the-year legislation he needs to get done, and we have seen part of his week devoted to the new variant. we will see that thursday and throughout the rest of this week. >> indeed, we are. carol, if we can jump back to capitol hill for a moment. to paul's point that there's nothing quite like the threat of criminal contempt to focus the mind, depending on whose mind we are talking about, mark meadows may not want that as the last item in his professional resume. whereas, a guy like steve bannon it is a resume burnisher to him. but let's talk about your contrary knowledge of the bannon case. does it just keep rolling along? >> well, you've divined the difference between those individuals well. remember, when bannon was told that he was going to be held in criminal contempt or that he was going to be referred for it, it became an advertising marketing opportunity for him. he talked about the revenge he would have on democrats and how this moment would be foisted exactly upon them when republicans were back in control. it was almost like a fundraising letter for, you know, a tongue wagging lobbyist. meadows' situation is quite different, but i'll tell you this. i don't see, as paul laid out, i don't see meadows giving up the ghost any more quickly than bannon at this time. his lawyer has telegraphed -- he has a good lawyer, by the way, and he has telegraphed to the public that they're not going to be discussing a host of things the committee absolutely insists on discussing and they're only going in to talk about things under certain limitation. it tells me that they're going to try a more polite and adept stall, and on the course of bannon it is going to be, you know, sort of full-frontal assault. i think you are going to see a lot more of that kind of promoting the revenge tour that bannon has in store for democrats who insist on getting his answers. again, it doesn't help us in the public understand very much why everyone who says nothing went wrong on january 6th is so cryptonic a subject to discussion before the committee. as the former president said, hey, this was no big deal. if it was no big deal, why are we all watching this group of people fight so hard not to discuss it? >> paul butler, take a minute and give us a preview of tomorrow. i am talking about the oral arguments before the supreme court. i am also interested in your opinion of a little piece of sound we ran in the opening segment from the governor of mississippi. it strikes me you always get into trouble when you start listing certain freedoms that aren't in the constitution, where they didn't have any knowledge of our modern-day cellphone use or gps ability to track people. the list is long, so that's always kind of problematic. i was also wondering what mr. justice blackman, were he still with us, would make of the mississippi governor ease argument, blackman having hung the freedom of choice on the liberty clause to the 14th amendment. >> so, brian, as we all know, at this moment roe v. wade is good law. the question is why would the court have accepted this case but for changing that. so the people i'm going to be looking at are chief justice john roberts, justice amy barrett, and justice brett kavanaugh. they are some of the most conservative people ever to sit on the supreme court, but in this court they actually count as the middle. so if there is any chance for roe to be upheld, either in letter or in spirit, it is up to these three justices or people who champion a woman's right to choose there's not a lot of reason to be optimistic. in addition to abortion, if this court overturns well-settled precedent, next on the line could be affirmative action, could be voting rights, could be increasing power to corporations. so abortion rights are extremely important and this is just one of the issues that's on the line with this case tomorrow. brian, i think this is going to be the most important supreme court decision in many years. >> well, to those watching, you heard the preview for tomorrow's oral arguments before the court. with great thanks to our front four -- our front three rather on this tuesday. i guess i make it four. ashley parker, carol leonnig, paul butler, thanks for starting off our offerings as always. coming up for us, we have a top doctor standing by to break down what is and is not known tonight about this new variant. and later, joe biden wants to talk infrastructure, but republicans in their way hope covid will drown that out. we will get into the persistent and deadly politics of this nearly two-year-long pandemic and our we're nation. all of it as "the 11th hour" is just getting under way on this tuesday night on the eve of the big arguments inside that courthouse. (phone chimes) ♪ ♪ ♪ i jump up on the stage ♪ ♪ and do my money dance ♪ ♪ i throw some money up ♪ ♪ and watch the money land ♪ ♪ i do my, i do my i do my money dance ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi - you could save with low rates and no fees. earn a $500 bonus when you refi... and get your money right. ♪ i do my money dance ♪ get help managing your money for the life -- and years -- ahead. with fidelity income planning, we'll look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow designed to last. so you can go from saving... to living. - san francisco can have criminal justice reform and public safety. but district attorney chesa boudin is failing on both. - the safety of san francisco is dependent upon chesa being recalled as soon as possible. - i didn't support the newsom recall but this is different. - chesa takes a very radical perspective and approach to criminal justice reform, which is having a negative impact on communities of color. - i never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of san francisco and not get any justice. - chesa's failure has resulted in increase in crime against asian americans. - the da's office is in complete turmoil at this point. - for chesa boudin to intervene in so many cases is both bad management and dangerous for the city of san francisco. - we are for criminal justice reform. chesa's not it. recall chesa boudin now. ♪♪ to be crystal clear, we have far more tools to fight the variant today than we had at this time last year. right now there is no evidence of omicron in the united states. the delta variant remains the predominant circulating strain. our variant surveillance system has demonstrated we can reliably detect variants, from alpha in the start of 2021 to delta over the past summer. >> at least 20 countries now reported cases of the omicron variant. just tonight we learned the first case to our south in latin america. the feds insist the u.s. is prepared to identify and contain this new variant, but, importantly, tonight with us for more, dr. irwin redlener, founding director of columbia's national center for disaster preparedness. he happens to be a professor it pediatrics at albert einstein college of medicine. doctor, given the assumption if it ain't here yet it is about to be, what do you make of the idea of the u.s. doing what admittedly other countries have done and cracking down on all incoming international travel, more aggressive testing and the like? >> so, brian, there's a lot that we need to do, but i'm not a big fan, frankly, of the travel bans because by the time we institute a ban this disease has already been spreading. it is probably here in the united states even though we haven't documented it yet. i think we need to take a different tack right now, and that would include mandating vaccination proof before you get on an airplane anywhere and going anywhere. you need to be showing that you have been fully vaccinated. furthermore, we could do a lot of more testing, both when you leave and when you arrive wherever you are going. i think those are the kind of things that i think will really start controlling the spread of the virus, including omicron, this crazy new variant that we're starting to see now. >> and right quick here, you just used the phrase that i keep returning to, and that is fully vaccinated, and a number of us are used to now showing our phones, perhaps a picture we took of our vaccine cards if not the cards themselves. when are we going to define three shots as fully vaccinated and when perhaps will the word "booster" fall out of the vocabulary and this becomes known as a three-shot regimen from the get-go? >> right, brian. i think this is exactly where we're going. we are going to transition right now and, you know, we're seeing the last gasp i think of just talking about a two-shot regimen with a, quote, unquote, booster shot. i think we can get to convincing the public that we're really talking about a three-shot regimen, the better, because the fact of the matter is we're still going to need boosters. those boosters as this becomes endemic or permanently with us, those boosters might have to come every single year, brian, at least. so this is something we're all expecting. we are talking about three shots to be fully vaccinated. >> i have a graphic since we are using the "b" word for boosters. i have a graphic to show you about booster compliance. israel, which, you know, admittedly is a kind of a much smaller example, a nation of 10 million people. chile, uruguay, iceland, all of them above us in delivering boosters. it is so easy to blame the troubles of this pandemic on the previous covid-denier president, the previous administration, but the boosting messaging is on the biden administration. is this, do you think, a case where we all passed along too many rules and restrictions and government and health policy gobbledegook when the message should have been if you have had your two shots, if you have had your j&j, go get the second or get the third without getting bogged down in labels? >> yes, so this is a big problem. it has been so since the beginning of the administration, which is unfortunate and ironic because the administration assembled a spectacularly talented and qualified team. the one flaw in this, the one fly in this ointment of talent has been the messaging challenges which have repeatedly shown themselves to really undermine a public confidence in government. they need to figure out a better way to figure out how to message these things. the other thing that we need to note, brian, is a country like israel, like you pointed out, it is a small country, it is also not a federalist country. this country does not have the ability to issue an order from the white house about, let's say, getting vaccinated. those orders, if they are to be given, are only going to come from state and local governments. they're going to come from individual companies and so on, other than the federal authorities that the president has. most of the authority to mandate something like a vaccine is going to come from much lower levels of government, making the entire thing in some ways a complicated mess. but, hopefully, we will hear what the president has to say on thursday and we will get some more at least very definitive direction of how we should go forward with vaccinations in america. >> and one quick follow up. if, indeed, we lose the word booster and streamline the messaging and make this a three-shot regimen, where will that decision originate? where will that messaging originate? is that white house, is that nih, is it fda, cdc or some combination thereof? >> well, it is cdc, is where that is going to happen, and then the president, of course, will reinforce it as will the other agencies as will, hopefully, state agencies, parallel agencies in the state. but here is the problem, brian. for now a long time we've failed to tell the public this message strongly enough, which is that we don't know everything. we know very little about the behavior of this virus and where it is going, so prepare yourselves, american public, for new data, altering, changing, modifying the message here, be ready for it, because that's the reality of science. it is the reality of trying to figure out what to do about a very difficult virus to understand. we are learning on the go and we should have been hearing that coming from the cdc a lot more strongly than it has been, brian. >> i hope everyone watching tonight heard that last paragraph, dr. irwin redlener. our thanks for taking our questions, as always. coming up for us after our next break, the biden administration said to be well aware of the political risks if they can't get the pandemic under control. republicans, who are happy to forget that trump was a covid denier, see great opportunity in this. that's our politics in 2021. it is also part of our conversation we'll get to when we come back. ♪♪ what the- henry? 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>> so, one, they're doing everything they can, brian. we have seen this from dose in florida to kemp in georgia to all of the things happening in texas. republicans have constantly behaved as if covid wasn't real, wasn't a problem, and they took their lead from donald trump last year who contracted covid and basically had a giant superspreader event every time he had an event in washington. that part isn't new. the consequences for it, i don't think we can necessarily predict yet because, look, quite frankly if you are the kind of person that gets fired over refusing to take a vaccine and you are not aaron rodgers, a hall of famer, you were probably already pro maga. it is going to rally people, but i don't think those kinds of policies, you can still get your insurance, i don't think they're going to change anybody over. ultimately, the onus is going to be on joe biden. people don't want to go back to normal. they don't want to go back to 2019. they want to go back to the freedom of 2019 with the flexibility that some of us have discovered during this pandemic. so to the degree that the federal government, the degree that democrats can come up with a message that says, you know what? those of you who want to stay at home, we understand. those of you who want to operate virtually, we understand. those who want to get vaccinated, we understand. it is a more complicated message but it is one the democrats will have to have because the republicans will have to get people behind them saying, ah, the vaccines don't exist but we still want to get the free vaccines at cvs. >> tim, i first met you when you were working for jeb. what if i told you, wait a few years and i'm here to tell you that your political party would some day be anti-vaccine, would you have believed me? >> it was the berkeley crowd that was anti-vax back in those days, brian. we have had a big turn on this issue. look, it is not just by party. to jason's point it is jeb's successor in florida. i mean ron di san advertise was for unemployment insurance for people who got covid through no fault of their own because it was out of control in the beginning, he was against financial incentives for people to get the vaccine, but he's for financial incentives for people to refuse to get the vaccine and put others in their community at risk. look, you could -- there's no way you could have told me in the jeb campaign this is what the party would look like five years from now, and i think there's an opportunity here for democrats to take from that old school republican messaging and maybe appeal to some of the voters, the times that voted for -- i know i'm not supposed to say his name in virginia, glenn youngkin, but, look, it was a vaccine developed under a republican president, that was developed by the free market and the ingenuity of this country, that is keeping people safe, that has saved thousands and millions, frankly, of lives, and the democrats are the ones that can champion that. i think they can bring a majority of the country that does want this pandemic to end, that is sick of it, that is willing to get vaccines on their side if they make that in a positive way, in a way that people can rally behind rather than a way that kind of shakes their finger. >> thank you for remembering that youngkin is the fight club of this particular broadcast. these gentlemen agreed to stay with us after our break. when we come back, if the president these days sounds like a regional sales guy, well, that's part of the job these days. i may have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. or psoriatic arthritis. but we are so much more. we're team players and artists. designers and do-it-yourselfers. parents and friends. if joint pain is getting in the way of who you are, it's time to talk to your doctor about enbrel. enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop permanent joint damage. plus enbrel helps skin get clearer in psoriatic arthritis. ask your doctor about enbrel, so you can get back to your true self. play ball! enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and blood disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been someplace where fungal infections are common. or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. visit enbrel.com to see how your joint damage could progress. enbrel. eligible patients may pay as little as $5 per month. - grammarly business turned my marketing team into rock stars. (diana strums guitar) maya swears by grammarly business because it keeps her work on brand and error-free. fast and easy. - [announcer] learn more at grammarly.com/business. ♪♪ rebuilding in america, investing in america. that's what this is about, and we are doing it as we continue to battle the pandemic. we know about the problems, we have known it for a long time, and now we're doing something about it. no more talking. time for action. >> well, if it is tuesday, it must be minnesota. the president back on the road. he is talking infrastructure while grappling with this new variant and, of course, uncertainty surrounding the big social spending bill that is a vital part of his agenda. lucky for us, jason johnson and tim miller remain with us. jason, i have something for you. here is mitch mcconnell on the future or lack of it for biden's big social spending bill. >> look, i think we all know that the situation we're in, not a single republican in the senate is going to vote for this reckless tax and spending spree. we all know it. only would take one democrat to tank it. most of us feel that the single best thing we could do to fight inflation right now would be to kill this bill, and only one democrat could do that. are we hopeful that one will step forward? absolutely. >> oh, we could name some names. jason, knowing how fond you are of that man, here is the following question. given inflation, and the second given is no americans know what is in the bill so they don't know what they might get, do the democrats have real worries that that guy, what he just said is right? >> well, mcconnell is only right to the degree that you let him control the narrative, right. that's one of the reasons why joe biden is wisely running around the country talking about the infrastructure bill now. that's one of the reasons why he put mitch landrieu in charge of it so he can distribute the money and tell people, hey, this is going to be flat, we will slap biden's name on it the same way we did with obamas years ago. they can have the most brilliant ideas in the world, but if they let mitch mcconnell dominate the conversation, if they let the unspoken name, joe manchin or kyrsten sinema dominate the conversation, they don't spend enough time talking about the bill. joe biden talking about the infrastructure bill is great. it would have been brilliant if he was doing that in june. it would have been great if vice president harris was doing it in june. no, i don't think mitch is going to be right about this. i think some version of build back better will get through, but whether they can sell it depends on whether they are committed to selling it, not just in contrast to what republicans say but letting americans know what the value is. >> tim, here is the other problem with biden selling things like infrastructure. you and i both know bridges don't just happen before the midterms. bridges need surveyors and everything needs an environmental impact statement, then you need contractors, then you need footings. good luck getting rebar with the supply chain backed up and everybody wanting rebar and concrete. so it is tough to sell a notion to a public hungry to replace the rickety bridge they take to work every day. >> probably a few too many environmental studies, brian. i agree with that. i have to nitpick jason on one thing. the reason -- we don't want to fight over spilled milk, the reason biden wasn't selling it in june was the progressives were blocking him from passing it originally in july. but here we are where we are right now. i'm happy he's out there selling it. i was also criticizing him in july for not selling it better. i think what he was doing in minnesota today was great. i think the big picture in the national message was that he got the big things done that the former guy wasn't able to do. i have been encouraged about his change of tone about inflation over the past couple of weeks. when he is making these trips, there are tangible things that can happen. i was in west virginia two weeks ago. there's no broadband. i drove for an hour and a half and i couldn't get an e-mail. this has a tangible effect on people if kids are having to do school at home because of the variant, if people are -- parents are trying to have to work from home and they can't work on e-mails, if people who live on washington can't go out to west virginia for a week over the holidays, that's money that's out of those communities. so there are things that he can sell when he is going to these places, and he's going to have to keep doing that while not losing the ball on covid, unfortunately. he has a big job juggling all of that. >> gentlemen, i can't thank you both enough for coming on and sharing your thoughts with us tonight. two friends of this broadcast, jason johnson, tim miller, have been our guests tonight. coming up for us, new reporting on how all of those container ships waiting to be unloaded are hurting small businesses during this peak season. ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ light 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em... ♪ introducing the all-new gillettelabs with exfoliating bar. it removes unseen dirt and debris before the blades, for a shave as quick and easy as washing your face. ♪♪ do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. the brand i trust is qunol. ♪♪ if you have ordered a new stove or microwave or a couch or a car, then you know about the supply chain. so many christmas gifts, in fact, are sitting in shipping containers tonight, leaving stores unable to guess at a delivery date. i want to show you something that just came out. this new cover of "the new yorker" nicely illustrates the solution we would all very much like to see. we have a report on this tonight from nbc news correspondent jo ling kent, who spoke to the u.s. labor secretary about how and when this crisis may finally end. >> reporter: for the first time labor secretary marty walsh visiting the clogged port of los angeles, filled with idling container ships. >> i would say that the ports may not be operating 24/7, but they're certainly operating at a higher capacity. >> reporter: when do you think the supply chain will get back to normal? >> i don't think there's ever a normal in the supply chain. i think it has been ups and downs. >> reporter: the port of l.a. says the number of containers waiting to be unloaded dropped 37% since late october, but fed chief jerome powell laying out new fears brought on by the omicron variant. >> greater concerns about the virus could reduce people's willingness to work in person which would slow progress in the labor market and intensify supply chain interruptions. >> reporter: how are you as labor secretary going to incentivize people to go back to work? >> as we continue to figure out the variants we need to continue stressing people getting vaccinated, boosted, wearing matchings. >> reporter: it is more than that for a boutique owner in chicago. hiring for her is difficult because she has to compete with major retailers. >> unfortunately, if we're short staffed it affects everything. >> reporter: on top of that, she only has gotten 60% of what she needs to stock her shelves this holiday season. >> we have at least a dozen off your best sellers we have always leaned on during this time hasn't been available. >> reporter: how do you make sure small businesses are properly served in this pandemic when they try to get their stuff in? >> i think when we look at delivering of goods and services to our country, goods to the country, i don't look through the lens of the big companies and the small companies. i look to everybody's company at the same time. >> reporter: companies large and small, desperate for supply chain solutions. jo ling kent, nbc news, los angeles. when we come back after our final break, can't we just is a no to the new variant? can't we just say we're busy, it is the holidays and we're sick of the fear of getting sick? >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. 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. ♪ at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will work with you on a comprehensive wealth plan across your full financial picture. a plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. this is the planning effect. we were alone when my husband had the heart attack. designed to help you keep more of what you earn. he's the most important thing in my life. i'm so lucky to get him back. your heart isn't just yours. protect it with bayer aspirin. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. befo♪ ♪ ♪u begin an aspirin regimen. ♪ ♪ ♪ with chase security features, guidance and convenience, banking feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. ♪♪ last thing before we go tonight, i know i am not alone in saying this, that the new variant, the omicron, in addition to sounding like a 1970 digital watch brand, is a highly unwelcome development because we fear what this may mean. nobody wants this. in fact, it caused an unusual, highly personal moment during a recent newscast. oh, wait, i'm being told it wasn't a newscast at all, but it was "the daily show." >> i've been talking to the top scientist at the cdc, and everyone seems to agree -- come on, man. just -- just stop. just stop, man. chill, man. just variant after variant after variant. just -- [ bleep ]. stop, bro. >> i'm sorry, roy. this is what the scientists are saying? >> oh, no, of course not. i'm paraphrasing, trevor. the actual scientist is -- [ bleep ]. i got to cancel this vacation. i done pushed it back two or three times. st. johns, they're going to shut everything down. next thing you know, you'll have strange people delivering your home. i gotta be cooped up with the kid and home school him and figure out which button is the zoom button. and then that's another day. we are in a two bedroom apartment, it is three of us. it is not enough space. i can hear her phone call through the wall. i can hear him playing the nintendo switch. i'm trying to be on a conference call, and god forbid i get silence in the house, that i sat online to buy i got a blaem [ bleep ] play stations. i can't play them around the game. what other good games are there to play on a play station other than violent games. you have to pretend violence in this country to keep from doing violence in real life. she doesn't understand that's what the video games do more me and i just think if i just had a third bedroom. a third bedroom. >> all right. >> that's all we need, a third bedroom and it would give me the space that i need. but then we would have to move up town and that's too far. then you got a 40-minute train ride. >> all right. thank you. >> i don't want a train ride and everybody has omicron. >> thank you so much, roy. thank you so much, roy. thank you for keeping us updated on your developments. thank you so much for that. ♪♪ in a way, roy speaks for all of us as "the daily show" takes us off the air tonight. that is our effort for this tuesday evening. with our thanks for being here with us, on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. quick personal note before we start. tonight is my parents wedding anniversary. they have been married for 53 years. come on. we should all aspire to such greatness and such happiness. happy anniversary you crazy kids. 53 years. absolutely fantastic. all right, tonight in the news it is one of those nights that we're doing batting practice against like five different pitching machines all at, once and a lot of the stories are big and complex, interesting. the