but here's jose with some breaking news. >> thank you, steph. good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern/7:00 a.m. pacific. this morning, the omicron variant is at least identified in at least five u.s. states. we're monitoring the latest updates. we'll talk with two experts about what you need to know. break this morning, a disappointing jobs report shows just 210,000 jobs were added in november. just minutes from now, president biden will deliver remarks on that report. we will bring you those remarks live. also overnight, lawmakers managed to stave off a government shutdown with just hours to spare, but the president's build back better agenda remains stalled in the senate. we'll talk to congressman raul ruiz about his top priorities for this bill. and actor alec baldwin speaks out about that deadly shooting on the "rust" film set, saying he feels no guilt about what happened and insisted he did not pull the trigger. and we begin this hour with the push to identify cases of the omicron variant across the united states, as new cases crop up. the biden administration released a new strategy to fight covid in the coming months. a big part of that requiring insurance companies to reimburse the cost of at-home tests. joining me now with more is nbc news correspondent allison barber live from illinois, also with us, jonathan lemeyer and the host of "way too early" on msnbc. allison, let me start with you. you're one of the biggest labs mass producing covid tests. can people be confidence that these tests will work if they have the omicron variant? >> reporter: the short answer is "yes." there are labs all over this place. this is one of many labs that deals with testing different covid samples. these machines usually work to get information on antibodies, but there are labs like this all around this area. and we saw a lot of them. many of them right now are focused on running tests to make sure that these sorts of kits still work. so this is the at-home rapid antigen covid kit that you can buy over-the-counter, produced by abbott, it's called binax now. it's a relatively simple kit that comes with two tests. this sort of thing is a device, a tool that a lot of families are planning to use as they go home to visit other family members for the holidays. and when you look at something like the omicron variant and see its frankenstein mix of mutations, it makes sense that a lot of people are wondering, can we still trust the test results from those at-home kits? the answer seems to be "yes." abbott says they know this because they ran the genomic sequence of the omicron variant through their systems and analyzed that data. that sequence is literally a crazy-looking code of letters and computers run that, they compare it with other variants, and they can detect whether or not the kits, the tests they have right now, whether they will stick pick up that variant. if you look at a virus, a covid virus particle with me really quickly, you can see on the outside, there are those spike proteins, the red little spiky things. that is where scientists say the vast majority of omicron's mutations occurred, in those spike proteins. why these at-home kits still work and other companies say theirs work as well, is because their kits don't rely on that outside part. they go inside for a nucleocapcid. if you think about it as a chocolate with a peanut on the inside, the peanut is what these tests rely on, and for now, that part of the covid particle is relatively unchanged, even in this new variant. here's more. is there a scenario where there could be mutations to the spike protein where at-home rapid tests might not work or might need to be redesigned for a different variant? >> it's absolutely possible. and that's why we do the work that we do, as soon as that kind of a movation occurs, we need to know immediately so we can go on to plan "b" or plan "c" or plan "d." we're prepared so if that happens, we have something to improve that can be used as quickly as possible. >> reporter: so the fda has approved over the counter at-home rapid antigen test kits from ten different companies. six got back to us and say they have been able to run the omicron variant and they will pick this up. in terms of a positive or a negative, it will detect all of the variants that are known right now, including omicron. two of those companies, abbott say they also tested a physical sample of this variant with their test and the rapid test still worked. jose? >> allison, thank you for making the complicated easier to understand. i really appreciate that. and jonathan, this variant has created new challenges for the white house. what's keeping the administration from taking more aggressive measures? >> first of all, the plan that the president unveiled yesterday, his winter covid strategy was in the works before the discovery of the omicron variant. cases were already on the rise because of the delta variant that ripped through the nation all summer and it's disproportionately targeted the unvaccinated. we've had hot spots particularly among republican voters, republican strongholds, those who are refusing to get the shot. but now this president's plan has taken on a new urgency because of the omicron variant and the belief that it could even be more transmissible, although, as noted, there's a lot we don't know just yet about this and how dangerous it may be. but we know it's here, the cases are here in the united states. and that was to be expected. so what we heard yesterday from the president was a doubling down. we heard him talk about the need to have insurance pick up the costs for those tests, that are so important. that's something that health experts have really wanted to make testing more available. he's keeping the mask mandate in place for public transit until march. but public health experts have wanted him to go a little further. he did not expand the vaccine mandate program at all. in fact, currently, we know that a lot of his -- the efforts to have employers require vaccines for their workers are tied up in courts right now. and he also has shied away if making domestic travel also require proof of vaccination, airplanes, trains and such within the united states. i pressed jeffrey zients, the covid coordinator yesterday on that very issue, but he sidestepped it. he didn't rule it out, but it's not something on the table just yet. but right now, there is an administration that is bracing for a likely surge in cases. and they know that fair or not, the president's political fortunes are tied to the president's case load. he's the president, he gets the credit or the blame. >> for more, i want to bring in andy slavitt, a former white house senior adviser for covid response and a former acting administrator for the centers for medicare and medicaid services. dr. uche blackstock is a physician and the founder and ceo of advancing health equities. she is also an msnbc medical contributor. andy, dr. fauci told my colleague, chris hayes, that the administration is hoping to flood the system with tests, but biden's plan will require insurance companies to reimburse those who buy at-home tests. is this the most effective way to make testing affordable? >> well, this is a multi-pronged plan here. the first thing that they've done is they're putting 50 million tests for free in community health centers. that's in addition to 20,000 free testing sites for every american in the country. and now they're basically saying is insurance companies have to pay for these tests. for any consumer. because today, you know, many well-off people who live in nice areas, if they want to go see relatives or go to school, they can afford to take these tests frequently, but for many people, they can't. if i were in the white house today, i would be calling the insurance companies and asking them to send these test kits to people's homes. they're going to pay for them anyway, so let's make it easy. buy them in bulk, send them out to people. i think the administration is moving as quickly as possible. on top of the $3 billion they put towards manufacturing more tests. >> that's an interesting proposal, andy. by the way, that's for people lucky enough to have health insurance. >> dr. blackstock, what does this policy mean for people who might not have the money to front the cost of these tests or who may not have health insurance? >> so i think one element, the fact that the rapid tests will be available in community health centers, we know that readily qualified health centers are one of the areas where a number of people without insurance, people of color, receive their health care. i think that definitely is a plus. but i do worry about this, you know, having insurance companies involved. rapid tests are a public health tool. they're not a therapeutic. they should be widely available. and like andy said, i actually do think that we should be sending rapid tests to every household in the u.s. we need to decrease as many barrier as possible to making these tests available. we need to make it as easy as possible for people to test themselves, test their families, before they go to school, work, or any family gathering where the risk of transmission is high. >> a white house official just told nbc news that the biden administration plans to ship 9 million covid vaccines to africa today, bringing its total doses to the continent to 100 million. how much of a dent will that make in an effort to fight this covid? >> this is something that dr. blackstock and i have both been talking about for quite some time. it's really important to see this. the u.s. has sent 96 million doses to africa so far. unfortunately, there's a lot of people that remain unvaccinated. other g-20 countries have to do their part. i was pleased to see the administration yesterday committing to 200 million more tests being exported. so they've got to keep going. now, it doesn't end there. because when the vaccines show up at the airport, there's still work to do. so usaid has put about a quarter of a billion dollars of investment into the actual vaccination process. that includes the same issues we have to deal with here in the u.s. some people have vaccine hesitancy questions. some people, you know, we have distribution and transportation issues to rural areas. so we've got to go all out. this is a critical thing. it's probably one of the most important things that we need to be doing right now. >> and dr. blackstock, the omicron variant has been detected in countries across europe, yet the biden administration has only placed a travel ban on african countries, south african countries. it may not have even started there. how effective is this policy? >> we talked about this a few days ago, jose. that, you know, travel bans, what they do are, they can perhaps slow the spread a little bit, but they aren't horribly effective. and i think what they end up doing is stigmatizing the countries that -- where the bans are placed in effect for, like we're seeing in southern africa. and as you said, we don't know exactly where the variant arose or emerged from. and so, i think really the focus and what the biden administration is doing on stricter, just travel respirator requirements in terms of vaccines and testing. i also do very strongly agree that we should have a vaccine requirement for domestic travel as well. we need to put as many layers as possible in effect. i would like to see the travel ban on those southern african countries raised, because we're trying to penalize them. we're even interfering with supplies for their pcr tests to enter the country because of this travel ban, and that could harm individuals, because that could delay people getting tested and that could increase the spread of the virus. >> andy, how concerned are you about omicron? >> well, i'm concerned. i'm not panicked. and the reason i'm not panicked is because today, unlike 2020, we have a large number of tools at our disposal. if we were having this conversation in 2020, we would be talking about, should we shut down or shouldn't we shut down? >> jose, the questions you're asking us are about a lot of tools we have. rapid at-home tests, booster shots. we haven't even talked about some of the oral therapeutics, masks, ventilation systems. so, we can, if we do this right, live our lives, go to school, go to work. see our family. do all of those things while living with the variant and living with it safely. we have to use those tools. and as we know, not everybody in the country is willing to use those tools. and not every politician in the country is making it easier for people to get vaccinated and so forth. so we really need to unify, put pressure on people, our leadership, to have a unified message to say, hey, we can beat this thing. let's use these tools. and beating this thing means that we can have the economy moving, we can have people being safe, we can keep our nurses and doctors from having to be overwhelmed. but we have to use the tools we have, and if we do, we can be more optimistic. >> andy slavitt and dr. muche blackstock, thank you for being with me this mornin i so appreciate your time. still ahead after a dramatic standoff, a government shutdown averted. for now. we'll talk about what's next for congress. plus, a lower-than-expected jobs number in the latest unemployment report. president biden is due to speak about this in a couple of minutes. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." ing "jose diaz-balart reports. ♪ ♪ ♪day to night to morning,♪ ♪keep with me in the moment♪ ♪i'd let you had i known it, why don't you say so?♪ ♪didn't even notice, no punches left to roll with♪ ♪you got to keep me focused, you want it, say so♪ ♪day to night to morning,♪ ♪keep with me in the moment♪ new cheetos boneless wings exclusively at applebee's for a limited time. tv: mount everest, the tallest mountain on the face of the earth. keep dreaming. [coins clinking in jar] ♪ you can get it if you really want it, by jimmy cliff ♪ ♪ [suitcase closing] [gusts of wind] [gusts of wind] [ding] firefighter maggie gronewald knows how to handle dry weather... ...and dry, cracked skin. new gold bond advanced healing ointment. restore healthy skin, with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't with miss the showling. and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 18 past the hour. now to the white house where at any moment, president biden is expected to give remarks on the disappointing november jobs report. this comes after the labor department said that employers added just 210,000 jobs last month, with the overall unemployment rate falling to 4.2%. the black unemployment rate also fell. it's now at 6.7%. you see the latino unemployment, 5.2%. with me now, ron insana, a cnbc senior analyst and commentator and an adviser to schroeder's na, williams spriggs, chief economist for the afl-cio, and professor of economics at howard university and msnbc news white house correspondent mike memoli. thank you for being with me. ron, we're expecting to see about another half a million jobs created last month. the actual number we see is less than that. what happened? >> well, i wouldn't read too much into it, jose. i think that this in respects, the report might be a little stronger than we realized. the 210,000 jobs did fall below expectations by about half a million in new jobs growth, but there are a couple of different surveys within this report. and when you look at what households are saying about employment, there are many people entering the workforce than would be suggested by the survey of large companies. individuals starting their own businesses and the like. that doesn't get picked up in this report. the past five months or so, we've seen jobs revised upwards. so we expect the same may happen here. so there could be some statistical quirks in this. the unemployment rate fell to 2.4%, very close to where it was pre-pandemic. overall, this is a better report than it appears on the surface. >> and william, what do you make of the report? >> yes, just to reinforce those comments, pls does a special survey where they adjust the definition of employment that's in a household survey to align with what's in a payroll survey. that sort of apples-to-apples of the household survey to the payroll survey showed a tremendous job growth, well over a million compared to the 210,000 in the payroll number. the inability to detect new formation is pretty high now, because the economy is coming back, and new firm formation has to be guessed at by the bls. that's why one of the reasons why we see that the numbers keep getting adjusted upward. so in the report today, we saw the numbers were reported up over 80,000 for september and october, combined. so we're probably going to see the 10,000 adjusted upward. the fact that you saw a trellis drop in the black unemployment rate is again indicative that workers are finding it easier to find work. employers are still being picky, though. because that 6.7 unemployment rate more black workers is still much higher that the unemployment rate for high school dropouts. high school dropouts had a very big drop in their unemployment rate, as well. they had. at 7.4%. they dropped down to below 6%. so, so overall, i think the household survey is leading the way. throughout the pandemic, the household survey has been showing appointment doing much better, and as was just mentioned, part of that is sort of, you know, a return to gig work. people being able to do delivery of food and the return of people using ride services. so i think this is kind of we'll see if this was a stronger report than what we see now. >> mike, what can we expect the president to say when he speaks any moment now? >> well, jose, i know we don't pay attention to presidential tweets as much as we used to, perhaps, but president biden's account did just tweet something about, this jobs number that i think serves as a preview of what he's going to say. the president's twitter account saying that america is back to work and our jobs recovery is going strong, not talking about that topline number of 210,000, but saying that the 4.2% unemployment rate is lower than expected. experts didn't expect us to see that until 2024. so perhaps a preview of what we're going to hear from the president. it's also notable, we've seen president biden deliver public remarks every day this week. monday on the omicron variant, tuesday in minnesota on his infrastructure plan, wednesday on the supply chain's issue, and then yesterday on his fall strategy, winter strategy for coronavirus. and his remarks today is an opportunity for him to pull all of those threads together to talk about what this means for our economy more broadly. the thing i'll be listening to most for, jose, is just how much does the president continue to turn up the heat on republicans. we've been talking so much about the need on the part of the white house to talk more about what the president is doing, more about what's in his plans, but we've seen him over the last few days talk about what republican opposition to his agenda also means. and he said this on wednesday, and i think we're going to hear more of this. nothing will be more expensive, the president said, for americans than a vote against his build back better agenda. this is, of course, a reference to concerns that we were hearing a lot about from republicans about inflation. the white house arguing that his plan would actually be the best thing that we could do to deal with inflation. >> and ron, when the news of omicron first hit, the stock market went, just tanked. i'm just wondering, how do you think that omicron and even inflation could affect hiring and economic growth in the near future? >> well, it's coming out a little bit later on today addressing that very issue. i think inflation will crash next year. i think that these pandemic-related price increases that are the result of supply chain disruptions and shortages of everything from computer chips and potato chips, will be alleviated once we're fully employed. and we've already seen some of these bottlenecks start to ease. the omicron variant can cut two ways. either it can weaken demand by putting everybody else back to sheltering in place and working from home, but it can exacerbate the supply shortages if people stop working. it would have the effect of both slowing the economy and potentially increasing prices for manufactured goods. but we'll have to wait and see. we know or at least we think we know, anyway, according to many medical experts, that it may be more transmissible. we don't know if it's more lethal. the fact as it was stated earlier in your program, we have a variety of tools of which to deal with the new variant, may make this less of an economic issue, and more, again, of something where just a wise public health policy can mitigate the impact of the new variant. >> look forward to reading that piece, ron, thank you, on msnbc. looking forward to it. ron insana, william spriggs, and mike memoli, thank you all for being with me this morning. coming up, congress checks off one box from its long december to-do list by funding the government. does this means that members can now turn their attention to biden's build back better plan? we'll ask democratic congressman raul ruiz next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." congressman, thanks for being with me! we'll chat in just a second n jun the snapshot app from progressive rewards you for driving safe and driving less. okay, what message did you hear this time? safe drivers can save using snapshot? -what's snapshot? -what the commercial was about. -i tune commercials out. -me too. they're always like blah, blah blah. tell me about it. i'm going to a silent retreat next weekend. my niece got kicked out of one of those. -for talking? -grand larceny. how about we get back to the savings? 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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. . 29 past the hour and now back to washington, where congress once again managed to avoid a government shutdown at the last minute. last night, lawmakers approved a bill to fund the federal government through february the 18th, which now heads to president biden's desk. but it did not come without drama. republican senators ted cruz, mike lee, and roger marshal tried to hold it up by demanding a vote on amendment aimed at defunding the biden administration's vaccine and testing mandates for larger employers. that failed. however, congress still has a lot of work to do, including raising the debt limit, approving a major defense policy and budget bill and making progress on the build back better act. with me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent, leigh ann caldwell. leigh ann, good morning. the government is funded for another couple of months. what was the point of all of this drama? >> reporter: drama, jose. welcome to congress. well, the point of it, for most senators, republicans and democrats, was that there was no point of it. republicans, most of them, did not support this effort, even though they supported the idea of defunding the joe biden's vaccine mandate. but there was a small group of republican senators who said that the vaccine mandate is unconstitutional and that they believed that they needed to do everything in their power to try to stop it. even though that they are in the seniority and it was never going to reach the president's desk. ultimately, an agreement was made between the leadership. they were able to vote on this measure to defund the vaccine mandate. it failed along party lines, and ultimately, they were able to move on to government funding and it passed. so the government will be funded until february 18th. jose? >> leigh ann caldwell, thank you so much. and with me now to continue our conversation is california democratic congresswoman, raul ruiz. he is chair of the congressional hispanic caucus, as well as an emergency physician. congressman, it's great to see you today. i want to start by getting your reaction to november jobs report. it showed a big drop in unemployment among the african-american community, big drop in unemployment among our community, the latino community. 210,000 jobs were created. what's your response? >> my response is that this is phenomenal news for all of us, for all of america, regardless of our ethnicity. all of our communities are just going to get back to work and the economy will continue to grow. and this is, prior to the amazing and historic bipartisan infrastructure bill that was signed by the president, not too long ago, where we're going to have even more construction jobs, about 1.5 million per year for the next two years, just with that infrastructure bill that we passed. >> congressman, the senate parliamentarian speaking about the build back better is currently reviewing provisions in the house version of that build back better act to provide territory protection for millions of undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for more than ten years. the parliamentarian, as you know better than anybody else, has already said two times, no. once through a path to citizenship, another one to green cards. she says it doesn't meet the strict budget rules that allowed democrats to pass this bill on their own. what comes next, congressman, if once again, this is rejected? >> well, you know, her first arguments for saying "no" to those other provisions was one that it was a permanent pathway to citizenship and two, that they were targeted, in other words, targeted to specific individuals like dreamers, farm workers, tps holders. so this third provision, which is our long-term but temporary protections and work perms are not targeted. and they are not permanent. so we're hoping that this will pass her criteria. i also believe that the senate has rules where they can, within their rules, decide to make the decision themselves and move forward into their vote-a-rama. but again, jose, this is important. this is about the economy. passing this work permit and protections will add a stable workforce. it will add over half a million more jobs to our economy. it will boost our gdp by $1.7 trillion over a decade. this is good for america. this is good for american families,. it will create more solvency into our medicare and social security as well so this is the right thing to do for our economy. >> and a lot of these people have indeed been essential workers in so many ways and in so many levels of our economy. in this country. hey, congressman, i want your thoughts on -- the white house, as you know, announced yesterday that the u.s. and mexico have agreed to restart the so-called remain in mexico policy that the trump administration created. a court mandated that president biden's administration restart it, requires certain people seeking asylum in the u.s. to remain in mexico while their cases are pending. i know that the congressional hispanic caucus has put out a statement criticizing this. what do you think is the correct policy or not? >> well, the correct policy is to abolish the remain in mexico policy that trump instituted. it is cruel and inhumane for this reason. that you have individuals, families, well, children, that are stuck in a location in limbo, that are vulnerable to coyotes or to cartels. we've heard violence of kidnapping, of murders, rapes, and recruitment of young individuals by force into their gangs. so we need to make sure that we abolish this. look, as chair of cac, the congressional hispanic caucus had a meeting with secretary mayorkas yesterday. we saw the consternation in his face. he is deeply disturbed that the court ordered him to return it. the administration wants to abolish it. we want it abolished. so we immediate to make sure that we work within the rules to minimize the negative impact and eventually get rid of this program once and for all, including providing security for the individuals, the youth, the children that are out there, so they're not being preyed upon by the cartels and the gangs. >> congressman, besides being a congressman, you're also an emergency physician. when it comes to coronavirus, your community has done particularly well with vaccines and access to all kinds of health, but what can they do now to make sure that they stay protected with the new variant? >> well, it's very important. and this is why i said that the omicron variant is still a mystery to us. that we suspect that it has higher transmissions, in other words, more people can get infected and we're getting into the wintertime where the virus thrives in cold and humid climate, as well as the holidays where people are going to be gathering. but we don't know if it's more severe or less severe, and we still don't -- are not sure how effective the vaccines are going to be against this omicron. so the most important thing that we need to do is to get our boosters as soon as possible. and those that have not been vaccinated, to get vaccinated. because with the booster, you will be more protected against this new variant. and then just realize that we haven't been -- we're not done with the pandemic. so maintain the proper pandemic hygiene. in other words, wash your hands frequently, wear a mask. if anybody has any flu-like symptoms, get tested. we need to test, test, test so you can identify whether you have it, and if you have it, quarantine, be isolated, separate yourselves from your loved ones, or else you're going to transmit the virus to them. >> congressman raul ruiz, it's always a pleasure to see you. let's continue our conversation in the following days, weeks and months. shall we? >> we will. thank you. >> appreciate that. still ahead, alec baldwin reveals new details about the fatal movie set. >> do you feel guilt? >> no. no. >> what he has to say about what happened next. to say about what happened next. with clean, fresh ingredients, panera's new chicken sausage and pepperoni flatbread is a mouthwatering explosion of yes. craft? yes! heartiness? yes! living life to the flavor-fullest? heck yes. panera. live your yes. now $1 delivery. growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort. 42 past the hour. any minute now, we're expecting to see president biden at the white house. and in just a little over an hour, we will get an update from the prosecutor in oakland county, michigan, about this week's deadly school shooting . the community there is mourning the tremendous loss of four teenagers there shot and killed at oxford high school on tuesday. the prosecutor says she's considering charging the parents of the 15-year-old suspect who is currently being held without bond. nbc's shaquille brewster joins us live from michigan. shaq, what do we expect to hear today. >> this announcement is being build as an update on the investigation, but we expect to learn whether or not the prosecutor will charge the parents of that 15-year-old suspected shooter in tuesday's shooting. this is something that since yesterday, she's been saying that a decision on that front would come within 24 hours. and since the shooting, she has signaled that there may be possible charges against the parents. one message she's been harping on and emphasizing is the idea that this has been about possible gun ownership. one point that we heard yesterday was is that it was very few people who knew the shooter had access to a weapon and knew the types of threats that he was making. we don't know what the charges could be, but we do expect some decision to come today. i want you to listen to a little bit of what we heard from the prosecutor later -- yesterday, excuse me. >> you have a right to possess a gun, but with it comes responsibility. allowing it in the hands of somebody that shows signs that they may hurt somebody is not okay and those people should be held accountable. >> really, the entire community and really the state is dealing with an unfortunate reaction to tuesday's shooting. and that's these copy cat threats that have come in and have closed more than 60 schools in this region. we heard from the county sheriff yesterday. he says that most of these are unsubstantiated and don't have any merits, but they are taking the investigation extremely seriously. this is something that definitely is traumatizing a lot of people who are dealing with not only the shooting that happened on tuesday, but the result and reaction to it. jose? >> shaquille brewster in pontiac, thank you very much. we're expecting the president to come out about a minute and a half from now, but i want to take quickly a look at headlines out west this morning, as we see the podium set up there at the white house. albeck baldwin is sharing new details about the fatal shooting on the "rust" movie set. abc says he was blocking a scene with cinematographer halyna hutchins when the gun went off. baldwin adamant that he never pulled the trigger. >> i let go of the hammer of the gun and gun goes off. i let go of the hammer of the gun and the gun goes off. >> with more on this, nbc's guad venegas. guad, good morning. what else did we learn in this interview? >> he shared specific details about the deadly incident, which as you mentioned, he said he never pulled the triggers. what happened moments before the gun went off. so baldwin said he was holding the gun in a specific angle following halyna hutchins's direction and he added he was also trusting that he had been told it was a cold gun. in addition to saying that he never pulled the trigger, baldwin said even after the incident happened, he had no idea it was a real bullet that had been fired. here's another part of the interview. >> i let go of the hammer, bang, the gun goes off. everyone is horrified. they're shocked. it's loud. they don't have their ear plugs in. the gun was supposed to be empty. i was told, i was handed an empty gun. she goes down. i thought to myself, did she faint? the notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me until probably 45 minutes to an hour later. >> reporter: now, baldwin also described the incident as a one in a trillion episode and said accidents of this nature really rarely happen on film sets and he also said that he does not feel guilty about what happened, jose. >> guad, thank you. let's go to the president. >> in these times, a bipartisan cooperation is worth recognition. so i want to thank speaker pelosi and schumer getting this done. and i want to urge congress to use the time this bill provides to work toward a bipartisan agreement on a full-year funding bill that makes the needed investments in our economy and our people. from public health to education to national security. now, for today's news. the every year, december brings us the joy of the holiday season and an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by and look ahead and begin to imagine the new year to come. this year, we can reflect on an extraordinary bit of progress. our economy is markedly stronger than it was a year ago, and today, the incredible news that our unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2%. at this point in the year, we're looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever. simply put, america -- america is back to work. and our jobs recovery is going very strong. today's historic drop in unemployment rate includes dramatic improvements for workers who have often seen higher rages and higher levels of unemployment. excuse me, higher levels of unemployment. they are receiving higher wages. and the rate of black and hispanic unemployment is also dropping sharply. but that's not just jobs that are up, wa wages are up, especiy for hard-working americans ignored in past recoveries. workers in transportation and warehouses have seen their wages go up approximately 10% this year. workers in hotels and restaurants have seen their wages go up 13% this year. and thanks to the american rescue plan, we've delivered significant tax cuts to families raising children. tax cuts and raising wages for middle class families mean that american on average have more in their pockets today than they did each month since we've been in office than they did last year over year after accounting for inflation. let me repeat that. even after accounting for rising prices, the typical american family has more money in their pockets than they did last year. in fact, we are the only leading economy in the world where household income and the economy as a whole are stronger than they were before the pandemic. applications for new small businesses are up 30% compared to before the pandemic. thanks to the american rescue plan, we're cutting child poverty in america by more than 40%, and millions of people who spent last christmas in poverty will not bear that burden this holiday season. and today's news means that the unemployment rate has now fallen by more than two percentage points since i took office. that's the fastest decline on record and about three times faster than any other president than their first year in office. the number of people claiming unemployment has fallen from 18 million when i took office to 2 million this week. another record drop. we've also learned today that in november, 235,000 jobs were created in the private sector. and when they went back and recalibrated, they found that the last two months, they found that job growth over the prior two months, september and october, created 82,000 more jobs than previously had been reported. which that we've averaged nearly 400,000 new jobs a month over the last three months. a solid pace. all told, in the first ten full months of my administration, the economy has created 6 million jobs, a record for a new president. this is a significant improvement from when i took office in january. a sign that we're on the right track. because the extraordinary strides we've made, we can look forward to broader, happier new year ahead in my view. i also know that despite this progress, families are anxious. they're anxious about covid. they're anxious about the cost of living, the economy more broadly. they're still uncertain. i want you to know i hear you. it's not enough to know that we're making progress. you need to see it and feel it in your own lives around the kitchen table and in your checkbooks. and that's why every day my team and i are working to deliver consistent determined focussed action to overcome the challenges we still face. the chief among the challenges is covid-19. yesterday i laid out key actions we're going to take this winter to fight this virus to protect one another. to protect our economy and our economic recovery. they include number one, expanding our nationwide booster campaign. with more outreach, more appointments, and more hours. i was thrilled to see yesterday we had more vaccine shots administered than any day in the past six months. number two, when launching hundreds of new family vaccination clinics to make it easier for children, parents, the whole family to get vaccinated in one place and new policies to keep children in school instead of quarantining them at home when someone in the class comes down with covid, if they do. thirdly, making free at-home tests more available than ever before. by having them covered by our private health insurance plans. the availability of community health centers and other sites for the uninsured will be an alternative. if you have insurance, it will cover the tests. if you don't have insurance, we have facilities you can attend and get these tests. increasing our surge response teams. they're made up of doctors and nurses and medical staff who go into communities with rising cases and provide the needed staff for overrun hospitals. for their emergency rooms, their intensive care units, to get help to them as they need it. and we're about tripling the number of those surge teams. accelerating our efforts to vaccinate the rest of the world and strengthening international travel rules. for people coming into the united states. this is a plan all americans can rally behind in my view. we're also addressing another concern for families. prices. just about every country is grappling with high prices right now as they fight the pandemic. as the world economy continues to come back to life, the more price pressures are going to ease as things begin to move. but we're not sitting around waiting. in the meantime, i've used every tool available to ingest price increases. it's beginning to work. take gasoline and gas prices. last week i announced the largest ever release from the united states strategic petroleum reserve to increase the supply of oil and help bring down prices. and i brought together other countries india, japan, the republic of korea. they all agreed to join me in releasing additional oil if their reserves and china may very well do more as well. they haven't done it yet. this worldwide effort we're leading won't solve the problem of high gas prices overnight. but over the last month, likely due in part to the anticipation of this action, we've seen oil and gas prices out of the wells. oil and gas prices on the wholesale market come down significantly. since the end of october the average weekly price of gasoline on the wholesale market, that's what you sell to the gas stations, has fallen around 10%. and that decline has picked up in recent days. that's a drop of about $0.25 per gallon. these savings are beginning to reach americans, and should pick up in the weeks ahead. and it can't happen fast enough. and i've asked the federal trade commission to consider whether potentially illegal and anti-competitive behavior in the oil and gas industry is causing higher prices for consumers when they don't need to be that high because the wholesale prices come down so much. so we can assure the american people are paying a fair price for gas. at this time of the year, another concern is facing american families is about being able to find what you need in the holidays whether it's gifts or groceries. as i laid out earlier in the week, because of my actions, the actions of my administration has taken, and partnership with -- with private business and labor, retailers in grocery stores freight movers and railroads, these shelves are going to be is shelves of our stores are going to be well-stocked. we've sped up operations at our ports. for example, at the port of los angeles and long beach, the two busiest ports in america over the last month, the number of containers left sitting on the docks for over eight days is down by 40%. i said that before, and people come up and said what does that mean? they're down 40%? well, it means that the product are no longer sitting on the docks. they're getting off the docks into trains, into trucks, into vehicles to get them to the store shelves. it's an incredible success story. on monday i convened a group of ceos from some of the largest retailers in grocery stores as well as leading companies that works with small businesses across the country. and they reported that their investments are up. shelves are well-stocked. and they're ready to meet consumer demand for the holidays. i said that yesterday, and then i saw a couple stations put on. we found some empty shelves. they're old empty shelves, but it doesn't matter. but go back and take a look at some of those shelves again. okay? but the point is that the vast majority of the shelves are filled, and the ceos of not only the suppliers but the ceos of ups and fedex which are on track to deliver more packages than ever, are saying the same thing. so we're heading into a holiday season in strong shape. again, this is about a concerted focussed action. we averted this potential crisis by figuring out what needed to be fixed. and then we brought together the people who had the capacity to fix it or alleviate it. now it's time to build on the success we had this year. on jobs, pages, creation of more small businesses and fixing challenges in the economy. we need to cut costs further for families. that's what my build back better plan does to still be considered in congress. it will lower the out of pocket costs for child care, elder care, housing, college, health care, prescription drugs. in fact, a new independent analysis released this week showed my plan would mean $7,400 in tax cuts in savings for the typical family of four with two children. people have written a letter affirming this bill would reduce long-term inflation pressures on the economy. two of the leading -- not liberal think tanks, two of the leading regulation agencies on wall street confirmed this month that my plan will not add to inflationary pressures. when it always proposed and i'm proposing now is to have a way of lowering some of the most difficult costs. what are they? the difficult costs families pay every month. by asking corporations and the wealthiest americans including, for example, the 55 corporations that paid zero in federal income tax last year. despite generating $40 billion in profits. i'm happy they're profitable. to begin to pay their fair share. for example, requiring corporations to pay a minimum 15% in taxes raises enough revenue to pay for lowering the cost of child care for 90% of families and provides universal preschool for -- all three and four-year-olds in america. what's better for those corporations? is it better for them having child care so parents can come back to work today and they have a better educated work force in the future? or having not paying any tax? once again, no one, no one making less than 400$,000 a year will pay a penny more in federal taxes. my build back better plan is fiscally responsible. it's the first major piece of legislation in more than a decade that's not only fully paid for but will generate more than $100 billion in deficit reduction this decade. it fully covers the cost of this investments by making the largest corporations and richest americans pay a little more in taxes. i think that's a tradeoff. it's worth making. and by the way, those very businesses are going to do better having a better educated and more available work force. having those who have done well pay their fair share is the right thing to do in order to provide a little breathing room for millions of american families. throughout our history, we've e americaned from crisis by investing in ourselves. so we're going to keep at this. we're going to keep making progress for our families and for our nation. i promise you that's what's going to happen. god bless you all and may god protect our troops and keep everyone safe.

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