"the times" adds this. it is not clear whether omicron causes more severe disease than other versions of the coronavirus. tonight the cdc director said the variant could eventually change the nature of this pandemic in our country. >> we have about 90,000 new cases a day here in the united states and right now 99.9% of them still are the delta variant. it may very well be that omicron is able to out-compete delta. we haven't yet seen symptoms that are unique to omicron. the symptoms that are presenting are the very similar symptoms that we have seen with delta. >> problem is, according to the cdc director, covid cases in all are rising. right along with hospitalizations. we will talk to an e who is witnessing this firsthand. also news concerning the capitol riot. the house committee investigating january 6th says a former trump justice department official will not give a deposition tomorrow as expected, but will appear in person on the 16th of december. the chair of the 1/6 committee noted it was due to a medical condition and clark provided ample evidence of his claim. clark, who the committee says tried to get the doj to act on trump's big lie and deny the biden presidency had signaled he intended to plead the fifth. this week members vote today refer him for contempt of congress after he refused to answer questions during his first deposition. today we learned another high-profile witness, john eastman, who wrote that memo outlining a plan to overturn the election, has also invoked his fifth amendment rights. politico obtained a ten-page letter to the committee in which his lawyer questions the legitimacy of the subpoena, and the committee itself. the committee has requested eastman to turn over documents and appear for his deposition on the 8th of december. congressman adam schiff says they are determined to hear from clark and eastman. >> he seems to be following mr. clark's example. we have a great many questions for him. some of those may be, you know, may indicate no fifth amendment concern, no factual basis for that. so we will have to see when he comes in whether there is a good-faith basis to assert the fifth or whether he makes it clear, even as to questions in which there is no potential fifth amendment privilege, he still intends to refuse to answer questions. what i find more extraordinary is you have someone in clark who is at the senior most levels of the justice department. the department of justice, for crying out loud, saying i can't answer questions because it may implicate me in a criminal activity. that, you know, i spent almost six years in the department of justice. that takes my breath away. >> on another front, the day started with a mixed bit of news about the state of our economy. 210,000 jobs were created last month. a lot of economists, however, expected that number to be well over 500,000, yet unemployment dropped to 4.2%. the president says that number is the real indication of the state of our economy. >> today's news means that unemployment rate is has now fallen by more than 2 percentage points since i took office. that's the fastest decline in a single year on record and it's about three times faster than any other president in their first year in office. we can reflect on an extraordinary bit of progress. our economy is markedly stronger than a year ago. i have used every tool available to address price increases and it's beginning to work. >> as you may have heard, the president sounds awful. he is fighting a cold. he says he caught it from his grandson. the white house went out of its way to assure the press corps it's not covid, releasing a letter from the white house physician saying he had three tests this week that all came back negative. one more story we're following tonight. it's out of michigan concerning the parents of that 15-year-old charged with this week's fatal school shooting. james and jennifer crumbley were charged with involuntary manslaughter earlier today, but failed to show up for an arraignment. at this hour, they are still at large and considered fugitives unless they are found or turn themselves in. four students were killed in that shooting. several wounded. with that, our starting line for a friday night. jonathan lemire, veteran white house reporter, host of the 5:00 a.m. broadcast on this network. he is also politico's white house bureau chief. susan page, seasoned journalist and author and washington bureau chief for "usa today" and cynthia alksne, former federal prosecutor. good evening and welcome. susan, first question to you. what will this new phase of the pandemic do to the best laid plans of the biden presidency, their domestic agenda? >> of course, joe biden was elected with a promise, with a job one of bringing the pandemic under control, and i think there was a brief shining moment earlier this year when we thought that was around the corner. that's not the case. omicron is an unwelcome reminder that the pandemic is here, it's here to stay for some time. we are learning to deal it, although we are very weary of mask mandates. it affects everything else. it affects the economy. it affects education. it affects the nation's mood, which has turned pretty sour. it affects the president's approval rating. so the idea that it's going to be over anytime soon, we can just shelf that. we are going to be living with this for some time and that is, i think, sobering news for president biden. >> jonathan lemire, this white house has had several different campaigns, several different plans to fight covid. their latest may very well be dated by the slow-moving arrival of this apparently virulent new strain. where to go from here? >> well, brian, first allow me a personal note to say thank you for not just a brilliant show, but for providing such a pa platform for journalists. i will always value your friendship and support. >> thank you. >> as for the variant here and the presidency, the speed of this is really an important point. in fact, the winter covid plan we heard the president outline yesterday, frankly, was in the works before this variant was on inevitable's radar. due to the surge in cases from the delta variant, which is still dominant and deadly, losing more than 1,000 americans a day to it, and it's not quite clear how severe the omicron is, although the white house and the administration rightly are preparing for the worst and cases are springing up everywhere. we heard there is going to be insurance picking up the costs of testing. we saw mask mandates on public transit going to be extended to march. renewed push for americans to get vaccinated. get your boosters. and that has been the problem throughout. there is so many of our fellow citizens refusing to get the shots, particular republicans, those who live in gop strongholds. yesterday he tried to rally the nation together and say this is not a time for politics. this virus is still with us. we are now facing another long winter in its grasp. we need to get together. but a final point. they still have a few tools left in the toolbox they could use. there is a possibility of an expansion of the vaccine mandates. the president left that door open yesterday. even as his current ones are tied up in court. and the possibility, not yet, he said today he wasn't willing to go there yet of a vaccine requirement for airplanes, trains, buses, so on. he feels like that's not needed, but aides signaled later in the day they are not taking anything off the table yet. >> cynthia alksne, the meyer of this 1/6 committee. i know what we are told not to say when people take the fifth, but this isn't a great look, is it, for two attorneys to both take the fifth about their knowledge of 1/6? the second part. question is, what should be committee do? >> well, first of all, they should all have taken the fifth. i think they would have but for the political optics of it. at its core, it's always been a fifth amendment assertion, and bannon should have taken the fifth. these are a bunch of people who were involved in a conspiracy to overthrow a legitimately elected government. they were hanging out, talking to president trump, they were talking to each other, they had their all little rooms, they were calling different secretaries of state, and so, of course they should take the fifth amendment as. as a lawyer, i would tell them do that. as an american, i am dying to find out what happened and i want them to tell us. the problem is that once they assert their fifth amendment right and if it's a good-faith assertion, which i think it is because i think they should be prosecuted for this conspiracy, there is not a lot the committee can do. they can try to get the documents. they can get the underlying data, the fifth amendment won't protect all of that. an assertion of the fifth amendment is an important right that every american has. and fortunately there are a lot of other people who seem to know things. there are underlings. there are, you know, the people who worked for them. there is a lot of documentation. there is cellphone records. there is a lot of other ways we will be able to go forward. my only big concern is that the committee doesn't start handing out immunity. once they do that, they really end up screwing up the criminal -- any future criminal case. that's the way oliver north got off, and i don't want to see anybody get off in this case. >> interesting. i hadn't heard that take. back to politics. the gop has taught us a lot over the last five or six years. we learned you can invite russians to your convention in cleveland. we learned you don't need to have a party platform at all, any mention at your party convention. mitch mcconnell just said there will be no gop legislative agenda announced in the senate. they tried to block the government funding yesterday by going after vaccine mandates. is that a brand? can it be a policy? can it be a governing ideal? >> well, it may not be a governing ideal but it can be an alexei deal. running against the incumbents, criticizing the democratic platform without laying out the specifics about what you would do, that is in fact a strategy that has had some success in the past. elections tend to be -- these elections that we will see in the midterms i think next year are often really reverend a on the people in power. at the moment that's democrats. that's a strategy that the republicans have decided to pursue. if they win control of congress, it doesn't put them in a strong position to get anything done on their own because they have to explain to voters what it is they would do if they get power. it may put them in position to win that power in the first place. >> jonathan lemire, it appears biden has been more aggressive on messaging, not necessarily sending surrogates out as so many in the base believe he should have been doing for many, many weeks, but trying to get more aggressive pointing out the victories in the economy. the problems with that, it seems to me, number one, if people aren't feeling it, it doesn't feel like a great time economically, and number two, he is competing with a megaphone and whose ever dog is barking in the background. >> no pup here, sadly. yeah, the president has rightly, is indeed, and we note this -- we wrote about this for politico this week, being far for aggressive. they are going after republicans and really trying to draw sharp contrasts, paint the gop as the party of obstructionists when it comes to the economic recovery, but also battling the pandemic. for opposing these vaccine mandates, for almost shutting down the government over vaccines. we had florida senator scott tell "the wall street journal" that inflation was a good thing for the republicans. politically. it will be damaging to the incumbent party. as the white house puts it out, those are not people rooting for america. we have seen a far tougher tone from the president in recent days, as you said, some democrats felt like this should have happened weeks and months ago. that's not really the president's gut instinct. he is into bipartisan deal making. he and his team, they can read poll numbers and right now they know he is not doing great. the economic news today very mixed with that jobs report. i believe revisions will cause it to look better than it was at first glance. and but more than anything, they know his political fortunes and, therefore, the deputies, sure, it's about his legislation and getting the rest. build back better back to the senate. more than anything, it's tied to the pandemic. if covid cases continue to rise, his numbers will continue to fall. even if it's not his fault. he has said that. he recognizes it. he is the president. the buck stops with him. >> cynthia, back to your legal experience, and specifically this tragic awful disgusting shooting, school shooting in oxford, michigan. maybe we should have taken a hint when the parents appeared at their son's first court appearance on zoom from the front seat of their car. they are on the loose tonight. there is a be on the lookout out for them. the feds have just posted a $10,000 reward. what do you make of this case? it is, obviously, unique. it is, obviously, tragic. including, but not limited to, the behavior and comments of the prosecutor. >> well, i think that the parents will be arrested very soon and they will be held in jail pending trial because now they have established that they are a flight risk. that's nom one. the fbi will find them. that's what they do and they are very good at it. the evidence is pretty compelling that they were recklessly indifferent to the fact that their child was in crisis. it appears that my dog might know they are outside. sorry. i can't get him. >> it's okay. >> they were recklessly indifferent to the fact that their son was this crisis and they gave him a gun for christmas early and after a black friday sale. and they were cavalier about the fact that he was looking for ammunition and writing these notes. and four children are dead. and it's outrageous. i will say it could be a difficult case at trial because you are going to have a jury who is going to make the decision on whether or not that was reckless on their part. it's not the prosecutor's call. it will be a jury's call. if i were on the jury, i would vote for it. that doesn't necessarily mean every juror will feel the same way. >> jonathan lemire, susan page, cynthia alksne and cynthia's dog, our front four tonight. thanks for starting off our conversation tonight. she is about to get her mom back. coming up for us, what if we had a way to stop covid but didn't try it? one of our front line doctors as we said says that's exactly what's happening as icus in his state are filling back up. he'll bring us a report from the front lines. and later, is our foundational fundamental democracy really on the ropes? we'll ask presidential historian and author doris currence good win to put it in performance for us as "the 11th hour," just getting underway on in friday night, christmastime approaching at the white house. at the whitee ♪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♪ my auntie called me. ♪no p she said uncle's hadith♪ a heart attack. i needed him to be here. your heart isn't just yours. protect it with bayer aspirin. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. - 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. once it gets in there, it will likely under the radar be spreading no matter what you do to keep people out or not. that's the way viruses work. we saw that happen with delta. i do hope that omicron doesn't have that kind of advantage, particularly if it turns out to be serious. >> dr. fauci today on where we all may be headed. the first case was confirmed in the u.s. just two days ago, and in two days we're up to 11 states and tomorrow there will be more. and it's spreading as hospitals are dealing with, let's not forget, cases of the last current variant of concern, delta. so, back with us again tonight in the closing minutes of his birthday night no less, dr. steven sample, an er physician at memorial hospital in jasper, indiana, a volunteer clinical faculty member at indiana university school of medicine. you tweeted this yesterday and it reads in part, ah, the crowd sourcing for icu beds on facebook time of the year has started back up. yay. it is incredible that we are seeing this. what are you seeing now where you work and, importantly, how does right now compare with the bad old days, the absolute height of the pandemic? >> good evening, brian. thanks. good to talk to you again. we're kind of back where we were august. august coming into september. we are ramping up very rapidly. cases in indiana are up by 50% the last couple of weeks. hospitalizations are up. everything is going back up, up, and up. and, yeah, i tweeted that. i am on facebook like most people of my generation. physicians have groups. we congregate by specialty, con gre indicate by interests and things like that. one of the recurring themes throughout this pandemic has been the physician who comes online and says, hey, i'm in, you know, x, y, z, minnesota, i have a patient intubate inside the er for days, i called 40 hospitals, can somebody help? we are actually crowd sourcing these beds. some viewers will remember daniel wilkinson, the army vet who died of a gallstone in august. crowd sourced a bed for him, he survived two wars but died of a gallstone. we are back to that again. >> i have a graphic of where our country stands as of tonight. 70.6% of all americans have received at least one dose. just under 60% see themselves as fully vaccinated. and just over 20% have received the booster dose. i know i have asked you this question in various forms before, but is the death toll and the shortage of icu beds in your state likely to change the minds of any hoosiers who have not gotten vaccinated and didn't have any plans to? >> you know, brian, i think at this point the battle lines have been drawn. i was talking to the producer earlier about this. and i just don't know how we cross that bridge and change these minds. what is happening, what i'm seeing personally is people are having their minds changed one at a time. you know, people come to me in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and they are sucking wind, short of breath. as a physician, watching someone struggle for air is one of the scariest things. it makes you feel really powerless. people asked me several times, hey, can i get the vaccine now? no, brother, it's too late now. and a lot of these people are realizing one at a time as they get sick or their mom gets sick that they have gambled their health on a lie. and it takes them personally getting touched by it before they change their behavior. right now i think that, you know, most of the us are being held hostage by about 35% of us who will not get with the program. >> and i want to emphasize again to our viewers that this whole conversation is about the delta variant. this is about the existing illness in our country. this next bit i am going to read is about the omicron, what's coming, what's next. this is from "the daily beast." the surge in south africa hitting children under 5. quote, when asked about the extraordinary numbers of children being admitted to hospital, a south african government advisor said she suspected there might be a, quote, immunity gap, and that the lack of vaccination of children might account for the numbers. i am assuming in your line of work you find such a thing possible, plausible, understandable? >> for sure. we are looking at africa, which, unfortunately, their rates of vaccination are on the order of 10% as opposed to our 60 or so percent in the states. clearly, that's a wide difference. we do worry about the kids. but we know how to do this. so it may be that we find that omicron affects kids more often and they get sick at a higher rate. we have to do this the same way. we have to build a protective bubble around our kids. we have to be vaccinated around them. their big brothers and big sisters that are qualified to get vaccinated need to be vaccinated. the fewer times our children are exposed to the virus, the less likely they are to get sick. nothing has changed. it's just, you know, we are talking about the fine points of transmissibility and virulence, but in the end we know how to do this. we do. we just have to hold the line. >> dr. steven sample, wishing you a happy birthday as we wish you strength on the job and continue to salute the work you do. thank you very much for coming on and taking our questions again tonight. coming up for us, we have done it so many times. we will assess another consequential week in the history of our country with an actual historian. istorian 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. ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it's our cyber week special on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. ♪ ♪ and its temperature balancing, so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on select sleep number 360 smart beds and adjustable bases. plus, 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday the senate sponsor said, we're doing it because we have new justices on the supreme court. will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading or just political acts? i don't see how it is possible. >> to that dramatic point this week from justice sotomayor, there are renewed rumblings that democrats might consider making changes to the supreme court. "the washington post" reporting it this way. this week's supreme court argument on abortion has accelerated an urgency among senate democrats to fundamentally alter how the court operates fueled in part by lingering anger over republican confirmation maneuvers that have led to three new conservative justices in the past four years. two of our friends are back with us tonight. don calloway, democratic strategist, and susan del percio, msnbc political analyst and a veteran political strategist. good evening to you both. susan thrk is a layup shot for you. let me put it this way. who thinks that a party that was clowned into putting kavanaugh and barrett on the court, that still acts as if mcconnell is in charge of the filibuster, is going to gather the votes, the guts, and the ability to somehow pack or alter in any way the supreme court? >> well, now that i hear there is an urgency from senate democrats to do it, i know they will write a strongly worded op-ed for several major newspapers and make their anger known and then do absolutely nothing because there is nothing they can do. that sentence at the beginning of that "washington post" piece could have gone to anything, whether it be voting rights, police reform, gun safety reform. you have to -- it's critical that the democrats now take on the fights they can win. they have to stop saying we want to break the filibuster, we want to change it this way, because they are not doing it and they are just reminding the public right now how dysfunctional things are. i actually want the democrats to stay in control because they are governing and they believe in democracy. but they have to stop wanting to face defeat and look for victories. >> don calloway, if the court overturns roe, the case in chief, the law of the land for close to half a century, in your view what happens in america? >> i think that middle class people and people of means and rich folks will still have access to abortion. and prenatal care and any number of reproductive services that come along that. i think that poor people, people from marginalized communities, will be undergoing existential threats to their reproductive safety, to prematernal health. those who want abortions will be able to. folks who don't have access to resources to receive any number of services that are provided at places which provide abortion services as a small fraction of what they do, they will be cut off from a broad variety of maternal health services, sexual health and wellness and reproduction services and the gap between people with access to resources and access and without access will continue to broaden in this country. >> susan, i got something for you. listen to this exchange with republican leader mccarthy from today. >> are marjorie taylor greene, paul gosar and lauren boebert distractions to winning back the majority next year? >> it's things we would not want to deal with. it is things that the american people want to focus on, stopping inflation, gas prices and others, and anything that deviates from that causes problems, yes. >> wow. susan that's as close as he has come to party discipline in a long time. could he have seen some fresh polling? >> he probably has. he is still not willing to condemn those members for their behavior because he is astutely aware of what happened back in 2015 when he was up for speaker and then said the truth, brian, that the benghazi hearings were meant to hurt hillary clinton. that caused him a loss. i think at this point he is willing to say whatever he can to please whoever he has to at the time. >> don calloway, i got something for you. here is congresswoman boebert on newsmax. >> i do want to make it a priority to take a moment and thank the millions of americans, especially my constituents who have shown their love and support for me the last few days. i have received positive calls, emails and letters and they have meant the world to me. even i have received a couple of calls from president trump and i really want to say thank you to everyone. it's meant so much to me. >> don, how nice is it that a former president takes the time to call a freshman member of congress so say, in effect, i've got your back and i have your back on islamophobia? >> this is what they do. there was a time when i was much older many years ago when i aspired to be a member of congress. i can't imagine that being a good use of my time for anyone right now, particularly knowing that you are in lead with the confederacy of such people and this is what the partisan house has come to. it's quite a shame because she a representative of a growing section of a whole lot of folks in our two-party system. >> to any of our viewers who fear that don's sweatshirt has a misspelling on it, it tells me you haven't been to southeast kansas where i had my first reporting job at koam television, pittsburg, kansas, home of chicken mary's. i lived in joplin, missouri, just over the border. don is kind enough and smart enough to have done his research and purchased another sweatshirt for which i'm probably on the hook. but it's hard to find friends like these. it's hard to find folks to hang out with you on a friday night and pass along such kindness at the same time. friends, thank you both. don calloway, susan dell percent yeah. don, i am on to you. coming up for us, john adams once wrote, democracy never lasts long. it soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. yet presidential historian doris kearns goodwin says there is still a chance for survival. she is with us next. t. that's why instacart helps deliver the ingredients. and you add the love. 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. 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. i booked our hotel on kayak. it's flexible if we need to cancel. cancel. i haven't left the house in a year. nothing will stop me from vacation. no canceling. flexible cancellation. kayak. search one and done. no one can deliver your mom's homemade short ribs. that's why instacart helps deliver the ingredients. and you add the love. we have to be a lot more aggressive in realizing that democracy is not a given state of affairs. it is not a natural state of affairs. and we could as easily lose our democracy as we could keep it. >> that warning today from the very capable voting rights attorney business any man as well, marc elias. next week the president will lead a summit for democracy with world leaders. there is a thought. but as the new yorker points out, quote, biden's global democracy summit raises an awkward question. can ours endure? doris kearns goodwin, presidential historian and author, written best sellers about roosevelt, lbj, lincoln. her latest work, leadership in turbulent times. as you know, we call this broadcast "the 11th hour." here is the question. if life is a clock face and democracy runs out at midnight, where do you reckon clock is right about now? >> i think what history can tell us is that clock is not as close to running out as it was in 1861 when 11 states had seceded from the union and the civil war was about to begin that killed 600,000 people. maybe not as close as in 1940 in hitler conquered almost all of western europe in the space of a week and fascism and dictatorship was on the ride compared to democracy. it is as close to midnight as anything i have seen in my lifetime. i think the only answer to it is that democracy is a system that depends on people choosing their own governors, the fight for their right to vote has to be the central fight that people are fighting in this country. without that and with the state legislatures being able to overturn the counting of the elections which undoes the peaceful transmission of democracy, which is the hall work since george washington, i think we are in trouble. but it's a fight that can be fought and has to be fought. >> you have always said about your work that when you're writing the biography of presidents, it's akin to living with them. they surround you. you immerse yourself in their lives and thoughts. so that being the case, of the presidents you have written about, what kind of advice would they give joe biden right about now? >> i think the first thing that old abraham lincoln would say is that public sentiment is the most important thing. he who shapes public sentiment has more power than he who enacts statutes. that means you have to educate the public about why voting rights is not a partisan battle. lbj would say, as he did in selma, that the right to vote is not a northern right, not a southern right, not a states right, not a national right, it's not a moral right, it is absolutely wrong to deny your fellow americans the right to vote. you have got to create that public sentiment that will then argue in the state legislatures. some state legislatures have already expand the the vote. that's important to recognize, even as we recognize who suppressed it. it is the fight of our lifetime in my judgment. maybe lyndon johnson would bring the democrats into the white house until they figured out what they do with the filibuster so the right to vote and the for the people act get before the people. if it gets before the people in the congress, it will pass. >> let me take your point on educating the republic and ask you how we get younger voters to venerate democracy as us older folks do to care at the thought, the mere mention that it might go south. >> yeah, there was just a recent poll by the iop at harvard where younger voters are recognizing that democracy is in trouble. but there is a percentage of them who don't worry that that's a mark of america. somehow i think people who have lived as we have through much more trouble times may recognize where we are right now and younger people have not experienced that. so it's a matter of teaching them in school. it's a matter of that old civics things we older people keep talking about. it's a matter of all of us on social media talking about something that seems abstract, democracy, but it's part of our everyday live. the younger people came out in the last election. they are committed to environmental causes. they are activists in their local communities. we have to depend on them. and i guess i really do in the end. >> our guest tonight, doris kearns goodwin, has kindly agreed to stay with us over a break. when we come back and continue our discussion, more on our democracy. if we can keep it, when we come back. come back great career? >> safelite is now hiring. >> you will love your job. >> there's room to grow... >> ...and lots of opportunities. >> so, what are you waiting for? >> apply now... >> ...and make a difference. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ >> man, i love that song! small businesses like yours make gift-giving possible. now, comcast business has an exclusive gift for you. introducing the gift of savings sale. for a limited time, ask how to get a great deal for your business. and get up to a $500 prepaid card with select bundles when you switch to the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses. or get started with internet and voice for $64.99 per month with a 2-year price guarantee. give your business the gift of savings today. comcast business. powering possibilities. we're back with our guest the celebrated historian doris kearns goodwin. we looked back. you were with us on day 101 of the biden administration. on that night's broadcast you made the point that you compared the aspirations of the new president and his administration to those of lbj when he took over after jfk was assassinated, and you talked about how narrow a window presidents have, especially in our modern era, to get things done. how is it looking for president biden on this day 318? >> i think it's really important for him to recognize that these weeks and months ahead are absolutely critical. going back to lyndon johnson, he won by 15 million votes, and then he told his white house staff in the days that followed, you better get your asses off the ground and get my bills through because this probably is only a certain amount of time i will lose votes. and what happened? in those nine months, he got everything through, including voting rights, and then the democrats in the next midterm election lost lots of seats. the escalation of the war and the backlash to civil rights and voting rights meant that was the high tide of liberalism. ronald reagan wins the governorship in california. president biden has to get his legislation through. even if you don't know what will happen that window is going to close. t will happen that window is going to close. ben isn't worried about retirement his personalized plan is backed by the team at fidelity. his ira is professionally managed, and he gets one-on-one coaching when he needs it. so ben is feeling pretty zen. that's the planning effect from fidelity ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ with chase security features, guidance and convenience, banking feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. i am brian williams. born in the peg and proud of it, the great city of winnipeg, manitoba, now living in toronto. >> last thing before we go tonight, that man is the reason why whenever i'm visiting canada and make a dinner reservation they look disappointed when i show up. if you live in canada, if you grew up canadian or just watching canadian tv, there is only one brian williams, as it should be, and that would be the beloved veteran sportscaster brian williams. he has worked for cbc, c tv and most recently tsn. brian has covered it will all. he is synonymous with olympic coverage in canada. to call him the bob costas of our neighbors to the north isn't enough. he covered all sports from horse racing to major league baseball and has the awards and accolades to show for it. for starters, he is a recipient of the order of canada, and because this is apparently the season for all those named brian williams to make major life decisions, canada's brian williams, my friend brian williams, hey announced he is retiring after 50 years in television. as i never miss a chance to remind him, he has been doing this way longer than i have. in fact, here is an early gem of young brian wearing headphones and what appears to be the karkis of a live bear. >> from cne stadium, hello, i'm brian williams. welcome to the 1975 canadian football championship. >> the two of us were aware of each other and had corresponded but had never met until i arrived on his turf. the magnificent winter olympic games in vancouver 11 years ago now, and when we met we were sure to milk it for the cameras. >> brian. >> brian. >> brian williams? >> brian williams. >> how are you? >> good to see you. >> good to see you. welcome to our country. >> thank you very much. thanks for having me. >> would you come up to our studio? >> i'd love to see how you live. >> i'd like you to introduce our prime time show. >> that would be great. >> come on into our studio. >> i have seen your shot from here. >> i'm usually here alone. why don't you sit down here? >> really? >> i'd be honored. here. >> and welcome back to continuing coverage. ctb prime time with brian williams. i'm brian williams sitting in for brian williams tonight. first off -- >> there is one thing you got to do. you've got to give the time. >> listen, folks, i can't give the time because we are taping this in broad daylight. >> and as we wrap up for all of us in vancouver, i'm brian williams. >> and i'm brian williams. >> and for both of us, good night from vancouver. >> great job. >> thanks, pal. >> thank you. >> to all my fellow americans, if you know one thing about canadian brian williams, please know what an incredibly nice and humble man he is, and how lucky his grandkids now are. congratulations to our friendly neighbor to the north on a life well lived and for 50 years on the job. that is our humble broadcast for this friday night and for this week. it comes with our thanks for being here with us. have a good weekend. unless you have other plans, be safe out there. on behalf of all of our colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. it's nice to have you here. we will start with some exclusivet reporting on a head turning developmentg that you have not heardpm about anywhere else, but it relates to the january 6th investigation. now, as we have been covering this week, part of the drama in the january 6th investigation right now surrounded a former trump justice official named jeffrey clark. jeff clark is the person with whom president trump cooked up a scheme by which the justice department would try to induce georgia and reportedly several other states to flip the results of the t election. mr. clark reportedly drew up