shots too? and after a dramatic manhunt, the parents of the accused michigan school teacher are entrusted. could they be changed? it's "way too early" for this. good morning and welcome to "way too early," the show that thinks the weekend went by entirely too quickly. i'm jonathan lemire on this monday, december 6th, and we'll start with the news. we begin with the passing of an america hero. war hero, longtime senator, and presidential nominee, bob dole. nbc correspondent kelly o'donnell has more. >> reporter: at the u.s. capitol, the america flag that bob dole long served under flies in his honor. senator, presidential candidate, champion for veterans and people with disabilities. >> the disability community is not large, but it's important. >> reporter: from a kansas city farm to fields of combat. bob dole carried grave wounds of world war ii through decades of public service, remembering by presidents of both parties. president biden writing, may our nation draw upon his legacy of decency, dignity, good humor, and patriotism for all time. donald trump called dole a true patriot. george w. bush, i will always remember bob's salute to my late dad at the capitol, and now we bushes salute bob. from barack obama, his sharp wit was matched only by his integrity. and bill clinton who defeated bowl in 1996, i enjoyed our combat and cooperation even more. a republican power broker in the senate as majority leader. dole was gerald ford's running mate in '76 and sought the presidency himself three times. >> tonight i stand before you, tested by adversity, made sense active by hardship, a fighter by principle, and the most optimistic man in america. >> reporter: in his 90s, dole returned to visit every county in kansas. >> it's one time i can say to you that i don't want any of your money. >> reporter: known for his dry humor, parody on "saturday night live," and played straight man to jon stewart. >> i have agreed to serve in case there's a tie, so you don't have to worry about it. >> i knew you'd find a way to get in there. >> reporter: father to daughter robin, his wife of first wife. married for 44 years to elizabeth dole that carried beyond elective office. her foundation announced with heavy hearts that dole had passed in his sleep. he was 98. >> i leave you all tonight with a full heart and a fervent prayer that we'll meet again. >> robert dole, a son of kansas, impaired by war, tested by politics, lifted by his commitment to country. >> we'll have more on bob dole's remarkable life later in the show. turning now to the coronavirus pandemic and growing concerns over the omicron variant. more and more americans become eligible for booster shots. some retail pharmacies like cvs and walgreens are struggling to keep up with the vaccine surge and demand. some are waiting days and weeks to get the booster shot. nearly 200 million americans are vaccinated. that's good news. meanwhile dr. anthony fauci says the u.s. is reviewing its travel ban on several african nations and hopes to lift the ban soon. it was put in place a week ago after omicron was detected in america. >> it was to give us time to figure out just what is going on. now as you mentioned as we're getting more and more information about cases in our own country and worldwide, we're looking at that very carefully and on a daily basis. >> the u.s. surgeon general caused the u.s. restrictions temporary. >> these are meant to be temporary measures. nobody wants them to be on any longer than they need to be. that's why we're continuously re-evaluating them. >> lawmakers still have plenty to do before the year's out. senate majority leaders chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell are looking at raising the debt ceiling. one would be to tie it to the defense bill. as "the hill" reports, the idea is setting off alarm bills on both sides of the capitol. steny hoyer and kevin mccarthy warns a debt ceiling hike would struggle to clear their chamber. they're acknowledging they're largely in the dark. spokespeople for schumer and mcconnell have refused to comment whether combining the bills is part of their negotiations. joining me now, ali vitali. good morning. tell us what we can expect. can the senate pass the defense bill with that debt ceiling tied to it? we have heard there's plenty of opposition to it already. >> yeah. plenty of opposition and a little bit of consternation over this. it's an idea that's been floated because both of these things are important do before the end of the year, though, i would also note the debt ceiling is its own crisis in that it cannot be moved and it must be dealt with. there's some competing dates about when the u.s. line of credit actually runs out. the treasury department, though, is still sort of the date everyone is going with on the hill. that puts it around december 15th. we know that congress has a tendency to not deal with these crises until right before the deadline, though, they did make some good time with funding the government with like 30 hours to spare. at the same time, though, on this debt ceiling crisis, these conversations have been ongoing since before thanksgiving, at least on the senate side. senate majority leader chuck schumer and minority leader mitch mcconnell have been having conversations how to move forward on this. the latest, though, in terms of tying the defense spending, i spoke for example to the head of the house armed services committee right before the house left town last week, and he said no one had talked to him about it, but he had enough problems without tying those two things together. so certainly among democrats and republicans, some concern about whether that's the best plan to go forward. >> there certainly doesn't seem to be much appetite at least among most in the senate to have another crisis on the debt ceiling. no one wants us to walk to the brink and you heard janet yellen about the impact on the economy. it's far more than that with the senate as you're starting a busy week to be sure. tell us what else is on the agenda and, in particular, the president's agenda with regard to the build back better bill. it seems like there was cold water thrown on the idea before the year was out. >> which has really always been the case here, jon. the number of times that we stand outside senator joe manchin's office and continue to ask him where he is on the build back better agenda, he continues to cite things like inflation, and the last time we spoke with him, he cited things like the omicron variant to make sure this is not done too hastily. he h already had concerns about government spending on bills he feels are already insolvent. so this slow-walking or cold water throwing is not necessarily new, but, of course, everything that manchin says comes in new light, and the new light right now, of course, is the house has already done their work on the build back better act, sending it over to the senate, and that's now where it sits. schumer has set the deadline of wanting to do it before christmas, and that is going quicker and it's one hour less long with the government averting it till february. there's so much left on congress. it's not just manchin here either. senator kyrsten sinema has also said and been coy about whether she outright will say yes to the build back better agenda. this has long been the state of play in the senate. we know now at least what's in the bill, but there's still some things to haggle over. for example, senator joe manchin said he doesn't want to do paid leave with the reconciliation and the social spending and climate package. that's a problem because it's currently in the house bill. there are going to be changes on that front, we expect, as well as waiting for parliamentary decisions as to whether immigration can be included in this. there's part of this that's procedural and part of it is personal politics and both remain unresolved with the christmas deadline still looming. >> nbc's ali vitali. i like the christmas tree. thank you so much. still ahead, the parents of the michigan school shooting suspect are facing charges. plus, amid tensions in ukraine, president biden is expected to hold a virtual meeting with russian president vladimir putin. those stories and a check on the weather when we come right back. . bye mom. my helpers abound, i'll need you today. our sleigh is now ready, let's get on our way. a mountain of toys to fulfill many wishes. must be carried across all roads and all bridges. and when everyone is smiling and having their fun i can turn my sleigh north because my job here is done. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service. ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. but my nunormal with nucala? fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection-site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. authorities in michigan are expected to interview a detroit man today in connection with last week's manhunt of parents of suspected school shooter ethan crumbley. the oakland county sheriff's office is investigating whether there was any, quote, criminality or injustice involved in the parents. they were found in a commercial building in detroit early saturday morning hours after being charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. prosecutors say the parents bought their son a gun used in last tuesday's deadly shooting at oxford high school and failed to act when school staff members warned him about his disturbing behavior. they have since pleaded not guilty and are being held on $500,000 bond. four students were killed and seven others injured in the shooting. one other teenager remains hospital lazed. officials say she, thankfully, is in stable condition. president biden will hold a conference with vladimir putin tomorrow. biden will address russian military activity on the ukraine border and will discuss the sovereign integrity and territory of the country. putin plans to express opposition to admit ukraine into the nato military alliance. u.s. military officials say russia has amassed 70,000 troops around the border of ukraine and is planning for a possible invasion as early as the first few months of the year. this is since july when they discussed ransomware attacks against the united states and they met face-to-face over the summer in geneva. the biden administration is seeking to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with iran while also preparing for a world in which there's, quote, no return to a landmark agreement. according to a senior state department official they came to the table to walk back the compromises that iran had floated dur fifth six rounds of talks as well as compromises the u.s. had made. beyond that, this comes after the negotiations were suspended. the state officials noted they're less concerned with when the talks resume and more concerns with when iran is coming back to negotiate seriously. still ahead, all the highlights from nfl's action on the gridiron and what we know about a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming winter games in beijing. sports next. ter games in beijing. sptsor next. 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>> hi, there, jonathan. we have so much going on this morning. we have severe weather, snow, wind, blustery conditions, and then we have really warm conditions in new york city this morning. let's start with what's happening right now. we have a line of storms stretching from the ohio valley down to the south central states, and we're going to see this kind of tracking to the east as we go throughout the day. that's going to bring the threat for more severe weather in parts of the south central states. so anywhere from jackson to sh riche port into eastern texas. we have the chance to see winds gusting near 60 miles an hour. we could see that. also an isolated tornado is possible in those spots. we're going to be watching that throughout the day. as we head to the tonight, very windy conditions. on the cold side of this blustery conditions, temperatures that could be below zero in many spots. going to feel like 22 below zero in fargo, 10 below zero in minneapolis. as you wake up on tuesday morning, we're waking up to temperatures feeling like 20 below zero in duluth. we're looking at the possibility of snow in the northeast on wednesday. we'll talk than as we look at the days ahead. >> it does feel like winter has finally arrived. 20 below, no changes. former senator bob dole died at the age of 98. we'll be joined in a moment with look back at his lasting legacy. before we go to break, we want to know, why are you awake? 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>> i've been interviewing bob dole for 40 years. he was the same character when i interviewed him the first time in 1980 as he was two days before his birthday this july. you know, his legacy is one of a kind of political service that seems a little lost now. he was definitely a republican, a partisan republican, stood up for richard nixon to the final days of his presidency, voted for donald trump twice, but he was also someone who worked across party lines on things like social security and the americans with disabilities act and most of all on programs to help veterans like himself whose lives had changed. >> susan, you write about how bob dole saw the evolution of the gop. i'm going to read a little bit of it now. in his final years he was at odds with the direction of the republican party he had loved and led. some are so far right they're going to fall out of the capitol, he said, of tea party supporters in an interview with me -- meaning you -- in 2014. there's got to be some things you're against but some thing use're for. the last time i saw him was this july, two days before his 90th birthday. he had no apologies for supporting donald trump for president in 2016 and 2020. i'm a trumper, he said. but he also said he was sort of trumped out. he called himself a trumper but grew tired of the 45th president. how did he see the future of the republican party? did he want the party to turn a page from trump? >> yes, i think so. he agreed with trump on a lot of policies, and he was, of course, the only republican presidential nominee to show up at the convention in 2016 that nominated donald trump, but i think he worries very much not about just the republican party but the direction of the country. he said he was really interested in this young guy, joe manchin, the senator from west virginia, the guy who was in the headlines, doing so much for the senate. he told me he thought he'd call joe manchin to come over and see him. i'm not sure if that ever worked out. >> certainly bob dole was respectful and understood power in the senate. susan, lastly, you and the former senator, both from kansas. give us a sense as to the values from that state that he brought with him in a life of public service. >> well, fiscal conservatives, conservative politically, was a -- there was a certain suspicion of big talkers from the east and west coast. red rhetorical excellence is not something that's really a characteristic from kansas. we tend to be a little suspicious of people who are too glib. one thing that marked bob dole's service is there are times when people needed a hand-up. life could be unfair as life had been unfair to him during his service in world war ii, and there was a legitimate role in government for trying to help people when they found themselves in hard times. >> he also, it seemed, always kept his sense of humor about him, despite a real life of some hardship, and i know that over the weekend, yesterday after his passing, certainly one of his more memorable jokes made their way around twitter. susan page, we certainly appreciate you being here today with your memories of him. still ahead, after friday's disappointing jobs numbers left stocks tumbling, we'll take a look at wall street. 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>> so the fda has noted that there are around 111 drugs on back order right now, including heart medications, antibiotics, and cancer drugs. the agency on its website say they are working to address these issues. it's asked manufacturers to evaluate their whole supply chain from the active pharmaceutical ingredients to the end forms that are used to develop drugs. worth noting, 80% of active pharmaceutical ingredients, the component of drugs that actually has an effect on your body are manufactured outside of the united states. so highly dependent on the global supply chain. as we've discussed many times before and i know you've been discussing on your show, there are major issues around global supply chains. the biden administration is working to alleviate that. at the moment patient'ses are asked not to panic, call their pharmacists and seek alternatives. the message, don't panic right now. jonathan, i'm disappointed to say i did not catch that on netflix this week. >> i admit, i skipped it too. sunday we'll get there. cnbc's julianna tatelbaum. we'll see you soon. still ahead t latest stop in the white house campaign to promote the president's signature legislate active accomplishment. "way too early" is coming right back with those details. 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>> exactly. this is an important trip for them because they wanted to make sure folks understood from the beginning this bipartisan infrastructure bill was not just for democrats. it's also for republicans. this is a way for them to show, hey, we're not scared to go to states. i think that's something really important because they've been frustrated both in the white house and democrats on capitol hill and around the country that the legislative achievement is one that they really should be able to sell really easily, that they should be -- they should eventually get a lot of credit for is overshadowed by the kind of messiness of actually getting through the social spending bill that they're still working through that's overshadowed the infrastructure bill. so this is an opportunity for them to actually say, hey, we did this. and one of the issues that they might run into is when they did the child tax credit, they didn't get a lot of credit for that from the america people around that's something we found in our polling. just 39% of folks gave that credit, the child tax credit to president biden, even though that was something he was pushing for. they have a lot of work to do, and they know it, and they say they're willing to do it. >> certainly a theme heard from so many democrats in recent weeks is regrets over the self-inflicted wounds and how messy the process has been to get things done, but we're not sure it's for manchin throwing out roadblocks. switching gears, the president is expected to hold a video conference with vladimir putin over rising tension with ukraine. tell us what the white house is signaling as far as what the president's goals will be tomorrow. >> the white house have been very clear he's going to be telling putin to basically how much we support ukraine as a country. i am assuming there will be some talks about knock it off the kind of action that's being taken. this is white house from the beginning wanted a stable relationship with putin. we know and they knew that's not how putin operates. a lot of what's going on around ukraine and russia right now are more tense from the russian president on a very young presidency, not president, trying to see what other ways they can head off invasion through diplomacy talking to our allies. zelensky is weaken in that country. how far they're willing to go as the united states' military. >> certainly a high-stake virtual meeting. they hope after that summit in june kind of pushed russia away. that has not happened just yet. we appreciate it, pal, we'll see you again soon. earlier in the show we asked this question, why are awake? i am up early to start tailgating at the bills monday night game in buffalo. brandon, the bills are playing the patriots who has had a fair degree of success over the bills, i don't know, the last couple decades. >> barbara. dan, you got what is barbara got back there. >> she's up with her prediction that eugene daniel will be looking sharp as usual. >> no need to denial that. he looked great this morning and yesterday and on "meet the press," he's always looking great. me? i am a b plus today. toni writes, i am up early to make sure working 12 hours a day and making sure santa's gifts arrive early. let's hope we can all get there and santa does not display any of it. a big announcement from mayor deblasio. >> paul is not the only mccartney making headlines, look at his daughter, mary mccartney, look at what he's serving up. 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(vo) visible. switch and get up to $200, plus our best ear buds, on us. joining us now to look at axios am is nicholas johnson, what's the one big thing this morning? >> good morning, the one big thing is, conservatives starting to build online of crypto currency -- # of course the big driving factor is former president trump after getting kicked off of twitter and facebook and from his own social media platform driving the news over the weekend. it's set to raise $1 billion from undisclosed investors here. that was a social media platform started by a trump's aide recently. we know one of his backers was a chinese billionaire. consumers are getting into crypto currency and maga coin and cloud software platform. now trump is looking to create their own software system to support these kinds of platforms and there is a book launching this week by the former president, photos of his presidency. this is just a big piece of a lot of what conservatives trying to build. it's unclear how much traction they're getting and how much are being downloaded. these are not taking off as much as many of the mainstream platform that could get key elements on that. what's the point of being on twitter if you can't own the lid. >> certainly though we should noted of no short of social media outlets. if you look at facebook shared stories, they're all from conservatives. why do they want to do that? >> a lot of conservative democrats will give you tight races in the midterm saying they don't want to focus on trump all the time. cases in virginia and youngkin. youngkin was able to thread that needle. what these democrats are telling us, all politics are local. they want the build back better and they want to focus on issues that are more important. they do know as much as hating on trump can motivate a liberal base and talking about trump can motivate a conservative base. they'll be running into trump's accolades in these district. taking trump off the ballot and making it more a democratic option. >> nicholas johnson, thank you for being with us this morning. thank you to all of you for waking up way too early with us this monday morning. "morning joe" starts now. >> i robert j. dole -- solemnly swear -- sorry,