reports from south africa are encouraging. those reports suggest that while omicron is spreading rapidly, hospitalizations have not increased at major levels. hospitals are not overwhelmed. so while it is highly contagious, it may be far less dangerous than delta. and that brings us to the alarm. >> delta is the immediate risk. and the tragic thing is there's a lot of people who will get infected with delta even still and they may find that that immunity that they've acquired through that delta infection isn't going to be protective against omicron. i worry about states that have low vaccination rates, high delta exposure, and are confident right now and perhaps overconfident because their prevalence has declined. that describes a lot of states in the south right now. >> for the first time in two months the united states is averaging more than 100,000 new covid cases each day. some cities are seeing hospitals pushed to the brink. the worst all year. and the united states is reaching a seven-day average of more than 101,600 people dying from the virus each day. that is the highest in a month. 1,600 people are still dying from this every day. and when vaccines are widely to everyone from 5 to 105, it's even more of a disappointment. folks, as we head into the winter, we're staring down the barrel of a huge surge of delta. the mayor of the largest city announced today all private employers will be required to mandate vaccines by december 22nd. big news out of new york city. joining me now from jfk airport in new york city is nbc news correspondent antonia hylton. also with me is the co-director of the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital, dr. peter hotez. dr. hotez, credit where credit is due, you've been talking about omicron but you have been sounding the alarm over delta, reminding people that this is a very infectious variant and a serious one at that. >> the two most important pieces to know is first of all, delta cases are going up. we're now at over 100,000 new cases a day. and we've still done a terrible job vaccinating the country. there's just too many people unvaccinated. here's the number that i carry around in my head, and i try to get people to understand. since june 1 of this year, just over the last six months, 150,000 unvaccinated americans have needlessly lost their lives to covid-19, basically they've thrown their lives away because safe and effective vaccines are available. and the threshold for vaccinating our way out of this, it is doable, but it's very high. we've got to reach about 85% of the entire country. not 85% of the adults. so we've got to take these measures to vaccinate, because we had a terrible delta wave over the summer here in the south and in texas, and now it's going to go through the rest of the country. we're in for a terrible wave yet again. >> what about the news out of south africa that while omicron is spreading, it doesn't appear to be very serious? >> i think you have to be careful. in the early stages when we see a new variant, whether it was the original lineage out of central china, whether it was the alpha variant out of an unvaccinated population in the uk, delta out of an unvaccinated population in india, we heard lots of different things about the severity of the illness and the type of illness. and it turned out overall that most of the variants turned out to be pretty similar. so there's some interesting anecdotal information out of south africa that we're not seeing as much respiratory illness. but one, it's a genetically different population from what you might see in europe and north america. and it's still an anecdote. it's one step better than a rumor. so potentially, that could be good news. but it is starting to tick up in europe and north america. i don't think it's going to outpace delta. but we still have to take it seriously. and the key is, i think the most important message is, whether or not you're worried about delta or omicron, the strategy is the same. if you've gotten two doses of mrna vaccine, you now have waning immunity, you need to get your third immunization. if you've been infected and recovered, we're seeing you're twice as likely to get delta reinfection if you don't get vaccinated on top of that. and we're seeing lots of omicron reinfections in south africa. so you still need to get vaccinated. and we're doing a terrible job vaccinating our kids. so we've got to step that up. so there's a lot of work to do. and the answer is, vaccinate, number one. two, vaccinate. three, vaccinate. and that's got to be the overwhelming message right now. >> the first rule of the pandemic, vaccinate. the second rule of the pandemic, vaccinate. antonia, you're at jfk, my husband will be landing there tomorrow coming from overseas, he's in a country where it's easy to get same-day results. what are you hearing from travelers who are facing having to get tested overseas, are they having a hard time getting back? >> well, i've spoken to people on their way onto the country as well as on their way back in after these new rules went into effect this morning at 12:01 a.m. we spoke to a family who was scrambling. they had an issue with a lab, they were worried they would get here and not be accepted. they ended up paying $600 to get tested in order to come back home today. that's a picture of some of the hurdles that people need to think through before they decide to take some trips as we head into the holiday season. we're going to have this one-day window to get your negative test back before you're allowed to fly back and reenter the united states. people have been working with more like a 72-hour window. if you're planning to travel abroad where they don't maybe have the same testing structure we're used to here, you'll need to plan ahead to make sure the tests you'll have access to will be acceptable. that includes pcr tests, that includes some rapid antigen tests, some at-home tests that you can do a telehealth appointment with. you might see some changes at some airports too. here they're already starting a new biosurveillance program at this airport, at newark, now hartsfield-jackson and sfo. and a group called express check is working with the cdc and starting to approach some people coming in from certain international locations to give them free testing so they can collect samples and start getting a picture of omicron's entrance into the united states and in the months ahead, try to get ahead of other potential variants that are emerging. it's that new one-day window that people need to plan ahead for. that applies to everyone. whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated and no matter what country you're coming from, katy. >> dr. hotez, looking at the new rules for overseas travelers, do you think they're sufficient, number one? 24 hours negative test. would you have liked to see a three three-day isolation, voluntary quarantine, at least recommended by the government when people are returning, or is 24 hours and the test enough? >> for me, the most important is the vaccine requirement and trying to get -- to make sure that people who go on a plane would be vaccinated. that would probably be the most impactful. clearly the testing requirement is going to help. i'm actually not a big fan of travel bans. i do not think they work. they've not worked for the united states since the very beginning when we implemented a travel ban from china and then of course the virus came in from southern europe to ignite that horrible epidemic in new york city. so it goes to show you how quickly this virus moves. by the time we identify a new variant, it's already spread globally. and remember, the most impactful thing is controlling our epidemic here. so if you look at the number of new cases, 100,000 new cases, very few of those are coming in from overseas. so i think those new rules are fine. vaccine mandates for travel would be the best, and to get rid of the international travel bans. >> dr. hotez, thank you, antonia, thank you as well. with the parents of the accused michigan school shooting gunman in custody, there are now questions whether the school officials did enough in the days leading up to the shooting. the investigation is ongoing, but for its part the school district says a third party will investigate events leading up to the shooting in which four students were killed and six more students and a teacher were wounded. with me now from pontiac, michigan, is nbc news correspondent ellison barber and executive director of the detroit crime commission and former special agent in charge of the fbi's detroit division, andy arena. ellison, i imagine there is a lot of frustration toward the school. what is the feeling now that the parents are behind bars? and bring us up to speed on what exactly happened over the weekend. >> reporter: it was a chaotic weekend to say the least. it started with a manhunt here in oakland county. it ended in detroit at 1:30 a.m. with local and federal law enforcement apprehending jennifer and james crumbley as they are staying in an art studio in a warehouse-type facility in detroit. they had taken $4,000 out of an atm and then just essentially, according to police, disappeared, turned off their cellphones. the crumbleys, father, mother, and son, are now all detained in the same prison complex where we are now, isolated, and on suicide watch. according to the sheriff, that is out of an abundance of caution. this as parents, police, are looking at the school now and asking, trying to understand what they did and did not do in the hours, the days leading up to this rampage. remember, a teacher reported the alleged shooter a day before the rampage happened, after they saw him googing ammunition. the teacher saw ethan crumbley's drawing, showing bullets. his demeanor was calm while they were waiting for his parents to arrive. once his parents got there, according to the school, they resisted the idea of taking him home. the school told the parents to get him counseling within 48 hours, and then they sent the student, the alleged shooter, back to class. the superintendent says that the school did not know this individual had a gun. the parents did not mention it, reportedly, in that meeting. and they also say that this individual had no prior disciplinary infractions. so, and i'm quoting the superintendent here, the decision was made he would be returned to the classroom rather than sent home to an empty house. the superintendent says that they will have a third party look into this and investigate this. the oakland county prosecutor was asked whether or not school officials could face charges in this. she did not say yes or no. she only said that the investigation is ongoing. katy? >> so andy, you were the former executive director of the detroit crime commission, so you understand how to recognize somebody who is going to commit a crime, the warning signs. you've got that training. you've got to feel for school officials to some extent, because with the prevalence and the availability of these very deadly weapons, quickly deadly weapons, they are now responsible for a whole host of other things that they weren't in the past. how to do lockdowns, how to stem the bleeding from a bullet wound and how to recognize the warning signs. of course they're interacting with kids and they should be in a decent position to do so, but it can be very difficult to see where the line is of what would you have done or what do you suggest in the aftermath of this just awful tragedy? >> katy, i think we need to look at the policies and procedures that were in place, do they need to be updated. it looks like the training was there. the lockdown training was put into effect perfectly that day. law enforcement showed up very, very quickly. so were the policies and procedures followed, were they adequate? we're sitting back and looking at this with 20/20 hindsight. we weren't there that day. we don't exactly know what the demeanor was, what was said. we're just getting bits and pieces of this. i would like to see a thorough investigation, particularly by an outside, unbiased organization, to take a look at this and just kind of do an overview of policies and procedures, were they followed, were they adequate. >> my question is, is it possible to do any better than they did? besides seeing the warning signs and stopping it before it starts, all of the rest of the procedures were done as far as we can tell right now, correctly. they were locked down, the police responded very quickly, they were able to take out the gunman extremely quickly. but he had a semi-automatic weapon. he was able to get off a number of bullets in a very short period of time. so without stopping the guns from getting into these kids' hands, without taking some of the guns out of the mix here, how do you stop this? how do you get out of ahead of it? >> well, katy, you said, he had a weapon, number one, and he had a desire, an overriding desire. it's extremely hard to stop someone like that, right? all the training, all the policies, all the procedures, a bad guy will find a way around them and obviously this young man did. there's only so much we can do. and so, as i said, in 20/20 hindsight, it's easy to criticize the school. there may be some criticism. there may have been things that were not followed. we don't know. it looks like they followed their policies. it looks like the training was adequate that day. this could have been a lot worse than it was, right? but you're right, i mean, a bad guy on a mission with a weapon, it's extremely hard to stop them. >> andy and ellison, thank you guys both for joining us on this terrible, terrible story. still ahead, the doj launches a new lawsuit against texas. why ag garland says latino voters' rights are being violated and what they'll do about it. face-to-face. president biden is set to meet tomorrow with vladimir putin as russian troops mount at the border of ukraine. high tension right now. also when paid time off is absolutely essential for the health and the wellbeing of a mom. as a professional bull-rider i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? 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pinky power. the journey of a lifetime is about to begin. here is president joe biden in the east room. he's on his tour -- well, this is at the white house, but he's on his plan to pitch build back better to the country to try to pressure lawmakers to get this done by christmas. today he's going to be talking about prescription drugs. he said build back better will lower the cost of prescription drugs. it is something that democrats ran on. it's something they've been promising for quite some time. and it is something the president hopes to be able to deliver on it. again, by christmas. still a bit of a hurdle though over there on capitol hill. let us listen into this event with joe biden. >> -- the complications of my illness. i slipped into a coma and almost died. i was ashamed i couldn't afford my lifesaving medication. i didn't want to ask for help. i shouldn't have to ask for help. insulin and health care should be affordable. ever since my diagnosis, the cost of my diabetic medicine has dictated everything from what kind of job i can take, whether i can set aside from savings. thankfully i'm now able to afford my insulin through my employer benefits. unfortunate, but i know there are thousands of people facing this struggle. the reality is that one in four patients with diabetes has had to ration insulin due to high drug pricing. president biden gets it. he has a plan to not only save me and millions of people like me money, but also to give us the certainty, the ability to control our health, without our health controlling us. for me, president biden's build back better act would mean peace of mind. i know how fast our circumstances in life can change. in addition to my illness. i am plagued with the fear i may not be able to afford my insulin again. i want to see a future where young people like me don't have their lives resolve around our prescription drugs and we don't have to make career and life choices around insurance benefits. that's why i'm so grateful for president biden's leadership on tackling the high cost of prescription drugs, particularly insulin. and now, it's my honor to introduce my new friend, president joe biden. >> aisha, thank you very much. your story is important for everyone to hear. thank god you're with us today. today i would like to talk about how we're going to help millions of americans protect and preserve their health and live with the dignity of knowing that they can care for themselves and their loved ones, all by making the cost of prescription drugs much more reasonable. at the outset, i want to be clear. we acknowledge the groundbreaking, lifesaving work that many pharmaceutical companies are doing. look no further than the vaccines and the treatments they're manufacturing and delivering, that are helping fight this pandemic. our miraculous therapies have in some cases turned diseases that were once considered death sentences into treatable conditions. we can make a distinction between developing those breakthroughs and jacking up prices on a range of medicine which have been on the market for years without making a substantive change in the medication itself, the medicine itself. here in america, it will not surprise you to know that we pay the highest prescription drug prices of any developed nation in the world. let me say that again. we pay the highest, highest prescription drug prices of any developed nation in the world. that may surprise you. what may surprise you is that we pay two to three times what other countries pay for the same drug. an example, one anticancer drug costs $14,000 in the united states. that same exact drug by the same manufacturer costs $6,000 in france. today, one in four americans who take prescription drugs struggles to afford them. nearly 30%, nearly 30% of these patients, have skipped doses of essential drugs that they have to take. others have simply not filled the prescription, tried to use an over the counter drug, cut pills in half, because they can't afford the cost of the prescription. you know, even if you think this doesn't affect you, it does. everyone has less money in their pockets because high drug costs make health insurance more expensive for everyone. there aren't a lot of things that almost every american can agree on. but i think it's safe to say that all of us, all of us, whatever our background, our age, where we live, we can agree that prescription drugs are outrageously expensive in this country. it doesn't need to be that way. under my build back better bill which has passed the house of representatives, it won't be the same way. one of the most egregious examples of what's happening with drug prices regarding the treatment of diabetes and the cost of insulin. a drug that people with type 1 diabetes need to take throughout their lives to control their diabetes and stay alive. it's almost exactly 100 years ago that a 14-year-old boy in canada died of diabetes, became the first person to receive an injection of insulin. today one bottle of this life-saving liquid costs less than $10 to manufacture. but in certain types of insulin, prices increased by 15% or more each year for the past decade. depending on the nature of someone's type 1 diabetes, the average sticker price for a month's supply of insulin is about $375. but some people, it can be as high as $1,000 a month because they need to take more. i just met with two lovely women we see in front of me today here. sarah skipper was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 5. she has a sister, shelby, who was diagnosed at age 8. she told me that affording insulin has been the challenge of her and her family's entire life. sometimes she and her sister rationed doses. in 2018, sarah was no longer covered by her parents' policy although she was working two jobs. she hadn't met her health care plan's deductible and insulin was about $1,000 a month supply for her. so she started sharing her sister's insulin from the same vial. at one point, because shelby thought sarah had taken her dose, that shelby cut a dose in half because the bottle was sitting there and it would look like it was half empty. is that correct? and at that time, she thought, well, she hadn't taken it yet. shelby had to be hospitalized as a consequence for four days. working two jobs, sharing insulin from the same vial. in america? shame on us as a nation if we can't do better than this. sarah is about to start a new job and doesn't yet know what the insulin will cost. sarah said, i wish -- this is a quote, i wish i could make a decision that didn't include diabetes. she shouldn't have to ask such a question. you know, i think about what just happened with aisha who is diagnosed with diabetes three days before her 21st birthday. having to choose between rent and groceries and medication. quote, relentlessly, without relief, every day, was your quote to me. having to ration her supply and feeling herself, as she says, slowly dying, she ended up in a coma. think about that. the difference between nearly dying and thriving is the cost of one drug. sarah and aeaisha are far, from from being alone. it's estimated 10% of the population have diabetes, including 1.5 million who have type 1 diabetes requiring daily doses of insulin in varying quantities. remember all this stress, hardship, suffering, and sacrifice is due to a drug that costs just a few bucks to make. one study found americans pay ten times as much as other countries for insulin. these price increases are about companies looking to maximize profits. and nobody is standing up for the patients. nobody with the power to do something about it. it's enough. enough. nobody has held the manufacturers accountable until now. my build back better bill takes three key steps to lower the cost for families dealing with diabetes. first, we're going to cap cost sharing for insulin at $35 per month. that means you can't get charged more than 35 bucks at a pharmacy counter for your insulin. that's across the board. whether you get health insurance through a private policy, the affordable care act marketplace, or through medicaid. nobody is going to pay more than $35 for each month for insulin. second, for people who don't have health insurance, we're helping you get insurance. that way, people with diabetes can get protected with that $35 co-pay cap. people who are uninsured today can visit healthcare.gov to check out your options. in many cases people can get coverage for insulin and other prescription drugs, doctors visits and hospitalizations, for less than $10 a month. if you live in a state that's refused to expand medicaid under the affordable care act, my build back better bill will fix that as well. these changes will ensure access to affordable coverage for millions more americans and help more people with diabetes get coverage they desperately need. third, we're going to end the days when drug companies could increase their prices with no oversight and no accountability. going forward, drug companies that increase their prices faster than inflation are going to face a steep excise tax. in other words, if you're saying to -- we're saying to drug companies, if you're finally doing it because, to be accountable, when your prices to the american people go up, you're going to be accountable. this is important not only from a health standpoint, but from the standpoint of personal dignity. imagine if you're a parent, one of the roughly 200,000 young people in this country are suffering from type 1 diabetes. imagine if you can't afford their insulin. it's not only a risk to your child's life, it deprives you of your dignity. just imagine, as a parent, having a child with type 1 diabetes and not a damn thing you can do about making sure they have it. you've sold what you can sell. you don't have the money to get it done. well, my plan addresses an additional fear patients face, which is that when their children are starting their careers and are no longer eligible on their parents' health care plan, they'll be able to get the insulin they need. outrageous costs are affecting everyone across the board, spanning every kind of condition and disease. i remember what it was like for my mom when she got older and moved in with us. her prescription drugs were thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. fortunately i had three other siblings and we collectively had the means to chip in so she didn't have to exhaust all her savings to make sure she could get her drug costs covered. i'm committed to using every tool i have to lowering prescription drug costs with americans, consistent with the drug companies getting a fair return on their investment. to really solve this problem, we need the senate to follow the house of representatives' lead and pass my build back better bill. the specific progress that the build back better bill is going to make for families facing diabetes. it will also take the additional step of lowering drug costs for people on medicare. right now the only thing medicare is not allowed to negotiate, they can negotiate the cost of doctors visits, hospitalization, all the rest. the one thing they can't as a matter of law, they are not allowed to negotiate the price for prescription drugs. for everything else, doctors visits, crutches, they can negotiate. my plan gets rid of that prohibition. when i'm proposing is that we negotiate a fair price, one that reflects the cost of research and development and a need for significant profit. but that is still affordable to consumers. right now, drug companies will set the price at whatever the market will bear. my plan also caps the amount that seniors on medicare have to spend on prescription drugs each year to no more than $2,000 per year with medicaid and drug companies picking up the rest of the cost. and again, our plan says that any drug company can only raise prices based on the rate of inflation and caps insulin cost sharing at $35 a month. so let me close with this. i've long said health care should be a right, not a privilege in this country. and the women i've met with today and millions like them are the reason why. people for whom cost of one drug is the difference between hope and fear, life and death, dignity and dependence. we're closer than ever to passing my build back better bill and providing people suffering from diabetes and so many other diseases the medicine they need and the dignity they deserve to be able to afford them. this is not a partisan issue. diabetes, alzheimer's, cancer, so many other diseases. they can't care if you're a democrat or republican. this is not about whether or not your loved ones can afford a prescription drug you need. so we need congress to finish the job, to come together and make a difference in people's lives. i want to thank both the guests here today for being so straightforward. we had a good conversation in the office coming over here. i admire you both. and as my grand pop used to say, with the grace of god, the goodwill of neighbors, we'll get this done so you don't have to worry every single day about what you'll be able to do. god bless us all and god protect our troops. thank you very much. >> reporter: will you pass build back better by christmas, mr. president? >> [ inaudible ]. >> so will it happen by christmas? "as early as we can," president joe biden says, "and as long as it takes," so we'll see. with me is host of "way too early," jonathan lemire, jon, congratulations, over the satellite feed, and welcome. let's talk about what we just saw right there. the president is trying to sell his build back better plan and democrats are hoping that by doing so they'll get some better poll numbers or some better expectations for 2022. >> thank you for that, katy, and welcome back. and you have an open invitation if you want to set your alarm real early. this was the latest push from the president. the white house is trying to be more assertive in getting out there and trying to sell this bill. allies are agitated that people didn't know what was in the two parts of the biden agenda, the infrastructure bill and then this larger reconciliation package, saying that, look, everything in here polls well but americans don't recognize what's in there, they're too focused on the price tag. the president is hitting the road more often, he's going to missouri, and today he focused on the prescription pricing plan, who spoke movingly, as well as the speakers before him, about the cost of insulin. they hope to cap it at $35, a lifesaving drug for so many. they want medicare to be able to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, which would be a change in the law as it is currently written. you heard the president there close by imploring the senate to get this done, to follow the lead of the house which of course passed it just before thanksgiving, and to try to get this done into law. the christmastime table, we'll see. you heard him say he's hoping for it. but senator joe manchin has tapped the brakes on that, we know what a powerful voice he has, and there are certainly some who think it could slip. we heard from senate majority leader schumer as well, he is hoping for the christmas deadline. >> some members of congress say the white house is talking to people as if they need government assistance and most people don't want to feel like they need government assistance but rather that they're given an opportunity. has the white house been talking to lawmakers about what is working in terms of messaging and wording of some of these proposals in individual districts? >> this has been more collaboration in recent weeks, katy, some aides have told me that as well. they know these lawmakers have gone back to their districts on break, they're hearing directly from voters in town halls or more informal settings, and they're figuring out what works and what doesn't because of the messaging problem the white house had, frankly, for months, the morass on capitol hill, for lack of a better phrase, the slog of negotiations. a lot of people looked at that and said, wait a minute, the democrats have the presidency and both houses of congress, why is this so painful? of course it's because the margins are so slim, the senate is tied, and we know there is diversity of ideological views, there's a big gap between bernie sanders and joe manchin. that's why the negotiation has been painstaking in strides. they're on a little bit of growing optimism and momentum, and they feel like this piece of legislation could be next. >> jonathan lemire, thank you very much. we're following breaking news from the department of justice as well. ag garland announced a new federal court challenge to the way texas has redrawn its voting maps. >> the complaint we filed today alleges that texas has violated section 2 by creating redistricting plans that deny or abridge the rights of latino and black voters to vote on account of their race, color, or membership in a language minority group. >> in plain language, doj is saying texas is disenfranchising latino and black voters with these new maps. this is the second lawsuit filed by the doj against texas in two months. the first challenges a law governor greg abbott signed in september, tightening the state's already strict election laws. joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams and former federal prosecutor and nbc legal analyst cynthia alksne. >> let me give you the facts about why the government has filed this. this is about redrawing the boundaries for congressional districts and statehouse districts as a result of the new census. texas gained about 40 million people in population, 4 million, rather, in population. 95% of that gain was in nonwhite voters. and as a result, texas got two extra seats in the u.s. house. but both of those seats are going to white districts, white majority districts. texas has eliminated a district in west texas in which latinos had an electoral advantage. it's also carved them out of much of the dallas-fort worth area. and the justice department says this is a violation of the voting rights act, it's intended to disenfranchise voters to make it harder for these people not to vote, that is not the question, it's making it harder for them to choose candidates that represent them. that's the essence of the government's lawsuit. >> so cynthia, is this going to be an easy case for doj, is it a strong case for doj, what are their hurdles? >> they have to prove that there's discriminatory intent and that's a big hurdle. but recognize, this is a passion of the attorney general. he has doubled the staff in the civil rights decision, in the voting enforcement section. he's been very active in louisiana. he's got a lawsuit in georgia. this is the second one, as you say, in texas. and this is the -- one of the major thrusts of his generalship. so they've got to prove a discriminatory intent. there is going to be a lot of evidence uncovered about exactly how these maps were drawn, why it was there weren't the experts there usually are, why weren't there hearings. former attorney general holder has also filed a lawsuit about this so they can work together to uncover the information they need to meet this burden. >> pete, this is not the only place that redraws maps this year. any indication doj is looking anywhere else? >> we don't know that for sure. i think one of the biggest challenges here is the fact that the supreme court eight years ago, this is the first time since we've had a new census that the justice department no longer has a tool it historically had which was section 5 of the voting rights act which allowed the government -- which said basically that any state that wanted to change its election procedures at all, moving a polling place, changing the voting times, certainly redrawing districts, had to get permission in advance from the justice department or from a three-judge panel known as preclearance. that's gone away now. so now, the only way the government can take legal action is after it happens. one by one, case by case. and also in the past, if a state wanted to make a change, it had the burden of proving that the change wouldn't have a discriminatory effect on voters, wouldn't dilute voting strength. this flips it around. under the remaining section that the attorney general is talking about, section 2 of the voting rights act, the government has to prove that it would dilute the voters. so it's a much taller legal burden now for the government to make. >> it's a significant change in what is necessary to prove it. pete williams, thank you so much. cynthia alksne, thank you as well. coming up, what russia is doing at the border of ukraine and whether the western world is going to do anything about it. plus the united states says it will stage a diplomatic boycott of beijing's winter olympic games. now china is threatening to hit back. with alka seltzer plus. with 25% more concentrated power. alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh, what a relief it is ♪ so fast! also try for cough, mucus & congestion. let's go walter! after you. walter, twelve o' clock. get em boy! [cows mooing] that is incredible. it's the multi-flex tailgate. it can be a step, it can even become a workspace. i meant the cat. what's so great about him? he doesn't have a workspace. the chevy silverado with the available multi-flex tailgate. find new adventures. find new roads. chevrolet. it is deadline day for roger stone and alex jones to hand over documents to the house january 6th committee. meanwhile, the depositions from trump's former national security adviser, michael flynn, and trump's former body man, nicholas luna, originally scheduled for today have been postponed as they engage with the committee. the committee has a lot scheduled this week as it tries to compile the most comprehensive account yet of the violent attack ahead of public hearings next year. they also have a new memo from a former dc national guard official accusing two senior army leaders of lying to congress about the military's response to that deadly event. the memo was first reported by politico and has now been obtained by nbc news. joining me now is capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell. leigh ann, walk us through this memo, it's really fascinating. >> it is, katy. it's 36 pages long, written by two top officials at the dc national guard, saying that all of the public testimony and the inspector general report done by the pentagon inspector general was filled with lies and mistruths about what actually happened on january 6th as it relates to top officials over at the pentagon. there is one really damning quote in this memo that says, quote, peyott and flynn, a different flynn, these are two top officials at the pentagon at the time, literally changed facts and recollections overnight. the end product, a revisionist tract worthy of the best stalinist or north korea propagandist, was close held. they are saying that while the pentagon is saying they acted expeditiously and effectively to deploy national guard troops to the capitol on january 6th, these two top national guard officials say that was in fact not the case. members of the national guard sat and watched in awe, wanting to come to the capitol to do something but were prohibited from doing it. the pentagon spokesperson has sent out a statement telling nbc news that the army's actions on january 6th have been well-documented, saying that the inspector general has concluded actions taken were appropriate and supported. so katy, there's a lot of he-said/she-said. >> i don't know what happened behind the scenes, but i can tell you, and you know thisthern the world is the national guard, where in the world are the pentagon. it took quite awhile for them to get there. given what we were watching on the screen and given what you were experiencing there at the capitol that way. leann, thank you so much. tomorrow president biden and president putin are scheduled for a video call. it is a high-stress moment as satellite images show russia is amassing thousands of troops at the ukraiian birdier leading to fears of a massive military offensive. according to documents obtained by the u.s. government, russia is planning on putting 175,000 troops on the border by early next year. an administration official says biden will make clear there will be real costs if russia takes military action against ukraine. senior international correspondent keir simmons has more. >> reporter: amid those fears of a deadly conflict if europe, perhaps within months, that crucial conversation between president biden and president putin is set to take place tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern. tens of thousands of russian troops have deployed on its border with ukraine, revealed in satellite intelligence. they have drawn up plans to invade. >> what we see is heavy weapons. we see armored units. we see drones. >> reporter: a kremlin official telling nbc news i really hope it will not explode. ukrainian forces have been fighting the russian-backed separatists since 2014 and they are not taing any chances. president biden will hold a virtual meeting with putin on tuesday. the talks pivotal to preventing a war in eastern europe. while multiple diplomatic sources in russia and the west tell nbc news president putin has not decided to invade ukraine, yet. but russia has been proposing red lines like no expansion of nato. president biden promising to make any invasion very difficult for putin. but one european diplomatic source telling me russia enjoys this, it distracts and destabilizes washington. >> joining me now from moscow is producer bob bogner. russia enjoy this is because it's destabilizing the united states. my question is, with that amassing of olivers and troops at the border, is the bet by russia that people might not like it but western countries aren't going to do anything about it because they don't have an appetite for war. >>. >> reporter: these are all good points. it's difficult to understand what's going on in putin's mind right knew. he's the only one that knows how this is going to police out, but i suppose the goal here is to scare the west. to scare the united states into coming to the table, in terms of what they want to talk about right now, it seems like something has convinced putin and the russian leadership that now is the time to talk about ukraine and nato. they finally started giving us concrete things they are after in public statements last week and it came become to the question of nato security assistance to ukraine, nato weapons in ukraine. the growing relationship between ukraine and the west. it seems like that is big on putin's mind and it's a what they are going to go for. and they are hoping we believe they are poised to invade. it's hard not to think that when you look at what they did in the position. we'll see how it plays out tomorrow. >> 175,000, quite a lot when they do get there. matthew, thank you so much. now to more breaking news. the u.s. will not second any diplomatic representatives to the beijing 2022 winter olympics. the press secretary as nouned the boycott about an hour ago. while american officials will not be going though, american athletes still will. joining pet now is white house correspondent mike memphisly. so they are trying to send a message. now china says it's going to retaliate. >> reporter: that's right. just to underscore the point you made because a lot of people hear it, that's not what the u.s. is doing. they are not sending a delegation. we saw dr. jill biden go to tokyo to represent the united states for the summer games that just happened a few months ago. and what the white house is saying is they don't want to contribute to the fanfare of the games. and what's interesting about china's response at this point is they are saying that they are prepared to take appropriate measures. they are not specifying what that would be, but they are accusing the united states of grand standing through this boycott. we remember so well what happened when beijing was hosting the 2008 summer olympic games. this is the first to host a summer and winter games. that olympic games, especially the opening ceremony, served as a coming out party for china as it was emerging as a global player. what the u.s. concern is and why there was pressure on the biden administration to take this step is given the human rights concerns and given the chinese president's direction that the u.s. needed to send this message with a boycott. one of the questions was posed today. will there be similar action on the part of our allies? there isn't this stage appear to be a coordinated effort, but there will be other countries that follow suit. >> mike memoli, it is good to see you. and that's going to do it for me today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage, next today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage, next you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. wondering what actually goes into 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