weaken our democracy. in fact, coincidentally, today, at the white house president joe biden kicked off the first ever summit for democracy. it's a two-day virtual gathering, brings together leaders for more than 100 democratic governments around the world. with the lofty goals of defending against authoritarianism. addressing and fighting corruption. and promoting respect for human rights. of course, the summit takes place in the context of democracies in decline worldwide. the stock home based intense -- and electorals we -- found that more of a quarter of the world is now in democratic backsliding countries. this year, for the first time, united states was added to that list. this morning, president biden spoke about renewing the struggle to protect democracy here and abroad. >> here in the united states we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institution requires constant effort. american democracy is an ongoing struggle to live up to our highest ideals anti-ideal divisions. to reconnect to the founding ideals of our nation. democracy doesn't happen by accident. we have to renew it in each generation. this is an urgent matter on all our parts. in my view, this is a defining challenge of our time. we she was even more explicit about what was happening >> in the peril to democracy. >> democracy is president lee under threat. and for 15 years, it has been on the decline. around the world, autocrats have become emboldened. human rights violation have multiplied. and corruption was undermining progress. and misinformation is undermining public confidence. we and so, it is incumbent on each of us, individually and collectively, to take action. first remarks really capture the strangest of the summit and the strangers of this moment. i'm glad they're holding a summit for democracy, but i also feel that we really need to show, not tell here. and lead by example. the best thing, i think the united states could do for global democratic movement. our to protect our democracy. an american democracy is under the most intense manifest threat that is based in my lifetime. maybe even since the jim crow era. and i'm going to level with you for a moment about. this i feel a little conflicted about how to cover this democratic crisis. how to treat it. it seems incredibly urgent to me. and at the same time, i gotta say, i am not necessarily hopeful for the people in power will take the steps necessary to fix it. and i don't want to stand here and forecasts and loose authoritarian doom if they don't. because the future is written. no one knows for sure what's and where this is all headed. but the fact is that this development is bad. and things are moving in the wrong direction right now. the really worrisome trend is that what you might call minority aryan anti democratic institution. they are building on each other to further entrenched power and barricaded minority rules. in other words we to extend that power in the future and extend. what do i mean by that? let's take one example. gerrymandering. right now, nearly all 50 states are going through the process of redistricting. we join them upset along the states based on the information gathered in the 2020 census. this happens every 20 years. every states handles it differently. but the responsibility falls to the state legislator. and in many of those states, the legislature that is going to do the gerrymandering themselves, are the products of wildly gerrymandering districts. in north carolina, for example, the legislative maps that elected the current general assembly are deeply gerrymandered. scoring the result towards a moral less evenly divided state. in 2020, the republicans won a tiny majority of the state house but took 69 seats to democrats 51. north carolina's newly drawn map for the state legislator, and the u.s. congress, face three lawsuits resulting in the state supreme court ordering a two month delay in next year's primary election. georgia is another example. big majorities in the state house and the state senate and the republican governor as well. but as we saw last, year georgia is a swing state. voting nearly for joe biden, electing two democratic senators just a month and a half later. and now georgia republicans have manage to gerrymandering themselves, and have defined themselves -- so in those two states, north carolina, georgia those are swing-ish states. you've got this republican majority, some have been fabricated through gerrymandering. using that power to draw the new maps at maximize their partisan events. and, we should be clear that the green light to do that as aggressively as you want to came from none other than chief justice john roberts and the supreme court. ruling in 2019 that federal courts cannot review partisan gerrymandering cases. now, the supreme court is a democratic constitution in part the structure of american constitutional government. and it is important to have checks, we and fundamentally the court we don't vote for justices to see the lifetime employment. and three of the six concern justices, we have an, off coney barrett, and gosar, lost a popular vote. of course neil is there because republicans blocked him from filling his vacancy in the last year in office. so you've got this, not very democratic constitution to the supreme court, which again has its role in american constitution. but the non-democratic supreme court gives the greenlight to more partisan gerrymandering. now you have some states where a majority of voters have expressed the desire for four maps, they don't want partisan gerrymandering. they have gone to the polls and they voted to establish independent redistricting. but several of those commissions have just been rolled. in ohio, republicans who control the legislator simply ignore the states redistricting commission, choosing to draw the highly gerrymandering maps themselves. utah republicans adopted their own maps, ignoring proposals from the redistricting commission that voters approved in 2018. that is utah. this is not like some liberal conservative thing. utah is a red state. voters voted for independence. they just got voted by republicans. now when you look at how this is working on the democratic side, it perfectly encapsulates the tragedy of this moment. according to dave washington, they have been following the redistricting battles almost better than anyone. who analyzed the political report. the maps drawn by non partisan commission, that is one way to do, it in the blue states of california, colorado, new jersey, virginia, and washington, will end up costing democrats 10 to 15 how seats they could've seized by gerrymandering. so republican steamrolling the independent commissions, gerrymandering massively aggressively. and saying that we believe in independent commissions, and we're just going to leave 10 to 15 seats on the table. which means, once again, republicans will not have to win a majority to votes in next year's midterms to win a majority of house seats. yet another anti-democratic feature of our government. now, there is a solution for this. i would be that not mentioning it. they have proposed a bill, they're calling it the for the people act. it is already passed in the house. it will ban partisan gerrymandering. instituting a straightforward statistical test to identify bias members. democrats have the majority in the u.s. of the house in the senate. but they do not have the votes to pass the for the people act in the senate because of the anti democratic institution, the filibuster. which also counter acts majority ruling. you can see what i'm getting at. it feels claustrophobic. it feels like the space for democratic action keeps drinking day-by-day. and what i have just laid out as the backdrop for today's summit, those are just the structural facts. none of this takes into account the explicitly authoritarian purge happening on one of the two major parties. and obviously want to be authoritarian who tried to install himself in powering an auto coup against the will of the people and whipped up a violent mob to attack the capital. it is not purging people in this party who were insufficiently loyal to his aspirations to another attempt at a coup. he is trying to replace them with loyal foot soldiers and it is working. the most recent example of this in georgia, where donald trump has endorsed david perdue for governor, to replace the in sufficiently current republican governor. and now purdue is telling axios, that he would have pulled off the coup for trump in georgia. he would've unilaterally thrown off the majority will of the voters in his own state and handed the state to donald trump. that is just sheer authoritarianism. it is pretty bad out there. and i really hope i'm wrong. i have definitely been wrong before about politics a lot. i have definitely watch people make positive remarks indefinitely in the future that we are also wrong. a lot of things could change. the reality right now is that there is a ferocious, determined anti-democratic faction in american life. attempting to take a sledgehammer to the foundation pillars of the governance and majority rule. and they are having a lot of success. and i am not quite sure how long this thing is going to hold up. >> congresswoman, sheila jackson, is a democrat from texas. also a member of the house judiciary committee, tom perez, former of the civil rights position -- where he oversaw the department of justices work on the last cycle of redistricting. he is also former chair of the dnc, candidate for maryland, and they both join me now. congresswoman sheila jackson lee, i will begin with you. someone who has been in texas. has seen this play out in the state map. that republicans have issued in voting right challenges, a current doj lawsuit about them, and someone who i think, from my reporting sincery in democracy and the peril we face. but here's my question for you. can you convince me that your colleagues share your sense of urgency. because we see this, and we watch day-by-day not a lot of movement. and we wonder whether the democratic party and members in congress, in both the house in the senate truly understand what is at stake here. >> well chris, thank you first of all for having me. i might just say that we are in a life or death matter. we are certainly, as the president said today, in the challenging issue of our time. it is a defining moment in our history. and our vice president said that we must take action. let me give you comfort, i do believe that there are more who love democracy. who will fight for democracy and not and of course you know today, we still on the floor of the house for the promoting democracy act which incorporates a rejection at all of the angry tools for the last president, president trump, abused the pardon process the monument clause, etc. we have to take a really strong look at it fixture. someone who does not work at this time. and that is the filibuster. because it is known across america that it is a democratic president. democratic house. and then of course, a democratic senate. and that is where we have our most difficult times. we in the house have passed enormous important legislation. and you asked the question why it is different than a decade ago. my good friend, tom perez has the voting rights act. he had section five, ten years ago. it was abolished by the john roberts court. who miscued and misinterpreted a little bit of success. and suggested that section five preclearance was not needed, of course, the justice that was their, justice kings bergh said that it is ridiculous to get rid of polio just because you don't see the polio vaccine. just because you don't see polio. so that is what we did not have. and what we have to do is pass the freedom to vote act, now. and as well the john robert lewis voter enhancement act. those two could stop the voting in georgia and whatever he would attempt to do. those tools will stop the ridiculous gerrymandering that takes populations of color that increase your state, like texas and give them zero and create to anglo seats out of the census of minority. so laws can do things as well as passion. i think we have the passion, we now have to get the laws or get rid of some things that are not even lots to make a difference you. know politicians, tom, i think tend to be pretty self interested. they want to get elected and then stay elected. wield power. so there's something sort of wild about watching the situation, in which a collective effort on the part of democrats to further sort of short these democratic principles. would probably help them, in the near term at least, we don't how shake out the long term. and yet you don't have the votes to overcome the filibuster and say, that's that, and whether resigned towards authoritarianism and which we path. the gap between the rhetoric, and what people want to do for those last few votes is so difficult for people to watch play out. >> it is, chris. just to add even more sense of urgency. i say all the time, the most important year in voting rights is the year that ends in a one. we're in that year, now. because you have a census and you have you redistribution. if you try to plot the years and the amount of shine again and against that occur. the year the ends and the one is invariably the year with a motion and against. i know that because ten years ago i sued texas, and we won. guess what? we won in no small measure, because, texas had the burden of showing that what they did was not discriminatory. because that's what section five of the voting rights act it. they had the burden. now, when justice roberts declared things have changed dramatically. while he is correct. they have changed dramatically for the worse. now, the burden, as on the plaintiffs. that is a huge difference. the department of justice is moving aggressively in texas. this is their second lawsuit pertaining to voter issues in texas. but, the thing about this is, if we wait until end of a year from now. to do something about this. the dye will already have been cast. because the states will have enacted all of these gerrymandered districts. it takes too long to undo that. that is why, the urgency of now is what needs to happen. the lawsuit from the justice department is a good start. again, to underscore what the congresswoman said, and she's been such a leader -- there's been 94% of the population growth in texas have created two new seats. where african americans and latinos. 95% and they created two new suit for white people. not only did they did that, but they did something that they did ten years ago, and the court call them on it. they're going into places like west texas, in the el paso area, they find areas where you have not only large numbers of latino voters but they're looking at their voting patterns. and they find the latinos who voted and they pull them out so that those districts are less capable of electing a latin. ten years ago, the court said, that is racial discrimination. guess what? they did it again. >> i guess, we find ourselves -- the problem is described there is a solution on the table. it just comes back to this question about the will of of certain members of democratic caucus to shock this message, the filibuster, to move forward on it. i continue to help the pressures exerted -- we do our part here, congresswoman sheila jackson lee and tom perez, thank you both really appreciate it. >> my pleasure >> thank you for having us. a big win for the generous of committee as they reject donald trump's attempt to block records for there -- was a mean for the rest of the executive privilege claims. what does that mean for appeal to the supreme court. will break it all down and get command member adam schiff's reaction to the news in just a minute. n just a minute minute new vazalore 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(cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. donald trump, was now handed a sing 2 massive loss by the court of the peels. the d.c. circuit unanimously rejected his attempt to obey the generous of committee requests for white house records. with a tenuous argument of executive privilege. blistering opinion written by, judge patricia miller, lays out exactly why. quote, the president the legislative branch have shown a natural interest in the pressing need for the prompt disclosure these documents. mr. trump, six is to have an article three court intervene and nullify those judgments of the president and congress. to delay the committee's work and to derail negotiations and combinations at the political branch has made. but essential to the rule of law, is the principle that the former president must make the fame legal standards as everyone else. the former president has failed that task. the former president now has two weeks to appeal to the supreme court which will ultimately decide whether congress gets the white house records. harry lippman, is a former deputy assistant and attorney general to the department justice. now host podcast and he joins me now. harry, what is your reaction to the opinion? >> it's monumental. it's not simply the language and the tax which is morocco and comprehensive. it's the tone of it. moments of rigging rhetoric. blood was shed, lives were lost, it's a great constitutional import. they routes, somewhat, for the ages. it demolishes his executive privilege claim. that has great practical implications for his whole circle all the folks who are now trying to, hide behind that tissue thin claim. that is now been pierced. it also weighs in in a ringing way about the importance of the moment, the absolute validity of congress's legislative purpose. to get to the bottom of what happened it, sets out the facts, and vivid and sometimes violent detail. it really has a feel of something that doesn't only dispose of his claims, comprehensively. really takes a stand in favor of the broader thieves of separation of powers. he has a nobody here. he's just an outsider, former president. the rail seriousness, and scathing nature of this january 6th insurrection itself. it's big. >> can i ask, i think, we've seen this dramatically with federal district judges involved in some of these? and so descended think, we've seen summer language, across the judiciary when judges have had an opportunity to weigh on this -- there's been a commonality of no, this was a big deal. they try to overthrow the government. people died. this was not some sideshow. you see that this decision as well. the sort of question of legislative purpose, one of the arguments. trump's lawyers saying this is a fishing expedition with no legislative purpose. i'm going to redo the portion of the opinion. there the generous committee plainly has a valid legislative purpose and an inquiry concerned a subject of which inquiry can be had. former president trump, argues that the committee has an improper law enforcement purpose. not at all, the committees announced purpose is to issue a final report to the house containing such fine exclusions and recommendations for such changes. -- as the committee may be necessary. that seems pretty open and shut. >> open and shut. and brought. it's what you said but also they, as congress, were attacked and they have a right to investigate and the court in another passage talks about the gravity of the failure to have a peaceful transition of power. investigating that and making sure that it doesn't happen again. you know, the slow, just law enforcement or legislative. continues to be the hobby horse, that's the main thing that, mark meadows, has said when he sued the congress yesterday. so, it really does, decimated and tried to put the rest an argument that's being made not just here but generally wherever team trump is trying to push back against the any investigations of any sort by the congress. >> now, there is a stay on this pending the possible appeal to the supreme court. obviously they, will appeal to the supreme court. i think there's an expectation that they would take it. what is your expectation? what is the odds they don't take it and they let this lower court ruling stand? how expeditiously do you think that moving on if they were to take it? >> the two most important questions. it does seem, if you talk to the committee, people are seeing as a 90% shot trump's lawyer tweeted out that it's always about the supreme court. i don't see it that way. it's not out of the question, but in sort of supreme court nerdy terms. you can get to three pretty it is sleep but i'm not sure where they get to four. the opinion, by the way, was written sensitive to this issue. judge millet specifically served up a definition of separation of powers as serving liberty. that is well known to be one of the hobby horses of justice kavanaugh. it really does come down to kavanaugh and barrett. and i see it as 50/50 at best. as for expediting, well those are twin questions, if they do expedite it will show that they are at least taking seriously the ospect of denying it and denying it quickly. so they're not responsible for gumming up the works of the committee. so, i'm here, to say that i think there's a good shot that this is the end of the road for trump. by the way, this means, that the law of the d.c. circuit is this executive privilege claim of his is garbage. that matters for meadows, it matters for bannon, it matters for anyone else that would consider referring to criminal contempt. because, they couldn't behind a bogus executive privilege claim any longer. >> just to be clear, you need four votes, of the nine to grant start. that's for the course of take out a case. the vast majority of cases don't get served. there's thousands of petitions only a few dozen will get. so for 60 cases, and the opinion written is basically trying to sort of lay the groundwork. to say, hey, people hate judicial activism don't like the bench. don't like the bench putting its nose in the political branch of business. like you did in that they must endure entering case. harrison example where you can live by that by saying the state to political branches that have reached accommodation on this. they say it's fine working, a step outside this you don't take it. up that's one other big thing, and the other one is, hey you conservative, you great lovers of the executives. we've only had one president at a time. you love that principle. and that is the principle that is basically what drives this decision. the president, the only president has spoken. there is some lull out there that muddying the waters and says, maybe a former president can be heard. but pushes come to shove here. you've gotta go with the current president. nothing more you need to say supreme court of the united states. >> all right, harry litman, that was. great don't go anywhere, the general six committee is getting one step closer. adam schiff it is going to have more on. that and we are voting on his bill to protect democracy, that is next. y, tha is next. relax with vicks vapobath or with vicks vaposhower. take a soothing vicks vapo moment wherever you chose. wondering what actually goes into your multi-vitamin? at new chapter its innovation organic ingredients and fermentation. fermentation? yes, formulated to help your body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness well done he sits on the bipartisan committee to investigate the january 6th insurrection, and his bill on presidential accountability protecting our democracy passed the house today. congressman schiff first your reaction to the d.c. circuit court ruling today. well i think the two things that were really significant about it was how quickly they took up the case and how quickly they arrived at the decision. but also the overwhelming nature of that decision and the real invitation to the supreme court of appeal's judgment to stand. i think the courts understand that during the trump years that he effectively played rope-a-dope in the case of former white house counsel don mcgahn. he was able to stall for over two years before that official was deposed. and i don't think the courts would allow themselves to be used that way again. i think a very significant decision on the merits and very significant in terms of how quickly they reach that conclusion. >> how significant is getting these documents to the committee's inquiry? >> it's very important, of course, we don't know all that is in there. but we have received cooperations from a number of witnesses, including four times, mark meadows and we know some of what is in the archives and if the rest of what is in the archives is anything like we have received already, it is going to be very important for our committee. i am confident that will get it. the questions just how quickly will we get it. we are, when witnesses failed to cooperate looking for other ways of getting the same information, and this is one very important source. >> you mentioned mark meadows, he was cooperating, and not cooperating after he got donald trump mad because he told the world that donald trump tested positive for covid, six days before he told everyone and went around 500 people including the family members of fallen service members. you know, possibly exposing them to covid, that didn't look great. and now trump is mad at him. he then sued and in the lawsuit, basically makes this claim that this is not properly legislative exercise. said congress has no freestanding power to issue subpoenas. instead, it's investigated power are ancillary to its legislative authority. because of this tie between the investigative and legislative powers, congress may only issue subpoenas that serve a valid legislative purpose. today circuit court ruling seems to be a stake through that argument. >> it really does. and it's absurd argument to begin with. i made more absurd by the fact that it's made by the former member of congress. basically saying, congress has no legislative, no proper purpose in investigating an attack on congress. or in trying to determine what steps should be taken to protect the congress going forward. or to protect our democracy. i can't imagine, frankly a worse argument when it comes to congress's power of oversight and power to legislate. but, there you are, meadows has to tie himself in knots because he came in, he's provided lots of documents, some of them very revealing. and now, he is trying to claim that he can't testify because his testimony would be privileged. even asked for documents, which he admits, are not privileged. even as the comments he makes in his books, which you have to admit, are not privileged. so look, they are going to throw everything against the wall. so far the courts are rejecting that approach. >> interesting figure named ali alexander, he is one of the self described organizers of the stop the steal movement and the rally on january six. i want to play a little bit of sound from him today because he did appear today and cooperate. and then get a reaction to whether his cooperation is sufficient being done in good faith, take a listen >> i was the person who came up with the january 6th idea with congressman gosar, congressman mel brooks, and congressman andy biggs. we four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on congress while they were voting so that who we couldn't lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of republicans who were in that body, hearing are loud war from outside. >> correction, that was not today, that was much earlier, as he described his own role in it and by his words what he thought the point of the enterprise was. what is your assessment of the level of his cooperation? >> i think i need to reserve judgment on that. but i think that the deposition that we had today, which i participated in, will be very useful for the committee and for a fact finding process. that doesn't mean that we're going to uncritically except everything or anything that in particular witnesses to say. but often, witnesses lead to very valuable evidence. sometimes when they intend to and sometimes when they don't. so i found today, we had four witnesses before the committee today to be a very important date in terms of our fact finding process. >> there is also some of the documents that meadows turned over that are coming out now. which appeared to show, including a 38 side powerpoint. just a very explicit plan for a coup takeover of the government in violation of the will of the people. >> it is staggering but i think that that's exactly what was going on. this was not some spur of the moment thing. this was a well concerted plan. that began with laying the foundation before the election by positing that any vote that counted after the election with people who are going to be relying on absentee voting because the pandemic was somehow going to be illegitimate and then the lies immediately fallen through the election. and then the effort by the president to intervene with state local election officials, and statewide officials, the frivolous litigation, you pay that clip from ali alexander. this last-ditch effort to stop the joint session. to corce the vice president into ignoring his constitutional duty. and if that failed, then this march on the capitol, which became an active insurrection. this was a concerted plan. and what we are looking at, i think the documents we received from mr. meadows helped fill in some of the pieces in terms of the role of people in the white house, in the highest level of our government at the justice department and we are going to assemble that complete picture. i think we are well on our way. congressman adam schiff, thank you for your time. >> thank you chris. >> coming up, the report that the government did not want to see. and investigation into one of the earliest catastrophic failure, the pandemic response. the faulty cdc test kits. i'll talk to the reporter that broke the story about what he uncovered, just ahead. uncovered, just ahead. est, neck, and back. it goes on clear. no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick. this morning the labor department released new data showing that weekly jobless claims are now at their lowest level since 1969. 52 years ago. in fact, layoffs at the lowest rate since the labor department started keeping track, 21 years ago. we're starting to see more and more of these good record numbers in american employment each month. quits as a labor departments call voluntary separations at a 4.2 million. near the record set back in september. the title, quits, is a little misleading since it implied people are just leaving the workforce altogether. atlantic staff writer points out in a recent piece, the increase in quotes as most about low wage workers switching to bad jobs and industries that are raising wages to grab new employees as passes possible. from the critters perspective that's a job pop. this is all to say, the labor market at this moment is about the tightest it's been in the last 20 years. all of this, is giving workers more power than i've seen them wheeled in my professional life as a journalist. it's having real tangible consequences. one of them, is that more workers are forming unions, to protect their interest. today we saw a remarkable scene in buffalo new york. after three starbucks stores there, each voted on whether or not to unionize. as is often the case, almost always the case, the company put up a huge campaign against the union. which include the company's former ceo, howard schultz, showing up and using an ill-fated holocaust analogy to describe the company's mission to convince workers not to unionize. today, the vote was counted as workers watching the live stream and they saw their store become the first company owned starbucks to unionize in its 50-year history. i should tell you in the second store workers voted against the union. and the third store, the results were delayed, but now the unions leading by a slim margin. those folks there, you see there, they just won a pretty monumental victory. because workers have been trying to form unions for a lifetime in places like starbucks. and testament to places like -- public support for humans are tight level since 1965. and the macroeconomic conditions labor power that is happening right now. it's a promising signal about what kind of economy we could have on the other side of the crisis. if, and when, the pandemic is brought under full control. if and when, inflation subside. he could be the beginning of a best case in area. an era of really worker power, rising wages, and a rebuilt middle class. let's hope, that's what we are seeing. s hope, that's what we are seeing wondering what actually goes into your multi-vitamin? at new chapter its innovation organic ingredients and fermentation. fermentation? yes, formulated to help your body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness well done frequent heartburn? not anymore. the prilosec otc two-week challenge is helping people love what they love again. just one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. because life starts when heartburn stops. take the challenge at prilosecotc dot com. our first responsibility, cdc, for rob, it took years to find out why his constipation with belly pain just wouldn't go away. despite all he did to manage his symptoms... day after day. still came the belly pain, discomfort, and bloating, awful feelings he tried not showing. finally with the help of his doctor it came to be, that his symptoms were all signs of ibs-c. and that's why he said yess to adding linzess. linzess is not a laxative. it helps you have more frequent and complete 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days of the coronavirus pandemic. barely anyone can get us a test at that time. only about 2000 tests for that day, when donald trump claim that anybody can get a test. other countries, like south korea, we're doing 10,000 tests a day. china was lockdown to help the spread of the virus. here there was nothing, no real plant fraud to handle the virus, and especially for scaling up testing. that is in large part because a month before that visit that we just played you. the cdc said the only diagnostic test, and the u.s., to a network of public health laboratories across the country. and almost all of them did not work. it would be months before the u.s. had enough working test to navigate the pandemic, which in the spring of 2020, was spiraling out of control. that, failure, by the cdc is one of the most significant failures in a series of blunders by the trump administration and the response to coronavirus. even today, the cdc has never given a full explanation for how those tests got screwed up. but now, thanks exclusive reporting by buzzfeed of an internal hhs investigation. we're beginning to understand why. join now with the man who did that reporting, denver down, oh is a science reporter for buzzfeed news. his article titled the government has not to release requests from the cdc's first failed covid test, here they are. on that note, dan, let's start first with these documents are and how did you get them? >> what these documents are her about 50 pages up interviews with the people who made the test. there hhs sent a bunch of lawyers but -- kept the words and to -- you know may kind of blame for who did what. >> what does it say? one of the takeaways from what those lawyer interviews found? >> they paint a picture of this organization. not enough resources at this level. it only had three full-time employees. they went through the observations of an fda observer. to say, well, we think it was this one lap to screw up and there was contamination this one lap. but there's all the sort of hanging things that maybe there other causes of this. it's not really settled and you're left with the expert scratching their head. saying jeez, all these guys are in a bad spot. >> that caught my eye. there's basically three people total. tasked with making the test that is going to be the one test that everyone in the u.s. is going to use for the pandemic? >> they're initially tasked with designing. so they designed it and they have to order chemicals. they need the chemicals right away, but they can't get them. so have to go to other lebanese easy and get them. the other lab doesn't want to give him the chemicals right away and have to say please. then it turns out they need other chemicals that might contaminate diversity chemicals. so they to go outside the cdc, to get them, but they can't get them back fast because it was putting pressure on industries to do that. so they have to go back to their own lap and their own life says, sure, go ahead. then they've screwed up the test, turned out the whole country was depending on. >> so we have this contaminated task, but there is this broader thing here, that there's a single point of failure? there is a policy decision, there's a technical fact that this group the one tests that were useless, but there is the bigger issue of having one test inside cdc as opposedc which ist they did in south korea. where they had already experienced both sars, and mers, and say to all the pharmaceutical companies, every one of them you guys go get them. go develop a bunch of test. that didn't happen. >> exactly. when we brought these notes to experts at labs, they said was the bad guy here, and they said the government should have been taken b to other places. he was a calamity that this one tests then work out, but the bigger catastrophe was that we didn't have a testing strategy. we should have all kinds of tests, from all kinds of different places, that would've made this failure just one thing among a stronger response. and as went there waiting with those bad things happen at the cdc lap. is the real catastrophe. and all of this. >> cdc employee, familiar with the development of the test, told us that they health agency have said we better had both u.s. and german type to test worldwide. a cop in the nba chestnut been politically possible under donald donald trump. imagine the backlash we've had at the cdc had said hey let's use a german test. this is about another huge decision that was made to not copy the test that was already excellent. to build an america first one, that didn't end up working. >> these investigators are saying, how come you didn't do this? it wasn't their job, it was a job of their bosses to say maybe we should had have more than one test. maybe we should use is really good one from germany? they didn't do that. then all the blame fell on these guys, when things went to fault with their test. >> what's interesting to me here is that there is a single point a failure. there's a combination of things that i keep seeing replay throughout this pandemic, even after donald trump left. some bureaucratic inertia, a sort of lack of decisive leadership at one letter above the folks that are working the civil servants. then, in the case of trump, this kind of cascading feeling that is not going to be that bad. >> there was a feeling in both medicine that this was going to be sars one or mers again. so maybe we don't need to put so much energy into this. then you have a totally dysfunctional and incompetent administration, that throws its own testing strategy out the window. its own pandemic strategy out the window. so, there's no backup or when things go wrong, with exactly as you say this kind of overconfidence. it doesn't work out. you don't have leadership at hhs. you don't have leadership at the white house. that can put the resources and energy into thinking why did things really go bad? what should we do? >> this is the quote that stuck with me. there was a feeling this wouldn't be a major outbreak, early on. a cdc lab official told bus venues, saying that senior leaders didn't tuneup to encourage and joshua test manufactures to mobilize. that sentence, that there was going to be a major outbreak early on. that's the epitaph for that whole early response. >> that's very real. i was asking questions january 17th 2020, like, jeez this is a new pathogen we don't have any immunity this. the answer got from cdc spokesperson time was, all new pathogens are bad. okay? they thought this was going to be a bola, or zika, or mers, they did not think it was going to be -- nobody thought was going to lead to something that needed this kind of response. >> all right dan thank you and thank you for reporting. this is all it for thursday evening, the rachel maddow show starts after this break. >> thanks to at-home for joining us this hour. before we start tonight i'm just gonna ask you to indulge me, just for a second. i just want to say, that if you have got only one hour to spend tonight. watching the news, if you only got one block of time that you can set a sight to watch any of us cover the new station. do not watch me. tonight, you should watch, brian williams. tonight, 11 pm eastern, it is bryant's final broadcast here at nbc. brian williams, has been with nbc and msnbc for nearly 30 years. there is no one like him and he has been here from the beginning. he wasnning. has been here for the beginning. he was here in the anchor chair when msnbc first opened its doors day one in 1996. that was it. and tonight will be his last night. w whether you have followed brian his whole career or if you've just become a fan of "the 11th hour," his absolutely brilliant, witty, insightful emotionally compelling snarky as i'll get out incredible show that he does here right now, whether you've only become a fan during "the 11th hour" or been a fan from the beginning, you should just , know that for all of us in the building as we say, it's in the proverbial building now, but for all of us, his colleagues, brian leaving, brian stopping his show