covid. >> thank you. thank you. >> i'll take this one question. >> reporter: are you going to share anything more about the message to senator manchin about why you would like him to -- [ indiscernible ] . >> no, look i, i told you when i speak to senators or house members or governors or any other elected official, to try to convince them that what i'm proposing makes sense and it's not inconsistent with what they believe, i do that and then i'll discuss it after. okay? thanks for your time. thank you. >> all right. welcome to "meet the press daily". i'm garrett haake. we've been watching president biden answer questions after he was briefed by his emergency response team on the state of the federal response to those tornado disasters that just hammered kentucky and several neighboring states. as you heard him there, the president said he will be visiting kentucky on wednesday. and that the federal government would provide whatever assistance was needed in the region. we'll be speaking with fema administrator in just a moment. this comes in response to the unseasonably severe outbreak of tornadoes that struck this weekend leaving more than 80 people dead and entire communities destroyed. the pictures of devastation are pretty much unreal. the downtown of mayfield, kentucky basically flattened. the damage can be seen for hundreds of miles. neighboring tennessee, arkansas, even illinois. and it could be weeks before the full extent of the damage and the loss of life is fully known. the death toll in kentucky alone has risen to at least 64 with more than 100 people still unaccounted for. this was the worst tornado outbreak in the commonwealth's history according to the governor. he spoke emotionally this morning about those killed in this tragedy. >> just a few more facts about those we've lost. 18 are still unidentified. of the ones that we know, the age -- the age range is five months to 86 years and six are younger than 18. >> it's heart breaking stuff. and there are so many urgent questions about what happened and why. tornado outbreaks of this magnitude just are not supposed to happen in the month of december. but the current fema administrator said the agency is preparing for extreme weather vents like this one to become the new normal due to the effects of climate change. again, we'll be speaking with her in just a few moments. but for now, let's go to nbc's shannon petty piece at the white house, and on the ground kathy park in mayfield -- shannon, i'll start with you. we heard from the president. what's the latest on the white house response. we know the president will go to kentucky. he's met with his team. what can you tell us? >> well, of course, inside a white house there's always a discussion about whether the president going to a site of one of the natural disasters to going to cause more distraction than help. the white house making the calculation that going wednesday will provide enough time for the president to go there, survey the damage on the ground, raise awareness within his administration for this, and, of course, address as you noted, this broader trend we are seeing of what the president described as unusual weather events. he did not go so far as to directly link this tornado to climate change or to warming temperatures that we're seeing, but certainly acknowledged that this is unusual. and when we have seen him in past circumstances, visit sites of these disasters like the floods in new jersey or the hurricanes we saw in the south earlier this year, he has linked them to climate change whether even this specific event or more broadly, and not only talking as fema administrators are raising about needing to prepare for these events because they now appear to be common place with infrastructure like his current infrastructure bill is paying for in more resiliency, but also as broader need to address climate change which is something i would not be surprised to see the president particularly push on because he is trying to push this build back better legislation through congress which would make a very big investment in trying to address climate change and as the white house is framing it, do something to prevent potentially a worsening of the type of weather events like we're seeing today. >> climate provisions, the single biggest part of the build back better bill that the senate is working on. kathy, you are in mayfield which is basically the epicenter of this outbreak. talk us through what you're seeing on the ground. >> well, garrett, no matter which direction you turn, you see devastation and destruction practically everywhere. we are in the downtown area of mayfield. i was told this is a business district, and there are barely any structures left standing. in fact, i'm standing in the middle of what used to be a drug and alcohol intervention facility. you might notice here some folks behind me. one of the business owners, she's out here now combing through the rubble and the debris to see if she can salvage any anything. i was told that a lot of her clients were here on friday night, they were actually holding a meeting when they got the alerts about the tornado headed this way. and they were able to get out quickly and everyone is okay. but really, when you look around here, the walls have been collapsed. you see office supplies scattered everywhere. also mixed in you see cinder blocks. it is just jaw dropping to see all this destruction, and then beyond the structure here you see toppled trees. in fact, there is metal literally wrapped around the limb of one of these trees right in front of me, and then over to my right is a church. what's left of a church, and you see in front of it heavy machinery. the cleanup is really starting to pick up here. and then to the left of that building is what used to be the post office. you only have just a handful of vehicles still left. just a block away we saw a postal vehicle just tossed around, and just sitting there. so you can just get a sense of the fury that the power of this tornado, and then two miles from where we are is the candle factory. 110 people were inside that facility when the tornado came roaring through. we're told 40 people rescued, fortunately. but eight people have been confirmed as fatalities, and there are still several people unaccounted for. i was out there this weekend. there are rescue crews from across the state combing through the rubble, the wreckage, trying to see if they could potentially find any more victims. >> thank you, kathy. and the tornadoes kind of raked across this whole region. take us through what you're seeing in bowling green. what kind of destruction is that city facing? >> reporter: well, garrett, we know that 12 people have died here in warren county. we know that at least 500 homes have been damaged. at least 100 businesses. we've seen roofs torn off of homes like this one here. behind me, i'm going to have david, my photographer, show you the businesses destroyed here. this was an auto shop, mexican restaurant. you can see there's just nothing there anymore. and that is the story in neighborhood after neighborhood here. and where i'm standing right now, this was once a garage. this belonged to a woman named nermina, a mother of two. this used to be filled with children's toys. now it's a concrete slab. it was lifted and is scattered around the neighborhood. people in bowling green called this town the bowling green bubble. they've seen tornadoes before, but they have never seen anything like this. a bowling green bubble has burst, and it's horrifying, the descriptions that people have told me about actually being inside, being in crawl spaces, being in bathtubs, being inside of closets like normin an and her kids. i want you to hear about what one woman's experience was like. >> the door got pulled off. i heard the sound. it sounded like a train. i started screaming to my daughter, it's a train, it's a train. and i said that's the sound. it's the train. that means it's a tornado. i thought we were going to die. i thought this was it. and it was so fast. it was just over. and as soon as it was over, immediate calm. and we just sit there. i looked at her and said what do we do? i said we survived first. then i said what do we do? do we stay here? is there more? is this over? >> reporter: yeah. and garrett, a lot of people have told me this lasted for just a couple of minutes. it felt like an eternity, though, and when you look around here, i mean, take a look at this damage. this is what two minutes can do. it shows you the force of this storm, and you see there now some cleanup efforts underway. when you look at the mounds and mounds of debris here and all of these destroyed homes, the task at hand is so daunting. i'll tell you, i haven't talked to the people cleaning up here, but i can bet you they're probably volunteers. about everyone we've met here is a volunteer from another part of the state oftentimes coming here to help out. a lot of hands on deck. but there is a lot of work ahead here. >> yeah. the telltale signs of a tornado where you might see one home destroyed. the next home missing a few shingles. thank you all. joining me now is kevin cotton, the mayor of madisonville, kentucky. they've been trying to help with the recovery efforts in nearby mayfield. mr. mayor, your town wasn't spared here. talk to me about the damage sustained in madisonville. >> so, again, madisonville, kentucky was spared. it's our neighboring communities are the ones hardest hit. they are our direct neighbors. we are here supporting them. offering all of our resources we can bring in into these communities. so the city of madisonville was fortunate. it's given me the opportunity to be able to help serve here in this town. >> and did they reach out to you from mayfield, or was this the kind of thing the minute the outbreak happened, you knew they were going to need your help? >> so, again, we're in dawson springs, so as you're look agent the video right now from dawson springs, kentucky, but no, they're not going to reach out. we're here immediately as soon as we knew that this was coming through. we wanted to make sure we could come out and make sure this was our stop. we want to make sure we can send as much resources here as we can. so -- and this community is decimated, really. i mean, you're looking at some of the videos right now, but there's just not -- there's no words to describe the fact that 500 to 700 homes right now, those videos would pretty well explain the entire community. >> when is your typical tornado season there in western kentucky? i mean, have you ever seen anything like this kind of activity this late in the year? >> you know, back in 2005 we had a tornado that did come through the city of madisonville. that was in early november. >> early november. all right. talk to me about the response that you're getting, the help you're get organization not getting from your state and local leaders. what kind of contact have you had with the governor so far? >> the governor has been very good at communicating with all of us here on boots on the ground. he's been here. he's visited the sites. he's sent resources down here. fema is here currently. we're working through that process right now. we are still in the process of doing our recovery searches. we have search teams out doing a final line search before we can start doing the degree removal. as we do the debris removal, we anticipate additional fatalities. >> mayor cotton, thank you for joining us. i'm going to pivot you. we're joined by the fema administrator now. thank you for coming on for us here in fairly short notice. talk to me about the scale of the task that is in front of your administration now, and what you have done so far in kentucky, where the needs are greatest right now. >> yeah. garrett, thank you for having me on. i just finished briefing the president about my visit yesterday. so i could see firsthand with dhs secretary the devastation that we're seeing there. i think as you heard from the previous speaker, we've been watching this on the news for few days but being there in person, there aren't words to describe how bad the devastation is. and across many jurisdictions in kentucky. i think the biggest thing that we heard from the governor and from some of the local county executives yesterday is that housing is going to be a critical need. communications. water. and power. those are things that we're going to be working with the state director and our fema forces that are on the ground to help meet the needs and help restore the critical infrastructure pieces. >> i feel like there's some unofficial challenges here -- unusual challenges in terms of the fact that both when the outbreak happened and the fact that it was so widespread. the fact that this is happening in december, a couple weeks before christmas is not just unusual, but i think it makes your job harder as you talk about housing, especially now that we're in the winter. how does a mid to late december response vary from a may, june response when you're talking about a tornado outbreak like this? >> yeah. i think it ha a direct impact on our ability to be able to move in even quicker. because one, it's not just that it's cold, but we want to make sure that we're giving families a safe place to go for the holidays. so they can be with their families. so what we're going to do is we're working closely with the state on the different ways that we can put families into temporary housing now in developing strategies for long-term housing for the future. >> talk to me about the regional aspect of this. we've been focussed on kentucky, but this is arkansas. it is illinois. i mean, this is a widespread multi-state, multi-agency response. >> absolutely. what we're seeing is we've got impacts in six states. fatalities in five of those states. we did receive a request from the illinois governor earlier this morning for an emergency declaration as well. that will be going to the president here shortly for his signature. and our regional administrators are working with the other states impacted to help them draw up their emergency requests for any assistance they might need. >> i covered tornadoes in kansas and missouri and in oklahoma in the spring and summer. when we're talking about tornadoes in this part of the country, in december, do you see the fingerprints of climate change on these storms? >> you know, i don't know if it's directly related to climate change, but what i do know is that we're seeing an increase in the number of storms and the severity of storms. and we have to take a concerted effort for fema to help communities to reduce the impacts that they're seeing from the severe weather events. so that's something we're going to focus on quite intently over the next year and helping communities build more resilient communities. >> talk to me about that. is there work to be done on the front end of this. we think of fema as disaster response, but what can you be doing on disaster prevention? >> absolutely. i think fema is very good at the response and the recovery, but we have always had a mitigation mission in helping to reduce the impacts. but we want to amplify the mission. earlier this year the president authorized a hazard mitigation funding as part of the covid-19 declarations. it's only the second time that hazard mitigation has been authorized for nondisaster, nonnatural disasters. that put close to $3.5 billion out to states and local jurisdictions to help them with the mitigation measures. what we want to do is help communities understand what their risks are, what their knew week risks are and help them draft projects that can have system-wide impacts to reduce the affects that they're seeing from the severe weather events. >> it may be too early to know this, but are you or the administration likely to end up asking congress for supplemental funding here, supplemental disaster funding for this region? >> yeah. i think it's too early. right now we're focussed on making sure we've accounted for everybody that was in the path of these storms. and providing for their immediate needs. those conversations will continue as we have a full breadth of understanding of what the impacts are across the region. >> that's fema administrator joining us. thank you for getting to us live at the last minute. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. stay safe. >> you too. coming up, more on the fallout of the deadly tornado outbreaks and what's fueling them as officials break for a new normal of severe weather due to climate change. and later, new covid concerns as omicron spreads in the uk. and new york reimposes yet another indoor mask mandate. you're watching "meet the press daily". s daily" 'tis the season to break tradition in a cadillac. don't just put on a light show—be the light show. make your nights anything but silent. and ride in a sleigh that really slays. because in a cadillac, tradition is yours to define. so visit a cadillac showroom, and start celebrating today. ♪ ♪ hi susan! honey? 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business. powering possibilities. welcome back. as devastating as friday night's tornadoes were, when and where they touched down are also surprising. this is december. well after the spring and summer when most tornadoes occur. and in kentucky, tennessee, arkansas, well, east of the area we typically think of as tornado alley. i'm joined by bill karins to show us what led to the devastating weather event. you heard the fema administrator not exactly answer when i asked if she saw climate change fingerprints on this. you do. walk me through happened here. >> right. well, i do know the research, but i can't say that i do know this event is tied to climate. that's -- >> right. of course. >> that's why she hesitated on it also. the fact of the matter is that tornadoes are small. they are not large. they're not even -- they're so small compared to hurricanes or heat waves. things we can more easily attribute to climate change. with tornadoes, the sample size is kind of small, and the evidence just hasn't been there saying it's definitely because our warming planet which yes, we are warming our planet. no doubt. but is it increasing the tornadoes and the intensity of the tornadoes? the science isn't there that says that is happening. so that's kind of that. one thing on this event, though, i will kind of update you on is how rare it is. and it's still extremely historic. deadly. we know we've had at least 64 deaths in kentucky. the record for the deadliest single tornado was 76 in kentucky. that was all the way back in 1890, before we had good warning. in the modern day era, this is incredibly rare to have this many fatalities. it's a precedent of how intense the tornado was and how long it was on the ground. we heard from the national weather service in paducah. they confirmed the tornado was on the ground for 124 miles all the way through their counties they're responsible for. now, it's up to other weather service offices to say exactly how long it was. the record is 219 miles. so this is already 124 and is going to go up higher. this easily may be the longest tornado in our country's history we've observed and yes, in december. i'll get more to that in a second. we don't know the intensity. it's rare to get ef-4 and ef-5. it's at least an ef-3 in mayfield. a couple more, the one that hit the amazon facility in illinois. on the scales, it goes up to five. that's the highest. we haven't had a five in almost eight and a half years. we have had significant ef-5's before, but notice the dates the last couple. they were all in april, may. those were our peak tornado months in june. as far as the last time we had an ef-5 tornado in december, it was 195 7. 64 years haeg. and notice the location. that happened in illinois. so it can and has happened before. but you could just see how highly unusual it is. so why did this event happen? if you've been following the weather this december, it haven't felt like december. it's been like october. the temperatures have been way too warm for december. so we're in like a fall-like weather pattern. every now and then in fall we'll get severe weather outbreaks. one or two every fall. because it was like a fall-like weather pattern with the cold air behind it, we had the right ingredients. and the gulf is warm. as far as the climate change angle, we don't know that we're seeing more tornadoes. we do not know that they're getting anymore intense because of climate change, but we have seen in the climate pattern, it's shifting. the tornadoes are starting to be more frequent toward the tennessee valley. so that's what the research shows us. but i can't sit here and say because we're warming our planet we are getting stronger tornadoes. the science just isn't there to support that right now. >> i appreciate you keeping us honest on the science. bill, can i ask you a quick remedial question. in terms of knowing the intensity, is that based on is survey of the damage? i mean, i can't imagine there's much actual measurement in realtime on storms like this. >> well, we have doppler radars which give us estimates of the velocity of the winds. we actually send survey teams on the ground. they do some aerials, and they go and walk the area or drive through the area, and they have -- gi thaet trained. it's a science. they can tell how a tree was damaged, what kind of tree it was, the bark that was peeled off the tree or a type of metal that was demolished or a concrete structure or a brick. they have the scales. right now there are survey crews from the government out walking this path, and you can imagine if it's 250 miles long, to drive it or walk it, and they'll go and tell us where the most extreme damage was on that path. they'll tell us how long the path was. the estimated intensity of the winds, and by the way, the strongest winds ever in a tornado were the reno tornado about ten years ago that was 300 miles an hour. we can get extremely high winds in a tornado. we'll see what this one comes in, probably in the next couple days they'll give us a final estimate of the most intense portion of this historic unprecedented december tornado outbreak. >> really interesting stuff from bill karins, our science guy. thank you. we showed you a lot of the damage in kentucky at the top of the hour where much of the rescue and recovery efforts are being focussed, but crews are searching for victims in neighboring arkansas. where at least two people were killed in this weekend's storm including one person killed when a tornado tore through a nursing home in a town. these tornadoes are the latest disaster to strike arkansas. it's also dealt with historic flooding and cold in the winter over the last six years. i'm joined by the arkansas emergency management director. a.j., first of all, what is the latest on the search for survivors or victims from the storm system in your state? >> sure. good afternoon. so we are moving in to the recovery phase. we have not -- we only have two confirmed fatalities as you mentioned earlier. one at a nursing home, and one in leechville, another small community in arkansas. we've only had two confirmed fatalities so far, and we're moving quickly into the recovery phase in different communities. >> how much of a role do you need the federal government to play in helping with the recovery? >> sure. so since friday night i've been in constant contact with the administrator, and we visited again early this morning. we'll have some fema teams here on the ground starting wednesday to be working with not only the department of emergency management teams but also the local emergency managers and those counties doing preliminary damage assessments to safely reach that federal threshold, to open up some federal public assistance or individual assistance programs. so we're moving on that pretty quick. >> how do you think the timing of these storms impacted how people were able to get to safety, the warnings that went out, the off-seasonality of this event? >> yes. so the first thing, you know, tornadoes are not unusual in arkansas. just like flooding, we're used to having them. the citizens are used to them. they take a lot of precautions throughout the year we monitor the weather very closely. here at the emergency management, we have systems moving into the system, we're in constant communication with the weather service, and making decisions if we're going to stand up emergency operations center and be ready for the impact of a tornado or if we have a tornado outbreak. so our citizens monitor the weather real good. and i think that may be why we only had two fatalities, as bad as that is, look agent the damage over the last couple days, it's amazing that we did not have more. >> yeah. the pictures are just absolutely stunning. talk to me a little bit about the regional nature of this. are you able to be helpful to authorities across in kentucky and the surrounding states? is it mostly kind of siloed in your response? how does it work when you have such a widespread outbreak across this whole region? >> right. so the emergency management directors, my counterparts in other states from minutes after the event happened, we're in communication with each other. i got numerous calls, text, emails from my counterparts, offering assistance. it's really great that we're able to do that, you know, luckily we have nod had to bring in any resources on this particular storm. our local communities, i can't say enough about our first responders, our -- just the citizens within the communities responded very quickly. and were helping their neighbors. as far as we have agreements with all the other states. we're ready to offer assistance and bring assistance any time that is needed. >> a.j., thank you for coming on. thank you for the work you're doing there in arkansas. >> thank you. and coming up next, the latest on the pandemic and the new warnings from the uk of a potential tidal wave of omicron cases. and later, the january 6th committee readies a vote to hold trump's former chief of staff mark meadows in contempt for his refusal to cooperate with the investigation. you're watching "meet the press daily". ess daily" only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now, she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? 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 unleash the freshness... still fresh. now you know. in wash-scent booster. ♪ downy unstopables welcome back. the united states hit another grim covid milestone today. almost two years after covid-19 first appeared, the u.s. has passed 800,000 deaths from the virus. that's more than be population of washington d.c. and it's more confirmed covid deaths than any other country in the world. the u.s. hit this milestone as the uk announced the first death worldwide from the omicron variant earlier this morning. it comes as the prime minister told the uk yesterday that they're preparing to face a, quote, tidal wave of omicron. and a new study out of oxford shows people with two doses of the vaccine have lower protection against the omicron variant compared to the previous variants. that means your two-dose vaccine works less well most likely. researchers drove home the importance of booster shots optimistic a third shot will improve the response. as domesticated variants rise, some states are reinstating old mitigation methods. new york reinstated the mask mandate this morning. i am joined by a public health analyst. the founding director of the pandemic resource and response initiative at colombia university's climate school. i want to start by reflecting on the milestone. 800,000 dead in under two years. did you think that number would get that big that quickly? >> well, unfortunately, garrett, you know, we've not really done enough to help mitigate the climbing fatality role, and i have been predicting that we should be expecting if things go as they are continuing to go right now, we should be expecting a million fatalities before the end of the first quarter of 2022. we just don't have enough people vaccinated just to get down to it, garrett. >> i feel like we have to split the headlines a little bit on ole koran. the ox ford study, how worried should people be about the transmissible part of the virus? >> there are three questions around omicron. one is how much more transmissible. the second, will it make people sicker and dying at a faster rate than the previous vaccine variant? and will it be resistance to the vaccines that are out there? here's the answer as far as we know at the moment. if you've had three vaccines, that is the two original and one booster, or if you had the disease plus two vaccine doses, you should be pretty well protected from getting very sick or dying from omicron. that said, there will be a lot of cases coming up over the next couple months. but the answer is for individuals, get vaccinated. get the booster. and do what the cdc is recommending right now. >> you alluded to this a little bit, but we talked about transmissible. the flip coin seems to be the omicron has resulted in milder cases, just this one death so far. what do you make of that and is that not kind of the almost in a weird way the best case scenario for a virus we appear to be unable to get rid of is the version we're maybe stuck with is less deadly? >> sure. of course. that's what everybody hopes for. but the problem is that we so far haven't had that many cases and most of the cases have been in younger people. so we cannot yet say how deadly or how serious illness this is going to cause. we're just going to have to wait and see on that question. hopefully the original data that we have right now will hold up and we will see less hospitalizations and less deaths. >> well, if you and the prime minister are right, we're going to see lots more cases, i think you'll have lots more data perhaps sooner than we want. does the booster discussion we're having now and the changes that we're seeing in these variants suggest to you we're alternately working toward a situation where you might be getting a new covid shot every year like this people get the flu shot in it seems like the direction this looks like it's headed. >> yes. it seems to me, too. same thing. and i think it's very, very unlikely. virtually impossible at this point that we're going to eliminate covid-19 and the various variants that are cropping up in places that have been so fiercely undervaccinated. so i think we should get ready as a public to expect that we'll be getting an annual booster shot. that said, if we do get the annual booster shot, especially if it's modified to deal with whatever new variant is out there, we could expect to be pretty protected from getting really sick, and i think that's good news. >> anything else we should be watching for as we're seeing omicron start to spread in we're seeing the uk start to lock down. europe has tended to be a precursor to what we see in the united states. >> that's right. and that's been shown over and over again. one of the things on my mind i don't think is getting enough attention is the fact that this is becoming increasingly a pediatric disease as more and more children are identified as having the covid virus. and that means that we'll be seeing potentially many more children hospitalized and unfortunately, increased fatalities among kids which is just a big reminder for all of us to make sure that our children are getting vaccinated and pretty soon i'm guessing the cdc is going to actually request booster shots for children, even in the 5 to 11 year age group who got the first two shots. >> the large last unvaccinated population in a lot of places are children just starting to be able to get their shots and perhaps get the booster in the future. doctor, we could do our whole secret second hour on this topic alone, but we have to leave it there for the real broadcast today. thank you for coming on. up next, we'll head to capitol hill where we're hours away from the january 6th committee voting on whether to hold mark meadows in contempt of congress. you're watching "meet the press daily". ess daily" our best deals on every iphone - including the iphone 13 pro with 5g. that's the one with the amazing camera? yep! every business deserves it... like ones that re-opened! hi, we have an appointment. and every new business that just opened! like aromatherapy rugs! i'll take one in blue please! it's not complicated. at&t is giving new and existing customers our 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even better. and just might change how you trade—forever. because once you experience thinkorswim® by td ameritrade ♪♪♪ there's no going back. o man, that's a whole lot of wrinkly at least my shoes look good! ♪♪♪ looking good start with bounce wrinkleguard, the megasheet designed to prevent wrinkles in the dryer. welcome back. turning now to capitol hill, the january 6th select committee will vote tonight to recommend holding mark meadows in contempt for failing to cooperate with their investigation. in a 51-page report released last night the committee detailed documents they've obtained including a january 5th email from meadows to someone who was serving as trump's chief of staff where he indicates that the national guard would be present at the capitol the next day on the 6th to, quote, protect pro-trump people. the committee also alleges that meadows was in contact with some of the individuals who planned and organized the january 6th rally. in response letter meadow's letter asserts meadow is protected by executive privilege, but it doesn't say why it should apply to a former official when the current isn't a plying it. leigh ann caldwell is with us. we tend to find out what we have in the form of the reports where we learn the questions they would like to ask mark meadows and some of the details they have backing it up, but we don't get the meadows answers. talk about the questions the committee wants to learn and what we can learn from them. >> reporter: what the committee made clear through their 51-page contempt report is they think meadows is instrumental in their investigation. they note that mark meadows is one of the few people who were with the president on january 6th and was with him, watched them -- unfolded on capitol hill, excuse me. the events on january 6th. and so they think that he is incredibly important to this investigation. they want to ask him about that email that you mentioned regarding the national guard, saying that the national guard would protect pro trump people. they also want to ask him about his communications with cash pa tell, a top adviser to acting defense secretary at the time we know they were deposed by the committee just last week, and we also know that the committee wants to ask him about his conversations with members of congress and other white house officials who said that the white house needs to put out a statement, say something on january 6th to have these people stand down. and so they're trying to understand what meadows saw that day, what the president, the former president was thinking, what he was doing, and how instrument cal meadows was in the events leading up to january 6th. the report, the 51-page report indicates he was instrumental, and like you mentioned, we're only getting one of the side story because measuring meadows said he's not going to cooperate. >> i'm interested when he was the campaign official and chief of staff. he's in the middle of so many of the decisions. talk to me a little bit about what we do know from meadows which is the documents he's handed over. they're referenced repeatedly in the report. he's not talking but his email accounts are and text messages are. how is the committee making use of what he did decide to hand over before he changed his mind on cooperating. >> there's 9,000 pages of these documents that mark meadows did turn over in the few weeks he was, in fact, cooperating with the committee. and so that's part of the committee's point. they're saying you are claiming executive privilege that you can't come in to talk to us, but meanwhile, you have turned over all of these documents. now you're not willing to come in and give your oral testimony about it. and so they say that it doesn't square. but we've got an lot of insight from these documents, and we haven't seen them, obviously, but just what the committee has unveiled, and so -- not even unveiled but mentioned, referenced in their report. and so this is the third time that the committee is going to move forward with this criminal contempt referral. we saw it with jeffrey clark, a foreigner department of justice official a couple weeks ago, and steve bannon whose case is now before the department of justice. and so this isn't over with mark meadows. we'll see what decisions he makes and if he's going to cooperate with the committee or have this go to the department of justice. >> for folks following this investigation, the report is online. you can read the footnotes and find every detail of what came from where and where the meadows were useful. leigh ann, thank you. coming up, we'll stay on capitol hill as we learn president biden and senator manchin, you remember him, are expected to speak this afternoon as democrats try to pass the build back better bill before christmas. democrat of california joins me next. you're watching "meet the press daily". ♪ i'm way ahead of schedule with my trusty team ♪ ♪ there's heather on the hedges ♪ ♪ and 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>> certainly we're willing to negotiate. this is a very important measure for families in america. it's particularly important for women because we've had the lowest participation of women in the workforce since 1988. and it has to do with childcare. making sure we retain pre-k and childcare is going to be important. that package is about $400 billion. that is money into people's pockets. it's going to anti-inflationary by putting the money into pockets of families in america. we're the only country in the world that doesn't have universal childcare. we're the only country in the world that doesn't have universal pre-k. it is remarkable that of all the industrialized countries we continue to be at the bottom of the barrel. >> the paid family leave part of this seems like it may be one of the most likely pieces to get the axe. manchin says he doesn't want to see it in this bill, that it should be done separately, that it should be a bipartisan effort, although that never seems to get off the ground. is this bill too big, too important that even something like that coming out costs you votes? >> so parental leave is important to everyone. you know, because it's family and medical leave, it covers those who get sick and have to go on leave. so what's interesting about this is that 50% of the money that is spent on family and medical leave is spent for individuals' own medical care. only about 25% is actually spent on what we would call parental leave. but again, we bring up the rear because of the industrialized countries in the world, the average is 22 weeks of family and medical leave. again, we don't have any paid family and medical leave for 100 million people in this country. so it is an important component. we need to get there. i don't know if that's what's going to fall out. but for certain, childcare and pre-k must be in the package. >> the other big concern from manchin world about this bill is inflation. the report that came out last week had the highest inflation jump we've seen since 1982. are you concerned about inflation right now, and why should we believe this bill will do anything to tackle inflation when it clearly wasn't designed to from the start? >> well, it may not have been designed to from the start, but you have 56 economists who have now said, as recently as friday, that the build back better plan actually is going to be anti-inflationary, because it makes sense, you're putting money back into people's pockets. $28,000 a year will be saved by families who are in my district who need childcare, because you're not going to pay more than 7% of your income to childcare. my families are paying up to 40 or 50% of their income to childcare. so if we want to get women back to work, and it's important to get women back to work, then childcare has to be a component. we're going to be putting money in their pockets. we're talking about 20 million kids that will be in childcare now as a result of build back better that weren't before. another 6 million that will be in universal pre-k that weren't before. this is all good news for america. and we keep -- we talk big about taking care of our children, it's all about our kids, but when it comes to putting dollars on the line for our kids, not so much. we average about $500 per child in this country. you compare us to the european countries and it's about $14,000. >> i hear you. i feel like even the childcare parts are going to take time to set up, though. when i talk to joe manchin, he's worried about the inflation part now. i want to set that aside and ask you about your party's chances in this midterm. you're not running for reelection. i'm wonder if you think as many people would be headed to the exits as it appears to be among democrats including several of your party's chairmen if the political environment was better than it appears right now. >> my decision to retire had everything to do with the fact that i've been in public office for 39 years, and my husband really wanted me to be home for so we could spend time during what are called our golden years. i'm 71. so for the next nine or ten years we want to be able to be with our families and travel and do those kinds of activities. that doesn't mean i'm not going to be engaged in the process. i certainly will be. but i'll be doing it from home. it's always a personal decision for every member. and i think for some members who have been there for 35 or 40 years, they recognize it's time to pass the mantle to another generation. and that's all good for our country. >> all right. congresswoman speier, thank you very much. chuck will be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." msnbc coverage continues with katy tur right now. and good to be with you, i'm katy tur. it is hard toover state the scale of devastation in kentucky and across the south and midwest, from a very rare december outbreak fueled by warmer temperatures. providing an update today, kentucky governor andy beshear said 64 people are thought to have lost their lives and another 105 unaccounted for. that is in kentucky alone. the governor choked up as he revealed some of the dead are children. >> just a few more facts about those we've lost. 18 are still unidentified. of the ones that we know, the age -- the age range is 5 months to 86 years and six are younger than 18.

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