the house committee investigating the january 6th attack voting unanimously to advance a measure holding mark meadows in criminal contempt over his refusal to testify. the resolution includes a referral on the justice department. the measure comes as meadows refused to answer questions about the documents he already handed over. >> when the record raised questions as these most certainly do. you have to come in and answer those questions. when it's time for him to follow the law, come in and testify on those questions. he changed his mind and told us to pile in the sand. >> mr. meadows' testimony will bear on another key question before this committee. did donald trump's action corrupt congress' proceedings to count electoral knowledge. mr. meadows persuade state officials to alter their election results. in georgia, for instance, mr. meadows participated on a phone call between president trump and georgia's secretary of state, raffensperger, meadows was on the phone when president trump asked the secretary of state, "find the 11,780 votes to change the results of the election of georgia." >> liz cheney read out loud some of the texts received while the attack was underway. >> members of congress and others wrote to mark meadows as the attack was underway. one text mr. meadow receives said, quote, "we are under sieged at the capitol." mark, protesters are literally storming the capitol, breaking windows on doors, rushing in. is trump going to say something? >> a fourth, there is an arm standoff at the house chamber door. another, from someone inside the capitol. we are all helpless. dozens of texts including from trump's officials urged immediate action by the president. quote, "potus has to come out firmly and tell protesters to dissipate, someone is going to get killed." another, "mark, he needs to stop this now." third, in all caps "tell them to go home." a fourth, i quote, "potus needs to calm this [ bleep ] down." multiple fox news hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. they texted mr. meadows and he has turned over those texts. quote, "mark, the president needs to tell people in the capitol to go home. this is hurting all of us, he's destroying his legacy." laura ingraham wrote. please, get him on tv, destroying everything you have accomplished, ryan killmee texted. >> can he make a statement, asking people to leave the capitol, sean hannity urged. >> one of the president's sons texted meadows. >> he got to condemn this. donald trump jr. texted. meadows responded, quote, "i am pushing it hard, i agree." still, president trump did not immediately act. donald trump jr. texted again and again urging action by the president quote, "we need an oval office address, he has to leave now. it has gone too far and gotten out of hand." but hours past without necessary actions by the president. these non privilege texts are further evidence that president trump supreme the election of duty during those 187 minutes. >> joe, just to go back those were anonymous texts from members of congress and mark meadows. some went on the air in realtime saying this was antifa and we have seen their concerns expressed to meadows and his own son, john jr. pleading with the chief of staff to get his dad to do something about this. this goes to the point that mark meadows may not be cooperating now but he already cooperated. he gave 6,000 pages of documents, those text messages would say so much about what happened that day and the people who sent them. >> like those hosts say one thing while the riots going on and scared for their country said another that night and the weeks followed, mark meadows is just playing to an audience of one, donald trump. he's already turned over the evidence. he's already half way there to be the john dean of january 6th whether he wants donald trump to like it. >> that's what mark meadows have always done, he's always tried to have it both ways. >> these texts showing confirmation there are two realities. there is a reality that we all live in that functioning adults live in, facts, laws and realities are understood. we comment on those facts and laws and realities and do our best and interpreted and sort through it. there is a phony alternative reality that in our political class and our political world has been created over the last six years for donald trump. and, created for his followers, created for trump's audience and politicians and whether that's a politician or whether that's an audience for tv shows. and, they're all desperate to persuade donald trump eventhough behind the scenes, they're telling him not to do this or that. it's so revealing. mainly it's revealing because these people who are closest to donald trump who have been his cheerleaders for five years, they're texting meadows for a reason. they know donald trump has the power to stop the insurrectionists, the rioters, the people who were trying to beat police officers with american flags. the people who are spreading their -- they're trying to get meadows to stop them because donald trump has the power to stop them. again, this is confirmation of what kevin mccarthy said on january the 6th, when he picked up the phone and screamed to donald trump to stop the riots and trump said those are not my people. meadows swore at him and said "who do think you are talking to." people don't call you up to stop thunderstorms because they want to go out to toss baseball with their sons or throw the football with their kids. they don't ask you that because they know you can't stop it. maybe they do text you to say can you get joe to talk a little bit less. >> wait a minute, let's find a different example. >> there has to be better example. >> can you tell mika to tell joe to please stop talking. >> there you go. >> but, again these texts are so revealing because it shows from the people that know him the most that those rioters, they were doing that for donald trump's benefits. they were following donald trump's orders to go up to the capitol and those fox news hosts, those members of congress, kevin mccarthy, they all know it and it's now exposed to the world. >> they live in fear of donald trump. this is what they believe. we are seeing out in the light of day, what these people who spent the last almost years now say oh, it was not that big of a deal, maybe it was antifa, the media is over to see how they really feel about it and felt about it when it was in the moment. another point, mark meadows, who'll not speak to the committee, he's happy to go on tv shows to talk about it. last night he was on fox news. >> let's be clear about this sean, this was not about me and holding me in contempt. it's not about making the capitol safe or we see that by some of the selective leaks that are going on right now. this is about donald trump and actually going after him once again continuing to go after donald trump and when we look at the real results of this investigation, it's not really the foundation, the foundation is not based on a legislative purpose. >> he thinks i guess the investigation is a fraud. the investigation to which he contributed 6,000 pages of documents. >> did they talk about the text messages? >> no, not on that show. >> that's another great example of this alternative reality that he and mark meadows trying to carve out. those text messages were exposed and we are learning the truth about january the 6th. he goes out there and again he's playing to an audience of one. it's of course sad and pathetic but you know mika, we know the truth. the truth is out there. january the 6th committee is showing it and it proves one thing. those rioters were pushed to be there by donald trump. donald trump could have stopped them but as we heard from the beginning, he didn't want to, he was loving what he was seeing. he was loving to see cops getting their brains beaten in by american flags and their heads shove indoors. getting assaulted by this rioters, radical mob. again, he didn't stop. he could have easily stopped them. he supported this violence and it inspired him. he thought for donald trump this was loyalty. when he's getting texts from his son saying stop the riots, how does he respond? well, he says to mccarthy, i guess they're more upset about me losing than you. >> the truth is he's not getting texts from his son. his son is texting meadows. i am thinking can don jr. text his dad? we'll get to our panel about this just a moment. first, let's bring in congressional reporter from the "guardian," you tweeted out the infamous powerpoint presentation that meadows' attorney shared with the january 6th committee. we talked yesterday, mara gay calling this the paper trail of treason. will we ever hear from mark meadows himself or will the paper trail close in around him? >> well, him being to the prosecution does not mean he'll testify. i have always thought that if there was jail time on the table, some of these trump's aides may cut something that involves testimonies in order to potentially going to jail. this goes to show what a conspiracy it says. i spoke to a source and they said they have texts from members of congress just like the one they displayed yesterday but they have many more and not treating it as if it was a criminal conspiracy involving the white house and congress. >> hugo, that's where i want to go next. you have been following this every step of the way rightly, the media personality and the president's sons are tracking a lot of attention. republicans and congresswomen inside during the siege pleading to mark meadows for help. what's the reaction for that and how can that shape the investigation going forward? my source also said this, if you look at the text messages, the ones from the lawmakers apologizing for not being able to pull off the objections. if you go back to the eastman memo that laid out the plan and throwing out the election, there are six dates in that memo that he raises supposed instances over election fraud which is really interesting. it begs the question was there coordination between the white house instructing members of congress. >> hugo, it's rare to see in black and white the evidence like we put up on the screen of the powerpoint presentation lays out step by step how to pull off a coup and now we are hearing text messages directly from members of congress and the press. what else do you expect coming down from pipes? it seems they got a ton of evidence and they're rolling it out slowly. >> they have 6,000 documents that meadows turned over. the most bizarre thing was that he turned over these documents to make sure he was not held in contempt. the by product is he wrote in don jr. and members of congress all for nothing because he's on his way to the justice department. in terms of what to come, i have a couple of source in the committee thinks more subpoenas to come from the trump's white house. this administration is gaining a lot of steam. i think the committee is rapidly going from strength to strength. >> hugo, one of the key things about this investigation whether members able to show premeditated intent, not just the rally but the attack on the capitol itself, when you refer to the texts from one member apologizing for not having to be able to overthrow effectively the results of the election in those six states. do you think your sense from the committee they feel they are inching towards being able to demonstrate that there was intent from the president or those around him to actually attack the capitol? they would not say that but they're trying to build a case. for months now they have been gathering evidence and talking to witnesses. and they issued subpoenas to people who want to cooperate with the committee but are afraid of the blow back. there are a lot going on in the scenes that we don't see and ill illuminated to the extent the committee already has a trove of evidence. >> that did that source indicate they have the names of elected officials who participated in this text messaging wise? >> they didn't tell me though. i did try. what i manage to get one of the members from the committee on background was they have text messages from both house and republicans and senate republicans. increasing what it sounds like gets a hold of congress effect to make sure that biden won't get certified on january 6th. >> given they have names both in the house and senate participated via text messages of what was going on, members of the committee realized that the biggest opponent perhaps may be out there in the public and it's something called indifference because of the pace of this investigation. >> well, i think the main concern that the committee has or the pace issue is they have to wrap this up before the midterm is a critical they think. the committee has to finish this investigation by the midterms if they run it through the midterm, they're going the run the risk of political games. but, i think their biggest concern is trying to get this finish in a timely matter. >> thank you so much for being with was again. we appreciate it. looking forward to seeing you soon. eddie glaude, liz cheney asked a question yesterday and she asked this specifically "did donald trump threw action or in action to corrupt to impede's congress impeding." that question is so fascinated that it lifted straight from the statute that's written to commit sedition against the united states government. with these texts that keep on streaming out where his closest allies know he can stop these riots and they're begging him to stop these riots and he's not doing it. it takes one small step towards that statute being threw. >> we have the drama surrounding donald trump who are playing to the audience of one. the key future is we have actors literally trying to overthrow an american election, literally tight to undermine the american democracy. we are seeing it play out in realtime. the question is what mike asked a few seconds ago. is it gaining steam and moving fast enough to catch the public's attention. i think in some ways republicans are playing a kind of political rope, hanging out and trying to wait until june because they think they're going to win the congress and all of this will go away. >> yes, mike, i want to read you a tweet from tim alberto last night. he says the president's son was pleading with him to call off the violent assault on the united states capitol. the president did nothing. read that sentence again, tim. concludes his tweet. just think about that. his son begging him repeatedly to stop the assault on the united states capitol. he does nothing. mark meadows begging him repeatedly to stop the assault on the united states capitol. he does nothing. shawn ha hahnty and laura ingra begging him to stop this violent assault on the united states capitol, understanding exactly what's going on here. donald trump does absolutely nothing. >> there is a couple of thing. the president's son can't reach his own father, he had to go to a chief of staff to issue a text message, please begging him to stop the steal and what's going on at the capitol. the other aspect listening to cheney yesterday, she has put her life on the line here given the nature of what's going on around us. she did it. she read an out line of duties. some people may not be able to help themselves and think about what would happen if we were talking about a colonel or a captain in a war zone talking about something going on where soldiers are being threaten by an enemy and were begging for three hours for a higher command to take over and help them and offer assistance. well, it did not happen in those three hours. anybody else in the military or anything like that in business would have been removed from their office but donald trump was not. >> mika, by the way, i heard you say this earlier we really don't know who don jr. texted that day. we only have mark meadows' texts, perhaps he was trying to call his dad. >> i know. >> it seems to me if you are in his position, what would you do? you call everybody around him. maybe he called his dad repeatedly. >> could not get through. >> chief of staff, can you help out here, can you talk to my dad. again, it's unfair for us to say that he could not reach out to his dad. i think what this shows is it was all -- >> everybody who cared about his legacy doing everything he could do to try to get donald trump to stop this insurrection against the united states government and so they all begged him through. >> everybody saw something that was going wrong and they knew one person who could stop it. all of them knew one person could stop it. the person who started it, donald trump. >> he didn't do it. as the good senator from nebraska says months ago, donald trump from all reports he got was standing there looking at the tv, taking it in and thinking the violence that he saw and the insurrection that he saw and the police officers getting their brains bashed in by american flags and getting their brains crushed at doors. he thought that was actually a great thing to have happen. >> okay. >> he was flattered by it. >> wonderful. >> he reenforced this in his little twirl with bill o'reilly when he was asked who he likes as leader. we'll get back to this. a lot more to talk about. but, president biden will be visiting kentucky tomorrow as the number of people killed by the weekend's powerful tornados rise. close to 90 people confirmed dead. 100 people still missing in that state. join us now from maymayfield, kentucky which was simply decimated. nbc's jay gray. what's the latest? >> reporter: hey there, mika, this is the kind of devastation the president is going to see on his visit. you can see what's an under carriage of a transport van. this massive vehicle tossed on its sides by winds and tossed onto homes and you see it everywhere. it's overwhelming to see the amount of debris, the amount of destruction in this area as you talk about more than 100 still missing. it's still very much a search and rescue mission. you got teams working around the clock. obviously the time working against them. some had been working since the night of the storm. they are spent but continue to go out. more teams are coming in and more dogs trying to speed up the process. you know the recovery here can't really get started until the search and areas that are ravaged like this are over. that's going to take some time. there is so much to work through here. pictures are stunning on the ground. it's as bad as i have ever seen. >> nbc's jay gray in mayfield kentucky, thank you very much for that report. still ahead on "morning joe," the supreme court rejected a religious challenge to new york's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. justice neil gorsuch did not follow that. the air force discharging active duty members for refusing to get their vaccine. we'll talk to dr. scott gottlieb from the growing toll of the pandemic. you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. e watching we'll be right back. biden: this is the challenge of our collective lifetime. and every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases. we have the ability to invest in ourselves and build an equitable, clean energy future, and in the process, create millions of good-paying jobs and opportunities around the world. there's no more time to hang back or sit on the fence or argue amongst ourselves. so let this be the moment that we answer history's call. as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets to balance risk and reward. with one element securing 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cell line. the court issued a one sentence unsigned order with no explanation. a normal practice when ruling on an emergency application. but justice neil gorsuch filed add 14-page decent joined by justice samuel alito. in the dissent justice gorsuch says these applicants are not antivaxers. the applicant explains they could not receive the vaccine because of their religion. >> oh, good lord. >> please, how stupid does he think we are. >> letecia james does not contain fetal cells. hek-293 cells are grown in the laboratory and thousands of generations removed from cells collected from a fetus in 1973 were used in the testing during the research and development phase of the pfizer and moderna vaccines. she added the use of fetal cell lines for testing is common including for rubella vaccines, wait, there is more, dr. patel, let's backup a little bit because this is pretty deep. if you first could explain the reasoning behind judge gorsuch's dissent. >> well, it's hard to giver you some of the medical reasons without firstover laying the justice himself accused the governor of new york and citing god wants people to get vaccinated, something that the popes and bishops and number of leaders around world have echoed saying that's antireligious and invoked the medical basis for these vaccines which by the way also has been kind of wrongly portrayed in the justice's dissent is based in false liberal religion. two doctors cited of compelling example of pregnant physicians giving aids should be allowed to invoke her own believes do not because of these aborted fetal cell tissue claims should be enough reasoning for these exemptions. >> i read his dissent and i was shocked. i know they read it on facebook so i let it go. but i heard from every doctor i talked to about this. there are aborted fetuses in there? i hear the same thing from every doctor and scientist and they say joe, if you wanted -- the line is 50 years old and secondly, it's so many generations removed that there is just not a cause or link. doctor, i want to show a list of drugs. do people not want to take this vaccine on religious grounds and gorsuch thinks if you take it you are some how betraying your pro-life believes then. well, these lines have been used for advil, aleve, benadryl and claritin and hydroxychloroquine, and go through all of these. can you explain this line that's 50 years old, over 50 years old and countless generations removed has been used for just about every medicine, common medicine and nobody says oh my god, i am killing babies. >> that's correct, people have been saying fetal issues. these are cell lines that derives from fetal tissues. they are the generation from fetal tissue. it's 293rd version of those cells. to make sure before you put anything on the human body that you would reach the condition. someone understanding the adverse effects. this is something that's a staple in all labs. another fact that is something has gotten mangled on facebook and social media. there are none of these fetal cell lines or any cell derives from them in the actual mrna vaccines, moderna and pfizer. people have been saying you are infecting aborted fetal cells. all of that is false. if you don't take those vaccines, you are right. not just those medications, there are 67,000 studies used to develop drugs. >> we'll we are getting a little premed education here. we should point out on the legal side, the supreme court is showing a number of cases deference to the states on these mandates, they're upholding this dissent that is we are working through here. yes, new york, you can have your mandate, yes, indiana, you can have your mandate. i want to ask you broadly again because you spoke about facebook and some of the theories that are out there about these vaccines for covid and how if they have and if they are different from all these vaccines if we had to take for years and our children had to take to go to school and go to camp. do you see any distinctions there? well, this is as new vaccine and has not been proven yet. we have seen what happens and it has been for a year now and we are all standing here. those who deny the vaccine is good or denied taking it. >> i have got patients saying the same thing, i understand it sounds because social media just blast it but this is quote on quote "new," we just talked about how decades of making for the number of the vaccines. on top of that we never had a vaccine that has had this much real world evidence, literally billions of people having these vaccines in place for over a year with tens of thousands of volunteers and clinical trials we should be thanking because they led us where we are today that we can say this prevents deaths and hospitalizations and keep people you love alive. it's stunning to me that we are still propagating these lies and people are still believing them. >> yeah, i so one more time just as a public service to "morning joe" viewers, if you have any friends who say they can't take the vaccine because there are aborted fetal cells in there. that's a lie. there is research, you can let them know that you will be going to the house with them because you are a good neighbor and removing all the advil, aleve, benadryl, ibuprofen, motrin and tylenol, and hydroxychloroquine that they have, you know, stocked up in the garage as well as ivermectin. it's a laughable argument and again, i didn't -- >> well, here is not funny, it's all over facebook. >> i don't debate my family members or friends when i am on. when the united states supreme court justice rolls out such al bad faith argument without explaining that, and really i am sorry, providing cover antivaxers, that's well beneath judge justice gorsuch. >> and to point out how our country has become. there is a lot of this on facebook backing up this crazy, crazy concept. >> of course it is. >> people will research it on facebook where they'll get more lies and misinformation and twisted information. >> dr. kavita patel, thank you so much for clearing this up. let's get a quick look at our weather, our meteorologist bill karins has the latest. >> we have a huge storm that's moving across the country. i want to update everyone how historic especially the kentucky portion of this outbreak. we know now we had 74 fatalities from that one tornado in kentucky, they said it was on the ground for at least 120 miles and it could be even more than that. they're still doing the surveys and there are still dozens more missing. this will go down as the deadliest tornados in kentucky history and look at the dates from all the previous ones. we are talking about the early 1900s and late 1800s. we know we had six what we called ef-3 tornados that's severe damage including that amazon warehouse in illinois, kentucky will be at least ef-4. as far as the storms in the west coast, we don't like to have bad weather but we needed this for the water supply. they got three inches of rain in san francisco, the mountains received four feet of snow. it's going to pour today in southern california and southern california had not seen a lot of rain over the last couple of months. we are in the rainy season. we desperately need this water. we are going to get it today. the mountains could even see up to five inches of rain outside of l.a. this storm will be on the move eventually into the plains and it's going to be a huge wind event. we'll see wind damage possible from denver all the way to the quad cities. we'll see wind gusts especially in the southwest. some of these wind gusts are going to be up there nearly 50 to 60 miles per hour. mika, it's a wild december already. it's going to continue that way. i mean it does not feel like winter yet in the east, it's not yet today, nearly 60 in washington, d.c. bill karins. thank you very mump. nato allies look for ways to keep vladimir putin from invading ukraine. former nato supreme james stavridis is joining the table and a potential of a new cold war. and donald trump is swooning over those love letters he received from kim jong-un. we'll play it for you when we come back on "morning joe." ♪♪ ♪ >> man: what's my safelite story? i spend a lot of time in my truck. it's my livelihood. ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: so i'm not taking any chances when something happens to it. so when my windshield cracked... my friend recommended safelite autoglass. they came right to me, with expert service where i needed it. ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: that's service i can trust... no matter what i'm hauling. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ 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 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hundred,est resul eight million ♪ headline says that pfizer's vaccines work. so man, you are talking about 90% effective, a pill. that looks like it's going to really change the battle against covid. >> that's the antiviral pill we heard so much about. this is coming from pfizer again that has to be independently reviewed and other organizations to clear it for people. again, this is last week when we heard from pfizer that there are boosters effective against the omicron variant. once it passes through and jumps through other hurdles, could be really good news. let's turn to our foreign policy. russian deputy defense minister telling russia news agencies are a lack of progress to ukraine crisis with leave moscow responding to a military way. escalating tensions between russia and ukraine as moscow has moves to 100,000 troops. joining us now our admiral. former nato commander, what do you do in a situation like this, we bury you if we cross into ukraine to do something about it. >> we have a rich tool to make it difficult for vladimir putin. the top of the list is sanctions. our president did a good job laying those out in front of vladimir putin. number two, defenses but lethal weapons to the ukrainians. number three, working together with the britts and italians and the members of nato to show them that we'll put actual pressure on them. and fourth and finally, enhancing our cyber capability. vladimir putin continues to rattle this. i think the odds of him actually crossing that border and anger, i think are decreasing. >> we'll see. >> you know admiral though, we have the tools, i don't think russia wants to engage us militarily. it's not a fair fight. it would not be a fair fight. the question is are we going to engage? we refuse to engage in 2014. should we hold back in what aid we sent ukraine? should we wait until after we invade ukraine, we make it obvious to vladimir putin that this is going to be a losing proposition for him. >> i will take door number 3. i think we got time to do that in terms of really upping the movement of those forces, not forces, i should say, those weapon systems. they'll come with trainers and advisers. all of that will deterrent. vladimir putin will continue to push hard. this statement of deploying nuclear crew missiles. those are all right in place effectively. we need to up the game in term s of what we providing ukrainians. no, i don't think we need or should we provide a guarantee that we'll go to war. that would lead both the united states and russia down a very dangerous path. >> ukraine is still not a member of nato. it does seem now that the u.s. has managed to get more allies and their strategy. they need them for that. do thank you think the europeans are now on the same page as the white house? >> i do. i think you are right katty of the g7 statement. oil and gas dependency kind of see paragraph one where we says maybe that is not the best idea. gas is not flowing yet and that actually represents leverage on our side. yes, i think they are on side with us. >> admiral, i want to hear your thoughts on this next piece, former president trump weighed in on which world leaders he enjoyed speaking to while he was in office. >> who was your favorite world leader to speak with? who did you enjoy speaking with the most? >> i mean many of them. the ones i did the worst with were the weak ones. we had weak leaders in the world, too. the ones i did the best were the tyrants where they all say oh, he loves tyrants. he wants to be a tyrant now. i got along great with putin and president xi of china and i got along with kim jong-un, is that good? is that better than having a war. he liked me and i like him, he wrote me beautiful letters. i call them love letters. >> a lot going on there, admiral. the former president is committing truths in public. in other words, he's saying i really like tyrants. the only part why they does is because they played him like a fiddle. you watch that manipulation by putin and xi and kim jong-un of all. you think who are the other leaders in the world at this time. boy, i would put it at the top of the list, angela merkel of germany who leads her country through every conceivable challenge and is an icon of integrity. that's who he ought to be enjoyed in speaking with. that's the kind of leaders the united states should be working with. it's surprising and shocking to see a former president saying those words. >> you can look at his presidency and you can see he loved tyrants and he talked about it all the time how much he loves them. he had absolutely contempt for democratically elected, western democratic leaders as admiral said like angela merkel. we know that's donald trump, he's going to say things like that. what's really disturbing is we actually have people in the audience who applaud at the mention of kim jong-un. one of the most ruthless and cruellest leaders of the world. here is donald trump saying yeah, i love these three communist leaders. the communist leaders of china and north korea and the communist leader who says the greatest tragedy of the 20th sen century was a collapse of russia. there you have the audience applauding at the mention of kim jong-un. that's just sick and pathetic. >> you are talking about a topic here that is epidemic in this country. it raises a huge question. how is it that so many people applaud things like that that you just indicated coming from donald trump, how is it? how is it that so many thousands of people adhere loyalty to a guy who we just saw on tv like a raging-comedy act who have played footsie with tyrants and people applaud him. admiral, what's happening here? >> you have to think of the videos you see in the north korean party congress when they applaud in that kind of insane way and you got to ask yourself, is that kind of feelty embedding itself? and it has. >> i think the question is what do you do about it? i would argue it's education, it's celebration of those who served the nation and not just in the military, there are a lot of ways to serve this nation from teaching to medicine, it's a bipartisan activity, we can celebrate that. you address it the good old fashion way at the ballot box. you find candidates both republicans or democrats willing to reach across the isle and work with others. you live in massachusetts, one of the most liberal states in the country, who's the governor? charlie baker, he's a republican, my congressman was seth moten, he's a democrat but famous for reaching across the isle. we can find those candidates, "we," the big we, the american republic, we need to find them. >> imagine joe biden and barack obama and hillary clinton sat on the stage and said i really love kim jong-un and vladimir putin, imagine that. it does not have to be a gain for democrats. imagine george w. bush hearing and lavishing praise on the leader of north korea and my god ronald reagan talking about the leaders that way. >> and the right absolutely crushed him for the next several years and so now you have the right, the trump's right supporting president who says the three people he likes working the most were three communists. communist china and communist north korea. again, a guy who saw the collapse of the soviet union responsible for at least 40 to 50 million deaths inside their own country. i want to finish with that, admiral, if he's still with us. ? >> admiral, we talked about ukraine and the need for the biden administration not to wait but to go ahead and give ukraine the defensive weapon read starting with that $200 million package and perhaps giving them more. what do we do with china? what do we do with the challenge of taiwan? how aggressive do we get in the south china sea and letting the chinese know and the russians know that no, we are not going to send 200,000 troops to taiwan but we'll make their lives a living hell if they go into taiwan. >> i will draw a little illusion from mother nature which is that we got to make both ukraine and taiwan like porcupines. very difficult. ask yourself joe, do lions eat porcupines? probably not because they have all those spines because they are difficult. that means intelligence, cyber, defensive but lethal weapons and advisors and training. prescriptions are roughly the same in both places. i will make one final point here which is vladimir putin can be reckless, he invaded georgia in 2008, he invaded ukraine in 2014, he threatened to do so again, it's a possibility. taiwan, president xi is not reckless. and i think tensions are rising, i suspect with china is a year of living quietly in the sense that the olympics the party of congress are coming. ukraine is a short term tactical challenge for us and the longer term is china. >> he can't be reckless, admiral. he went into georgia in 2008 after he knew bush was on his way out and exhausted by two wars and could not respond in a meaningful way of barack obama and in 2014 he read barack obama correctly that he was not going to send the ukrainians defensive weapons. is this all on joe biden and the administration to show that the bear is going to have to eat 20 porcupines a day if the bear goes into ukraine. >> 100% correct. and i will only add that it's not just the united states here, it needs to be our european allies, they'll come and deploy weapon systems, they'll help in this challenge. >> admiral, thank you and happy holiday. appreciate your ininsights. >> maybe we can get president trump a chance to iran and maduro down in a circus to complete it for him. we have a big hour ahead, lawmakers investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol have the receipts. they come in in the form of text messages from donald trump's closest alies begging the ex-president chief of staff to get his boss to call off the insurrection. we'll talk to congressman eric swalwell. the breaking news in the fight against covid. pfizer says its antiviral covid pill is 89% preventing high-risk people from being hospitalized or dying from the virus. let's bring informer fda dr. scott gottlieb, a member of the board of director of pfizer and author of the book "uncontrolled spread," why covid-19 crushed us and how we can defeat the next pandemic. this is great news obviously, i want to pull back to look at the global situation and ask how this news plays into how the global fight against the pandemic is going because my understanding is if you have much of the world that's unvaccinate, you will see variants coming on covid. are these variants being tempt down by science or are we still in the big fight worldwide? >> i think we are still in the big fight worldwide, this is a fight and perfect opportunity. i was scheduled to be here this morning before that news broke. the drug is important, i think having more oral therapeutics that can help people getting the infection and avoid hospitalizations can be really important. and also the antibodies can be used aggressive as they are. but, we have a lot of covid spread around the world, vaccinations are not evenly distributed around the country where a lot of these variants are originating, we have a lot of infections. this is a virus. we'll never be able to snuff this virus out. it's going to be something like the flu where we have to use therapeutics and vaccines to keep this at bay. >> dr. gottlieb, good morning, you still have in some parts of this country of serious problems of covid. a group of doctors pleading with residents to get the vaccines because so many emergency rooms have become overrrun again. what is your snapshot of where we are knowing it's different from state to state and region to region largely because of vaccination rates and those places. what can we say where we are? >> well, look, prevalent right now, 36 cases a day. jeerm germany is at 50. the delta wave concentrated in regions of the country where delta has not yet coursed its way through. the states around the great lakes, minnesota and wisconsin and michigan which seems to be peeking right now. we are seeing more cases as people are gathering for the holidays. many parts of the country, southeast and southwest and pacific northwest and mountains and plain states which we are having a pandemic as early as a month ago. the southeast right now, prevalent is way down to 7 or 8 cases. that's a very low level. the risk is on the back end of this delta wave, we expect this to be the last major wave of infection, that prevalent will come down because people having so much immunity. the risk right now to that narrative is omicron starts to sweep across the country as this delta wave is subsiding. if it does, given what we have seen in other country, it's going to move quickly. it's a big country, it takes a while for these variants to move across the country. we could be in this for another couple of months. >> they do it in regional fashion. have we learn that in the summer, people in arizona and texas and florida and in the fall and winter that it seems to happen in the northeast, there is a -- >> coronavirus is a pathogen, it's going to surge during the winter time. we don't understand where omicron is spreading. there are some suggestions cases starting to peak in south africa. if that's the case, some of our presupgss --and causing a lot of sub clinical illness that we were not picking up. >> and once it swat teams throughout the segment of the population, it starts to peak. one segment of the population we know it's getting infected and people who have been infected by delta but don't have any immunity, they're not vaccinated. if people who are vulnerable to ineffective -- see the prefr prevalent coming down. that describes a lot of the south right now. that's something we have to tease out. there is some suggestions that could be the case that people seem to be most vulnerable here. >> let's talk about positive news regarding covid. the moment i start talking, she gets upset. >> let's take a step back and understand that three out of four americans have had one shot, over 200 million americans have been vaccinated by two vaccines. we have a booster that's extraordinary effective nine out of ten for people that take the booster. great responses from that if they choose to take that. the pfizer bill which of course you are on the board. pfizer is saying extraordinary success of staging serious side effects and deaths from covid. many instances the reaction is just at as severe. we are moving doctor, are we not towards a time where we are able to live with covid, we'll be able to keep schools open and businesses open. we are going to be able to live normal lives with covid. >> this year is certainly that transition and it's accelerated by our technology. we have done a good job distributing the vaccines. our tool box is very different right now to your point where we have to face the omicron wave. we have seen clinical data out of the u.k. the properly boosted vaccine is quite protective against omicron variant. we are not defenseless here. we have to look to the u.k., the u.k. has a similar compliment of immunity in the united states. the number of people infected and vaccinated. the number of people been boosted, they're a little better in terms of boosters. they do collect good data so they're going to be reporting out data over the next two weeks that's going to help inform us. you are right, the tool box now is substantially different. this is not march 2020, we know how to combat this virus now. >> doctor, you just pointed out something very important. we can combat it and not defeat it. it's going to be like the flu. is it america that can answer this question. how can we get people to point where they equate getting a vaccine for the virus with getting a flu shot as no big deal. take the politics out of it. get it just like a flu shot. >> it's unfortunate that this is a politicize decision for a segment of the population. my hope is overtime this becomes normalize and people will see this as just a vaccine. we start to see a segment of population resisting other vaccines and other vaccine mandates that we come to accept. as we progress and as temperatures come down, getting a covid vaccine becomes norm norm normalized. we'll see how severe this omicron infection is. there is data out this morning suggesting that there is about 30% reduction and hospitalization as omicron relative to the first wave of infection. that's not as big of a reduction and given a lot of the talk about this omicron being less severe than prior strain of service. even if it's substantially less, small percentages of large number. that's what worries people now in terms of the impact of omicron. >> scott gottlieb, thank you very much for being on this morning. still ahead, the latest from capitol hill as the house prepares to vote on whether to refer mark meadows to the doj for criminal contempt for refusing to answer questions about the january 6th attack on the capitol. plus, text messages he received in realtime from members of congress, fox news host and even the former president son's pleading for donald trump to stop the attack. "morning joe" will be right back. attack. 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yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ what a beautiful shot as the house committee investigates the january 6th, holding mark meadows in criminal contempt over his refusal to testify. the justice department is expected to get a vote on the house floor today, the measure comes as meadows refused to answer questions about the documents he already handed over. vice chair liz cheney read out loud some of the messages. members of congress wrote to meadows from texts. one text, "you are under sieged here at the capitol." another, "they have breached the capitol." third, "mark, protesters are literally storming the capitol breaking windows on doors rushing in. is trump going to say something"? fourth, there is an arm standoff at the house chambers door. we are all helpless. dozens of texts including trump 's officials urged immediate actions by the president. quote, "potus has to come out firmly and tell protesters the dissipate, someone is going to get killed." another, "mark, he needs to stop this now." a third the all caps, "tell them to go home." . a fourth, and i quote, "potus need to calm this [ bleep ] down." indeed according to the records military fox news hosts knew the president needed to act immediately, they test texted mr. meadows and he turned over those texts. quote, "mark, the president needs to tell the people in the capitol to go home, this is hurting all of us, he's destroying his legacy" laura ingraham wrote. please, get him on tv, destroying everything you have accomplished killme texted. can he make a statement? one of the president's sons texted mr. meadows. he's got to condemn this [ bleep ] asap. the capitol police tweet is not enough. donald trump jr. texted. meadows responded, quote, "i am pushing it hard, i agree." still, president trump did not react. donald trump jr. texted again and again and again urging action by the president. quote, "we need an oval office address, they have to leave now and gone too far and gotten out of hands." . hours past without actions by a president. president trump's duty during those 187 minutes. >> wow, let's bring in the author of the early "202 letter" and jackie and donny deutsche. i don't know what's going on there. >> i think the jeans gotten super smaller. >> super tight. >> no, you don't wear those. >> do i look like this audience depends on me? >> let me tell you i am disappointed. katty kay and jonathan lemire and willie is still with us. let's talk about what we just heard from liz cheney, it was more powerful hearing her read those text messages. donny, i will start with you, the republican party and the fox wing and the trump's wing of the republican party is super called out by these text messages which shows how they were feeling. even later on they were calling just another day in january, that was a bunch of bs. this is how they were feeling in realtime. >> i was actually pleasantly surprised that donald trump jr. acted. i thought him and his girlfriend dancing in glorious. my question about all this. if i got two groups, a bunch of democrats or republicans, no matter where this goes, unless we have donald trump saying go get a noose and let's hang mike pence. where does this end? the tea leaves are there already. my question is against the backdrop of local officials being put in place. this coup in the past of what we are looking at does not have a dramatic ending where as the coup that's happening behind the scenes now. that's where the alarm bell -- it's interesting how this takes front and center, the real threat of this point that's happening is not going to lose all the attention. >> that's why people like kevin mccarthy undermine this select committee from the beginning. they have to discredit what they know to be true and we heard text messages from members of congress. we know republicans with direct lines to the white house pleading with meadows on that day to make donald trump stop what was happening. they heard the breaking glass and the bangs on the door and the chambers, they saw it where their own eyes. even if they went out later and try to flip aside what happens that day. they have to go out publicly because they fear donald trump as voters and on the fox side they fear their own viewers have to say something different from what they note to be true. >> that's exactly right. >> i think you know hear ing this new information from liz cheney in republican, top republican leaders and trump allies in their own words where a jaw-dropping moment. this opens up a lot of new questions whether or not some of these people are culpable of some of the deaths that happened on january 6th. we learned of the new information and exact commune communications of mark meadows is at the heart of all the information from the various coup. and in coordination with trump himself, my colleagues and i reported over the weekend of this, 38-page powerpoint that meadows himself circulated. he brought some of these conspiracy theorists to meet with the president. that was referenced last night as well. i think at the end of the day, these messages drew out and of raw emotions from people who have been down playing this insurrection from the start. that was a powerful and good moment for our democracy. >> jackie, great to see you. we expect today there will be a vote to hold meadows. walk us through what could happen there and the ramification of what his decision may have on the investigation itself and what lawmakers may be able to see? >> and john and i were talking about this offline. both houses are going to vote this out, they'll have to make a decision whether or not to prosecute bannon -- mark meadows. there is so many of them at this point. >> that's true. >> when the doj does decide to criminally prosecute someone that could have repercussion for the actual investigation. at the end of the day, without giving a lot of information that the committee really needles. he already given 9,000 pages of personal text messages and documents. and he opened himself up to other investigations, conducting business on personal cell phones. we'll see what merrick garland does. that was the first step the committee takes to make a public case for that. >> we already know so much thanks to media reporting and things we start to see in the committee and now meat are being put on the bones. we hear the concerns about this. here are all the documents, in other words, we got this and we got to timeline and the story of what happens. what does it mean at the end? it's an important thing to do to hold people accountable but what does it mean after that? what changes from here? >> what we are seeing as the investigation is picking up steam and wonderfully dramatic moment. we need more of those if we are going to keep the public's attention. there a whole host of people participated in this attempted coup. no one mentioned this was a challenge to america. we are worried about your legacy and america. there were no texts about america. these were supposed to be patriots. one apologizing to mark meadows, we didn't get the job done, in other words, overturning the election. >> his main concern from that lawmakers was they did not manage to overturn those votes. >> don, you raise an important point. >> that almost never happens. >> it never gets said. >> that's why she under lined it. >> 13 years on the show, that's my most important point. >> i have not seen you for two years, so it will not last long. take it while you can. how many minds can you chaeng with this investigation and interest in prosecuting people who were responsible for january 6th is decline. what will democrats do about that? do you continue to hold these hearings everyday and try to make it a focus of attention? what's the strategy? >> the strategy is to obviously you have to keep it alive but you have to bridge it antonio a bigger message. at the end of the day are here to protect you. we are here to protect your iras with the economy. we are here to protect against more insurrectionists against the government. don't let it go. tie it to an overall message to we protect and they're harm. we are for making things better going forward. keep it as one of the pieces of the arsenal, democrats verses republicans. >> "the washington post," thank you so much for your reporting this morning. still ahead on "morning joe" from a pandemic to a possible end-demic. a growing space race rivalry, a look at what to expect in 2022, ahead on "morning joe." 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the ad reads in part, "our emergency departments are overfilled and we have patients in every bed in our hospitals. this pandemic strained our operations and demoralized many people on our team. care in our hospitals is safe but our ability to provide it is threatened. now an ominous question looms, will you be able to get care from your local community hospital without delay? today that is uncertain." and it is unfathomable to me, here in america, where people have been able to see the science play out before their eyes, they've seen this vaccine work. they have waited it out because facebook might have told them otherwise, but they have seen it and yet we have this happening. >> yeah, and now you're being asked to get boosters as well because of the omicron variant and it's clearly evidence you need that booster and people who didn't get vaccinated will not get the booster either and be susceptible to another variant of this pandemic. we have some of this in europe too. there's a lot of vaccine scepticism particularly in central europe. what's happened because of that, you have countries going back into lockdown, reimposing all of those restrictions that hurt economies, that hurt the social life of people, leave people isolated and alone but it is the only thing those country places like austria felt they can do when you have high numbers of people who won't get vaccinated. either you're going to have a lot of people in hospital and hospitals on their knees or you have to impose restrictions. that's the choice you have if people won't get the vaccine. >> dottie, before you take off, just what is the way to message to this part of america that doesn't want to hear the vaccine is safe? that is actually continuing this pandemic and creating the variants because they are unvaccinated? >> some problems don't have solutions. we're a year and a half into this and whatever it is, 800,000 deaths and the answer is a mandate. that's it. there's no messaging at this point. there's no you can try to keep the children safe, you can do it for your neighbor, it doesn't -- there is no message. there is no message. >> eddie? >> remember when they said we could lose up to 240,000 people and everyone gasped. >> we're at 800. >> 800,000 people are dead. and i think we need to keep that number in front of us, 800,000 of our fellows, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, coaches, neighbors, fire, police, health care workers, those are people we love, dead. >> if you have that fact and you're still not motivating people -- >> people are struggling, 800,000, it's become just a number. still ahead -- intelligence committee member congressman eric swalwell joins us ahead of today's house vote on whether to hold mark meadows in contempt of congress. 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[ speaking foreign language ] i like the reaction, he has a slight smile. on this date, if you can believe it, 13 years ago an iraqly journalists threw two shoes at president bush during a conference with iraq's prime minister. welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, december 14th. katty kay and eddie glaude jr. with us and joining the table member of the house permanent select committee on intelligence, congressman eric swalwell of california. the house will soon vote on a measure to hold mark meadows in context of congress. this comes as the former trump white house chief of staff refuses to testify about the january 6th instruction after initially cooperating with the committee. nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake has the latest. >> reporter: mark meadows may be refusing to talk to the committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol, but his text messages tell the story of trump allies desperate to stop it. republican committee member liz cheney last night reading texts meadows received as the attack was under way, including repeated texts from donald trump jr. urging action. >> as the violence continued, one of the president's sons texted mr. meadows, quote, he's got to condemn this [ bleep ] asap. multiple fox news hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. he is destroying his legacy, laura ingraham wrote. can he make a statement? ask people to leave the capitol, sean hannity urged. >> other texts unveiled by the committee also appeared to show meadows at the center of the effort to overturn the election results. before the attack, one message from an unnamed lawmaker suggested the vice president should throw out some electoral votes. on the day after the attack, another received text reads, "we tried everything we could to our objection to the sixth state. nothing worked." meadows responding to the contempt vote overnight. >> my part, i tried to share nonprivileged information but truly the executive privilege donald trump has claimed is his to waive. >> reporter: mark meadows said he won't testify, citing execute privilege clawing the process unjust, unwise and unfair. >> all right, first of all, let's talk about the contempt charges, if meadows does end up getting voted towards contempt. does he face jail time? >> oh, yeah. >> i feel like at this point nobody's actually moving forward going through any sort of consequence. what are the consequences? when do they take place if contempt charges are filed? >> he will likely, like bannon, frustratingly it will be kicked out probably until summer for a trial, but if convicted, yeah, he can go to trail. but they've said a lot already. just from what he's turned over, they have a lot about what he knew and what donald trump was doing and they're also going to third party providers, cell phone companies, to internet companies to find out what else was going on. >> what would be the value of not testifying after your halfway there and you've submitted all of this paperwork that shows everything that you've done? >> they're guilty. and he may -- this is what he turned over and it's pretty disturbing. somebody who sat in a chamber and seen those text message exchanges as 187 minutes went by and the president did nothing, what privilege is he holding back? and the second question is what was donald trump doing or not doing at the time? he certainly does not want to tell us that. >> congresswoman, curious what you thought as you heard elizabeth cheney read the texts, unnamed, to mark meadows in the white house? is it what you heard privately from some of your republican colleagues they didn't like what happened january 6th, were scared january 6th, reasonably so, or go out on tv, tweets, selected media outlets and say the media's making too much of january 6th. what do you say? s. >> it was maddening. we were all scared and looking at our films and seeing pipe bombs laid around the buildings. and when we ran the evacuation route, i saw the terror that looked the same on the democratic faces. now we have the scene where publicly fox news and their members stoked and incited this fire in the weeks that leaded up to january 6th. privately they're asking meadows to put it out and publicly restocking it by suggesting either antifa was responsible for the stand and by the way, the ultimately the election was still stolen. >> what are they trying to gain here? >> you will probably see after the new year public hearings where they animate exactly what happened. much like we did in the second impeachment of donald trump, they have a lot more evidence than we had. we had very little. this was weeks after the insurrection. they have the benefit of hundreds of witnesses and documents and they're going to show the public just how all of this came together. and i think but for one person, it wouldn't have happened. >> and just to follow up on mika's question, do you think they're trying to prove and will prove that president trump or people around president trump were specifically involved in ordering an attack on the u.s. capitol? not that they were involved with having the rally and march but they wanted and intended a premeditated attack on the capitol? >> there's certainly premeditation of what donald trump said weeks before that. this will be wild. he knew based on what he was seeing and hearing -- >> not necessarying an attack on the capitol. >> fight like hell or you will not have a country anymore. mo brooks speaks -- >> that would be. >> that would be, mo brooks and rudy giuliani calling for trial by combat. i think we will learn a lot more of what donald trump knew about the violence aimed at the capitol. most importantly, january 26 and, 2025, we have to do it all over again so take wa we learned so it doesn't happen again. and donald trump accept the outcome. >> you know the midterms are losing and your colleagues are thinking you're going to take over the congress, what do you think about coming out of the new year, will the committee pick up the pace and grab our attention even more in june or july or something? >> right, i think right now it's a submarine effort. below the surface they're collecting documents, interviewing witnesses and they will curate the ones who best tell the stories so the country knows just exactly who's responsible and what we have to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. that will happen after the new year. i think you will find, this is a party, republican party, led by donald trump that has become more comfortable with violence than voting when it relates to the election. >> i want to go back, congressman, to a point you made that i think is important about january 2025 because we all know because it's happening in broad daylight the people being put in place or the candidates donald trump is supporting, there won't be a dan raffensperger, we will not do this, we counted the votes three times. the people who stood up to pressure from donald trump, they may not be there in 2024/2025. what's happening on the state level so people know? >> they're setting the stage so even if democrats have massive turnout they have the process in place they can overturn the outcome in each state, instead of holding up the integrity of people like raffensperger and secretary of state, let's never put ourselves in position again where we have to certify a democratic victory. >> it's david perdue's entire campaign platform against brian kemp in the state of florida. >> yes. this month we have been featuring "the atlantic" magazine's current issue that looks into the threat of the our democracy. the lead piece entitled "january 6 was practice." joining us the host of the podcast flood lines, dan vann newkirk, and his piece is entitled "the small lie." vann, in the piece you tell the story of crystal mason, a resident of texas, who was arrested for alleged illegal voting. you write in part, quote, the story of mason, a black woman, illuminates the extraordinary efforts the republican party has made to demonstrate that fraud is being committed by minority voters on a massive scale. that false notion is now an article of faith among tens of millions of americans. it has become an excuse to enact laws that make voting harder for everyone but especially for voters of color, voters who are poor, voters who are old, voters who were not born in the united states. it is a vicious cycle, which is exactly the point. first, general fear about fraud. then use that fear to aggressively prosecute voting infractions. then use those prosecutions to create stricter laws. then use stricter laws to induce stricter fraud and then use the examples to jin up even more fear. it must be underscored, no voting of any kind occurs at an institution of a venable election. explain what crystal mason was accused of. >> she was accused of election voting from 2011. she was on a prison sentence and didn't know she had to complete a supervisor lease in order to vote. so she was ineligible to vote. so despite the fact that ballot was rejected, she got prosecuted for illegal voting, ended up in prison five years for it. >> i think vann and eddie really laid out this entire -- why we stand, as much, our democracy in a threatened position as it was on january 6th, things haven't changed. in fact, things are the change, if not worse, because i don't think people understand the danger we still face right now as a country. >> absolutely, american democracy is in peril. i enjoyed reading your peace. of course, there are historical parallels. i want to ask this question, is there a way to think about this lie as voter fraud as a continuous part of the insurrection on january 6th. that what we're experiencing were the claims around voter fraud was the ongoing insurrection, that january u6th wasn't as bound an event, it is actually continuing forward with these sorts of efforts across the states in the country? >> that's not how i'm thinking of it. i'm thinking of the insurrection as a growth of this existing anti-democratic message and spirit that's been in america forever but has been really virulent over the last couple of years. we're talking about understandably trying to avert the next responsible insurrection or coup in 2024, 2025. what we should be thinking of, sober us all, the real possibility of it might not be necessary. we could have already undermined and gotten rid of in a lot of places the democratic spirit before this in the election. so i think what we have to realize is that this narrative of mass voter fraud, especially in black and brown communities, has been the underpinning of the entire reason why people are out there in the capitol on january 6th in the first place. >> right. and we have historical parallels with regards to the collapse of reconstruction and the fact black men had the vote in the attack, the assault on black men. what is your take on the democratic party's response? i know we have congressman swalwell here but what do you make of the democrats' response to this adult on voting rights that we see across the country? >> i think we've had a lot of focus, understandably again, on the actual events that happened on january 6th and on a real effort to try to stop them from happening again. i don't think we've seen the same type of effort or same type of get it done at all costs spirit in regards to voting rights and in regards to restoring the voting rights act and in regards to getting something done that's actually going to safeguard these people in these communities who need that type of safeguarding in order to be able to vote in 2024. and there are, of course, there are big packages, big visions on the table but it remains to be seen if they're going to pass in the senate. >> that's a good question, congressman. let's talk about the john lewis voting rights act. where is that right now, where does it stand? >> nothing could be more urgent than passing that, right? if 20 years from now we lost our democracy, we more like hungary, turkey, russia, i don't think anyone will see it as comfort that at least we preserved the filibuster in the senate. >> what's going to happen? >> i think the pressure, frankly, has to come from the president. it really has to come from him. he's made it a priority but the downward pressure has to come to the senators that are holding out from the president. >> there are so many different threats to our democracy right now that are happening at the same time. that's the other thing, it's the firehose of information, if you stop to think about it, it's almost hard to comprehend. if you start at facebook, not solved. not solved. misinformation, disinformation, flies around on facebook and other platforms about the pandemic, about our democracy every single day, every second. and then you have the insurrection that we're trying to come to terms with, we're trying to show the truth about what happened. you have networks, even news networks whitewashing it or changing or making or creating disinformation. we have what we just discussed here, you look at the issue of "the atlantic," you read every article, it still doesn't cover everything that's happening. and i worry at this point -- i don't know if you all remember elijah cummings when he said, you know, when you're dancing with the angels, the question must be asked what did you do when our democracy was in peril? are we going down a road where perhaps we will not be able to turn back if we don't take all of these issues seriously at the same time? >> i see democracy as being on life support right now. i put people on two camps, not republicans or democrats, but you're either trying to resurrect it or redeem it or trying to pull the plug. put liz cheney on our team, and i will put them on other sides of policy debates, so give me the problem five years from now we can debate abortion or science or education. we should be a big-tent party that embraces them. there's no way to solve single right abuses but the most effective one would be to pass the john lewis voting rights act because that would at least put the department of justice in play to view every single voting right change in these states. >> vann newkirk, thank you so much for coming on this morning and sharing your piece with us. congressman eric swalwell, thank you for being in the fight every day. we appreciate it. still ahead on "morning joe" -- pfizer's pill to treat covid is shown to greatly reduce the risk of hospitalization and death. how soon could it be approved? plus, crews are still searching for survivors this morning after a series of deadly storms that swept across the middle of the country over the weekend. we'll have the latest from the tornado-ravaged states. and as we go to break, we pause this morning to mark the ninth anniversary of the shooting at sandy hook elementary school, where a gunman took the lives of 20 students and 6 staff members. connecticut's congressional leaders and survivors of the 2012 massacre continue to call for federal action to stem the nationwide epidemic of gun violence. gun violence w subway's eat fresh refresh™ has so many new footlongs. refresh! here's how they line up. we got the new chicken & bacon ranch, new baja steak & jack, and the new baja chicken & bacon, aka “the smokeshow”" save big. order through the app. as i observe investors balance risk and reward, i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn... claire could 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? real cowboys get customized car 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lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us ♪ [text alert] ♪ son of a— —beth? if it's “i thought we said no gifts” season, it's walgreens season. small businesses like yours make gift-giving possible. now, comcast business hasd an exclusive gift for you. introducing the gift of savings sale. for a limited time, ask how to get a great deal for your business. and get up to a $500 prepaid card with select bundles when you switch to the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses. or get started with internet and voice for $64.99 per month with a 2-year price guarantee. give your business the gift of savings today. comcast business. powering possibilities. the search for the missing continues in kentucky following that devastating outbreak of tornadoes. this as the death toll continues to rise. nbc news senior national correspondent tom llamas reports. >> reporter: from bowling green to mayfield, kentucky, officials and residents struggling to comprehend a path of destruction stretching more than 200 miles. >> when you see all of this, what do you think? >> it's just -- this is mind-blowing a tornado could do this to a small town. >> reporter: dozens are confirmed dead, a toll that's only expected to rise. >> of the ones that we know, the -- the age range is 5 months to 86 years. >> reporter: good smartens rushing in to help -- >> is there any way we can can help you out? >> reporter: -- as folks begin to pick up the pieces. >> i have been to a lot of places. this place is devastated. there's a lot of need out here. anything can help. >> reporter: in hard-hit mayfield, kimberly is struggling with nightmares. >> every time i close my eyes, i wake up and i think i'm buried again. trying to deal with that. >> reporter: kimberly and her daughter survived after being buried under the debris of mayfield's candle factory the. she said everyone was told to go back to work after the first tornado warning went off. did anybody give you the option to go after the first alarm? >> no, no. >> reporter: do you think that was a mistake? >> yes, they should have let people who wanted to leave to leave. the whole building came on us. >> reporter: a spokesman for the company saying it's absolutely untrue, the company has a policy in place that allows employees to leave any time they want. this morning the candle company saying eight of their workers have died but 102 survived and according to their records, no one else is missing. in illinois, osha is now investigating what happened inside this amazon warehouse in edwardsville, torn in half by an ef-3 twister. larry vernon was one of six people killed. as the tornado approached, he texted his girlfriends. >> things like amazon won't let us leave. i'll be home after the storm. >> reporter: but larry never made it home. amazon said sirens alerted employees inside to take cover in protected areas and all emergency protocols were followed correctly. still, some stories of hope. delivery driver craig yost was trapped underneath a 40-foot-tall concrete wall, rescued by first responders. >> it went from i had a little room to none, and started to -- started to crush my head at the end. being able to even just talk to, let alone, hug and kiss the people that i love was amazing. >> that was nbc's tom llamas reporting. coming up -- new covid numbers are painting a troubling picture of the pandemic. more than 50 million americans have been infected, as the push for vaccine mandates intensifies. we have the very latest straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome back. in the fight against covid, pfizer says its tu antiviral pill drastically reduces hospitalizations and death if taken early enough. but even if approved, the pill is not coming before christmas, as millions of families gather for the holidays. nbc news correspondent sam brock has more. >> reporter: there could soon be a new weapon in the battle against covid. pfizer just releasing research on an antiviral pill that says reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% when taken within three days of the onset of symptoms. an fda review is likely weeks away, as cities and states across the country are rolling out new rules 20 try to corral covid now. from california, reimposing an indoor mask mandate, to philadelphia matching new york city and phasing in proof of vaccine for all indoor diners, including kids as young as 5. >> this announcement will help reduce the spread of covid when people enjoy the city's restaurants and other establishments that serve food. >> reporter: covid cases climbing higher. in florida they're up more than 80% in two weeks. as testing lines grow, so does the confusion from indoor etiquette. >> some you have to wear your mask and some you don't. >> reporter: to travel. >> i don't understand why we still have to get tested if we've been vaccinated. it makes no sense to me. >> reporter: with christmas around the corner and get-togethers driving new infections, here's some essential guidelines to keep in mind. consider self-testing before joining indoor gatherings with others who are not in your household. in general, you do not need to wear a mask in outdoor settings unless it's crowded and you're around unvaccinated people. indoors, avoid poorly ventilated spaces and wear a mask if there's high transmission. as for wearing the mask in the first place, the government recommends delaying travel until you're fully vaccinated and if not get tested before and after. for many family members, it's risk versus reward. were you nervous seeing the family and what's going on with covid? >> a little bit. >> reporter: why did you decide to go anyway? >> because i miss them. >> reporter: that was nbc's sam brock reporting. coming up -- the u.s. surgeon general is sounding the alarm about a mental health crisis among american kids and teenagers. we're going to dig into that straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪♪ hi, 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significant increases of self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency room visits for mental health challenges. joining us now, director of polling at the institute of politics at harvard university, john della volpe, the author of "fight: how gen z is channeling their fear and passion to save america." good morning, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> what can you tell us about this report from the surgeon general, which was an alarm bell, for him to step out and talk so specifically about this. what are you hearing from your polling? >> and this is good news that the surgeon general did this last week. this is something that predates the pandemic. from a period 2007 to 2008, there was a lot of stability among young people, the millennials. as gen z came of age, we saw increasing levels of suicide rate increased by 57% among 10 to 24-year-olds in the decade after the great recession. what we are finding is this great generation, gen z who came of age over the last couple of years, i don't think any generation over 70 years, willie, has dealt with more trauma more quickly than this generation. think about it, born in the aftermath of 9/11, contested election, great recession, as they're earning their allowance, parents, millions of them are losing their homes, dealing with katrina, the effects of climb change, school shootings, opioid crisis, whiplash of barack obama and donald trump's chaos and then we have a lockdown and a pandemic, it's -- it's too much for many. the harvard polling indicates that over a majority, 52% of the 53 million people within this 18 to 29-year-old sample indicating several times the last two weeks that they feel thoughts of hopelessness or depression, and half of that number is so bad they're actually thinking about self-harm. billions of americans. >> these new numbers that you're looking at, i mean, for eddie, katty and me and maybe willie too, we're old enough to remember a time when there were no cell phones, right? >> for sure, yeah. >> and no internet, right? like type writers in the newsroom. what's adding to this is impact of social media and information into the lives of young people at very young ages that is available readily, i think we are seeing now the effects of technology as well impacting generations of young people who have seen something we haven't, who have been exposed to things at an early age that we haven't because of the internet boom and because of the rise of social media. does that play into some of the numbers you're seeing? >> it does, mika. we have to be careful between correlation and causation -- >> right, true. >> butz when we look at young people on instagram and facebook and other social media platforms, not just those two, they indicate more concerns about anxiety, hopelessness, without question. it exacerbates the already significant challenges so many adolescents face around image and personal relationships and burdens of school, work, all of the other things everyone is dealing with for centuries but social media just exacerbated. it didn't have to be like that. social media was supposed to bring us together. rather it separated us -- >> i think it's creating a generation of kids who don't know how to talk to each other. and who are socially dysfunctional. >> you have social media at school, and that problem you may have had at school with your colleague or student friend, you can't get away from it. you bring it home because it's still on your phone with you. it's 24/7. is there any way that generation -- and i think someone said channeling -- we do have a generation of activists. they really are channeling -- especially around climate and issues of social justice, they are channeling some of that anxiety in ways that are positive. i hear that they -- when you talk to them, they really want to change the world for better. >> that's the other side of this equation. wouldn't it be fair to talk about this generation, just being at home on their phones depressed all the time, many are struggling with that but rather than fading back, they're leaning in and fighting. we've had 2018 and 2020, when gen z entered the political electorate, we found that there have never been more young people voting in the history of america, it doubled what it was for other generations in both elections. so they're helping each other. they're helping each other and they understand they're trying to build community, a special, special generation. they're is not snowflakes. they're harder and tougher than what some people may think. >> this is such an important data point. but in some ways i tend to think of this generation as the catastrophic generation. they've dealt with cascading crises since the moment they've come of age. and they've drawn a conclusion from my teaching over 20 years, i've seen this, they've drawn a conclusion this place is broken and sometimes that conclusion is drawn about themselves, that we're broken. but there's no guarantee it's going to evidence itself in fighting for social justice. we are seeing young people moving in interestingly different directions. some are reaching for progressive vocabularies. others are reaching for old vocabularies. dylan ruth wasn't a baby boomer. talk about the public policy implications of the public health crisis you described. >> so when i ask a young person almost to -- almost to a person regardless of where i am in this country, if you were president, what would be the one thing you would do, regardless of the issue, i hear social workers, psychologists, helping us deal with the ptsd they're struggling with. the other thing is, as eddie talked about, like everything else, there's a backlash. so while i think two-thirds of this generation holds a set of progressive values, they believe a government should be stepping in to do more to deal with democracy, climate change, this public health crisis. but 15%, 20% disagree. 25% -- only 25% of young republicans believe joe biden was elected president fairly. and we can see some of the most prolific big ots and white supremacists in america today are members of this generation, right. and were the young insurrectionists as well. and there's a backlash. we need to be careful. frankly, the more depressed you are -- i'm not a psychologist -- the more depressed you are, the more time you spend online and more opportunity you have to be picked into one -- more vulnerable to be picked up into one of these hate groups. we have to watch that as well. >> i have younger kids who fall into this generation, but not by a lot. what they see on the news and what they see on their phones is often just overwhelming. it's so negative. they see these things on television of ugliness and people rioting the capitol and yelling at each other. one of the things we try to tell them, there's a lot more light than dark in this world and it's not always about what you see on tv. so what gives this generation hope? we talked about things that weigh on them and they're all very real. what gives them hope it will get better? >> when i talked to my students, who helped me design these questions in this survey, i think they find hope in each other. our friend who was a junior at harvard who helped us design the survey, she looked at the survey and started volunteering as a mental health crisis counselor on the hotline. we see dozens and dozens of people just in our community doing that. i think they find hope in each other and community and it was striking in 2017, i asked the same question 20 years, what connects us as americans? what do i need to know about your generation? almost to a person in 2017, 2018, raised their hand not afraid to speak regardless of where they are from a socioeconomic background, not afraid to speak about the challenges. i think they find hope in themselves because many ways, our generation, you know, have let them down in so many ways. >> there's so much to talk about here. we're going to have to do a couple of segments, but i hate to go back to the -- is it 25% who answer that they're responding to racist and bigoted views or getting sucked into that type of thinking? because if they're finding hope in each other, connecting on that level, that's not hopeful. >> no, a much smaller percentage. >> what going on there? explain that number again, and where do you derive it from? >> so overall, as we have generational replacement in the country, the country is becoming more progressive every single year as this generation grows up. >> okay. >> we have a small segment of this generation who just, you know, is not -- they feel disconnected, does not agree, ideologically or whatever. and they are relatively a small number. closer to 10% or 15% but they harbor views that we would consider to be connected to white nationalism, bigoted, anti-democratic, et cetera. that number we have to be very concerned about because i think the levels of depression that are driving especially young men online make them a breeding ground for groups like this who are recruiting other people. and we see significant numbers of hate groups spawning from charlottesville, right, who are organizing online. they were on the capitol just a few weeks ago, patriot front, hundreds of them. so we have to be very, very careful as we talk about this generation in terms of progressive values and helping each other, you do have not an insignificant number of people who are responding in a quite different way. >> and america is not unique in this regard. it's happening in europe too. >> yes. i have a list of things in the survey question the last two ekz woo, which of any of the following have negatively impacted your mental health. and you run through a list of nine or ten things there. climate change is not on them. and i found that interesting to me. i would have thought my conversation with people in their 20s, my kids, climate change looms big, understandably another thing we messed up for them, but it doesn't seem to feature on that. do you hear that, climate change with them? >> absolutely. that particular list, we were trying to focus on day-to-day things like school, work, personal relationships but we had another question in terms of which of these adjectives describe your feelings about climate change and i think worried and anxious and angry were among the most often mentioned numbered. but that's something that they can never escape from. and a majority actually believe it's impacted their community and will impact their future decisions as they think about the kind of work they do, kind of place they want to live, et cetera. it's something they can't escape from. it may not be as president of the school or other challenges they might have with other individuals. >> john della volpe, direct esh of polling at harvard institute of politics. thank you very much. definitely come back. there's so much here. up next --first military discharges 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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 the air force discharged 278 active duty service members for refusing to get the covid-19 vaccine. all members in their first enlistment having served less than six years. the pentagon required the vaccine earlier this year for all members of the military. members of the air force had until november 2nd to be vaccinated. more than 1,000 of them including some in the space force are listed as having refused. nearly 5,000 are seeking a religious exemption. dare chauvin, the former minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering george floyd is expected to change his plea on federal charges of violating floyd's civil rights. filing in minnesota district court shows chauvin will appear in court tomorrow to change this not guilty plea. the notice does not say how he intends to change it. chauvin was convicted in april on state charges of murder and manslaughter for pressing his knee on to floyd's neck for 9:30 minutes during an arrest in 2020. he is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence. >> a historic settlement will give $380 million to hundreds of survivors who suffered abuse while at usa gymnastics after years of fighting for accountability surrounding abuse of disgraced former dr. larry nassar. we have more. >> reporter: for years they performed breathtaking feats. while hiding the horror of sexual abuse. now some of women's gymnastics biggest names including simone biles, aly raisman, mckayla maroney and more than 500 other athletes will have an opportunity to share in a $380 million settlement for what was done to them. jessica howard is one of the plaintiffs. >> it's validation and it feels like justice. >> reporter: this fall biles, maroney, raisman and maggie nichols detailed the abuse for congress. >> all we needed was one adult to do the right thing. >> reporter: the agreement with usa gymnastics ant u.s. olympic and paralympic committee covered anyone associated with usa gymnastics. most notorious dr. larry nassar, former doctor of the u.s. women's team serving to ma amounts in life in prison for sexually abusing minors during supposed treatment. >> to be clear, i blame larry nassar and i also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse. >> reporter: the world saw the lingering impact of abuse at the summer olympics when biles withdrew for part of the competition telling hoda -- >> as soon as we stepped on to the trumpic scene, just decided i couldn't do it anymore and it chacked and that's what happened. >> reporter: a system that maroney told savannah in 2018 didn't care about the women. >> all they cared about was their rep lation, money, gold medicalings and that was it. >> reporter: this morning, usa gymnastics is apologizing saying the bankruptcy reorganization reflects our own accountability to the past and our commitment to the future. the usopc issues its own mea culpa. we recognize and are sorry for the profound hurt endured. saying, it's enacted sweeping reforms to combat sexual abuse. >> the fbi is looking into the case of a young woman who went overboard during a carnival cruise off the coast of mexico collecting evidence from the ship now back in a los angeles court. nbc news correspondent gadi schwartz has the latest. >> reporter: this morning, sits in port a floating seen now under investigation. pictures of broken glass and a metal divider on the deck, the only evidence seen publicly after a woman plunged from a balcony in the middle of the night. the woman still hasn't been identified. passengers say traveling with her boyfriend and a family member, rattled shipmates told a security camera captured her fall. >> couldn't believe something happened to her. sweet young lady. a sweet soul. and she's gone. >> reporter: the fbi investigating whether it was an accident our foul play releasing little information what they know. >> scary. i hope they found out. did she jump? was she distraught or pushed? i want to know what happened. she's too young. >> reporter: patricia taylor says she met the woman on the three-day cruise from long beach to ensenada, mexico. >> a 1-year-old child and that baby never see his mom. >> reporter: carnival says the woman went overboard saturday night and the coast guard and mexican navy spent 31 hours searches and count find her. search boats went out after an alarm sounded. >> showing immediately throwing out life perverse and 30 minutes after lowered a life raft. >> reporter: experts say overboard incidents aren't as rare as you might think. >> 2018 25 overboard. >> reporter: a 2010 law includes mounting lifeboats but he enforcement. carnival cruise lines hasn't said whether this is in place but that their care team is providing assistance and support. today marks the ninth anniversary of the sandy hooks school shooting. 20 children and 8 killed in that mass kerr. willie, not the first school shooting, of course, but there is a loss of innocence that happened, i think, for many when it came to sandy hook. my girls were in middle school at the time, and it just changed the outlook of going to school. and i worked in connecticut as a reporter, and the town is never going to be the same. still not today. >> yeah. nine years. i always think on this date where those faces would be today and what they'd be going. they'd be 14, 15. >> little kids. >> yeah, little kids. i actually went up there that day immediately after we got the news to cover it and i'll never forget, there's a brick firehouse sort of sits in front of the school, right around the corner from the school. it's where the parents came to look for their kids. and the lucky ones saw their kids, they were reunited, and then another room. >> hmm. >> where the parents who couldn't find their kids were taken and informed by police that their 6 or 7-year-old son or daughter unimaginably had been killed at school in a first-grade classroom. we think about these families all the time. think about the parents who have had to live with them now for nine years, think about the parents who have been harassed by conspiracy theorists and had to move five, six, seven times. a tragedy that knows no end. >> it's unspeakable and worse we're still here and it's worse. there is daily, i mean it is not, it is a fact that weekly we see gun violence across this country often in schools and just recently again a school shooter. >> one would think that the death of those babies would have changed us. but, you know, leads to the question how seriously we are morally, seems to be. >> in this country we can't make buying a gun safer? >> no. and if the death of those children didn't do it, you have to wonder if anything ever will. >> we remember the sandy hook shooting victims, nine years later, and that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hey there. i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it's tuesday december 14th and this morning we're watching two major stories. a search for dozens still unaccounted for is under way after tornadoes ravaged kentucky and several other states. the death toll nears 90, and expected to rise. those that did survive now trying to pick up the pieces. we have reporters spread ot across the region. local officials and survivors joining us throughout the hour. also watching capitol hill this morning where any minute now the house rules committee