americans has received that shot worrying health officials. nbc's steve patterson has the latest on all of this. hey to you, steve. >> hey, alex, yeah, experts are warning all of the conditions that were in place for what some are now calling a potential viral blizzard, the more transmissible omicron variant is projected to become the dominant strain within just weeks as cases spike, as hospitals fill up in these marquee events now shutting down. >> covid whiplash, as the nation teeters once again on the edge of a winter free fall, long lines at testing centers across the country, families hoping for negative test results ahead of the holidays. health officials once again pleading with the public. >> for the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm. >> reporter: with cases up more than 24% over the last two weeks and deaths now averaging 1,300 a day, hospitals are bracing for a hard winter. >> it's a lot of death and sadness and feelings of anxiety in that unit every single day. >> reporter: 18 states now reporting a 5% spike in hospital admissions over the past week alone. emergency rooms from the midwest to the northeast filling up. >> i think we should be prepared for a very significant amount of cases and hospitalizations that, i don't know, is at the level of anything we've seen prior in the pandemic. >> reporter: in ohio, the governor is already calling on the national guard and in new york where the state reported its highest single day case count of the pandemic even broadway is losing its shine. the radio city rockettes forced to cancel remaining christmas shows due to an outbreak and the broadway production of "moulin rouge" caught off right before show time. the nfl also hit hard, the league postponing three games this weekend after a highly transmissible form of the virus led to a substantial increase in cases across the league. and a setback in the lab, pfizer forced to add a third dose for children under 5. the delay meaning they won't be able to apply for fda approval until later next year. omicron tightening its grip as we head into the holidays. meanwhile, in a rare big win for the white house's strategy in battling covid, a federal appeals court voted to reinstate president biden's vaccine or test mandate for those large companies. this will force businesses with more than 100 employees to make sure their workers are vaccinated or have to submit to weekly testing. alex. >> okay, steve patterson, thank you so much for all of that news. some of it certainly not welcome, but let's go right now to dr. john torres, nbc news senior medical correspondent, welcome to you. there's this new study, i know you're aware of it. omicron affects 70 times faster than previous covid strains. how is that possible? and technically speaking, what does that even mean? does that mean it's 70 times more contagious or it moves from person to person 70 times faster like the speed of it jumping? can you explain that? u. >> you bet, alex, and what it means is basically just exactly what you said there, 70% more infectious, but it doesn't mean that you're going to spread it more at the 70% level or your more contagious at that 70% level. instead what it means, they're finding that that viral load that we're talking about, that load of virus that you get is substantially higher when people get omicron, ask that's what's causing the breakthrough infections. that's what's causing rising cases across the country and across the world. we've been with omicron for a little over a month right now, so we're still gathering a lot of data on this. we're starting to find out more and more, and we do know that it's more contagious, more infectious. >> this morning i was getting a pcr test early and the technician said this feels like 2020, and to that point, you remember how we were wiping down every surface and every spraying in the air, you know, disinfectant sprays because we thought things could last for a while on surfaces, does that apply to omicron? >> you know, omicron is -- think of omicron like the delta variant, it's the same type of thing. it just happens to be able to latch on to our lung tissues a little faster. >> wow, just in the middle of what we needed to get more information from dr. john torres. guys, let's see if we can hook him back up and bring him back up in just a little bit because there are a lot of questions to be asking, certainly. we're going to move on just for the moment, we're going to go to more major stories developing this hour. beginning with the biden administration scoring a big win in its push to enforce federal covid mandates, a federal appeals court reinstated the white house's vaccine or test mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees, business groups quickly appealed to the supreme court in response. meanwhile, the january 6th committee wrapping up a very busy and revealing week, in fact, of its probe into the capital riot by sitting down with one of donald trump's most prominent allies roger stone. but stone tells reporters he remained tight-lipped. >> i did invoke my fifth amendment rights to every question, not because i have done anything wrong, but because i am fully aware of the house democrats' long history of fabricating perjury charges on the basis of comments that are innocuous, immaterial or irrelevant. >> this committee rescheduled et cetera deposition scheduled -- its deposition scheduled for today with alex jones as the committee faces some road blocks with their witnesses. president biden's agenda is hitting a wall of its own. the senate adjourning this morning leaving two key pieces of president's agenda, build back better and voting rights on the table. vice president kamala harris was questioned over the impact of senator manchin's opposition. >> so who is the real president of this country, it joe manchin or joe biden? >> come on, charlemagne. no, no, no, it's joe biden, and don't start talking like a republican about asking whether or not he's president. >> do you think joe manchin's a problem -- >> and it's joe biden, and i'm vice president, and my name is kamala harris. >> nbc's josh lederman is in washington, delaware, where president joe biden is staying the weekend, josh. welcome to you. so how is the president reacting, first of all, to the senate shelving his build back better bill, at least until early 2022? >> yeah, the senate adjourning at 4:00 in the morning after they were able to get through some of president biden's much delayed nominees for key positions, but without an actual vote on the build back better bill or on those voting rights protections that the white house has pivoted to in the last week or so, alex, after it became clear that senator chuck schumer's goal of getting that bill done by christmas was not going to happen. the position from the white house has been, look, it doesn't matter exactly when this passes. it matters that it does pass at some point in time. and so they are maintaining optimism that this is going to happen in the new year and saying that it's just a matter of a bit more time they need to continue to work with senator joe manchin on some type of an agreement that would get his support for this critical piece of legislation for president biden's domestic agenda. but the reality is the same issues that have befelled this in 2021 are still going to be there next year. and that's why white house officials tell us that president biden and the white house are going to continue working with manchin on this even in this coming week, all the way up to christmas to see if they can get some tape of an agreement lined up for in next year, but the messaging from manchin has continued to be that he doesn't like the large cost of this. he's raised new concerns about in particular the cost of the child tax credit, which is so important to democrats and that's one of the reasons that democrats have really made this pivot in the last couple of weeks on voing rights. they want to see action. they don't want to see only talk about one bill that's not going to get done this year. and that's why we heard from president biden yesterday as he was delivering a fall commencement address in south carolina say this about the need to pass voting rights sooner than later. >> this new sinister combination of voter suppression and election subversion is un-american. it's undemocratic, and sadly, it is unprecedented since reconstruction. but this battle's not over. we must pass the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act, we must. [ applause ] we're going to keep up the fight until we get it done, and you're going to keep up the fight, and we need your help badly. >> reporter: but here's the thing, alex, it's not like voting rights is going to be any easier for democrats to get done than build back better. you could argue it's even harder because with build back better as we've discussed, they're able to use that reconciliation measure, be able to get it through with just 50 votes. voting rights doesn't work that way. they're going to have to do something to get around the filibuster. we heard just in the last week senator kyrsten sinema of arizona reaffirm her opposition to doing anything about the filibuster, even a narrow carveout for voting rights. still, democrats are saying time is of the essence on this because not only is there redistricting going on all over the country that's going to affect races next year, but come 2022 we're already into the midterm election cycle. it gets much harder to get anything else done. >> you've raised one of the questions i'm going to ask representative terri sewell after the next break, how you get this done without doing some sort of a carveout, but if you don't have the support for this, i'm going to ask the question. we'll see. i'm so glad to see we got dr. john torres back to continue our conversation about covid. so let's get to the omicron variant in terms of its severity. good to see you again. they say it's not as severe as delta. could omicron infections, though, lead to those long covid cases as delta has? >> and you know, they are saying it's less severe than delta with a caveat, that we don't know much about this because we're month into omicron, so we're still trying to figure out a lot of this. a lot of caution, a lot of kaf yachts saying right now what we're seeing especially out of south africa and sometimes out of the uk is that it doesn't seem to be as severe, but it can still cause hospitalizations and we're concerned about the deaths that it might cause. it could cause more cases, which means more hospitalizations just because of the rate number being allow but the absolute number being high. when it comes to symptoms, the thing you're seeing is what you have on your screen. right now what we're seeing is runny nose, headache, that sneezing, a persistent cough to certain extent. people talk about a scratchy throat and even some night sweats. delta had that loss of sense of smell or taste. people talking about cough, people talking about breathing issues. we're not seeing that as much with omicron, which is great. as far as long-term omicron, we don't know yet. we're a month into this, but what we do know is if you're vaccinated you're less likely to get long-term from delta and less likely to get long-term symptoms from omicron as well. >> breakthrough infections, we know they're on the rise. there's a study by oregon researchers that finds that when people who are fully vaccinated catch covid they end up with what the authors are calling super immunity. so if that's the case, is it still important to get boostered after an infection, even if you've gotten your single dose j&j or both doses of pfizer or moderna. you get covid, do you get boostered as well? >> and alex, it is important to get boosted for a couple reasons. we know you get what they're calling that super immunity now. we don't know how long that lasts. getting that booster shot, what i always talk about is establishing a baseline with your immune system, a high baseline with the two vaccines, if it's mrna, and then the booster shot on top of it gives you that baseline. if you get infected and get a breakthrough, it pushes that baseline up. we don't know if that's going to come down or not because of that super infection being part of a natural infection which we know doesn't last as long. getting those booster shots is important. but if you do get breakthrough infections, you know, what they are saying is you do seem to get -- it's almost like getting another booster shot on top of that. your immune system gets worked out even more and gets to be that much stronger. what we don't know is how long that strong immune system is going to last at that level. >> if you get omicron, you test positive for it, you can pass it on potentially, what if you don't test positive for it. is there enough in the air? is there enough within somebody that doesn't come up on a test that can still allow it to be passed on? >> well, tellically, if it's an antigen test, usually six to 12 hours, you can have a window with it is that snapshot in time. it's possible your viral load wasn't high enough when you got the test and a day later it's higher and you could be passing it on. people that are vaccinated, people that are boosted have gotten their booster shot, it comes town much, much quicker. they're not as infective for as long a period of time. we need to put masks back on, even if you're vaccinated because it is possible, even without symptoms, even if you tested negative a day ago, that you could be passing it on today. so when i spoke earlier and said that that technician i was with this morning said it feels like 2020 all over again, does it feel that way to those of you in the medical world, and how discouraging is that? i mean, how can we keep up what we need to do, which is fight this with everything we got? >> and it does feel like 2020 again with one exception, and that exception are the fact that we have a lot of people that are vaccinated but we still have a lot of people that are unvaccinated. i know that people i talk to in the health care industry and myself include, it's very disheartening when you hear about somebody who has not gotten vaccinated and you know that vaccine could have saved their life. again, that tends to wear on you over the months because you know we have this tool. the other thing is as opposed to 2020, we have more tools now that we can handle people who do get sick, and so we know that if we can encourage more people to get the vaccine, people to show up earlier, get tested earlier, is better outcomes. that gives us some hope going forward, but again, looking at the numbers, especially the numbers of people that are still unvaccinated, that proves to be a bit daunting and it does wear on you. >> at least there was some silver lining in what you responded there. so thank you so much dr. john torres. always good to see you, my friend. it is a very curious development, one of the biggest gop players in washington legitimizes the january 6th committee? 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>> reporter: alex, it's interesting na mcconnell is saying anything at all. one of the things i learned very quickly in covering the capitol is that the republican leader is extremely careful in the questions that he chooses to answer and very often just ignores us when we ask him questions he's frankly not interested in entertaining. on tuesday when mcconnell was asked specifically if he's had any communication with mark meadows on january 6th, he said no, but he said himself he offered this information up willingly, he said it would be interesting for the public to know all of the players that were involved on that day shining a light of legitimacy on this investigation. he continued to answer questions about it throughout the week including during an interview on thursday. take a listen to what he said. >> we're watching the investigation. it's occurring over in the house, reading about it like everyone else, and it will be interesting to see what facts they find. it was a horrendous event, and i think that what they're seeking to find out is something the public needs to know. >> reporter: now not only is this a departure from mcconnell's vote against the creation of a bipartisan commission over the summer to investigate the january 6th attack, but also it's a difference from his republican counterpart in the house from leader mccare thi who keeps this investigation at an arm's distance calling it a witch hunt. now we have a major leader in the senate entertaining this and perhaps wanting to know more of what happened on january 6th. >> very interesting, thank you very much for that. joining me now alabama congresswoman terri sewell, a democratic member of the house ways and means committee. she is also co-chair of the congressional voting rights caucus. a busy time for you, congresswoman. thank you for taking the time. as we talk about trump ally roger stone who pleaded the fifth at his depositionment john eastman, and former doj attorney jeffrey clark, they've indicated they're also going to plead the fifth. what do you make of this strategy? is it just about buying time? is it stalling? is it self-serving or is it about serving donald trump's demands. >> i think it's a bit about all three, alex. first of all, happy holidays, is thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about not only the january 6th committee but also about voting rights. when i think about roger stone at all, these are just donald trump's cronies stonewalling. i can tell you as someone who was in the gallery january 6th we as americans deserve a full accounting on what happened on january 6th so that we can make sure that that insurrection, that type of insurrection over our government can never happen again. and so i was pleased to hear that mitch mcconnell, who you know, sometimes reluctantly but often will side on the right of democracy and accountability said so as well. for me, i think it's all about making sure that this never happens again. those of us who face history and do nothing about it are doomed to repeat it. >> well, look, mitch mcconnell he's on the record saying we need to know, america needs to know. as you know, the committee released a text message from republican congressman jim jordan to former trump chief of staff mark meadows. the text questioned the electoral votes and argument what vice president pence should have done. jordan's office said the text was a forward. does it make any difference if it's a forward? because isn't it still validating and promoting the ideas in that text? and this, by the way, from a member of the united states congress. >> absolutely. i think it is totally unconscionable that a member of congress or any american would be helping to ignite, incite this kind of insurgency on our democracy. it's unacceptable, and it's especially unconscionable and unacceptable are from a member of congress. >> all right, we're going to turn to voting rights. as you introduced that john lewis voting rights advancement act, and it did pass the house over the summer. the senate is working on how to pass voting rights legislation, you have senators manchin and sinema. they're on board, but here's the issue. they don't want to scrap the filibuster to get it done. how does this get done with no republicans supporting it and no filibuster carveout? >> you know, i truly believe that we need the faith of a mustard seed in order to make sure we get this done. hope springs eternal, i know that. we were able to get the debt ceiling done by just democrats recently, the raising of the debt ceiling and that was done with a rule change. and so it is going to be incumbent upon all of us to continue to keep the pressure on the two senators as well as all of the senators. i would rather be in favor of giving voting rights to all americans than to be, you know, siding with the filibuster that actually stops democracy and the will of the people from actually coming to fruition. i have the honor every day of representing my hometown of selma, alabama, and i can tell you, alex that it was those freedom riders like john lewis and so many others that did have faith and did have courage and did mobilize and organize in order to get civil rights and voting rights for all americans. if they can do it, we can do it too. i just really want to impress upon all of americans who are listening to write to their senators, call their senators and expressly say we need voting rights. never before in my lifetime have we had redistricting done without the full protections of the voting rights act of 1965. the john robert lewis voting rights act would fully restore the enforceability, which is preclearance for the most egregious, not every state, but the most egregious state actors. and if we've seen anything, alex, since shelby versus holder decision in 2013, in states after states especially after the 2020 presidential election have tried to increase a number of very suppressive voting rights in their states. even in the state of georgia where you can't even provide water or food to those standing in line. it's simply unacceptable. the sacred right to vote is a nation of democracy. >> yeah, let's go back to mitch mcconnell and take a listen to what he said this week about voting rights legislation. here it is. >> it isn't about, quote, unquote, voting rights. it's a naked power grab. i understand my colleagues are frustrated they won't get to spend 4.9 trillion on their way out of the door before christmas, believe me lashing out at democracy, at the senate its is not going to solve anything. >> what do you say to that? how are americans seeing this? are the majority of americans viewing voting rights as a naked power grab by one party? do they believe in the inherent rights of americans to cast their votes in elections within our democracy? >> well, i believe that the majority of americans do consider the sacred right to vote the fundamental building block of our democracy, and so what i say to mitch mcconnell is read the constitution. federal oversight in choosing the election and the manner of elections is in the purview of congress, and this is about providing federal oversight when states run amuck, and that's all that it is. that's what we voted for five times when we reauthorize ds the voting rights act of 1965. i must remind you and remind our audience that voting rights was a part -- was never a partisan issue. it was a bipartisan issue t. has been reauthorized five times under three republican presidents, and so this is merely -- this is not a power grab. it's about making sure that we exercise our constitutional right as congress members to provide oversight when states are going awry. >> let me ask you regarding your position on house ways and means committee, a federal judge rejected donald trump's latest attempt to stop that committee from getting his tax returns. so the question is with this new headline in ""vanity fair"" which reads trump strategy to keep his tax returns secret running out the clock. how effective has this strategy been? when do you expect to see his tax returns? >> well, as the chairman of the ways and means said, we knew all along we were within our constitutional rights to receive the tax returns of our president, and why it was so fundamental is because we need to make sure as the tax writing committee in congress that we're doing all that we can to provide transparency and accountability when it comes to the irs and tax returns of our president. i truly believe that this was the right decision, and i also think that it's timely, and i look forward as a member of this ways and means committee for getting those tax returns in the coming year. >> and i will look forward to speaking with you when you do, alabama congresswoman terri sewell, happy holidays, thank you so much for joining me on this saturday. meantime, so many of donald trump's inner circle are refusing to talk to the january 6th committee, but look who is talking. the so-called bonnie and clyde of the maga world, why then? they helped organize the rally, and up next, why they were so eager to talk and why their testimony may be explosive. expe (burke) with farmers auto multi-policy discount, the more policies you have with us, the more you could save on your auto insurance. 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>> well, alex, as you point out, these two have a long history in the conservative movement. they had a long association with steve bannon when he was at breitbart. they were part of this group along with bannon and others that tried to use private funds to erect walls along the border. they say the things that sort of turned the tide for them were these words from president trump, the 120 words of his over an hour long speech on the ellipse where he did call people to march to the capitol. according to both of them, that was fully against the planning for the ellipse rally, and they knew it would be dangerous. another thing that they cited to me in our extensive conversations was feeling abandoned by president trump. i've broken the news for "rolling stone" that matt whitaker and matt sh lap helped set up a legal fund for the trump campaign and white house aides involved in the ellipse planning. justin and jen have had no access to similar support. i think their unique position where, you know, they have these high level inner circle connections but aren't all the way in has given them a little bit of a vantage point to the situation that the rank and file trump supporters who heeded his call and came to that -- the capitol that day are experiencing. you have hundreds of people who have been arrested and they're not getting any legal help or really even much rhetorical support from the president as he and his allies sort of circle the wagons for each other on this. >> that is very interesting the way you put that. we heard from dustin stockton's attorney this week. let's take listen to what he said. >> there are people that are very senior in the former president's orbit, and there are also even lawmakers among them who i believe have good reason to be quivering in their boots today. >> are we talking text messages, emails? >> we're talking about an all encompassing slew of documents that include all sorts of communications, email correspondences, text messages and the like. >> reporter: based on information you've seen, conversations you've had, do you have any idea what stockton's attorney is referring to there, and how damning the evidence could be? >> i talked to dustin after he spoke to the january 6th committee for over seven hours, and first off, that length of time tells me the committee is taking a very serious interest in what he has to say. according to him, many of their questions focus specifically on two key points. dustin and jen say they were offered a blanket pardon from congressman paul gosar in conjunction with their work on we build the wall, which has led to charges for other individuals including bannon who was pardoned by trump. they received no such pardon, but they've never been charged. the couple claim that gosar supported their work and likely would have pursued a pardon anyway, but in their telling of that conversation, gosar had just walked out of the oval and he said, you know, it appeared to them that president trump was more likely to support the pardon due to their work protesting the election. so the committee's clearly interested in this pardon offer. i also think the committee is interested in when and how the ellipse rally, which was a permanent event had where people were not, you know, were checked by security, were not permitted to have weapons, how that event became a march to the capitol. in that little clip of dustin that you played earlier, he talked about, you know, people leading that who shouldn't have been involved. i believe he's referring to far right activist ali alexander who had his own event, the quote, unquote wild protest alongside the capitol. to trump's former chief of staff mark meadows about that event, due to the fact that, a, it was located outside the capitol and people were so angry at the certification that was taking place inside, and b, that ali alexander had ties to far right and militia groups. in the text messages that i have seen, there does seem to have been some dismay from the ellipse planners about alexander's event. that does seem to, you know, have some truth to it. alexander himself has actually said it was the trump campaign that directed him to lead that march. so i think those are the key points of interest. the gosar pardon offer that allegedly occurred and also, you know, how this became a march to the capitol rather than a normal rally. >> wow, so many layers to this. hunter walker, thank you so much for coming on and chatting about it. as you get more information, come on back. we'll do this again. thank you. if the sudden, sweeping and accelerating takeover of new york by the omicron variant seems almost unreal, there's at least one place that's already gone through it. it is very real. what exactly did that look like? 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ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. music: ♪ “i got you babe” by etta james ♪ get groceries, gifts, & more fast and easy so last minute guests are the only thing you'll be waiting on ♪ ♪ joy. fully. when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. ♪ ♪ finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org o man, that's a whole lot of wrinkly at least my shoes look good! looking good start with bounce wrinkleguard, the megasheet designed to prevent wrinkles in the dryer. ♪ ♪ welcome to allstate. where everything just seems to go your way. ♪ ♪ you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. now to some disturbing numbers in the coronavirus pandemic as the omicron variant surges nationwide, the u.s. recorded nearly 120,000 new covid cases yesterday. the average number of hospitalizations up 18% over the past two weeks, and the average of daily deaths up about 15% in that same span. i spoke with nbc news senior medical correspondent dr. john torres a bit earlier about this alarming trend. >> they are saying it's less se veer than delta with a caveat. we're still trying to figure out a lot of this. a lot of caution out there, a lot of caveats saying right now what we're seeing especially out of south africa and sometimes out of the uk is that it doesn't seem to be as severe, but it can still cause hospitalizations. >> heading overseas now and this chart says it all. the seven-day rolling average of new cases in london due to omicron, look at those numbers. let's go to nbc's allie arouzi in london for us. omicron has been spreading like wildfire. what's the reaction there to it? >> reporter: that's right, alex, just the covid virus has been spreading at an alarming rate throughout europe. here in the uk reaching record high numbers of 93,000 new cases in the past 24 hours. that's more cases than at any other point since the beginning of the pandemic. initial reports seem to suggest out of south africa that omicron was not as aggressive as the delta variant, but the imperial college here, which analyzes infection data says that there's no evidence to suggest that it's any milder than the delta variant, and that's dampened the spirits of many medical experts who were hoping a change in the veer ewe lens of the variant would reduce hospitalizations. now medical experts are saying record numbers of this variant are going to put a large number of people in hospital and that's going to put a lot of strain on the medical health system. and that's also set alarm bells off amongst governments who are taking measures across europe. in austria, they've already imposed travel restrictions, france has banned all travelers from the uk. they've canceled new year's eve fireworks displays. ireland has set a curfew after 8:00 p.m., denmark has shut down all concert halls and theaters and amusement parks and in holland, which they're already in a partial lockdown, they're considering a much wider lockdown because they say the partial lockdown in holland has helped to reduce new infections. and here in the uk, alex, it's already mandatory to wear masks indoors and at large venues, and they're considering everything here from mildly pushing people to take precautions to a full lockdown. the latest we've heard is that the government is considering a circuit breaker lockdown just after christmas to stop people from meeting indoors because they think that will reduce the number of people needing to go to hospital by as much as half. look, the reality is we're not sure what kind of a grip the omicron variant is being to take and what kind of restrictions are going to be put in place, but it has worried people enough, and it's certainly going to cause inconvenience over this holiday period for a second year in a row. >> well, 100%, we're going to have to keep an eye on london and what happens in great britain. history has shown what happens there often happens here two, three weeks later. we'll keep an eye on everything. if the texting to mark meadows won't change the minds of trump supporters on what happened january 6th, maybe the words of one leading republican might. that's next. words of one leading republican might. that's next. at what you've saved, what you'll need, and build a straightforward plan to generate income, even when you're not working. a plan that gives you the chance to grow your savings and create cash flow that lasts. along the way, we'll give you ways to be tax efficient. and you can start, stop or adjust your plan at any time without the unnecessary fees. we'll help you go from saving... to living. ♪ play all day ♪ to living. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - oh...oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. more now on the investigation into the january 6th attack on capitol hill, and the explosive new evidence the committee revealed this week, text messages to trump's chief of staff mark meadows while the insurrection was taking place from lawmakers, tv hosts, and trump's own family. joining me now kurt bardella, adviser for the n d, nc and dccc, and elise jordan, former aide in the george bush white house and an msnbc political analyst. welcome to you both. i want to dig into some of these text messages. all texts are from lawmakers were kept anonymous. however, congressman jim jordan's office confirmed that one of those texts to meadows came from him, and it read on january 6th 2021, vice president mike pence as president of the senate should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional and no electoral votes at all. jordan's office claims that that message was forwarded. first of all, at least, does that even make a difference if it was forwarded or something that he was putting forth himself and in terms validating by doing so. overall, what's your reaction to this? >> alex, he was claiming that that was a forward, that he was merely passing along? i mean, the whole thing is just confusing. it seems like he was trying to take credit for wanting to challenge the results of a free and fair election and was leaning into being maga. that just -- you know, i don't even know what his strategy is here if he's not trying to get his full maga cred by destroying democracy and getting credit for it, or if he is just trying to say, oh, it's just a forward everybody's crazy uncle just sends around. >> well, it was not just lawmakers as i mentioned who were texting mark meadows, fox news hosts were doing so as well. let's take a listen. >> quote, mark, the president needs to tell people in the capitol to go home. this is hurting all of us. he is destroying his legacy, laura ingraham wrote. please get him on tv destroying everything you have accomplished, brian kilmeade texted. quote, can he make a statement? ask people to leave the capitol, sean hannity observed. >> subsequently all three hosts down played trump's responsibility for what happened or sought to cast blame on others knowingly misleading their viewers. if the rally had been peaceful, if the mob had not been full of trump supporters, if this were an inside job, then appealing to trump to stop it would not have made sense. what do you make of that, kurt? >> well, i think we just for the first time have seen kind of that veneer lifted of what really is going on in the minds of these fox news propagandists in realtime as this domestic terrorist attack was happening and their reaction was frankly the reaction we all had. this is terrible, this needs to be stopped. the president needs to take responsibility for it. he needs to call them off. it just shows to go how craven their efforts have been since then. what they're peddling in right now, day in and day out trying to make apologists of the january 6th terrorists is just an act. they don't actually believe it, alex. their audience, they're suckers, they are being duped every single day by the laura ingraham ands sean hannitys and brian kilmeades, they're being fed a steady dose of nonsense that their hosts don't even believe. when the camera gets peeled back they have a very, very different take, a very different vocabulary when it comes to january 6th that is completely out of alignment with what they're saying every day right now on tv. >> yeah, i mentioned family. donald trump jr. also texted meadows saying he's got to condemn this expletive asap. trump's oldest son texting his dad's chief of staff. what does that tell you? >> well, i really hope that happen don jr. was also texting his dad on his personal cell phone. as we know, trump was famously not concerned about his own security, so he had his own cell phone. and i hope that he had that direct line to his dad. it's just frankly depressing if that's the only outlet he goes to his dad's minder essentially. perhaps he was just feeling the urgency to that great of an extent where he also wanted to reiterate what he was telling his father directly because what happened at capitol that day was so horrible. and as the images of medieval warfare played across our screens and we saw capitol police officers fighting to keep safe the vice president and so many congressional members, you know, that's the right impulse to say stop this, it's gone too far. >> let's take a listen, kurt, to what mitch mcconnell had to say on the matter thursday. >> i think fact finding is interesting. we're all going to be watching it. it was a horrendous event, and i think that what they're seeking to find out is something the public needs to know. >> you know, kurt, senator mcconnell doesn't usually talk about the investigation. in fact, now that he's choosing to, do you think republican lawmakers are scared of the fallout? >> well, they should be. i mean, clearly the committee is getting the receipts here, and i think this explains why so many republicans, particularly in the house, were so adamantly opposed to the formation and creation of the january 6th committee in the first place, why they tried to tank the idea of actually having a bipartisan evenly democrat, republican panel because they're not just witnesses to this horrendous event. some of them clearly are actual participants in it and helped with the planning, helped with the cover-up of it. they have a lot of skin in this game. i think it's very interesting that mcconnell did that. it's no coincidence that this comes on the heels of donald trump for weeks now pillaring mitch mcconnell every chance he gets, and this is kind of a brushback pitch for mitch going you can go after me. just remember i have power too, and i can make things very difficult for you if you want to play this game. it's a big difference of having someone who's in power, in office right now and someone who's just on the outside really complaining at the referees all day, which is really what donald trump is at this point. he's just a spectator. mcconnell is in the game. i think trump needs to be very mindful of how he goes after mitch mcconnell. >> the plot thickens, and we will keep a watch on it with both you guys, elise and kurt. thank you so much. it is more bad news for donald trump, wikileaks founder julian assange getting much closer to being extradited to the u.s. our national security analyst will explain why he says trump better hope assange never sets foot on u.s. soil. firefighter maggie gronewald knows how to handle dry weather... ...and dry, cracked skin. new gold bond advanced healing ointment. restore healthy skin, with no sticky feeling. gold bond. champion your skin. want your clothes to smell freshly washed all day without heavy perfumes? 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