entire four years. now what they're going to continue to say is this is the presidency that's trying to work for you and do things. >> politico's eugene daniel, we appreciate. thank you all of you for waking up way too early for us. merry christmas everybody, see you at "morning joe" in just a minute. starts now. ♪♪ good morning and welcome to "morning joe," it's the day before the day before christmas. thursday, december 23rd, it's great to have you all with us this morning, along with joe and me, we have the host of "way too early," jonathan lemire and sam stein is with us. good to see you, sam. let's get started. there are promising signs in this current wave of covid-19. new researches adding to the body of evidence that omicron strain results in milder illness. the research from scotland and south africa is still preliminary. the studies also found omicron is sending fewer people to hospitals. for example, the study in scotland found if omicron behaves like the delta variant, researchers would expect 47 people be sent to the hospital. cases of the variant appears to be waning and could signal its peak. south africa's top scientist says he expects other country to follow the same trajectory. here is as snapshot of new york city verses 2020. there are many more cases currently than in march and april of last year. this latest strain is much more contagious. when you look at the number of hospitalizations, here is ahead of the new york city healthcare system with an update on the city's icus. >> 11 hospitals currently have 54 patients in our icus due to covid. that's compared to the peak in march 2020 where we had 970. the 54 is compared to the lowest we got to around 20 a few weeks ago. very, very slight increases in the sickest of patients. >> yes, if there were ever a virus that would move us from where we were in 2020 to a point where we are going to be as we move forward, we have to live with the virus. this would be a great one to start with where yes, it's more infectious than ever but if you look at the number of hospitalizations, just how low it's compared to past surges and actually we seem to be as a nation in a good place to handle this variant. >> let's hope, right? fingers crossed of the data will still be promising, relative to what it was in march 2020. with that said, there is as few things they're worried about. if the sheer number of infections will overwhelm hospitals nonetheless. the infection rate is that high. we still end up with a lot of people in the hospital and elective surgeries become problematic. the big unknown here is i am not a doctor. these long-term -- you may not have issues right now in the current day with covid if you are infected. if even of a small portion of those infected do get long-term -- we are talking about 500,000 infections a day, just a small portion suffering from long-term disease. that could be a huge driver for medical systems. i don't want to be a debbie downer heading in the holiday season. there are still a lot of unknown out there. >> worth being careful. >> of course, and so noted, madame-downer. >> oh, right. >> okay, you play that role of ebeneezer. obviously and you never know. >> take every precaution. >> we have been hearing some time this is going to be far less serious antidotally first. studies came out from south africa, that's certainly good news. the white house understands that. it does not appear that there is going to be facing sort of a melt down that this country saw after delta came back and surprised the country. the biden white house appears to be responding accordingly. >> i will start by noting that sam brings me down everyday. for sure -- >> you work with him everyday. >> it's an unfortunate dynamic here that we have established here. >> the white house is certainly is cautiously optimistic of the people that i talk to there. there are still concerns and huge numbers. it's the sheer volume of cases going to be the issue here. illness is not severe of those who are vaccinated and those who gotten their boosters. there is going to be cases that'll overwhelm the hospitals. this may be a place where we are seeing cases ticking up everywhere. the most severe outcome are in places of low vaccination rates. if you didn't get the vaccine but not delta and still recovered. that may not help you much of omicron. that's what we are looking at. they believe that and of course testing will be the key tools. >> right. >> we are near to 205 million people are fully vaccinated right now. let's hope that number continues to go up. >> as this time passes by and we watch omicron and the data and the studies as to who ends up in the hospital and who does not is going to come down to vaccinated verses unvaccinated and boosted verses unboosted. there are people who are unvaccinated and they are at risk of severe symptoms and deaths. there is a lot of disinformation out there on facebook and other social media apps and other platforms. i think the realities are playing out before our eyes for people to see which may make them feel comfortable to get the vaccine. i may say also to add to sam's point and bring the other side up, i think it's really porpt that we take note right now recognize right now and honor the front line workers who are still dealing with this. who are dealing with this as many health system managers will tell us people coming to the emergency room exposing them to the virus and unvaccinated. they know these people could have made themselves safe and we hear that story time and time again. >> obviously if somebody comes into the hospital of their patients, you feel terrible for them. there maybe some resentment among healthcare workers not getting vaccinated. at the same time we are seeing people moving towards vaccinations and after the fear of omicron and just extraordinary huge goals of those who are unvaccinated and those who are vaccinated and those who have the booster. if you have the booster, one friend acquaintance after another that's gotten this variant, they're boosted and they don't even have a fever. >> it's not as bad as the flu. >> we saw a surge of people going to protect themselvesand families with delta and we are seeing omicron right now and great news -- i don't think it's called breaking news on the supply chain. >> christmas miracle? >> one more thing along with the vaccine, we are one step closer having another tool in the fight against the virus for all americans. fda granted to pfizer's covid treatment pill. it's the first to be cleared during the pandemic, the drug will be prescribed for use for adults and children ages 12 and up with mild to moderate symptoms who are at risk for severe disease or hospitalizations. the agency said it should be prescribed as soon as possible after diagnoses generally within five days of the first symptoms. there is that. >> and you know it's interesting. we were talking yesterday and i said yesterday afternoon and we noticed that christmas presents that we are getting for kids of course christmas present that santa is delivering and asking us to hold for our children and others and also just friends in the community, we heard two weeks ago and three weeks ago not to expect to get those packages. >> that's all i got my christmas shopping done at thanksgiving. >> everything worked and clicking. i am not exactly sure what's happening out there but hearing from everybody i talked to -- the supply chain and people getting their presents on time, well, that does not appear to have materialized. there was an intense focus by the biden administration to clear up this supply chain problems and it appears to be working. >> they put together a team and despite those fears, it seems the majority of americans will have their presents under the christmas tree this weekend. >> according to shipping data company ship matrix, ups and postal service meeting santa and delivering close to 99% of packages on time between november 14th and december 11th. fedex was not far behind reportedly delivering 97% of packages during that same time frame. this comes after the white house formed a task force earlier this year to address some of the country's major ports, president biden spoke about the progress yesterday. >> earlier this fall we heard a lot of dire warnings about supply chain problems, the much predicted crisis did not occur. packages are moving. gifts are being delivered. shelves are not empty. >> you know it was jonathan about a month ago we were talking about inflation and massive crisis. i am not exactly sure what everybody has done over the past month but whatever they have done as we won't call it a christmas miracle but we'll say a heck of a turn around from what most of america was expecting one or two months ago and let's be honest about it. what republicans seemed to be gloating once or two months ago blaming joe biden despite the fact that we of course had these supply chain problems going all the way back to the trump administration. >> the white house saved christmas. >> put it on a bumper sticker. >> put it on a bumper sticker. the white house should this on the white house that saves christmas. if you don't think republicans would do that, you don't know republicans. >> democrats are too often accused of participating in the war on christmas and now they saved it this time. >> there you go. >> it has been a well deserved victory lap and all over twitter, working closely with shipping companies and they deserve credits too and there is been reporting about how lodgistic companies really stepped up with more staffing and better plans to make sure those gifts got out on time and not supply chain issues totally resolved but not the crisis that we thought will be of christmas here. the white house were really concerned about this. they thought they would be blamed if there were not presents under the tree. the white house that lost christmas but now they can say they are the ones they believed that saved them. >> the republicans and administration would say why - donald trump would say christmas was going to be destroyed but i saved it better than anybody have. >> never mind. with that said, i have seen these fascinating numbers, sam, i am sure you guys have written about it like how the economy is doing and republicans are saying the economy is doing worse than it was during the great recession. despite incredible growth and more available jobs ever than any time of the history. you can go down a list of factory where the economy is doing extraordinary well and of course there is the battle of inflation that's going to continue most likely over the next six months or so. what i love in these surveys is they go how is the economy doing? 70% of republicans saying it's the worst ever. how are you doing economically? about 70% saying hey, i am doing better. it does not line up and even the answer to that question has started to elicit stupid responses from people, just based on their political ideology and not based on reality. i am not sure if we can take much heat in those numbers anymore. >> oh yeah, those numbers have completely filtered. you have an economy right now that by objective metrics are doing pretty well. created millions of jobs and our economic growth. objectively people's wages are going up. you can see just antidotally through worker's strikes, workers who are organizing higher wages, things that have not happened in decades. on the foot side we have inflation. we have up until recent years of a stream of increase of causes and gasoline. those are either completely overwhelmed the good news or have been used by biden's critics to paint the economy in a horrible space. sell it to the american people where they feel it more. the trick they have which confronted prior administration as you know, joe, there is a danger, trump didn't care about this. as he did not care and would trump it and saying this is the greatest thing ever. hey, things are going really well to the republic when they don't necessarily feel it. the biden administration is trying to say hey look things are going well where some is saying whoa this is $10 more in filling my tank. >> how donald trump would say things are beginning great and barack obama would always be afraid of saying things are going great. that did not serve him politically or the democratic party politically. if you have the fastest wage growth in history or if you have some of the strongest growth in gdp that we have had in decades. if you have great unemployment numbers or more jobs opening than ever in history. if republicans were talking about how the supply chains was going to ruin christmas and it ended up didn't because of what you did. that's something democrats are going to have to learn how to message. you message it by talking about the great things that have happened under your watch and do it apologetically. democrats like to apologize and they put caveats on bumper stickers. "make america great again" and this is what we are trying to say. >> i can't believe that you would suggest that donald trump would exaggerate his accomplishments. >> always. >> democrats are bad at winning. they're bad at the messaging for all the reasons you just outlined. we know they got off their game a little bill and sort of hitting a slump beginning of afghanistan and the rise of delta and the inflation and the feedback and forth of the legislative agenda. the distributions of the vaccine and the covid-19 relief bill and the infrastructure plan. we are turning to a normalcy after four years. there are still hurdles ahead including what they're going to do on voting rights. they feel like they got a good story to tell and they need to do a better job telling it as they head into the midterms. they still hope good news comes spring and summer. hopefully coronavirus cases would have gone down and hopefully inflation start to fade by them and they hope that the build back better bill in some form is passed by then and americans will feel the benefit of that's the stretch of the midterms will give them something nice to run on. >> we are talking about the supply chain and inflation and covid, we were saying that we expected most of that to burn out by next year. the supply chain check, it seems to be pretty darn good shape for christmas. inflation at some point, i still believe will burn out by the middle of next year, we'll see what happens as we move into covid. there is major future variance, we are learning to live with it. the mayor is still talking about having new year's eve in times square again. the democrats are bad at winning and to prove that we have a former republican cheering for democrats, david frum, they talk about all the successes and all the great things joe biden accomplished this year and talk about how they need to get that message out. >> just for the record before we go to break. really quick, joe biden when he was doing the supply chain update yesterday was bragging on all the accomplishments of this administration and the state of the economy. and, he's doing it in a forward way. it was not subtle or was not feeling what you all describe. he was proud of the accomplishments. it was extremely forward pushing on it saying we are heading in the right direction and he was taking the credit and his staff and his cabinet. still ahead, we'll talk to mayor bowser about requirements that'll go into effect there. the committee investigating the january 6th attack, now wants to talk to one of donald trump's closest allies. congressman jim jordan. the only question is what happens when we refuses to cooperate. >> what is that? you got proud boys cooperating but jim jordan won't? >> that seems upside down to me. . >> the viral moment that had fans upset and a car company stepping up from "wheel of fortune," you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. e watching "morning joe," we'll be right back ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th want to save on your home internet? xfinity is proud to support liberty. ♪ the emergency broadband benefit program. for a limited time, you may be eligible to qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service through this program. that's right! you could qualify for a credit of up to $50 a month toward your internet service and equipment. for even more value, switch to xfinity mobile, and you could pay as little as $15 a month for wireless. click, call, or visit a store to learn more. nfl players will not participate in the upcoming olympics in beijing. the commissioner made an announcement of a rash of infections among players led to the postponement of 50 games in the pause of the season. without nhl players in beijing it leaves russia as the favorite to win gold, speaking of russia right now, vladimir putin is holding his annual news reference with reporters. joining us is keir simmons. has he said anything notable so far today? >> reporter: he's talking a lot. he's been talking for an hour and 30 minutes. he can keep going for an hour and 30 minutes. i say this with a warning but today he does appear to be suggesting that there could be some progress, there could be some reduction in the tension. asked about whether or not there will be a war, he said we don't want that. this is not our choice and he says by and large we are seeing positive traction at this point. that comes after foreign minister lavrov says there will be strategic negotiations with the u.s. and nato next month. so a positive message despite the drum beat of war. the military build up on the ukrainian border continues. you know look, russia does appear to be in a negotiating move at this point. the nature of negotiations very, very clear now after that stunning document that moscow put out there saying that their demands that nato no longer expand east and no longer engage militarily with eastern european nations plainly and washington made this quite clearly that's a no go. we have real clarity of what putin is trying to achieve. everything else is hard to read as ever. this messaging comes in the same week where he spoke to military officials and threatening a military technical response seems to be code for cyber attack and suggested that there can be no retreat, mika. >> yeah, it's fascinaing and president putin knows the united states is going to be involved with former warsaw packed countries and perhaps he puts it out there to just to at the end to get ukraine and even as he says today which is good news that we appear to be negotiating and we may be abvert war. we americans have been reading suggesting that he's preparing russia for war, talking about how they are in circle by nato and the united states and pretty soon we'll have nowhere to go. >> that's right, joe. >> but here is how these things are so difficult to read. russian television banging the war drums if you would like is useful for president putin because it makes him a strong man. and then when it comes to a potential for an invasion, plainly russia has to act like it prepares to evade. now whether or not president putin intends to invade or making that decision, i don't think you can judge that based on what he's doing on that border. western european governments have no choice but to respond in kind and act as if russia may do it and may intend to do it and give a tough response to that. again, it's always and dificult to read moscow. right now we have to be careful to not take the positive message from president putin today if you would like as a sign that things may improve. i do think this, joe. i think this tension, this ratcheting up tension, russia can keep doing that and we'll see that through 2022. some kind of a conflict does not happen in january or a year's time. we know that president putin takes a tactical view of things often. again, that document that moscow released saying what they want makes it very clear that president putin's target is nato, nato's expansion. he's trying to reverse what's happening with president gorbachev. >> all right, nbc's keir simmons. thank you so much as always. another look at the economy, let's bring in our seema modi, what's striking the market today? >> the news around covid seems to be improving. pfizer's pill which cuts hospitalization rates. they're expecting to see this pill to be sold $18 billion next year. i will point out that omicron is changing holiday travel plans. more americans are cancelling international travels and instead opting for destinations closer to home. they're still traveling. the desire is there and that's why planes are packed and tsa numbers suggest we are back to prepandemic level. if you are flying, expect long lines. jobs claim will be in focus. the number of people filing claims did rise last week. they need the job picture to remain strong and intensify the rate as which they scale back economic stimulus and allow interest rates to rise. the other part will be inflation, consumer spending later today and that's expected to slow in the month of november and stocks again are up on track to close the week higher, mika and joe. >> unbelievable. you look at those numbers and the future, two strong days, looks like we'll start out with stronger days and shaking up in inflation fears. looks like it's all focus on omicron when the news is good on omicron. it's reflected in the markets. cnbc's seema mody, thank you so much. one wheel of fortune contestant is getting an early miracle after a controversial game show robbed her of her brand new audi, watch this. >> choosing the right card? >> choosing the right word. >> you said all the right word but it's less continued but not by five seconds. i am sorry, you did a good job in getting it and we can't give you the prize. it was the audi. >> oh, come on. man! >> it was not three or four seconds. >> come on ebenezer. >> was sam making that decision? >> we trusted you, man. >> we let you into our home for like 84 years. >> what? >> with some fewers compar comparing -- >> oh, he's trying to be nice. >> what happened? >> what they call on pat to honor the prize. you know that, pat is america, america is pat. the car company took notice and they tweeted and sure pat was on the phone with them and making sure they do this. they tweeted they're going to giver her the car and she was denied by the show's rules. is that not great news? that's like oh, i don't know your liverpool and you are playing totnem and somebody comes up and -- if you are the captain, you don't get a red car. >> i don't see this. >> don't you? >> this is hypothetical, joe. >> exactly. >> it has angered you in the last two days. >> it's a nice story. >> good to see christmas is saved and america is great again. >> she did pause. >> oh my god. >> you know what -- get him off. >> coming up -- >> prep school of killjoy. >> killjoy prep. the six grade hero who managed to save two lives. >> quiet! >> no, two separate incidents in just one day. president biden pledged this week to make available at home covid tests free of charge. now he wishes he ordered them two months ago. when will they be available? >> family news. my brother ian likes it. first of all, my brother mark is ambassador of nolan. i think this is the real reason. it's the intimidating presence behind mark during his confirmation hearing, look at this. >> it's an extraordinary honor to be president biden's nominee to become the next u.s. ambassador. i am accompanied by my brother, ian brzezinski who have served for a number of years. >> he's sitting back there. >> he looked tough in that mask. >> don't mess with him. >> i always joke with ian that he's such a -- >> he'll invade canada. >> it's a joke! >> would you mess with that guy? >> he does though. he holds so much respect among everybody but especially republicans on that committee and also he actually, he does look even more intimidaing in that mask. >> my brother ian is celebrating his birthday and we are all happy to celebrate that and he came down to spend time with my mom and his kids are amazing and jenny is amazing and there is their family's picture. merry christmas and happy birthday, ian, we'll be right back. ♪♪ ♪ there's a different way to treat hiv. it's once-monthly injectable cabenuva. cabenuva is the only once-a-month, complete hiv treatment for adults who are undetectable. cabenuva helps keep me undetectable. it's two injections, given by a healthcare provider once a month. hiv pills aren't on my mind. i love being able to pick up and go. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions post-injection reactions, liver problems,...and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection site reactions, fever, and tiredness. if you switch to cabenuva, attend all treatment appointments. with once-a-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. ask your doctor about once-monthly cabenuva. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey, tam-tam! i was thinking maybe... your mom's car? 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people are struggling to get these tests. how are we going to be prepared for the next wave to come. >> how is the next wave going to be? >> omicron is incredibly infectious. the case curve is going straight up. it looks like the apollo rock rocket is taking off. the president is purchasing 500 million tests to giveaway free to the public. it won't happen until january. there will be a website where people can order these tests. there is a lot we don't know. >> yeah, it's fascinaing and you look at the numbers we gotten far on hospitalizations. the infections look higher than any time of our peak. the hospitalizations are still low. i know there is a lag between infections and hospitalizations and hospitalizations and deaths. at the same time it seems that we got a state of report showing that this omicron way may be shorter and not as deadly as past waves. >> right, we did get some good news yesterday, three studies across a couple of continents showing that omicron caused milder disease. something people are not grasping with omicron, because it's so infectious, there is going to be so many cases that even a small percentage of those cases result in hospitalizations, it could be enough to overwhelm the hospital system. that's what health officials are concerned about. that's what biden's plan that he announced yesterday is trying to address sending military personnel to hospitals and fema planners to talk to them about how to expand capacity if they're going to need to. that's the big concern. >> that's a scenario i have worried about and these people have been at it since day one. most are exhausted emotionally and physically. cheryl, i would like to point out as you said we are in the sort of wave or the surge right now and the testing should be available now but we are told it will be available in january. well, january is next week. when in january, do you know? >> we don't know. we don't know when it will be available in january and we don't know how many experts i talked to that all 5 million will be available in january. probably they'll roll out in a number of months. if the omicron surge lasts three to eight weeks as many are predicting, it's possible that we'll get some of these tests after that surge is over. so, you know the administration has yet signed contracts to purchase these tests. >> we'll be following this. >> thank you very much, cheryl, for coming on with your reporting. we appreciate it. still ahead, president biden addresses speculations whether he'll run for reelection and how donald trump's decision in 2024 will play into its own. despite challenging poll numbers and the recent roadblock of build back better bill, the argument that president biden is still going. 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"morning joe," i took pencil to paper, i think we are going up on our 109th anniversary. we launched this thing when the red sox beat the giants in seven games. >> it's an important anniversary. >> a couple years later, yes, dear. >> a couple of years later, we had sam stein come on the show and he made this predictions right here. you sent it to me. archduke's death removes danger of european conflict. jonathan lemire, that was a good one in there. >> that reminds me of my take. ronald reagan, we'll never hear from him. sam stein, do you have a prediction as bad as this? >> does it get worse than that prediction? >> i don't know, we kind of put that theory to a test here on "morning joe." >> good point. sam, before we let you go. any holiday plans? you are making it up to connecticut to say hi to your mom and dad who was a huge fan of mine. your dad does not yell at me quite so much when i see your dad in public. >> my mom has been occasionally, can i e-mail him? >> i love your mom so much. >> yes, she can. >> give her my e-mail. >> yes, she can. >> i have her phone number, i am going to text her. >> i have her number. >> sam's mom. >> your mom met my mom? because it's the same thing. it never has been found for you that your mom same thing with mine. please send our mom to your mom and dad. >> i will. >> i hope you have a great holiday season. >> happy holiday. >> it's the top of the hour, welcome back to "morning joe," we are just about to hit 7:00 on the east coast, it's thursday, december 23rd, the day before the day before christmas. jonathan lemire is still with us. joining the conversation we have peter baker, eugene robinson from "the washington post." it's great to have all of you with us. >> it's great to have all of you guys with us. if i were in the white house right now, i would be -- >> santa. i would be bumper stickers out, peter baker, talking about the white house who saved christmas. joe biden is santa. >> whatever happens to that supply chain thing? we keep on having ups trucks and fedex trucks showing up to our place for presents santa is bringing them of course. >> there is hardly any blimp and two days later numbers came out to confirm that our supply chain is working great. >> prediction of a great crisis turned out not what it's. a lot of work have been done in order to obvert that. a lot of people putting in a lot of work to get things up to speed. it reminds me of the obama presidency of the oil spill in the gulf would be able to kill them. it turned out not to be politico had predicted. keep these predictions with a grain of salt. everyone posted on the internet about my newspaper and an article of this young radical and germany got, hitler in pained by prison. that's a pretty bad one. >> jesus. >> we were just showing that. that is a light conversation. >> we are showing how somebody predicted in the "times" of archduke's death is going to pass. we have world war i and world war ii taken care of. this didn't just happen. we talk a lot about the bill whitaker and for this to work, i think the focus on it by the white house and legislatures made a huge difference but also everybody threw out the supply chain. >> right. >> people running the ports and people running the trucking companies and people running the warehouses for this to work out well. just up and down the food chain. there has to be extraordinary efforts keeping the la ports, the long beach port opened 24 hours a day. so many things eventually added up. the white house had formed a task force earlier this year to address at some of the country's major ports. president biden spoke about the progress yesterday. >> earlier this fall we heard a lot of dire problems of supply chain crisis. it did not occur, packages are moving, gifts are being delivered and shelves are not empty. >> you know eugene, that's not just a general good feeling that people are having. it's not just a lot of antidotal evidence. we showed last hour of stats of deliveries are on time. ups and the united states postal service, holiday gifts between the 14th and december 11th were delivered on time, 99% of the time. fedex pretty close to that delivered on time, 97% of the time. and i will say a month or so ago we were seeing the most reliable carrier taking longer than usual to get things on. the supply chain has been fixed. mika is right, you have to give credit to where credit is due with the white house and up and down that supply chain. >> absolutely. the white house said they were going to fix the problem. everything was in stock. all of a sudden everything is arriving on time and everything is in stock and in time for christmas. i think president biden is right to take credit. the white house should continue to take credit for that and by the way should take credit for the good economy and the rise in wages and for the fact that 200 million americans are vaccinated which is going to make this omicron wave less dire than it could have been. there is hopeful signs of milder illness. there is a lot that they could jump up and down about. i suspect to see more of that in the coming weeks because you know if you have success, look, if it rains and you are president, you take credit for. >> yeah, i think what we'll hear from this white house is there is been a lot that's done. there is a lot still to do that kind of take a realistic tone to celebrate their victories. this week the collapse of talks over his build back better bill happened. leave it to conservative columnist to point out the successes. david frum is out with a new piece in "the atlantic," the biden administration proved outstandingly successful in 11 months, biden has done more with 50 democrat senators than obama did with 57. he signed a covid relief bill in march of 2021, $1,400 payments, $350 billion to state and local governments and supplement unemployment insurance benefits and subsidies under the affordable care act. he signed an infrastructure bill in september. he also won confirmation for some 40 federal judges, more than any first-year president since ronald reagan and twice as many as donald trump confirmed in his first year with a 54-vote majority. anybody can win poker in a good hand. it takes a real maestro with a good one. >> add to that again 40 federal judges, the most since ronald reagan and the 75 executive orders that also advanced a lot of the goals of more progressive democrats and you actually look at again and you look at a year that is long defined by a party been a failure because of one bill have not passed and ignoring all of the great successes for the democratic party, certainly from their vantage point that's happened in the past year. >> so many is doing that. it was not just a single topic. he packed a lot of his legislative agenda into this one legislative long shot, pre-k and climate change and all these important -- it was disappointing to many of his party who saw him as the new fda. one thing that president biden proven that he's not taken credit for things and not very good of getting popular support for his presidency based on the things he has done. one thing president trump was good at was taking credit. he would be pumping into the rafters any good news out there and sometimes it was his responsibility and sometimes it was not. he made sure people knew about it. he was good at doing that. you don't see president biden talked about it and an economy -- and you would thought it was the most booming economy in the world. president biden's economy is booming 7%, more than trump. all of these things made it harder for president biden to get political traction that he would like to get. part of it is he does not get out there as much. look at these numbers of interviews we saw. he's given 16 interviews compares to like 150 by this point for president obama and another number like similarly to that with president trump. he does not get out there to take the credit. well, because he's too busy working on policies to take credit. politics is about getting out there and selling as well as passing things. he needs to get out there and sell his presidency. >> you look at where the country is right now and you can look at these successes and successes that the democratic party should take a note of and they should be grateful for. gene, of course a lot of voters are focused on covid, joe biden was hurt by the boom during the delta surge. he was hurt by afghanistan and he was hurt by inflation. he's hurt by these outside forces. some of these outside forces with covid right now. but you look at the successes that he has been able to push through, he would be able to push the base. talking about build back better bill and you really touched on it in your column, joe manchin is only the obstacle of build back better bill. there are more challenges for joe biden getting passed. it's not just one senator from west virginia. >> no. it's one senator from west virginia plus 50 republican senators because 50 republican senators opposed the bill and not one of them were going to come over. so you could argue that any one of them was equally responsible for walking it as joe manchin. if you got 50/50 that joe biden knows well and simply limits what you can do. any senator can effectively halt anything that's just the reality that biden has all things considered done very well with the 50/50 senate and getting all the things through david listed in his piece. the big drag on public sediment and happiness in general is still covid. i think that's something the administration has done a lot to remedy and to address and to attack but can't control. you can't control the emergence of delta and omicron variants. those are things that are up to the virus and the virus gets a vote. if our experience proves the same as what we think we are seeing followed by a sharp decline in those cases then a month from now or two months from now people's attitudes may be quite different and we may be having a different sort of conversation other than why don't people appreciate what biden is doing and people feel better when covid is not the central thing. >> well, to that point, house majority whip jim clyburn says he has tested positive for covid-19. clyburn says he's asymptomatic and noted that he's fully vaccinated and had a booster in september. clyburn was with president biden when biden addressed graduates at clyburn's alma mater. he took another test that came back positive two days later. biden tested negative for covid twice this week after he came into contact with the white house's staff member last week who later tested positive. washington, d.c. is ramping up on covid-19's restrictions to control the daily number of coronavirus cases. mayor bowser announced yesterday starting mid january, people 1 and older have to show proofs of vaccinations to join gyms. >> mayor, it's good to have you on the show. this variant is highly transmissible. i have yet to ask a doctor and if masking even works with this variant that seems so transmissible. tell us about the mandate effort in washington, d.c. and how are the number so far with omicron? >> well, mika, we had last week, we saw numbers we have not seen in terms of cases throughout our response of the pandemic. good news, we also saw numbers of hospitalizations better than they were last month. so we continue to focus on for dc residents will be vaccinated and boosted and wearing a mask indoors but also in high gathering places where we know the virus transmits easily. we are going to begin requiring a vaccination to enter for patrons starting january 15th. >> jonathan lemire. >> i want to ask you about the vaccination requirements. we are seeing more cities across the country adopt similar measures. you said starting january 15th, my question is why wait that long and why not have it sooner with omicron ripping through the city right now. why also one shot required and why not make it at least two shots or if not the booster to be vaccinated to go to these places, we see that omicron seemed to be able to get around with having one or two shots. >> we certainly want to do it as soon as possible. we want businesses to have in place of what they need to enforce it but also give our residents the opportunity to be compliant as well. we do want more people, we are about 67% fully vaccinated in d.c., we know we can do better with that number. our senior residence have answered the call over 90% vaccinated. we also see our early numbers demonstrate that the people who are getting omicron right now are largely in the 24 to 35 age group which goes well for hospitalizations. we know a lot of our residents are going to be impacted. these are residence going to restaurants and bars and nightclubs. we want them to wear their masks for sure but also be vaccinated. >> mayor bowser, i would like to jump to another top in, we had bill de blasio talking about his effort to make sure every homeless person has shelter. in washington, d.c. there is similar problem. there is a lot of people living intense and who are not in real shelters. what are you doing to deal with that problem. is there an effort to get everybody off the street and out of tense? >> absolutely mika, we actually started about a month ago. maybe six weeks ago now. a pilot program the care pilot program where our workers are reaching out to residents in homeless encampments and offering them housing and walking through them the process from the moment we engage with them through their housing opportunities. we had two successful outreach efforts and we have been able to dismantle on this encampment area that proves deadly for some housing residence but also detrimental to neighborhoods surround them. we'll continue with the pilot next month. we are a city that's the right to shelter city. we are also city of encampment. that's our measure and we are showing early success and we'll continue to do that. >> is there more needs to be done to make the housing, there is maybe a reason why some of the homeless population in washington, d.c. is not going to the shelters that's available to them. is there more that can be done so people who found themselves homeless seeks shelter? >> covid has not left this issue untouched i must say. so during the whole process while we have not seen outbreaks in our shelters, we have had to institute more protocols to keep our homeless safe. we have seen enhanced protocols more people living in tents. the american rescue plan did provide city relief that's going to allow us to house our more vulnerable homeless residence. we do see as we get over the surges of covid, some of our systems can go to more normal operations and our shelter facilities will be more available. we are actually building new shelter this early spring. we are going to open a brand new shelter for men that we know more people will want to go to for their emergency situations and get themselves settled and a productive life. we'll love to get updates on this. please come back. mayor bowser. thank you very much for joining us. who carjack incidents. a congresswoman from pennsylvania and a state senator from illinois. the proud boys are cooperating in the investigation into the january 6th attack on the capitol but what about congressman jim jordan? will he give the committee the information it wants and president biden's answer to reelection, he says he wants to run again with a caveat, we'll tell you what that is. straight ahead on "morning joe." . straight ahead on "morning joe." nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. as i observe investors balance risk and reward, i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey, tam-tam! i was thinking maybe... your mom's car? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ merry christmas, dad. ♪♪ ♪♪ 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 ♪ not only do centrum multigummies taste great. they help support your immune defenses, too. because a healthy life. starts with a healthy immune system. with vitamins c and d, and zinc. getting out there has never tasted so good. try centrum multigummies. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 five people have been taken into custody after congresswoman mary scanlon's car hijacked. according to investigators two armed men approached scanlon demanded the keys to her car. one of the men drove off and the other followed behind in a separate vehicle. her car was found in a shopping center with five people in it according to delaware's state police. all were taken to custody. several of scanlon's work were stolen. she was not harm. an illinois senator was also the victim. in the suburbs of chicago, three people in an suv carjacked kimberley lifford. shots were fired, the couple were unharmed. police are looking at surveillance video to help identify the suspects. >> we keep hearing when people talk about rising crime rates oh, this is much adieu about nothing. the numbers if you look at the numbers and they'll try to justify the situation suggesting there is not a rise in crime. there is and you feel it and whatever city you are in and you are concerned. at least i am concerned for my kids and my friends and people i work with. these are more dangerous times than we have been used to it over the past five years. >> it certainly more dangerous in the past five years. it's true that we are nowhere near where the peak of crime was in the late '80s and '90s when it was truly controlled. like all politics is local. all crimes is certainly local. and so as people who experienced of local reports of increase crimes and the kinds of things they have been hearing about in the last 5 or 10 or 15 years is still really concerning to people. that's another thing that climate politics 101, not only the administration but mayors and governors have to be seen to address it and understand that this is the experience that a lot of people are having and to understand that they're expected to take measures to try to turn it around. >> you can't just say well, it's not as bad as it was 30 years ago. true. >> but, that's not for a lot of people. >> yeah, well, we'll follow this and we'll have to wait for at least a week, at least until next week for the verdict in the trial of ghislaine maxwell. jurors will return for deliberations. she faces up 80 years in prison if found guilty in all charges. she's accused of helping epstein traffic and abuse young girls. maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all charges. coming up -- travelers better pack their patience? >> oh no. >> pack your patience over the coming hours. millions of people making a last dash for the holiday weekend, we got the latest on this busy travel day. nbc's tom costello has a look. >> tomorrow is as busy day for shopping. i start my christmas shopping about 12:30 or 1:00. we get three hours before the early christmas' eve starts. >> you know who santa does it all. >> in consultation with santa. >> tom costello has the behind the look of what it takes of a single airplane to keep it on time. airplane to keep it on time real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, 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on this morning. it's going to be busy as it's the day before, the day before christmas. joining us now mike barnicle who's in the christmas spirit. i am absolutely certain of this. how are you doing, mike? >> i am father christmas, i get into christmas on july 4th. i am ready. >> you have like 100 grandchildren. i hope you have been shopping since july, it's good to have you here early in the morning. >> yeah. >> i bet. in a very early look at the 2024 race for the white house, president biden says he intends to run for reelection. in an interview, biden says he'll run again if he's in good health and he suggested the prospect of a rematch with donald trump would only further encourage him to seek another term. >> meanwhile ted cruz, the runner up in 2016 seems to be eyeing the republican nomination. >> well, there is a reason historically that the runner up is almost always the next number. and that's been true going back to nixon or reagan or mccain or romney repeatedly. you come in with just enormous bases. >> well, senator cruz may be correct about the historical present, one fact not taken into account as if an unseen former president chooses to run again. we'll see whether donald trump decides to run again or not, that is obviously who has a huge impact. as we talk about president biden, of course, it's crazy that he's having to answer all of these questions. he's not even a year in yet. he has send a clear message that he would like to run again if his health holds up. he would like to beat him again especially if donald trump is on the other side. before we get to that, that's a real stocking stuffers of ted cruz. >> stocking stuffers. >> anyway, joe, you are right. antidotally, listening to people around the president is pretty clear that the president understands one important thing that we have been talking about here today and we talk about everyday and it's the fact that all of us live here in the united states of america know that many, many people, many of our fellow citizens or neighbors and friends have gone through and extensive political economic and cultural form of ptsd over the last two years. the nation is exhausted by covid. one way or another. is my child going to miss another year of high school or not? are we going to do everything in remote? the good news factor they don't rise to the surface because of the negativity that accompanies the virus. the cyrus is going to do what it's going to do. that's what the president have been coping with in each hour of everyday. donald trump based on people i have spoken with. donald trump understands that he lost the suburbs and he lost a lot of people they usually vote for republicans in the suburbs and atlanta, philadelphia, across the country and if he's going to run again, all reports are, he wants to run again, he'll have to figure out a way to win those people back because we talked about it. it's something they are not happy with joe biden and not happy with afghanistan and inflation and not happy with how things are going this first year. it's a unanimous no. do you regret your vote for joe biden? if donald trump does run again, he's got to figure out a way to get those biden's youngin' voters back into his camp. >> yeah, it's a good question. we saw in virginia and new jersey, what we saw last year in 2020 is voters were willing to vote for republicans and they just did not vote unanimously which is donald trump, right? the republican party is in good shape arguably at this moment depending on who it puts up in canada whether it's congress or midterm elections or 2024. president trump is still -- is he able to overcome that? his strategy is to tear down biden. there are a lot of avenue attacks right now. it does not necessarily mean it will mobilize for trump. either one of these candidates is a given in 2024. what else are they going to say right now? of course they're going to run or plan to run. that's what keeps them viable in the political system. does that mean he won't run? we don't know. we should not take his statement being all meaningful. i walked out not convinced he's running. i know a lot of people think he is. that's because he wants to keep in the conversation and the minute he says he's not running, he's no longer going to get that attention or some of the money that comes in or have the power to influence events as he wants to have. we don't know what 2024 is shaping up. we can have a whole different casts of characters. >> we certainly could. "morning joe" started in 1912 and i remember back in 2003 when this iteration of "morning joe" began, we were talking about the two front runners, it was hillary clinton and rudy giuliani. neither one of those two ended up winning their nomination years later. everybody is looking ahead and it's so early. i guess it was mcmilan who says a week is a lifetime in politics or some british prime minister in that area. it could have been wilson. we have focused in virginia and new jersey and how badly things are going for democrats in the past six months. if you look at what's happening in germany and france and great britain, you have nationalists who are break off and getting 10 or 12 or 15% in splitting off the vote of the country. you have the same thing going on here where you have the extreme that we hear all the time that grabs all the headlines and you got the mainstream republicans. this is an issue we don't talk about enough. it's the right that's splenderring right now. splintering a way that can't be resolved. the left has its challenges. it's pretty hard to resolve the split between the reagan's wing of the republican party and the david duke. i am not sure who exactly you put on the nationalist side. they're out there and they run suburban voters off. >> the republican party is a mess and let's not pretend it's not a mess. what do the republican party stand for? 20 years ago i could have told you what republicans stood for. you can't tell me what the republican party is. responsibility? not really. national defense? not necessarily, what is it about? you look at virginia and new jersey, democrats did win in new jersey. they would have liked to win in virginia and the party that won the white house with one exceptio and terry mcauliffe in 2013. it was not great for democrats but it was not some sort of out of left field unmitigated disaster for democrats. it's so early and so much is going to happen between now and the midterm and to say nothing now between 2024, predictions are likely to come out and historically speaking looking like that prediction of the assassination of the archduke is going to pacify europe. >> you can compare the year after barack obama won his sweeping victory of the rise where he almost filibuster proved the majority in the senate. the next year republicans won big in virginia and big in new jersey. that didn't happen this year. again all the predictions of the democratic party speedy demise are terribly overrated. we don't look closely enough at the split that's happening with conservative movement and not only here but in applebaum have written so massively the past year. it's happening with movement all across the west. >> you are right in all of that. >> one huge factor here in the united states of america and it's the fact that one major political party, your former party, the republican party is now a dangerous element in terms of not just politics, in terms of the national dialogue of your democracy. they pose a threat no our democracy, the loudest voice of the republican party reek havoc and shrilled and all they talk about is the damage they want to do and continue to do what's already happened. the majority of republicans would refuse to say that joseph r. biden was legitimately elected president of the united states. that's crazy stuff. that's where that party is. >> the first member of the proud boy to plead guilty to conspiracy of his activities and agreed to cooperate with the government. including using programmable radios. he never entered the building. green is scheduled to be sentenced on march 10th, he has renounced his membership in the proud boys and agreed to pay $2,000 fine. meanwhile, the january 6th select committee wants to speak with jim jordan in the first week of the new year about "possible multiple communications he has had with then president trump on the day of the insurrection." the panel wants to explore jordan's communications with anyone organizing or planning actions for that day as well as any discussions he may have heard about presidential pardons for those involved in january 6th activities. jordan's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from nbc news but told fox news he would review the letter. >> what do you think about that, mika? >> i just think at some point somebody will have to come forward and actually say what they know and say what they did and explain what their communications were. this was a massive attack on the people who were taking part, who were serving in part of that process. and to pretend it didn't happen or to not show up, there are a lot of words i could use for that, and i really hope jim jordan doesn't become one of the many, it appears, who refuse to come clean on this and to help accountability happen in its purest form. >> yeah. i'm curious, do you think if he doesn't come forward and these other members that aren't coming forward, do you think that's a violation of their oath? >> well, of their oath, absolutely. they're there to lead and protect and preserve our democracy and instead it appears they want to hide behind some sort of executive privilege, some of them. he wasn't president. hide behind whatever they cannot to share, to shed light on what happened on january 6th, so it never happens again. and we have to keep trying to find out what happened, and we have to hold everybody accountable. i don't really know what that means for president trump if he's found to be responsible for the january 6th attack on the capitol, but somebody is responsible for galvanizing thousands of people to run to the capitol in the name of trump and destroy it and kill people and maim people and attack police officers and, you know, break windows and run down the halls trying to find people to kill. it's nuts that we're even having this conversation. it's beyond me that we're at the point where members of congress are refusing to testify about something so craven. >> peter baker, republicans quietly say, well, most americans, they don't even -- they don't care about january 6th. it doesn't show up in the polling. in the polling we're seeing as a toppish be you. how should democrats -- how should they move forward understanding that right now americans aren't focused on something that they and many people in the media like myself believes is such a critical, critical investigation? >> well, look, republicans may be right about that obviously as we've been discussing this morning in terms of omicron and inflation and the economy and supply chains, all these things have a more direct impact on everyday lives for a lot of people and so maybe they're more focused on that, focused on christmas, focused on getting back to work than this investigation. that doesn't mean it's not important, it's not something that needs to be done. even mitch mcconnell who didn't favor a bipartisan panel says the work, the information that is coming out as a result is important to understand what happened on that day. it's important for not only for congress to investigate and important for them to present those findings when they have them to the public. you'll see, i think, hearings when they start probably get a fair deal of attention from many americans because they probably will see for the first time in some ways the connections that are being drawn right now in this investigation, pulling all this together, all of the different ways trump and his allies were trying to overturn a democratic election is a pretty powerful narrative once you see all the different threads that are being stitched together here. politics obviously is important but what's probably more important is just to figure out what actually happened for the sake of history and the country and the sake of democracy so that we can understand what, if any, changes need to be made to prevent it from happening again. >> all right, peter baker and eugene robinson, thank you both very much for being on this morning. and still ahead, amid challenges to meet demand for at home coronavirus testing, there is new reporting about a rapid covid test created just weeks into the pandemic and why you still can't get it. plus, former white house senior adviser on coronavirus response andy slavitt joins the conversation. vladimir putin's year end news conference, what he said when asked about russia's military buildup on the border with ukraine. 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>> we just came this morning. we were going to have 12 people. >> reporter: if you haven't taken the shot, avoid those get-togethers. >> i would say i'm very sorry but not this time. maybe another time when this is all over. >> maybe another time. mike barnicle, listening to joe biden talk, i think it's reassuring to a lot of americans to have a president who says, yeah, we could have done a better job. good is never enough. we're going to keep working hard, but we have accomplished so many things so far. it's just, i think, telling everybody to keep things in perspective and not freak out if this omicron variant, again, it's that return to normalcy. it's what we expect from our presidents. >> it's very difficult to tell people to be calm, don't worry about it. we can get through this, things are going to get better. it's hard to convince people of that because of the level of exhaustion and the push and pull we were talking about earlier that everyone in america has experienced. one thing is for certain, there are miracle every day in biotech labs. what we have now, the vaccines and the distribution of vaccines and the number of people in america who have received the vaccine, that's a miracle and you know at some point perhaps hopefully next month or this year, but quickly there will be further developments that will mean a lessening of the threat of the virus and pills that will modify the virus if you have it and reduce hospitalizations. what are the anti-vaxxers going to do when there's a pill that will accomplish. we've been talking about it here with the two of you talking about it is the level of exhaustion on the people who we most rely upon, the hospital workers, dockers to anders ins and technicians who have dealt with this disease in the hospital. thank god for them. >> thank god for them. thank god for them and, also, obviously, the exhaustion they're going to be facing coming up because, unfortunately for those who are unvaccinated they're not going to be protected from the omicron variant. so many of them will be in the emergency rooms, in the icu and it will strain our hospital system. as we sit here and we're talking about how this is a manageable variant, especially the booster, the numbers are overwhelmly positive. >> it's heartbreaking for the frontline workers when they have a patient who says i wish i had been vaccinated. it wears them down to have patient after patient after patient like this with all that they're going through. they have beared the brunt. senior adviser for covid response andy slavitt author of the book "preventable -- the inside story how leadership failures, politics and selfishness doomed the u.s. coronavirus response." thanks very much for being on the show this morning. i guess how preventable is it now that we have a lot of people vaccinated and getting boosted. are we on the better end of this? >> i think just as the bad nouse happens sometimes in disguise here, the good news happens when we're sometimes feeling the height of the pain. we will are pushing out tools that make the coronavirus a much different factor in our lives than in 2020. so the availability of paxlovid. rapid tests means when we go through the spike with omicron we'll be seeing a lot of cases but this could be over relatively quickly if it behaves like in the rest of the world and enter 2022 in a lot better shape. it's notable the holiday says enjoy your holidays, don't pull your kids out of school. it's a different place than a year ago. >> we've heard others talk about the importance of keeping the schools open. the mayor of new york city, hey, we're going to do everything we can do to keep new york city open. we're even going to try to have our new year's eve celebration, people show they've had their vac nations before they get into times square. from leaders there have been so many positive signs that our nation's leaders are now basically telling americans be safe, take precautions, get boosted, but we're going to live with this. we're going to work with this. we're going to carry on through whatever variant comes our way. >> that's right. i think, at least when i was in the white house, the most frequent thing the president would instruct me when i would go and talk to the public, andy, don't worry about how i look. worry about giving people the information they need to survive this and thrive. and just be straight with folks. that means sometimes telling them, hey, we're going to face a shortage for a period of time, sometimes it means saying there are some things that are out of our control but i completely agree with you people want to be talk to like adults, they don't expect there to be every answer and people are exhausted, are tired of this, and will be upset with the people in charge because they want it to go away. i think the president understands that but it doesn't deter him from saying we have to protect as many people as possible. >> we've heard from the president and vice president and other members of his team saying that no one could have seen this coming, this new variant, the omicron variant. as you know there are some white house officials who acknowledged they were caught off guard with delta over the summer. how to be preter prepared for the next variant, what more do they need to do to be ready? >> they did go through modeling exercises and i was parting in one of those calls where they were trying to get a sense of how many at home tests would people need, what would demand look like and i have gathered eight or ten experts on that call and not one of them predicted we would be in the situation where we would see the numbers double every two to three days. it's not news to the white house that we need more of frgs or that we wish we had more of everything but when you do get into a situation where things double every two to three days you could have 100,000 cases at christmas that by new year's would be 400,000. if that happens you run short of just about everything. that does mean it's likely to get over more quickly. a very tough period in getting access to surgeon things but hard to plan for. >> andy, thank you very much for joining us this morning. more now on the at home testing challenges. two chains are limiting how many at-home covid tests people can buy. walgreens has imposed a limit of four at-home tests per purchase. cvs is allowing six tests per purchase. the purchase limits apply in store as well as online. meanwhile, the story joe mentioned early in the show, "the new york times" reported back in august that workers at a factory producing one of the rapid tests were told to destroy inventory. "the times" reported for weeks in june and july workers at a maine factory making one of america's most popular rapid tests for covid-19 were given a task that shocked them. take apart millions of the products they had worked so hard to create and stuff them into garbage bags. due to plummeting virus cases abbott labs took to eliminate stock and wind down test manufacturing which then hobbled efforts against the delta variant. although data shows abbott laboratories controls 75% of the u.s. market for at-home tests, a new investigation reveals it didn't have to be this way. the fda turned away a test developed in march of 2020 that would have detected coronavirus cases in just 15 minutes. here to explain the reporter who brought this story to light, propublica. we appreciate you coming on. >> so, lydia, my god, it's all you can really say when you look at what happened and there was the developed -- the attempts to develop a test which went terribly awry and your story about another test that actually would have worked that got shelved in march 2020. tell us about it. >> yes. so this is a company that spun out of m.i.t. a couple years ago to develop rapid antigen tests for tropical diseases, and they realized in early 2020 that quickly could be adapted for the new coronavirus. so they threw some tests together and had a recent prototype early and were hoping it could be useful in particular situations like detecting superspreaders. this is in boston, for example. imagine it would have been nice going into the biogen conference that tuned in to the superspreading event to filter out people who were super infectious. and i wan to say the fda did what the fda does which is make sure tests are accurate, effective and safe and what ended up happening is that rubric wasn't well adapted for the situation that ended up unfolding that you needed something that would work fast and instead what happened people waited in lines for pcr test that is didn't come back for days at a time. >> in a statement the fda writes, quote, unfortunately, many submissions the fda has received for home tests include incomplete or poor data. it is the fda's responsibility to protect the public health by declining to authorize poorly performing tests or those without data. by balancing speed with safety we have taken numerous actions to accurate and reliable at-home tests. mike barnicle, you have the next question. >> yes. specifically what tests were destroyed? what were the tests aimed at achieving? >> that's not my reporting. that's "the new york times" reporting. abbott labs said later complete tests weren't destroyed but they did shut down a factory and the reason for that is over the summer of 2021 we had the vaccines. people were pretty certain were work and would stop the pandemic. we had a widespread uptake problem and then the delta wave came along, there was an unexpected surge in demand for tests. this is not just the fda having very high standards problem. it's a problem of the federal government not forecasting that demand, buying up tests in the millions to make sure that they were able to be deployed in the inevitable event this surge came along. many of us have heard about the ways european governments looked at tests in a similar way to vaccines, something that every person in the country should be entitled to for free. and that would have fixed two problems. one, making them affordable and, two, caribbean manufacturers in the market had an incentive to keep their production lines running so you didn't have a problem where investors looked at the problem and said we don't think there's going to be demand for this very long. >> lydia, thank you so much for joining us with this reporting this morning. we want to turn now to immigration reform which is on the long list of issues democrats want to tackle. but so far just can't get across the finish line. added protections for undocumented workers were stripped from the president's massive spending plan after plenty of back and forth in the senate. as "morning joe" reporter explains, that leaves millions of people in limbo. good morning, mika. the senate parliamentarians struck down a third attempt in the build back better legislation. i spoke with the leader focused on creating advice nlt particularly food workers this holiday season. take a look. the founder of justice, the nonprofit behind the humans who feed us for immigrant central workers across the food supply change. >> this project we're trying to center the individuals, the many individuals who are responsible for bringing food to our tables. >> reporter: 2.1 million immigrants make up 20% of all workers in the food industry. they comprise 30% of agriculture workers, 27% of food production and over half of the dairy industry and frontline meat packing jobs. walk us through the profile pieces that resonated with you as you were doing this project. >> i've had an opportunity to know those who feed us and a man who is 16 works in a restaurant. he talked about what it was like for his family to make the decision to leave their country, to come to the united states in order to try to have a better life for himself and his siblings. some of whom were left behind in his country. one of the moments that quite literally broke my heart he said we don't have the luxury to dream. and that struck me because he's a 16-year-old boy and he said we have goals. we have things to accomplish and things we need to do and was talking about being able to sustain himself and his family. to him dreaming seemed out of reach. antonia started traveling from texas to ohio, very much the story of my family, and she's continued all these years working in the fields alongside her parents, her husband and her own children. one of the things she said was one of the things her children and grandchildren will inherit from her is the gift of being able to bring food to people's tables and talked about progress and that her grandchildren when they're working in the fields, her grandchildren get to go to school and that's progress. it is the circle of support and what we're trying to show. we are all connected. for many of the immigrant workers they have not been valued as they should be and we're hoping for change and are humanizing the individuals doing this critical work. >> reporter: workers in the food industry whether here on guest visa programs or undocumented could see real help from immigration proposals being shelved on capitol hill. they are disappointed by the political roadblocks but remain phone cussed on continuing to highlight stories like these to show the interdependence with the need for rights and protections. mika? >> thank you very much. and still ahead on "morning joe," a look at the outlook for holiday travel plus the president explains how he was able to prevent supply chain issues from disrupting christmas. is he santa claus? 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 ♪ there's a different way to treat hiv. it's once-monthly injectable cabenuva. cabenuva is the only once-a-month, complete hiv treatment for adults who are undetectable. cabenuva helps keep me undetectable. it's two injections, given by a healthcare provider once a month. hiv pills aren't on my mind. i love being able to pick up and go. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions post-injection reactions, liver problems,...and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver problems or mental health concerns, and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include injection site reactions, fever, and tiredness. if you switch to cabenuva, attend all treatment appointments. with once-a-month cabenuva, i'm good to go. ask your doctor about once-monthly cabenuva. age before beauty? 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>> jen psaki took the briefing room podium and joked the white house saved christmas. and certainly they do deserve -- >> put it on a bumper sticker. republicans would put it on a bumper sticker. the white house should put this -- the white house that saved christmas. if you don't think republicans wouldn't doesn't that, you don't know republicans. it has been the white house and the president took a well deserved victory lap because of some of the efforts keeping ports open 24/7, working with kms and good reporting about the logistics have stepped up with more staffing and better plans to make sure those gifts got out on time. inflation remains a concern and at least it's not the crisis that we all thought was going to be with christmas here. six weeks ago white house aides were concerned, they thought they would be blamed. the white house that lost christmas, but now they can say they are the one that saved it. >> again, the republican administration would say why wouldn't they, donald trump, you know christmas, it was going to be destroyed and i saved it better than anybody, this will be the greatest christmas in 4,000 years. never mind he's about 2,000 -- >> joe biden -- >> that said, i'm seeing the fascinating numbers like how is the economy doing and republicans are saying the economy is doing worse than during the great recession despite incredible growth, you can go down a list of factors where the economy is doing extraordinarily well and there's the battle over inflation that is going to continue most like ly but they go how is the economy doing? 70% of republicans say it's the worst ever. how are you doing personally economically about 70% of republicans say, hey, i'm doing better than i've ever done before. even the answer to that question has started to elicit stupid responses from people not based on reality. i'm not sure we can take much heed in those numbers anymore. >> they have become filtered through partisan lenses. you have an economy that i think is doing pretty well, right? we've created millions of jobs. people's wages are going up. you can see through the worker strikes, through vaerous news stories about workers who are organizing for higher wages things that haven't happened in decades. we have inflation, higher cost for goods, a fairly steady stream of an increase in gasoline. they have overwhelmed the good news or painted economy in a horrible state. the trick is how do you take this good economic recovery and sell it to the american people whereby they feel it more? and trick they have there's a danger. trump didn't care about this because he, as you noted, totally different trump voice he would say this is the greatest thing ever but there is a danger of saying things are going really well when they don't necessarily feel it. things are going well where they say, whoa, this is $10 more. >> jonathan, we commented during the trump administration how donald trump would say things are going great regardless and barack obama was always afraid, always afraid, to go out there and say when things are going great. the professor in him would say, there may be some people languishing behind because of this factor or that factor. it did not serve him politically, did not serve the political party politically. i would suspect joe biden to do more of what we've seen over the past four years. if you have the fastest wage growth in the history or if you have some of the strongest growth in gdp that we've had in decades, if you have republicans talking about how the supply chain was going to ruin christmas and it ended up that it didn't because of what you did, that's just something democrats are going to have to learn how to message, and you message it by talking about the great things that have happened under your watch and do it unapologetically. democrats, they like to apologize or put caveats on bumper stickers. you didn't see make america great again asterisk. it doesn't work that way. >> i condition believe you would suggest donald trump would exaggerate his accomplishments. >> never. >> democrats can be bad at winning. the white house has struggled with some of the messaging. they hit a slump beginning with afghanistan, the rise of delta and then we've seen the inflation this fall and the back and forth with the legislative agenda but real accomplishments as the year draws to a close, the distribution of the vaccine, the bipartisan infrastructure plan. now the supply chain. so this is something aides have told me they want to ramp up. they know going into 2022, there are some real hurdles including what they will do on voting rights but they feel they have a story to tell but need to do a better job of telling it and they still hope there could be a confluence of good news come spring/summer that the virus spring, summer, that hopefully the virus cases will have gone down by then. hopefully inflation will have started to fade by then, and they hope that the build back better act in some form is passed by then, and americans will feel the real world benefits of both that and the infrastructure program, and that's suddenly in the stretch before the midterms would give them something really nice to run on. they need to be able to sell it better. they know that. coming up, the historic firsts for women in 2021. "morning joe" is back in a moment. in 2021 "morning joe" is back in a moment ♪ look at the stars look how they shine for you ♪ the stars look how they shine for you ♪ with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. ♪“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. ♪ as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. joy. fully. 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 ♪ age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. there's so much new in the new chicken & bacon ranch, but the clock is ticking, so we gotta hurry! there's new rotisserie-style chicken, new peppercorn ranch, new hickory-smoked bacon, new- did you just spike the footlong? sorry, i didn't want the delay of game. save big. order through the app. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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. we are just days away from 2022, and as we look back on this year, there is a lot to be proud of when it comes to women, breaking barriers, and making history. joining us now, the ceo of all in together, lauren leader, to talk about all the different ways women have broken through. let's talk about the historic firsts for women in 2021. lauren, what do you have? >> well, obviously at the top of that list is the first female vice president of the united states, kamala harris, who was sworn in in 2021, and it is remarkable and extraordinary and history making in every possible way. and then of course as important in many ways is the ground breaking world of the new first lady, jill biden, who not only assumes the job in some new and meaningful ways but also has decided to keep her day job and is still teaching. it's the first first lady in history to do that, to be teaching and working full-time while also first lady. two extraordinary leaders of our nation at top of that list for sure. >> and also now let's move to women in the workplace because they've seen a lot of setbacks in the pandemic. are there any reasons to celebrate for women in the workplace? >> well, you're right, mika, and women lost historic numbers of jobs through the pandemic, and we were very worried in the fall about whether those jobs were going to come back. we're now starting to see that there are gains in female employment. the most recent job numbers show very significant improvement and particularly in fields where women dominate like the hospitality field. i think the big question going forward is going to be what happens in terms of the omicron variant and schools. in order for women to stay in the work force, we need kids in school, and that remains a point of anxiety for women, heading into next year. i think we've all come to appreciate in a new way the juggle that women live every day and the enormous burdens that working women carry. i'm optimistic that we're now finally starting to address those. we obviously hope that the build back better plan, which includes continuing child care tax credit, you know, reduced cost of child care, all of those things will be essential to keeping women in the workplace. fundamentally, i think we came to understand in a new way just how many challenges working women juggle and how critical it is that we find ways to support them. >> we also have the violence against women act, a bipartisan group of senators came together to reach agreement on a bipartisan framework to modernize and reauthorize the violence against women act, which is really great. talk to me, though, about women elected to public office in this past year. we've had some major firsts. >> incredible firsts in boston, michelle wu, the first asian and female mayor of the city of boston. in new york city, the first majority female city council, now five women deputy mayors, the first woman speaker of the new york city council and now the first woman police chief in the history of new york, and of course the first woman governor in the state of new york. in virginia, we saw the first african-american elected woman, republican woman, lieutenant governor, and then the question for next year is really this big one which is will the united states finally elect its first african-american female governor, stacey abrams running in georgia. will we break that last glass ceiling, and see historic numbers of women running for office across the country throughout the midterms, i think we will. and the more that women run, the more we see them win, and the more gains we see across the board. >> and voting rights a big issue, really important. another thing to look forward to, international women's day now has an international capital. we're going to be taking our forbes 50 over 50 list and 30 under 30, and creating a mentoring event. it will take place march 6th to 9th, kind of encompassing international women's day. generations of women will gather in abu dhabi and the great news is for this summit, lauren, the entire event is pretty much outside, whether it's at the louvre or in the desert or at the palace, everything is sort of outside, so we'll watch this virus and these variants and hopefully it will be the first big women's event of next year, and international one, the biggest one ever. thank you very much for joining us. ceo of all in together, lauren leader. thanks for looking back and looking ahead. 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 is thursday, december 23rd and we have a lot to get to in the next two hours, so sit down, and let's get smarter. this morning, millions of americans are deciding whether to make or break their holiday plans as omicron cases are increasing nationwide. now the variant has been detected in every state in the nation, and it is setting new records for cases. here in new york state, they saw nearly 30 new infections yesterday, another record day, and across the country, average cases are

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