a.m. pacific on this thursday, december 23rd. we begin with breaking news. doctors have two new weapons at their disposal to help treat patients at high risk with covid-19. moments ago the fda granted an emergency use authorization for a drug made by merck designed to keep people with mild to moderate symptoms out of the hospital, just one day after it granted similar approval for a drug produced by fiz per. pfizer. two days before christmas the omicron variant is responsible for almostfections with the u.s. seeing more than 200,000 cases a day since september. one in eight comes from new york and this is new video of another day of long, long lines in new york city as people wait in the cold for hours just to get tested. with omicron surge, isn't stopping tens of millions of americans from traveling to visit friends and families this holiday. so if you are deciding to stick with your holiday plans, health officials are urging you to be responsible. >> get vaccinated. get boosted. wear a mask in public indoor settings and take a covid-19 test before gathering with others. we're at a critical point and how well these measures are implemented by all of us caring for ourselves and for one another will largely determine the outlook of the coming weeks and months ahead. >> there's also promising news when it comes to how omicron affects those who get sick. researchers in south africa and the uk say people infected by this variant tend to have milder symptoms and are a lot less likely to end up in the hospital. so let's bring in kathy park here in new york city, and an epidemiologist with ucla's field and school of public health and dr. natalie azar, professor at nyu and nbc contributor. doctor, breaking news, a second anti covid pill getting fda authorization. how does this change the fight against covid? >> stephanie, this is fantastic news. we can all use more tools in our toolbox but i think we need to look at this with some measured optimism. we do not have those pills in hand yet. it will take time to ramp up to be able to have enough to be able to distribute and we are looking at a surge right now in our midst, so i think in the long-term, fantastic news. we're going to be able to benefit from it. we're going to have pills that are going to be available to really reduce the burden on hospitalizations, really reduce deaths but it will take time to get those pills out for use. >> kathy, the numbers in new york continue to be astronomical, in terms of cases or the time it takes to get a test. any sign any of this is improving? >> reporter: steph, covid infections here in new york continue to soar. more than 28,000 wednesday alone, breaking another record, and as far as this covid testing lines, you just have to take a look for yourself, not much improvement, especially here in front of the med rite in manhattan. i spoke to folks earlier in line they got here around 6:00 this morning, didn't start taking patients until 9:00 so they were out here for hours in the cold. >> we have a baby at home and so i just want to make sure i'm safe. i have a hoarse something but you know, i feel fine but i don't want to take any chances with seeing family especially after christmas. >> reporter: steph, there is good news, though, because help is on the way, and it's already here in some places. in fact, across the city, across all the boroughs, they are distributing 2,000 of these at-home covid tests, 2,000 each of the distribution locations and also federal government is stepping up as well. in queens they have six different fema locations offering free covid tests and governor kathy koch hochul next week will offer free vaccinations at some subways. certainly the help the city and state needs but much overdue. clearly you see behind me that the line continues to grow. i was told here at this med writhe location they plan on staying open tomorrow. folks clearly want to get tested and tested again just to be sure that they are covid free before gathering with their loved ones, steph. >> dr. azar, let's talk about those holiday gathering. if one were to get vaccinated or boosted today, would it be working by christmas? >> [ muted ] it's a two-week period after your booster, second dose that you're considered protected. that doesn't mean that the antibodies go from baseline all the way up at day 13. so there is some partial protection let's say for new year's, for next week if you get vaccinated or boosted today but this is why we've been urging people for the last few weeks to do it before we get into the holiday crunch time. >> doctor, it wasn't too long ago that fully vaccinated meant two shots. some experts said maybe two shots and a booster. president biden was asked about a father shot like what they're doing in israel and i want to share what he said. >> they're already moving forward with a second booster now, so this would be the fourth shot for people 60 and older and front line medical workers. is that something you're considering? >> i listen to the scientists, and i'm sure the scientists are paying very close attention to that. there may be a need for another booster but that remains to be seen. >> it remains a possibility? >> it remains a possibility. >> the issue is different scientists say different things. would we need a fourth shot? most people right now haven't gotten a third. >> this is a very important question. israel is moving ahead as they have all along to be first in doing this. they are further along. they boosted, vaccinated first, boosted first. we know there is waning immunity, data suggesting the neutralizing antibodies start to decline after a few months and so we may need to consider boosters. a fourth shot but really right now we need to be able to get those third shots in the arms to have a complete set of vaccination. that protects people against a particular surge happening right now. health care workers other people vaccinated earlier on may need another booster in the short term. this is early days. we are watching science unfold. remember the thing we need to do is to keep driving down hospitalizations, deaths while we can. that will preserve our system. unknown. we will be watching data and going to see what happens in israel, so we're going to have real time data as well. >> gary, we have been expecting a huge holiday travel rush. has any of that changed because of the variant? >> reporter: yes, deadly pandemic and rising costs aren't stopping more than 100 million people expected to travel. it's just changing how they're doing it. they said they're vaccinated, boosted and they're feeling comfortable and they're driving because they feel that is safer. the omicron variant is spreading so fast. if you're in a crowded public place the omicron variant probably is, too. because of all of this, rising costs, regardless of how you travel the costs are going to be rising, car prices and car rentals are up 20%. hotels are up 30%. good news for you here. gas prices around ten months from two months ago. people are vaccinated and boosted and willing to take the cash to spend time with family. >> you know how to get yourself invited back here, throwing good rules in the mix. dr. azar, there's so much information out there, people are so confused. if i'm vaccinated and boosted and in close contact with someone who tests positive, what do i do? >> if you're vaccinated and boosted, you do not need to quarantine. however, it is advised you get tested about five to seven days later and also wear a mask in public indoor spaces or indoor spaces in general until you get a negative test. this differs significantly if you're unvaccinated and exposed. you're still required to quarantine for 14 days. >> say i'm going to a christmas party. everybody is vaccinated and boosted. do i need to take a test before i go? >> extra layer of protection and extra layer of security for you and the person hosting the party and all of the guests. my rule of thumb is this, steph. your behavior should be dictated by the most vulnerable person in your orbit or someone who is going to be at that party. if you're coming home to an immunocompromised family member or someone at that event is, everyone at risk for covid-19, everybody should test. it's always about personal risk tolerance and remember, your behavior should be guided by the most vulnerable person who you're going to come into contact with and whomever is in your orbit or bubble. >> not just at that party, also who is in our home. doctor, say i cannot get a test, the case for so many people. what are the symptoms i should be looking out for, that say you better stay home. >> i think this is a very important point. tests are very hard to come by. we have to get tactical. if you have any symptoms, a scratchy throat which seems to be common with this particular variant or if you feel fatigued, anything that feels a little bit off, i would reconsider your plans because this variant is blowing through vaccines, boosters, blowing through previous infection. those cases are mild. as dr. azar said you need to calibrate that to the most vulnerable person in your orbit. if you don't feel well, if you have anything going on that feels abnormal at all, i would suggest calling an audible, step out for this particular event, wait and see what happens. that's what i would do. be kind and be thoughtful to other people. >> if there's ever a time to be kind and thoughtful to people, it's right around the holidays. stay home if you're sick. thank you all so much. i appreciate it. you definitely made us safer and smarter. still ahead the latest on the january 6th investigation, including what the committee wants from ohio congressman gym jordan. can president biden save his build back better plan? 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>> i think the way any good investigator builds a case, stephanie, i mean, if you were the prosecutor and you thought garrett and i have done something wrong, you'd want to talk to us. that might not be possible and so the next best thing would be to talk to people who talk to us. who was around garrett, who was around me, if we're bad guys, on the day we did something bad. the reason that the committee is reaching out to members of congress, and oh, by the way, they're making requests, not issuing subpoenas, because jim jordan spoke to the president not just on january 6th but on the days leading up to january 6th, and that's how you build investigations. if you don't think president trump would speak to you and if he has lots of good reasons not to, then you talk to the people he talked to. and i hope that mr. jordan will do what he said, which is, you know, he said he had nothing to hide. well, you know, now is the time to prove that. but this is how investigations are built. this is how they are properly built, and it makes a lot of sense to talk to the people who talk to the president. >> all right, chuck. the "new york times" is reporting that the january 6th committee is examining whether they have enough evidence to recommend that the justice department pursue charges against trump himself and some of his other top officials. what do you make of the fact that from the outside at least it looks like the house committee is leading this, and not the department of justice? >> yes, that's really curious to me. i think it's a great question. so first principle, the department of justice doesn't need a referral from anyone to open up the case. if the department of justice believes a crime has been committed f they have predication to investigate it, then they can go ahead and investigate it. number two, we think we would see some reflections of that, stephanie, if the department of justice, if the fbi, if the u.s. attorney were conducting a grand jury investigation. there really aren't those reflections, so a couple of things are possible. one is that the department is simply waiting on congress to do its work, but that seems a little bit odd to me. the other is that the department has already opened an investigation and we're just not seeing it or hearing it or sensing it. another possibility is the department has decided not to do anything, which i think would be deeply unfortunate. i'm glad congress is investigating that awful day and everything that led up to that awful day, but congress doesn't have the authority to prosecute anyone for anything ever, and so if criminal cases are going to be made, it has to be done by the department of justice and i hope they're engaged. >> i certainly hope they're engaged as well. chuck rosenberg, garrett haake, thank you for joining. i appreciate it. we are going to turn to the other big story on capitol hill, christmas, two days away and president biden's, one of his key priorities, stuck in limbo after senator joe manchin said no to build back better over the weekend, senate democrats wanted the hard infrastructure and human infrastructure. as we head toward a midterm year, what happens next could define the president's legacy. let's bring back sahil kapur and eugene daniels. sahil, biden's legacy doesn't have to be solely riding on this bill. getting hard infrastructure bill passed was huge. getting us through covid massive. >> stephanie, it's certainly true that the white house argues the president deserves more credit for covid vaccinations in the economic recovery but the truth is five years, ten years, 15 years down the road president biden will be remembered in living rooms and kitchen tables for whether he delivers on his larger promise of making life more affordable for middle class americans who are struggling and falling behind. that was the larger promise of his campaign. the one shot to deliver that, one shot to bypass the filibuster and get something done on a major economic priority, before the midterm elections, where his party is more likely than not to lose at least one chamber of commerce. a man spent nearly half a century in public office, how much of his legacy comes down to this moment, whether he can salvage his signature domestic priority, by the way, named after his campaign slogan, how encompassing it is in terms of his promise to americans. >> then right now is joe manchin more powerful than joe biden, eugene? >> in congress that's for sure. one of the things the white house has been trying to push against, right, the question of "who is president" that has happened over and over, is it one joe or the other? a lot of the things, issues that this administration is dealing with are things that are somewhat out of their control, right? congress has to do something, they can pressure congress. he has a meeting talking to joe manchin especially after what we've seen recently but this is about congress getting together and figuring that out. he is going to have to push, president biden has to push his members of congress to do that. he's the leader of this party and working on that. they say he's constantly in contact. i think holidays as for all of success a time to reset and reassess and try to figure out the ways they can do that. what's happening, going to happen now, you have progressives rumbling whatever joe manchin agrees to at some point if he is to agree to something, build back better or called something else on the social safety net bill, they are going to have to take what he gives them. he already said no to what was passed in the house and they don't have room to lose progressives on this one. they're not going to have room to do that. republicans are not going to jump on board and vote for a social spending bill. that's not going to happen. so now the white house is going to have to make sure that they can figure out what joe manchin wants because everyone still is confused about that, even months and months in, and also hold progressives together, to basically just realize that there's a reality to what's happening in washington, d.c., despite the progressives want them to push and be stronger and really hold to the promise of big substantive change. >> i want to share what biden said specifically about build back better yesterday. >> just indicated they might have to raise interest rates up to three times in the coming year just to slow things down. that sounds like americans should be prepared for potentially more pain before this gets better. >> if we don't pass build back better i think you're right. >> sahil, is that biden's message to joe manchin, life's going to get harder for the middle class, for the economically vulnerable if we don't do this, so you better get on board? >> that's been a large part of it for months, the white house sought to rebrand build back better as counter inflationary measure. they argue this is a cost cutter, the child care provisions, the child tax credit that will help ordinary americans who are suffering increase in prices so that's a big part of it and yes, of course, this legacy question for president biden comes down to the deciding vote of a man from west virginia, joe manchin, a state that president biden lost by nearly 40 points in the 2020 election. it's a crucial question of his washington know-how, a man who has been in the town for decades, ran on his ability to get in a room with people and get things done and by the way, i didn't mention climate change this this is a defying moment, inflection point in the eyes of advocates, the last best chance the united states has to mitigate the most catastrophic effects of climate change. the build back better act passed by the house has half a trillion dollars to do that. he's probably not to get another chance to do this. president biden whether he becomes the first president, the only one in american histotroy make a huge meaningful dent in climate change or whether he follows in the footsteps of other presidents who didn't try or weren't able to. >> eugene, i want to share a point that the republican board put out criticizing democrats, you need to stop being all or nothing or they write "the bill's authors refused to prioritize programs for funding now. democrats only hope is to pickle bills' most important elements and fund them permanently and reject the rest." is that another way of looking at this? democrats need to prioritize if they don't, they will end up with nothing? >> that's what joe manchin is saying. he's saying that he doesn't want a bill that has a bunch of different things that sunset in different time periods over ten years. he wants to fund it all at one point now and make sure that people can't go and take it back. i think that is basically where we're at. if the person who holds most of the cards in congress is saying hey guys, i don't want to do it the way you want to, you're going to have to take yes for an answer, it's not the yes you want and definitely not how democrats have been talking during the campaign of 2020 and earlier this year. they talked about changing so much, having working to make sure this is a different country, better for middle class americans, and they are also realizing that some of that stuff is going to be really difficult. a lot of the stuff, if it is to pass the things that madgeon agreed to, if that is to pass it would make a big difference in a lot of people's lives. it's not they'll not make changes. it's how much they're going to be able to do and they also know and why they feel so much urgency now that like sahil said, in november, we're likely to see one of those chambers change hands so they know this is one of the last chances they'll get for years to make a lot of these changes. >> if they make changes that only last one year, a year from now, when that chamber changes hands, it will be one and done. eugene, sahil, thank you so much for joining. i appreciate it. coming up, this is 2021, a congresswoman carjacked in broad daylight. what we know this morning. we told you about 100 billion bucks in covid relief money stolen, it turns out the number is most likely a whole lot higher. don't go anywhere. we're digging in. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ it's the most joyous time of year. especially at t-mobile! let's go to dianne. i got the awesome new iphone 13 pro and airpods, and t-mobile is paying for them both! and this is for new and existing customers. upgrade to the iphone 13 pro and airpods both on us. only at t-mobile. i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets to balance risk and reward. with one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. agile and liquid. a proven protector. an ever-evolving enabler of bold decisions. an asset more relevant than ever before. gold. your strategic advantage. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. now to some terrifying moments for a member of congress. philadelphia police say pennsylvania democratic congresswoman mary gay scanlon was carjacked in broad daylight. she was unharmed but her federally issued phone and i.d. were in the vehicle. delaware state police say her car was found a few hours later at a shopping center in newark, delaware. five people inside the car were taken into custody. joining us from philadelphia, randy gyllenhaal, reporter for our philadelphia station. what are we learning what happened, in broad daylight? what does this is a about crime in philly right now? >> reporter: yes, thankfully she was not injured but she was held up at gunpoint. the middle of the day in south philadelphia, the congresswoman represents that part of the city. she was actually in fdr park for an event with other members of congress but as she was walking back to her car, that's when she became the city's latest carjacking victim. police say two men approached her, pointed a gun, demanded her belongings, including that government-issued cell phone and took off in her acura mdx. later that night, delaware state police pulled over a similar car, five people inside, and took that car into impound. the five people were arrested and are now suspects in this carjacking. however, in the city of philadelphia, we are seeing a number of carjackings increasing dramatically. most victims do not get the assistance of the fbi, who is helping on this case. often these cars are ditched after a joy ride or sometimes sold as used car prices are approaching all-time highs. those five suspects now, four men, one woman, in custody across state lines in delaware, as this investigation is moving forward. the congressman mary gay scanlon is saying she's okay and thanking police for tracking down her car. >> how strange is this to happen in philly? we hear this, i can't believe it. how common is it? >> reporter: well, usually not very common, but in the last two years, since before the pandemic, carjackings up some 50% in the city of philadelphia, and we've had some disturbing cases in just the past few weeks. a young mother with her daughter in the back seat had her car stolen, that led to an amber alert because the daughter was still inside, and then recently a temple university senior, sam collington was shot and killed curing a botched carjacking feet from campus. other crimes spiking in the last year, record numbers of homicides, approaching 550 killings in philadelphia this year. that is an all-time high. other big cities across the country are seeing similar trends, chicago, san francisco, also seeing the surge of carjackings as police and law enforcement working to get a handle on it. it is terrifying for the people driving around, delivery drivers, uber eats drivers who drive their cars off and leave them running. we are seeing carjackings at cities all over seeing the trend as well. stephanie? >> disturbing reporting. thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. now we turn to an update on a story we brought you yesterday. the secret service was estimating that thieves had stolen about $100 billion from government covid relief programs. but now we're learning that figure may be way too low. the real number is likely to be closer to $400 billion. let's bring in my colleague ken dilanian. ken, i can't get nigh head around a number that big. >> this is a straf gee. straf gee, the biggest fraud in history. i've talked to the secret service at length. that's a low ball estimate. lexus nexus and i.d. me which have contracts with the states say fraud and unemployment programs alone is between $200 and $400 billion on top of the loan programs, the disaster relief fund and the ppp which could be another $160 billion. all together as much money as the new spending in the biden infrastructure bill. it's an epic fraud and in the case of unemployment, you might say well at least the money may have been stolen but circulating in the american economy? in the case of unemployment fraud, steph -- >> no one says that. it's okay that it was stolen because it went back in the economy, that's garbage. that's garbage to every person who is out there working their butts off. >> okay, but fair enough but my point is if an american stole it, it's being spent on goods and services here but it's even worse than that, because half of the unemployment money that was stolen went to overseas criminals. nigerian fraud gangs, chinese hackers, russian organized crime, anybody who could obtain stolen personal identifying information, which is rampant on the dark web, all they need is social security number, date of birth, could you get a debit card for up to $30,000 and the criminals did that on a massive scale, one of the most undercovered stories in america. >> not anymore. >> that money is gone. >> we'll keep covering it. >> you keep covering it. >> you are right, it is worse than we expected. what is the government saying about this? let's be really clear. we all saw this coming when the government was giving an enormous amount of support, which we needed, we said there needs to be a massive amount of oversight. what are they saying about it? >> they're saying as little as possible because it's really embarrassing. >> um-hum. >> these programs were designed under the trump administration but the biden administration inherited all this and didn't really fix it and in part it's unfixable because the states, for example, run the unemployment programs and they use this 1980s computer technology they didn't take basic steps to verify that people getting the money were who they said they were. it's a big problem but it's fair to wonder why the biden administration didn't do more to fix it when they took office. >> it doesn't have to be embarrassing. it could be a massive problem they solved and i certainly hope they will. we'll keep covering it. ken dilanian, thank you so much. such an upsetting story. when we come back the lines for covid tests only getting longer, putting pressure on the administration to get out those promised at-home tests, but the manufacturers, they can't make them fast enough. plus we are on verdict watch in the kim potter trial. we have the latest from the courthouse. age before beauty? 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and the last signal we got from the court came at the beginning of this trial, before a jury was impanelled. the judge said it was her full intentions to break for christmas eve so starting tomorrow and have the court return on monday. the problem is, this is a jury that has been sequestered. for much of this week they have not been with their family, they have not been with their friends. the judge making that motion to sequester them, making that order to sequester this jury back in august. they would have to break that sequester and then allow them to go back with their families and that's where we get into the open question of what will really happen? as we know it now, we haven't heard from the jury in well over a day and a half and we're just waiting. >> we are just waiting and you, my friend, are still out there in the cold, head inside and keep us up as if there are any developments. third graders taught to re-enact the holocaust. the absolutely outrageous assignment as anti semitic incidents are surging across the country. how and why in the world did this happen? anti-semitism in the united states has jumped 12% in the last year. the most since the tracking began. just this week in washington a school staff member had third grade children reenact the holocaust including digging mass graves for their classmates and pretending to shoot one another. meanwhile, former president trump took a not so subtle dig at jewish americans to em ply they control congress and the media. separately as covid cases jump, anti-vaxers are doing something more sinister and dangerous. some are protesting vaccine mandates by wearing these yellow stars to invoke the holocaust. the nazis used them to mark and segregate the jewish people with the hopes of deporting them to concentration camps. joining me is the ceo and national director of the anti-defamation league and author of the upcoming league, it could happen here. why america is tipping from hate to the unthinkable. and how we can stop it. jonathan, let's focus on how we can stop it. mandates have nothing to do with the holocaust. can you explain to us why wearing these yellow stars is so vile and dangerous? >> well, thank you for the question, for having me. indeed, i think we're living in an era where we're not just seeing holocaust denialism but distortionism. as this legacy of memory is weaponized to serve different groups political ends, and we risk diminishing our understanding of history and repeating it when we trivialize it this way. asking someone to wear a mask in the midst of a public health epidemic has no anl si whatsoever to systematic slaughter of 6 million jews and millions of other people, and it has no bearing whatsoever when they ask you to get a vaccine. compared to experiments against prisoners of war in concentration camps. the comparisons are revolting, and they remind us why we need to learn about history again so we don't repeat it in. >> we do need to learn about history, but let's go to the classroom. while it's important for our children to understand about the holocaust, on what planet would it be normal to reenact it? >> yeah. i mean, these allegations about this school administrator making eight and nine-year-olds play act shooting jews and dumping them into a ditch or someone as if they were -- making a jewish third grader pretend to be 'doll of hitler, i mean, it's sick and twisted. and it's illustrative of the ugliness that happens when you normalize anti-semitism, and people think it's routine to instrumentalize suffering for some bizarre and i couldn't explain to you this morning. >> what's your level of worry? anti-semitism is more coded than other forms of hatred, but just as dangerous. >> oh, it certainly is. and it's often called the canary in the coal mine. whether you're on the extreme right like the proud boy today pleading out, make no mistake, january 6th was a rehearsal for one they hope will work. and they were rampaging through the capitol wearing camp auschwitz sweatshirts or people on the radical left who claims israel is perpetrating genocide. all of this worries me. because it affects our ability to not only remember the past again, but to learn from its mistakes and if we hope to stop the unthinkable from happening here, all of us regardless of how you vote, it's about what you value, stephanie. and if you value decency and humanism and tolerance, basic things like that, you've got to say no to all this hate. >> what does it tell you about the dark underbell he of this country? when i think about the members of congress, people in society who are kind of putting january 6th behind us saying oh, you know, things got out of hand. they were -- you know, they were just protesters. people were wearing camp auschwitz sweatshirts. >> that's right. >> and you have members of congress saying it's fine. what does that tell you? >> i mean, it's -- deeply disturbing when, kwen, elected members of the u.s. congress try to pretend that it didn't happen. we all saw it happen. with our own eyes. and, in fact, at adl, as we talked about on the show before, we're the oldest anti-hate group in the world. this was the most predictable terrorist attack in american history. they told us they were going to do it. i don't care if you're a republican or a democrat, but if you ignore what's in front of you, if you were willing to subvert the will of the people, don't be surprised when extremists and intolerance move from the margins to the mainstream. and it's unconscionable that people at the highest levels of gop want to pretend like it didn't happen. it did, and we've got to remember it. and we've got to say no to something like that ever happening again. >> forget politics. we need a return of humanity and decency. thank you for joining me. i appreciate it. >> thanks. coming up, my hero of the holiday season. this sixth grader who saved not one but two lives in one day. how did he do it? 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