nearly 800 flights tomorrow already canceled too. from the air to the ocean omicron is also impacting holiday cruises. the carnival ship is denied entry into aruba due to covid cases. it's the third cruise liner from florida reporting cases on board. florida itself reporting near 32,000 new cases friday breaking a single day record in the united states. so far this month, 3.4 million americans have contracted covid, so the states you see right here on this map in red or orange have seen a rise in cases over the past 72 hours. that's if you're lucky enough to find a test. as you can see here, americans have been waiting in hours' long lines to find out if they have covid before heading to see family for the holiday. that lack of available testing is being addressed by the white house. >> well, what the president's promised the american people, is to constantly re-examine and improve our covid response, including testing. and testing access, and always look for a way to do better and the announcement today is an effort to do exactly that. we have taken a number of steps over the past several months and his view is we need to do more, and we need to do it more as ambitiously and aggressively as possible. >> with the latest reporting on today's developments, liz mclaughlin is in north carolina and josh lederman is in the white house. the uptake in omicron looks to be sending a chill through the christmas holiday. what's the latest? >> reporter: absolutely. a harrowing holiday for thousands of would be travellers, many still stranded and airlines say the omicron variant is to blame. airline workers being exposed to covid-19 causing a lot of these cancellations. we saw from flight aware on christmas eve more than 2,300 cancellations globally, nearly 700 into or out of the u.s., and then today 2,500 cancellations and that number is climbing, nearly 900 of those are into or out of the u.s. and thousands of delays as well. we're really seeing a backup on the travel there that this is causing. if you were going somewhere this weekend by plane and made it, consider yourself lucky. the omicron variant is now causing the majority of new covid cases here in the u.s. and a spike in demand to get covid tests. we're here at a testing site in charlotte, north carolina, and the line is very long. cars started showing up before sunrise this morning, and the site didn't even open until 11:00 a.m. now the lines are just winding through the parking lot, all the way up to the road as far as the eye can see, and we spoke to some people in line about why they're here, some saying they have to work tomorrow and need a test before tomorrow. some took a pcr test earlier this week waiting hours, mind you to get that. still haven't gotten the results and need a rapid test. some are trying to get on a plane tomorrow. we spoke to one man who's been trying to get ahold of the test all week and said it has not been easy. let's listen. >> it's been rough. it's been rough. that's why i'm here. i couldn't find that test, you know, at the pharmacy trying to get tested there, you know, it's by appointment only so those are booked up. you know, the last time walgreen's booked up until the 28th. so you know, it was just imperative that i get in here, and you know, get this test. >> experts say rapid tests are especially important for this fast spreading variant because people can know quickly and know to isolate sooner before they're spreading it, especially during this holiday season. this is one of those at home tests that has been really hard to get ahold of. i went to ten pharmacies in the area, all completely sold out, empty shelves online. delayed deliveries. i had to borrow this from a friend to show off this morning. most of these tests come in two packs. if you were able to get your hands on one, and maybe you took a test yesterday, experts say you should test right before that holiday gathering. if you're going to see grandma tonight within a half hour, take the test. it might show up differently than it did yesterday or the day before. they are most effective when taken a couple of days apart. lindsey. >> wow, a line around the block on christmas day. liz mclaughlin, thank you. >> it's been a dialed back christmas at the white house as the bidens celebrate their first christmas. covid is putting a dampener on the usual oval office festivities. joe biden and vice president kamala harris have once again tested negative after being in contact with people who had contracted the virus. nbc's josh lederman is at the white house. what can you tell us about how the president and first lady are spending the day. >> typically this would be the time when the white house would be throwing a series of holiday parties here at the white house. the bidens have a long-standing family tradition of going to the virgin islands for christmas. none of that is happening because of omicron. the parties for the most part are canceled, and the bidens are staying right here at the white house for christmas, although, we do expect that they will be going to delaware for some point in time between now and new year's. we saw the president and the first lady yesterday when they paid a surprise visit to national children's hospital just about two miles from here. they were able to spend time with some of the children who are in the hospital for the holidays. and then later in the evening the president and the first lady also taking calls from the norad track santa program, which was a lot of fun to see yesterday. so far it's been a quiet day here at the white house. we don't have any word of what the president is doing other than that he's with his family. there's also a tradition for presidents on christmas day to place phone calls to u.s. service members who are serving in the military around the world away from their family on the holidays. so we'll look to see whether or not president biden will continue that tradition this afternoon at the white house. >> and josh, we heard news yesterday that the white house has lifted travel restrictions on eight african nations which had been implemented to stop the spread of omicron. what more do we know about that? >> those restrictions will go away at 12:01 a.m. on december 31st, now the white house is saying this was a decision made based on the science because, first of all, we now know that the vaccines we have are effective at preventing serious illness from omicron, particularly for those who are boosted, and second of all, officials telling us that according to the cdc these travel balance really are more effective at the early stages of a variant. now that omicron is spreading rampantly in the united states, there's not really as much utility in actually trying to limit it by preventing people from coming into the country. but those coming in from those eight countries in southern africa, lindsey, will still have to get a negative covid test within one day of travel to the united states. >> josh lederman at the white house for us, thank you. >> as the current seven-day average of new covid cases in this country sits above 120,000, there certain ly is a lot to discuss. joining me right now, dr. ebony hilton, an msnbc medical contributor and dr. peter hotez, codirector for the center for vaccine development and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. hello to you both. dr. hotez, we're learning a lot each day about this new variant. we have some data on its transmissibility and severity. knowing what we know right now, what gives you caution, and what gives you some hope? >> well, i'm looking very closely, lindsey at new york city and washington, d.c.. those are where we're really seeing the first big surge of omicron, the omicron variant, and it's a little distressing, the numbers are really going up in terms of cases on a vertical slope like i haven't seen before through this pandemic, but now the hospitalizations are creeping up. we've got now a 50% increase in hospitalizations in new york city over the last 14 days. we have, i think it's about a 65% increase in hospitalization in washington, d.c., over the last 14 days, and so you know, the narrative out there is that omicron is much less severe than previous lineages. i would say, you know, maybe part of that is true, but it's still pretty -- it's still a bad actor, and we're still seeing a big uptick in hospitalizations, and we have the story of the fact that so many health care workers are now calling out sick because of breakthrough covid. so that's a very dangerous combination. hospitalizations, icu admissions, hospital care workers out of commission sick at home with covid, and the last part is we're starting to see a lot of kids hospitalized also. i'm watching all those three trends right now. >> all right, dr. hilton, i want to ask you about testing. we've all seen those really long lines at testing stations. rapid tests, which i know you've got one handy. they're nearly impossible to come by. of course some will start heading out across the country because of the federal government. do people need to test after their holiday travels too and do you fear the images of these lines and the experiences people have had pre-christmas will prevent people from doing that? >> right, they most certainly do need to test after their gathering. what concerns me the most is we do see images of places in florida, texas, and new york city, right? we know those are highly populated areas, but if you look at per capita, although florida has had an increase of 860% in their cases over the past two weeks, georgia has had less of an increase in overall number of cases. if you look per capita, they actually have two times per capita hospitalization and three times per capita for their deaths and that's what's happening in small america. small america is oftentimes left out of the conversation where access is a problem. florida versus georgia has 100 more hospitals than georgia. if we're look the at the state of south carolina where i am right now, literally half of our counties, of the 46 counties in south carolina, you're not having hospital that has over 100 beds and eight of those counties don't have a single hospital at all. that's the difference when you look at new york city that has 60 plus hospitals in that one city. we have a problem in small america, and we need to start talking about how we're going to support those areas that unfortunately are led by gop, you know, governors that are rolling back mandates. they're rolling back mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and it's putting our people at risk of not only death, not only hospitalization that can cripple them financially but also of long covid of which we see out of the university of pennsylvania that 50% of all persons who have been infected, they expect to develop long covid symptoms literally six months. we had 52 million americans infected at this point, we have a big problem. >> some of those people with long covid had muld symptoms to begin with. dr. hotez, south africa is seeing a drop in covid cases. omicron appears to be going down as quickly as it went up. so can we extrapolate anything from that? can we anticipate we'll see the same pattern here in the u.s.? >> i know a lot of people want to do that, and we are also seeing a decline in the uk. here's the unknown piece. there's no question that it's going up pretty quickly, it will start to go down, but we have seen waves before that people look at this in the uk and south africa, hey, it's starting to go down, and then it gets stuck. it gets stuck and plateaus about halfway. that continues on for many, many weeks. that's going to be the big question whether it comes down as quickly as it goes up. that would be the best case scenario because then, you know, as it comes down, the kids will be ready go back to classes, k through 12 and colleges. that would be the best case scenario. we cannot count on it. there's still a possibility that it goes down a third of the way down, halfway down, and then it lingers, it plateaus for a period of weeks or months. >> dr. hilton obviously today is an important day for a lot of people. they might be gathering with loved ones in the next few hours. what's your advice to everybody to stay safe today? >> my advice for everyone is to do what we were doing back in march, april of last year to mitigate the spread. that means wearing these masks. i know they are frustrating to wear. n95 masks are going to be key to prevent you from infecting your loved ones. what we're going to also do as cold as it may be, improving ventilation may mean opening a window or opening a door and having people bundle up in their clothing. if you gather a large amount of people in a small room, you can almost think of it as cigarette smoke. if someone is smoking in a room, even if they're in a far corner of that room, you can still smell it. the same thing with covid-19, even if they're in a different room of the house, covid can spread throughout your home. that's the way you have to approach this and particularly when we're thinking about the little children who are not vaccinated. we have 51 million kids under the age of 18 who have not been vaccinated. and unfortunately they are starting to fill up our hospitals. so remain hyper vigilant, do what's best for them so we can get to see 2022 together. >> dr. hotez, i have about a minute left with you guys, what are your predictions for the next few weeks? >> i think next few weeks are going to be a terrible strain on our health care system for that one-two punch in the rise in hospitalizations for so many health care providers put out a commission, not seriously ill but unable to go back to the work force. i know there's an effort to try to shorten the time that they're home because of some new guidelines from the cdc. i'm not confident that's going to be adequate. i think it's going to be a very rough few weeks. >> all right, dr. peter hotez, and dr. ebony hilton, thank you both for spending part of your day with us. we appreciate it. there are new developments even today on the january 6th investigation, and this one involves what could be the most interesting aspect yet. it's about the impromptu video message the former president sent to his followers that day. you're going to want to hear why that might be critical. o nt to y that might be critical superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. ♪ ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ ♪ downy's been taking you back, since way back. with freshness and softness you never forget. feel the difference with downy. where's mom? 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(cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 welcome back. we're following new developments on capitol hill. democrats are headed for a showdown over voting rights, and a new lawsuit just filed seeks to block records from the house select committee investigating the january 6th capital riot. nbc's julie tsirkin joins us now from the hill. yet another lawsuit, this one from donald trump's current spokesman. >> reporter: yeah, lindsey, we examined this lawsuit filed overnight by taylor budavich, he's suing from obtaining his financial records, from the panel obtaining those records from his bank. he states he already turned over 1,700 pages of documents. he testified for four hours before the committee this week, and he said that the committee doesn't have a right to see those financial records, that they're not needed. they're not necessary for the committee's investigation. the committee originally subpoenaed him at the end of november saying that he was involved in the planning of the stop the steal rally saying that he blasted out the advertisements for the rally soliciting attendance for the rally, and on his part he tweeted a statement saying that democracy is under attack, not from the rioters but instead, quote, by a committee whose members walk freely in its halls every day. >> more democrats are focused on a potential showdown over a filibuster carveout. >> i learned this week the congressional black caucus held a call on voting rights even as congress is out of town and senators warnock and booker joining that call keeping the pressure ramped up on democratic leadership to put voting rights legislation on the floor when they return. earlier this week, majority leader schumer sat on a call with senate democrats, he does intend to vote on a rules change to allow just democrats to pass voting rights legislation without needing republican votes. we know that senators manchin and kyrsten sinema oppose doing anything on a party line basis. they want to continue working with republicans even as they head into the midterm elections and democrats are trying to listen to activists and people who want them to address voting rights and election reforms, particularly as republican-led states are working on changing the rules in those states and democrats say making it harder for democrats to vote. at the same time like i mentioned, even though senator manchin coauthored freedom to vote act, he did say he wants to make sure that is a kept in a bipartisan way. but it's hard to imagine ten republicans vote for it. >> thanks so much. let's bring in jacqueline al may may from "the washington post," a congressional correspondent and writes the early 202 news letter and apparently works every day. as pressure mounts from all sides on this, what's your sense of the appetite for a filibuster carveout? we were just talking about that with julie. how difficult will it be for president biden to persuade people on the fence, namely senators manchin and sinema. >> i think it was significant when president biden came out telling abc news he supported making an exception of voting rights for the filibuster. overall, the dynamics still remain the same, which is that joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are not in favor of that while the rest of the democratic caucus is getting impatient and frustrated with the inaction. we know that people like senators jeff merkley, all sort of running these concurrent parallel efforts to try to educate sinema and manchin on ways to move forward, make tiny rules changes, or provide these carveouts or do like they did with the debt limit that was in our conversation previously, which required less than the 60 vote threshold than is usually required, but manchin and cinema have held out on making these changes. i think that biden will continue to ramp up pressure going into the new year, whether or not that shifts joe manchin, which we have not seen to work previously is still the wild card. >> and you and your colleagues broke this story, the january 6th committee focused on former president trump's hours of silence during the attack, even weighing potential criminal referrals. what do we know about why it took so long before trump reacted publicly during the insurrection, and why is that delay itself so critical to the investigation? >> yeah, well, we still publicly don't know all that much about what president trump was up to in those 187 minutes, but mark meadows was sort of the first witness that i think provided a little more insight into that time period, and basically the committee after months of collecting and sifting through 35,000 pages of documents, which is what we've been told by the committee, they have narrowed their focus and they have started the discussion on criminal referrals and whether or not trump's action or inaction might amount to a criminal referral. other criminal referrals are also being discussed and weighed right now like potentially referring charges against people who knowingly fund-raise on the basis of false election fraud. that would be wire fraud potentially, and some of the state and local pressure campaigns being put on legislatures to overturn the results of the election. but 2022 marks a turning point for this committee. they are going to start working towards putting together these public hearings and hopefully by the end of the year, they'll have a final product they'll be releasing in the form of a report before november midterms. >> one of the most interesting parts about this report is these multiple takes of this video. what does your reporting sergeant about those multiple takes? any hint of anyone who helped him with the video? >> so we were told by chairman thompson earlier this week, my colleagues tom hamburger and i that the committee is very interested in these multiple outtakes of a tape that trump finally released but that in interviews with witnesses, the committee has learned that there are outtakes. they exist and it would give additional insight into president trump's demeanor and thought process and the way he was reacting to the violence as it was underway. these previous outtakes were not released because they were not acceptable to put out there. they weren't what his staff wanted him to be saying, they weren't the appropriate message, which thompson described to us, again, based off of these interviews with witnesses and also off of media reports. there is a hope that these are going to be scraped up in the request from the national archives. that litigation is obviously still underway. they're hoping to get those as quickly as possible. >> and you wrote the committee is also trying to get texts and other communications between trump's white house officials and sitting congressman scott perry of pennsylvania related to overturning the 2020 election. and you also report about phil waldron who has until january 10th to provide the committee with documents related to that powerpoint presentation he gave to members of congress outlining proposals to overturn the election. so what is the committee hoping to learn or expecting to learn from these documents? >> right, there is certainly a cast of characters that the committee is looking at. some better known than others and some who are currently sitting members of congress. scott perry is emerging as one of the leading conduits to the house gop in terms of the efforts to overturn the results of the election. and the committee and chairman thompson told tom and i this week they would not be reticent to have to issue subpoenas even though it was a potentially historic action if that meant getting the information required. perry and jim jordan another lawmaker who told us earlier this year he spoke with president trump on january 6th have both intimated that they will not be cooperating with the committee. so we'll see if those next steps require subpoenas. but phil waldron like scott perry is also someone who was involved with these legal efforts surrounding the white house, working with outside lawyers at the willard hotel and with others in order to implement various expertise theories and fringe ideas to overturn the results of the election. so he's also someone that the committee wants to get in touch with to find out more about what those discussions with the white house were like. >> all right, interesting, jacqueline al alemany good to talk to you. if you think the omicron headlines, there's a look at what some places are doing that might leave you shaking your head. t might leave you shaking your head (burke) this is why you want farmers claim forgiveness... 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[echoing] get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ [music: "i swear"] jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ now to the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic. the current seven-day average of new daily cases in the u.s. is above 120,000 with an average of about 1,180 deaths per day. and just into our newsroom, the u.s. has surpassed 52 million cases as of this morning since the start of the pandemic. getting covid tests for holiday travel has been a major hurdle in recent days. to help make this process more efficient and accessible, the white house is planning to distribute 500 million at home test kits and is creating a government run website to help people order the kits for free. as the fast spreading omicron variant contributes to new cases, we do have more insight about where the pandemic may be heading. here was dr. peter hotez with me earlier. >> the narrative out there is that omicron is much less severe than previous lineages. i would say, you know, maybe part of that is true. it's still pretty -- it's still a bad actor, and we're still seeing a big uptick in hospitalizations, and we have the story of the fact that so many health care workers are now calling out sick because of breakthrough covid. that's a very dangerous combination. >> and across europe, millions are preparing to celebrate another christmas under lockdown. it's all in an effort to slow an onslaught of omicron cases. countries like italy, ireland, and austria reimposing covid restrictions including restaurant closures, mask mandates, even lockdowns. nbc's molly hunter is tracking it all from london. how are folks reacting to the latest restrictions? >> hey, lindsey, gosh, there is a lot of frustration that christmas 2021 is looking really a lot like christmas 2020 with inside with your immediate family not being able to go outside and kind of enjoy christmas parties like everyone had hoped to. to give you a quick whip around what's happening in europe, you mentioned a couple of these countries. italy has banned new year's celebrations, bars, nightclubs will be shut down in the next couple of days. they will limit outdoor gatherings to ten people, and in the netherlands full strict lockdowns starting on monday. here in the uk it's going to be very interesting when and what those restrictions here will be. >> and talking about that, there's a new study from the uk revealing some promising data about the risks posed by omicron in relation to delta including that omicron is 70% less likely than delta to cause hospitalizations. so is that giving officials in the uk hope they won't have to implement some of these dire restrictions? >> really promising data, but as you just heard from peter hotez, yes, it is like ly -- it is less likely that omicron will land you in the emergency room. it's also very likely that health care workers will contract omicron, have to isolate. that leads to short staffing, and that means it's going to take fewer cases to overwhelm the hospitals here. a third of health care workers will be out by new year's eve. that's dangerous, that's scary. that's why the government is thinking about reimposing restrictions as early as monday. >> wow, some really stark numbers. thank you so much. the 30 rock christmas tree, the january 6th committee, an obnoxious and offensive remark at a white house event and the hope for civility in the new year. we're going to try and tie all those things together somehow. next. gs together somehow. next why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. 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[woof] i'm telling y'all there's no place like wayfair to make your home totally you. ooh! i want that. 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 ♪ back on this christmas day with a live look at the rockefeller center tree in new york right outside our doors here. it's an american tradition, wrapping up a year that's sadly ending as it started with growing threats to american democracy. the january 6th committee is ramping up its information of the riot as we approach one year since it happened. which brings us to a highly anticipated book out next month titled "how civil wars start and how to stop them." joining me now adrian and shermichael singleton. adrienne, the reason we bring this up is it's a day for peace on earth, goodwill towards all. at white house christmas event for kids yesterday one of the adults used a right wing slur to president biden. without giving that too much oxygen, what was your big picture reaction? >> oh, you know, i think just like joe biden sort of took it in stride. that's sort of how i think a lot of us took this. it's ridiculous, it's silly that somebody would stoop to that level, especially as you point out during a time of goodwill and joy. joy to all where we shouldn't allow partisan politics or petty, you know, discussions to drive the conversation, so i think it was a low moment for this person who decided to make that comment, but i think president biden sort of brushed it off and dr. biden rolled her eyes, and they moved on, and that's how we should all look at it too. >> shermichael, it seems the extremists and particularly those who charged the capitol january 6th are some of the loudest voices, if not the loudest voices in the republican party. and yet the less extreme voices don't try to silence these extremes. is that a recipe that's just bound to further incivility right now? >> yeah, i mean, i think so -- i think part of the calculation is that you don't want to isolate these people. you may indeed need their votes in 2022. i get the political dynamics there, but i think the root of the question that you ask should we maintain and have the expectation for elected officials to say whether we need their votes or not, we have to demand and tell these people that this type of action that you see, the rhetoric that you see is not healthy. with will not tolerate it in the party, and we certainly can't toerate it in the country. it did put our democracy and institutions of our democrats and institutions at risk ask at jeopardy. i don't think you're going to do that felt politicians typically are concerned about self-preservation. right now i think a lot of republicans are thinking about and eyeing, regaining the house. they're looking at 2024. unfortunately, do believe that the politics will trump the moral and ethical expectation that we expect and demand out of our political leaders regardless of their political parties. >> adrienne, every time we want to run january 6th video, we're also going to put up a live picture of the 30 rock tree. not in denial of the day. can the committee that's investigating january 6th get some real answers that won't just bring light into what led to what happened but also do so without the appearance that it's partisan? >> yeah, i think so, lindsey. this committee regardless of the lack of republicans who are on the committee, there are two republicans, of course, on the committee. there were -- the republicans had more options to be on the committee if they wanted to, but they chose not to. they have subpoena power, you know, they are looking into every nook and cranny to try to get to the bottom of what actually happened. there are still so many unanswered questions, lindsey. i mean, it's crazy we're almost a year away from the insurrection, and you know, in a congress that was a little less partisan, a little probably less fractured, i think we'd have a lot more answers by now. every single member of congress just like a majority of the american people should want to understand what happened that day and get to the bottom of it. their lives were at risk. their lives were in jeopardy. i think we're going to have answers. i'm glad that jim jordan has been subpoenaed. i think the american people need to understand just like we saw with the benghazi hearings what is actually going on. there needs to be a little bit more openness about the process and, you know, disclosure to the american people so they can really understand what's going on. the bottom line is i think we're going to get some answers. i know it's a huge priority of all the members on that committee. certainly a priority of speaker pelosi and leader schumer. i hope we will have more answers by january 6th and certainly after that as well. >> i don't think jim jordan's been subpoenaed yet. i think the committee has requested his testimony, but subpoena is certainly something that could be on the table. shermichael same question to you. can the january 6th committee deliver answers to those important and necessary questions and at the same time somehow unify the country with whatever it concludes? >> yeah, no, i don't think so. i think we are beyond the pale on that. the country is divided, most republicans, close to 90% from some polling i was reviewing before this hit do not trust the committee. they think it's a partisan attack against trump, a partisan attack against republicans generally speaking. i think for the most part this is going to continue to be a partisan effort at least reviewed through the lens of many republican elected officials. i also wonder if they're going to be able to bring any insurmountable amount of evidence from someone big like a trump or steve bannon or someone else before midterms of november of next year. if you look at the top issues that most voters are concerned about, this isn't even on there. if democrats wanted to make this a political issue, maybe televise it a little bit more, maybe talking about it more may help but i'm not exactly sure what they expect to get out of this. i think you should look into it. we have to figure out a way to make sure this doesn't occur again. i just don't know if there's an appetite from many voters, at least looking at many surveys that are currently available. >> a new piece of the "new york times" about the vice president titled heir apparent or afterthought, the frustrations of kamala harris, talks about her struggles so far, faced with declining approval ratings, a series of staff departure, and a drum beat of criticism from republicans in the conservative news media. she has turned to powerful confidants including hillary clinton to plot a path forward. she has privately told allies that the news coverage of her would be different if she was any of her 48 predecessors who she has described of all white and male. it feels like the vice president is being unfairly attacked without a lot of recourse. what do you make of those criticisms? >> yeah, she's exactly right. i like to see that her staff is hitting back more aggressively on some of these attacks which frankly are sexist. she's a first in many ways. she's the first female vice president. the first woman of color or person of color vice president. there's a lot of firsts there. with a lot of firsts comes a lot of attacks. some of them are, you know, more or less veiled than other attacks. i'm glad that her staff is pushing back. vice president harris is an extremely accomplished, experienced vice president. she has a lot of responsibility on her plate. she's doing a lot of work behind the scenes that's not always making the headlines. i'm glad that they're pushing back a little bit more aggressively. and look, the first year is always tough for any administration and certainly this administration has had a lot of challenges to tackle, but i think her approval ratings, the president's approval ratings are only going to go up from here, especially as we see the implementation, the infrastructure bill take place and of course once we pass the build back better act we're going to see those approval ratings go up. >> adrienne elrod, shermichael singleton, good to talk to you. it's a fight over whether to block 700 pages of documents from the trump administration, what to know as the former president's last ditch effort has reached the nation's highest court. d the nation's highest court. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. ♪♪ this flag isn't backwards. it's facing this way because it's moving forward. ♪♪ just like the men and women who wear it on their uniforms and the country it represents. they're all only meant to move one direction which is why we fly it this way on the flanks of the all-new grand wagoneer. moving boldly and unstoppably forward. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean free. hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. new vicks vapostick. strong soothing vapors... help comfort your loved ones. for chest, neck, and back. it goes on clear. no mess just soothing comfort. try new vicks vapostick. i have dreamt at performing in redshore city since i was a little kid. here she is the star of our show. [ gasps ] there's nothing rosita can't do. i can't do this. she's afraid. can i try? no, no, no, porsha wait! ♪ this girl is on fire ♪ this is probably for the best. but i wrote this part for you. time to show the world what you're really made of. ♪ she's walking on fire ♪ there are new developments if the january 6th investigation. former president trump's efforts to block documents from the house select committee has reached the nation's highest court. after losing in a lower court, the former president filed an emergency appeal to the supreme court this week saying he had the constitutional right to block the national archives from releasing 700 pages of his administration's documents. the january 6th committee is calling on the justices to act quickly asking them to decide that they'll pick up the case by mid-january. i'm joined by former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade. this may be trump's last ditch effort to block the investigation, but it does raise some important constitutional issues. what are the chances here that the court will decide to hear arguments in the case? if they do, what exactly will they be ruling on? >> i think it's slim in terms of the chances that they'll take up this case because it seems very clear that president trump has not raised any legitimate issues of executive privilege. he is correct in one thing. this question has not been squarely presented to the court before. for that reason, i say it's not 100% likely that the court will let the appellate court decision stand. i think there's a slim chance. i think it's only slim, and i think it is more likely they'll simply decline to take the case and let the lower courts hear it. if they do take it up under the ordinary schedule, it wouldn't be argued until later on the merits and it may not be until june that we get a decision, which is why the committee is asking for this rapid decision and turn around time so they can get on with their work. >> talking about the likelihood, the supreme court now has a 6-3 conservative to liberal split. president trump appointed three of the justices. do you think the political makeup of the court could impact their decision on whether to hear the case? >> it's possible. i still like to think this court is less driven by politics and more driven by ideology. when it comes to things like this and giving the incumbent president the power of the executive privilege, i think they're likely to follow the law and deny this request. i think it's in contrast to other things which are less about promoting individual politicians and parties when it comes to ideology, things like the abortion question. on those kinds of things, i think the conservative makeup makes a big difference. i like to think they're not nakedly political. let's talk about some of trump's allies. he sued the january 6th committee trying to block it from accessing his financial records. he's really just one of the growing list of people who have brought legal challenges to the committee this week, for example, conspiracy theorist alex jones filed a suit against the committee. the judge denied mike flynn's legal challenge over a subpoena for his phone records. do you think these lawsuits have merit, or do you think they're delay tactics? >> i think they're delay tactics 100%, and this one, the one that most recently filed to block the financial records from jp morgan is a 100% loser. third-party records do not belong to the person about who they relate. they belong to the bank. they were created by the bank for the purpose of banking, and so the bank gets that subpoena and the bank turns them over. the only argument one could make is that it is somehow overly broad. they're asking for far more than would be necessary for their investigation. in light of the fact that the committee is investigating financing, i think be bank records are well within the scope of the investigation. what it says to me is there is a really desperate effort here to prevent the committee from seeing what the facts are or at least trying to stall and delay the inevitable disclosure of these records until perhaps after the midterm elections so that potentially if republicans control the house, they can disband this committee and end its work. >> barbara mcquade, good to see you today. thanks for joining us. >> merry christmas. there is at least one covid testing site that's open today in the u.s. the lines are around the block and down the street. we'll take you there next. we'll take you there next. first time the other day... and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ imagine having someone else do your books for you. as your quickbooks live bookkeeper, i'll categorize expenses, reconcile accounts, and close your books. cool. yep. know where your business stands. intuit quickbooks live bookkeeping. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy. know where your business stands. when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. 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(. merry christmas from msnbc world headquarters in new york. i'm lindsey riser in for alex witt. developing now at any moment, the president and first lady will deliver a virtual christmas message to service members from all six branches of america's military. nbc's josh lederman is at the white house. you predicted this could happen. it's going to happen any minute. what can you tell us? >> reporter: the president and first lady were just spotted walking over from the white house to a nearby building, the eisenhower executive office building where they will be calling u.s. military service members overseas from all six of the branches of the u.s. military. this is a long tradition for presidents to do this on christmas day, and it comes after yesterday the first lady and the president both traveled to a children's hospital here in the district of columbia to visit youngsters who are in the hospital on the holidays. we also have a new statement from the president and the first lady commemorating the christmas holiday in which they say in part looking back at this year, we've seen enormous courage, character, resilience and resolve in all of you who heal,