long time senate majority leader harry reid, her former colleague, his wife of 62 years announced in a statement that reid passed away peacefully while surrounded by friends following what she called a courageous four-year bat well pancreatic cancer. combative but soft spoken, reid was elected to the united states senate in 1986 after serving two terms in the house of representatives. he held the role of senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015 and was a pivotal figure on capitol hill touring the administration's of both george w. bush and barack obama. president biden worked for two decades in the senate and eight years while vice president paid tribute to a person he called a great american and a dear friend. in a statement the president wrote "if harry said he would do something, he did it. if he gave you his word, you could bank on it. that's how he got things done for the good of the country for decades." president biden also listed a number of reid's accomplishments including helping to pass the affordable care act and economic recovery legislation in the wake of the great recession. nbc's chris clackham has more on harry reid's lasting legacy. >> the highlight for me -- >> reporter: harry reid has known as a tenacious fighter even before becoming a senator. growing up in poverty, his toughness shined as a scrappy boxer, and later as a u.s. capitol police officer. he got his political start in nevada politics serving on the state's gaming commission in the late '70s and early '80s. then climbed onto the national political stage in 1983, serving two terms in the house and for the next 30 years as u.s. senator from nevada, even becoming senate majority leader in 2007. >> i do hope they will do their constitutional duty -- >> reporter: during his leadership tenure, reid was a sharp critic of president george w. bush but instrumental in the obama years, passing major legislation like the affordable care act. throughout his career, reid also championed a cause dear to him, land conservation in nevada. it was a severe injury suffered on exercise equipment in january 2015 that eventually led to the fierce fighter losing some punch. although reid refused to admit it at the time. >> is there any situation related to this that would cause you not to seek re-election? >> no, at this stage, i'm fully intending to run. >> reporter: two months later reidtirement. he and his wife converted mormons were married more than 60 years. in 2018 diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor and spent the last fight of his life with family back home in nevada. >> that's chris clackham reporting for us there. claire, we appreciate you coming in to talk about harry reid with us this morning. you served alongside him in the united states senate. what are your thoughts this? morning? >> i have a lot of auto motion about harry reid. harry reid became majority leader after close elections in the states of missouri, montana and virginia. that was jon tester, gym webb and me that won in 2006 that gave harry reid position of floor lood leader. i got to know him very well during my campaign. he knew missouri was essential and by the way, one of the things harry reid did well, there were many things that harry reid worked at hard but didn't do well, one of the things he really did well was he understood the value of grassroots and funding grassroots. people like to call harry reid the boss of nevada. he wasn't so much a boss as he was a benefactor. he raised money for the state party in nevada, so they could do the outreach. they could do the groundwork. they could recruit the volunteers. they could identify the voters, and that's what he funded in my state in 2006, which made a big difference. i mean, the senate campaign committee really focused on that ground game. he got politics. now, as molly ivan said he was charismatically challenged. this was not a man of soaring oratory. this was not a man of flowery conversation. we all can recount the times we talked to harry reid on the phone. i talked to him not that long ago on the phone, and when he said what he had to say, he hung up. no, gosh, claire, aren't you wonderful? aren't things great? he just hung up the phone. so he was really good one on one. he was really good at establishing trust with the menz of the senate of his party. he was really good at getting things done and making deals, and accomplishing things, but the television was not his best friend. >> all business all the time it sounds like, claire. let's talk about one of his finest hours for democrats and president obama, pushing at fordable care act across the line, a massive piece of landmark legislation in this country. what was his role and what did it say about his style? he wasn't one to make a flowery speech on the floor of the united states senate but working behind the scenes to get incredibly difficult lift up over the finish line. >> keep in mind he had 60 votes and we had the 58 democrats and two independents that were working as in fact democrats, caucusing with the democrats so we had 60 but just like chuck schumer had to get all 50, we had to get all 60 and we had a few people that had joe manchin-like tendencies and there were many moderates in the senate caucus in the democratic caucus and he had to work very hard to get mary landrieu. he had to work hard to get ben nelson from nebraska, and he made deals and those deals were criticized when the affordable care act, which became known as obamacare, when it was at the height of its unpopularity in the 18 months following its passage, before people began to realize the benefits. of course, it proved to be very popular and in fact, it was so popular the republicans could not get rid of it when they finally tried. they did not have the votes to do it, because it became an important part of the health care delivery system in this country and harry knew over time that would happen, but he was willing to take the political hits, which he took after the passage, all of us took after the passage of the bill. he knew it was that important, not only to president obama but to the country. >> claire, we that great mixture of this very soft voice which somehow kind of belied what you knew was this tough negotiator underneath. if you put harry reid back running the democrats in the senate today, how would he have handled the situation with joe manchin and kyrsten sinema to bring about president biden's agenda, do you think he could do it? >> i don't know. it's very partisan now. the first amendment i passed as a young senator when harry reid had been majority leader for more than ten minutes was an amendment to allow tsa employees to collectively bargain and passed i think 51-49. that was back when you didn't have to have 60 votes for everything, it was back when it was not unusual to have 20 democrats and 20 republicans meeting on a constant basis to try to find common ground. it was not so partisan. it was not, the middle was not a dangerous place to be when harry reid was majority floor leader. it was okay to compromise and find common ground so it is much harder today, the politics have been much more calcified and much tougher. i know he would do it one on one, though. he wouldn't do it in front of a camera. he would figure out one on one how to get the votes that he needed if it was at all possible, because he was a master at that. that's how he became majority floor leader. it wasn't because everybody thought he was going to, you know, do a great job on "meet the press." >> it's jonathan, claire. remarkable, he grew up in real poverty in nevada, his father was an alcoholic who died. his mother did laundry at a brothel. he had to hitchhike back and forth to high school sometimes up to 40 miles. he rose to become the most powerful politician in the state's history by far, played a huge hand in convincing barack obama to run for president and we just talked about his legislative accomplishment. is his destiny here? will his legacy be remembered ads one of the titans of the senate in the decades to come? >> there's only two senators in the history that were majority leaders for longer than harry reid and he did accomplish a great deal as a senator and i think he may be one of the last and here's the thing you have to remember. when you take on the job of majority floor leader you know it's not going to make you more popular. you take all of the slings and arrows of not only people within your own party who are frustrated and don't think you're doing enough but also all the slings and arrows of the opposition party. so harry knew that his job was not about being popular. it was about getting things done, and he was singularly focused on that, and i think he will go down as someone who figured out how to make things happen. i mean, look at the list. not just obamacare, but all of the unpopularity surrounding t.a.r.p. and the stimulus acts, saving the automobile industry at a moment when bush was still president, and right in the middle of a presidential campaign shepherding through what was needed we had to do to save our economic system from pure disaster after the days of the financial collapse in the fall of 2008, that was harry reid quietly but firmly behind the scenes and you're right, jonathan, people don't realize, there's always these stories of hardship in politics and overcoming hardship. i don't think people realize to the extent that harry reid overcame hardship. his house didn't even have plumbing growing up. his father was a miner, an alcoholic who died when he was young and as you said, his mother had to feed her children. she had to take in laundry from neighboring brothels. this is someone who really grew up knowing what it meant to fight for a family. he was a boxer as a young man and a very good boxer, and he is somebody he said famously one time "i know how to dance and i know how to fight. i'd rather dance than fight but if i have to fight, i know how." >> yes, he grew up in search light, nevada, whose population at the time could be measured in double digits. he had sharp elbows, not everybody loved harry reid but you have to concede it's a great american story no matter your politics, coming from where he came to become the majority leader. we'll talk more about harry reid's life and legacy in a bit. we want to turn to the ongoing pandemic, though. the united states has set a new daily record for covid infections, data from the "new york times" shows the seven-day average of cases topped 267,000 yesterday. the previous record more than 251,000 cases was set almost a year ago. meanwhile pediatric cases of covid are up as the omicron variant surgeries across the country. according to an nbc news analysis, children have been hospitalized with covid nearly twice the rate of adults in the past four weeks. in that same time period adult covid hospitalizations jumped by 29%. how are school districts handling a return to the classroom that comes on monday and what about the college camp uses? we have both angled covered with heidi przybilla in washington and antonio hilton in cambridge, massachusetts. heidi, what does it look like there as they consider how to get back to school? >> reporter: with this announcement yesterday, willie, by new york city they'll try to send all kids back in person it's a preview of what's happening in new york, like washington, chicago, l.a., we've taken a survey, looked at a survey, willie, and many, many of these big urban schools will try to send kids back in person with additional testing. here is the challenge to that testing demand by the government, which says in its cdc guidance that all of these schools should do a test to stay approach like new york is, they are telling me and others that they just don't have the staffing, they don't have the testing kits with there being a run on rapid test kits and take a listen to the head of a principal's association, willie, about his concerns about bringing kids back and all of the demands for testing as well on staff. >> we'll tell you that it is a tall order. this is a lot of testing and other places that have done this kind of testing everywhere, you've seen across the country where businesses and others have done this. it has been a massive effort and again, i just want to remind people like principals and teachers and school staff should be focused on teaching kids and making sure that they're well. >> reporter: willie, of 100 large urban districts that were recently surveyed just before the holiday of 100 only 13 were planning to implement a test to stay strategy. that's a concern for administrators and staff. they said state and local health departments are going to have to step up and help provide the testing help provide the staff and personnel. >> so many parents, kids, teachers, people work inside schools watching the decisions closely. you mentioned new york city, mayor de blasio announced they'll keep schools open for the time being and inplement the test first policy, if you show a positive test you're out of school and they test the other kids but not going to shut the whole thing down. heidi, thank you. antonia hilton in cambridge, massachusetts. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. administrators are trying to get ahead of things and take some control in january so they can preserve as much of the college life and student programming throughout the rest of the semester. here at harward they're going virtual for their january term, making the dining halls grab and go only and all students and employees are going to be required to show proof of a booster. this is seen at northwestern and university of california system is also going to require boosters going virtual for the first couple weeks of january, but then in other schools it looks different and umass system and at schools like oregon state or university of michigan, they're going to start in person and they say that student body is highly vaccinated there and they want to preserve the current plan and you have schools like university of missouri where they don't have vaccine or mask requirement at all. here at harvard, students have been taking this news, they're disappointed but frankly after seeing the surge in cases in this region and harvard they were setting records before christmas break, a lot of the students are down but understanding. take a listen to my conversation with one of them. do you think harvard is making the right choice here? >> i do. when it first got into my inbox, i was a little upset. i thought maybe they're overblowing it but i tested positive the next day and i take all the precautions, i wear my mask and i can't knock the school for wanting to keep the people safe, the staff and the students and the long-term of the institution. >> reporter: what's also interesting about the situation at harvard, not only are they at the forefront of the covid campus changes but they also recently announced they're not requiring s.a.t. or a.c.t. scores due to the challenges presented by the pandemic, until about 2026. this is an interesting site where we can see the short and long-term implications of of the pandemic on the entire educational system. >> fascinating snapshot there at harvard. antonia hilton in cambridge, massachusetts, thank you. john, the story of the new york city school district the biggest in the story, a personal story at this table for kids they'll do what they can do to keep schools open, a different time than march or april of 2020, we said yeah, step back from school and figure out what this is. we know how to test and manage and kids can handle this. >> the science has proven the classrooms are safe. certainly there have been closures. my oldest student a fifth grader, they shut the classes for a couple days. starting monday when kids return they have more aggressive efforts to test and keep classes open. the benefits for students better with in-person learning. de blasio is consistent about keeping schools open. he's only mayor for a few more days. eric adams joined the news conference yesterday. adams had been warmer up to this point about remote schooling but yesterday committed to the plan. we want to keep schools open. it's important for the kids, important for families, worging parents. they'll learn better, we'll do it safely. >> for the mental health of the children so many families learned. dr. peter hotez from the national school of tropical medicine and co-director of the texas children hospital center for vaccine development. great to have you on. you've been listening with the conversation about schools and kids in your wheelhouse. what's your view how the school districts should be thinking about heading back on snon >> these are tough decisions and here's why. everybody gets the importance of kids having in-person classes. look, i'm the parent of four adult kids and i remember when the kids were little how important that was and we just had the surgeon general issue a very important report on the mental health aspects of covid-19 and how devastating it's been, not having kids in school. here is the problem which is that we're going off of old information, what it's like for the previous variants and lineages. omicron is a different animal. it is highly transmissible, the level of transmissiblity around the level of measles, which is the most transmissible common virile agent we know. it's a challenge and very tough. i don't know how they're going to do this especially during the first couple of weeks of school when omicron is still surging. you look at the numbers, 1,000% rise in washington, d.c. i don't know how you keep the schools open during this time. so in an ideal world, if we knew that this surge of omicron was not going to last very long and would go down in a couple of weeks i would say let's delay the opening of school another two weeks, extend it into the summer instead with the hope it's coming down. it's coming down south africa and the uk, there's risk either way. the other problem is since we have such a completed public health system, public health agents you heard from the superintendent, how do i do the test, we're asking school superintendent principles to get a doctoral degree in epidemiology and that's unfair balancing all of this testing requirements are all of the management of an epidemic on the backs of people who have background in education not public health and kicking the can down the road because we have a disastrous public health system in place in this country, completed our local and state health departments for years for decades, and now all of a sudden we'll ask the schools to do it. i think we're asking for a lot of trouble. we'll see how it goes. >> doctor, we want to ask you about the vaccine development and covid vax in a minute. i want to get to the new cdc guidelines because a lot of confusion about them. i'd like your take on them. firstly the confusion that people don't fully understand exactly what they mean and then do you think this is a good idea? i know in the uk they've just been debating whether to cut quarantine times from their government down to seven days and fun to five days and in the uk the science isn't there yet. if they cut the science down to five days you have so many out in society that are shedding the virus that hospitals will become overwhelmed even if omicron proved to be less severe than delta. what's your read on the new guidelines? >> well, there are two components to this. first is the fact that we do know that virus shedding does go down after a couple of days from the previous lineages, but again, we don't really have the data for omicron, because it's come up so soon. so we're kind of going off old information in terms of the five to seven-day period. problem number two at least in the uk they're saying they'll require a test after that five to heaven day period after you get out of quarantine or isolation, referring to the fact you're infected, quarantined meaning you're not. that makes some degree of sense. the problem in the united states is testing is still a debacle. we still don't have the tests available. they're trying to say after five days put a mask on for another five days and hope for the best and that's where the problem is going to be, because we just don't have the testing in place. i understand why the cdc is doing this. we can't entirely shut the country down especially for our health care providers but at the same time, it's also trying to compensate for the fact that we've bungled testing and we've bungled it for the last two years. >> dr. hotez, good morning. it's jonathan he will mere. i wanted to ask you about the new vaccine you helped develop in texas which has received approval for use in india. tell us about this vaccine, how it is similar or different to the ones we all know about and heard for the last year or so and why it might be so important for the developing world. >> this uses an older technology the same technology used to make the protein hepatitis b vaccine or a similar one that's been around for four decades and the reason that's important is we developed vaccines with that technology because that capacity to make that vaccine locally is in place in india and bangladesh and indonesia and vietnam and brazil, all over the southern hemisphere so if you want to make a vaccine that could be scaled up for the world, that's the technology to use and it's one of the safest technologies out there, it's the lowest cost technology so it really does check all of the boxes for a global health vaccine and our covid vaccine is the first vaccine specifically designed for global health for use in resource settings and we have a tremendous partner, when i say we, our texas childrens center for vaccine development, co-headed by myself and my partner for the last years, we transferred the technology to four or five big vaccine producers in the southern hemisphere and this is known as biological e, based in hyderabad, one of the biggest vaccine producers in the world, made 150 million doses, 300 million doses on the way, 1 billion doses after that. we'll have now exceeded the commitment of the u.s. government to global health vaccinations. >> that's an astounding achievement, 1 billion doses and dr. hotez says "this could be the vaccine to end the pandemic." let's hope so. congratulations to you and your team, dr. peter hotez, thanks for being with us. still ahead this morning, the director of the cdc rochelle walensky will be our guest, we'll ask her about the fast-spreading omicron variant and about those guidelines, those controversial and sometimes confusing guidelines that we just talked about with dr. hotez. plus, remembering a legend, john madden, from coach to broadcaster to one of the biggest names in gaming, you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ "how bizarre" by omc ♪ no annual fee on any discover card. ♪ ♪ narrator: on a faraway beach, the generation called "our greatest" saved the world from tyranny. in an office we know as "oval," a new-generation president faced down an imminent threat of nuclear war. on a bridge in selma, alabama, the preacher of his time marched us straight to passing voting rights for every american. at a gate in west berlin, a late-generation american president demanded an enemy superpower tear down a wall and liberate a continent. american generations answering the call of their time with american ideals. freedom. liberty. justice. for today's generation of leaders, the call has come again to protect our freedom to vote, to fortify our democracy by passing the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act because america - john lewis: we are not going back, we are going forward. hi susan! honey? yeah? john lewis: we are not going back, i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love... plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? now get powerful relief with robitussin elderberry. when you have xfinity, you have entertainment built in. which is kind of nice. ah, what is happening. binge-watching is in the bag, when you find all your apps, all in one place. find live sports faster just by using your voice... sports on now. touchdown irish! [cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. you're gonna need a smaller cabinet. because now you can take all those supplements you're taking, or not taking, and replace them with this. ag1 by athletic greens brings 75 vitamins, minerals, whole food sourced ingredients, probiotics, and adaptogens together in one place. it might just be the most comprehensive and convenient nutritional regimen on the planet. immunity supporting, recovery enhancing, digestion improving, energy lifting. made to the strictest quality standards. made in new zealand. made for just about everybody. we got word from the nfl last night legendary broadcaster and super bowl winning coach john madden, an absolute legend, has died. the league said madden passed away unexpectedly yesterday morning, didn't give a cause of death, although madden never played a season of pro football, his name is synonymous with the nfl. he was selected by the philadelphia eagles in the 1958 draft, but a knee injury ended his career during rookie training camp. look at that shot. madden turned to coaching. he was hired as head coach of the raiders in 1969 at the young age of 32 leading the team through nothing but winning seasons over the next decade, eight playoff appearances and a super bowl title before he left oakland as the youngest coach ever to win 100 games. his successful coaching career eventually earned him a play in the pro football hall of fame in 2006, but it was during his broadcast career that madden became one of the most recognizable and beloved people in all of football. after calling it quits as a coach, madden became a color commentator at analyst first at cbs in 1979, later at fox then abc's monday night football and finally here at nbc on sunday night football. announced his retirement from broadcasting in 2009, after 30 years in the booth. to a generation of fans, madden was not known as a coach or a broadcaster, but for a name on a video game, starting in 1988, madden lent his name, voice and personality to video game maker ea sports and the best-selling madden nfl franchise. the raiders now in las vegas "few people were responsible for the popularity of professional football as john madden." madden was 85 years old. john, when i saw this last night, i was thinking about the generations and i think it's really four generations. my grandfather probably knew him as the coach of the raiders, then my dad, then i knew him on sundays with pat summerall in the booth, that you knew it was a big game when you saw the two of them, and then madden, my son, who is 12 years old literally for christmas got madden 22 and that's how that generation knows him. this man left such a mark not just on football or the nfl, but on american culture. >> yes, he made football fun. he taught you about the game. he explained it in a way that was very accessible that you learned something but you're right. when he and pat summerall came to town, it was a big game. you flipped on the television, 49ers or cowboys or giants or the washington team, you knew it was a big deal in the nfc. he is, and he retired as head coach, but the highest winning percentage in history, he was a great coach, inducted into the hall of fame as a coach and then of course legendary broadcaster and you're right, now because of the video game franchise, which turned on generations of kids into football fans, he is responsible as responsible for the growth of the sport as just about any other person associated with the nfl, because of the games, even for kids like ours who know him simply as a name on a box rather than someone who is on the tv set or on the sideline. >> claire, he did his job and he lived with such joy, and i think that's what john's getting at was it was just fun. he said this is a game guys and he said boom, instead of having some elaborate description, he was a fan like us up in the booth. >> he was really the kind of guy that kind of underlined that important saying. you've got to love what you do, to be really good at it, and clearly he loved what he did. he was so relatable. i think there was something about many of us who obviously didn't play professional football, that looked at john madden and said well, this is not what you would expect of like the chiselled cut, the svelte athletic guy. he was a big guy and he talked plainly and he made the game so understandable. now i will tell you, my hate for the raiders goes all the way back to john madden, because as a chiefs fan john madden established the raiders as a team the kansas city chiefs loved to hate because he was so good at what he did. now having some experience in trying to communicate through a camera, i have such respect for someone who could exude such joy while he was giving you technical information about a game that was totally understandable. >> yes, i mean, he just again, he had such joy, if you watched the old footage of him coaching the raiders, he was 32, 33, 34 years old, he was a kid back then and you hear him in the booth it's the same voice expressing his joy for a game he loved. >> larger than life figure, with the miller life ads, he was afraid to fly so he took the bus everywhere, madden cruiser, and the thanksgiving games with the turducken on the sideline, and handed out pieces to the game's best players. >> i was reading this morning, he is responsible for the first down line we see on tv, sitting in a production meeting and he said why don't we put the yellow line on the screen. nobody knows where the first down is, john madden. >> revolutionized how we watch football. >> so much so say about john madden. the great mike tirico we'll talk about later in the show. coming up, new investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and how former white house trade adviser peter navarro played a key role. we're coming right back on "morning joe." as a professional bull-rider i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. yeah. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ only pay for what you need. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn... claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now, she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? thinkorswim® by td ameritrade is more than a trading platform. it's an entire trading experience. with innovation that lets you customize interfaces, charts and orders to your style of trading. personalized education to expand your perspective. and a dedicated trade desk of expert-level support. that will push you to be even better. and just might change how you trade—forever. because once you experience thinkorswim® by td ameritrade ♪♪♪ there's no going back. it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. ♪♪♪ and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, no interest until january 2025. ends january 3rd. you are the hero on january 16th as i say chapter 21 of trump time, the guy with green bay packer sweep vat gee to go up to capitol hill, pence is the quarterback. we had 100 people working on the green bay team, linemen, halfbacks and fullbacks pulling guards who were going to make sure that we remanded the results back to the battleground states for a couple weeks, so we could get to the bottom of that. >> that's former white house adviser peter navaro describing steve bannon as a hero of january 6th because he had a plan to stop the certification of the 2020 election results that even had a name the green bay sweep. now reporting sheds more light on the plan to overturn joe biden's electoral victory. navarro telling "the daily beast" he coordinated with paul gosar and texas senator ted cruz to keep trump in power. qualification it was a perfect plan and it all predicated an peace and calm on capitol hill. we didn't even need any protesters because we had over 100 congressmen committed to it." the article continues "their hope was to run the clock as long as possible to increase public pressure on then vice president mike pence to send the electoral votes back to six contested states where republican-led legislatures could try to overturn the results." joining us the author of this new reporting political investigations reporter at "the daily beast" jose palieri. thanks for being with us. this reads like a confession from peter navarro talking about what he did and so many congressmen and senators including ted cruz were up to in and around january 6th. >> it absolutely does. i'm struck by this distinction that peter navarro is making between accusations he and steve bannon played a role in the violence that took part that day as opposed to whatever this was and it's interesting to me because these are two sides of the same coin. this house select committee that's investigating the events of january 6th aren't just looking at the mob that attacked the capitol. they are looking at the attempt to rip apart the fabric of our republican using the legislative branch and what we've got here is saying we had nothing to do with the violence. it didn't work in our favor because it stopped us from what doing what we really wanted to do which was stop the certification of president biden's win. the way to by this is there was an attempted coup but that's the hard coup. some called this other effort the soft coup we have a former active white house official saying while he was in the administration was using his power there to put this into play. which i think is fascinating. >> jose it's parent to take a step back. peter talks and runs his mouth a lot but who he is and how close he was to donald trump a guy trump saw on fox news, i like the he talks about me, bring him into the white house. how influential was he, how close was he to donald trump as a key figure in trying to overturn this election? >> i think that has yet to be determined and one of the questions the january 6th committee might want to dive into. during the final weeks of the trump administration his role was documenting what they claim to be election irregularities which as we all know did not exist on a widespread scale but this is something they were trying to push. now how close he was to the president is unclear but when i asked him whether the president was on board, he was emphatic about saying absolutely. he was absolutely on board with this. you could see it in his speech and actions. there is something interesting, though, which is that in his book and in his conversation with me, peter navaro makes clear the relationship between him and the president did not exist between him and vice president mike pence who he felt was pushing him back and giving time aside. he wanted time with the vice president to ultimately make the decision to certify the votes. >> you hear him talking with pride to overturn a presidential election describing it in terms of a football metaphor, the green bay sweep, that's actually the way steve bannon also was talking about it saying mike pence we are right on the cusp of victory, right around january 6th. it's simple, the play has been called. mike pence, run the play, take the football. this was a well thought out plan. >> no question about it. and i do agree in some ways, the violence of january 6th served to mask the more insidious part that was going on behind the scenes, and the fact that there are people that served in a presidential administration that are bragging about wanting to overturn the votes of the american people to seize power is chilling. i mean, everybody kind of knew that navorro was the nut in the cabinet. other people said he's an outlier. as it turns out, those outliers came in handy when you want to try to overturn an legislation. i'm curious in your reporting, you talk about navarro bragged about 100 congressmen. i think we forget the senators who voted to overturn the election. we remember josh holley and ted cruz but there was cindy hyde smith and the new senator from kansas and tuberville, the football coach who poses as a united states senator from alabama, and all of these congressmen and do we have a list, is this something we can begin to show more light around the people who were in power who wanted to seize power. >> great question. i don't have that list. when i asked mr. navarro whom he spoke we seemed reticent to do so, in the book and conversation he details how he got text messages from steve bannon, he woke up to messages from people who were on board with this plan and he was in communication with them before a morning run around the national mall. it's right there. the committee investigators want to look into this, the guy is saying he's got communications and as far as we know he hasn't been subpoenaed yet or asked to turn over documents. >> jose paglieri, the committee may be very interested to read your piece and make a few phone calls. thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. still ahead the latest on the flight cancellations we've been seeing from coast to coast and another violent scene on board one of those planes. "morning joe" is coming right back. we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your pharmacist or doctor about shingrix. shingles doesn't care. but you should. ♪ baby got back by sir mix-a-lot ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover. welcome to silversneakers. are you ready to get moving? (throws punch) our new virtual classes were designed for you and millions of seniors like you. you can now choose from thousands of live virtual classes every week. get moving wherever you have an internet connection. and when you're ready, enjoy access to thousands of locations nationwide. with silversneakers, you're free to move. enroll today at no additional cost by visiting getsilversneakers dot com. ♪♪ 6:52 in the morning. a look at a live picture of the washington monument. covid and weather taking a toll on air travel as americans crisscross the country for the holidays over these couple of weeks. according to flight aware, more than 7,000 flights were delayed, nearly 1300 canceled into and out of the united states just yesterday. nearly 500 delays and more than 700 cancellations already reported so far today. meanwhile, a woman is facing an assault charge after hitting and spitting on another passenger aboard a delta flight from tampa to atlanta last thursday. according to the criminal complaint, as a woman named patricia cornwall was returning from the rest room, the flight attendant asked her to find an open seat until beverage service was completed. cornwall then reportedly responded to the flight attendant, what am i, rosa parks? another passenger as you can imagine took issue with that regard. an argument ensued and that's when the video showed the woman hitting the man. she could also be heard come plaping about masks. >> [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> sit down, karen. >> [ bleep ]. >> sit down. >> [ bleep ]. >> tell him to put his mask on. >> put your [ bleep ] mask on. >> [ bleep ] mask on. >> behavior you wouldn't tolerate from your toddler and we'll leave it right there. claire mccaskill, we appreciate you coming in to join us this morning to talk about your old friend and colleague harry reid. what are your thoughts on his life and his legacy? >> you know, i'm going to channel harry here. i think i know what he would want me to say about him. he would say, i didn't get to this position by my good looks or by my smarts. he used to say, i got to this position by hard work. so, harry, here's to hard work. you embodied it and we'll all miss you very much. >> well said. claire mccaskill, great to see you. happy new year to you, my friend. >> happy new year. >> around the bend. still ahead, we'll talk to john ralston, a nevada independent who covered harry reid a decade. he knows nevada politics better than anyone. that's next on "morning joe." before nexium 24hr, anna could only imagine a comfortable night's sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? i like that my plan is built just for me. arugula, you get an extra... with the new ww personalpoints program, you take an assessment, enter your goals, the foods you love and what fits into your lifestyle. you don't have to eat diet food. i can enjoy the things that i really love like wine, cheese. you can add points for eating vegetables or being active. i lost 26 pounds and i feel incredible. the all new ww personalpoints program. start the new year with three months free. join today at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 3rd. [upbeat acoustic music throughout] plaque psoriasis, the burning, itching. join tthe pain.w.com. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love... plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? now get powerful relief with robitussin elderberry. welcome back to "morning joe." it is 6:59 on a drizzly morning here in new york city. as wednesday, december 29th, i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the day off. msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson and msnbc contributor, the great mike barnicle. good morning to you guys. mike, we've been talking for the last hour about the passing of two american icons, harry reid, the former senate majority leader, and john madden, the great john madden. two big losses for this country both in politics and popular culture. >> boy, that's true, willie. it's incredible. harry reid, i mean, the idea that harry reid is gone from the united states senate still hasn't sunk in i don't think to a lot of existing united states senators. and as soon as i hear the news, one thought struck me more than anything else. why aren't democrats as tough today as harry reid was when he was the head of the senate? i think it would be a different country, a different political party, and a different negotiation back and forth between all these conflicting issues if a harry reid was still there. and john madden, what can you say about john madden? everybody in america knows john madden. he's the guy at the end of the bar that you go to, the restaurant that you watch the game at. he's just that guy. everybody knew him. he was mr. everybody. but he was incredible. he was just absolutely incredible. the guy who trans lated the arcane language of football into common english so everybody understood it. >> his pure authentic self at all times. we're going to talk much more about john madden with mike tarico in our next hour. joining us, john ralston. he covered harry reid 35 years. and is now working on a book about the late senate majority leader. john, we're so grateful to have you on this morning. you are writing a book. you have covered this man for many, many decades. i loved one of your quotes yesterday. you said, reid was a contradictory man, as ruthless as any person i covered, but also known for his private kind gestures. what are your thoughts this morning? >> i'm still soaking it in, willie. harry reid was the first person i covered when i started covering politics in nevada in the dark ages of 1996 when he was first running for the senate. and i remember meeting him for the first time. i was this, you know, wet behind the ears political reporter. what, this guy is going to be in the u.s. senate? he was so soft-spoken. i later described him as, you know, charismaticly challenged. i couldn't believe that he was running to be in the famed club of 100. but, boy, did he prove me wrong in that campaign and going forward. and as mike barnicle said, his toughness cannot be underestimated. you heard all of the cliches about him being a boxer, growing up in poverty, in searchlight. this is when the cliches really resonate. that's who harry reid really was. this guy who grew up in a place that is almost unimaginable, this tiny spac in a nevada desert, indoor plumbing, with siblings. they barely had any medical care. and his character was forged there. and whether you like him or not, as you know, willie, a lot of people did not like harry reid. he became a polarizing figure. his determination, his grit and the successes that claire mccaskill referred to and others have talked about in the legislative arena, especially his proudest achievement, the affordable care act which i've said many times, willie, should probably be called reid care. >> maybe so, given the work he did in the senate to push it over. and as claire reminded us, back in the days you needed 60 votes to get something done not so long ago. john, let's talk a little more about the story you began to tell from searchlight. destitute, no indoor plumbing, he served on the nevada gaming commission in the '70s and '80s. which is the stuff of scorsese movies. he learned a few things there, i imagine. what was his leap into politics? why did he want to get into that kind of service? >> you know, he said there was no real politics when he was growing up. he also didn't have much religion. he didn't have faith. but he just wanted to do something, and he actually started when a bunch of doctors asked him to serve on a public hospital board about 50 years ago or so, willie, and he used that as the spring board to being asked to run for the assembly, and then he became the state's youngest lieutenant governor. what people may not know about harry reid, willie, is that he was very, very ambitious, a driven person. i think, again, forged in searchlight, nevada, and he ran for the senate in 1974 for the first time and lost in an absolutely brutal race against paul waxal. then he ran for mayor of las vegas and lost in a landslide. people thought he was done. but his mentor, and you'll mention this, his mentor governor mike ocala happen plucked him from his sulking and he made a name in the nevada gaming commission and made a name taking on the mob, and some controversial fbi wiretaps, there was a bomb threat against harry reid that was very infamous at the time and was talked about for decades afterwards. and he went from there to nevada. when nevada got a new congressional seat in the 1980 census, to running for congress. and then in 1986, to bring things full circle, he won paul waxal's senate seat, the one he lost in 1974 when he retired. >> a fighter in every sense of the word. jon, it's katty kay. i was talking about how harry would have handled today's senate, the challenges posed by joe manchin and kyrsten sinema managing to get joe biden's agenda through. how do you think he would have fared in the senate, still it was a different place? how do you think he would have handled the senators that is today? >> you know, harry reid and chuck schumer are close friends. they like each other a lot. but you couldn't find two more different guys, right, in terms of chuck schumer likes being in front of the tv camera. harry reid hated all that stuff and loved giving it to schumer. he loved the inside game. the question, catty, is what would he have done with those two recalcitrant senators? you talk about what he did with jim jeffords, talked him into switching parties, used bribery on his colleagues to get the affordable care act done. listen, it's even worse than when harry reid was there. what part he played in making it so bad himself, i'll get to that in the book. and i think you can see that more than one way. but you couldn't make the case that harry reid would have found a way to get joe manchin or kyrsten sinema on board. i'm not sure he could have. but if anyone could have, harry reid could have. >> eugene robinson, we've been talking all morning about harry reid's remarkable rise from real poverty to becoming this extraordinary figure in washington, one who helped elevate barack obama, encouraged him to run for the white house and steered his legislative agenda through the senate. you've obviously been in the capitol for a long time. give us your thoughts as to what you think harry reid's life and legacy will mean. >> well, he certainly was a giant of the senate, john. to go back to the cliche, i mean, he was tough. he was -- and somewhat tasciturn if you compare to the other senators who loved to talk and talk. i remember there was one point at which some aide to then majority leader reid convinced him to do a charm offensive. so i got a call from his office. would you like to drop by just to chat? i said, just to chat with harry reid? yeah, just to chat. so i went by his office, and it was like the weirdest hour because he clearly didn't get the memo, right. he wasn't really into chatting, and so there was a lot of stoney silence. we talked a bit about searchlight, about his growing up and about boxing, and eventually i found an excuse to sort of leave. that wasn't -- that wasn't the setting in which harry reid really shone. it was in the halls and the floor of the senate where he was -- he was a magician, and he was also an enforcer. i'm wondering, jon ralston, did you ever see a kind of warmer, fuzzier side of harry reid in all the time you covered him? >> let's not get carried away here, eugene. one day after -- actually, i'm being somewhat facetious in the sense that harry reid, and most people don't know this unless you really got to know him. believe me, i had a roller coaster relationship with the senator. he didn't talk to me for years at a time because he was mad about things that i had written. but he had an amazingly funny sense of humor, very wry, dead pan. and once you got to know him, he could be personable, believe it or not. the guy, as i said before, who looked like he didn't care what anyone thought or care about people, there are countless stories that i know about now doing research for this book of these uncommon acts of kindness with people he knew, and with strangers, which would contrast with his public persona you described as tasitern very aptly. the other thing i need to say, i covered a lot of politicians as you have. i have never seen the kind of loyalty that harry reid engendered among members of his staff and about people that he helped. they were incredibly loyal in a reverential way towards this man and i've interviewed dozens of them so far for this book. they have amazing stories to tell. you ask yourself, what harry reid did that? so there was another side to him. like all of us, it was a complex human being. but he, more than anyone that i've covered, was a real contradiction in his traits, i think. >> jon reminding us not to sugar coat this. he may not have been loved, but he was certainly respected especially when we talk about things like the nuclear option in 2013, a controversial decision which led to some trump judges later getting appointed by the same method. jon ralston, the c.e.o. of nevada independent. no one better to talk to about nevada politics or harry reid. thank you for being up early with us this morning. we appreciate it, jon. let's turn to politics, long time political strategist senior adviser to barack obama. it's not over for joe biden. no historical parallel is perfect, but the near death and revival of the affordable care act is a parable that does offer a path forward for this president and his administration. in his first year in office, mr. biden passed the rescue act, which jump started the vital distribution of vaccines and helped families, businesses and the nation navigate the virus. he defied the skeptics and passed a bipartisan plan to rebuild the country's infrastructure with enormous implications for america's economic future. that alone is pretty good work. if he can retool the build back better act to make it permanent as the affordable care act is rather than piecing together a hodgepodge of temporary programs, it, too, may be able to stand the test of time and a decade from now be even more popular than it is today. that's a piece from david axelrod. so, mike barnicle, there is a big if in there. if he can get this through congress, if he can revitalize the build back better act and somehow get joe manchin on board who just two weeks ago said he is a no. obviously joe biden has passed a ton of consequential legislation his first year in office. still as we round the corner to a new year, wants somehow 134 way to get this even bigger package through. >> yeah, i think it's easy to misread the president at this moment in time the past few weeks, especially with regard to joe manchin giving a thumbs down to the build back better act. i am told the president is very optimistic about getting something done with joe manchin in the first couple of months in the new year that's approaching rapidly. and so that would be a victory. also, i think he's probably very optimistic and feeling pretty good about what's already been accomplished that david wrote about and just read, what's already been done in this country. it's easy for us. we always tend to go to the negative in terms of coverage. i'm not talking about us here. i'm talking about in general, the media. someone said something to someone, it's reported as a major bulletin, and the administration is over. he hasn't even been president for a year and we've been reading pieces, a few nearial pieces of the approach of the biden administration. i'm told the president is very optimistic. he's an optimistic guy to begin with. he intends to get something done within the first couple of months of the new year. so we'll have to watch that and pay attention to it. >> so, john, the question is as you covered the white house, what does did it mean to, quote, get something done? what is that something? obviously progressives say, we told you so about joe manchin. he was never going to come on board with this big package we wanted. what does that something look like to the white house? >> there is a real lack of trust in the democratic party. certainly to mike's point, there was real anger from the white house from senator manchin, the way he abruptly pulled the plug on this and did so via fox news. he and the president have spoken since. they have had a long relationship. they feel like they are on pretty good terms still. the question is can they get manchin on board in smaller components, build back better act but trimmed down from where we saw last year? the number is probably going to go down. some say just let joe manchin write the bill. they don't want the perfect enemy of bill. they will settle for something consequential. to mike's point, it's right. this administration feels good about itself for what they accomplished. they have significant hurdles awaiting in 2022. this piece of legislation to be sure. also voting rights, where they have heard real growing disenchantment from civil rights groups saying, hey, why has this not been a priority? he would be amenable to the change in filibuster to get something done. there is no real path yet for that. manchin, sinema and others loom as real roadblocks. from day one of this administration, the central premise of the biden term is handling the coronavirus. cases are surging right now much they accept this. they know there are questions about testing. there are questions whether they were prepared for this latest variant. they understand before they can move on, anything else they need to show the american people they're making progress on covid. >> gene robinson, if you look back at the first year, $1.9 trillion on covid relief, $1 trillion on infrastructure getting through. any other universe that would be considered by democrats a huge achievement in the first year of a presidency. but as we do turn the corner here to a new year, voting rights is on the table. something the senate democrats would say we're going to push build back better to decide and focus on voting rights. but again, that's no sure thing either. they may not even have 50 votes for that. >> well, it's true. they may not have 50 votes for that, but i think i get the sense from president biden that he sure is going to look for them. i had a chance to spend a little bit of time with the president a couple weeks ago when he went to my hometown, orangeburg, south carolina. he talked a lot about voting rights, the importance of voting rights, and i got the distinct impression that that's the next thing on his agenda. now, obviously if he could figure a way to get manchin to reverse himself yet again on build back better, he'd love that. he'd love to pass that. certainly the focus during that trip and what i heard from president was a lot on voting rights, and it seems to -- he seems to really be impressed with the need to do something, to do whatever can be done to preserve our democracy as we know it. and so i think that's going to be a big item on the agenda in january. >> and joe manchin has signalled openness at least to the john lewis bill in terms of supporting voting rights in this country. still ahead here on "morning joe," we will talk to the director for centers disease control and prevention, dr. rochelle walensky. that's coming up next. plus, stacy abrams built a national reputation by advocating for voting rights. now she's calling on congress to take action on federal election legislation ahead of her second bid to become governor of georgia. she will be our guest just ahead. plus, from record heat, frigid cold snaps, torrential downpours, wildfires, 2021 has been a year of historic weather. we're taking a look back at the extreme events that unfolded across the country with al roker. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. such tree-mendous views. i'm at a moss for words. when a cough tries to steal dad's punchlines, he takes robitussin naturals powered by 100% drug-free ingredients. are you gonna leaf me hanging? soothe your cough naturally. your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff,... ...swollen, painful. matching your job description. emerge tremfyant®. tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. i'm so glad we're finally on vacation. yeah, and kayak made it so easy - searching hundreds of travel sites to find us a great flight. my ears still won't pop after the flight but i don't even care.... what? kayak. search one and done. 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. welcome back to "morning joe." 7:22 in the morning at the white house. joining us now, director of the centers for disease control and prevention, dr. rochelle walensky. dr. walensky, appreciate you being on this morning. thanks so much. wanted to have you on to get some clarity about the new guidance of taking down for asymptomatic, people who tested positive for covid from ten days to five days of isolation and wear the mask for the second five days. we talked over the last couple of days to a bunch of doctors who were general sympathetic to you and the work you're doing and the task you have before you. we're a little bit confused, so explain for our viewers who may be confused how you arrived at those five days. >> right, great to be with you. so, you know, what we have right now is science that looks at the decay of the virus, how much transmission is happening during that period after you've been infected. and what we know is the most transmission happens in those first one to two days before you have symptoms, and then two to three days after you have symptoms, and that's really about 85 to 90% of all transmission that can occur. that's really when we want to have you stay home during those first five days. during those last five days, we, of course, want to make sure you're wearing a mask because there is a little residual transmission. we're seeing now a huge number of cases and we may even see more, so we want to recognize that many of those cases may be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and especially if you're vaccinated or boosted. so we want to make sure that it's practical guidance that people can follow. especially in the context of the fact that we know that people may not practically be able to isolate for a full ten days. so it was all of those factors and that science coming together that led us to these new updated recommendations. >> so, do you believe, dr. walensky, that after those five days, though, even with the mask, that person should test negative before she or he heads back out into the world, before they go to a new year's party, before they, let's say, go back to school on monday? should they show a negative test as well as wearing the mask? >> yeah, really important question and this has been raised. so, we have recommendations for isolation. and in those recommendations, we do not recommend a test for several reasons. first, we know the pcr test can stay positive for 12 weeks. so months, your pcr test can be positive. if you're waiting for a negative pcr, you would be isolating for months. in terms of the antigen, though, we actually don't know how those tests perform, whether they can actually predict whether you can transmit virus or not. so if we used an antigen test in that day five period, we would say still wear your mask. if you were positive we would say still wear your mask. given the antigen test in that moment was not going to change our recommendations, we did not recommend an antigen test there. we do recommend an antigen test after you've been exposed, during your period of quarantine. >> okay. so i'm just going to give real world scenarios, then. if you are going back to school on monday, which millions of kids are, we certainly hope anyway, if they've tested positive a week before, they've put a mask on. after five days they should go back to school without showing a negative test? >> if they are feeling well enough, they can go back to school without showing a negative test. they need to make sure they're masked. >> so that goes for anybody, adult, child, go back to work after those five days? >> yes, absolutely. again, this only works as well as people are willing to be adherent to these recommendations. so we're really saying if you're going to only isolate a certain period of time, we want to make sure you're doing so when you're maximally infectious those first five days, and please protect your others by wearing a mask those last five days. >> director walensky, good morning. this is jon lemire. i want to push you further on this. the uk moved its isolation from ten days to seven. what's the reasoning going all the way to five? and how do you address the concerns of someone who knows their coworker tested positive just five days before, no longer -- does not have to show a negative test to go back to work, might be wearing a mask, but surely understandable why that person was anxious sitting next to someone who is positive? >> two questions there. one is the uk guidance -- the uk is using antigen tests in a different way. they are testing very frequently with their antigen tests. they are actually picking up infection probably earlier than we are. so if we match them, they're probably picking up infection about a day or two earlier. so if we're trying to capture all of that transmissible time, we're at the same time line as the uk. i want to be clear. if you have the capacity to stay home longer and you still have symptoms, we're not saying you have to go out after five days of isolation. we're saying the maximum amount of your transmissible time has already occurred, and we are saying that you should be wearing your mask after those first five days. if you are wearing your mask, if your coworker is wearing a mask, that should prevent the residual amount of transmission that is possible. >> and one more on this. why isn't there a difference in the isolation period between someone who is vaccinated versus unvaccinated? we know it seems to be unvaccinated people would carry a lot more of the virus on them, potentially being contagious longer. >> yeah, really important question. so, all of this was based on the scenario of the unvaccinated person, the viral decay, scientific data we've seen in unvaccinated people. we have seen vaccinated people who get disease have the same amount of viral burden early on. a lot of that viral burden in those first five days. they may decay a little bit faster than those who are unvaccinated, but again, those first five days would capture all of that period of time, which is why we didn't differentiate. >> doctor, it's katty kay here. some medical professions in the uk are suggesting we are getting to the beginning of the end of the coronavirus to a period where within a few months even, people who test positive for the coronavirus won't have to self-isolate at all. are you having discussions along those lines of whether we might be getting to a stage where we live with covid in the way that we live with the common cold? >> certainly that would be aspirational, and i hope to be in that place. what i am, you know, focused on now is making sure that we can get through this omicron surge, that we do so with minimal amount of hospitalization and severe disease. certainly the best way to do that would be to get people vaccinated and to have people get boosted if they're eligible for boosting. the best way to get this virus to be an endemic virus is to bolster all the possible immunity we can around the country. and the best way to do that without having severe disease is to get people vaccinated and boosted. >> i guess the question is, is there something about omicron specifically that might make people optimistic that covid is mutating itself into a position where it is not much more serious than the common cold? >> well, certainly we have seen -- started to see data from other countries that for every 100 people, you have less severe disease with omicron than you might with other variants. that said, we may have many, many more cases, and so we may still very well see a lot of severe disease in the hospital. so, you know, i want to project optimism and i want to be cautious in doing so. >> dr. walensky, mike barnicle is here with a question for you. mike? >> doctor, you know parts of the country is in fear of the virus omicron, whatever, frozen in fear. but no group of people in this country, i would submit, are more fearful of the virus than parents of school-age children who fear that the schools will be shutdown. so in some cases, some cities have said, well, if a child comes up positive for the virus, that child will be removed and the rest of the class will be tested, but we won't shutdown the schools. so my question to you is given the mess that is testing in this country, who is going to test the children in these schools? >> really important question, and i'm really happy to say that over this fall semester, we have successfully and safely been able to have 99% of our schools open. we just released this past month two scientific reports on a strategy called test to stay in school, and that is once children are exposed, if you can test them, when you test them every other day, twice a week, you can keep those children in school safely. and, in fact, doing that strategy, the test to stay strategy, resulted in many more days of children in school, hundreds of thousands of days of more children in school, and yet no more disease in the school or in the home. so a really productive effective promising strategy to keep our children in school. and we have resources and been working closely with states and with jurisdictions to make sure that those tests are available for any jurisdiction that wants it. >> speaking of children, dr. walensky, the conventional wisdom the last year or so, children tolerate covid well. the last few weeks we've seen an explosion of kids in the hospital. what's going on there, as best you can tell? >> yeah, really important question. so, we are seeing higher numbers of children in the hospital. of course, this is a common time of year for children to be admitted in the hospital. and some of the things we're seeing in the trends is they're not heading to the i.c.u. more often that we can tell. many are coming in for another reason, but they happen to be tested when they come in and they're found incidentally to have covid. and third, and really importantly, most of those children are not yet vaccinated. so the message here is get your children vaccinated. >> vaccination rates very low among children in this country. director of the centers for disease control and prevention, dr. rochelle walensky, we appreciate you stopping to take some time with us. we'll talk again soon. thank you. >> absolutely. thank you for having me. the candidate for georgia stacey abrams joins us when "morning joe" comes right back. ♪♪ om sleep number? because my sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing so i stay cool. and senses my movement and effortlessly adjusts to help keep me comfortable. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now. only from sleep number. napoleon was born and raised to conquer. but he was just kind of over it, you know. watching prime video he realized he should follow his dreams. so he ordered a microphone with prime next day delivery. now the only thing he cared about conquering was his audience. prime changes everything. we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your pharmacist or doctor about shingrix. shingles doesn't care. but you should. people around the world watch what we do as america. and right now we're about to take ourselves off the map as a role model. if we let -- if we let people destroy one of the most important pillars of the democracy, which is free and fair elections. >> vice-president kamala harris is warning the risk to losing the standing in the world if voting rights legislation is not passed. joining us is minority leader and current democratic governor candidate, stacey abrams. it's good to have you on the show. let's talk about voting rights as the vice-president was just there, and the hopes that perhaps something will get done in the new year. we've heard from the president. we've heard from leadership in the senate that they're going to push build back better to the side for the time being and focus on voting rights. how optimistic are you that something may be passed? >> i am very hopeful that we are in a position to see a restoration of the senate's power, that we will have senators who will recognize that to protect our democracy, we have to use the pieces that we have, the tools that we have and that includes the ability to pass legislation at the federal level to secure our elections, to protect our voters and ensure that our election workers aren't facing the threats that we are seek rise across this country. and i believe we can get that done. >> we somehow -- usually we talk in shorthand about voting rights. i think it is important to be specific. if you look, for example, at the john lewis bill that is in front of congress right now, what in there, as you see it, would improve all those things you just talked about? >> well, we have to think about these things in tandem. the freedom to vote act is about setting standards, minimum standards across the country for how we be access voting and push back against the subversion of democracy. it is designed to mitigate the laws we are watching pass across the country that may be in effect by the time the freedom to vote act passes. the john lewis voting rights advancement act says before new bills can be passed, they have to be pre-cleared. one is designed to nullify bad laws that are passed. john lewis voting rights act is to say before new bad laws can come into effect, you have to go through the justice department. so it is both prophylactic and it's curative. those are the pieces we need to protect voting rights, to protect our democracy in this country. >> gene robinson has a question for you. gene? >> stacy, good morning. >> good morning. >> thanks for being with us today. my question, if you are one of the most eloquent and effective advocates for voting rights in this country today, are you having contacts with senators in an attempt to get some of this legislation through? i mean, because that's really where the ball game is now. it's -- the house is not a problem. the senate still remains a problem with the filibuster. are you having any conversations with senators who might need to be persuaded? >> i appreciate the compliment. and yes, i'm working very closely with members of the u.s. senate to ensure that they both understand the urge azizirad of the moment, but that we recognize the complications of the structure of the senate. and that's why we need to frame this as restoration of the senate. this is not about breaking tradition. it is about protecting the fundamentals of our nation. and that for those who may have some hesitation, we have to find a way to restore the senate woud undermining overall the capacity of our nation to function. i think the u.s. senate is working towards that. i know the leadership in the senate has been in deep conversations with its members, and that we are working towards a path to get this done. but what's most important is that we stop framing this as a partisan battle. this is not about partisanship. this is about patriotism. it's about american citizens, regardless of who they choose when they enter the booth, that they have the ability to participate in our elections. and that on the other side, that their votes are actually counted by those who are responsible for determining and announcing the outcome of elections. this is about protecting voters, but also about protecting the foundation of our democracy and not allowing it to be subverted by those who would erase the voice of the people in order to achieve their political ends. >> and just to follow-up, is there any indication that there are any republican senators who might be willing to support any of this legislation? it's amazing the last time the voting rights act was reauthorized every single republican senator voted for re-authorization. the time before that, strom thurman voted for re-authorization of the voting rights act, which is -- basically we're talking about the pre-clearance provisions that are in the john lewis act. this time we've had no republicans, publicly at least, willing to support that, with one exception, possibly lisa murkowski at least willing to debate it. have you -- are there contacts ongoing? and is there any hope that republicans will join in defending our democracy? >> there's always hope. and certainly as senator mccaskill would point out, we have seen strange bed fellows come together usually around moments when we know our nation is in crisis. i remain very hopeful that the same type of patriotism that led them to run for office will remind them of why they are in office, and that is to protect our democracy and to protect the american voter. we have to act not because everyone is together, but to keep us together. and that is why i'm so bullish on the possibility of these bills passing. we've seen lisa murkowski vote in order to continue debate, but we have also seen bipartisan support of the native american voting rights act. we have seen an understanding and the cognition of what's at stake, and now we need to expand that to ensure that it protects every american regardless of their zip code. if they want to participate in our democracy, if they are eligible, they should be allowed to register, to stay on the rolls, to cast the ballot and have that ballot counted. >> stacy, tell us about the book. who is it written for? temperature us about the story of little stacy as she goes through the spelling bee and the challenges that she faces and how she overcomes them. >> i am very excited about stacy's extraordinary words. i love words. and as a kid, i was the daughter -- my mom was a librarian when i was growing up. she's now a minister as is my dad. we used to take naps in the stacks. i grew up literally surrounded by words all the time. this is a book about a little girl who faces a new challenge, who uses words as both a comfort and as a galvanizer and catalyst. but the subtext is also that she is afraid to use her words sometimes to protect herself and to protect those around her. so this is a story of perseverance, about, you know, competing and finding your voice. and i'm so excited to have the chance to share this book and especially with the illustrator kitt thomas who used extraordinary artistic capacity to bring the story to live. >> and you said that it was a teacher of your own from your childhood who has inspired you partly in writing this book. tell us about her. >> miss blakesly was my second grade teacher. i was promoted from first to second grade in the early part of my opening tenure in elementary school, and it was a very scary time to move and to suddenly have to make new friends. she realized that i was quiet and reserved. and instead of making me go outside and play back when dodge ball was really dodge ball, she would let me stay inside the classroom and read. and between her and my mom and my dad and my siblings, i was able to use books as a way to really figure out who i was going to be. and miss blakesly is prominently featured in the book as is my mom and my first foray into the spelling bee. >> congratulations on the book, stacy's extraordinary words. you hop into the georgia governor's race as you ran three years ago, you'll size up the field. you may face brian kemp again. what's different this time? >> we have hundreds of thousands of new voters on the rolls who have voted for democrats. in fact, we saw that happen in 2020 and 2021. but more importantly, we are watching the triple crises in health care, in education and the economy that are being not addressed by our current leadership. so we have failed leadership on one side and we have extraordinary opportunity on the other side, and my mission is to be the governor who leads us towards that opportunity by bringing folks together, not using division, but using an opportunity to thrive as the message for our communities. >> and i know, stacy, how excited you are to have received donald trump's sort of, sort of endorsement in the race saying you'd be better than brian kemp. stacey abrams, thanks so much for being with us. congratulations again on the book. >> thank you all so much. good morning. >> still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump endorses also the governor of alaska in his bid for reelection. but there is a catch. we'll explain next. inner voice (kombucha brewer): i'm dramatically holding this bottle, so the light hits it just right, and people think... wow... ...he knows what he's doing... ...when i'm actually pretty lost with my payroll taxes. intuit quickbooks helps you manage your payroll taxes. cheers. 100% accurate payroll tax calculations guaranteed. ♪ 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 trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy. ♪ ...feelin' good ♪ no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. the sun is up now over the united states capitol. former president donald trump is endorsing republican alaska governor mike dunleavy for re-election in 2022. but, with the condition that he not endorse republican senator lisa murkowski. in a statement trump writes this, quote, alaska needs mike dunleavy as governor now more than ever. he has my complete and total endorsement, but this endorsement is subject to his nonendorsement of senator lisa murkowski who has been very bad for alaska. in other words, if mike endorses her, which is my prerogative, my endorsement of him is null and void. murkowski one of seven republican senators who voted to convict trump following his impeachment connected to the capitol insurrection. trump since has made her a top target in the upcoming midterms. complete and total, john lemire, with 37 cacaveats. >> a complete and total endorsement but this is neither complete nor total, in fact. i also do appreciate, as you did, he had to explain it a second time. here is what i mean by that. there's a whole other sentence there. jokes aside, there's a limit how much of an impact this will hold. great sway over the republican party. alaska is its own thing and murkowski won as a write-in candidate so she is very popular there. trump may not have as much sway over the voters in the great state of alaska as in the lower 48. >> this is an example where people like mitch mcconnell, for example, say donald trump please, please don't meddle in our elections the way you did in georgia and cost us the united states senate. >> exactly. this is what -- democrats have to plan as if republicans will put up reasonable noncrazy candidates and they have to plan to beat them, but it will be extraordinarily fortunate for democrats if trump does insert himself to the point of destroying potential winning republican candidates and promoting others who are too radical or too unhinged to be elected. and it looks like that's what he's going to do. >> gene, you have my complete and total endorsement with no conditions, my friend. amazing. let's turn to new details coming out after police opened fire on a suspect in los angeles and then a bullet struck and killed a 14-year-old girl who was hiding in a dressing room at a department store. we do want to warn you some of the video you will see in the piece is disturbing. nbc news has more. >> reporter: a growing outcry for justice. >> never should this 14-year-old little girl ended up as collateral damage. >> reporter: after a 14-year-old was inadvertently shot and killed by police who were pursuing an assault suspect in a store. valentina orellana-peralta died in her mother's arms dress shopping two days before christmas. heartbroken parents mourning their loss. the los angeles police department releasing body cam and store security video revealing the tense moments before the shooting. >> he's breaking things. >> reporter: the suspect with a bike and heavy duty cable lock seen acting strangely inside a burlington store before attacking several women. a frantic evacuation. >> evacuate the building. >> reporter: 911 calls capturing the chaos and conflicting reports of what weapon the man was wearing. one victim brutally beaten. a trail of blood leading police officers to her. >> victim down. victim down! >> reporter: as they moved in, repeated calls among the force to slow down. >> slow down. slow down. slow down. slow down. >> reporter: and then, three shots. >> shots fired. shots fired. >> reporter: an officer striking the suspect, 24-year-old daniel lopez. one of the bullets ricocheted off the ground and pierced a wall. >> unbeknownst to the officers a 14-year-old girl was in the changing room behind the wall. >> reporter: calling police tactics into question. >> these officers that went inside the burlington coat factory were faced with what we call some of the characteristics of a crisis which are uncertainty, making decisions based on confusing, ambiguous and conflicting information. >> a terrible story there, 14-year-old valentina tragically was killed. still ahead, remembering two titans from two different worlds who died yesterday. the legacy of former senate majority leader harry reid. plus john madden. mike tirico joins us to remember the football icon. "morning joe" is coming back. ck i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. but my nunormal with nucala? fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection-site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, december 29. a busy morning of news on this week. a couple days before a new year. with us msnbc contributor, best-selling author of katty kay and jonathan lemire, and former u.s. senator, now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill. we're so glad claire could jump on to talk about the death of long time senate majority leader harry reid, her former colleague. his wife of 62 years announced in a statement last night reid passed away peacefully while surrounded by friends following what she called a courageous battle of cancer. he held the role of senate majority leader 2007 to 2015 and was a pivotal figure on capitol hill during the administrations of both george w. bush and barack obama. president biden, who worked with reid for two decades in the senate and then eight years while vice president paid tribute to the person he called a great american and a dear friend. in a statement the president wrote this. if harry said he would do something, he did it. if he gave you his word, you could bank on it. that's how he got things done for the good of the country for decades. president biden listed a number of reid's accomplishments including helping to pass the affordable care act and economic recovery legislation in the wake of the great recession. nbc's chris clackum has more. the highlight, at least for me -- >> reporter: harry reid was known as a tenacious fighter before becoming a senator. his toughness shined as a scrappy boxer and later as a u.s. capitol police officer. he got his political start in nevada politics serving on the state's gaming commission in the late '70s and early '80s. then climbed onto the national political stage in 1983 serving two terms in the house and for the next 30 years as u.s. senator from nevada. even becoming senate majority leader in 2007. >> i do hope they will do their constitutional duty -- >> reporter: during his tenure, reid was a sharp critic of president george w. bush but instrumental in the obama years, passing major legislation like the affordable care act. throughout his career reid also championed a cause dear to him. land conservation in nevada. it was a severe injury suffered on exercise equipment in january 2015 that eventually led to the fierce fighter losing some punch. although reid refused to admit it at the time. >> and is there any situation related to this that would cause you to not seek re-election? >> no, at this stage i'm fully intending to run. >> reporter: two months later, reid announced his retirement. he and his wife, both con verpt converted mormons had five children and nearly two dozen grandchildren. in 2018 diagnosed with pancreatic cancer reid underwent surgery to remove a tumor and spent the last fight of his life with family back home in nevada. >> claire, we so appreciate you coming in to talk about hair qui reid with us this morning. you served alongside him in the united states senate. what are your thoughts this morning? >> well, i have a lot of emotion about harry reid. as i remember well, harry reid became majority floor leader after some very close elections in the united states senate in the states of missouri, montana, and virginia. that was john tester, jim webb and me that won in 2006 that gave harry reid the position of majority floor leader. i got to know him very well during my campaign. he knew missouri was essential. and, by the way, one of the things harry reid did well -- there were many things harry reid worked at hard but didn't do well -- one of the things he did well was he understood the value of grassroots and funding grassroots. people liked to call harry reid the boss of nevada. he wasn't so much a boss as he was a benefactor. he raised money for the state party in nevada so they could do the outreach, they could do the groundwork. they could recruit the volunteers. they could identify the voters. and that's what he funded in my state in 2006. which made a big difference. the senate campaign committee really focused on that ground game. he got politics. now, as molly said, he was charismatically challenged. this was not a man of soaring oratory. this was not a man of flowery conversation. we all can recount the times we talked to harry reid on the phone -- i talked to him not that long ago on the phone -- and when he said what he had to say, he hung up. no, gosh, claire, aren't you wonderful, aren't things great? he just hung up the phone. he was really good one-on-one. he was really good at establishing trust with the members of the senate, of his party. he was really good at getting things done and making deals and accomplish things. but the television was not his best friend. >> all business all the time it sounds like, claire. let's talk about one of thinks finest hours for democrats and for president obama, pushing the affordable care act across the line. a massive piece of landmark legislation in this country. what was his role and what did it say about his style? as you say, he wasn't one to make a big flowery speech on the floor of the senate but working behind the scenes to get an incredibly difficult lift up over the finish line. >> well, keep in mind he had 60 votes. we had 58 democrats and two independents that were working as, in fact, democrats, caucusing with the democrats. so we had 60. but just like chuck schumer today has to get all 50, he had to get all 60. and we had, you know, a few people that had some joe manchin-like tendencies. there were many moderates in the senate caucus, in the democratic caucus, and he had to work very hard to get mary landrieu. he had to work hard to get ben nelson from nebraska. and he made deals, and those deals were criticized when the affordable care act, which became known as obamacare, when it was at the height of his unpopularity in the 18 months following the passage, when people began to realize the benefits. it proved to be very popular and was so popular the republicans could not get rid of it when they finally tried. they did not have the votes to do it because it became an important part of the health care delivery system in this country. and harry knew over time that would happen but he was willing to take the political hits, which he took after the passage -- you'll of us took -- after the passage of the bill. he knew it was that important not only to president obama but to the country. >> he had that kind of great mixture of a very soft voice, which somehow belied what you knew was this tough negotiator underneath. if you put harry reid back running the democrats in the senate today, how would he have handled the situation with joe manchin and kyrsten sinema? do you think he could do it? >> i don't know. i think it's very partisan now, much more so. keep in mind the first amendment i passed in the senate as a young senator when harry reid had been majority floor leader was an amendment to allow tsa employees to collectively bargain and passed, i think, 51/49. that was when you didn't have to have 60 votes for everything. it was back when it was not unusual to have 40 members, 20 democrats and 20 republicans, meeting on a constant basis to try to find common ground. it was not so partisan, it was not -- the middle was not a dangerous place to be when harry reid was majority floor leader. it was okay to compromise and find common ground. so it is much harder today, the politics have been much more calcified and it's much tougher. i know he would do it one-on-one, though. he wouldn't do it in front of a camera. he would figure out one-on-one how to get the votes that he needed if it was at all possible because he was a master at that. that's how he became majority floor leader. it wasn't because everybody thought he would do a great job on "meet the press." >> hey, claire, it's jonathan. senator reid grew up in real poverty in nevada. his father was an alcoholic who died. his mother did laundry at a brothel. that was her job. he had to hitchhike back and forth to high school sometimes up to 40 miles. he rose to become the most powerful politician by far, played a huge hand in convincing barack obama to run for president. we just talked about his legislative accomplishments. will his legacy be remembered as one of the real titans of the senate in the decades to come? >> there's only two senators in history that were majority floor leader longer than harry reid, and he did accomplish a great deal as a senator, and i think he may be one of the last. when you take on the job of majority floor leader, you know it's not going to make you more popular. you take all the slings and arrows of people within your party who are frustrated and don't think you're doing enough but also all the slings and arrows of the opposition party. so harry knew that his job was not about being popular. it was about getting things done, and he was singularly focused on that. and i think he will go down as someone who figured out how to make things happen. i mean, look at the list. not just obamacare but all of the unpopularity surrounding tarp and the stimulus act, saving the automobile industry. when bush was still president and right in the middle of a presidential campaign shepherding through what we had to do to save our economic system from pure disaster. after the days of the financial collapse in the fall of 2008. that was harry reid quietly but firmly behind the scenes. and you're right, jonathan. people don't republic lies -- there's always these stories of harpship in politics and overcoming hardship. i don't think people realize to the extent harry reid overcame hardship. his house didn't even have plumbing growing up. his father was a miner, an alcoholic who died when he was young. as you said, his mother had to feed her children. she had to take in laundry from neighboring brothels. this is someone who really grew up knowing what it meant to fight for a family, and he was a boxer as a young man, a very good boxer, and he is somebody -- he said famously one time, i know how to dance and i know how to fight. i'd rather dance than fight, but if i have to fight, i know how. still ahead, supply chain issues have many americans scrambling for some goods and paying a lot more for them. how long will the issues persist in the new year? we'll take a look at that next on "morning joe." e. from the beginning, newday has been the mortgage company for enlisted veterans, helping thousands buy a home, get cash, or lower their mortgage payments. we start by asking one simple question: how can we help that veteran? with more ways to help more veterans, no bank, no lender, no one knows veterans like newday usa. it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, no interest until january 2025. ends january 3rd. we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? shingrix protects. you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90% effective. shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your pharmacist or doctor about shingrix. shingles doesn't care. but you should. your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire plaque psoriasis, the tightness, stinging... ...the pain. matching your job description. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. when you have xfinity, you have entertainment built in. which is kind of nice. ah, what is happening. binge-watching is in the bag, when you find all your apps, all in one place. find live sports faster just by using your voice... sports on now. touchdown irish! [cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. what does a foster kid need from you? to be brave. to show up. for staying connected. the questions they weren't able to ask. show up for the first day of school, the last day at their current address. for the mornings when everything's wrong. for the manicure that makes everything right, for right now. show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com welcome back. the international supply chain has been strained around the world and in some cases outright broken. here is nbc news correspondent kerry sanders. >> reporter: these are some of the shortages we experienced in 2021. paper, they've seen it spike 60% in value. >> the great ketchup shortage -- >> an issue that could put a damper on your thanksgiving day plans -- >> reporter: folks, drivers were easy to find in this seat. shortages will be with us again in 2022. we've already seen travel troubles in the air heading into the new year but if you're thinking of driving for your next trip be ready for some pain at the pump. on average a gallon of gas is more than a dollar higher than last year with more americans on the road now than at any other point during the pandemic. >> the consumer should get used to paying in excess of $3 a gallon as economies around the world continue to demand increases. >> reporter: many shortages in the grocery aisles from meat to cereal to syrup have been resolved as production ramped up. while some staples like cream cheese have been harder to come by. in some places there is hope there are shortages, as in a shortage of snow. why? not enough snowplow drivers and few are lining up for the jobs. >> we're not sure why we're not getting people we used to and why we're not getting the drivers that want to do it. >> reporter: economists blame employee shortages from cooks to wait staffs to housekeeping at hotels on the so-called great resignation of 2021. they are finding better positions and older americans retiring early. retiring police leaving some cities like washington, dc, with officers still on the job exhausted. >> sometimes their days off are canceled, working weeks at a time without a day off this is approaching catastrophic levels. >> reporter: at hospitals no shortage of covid patients has resulted in a full-on shortage of nurses. >> many nurse have is been dealing with this for two years have decided to call it quits. >> reporter: one supply chain shortage computer chips slowing production of new cars, clothes dryers, even electric tooth brushes. >> what i'm hearing is around the midway point of the year this could start easing up but it will take a while. >> reporter: some shortages are of our own making. the mint says there are plenty of coins in america but there is still a shortage in circulation. why? even though americans are getting back out there, look at the holiday crowds at airports for proof of that, experts say the covid effect has left many of us reluctant to touch money. >> nbc's kerry sanders reporting for us there. coming up next, 2021 was the year of weather extremes from deadly tornadoes to catastrophic flooding. al roker has tracked it all and we'll get his new reporting next on "morning joe." i lost 26 pounds and i feel incredible. with the new personalpoints program, i answer questions about my goals and the foods i love. i like that the ww personalpoints plan is built just for me. start the new year with three months free. join today at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 3rd. find your rhythm. j your happy place.m. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. (soft music) hey dad, i'm about to leave. don't forget your hat . good morning. how can i help? i need help connecting with my students. behind every last minute save, ok, that works. and holiday surprise, thank you! a customer service rep is working unseen, making it happen. and at genesys, we're proud to help them help you everyday. 2021 was the year of extreme weather events. scientists say climate change has contributed to the worsening conditions. this year brought historic levels of funding, though, for climate-related projects around the nation. nbc's al roker takes us through it all. 2021, another blistering year of climate and weather extremes from wildfires and drought to catastrophic flooding and hurricanes. almost no state escaping unscathed. this year seemed to pick up where 2020 left off with one major exception. four years after withdrawing from the paris climate, we were brought back into the fold. >> we can no longer delay or do the bare minimum to address climate change. >> reporter: world leaders pledging to do their part to stop the earth from warming past 1.5 degrees celsius. scientists say any warming beyond 2 degrees would be catastrophic. as winter carried on, texas endured a cataclysmic event when cold caused by a breakdown in the polar vortex sent icy air plunging south crippling the state's power grid leaving residents freezing without water and in the dark for days. >> we haven't had water for ten days. for the first couple of days we were collecting snow and melting the snow. >> reporter: what unfolded in texas may no longer be a once-in-a-lifetime event. this tragedy exposing one of the most fragile parts of our country, its crumbling and ill fitting infrastructure. in the northwest it was sporadic weather patterns that created a once in a millennia heat wave resulting in some of the highest temperatures ever recorded in the region. temperatures in portland, seattle, and parts of canada soaring well above 100 degrees. at least 228 people dying in washington state and oregon alone. >> electricity went off. quickly getting warmer and warmer. >> reporter: kicking off an unprecedented summer of heat, 2021 will go down in history as the hottest summer on record for the united states. mega fires in the west burning for months. the bootleg fire in oregon becoming the state's biggest this year burning more than 413,000 acres. the dixie fire becoming the second largest to ever scorch parts of california. >> i didn't know where i was, whose house was what, and it was just a wasteland. >> grateful to be alive. we've got each other. >> reporter: the 2021 hurricane season, while not as prolific as the record-shattering 2020, was still an overachiever. there were 21 named storms and category 3 or higher hurricanes. hurricane ida lashing louisiana, still recovering from last year's four landfalls. we are looking at imminent landfall of this storm. the deadly hurricane flattening entire communities leaving millions of people in louisiana without power. some outages lasting for months. ida then slashed a path of destruction into the northeast dumping up to 10 inches of rain in some parts of the region. several areas seeing one-night all-time record totals for the month of september. new york city taking a direct hit from the tropical storm with subways turning into walls of water and floods pushing cars down streets. the storm once again turned deadly when basement apartments were submerged trapping residents. while the east got too much water, the bone-dry west in its second decade of extreme drought hit a tipping point. lake meade dropping to its lowest levels triggering severe restrictions over how much water states could use from the connecting colorado river system hitting arizona agriculture the hardest. >> the pie is shrinking and there will be less water for everyone in the 21st century. >> reporter: to help address the mounting issues the bipartisan infrastructure bill was signed into law in november including historic levels of funding and weatherization. clean energy investments and capping orphaned oil and gas wells. >> despite the cynics, democrats and republicans can come together and deliver results. >> reporter: this should be where the story ends and once did until a wild and rare week of extreme weather struck in december. tornadoes tearing through kentucky and neighboring states killing scores and leveling multiple towns. entire communities left in ruins. >> mayfield will be okay. it's just going to be a long time. >> reporter: just five days later a historic storm leaving a trail of destruction stretching from the west coast to the great lakes. minnesota recording its first ever tornado in the month of december. as 2021 comes to a close, a country weary from a pandemic bracing for what is certain to be another year of extremes. >> al roker reporting there. coming up next, remembering nfl hall of fame coach and broadcaster john madden. mike tirico of nbc sports joins our conversation next. how not to be a hero: because that's the last thing they need you to be. you don't have to save the day. you just have to navigate the world so that a foster child isn't doing it solo. you just have to stand up for a kid who isn't fluent in bureaucracy, or maybe not in their own emotions. so show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind for the foster kids built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. welcome back to "morning joe." we got the news late last night that the great john madden died yesterday morning at the age of 85. his name has been synonymous with football for decades both for nfl fans and an entire generation of young people who know him from his wildly popular video game. nbc news correspondent sam brock reports on madden's life. >> reporter: on the sidelines as an nfl head coach -- >> come on, defense! let's start off and stay after them the whole game. >> reporter: and as decades as a broadcaster. >> it's super football. i love these kinds of games. >> reporter: john madden left a larger than life footprint on the nfl. >> he makes a little basketball twist and pivot and, boom, the ball is there. >> reporter: the winningest coach with 100 or more games, remarkably enjoyable maddenisms. >> boom, stay on your feet. that's it. >> reporter: madden teamed up with pat summerall for more than two decades, one of the most beloved broadcast teams in history. he later shared the booth with al michaels who said it was his connection with people who transcended to sport. >> a lot of it had to do with john traveling for all of those years on a bus, couldn't get on a plane. he was claustrophobic. he would see parts of the country we never see. >> reporter: something with madden just clicked for americans whether it was beer commercials -- >> light beer tastes great. >> reporter: "snl" hosting gigs -- >> the fight was fair. >> are you kidding me, man? >> reporter: movie cameos -- >> and falko is going to hit him with the ball right in the back. >> reporter: or for many younger people -- >> bam! the blitz starts now. >> reporter: it was the video game with his name and likeness. that kept generations of gamers glued to their screens. the nfl today mourning a once-in-a-lifetime figure with many players including tom brady paying tribute to a legend of the game. few individuals meant as much to the growth and popularity as coach madden whose impact on the game both on and off the field was immeasurable. >> and he loved the game like nobody in football and you knew it. >> reporter: but it was clear from his hall of fame speech madden was always a team first kind of guy. >> i ride on the shoulders of hundreds of friends, coaches, players, colleagues, family. and i just say this. i thank you all very much and this has been the sweetest ride of them all. >> a man who, like john madden, is the best at what he does. commentator for nbc sports, mike tirico. we've been talking about the coach, about the color commentator, about the video game that our boys love to play and know him from. can you talk about the way john madden changed what you do for a living? >> oh, my gosh, willie, in so many ways. and happy holidays. john madden made the color commentator in football the star of the show. so many of us who call games now have pieces of madden next to us in certain ways that many the analysts don't even know, how they draw on the telestrator, how they explain things. john had a special way of taking the complexities and making them explainable to your mom, to a kid who never played the game before. he did it with color and excitement and passion and emotion. i think going to cover the game up in green bay this weekend. we go in on fridays before a sunday game to do production meetings. that's a madden thing. madden pulled the curtain back a little bit on football and made us as broadcasters all find a way to bring it closer to people at home. >> i didn't realize that. we were talking earlier in one of those production meetings he said we should put a yellow line on the screen to show viewers where the first down is and fox sports puts it in. i wonder what your memories are as a fan and the same generation give or take a couple years. i remember watching him and pat summerall and i was a giants fan, thinking we have a big game, summerall and madden are doing the game. promoting 60 minutes and "murder, she wrote" coming up after the game. >> it's "murder, she wrote" with a long pause in between. you're right. and think about this, willie, if you're a fan in your 50s, late 50s or older, you think of madden, the coach of the raiders who won 103 games, went up against shula's dolphins and the great steelers teams with a whole bunch of hall of famers and won a super bowl. for me the 49ers' soundtrack with montana and rice. the giants like you mentioned with lawrence taylor coached by bill parcells. all those teams feel like madden was a soundtrack for them. for me madden worked with the two guys who called the most super bowls. pat summerall and al michaels was a perfect match with both at different times and points over the years. my agent is the same person who got his start by representing john madden. not just the great football stuff but the great person. he was so personable and so welcoming to so many. >> famously very generous. mike barnicle wants to say a few words. >> mike, it's always great to see you and hear you. >> same. >> at every event that you cover. i am old enough to recall the days you would get on tv in new england were the new york football giants. the announcer was chris schenkel, and they were entertaining games. the giants had a great team, that was a long time ago. all of a sudden years later john madden arrives on the scene of "monday night football" and fox and cbs and things like that and the conversational aspect, at least to me, was introduced to pro football. i want to ask you about the performance of the conversational aspect of working with someone, you hear as a viewer, that's the guy who was in the restaurant the other night talking to me about pro football or that's the guy who was in the tavern three stools down talking about football. how important is it? >> mike, it's huge. all of us strive for can we be the two bar stools or that couch in your tv room. as you sit in your most comfortable chair, can we as an announce team be the combo on the couch as you sit in your chair and we feel like we're in a conversation and you're pushed to say, yeah, that's right. you're pushed to respond to the tv. and madden's gregarious warm way, his comfort with players, his ability to tell a story, what's great about this show, what's great about so many shows, it's conversation. i was talking to brett favre the other day and brett favre is like a normal guy. instead of this perfectly parsed sentence madden would just be in conversation. madden's statements were a bunch of ellipses, ending with a lot of exclamation points. and that's conversation at the end of the day and the magic of madden is something we all strive to achieve in every booth we walk into no matter the game, no matter the sport. just talk to people. >> mike tirico, it's jonathan lemire. great to see you. between the coaching and the commercials and the commentating and particularly the video game, the argument can be made john madden has done as much to grow the game of football and to spark interest in the game of football as some of the biggest names who ever played the sport, tom brady, joe montana, lawrence taylor, walter payton. if there was a mount rushmore of nfl, doesn't john madden's face have to be on there? >> no doubt. way too early are players coming to the nfl with knowledge of cover two and zone blitzes. you know why? they play the madden game at ages 7, 8, 9 and 10. and coaches go for two points a lot because they say they grew up playing madden where you go for two all the time. jonathan, i think because of those three unique and different aspects, he does belong on whatever mount rushmore, whatever monument you want. as a coach his winning percentage for guys who have coached 100 games is still the best. he won three-quarters of his games. as a broadcaster we've talk about his impact, the emmy awards. on the screen with a telestrator that started with john madden. that was somebody's invention off his idea, let's make it happen. and then the video games. that's a $7 billion industry over the years, just the madden video franchise, because of john. the one thing i want to make sure i mention, john passed away rather suddenly at 85, but on sunday fox did an incredible documentary. my friend tom rinaldi. john got to see that with his family. essentially john got to see all the ears of football talk about his impact 48 hours before he left us. and we should all hope to live a life like john's, some day we get to sit and listen to the impact we made on their lives. he had that chance on sunday. >> he lived and worked with such joy. mike tirico, so glad you could come and join us. you carry on that great tradition and legacy every time you step behind a mic. >> oh, please. >> great to see you. >> thank you, sir. happy new year. >> a year in pictures is next on "morning joe." why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because my sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing so i stay cool. and senses my movement and effortlessly adjusts to help keep me comfortable. the sleep number 360 smart bed is on sale now. only from sleep number. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love... plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? now get powerful relief with robitussin elderberry. ♪♪ an update now on some troubling new milestones in the pandemic. across the united states the total number of covid cases now tops 53 million. nbc news correspondent shaquille brewster has the latest. >> reporter: this morning covid is spreading at a record-setting pace in the u.s. with exceeding a quarter million. the cdc is significantly revising its estimate. now saying the variant accounts for roughly 59% accounts for roughly 59% of new cases, down from the previously estimated 73%. experts say estimates were always subject to change but may cause confusion. >> i do actually think they should have done a better job communicating the confidence intervals. >> reporter: the cdc shortened its quarantine guidelines to five days. the cdc recommends masks afterwards but dr. jerome adams tweeting "you should really try to be obtain an anttigen test. an nbc news analysis showing pediatric hospitalizations increasing twice as fast as adults, more than doubling in ten states, though it's not clear if the impacted children had been vaccinated. new york city is pushing back on calls to delay return to the classroom after the holiday break. >> we need to keep schools open. there are really high prices that we pay as a society when children are not in school. >> reporter: instead the nation's largest school district is increasing access to at-home covid tests and changing its policy to allow asymptomatic students with close covid contacts to stay in the classroom with a negative test. >> your children are safer in school. >> reporter: but questions over testing remain. a new fda study found those rapid antigen tests may be less sensitive to omicron and recommending symptomatic people seek out a pcr test. >> shaq brewster reporting for us. the impact of the pandemic is illustrated in "visions of a volatile world." "the year began with an insurrection at the capitol and saw a summer of carefree gatherings derailed by a fast-spreading virus. joining us is editor of the "new york times" sunday review, he curated this year's collection for the times' "year in pictures." let's walk through some of these beginning on january 6th with officer eugene goodman, an iconic photograph. >> this is a really powerful image taken by ashley gilbertson on january 6th where he just sort of moved in with the mob, which he wasn't expecting and came around and there was goodman. and ashley was very concerned when he saw goodman put his hand on his side arm there that, you know, he might start shooting but he was very impressed that he kept his calm and he directed the mob, you know, he diverted them away from the senate chamber. ashley said there weren't many moments that we could be proud of that day, but this was top of the one of the most proudest moments he felt. >> you could make a strong case that eugene goodman was the person of the year and remembering that video, him leading the mob away from the chamber. >> a lot of people saying that elon musk was not the right person that should have been chosen, it should have been eugene goodman. going to nor iconic moment and that was when we finally all got access to the vaccine and you have a nurse pulling the vaccine. >> this is a beautiful image of a nurse in germany where they set up the foyer to vaccinate people and the color pallet and the perspective of the windows and stuff going back, it's just a beautiful, beautiful image. >> good morning. i want to talk to about another significant and gorgeous and moving photographs taken in afghanistan. here we can see a group of women, a girl being reunited with her mother after a recent bombing. tell us about this. >> this image i thought was quite beautiful. it reminded me of like a renaissance painting the way the light of falling. it's by a photographer kiana, a woman who has been photographing in afghanistan for many years. and there had just been a bombing and a mother was being reunited with one of her daughters, one of the other daughters got killed in the bombing, but the moment, the light and, you know, being a woman photojournalist in afghanistan, you know, that's quite a challenge i would imagine. >> and obviously this was the year the united states pulled out of afghanistan after nearly 20 years. there's another photograph of a soldier beginning that withdrawal. tell us about it. >> this is jim holibrook, on a helicopter. we felt this was iconic with the united states pulling out, looking over kabul there, you see the american flag on the soldier's back. it was one of those great moments that combined a lot of different elements. and really well executed. and holibrook has been in afghanistan for seven years. and when kabul fell, we said you might want to get out and he said, no, i've been here too long, i've got to follow this through. he's still there. >> there have been so many lows and also a few highs. one of the photographs that you have in the collection is from juneteenth here in washington, d.c. look at this, just the joy that jumps out of this photograph as people are celebrating that holiday. >> yeah, that was, you know, in these projects, in the year in pictures, we're always looking for pictures of joy. so of the news is not quite so joyous. this image by kenny holliston in washington, he really captured the moment and framed everybody really nicely. you know, it was the first juneteenth day holiday. so that was a nice moment, really captured well by kenny. >> mike barnicle. >> jeffrey, we're going to put up a photo, i hope, of the fires that nearly consumed half of the west coast, and it gets to the point of climate change, the threat that climate change poses to the world, but there's a larger question i'd like to ask you about all of these photos we're showing and the photos that you had to choose from. i assume it was among thousands of photos taken across the year that you had to choose from and years ago when i would be on assignment with a photographer, guys like stan grossfeld, who won a coup of pulitzer prizes, they would take a shot of something i was writing about and i would look at the photo once it was developed back then, and the emotion that the photo would capture would grab me and i'm wondering in your selection of these photos, how much of a role did emotion, your emotion play in choosing the photos? >> well, emotion is always powerful in photos and the human element and the experience that people may be having in these situations like that shot that max whitaker did in the fire. i mean, you feel the urgency of that. that's an emotional feeling and other pictures, you know, of pain and choice. like the last one by kenny. those kinds of emotions when a photographer can capture that clearly, that's what we look for. we go through hundreds of thousands of pictures. i start me and my co-editor tanner curtis, we start out by looking at every picture "the new york times" published over the year and we do deeper dives on other subjects. but capturing emotion is very important in great photography. >> you had a great shot from the olympics of suni lee who won the all-around competition performing on the beam in tokyo. >> yeah, this was just a beautifully captured image by doug mills, who is our white house photographer and he was through the trump administration and just capturing this fantastic athlete, perfectly framed, you know, she went on to win the gold. just, you are know, a great, great sports photograph. >> jeffrey, i'll note that doug mills is an american treasure and a great guy, knowing him from the white house. let me ask you about a heart wrenching photograph here from the mexican border, if you could describe to us what we're seeing here, the emotion plain as day in this image. >> yeah, this image by daniel is -- the story behind this is this woman with her children was migrating up from i believe honduras and they got near in wares there and said we're going to put you on a bus and take you over the bridge. they took them over the bridge and then they walked back and she thought she was in america but she was actually back in mexico and this is like the moment she realizes, all this journey and i didn't make it. >> it's no easy task to get a year's worth of photographs from all your great photographers down to this collection. did you it and it's the 201 year in pictures, it online now. thank you so much for bringing them to us. that does it for us this morning. we'll see you right back here. for now chris jansing picks up the coverage. >> hi there, i'm in for stephanie ruhle. it is wednesday, december 29th. we have a lot to get to. yet another record to tell you about as the u.s. is at an all-time high for new coronavirus infections. the seven-day case average is now at more than 262,000 daily u.s. cases as of tuesday. that breaks a nearly year-old record. and the overall numbers are equally concerning. the u.s. has now surpassed 53 million cases more than 823,000 deaths since the pandemic began. and the one-two punch of omicron and delta continue to wreak havoc, everything from flights, to college bowl games to broadway shows cancelled. a

Related Keywords

Wall , Governor , Woman , Thanks , Cheek , Arm , Allegations , Former , Joe Madden , Morning Joe , Surging Omicron Variant , Couple , News , Cattie Kay , December 29th , Contributor , Msnbc , Best Selling , Wednesday December 29th , 29 , Nbc News , Death , Claire Mccaskill , U S Senator , Host , Way Too Early , Harry Reid , United States Senate , Statement , Friends , Colleague , Bat , 62 , Four , Majority Leader , Terms , Figure , Role , House Of Representatives , Pancreatic Cancer , 1986 , Two , 2015 , 2007 , Joe Biden , Person , Barack Obama , Vice President , George W Bush , Administration , Great American , Friend , Capitol Hill , Eight , Something , Country , Affordable Care Act , Things , Harry , Word , Number , Good , Accomplishments , Reporter , Legacy , Legislation , Recovery , Highlight , Wake , Recession , Tenacious Fighter , Chris Clackham , Politics , Senator , Boxer , Poverty , Nevada , Police Officer , Toughness , U S Capitol , Start , State , House , Stage , Gaming Commission , 1983 , 70 , 30 , 80 , Duty , Instrumental , Leadership Tenure , Critic , Career , Land Conservation , Him , Exercise Equipment , Fighter , Punch , Injury , January 2015 , Situation , Re Election , Reidtirement , Surgery , Mormons , Tumor , 60 , 2018 , Reporting , Family , Fight , Life , Thoughts , Home , Lot , Auto Motion , Elections , States , Jon Tester , Montana , Missouri , Virginia , Gym Webb , 2006 , One , Way , Campaign , Position , It Didn T , Floor Lood Leader , People , Grassroots , Wasn T , Funding , Benefactor , Boss , Value , Money , The Boss , Party , Voters , Volunteers , Groundwork , Campaign Committee , Difference , Outreach , Oman , Ground Game , Oratory , Molly Ivan , Conversation , Phone , Times , Aren T , Gosh , Deals , One On , Trust , Menz , Television , Let , Business , Best Friend , Talk , Behavior You Wouldn T , Democrats , Floor , Piece , Style , Landmark Legislation , Speech , Fordable Care Act Across The Line , Votes , Mind , Scenes , Independents , Finish Line , 58 , Fact , Caucusing , Chuck Schumer , 50 , Caucus , Moderates , Joe Manchin , Mary Landrieu , Tendencies , Ben Nelson , Nebraska , Passage , Surrounding Tarp , Benefits , Height , 18 , It , Part , Republicans , Course , Health Care Delivery System , Bill , Hits , Voice , Negotiator Underneath , Mixture , Kyrsten Sinema , Amendment , Agenda , I Don T Know , Employees , Tsa , Ten , 49 , 51 , Ground , Everything , Middle , Basis , 20 , Place , Floor Leader , Majority Floor Leader , Camera , Front , He Wouldn T , Master , Everybody , Job , Alcoholic , Father , It Wasn T , Meet The Press , Remarkable , Mother , Laundry , High School , Politician , Brothel , Hand , Far , 40 , Senators , History , Destiny , Accomplishment , Titans , Thing , Leaders , Deal , Last , People Don T , Opposition Party , Slings And Arrows , Slings , Someone , List , Bush , Automobile Industry , Stimulus Acts , System , Collapse , Disaster , 2008 , Hardship , Stories , Extent , Children , House Didn T , Plumbing , Miner , Somebody , Brothels , Population , Yes , Digits , Search Light , Bit , Story , Sharp Elbows , Cases , Data , Pandemic , Daily Record , Record , Covid Infections , New York Times , Average , 267000 , Seven , 251000 , Covid , Adults , Analysis , Rate , Omicron Variant Surgeries , School Districts , Classroom , College , Adult , Hospitalizations , Heidi Przybilla , Return , Camp Uses , In Washington And Antonio Hilton , Willie Geist , Heidi , Cambridge , Announcement , Massachusetts , Schools , Kids , Many , Survey , New York City , Preview , Like Washington , Chicago , L A , Testing , Test , Government , Challenge , Testing Demand , Guidance , Cdc , Approach , Others , Of A Principal S Association , Head , Concerns , Listen , Staffing , Testing Kits , Run On Rapid Test Kits , Kind , Staff , Order , Everywhere , Places , Demands , Effort , Teachers , Businesses , School Staff , Principals , Districts , Planning , Holiday , Teaching , 13 , 100 , Administrators , Strategy , Concern , Help , Testing Help , Health Departments , Decisions , Personnel , Parents , National School Of Tropical Medicine , De Blasio , Inplement The Test First Policy , Antonia Hilton , Control , Rest , Term , College Life , Dining Halls , Student Programming , Semester , Students , Booster , University Of California System , Proof , Boosters , Oregon State , University Of Michigan , Student Body , Umass , Vaccine , Plan , Surge , University Of Missouri , Harvard , Region , Requirement , Choice , Inbox , Christmas Break , Mask , Precautions , Upset , Safe , Institution , Forefront , Covid Campus Changes , Site , Implications , Scores , Sat , 2026 , Snapshot , Biggest , Table , New York City School District , Isn T , April Of 2020 , 2020 , Classes , Classrooms , Efforts , Student A Fifth Grader , Closures , Keeping Schools , Mayor , News Conference , Learning , Eric Adams , Point , Families , Schooling , Mental Health , Worging Parents , Dr , Peter Hotez , Texas Children Hospital Center For Vaccine Development , Co Director , Thinking , Importance , Listening , View , Wheelhouse , Snon , Parent , Report , Issue , Surgeon General , Mental Health Aspects , 19 , Problem , Level , Information , Lineages , Variants , Transmissiblity , Animal , Agent , Transmissible , Measles , Rise , Numbers , Washington D C , Ideal World , 1000 , Summer , Delay , Opening , Risk , Public Health System , Uk , Public Health , South Africa , Doctoral Degree , Agents , School Superintendent , Superintendent , Principles , Epidemiology , Health , Education , Dbacks , Background , Balancing , Management , Epidemic , Testing Requirements , Road , Doctor , State Health Departments , Vaccine Development , Trouble , Confusion , Guidelines , Covid Vax , Quarantine Times , Idea , Fun , Five , Virus , Hospitals , Read , Delta , Society , Components , First , Virus Shedding , Least , Dead Pan , Isolation , Quarantine , Degree , Hope , Best , Debacle , Health Care Providers , Texas , Use , Approval , India , World , Technology , Ones , Capacity , Vaccines , Reason , Hepatitis B Vaccine , Protein , Bangladesh , Technologies , Cost Technology , Southern Hemisphere , Indonesia , Vietnam , Brazil , Partner , Boxes , Settings , Vaccine Producers , Texas Childrens Center For Vaccine Development , Based In Hyderabad , Biological E , 300 Million , 1 Billion , 150 Million , Achievement , Team , Congratulations , Vaccinations , Commitment , Doses , Director , Guest , Rochelle Walensky , Broadcaster , Coach , Names , Gaming , Plus , Remembering A Legend , Generation , Greatest , Fee , Card , Narrator , Beach , How Bizarre , Omc , Office , President , Preacher , Threat , Bridge , Alabama , Tyranny , Oval , Nuclear War , Selma , Voting Rights , Generations , Call , Continent , Gate , Enemy Superpower Tear , West Berlin , Democracy , Freedom , Passing The Freedom To Vote Act , Liberty , Ideals , The Call , Justice , Robitussin Honey , Voting Rights Act , Back , John Lewis , Cough , Relief , Trash , Robitussin Elderberry , Entertainment , Xfinity , Sports , Binge Watching , Apps , Bag , Touchdown , Cheering , Nice , Irish , Cost , Supplements , Cabinet , The Hits Won T Quit , Peacock Premium , Ingredients , Planet , Probiotics , Athletic Greens , Regimen , Food , Minerals , Adaptogens , Immunity Supporting , Vitamins , Ag1 , 75 , Standards , Digestion Improving , Energy Lifting , Made In New Zealand , Nfl , Legend , Last Night Legendary Broadcaster , League , Cause , Super Bowl , Monday Night Football , Name , Knee Injury , Season , Coaching , Shot , Training Camp , Rookie , Draft , Philadelphia Eagles , 1958 , Raiders , Head Coach , Nothing , Seasons , Age , Playoff Appearances , Title , 1969 , 32 , Coaching Career , Games , Play , Broadcast Career , Recognizable , Pro Football Hall Of Fame , Oakland , Retirement , Color Commentator , Analyst , Sunday Night Football , Fox , Cbs , Abc , 1979 , Booth , Video Game , Broadcasting , Fans , 1988 , 2009 , Ea Sports , Personality , Popularity , Las Vegas , Madden Nfl Franchise , Dad , Football , Sundays , Pat Summerall , Grandfather , 85 , Game , Mark , My Son , 12 , 22 , Big Game , American Culture , He Made Football Fun , Town , Giants , 49ers , Winning Percentage , Cowboys , Hall Of Fame , Nfc , Sport , Video Game Franchise , Football Fans , Growth , Joy , Sideline , Game Guys , Box , Tv Set , Guy , Description , Fan , Boom , Didn T Play Professional Football , Saying , Athletic Guy , Cut , Hate , Experience , Kansas City Chiefs , Respect , Footage , 34 , 33 , Kid , Bus , Cruiser , Miller Life Ads , Pieces , Players , Down Line , Line , Tv , Production Meeting , Screen , Turducken , Mike Tirico , Coming Up , Show , Down , Nobody , Election , Peter Navarro , White House , I Don T , Liberty Mutual , Chances , Car Insurance , Bull Rider , Wooo , Woooooo , Yeaa , Pay , Turn , Hang On , Tex , 665 , 665 Dollars , Heartburn , Nexium 24hr , Acid , Cake , Night Protection , Nexium , 24hr , Chocolate Cake , 24 , Td Ameritrade , Innovation , Thinkorswim , Trading , Charts , Interfaces , Trading Experience , Orders , Trading Platform , Support , Perspective , Trade Desk , You Trade Forever , Sleep Number , Sleep , Bed , Pressure Points , Movements , Interest , Temperature Balancing , Prices , Ends January 3rd , January 3rd , 3 , 360 , 000 , January 2025 , 2025 , Hero , Chapter , 16 , 21 , January 16th , Mike Pence , Pulling Guards , Quarterback , Linemen , Fullbacks , Green Bay Packer , Sweep Vat Gee , Halfbacks , Peter Navaro , Results , Battleground States , Bottom , Victory , Sweep , Steve Bannon , Certification , Election Results , Sheds , 6 , January 6th , Power , Trump , Peace , Qualification , Calm , Ted Cruz , Paul Gosar , The Daily Beast , Congressmen , Clock , Pressure , Article , Protesters , Six , Legislatures , Investigations , Author , Palieri , Distinction , Confession , Violence , Sides , Coin , Accusations , Mob , Events , January 6th Committee , Attempt , January 6th Aren T , Fabric , Branch , Favor , Official , Coup , Win , Talks , Step , Mouth , Donald Trump , Guy Trump , Saw , Questions , Election Irregularities , Know , Scale , Book , Relationship , Actions , Decision , Pride , Football Metaphor , Cusp , Question , Ways , Behind The Scenes , Nut , Navorro , Outliers , Outlier , Josh Holley , Hyde Smith , Football Coach , Kansas , Tuberville , Mr , Communication , Messages , Text Messages , Communications , Committee Investigators , Hasn T , National Mall , Committee , Flight Cancellations , Latest , Phone Calls , Documents , Jose Paglieri , Doesn T Care , Bike , Vegetables , Coast To , Shinges , Planes , Scene , Shingles , Moves , Matter , Immune System Declines , Protection , 1 , Shingrix , 90 , Fainting , Reactions , Everyone , Headache , Dose , Injection Site , Side Effects , Swelling , Shivering , Tiredness , Redness , Muscle Pain , Guillain BarrÉ Syndrome , Fever , Stomach , Pharmacist , Shingles Doesn T Care , Sir , Baby Got Back , Discover , Unlimited Cashback Match , Silversneakers , Millions , Thousands , Access , Internet Connection , Seniors , Locations , Dot Com , Visiting Getsilversneakers , Look , Weather , Holidays , Picture , Americans , Air Travel , Toll , Washington Monument , 52 , Flights , Cancellations , 500 , 1300 , 700 , 7000 , Flight Attendant , Passenger , Complaint , Assault Charge , Rest Room , Patricia Cornwall , Spitting , Delta Flight , Tampa To Atlanta Last Thursday , Service , Seat , Cornwall , Rosa Parks , Bleep , Video , Regard , Masks , Argument , Come Plaping , Mask On , Sit Down , Karen , Toddler , Smarts , Looks , Work , Miss , Hard Work , Bend , Anyone , Nevada Independent , John Ralston , Harry Reid A Decade , Anna , Night , Extra , Reality , It Starts , Dream , Arugula , Points , Lifestyle , Program , Cheese , Ww Personalpoints , Diet Food , Assessment , Goals , Wine , Foods , Hurry , Ww Personalpoints Program , Offer Ends January 3rd , Ww Com , 26 , Three , Music , Plaque Psoriasis , Burning , Tthe Pain W Com , Itching , Symptoms , Ability , Infections , Emerge Tremfyant , Tremfya , Moderate , Skin , Infection , 59 , The Great Mike Barnicle , Eugene Robinson , Guys , Political Analyst , Mika , Boy , Passing , Icons , Losses , Both , Popular Culture , Still Hasn T , Aren T Democrats , Negotiation , Anything Else , Restaurant , Issues , Bar , The End , Lated , Language , English , Self , Mike Tarico , 35 , Quotes , Gestures , Dark Ages , 1996 , Time , Ears , Club , Charismaticly , Cliches , Indoor Plumbing , Siblings , Spac , Nevada Desert , Care , Successes , Character , Grit , Determination , Arena , Reid Care , More , Stuff , Nevada Gaming Commission , Leap , 70s And 80s , Scorsese Movies , Bunch , Religion , Faith , Hospital , Doctors , Lieutenant Governor , Spring Board , Assembly , 1974 , Race , Landslide , Mentor , Paul Waxal , Lost , Mike Ocala , Sulking , Bomb Threat , Wiretaps , Fbi , Congress , Census , Circle , 1980 , Jon Ralston , Challenges , Katty Kay , Each Other , Couldn T , Tv Camera , Catty , Done , Switching Parties , Colleagues , Bribery , Jim Jeffords , Case , Morning , On Board , Giant , Cliche , Charm Offensive , Aide , He Wasn T , Memo , Chatting , Wasn T The Setting , Leave , Boxing , Excuse , Stoney Silence , Halls , Magician , Enforcer , Side , Sense , Roller Coaster Relationship , Eugene , Humor , Care , Research , Persona , Kindness , Strangers , Acts , Tasitern , Members , Politicians , Loyalty , Amazing Stories , Dozens , Contradiction , Human Being , Traits , Sugar Coat , Judges , Option , Led , Method , 2013 , Strategist , Path , Parable , Perfect , Parallel , Offer , Senior Adviser , Revival , Nation , Distribution , Rescue Act , Skeptics , John Lewis Act , Build , Infrastructure , Piecing , Temporary Programs , Future , Hodgepodge , Big , David Axelrod , Corner , No , Ton , Package , 134 , Coverage , Negative , He Hasn T , General , Reading Pieces , Media , Bulletin , Attention , Quote , Progressives , Senator Manchin , Lack , Plug , Say , Enemy , Rights , Groups , Disenchantment , Hurdles , Priority , 2022 , Filibuster , Change , Day One , Roadblocks , Premise , Biden Term , Coronavirus , Progress On Covid , Variant , Anything , Universe , Presidency , Trillion , 1 Trillion , 1 9 Trillion , 9 Trillion , Focus On Voting Rights , Chance , Hometown , South Carolina , Orangeburg , Impression , Focus , Trip , Need , Item , Disease Control , Prevention , Openness , Stacy Abrams Built A National Reputation , Bid , Action , Georgia , Torrential Downpours , Record Heat , Snaps , Wildfires , Al Roker , 2021 , Words , Punchlines , Moss , Tree Mendous Views , Indeed Instant Match , Shipping Manager , Naturals , Me Hanging , Find Themself , Job Description , Candidates , Visit Indeed Com Hire Psoriatic Arthritis , Joints , Psoriatic Arthritis , Patients , Flight , Vacation , Pop , Searching Hundreds Of Travel Sites , Kayak , Rotisserie , Ticking , Bacon , Search One , Bacon Ranch , Peppercorn Ranch , Footlong , Save Big , App , Clarity , Wanted , 7 , Asymptomatic , Science , Viewers , To Be With You , Task , Transmission , Decay , Context , Factors , Recommendations , Back To School , Reasons , Tests , Pcr Test , Antigen , Pcr , Antigen Test , There , Positive , Scenarios , Anybody , Works , Adherent , Director Walensky , Reasoning , Jon Lemire , Longer , Coworker , Antigen Tests , Sitting , Amount , Time Line , Unvaccinated , Scenario , Versus , Coronavirus Won T , Professions , The Beginning Of End , Cold , Lines , Discussions , Disease , Hospitalization , Omicron Surge , Immunity , Omicron , Countries , Optimism , Fear , Parts , Group , Virus Omicron , Mess , Class , Cities , Shutdown , School , 99 , Hundreds Of Thousands , Jurisdiction , Jurisdictions , Resources , What S Going On There , Wisdom , Explosion , Some , Trends , Most , Icu , Message , Vaccination Rates , Stacey Abrams , Temperature , Om Sleep Number , Smart Bed , Georgia Stacey Abrams , Movement , Sale , Napoleon , Over It , Dreams , Microphone , Audience , Role Model , Map , Kamala Harris , Standing , Pillars , Minority Leader , Leadership , The Other Side , Restoration , Tools , Election Workers , Threats , Shorthand , Example , Voting , Setting Standards , Subversion , Bills , Laws , Effect , Voting Rights Advancement Act , Act Passes , Prophylactic , Justice Department , Stacy , Advocates , Contacts , Conversations , Ball Game , Compliment , Complications , Structure , Urge Azizirad , Tradition , Fundamentals , Hesitation , Woud , Citizens , Patriotism , Partisanship , Battle , Outcome , Foundation , Indication , Ends , Re Authorization , Single , Strom Thurman , Provisions , Which , Exception , Lisa Murkowski , Type , Bed Fellows , Crisis , Senator Mccaskill , The American Voter , Possibility , Vote , American , Native American Voting Rights Act , Debate , Cognition , Stake , Ballot , Rolls , Register , Zip Code , Spelling Bee , Daughter , Little Stacy , Mom , Little Girl , Stacks , Minister , Naps , Librarian , Perseverance , Catalyst , Subtext , Comfort , Galvanizer , Kitt Thomas , Teacher , Illustrator , Elementary School , Grade , Blakesly , Childhood , Tenure , Ball , Books , Field , You Hop , Foray , Brian Kemp , Opportunity , Economy , Health Care , Mission , Crises , Communities , Endorsement , Division , Folks , Sort Of , Catch , Reelection , Endorses , Alaska , Payroll Taxes , Bottle , Payroll Tax Calculations , Doing , Intuit Quickbooks , Inner Voice , Cheers , Kombucha Brewer , Superpowers , Spider Bite , Doug , Limu Emu , Spider Man , Theaters , Gasps , December 17th Trelegy , Copd , Driftin , Coughing , Birds Flyin , December 17th , 17 , What S Next , Medicines , Inhaler , Copd Medicine , High Blood Pressure , Breathing Problems , Heart Condition , Trelegy , Rescue Inhaler , Flare Ups , Lung Function , 37 , 48 , 14 , 911 , Wednesday December 29 , 51 49 , , 2 , 1 5 , 228 , 413000 , 10 , 103 , 8 , 9 , 6 Billion , 7 Billion , 53 Million , 73 , 201 , 262000 , 823000 ,