how betty white viewed death. something to be curious about. she said if you don't look at death as an enemy, just another adventure, death does not hurt quite as bad. a new hour of "american voices" begins right now. as we begin a new hour, the quest for truth. the january 6th committee ramps up its investigation into what happened and who aided in the insurrection. as america nears one year since the attack on democracy. plus, take down. twitter says enough, making good on its promise to ban accounts spreading lies about covid. today it took down the personal page of one of trump's biggest backers. also ahead, 55 million cases now reported across the united states, with new guidance on isolation from the cdc. and fire and ice, snow blanketing what's left of homes devastated by a wildfire. what happened in colorado is a warning to the world. let's begin with the upcoming one-year mark since the attack on the capitol. the quest for accountability continues. not just to uphold the rule of law but to prevent it from happening again. lawmakers will hold a memorial. inside the capitol, the house committee is investigating the riot and preparing to hold televised hearings to get the story to the public, no stone left unturned. the committee has interviewed 300 witnesses, issued 50 subpoenas and reviewed 35,000 pages of records. republican congresswoman liz cheney said they must know the kind of person they had sitting in the oval office as the capitol was being ransacked. >> hillary clinton said a couple months ago if he runs and wins again it could be the end of our democracy. >> i think so. he crossed lines no american president has ever crossed before. we entrust the survival of our republic into the hands of the chief executive. and when a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted. >> also trump is planning a news conference, he will likely spread the big lie that laid the initial ground work for the attack. new polling shows an alarming number of americans believe him. the "washington post" survey finding about 40% of republicans and independents believe violent action against the government is sometimes justified, which makes this statement from the "new york times" editorial board more poignant. january 6 is every day. it is donald trump who continues to stoke the flames of conflict with his rampant lies. in short, the republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown it is willing to use violence to achieve its end. survival depends on looking back and forward at the same time. here with us, the "daily beast" columnist and author of the book "go back to where you came from." comes out on january 25th. you can preorder it now. political analyst michelle goldberg. and jill weinbeck. great to see you all, my friends. one congressman is hitting back at critics who say democrats only want this to help themselves at the ballot box. i don't want january 6 to help democrats, i want it to save democracy, to be a wake-up call, that there is a totalitarian movement happening. how do democrats and their few republican allies effectively tell the story of january 6? >> first and foremost you have to name something for what it is. you can't treat the gop as a responsible political party. they believe in dangerous conspiracy theories like the big lie, weaponized with the idea that they came with violence to take the election to a coup. and a pro-death pandemic. they are attacking masks and vaccines. the democrats have a slim majority, god knows if they have it afterwards. they need to show american people that no one's above the law. you need merrick garland hopefully to follow the evidence and use the justice system to go after those who committed crimes and a daily, 24/7 non-stop. some americans are maybe both sides, every single day, drum beat from now until midterms to tell people exactly what the republican party is. the majority believe this. and right now the majority of officials in office are doing the duty of donald trump by spreading the big lie. this is the entire gop. if they take over in 2022, that is the end of democracy, and we're going to have authoritarianism. >> i want to know what you think as we enter this next period and the committees work where there will be more public hearings, how that changes the contour of the public discourse. >> i think the public hearings are critical, because look, i think that whether we like it or not, a lot of americans are sort of over this story, as depressing as that is, because i think waj is absolutely right, but one reason that january 6 has faded into the background, they're dealing with a pandemic and inflation, nothing has really happened in the foreground with this story. there's been a lot of trials, the arrest of steve bannon, but nothing has happened publicly in a dramatic way to i think link this insurrection to the broader plot to steal the election, and that is what i think is critical. it's not just that there was a riot and trump failed to stop it, as shameful as that alone is. it's that the riot was in the service of a plot. they really believed if they could stop the vote count that they had a way to get mike pence to refuse to count the votes of certain states, to possibly get legislatures to substitute their own for that of their constituents. i think what democrats need to do in a dramatic and concise way is to make it clear that this was part of a, this was the violent edge, the violent arm of a broader and more far-reaching coup attempt. >> jill, you sort of get to this. the optimist might observe that the watergate scandal took more than two years to come to fruition. so one year under our belt we are far from a justice end game. the watergate crimes didn't involve an attack on the very democracy. and frankly continue to experience. from a prosecutor's perspective, which i know you have, what do you make of the pace we've seen over the last year, and what developments are you watching out for over these next few months, jill? >> let me start by first saying happy new year to everyone. >> happy new year. >> thank you. and, as a prosecutor, here's the difference. these crimes happened in front of our very eyes. watergate happened in the secrecy of the oval office. it was only a year later when we found out about tapes and then eventually obtained the tapes that we knew that there was planning in the white house. we know it now. we've heard conversations in georgia, where the president tried to stop the counting and get a fraudulent vote declared. this is happening in front of our very eyes, and that's why people are so insistent on a quicker outcome than we had. it was fast during watergate, but not as fast as we need in this time, and also because i agree with both raja and michelle and you, that this is an existential threat to our democracy and that we must resolve it before this congress ends its term, because, if in the horrible possibility that the democrats lose control, this investigation will be shut down, and one of the other things so important in watergate was the senate hearings in public. it brought people into the picture. viewers could see it happening. they got to understand the crimes that were committed and what the evidence actually was. so i think one of the most important things is for the committee, the january 6 committee to start public hearings where people will be able to see what the evidence is and that maybe even those republicans who are on the edge may come along to see that violence is not the answer ever. and that we need to go ahead from here. >> over the past year, republicans in state houses seized more control over elections process, making it harder for people to vote, diluting the power of voters of color through gerrymandering, in texas, others. what does it look like if you don't add guardrails to counter these attacks? >> i'm not sure there is a future of american democracy. i think things are extraordinarily grim and extraordinarily perilous, but i think that's why it's important that democrats draw connection between this riot and this broader plot, and some of the legislation that they've proposed that would make the legal part of the coup attempt, you know, that that would kind of create legal guardrails against, for example, a state throwing out the votes of its people and legislature substituting. there's legislation that has been proposed to make sure you get a majority of the votes in order to take control of congress or at least make it more likely that you need to get the majority of votes to take control of congress. what i think democrats haven't done, and it's very difficult to do is to connect this broader assault on democracy and the necessity of this legislation to this incredibly close call that we had and to kind of what the, that has shown the lengths that republicans will go to do subvert free and fair election. >> waj, i was going to ask you a question, let me ask you a different question. this news about marjorie taylor green and twitter. you kind of have the same response i did, which is great, that covid misinformation is the thing that begins to get her displatformed, but there were lots of other things along the way that could have risen to that level of danger. >> yeah, i think the anti-semitism, the anti-muslim hate, going after the squad. pick your list of the world's worst, and you have lauren boebert. it goes to show you that the institutions of america, social media institutions, media institutions, corporate institutions that what we're facing is weaponized. they should have and could have deplatformed her much sooner. they were flooding the zone with s-h-you-know-what. this is a slow-moving coup. they want to model themselves after hungary. it is a back-sliding democracy. god forbid, if ever person in the role doesn't rise up to the moment, that's what we're going have in 2023. >> we all laugh because the extensional threat is so real and scary. covid case as kids return to school from break. and the latest from colorado after a wildfire destroyed entire neighborhoods. about how the entire community is stepping up to help those who are left with nothing. first, we are standing by with a look at the other big stories we're watching this hour. >> thousands of cancellations this sunday as omicron continues to ravage the airline industry. more than 4,000 flights canceled just today. winter weather triggering a rise in grounded flights, too. and israel's prime minister announcing the approval of a fourth covid shot. people over 60 and essential workers are eligible. 4,000 new cases were reported on thursday, an infection rate not seen there since september. president biden reaffirming support for ukraine. today's discussion came after biden spoke to vladimir putin, warning of severe sanctions should russia invade ukraine. and an attempt to deescalate tensions. more "american voices" after this break. nsions more "american voices" after this break ♪♪ in wash-scent booster ♪♪ downy unstopables aleve-x. it's fast, powerful long-lasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever... life opens up. aleve it... and see what's possible. i recommend nature made vitamins, because i trust their quality. they were the first to be verified by usp, an independent organization that sets strict quality and purity standards. nature made. the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind nature made. 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 cdc reconsidering its covid isolation guidelines after criticism from labor groups and health experts. dr. fauci saying americans may need a negative test to return to work even if they're asymptomatic. >> you're right, there's been some concern about why we don't ask people at that five-day period to get tested. that is now under consideration. the cdc is well aware there has been push-back about that. there may be an option in that, that testing could be a part of that. i think we're going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the cdc. >> cdc director, rochelle walensky admitting politics played a role in the upcoming guidelines. and, as promised, twitter held up its own theft targeting misinformation, banning marjorie taylor green's twitter account today, her official congressional page remains up. and tomorrow many kids and educators head back to class from winter break as the u.s. surpasses 55 million covid cases. joining us now, dr. ebony jade hilton, co-founder of good stock llc. dr. hilton, always good to see you. how do you see this new recommendation on requiring a negative covid test for asymptomatic individuals to play out? >> it's one of those things where it shouldn't take the public's outcry to change the decision of the governmental agency that's been put in charge with handling this pandemic. what we know is that we're not ready to scale back quarantine at any fashion. at this point, the united states of america, although we're an only 4% of the world's population, we have 28% of the world's cases and 20% of the covid deaths, we are not ready to scale back in any form, but if they are going to scale back quarantine to five days, then yes, you must have to test. what we've seen is persons can be infected past five days and can be contagious for other persons when they're going to work. at this point, i don't know about you, i don't want to risk getting infected with covid-19 on any scale. so yes, we need testing, but unfortunately, at this point, we don't have enough tests, and i think that's largely what guided the promise that you didn't have to have testing in the first place with the cdc made those changes. >> part of what you said makes me think of something you talked about a lot, which is the description of the omicron variant as more mild, and how you believe it's not quite precise. more mild compared to what? >> right, exactly. it's one of these things we very early on became obsessed with this death count, of which, we still have a large number of persons dying every day in the united states of america, but it's not just death we have to contend with when we talk about covid-19. we know long covid exists. at this point we have over 7.5 million kids who have been infected with covid-19, and they are the largest group as far as the hospitalization rate. they are the ones getting admitted to the hospital at this point. we've seen an increase of upwards of 300%, 400% in major cities across this nation. so the question is, what are we doing, when we say we're going to roll back preventive measures and allowing our children to be infected. what are we doing when we still have soaring cases and we're talking about in-person schooling and we haven't upgraded hvac systems for particularly the most-vulnerable children in high-density population centers. we have to mitigate the spread and do certain things that were sacrifices to our personal social abilities, but it was necessary in order to keep people alive. and that's what we need to focus on now, how do we get everyone to see another new year's in 2023. >> education secretary argues that schools are prepared for the spike in covid cases. i want you to take a listen. >> i know we've had an omicron surge, but i still believe very firmly and very passionately, not only as an educator but as a parent, that our students belong in the classroom and we can do it safely. we have better tools than we had in the past to get it done. our default should be in-person learning for everyone across country. >> i was speaking with dr. ben gupta. he made the argument that if a school district is following proper protocol. if they have the ventilation in place that you are talking about, then we do want parents to feel confident that they can begin to send their kids back. i wonder what that means to you. >> right. i think that is a heavy lift in that sentence. what perspective are they taking? what we know is that persons who made policies often don't live the life experience of those who are the most vulnerable. i was raised in a single-parent home. my mom did the very best she could do. in my school district, we did not have a school nurse. i'll tell you, my school district, i did not have a window in my classroom. when you say ventilation and open up the room and allow a breeze, what breeze? when people say it's okay for our children to go back to school, is your child this that private school? is it one of those black children where if you're a ninth grader in america, and you're black, one in four have risk of having more than 40 students in this classroom. there's nowhere for them to spread out. 18% of all public school systems do not have a school nurse. who is going to be there to check in on these children and provide vaccinations. it's this issue of systemic racism and the way it plays into health that get down to the disparities that affect our children. until that is corrected, it is unfair for people to get on stage and say it is safe unless you are willing to send your child to those districts that are underfunded. >> there's a big if as to whether or not these children have the choice to stay home, whether or not they have a parent or caretaker who can stay with them. an extraordinarily complicated we. dr. hilton, thank you so much. next, the latest out of boulder, colorado after a fast-moving fire destroyed neighborhoods. we talk with the mayor of boulder about how 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today. ♪ ♪ a sliver of good news to report following last week's devastating wildfire in colorado. one of three people missing have been found safe. thursday's blaze tore through more homes than in any other fire in colorado state history. emily akayda has more. >> reporter: i'll start with a piece of positive news. one of the people initially unaccounted for has been found alive and well. still, though, two people are missing and feared dead since the marshal fire tore through boulder county, colorado. you can see why the search process so difficult, not only are they contending with rubble and smoldering hotspots but several inches of snow. >> it's a very difficult search because of the debris, the heat, the snow. they're trying to use dogs to help them pin point where to look. but it's difficult to get the dogs into the scene because of the heat and debris and that kind of thing. >> reporter: more than 60% of the fire is contained, a significant amount. and officials really crediting that to this massive storm we saw. that's the reason why you're starting to see people granted access back to their homes. nearly 1,000 had come back it a scene like this. >> officials spoke to reporters, here's the mayor of superior, colorado. >> we are both mayors of a very small cities and towns, and driving around and seeing these burned-out sites, you immediately identify with who lived there. those were your friends and that is their homes that were destroyed. >> neighbors now helping neighbors across colorado. mayor adam bra ca joins us now. talk to us about the steps your city is taking to help neighbors in louisville and superior. >> absolutely. there's been an outpouring of help. with almost a thousand homes lost, these are our friends and neighbor. so everyone knows people affected by the fire and who have lost homes. our city staff has had an all-hands-on deck approach. we have been on site since the beginning of the incident. our police are taking all the serious calls from across the county to make sure they're covered. their entire fleet of snowplows were destroyed. our plows went out on friday evening and plowed all those superior roads to make sure that the residents could still get around. our housing staff are doing out there doing damage assessments and finding out how we can help. >> what is so wild, as i understand it is it is incredibly unusual to see a fire like this, this time of year. it is incredibly unusual to see a fire in an urban center as you saw it here. for you as a city leader, what does that mean in terms of the way you begin to anticipate and consider what a resiliency strategy looks like for a city like boulder? >> it was a really frightening event. these were areas that no one thought would burn. when we talk about the wild land urban interface, those places we thought were at risk of burning, those are places in the mountains, in the forests that are high risk. but these are urban and suburban communities that everyone assumed were safe from fire. with boulder even closer to the mountains and the forests than louisville and superior, we're going to have to reevaluate the risk level from wildfire in our community and take some lessons learned in this event and figure out going forward, what are we going to have to to differently to ensure that a terrible tragedy like this doesn't happen again. >> part of what i've been seeing from so many scientists and people who do climate work is this idea that there is no longer a fire season, that the fire season can be all yearlong. i imagine that changes the way that you have to think about services and some of the other elements of running a city. i wonder as you talk to the other two mayors, as you talk to residents on the ground u what ground, what are you hearing? >> it's nearly total in those neighborhoods. it's a level of devastation colorado has never experienced before. we've never lost this many homes in one fire. the fire season is normally in that july, august, september period. there's never been a fire like this in december. so what it means is we've got a fire season where we need to make sure that our crews are staffed throughout the entire year, because the devastation is total. like i say, we have to do everything we can to try to head off any next occurrence of something like this. >> what is the biggest need on the ground right now? >> well, i think, folks are doing a great job at connecting people to services. we have the head of fema come in last night, and there are 100 fema folks on the ground today. there's a new disaster assistance center that's just opened up in lafayette, just outside of louisville. people are getting a lot of services, but trying to figure out the insurance needs. everyone has a different insurance situation. many of their papers have burned. so our congressman is stepping up to help people replace documentation, but i have to say a lot of it is paperwork right now, to try to figure out how to get funds flowing. >> which is so difficult, people have lost everything. and the last thing you want to do is a lot of paperwork. thank you so much for your time. in a few minutes, i'm going to share my thoughts of how the colorado wildfire should serve as a warning to all of us. but first, to up hold roe, one of the many decisions before the supreme court in the new year. y decisions before the supreme court in the new year vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks. 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. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. some of the most consequential cases in modern history are before the supreme court. including the highly-anticipated decision on mississippi's abortion ban, which is directly aimed at overturning roe v. wade. the court has a 6-3 super majority and has faced sharp criticism for a number of its decisions in 2021. americans' support of the high court has dropped to 40%, an all-time low. here with more is pete williams. >> reporter: abortion began dominating this supreme court term even before it officially started. in early september, the justices allowed texas to continue enforcing sb-8 while a battle over its constitutionality raged on. abortion providers can continue fighting in court, but made it nearly impossible for a successful court challenge. >> we can't sue clerks, the judges, we can't get the lawsuits blocked, and the lawsuit are what are making it impossible for clinics to open. because this law allows anybody to sue, anywhere in the world, against the clinics in texas. >> reporter: a ruling in an even more consequential case is coming by late june on mississippi's law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks. it would undercut nearly five decades of ruling starting with roe v. wade, saying that they cannot ban abortion before a fetus is viable. a majority of the courts seemed willing to uphold it. >> will this institution survive the stench that this creates? in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts. >> reporter: the court will also decide the fate of a new york law that bans carrying a handgun in public. residents can get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but only if they can show some special need beyond the general desire for self-defense. some say that violates the constitutional right to bear and keep arms. >> does your right to self-protection stop when you life your home? >> reporter: a majority on the supreme court seemed to agree that the new york law is unconstitutional, such a decision would be a boost to second amendment rights. the court this term had also decide whether to loosen restrictions on using public money to pay for religious education, whether boston marathon bomber, dzhokhar tsarnaev is entitled to a new sentencing hearing. it was divide on adding more justices to the current nine-member court, but more receptive to the idea of term limits. and we may learn whether steven breyer intends to retire. while democrats still control the white house and senate. he's now the senior liberal. he will turn 84 in august and says the timing of his retirement will depend on his health. pete williams, nbc news, at the supreme court. >> most of the supreme court decisions expected to come by june, which could have a bearing on the midterm elections. joining me now, nyu professor, melissa murray. happy new year to you. you look back at some of the rulings from last year, including allowing arizona to enforce restrictive voting laws. i want you to talk about the picture of this court. there are a lot of people who saw this court for exactly what it was the day amy coney barrett was sworn in. a lot of people are catching up now. and then specifically, what we can expect as we look ahead to the bigger decision coming on abortion. >> well, i think it's important to set out, first, alicia, that the supreme court, unlike the other branches, doesn't really have the authority to enforce its own decisions. in order to make us comply, we really have to believe that the court is legitimate, and that depends on the court not moving too far away from where the public s as you saw in the last package, the court's approval rating is at the lowest all time, 40%. it is facing an existential crisis. most americans view the court unfavorably and really believe that what the court is doing is not necessarily about interpreting the law but interpreting the law in line with the individual ideological predilections of the justices. as we know the composition of the court has changed markedly. it is now a court with a 6-3 super majority. and suddenly, we getting these really cataclysmic cases that have the potential to really skew the jurisprudence of this nation in really different ways. so that's, i think what people are responding to, and i think that's the existential crisis the court faces as it heads into 2022. >> so, about that, in his annual new year's eve report, justice roberts stressed the need for judicial independence. talk to us about his efforts to keep politics off the bench? >> that report was issued by the chief justice in his capacity as chief of the judiciary. he was trying to limit some of the court's, the federal judiciary's authority in judicial ethics and workplace misconduct. but the broader theme of congress, we can do this by ourselves, i think also tips into and bleeds into this recent effort by the biden administration to really examine whether structural reforms of the supreme court are necessary, and the supreme court justice seems to be saying we can handle this ourselves. we don't need you, congress, to step in and change the court's jurisdiction. we can deal with this ourselves. >> right, so like tldr. i got this, we will see whether that is the case. in addition to the abortion case i was referencing, he want to get your take on the justices have within weighing in on vaccine mandates, a gun rights case. how is the midterms factoring into that. i want to know the opposite. >> well, the court will never tell us how the political landscape factors into their decision making, but we know they must at least have something, that going into an election cycle with the roe in tatters can't be good, especially if so many in the court, in the public view the court as ideological. they're probably working on how they're going to write this, whether they can trim their sails, scale back and leave the broader question for another day. as you say, there are lots of big-ticket issues here. gun rights, the vaccine mandate, affirmative action is in the offing. whether this court can thread the needle and stay the course is a bigger question. you have five conservatives who seem ready to take the ultimate step. >> i am very grateful that we have you, melissa murray, to walk us through it. next, more alarm bells sounded this week about our climate crisis. i'm going to give you my thoughts after this quick break. as the nation marks one year since the capitol was msnbc all week. we'll have special coverage and in-depth discussions. what we know and don't know one year later. nd don't know one year later with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever... life opens up. aleve it... and see what's possible. 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