a mix of new daily cases. still that does not take into accountant americans learning their positive through at home rapid tests. chuck schumer is making his top priority passing voting rights legislation of the martin luther king day holiday two days from now. he still has no buy in on a filibuster change to make that possible. >> if the right to vote is the corner stone of our democracy, how can we permit a situation that republicans can pass voter suppression laws at the state level with only a similaring vote and not allowing others to do the same. i ask that of my direct colleges. this cannot hold. >> senator manchin just spoke and we'll have more on that in a moment. and we're just two days away from the january 6th look into the insurrection. it could spark another major national sdpent. >> are we in a better place now than we were on january 5th of last year? >> i think there has been some reassuring signs, but the undercurrents and the conditions that lead to january 6th, this popularization of conspiracy theories is maybe more pernicious than it was last year. >> we start this our with a massive omicron surge. joining us now, we have the director of the vaccine center. dr. let's talk about this big picture that is stunning to hear a million cases on monday, but it is a mix of recent cases, holiday weekend backlog, but so many are asymptomatic that it is still a cause for alarm, right? >> the problem is always we talk about this, if you have been naturally infected or vaccinated, you're still at risk of having mild illness and being contagious. we screen everyone that comes into the hospital, whether or not they're coming in with our without symptoms. most are not admitted for that, but that is an extremely high rate and we're seeing because always there is a less ir instance of omicron people are really overwithin whelmed. >> some of these decisions on closures are as much about teachers and staff getting sick as they are about protecting the children. >> you know, critical staffing shortages were already endemic, and they could not afford even a little more stress but here we are. a number of the largest school systems are calling out. about 2100 k through 12 schools be close for inperson learning this week. one school i spoke to closed because syruply too many staffer with sick. and what we're seeing is the same shortages that hit airlines and hospitals are now hitting schools. here is a teachers union leader from syracuse that i spoke to. >> most have been playing like a game of jen ka. you're just constantly pulling staff from one place to cover in another place and hoping that you have enough to cover. just simply because of the shortage that we started the year out with in all of our areas. >> i also interviewed the head of the national education koegs that said to expect rolling shutdowns for the next several weeks after speaking with a number of officials it's clear that we have not seen anything quite like this which is schools unable to open based solely on staffing shortages, and this is just off of the christmas spike. administrators are also expecting a new year's spike. but one silver lining is hopefully this will give the public a jolt about how severe staffing shortages are. it is hard to find subs that want to work in a high risk environment. >> there is talk now among leading health officials about a testing requirement for a smomic individuals to get back to their routines now they they shortened the isolation period to five days. how do you do that with the testing shortage? this is a critical question that the president will be facing when he meets with advisors later this afternoon. >> if you have covid, you should quarantine yourself. and if you become a smomic it is reasonable to wear a mask and go back into the world for five days while wearing a mask. i think that is fair. the testing is one not readily available. two, it including a pcr test. so i like the original recommendation. i think also if you're exposed to someone, i think masking should be the key here. the problem with going back when you're asymptomatic is you have to trust that people are truly asymptomatic knowing there is no reason to trust people because one-third of people in the country have refused to be vaccinated and put people at risk. >> we have such low vaccination rates children. and many parents that believe in vaccinations were so excited when they were made possible for children and now the boosters for the five to 11-year-olds, and the vaccination rate is so low. >> it is painful. you quickly saw the 25 to 30% of parents vaccinated their children. that's the group that wanted to vaccinate. now you're at roughly 15% and those are the parents that wanted to vaccinate and now you hit a wall again. virtually all of the children that we saw could have been vaccinated. none of them were were neither were the parents or the siblings. there are also children who are long-term players, they are in the hospital long term for a environment of reasons, and then they get covid because of the parent that's come in transmit it to the child. doctor, hank with me for a minute. i want to bring in dasha burns. new jersey is one of the most vaccinated states but hobbitizations are way up and the doctors, the nurses, the staff, are all being hit hard, how is new jersey coping. >> the governor called this covid wave an omicron tsunami. it is a striking description. they're seeing the most hospitalizations they're seeing since the last year. and experts that we have talked to said it is the transmissibilty that is driving the rate up. one hospital here says they have seen their hospitalizations double in the last several days and it is so important to look at who is getting hospitaled here. 70% of their patients are vaccinated. only one of those patients is fully vaccinated in their icu right now and none of them are boosted. so doctors and experts continue to tress the efficacy of the vaccine as this variant spreads to more and more of the population. and right now they're gettingings hit with a one-two punch here. they're having people fill up the beds here. the doctors and nurses are all part of this community and they're getting explodes, infected, and having to stay home for a week or more and that impacts their ability to care for patients and that's only good if you have the staff surrounding it. >> doctor, what do you think about the requirement that there is a requirement to be tests. in terms of schools, should children be tested before they come to school as many cities, like my own city of washington, is requiring? >> i think if we lived in canada or the united kingdom, the answer would be yes, but it's not, so we have to do the next best thing which is if we're going to send children back to school, socialization is critical, we all agree it is a precious thing to be able to send children back to school, so what that means is making sure the teachers and the staff are vaccinated. making sure all of the children that can be vaccinated are vaccinated. realizing they will not all be vaccinated, so wearing macks, social distadistancing, and doie best to mitigate risk. it's hard to watch how it plays out because as someone who has been in the vaccine realm for the last 30 years and finally we have a vaccine here, and people say no thanks. >> it's incredibly frustrating. thank you so much. thank you for being with us from philadelphia, and of course, thank you to dasha in new york. meanwhile in washington. it is ice covered. i came in this morning and it is incredible. it is a big mess. a city that can barely handle a half inch of snow is digging out from a foot of it. cars and trucks were stuck. thousands of drivers had to spend the night in their vehicles. that included tim kaine who tweeted out this picture of what he looked at for 20 hours as he tried to drive from richmond to washington. zrrchlgts and senator schumer making a final pitch for voting rights. how does he hope to get it done? this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this is "andrl reports" on msnbc. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible... with rybelsus®. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to the possibility of lower a1c with rybelsus®. you may pay as little as $10 for up to a 3-month prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. and there you have it. woah. wireless on the most reliable network nationwide. wow. big deal. we get unlimited for just 30 bucks. sweet, but mine has 5g included. relax people. my wireless is crushing it. that's because you all have xfinity mobile with your internet. it's wireless so good, it keeps one-upping itself. take the savings challenge at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds. chunk schumer says he plans to use this week's january 6th anniversary as a voting cry. that strategy is putting direct pressure on two holdouts, yes, you got it, inschumer's own party. they boat oppose the phil buster change. joining us now is garrett hill, donna edwards, and david jolly. so garrett, we're back to manchin and sinema. i know sm people are sick of sighing us go through this again. joe manchin talked about the potential of a senate rules change to make this happen, as you know, let's watch. >>. >> let me just say being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option is very, very difficult, it is a heavy lift. >> so, garrett, you're the best manchin reader and whisperer that we got around here. he said he is in favor soft of some voting rights action, but chuck schumer has been trying to say that they were in favor of changing the rules when necessary, right? >> yes, what i flaerd this press conference is a person nowhere near being willing, and i think it is anything else that is the problem here formanchin. he is in favor of the voting rights pressures, he said. but the idea of changing the rules, is the kind of thing that worries him about what could happen further down the line. we heard a lot of that today. there is a meeting today among senate democrats and senate democratics and manchin likes to say he is always willing to talk and keep discussing, but right now they have a long way to go if it is even possible to change his mind, and i'm snot sure it is. >> chuck schumer says he will put the burden on manchin, sinema, and other republicans if this goes down. >> he said the same thing about the build back better act as well. it is a pressure tactic that can push members to make hard choices, and it may ultimately happen here. in this case a vote on the voting rights portion of this would come down 50/50 with every senator in favor. if there is a second vote that is when we will see a number of senate democrats, probably at least two, possibly more, split off. that is the kind of thing that majority leaders and speakers of the house like to avoid. we'll see what happens there. >> and don edwards, last night joy reed pressed senator schumer on this directly. listen to what he had to say. >> i can't tell you that they publicly said anything. you know they haven't. i don't want to be polly anna this year, but it is too important to give up on. >> have you heard anything privately that we have not heard publicly. is voting rights more important than a senate rule? and he finally said no, he hasn't snp. >> i think this is really difficult. i know the vast majority of testimonies want to be able to vote from these voting rights bills. they want to cast their votes. they want to go home and say they were in support of voting rights. if senator manchin, senator sinema, and whatever other senators don't want to join them in that, that's up to them to go to voters and explain why they're opposed to changing a rule, not a law, for voting rights. i think it is imperative for democrats, and i believe that democrats are going to run the risk of jeopardizing both majorities if they cannot energize their party by standing up for voting rights by standing up for the rights they expect. i any senator schumer was reflecting that as the will of the majority of his caucus. >> do you think that there could be majority support, filibuster support majority support for some fix on the electoral college law? so you could prevent what was attempted on january 6 snth which was to change electoral college votes. >> sn and alter the election outcome. >> i think there could be, but that requires them to oerlt in a different way than it currently does. that requires them to reach a concurrence, and i think this debate over the voting rights bill is informative. what i say to my democratic friends, you just went through this with bbb. remember who your opponents are if is the republicans, it's not simply joe manchin or kristin sinema. you don't have the rights for either one, but what we saw is manchin negotiated with murkowski, coming up with a compromised bill that could get you 55 or 56 votes, and that allows democrats to say you know what the problem is? it is republicans. it's not one democrat, it's 45 that stood in the way of voting rights reform. >> so you're saying they should not beat up on manchin too much because they need him to get anything accomplished. even if it is just a moral or political victory. >> i think you could put that compromise bill up. >> yeah, interesting idea. david jolly, donna edwards, and garrett edwards in the middle of the action up there. divided america. a year after the storming of the u.s. capital, the country is more polarized than ever. what that could mean for the nation and those that need it. this is andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. reports on msnbc (kate) this holiday, verizon has the deal that gets better and better and better. get iphone 13 pro, on us, when you trade in your old or damaged phone. here, the phone everyone wants, on america's most reliable network. better? 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(carolers) ♪better♪ (kate) this year, holiday better, with verizon. because everyone deserves better. andrea: you see things as a parent-- what your expectations are for your kid growing up, the milestones going to school, graduating and getting married, having kids. and cancer was never one of those milestones in my head. st. jude has given us hope, love, a home away from home. and it feels like home. you're more than just a patient or just another family here at st. jude. >> brand new polling out today show that americans are as polarized as ever. 58% view biden's win as ill legitimate. a quarter of those polled think political violence could be justified. threats against lawmakers have hit an all-time high. joining us now, pete williams usa today bureau chief paige. it is your poll, they are today in suffix university. so looking at what voters think about january 6th a year later and many ways just as polarized as we were, if not more so before the attack. >> you know we don't even agree on what happened. democrats over whelmingly say the mob that attacked the capital were criminals. most republicans went too far, but they had a point. most everyone think that democracy is in danger and being threatened, but there is still a fundamental disagreement on what it is that is threatening dmox si and that makes it hard to figure out what we should do as a country to move ahead. >> pete williams, he has been under some pressure from the left, and some of referrals. he is going to refer to that finding, according to polling data, that more people feel that violence against their own government is justified? >> yeah, he is not going to speak about any specific cases. this is billed as to the justice department employees. he will give a general update, perhaps some numbers. but not any situation about specific charges or cases, but we're thoold he will talk about violence being justified and i expect him and that is clearly not something that the justice department can tolerate, and repeat a commitment to the adherence to the constitution. >> peter baker, there has been some progress by the committee, they say they interviewed more than 300 people and there has been some charges by the justice department into what happened, but but by key witnesses, members of congress, and former member of congress mark meadows, so what is the chances, you think, that this can get done an a report be written and get done in time. >> how could they possibly lose power? >> that is a real question for the republicans that joined it. and of course the question goes to accountability, right? pete williams is talking about people in jail right now or charged because they went into the building. the question for the january 6th committee is is there a larger accountability here? on the part of the president or people that are around him. there was an impeachment trial that ended in the former president's acquittal with seven republicans bolting against him. but today he is as strong as ever, and the concern is that there is no sense of accountability. so they have public hearings and the idea is to have a report by mid year that can at least outline a lot of what they learned. and the hope is that we present that in the public and that will be an important measure of accountability in and of itself. do they refer something to the justice department for further investigation or prosecution. >> it absolutely it, and you to story today. looking at the lingering effects for lawmakers, capitol hill police and staffers, the effects of the trauma they suffered that day. >> yeah, interviews with over 20 members of congress between my colleagues show thad this is a congress that remains very much on edge in the wake of january 6th. where worried about the violence is at front of mind. threats are at an all-time high and some are very evident. most in the house, where the tension is quite palpable. and lawmakers being quite frankly unwilling to work with one another, some having unofficial rules. you know the senate, i think, smoothed out relationships a little more, but the issue of political violence is one that lawmakers publicly and republicans privately talk about on a consistent basis. >> it doesn't help with mask mandates and things like that and you have magnatomiters at the entrance to the floosh. we have been looking all week across platforms, it is something that the fbi and the pentgone is worried about. 300 rioters are still unaccounted for. they are still graples with the fact that dozens of them are rioters, how do they hand that? >> it is a stall hill to climb. there is a lot of extremists in the military and exmilitary. law enforcement as well. there is a number of off duty police officers that day. including the individual believed to have placed explosives. i spoke to government officials, law enforcement officials, and others in representative week that's are deeply fearful that violence is now part of the political discourse in this country. january 6th the pry cursor of things to come. but in local communities back home in their districts or state houses or city councils, that's where we are now. there seems to be almost accepted that there is violence how we talk about politics, which is deeply disturbing. at we ramp up for a midterm election year, law enforcement will be on high alert that this could be something that we sadly may have have to grapple with, especially those cases in georgia that are so shocking. how actively is the fbi with those that are still wanted and they have been identified but not found. >> this is a huge concern for the fbi, andrea. they had people every day going through hundreds of thousands of videos and tips. they're still going through them. they have videos that show people assaulting police officers. they're earer to find them. he said he thinks that 2,000 people were involved in the capitol riot. but there was many acts of violence that happened outside of the capitol as well. they have been pictures of people tussling with police and others outside of the capitol. they're considering every possible avenue for investigation. these tips, parable recognition, talking to relatives. family members and coworkers. it remains a huge push for the fbi. >> we see more radical comments, still, from some members of congress in terms of what happened. what actually happened, and it was people including the republican leader. they are changing their story from that day. >> yeah, they even said on january 7th of last year that we would be viewing this event through the same kind of partisan view. but you're right we have a lot of people saying this was a horrific event, and we have a significant part of the country saying that there was something justified about this where it wasn't as lie as people said it was. people are there unfairly stopping something that they perceived to be a stolen election, which wasn't stolen by any credible evidence. and it is a remarkable statement. and we have returned to our partisan boxes and we're seeing everything through separate realities, and it is something bigger about where our society is that we can't agree on the mos basic of facts. > peter baker, susan paige, thank you to all of you. adam schiff will be joining halle jackson with the latest on the house investigation today at 3:00. elizabeth holmes once celebrated as the first self made female billionaire was found guilty last night. she was charged with exaggerating what were blood testing machines could use. they acquitted her on different charges of defrauding patients. likely to be served concurrently. kids with covid, a frightening warning. warning. the face of clean. the face of whoa! some are of intensity, others joy. all are of... various: ahhh... listerine. feel the whoa! the number of children hospitalized with covid-19 is soaring nationwide. according to the american academy of pediatrics. nine states now have record numbers of children being hospitalized. joining me now is jennifer lighter. an infectious decide specialist. >> what are you seeing at your hospital in terms of children coming in with omicron? >> in new york city it is over 90% of cases in new york city is omicron. that is admitted, not everyone gets a pcr test. there is a large amount of people infected in a short amount of time and more people coming into the hospital are pcr positive. that doesn't mean they're admitted. and we're not seeing a big uptick in pediatric patients. so in that way it is a relief. historically chirn represent 2.5% of the hospitalizations in the u.s. >> why is there such an increase in the number of children coming in? >> children or adults, they're new york city -- there is many people that are pcr positive because covid is very prevalent. so they're not necessarily coming in for covid pneumonia. it can be weeks after someone became infected and contagious. it doesn't necessarily correlate. they are admitted to the hospital for this reason. >> the low percentage of children taking advantage of the vaccination. and it usually correlates to parents not being vaccinated, also. how do you reach these parents? >> there is a it couple people that say they are admitted, and 99% of them have not been fully vaccinated. i can say as an infectious disease doctor it is very upsetting to treat them in the hospital knowing their disease could have been prevented. only 14% of children ages five to 11 have been fully vaccinated in the united states. and about half of the children ages 12 to 18 have been fully vaccinated. so we need to do more to make sure our children are protected from covid. even though severe disease is rare, it does happen, and we should have a zero tolerance for children not getting a vaccine because it is safe and effective. >> a year later, supporters are shifting their attention from the capital to their own backyards. that's next, you're watching this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. e watching this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. fresh waaaay longer than detergent alone. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load. and enjoy fresher smelling laundry. if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. shop online for downy unstopables, including our new, lighter scent. andrea: you see things as a parent-- what your expectations are for your kid growing up, the milestones going to school, graduating and getting married, having kids. and cancer was never one of those milestones in my head. st. jude has given us hope, love, a home away from home. and it feels like home. you're more than just a patient or just another family here at st. jude. as we approach this week's anniversary of the january 6th insurrection according to a new nbc news exclusive report organized extremist groups who were among those who stormed the capitol that day have shifted their strategy. since the insurrection many have reemerged in different forms to try to effect change at the local level. >> reporter: january 6th, 2021. crowds marched to the u.s. capitol building, throngs of people grew into thousands. denise aguilar posted to social media that day saying she was there. >> the revolution is here, guys. we stormed the capitol and patriots broke open the doors. >> reporter: aguilar later said she never breached the building nor participated in violence and since then she has taken her fight back home. >> it's all about local legislation, your local school districts, your city council board of supervisors. so it kicked off as a national movement that it's now parents are realizing we need to start coming to the local government. >> reporter: her shift is part of a broader trend according to jared holt who studies domestic extremism at the atlantic council. >> domestic extremism is like a fluid that matches the container that it's in at any given moment. >> reporter: in a new report holt says following backlash and hundreds of arrests connected to the attack on the capitol, far right activists have shifted their focus from national politics to local. >> a lot of the adaptations that we've seen came in the form of kind of decentralizing these national movements. >> reporter: what are these extremists all talking about at the local level? what is the content? >> a lot of them are taking it upon themselves to reengage in the broader conservative culture war. >> we are here to protect the children of our community. >> reporter: for aguilar who we met outside a local school board meeting in california it's opposition to mandates. >> we figured out that going to the capitol and working that particular piece doesn't do anything because these legislators have already made up their mind. >> reporter: she is the founder of a group mamalicia and says her activism is peaceful. >> do we look violent to you? do we look like we're trying to storm anyplace? have i ever done anything violent in the capitol? absolutely not. >> reporter: like many who share her goals aguilar uses alternative social media platforms like telegram to organize and strategize. >> what they're doing at the school board meetings. >> reporter: those go local tactics also being embraced by prominent white nationalists. >> this is the right approach, going to the school board meetings, going out to protests. >> reporter: groups like the proud boys responding taking to the streets of towns in long island and north carolina to protest public health measures. >> extremist groups have always seen the culture war as a place that has enough anger and division already that it can be fruitful for them. >> reporter: are we in a better place now than we were on january 5th of last year? >> i do think there have been some reassuring signs, but the undercurrents and the conditions that, you know, led to january 6th, this popularization of conspiracy theories, of extreme sentiments and ideologies is maybe more pernicious than it was last year. >> reporter: and with the focus off the nation's capitol for now, the impact of that extremism can be felt anywhere. >> and brandy joins us now. brandy, what have these groups learned since january 6th in terms of their strategies? >> well, i think they learned that operating in the open and recording their violence in a lot of instances leads to arrests and it leads to nationwide negative scrutiny to their movements, and, you know, so they evolve. they regrouped and then they resurfaced at the local level. like jared holt said in that report, you know, glomming on to the more mainstream conservative causes of the day, the culture war debates like vaccines and race and education and local elections gets them viewed a lot more favorably at home and then they can start to build out nationally again. >> and, brandy, what about the tech companies because so much of what they're doing is in social media? isn't there an obligation -- i know there's pressure from congress as well certainly on facebook in particular. >> yeah, tech companies have banned most of the groups associated with the stop the steal movement that caused the january 6th attack, including donald trump, right, who tech companies decided technically instigated the violence. that's why he was banned. but extremist groups have evolved, too. so instead of facebook you will see them on telegram or some other platform building their movements outside of those major platforms. so now it's up to us to sort of see how and if tech companies are prepared for the next unifying event. >> it's fascinating reporting. thank you so much for you and your colleague, ben collins, have been doing. thanks. and these reports have been across the platforms of all of nbc news throughout the week. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow us online, on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. chuck todd with"mtp daily" starts right after this short break. "mtp daily" starts right after this short break. new vicks convenience pack. dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. 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. if it's tuesday, democrats sound the alarm, again, on democracy and voting rights. but is anybody listening? and do party leaders even have a strategy to meet the actual moment? 50 senate democrats including joe manchin have to agree on something. will they? we're about to find out. plus, covid chaos. hospitalizations are spiking, cases surging to just ungodly levels. cdc updates its guidance again. president biden set to address the crisis again this