the latest from that briefing as we get it. right now we're following the urgent battle to defend voting rights. senate democrats eyeing a rule change to pass a voting bill without requiring 60 votes. ahead, the exclusive nbc news reporting about republican dark money and how they are trying to sway one democratic senator in particular. we'll give you one guess who that could be. and then i'll talk to the mayor of tucson, arizona who signed a letter to the senate urging them to pass legislation. also happening right now in capitol hill, the chief of the u.s. capitol police testifying about changes they have made since the attack on the capitol almost one year ago. so far he says that of the more than 100 recommendations made by the inspector general, they have implemented or are addressing 90 of them. more on that in a few moments. we are also following some breaking news in philadelphia. a devastating fire. we just heard officials give us an update. 13 people killed including seven children. we'll have the latest on the fire in a few moments as we wait for the covid briefing to start. i want to bring in sam brock and heidi przybyla and gabe gutierrez. in jackson hospital in miami, the fastest increases in covid cases in any state. sam, you're reporting hospitals were already facing a staffing shortage. how are they handling all of this? >> it's a 700% increase in infections in florida in two weeks. the staffing crisis right now is acute. what i'm told from many hospitals, they're sweeping the pot for health care workers by offering more money and incentive. that's only sustainable for so long. about 45 minutes away in fort lawsuiter dale, they had to shut down a labor and delivery unit because of an inability to provide enough staffing to care for those pregnant moms. that gives you a little window into how bad this has gotten. i'm at jackson health right now. they're look agent the highest number of patients they've seen at the public hospital since delta. a little bit more, actually, than the crest they hit a few months ago. that being said, it's an interesting case study here. about half the folks who are in here right now didn't come for covid. they came for something else, and tested positive for covid. but the staffing issues remain the biggest problem. we talked with the florida hospital association, the president about just how bad this has gotten. >> and i should say, craig, she described it as a situation where it's like pouring gasoline on a fire. that is how bad it has gotten in terms of staffing in the state of florida. one of the things i would add is that the antibodies was the focus of conversation for the governor here. the antibodies like regeneron, two out of three of them have not been proven to be effective against omicron. that's where the administration is focusing attention on. not vaccines. florida right now is 63.5% fully vax knitted. i can tell you the vast majority of people in the hospital right now are unvaccinated. it's true with jackson. it's true across the state, but that's not the talking point from desantis or the surgeon general. >> true across the country as well. sam brock for us there in miami. heidi, right now schools all over this country facing some major staff shortages. i know you talked to the education secretary about the biden administration's plans to try to do something about that part of the covid fight. what did the secretary have to say? >> the secretary outlining new steps to alleviate those shortages including temporarily changing licensing requirements for bus drivers. this has been an area that has seen some of the most acute shortages with 50% of districts describing the bus driver shortages as severe. here's a stat. the past year there was a vacancy rate in education overall, not just bus drivers, of about 35%. that does that tell us? schools couldn't afford the hit that covid and omicron is now dealing to them with so many now calling in sick across all professions. the secretary told me he does my this will change. that this change they're making with the licensing requirements will make a difference. they're encouraging people to bring back retired teachers without penalty to their pensions. they're talking about using federal funds to give teachers bonuses to sign and stay. and another major issue that he talked about was testing. and the lack of supply. he told me that he's hoping that the half a billion tests currently going out in the month of january to communities will help with the situation. here's more of what he had to say. >> i did anticipate some bumps in the road as we come back from a vacation where everyone is coming back. everyone is looking for tests now. but i do anticipate that it gets better. however, i am monitoring the numbers. they're climbing. we have to not only worry about our schools but also keep community spread down. the goal is to have our children in school. that's where they need to be. i think educators across the country want that, too. we just have to work together to make sure we're problem solving together to keep them in the classroom and keep them safe and keep parents happy as well. >> here's the challenge. the administration issued guidance, if you remember, before the holiday that urged all districts to use a program called test to stay. that's great. it's a great program. but they don't have the tests to do it. and you can see what's happening now in chicago with the teachers voting to go virtual. that's because they couldn't test the kids. and now the city locking them out. t it's leading to some dramatic situations. one final area, craig, that he highlighted in the interview was vaccinations. the rate for 5 to 11-year-olds is still very low. about 20%. he said the administration is urging more vaccine clibices that can be set up in schools but it's going to take partnerships with local labs, local health departments. >> yeah. we talked about the test to stay policy with regards to not being able to afford the tests. a lot of districts around the country can't do that. gabe, mr. gutierrez, i know you were at a testing facility that's running some 25,000 tests a day. and i understand that you found 100% of those tests showed that it was the omicron variant. >> yeah. that's right. well, this testing center was for northwell health, just outside of new york city. and as you mentioned, they're dealing with 25,000 tests a day. about a third of them are coming back positive. and virtually all of them as he said, are coming back with the omicron variant. they only test a subset of the overall tests, but of the ones they are testing, they're virtually all omicron. it was 20% a few weeks ago omicron to 80 % after that and now almost all the cases are omicron. and we got that rare look inside this testing facility. it's 100,000 square feet. and we wanted to know how does this compare to other times that they have had to deal with variants before? right now they are working 24 /7. i spoke with the executive director about that. take a listen. >> how does this surge compare to other surges that you've seen? >> well, with this surge the number of people that are seeking testing is higher than it's ever been before. and the number of positive cases is increasing more rapidly than it's ever been before. right now a third of our cases are positive. a third of our tests are coming back positive. that's higher than we've ever seen it before. >> and again, craig, that testing center was for northwell health, just outside of new york city. it services 19 hospitals. hundreds of outpatient centers. right now i'm standing in front of a testing facility here in manhattan. this says rapid testing. the one i went to yesterday was pcr testing. some people around the country are waiting days, four, five, six days for their pcr test results. that facility we went to, their typical turn around time is about 48 hours. but they're a larger facility. some of the smaller labs are having a tougher time. as you can see behind me, there are people lining up for rapid tests here in new york city. it's cold. and it's raining. the line here is shorter than we have seen a couple weeks ago. but still, it is difficult to get rapid tests in and around the city. >> that continues to be the story around so much in this country. gabe for us in new york city. heidi przybyla in miami. we want to get to the breaking news out of philadelphia. a live look here above the scene of just an absolute tragedy. we heard minutes ago from officials at the scene of this deadly fire that's left at least 13 people dead including seven children. two other folks were critically injured. the sources say the house was converted into apartments. this is in the city's fair mount neighborhood. i want oh get to ann thompson who is following this for us. ann, again, we just heard from officials a few minutes ago. what else did we find out about this fire? >> well, this a a building that has two apartments, craig. there is a lower unit and an upper unit. and fire officials said that the fire they found heavy fire this morning in the kitchen area of the upper unit. and that is on the second floor of this building. and that fire was near a stairwell, and that fire went up and down that stairwell. that's how it spread so quickly. they said they had no problem getting to people. the problem was the fire just moved so fast and was so strong. there were four smoke detecters in this building. none of them worked. there were also 26 people in the building. and as fire officials said, that's a lot of people to be in a duplex. eight people in the lower unit. 18 people in the upper unit. as you said, seven children are among the 13 people who are dead. another child was taken to the hospital along with another adult. fire officials said -- say that those numbers at -- the numbers of fatalities are very fluid at this point, and as one fire official said, i just don't have the words. they are investigating the cause of this. they don't have any idea right now what caused this fire to happen. but they said they are going to do a thorough investigation. >> ann thompson for us there on that tragedy in philadelphia. ann, thank you. keep us posted. the white house covid briefing has started. let's listen in. i believe this is an update. >> second, the impact of rising cases depends on a person's vaccination status. while we are seeing covid cases among the vaccinated, if you're fully vaccinated, and especially if you've got an booster shot, if you're eligible for a booster shot, you're highly protected. and it's very unlikely that you'll get seriously ill. but if you're unvaccinated, you have a good reason to be concerned. if you get covid, you're at a high risk of getting severely ill, being hospitalized and even dying. so please get vaccinated. get your kids vaccinated. and if you're eligible for a booster, get a booster shot. and third, the biden administration is deploying every available measure to help states, communities and hospitals confront this omicron challenge. military doctors, nurses and emts are assisting local hospital staff in states across the country with additional teams ready to deploy as needed. we've shipped 2.4 million pieces of personal protective equipment, ppe, in the last two weeks alone to help keep health care workers safe. we've established free testing locations across the nation with additional new sites opening soon in maine, maryland, nevada, delaware, texas, and washington state. and we've worked aggressively to stop our nation's medicine cabinet with a diverse portfolio of covid treatments. it's important to remember we have more effective treatments available now than at any point during the pandemic. and yesterday the president announced he's instructed the team to double the u.s. government's purchase of the pfizer anti-viral pill. from 10 million treatment courses to 20 million. in addition we're working with pfizer to accelerate the delivery of the pills and will now have the first 10 million treatment cycles, courses, by the end of june instead of the end of september. these pills can dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths and are a game-changer with the potential to offer the impact of covid on people and on our nation. bottom line, we had the tools we need to manage this surge in omicron cases. with that, i'll turn it over to dr. walinski. >> thank you, jeff. good morning, everyone. i'd like to start by walking through the data. the average daily cases is -- an increase of about 98% from the previous seek. the 7-day average of hospitalizations is about 14,800 a day. an increase of about 63% over the previous week. and the 7 -day average of daily deaths are about 1200 a day. that's an increase of about 5% over the prior week. over the last several weeks and over the holidays we have seen a significant and rapid increase in covid-19 cases. this increase for cases caused by the delta variant and more importantly now, cases surging from the omicron variant. over the past month we have seen the percentage of omicron cases increase and the percentage of delta cases decrease. based on cdc sequencing, we estimate that omicron represents about 95 % of cases in the country and delta represents the remaining 5% of the cases. the sharp rise in cases and the emergence of the transmissible omicron variant emphasizes the importance of vaccinations and boosters. this week fda made several vaccine authorizations and cdc followed the authorizations by making additional vaccine recommendations. first, cdc authorized -- fda authorized and cdc recommended shortening the window in which people who receive the pfizer covid-19 can get a booster dose from six months to five months. second, fda authorized and cdc recommended that children ages 5 to 11 who are moderately or severely immune compromised should get an additional primary shot of the pfizer covid-19 vaccine 28 days after their second shot to provide them additional protection. and today cdc's advisory committee on immunization practices is meeting to discuss boosters for those 12 to 15 years old after fda ease authorization on monday. i look forward to listening to the committee's discussion that will take place this afternoon. current data demonstrate the receiving of booster dose is critical to provide protection against covid-19 and the omicron variant. cdc surveillance data and studies from around the world from demonstrated the pen fit of a booster dose after only a primary series including decreased risk of infection, severe disease, and death caused by covid-19. in large national studies from israel comparing those who are boosted with those who are fully vaccinated, a booster dose decreased infection by ten times in all age groups. similarly, in those studies, boosters resulted in a decrease in severe disease in individuals over 60 years old by 18 times. and decreased severe disease in people age 40 to 59 years old by 22 times. and people who received a booster shot had 90% lower mortality due to covid-19 than those who did not receive a booster shot. while these studies were done when delta was the dominant variant in israel, we expect to see a similar trend of increased protection over those who are boosted with omicron. vaccines and boosters are protecting people from the severe and tragic outcomes that have -- can occur from covid-19 infection. we're asking everyone to follow these four steps. get vaccinated and get boosted if you are eligible. wear a mask. stay home when you're sick. and take a test if you have symptoms or are looking for greater extra reassurance before you gather with others. so with that, thank you. i will turn things over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, doctor. what i'd like to do over the next couple minutes is talk about the omicron variant and some concerns particularly in the area of severity of disease. if i can have the first slide. i'm going to focus on severity, but let me make a few comments to underscore many of the things that the doctor said. first, without a doubt unequivocally, we are dealing with a highly, highly transmissible variant that spreads rapidly. the data are overwhelming in that regard. number two, immune evasion. it evades and to some extent to severe disease. however, as underscored by the doctor, again, laboratory and clinical data indicate that booster shots reconstitute vaccine protection even against omicron. let's spend a moment now on severity of disease which is less likely that omicron will cause severe disease. i'm going to give you data from four separate sources just to underscore that and then to end with a caveat. next slide. these are data from south africa. if you look at the three variants in blue, red, and yellow with omicron being yellow, and take a look at admissions, oxygen necessity, severe disease, and death, in each case the yellow bar is significantly less than the red and the blue bar which represent data and delta. next slide. if you look at data from the united kingdom, from three separate sources, the uk's security agency, the university of eden bro at scotland, they show omicron appears to be less severe than delta. although this data is a bit more preliminary, but nonetheless, indications from houston, texas, indicate that we are seeing similar situations here in the united states. this slide is from canada. again, showing that the risk of hospitalizations or death were 65% lower among omicron compared to delta and the risk of intensive care was 83%. if you go now to in vitro animal studies, these are interesting but remember, there is always a caveat associated with animal studies. and in a number of studies, ones that have done individually and cooled in mice and hamster models, it was shown that the virus of omicron proliferates very well in the upper airway and bronchi, but poorly in the lungs which actually goes along with, doesn't prove, but goes along with the concept that you have a very transmissible virus with upper airway secretion, but a virus that has less pathogens in the lungs. let's look at the bottom line of what i said and i'll get to the caveat in a moment. multiple sources of now preliminary data indicate a decreased severity with omicron. however, we need more definitive assessment of severity with longer-term followup here and in different countries. but the big caveat is we should not be complacent. since the increased transmissibility of omicron might be overridden by the volume of the number of cases that may be a reduced severity but could still stress our hospital system, because the certain proportion of a large volume of cases, no matter what, are going to be severe. so don't take this as a signal that we can pull back from the recommendations that you just heard about the need for vaccination for boostering, for wearing masks, and all the other cdc recommendations. so let me close with the final slide just a word about children, because we're getting asked about that. the omicron variant so far appears to be less severe than the delta, but remember the caveat. rapid community spread is seeing larger numbers of children being hospitalized again mostly among the unvaccinated. and about vaccination, just to refresh your memory, the pfizer is now authorized and recommended for children from 5 to 17. children from 12 to 17 can get a booster. the fda authorized 12 to 15 and today is acip will meet about that for recommendation. and finally, a question that many ask and i'm sure many reporters with children are asking this. what about kids from six months to five years? those studies are ongoing now to get the right dose and regimen to get to where we want to be and likely the clinical trial are ongoing and in individuals less than five years. hopefully in the first half -- hopefully toward the earlier part of the first half, we may have some information so we can vaccinate children that age. i'll stop there and back to you, jeff. >> thank you, doctors. and with that, let's open it up for some questions. >> all right. we have been watching and listening to the white house covid-19 response briefing. we just heard from dr. fauci there, and before that dr. walensky who runs the cdc. i want to bring in a doctor from st. joseph health. he is a professor of medicine at rutgers and new york medical college, also the author of "immunity strong". he's been listening to the briefing with us. doctor, we've heard a lot about the cdc isolation guidance. this morning the cdc announcing that the guidance to now -- to say that covid people can in general leave isolation after five days if they're free of symptoms, but they can use happened antigen tests around day five of isolation, but only if they want to. did we get any more clarity from that briefing? >> yeah. i think that briefing was very direct and really enforces the fact that vaccination and boosters are important. wearing the masks. social distancing. just as we've been saying over the last many months, but you know what's really interesting is the fact that they have stuck. this is the cdc. they've stuck with their recommendations of post symptoms to stay in-house, to quarantine for five days. no need for additional testing. you can go back to work, but wear a mask. now, this is intended to alleviate scientifically an em deem logically, some of the shortages we have of police, ems, schoolteachers, et cetera. if we make it two weeks or ten days of quarantine, that's going to impact the employment of our nation's vital workers. and the epidemiology data suggests that's not necessary. >> dr. fauci said the data show that this new variant, omicron, less severe than delta. but we continue to see larger numbers of children hospitalized. knowing that so many younger kids can't get vaccinated yet, what advice do you have for parents here? >> well, with parents, well, you know, kids are -- they're only low risk. especially from the omicron. children by and large are not vaccinated in large numbers. and that is a concern. and dr. fauci mentioned that they're talking about six months to five years, but right now above five years is important and over the age of 12 you can get a booster. the booster mitigates the omicron infection. if you're a child with obesity, diabetes, chronic lung problems, heart disease, your child is at great risk to be hospitalized. and even die, and that is a big problem. and we don't want that to happen to any parent much less the child. the advice is clear. get your child vaccinated if appropriate, and now the booster are going to be available for young people, adolescents, et cetera, below the age of 18. that's really, really important information. and as you heard, 90% of omicron is overcome with the booster shot. for both adults and children. >> doctor, thanks as always for your insight. thank you for your time. the calls for a new voting rights bill are going local. i'll talk to the mayor of tucson, arizona about why cities have joined the push for new voing protections, and the message she wants to get to her senator, kyrsten sinema. right now the head of the capitol police force testifying about the changes his department is making, has made already since the deadly attack on the capitol last year. the hearing coming as investigators and the police officers who served that day keep pushing for answers. >> i want to find out exactly what happened so i can get pains out of my head and say this is what really happened. because as you said there, you're thinking about all the possible scenarios, outcomes. you don't know which one is true. so that's why i support finding the truth. the truth. don't like surprises? [ watch vibrates ] proactive notifications from fidelity keep you tuned in all day long. so when something happens that could affect your portfolio, you can act quickly. that's decision tech, only from fidelity. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind you can act quickly. 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. in just the last two minutes or so capitol police chief thomas manger wrapped up testifying before the senate rules committee. this is ahead of tomorrow's anniversary. the chief addressing changes at the -- the force has made since the deadly attack on the capitol. this afternoon merrick garland will deliver a speech on the doj's investigation. our senior national political reporter joins me from the hill. also with me, our justice correspondent. sahil, let me start with you. again, this hearing wrapped up a few moments ago. but in the last hour we heard the chief talk about all the ways the force has heeded the committee's advice in a report they put out back in june. the report concluding the capitol police intelligence were not adequately prepared to respond on january 6th. what else have we heard? >> that's right. thom manger telling the committee the capitol police is in the process of implementing more than 90 of the recommendations. he admitted there were critical failures on the part of the department in terms of planning, gathering intelligence j, staffing and equipment. he said they're trying to put in place processes to better act on intelligence. he admitted there was plenty of information, evidence out there that violence was going to occur on january 6th and they didn't act which led to a lot of finger pointing. he said the biggest challenge is keeping up with the volume of threats. he talked about a challenge many americans across the country are facing. the supply chain. let's play what he had to say. >> we've ordered all new equipment for our civil service unit officers. that equipment like many things, is impacted by the supply chain issues that are going on. we should have that, my hope is, this month, but certainly in the coming weeks we should have that equipment. >> now, tomorrow, of course, the one-year anniversary of january 6th. and tom says they have not seen evidence of threats to the capitol or in washington d.c. at large. at least he said there's nothing of great concern that they've seen so far. >> all right. mr. williams, a few hours from now the attorney general, america garland set to address doj employees on the insurrection. what do we expect to hear from him? >> i think the way the speech is being described is mostly a thank you to justice department employees for the work they've done. remember, there have been something like 700 separate prosecutions, about 170 guilty pleas. there's been a lot of work that has gone on, that's still going onto continue to identify the people involved in the rioting. the emphasis now is on the people attacking police officers. and the fbi is asking for help identifying something like 250 more people seen in photos and videos. but the attorney general is going to be quite generic in discussing the investigation. we're told we'll probe not expect him to talk about any specific cases. but we will, we may, may address the issue of that's come the past week. there's been public opinion polls that show something like 30% of respondents saying it's okay to use violence against the government sometimes. i think the attorney general may address that and say why he thinks that's inappropriate and the justice department is dedicated to enforcing the law. >> we'll have more on that polling in a moment. sahil, i know you have brand new reporting on some actions congress is weighing to prevent future events like january 6th. what can you tell us about that? >> congress is discussing including members of the january 6th committee and lawmakers outside the committee ways to prevent future january 6th style events from happening in the future as well as prevent attempts to steal elections. they're zeroing in on an 1887 law called the electoral count act which they say is overly am big use, poorly run. allies of former president trump seized on as a way to try to stop the certification of president-elect biden's victory. they say changes need to be made to clarify the roll of congress is simply to certify and count electoral votes. they also want to make clarifications to the vice president's role to make clear the vice president does not have unilateral power to simply disregard electoral votes. this, of course, complicated because the goal is to protect legitimately-sent electoral votes by states. in other words where the candidate that won the state, the state sends that slate of electors, but they want to preserve the ability to block states that sent a false slate of electors. someone that didn't win but the legislature wants to make president. 2022 is a crucial year for getting this done, because democrats recognize that they're likely to lose control of one if not both chambers of congress, and they have to get the report done this year. they have to get the legislative recommendations enacted this year if they have any realistic chance of making it happen before the next presidential election. >> all right. sahil on the hill and pete williams with the preview of the attorney general's speech. thanks to both of you. we're to pete's point a few moments ago, getting a look at some recent polling that sheds new light on just how deeply americans are divided in their views on january 6th ahead of the anniversary tomorrow. steve kornacki breaking down the numbers for us this morning. steve, walk us through what you found. >> yeah. some sharp divisions, especially some sharp divisions along party lines when it comes to a few questions. let's look at a few. here's one. this is a usa today poll asking about how they think about what happened on january 6th of last year. you see 53% of the country says they think it was a protest that was aimed at overturning a legitimate election. there's almost 30% here, 29 who say they think it was a protest that about preventing a fraudulent election. there's also a fair number of americans who say they're unsure or undecided, but when i say partisan divide, this is where you see it. among democrats, it's 85% who say january 6th was about trying to overturn a legitimate election. among republicans, it's a majority. 56% who say this was about trying to stop a fraudulent election. and again, among independents, it's a majority of 51% who say it was overturning a legitimate election. a partisan divide. even more when you ask the what now question. specifically about the house committee that's investigating january 6th. how do you think about that investigation? again, that 53% number saying it's important to the future of the democracy. more than 40% saying it's a waste of time for other important issues. here it is. here's the partisan divide. almost 90% of democrats say investigation is important to the future of the country, and almost 80% of republicans they social security a waste of time. where there is a convergence interestingly between the parties and across all partisan lines, it's when you see this question. how worried are you about the future of america's democracy? more than 80% of americans say they are very worried or at least worried about it and that cuts across entirely partisan lines. democrats, republicans and independents. more than 80% of all of them say they are worried about the future of democracy in this country where it breaks down, obviously, is when you dig into it and ask folks why and what they're worried about. that's where the parties separate. there is overall broad concern about that. >> pretty depressing numbers. steve kornacki, thank you, though. thank you so much, steve, as always. and by the way, tomorrow we will have special coverage all day to mark one year since the attack on the capitol and an attempt to overturn our democracy. our coverage will include a look at the republican party's role in the events, the aftermath as well on deadline white house followed by live coverage of the prayer vigil on the capitol steps that's going to start at 4 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. how much of an uphill climb do democrats face to get manchin on board to pass a voting rights bill? pretty steep climb. according to the senator himself. >> let me just say that to being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option, that's very difficult and a heavy lift. >> now the senator is facing new pressure from the right. what we're learning about a new push in his home state next. his. 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>> yes. actually, i was an elector, an elected elector that voted based on the election results, voted for biden and vice president harris in arizona. and arizona is on the frontlines of voter suppression. as a matter of fact, unfortunately, the candidate for secretary of state was at the january 6th insurrection at the capitol. and now is running for secretary of state. if that particular person would have been the secretary of state in 2020, the election, the arizona election would have been overturned. and so this is nothing new here in arizona, unfortunately. there have been lots of initiatives pushed to prevent voters from voting here in arizona including voter i.d. laws. and so right now as we're getting ready to start a new legislative session, there are new bills popping up to further reduce the access to vote here in arizona. and so i was proud to be included in the list of mayors throughout the country that are pleading with our u.s. senators to do everything they absolutely need to do to preserve our democracy and one of the pillars of our democracy which is the access to voting. >> mayor, what in your view does your city -- does your state need for the next elections in 2022 and 2024 to preemptively counter false accusations of fraud? >> well, that is the tactic. right? the big lie that we have gotten used to in the last year, it is a tactic to disenfranchise voters. we just saw earlier in your segment about 83% of americans feel that our democracy is in peril. and so we need the u.s. senate to act. and we need to do it as quickly as possible, especially with the control of the democratic party in the senate, because we have seen that republicans throughout the country at every level of government have aligned themselves with this big lie. and so we have to make sure as mayors of cities throughout the country we feel that our voters will be disenfranchised, especially urban voters that are much younger, that are communities of color, veterans, and rural voters, actually, rural voters are in peril as well with the antivoting laws that are being passed throughout the country. arizona is no strange tore this. and arizona, georgia, texas, they are leading the way in these. so we need the senate to act and act as quickly as they possibly can. >> have you had conversations with your own senator there is in arizona in what has been the response? >> i have been very clear with senator kelly and senator sinema that this lies on their hands. this is one of the reasons that they were sent to the senate. one of the most primary reasons for senator sinema and kelly to be in the u.s. senate today is for them not to just act for working families, but to protect democracy and the right to vote. and i have encouraged them to do everything they possibly can to not just support legislation, but to make sure it passes the u.s. senate. >> mayor, thank you for your time this morning. this morning, that makes democrats efforts to change senate rules critical. whether or not that happens will depend on senator joe mans. and he is not facing pressure just from his own party, but from the right. a gop dark money group aligned with mitch mcconnell is now jumping into the fray. they have a million dollar ad campaign to pressure the senator to resist calls to eliminate the filibuster from voting rights. leanne caldwell is joining me now. where do the rules stand? he is the most wanted man in the senate because democrats are working very closely with him to try to convince him to become more open to the voting rights rules. he is also getting a lot of pressure from senate republicans as well. a million dollars, that is a lot of money in a very cheapizing state of premium. senator manchin's poling in november, he has 61% support in the state while he is pushing back against a lot of different things. so this add campaign is an attempt to keep that pressure on to remind constituents in west virginia of the negotiations happening in washington. so where the discussions stand? senator manchin has not walked away yet. he is still talking with democratic colleagues. he informs meetings last night. i'm told there are more conversations happening today, specifically what sort of rules can be changed. he is open to some minor tweaks to senate rules. and that is far from clear. but the conversations are happening and manchin is still involved at this point, craig. >> quickly here, with regards to the legislation itself, does the senator from west virginia feel like the senate should be acting on federal voting rights legislation? is that something he feels needs to happen? >> he does, he was really resistant for a long time. he did not like the version of the bill and the legislation at stake now is something that senate manchin negotiated. something that he supports, and something that has the support of all 50 senators. but what is at question now is not the contents of the legislation, but how to pass it through the senate because current senate rules means you need the support of 60 senators and there is white house covid-19 response coordinator just said in the coming weeks americans will in effect start to receive those testing kits, he did not say how, but he said that there will be more information coming. for now that does it for me. andrea mitchell will talk to congressman adam schiff about the latest on the january 6 commission. that will be next. y 6 commission that will be next. 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. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? 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