political story of the day. the renewed push for voting right just the president making detailed remarks in georgia. including a possible filibuster carveout. the speech will come as senate democrats prepare to force another vote on election legislation likely this week. schumer issued a warning on friday to republicans if they continue to block the passage. >> if republicans continue to hijack the moves to prevent us from protecting the democracy then the senate will debate and consider changes to the rules on or before january 17, martin luther king jr. day. >> joining us me congressman torres who is back with me. he represents, also vice cham of house homeland security committee and member of the progressive caucus. i know you're quite busy and appreciate it. let's talk about what you expect to hear from the president in the speech this week lobbying folks to get on board coming to voting rights and a rule change with the filibuster. >> i hope the president underscores the urgency for a recognition that voting rights are too financial to be subject to the filibuster because without the freedom to vote act, without the john lewis voting rights act we face a constitutional crisis in which free and fair elections are not an issue. republicans have an issue of did denial and and assuming positions or winning offices that have a future presidential election. the insurrection did not end january 6. we see it in the state legislatures, the state lex boards. >> take a listen to senator stabenow who was on earlier. >> in the end, every senator has to be responsible for their own vote but we know that the time is now to make sure that the senate rules who have been abused now for years don't stand in the way of protecting people's freedom to vote. >> congressman, december 19 you tweeted the tyranny of manchin continues as he sets out to sabotage the country. who knows that he will get on board even with an appeal from the president with voting rights? >> what is at stake is the democracy. there's an effort by loyalists, republican state legislatures to high the election process. only takes a majority vote to pass a law that restricts voting rights. why should it take a supermajority vote to protect voting rights? >> but i guess i'll ask you the question again, though. why do you think manchin would get on board with that, considering what we have seen from him over the last year or so. >> we can only appeal to him based on moral aswags. i'm as frustrated with him as any democrat. i find the behavior to be erratic. we are at the mercy of joe manchin because he is the one vote to determine the face of voting rights and build back better. i'm frusz traiting and it's destructive to the democratic party and the democracy. >> do you think democrats are putting enough emphasis on as some people would put it saving this democracy and the country now especially following the insurrection on january 6? is the fight for voting rights too late? should they have made the move earlier? >> look. leadership is moving with a sense of urgency but i worry about complacency and amnesia on the part of the country. we cannot move on 'pretend that nothing happened on january 6. we cannot turn a blind eye to restricting voting rights. if we fail to protect voting rights we'll likely face a constitutional crisis in the next presidential election. >> congressman torres, we appreciate you talking to us for a couple of minutes. if you get up dates on the building fire in your district please connect with us because we want to bring folks the information. thank you so much for providing the voice today. want to bring in with a knee that toliver and tim miller. both political analysts. juanita, the idea that this country doesn't address voting rights, if democrats specifically do not address vote rights there could be a constitutional crisis come 2024 no matter who wins. democratic or republican candidate. >> i think congressman torres hit the nail on the head and clear. the election could be the last one we recognize, that is accepted at all levels because the surgical effort that republicans taken to undermine the democracy, talking to removing power of secretaries of state, replacing leaders, what we have seen with the 19 states that passed voter suppression laws and so the responsibility is with democrats because the republicans ab solved themselves of responsibility to fight for democracy or building back what happened that we know was stripped away with january 6 and the laws and the efforts to undermine the election results why those lies have been the driving narrative throughout the moment and will continue to be and as biden addresses georgia this week and come upon the moment to take action they need to carry that same energy that we heard from the president on january 6 talking about the need to open the wound and fully understand it to heal because what is happening is not going to stop. i think democrats need to recognize and stand in the power as the ones who will take action here because republicans won't do anything but continue to make this worse. >> tim, we know voting rights are important in this country right now, important before january 6 and just as important if not more now. right? but why did it take so long to shoift the focus? we are now inside of an election year. >> it's a good question. that's particularly an important question on the vote counting side of things. look. i understand some concerns at the states with voting rights and did have an election with the most participation in history by people across all demographic groups and doesn't ab solve the republicans of the effort to shut down the effort to vote. it didn't work. what did happen is the effort to change the way we count the vote. seven senators tried to undermine the vote count. this is a matter on which there's bipartisan interest and the democrats would be remiss to let them off the hook and not force individual votes on things like changing the electoral count act, very specific voting requirements to make sure that the states don't monkey with the vote counts and pressure republicans so that this is not just a responsibility that falls on democrats to make those changes and then i think that's the broad every voting rights questions of john lewis that manchin and sinema are pressured to change the rules on but i think the democrats needs to take a two-pronged effort here and attack and lean on the republicans who are already on the record to this. they cannot be allowed to get out of this election year and not have to vote on that again. >> thank you both, guys. appreciate it. more now on the deadly fire in the bronx. 19 people are dead. in an apartment building fire. nine of those killed are children. also more than 60 people joired. the fire department said it started 11:00 p.m. and under control by 1:00 p.m. the cause is under investigation. here's more on what the fire commissioner said a short time ago. >> units arrived within three minutes. a fire inside a duplex. they were met in the hallway with fire. heavy smoke and fire. this smoke extended the height of the building. completely unusual. members found victims on every floor in the stairway and taking them in cardiac arrest. >> i spoke to the mayor. i will have that conversation ahead. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. these moments may not seem remarkable. but at pfizer, protecting the regular routine, and everyday drives us to reach for exceptional. working to impact hundreds of millions of lives... young and old. it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. ♪ ♪ inner voice (sneaker shop owner): i'm surprising my team with a preview of the latest sneaker drop. because i can answer any question about any shoe. but i'm stumped when it comes to payroll. intuit quickbooks helps you easily run payroll in less than 5 minutes... ...so you can stay... one step ahead. >> vo: my car is my after-work decompression zone. ...so you can stay... ♪ music ♪ >> vo: so when my windshield broke... i found the experts at safelite autoglass. they have exclusive technology and service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. what does a foster kid need from you? to be brave. to show up. for staying connected. the questions they weren't able to ask. show up for the first day of school, the last day at their current address. for the mornings when everything's wrong. for the manicure that makes everything right, for right now. show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com we are continuing to follow breaking news. a deadly fire in the bronx that left 19 people dead in a 19-story apartment building. nine of those killed are children. there areal more than 60 people who are injured. i spoke with new york city mayor eric adams a short time ago. here is a bit of our conversation. >> it's an extremely disheartening and just a troubling moment for the city. this is probably going to -- most fires experienced since the happy land fire of many years ago. the total is 19. 13 people more in critical condition. a total of 62 people were injured. a lot due to smoke inhalation. we are right now, the fire is under control and we want to be there for the families impacted by this. >> do we know how this thing got started? >> the fire marshal, fdny fire marshals are doing analysis to determine exactly the cause of the fire and we will have a thorough investigation to determine what happened so we can start to do everything possible not to have a repeat. >> how were people informed in this building the seek safety? what type of infrastructure does this building have to communicate to the residents to get out with a fire, a dangerous fire? >> that's part of what the investigation is going to determine. what we do know is that the issue, source of the fire, the door was left open, and we cannot emphasize the importance of when you exit an apartment or a room in a house where a fire is located to close the door behind you. we're going to double down on that psa, that information. we do know that the door was left open and that led to a much spreading of the smoke. >> was it just one apartment where the fire began, mayor? >> yes. according to preliminary reports that is what we are coming back with. but again, the fire department will do a thorough investigation with the marshals. they're professionals. they'll be able to tell us the source and how this fire occurred in the first place. >> talk to me about the system inside the building once again. were there fire alarms? was there a p.a. system to inform residents what was happening? were they given any heads up? was there any protections in place? what type of building was this? >> that is a 19-story building. that's one question we can answer. the other questions is we really want to make sure the professionals do their job and they understand how to do the investigations and will give us a report of the infrastructure, everything from fire alarms to p.a. systems. everything else that's needed to answer the question of how this happen and have so many lost of lives and could do this in the future. >> that was just part of the interview with mayor adams. as this news was breaking. again this tragic scene in the bronx in an upper borough of new york where 19 people have been confirmed dead. as we learn we'll bring it to you. kathy park on the ground will join us again after the break as she reached the scene. also coming up, whether students will be back in class is unclear after the teachers staged a walkout. >> the safest place to be is in schools. we spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make our schools safe. >> ahead two parents on the opposite sides of the remote learning debate join me with their concerns. we'll be right back. we'll be ri. nfl teams are turning to cold with tide, will you? that will never work! if it works on nfl jerseys it'll work for you. seriously! just perfect! and it'll save up to $150 a year. and it's cold! so you will turn to cold? fine! i'll turn to cold! that guy needs to chill out! this was a cold call! welcome back. breaking news that we have been following out of the bronx in new york where 19 people are dead after a fire ripped through an apartment building this morning. want to bring in kathy park who's now on the scene in the bronx. authorities are trying to figure out how this fire got started. good to see you. what are you learning? >> reporter: i'm just getting to the scene now and there's a huge emergency response. behind me you can see you have nypd. you have fire and also folks in hazmat suits cleaning up. as we pan up to this building, this is the 19-story building where the fire broke out and if you can zoom in to these windows the apartments, the windows blown out and you can see the burn scars. officials are saying it was on the second or third floor and what is so heart breaking is that officials said they found victims on every floor suffering from smoke inhalation. as far as the fatality numbers go, 19 confirmed dead. nine of those being children. as far as how the fire started that's under investigation but this fire ran through this building very quickly. we are told it happened just before 11:00 this morning. a five-alarm fire. 200 firefighters were here knocking down the flames. and everyone was out and the fire knocked down by 1:00 this afternoon but a lot of damage and a huge emergency response presence here on the ground. but we are still following the story and following what happens next because people want to know if folks have fair warning that the fire was racing through the building, yasmin. >> do we know where all the residents are right now, the folks that survived the fire? >> reporter: that i will try to have to find out. i have seen red cross on the scene. i don't see -- it doesn't look like residents are outside this building. right now. i know -- yeah. you can see some red cross officials have bags. i assume they're here to assist the residents here who had to be evacuated. >> all right. thank you for updating us. new york city fire commissioner and the mayor will be holding a press conference to update folks on this breaking news out of the bronx at 5:15 p.m. so hopefully we'll get an update then on anymore people that have been found in the building. for now thank you. now the latest with covid. classrooms are coming into focus as omicron is driving covid cases higher. nowhere is that higher than ban area. staff shortages are forcing administrators into the classroom. nbc's scott cohn is joining me with more. thank you. walk us through what you are seeing there. >> reporter: sure. it's difficult as you say and difficult across the country no matter what the protocols are. here the districts require testing but tests are hard to come by so here in san jose they had 800 absences in the last week. that's students and staff or 3% of the school population which gets to be difficult particularly with individual classes with double digit absences. they manage to keep the doors open and the classes going but elsewhere is more difficult. in oakland and san francisco where teachers are concerned about the protections in the school districts the teachers sage sickouts in san francisco. they staged a sickout that left about 20% of the staff gone last week as you see the disruptions nationwide and we'll get to in a moment. but in san francisco that 20% teachers out of school left the superintendent teaching middle school. >> many times when schools have a situation they cover in-house but not with numbers like that so we deployed personnel including myself to cover classrooms. either you love middle school or you don't. i had a fantastic time with the kids. >> reporter: we can bring up the chart of the disruptions across the country. some 5,000 districts now looked at disruptions over the last week. a day not able to offer in-person learning that is the highest of the school year and will see what happens as this next week gets under way. >> talk to me about how families and students are coping. >> reporter: it is difficult. so much of this happened with very little warning. we knew that omicron was coming but the idea of not being able to test with testing requirements. in los angeles they had to move bag the start of school, now s.t.a.r.t.ing on tuesday and you can imagine what that does to parents with jobs to deal with and so on. i know you will be talking about the situation in chicago but right there where there's this standoff now between the district and the teachers unions parents look at deja vu. >> it's just really devastating as a parent see the kids suffer remote learning anything. they stare at the screen. they check out. they're in breakout rooms with the friends chatding away and no education. >> reporter: back here in california, governor newsom activated the national guard to help with vaccinations and testing but trying to get ahead of the curve. yasmin? >> thank you. we appreciate it. as mentioned chicago public schools will be shuttered again tomorrow amid an escalating battle over pandemic classroom safety. omicron sweep brought a largest school district to the knees with students and staff already absent due to illness or exposure. there's a new proposal to have reintroduced remote learning district wide temporarily but the mayor warned the union we will not relent. >> parents are outraged and they are making their outrage known to the teachers union. this is an unprecedented level of activism. this is an untenable situation and completely utterly avoidable. >> with me now are ryan griffin and courtney retsema. both have children in the chicago public school district. let's have it out on national television. i also am a parent of two young children in the public school system in new york city so i'm aware of the issues that you both are dealing with. courtney, an advocate of remote learning saying the benefit of sending the children to school doesn't outweigh the risk of coronavirus exposure. talk to me about why. how you got there. especially whether i know both your kids are in fact vaccinated as are you and your husband. >> thank you for inviting me today. we are two white parents being invited to speak as representatives of chicago public school parents. we white people make up 11% of cps families and 83% out student population are black and latin x. throughout the pandemic the society has already asked people in lower income jobs, job that is overrepresented by black and latin x people to sacrifice the health and lives to keep the economy going. the black and latin x children nationwide two and a half times more likely to have lost a primary caregiver to the pandemic than white children and asking them to sacrifice the health with in-person learning. so as we're talking i would like to all keep this in mind. when we talk about the realities in our city and our school district. >> so to play devil's advocate, here in new york city the argument is such that, listen, there's a lot of kids in these communitys that are getting three meals at cool that depend on the school for regularity with in-person learning. more structure in school than at home and that it compromises the employment of their parents that are just trying to financially survive. many are the kids that you mentioned. kids in the black and brown community. right? what do you say to that? >> so i think fist of all the debate of in-person versus remote is a false dichotomy. i also want my kids in person. but remote is what we need right now. we agree with the ctu demands for the temporary specific pause being what's best to protect the children and the public health as the surge continues this month. the state legislators are remote right now. the secretary of state offices are closed temporarily. 30 school districts in illinois and charter schools are remote and the mayor's office and her child's school is remote right now. we can offer services to teachers and parents and children with meal services and have remote learning going on to keep us all safer. >> why do you advocate for in-person learning right now? >> i'm not here to read a prepared statement. it is alarming to come on national television to plead with educators to trust public health experts with the pandemic. i think that unfortunately we have overwhelming consensus on the harm of prolonged school closures and i know courtney is talking about a two-week operational pause but if you look at closing a district the metrics could lead to schools being closed in perpetuity and us being stuck in remote learning again. you have to be surgical here. school by school. i believe in quarantines and vaccines and masks. continue to prioritize it. the rest of the city is open. this is not february 2021. and so i think that's the frustration. again, we have petitions with 5,000 parents saying schools need to be open now. we have the mitigation in place. >> all right. ryan and courtney, this is an ongoing debate across the country which i'm sure you both know. thank you for joining us and giving us your thoughts and wish you the best of luck as we deal with this day by day and this is troubling and terrifying with young children in the midst of a pandemic. thank you both. australia's federal circuit court is expecting the hear from the men's number one tennis player djokovic. djokovic unvaccinated and tested positive for covid last month claimed he sooefed a valid medical exemption. tennis, australia announced this week that it would need to know whether he could compete by tuesday for scheduling purposes. we'll be right back. how bout sushi? 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[collision beeping warning] [silence] how bout tacos? tacos. automatic emergency braking — one of six advanced safety features standard on every 2022 chevy equinox. find new technology. find new roads. chevrolet. wondering what actually goes into your multi-vitamin. at new chapter. find new technology. find new roads. its innovation organic ingredients and fermentation. fermentation? yes, formulated to help your body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness well done. texas senator ted cruz really stepped in it this week telling the truth about january 6 calling it a violent terrorist attack. that set off a firestorm from a normally friendly fox news host. here's what happened when cruz appeared on tucker carlson's show. >> the way i phrase thinged yesterday it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb. >> i don't buy that. w.h.o., w.h.o., w.h.o. i have known you a long time. you were a supreme court contender. you take words as seriously as any man in the senator. i do not believe you used that accidentally. >> as a result of the sloppy phrasing it caused people to misunderstand what i meant. >> my next guest wrote about this for msnbc.com. steve, thank you for joining us. i want to start where you started with a joirch orwell quote. he became simply a mouth that uttered a hand that signed whatever was demanded of him. his sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess and then confess it quickly before the bullying starting anew. expand on that for me. >> sure. ted cruz is being pummeled by his allies for telling the truth and rather than defending the position he did the opposite and rolled over and acted like an anxious puppy saying please forgive my. it was pathetic. i think when you step back and look at this in a context it is worse. ted cruz wants to run for president again and seen as a major leader in the conservative movement but he wants to be led by conservative. he looks weak. i find it bizarre. >> so i want to also read the quote the way in which you ended the piece. a year ago he stuck to the guns and this week when cruz should have stuck to his guns he in fact apologized and you're speaking a year ago when of course cruz then advocating to not certify the election. >> exactly right. ted cruz was a leading republican in trying to overturn the election results. at that point what he should have done and becoming a political pariah and then apologize. he stuck to the guns. that was the wrong call and then a mirror image of that. this is accurate and then apologizes and he appears pitiful. he was wrong in both instances. >> you also wrote about how cruz talked about advocating for possible impeachment if republicans take back power of congress and how it could work against them in the obama administration when there's talk of wanting to impeach president obama and then empower democrats to go to the polls to make sure something like this didn't happen and how it could work against republicans if they follow this path. >> yeah. all of us looked ahead to the midterm elections and think that republicans will be more motivated to turn out but with people like ted cruz talking about how once republicans are in position of power they try to impeach president biden for nothing effectively and then it lets the base know that republicans are -- have radical plans in mind for 2023 and 2024 and ted cruz is bragging about it. i think that if democrats pay attention to this this is the thing to backfire on the texas senator. >> thank you to msnbc steve bend. more on the deadly fire in the bronx. 19 confirmed dead. we'll be back with the latest on that. that one up the power of liquid one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi. 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(vo) adventure has a new look. discover more in the all-new subaru forester wilderness. love. it's what makes subaru, subaru. among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. i got woken up out of my sleep saying that there was black smoke. i was shaking, so scary. >> a tale of survival from a teenager in today's deadly apartment fire in the bronx. we have been following this story since it broke this morning. 19 people are confirmed dead. nine of them are children. there are also more than 60 people who are injured. the if he wanted started around 11:00 a.m. this morning. and was under control by around 1:00 p.m. the cause of the fire is still under investigation. but the mayor telling me earlier they believe it started in an apartment on the second or third floor with a door left open. that is how the fire escaped into the rest of the building. this is a 19-story building in the bronx. and kathy park was told they found people on every single floor. many of them dying because of smoke inhalation. here's hot the bronx borough president told us moments ago. >> the immediate concern right now is the safety of all of the residents. all of the residents that are standing out that live here at twin parks, we have to make sure that they have a roof over their head. they have food, they have blankets. it's cold outside. we have children outside. so the immediate respaubs right now is to get american red cross here to do intake, to determine how many households with adults and children, and then we're going to get food, we're going to take care of every single resident who lives here. we want to assure everyone that we will not leave you. this is devastating for all of us. >> so as i mentioned, i spoke with the new york mayor in the last hour. and he tells me that the investigation will include previous records on the building, everything from fire alarms to plumbing systems, and we know now that the mayor along with governor carry hochul and the new york city fire commissioner will hold a press conference in the next hour with the latest on the situation. age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone. welcome back. we have talked a lot about the rise in extremism in this country. from the pro trump rioters storming the capitol on january 6th, to the growing number of hate crimes against minorities like asian-americans over racist pandemic views. now a book from the ceo of the anti-defamation league quells if we don't quell the violence now, we could see it on a level never seen before. it could happen here while america is tipping from hate to the unthink sxbl how we can stop it. jonathan greenblatt writes this, i'm scared to death of what the future might hold for jewish people and all people if present trends persist. we must all realize how close we are to widespread violence and disintegration of democracy and civilized society. quite a warning. and jonathan greenblatt joining me now. ceo and director of the anti-defamation league. that's quite a quote i read, i have to say. if you want to scare the bejesus out of folks, that should do it. right? and we're heading into this new year, we know the president making this speech today about -- not today, this coming week about voting rights. and we are one year past the january 6th insurrection. how have you seen all of these forms of hatred evolve that you speak about in your book? and do you feel as if the former president was the catalyst or is this something that has been brewing for quite some time? and he just enabled it. >> right, thank you for the question. i do think it's certainly fair to say prejudice existed long before donald trump was our president. you can find intolerance on either end of the idealogical spectrum. but we have got to be very worried because of where we are today. i mean, look, over the last five years, you have seen nearly a doubling in anti-semitic incidents that spiked in 2016 and continued to climb. you have seen the rise of anti-asian hate and anti-black racism, as you set up with this segment. in 2020, there was a 12% increase in hate crimes overall. and so often, it's the canary in our society's coal mine. as these forms of bigotry burst forward, so we have seen extremism move from the margins into the mainstream. it is not an accident that from charlottesville to capitol hill we have seen xenophobia, racism, anti-jewish hate on full display. the men marauding through our nation's capitol in what i would describe as a terror attack, in fact, the most predictable terror attack in american history. they were in camp auschwitz sweatshirts. they were raising confederate flags. they made no bones about their bigotry. it was at the core of their ideology, and i do think we need to worry. i mean, look, i'm the grandson of a holocaust survivor from germany who never would have imagined the only country he ever knew would turn on him, destroy everything that he loved, and slaughter almost his entire family and friends. and i'm the husband of a political refugee from iran. who escaped after the islamic revolution and never would have guessed her, her jewish family, that the country, the only one they had ever known, would turn on them, destroy everything they loved and force them to flee for their lives. we're foolish to think there's some natural law that will direct democracy forever unless we fight for it. this can all go away. and the trends we're seeing from the adl, the trends we're watching unfold today, have us terrified. we have to take action. >> so, yeah. so okay, so what's the action? how do you stop it? >> i wrote the book, it's filled with strategies and tactics, bui'll give you three ideas right now. number one, you have to call out hate when it happens. from the left or from the right, when you see it at the dinner table or the locker room or the water cooler, all of us need to call out hate. especially when we see it on social media. number two, we need to cancel cancel culture. we need to give everyone the chance to admit their errors and be redeemed. finally, democracy is a contact sport. you have to be in it to win it. so run for office, vote, volunteer, get engaged at the local level. it matters. it all matters. >> jonathan greenblatt, ceo and national director of the anti-defamation league. the book is, it could happen here. why america is tipping from hate to the unthinkable and how we can stop it. thank you. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jasmine vossoughian. i'm going to turn it it over now to my friend reverend al sharpton and "politics nation." >> good evening. and welcome to "politics nation." tonight's lead, the big try. right now, on this second sunday of the new year, democrats appear to have found religion on voting rights. and this week ahead should serve as a barometer of just how devout they truly are. as president biden and