along. >> tonight as the committee prepares a public phase, why jim jordan is having second thoughts and what the committee is prepared to do about it with congressman adam schiff. then can they hold the proud boys responsible for january 6th? plus he could be america's least responsible senator and he's running for re-election. >> could the mass vaccination end the pandemic, could that be driving these variants? >> all that and the frontline omicron challenges that are not getting enough attention, when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. congressman jim jordan is once again, it appears, putting on a show for an audience of one, donald trump. in a lengthy rambling letter to the bipartisan committee investigating january 6th, the republican from ohio has signalled he will refuse to speak to the committee after it requested his testimony last month. quote, the american people are tired of democrats' nonstop investigations and part shan witch hunts. this is far outside the bounds of any legislative inquiry, violated core constitutional principles and would serve to further erode legislative norms. jordan, i should note, served as the top republican on the house oversight committee durininvestn for more than two years. but this letter marks a much different position for congressman jordan crucially, who said multiple times last year he had nothing to hide from the committee, including during a hearing of the house rules committee last october. >> are you willing to tell the select committee what you know about events leading up to -- >> i've been clear, i've got nothing to hide. i've been straightforward all along. >> it's worth mentioning that jordan probably does have something to hide or at least looks likely that he does. remember, house minority leader kevin mccarthy originally wanted jordan himself to serve on the january 6th committee, then speaker of the house nancy pelosi basically said no way and vetoed it. shortly thereafter, republican congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming called jordan, quote, a material witness to its investigation. jordan is mentioned on multiple occasions that he spoke to donald trump on january 6th, though he refuses to discuss when exactly those conversations took place. here is how he responded back in july when asked about them. >> yes or no, did you speak with president trump on january 6th? >> yeah, i speak -- i spoke with the president last week, i speak with the president all the time. i spoke with him on january 6th. i talk with president trump all the time. i don't think that's unusual. i would expect members of congress to talk with the president of the united states when they're trying to get done the things they told the voters in their district to do. i'm actually kind of amazed sometimes people keep asking this question. of course i talk to the president all the time. like i said, i talked with him last week. >> on january 6th, did you speak with him before, during or after the capitol was attacked? >> i'd have to go -- i -- i spoke with him that day after. i think after. i don't know if i spoke with him in the morning or not. i just don't know. i'd have to go back and -- i mean i don't -- i don't know that -- when those conversations happened, but -- but what i know is i spoke with him all the time. >> well, i'm convinced, are you? that's probably not the only reason jordan will not comply with the committee. we now know that congressman jordan was forwarding along messages to then chief of staff mark meadows and his former house buddy on how to overthrow the election in the days before the insurrection. so it seems just from what we've gotten a glimpse of there's quite a bit there. it's also worth mentioning that there are simply no political incentives for jordan to comply. in the year following january 6th, donald trump has managed to successfully cajole the party back to his side on the question of whether it's okay to do a coup or not. and any mention of the insurrection is anything other than a normal tourist visit or any refutation of his election fraud is met with condemnation from the former president and his base. it's why the committee will likely not see any cooperation from most trump allies even though it's clear that jim jordan, along with congressman scott perry of pennsylvania are not the only two sitting members who could be material witnesses to the investigation. the january 6 committee is also weighing whether to seek testimony from mo brooks of alabama. brooks we know was involved because he was one of the most vocal proponents of trump's big lie of the stolen election and is the subject of a lawsuit from fellow democratic congressman eric swalwell which alleges brooks incited the insurrection when he made these comments whipping up the crowd while wearing body armor. >> we are not going to let them continue to corrupt our elections and steal from us our god-given right to control our nation's destiny. today is the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. now, our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes and sometimes their lives to give us their descendants and america that is the greatest nation in world history. so i have a question for you. are you willing to do the same? >> i mean pretty straightforward, right? they sacrificed their blood and their lives for the cause of our liberty. are you willing to do the same? let's march to the capitol. in addition to brooks, it appears as though the committee has found itself with a fresh list of potential targets with former trump administration official turned never trumper stephanie grisham providing a list of potential witnesses it had not previously considered. that's according to committee member congressman jamie raskin of maryland. and the committee is expected to request testimony from former vice president mike pence in the next few weeks. it's unclear if pence would agree to cooperate with that committee. we'll talk about that in a moment. but it does seem very unlikely that brooks or other close trump allies will cooperate. the simple truth that joe biden whooped donald trump in a free and fair election that wasn't in the words of mitch mcconnell particularly close, that simple fact that's just a statement of the world has been rendered an unutterable hiracy by trump. the former president will not accept even the most basic acknowledgement that he lost the election, that he attempted a coup or the deadly insurrection was a conclusion of his own lies about the election. case in point yesterday, senator mike rounds, conservative republican from south dakota, not a squish, not a rino made this obviously true factual statement on television. >> as a part of our due diligence, we looked at over 60 different accusations made in multiple states. while there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities that had risen to the point to change the voter outcome in a single state. the election was fair. as fair as we've seen. we simply did not win the election as republicans for the presidency. >> now, it should come as zero surprise donald trump did not react well to that, and we knew it was coming. in one of his nontweet statements he has to email a journalist since he's been ban ed from twitter. trump came off as unhinged. i'll quote for you. senator in quotation marks mike rounds of the great state of south dakota just went woke on the fraudulent presidential election of 2020. boy, if there's someone that conjures the image of woke, it's mike rounds. is he crazy or just stupid declaring he is a weak and ineffective leader. i here by firmly pledge that he will never receive my capital endorsement again. senator rounds doesn't need his endorsement, he's not up for election for another four years. it seems unlikely he will lose his seat to the controversy. to his credit rounds wrote i am disappointed but not surprised by the former president's reaction. however, the facts remain the same. i stand by my statement. the former president lost the 2020 election. it's amazing how controversial he's rendered that statement. the former president lost the 2020 election. it remains true that for most republicans you can't say that. it is simply easier to remain silent than potentially upset trump. only senator mitt romney of utah, frequent republican critic of trump, voted for the impeachment, came to rounds' defense. he said the plain fact that joe biden won the election. something republicans probably wish romney hadn't done. again, they're not allowed to say that. again, this is just how republican politics works now. you have to openly embrace, celebrate donald trump's alternate reality, like congressman jim jordan does, because, again, even the most basic acknowledgement he lost. he lost. that truth will put a political target on your back. you know, for a moment a year ago it seemed like it might not be like this. in fact one year ago today in the aftermath of the insurrection, trump ally, fox news host sean hannity, who may himself be called to testify, we'll see, sent this text message to jim jordan and trump's then chief of staff mark meadows, having a little group chat powwow. guys, we have a clear path to land the plane in nine days. he can't mention the election again. he can't mention the election again, ever. i did not have a good call with him today and, worse, i'm not sure what there is left to say. for a second it seemed like hannity, jordan and meadows, republican party, understood that you just can't continue to lie about an election that you lost. it looks pathetic and weak and deranged. and lying about it is not a coherent political strategy for the future. but then, all of those people paid no apparent political cost for continuing to lie, including donald trump. donald trump mentions the election every day. hannity has only become further entrenched in his stated belief that he won it. they helped perpetrate that lie because they all seem to think that telling the truth is just not worth making trump mad. congressman adam schiff is a democrat representing california's 28th congressional district. he sits on the bipartisan committee investigating january 6th and he joins me now. are you surprised by jim jordan's statement that he will not voluntarily cooperate and provide testimony to the committee? >> i have to say i'm not that surprised by it. you know, he said he had nothing to hide and then he decided, well, i guess i have a lot to hide. it's unfortunate, but it is who he is. and we will do our best to figure out how do we respond to members of congress who refuse to comply voluntarily, whether that is compulsion or whether that is trying to find the evidence using other means. but look, he cknowledged talking to trump on the day of the attack on the capitol. in terms of that conversation, there are only two people unless there were others in the room during that conversation who can really speak to what went on, so we obviously would like him to come in. but his decision not to not all that surprising because i assume that he reached the conclusion if he came in, told the truth, it would put him at odds with the former president and he just doesn't have the courage to do that. >> i want you to respond to the accusation that's leveled by jordan and others that this is a violation of legislation norms by asking for voluntary cooperation from fellow members of congress in the course of an inquiry, that that's reckless and beyond the pale and you've crossed some threshold that you're going to regret crossing. >> well, the most precedent was in the russia investigation. during the time as i recall when nunes was the chairman, so republican chairman, i think that's right, we had -- we extended invitations to two members of congress, one republican, one democrat, and they both came in and gave voluntary testimony. and whether it was during nu nu or when i became chair, there was no objection. they came in and did what they should do. but here, you know, it certainly appears from these two, both perry and jordan, that nothing matters quite so much as staying in the good graces of donald trump. and, chris, i have to say watching those clips and reading senator rounds' statements and see him referring to the facts and not in a gaslighting way, you find yourself pleased and admiring that someone can speak the plain truth. the bar has become that low. speaking the facts about a presidential election apparently now makes you a hero now in the gop. but that's where we are. that's where we are in trump's republican party and it's why it's hard to get these members to come in and testify. >> well, here's a great example. john thune's reaction, he has occasionally come under criticism from trump for stating the plain fact. well, i say to my colleague welcome to the club. he joked. i don't think that relitigating and rehashing the past is a winning strategy. i mean, i think, if we want to be a majority in january 2023. this is the most that thune or anyone will muster which is like an instrumental, tactical argument for why indulging this truly dangerous lie that resulted in a deadly insurrection is maybe not the best thing to do politically, but that's about as far as anyone will go, other than romney. >> you know, sadly, i think that's right. even more sad to my point of view is the point you were making earlier, which is it looked like it was going to be different a year ago in the aftermath of that terrible, tragic day. it looked like the republican party was going to finally recognize the disastrous ends to which donald trump had brought the country and they weren't going to go along with this big lie and didn't expect anybody else to go along with the big lie. not even sean hannity expected the party to adhere to that big lie. but a year later, they're more wedded to it than ever and they are using it to usher in these laws attacking the democratic infrastructure of the country. and in that sense it's such a terrible but factual statement that our democracy is on weaker ground now than it was a year ago. >> let me ask you about vice president mike pence. there's been a lot of reporting about -- there's a "new york times" story out, pence and january 6 committee engage in high-stakes dance over testimony. i'll read you a portion of this. mr. pence, these are sources around the ex-vice president has grown annoyed the committee is publicly signaling it has secured a greater degree of cooperation from his top aides than it has. something he sees as a pattern of democrats trying to turn his team against mr. trump. is that what you are engaged in? >> no. we'd just like him to come in and share what he knows and i hope that he will. i'm sure he is weighing that same calculus that jim jordan and others have weighed, but i would hope that he would show greater patriotism than someone we've seen with jim jordan. he knows what happened in the election. he knows the pressure campaign he was under. and he knows he could do a service to the country by talking about it but he also knows there's a political cost in doing that. i hope he makes the right decision, that's all we can hope for. but in terms of how much cooperation and noncooperation we're getting from people around him, i'm not going to comment on that. all i can say is that the vice president has very material testimony and we hope he'll do the right thing. >> congressman, i was about 14, 15 years old as a 5'5" backup, backup jv point guard. i had a moment where i realized i was not going to be an nba player and it was actually liberating for what i was going to do for the rest of my life and i think mike pence could have that moment with the presidency of the united states. thank you very much for your time. >> thanks, chris. next the d.c. attorney general suing the proud boys and oath keepers using a law originally written to take down the kkk. why a civil war era law recently used in charlottesville could put these groups out of business, after this. lle could put these groups out of put these groups out of business, after this after just two doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ woman: talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. why does walgreens offer prescription copays woman: talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. as low as zero dollars? ♪ ♪ so you won't have a medicare in the world. ♪ ♪ plus, 90-day refills and same day delivery. larry? that's even less to medicare about. fill your medicare prescriptions with walgreens and save. ♪ ♪ my daughter has type 2 diabetes and lately i've seen this change in her. once-weekly trulicity is proven to help lower a1c. it lowers blood sugar from the first dose. and you could lose up to ten pounds. trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. it isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. it's not approved for use in children. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. ask your doctor about once-weekly trulicity. every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. when you're born and raised in san francisco, you grow up wanting to make a difference. that's why, at recology, we're proud to be 100% employee owned with local workers as diverse as san francisco. we built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america but we couldn't do it without you. thank you, san francisco. gracias, san francisco. -thank you. -[ speaks native language ] let's keep making a difference together. so back on december 29th of 2020, just one week before the insurrection, there was a kind of dress rehearsal and the head of the far right proud boys group seen here in the black and yellow colors made a bold pronouncement on social media saying the proud boys will turn out in record numbers on january 6th but this time with a twist. we will not be wearing our traditional black and yellow, we'll be incognito and spread across downtown d.c. in smaller teams. other proud boys were charged with a series of federal offenses for their actions at the capitol, criminal federal offenses. a lot of the proud boys listened and showed up at the capitol that day. here is proud boy dominic pazolo using a police shield to smash in one of the first windows at the capitol to be broken. they were a vanguard here at the beginning of the group. he here is a few minutes later after officer eugene goodman famously led his group away from the unprotected senate members in the senate chamber. the oath keepers also came prepared on january 6th. you may have seen this footage, we played it before. they came fully dressed in combat gear. they're there in a stack leading up to the capitol. more than a dozen oath keepers have been federally charged criminally in connection with their actions on that day. now the city of washington, d.c., is going after these far-right groups as well in civil lawsuit. last month the city's attorney general announced he was suing both groups using a law written to take down the ku klux klan. d.c. attorney general carl racine joins me now. can you explain to us the theory, the legal theory behind this lawsuit that you have filed against these groups? >> chris, thank you very much for having me. it's like two point guards getting together after a long time. here's the theory of the case. the ku klux klan act, as you know, was passed in 1870, signed into law by president ulysses s. grant. it was passed into law for a specific reason. that is that after slavery, democracy actually took hold in the former southern states. and so you had black democratic cities and other towns where the representatives were voted in by the people. sure enough what happened? violent insurrections, murder, looting and violence. that act, the ku klux klan act, was intended to stop the principal group violating democracy, causing insurrections. that's the ku klux klan. that's the act that was utilized in the charlottesville case. that's the act that we're pursuing in d.c. chris, we're going to win our case because the facts don't lie. the camera doesn't blink. and the court is going to do what it's empowered to do. hear the facts and apply the law. >> so you mentioned charlottesville. i think the klan act is a piece of legislation in reading about reconstruction and i spent a lot of time thinking about, i knew the law from then. but it had been kind of dormant but it was rare to see it utilized in this means. charlottesville was a big deal. they filed a lawsuit under the provisions of this law and won a judgment. i wonder what lessons your team took from that trial? >> sure. and in fact the charlottesville litigators did an extraordinary job and i commend them. in fact they brought other claims. and to be clear, the ku klux claim itself did not go to verdict, there was not a unanimous verdict. in d.c. that's what we're going to accomplish, which is a unanimous verdict. the lessons from charlottesville and the lessons from suing insurrectionists and hate groups is that money matters to them. when you come after their money, their assets, their buildings, guess what, they run, they scatter, they hide, they complain. don't take it from me. this is what they say about being sued. one defendant in the charlottesville case said, this lawsuit is, quote, financially crippling, unquote. totally detrimental to what i'm doing. i don't want to go into some public event where i can be blamed if something goes wrong. we can't do anything publicly. another defendant said but because of pending lawsuits, we're not going to be moving forward officially with any fund-raising at this time. look here, the money matters. this was not a pro bono event on january 6. it was well organized, well planned, and well financed. we're going to go find the money and make the culprits pay. >> your lawsuit is one of -- there are a number of lawsuits in a bunch of different directions. obviously that's not surprising when you have something as disastrous as what happened on that day to see a variety of civil actions against a variety of players. one of those lawsuits is against the president, former president donald trump, for conspiring with the same -- co-conspiring with the same groups that you were suing. there was arguments today in federal court about the dismissal of that case in which the former president's lawyers urged the judge to dismiss the lawsuits accusing him of conspiring with these two far-right extremist groups and others to block the presidential vote count. i imagine you're monitoring all of these as you think about the case that you're pursuing going forward? >> we're working with the anti-defamation league, we're working with states united. we have two great law firms. we're watching everything. and people might ask why aren't you suing the former president? here's the deal. we're suing in this phase of our litigation the individuals and entities that organized, planned and participated in the insurrection. we're also looking at all the evidence being developed by the excellent job that the january 6 subcommittee is doing. and frankly by the very good job that the department of justice is doing in bringing cases. hey, chris, on december 22nd of last year, just two and a half weeks ago, a gentleman named matthew green, a leader of the proud boys, pled guilty to conspiring to plan, organize and to participating in the insurrection. that is every essential element of our case. >> yeah. >> again, we're going to win this suit and our investigation continues. >> all right. d.c. attorney general karl racine, thank you very much. >> thank you, chris. still ahead, the covid denying vaccine fear mongering january 6 senator from wisconsin announces he's running for re-election. why that could be great news for democrats, after this. t news for democrats, after this. will help you create a comprehensive wealth plan for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. so you can enjoy more of...this. i'm gonna earn 3% on dining includiakeout with chase freedom unlimited. that's a lot of cash back. are you gonna stop me? uh-oh... i'm almost there... too late! boom! earn big time with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. i have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. so i'm taking zeposia, a once-daily pill. because i won't let uc stop me from being me. zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat not corrected by a pacemaker, if you have untreated severe breathing problems during your sleep, or if you take medicines called maois. zeposia may cause serious side effects including infections that can be life-threatening and cause death, slow heart rate, liver or breathing problems, increased blood pressure, macular edema, and swelling and narrowing of the brain's blood vessels. though unlikely, a risk of pml--a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection--cannot be ruled out. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, medications, or if you are or plan to become pregnant. if you can become pregnant, use birth control during treatment and for 3 months after you stop taking zeposia. don't let uc stop you from doing you. ask your doctor about once-daily zeposia. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom ♪ ♪ for me and you ♪ ♪ and i think to myself ♪ ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ a rich life is about more than just money. that's why at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner so you can build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ vanguard. ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ ♪ diarrheaaaa.♪ try pepto bismol with a powerful coating action. for fast and soothing relief. pepto bismol for fast relief when you need it most. earn about covid-19, the more questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. this weekend after much speculation, republican senator ron johnson of wisconsin announced he is running for a third term. he announced this to the people of wisconsin via, of course, an opinion piece in "the wall street journal." in it johnson admits he's breaking his promise that his re-election campaign in 2016 would be his last. the reason, he did not anticipate democrats taking over the government or their disastrous policies. he also notes there will be a massive effort to try to, quote, destroy and defeat him. on the latter point senator johnson is definitely right. with this announcement he has rocketed to the top of democrats' list of senate targets this year because ron johnson is essentially in a category of his own. he's so trollish, so far right and pro maga but he comes from a state that doesn't line up with all of that. he's not from a plus 30 trump state. wisconsin has voted for the democratic candidate for president eight of the past nine elections. in 2012 wisconsin voters elected progressive democrat tammy baldwin as their second senator. she serves the people of wisconsin as well. the state narrowly flipped red for donald trump which helped ron johnson the same year he won re-election. there's a real gap between ron johnson's politics and the way he performs those politics and a huge part of the state which is why you could argue he is one of the worst republican senators. i mean senator johnson's reaction to the 2020 election has been particularly bad. he amplified and promoted claims the election was fraudulent. he even held a hearing on so-called irregulariies last december, three weeks before the insurrection. he was one of the people whipping up the frenzy ahead of january 6th announcing or leaking that he planned to object to the certification of electoral votes. he changed his mind at the last second after the violent insurrection at the capitol. but honestly, i think ron johnson has been the single worst republican on covid. right from the get-go when he downplayed the risks of this new disease, he told the milwaukee journal sentinel, we don't shut down our economy because tens of thousands of people die on highways. johnson has since gone on to tout all sorts of unproven treatments. ivermectin and most recently mouthwash. he has been pushing an increasingly explicitly anti-vaccine message which puts him almost in his own cat category, falsely linking vaccines to deaths. on a local wisconsin radio show he questioned why scientists think they know better than god. >> why do we think that we can create something better than god in terms of combatting disease? there are certain things we have to do, but we have just made so many assumptions, and it's all pointed toward everybody getting a vaccine. >> i mean, wow. there's a lot of people who believe in god and believe that god helped create the antibodies. the amazing, beautiful, human mind that created the vaccines. but the question now is does this all matter politically? or are the structural factors in midterms and the loyalty of the die hard maga base enough? ruth coniff is the editor in chief of the wisconsin examiner where she wrote a piece about how wisconsin game ground zero for the big lie and she joins me now. i wonders if you feel the same way about johnson. on the democratic side there are sherrod brown, senators in contested states. they have better politics than you might anticipate given how close their states are and johnson is like the inverse of that. he has far worse politics than you would anticipate based on how close the state of wisconsin is. >> yeah. and as a result he's giving a lot of republicans a heart attack. not only are democrats excited to run against johnson, republicans will say privately that they really, really hoped he would not run. they had some other people who were a little more normal that they had in mind, including mike gallagher, congressman from green bay, who is very personable, presents well, seems kind of moderate. the problem for johnson is the softening of support for trump in the suburbs in wisconsin, which helped defeat trump here in 2020, those are the people that johnson needs. and yet johnson is doubling down on all the positions that the suburban women who turned against trump really don't like. all the anti-vaccine stuff, the real extremism. you know, he doesn't seem terribly concerned about hanging on to the people who helped elect him. and that's why the cook political report moved him as an incumbent senator, the only one, into the toss-up category. that's unprecedented. >> yeah, that's such a good point. the most recent polling unfavorable in the state from marquette had him under water. the messaging on the vaccine, a lot of other republicans have been very careful to try to create this conceptual boundary between you should get the vaccine, the vaccine is good, but we don't want vaccine mandates. johnson really has, it feels to me, been in a category of his own on pretty like explicitly anti-vaccine messaging. >> i mean i think the word messaging gives him a little too much credit. i don't know where he gets the ideas that he gets. but having a press conference with some people who had rare medical conditions and suffered some harm as a result of vaccination to put out the word that it was extremely dangerous for people to get vaccinated is just -- it's bonkers. as you pointed out he held hearing after hearing on these discredited alternative remedies. in his "wall street journal" op-ed yesterday says one of the reasons he's running is because he's so concerned about mishandling of the pandemic. i guess because he thinks people need to run around unvaccinated and infect each other. it's just -- it's really over the top. sometimes it makes so little sense, it makes people in wisconsin really cringe. >> but he is part of a broader trend that i've noticed and this is true -- it's true in michigan as well. it's somewhat true, i think, in pennsylvania. but wisconsin and michigan particularly where you've got states that are very closely divided, very hotly contested, they really are like swing states. yet the republicans that rise to prominence in those states tend to be really out there. like the wisconsin republican party is really -- it's not like johnson is that much of an outlier when you look at the state legislature and the leadership of that party which really does seem far to the right of the median voter of your state. >> well, i do believe that wisconsin is ground zero for the big lie. and in terms of voter suppression, in terms of sending these phony electoral votes that helped give rise to the january 6th insurrection, claiming that there was a reasonable reason for republicans to say they were electors and cast electoral votes which they had no legal reason to do for trump, that is all true. however, i will say this, ron johnson has said that our republican-dominated legislature should be able to overturn the results of elections. that was a bridge too far even for the republican leaders of our state legislature who went on the record denouncing it and saying, no, no, we don't plan to personally overturn election results. so he -- you know, even for the right-wing takeover of wisconsin, johnson is really extra. >> all right. well, there's going to be a primary on the democratic side, a few good candidates. we'll be following this race closely and we'll have you back to talk about it, ruth conniff, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. coming up, the public health emergency lurking underneath omicron. why one e.r. doctor is sounding the alarm, just ahead. y one edig the alarm, just ahead. aleve it, and see what's possible. and also try alevex topical pain relief. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. meet ron. that man is always on. and he's on it with jardiance for type 2 diabetes. his underhand sky serve? on fire. his grilling game? on point. and his a1c? ron is on it. with the once-daily pill, jardiance. jardiance not only lowers a1c... it goes beyond to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease. and jardiance may help you lose some weight. jardiance may cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction, and don't take it if you're on dialysis. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. a once-daily pill that goes beyond lowering a1c? on it with jardiance. ask your doctor about jardiance. you could be working with someone outside your company and wait for back and forth e-mail, or a call to be rescheduled for the third time. orrr... you could use slack. and work faster with everyone you work with, together in one place. slack. where the future works. it was one of the more harrowing images from afghanistan this summer as the u.s. pulled out, finally ending a two-decade-long war and the taliban closed in on kabul. a 2-month-old baby held up by his desperate father trying to save him from the surging crowd. a soldier grabbing the child, hoisting him over the barbed wire and into the airport. in the chaos ha baby was lost in the airport. his parents were evacuated to the united states. the baby stayed missing for months until he was found with a local taxi driver who says he discovered the infant alone and crying at the airport. this weekend the baby was returned to his grandparents in kabul. the state department says they will work to bring him to the united states to reunite him with his parents who are now in michigan. if you felt like many people did, like i certainly did, this awful feeling of helplessness and impotence as we watched those scenes outside the airport in afghanistan, i have to tell you even though the cameras are not there anymore, there's something even worse happening now and there is something we in the u.s. can do about it. as afghanistan settles into winter, aid groups estimate nearly 23 million afghans, more than half the population, quote, already do not have enough to eat, with many lacking even solid shelter. they are being forced to choose between heat and food. there is little help available from the taliban government. part of the reason for that is about 75% of the former government's budget was funded by foreign aid, which was essentially stopped when the taliban took power. but there are things our government and president biden could do right now to get money flowing into the country to hopefully help millions of afghans. for example, the u.s. government could release the $9.4 billion of afghan government assets that were frozen last year. they could also ease the sanctions against the taliban. they could encourage the international community to restart aid, because right now withholding aid from the afghan government, as odious as it is, no question about that, produces zero positive political effect. instead, it is brutal in terms of human cost. millions of afghans are in imminent danger of starvation. there is something that we can do to help. the biden administration can change its current cruel, indefensive and horrific posture if they want to tomorrow. release the money and get aid flowing. americans need to make their voices heard, in the same way they demanded evacuations. it is an indefensive moral scandal to consign tens of millions of people to freeze and starve to death this winter. mr. president, you cannot let this happen. idt,en y ou can not l this happen. which reminds me, thank you for driving me to the drugstore. earn big time with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. entresto is the number one heart failure brand prescribed by cardiologists and has helped over one million people. it was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. 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. wondering what actually goes into your multi-vitamin? there's no question it's something at new chapter its innovation organic ingredients and fermentation. fermentation? yes, formulated to help your body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness well done -capsule! -capsule! -capsule! capsule saves me money on prescriptions. capsule took care of my insurance. capsule delivered my meds to my doorstep. capsule is super safe and secure. get your prescriptions hand delivered for free at capsule.com i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪nothing is everything♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. coronavirus variant is spreading through the u.s. with unprecedented speed. we have never seen anything this contagious in the span of this pandemic. today there are over 1 million new cases counted, unofficial totals likely higher than that. way higher probably. more worrisome is cases is major cities like new york, d.c. and chicago hospitalizations rates are exceeding last winter when the vaccine was not widely available. nearly 67% of the eligible u.s. population is fully vaccinated. when you have a highly contagious variant and medicals of unvaccinated people, that means a lot of people are going to end up hospitalized. as emergency room dr. spencer writes, this influx of coronavirus positive patients is also creating another source of infection for health care workers who are being sidelined in numbers i have never seen before. the domino effect will affect all levels of the healthcare system from short staffed nursing homes to ambulances taking longer to respond to 911 calls. dr. spencer and dr. meghan is also an emergency recommend physician and academic dean for the brown university of public health. great to have you both. first let's start, dr. spencer, start with you because you are practitioners, what emergency rooms look like right now amidst this omicron surge. >> i think it's important to stress the fact that this is not march 2020, right? we have treatments and tools and experience to lower the mortality for covid patients regardless of the variant. that is great news for doctors like myself and dr. rani and nurses and everyone on the front lines. the problem is we are seeing a cascading effect of so many patients, providers getting infected, we don't have enough providers or beds to take care of the patients that are streaming into our eds. >> yeah, is that -- i have read about, you know, that you've got staffing shortages in health care which we see shortages a lot of places, particularly acute in health care, that was true even in the fall before omicron and talking to the doctors that i know and interact with, and now that's exacerbated by doctors catching omicron and having to quarantine and stretching staffing levels very, very thin. >> that's exactly right. even though the number of covid patients in our hospital and icu are about the same as they were a year ago, overall, our hospitals are much more crowded both because we are taking care of all of the other problems that exist out there in the world and all the folks who put off care the last two years and we have fewer staff. health care has been affected by the great resignation as much as anyone else and perhaps more so because the effect of this covid wave is not just this covid wave. it is the effect of covid wave after covid wave after covid wave with no change in the underlying conditions that are burning out health care workers, causing moral injury and hurting hospitals and systems across the country. i really can't describe, chris, how tough it is in emergency departments right now, particularly across the northeast, but also other places that have covid surges. we have wait times that are through the roof. we have patients with serious medical and traumatic injuries that are waiting hours and hours and hours in the waiting room, not because we don't want to care for them, but simply there is no space in the inn. we feel on our own. we have been sounding the alarm not for months, but two years now, and we're still waiting for those fixes to be put in place. >> i want to talk about those, the great resignation, record numbers of people leaving their jobs. the vast majority going to get other jobs. it's not like people are just quitting. there is polling that says 18% of health care workers say they they have quit a job in 2020. since 2020, february 2020, which is a remarkable number. 69% said they considered leaving their job. i want to talk about the math of omicron and what it's doing to hospitals and then the fixes. first the math, dr. spencer, you know, let's say you have a generic variant of the coronavirus. i remember trying to get my head around the math of this when it first game. even if it's individually not that risky to a given individual, a healthy 35-year-old, right, if it's really transmissable, you are going to get in the aggregate a large number. we are seeing this with omicron, like, back of the envelope, it could be a tenth, 0.10 dangerous to folks, if it's ten times as transmissable, you literally are going to have the same aggregate amount of people coming into your hospital system even though individuals are looking at it and saying, well, it's 90% less of a risk for me. and it's hard to deal with that, i think, in the sort of social cultural political context and then when you look at what's happening in your hospitals. >> absolutely. what we know is the data suggests that omicron is about half as severe in terms of creating hospitalizations and those bad outcomes as delta. it's milder but not mild. especially because it looks like it can transmit at two to four to maybe six times the rate of previous variants, meaning that may wash away any potential benefit of it being milder. the point is that's it's happening, it's happening now at once, so quickly in places that are already overburdened that we don't have the wiggle room and people and providers and space and that's the concern. such a condensed frame. even if milder, it's not mild. get vaccinated. that can change the calculus for an individual and all of us. >> vaccines and boosting is key, is key, is key. when you talk about systemic fixes, what are interventions that can be done to stop hospitals being overwhelmed and broader, what do you mean by systemic fix? sorry, doctor, are you there? i think you froze. i will go back to you, dr. spencer. what can be done in the short term and what do systemic fixes look like? >> omicron precipitated a crisis just lake covid precipitated a crisis. health care in this country as in crisis beforehand. too few providers, too few primary care physicians, people had been vulnerable before covid even hit these shores. we need to focus on building up that primary care. increasing access. it's an issue for things like the packs low individual. there are fixes that involve putting patients first and not pharmaceutical companies or profits or the will of the hospital. if we had done so from before the pandemic and even when the pandemic started or even when omicron was first notified and we sent people kn95s and did more to get people onboard as opposed to purposeless travel bans, we would have been a lot farther ahead. unfortunately, we may leave this one not that much better proceed for the next one. >> one thing i think about is, like, we need more supply of good quality and affordable of health care for people. that's something to work towards in the future. thank you very much. i think we lost your connection. that is "all in" on this monday night. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >> thank you. and thanks for joining us. we have some breaking news to start with at this hour. we could report exclusively tonight that attorneys for former president donald trump have now met in person with the fulton county district attorney's office in georgia. now, it was months ago that we first learned that the prosecutor who leads that office, a prosecutor named mr. willis, opened a criminal investigation into alleged violations of georgia state law that occurred when elections officials in georgia were pressured and