sweeping change on election rules. not all voting rights advocates welcome the presidential visit. some dismissing it as a photo op. they say they want action, not speeches. we have one here live in a second. >> it's all happening as on capitol hill we have just heard from senate majority leader chuck schumer who said he's ready to take action as soon as tomorrow to change that senate rule that requires 60 votes to move legislation forward. i'm hallie jackson in washington along with our nbc news team. we have a busy one for you this afternoon. mike memoli is posted up in atlanta with the president. sahil kapur is on capitol hill, and we're joined by tia mitchell for the atlanta journal constitution. mike, let me start with you. a lot of optics here. president biden had a full day, a full afternoon meeting with the king family, visiting, as we expect, ebenezer church. to satisfy voting rights advocates, this has to be more about more than optics. >> that's the message his critics in his own party have been sending, but optics are an important part from the white house's perspective of what the president is doing. president biden, the first democrat to win the state in 28 years and two months later, giving democrats that very, very slim majority in the senate with those run-off elections in january. you talk about the city he's in, laept, represented in congress by john lewis, the legislation, one of the pieces of legislation they're trying to pass is the voting rights bill in his name. of course, the city sill associated with that fight for voting rights, and this campus he's on, a historically black college. we know how critical black voters were to this president being nominated and getting elected. this is pan important part of what the president is trying to send the message. we know the result is not really in doubt. no one is really predicting democrats are going to succeed in their effort to change the snalt ru senate rules to get these two bills passed. but what has been in doubt was the president's commitment to this issue. that's the defining issue, is what he called it, why he's here today. let's hear how the president framed this fight. >> this is one of those defining moments, it really is. people are going to be judged. where were they before and where were they after the vote? history is going to judge it. it's that consequential. the risk is making sure people understand just how important this is. >> now, i talked about the sort of dynamics in insenate. sahil can talk more about that. just before i came up to talk with you, i had a chance to speak with doug jones, former senator from the state of alabama. he represented a very red state in the senate, very recently, and he said yes, he knows the odds are long in the senate, but he thinks what the president is doing here today is so critical. jones also saying he hasn't given up on senator joe manchin. that's what voting rights advocates and what the white house is hoping for. >> we're going to take that and talk about sahil in a second. but tia, let be go to you first. one thing that mike touched on is there are voting rights groups who are upset. they say this is more talking. there's enough talking. we need more action. stacey abrams, we know, who is running for governor, is not going to be there. the president was downplaying it as he left the white house, oh, a function of schedules, our relationship is fine. everything is fine. is everything really fine? >> no, everything is not fine in georgia because you have groups that you mentioned at the top of the show, work very hard to get joe biden elected, worked very hard to put the senate, and what they're saying is it's not that they don't want the president to come visit georgia, but they think his time would be better spent in washington where we know the work needs to be done. we know that right now, there are not even 50 democrats who have publicly committed to changing the senate rules. so there is still work to be done. they actually told me last week, you know, we don't want the president to come here unless he has a clear plan to getting voting legislation passed, and it doesn't appear that that is what the president is going to present today. he's here to lay out a vision, but not a plan. and these voting rights groups want to see a plan that can bring immediate action. >> sahil, let me go to you. one of the things mike talked about was this idea that maybe in the eyes of some, more public pressure on people like senator joe manchin could make a difference, but senator schumer is not waiting for that, he's saying as early as tomorrow, we're going to bring this up. talk to me about the dynamics at play on capitol hill. >> absolutely, hallie. senator schumer, the majority leader, signaling as soon as tomorrow he could bring up voting rights legislation to the floor of? the that. that would be a trigger point to a rules change. you call it a piece of business for a vote. it gets filibustered and you appeal to the chair. if you get 51 votes, you can set a new precedent and change the rules permanently. that's what democrats want to do in order to get a vote on voting rights legislation. it does not look good for democrats at all. they have a viable path to 48 votes in the senate at this moment for a major rules change using the nuclear option. they don't have what seems like a viable path to move the other two hold-outs, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. there's been a year of public pressure on them. democrats have not let up, activists have not let up. some of them fault president biden for not twisting arms earlier, for not making this a tier one issue at the start of 2021, and some fear it's too late, but it's not clear what if anything he can do to move those two. they're very, very resistant, actively resistant to changing rules. there is some talk about potential rule changes that would go short of a filibuster. things manchin has supported, moing to debate a bill with 51 votes, not 60. allowing a filibustering minority to be in the chamber and changing the majority to three fifths. those would be significant, but none would shame the republicans into dropping their fight against the voting rights bills. it would take something of a miracle at this point for president biden and democrats to pull this off. >> memoli, one of the things that as you know, as you pointed out, president biden is sometimes fond of saying is, you know, look at what people are doing. look what people are talking about here. when you look at the topics president biden has hit on, you know the statistic, our team pulled this together with your help and the help of our white house team. the president has spoken many times about covid, other issues. build back better, 39 speeches on it its his presidency, compared to 61 for covid. this is only his second on voting rights. >> yeah, and that really speaks volumes, doesn't it? i was with the president last july when he was in philadelphia giving a major speech on voting rights, but there's a school of thought in this white house. covid is an issue where they know the president needs to be seen as in command of this issue, speaking to the american people regularly about it. there are some issues and we saw it last week when the president gave the major speech on january 6th, calling out the former president, that this is a similar school of thought here, that because the president has only spoken about it so rarely, that when he does, people pay attention. people watch, people will listen. and so there's going to be a lot of focus on what he says here. but as so many of his critics have been sayingering words mean nothing at this point. they want to see more than just a fight, they want to see a plan. the plan as it goes in the senate is not one that's easily discernible.hallie, this is the big speech outside of washington he's giving in 2022. this is an election year. senator raphael warnock is up for re-election. this is one of his defining issues. huan to look at this is turning the page to an election year, trying to associate with democrats on the matters that matter most, and sending a message to democratic voters across the country that this is a defining fight. we know what one of the trend lines is in a midterm year. the president's own party tends to be deflated. to speak more about it in the months to come is really an election year issue for this white house, even if it wasn't a year one issue for the white house. >> tia, how important is it that president biden in this speech is expected to soften his stance, reiterate he's open to changing the rules for the senate when it comes to this issue of voting rights? >> i think it's important, and he's been softening little by little along the way of his presidency. i think it's good in the speech that he at least is foreshadowing he's going to be forceful about it. not just saying i'm open to it or yeah, that could work, but saying this is what should be done. the senate needs to get to work. i think that is important that he is willing to speak out and just say, do it. get it done. >> tia mitchell, sahil kapur, and mike memoli. thank you. >> we're going to speak with mr. albright, thank you for being on the show. >> good afternoon. >> your group is one of the ones not attending, choosing not to attend president biden's speech today. tell me why. >> you touched on it at the top of the intro. we felt that there's more he could do. i think tia mentioned, there's more he could do, he could have given a speech to the democratic caucus in washington, d.c. he could have got them riled up and the great thing about that would be after he got them riled up and focus on modifying the filibuster, that could have voted because it because they would have all been in d.c. we lost a day of potential lenl slative action because they're not in d.c. some are in georgia. we thought there was more he could do that would be really focused on actions, on coming up on a compromise. if he was going to come to georgia, one thing thadwit be worth him coming, if it was not so much a speech but an announcement. i worked it out with my friend joe manchin, that would be an announcement worth coming to georgia for. short of that, the only thing, the bear minimum would we like to hear, and some type of forceful, very forceful, not iffy, not what he would be open to, but a forceful call for the filibuster and a plan on how he plans to get there. but other than that, we just felt that there's more he could have done in d.c. >> with this boycott, mr. albright, by your group and others, do you feel the white house is hearing that message? >> i don't know. we'll see, based on what it is he talks about today. hopefully, what we're doing will make him come out for stronger statements than what they were thinking about or perhaps more importantly, it will lead him to see that just doing this speech isn't enough. and he's got to follow it up with action. think about that graphic. that graphic you put up was incredibly telling. two speeches on voting rights, the last time he spoke about voting rights, you heard mike talk about it. mike probably had on a short sleeve shirt and a tie. today, mike has on an overcoat, it's been six months since joe biden talked about voting rights. in between, he did no type of action on it, none that we could see. so he's got to follow this speech up, whatever he says today, with a plan, with meeting with joe manchin, kyrsten sinema, the same way he had meetings around infrastructure. and he's got to follow it up with going to the caucus and giving a passion speech. if he had given a speech to the democratic caucus, they meet every tuesday, if he had given a speech to that caucus that is as passionate as a combination of his july speech and senator warnock, our senator from georgia who gave a very passionate speak talking about modifying the filibuster, if he gave that kind of passionate speech to the caucus, following it up with actions, with some carrots and some sticks. then we might get the legislation we need, but that's what we need to see after he talks today. >> we know not one republican in the senate is expected to vote to change those rules to pave the way for election reform vote. but democrats are not totally united, with senator manchin outstanding. i want to play what he said this morning about the rules change. >> we need good rules changes and we can do that together, but you range the rules with two thirds of the people that are present. so if democrats or republicans change the rules to make the place work better. getting rid of the filibuster doesn't make it work better. >> he says getting rid of the filibuster doesn't make this place work better, the message from senator manchin. i hear you're frustrated with president biden. should some frustration be aimed at senator manchin, for example? is there enough frustration to go around, and how do you respond to the senator from west virginia. >> part of how i respond is part of who he's arguing with and debating is himself. a few years ago, he believed you could have changed to the filibuster rule. and that's the problem with joe manchin. he's so incredibly inconsistent. sometimes it's hard to -- earlier this week, he was talking about how the filibuster has always been here and it's never been changed in spite of the fact it's been changed 160-something times during its existence. in fact, just over the past few decades. so yes, we're frustrated with joe manchin, and he's received some of the heat. we and some of the partner organizations we work with have done a whole series of activities including kayaking out to his house boat in d.c. he's got a fair amount of heat on this, and he's going to continue to get some. after the speech today, part of what we're going to be listening for is does the president even acknowledge that they have two hold-outs within his own caucus? and how does he deal with that? we will continue to pressure joe manchin. at the end of the day, what we all have to keep in mind, activists, elected officials, and media, is joe manchin says the thing he says because he thinks it will discourage people from calling him out. part of their job is to vote. and part of what i'm glad senator schumer is doing is he's going to put this up for a vote. he's going to force manchin and sinema to have to vote this down, to do whatever they're going to do, but sometimes he says the things that he says because he doesn't want to be in that situation. let's keep in mind that a few finish ago, he wrote an op-ed saying we would never be at this point because he would never vote for the people act, and next thing you know because of pressure, he came up with compromises that led to the freedom to vote act. he can say one thing one day, change his mind, and be forced into a different position another day. that's part of the purpose of movement and organizing and that's what we have been doing. >> cliff albright, thank you for being with us and sharing your perspective this afternoon. i really appreciate it. >> don't go anywhere. that speech from president biden is set to be maybe just 35 minutes away, if he's on time. we'll check on that. we'll bring you those remarks live right here this hour on msnbc. and before we get there, we'll break down today's koifd headlines with the u.s. shatters records here and around the wufld, as have you seen this? very feisty showdown. excuse the cliches, but that's what it was between these two. we'll talk more about it. >> you keep distorting the truth. >> did you? y mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪ ♪ ♪making your way in the world today♪ ♪takes everything you've got♪ ♪ ♪taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ doctors fauci and walensky facing questions from members of congress today on grill. getting a grilling from senators. i'm sure you have seen explosive moments at this time when omicron is surging and some of the policy changes have left americans confused. watch this, though. >> frankly, honestly, you have lost your reputation. the american people don't trust the words coming out of your mouth. >> the way this administration rolled out boosters was a disaster. you created skepticism and mass confusion. >> most americans can't make heads or tails of anything coming out of this administration. >> those republicans upset with some of the faces of the public health response from the biden administration. dr. fauci, did he have plenty to say to rand paul, particularly about senator paul's repeated attacks on fauci. watch. >> do you really think it's appropriate to use your $420,000 salary to attack scientists that disagree with you? >> you keep distorting the truth. >> did you? what happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that all of a sudden that kindles the craze oz out there. you are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain. >> all happening, of course, at a time when the omicron surge is walloping this country. as we have reported, more than 1.3 million cases on monday. a world record. globally. i'm joined by capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, and dr. megan rainy. ali, boy, dr. fauci gave senator paul a piece of his mind. we have seen this to a degray play out before, particularly with these two. >> this is a continuous sparring match every time fauci comes before this committee and comes before senator rand paul. but there is an incentive structure that kind of speaks to the larger picture here of why we continue to see these two and frankly other republican senators go after anthony fauci this way. its are because there is an incentive structure and a permission structure on the right in the conservative circles to demonize him, that goes all the way back to the first year of the pandemic, and the trump administration. i was at enough trump rallies and you were there, too, where the former president would routinely go after anthony fauci, and clearly, his acolytes in the senate are continuing to carry that torch in hearings just like this. beyond that, though, something that senator romney pointed out during this hearing was that these scientists who were sitting before them were being asked to apply science to political spaces. what it underscored for me is that this hearing is an example of the more things change, the more they stay the same. it's the same complaint about science being politicized, but it's also the same tools in the toolbox for what americans should be doing at this point in the pandemic, especially amid the omicron surge. what we continue to hear from these public health experts were things that we have been talking about for years now. masking, getting your vaccines, getting your booster shots. and this is really where the science comes to meet the politics, in a literal sense, because there are public health officials here on capitol hill, but also in a figative sense for americans trying to figure out what happens next. the science is ever changing here, and sometimes it's been rolled out in messy or confusing ways. we saw these officials trying to clarify some of that, for example, how much time you would have to quarantine if you were a teacher who was vaccinated but contracted covid. we did hear that level of specificity being asked about, but the underscoring for me is the sides are baked in on this. this is a hearing we have seen smin ways before but at a different point in the pandemic. >> dr. rainny, let me go to you. if there's something folks agree on, it's the need to get boosted. when you see requirements for eating in a restaurant, going to the gym, you still only need two shots of moderna or one of johnson & johnson. dr. walensky said that's not important. if boosters are so important, why not update that guidance? >> let's be clear on why boosters are so important. they increase your protection against symptomatic disease, even with just the two-shot series, you're still largely protected against severe disease, hospitalization, or death, which are those end goals we have been trying to prevent since the beginning. the other part about not making boosters part of the primary vaccination definition at this point is that we're only two years into this pandemic. we have a series of vaccinations against measles, mumps, and rubella, or against tetanus. for tetanus, having your booster is not your deafination of being vaccinated, but you know you have to get another vaccine every ten years. we don't know how frequently you'll have to get another vaccine against covid f at all after this primary series. it would be premature to change the definition of fully vaccinated at this point. we should be talking about completing your primary series of vaccines which are the first two doses, and then getting the booster once you're at that appropriate time period right now. >> you know, political, i think, observers will look at that exchange between dr. fauci and senator paul and take away one thing. what about medical professionals? when you look at something like that, what does it say to you about where the level of trust should be and where it is in our medical professionals? >> have to say i was really proud of dr. fauci for standing up for himself on behalf of not just himself but every other public health official and physician on the front lines throughout this pandemic. the politicization of this virus and of the science, the inability to have a reasoned debate without calling each other names, without making threats, without hatred, is part of the reason that we are where we are in terms of covid response. the cdc and dr. fauci have had to not just interpret science in real time but also communicate equally to people who believe in covid and to people who don't. they have been put in a nearly impossible situation, and those of us on the front lines have experienced that vitriol as well. i have had patiens yell at me, tell me i'm lying that they have covid, threaten to walk out of the hospital. that is thanks to the lies and disinformation dr. fauci is fighting against. >> doctor, i really appreciate your perspective. ali vitale, thanks for your reporting. >> still ahead, we expect to see president biden coming up any minute or at least the next couple minutes delivering that key speech on voting rights. you can see some of the pre-program beginning. >> first, the department of justice's new warning on the dramatic rise in domestic terrorism. why they're now launching a new special unit to focus opthese kinds of violent extremists. sts. looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? 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ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. 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. the number of domest, terror investigations have more than doubled, doubled in the past year alone. according to a top official from the justice department. matthew olson. testifying today, you see him front of the senate judiciary committee. the biggest threat, people who radicalize alone and then went on to join militia groups. tell us about this new unit? what does it look like, what does it do? what are its concrete goals? >> its concrete goals are fighting domestic terrorism. it's a new group of lawyers in the national security division. the national security division was formed at a time when the big threat to america was the external terror threat from overseas groups.n't gone away, but as you heard from the government today, from the justice department and the fbi, they're much more focused on the domestic terror threat. they say it's basically two things that are driving the increase. people motivated by ethnic or racial hatred, and people motivated by strong anti-government sentiment. and that's what, if you look at the data, is driving a lot of these crimes of people attacking churches or large groups of folks that are in public places or attacking government facilities. they say those are the two main drivers, the things they're most concerned about. that's what they told the senate judiciary committee in a hearing today. >> important, i think, for the context here, right? there's no federal domestic terrorism statute. >> yes, and several times senators asked matthew olson, who is now head of the national security division of justice whether he needs more money or more tools. and the government said no. it hasn't, for example, charged any of the january 6th defendants with that kind of offense. of course, there is, as you point out, no crime of domestic terrorism. but what the government could be doing is seeking a domestic terrorism enhancement when it comes time for sentencing. and so far, in the 150 or so guilty pleas that have led to sentences, they haven't done that. and asked today why by several democrats, why the government hasn't done that yet, olson basically said, well, every case is different, and we're not done yet. >> pete williams live for us in our washington newsroom. thank you. >> after the break, talking to one civil rights activist about what she wants to hear from president biden who is set to be at that microphone, there one you're looking at live now, on what looks to be a gorgeous day coming up in just a minute. hi, my name is cherrie. i'm 76 and i live on the oregon coast. my husband, sam, we've been married 53 years. we love to walk on the beach. i have two daughters and then two granddaughters. i noticed that memories were not there like they were when i was much younger. since taking prevagen, my memory has gotten better and it's like the puzzle pieces have all been [click] put together. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. any minute now, we expect to see vice president harris and then president biden after that at this lectern in atlanta as he again makes the case for voting rights reform in the country. in the last hour, we saw the president lay a wreath at the tomb of dr. king and his wife coretta. as republicans make way for voting rights bills to pass or face a vote that could change senate rules to allow democrats to get this over the finish line unilaterally, without gop help. senate majority leader chuck schumer saying earlier today, he'll bring voting reform bills to the senate floor as early as tomorrow. i want to bring in now the vice president of color of change, ms. hatch. thank you for being with us. good afternoon. >> thank you for having me. >> sure, we spoke with cliff albright earlier. we know some advocacy groups are choosing not to attend president biden's speech. some are. where are you and your group? is this something where you are concerned that the president is doing too little or are you feeling good that the president is shining a spotlight on this at all? where on the spectrum are you? >> i think we are aligned with organizers and advocates across the country in feeling frustrated and disappointed that it's taken this long to get here. you know, we have heard a lot of rhetoric over the last several years. even within the obama administration, about addressing voting rights. we have seen the right move with intense urgency in the midst of a pandemic, in the wake of the big lie, to push restrictive voting bills across the country in dozens and donees of states, hundreds and hundreds of bills. and so i think like many other organizers, some of who are not attending today, we want to understand what the focus is going forward. >> do you feel any encouragement from the fact that president biden is going to make clear he softened his position, reiterating he's changed his position on where he was on the senate rules change here? do you believe that is a signal that this could actually get over the finish line or in your view is it too little too late? >> it might be too little too late. i think it's important. i wish we were having this conversation about the filibuster a year ago. because although i'm happy to hear the president support this narrow carve-out around voting rights, what i'm experiencing, what i think black voters went to the ballot and voted for was actual movement to better our lives, and this filibuster, which has been in place since jim crow, has prevented progress for black people. and that progress extends beyond our ability to easily pass the bill. >> you know, i think it's important to bring this up. president biden is in georgia because that state has shown what people on the ground, what grassroots activists, what folks in these communities are capable, as you look at how that state has gone bluer and bluer. do you feel like there can be -- that can also be an effective strategy on the national level here? >> the work that georgia organizers and so many others have done to actually move their state into a more progressive direction is incredibly important, and there's so many lessons to learn from groups like new georgia project, fair fight, blat voters matter, about the work that they and so many others have done to make sure that the black voters were able to participate in this last election, and we need to see that type of deep engagement of our base, of black and other people of color voters in a way that builds a real coalition within congress that can actually move the issues that we want to see progress on. >> let's say, and i don't want to sound, you know, like a naysayer, but let's say the bills do fail, what's next? where does this fight go from there? >> i -- that's my question for the biden administration and democrats. even if, you know, this feels like a huge political risk at this moment to make this carve-out, but we haven't really seen an indication or a plan on how you get the other two democrats and senators to agree. i believe that black voters elected biden for a number of reasons, one of which was his 40 years of experience negotiating within the senate. and we have yet, i think, to really sort of see the payout to the dividends of that experience, so i think we're all, while it would be great to get this carve-out, i think we're all wondering how it will possibly happen. >> thank you so much for being with us this afternoon as we wait for president biden and vice president harris to speak in georgia. thank you. >> i want to bring in, again, as we take a live look, because we think this is happening at any moment, mark murray, pbs news hour chief correspondent, and former nbc news alum, geoff bennett, and editorial director of vote be, jessica. i'm so glad you're all here. jessica, you and i have had these conversations. we do think shortly we will see the folks who will be introducing the president and the vice president. one thing we have talked about before, while democrats are, as you just heard, i think, really united behind getting to a degree, getting these voting rights pushes done with the exception of senator manchin and the filibuster issue, you think they actually need to take other steps and go further. tell me about that. >> you know, i think they're really letting perfection be the enemy of good here. you know, we heard chuck schumer not just a few days ago say that any plan to overhaul the electoral count act would not happen unless they got their two pet voting projects through as well. and i think that that is -- it's just a little bit puzzling to me. those have not moved at all. they certainly will not be moving. so if you're going to allow, you know, yourself to be held up by even a little bit of movement and prevent that from going forward so you can achieve everything, i don't see how anything is going to get done at all. i think that is the frustration that you hear these activists have. i mean, we just heard that from your previous guest. there is just an incredible amount of frustration that there has been no movement, and the democratic party doesn't appear to be interested at all in incremental change. that's frustrating. >> geoff, do you think -- i'm curious what you think about that and whether you think president biden in making this call to, yes, drop the filibuster, drop that rules -- make that rules change happen, could be a difference maker here for senator manchin despite as jessica notes, that skepticism among some activists that will get done. potentially, and that is one of the reasons why. this is a real swing for the fences moment for president biden. haven't done a lot of reporting and talked to white house officials with this issue, i come away with the sense one of the reasons the president hasn't done more on this issue to push and promote voting rights is because he knew it was intractable. he knew the realities of the senate math. and he knew where joe manchin stood on changing the filibuster. and so this moment is so fraught with political risk for president biden. he's going to a place that is so rich with symbolism. going to atlanta, georgia, the cradle of the civil rights movement. potentially raising expectations among his supporters who have called for him to do this very same thing he's doing right now, when the political realities undergirding all of this have not changed an iota. so one wonders, will the president emerge from this damaged in any way, that this will be potentially his second major agenda item he hasn't been able to move the needle on, build back better being the other one, namely because of joe manchin's recalcitrance there, or will he emerge from this getting credit for showing some political courage? i can tell you, based on the question that our friend and colleague kelly o'donnell asked, kelly so often asks the right question at the right time of those in power, she asked the president on his way out of the white house today, what's the political risk that you face? and he said, the real risk is not saying what i believe. he described this as a defining moment. for the president right now believes this is the right thing to do based on the merits alone. right there in georgia y have talked, as you talked to the past hour, with voting rights advocates who say they cannot outorganize what they seesuppre. they did it in 2020, but the way the laws have been changed, they can't do it again. it's not about voter suppression. it's voter aversion. it calls for the state ledge laicher to take over the state voting board. it's a democratic stronghold, partisan republicans potentially taking over what had been an apolitical process. and so that really is the foundation of this current moment. there's political risk for the president and as he sees it, an existential risk for the country. >> that backdrop is really important that geoff is talk about. just 1 in 5 voters feel very confident in the integrity of our electoral system. that's not good. no matter how you cut it, that's not a great number when you look at this poll. >> no, and you know, as we were just talking about, the backdrop of georgia, it was those senate run-offs that democrats were able to win in early january of 2021 that was actually caused by despondent republicans, and republicans who decided they weren't going to end up voting, which allowed democrats like raphael warnock and jon ossoff to win those run-off elections and see a decline in republican participation in those run-off contests. and now we're seeing there's some despondency, disappointment, frustration on the left, particularly coming from activists who don't believe that president biden is doing enough. and i do think that is one of the big reasons why the president is giving this speech today, to respond to that despondency and frustration. but then again, as geoff and jessica were mentioning, we have the reality of the senate math right now, and while that frustration and disappointment is real, so is the senate situation where this is a 50/50 senate where joe manchin kiren sinema are not new to the opposition of reforming the filibuster and a biden presidency which has big wins in the 50/50 senate. the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the $1.9 trillion covid relife bill. a lot of judges approved by thin democratic majorities. now we're getting to the situation after build back better, the social spending bill has stalled on the senate, now going to voting rights, there is a lot of palpable frustration from democrats at a time in which the political headwinds that they're already facing are very tough going into midterms. >> it looks like president biden is slightly delayed by this -- in his speech given we expected him to start 30 seconds from now. jessica, let me go to you here. you run a newsroom dedicated to this issue, voting integrity, election integrity. we have 19 states passing restrictive voting laws. what do the midterms look like if president biden and democrats, you know, joe manchin doesn't get onboard, are not able to get this over the finish line? >> i think they look very than looked in 2020. of course, we were dealing with pandemic voting in 2020 and so definitionally, it looked different. we're still going to be in a pandemic, but a lot of vote by mail restrictions have been implemented in these states to prevent these people from voting by mail if they're not over the age of 65 or disabled. that's the cut off. i think voting is going to look very different. that's going to be confusing for voters. one of the goals of democrats proposals here is more national consistency from state to state in terms of the way it looks to cast your ballot in texas versus north dakota. right now, that's very different. under the democrats' plan, it would come much closer together and i think that's one of the things that republicans just have no appetite for. they don't want federal overreach in state voting issues and that's really been a pattern throughout history and the united states and so it's interesting to me to watch the democrats kind of navigate that terrain, but certainly they're no closer to navigating it or passing these bills now than they were a year ago. and that is, that's quite frustrating to see. joe biden's going to address this today in his speech, but i want to note that joe biden has given fewer press conferences than any president in modern history. he has not used the bully pulpit to drive this issue forward, it's very symbolic and great that he's putting voting rights at the forefront of this speech in atlanta, but he's wasted a lot of time not doing that on a dale by basis throughout the last several months and i think this is part of the reason this is moving so little. >> thank you so much for being with us here as we wait for president biden to speak on this issue in georgia. we're going to take a quick break. see if we can sneak in some breaking news from the january 6th select committee when we come back. 6th select committee when we 6th select committee when we come back. ♪ ♪ ♪ limu emu and doug.♪ and it's easy to customize your insurance at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? 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taxes. intuit quickbooks helps you manage your payroll taxes. cheers. 100% accurate payroll tax calculations guaranteed. couple of pieces of breaking news. first from chicago. the mayor there has become the latest politician to test positive for covid. mayor lightfoot says she has mild cold like symptoms and will be working from home while she's isolating. if you've been following the news around chicago, she's been dealing with a huge spike in cases that have kept schools there closed. they finally, after four days of no school, have come to an agreement with the teachers union. classes are to start tomorrow. also breaking news from capitol hill. the house january 6th select committee has some information from bennie thompson. they want to speak with rudy giuliani. it's not all together shocking they'd want to speak with him considering he was in many ways one of the, and i say one of the, drivers of the lies surrounding, that fueled the insurrection related to the 2020 election, but now we have the chairman of the committee i believe on the record saying yeah, we want to talk to him and not ruling out a subpoena for giuliani either. >> not surprising we're hearing the committee wants to talk to him. it sort of follows the thread we've seen with the other subpoenas they've issued. people who were close to the former president and in constant communication with him on january 6th and the weeks before. giuliani, one of the people who was leading the legal challenges that the trump campaign was issuing around and after election day and of course, one of the key purveyors of that so-called big lie around the 2020 election. chairman thompson coming out today saying they want to speak to giuliani. thompson calling him an integral part of whatever happens and someone who's on the list of people they want to talk to. and of course, not ruling out a subpoena for the former new york city mayor, he said to reporters here on the hill today, we're working through the process on that when asked about if a subpoena was imminent. so more into what the january 6 committee is doing and who they want to talk to as they reach the later and frankly soon to be more public phases of their investigation into the 6th. >> i was about to ask you that because they're still meeting, holding, i believe, regular meetings. still conducting their business, but getting ready for these public hearings, potentially in prime time, in a matter of weeks. >> we know what they're trying to do now it seems like when you look at the lawmakers who they're considering potentially having to subpoena but certainly requesting information from in the short-term, that's clearly a sign of the holes in their story that they're trying to fill and get more information on. of course, there's still the ongoing litigation over those national archives records, which are critically important to the committee's ability to paint the picture of what was going on in the white house on january 6th and in the days and weeks beforehand. all of this coming together as they hope to issue reports in the coming weeks and months and of course those public hearings because over the course of the last few months, since the committee was started, we've seen them working mostly behind closed doors. the most information that we have been able to get is when we see these lawmakers in the hallways and can press them about what is happening in these committee hearing rooms as they're interviewing these witnesses. now we're expecting that to be more public. yes, that comes from continuing to subpoena key figures like giuliani and other lawmakers, potentially, but creating this narrative in a public way. >> i have less than 30 seconds, but tell me about this new reporting on a guy named ray epps. >> and showing they even went down this rabbit hole in talking to this man who says he was never an fbi informant or someone who worked for the fbi. this is one of these conspiracy theories being popularized in the right wing networks including fox news. people like tucker carlson talking about this in regards to january 6th. but the committee going, that's not true. >> thank you so much for jumping in front of the camera for that breaking news. we'll have more tomorrow, but for now, nicolle wallace and deadline white house begin right now. it's 4:00 in new york. in just a few minutes, president biden is expected to give a speech many of his supporters have been waiting for since republicans first made their cynical and anti-democratic plans clear. namely that they would use the lie about election fraud in the 2020 election to roll bacak success to the polls in nearly every state in the union. president biden moments from now will deliver a major speech on voting rights, an issue that is now a legacy defining priority for