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. good morning, 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. seven democrats could make another effort to push forward on voting rights legislation as soon as today. one day after president biden made his most forceful push yet for lawmakers to act. but was he able to move the needle? we'll talk about that with california democratic senator alex padilla as businesses and schools struggle to stay open amid a surge in covid cases. the biden administration is trying to keep kids in class by offering schools millions of free covid tests. and we'll talk about the leader in texas about how the surge is affecting her community. and former senate majority leader harry reid will lay in state in the capitol rotunda next hour. we'll be looking at his legacy two people who knew him very well. and we begin this morning on capitol hill where the senate is now back in session, as democrats could act as soon as today on bringing voting rights legislation to the floor or make an effort to change senate rules to make that happen. this comes one day after president biden made his most forceful pitch yet for lawmakers to act on voting rights bills during a speech in atlanta. >> i've been having these quiet conversations with members of congress for the last two months. i'm tired of being quiet! >> republican senator mitt romney called the speech divisive. >> so president biden goes down the same tragic road taken by president trump. casting doubt on the reliability of american elections. this is a sad, sad day. >> with me now, nbc news white house correspondent, carol lee. nbc news reporter, vaughn hillyard in senator joe manchin's home state of west virginia and ana palmer, founder of punch bowl news and an msnbc contributor. ana, democrats are trying to use all the tools at their disposal to get something done on voting rights. you have new reporting this morning on a kind of unusual method that democrats may be trying to use here. >> yes. they are looking at potentially taking a house bill on something that has nothing to do with voting rights and filling it with this voting rights package, passing that in the house, moving it to the senate. it's just a legislative tactic that will still not result in voting rights legislation being able to be passed, because the senate majority leader, chuck schumer, would still have to get passed that filibuster threshold when he files for closure, and he's not so far been able to do that. he's not convinced senator joe mannix or senator kyrsten sinema that now is the time to change the filibuster. we'll see this process play out. but unless there's a major shift on capitol hill here this week, these efforts are likely not to be fruitful. >> so, ana, explain to me, what would that mean? how would that be done? what are they thinking of doing? >> i mean, in terms of the package -- the reason why they want it to go through the house first -- again, this is under, you know, discussion. we don't know that this is a strategy they are going to take. but it's a way for the house to pass it and then it goes across to the senate as a quote/unquote message bill. and in this message bill, they only have to have one layer of cloture that they would have to get beyond. they don't have that ability right now. they don't have the votes. it's a legislative tactic that they're considering as a way of trying to kind of move forward with, you know, the process. but, again, still unlikely that schumer will be able to find the votes to move forward on the bill. >> and carol, the president came out and endorsed a change in senate rules, but what are he and vice president harris going to do to try to make that happen? >> well, jose, look, the president's power here is in persuasion. the white house says that he's going to continue to use the bully pulpit as you saw him doing yesterday. he's going to have conversations with democratic senators to try to get them to change their minds, but he's been having those conversations, as he said himself, privately for months now. and there hasn't been any change to key democrats. they're still in the same position they were in, where they don't have the votes for this. so what the president is doing is coming out and very publicly, in his most forceful wait to date, endorsing a change in the filibuster, even getting rid of it altogether. and he's doing that under pressure from supporters who say that he's not given enough priority to this issue of voting rights and that he hasn't made this something that he's done a really big push on. and so, from the president's perspective, now he's trying to show that he's in this fight, that he's going to make this education a priority. i think the question for him doing forward, politically, and with the democratic base is whether that's enough. whether they're going to look at this and say, okay, the president got in the fight. he tried, because it's likely to fail. and if it does, are they going to think that he got in this early enough or are they going to hold this against him politically? and that remains to be seen. >> and ana, moments ago, senate majority leader chuck schumer gave an update on where things stand with efforts to bring all democrats onboard with rules change. here's some of what he had to say. >> we're having a lot of serious, long, and intense meetings with senators manchin and sinema. and we are trying to come to a place -- we're not there yet. i wouldn't want to delude anybody into thinking that this is easy. >> well, senators manchin and sinema have faced a lot of pressure from outside forces and their own colleagues, but will any of this make a difference, ana? >> it's hard to tell right now. you know, senator sinema met with several of her colleagues on the senate rules committee last night, and to what chuck schumer was just saying, they didn't come out in a different place than where she had been, so she hasn't been convinced yet. they continue to have those conversations. it's unclear to me where you're going to see any movement by them. and while we often talking about, you know, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema as the tip of the spear on this issue, there are several other democratic senators who are very wary of changing the filibuster rules. and so they may be the most loud about it, but i do think this idea that there could be a carveout around voting rights is a hurdle that democrats don't seem to be overcome at this point. >> and vaughn, i mean, senator manchin will be key to any effort to change senate rules. he says he doesn't want to change the filibuster. do his constituents support him on this? >> exactly. joe manchin has suggested that he's open to some senate rule changes, but not the one that would ultimately allow these major pieces of voting rights reforms to pass. and when you talk about joe manchin, this is a senator here in the state of west virginia, which voted for donald trump by 39 percentage points, just in 2020. a senator that we are going to be talking about for years to come, because this is a moment in which the democrats have the majority come 2023, 2024, that's likely not to be the case. joe manchin is not up for election until 2024, but he won by three percentage points in his last election. i was just talking to a gentlemen, christopher smith here, who said, much like joe manchin, he considers himself a centrist democrat. but this is a moment in time that joe manchin has to make the decision. number one, politically, is there a reason to believe that he could win re-election here in 2024 in this deep red state? if not, this is the time to help democrats pass these types of reforms. but if you take joe manchin's word and the argument that potentially republicans, when they gain the majority could pass their own legislative majorities my passing the filibuster, you've got to take into account, this is this voter here, this centrist democrat here, was telling me, you've got to then believe republicans that once they have the majority, that they will not further diminish the filibuster themselves, when they find it convenient. which is exactly what happened when merrick garland was put up for the supreme court post. and that's why for years to come we'll be talking about this moment and what joe manchin's ultimate decision here in the year of 2022 is on these voting rights reforms. >> vaughn hillyard, carol lee, and ana palmer, thank you very much for being with me now. with me now to continue our conversation, california democratic senator alex padilla, who traveled with vice president biden and vice president harris to atlanta for yesterday's speech. senator, it's always a pleasure to see you. as a former secretary of state, i know you're committed to getting these voting bills passed. but republicans and some of your democratic colleagues don't see the need to change the rules. how do you go about moving from having a commitment to getting results? >> to be honest, we don't have a commitment quite yet, but i am encouraged, jose, because there's active engagement. real conversations happening with the two senators that seem to be more in the spotlight than others. huddled yesterday evening with a handful of senators and senator sinema from arizona, and as early as this morning, i was there, a handful of senators with senator manchin, senator schumer and others, having the conversation. the good news is, all members are in agreement that voting rights are critical to protect. and they are under attack right now. the debate is not on that. the debate is how we get there. so should we massage the rules, change the rules, an exemption, a waver, call it what you will. multiple ways to get there, but the urgency is absolutely there >> so take us to those conversations. what are they like and what are the issues that keep coming up? >> i won't bore you with parliamentary procedural detail, but i will say this. some of the concerns are what and how we do -- had we unite the country and get over the divisiveness and the rhetoric of prior years. it's not lost on these members that just last year we commemorated the anniversary of the deadly insurrection in the nation's capitol that was premised on the big lie. so people who may cries the acknowledgement of the lies that took place on january 6th of last year are missing the point here. it's because our democracy is under attack. yet another reason, in addition to the voter suppression laws we're seeing passed in statehouse after statehouse, under republican leadership, that's creating this moment in history. this is not just another day. this is no just another week at the office. this is not just another month, not just another year. this is a moment where the future of kourn will depend on whether or not we do what's right or fail at this opportunity. >> senator, president biden and your fellow democrats ran on promises of doing something, on voting rights, gun control, police reform, immigration, a host of other issues, so far, we've seen very little actual movement on any of these issues. why does it seem as though little is getting done? >> i would argue that a lot did get done in 2021, between the american rescue plan, the infrastructure package, but i agree with you, a lot more that remains to be done. and i'll telldown, the reason we haven't achieved comprehensive immigration reform. the reason we haven't advanced a more aggressive climate change package, the reason we haven't advanced criminal justice reform or voting rights and so much more is because of the filibuster. maybe, maybe once upon a time, the filibuster was what incentivized both parties to work together, to have that biden senate of days passed. but that's not the case anymore. we've seen clearly, time and again, republicans, whether they're in the majority or the minority, abuse the filibuster to obstruct. it seems like they have no incentive to engage and want to be bipartisan anymore. so if we've seen that over and over again, the democrats need to do what we need to do on a number of issues, not more pressing, not more urgent than protecting our right to vote and saving our democracy. >> senator, you'll be the senators attending the service for harry reid later this morning. you didn't serve with him in the senate, but what do you see as his biggest impact on the senate and the country? >> no doubt the role he played in the package of the affordable care act. even president obama himself has acknowledged that it would not have happened without the mastery and the leadership of harry reid. i look forward to being there to pay my respects. and even the affordable care act is another example of how the filibuster has been used and abused by republicans, unsuccessfully, thankfully, to try to undue the affordable care act. and what it has maintain for so many working families. access to health care for previously uninsured. the ability to maintain insurance zpitd pre-existing conditions. thank god for harry reid. >> senator alex padilla, it's always a pleasure to see you. thank you for being with me this morning. >> thank you, jose, take care. >> likewise. a programming note. my colleague andrea mitchell will talk with deputy secretary of state wendy sherman who's been in talks with russia this week, trying to convince moscow not to invade ukraine. that's at noon eastern/9:00 pacific right here on msnbc. coming up, it's being called a covid tsunami. we'll go to one texas county that's now raising its threat level to red in the wake of so many covid infections. plus, a colorado woman is being called a hero after saving three children from an icy pond. the daring rescue, ahead. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." the daring rescue, ahead you're watching "jose clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean free. hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? 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[cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. 19 past the hour. next hour, we'll hear from top officials from the white house covid response team and response coordinator. jeffrey zients is set to introduce john inglesby this as the u.s. continues to report record-shattering covid cases. the u.s. confirmed 62 million cases on tuesday, the third straight day that it has surpassed the million case marker, with new data showing that omicron makes up 98.5% of cases. joining me now is msnbc news mo live from dallas, also with us, a senior scholar at the john hopkins center for health security. thank you for being with me. doctor, you've worked so closely with dr. inglesby. talk about what this addition means for the federal response to the pandemic. >> i think it's good news. what we want is infectious disease subject matter experts running the show here. because for too long, testing has languished, testing has been neglected. and having somebody that takes care of patients, that is experienced with dealing with infectious disease emergencies is going to make that team much better. hopefully, he's able to gain traction and hopefully they'll listen to him. obviously, i'm biased, because he's been my mentor since 2008 and he's the director of the center i work for. but i think it's good news to see infectious disease expertise coming to the fore. >> how important is the testing aspect in this battle? >> testing is going to be really important for the foreseeable future, because people want to know their status. they want to know, is it safe for me to be around other people? is it safe for me to go to this event? and as we get more of the pfizer antiviral, we want people to be tested very promptly so they can be linked to treatment. testing will be something that's with us for some time. hopefully we expand it and include other things like influenza and mono and rsv so we can take this momentum for home testing and transform the way infectious diseases are diagnosed. >> doctor, you spent some time over the weekend at a hospital. what have you seen there? >> what we're seeing is that hospitals have a lot more covid patients than they did just three weeks ago. however, they're of a different caliber. we see a lot of incidental infections. in the past, everybody that was there, that was covid postwas getting treated for covid withd they're not as sick as they were in the past. so you can't really compare those numbers apples to apples. you have to take into account that there are a lot of incidental infections. in some places, 40% of cases might be incidental. so that's giving us a little bit of hope. but obviously, hospitals are still stressed in some parts of this country and they have stafg problems on top of it. we've got a couple of weeks to maybe a month where we have to get through this omicron surge to see where this all settles out. >> is that how long you think that the surge is going to be with us? the peak of it is now? >> the peak is going to be different in different parts of the country. places like new york city that got hit hard are already seeing signs they're peaking in terms of cases. hospitalizations lag by about a week and deaths by probably about two weeks. so we'll see where that all settles out. but what we see with omicron is it cycles quickly. maybe two weeks or three weeks versus months that we saw for delta. we will start see different parts of the country peaking. and i think that's good news. the key thing is going to be making sure that hospitals can get through this period of time with adequate resources, so that they're not seeing high levels of other care disrupted, people with traumatic injuries or heart attacks or strokes. that's the key, making sure those hospitals can continue their normal operations as best as possible through these next couple of weeks. >> and this is affecting -- omicron is affecting all of the country. i mean, morgan, as local businesses across the country are once again struggling to survive, what are you hearing from there in texas? >> reporter: jose, it is a struggle no matter where you look. we've seen and heard from hospitals that are running out of staff because everyone is becoming infected with likely this latest omicron strain. and here in dallas in the deep ellum district, they're facing the same issue. in some cases, having to temporarily close down because they're running out of staff to keep them open. granted, the omicron strain is more mild. but that said, people are staying home and quarantining if they've been exposed or to recover from the virus. and all of this has a domino effect on everybody. and i want to hear what a representative for the texas restaurant association had to say when we spoke to them. take a listen. >> the industry lost almost 60% of its workforce at the peak of the pandemic, right, when we were required to close, we couldn't have on-premise dining. that was about 700,000 workers. and many of those folks moved on to other jobs. they couldn't wait for restaurants to get reopened. and so, many of those folks are not necessarily coming back. >> reporter: so this situation, jose, is made even more complicated by the fact that here in texas, a lot of these workers are having trouble finding a testing site that doesn't have an hours-long wait. and if they do get tested, some employees we've spoken to say they're waiting for days to get results. so they're waiting to go back to work, thinking that they -- hoping that they might be okay. but they don't have any closure, because there's such a backlog, by so many people getting tested that they're forced to wait for days to find an answer to this. right now, the cases have yet to plateau, and it's frustrating for everyone. >> morgan, i presume, in dallas, it's also tough to go to your local pharmacy and find a rapid test. >> reporter: you can certainly find one if you have the time to go and look. but it's not easy to come by right now. and that's making everything a bit tougher for all of us. jose? >> morgan, thanks. >> doctor, i want to show you this headline in "the washington post" that reads, quote, which mask, what test? covid's latest surge spreads an epidemic of confusion. what are some of the biggest misconceptions you're hearing? >> some of the misconceptions i here is that for example everyone needs to get a pcr test, because that's the gold standard. where we know that rapid antigen tests are really good at telling you whether you're contagious, whether you can be around other people. we also don't hear a lot of clarity on what masks are important. some may still be wearing a cloth mask, or trying to wear an n95, but unable to because it's uncomfortable. the best mask is one you can wear reliably, that's lost in the messaging. i hear a lot of misinformation about, omicron is not so severe because we don't have to worry about, when it's severe enough for a hospital that's already being crushed to put that hospital over the edge. it's just a lot of misinformation and we really need to go back at the end of this pandemic and think about the public health communication strategy. because it's something that's really been deficient through the entire time. and it's made it much harder for people to really know how to live in a world where there's an endemic respiratory virus that's going to be unavoidable for most people, but we have to figure out a way to sustainably live. >> and doctor, even just like how many days one should be isolated. to be with or not be with. is it five days, is it ten days? all of those things that are so simple to understand, there's just no clear message on it. >> right, i think it stems on the fact that we haven't had an articulation of what the goal is here. people have had different goals. much people are much more worried about cases, others are much more worried about hospitalizations. and i think we've gotten to a point where wherever your goal is, is going to dictate, should you isolate for ten days or five days. and we really need to go back to first principles and say, this is a respiratory that's not going anywhere, we've got to reduce the harm the virus causes and we've got to embrace the philosophy of harm reduction, which will then make it much easier to understand why the cdc made a change from ten days to five days. why they used rapid tests the way they do use rapid tests. what type of masks are important. what type of activities are safe. who to isolate with, who not to isolate with. all of that goes back to trying to come up with a full plan for how the country moves forward, with a virus that will put us in a post-pandemic world that's not like covid-19, but a world in which covid-19 is ever-present. so we have tools and knowledge to be able to navigate it. it's much more like other respiratory viruses we deal with, year in and year out. >> thank you so much. morgan, thank you for being with me this morning. also happening in texas, another covid tsunami. that's what harris county judge lina hidalgo called the recent plague of infections plaguing health care hospitals across the county as she raised the county's threat level to red, the highest level on monday. judge, thank you for being with me this morning. what exactly does this mean, the increase in the level to red? >> it's the impact on the community as a whole. you start with the hospitals. we're now seeing 20% of our icu population here in the largest county in texas being taken up by covid-positive patients. so that does displace the car accident and the appendicitis case and the stroke and the heart attack. but it also means an impact that reverberates through every single piece of our society. kids who are having to miss school. small businesses that are having to close for the day. flights that are canceled. i mean, we heard a little bit about the lag time for pcr test results. what we're hearing is from these labs, as we say, hey, speed the results up, is that their own staff is up with covid. and so, they're having to miss work, as well. so what i'm telling the community here is, we have to take this moment seriously. and we're taking action as well. just yesterday, we signed $40 million for an army of nurses to descend on harris county and help us keep our hospitals going. >> and where would they come from? >> that's the challenge. it's a nation -- it is a globe that is impacted by this virus. and so, necessarily, you know, we're all competing with each other to see, who can get the rapid tests, who can get the nurses. and here's the thing that we can all solve together. every kid that's out there, every business that's shuttered, every piece of these can be traced back to disinformation and politicization of the pandemic. so my plea is, as i work that get through this, everyone with a platform to be on the same page, so this this virus does continue to be an issue, it's much better now, because we have a vaccine, we have treatments. but until enough people get vaccinated, the message needs to be unified. get the vaccine, get your booster, wear a mask, have gatherings outside to the extent possible with a mask. and if we do that together, we can tamp down a lot on the disinformation and really move past this once and for all. i hope this is the last time we have to go to the red level 1 threat here in harris county. but that's up to all of us. >> judge lina hidalgo, thank you for being with me this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, a shocking story from new mexico. what a teenager did with her baby just moments after it was born. and a live look at capitol hill right now, where former senator harry reid is about to lie in state. we're going to take you there in just a little while. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. c c diaz-balart 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testing program is. every week, they test about half a million students and staff to get those results. they compile lists to see who's negative, ask people to upload their results, and then they see who's allowed into the schools. and of course, they report all of that across the county, which as you can imagine, is a very big undertaking. but so far, they are pointing out that even though that 62,000 positive cases seems massive, in the full context of everyone, their positivity rate is actually around 15%. and they are emphasizing that they can now be sure that those 60,000 who would be at school this week are not at school. so they feel safe having kids in the classroom, continuing to physical the normal safety protocols of wearing masks in high-ventilated areas. but we have seen a few problems. some of the lines to get tests are quite long with some students waiting hours before being cleared. and that system of uploading results saw lags, as well. at this point, the district says they're working on a lot of those snags, but overall, feel very confident about being able to keep their classrooms open with such a large testing program. >> meanwhile, there was a shocking story out of new mexico. a young mother accused of throwing her baby in a garbage dumpster. luck we, fortunately, that baby survived. >> reporter: yeah, jose, this one is heartbreaking. luckily, the baby boy is alive and in stable condition after being left in that dumpster for around six hours in hobbs, new mexico. we're told that he was found by good samaritans who were looking for recyclables when they heard the baby's crisis. now police say they arrested that mom. they say that she said she didn't know that she was pregnant until the day before she delivered the child. she found out that she was pregnant when she went to the hospital for some sort of stomach pain. and then the next day, she gave birth, cut the umbilical cord herself and the police say that she put the baby in the plastic trash bag, drove around until she spotted a dumpster. again, fortunately, those baby's cries were heard and he was saved just in time. the baby's mother is expected to be in court expecting a judge a little later today. >> and gadi, in colorado, we saw an incredible rescue this week. >> reporter: this was an extremely close call. there were actually five little kids playing on top of this frozen pond that was 15 feet deep in denver at an apartment complex. and fortunately for those kids, there was a woman by the named of dusty televeda who was watching them from the window of her apartment. when the three of them broke through the ice, she ran outside, jumped into that frigid water, pulling out a 4-year-old and an 11-year-old, but went back for the 6-year-old. that 6-year-old lost consciousness before she was able to pull her out. here she is in her own words. >> i just kind of put some shoes on and ran out. i knew that nobody was really outside. so i was going to -- it was me. >> gosh, i hope if this happened to one of mine, that somebody like her was close by. >> reporter: yeah, and fortunately, there was a 16-year-old nearby, he also jumped in to help. he threw televeda a rope, they brought that 6-year-old out. she had stopped breathing, but as emergency crews got there, they were able to give her cpr, keeping her alive. now she's listed in critical, but stable condition. >> gadi schwartz, thank you very much for being with me from los angeles. coming up, it's being called a miracle landing. a medical chopper goes down with four people onboard. the amazing story of survival. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." survival. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. season after season. ace your immune support with centrum. now with a new look! i'm always up for what's next, even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin i'll go after that. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better 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incredible story. gabe, good morning. tell us how this happened. >> reporter: jose, good morning. the pilot noticed it was a problem and searched for a place to land for more than a mile. and the pilot was successful. >> reporter: the this morning, the ntsb is investigaing why this medical helicopter crashed tuesday in a residential neighborhood, just west of philadelphia. but what's truly remarkable is that everyone onboard, including a 2-month-old baby girl, survived. >> it was absolutely insane. i've never seen anything like this. >> i literally see the chopper in the sky, like right there. and so i'm -- i'm stopped, but then there was a moment write realized, this is going to hit the ground. that's when i pulled into reverse. >> reporter: this man was driving his family and says he barely missed the aircraft. >> this is absolutely a miracle from the lord. >> reporter: a miracle, witnesses say, behind a church. >> an absolutely miracle, no debris, no wires down, hit no trees. >> reporter: the chopper had been flying to the philadelphia hospital carrying two nurses, the patient and an infant. all four were able to escape the mangled wreckage, even before emergency crews survived, but witnesses say they could see the chopper was in trouble. >> we looked up and saw how low it was. >> reporter: the chopper first took off from maryland around 10:30 tuesday morning. minutes later, it landed with no apparent problems, about 20 miles away in central pennsylvania before taking off again. it was about 40 minutes into that next flight when tracking data shows the aircraft dropping altitude. that's when authorities believe the pilot noticed a problem. >> what the pilot was able to do was amazing. because our reports indicate that he first started to experience trouble on route one and was looking for somewhere to land. >> reporter: tense moments in the sky for more than a mile before the pilot finally brought the chopper down. a spectacular landing that saved lives. >> i can't wait to meet this gentlemen and shake his hand for getting this plane down, the helicopter, the way he did. >> reporter: no word yet on what caused the crash. but again, ntsb investigators will be looking into that. we're told that the baby is now in stable condition and that the heroic pilot has been upgraded to fair condition. just amazing all around, jose. >> great news. gabe gutierrez, thank you, my friend. good to see you. and right now, family, friends, and former colleagues of the late senator harry reid are gathering at the nation's capitol rotunda where he will lie in state. these are live pictures from capitol hill. you see the ceremony is really about to begin. reid represented the state of nevada for more than three decades through washington. senator reid died on december 28th at the age of 82. joining me now, leigh ann caldwell. also with me, the former deputy chief of staff to the late senator. as family and friends get to say their good-byes to senator reid, what are you hearing from the former colleagues on capitol hill today? >> hey, jose, of course it's going to be a somber ceremony. senator reid is going to be first nevadaen to ever lie in state in the u.s. capitol. of course, he was senate majority leader for many years. he was proud of his roots from a very small mining town of searchlight, nevada, where he had no running water -- >> leigh ann, i'm sorry to interrupt you, so sorry to interrupt you, but it's beginning. let's listen in. >> yep. >> ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step ready, step. ready, step. ready, step ready, step. ready, step. step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. ready, step. forward, march. forward, march >> ladies and gentlemen, today's ceremony will begin soon. please find your seats. >> as we've seen, the last pictures of the area there in the rotunda, and people are starting to file in. adam, deputy chief of staff for senator reid, what kind of goes through your mind when you see these images? >> a lot. it's very emotional. you know, what i was thinking just now, i was thinking two things. one, the area they were bringing th where he would have walked thousands of times. the senate was really his life in a lot of ways. and one of the reasons he rose to leader is he loved the institution. he would sit on the senate floor for hours just observing the way it worked. what made members tick. you know, that's really why this quiet man from search light, nevada, a tiny desert town in the middle of nowhere, really, came to rise. the other thing -- >> adam, i'm losing your audio. adam, i'll see if we can get a better audio connection with you, because i want your thoughts on this. the deputy, one of the senior advisers to senator reid. jose, i can't even think of one of the many times i went to see you at the senator's office, and we discussed issues about the -- your constituency and of importance to the american people. jose, what are you thinking of when you see these images? >> well, first of all, senator reid was a man who himself shunned pomp and circumstance, but i can think of no better tribute for him in his last good-bye to us. as adam said, it's notable that he walked through the very same hallways. you could hear his steps through this very rotunda, and few people can claim the decisions that he made and the consequences and the impact that they had on the american people like he did. thanks to senator reid, millions of americans, you know, have health care because of the work that he did with the affordable care act, and in nevada and throughout the nation, few people were as staunch supporters and defenders of immigrant communities as he was, as many dreamers can tell who -- he established a very strong bond and relationship. so definitely, this ceremony means a lot, and it shows -- it's a testimony to the legacy he's leaving behind. >> yeah. and jose, i'm just thinking about his influence on daca, for example, with convincing president obama to follow through on daca. positions that at times seemed almost opposite to his personal political future. right? >> correct. not only was that the case in 2012 when he -- when the administration was reticent to moving forward on daca, they felt that first of all, that he wouldn't pass daca institutional muster. then that it would not be politically wise to move forward on this. and senator reid stood his ground on that. in 2010 he made a decision to bring dreamers to vote, despite the fact his internal polls were saying that would be political suicide for him to do. he did that regardless. he moved forward with the two dream act votes that year, and continued to be an advocate for dreamers and daca in the following years, as you said, in 2012. when the immigration bill of '13. >> adam, i think we have reestablished our link with you. and you were just kind of talking about how emotional this is for you because of the love and the ties that senator reid had with the senate. >> that's right. that's right. i mean, you know, this was institution to which he dedicated more than 30 years of his life, and he saw it as a place where someone like him from nevada, the son of a mining family, that much has been said about search light in the last few days, but it's a town where there were more brothels than churches growing up. and to come from where he came from and achieve what he achieved was due to his love of the institution and what he thought the good that could be done through that institution for people like him, people who didn't come from much. people who came from modest circumstances. it was that dedication to the institution that accounted for his rise and the big impact he had on american public life. >> what do you see as his biggest legacy accomplishment? >> well, i think he would probably say helping pass the affordable care act. you know, there was a period through the sort of similar thing with biden's agenda, around the same time of year where it looked like the affordable care act was dead. people thought it was the end of the affordable care act. but senator reid basically said to president obama, leave it to me. i know the senate. working with nancy pelosi he found a way to get the bill through and passed and defied all expectations. and i think that is probably the number one thing he's most proudest of. second to jose's point, i think his work on behalf of immigrant communities was probably something he would be extremely proud of as well. >> yeah. jose, how do you see those legacy points for the senator? >> i agree with adam. there's a story about how his brother at one point break one of his legs, and they couldn't really take him to a hospital because they didn't have insurance to take care of him, so they let the fracture mend on its own, and his brother carried a limb for the rest of his life. and lessons like that in informed senator reid's fight for the affordable care act. and i feel his upbringing in nevada and the circumstances he did gave him an affinity and understanding of what immigrant communities go through today in order to try to reach the american dream, and, therefore, he felt that it was his duty to give a hand up and help out as much as he could whether it was in private through individual cases that he worked on for many people, or in public pushing for policies like the 2013 bill we mentioned a little while ago. and the hispanic community definitely has lost one of the staunchest defenders that we've ever had in the floor of the u.s. senate. >> and we're expecting the ceremony to begin in seconds as we see legislators that have already gotten there, including senator padilla who was on our program 30 minutes ago. he is now back at the -- in the rotunda there having taken his seat. we expect this thing, this ceremony, i should say, to begin in just seconds. jose, i'm wondering, you talk about how people can evolve politically. right? and sometimes take positions that are seem to be even against their own political future, and yet, they do it anyway. it seems as though that's such a lost quality. >> definitely. in this era of polarization, we've forgotten that people are supposed to be in positions of power to do good, not just to hold onto power. and senator reid understood that. his position was to do good, and to move the ball forward on behalf of the american people, on behalf of people like him, like his family, like his mother and like his -- and on policies, for example, like decide prevention. all those things, he felt that it was his duty to use his power to move things forward. >> jose and adam, thank you so much for being with me this morning. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. we have more coverage right now. >> good morning, everyone. a day the capitol will pay tribute to a senate titan. former nevada senator harry reid will lie in state beneath the capitol rotunda. we'll hear leaders and former colleagues pay tribute to his life and his lasting legacy.