an international investigation is now underway into the deceased attacker and members of his family. and later, what's next in the fight against covid as the u.s. finally gets ready to begin distribution of those free at-home rapid tests later this week as the surgeon general warns the country is likely still weeks away from the omicron peak. welcome to "meet the press daily". as the nation honors the life and legacy today of dr. martin luther king junior with the events across the country, the president and leaders in his party are ramping up their calls for action on voting rights. we heard from nancy pelosi at a press conference in washington ha features martin luther king iii and other activists. vice president harris delivered remarks today virtually. and president biden delivered some remarks in a prerecorded said owe released by the white house this morning. all of them using the moment to cast a spotlight on the urgent need for voting rights protections. >> today our freedom to vote is under assault. we know that if we stand idly by, our entire nation will pay the price for generations to come. it is time for the united states senate to do its job. >> the question being asked again, where do we stand? whose side are we on? will we stand against voter suppression? yes or no? will we stand against the election subversion, yes or no? >> nothing less is at stake than our democracy. this is about suppressing the vote. it's about nullifying the elections which dr. king talked about that day. nullifying the election. it's about just doing so many things to be obstacles to participation. that's wrong. the truth is that's wrong. >> of course the big problem for democrats is that their voting rights agenda seems to be doa in congress. every senate republican opposes the bills. they don't have enough support to pass the bills. and they don't have enough senate democrats to change the rules. even if they did, it's unclear if these federal reforms would fully blunt local voting overhauls that have been passed by republican legislatures. as the president approaches the official one-year mark of his presidency, he finds himself with a restless base, a frustrated democratic caw kes and a stalled agenda. democrats largely agree on where they need to go, but right now they don't seem to have a plan to get there. joining me now, sahil kapour with the latest on what to expect in the senate, and mike memoli near the white house as the president marks martin luther king day. so, mike, the white house put out this video today commemorating martin luther king junior day. the president says we must continue to commit to mlk's work. it seems like so many of biden's priorities are unfinished. where does he go from here? >> it's a great question. i think you see some of the strategy in the president's comments today. i want to highlight two. the first seem to be a rebuttal of sorts to what has been the favorite republican talking point of late talk act the fact as we heard from mitt romney talking yesterday and others, mitch mcconnell throughout the past few weeks in some ways it's harder to vote in new york or delaware than georgia where some of the voting laws that democrats have harshly criticized are taking place. you heard the president in his vid yes talking about the pernicious aspect of the voting law changes around the country. the changes to election boards. the changes to the process of counting the votes rather than the process of casting the votes. that's what has so many democrats concerned. democrats want to spotlight that part to the extent this is a political fight they think they can win. you heard the president talk about this broadly as a moment of choosing. you heard the vice president say similar when she was speaking with reporters in the last half hour, asked about where senator manchin and sinema are. she said she does not an solve any of the 100 senators of their responsibility. the white house in a weak political moment, the president's approval rating is at a low. he's heading into the one-year mark with his so much on his agenda. trying to send a message to the base that they are fighting as hard as they can for the issue. increasingly, i think we're going to hear the white house messaging shift after they lose the fight this weekend unless something surprising happens. in 2020 when there was a focus on the process of the voting in the pandemic and the biden campaign had to focus so much of their messaging about the process of voting, there's an argument to be made that that proved to be successful in the end. that the focus on the voting process helped to get their voters where they needed to be in the key states in the end. and by focusing so much attention as they start this year on voting itself, they're hoping they can rally democrats to the cause of getting to the polls in a midterm year. we know that the institutional pressures of a midterm for an incumbent party is. they're trying to defy history. >> mike, did the white house have an expectations management problem here? did they let folks think they were closer to achieving something on this voting rights bill than they were? or did the president think that perhaps even his trip up to the hill late last week would be enough to close the deal on this? >> i think they have an expectations management issue for the entire biden presidency so far. you can look at a year ago, the one-year mark of the president being sworn in, but perhaps a more pivotal date was two weeks earlier when they won the georgia runoff elections. so much of the planning was dealing with a republican majority in the senate. biden insiders and white house insiders frankly who were even up to the day of the vote not sure they were going to win the runoffs. when they ended up winning the runoffs and had a very slim majority, i think the expectations of just how much they could do along a party line were perhaps way above what they should have been given the problems that joe manchin and kyrsten sinema are posing on this issue and many others. >> sahil, the senate is going to start debating the bills tomorrow. we pretty much now how this is going to end. we don't know exactly when. what's the base case scenario for democrats to come out of this week with two defeated bills? >> garrett, this looks less like a legislative strategy to pass the bills and more like a political strategy to get caught trying. democrats are deeply invested in the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act. they cobbled together a majority of the senate with the tie breaking vote of the vice president for the bills but they don't have a path as we know to overcoming the filibuster or a path to piercing the filibuster. the argument the president and his allies like jim clyburn have made is filibuster is already like swiss cheese. it has holes for the purposes of confirming justices and changing tax and spending policy. they want to make an exception for the. of projecting the right to vote. but it's clear that senators manchin and sinema are not moving on that. they made clear an issue based exception to the filibuster is not something they would be willing to entertain. still, it looks like democrats feel the need to put it on the floor to get every senator on the record. and in the views of president biden and his allies, history is watching them. and jim clyburn said earlier that they are going to be on the wrong side of history if they vote against changing the rules. what's next? probably a debate on the electoral count act, that 1887 law that governs how congress counts votes in presidential elections. there is a real bipartisan desire to clarify that, but democrats insist that's not a substitute for the major voting rights bills. and it's not clear that republicans will be there in the end. >> all right. sahil and mike, thank you both for setting the table for us. for more now on the voting rights on the this martin luther king junior day, i'm joined by joshua johnson, professor keith mace from the university of minnesota twin cities, and latasha brown, the founder of black votes matter. democrats don't appear to be much closer to getting voting rights done than they were a week ago, and you could argue they're about where they were a year ago when president biden took office. what is the significance of continuing this fight on this day with activists and lawmakers really attempting to carry on mlk's civil rights segly -- legacy. and i want to play part of what congressman clyburn said and get your take on the other side. >> what do you think that the late dr. martin luther king, junior would say about where we are right now in our country at this time? >> he would remind us of what he wrote when he sat and got the letter from eight white clergyman, telling him that he was a disruptive force in birmingham, he should go back to atlanta. dr. king sat down and wrote injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. and i want everybody in america to understand that today. injustice in the south, injustice in georgia, texas, florida, is injustice everywhere. >> with that context so established, what does it mean to be having this fight on this day, professor? >> it means that if we -- we should find out how much people really love the civil rights movement and dr. martin luther king, because his name is not only invoked on his birthday, but his name is always invoked throughout the entire year. listen, it's just a matter of time where we have to pick another city to make an example of the curtailment of voting rights in this country. we may need another selma movement, and i think that it's important for us to understand -- and i teach my students this all the time. politicians and lawmakers do not roll out of bed to pass legislation. they have to be forced to. african american political history is an exceptional history. which means that so as the grass roots black movement goes, so does voting rights and civil rights. i mean, they all are connected, and i think that we're at the point now of trying to -- we should stop trying to convince senator manchin and senator sinema to go along with us, because yes, we believe that this is a fundamental right. everyone understands that and knows that, but what's taken place is a travesty. and it's a slap in the face not only to dr. martin luther king but a slap in the face to the black freedom, and it's time for us to take to the streets. >> latasha, i want to ask you a version of that same question. today was supposed to be the anvil. up against this deadline, the senate was supposed to get something done. now it appears they won't. they won't today. what are your thoughts on the fight on where it is today in that context? >> let me say this. it's not over until it's over. i don't think this is a time we should lift up under pressure. this is a time we need to dig in. we're not going to let them off the hook. we're going to continue like we're in arizona and also in west virginia. we're going to be there and continue. that's what happened in the movement. if you really look at the history of what happened in the movement, they didn't think that was going to pass. everybody told dr. king and others that it wasn't the time. they persevered. as a result, we are standing on the shoulders of what they did in history. and so i'm raising that because i think it's also important that we're going to call out the 16 republican senators that literally voted for the voting rights reauthorization, but now they stand being cowards for whatever reason and refuse to vote for this. i think we're going to have to put pressure on everybody. we're going to have to put pressure on -- this cannot be a partisan issue. we don't need people to lose hope. we've always gotten things done when the people have been persistent. while congress is not at this moment right now has not been doing their job, and we're talking about the filibuster and the other pieces, it is not too late. it is not too late until that vote is taken. >> josh, let's look ahead to the strategy of this week. you've got two sets of votes. we should keep them separate. votes on the two voting rights bills packaged together. democrats are expected to be united on that. that's going to be a 50/50 vote. then we think there's a set of votes on changing the rules. chuck schumer has not laid it out. what do you see as the best case scenario for democrats? how should they look at particularly the second vote where they're likely to emerge divided, not united on a path forward? >> you know, i'm not sure that either of these paths makes any political sense. i do understand what's been said in terms of keeping the pressure on. i think historically we see that in the efforts to try to pass any kind of civil rights legislation, there is that element of pressure. i'm just not sure that the democrats are dealing with the full political reality that is before them in a couple of ways. one, i think it might be hard to make a case, you know, for the whatever the merits of the bills might be, it's hard to make a case to the american people to pass a bill to prevent a problem than to respond to a problem. when the voting rights act of 1965 passed, we had already gone through the i have a dream speech in '63. amazingly violent responses to protests in '64, and the march across the edmund pettus bridge. it might be too hard a case to make right now for the complexion of american politics to get the american people to support a preventive bill rather than a responsive bill. that may not be fair, but human nature a might be working against it. especially since there is a whole swath of independence and independent-leaning republican voters who i don't know if democrats have spent enough time trying to convince that they need to lean on their lawmakers. this feels very much like a bill or package of bills that democrats and progressives have very loudly supported, but i don't hear anybody else in the amen chorus right now. i think there's other political work that maybe the democrats would be doing to build grass roots ground swell that if history is any indication, might work in pushing a bill like this forward. >> it's so interesting. watching the senate floor over the last week, there was a lot of debate i heard from republicans saying look, turnout was up. look how easy voting was for so many people even during a pandemic. see, there's no problem that needs solving there. that's the counter messaging. i think your point is well-taken. latasha, i have to ask if votes turn out the way we think they're going to, the vote on the voting rights bills will go down 50/50, then we'll see the democrats presumably divided. maybe two votes in favor of protecting the filibuster. perhaps more than that. how does that vote on a rules change if it fails advance the cause you're trying to push forward with these voting rights bills? >> i think it may raise what it will do. i think it will amplify the issue. i want to push back on the notion that it's not a ground swell. even in manchin's own district, even the voters that voted for manchin in his state of west virginia overwhelmingly supported this bill. they supported voting rights in their state. there are republicans polling the voters. there's republican leadership that has not been really -- i don't think reflective of what i think are the masses of folks on the community. and there's republican voters. i believe there are independent voters. some have said they support us, will stand with us. i think this is a matter of a few people who are doing a power grab. this is political corruption. this is what this is. what we will do is what we believe is the end of this is victory. whether it is on tomorrow, wednesday, we will be relentless around supporting this. we have to have voting rights in this country. and i do believe there is a mass amount of people who identify themselves as the republican, democrat, and independents that can see the writing on the wall and they can see the political corruption. >> do you want to see those who support keeping the rules as they are, manchin, sinema, do you want to see people go on the record with the votes? >> absolutely. i think this is the moment we should have the vote. we should smoke them out. this is the moment we can see where people stand, as we're sitting here celebrating the life and legacy of dr. king, let's ask the question. which side are you on? we should see this as an opportunity. i see this as an opportunity to even speak to the consciousness of all men and women of good will. they love democracy. whether they identify as being democrat or republican, we're calling you in. this is the moment that you're going to set the course of history of were you supportive of voting rights or not? >> keith, you're going to look to history. i need to ask you to look to the future of this history we're about to live through. dr. king's family has talked about the importance of this week. of not letting democrats off the hook even. how will history look at this moment if these votes go as expected this week, and if next week the senate is just sort of moved on? >> i think history is going to look at it as a sellout that we had two democratic lawmakers who sold us out. and i think the democrats will have to pay a price come november of 2022. and then maybe have to pay another price in 20 24 in order for the country to be galvanized around this issue. i agree with latasha. it may not take place this week, but i'm not confident it will take place this year either. i think we have to watch what happens in november and 2024. this is going to be a long struggle. joshua talked about sort of the long civil rights history from '61 to '65. i think we're in that moment again. this may go beyond 2022 and perhaps even 2024 before we see the full restoration of the right to vote. >> it's super interesting context the way we're about to this timeline stretch. thank you all for coming on and talking about this today. and be sure to check out joshua's show tonight on nbc news now. that's week days at 8:00 on nbc news now. up next, what is the democratic party's plan if they can't get voting rights legislation through this congress? democrat of california joins me ahead. later, the trump strangle hold. the former president holds his first rally of the year as he continues cultivating a group of loyalists to back his false claims of the 2020 elections ahead of the 2022 context. you're watching "meet the press daily". "meet the press daily" voiceover: riders. wanderers on the road of life. the journey is why they ride. when the road is all you need, there is no destination. uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom. nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in. your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire to make my vision a reality my varilux progressive lenses provide seamlessly transition from near to far. with every detail in sharp focus. that's seeing no limits. varilux lenses by essilor. they are for this legislation. but they're against the processes we need to get the legislation. then i don't think you're on the right side of history. so we have to fight. we got to get the votes and see which side people are on. welcome back. that was house majority whip jim clyburn on "meet the press" yesterday urging the senate to go full steam ahead on voting to pass voting rights legislation, even though they're assured to fail. the question for democratic senator leadership is if they want to hold the doomed votes to send a message, even if it may be at the expense of moderate members. joining me now is the california democratic congressman. i think everybody understands the democrat's strategy to hold the votes on the voting rights bills. the issue is important. democrats are united. even if you lose 50/50, you have the vote. what purpose does it send to do a rules change vote that you know will fail? >> garrett, we're making every effort. yesterday john was talking about having us contact our home state senators. we're still trying with every argument to convince the senators to vote for the rule change to uphold the fundamental rights. if it doesn't succeed, then we will go on. i'll tell you this. our odds are better than the odds that john lewis or dr. king faced when we were fighting for change. >> i hear that. but congressman, i mean, your home state senator is not going to vote against the rules change. you have manchin and sinema who are dug in. i struggle to understand what isolating them with another vote will do when you need them on everything else the senate might want topaz of president biden's agenda. >> look, i have a very good relationship with senator manchin. i have a lot of respect for him, and i think he can be a consensus builder on build back better and may even have a consensus opinion on how to move forward with the voting rights argument, but we need to have a robust debate on the senate floor and make our best case for why it justifies a change in the filibuster for protecting fundamental rights. i don't think that's offensive. isn't that what the senate is supposed to be about? monumental legislation. let's have people state their positions and vote. and if it fails, then let's see what plan b is, but we have to give it everything we have. >> the votes are going to get second guessed more than the cowboys' play calling last night. i'm curious in the spirit of looking back at history here, you mention john very banes. as we transition to this congress, we know it's 50/50. if you could do it over again, would you have tried to build something in the middle out rather than take the bill from the last congress and build upon that going into this debate now? >> i have to say how proud i am of my 49ers. >> i bet you do. >> but look, i think what we should have done is articulated the case for why voting rights matters earlier. perhaps we shouldn't have had all the other provisions on gerrymandering, but made it about the fact that we shouldn't be depriving people in certain communities in ballot boxes and keeping people off the voting registration list. we shouldn't be denying people the chance to vote early and we shouldn't allow republican legislatures to kick off where it has harsh penalties against local board of election individuals. i think those provisions are uncontroversial. most americans believe that everyone has to have the right to vote, and if we came around and made the case about that, i think maybe we would have had a better chance of building a broader consensus. >> i hate to ask you to negotiate against yourself, but if you look across at the senate side where this moderate bipartisan group is starting to talk about changing the electoral count act, maybe some other changes on the margins, do you think that's something that house democrats could eventually get behind if that can get done? >> absolutely. we have to do that. that's supplemental to what we're doing with the voting rights act. the voting rights act is to make sure everyone can vote. the electoral vote act is to make sure once we vote republican state legislatures or any of them can overturn that vote. here's the dilemma with that. senator mcconnell says he's open to that. what happens if we can't get 60 votes on that? are they willing to then look at a carveout for that? shouldn't everyone agree if arizona votes 52% for a candidate to 48 % the other candidate, the state legislature shouldn't be able to send an alternative slight? what happens if we can't get 60 senators to agree on that? >> it's a huge problem. i want to play for you senator mitt romney said on "meet the press" yesterday and ask about it on the other side. >> he's got to recognize that when he was elected, people were not looking for him to transform america. they were looking to get back to normal, to stop the crazy, and it seems like we're continuing to see the kinds of policy and promotions that are not accepted by the american people. >> the he there, of course, is president biden. do you agree with any of that from mitt romney that perhaps president biden miscalculated what his governing coalition and his voters wanted from him? >> no. due respect, it's why mitt romney lost his presidential election. he doesn't understand there's anger in this country. that there's anger with hedge fund buyouts and the offshoring of jobs, and to return the country to normal, you needed an agenda. you need an agenda that brings jobs, prosperity, manufacturing back to areas that have been left out and that speaks to people's economic dislocation. so what president biden is doing is ultimately trying to defeat trumpism, not just dealing with the symptom of trump, but the underlying economic conditions that may have liven rise to trump. >> we will talk more about the challenges of trumpism later in the broadcast. thank you, congratulations to your 49ers. it pains me to say it. thank you for coming on. >> thank you. have a good one. amid the interparty fighting in the senate over president biden's domestic agenda, a bipartisan group of senators are currently traveling to ukraine to meet with the president and reaffirm the u.s.'s support for ukraine's independence. that meeting comes as the u.s. and our nato allies grow increasingly concerned about a potential russian invasion. russia has already amassed more than 100,000 troops along the border with ukraine. and u.s. officials warned last week that russia may be planning a so-called false flag operation inside ukraine as a pretext for starting a war. the biden administration has all but ruled out military action in the region, opting instead to threaten severe sanctions against russia if it were to invade its neighbor. the mitt romney outlined what kind of sanctions he would like to see yesterday on "meet the press". >> i think the type of sanctions we put in place have to be of a different nature than those in the past. it's not just the u.s. but jeremy and the -- germany and france and the uk that are coming together. we recognize vladimir putin wants to reestablish a type of the soviet union. he's trying to reestablish what he had before. that can't be allowed to happen. and that's something we're going to have to come together and strengthen nato. he's trying to take it apart, to weaken it. we need a strong nato not just for russia but for the emergence of china. >> a u.s. official also says the administration is considering arming ukrainian insurgents if russia does invade ukraine. still to come, new details in the investigation into the over ten-hour hostage standoff in a texas synagogue. your watching "meet the press daily". "meet the press daily" here we go... remember, mom's a kayak denier, so please don't bring it up. bring what up, kayak? excuse me? do the research, todd. listen to me, kayak searches hundreds of travel sites to find you great deals on flights, cars and hotels. they're lying to you! who's they? kayak? arr! open your eyes! compare hundreds of travel sites at once. kayak. search one and done. welcome back. u we're learning about the final moments of the hostage situation at a synagogue in texas. the rabbi one of three remaining hostages says he threw a chair at the gunman before escaping with the other two hostages. the fbi has identified that gunman, a 44-year-old british national who was killed after the hostages escaped. officials say he was demanding the release of lady al qaeda and serving an 81-year sentence at a federal prison in texas for trying to kill americans in afghanistan. for more on this, i'll joined by tom winter. tom, what more do we know about this hostage taker at this point? >> right. so we're still trying to figure out details, important details, i think, specifically how this individual was able to obtain a firearm. he was 44 years old from the uk. came to the united states on december 29th, and with few exceptions, and there are some exceptions, it's typically not legal for somebody that would be coming over here that's not a legal permanent resident or other visa qualification to obtain a gun. we're waiting for more information about it. his family indicated in a statement to our broadcasting partner sky news that he had a history of mental illness. what was the history? did he say anything on social media that can provide us a better understanding as far as his state of mind? so that's what's going on there. we also have an ongoing investigation into the uk side of things. we're going to follow that closely. >> the british police picked up his two sons. what are they hoping to learn from them? >> it's important to realize the british laws when it comes to terrorist offenses and u.s. laws when it comes to the process of the legal system are definitely difference. there's a wide latitude on the uk side to arrest people, ask them questions and then release them later and not charge them at all. we saw that following the concert bombing for ariana grande. i would imagine they'd ask what statements he did before. who did he contact? who has he been in touch with? did he know anybody on the u.s. side of this? did he have any sort of help? did anybody pay for his ticket to the u.s.? those are the types of questions i would be asking at this stage. it's important to remember the fbi said on saturday night when this came to a conclusion, at this point they believe this individual acted alone. to important to keep that in the back of our minds. we've heard nothing different new today on that. >> all right. thank you very much. and up next, the worst of this latest coronavirus surge may still be ahead of us. the next few weeks could put even more strain on the hospital system in this country as the surgeon general warns omicron hasn't yet peaked. you're watching "meet the press daily". 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[announcer] there he goes. old spice works harder for longer. hey derrick man, you gonna be much longer? it's gonna be a minute, minute. hey derrick, quit playin'. derrick! welcome back. we're a little more than two weeks into 2022, and it's already been a record year in the pandemic. more than 11 million covid cases have been reported since january 1st, and 156,000 covid patients are currently hospitalized nationwide. cases appear to be leveling off in parts of the country where omicron first arrived. but the u.s. surgeon general warned yesterday that the next few weeks could be some of the toughest we've seen yet. in california hospitals are already nearing crisis levels and relief isn't expected until weeks after cases there start to subside. on the east coast, massachusetts east largest health care system is forced to cancel thousands of surgeries starting today amid a tsunami of covid patients. and more rural hospitals, the problem is more dire. skyrocketing cases among staff is forcing clinics to close. and now some hospitals are asking workers with covid-19 to just keep working. joining me now with what's ahead is msnbc medical contributor. doctor, even if cases are slowing down in some areas, our hospitals are clearly pretty close to maxed out. if the surgeon general is right, if omicron is weeks away from peaking, what's the hospital situation to look like over the next few weeks? >> yeah. garrett, we are a big country. and so northeast, you know, you might start to see a peak in cases or plateau in cases, but i think some of the states are still going to -- as has been noted before, lag in hospitalization, but there are other parts of the country that are not even at the case peak, and they're going to see the hospitalizations sort of continue to increase for a bit after that. we are looking for the rest of january for hopefully not all of february, but a few weeks into february, still really high hospitalizations. the tough part is there are some things we are better off in in the wave. we know how to take care of patients better this. we are hopefully have more testing now in cases we can catch patients earlier, but you're looking at a scenario where there's so many cases that even a smaller percentage of hospitalizations is ending up to be a large number, and at a time, as you mentioned, where there are so many more staff who are going to get infected because there's so much infection in the community. there's absenteeism because of that. people have been hearing about the hospitalization with covid versus hospitalization with incidental covid diagnosis. i want to stress the number is important because hospitalization with covid is making you realize many people are getting hospitalized with severity of covid, majority of them are unvaccinated. the people who are incidentally getting diagnosed and admitted for covid, it's not -- there's still a burden on the health care system as well. these are people who may have pancreatitis and are getting admitted. they need specialized isolation rooms. and a percentage of them, it can still complicate their hospitalization. the covid can make them stay in the hospital for longer. all of which means that we can't take care of everything else that needs to be taken care of within our health care systems. other people with other complaints. >> yeah. it's clear. you don't have to be hospitalized with covid for it to screw up your life. do you think we're undercounting the total right now? you talk about 8 00,000 cases. think of the people testing at home with rapid tests. maybe asymptomatic, maybe don't want to go through the process of long quarantine. what do you think the real numbers are, and what does that tell us about where the peak might or might not be? >> yeah. yes. absolutely. and the percentage to which the portion of which we might be undercounting might be different in different places dpepding on the access to testing. but i think there are estimates we may be well over a million cases a day. which is what we're sort of -- been inching towards. what that tells me is that you might see -- it's not just i think the -- how quickly his cases are making it through a community, but the vulnerability of the community. the demographics of how many are older and how many have prior infection. that's why it's hard to predict how the peaks will look in different parts of the country. >> we've talked about this the whole pandemic. deaths chase cases. right? a couple weeks behind you see the other curve go up. now we're seeing this happen to some degree in places where cases are slowing down. those death rates are going up. the average daily deaths are up something like 60% over the last two weeks. does calling omicron less severe in that context oversimplify the problem? clearly when you're talking about a wave this big, it's not less severe on the hospitals. >> no. and you and i have talked about this. it's always so hard to figure out to inherent virulence of the illness. even -- it's milder in people who are vaccinated, and we are about 62% fully vaccinated in this country. that doesn't mean it's milder for people who have not had the infection in the past and are not vaccinated, and so small percentage, again, even if it's a smaller percentage of people getting hospitalized, so many people are getting infected that a smaller percentage of hospitalization still is a big number. one thing people have -- i've seen people start to toss around statements like this is endemic now have. the current moment is not how we define endemic. the it's the expectation of number you're going to have, the status quo, and even if there are waves, they're expected numbers. we're still in the middle of boiling water. this is not what being endemic with a disease looks like. >> doctor, i almost don't have enough time to ask this question, so give me your lightning round answer. the cdc is updating the guidance on masks. saying kn 95 and n95 is more effective, but people should wear whatever masks they have and are comfortable. >> better quality masks, you don't need them in every scenario, but indoors in crowded spaces, the n95 and kn95 offer greater protection. people need to keep the masks on. you can't have a high quality mask and take it off because it's uncomfortable. you have to have a good seal. you have to find one on the market that you can fit well so there's not air coming out from around your face which basically says there's a leak and you might be inhaling the virus in the environment. >> the best quality mask that you will wear on your face. doctor, thank you for coming on. and coming up, form herb president trump rallies his base making it clear that candidates who want his support in the next election have to get on board with his lies about the last election. you're watching "meet the press daily". s (vo) america's most reliable netw s daily" is going ultra! with verizon 5g ultra wideband now in many more cities so more businesses can do more. mike's bike shop! downloading up to 10 times faster. whoa! is that already... 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(vo) hello business on the go. bye-bye public wi-fi. 5g ultra wideband is faster and safer. would you look at rhea's real estate game? closing in low lag, crystal clear hd. it's a new day for more businesses! 5g ultra wideband is now in more and more places. verizon is going ultra, so your business can too. hello, how can i? 5g ultra wideband is now in more and more places. sore throat pain? ♪honey lemon♪ try vicks vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for fast acting sore throat relief ♪ahhh!♪ wooo! vaporize sore throat pain with welcome back. turning now to midterm elections, we got our clearest look yet at former president trump's midterm message over the weekend. that message is the same lies and exaggerations about the 2020 election. the former president and his featured speakers spread an alternative history of the 2020 election, alleging he won in arizona, falsely. according to an analysis from our nbc political unit, 59 of the 93 candidates endorsed by trump since he left office have questioned the results of the 2020 election including his picks for governor and secretary of state in arizona. these lies, and the politicians who tell them, are coming soon to a ballot near you. nbc's vaughn hillyard was there at the rally in arizona. vaughn, you heard the speech. what's the former president's message for the 2022 midterms? >> reporter: garrett, it's targeting these very republicans in the state. he realizes he needs to galvanize support for these loyalists in arizona. gubernatorial candidate kari lake who has called for the decertification of the 2020 election. the secretary of state candidate is also calling for the decertification of the 20 2020 election. i've got to direct people's memories back a couple of months ago. if it were not one defector from the republican state senate here, they would have called for the jailing of the maricopa county board of supervisors for certifying the 2020 election. >> a couple of those trump endorsed candidates spoke at the rally. what did you hear from them and what's central to their lies about the campaign? >> reporter: just about everything. from that four plus hour event, you had a series of speakers, candidates and current office holders who almost solely concentrated the entirety of their own speeches on the 2020 election and this idea of election integrity. essentially the former president is commanding loyalty from these individuals and demanding they have fidelity to the big lie, these 2020 conspiracies. state senator wendy rogers was going off on tangents about rigged machines. of course there's no merit behind that. callie townsend, another state senator, was leading the chants to bring on indictments. kari lake saying that election officials should be jailed. these are individuals who hold legitimate office in the state of arizona. the attorney general of arizona was not here but he's running for the u.s. senate seat to take on mark kelly. donald trump's words were very pointed, that he should, quote, do his job. bernovich is investigating the 2020 election. he's calling for indictments and calling for the 2020 election to be challenged. again, the 2020 election is so much a part of not only 2022 but also the reality that 2024, secretary of state mark finchum could oversee elections in the state of arizona. kari lake could be the governor, tasked with certifying the election here. we have to, garrett, talk about donald trump's relevance here because there were about 10,000 people at the rally who continue to parrot the lies. >> thank you, vaughn. thank you for joining us for this hour. tomorrow, chuck todd will be back to talk about the senate and governors mansions at stake. katy tur continues msnbc coverage after the break. e. katy tur continues msnbc katy tur continues msnbc coverage after the break i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver lems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1,or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. if you've had or have serious liver problems other than hep c, there's a rare chance they may worsen. signs of serious liver problems may include yellowing of the skin, abdominal pain or swelling, confusion, and unexplained bleeding or bruising. tell your doctor if you develop symptoms of liver disease. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c behind me, i feel free fearless because i am cured. talk to your doctor about mavyret. learn how abbvie could help you save. ever wonder what everyone's doing on their phones? they're banking, with bank of america. his girlfriend just caught the bouquet, so he's checking in on that ring fund. that photographer? he's looking for something a little more zen, so he's thinking, “i'll open a yoga studio.” and as for the father of the bride? he's checking to see if he's on track to do this all over again... and again. bank of america's digital tools are so impressive, you just can't stop banking. as a professional bull-rider i'm used to taking chances. but when it comes to my insurance i don't. i use liberty mutual, they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wooo, yeaa, woooooo and, by switching you could even save 665 dollars. hey tex, can someone else get a turn? yeah, hang on, i'm about to break my own record. yeah. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ good to be with you. i'm katy tur. we're learning new details about the man behind a hostage situation at a synagogue in texas. malik faisal akram, a british national, was identified as the hostage taker. he was killed during the standoff. now british authorities say two teenagers are being detained and a law enforcement official tells nbc news the teens are akram's sons.

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