working to bring them down as well. look, i grew up in a family where if the price for a gallon of gas at the pump went up significantly, it was felt by the family. i get it. i understand. but these things are necessities but that's not the totality of what family needs. they still have to pay for child care. they still have to pay for prescription drugs. they still have to pay for health care. there's more than one way to help a family when it comes to their standard of living. we're going to work to bring down the prices on the way up, but guess what? guess what? we're going to keep strengthening the supply chain to bring down the cost of every -- all these goods. but in the meantime, there's a lot we can do to give families a little extra breathing room. for example, child care. families can spend $14,000 a year per child, in some cases in this country, some cases less than $14,000 a year, for child care. our plan cuts in half most -- what most families are paying. helping their budgets. helping keeping millions of parents and especially women, a lot of people back to work because they can get child care. or the cost of prescription drugs like insulin. insulin costs about $10 to make but for families who need it, they're paying up to $650 a month on average in some places and as high as $1,000 a month. think about all those americans out there who need this insulin to stay alive and stay healthy. or the 200,000 american children with type 1 diabetes. think about being one of the parents without the insurance or the money to pay for that insulin. how do you look your child in the eye who needs insulin. they have no idea how they're going to figure out how to pay for it. think about what it does to them, their self-esteem, their dignity and ability to look their child in the eye. we capped the cost of insulin at $35 on our plan. $35 a month. the companies are still going to make a healthy profit. we can do that tomorrow with the stroke of a pen. we have a generation of so-called sandwiched generation. that is you have a young child and an elderly parent and they both need help. look, we can help them take care of mom and dad and make it work. there's a program that allows us to -- on medicare. that someone can come and install a handrail in the shower so mom doesn't fall. to make sure they have what they need to live in safety and dignity in their home, pick up the prescriptions, make an occasional meal. we can do all that. so when mom and dad put their head on the pillow at night they can have peace of mind their elderly parents are doing well and their children are okay. we're still going to work on gas prices. we're still going to work on the food prices, but in the meantime, we can deliver that peace of mind to the american people and give them a little breathing room. by the way, the proposals that i have out there, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year would pay a single additional penny in taxes. not a single penny. a lot of companies i've spoken to are willing to pay a little more in their corporate taxes and personal taxes to see that happen. you've heard me say it a hundred times. 55 companies in the fortune 500 companies that paid zero tax the last couple of years and made over $400 billion. look, we can do this without increasing the deficit. we've reduced the deficit. 17 nobel laureates and economics came to me several months ago to say this plan would not only not raise inflation, it would ease long-term inflationary pressures. look, the bottom line is this, the united states is once again in a position to not only compete with the rest of the world but outcompete the rest of the world once again. we can keep coming together, invest in the backbone of america, working class and the middle class folks. there's no limit what we can achieve. so let's keep the wages rising and let's start lowering costs. our businesses are the best in the world. our workers are the best in the world. give them half a chance. they'll outcompete anyone, anywhere in the world. we can have a quality of life for working people that they deserve at the same time. and by the way, the middle class, when it does well, when the working class does well, everybody does well. everything is better for the wealthy, the super wealthy and the slightly wealthy. nobody gets hurt. so let's face these challenges head on. let's keep building a better america. i want to thank you, and god bless you, and may god protect our troops. thank you. >> mr. president -- >> mr. president -- >> hello. i'm john king in washington. welcome to "inside politics." thank you for sharing a very busy news day. the president at the white house celebrating what he calls historic economic progress. america is back to work. case that after the government today released some new and some shocking numbers on the economy. they are shocking because they are so good and they defy predictions of a january swoon. 467,000 jobs. take a look. added in the first month of 2022. yes, unemployment did tick up but for a promising reason. more americans are out there looking for work. we also got big upward revisions to the end of 2021. look at those revised numbers. 647,000 new jobs in november. 510,000 new jobs in december. add it up, 700,000 more jobs in those two months than initially reported by the government. how good is this economic comeback? let's get perspective. mark zandy, chief economist for moody's. grateful for your time today. the president calls this historic. and the president at the beginning of his remarks raised a point. he essentially is making the point that finally the american economy, the strength of the economy, has outwrestled covid. and the economy is now driving the show. is that true? >> i think that's a good point. yeah, i think the economy is on track doing well. you know, i think the broader message in today's jobs numbers was how resilient the economy is, creating about 500,000 jobs per month for more than the past year. despite the ups and downs and the waves, the delta wave, omicron wave, the economy continues to chug along and produce 500k in -- every month and that's enough to bring down unemployment and here we are at 4% unemployment rate. yeah, it feels like the economy finally is breaking free of the pandemic. obviously, the pandemic is still on. there's going to be future waves in all likelihood. and who knows. i mean, what the next wave will bring us. but it does feel like the economy is finally breaking free, yep. >> so you hear the president talk about this is historic. leisure and hospitality up 151,000 jobs. professional svices up 86,000. retail up, transportation up. so you look across the economy and you see strength, mark zandy. the question is sustainability. we've been through this roller coaster. a good month, bad month, two bad months and then a good month. the president is making the cases in the upward revisions to the end of last year give the numbers to support the case that funeral ly finally now on a growth track. it's important for americans wondering what's next in the economy and important for a president because we're in february of an election year. >> again, i think the interesting thing is, you know, the bureau of labor statistics, the folks that put this data together release a number and some months it's a big number. we get a million jobs. the next month it's soft number. 100,000, 200,000 in job creation. but then with today's numbers with all of the revisions, they go back in history, it looks like the economy amazingly has been creating about 500,000 jobs per month, give or take. so you know, those big swings up and down, they're all gone. it feels like the economy is just doing what it's doing. and making its way through. obviously that's good for the economy. it's good for working americans. we're getting back to full swing. not quite there yet. a bit ways to go but we're getting there. but it's obviously good news for the president in the midterm elections because he does need to show the economy has made progress for it to work out for him. >> let me close with this question. the president was candid talking about if he now has these job numbers at his back in his face is still inflation. which is causing a lot of pain to american families. he was quite clear there. when you have such a strong job market like this, that can exacerbate inflationary pressures. what has to happen in your view for that to start to ease in the days, weeks and months ahead? >> you're absolutely right, john. the problem now is inflation really stings. we haven't seen this kind of inflation in 40 years. two generations so a lot of americans never really experienced this. it's pretty tough. but in my view, most of the inflation we're observing is, again, back to the pandemic. the supply disruptions, global supply chain disruptions, the fact a lot of people have been out sick, creating shortages in different parts of the economy and causes wage growth and inflationary pressures to develop. so if the pandemic continues to fade away here and i think that's the most likely scenario, i think the inflation should abate. at the same time, as the economy comes into full employment, as we get unemployment down into the threes, we will need to see growth start to slow and that's, obviously, what the federal reserve is now going to be working hard to do by starting to normalize interest rates over the course of the next year. if everything sticks to script we'll be feeling like things are back to normal, you know, a year down the road. >> mark zandi, grateful for your insights. appreciate it, sir. >> sure thing. let's get political perspective. with me, nia-malika henderson and ryan nobles. the president has had a tough few months. when you look at the polling, the covid case count, up and down, especially inflation numbers on the economy in his face. so the president didn't want to stop talk there. he was happy. he was in a good mood. calling this historic. showing numbers going back to ronald reagan. the thing that has haunted the biden team is when you get a good day, it's often followed by a bad day. do they have the sense that actually finally at least on the economy it will be a steady wind, not a roller coaster? >> well, i think that they -- at this point, you have the numbers that will allow them to breathe a sigh of relief. and that they can point to now, they can point to a trend that when you average things out, you know, these jobs have been adding -- you know, the economy has been growing at a relatively regular pace. now because of issues with surveys and the pandemic, you know, the expectations are kind of out of whack. you think there's going to be a bad report and then all of a sudden, it's -- you get the other side of that, but then when you get the revisions, oh, the month was actually ly bett. i think you probably have some frustration there because revisions don't get as much coverage when they're revised up. what's really important is this didn't happen by accident. this was me. this was what i did. our plan. he is taking credit for it, and, look, presidents do get to take credit when the economy is going well, you know, now matter how much influence they actually have. >> and so nia, the challenge for the president, there's economic numbers but psychology out there. no offense to the president but not a lot of couples sitting around the breakfast table saying, did you check the bls? did they revise up the job numbers last month? but americans do know this. the price of gas. the current price of gas $3.42 a gallon. it dropped. the president tapped the strategic petroleum reserves. it did go down for a little bit. now it's back up again. the president was candid saying there's still a lot of frustration, pain and stress on american families out there. it's february in election year. his big hope has to be that the fed helps him, other supply chain issues help, the pandemic eases and that number gets better. >> it's also, he was making the pitch for build back better without actually using the phrase build back better. because that is essentially dead. so he was really, i think, tailoring what he was saying to people like manchin. what can actually pass? something around prescription drug prices? something around elder care? maybe something around child care? so you can tell the sort of slimmed down expectations and hopes he has around passing something, but he does hope alleviates some of the stresses and economic pains that people are feeling at the pump because he's being realistic. it could be months and months and months before americans see any real change in terms of supply chain issues as well as those high gas prices at the pump. >> and that's where we get to your territory, ryan nobles. the president making the case there to democrats, talking to the country, but making the case to democrats, let's pick up some of the big popular pieces of my ag agenda. couldn't pass it last year. but let's try to do some of it. one of the key dynamics for democrats, he's the president of the united states. they're running to keep their majority in the congress. look at the president's approval ratings on the economy. he was at 52% in april. he's now under water at 38%. you see that big drop. democrats need that graphic to change. they need the president's standing on the economy to get better. the question is, do they agree with one of the ways he says get there, pass some of my bills? >> there's no doubt that the hopes and fortunes of the democrats and their majorities in the house and senate are tied to the president and his approval rating. and his ability to get something done. and i think what you heard in the president's message there today is that we have made progress, but we have more to do. and if we're going to build on this progress we have to pass some of these other packages that we promised to the american people during the last election cycle. and you -- you almost sense a bit of urgency from him. we're starting to see headwinds. it's at our back, but we're in big trouble if we don't capitalize on that and move forward. the big question, can he get those two senators, manchin and sinema to agree with him and come to the table with something that they're willing to pass. that has always been the big problem for biden and the democrats. >> good numbers, great numbers for the from the talk about. the question is, does it help him? everybody stand by. a lot more to come, including this. up next, republicans meet to discuss their 2022 agenda. one top priority? punishing those who dare to speak the truth about donald trump and about his big lie. get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will work with you on a comprehensive 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toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ some live pictures from salt lake city. that's rona mcdaniel, the chairman of the republican national committee. the republican national committee is to vote to censure two of his own. liz cheney and adam kinzinger. they're being punished because they think donald trump is dangerous. and because they are working with democrats on the select committee investigating the january 6th attacks. that rnc meeting is in salt lake city, utah. one of that state's republican senators takes issue. senator mitt romney who ten years ago was the party's presidential nominee says this on twitter. honor attaches to liz cheney and adam kinzinger for seeking truth, even when doing so comes at great personal cost. our panel of reporters is back. nia-malika henderson, great irony here. it's rona romney mcdaniel. she is the niece of senator mitt romney. she is a donald trump ally. many would say stronger, more negative term. me he is very much not. >> that romney part of her name has essentially disappeared because donald trump doesn't like mitt romney. so that's something that she did to please donald trump. on the one hand this is kind of meaningless, this censure from the rnc. it's not going to mean much. adam kinzinger isn't even running for re-election. but it is quite meaningful and it shows you how loyal the rnc is to donald trump. he tweeted, i think, just a few days ago about how terrible the work of the january 6th committee is, how it really should be focusing on the big lie he's been telling about 2020. we, of course, know is a crazy conspiracy theory. but, yeah, she is enthralled to donald trump. many republicans are, too, and liz cheney has got a real battle on her hands and her fight for re-election. she's been able to raise a ton of money. you have a challenger in that race that donald trump has given something like $5,000 to, which isn't that much money. but nonetheless, she's become a big target of donald trump and hence she's going to be censured it looks like by the rnc. >> i agree mostly to your point that does this matter. i don't think there's any voter in wyoming or kins zinger is no running. he's not going to say, what does the rnc think? let me check with the rnc on their official position on these. she's the head, ceo of a institution. the republican national committee. and this is what she says, ryan nobles, to "the washington post" about january 6th. we've had two members engage in a democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse. ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse. no. insurrectionists who attacked the united states capitol, the united states government, chanted "hang mike pence" were trying to find speaker pelosi and were trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in a democracy. you cannot have a political party in the united states of america say that its official position is that that was legitimate political discourse. >> john, you are absolutely right. and that statement just shows how day by day republican leadership has become further and further tethered away from the truth. an attempt to almost whitewash what happened here on january 6th. but i also think we shouldn't lose sight of the machination of what happened in the rnc meeting. there was pretty powerful forces within the republican party that wanted the party to expel adam kinzinger and liz cheney. they wanted them out of the party completely and there were some working -- work that was done behind the scenes to rein that in a little bit. what that shows is that there's still a lot of republicans that are uncomfortable with this idea that they should just get rid of anyone who talks bad about donald trump, but the loudest voices are the ones that kind of saddle up next to the former president and pledge their devotion and loyalty to them. this will be a -- play a big role in the speaker's race if the republicans win back the house minority or win the majority back, i should say. that loyalty to trump versus that middle lane of republicans that want to expose himself to a bigger political tent. >> and ryan makes a key point, ayesha. they had to water down the language some to get a big unanimous vote. that's what they wanted. some old friends of the bush family. old friends of mitt romney in that room. they had to water down the language but this still is proof that donald trump is calling the shots because they are changing the party rules today. normally the party would not spend money against one of its incumbents. they are changing the rules so that the party can spend money to support liz cheney's challenger who nia mentioned the num numbers. liz cheney's challenger is below a million dollars. the fact they're changing the rules to flood party money in there. this is prove this is a trump grievance and he's calling the shots. >> he is calling the shots. and there could be long-term repercussions. part of the reason that there was pushback on throwing, you know, liz cheney and kinzinger out of the party is that the idea was like, well, what happens if some other republicans get out of line with trump, which happens very often. are they going to get thrown out of the party? that's why there was pushback, but now that this door is being opened so that you can, you know, raise money against republican incumbents, that is going to open the door to give trump even more power because what if somebody makes him very upset and he feels betrayed and he wants them to pay? now he can use the rnc to even more of that within the party. but at this point, basically the republicans who are there and are -- have the power, they are the ones who are, you know, with trump and that they are willing to do what he says and what he wants. >> grievance is the magnet in trump's compass. we've seen that for 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about her ancestors and how important it is to know who you are and to know where you came from. doesn't that look like your papa? that's your great grandfather. it's like opening a whole 'nother world that we did not know existed. you finally have a face to a name. we're discovering together... it's been an amazing gift. important live event moments ahead. you see live pictures from the pentagon. they are about to reveal the findings of a months-long investigation into what went wrong at kabul airport's abbey gate. remember back in august, a suicide bomber killed 13 american service members and scores of afghan civilians. we'll bring you that briefing as soon as they get to the substance of it. just a moment, let's listen here. general frank mckenzie, central commander. >> we're with you today to brief the resulted of the investigation that i directed sdo into the isis-k bombing at hamid karzai international airport on 26 august, 2021. that caused the deaths of 11 marines, one soldier and son sailor. we have completed our solemn duty of informing surviving family members about the results of the investigation and we're now providing it to the public in order to better inform you of the facts surrounding this tragic loss of life. while the majority of this detail brief will be conducted in person by the investigating team who searched for the facts and interviewed more than a million people, i wanted to take a moment to provide my thoughts on the investigation and what the team determined. this brief will provide great context on the situation at abbey gate leading up to and during the attack as well as the aftermath. i found the results of the team's work comprehensive, credible and definitive. i found the brief you're about to receive to be powerful and moving. the volume of evidence collected, the testimony of more than 100 people, the analysis of experts, the findings of fact and the conclusions of the team based upon that evidence gives a compelling and truthful examination of the event. the investigation found that a single explosive device killed at least 170 afghan civilians and 13 u.s. service members. by explosively directing ball bearings through a packed crowd and into our men and women at abbey gate. the disturbing lethality of this device was confirmed by the 58 u.s. service members who were killed and wounded despite the universal wear of body armor and helmets. it did stop ball bafings that impacted them but could not prevent catastrophic injuries to areas that covered. the investigation found no definitive proof that anyone was ever hit or killed by gunfire, either u.s. or afghan. this conclusion was based upon the caref ful consideration of sworn testimony of witnesses and those witnesses in observation towers, both american and british, who were in locations unaffected by the blast and that had commanding views of the scene before, during and after the explosive attack. this conclusion was also confirmed by the findings and analysis of medical examiners and explosives experts. a review of all available physical evidence and review of all available video evidence including an mq9 unmanned aerial vehicle which began observing the scene about three minutes after the attack. this point, i want to acknowledge that the investigation differs from what we initially believed on the day of the attack. at the time, the best information we had in the immediate aftermath of the attack indicated it was a complex attack by both a suicide bomber and isis-k gunmen. we now know that the explosively fired ball bearings caused wounds that looked like gunshots and when combined with a small number of warning shots, that led many to assume that a complex attack had occurred. the fact that this investigation has contradicted our first impression demonstrates to me that the team went into this investigation with an open mind in search of the truth. it also confirms the age-old fact that the battlefield is a confusing and contradictory place and it gets more confusing the closer you are to the actual action. that is why i ordered the investigation to find the truth. our commitment to transparency has now led us to provide you our best information. information derived from a thorough and comprehensive investigation. the investigation found that military leadership on the ground was appropriately engaged on force protection measures throughout the operation of abbey gate and the medical services that were available and that were ready saved every life they possibly could through heroic efforts. this was a terrible attack that resulted in tragic outcomes and horrific loss of life, both afghan and american. my hope is that by the time this brief is over, you will have a clearer picture of the situation and of the attack. while nothing can bring back the 11 marines, soldier and sailor that we tragically lost in this attack, it's important that we fully understand what happened. their sacrifice demands nothing less. with that, i'll now turn it over to the investigative team to provide you an extensive brief and following that brief, they'll be prepared to take your questions. with that, i'm going to turn it over to lieutenant general ron clark, the component commander. thank you very much. >> you've been listening to general frank mckenzie, in tampa, florida, giving his report. the headlines of the report. analyzing what happened in afghanistan at abbey gate in kabul airport, back in august. general wesley clark is with us. obviously, important for the not go back and look at a horrendous day like this. one of the major takeaways is he said we're reversing what we thought initially on that day. the analysis looks at this as an extraordinarily powerful and deadly explosive vest with ball bearings. what else did you hear that you find of significance? >> well, i think it's very significant that general mckenzie himself did the briefing for us and laid this out. i think it's a real testament to the quality that men and women in uniform and our ethics and the way we handle ourselves in the military that we have done this full investigation of this. obviously, it was important for the members of the family. they've already been informed of this. and tragically, as he said, despite the fact that people were in helmets, had the body armor that was appropriate, they believe they didn't -- it couldn't cover every part of the body and prevent these people from -- our soldiers from dying in this. so, you know, there will be lessons taken from this, obviously, and what it shows is that the command was fully engaged. the right rules and procedures were followed. the right measures for protection of the forces were in place. people were alert and observing the scene in addition from other places. so there was no lapse here on the military. this is one of those terrible things that happened. but we know now how powerful anxploesive device like that can be. we look how we provide protection for our soldiers. >> that's a critical point. you learn these new devices developed by forces of terror, 13 americans, 170 afghans killed. we'll continue to follow the briefing at the pentagon. if there's any important information, we'll bring it to you. we'll be back with more on the midterm election climate and the president's biggest challenges. has led her to a job that feels like home. with home instead, you too can become a caregiver to older adults. apply today. with less moderate-to-severe eczema, why hide your skin if you can help heal your skin from within? dupixent helps keep you one step ahead of eczema with clearer skin and less itch. hide my skin? not me. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines 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overplay one day or do not overplay one great jobs report. but it's still a good day for a president and white house who have had their share of not so good days. amy walter is the publisher, editor in chief of the cook political report. i'm going to get to the details of your column which is full of fabulous football metaphors. the president gets a jobs report, great month in january. strong revisions for november and december. and at least in terms of job creation, now the economy does seem to have a wind at his back. but -- but here's my first football metaphor. the president needs this to be a long, sustained drive because in a midterm election year his approval rating is the north star and he's underwater. the president underwater. 45% disapprove. 42% approve. if you look at the economy, the unemployment rate is low. gangbusters job creation the last couple of months but he still -- inflation and food prices. inflation and the price of gas. he needs this to be not just a day but a week and month and more, right? >> that's absolutely right. and when i listen to voters, this is what i hear more than anything else is, you know what? it's great that i maybe got a raise or a new job, but it's not covering my day-to-day costs. so i am noticing things are going up at the grocery store. in the gas tank. and whatever gains that i've gotten, whether it's through the stimulus check or whether it's through, you know, whatever my employer has done to raise my pay, it's not keeping up. and then there's the bigger frustration, john, and that's just with the way that they believe the president has been handling just a series of crises. everything from covid to the economy to afghanistan. so they lost a lot of faith in his ability to get these things done and finally what they've been seeing out of washington for the last few months is democrats fighting amongst themselves on a number of things, including the voting rights legislation. to them, they see that as not as big of a priority as the economy and getting costs down. >> right. and that's -- what you write so smartly about is the disconnect twoon the daily lives of the american people and what they see in washington. not that voting rights isn't important. not that democrats don't want to push their agenda forward but it doesn't connect to people out in the country when they're living through a covid pandemic which again the trend line for the president now starting to come down. 357,000 new cases yesterday. the question is, can you sustain it, right? is there another variant out there or does it keep coming? the other key point -- the key point is number one, in a midterm election year, the president is the north star. his approval rating is the north star. it's a referendum in the first midterm on the president. but the other side, first, i want to show a senate mab. these are the 34 senate seats. and you focus on these races. 14 currently held by democrats. republicans hold 20 of them. again, should be a good year for republicans but you talk about the possibility, let me read your words, like any team holding the ball in the red zone, the biggest threat to the gop right now is a fumble or turnover. and you go on to say, one of the easiest ways to turn over the ball is by overreaching or by trying some fancy trick play instead of just running the ball two yards into the end zone. and you smartly lay out, number one, potential of fighting too hard or with the wrong words when the president names a black woman to the supreme court. talk about these primary battles where you have candidates trying to outtrump themselves. back to those focus groups you watch closely. republicans run a risk of getting outside of what people want to talk about, too, right? >> that's right. and so, look, they are sitting right there, as i said, tortured football metaphor, so close to the end zone but a fumble is realistic, especially if you do get overconfident, right, and you try to push the envelope too far. spend too much time talking to your base and having a really hard time pivoting back to where voters are. yes, they are frustrated. yes, they believed that they were maybe going to get a return to normal with a new administration. it hasn't come in the way or as quickly as they had expected. but that doesn't mean they want to go back to what we had for the previous four years, which, for them, was a lot of chaos. was a lot of instability. they're desperate for some sense of, you know, tamping down, calming down normalcy. >> and especially, i want to come back to the senate map. especially if you're the republicans. you're thinking you have the wind at your back, historical trends at your back. if you see improving economic numbers, the president perhaps having a good week announcing a successful strike against a terrorist leader. you are the republicans, you want normal. you want to keep this normal. you look at the senate map. there's this tension right now. some of the republicans who might want to be trumpy or thinking about running for president, they're going to make a stink no matter who the president nominates to the supreme court. the leadership saying if the president sends up somebody who is qualified, we should just let this go. let this run its course. do not let it get in our way. >> right. right. there's no better way to help motivate the other side than to pick a fight and to, you know, make it look as if you are just needlessly or attacking somebody who looks qualified. look, we saw this, obviously, brett kavanaugh hearings. yes, democrats certainly motivated their base with those hearings, but their base didn't need to be motivated. they were primed up and ready to go, turn out and vote in 2018. it was republicans who were most motivated by those hearings. they thought that democrats were overstretching, were overreaching, were attacking brett kavanaugh personally. we saw it in the hearings for clarence thomas with anita hill. so there are plenty of examples where that kind of approach has gone to backfire, and, look, those members who sit on judiciary committee. they are positioning themselves, many of them, for a 2024 run. they need to keep their own owners and their own base motivated. but for the folks who are running for the senate and, remember, john, i know you talk about this all the time, but this senate map not only is it better for democrats this year but it's one of the best maps that any party has had going into midterm year because democrats aren't defending any red states. they don't have to defend any state that donald trump won. so this then, you know, you don't want to give if you are the republicans, any opportunity for democrats to get their base fired up and motivated, get their donors fired up and motivated, especially as you get closer and closer to the election. >> which is why we'll continue this conversation and continue to use this map and i'll never get tired. football metaphors are fine and dandy. amy walter, grateful for your time. up next, the january 6th committee making big progress but now faces a giant crossroads. will it subpoena republican house colleagues who are refusing to cooperate? re with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. at fidelity, your dedicated advisor will help you create a comprehensive wealth plan for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. dove 0% is different we left the aluminum out. and put 48 hour freshness. and one quarter moisturizers in. dove 0% aluminum deodorant. lasting protection. that's kind on skin. ♪ three times the electorlytes and half the sugar. ♪ pedialyte powder packs. feel better fast. my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching... the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints 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we'll make it right. grubhub. ♪ chicka-chicka the committee investigating the january 6th insurrection now deliberating what to do with lawmakers who refuse to cooperate with their investigation. the committee chairman bennie thompson telling cnn the panel had a significant discussion. those are his words. "significant discussion" about what's next for three house republicans the committee very much wants to talk to. hundreds of other witnesses are cooperating, including two of mike pence's top aides. our reporters very patient standing by. ryan nobles, let's start up on capitol hill. kevin mccarthy is the republican leader. he wants to be speaker of the house. jim jordan, noted trump ally, leading conservative agitator, provocateur. scott perry of pennsylvania tried to help the president with the big lie, fraud and that big battleground state. it's not tradition for congress to challenge its own, to force its own, but will they in this case? >> there seems to be a real divide within the select committee as to how they should proceed forward as it relates to getting these members to cooperate. what i am reading is that there is a disconnect between whether or not it's worth it to take the risk of issuing subpoenas against these fellow members because they may not be able to enforce them. and it could get caught up in a lengthy legal battle that at the end of the day won't bear the fruit they're looking for which is getting to the bottom of what happened january 6th and what, if any role, these particular members played. keep in mind, john, we know of these three but the committee is interested in a whole host of other republican members that objected to the certification results that were in regular communication with the trump campaign and trump allies and may also be able to provide information. these are just the first three out of the gate. at this point they've attempted to go the route of voluntary cooperation. both mccarthy and jordan said they had nothing to hide and they'd be willing to talk about twhat knew and now have backed off of that. but i think the committee finds themselves in a complicated situation here. there is really no easy path forward. and more than anything else, there's no precedent for this. no one has ever tried to do it like this in this fashion. so that makes it a very difficult opportunity for them that they just don't have an answer to at this point. >> ayesha, how much do we need the information? how important is that information? how hard are we willing to fight for it? jeffrey clark is another example. he was at the justice department. he told donald trump, make me acting attorney general. i'll help you through all this. he took the fifth amendment 100 times, more than 100 times in a one hour and 40-minute interview with the committee. zoe lofgren says maybe we should give him immunity and force him to testify. the question is how aggressive do you want to be? >> yeah, that's the question. part of this is that it's so difficult because of the fact that in many ways like the call is coming from inside the house. they are investigating actions that happened that members of congress were involved in. they were involved in some of the things happening with january 6th. and they were involved with talking with the president and so how do you do that. it is unprecedented, and i think that if you are going to go the route of trying to get a subpoena, that is going to be a huge issue, and it's going to be a huge fight. so that's a lot for them to weigh. >> and so again, keep coming back, i think, a, the committee is surprised us by being so thorough and meticulous, getng so many witnesses. mike peninsulace's former chief staff, they have both testified. but they have not -- they have refused to talk about specific conversations with the then-president saying that those conversations can be privileged. and those conversations can be priv privileged. a conversation directly with the president can be privileged. but a member of the committee says they're getting tons of other information. who was in the room? what else was discussed? what did the other people say without getting straight at trump. >> that's right. and they have been pretty good at doing that. a lot of folks have come in and been pretty forthcoming. this is a committee that i think, as you said, exceeded expectations so far. they are very much up against the clock. because those midterms could mean that they lose the power of this committee. lose the investigative power to bring these folks in and bring the truth to the american people. but what happened on january 6th? there are obviously competing with a very loud bullhorn in donald trump, really imploring folks not to talk, not to talk about what kind of conversations that they had with him. so you see some of that impacting their work. but all in all, i think it's going much better than most folks expected it to. >> and congressman was saying a month or two away from the public hearings or reports. fascinating days still ahead as they deal with these big questions. appreciate everybody coming in on a friday. appreciate your time on this friday as well. thanks for joining "inside politics." have a fantastic weekend. see you back here monday. anna cabrera picks up right now. hello and happy friday. i'm ana cabrera in new york. we begin with america's economic recovery getting a massive and very unexpected boost in the face of a winter omicron surge. the u.s. economy added 467,000 jobs in january, shattering most economists' expectations. added to that, december's job gains were revised up by more than 300,000. you've heard the old adage, prepare for the worst, hope for thbe