christi paul. and i m boris sanchez. rising covid cases, hospitals being pushed to the breaking point and bitter confrontations again over how to keep kids safe in school. the biden administration working to reassure americans as the cdc faces a credibility crisis. and a mark seen more than a year after the deadly january 6th riot, the committee considering the insurrection is considering asking vice president mike pence to vary voluntarily before the panel. plus, more than 100 mayors penning a letter urging congress to take action on voting rights. we ll hear from one. also tennis star novak djokovic being held in a detention center in australia. what we re learning this morning from newly released court documents. well, welcome to your weekend. we are so grateful to see you through the lens, so to speak. thank you for waking up with us, hey, boris. hey, christi, good morning. it is saturday, january 8th, and we start with growing concern for our nation s kids as
the house committee investigating the insurrection now says it wants to interview the former vice president about the january 6th ininsurrection. we begin this story in chicago where the nation s third largest school district canceled classes after the teachers union voted to refuse in-person work. they voted to switch to remote learning due to a surge in covid cases, the move leaving tens of thousands of students ca it comes as the rapid spread of omicron shows no sign of slowing down. the united states now averaging more than 550,000 cases per day. that s an increase of 358% since last month. about 113,000 americans, and it s important to stress nearly all unvaccinated are currently hospitalized with covid, up 90% over the last month. we expect to hear from the white house pandemic response team in just moments. let s start with cnn s omar jimenez live in chicago for the latest on the showdown between the teachers union and the district. we re hearing teachers are bein
the latest from that briefing as we get it. right now we re following the urgent battle to defend voting rights. senate democrats eyeing a rule change to pass a voting bill without requiring 60 votes. ahead, the exclusive nbc news reporting about republican dark money and how they are trying to sway one democratic senator in particular. we ll give you one guess who that could be. and then i ll talk to the mayor of tucson, arizona who signed a letter to the senate urging them to pass legislation. also happening right now in capitol hill, the chief of the u.s. capitol police testifying about changes they have made since the attack on the capitol almost one year ago. so far he says that of the more than 100 recommendations made by the inspector general, they have implemented or are addressing 90 of them. more on that in a few moments. we are also following some breaking news in philadelphia. a devastating fire. we just heard officials give us an update. 13 people killed includ
mika, a real challenge for you is staying up new year s eve past 7:30. how did it go? i started watching a movie and fell asleep. what movie? bohemian rhapsody. jonathan lemire, just help isolate brzezinski s work way out in the stick in playing virginia. the night before we decided, you know, i kind of trying to turn over a new leaf and relax a little bit more and unwhine and get off. we have been listening to music and it s just a really great variety, you know? great variety, you got the beatles and the white album, mccartney s band on the run. a couple of nights ago, i broke out queen. mika said i am not making this up. this is a woman who does not know a difference between star wars and i played bohemian rhapsody and she goes who s playing this? it s a band called queen. okay. new year s eve we watched bohemian rhapsody. amazing. five minutes later, i looked over she s asleep. but we followed up the next day. we watched it the next day with
the former president s chief of staff a no-show at the january 6th committee, showing up on trump tv instead. i m not aware of anybody in the west wing that had any advance knowledge that the security was going to be breached at the capitol. tonight, the push to hold mark meadows in contempt. and new details about the white house plans for january 6th. then senator, could you please just allow her an opportunity to respond? could you please stop your pattern of interrupting me repeatedly? how biden nominees were held hostage because tom cotton wanted an apology. the right-wing plan to turn clean energy into the new critical race theory. good news about boosters and the latest variant. when you get a booster, you dramatically increase the level of projected protection. all in starts right now. good evening from new york. i m chris hayes. today the january 6th committee announced it is moving forward with criminal contempt proceedings against mark mead