again, happy new year. but there s also some good news here. i m going to get to that in a moment. first let me tell you the caseload as we begin our week. the u.s. now has more cases than ever before. you can see the peak. you can see how much higher it is than any other point. we re averaging 40,000 daily cases. covid spread continues to rattle public safety, daily life in the economy. just today over 2,000 flights canceled, most of them covid related and some weather. the persistence and exposure of covid is now as prevalent as ever. in most parts of the united states this is not a time for moving on or forgetting the virus and safety precautions we ve been living through for so long. i also want to tell you tonight, as we begin another night together thank you for being here. while covid don t care about our calendar and covid don t care about new year s. one thing covid does still care about is vaccines. the vaccines continue to work against covid and delta and the lat
try to appeal to people being an obnoxious jerk is not the best way but there s been exceptions. there s something happening right now in this moment, particularly in the political right that s insentivizing cultivating nastiness as a political virtue. it s part of something broader and more broken with the way our political coalitions are functioning. ohio senate candidate jd vance tweeted dear jack, let trump back on. we need alec baldwin tweets. he s referencing the truly horrifying news that is inescapable today. he was involved in fatal shooting involving a prop gun while filming. he was handed a loaded weapon by an assistant director who indicated it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot cinematographer. baldwin killed the film s cinematographer cinematographer and wounded the director. thankfully, the direct tor is now out of the hospital. law enforcement is not charged anyone at this time. the statement baldwin says he is cooperating with invest
rejection of clear election results, the promotion of changes to election administration that would allow republicans to subvert election results that they don t like. it has been a bleak thing to cover, right? the news on this beat is always bad. if january 6th was supposed to be a shock to the system that was going the reset the republican party away from this very dangerous course, it worked for like one day and then it really did not work. the embrace of all this very dark anti-democracy, you know, rule by force stuff in the republican party has just gotten worse and worse. even since january 6th. it is a drag. it has just been a drag to cover it, i will tell you honestly. but today, bright spots. not being sarcastic. bright spots on a bunch of different fronts. let me tell you about some of them. first of all, in terms of accountability, cnn first to report tonight that one of the key alleged plotters with trump in the senior levels of his justice department is finally g
gone. she was hysterical saying they shot her best friend, they killed her best friend, she was not breathing, and she was trying to kill the cops, and i asked the little girl the name, and she told me she said amerie. she was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. she listened to her mommy and dad. she always brushed her teeth. she was creative. she made things for us. she never got in trouble in school. like, i just want to know what she did to be a victim. fellow classmate, matae rodriguez also just 10 years old will be laid to rest later today. at sacred heart church, where the funeral is taking place, there are 21 crosses, one for each of the 19 children and two teachers killed a week ago today, and funerals for 12 of the victims will be held there. cnn s nick valencia joins us from uvalde, tell us what happens happening as this little girl s funeral is starting. reporter: amerie s funeral is reportedly being attended by many people wearing the color pur
2024, we send our congratulations, goodness knows you have earned it and so much more. thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we are so grateful. the beat with ari melber starts right now. here here, thanks for sharing that. have a good show. appreciate it. welcome to the beat, i am ari melber. steve bannon s path to court, new developments on his case. democrats are on the senate floor demanding action to reform the supreme court. senate republicans trying to block it. we have those stories coming up in the hour. we begin right now with the white house race. the first debate is just two weeks out. it s the earliest presidential campaign ever. the biden campaign pushed the schedule in a bid to galvanize its side. as the general election begins in earnest, we hear from so many people that this is one of the most important elections ever. but, when you ask why it s so important, the answers do vary. there is one thing th