the dark for the fourth straight day, as record cold temperatures stretch across the state. governor abbott is now pledging to reform the state s energy agency, and he s saying, and i m quoting now, texans deserve answers about why the shortfalls occurred. and more severe weather is on the way. 100 million people are in the path of a major storm and winter weather alerts extend from the u.s. southwest all the way up to the northeast. let s get straight to texas, though, right now. our national correspondent ed lavendera is in dallas for us. ed, governor abbott has just signed a major disaster declaration. tell us about that. reporter: yeah, it s going to be another long night here. but after four days of taking a political beating over this disaster in texas, the governor says he accepts responsibility for the situation at ercot, the state power grid system, but not before once again laying into the executives at that agency, saying that what has happened is unacce unacce
he ll be joining us momentarily. the senate is set to vote on a major voting rights bill, all 50 democrats on board, but republicans they re prepared to block this thing. it could be the end of the road for the nation s voting rights legislation. and the january 6th committee voting unanimously to recommend former trump aide steve bannon facing contempt charges. next up is a full house vote, which could send bannon s fate to the hands of the justice department. congressman adam kinzinger joins us in a moment. i want to start with ali vitali. lay out for us what is next for steve bannon and the committee. this is about congress s power. reporter: yeah. and clearly this is about sending a message. that s what chairman thompson said yesterday in the aftermath of that recommendation that we saw late last night. that kicks off the process here. what we re going to see tomorrow is the full house vote on that recommendation to refer a contempt charge to the department of justice
queen elizabeth cancels a trip to northern ireland after being urged to rest for a few days. back here at home, there is a huge demand for goods, but not enough truck drivers to deliver them. you re looking at what s being done to get the next generation of truckers on the road. and we begin the hour with breaking news regarding arrests along the southern border. the washington post obtained new data from customs and border protection, finding u.s. authorities detained a record-breaking 1.7 million migrants over the course of the last 12 months. joining me now is a reporter that broke the story, nick miroff, national security reporter for the washington post. nick, great seeing you this morning. the number of arrests at the southern border are a historic high. yeah, that s right. i mean, the border patrol has arrest data going back as far as 1925. and the 1.66 million apprehensions that were recorded during the 2021 fiscal year that just ended in september, that s the
progress on. and of course, we re going to get reconciliation done. it s just too important. blp she is also an msnbc political contributor. i am so excited to have both of you on with me this morning. ali, let me start with you speaker pelosi s level of confidence, how is that? how is she feeling does shelf confidence that she can get these moderates and progressives to reach a consensus by thursday? that really is the question of the week, here, jose. because she s protecting optimism, but at the same time, it s tempered with reality on the ground you just mentioned what today should have been it should have been the day that we saw a vote in the house on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that has already passed the senate now that s being pushed to thursday again, an attempt to bide time, as progressives remain holding out their support on this bipartisan bill because they want to see more movement on reconciliation. we have not seen and we ve been in this stalemate
mr blinken touched down in beijing on sunday morning, and embarked on more than five and a half hours of talks, plus a two hour dinner, with his chinese counterpart, foreign minister qin gang. american officials described the talks as candid and constructive, but the only concrete development thus far is a commitment from the two countries to loosen visa restrictions on each other s citizens, and to hold more talks in washington eventually. for its part, china s state media reported that. qin gang pointed out that the taiwan issue is the core of china s core interests, the most important issue in sino us relations, and the most prominent risk. today, mr blinken will meet wang yi, the director of the chinese communist party s office of the central foreign affairs commission, effectively the country s most seniorforeign affairs official. but questions remain as to whether an expected meeting between mr blinken and china s president, xijinping, will materialise. joining me now