Welcome to thursday. It is meet the Press Daily and im chuck todd. None of this we say lightly. Today appears to be the day you can mark in your calendars as the day that represents the republican partys complete and total surrender to Donald Trump. Whether its the Paeshts Revolt against Liz Cheney in washington or new Voting Restrictions theyre celebrating in florida and texas or bizarre audit thats playing out of president ial results in the state of arizona, the republican party surrendered to a lie, as it surrenders to trump. Lets not mince words, it means the american democracy is in really big trouble, more so today than it was yesterday. The number three house republican lists cheney as the number three republican being ousted from leadership for the sin of speaking out against her Partys Embrace of the former president s Outlie Lie that somehow the election was stolen from him. And its not just why shes being ousted thats so alarming, theres also the way the Mob Rule republican
it s the top of the hour, so glad you re with us. i m poppy harlow, thank you for joining me on newsroom. we re going to hear from the white house. the white house covid task force is going to give a live update on the surge we re seeing in the united states right now. this comes hours after the approval of a potential game changing first in the pandemic, a pill to treat covid. the fda just today giving emergency authorization to pfizer s antiviral pixilvid, as the united states is seeing a 4% rise in hospitalizations from just a week ago, and now detecting omicron in 26 states 22 days after the first reported case in the country. a top researcher in south africa says the country is beyond its peak of omicron, saying south africa is seeing a serious decline in cases in the area where it was first detected. that is potentially good news for the word, the first pill to treat covid, how well does it work? it works quite well, and it s something you can take home. the doctor ca
but there is some good news breaking word on a new drug. today the fda gave emergency authorization to the first antiviral pill to treat coronavirus. we re going to hear from the cdc director and dr. anthony fauci on that and more at any minute. joining me now is monica alba at the white house, nbc steve paterson in los angeles, nbc courtney kube at the pentagon and also with us nbc senior medical correspondent dr. john torres. a lot of good news in terms of this pill. i m sure we ll hear about that at the covid briefing and concerns about us who cannot get vaccinated and by us i mean kids under 5 and also those immuno compromised. what are we expecting from the briefing on those two groups? exactly, katy. i think you ll hear at the top about the encouraging news that the covid team is going to highlight and at the same time they re going to remind everybody that the reason it s so important to get vaccinated and to get boosted is not to protect yourself. it s really, of co