The faces of local News Layoffs and cutbacks. Well talk about whether Local News should be considered infrastructure. And later a first look at my brandnew reporting about Fox News from the new Paperback Edition of hoax. But first, a big story developing this weekend. Gag orders against the american news media. That sentence doesnt make any sense, right. It is axio moronic. The Media Shouldnt be gagged but that is what happened. The government forced a Gag Order against a New York times against a leak investigation. There is the front page headline, Justice Department wages secret fight to get emails of times reporters and they couldnt even talk about. The Newspaper Lawyers were gagged and couldnt tell the people involved about this secret fight. This is part of a wider pattern seen first in the obama years then in the trump years of a Leak Investigations that end up involving snooping on reporters. So lets just be clear here, spying on journalists is a front to the first amendment. Th
welcome to weekends with alex witt. here is what s happening past 2:00 p.m. eastern. first is breaking news in the covid pandemic. nearly half a million people have died in the united states from coronavirus. it is by far the highest death toll in the world. the official count, 499,906 deaths and more than 28.1 million confirmed cases across this country. the first 100,000 deaths were recorded by may of last year. the u.s. reaching 300,000 deaths by december. january saw the death toll rise to 400,000 and in just about a month, we have added another 100,000. dr. anthony fauci today called the death toll historic. it s terrible. it is historic. we haven t seen anything even close to this for well over 100 years since the 1918 pandemic of influenza. it s stunning when you lookts look at the in your opinions. it s true. this is a devastating pandemic and it s historic. it s been just shy of a year since the very first u.s. covid death was reported in the new york time. that
good morning to viewers here in the united states and around the world. it is thursday, january 7th. i m brianna keilar with john berman. we are beginning with a rare opportunity for a struggling president to reenergize his party and to make history in the process. supreme court justice stephen breyer set to announce his retirement at the white house today, giving president biden a chance to deliver on a campaign promise to nominate the first african american female justice to the bench. let s get a sense of the timing, short list, and republican plans to slow down the process. jeremy diamond is there. jeremy, if i also in on the details. reporter: well, we learned yesterday justice breyer is set to retire after 30 years. he was tight-lipped on this. without a formal announcement, the president would not weigh in. but today they are set to make this official. and this opening gives biden a chance to nominate a justice to the supreme court and potentially make history
here in the united states and all around the world. it is wednesday, january 19th. i m john berman. brianna is living the night life this week, and kasie hunt is here. it s great to have you here. look at all the beautiful buildings behind us. it s a beautiful morning. we have breaking news from overnight. major development and new details in the civil investigation of the trump organization. in a court filing, new york attorney general letitia james uncovered significance evidence, those are her words, of misleading and fraudulent practices to obtain economic benefits. this is a big escalation in her language. and the first time she has gone this deeply into specifics. the case also turning up the heat on trump s children. james said have been closely involved with the transactions in question. investigators now taking legal action to compel ivanka and don jr. to supply with subpoenas and appear for sworn testimony about the company s financial dealings. kara scann
rich edson on how the white house is reresponding to this. kelly o grady on lax on how travelers will try to deal with this. we begin with rich. good afternoon, neil. the white house says president biden is pulling out all the stops to deal with this new variant also going in to the holiday season and indoor season in the wintertime. you have a number of restrictions and guidelines that the white house announced. the president was at the national institutes of health where he said that fighting this pandemic should not be political. this is a moment that we can do what we haven t been able to do through this whole pandemic. get the nation to come together. think of it as a patriotic responsibility other than somehow denying people their basic rights. martha: the white house is pushing booster at home testing and traveler rules. the government will require travelers coming to the united states to test for covid-19 within 24 hours of their departing flight. previously you