jon stewart sounding off on senate republicans after they blocked a bipartisan bill aimed at expanding health benefits to veterans exposed to toxins in war zones. the question is, why did 25 republicans who supported a previous version of the bill change their vote to know? stuart, an outspoken advocate for military veterans will join us later this morning. we are following new developments with the january 6th committee. top aides to former president donald trump testifying between closed doors, including one official who resigned the day of the attack. we will tell you who that is. and more text messages from the time of the attack disappear. first from the secret service, now the washington post reporting texts between members of trumps homeland security team are missing as well. good morning, welcome to morning joe. we have the host of way too early and the author of the big lie , jonathan lemaire. gentlemen, good morning. let s start with the texts that have been del
biden administration. the withdraw from afghanistan and the delta variant surge through them off their game. they have struggled to regain their footing since beyond the bipartisan infrastructure deal, which we should notice certainly a significant achievement. there are still decisions on the horizon. the president has to figure out what he is going to do about student loans. the president and his team have come under immense pressure to try to expand abortion rights in the aftermath of the roe v. wade overturn. we know that inflation remains high, and he has got foreign- policy challenges as well. but the white house that i spoke to yesterday is cautiously optimistic that things are about to turn around. they feel like this could give his presidency and also party some real momentum before november, and also revealing some strategy. to this point, they have been pretty hands-off. they let manchin and sinema broker this deal. but they know that the president looms if needed, if it is
since last june. last year we lost a summer because of covid. so this year it s going to be a big summer. the delta variant first discovered in india could soon become the dominant covid strain in the u.s. so far only about 53% of the country is partially vaccinated but some states are barely hitting a third of their population. 67% of u.s. adults have received at least one dose. that s short of the president s goal of 70%. give you the best chance possible. a year ago the covid icu at lexington medical center was pushed to the brink. this week doctors say it s feeling like deja vu. tonight the alarming delta variant surge, the u.s. now seeing more daily covid cases than last summer s peak. the plan is for every adult to get a booster shot eight months after you ve got your second shot. a moving new memorial that provides a vivid reminder of the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic. more than 670,000 white flags are planted along the national
everybody to come home all at once. thanks so much. the rapid rise of the omicron variant has led to a rush to get tested for covid, especially for those planning for holiday gatherings. but finding a testing location or an at-home test has been a real challenge. here s lucy kavanaugh with the latest search for covid tests. yes, we re here to make some toys. reporter: christmas cheer tempered this year as omicron spreads at a rapid case with new covid cases hitting record highs. the u.s. now averaging more than 180,000 new cases each day, up 48% from last week, surpassing the peak of the delta variant surge in the summer. the good news, hospitalizations remain half the record high from january. amid the omicron surge, the cdc cutting quarantine time for infected health care workers. those who test positive but are asymptomatic can now return to work after seven days of isolation instead of ten with a
delta variant made the pandemic resurge just after it had appeared that vaccinations were really tamping it down and the president was celebrating that. so that was one thing. the afghanistan pullout, which was so chaotic and looked terrible to the american public, that was another thing. and then inflation, which as phil discussed in his report is overshadowing all of the good economic news that they re talking about. the question now is whether you can get an upward trajectory later this year from a couple of things. one, economists expect that inflation is going to moderate this year. recently measured at 7%, they re looking at 3 or 4% this year, so that would be in the right direction, and secondly, the possibility that the pandemic will move from the emergency phase, which we have all been dealing with for a couple of years, to the endemic phase where people are living with it. omicron, if it s borno out that those are milder infections and people are getting a lot of