reporter: tonight, the biden administration on the defensive after several setbacks in the battle against covid. our martha raddatz pressing the surgeon general on the testing troubles across the country. we re pulling out the stops on testing right now, and that s why in addition to the 50 million tests we sent to community health centers, in where people can get free tests. but, dr. murthy we re also i know what you re doing. rapid at-home tests. i know what you are doing now, but the question is why wasn t it done sooner? look, you say, you always hold out hope, but you plan for the worst. it doesn t sound like that happened. well, there was planning, martha. reporter: critics say not enough. but tonight, the white house has some criticism of its own, blasting the supreme court for blocking the administration s workplace vaccine mandate. it was a setback for public health. reporter: the nation reporting nearly 800,000 new covid cases a day, pushing hospit
cancellations plague airports around the country. multiple states hitting records for new cases in the past week going back to the beginning of the pandemic. tomorrow, the cdc will release new data on how many new cases are listed as the omicron variant. meantime, the biden administration is facing growing pressure to deliver after promising to distribute half a billion free home tests and finally admitting more should have been done to prevent nationwide testing headaches. we have fox team coverage tonight. rich edson at the white house with the biden administration s response to ongoing testing troubles as new report indicates the white house ignored recommendations to ramp up tests ahead of the holidays. we begin with correspondent steve harrigan in atlanta home of the cdc. good evening, steve. good evening, bret. multiple states hit new records this week for the number of new covid cases. that comes as lines for testing stretch for blocks in many cities with people waiting hours
on friday russia announced it tested a hypersonic missile, one that russian president vladimir putin spokesperson says will make their demands even more convincing. international negotiations will continue in the new year. the u.s. and russia are set to hold security talks in january. bret? bret: alex hogan in london. alex, thank you. up next the panel on the omicron surge. vaccine mandates and the testing troubles plaguing the biden administration. we went from no over-the-counter tests in january to 46 million in october, 100 million in november and almost 200 million in december. but it s not enough. it s clearly not enough. [coughing] birds flyin high, you know how i feel. breeze driftin on by. if you ve been playing down your copd,. it s a new dawn, it s a new day,. .it s time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. .and i m feelin good.
president would take personal credit for a stock market high. this white house doesn t do that. they re trying to calibrate and say things are good and we re fixing the parts that aren t. i m jim sciutto. at this hour with kate bolduan starts right now. hello everyone. i m kate bolduan. here is what we re watching at this hour. testing troubles. the white house promises hundreds of millions of covid tests are on the way. that s not soon enough for the millions of americans who need answers now amid the surge. bracing for impact. the omicron variant not just a threat to public health. it s now threatening america s economic recovery. more on that in a second. an incredible story of love and war. an award-winning journalist loses her fiancee, a son loses their father.