0 a situation where republicans can control but don't keep it on the impeachment strategy. >> think you both for joining us on the last word, that is tonight's last word, the 11th hour starts right now. good evening once again, day 3 42 of the biden administration, tonight, as the "variant drives a winter covid surgeon every quarter of this nation and frustration levels growing, right along with the number of cases, the cdc is out with brand-new guidance for anyone infected by the virus, no shortening the recommended time for isolation, from 10 days with people with covid-19, to five days if asymptomatic, followed by five days where you bask if you're around other people. the latest data shows the new cases are averaging more than 200,000 per day, and the new york times says reports from 14 states indicates the current covid surge is worse the last winters. earlier this evening, anthony fauci explained the thinking behind the new cdc recommendations. >> if so many people simultaneously catching it, you want to make sure amongst essential workers that you get people out there much sooner, i mean cutting it in half, five days of isolation and come out and wear a mask for the rest of the time, you can keep people safe from getting infected, if you are still infected, but at the same time, i can you back to what might be an essential function in society. on balance, if you the safety of the public and the need to have society not disrupted, this was a good choice. >> is is just what many businesses said they needed to keep operating, case in point airlines, our staffing shortages due to overcrowding that a huge impact. more than 1000 u.s. flights were canceled, doctor anthony fauci was asked about vaccine mandates for domestic air travel. he clarified the earlier comments that suggested that was under consideration.>> it's unlikely you would see that in the foreseeable future, what i states under consideration, people take a leap and say well, it's what happened tomorrow or the next week. we consider all options we talked about what we need to do for public health. meanwhile, coachable fans are taking a huge hit from covid, at least three bowl games have been scrapped, the second straight year that games are being caught off because of the virus. what veteran sports reporter said that teams with a lot of sports are facing questions about upcoming events. >> there already worried about the final four, we are kind of planning is if we are going to have the final four, but we honestly don't know. our plan is to go to the super bowl thinking three or four times about this. >> most anybody trying to travel is likely to look to get tested for covid first but good luck, the supply has lagged behind the man, both for rapid at home kids and those requiring lab work with all-too- familiar longline's continuing after christmas. president biden met with the nations governors about the surge, he offered more federal support it said that states will have to take the lead on controlling the outbreak. >> there is no federal solution, this gets solved at the state level, seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test as we can chose that we have more work to do, clearly not enough, we would've got harder and quicker if we could have, the steps we have to take to have authorized tests, we are now able to purchase 500 million at home test to be sent to the american people for free when they requested, and we will continue to use the defense production act to make as many tests as possible. >> keeping an eye on the latest developments in the january 6 investigation, his current spokesman, is now suing the house select committee as well as j.p. morgan, over access to his financial records, they subpoenaed him in last november, saying that he organized and add campaign tried to boost attendance at to the rally on the lips. with that, eugene daniels, for to go, then the professor of epidemiology at ucla's fielding school, and paul butler, a former prosecutor at the justice department, currently a professor at georgetown law, good to see all of you, and on one hand, the number of infected americans, and it can be extraordinarily disruptive, and the and that means were transmission in illness and death and very worried after the change the rules for medical, given where we are now, are you comfortable with the new cdc recommendation?>> i think these guidelines are incomplete and once again just pandering to businesses, into the economy, and the economy, which is very important, but leaving behind public health, we know this virus is very contagious, the best thing to do is to take this out of commission, and sideline people so they are not able to continue to transmit it. the uk, for example, used rapid test, regularly, shortening their time of isolation and rapid tests, they require them to rapid test out, these guidelines are based on's scarcity of rapid tests, these guidelines would be just fine if we had five days, plus rapid testing out, but at this point, we are leaving it up to everybody's judgment, and it could potentially be a big problem and give us a lot more opportunity for spread of the virus. >> i think we all know somebody who thinks they have it or have had it in they could not get a test, do they stay home, do they not stay home, it is a tough decision to make. we heard the president say there is no federal solution, i want to read what the wall street journal editorial page is saying about that. if mr. biden is making a rhetorical turn towards coping with covid since the virus is here to stay, this would be a welcome shift, he was wrong when he suggested that any politician had the power to control the pandemic. if this is the way that mr. biden is going that he should notify the supreme court to have osha withdraw the overbroad mandate, a lot of attention of the right, saying that trump was slammed for similar remarks. is the white house saying anything about his comment, the impression that he might be changing his view of how we contain the pandemic? >> i don't think they have said anything that is is something that we can change, started here just a little bit, not from president biden, but from folks within the administration talking about how we have to live with the pandemic, and dr. anthony fauci said weeks and weeks ago, every year we will probably have to get some kind of shot, when we think about how we get a flu vaccine, the same with covid. part of what they are attempting to do with these new cdc guidelines is look at the science but also figure out a way to make sure that people don't spread it and make sure the economy continues and i think the doctor is right, the idea of having rapid tests is much more important that i think we are talking about, demonstration talked about having 500 million, excuse me, but that's not enough when you talk to doctors and health experts, you think about people who want to rapid test out and want to be able to see families, before i came to see my family, you couldn't really find a rapid test, i had to get a pcr test because you know more information but also could defy the rapid test. the administration does have work to do when it comes to that, they want people to realize and they have come to realize, the changes that we wanted to do over the last year, have not been realistic. especially the right-wing of american society, not wanting to do those things, so we have to find more of a middle ground. >> you have to be able to separate, and, the political and the medical part of this, there has been legitimate criticism that we are behind on having testing behavior. i would play something that claire mccaskill said on this network. >> the failure of america to have free available rapid tests is really being shown right now. what happened? who dropped the ball on rapid, cheap tests for america? i need the biden administration to step up and fix that today. >> obviously, the problem is, you can't fix it today, the time to have fixed it was months ago, ann, and the ministrations of they finalize the deal for 500 million test, they will get them out to people next month, but where does that leave us? how significant is that, given where we know where overcrowding is now? >> -- oh, my kron omicron is now. >> we are going to have a tsunami of cases, we will be swimming in rapid test, we should be, everybody should have one just like they do in many other countries, europe is done a very good job at this. if you're going out to dinner with friends, you should be able to rapid test. if you're going to have a gathering with people, you should be able to rapid test, if you're going to work you should be able to, if your child is going to school you should be able to rapid test, we need to be able to have information for action available not only for public health but for the general public to be able to make decisions about their risk and safety, until they are available to us, we are still to be operating without enough information. >> i want to go back to the politics of this, but let me ask you paul, about the january 6 investigation, speaking of politics, from the latest move of atrial pili to slow it down, clearly but also where the house committee is going with this. what do you see that they are looking for by focusing on budowich's bank records? >> looking to see if he played a role in financing the insurrection, turning into hundred and 40 pages of documents and testified for 4 hours, and that raised even more questions, including whether this guy funneled $200,000 to undisclosed sources, to finance the attempted coup, and the committee is trying to uncover those sources. they subpoenaed his bank records, and they sued to try to keep them secret, almost losing that litigation, and probably a moot point, the committee likely already has the records, and they said elysse produced a court order on christmas eve, telling them not to turn over the records, that they would, so trump cronies usually go by his playbook by trying to run out the clock but this time that strategy probably did not work.>> new reporting out that the republican governors of arkansas, florida, iowa, kansas, tennessee, have extended of employment benefits to people who have lost their job over these vaccine mandates. other republicans could soon follow, and the white house is about to defend the vaccine mandate to the supreme court. is there any kind of white house plan for the mandates, given the political divisions, what are you hearing from inside the administration? >> i think this is a demonstration that feels very confident in this mandate, they hate the word mandate, they like to call it a requirement, it is a vaccine requirement, and with testing added to it, with their trying to do and attempting to have done for weeks and weeks, is making sure that they are fighting against republican talking points, as they put it, about it being a mandate and forcing people to get the vaccine when there is a testing aspect, but getting testing is not as easy as the administration wants it to be, they have a lot of work to do there. plan b, i don't know if it has been shared with any of us reporting lies, but one of the things that the administration has done or proven to do, even in the campaign, they make a decision and they go full steam ahead and that has continued this entire administration, that something that we are going to continue to see. they feel that this requirement, this mandate, is sound, they feel confident in that, whether that is true, we will see but they feel like it is plan a and they are sticking to it. >> paul, let's talk about the legality of this in the fight that is going to ensue. and also another part of this, which is that with omicron, i heard it over the holiday break, a lot of people have heard it from folks that are not vaccinated, see what's the point of getting vaccinated, because all of these breakthrough cases are happening anyway, you get vaccinated and you're still not protected, that doesn't play into it legally, but that does push the right and their cause, what they believe is the righteous cause. >> that's right, so what biden is done is to force federal government employees and contractors to either take the vaccine and probably soon the booster, or force them to submit to formal, regular covid tests, the supreme court has never formally ruled on whether he could go farther, and require every person in this country who is medically able, to get the vaccine and to get the booster, i think there is old case law that suggests that president biden probably does have that authority, but so far, they seem to be going with the method of trying to control people who are reluctant, rather than to force them, beyond people who work with the federal government. >> are there folks within the medical and scientific community who have been looking at the beginning of this, for answers and trying to push governments, whether of the state or the federal level, to do what they thought was scientifically sound, have they largely given up on mandates at this point? is there a sense that this was the only thing or is there maybe still the only thing to get us where we need to go, it was listening to dr. anthony fauci who seem to suggest that it was a good idea for mandates on getting a domestic flight, and he said look, it's one of the things we talk about, we talked about a range of things essentially. where is the thinking on mandates, and where it realistically fits into fixing this problem? >> realistically, mandates are going to get people to do things that they don't necessarily want to do or are maybe putting off, i think the mandates are still going to make a big difference. i don't want to get on an airplane, especially if we don't have mandates for high- quality mass, we don't have mandates for vaccines, we don't have strong quarantine and isolation protocols at this point. i think the only thing we can count on at this point is to have mandates put in place to make sure that we have at least some public health safety in place, as he is going to be very important for people to remember that these mandates are not going to be enough, everybody's going to have to think about these new guidelines, we are all going to be a little bit less safe, we are going to have people who are going to be infectious, able to leave isolation and basically the way with quarantine at this point, so what we can do at this point is be very cautious, where high quality mask i get boosted vaccinated, and do everything you can to limit your risk. >> delta has sent notification had to get on the plane now to italy, you have to have a k n- 95 or sfp 2, i'm not quite sure with that one is, that's high- quality, that's what you're holding up.>> this is it. >> i've upgraded mine, to make. eugene daniels, doctor, take care out there. what the new cdc quarantine guidelines mean for the nation's ever so weary healthcare workers. we have an er doctor standing by. nearly one year after the right at the capital, we have a look at where it is going, and the politics and state, here are the monday night. night.