0 legislative skills far from the spotlight. during his time in the senate he pushed through the passage of obamacare as well as the sweeping economic stimulus after the great recession and new rules governing wall street. a one-time amateur boxer he could bob and weave on the political stage as well. and tonight the current majority leader chuck schumer wrote this. harry reid was one of the most amazing individuals i've ever met. he never forgot where he came from and used those boxing instincts to fearlessly fight those who were hurting the poor and middle class. schumer has ordered flags at the capitol lowered to half staff. we'll have more on harry reid's legacy just ahead. our other big story tonight continues to be omicron. the latest variant converging with the delta strain to drive covid infections to a new record in this country today. the latest cdc data showing the seven day average of new cases topping 250,000 per day. as of this afternoon shattering the previous high of some 248,000 cases nearly a year ago. this ongoing surge is hitting as we near the end of year two of an exhausting battle with covid, the virus now everywhere. that is challenging officials from the white house all the way down to the local level. yet as of tonight slightly less than 62% of all americans are fully vaccinated. fewer than 38% of those fully vaccinated are boosted. today the cdc said omicron represents roughly 59% of all covid cases in the united states. that is a very big change from last week when the agency had the number at 73%. there is also growing pushback to the cdc's latest guidance reducing the isolation period for people who test positive but show no symptoms to five days down from ten. critics say this evolving message isn't confusing, it's dangerous. >> the cdc should be loud and clear about implementation here because no worker should be forced to come to work when they are still sick. that is i believe what we are going to see here. we are very concerned about that. >> it is only going to lead to more illness, more cases. this is when you should be tightening your controls not lessening them. >> tonight dr. fauci was back on tv defending the cdc decision. >> what happens is you are isolated for five days. then if you are still asymptomatic at the end of the five days you can go out and do your job and re-enter society hopefully getting functions of society normal but you have to wear a mask. early in infection for the first several days you have more likelihood to have a high level of virus and to be capable of spreading it. as you get into the second half of the dane period we know that the virus in general not for every single 100% of the people but for most of the time for most of the people that level of virus diminishes to the point where the cdc feels and i don't disagree with them at all that wearing a mask is ample protection during that second half of a ten-day period. when you balance that against the importance of trying to get people back functioning in society, of course the alternative is something that no one wants. that's to shut down completely. >> when it comes to saving lives hospitals on the front lines are bracing for an expected surge of covid patients in the weeks to come. many are already seeing a steady rise in covid admissions. the administration is preparing to deploy a thousand u.s. service members to help medical staff at hospitals nationwide. hospitals are also facing a rapid increase in the number of children admitted for covid. nbc news reports that in the last four weeks the average number of children hospitalized with covid is up 52%. five states -- florida, illinois, new jersey, new york, and ohio are reporting the most admissions. also tonight the house select committee investigating the january 6 capitol riot has struck a deal with the white house to stand down on some of the documents requested from the trump administration. the "new york times" notes the agreement, quote, does not represent a major policy shift for the administration. president biden still rejects former president donald j. trump's claim that all internal white house documents pertaining to the riot be withheld on the grounds of executive privilege. "the times" adds the trump records involved in the agreement were ones the biden white house deemed sensitive or unrelated to the investigation. there is also news about the criminal investigation into the pro trump mob that carried out the siege on the capitol. today a federal judge, a judge by the way appointed by donald trump, refused to dismiss an indictment charging four alleged leaders of the far right proud boys with conspiring to attack the capitol. judge timothy kelly rejected the defense attorney's arguments that the four are charged with conduct that is protected by the first amendment right to free speech. with that, let's bring in our lead-off guest this tuesday night, philip rucker pulitzer prize winning senior correspondent for "the washington post," coauthor of the "new york times" best seller "i alone can fix it." the founding director of columbia's national sector for disaster preparedness who advises us on public health. he is also a professor of pediatrics at albert einstein college of medicine. and former u.s. attorney joyce vance who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor and hosts the podcast, "sisters in law" along kimberley atkins, jill winebanks and barbara mcquade. good to see all of you. we again seem to be at the receiving end of confusing messaging from the cdc and biden administration as they try to combat this omicron variant. what do you think is going on here? could we be doing better? >> yeah, we could be doing better. there is a continued amount of confusion because the science or data coming in is causing there to be changes in how we're managing people who are positive. the messaging is very confusing. they need to get their act together. i understand the science. it is basically what dr. fauci said which is the point you get infected yourself and would be positive you would be able to carry that infection a few days before and after. once you've been positive and you've waited five days, you are now okay to go out and about without getting another test as long as you continue to wear face masks especially indoors. that is the sum and substance. >> so what you are saying is you are confident the science is leading this? i'm thinking as i'm coming into work and broadway shows are shut down, hugh jackman tested positive for covid. he is on broadway now. it is about the science and not too much about the economy even though we heard the acknowledgment from dr. fauci that that's part of it, too. >> right. and the question is is it entirely 100% public health science? no, and it never can be. there is a bit of the economy concern in there and there's a bit of the politics concern in there. but we have to get it straightened out so you and i and everyone watching and the public can understand what are the rules we have to follow? the other thing, chris, is the cdc must do a better job in explaining, in giving caveats. we're making a policy change but folks we're getting more information and maybe next week we'll have to change it. right now here is what we are recommending. people are not comfortable with uncertainty. i'm not and i'm sure most people aren't in this situation but we have to get used to it unfortunately. >> we heard this earlier from the republican governor of arkansas. take a listen. >> it's not a time for shutdowns. it's not a time for repressive measures. let's work our way through it and all survive together to keep the economy going at the same time addressing the urgent need of our work force and our increased vaccinations. >> it feels to a lot of people like, philip, that it is the shift, the feeling that covid is with us, here to stay. we have to maneuver, figure out how to live with it and not ruin the economy. is that the whitehouse strategy here? what are you hearing? >> chris, the political strategists inside the white house are well aware of the peril for president biden and for the democratic party because there is simply not an appetite among the american people for a return to what everyone experienced in the early months of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. the lockdowns, shutdowns, the continuing work from home, the restaurants being closed. now that the economy has largely reopened and we've survived sort of the delta variant and trying to move our way through the omicron variant, there is a real desire around the country especially when you get out of the major cities like new york and washington to push through to try to safeguard against people getting sick and hospitalized and ill of course but not to shut things down. that could eventually come into conflict with some of the scientific findings. one of the dangers i think for the biden white house and the administration right now is convincing the american people that all of these decisions being made are based purely on the science which is of course what biden campaigned on. he said he would be governed by the science in the covid strategy and these are not political or economic motivated decisions. >> it said that many times since. doctor, i'm very curious how concerned you are about what seems to be a pretty dramatic increase in children hospitalized with covid. we mentioned five states in particular. i mean, for example you have a lot of school system including here in new york city the nation's largest opening back up within days. >> well, chris, we spent a long time in the middle and early month of this pandemic thinking children were relatively free from the major complications and impact of covid-19. what we are seeing now with very dramatic increases in the number of children who get sick and the number of children testing positive and being hospitalized we have to kind of keep reassessing where we are in the state with respect to the state of the safety of children. i think we'll probably be okay but it is way too early to make a definitive -- get a definitive understanding about will children continue to remain relatively safe. i worry about it. i don't know where we're going yet. >> all right, much more that we could talk about. but, joyce, i do want to talk about this agreement between the biden administration and the january 6th committee over former president trump's white house record. i wonder how you see this fitting into the big picture. is this in any way a setback for the committee's investigation. does it mean anything concerning trump's appeal to the supreme court to shield his records. what do you make of it? >> well, it sounds pretty alarming when you hear the biden white house has reached out to the committee and asked them to relinquish their request for some of these documents but ultimately this is not really a problem of any type and not significant. won't have impact for instance on the supreme court case. what happened is fairly typical when you as a lawyer, investigator, prosecutor write a request for documents you write it broadly and that is what the committee did here. apparently some of their requests were drafted broadly enough that they reached beyond documents that would have reflected events on january 6th in connection with the insurrection and the over running of the capitol building and some of these documents stumbled into national security territory. and, chris, you can imagine this pretty readily when you request documents for instance from the pentagon on january 6th there were other event besides the insurrection occurring. some could have involved the intelligence community, the military, and national security events. now the biden white house is simply saying your requests are a little overbroad. let's not dip into national security. >> we're also getting more detailed information about the progress of the january 6 committee. more than 300 witnesses have been interviewed. 35,000 pages of records they've gotten so far. they say they have about 250 plus substantive tips, two and a half criminal referrals. 52 subpoenas sent. they have spent so far about $418,000 through the end of september. i look at the numbers. they seem big, it seemed impressive but i've never run an investigation. from your perspective what do these numbers represent to you? >> well, it is pretty impressive. i like the 2.5 criminal referrals. of course that reflects the fact they voted out of committee but have not taken to the floor one of the referrals for a doj witness who they are still trying to work a deal with. these numbers are impressive. the numbers of witnesses and what the committee has reviewed in a relatively short period of time as it ramped up really does give you a sense that they are looking broadly at the issues. likely more important is what we're not seeing, what is being done with all of this information, the way evidence is being put together to understand what happened on january 6th. we hear that the committee is following the money and there's a lot of indication here there is some work being done for instance with forensic accountants. we'll have to wait until the committee hold its public hearings next year but i think this will rival the work of the 9/11 commission in terms of telling the american public the true story the facts about what happened on january 6th. >> and phil, we have to talk about harry reid, and i want to read what president obama said tonight about him. here's what i want you to know. you were a great leader in the senate and early on you were more generous to me than i had any right to expect. i wouldn't have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support and i wouldn't have gotten most of what i got done without your skill and determination. most of all you've been a good friend. as different as we are i think we both saw something of ourselves in each other. a couple of outsiders who had defied the odds and knew how to take a punch and cared about the little guy. and you know what? we made for a pretty good team. i think you and i both covered the obama administration and i think when historians talk about obama's successes, they will include how harry reid was instrumental in so many ways. what do you see as his legacy? >> chris, he is an american original. he grew up from humble origins in tiny search light, nevada and made his way to washington. he had to fight for everything he got. he made his way through law school at george washington university here by working as a u.s. capitol police officer and then of course climbed the ranks in the senate. it was dovetailed with the obama rise. reid became majority leader as obama had arrived in the senate and then quietly encourage obama to run for the democratic nomination for president at a time when most democratic leaders were rallying behind hillary clinton because he saw potential in obama. you know, reid was a fierce partisan. he fought for the democratic party. he loved nothing more than getting in mitch mcconnell's way and blocking republicans but he did so not merely to amass power but to enact historical change and historians will remember the work he did in the first two years of the obama presidency as indeed transformational. the affordable care act, economic stimulus, dodd/frank reforms on wall street. don't ask don't tell being revoked as policy at the military and we could go on. it was quite a record of achievement and a lot of former colleagues in the senate are missing him tonight. >> they are. and they're still, i guess, you could say unfinished business. he was on this network. he was very ill in the end, but he was on this network in the fall and october. and i want to play for you what he had to say about the filibuster. >> get rid of the filibuster. it is nothing as barack obama said at john lewis's funeral it is part of the left overs from the days of the slave owners. got to get rid of it. it is very, very bad. >> tell us what you really think, harry reid. you know, phil, just about an hour ago on the network chuck schumer said he is going to move ahead with trying to change the rules of the senate. harry reid again being felt years after he left. >> i think that is right and i think senator reid knows what is at stake in this country. he knows this you could argue is a national emergency moment for american democracy. it is fragile, institutions were tested, reid spoke out about that during the trump presidency. i think he is thinking ahead to what the next few years could be like if voting rights is not enacted. that is a view shared by a lot of activists in the democratic party but you don't hear the urgency in the message from democratic leaders elected in washington and reid as you just played in the clip there is trying to change or create momentum by the way to try to fortify the institutions here. >> rest in peace, harry reid. his wife put out a beautiful statement. which you all can read, but our thoughts are with his family tonight. good to see all of you. thank you. coming up, the supreme court is about to weigh in on a couple crucial cases including one concerning vaccine mandates. neal katyal has made arguments before the court and is standing by for us. later a closer look at the struggle between public health and politics and the confusion that comes with mixed messaging. "the 11th hour" just getting under way on the last tuesday night of 2021. t tuesday night of 2021.