for re-election for his house seat. it leads no clear front-runner on what will be a very crowded field for gop candidates in ohio next year. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we start today with potential good news in our health lead. third coronavirus vaccine could be authorized for emergency use in the u.s. in a few weeks. top line j & j vaccine was 66% effective, less effective from pfizer and moderna but dr. anthony fauci points out the johnson & johnson vaccine is 85% effective against severe disease and in the trial kept nearly everyone from ending up in the hospital from covid.

>> there were essentially no hospitalizations or deaths in the vaccine group whereas in the placebo group there were. this tells us we have a value-added additional vaccine cand candidate. >> there are other advantages. it is cheaper, only requires a single shot and only basic refrigeration. no vaccine has yet been authorized in the vaccine for use by anyone under 16 but there's more news. today, dr. fauci addressed when that could change and when kids could start to get vaccinated, the new variants of the virus are also causing potential problems as athena jones now rep reports. >> reporter: another covid-19 vaccine could be available in the united states. >> the results are very encouraging. >> reporter: johnson & johnson's vaccine was 66% overall in a phase three trial, 72% effective in the u.s. and 85% effective

against severe disease. the drug is delivered in a single shot and does not have to be stored frozen, making distribution ease her. >> there is real benefit to having a single-dose vaccine and one that can be transported a lot more easily and, frankly 85% protection against severe disease is really good. >> reporter: pfizer/bichlt ontech and moderna vaccines were 95% effective but in short supply, the johnson & johnson vaccine, if given a green light, would be a welcome addition to the pandemic tool box. >> were i not able to get the rna vaccine and only had the choice of getting the johnson & johnson vaccine, i would take it in a second. >> in this clinical trial, no patients who got the vaccine had to go to the hospital and none

died. >> an influential model shows they could worsen the virus' spread. adding in the worst case scenario, 85,000 covid deaths by may 1st. >> this is a wake-up call by all of us. >> especially given the still extremely high death toll. as daily cases and hospitalizations numbers slowly decline, a warning from president biden's chief medical adviser about the president's goal to reopen all schools in 120 days. >> that may not happen because of mitigating circumstances. >> reporter: new cdc director says it's possible if the schools continue masking, smaller class sizes and prioritizing vaccines. >> home to more than 95% of the

population are still considered sustained hot spots. that means they have a high case burden of covid cases, just another sign this is far from being under control. jake? >> dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay, the top line that sticks out to a lot of people is that the johnson & johnson vaccine is 66% effective in a global trial, which is less than the two other vaccines that have already been approved, but you think the number waeshd be focused on is 85% instead. explain why. >> we can put up these two numbers so people can see what the trial showed. 85 perks this is basically the protection against serious disease. the type of disease ta might land someone in the hospital or have severe symptoms.

it's the number of infections, number of hospitalizations, number of deaths. if you can bring down hospitalizations and deaths, that ends up being a key point. i think we'll look at these numbers and also see how these vaccines compared to the variants. you see, obviously, in south africa, it's the lowest efficacy, almost all the patients in that trial had the variant now that they know. so you're getting an idea of what the efficacy is against moderate disease. regardless severe disease, 85% protection across the board around the world, that's a very good vaccine. >> it's easy to compare this vaccine, j & j, to moderna and pfizer, 94% and 95% effective respectively, but is that a fair comparison? >> you know, i don't think so. keep in mind we're not just talking about the vaccine trials but when they were done. this johnson & johnson trial was

studying these participants at a time when there was more virus that was spreading and there was more variants. what that means is basically there was more severe disease out there overall. so this is an 85% effective vaccine at a time when the disease burden, the pandemic burden was actually higher. we now -- this is critical information. 85% protective against the most severe part of the pandemic and against severe disease of the south african variant. we have no reason to believe that the moderna and pfizer vaccines won't protect us against the south african variant spreading throughout the united states but we do know about the johnson & johnson one. it's an important point and difficult to compare. >> dr. fauci warned until we get enough people vaccinated the coronavirus will continue to mutate and we could see more variants such as the one first found in the uk or from south

africa as you were discussing spreading across the u.s. how big of a danger are future, as of right now, unknown variants? >> i think that's a real concern. we don't know what we don't know. we're not sequencing enough. we don't have good visualization on these variants. it kind of reminds me of the conversation we were having about testing overall. we didn't know how big the problem was bichlt the time we were testing there were tens of thousands. if they mutate enough, they may start to escape vaccine immunity. that means the vaccines don't work as well. that doesn't appear to be the case right now but that's why we have to keep looking for these and make sugar we get enough

people vaccinated to decrease the spread, mutations and the likelihood of that happening. >> dr. rochelle walensky says we should treat every new case of covid as if it is a variant. explain, and why is that important? >> i heard that as well i think what she's saying is that it's pretty clear that ease other variants are here. we don't know, you know, unless we're actually sequencing these patients. right now in the united states, about .3% of the virus, that someone comes back positive test, we just say you're positive for coronavirus. but the actual sequencing to find out what exactly the sequence of that virus was is only happening .3% of the time. i think dr. walensky is suggesting we sequence more. the possibility that these

vaccines will have to be retooled to protect against the variants is real but you don't want to do that after the variants have already spread significantly throughout the country. >> as of now there is no vaccine that has been approved or authorized for use by anyone under the age of 16 in the united states. fauci estimated children could start getting vaccinated in late spring or early summer. what kind of data would you need to see before deciding if a covid vaccine was safe enough for your three kids? >> this is interesting. you want phase one data. there's no reason why it shouldn't be safe for kids under 16 but you've got to show that through phase one. after that, there's typically phase two, phase three trials which can take a long time. what dr. fauci and others have described is this idea of

bridging trials at that point. it's interesting, jake. basically you say okay, once we show it's safe, we can now look at the existing phase two and phase three data, say it's the moderna or pfizer vaccine. look at that data. if phase one shows safety in children under the age of 16, you can basically bridge that data and get something authorized much more quickly. people said how do you do that? you basically bridge the data. >> that cannot come soon enough for moms and dads out there. showing what police saw during the capitol terror attack as officers were beaten, kicked, assaulted. we'll show that to you. and a viewer warning on that. as the fbi is releasing new video, hoping you can help catch the terrorists who planted those pipe bombs near the capitol. stay with us.

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in our national lead today, we have grew some video from the insurrection on capitol hill, insurrectionists seen beating police officers with batones and hockey sticks. we have to warn you, this video is violent and may be disturbing. >> the terrorists then go on to scream at police "i'll f'ing kill you," then rip off the masks of policemen and women. have the men seen attacking police in this video, have they been located, identified, charged? >> at least one of them has, an individual by the name of michael foy. that's why this video came out.

prosecutors in michigan were using it as evidence in a hearing for him. and so they only released this 1:20 clip of this video. thousands of hours of video just like this both from inside the capitol and then the body-worn camera that law enforcement has been reviewing. it just shows how brutal and vicious this attack was. and from what we heard from law enforcement forces very early on is that this video shows how the officers fought so desperately to keep so many rioters outside the capitol. there's thousands of hours of this video, jake. >> we have photographs of the suspect who planted the pipe bombs outside the democratic national committee headquarters and the republican national committee headquarters before the insurrection? for fbi releasing information saying two pipe bombs were placed outside the dnc and rnc

outside washington, d.c. there was speculation that pipe bombs were placed that morning as a diversion to get officers to leave the capitol and respond to these pipe bombs. significant new information from the fbi. they obviously believe this was placed the night before which could tell us that there was some planning, some organization behind this. that is significant, certainly something that the fbi wants to release. jake they don't have much to go on right now. they doubled the reward. it was initially $50,000. now it's $100,000. they don't know who the person is. they released information about the sneakers this person was wearing and other clothing items to see if they can really identify this individual. it is a top priority for the fbi, jake. >> shimon, thank you so much. we're getting new information about the national guard deployed not just to the u.s. capitol but across the country to help support coronavirus vaccine efforts. a new draft agreement could see the u.s. military playing an even larger role in distributing

coronavirus shots. oren lieberman is at the pentagon for us. tell us more about this plan. >> this is still in the works between fema and the pentagon as far as what the troop's role and pentagon's role would be to administer vaccines. fema request calls for 10,000 troops across 100 vaccination teams. half of those would administer 6,000 shots a day the other 50 teams would be able to administer 3,000. if this the agreement and if the pentagon is able to get to these numbers with fema that's some 450,000 shots a day. that would very much become a large part of the administration's efforts to administer vaccines and shots and to fight the coronavirus pandemic. the agreement is still in the works and there's still aback and forth between fema and the pentagon. it hasn't been finalized that. we're tracking that. the troops come from national guardsmen, 23,000 deployed across the country in 38 different states at some 260

vaccination sites administering about 51,000 shots a day. they, too, could be part of this effort as well as the question of are they going to use active duty troops and reserves to try to get to that number fema is requesting and boost the administration's efforts at fighting this pandemic? meanwhile thousands of national guardsmen are in d.c. supporting the effort to protect the capitol. we did learn today some 2% are testing positive for covid. that is also certainly the number to watch as those troops and guardsmen remain here in the area. jake? >> oren lieberman at the pentagon. thank you for that reporting. coming up, is the republican party eating its own? we'll talk to one republican congressman about where his party is headed and what his hopes are for the biden administration. ♪ hey you, yeah you.

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back now with our politics lead and continuing concerns in washington, d.c. the area around the u.s. capitol has become somewhat of a fortress with the acting capitol police chief calling for more physical security, including permanent fencing around the capitol. this week an armed man was arrested near the capitol with election conspiracy papers and a list of lawmakers. joining me now to discuss is republican congressman michael mccaul of texas, ranking republican on the house foreign affairs committee. good to see you. >> you, too, jake. >> what do you make of the plans to keep the fencing around the capitol? obviously, we want all of you to be safe. is that too much, do you think, to make that fencing permanent? >> well, i would make it threat based. as long as we have intelligence threats coming in, which we do. i think we'll have that through the impeachment trial in the

senate. i think it's wise course of action. they tried to break into my office. and all i had was a baseball bat to defend myself. thank god the capitol police took them down. but it was a very dark day for america and a dark chapter. >> congresswoman liz cheney, the number three republican in the house, one of the only ten republicans voted to impeach. now she's under attack by fellow republicans. take a listen to what your republican colleague in the house, congressman peter meijer, who also voted to impeach, what he told me yesterday. >> if liz cheney is the person who suffers the most from the events on january 6th politically, there will be a very, very sad day for my party. >> do you think liz cheney will survive this challenge? and what's your view of her? >> you know, i do. leader mccarthy was very clear that this is a vote of conscience. she did what she thought was right. i think she exercised a profile

in courage in doing so. i've publicly defended her. i think the leader has been correct in the last conference, really calling for the conference to come together. let's stop this finger pointing. let's stop trying to bring each other down. we need to be united as a party to get the majority back. and, honestly, we need to be united as a nation and heal as a nation if we're ever going to get past the tragic day of january 6th. >> i have to say, i find it kind of unsettling that liz cheney is under attack from so many republicans while increasingly there are folks pushing conspiracy theories and bigotry in your party. obviously i'm not talking about you, but whether it's the oregon gop putting out that insanity about how the attack was a false flag operation, congresswoman marjorie taylor greene, all these horrific comments she's made coming to light. the republican jewish coalition, you have a strong relationship with the jewish community. they put out a statement today

saying they're appall bid her comments and opposed her previously and will continue to do so. what should happen with congresswoman greene and are you at all concerned about the direction of your party? >> well, i'm concerned about the rhetoric. rhetoric has consequences. the rhetoric led to the insurrection of the capitol that day, and i called for a department of justice investigation into this. i know they are investigating this. i find i have no patience for these types of comments, whether it be omar on the anti-semitic comments or members on my side of the aisle. leader mccarthy will meet with her. there are talks of censure. i don't think it's very helpful, jake. i think the leaders of this country need to have an honest discussion with the american people and not perpetuate these conspiracy lies out there, but rather tell them the truth. we need to be honest as politicians and tell the american people the truth, because when we spin these

stories of conspiracy that we know is not true, i think it damages our democracy fundamentally. >> i don't want to belabor this. there's a lot of foreign policy i want to talk to you about. she espouses conspiracy theories. what accountability, what measures should be taken, if any? >> well, i think we'll have an honest discussion. obviously, the leader is going to meet with her. her theories about 9/11 being an inside conspiracy to -- i can go on and on. >> yeah. >> it just perpetuates lies on the internet. the thing that's hard, jake, when we go home to our districts and our constituents read this stuff on the internet they believe it's true. the people who showed up at capitol that day believed we were going to overturn the election, and we knew that wasn't going to happen. when they found out, when the vice president said under the constitution i cannot overturn these ballots, that's when the violence started and the hang pence rhetoric started with the

nooses they got very close to the vice president i must say, very close in harm's way. that rhetoric is responsible for the violence. >> today, national security adviser jake sullivan spoke about president biden's approach with russia. take a listen. >> president biden takes a clea clear-eye, hard-headed, practical approach to this relationship. it is going to be challenging and difficult because russia poses threats across multiple dimensions, and part of our inheritance, in fact, is having to deal with how to respond effectively to some of these threats and challenges. >> sullivan specifically mentioned the detention of kremlin critic alexey navalny, i know you're a russia hawk, what is the next steps? >> we have to look at the major human rights violation that took place. the president signed a five-year reauthorization, new start. i wish we had what's called the exotic weapons in there,

high-velocity missiles that can come out of russia. in fact, china as well needs to be brought on to the table to discuss a new start agreement with them. but, you know, i think we've been very tough on russia. sometimes the rhetoric didn't always show that, but i don't trust mr. putin, and i don't trust the russians. and i look forward to working with tony blinken. i know he has taken a tough position on this one, on the abraham accords. he has been very supportive. i agree with him on that. i'm a little worried about the return to the jcpoa, of the iran agreement and what the ramifications would be for that. >> let me ask you about that. yesterday tehran announced that they were producing uranium enriched at 20%, which is close to weapons grade enrichment levels. this is after president trump removed us from the iran deal. i know you had concerns about the iran deal, but what do you think the u.s. should be doing in order to stop what iran is doing right now?

would not at least some open discussion about a new iran deal make some sense? >> well, i think they said to even think about that, they have to come in to compliance with the jcpoa. i seriously iran will be able to do that. with secretary kerry back in the day, i wanted the icbm capabilities to be on the table, as well as inspections, jake, which they didn't open their military sites to inspections. it wasn't transparent. and we had no verification process. clearly that's led to their production of radioactive material now. and if we're going to have discussions, all those things need to be on the table. one thing is very bipartisan, i talked to incoming chairman meeks. and that is both sides of the aisle do not and cannot afford to tolerate a nuclear iran. >> one last question, sir. in the time since biden has been sworn in, china, which i know you focus on a lot, has flown

more than would dozen combat aircraft near the self-ruled island of taiwan and china pasd a law allowing its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels. do you think china is testing president biden right now? >> oh, 100%. they see a new leader, they hope he will be softer on china than president trump was. they're testing his leadership right now. and i think they're going to get very provocative. just like when they basically took over hong kong without a shot fired. i worry about their military exercises in the south china sea and the straits of taiwan. taiwan is vulnerable. taiwan needs to know that the united states congress supports them. i passed the taiwan assurance act to provide security. i signed off on all the military wea weapons sales to taiwan. i don't think we want a global war over this, but i think china needs to understand that the united states congress is firmly behind its ally, taiwan, and we

recognize their independence. >> republican congressman michael mccaul of texas, top republican on the house foreign affairs committee. thank you so much. good to see you. >> thank you, jake. why did vice president harris give an exclusive interview to a local tv station in west virginia? it's the $2 trillion question right now. stay with us. when you drive this smooth, you save with allstate the future of auto insurance is here you've never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today

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in our politics lead, president biden is pushing lawmakers to move forward on a big, ambitious covid-19 relief bill and he is willing to leave republicans in the dust, if necessary. as kaitlan collins reports, that approach is not sitting well with moderate senators, whether democrat or republican. >> going out to visit some of the soldiers and sailors who are wounded. >> reporter: president biden's first full week in office came to a close with a short flight from the south lawn to national walter reed medical center. following an earlier meeting with his economic advisers, biden called on republicans to support his $1.9 trillion relief package. >> i support passing covid relief with support from republicans if we can get it.

but the covid relief has to pass. there's no ifs, ands or buts. >> but the bill is struggling to get the bipartisan support in congress the president has called for, and democrats appear prepared to move with or without the gop. >> if our republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them. >> reporter: with the senate split 50/50, democrats have no room for error and vice president kamala harris, who could break a tie, was seen pitching the bill on local news in states with moderate democrats. >> the american people deserve their leaders to step up and stand up for them. >> reporter: with no bill on its way to his desk, biden has spent his first days in office putting pen to a different kind of paper, signing at least 42 executive actions to push his agenda or reverse former president trump's. presidents who came before him also signed executive orders, biden criticized the move on the

campaign trail, telling donors in 2019, you can't do a lot by executive order. you can do some things, but you can't, you need to generate a consensus. now, jake, white house and democratic leaders are hoping that president biden could sign some kind of legislation on this covid relief proposal potentially by march. the question is whether or not any republicans will get on board with it. so far, they are not. i'm told that outreach will continue through this weekend. >> kaitlan collins at the white house. former alabama senator doug jones, brand new cnn political commentator, making his debut right now, i believe. welcome aboard, senator. good to have you. >> thanks, jake. appreciate it. happy to be part of the team. >> reporter: president biden says he wants republican support for his covid-19 relief funding bill but that the priority for him is getting it passed. do you have any concerns? would it send a bad message if his first major piece of legislation passes with no republican support at all?

>> well, i don't think he wants to do that. certainly, that would not set a good precedent. i think what they're doing now is trying to get through this impeachment trial, trying to make sure they can talk through this process. part of the problem, jake, we saw in may and the house passed their bill is that so many people were just letting it languish because they thought it was going to go away, it was going to evaporate in the summer and lo and behold it got worse. what the administration ought to do, and they should be doing this, they need to tie the economic package with the health care package. the messages that go up to the hill, often tie those two together. as we're seeing the warning signs from dr. fauci, the cdc and others about these new strains, we need to take heed of that. jay powell at the federal reserve and others always tie the health of the economy with the virus and getting the virus under control. i think the administration and democratic leaders ought to do more of that.

either one on one or in hearings, or even just meetings where you've got both health care professionals and the econ, economists working together to give this message. >> more moderate democratic senators, joe manchin of west virginia, key votes on covid. vice president harris has been deployed to do interviews not so subtly with local west virginia and arizona news outlet. take a look. >> got to work with a sense of urgency. we're offering the american rescue plan. the president and i feel very strongly that these are the moments when we are facing a crisis of unbelievable proportion that the american people deserve their leaders to step up and stand up for them. >> is that the right message to put pressure on sinema and manchin to support the democratic efforts, or do you think it might be ineffective?

>> i think that, look, senator manchin, senator sinema, they represent their folks, and they're going to do what they believe is the right thing to do, regardless of where the messages come and who gives a speech. the fact of the matter is, there is an urgency, and democrats have seen over the months of the summer, the months and months that passed, and the fall, where we just got -- it seemed to slide worse and worse. now we're on this brink. and so the president and democrats in congress see this urgency and they need to get their republican colleagues and the moderate democrats to see this urgency as well. tying that with all we're seeing with the health care issues right now, vaccine rollout problems, new strains of the virus are coming up. tying that to the potential problems that this economy is. we're on a cliff. >> yeah. >> is there is a sense of urgency. but tie those together. >> senator rob portman, republican from ohio, he spoke with "the dispatch" about a number of issues.

one of them was about unity, saying we should be concerned. saying, quote, it's entirely contradictory for biden to say in one hand on the inaugural address you're looking for unity and bipartisan out reach and on another hand propose something at this level of $1.9 trillion and poison the well. that means biden can either have a $1.9 trillion bill or he can have a bipartisan bill but he can't have both. do you agree? >> i don't disagree with that. any time the president, president biden, president trump, any proposal that comes from the administration is always their proposal, but it's always a work in progress. joe biden did spend 50 years in public service because he was not willing to listen to the other side and take a my way or the highway approach. he will absolutely do that. if that means compromising on certain areas, i think he will be willing to do that. i don't see that coming from the

administration. there needs to be relief. but they need to get some republican buy-in as well. i think that's still possible. it just will not -- it's got to be done over the next couple of three weeks or month, not just in the next few days. >> how much do you think they should be willing to compromise? how low? obviously that's one of the big, compelling issues for republicans like rob portman, how low should they be willing to go in terms of how big the bill is price wise? >> i don't know the answer to that, jake. i wish i did. i was always in favor of a bigger package when i was in the senate because i believed the american people needed it. i think they need it now. again, it really depends on those messages that are going forth. not the dueling press conferences or speeches back and forth but the conversations they'll be having individually very soon, up on the hill, both in public and in private. >> former senator doug jones of alabama, thank you so much. and welcome to the team. >> thanks, jake. great to be with you. >> virtual school effects so much more than our children's

education. up next, the sometimes devastating, even deadly impact that all this isolation can have on a child. stay with us. like how nice it is to switch and save on your auto policy. but it's even nicer knowing that if this happens... ...or this happens... ...or this... ...or even this... ...we've seen and covered it. so, call 1-800-farmers to switch your auto policy and you could save an average of four hundred seventy dollars. get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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in our health lead continuing with education in a time of covid, as much as remote and virtual learning may have been deemed necessary for our children and safety in schools, there are, of course,

heartbreaking and even deadly consequences having to do with the mental health of our kids, isolated, away from friends, denied social interactions. it's been almost a year since many children have seen the inside of a classroom and in the nation's fifth largest school district, 19 student suicides, 19 have been reported in the last nine months. bianna golodryga brings us the story of a family from maine who lost their 16-year-old. >> always had a smile on his face. >> reporter: 16-year-old spencer smith was looking forward to playing football, but when his high school team nounsd a scaled-back season due to covid-19, family and friends began to notice a scaled-back spencer. >> he said i don't want to be there. we let him stop. i think he missed it, being with his teammates. >> reporter: like so many american students, spencer struggled with remote learning. >> he was always on the honor roll.

and this was because of the online learning. he was struggling. we noticed that he wasn't working out. he was no longer riding his bike. >> reporter: spencer died by suicide december 4th. >> my wife texted, it looks like spencer overslept again. i ran down the stairs, knocked on the door. no answer. so i open the door and i saw him hanging there. i asked, spencer, why? >> these are all the cards that have been received. >> reporter: the smith family tragedy has become a recurring one for too many american families. why it is difficult to directly link an increase in suicides to school closures, the cdc reports there was an increase in the number of children's mental health related e.r. visits in 2020 compared to 2019. >> they see their parents

struggling financially because of the pandemic, or struggling to figure out child care. combine that with the social isolation of not being in school, not getting to participate in the extracurricular activities that brought them joy. >> reporter: no community has been hit as hard as las vegas' clark county school district, the nation's fifth largest. 19 student suicides have been reported over the last nine months, more than double the number reported in 2019. the youngest student just 9 years old, according to the district. >> it's heartbreaking as a superintendent when you lose a child. it's heartbreaking as a leader. >> reporter: signs of trouble began in early fall when an electronic warning system programmed to detect mental and emotional struggles began to show an increase in activity. >> kids are googling or surfing how to commit suicide. you get alerts. you get four or five a day. >> reporter: getting children back in the classroom became his

priority. >> i felt that as the leader that i needed to do what i can, and i need to do what i can to get our kids in our campus. >> reporter: the clark county school board this month green lit a plan for in-person learning from pre-k to fifth grade. >> you can't take for granted a big, loud lunch room. >> this is all spencer's weights he went out and bought. >> reporter: for spencer smith's family, things they will never take for granted again is endless. >> check on them, no matter how old they are. and always give them a hug and let them know how proud you really are of them. >> reporter: jake, that was such a hard interview to have. the smith family wanted other families to know that it is so important to talk to children. and that is why child

psychologists want children to be back in school. there is a program that goes into effect any time there is a suicide at a school where therapists talk to children to prevent further suicides and cluster suicides. without schools being open, many parents are helpless. they don't want to approach the subject saying they think they will put the idea of suicide in their heads. psychologists say that's not true. that they should talk to them, hug them and ask questions. >> such an important story. thank you so much. to our viewers, if you or anyone you know is contemplating suicide, do not do it. it is not the solution. please call the national suicide prevention life line 80 800-273-8255. 1-800-273-8255. you can also text home to 741741. text "home" to 741741.

it is never, never the answer. we'll be right back. t-mobile is upgrading its network at a record pace. we were the first to bring 5g nationwide. and now that sprint is a part of t-mobile we're turning up the speed. upgrading over a thousand towers a month with ultra capacity 5g. to bring speeds as fast as wifi to cities and towns across america. and we're adding more every week. coverage and speed. who says you can't have it all?

today, we want to remember one of the lives lost to coronavirus, captain chris mertz, who devoted his life to public service, seen here after responding to the world trade

center after 9/11. may his memory and the memory of all those lost to this cruel pandemic be a blessing. be sure to tune in sunday "state of the union." dana bash will speak with democratic senator elizabeth warren, republican senator rob portman and doug ducey. our coverage on cnn continues right now. i'll see you on monday. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. the manhunt is intensifying right now for the suspect seen here planting pipe bombs outside the democratic and republican party headquarters right near capitol hill in washington. the fbi now saying they were planted the night before the insurrection at the capitol. also tonight, president biden making it clear that a covid relief bill must get passed. in his words, no ifs, ands