survivors. you've also heard him express that empathy amid the coronavirus pandemic, and we will see that firsthand here in houston in just a short while. >> it's going to be touching down in a couple hours. arlette, thank you. and thank you so much for joining us this hour. i'm kate bolduan. john king picks up our coverage right now. hello, everybody, and welcome to "inside politics "sno" welcome to "inside politics "sno ." i'm john king in washington. the house votes tonight on a nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue plan. one piece of that plan, though, will be ripped out when it gets to the senate. the parliamentarian ruling increasing the minimum wage is not allowed under the procedure democrats are using to pass that big covid package. progressives want to fire the

partiliamentarian or at least overrule her. but the minimum wage issue will be set aside for another day, and the truth is it makes it easier to get the covid incentive through with a 50-50 senate. the president left to view the damage of a freeze that left no power or water. the vaccine committee will decide if johnson & johnson's single vaccine gets a green light. the president promising more vaccination sites will come online in the coming weeks. but it warns that a surge in variants may already be happening. >> things are tenuous. now is not the time to relax restrictions. we may be seeing these sets of variants in the most recent data. >> more vaccine doses may speed

up the pandemic recovery. the covid relief package may be on the way. it does a lot of things. relief for small businesses, schools opening. with me to share their reporting and insights, phil mattingly and cnn's lauren fox. lauren, let's start on capitol hill. let's focus first on the big picture. we'll get to the anger of the minimum wage ruling, especially for progressives. for people watching at home who are unemployed or trying to stretch through this pandemic a small business environment, $400 per person. increasing the monthly unemployment programs to $400. increase federal minimum wage to $15. extend two unemployment programs through august 29. it does not extend pandemic or

sick leave, though. what is going to affect tonight's vote? >> reporter: there is no room for error, john. remember, house speaker nancy pelosi has her tenure as speaker, but this is a popular bill. the provisions you just listed, things like giving people direct checks if they make less than $75,000 a year, that is a popular provision. so democrats, despite the fact they might have individual grumblings about this provision or that provision, the way things were structured in this bill, they feel confident, they feel good going into this vote tonight that they'll have the support they need in part because it's popular, in part because you have democrats not wanting to disappoint the new president in his first big new legislative push on capitol hill. >> phil, what happens next? in a way, this is what the president predicted that the

parliamentarian would say this doesn't fit. in a moment we can talk about the backup plans, if you will. replace iona pressley. people don't care about listening to the parliamentarian. from new york, unelected parliamentarian. the parliamentarian issues an advisory opinion, the vp can overrule them. it's been done before. they won't say this publicly. the white house privately thinks it helps get this deal passed. but this bill would have to come back to the house. >> they make a broader point of what's in this package, the enormity of this package, the excessiveness of this package. the unemployment will expire, and that's how they are getting

this out. what biden alluded to in the last couple weeks, nodding that this will probably come out in the senate process. this was put in with the expectation it wasn't going to make it across the finish line, either due to senate rules or because the democrats themselves are not behind it. there are not enough senate votes for a $15 minimum wage. they need this not to be in the package. their expectation was it would not be in the package when it comes to the senate. and they are going to make a big show getting behind the push for a stand-alone minimum wage bill. they understand that keeping progressives in the family, keeping them in the tent and making sure they're not only heard but action is taken with what they want the white house to get behind will be a crucial focus for the white house going forward. i i think there is a recognition that this is too big to fail. the white house believes that what happened last night is more helpful and they'll work with progressives and see if they can

help them down the line. >> lauren, is it too big to fix? senator widen says he's going to try an amendment on the senate side that if you can't raise the minimum wage because it's against the rules, he wants to put in a tax penalty, essentially. if a big business does not pay its workers enough money, they will pay a tax penalty. is this a viable plan or a way to let the progressives vent? >> it's another question, of course, for the senate parliamentarian. a tax credit or tax penalty would have an easier time getting through those budget rules in the u.s. senate. they'll be taking a look at that. this is a plan b option and it is not an across-the-table effort that would actually raise the minimum wage to $15 for american workers. in fact, widen's plan right now does not lay out what the marker would have to be that a corporation meets in order to avoid this tax penalty, and i do think that's an important question for progressives moving forward, what is that number. but i think largely this is an effort to kind of redirect all

that energy that you're hearing from progressives in the house of representatives. here's what you can do is essentially what widen is laying out here. he is someone who is pragmatic, even though he's a very liberal member of the u.s. senate. he is chairman of the finance committee. this is the direction you're seeing senator bernie sanders, the chairman of the budget committee, also get behind. so i think those discussions about getting rid of the parliamentarian, those are a little more in the vein of what house progressives would like to see. what senate progressives are talking about right now is this tax credit. >> it's important to follow these details. it's also important to note in the big picture, as both of you have noted, a signature achievement for the new president. it looks like he'll get it through the house tonight. lauren fox, grateful for the live reporting on capitol hill. a third covid vaccine up for government review today and could be at a hospital or pharmacy near you as early as next week. as we go to break, a little friday flashback. one year ago today,

then-president trump said this about covid and how it compares to the flu. >> the flu is much higher than that. >> this is spreading or is going to spread, maybe, within communities. that's the expectation. does that worry you? because that seems to be what worries the american people. >> no, because we're ready for it. it is what it is. we're ready for it. tonight i'll be eating a calzone from doughballs in aurora. (doorbell) rock on. tonight i'll be eating lobster thermidor au gratin. really? sh-yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. - [narrator] at southern new hampshire university,

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welcome, today's discussion will be around sliced meat. moms want healthy... and affordable. land o' frost premium!!! no added hormones either. it's the only protein i've really melted with. land o' frost premium. fresh look. same great taste. underway right now, an fda committee deciding whether to recommend authorizing johnson & johnson's single-dose coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. a thumbs up could soon add a third vaccine to the u.s. covid fight. yes, cases are trending down but that progress is at risk. the cdc director just said because of new covid variants popping up around america, some of them with steam. 26 states in beige, that means holding steady. about the same number of new covid infections right now compared to a week ago.

there is a lot of green on the map. that's the states trending down. 15 trending down, eight starting to trend back up. the red and orange. more new infections this week than last week. that's heading in the wrong direction. if you look at the vaccine map, this is a percentage of the population fully vaccinated. some of them getting in the higher digits, 9% in south dakota, 7% in minnesota. alaska in double digits. 10% in alaska, 20% in west virginia, meaning their state is mostly vaccinated. if you look at the 7-day average, without a doubt the bad weather of last week hurt it. they were up to about 1.7 million vaccines a day, right now averaging about 1.5 million vaccines administered a day. the cdc concedes they need to push that up in the days ahead. 14% of americans have been vaccinated. 14% have one shot. just shy of 7% being fully

vaccinated. where is the united states in the global vaccination race? well, more doses than any other country. 68 million doses administered. but if you look at it this way, in terms of vaccine doses per 100 people, israel and the u.k., israel dramatically -- small country -- but israel and the u.k. outpacing the u.s. in terms of population getting a shot in the arm there. this is the vaccine the fda is considering right now. johnson & johnson, it's a single dose. against moderate and severe in terms of people who took this vaccine, 72% effective in the united states. less so in south africa and the u.k. where you have a variant. 85% effective in terms of no deaths. we bring in sanjay gupta. sanjay, number one, a successful vaccine.

a single-dose vaccine, to get one dose and you're done, this would be a big help. >> yeah, and to help who may just have a hard time showing up for that second shot, john. some of the most vulnerable p.m. we -- people we've been talking about, people who are homeless, they don't have resources, live a transient lifestyle. so the one shot i think has more advantages. we know there are things the fda will be zeroing in as well, but that 85% number, that's a number that basically, no matter where you are in the world, whether variants are spreading or not, no deaths, no hospitalizations at 28 days, and 85% protective against severe death. one other piece of information, john, i'll share with you. i don't know if you saw this, but we know the vaccines help prevent illness. the question has been do they also prevent infection? because you could still be infected and carry it. what we see in the johnson & johnson data, it's early dadata

small data, but they found it's about 75% effective in preventing infection as well. you're less likely to carry the vaccine in your nose and mouth. >> the consumer matters, too, and this is an interesting sentiment. i know you've been looking at this. this is from kaiser. if you going back to december, 34% of americans said they had been vaccinated or would get one asap when they could get vaccinated. we're up to 55% now of u.s. adults who said they want to be vaccinated as soon as possible or have been vaccinated. why is that important? do people seem much more impoopen to getting that shot? >> it's very interesting. it's a human psychology sort of thing, but one we've seen before. even if you go back to h1n1, you do see people's willingness to have the vaccine as time goes on. part of it is i'll let the other guy do it first, see how it goes, make sure they work out any kinks in the rollout, whatever it may be. the numbers continue to go up

and if you do the math, john, and you add in the i mmunity tht the country already has from people who were infected, that's where you see the numbers. people always say 70% to 80% for herd immunity. 75% of the country probably has antibodies now, and you layer in the vaccines and within a couple months you can start to understand why people say by summer, midsummer, end of summer we can start looking at herd immunity. >> i certainly hope so. let's go through some more numbers. number one, i know you took an interest in this. the vaccine rollout among older adults. this is the percent that has at least one shot. 65% of ages over 75 and 75% of people in long-term care facilities. why is this important? >> this is the critical number, john, because not only do you want to get vaccines out to as many as possible, but you want

to get them to who will benefit the most. they help prevent severe illness, they dramatically reduce hospitalizations and deaths. down to zero in this trial. who is most at risk of developing those things? it is people who have been living in long-term care facilities. more than a third of the deaths, sadly, john, in this country came from residents in long-term care facilities. 75% have now gotten some immunity from these vaccines. that's a really big deal. because they were really the most at risk. same thing goes with age. so you not only want to get the vaccines out there, but if you understand fundamentally what they accomplish, you better target who would most benefit. >> sanjay, let's talk about the potential issue here. a lot of good news. cases down, hospitalizations down, deaths beginning to level off. we need to shove it down more. if you go back to the beginning of the year, you see that red line drop, and looking at that graph you say, wow, we're in better shape here, we're coming down. if you look at the moving

average, we've hit a plateau. 77,000 new infections just recently. dr. walensky, the cdc director, just talked about this, saying it's impacting the case count out there. the case count impacts the projections about what is to come. i know you talked last night with dr. chris mory of the isip. here we are today and you see the line split down here. the purple line is the current projection. the green line at the bottom is if everybody masked up. sk and the red line on top is the worst case or bad case scenario if things took a turn for the worse because of these variants. >> it's been pref aced to me so many times, all models are wrong but it's useful. i think that's something chris murray agrees with as well. i think there is some good news

in here in the sense that there has been a more rapid descent of some of these numbers than i think the original model sort of suggested. we thought there would be a decrease after the winter surge, but according to dr. murray, we've also seen improvements in overall behavior with masks, things like that. mobility is still up, but it's improved more so than we thought. and there is a fair amount of immunity that exists in the community. i mean, people always talk about we need to get to 70%, 80%, but it's not like a switch goes up at that point. you do get benefits as you go along the way working up to that 70% or 80%. i think a lot of that has driven these numbers down further than we thought. your point about we plateaued is a good one. i want to see another week's worth of data, but there is a good chance the overall case numbers might go back up because there are more transmissible virus out there. maybe you got away with it before, you know, doing your activities, you're wearing your

mask, but you've been okay so far. now you have a more contagious virus and you might not get away with it. that's why the numbers go up. but, john, do those lagging indicators we've been talking about for a year, the hospitalizations, the deaths a few weeks later, do they still follow? or because of this immunity do case numbers go up but hospitalizations not go up as quickly or as significantly as they did. if you look at the models even more carefully as we've been doing, that's what we see. case numbers may go up, but hospitalizations and deaths hopefully will not go up correspondingly. >> i think as we move to february and march, what you just highlighted will be the challenge. we do not want to go back up to a plateau of 80,000. thank you for your insights today. when we come back, the new commander in chief orders airstrikes in syria and gets pushback from some in congress.

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the first known military strike of the biden presidency reminds us yet again that just about everything in the middle east is complicated. the strike was last night in syria. the pentagon said seven 500-pound bombs struck compounds used by an iranian-backed militia. deliberate and proportionate is how the pentagon described this strike. its goal was to retaliate for a

strike this last month. the president himself signaled he is open to resuming talks with iran about trying to revive and refine the obama-era iran nuclear deal. and the strike reminds us of the day-to-day decisions by any commander in chief often challenge that commander in chief's overarching policy road map. >> it's the message i want people to hear today. america is back. america is back. diplomacy is back. at center of our foreign policy. >> joining our conversation, cnn global affairs analyst and staff writer for new york, susan glasser, phil mattingly still with us as well. susan, what does this tell us, if anything, about the biden administration and its approach, and number one, the white house and the pentagon would say they need to punch back here. number two, you would note it comes at a sensitive time with

iran. you're trying to send a message but you're not trying to derail conversations. >> that's exactly right. first of all, joe biden, like his predecessor barack obama before him, hope to not be talking about the middle east with foreign policy pivoting to asia as it were. you saw yesterday his cia director bill burns saying china is a priority, a message we've heard over and over from the biden officials. but politics has a way of roaring back and the middle east has too many entrenched in it to not affect foreign policy. the diplomacy around returning to the iran nuclear deal, which has been a key aspect of what biden says he wants to do, coming at this moment when there is also a need to reassert that he's not just going to be pushed around in the middle east, that u.s. interests, this resattack

in response to a u.s. attack in syria, and i think what you're hearing here is the complicated nuance, by the way, of the president speaking yelled for the first time with the saudi king. the saudis are very concerned that the u.s. is going to focus too much on diplomacy with iran. t which is the saudis' complete enemy. it's a very complicated moment. >> bipartisan reaction nancy may said i strongly oppose attacking syria. we cannot stand up for congressional authorization before military strikes only when there is a republican president. the administration should have sought congressional authorization here. this is a recurring debate but an important one. >> and what we've seen repeatedly, administration after

administration, and in this case iraq and syria as well. keep in mind before the strikes occurred, the president was getting public pressure from republicans, and i'm told behind the scenes pressure from democrats to do something because of reports over the last couple weeks. i think the interesting element here i'm interested in seeing play out was they received their justification. they are not calling for past use of military force which the administration before this used repeatedly. we're told by administration officials that congressional leadership were informed, some relevant committees were informed, not all the relevant committees were informed, so there is frustration there as well. but this will be a process here where the administration is feeling out, and there are a lot of veterans here who have served in past administrations. who do we keep in the loop on this, and if we keep people in the loop, will that make it an easier process going forward even if folks disagree on the policy side of things?

i think the white house would say it had the right to do this given the u.s. strike on foreign grounds. they've received much authority on this particular issue over the last 20 years and they would like to get some of it back. most white houses are not amenable to that. >> even when you have senators like barack obama, like biden, they suddenly lose power. we'll be having more conversation s about china and asia, more conversations about russia and that approach. but the presidents don't get to pick their focus. you have this action in syria and you mentioned the iranian complication with the saudis. the president had a conversation with king salman. we're supposed to be the "sun" classified report about the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. we understand when it is unclassified and released, the

report will put even more blame on the saudi crown prince, mohammad bin salman, a very important player here. what are the complications here for the biden administration as they deliver a more public accounting in the relationship with saudi arabia? >> that's right. this was a report that was produced by the u.s. intelligence community during this and defense lawyers for the saudis in this instance and has really become a cause celebre as a result of that. so this is really notable that the biden administration is issuing publicly a report that is expected to be so critical of the saudi leadership. that combined with his stated desire to return to diplomacy with it the iranians marks a re calibration with foreign policy after the trump years which really was marked by a

remarkable degree of authority with the saudis on one hand and the israelis on the other. in both cases biden is looking for an attempt to pull back, and the other thing biden and his team announced on the front end was essentially to stop supporting the saudi war in yemen, which has been another realisticing point. democrats have been increasingly vocal in their concerns about going along with the human rights and other abuses in the saudi-led war in yemen, so that's another sticking point already on the table. so in a way, i think, you know, this might have helped to at least say to the saudis, listen, we're going to take a different tone than the trump administration, but when it comes to our mutual concerns about iran, we're still going to be there for you. >> challenges for the new president. we're grateful for your

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this big day for the democratic agenda also tees up a big test of democratic unity. the house votes tonight on a giant covid relief package. but a senate ruling means it's almost certain that a key progressive priority, raising the minimum wage, will be stripped from the package when the senate takes it up. two democratic senate moderates were already cool to the wage hike, so this makes it easier to

get the covid package passed on the senate side of the capitol. but progressives say not so fast. one calls this ruling unacceptable. the congresswoman also says it's time to reset our parliamentarian. you say acceptable, you say replace the parliamentarian. president biden says he respects the parliamentarian's decision and senate process. the white house says essentially, let's move on. what now? >> that is disappointing to hear the white house say that. the rule of the parliamentarian is advisory and there is an opportunity for us to overwrite when we do not have that advice allowing us to pass a policy

that is supported by two-thirds of the american people that would essentially give a pay increase to 28 million people, and it is unacceptable, i believe, for us to continue to come up with excuses on why we can't do the right thing for the american people. when republicans are charged and they have the majority, they do everything they can and they don't let anything get in the way in providing profits for corporations. this is the time for democrats to fight for working americans for this opportunity that they are given. >> so how do you try to use what you just say, your position, and how do you try to flex the muscle, if you will, because of the 50-50 senate, one senator, essentially, can stop the country in its tracks. you have a margin of democrats in the house. if you got together with some of the squad and the new members who share your views, when this

new package comes back without the minimum wage, you could stop it. is that a planned tactic or are the stimulus checks and the unemployment aid and the small business assistance too important for your district to do it on this piece of legislation? >> it's really important for us to use every single opportunity we have to engage in this fight to provide an actual path to increasing the minimum wage. people have been waiting for a really long time. this is our one chance that we get, and i think it's really important for us to push the senate. we might succeed. if not we have to look at the options in the house when the bill returns to us. >> you say progressives are often told to fall in line. you're saying tell the moderates to fall in line. you would have to flex your

muscles, use the power of numbers to stop something in the house to prove you mean it. if not the covid relief package, what? >> i mean, that is precisely what i'm saying. i think it is really important for us to draw a hard line on what it means to fight on behalf of the american people. this majority wasn't given to us to sit on the sidelines and do the right thing. people have been waiting for a very long time. they believe we will fulfill our promise. this is something we campaigned on for over a decade. people have organized around the country on raising the minimum wage. i think we should give the opportunity to vote and do the right thing. >> i think you do understand and respect how hard this is for the new president. everything controversial, everything sensitive is going to be a high wire act because you have few votes to spare in the senate. progressives are a big part of

our party in making sure their voices are heard here in the white house and making their voices heard are a big part of my job. do you agree with that? i know you're disappointed on this issue. how would reach out and make sure every voice in the family gets a proper hearing? >> i grade them as an a-minus. they have done an excellent job reaching out to us, hearing our voice, collaboratively working with us on setting the priority agenda on the things that move, and now we're going to continue to push. that's what it means to be part of congress. we have a responsibility to the people who elected us and this is not a process that we're going to allow an unelected official to make a decision. we're going to push the people who are elected to make that

decision and to stand up and say that they're not willing to give, you know, people a hike in the minimum wage. >> let me ask you a foreign policy question before we run out of time here. it turns out even in the biden age there is a tweet for everything. jen psaki, back on april 17, a former obama administration official at that point, criticized president trump. assad is a brutal dictator but syria is a sovereign country. biden launched airstrikes in syria yesterday. why do you disagree? >> i mean, i certainly am hoping that the administration can give, you know, legal rationale on why they authorized this strike without congressional

approval. you know, we in congress have congressional oversight in engaging in war, and we haven't been briefed yet. we have not authorized war in syria. and so her question was important when it was a different administration, and that question still remains with this administration. our ability to engage in constitutional actions does not diminish when the party in power is ours. >> congresswoman omar, grateful for your time today. we'll keep in touch. thank you. >> thank you. up next, the white house battles to save a key cabinet pick and the senate agrees to give her a meeting. they want to be set free.

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we close the work week where we began it. on neera tanden watch. >> the president nominated her because he believed she would be a stellar budget director. she is a positive focus. the president's focus is working on the confirmation of neera tanden to be the omb director. that's his focus. she is an expert whose qualifications are critical.

he nominated neera tanden because she's qualified, because she's experienced, because she has a record of working with people who agree with her and disagree with her. >> team biden, especially the chief of staff ron klain, trying to salvage that nomination. neera tanden will meet with representative murkowski of alaska. hi confirming neera tanden is one of 13 cabinet posts still awaiting confirmation. here to discuss with me, cnn's van jones. the "washington post" had a headline that said many of biden's nominees run into turbulence in the senate. do you think they're running into turbulence because they are people of color, or are they running into turbulence because he's nominated so many people of color where jobs are always

contentious because of the departments? >> it certainly is a big coincidence that it's almost always people of color who are getting in hot water. let me just say about neera tanden, listen, she's been tough on people on twitter. she's been tough on me on twitter. her job is not going to be to be on twitter. her job is going to be, when she gets it, and i believe she still has a chance to get it, is to be the director of office managing and budget. she is as qualified as anybody who has ever had that job, and it's rich to a lot of us having gone through four or five years of all of us getting torched on twitter by the president of the united states for there now to be this kind of twitter standard for her. we think about deb haaland who would be the first native american to have a position, and she's in hot water. you have these women of color getting in hot water. i don't know dp it's a coincidence or not, but i don't think we should apply a twitter standard to the position that neera is going for.

>> there is a lot of amnesia, without a doubt, for the last four years when it comes to the twitter standard. i was just talking to congresswoman omar. progress sives are very disappointed when they hear, nope, you can't have the $15 minimum wage in the covid relief bill. progressives are mad, things are unwinding, and yet we just showed you the most diverse cabinet in history. if you go through priority issues, stimulus checks, $15 minimum wage hike, there is tension over this. if you look down, you can say it's a family feud. if you look up, you see's new km administration with a diverse cabinet, a covid relief bill set to pass tonight. why are we? >> i think this minimum wage fight is a big deal. i don't think that people who are looking at this in kind of a bloodless, calculated way, this thing, that thing, there is real pain at the bottom of this party. frankly in red states and blue

states, that's why i'm saying it's popular on both sides, the minimum wage hike. but you cannot continue to ask young voters and black voters and progressive voters to crawl over broken glass to vote in long lines and pandemics and everything else and then not do stuff that's going to address the pain. people have not had a real wage in a generation, a raise in a generation, and so this is not just some little progressives want to do some politics stuff, it is suicide for the democratic party not to do everything it can to get more work and more wages for the people at the bottom, whether you're talking about infrastructure or whether you're talking about the minimum wage. frankly, whether you're talking about getting some of this student loan debt and other debt off the backs of people. i don't know what they think is going to happen in two years when it's time to get people to vote in a midterm election if you cannot point to anything besides a vaccine and maybe a check that's been spent a long

time ago by the time people get a chance to go and vote. you got to do something. >> so, quickly, in the short time we have left, what should they do if they can't get it in the covid bill? should the speaker of the house introduce a standing minimum wage bill right away? should the president try to go for it? >> i think this is a make and break issue for a lot of working families. i wouldn't dare to tell nancy pelosi how to do her job, but i would say this. if we look up and we're going to midterm elections and there's been nothing done on minimum wage, nothing done on police reform, nothing done on criminal justice reforms, nothing done on core issues for the base of this party, then it's very difficult for me to explain why that's smart politics. there are some stuff we work with republicans on, and there are some things that are core values that we have to fight for. >> van jones, thank you very much for being with me. brianna keilar picks up our

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ sfx: [sounds of fedex planes and vehicles engines] ♪ sfx: [sounds of children laughing and running, life moving forward] helhello, i'm brianna keila and i want to welcome viewers here in the united states and around the world. we are tracking multiple stories this hour. any moment now we will see president biden in houston, days after the deadly deep freeze killed at least 29 people in texas. then tonight the house will vote on his almost $2 trillion covid relief bill, the first step in th