>> announcer: inside politics with john king, next on cnn. hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i am john king. there's horror and heartbreak in georgia today. a gunman kills eight people, including six asian-americans. these murders come as hate crimes against asian-americans spike across the united states, but the authorities working the case in georgia say the shooter confessed and insists race was not his motivation. >> even though we have made an

arrest, there's still a lot more work to be done. we're just not there as of yet. >> during our interviews we asked that specific question and that did not appear to be the motive. >> more on that tragedy in a few moments, but we begin with a sweeping and news-making new interview with president biden, his message to vaccine hesitant americans, quote, be patriots. the president also says he won't let senate procedures stand in the way of his agenda but he proposes changing the filibuster and not getting rid of it. and stern words for vladimir putin. >> he would pay a price. i said i looked in our eyes and

i don't think you have a soul, and he looked back and said i think we understand each other. i have dealt with a lot of foreign leaders in my career, it's just know the other guy. >> you know vladimir putin and you think he's a killer? >> uh-huh, i do. >> what price must he pay? >> a price he will pay -- well, you will see shortly. >> the president said his message to migrants is don't come now, quote, while we're in the process of getting set up. this morning the president's homeland security secretary adding context to the president's message and getting combat with republicans that say this is a biden border crisis. >> i am not spending time on the language we use, i am spending time on the operational response to the situation at the border. >> abby phillip and a reporter

from the "washington post" joining us. he insists the border is not open, and the republicans disagree. >> yeah, this is really becoming a crisis in terms of the politics for joe biden and his administration, in part because they would much rather be talking about their $1.9 trillion relief plan than about the border and the republicans obviously want to be talking about the border, it's a legitimate issue on the border with thousands of migrants coming across and the facilities they are being housed in being overwhelmed, so biden sent fema down there and envoys from his own administration to try and get a handle of the problem at the border, but republicans are going to continue to hammer his administration until the situation is under control and we saw that on capitol hill with the dhs secretary being pillared by republicans for not calling

it a crisis and not saying the border should be closed and former president trump's policies should be back in place, because as we know a number of the former policies from the former administration were eliminated as soon as biden was sworn in, and it's a split will crisis for the biden administration and in part because of the fact they wanted to spend this week talking about what they delivered for the american people and talking about the $1.9 trillion plan which hit bank accounts across the country already. >> yeah, it's a reminder the presidents don't get to pick the issues that cross their desk. and then you have said repeatedly you will be more humanitarian and kind and gentle than donald trump when it comes to the immigration. the president said last night

his message is not to come, and anybody that thinks it is, here's a message. >> here's the deal. first of all, the idea that joe biden said come -- i heard the other day that they're coming because they know i'm a nice guy. >> they are saying this. >> yeah, well, here's the deal, they are not. >> do you have to say quite clearly don't come? >> yes, i can say quite clearly don't come, while we are in the process of getting set up, don't leave your town, city or community. >> he says he's trying to send a clear message and also you hear inside the immigrant community he says while we are in the process of getting set up, set up for what? he doesn't say unless you have a legitimate asylum claim, don't come. he doesn't say we will enforce border security. he doesn't use those words? >> yeah, this is the challenge for democrats. obviously they want to have a humane process that is perhaps more humane and perhaps more open than the trump

administration which largely shutdown asylum claims, but at the same time that is a message being used to drive a surge towards the border and in and of sit itself is a humanitarian crisis, and what happens when the border becomes overwhelmed and there's no place to house them and process them, but what you are hearing, i think, in biden is the uncertainty about what they will ultimately end up doing. what will the asylum process look like in a biden administration? will it be housed almost entirely in central american countries, which even some democrats want to prevent people from coming up to the southern border, or will it be expanded in some way to allow more people with more claims to claim asylum? what does that do to the actual numbers? some of the issues don't seem to be settled yet and in the meantime they are trying to get a handle on the shear numbers, and they have not articulated

clearly what their policy on immigration by and large is going to be long term. >> they try to do with the things with the executive powers they have, the crisis of the day, call it what you will, and can they get legislation passes on the climate or any number of issues, the filibuster comes up. the president did make a little news in the interview, and the question is did he do enough here by saying he's open to changing the filibuster to satisfy progressives. >> i don't think you have to eliminate the filibuster. you have to do what it used to be when i first got to the senate in the old days, when you used to be around there, and that is you had to stand up and command the floor and you had to keep talking -- you could not call, for, you know, nobody could say, you know, a coream call, and once you stopped talking somebody could move in and say i move the question of,

and so -- >> you are for bringing back the talking fill pwugser? >> i am. that's what it was supposed to be. >> progressives say that's not enough, you need to ditch it. will that satisfy the clamoring in his party to get it done? >> i doubt it. i think for now it may signal that he is moving on the filibuster, but i think for a number of these progressives and a number of people within the party they are starting to realize that after joe biden passed and signed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, it's going to be very difficult for him to pass the other parts of his agenda. that was the big test of bipartisanship. if you can't get a single republican vote to give money to people in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis, how are you going to get ten senators from the other party to cross the aisle and vote for things like immigration reform or climate policies or tax increases? they are starting to realize that something is going to half

to happen with the filibuster if joe biden is going to be able to pass his ambitious agenda, and joe biden is starting to realize that again as well. the president in the past he does not want to change the filibuster, but now he's starting to realize if he wants to pass his very ambitious agenda he will need help from some of these moderate democrats that right now are not in favor of eliminating the filibuster but need to make some sort of decision over the coming months if they are going to try and push some of these new policies that the president wants, so i think progressives are realizing that biden is starting to move. they have heard from senator manchin in west virginia that he is starting to be open to changes or reforms to the filibuster, so that seems to be where things are moving, at least there's movement on that issue but it's not clear that will be enough to actually get anything done. >> you mentioned the possibility of tax increases. joe biden campaigned on tax hikes on the rich to help pay for things and that could come in the infrastructure package,

and that could be in the reconciliation process, and you only need 51 votes maybe, and abby, the president is not saying he is raising taxes on anybody. no, i am not. >> anybody that is making over $400,000, you will see a slight tax increase and if you make under that you won't see a single penny raises in tax. >> he is confident he will get the democratic votes for a tax increase. bill clinton sold this in the '90s successfully, and next year is election year, and he has to count the democratic votes? >> yeah, for sure. republicans have been somewhat successful in messaging this idea that corporate tax cuts are the best thing for the economy. that has been their message

pretty consistently for frankly decades now, and democrats haven't actually been able to counter that, so will they be able to do it and will they be able to keep people like joe manchin in line? manchin is such an interesting character in all of this, because even though he represents one of the poorest states, it's about signaling bipartisanship to his constituents that really matters and if he starts to feel like this is something that has any prayer of getting bipartisan votes, biden could find himself in a position where he can't count on every single democrat anymore for something even like tax hikes on wealthy people and tax hikes on wealthy corporations, and some people in corporate america are saying now may be the time to roll some of that back that may have been over torqued in the direction of corporate profits and we don't need that in the economy right

now. >> that's a good point. president biden did not see enough rich ceos to say do that. it's too early to know the motive behind the horrific killings in california, and kamala harris sharing her thoughts on this horrible tragedy as we go to break. >> we grieve for the loss. our prayers are extended to the families of those who have been killed. we're not yet clear about the motive, but i do want to say to our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people.

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been a frequent customer at the businesses and while six people killed were of the asian decent, the suspect told them they were not racially motivated. >> they could be targets of opportunity. we believe he frequented this place in the past and may have been lashing out. >> it sounds to me like these locations, he sees them as an o outlet for them and he has an issue with porn and he was attempting to take out that temptation. >> natasha, this was a horrible case. >> reporter: yeah, john, we just came from the press conference where there were multiple agencies working together because the three massage parlors are located in two

different counties, one in charity county, and one here and a third in front of us where somebody is bringing flowers to lay at the front door. this is really affecting members of the community just watching this happen. i want to mention that at that press conference the charerokee county sheriff's office released names, there were four people killed and one person injured there. they range from age 30 to 54. you see one man's name there, and overall across the three massage parlors of the eight people killed, seven were women and as you mentioned, six of them of asian descent. the officers that spoke at the press conference told us they interviewed the suspect along with the fbi and during the interview they learned a little bit from what he told them. he took responsibility for the shootings. it's too early for a clear motive, however, like you said,

he told them it was not racially motivated and could have to do with a sexual addiction. 21 years old, aaron long from woodstock, georgia, and he may have frequented these locations. authorities say he saw the spas as an outlet for his temptation and wanted to target them because of that. when they caught him he was actually on his way to florida to perhaps carry out more similar attacks. the reason that did not happen is because his family contacted law enforcement and police were able to track him down, so the family has been very cooperative and that has been key in stopping him in his path. i also asked law enforcement at that press conference whether other similar businesses have any reason to feel there's still a threat and they said right now they believe this person acted alone, john. >> grateful to have the live reporting on the ground for us. keep in touch as we get more

developments in this horrible tragedy. thank you. up next, cdc talks about new variants in the covid variants. >> i would recommend it, and i would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly, but, again, we have our freedoms and we have to li by that and i agree with that also. lotion, and rescued his nose. with up to 50% more lotion puffs bring soothing softness and relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. ready to talk anti-brass haircolor?

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brought to you by -- the latest on the covid fight including coronavirus cases in 14 states starting to go up and in some of those states not by a little. 14 states as we noted going up, that means more covid instfectis than a week ago, and 50% in the deep red. 24 states holding steady, and only 12 states fewer new infections this week. here's the case timeline. this is what the cdc director and other members of the biden covid team are worried about, the plateau, a flat line since late february across here. they want to shove this baseline down much further.

they say that's the big fight, vaccinations versus variants. three states we're keeping an eye on, texas dropped its mask mandate and more or less a plateau. takes a few weeks after mitigation efforts are drops. we will see, can they manage it or will it spike? that's the question. let's watch this as we head into april if we see mississippi manages its case count with fewer mandates in place. and then florida pretty much a flat line, down a little from the beginning of march right there, and it takes a few weeks as we learned through last spring and the summer and winter surge, and it takes a couple weeks for it to move and we'll watch that. now, the uk srvariant, 48 state

plus d.c. more than 4,600 reported cases. 142 cases of the south african variant, and as i noted this is the race. can you get more americans vaccinated before the variants spread. 12% of americans are now fully vaccinated. that number has been sneaking up over the past week or so. 22% have been partially vaccinated. here's another way. 2.4 million is the current average of vaccinations a day, and the biden administration trying to ramp that up, also personnel to administer the shots in arms. the president said this week by may 1st he wants all states to offer vaccinations to all adults, and there are a few states that will meet the president's request, and then

the question parents have, when do my kids get vaccinated? dr. anthony fauci outlined what he thinks will be the schedule for that. >> the high school students, it looks like they will be available to get vaccinated in the beginning of the fall. very likely for the fall term. with regard to children, with doing an age de-escalation study in elementary school study, from 12 to 9, 9 to 6, and 6 to 2. we will have enough data to be able to vaccinate the young children by the first quarter of 2022. >> and the professor at the university of kansas, and a important member of the cdc adviser committee. thank you for your time today. let's start with that, a concern obviously to many parents as we talk about back to school

issues. is that timeline for vaccinating children, does that sound about right to you? does the administration need to kick that up or is it dependent on the studies first? >> it is depeni dependent on th studies, and we talked about the strategy for pediatric vaccinations, and we start with adolescence, especially older adolescence and then de-escalate to lower age groups. that's a pretty standard way to do pediatric trials, and you want safety and efficacy dosing from the trials when you broaden out to a broader population of schoolchildren. >> so i describe this as a race, the vaccination versus variants and correct me if that's not the right way to say it, but if fewer people are susceptible to the disease, the variants don't have anywhere to go.

two coronavirus strains first detected in california are variants of concern. they may be 20% more trance missable. putting it into context for a layperson like me that doesn't speak the language, how concerned should they hear the two new variants in california, should that be a worry or is the government on top of it? >> i think we knew weeks ago that the uk variant was going to be more prominent in the united states, so we talked about that again at one of our recent meetings. i think we also know that the vaccine provides at least in a test tube provides protection. can you take blood samples that have been vaccinated and mix it with the virus in a test tube and you get what we call neutralization.

there's certainly other things we have besides vaccination, we still have masks and hand washing and social distancing, so you know, this kind of research is hard because we have to find people who may have gotten infected after they were vaccinated to see what the actual protection is, and getting more people vaccinated and sticking to the things that have worked and we know are working will help in the critical phase over the next few months. >> we have an international audience this hour. the as strazeneca vaccine is no here in the united states. the company says it's a small number who get blood clots, and in the world health organization said the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends the vaccinations continue. dr. anthony fauci said he does

not believe you can blame the vaccine for the blood clots. should people in countries where astrazeneca has been the vaccine of choice, should they feel safe? >> yeah, i think you hit the nail on the head when you say we are vaccinating so many people, we are vaccinating 2 million people in the united states every day and more worldwide, so we will see blood clots and other adverse events unrelated to the vaccine and happen just by happenstance. we talked specifically about blood clots and other related things, and that's a common occurrence without the vaccination, especially older people who have been the initial targets. i have not seen all the data about astrazeneca, but what i have seen i would be reassured that you should get that vaccine if it's offered to you. >> thank you for your expertise. appreciate it. >> thank you. up next for us, homeland

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on capitol hill facing tough questions from republicans about the situation at the u.s.-mexico border. border encounters are up 174% from february 2020 to the february we just finished. today the secretary says, yes, more migrants are attempting to cross into the united states now

more so than in the past 20 years, but he woepn't call it a crisis and pushed back on republicans that wanted to use that label. >> i will share with you how i define a crisis. a crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to detour future migration. that to me is a humanitarian crisis. >> joining us now to discuss this issue, senator from nevada. thank you for your time. we all lived through this and almost one of the reasons why nothing has been done is it qui quickly evolves into something like that. what should in your view the administration do today and tomorrow, immediately, things it

can do before congress picks up this issue to deal especially with all the issue of unaccompanied children coming to the border. >> a couple things. first of all, great to join you, john. let me put this in perspective. i strongly believe we can have secure borders. i know it and i always worked for secure borders while here in the senate and also as the attorney general for nevada for eight years working with my colleagues from mexico, the attorneys general there. we can have secure borders and also have a system in place that is humane and compassionate and addresses immigration and asylum, a process that is ordinarily and keeps the terrorists element out and ensures violent criminals are not coming across the border, but also looks to how we work with individuals fleeing their country and why and understand that. you have touched on this. it requires us all coming together. i watched for the last four years with the previous administration literally tore down the i asylum process, and

that's why you have a administration trying to rebuild that now, and putting a band on it right now, and we can do this if we come together and we need to address a broken immigration system and at the same time balancing that with making sure our border has resources necessary to secure it. i know it can be done. i have worked in law enforcement and have been down at the border as a senator, and i have been to the centers down there and i know what they need. we talked about new technology that is available to law enforcement now along the border that helps them secure the border. we have talked about the human resources that are necessary. and i will tell you as somebody who worked with ags in mexico addressing human trafficking, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering, a border wall is not the answer.

tunnels, the criminals have the ability to build these incredible tunnels we have to address. that's why the technology is so important for law enforcement at the border. >> you say the border wall is not the answer. i get your perspective on that, and a number of your republican colleagues september this letter saying president biden is doing what democrats often complain that president trump was doing, congress passed legislation that said you must spend money on this and congress appropriated money for the border wall and he can't stop it, and if you want to stop the border wall you would have to pass that, and do these republicans have a point? >> well, here's the point, and here's who i am listening to are the people at the border. as a senator i spent time down there and talked to enforcement at the border. it's not a border wall. what they are demanding is the

technology. after talking with the heads of the cdp and other law enforcement agencies at the border, and it's money for technology and -- >> my point, senator, and forgive me for interrupting, and the current law says spend it on border, and do you need to change the law. >> i know you want to get into the politics of this. what is actually needed at the border? we should be listening to the people on the front lines there and working together. that's what this is about. somebody that worked with the law enforcement for eight years as the attorney general of nevada, it's important that we listen to people on the front lines. that's what i have done. i sat down and looked at their budget and really listened to what their needs are. their needs are more resources for technology, and human resource and capacity. that's what they have been asking for so why aren't we

listening to them. i have to push back because there's the ability we in this country to actually secure or borders, which are secure now, we can put more resources behind it and still have a system that works for immigration and asylum seekers, and it requires congress and the administration to work together. >> let me ask you, senator, dick durbin, number two in the leadership, he doesn't see a way to get comprehensive immigration through the senate, and should the senate talk about just the dream act. should you try incremental steps that might move the ball opposed to trying to do it all at once? >> yeah, of course we should try to work in a bipartisan way and we should talk to our colleagues about what makes sense in moving forward with the immigration system. dreamers, putting them on a pathway and they are on the front lines during the pandemic in my state who have come to

this country at a very young age and this is the only home they have known, yeah, we should be doing everything we can to make sure we are taking care of our dreamers and others. it requires us to have conversations and stop playing politics with it. john, we know that the senate in 2013 actually came together in an immigration package, a comprehensive one in a bipartisan way. i know when i was here, when i first got to the senate in 2017, we were able to work in a bipartisan way on an immigration package and unfortunately the trump administration sabotaged it, but we were able to do it. let's start to have these conversations. >> mark me down as skeptical you can have those conversations coming up on an election year, and that's coming up quickly, and if you can get people talking that may be the best way to get progress. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. coming up for us, the

president sends a stern message to russia and its leader, vladimir putin.

if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe.

if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. a new promise from president biden to punish vladimir putin. >> he will pay a price. i said i looked in your eyes and i don't think you have a soul, and he looked back and said i think we understand each other.

the most important thing in dealing with foreign leaders in my experience, and i dealt with a lot over my career, is just know the other guy. >> you know vladimir putin. you think he's a killer? >> uh-huh. i do. >> what price must he pay? >> the price he's going to pay, well, you will see shortly. >> that price comes on the heels of a new unclassified intelligence community report with clear conclusions, it says the russian president wanted trump to win the election and biden lose it. supporting former president trump and undermining public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbating decisions in the united states. let's say hello to our guest, susan glasser. what that are his options to punish vladimir putin? >> it's a striking report, certainly and it spares no

language in being unequivocal in saying not only was russia engaged in the russian interference, and vladimir putin was aware of it and directed it in this report. you have heard biden talking tough, and we have heard that from his administration, a more stringent line coming out of the president than donald trump. in 2014 it was the beginning of the stepped up operations inside the united states, so the question is really what other tools are available besides endless rounds of sanctions, and we have not heard from the biden administration what new and possibly creative alternatives they are looking at. >> he said shortly, so we will stay watching that. and tomorrow high level meeting between the biden team and

china. listen to this. >> this is not a strategic dialogue, there's no intent at this point for a series of follow-up engagements. those engagements, if they are to follow have to be based on the proposition we are seeing tangible outcomes and progress on the issues kuconcerning withs with china. >> is it just talking tough, or, again, what do you do? >> look, first of all, the issue of china has become a rare bipartisan agreement in that both democrats and republicans are taking a very dim view of china. now there's no talk as there was in previous beginnings of administrations about the two superpowers working together. it's very interesting when lincoln and his confirmation hearing said i agree with the

administration's top line and you have the secretary of state and secretary of defense flying to asia on their first visit and meeting with our key allies in south korea and japan, and that's where you see the difference with the trump administration, the message is we will no longer bash allies and making nice words to our adversaries as trump often did, and it's the symbolism of the meeting with the south koreans and the japanese and the leadup to the meetings, and it's notable the chinese officials have agreed to come to alaska, to u.s. soil to have the meeting. the optics there suggests chinese understand, you know, that they might be in their interest to dial down some of the heated rhetoric that has been coming from the u.s., democrats and republicans.

>> interesting about the location. day 57 of the challenges come right away, and we're grateful for the important insights. appreciate it. coming up for us, an update from the administration on just how many americans have received those payments. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

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stimulus checks have been deposited already. those payments will continue over the next few weeks. now an update on the filibuster. progressives want to get rid of it altogether, and the man there you see on the screen, joe manchin, he may have the most to say on it. let's get to our correspondent for the latest on that. >> reporter: i just spoke to joe manchin and democrats need support of the entire caucus to make significant changes to the filibuster rule, any changes to the filibuster rule that gives the right of the minority to derail legislative from the majority. he said i am still at 60 and have not changed and that means 60 votes to sustain a filibuster, to break a filibuster, for proponents want to gut the filibuster, they want to bring it down to 51 votes. he said that's not on the table.

and then john, it's going to require manchin's support and he's not just there yet. >> we'll stay on top of it if he budges. hope to see you back here at this time tomorrow. happy st. patrick's day. have a good day. i am brianna keilar. president biden will speak soon about the killing spree in georgia that put asian-americans across the nation on edge. this after months of anti-asian attacks that people say have been intensified of the pandemic and racist language about the origination of the virus in china. eight people dead and a ninth wounded in the atlanta area but it's not clear if anti-asia racism was the