donald trump leaves office this week with the distinction of having lost the vote twice and now having been impeached twice. at the same time, washington, d.c., looks like an armed camp with some 25,000 national guard troops coming to protect joe biden's inauguration, and state capitols from coast to coast, they're bracing for antigovernment violence from right wing terror groups as early as today. still president trump who's inspired much of this extremism continues to hold an iron grip on his party. ten house republicans voted to impeach him, 197 voted no. those yes votes accounted for

less than 5% of the republican house caucus. in our nbc news poll of registered voters has the president's approval rating holding steady at 43% with 55% disapproving. just right now on the lower end. 62% say president trump is solely or mainly responsible for the capitol riot while 47% disagree. that basically matches the popular vote election results. and looking at the election, while 61% say joe biden won legitimately 35% disagree. among republicans 74% say no, biden did not win legitimately. three in four current republicans. two things stand out this morning, one, how can joe biden begin healing the country when one in three voters believes he did not win legitimately. two, the republicans who say impeachment would further divide

this country might start closing that divide themselves by admitting what they've known all along that president trump lost this election and that the reason millions of trump voters believe it's stolen is because mr. trump with the help of many in his party purposely lied to them. let's check in with nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. he's joining us now. he's got the latest on the investigation in the capitol riot. pete, i know you have some new information about the fears about possible attacks on state capitols, many of these capitals are bracing for this as early as today. how vulnerable are we today? >>s high for three reasons, first because of t on social media from extremists for attacks on government buildings in many states. second because of the worry that a high level of security in washington any group intent on attack the government will go

somewhere else and because the fbi fears that the attack on the capitol may embolden the hardcore groups that are pushing for more violence. in at least eight states governors have activated the national guard and barriers have been set up around many capitol buildings. >> as for the investigation, pete, it seems like every day multiple people get added to the list of folks having charges filed against them. what do we know today? >> yeah, i think they're pretty close to actually identifying everybody who was in the capitol. this is moving very fast because of the enormous county of pictures and videos showing the people in there who took part and because public outrage over what happened has produced an astonishing number of tips. so far the fbi says it has opened investigations on about 350 people and made around 74 arrests on federal charges, so if you add the local charges, the total arrests are over 100. among the most recent is a new york man accused of using a

police body shield to break an outside window. that allowed people to begin streaming in. the fbi says it has received tips containing more than 150,000 separate photos and videos and, chuck, in one of the more interesting developments, many of those tips are coming from friends and family members. >> wow. pete williams on top of the investigation and the threats today, pete, thank you. so as washington, d.c., prepares for joe biden's inauguration, the city looks as if it's preparing for a possible riot because, frankly, it is. some 25,000 national guard troops are coming to the city and new fencing wire has been put up surrounding restricted zones. joining me now for more on the security situation in washington, is the mayor of washington, d.c., muriel bowser. welcome back to "meet the press." look, i've been here since before 9/11. i will tell you, it looks as if there are -- there is more security around the capitol than

we've seen for any other inauguration or any moment since 9/11. is that a fair description? >> i think it is. i think this will be an inauguration unlike any other. i think it was already destined to be given covid concerns and some of the limited seating and public access. but having our fellow americans storm the capitol in an attempt to overthrow the government certainly warrants heightened security. >> you have concentrated the security efforts, obviously, all around whether it's the national mall, closing bridges connected to it, the capitol area itself. all of it very much a fortress. what level of threat do you think we're facing, and are you concerned that we're so secure in one place they're going to find softer targets in other parts of the city?

>> well, chuck, as you know, i convened our federal law enforcement partners who are responsible for securing this event, the united states secret service. this is a national special security event. more than half of those events have been conducted in washington, d.c., in the secret service working with all federal agencies is going to make this a safe event. our special agent in charge talked about the general and specific threats that our intelligence apparatus is collecting both here and across our nation. i'm not only concerned about other state capitals, i'm also concerned about other parts of washington, d.c. what you're showing is really the federal enclave of washington, d.c., not where the 700,000 of us live, so our police department working with our federal law enforcement partners and the united states army, quite frankly, also has

plan to pivot if we have any attacks in our neighborhoods. >> mayor bowser, we're about three months away from what usually is the sort of the spring break student season, the tour buses are all around d.c., and obviously the pandemic is going to limit that, but how long are we going to be living in a washington, d.c., that feels like an armed camp? i mean, how long are we going to have to live this way? because i assume these threats don't go away on january 20th. >> i think the question is a bigger question, chuck. it is how serious is our country going to take domestic white extremism, and i think what we saw here last week is that we didn't take it seriously enough. we never believed that so-called patriots would attempt to overthrow their government and kill police officers, but that's exactly what happened. and so i do think we have to take another posture in our city

that is more domestic terrorist focused and external to our country and act accordingly. now, we don't want to see fences. we definitely don't want to see armed troops on our streets, but we do have to take a dierenff posture. >> i think it's very much, if you recall washington, d.c., in the early days after 9/11, it may feel similar these days. mayor bowser, not easy these days having your job. thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you, chuck. let's turn now to the senate impeachment trial of president trump. i'm joined by democratic senator cory booker of new jersey. and senator booker, there's so much on our plate as a country, so much on your plate as the united states senate. so the first question, when should we expect this trial to start and be done with? >> well, i think to get technical off the bat, there's

some frustrations about getting time lines set. you need the republican leader to cooperate in terms of time agreements, but i fully expect it to happen as quickly as possible, and i think what else is going to happen is we're going to be able to do a will the -- lot of things at once. if we can get the time agreements from our republican leader we can hold impeachment trials as well as doing other things, like getting key national security personnel confirmed as well. >> is there -- it's interesting you say it that way. so what you're saying is this isn't an issue with the senate parliamentarian. this is mitch mcconnell, he's yet to agree on a time line. >> you know, i talked again to senator schumer last night about the same concerns you seem to be asking about. i for one want to drive president biden's economic agenda. we have a real crisis. we have a pandemic. we have an economic recession. we have national security

threats. it really necessitates the republican leader coming forward with time agreements, and that's one of the things that's concerning soon to be majority leader chuck schumer. >> is there anything in your -- do you think both at the same time? >> we need to do both at the same time. these are all -- and i can't think of a president in my lifetime that came to power with so many challenges, and i think the american people have a right to expect that we can work on a lot of different fronts from an economic recession to a pandemic to national security threats as well as holding a president accountable who persistently lied to the american people, whipped up far right wing extremists and incited a riot, an assault, a siege on the united states capitol. >> is there any doubt in your mind that this trial is

constitutional after he leaves office? i want this, tom cotton a republican senator from arkansas is arguing that since he's out of office that he thinks the trial is unconstitutional. what say you? >> well, again, i think that there is a lot of people who are going to express opinions with a great degree of certainty. we have policies and procedures as well as a one hole branch of government to be the referee on these things. i believe it is constitutionally dangerous not to proceed. we just had a president of the united states try to undermine the peaceful transition of power, try to challenge a fair and free election, and him and his agents from the moments before from his son, to his lawyer whipping up a crowd to go attack the capitol. i believe fundamentally the senate has an obligation to act, and i worry about folks who might want to try to make this

into a political tit for tat, that they're missing the larger historical picture here. there must be accountability for actions that are this serious and this much of a threat, not just to our constitution but to the erosion of our nation. >> senator, when i think about the, say, 24 senate republicans that i might put in a category as persuadable for conviction, you know who those folks are. you have pretty good relationships, i think, with quite a few of them, how would you advise the house impeachment managers to design their arguments to win over that group? and you know there's that group that's a little bit more establishment, a little bit more institutional and the ones that have been silent in the four years when it comes to donald trump's behavior. >> we tend to vilify people who are not in our political party too much in this country. they're good people that i serve with in the united states

senate. i hope that this does in no way seem as a political endeavor. it has got to be a larger perspective and -- as i imagine they will from really the dire issues before us as a in this case. will a president be held accountable for what he did. what he did was extreme. what he did was certainly meriting impeachment. now we have to have a fair trial that i hope the arguments will rest, frankly, in the law and on the facts. >> right. senator cory booker, democrat from new jersey, as you said, we have so many other things on our plate, but obviously impeachment being a focal point. thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. i appreciate it. please stay safe. >> thank you. joining me now is freshman republican congresswoman mace. congresswoman mace voted against

president trump's impeachment because she says the house was violating due process, but she is also someone who voted against those that wanted to challenge the election results and she does support censuring the president. congresswoman mace, welcome to "meet the press." and i want to start with something, a new colleague of yours who's been in congress quite a while, mike mccall what he put in his statement. i'm curious how you view the impeachment vote. here's what mike mccall wrote, he voted with you, he voted against impeachment, but he wrote i truly fear there may be more facts that come to light in the future that will put me on the wrong side of this debate. i'm curious, are you concerned about that? >> i am concerned, and one of the things i gave my first speech on the floor of the house last week. i stated very unequivocally that the house every right to the impeach the president of the united states, but the fact that we bipartisan judiciary, we did not open an investigation --

that set a dangerous constitutional precedent for others, no matter even if you think the president's guilty as hell, like many do believe, there has to be due process or has to be an investigation. we have to go, even if it's through special committee work or judiciary, those things needed to happen in order for impeachment to really -- i think you would have gotten more republicans on board if it were done with due process, with an investigation. >> as you know, some of the issues had to do with timing, right, and there is this sense that -- >> right. >> -- is he an immediate threat staying in office? do you empathize with that argument that said, okay, there's only a finite number of days here and this needs to be focused on, and you have to expedite things? >> right, well, one of the things, one of the options that was on the table last week when we were going through the impeachment getting up to d.c. bipartisan effort to look at censure as an option, that

would, one, hold the president accountable for his words and actions and also prohibit him from holding office again in the future. unfortunately the speaker wouldn't let us bring it up for debate or a vote. there were measures. there were folks in place in both chambers, in both parties that were willing to do that and go that far. unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity at all last week. >> in fairness, congresswoman, there's a lot of constitutional questions about whether congress can do this -- can bar somebody from ever holding federal office again without going through the impeachment and conviction process. >> right. >> what's your -- >> complicated. >> -- take that you can do this without impeachment now? >> well, with censure, that was one of the things i believe we should have had up for debate. it's complex constitutionally, but there were folks in both chambers and in both parties having the ability to look at that as an option, but we couldn't even bring it up for a debate or look at that as an option because we were really trying hard to figure out how do

we hold a president accountable that put all of our lives at risk. and this was a traumatic event for many members of congress, and i believe in the days, weeks, and months to come as we learn more the worse it's going to get, and we feared for our lives, many of us that day, and our staff and as you know, my children were supposed to be up there. if they had been there like they were supposed to be, i would have been devastated. and so we do need to find a way to hold the president accountable. we're doing that in the press, and you're seeing corporations and companies say not one more dime to those that objected. we're going to do the right thing. there are other measures i'm encouraged seeing out there. i want to be a new voice for the republican party. that's one of the reasons i've spoken out so strongly against the president, against these qanon conspiracy theorists. it's just wrong, and we've got to put a stop to it. >> what kind of confidence do you have in the republican leadership, and does it bother you that after the insurrection, after the riots, the two top

leaders kevin mccarthy and steve scalise and 130 plus of your colleagues still voted to challenge these results? does that put some -- does that make you question the leadership's decision-making? >> i will tell you for me as a new member, it was enormously disappointing. i literally had to walk through a crime scene where that young woman was shot and killed to get into the chamber to vote that night to certify what was supposed to be a ceremonial vote to certify the electoral college, and yet my colleagues continued to object, and they knew this was a failing motion. these objections were not going to work and they were unconstitutional, and so it is enormously disappointing. it's one of the reasons i've been such a strong voice to point out the lies that have happened. congress had no business overturning the electoral college and neither did the vice president, and i praised vice president mike pence for standing up and correcting some of those untruths that day on january 6th, but we have

reconciliation that needs to happen within our own party. we need to rebuild the republican party. we need to rebuild our country, and i'm counting on my colleagues to join us to be that new voice for the republican party to lead us out of this crisis going forward because our country is counting on us. >> will liz cheney survive any challenges to her leadership position? >> i believe she will and the irony in all of this, chuck, is that the same people that were complaining and screaming about the president being silenced on twitter want to silence a dissenting voice within our own party, and so i find -- i find that very hypocritical and very disappointing because we should embrace dissension, we should embrace debate. part of the american experiment in this country is the ability and opportunity to debate ideas even when we disagree, we have the ability to agree to disagree and not attack one another. and there's so much division not only within our party but within our country right now, and we've got to do a better job, and i hope and i support liz cheney,

and i hope that she stays a part of leadership. we need these voices right now more than ever. >> nancy mace, a brand new member of congress from the charleston, south carolina, area, a republican from south carolina, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective with us this morning. >> thank you for having me this morning. >> you got it. when we come back, with case loads and the death toll loads and the death toll growing, why can't we get the your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.

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the grim numbers come as the nation's vaccine distribution program is becoming increasingly chaotic and a new more contagious strain of the virus threatens the fuel another surge of cases. joining me now with the latest on what we can expect, dr. anthony fauci, who will be president-elect biden's chief medical adviser on covid-19 in addition to his usual duties. dr. fauci, welcome back to "meet the press." let me start with this vaccine question. there's this announce, president-elect biden calls for releasing all of the stockpile. the trump administration agrees and all of a sudden there's no stockpile. was this a miscommunication? was this a bigger error? what is the explanation here? >> i'm not exactly sure, chuck, but i tried and i think successfully sorted that out. i had a conversation with general perna last night and again this morning. i think there was just a

misunderstanding. in the beginning when it wasn't quite clear about what the cadence, as he calls it, of dos it was a lot of caution. wanted to make sure everyone who got a first dose got a second dose on time. when doses were released, an equal amount was kept back to make sure if there was any glitches in the supply flow that the people who got their first doses would clearly get their second doses. after a couple of cycles, when it became clear that the cadence of the flow of doses was really going to be consistent and reliable, the decision was made, instead of just giving enough for the first dose and holding back for the second dose, that as soon as they got the doses available, they would give it because now they would have confidence that the next amount they would get.

they would have enough at least to give everybody the second dose and then some to give the first dose. >> you oversee vaccine creation, so i'm curious on the manufacturing aspect of things. president-elect biden has promised to invoke the dpa, defense production act, on the vaccine manufacturing process. will that help in the short term, or is that something that we won't see the benefits of that until the summer? >> i can tell you one thing that's clear is that the issue of getting 100 million doses in the first 100 days is absolutely a doable thing. what the president-elect is going to do is where it need be to invoke the dpa to get the things we need, be they tests, vaccines, what have you. in in other words, to not be hesitant to use whatever mechanisms we can to get everything on track oochs and in

the flow that he pro districts. the feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear. there's no doubt about that, that that can be done. >> the guidelines that various state and local authorities are using to distribute the vaccine, clearly they were a bit too strict if we're finding ourselves throwing away vaccine. do you feel as if that has changed enough so that we're not going to be throwing away vaccine? >> yeah, i think so. one of the things that's clear is that the cdc came out on the basis of the recommendations from the acip, about different groups, 1a, 1b, 1c, as recommendations and guideline, not real restrictions. what happens is that maybe understandably the states and the local authorities were really very strictly adhering to that, where right now what the cdc is saying, those are guidelines. you've got to loosen them up, be

less rigid about it. the one thing you don't want, if you have vaccine left over, move on to the next group. it's kind of like if you want to use the metaphor of you're boarding a plane, everybody gets on under group 1, if not everybody gets on, you open up group two but group one still goes on. you want a steady flow. you don't want to hold back. you don't want to overshoot or undershoot but let the flow keep going. i think, chuck, that will work well looking forward. >> how close are we on johnson & johnson and the astrazeneca vaccines? >> soon, chuck. we're going to be meeting with the authorities on that. they have a lot of events, events meaning infections within the context of the trial. so their data i think very soon. i would imagine within the period of a week or so, or at most the couple weeks, they'll be getting their data together and showing it to the fda. obviously they're going to have to get their data and safety monitoring board to look at it

to see if it is appropriate to start essentially putting the package together to get an emergency use authorization. but we're weeks away, not months away for sure. >> what's your level of concern about this new variant that clearly a lot of folks are concerned is certainly more contagious? >> well, we're taking it really very seriously, chuck. you don't want people to panic. you have to look at it from a certain standpoint. yes, there's no doubt, when you look at what the brits -- remember, people need to realize there's more than one mutant strain. there's one from the uk that's essentially dominated. that's the one actually seen in the united states. there's another more ominous one that's in south africa and brazil. we're looking at all of them very, very carefully. a, to determine -- obviously the brits have made it clear that it's more contagious. they say it isn't more virulent. but we've got to be careful, because the more cases you get,

even though on a one to one basis, it's not more virulent, meaning it doesn't make you more sick or more likely to die, just by numbers alone, the more cases you have, the more hospitalizations you have. the more hospitalizations you have, the more deaths you'll have. the thing you want to look at carefully is does that mutation lessen the impact of the vaccine? if it does, chuck, we'll have to make some modifications. we're all over that, looking at that very carefully. >> is there a point with this variant that you think there's going to be new restrictions, whether advice that says double mask or additional lockdowns? are we close to any of those ideas? >> well, i think one of the things we've got to do, chuck -- maybe the silver lining, if you want to call it that, is when you have a variant that's really very, very different in the sense of it's more contagious, it tells you to do two things.

one, double down on the public health measures that we've been talking about all the time. be very compulsive. as the president-elect says, at least for the first 100 days and more, everybody wear a mask, keep the distance, avoid the congregate settings. but also another important thing, the easiest way to evade this negative effect of these new isolates is just to, when the vaccine becomes available, people should get vaccinated. boy, if ever there was a clarion call for people to put aside vaccine hesitancy, if we can get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated, we'd be in very good shape and could beat even the mutant. >> that's one way to look at it. we're in a race against the mutant. everybody get your arms out and get the needles ready to inject us. dr. fauci, thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise with us. >> thank you, chuck. thank you for having me.

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i prefer you didn't! xiidra. not today, dry eye. welcome back. the panel is with us, nbc news chief white house correspondent kristen welker. rich lowry, editor of "national review" and former democratic senator from missouri, claire mccaskill. i want to show the stark differences we found in our poll between how republicans and democrats feel about where the country is headed. we asked them to put it in their own words. among republicans we heard things like wrong direction, concerns about personal freedoms, headed toward

socialism and communism and simply liberal bankruptcy. among the phrases we heard from democrats were things like hopeful, exhilarated and repairing the massive damage. also negative phrases as well including downhill, frightened and headed for the toilet. you know, claire mccaskill, i've got to just show you how polarized we are as a country, i want to show you the ratings for jill biden among republicans and show you the comparisons of what the opposing party thought of first ladies coming into office. the republicans have this incredibly negative view of jill biden, 8-59. she's not been an overly political spouse. you go back, here is what melania trump's numbers were among democrats, they weren't that high, 9/44. here is michelle obama among republicans, a little less sort

of vitriol, 19-33. and then look at this from laura bush. it was 17-17 among democrats. we just thought that that might better explain polarization. if you hate the first lady, you've got a negative view, then you really are sort of blinded with partisanship. >> no question this country is very divided by party. chuck, let's take a step back here. she was the most popular person on the poll. the only institution that was more popular than jill biden was the supreme court. she was more popular than trump, more pom lar than pence. even more popular than her husband. let's get perspective here. there's about 30% of the country -- 30% to 35% that's totally trump, but the majority of america has rejected trump especially in light of what he incited in our nation's capitol. i think we're headed for good places. your polling, talking about republicans and democrats.

all those independents in the middle of skewing away from trump's republican party. >> it's interesting, rich, i think in some ways, claire, when she's speaking for the democrats, they have it a little easier. they can ignore the 30% while they govern for a while. they can work around them. the republican party can't that's that 30% translates to about 70% of the party. what does a mitch mcconnell do with those folks? >> it's tricky. donald trump is going to be the biggest figure in the party for a long time here. he has more energy, more grassroots supporters. mcconnell has more international influence in washington. what we've seen over the last week or two are the opening salvos of what will be a republican civil war that will run from republican primaries down to dog catcher races. trump, his voters at the margins have soured on him some but

haven't abandoned him. what some senate republicans haven't fully counted on is the ferocious backlash that we haven't seen yet to a post presidency effort to bar trump from running for office again which is going to strike a lot of republicans as vindictive and undemocratic. >> kristen welker, what is president-elect biden's thoughts on how to -- does he bother to talk with this 30% to 35%? he obviously knows his mandate was to bring the country together, but that's a 30% of the country that doesn't want to seem to listen to him. does he have a thought on how to talk to those folks? >> i think you're going to hear that conversation begin in his inaugural address, chuck, based on my reporting. he's going to hit those themes of unity, of healing. then he's going to have to show his work once he's in office.

it's going to start with that big challenge. he rolled out that $1.9 trillion relief package that he wants to get past. the question is how does he do it? speaking with those close to him, they say, of course there are going to be areas of compromise. can he reach across the aisle and work with republicans, work with mitch mcconnell. they're going to be feeling pressure to address these crises, the economy, covid, all the issues addressed in that relief package. i think that's where the conversation begins, chuck. i think there's also an opportunity for dr. biden as well. she has indicated she wants to revive the joining forces military program and work on school reopenings, chuck. >> i want to talk about the senate a little bit. claire mccaskill, does this -- do you view the senate impeachment trial as having any impact on joe biden's ability to bring, say, a dozen republicans on board some early bipartisan pieces of legislation? >> i don't think it does.

first of all, joe biden is going to be talking covid, covid, covid. he's not going to be talking impeach impeachment. the key here is joe biden believes that mitch mcconnell is somebody he can potentially work with. my checking in with senators, there isn't a lot of faith about that. mitch mcconnell has specialized in obstructionism to democratic presidents. there's a lot of senators who really don't have the same faith that joe biden has that mitch mcconnell will come to the table and compromise and get things done for the american people. i think most people believe that joe biden is setting himself up, senators that is, setting himself up for failure because mitch mcconnell hasn't even coo the new senate. so this is not somebody who is showing signals that he's willing to work with democrats. >> rich, sort of same question from the other viewpoint. do you think the senate

impeachment trial will motivate republicans to work with boyd biden or move away from working with biden? >> i don't think it will have much of an effect one way or the other. it's amazing that already democrats are considering the impeachment trial as something to get beyond and push off to the side so they can focus on what they really care about, which is getting the biden agenda passed and getting cabinet officials nominated. i think mcconnell -- he had a pretty good relationship with joe biden in the obama years. he thought he could cut deals with joe biden much better than he could with barack obama. when there's a commonality on things, another relief package, spending at the margins, i think they'll have a fine working relationship. at the end of the day, these are two men who disagree for sincere and deeply held reasons on most of what will be discussed. mcconnell is fully within his rights to oppose things he's rights to oppose things he's never ♪

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welcome back. according to the center for strategic and international studies right wing terrorists perpetrated the majority of all plots and attacks in the united states from 1944 to 1920. over the past six years, in 42

states. the violence we witnessed on january 6th has been hiding in plain sight. >> hang mike pence! >> the assault on the capitol was a culmination of years of political violence. >> they ripped my mask off, stole my equipment, beat me up. >> ex-ploeted by politicians on the right and accelerated by donald trump. >> we fight. fight like hell. >> get your people to fight. >> you have to fight much harder. >> legitimiing vigilante justice and leading to violence is nothing new. ten years ago congresswoman gabby giffords was shot along with 18 years including a federal judge by a gunman in her arizona district. six people were killed. >> the disturbed personalities are the most susceptible to the vitriol that goes on. >> the tea party form to limit the size of government fueled

online. >> this is the movement and america is ready for another revolution. >> there was sought attempt to quell the rhetoric. >> it's certainly not a reflection of the movement of the republican party when you have idiots out there saying very stupid things. >> the energy, more extreme rhetoric created among the base proved too intoxicating to worry if the words would have consequences. >> the roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? the blood of who? tyrants to be sure. but the patriots. >> from the moment he launched his campaign in 2015, donald trump was comfortable suggesting violence be used against his perceived political opponents. >> she gets to pick her judges. nothing you can do, folks. although the second amendment people, maybe there is, i don't know. >> and throughout his presidency, mr. trump has been connected to acts of violence. in 2018, caesar say yok, a trump

supporter mailed pipe bombs to critics of the president. also in that year, an anti-semitic terrorist killed 11 worshippers at the tree of life in pa. in 2019 a gunman killed 23 people at a walmart in el paso after posting a racist manifesto that warned of a hispanic invasion, echoes mr. trump's language. the president condemned the attack but' equivocated. >> what do you say to your critics that believe your rhetoric is emboldening white nationalists. >> my critics are political people, trying to make points. >> mr. trump's supporters don't have a monopoly on violence. a bernie sanders sanders supporter shot four including congressman steve scalise at a congressional baseball practice in 2017. >> i am sickened by this despicable act. >> reporter: unlike sanders, the president praised extremists who

support him. >> you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. >> and the threat has been growing. >> donald trump lit the fuse of a box of dynamite that contained white supremacists, far shahs, lieus, in other insurrectionists waiting for him to call them to action. >> we'll do much more on how right wing violence has become a growing terrorist threat on "meet the press" reports which airs on nbc news now and peacock. our new season starts soon. basically you just got a

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welcome back. about the only thing left on president trump's agenda,

kristen welker, appears to be pardons. we asked voters -- again, we were the only poll -- you've seen a lot of other polls out there, polls of all adults. we've been a poll of registered voters. that's why there's some differences in the job rating numbers. we asked about a self-pardon. approve, disapprove? >> two-thirds of the country would disapprove. just 27% would approve of that. kristen welker, that shows you there is a line for some trump supporters that they're not going to cross when only 27% of folks approve of that. is he going to do it? >> he's still undecided, i'm told, chuck. there are increasing conversations behind-the-scenes about potential self pardons and close aids and allies as well as a number of other people. he's concerned about the pr aspect of it. those numbers you just showed, chuck. that is one of the things that

is holding him back from moving forward. we know that a number of his legal advisers have urged him not to do a self-pardon. i am told that we can expect there to be more pardons before he leaves office. chuck, i think that's the dichotomy we're seeing with president trump right now. yes, he still has broad 1u7 port among the republican party. he's increasingly isolated in the white house 578 month his top advisers, the cacade of resignations after january 6th. the fact you have a number of allies that used to stand with him that just aren't anymore. >> rich, if he tries a self-pardon, that's probably not the best way to convince senate republicans not to convict. >> yeah. i'm not sure whether he'll get a conviction regardless. self-pardon would obviously be radioactive. not clear how effective it would

be. it would certainly be legally contested. certainly going to pardon another raft of allies and probably family members, and this is an administration obviously losing legitimacy by the minute and literally falling apart before our eyes. >> claire, this -- in some ways this pardon story at the end was inevitable with donald trump. i think a lot of folks assumed he would get intoxicated by this power and he has. he loves the absolute power. do you think, considering how he used the pardon process and obviously there's some stories in "the times" today indicating there are a lot of hours trying to make money off this. should we be reforming how this works? >> i think so. i think you'll see hearings about it. so many of these pardons have been purely political. they haven't gone through the normal process that most presidents use which is a very thorough vetting by the department of justice.

it's just who can get to trump on what day and him waving a magic wand. his real lawyers have abandoned him. the bankers abandoned him. the pga abandoned him. many in corporate america abandoned him. the more he uses this pardon irresponsibly, the more it cuts into that 30% and makes it even harder for republicans to win an election nationally in this country ever again. >> rich, i want to go back to the piece we ran right before this segment about the growing violent streak that we've seen over this last decade. because, look, you are the editor of a publication that stared -- qanon today is the john birch society, perhaps, of the '60s. is there going to be a purge of these violent extremists from this party, and who can lead it? >> first of all yorks view to make a distinction. rhetoric about fighting, taking back the country, use of marshal

imagery. what's different is these movements like q that represent these poisonous conspiracy theories that have gained increasing traction on cil war going forward. that's what makes this different. what also makes it different, frankly, the president of the united states did not disavow these people, did not disavow this stuff, and in the post election period, used his power to whip people up and play on their very worst fears. >> look, we're all nervous today about 51 symbols of democracy, our state capitols and our nation's capitol. let's hope we have a safe sunday and a safe week. thank you all for watching today. we'll be back next week, because, for the first sunday of a new biden administration. by the way, "meet the press" super bowl packers versus bills, luke. we can't wait. we'll see you sunday.

♪ we kick off this martin luther king jr. day with the nation on edge from the u.s. capitol to state houses across the land, authorities are on high alert for potential unrest, amid fears of an insider ttack moving vans at at white house as more signs of presidential transition take shape around d.c. and plans for incoming president come to focus. and policy test for the incoming biden administration. and moscow cracks down o