so much goes... into who i am. hiv medicine is one part of it. ask your doctor about dovato—i did. this sunday, the fight against covid. >> take what you can get when you can get it. >> johnson & johnson's vaccine coming online. >> to have them come in and be in the mix with the other two is nothing but good news. >> on track to deliver the 100 million doses by the end of june. >> we wi be on track to deliver the 300 million doses before the end of july. >> we will deliver the 300 million soon after. cases and death rates down sharply from january, but warning signs remain. >> things are tenuous. now is not the time to relax restrictions. my guests this morning, dr. anthony fauci. plus house democrats pass

president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. >> we're one step closer to vaccinating the nation. >> senate democrats are being blocked from including a inmany mum wage increase in the bill. i'll talk to democratic senator sherrod brown who says it's time for democrats to stop waiting for republican support. it's gray to see american reengage. certainly there were things more challenging under the previous administration. >> my interview with canada's prime minister justin trudeau. and the trump wing of the gop gathers in florida. >> we won't win the future trying to go back to where the republican party used to be. >> with the movement pledging its loyalty to the former president who speaks today. joining me are "washington post" columnist you joon robinson, white house correspondent carol lee, "new york times" columnist brett

stephens and o.k. henderson, news director of the iowa radio network. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. it was almost a year ago that the country began shutting down from covid, and for the first time there seems to be a real reason to have cautious optimism. the seven-day case rate has fallen from a high of 250,000 in early january to 70,000 now, though it has ticked up in the past week. the death exacting a terrible daily toll slowed especially among the most vulnerable, elderly in nursing homes. new vaccines like johnson & johnson, a one-shot vaccine for now are coming online. they are proving to be effective for spreading this disease to others. a combination of mask wearing, social distancing and tens of millions being vaccinated seems to have put us on the right

path, at least for now. at the same time, house democrats on friday passed president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief bill, an effort to spur more vaccine production and jump start this economy. there's no doubt it is far too early to declare victory over the virus just yet. loosen restrictions, failing to wear masks, new variants, spring break all threaten to produce a resurgence. that leveling off of cases dropping is concerning. for now at least there's reason to believe that the worst may finally be behind us. >> we're one step closer to vaccinating the nation. >> cautious knew optimism as the third vaccine from johnson & johnson is cleared for emergency use. >> we are on track to deliver the 100 million doses by the end of june. >> to have two is fine. to have three is absolutely better. >> it gives us just a whole nother weapon in this fight. >> overall new cases are down

substantially over the last six weeks, but the cdc is warning against relaxing pandemic restrictions, saying that the drop in cases may be leving off. >> the latest data suggests that these declines may be stalling, potentially leveling off at still a very high number. >> more than 2,000 americans continue to die every day. >> covid-19 has now taken over 500,000 of our fellow americans. that's more than died in world war i, world war ii and the vietnam war combined. >> also a concern, new variants like one that is spreading rapidly in new york. and though more than 70 million vaccine doses have been administered across the country in places the vaccine rollout continues to have access and equity issues. >> i think it's crazy that they don't have more vaccine. >> something is wrong with this whole system. >> now, as a public education effort ramps up -- >> the vaccines are safe and effective.

they're going to save lives. >> -- president biden is pushing his $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. >> it relieves the suffering, and it's time to act. >> reporter: passed by the house early saturday morning, largely on party lines. >> the yays are 219. the nays are 212. >> reporter: the stimulus package includes new money for testing, contact tracing and schools, for state and local governments, an expansion of unemployment benefits and the child tax credit and $1400 direct payments to many americans. it also would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, a measure polls show is popular with americans. >> as we advance this legislation, we will continue to fight for 15. >> now after the stat parliamentarian ruled the minimum wage increase was not allowed in the bill under rules allowing democrats to pass it with a simple majority, senate democrats are exploring adding tax penalties for big corporations that pay less than

$15 an hour. but even as progressives say that does not go far enough -- >> there is precedent in our history to overrule that ruling or to not listen to it. >> -- it's not clear centrist democrats will support it. >> don't you think it's reasonable for it to have a flat rate of $11 and index it from there? >> as republicans overwhelmingly oppose it. >> i'm not going to do anything that kills somebody's job. when you don't have a job, you get paid zero. there's no minimum wage. the minimum wage is zero. joining me is dr., welcome back to "meet the press". i want to start with the message that you and dr. walensky were sending on friday. we had quite a few states started lifting some restrictions just in the last week. we have a graphic showing about a dozen states, some like north

carolina allowed more fans in the stands. we lad more indoor bars being opened and things like this. and you and dr. walensky were like not yet. why not yet? why is this week not the week yet to ease restrictions? >> chuck, because we've been in this situation before. when you start to see a decline in number of cases, if you prematurely lift the restrictions, we have a few examples of the rebound back. our baseline of daily infections now, even though it's way down from where it was three-plus dunn hundred-thousand per day is down to around 70,000. that baseline is too high, chuck. once you start pulling back, the thing you don't want is to have a plateauing at a level so high that inevitably things are going to go back up. that's the reason why -- we understand the need and the desire, understandably, to want to pull back because things are

going in the right direction. you've got to get that baseline down lower than it is now, particularly in light of the fact that we have some worrisome variants that are in places like california and new york and others that we're keeping our eye on. it's really too premature right now to be pulling back too much. >> let's talk about the big news overnight, the approval of the johnson & johnson vaccine. the good news. it's a single shot. but here is where i think some people will have questions. the efficacy rate, and this is where you're going to have to help explain why people should feel just as comfortable with a johnson & johnson vaccine as they do a moderna or pfizer vaccine whose efficacy rates on the virus are higher than the johnson & johnson. what say you, dr. fauci? >> chuck, first of all, you now have three highly ef caseous vaccines for sure. there's no doubt about that. particularly the recent results

from j&j, if you look at the efficacy against severe disease, greater than 85%. there have been no hospitalizations or deaths in multiple countries, even if countries that have the variants. so be careful when you try to parse this percent versus that. the only way you know one versus the other, if you compare them head-to-head, and they were not compared head-to-head. they were compared under different circumstances. all three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that's most available to them. if you go to a place and you have j&j, and that's the one that's available now, i would take it. i personally would do the same thing. i think people need to get vaccinated as quickly and an expeditiously as possible. if i would go to a place where they had j&j, i would have no hesitancy whatsoever to take it. >> how do you plan to tribbet these vaccines? are you going to take advantage of the refrigeration aspect of the j&j vaccine?

but let me ask this, are you concerned that if you take advantage of that, that somebody will say, oh, we're getting the, quote, weaker vaccine? >> that's the first thing you've got to dispel, a propos of the first question you asked me. it's not the weaker vaccine. they're all three really good vaccines. the distribution are going to be equitably the same way as we distributed the mrna vaccines from pfizer and moderna. they will be distributed in an equal way to the same way we did it originally with the first two. we've got to get away from that concept that one is weaker and one is not. it's understandable when people look at the numbers, but that's not the case. we have a vaccine that works. we should be very glad we do. we're quite fortunate to have three really good vaccines. >> let me ask the question in reverse. is it possible that moderna and pfizer's efficacy rate because of the variants would actually be slightly lower if they were

being under the approval process right now? >> it's conceivable. you don't know, chuck, because you have to do the study to get the really firm data. but that certainly is conceivable. that's the reason why you've got to be careful when you make comparisons. you've got to do them head-to-head. again, putting that aside, looking at -- if you had done this and just said months ago what would really make you very excited, dr. fauci. boy, just give me a 70-plus-percent effective vaccine, i would be thrilled. i think i may have said that on this show. >> i think you did. let me get to vaccinating children. i had this question today. there's down to 16, there's down to 12. i guess the question is below 12. and i think on here before you seemed to think that with older kids, probably before the school year, we would have some clarity on which vaccines are safe. what about for kids under 12?

>> correct. when you go to under 12, you have to do something called age deescalation, chuck. which means you don't want to jump from 12 down to six months. you go 12 to 9, 9 to 6. you've got to do it in a progressive way. there are a couple companies doing that. some of those studies have already started. if you project realistically when we get enough data to be able to say that elementary schoolchildren will be able to be vaccinated, i would think that would be at the earliest, the end of the year and very likely the first quarter of 2022. but for the high school kids, it looks like sometime this fall. i'm not sure it's exactly on the first day the school opens, but pretty close to that. >> we are literally about to have the one-year mark of when, for a lot of americans, it was tom hanks and the nba that night, right? we're about to hit that point.

we're also going to have spring break. we've got these new variants. what is concerning you? is it this whole sort of stew that could percolate right back up on us? >> of course that's a concern to me, chuck. and i say that all the time. you don't want to be someone that always keeps the reins on not getting people back to normal. but you can get back to normal more quickly if you keep getting that baseline low. i'm concerned that we're still at that level of 70,000, and when people start pulling back on mitigation methods and mitigation activities, you have the risk, and it is a real risk of seeing it go back up. it's not something i'm imagining. go back and take a look at the surges that we've had over the past year. it was always at a time where you wanted to pull back. remember during the time we were going to open up the country and open up the economy?

there were some states, regions and cities that did not actually abide by the recommendations. they pulled back too prematurely and we had the big surges that came. we don't need that right now. we want to get it way down before we do that. we have an advantage, too, chuck. in addition to seeing the curve going down, every day and week that goes by, more and more people get vaccinated. that's in our favor to keep these things down. >> herd immunity. when do you think we can say we would get there? >> well, again, herd immunity is a situation that you're going to anticipate as an approximation. we don't know you're in heard immunity until you get to a point where essentially the entire community has this umbrella of protection and when you get below it, then you start seeing cases. i would imagine, and i make a projection, i think it's reasonable, but i'm not 100%

certain, that it's somewhere between 75 and 80% of the population. but before you get to true herd immunity, you could still get a terrific example of getting less and less cases as more and more people get vaccinated. so you don't have to have absolute herd immunity to get those cases way down as you get more and more people vaccinated. >> bottom line, we have three vaccines, and it is not yet march 1st. dr. fauci, i assume on that score you feel like, in that sense, we're winning. >> well, we certainly have accomplished an awful lot. the one thing, again, that i don't want to seem like i'm always looking at the downside of things. but let's keep our feet on that accelerator right now because we're going in the right direction. the right direction is to continue to go down to a very low baseline level. we're just not there yet. we're not. >> dr. fauci, as always, sir, thank you. really appreciate it.

>> thank you for having me, chuck. and make sure to check out our interactive state by state guide to figure out when and where to receive your covid vaccine. visit planyourvaccine.com to learn more. joining me is democratic senator sherrod brown who chairs the senate banking committee. senator brown, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks, chuck. particularly an honor to be on after dr. fauci. thank you. >> you got it. let me start with something you wrote on thursday and get you to explain it a bit further. you wrote this. the best chance for our democracy lies not with the vein hope that republican leaders will grow spies, but the ability to show americans they don't have to -- that's set up to fail. on one hand, that message sounds defind. but it sounds a bit vague. what are you calling for here in that declaration. >> it's not defiant certainly. it's preppive.

to build democracy, to save democracy, we need to make government work. that's why president biden's relief act is -- repair act is all about going big. we go big on unemployment benefits, on opening schools and putting shots in people's arms and money in people's pockets and workers and jobs. that's what this proposal does. that's why the house passed it. it's what voters voted for in november. it's what the senate will do. >> there's another way to read your statement. it sounds like you're saying, eh, forget bipartisanship. it's not worth it. >> i always like bipartisanship. i get' lengthed in ohio, trending more conservative republican. it's how we get things done. this is a bipartisan plan that president biden put out there and the house has passed. overwhelming support among the public. overwhelming support among republicans on making sure -- on

eliminating -- cutting the rate of poverty through an income tax credit and child tax credit in half, in opening our schools and providing -- putting money in people's pockets with unemployment, with the $1,400. all those things are very bipartisan. just because senate republicans don't support it doesn't make it partisan. what's bipartisan is the public support for it to go big. janet yellen, secretary of the treasury said, if we don't go big, there will be a long-term -- i believe she said scarring of our economy. we can't fall short here. we need to go big with wages, with help for people, with money in people's pockets and workers in these jobs. >> it's an uncomfortable stat, though. there was a bipartisan vote against technically this relief bill. not a single house republican joined the democrats.

two democrats joined republicans in opposing. i know there's washington and what we've seen in this polling. i've seen those same numbers, too. what's your explanation of why washington republicans can't get on board? >> well, the washington elite are doing -- it's become a trump party. it's not a party of reason. it's a party that has turned its back. mitch mcconnell all summer, in june, july, august, september, october, as thousands of people are falling into poverty after we did it right in march, mitch mcconnell continued to say he sees no sense of urgency. the republicans failed. they failed for ten years, they failed to raise the minimum wage. they failed to provide the kind of help we need. we know what works. we know going big making government work is the best way to strengthen our democracy. we know that anti democratic,

small d, feelings are built on income inequality. if the gap gets wider and wider in wealth and income inequality, in structural racism in this country, we know we have social problems. we have things like what happened on january 6th, and we've got to make sure that we build democracy by closing income inequality and wealth inequality in the biden package goes big and does that. >> the senate parliamentarian ruled against including the minimum wage in this covid relief bill. obviously a lot of your fellow progressives are not happy about this. many of your fellow democrats aren't. you don't have the 50 votes to get rid of the filibuster or overrule the parliamentarian. what do you tell progressives about how much patience they should have? >> i don't think we have patience. democrats are united in giving a raise. the last time the senate voted for a higher minimum wage, it was my first month in office.

it was the first speech i gave on the senate floor. it was so long ago that the presiding officer was a first-term illinois senator by the name of barack obama. he was presiding over the senate. that's how long ago this was since we've raised the minimum wage. the republicans have failed to do it -- we're going to raise wages. i'm not going to negotiate on "meet the press" as prestigious as this longest-serving show, whatever it is. but we'll find a way. it's too important not to. >> you think this is something that could be negotiated across the aisle as well, that this isn't about starting to campaign to joe manchin to say nuke the filibuster? >> no. we'll find a way. senator widen, the leader of the finance committee, i'm on that committee with senator whitehouse and senate bennett and others who have fought for the earned income tax credit.

we have found a way. the corporate elite, the far right elite in washington have blocked it year after year after year after year. and we're going to make it happen. >> the dix by president biden to release the intelligence report on jamal khashoggi and what happened here that fingers the crown prince and saudi arabia as making this basically facilitating and ordering this hit on this jury roomist, do you think president biden is not punishing saudi arabia enough over this and mbs in particular? >> in no way should we ever tolerate assassination or any kind of violence aimed at an american journalist. we will -- president biden has called it out. we need to make sure we make the saudis and particularly the saudi member of the royal family or members of the royal family, we need to make them

accountable. >> doesn't sound like we are going to though. it doesn't sound like we are going to do that? >> i don't think that's a definitive, end-of-story decision. we're talking to the white house. so are others. we need to hold any foreign authoritarian like the royal family, some of the members of the royal family, we need to hold them accountable. we need to figure out how to do it and move quickly. >> senator sherrod brown, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. >> chuck, one quick thing. we call it now the senate banking and housing committee. this committee has been all about banking and more about housing in the years ahead. i'm not correcting you -- >> no, no. good to know. the next time we have you on i look forward to talking housing with you as well, sir. thank you for doing that. >> appreciate it. when we come back, as democrats debate going it alone without republican votes, many are i sag what ♪ for every idea out there, that gets the love it should ♪

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welcome back. washington post columnist eugene robinson, carol lee, "new york times" columnist, and o. kay henderson from the radio iowa network. kay, i'll let you go first here. senator sherrod brown says there's plenty of bipartisan support for this covid relief bill out in america, not just in washington. what say you out of iowa? >> well, as many of your viewers know, iowa republicans cleaned up on election day back in 2020, and the iowa republicans here are already messaging about how they plan to frame this. iowa governor kim reynolds joined with 22 other governors in complaining about the package

in that the aid for state governments is tied to the percentage of unemployment in each state rather than the general population of each state, number one. number two, the $15 minimum wage issue is really interesting because democrats here are trying to rebrand themselves as the party of working americans. and that really plays into what democrats are trying to talk about at the state level. >> carol lee, it has been interesting to watch here in washington. look, it's an uncomfortable fact. the opposition got two democrats to this bill in the house and not a single republican. i thought we might have one or two. i still think there could be one or two in the senate. this has to be disappointing to the white house. >> it is, chuck. look, they worked very hard to try to get some republican support for this bill, the president in particular. even though those around the

president thought this was going to be a fool's errand and in the end they wouldn't get republican support. i've spoken to white house officials over the weekend who have said, look, we're not expecting it at this point. they're a little more clear-eyed about this, and even the president is as well. i think their focus now is on just getting this done. what you see is the president not leaning in on this minimum wage alternative proposal, not saying where he stands on that, hoping that, as the parliamentarian did, maybe another senator or democratic would save him from having to wade into that fight and navigate that. that's not something that he wants to do. they really don't want to insert themselves into these fights, in part because this is just the beginning. the coronavirus relief package is the easy part. the other things on his agenda, the fights only get bigger and tougher. >> brett stephens, i'm curious, you look at republican leadership and they seem to be, all right, let's do the same

thing we did in '09. it worked then. here is the issue. in '09 it was clear the economy was still going south when they decided essentially unanimously oppose obama's relief bill. the economy is going to -- potentially could take off like a rocketship in the next nine months. what's this going to look like a year from now if the democrats get to say, hey, we passed this, they stood on the sidelines? >> that's a possibility. the other possibility is when you're injecting close to $2 trillion into a growing economy, you're going to see the kind of inflationary pressures that we didn't have 12 years ago, precisely for the same reason, that the economy was going south. i think the republicans are actually, from their point of view, playing this pretty smartly. the minimum wage provisions hurt small businesses and people forget that eight weeks ago we had a $900 billion relief

package pass congress. so the republican argument i think is that the united states government is like an anaconda that's eating one too many alligators here. there's only so much that we can digest and money that we can pump out in a reasonable span of time. >> it is a remarkable -- $6 trillion, once this passes, $6 trillion in less than a calendar year that the government has wanted to insert. eugene, i'm curious democrats seem to be so upset about the minimum wage thing that you're starting to hear more conversations about the filibuster, about what they believe is the unfair center right leaning of all of our institutions, particularly the senate. unless joe manchin changes his mind, this isn't going to go

anywhere. >> right. democrats don't have the votes to get rid of the filibuster right now. you'll hear more complaining and more talk about it. filibuster does generally speaking, seem like an artifact from a bygone era when senators crossed the aisle. it kind of makes the senate into a smaller, less efficient -- much less efficient version of the house where everybody votes along party lineses and the filibuster serves to make nothing happen, or as little as possible. that said, i think the focus for democrats just politically speaking, and also for the country, should be on the covid relief act right now. the part of it that survives, everything but the minimum wage will get through the senate i think. politically that's smart because the elements of that plan are very popular. >> want to shift gears between the new allegation against andrew cuomo. a second woman has come out

indicating that governor cuomo made her feel uncomfortable in many ways. here is his statement from last night where he basically confirms at least some of the substance of the conversations they had. when she came to me and opened up about being a sexual assault survivor and how it shaped her and her on going efforts to create an organization that empowered her voice to help other survivors, i tried to help her. i was trying to be a mentor to her. i never made advancements towards ms. bennett. the last thing i ever wanted was to make her feel any of the things that are being reported. carol lee, that statement to me was pretty eyebrow raising itself. it seemed to confirm at least some of the substance and certainly to bring up her own sexual assault, seemed to be highly inappropriate. >> yeah, chuck.

it's very different and stands out from statements we've seen from officials in the past who have been accused of similar allegations, where there's an outright denial. that's not at all, as you point out, what we see here. this is something that democrats are going to be asked about, the white house is going to be asked about. i spoke with white house officials this morning who said, look, everybody who comes forward deserves to be heard. we support an independent review. and this is just another instance where particularly with governor cuomo, where they're having to answer questions about his conduct in office. prior to this, there were earlier allegations and there was his handling of nursing homes. it's really something that sounds like it could eventually lead somewhere. this independent review will see that through. but also a little hands-off approach from the white house. >> gene robinson, this democratic party of 2021, can you imagine andrew cuomo surviving in it? >> it's kind of tough right now.

look, i've been in management, right? i have managed and mentored female subordinates and have done so without any reference to their sex lives. so that's kind of -- that should be a no-brainer, and it should have been a no-brainer years and years and years ago, and it certainly is now. so this is a problem for him. >> i think it's a big one. all right. i'll pause it there. obviously a lot more to say. up against a break here. when we come back, northern expose, my before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. okay. mom, are you painting again? you could sell these.

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that's the power of having a company like amazon behind me. welcome back. it's been a busy week. president biden and justin trudeau held their first bilateral meeting virtually. the canadian prime minister welcoming new u.s. leadership on a number of issues, including covid and climate change. the prime minister and i sat down on friday, also virtually, and i began by asking him about the leadership vacuum he believes was created over the past four years. >> i think the issues that we're dealing with, whether it's

climate change, whether it's making sure the middle class has a real shot in a globalized world, these are things that we naturally have to work together on. of course, as a canadian, i believe we all need to work together in a more active way. i'm glad to see the new administration -- something i spoke with president biden about directly. it's great to see america reengage. i think certainly there were things that were more challenging under the previous administration in terms of moving the dial in the right direction on the international stage. at the same time we all have democracies that go in different directions from time to time, and the sweep of the work that we need to do together as allied nations in the g7 and elsewhere continues to be really important. >> what are some specific areas -- in some ways, this change for many people is simply rhetorical, from trump to biden. but what are some concrete sort

of global policy initiatives do you believe that the biden administration can now help push forward? >> obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is covid. the approach that the president is taking on covid right now much morale lines with where canada has been for quite a while, grounded in science, grounded in protection of people as the best way to protect the economy, and understanding that being there to support people is absolutely essential so we can get through this as quickly as possible. we're much more aligned and, quite frankly, the president rejoining the covax facility to ensure we get through this everywhere, not just in the wealthy countries, is a really positive sign. another area is on the massive challenge we're facing on climate change, which is the other really big crisis we're in right now that the previous administration didn't focus on

that much and certainly president biden and i are very, very closely aligned on, not just the need to address climate change, but the tremendous economic opportunities linked to moving towards cleaner electricity, cleaner jobs, better opportunities for all of us in the middle class and those working hard to join it. >> on vaccines, i know your country just approved some authorization for the astrazeneca vaccine. how do you answer the question of why so few canadians have been vaccinated so far compared to your neighbors to the south here? >> we have -- from the very beginning we knew vaccinations were going to be extremely important. we signed about seven different major contracts with vaccine makers from around the world and are seeing now three vaccines in canada, with more hopefully to be approved in the coming weeks and months. obviously, it's not going as fast as everyone would want. we all want this pandemic to be

over yesterday and vaccinate everyone as quickly as possible. but we're confident that in the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of vaccines every week, millions into the coming months, we're going to have everyone vaccinated probably by the end of the summer. that's something we're very positive and excited about. in the meantime, we have to keep hanging on, like everyone is, and get through this. >> let me go to one place where you and president biden do not see eye to eye, and this is on the keystone pipeline. nobody is going to mistake you for somebody who is not an environmentalist. you've been outspoken on climate change just on our conversation now. as you know, here in this country the keystone pipeline is a symbol on this issue in many ways. can you really make a good environmental case for the keystone pipeline no americans here? americans here who are against this don't see it. >> i think one of the things that americans haven't perhaps noticed is over the past four

years, five years indeed, canada has taken huge strides on fighting climate change. we also recognize that the world still relies on fossil fuels right now. we do have to continuously transform our mix to decarbonize as much as possible. getting that balance right is something we've been working on very hard. the decision around keystone excel was a disappointment. when you talk about clean energy and hydro electricity, when we talk about what we can do around smarter grids, around electric vehicles and transportation, there's so much we spoke about earlier this week and so much we're going to continue to do together. >> dowels r does this mean you're done asking for -- are you going to stop advocating for it here? do you feel as though the keystone pipeline is now dead? >> i think it's fairly clear that the u.s. administration has made its decision on that. we're much more interested in ensuring that we're moving forward in ways that are good for both of our countries.

i think there's so much we can do together that i don't spend too much time worrying about the tension points. it will always come up in our relationship, but we'll work through them, particularly given the alignment on so many things that we're able to bring with this new administration. >> before i let you go, i'm just curious. what was your reaction in the moment when you watched the capitol riot on january 6th from ottawa? >> dismay. a reminder of the fact that democracy is something we need to keep working at, a reminder that none of us are immune from polarization and anger and frustration. certainly there is a real sense that we all need to be careful about what we say and how we lead as a way of trying to bring people together and unify people. but that was a scene that canadians watched with

consternation and horror and real concern. >> all right. last question for real, my friends in buffalo and detroit in particular care about this issue. what is the metric you're looking at to decide when to open the border? >> i think there's an awful lot of different metrics we need to look at on the border and keeping canadians safe from covid-19. obviously case counts, presence of variants, hospitalizations, all these things factor into the expert analysis, our public health experts telling us what the right measures are and how concerned we have to be about variants. obviously, as vaccinations increase, we are all hoping for good news and to get through this. we'll continue to engage with the white house and with the administration on the best times to start releasing border measures. but for now, we all need to keep safe and that means keeping them in place. >> mr. prime minister, i really

appreciate the time you gave us. always a pleasure to get your perspective. thanks for coming on. >> always a pleasure, chuck. thank you. >> you can see my entire interview with prime minister trudeau on meetthepress.com, comments on their future with saudi rabia. struggling to manage my type 2 diabetes was knocking me out of my zone, but lowering my a1c with once-weekly ozempic® helped me get back in it. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic® ♪ my zone? lowering my a1c and losing some weight. now, back to the show. ozempic® is proven to lower a1c. most people who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. and you may lose weight. adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2,

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welcome back. data download time. democrats won both georgia senate ceilings in the runoff last month. those results reflect a big change that was a decade in the making. in 2008 barack obama captured nearly 53% of the national vote, just 43% in georgia, losing the state to john mccain. joe biden won by two points, less than obama, but earned two moints more than him in georgia. it could be thanks to the seven counties in metro atlanta. in each of these counties biden did at least 11 percentage points better in 2020 than obama did in 2008. in fact, biden won five of them by large margins and only lost two of them narrowly.

population growth is another problem for republicans in georgia. in fact, since 2010, the country overall las seen a 6.3% growth in population, but those seven counties have grown at least 6.7%. so faster than the national average, and in some of them, a lot more. they're growing with democratic-friendly voters. right now georgia reminds us a lot of virginia 12 years ago. a diverifying southern state turning purple and perhaps blue. virginia just outlawed the death penalty. what do you think? when we come back, republicans when we come back, republicans justan't (man) i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right, the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world.

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we cannot, we will not go back to the days of the failed republican establishment of yesteryear. >> the leadership of our party is not found in washington, d.c. you are the energy. we are america. >> let it be heard loud and clear from us right now. we will not be sheep. >> we will not be sheep. welcome back. those are some of the voices at this weekend's conservative political action conference meeting in orlando, cpac, or

even as donald trump junior called it tpac. >> when she said sheep there, i've been thinking about cpac and the golden trump that's moving around there, it does feel like it is a cult of personality down there. the sheep comment i think some people would say, um, i think everybody is falling one leader. >> the golden trump i think put many people in mind of the golden calf as the ultimate false idol and the worship of it by so many of the people at cpac. these are people who don't seem to have noticed that they just lost three suck sus ses sive major elections. they lost the house in 2018 thanks to trump, they lost the presidency, last year, thanks to the personality of trump and they lost a senate which they could have helped, again, thanks to trump. when they talk about the failed republican establishment, you

feel like you're dealing with people in an alternative universe who simply haven't noticed that they have just squandered republican victories for four straight years. as long as cpac maintains this kind of grip on the conservative mind, i don't see any way in which a republican party can come back united, coherent and descend, capable of winning national elections. >> kay, can you be a successful republican in iowa without being pro trump? >> well, what's interesting here is this past week the iowa legislature passed election law changes. during the debate donald trump's name was not invoked by the republicans pushing that forward, but it was clear that's why they were doing it, number one. number two, on the republican side here, it's a bit like democrats right after donald trump was inaugurated, they

couldn't say the words president trump. governor kim reynolds this past week had a news conference at which she thanked the federal government and talked about how the white house was helping with this vaccine rollout. i'm not sure i've ever heard her say the words president joe biden. so that is the sort of dynamic royaling through the republican party here. they know to be successful in 2022, they need those trump voters to turn out again. >> carol, i'm short on time, so i'm not going to play the sound, but there were two telling moments in washington this week about trump's grip on the party. one was the mcconnell question that he got when he appeared on fox, when he was asked about, well, if trump is the nominee in '24, would he support him. he said yes. then we had the mccarthy and liz cheney moment where essentially they disagreed on trump's role in the party. kevin mccarthy and everybody

else goes in one direction and liz cheney literally walks in the opposite direction. the mcconnell statement, mccarthy, it's still trump's party even here in washington. >> it's very much still trump's party. we'll hear from the former president today, and that will be made clear. he's going to go after joe biden for his policies on immigration, on reopening schools. he's going to lay out his vision for how he sees the future of the republican party. news flash, it's going to heavily involve him. he's expected to get endorsed -- given doorsments and give signals on how he'll play in 2022. what we don't know is how he'll signal what his own future political ambitions are. that's still an open question that i think you can expect a lot of innuendo and suggestions that he's not going to be exiting the stage any time soon. this is the beginning of him really reemerging and taking a very public presence. he's supposed to go long and off-script i'm told.

it's going to be something everybody is watching, including the white house, even though they'll act like it's not going on. >> gene, i think that's the things that democrats -- i talked to quite a few who think, sure, let drum be the dominant voice of the party. that will help. i remember hearing that discussion in 2015. how did that turn out? >> well, donald trump won that election, although he lost the popular vote by 3 million. as bret said, since then, drnl has done little but lose elections for the republican party. they have a strategy now that's based not only getting votes, but on voter suppression and everything else. i think the sheep metaphor is really a baaad choice for the republican party. >> i don't think that was the right phrase. i'm guessing she might come up with another one. i apologize for the time crunch today. that's all i have. a busy week as you can tell. thank you for watching. we'll be back next week because, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

like, seeing my mom. it's unthinkable to me that i can't see her and i can't hug her. not being able to hug is just like somebody has to tie me down. touching someone to say i love you, to hug you... those are the things that i miss. ♪♪ ♪♪

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