and global epidemic as the death toll from the coronavirus climbs into the hundreds now in china, the cdc is taking action. what you need to know about the efforts to keep that virus contained. a very good morning to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. it is 7:00 a.m. here in the east. 4:00 a.m. out west. i'm alex witt. thanks for joining us. we begin on capitol hill. nearly empty this morning after this turbulent week of debate in the senate. republicans blocking democrats' efforts to call witnesses by a 51-49 vote last night. all but assuring the president's acquittal. nbc's peter alexander has more. >> senate republicans rejecting the democrats' demand for new witnesses. the vote, 51-49. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> propelling the president toward acquittal. >> no witnesses, no documents. in an impeachment trial is a grand tragedy. one of the worst tragedies that the senate has ever overcome.

>> democrats hopes to extend the trial dashed after two swing republicans announced they would oppose witnesses. alaska's lisa murkowski condemning the house democrats case as rushed and flawed. and tennessee's lamar alexander. >> i agree he did something inappropriate but i don't agree he did anything akin to treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanor. >> alexander insisting the president's fate should be decided in november. >> i think senator alexander probably spoke for where most americans are. is this the kind of conduct, even though inappropriate, that sha shakes the foundation of democracy? i say not. >> "the new york times" reporting in an unpublished manuscript in his upcoming book that ousted national security advisor john bolton says last may, president trump directed him to meet with ukraine's president. rudy giuliani who was planning a

trip to ukraine to discussion investigations into the democrats that the president wanted. the president denying it saying i never instructed john bolton to set up a meeting for rudy giuliani. that meeting never happened. overnight, teeing off in hiiowa >> the democrats are trying to overturn the last election. we will make sure that they face another crushing defeat, right, in 2020. >> with that witness vote in the books this morning, sources close to the president say he wants the vote to acquit before he comes here to the capitol to deliver his state of the union tuesday night. alex. >> all right. peter alexander, thank you so much for that reporting. majority leader mitch mcconnell called president trump before he introduced that resolution. they discussed all the details and the president signed off on them. we have a team of reporters and analysts following the latest on the unraveling of the impeachment trial. and joining me right now is rhonda, video reporter and producer with "the washington post." sam brody, congressional reporter at the daily beast. and abigail tracy, staff writer

with "vanity fair." rhonda, i am going to start with you here. it may seem like a silly question given everything. but is wednesday's outcome a foregone conclusion? is there anything that would give the potential of the president not being acquitted through the next four days? >> i think it's safe to say that yesterday was a preview for what we might see on wednesday. there is no indication, from what i am hearing on the hill, that any of the votes for acquittal would change. but of course,you know, we have several days before we get to wednesday. so, you know, anything can happen. i think all of us who cover politics in this age know that anything could happen over 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours. so we'll just have to wait and see for wednesday. >> okay. what about you, sam? i know that you wrote a piece this week on the democrats being pretty much fed up with the gop's refusal to budge on impeachment. is there anything that the house managers could have done differently when presenting their case that you think could have moved the needle?

>> no, i really don't think so. certainly, a lot of ink was spilled and there was a lot of chatter about, you know, remarks some of the house managers made that some senators were supposedly offended by. you know, maybe there were style points that were lost. but i don't think there's anything really the house managers could have said differently that would have swayed certain republican senators in favor of witnesses. and, frankly, in talking to them, it was clear that they at least believe there was nothing they could have done, at least on the house side of the process, that would have swayed these folks anyway. there is a sense that some of these senators, certainly lamar alexander, believe that, you know, the president just didn't do anything that was worth impeaching no matter what the case the house managers made or the way they argued it or put it together. that simply it didn't reach the bar of impeachable offenses. >> yeah. there are some republican senators, and they're defending why they're standing behind the president in spite of his irrefutable actions, which did lead to his impeachment. let's take a listen to that.

>> even if everything that the house has alleged is accepted as true, number one, removing the president is not a last resort. we have an election in november, which is a far better and a lot less damaging remedy. >> i agree he did something inappropriate but i don't agree he did anything akin to treason, bribery, high crimes, and misdemeanor. i think there is a big gap there. >> you know, abigail, in your latest article here, you write that impeachment managers are trying to make gop senators own trump's guilt. look. it may not move the needle on wednesday's outcome. but does that resonate with the american people? with voters? >> yeah. i think one of the keys here is, you know, the impeachment managers never thought that they were going to make a case that would create a situation where you had enough republican senators who voted to remove trump from office. you know, i think they were very realistic around that. they didn't think they would get sort of that mass or that volume of republicans to sort of break with the president on this given sort of his high popularity and

his support within the republican party. but i think one of the keys that kind of came out when i was speaking with all the impeachment managers over the last week or so was this idea that they weren't just making the case to, you know, the hundred senators that were in the room. what they were really doing was they were making a case to the american people. and i think, you know, they built a very compelling and comprehensive case. and their point is not necessarily, you know -- i think when you look at something like witnesses and some of those votes on amendments, there was hope that they could get, you know, those four defections from the gop to really sort of push the needle on those issues. but there was never a question as to whether they could get enough to really remove the president from office. but every single day, they showed up and kind of made that case to the american people. and i do think, you know, that is what they're doing. they are also looking to 2020. you look at marco rubio's statements. you look at lamar alexander's statements and they are talking about the next election. and i think impeachment managers were also acutely aware. >> absolutely. rhonda, in fact, let's take a

look at a few of the key gop senators up for re-election this year. how much weight, if at all, do you expect their vote on witnesses will have in their november races? or will it be forgotten, you know, what, ten months from now? >> i think out of that whole lineup, susan collins is the one to watch. i think she, before the impeachment, has been in a really tough position in maine. many of her maine voters did not like her vote on judge kavanaugh. so she is in a really, really tough position. so i do not think that she's one that will be able to not address her vote on wednesday and her vote yesterday for witnesses. so that's something that i think is going to certainly play out as she heads to potential re-election. >> yeah. sam, i'm looking at your latest piece in which you write u.s. officials warn of real security consequences if trump is acquitted. there are still many republicans, who despite defending trump, say foreign help shouldn't be accepted in an election. but there are legitimate fears

that president trump might take an acquittal as a green light to do just that. is that what you're hearing? >> right. i mean, that's been the essence of the house's case, right? that if the president is acquitted on these charges, he, personally, will feel emboldened to engage in this kind of behavior going forward. but that it would set a precedent that any future president could, you know, leverage the power of the presidency to achieve personal aims. i think democrats were shocked listening to some of these arguments from the white house defense team. particularly, alan dershowitz, who posited this idea of a mixed motive of -- of personal and -- and public that could justify just about anything that a president could do in the name of politics. so there was that. there was also the -- the administration's kind of blanket defiance of subpoenas issued by congress that have a lot of people scratching their heads and saying, you know, an acquittal vote could be seen as sort of a blank check to future presidents to engage in all kinds of different behavior.

and some democrats, you talk to them again and again and say, look, you know, we're telling our republican friends there's going to be a democratic president in the future who might do this stuff. and you're really not going to like that. and you may -- that you passed this vote to, like it or not, sort of endorse this behavior. at least say this isn't warranted, you know, this doesn't warrant removal. >> yeah. this is absolutely not just a snapshot in time. i mean, it certainly has lo long-reaching effects. but abigail, according to sources familiar, mcconnell called the president to discuss details of the remaining impeachment trial before the resolution yesterday. so what are the optics of all of this as we head into the president's state of the union on tuesday? and what do you think the mood there is going to be? because it's the night before the final vote in the senate. >> yeah. you know, i think the president, at this point, obviously, a vote on witnesses and evidence failing in the senate is a victory for him.

and i do think he's going to take something of a victory lap around it. but i also think it's important to point out the fact that he will still be an impeached president who is not acquitted of that by the time that he makes the state of the union. i think, you know, when you showed the clip earlier of the rally, you sort of already saw him takeliing that victory lap a degree. but i think people, you know, remember that this is still an impeach impeached president at that time and i do think that's important and i think that will be sort of the elephant in the room when he speaks to the american people at that time. >> thank you so much all three of you. rhonda, sam brody, abigail tracy. thank you guys. joining me now from capitol hill. i have my colleague nbc's geoff bennett. so, geoff, give me an overall sense of the reaction on the hill there from both sides of the aisle. >> well, alex, i think the vote was largely expected. i mean, we have been tracking for days that democrats did not have the votes that neld need to do the thing that they had been really pushing to do for weeks. that was, of course, to introduce new evidence, new

witnesses that the white house had blocked in the -- in the house portion of the proceedings. and that was one of the reasons why you heard from both adam schiff and -- and chuck schumer. they were trying to really set the political arena for what happens after this trial. certainly, president trump, who is expected to be acquitted, is going to take that victory lap. and say that he is the exonerated president. that those do-nothing democrats, as the president often says, tried to get him and weren't successful in doing that. the argument you heard from the democratic leaders was, well, if the president emergings fremerg from this trial as an acquitted president, it's only because the -- in helping cover it up. that is why this will be the only impeachment trial, senate impeachment trial anyway, to not include witnesses and evidence. and the reason for that is because if you bring forward a john bolton, who according to his manuscript, basically takes this ukrainian pressure campaign and lays it on the resolute desk in the oval office and points his finger at president trump.

if you injected john bolton with that kind of testimony into the senate impeachment trial, it makes the votes for republicans all the more difficult. even to have a senator, lamar alexander, who says basically that president trump did it but he -- alexander anyway -- sort of adopts the dershowitz, so what if he did it defense? saying that -- that the behavior was not impeachable. so that's really the kind of reaction here. that so far, the way it's unfolded has been largely expected. but democrats certainly aren't at all pleased with it. >> yeah. what about monday? what's on tap for monday? >> well, monday is when this entire process picks back up again. so there'll be four hours of closing arguments, evenly divided between the defense and the prosecution. after that wraps up, we'll see something that we haven't seen so far yet really and that's sena senators themselves speaking about where they stand on this issue on the senate floor. the rules so far say they can't speak at all. all they've been doing is

writing on cards and passing them to the desk where the chief justice is. so each senator will have ten minutes to state his or her case. we'll hear from mitt romney, a susan collins, a doug jones, a joe manchin, on the democratic side to see where they fall on this issue. we should say, though, that the votes exist right now for president trump to be acquitted. but there is still a margin in there. i think there could be some surprises. we will see if there are any where some of these self-professed moderate republicans and some of these democrats who represent red states where they might fall on this issue. >> you know what i missed in this trial? i really missed having reverse shots. i would have loved to have a camera on the senators as they were confined and not being able to say anything. it would have been great to see the reaction. we couldn't. so anyway. >> yeah. but you know what? that's by design. all the -- all the camera angles, it's because senators want it that way. they don't want to be caught off guard. there have been restrictions on where me and the media can go. you can't even follow a senator out of the building. that was the case last night. so it's set by the senators

themselves. the republican senators since they control that body. in cahoots with capitol police and the radio tv gallery. so it's an issue that certainly needs to be addressed. >> okay. well, thanks, geoff bennett, as always. let's turn now to the race for the white house. just two days left until the iowa caucuses, the stakes are very high for democratic candidates. there is no clear front-runner. most candidates are campaigning there today and the senators who have been off the trail for the impeachment trial. they will now have this weekend to catch up. nbc's dasha burns is in des moines for us. da sha, welcome to you. how important will a win in iowa be for the rest of the race? can you put that in perspective? >> well, if history tells us anything, it's going to be pretty important. the democratic winner here has become the nominee in every race since al gore. and so the pressure is on for -- for these candidates here in iowa. and each one is making that last-ditch effort.

the polls have seen multiple candidates exchange leads here in the last few months. but after all that speculation, the speeches, handshakes, and door knocks, it's actually time for voters to have their say. >> it's down to the wire in iowa with just two days until the first votes of the 2020 election are counted. candidates confined to the capitol during the impeachment trial having surrogates make their cases here. >> she calls it like she sees it. she makes promises. and she keeps them. >> senators bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, and amy klobuchar getting a weekend reprieve from washington. rushing to the hawkeye state to make their final pitches. meanwhile, joe biden and pete buttigieg trying to take advantage of the emptier stage. >> it's nice to be loved by so many people. you know? >> turning up the heat on opponents. >> senator sanders, speaking of to goals that we all share, has offered a politics that says it's all or nothing. it's my way or the highway. >> and buttigieg, again, taking heat on his lack of support from

african-american voters. >> pete, i really love the message that you're giving. however, it concerns me a lot that it, apparently, is not being received by communities of color. >> the numbers say it's anyone's game. the latest poll has biden in the lead with sanders, buttigieg, warren, and klobuchar not far behind. the caucus is unique because voters have to physically group themselves by candidate. and if a candidate doesn't get 15% of the crowd, voters can realign with someone else. iowans expect record turnout from farmers. >> what's changed to make you so much more engaged? >> well, i think it's fair. i think that i am more nervous this time around. >> to new citizens. >> we need to turn out. we need to make our voices heard. >> and even republicans caucusing as democrats. >> our democracy is at stake. and i just feel like i have to do whatever i can to help.

>> and, alex, you really do feel the energy here. i talked to multiple voters who have either never caucused before or just chose to sit 2016 out because they thought they knew what was going to happen. that is not the case anymore. a lot of people very eager to -- to get to their precincts and -- and really participate in this thing. so bell so we'll see what happens on monday. >> can i ask? we're hearing hillary clinton is slamming sanders again. what do you know about that? >> a little bit of déjà vu here, alex. hillary clinton again making headlines in a presidential race taking aim at her old primary rival, bernie sanders. she said in a podcast on friday that sanders didn't try to unify the party after he lost to her. and she even cast some blame on his supporters for her loss to donald trump in the 2016 general election. alex. >> okay. dasha burns in des moines. that all continues four years later. appreciate that. breaking news, everyone.

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halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus. it all comes as health officials announced another confirmed u.s. case. the seventh in this country as nearly 200 americans remain quarantined in california. nbc's sarah harmon is at march

air reserve base in riverside, california, on this predawn saturday for you there. what's the latest? >> well, alex, when these americans arrived here at march air base, they thought it was going to be a quick couple days of quarantine and then they'd be headed home. instead, they are now on mandatory two-week lockdown as part of an aggressive new campaign to halt the spread of this deadly virus. in china alone, we now know that 259 people have died. and nearly 12,000 have been infected. this morning, coronavirus now classified as a public health emergency. prompting drastic new measures. >> beginning at 5:00 p.m., eastern standard time, sunday, february the 2nd, the united states government will implement temporary measures to increase our abilities to detect and contain the coronavirus. >> among those measures, foreign nationals who visited any part of china in the last two weeks

will be barred from entering the united states. and any u.s. citizen who's been in the epicenter will face a mandatory 14-day quarantine. including the 195 u.s. citizens evacuated from wuhan. now, being held in mandatory quarantine at march air reserve base. >> about every 12 hours, somebody has a health check on them. make sure they're not having a fever. checking what symptom ts ths th have. >> the cdc warning even individuals who have been exposed and tested negative could still become contagious. issuing a level 4 do not travel advisory for all of china. american airlines, united, and delta suspending flights. the u.s. scrambling to charter emergency flights for nearly 1,000 americans still trapped in wuhan. back home, health officials are investigating hundreds of cases in 36 states. including a newly confirmed case in santa clara, california. and in chicago, doctors continue to monitor a woman who

trafficked hotraveled home from wuhan and infected her husband. the family telling nbc news the man's one-year-old grandson is now also being tested for the virus after developing a fever. with more than 10,000 confirmed infections worldwide and more than 250 dead, this morning americans are waking up to growing concern over a possible pandemic. and, alex, here is the thing. when you talk to public health officials, they'll tell you this is a new virus. we're still learning about how it's transmitted. but the common flu has killed far more americans than coronavirus at this point. and public health officials we have spoken to keep emphasizing there is no reason to panic at this point. >> thank you very much for that. again, predawn there in riverside, california. the iowa caucuses are now just two days away and candidates are making their final push to appeal to voters. joining us now from des moines, nbc news political reporter,

shaquille brewster. shaq, good morning to you. what have iowans told you on the ground there about how they are looking to caucus on monday? >> good morning, alex. yes. it's starting to finally feel like we are about to have these iowa caucuses, especially with many of these candidates who were in washington, d.c. for that impeachment trial. now, back in the state. they're going to be crisscrossing the state trying to talk to as many voters as they can. and in my conversations with voters, you hear that many of them are undecided. just take a listen to a sample of those conversations. >> caucus is in just a couple days. have you made the decision yet? >> no. >> no? when are you going to make a decision? >> i'm going to do some more research this weekend. but i mean, honestly, it will probably come to the day of. i -- there's too many people left and there's too many nuances to their campaigns and what they really want. and i guess i'll have to hear a little bit more and why other people are really pulling for 'em. >> who do you plan on supporting

at this point? >> i'm -- i'm leaning towards bernie. between bernie and elizabeth warren. >> why those two? >> just progressive values of the two. yeah. >> what do you think will be the determining factor? >> honestly, i just go to do a little bit more research on sort of the distinctions between their views on certain policies. and see which way i lean between the two. >> and that was at a sanders event last night where the candidate wasn't there. but instead, he had many of his supporters there. and that's what you are starting to see here. the narrative coming into this week was that senator sanders was surging. he was doing well. this was still a tight race but that he was perhaps ahead. but if you listen to those voters there, you see it's really an open race. especially, when we're talking about a caucus system where voters don't just go in and cast their ballot. they're going to have to negotiate and consider other candidates and argue for their candidates and have that public -- that public face there. so it's a lot to determine here

and we just have about two days to going until these iowa caucuses. alex. >> it is surprising but you're right. you made the explanation for why people i think still have open minds because it's a real give and take when it comes to those caucuses. fascinating. all right. shaq, thanks so much. we'll see you again. we invite all of you to watch "politicsnation" today and reverend al sharpton's interview with 2020 presidential candidate michael bloomberg. they are going to discuss bloomberg's presidential campaign. they're also going to tour his new 2020 headquarters. all there for you on "politicsnation" today at 5 eastern on msnbc. this morning's headlines pt just a short time ago, 21-year-old sophia kenyan winning her first grand slam title with a victory over spain at the australian open. she is expected to rise to number seven now in the rankings. and she is the youngest american to make her debut in the top ten since serena williams did it back in 1999. good for her.

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back to the impeachment trial of president trump now. senate republicans blocking a vote for witness testimony and barring any surprises next week, this could clear the path for the president's acquittal, as headlined here by "the new york times." nbc's hans nichols is traveling with the president in florida. hans, as i say good morning to you, my friend, how this is all sitting with the president? >> well, the president's been pretty silent both on twitter and in public. he normally stops for the cameras, at least most recently he hasn't. but he didn't give us his opinions when he left the white house yesterday. and most of his ire on twitter is focused on the house side.

there is still not a whole lot to be said at least on the president's part about what happened in the senate. that is, a vote for no witnesses and a vote leading, eventually it looks like, towards acquittal. we do have a sense, though, of what his allies are thinking. we know the president spoke with mitch mcconnell yesterday and lindsey graham on fox news had high praise for mitch mcconnell. >> mitch mcconnell did a fabulous job. you got 100 people in the senate and you got to deal with them all and that's the best he could do. they got a lot of ability to drag this thing out really forever. but he negotiated wednesday. i wish it would be sooner. you know what i believe about all this? it was a bunch of partisan -- in the house. it continued in the senate. it's going to end wednesday. the president's going to get acquitted and it's going to blow up in their face. that's what i think this is all about. >> so lindsey laid out the schedule there. that likely means the president will be giving the state of the union if that plan still stands to give the state of the union on tuesday before the house --

before the house chamber, the house and senate members will be sitting there before he has been acquitted. and that could be a remarkable moment. now, we will see to what extent the president weighs in on all the senate developments. he does have an interview with sean hannity with fox news, expected or at least being billed as something they'll play right before the super bowl. >> of course, lindsey graham there laying out the schedule in a rather colorful way. but anyway, look. we know that the president and mitch mcconnell, they spoke over the phone. they were the ones to lock in the schedule. what do we know about that conversation? >> well, we know that it happened. we know that basically it's been ascented t ascented to. and in general, mcconnell and the president have had a close relationship throughout this entire process and the president's given mcconnell to handle this the way mitch mcconnell sees best fit. and mcconnell had a real challenge making sure that all the senators stayed on his side or enough republicans stayed on his side and voted against

additional witnesses. and you saw that caucus meeting on tuesday, i believe, where mitch mcconnell came out and said he didn't have the votes. and that, when we're learning more about how all this took place and all the reconstructions, it's clear that mcconnell didn't quite know where he was. but those comments in a close-door meeting may have scared some senate republicans into thinking, okay, we've got to make a decision. and ultimately, his friend lamar alexander and lisa murkowski from alaska came down on the side of no witnesses and that's where we are today. leading to a likely acquittal. when all the senators, they each get ten minutes. we'll see whether or not they use their ten minutes. alex. >> interesting to hear them after all of this. okay. hans nichols there in west palm beach. thank you so much, hans. let's bring in kanisha, political science professor at howard university. new book is "the great my ragz and t migration." thanks for joining me. welcome. there is a new york senator in

1832 who as you know is credited with -- for saying to the victor belong the spoils. usually, the winner gets to write the history. but what do you think happens in this case? >> i think, in this case-l, the president has been masterful even before this moment in getting the people in his party to believe that they need his support and that they can't win without it. and so we see members of the senate behaving in ways that we might not expect they would behave because they're usually worried or concerned about the nation, as a whole. and we see some of them even saying that it's the case that they think the president did something wrong but that wrongdoing did not rise to the level of having him removed from office. and so i think, in this case, that senator is right. >> yeah. so here is what's interesting. kanisha, we remember andrew jackson. we remember richard nixon in terms of their impeachments. but bill clinton was pretty much able to shake that stigma. granted, we've been talking

about it as of late but only to put it in context what's happening now. with president trump, will he necessarily have an asterisk? >> i think a lot depends on what happens after this election. i think that because he came to us from such a different place, because he wasn't elected to office before. he was a bit of a celebrity. he was a bit divisive. we would always be thinking about his presidency and in some ways, he won't be able to get past the impeachment because it was such a big part of his presidency, even from the beginning. but if it is the case, for some reason, that he is able to get re-elected and maybe work across the aisle. i don't think this will happen but if it's possible for him to do that, i think it might be possible for the impeachment to diminish. but on the whole, my guess is that this impeachment will be with him forever. and will be with those senators forever, too. >> as it has been, according to nyu law professor ryan goodman, who points all this out. that, yep, this vote could be the lasting legacy for the senators, as told by obituaries from the watergate-era congressmen. i mean, look at the obitfor

lar . caldwell butler who went against his mother. how will the trump impeachment framed obits of today's senators? >> i think they will be headlines in those obituaries. i think for all of us, people are asking, well, what did you do during this time? and folks have different ideas about what they did. some folks are lining up on the resistance. some folks are lining up behind trump. and all of us will have to account for what we did before the people in the senate, in particular, who had the direct authority to make decisions. i think forever and ever they will be accountable to this vote. and i think that it's something that will be in their obituaries, as well. the political nerd in me really loved that article. really loved to see somebody going through to do the work about how folks will be remembered and i think this will be important. >> do you as you look at all this, in your gut, do you see

any profiles in courage? do you see any profiles in cowardice emerging from this impeachment? >> i think not a senator but tulsi gabbard's decision not to make a decision really stuck with me. and has stuck with me through this whole thing. i think that i would have expected her to take a position, especially because she is kind of framed herself as a person who is courageous. and so i think in a moment where she had the opportunity to make decisions, she didn't make them. i think that is going to stand out a bit. i think that also there are some people in the senate who are saying things that might not age well. so to say that the president clearly did something wrong but that the doing something wrong does not, or should not, lead to the removal of a president. i don't think that kind of statement is going to age well. and so i think that maybe not an exercise in cowardice or courage but is a statement that seems like it's courageous but might not age well over time. >> okay. political science professor at howard university and author,

come see me again. good talking with you. thank you so much. it is the second reason so many people watch the super bowl. all right. you know, for some depending on the teams, it might be the first. the stories behind the ads that are getting the most attention. that is next. and be sure to watch our coverage of the iowa caucuses. brian williams and rachel maddow host a team of experts. they are going to be breaking down all the results for you. their coverage begins monday night at 6:00 eastern here on msnbc. n here on msnbc. i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ my bladder leak underwear.orried someone might see so, i switched. to always discreet boutique.

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take a break during tomorrow's super bowl liv because viewers are going to see a couple campaign ads. president trump and mike bloomberg. bloomberg is taking on gun violence. trump, touting his record. take a look. >> you cannot tell me that the child that i gave birth to is no longer here. lives are being lost every day. it is a national crisis. i heard mike bloomberg speak. he's been in this fight for so long. he heard mothers crying so he started fighting. when i heard mike was stepping into the ring, i thought now we have a dog in the fight. >> america demanded change. >> donald trump wins the presidency. >> and change is what we got. under president trump, america is stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before. >> joining me now is jeanine, a senior media tech editor.

i am curious the implication of both these ads. i have to say that first one, i'm a mom, gave me chills. >> i think bhwhat's interesting about these is actually neither one are overly contentious. they're not taking shots at each other which is great because the super bowl is not really the place to do that. people are there. they want entertainment. they want to, you know, watch beer commercials and chip commercials. they're not really there to talk politics. so i think that having these ads in the game, even just to begin with, people are not really looking for that. >> yeah. you talk about the beer commercials. we were talking at the commercial break about how much we love the clydesdales of budweiser. first female coach at the super bowl. take a look. here it is. >> run it again. run it again. >> people tell me that people aren't ready to have a woman lead. but these guys have been learning from women their whole lives. i'm not trying to be the best female coach. i'm trying to be the best coach. >> lot of big brands are taking on social issues. talk about this one and how effective it is. >> yeah.

so microsoft is leaning into both being inclusive from a female perspective and then also an lgbtq perspective, which we're seeing a big push with super bowl advertisers this year. you know, the super bowl not really ever been a friendly place for women or minorities in the commercials. women have never really been front or center. or those that are -- >> sexy car ad or something. >> if they are, they're in a sexy car ad. they're the nagging wife or mom. and those are the sort of stereotypes being leaned into. last couple years, we are really seeing a push to be more diverse and inclusive. you have the microsoft one. you have olay, which has an all-female cast. so there is really these efforts being made. >> okay. what about those that have gone viral? in fact, let's show our viewers one of them. it's already gone viral, everyone. here it is. >> hi. i'm scout and i'm a lucky dog. and it's not just because i found this cool stick. or that i was in the weather tech commercial on the big game last year. it's that i'm a cancer survivor. i'm alive thanks to a

cutting-edge program at the university of wisconsin school of veterinary medicine. >> that's a good one but the fact that it has gone viral so many times before, they've waited for these big multimillion dollar ad buys. we all stay tuned for them. not this one. what is the effect of that? >> so i mean, look. these prereleased ads, there is 37 of them out already. more than last year. it was about 30 before the game. everybody's making this big push because, look, they're spending as much as $5.6 million for 30 seconds of airtime. they want to generate as much buzz as possible. this one in particular was on the shoot the day they shot this with scout. and it was just an interesting take because weathertech never mentions the company's name. you don't even see their product in the commercial. it's about scout's story and donating to animal cancer research. >> i'm going to tell you for me it's always the budweiser commercial. >> i love the share google. it's a really heartwarming story about this elderly man who uses google search and the voice

assistant to remember his wife. and it's a really beautiful, beautiful story. >> jeanine, that sounds really good. thank you so much for the conversation. and for all of you, we'll be looking for that, no doubt. but meantime, what fans did after the first l.a. lakers game since the death of kobe bryant. , and you may know us from your very first sandwich, your mammoth masterpiece, and whatever this was. oscar mayer is found in more fridges than anyone else, because it's the taste you count on. make every sandwich count. through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from finding out what's selling best... to managing your fleet... to collaborating remotely with your teams. giving you a nice big edge over your competition. that's the power of edge-to-edge intelligence.

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an emotional night in los angeles as hundreds of l.a. lakers fans surrounded the staples center to celebrate the life of kobe bryant who played in that arena for 20 nba seasons. it was the team's first game since bryant was killed in a helicopter crash on sunday. joining me now, steve patterson from the staples center otherwise known as the house that kobe built. are there still tributes set up around that arena these six days later? >> reporter: there are. and so many of them are just so reflective, so impactful, so emotional. and probably the most impactful one because tulsly ois actually happened on the court just moments before tipoff. >> kobe, kobe, kobe! >> reporter: the house that kobe built. before tipoff, the staples

center felt more like church, like a spotlight soaked halo, his two he retired jerseys hung other than of the hardwood congregation. the first game back since losing their brother. every laker wearing his jersey. every laker taking the court in his memory. >> number 24. >> reporter: outside, thousands came just to be a little closer. lakers leader lebron james with spoke to the fans. >> tonight we celebrate the kid that came here at 18 years of age, retired at 38, and became probably the best dad we've seen over the last three years, man. >> reporter: meanwhile the ntsb investigating what went wrong that foggy sunday morning in calabasas in the crash that killed kobe bryant, his daughter

and seven others. sources close to the investigation telling nbc news that while the pilot was certified to fly by instrument in low visibility, the charter company island express helicopters was not. though a former pilot for island express says that is common for companies in southern california with typically clear skies. but after a long week, laker nation rose up and honored kobe by playing through the pain. >> so in the words of kobe bryant, mamba out. but in the words of us, not forgotten. live on, brother. >> reporter: and so the game itself was one of those hard-fought mamba style battles with the lakers unfortunately coming up just short. and meanwhile the mayor has announced plans for a you been about memorial, but no date set just yet. >> and it still hurts so much.

steve patterson, thank you for that. that will do it for me in this hour of msnbc live. i'll see you again at noon eastern. but in just a moment from friday's witness vote to next week's closing arguments, ali velshi will be talking with garrett haake about all the latest developments in the president's impeachment trial. stay with us. cologuard: colon cancer screening for people 45 plus at average risk. some things are harder than you thought. and others are easier. like screening for colon cancer with me, cologuard. i'm noninvasive and you use me at home. i'm also effective. i find 92% of colon cancers using dna in your stool. so why wait? cologuard is not for those at high risk for colon cancer. false positive and negative results may occur.

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the congress alleional demo

are obsessed withdymented hoaxes, crazy witch hunts and deranged partisan crusades. >> my switch in attitude purely nonpartisan. >> consumed with partisan rage. >> iowa caucuses, folks, iowa caucuses are this next monday 50e6 evening. >> deranged partisan crusades. >> democratic caucusgoers, will they be supporting vice president biden at this point? >> we have a great party, the republican party. they know what is going on. >> will they be support positin president biden? kind of subtle, huh? >> they know what's going on. >> they are smearing me to try to stop me and they know if i'm the nominee, i'm going to beat donald trump like a drum. >> good morning. i'm