>> thank you, jen. first on the response to the pandemic, two matters there. first, could you provide more details as to how much more of the vaccine is going to be distributed and how quickly to the states the governors sounded the alarm they are desperately low and they're in need. and could you talk about, the cdc considered a white house support measure for testing all passengers on u.s. domestic flights. >> well, jonathan, on the first part of our effort is certainly to ensure we are more effectively and efficiently working with governors and local officials to have expressed some frustration in recent weeks about the lack of information and the lack of a federal plan. we've only been here six days but we want to take steps as quickly as possible to address that, and part of that will be what the president updates us all on this afternoon. and i would be a very short lived press secretary and i got ahead of the president and we're having so much fun in here. you don't want that to happen.

on the second question on testing we're constantly evaluating, our medical and health experts, steps that need to be taken to keep the american people safe. we announced some travel restrictions, as you know, yesterday. i don't have any additional restrictions to preview or announce for all of you. i will remind you that tomorrow is the first day of our briefings that will be happening approximately three times a week that you can all tune in and learn more from our health experts on our plans. >> on the other matter, on impeachment, the president yesterday in an interview said he did not believe that former president trump would be convicted and therefore removed from office. but said he felt like it had to go -- the trial had to go on anyway. could you please explain what he meant by that. >> let's put this in context of last night. last night the house impeachment managers delivered the articles of impeachment to the senate with a dramatic walk over, as you all carried on television, and, you know, the president was referencing a fact that he referenced in his statement just a couple of weeks ago when the

house passed the articles of impeachment themselves which is that now it of course will move on to the senate as he also said at the time he hopes and i'll quote him here, the senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment, while also working on the other urgent business of the nation. he still continues to feel that way. so last night they delivered the articles. the next step, as you all have reported and people watching at home know, is for the senate to proceed with their trial. he's going to allow them to move forward at the pace and manner that the leaders in the senate determine. and i can promise you that we will leave the vote counting to leaders in the senate from now on. >> on this, why is the president reluctant to express his personal opinion as to what happens. we understand he's not in the senate anymore but he is the leader of the democratic party? >> the president believes that the senate has the constitutional duty to proceed as they see fit on holding the

former president accountable. he spent 36 years in the senate. he's no longer there. as the president of the united states he feels his role is to deliver on what he promised for the american people. so that's what he's trying to do every day. go ahead, peter. >> just a little housekeeping as it relates to what's going on in the senate right now. when is the last time that president biden spoke to leader mcconnell? >> he has spoken, as he said, a couple of times. >> since inauguration. >> i'm not going to read out specific calls to all of you on the pace or number of their phone calls. >> this is someone who has always said, the president, that his strong suit is the ability to work with both sides of the aisle and he criticized the previous administration for not bringing lawmakers here on covid relief to sit down in the oval office, why not say to democrats and republicans, come to the white house right now. >> i know that would make for excellent television but he is in close touch as your team is,

members of our senior team, brian deese, a number of senior officials, speaking with different caucuses in congress, republicans, democrats, people from different wings of different parties about our plans and our commitment to getting the covid package passed. but our view is that a lot of those conversations should happen one on one, should happen in small groups, and that's the most productive way to move this bill forward. >> let me ask you, if i can, there seemed to be disagreement in terms of the way both dr. fauci and president biden viewed herd immunity and when we get out of this pandemic right now. we heard the president yesterday say i feel confident that by summer we'll be well on our way towards herd immunity. dr. fauci said that he thought this would likely occur where we were closer to being back to normal by this fall. so it's clear for americans what the administration is promising or telling them, when should we expect that takes place? >> well, the president is certainly pushing his team every day to deliver results as quickly as possible.

so as part of his comments yesterday he also talked about his desire to ensure there's greater availability in the spring and certainly his hope that every american will -- that more americans will have access as quickly as possible. but he has also said many times it will take months and months for a broad swath of the population to be vaccinated and as always he's guided, as we all are, by scientists and medical experts and certainly dr. fauci's guidelines of when we can expect for a broad swath of the population to be vaccinated. >> for specificity on the vaccine stockpile yesterday you didn't have a specific number, cdc director didn't as well. what's the stockpile right now? where do we stand at this moment? >> well, the president is going to have more of an update later this afternoon, as i previewed earlier. >> do we have our hands around that? >> well, certainly, there is

a -- we monitor updates on a daily basis on multiple systems that have available information on vaccine numbers distributed to states, what states have received and what states have been distributed and we've been connecting the dots to ensure we have our best understanding of where the holdups are and we of course have that assessment but we're continuing to dig in every day on what the issues are, why isn't vaccine getting out to states, what is the holdup with vaccinators, why aren't there more vaccine sites getting the supply they need but later this afternoon he'll have more of an update on our additional vaccine supply that we'll make available to states. >> go ahead, pete. >> it's a peter row. >> pete and repeat. >> the jokes could go on. >> fema is planning to reroute up to $10 billion in money that could be used to combat covid-19

right now, to preemptively combat climate change by building sea walls and elevating flood prone homes. and i'm curious if there has been any thought given to waiting until covid is behind us to do that. >> peter, i had not actually seen that report before we came out here. as you know, and i'll just repeat, the president's first priority is getting the pandemic under control and doing everything needed, putting all of the necessary resources behind that. but i'm happy to circle back with our team on that specific report. >> and another question. the president says that he hopes that the senate leadership can continue to do an impeachment trial while working on the people's business. what if they can't? >> well, as president you always have to be hopeful, of course, that's your role as a leader, to push and push leaders, push democrats and republicans to make more progress. but, you know, i think what the president will continue to do privately in his conversations with members of congress,

democrats and republicans, and publicly, is make the case for the cost of inaction. and i think he doesn't feel that there -- the democrats and republicans in congress have the space and the time to wait, that there's an urgency that the american people are going to continue to push members who are representing them on, and so i don't think he feels there's an alternative other than to move forward with urgency. >> just one more, the riots in portland and the violence in portland recently, there was discussion earlier with the january 6th rioters being reviewed by the dni as domestic, violent extremists, are the rioters in portland being viewed through the same lens or is that something different? >> you and i talked about this yesterday and conveyed that all violence happening around the country will be reviewed as a part of the tasking that was done by that national security team. but i don't have anything to preview on it. cecilia. >> on covid relief. we've heard republicans come out in opposition in broad brush

strokes at this point but in terms of the conversations that the president or anyone on your team is having, has any republican come forward to give you an alternative? what is happening with these negotiations, what are they telling you that they want, to go, to stay? what's the non -- without you negotiating from here, but what alternatives are they giving you? >> cecilia, you have the benefit of having covered congress for quite some time and you know none of them are quiet about what they don't like and like, and they often say it publicly. the president and members of our team are hearing many of the same, you know, expressions of support and sometimes expressions of questions about whether packages -- the package needs to be the same size, whether it's targeted, it should be targeted in this way, those are the same questions they are hearing privately. but what they all -- what the president is also hearing privately, and what members of our team are also hearing privately is that they expect him to be focused on this package and they will be as well and they hear and understand the

urgency. and as you know from covering this quite some time yourself oftentimes things come together right before there's a vote, right, the president kind of alluded to this yesterday, but we feel democracy is working how it should. he laid out his big package, his big vision of what it should look like and people are giving their feedback and he's happy to have those discussions and fully expects it's not going to look exactly the same on the other end. >> on the stockpile assessment, i want to flip the answer you've been giving saying it's five days or six days, give us some time to catch up with this. i understand that. on the inverse, it's been six days. why don't we know exactly what is in this stockpile? how -- what have been the hurdles, the biggest hurdles in getting that answer? you've probably heard this, the results were exceptional, so why is it taking so long? >> six days in. well, six days in the president is also giving an update on

steps we're going to take to provide more vaccine supply to states across the country in response to their concern. there has not been a federal plan in place and that they haven't received the coordination, cooperation and information they desired. so in many view that's a pretty rapid response to states' concerns. we do have an assessment. as i referenced tiberius which is quite a name i'll say for this website, sounds like a magical creature. it provides public information on vaccines in states and what's been used. it isn't perfect. our concerns and our focus is not just on the supply. that's part of the issue, it is also about ensuring states have the number of vaccinators they need, so that means people literally taking the shots and qualified to put them in the arms of americans. and some states and some communities don't have people who are able to do that. and vaccine centers and places

where people can go and receive the vaccine. so there's multiple steps in this process, and our foe skus -- focus is on ensuring not just the supply of rate it needs to be and that states have more advance notice, one of the things governors will tell you and have told us it's very difficult for them when they find out a day before that they're going to run out of supply or when a next supply shipment is coming, they want more time, that's something we're also working on. those are all pieces part of this operational task our team has undertaken. go ahead. mario. >> senator schumer last night said he wants president biden to consider declaring climate change a national emergency to give him power similar to what his predecessor president trump did with the wall. is that something that the president is considering? >> well, the president has long said it is one of the four crises that he believes are central to the presidency and

central to his time as the commander in chief and the president of the united states, addressing the threat of climate. so he is not only taking actions, executive orders, taking actions that fall under the purview of the president but also he has pushed to find ways to work with congress on taking additional steps moving forward to. there will be more we have to share on our efforts on climate in the days ahead, but i don't think leader schumer has any doubt about the president's commitment to this, and certainly the fact that he has called it a crisis. he's said it as central to the issues he wants to take on in his presidency speaks to his commitment to the issue. >> two more questions to bring it back to covid response for a second. so first, one of the questions that's come up is how much money is needed exactly to respond to the emergency we're in, is it $1.9 trillion, or some other figure. do you have an assessment just of how much money is left from

congress as the last allocation towards these issues, how much is left to spend? >> well, as brian deese said last week, the problem with focusing on the $900 billion package as the answer to our current problem now is catching up for what had not been done for the prior six months. what we're really focused on now is what is needed for immediately now, of course, but also in the months ahead. and as i was alluding to a little bit earlier, the way the president thinks about this is what the cost of inaction is. so if you look ahead, it's critical, and i talked about this a little bit yesterday, that we don't get anywhere near the march cliff, which would mean the end of eviction, $300 -- pp loan applications for small businesses, from covering what's happening in the country, you know, people need security and what we're trying to do now is provide that. so this package was designed not with a number in mind, we

weren't trying to get a shock value, sticker value, the president relied on the advice of economists, health experts and others who recommended this is the size, and the components that are needed now, not just to distribute the vaccine, but to provide certainty and a bridge to the american people to get to the other side. >> do you have a number right now for how much is -- for vaccine distribution alone, how much you have to spend as compared to what you've asked for? >> i'm happy to check with our team on that but i will say that what we're looking ahead to is where are we in a couple of weeks and where are we in two months and no one wants to be having a conversation in may about why our schools aren't open and why millions of people have been kicked off of unemployment insurance. so part of our role here is to look ahead, and that's what exactly what we're trying to do with this package. >> one other issue. president trump signed an executive order restricting exports of vaccines that are

manufactured within the united states, that order is still in effect. first of all, what is your assessment of exactly whether drug manufacturers are able to send these vaccines overseas, can they do that under current law? and two, will you take any action to reverse that executive order? >> that's a great question, and we've talked about rejoining the world health organization and ensuring we are a partner to the global community on this effort, only makes us safer, and the american people safer but i'd have to check on the specific export question for you. go ahead. >> the national covid strategy of the administration -- says quote the united states will accelerate the pace of vaccinations by encouraging states and localities to move priority groups more quickly. what is more quickly? how should governors interpret that? and, you know, will you provide more detailed guidance to state and public health officials on

how they should be going through these priority groups? >> well, the answer is yes, and part of our effort, as i mentioned, there was a call with governors this afternoon to provide an update on vaccine supply and steps we're taking from the federal government to ensure they have not just the information they need, but also the access to supply they need, and in terms of the pace, the guidelines will, of course, be publicized by the cdc, they have their first briefing tomorrow, we'll see if they have an update on that. but really what we're all trying to endeavor to do is ensure that we have not just more supply, but more vaccinators as i noted, more people in communities who can vaccinate, more centers and locations that can provide these vaccinations. so all of those components will lead to expedites. we're not asking states to do this on their own. in fact, we are trying to reset and be partners here in a more effective way than we've seen over the last ten months.

>> health officials seem to be recommending double masking. is that something the white house would like to see? >> i've seen some of those reports, i haven't seen that come officially from the cdc but i encourage you to ask them that question tomorrow and i'd refer to them for any new guidance on that front. >> regarding the defense production act what is the timeline for ramping up production of supplies, specifically specialized syringes, and has the administration been in talks with any specific companies or manufacturers? >> it's already been invoked and under way so those discussions and efforts to ramp up production are already under way. they started as of -- less than 24 hours after the president signed that executive order and made that announcement last week. i don't have any specific companies. i don't think to kind of preview or read out for you but i'm sure we can follow up and see if there's more specifics to provide on the specific companies. >> is the department of defense considering plans to deploy military, national guard to help

with the vaccinations, be those vaccinators in communities that are underserved. >> well, certainly the government, across the government, everyone is going to play a role in covid and addressing covid, getting the pandemic under control. but in terms of their specific plans i would send you to the department of defense. >> can i ask one more on behalf of the radio pool. the administrations, this is for a reporter who can't be in the room. what are the administrations plans for guantanamo and restarting military trials for detainees, one case announced last week. >> i don't have anything new on that, i'm happy to follow up on that for you as well. >> i wanted to go back to peter's question. dr. fauci went back to quoting 100 million doses in 100 days number. did the president misspeak when he said the new goal is 150 million shots in 100 days yesterday or was he operating under some new update that he got? >> the president didn't actually say the new goal is. the president said i hope we can

do even more than that and that is certainly, of course, his hope. he is continuing to push our team to get as many americans vaccinated as quickly as possible. that's why we set the bold goal of 100 million shots in the arms of americans in 100 days to begin with. i would remind everyone this has literally never been done before. as what he has asked the team to do and what the team is focused on doing is also planning for contingencies, we're at war with the virus so in a wartime theme here there are a lot of things you plan for, including trucks breaking down, freezers breaking, you know, needing to plan for that, you know, not having vaccinators in a location to be able to put the syringes in people's arms. >> so the 100 million number would be the more accurate number to be citing. >> that's the number we set based on the recommendations of health and medical experts, continues to be our goal, but does he want to beat that goal? of course he does, of course h

was set with contingencies we need to plan for in mind and he's going to continue to push the team to meet that goal and go beyond it. >> i have one other question i wanted to ask the ambassador but i didn't get a chance to. in terms of the racial equity goal, does the white house support overturning small business administration language that prohibits people with records from accessing ppp relief? it's something that on the hill has support in -- carbon. >> i know i had talked with our economic team about this issue earlier but i'll have to circle back with you on it. it's a good question. we'll bring ambassador rice back, but we'll circle back with you today. in the back. >> david kessler said that most americans would not be vaccinated until the third or fourth quarter of this year, said that last week, president biden spoke and said that we could possibly have herd immunity as early as this summer. that's the difference of a

couple months, i'm wondering if you could reconcile the difference there, talk about when most americans will be vaccinated. >> similar to what peter asked earlier. but the president is, of course, pushing his team to deliver results and his goal is to ensure there is a greater availability in the spring and that it continues to improve in the summer. everybody won't be eligible this spring, as you all know, even with -- even as cdc continues to provide updated guidance. but he would certainly defer to medical -- health and medical experts and obviously the guidance of dr. fauci on when we may be at the pace of reaching herd immunity. but we will continue to update as more progress is made, what the goals look like. >> following up on that in terms of data collection it's my understanding that something like 50% of the vaccinations are coming in without racial data. is that accurate, or is there something else there? i'm wondering how you'll measure success in vaccinating people of

color and vulnerable communities if you don't have the data on who's getting vaccinated and will we be seeing mobile outlooks, mobile kind of -- just mobile outreach to those communities in terms of vaccines when we see that? >> yes, absolutely. that will be part of it. but also part of it will be working with pharmacies and working with health centers in communities so that communities across the country, rural communities, communities of color, have easier access to know where they can go, and get a vaccine. but this is going to be hard, and we are not trying to sugar coat that and it will be very challenging. this is why everybody who comes and speaks about covid talks about our -- the challenge of vaccine hesitancy and how we're going to overcome that and it won't just be about having centers it will be about

overcoming contingencies we have to plan for, more effectively communicating with people about the safety of the vaccine and being thoughtful about who we're using to communicate. so it is -- it is going to take a multifaceted approach and we are open eyed about the challenge. >> another part of that question, is it accurate that there's very little -- less than 50% of racial data coming in on vaccinations? >> i would defer -- i would refer you to the cdc and i know they'll have their first briefing tomorrow and that sounds like a great question to ask them. >> i'll ask you the question i was going to ask ambassador rice, we've seen after january 6th there is obviously this issue of white supremacy and racism coursing through our country. what's the biggest challenge when you think of equity in this country and how you measure success for something like that, especially when we think of all of the different ways that our country is dealing with it. i know these eos are about housing and criminal justice. can you talk a little bit how you're going to measure success, and what the federal

government's role is on something so big as inequality and racism. >> i think what ambassador rice was conveying to all of you and what the president will sign later this afternoon is an executive order that makes racial equity and addressing racial equity a priority across the government. and how the president talks about this is that far too often we think of racial issues in the equity bucket are only related to a couple of categories and that's just not accurate. we need to address racial equity in terms of health disparity, address it in terms of access to lending, and to loans, we need to address it in terms of biases and discrimination as it relates to housing and so what this executive order will do will make it a priority, and infuse expertise, and personnel to ensure we are addressing issues that impact communities of color across the country every day, and not just every few months when it's an issue that comes up

and prompts questioning. >> go ahead in the back. >> thank you, jen, and thank you for making sure that everybody gets the opportunity to ask questions. i really appreciate that. i've got one on housekeeping real quick and then i've got a domestic and foreign policy question. you've got some beautiful screens behind you. your predecessors have rejected multiple requests to bring back the skype for remote reporters. would you consider bringing back the skype scene? >> we would. i will say, people doenl realize this, there's normally about 60 people in this room. that's the right number. that's certainly something we would be happy to have in this room and i think all of you would too, you're asking questions on behalf of your colleagues but we also -- we rely on the advice of our health and medical experts on what's safe, not just for us, but for all of you. and having everybody sit seat by seat wouldn't be safe. i know that's not what you're

asking. we'd certainly be open to taking questions via skype. i took questions on twitter the other day. we're going to try to take some questions from the american people that they ask on youtube. we'll continue to look for ways to not just bring back the daily briefing but take questions from more reporters and people. >> okay. this is the foreignsy policy question. mr. biden said he would give benefit to the -- the question is, is it the belief of this administration that the palestinians don't have to make concessions to get funding or a consulate? >> well, i think i've talked about this particular issue enough in my old days at the state department to know i'm going to defer to our national security team and the state department and jake sullivan on any more specifics. obviously the president's view continues to be that a two state solution is the only path forward and that, you know, that

continues to be the position of his white house and administration. >> finally, this on behalf of a colleague not able to be here today during social distancing. does the president believe he can attain unity with the 74 million trump voters while urging his allies in the senate to hold an impeachment trial after his predecessor has already left office? >> the president's belief is that he was elected by 81 million americans, in part because they believed that he was somebody who could help bring the country together, unify the country around addressing the crises that we face. and when he talks every day, nearly, about getting the pandemic under control, putting people back to work, he's not just speaking to people who voted for him. he's speaking to all of the american people, including the 74 million who didn't vote for him. and certainly addressing the pandemic, making -- ensuring that people don't worry about the health and safety of their grandparents, of their sisters and brothers, getting kids back to school, that's not a partisan position, that's a position -- that's a leadership position and

one he's taking because he wants to make sure he's delivering for all of the american people. go ahead all the way in the back. >> the president spoke with consular merkel yesterday. but the readout from the phone call doesn't mention the pipeline from russia to germany. have they discussed this particular project and what's president biden's position, is he determined to use all the tools he has, like sanctions, to stop the project? >> well, i don't have any more for you on the particular readout but i can convey that we continue to believe the president continues to believe that the stream is a bad deal for europe. we're aware the previous administration imposed new restrictions on activities related to the pipeline under the national defense there arization act and we will be reviewing those measures and he

looks forward to continuing to consult with partners on this issue. if there's more to share on his conversation with chancellor merkel on it we will circle back with you more directly. go ahead. >> thank you, jen, following on from a question earlier, we heard the president say yesterday that anyone who wanted to get a shot would be able to get one by spring and we would be well on our way to herd immunity by summer. i'm wondering how we can make those projections when we don't know what the national stockpile is, when the cdc director says supply won't increase until march and when we're having enormous distribution problems in the different states. >> well, let me first start by saying as i started the briefing conveying the president will have more to say on our vaccine supply and also assistance and cooperation that we will be doing with the states later this afternoon. so we'll have an update on that. as i also noted we do have a sense. there is tiberius, my favorite word of the day, website that has available information on not

just the vaccine that's available in states but what has been distributed. what i was conveying and a number of of health experts have been saying. we've been here six days, not that long a period of time, we are assessing every day where the holes are, what the gaps are, what the holdups are, it's not just supply, it's beyond that, it's having the number of vaccinators we need, the number of sites we need. those are all issues, if you talk to any governor that they will say are challenges to getting the vaccine in the arms of the american people and what the president's goal is, is ensuring that there's greater availability in the spring. he will push his team, he pushes his team on covid and updates on it even when it's a meeting about other issues, this is his focus every single day. and -- but the fact is, every american is not going to be eligible this spring. we're going to continue to increase supply. that's part of it. and he has said many, many times it's going to take months and months for a broad swath of the

population to be vaccinated. but he would, if he were standing here today, one he'd be a lot taller than me but he would say there are -- he will defer to health and medical experts to give their assessments on when we can reach the point of herd immunity. peter, go ahead. >> there's a report now that the chief financial officer of florida has sent a letter to the international olympic committee, that florida would like to host the olympics if japan next year is uncomfortable because of the pandemic. is a florida olympics in 2021 something you can see the white house supporting? >> wow, that's a lot of steps that need to take place and i don't know the entire process of the olympics, but i would certainly think -- send you to the u.s. olympic committee and the international olympic committee first on what their assessment of that offer is and certainly of course what their assessment is of japan's preparedness for the olympics. go ahead right here. >> jen, on contingency, if these covid vaccines need to be

tweaked or changed because of these emerging variants, how is that going to complicate your rollout? >> well, dr. fauci spoke to this a little bit last week and i expect this will be one of the lines of questioning with our health and medical experts when they have their first briefing tomorrow and they have spoken to both assessments that have been made about the efficacy of the vaccine, even with the new variants, and how they are evaluating, you know, what the efficacy will be moving forward. this is something that they will continue to look at through a medical and health lens. i don't think i'm going to have a new update or assessment for you from here but it's something they're looking closely at and the president will continue to encourage them to be as honest and straightforward with the american people as possible. >> one unrelated question, one of president trump's last acts was to grant protective status to venezuelans in the united

states. can you give us a position on that. >> sure, let me see. let's see. well, the overriding goal of the united states is to support a peaceful democratic transition in venezuela through free and fair elections. he has long been clear, the president that is, that his administration's approach to venezuela will focus on addressing the humanitarian situation, providing support to the people, and moving for diplomacy to pursue corruption and human rights abuses and pursue individuals involved with that. i don't have anything more for you on the temporary protected status. that was a mouthful. i will, of course, our national security team is doing a review of all of the positions and put in place by the trump administration, and will provide an update when we have one. go ahead. >> one more question. ambassador rice outlined all of the disparities when it comes to americans of color being

affected and dying from covid at higher rates. does the white house fault the previous administration for the disparities? >> health disparities in communities of color existed long before the trump administration took office. i think that's a statement of fact. but what did not happen was actions put in place to ensure greater accessibility to communities of color for health care, greater -- a greater communications on public campaign how communities of color could gain access to health care and treatments. and certainly the actions taken by the prior administration to -- for all intents and purposes destroy the affordable care act didn't help any american and certainly didn't help communities of color. so the vaccine, as you all know, has only -- we did not have the scientific and medical breakthrough, until late last year. and now it's incumbent upon this

administration, the biden-harris administration to ensure that we are steps to increase access and also to communicate more effectively with communities of color about the vaccine and the efficacy of it and that certainly is a primary focus. that's one of the reasons why dr. nunez-smith is leading a covid task force and is a pivotal part of the team. i will say in the transition she wasn't known by then president-elect biden previously but he was so impressed with her as a member of the covid advisory task force that he felt personally it was important to have her as a pivotal member of the team to address exactly this issue. okay, go ahead. last one, says jonathan. >> thank you very much. if i can ask a follow-up i'd appreciate it. the trump administration

required work for some medicaid recipients, that was challenged in the court, the court struck it down. the trump administration pushed it to the supreme court. it's pending there. does the biden administration support these waivers, oppose them, are they going to argue for it, against it, what's the position of the administration? >> well, i would certainly send you to our department of justice, my department of justice colleagues to speak to anything related to a legal case. i will say that president biden does not believe as a principle it should be difficult for people to gain access to health care and he's not been supportive in the past and is not today of putting additional restrictions in place and he's spoken about that publicly too. >> and then if i could follow up, yesterday former president trump endorsed sarah huckabee sanders for governor of arkansas in 2022. where is president biden stand on that particular race and how high is this on his list of priorities? >> wow, how high is the arkansas

republican gubernatorial primary on the president's list of priorities? not high. i can confirm for you i'm not running for governor of connecticut in the future, here to confirm that for you as well. i don't expect he will get involved in this race. but also politics is not front and center for his mind in general at this point in time. he's focused on getting the pandemic under control. >> the president won't be on, so who is leading? >> jeff zients, will be one of the health officials or one of the policy officials on the call today. there may be others but he's one of the primary leaders of the call. i believe so, yes, exactly. last one, i'm breaking jonathan's rule. >> president biden has spoken to president putin. can you give us an update on the nature of their call, what came up? >> well, i can confirm the call was scheduled. the call has happened, i believe, since i have come out

here, we will, of course, be putting a readout of the call out but since you gave me the opportunity, i will just convey to you that he called him -- called president putin this afternoon with the intention of discussing our willingness to extend new start for five years, and also to reaffirm our strong support for ukraine sovereignty in the face of russia's ongoing aggression and also to raise matters of concern, including the solar winds hack, reports of russia placing bounties on united states soldiers in afghanistan, interference in the 2020 election, the poisoning of alexei navalny and treatment of peaceful protesters by russian security forces. his intention was also to make clear that the united states will act firmly in defense of our national interests in response to malign actions by russia. but we'll have a readout for

you. i assume sometime early this afternoon. thanks, everyone. and there you have it, welcome to tuesday. and welcome to "meet the press daily," boy is that a lengthy phone call that president biden and russian's leader vladimir putin likely had, i'm chuck todd. we've been watching today's white house briefing where president biden's policy adviser susan rice kicked things off. and then press secretary jen psaki addressed, clarified and dodged a number of questions about impeachment, vaccine supply and covid relief. she just noted about the conversation he had with vladimir putin. at least what was on the agenda. we don't have the readout of how the call itself went. president biden himself is set to speak about 2:00 eastern as he signs a series of executive actions that is aimed at

addressing racial disparities in this country. shortly after that he's scheduled to speak about the covid pandemic. the white house says he will give the public an update about additional vaccine supply. yesterday he said he thinks anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one in the spring. comments, which you just heard the white house attempt to clarify. and then sandwiched in between those two presidential events we are expecting the u.s. senate to officially take its oath for the upcoming impeachment trial of now former president to donald john trump. so what do we have here? about 19 minutes. we're going to get through as much as we can on this busy afternoon. let me -- i've given enough time, i think, for our man peter alexander in the briefing room to stand up, face the camera, get his mask on. also joined with us is msnbc correspondent trymaine lee. peter, will the me start with you. we know what the intentional news of the day was, it's these executive orders. >> right. >> let's try to put it in plain english here. what -- how much of these

executive orders are aspirational, and how much of them are tangible that you'll start to see them have an impact, you know, sooner rather than later? >> well, susan rice, chuck, and jen psaki both acknowledged there's only so much they can do by executive action, obviously they need the help of congress to codify the efforts into law. nonetheless, a lot of what you're seeing over the course of these first few days, this first week in office is the tone, a change in priorities for this president, focusing on the issues of racial equity. the topic of immigration and certainly their desire to demonstrate a national strategy as it relates to covid. i'm struck that in the course of that conversation, which i think was more than an hour long, that the news came in the final seconds there, of course, that this conversation took place, but now are told between vladimir putin, the russian president, and president joe biden, there jen psaki herself wasn't even certain that the call had been completed but she knew that it was taking place and had prepared what she would say if asked about it. and there was a dramatically

different way of communicating to vladimir putin, demonstrated by this white house, that psaki said in her prepared remarks that, among other things, that he would be confronting vladimir putin on the issue of the hacks on federal government and other american companies. on the bounties on the heads of american soldiers serving overseas, on the treatment of the opposition leader alexei navalny and of course on the interference in the u.s. election. that in spite of everything we focused on is one significant difference in tone and treatment of one of our foreign adversaries we just heard from this white house. >> sure. all right, but let's go on the substance of what i think most people are -- who are watching want to understand more of and that is the issue of the vaccines. >> yeah. >> what does the white house know about our vaccine supply because it does seem as if they're very -- they have the data in hand. when they needed it to rebut something in the state of florida. but then there was a hesitance about -- well, we're only six days in, there's only so much we don't know. you know, i feel like they're

either cherry picking data that makes it look good, or they don't have the data, or they're not ready to share it. do you feel like you have a better understanding? >> well, i think -- i tried to get that answer out of jen psaki, asking specifically about a series of sort of competing comments we've heard from dr. fauci and president biden relating to herd immunity. fauci said at some point this fall. the president said yesterday he was hopeful it would begin happening this summer but i also asked her on the vaccine stockpile right now, remember both jen psaki and the cdc director in the course of the last 24 to 48 hours, neither could say how much vaccine was in the stockpile as a way of sort of taking a whack at the past administration, but also talking about just the depth of the challenges that they're facing right now. she didn't have an answer to that. the best answer she provided is that we would hear from the president in the 4:00 hour, i think 4:45 this afternoon delivering remarks on covid

relief and on their efforts to combat the pandemic. i think there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on that right now. she said that when you're president, you're allowed to be hopeful but yesterday one of the things raised eyebrows joe biden was promising 100 shots in the arm, yesterday he said 1.5 million a day, she said he never said that was his goal, just his hope. certainly a lot of americans are hoping those hopes turn into real action. >> boy, the fact that there is a lot of caveats right now with all things having to do with the vaccine distribution and what we know, i think, shows you that we're just as confused at the end of this day right now, perhaps there will be more clarification from the president himself when he hear from him. peter alexander, thank you. let me move over to trymaine lee. and, you know, trymaine, if you needed a powerful reminder of how temporary executive actions are, just look at the transgender military -- the

transgender ban. here's something that i think barack obama thought wouldn't happen, and then it did, the fact of the matter is, when you sign an executive order, it is a temporary and sometimes it's an aspirational document, or if it's a real change in the government it is still only temporary in case someone else changes it. so what did you hear today that was the most tangible advancement of racial justice and racial equality? >> that's a tough question, chuck, but as you say what can be done by executive order can quickly be undone by executive order and there is an impuls to dismiss some of this, but perhaps not since the administration of lyndon johnson we heard a president or his administration really center equity and domestic policy adviser susan rice that equity will be at the center of every department. she broke down the systemic and constitutional nature of racism in this country. i think there are a number of things, you think about $1.9 trillion proposed to be

spent on black and brown communities for covid response. you think about the restoring of fair housing efforts that were repealed by donald trump. the end of doj contracts with private prisons, all promising. but again, if we understand the nature of racism in this country, to be baked in, we also need to bake in solutions legislatively. let's hear susan rice. she touched on this a little bit. let's take a listen to exactly what she had to say. >> there will be areas where legislative actions are the best and most durable approach. there will be some instances where in advance of legislation and efforts to achieve legislation it's wise to take executive action. so i don't think we should assume that by doing something by executive action, and where it may also be appropriate to seek legislation, that we wouldn't do it. >> chuck, what is most promising, if anything at all, right, it's the acknowledgment of what it really is. and that's a pretty low bar when

you think about, you know, the american understanding of racism and the role it plays, guiding folks from life to death but instead they really seem to be responding to those folks who say, our votes weren't symbolic so we don't want symbolic gestures, really make equity central to what you plan on doing and this may be a first step. until there is legislation and baked and codified legally this could be like leaves in the air. they may look nice but they're fragile. >> trymaine, what is the test for you, what's the test piece of legislation, you know, to me it's about what elbow grease, are they putting in. voting rights act, what is the elbow grease you're looking for? >> voting rights have to be solved, section 5 gutted and we saw state after state implementing higher and higher barriers to the franchise for black folks. i would like to see a return to the consent decree days of

barack obama when they really were offering not just a tool for police departments who felt like there were some issues but a lever of accountability. when you see the nature of racism playing out so violently in our streets every single day in this country and that the consent decree process was jeff sessions blew up on his way out, a return to engaging with the cars system. meted out by police and this nature of censoring et cetera. that will be the measure, most tangible. there's been disparities in education, criminal justice system, housing, voting, the entire machine needs a solid review. it's been rolling along in such a disparate way for so long. >> what you bring up on the consent decrees that will be much on the shoulders ofmer rick

garland. thanks, trymaine lee, appreciate it. we've got a lot more to get to. but we're going to sneak in a quick commercial break and we'll be right back.

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welcome back. let's get right to nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel who was able to talk with dr. anthony fauci. so, richard, curious what your

angle was with dr. fauci, what did you hear? >> so, we just finished our conversation. we spoke for about half an hour and it was almost exclusively about viral mutations. what they mean and how they change the pandemic we're facing right now. in many ways, it is like we are restarting this fight against the pandemic. the next few months are going to be perhaps the most difficult ever. there are at least he said two known viral strains in the united states. the uk variant, which is doing so much damage here in london and in the uk. and the brazilian strain and he said the brazilian strain is quite similar to the south african strain and it appears to be both a fast spreader and has some ability to avade antibodies. this is a difficult time. but he said the main solution, the best solution is to

vaccinate as soon as possible. that the best way to protect against these variants and other variants emerging is to vaccinate quickly. but then i pressed him i said, well, a lot of americans want to get vaccinated, but it is a complicated process. it is a slow process. why aren't the refrigerated trucks rolling down the street and a mass mobilization campaign like we've seen in the past and like we've seen in other countries. he said frankly it's a supply issue that there just aren't enough doses right now to do that kind of campaign. to open up the stadiums and send the refrigerated trucks down the streets but that he hopes the supply is going to come online. so, it was about variants and how they changed the equation. he said it makes the equation much more difficult, but it is not impossible if people vaccinate as fast as possible. >> hey, richard, i'm curious. the global vaccine supply issue seems to me that something, i

mean, you know we're barely functional still in this country and trying to get our arms around the national supply. i know the european union is having a problem trying to guarantee a supply of vaccine in the next couple of months. how, i mean, just how you've been reporting, you know, how dire is our global vaccines supply? >> it's pretty dire because right now we have very wealthy countries that are fighting over it. just today it's been playing out between the uk and the european union over vaccine supplies. and most african countries, many latin american countries have not started at all. and that is bad for those countries and it's bad for everyone because the more virus that is out there, the more trillions and trillions of viral particles out there, the more likelihood that you're going to have even more mutations.

so, that's why it's important to vaccinate people, to reduce the mass, the quantity of the virus out there to both contain it and prevent it from mutaing further. but supply is a problem. >> we may think we're getting back to normal some time in this country in the fall, but the globe it's going to be probably longer than that. richard engel reporting in london. thank you. thank you all for being with us this hour. back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." ♪ ♪ 2020's done a new era has begun so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com

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good afternoon, i'm katy tur. 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in washington and where over the course of the next hour, we're going to see the biden presidency collide with the aftermath of the trump era. as the new president focuses on governing in the critical early days of his administration, a new democratic majority on capitol hill is putting his