if it's thursday the department of homeland security warns of a threat of more political violence from domestic extremists as speaker pelosi warns the enemy is in the house of representatives. and as more republicans turn a blind eye to the former president's incitement of mob violence at the capitol. plus, congresswoman marjorie taylor greene faces a growing backlash for reportedly liking social media posts in recent years that called for violence against prominent democrats. our reporter with our nbc affiliate was threatened with arrest last night at a town hall for simply asking a public servant paid for with taxpayer dollars a question about it. and amid the raging pandemic and issues with vaccine

distribution, president biden is set to speak later this hour as he signs some executive orders aimed at expanding americans' access to health care. welcome to thursday, it is "meet the press daily," i'm chuck todd, the threat of political violence which fueled the siege on the capitol just 22 days ago remains a real and present danger. yesterday the department of homeland security issued a terrorism advisory alert warning of a heightened threat environment across the united states following the successful presidential inauguration, which makes recent actions by republicans, particularly those in leadership positions, all the more troubling. in recent days they found ways to embrace and defend trump, even though he himself incited the political violence. it is a stark contrast with how

gop leaders and some of the rank and file acted in the immediate aftermath of the capitol attack when they signalled that they'd had enough of trump, and that they were eager to break his hold on the party and actually, for once, attempt to hold him accountable. >> the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack on congress by mob rioters. he should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. >> the mob was fed lies. they were provoked by the president and other powerful people. and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like. >> trump and i, look, we've had a hell of a journey. i hate it being this way. oh, my god, i hate it. from my point of view he's been a consequential president. but today, first thing you'll see. all i can say is count me out,

enough is enough. i've tried to be helpful. >> well, that was, like i said, all the way back of 22 whole days ago. now the house republican leader kevin mccarty think is begging for a meeting with donald trump today. in an effort to get back in his good graces. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell voted to support the impeachment trial unconstitutional. senator lindsey graham is actively helping the president with his trial defense and even found him a lawyer and more alarmingly the republican party is dealing with the fallout involving this qanon backer marjorie taylor greene after cnn reported she'd made several social media posts in support of political violence against some democrats. abc news has not verified those posts and they have since been deleted. green called the cnn story, quote, a hit piece on me focused on my time before running for political office, the classic

non-denial denial, this morning speaker pelosi bluntly told reporters that she believes the threat facing the u.s. house comes from within. >> we will probably need a supplemental for more security for members when the enemy is within the house of representatives. >> what exactly did you mean when you said the enemy is within, what exactly do you mean by that? >> it means we have members of congress that want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence against other members of congress. >> folks, it is a difficult thing to say but recent actions and inactions from republicans in congress risk them becoming known as the party that is actively embracing political violence. that's unfortunate to say, but given the actions of particularly of the current house republican leadership what other conclusion can you come to? joining me now from capitol hill is nbc's leann -- leigh ann

caldwell, and nbc news political analyst carlos corbello. leanne, we heard from speaker pelosi. i'm curious, you know, i know that there are some house republicans who are embarrassed and ashamed about what happened on january 6th and were very upset with kevin mccarthy and how he handled things, and that is what apparently motivated him to speak so eloquently on january 7th on the house floor. only to retreat and now he's at mar-a-lago right now. is this -- did he decide there are more people upset with him for criticizing trump than are upset with him for taking a stand on violence in the capitol? >> that seems to be the position that mccarthy is taking at this point. he's had about three different positions on trump's role since the insurrection, of course as you mentioned first condemning

the president and now saying that everyone in the entire country has some responsibility for it. and now he's down in mar-a-lago as we speak meeting with the president -- or former president. the republican party is two things, they are lost and they are divided. and those are two things that are going to be very problematic for them moving forward. mccarthy, i'm told, from several republicans that they are really looking for leadership and they feel like they're not getting it from mccarthy. yesterday during a conference call with his members he told his members to stop sniping at each other but that was the most that he said about these deep divisions that are happening within the party and i want to say, chuck, about marjorie taylor greene, ever since january 6th i have emailed or texted his office three times asking what they are going to do about her regarding committee assignments and i have not yet received one response and so it looks like mccarthy is choosing

the party of trump, perhaps to his detriment. we'll wait and see. >> i'm curious, leigh ann, what have you learned from mr. mccarthy's office ant matt gaetz. he is actively harassing liz cheney, doing exactly what supposedly kevin mccarthy asked members of the conference not to do, not to attack fellow members, not to name check them. he is proactively doing this, flying to wyoming, creating a stir. and perhaps putting her in a bit more danger by surfacing this event so much. is he going to get any sort of reprimand here from kevin mccarthy? >> not at this moment. mccarthy has been silent on matt gaetz other than generally telling the conference yesterday to stop attacking one another. but as far as liz cheney is concerned, just a week ago he said at his press conference

that he absolutely supports liz cheney being conference chair and then on some shows over the weekend he said that there were some things that she did wrong. and so he is obviously paging to pressure, polling pressure, political pressure to really have this double standard and not take a clear stance on what is -- where the party stands and it's leaving a lot of members very confused, especially some of these newer members who don't know what the heck is going on. >> we hope kevin mccarthy will come to a legitimate news outlet to speak, he has yet to do that on any of the networks, he's only gone on a comfortable cocoon in a comfortable cable place so we shall see. leigh ann, thanks very much. blayne alexander, in marjorie taylor greene's district.

saying she got 75% of the vote, can we say 75% of the folks in this district that are qanon believers and calling for this violence and things like this, what do we really believe is her base in this district? >> reporter: sure. i don't think that's the case, chuck, but i will say among the people we've spoken to, the people who support her, support her. there is some strong support. just to kind of answer your question, i spoke with somebody who says he's about as conservative as they come. he's been in rome for generations. he's an attorney here and he told me that he voted for her, he supported her then, he supports her now. but i asked him specifically, do you support that type of language? do you support those types of posts, do you support and kind of ticked down the list of things that have come to light. he says no he doesn't think it has a place in politics, period, but he absolutely supports her and wants to give her a chance in congress. it really has kind of been a mixed bag among the people we've spoken to, chuck, one thing that's really stuck out to me is that many people, whether they are for her or very strongly

against her do not seem phased in the least by these facebook posts. remember, this is not a very strong departure from the way she's been doing all along. people in northwest georgia are very familiar with her, familiar with her as a candidate and her few months in congress as well. this isn't a grand departure from what they've heard from her all along. essentially it strengthens their position how they feel about her. take a listen to what one voter has to say. >> what would you say to her in light of the facebook posts, in light of the coronavirus and concern around her. what would you say? >> forget the damn facebook, go up there and do your job and represent the people of northwest georgia. >> do those posts change your opinion of her, the fact that you voted for her? >> no. >> so you still support her, completely? >> at this point, yes. >> reporter: so you heard him there, chuck, he said forget the facebook, yes, leave that alone, that's not consequential, but

focus on what we sent you to washington for, but again he said his support is not wavering. we spoke with one other voter wo told she she likes here because she believes she's, quote, a fighter and seeing these posts shows she's willing to speak her mind no matter what is on her mind. i spoke with somebody who wanted to run against her as a libertarian, he plans to challenge her again when she runs for reelection. he said quite simply he doesn't believe as somebody who's lived here quite some time that she represents his values, chuck. >> yeah, might be the only way to upend her, though, is to run on the libertarian line somebody who espouses that ideology. but perhaps not the violence that goes with it. blayne alexander in north georgia for us, thank you. let me bring in carlos corbello, a former republican member of congress. carlos, we've talked about this issue for some time. it does feel as if every single republican leader stares at this

choice. i can lose with donald trump, or i can lose without donald trump. but either way, it's usually lose. it's just you delay your -- you delay the pain on -- if you take one path, versus the other. you know, i know where you stand on this. but what do you do if you're sitting there, what would you be asking of kevin mccarthy right now? >> well, chuck, what a lot of members are asking of kevin mccarthy. for example, a lot of members believe that congresswoman green should receive the steve king treatment. last congress kevin mccarthy had enough with steve king. his violent language, his inappropriate words and actions. and he kicked him off committees. and campaigned against him in his primary, and steve king was defeated, a lot of mainstream and centrist republicans are asking republican leaders to do the same with congresswoman

green because they view her as a real threat to the institution and to the party. the problem that these leaders have, chuck, is that they are stuck in the middle of a battle of the purges. you have the trump wing of the party, wanting to purge those who have stood up to the president's lies. who have refused to follow him and then of course you have the establishment wing of the party, wanting to purge the party of trump. right now it's clear that the trump wing is dominant and that's why these leaders are vacillating. >> so is it really possible that there will be zero accountability for donald trump when all is said and done here about january 6th, and do you really think that is a long-term, sustainable strategy for the survival of the republican party as we know it? >> it's certainly not a long-term, sustainable strategy and the leaders know it, chuck, the leaders know it. but the problem is they have to balance their own short form political interests and thereby ability as leaders with these

long-term interests for the party. i think leader mcconnell has been a lot more explicit about what the future should look like. i think in the house it's a lot more challenging because trump actually has a lot of support in these districts. in terms of accountability i think you are going so see, chuck, a big push for many republicans if the president is not convicted in the senate to censure the president. there's a lot of momentum for that, dozens and dozens of house republicans would vote for that so that would be a measure of accountability. >> all right, you brought it up. but carlos, i haven't seen it. to me, it's a huge difference than what i witnessed in the late '90s with bill clinton. you know who drove the censure idea, it was democrats who said, hey, impeachment's too far, let's try this. i don't see any republicans owning censure. it's tim kaine that's out there doing it, susan collins is kind

of helping him but there isn't a republican saying this is what we should do, there isn't a leader of that wing. is it that scary to even stand up and say you want to do that? >> definitely, chuck, look, almost any republican who censures donald trump, who criticizes him openly is going to have a primary challenge and it could very end their careers. a lot of these -- the ten members who voted for impeachment believe today there was a piece on adam kinzinger, the post yesterday, he believes his career is probably over. so it is a tough choice. except that what's at stake here is a lot more important than any one person's political career, it's the viability, the safety, the security of our democracy. >> all right. but let me just -- let me just dip into pure game theory here, carlos, donald trump has never been weaker in this moment. if you were ever going to throw him overboard, it is now -- he

has been deplatformed, you couldn't be farther away from your personal filing deadline, you know, whatever the member is. i look at it, if they're afraid of him now, when he has no weapons at his disposal, either rhetorical or government or whatever, they're never going to hold him accountable. i guess they're just going to go down with this ship, no. >> it could well be the case. leader mcconnell clearly was trying to build momentum for purging the party of donald trump. of course that night, the 6th of january, there was a lot of momentum for that effort among republicans. but they look at the numbers, they see the polling, although the former president's numbers have fallen with republican voters. his approval ratings are still very high, so a lot of these people are just acting in self-interest. and long term it's probably going to be very painful for the party, and unfortunately for our

entire democracy. >> yeah, well it's that second part that i think we're all -- you and i in particular are in a panic of, it's why more people don't see how this is a threat to the democracy itself is a bit frustrating. carlos corbello, former member of congress from south florida, good to see you and i have to tell you, for a guy, you know, correspondence, we have to do outdoor live shots and they have helped, it's a pretty good job you did there, you held your camera steady, all of that. >> i'm working on it. >> i want to give you some kudos there. your shot didn't vibrate at all. good work, sir. >> thank you, chuck, have a good day. >> you got it. up ahead with the chance of a bipartisan deal on covid getting increasingly slimmer, will senate democrats push ahead with a partisan bill? democratic senator ben cardin joins me with the latest on those negotiations. and new data that shows everywhere in america is a high risk zone for covid-19 and that south african variant of the virus that may be dodging some

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welcome back, brian deese is speaking with senate democrats with the white house covid relief bill. republicans have already voiced opposition to president biden's $1.9 trillion proposal calling it among other things too expensive and the white house is dismissing the idea of splitting the relief bill into two packages, with one being a trimmed down version that can find ten republicans to support it in the senate and of course the harder stuff you do, via budget reconciliation. jen psaki tweeted quickly morning after playbook floated the idea. the needs of the american people are urgent to putting food on the table to getting vaccines out the door, reopening schools, those aren't partisan issues. we are engaging in american voice, not looking to split a package in two. i'm joined by senator ben

cardin, democrat from maryland. senator, let me ask you about that idea one more time because to me it seems like -- and this goes back -- you're a veteran of the old days of washington where -- and i think so is joe biden where those in the opposition sometimes get frustrated, hey there's 70% of your bill i would have voted for if you had given a chance to vote for just that 70%. give me a chance to do that. why can't you pursue both at the same time? take the popular stuff, carve it out, get -- let everybody be able to take some credit for what's popular in the covid relief, and then do budget reconciliation a month later for the stuff that you have to do with 50 votes, why is that not a strategy to begin building trust with republicans? >> well, chuck, it's good to be with you, we certainly want a bipartisan bill and working very hard to get a bipartisan bill. the problem is, the needs are urgent and they're now. we need to get this virus under

control. so we need the money out for vaccine distribution. we need the money to help those families and businesses that are in desperate need and need additional help. we need the monies for our local governments and our school systems so they can open safely. so the -- it's urgent now, and if we let this opportunity go, we don't know when we're going to get back with another round. so i think our effort is clearly a bipartisan effort. but we really need to address the size of the problem that we have. >> well, i guess what i don't get is why can't both things you just said there be true, get your bipartisan bill, and if you believe there's other urgent needs use budget reconciliation, literally two weeks later, and you might actually get some money out the door faster than waiting for budget reconciliation, in a weird way doesn't this present you with an opportunity to basically do what you're advocating, get money out the door faster, then also be able to meet the needs that you

think you can't get bipartisan support for just a few weeks later? >> if there's an opportunity to get something done bipartisan, we'll take advantage of that. my guess is that the republicans are going to want to have certain assurances on the use of reconciliation. but no question, we want to get as much done as we possibly can but we have to act as quickly as possible. >> what is the -- how would you describe the level of patience among democrats for bipartisan outreach? and i say this because, as an observer myself, i'm thinking, with all of the -- of all of what we've watched about the lack of accountability being tossed at former president trump for his role in the insurrection, when you hear complaints from republicans about, hey, joe biden's not reaching across the aisle enough, when we still have that in our background from 22 days

ago, has that -- how much has that poisoned the ability to work across the aisle in your view? >> well, first of all, joe biden is an experienced legislator so he understands how negotiations take place in the united states senate. he also understands that since mid-may we've been trying -- we were trying to get a second covid package done and we couldn't get anything done until the last moment before we adjourned. so we need deadlines. and the deadline is now. we can come together in a bipartisan way. it's not going to make any difference whether we do it this week, next week or the following week. we need a deadline, got to get it done and the deadline is the urgency of this virus, the impact it's having on our american families, health care system, our economy, we need action now. let's listen to each other. i'm willing to compromise. i think the president's willing to compromise. but we need to have a sense of urgency because the needs out there are so great.

>> is it fair to say that congressional democrats have a bit less patience than president biden might? >> i don't know about that. you know, the bill we passed have certain deadlines in it. unemployment benefits end in mid-march. we have certain programs here that end at certain dates. the last package was meant to be a bridge to the biden administration. so i think we have patience up to a point, but we don't want to see a gap in those who can't find employment getting their enhanced unemployment benefits. we don't want to see local governments have to lay off workers, and we certainly want to get this virus under control and we want to get the vaccine fairly distributed. so we are impatient about dealing with the issue but we certainly want to do everything we can to reach out to our republican colleagues. we think they share the same priorities we do, this is an american concern, it's not really a partisan issue. >> very quickly, i know that your colleague tim kaine is

working on a censure resolution, do you believe you could bar donald trump from ever holding any office via a censure resolution, or do you think the only way is via impeachment and conviction? >> well, i think we can impose sanctions on president trump, whether we can bar him from running for office, there's another provision that you know in the constitution about the conduct that he participated in, could bar him from future offices. so i think we can express ourselves. look, we'll have a trial starting in two weeks. we'll see how that trial goes. i hope at the end of the day that we take advantage of every opportunity we have to bring closure to this issue and reach a broader consensus and hold the president accountable for his actions. >> senator ben cardin, democrat from maryland, appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us, sir. we are expecting president biden to deliver some remarks as he signs today the executive

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addressing pandemic health care disparities in just a few minutes and will also reopen the obamacare exchanges. the first case of that south african variant showed up in south carolina this morning and even before that new development, no matter where you live in the united states it is very likely you're either at a very high risk of contracting covid or just an extremely high risk of contracting covid. it's a carry map our friends at the "new york times" put out. see any areas that aren't high or extremely high. there are extremely high risk areas in the united states, the majority of americans live in a purple country if you look at it this way. if you don't live in a purple county you most likely live in a red one. the u.s. has taken a clear step backward since the fall. low and moderate risk areas we've seen in september have all but disappeared. and joining me is dr. osterholm,

he's on the covid advisory committee for president biden's transition team. he's been warning us for months we were nowhere out of the woods, and here we are. it's good to talk to you, let me start with this new variant, the south african -- that we first found from south africa, why it's deemed the south african variant, this is the one that dr. fauci has said there's concern it could be ducking the vaccine, if you will. what should we be doing right now in this country to mitigate the risk of this variant spreading? >> well, thank you, chuck, for having me. let me just say there's actually more than one variant that may actually duck the vaccine or our natural protection we get from having had infection. also the one from brazil is of grave concern to us at the same

time. and as you know the variant that we've been talking about from the united kingdom, the uk variant which surely is increasing cases really these together have really changed the entire picture of the covid-19 pandemic. i think we're now in by far the most dangerous period in the pandemic period that we've ever had. i think the next six to 14 weeks could clearly see the increasing cays that we've never seen before and of course we are concerned about the fact that will our vaccines work? i think they will right now. but i think what we're in for in terms of total number of new cases is going to be staggering. >> there's a lot of talk that double masking is going to become a cdc recommendation, where are you on this and would you be providing this guidance to people if asked? >> well, first of all, let me just say that we should have had efforts a long time ago to

provide really the highly efficient and effective kinds of respiratory protection, namely these n-95 masks or respirators and it's unfortunate that we still need to reserve these for our health care workers and that's a huge challenge. in terms of using the face cloth coverings doubling them, we need to be very careful about that. that may be counterproductive, not helpful. we know and i'm not an arrow biologist but we know in fact they may impede the movement of air in and out causing it to actually escape in the big crevice between the cloth and your face. that's a bigger problem, not lesser problem than one. >> so i deally we need more americans in these n-95s or k-95s solo and it sounds like what you're saying is that's where we dropped the ball s country and we never ramped that aspect up? >> right. so we can't get there now. the next six to 14 weeks,

they're already in the history books with regard to the kinds of respiratory protection. my key message is what we want people to do is wear something, meaning it's like cover your cough with a tissue. right now that's what we're trying to do. and so if you have people wearing the masks under their nose, it's uncomfortable have a double mask so you don't wear them correctly. all of those will make the transmission worse. remember the way a mask works, it's fit and filter. meaning in a swim goggle, or a swim mask, how often do you see a leak in the lens. it leeks in the seal around it. in terms of the cloth, if you get too thick of cloth, the air doesn't move through it efficiently, you feel suffocating and the air moves inside and outside of the cracks. we have to be careful about people making recommendations right now about double masking and so forth without the data to support that that's the most effective way to reduce the amount of virus that any one of us puts into the environment.

>> let me ask you about the vaccine race. if we had a reliable way to quickly test people for antibodies, would you be recommending that we put anybody with antibodies at the back of the line and try to vaccine people without any antibodies first? >> all those are real options, and even to the fact of postponing doses. later than the second dose, three to four weeks, i know that's not popular. people have said that's not the science. but the more we look into the immune system that you have, and when you do vaccinate people, there are a number of prominent immunologists that say we might actually do better if we didn't vaccinate until weeks later, not three or four weeks later. i know that's controversial but right now what we're heading into over the next six to 14 weeks, chuck, remember we're at a baseline of 150,000 cases a day, people think, wow, that's a lot better than 300,000. with these new variants,

particularly the uk variant, chuck, we could blow way past 300,000 in the next six to 14 weeks. we need to put everything on the table. the current vaccine will not get us there as we are currently using it. if we even hit 100 million doses by the end of march, not 100 days, but 65 days from inauguration, that's still only protecting about 12% of the u.s. population. this virus will still have plenty of people to infect. so i think right now everything needs to be on the table. >> i was just going to say, and i almost want to reiterate what you just said there. if you could -- sounds like you're giving this recommendation, hey, should we drastically rethink our vaccine distribution plan? and essentially it sounds like you're saying inoculate everybody that you can once first, as fast as possible? >> yeah, you know, i know this is going to be heavily criticized because others have come out and i actually originally said, no, we've got to get both doses but as a

number of us have looked to really some of the most -- skilled and well-known immunologists, people who study the immune system will tell you with vaccines you know what you may actually do better vaccinating and then revaccinating many more weeks later than three or four weeks. remember, that whole schedule was put together to get the vaccine licensed. with the crisis coming down the pike. in october i said to you the darkest days were ahead, i'm telling you the darkest of the darkest days are yet ahead. so i think everything needs to be on the table right now. >> all right. i hope everybody in washington just listened to this, and we'll make sure the internet knows what you're saying as well. dr. michael osterholm, appreciate your expertise. >> thank you. as we await remarks from president biden on the issue of health care access the white house is in a race against the clock to get more vaccines into

more people's arms amid this spread of the mutant strains we were just talking about. the new administration is also trying to address the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on communities of color and their access to vaccines. and that's been an issue. so joining me now is my colleague antonia hilton in monterey, california where we see a huge disparity, farm and food workers, who have been deemed essential, are also expressing concern over how far vaccination. and tony, i know this is also hitting -- you're seeing, there's grocery stores giving out vaccine, they're not even vaccinating their own workers in florida. to see this, essential worker issue, in california, how alarming is it to local folks there? >> chuck, this is at the top of everyone i've spoken to's minds. for food and farm workers here in this part of california they've been told since the very beginning of this crisis, that they are essential and now that the vaccine is here they say

they don't feel like people are suddenly treating them like they are. they hear officials both from the biden administration down to california state leadership say we want to emphasize racial equity in the vaccine rollout, but those ideals aren't being reflected yet on the ground here. many counties in california are still emphasizing the need to vaccinate the elderly so people ages 65 or 75 and up but in young latino immigrant communities, most high risk essential workers are not being captured in that age group and, in fact, they're being told by their doctors and nurses that we may not get around to vaccinating agricultural workers for a couple more weeks or even a couple more months and this is immensely frustrating for them. take a listen to this conversation i had with ro helioponce jr., he's a farm worker and owns his hen independent farm. take a listen to this. >> i totally agree that first responders and doctors should have the vaccine. but our employees are like our

community. we work together. and i hope that they get that same value as someone else because just as you need a doctor or just as you need a firefighter to protect you, you need to protect your food source, you know, and so i really hope that they don't get forgotten. >> reporter: you know, chuck, something really fascinating that i also learned this week from a nurse who works at a clinic not far from rogelio's farm there, she's seeing workers coming off the farm in their 30s, they have the health of being in the 70s. they're exposed to pesticides. and she pointed this out to me, people at the federal level think they're doing the right thing. she understands it's hard to if i recollect out who's most essential but she's worried the people don't understand the

conditions in a communities like this one and that farm workers will be forgotten. >> and probably have not gotten adequate health care and some of them don't even know perhaps that they have comorbidities that would put them in the front of the line as well. anyway, antonia hylton on the ground for us in monterey, california. i want to bring in dr. blackstock to discuss this more. you know, the vaccine distribution story, it's very -- on one hand we're worried about communities of color rejecting the vaccine. on the other hand communities of color are not getting the frontline access they deserve. i mean, it's just -- i feel like we're in a terrible spot here that feels as if it's very difficult to get out of. >> yeah, thanks for having me, chuck. so, you know, definitely those issues that you bring up are important. we're dealing with -- i hate to use the term vaccine hesitancy.

we need targeted public health messaging and outreach and we also need to make sure we have acceptable vaccination sites in black communities, latin "x" communities and communities of color. we have hospitals and pharmacies where we know communities of color have pharmacy deserts. we need to get vaccines into community centers, into schools and into other accessible points of access for people. >> well, i mean, i could just tell you, just an experience i know of -- well, i have to interrupt you, dr. blackstock because president biden is about to begin his event on health care. and let's turn it over to him. undo the damage trump has done. there's nothing new that we're doing here other than restoring the affordable care act and restoring the medicaid to the way it was before trump became

president which i feel that he made it more difficult for people to qualify for either of those two items, the affordable care act or medicaid. and the second order i'm going to be signing also changes what the president has done -- the president, the former president has done. and a memorandum to reverse my predecessor's attack on women's health -- excuse me, health access and as we continue to battle covid-19. even more critical that americans have meaningful access to health care. and so that's what i'm about to do. and again, i'm not initiating any new law, any new aspect of the law. this is going back to what the situation was prior to the president's executive orders. and the first one i'm going to be signing here is strength in

medicaid and affordable care act. of all times that we need to reinstate access to affordability of and extent of access to medicaid is now in the middle of this covid crisis. and the second order i'm signing relates to protecting women's health at home and abroad. and it reinstates the changes that were made to title 10 and other things, making it harder for women to have access to affordable health care as it relates to their reproductive rights. i'm sorry you had to stand in the cold. >> thank you, guys. thank you.

>> we've got a lot to do. and first thing i've got to do is get this covid package passed. no one requires me to do anything. >> mr. president, when are people -- >> thank you, guys, let's go, thank you. thank you, guys. thank you. >> i have to smile there a little bit because the pool reporters trying to see if they can get bind to talk and clearly his staff trying to avoid that, and president biden snuck in a couple of comments there. but was pretty much disciplined. i believe dr. blackstock is still with us here. and i want to talk about -- i'm just going to talk about my own experience in florida where i have a home county of my mother, this is a county that is now more diverse today, it's seminole county, florida, and

there is one vaccination site in the entire county and it's a county that's become more diverse but the leadership of the county perhaps is not as diverse. and i have a feeling, dr. blackstock, this is in a lot of counties like this, where the population is very diverse but the access to the vaccine sites are lopsided. how do we fix that? >> so absolutely, you're right, it's across the country. and so this is why we need federal oversight at the state and local levels to ensure that state and local leadership is using an equity lens in how they are rolling out this vaccine process. we need to look at -- we need the data, first of all, we need to make sure state and local governments are reporting the data on who is receiving the vaccine by race and ethnicity as well as by zip code and income and then we need to have targeted efforts, that are directed, using that data. and we need accountability.

and so really what there should be and i think the biden/harris administration has suggested this but we need a public facing dash board that has all of this data updated in realtime so we can see what's going on, we have transparency and accountability. >> i want to ask about the other issue that i brought up at the beginning of our chat, and that is vaccine hesitancy. hank aaron's death created a bit of a firestorm among the anti-vaccer community. they have since put out his cause of death was natural causes. how big of an impact did that -- did those horrible rumors have on your ability to convince communities of color to take this vaccine? >> well, i don't know the magnitude but i know it definitely did not help any of that misinformation is incredibly detrimental to the

scientific messaging we're trying to get out there to communities and we really are battling a significant amount of misinformation and disinformation about vaccines which is why we need an expansive pbl health messaging campaign targeted to black communities and other communities of color to dispel the myths and to answer concerns that people have which are justified about the vaccine and. and we need to see that like yesterday. it should have been done for months and we're months behind. >> do you have a since, i think the intention is there with the new team, but do they -- is this going to be -- they have to do a bunch of things immediately. they are advocating for turning all of the vaccine distribution

into a delay. >> it's not going to happen overnight. they were left with a mess and it will take a little more time than we expected. but they have a national strategy and they have a plan. and so i feel confident that it is going to happen. our goal is to get as many people as possible vaccinated by summer. and i this i that is possible but we have to be very intentional and make sure that we use an equity lens in the process. >> up next, drama unfolds while small investors stop the system. .

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and discover all the ways to shop. go pro at subway® for double the protein on footlong subs and the new protein bowls. and if you want to go pro like marshawn, don't let anything get in your way. here we go! yeah, appreciate you, man! go pro and get double the protein for just $2 more. welcome back, something crazy is happening on washington right now. legalized gambling has gotten out of hand. let's bring in stephanie ruhle. i heard the options market was the only legal gambling. gamestop, it is reddit users versus the hedge funds, someone is going to lose their shirt, how is it not the little guy?

>> listen, you know we're going to find out. it's amazing how this is playing out and you have to give credit to the little guy because you never see individuals like this pooling together and rocking the system, disrupting the establish ment. but you saw the same thing with $10 donations putting bernie sanders in the nominations. it's not necessarily a take down of goliath. you better make sure they're not breathing because mostlyly he is. this is complicated. while people may have made a lot of money on paper in the last few days we don't know how this will turn out and while everyone is furious at robinhood saying

why don't you let us trade. they can't process all of this. >> let me go back to my original comment -- >> i will say this. >> could options themselves, could this be how washington steps in and is like you know what? this should be illegal, pure and simple. >> okay, chuck, you just said the best thing. it's not necessarily let's stop options selling, but it's rich to watch lawmakers scream and yell and say shame on you. when this is over, we mayconduc will do anything illegal. they did bad things but they didn't break the law. this goes back to the lawmakers, right? they're the ones that set the rules, right? these firms have lawyers and

their lawyers have lawyers. it's unfortunate that these things turn out this way. i know that books robinhood is fun and easy. but we will look at this afterand we'll say maybe some of this trading should not happen to begin with. should we allow people to just naked bet against a u.s. company? maybe not. >> you can predict the score of the super bowl and gamble with that. get out of the stock market and stop messing with mentions. someone -- mentions. it is not the small guy, it's not the big guy, it is someone with a pension that needs it. tt or on any new protein bowl! so many ways to go pro at subway®! it's not amateur-tein, it's pro-tein, baby!

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