with alex witt." we're beginning with the calls for margie taylor greene firing up. as old video surface of her qanon conspiracy theories, calling for the execution of prominent democrats over social media, promoting anti-semitic and racist tropes and questioning the reality of mass shootings. today the calls for her ouster are growing, including from congresswoman cori bush, who said she had to move her office away from the georgia lawmaker after she claims greene berated her in the halls of congress. >> what i cannot do is continue to look over my shoulder wondering if a white supremacist in congress by the name of marjorie taylor greene or anyone else, because there are others, that they are doing something or conspireing against us. >> and this as the second impeachment trial of donald trump is looming. his legal team faces a tuesday deadline to answer the

impeachment article. and while a conviction seems more unlikely by the day, this morning house democratic caucus chair hakeem jeffries said it's not impossible. >> let's also keep in mind that the senate floor is not just going to be a courtroom, it is a crime scene, and that the individual senators are not just jurors, they were victims and witnesses to the crimes that took place on that particular day and have seen in compelling fashion as you have shown your viewers thereafter. so i believe there are enough senators who objectively could make up their minds to convict. some certainly we can write off like ted cruz and josh hawley. but i'm not prepared to write all of them off. >> and at the white house, president biden is gearing up to take on his main legislative priority next week, covid relief. but will he stay true to his bipartisan promise, or will democrats go at it alone?

our nbc news correspondents are covering all of today's developments for you. let's start with marianne sotomayor on capitol hill. congress is facing a crisis over safety concerns. how is republican congresswoman greene at the center of it all? >> alex, ever since the january 6th insurrection, there are growing tensions, a lot from both sides of justice unsettled. a lot of this from democrats who fear for their safety and fear as you mentioned, fear being inside their offices. congresswoman cori bush accusing congresswoman taylor greene of attacking her in the hallway after just wearing a mask, something greene and a number of republicans do not abide by here, especially on the house side. but this just comes as you already did mention in that preview, it's just another example of greene's -- how she

just continues to attack democrats. there was that video that was a nurse earlier this week where she called for the death of speaker nancy pelosi and other democrats and this is following a string of anti-semitics as well as racist remarks. democrats are just saying this needs to be tapped down. they describe it as a cancer who could potentially keep growing if it's not stopped immediately. congressman ro khanna actually mentioned this on cnn yesterday and really hit it in a very concise way what democrats hope to see happen. take a listen. >> they should look at what she's done. she's tweeted out about assassinating leaders, threats against president obama, threats against hillary clinton. she said she didn't do that while she was in congress. who does that? in what environment can you put that stuff out on social media and still have a job? and she's really crossed the line.

i do not take it lightly to be calling for something like that but she's crossed the line in a way that is very disturbing. >> congresswoman greene is very much doubling down. she actually tweeted in a ten-part tweet thread today that she had a great with former president donald trump and she will continue to follow his lead, putting america first. so seems like she will not be changing her actions in any way way. however, she's going to be talking to minority leader kevin mccarthy next week. it's unclear what exactly is going to happen and what the result will be but, of course, you heard there from congressman ro khanna he would like to see her expelled from congress and there's a chance she could be pulled from committees, including the education committee when many democrats say she shouldn't be on, especially since she continues to attack parkland students. you remember that mass shooting. she does not believe that happened. >> i would assume anyone on the education committee would at

least have facts straight. but thank you very much, mariana, for that. we have breaking news from the capitol insurrection. new video is providing clues about a person who may have planted to pipe bombs near capitol hill. the fbi is closing in on a suspect. there is a $100,000 reward for information. and there's part of a report from nbc's pete williams >> reporter: the fbi now says the bombs were planted the night before the capitol siege between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. the videos obtained by the fbi and by "the washington post," which made them public, showed the person believed to be the suspect walking through the neighborhood wearing a gray hoodie, face mask and carrying a backpack. tz fbi said the suspect had distinkive footwear, nike air max shoe shoes, black, gray and yellow. the bombs were placed outside the democratic and republican party headquarters on capitol hill. investigators say both devices appeared to be fully functional, made out of metal pipe with a common wiped-up timer.

>> joining me now, frank figliuzzi, former director of counterterrorism and author of "the fbi way." frank, what are you hearing about this video and how much closer does it put investigators to finding the suspect? >> so my sources tell me, alex, this crowd sourcing of crime solving this decision by the fbi to go public with everything they have is resulting in very viable leads and thousands of them and they're pursuing every single one. they've told me they really want the public to key in on those nike sneakers because they're somewhat unique. they were a limited edition. not only that make and model but the color of black, gray and yellow with that make and model. and they were only sold in a limited window. now, there is this kind of black market or off-shelf market in sneakers. you can get them on ebay, but that even helps further because you might know somebody who

bought or sold them to someone suspicious. another thing they told me is these bombs were absolutely live and viable and capable of going off. you understand someone was making live bombs. it may have been the person who placed them who made them. it could be a male or female who placed them but they have access to live bombs and that's worrying law enforcement. >> you make a good point. that could be a female even in that picture. i'm looking at the picture on a larger screen here. you're not 100% sure it is a man. but the timing focused 130 days before the department of homeland security issued a national terrorism advisory warning americans violent extremists could continue to mobilize, incite or commit violence. frank, this is an advisory about americans unleashing violence on americans. does this happen often? >> this is unprecedented xtz xtz we're used to seeing advisories about an international terror

threat but this is a threat that says your neighbor, your co-worker, your family member could pose a threat to our nation's security. and that means we need to be in kind of a post 9/11 posture, alex. by that i mean remember all of the science that came up if you see something, say something xtz that's what the fbi is looking for right now. trust why are gut and your instincts and report your concerns, because we need the public's help to stop the next act of domestic terrorism. >> in that sense, frank, you have some new conspiracy charges. they have been filed against known hate members at the capitol. how effective is that in doing what you say we have to do, which is prevent further violence? >> so it's a step in the right direction. you're right, yesterday evening we saw the first conspiracy charges. they happened to be against two members of proud boys. i think you will continue to see this and even perhaps wrap up into an enterprise-like strategy of getting a group or organization that's all about violence, and that's good.

but i'm a strong advocate of a domestic terrorism law. when someone robs a bank, alex, we don't arrest them for trespass into the bank or conspiracy to trespass. they arrest them for a serious crime called bank robbery. we don't have a domestic terrorism law on the books. you can't get arrested for something called domestic terrorism. we need the consequences and heavy sentence just like there is in international terrorism because of this threat we're facing now. >> indeed. frank, stay with us, please, because i want to talk with you after this. we have more dramatic body cam, everyone. it is video from the steps of the capitol during the riot. take a look at this. yeah, that is pretty brutal. it shows rioters trampling over a woman carrying crutches, a hockey stick, trying to attack the officers those people there. let's go right to nbc's vaughn hillyard on capitol hill. vaughn, you have to ask the question about security and latest on what's happening there

today. how does it look? >> i mean, look at that footage. there's a reason in large part these fences are still standing here around the u.s. capitol complex. and it's because there is a current debate taking place about what long-term changes need to take place here in terms of security protocol. there's a debate potentially of permanent fencing around the capitol, which has never existed before. look at that footage. that footage that you are seeing that "the new york times" obtained includes a 34-year-old woman who was attempting apparently from the video, is among that crowd trying to enter the capitol building, she was trampled to death. her friend there is in the video shouting that she is being run over and that -- then yelling out she's dead. in this video you see one man, a rioter, with a crutch to attack police officers. you see another man with a hockey stick attacking police

officers, yelling we are going to kill you. one officer being dragged downstairs. for a lot of us over the last three weeks, these videos that have been coming out this clearly from body cam footage is only painting just the except to which this insurrection, you know, not only costs the lives of now seven individuals that day but alsole violence and harm that these capitol police officers endured over those hours here of that afternoon on january 6th. there are still 7,300 national guardsmen here in the district of columbia while these conversations take place as to the long-term fixes. i want to let you hear from one captain i spoke with from the national guard, because we've got to remember, this is still in the heart of a pandemic from which you have from 26 different statzs these national guard men and women here. take a listen to part of our

conversation yesterday. >> i can assure you every quarantine service member is actually provided a covid negative battle buddy who basically looks out for them to ensure they one, receive their meals and in addition to that, there's a joint task force nurse that actually reaches out to one to ensure their symptoms have worsened or gotten better. >> again, it's still a great number of individuals involved in this insurrection, including potentially that individual who laid those pipe bombs the night before that the fbi is still actively trying to identify, alex. >> i'm having trouble getting past looking at this video. it is beyond barbaric. thank you very much, vaughn, for that. frank, let's go back to you now. what is your assessment to the threat to capitol hill? how likely is it anyone would try now to pull off anything similar to the riot on january 6th? >> well, here's the challenge, security and your planning and posture should always be based

on the risk and the intelligence available. just based on the videos you just played, alex, the risk is high, the intelligence is there that this threat will continue. people are quite capable of deadly violence. so the question becomes for security and police, how hardened must this iconic symbol of our democracy become moving forward? so i don't think people are going to try something right now with national guard standing by ready to repel attacks and barricades. the question is moving forward, what do we do? i'm an advocate of balanced use of technology. if you see what's happening at the white house over the years, you see still a pedestrian walkway, right? we closed down traffic. the public can come up to a fence. but behind the scenes, there is a force ready to repel just about anything, including on the rooftops of the neighboring buildings. you're going to see something like that put in place on capitol hill. so that's the hard target. what about the members who need to travel back home to their

districts, their office space in their districts? their travel is a soft target. the capitol police have a daunting challenge on their hands. >> here's the thing, nancy pelosi said the enemy is within the house of representatives. how much is that real versus rhetoric? you talk about escalating tensions and reports capitol police need to add security with traveling members of congress. where is the reality check here? >> so i would like to be very careful about the word rhetoric because it tends to minimize or delegitimize the threat. rhetoric is what got us here. rhetoric can be violent. rhetoric can inspire and incite. some of these members of congress are absolutely part of the radicalization process. either that know that and are doing it deliberately or they don't fully grasp the impact they have on their constituency. look, i couldn't carry a gun into the capitol building as fbi

agent, i had to surrender. yet we have members of congress inciting insurrection and they're carrying a gun into their workplace. >> pretty frightening. frank figliuzzi, it's always sobering talking with you, my friend, but thank you very much. also author of the book "the fbi way." coming up next, we're going to talk with the people who voted for marjorie taylor greene. any regrets on that? and the chance enough republicans will say she has to go. go (dad vo) life doesn't give you many second chances. but a subaru can. (dad) you guys ok? (avo 1) eyesight with pre-collision braking. standard on the subaru ascent. the three-row subaru ascent. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. (avo 2) get 0% for 63 months on select new 2021 models, now through february 1st. my dvt blood clot... stayed on my mind... was another around the corner? or could it be a different story? i wanted to help protect myself.

my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. ...and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. if you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily... and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. what's around the corner could be your moment. ask your doctor about eliquis.

- [announcer] we're thrive cosmetics, we create high performance, what's around the corner could be your moment. cruelty free, 100% vegan formulas and we love that you love our products. like our award winning liquid lash extensions mascara. plus, with every product you purchase we donate to help a woman thrive. join our movement today at thrivecosmetics.com.

new today, more voices joining a chorus rebuke of freshman gop senator greene. let's go to amanda from the congresswoman's district in rome, georgia. amanda, welcome. what do voters there have to say about all of this? >> hey, alex, it's great to be with you. i have been speaking to a number

of her swenlts here in the 14th district and for those who supported her in the past in november continue to support her. they say her defense of the constitution, second amendment and overall conservative values. from those who detract from her, they tell me they're outright embarrassed by what they see. they don't want her county associated with her right now and they're ashamed of the rhetoric from conspiracy theories and false accusations she's promoting. but it's important to know these are not new. they have been long known around marjorie greene. so i had a conversation with her gop primary runoff challenger. this was her opponent back in august, which was a runoff that she won. but they agreed on a lot of the same shared values but he told me he warned gop leadership about her extremist views and said this isn't where he wanted the republican party to move forward. i want you to listen to some of the exchange how he feels the

overall insurrection of the capitol provoked a lot more of the scrutiny we're now seeing, even though he saw the initial warnings. take a listen. >> i think the republican party needs to be firm and condemn speech like this and say we just cannot tolerate people spouting mistruths or subscribing to conspiracyies that are antithetical to our constitution or reality. i love the folks the northwest georgia and they elected her, and they elected her because they're sick and tired of what's going on in d.c. and they felt someone like her to throw grenades and burn down the building would be the solution. >> so john cowan speaks to -- we haven't seen the outright re-traa bugs from gop leaders. but it's something greene doubled down and released a very lengthy statement yesterday and a few minutes ago within the last hour issued a tweet saying she just spoke to former president trump, thanked him for his support and for having that

conversation with her and saying she's 100% loyal to him. we continue to talk to the constituents that are out here who, for the most part, those who have previously supported her say she's living up to exactly what they signed up for. >> yeah, given her ideology, not at all surprising she supports donald trump 100%. amanda goldman, thank you very much. and joining us the senior adviser to the lincoln project, elise jordan and former aide in the george w. bush white house and nbc political analyst and the sec the of the former obama white house and senior fellow at the hayes center. guys, welcome to all of you. chris, greene tweeted, we saw a few hours ago, she spoke with donald trump today. she's grateful for his support. i made my comment about that. what's your reaction? >> you know, look, alex, if you engage in this kind of conduct in any workplace in the united states, if you encourage violent

attacks against your work colleagues, if you spent your time spewing demonstrably false conspiracy theories, you would probably be shown to the door. yet the irony here is that kind of conduct has gotten her elected to congress. it actually gets you elected president because this is the ecosystem that's been fueled by donald trump over the last four years. again, it's shocking but not surprising by the lack of people who have called her out on this. you know, we've seen a couple of lone voices i think by people like adam kinzinger, very conservative congressman from illinois, who said look, greene is not a republican. her rhetoric is inciting insurrections. but he's a lone voice in all of this. just to tie all of this together, it's the same rhetoric, it's the same conspiracies that are fueling these warnings about domestic terrorism here in the united states. >> yes, and even her republican opponent there john cowan, he may have an agreement on certain

principles but said hey, you can't be touting conspiracy theories and be elected to congress. if you look at the members of congress certainly silent on the issue, there's a new op-ed in "the washington post" by kathleen parker and it says, the gop isn't doomed, it's dead. writing from the electoral eviction of donald trump from the oval office, republicans had a shot at redemption and failed. they miss and failed and deserve to spend the next several years in purgatory. unveil ig the grand old party after four years catering to an unstable president is theirs to own. where conservatism once served as a moderating force, gently breaking liberalism's boundless enthusiasm, the former home of ordered liberty has become a halfway house for raffians, insurrectionists and renegade warriors. pretty powerful there. do you think it's an accurate assessment? >> well, it is. the reality is now, alex,

there's only one political party in america that champions democracy. there's only one political party in america that stayed true to the values of liberty and freedom that founders founded our country upon and that's the democratic party. the republican party, they've abandoned the things they used to have at the core of their ideology. it's not a party that cares about fiscal restraint and budget responsibility and role of national security, national defense. and law and order and all of those other things. what they care about, first and foremost, the only question that matters is do you still support donald trump or not? doesn't matter anything else, what you feel about racism, what you feel about conspiracy theories, what you feel about insurrection and violence and white nationalism. the only question republican voters seem to care about is do you still have loyalty to donald trump? if you do, they're willing to look past all of the other things that greene embodies. someone in the united states congress, who's been appointed to the house education committee, who believes things

like the devastating wildfires in california from 2018 were caused by lasers from outer space controlled by jewish people, i mean, you cannot make this up. the question people asking, will republican leaders hold marjorie taylor greene accountable? of course they won't. she was on the phone today with the leader donald trump. that's all you need to know about what kevin mccarthy's going to really do in his coming up sit-down with her. anybody with half a brain would already reach the conclusion she's unfit to serve in congress, unfit to serve on any congressional committees, unfit to be a leader in any institution at all. yet here she is talking to the most powerful person in her own party and promoting that on her social media. nothing is going to change for the republican party if they're going to continue to go down this line. >> she claims she has his support as well. to all of the points here, elise, as we see all of these prominent republicans. remember they initially condemned trump's incitement of the riots. now they turn a blind eye to the

events. house minority leader met with trump in florida. senator graham helping with trump's defense. does it surprise you republicans are really doing a 180, back to embracing trump? are they just trying to pretend january 6th never happened? >> republicans really had a chance to get rid of donald trump like kathleen parker wrote in her excellent column, but they decided the political cost was too high and they were not going to go forward. and in the aftermath -- >> ask i ask you, political cost to whom, to the individual lawic ma -- lawmakers or political cost to this country? >> their own personal futures, that's what is taking precedence. you look at marjorie taylor greene, there's no reason a whack-a-do like her should be welcomed into the republican party. she beat a neurosurgeon, dr. cowan, her opponent, is actually

a neurosurgeon in that republican primary who tried to warn party officials that this woman with her crazy, racist, xenophobic, islam phobic, every phobia you can imagine, rhetoric, she was a real problem. no one cared. no one cared as long as it doesn't impact them and as long as they can continue to just placate and maintain the status quo. >> let's listen to congresswoman alexandria oscasio-cortez, who describes some of her colleagues to msnbc's chris hayes. here's that. >> this term there are legitimate white supremacist sympathizers who sit at the heart and the core in the republican caucus in the house of representatives. when i hear that representative mccarthy is going to pull a member aside who has made white supremacist sympathizing comments, the thing i think is

what is he going to tell them, keep it up? because there are no consequences in the republican caucus for violence. there's no consequences for racism, no consequence for misogyny. no consequences for insurrection. >> in fact, chris, most republicans have done nothing significant to hold trump or greene or any other member of congress who played a role in inciting the riot accountable. at this point, an impeachment conviction in the senate, of course, looks unlikely. what repercussions should there be? >> look, i think we need to go through the impeachment trial. obviously, the chances of president trump being convicted in any way seem small at this point but let's wait until all of the evidence comes out. that being said, look, if at the end of this process there's a censure resolution that can get the majority of the people in the senate, i do think that is important to have history very clearly say that conduct of a president inciting a riot

against a coequal branch of government is unacceptable. that being said, the broader implications of this i think are unclear. even after the january 6th insurrection, you still had 140 republicans voting not to certify the election from joe biden. and i strongly suspect those 140 people were to stand for re-election today, they would still get reelected. this is broader than one congresswoman. this is about the broader divisions in our country that are being fueled by so much of the false narratives. >> very true. guys, thank you so much. i look forward to seeing all three of you again real soon. it wasn't already a rule but on tuesday it becomes official, what you need to do before you get on a bus, a train or a plane. and then in our next hour, hedge fund founder and former presidential candidate tom steyer gives me his take on the gamestop situation. and former l.a. laker great kareem abdul-jabbar is going to

weigh in on president biden's racial justice executive actions. this is what community looks like. ♪♪ caring for each other, ♪♪ protecting each other. ♪♪ and as the covid vaccine rolls out, we'll be ready to administer it. ♪♪

now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, early this morning the u.s. hit yet another million case milestone surpassing 26 million confirmed cases. there are more than 430,000 coronavirus deaths. almost 23 million americans have gotten at least one dose of a covid vaccine. more than 4 million of those have completed both shots. and breaking news from south carolina, the state detected its first case of the uk variant late last night, one day after finding the south african strain there. dr. fauci told nbc's lester holt the south african variant can easily cause reinfection. >> we have people who were infected several months ago who now with this new strain are getting reinfected, which is telling you that the immune response induced to the first

infection wasn't good enough to prevent the second infection. >> and a new cdc order requires masks on all public transportation and transit hubs. that starts tuesday. not wearing a mask in those places will be a violation of federal law. the rule does not apply to private vehicles. in florida, a popular supermarket chain is expanding its role in distributing the vaccine but there are concerns the effort is leaving some people out. let's go to my colleague corey kauffman in west palm beach. let's talk about publix, the grocery store, and the reaction across florida. >> yes, publix is one of the most prominent grocery stores in the state of florida so the governor announcing this pilot program here in palm beach county, all publix stores will receive the vaccine here rather than county health sites. that caused concern. i will dive into that in a moment but palm beach county in general is one of several

counties who struggled with distribution as the state opened up their pool to those 65 and older. so proponents of the plan say this would -- because there are so many sites for publix, this would make it easier for seniors, like this man, to access the vaccine. listen in. >> i get all of my shots at publix. all of the shots i can get, i get at publix. they know what they're doing. publix knows what they're doing. the government, they're stressed out already. you can't let some of these small counties that have no facilities, they definitely have a problem but the large counties seem to have similar problems. i don't know what the answer is. >> so county health officials have criticized governor desantis saying this was not a fully fleshed out plan. in fact the plan received so much pushback, the governor reversed his idea and instead of

it solely going to publix, it will now also, a proportion of that vaccine, will go to county health sites and here's why, because for as many locations as there are of publix stores, they're not in every community. especially in poorer, lower-income neighborhoods. we have already seen in florida a disproportionate he amount of rollout, people getting much less disproportionately in the poorer neighborhoods. next week the governor expects to get some 300,000 vaccines, that is up from the previous week of 266,000. 5,000 of those vaccines will go to the poorer neighborhoods, alex. even though this particular partnership is unique to florida, it's not the idea of having major retailers help with vaccines is not unique to the state of florida. there are more than a dozen states now offering partnerships with cvs and walmart as well to increase the vaccination rates and get to the biden administration's goal of 150 million vaccines in the first 150 days. >> indeed, corey kauffman, thank

you. the number of vaccines to west virginia residents, as it ranks in the top of the nation. and here to discuss the success story is the governor of west virginia, jim justice. governor, thank you very much for being here. tell me, what has west virginia done right and how did you build a blueprint for doing it that way? >> well, alex, first of all, thank you for having me. i can tell you, it's not rocket science. really when it boils right down to it, i've said this over and over but the easy stuff in life is always the toughest stuff to find. really, if you just step back at this and look from this from not a bureaucrat's view and just from a person that's practical view, and that is just this, this is all about age, age and age. we were the fist state in the country to test all of our nursing homes, first state in

the country to vaccine all of our nursing homes. we completed all of our second doses in all of our assisted living and all of our nursing homes. this thing is all about age. we better dial right into that. so in that the next thing we did is we recruited all of our local pharmacies, places where people want to go and they're used to going. the local health clinics, we put our national guard in full motion, and really and truly, alex, week after week now, we've gotten every single vaccine we've got into somebody's arm. when you do that in a rural state like this, there's no reason in the world we couldn't have done it in every state. >> governor, i mean, listen, i'm applauding you here, silently clapping listening to all of this. i'm curious what challenges you face because you have populous states like california, new york. you've heard about them running into the issues that either on the supply end or distribution

front. so were there hurdles for you? >> of course there's hurdles. i mean, there's hurdles everywhere for everybody and everything. at the end. day, alex, this may be hard to believe, but i told the head of our national guard and our coronavirus czar that you don't even know but right this second your butt is in the ringer. the reason you're in the ringer right now is you're going to hear knock, knock, knock on the door and you're going to hear a national guardsman say, sir, i've got another 92,000 of these vaccines here and i don't know where to put them because the warehouse is full. while we're developing, you know, a system or a strategy or whatever it may be, you've got people dyeing. i mean for crying out loud, you can't have all of these vaccines setting in a warehouse. even today, alex, you've got 49,000 that have been distributed and 27,000 -- i'm sorry, 49 million and 27 million that are in somebody's arm. we're screaming in west virginia

for vaccine. why in the world we don't go to different states and pull some around and shift some around because really at the end of the day, all states are americans and every hour that goes by, somebody is dyeing and we can save lives if we move. but if we don't and we continue to do what we're doing and hoard and try to protect and do all of that kind of stuff, we're going to have bad stuff happen. >> absolutely. it seems like you have to keep an eye on many different balls, juggling them all at the same time to do this all successfully. as you know, sir, the president hoping to pass his $1.9 trillion stimulus package. that one would include $400 billion to expand vaccinations, also to open schools. how about there in west virginia, how would you use these additional funds? how would that help? >> well, west virginia is like all states, we've got needs and we're hurting in a lot of different areas and we've got a lot of people we can still help in a lot of different ways. we tried to imagine the economics in the state and done

that decently and everything but really and truly, this stimulus package should have been passed a long time ago. and i hate like crazy to say this, but it's just the fact, let's just be honest, we have democrats and republicans fighting all the time. you've got people dyeing out here and people suffering that can't pay their power bill. come on, what in the world are we doing? and really at the end of the day, there's so much need in this country with this terrible pandemic going on, there's so much divide, i mean, we absolutely need to get thinking that a democrat and republican shouldn't even matter. what should matter wholeheartedly is one thing, and that's we're americans and want to move forward and try to do the best we possibly can for all. and that's all there is to it in my view. >> i've got to tell you, west virginia governor jim justice, if you come to new york, i'm going to buy you dinner. i would love to sit down and talk with you, because you're a reasonable man and i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you very much.

president biden's racial equity plan, how it's being perceived by americans. up next, i'm going to sit with a longtime radio talk show host to see what his callers think. ♪ i'm in love... ♪ ♪ love, love. ♪ celebrate your love with a gift from pandora jewelry and discover all the ways to shop.

your grooming business is booming. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed

you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/groomer new this week, president biden signed four executive actions to advance racial equity. they focus on promoting equitable housing policies, disavowing racisms, xenophobia, ending the use of private prison

and reaffirming commitment to tribal sovereignty. and the president says, it's about time. >> we've allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester. unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance and lies. >> joining me now is jill madison, host of siriusxm's "the joe madison show." it's good to see you, my friend. >> alex, can i say one thing, i'm going to buy the governor of west virginia dinner before you do. >> let's do it together. wouldn't that be so much fun? the three of us going out together. >> what i just common sense approach. i just had to say that. i thought he was so refreshing. >> 100% agree with you. let's all do that. that would be a really super, special evening. let me talk about special things here coming from the president in these executive actions in terms of the meaningful nature

of it. how do you measure president biden's executive actions here, how will you gage their success? >> well, one, look, i'll tell you my audience, it's a good step. it's the first step. it's an executive order, yes. so that means that congress now has to step up. i think what i really like about it is it's holistic. it's not just one department like urban housing or labor department. he's looking at a holistic approach. and we haven't really seen that since actually president lyndon johnson. but i will say this, congress is going to have to step up, and i make a note because what my audience is saying that if democrats have to go it alone,

then go it alone. and they have to keep their eye on helping working class people while they're -- because if the republicans, alex, if the republicans want to keep donald trump as their leader, then i would not trust a single republican in the united states congress. would not. that's what i am hearing from my audience, as long as donald trump is their leader, you cannot trust them. so be prepared to go it alone. >> but, joe, given how much the word bipartisan was used and the prospect of unity by the biden administration, are there any concerns from your listeners that that will then forego that concept and not allow joe biden to make good on that promise? >> that's -- let me tell you, that's political talk. and that's what members of

congress have to do. that's what joe biden has to do. i understand that. but that's not what people are saying because what my audience is saying that if they don't deliver on these executive orders that he has signed as relate to equity, if they don't deliver on taking care of working class people first, then they're going to lose the majority in the house and they're going to lose the majority in the senate. and we've seen that happen. and so i hear what you're saying. we talk as media broadcasters. they talk as politicians. but you ask me what my audience is saying, and they're saying, hey, alex, if they don't take care of working class people first, and if congress doesn't meet the promises that joe biden

has written in executive orders, then these folks will not go vote. they may not vote for republicans, but they will sit it out and the democrats will lose the house, they'll lose the senate and we'll be right back where we started. >> yes, the consequences of that. quickly, one more thing i want to get to when signing these executive actions, the president called the tragedy of george floyd. take a listen to this. >> those 8:46 that took george floyd's life opened the guys of millions of americans and millions of people around all over the world. it was the knee on the neck of justice, and it wouldn't be forgotten. it stirred the conscience of tens of millions of americans and in my view marked a turning point in this country's attitude towards racial justice. >> do you agree with that? >> oh, i agree with it 100%. now let's see if we can get the

legislation to back up the talk. that's what needs to be done. let me also say this, i think america better recognize that these weren't just protesters out there. and it's not just members of congress who should be concerned about soft targets and their safety. these crazy-ass insurrectionists, these seditious, they will come after churches, they will come after synagogues. look, any time one of these fathers said he would shoot his own child, they will shoot you. and that's -- it's not -- look, i have got friends who are members of congress. i have known them for decades. i love them dearly. but let me tell you something, it is all of us who should be looking over our shoulders at the person who maybe is working in the cubicle next to you who supports these crazy people. >> i got to tell you, it is

extraordinary times, especially when you put it there way, joe madison. >> i'm just telling you what my audience is saying. >> that's why we brought you on. we love hearing what your audience thinks. thank you. we look forward to dinner for three. >> thank you. newly information on highly contagious variants of covid and how effective vaccines are against them. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

irresistibly smooth chocolate. to put the world on pause. lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette

three different strains of the coronavirus are now showing up in more states. 31 states are reporting cases from at least one of those new variants. the uk strain is the most widespread. cases from the south african and brazilian strains are each reported in one state. joining me now, nbc news medical contributor dr. natalie azar. welcome, doctor. dr. fauci said yesterday variants are soon going to, in fact, outnumber the case of the original strain. one of the biggest questions people have now, will the vaccines be effective against the new strain? >> sol, alex, here's where we are with this.

you may recall pfizer and moderna both reported last week in the laboratory, the vaccines were less effective in generating those really important neutralizing antibodies against various variants but what we don't have from pfizer or moderna is a real-world response or result in terms of how diminished that protection can be. we do have that information from both novo vac and johnson & johnson vaccines because those were being tested when the south african variant was circulating. here's what i will say, from the johnson & johnson, we have data it's only about 50% efficacious against that variant but 85% effective at preventing hospitalization and death. and that is the number people need to understand and take home. if the variant causes the vaccine to be less effective and maybe we're not preventing mild illness, that's not fun.

nobody wants to be sick or have a low-grade fever, but if it's preventing hospitalization and death, it's still very good, alex. i can tell you every single vaccine maker now is tweaking and working and understanding they may need to modify the vaccines to accommodate the ever-changing virus. >> that is very important, the numbers there. the research for the health and metrics evaluation have released a bleak, really, 2020 covid prediction that they don't expect to release a third variant before winter, compounded by the fact how much they stop people from passing on the virus, even if they don't get it. is that bleak or is that realistic or both? >> maybe somewhere in between. or it's true-true. what i would say in this, in spite of all of that, everybody needs to understand the only remedy here is continue to get vaccinated. remember, the virus can only

mutate if it has an opportunity to replicate. it has an opportunity to replicate when it finds a acceptable host. the more people who get vaccinated, albeit not as effective as the variant now, the better off we all are. >> let me make that point. we say winter, we're in winter now, we're talking about next winter. >> next winter. alex, it's a numbers game. 80% of the population needs to be immune. so we already know how sluggish or rollout is for these vaccines and what if there's a possibility that the vaccines are not going to be as effective as the circulating strain? again, to my point earlier, we're going to have boosters and we will have modified vaccines that people will probably need to get sooner than a year. remember, six months ago, nine months ago, we didn't know how the virus would behave. would it be like seasonal flu? we need to change our vaccine every year. this is a day-to-day learning process. >> indeed, we're grateful for

you and your insights, dr. natalie azar. thank you. do any of you have a question about the covid-19 variants? we'll have a doctor ready to answer them tomorrow. send me a video of you asking your question to askalex@msnbc.com. the answers tomorrow at 2:00 eastern. a group of house members is now urging president biden to make what would be a significant change to his covid plan. would it be bold and could it pass? and also ahead the boom and gloom around the gamestop stock. it's velveeta versus the other guys. clearly, nothing melts like velveeta. ♪♪♪

want to sell the best burger in every zip code? clearly, nothing melts add an employee. or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks.