always protected. always discreet. . if it's wednesday, the future of the republican party is on the line today as the caucus meets to decide the fates of two house members. one for embracing dangerous conspiracy theories and one for embracing trump's impeachment. as ronald reagan once said, it's time for choosing. the white house holds its

daily briefing this hour. chuck schumer announces the senate has finally, nearly a month after the georgia senate results has finally reached an agreement to give democrats the gavels in this 50/50 chamber. public health officials at the white house strike a cautiously optimistic tone at this morning's covid briefings as cases and hospitalizations decline but warning about what lies ahead remain dire. we'll speak with one of the white house top covid advisers about the road ahead, coming up. well, welcome to wednesday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. wednesday's have been pretty

consequential. the sources confirmed that house republican leader kevin mccarthy that they will take her off of one committee if they put a resolution not to strip her of all assignments. a moment ago the the democratic majority leader rejected the offer saying the house will vote tomorrow on the resolution about stripping her of all of her committee assignments even though it will set a dangerous precedent. these developments come on what could be one of the most important days in the republican party's future. greene has come under fire for espousing dangerous and unhinged conspiracy theories and promoting violence against

. trump has thrown his support behind her. the other is the number three. liz chaney who is facing pressure to step down from leadership post or be removed forcibly from leadership due to her support for impeachment. she's expected to address the caucus later today. the pressure on chaney and the leadership handling over green has made it clear that much of the republican party, right now, remains loyal to donald trump. despite his incitement of a siege on the capitol that threatened their own lives. ronald reagan's famous speech said it's a time for choosing. joining me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt. she's also the host of "way too early" weekdays at 5:00 a.m. here on msnbc. we are in this unchartered waters which is something, phrase we probably overuse a lot these days because we keep find

ing ourselves in these unprecedented situations. the house majority, it will be up to the entire house on what to do about committee assignments for marjorie taylor greene. what kind of precedent will this set? >> it's a tricky one. democrats are betting the risk they are taking here is worth it. republicans in the senate have used words like cancer and kook to describe greene. the house leader now the minority leader has been behind closed doors trying to talk to greene, urging her to apologize for what she has said in the past saying she should give up her spot on the education committee but it seems like those asks have not worked. i think you've seen that

attitude from greene since the day she walked in the doors and we learned that before she took office this was the case too. she has gone straight to president trump and tweeted her defiance. she's called republican leaders like mitch mcconnell incredibly weak saying the only thing they are good at is losing gracefully which is a pretty remarkable statement. it seems like she's treetstreatr own leadership in the house that way too. the liz chaney question is part of this. i wonder if liz chaney may end up better off. if they do this on the floor and it's democrats end uptaking action, what's to stop any majority from removing any person from a committee for any reason at all. that's the slope that they are poised at the top of.

>> brendan you were there when guys like steve king would become problems whether speaker ryan had to deal with them or speaker boehner. i can't believe i'm saying this but i feel like steve king was a more cooperative problem child compared to what we're seeing with marjorie taylor greene. is that the way you see things? >> kasie hit on something. kevin mccarthy is trying to see if she'll apologize. this is who she is. we shouldn't expect her to change. so much for the basis of doing this so swiftly early on in her time in congress is that it all most of it before she came to

congress. people ingeorgia's 14th congressional district elected her. they knew she was like this and sent her here any way. you're going to punish someone even though their voters were well aware and sent them there. that is disenfranchising them. in the house your committee assignments is all you have to control policy. i also really worry about the prcedent of the majority setting for the minority. we're entering a whole new era of dysfunction. you can bet republicans will try to dictate where democrats can serve. >> the king steve standard, they are holding steve king more accountable. house republicans took his committee assignments away. why isn't this house republicans willing to hold her up to a standard they created not two

years ago. >> i wish they would. i was proud of kevin mccarthy when he did remove steve king. it became an accumulation of the things he had done and said. i think they probably feel this is really early on. look, mccarthy would probably going to be forced to do this. he's obviously not taking proactive action. really this happening either way. they're doing this. i don't understand what they were trying to do by going and trying to cut a deal. i'm with the republicans would do this on their own. it would avoid the precedent.

democrats moving forward with it with be really unpopular. i wonder if all of this anger will end up hurting liz chaney because members will be so fired up because they will want to take something out. i hope that's not the case. i think we should appreciate. removing greene from her committees while it seems obvious as the right thing to do. it will be wildly unpopular in the house and most people will not be supporting it. >> write down this vote. i think democrats don't feel bad about making republicans cast this tough vote. how many republicans will view this as a tough vote. standing behind her won't be controversial. >> why would kevin mccarthy want to try to avert this. while brendan is right and his experience governing was trying to figure out what to do with the right flank and whether they

are called the tea party or the freedom caucus. they have gone through many names in the last decade or so because the people that will ultimately win back the majority in the house are people that will find this to be a tough vote. if they do want to win back the majority in 2022, they are going to have to pick up some of these seats that flipped mostly in 2018. some of those flipped back in 2020. obviously when president trump pushed up turn out. we know where the freedom caucus is. we know where the right wing of the party is on this. this is why mitch mcconnell is out there being so aggressive. he knows if the republican party becomes the party of qanon, false flag events for school shootings where traumatized parents are tweeting to politicians to make them stop reliving this horrible grief, if that's what people see as the republican party, they will not be able to win back a governing

majority in washington. mcconnell blames trump for the loss of his majority in georgia and in some other places and knows that if they continue down this path, that's going to be it for them. mccarthy is in a tough spot because his conference is difference but his majority comes from the same place. if he wants to stay in charge, if he doesn't wand to cede his power to someone on the right side of his conference, we may see him choose greene over liz chaney and the people that would make a republican speaker of the house instead of minority leader. >> very quickly, i'm old enough to remember that people like mo brooks and paul gossar would have potential and problems with maybe censure resolutions for their role in in the insurrection. that seems dead and buried at this point.

is there anybody going to pay a rice for this capitol insurrection other than liz chaney? >> no. there's no evidence that there's any appetite for punishing anybody. those people would see that as an opportunity, badge of honor, a way to raise money, way to become famous. that's politics. i think kasie hit on the critical question. we saw polling out from the trump campaign that looked back and why did they lose. it was suburban, educated voters. the party is being dominated by increasingly crazy conspiracy theorists and you don't win back college educated suburban voters by making these people the face of the party. right now marjorie taylor greene is the face of the freshman class of house of representatives. it's a really big problem. >> it's a tremendous segue that you both did there. thank you both for getting us started. i want to turn to a sitting member of the house republican

conference. somebody who won because of the support of suburban voters. he's republican congressman don bacon of nebraska's, probably the most famous congressional district because it's so important to the electoral college. the second district in nebraska. what do you believe should be their futures? chuck, it's good to see you again. we're going to talk to both. we got to make sure that the statements from congresswoman taylor are wrong. the threats against the speaker are inexcusable. the talks about the school

shootings, we can't condone that. the 9/11 conspiracy. the israeli satellite starting a fire in california. i think we will make clear right up front those are wrong. i think brendan had a good point these were made before she was elected. i think she will admits they are wrong and apologizes. it will be a bit about how she responds. she was elected in this district and the statements were made before the election and that's a factor. it's also -- kasie made a great point. what will happen in two years when the majority as the average pick up in a term or off year is 30 seats. are we going to go after maxine waters because she said people to get in their face at restaurants. there's a bad precedent being set here. i think our conference can handle this.

we'll meet in two hours to get there. liz chaney is a good friend of mine. i served with her. i admire the fact she spoke up before the 6th of january, as did i. to talk about the dangers of this vote. it's going to be a lose-lose. president trump had no way to victory after the 14th of december and we should have made that clear. said there was false hopes being sent that something could be done. i think liz chaney did a good job speaking on that and tried to let the conference now we were making a bad turn. i admire her for doing that. >> i don't think anybody is comfortable with this decision being punted. you seem to think that, do you believer her committee assignments should be at stake based on her -- the language she used? do you think that would be fair punishment? she stays in congress.

she was elected. being on a committee was a privilege. do you think that would be fair conference? >> we'll get a chance to hear her in about two hours. i think they will be decisive in how the conference proceeds. if she admits they are wrong, shows a little humility. i think we can get through this but normally the party's themselves decide if they will seat something in committee or not. to have the democratic party decide who the republican will seat is a terrible precedent. they will regret it in two years. it's not the right thing to do. i think the republicans will look at this and be response based on how she will respond, i think.

>> you found college graduates are the driving force for democrat gains since 2016. a second conclusion, the gender gap between republicans and democrats is nothing new. the difference in support for democratic candidates averaged about 8%. in 2020 the gap did not expand but held steady around 10% as it did in '12 and '16, which is perhaps will help explain how you were able to hold on. how would you -- is that the best way to look at this is you're one of the examples one of the few people able to win biden voters because you clearly did. >> we won by 5%. president biden won by 6%.

we lost suburban men. the suburban women stayed about the same. maybe 2% more. we lost a pretty significant percentage of suburban men. my main take away is are republican conservative values ideas win. i ran on those and did well. also, the differences is civility. this election became about values versus personality. if it's going be about values and policy, the republicans will win at the national level. we did congressionally and at the local level, we did well. suburban voters want civility and decency and i think they saw that lacking and i think that in our district, that's what i try to present to our voters. i think we did well. >> well, look, marjorie taylor

greene is already being used in attack ad against you. you're one of the early targets. i feel like the conclusions you have reached and main street partnership has reached, basically run smack run right into this greene story. if she's the face of your party in this freshman class, i got to think that's pretty damaging for people like you in your district. >> we have do make a decision. do we want to be a party of 180 bright red congressmen and women or do we want to have 240 and 250 purple districts we hold. that's the challenge. i believe that our values and our ideas compete well. i've had three tough elections that came out on the right side of that. our voters also want people with a kind and diplomatic demeanor. i think the ad you're talking about will backfire in our

district. they spent 22 million in ads against me. people know the truth. i oppose qanon. i voted for it when we condemned it and i voted to certify the election. our voters are smarter than what the democratic party gives credit for. >> are we being naive here or you being naive? you and ben sass have come from a very red state. you're obviously from the swing district of that red state. are you concerned in some primary there's a price to be paid here that you're not as combative and not as defensive of donald trump? sgla there is a possibility of that. i try not to run in fear of a primary or general election. i try to do the right thing.

i try to be as truthful as i know how. my goal is to present the values and ideas i believe in. provide results if our district. i defeated the only incumbent democrat in 2016 that lost. we did pretty well this year. i think the truth with decency and hard work pays off. it could be a threat from the primary or the general. i can't run from fear on that. i just got to try to do the right thing. >> republican from omaha, nebraska. appreciate you coming on sharing your perspective with us. >> it's always a pleasure. >> more folks hear from all sides of these issues.

i really appreciate it pch. up ahead, the rush to vaccinate as many americans as possible. can we go faster and how many more vaccines could be made available to make that happen? the senior adviser to the covid white house response team joins me next. e covid white house response team joins me next. [ thunder rumbles ] [ engine rumbling ] ♪♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. ♪ got my hair ♪ [ beeping ] ♪ got my head ♪ ♪ got my brains ♪ ♪ got my ears ♪ ♪ got my heart ♪ ♪ got my soul ♪ ♪ got my mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪

1 in 2 kids is under hydrated. ♪ plant-powered creative roots gives kids the hydration they need, with the fruit flavors they love. and one gram of sugar. find creative roots in the kids' juice aisle. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is hard. you get advice like: and one gram of sugar. try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette

go pro at subway® for double the protein on any footlong. or on any new protein bowl! so many ways to go pro at subway®! it's not amateur-tein, it's pro-tein, baby! go pro and get double the protein for just $2 more. subway. eat fresh. want to save hundreds on your wireless bill? go pro and get double with xfinity mobile you can.. how about saving hundreds on the new samsung galaxy s21 ultra 5g? you can do that too. all on the most reliable network. sure thing! and with fast nationwide 5g included at no extra cost. we've got you covered. so join the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction. and get a new samsung galaxy starting at $17 a month. learn more at xfinitymobile.com or visit your local xfinity store today.

what were you saying? you'll get republican support. >> i think we'll get some republicans. >> welcome back. the mask only adds more. what did you say mr. president? the shouting question. harder than ever. that was president biden during a meeting with senate democrats on his $1.9 trillion covid relief plan. as president biden is keeping up hope for some republican support, democrats are moving forward with plan to get the economic rescue plan passed along party lines if necessary using a parliamentary maneuver.

concerns over the variants and what it means for the vaccines continue to grow. andy, it's good to have you on. i'd like to start with where you guys are on studying the one shot and delaying the second shot when it comes to moderna and pfizer. i'm sure you're looking into it. i know it's science. where are we in looking at the science of that? >> nice to be here. i think you'll find is that non-scientists like me from the white house will do a limited job trying to share our non-scientific knowledge. we have been spending time with

the new director of the cdc, tony fauci and they are pretty clear and remaining clear to the public that we are far better off with people getting two doses of the vaccine. the way they would describe it is we have not been able to test either the durability of one vaccine or what happens to mutations if people are only at one vaccine. they will continue to study it. in the meantime, what we tried to do at the white house is try to take these more and more off the table by getting more vaccines out and encouraging statements that have vaccines and providers that have them not the hold onto them. there was this hording thing that happens every time we have a shortage. we were trying to push people out and say if we give you predictability you should be comfortable putting them into people's arms. >> operationally, what is real

realistic, we're averaging 1.3 million a day. president biden threw out the goal of getting to 1.5 a day. is there no end? if supply just starts flooding in, what can the infrastructure handle? >> what happens in situations like this? it's a very good question. you keep meeting the next bots l -- bottleneck and breaking the next bottleneck. subjecting to getting more production, if we operate this as a true orchestra with everybody doing their part and that includes congress helping the states prepare funding through the american rescue plan but also includes us making sure that our contractor, pfizer and moderna are at maximum capacity. i'd love to tell you and public

that we came in here with a massive am of stockpile. i think our job is to be very frank to say we didn't inherit a huge stockpile. we will get things out in near realtime. i will keep two to three days worth of backlog in case there's manufacturing issues but everything else will go right out. >> walk me through the manufacturing of the moderna vaccine. what makes it -- what is the hardest part of speeding up that process? >> yeah, look, i don't hold myself out as a pharmaceutical manufacturing expert but i spent a lot of time on the phone with them. they convey the sensitiity of the processes. if i buy a nike shoe and it has a flaw, i think i can live with it. if you're getting a vaccine and you want to test it's safe and effective, setting up these

lines using these big biothermal machines, those have unlimited amount of scale and scope. you can look throughout the health care system and see where are there similar kinds of capabilities. you can look at the things part of the componentary. we found these things dead space needle syringes which is a new term for me. that's helped us get a sixth dose out of pfizer viles. step by step we'll get there. they have a commitment and a ramp. i think you'll see more and more as we get through the weeks. >> yeah, for instance, i know johnson and johnson is looking for more manufacturing capability. are we able to do that? is the government able to say, i guess i know there's a plant in baltimore they are hoping to retrofit. is that also part of your job looking for various other ways to find manufacturing sites for

these vaccines? >> the defense production act was first created in wartime. i think in here what we have adopted is we're in war mentality. we're not concerned about whether there's sovereignty of one company. i've heard if many of the companies that said just tell us what we can do. there are fast tract cal ways and there are longer term levers. we need to be exploring both of them. everything is on the table. everything is being explored. i don't want to set expectations of things before they happen. i think we live too long over the last year with kind of false promises and so forth. we're going be careful in making sure to tell you what the reality is. our plans, my plan right now does not even include johnson and johnson's vaccines because it's not effective evidence. if it's approved by the fda then we will be able to announce some

good news and hopefully that will happen. >> look, i apologize for piling on these various sort of questions i have here but let's talk -- i know we're trying to ramp up our surveillance availabilities on finding these variants. when are you going to have confidence that we're on top of this surveillance? that we know what's going on. it feels like we're overwhelmed and don't know how many these variants are circulating. first of all, we're going to be chasing it. i think it's important that we recognize that fact. the cdc has by the last count i saw, seen more than a ten fold increase of the amount of sequencing they're doing. it allows you to see which strain of coronavirus you're looking at. we have many, many talented men and women in the country who know how to do sequencing. the best in the world. we have put money in the american rescue plan and

congress for more money to get those people up and running. in the meantime, i would add -- avise all of us is use the precautionary principle. there's very highly contagious covid out there in your community. if you were not being careful before, it's a good reminder to be careful. if you've had covid before, be cautious. as we heard from dr. fauci these strains can reinfect. leets all be extra cautious. sgr yes, please. wear a good mask. not just any mask. we'll take any mask but go get a good one. andy, really appreciate you coming on. thank you, sir. >> thank you. up ahead, one state that's having success at getting its people vaccinated and fast or

faster than every other statement. what can states learn from west virginia? i'll ask the governor, next. machine virginia i'll ask the governor, next. chin your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints.

rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred... ...as have certain cancers, including lymphoma, and tears in the stomach or intestines, and changes in lab results. your doctor should monitor your bloodwork. tell your doctor about any infections...and if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. take on ra. talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief. rinvoq. make it your mission. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help.

. welcome back. in a briefing this morning, members of white house coronavirus task force told reporters that the biden administration is on track to meet the 100 million shots in 100 days goal. west virginia is one of several states being praised for its early success in vaccinaing

residents. west virginia had almost 4% of its population at. that's double other states. joining me now is west virginia republican governor, jim justice. when i saw the new news about the biden administration wanting to ship directly to pharmacies, it feels as if, and i'd love for you to explain that the big success story that separates west virginia and perhaps alaska from everybody else is that you had a very active independent pharmacy network. would you say that's the key into why you've had been able to get folks vaccinated at a higher rate. >> chuck, i think it's a great big part of it. it's just as simple as just this. i don't say this in a

bragadocious way. west virginia has been first in testing the nursing homes, vak -- vaccinating the nursing homes. it's just first after first. we had this down pat for a long time. the whole thing is just we've kept together and we've recognized from a practical stand point this thing is all about age, age and age and then what we did is recruited our local pharmacies. all the places that our people go normally from our health clinics to on and on and on. then we put our national guard, which is second to none, to work. we started putting shots in arms because hours matter. we're trying to save people's lives. people just made it way too hard. chuck, i always say just count the cows. don't count the legs and divide by four. this is not rocket science. while people putting together a

bureaucratic plan. we got to work and started putting shots in arms. >> do you believe your blue print is manager regardless of a state's size or diversity or geographic makeup that you could take your basic blueprint and if the governor of florida followed it, it could be as successful? >> absolutely. absolutely. i hate to say this and this will sound egotistical. really and truly within an hour, if you could give me a state that's really struggling and let me have at it and you've got do sit on people. i'll promise you, we have people around that know i meant business about the fact that i wanted these shots in people's arms and we had to move. it's not that hard. you had to have everybody bought in complete transparency, left

hand knowing what the right hand is doing. this is too much life and death to be doing things and making $400 commode seats. >> the easy part is taking the vaccine. my guess is you're being as successful as you have been in getting people to take it. you're also finding out who the nontakers are. what do you think you do to combat it? >> we have the same problem that everybody has. it's just not nearly add bad. i think from the national stand point, i don't know exactly, i think the percentage is 77% of people are taking it at our nursing homes or where ever it may be and 35% or whatever of the staff taken it. we're like 81 and 60. we still struggle the same thing but we message it.

we message it every day and every day that goes by we're getting more and more participation and everything because people are becoming more and more comfortable but we message it. we tell people the truth and we got everybody speaking the same voice. >> are you -- i'm curious, are you holding back second shots or are you now comfortable with sort of how the biden administration is doling this out that you can use everything you get? >> well, we're holding back second shots. we have now administered about 70% of our second round doses and everything. we're listening to the federal government as far as hitting us in the right direction as far as that goes. just imagine this. on our first round doses, we're at -- last week we administered 108.1% of first round doses we

received. we're getting more out of the viles than 100% out of vials. this week we have done it week after week. we just need more vaccines. i know everybody is screaming but just on the numbers you reported, 52 million out there and 32 million in somebody's arms. we have 20 million vaccines sitting across this nation that ought to be in an arm and when it really boils down to it, we're all americans. we're all in the boat together. i'm 100% behind the biden administration doing the great work they are doing. i felt like the trump administration did a lot of great work. they started from scratch. we need to get those 20 million vaccines to places that can get them in arms and just quit talking about it. >> if joe manchin calls you up and says it's up to me whether this biden covid relief deal

gets through. i'm the 50th vote, do you want know be the 50th vote. is it too pricey for you? you seem to indicate you don't think there's a price too high here on covid relief. what would your advice to senator manchin be? >> just straight, straight, straightforward. i've not been able to read the bill. i don't know what's all in the bill. there's certain things i surely wouldn't be support of from the standpoint of bailing out pension plans or whatever it may be but at the same time, without any question, we need to go big or not go, in my opinion. this business of just dragging along with this and letting it be a gradual, grads yul painful death. we need to get by that. in all honesty in this situation, if we waste some money but our nation recovers and people that are out there really hurting that need to pay their power bill or rent check and businesses, restaurants that

are going under right and left, we right size them up and we waste a bit of money, so what. the danger to all of us is our economy still fails and sputters and so many people are struggling and everything. i tell senator manchin exactly that. i'm hopeful they weed out the stuff that's not necessary and get it passed. >> governor, i was hoping we be able to do this. we got our interview done in time for the white house press briefing. i hope folks learn what west virginia has gotten done here. here is the press briefing. >> designed do meet the stakes of the public health and economic crisis and the president caucus agreed a final package mustards the crisis facing working families including housing and food insecurity and reopening schools. president biden said the cost is too little than great the cost

of doing too much. the president had the opportunity to meet with leaer schumer and the democrat chair committees. as part of his ongoing engagement with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. during the meeting they had a productive conversation on the status of legislative proceedings on the package. they were in agreement over the need to move swiftly to ensure we get $1400 direct payments to middle and working class americans as quickly as possible. we need to take steps to get immediate relief to americans struggling with food insecurity or facing eviction and we need fro vied more resources to get shots into arms faster. the president and the senators were also in agreement over the need to go big and meet the challenges we face with the response that will get the job done in beating this virus and protecting our economy from long term damage. during the conversation, the president and democratic leaders also agreed to continue working to find areas of bipartisan

agreement in an effort to integrate ideas and make the process as bipartisan as possible. there's been lots of questions from some of you and others about the difference between the president's plan, the democratic plan and the plan that's been proposed by ten republican senators. i wanted to outline some of those specifics here for you. the president's plan would fulfill his pledge to finish getting $2,000 checks to hard hit americans and ensure that a $60,000 a year isn't left without support. the president's plan would give americans out of work through no fault of their own a $400 wee ly supplement and would last through the worth of the pandemic. their plan would give uneployed americans certainty. it could keep teachers, cops,

paramedics and other public ser vantss on the job. the plan offers no money to state and local government to keep people on the fright lines of this fight. the president's plan would assist the millions of families who are behind on their rent and facing potential eviction. their plan wouldn't offer any support to these families. the president's plan would provide targeted, immediate relief to families with children and essential workers through an emergency expansion of the child tax credit. their plan would deny relief to 15 million low income essential workers. the president's plan together would reduce the number of kids living in poverty by five million this year and cut child poverty in half. their plan would leave millions of additional kids out. just as importantly, the president's plan would make sure we have every resource we need to defeat this virus and get life back to normal, including $130 billion to help ensure kids can go back to school safely. $20 billion to mount a

nationwide vaccination campaign. 50 billion for more and better testing and critical funding to approve our ability to track and defeat emerging covid-19 strains. i know that was a lot. it's a lot of interest in this issue. go ahead, josh. >> thanks so much. two questions. president biden told house democrats today that he considered the $1400 direct payment a promise that he can't break. at the same time a new analysis from the penn budget model suggests that 73% of those payments would go into savings inside of be spent in ways that could boost growth. i'm wondering what's more important, to keep the promise or ensure that the package does all it can to maximize growth? >> well, first, on theage sis we have seen that analysis and i talked to our economic team about it and feel it's step with majority of studies on this

plan. our economy is near capacity which would be new to americans out of work facing reduced hours or reduced paychecks. this starting place means model is view is that we're going to listen to governors, we're going to listen to a broad range of economists, and health experts and what the american people need at this point in time. when one in seven american families don't have enough food to eat there it is clear there is a great deal of need for assistance. >> the president is set to speak to the state department tomorrow. how does he expect to speak to refugees. >> we rescheduled the mealing tomorrow because of know is focused on his desire to thank the men and women that are

foreign service officers that are the heart and soul of our institution. i worked there two-and-a-half years. it is an incredible place, and many of them had a challenging couple of years. he will talk prodly about foreign policy, how could he not? this will not be a lay down of his vision for every issue and every foreign policy issue. he will have plenty of time to do that. so i just want to set an expectation for tomorrow. you're asking about his different approach on russia and china. i think on russia his call to president putin a couple weeks ago, two weeks ago, is clear evidence of exactly that. he called president putin and he did not hold back. he made clear that while there are areas that we can work together like new start, in the interest of the security of the united states, he has concerns about a number of areas of their

reported interference. whether or not it is in solar winds hacking, reports of bounties on american troops, there is an ongoing review that is happening that he also stated in that conversation. so his engagement tells you a bit about the difference alone. on china the president's view and the administration's view is that we need to work with our allies, our partners, to align on how we approach our relationship with china and we need to do it from a position of strength. there are key components, economic, strategic. he is having those engagements now. we did a lot of call readouts, of course, and with partners on the hill. democrats and republicans, on the best path forward. >> the republicans have spoken

about the testing top line and they take you through some significant differences. i know you were asked this almost daily at this point, but -- where is the space for bipartisan agreement when the differences are that significant across major components. >> an area where there is agreement to work together on is funding for small business. that is something that democrats and republicans want to do. our view is that this bill itself is bipartisan. 74% of the public dport. . there is agreement that it is important to work with many republicans and democrats who fall on different parts of the political spectrum to put their ideas forward and consider them. that is part of the conversation and part of the process now happening on the hill. we will see. we will see what proposals that improve the bill, that make it better, and there is certainly an openness to that. >> several republican senators

said publicly they believe the president is in a different place than his staff on this issue in particular. is there daylight between the president and his staff? >> absolutely not. i have seen some of those reports. some of them are lose kris. there is no one that will tell him what to do about delivering relief to the american people. and i would remind you that he went back to the importanceness of this. >> and you talked about it last week, the defense production act. i know you said all options are on the table. you are working through that and it has been watched in a couple

areas. is the defense production act being bolstered at this time? >> absolutely it is on the table. the reason the president invoked the defense production act is because he wanted a range of options for any moment where there was a reduction in supply on on, you know, materials. on ppe, on syringes. we are working with pfizer and moderna. we have confidence in their ability to produce a number of vaccines that the government ordered. on the timeline that we have committed to. and so that means that we have enough vaccines here to be able to vaccinate every american by

the summer. our focus is on evaluating our team, where there are needs, supplies, and materials to help deliver the vaccines into the rm as of americans. >> you saw the president said earlier he is confident he can get republican support. mitt romney said if they're not going to budge on the $1.9 trillion number then it's not going to happen, but we said can you give us a specific example of what demonstrates the difference and he said the $360 billion for states and localities. is that considered negotiableble by the white house? >> i would be interested in what senator romney said about whether or not they would pro pose any funding for state and local. >> they said the average state is a tenth of 1 percent. >> they are not proposing any, so i would suggest given that they also supported 160 or 180

billion in a package that moved forward under the trump administration that that is a place where we would welcome an offer on their end on what state and local funding they would support. >> what other economic relief related to the pandemic? there was a full-page add in the "new york times" calling on the biden administration for a "martial plan for moms." as the president seen the ad and would he support the monthly payments to mothers? >> as a mom myself i can confirm for you that the conversation that i have most freakily with friends on zoom calls is about the impact of the pandemic on working moms across the country. and what the president has certainly concerned about, as we all are, is the fact that this has a disproportionate impact on communities of color, on women of color, who are working, many

of them, jobs as front-line workers and playing vital roles in industries across the country. it is certainly an issue that secretary yellin is focused on. >> have you had a chance to contact the families of fbi agents? has he been able to do that yet? >> we will follow up with you after the briefing. we didn't have a chance to ask about that. >> earlier, the proud bounds were designated a terrorist organization, does the u.s. plan to do the same? >> i had seen that before we came out here and asked our team to make sure we had a little guidance on that for all of you. we have, of course, a review under way. a domestic violence extremism review under way by our national security team to look at the violence and this type of

concerning group activity across the country. i expect that we will wait for that to conclude before we make any determinations. >> it is an ongoing review and when it is concluded we'll have more to say about our view. >> the top republican on the house armed services committee is asking you to apologize for comments you made about the space force. will you apologize? >> i did send a tweet last night. maybe they're not on twitter. we invite the members of space force here to provide a update to all of you on the important work they're doing and we look forward to seeing continued updates from their team. >> big picture here, does the space force have the full support of the biden administration or is the president at some point perhaps going to try to get rid of it or in some way diminish is. >> they absolutely have the full support of the biden administration.

we're not revisiting the decision to establish a space force. the desire for the department of defense to focus greater attention and resources has long been a bipartisan issue. and thousands of men and women proudly serve in the space force. it was established by congress and any other steps would actually have to be taken by congress, not by the administration. >> one more space question. nasa's trump era program to return astronauts to the moon, what is the president's plan? will he keep that program in tact? >> i'm personally interested in space. i think it is fascinating, but i have not spoken with our team about this particular program so let me see if i can get you a more informed overview of that. >> one more question about the president's comments last night as he was paying his respects to the fbi