it was making sure that we didn't get into a political battle. you have to remind the american people that the republicans exposed that they were going to bring as many as 100 witnesses and ask that we bring the equal amount of witnesses. and that was a political ploy to get us off center of what the real work is, and that's doing the american relief plan. >> at the end of the day it wasn't more witnesses that we needed, it was more senators with spines. >> and new reaction from president biden after staying silent on the impeachment proceedings as he tries to turn the page on what he is calling a sad chapter in american history. but as both parties are looking to move forward, the big question remains, with no real account ability for january 6th, what role will donald trump play going forward? one republican senator says, not a very big one. >> i think his force wanes.

the republican party is more than just one person. the american people want those ideas but they want a leader who is accountable and a leader who they can trust. i think our leadership will be different going forward. >> all right. we have a lot to unpack this hour including a new interview with a trump attorney making a comparison to the january 6th insurgency that is sparking new controversy, to say the least. we're going to talk about whether witnesses could have changed the outcome of the trial and whether future legal action is simply inevitable against donald trump. plus, the far right already celebrating trump's acquittal online. we're going to look at some of the more alarming messages that have been posted. first, to help us through the fallout from the impeachment verdict and what is next, a team of reporters and analysts joins me to gauge the impact. let's start with marianna sotomayor. let's talk about the democrats here and how they're portraying this. they're saying they pulled off a victory. certainly a moral victory. and one that appears to be larger than what we're seeing on

the surface of it all. tell us a little bit more about that. >> sure, ayman. it was about 24 hours ago at this time when the democrats and senators very much were surprised by the fact that this witness question came forward and many at the time were -- once the house impeachment managers actually relented and said we shouldn't bring forward any more witnesses, many were wondering why they gave up the upper hand. many saying that already showed that they may not have been as invested into really trying to persecute trump. well, now, 24 hours later, we're hearing from those house impeachment managers, many of them saying they did win. you heard from that lead impeachment manager, jamie raskin saying they won in the court of public opinion and they will win in the course of history. and you heard the reasoning why is simply because we heard from senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said that the

democrats did a good job presenting the evidence and there was -- for the course of many weeks we were hearing from republicans, even those that voted to acquit, they were saying that, yeah, trump did in fact have some burden and did -- and does have some blame for the insurrection that happened. and even so, we had that 56-43 vote. the democrats obviously not being able to win over those full 17 republicans necessary to formally convict. and many of those house impeachment managers saying that decision was made by republicans for some time now. they needed some excuse. and that's exactly what raskin told our very own chuck todd on "meet the press." take a listen to what he had to say about republicans and about how he overall sees what he thinks happened here yesterday. >> you can always come up with a lawyer's argument to get to where you want to go. and they did not honestly

confront the reality of what happened to america which was donald trump incited a violent mob to attack the congressional of the united states. you know what, we have no regrets at all. we left it totally out there on the floor of the u.s. senate and every senator knew exactly what happened and just go back and listen to mcconnell's speech. everybody was convinced of the case we put forward. but, you know, as the defense lawyer said, just pick any one of these phony constitutional defenses and you can justify it, it could be first amendment, due process, all of them are nonsense. i thought that i successfully demolished them at the trial. but there's no reasoning with people who basically are, you know, acting like members of a religious cult. >> reporter: so you heard raskin there saying he demolished any of the defense's arguments. democrats and republicans now very glad to see this impeachment trial over. they can actually move forward and be able to focus at least on biden's agenda. ayman? >> marianna sotomayor starting

us off on capitol hill. and trump responded to this acquittal almost immediately with a statement thanking his lawyers and the republican senators who he says stood proudly for the constitution. let's cross over to monica alba in west palm beach, florida. how is the former president reacting to yesterday's vote? >> reporter: well, he really certainly feels vindicated according to this statement. the longest insight into what he's thinking. and gave us clues about how he views his own political future here. but he basically sent a signal to his more than 70 million supporters who voted for him in the last election that he's not going anywhere and that he's going to be able to roll out whatever his next steps may be in the months to come. a line that really stood out was an acknowledgement of what he

called an historic, patriotic and beautiful movement that has only, quote, just begun. really saying that he will have a lot more to talk about in this next phase but also signaling specifically to our people, which is another line there that raised some eyebrows. of course it was some of the people who participated in that capitol insurrection and deadly riot that are such staunch supporters of the former president. as he contemplates a run for 2024, there's a lot that is still unknown. of course that statement was a paper released from his official office. we haven't gotten any kind of reaction on camera or publicly and he hasn't done any interviews or any kind of rally-style events since leaving washington, d.c. it's very possible now that the trial has concluded that he could plan something down here in florida. but we're not quite sure when that will take place. as we grapple with the questions of the future of the republican

party, you can look to senator lindsey graham and somebody who is quite close with donald trump who spoke to this larger question about what mitch mcconnell said in his fiery speech yesterday. take a listen to what senator graham had to say about what that means for the future of the gop. >> i think senator mcconnell's speech got a load off his chest, obviously. unfortunately he put a load on the back of republicans. i like him, senator mcconnell, he worked well with president trump. i think his speech is an out -- outlier. the process they used to impeach this president was an affront to rule of law. >> reporter: something we already know is happening, ayman, is this question of fund-raising. the rnc spent out an appeal right after donald trump was acquitted trying to raise money.

now we have to see whether donald trump makes good on his promise to fund primary challenges against the very republicans who voted against him both in the house and senate. that's something that he really believes he's going to dedicate a lot of time to head of the 2022 midterms. that's probably where he's going to be spending a lot of time this year. he's planning for that before he makes a final decision about 2024. swirling around that is the question that remains about potential criminal exposure and liability with all of these other cases in georgia and new york, ayman. >> and we're going to delve into that right now. monica, thank you. joining me now is nbc news analyst. great to have you with us. the big question this morning a lot of people are having as they look back over the past 24 hours, how much of a difference would witnesses have made in this trial? knowing everything that we know about how it was expected to play out and the politics of it and what we're supposed to learn

from witnesses, did it ultimately hurt or help in this process, for the democrats? >> well, ayman, when you have a big case there's all sorts of monday morning quarterbacking afterwards. it would have been good to have witnesses. it would have humanized the story. but the problem here was not the facts. the facts were overwhelming proven against donald trump. to the point where even mitch mcconnell agreed with the facts. and i thought the house managers did an exquisite job. humanizing a case and witnesses is always good, but, you know, the fact is, that some of these republican senators don't live in the reality-based community and the thing that wasn't emphasized in any of the reporting this morning is the reason why the house managers backed down and that's because senate republicans led by joni ernst and others said if you have witnesses, we're going to shut down the senate, no nominees, no legislation, even over covid and things like that.

and so, you know, obviously that's a really horrible thing that they did. i think they deserve to be held accountable for that threat. but, you know, when you're weighing that and you're dealing with a nonreality-based community, i think the house managers made the right call. the last thing i would say about this, though, the fact there were no witnesses here, just invites another proceeding, either the 14th amendment proceeding or criminal proceeding. the american people should hear from donald trump directly under oath. they should hear from vice president pence directly under oath. >> it will be interesting to see if that does happen in the near future. let's talk a little bit about trump. after his -- after he was acquitted, his attorney michael vander ven compared the trial to the riots themselves. >> what happened on the capitol on january 6th is absolutely horrific. but what happened at the capitol

during this trial was not too far away from that. >> just a reminder to our viewers, people lost their lives on january 6th. neil, this is a practicing attorney in the u.s. what's your reaction to that comparison and to the person delivering it? >> it's the stupid type of false equivalencies that we've heard over the past four years directly from donald trump, the fact that it's a member of the bar saying it is quite astonding to me. but trump got what he paid for. >> peter baker writes that the impeachment has given the most complete account so far of january 6th and trump's influence at the riot. clips of rioters claiming their support for trump while storming the capitol and one person reading trump's tweets out over a bullhorn, not to mention the people who were wearing the make america great again hats and shirts. this didn't convince many

senators, neil. but would it stand up in a criminal court? is it prosecutable here on out? >> it is prosecutable, and i think the very fact that you had by a vote of 15 senators, a margin to convict him, is very strong evidence. and along with the fact that the overwhelming majority -- the 57 senators, they represent more americans than the 43 who voted to acquit. they voted to acquit on a technicality. they said they lacked jurisdiction. whenever you have a court proceeding which a court says we lack jurisdiction, that's always an invitation for other tribunals to act and here there were two. there are the criminal cases that you mentioned and then there's also the possibility of 14th amendment legislation which can be passed by a simple majority vote. and, look, in a world in which mitch mcconnell is saying the

president did it, i don't think there's any reason whatsoever to not introduce that legislation tomorrow, to bar donald trump from -- freeze your office holding because he fomented an insurrection. the facts have been proven, the most bipartisan basis in united states history, have found those facts. >> talk us to about the 14th amendment for a moment. democrats have suggested using that now that trump has been acquitted twice. what would that process look like going forward? >> very simple. the house and senate by a majority vote would pass legislation that bars donald trump from future office holding because he's violated the 14th amendment. there's a question as to whether or not it should require a court proceeding, the text of the 14th amendment doesn't directly require it. but i think he should have it. i think they should say, we're barring you. if you disagree, feel free to go to court and challenge us and

prove it up. and the 14th amendment also has another remedy, if two-thirds of both the house and senate later one day decide that -- forgive donald trump, they can pass an affirmative vote then. if he engaged in acts of contrition or something like that, i know that's not part of the reality-based community we live in. those are the i don't know how the house and senate can't do it, ayman, given the overwhelming vote yesterday and the fact that even mitch mcconnell agrees. >> i want to ask you kind of more of a legal question and that is about the impeachment process generally. from a legal and institutional perspective, what is one thing that impeachment and certainly the impeachments of donald trump have taught you and taught us generally and could it be changed to guarantee justice in the future in the way that we haven't seen yet? >> you know, i think our founders intentionally made impeachment really, really hard. indeed, we've never had an

impeached and convicted president in united states history. donald trump came by far the closest to anyone in our over 200-plus years. you know, and so you could say, it's such a high standard, two-thirds, it becomes impossible. and it may be impossible to impeach and remove a president because of party which isn't something -- political parties weren't something that the founders directly anticipated. on the other hand, there's a way in which the system really worked yesterday. the story was told. all americans got to see it. and, you know, the reason why trump got off is this mere technicality. there are other remedies now that are available both to the congress and to the courts to deal with a constitutional monster like donald trump. >> and so when you look forward -- let's say 10, 15 years from now, maybe longer than that, how would the trump presidency be viewed by legal and constitutional scholars like

yourself? >> 15 years from now, tomorrow, today, 150 years ago, 150 years from now, donald trump will be viewed as the worse president in american history. this is a guy who fundamentally failed to keep his oath to the constitution and to protect the people of the united states. it's as clear as that. and i think this is where the trump lawyers really fell down on the job. it's fine to make fun of things like mispronouncing philadelphia and stuff like that. but the bottom line is, the trump lawyers never understood their place in the eyes of history which is to defend donald trump not in front of a senate with a lot of republicans, but in front of historical records and they they didn't. they didn't mount a factual defense of what donald trump did. they had complaint after complaint about the process. but at the end of the day there's no historian that will look at this record -- i don't care how partisan that historian is, who can come up with

anything but donald trump did it, to use the words of taylor swift. i think he did it. >> dropping some "t" swift on us this morning. there's some democrats who say they wanted to call witnesses at the trump impeachment trial but one aspect of the whole affair that few are talking about. it may be a key reason many wanted it all to end. i'll ask about that next. end i'll ask about that next advice : try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... uh-oh, sorry... oh... what? i'm an emu! no, buddy! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪

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make this indictment against the president and then say, but i can't -- i can't vote for it because it's after the fact, the fact that he established, the fact that he established that it could not be delivered before the inauguration. >> a scathing floor speech from mitch mcconnell putting the onus of the capitol hill riots at the feet of donald trump. mitch mcconnell said despite trump's actions, conviction would be unconstitutional given he no longer holds office. but as speaker nancy pelosi pointed out, the one person who had the power to reconvene the senate in january before trump left the white house was mcconnell and he specifically chose not to do so. joining me now, jake sherman and anna palmer co-authors of the book "the hill to die on." let me begin with anna here. both of you guys know capitol

hill better than me. help me understand mcconnell's reasoning here. he had the power to do this trial before trump left office. he actually made a very powerful statement, you know, shortly after january 6th where he actually put the blame on president trump's feet back then. what was the purpose of his speech yesterday that seemingly contradicted the vote to acquit? >> i think he wanted to lay down a marker of what he thought about donald trump's behavior, that it was abhorrent, that it was not something that he supported and that the president was truly responsible for the january 6th insurrection. i would say i think his vote has a lot to do with where the republican conference was and the fact that the majority of the republican senators were not going to vote to impeach the president. he knows as a leader that he needed to be there with the conference. and so i think that's where -- this has a lot to do with that and the third point would be the

fact that the constitutionality argument, a strong talking point that republicans have tried to push for the last month or so. >> jake, i remember shortly after january 6th people here in the u.s. began to read every sign there was into mcconnell's thinking. he kept his cards close to his chest. he would signal that he was thinking about january 6th and the president's responsibility. people were interpreting the resignation of his wife from trump's cabinet as a signal, and he acquitted trump. did that at all surprise you? >> no, i didn't surprise most of the people who cover the capitol on a day-to-day basis, ayman, and i've probably expressed skepticism that he would vote to convict with you a bunch of times. but mitch mcconnell -- the politics of this, mitch mcconnell is not going to vote with just 10% of his republican conference. you can like him.

you can hate him. but we've seen that a million times over history. he derives his power from being where the rest of the republicans are and he found his way to that point. i think, listen, i think there was a moment there at the beginning when mcconnell world put out notice that he might take a different position and that allowed people the space to kind of wonder what was going to happen and to establish positions, right? we saw republicans say they would never vote to convict him, it's improper. he had a good idea of where everybody was and ended up just where everybody was. no one in the -- i guess it was seven people that voted to convict trump. no one really surprised us besides richard burr. he's leaving the senate after next year. so this ended up exactly where we thought it would end up which is a handful of republicans, we could have predicted nearly all of them and richard burr, which we didn't predict, voting to convict the president. that's just -- it's an

unsurprising result, i would say. >> and you guys probably saw my earlier segment, we're doing a little monday morning quarterbacking, although it is sunday and nfl season is over. talk to us about the strategy of the democrats yesterday. why did they cave in on the issue of witnesses? people look at democrats saying they don't come to these fights with the republicans with their knives out the way that republicans do. and yet here they are when they were threatened that this was going to be bogged down and more witnesses, it seems at least by some analysis that they backed down from calling witnesses and as neil said, humanizing this. >> i think it was a big deal by democrats. the house managers saying, yes, we do want to have witnesses. we were all covering this very carefully yesterday wondering what was going to happen. it was a major twist that nobody expected. those two hours where the senate was trying to figure out what it was actually going to do. i think it comes down to the fact that senate democrats want

to move forward from donald trump. they want to enact this joe biden agenda and they didn't want to get bogged down in a timeline of potentially putting the trial off for two weeks or, you know, the concept of how many people were then -- the republicans going to call and try to come to some kind of agreement on that. i think that the activist progressives in the democratic party are upset because they didn't call witnesses. i think at the end of the day it wasn't going to make a big difference on the outcome and i think more than anything, if you look at the fact that impeachment was not even a major issue the first time this president was impeached, if you're looking to 2022, which a lot of democrats are, they want to be saying, we fixed the vaccine problem and we're working on the economy. and you should vote us back into power. that's going to be their message. it's not going to be about impeachment. >> let's look forward, jake, the 180 we saw yesterday, does it have anything to do with the

general sense of trump's exhaustion on capitol hill. kasie hunt cited that as part of the reason it ended yesterday was because of this fatigue, people just want to move on from anything to do with trump. do you get a sense that the senators on capitol hill also want to do that from both parties or not? >> yeah, of course. i think everyone is tired of dealing with trump all of the time. we've been dealing -- we, meaning the political system, has been talking about him since 2015, and i think a lot of republicans and democrats alike are tired. i will say, though, ayman, it is a -- it's hard to overstate how big of a cave and a disastrous that was for democrats. maybe they have their reasoning. but they just folded like a cheap suit and some might wonder why democrats feel like they get taken advantage of in negotiations. it's because they blink. it's because they blinked in this negotiation -- they had

republicans against the ropes and they led them off for no cost. they didn't get anything out of this. i might be in the minority here. but i think it was just an epically bad cave and it confirmed for them what they thought all along, democrats are weak-kneed in negotiations and they folded without getting anything. >> it was remarkable to watch it play out in realtime. ultimately to see them back down after that short recess -- anna, quickly, any consequences, you think, or anticipate for the seven republicans that voted against -- or voted to convict donald trump? i know some of them are retiring at the end of their terms. politically and beyond, do you see any consequences for them? >> for those that are retiring, i don't think there's any consequences. for the susan collins, the lisa murkowskis of the world, the ben sasses, they're clearly -- have laid out where their differences are with the president and i think they have a strong case to go back to their states to say,

listen, this is why you elected me. it wasn't as if you had a bunch of republicans who, you know, were -- come from very republican states. i think the question will be, what role does trump play in 2022. we have lindsey graham on the sunday shows this morning saying he's fired up and ready for -- to continue maga nation. that's going to be the big thing i would watch. >> he's all about winning, as he said this morning. always appreciate it. if you thought the arrest of hundreds from the riot would at least now quiet extremist groups and rhetoric, think again. there are new and alarming messages growing online. we're going to tell you what they're calling for now. later it's a mystery, the author of this article, trump hid his calls with putin, now biden has access to them, joins me later. joins me later t love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros.

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plenty of new reaction following the acquittal of donald trump. the "new york times" writes the former president continues to command unmatched admiration from conservative voters. but the view of the general public may be a different matter in all of this. cori coffin is hearing from voters in atlanta to find out what they thought. great to have you with us. obviously atlanta and the state of georgia, very interesting dynamic playing out. they just elected two democratic senators, but a solidly red state for president trump. what are voters telling you? >> reporter: that's right. it is such a complicated issue here, ayman. good afternoon. here in fulton county, this is a democratic stronghold. you go just outside of that and you have many republican strongholds that feel the exact opposite of the voters we spoke to. but fulton county carried the state which is why we wanted to talk to the voters about their reactions. many said they weren't surprised

by yesterday's outcome. they felt it was a necessary step for the record books to try to make sure to set an example for future elections and political actions moving forward. but they also felt this will not change any future political violence when it comes to extremists and supporters. that's a major concern for the voters out here. they're looking forward when it comes to the georgia investigations that are happening, the criminal investigation against donald trump, the citizen. and i spoke with the voters out here about all of this. yesterday's outcome as well as the investigation here. listen to what they told me. >> might have been the closest to impeachment, but it was the most egregious example of why a president should be impeached. i'm not sure what it's going to take. >> if it's a crime, they should convict them. and the reason they didn't do it in the senate was because he's a civilian now, he's a regular citizen. he should be treated like a regular citizen and charged for those types of things.

>> i think that people are going to remember january 6th and he may run again, but i don't think he'd have a successful campaign. >> reporter: another major concern for these voters was that they feel that yesterday's outcome would continue to embolden trump for his dangerous rhetoric. one voter put it aptly, he said trump wakes up emboldened, ayman. a quick update about the investigation here in georgia, the attorney general has asked the governor to keep any and all documents relate today that january 2nd phone call and expanding the investigation to include other people who might have been part of election efforts overturning here in georgia. that would include senator lindsey graham and these voters told me if they don't get any sort of criminal charges being brought forward, they're going to have to flex their voting might once again which, of course, we saw the last two elections, ayman. >> cori coffin in atlanta covering both sides of that story, impeachment and the

ongoing investigations. thanks. new and alarming calls for violence today in the fallout from that impeachment verdict. the site intelligence group is saying far right celebrates impeachment acquittal, declare trump remains president or will return in 2024. the reaction coming swift and severe i would say. you spend a lot of time on telegram and some of these other services where a lot of these folks have been pushed underground since being banned on the more mainstream social media platforms. what are you seeing today? >> nice to see you, ayman. today i'm seeing calls for violence on nancy pelosi. that was one thread that jumped out at me. there's a lot of glee over the acquittal, but nancy pelosi seems to be the target of the day in some of the most extreme

telegram channels that i have been on today. when one person posts something, a lot of others tend to pile on. that's something that i saw just about an hour ago. unfortunately we see this kind of thing every day on these channels and, remember, these are the most extreme echo chambers of the internet, unfortunately. and that continues to this day. this didn't stop following january 6th. >> speaking of nancy pelosi, let me play for you what she said yesterday after the verdict. watch this. >> it's a slap in the face of the constitution that lets everybody off the hook. it lets everybody off the hook. these cowardly senators who couldn't face up to what the president did and what was at stake for our country are now going to have a chance to give a little slap on the wrist. we censure people for using stationary for the wrong

purpose. we don't censure people for inciting insurrection that kills people in the capitol. >> you talked about what you're seeing online with some threats directed towards the speaker of the house. do you get a sense that they were specifically referencing those comments that she made, or is this the continuation of the way trump has demonized her in the past that is just continuing to boil over among his supporters online? >> more of the latter from what i saw. it's a continuation. and like i said before, there's a target of the day. on january 6th it was mike pence who was the subject of that where people put up a gallow and there was a lot of rhetoric online around that. today it's nancy pelosi. but it's been nancy pelosi in the past. so i'm sure this didn't help in terms of stirring the pot because these guys do pay attention. they are watching the news. a lot of what you find is people will just post news stories with

their commentary. this probably didn't help that. but she's been a target for some time. >> i wanted to play for you and our viewers a part of trump's statement yesterday. it was read by his spokesperson. listen to this. >> this has been yet another phase of the greatest witch-hunt in the history of your country. no president has ever gone through anything like it. and it continues because our opponents cannot forget the almost 75 million people, the highest number ever for a sitting president, who voted with us just a few short months ago. >> talk to us a little bit about how that statement is playing out online. have you seen any traction with it. i know that people parse the words of the president because in the past everything he's said and done has been picked up by conspiracy theorists and we don't want to lump all 74 million people who voted for the president that way. how is the reaction yesterday from the president, his statement about something happening going forward playing out online, if you've seen any traction to it?

>> for those who supported trump, and there were a lot of people who showed up on january 6th, there are tens of millions more who voted for him. and jason miller's statement was accurate there, who don't support violence. however, there are the conspiracy theory world has strengthened so much in the last year. and people who were home online unfortunately were ripe for being duped by conspiracy theories and joining this sort of movement. people do think -- they're waiting for "q" messages to drop. they're following the qanon they're part of the qanon conspiracy. and they believe that trump -- there's this underground communication that he's doing every movement that he makes is some signal. every word that he says to the public, there's some signal. and unfortunately, a lot of regular people that you wouldn't necessarily think would believe these conspiracy theories do. and those continue to this day.

we have to keep watching this because, obviously, the law enforcement and the general public do not want another january 6th to take place. >> certainly they do not. thank you so much for your reporting and staying on top of this for us. i appreciate it. as schools across the country reopen, both teachers and parents are confused and concerned. but is new cdc guidance really providing much comfort? that's next. omfort that's next. retailers donated 50 million meals to feeding america. and yet, one in four children may still face hunger. so, subaru and our retailers are doing it again, donating an additional 100 million meals to help those in need. love. it's never been needed more than right now. subaru. more than a car company. (vo 2) to join us with a donation, go to subaru.com. did you know that your clothes can actually attract pet hair? with bounce pet hair & lint guard, your clothes can repel pet hair. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet!

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now to some new numbers in the coronavirus pandemic. new cases are on the decline across the country. almost every state reporting a percentage decrease in new cases over the last two weeks. the white house is calling on china to hand over data from early coronavirus cases to the world health organization after an official revealed chinese authorities refused to provide some requested information. the w.h.o. has been in wuhan investigating the origin of the virus. oxford university has started testing its vaccine on children. around 300,000 kids from ages 6 to 17 will participate in the new astrazeneca trial. this is the first time a covid vaccine is being tested on someone younger than the 12 years old. and the head of the cdc is doubling down on the stance that vaccinating teachers is not a requirement for opening schools after facing some backlash for suggesting that before official guidelines were released. >> i'm speaking as the head of

the cdc. i believe that that's why you have me here today. our guidance is now been released. it was released on friday. and it specific articulates the five key strategies we need to keep our schools open and other layered mitigation strategies, including teacher vaccination that are nonessential to get our schools open, but we do recommend. >> and new mixed reaction from parents today about the cdc's guidelines designed to help schools reopen. the cdc now saying that many "k" through 12 schools that followed these recommendations have safely opened for in-person learning and have remained open. what are you hearing from parents and teachers about these new plans? >> reporter: the answer is confusion on all levels. let me tell you why. in 48 hours, the school is going to be bustling for the first time in months here in fairfax county as part of their staggered rollout plans to get students in. we have a graphic to show you

here. it's based on percent positivity of coronavirus in your area. if 10% positivity, you're in the red tier, 5 or 8% positivity, you're in yellow and blue is below 5%. we have new data from a group that tracks the amount of school reopenings across the country that says 91% of american students right now are in that red area. that means elementary schools should be in class, but they should be socially distanced and that means middle school and high schools should be virtual. this has a lot of confusion because, of course, these are not requirements, these are suggestions and guidance. here's what what parent had to say. >> other communities have not -- have been also in the red zone and operating their schools safely for both teachers and students since september. so it doesn't really make a lot of sense why the cdc has already -- is now stating that what schools have been doing for months safely for everybody is

now no longer safe. i want my son to get the same quality of in-person education as the kids in private schools, as the kids in florida, as the kids in texas, as the kids in tennessee have been having since september. there's nothing special about nothing special about fairfax county virginia that msnbc they can't go to school in person that other states and localities have been implementing since september. >> reporter: and those mitigation strategies that shawna has been talking about is what we've been hearing for a year, social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing. >> gary, thank you. it is one of the biggest mysteries from the trump administration. why did he hide his conversations with russian president vladimir putin from the country and even most of his top aides? president biden might be able to find that out, and next hour a house intelligence committee member on the investigation into why the capitol was so poorly protected against the angry invaders. rly

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. russia's top diplomat has expressed shock about donald trump's impeachment trial saying he didn't know why the proceedings were even happening because, quote, trump is is a striking politician. this comes after a political report that says president biden now has access to all of donald trump and vladimir putin's phone conversations. the article writes understanding what was said between the two could help illum knit whether trump ever revealed sensitive information or any information that could take the new administration by surprise. great to have you with us. trump and putin's phone conversations were not recorded. how much do we now about the biden administration's interpretation of the calls or anything that has caught your

attention so far. >> yeah, we don't know for sure whether the biden administration has actually viewed these calls but we know they have access to them and basically if they want to review the notes in the transcripts that were recorded during their conversations, many which lasted hours at a time over the course of trump's four years in office, then they can do that. we were told categorically by former officials in the trump white house that they do have access to those calls and we're told that the national security council under joe biden has not registered any complaints with their ability to access trump's calls, not only with vladimir putin but with other foreign leaders over the course of his administration, so we don't know what we don't know, right? we don't know exactly what the president -- the former president spoke to former president vladimir putin about. all we know it was highly secretive. something we knew they didn't want other officials to hear. they were conversations that they didn't want to leak.

the famous do not congratulate call in which he did in fact congratulate putin so i think, you know, the biden administration as they conduct this review of the russia policies over the next four years, this is something they want to get their hand on. >> a translator told associates that they felt like eavesdropping on two friends chatting in a bar. would it ever go so far as biden officials interviewing translators about what was exactly said? >> i think it's possible. there obviously is a lot of precedent for translators is that it's very privileged, right, so it's in the room. it's kind of a delicate thing where they are listening to the two foreign leaders speak and a lot of former officials not only from the trump administration but from previous administrations feel like these conversations should be kept private and that the translators should only be speaking to the president and his advisers about these conversations, but, of course, as one former official said there's only one president at a time and if he feels that

he needs this information, either from trump's former advisers like fiona hill, for example, a top trump adviser on the nsc or someone like marina gross who was trump's interpreter will illuminate a lot of conversations in detail about what actually happened between the president and the russian president, that is something that he could demand as president of the united states. >> all right. natasha bertrand, thanks very much for that. quite interesting and fascinating to see what the biden administration will do. >> 43 senators voted to acquit trump, but how much of america do they really represent in the surprising numbers that put it into perspective. e surprising numbers that put it into perspective

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for just $64.90 a month. and ask how to add comcast business securityedge. call today. good day. from msnbc world headquarters in new york, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." developing this hour, the acquittal of donald trump in his second impeachment trial is reverb rate on capitol hill and across the nation. senators on both sides of the aisle giving new insight and