♪ oh, what a relief it is ♪ so fast. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington on this presidents' day. president biden begins the first day of his presidency without the cloud of donald trump's impeachment shadowing the white house. his top priority has the massive covid relief bill with the senate even more divided after the fallout from the weekend verdict. 43 republicans voting to acquit the former president, including mitch mcconnell but moments later a stinging denunciation of

the former president. >> the president did not act swiftly. he did not do his job. he didn't take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed, and order restored. no. instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily, happy. as the chaos unfolded. >> where does that leave the republican party and its willingness to cooperate with president biden? joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kelly odom, nbc capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, host of way too early, and former democratic congresswoman donna edwards. kelly, first to you at the white house, the president hitting the road after his first weekend at camp david. >> it will be notable for the

president, who, of course, for covid reasons has not been doing domestic travel, can kick that off this week, and as you point out the official shadow of donald trump is not lifted. no one suggested he should be a player in his own making, but not for the official way for the foreseeable future. tomorrow it is to wisconsin for a town hall where it is conceivable president biden will be asked about the fallout of impeachment and his own agenda. later in the week going to michigan for a visit to a pfizer vaccine plant and way for the president to talk about his leadership on covid in terms of trying to get the proper health practices and to instill that in the public for this long haul, as well as the relief package again, trying to bring together any kind of political unity to get that done. as you know, democrats are on two tracks. they have put in motion the kinds of levers of legislating that would allow them to vote

using a tool that would be democrats only while at the same time leaving a door open for the possibility of getting any kind of republican support. however unlikely that might be. so the president is on those two tracks, and notably i think in reaching out to capitol hill and mitch mcconnell in particular, i was struck by the president's own statement about impeachment using mitch mcconnell's words of condemnation for president trump. clearly, president biden could speak about president trump's conduct in his own voice but he chose to use mitch mcconnell's words to put these two men, known each other a long time, who are in different ends of the political spectrum but are now partnered on the same page when it comes can to the chapter of donald trump that may be turning and closing here in washington. andrea? >> and kasie, the senate, of course, are on recess back home, many of them.

that's where seven of the senators who voted to commit the former president are already seeing a lot of backlash. >> that's right, andrea, censure motions, other words against state republican parties against those willing to go out and say they believe donald trump should be convicted. you're looking at the seven there and our two surprises. senator bill cassidy gave us a preview earlier in the week but senator burr stood out and senator graham saying trump may take his seat. burr, we should point out, is retiring. he's not running again. lisa murkowski the only one going to face re-election in 2022. and that gives them a little reality from this particular moment. i think all of the ones who voted to convict president trump are betting that's what this moment is. and they're looking at a longer period of time, looking at

history and mcconnell's words on the floor, despite his vote to acquit, underscore that historical perspective. for mcconnell, it became pretty clear he left the door open to convicting president trump. he didn't say much about where he stood but he sent signals and the feedback was pretty quickly most members of the republican conference in the senate simply weren't willing to do it. so if he's going to remain as minority leader, that's how he was going to have to vote. because, of course, you see even if you were to join and have taken a few more with him, that's still not as many as those who were simply not willing to take that step. he's betting he can hang on to power in the senate and then also try to use what power he does have to make sure that donald trump is no longer the face of the party. >> and at the same time brendan buck, what mitch mcconnell is trying to bet on is donald trump will not define the 2022

midterms as well. >> yeah, he's clearly making a bet or at least trying to force the issue. this impeachment is over but this fight is going to continue and there's going to be little proxy battles all across the country in 2022. where trump republicans are probably going to be challenging a lot of incumbents. what mitch mcconnell has done recently and also going back a few years, which is something i think is really important for republicans right now and that is defend your incumbents in primaries, particularly in the senate when he sees someone come in who's a threat to his majority or threat to reasonable, traditional republicans, he will lay down his life to try to fight for them, that is not flesly what always happened in the house. and i think we're going to see a lot of battles going forward. primaries come and go and i think members have become so afraid of them, they're paralyzing them. we need to see, a, republicans realize primaries don't have to mean the end of your career. you can defeat a primary. secondly, you need republican

leaders to back up their incumbents and fight for them so they don't have to be so afraid of them. that's what mitch mcconnell will be doing over the next couple of years. >> let's just play what lindsey graham had to say because that was the full embrace yesterday of the president. >> he's ready to move on and rebuild the republican party. he's excited about 2022, and i'm going to go down and talk to him next week and play a little golf in florida. i said, mr. president, this maga movement needs to continue. we need to unite the party. trump plus is the way back in 2022. >> so, brendan, the president is out on the golf course today. we've already seen him out on the golf course down there in palm beach and he said quickly after the verdict, he signals his maga supporters he's only just begun to fight. he will just be back.

this is not the last time you will hear from him. >> exactly, i think that's something a lot of republicans hoping to turn the page appreciate it, he's just not going away. there are all kinds of people in the senate who would love to be next up, would love to run for president. all of them seem to be afraid to even entertainment the possibility of challenging them. right now the president is icing out the field. no one is willing to suggest they're looking to run for president being the next up because you need leaders in the party to establish there's a next chapter in the party. right now you're not willing to do that and say if we all went in and willing to do this, it would change the dynamic. but as long as they keep staying quiet, he's going to be the nominee basically. if nothing changes and we continue on this path, he will be the nominee. we need somebody to step up and say we're ready for a different approach. mitch mcconnell can only do that so much and project his majority. that's a different question than who's the base of the party? you need younger, more ambitious

folks to at least retain the idea of running. >> donna edwards, does this make it more difficult for the president to do anything that doesn't just involve using 50 democrats and kamala harris to get things passed? the republican party is so divided they're all trying to figure out what direction and whether they will face challenges in 2022 and who's going to run among them for 2024. how does that affect the biden vote counting. >> i do think especially when you look at a couple of these senators, that in any given circumstance, that i think joe biden is going to make -- president biden is going to make the attempt to reach out to senate republicans to try to bring them on board to look at their ideas, but he's also expressed a willingness to move forward because the american people are united across the political spectrum on the agenda, especially the covid

relief package that the president has put forward. so he will manage to bring on two to five republicans on any one of these measures, not to mention infrastructure, covid relief. and i think he's willing to live with that because there's such strong support in the court of public opinion, and i think joe biden understands the power of the bully pulpit when it comes to galvanizing the public behind the agenda. so some of these republicans are going to have to come aboard. >> kelly, what about confirmations, getting the cabinets in place? most importantly, of course, merrick garland given national security and all of the problems the fbi and other domestic issues of law enforcement. he's now set for the 22nd, 23rd next tuesday for hearings. it's five years since when he first the tried to get a hearing

as he was nominated for the supreme court. >> extraordinary twist he could not have imagined when he was nominated at the high court he could at this juncture be giving up a lifetime federal appointment and going for attorney general. typically it is -- and we've seen it play out here too, the national security piece of the cabinet is confirmed first so the attorney general is the big next department that needs confirmation. and especially as we have been talking about donald trump, the attorney general in a biden administration could potentially have decisions to make about any potential future criminal impact on any of the enterprises associated with donald trump. merrick garland, of course, is a figure who is getting a rare washington do-over, not of his own doing but to be, again, in the spotlight along with president biden to become the next attorney ago. we see interiors and trade reps

still coming through the committee process as well. it won't be too much longer before president biden has a full cabinet and we can await to have his first full cabinet meeting where it can typically have some on-camera moment and we can see the biden team quietly at work. it's not yet a month he's been in office. >> but still longer than many instances for the first cabinet meeting, i think. at least you would want to have it certainly before your first speech to congress, which is also coming up. >> yes. >> kelly o'donnell, kasie hunt, brendan buck, donna edwards, thank you to all of you. as millions are scrambling to try to get the covid vaccine, those under the list to get the vaccine with unprecedented demand. what's being done to patch up this hole? and with one-third of students learning from home, the cdc is issuing guidelines to reopen schools but are they realistic? the answers are ahead. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. h us

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coronavirus cases are declining across the country as the u.s. reported 76,000 new cases on sunday, that's the lowest daily number since the end of october. but experts caution don't let your guard down because the case number is so far greater in the spring and summer peaks. as more covid shots are being delivered, 2 million on friday, vaccine supplies are still far shorter than demand, as states are beginning to expand eligibility and websites are still frustrating those seeking appointments. >> refresh, refresh, refresh. and then you have to go back to the form again and again and again. >> in new york people with underlying health conditions are eligible for vaccines but the sites cannot keep up with the

high demand, the site crashing, discouraging for many new yorkers. let's go to the javits center, a mass vaccination site in new york city. do they have enough supplies to keep this mass vaccine center open? >> hi, andrea. this is something the state knew it would have a problem with when it expanded the eligibility of people with underlying health conditions. as governor cuomo said, millions of new yorkers scrambling for more than 700 vaccination appointments and still today some were coming from their second dose. but the ones who were coming for their first dose and signed up in the last few days said it was very difficult. you just heard from phil smith, he's 51 and still yet to vet a gx appointment. he has a type of blood cancer. and he says it has been

extremely frustrating. >> i think it could be life-saving, not only my own life but i could save somebody else's life by not transmitting covid to them. especially i'm still in treatment, i'm in the hospital sitting around a whole waiting room of people with cancer. i don't want to get themmic is, especially people older and sicker to me. because i have been in their position. >> in addition to him we spoke to another patient who's 37 years old. she has sickle sell amina. also the same problem. she went on the website yesterday, and that, spending hours on her phone trying to get an appointment and still has not been able to. and state officials in new york say they're booking about 350 appointments a minute at one point yesterday but the vaccine website, signup website, was still overwhelmed. this is something that ask happening across the country, andrea, the more and more states expand vaccine eligibility. some states like massachusetts, the governor there reluctant to open up the vaccine appointments to anybody under 75. watch state also dealing with

issues, reserving basically second doses and focusing on people getting their second doses this week. and other states also dealing with closures and temporarily postponing vaccine appointments because of the severe weather in many parts of the country, andrea. >> and we're experiencing that here. you have virginia, maryland and d.c., three different jurisdictions and counties are doing it county by county, ward by ward in the city with different requirements. so it is a -- it is a very confusing and difficult challenge for people. gabe, thank you very much for that. joining me now to help sort all of this house, dr. hashish ja. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. first of all, let's sort out what you attribute the declining number of cases to, is it seasonal? is it people are using masks

more? is it more people are being vaccinated? >> so, yeah, that's the big question. the good news is there's no doubt about it, infections are down, hospitalizations down and expect death numbers to come down substantially in the few weeks ahead. that's all terrific. so what's causing it? i do think some of it is us coming off the surge of the holidays. i think there's evidence people are being careful with mask wearing and social distancing. i don't know if we've seen much of a vaccine effect yet but certainly in the next few weeks we will see the effect of all vaccinations we're doing on both cases and hospitalizations. >> and, of course, the warning is we have to face the variants. we're not doing enough genome sequencing to know just how much the uk variant is already here. and then we have to worry about south africa and brazil and other mutations and some mutations that may be developing here as well that we're not

aware of. >> yes, the way for most americans to think about this is the big one we should be worried about in the short run, short-to-medium run, is the uk variant. that is probably best guess about 5% of the infections now in the country but it will become dominant around mid-to-later part of march. and in my mind, that's our deadline. by the time that happens, we can start seeing really large spikes in cases. this is why we have to be careful right now and this is why we have a race to get as many high-risk people vaccinated as possible by mid-to-late march. that should be a target goal for all of us. >> do you agree with expanding the eligibility to people under 65 with pre-existing conditions, which maybe is contributing to the problems, exacerbating the problems that already existed on these websites? >> yes, there are two sets of issues. first, these websites are

incredibly frustrating. i have elderly parents in new jersey who had the hardest time navigating it. there's no reason it should be hard. there should be a wait list, a way to do this simply. a lot of companies have figured this out. states should do a better job. in terms of eligibility, obviously it's important for people under 65 with substantial chronic disease get vaccinated. i think i'm find opening up eligibility if that's what states need to do. we need to get all of these high-risk people vaccinated in a way that's less frustrating and less random than it is now. >> dr. jha, as always, thank you very much. and as the covid-19 vaccine rolls out across the country, now is the time, make a plan so you're ready to get vaccinated when it's your turn. visit our interactive and personalized state-by-state guides plan your vaccine.com for everything you need to help you figure out when and where to receive the covid-19 vaccine. despite being acquitted by the senate, there's still

potentially legal trouble ahead for donald trump. the latest on state investigations of the former president just ahead. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. non-steroidal anty gel... available over the counter. voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement. alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice. and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain!

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end cyber attacks. from endpoints to everywhere. to me it's all about feeling what the piece of wood in front of me is meant to be. creating a functional piece that is also beautiful. i know there are others and i want them to find me. i'm mats and i put myself out there with godaddy. former president trump remaining defiant in terms of the acquittal calling it a witch-hunt and the acquittal has

"only just begun." even as he faces state investigations in new york, georgia and potentially d.c. on saturday senate republican leader mitch mcconnell reported to acquit as we've been reporting but moments later he delivered a blistering rebuke of the former president. >> trump's actions preceded the riot for a disgraceful, disgraceful der, of duty. there's no question, none, that president trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. >> joining me now, pete williams, nbc news justice correspondent, phil rucker, senior washington correspondent for "the washington post" and chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official. pete, first to you, what is the potential legal troubles the president could be facing, former president i should say?

>> there's the new york one, new york district attorney cy vance with a grand jury investigating his business practices. the grand jury is seeking records from mr. trump's accountants. he claimed that subpoena is overbroad after losing the first round in court after saying you can't touch me because i'm the president. his appeal on that has been sitting at the supreme court whether the subpoena is overbroad since last october. we keep thinking any day now we're going to get the answer but we haven't yet. then there's the georgia investigation by the fulton county district attorney over his phone calls to election officials. then he faces a number of civil lawsuits, andrea, including one from the new york attorney general. she's got a separate investigation whether the trump company misstated propertied values to get better loan rates. >> and chuck rosenberg, "the wall street journal" is reporting new york prosecutors are investigating loans trump took on four manhattan properties, really star properties including trump tower

on fifth avenue and trump condos on trump circle including people familiar with the water, "the wall street journal" reporting. that's another issue that certainly goes right to the heart of his name and his brand. >> absolutely, andrea. there's an important distinction that i think people need to understand. you just played the tape of mitch mcconnell saying donald trump was morally responsible for the january 6th riot at the capitol. i agree. i don't think there's any question about it. i think he caused it. i think he incited it. but to prove he's criminally liable either for filing false documents, financial documents in manhattan or inciting a riot or for trying to influence the election count in georgia, you have to prove something else. it's not just moral culpability. it's he intentionally violated the law. the d.c. statute on the riots, for instance, require will

fullness. that's a hard thing to do, state prosecutors do it all the time around the country but it requires more than culpability. we're in tax season, andrea, not that you would ever file a false tax return, but if your tax return were false, it could be you made a mistake. if you did it intentionally, that's a crime but that's much harder to prove. >> and then there's the political fallout, of course, phil rucker, the gate of the republican party, senator bill cassidy, who was one of the votes to convict, has already been censured -- by saturday night he had been censured by louisiana's republican party. yesterday he spoke about it on abc. let's watch. >> it was clear that he wished that lawmakers be intimidated. he continued to basically sanction the mob being there. and not until later did he actually ask them to leave. >> i'm attempting to hold president trump accountable and that is the trust i have from the people that elected me and i

am very confident that as time passes, people will move to that position. >> phil rucker, will people begin to move to that position, and will they remain intimidated? >> well, andrea, that's the big question hanging over the republican party right now and clearly, cassidy, congresswoman liz cheney, mitt romney, others, are making the calculation trump will slowly vanish over time in terms of his power hold over the republican party but there are a lot of indicators that this party remains donald trump's party. and he is going to try to keep it that way, according to his advisers, he's planning a pretty robust political presence moving forward in the run up to the 2022 midterm elections. he wants to reinsert himself as the dominant force in republican politics, even though he's out of office and it's going to be a real conundrum for not only these congressional leaders but governors around the country and future candidates and people,

frankly, who hope to run for president in 2024 to figure out how to navigate him. we saw interesting comments former south carolina governor nikki haley made in a series of interviews with politico's tim alberta that were published at the end of last weekend. and she agreed she was struggling with how to deal with trump and finally has concluded this should not be his party going forward. >> and if it's going to -- if it's not going to be his party, how does someone like laura trump, his daughter-in-law, run for the richard burr seat in north carolina? the party there is also moving to take action against burr just today. >> yes, i think we will see a number of these primaries play out. but it's an open seat and the degree to which laura trump can capitalize on her father-in-law's popularity in north carolina will tell the story of that senate race. but two years is a long time in

politics. we should also keep in mind there may be geographic disparities here. a state like north carolina, trump can be very strong there, even as the party turns against him in other parts of the country. >> and, pete, weigh in on something chuck was just saying about intent, proving intent, which is obviously quite a bit harder and we have to focus on that if there's going to be any federal case in d.c., state case in georgia. house managers were arguing they have proved intent by showing what he did during those hours. he was watching tv, he didn't call them off. does this -- comments and statement from the republican congresswoman who said she talked to kevin mccarthy and all of that play into that to show intent that he wanted the riot to continue? >> it's potential eftds. but here's the problem. if you're going to charge the president with incitement, and by the way, that's one of the

few federal statutes which says if convicted, you cannot hold future office. but it's a really high bar. you have to show the person making the speech intended to incite intended unlawful action. not just the words go do it now and that's just a very difficult thing to do to make those cases. the same thing with seditious conspiracy. that's another thing in theory the prosecutors can look at here in the district. we were initially told all of those things were on the table. then what we were told is what the investigation right now is focusing most on is what actually happened inside the capitol, where they have now charged about 240 people, andrea. >> pete williams, chuck rosenberg, thank you so much and, of course, phil rucker, thank you to all of you. and there's new hope today after new cdc guidelines at least give a roadmap to getting children safely back into the

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for immune support. boost® high protein. across the country about one-third of all students are learning remotely. in order to get more kids back into the classrooms, cdc released its final guidelines. >> reporter: the fight against covid is cutting both ways. new daily face totals falling below 100,000 for the first time since november, and within the last month, hospitalizations have been sliced nearly in half. but on the vaccine front, shortages are keeping the nation's largest vaccination site at dodger stadium empty. >> i want to be clear, los angeles needs more doses. >> and with winter weather impacting much of the country, many vaccination sites had been forced to freeze operations. it all comes as the cdc has

released its roadmap for reopening schools. >> we're glad that we finally have some concrete, scientifically based guidance. >> the agency focusing on five strategies, universal mask wearing, physical distancing, handwashing, cleaning and contact tracing, practices many districts already have in place. >> for us, not much will change. >> reporter: left off the list, vaccinations. the cdc only encouraging shots for students and teachers but not making them mandatory for reopening. >> ask any teacher and where is our vaccine? >> reporter: still, top doctors are looking to ease fears. >> when you balance the benefit of getting the children back to school with the fact the risks are be mitigated, i think that will alleviate the concerns. >> reporter: also outlined, transmission thresholds, a chlor-coded systems to determine which schools should be open based on the number of infections in the community.

and areas with low-to-moderate spread, schools are encouraged to fully open. but in red zones, where transmission is high, elementary schools should be hybrid while middle and high school students should stay virtual if there's not regular testing. >> it all depends how much community spread is out there. >> reporter: while the latest guidelines are the most detailed yet, some feel the recommendations are still not enough. >> i just don't think this is going to be the silver bullet that gets every school in america open. >> nbc's miguel almaguer now joins us. miguel, it's still so complicated. many teachers we know, and we saw what happened in chicago, are upset about the lack of vaccinations. and what about the funding? the money is still not there for state and local governments to do the cleaning and other mitigation efforts that have to be done, especially in old, urban buildings. >> yes, andrea, upgrading ventilation systems in many

school districts will be incredibly expensive, not to mention the smaller expenses like buying more ppe, more hand sanitizer, making sure students are washing their hands on a regular basis and maybe installing what they would call a covid monitor to make sure the kids are actually following the safety protocols, as are parents and teachers that come on to campus. but, like you said, big, big cost. converting the ventilation system, that will be a hefty, hefty price that many school districts say they simply don't have right now. >> and do schools have to follow these guidelines or is it all voluntary? >> the guidelines that are put out by the b.c., they would like every district to follow them and every school district we have spoken to said they plan to follow those guidelines and exceed them when possible. it seems every school district will follow them. they're not mandatory for schools to reopen but just the guidelines the cdc is putting

out there but it seems like it's a blueprint everybody is willing to adapt to. >> miguel almaguer, thank you very much. and joining us to dig a little further into this, tony fermin, california superintendent of public instruction. thank you very much for being with us again. >> thank you. >> your state has it all, rural communities, farm communities, biggest urban centers. how are you finding the reactions from different districts to these guidelines? can they live up to them? >> andrea, it's like you would expect. with 79% of our schools still in remote learning environments, i think some are encouraged by the new cdc guidelines. there's a path to open. but many including those with underlying health conditions are still very worried. we're prioritizing getting vaccines to our teachers but there just isn't enough supply. so what we're looking into this and still urging caution for everyone to make sure we can keep people safe.

>> what have you learned about the impact, especially in low-income communities, about the stress, mental effects, isolation, lack of internet access in many communities for these children, especially younger children. >> let's face it, education was never built to be delivered in an exclusively remote environment. so we are experiencing challenges adapting to the need to be where we are. i give great credit to our educators and students. they have been so resilient. the killing of george floyd and active racism, so many things occurred. but we have to do what we can to preserve life. everything we are seeing is showing this is the toughest challenge we're ever going to face in our lifetime. there are no easy answers. even when the data comes out, the reality is we have counties in california with very high covid transmission rates.

we need robust testing. and as you mentioned, we still have millions of students who don't have access to high-speed internet. and that's why this week we're continuing our edge to launch and innovation challenge, a prize for someone who can help us solve the broadband gap. and we're hoping some innovator will help us solve this challenge and close the digital divide once and for all. >> and where did you come down as an educator on the vote of risks of children and teachers being subjected to covid versus staying at home, the isolation of being at home? >> i think the cdc guidelines give us a reason to have some hope. they show us a path to get open and talk about wearing masks and maintaining social distance. but i think we have to also just continue to be cautious. as a parent, i'm cautious and i

have questions, can this be done? what does this mean for people with underlying health conditions? let's just face it, we've never done this before. so my conversation with state leaders is how do we get as much covid testing to our schools as possible? how do we accelerate getting the vaccine to educators? to me those are the keys to be able to do what the cdc guidelines say. we're doing all that we can. i still think we have to proceed where caution. we have counties where we've seen one in three kids come to school who are asymptomatic and positive for covid. but if we can get rapid testing with results in 15 minutes and vaccines, and we know this can happen, and, of course, for the mental health of our kids, we have to give it a try. we just have to be safe and follow the science to help us guide our efforts in doing so. >> are you seeing a lessening of the number of tests available as

the pressure is on to get more people vaccinated? sometimes some of the name people who were doing testing are now being pressed into service to vaccine. >> unfortunately, president trump promised we would have widespread vaccine available by december and that just didn't happen. and i think he failed us. he threatened our nation and said schools will lose funding. instead i'm grateful we have president biden who is accelerating efforts to ramp up the vaccine. that's what we need more than anything. i think people are taking advantage of covid testing but now people are saying they have to have the vaccine, they're concerned as they watch and we have communities in deep, deep rates of transmission. we went from having zero icu bed capacity to just a few weeks ago to having a little bit more. and i think people have to not assume that means it's safe. we simply went from extreme to now just dangerous and critical. of but we have to be cautious. and so now we're putting all of our efforts into getting more

covid testing, as you said, and everything we can do to get the vaccine distributed to educators and to those in the highest risk categories. >> tony thurmond, thank you so much for taking the time for us. i know you have a busy schedule as the california state superintendent of public instruction. thanks to you. and once you are fully vaccinated, you can still carry the coronavirus. so how much more normal can life be enjoyed after you get your shots? dr. john torres asks medical experts what is safe and what's not. that's coming up. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. what you ? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ 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.

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for millions of people across the country, it's a challenge just to get vaccinated. once you have both shots, the next question is what can you then do safely. nbc news correspondent asked to experts just that. >> reporter: the covid-19 vaccine has long been touted as the key to returning to normal. one question on every one's mind, if you do get the vaccine, what can you do safely?

we surveyed exerts. on travel, the answers were mixed. >> will you get on an airplane? >> not immediately. >> yes, i will. >> if i had to travel for a family emergency or working i would. i would not travel for pleasure or leisure yet. >> reporter: the same for heading to restaurant. >> will you eat indoors? >> yes. >> i do not plan to dine indoors until community rates are lower. >> reporter: their hesitation, your chance of getting sick is very low, you could still carry it. >> i don't want to catch the virus from a potentially infectious source and bring it home to my loved one who is haven't been vaccinated yet. >> reporter: what about hugging grand kids again if the grandparent has been vaccinated but the child hasn't. some of our experts say no. >> we know that children can become infected. they can spread the virus and do so without having many symptoms. >> reporter: others, say it should be okay. >> there is a very theoretical

slight chance a grandparent who is vaccinated could have still some virus in their nose and pass it onto the grand child. >> it's not completely without risk but the risk is very low. >> reporter: while they all say they would avoid mass gatherings indoors like concerts and sporting events. they are split on small groups. >> would you gather with friends inside? >> only with vaccinated trends. >> no. i will be use my backyard for small get togethers. >> reporter: even returning to the gym, some more cautious than others. >> would you go to the gym? >> doors. >> in a few months. >> if partially open with social distancing and mask and good disinfection, probably. >> reporter: something many are looking forward to, haircut. >> i would love to get a haircut. this hair was cut by my 11-year-old daughter.

>> reporter: one thing they all agree on. >> will you stop wearing a mask? >> no. >> no. >> absolutely not. >> i would not stop wearing mask. >> reporter: if only all the answers were so simple on the road back to normal. dr. john torres, nbc news. >> our thanks to dr. john for that. not only wear mask, often wear two. remember, follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter. kacie hunt is in for chuck todd.

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if it's monday, the impeachment trial is over. now, the fall out. the verdict proving the former president still has a powerful hold on the current republican party. how dominant will trump and trumpism be moving forward? plus, the democrats next challenge. fast tracking a covid relief bill before unemployment benefits lapse in less than a month. it's race against the clock and coronavirus cases in all 50 states have decreasing. the number of daily deaths still rising in some places as president biden promises millions more doses are coming. states are still struggling to get the vaccine they need.