that does it for this abbreviated edition of "andrea mitchell reports," remember to follow the show online on facebook and twitter at "mitchell reports," chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily" only right here on msnbc. ♪♪ welcome to tuesday, it is "meet the press daily" and i'm chuck todd, the white house's daily briefing has just wrapped and with the former president's impeachment behind us, washington's focus now turns towards the current president and the daunting challenges ahead of all of us, beginning with the pandemic. the white house is looking to turn the page on trump by renewing its push for speedy passage of his massive $1.9 trillion covid relief package, press secretary jen psaki said moments ago that it

is the president's top priority right now, she also said that the white house coronavirus response coordinator jeff zients said that the government is again able to increase the vaccine supply, enough to get us over a $2 million a day hump, the u.s. death toll from the pandemic is creeping towards a staggering half a million people, just let that sink in for a moment. it's going to hit that number before the end of this month. today president biden hits the road for his first domestic trip as president. if you don't count going home to delaware or camp david and it's for a town hall in wisconsin. obviously the pandemic will be a major topic. vice president harris, then speaks exclusively with my colleague savannah guthrie tomorrow morning on the "today" show, president biden will hit michigan later this week to meet with vaccine distributors at pfizer, as you can see a real ramp-up here and then it's the virtual g-7 meeting which will also focus on covid. to be sure

easy by any means. we have a lot of unpacking to do, and what happened that day, everybody that was behind it, the republican party is still largely trump's party, the base is system atically punishing members, meaningless tools right now. even as party leaders look for ways to slowly separate from trump as he continues to defend his decision to acquit, as he makes the case for essentially a full-time denouncement of donald trump. meanwhile speaker pelosi is taking steps to establish a 9/11 style commission to fully investigate what happened and what led up to the capitol attack. more importantly, why were we so unprepared for the attack. it's expected to examine all components of the insurrection, and that likely is going to take years, not months. so amid the ongoing upheaval of trumpism, the fallout from january 6th and the pandemic the question is will president biden be able to turn the page on his terms. his window to act, though, is now opened.

our chief white house correspondent peter alexander is standing by in the briefing room. leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, shaq brewster in milwaukee ahead of the president's visit there. peter, i think a lot of people want -- this is like our second first day of school, i guess, if you will, for the joe biden white house here. >> right. >> do they accept this notion that, hey, today is sort of inauguration part two, now that trump truly is in the background? >> chuck, i think it is being framed as sort of a relaunch, right, of the biden presidency but if you ask jen psaki, they say they weren't distracted by impeachment over the last week but the allies and lawmakers on the hill clearly were with their eyes focused on the last president, not the present one and the present crisis at hand. that's what i think this administration, this president is, as you noted with the timeline over the course of this

week, really trying to put his stamp on really trying to drive home the urgency of this. again, seizing the spotlight here with those domestic first domestic business trips, the stop in wisconsin today, the stop in michigan, a little bit later. it's not just on that topic, you know broadly they were speaking about housing affordability and the issues associated with that as well today. announcing that they would extend moratoriums until june 30th for americans who have been economically hit by the pandemic at this point but they do recognize the urgency, chuck, as you indicated and this is why they're going outside the beltway to put pressure on those in the beltway saying most americans prodly agree deks and republicans, even if republicans in washington do not agree with this plan. >> peter, we're -- i didn't hear a lot on the next week's speech to congress that joe biden's giving, the don't call it a state of the union, state of the union that every first year president gives is sort of a

kickoff to their agenda. obviously the big focus is going to be selling the covid relief plan since you will be within a three week window of getting that done. but what is the next priority after that? >> it's a good question, one we've tried to drill them down on, specifically. i think they would say there's several things beyond the covid relief package with its nearly drs. 2 trillion price tag, the jobs council, the plans to help build back better, that begins in earnest, focusing on issues like infrastructure. but as evidenced by nbc's reporting today and what we heard from jen psaki, moments ago, immigration is another issue the president is going to try to get to work on as it relates to his immigration reform bill that would include a plan for an earned pathway to citizenship for the 11 million plus undocumented immigrants in this country. it would also include a sort of shifting of refugee resettlements, and in place of

the trump border wall, a heavy focus on technology at the border. but chuck, this all takes a lot of work and takes a lot of capital and it's inclear -- >> yeah it does. >> one big package or if they just sort of initiate the process by announcing it. >> there -- yeah, and it's -- look, that's politically just what -- it's a very divisive topic. no matter how you do it. probably better to piecemeal it, that's for sure, peter alexander getting us started at the white house. thank you. capitol hill, leigh ann caldwell, and let me start first with specifics and the covid relief package, this is basically in the house's hands while the senate was doing impeachment, we're going to get a vote this week or next week in the house? >> next week, chuck, so what we're going to see the rest of this week is the committees are going to finish their work and then it goes to the full house to vote and then it comes over to the senate, of course, the big question is on minimum wage,

what they're going to do with that and what they're going to be able to do with that if that's going to make it through the process and also the question is, are any republicans going to support this, democrats are moving along very quickly, you know we just heard that senator mitt romney, he just tweeted he's introducing a piece of -- an amendment with senator tom cotton saying that they would do a minimum wage increase if it ensures that businesses cannot hire undocumented immigrants. so that's obviously not going to pass. but it's notable that this is a policy area that republicans are very happy to be talking about. and it seems almost like an attempt by like people like senator mitt romney and even tom cotton with presidential ambitions want to turn the page on the last four years. and especially the last month, chuck. >> well, there's room on midge mum wage, there's room to do a deal. it's popular.

and there's room if you can figure out a way not to make it flat across the board, figure out a geographic formula that maybe even becomes part of cost of living increases, there's got to be a smarter way to do this. let's talk big picture. the biden white house wants to turn the page on trump. is congress ready to do that? how much time are they going to focus on unpacking the trump era? >> reporter: it's an excellent question. so i think that the answer is different for republicans and democrats. you know, democrats are still litigating the trump era. there was a lawsuit filed today by senator ben -- representative benny thompson of the homeland security committee suing the former president over the insurrection. and we could see more things like that. as far as republicans are concerned they -- it's going to be hard for them to move on. they have a grassroots issue, your seeing it in the polls.

you're seeing it with all these state and local government censures. and we saw representative adam kinzinger, who's been a big critic of the president, he said that he got angry letters from members of his own family saying how could you speak out against the former president? and that's not the only example of that. senator inhofe of oklahoma i was told before he came out saying that he would not object to the electoral college vote on january 6th, he had to talk to members of his family and his closest friends. he had to write them letters explaining his position because he was not going to object on that vote. so while they are trying to move on beyond the former president, they still have to deal with all of these people in their base, in their states who still have a strong, strong support of him. >> now this is the major damage that the infotainment channels

that dominate conservative media have totally done a number on their constituents. leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, thanks very much. on the ground to milwaukee with shaquille brewster, shaq, you spent a lot of time in wisconsin in 2020. essentially it was almost an adopted home state for you from your chicago bureau beat there. what are you hearing on the ground? how's biden doing in this first month? are expectations high, medium, tempered, what are you finding out? >> well, i'll tell you, chuck, based on all the conversations i had ahead of president biden's trip later today, you really get the sense that folks here want him to focus on getting through this coronavirus pandemic. i have a sample of sound that i did, and that we -- interviews that we did today and yesterday that i want to play for you. before we do that i just want to point out who you'll be hearing from, the first person is a trump supporter, someone who

voted for the president who says biden is not even a legitimate president because in his words he believes biden stole the election. you're going to hear from a business owner and then you're going to hear from a person whose father was the first person who lost his life here in milwaukee from the coronavirus pandemic, as you listen to the sound listen to see if you can find the common thread in what they're saying, listen here. >> get the kids back to school. that would be priority number one. >> the small business assistants, getting the small businesses the resources they need. >> let's focus on covid, number one, all the doses that we can possibly buy in the world should be purchased. >> really appreciate our president biden for showing that leadership, showing that empathy. my father is gone from covid. and so like it's -- when i hear the name covid and i hear on the news people dying, like i'm reminded of it every day. >> reporter: so you hear their focus on the schools, focus on the vaccines that covid relief for small businesses. guess what?

all of those different measures are in biden's rescue plan, the plan he's coming to milwaukee to pitch directly to voters in the state. that gives you a sense of there is an opening there for the president. he believes he can talk directly to voters, even voters who don't agree with him, they may find something that they like in his plan and you can tell that's what the white house is banking on as they come to the ground here in milwaukee, chuck. >> i'm curious, shaq, let's say biden in the next week or two, when he does his speech before congress, and folks like that here, that, you know, he's got a covid agenda but he also wants to start doing -- tackling other things like infrastructure and immigration, are they going to have patience for that or are they going to say focus on covid first before you start worry about other stuff? >> reporter: so many times chuck people aren't focused on the particulars, they'll see the rescue plan and for them that means the stimulus check that will come out, the $1,400, other

people will see that was the plan that got schools open, that's something i heard throughout the conversations, you know, one person said oh, i read the covid relief bill and i didn't like this part of it. we haven't really had a specific covid relief bill that's out there. we have an outline that's there, but the house hasn't passed any specific legislation or even have that legislative text. you get the sense that they will get the headlines, they will get a sense of the top lines and whether or not they agree with that, that is what will come down. to them. and filter down to them. i think one other point, chuck, that i noticed in my conversations, it's the idea that they are giving president biden some time here. they understand he's just about three weeks in, they're being a little bit patient but they want his focus to be on covid. >> i was just going to say, to me that's just a yellow flag to the white house, be careful moving on to other issues, before the public thinks you've got your arms around covid. anyway, shaquille brewster on the ground for us, in what looks like an extraordinarily cold

milwaukee, wisconsin. shaq, thanks very much. let's get a check now, speaking of weather, on all of this breaking weather news, extreme winter weather slamming more than half the country, it's killed at least 28 people across the southeast and texas, the state power grid is overloaded, it's left at least 4 million people to face historically low temperatures without electricity and often without heat. my colleague morgan chesky joins us from dallas and morgan about the only upside here is i assume the cold weather motivates people to wear a mask, because it's one extra layer on your face. but how bad is it, morgan? >> reporter: it's bad, chuck. right now those numbers coming from the state aren't just 4 million people, that's 4 million households across the state of texas that are without power. and that's upwards of about 10 million people in this state that are now going on two plus days now in sub-freezing temperatures and that's simply a situation that not only the state is not prepared to deal with but a lot of these folks aren't prepared to deal with. we're in a neighborhood here in south dallas, i had a chance to

speak with a gentleman here, steve rivera, he moved his wife from this house across the street to a neighbor's home, because they have a fireplace. steve doesn't. you can see that firewood piled up in the front yard there. the reason he had to do that is because his wife is in a wheelchair, and diabetic and she's unable to stay warm in their house. they have had three hours of power in the last three days and right now that thermostat is reading in the high 30s and i can get that almost every house along this street would read the same. the big concern is, they don't know when the power is going to come back on and if it does in these rolling outages they don't know how long they have to deal with to boil that water, to put in that thermos to hopefully stay warm or to start any steps going forward to be prepared to handle what's to come. we have another winter storm coming through here later today, dropping a couple more inches of snow. meanwhile, the energy providers

are saying hang tight as long as you can, but for the many texans i've spoken to, chuck, they don't know how much langer they can do that. >> and this is dallas, this is houston, we're not talking -- they can't say it's rural areas, this is not a good sign, and not a good sign for this power grid which the state controls. anyway, morgan chesky on the ground for us in texas, morgan, thank you. up ahead, the covid struggle for cities and states across the country, local leaders, they're desperate for more help from the federal government, they're trying to prevent layoffs. i'll talk to two big city mayors, one democrat and one republican, united in their message to washington. >> and don't miss an nbc news exclusive tomorrow morning, savannah guthrie sits down with vice president kamala harris for a one on one interview, first network television interview, tomorrow on "today" show live. we look at what you've saved, what you'll need,

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the president is very interested in having a bipartisan solution, obviously understanding the needs of the residents of america and certainly the residents of the city of miami. >> we don't kid ourselves about the atmosphere in washington, we know it's partisan but we're hoping for the next couple months on this national issue that they can set partisanship aside and the president made it clear, he really wants bipartisan support for america's rescue plan. >> welcome back, that was the republican mayor of the city of miami and the democratic mayor of the city of detroit, speaking after a bipartisan meeting of governors and mayors at the white house late last week with most republicans in congress against the white house's $1.9 trillion covid relief plan. finding republican support and among mayors and governors he appears to be getting it. joining me now is detroit's

democratic mayor and miami's republican mayor. francis suares. you've got one of your two senators against this relief bill because it sends aid, too much aid to states and localities. explain what you need the money for, and how much of a short fall you have, mayor suares. >> well, we need money to get it to our residents, the most needy in our community. those who are suffering. we have -- use it for rent assistance. we've used it for mortgage assistance. we've used it to help, you know, people be fed, and we use it to help small businesses. we've used to get the most needy in the community the help they're desperately asking for.

the first covid relief bill we did not get a lot -- the 500,000 population that prevented most cities like miami and detroit from gets its fair share based on its population. we're hoping the president and the white house doesn't make that mistake again and we have every reason to believe they won't. >> mayor duncan, are you facing the possibility of layoffs of government employees, have you already had to do that, what is your situation there? because that's one of the arguments that some make of why you guys need this money, it's also a way to stabilize the economy and stabilize the unemployment situation. >> yeah, we just need to get through the next six to nine months, until the vaccines are there and we can reopen. so detroit came out of bankruptcy, and we had five straight balanced budgets, our credit rating kept going up, gm and ford and chrysler and amazon brought thousands of jobs and we felt like we had it going in the

right direction and men overnight we got hammered with businesses closing, we had a $360 million loss of revenue. today i've got a thousand employees on partial layoff and everything underlying still good. fiat chrysler is still building, the factory is opening next month with 5,000 jobs, gm still renovating their electrical vehicle factory. we'll be fine if we can get through to the end of the year. that's the message president biden heard from republicans and democrats across the country. >> mayor duggan, i'm curious, do you believe that post-pandemic you're going to be able to continue your revitalization in detroit in you've had people moving away, a different problem that mayor suarez has, post-pandemic are you worried you're going to lose that momentum that had people coming

back to detroit, and -- you know -- revitalizing the city? >> my friend mayor suarez has to give me tips in the way he's getting the tech companies in. if you look at what's happening in detroit there is more construction going on today in the city than anytime in the last 50 years. there is a $2 billion rebuild of a gm plant, an $800 million renovation for train stations. $400 million in an amazon distribution center. people believe in our future, and they're continuing to invest in it. that doesn't help the laid off mom who's in a house and she's afraid now that landlord tenant courts have been reopened that she's going to be evicted. and we've got, of course, restaurants dramatically reduced, stores dramatically reduced and so the long-term prospect looks terrific but that doesn't help people who are afraid they may be out of their homes in a month and that's where the president is stepping in.

>> mayor suarez, like i said on that score, you have a different situation but you're establishing this early relationship with president biden, and you've said you've already had more back and forth with this administration than you did the previous one. i assume, though, that after this you've got to start lobbying this administration for climate money and for different -- and mitigation things. i mean, is this something that you expect to have to have a relationship with the biden team this way because of the needs miami's going to have over the next five years? >> of course, i think any public official has to have a relationship with the white house. i'm reminded of another good friend, mayor bill padudo a mayor of pittsburgh who once reminded me there are three political parties in america, there's republicans, there's democrats and there's mayors, and the reason why is because mayors are expected to get things done. and so we're required to be bipartisan, we're required to reach across the aisle, on

climate in particular, which is the issue that you highlighted, the president, when he was president-elect in a call that i had with the conference of mayors that i'm going to become the president of in january of next year already looked to me other mayors for advice and guidance how to prepare a climate infrastructure bill. it's imperative we continue to have a strong relationship with the white house because as you said mayors are on the front line, and they're the ones that can guide federal policy most effectively to help our residents and the president understands that. >> are you worried, mayor suarez that you're basically a better advocate to the biden white house than your two republican senators, and is that the way it should be? >> listen, i'm not worried about it at all, i have a good relationship with both of them. we've talked and spoken in anticipation of the meeting on friday, from my perspective, it's not so much a partisan thing, it's a relationship thing. the president said something i found very interesting. he said, you know, i let my

staff handle sort of the policy angles and i handle the politics. what he meant by that was he's been a long time operator in washington, d.c., he understands how to build relationships, how to work across the aisle, and i think that's necessary in order to accomplish legislative goals and that's something that i'm willing to do and i'm sure that my colleagues in florida will be as well. >> mayor duggan on the minimum wage you're a supporter of raising it. do you think it's necessary in this bill, or -- i notice you said you're learning a lot more about reconciliation than perhaps you ever wanted to. do you sort of agree with where president biden seemed to think a couple weeks ago, which is it's probably end up being negotiated separately? >> well, mayors have been forced to learn the intricacies of the washington appropriation rules and, chuck, i know, as you understand, a policy initiative like minimum wage is going to

take a 60-vote margin in the senate whereas reconciliation, there's pure appropriation can be done at 50 plus 1. and so the fact that we sat in the oval office for nearly two hours with four democratic governors and mayors, and four republican governors and mayors, where president biden pitched this, said he's deeply committed to trying to get a 60 vote bipartisan agreement and whether the $15 minimum wage is a part of that, or whether it has to wait for another day, like mayor suarez, i'll refer to president biden and his judgment on that. >> mayor mike duggan, democratic detroit, mayor francis suarez, republican in miami. appreciate you coming on together. we want to show washington, that this is not something that's a terrible thing to do. up ahead, giving teachers a fair shot. how one major city is working to make sure schools are safe to

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and is not for treating symptoms unrelated to parkinson's disease. nuplazid can cause changes in heart rhythm and should not be taken if you have certain abnormal heart rhythms or take other drugs that are known to cause changes in heart rhythm. tell your doctor about any changes in medicines you're taking. the most common side effects are swelling of the arms and legs and confusion. we spoke up and it made all the difference. ask your healthcare provider about nuplazid. >> welcome back, across the country more teachers and students could soon be heading back to school after the new cdc guidance was released for returning to in-person learning, the guidance emphasized the importance of universal mask

wearing, physical distancing and routine cleaning. the return to school guidelines don't require vaccinations but they do recommend teachers are vaccinated as soon as supply allows. president biden says states should prioritize teachers and many of them already are calling it a national imperative to reopen schools. priscilla tfrpson is in denver for us, where they're vaccinating teachers in districts with high rates of poverty. priscilla, the guidelines they put out in some ways are no different than what the guidelines have been for everything, which is well you can do this as long as you wear masks, physically distance and clean. i mean, that's been sort of the rule everywhere. how are local schools interpreting this new guidance? >> reporter: yeah, chuck, i mean that's essentially what the deputy superintendent said to me whenever i spoke to her. 60% of students here in denver public schools are already back for some form of in-person learning or hybrid in person

learning and so she said essentially the cdc guidance is in line with what the district has already been doing and the precautions they've already been taking and looking to get students back in to the classroom. but what is unique here is that while the cdc has said that school districts are not required to vaccinate all of their teachers, denver public schools is trying to do just that, they're trying to get all 18,000 of their teachers vaccinated by the end of next month. and the way they're doing it is really interesting because they're placing a focus on equity, district officials tell me they're looking to serve the students who are often least served in the situations and so they made their distribution list based on the percent of students on free or reduced price lunch. and those are the teachers that are first in line to get these vaccines. i had an opportunity to speak with the school psychologist here at dal elementary, one of the first schools able to get vaccinated. and she told me that she had a

lot of anxiety returning to in-person learning without being fully vaccinated. she didn't want to be a source of community spread, not only in this school, but also in the larger neighborhood because as we know low income areas, communities of colors have been disproportionately impacted by this virus and i talked to her about the impact that this was going to have being vaccinated would have, take a listen to what she had to say. >> many of our parents and families and guardians don't have the option to stay home and work from home. they're in community facing jobs, they're doing -- working in restaurants, retail, construction. and so they don't have a choice to stay home. and they're more at risk for covid for that reason. and they also need a safe place for the kids to go so that they can go do their essential jobs. it's so important that we're able to vaccinate our teachers, and staff, and keep our school

open. it sends message to the community that we care about you, we care about the neighborhoods that have been hardest let by covid. and that means a lot to me and i think it means a lot to the community where i work. >> reporter: denver public schools started this rollout last week, they've gotten through -- more than 3,000 teachers, 18,000 in total they'll need to do -- hoping to do that by the end of next month but health officials here of course say that will depend on how many doses of the vaccine they have to give. chuck? >> priscilla thompson on the ground for us in denver, colorado. priscilla, thank you, and a special programming note here, all week long nbc news and msnbc are highlighting a special series called kids under pressure. we're looking at ground breaking new research, on how students are coping with remote learning and all the realities of this past year, and what we all can do to try to help. stay with us. >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked...

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welcome back right now for the first time in a while we have multiple covid metrics that all seem to be going in the right direction. over the last two weeks all 50 states in washington, d.c. have seen new coronavirus cases decrease, or remain at a stand still. the average number of new daily infections nearing 87,000, lowest number since early november, higher than what we dealt with in the spring of last year. careful popping the champagne corks here. hospitalizations down half from that record high number a month ago. but the cdc still says we need to be doubling down on safety measures, states are easing restrictions and health officials warn letting our guard down, along with a growing number of variant strains can jeopardize any remaining progress being made. daily deaths are around 3,000 and half a million americans have died through the pandemic.

i have dr. kavita patel here with me, she's an msnbc medical news contributor. dr. patel, i feel like we have been through three agonizing months just with this pandemic, forget politics and all of the horrible stuff that happened on january 6th, and it's like this is the best it has felt on the pandemic, i guess, since september of october which isn't great, right, it's better but it isn't great. what's your explanation of, are we just through a tough peak? and now we're back to the grind? or do you think this trend can continue? >> yeah, chuck, good to be with you and i agree. it feels like we're finally getting to that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. a couple things, number one, this is the natural ebb and flow of a peak. we do traditionally, as you showed on that graph, see from our two previous surges we go up

and over a span of weeks largely because we have stay at home orders or local kind of in person dining gets ruled out and bans on certain activities go into place, cases come down, and then of course this incredible surge where hospitals were overwhelmed, have helped people try to double down on those safety measures. cases come down and what we would normally see, chuck, is several months later cases pick back up again. the dynamic we're seeing here is that vaccinations, albeit slowly, are starting to ramp up. they are not an explanation for the decrease in cases but we are also seeing these variants of both home grown in the united states, and merged from other countries, making coronavirus more transmissible, picking up. what we have to do is think about the traditional metrics, we've talked about decreases in death and hospitalizations, new cases dropping. but we're going to have to be really attentive to these hot spots driven by the new

variants, and our surveillance is frankly very poor but we at least know that parts of the country are starting to see an uptick from these variants. >> you brought up the surveillance. it does seem as if no matter what we've done, the rapid testing and surveillance, and the ability to test for antibodies is still extraordinarily unreliable. when does that get better? when we're through the worst of this? >> yeah, yeah, so the testing has been something that i think even both obviously the trump administration and it's still plaguing issues in the biden administration where they're trying to kind of secure contracts already with these direct at home, easy tests we can do in homes and in settings like schools and nursing homes. but chuck, i have to be honest, i mean, especially when we're going through surges some of those tests are not as helpful because of those turnaround times, or frankly even with the

biden administration negotiating prices, they're still expensive. so when does it get better? it gets better when we start to see more and more manufacturers kind of flood the market in a way that's reliable to decrease the prices, but hopefully we'll have had more people vaccinated at that point in time where we'll really need those tests to identify cases post vaccination. i've kind of given up now on trying to find reliable ways to screen today, and we're doing less testing than we were before because a lot of these counties and states are overwhelmed with trying to get the vaccine out, chuck, so they can't put out mass testing efforts and mass vaccination efforts. it underscores the need for the stimulus funding to provide some of that relief, but i'm hoping we can get testing better for what i think will be the next phase of coronavirus, post-vaccination to understand if people get infected, how are they getting infected and with what kind of mutations and strains and variants. >> i was just going to say, do

you think -- how much -- do you think we can get to a point where even if the uk variant is the dominant strain, it's the dominant strain at 25,000 cases a day? >> yes, i do believe it's possible. and probably the best sign is that cases are dropping dramatically, day by day, and remember, the variants live by being -- you know, they proliferate through active cases. so the more cases that come down first because of these measures to your point we have to keep a little bit of the metal on the brakes to not reopen too quickly, too soon but if we can keep cases down, get vaccinations up so that we do get to the ever precious herd immunity, the variants themselves will not have a way to propagate. so b.117, the one that emerged from the uk, might be the dominant, tens of thousands of cases, and only hundreds of deaths.

not what we're seeing today. >> well, like i said over the weekend feels like finally we're taking more steps forward than backwards. let's see if we can keep this up. dr. kavita pate l, thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise. we've set up a state by state interactive tool to help you plan your vaccine. i hope you already know it. you should know by memory what is your -- your 1b, or 1c, all those things when your time to get in line for the vaccine. go to plan your vaccine.com. we've got the tools to help you out. you've got to plan it, help your parents, your kids, all of it. we'll be back with the future of the gop, george will joins us. you won't want to miss it.

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(sneeze) skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! welcome back. north carolina senator richard burr is now the latest republican to be censured after voting to convict former president trump in a impeachment trial. both senator susan collins and matt toomey could soon join that list as well. they've been getting harassed and criticized by local republican committees. meanwhile, senator mitch mcconnell, despite voting to acquit, continues to blame the former president for the january 6th on the capitol writing in the "wall street journal" today, there is no question former president trump bears moral responsibility. and mcconnell is not hiding that

he has his eyes on the prize. he told "politico" my goal is, in every way possible, to have nominees representing. the only thing i care about is electability. joined now by george well, he's a longtime conservative columnist and an msnbc news political analyst. george, i want to start with two extraordinary quotes from republicans about different republicans who have wanted to hold president trump accountable. the first one is from the former governor of illinois. and this was the actual quote in the adam kinzinger profile. he says former governor bruce rauner said basically you vote on character. the only winners in the war between trump and republicans will be democrat.

character matters. for most, it doesn't. but wait there's more, sir. this is what dave ball, the chair of the republican party in pennsylvania site about pat toomey. we did not send him there to vote his conscience. we did not send him there to do the right thing. we sent him there to represent us. we feel very strongly that he did not represent us. both of those quotes were stunning to me. most voters in illinois don't vote on character, and a republican official admitting, no, no, no, don't vote your conscience. where is the republican party? >> well, the republican party is not, although it sees itself to be conservative, it's not with mr. conservative edmond burr who famously said you did not -- you voted to house of parliament to

exercise my judgment, not to simply be a rubber stamp for whatever you are feeling at the moment. mr. toomey and mr. kinzinger have exercised a berke kind of representation, exercising their judgment, and now they're being judged harshly by the activists who run their particular parties and counties in districts in the state. the problem, chuck, and this is a perennial problem in american politics. if there's a large and today growing disjunction between the activists who run the party and the actual voters, which is why it is increasingly likely that republicans are in danger of nominating people in march and primaries who can't win in november. >> you know, george, i feel like the phenomenon can be translated into these activists. and you see it with certain senators. and if i sit here and name-check

them, then they become stories. so i'm not going to name check the senators. but you know the three or four i'm talking about who i would call extraordinarily online. basically, they live online. there's a couple of senators in particular who were bright young stars of the republican party a decade ago. and they have just allowed their online personas to become real people. and i feel like that is the rot on the activist wing of the gop. and, frankly, something we're going to see in probably the other side as well. >> the past of the republican party included abraham lincoln, theodore roosevelt, dwight eisenhower, robert reagan. lindsey graham says the future of the republican party, the future of the party of lincoln, roosevelt, eisenhower, and reagan is donald trump's

daughter-in-law. now, i think he's wagering on a brand that is perishable, badly tarnished by now. the idea that donald trump standing today, which is very high, is going to remain that way, is it seems to me, problematic. gallup has a poll out this morning, chuck, that's asked republicans, do they want donald trump to play a large role in the party going forward? 25% say no. 75% say yes. now that's who runs the party in the sense that they gather in small rooms, as there are small numbers of them, and they vote censures. but those people it seems to me are not apt to elect the next generation of republican means. >> let's talk about mitch mcconnell here. he takes real umbrage with the criticism that says he voted to acquit and it was a cop-out.

and he obviously believes his belief that this wasn't constitutional, that he came about that position not in some cynical way and not in some way to avoid holding donald trump accountable. do you take mitch mcconnell at his word, and why, if you do? >> as he said, the question of whether it is constitutional to impeach someone who has already been removed.

to allow the republican party to be hostage to this. there's going to be a fight. mitch mcconnell did not want, by the way, to cast a vote to convict trump, and therefore make all these subsequent. from mitch mcconnell's perspective of why he wanted to

avoid that back and forth, anyway. george, a nuance i know people don't love a lot, but every once in a while we're going to have nuance conversations with us. thank you for sharing your perspective with us. i appreciate it. and thank you all for being with us this hour. >> we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." msnbc news coverage continues with katy tur right after this break. s with katy tur right after this break. feeling sluggish or weighed down? it could be a sign that your digestive system isn't working at its best. taking metamucil everyday can help. metamucil psyllium fiber gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. it also helps lower cholesterol and slow sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. so you can feel lighter and more energetic. metamucil. support your daily digestive health. take the metamucil two week challenge

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good afternoon, i'm katy tur. it is 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in washington where president biden facing heavy resistance from republicans in congress is set to take his case directly to the people. the president pushing hard for his $1.9 trillion covid relief plan, republicans say that is way too much. so tonight president biden begins his hard sell. his first official trip as president and his first town hall just weeks after taking office. the white house clearly