hi think. it's 4:00 in new york. we're coming up on the one-year mark of life in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. while case numbers are dropping from their post-holiday surge, the picture of what's to come in the united states is still bleak and daunting. as we approach 500,000 american souls lost. already this week a connecticut resident tested positive for the highly contagious south african variant of covid. that patient is in critical condition in a new york city hospital. the 17th case in this country and the first for the tri-state area. particularly haunting for the

early hard-hit epicenter. the uk variant is still spreading here. there are now more than 1,000 cases in 40 states. a look at what that variant has done to europe, essentially bringing the continent to its knee, is an unwelcome omen. it comes as the u.s. is straining under vaccine delays and supply and distribution, as the widely under reported mental health crisis becomes clearer and the debate about returning students to the classroom heats up. president biden has staked his presidency on ending the violence and healing the country as he heads to milwaukee for his first domestic trip of his presidency. this is the mixed picture in the u.s. of coronavirus today. cases drop in every single state. our weekly average has fallen below 90,000 cases for the first time since the holiday surge.

health experts remind us we're coming down from an extraordinarily high place and warn it could be deceiving. this risk map identifies 20 states, including most of new england and a band across the south as the highest point tipping point states. to that end a bipartisan group of governors sent a letter to the biden administration about the slow rollout. the limited supply of vaccines is sure to be a topic for president biden tonight. it's the reality of the life in europe where the variant took over months ago that raises the greatest fear. yesterday we showed you this bleak assessment. >> the next 14 weeks i think will be the worst of the pandemic. people don't want to hear that. if we look at what these variants are doing, particularly this one from the uk and see what it's did in europe and the

middle east, we are going to see that unfold. >> here is what public health officials are afraid of. the infection rate in the uk doubled in just weeks sending england into its third lockdown. europe reversed its stance on keeping classrooms open. just this week, another blow to italy's tourism industry. they halted ski resort re-openings again because of the high presence of the uk variant there. the relative calm before a gathering storm of coronavirus infections is where we start today. dr. patel is here, msnbc medical contributor, laurie garrett also joining us, and lenny bernstein is back. laurie garrett, i was reading through all this coverage and i

was focussed on europe where they're battling this variant that is here now. it is so bleak. i lost sight of that covering the impeachment trial last week and i put that together with the warnings and i need to ask you today what is coming? >> the first lesson we have to take home right now is if you look for it, you find it. wherever we take a concerted effort to look for mutant strains, we're finding them. that we don't see more of them in america is a reflection of the fact that we don't do anything close to the level of scouring our strains and sequences across the country compared to what our european counter parts and south african have been doing. if you look at animals, you find it. south korea surveys are finding house pets and all sorts of

animals carry the virus and may carry mutant strains. what happens when she strains emerge in a community? in the uk it didn't just double, it tripled from the week before christmas to now. it's taking over basically the whole percentage of viruses circulating in the uk, so it's now up to about 80% of all infections with covid in the uk are the b11 variant. in south africa it's 100% of that variant strain, which is worse than the british variant. we see variants emerging all across the united states. we've now had about ten by my count that are uniquely north american variants. plus, where we looked for it we found the brazilian variant, the south african and the british. we know they spread super fast,

and we also know that we've underestimated the pace of spread in general, so that we've tended to think of this virus as easy to control. we just saw the case of peter diamandis, a very well-known futurist and popular leader of ceo innovation talks. he has an annual conference. this year he said no, we have to meet virtually. some of his followers said we want to come in person. they tested everybody every day starting 72 hours before they convened. everybody came up negative, and they had a superspreader event and about half of the participants eventually turned up infected and several have been seriously ill with covid. it shows you can't test your way out of it.

you can't necessarily vaccine our way out of it. we need to keep wearing our masks and take this seriously. >> what you're saying seems bolster dr. olsterhom's warning. if i understand you, it sounds like any policy pronouncements about starting to -- i think some states have removed their mask mandates. i believe it's the state of montana. there was an active conversation not about whether we re-open schools, but how to re-open schools. is this the right time for those policy shifts? >> well, you know, from the very beginning, nicolle, every time i've been honored to join you on this show, i have said we don't know the kind of data we need to know to make these decisions. we do our data collection in a

haphazard fashion, so willie nillie. we don't have the necessary tools to answer your questions. we just don't assess the science properly. >> lenny, i'm forever changed by your extraordinary frontline reporting and i wonder, if you look at the frontline, that's still our precious health care workers. it feels like, if we push out and try to open up a little bit, the frontline becomes a whole lot of other people. i don't think it's a universal decision. about 22 states are vaccinating teachers. if your mission has been to bring to life the experience of the frontline, do you think we're ready as a country for

teachers and others to become the new frontline? >> i don't know what the school systems are thinking in terms of teachers becoming the new frontline. it doesn't seem like this is the time to me to be putting them there unvaccinated, to be -- for us in general to be taking off our masks. in fact, we're supposed to be double masking right now because it might offer us more protection against these variants, to reignite a surge that may again fill our hospitals. this is not the right time. we do have the vaccine. the vaccine is coming. it is the one advantage we have that europe doesn't as much. we have the luxury of a few more weeks of time to try to vaccinate people against the virus. in terms of letting anything down, any guard down and putting more people at risk, this is not

a good time to be doing it. the mask mandates that you mentioned, lifting those are terrible ideas right now. we should be doubling down on our distancing and masking and hand washing and not allowing any states to lift their masks. >> dr. patel, we have had for three weeks a president whose stated mission is to shape the government around the single goal of defeating the virus and healing the country, literally and figuratively. i wonder how much you can do in a short period of time in a race against these dangerous new variants. >> yeah, nicolle, it's a great question. i'll say that there's a lot you can do. i actually think president biden has been doing it, actually putting a plan together was a huge step because it signalled that, indeed, states can do what

they want, but the federal government will use its might. that's what the executive branch can do. him signing the executive orders, particularly around coronavirus, even opening up access to insurance, all those things matter. what you're getting at is we're running two to three weeks behind europe. if you think about the dam that president biden has to build in order to stem off that crushing wave, that tsunami, that others have talked about, it's a combination. it's masks. it's prioritizing teachers. nicolle, i don't understand -- this is where president biden needs to step in and say these amount of doses are going to go specifically to staff and teachers, janitorial services, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and they need vaccinated now. there's no reason to dilly

dally. the federal government can do that. i bet it comes up tonight. the second part of that dam is not letting places like mississippi -- their hashtag is like masks off. no. masks on. nobody should go anywhere near anybody who thinks masks off is the way to go. we have these measures, but, nicolle, you said it best in the opening. it's been one year. people are exhausted. we've seen a rise in mental health cases in young children. we've seen people coming in with more concerns about depression and suicide. we're having to do everything and biden is going to have to get those stimulus dollars passed because so many of those billions of dollars to do what lenny, laurie and i are talking about are wrapped up in this negotiation with congress.

>> you mentioned kids. i think the mental health aspect has not received as much attention. to laurie's point, there wasn't a way to gather that data in this country. this country has a stigmatized approach to bringing those issues into the open. along with the mental health crisis, there's new news in the "new york times" about the inflammatory syndrome. "the new york times" calls this a surge. experts say it's too early to know if the variants are the cause. the cdc updated 260 cases. the median age was 9. how do you think this data, this emerging data, impacts all of

our decisions, but especially ones around schools? >> yeah, it makes it incredibly hard, nicolle, because we know we don't have authorized vaccines for children under the age of 16. we have -- pfizer has closed enrollment in their phase three trial for 12 to 16. other manufacturers are following. my kids won't have a chance at getting the vaccine. i don't want any child to be in this number. i think the variants could play a role. mutations to that spike protein are making it easier to bind and give that virus. if you have a population that can't get vaccinated any time soon and has this threat -- by the way that inflammatory syndrome is a reminder we see that weeks after the initial infection. it's a post-infection. imagine being a parent and being told your child is okay, they have asymptomatic covid, then

we're waiting weeks and saying come back if you see something. that makes me stay up all night. i know it's a concern. however, there are solutions. we don't have to be left in the dark. we have to be able -- we have got to get out of this two to three-day turn around with testing and we have to solve that problem. i know that's something biden will touch on tonight. the second is pushing forward on therapies that can help children. we've done a lot. getting people access to steroids early, the way we handle people in the hospital, we're getting better with children in the hospital and learning how to recognize inflammatory syndrome early and learning what we can do to treat children with blood thinners and other things to keep them alive. a victory is there's only been under 50 deaths from this. that shouldn't keep us

comfortable. if you're a parent and you're in a conversation with your child's school, ask them how they'll look at mitigation methods. what are they doing by enforcing those measures that will hopefully keep our cases down? >> laurie, you've often brought the unwelcome picture of what is around the corner. what is around the corner for us? >> nicolle, i think if we can't get everybody double masking all the time when they're outside their home, we will be in for a very, very tough spring. we have so many variants. the interesting thing is you were comparing the u.s. situation to europe and saying we're a couple weeks behind. actually no other european country is facing as many variants at once as we are now facing. as far as i know, no country in

the world is. we have so much active virus, even though we've seen the rates come down from the holiday surge, we're still well above our summer level. we have so much active virus spreading in the community, spreading by asymptomatic individuals, that there's just gobs of opportunity for the virus to mutate. what we see with some of the mutant strains, certainly the south african strain, is they're more capable of infecting younger populations. even children are more likely to get infected. the british variant may be more lethal. that's what the british government is saying. certainly the brazilian variant is showing that you can get reinfected. if you had coronavirus previously, now the new variants come along and you're not fully protected. it's a dangerous precipice that

we're at. if we can't somehow find a way to all collectively maintain our stoic adherence to all these protocols of self-defense, starting with those masks, if we can't do it, we're going to go into march and april much as we did last year, but on a scale not just of new york, new jersey and a handful of other places, but the whole nation. >> lenny, at this one-year mark, what is the reality for health care workers in this country who -- they've got a little relief right now. deaths are lagging indicators. if they're in an icu, they might not have relief yet, but the numbers are telling an encouraging story. with what laurie is talking about, it may not last long. how long can they go like this? >> it's anyone's guess.

they are burned out. they are exhausted. they've been dealing with resurges, the prospect of a fourth one would be very terrible. people are leaving the profession in numbers we don't know yet, but many people talk about it. doctors, nurses. i think there has been a little bit of forgetting what they do every day and how much death and how much that they see and how much work they have to do with the most severe cases. a tiny light at the end of this tunnel is that the vaccines tend to be most effective against most serious forms of the disease, that is people who would end up in icu or in the hospital, the vaccines seem to be a little bit better at forestalling that. if we can get vaccines into as many arms as possible before what laurie talks about starts

to happen, perhaps we can blunt this a little bit among the most severe cases, the ones that health care workers have been seeing for an entire year. >> that is the hope. thank you so much for joining us today, dr. patel, laurie garrett and lenny bernstein. when we come back, the next step in the legal struggle for donald trump. plus, today in don't believe your eyes or ears, a puzzling round of disinformation from one of donald trump's closest allies in the gop. this ally denying what played out before our very eyes in the capitol attack. and the grift coming back to haunt donald trump's most loyal supporters. why at least one big donor wants his money back, millions of dollars. all those stories when "deadline

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just days after the top republican in the senate mitch mcconnell urged people to use the courts to hold donald trump accountable, it now appears one prominent civil rights group is doing that. the naacp and benny thompson filed a federal lawsuit against former president trump and his attorney rudy giuliani accusing them of conspiring with white supremacist groups to stop congress from certifying the election resulting. here's what thompson said on

this network. >> this hopefully at the end will mitigate any difference that we might have that in america we settle our differences at the ballot box. i thought the senate in its infinite wisdom would have the strength to convict him, but they didn't. it was only after the senate refused to do what i felt was their job, to convict donald trump, this lawsuit is another opportunity. >> joining our conversation chuck rosenberg who worked at the fbi and jason johnson journalism and politics professor. both msnbc contributors. chuck, let me start with you. do they have a case? >> they do have a case. it's an interesting case. it invokes an old statute passed

in 1871 at the request of president grant. federal officials in the south were being terrorized, sound familiar, by racist grouped including the kkk. it was known as the ku klux klan act because it was designed to prevent them from preventing officials from doing their work. sound familiar? interesting the complaint tracks a lot of the proof that the house managers introduced at the senate impeachment trial. i find it compelling. i think it's thoughtfully composed. whether or not it works, it's going to make life pretty uncomfortable for the proud boys and the oath keepers and rudy giuliani and perhaps even former president trump. >> jason johnson, let me show

you some of the evidence they have to work with. >> this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. >> the number of voter fraud cases in philadelphia could fill a library. >> it's the theft of an election. it was carried out by the same method in the city of detroit. >> you can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. >> let's have trial by combat. >> we won this election and we won it by a landslide. >> if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. >> the conduct that the people in the audience engaged in is now known the world over, as is donald trump and rudy giuliani's instruction to their supporters. how do you think the president's own words and rudy's words will influence the lawsuit? >> nicolle, it has a great

influence. it shows a long pattern of calling for violence. really, some of trump's most violent language was even before he became president. you see him saying he wanted to punch people and he would pay for people to beat somebody up. we already have a long history of trump and his associates calling for violence. what's important about this case, it's fitting in black history month, the law they're calling upon, the 1871 kkk act, the country, after the civil war, was wrack with violence. you had the koufax massacre. you had the wilmington insurrection. the law was passed to protect violence that everyone knew was coming. if this can be applied now, it seems like a good idea. the issue will be, one, since it's civil what court will it be

in? then ultimately what the consequences are? if the end result ends up being financial, that rudy giuliani is bankrupted or donald trump has to spend a lot of money, it's not the most satisfying result, but it makes sense because lots of other organizations have taken out white nationalist groups by bankrupting them. if that's the result, this might be an effective first step. >> we can't grow numb to the fact that we're talking about action that was done in concert with -- i hate to use the word collusion, i'm scarred by the mueller investigation. this was donald trump and rudy giuliani working with white supremacists. i feel like that can never be normal. donald trump telling the proud boys to stand back and stand by, sure, it created a backlash, but donald trump never walked it back. he's never condemned any of these groups, neither have most of the house republicans who

"the new york times" reported them to be associated with, six of them. where are we heading, chuck rosenberg, when you have this relationship between violent militias, white supremacists and republicans? >> as a nation, we're heading to a difficult, dangerous and dark place. however we're also heading to point. to jason's point, he's absolutely right. a numerous groups have used civil laws of the united states to go after racist groups. like you said, we only bankrupt them, that's not a bad thing. here's what folks have to remember, to bring a criminal case you generally need a sovereign, either a state or federal government. a sovereign brings a criminal case. we do that to put them in jail as punishment. this is a very clever use of an old statute, a civil statute

that gives a private individual, in this case benny thompson, the power to go after the racist groups. where are we going as a nation? it scares the hell out of me, nicolle. where they're going is to court, whether it's civil or criminal or both. i think as jason said, this is a good thing. it's a way to hold people accountable. what benny thompson is seeking is three things. money is one of them. he's also seeking a declaratory judgment from the court. a simple declaration that giuliani, the proud boys and trump interfered with his ability to certify the vote. he also wants an injunction from preventing them from ever doing something like this again. if we have to do this group by

group, so be it. >> i hear you. jason, if we're at a point we're using the 1871 kkk act to deal with donald trump, it underscores what a colossal failure every other avenue has been. >> i completely agree, nicolle. we wouldn't be here if you didn't have so many complicit cops at the capitol. let's be honest. we're still investigating. we wouldn't be here if we didn't have so many people who i think will be exposed in congress for having participated in this. given the weaknesses in our criminal justice system -- how many people did we see at the insurrection beating cops, gauging out eyes, saying they wanted to kill nancy pelosi, being allowed to walk around. at least we can get into their pockets. as far as i'm concerned, if i can bankrupt a racist, i can

deal with that for now if i can't jail a racist. i think a lot of people will end up bankrupt. here's the tricky thing, nicolle. if the proud boys get caught up in the case, where will they get their money from? all these different organizations that have funneled money to them, they're not going to want to be anywhere near them. gofundme isn't going to fund these organizations. it's going to expose the people who have been trying to help them under the cover of night. >> thank you both for spending time with us today. after the break, one republican senator already calling the alarm and consternation of the deadly siege at the capitol something of a hoax. a fact check on ron johnson is next. ♪ rock music ♪ >> man: so i'm not taking any chances when something happens to it. so when my windshield cracked...

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in this post-fact world there are a few basic facts about the january 6th insurrection that even republicans have generally been able to agree on. it was in fact an armed insurrection at the capitol and it put the lives of americans including members of congress and mike pence in danger. what you're about to hear is a blatant lie, not rooted in truth from republican senator ron

johnson. listen. >> the fact of the matter is this didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me. i mean, when you hear armed, don't you think of firearms? how many firearms. were confiscated? to call that an armed insurrection, it was the most pitiful armed insurrection anybody could possibly imagine. one guy in the senate chambers had plastic wrist ties. what was he going to do literally go up to mike pence and capture him? >> citizen's arrest. >> it's absurd. >> what? was it really that bad? that's today's gop. capitol police officers on the scene didn't feel that way. >> multiple capitol injuries.

multiple capitol injuries. >> 1318. >> 12 to 50, we're coming around. >> be advised the speech has ended. >> you got a group of about 50 charging up the hill on the west front, just north of the stairs. they're approaching the wall now. >> they're throwing metal poles at us. >> get me somebody up here now. multiple law enforcement injuries. get up here. >> i don't know if they're fireworks or what, but they're throwing explosives. >> here's what else we know. multiple guns, ammunition and other weapons were seized from rioters. federal officials also say that right wing militia groups coordinated their plan on january 6th. joining our conversation david jolly and jason is still here.

david, i did not think we would have a debate about what the definition of armed is in the wake of the insurrection. did you? >> no. look, nicolle, in many ways senator johnson's ridiculous comments are a perfect reflection of the identity crisis that is burdening today's gop. as we're watching the fissure of the gop, it's not around their electoral competitiveness. they're getting more votes than ever. they lost the control of the house and senate, but only at the margins. it's which side of the truth are you on? are you pro defending democracy or are you kneecapping democracy? it's no surprise to hear senator johnson's comments.

the finer point it places is the greater travesty is not the events of january 6th, it was the events of february 13th when the likes of ron johnson and others trampled on the constitution. the constitution survived january 6th. we all watched that evening as the electoral college vote was affirmed. the constitution lost a round last saturday and it was at the hand of 40 plus gop senators that define today's gop, but also define where we are as a nation. that's the tragedy coming out of the weekend. >> aaron blake writes about this in a smart way. this is the hoaxification of what the republicans don't like. if the facts don't work for you, change the facts. i want to read you the facts.

among those arrested after the riot was lonnie kaufmann, an alabama man accused of bringing multiple firearms, 11 molotov cocktails, a cross bow, stun guns found in his truck. samuel fisher had multiple firearms and a bullet proof vest. he said he would take the pistol with him inside and leave the rifle and vest. so ron johnson talks about idiots. i don't know what he reads. i've dealt with republicans who struggle with that question. it's out there how armed and dangerous the insurrectionists were. >> nicolle, this is the most dangerous thing and one of the most insulting things that politicians can do. it's the idea of defining

something down to oblivion. i wasn't cheating because we were both still clothed. it's not racism because he didn't have a klan hat on. it's not insurrection if they didn't paint it on their foreheads. they take whatever information there is and define it to the in fan tess mill level. obviously ron johnson knows it was dangerous. what's most important to remember is that even the definitions he's using, that's to make him sleep at night. i promise you the people who were there -- not just the victims. the people who charged the capitol, they were fomenting insurrection. they knew they were armed. they didn't think that running around with whatever they had,

that didn't make them unarmed. >> david jolly, the part i shouldn't spend so much time trying to figure out is why. why are the republicans so invested in making the insurrectionists look better? >> they have to wonder about protecting their own legacy and convincing themselves it wasn't so bad so not convicting donald trump wasn't so bad either. they're playing to donald trump and their own self-interests as well. the bigger lie is that somehow donald trump has been this moral remarkable leader who delivered great success over four years. he hasn't. they had to feed the lie that he has. now by his own criminal behavior by the former president, that can't be acknowledged either or the party will suffer defeat for the next decade or two. a lot of people say why are

republicans so loyal to trump, i would say they're all loyal to themselves first. it's the common thread between the republicans. it works for them in their states and their districts. >> the why is -- this is the question that keeps me up at night jason. the why around the big lie haunts me. the lawsuit brought by smart-matic, the lawsuit brought by dominion against fox news, left me with wondering why go with the fabrication when those hosts are given the facts? why go to the falsehoods? this johnson quote made me think about the same way.

why think about, as kellyanne conway said, an alternative fact? >> it's, one, because it's self-serving. two, it's their ability to explain their own behavior, not just the voters, but to donors. this is about can i get myself re-elected? johnson will have to go back to donors and say, yeah, i voted not to convict because i didn't think it was that dangerous. they're going to have to plead ignorance in order to do their jobs. i don't think it's going to really hold. i think most people will be held accountable. i'm sure we'll see a viral video of one of those members of congress saying this and somebody who was there will say i was there and i had my eye gauged out. what do you say to that

congressman? the why is less problematic than the need for the why. the need for the why is because these people know they're wrong, but they don't have anything else to stand for. >> david jolly and jason johnson are sticking around. why a republican donor is suing for millions in the wake of donald trump's big lie in the 20 election. that's next. ugh, there's that cute guy from 12c. -go talk to him. -yeah, no. plus it's not even like he'd be into me or whatever. ♪♪

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donald trump's big lie in the months-long campaign to overturn the election that culminated in that deadly attack on the capitol also turned out to be a big grift. trump and the republican party raised a whopping $255.4 million in just the 8 weeks after the november election. millions more going to trump allies in congress and various other so-called election integrity groups. now, "the washington post" reports an extraordinary story. one poor little gop donor who gave $2.5 million to the conservative group true the vote is suing to get all his money back, alleging that not only did the group fail to uncover any voter fraud, there wasn't any, his donations ended up in the pockets of people connected to the group. imagine that. we're back with david jolly and david johnson. david jolly, i don't know whether this is comedy or tragedy at this point but let me read you this incredible piece of reporting. like many trump supporters, conservative donor fred woke up the day after the election with the suspicion something wasn't

right. his candidate's lead in battleground states had evaporated. the next day, the north carolina financier and his advisors reached out to a small conservative nonprofit group that was seeking to expose voter fraud. after 20-minute chat with the group's president, he said, i'm in for 2. $200,000? $2 million. i mean, there you go. there's your original sin. the country's homeland security department, the person in charge of protecting our elections, said that this was the most secure election our country's history and then lawsuit after lawsuit came up with nothing. there wasn't anything. i mean, this grift may be the most successful operation trump ever ran. >> yeah. yeah, nicole, i read that and i thought, jim and tammy fey baker came around one generation too early. if tammy fay baker hadn't died, she'd get jim. it's very similar to the build the wall initiative, you know, a year or two ago, led by steve bannon. i think it's hard to explain individual motivations behind

those gifts and those givers but what we do know is it's easy to pass judgment on the people soliciting those donations because they know they're doing so through fraud, through a lie, and look, there very well could be a civil case for this gentleman to say that he was giving in response to what was a fraud. i mean, states have very robust laws around donations of this type. i do think at the end, though, it's also reflective of why donald trump and his family will remain in domestic politics and in international business. because for them, that's where the money is. the longer the family stays in politics, he's able to monetize everything from his red hat to donations for future campaigns to a legal defense fund and while his businesses domestically might be looked down upon right now by many otherwise corporate partners, overseas, the name still works, and i think that is a footprint for donald trump for the years to come. >> i think this story piqued my

interest, jason johnson, because it's attached to the last story. for this gentleman, and i don't know who he is and i don't have any views about whether he's successful or not in court, but he spent $2 million, which is a ton of money no matter who you are, because he accepted a four-yearlong campaign against the deep state. this gentleman certainly had access to the news, and the news reported very early on that there was no evidence of voter fraud. bill barr was telling donald trump shortly after the election that while he would follow up and investigate these things, there wasn't any. chris christie, lots of people in the trump side of the media ecosystems were telling these people the truth. this, to me, is tied to the last story, because this is the most dangerous thing that endures from the trump era. the disinformation. the delegitimizing knowledge and information from trusted sources and this $2 million, he spent that on a lie that he had every

access to information that would have told him it was a lie. >> right. nicole, i wonder, like, how'd you become a millionaire if you're this dumb with money? and i could imagine him going in front of a judge right now, the judge saying, did you ever get a letter saying, send me $200,000 and we can exchange the cash? >> the namibian prince. >> exactly. like, this guy must have been an absolute sucker. nicole, i looked him up. he is a carolina alum like me. he gave a speech at carolina about two years ago saying, never stop learning. always look at any business situation from 180 degrees and figure it out. follow your own advice, buddy. you'relike an insult to the rest of us carolina grads. i have no sympathy for him or anybody who gave any money though to these crazy scams and anybody who wants to continue to give money to stop the steal or trump or any of this nonsense, they deserve to get ripped off. not only did they have access to information, but there was better ways to spend it. if you've got $2.5 million to throw at somebody after a

20-minute conversation, you could have run for congress yourself. you probably would have been more successful. >> you know, david jolly, there's a great line in ted lasso where he's playing darts and he talks about how curiosity is the sort of underappreciated strategic advantage, and if you don't ask questions and you don't stay curious, you could get outdone by someone who has access to information and facts. and that seems to be how this gentleman maybe out $2.5 million that he wants back. they stopped asking questions. they stopped trusting anyone other than donald trump. >> yeah, and look, flip the script a little bit. it also speaks to the sophistication of donald trump's ability to defraud people, right? we know through art of the deal, he confesses to the fact of using lies and grandiose language to try to make people feel good and to take a buck from them. we also know if you go to a much more serious analogy, the way qanon works. they feed the little lies and the little lies and the little

lies and they turn into the big lies and they've got you hooked. that is where, you know, donald trump has been a master of monetizing his entry into politics, and i think it's where we'll continue. hopefully, what we see from this moment are some hard lessons learned and a course correction by much of the nation. >> david jolly, jason johnson, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. when we come back, much more on the meltdown of the post-trump gop and the revealing admission from one republican official who's mad about his senators' audacity to do the right thing. the next hour of "deadline white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. li. when you have goodyear duratrac tires. when you have rancho shocks and an integrated dual exhaust. when you have all that, the last thing you'll need... is a road. the chevy silverado trail boss.

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i did what i thought was right, and i would certainly like to think that regardless of my political circumstances, or whether i was running for office again or not, i would do the same thing. >> we did not send him there to vote his conscience. we did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever. >> hi again, everyone, it's 5:00 in the east. the best summation of the post-trump gop was right there. we did not send him there to do the right thing. that was a quote from a pennsylvania republican, mr. ball, who is able to admit that senator pat t omye might have done the right thing by voting to convict donald trump makes clear that the right thing is not what pennsylvania republicans want from their representatives. it's dystopian but instructive. there's no clear sign that the post-trump gop has become more hobbled by the disgraced and

deplatformed ex-president since he left washington than they were when he was there. the condemnation facing the republican senators who voted to convict has been swift and unsparing. of the seven gop senators who voted with the democrats, two have already been censured by their state's republican parties. richard burr of north carolina and bill cassidy of louisiana and four more are facing mounting calls for censure. yesterday's vote by the north carolina republican party to censure burr was unanimous and the senator who has called his conviction vote necessary responded with this statement. quote, it is truly a sad day for north carolina republicans. my party's leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the republican party and the founders of our great nation. it's those core principles that congressman adam kinzinger of illinois is working so hard to restore. he's one of only three house republicans who voted to impeach trump and strip marjorie taylor greene of her committee assignments but his actions have been met with backlash too.

even a massively personal rebuke. "new york times" writes this. quote, two days after mr. kinzinger called for removing trump from office following the january 6th riot at the capitol, 11 members of his family sent him a handwritten two-page letter saying he was in cahoots with, quote, the devil's army for making a public break with the president. oh, my. what a disappointment you are to us and to god, they wrote. you have embarrassed the kinzinger family name. an undaunted kinzinger responded by saying those who had written the letter suffer from brainwashing, from conservative churches, and he is pressing forward with his efforts to save the party kinzinger told the "times" we just fear, fear the democrats, fear the future, fear everything, and it works for an election cycle or two. the problem is, it does real damage to this democracy. mr. kinzinger said he was not deterred by the senate's failure on saturday to convict trump in the impeachment trial. we have a lot of work to do to

restore the republican party, he said. and to turn the tide on the personality politics. it's a belief echoed by former arizona senator jeff flake, who writes in a new op-ed about the need for the gop to purge itself of trump. flake writes this. quote, we didn't convict him and we should have. but we didn't. let's not compound the grievous injury to the country and our party by continuing to embrace him. for trumpism is the opposite of conservatism. we all know that too. there is nothing to gain by making a pilgrimage to florida. there is no enlightened mystic at mar-a-lago, just a diminished man who lost an election and couldn't accept it. there is no redeeming his behavior, and let's not continue this tragic charade by further humiliating and debasing ourselves." a fractured republican party is where we start this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. "washington post" contributing columnist, former congresswoman donna edwards is back. also joining us, sam stein, politico white house editor and

charlie sykes, it editor at large at the bulwark. we have breaking news to get to and charlie sykes, i don't revel in the circular firing squad that has become the gop, but i can say that those of us who jumped off the gop train in 2015, when donald trump took it over, certainly saw this coming. let me read you what trump has just said about mitch mcconnell. it's a long statement. we'll get through all of it, but this is sort of the money quote. mitch is a dower, sullen, and unsmiling political hack. and if republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. he will never do what needs to be done or what is right for our country. where necessary and appropriate, i will back primary rivals who espouse making america great again and our policy of america first. we want brilliant, strong, thoughtful and compassionate leadership. it is a screed against mitch

mcconnell that donald trump has just released. obviously, in retaliation for what was actually an acquittal vote from mitch mcconnell but a scathing speech suggesting that donald trump could and should face criminal investigation and prosecution. >> yes, utterly unsurprising, but then again, mitch mcconnell had an opportunity over the weekend to hold the president accountable, the ex-president accountable, and he decided that he wasn't going to do it. you know, when you go for the king, you have to get the king. and i'm not exactly sure what mcconnell's play was, because he had to know, just like everybody else that you have been talking about, had to know that by going against donald trump, by putting country over party, that the trumpists would release the flying monkeys. this is the republican party's cancel culture. and you're going to see it over and over again, trying to stomp out, attack, vilify, excommunicate, exile, whatever

you want -- however you want to describe it, anyone who defies donald trump. and it is interesting. donald trump threatening the primaries, threatening to further divide with the primary. this is a guy that right now, according to the politico morning consult poll, has a 34% approval rating. now, he still may be popular among republicans, but at some point, republicans have to look at this and go, you know, this may win primaries, but if we keep heading down this direction, we're not going to be winning elections, not if we continue to be a cult of personality for somebody who basically now has one-third of the electorate thinking he does a good job. >> sam stein, again, the -- i don't know what to call it. it's not a civil war because i think the base of the party is still very much with the trump slash and burn brand of politics, but you've got a small handful, seven, to be specific,

in the senate, ten in the house, who are sort of canaries in the mine, saying, death and destruction of our political party are down this path. is it too little, too late? >> i don't know. it's probably too little, too late. the irony here, of course, is that if you got all these people into a room, promised them that their opinions would never leak out and they could just, you know, express them amongst themselves, the percentage of elected gop lawmakers in the federal level who would want to just get rid of donald trump, get him off the political scene, never hear from him again, would be closer to the 70%, 80% range. they really don't want anything to do with the man. they probably align themselves more with the adam kinzinger field of gop thought, which is that this is not a, you know, productive future for the party. but the issue is, trump, of course, is the king of retribution, will go after them, will make their lives miserable, and does command a healthy chunk

of the party's base, for better or worse, and so they're kind of paralyzed right here, so when mitch mcconnell tries to split the difference, when he votes to acquit and then takes the opportunity in the speech afterwards to say, i abhor the actions, we should use the criminal justice system to hold him accountable, it doesn't work. either as charlie said, you go after the king, you got to get the king or you don't. and right now, we're seeing, once again, what happens when you try to half -- you half measures to deal with trump, when you don't go the full distance and that just ends with trump being volatile, trump asserting control in the party and making live miserable for people like mitch mcconnell. >> he also doesn't respond to weakness and what mitch mcconnell did was project weakness. he said, morally and practically, donald trump incited this violence at the capitol. he made the same argument that jamie raskin made in the well of the senate after voting to acquit, and if there's one thing

that empowers trump more than all else, it's weakness. >> well, i mean, i think that's right, and charlie said it, and sam said it. mitch mcconnell failed to put the nail in the coffin of donald trump, and he and the rest of the republican party are going to pay the price for it. donald trump, we all knew, was not going to go anywhere, but for mitch mcconnell to come out afterwards, i thought from the moment that i heard him, i knew that donald trump would seize on that, because it was a way of capitulating, of passing the buck, and donald trump was going to go after it. so i just think that mitch mcconnell and republicans who somehow believe that they want to recover their party are going to have to live with this at least through the 2022 cycle, and i think it's going to be a time after that, because even if

it's not a commanding majority of the republican party, it is a significant part of the base. it is not going to go away. and donald trump will continue to animate them. >> i want to read something you wrote, charlie, yesterday, because this made me wonder who's going to give money to mitch mcconnell's senate republican caucus. this is donald trump's party, but worse. over the last five years, republicans have shown willingness to accept or at least ignore lies, racism, and xenophobia. but now it's a party that is also willing to acquiesce to sedition, violence, extremism, and anti-democratic authoritarianism. i am very familiar with the kinds of places where republicans raise money, and i'm not sure -- and it's a scandal that they went along with lies, racism, and xenophobia, but a thinking person could presume that there could be some real problems inside corporations that want to give to a party

that is, in your words, willing to acquiesce sedition, violence, extremism, and anti-democratic authoritarianism. >> yeah, just when we thought it couldn't get worse, it is possible that the post-trump republican party is even more dangerous, more anti-democratic than what we've seen over the last four years and i think that may have been one of mitch mcconnell's motivations and i know that you have talked about this. there was a lot of speculation that he was aiming some of those remarks at the donor class, recognizing that, look, he needs to send a signal that we're not all on board with this. we're not on board with the extremists that you saw on january 6th. but this is the problem when you have these kinds of groups that are now -- and i think i'm trying to remember who wrote this piece, too big to fail. i think it was ron brownstein who said that right now, these extremist organizations have become a major constituency in the republican party. and they have a veto over many of the policies of the

republican party, so you are seeing a split in terms of the civil war, not just between people like mitch mcconnell and donald trump but between the donor class, the corporate america that is looking at this and going, okay, you know, we like the tax cuts, we like the regulation cuts, but we did not sign up for this, and then you have donald trump saying, well, this is the way we're going. so it's going to be a real, real problem, and i don't know -- i don't know that mitch mcconnell's going to be able to thread the needle, convince corporate america that it's safe to give money to republicans if republicans are not willing to show any distance between themselves and the sedition caucus. >> and if you starve a party of its donations, it is, you know, tragically, we don't any more vote them out for these things but it is one of the most effective ways to -- >> can i make a point on that? because it's a little bit -- it's even more complicated than that because there's an incentive structure built in now with online donations, in which

you can be trump or a variation of trump and raise copious amounts of money online. i mean, look at the money that trump raised after the election, $250 million, all done through small dollar donations, not a single corporation. so, there's an incentive structure in place for you to act in that manner, for you to appeal to that crowd, and anyone who wants to be president in 2024 on the republican side will recognize that incentive structure but that incentive structure does not work for mitch mcconnell. >> yeah. >> mitch mcconnell needs big corporate donors to fund his super pacs and the pacs that are affiliated with congressional campaign committees. he needs those corporations to write big checks, and so you have two different funding streams that are simultaneously working against each other, politically. to charlie's point, you want a corporate buttoned-up gop to raise that congressional money, but you want the trumpist gop to raise the sort of grassroots money. those two really don't exist and can't coexist right now.

it puts mcconnell in a real bind. he has to somehow differentiate his version of the republican party to donors while allowing the front runners for the presidential race to do their thing and i don't think they can coexist. >> it's such an important point. they are mutually exclusive. donna, i want to read you more about what the republican party is right now today. this is from the "huffington post." 57 gop state and local officials were at the capitol insurrection. 57 state and local republican officials attended the january 6th rally in washington that turned into a deadly insurrection, according to an updated "huffington post" tally. almost all of them are resisting calls to resign. only two men, both of whom were arrested for their role in the riot, a member of the west virginia house of delegates and a secretary of the california republican assembly, have actually stepped down. this feels like the legacy of trump, more than anything else. it's that you've got today's

republican party living inside a permission structure that makes attending a deadly insurrection just a normal thing to get on a plane in the middle of a pandemic and go do. >> well, and what is really striking, of course, is that we now have -- it's not just the messaging that was coming from the top of the party from donald trump. but it has seeped into the grassroots political organizations in the states, and that is not going to go away. those people will continue to, you know, sort of feed a lie. they will continue to run for and win local elected office, and it all sort of goes up the food chain, and i think, you know, one of the big problems that mitch mcconnell is going to have going forward is that he can't both stay at the top but also try to raise the bottom. he is saying already that he

will field candidates who are electable and some of those are going to be trump people, and some of those are going to be the ones that he recruits. well, you can't have it both ways. you either have to separate completely from donald trump, or you're part of the party of trump. it can't be both ways. >> sam stein, i just want to read you one more piece of this trump statement that came out just before we came on the air this hour. where he seems to, for a guy under criminal investigation in the state of georgia, this seems like it could be problematic for him. he says, many republicans in georgia voted democrat or just didn't vote because of their anguish at the inept governor, brian camp, secretary of state bread raffensperger and the republican party for not doing its job on election integrity during the 2020 presidential race. he is still threatening and taunting those georgia state officials. he's now under criminal investigation for his conduct there. >> yeah, well, nicole, i hate to break it to you, donald trump has never been a man of caution.

and he continues to not be one to this day. you know, it's like you could feel sort of the pent-up desire to tweet. >> it's all here. >> how many -- hours and hours of sitting at the keyboard, realizing he was still blocked from twitter went into that. but georgia's very -- i mean, it's amazing, reading through it, just how, one, he's not, you know, will never be pushed off the notion that voter fraud, despite the complete absence of comprehensive evidence of it, was the reason that he lost, but the second thing is, it's georgia, specifically. he went after mcconnell. one of the most interesting part of that statement was not the vitriol, the personal attacks or the conspiracies but the way he went after mcconnell for botching -- what he says, botching the georgia elections was really interesting to me and how he said, i wanted to give these people $2,000 stimulus checks and mcconnell said no. $600. and how did that work out? it was the democrats' main advertisement. so he's still very bitter about

georgia specifically and of course as you know, it's a bit of a odd way to jump into the fracas, considering that he's got some potential civil/criminal liability there. so we'll see how that goes. >> it's hard to feel bad for mitch mcconnell, who could have taken all the wind out of trump's sails by coming out when the elections were called and saying, joe biden's the next president, next story. so, i don't know. this is going to be -- it's going to be interesting. tarantulas in a bowl. charlie sykes, sam stein, thank you for starting us off this hour. donna's sticking around. when we return, much more on that lawsuit by the naacp against donald trump and rudy giuliani for their role in inciting the riot at the capitol. and how trump's pattern of intimidating witnesses could impact investigations going forward. plus, reaction to new york governor andrew cuomo's acknowledgment yesterday that his administration could have been more transparent about the number of deaths at nursing homes during the height of the pandemic in new york state. and as health experts in this country brace for the uk

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if you disagree in america with the outcome of an election, you don't riot. you don't do anything other than see that individual at the next election. if the trump administration's

philosophy of engagement like happened on january 6th becomes the standard, then every election you disagree with, you just go into the capitol and tear it up. just like you're a third world country. >> that was congressman bennie thompson earlier on this network after being named as a plaintiff in a lawsuit that the naacp has brought against donald trump for his role in the insurrection on january 6th. this case is the first lawsuit against trump that comes from the capitol riot and is the newest in a string of investigations into the former president. the question now remains for prosecutors, how do you best build those cases? referencing the just completed impeachment trial, our friend dan goldman writes in a new op-ed in the "washington post" that finding witnesses isn't the issue for lawyers but intimidation by trump and his surrogates is. witness intimidation was again a

factor. trump had tried to influence potential witnesses during the special counsel's investigation. he had intimidated witnesses in his first impeachment and at least one surrogate appeared to be engaged in witness intimidation this time around. given the track record, it's reasonable to worry that such intimidation will come into play in the various investigations now circling trump. joining our conversation, neil katyel, and donna is still here. neal, these lawsuits have been described on this program since we've been here as perhaps the next best thing to a criminal prosecution or a conviction in the senate. what do you think? >> yeah, they're really significant. i mean, donald trump is now not going to be remembered just for being the only president to be impeached twice. he's also the only president to be sued twice under the ku klux klan act, which is what these suits are about, and he's being

sued both times by the naacp, so i guess at least these lawsuits have forced donald trump to learn what the naacp is. these suits are powerful. the statute goes back to 1871, nicole, and it prohibits conspiring to prevent federal officials from doing their job, which is what really happened on january 6th. and he's already -- his minions have already started to float their defense, which was trump was acting in his official capacity in making all these statements and things like that, that that was part of his presidential duties, which is the same kind of defense he ran in the jean carroll, you know, sex assault case. he basically said attacking a woman who sued him for sexual battery was part of his official duties. it's not a particularly persuasive defense, and so i do think that there's something here legally. maybe the most important point, nicole, is i think there's certainly enough to get to discovery, and for the lawyers

who brought this suit to start to interrogate those around trump and trump's records as to what he said, when he said it, and the like. so they are a clear and present threat to what donald trump's legacy is about, indeed, perhaps, you know, his pocketbook as well. >> neal, let me read "the new york times" description of what the suit is, and i want to understand from you how important the word "conspiring" is in this. so let me read it. we'll talk about it on the other side. the lawsuit contends that trump and giuliani invited the kkk act in 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfered with congress's constitutional duties. the suit also names the proud boys, the far right nationalist group, and the oath keepers militia group. the legal action accuses trump, giuliani, and those two groups of conspiring to incite a riot at the capitol with the goal of preventing congress from

certifying the election. so much of this happened in public, including donald trump calling the proud boys to stand by and stand back. he emailed many of the people that were at the rally and then there's so much contemporaneous video of what the insurrectionists heard from the president's words, including, we'll march to the capitol, i will come with you. what more do you need to prove that these groups conspired with trump and giuliani? >> well, nicole, you're absolutely right to be seizing on the word "conspiracy." my very first law review article was about this statute in part and the history, and the reason why in 1871 the reconstruction congress enacted it is because they understood it's really hard for one person to deprive other people of civil rights. you know, it takes a village. it takes other people, essentially, working in concert together, not necessarily like ordering one person to do another, you know, one order from a person to another, but it does require some meeting of the

minds, and what this lawsuit paints is really effectively that, that donald trump is engaged with these other folks in a concerted, joint effort to prevent the congress from doing their sacred duty on january 6th of counting the votes, and so it really does kind of fit very much that historical legacy of what that statute was all about, and it shouldn't be lost on anyone, you know, on january 6th, congress was about to name the first african-american vice president in our nation's history, and so, it's exactly the right statute, and i think that there's a lot of seriousness to it. >> you know, donna, just reading it is so jarring, and i think in 30 years or 50 years, when the history of the trump era is written, there will be a lot of ways to describe just how bad it was, but one of them will be, he was sued under the 1871 kkk act statute.

>> yeah, i mean, i think it is really striking, but the thing for me, nicole, is that i really don't feel like -- feel as though we have really fully litigated the legacy of the civil war, and i think that we've been able to see that over the course of donald trump's presidency and what has been, you know, what's come out during that -- during that presidency, that has enabled some of these groups like the proud boys and the oath keepers and the vitriol that we've seen. it's allowed that to foment, and i think that's a direct legacy of our history, and i think it's appropriate. good for the naacp and for bennie thompson for using this statute, and i think there will be other members of congress who will join in and i think neal has hit on the most critical point, is that we are going to find out so much through discovery, what were the

communications? how were things coordinated? and you know, what's the paper trail that really may connect donald trump and rudy giuliani and the proud boys and the oath keepers to what happened on january 6th? >> neal katyal, donna edwards, thank you so much for spending time with us on this new lawsuit. coming up, one day after new york governor andrew cuomo acknowledged that his administration wasn't as transparent as it should have been when reporting covid deaths at nursing homes, the fallout for him is spreading. that story's next. for him is spg that story's next.

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reopen schools. putting safety first. all the numbers we produced were exactly right. we didn't provide all the information that was requested. that did create a void and misinformation did fill the void. and that misinformation gave people aggravation, and confused people, and confused people who lost a loved one. in retrospect, i'm saying we should have done a better job providing more public information. >> new york governor andrew cuomo facing political pressure at home and even within his own party for his role in the undercounting of thousands of coronavirus-related nursing home deaths. cuomo, for the very first time, publicly acknowledging his administration's role amid calls for investigations and his removal from office. he stopped just short of

apologizing. the comments came nearly three weeks after new york attorney general james released a report accusing cuomo's office of downplaying nursing home deaths. the governor hit back at the time, saying this. >> who cares? 33, 28, died in a hospital, died in a nursing home. they died. >> according to the state -- according to state officials, more than 15,000 people have died from the coronavirus in new york's nursing homes and long-term care facilities. that's nearly 50% higher than the 8,500 deaths the state reported as recently as last month. let's bring in ron allen and long island city, new york. >> reporter: nicole, it's not just the numbers that -- the raw numbers of how many deaths happened. cuomo's critics look back to

march when he issued this directive that allowed nursing home residents who were in hospitals, recovering from covid, to go back to those hospitals. that was back in march, and that's when the numbers started soaring. this was when new york was at the epicenter of the pandemic, and that's what is, some people suspect, is why he was downplaying the numbers, so that -- to account for that criticism in the face of that criticism of that directive. to give you a sense of the anger, frustration, we spoke to some family members who lost loved ones in a nursing home. a woman who runs an organization called voices for seniors, her mother went to a nursing home for rehabilitation after knee surgery, and she -- they thought she was going to be there for a matter of weeks. it turned out to be a matter of months, and she didn't survive. here's her reaction to what the governor has been saying about the numbers and about the nursing home situation. have a listen. >> i believe there's nothing

that he can say that will convince us at this point that he's been truly transparent. we're calling for an independent federal investigation so that this can be looked at in a deeper way because for some reason, seniors are treated as disposable. we're not just solely saying governor cuomo's the only one to blame, but the questions are, why, if these facilities are ill equipped to handle covid positive patients and these vulnerable seniors, do we then give these facilities immunity? >> reporter: the governor has said a couple of things, that the patients were sent back to nursing homes and the nursing homes had to say that they could accept these patients, that they could cohort them, that they could separate them, and it apparently many did not and the covid spread. in terms of the raw numbers, he has said that it's always been the state's policy to count nursing home deaths in nurses, hospital deaths in hospitals, categorization. but from what we understand, around the country, a lot of states don't do that.

it's much more nuanced. it's much more complicated. if a nursing home resident leaves and then dies elsewhere, they're still counted at the nursing home. so -- and the bottom line to all this, of course, is that, you know, a year later, there is still so much pain, so much suffering, because so many lives were lost in these nursing homes under circumstances where families couldn't be with them. still can't be with their loved ones because of covid protocols, because of safety. so the investigations continue. the attorney general's investigation continues. there are calls to lessen or strip governor cuomo of some of his emergency powers, to deal with covid. families are suing various long-term care centers and nursing homes. this, as you know, i think the number is about 30% of all the deaths in the country because of the pandemic happened at nursing homes or long-term care centers, so this whole situation is far from over and for governor cuomo, i think people are just wondering what else is there?

because again, he hasn't been transparent in their eyes, and he has admitted that more information should have been provided. >> ron allen, obviously, the priority here is the families getting the answers that they've been deprived, but i wonder if you can speak to the political crisis that is also now facing a governor who won praise, really, across the country for his public -- his public appearances, his press conferences, and the central hallmark of that sort of chapter for him was that he was giving all the facts out. this seems to cut against the brand that he actually wrote a book about his leadership during the pandemic. how dire is the political crisis for him? >> reporter: exactly. that's what i was going to say. he literally wrote the book on this, and some people are criticizing him for taking the time to write a book when he could have been providing this information is the way the argument goes. it has been striking that there have been republicans and democrats in the state house who have been criticizing him.

the attorney general here is an ally of the governor. she is a democrat. so, that is all striking. how much damage this will do? it's unclear. he's running for re-election in a couple of years, so that's sometime down the road. but again, i think the bottom line is that his image has been really tarnished. throughout the whole pandemic, it's it has been the nursing home issue that more than anything has dogged him, and it continues to, and it is such an emotional issue. you know, who knows what toll it could take on his political standing, on his reputation, on so many things. >> ron allen, thank you so much for spending some time with us and for your great reporting. we're grateful. when we return, the uk remains locked down in the face of that highly contagious coronavirus variant we've been talking about today, so why are they talking about reopening schools, restaurants, and sporting events? or why are we talking about doing that here at home? that story is next. doing that here at home? that story is next

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at the time "the atlantic" described it as, quote, a warning from the future. italy, march 2020, the world watched as the epicenter of the novel coronavirus battened down the hatches. a series of strict measures that left streets and landmarks, squares deserted. it was designed to slow the spread. it seemed dramatic to everybody at the time but we now know it was predictive, a harbinger, a warning for the rest of the world because just days later, as cases in new york exploded, our city implemented harsh measures of our own. since then, that pattern has mostly repeated itself, place a sees a sharp rise in infections followed by a similar rise in place b days or weeks later. think about florida last summer. texas, california, spain, iran, russia, india, all places hard-hit that saw their own future playing out somewhere else ahead of time.

so, here we are, almost a year later, and today, the spread of highly contagious, highly deadly covid variants are accelerating across europe. what does that mean for us here in the u.s.? joining us now live from london is keir simmons, nbc news senior international correspondent and dr. william schafner, advisor to the cdc. first, keir, i'm sorry we were distracted here in this country by impeachment trial last week, but i caught up on all of the news and the uk has had a really rough go at it, in part due to this uk variant. tell us everything that's going on. >> yeah. i mean, it's been pretty desperate, honestly. i remember -- it's interesting the way you describe it, nicole. i remember standing here in london and talking about how it felt like a tidal wave was coming as we saw the virus coming in our direction and you have that feeling of waves of virus around the world, don't

you, and certainly here, we thought we were through and then there's another flood of virus and that's because of this uk variant that is so much more infectious. now we have teams going door to door, testing people in kind of an emergency scenario to try and establish where the south african variant might be taking hold. i guess one kind of positive piece of news here is that because the uk variant is so infectious, there's the possibility that the south african variant doesn't take hold quite so well, and it, of course, has the potential to weaken vaccines. so, it's such a difficult picture. people here really are asking, when is this lockdown going to be over? it's been on now here for many, many weeks. we're now almost 120,000 deaths, which is a lot for this relatively smaller country. but at the same time, we're now looking at france, looking at a potential third lockdown, 50,000 deaths in germany, so this variant really is wreaking

havoc, if you like, and another thing to say, i guess, this coronavirus is dividing people around the world, i think, not just in terms of travel but just in terms of our experience. it does feel like different worlds. watching the super bowl there with thousands of people, spectators, it was kind of amazing to people here where our soccer matches have no spectators. so, there are so many challenges, so many difficulties, but government here, as ever, lawmakers struggling to give people a conclusive answer. the government here, under pressure to say when this lockdown will be over. the trouble, of course, and we've seen it and said it many times, is that when you make plans, those plans are often scorned by the virus. >> so, those lawmakers and policymakers really struggling to keep up with the science, dr. shafner and this country has had a new president in office for just over three weeks whose central mission, whose entire

campaign was about eradicating the virus, and i wonder, you know, keir, do you sense that there's more hope that america will be a better partner now that we are all hands on deck, trying to defeat the virus here and taking it more seriously and at least -- i think to your point about the super bowl is true. there's lingering impact from having a president for the first ten months who didn't model this few things we could do to protect ourselves. >> yeah. i think that there is real hope here in europe. i will say one thing, and now, after reporting on the coronavirus for this year, i will say one thing. i've learned from that never to judge how well a country is doing, because every time you think a country's doing well, another wave comes, another challenge comes. but certainly, i think there is hope that there will be a stronger partnership between europe and america. i will say this, though. the world is changing dramatically, being changed by this virus and by other geopolitical factors, so that

piece of history is yet to be written, really. >> doctor, we're going to come to you in one second but we just got some new tape in from a couple minutes ago. we saw president biden depart the white house. he's on his way, departing on his first official trip as president, heading to wisconsin, and wisconsin and looking to sell his covid relief plan at a town hall event in milwaukee tonight. he stopped to talk to reporters on the way. let's listen to that. >> do you think that mitch mcconnell said that opposing covid relief will unify republicans. what do you say to that? >> it may unify republicans. it will hurt america. >> he is speaking about mitch mcconnell's claim earlier today that it will be a politically unifying message to oppose that covid relief plan. it's amazing that even covid relief, with keir i feel like the world is watching, but even covid relief is partisan in this

country, but these are the times in which we live. what is the sort of good side of the story that keir is telling? we have a president who has brought in experts, who is listening to science, but on the other hand, we have these variants that are more contagious and potentially more deadly? >> well, all the more reason, nicolle, that science has to be the basis of our public policy, and we need a national policy, which we haven't had. i'm sorry about this political division. the virus doesn't care whom you voted for or if you voted at all. you know, the australians did it right. the prime minister went to the leader of the opposition and said let's call a truce, work together against covid. and once we got that in hand, then we can go back and have our divisions and our discussions about other issues. and those two leaders actually did that. they were able to work together, and the australians and new zealanders and others have been a model for what we ought to be

doing. i would hope that we could come together on both the social, the medical, the political issues that can unite us in working against covid. once we get covid under some real control in a sustained way, you can't open up too soon, but in a sustained way, then we'll be on the right track, and we can open up economically again. >> doctor, what should americans take from what the uk has been through and is still going through in the grip of these new variants? laura garrett said earlier in our program that they're likely already here and more widespread manner. we know they're more contagious. they could be more deadly. what should we be doing? >> nicolle, you know exactly what i'm going to say. wear that mask. observe social distancing. avoid large groups. don't go to bars.

and if we do all those things and keep our vaccination program on track, better every day than the day before, we will be headed in the right direction. these masks, they protect us and they protect everyone else around us, and that's something we can do together for each other and for ourselves. >> are you more scared about the variants than what was here before? because it seems like all of the reporting in countries that have already had their first wave of the variants are doing worse even with those mitigation measures in place. >> well, the variants require us to be even more attentive. so far, the science suggests in reasonably strongly that the vaccines will work against these variants, but we also have to use our other intervention methods in order to do everything together to keep this

virus down, and to keep it down in a sustained way. you can't rely on just one thing. we have to do them all together, and then we'll be successful. >> keir, what is the status with the vaccination effort in the uk? >> well, they're doing well with the vaccinations. 22% of the country now vaccinated. so it is -- they're hoping, they're looking for it to have an impact relatively soon. one of the issues is that the more -- i look at scientists, but broadly speaking, the more virus there is, unless the vaccination program is quick enough, you are afraid to be teaching the virus to overcome the vaccine. you're giving it the chance to mutate. and that goes for around the world. it doesn't in some ways matter how well one country is doing vaccines. the important thing is that the world does well with vaccines so you overcome the chance of

mutations and new variants that could overcome the vaccines. >> keir simmons, dr. william schaffner, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. finally, as we do every single day, remembers lives well lived. her sons said it was like the cheers bar at holland murray white's ultimate touch hair salon. everyone knew everyone's name. that's why tony told "the washington post" thinking he had hundreds of aunts and cousins. for 30 years, the salon was his own community, an essential and beloved part of southeast d.c. but instead of enjoying a well earned retirement, helen murray started up a second career. according to nbc 4, she started teaching cosmetology at an alternative education program. her students came to adore what her clients already recognized, a unique kindness and a profound wisdom. helen murray found value in

people that perhaps others might have overlooked. one former student told "the post" that when her water was shut off at home, helen murray paid the bill. and eventually, when the student could afford to pay back the debt, helen murray refused her money. an unstoppable force for good. we're very sorry to report that ten days ago, helen murray died from complications of covid-19 at the young age of 62. talk about a life well lived. a tight knit family, five children, nine grandchildren, hundreds of students, thousands of clients, all of them blessed and better just for having known helen murray white. we'll be right back. alright, i brought in ensure max protein... ...to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't (grunting noise) i'll take that. yeeeeeah! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar drink, play, and win big in the powered by protein challenge!

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thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we are grateful. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. >> welcome to the beat. i am ari melber. we are tracking joe biden's fist official trip to a rally for broad support for his covid relief plan. you see him harkening back to a model where the presidents go directly to the people, which is a break with the current conventional wisdom that this cannot work. here we are looking at lye pictures of president biden taking off there in air force one. now part of the conventional wisdom you hear is that leaders must now accept what political nihilists have done, broken america into sharp divisions that are basically