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americans by the end of july. he sought to ease the anxiety of a young girl about the pandemic and warned life may not return to normal until next christmas. >> when we came in office, there was only 50 million doses available. we have now, by the end of july, we'll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single american. first of all, honey -- what was your first name? >> laila. >> a beautiful name. first of all, kids don't get covid very often. it's unusual for that to happen. when things change, people get really worried and scared, but don't be scared, honey. don't be scared. you're going to be fine. we're going to make sure mommy is fine, too. by next christmas, i think we'll be in a very different circumstance, got willing, than we are today. i don't want to over-promise anything here. i told you when i ran and when i got elected, i will always level with you.

>> vice president harris is also speaking out. she did so this morning on the "today" show about the progress they have made in just four weeks and the road ahead on of vaccine roll-out. >> first of all, we have a vaccine now, and that is great, but we need to get it in the arms of all americans. as the president said last night, we expect that will be done, in terms of having the available supply, by the end of july. and so we are very excited about that, and we're excited about what we've been rolling out. you're right, we're four weeks in as an administration, but we have, during these four weeks that has done a lot about a national protocol, supporting the states who needed that coordination and support. we have a whole program that now -- that we have rolled out, getting 1 million vaccines to pharmacies. we are getting vaccines to community health centers, very important to supplement what the states are doing. we want to make sure we get it

directly into communities, and 13.5 million a week going out, and as quickly as we're producing it, we're getting it out. >> both the president and vice president are meeting day with labor leaders to pin their push for the covid relief package. all of it comes as the disgraced ex-president whose impeachment trial ended saturday, is now out of the way. they're talking about the well-timed came, nearly four weeks after biden was someone in and three days after the senate voted to acquit former president trump. it also came at a critical moment for biden's first legislative push, which will test his ability to navigate the modern-day congress and his pledge to usher in an era of unity and bipartisanship form the new president and vice president laying claim to center stage, after four years of chaos, is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends.

eugene daniels, co-author of politico's playbook and david plouffe, an msnbc analyst, and our friend dr. irwin redsetter is back. david plouffe, i would like to start with you. i know all the angst about trump continuing to get epps attention, but i looked at joe biden's approval rating. he stands at 62%. the contrast has been internalized by the vast majority of americans. this 62% approval rating is a remarkable number for a president of a company that is ailing in just about every way imaginable. >> nicolle, it's a shocking number. i'm not sure i thought i would see that number again, absent a

post-9/11 moment, but a bunch of people also who voted for donald trump. one of the things that joe biden promised above any policy change was just he was going to lower the temperature, do the job, not make it about himself, but about the american people. that's what the last four weeks has been out. even as they get out there more to help build more support, i think that's going to be the tact. even though trump, i guess he called in to hannity, so maybe he'll crawl out of hi bunker a bit more, i think that's okay. the contrast couldn't be more stark than what we have seen. i think people like the results. this is somebody who just seems focused every day on trying to get past the coronavirus. he's being honest about the challenges, no spin on the ball, not making it about himself, not attacking people. you and i both have been a part of trying to master

theatericality about of politics. they just have to quietly be doing the job, which probably should be the job anyway, but so far he's meeting it. >> you talk about the choices they have made in the past 24 hours, pointing to the strength of joe biden's es communicator. >> it was probably something he was desperately missing. there was a joke about him being in his basement. yet he got to be in front of the american people, doing the town hall, talking directly to them. that's where he plays -- it's very clintonesque. he looks at people and tells them, and you really believe that at some point joe biden or somebody from his team will talk to that person about getting the vaccine. when he talked to the little

girl and told her you're going to be okay, you feel that. it's a stark difference for all of us reporters who covered the trump administration just in how the president speaks to people and how he's ability to do that, which is a huge part of being a president, which is making sure people feel good about what's happening in the country. >> in normal times, it might not be newsworthy that this was a coordinated one-two, that the president participate in a town hall, the vice president was out this morning on the "today" show, echoing the same message, but as you said, we have not seen that. we have not seen a communication strategy that has, as you said, informing the public in this time of crisis as its goal. talk about how the white house plans to use and deploy vice president harris that way? >> yeah, something we keep begging from is, what is she supposed to be doing? what is her portfolio? what they keep saying and what

we keep seeing is her job is to support of the. he did his more than an hour town hall, and today she reiterated what he said. you look at president trump and former vice president pence, president trump was basically the only one out there doing things. they're showing now this president and vice president now are teamed up, doing this together, and they realize she is just as important a member of the team, when it comes to talking to the american people about this vaccination, especially when it comes to black and brown communities who have a lot of vaccine hesitancy still. >> yeah, just listening to you talk, eugene, we know how that all ended with trump supporters yelling "hang mike pence." doctor, you want to talk about the depth and breadth of their challenge, that they are not

sugar-coating. over 72 million doses have been distributed, over 56 million have been administered, some are being held for the second doses, since moderna and pfizer both require that second dose. just talk about the straight talk that we're getting about what eugene alluded to, vaccine hesitancy, and the reality though even with the goal of having enough vaccine by july, that doesn't necessarily mean we're all vaccinated, and the president dropped this date on the country, i think, for the first time that we're looking at next christmas before we can contemplate something reassembling normal. >> sure, nicolle, what a difference a few months makes. we've got from dishonesty, misperceptions, and inexcess to a highly competent administration. by the way, this was apparent even in the first week of the biden-harris administration, when you listen to the briefings

about covid. they were absolutely transparent. they were filled with evidence-based information that the public needed to know, and no fooling around here. this is serious stuff, and they presented it that way, which is showing a great deal of respect to the public. the other thing is that, you know, we have not just a difference in style and in the cooperation and relationship between the president and vice president. we have a very big difference in substance. this is not going to be a flawless campaign to get everybody immunized, but it will be an honest one and highly competent one. i think we are seeing already the emerging of a whole new approach to handling this horrendous challenge of the pandemic crisis. i think we'll see more of this style and substance as time goes on, nicolle. >> i mean, the reality, too, from the medical and scientific community, doctor, and we

started our hour yesterday with this news, what could be ahead is the bleakest phase to dr. osterholm talked about it. this possible fourth wave looming if we fail to contain the covid-19 variants. new jersey experts fearing a perfect storm is on the horizon as seven new strains are discovered in this country. cnbc reporting economic despair in this country, the bulk of job his claims are due to repeat pandemic layoffs, and axios with the economic pains that the biden administration is trying to a little with the relief package. it's a whole lot of sticky and

complicated and frankly daunting challenges for the country. >> which is exactly why we need competence and transparency. this is not going to be easy. i agree with laury garrett this will be a rough time coming for us. we haven't even mentioned the issue with the school crisis e even if every kid out of the country went back to full-time in-person school tomorrow, we'll have a remediation challenge that will be unbelievable and unprecedented [ phone ringing ] >> that's oak. i hope it's that cute grandson of yours. >> i think it will be an incredible challenge for us, and i think it will be a loan-term challenge. the work demands that we have competency and transparency. i think that's the least we'll get from the biden-harris administration. we're going to have to hang in there, hang tough, and i think we'll experience some rough

months, including a much higher fatality rate than we might have expected even with biden-harris in charge mere. we're now about to reach 500,000 fatalities. before this is over we could get to 700, 800,000, hopefully we won't, but it's possible if these variants get out of control. >> david, i saved you for last. your old boss, president obama, was handed an historically horrible economic crisis that had commenced in 2008 and '09. i just wonder if you could speak to, having watched president biden and knowing kamala harris, you know, there's some reporting about why president biden stands a far better chance really than any of his predecessors are being successful, that he has known his members, they senators and members, some of them, for

decades. can you talk about that skill set that is certainly part of what he brings to they herculean task ahead? >> first of all, nicolle, on the challenge, i think what joe biden and kamala harris has is much more challenging that what barack obama had, but both of them, is simplifies the task. politics takes a backseat, you have a bunch of stuff to do as quickly as you can. we take the senate as the most important factor in his success, but he knows these people. he's negotiated with them for that decades. he knows them personally. he's campaigned for a lot of them. so, you know -- listen, i sat in his office, or sometimes he would be in the oval office on the phone with senators, you know, when i worked in the white house. he has a skill at that.

he's a great listener, he gets right back to people. like he's doing with the public around covid, he'll tell you what he can't do. in a way i think mcdonnell, as devious as he is, he also tends not to get over his skis, and nancy pelosi always knows where his votes are. so you have some sophisticated actors here. but the approval rate for the covid package is almost in the 7s, and i think that that may convince some republicans to be supportive of it. certainly i think it will keep the democrats in line here, and pass something. so the truth is, by default, the president talked about christmas, you could have an economy that's not just healing, but maybe roaring a bit, kids back in school, people feeling much more conferred about the pandemic, so you can see the end

line here. if he's out there every day kind of managing this, and that's what i think people -- he's managing, not trying to sell anything. i think it's good for him politically. >> i want to ask you something else, david plouffe, about his political persona. they have played a very disciplined outside the beltway game since they got there. that's not an accident, because when you work in the white house, you and i have both been in that building, every temptation is to get drawn into the latest headline in any of the papers, or anywhere in politico, or anywhere where there is some sort of flashing -- it's usually yellow -- it feels red when you're in there -- they have resisted all the of those polls. they have kept that eye on the covid relief package. they have stayed out of the fray. i'm sure you have all talked to them more than i have. they didn't seem to really mind being able to fly under the

radar the first cupeling weeks, get all their systems in order. they're having staff meetings on zoom. s the weirdest way to work in a white house, where so much of what you have to do is work around those tables, information is sense that i have. they are going in under very different circumstances, but without an exception, they have stayed focused on drumming up public approval for the covid relief plan. that seemed like at this point, and it seems like all those decisions, which are a million little decisions over four weeks, even during the transition, are paying off for them. >> no question, nicolle. i think that, first of all, you've got a staff from ron klain on down who are just competent. it turns out having people who believe in government and are good at running government matters in who you elect, number

one, but biden sets that tone as well. even though he's been in politics for a very long time, i can't tell you how many meelgts i was in where we might be talking about what one senator said or what was in the paper or on msnbc, they same just let me tell you how they're talking about on -- it's not an act. that's how he's wired. this is a team racing against the clocks, they know they're up against it here. that really, really has a way of focusing the mind. i can't imagine, nicolle, doing what they're doing on zoom. now, there may be one healthy thing about it. you know working in that building, it's like working in a submarine, you never seen anything outside the building, so maybe there be some value to that. >> eugene, you're the expert, covering the building, can weigh in on this sort of first white house -- i guess it's the second

white house, but trying to get a new administration, a new presidency, new people and new jobs off the ground at the really darkest moment of the pandemic. >> yeah, the thing that we keep hearing any time we talk to them, they're laser focused on covid. they know this is the biggest issue. they have a lot of priorities, joe biden has a long list of things, he's shaping up to probably be the most progressive president he's had. and so this is the white house that's just completely focus odd those things. to a frustrating degree as reporters, who are asking all types of questions in press briefings, trying to get them to make thus and give us some information, but that focus is something that, you know, when you talk to people outside the white house, they say that's going to be beneficial for them, right? that's going to be something they'll be able to keep and keep on going. will it last?

a good question, as things start getting bleaker, if that 62% turns into a 52, into something else, especially as something that we're missing in this conference is that the republican party at some point will seemingly kind of get together and get their house in order, then they will be able to fight, you know, what president biden, vice president harris and democrats want to do. if republicans are ability to get their house in order, because usually they would be lock in step together, but they can't do that because of january 6th, because of impeachment. if that's going to happen, if they're going to get their stuff together, it will be interesting how this affects their white house. >> it's a great point. it will give them more time to have the field unchallenged. eugene daniels, david plouffe, dr. irwin redlighter, thank you for starting us off. if you are still wondering

when and how and where you and your family are going to be able to get your coronavirus vaccine, head to plant your vaccine.com or scan the qr code at the bottom of your screen. plus in your state, your age and your occupation here on this form. then you can see if you're eligible, len how to sign up or you is sign up for alerts to let you know when you can receive your shot in your state. when we come back, our next guest is calling texas a failed state for its political response to this week's natural disaster. beto o'rourke and more will join us. the latest on the investigation into the insurrection, and more on speaker nancy pelosi's calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the attack. all those stories are coming up. don't go anywhere. e stories are. don't go anywhere. and buying your dream home, we'll be there to make it happen.

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with he well, we lost power, put the kids in a different location, with family members, and then we just have been sleeping in the closet with my pets. by candlelight, but tonight we're trying to get out to my parents' house in plano. i can't find gas anywhere. i don't even know what city i'm in, to be honest. wire in a disaster. millions of people still without

pouter. people have died from accidents on the road to carbon monoxide poisoning. much of houston has been without power since monday. people woke up this morning to little or no water pressure, in addition to a boil water notice. the sheer scope of the human suffering is different to comprehend, but listen to this first paragraph in "the texas tribune." a grandmother slept in her car. parents who ran out logs burned possessions. this from "the galveston county daily news" one local police official said they hoped to not be marking hopes with red to indicate there were dead bodies inside. and in the midst of all that

suffering, well, how is governor greg abbott spending his time? by having a chat with sean hannity, taking time to erroneously and dishonestly attack renewable energy in the green new deal. more than 3 million people in his state are without power. let's bring into our conversation two special guests of this show, former democratic congressman of texas, besso o'rourke, joining us from el basso, and matthew dow, founder of the group country over -- he has lost power and water. how are you doing? >> i'm okay. yesterday i decide it was below 50 degrees in my house and i had no water. i grow 30 miles to a hotel, and when i checked in 15 minutes after i checked in the power to

the hotel went out, and now it came back on a bit appearing. i'm doing better than most. we're all struggling through this, trying to figure it out, but it's a major, major crisis. i'm glad i have a four-wheel drive pickup truck. i was able to help some people along the way. beto, you want last night in a comment that caught my attention, when i reached out to you, that texas is a failed state. explain. >> what you are seeing right now roll jowl, following more than 4 million texans filing for unemployment. following the governor and state leaders for most of the pandemic, absolutely ignore the science and the best public health advice. this is what you get when people who don't believe in governments

are running your government. they'd like to spend more time on hannity talking about the green new deal and wind turbines than they would in trying to help those who desperately need it. as matthew pointed out, there are a lot of people struggle without electricity, without heat, without water, and in many parties, without feed. restaurants are closed. grocery stores have lines out the door. this is one of the very worst disaster we have ever seen, and it's happening almost across every one of the 254 counties of texas right now. this is really bad. a lot of people are suffering, and they're suffering unnecessarily. >> so i don't want to amplify the governor's disinformation. you both have spoken out about the danger of disinformation at this level when people's lives are literally at risk, but just for our viewers who may have

missed this this shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. texas is blessed with multiple sources of energy, but you saw, as trey said, our wind and solar got shut down and they were collectively more than 10% of on you power grid. he goes on to make the case for fossil fuel. >> wind and solar is outperformed the expectations. the problem was with coal, gas and to some degree nuclear, frozen instruments and frozen supply lines. those who are extracting the energy, the oil and gas also in many instances frozen from being ability to perform those jobs. much of this has to do with the

unique nature of our electricity grid caught in the state of texas, where there is no incentive or mandate to have on hand additional generating capacity for extreme weather events like this one which, as you know, nicolle, are only going to become more likely, more frequent, more intense and more deadly as the climate continue to say change thanks to our emissions, and our in, in the face of what has happened. we can't draw down power when we need it. also after the 2011 event with rolling blackouts through the state, they were supposed to weatherize the grid and the generation of power in texas, and i think they did not, given what we saw over the last few days. lastly, you have a state government that literally does not believe that climate change is taking place and not protecting those who are most

vulnerable against what is happening across the state now, what happened in hurricane harvey, the extraordinary droughts we have seen and other extreme weather events. so all of this has brought us to this point one of the worst disasters we have ever seen and is ongoing right now. i think that's the scary thing. we could be talking about this for hours and days to come. you made an interesting point. i think you both have -- donald trump ran on this brazenly, dismantling the state, when you were in the middle of a natural disaster and your power supply goes out, dismantling the state doesn't sound like a good idea, regardless of politics, and there's a toxic brew of disinformation, using they crisis to satisfy, i guess, a fox host or view, and attack the green new deal. this is the reality of the toxic

stew of today's gop. >> i completely agree with what beto said about why we're in this situation on this specific issue, but this signifies two failures, in texas, so in my view the national gop's party. first of all there's some idea we're not supposed to have community action against a crisis, right? somehow that community action is somehow some form of socialism. when we're facing two of the greatest crises, one a global climate crisis, and two, what we just got through with covid. there's a number of texans i've talked to, they feel like they're in ptsd, now we're faced with this, and then you add to that -- so a lack of desire for community action. then you add to that, as i have siding here on hold, i was thinking about just in the last five years, the dangers of

lying, and the dangers of our government officials not telling the truth. five, six years ago we faced that with the flint, michigan, crisis, they weren't transparent about it, they lied a and now they're until criminal indictment. so you have that lie, which cost lives. then you had covid, which obviously donald trump was unwilling to be honest about, what the science was, was unwilling to be honest about what was actually going on, and thousands and thousands of people died from that needlessly. then you have our democracy under attack, which was basically assaulted by lies and more conspiracy theories, which end up in a insurrection at the capitol where people die. so when you look at, now we have this -- now we have a governor of the state of texas and a former governor, rick perry said today though texans are fine with rolling blackouts, as long

as it means the federal government is not going to be involved. i don't know who rick perry is talking to, but to me it's that combination and no desire for community action, and unwillingness -- take away government -- an unwillingness to tell the truth. i have to sneak in a break. the white house has has to have to on offer, an offer to send generators. we're going to sneak in a quick break and we'll be back with matthew dowd and beto o'rourke on the other side. w dowd and bee on the other side. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started.

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just [click!] and start making a different future. start different at godaddy.com [click!] all over the metroplex, people are trying to make it to the next day, like cassidy, she has a 2-year-old to think about. >> i had to bundle her up, put several pairs of socks, and just a little fear stricken, a little panic. i went into full-on lion mom survival mode. my daughter is not going to be hungry and cold. >> with each passing day, it's starting to feel more and more like desperate motor. as we said, much of the region still under a blanket of ice, subfreeze, temperatures and widespread power outages making for an increasingly dining russ

situation. beto, what can we do to help? what can the government do to help? what can other citizens do to help? what do you do in the immediate. >> first of all, i'm grateful that the biden administration is stepping up to help, sending generators to texas. second, we have some extraordinary local leaders. we talked about the absence of leadership at the statewide level, but you get down to harris county, home to houston, the extraordinary county judge there, clay jenkins, the judge in dallas county, and many ears are stepping up at a moment that there's a vacuum of leadership.

on the neighborhood level, we can look out for those who might need help. if you have heat in your home, if you have a working fireplace, for example, gather those neighbors, especially the most vulnerable into your home and help to keep them warm. i just got a call from a friend in galveston. he's down to his last few logs, and he has his neighbors in the living room. he's not sure what they're burning after that, but that's a very texas thing to do. we heard matthew dowd doing that for folks with his truck that's works. he's delivering assistance to those who need it. 211 is around emergency services number that you can call. if it's not a 911, where it's life or death, or you're running out of energy for a medical device that's keeping you alive. there 211 will help you with the

closest warming. >> announcer:. it's a temporary fix, but it's something that many texans need now. those are some things we can do immediately. obviously we need to look at the long-term solutions i mentioned earlier, weatherizing, joining the national grid, and then taking climate change seriously, and making policy that addresses it, especially those communities on the front line of its impacts. matthew, i want to hear what you need ago well, but just to the point you were making before the break, i saw that kevin mccarthy has sort of piled on. this has become a nationalized, political -- i call them political carpet baggers, really, reps making the case -- i'm sure you find it offensive. i find it suffering, and i'm not suffering. what is the experience of seeing

a crisis while it's happening turned into such a craven political moment for the right. >> well, i can tell you, from everybody i have talked to, whoever you were, whether a red person, a blue person or purple person, there is seething anger at the state's public officials over this. every time somebody tries to point the finger at something else, this has nothing to do with the green new deal or renewbles. you with look at the stats, and if texas planned on it, we wouldn't be in this situation today. i agree completely with beto, about what he said, with neighbor helps neighbor, communities helping community, local leaders stepping up. it's unfortunate we can't rely on our state leaders in this moment to do that, but that's what we have to do. there's a number of charities, where folks can go online. the people that are impacted, just like the people that have

been impacted by covid, but the people who are the most vulnerable. they're the people of color. they don't have resources. those are the people who are fundamentally impacted. i'll get through this. if i can't take a shower for five days, i'm okay. if i have to take out my truck and drive 50 miles to get jugs of water, i'm okay, but it's the people who are the most vulnerable. the last thing i will add is that's all in the short term. i would just ask any listener to this, whether you live in texas or another state, don't forget. don't forget what you've been told, what has been lied about, at the national left, state level, and pick leaders willing to be honest with you, and have integrity. the only way out of this mess and all the of the problems we're in is to elect leaders who have integrity, leaders who are willing to tell you the truth, even if you don't want to hear

it. >> you both are telling such a com pels story of crises that have that are roots in all that's broken in our politics. i want to end with you, beto on, if you put these things together, the sort of lie that led to the violence on the 6th, all of the suffering, which has disproportionately stretches affected people right now in texas, we are still moving forward are toward -- we're still following. they see dominos are still crashing down. how do we start standing them back up again? >> i think what matthew said is so important to remember. if there's no accountability, if there's no justice for the lies that are being trafficked by those in positions of public trust, then you with bet this will continue. the deaths and the devastation and the disasters will following suit. this is the wealthiest, most

powerful country on the face of the planet. the proudest democracy -- sorry about that. >> that's okay. tv in the time of zoom. >> that was my dog. we are capable of bigger and bert things than what we're seeing from our leaders. so we must expect that from them or sent mohr people in their player. if we fail to do that, we will lose lives, lose or way of life and lose our very democracy. that's all the on the line right now. in in a democracy, no one can be on the sidelines. no one can sit this out. we all have to be in the game, it's all on our shoulders, so let's expect that from ourselves, and i bet you we can overcome. >> i'm so grateful to both of you for making time for the conversation. thank you so very much. when we come back, new fears that radicalized insurrectionists who stormed the capitol on january 6th, who

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(noise of fridge opening) guy fieri! ya know, if you wanna make that sandwich the real deal, ya gotta focus on the bread layers. king's hawaiian sliced bread makes everything better! ♪ (angelic choir) ♪ umm, honey...why is guy fieri in our kitchen? i don't know. i'm booking you a one-way ticket to flavortown with a king's hawaiian meatball sub. ♪ ♪ i gotta go. your neighbor needs king's hawaiian bread. hey, i got you. guy fieri? it's been nearly a month and a half since the insurrection at the united states capitol and still, so many unanswered questions. how did brian sicknick lose his

life while defending the capitol? these answers what speaker pelosi hopes to have answers for by establishing an independent investigation similar to the 9/11 commission to find out exactly what happened on january 6th. the inquiry would have to involve legislation and bipartisan support to commence, so will that be enough republican support to form a commission to get these answers? let's bring into our conversation, tom winter and frank, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence and author of the new book "the fbi way." let me start with you, frank, on your theory of the case for why we have not heard. we heard the house impeachment managers tell the most detailed version of their story that day, but we still have not heard from capitol police. >> there's an overriding historical reason why people

don't tell their story. our institutions choose not to tell their story. it's because even they don't like their story. i'm concerned that we're not hearing from these agencies because the truth is too painful even for them, and i think it's going to be the independent commission that finally gets to the bottom of this, if we can even assemble an effective commission but there's a reason why we aren't getting regular press conferences, why we aren't seeing lengthy testimony as is scheduled, hopefully, for next week as we start to hear the story. but the reason why they're not voluntarily coming forward, nicole, i fear the story is ugly. even for them. >> tom winter, most of what we know, as i said, the house managers introduced what i think for a lot of americans was the most comprehensive version of what the capitol police endured that day, but the other way that we're learning and it's a little

more opaque, but are through the charges being filed against the insurrectionists themselves. can you bring us up to speed where the investigation stands, the most serious charges that have been brought and how many people have been charged? >> we're approaching about 200 people that have been charged, nicole, and obviously the investigations continue while other people continue to get arrested. we've gone from having, in some cases, 6 or 8 or 10 people arrested a day to a handful and obviously we're waiting and the u.s. attorney's office in washington, dc and the fbi in dc have told us repeatedly that the more serious charges, the indictments, the possibility of conspiracy charges here, those cases are going to take time. it makes sense that they would take time. there's a lot of evidence that will need to be collected and gathered that has nothing to do with these images that we've seen repeatedly since that dark day. i think when we look at the totality of what occurred here,

nicolle, what happened was about the truth. in accountability and when you look at the 9/11 commission in that report of 585 pages that went into a detailed timeline, how we arrived on the morning of september 11th, not just from a standpoint of what occurred in the intelligence community and the law enforcement community and what did not occur on that day, and to frank's point, the story from some of the agencies that had some successes but obviously, had some very serious failures in failures of communication and what occurred between those agencies, specifically between the cia and fbi, what was shared and what was not shared with the fbi, when you look back at the 9/11 commission report, it established some semblance of truth. and while the cia may not be happy with their portrayal of it and the fbi may not be happy with some of their portrayal with it, when you look at that document which is what it's become, it provides a key reference point in a key set of truths that happen on that day and before it and i think we're really lacking that here and i think for a law enforcement

agency, the capitol police, to receive a $460 million budget to provide briefings, they've suspended officers. i can't tell you who they are because they won't tell anybody. can't tell you how serious it was, what they may have done. did they just not follow simple procedure? were they perhaps encouraging of people that day? what happened with the sergeant at arms? how did we get to a point in a post- 9/11 world that it was so easy to break glass and break doors down and get into the united states capitol? these are questions that are going to be answered and they're not going to be answered in the charging documents because the cases have to stick close to the facts in the individuals that were charged, nicolle. >> such important points and obviously, in such an important point about the value of the 9/11 commission report. the most lasting change was that it changed how the cia and the fbi interacted with each other. first the cia director, robert

mueller and then never connected the dots, nothing has changed since the insurrection. i mean, donald trump not being held to account is just really the tip of the iceberg. nothing has changed. they've put a fence around it, but in terms of getting to the root cause of how that happened, nothing. >> this is the value of an independent commission. if we can assemble it in this polarized environment we're in. don't forget, 9/11 was an external threat to the nation. we rallied behind it. we had a common enemy we needed to address. this is different. this is an internal threat and i predict you'll see political infighting who gets on the commission and how that process works, but here's the value. in addition to the truth telling and getting to the truth of an independent commission, it's as you said, taking tangible steps so that this won't happen again or less likely to happen again. let's not forget, we created dhs as a result of 9/11. we created the dni position as

the result of 9/11. here's what i hope comes out of an independent commission. i hope we finally get congress to address the need for a domestic terrorism law. i hope we finally get congress to acknowledge the role of social media in radicalization and start regulating big tech and the social media platforms. >> this is a conversation that we will continue to have with both of you. thank you for spending some time with us today. tom winter and frank. when we come back, a chance to turn the page. why president joe biden and vice president kamala harris finally are done even talking about donald trump. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. use" starts a quick break. don't go anywhere. seen and heard in reverse] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ sfx: [sounds of fedex planes and vehicles engines] ♪♪

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remember you and i talking during the campaign and you had former guy saying that, i'm tired of talking about donald trump, don't want to talk about him anymore. for four years, all that's been in the news is trump.

the next four years, i want to make sure all of the news is the american people. i'm tired of talking about trump. >> hi again, everyone. it's 5:00 in new york. president biden is right about that. talking about trump for the past four years has been exhausting. but now, trump is just the former guy. we get to move on. the man who in word and action appears to be the polar opposite of the one who just left office. no more twitter rants or obliterations of norms and government institutions, no more putting party over country, no more putting himself above the american people. just take a listen to some of what president biden said last night in milwaukee at a town hall. comments filled with empathy, compassion, and a reverence for the job of the office of the presidency. >> we have to be more decent and treat people with respect. just decency. i don't want to overpromise anything here. i made a commitment. i will not ever tell my justice

department, and it's not mine, it's the people's justice department, who they should and should not prosecute. we have a chance now, a chance now to make significant change in racial disparities. the white house is very different and i feel a sense of, i must tell you, a sense of history about it. if you're willing, i'll stay around after this is over and maybe we can talk a few minutes and see if i can get you some help. >> imagine where we'd be as a country right now if we heard anything like that over the last four years. president biden's approach seemingly resonating with the vast majority of the public. a 62% approval rating. that high number may be due in part to president biden, the rest of his administration stressing that it's the people of this country who come first. here's vice president harris this morning on "the today show"

when asked about trump's criminal liability. >> i ask you, do you think that president trump should be criminally charged? >> you know, right now, savannah, i'm focused on what we need to do to get relief to american families. that's our highest priority. it's a job we were elected to do and that's my focus. >> but you're a former prosecutor, so i got do ask you, is that a strong case against the president, a criminal case that mitch mcconnell had raised as a possibility. >> i haven't reviewed the case of being a prosecutor. i'm reviewing the case of covid in america through the lens of being the vice president of america. >> gone are the days of coronavirus poof just disappearing like a miracle and a president who says i take no responsibility. the top of the biden administration's agenda right now is, as you heard, doing everything it can do to beat the pandemic, including ramping up vaccinations and passing the president's $1.9 trillion covid relief package. near the close of last night's

town hall, president biden asked whether he had spoken to the living former presidents to which he responded, quote, all of them have, with one exception, picked up the phone and called me. do we need to wonder who that one is? start this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. former rnc spokesman and then andy carney and democratic strategist, our friend, basil schmeichel. i made this point last hour but the president and vice president are acting from a communications standpoint and i notice all these things as a former white house communications director doing what you're supposed to do. they have a message, they're out selling it but they very clearly waited until donald trump had exited stage left. >> that's right. they had been relentlessly on message but it's no coincidence that the first time we see biden leave washington for a work

trip, go out into the country to meet with real voters in wisconsin was the week after the impeachment trial wrapped up. they were aware that donald trump was still dominating the news cycle for the weeks of his impeachment trial and that biden was the second story and that wasn't necessarily all bad for them. there was some pluses of their back and forth on the goal of school reopenings in the first 100 days, for instance, sort of flew under the radar because the focus was the impeachment trial. the final chance to benefit from a comparison to trump. the impeachment trial highlighted donald trump at his worst and was perhaps a reminder to americans thinking, wow, this is why we voted for joe biden. normalcy, decency. but now donald trump is the former guy. there is no more big news story about him and biden has an opportunity to take the

spotlight to himself and that's what we saw in the town hall. he's traveling again on thursday to kalamazoo. vice president harris is out there doing network tv. they are selling this plan now that they have all eyes focused on them. >> i want to show you, tim miller, this other piece of sound from president biden yesterday because part of the legacy of the trump era is what fbi director chris wray describes as the greatest domestic terror threat and that is right-wing supremacy, the legacy of the insurrection is that they may end up charging conspiracy of the proud boys and the oath keepers and others. let me show you what president biden had to say about the threat of white supremacy. >> that is the greatest threat to terror in america, domestic terror. and so i would make sure that my justice department and the civil rights division is focused

heavily on those very folks and i would make sure that we, in fact, focus on how to deal with the rise of white supremacy. you may remember in one of my debates with former president, i asked him to condemn the proud boys. he wouldn't do it. he said stand by, stand ready or whatever the phrase exactly was. it is a bane on our existence. it has always been, as lincoln said, we have to appeal to our better angels, and these guys are not and women are in fact demented. they are dangerous people. >> shocks the system to hear an american president say what you're supposed to say about domestic terrorism and white supremacists. they're demented. >> look, there was a clear answer from vice president biden and it is right on. this did not just start but this goes all the way back to the

caesar and what we saw in el paso and frankly, to the shooting in charleston when barack obama was president. this increase, this rise in the white nationalist threat has been happening for a while now and we know that those who left the dhs like elizabeth newman and others have said that the people working there wanted to raise the warning signs about this during the trump administration but they were blocked, and so yes, that is an important change. it is refreshing, and just to this question about how biden is dealing with the former guy. i think that it's also important that we know and give him credit for the restraint that he has used over the last week. he really is living up to his promise about not going out of his way to divide the country. it would have been very easy for him over the past two weeks to talk about those domestic terrorists carrying donald trump flags and going into our capitol and defecating and killing a cop and trying to divide the country and basically say that, look, all trump supporters are like

these domestic terrorists. look at these domestic terrorists. you can imagine what donald trump would have done if people carrying obama flags had done something like that, and he didn't. he used restraint. he wants to earn the support and vote of people, even if they're ungettable and i think there's room for other people besides the now president to make these arguments and to challenge the right over their complicity in domestic terror but i think biden has done a good job of avoiding that and deserves credit that i don't think he's been getting. >> one place he is getting it though, basil, from the public. 62% approval rating suggests that the public has approved. the thing that's been all over the air waves for the last ten days has been the second impeachment trial of donald trump and i think that part of what tim is saying is that the public has recognized that restraint and internalized it. they've also managed to, as a

white house, rather stealthily, grown that covid relief package. >> you can understand why. almost a year since we were on full lock down in new york city when we've been afraid to hug our parents, a year where we've had to teach ourselves how to live without certain types of human intimacy. that does something to you. and one of the things that helps joe biden get elected is the promise he would lift this melancholy. you don't need to be so demonstrative to be able to do that. you do that by actually managing the bureaucracy, which is what he's doing and giving americans an opportunity to take a collective sigh, make sure the vaccine is being rolled out in an appropriate way and that folks are starting to build back

their communities little by little and that's in part why he was elected and i think he's going to get those approval numbers because he's singularly focused on that. it may not necessarily be the vision that he might have wanted to be able to implement right away. this is still sort of taking donald trump sort of off his back and removing him from public discourse, which i think is fine and certainly appropriate, even as he sort of is going back and undoing things that donald trump did. but this is exactly why americans voted for him. they wanted to get back to a sense of normalcy and good government. >> you cracked my heart up with that elegant description of what the country has endured and i don't think it's nothing that we have again a president who wants to give voice to suffering and grieving, someone whose public

story is marked by his own grief and loss and i wonder if you can just speak to, it's not filling a vacuum, it's something that the last president was either incapable of doing or simply refuse to do, but we will reach the point here in a few days or weeks where 500,000 moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas and yes, children have died in less than a year from covid. >> that's exactly right and when we still have not felt the full effect of it too. which is part of the story i've talked with you often about, my losses and we've talked about other collective loss across the country but we'll be feeling the effects of this for years to come. particularly with young people who have grown up in this environment with trauma that they may not even be able to articulate to people that they love and so we as adults have

now a stronger more important role in being a part of their lives to help them give voice to that and when you look at someone like joe biden and a kamala harris, quite frankly, they campaigned on being able to do exactly that. so, you know, the eye of the nation is on them and we're going to give them the ability to do that because as you said, the last four years, just haven't had anything like it. >> i'll give you a chance to weigh in on that but i want to read some of your colleague's reporting about how joe biden plans to sort of capitalize on decades of relationships and try to not change the republican party but change the equation in terms of being able to govern with them. he writes, the president is personally working capitol hill in a way his predecessors could not, leveraging decades old relationships and experience in congress they did not have. the approach reflects the challenges mr. biden faces in

maneuvering his priorities through an evenly split senate which is elevated the importance of working closely with its members. already, transformed the west wing into a veritable revolving door of senators. that's a change too. >> that is a change and that's really reflective of his history in the senate. i've been told that the happiest joe biden has been in the white house is when the democratic senators came for a meeting and the second was the republican senators came for a meeting and he just, this is the discourse that he's used to. this is where he feels comfortable. the question mark though is his relationships within the senate are outdated. he hasn't been a senator in a long time. the make-up of the country and who's getting elected in these states is dramatically shifted from when it was his senate and the question is, who's going to play that role working congress

for him that it can't just be him, one, because he has a lot. he needs a liaison and two, he needs someone who understands the senate of today, which isn't his senate. in terms of your other question about trump and covid, i think that his own campaign manager, brad pascal, said his ability to be empathetic and have a more empathetic response to the coronavirus is what cost him the election. it's clear from his behavior on this and everything else he was incapable of emoting the way we saw joe biden do last night, but personality-wise, i was just so struck at the town hall with the difference in interests. biden talked about feeling self-conscious at the butlers that waited on him, getting his coat. feeling a sense of history, living in the white house, he's not in this for the toys and the

perks, that he prays he can be the person to help the difficult time. a sense of history is not something that trump really cared about and a sense of enjoying the perks was really important to him. so in terms of temperament and just ability to feel pain, you couldn't have a bigger contrast between these leaders. >> i would add humility. this is just someone who is humble and i say this for you, and i feel a little, well, i don't feel bad playing it. this is the implosion of the trump property. is that a metaphor, tim? are we done? is the trump and all he ushered in, are we done? is it imploding? >> i'm just bathing in this for a second. >> i never say stuff like this, but control room, can we play it

again? is this a metaphor, are we done? i thought joe biden said it last night for a reason. this is not a white house that sort of speaks without thinking. and they're done talking about trump. the former guy. >> i think that the biden white house is and should be and i think president biden has done exactly what he promised and i think it's worked as you pointed out in the polls. the rest of us aren't done with him, and i know that's frustrating. i've heard from folks when i'm firing off tweets about trump telling me to shut up about it, just be quiet and not talk about him anymore and i understand that point of view. everyone wants to move on. i wish we could blow up all the trump buildings with nobody in them and then erase them from our memory "men in black" style but we can't. 50% for 2024. he's on fox today showing his trademark trump by talking about

rush limbaugh's death, how mad he was about the big lie and the election was stolen from him. he's not going anywhere. he's still got a strangle hold on the party which is why they let him off in the senate earlier this weekend. i hope that we can move on. and enjoying the metaphor that you're putting forward, nicolle, but sadly, about joe biden, a big job to do and some of the best of us keep an eye on what's happening in mar-a-lago. i don't think he's going anywhere. >> i appreciate your honesty on that. i see all the same things. i know viewers of this program are very eager for trump to be erased, but i think you're right because we have a president and he knows this better than anyone whose stated goal is to govern with the other party and be a president for all americans. it's still newsworthy that millions upon millions of americans heard what you just said, he's on tv talking about how the election was stolen and saying that the conservative host who died believed that too.

so this big lie does continue to make the new president's job much harder. tim miller, annie carney, basil, thank you. when we return, president biden wants most elementary schools reopened full-time five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office. but teachers, many of whom still haven't been vaccinated, will they feel comfortable going along with that plan? the debate over getting kids back in school. rooting out white supremacists and right-wing in the military. the inroads they're making in our armed forces even as the pentagon isn't clear themselves about just how big the problem really is. and it's been described as an airplane held together with duct tape as it tried to land. we'll get a behind the scenes look at the disarray that was donald trump's seven teams of lawyers last year. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere.

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said opening the majority of schools in k through 8th grade. because they're the easiest to open, most needed to be open in terms of the impact on children and families having to stay home. i think we'll be close to that at the end of the first 100 days. the goal to be five days a week. >> president biden's most detailed and direct message yet on his goal to reopen schools five days week for elementary school children before the end of april. president biden's repeated

promise to get kids back into the classroom safely which his administration officials all agree is top priority comes amid delays of distributing vaccines and criticisms of counties who aren't taking teacher vaccinations a priority. here was vice president harris on that point this morning. >> 22 states, i believe, have prioritized teachers in terms of vaccinations but -- >> is it safe for them? >> i think we have to decide if we can put in place safe measures. the states are making decisions individually about where they will be on the list of who gets vaccinated. i believe they should be a priority. the president believes they should be a priority. >> joining our conversation, randi weingarten and then msnbc contributor dr. nahid, medical director of special pathogens unit at boston medical center. randi, we haven't seen you in a while and i'm curious to know

what the state of reopening classrooms five days a week is for teachers. >> so, look, we share president biden's goal, nicolle, and you had me on and i was so grateful, so much over the summer about what it takes to do that and if you actually rewrote that and compared it to what the cdc said, it was very similar and if we had gotten, you know, that kind of guidance and the kind of resources that we had begged for in the spring and the fall, i think you'd have a very different situation going into and what's going to happen in terms of the variant but the bottom line is this. teachers understand the importance of in-school learning, they would have told you that pre-covid and they have been wanting a road map for a

safe return. i think we now have that from the cdc and i think that with the plan they're pushing, we'll have the resources for it and with that, i think you'll see us being able to accomplish joe biden's goal. i think that the issue about testing so that we see asymptomatic spread and particularly what may happen, god forbid, with the variant and the issue of vaccination making us a priority or making a priority really important, that's going to take a lot of will and it's going to have to, and that will be a political struggle in places like florida and georgia that don't want to make teachers a priority. >> i want to ask you about something my colleague heidi reported on earlier this week in the philadelphia area.

that one of the things we know about covid is that you must have adequate ventilation. it is no sort of mystery or secret that some of the most low-income school districts had the worst ventilation in schools, and it seems like as with remote learning, where you need computers and wi-fiehd hom disadvantage for low income kids. i wonder if you're looking at summer school or repeating years or what are we going to do if we ever get to the other side of this? for every step of the way, we seem to be leaving behind the most vulnerable students. >> and what's so, i'm very familiar with the situation, as you would imagine. the through line here in terms of what is open, there is actually 60% of schools are open

for some in-school learning right now and that's very much dependent in places like new york and connecticut and, you know, how many kids are there are dependent upon which parents wanted to send their kids there and physical distancing, but to your point, the through line is places that had money, places that fixed their ventilation systems were more readily opened than places that did not. and the situation heidi is reporting was completely accurate. i thought it was a saturday night live skit when i first saw the plywood and the superintendent thinking that would be satisfactory. so i think we'll get to a place in the next couple of weeks, you need to have good ventilation for kids particularly in the middle of a covid respiratory virus, but to your other point, we have proposed the summer as a

second second semester. yes, on a voluntary basis and we know that parents who have wanted to send their kids to camp, you know, kids need to be outside. kids also need not to be isolated and well being of kids are really important. so why not plan a second second semester of enrichment of joy, take kids outside. get kids in community and that's part of what is in joe biden's rescue plan. there's about $40 billion in there for what we need to do to address the effects of covid, and then we're going to have to use all of next year to really address the deep effects, the emotional, the social, the academic because we have to help kids get their mojo. we have to help them get their mojo back and we have to understand that we've all been through this terrible pandemic as well as democracy crisis as

well as other crises but we've got to come together. the last thing i'll say, we just did a poll with our members. they turned on a dime to help kids. they understand how important it is for learning and 85% of them said if we can get the mitigation strategies that cdc said plus vaccine prioriization and testing like every industry does to see asymptomatic spread, 85% of them said they'd be comfortable being back in school and doing in-person learning. >> doctor, one of the variables to this plan that it sounds like the teachers are 85% on board. if the safety measures can be put in place and the vaccine prioritization is made in every state, not just 22, but one of the variables i'm curious about is the impact that the uk variant has had on their decision to shut down all schools for a spell.

and the other variants and their ability to sort of reach in to the younger populations where the first year of covid really didn't seem to do that. >> all three of the variants are concerned right now. all of them have been shown to be more transmissible and what we know with more data this week is that part of the reason it's transmissible is because people who are infected with these variants tend to have the virus longer in their airways, more likely to pass it on to others. and so randi's points about all the mitigation measures including ventilation become so much more important as our decrowding the classrooms and ensuring mass compliance of the mitigation measures in there. all of those things become important. i also do agree that, you know, i think sometimes when people who look at the picture from the outside, they sort of see, this is a parent versus teacher argument and i don't think it

is. as randi pointed out, how do w make this a safer environment for our teachers and to get our students into school as soon as possible? i find that the vaccine bit is going to be difficult. the next couple of months because we have some upper limits in how much moderna and pfizer have, the johnson & johnson approval. so there's the fda meeting next week with a couple million more vaccine doses but the limit is going to be there and one way i think we could move forward is to find medically high risk teachers in particular up front as soon as possible in every single state and get those folks vaccinated because in most states, they have 65 and multiple co-morbidities. that should be our goal to prioritize teachers in every state as more doses come in so that they can get back to the classroom. >> such an important

conversation and i'm grateful to both of you for joining us today. randi weingarten and nahid. when we return, the troubling spread of white supremacists and far-right extremists in america's military. what the pentagon is doing about it. that reporting is next. is doingt it that reporngti is next repair your enamel with pronamel repair. our most advanced formula helps you brush in vital minerals to actively repair and strengthen enamel. so you don't just brush to clean, you brush to build. pronamel intensive enamel repair. >> man: what's my safelite story? my truck...is my livelihood. so when my windshield cracked... the experts at safelite autoglass came right to me... with service i could trust. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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america's role on the world stage, they also need to deal with this. the growing threat inside the military ranks with the pentagon ordering a pause for each branch to reassess on how to deal with the threat of right-wing extremism. reporting from roll call shows the inroads white supremacist and other extremist groups made in the military and it may be deeper than previously thought. joining our conversation, msnbc military analyst and retired four star general, mccaffrey and then a retired colonel in the army reserves. congressman, i start with you. i'm always startled when i see this reporting. general mccaffrey reminds me it's a sliver but because of the importance our military plays, not just here but around the world, it seems like something they're correct to be on top of. have you had conversations with the new defense secretary and what do you understand to be the

approach? >> yeah, first of all, nicolle, thanks for having me on and covering this important issue. and yes, i've had a conversation with secretary austin prior to his confirmation. i've had conversations with almost all of the service chiefs and in every one of those conversations, we talked about the rise of white supremacy and the ranks. and while it may be a sliver, it's a very dangerous element. it's dangerous not only for our military, for unit cohesion and readiness and morale but as we saw on january 6th, during that insurrection at the capitol where one in five of the people who were arrested are either current or former members of the military, that is a dangerous sliver that is growing in the military. we've known this for a while. the red flags have been there. i've introduced a number of measures in congress to try to get after the problem.

we've got a lot of work to do. >> congressman, we know that the militia groups now known to have been involved, the oath keepers, the proud boys, the centers now known to participate in the insurrection, we know they recruit heavily from former military. let me read you a little bit of this reporting from roll call in case people can't fathom what it might look like. a soldier in the florida national guard who co-founded a murderous fascist group was chatting with the fellow white supremacist in the extreme iron forum. the guard member said he felt free to be a neo-nazi in the u.s. army. are you worried at all about being found by your mates or someone, now being in the u.s.? to that, the soldier replied, quote, i was 100% open about everything with the friends i made at training. they know all about it. they love me too because i'm a funny guy. now, not to incriminate any of

this white supremacist friends, but clearly, what he reported out is damaging in and of itself, congressman. >> i think that's why it's really important that secretary austin ordered the standdown over the course of the next 60 days. that's not a measure, and i'm sure general mccaffrey would agree is taken lightly or frequently. you often see standdowns when you have major problems like series of criminal behavior or accidents that usually lead to death in the ranks. so secretary austin saying, hey, stand down, i want commanders involved. we've got to talk about values. we've got to remind one another about the oath we've taken and why we're here and talk about what kind of behavior and affiliations are unacceptable. i think it's an important next step, but it's certainly not in and of itself going to root out extremist behavior in the

military. the d.o.d. is accessing the white house database. there needs to be better and much more thorough screening when we recruit and enlist people into the military and that's true for officers as well during the commissioning process and there has to be annual or regular monitoring and reengaging of soldiers, airplane and marines, on these issues if we're really going to get after the problem. >> general mccaffrey, i want to read you some of nbc's reporting on what the pause is intended to do. the order designed to make it clear that white supremacy has no place in the armed forces and to hear from troops how they view the problem. quote, we don't know how we're going to be able to get after this in a meaningful, productive tangible way and that's why we had this meeting today and that's why we ordered this standdown. very transparent about being at

the beginning of the process that congressman describes but very clear, they're taking it seriously. i wonder how feasible it is, in your view, to do all this additional bidding and how do you maintain morale while rooting out this unsustainable and dangerous and unacceptable strain? >> i think the congressman brought it together pretty well. he's got a lot of experience in the armed forces. i think he hit it on the money. a couple million people in active guard reserve and to some extent, reflects larger society. so bizarre political nazi kkk beliefs, if we missed them in screening, do end up in the armed forces. mostly, platoon sergeant, what goes on around here but we need surveillance of the force and law enforcement also, i might

add, people with guns and badges and authority need to be under the supervision of the law and so i think the pause, secretary austin put out, is extremely ethical and a lot of it, the congressman said, it's not just saying hate speech is outlawed. we know that. or racist behavior, but also to talk about army values and that's where we'll be the majority of this, but the other thing, nicolle, timothy mcvay, one of the biggest was on nobody's radar. we've got to challenge with our own troops to watch self-radicalization and we're not surveilling their social media. if someone comes to the armed forces and said, hey, this kid is expressing beliefs we think are dangerous, then they'll look

into it. so i think we've got some work to do but i think the american people still have an enormous sense of trust and pride and confidence that if you're going to parachute in the 82nd, you're not going to hear the chain of command or any unit a general statement, nazi beliefs or white supremacists. >> i want to ask you one other story while i have you, general mccaffrey, reporting last fall, the most senior leaders agreed that two top generals should be promoted to elite four star commands that the defense secretary, the chairman of the joint chiefs, tricky part both of the accomplished officers were women. in 2020 america under president trump, feared any candidates other than white men were jobs, mostly held by white men, might run into turmoil once their nominations got to the white house. it's another stain on what people were held back from doing based on their fears about the president's reactions but i want

to hear your thoughts on that, general mccaffrey. >> mark millie, pretty tough man. i can't imagine he would shrink back in doing the right thing ever. women are clearly an essential part of the force. 60 or some odd women, flying fa-18s. women are an essential part of the force. we could not fight without them. so given that, we should see them represented to senior leadership ranks in some measure and probably inadequate now. as a general statement, there's a bias among the three and four stars for those who commanded at operational level, but i think now though, we're seeing a lot more women successfully commanding at operational level and we ought to see an up tic and that will be good for the force. >> a privilege to talk to both of you.

general barry mccaffrey and anthony brown, thank you so much for spending time with us. when we return, just about everything around donald trump was dysfunctional and chaotic and now we know his impeachment defense team, his seventh legal team, was no different. that story's next. s no different that story's next. ers like mart. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪

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♪♪ for every trip you've been dreaming of, expedia has millions of flexible booking options. because the best trip is wherever we go together. the lawyers donald trump assembled to form his seventh legal team and represent him in the second impeachment trial may have won their case ultimately but a recent "new york times" team describes the egos of the lawyers who hardly knew each other and met days before the start of the trial. the times comparing their experience to, quote, an airplane held together with duct tape as it tried to land. joining us now, the reporters whose byline is on the piece of reporting, correspondent and msnbc national security

contributor. aside of being a who's on first kind of skit, what becomes clear is donald trump only cared about what they sounded and looked like on television. >> yeah, i mean, it took some time for this legal team to get to the place that trump place t trump wanted, but he essentially wanted the fox news commentatoresque presentation. now some of the arguments that were made, some that were made by the layer schoen were legal arguments about constitutionality and such, but other arguments that were made by vanderveen and castor were much more along the lines of what the president wanted to hear. a lot of what aboutism. a lot of look at what the other side did. this isn't so bad, basically doing donald trump-style lawyering that would impact public opinion, that would be the kind of things that his base

would want to hear. and as we churned the story, there were some fits and starts to getting to that place, but eventually they were there. >> you buys write about one of the stumbling blocks is that it was all scripted by political actors. how do you find people, and i guess this is how you end up with a personal injury lawyer defending you in the well of the senate. but how do you find people that will read jason miller's talking points? >> well, i think to understand the problems with the legal team, you have to understand how far trump's problems with lawyers go back, and why he got here. so as early as may of 2017, lawyers from high-end firms did not want to go and represent the president. they were frayed that he wasn't going to pay his bills, they were afraid from the political backlash from it. that problem never got better for the president. even though he goes through seven legal teams in between, and along the way has some pretty decent lawyers, it's

still the same problem that he had coming into impeachment, but as he came into impeachment, the second impeachment, he was far more toxic than he had ever been. and to build a legal team around that, to find someone to represent the president meant taking a lawyer from here and a lawyer from there and putting them together. and it was unclear who was going to be in charge, who was going to take the lead. as we read about in the story, there was a plan for one of the lawyers to start off on the first day, but another one went, castor went, and he gave his much widely panned performance. and it was those types of dynamics that in many ways are not surprising. they're just microcomes of sort of problems that trump aides have had in the white house when he was there and before. >> and were any -- it sounds like some of them are uncomfortable with the videos that were played. the videos were clearly made to go direct to fox news and newsmax. what were those concerns? >> well, the videos were not as

much about the legal argument as they were about the what aboutism. it was about taking the argument and saying look at what the other side does. look at what they have said. and, look, impeachment is an animal on to itself. it's a very different type of thing. the senators can use basically whatever rationale they want to make a call, and this playing the videos allowed for the president to get his message out. >> i guess from the other side of the ideological and reality spectrum, in their view, he got off. mike schmidt, thank you for sharing your reporting with us. when we come back, as we do every day, we will remember lives well lived. all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices?

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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. hi, ari. >> hi, nicolle. thank you so much and welcome to "the beat." i am ari melber. we begin tonight with president biden and vice president harris making a push for their first big coordinated effort to rally americans around what they say is the first piece of business of their new administration, getting behind the $2 trillion covid relief plan. biden and harris were out at it today, biden fresh off that big town hall in wisconsin last night. harris on the "today" show this morning and late today meeting with union leaders at the white house. what did you learn from americans last night about what they want in this plan? >> i learned based on the polling data, they want everything that is in the plan. not a joke. everything that's in the plan. i asked a rhetorical question, those who o