thank you! water tastes like, water. so we fixed it. mio

. good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." we have breaking news to share. new outrage over the weather crisis in texas as president biden declared it a major disaster. just moments ago the white house saying the president is meeting with national security advisers today and monitoring the impact of the storms. meanwhile, the historic stretch of freezing temperatures, record snow and ice is finally ending but 15 million texans have water problems across the state. tens of thousands still without power. and demanding answers from texas governor abbott. marc veasey responded last hour

to the governor blaming green energy for the failure. >> i was shocked the governor of texas would actually go on national tv and make that sort of a statement with absolutely no proof at all. he was like trying to play partisan politics and feed the base. for him to say that was just crazy. we need to look at how we're going to winterize all of these platforms. >> meanwhile new york congresswoman alexandria oscasio-cortez visiting texas today. many she's volunteering at a houston food bank after helping to raise more than $3 million for relief assistance. this as republican senator from texas ted cruz faces growing backlash for leaving his home state and flying to cancun while texans were dealing with this crisis. he returned to texas and later apologized after images of his trip like this one went viral. now reporting from the hill, strategists say the texas senator may have done damage to his political career that could

haunt him well into 2024. at the white house, president biden is marking one full month since first taking office. the president urging republicans for their support as democrats on the hill unveiled the full $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. and it includes increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, $1,400 direct checks, extending federal unemployment benefits and more money for struggling small businesses. last hour a member of the white house council's economic advisers stressed the importance of getting this relief out. >> this needs to reach folks that need it, and so we think about the essential workers out there. you think about the nurse or kindergarten teacher or the police officer who's struggling in this time of need where they've been out there helping the american people, we need to make sure those folks get the benefits they need to support their families. >> and new developments in the investigation surrounding the january 6th attack on the capitol. six more people linked to the

far right oath keepers group charged in the riot. this as six capitol hill officers have been suspended with pay and 29 others are under investigation for their actions during the deadly siege. we're going to go right now to marianna sotomayor on capitol hill. i know we've seen videos of heroism on the part of the capitol police during the insurrection. what more are we learning about the ones who may not have acted as honorably? >> alex, you know, when you talk about heroism or i think anyone talks about heroism on january 6th, many people think of officer eugene goodman as well as many others who were that first line of defense here but that's not the full picture for many of his colleagues in the force. it's worth noting like you did, six officers were put on suspension. 29 continue to be under investigation, bringing the total to 35 officers. and it's worth noting congressman tim ryan of ohio, he actually sits on a committee that oversees the capitol police

and he says of the six that were suspended, one of them was seen taking selfies with these rioters. another one was seen wearing a make america great again hat as well as pointing these insurrectionists in the right direction to get to wherever they wanted to go in the capitol. and that's actually now a defense, that many of these riots who have since been arrested are saying, there's this new report out that says 29 of these accused rioters are actually defending themselves by noting the fact that they just thought they could walk into the capitol or that they were even escorted. one of them said, quote, escorted through the capitol by capitol police officers. so that was just a number of the questions that continue to come up. now it's turning to next week, and many of the hill members who were here and targets, they will be continuing their own investigation. the senate on tuesday is holding a hearing on the security

failures that happened here january 6th. they will actually bring forward the former capitol police officer chief as well as former house and senate sergeant at arms, all people responsible for the security on that day. thursday, we will see the house do its own hear egg on the same subject, bringing forth the current capitol police chief as well as acting house sergeant in arms. the that, of course, just a little bit of what's happening. not to mention the fact speaker nancy pelosi, she's going to be introducing the legislation to fund this 9/11-style independent commission to really get to the bottom of what exactly happened on january 6th. and the security measures that now will be needed to prevent anything like this ever happening again. >> marianna sotomayor, thank you very much. and joining me now congresswoman madeleine dean, member of the house judiciary and financial services committees. welcome to you, my friend.

as we learn of these new arrests and you're hearing the reporting and abc news has reported a growing number of rioters charged in the attack are now employing a new defense, blaming the police for letting them in. the question to you, in all of the video that you viewed as a house impeachment manager, is this a legitimate defense? >> i will leave that for others to decide, but i will tell you that the evidence is overwhelming that this was a mob, a group of insurrectionists who literally used our own flag, our american flag, to break windows, to beat police officers, to storm the chambers. i don't think that defense will fly. >> okay. let's talk about what house speaker nancy pelosi is doing. this week outlining the steps to try to create a 9/11-stein commission to investigate the capitol hill riot. here's part of our rational for

doing so. >> it's really strong support in the country for us to seek the truth, find the truth, but also understand how we have to protect the american people from what might be out there in terms of domestic terrorism. >> do you agree with this? do you have an idea what this commission should look like? >> i'm delighted she will be introducing that legislation and the resources to fund an independent commission. it should be a fully independent commission. it should not be elected. it should not be victims. folks like me, who were literally in the chamber, although i'm happy to come forward and tell anything i know, but it should be a fully independent commission. we've done it in the past. there couldn't be a more important thing to study. for the first time in more than 200 years the seat of our government, a coequal branch, was attacked by americans. americans attacking americans, doing destruction, killing people, maiming people.

and it was all incited by the president of the united states. so it will be vitally important for all of history, for our future, to know exactly what took place. i support the independent commission. it should have, you know, well regarded retired judges and other experts. >> but you mentioned the past and i'm curious in this present political climate, do you think it's possible to have a nonpartisan commission and a report therein on the capitol riot? i reminded viewers the 9/11 commission, it did get bipartisan acceptance. all of the proposed reforms were indeed signed into law. is it possible to have a bodily accepted bipartisan consensus when it comes to the facts of this case? >> i really believe that is possible. and crucially important. we have to drain this of partisanship. it's not parson when a coequal

branch is tacked, including the vice president, by an incitement by the president. that is an attack on our republic. i hope it never, ever, ever comes close to happening again. but it is possible. i know there are many more people of goodwill and wisdom want to learn from this so we never repeat it. >> thank you very much. now we go to washington where president biden is marking one month since taking office. his covid relief bill is set to take center stage on capitol hill. monica, house democrats are preparing to push this bill forward. how is it being received by republicans? >> republicans have really said they don't have much of an appetite for how large this bill is, the $1.9 trillion price tag to them is something they don't want to get behind. we know joe biden campaigned on

wanting to get bipartisan support for things like this but also he prioritized the coronavirus above all else and said he's ready to get this across the finish line, even if republicans won't come on board and support it. as we saw the detrails from house democrats last night, this nearly 600-page bill, they're going to really highlight some of the things he's been talking about including $1,400 stimulus check, extending unemployment check, continuing help for small businesses. and we heard from somebody you interviewed, alex, heather boucher, an economic adviser who spoke specifically to the urgency of now and why they want to get this across the finish line and particularly before the up employment benefits run out in just a couple of weeks. >> we can really help those folks if we get this american rescue plan passed and those benefits going out to the millions of american families. that is really the urgency of this package here, economists

have estimated if we don't act now, it can take up to four years to get back to unemployment rates that we had before the pandemic. where if this plan goes into effect as it was outlined, it would be just a year we could get back to the unemployment rates. that's a real difference. >> this isn't the only thing the white house is hoping to accelerate on capitol hill now. president biden only has seven people confirmed as part of his cabinet or cabinet level officials are hoping to get more of those done in the coming weeks but somebody who her nomination is up in the air is neera tanden, who was going to be up for omb director but because senator manchin came out and surprised some people he will oppose her nomination, that seems to be in peril. the white house said they don't plan to pull her nomination now and support her and are hopeful to find votes elsewhere but that

would have to mean, alex, they get republicans to support her and at no point republicans have not come out and said this will he do so. so that could derail her appointment at this point. >> thank you very much, monica, for that. as the coronavirus relief bill is going to the house for support next week, can they be won over by biden extending his hand? >> i certainly hope so. let's remember where we are. we are one year into this pandemic. nearly 500,000 people have died of the pandemic. fortunately, vaccines are on their way. you're opening comments about review of the crisis in texas reminded me of the political divide. you reviewed and contrasted those who would lie about what happened there, those who would leave behind such as senator cruz, those who would blame

others, such as the governor, versus the democrats. what are they doing? they're apprising the truth, bringing resources and lending a hand. i hope public servants, including republicans as we get to this bill, recognize it is our job to lend a hand, bring the resources and to tell the truth. >> congresswoman, we're going to change gears here in the show. i'm going to let all of my viewers know i'm about to call you madelyne because the role you're about to play on this show is a mother who adores her son that we see on the other side of the screen here and has worked through a very difficult time. we're going to bring in harry kanaan. harry, welcome. i'm glad you're here with your mom. the two of you released a new book together this week called "under our roof: a son's battle for recovery, a mother's battle for her son." and i told you during the commercial break this was really painful for me to read but it was very illuminating because you wrote this from your

perspective in realtime, while you, harry, were writing from your perspective in realtime. it was agonizing reading to the run-up of the phone call, mad lien, that you received from harry after he was held up at gunpoint, you were searching for clues to his addiction, rationalizing his behavior. harry, had i not known the outcome, that we booked you to come talk on this show, i would expect reading your narrative there you would be shot by the man who held a gun to your head while searching your house and roommate for drugs and money. to mom first here, what did you learn about being the mother of a child addicted to drugs, even though he is a young man, what did you learn about that? >> i learned a lot in our struggle to find out what was going on and what was going wrong with harry. environment and i battling for years, he trying to hide and manipulate the truth of him

slipping into serious and potentially deadly, obviously, addiction. and me stumbling and trying to figure it out and drug testing him. in the writing of the book, i learned even more. i have to admit to you, we wrote the books separately and then dovetailed through the editor and help the others our stories. we didn't want to confuse what my memory was for his. so i'm pretty sure he will tell you he learned things about me but i learned so much about him. i knew he was in grave danger. i had no idea the danger he was in. >> harry, when you look back at your addiction to drug use and journey back to sobriety, which you have been, is it eight years? in which case i would love to give you an eight-minute standing ovation, but how did writing this book bring you clarity? did you find answers as to how and why drugs took over your life for a while and do you think your story can be helpful to others or does an addict have to hit rock bottom before deciding to climb out of their pit of despair? >> so i think for me, our hope

really is that this story can help someone. we wanted to highlight what happened in our family's experience and highlight this is a disease, that substance use disorder is a disease and treatable and recovery is possible. the idea of rock bottom is in some ways a dangerous one. you may never know when someone's rock bottom is. and from what i've seen, there can always be a basement below what looks like a rock bottom. so we want to try to make sure people know to reach out and help is available. there are treatment options that are available. >> yeah, and what did you spend, four months, harry, in rehab and absolutely turned your life around? >> i did. >>well kudos to you. another thing that the two of you did as a team, you released another book this week, which you have co-written, that's called "you are always loved: a story of hope." i'm curious who you're targeting in this book and why. many madeleine, you first and

then harry. >> we are delighted to be asked to write a children's book in collaboration with a beautiful illustrator, editor, writer and even composer. it's been set to music by paul williams. we were hoping to reach, one of the inspirations, frankly, is harry's daughter, my grand daughter aubrey, who is now 9. we wanted to figure out how do you talk to children about this? if their family is facing a struggle with someone who is addicted, who is dealing with substance abuse disorder or who is in recovery and all of the sacrifices that takes, we wanted to believe able to speak to children about it. i know from my own experience that children internalize fears and think somehow it's on them, something is wrong within them or they cause the difficulty. so the point was -- and we literally talked it over with the editor and said we just want to ensure children that they know they're always loved, no matter what the turmoil or storm might be around them. >> yeah. harry, you were writing this then, it sounds like, with

aubrey in mind. it has to be incredibly meaning for for you to get this book out. >> it really is. the book "you're always loved" between aubrey who's 9 now and i have a 1-year-old son sawyer, to learn how to have those conversations with them. i think a big part of both of these books is how can we do something to help end the stigma? a big part of ending the stigma is having conversations at home. this is an issue that impacts families all across the country and across the world and we need to change the way we think talk about it at home and in our communities. >> listen, it is a conversation we can go on quite a while to discuss and i hope you have plenty of opportunities to do that on your book tour. well done. madeleine, i appreciate it. >> alex, thank you for having us. and thank you for calling me madeleine. >> i was telling you,

congresswoman, it's just my thing but madeleine is fun too. the power is coming back on but the nightmare is not over in texas. residents have several hurdles to overcome. those details are next. this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks.

to me it's all about feeling what the piece of wood in front of me is meant to be. creating a functional piece that is also beautiful.

i know there are others and i want them to find me. i'm mats and i put myself out there with godaddy. breaking news in the deadly winter storm that ravaged much of the south. right now millions are under boil water advisories across texas and almost 80,000 still without power. major outens are also reported across louisiana and mississippi. the president announced a major disaster declaration just this morning for texas, freeing up federal money and resources. today the human impact of the storm is growing. at least 44 people died across the southeast, many in car accidents or by exposure to the cold. with help in osu earlier, congresswoman alexandria oscasio-cortez and silvio garcia volunteered at a food bank. the two saying they will be in crisis for days.

they raised $3.2 million to benefit five organizations. let's go to antonia hilton in houston. welcome. i'm curious what the residents are telling you there now. how rough is it for them? >> alex, it's been a long and emotional week for those in houston. they are finding they now have no matter coming through their facets at all. yesterday i was at delmar stadium watching a massive water distribution effort unfold and today new life church, where we are seeing the same operation essentially. the people started lining up at 5:30 a.m., which i think gives you a sense of the level of need. people here are receiving two cases of water each. as i have spoken to residents, they tell me this is the first time they found fresh, drinkable water in days. the i want you to hear from some of the people that i met. take a listen to this. the.

>> the water pressure is not good. we have to fill the bathtub to flush the toilettes. i have 1 1/2 cases of water left. >> five days already without water. aude day five, day five. >> we've been out since sunday and for ted cruz to be on a cruise, that's really bad. i mean, they got to do something for us. we're struggling in the pandemic, and he's taking a vacation. >> alex, i think you can hear in their voices how weary and angry they are. and we've seen people come out this week, mostly communities of color, black communities houstonians and many of folks

from low income communities. this hasn't just been a heldish week but challenging year. these are the same neighborhoods that were disproportionately impacted by covid and now they're facing an additional strain through this winter storm and many are saying they worry as things go back to normal, they will see the last to see their lives return to something close to normal and last to see their resources restored. >> i have to tell you, it is heartbreaking. i can hear the fatigue in their voice. sounds like some were dehydrated for obvious reasons. just the basics, not having access to it. and we're going to talk about it now with the mayor of san antonio, texas, joining me no now. mayor, thank you for joining me. how long until the whole situation in texas gets back to normal? >> thank you, alex. the story in san antonio is very

similar to what you see playing out in the rest of the state. the sun is actually shining but it is revealing what we experienced over the past week. we are getting power restored. we have less than 200 that are out at this point. but the next shoe to drop is the fact as water gets turned back on, and we're having some success with that, although the entire state is under a boil water notice, as water gets turned back on and pressure starts to increase, we're going to see a catastrophic number of line breaks, both in terms of the water system infrastructure as well as inside people's homes. we're seeking relief from the federal government, from the state and we're making sure that the people who have been suffering throughout this pandemic and also in this winter event aren't also saddled with the undo costs and burden of having to fix this infrastructure. >> i have to tell you, it's got to be frightening of facing the certainty you're going to get

pipes bursting all over the place. you know it's coming. so in terms of the white house, i know you were in touch with the white house. did you speak with the president? can you tell me what was said in your phone call with the white house? and your reaction to the president declaring texas a major disaster area. >> we are certainly grateful for that. in fact, i worked to ensure with our other mayors that we're making a request for our individual residents, our individual folks in our communities who have been suffering and are going to see a lot of these breaks and leaks in their own homes that are going to need to be fixed and we asked for assistance there. i'm very grateful to learn that the biden administration did approve individual assistance for our area, for those kinds of oivs. so we're going to be working to establish funds to make sure that those costs aren't on the back of our local community. we have seen good cooperation from the white house in the last month or so as we've gotten

through various parts of the pandemic and now in this winter event, we need folks to move quickly though. we'll work with anybody who wants to help our community. >> mayor, you heard that houston resident in the last report joining the backlash against senator ted cruz, taking that trip to cancun. i'm curious, sir, your reaction to that. you're seeing firsthand your constituents in crisis mode, they're freezing, boiling snow for water, hungry, scared. this is the leader of your state is jetting off to the cancun ritz-carlton. what do you say to that? >> i think his actions speak for themselves. i, like millions of other texans, was in my home when the weather hit in the middle of the night, our power went off. for a good part of the week, we were shivering and without reliable power to cook food or anything else. so at this point, we need to get folks back on their feet.

there will be hell to pay, but, first, we have to get our residents out of the hell they're experiencing right now. >> amen to that. that certainly is your focus. the mayor of san antonio focus, mayor nuremberg. good luck to you. we will keep a vigil on what's happening there in your city of san antonio. good luck. the battle of students back in the classroom took on an unexpected turn during a zoom meeting of one school board. what happened in a matter of minutes forced them all to resign. we will talk to ari duncan about that and when kids can get back to in-person learning. on learni.

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>> are we alone? >> yeah. >> [ bleep ]. if you're going to call me out, i'm going to plp blp you up. >> it's really unfortunate, they want -- they want their babysitters back. >> yeah, not. joining me is arne duncan, former secretary of education for the obama administration. that was pretty stunning. what was your reaction of that conversation in oakley, california? and other conversations like it sent he centered on reopening schools. not that tenor and the laughing obnoxious. >> that was intolerable and thankfully they all resigned. we have 15,000 school boards around the country. we have idiots who shouldn't be serving. they shouldn't be serving. they're out. the vast majority of school boards, teachers, parents, we are trying to work this together in a very hard and complicated situation and many, many are

doing great jobs, despite all of the challenges. >> look, many teachers' unions have certainly spoken out against reopening. there are school boards facing lawsuits to get the kids back in the classrooms. what do you make of this battle between teachers' unions and the schools themselves? how do you reconcile the needs from both sides? how do you start? >> yeah, i truly don't see it as a battle. i see it as a complicated, complex issue. people have legitimate questions and concerns on all sides of it. fy if i talk to superintendents around the country, midwest, west coast, the vast majority ever school districts are going back to school safely and carefully. they're starting with the children of special needs, most vulnerable. all of the guidance out of the cdc has been very, very ken encouraging and demonstrates what i know anecdotally, you can

open safely. we are absolutely trying to get our teachers vaccinated as quickly as we can. we don't have to have them vaccinated to go back to school, they can happen concurrently. so figure out how to reopen, and the bigger issue not just opening, what what do we do this summer? we have to do things dramatically different this summer to take care of our kids. >> that's a good point. it's all evolving as information and statistics and where things stand in covid develop. the biden administration said last week students who return to classrooms just one day a week, that would constitute reopening. and then when asked about it during the town hall on tuesday, president biden changed his messaging. take a listen. many. >> your administration had set a goal to open the majority of schools in the first 100 days. you're now saying that means those schools may only be open for at least one day a week. >> no, that's not true. that's what was reported but that's not true. it was a mistake in

communication. >> when do you think that would be k through 8, five days a week? >> i think we will be close to that at the end of the first 100 days. >> is biden's plan feasible? at the end of 100 days, they would be close to five-day-a-week schooling? >> i think that's the goal. whether that's freezable feasible everywhere, we don't know that and what we're doing in communities to reduce the numbers. luckily, they are going down. and i'm trying to get schools opened in the first 100 days. for me, it's not just the academic piece, but i'm also worried about emotional needs being out for more than a year. i want kids to get back to extracurriculars they love, robotics and sports and the arts. there's so much at stake academically and socially and emotionally and our families. nobody up wants to be home, kids, teachers.

let's learn together. and that's what i'm seeing in most districts across the country. >> let me drill down on what you were saying about the effect on all of this on the kids. there's an nbc news challenge success study that examined how virtual learning impacted the mental state of students showing remote students experience things like exhaustions, headaches, insomnia, than students in the class room. what's your reaction to that? >> honestly, alex, i think the story is much more devastating than that. we truly don't know the impact on our nation's children, 52 million children, of being in a year and being isolated from their friends. none of us as adults, thankfully, ever experienced something like that. other stories are much tougher. you can see in las vegas a heartbreaking situation where schools had to reopen not because of headaches and insomnia, but so many students were committing suicide.

the mental health relationship is stunning. we have to work through the trauma and families made a living and pair paychecks disappeared during the pandemic and everything is turned on its head. we have to be very, very careful. we have to listen to kids. we have to meet them where they were and give them a reason to be excited about coming back to school and do this together. the final thing, i don't want us to go back to school in the fall where students are six months, is nine months, 12 months behind. we're setting them up for fail ur. we basically have a six, seven-month window now. we need a national tutoring initiative to help tens of millions of kids catch up and be create uv how we use our time this summer. kids not returning to school and have a summer break doesn't make sense. let's help them academically, be kid, hang around their friends and have fun, get them back engaged in extracurriculars. let's let them meet all of their needs, academic, social and

emotional. >> i have to think your proposal will come as a welcome one for a lot of kids. lits hope we get things back up to speed for kids as they should be. thank you very much. we look forward to speaking with you again. and later today transportation secretary pete buttigieg is joining al sharnton, talking about his role in the transportation secretary's office today at 5:00 on msnbc. presidential freakout. new documentary on you know who revealing some meltdowns you might not have remembered. we're going to show you. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa ♪ ♪ the chevy silverado trail boss. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. when you have a two-inch lift.

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a new bbc documentary may have pinpointed the exact moment vladimir putin became a sore topic for donald trump. it happened as early as one week after his 2017 inauguration during a visit from then british prime minister teresa may. take a listen. >> she asked him, have you spoken with putin? and the president said he had not. but at that point, the chief of staff spoke up and said, mr. president, actually, president putin has called you but we're busy scheduling a return call. >> trump at this point, mixed with orange and red, he flipped furious. he said, "you're telling me that vladimir putin called the white house and you're only telling me

now during this lunch?" >> the president dropped his shoulders for a moment and looked at the prime minister and said, i don't believe this. vladimir putin is the only man in the world who can destroy the united states, and i didn't take his call. >> joining me now, award winning producer norma pierce why i and director tim sister zeker and their documentary is called "trump takes on the world." it looks great, guys. in fact, it's kind of fascinating, norma. you witness trump's acting secretary of state, teresa may's chuck schumer corroborating this account of him kind of flipping out over putin. did you get the sense that trump feared putin in some way? >> feared, admired. he certainly loomed large in his thinking as the series shows. >> did you ever find out why the staff didn't put trump on the phone when putin called that

first time? >> they were so new. they didn't come out of conventional politics at all. in fact, only one person in the original team with trump that he began with had actually been in the white house, in the oval office before, so they were kind of making it up as they went along. they scrambled very hard to fix it. but they soon learned putin was a man trump took very seriously indeed. >> i know, in fact for sure. tim, when we reflect on trump foreign policy, we think about the way that he swung from fire and fury and then was saying he got love letters from kim jong-un and the way he was the butt of mockery from justin trudeau in canada and other leaders and then a moment where you push the leader of montenegro out of the way during a photo-op. was it a challenge to him to make a serious documentary when

so much of this can be seen as caricature, some comical in a really bad way? >> people remember trump as he plays to the media a lot. there is seriously, he -- he always is trying to be front and center, as that clip at the end of the nato summit pushing his way to the front shows. but i think for all of that there is a serious underlying point he was shaking up international politics and people remember these moments, as, yet, entertaining but also quite terrifying and i think that's what we're trying to get across in the documentary. on the one hand moments where you can laugh a little bit but serious moments where nato is in danger of breaking up at one point. >> yeah, totally. i want to play with you, norma, a clip with the former australian prime minister about his interaction with trump at

the summit. >> he said malcolm, do you want to see my skiff, it is so cool? and i had no idea what he was talking about. i thought he was talking about a boat. and we turned around the corner and there was this big steel box, about the size of a shipping container. and he said this is so cool. he said when you're in there, nobody can hear you, not even the chinese, it's so secret. >> trump pulled turnbull into the ultra secure communications hub, with the new french president emmanuel macron in toe. >> norma, i'm curious your assessment of how other world leaders viewed donald trump, were they amused or to tim's point, were they concerned? >> they were certainly concerned. this guy didn't play by the rules they had been used to playing for quite some time, but these are the moments we start to get, we had no idea about that story until malcolm

turnbull told us about it. it's the moments you weren't expecting. here was the prime minister of australia trying to get a moment alone with trump to raise a serious point about tariffs and all he wants to do is show off his new toy, which is a very secure facility. and worse for the poor australian prime minister, he thought he had him alone but suddenly the president of france, and i think a few other prime ministers as well, were tagging along getting into his facetime with the american president. and that's what we tried to show always, what it's like inside the room when these really important people who you think of as serious leaders are actually doing their business. and it's as chaotic as anybody else. >> yeah. there's a couple more revelations i want to get to from trump's inner circle. let's take a listen to that, everyone. >> i was on the way from my hotel to our ambassador to

belgium's residence, where the president was staying. he called me on the car phone and said, are you ready for something big? i think we should withdraw from nato this morning. >> steam was coming out of his ears. he was angry, upset. he sits down at his desk, pulls out the newspapers and said did you see this and he's showing the pictures of women and children gassed. he said, "i want to take him out." in other words, he wanted to asocial security nate the syrian president assad. >> you know, to continue with that, tim, when bob woodward's book first reported trump's order to assassinate assad, trump said no, that's fiction. eventually he admitted that happened last year. were you surprised by the number of trump officials who went on the record for this? >> well, there were a lot of problems with dealing with the trump white house and administration but there were enough people who had left, like katey mcfarland, like john

bolton, who you see there, who had these stories they wanted to tell and trump left such an impression on everybody, particularly those who worked with him, that, no, i don't think we were surprised by everyone who wanted to come forward. it was hard work getting them but we managed to -- i think wh wanted to talk to us. but we also got some people who are still in the white house to talk to the documentary. larry kudlow, robert lighthizer, some people who were with trump in the end were part of the documentary as well, so it wasn't just those people who had left and had a story to tell. >> can i ask you real quickly, those loyalists, those last ones you mentioned, tim, were they favorable in their assessment of donald trump? were they honest with you, favorable to him, unfavorable? >> i mean, we try not to get people to judge in this documentary. you know, we're simply asking people -- >> it's a documentary. >> -- what happened at these moments. they were definitely, you know, they wanted to get across the point that president trump's policies weren't all, you know,

as mad cap as some people might think, but we were really, really trying to steer clear of character assassination in this one. >> well, i'm very much looking forward to seeing the whole thing. "trump takes on the world" brought to us by the two of you. thank you so much for the chat and we'll look forward to watching it. thank you. the historic wintery wallop is delaying covid vaccinations in a region where the pandemic has taken a devastating toll. we'll show you after a break. has taken a devastating toll we'll show you after a break tra. it just cleans better, so your family can use less. hello clean bottom! enjoy the go with charmin. at t-mobile, we have a plan built just for customers 55 and up. saving 50% vs. other carriers with 2 unlimited lines for less than $30 each. call 1-800-t-mobile or go to t-mobile.com/55. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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l.a.'s fire chief had to say about the problems at the dodgers stadium mass vaccination site. >> well, alex, l.a. is my hometown. i know it's your hometown too and everybody remembers relocked down first and fastest and hardest and there was catastrophic job loss, a million people lost their jobs, but that did not stop us from becoming the epicenter of the pandemic with over 1 million infections, 18,000 people passed away in this county alone. i want to understand why that happened. and so dodgers stadium, which was closed yesterday because of this winter weather, has also been the source of a lot of other problems here in l.a. we wanted to start there as part of the look for street level. i talked to the fire chief. this is what he told me. >> is the lack of a supply because now there's a bigger pool of people that are eligible to be vaccinated? >> that contributed to it. >> was the pool of people who were eligible expanded too quickly? is that part of what happened here? >> that did happen. >> is there any chance that age only allows some of those essential folks to slip through

the cracks and have to wait at the back of the line? >> you hit it on the nose. people who have a higher likelihood of exposure might have to wait longer now because we're letting older people go first who may be retired and really don't get out a lot. >> so, you heard it there. essential workers are baring the brunt of it. it was on the front end of the pandemic and also on the back end when it comes to equity and the vaccines and we look at all of that, the homeless population in los angeles, the undocumented population in los angeles, we look at 495,000 households at risk of eviction in los angeles in this show. and really, it's about how did we get here? and i think the simple answer is, inequality, we've all talked about for a long, long time. >> what's your biggest takeaway from this, from what you have seen and what i know you're going to report in your new series? >> well, that i think that we all need to spend more time on the ground. that's why we call it street level. we spend so much time at a high level talking about what's going on, we don't talk to enough people in their own neighborhoods, in their own

homes and that's what we want to do. we started in l.a. but we're going to be taking this across the country. >> i'm looking forward to that because you are spot on really, when you get real granular about things, that's when you get the takeaways and can implement really practical advice and solutions. jacob soboroff, my fellow los angelesen, i don't know how you stayed out there where it's nice and warm and i'm shoveling snow all the time. something's wrong with that. we'll have to talk about that. be sure to watch the first installment of "street level usa with jacob soboroff." it is a tough headline to hear. millions of jobs probably aren't coming back even after the pandemic ends.

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good day, everyone, from msnbc world headquarters in new york, welcome to weekends with alex witt. new developments in the investigation in the attack on the nation's capitol as six capitol hill officers have been suspended with pay, 29 others are now being looked at for their actions during the deadly riot. this as six more members of the far-right militia group, the oath keepers, have been indicted. new reaction to those charges from congressman bennie thompson this morning. >> a number of their leaders actually participated in charging through the doors. a number of them broke windows coming in. they provided security for some of the other people around.

they are a bad