going to say he's going to do or not do about the investigations into former president trump, and that does that say about the administration. we may get interesting answers today. thank you, as always, for getting up "way too early" on this monday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. >> well, the pipes busted in our apartment complex. and we don't know when it's going to be fixed. and we don't have any drinking water, flushing water, washing water, any water. and, i mean, i drove 40 minutes just to get here. so i need the water pretty badly. pretty badly. it was scary. our apartment, we lost power monday night. and i kind of woke up. everything is dark. and i thought, well, that's not normal. and it's super cold. and i touched my baby's face, and he was freezing. >> i touched my baby's face and he was just freezing.

it is finally warming up in texas. but the devastating remains. millions are still without clean water or enough food to eat. as we are now learning the stories of people who froze to death in their sleep during this crisis. we'll get the latest from there and also this national catastrophe. half a million people have now died from covid in the united states of america. that is more than the number of americans who died on the battlefields of world war i, world war ii and the vietnam war combined. it's also more than double the next highest global death toll in brazil. this evening, president biden and vice president kamala harris will hold a moment of silence and candle-lighting seiche money to commemorate all those who have lost their lives to covid. and that comes in stark contrast to the words and actions of the

previous president who consistently downplayed the coronavirus pandemic throughout his entire time in the oval office. here are just a few of the countless examples how president trump led or rather failed to lead us in his response to covid-19. january 22nd, 2020. we have it totally under control. it's one person coming in from china. we have it under control. it's going to be just fine. february 10th, 2020. now, the virus that we're talking about, a lot of people think that goes away in april as the heat comes in. we're in great shape, though. we have 12 cases, 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now. february 23rd. we have it very much under control in this country. february 27th. it's going to be disappear. one day. it's like a miracle. it will disappear. and march 10th. we're waeurd, and we're doing a

great job with it. and it will go away. just stay calm. >> of course he continued as he moved forward knowing everything he was saying was a lie. as we sit at 500,000 dead in america, donald trump knew it was going to be bad. he told bob woodward. it's on tape. i know there are a lot of people who are in this personality cult and they can't snap themselves out of it. polling numbers show that later this morning. you'll be disturbed by what you're still seeing well over a month after trump terrorists went in and invaded the united states capitol and tried to bring down congress, tried to lynch a vice president, tried to assassinate a speaker of the house, tried to stop a constitutional counting of electoral votes and make sure that millions and millions of

black votes were thrown out. there still is across this country a widespread personality cult that is not destroying america. it's destroying the republican party. it's ripping it in half, and we're seeing that. well, a lot of those republicans, though, most of them were online as donald trump continued to lie throughout the year. he knew. i had friends telling me, it's no worse than a cult. when donald trump had already told bob woodward months before on tail, oh, this is five times as bad as the flu. this is a real killer. this is horrible. and of course he talked about hydroxycholoroquine. that ended up being a lie. bleach in people's arms. sticking lights inside of people. he continued league. he said it wouldn't come back in the fall. he said we were going to be just feign. now, mika, we're not just fine.

joe biden is scrambling as fast as he can to clean up the mess that donald trump left. maybe we will get this economy going by the middle of summer. maybe. let us hope. but the cost, 500,000 dead. that number is likely going to go up by hundreds of thousands. this is so much worse. more than world war i, world war ii and vietnam combined. >> and it didn't have to be. every other country tells us that. >> hundreds and hundreds of thousands of deaths. not only in donald trump's margin for history, but all the other republicans who actually enabled him and remained members

of the personality cult when they had a chance to move away. >> michael steele, msnbc con treupbtor victoria defrances co soto. and anna palmer joins us this morning. president joe biden has approved a major disaster declaration for much of texas following the winter storm that left millions of people without power with freezing temperatures. grocery stores will be restocked now that road conditions are safe for deliveries. but this morning millions of texans still don't have access to safe or drinkable water.

3.5 million bottles of water have been distributed across the state. last week's major winter storm cost dozens of death in texas. a 69-year-old man was found dead inside his home. he didn't have electricity. his bedroom was 35 degrees when they found him. in abilene, authorities say a 60-year-old man was found dead in his home, as well as an 86-year-old woman whose daughter found her frozen in the backyard. and the family of 11-year-old cristian pavan is suing the power company after his mother found him dead in their freezing mobile home. he decide due to hypothermia after they lost power. what country is this?

. >> these are headlines from third-world countries. what is wrong with texas? three and a half million people don't have drinking water right now in texas? 11-year-olds freezing to death inside their own homes? what is wrong with texas? -- what have the leaders of the state of texas done or not done the past 20 years to allow texans to suffer like this? >> joe, it's exactly that. what they have not done. back in 1999 under george w. bush when he was governor of the state, the state of texas deregulated its energy market. so what that means is that the free market had complete reign over the electric companies, the processing of the delivery of

energy. that's all fine and well. it makes for cheaper prices. it works until it doesn't work. it faltered in 2013 when we had massive blackouts. and then we saw the tragedy of last week. this time last week, this house was dark. i woke up to a freezing house with millions of other texans. what is so frustrating, what angers me so much is this could have been averted. it was a perfect storm. we had deregulated. in addition to that, we had gone at it alone in deciding to be our own grid and shunning having any backup to the two other major grids of this country. you have both of these things working against us and our state leaders ignoring all the

warning. of the christian, of the elderly folks. some folks still without electricity. it's because of the lack of leadership. >> well, speaking of leadership, ted cruz, when his house was freezing, just like the people who died, a woman who was found in her backyard, the man found in his house, the little boy who died in his home, ted krusz left his freezing house and went to cancun. now the senator seemingly in damage control mode after rushing back and posting photos over the weekend of himself loading water into texans' cars with the hashtag texas strong. are you kidding me? many online criticized the move as simply a photo-op. obviously it is. he wasn't planning on being there. he was going to be on the beach with his family. some pointing out he broke quarantine protocol after

traveling international. alexandria ocasio-cortez and beto o'rourke, who currently does not even hold public office in texas a massed $5 million in total to help struggling texans. mike steele, ted cruz, it's very trumpian. i've heard of senators being brought down for different things. this is about as much close as you get to dereliction of duty. will he skate? >> that remains to be seen. the immediate response from texans is severe. severe enough to get him back on a plane less than 12 hours after he left the state. the idea that my intention was to always just go drop my family off and come back belied by the facts. no. you booked a ticket right through the weekend. you asked your college roommate

to come join you. he got on a plane and flew to cancun as well. i'm sure you didn't invite this brother to babysit your family while you came back to texas. so the narrative is not a good narrative is not good photo ops. the question goes to what victoria says. how does this bore into the soul of a lot of texans who watched their leadership fail them at a very critical moment. they can relate back to 2011 and to 1999 for sure. but the reality is this moment where you have an 11-year-old kid who lost his life. you have the elderly, 69-year-old individual loses their life because of this storm. and the image, the image, juxta posed image of your senator getting on a plane in his blue jeans and cut-off sleeve shirt to go to a warmer climate while you have to figure out not only

how to find water and resources for your family, but to save your own life. the fact that beto o'rourke and alexandria ocasio-cortez raised $5 million in the face of this just again slams into the tufpl yann-cruz narrative of lack of interest and care for the very people in his own state. >> if we can pull back, ted cruz is wearing a mask. there is a pandemic. not only does he dessert his state, joe, at their time of need, but we're in the middle of a pandemic. and he's popping out of the country to cancun with his family and now doing these photo-ops in masks because we're in the middle of a pandemic. another thing that was going on this weekend while he was going to be in cancun was a country hitting the unbelievably

unnecessary 500,000 death mark for the coronavirus pandemic. these people, these republicans who still cling to trump, cling to his coattails when he's gone are not connected with reality. >> well, not just that. it is the clinging to trumpism and the clinging, as i said before, to this personality cult. and, again, it's, you know, they're not owning the libs when they do that. they're not owning nancy pelosi. >> speaking of owning. aoc is owning cruz right now. and she isn't even from texas. >> they don't own the libs. when they cling to a personality cult that lost in the house, that lost in the senate, that lost in the white house. they don't own nancy pelosi when they cling to a personality cult that lost in the house, that lost in the senate, that lost in

the white house. they have turned conservatism from a 55% party from a 55% coalition to a 45% coalition. the republicans used to say -- ronald reagan would say at the end of fdr's 45-year rein, when it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. the solution government was the problem. well, republicans need to understand that ronald reagan got elected 40 years ago. and we're moving into a new era where we have learned over those 40 years that sometimes government's not the problem.

sometimes government is the solution. government sometimes needs to be relied upon to keep the heat on in your house. to keep your 11-year-old children warm and alive. sometimes government is the solution to keep water running. sometimes you can't slash regulations so much that you actually freeze an entire state. you freed the lone star state. sometimes government is needed to keep our food safe. sometimes deposit is needed to keep our streets safe. and you see reaganism its extreme twisted version in the state of texas where they stepped that to such a degree where they stop doing the basics and they cut every regulation they can possibly cut.

because if one regulation is left on the book, then that's just big government, the libs coming to get you. and we see the fact that there is no nuanced thinking. it is just slash and burn. that's been their philosophy for 20 years, slash and burn regulation, slash and burn funding. this is what happened. 11-year-old children end up freezing to death inside their homes. grandmothers end up freezing to death outside trying to get would can to come inside to be warm. 3.5 million people in the lone star state. they've got to get real. sometimes you have to fund things. you have to regulate big power companies, wall street. if you don't, bad things happen.

>> joe, you put your finger on it, not just an important political point but a fundamentally important philosophical point. and the real clear line of division between the politics of what you just described and the reality of what you just described is governing. it is one thing to spout off about government. we need to deregulate, cut this and do that. governing requires you to have a more sober view of things. to understand that when you pull this thread, someone is not going to get fed over here. when you shut down this process, someone over here is going to lose their home. or they're not going to have access to water, or they're not going to have access to heat. so the leadership requirement is understanding governing.

i learned that very quickly when i became lieutenant governor. we were struck by hurricanes and other thunderstorms here in the maryland region. we had national security issues related to 9/11 because one of the highjackers lived in our community forum to two years before getting on those planes. understanding the role of government in the daily narrative of every american or every citizen in your state requires that you set aside the partisan hackery and understand when you start pulling at the levers to deconstruct the administrative state in the words of steve bannon and what he wanted this administration under trump to do and what has been picked up by republicans in states like florida and texas and elsewhere means that you're planning to have a devastating impact on the lives of everyday

people. and so what you've just put your finger on is the undoing of conservatism. it was fundamentally built around the idea how do we conserve the livelihoods using the leaves of control and powers in government to help people not to turn against them by using it as a weapon as we see here where the government is so inept it can't even get bottled water into families, neighborhoods and turn on the heat. . >> well, you know, it used to be that the republican party was known as the party who knew how to run things. not under trump. not under the lone star state. it was even a joke on the simpson's. i remember they had the democratic national convention and the democrats unfurled their banner for one year. it said we can't run things.

of course the joke was that the republican party could run things. but they can't. sometimes you need government. it's so fascinating these people that don't want government in any parts of their lives. no parts -- they do after 9/11. they don't want -- they sure do after katrina. i was there my first three, four months. i can tell you they want deposit then. >> it would have been less deadly if government was used, especially the defense production act to address the coronavirus. >> if donald trump had followed through and been that, quote, wartime president, hundreds of thousands of people likely more would have survived and been alive. we don't know the exact numbers. we will leave it to the historians. by the way, let's just stop the hypocrisy.

i know we're off a little bit on a tangent talking about government. the overwhelming majority of our budget goes towards writing social security checks and medicare checks, medicaid checks that keep nursing homes open for republicans and democrats alike. we can spend all of that money. and we can't take care of people in homes freezing and -- we really have to slash all regulations? it's just sheer hypocrisy. they take care of who they want to take care of and let everybody else freeze or do whatever. it is, again, for the

republicans in their best interest to understand what greg a be bhatt and what legislators did before this. it is not working. you have to strike a more effective balance. and return to governing again. because you have turned away from that. you think you can slash and burn all funding on state levels? you think you can slash and burn all regulations and still run it effectively? it doesn't work that way. you've gone too far. >> so this very argument, in terms of size of government is playing out as it pertains to coronavirus relief, the bill. anna palmer, tell us where we stand with that. what's the latest? >> it is a crucial week here in washington.

probably a full passage in the house friday or saturday given it's 2021 this morning. the big question for joe biden is can he get a single house republican to vote for this relief package? right now we've been hearing more than $1.9 trillion. that will be trimmed a bit in the senate. but the timeline is very, very tight. it is a march 14th deadline. democrats will have to play a flawless hand and not get caught up by one of the biggest issues, minimum wage. bernie sanders was saying he thought it was going to be in there. that's going to be one of the big issues on the progressive side. can joe biden keep democrats together on this massive package even if minimum wage and increasing it to $15 isn't part of it. 6. >> and president joe biden working on many fronts here defended democracy and pledged

to reclaim global leadership in a video message on friday to european allies. >> i'm sending a clear message to the world, america is back. and we are not looking backward. we are looking forward together. >> democracy doesn't happen by accident. we have to defend it, fight for it, strengthen it, renew it. we have to prove that our model isn't a relic of history. it's the single best way to revitalize the promise of our future. >> one of the biggest early foreign policy decisions facing the biden administration is whether to honor the previous administration's deadline of withdrawing troops from afghanistan by may 1st. david ignatius writes this in his latest column. "as president biden nears a decision about withdrawing the

2,500 u.s. troops in afghanistan, he doesn't have a best option -- only the one that's least bad for the united states and its allies. that's probably keeping the troops in place a while longer to avoid a chaotic departure. biden's heart must tell him to end this long and fruitless war, just as donald trump pledged to do. but his head, along with his advisers, cautions that quit willing now could come at a severe cost to his country's reputation and national interest. analysts often weigh coasts and benefits when making hard decisions. the cost of keeping a small but sustainable force in afghanistan appears relatively low, measured against the benefit of checking terrorists, supporting nato allies and giving the kabul government a fighting chance.

but it's biden who will have to write a letter of con dolens to the family of the first american who dies on his watch in this terrible war. he needs to have a compelling explanation of wife such a sacrifice makes sense. >> admiral, thank you so much for being with us. there are so many reasons joe biden can justify why we have to stay there. i mean, we left iraq in 2011, created a void that isis stepped straight into. you can see what we did in syria when we had 2,500, 3,000 troops there that were keeping erdogan at bay, keeping the russians at bay, keeping syria at bay, keeping the iranians at bay. we pulled them out. and there is a humanitarian disaster now continuing in syria. and afghanistan, what happens if we dessert afghanistan now? >> well, joe, you and i are old

enough to remember street man and remember what it looked like when we just jumped out of there, cut the funding. and we had helicopters lifting off the roofs of the embassies. it hurt our reputation around the world. it took us two decades to come back from that. we to the floor to take that route again. let's do the numbers. when i commanded this medication as the nato supreme allied commander, we had 150,000 troops there. today we're down to 2,500 american troops. we have already pulled the troops out of afghanistan by and large. that remainder -- and, by the way, there are 9,000 european and allied troops to our 2,500. that's pretty good leverage. that force is providing intelligence, logistics, special forces, training. it is an excellent use of

resources. we haven't had a single combat death in afghanistan in a year. the advances we've made in human rights, women's rights, cost of living life expectancy. all those things moved roughly in the right direction. it's a tough hall and it's a tough call. i'm with david on this one. i think the majority of the president's advisers are as well. the costs are worth the longer term benefits here. >> admiral, we were just talking in the last segment about republicans having to change the way they look at governing. i think we have to change the way we look at afghanistan, instead of people saying this is another day in a forever war.

we have to look at afghanistan like we look at germany post world war ii. post south korea. we have to keep our troops there. 2,500 troops in a 10,000 wide peacekeeping troop gathering, that's not a bad investment, is it? >> not at all. and you're right to mentioned fact that we have over 50,000 troops in europe. when i was commander of the european forces. we have 30,000 troops in korea. this is 2,500 troops. it is diminimus in the big scheme of things. finally, let's go back to the

speech that you showed clips from. america is back is a powerful line. but we've got to walk that walk, mott just talk about it. and that is a profound, direct way to indicate that we are back. and that means taking these kind of international responsibilities seriously when our allies come with us. the basic message was alliances matter deeply. that's the package in afghanistan. this is the way that we can walk the walk as well as talking about it at the munich security conference. >> let me ask you about the iran negotiations that may begin again. i'm curious about what your thoughts are. should we get back in. >> i was a skeptic as well. i don't think we should jump back into the old deal.

the administration did the right thing, which is not rush to go tehran to rejoin but instead going to brussels. the theme of the speech, work with our allies. get the europeans in line with us. let's go to the iranians, give a measured bit of sanctions relief. see them come back into compliance. and let's conduct a new negotiation. because that old deal is going to expire anyway very soon. so, yes, i think we should construct a new deal. let's do it in concert with our allies. >> admiral, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. still ahead on "morning joe", president biden's pick for omb director norah tanden hangs in the balance after joe manchin says he's a no vote. and senate confirmation hearings finally get under way for merrick garland. >> former san antonio mayor and

hud secretary julian castro joins us after raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed texans after last week's storm. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. ing "mornin. we'll be right back. liberty mutual customized my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. what a great day! what an ok day. what a messed up- only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ plaque psoriasis, the burning, itching. the pain.

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37 past the hour. a live look at the capitol. a beautiful day in washington, d.c. new this morning, republican senator susan collins will not vote to for norah tanden. a statement reads in part, congress has to be able to trust the omb director to make countless decisions in an impartial manner, carrying out the letter of the law and congressional intent. neera tanden has neither the experience nor the temperament

to lead this critical agency. her past actions have demonstrated exactly the kind of animosity that president biden has phraepblged to transcend. in addition, ms. tranden's decisions to delete more than a thousand tweets in the days before her nomination was announced raises concerns about her commitment to transparency. anna palmer, give us the latest on this. obviously some will be taking this is a little bit hypocritical on the part of republicans. yet again, some of her tweets raise some questions. >> neera tanden was always probably the long shot cabinet pick by joe biden because of the tweets, because of her very tense relationship with a lot of republicans. but also because of her relationship with progress if's. she and bernie sanders have sparred over the years. there's also been a lot of criticism about the fact that

c.a.p. does accept corporate money. i'm not surprised susan collins ended up going no on this. this is after joe manchin said he wasn't going to vote for her. i wonder how long it will take before they pull her nomination. >> anna palmer, thank you very much. and white house reporter for "the associated press", jonathan lemire. what are you hearing about a nomination and the potential for neera tanden at this point? it doesn't sound like she's going to get through. >> no. the waudz are certainly against her at this point, mika. we heard from president biden after the manchin vote was revealed. and he had he still had confidence in her, still wanted to push forward. collins news this morning, and i

agree with anna not so surprising, may be the final death blow to this. it is hard to see another republican trumping on board here. and tanden has had opponents on both the right and the left. she was always going to be the trickiest one to get through, to get in place. i don't know that her nomination will be pulled imminently. but certainly it doesn't look great. of course this is just one of a number of now confirmations ahead for the senate looking at biden's picks. they were delayed somewhat by the impeachment trial. and including the long-awaited hearings for merrick garland, this week as well. >> obviously there's been some concern at the biden white house about neera's nomination fight. i suspect even with the bad news on that front, they will be looking toward the hill on

merrick garland. what do you expect to see there? >> i agree with you. merrick garland is critical to their equity agenda and the fact that there is going to be a lot of questions around policing. he's getting the hearing that he didn't get as a supreme court nominee. there's definitely going to be members pressing him on where he stands on a lot of these issues. and i think most people expect he will move through this process towards confirmation. unless there's some kind of smoking gun that no one is really aware of at this point. but this is going to be a critical hearing. joe biden has less of his cabinet actually confirmed than barack obama, donald trump, or george w. bush at the same time in their presidency. senator chuck schumer very aggressively will try to get a lot of cabinet members through this process.

>> jonathan lemire, you just wrote a piece this weekend about joe biden's first month. how do they grade it inside? what did you find doing a quick review of everything that happened over this chaotic time period? >> the month-month moment is a place to take early stock. all new presidencies look at the first 100 days as its real marker as to how things are going. i think what we found in this piece is certainly the biden team, in ways big and small, sill bottomic and substantial, have really tried to turn the page on his predecessor. we know president biden doesn't even like to refer to former president trump by name. we heard the former guy was his nickname the other night at this townhall. certainly whether it was wearing the mask behind the resolute desk in the oval office the

first time americans saw him as president in the white house trying to sends that symbol about how this administration would handle the pandemic differently than before. we have seen the flurry of executive actions on things like immigration and pandemic response. the vaccine distribution. it was sluggish at first but now has rafpd up. the supply has been booming in the next few weeks. the priority is to get the shots into americans's arms. they feel they have built momentum. they know the toughest tasks are ahead. that includes the covid relief bill, about to enter a critical stage if they are able to get it passed by the mid-march deadline before a lot of benefits run out. they are hoping to bring along

some republican support. they have largely resigned themselves going at it alone as democrats. what kind of template does that set going forward? is joe biden going to have to forge forward with his fellow democrats facing all of these crises he faced going into office. >> new polling shows donald trump's voters standing firm in their support of the former president. in the latest "usa today" suffolk university poll, just 17% of trump voters believe joe biden was legitimately elected president. 73% did not. when asked which party they would support if trump formed his own party, 46% said the trump party. 27% said the republican party. and when asked to describe the capitol riots, 58% picked the

false description that it was mostly an antifa-inspired attack that only involved a few trump supporters. . >> i used to say the republican party was going the way of the whigs. i think we may be moving through that era. they may have morphed into the know nothing party, pro slavely party that followed the whigs and collapsed very quickly. again, it's important for viewers to understand, yes, it's disturbing for these people. but the biggest losers in all of this, when you have 73% of trump supporters believing donald trump won the election, they believe -- 58% believe antifa led the riots on capitol hill.

you had kevin mccarthy screaming at donald trump, it was your people that were there. what we are watching is the complete disintegration of the republican party like that united flight engine going into denver. we are watching it every day crack up with pieces flying to the ground. this poll is just one more example of it. and the republicans won't do what is necessary, other than liz cheney and sometimes mitch mcconnell. they won't do what's necessary to save their party. >> no, they won't. and i think a lot of people when they see these numbers and look at them and throw it off and go, well, that's the party of trump, i think there's a lot there to

really think about. it is not just okay trump in the past. it is also where we go as a national party from here. and i think that's the ongoing struggle right now, joe. inside the gop, what does that look and sounds like? and i think from my estimation it sounds very trumpian. with 73% of republicans saying that this was all okay. we are all down with trump. 58% of us believe this was antifa, not trump people. you can't turn the corner on that. that's now bedrock inside the gop. you have the national gop going down to mar-a-lago to confer with trump. about what?

we lost that one. let's get ready for the next round. who the nominee battle starts. the senate and house sets themselves up. the core ideas they want to project. that's not happening. they are going down to mar-a-lago with meet with trump. what do we do next? pause we're not doing that. so what do we do next? that's where the battle lines are drawn. individuals like adam kinzinger and liz chain where are standing on one side saying here's the rational conservative approach to small government, effective leadership, individual liberties, et cetera. and then there's this. the trump party.

and so you have 46% of the folks saying that they will follow trump. i'm like, okay, there's the door. y'all go do your thing and we'll just pick up the pieces on this side and keep moving. and that's the battle. >> you know, victoria, we used to, growing up we would joke from time to time whenever -- we would say so-and-so is so out of it he thinks the moon landing was done in a burbank tv studio. there was always a joke about people so out there they don't believe that neil armstrong walked on the moon. that's three-fourths of the republican party right now if you look at the joe biden win. three fourths of americans don't believe the facts before their eyes. don't believe what the trump supreme court said. the trump supporters. the trump supporters, three out

of four believe that joe biden didn't win, that donald trump actually won. they are in another world, living another reality, and i wonder whether democrats shouldn't just step back and let them destroy themselves. >> the issue with the republican party right now, joe, and i think what is really problematic in what the national leadership is going to have to contend with is the strongholds at the state level. yes, trump loss, even though he is still making noises. but the real strength, the rely deniers are at the state local, at the local level, at your county level where, over the last four to five years, trump was very good about putting into place folks who backed his vision, who are backing this alternative view of reality.

so to move the republican party to a new direction, it's going to be about extra indicating these local level extremist views. at the base of democracy is knowledge. civic life depends on having an informed citizenry. what we have seen is no longer is information and knowledge respected and cultivated and folks are brought to that standard of having to have the facts. now we're allowing folks to make up their own facts. that is what is dangerous for our country as a whole. and then for the republican party it's how do they fight those wars on a county by county basis, on a state by state basis. because right now it looks like the trump version of the republican party really has deep roots and is very strong at the local level. . >> well, so victoria, let me ask you about taxes.

i saw the "washington post" ran an article this morning talking about a postmortem in taxes. why did donald trump do as well as he did along the border? why did he do well in other parts of the state among latinos and how is that going to change over the next two to four years? >> so what we saw in the valley, rio grand valley of texas was a combination of things. ironically, one of the things that latino voters in the valley were scared about, that led them to vote for trump, was about energy. they were concerned that biden was going to cut fossil fuels. the trump campaign was very successful in promoting that lie.

the republicans did a bang-up job on the ground where the democrats were not on the ground. are texans going to let greg abbott and the state republican leadership -- remember, texas has not elected a statewide democrat in 20 years. are they going to let them scapegoat ercot, the texas energy council, or hold them accountable? greg abbott is up for election next year. this is where we will see the first instance of whether or not the republican party at that ground he level can withstand this new era. this is what we need to watch. >> all right. coming up, why america doesn't have the third party it wants. as we tkpwro to break, an update on the terrifying airplane story that joe just referenced. boeing is suspending operations for more than 100 of its aircraft after an engine of the united airlines flight from

denver caught fire and fell apart shortly after takeoff on saturday. a passenger captured the moment when the engine was in flames. another vantage point shows smoke billowing from the burning plane, which had 241 people on board. the plane scattered debris across several neighborhoods in colorado before landing safely in denver. >> geez. >> united said it was immediately grounding its fleet of 24 boeing aircraft equipped with the same pratt & whitney engines. federal officials said it is the only american airline that uses that particular type of engine. no injuries have been reported, thankfully. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. 'll be righ.

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welcome back to "morning joe". a live look out of houston, texas, where the sun is yet to come up. the ap's jonathan lemire and former rnc michael steele are still with us. and joining the conversation we have msnbc national affairs analyst, host and executive producer of the circus and hell and high water podcast from the recount, john heilman. and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early" kasie hunt joins us. . >> john heilman, there is an article posted in the "new york times", 3:00 a.m. headline, can andrew cuomo's bullying style still work in politics? they're talking about an event that they had some time ago.

they asked who has been yelled at by andrew cuomo. hands shot up and laughter across the room. people who have known him, as you know, has been a recurring story for years. it appears to have caught up with him. i'm just curious, how bad are things right now for the new york governor? pretty bad. as bad as ted cruz, the answer would probably be no. the point you're making, i don't want to be in any way dismissive of the distance here and the questions that revolve around the nursing home deaths.

but on a political level, what it is pointing to, the governor has been difficult and often abusive force for a decade now in new york politics. if you had gone around the same room, or any room where people touch politics in the state reside and ask the question -- they shouldn't ask the question who has been abused or who has been on the other end of a shouting session from andrew cuomo. the better question is who hasn't? almost no hands would go up. the press, republican party, democratic party, state government going back to his time as secretary of urban development, crept up on the wrong end of his temper and management style, which is, you know, tough.

here you have. it's been a long time and a lot of buildup. amount of people don't have a lot of loyalty to him because he has not treated them particularly well. that kind of behavior is average people who don't care about politics, understand bad behavior. there will be more reporting coming out, i would imagine. >> first of all, i mean, this actually is unusual in politics. i can't think of many governors or legislators who would scream and yell. it is just bad business. have you ever heard of any other major public figure in politics

that apparently is as abusive to as many people as andrew cuomo has been? that's number one. and the second question is, why did this take so long? the guy has been in there, what, three terms. why didn't we start hearing these stories a decade ago? >> well, the first question, joe, i have known a lot of politicians, including donald trump. so it's not like -- he's not -- it's not without precedent. but i do agree with you in general i think our experience, yours and mine, i say that from the standpoint of a reporter. i can't think of many politicians in state or federal office over my career who routinely have yelled at reporters. where that's a common thing. i have been yelled at many times in my career. it is unusual. usually they have very much getting more flies with honey

than vinegar. i don't know a reporter who has covered andrew cuomo closely who has not been yelled at. it is a common feature. i'm not trying going to say andrew cuomo is unprecedented. there are other bad-tempered politicians out there. i think the sheer -- the breadth of examples across the spectrum, as i said, democrats, republicans, bureaucrats, electeds, reporters, the sheer breadth is about cuomo's behavior is pretty stunning. if not unprecedented, he is in the top couple percent among politicians i have known in my life or have heard of. why has it taken so long? look, he has behaved, he's governed with an iron fist. and i think, you know, the reality is a lot of people over a long period of time were afraid to cross andrew cuomo. and i think the only real expansion for how it takes a long time for a story like this

to start to come out is because people are afraid of him. what is interesting is people, the combination of factors, have created an environment in which people are no longer as afraid of him as they were. you are seeing a loosening of his grip. and the intimidation factor has diminished. and that has opened the beginning of a flood of the stories we will see in the days and maybe weeks ahead. . >> yeah. and, you know, the point is, michael steele, i think we have all made mistakes. i have over 25 years. sure, i've got a dozen phone calls i would love to take back where i lost my temper and was embarrassed about it afterwards. he appears to have a dozen phone calls a day like that. or a week like that. it is fascinating he has been in power three terms and we haven't heard about this up until right

now. of course the much bigger question is what's it mean for him? will he survive politically? is he going to get re-elected to another term? and how are the investigations going to go regarding covid and the covid deaths and the moving of seniors into nursing homes and undercounting of those numbers. . >> well, the key answer to the question that you just posed really rests in what john heilman was putting out there. and that is the investigations. this was the opening. this was the opening for a lot of those folks who wanted to finally settle the score with this governor who they felt was abusive and disrespectful and all of that. the opening of the revelation around the management, the handling, the lack of transparency involving the elderly community in new york.

places where the elderly were dying and the numbers were underreported due to covid. for a lot of reporters, and particularly for the politicians -- that's the important piece. particularly for the politicians, up until now that opening never handled itself. whether it was handling a crisis or issue in this part of the state, cuomo's management style always gave him the shield that he needed to deal with that effectively. this was different. covid was different. and it says a lot about not just the politics of paeubgs but what is required of leadership. you now have watched covid take on and defeat donald trump. take on and now put the governor of new york, who up to this point was the model of how you handle this.

the model of, you know, transparency and going to the people of the state. so much so when his press conferences were held, everybody else tuned in to see exactly how new york was handling this. now when you peel it back and say, dude, you weren't telling us the truth, you weren't giving us all the facts, that has opened up the portal, to john's point, for a lot of folks to say, yeah, now let me tell you the rest of the story. . >> as you said, you look at 500,000 deaths. we have been going back how the president handled it, how he lied to the american people repeatedly. andrew cuomo, of course, fared very well with donald trump press conferences. i had a trump supporting family member after the first week of

that say, hey, i may even vote for andrew cuomo. i said no, you won't, but it is still fascinating you said that. what happened to andrew cuomo, and gavin newsom in california. as far as andrew cuomo goes, yes, i had people calling up yelling at me about what's on tv. i think most people in the dress that get that, they roll their eyes and say, okay. and i just thank them, hang up the phone. i'm like, all right, see you in the morning. . >> he ya. >> he's doing it to state legislators, to his allies, to people who really don't have to put up with him.

. >> right. . >> and the fact that he's been reportedly that abusive and making threats to his own -- to legislators who don't have it out the next day with the newspaper or magazine or on television but can only talk about it. right now he is short quite a few allies. >> yeah. once again, this is covid. so it makes it an extremely sensitive topic. as we have said, over half a million people have now died from covid in the u.s. that's more than the number of americans who died on the battlefields of world war i, world war ii, and the vietnam war combined. it's more than double the next highest death toll in pwraldz. president biden and vice president harris will hold a moment of silence and

candlelighting ceremony to commemorate all of those who lost their lives to covid. the fact that president biden continues to acknowledge the stark death toll is in stark contrast to the previous president. here are just a few of the countless times president trump dismissed the stpaourt of covid-19. january 22nd, 2020, we have it totally under control. it's one person from china. we have it under control. it's going to be just fine. now, the virus that we're talking about having to do -- you know, a lot of people think that goes away in april with the heat. as the heat comes in. it is like a miracle. it will disappear. march 10th, and we're prepared and we're doing a great job with it and it will go away. just stay calm. it will go away.

jonathan lemire, it went on from there. the president did this. and i have to remind viewers that our current president, way before the very beginning. >> in january. >> put out a column in "usa today" warning that this was coming. warning that we needed to prepare. warning that there would be a massive death toll if we were not careful. the former president, who is in charge at the time had gone rid of the preparedness office, had done so many things that left us vulnerable. >> couldn't be more of a sharper contrast in their approaches to this pandemic as rightly detailed back when he was just candidate biden. we heard a different tone and approach, wearing masks, social distancing, scuttling campaign travel, which led to, remember,

mockery from president trump and his allies who made fun how sparse the crowds were. made fun of the size of joe biden's mask. and of course donald trump himself refused to wear a mask outside a few rare occasions. he packed in people night after night. thousands of people. no social distancing whatsoever. and the white house itself became the site of several superspreader events and donald trump himself got stick. and i think that is just now we see such a different approach from our current president, joe biden, who will lead a moment of silence later today as the nation marks hitting the 500,000 death mark. half a million people dead from this virus. we have seen a real effort from a to z across government to push out this vaccine and knowing it

is the single thing that will bring this dark chapter to a close. thanks of course his top priority. and we have seen more than anything a tone where joe biden has leveled with the american people. deso as a connecticut. he did in his inauguration address about all the crises facing this nation, particularly the pandemic saying we are in a dark winter. there would be hope down the road, we weren't there yet. that stands in stark contrast to the rosy projections and the erroneous predictions. you just outlined some of them. night after night, former president trump would say we were turning the corner on the virus when hundreds of thousands of americans still had yet to lose their praoeufs presumably in preventable fashion. >> he has been straightforward with the american people. the one bump in the road had to

do with schools. i think they are trying to correct that. they need to. that is a real weakness if they don't move quickly to really encourage straits and localities to get people back, get kids back to school as quickly as possible. so on friday, when questions continue to arise about the size of this bill. almost $2 trillion. many economists, including larry summers, very concerned about the inflationary pressures of throwing $2 trillion on top of all the covid relief passed last year could undermine this economy. obviously there are deficit and debt concerns for very good reasons. joe biden was asked about making cuts on friday. >> what would they have me cut? what would they have me leave out? should we not invest $20 billion

to vaccinate the nation? should we not invest $290 million to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million americans who are unemployed so they can get by? while they get back to work? this is the united states of america, for god's sake. we invest in people. who are in need. >> you know, casey, it's so interesting when you look at many trump supporters, you can take it back to tea party supporters, such small government champions. 75% of them said during obamacare debates, don't touch my medicare. there's a lot of economic population even among trump supporters. and i'm wondering whether that's why joe biden going so big is pulling in 74%, 75% approval.

he is going far bigger than anybody expected. it looks like the american people are expected to go with him. why does he need to compromise with any republicans? >> he doesn't, joe. what we have learned in the races, remember, mitch mccobble was out there saying we need to send stimulus checks to people, more money behind the scenes. he was pushing that because he was having trouble winning a pair of senate races in georgia because of this very topic that you point out. now we are reverting to a more classic, as you, i think, predicted pretty accurately in the months leading up to this change of the administration, a more predictable pattern of republicans pulling back, of not wanting to give president joe biden some political victories if that's not how they would say

it considering how bad things are out in the country. obviously economic policy. experts can debate what is going to happen next. we should underscore, people living on this unemployment money, they are right at the edge. this has kept millions of americans out of poverty throughout this pandemic. republicans like mitt romney is saying heats what this is for. if you're ever going into debt, now is the time to go into debt. now is the time to do it. infuing these resources across the board is something that people are pleading for. they are pleading for this money to make it through to the next couple of weeks. there is of course, joe, mope for schools in here. i think that's critical. the school question, i think you're right to highlight that. i think that is going to be the central political debate the

next six months to a year. i'm starting to hear the frustration from families, not just those i talked to in the course of my jobs but friends who send their kids to public schools in the d.c. area. they are watching the damage happening to their children. this also includes a lot of money for education. we will have to see how that political issue moves forward too. >> it is a critical issue, an issue republicans are already using in fund-raising letters to attack joe biden and to attract democrats. parents have seen their children

suffer. they want them back into school. you have anthony fauci, the cdc, and other scientists and doctors saying we have taken a great look the last six to nine months and we think the risk is extremely low. get the kids back in school. john heilman, speaking of republicans and how donald trump is not conservative, something i have been saying about donald trump, something i have been saying for 15 years now about republicans. it was fascinating. one of the more fascinating lines in that letter someone wrote for donald trump to send to mitch mcconnell. when donald trump blamed the losses in georgia not on donald trump's own crazy behavior that month, but mitch mcconnell only wanted to send $600 in covid relief.

but donald trump wanted to send $2,000 in covid relief to americans. it really shows joe biden now at $1400 where a lot of americans are. that i not conservative. they're populists. they're big spenders. they support that $1,400 check apparently. . >> yeah, sure. that's right, joe. let's be honest, donald trump would have been happy to spend $2,000, $200,000. there was no dollar figure that would have been too much to buy a vote or a couple senate seats or whatever he was trying to buy. it's always been the case. maybe not always. but it's been a long time since republicans have been principaled on spending and death and deficits. we have now most of our adult lives, and there are notable exceptions to this, when returns

in power and cutting taxes, they say i don't care about the deficit. when democrats try to spend money, they suddenly get concerned about the deficit. we can bemoan the fact of carrying about debt, deficits and spending or acknowledge at least in this one respect, there is at least a refreshing candor to those who never cared about that stuff. at least it brings a level of honesty to the debate. it's been a long time since we have seen inflation, interest rates that have been problematic. in some ways it has changed.

it's going to be hard for anyone to carry very much about it. especially when tens of millions of people, as casey pointed out, are in pain and need this help. there is not going to be a consensus to withhold it from them in the american political spectrum. . >> the last time republicans cared about this was the late '90s. we fought for four or five years to balance the budget. balanced it in in for the first time in a century, since the 1920s. when i left congress in 2001, there was a $155 billion surplus. can you believe that? a $155 billion budget surplus. and then george bush became president. republicans started spending like crazy. mika knows. i have written three weeks. one in 2004, one in 2009, one in

2013. they all say the same thing. republicans are spending too much money. republicans need to care about the size of government. republicans need to care about these massive deficits, massive debt. none of them care. . >> and they haven't done well politically since then. president joe biden declared a disaster declaration following last week's winter storm that left millions of people without power and amid freezing temperatures. electricity should be soon fully restored across the state and that grocery stores will be restocked now that road conditions are safe for deliveries. but this morning millions of texans still don't have access to safe, drinkable water. the governor says so far nearly 3.5 million bottles of water have been distributed across the state. and there's also another major problem unfolding in texas right now.

skyrocketing electricity bills. some texans have seen bills as high as $17,000 after last week's storm. that's pause the electric reliability council of texas, which manages about 90% of the state's electric load, underestimated how much power it would need when the storm hit, supply simply couldn't keep up with demand and the wholesale price of electricity spiked. msnbc stephanie ruhle spoke with one homeowner who is experiencing this firsthand. >> reporter: so last month, uh-ohed $49. >> $49 for the whole month. and this month i have already been charged something like $700, $800. and i currently right now owe $3,435. >> wow.

>> reporter: so for this month you will owe $4,000, up from $49 last month. in your other home where you pay a fixed rate, you will owe $100, maybe $200. . >> $145, give or take. >> reporter: wow. >> stephanie ruhle joins us right now. stephanie, explain what's going on here. and i have heard horror stories of people getting bills even higher than that. they are families that have no way of paying these bills. what's going to happen to them? >> mika, don't mess with texas. texas didn't want to be regulated, and they're not. for most of us, this is completely foreign. we to the floor anything like this because we have fixed, regulated electricity pricing. it is different in texas where you have all sorts of private businesses offering different incentives and offers. and one of them is wholesale

electricity pricing. gritty, the company he's talking about, you pay what we pay. normally it's a low number. it's a floating rate that could fluctuate any time. when does it fluctuate? an extreme weather moment like this where you have a cold snap, a bunch of power generations gooff line because of this, and everyone else issing gentlemaning up the heat in their house because it's so cold. theres no commission, no ability for the state's commission to cap these rates. and that's why you saw people get jacked thousands and thousands of dollars. . >> now, what is going to be the solution to this at this point? what are politicians discussing? given the fact that they are the ones that made this huge mistake? >> well, they made this decision years ago. and texans, for quite a while, said they liked this. of course so many people didn't realize what they were getting themselves into. joe biden has come in and said

it's a natural disaster. whether he can do something is unclear because of all this was legal. going forward, the governor said the state's utility commission has put a moratorium, you can no longer raise the prices this month. they are going to have an investigation into these sky high bills. and even these companies, gritty said move, move to fixed rates. but people can't move overnight. and the issue is these are the rules that were put in place unfortunately now people have to play by them until they can be changed. >> if they can't pay, will they lose their power? >> well, the governor said people will not have their power turned off. but i can tell you many people did lose their power. many were already charged and had their money taking out of credit cards because they have auto pay. they are trying to undo it. imagine your pipes have burst,

your family is freezing and now you are facing thousands and thousands of dollars of bills. who is there to protect you? it's a reminder regulations are also known as protections. and if you don't want smart regulation, you're not going to be protected when you need it. . >> all right. stephanie ruhle, thank you very much. we'll see you at 9:00 eastern time right after "morning joe". appreciate your coming on this morning. now to a new opinion piece that asks the question why america doesn't have the third party it wants. recent gallup polling shows a number of americans identify as independent and favor a new party. in any other industry, if half the customers disliked the only two major brands and nearly two-thirds of customers desired an alternative, there would be a new product on the shelf yesterday.

nick troy an know, a group working to bridge the growing partisan divide and foster a more functional deposit. nick is a former independent candidate for congress and opinion contributor for "the hill." >> thanks so much for being with us. so the -- what person voted for trump is going to take the chance of voting for an independent candidate and what voter who voted for biden will take that same chance when they think all they are doing is hurting their own side and helping to get the other side who they consider to be the enemy, elected. . >> well, that's the problem joe. and our system with plurality elections that the only impact third candidates have is to take away from votes from one side and help elect the other. so they fail to get traction. the point is, it doesn't have to be that way. our current system is designed to enable and empower both

powers to be used to empower the voters instead. it's great this movement to put voters first to advance nonpartisan reforms is gaining traction around the country. so i think the key thing to realize for the two-thirds of people who want a new option, who are dissatisfied don't feel well represented is that the division, disfunction that we see every day is a function of good people stuck in a bad system with broken incentives that increasingly push us to the extremes. it will not only level the playing field but help democrats and republicans govern again. if we can't get a third party, let's get i one that can. >> what kind of reforms are we talking about here? when the system is stacked, both parties do not want a third force on the playing field. they just don't want that.

and it's designed to prevent that from happening at the state and county level where a party naturally would form itself. you've got a growing number of americans who are now saying i want a third way. i want to look at those options. how does that begin to materialize itself effectively pushing up against the system that doesn't want it to begin with. what kind of messaging, organization structure. what should we be looking at to make something like this a reality? >> it gives the state and congress that power. more states should do what alaska just did in november when it happened a ballot initiative that did two things. first, it replaced partisan primaries with a single nonpartisan primary that will advance the top four to the general election. they will have an option to rank their candidates. whoever gets the majority of votes wins. the impact this has is to give

voters a lot more power an equal voice in the primary, and they can vote for whomever they want in the general election without worrying about splitting the vote. not only more competition and participation but elected leaders are in cented to put country over party. we have seen that, for example, with senator murkowski, who is up for election nextee. when she was among the handful of republicans who voted to convict president trump, she knew she wouldn't have to face another closed republican primary next year but instead get to make the case to all voters who represented her as it should be. that can be done in all other states. we have seen these reforms gain traction in other states. the systems of the elections determine the behavior of those we put in office. .

>> kasie hunt, jump in. >> nick, i'm following you on changes in terms of primaries and with you in the closed primaries definitely generate a certain closed system. susan collins won pretty decisively. there were questions how a third party candidate affected actually the will of the voters or could have. do you have any concerns about this? is alaska the model we go with, or is it something else? . >> well, i think, first, there's no perfect system. both parties are failing the american people. they are pandering to the extremes. there's no new competition. two-thirds of americans want a

new choice. we have done it before in the progressive era. we made big changes at the federal lost, constitutional amendments. that's what we should be thinking about doing today. use the states as they were designed as laboratories of democrat say. i think the alaska an model is the model. it is the solution. we are working to scale them across the country. it is going to take more resources, political donors who aren't just investing in fueling partisanship but invested in fixing our system of democracy so we can actually solve the issues that we care about. . >> nick troiano, thank you for being on and sharing your piece with us. >> and still ahead on "morning joe", the biden administration is poised to dramatically ramp

up coronavirus vaccine distribution plans. we'll have the very latest on the rollout. but michael steele, before you go, black history month. we're asking our guests to pick one person they want to honor. who are you highlighting? >> well, this was a little bit personal for me. dr. dorothy hite. she was a phenomenal educator leader in the civil rights movement, god mary of the women's movement, 40 years. she was the only woman in the room at the birth of the civil rights movement. she schooled dr. king, along with a lot of the men hughes names we know and have come to appreciate in the struggle. i was thinking of her recently. annie lee cooper, helped

orchestrate the papblg of the '64 voting rights act and stacey abrams and the work she did in georgia, reminder of how black women are so underrepresented in the story of this nation, in the roles they have played and the contributions they have made. i remember on a couple of occasions she schooled me how to be a better public servant, how to be mindful of those who need good leadership. so my salute is dr. dorothy hite, phenomenal leader, rarbgt and teacher but a woman who was in the room that helped shape the direction of a nation. >> michael steele, thank you very much. and we'll be right back with much more "morning joe". ch more.

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we're now on track to have vaccines for all americans by the end of july. it doesn't mean it will be in arms but enough vaccine will be available by that time. >> this will continue to be a continuous rolling effort. we will have ordered much of which will have been distributed by july 29th, the expected date. that could change. look what is happening with the weather now, for example. it is slowing up the distribution right now. but i believe we will be approaching normalcy by the end of this year. >> how much of a setback did we take this week with the winter weather and vaccine distribution

and how long will it take for us to catch up? >> well, first of all, it is a step back. you would like to see a steady flow of vaccines to get into people's arms. we can play catchup. we got 2 million out. so it's now four. you know the number was 6 million doses got delayed. we have gone 2 million out. we project by middle of the week, we will have caught up. so it's unfortunate it was a setback. but, chuck, it's a definitely rather setback. put your foot to the accelerator and really push. >> right. >> we will get it to where we need to be by the middle of the week. . >> dr. anthony fauci and before that president biden on updates with americans' access to covid vaccines. 145 million doses are set to be delivered the next five and a half weeks with an additional

200 million expected by the end of may. and another 200 million by the end of july. these figures are before the anticipated approval of johnson & johnson's vaccine. joining us now dean of the brown university school of public health dr. ashish jha. thank you very much for coming back on the show. jonathan lemire has the very first question for you. >> dr. jha, nice to see you again. we know there was a setback with the winter storms that hit the nation. and president biden raised some eyebrows last week when in a townhall he suggested life could return to normal around christmas, a later timetable than we have heard from others in the administration. we heard him suggest there would be a real boom in vaccines and americans could have one by the end of summer. you have been striking an

optimistic tone. walk us through why you feel that way. why might the nation be on the verge of turning the corner with some sort of normalcy on the horizon? >> thanks for having me on. one thing, we have one big storm to weather, and that is the uk variant. it will be a challenge we will have to get through. let's hope and assume we get through without too many people getting in investigated and dying. once we get into april and may, i expect we will be at a point where certainly by may i believe any american who wants a vaccine should be able to get a vaccine in may. it doesn't mean everybody will. it will take a little time to get into people's arms. there will be vaccine hesitantly we will try to counter. the majority of americans will be able to get it by may. i believe that by may/june, the weather will be better. people will be outside. and there's enough population immunity. so many americans have gone

infected, probably close to 30% of americans have gone infected. throw in the amount of vaccines we have, and we'll be over 50% of americans with immunity. that will dramatically slow things down. and i expect to have a pretty good summer. people say normal. it depends a little bit on what you need. large, you know, kind of indoor concerts, probably not. but outdoor gatherings, pretty much close to normal. certainly as we get into fall, things will continue to get better. >> yeah. doctor, let's be really blunt here. for jonathan lemire and myself, normal means one thing. going to see the boston red sox lose. are we going to be able to see some red sox games this year? >> you will not see them use. but if you want to watch the red sox at fenway, i do think there will be games at fenway. the question is whether it will be full stadium, the way it was

in 2019, maybe not. maybe there will be reduced capacity, some testing. the problem is you're still going to have a third of the population that will choose not to get vaccinated. and we're going to have to deal with that. that is part of the reason why completely normal may not be possible this summer. >> all right. so jonathan, we're not going to see them lose this year, the good doctor says. which means you're invited over to myself to watch highlights of 2018. >> okay. kasie hunt has the next question. >> dr. jha, we have been talking a little bit here about students and teachers. and over the weekend, the president of the american federation of teachers appeared on "meet the press". she was trying to disspell what she called a quote, unquote myth that teachers unions believe all teachers need to be vaccinated before they return to in-person learning. let's watch and then we'll talk about it. . >> we have the highway or the road map that allows us to do

this. and it comes down to three things. the layered mitigation strategies, the testing so you can see asymptomatic spread, and vaccine prioritiation. not that every single teacher has to be vaccinated before you open any schools. but you should align the vaccine prioritization with the reopening of schools. if the nfl could figure out how to do this in terms of testing and protocols, if schools are that important, let's do it. my members want it, they just want to be safe. . >> dr. jha, where is the science on this? in fairfax, it is a huge well regarded distract. there's a lot of frustration because teachers are being prioritized. some say the goalposts are still moving there. when is it going to be safe for

teachers? and when is the timeline for getting kids vaccinated to ensure everyone has an opportunity to get a shot? >> some yeah. this is obviously been very contentious. and unfortunately so. we have set up this dichotomy between teachers' health and kids' education. that is a false dichotomy. i think we can do both. layered mitigation. that means mask wearing, pretty good ventilation. it is not super expensive. we should do that. i agree about getting testing in schools. and i personally have come to believe we should prioritize teachers. is it essential, no. but it would be helpful. we can do this now and in the upcoming weeks. and we can get kids back in, the kids who are at home right now we can get them back in in four to six weeks without substantial difficulty. and i would rather not spend the next six months fighting about

three feet versus six feet and a whole bunch of distractions that have gone us distracted from the issues at hand. i expect older kids to be vaccinated by fall. we will have good data on them. the issue will be younger ones. the sort of under 12, under 10. we may not have enough data for them to know whether it's safe to vaccinate them. there isn't a lot of data they spread enough disease. if teachers are vaccinated, older kids are vaccinated, we should have full in person school starting in the fall. there is no reason we can't do that. >> thank you very much. light at the end of the tunnel, i guess. now for something completely different. nbc sports soccer analyst and cohost of ""men in blazers." oh, god.

what is he wearing? >> he's the black sheep. he's the black sheep of "morning joe." i have to say one of the darkest weekends. >> look at that. that is just horrible. >> you look great, miikka. >> oh, yeah. since mr. epstein's body was bound in his london flat in 1967, a terrible, terrible weekend. a story i fear your family knows too much about. but just throwing off a little bit, take us through if you will. >> i will be ethical and objective in my journalism. the big game of the weekend between liverpool and everton. more one sided than the movie of "strip." america, brace yourself. you are about to see the

equivalent of charlie brown finally kicking the football with lucy holding. three minutes in, john stockton's pass. a goal. this is as close as they game. 81st minute, calvin tumbling in the penalty area. the clash of the men with three names. liverpool defending with ted cruz at cancun levels. scoop there it is. 2-0. players celebrate. normal days it would be full of crazy fans going bonkers. 21 years of agony disappearing into the liverpool night sky.

they win at liverpool for the first time. i bet my wife. i've had four kids in that time. liverpool caught in a landslide. >> roger, we -- we had to cut your mic there because i couldn't stand anymore. i'm going to ask you exactly what's happened. we'll talk about that in a minute. but let's get through the arsenal highlights first. >> and the other big game of the weekend, manchester city. just 1:17 to take the lead. sterling rising up. over 6'2". like stud web winning the nba dunk contest, 17 seconds in, 1-0.

that would do it. city 18 straight wins. 10 points cleared at the top of the table. runaway leaders. resistance is futile. >> really quickly, roger. liverpool has certainly not had a terrible run like this in years. certainly they haven't looked like this. does this all go down to best man in football last year being out from the start? what do you think liverpool's biggest problems are. >> "game of thrones" robert barathian said, i swear to you sitting on the thrown is a thousand times harder than winning one. overall, defending a title is much harder than breaking a 30-year curse. america, draw strength. if everton can win a title, anything is title. >> how did you celebrate this

extraordinary moment for you and your family? >> i spent the rest of the weekend shopping for an identity team that could bring miikka joy. >> you are swearing a sweater that princess diana wore back in 1990 at a polo match. >> you have got a knowledge. she and i are often confused for the same person, look-alikes. >> okay. we'll be tuning in to "men in blazers." roger bennett, you are so weird. >> thank you so much. coming up, congresswoman mad lean dean had a leading congress in the impeachment of president trump. now she has another cause. we will talk about that just ahead. plus, the latest out of texas where the situation is getting warmer but the situation

remains dire as the residents scramble to find clean drinking water. "morning joe" is back in a moment. sponsored by voya financial. s to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future ...and in kevin's. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. renae is not an influencer, she's more of a groundbreaker. renae runs with us on a john deere 1 series tractor. because out here, you can't fake a job well done. hear renae's story at deere.com we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment. that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste.

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the pipes busted in our apartment complex, and we don't know when it's going to be fixed and we don't have any drinking water, any flushing water, any water. i mean, i drove 40 minutes just to get here. so i need the water pretty badly. pretty badly. it was scary. our apartment we lost power monday night, and i kind of woke up and everything was dark and i thought, okay, that's not normal. it was super cold. i touched my baby's face, and he was freezing. >> i touched my baby's face, and he was just freezing. it is finally warming up in texas, but the devastation remains.

millions are still without clean water or enough food to eat as we are now learning the stories of people who froze to death in their sleep during this crisis. we'll get the latest from there and also this national catastrophe. over half a million people have now died from covid in the united states of america. that is more than the number of americans who died on the battlefields of world war i, world war ii and the vietnam war combined. it is also more than double the next highest global death toll in brazil. this evening president biden and vice president kamala harris will hold a moment of silence and a candle lighting ceremony to commemorate all those who have lost their lives to covid. and that comes in stark contrast to the words and actions from the previous president who consistently down played the

pandemic throughout his entire time in the oval office. here are just a few of the countless examples of how president trump led or, rather, failed to lead us in his response to covid-19. january 22nd, 2020, we have it totally under control. it's one person coming in from china. we have it under control. it's going to be just fine. february 10th, 2020. now, the virus that we're talking about, a lot of people think that goes away in april as the heat comes in. we're in great shape, though. we have 12 cases, 11 cases. many of them are in good shape now. february 23rd, we have it very much under control in this country. february 27th, it's going to disappear one day. it's like a miracle. it will disappear. and march 10th. we're prepared. we're doing a great job with it, and it will go away. just stay calm.

it will go away. >> of course he continued. everything he was saying there was a lie. as we said it, 500,000 dead in america. donald trump knew it was going to be bad. he told bob woodward. it's on tape. i know there are a lot of people that are in this personality cult and they can't snap themselves out of it. we have numbers we will show you. you will be disturbed by what you are seeing well over a month after trump terrorists went in and invaded the united states capitol and tried to actually bring down congress, tried to lynch a vice president, tried to assassinate a speaker of the house, tried to stop the constitutional counting of electoral votes and make sure that millions and millions of black votes were thrown out.

there still is across this country a widespread personality cult that is not destroying america, it is destroying the republican party. it is ripping it in half and we're seeing that. well, a lot of those republicans, though, most of them were online because donald trump continued to lie throughout the year. he knew. i had friends telling me it is no worse than a cult when donald trump had already told bob woodward months before on tape, oh, this is five times as bad as the flu. this is a real killer. he talked about bleach in people's arms, talking about sticking lights inside of people. he continued lying. he said it wouldn't come back in the fall. he said we were going to be just fine. and now, miikka, we're not just fine. joe biden is scrambling as fast

as he can to clean up the mess. maybe, just maybe, we're going to be able to get this economy going by the middle of the summer. maybe. let us hope. but the cost, 500,000 dead. that number will likely go up by hundreds of thousands. this is so much worse than even world war ii, world war i and vietnam combined. >> and it didn't have to be. >> and it didn't have to be this way. every other country tells us that. >> there is hundreds of thousands of deaths. not only in donald trump's margin for history but all those republicans who actually enabled him and remain members of the personality cult even when they had reason to move away. >> with us we have the former

chairman of the republican national committee michael steele. profession nar at the lyndon b. johnson public school of affairs. and cofunder of "punch bowl news." president joe biden has approved a major disaster declaration for much of texas following last week's winter storm that left millions of people without power amid freezing temperatures. governor greg abbott yesterday said that electricity should be restored and grocery stores stocked. but this morning millions of texans don't have access to safe or drinkable water. the governor says 3.5 million bottles of water have been

distributed across the state. last week's storm caused many deaths in texas. a man was found dead inside his home. his bedroom was 35 degrees when they found him. authorities say a 60-year-old man found dead in his home and an 86-year-old woman whose daughter found her frozen in the backyard. and a family of an 11-year-old is suing after his mother found them dead in their freezing mobile home. the boy is believed to have died due to hypo thermia after his family's grid lost power. what country is this? >> this is third world -- these are headlines from third world

countries. what is wrong with texas? 3.5 million people don't have drinking water in texas? 11-year-olds freezing to death inside their own homes? what is wrong with texas? what has happened? what have the leaders of the state of texas done or not done more importantly over the last 20 years to allow texas to suffer like this? >> joe, it's exactly that, what they have not done. back in 1999 under george w. bush when he was governor of the state, the state of texas deregulated its energy market. that means they had free rein of the processing of the energy and the delivery. it makes for cheaper prices and it works until it doesn't work.

and it faltered first in 2011. we had a wakeup call then with massive blackouts. then we see the strategy of last week. this time last week this house was dark. i woke up to a freezing house myself along with millions of other texans. and what is so frustrating. what angers me so much is that this could have been averted. it was a perfect storm. it was the perfect storm in terms of we had deregulated. we had done at it alone in our own grid and shunning having backup to the two other grids of this country. you have two things working against us and our state leaders ignoring all of the warning signs and the blood of these folks are on their hands of the elderly folks across this state,

the folks suffering without water, some without electricity. it is because of the lack of leadership. >> well, speaking of leadership, ted cruz, when his house was freezing just like the people who died, the woman who was found in her backyard, the man found in his house, little boy found in his home, ted cruz left his freezing house and went to cancun. now the senator is in damage control mode after rushing back and posting photos over the weekend of himself loading water into texans cars with the #texasstrong. are you kidding me? many online criticized the move as simply a photo op. obviously it is. he wasn't planning on being there. the senator broke quarantine protocol after traveling international.

meanwhile aoc and beto to rurk raised $5 million to help struggling texans. i have heard of senators being brought down for different things. this is about as much as close as you get to dereliction of duty. will he escape? >> that remains to be seen. i think right now the immediate response and backlash from a lot of texans is severe. severe enough to get him back on a plane less than 12 hours after he left the state. the idea that, you know, my intention was to go drop by family off and come back is belied by the facts that, no, you booked a ticket right through the weekend. you asked your college roommate to come join you. he got on a plane as well.

i'm sure you didn't invite this brother just to have him babysit your family while you came back to texas. so the narrative is not a good narrative for ted cruz, which is why you see the photo ops right now. the question goes to what victory said. how does this bore into the soul of a lot of texans who watched their leadership fail them at a very critical moment. they can relate back to 2011 and to '99 for sure. but this reality is this moment where you have an 11-year-old kid who lost his life, the elderly who lose their life because of this storm and the image, the image, juxtaposed image of your senator getting on a plane in his blue jeans and, you know, cutoff sleeve shirt to go to a warmer climate while you have to figure out not only how to find water and resources for your family but to save your own

life, the fact that beto to rurk and alexandria ocasio-cortez have raised $5 million in the face of this again slams into the trumpian-cruz narrative of a lack of interest and care for the very people in his own state. >> still ahead, the latest from texas with julian castro. how his experience shapes his response to the disaster there. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. one of the biggest early foreign policy decisions facing the biden administration is whether to honor the previous

administration's deadline of withdrawing troops from afghanistan by may 1st. david ignatius writes this. as president biden nears a decision about withdrawing the 2,500 troops in afghanistan he doesn't have a best option. only the one that's least bad for the united states and its allies. that's probably keeping the troops in place a while longer to avoid a chaotic departure. biden's heart must tell him to end this long and fruitless war, just as donald trump pledged to do. but his head along with his advisers caution that quitting now could come at an extreme cost to his reputation and analysts. analysts weigh costs and benefits when making decision. the cost because keeping a small but sustainable force in afghanistan remains low.

supporting nato allies and giving the government a fighting chance. but it is biden who will have to write a better of condolence to the family of the first american that dies on his watch in this terrible war. he needs to have a compelling explanation of why such a sacrifice makes sense. let's bring in navy admiral. >> admiral, thanks so much for being with us. there are so many reasons joe biden can justify why we have to city there. you can see what we did in syria when we had 2,500, 3,000 troops there keeping erdogan at bay.

we pulled them out and there is a humanitarian disaster. and afghanistan, what happens if we desert afghanistan now? >> well, joe, you and i are old enough to remember vietnam and remember what it looked like when we just jumped out of there, cut the funding and we had helicopters coming off the roofs of our embassies. it took us two decades to come back from that. we don't have to take that route again. just let's do the numbers. when i commanded this nation as the nato supreme commander, we had 150,000 troops there. today we're down to 2,500 american troops. we have already pulled the troops out of afghanistan, by and large. by the way, there are 9,000

european and allied troops to our 2,500. that's pretty good leverage. that force is providing intelligence, logistics, special forces, training. it is an excellence use of resources. we haven't had a single combat death in afghanistan in a year. is it dangerous? will there be more combat deaths? are the taliban intractable foes? yes to all of that. but the advances we made in humans' rights, women's rights, all those things have moved in the right direction. it's a tough call. but i'm with david on this and i think a majority of the president's advisers are as well. the costs, relatively small, are worth the benefits here. >> admiral, thank you so much

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welcome back. while some prominent texans are busy snapping pictures, our next guest has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. former san antonio mayor julian castro joins us next. but first a check on the forecast. bill. >> well, good morning to you, miikka. texas is getting their february thaw. it all changes today and especially tomorrow. the temperatures are amazingly warm compared to how we were last week during the big blackout. we're already in 50s in areas like corpus christi. oklahoma city even gets to 60. what's nice about this february

thaw, it goes all the way to the northern plains. and look at tuesday. that's like spring break weather. temperatures in the mid-70s from san antonio to houston to dallas. we do have a little bit of concern, though, today with some snow moving through areas of pennsylvania and new york state. i heard roads are treacherous buffalo to syracuse. it is a brief period where one or two inches of snow will fall. that's moving over washington, d.c., too. the bridges and secondary roads will quickly become snow covered. notice those areas could see about two to three inches today and some of the areas in northern new york could get four to eight inches. that's additional snow coming tomorrow. additional forecast, southern half of the country, congratulations. feels like spring from southern california all the way to texas and including florida. we'll watch that storm in the

northeast. it will be gone by 5:00 p.m. this evening. you're watching "morning joe." wrigley field had about two inches last night in chicago. a little better today. we'll be right back. this is the epson ecotank color printer. no more buying cartridges. big ink tanks. lots of ink. print about this many pages.

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on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. and deliver future-ready protection, keeping you sharp for tomorrow. join us, the defenders, in our mission. cybereason. end cyber attacks. from endpoints to everywhere. welcome back to "morning joe." 32 passed the hour. look at the messy, foggy day this morning. jonathan lemire and kasie hunt are back with us and we continue with our coverage now of what's happening in texas. a massive recovery effort is underway for a state that needs lots of help. nbc's morgan chesky has the latest reporting. >> reporter: the deep freeze in texas is finally over. but millions statewide now

dealing with the fall-out. >> i don't have water again after four days without it because of frozen pipes. >> reporter: more than 8 million people unable to drink their water. >> this whole boil thing sucks, especially when you have four kids, three dogs and two adults in the house. >> reporter: gilbert able to get his hands on a few days worth of water. how are you feeling? >> it's just devastating. we shouldn't have to live like this, you know? >> reporter: over the weekend, president biden signing a major disaster proclamation. officials targeting outrageous power bills. houston's mayor saying this to hoda on sunday. >> someone should not be made to pay the price for these bills. >> reporter: that's what happened to scott who signed up for wholesale prices, not knowing his rates could vary.

so when the power supply went down, his bill took off. >> when it was all said and done, what was the damage? >> $16,798. >> this was not a bill. this was withdrawn. >> this was withdrawn straight from my account. >> reporter: by the time he switched providers, he paid 80 times more than his typical $200 bill. some texans pitching in to help. beto o'rourke driving in water. senator cruz serving firefighters barbecue. even houston born beyoncé offering emergency funding on her website. texans looking out for their own even on south padre island where those sea turtles were warmed up enough to return to sea. >> joining us now, former mayor of san antonio, texas, julian

castro. he served under president obama. he and his brother have been volunteering to help texans affected by the storm and have raised nearly $500,000 for feeding texas. but there is still so much pain and heart break in texas. can you tell us first where things stand, what you're hearing from across the state in terms of getting people back on track and also especially worried about those who cannot pay their bills. >> yeah. good morning, miikka. the report made clear. little by little things are coming back to normal, but you have a whole bunch of people whose lives are still in tatters because of this. first of all, you have several million texas still on boil water notice because of the cascade of what happened last week. a lot of people were not able to get fresh, clean drinking water and are still having problems with that now. about 300,000 texans still don't

have power, so you have that issue. on top of that, because a lot of pipes burst in homes all over the state, you have a lot of folks who may have left their home or they were still there and they essentially came home to or found rooms frozen over or full of water, and they had to move out so they're dealing with fema, trying to figure out where they will stay while their home gets prepared. that's the situation right now in texas. thankfully what we've seen is a tremendous spirit of community, an outpouring of generosity and the nonprofit sector working very well from food banks to other charitable organizations to provide food, provide water, provide blankets. you also have at the federal level fema activated with 29,000

liters of water, blankets, meals. they sent out 60 large generators across the state. so at the federal level, the nonprofit level, they're doing their job. but the folks that haven't been doing their job are at the state level. that's a total mess. >> can you expound upon that? who's not doing their job and what's amis? i should probably ask if you found ted cruz's photo ops to be authentic? >> yeah. i mean, where do i start with that? first of all, we have an energy system here in texas that did not break down last week. it is a system that is broken down by design. in 1999 texas deregulated its energy market. since then, there has been no incentive and no requirement for these energy providers to weatherize their facilities.

that's why they had so many problem and got frozen over last week. on top of that, they didn't have enough incentive to create reserve margin or excess capacity of power. that was a problem. and then maybe the biggest deal that people are dealing, which your package included, is they're getting hit with huge electricity bills, thousands and thousands of dollars right at a time when a lot of them are already struggling to try and find food and water, basic necessities or pay for the cleanup of their home. and yesterday the public utility commission met in an emergency meeting and put a stop to energy companies being able to send out bills to customers or stop services for lack of payment. it shows you the entire system is broken down. the fact that you have united states senator ted cruz walking

out on the state in a great time of need is so symbolic of where these elected officials are. so much more interested in fighting the culture wars, in making their ek logical points that they forgot about running government. you can't put people in charge of government that don't believe in government in the first place. they will fail you every time. >> kasie hunt, jump in. >> good to see you as always, mr. secretary, mr. mayor. those pictures that we just showed of ted cruz, he has gotten some blowback because he has been traveling internationally. i'm wondering if you could respond to that first. and then also you outlined all the problems. we have learned obviously the hard way that this is how this was going to play out. how do you solve those problems in the political system in texas? >> well, when it comes to ted cruz, look, i think for years now, there has been a narrative that has hardened around ted

cruz that he's only for himself. we saw that on the lead-up to january 6th provoking, inciting folks to go out in the capitol by questioning the election results and trying to stop the certification in congress of the november election results. people came away with that with a view of ted cruz that he's all in it for himself. this was the same thing. you know, when he was caught out in mexico, he came back and he said, well, because of the perception of it, essentially, i'm back here. it is not about the people that he serves, the texans in need. it is all about how it looks politically for him. people hate that about politicians, but that's his brand now. in terms of what we need to do going forward, immediately fema as a role to play. obviously the state government has a role to play. food banks across the state.

we raised $412,000 so far for feeding texas. i think those food banks are doing a heroic job, but we also need massive reform. we need reform to the publics utility commission so it's consumer oriented instead of captured by industry. we need to look at reregulating markets so there is the right incentives to actually create reserve capacity sufficient for events like this and also to make sure that these facilities are weatherized so they can withstand and event like this in the future. on top of that they're going to have to figure out what to do with these bills because texans should not pay these exorbitant rates. that is the number one issue of people's minds. they're not going to stand for paying $10,000 when they hardly had power in the first place. >> yeah. >> and they can't afford it anyway, even if you asked them to pay it. that needs to be solved

immediately. >> what a nightmare. jonathan lemire. >> secretary castro, of course, these devastating winter storms and accompanying power failures comes into the backdrop of this deadly pandemic. you are there. you know your state so well. can you give us an update on two things, the impact that the storm had on people who need, who are sick who need medical treatment but also the vaccination effort. the biden white house on friday and those in the distribution centers said privately they were very fearful of what could happen. the pandemic -- the vaccinations could be slowed. some in texas could go bad. what are you hearing about? what is the latest there on the ground in texas? >> well, in terms of the vaccination effort, of course this did scramble the effort last week to get people vaccinated because these vaccines can spoil if they're not used when they're supposed

to be used. i know a lot of providers of those vaccinations did everything they could to keep their appointments. i saw a couple announcements of places trying to cheat their appointments even when the roads were covered over with snow, when they were dangerous with ice. first they said to folks, look, it's your choice. you have to be careful. but there was -- there was a major effort to keep on track. at the same time, they were not able to do that after 24, 36 hours. it just became untenable. so they are behind. the good news, though, is that with the help of the biden administration now, you know, it's just running much more like clock work. so i think they will be able to get back on track in short order. my understanding is that we're 600 million vaccinations behind after last week but that dr. fauci believes we can get back

on track in a couple days. that's good news. you know, i think about saturday being part of a relief effort, getting our food at the food bank here. and the people that i saw coming through that line were overwhelmingly elderly san antonions. folks over 65 but also the people getting that vaccine right now. they had to get out and about and expose themselves to more risk. they were hard hit. we need to get back on track with those vaccines. >> thank you so much for being on this morning. we appreciate it. we'll be following this story. now to the fall-out, quite literally, from the plane that suffered major engine failure for the weekend. boeing is calling for the immediate grounding of a specific 777 worldwide after the engine on the united jet burst

into flames and came apart midair. nbc's megan fitzgerald has the details. >> reporter: this morning nearly 130 planes grounded after terrifying moments in the air saturday when a united flight leaving denver for hawaii was forced to make an emergency landing. >> an aircraft just experienced. we need to turn around immediately. >> all of a sudden it was just this big -- you could just feel it like, boom, and you could hear it and you just -- we started shaking. >> i feared for my life. i did at that point. >> so the engine was on fire and there was smoke coming out of it. so i told my wife that the engine was gone and she got up and looked out the window and was a little bit panic stricken. >> reporter: the pilots managed to land safety. panic and fear turned to relief.

none of the 239 passengers and crew onboard were hurt. overnight boeing saying all 128 of its triple 7 jets powered by a specific engine should be grounded. the engine maker dispatching a team. two hollow fan blades unique to the engine were fractured. and an engine cover also came off. that debris scattered throughout neighborhoods outside of denver. >> all of a sudden, i heard a big boom and the house shook. >> i get up and look at it. i see right away it is the front end of an airplane. >> reporter: the faa requesting stepped up inspections of the plane. saying it would temporarily stop flying nearly two dozen 777s. aviation experts puzzled by the flying plane parts. >> this is a bit troubling because the structure should still remain attached even if

you have a fan blade failure. >> reporter: growing concerns over the malfunction. >> wow. an update now on the controversy surrounding andrew cuomo who in an hour and a half news conference on friday said he accepted blame for the undercount of deaths at state nursing homes during the pandemic. i take responsibility for all of it, period, he said. quote, we created a void by not producing enough public information fast enough, we said. adding and conspiracy theories and politics and rumors fill the void. but as "the new york times" put it, cuomo sought to remain the debate, saying it constituted politically motivated attacks by him and others operating in a toxics political environment. what do you make of his explanation of it? and what exactly was the reason

for the undercount in the first place? why not just correct the record? >> well, certainly governor and his staff know how damaging this story is as he was hailed as a hero of the pandemic early on to have this counter narrative emerge also in the light of his book release. this is how he has handled this, the bullying with what aids have alleged. this is standard practice for him. the mayor was on this show last week details how the governor used intimidation and rules the party by fear. that's not a new story. that has been the case throughout his term. governor cuomo has survived scandal before. there was a corruption probe that landed his top aid in prison. he has been re-elected since. he stands for re-election in a year. this is probably the most politically vulnerable he's

been, but it is hard to count him out considering how much power he has in this state. but he will have to answer more and more questions about the nursing homes and the undercount. that's a story that's not going away. and we heard from the families of the loved ones demanding answers. >> all right. another story that's not going away, mr. pillow. up next, we already through the company, dominion was suing rudy giuliani for defamation following all those unfounded accusations of voting fraud. now the company is going after the my pillow guy. the latest on that lawsuit next on "morning joe." hey, dad! hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like..like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app

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defamation suit. "the wall street journal" reports that dominion, one of the largest makers of voting machines in the country cites a number of statements made by lindell, including media appearances, social media posts and a two-hour film claiming to prove widespread election fraud. the complaint alleges that mr. lindell made false claims about the integrity of dominion's voting machines and that he knew no credible evidence supported his claim that the company had stolen the election from mr. trump, what dominion has called the big lie. he is well aware of the independent audits and paper ballot recounts including disproving the big lie the complaint states but lindell sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows. in an interview monday mr. lindell said he was very, very

happy to learn of the lawsuit. i have evidence on them, i have all the evidence on them, he said, now this will get disclosed faster, all the machine fraud, and the attack on our country. lord. let's bring in someone who knows all too well the damage that was done by those who continue to push the lie that the trump won the election, just weeks into her second term, democratic congresswoman madeleine dean of pennsylvania played a prominent role as one of the impeachment managers during the second impeachment trial of former president donald trump. today she joins us with a different project, along with her son harry kunan who is an active member of the addiction recovery community since his recovery began more than seven years ago. this journey of survival is detailed in their co-authored memoir, under our roof, a son's

battle for recovery, a mother's battle for her son. they also co-wrote the new children's books "you are always loved," a story of hope, wow, madeleine dean, where do we begin here? i guess i do start with you, just as a mother, what an incredible journey and also set of challenges as you are also working on trying to make a difference running for office. you have this very private situation going on at home. i totally can feel the stress that you must have been under at times but tell us what drove you, and i'll half-answer, the love for your son. >> you have the answer. mika, you are a mother and you absolutely know. our book tells a story of me and harry and our struggles, me trying to find out what was going on with harry, what was going so terribly wrong with harry and it took years to discover because he was kwoot good at manipulating and sadly as he was falling farther and

farther into addiction we discovered what was going on, that he was struggling with addiction. we confronted him and asked him if he was ready to get help and blessedly he said yes. so you're right it was a very tense time. i used to say that i felt like there was a fire in the walls of our house and i was the only one who knew it. i knew we were in grave danger. i couldn't get to the bottom of it until we finally got to the bottom of it. >> harry, you write in the memoir about your turning point, and here's an excerpt. i remember my mom crying as she told me what she'd discovered. i remember not being able to get a word out, only tears. but the fear of exposure was accompanied by a new feeling, for the first time the truth seemed safer than telling another lie. this was my moment of clarity. suddenly i could that my parents were just as afraid as i was. that maybe, just maybe, i hadn't been alone in my struggles.

maybe i had been dragging them through it too. so harry, explain how your mother's love and support helped you, but did you reject it at times at first? was it -- she used the word manipulating and i know that might have been hard to hear, but when you're struggling often you want to hide things. and how did you do that? >> i spent a long time hiding the issues that i had with the substance use disorder, really mostly based out of fear. the stigma, you know, the idea of kind of exposing this thing that seemed so wrong without understanding that it was a disease and that, you know, substance use disorder is a treatable disease. so without that understanding all i felt was the fear and the shame and the stigma. so it took a lot. it was very difficult. but having -- you know, i was very fortunate to have my family at my side when i was ready to

come to terms and admit that i did have a problem and i really needed help. >> madeleine, from a mother's perspective, what was it like watching him coming clean, the actual withdrawal process, and getting to the point where he can now say he's seven years, you know, from it, but what was the -- what was the battle like in the moment of getting off this stuff? >> well, eight years, three months and a few days. so i'm so proud of harry. i have to admit to you when we drove him to treatment, i was beyond joyful that he had actually said yes. at the same time i was utterly scared to death because i didn't know how difficult withdrawal would be, i didn't know if he'd stay or would he elope in the night and go out and use again. it was frightening. but what we saw, and my husband and i both recognized, was as he

was in treatment we started to see the light come back in his lies, literally. we started to see the light come back in his voice. we could hear it. and so as he began to get well and healthy, and productive, it was so -- it was just amazing to watch. and i feel very fortunate. we know many other families are not so fortunate so that's why we wanted to write this book, to give others hope. >> so harry, none of this could be possible today without your struggle. ultimately it came down to you, and you were alone with it. as much as those who loved you tried their best, can you speak to those who struggle today with addiction especially about what it's like to be where you are now, and what are the words of inspiration that perhaps i wouldn't be able to have, but that you might have for them about why it's worth it? >> i love that question because

that's what we wanted to do with the book. you have to show the messy side of what we went through in order to fully understand what recovery is and what it can look like. when i went into treatment i had a very small outlook on what my life could potentially look like, based on my experience. and what i have found in recovery is just an abundance of opportunities where just i've been able to rebuild relationships, i've married a wonderful woman in juliet, i have -- my kids are amazing. but the things that i've been able to do have all been a direct result of being in recovery. to simplify it when i was caught up in active addiction i could not envision a life where i didn't desire to use drugs. and there's a fear of change. but today what i found is that, you know, although it's a process, it's ongoing, recovery

takes effort and work, it gets easier with time and what you're giving up is so small in terms of what is possible on the other side of recovery. >> what's been really beautiful is watching madeleine's face as you've answered that question because your mother loves you very much. the new book is "you are always loved, a story of hope," congresswoman madeleine dean and harry cunnane, thank you very much for being on. congratulations on the book and all of your success after a long battle. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is monday, february 22nd and we have a lot to get to, so let's get smarter. in just 30 minutes from now we will watch as merrick garland, the man once denied a spot on the u.s. supreme court, finally gets his confirmation hearing to be the u.s. attorney general.