♪♪ hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york on a day of big new developments on the two-front fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the economic suffering now plaguing americans across this come. at this hour, we're watching the white house where president joe biden is expected to issue an executive order focused on economic relief just moments from now, but we begin with a new vein of optimism running through the country. vaccinations are picking up. communities, many of them are on the brink of able to more safely loosen some of their

restrictions. the world health organization with news breaking just this morning that even more help is on the way. the fda had affirmed the efficacy of johnson & johnson's single-dose coronavirus vaccine for emergency use authorization, a critical milestone that means a third vaccine could hit the u.s. marketplace imminently. "new york times" says -- the one-shot vaccine provides strong protection against severe disease and death from covid, and may reduce the spread of the virus by vaccinated people times adding, quote, johnson & johnson's vaccine can be stored at normal refrigeration for at least three months.

nbc news reports that, assuming the fda authorization comes through this week as expected, johnson & johnson says it could provide 20 million shots by the end of next month, with another 100 million doses over the summer. of course, in the medical community, all of this hope on the vaccine front does not signal complacency is in order as another variant has been discovered in california. according to "new york times", it's fueling concerns that emerging mutants could hamper the shatter decline in cases overall in the state and perhaps elsewhere. economic concerns persist. fed chair powell tells lawmakers that relief for many americans is still a long way off and warns, quote, economic recoveries remains uneven and far from complete, the path ahead is highly unconcern.

president biden minutes from now will sign an executive order that will tough both prongs of the current covid crisis. the measure is designed, in part, to avert the catastrophic shortages that hospitals experienced at the beginning of the pandemic. the good news first, with a third coronavirus vaccine is where we start. ashley parker is back, and michael steele is here, and nbc news and msnbc public health analyst dr. irwin redliner it

doesn't require the extraordinarily cold temperatures, and seems to signal a more diverse sort of menu options. are we still talking about months before vaccines will be available on demand for any member of the public? >> first of all, this is uncharacteristically i'm extremely happy about this development. i think j & j will make a big difference, but i still think it's going to take a number of months before we get everybody up to a level of vaccination that may provide the long-sought herd immunity. it's going to be a while, but on the other hand there's also good news in the very sharp decrease in hospitalizations, cases and some decrease in fatalities as

well. the only caveat, and i'm obliged to mention this, nicolle, is that we really don't know what's going to happen with the mutations, they so-called variants. is it out of the question we can get a variant that will not be affected by the vaccine? it's not out of the question. is it out of the question we could get a variant more lethal? that's not out of the question, either. the answer to that is people do not need to let up, wearing masks, staying distant, making sure you're in well-vent rated rooms and look forward to more good news coming down the pike the next couple months. the biden administration will exceed their prediction of 100 million doses of vaccine

administered in the first 100 days. >> let me show you the other part of what the doctor is talking about, the white house efforts to make sure that mask wearing and social distancing don't dip during this critical period with the variance making their way this is from the white house briefing. >> we will deliver more than 25 million masks across the country. these masks will be available at more than 1300 community call centers, 60,000 food pantries nationwide. any american who needs a mask will be able walk into this is centers and pick up high-quality, american-made masks. they masks will be available at no cost. once again, our decisions here

having made with equity at the center. not all americans are wearing masks regularly. not all americans have access, and with this, we're hoping to level the playing field, giving vulnerable populations quality masks. >> how concerned is this white house that the mask debate and the mask decision-making process that any individual or family has gone through the last year, they may be too late to change people who don't believe or don't want to what is the goal? >> it's sort of a two-pronged question. like we can't control the deadly turns this disease may take, but there's a few basic things in our control.

that makes a tremendous difference when people do do them and don't. one thing that the experts and administration wants to make sure is people don't overcorrect to the positive, and they till best practices. the second part is the biden administration is still dealing with the aftermath in many ways of trumpism, not just the former president, but his dangerous misinformation and those basically dangerous facts he put out about the virus and the skepticism. that's why they say they are doing a very concerted effort to take their message to vulnerable communities, to the public in general about the importance of masking, getting a vaccine when you qualify, and making sure that people who not have access

to the high-quality masks can get them free of charge right there in their communities. >> michael stee, that was exactly what i thought when i saw the announcement today, obviously making masks available, high-quality masks is the right public policy, but they're dealing with more than just mask availability. they're dealing with what ashley described. eye going to show you something that dr. fauci said. i don't think we have viewers that are skeptical of science here, but i hope this same sound bite plays in places where there might be people skeptical. let's watch and talked about it on the other side. >> most recently in a study that appeared just a few days ago, it was found that really now something alarming, that approximately 30% of the patients who were enrolled tess university of washington reported persistent symptoms for

as long as nine months after illness. fatigue was the most common reported symptom and persistent symptoms were reported by one third of outpatients with mild disease. >> michael steele, nine months is just the amount of time we've been dealing with the coronavirus. that doesn't mean nine months is the longest that covid patients remain in 30% of the patients in this one study. it's terrifying. >> it is. it goes to the alarm bells that the good dr. fauci and others have been trying to get to the american people for the longest time. look, you know, i get a lot of folks coming at the biden administration, okay, why hasn't this happened? what are you doing about this or that? can we just check that for a moment and understand that this administration is now doing what

should have been done a year ago in preparing the american people to get access to masks? they're now trying to put in place a distribution system, because that wasn't in place. there's just not a whole lot here. not at just the federal level, but at the states inside are still trying to get a grip on so this report that dr. fauci is telling us, tells us just how impactful all of this has been, that you still -- just the idea of having this virus is not enough. says the ongoing -- and the

social distancing and all the precautions we have been trying to get in front of the people so now you have a good swath of the national, nicolle, who don't give a damn, who don't believe any of this is real. that's our reality, and we have to go about protecting ourselves against those who refuse to participate in a way that's least impactful and harmful to the rest of us. >> there's a study that shows some extremely high virus load in the nostrils of infants. i just shocking we have to convince people about virus load and the spread. >> that's correct. i think a couple companies will

start trying to vaccinate. the biden administration wants to start vaccinating kids as young as 6. that will happen soon, but we're talking about to emphasis what michael steele is saying, there's a lot of damage that has to be undone. so much of the work is trying to neutralize the damage that will be different to reverse. i do want children to be vaccinated as soon as possible, and by the way, as far as our children are concerned, i really, really think we have to focus on getting kids back to school as quickly as possible. that's why the vaccination of children will be important. in the meantime, the public health methods that need to be

employed generally need to be focused on particularly in schools. you know, the issue of long-term symptoms has actually been called long covid, is something we'll have to follow. we have no idea how long some of these medical complications and symptoms of covid will last in people. we're going to have a lot of work to do. >> ashley, speaking of unwinding the last administration, the executive orders around eliminating or avoiding some of the shortages of medical equipment, medical production, talk about joe biden toggling between the losses and the grief and individual help, and the economic sickness that has been called by the pandemic. >> one of the things that biden has also said and his advisers

have always said is his presidency is very much going to rise and fall on their success or not in combatting the coronavirus. but that's a long-term issue. in the meantime one of the key things is this economic relief. these communities where people are not sure if they can pay their mortgage. biden has taken some steps, for instance, to help with that, with what he's doing today, and the supply change problems, of course, we saw them under former president trump, and they are a tricky issue for any president, but now especially president biden. you to just turn on a switch. the biden administration came in and said they would use the defense production act, and certain they're exploring that, but when you lookic a at this, there's only so many companies and fact torries that have the capacity to produce these things as quickly as the country needs.

you're seeing what biden had to say, he's doing this and do it in a way that's not quite as protectionalist as donald trump, so he is open to working with u.s. allies, while also trying to balance making sure a lot of this will be done in the united states, helping to create jobs. it's incredibly complicated and only so much can be handled by an executive order. >> the other piece, michael steele, is a full-court press around the covid relief package. i'm amazed that the republicans are marching in lockstep. i saw this online today. these are the most dangerous jobs, meaning these are the jobs where covid mortality is the greatest threat -- cooks in the food industry, machine

operators, agricultural workers, construction laborers, first responders, cleaners, members of the military, truck driver, bartenders and teaching assistants. i wonder the next time a republican says they're for working people, what do they say to the people paying with their lives for this country's woeful response to the pandemic? >> they won't say anything. they'll drive right past it as if they were on the right side of history all along. they'll put up the pretense that they were looking out for the overall health of the nation's economy, so that those jobs for a lot much those workers would be there in the future. i guess that, but people are sick and dying now. people are on the threshold of losing their livelihoods, their homes right now. as dr. redliner pointed out, you have students who are anxious to go back to class.

how often have you seen that, where kids are like, can i go back to school? >> i'm living it. >> you know, there is this sort of pent-up reality that a lot of republicans are just whistling past, because donald trump wants them to. they're continuing the big lie narrative, and in continuing that narrative, which touches on not just the election, but things that were relating to his handling of covid-19 as well, you cannot break ranks those realities will have to be confronted, but they don't think they'll have to. we can find $1.9 trillion for families, teachers, communities across the country that are affected by this virus. we've been given the two-minute warning for president biden, so if we cut you off, i

apologize in advance, but i want to push further on this topic. the cement that republicans have poured around their feet and jump into the ocean on now encompasses indifference to the insurrection, indifference to the loss of 500,000 lives, and indifference to the economic struggles that are hopefully, god willing, temporary. do you think they'll pay a price to opposing this package? >> i would like to think so. i would hope they look past this and get past the tribalism of it, my side and no other, to recognize what was for the greater good of the country and how we as a party have failed to deliver on that. yeah, there should be accountability, and there should be a responsibility that we have as citizens to hold our elected officials accountable when they fail so egregiously on something

so important as this. i think we'll get the first test of this coming this november in of off-year elections, and then as we begin to wind ourselves into next year, what the voters are say about the men and women who have stood in the way of this effort as they put themselves in front of them for reelection. >> you're right. that will be the first test. ashley parker, doctor, thank you for starting us off. michael steele is sticking around. we're waiting for that white house -- our al sharpton just wrapped up an exclusive interview with vice president harris. and the biden administration is reportedly ramping up its investigation surrounding the death of george floyd.

all those stories and more when "deadline: white house" continuing. don't go anywhere. dline: white continuing don't go anywhere. [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [music: “you're the best” by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. 1 in 2 kids is under hydrated. ♪ plant-powered creative roots gives kids the hydration they need, with the fruit flavors they love. and one gram of sugar. find creative roots in the kids' juice aisle. - i'm norm. - i'm szasz. and one gram of sugar. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. we do consulting, but we also write.

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the biden administration is launching a public campaign next month to encourage people to get their vaccinations. the campaign is aimed at building confidence and dispelling any misinformation or doubts about the safety of it, particularly among communities of color. communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. the white house is hoping the

campaign will help address that disparity. the reverend al sharpton sat down with the vice president on this. >> as we continue fighting on other things, voting and all of that, the first thing we have to do here and be alive. >> that's right, reverend. let's not let covid get us. let's get the vaccine instead, right? let's not let this thing get us. we know black people are disproportionately to contract it and die from it. we look at the frontline workers most at risk. when you look at the fact that black small businesses, as much as i have seen 40% are going out of business or have gone out of business, it is disproportionately affecting us. if we want to get control of

this virus that is harming us at a disproportionate rate, part of it is to get vaccinated when it is our turn. part of it is -- i have my mask right here. wear the mask all the time when you are around other people. six feed of distance. wash your hands with warm or hot water and soap. let's save or lives. we're going to get beyond this. part of what the president and i are offers as part of the release is the american rescue plan to say it can't only be on folks, it has to be all of us working together. get the vaccine, wear a mask, social distancing, wash your hands. what we need to do is pass the american rescue plans so we can get the stimulus checks to folks, pass the child tax credit so that families can live half of american children who are

living in poverty out of the poverty. let's extend the unemployment benefits. let's do all of these things, partnering together, so we can get through this moment of crisis. i have faith. i believe in our ability to get through this, to lift folks up and lift ourselves up when we have the opportunity. >> you can catch more of that inclusive interview tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. eastern before the full sit-down interview airs on saturday night at 5:00 p.m. on "politics nation." the rev is here now fresh off his interview, and robert gibb is here and michael steele is still here. she's taking her own verse an elevations of straight talk and straight to folks -- we've had this conferring for month about

some folks who may have good reason to have fear about the vaccine? >> i think that's correct. she agreed to do this. we're doing a special edition on saturday. we know each other. saying i wanted you to be a special guest for our end of the month, black history month show. she said, fine, but this is what i want to talk about. she is committed that she wants to really address the hesitancy in the black community, and challenge those of us in leadership or high-profile positions, and get on board with this. what else can we be talking about in black history than these issues? we're going to weigh in on them. >> we'll get the rev back.

this is the live television in the time of zoom. michael steele, just to pick up. she's making this point passionately and directly the fights that need to be have, the policies that need to be changed, we can't have those fights if we're not here. >> she's taking it straight to the streets as she should. that is a good nair fifty for the administration. it goes back to what we are talking about before, about how this administration came in the door with a lot of doors and windows already closed. so they had to figure out how to open those doors to get in fresh air into this process, and begin to reach out to something to say to them when they know you're not coming correct, they're going to blow back on you or

just ignore you. i think what the vice president has put in front of the american people, but disposal the african american commune -- especially since the conversation around a vaccine has been taken hold and is now in front you. rev, when we lost you to the perils of technology, i noted her very first answer out of the gate was about the fight, the fights that need to be had, the policies that need to be changed, dealing with everything

that she and president biden ran on. those fights can't be won if we don't make it. i think what she's saying is the most brunt, in some ways brutal message about the stakes. >> you know, no doubt about it. shy was very blunt, have i candid. i think we're at that point. we're at half a million people have died, a disproportionate i'm in our community. i think it's fortuitous we have robert gibb on. when we faced these issues with president obama, he would say if you're serious about the community, you guys have to help me. i think she chose doing it with me, you know, you all listen to

sharpton on these issues, let's talk real talk here. and hopefully it moves the dial. a lot of the myths here, and i think thatclearly -- i still call mr. gibbs the chairman -- a lot are -- in reality, the tuskegee experiment, they wouldn't bring us the penicillin, they wouldn't give his a healing thing. we have to stop talking about it. they wouldn't give us something to heal us, not that they gave us something to get us sick. they let people die because they wouldn't vaccinate them, but if you speak straight to them, i think it says a lot about us, whether we are sincere or just go for the soft balls that we

think we can hit home runs. >> robert gibbs, you've been invoked. i want to add to his question. have you worked in a white house communications center, i'm super attuned to the messages. she's been careful about where she speaks out and what she's spoken out on. it's clear in this first sore of foray, she's going to push for the dough individual relief package and try to save lives and encourage people to get vaccinated. it seems like a good use of her time, her efforts and her public relations sort of time on her schedule, which is obviously very packed. >> absolutely. nicolle, i remember those meetings, reverend, with president obama. i grew up 20 minutes away from tuskegee, alabama.

i have seen and everybody knows the reverberation of the tragedy of that time period in our history. as reverend said, we have to overcome that. people have to get information. they have to see a black vice president getting the vaccine. they need to be black doctors and nurses administer it. they need the michael steeles and al sharptons of the world getting the vaccine, but it's not just that. they need to see the leaders in their local churches getting it. they need to see the barbershops getting it. i think that trusted information -- look, there's no better use, i think, as you said of the vice president's time to go out and tackle what we know is a hurdle in the black community based on this horrific amount of history. this is one thing that we knew was going to be inherited around a vaccine. we've known it for 50 years in the black community, based on

the history of what we've been through. >> michael steele, i don't want to be too narrow in this conversation. i mean, president biden makes clear he understands there's distrust in the african community, espeeshlly about government-funded efforts. this reveals the extreme negligence of the last team. >> it's not just in the raw numbers that we have seen. you know, the number who have been infected by this thing, the number who have died, but also the residual across communities in the nation, and quite honestly, nicolle, how it's lived out every day in neighborhoods, communities, hospitals that are dealing with this issue, with the backing and

support of the infrastructure of the white house and the president himself, going out and bringing this direct, raw, streetwise message, that resonates across in communities across the country. i think it's very, very important. they are starting from a standstill position. they did not have a transition into office to deal with this. they did not have an administration that was on the tip of the spear, applying the advantages of government, whether it's the various defense protection acts or mobilizing here or there. they didn't have any of that. we're watching this being created. so bravo, and we need to get behind that effort. >> reverend, thank you for coming here right after that interview. we're excited to see it. it's a big week.

on this topic, joy reid will host a special edition of her show with dr. anthony fauci and members of the congressional black caucus. if you want to ask a question or by part of the virtual audience, listen up. go to msnbc.com/townhall. that special airs this friday at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. when we come back, the death of george floyd at the hands of minneapolis police officers has sparked outrage all over the world. now the biden justice department appears to be getting very serious about the investigation into it. more into that story, next. into it. more into that story, next as doctors, we make evidence-based

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covid's still a threat. and on reopening schools, we know what happens when we don't put safety first. ignore proper ventilation or rates of community spread, and the virus worsens. fail to provide masks or class sizes that allow for social distancing, and classrooms close back down. a successful reopening requires real safety and accountability measures. including prioritizing vaccines for educators. parents and educators agree: reopen schools. putting safety first. if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe.

we expect any moment to hear from president biden. here he is. >> good afternoon. the vice president and i had a very productive meeting with a bipartisan group of senators and house members to address an issue of both concern for our economic security as well as our national security, it is resilience and reliability of our critical supply chains. this is a critical area where republicans and democrats agree, with one of the best meetings i think we've had so far, though we've only been here about five weeks. it's like the old days. people were on the same page. good bipartisan work has already been done. the leaders of this praise, the house and senate, have already done great work. i want to thank them for their leadership. we're here to build on that.

the bottom line is simple. the american people should never face shortages in the goods and services they rely on, whether that is their car or prescription medicines or the food at the local grocery store. remember, shortages in ppe during the pandemic, that meant we didn't have masks. we didn't have gowns or gloves to protect our frontline healthcare workers. we heard horror stories of doctors and nurses wearing trash bags over their gowns so they wouldn't be in trouble, because they had no gowns. they were rewashing, reusing their masks over and over again in the o.r. that never should have happen it should never happen again in the u.s. we shouldn't rely on a foreign country in order to protect and provide for our people during an emergency. the first executive order i

signed was to ensure there were manufacturing more protective equipment for healthcare workers here at home. today, i'm short by going to be signing another executive order to help address the vulnerabilities in our supply chains across additional critical sectors of our economy, so the american people are prepared to withstand any crisis, and rely on ourselves. this is about making sure the united states can meet every challenge we face in this new era. pandemic, also defense, cybersecurity, climate change, so much more. the best way to do that is by protecting and sharpening's america competitive edge. as i've said from the beginning, we're going to invest in america, and invest in american workers, then we're in a much better position to compete beyond what we're even doing now. diverse supply dhans, we're being to revitalize our

domestic -- and create good paying jobs. jobs that are at the prevailing wage. we're going to spare new -- spur new opportunities for small businesses, communities of color, economic and distressed areas. i will drive new investment in research and innovation and our workforce, investing in training, in university partnerships, they're going to lead to new technology, new solutions. all of this won't just strengthen our domestic capacity, but release new markets around the world and grow opportunities for american businesses to export their goods that we will be making. these are the common-sense solutions that all americans can get behind. workers and leaders, republicans and democrats. it's about resilience, identifying possible points of

vulnerability and making sure one of the work-arounds in place. remember the proverb, for want of a nail a shoe is lost, for wasn't of a shoe a horse is lot, and it goes on and on until the kingdom is lost. it can caught outside impacts further up the chain. recently we have seen how a shortage of computer chips, like the one i have here -- you can hardly see it, i imagine. it's called a semiconductor. 21st century horseshoe nail. this semiconductor is smaller than a postage stamp, but has more than 8 billion transistors. 8 billion transistors seven time that are a -- these chips are a

wonder in innovation and design. we need to make sure that supply chains are secure and reliability. we are working to identify solutions to this semiconductor shortfall and work hard with the house and senate. they have authorized a bill, but need nearly $37 billion short term to make sure we have this capacity. we all recognize the till lars problem won't by solved immediately. in the meantime we're reaching out to our allying in the supply chain to ramp up production, to help us resolve the bottlenecks we face we need to stop playing

catch-up. in some cases building resilience will mean increases production of certain types of elements here at home. others is working more closely with our trusted friends and partners, nations that share or values so our supply chains can't be used against us as leverage. it will mean identifying and building surge capacity that can quickly be turned into and ramped up production in times of emergency. it will mean investing in research and development, like we did in the '60s, to ensure long-term competitiveness in our manufacturing base in the decades ahead. the order i'm about to sign does two things. first it orders a 100-day review of four vital products -- semiconductors one, key minerals and materials like rare earth

that are used to make everything from harder steel to airplanes, three pharmaceuticals and their ingredients, four advanced batteries like the ones used in electric vehicles. there's strong bipartisan support for fast review of of these four areas. they're essential for protecting the strength of american competitiveness. second, this order initiates a long-term review of the industry bases of six sector of our overall economy over the next year. they will review how to fortify or supply chains at every step and critically implementing those recommendations right away. as we implement this work, my administration will draw on a full range of american talent, include labor and industry

leaders, policy experts, scientists, farmers, engineers, to get their input. i'm grateful for the members of congress who came to see me, republican leaders as well as democrats. they're leading the way. we're going to stay in close contact with members of both sides of the aisle and keep advancing our shared goals. everyone has a role to play to strengthen our supply chains and our country. this is the united states of america. we are better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century and any country in the world. there's nothing, nothing, nothing we have ever failed to achieve if we work together. that's what we decided to do today. that's what we're going to do, work together. so i thank you all. i'm very optimistic about the meeting we had today, and now i'm going to walk over and sign that executive order.

>> thank you all very much. -- >> reporter: nominees not been confirmed by the senate? >> i am, but i don't so much blame it on the senate. i blame it on the failure to have a transition that was rational. as you know, previous administrations had a significant number of their cabinet confirmed before they even were sworn in. that's the tradition. we're doing fine.

i think we're going to be in good shape. thank you. [ inaudible question ] >> i'm going to be talking to them. i have not spoken to them yet. [ inaudible question ] >> am i going to take read the khashoggi report? >> yes, i have. thank you. >> political news coming out of that. the executive order that president biden signed, he said that was designed to protect america at a time of national emergency from disruptions in our critical supply chain but robert gibbs, i thought the headline was something he said at the beginning when he said this is the best meeting we've had in the five weeks here. it was like the old days and made clear the american people should never face shortages, making clear this was something that in his view had bipartisan support. that is the central theme and central objective of how he has

at least so far committed to govern as president. >> nicolle, so many issues the american people are concerned with, they're concerned in a bipartisan way. republicans and democrats. supply chain resiliency is one of them. we faced that at the beginning of this pandemic. whether it was, the president said, the horrific pictures of watching doctors and nurses have to put on trash bags or whether we went to the grocery store and found that the shelves were empty for the staples that we needed to survive this pandemic. so i think this is important as an issue for him and it's good to see leaders in both parties agreeing with the president on the need to make sure there's that resilience. >> michael, i also heard a couple of shouted questions. he was asked if he was disappointed about the rate of confirmations of his cabinet and he said he didn't blame the senate. he said, it was, quote, a failure to have a transition that was rational.

>> that's exactly what i was saying before we went to the break. the expectation game in washington, as we know, everyone on this knows, it's brutal, right? but there's a big asterisk on this particular transition because this president was not afforded the dignity and the respect of his predecessors who were transitioning after their election victory. they have been trying to play catch-up from the very beginning, so the president is exactly right. a significant number of cabinet members, particularly, quote, the easy ones, right, are done doing that between the election and the inauguration and gives that president coming in the door with a running stop, start of people in place. joe biden didn't have that. so we just need to sort of back off of that side of the pressure and recognize the handicap

they're trying to overcome. i think overcoming pretty well given the obstacles and given the on obstinance. >> i want to come back to this with all of you because it strikes me, i'm fuming anew that donald trump was running around with the pillow guy and talking about martial law around a big lie and shrug their shoulders and said donald trump deserves this time. he did not deserve this time and the country was damaged during that window. the country has been damaged by the fact he was deprived of the dignity of a transition. robert gibbs, i also heard him say he looked at a report on khashoggi who was slaughtered by the saudis. expected to be u.s. foreign policy with saudi arabia and russia expected to be the most

abrupt shifts in u.s. foreign policy. what should we expect in those areas knowing the folks that you know who are on his foreign policy team? >> well, i think there's going to be a much more critical examination of what that relationship looks like. i think you've heard them talk about a different posture as it relates to arm sales and around this report, i understand from reporting yesterday that the president is supposed to talk with the king of saudi arabia and this report is going to be front and center and it's going to become a grizzly report from what the reporting showed and i assume it will be a pretty blunt conversation. it will be very different from the pictures that we saw when donald trump traveled to saudi arabia very early in his administration. >> you know, listening to the president talk about with such good cheer and enthusiasm the bipartisan spirit that he said

was, quote, like the old days, republicans have a get out of jail free card but i'm pretty sure they don't even deserve and because of his grace, they can come to the table and be part of trying to move the country forward around the pandemic, around traditionally, republican topics. what do you make of the way president biden continues to emphasize and extend all this grace and space to the republicans? >> you know, it is sad when decency and proper decorum makes news because we've become so used to republicans. >> you're right. >> the ugliness and rudeness, it's really news, it lets everything stop in decency because it's almost a rare tool and it becomes some of the power of joe biden. after all that you've seen the

last four years that costs us lives that experts say we didn't have to lose in covid and for him to come and say i had a great conversation with the other side, no sly remark, no innuendo, no kind of sarcasm, just straightforward and we want to protect the workers and we want to do the right thing. it's so refreshing and this is sandwiched between a senator leaving his state that is under siege by natural disaster in texas and he blames his kids and this weekend where donald trump will reemerge the seat back. i'm trying to inhale all of the decency i can because i know come the weekend, we're going to be back in this kind of atmosphere. there's no telling, i'm sure trump is somewhere gargling now before the nastiest distractions we're going to hear that we don't need as we're dealing with

this covid-19 crisis. the last thing we need is donald trump to reemerge, but reemerge he will. >> amen. reverend al sharpton. congrats on that. great interview. thank you for sharing it with us again. this hour of quickly changing breaking news. thank you for rolling with us. next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started. break. don't go anywhere. we're just getting started ♪ hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid ♪ ♪ and all that glitters is gold ♪ applebee's $1 boneless wings with any handcrafted burger. i have an idea for a trade. oh yeah, you going to place it? not until i'm sure. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. voila!

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senator, what do you say to

your fellow americans that you were complicit? >> outrageous, absolutely outrageous and utter lie and no one i think who knows any of the facts such thing. >> outrageous. hi again. what's outrageous is the actions by the gop since the capitol attack on january 6th. encouraging the outrage, all the anger that led to the violence at the capitol that day and spreading disinformation about what happened. here's the facts, mr. hawley. mr. hawley was the first senator who said that he would contest the counting of the electoral college votes. he spread the big lie about election fraud. he showed the protesters they had his support. he raised his fist in the air. helped ferment the horror that took place. hawley and others took a page

from the play book, telling people not to believe what they see with their own eyes. the security failures on january 6th. ron johnson spent a majority of his time claiming provocateurs and fake trump supporters were the ones who committed the violence. false claim with swift condemnation from both sides of the aisle. bump in the "washington post" notes, we see efforts like johnson's to separate the bad parts of what occurred from those he wants to defend. those protest attendees who weren't part of the violence. by no means the only one under way and attempt to diminish the white supremacy and its outsized role in the insurrection. we usually refrain from playing the lies spewed by right-wing media but look at the falsehoods followed by clear and unanimous testimony from former capitol and washington law enforcement at yesterday's hearing. >> there's no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on january 6th. >> to those who say we need a

new domestic war on terror there will give more unaccountable power to these law enforcement agencies without any kind of oversight, that is a scary prospect and i'm totally opposed to it. >> based on what we know now including the recent department of justice indictment, do you agree there is now clear evidence that supports the conclusion that the january 6th insurrection was planned and it was a coordinated attack on the u.s. capitol? agree? >> yes. >> okay. >> would you agree that this attack involved white supremacists and extremist groups? >> yes. >> the gop's torrent of disinformation around the insurrection as we start this hour, with some of our favorite reporters and friends. peter baker, white house correspondent and nbc political analyst. our friend eli stoples and then

msnbc contributor. peter baker, it falls to you to tell me why josh hawley is absolutely opposed to a law called a domestic terror law. >> look, you know, the issue here is blame and he is feeling the heat, obviously. he's been excoriated not just by democrats but even fellow republicans, former senator from missouri, republican and one of his mentors who said endorsing him was one of his biggest mistakes. excoriated by his home state newspapers. he's trying to distance himself from the actions of january 6th in making the case to some of the more extreme people out there on the right that the government is really to blame, the government's excessive power is the real problem here and that appeals to some in the crowd today. some at the capitol and some who didn't but the law and order theme that president trump and other republicans have taken in

recent years. so i think that trying to square those things is going to be an interesting trick. josh hawley wants to run for president, at least that's what people think and he's trying to make sure he controls or at least one of the leading people in the trump lane assuming trump himself doesn't run 2024 and he's doing that by appealing to the most trumpy part of the base. >> he's appealing to and defending the actions that everyone who testified yesterday, eli stokels, were white supremacists. when they say let's defend white supremacists, let's defend -- why are they rowing against the fact-finding mission around january 6th? >> they're just rowing against a reality that the entire country and that they themselves experienced on january 6th and that's elemental to trumpism and the continuing project of creating this alternative world. really a world building exercise that happens every night on fox

news. it used to happen with the president's twitter feed and it happens with a lot of the republicans like josh hawley who are vying for position in that trump lane, as peter called it, looking ahead to the 24 presidential election policy. all of these myths and lies and enemies and scapegoats all of this demand. that's what precipitated the events of the 6th, the insurrection, the lie that the election had been stolen and now a bunch of lies to explain what happened. to dismiss what happened. to brush it away, to excuse insurrectionists and blame it on democrats or other enemies because that's where we are on the right. it is the trump right that's really driven by negative partisanship above all else. if the democrats are for something, they're against it and they will sort of pick and choose and create their own fact set, even if these things are not factual because that

perpetuates the world that they choose to live in, and on the republican side, part of the party is divided. we saw liz cheney and minority leader mccarthy kind of divided when they took a question about trump at the press conference on capitol hill and liz cheney was outspoken about trump should not have a role in this party but she's in the minority. she's the one that trump's favorite congressmen are trying to attack to start a primary challenge against. mitt romney, who would like to focus on policy is out there acknowledging that trump controls the party. yesterday he spoke of the tiny wing of the republican party that i represent. so there is broad awareness that this is where the emotion is in the republican party and that the majority of the base, they are animated by opposition to democrats by conspiracy theories and by a lot of the emotional buttons that get push esfandiari every night and in the hallways. >> let me play from liz cheney

and kevin mccarthy. >> do you believe president trump or former president trump should be speaking at cpap this weekend? >> yes, he should. >> congresswoman cheney? >> that's up to cpap. i don't believe he should be playing a part in the future part of the country. >> on that high note, thank you all very much. >> let me say something. i worked with and around the cheneys. the only person sweating that moment out was kevin mccarthy, but to eli's point, liz cheney and mitt romney are in the minority and i have to say, we should dispense the notion this is a right/left continuum. this is a dark underbelly. this is normalizing insurrectionists and socializing and bringing out into the open

as part of the party platform white supremacists. this is a once in a generation opportunity for the democrats to really cement their identity as the only functioning political party, governing party in the country. >> well, listen, nicolle. this is something we're not likely to hear at cpap but cancel culture is not the main threat to our democracy. white supremacy and domestic terrorism is, and that is what is being explored and quantified by our own, some republicans might want to say and try to insinuate that white supremacy is not really an issue and that we should be moving on from talk of white supremacy as being a threat, even as we continue to see that being a concern for law enforcement and for our federal government. look, i think just as the president's words and his

rhetoric were a record of what happened, you have a trail of comments and of video from lawmakers and others who were perpetuating the lie of a rigged election, of voter fraud, black voters casting illegal ballots which was just not true and even though we've had an impeachment trial where you had the majority of republicans not voting to impeach the president, history is going to judge them long after impeachment and all of that stands as a record. you also have, going on right now, these hearings about what happened at the capitol. a commission that will be formed to study and really put on the record what happened. those are the things, facts that are going to stand for what happened, not only on january 6th but really, just the highly racialized and dangerous

violence we have seen not just on january 6th but really over the past four years if not for longer in this country. >> peter baker, you covered the bush white house at the time when the 9/11 commission results, i believe, were made public and came out as that report was done. i wonder if you could just sort of examine and analyze this moment where there's debate how a 9/11 style commission gets put together. how do you undergo a process like when sitting u.s. senators like ron johnson read stuff, so dumb that a child wouldn't take it at face value, so inane that he debases a senate hearing. it's a privilege to have a role in that and should be taken seriously. i mean, senator blunt seemed to take his role seriously and seemed to pursue facts from the witnesses. allow do you conduct an investigation when you've got sitting republican senators like ron johnson and josh hawley totally disengaged from the

facts and afraid of them it seems? >> well, that's a good question. one thing, you don't have sitting senators on this commission, right? the success of the 9/11 commission, let's go back and remember that for a second. the bush white house actually, nervous about it, understandably, because they thought they might be, you know, pounded as a responsible for not doing enough to prevent the attacks and they did take criticism but the commission was not out to get anybody but to find out the facts. the brilliance of the report is it stands as an uncontested account of what happened. the republicans and democrats alike trust and believe to this day and it happened because you had two leaders, a republican and democrat. tom and lee hamilton, determined to get to the bottom of this and not currently in office, not currently trying to run for office again and had a serious purpose and evenly divided by republicans and democrats. not in office at the time. speaker pelosi says she wants a 9/11 style commission but the talking she's put out so far,

democrats with seven positions and then four, the chairman would be a democrat. that's not the same thing as 9/11 commission. now, the democrats are saying, how can you have republicans on there if they're complicit in the events of january 6th which is an interesting question because in fact, this event is so arguably partisan to begin with that bipartisanship seems like a fanciful illusion in sorting it out but i think it means you probably have to get people who are not elected officials currently, not planning to run and don't have to appeal to a base and who are serious players in both parties who care about the system and will put aside their party's interest to have an honest, open look at whatever happened, whoever did what in a forthright way. whether that can happen, i don't know. the at so much more polarized than it was in the early 2000s and we thought it was pretty polarized then. >> the refusal to acknowledge white supremacists' role. i mean, these were, just ask the white supremacists if they were there and they'll tell you,

uh-huh. i don't understand the disinformation, but i do, i'm going to show one more piece of liz cheney's sound because she's a one woman wrecking ball inside the republican party against this aversion to acknowledge the role that white supremacy plays in trumpism. watch. >> it's very important for us to ignore the temptation to look away and it's very important, especially for us as republicans to make clear that we aren't the party of white supremacy. i think our media plays a huge role in that. i think any media organization that was perpetuating the notion, continues to perpetuate the notion that the election was fraudulent or was stolen is contributing to a very dangerous set of circumstances and i think the american people need to know the truth about what happened. >> eli, she's right, of course,

but it would not appear and hope springs eternal, but the echo chamber, the only chance they'll be held accountable seems to be the lawsuits against dominio going after the anchors who lied about the election but other than that, doesn't seem to be much of a pivot in the right-wing media trump echo chamber. >> 100%. the only time you see contrition or a change from the big lie was after people start getting sued by the voting machine company that you see conservative media say, actually, we can't air this or we should make this note that these are things unproven. that's the only time. if you're looking for political repercussions, i don't know if you'll find them certainly not heading into primary season in the republican party. i mean, that's what's driving

the calculations and the people buying in to all the disinformation to spreading disinformation and to sort of just going right over and trying to ignore the obvious white nationalism that has been at the heart of trumpism since the beginning. since the lie about birtherism and barack obama not having been born in the united states. even though we all know that he was. the opening of the campaign basically with xenophobia attacking mexicans as rapists and right up until the end, charlottesville, all the episodes of the trump presidency but the big lie at the end, what was he telling people? his supporters, most of them white, votes from urban areas, singled out detroit, georgia. the black votes from urban areas where there had to be fraud. never mind they never produced any evidence of it, never mind they got thrown out of court some 60 times. they continued to perpetuate these lies because they know

they have sewed the seeds for years and gotten a base of supporters willing to accept it, to believe it, to buy into that. that is sort of definitional of trumpism and of where we are at this moment. it may not be convenient for republicans to acknowledge publicly when they are confronted in the senate hallways, but they are definitely leaning into it when they sit in the chair every night on "hannity". >> it's an unbelievable state of affairs. perfectly put, by all of you. peter baker, thank you so much for starting us off. eli and errin are sticking around. when we come back, new details about the investigation into the insurrection at the capitol and the arrest of a retired new york city police officer who prosecutors say attacked a dc police officer, quote, like a junkyard dog. let that sink in. as president biden pushes ahead on his agenda, republicans around the country are weaponizing the big lie to mount

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based on the intelligence we received, we anticipated that some participants may be armed but none of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred. what we got was a military style

coordinated assault on my officers and a violent takeover of the capitol building. >> ted cruz texting while steve sund confirmed it was available hours before the insurrection on january 6th, they did not expect the militaristic assault we saw unfold before our eyes and learning more about the role former law enforcement and military played in the storming of the capitol. a retired new york city police department officer who guarded city hall was charged yesterday for his role in the insurrection. prosecutors say thomas webster also a former marine, assaulted a police officer with a metal flag pole, likened to a junkyard dog. in justice department complaint, images from dc body cam appears to show a barricade with the pole and also shows webster raising the pole and swinging it towards the officer. prosecutors say webster charged

the police barricade, attacked the officer, tackling him to the ground and attempted to rip off the officer's mask. webster's lawyer telling nbc news his client hit by the officer before retaliating and pleaing not guilty to charges of assault. the lawyer says webster attended the rally at the behest of the president of the united states. joining our conversation, msnbc national security clint watts and distinguished research fellow. eli still here. clinton, in a period of incredibly disturbing charging documents and developments in the investigation into the insurrection, for some reason, reading about this one was particularly searing. >> these are people that know law enforcement and military members yet felt it was okay to go in and attack them. it's just strange.

i don't understand that thinking and what four years of president trump politicizing the law enforcement can do and we have a significant problem right now in a couple of different ways. their first priority seems to be cleaning out their own ranks, trying to make sure they don't have extremists or people anti-government in the ranks of the military which is paid for by the government. separately, in the law enforcement space, we've got another serious issue. we see former law enforcement essentially service and storm this place against other plarmt law enforcement. they probably thought the supporters supported him and then sheriffs say they do not recognize that joe biden was the president and that they are essentially not going to believe

in the rule of law from the federal level and i think that's an incredibly dangerous phenomenon we have in this country, both between federal, state and local law enforcement but who are you as a citizen, as an american citizen if you're not on that team whenever you go into their jurisdiction? how are you going to be treated? will you fairly be meeted out in terms of what the law is? >> i want to ask you about the militia groups and white supremacists recruiting from former law enforcement but let me read you a little bit of the reporting from the "washington post" first. the chief judge in dc's federal courthouse made a similar argument when refusing to release william, another veteran engaging in violence at the capitol. prosecutors alleged him, a group of six affiliated with the right-wing proud boys that broke through police lines and helped others to do the same. at one point, according to court records, he threatened capitol police officers attempting to arrest members of the mob.

my question is, we talk about white supremacists. is it an overlap or intersection with ananarchists? the overthrow of the government, which is what the attack was, more like waco or anti-government violent intersecting with violent supremacists. >> it's not unusual. if you rewind to the 1990s, both former military members. kevin, the person who put together a bomb at martin luther king parade luckily detected before it could go on. a former military member. so there's always been a lot of overlap in these spaces. i think you could look at it as really a venn diagram that you see several things overlap. anti-government militias, white supremacist groups from highly organized to very disorganized and almost online, which would be the acceleration folks who

believe a race war needs to be initiated so that they can essentially bring a second civil war and parallel to that, the conspiracy space. this is qanon, certain adherents will often overlap and i think that's what you saw at the senate chambers was confluence of all of those actors pouring in the doors. didn't necessarily know each other and wouldn't have necessarily agree with each other but one thing unifies them and that was donald trump. if president trump is to come back, he will remain a driving force. if he doesn't with targets, he'll see plots like the wolverine militia trying to connect governor whitmer in michigan and if he goes to places like the capitol, that's the conundrum where the gop doesn't take it seriously. give it a pass and political leaders essentially saying, it was okay to storm the capitol. it is okay to say the election was rigged. you maybe don't have to follow the rules. and that's a terribly dangerous precedent.

so looking into the summer, i'm quite worried as the pandemic ends that there will be a higher availability of targets that president trump may come back and begin some very extremist rhetoric again. point to more targets or claim people are legitimate and then some that got a taste of the excitement of january 6th will show up again, but next time, they'll plan a plot and have more sophisticated devices and a better target set to go after. that's what i'm really concerned about for the fbi and dhs this summer. >> such a terrifying scenario, but it is the one that we were warned about, eli, in a really unprecedented security alert from the department of homeland security, the joint terrorism task force and the fbi to be on the alert of what clint watts described through at least the end of april. i wonder, and i know everyone is desperate to turn the page from the trump presidency, but it is

impossible to ignore the danger that he brought in. the incitement, not just to the insurrection but violent extremists to act out against, as clint describes, targets who represent the government, represent covid restrictions, who represent everything that has been socialized as the enemy. i mean, the enemy of the people, smear against the media has obvious repercussions, creates obvious targets of all of us but this effort to delegitimize the state and the government seems to be the one that has seeped in and really animated some of the most dangerous forces in american politics. >> that's right. we talked about this in the last segment about the sectarian nature of our politics now and how political opposition seems to justify any view seems to lead to a very selective belief in the fundamentals of the rule of law. who those laws apply to and who they don't and what is justified in terms of politics and what

people can be stirred up to do. i mean, this is a very scary period. i talk to people in the biden white house every day and hear a lot that they expected to go in and have president trump on twitter attacking them every day and they're still sort of shocked at the quiet and not having his voice, not having him driving the news cycle all the time and so denying him that platform is one thing that i think may give some folks a little bit of hope about how it may be tougher for him out of office now and off twitter to be deplatformed, not be able to actually mobilize his base to action quite the same way but this is taken root. anti-media, anti-government. all taken root over five years and it's going to be hard to root out. >> clint watts, eli, thank you. when we return, president biden pushing forward with his agenda. republicans around the country push back against voting rights.

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confirmed before they were sworn in. that's the tradition. but we're doing fine. i think we're going to be in good shame. >> president biden laying blame on a transition that was not rational to explain why he said fewer nominees confirmed either than president trump or president obama at this point in their presidencies, pinning the blame on that trump transition that was unlike any other because of donald trump's refusal to concede the election, acknowledge reality and many, many republicans' willingness to go along with him and biden in the white house with over a month, republicans are uniting to oppose signature bill. $1.9 trillion sweeping covid relief plan. opposition in the way. the animating spirit behind the administration's approach is in patience, born of the pandemic, looming midterms and mr. biden's own bitter experiences with republicans during president

barack obama's administration. as a consequence, not shied away from conflict while projecting an air of reconciliation. joining us, the american presidency of vanderbilt university who occasionally advises president joe biden. errin hains still here. i need some frame of reference for what the republicans are doing and all the grace that president biden is showing him. he made a point it was the best meeting he had so far in five weeks, like the old days. he is reaching out but not giving in to the republicans who seem committed to disinformation and obstruction. >> well, i think it's the frail of reference is really, the country i think was governed between 1933 and 2017 by a kind of ferocious consensus, if you will. it was a figurative conversation between fdr over here and ronald reagan over here.

ronald reagan, george w. bush over here, fdr, truman and lbj. everyone else pretty much governed on the same field. i've blown it past president clinton and bush and obama and agree we had a coherent culture we either raised this tax rate or lowered this tax rate, projected force against commonly agreed upon foes and rivals or didn't but it was a coherent conversation. it was like the charlie brown holiday cartoons where the kids make sense to each other but the grown-up goes whomp whomp. donald trump was the whomp whomp. and i think joe biden is taking us to a place where he's having a conversation and the question for the elected republican party, do they want to have that conversation? do they want to govern or are they going to perpetually campaign and try to figure out the implications of mar-a-lago?

>> 68% of americans, john meacham, support the biden response to the pandemic. i think about that number of americans who support the covid relief package. instead of offering a different set of policies or ideas as a party, they're going about the business of trying to disenfranchise voters. what do you make of that? >> it's shermanesque. it's total war. it's the normalization of a constant state of conflict as opposed to an attempt to resolve problems. politics works best when we see it as a mediation of differences and not simply as occasion for partisan destruction. i'm not naive, representing the brookings institution or anything. if only we could all do x, y and z, the world would be great but fundamentally, the constitution was written in many ways to have a mediation of differences.

and i think that the perpetuating a constant state of conflict is problematic. not just for the party system or for the moment, but really for the republican self, because without that mediation of differences, the republic grinds to a halt. >> errin, what john meacham is saying rings so true. in our hour of sickness from the pandemic, our economy, we are having an epidemic of disinformation and lies about that very sickness, about its existence and you hear reports of e. r. doctors and nurses having this debate, if you will, of what the reality of covid is. how do we get back to this pendulum between which way to go and the big problems where even though we didn't always land in the right place and certainly, the parties had their differences, we were trying to solve the same problems. >> nicolle, what i think is

interesting is what you see in the first month or so now that the biden/harris administration has been in office is really an attempt to reframe what bipartisanship is going to be, right, i think a lot of us assume because we've been focused on so long about democrats or republicans in congress, in washington, right, joe biden and kamala harris are extending that conversation beyond washington. you've seen the president already hit the road going to wisconsin, going to michigan, talking to voters there. whether they voted for him or not, right, in the town hall kind of settings and you're seeing him meeting with governors, with mayors who may be republican in some cases as well as democrats who supported them during the campaign and now as they are governing, and reminding people that the majority of americans, whether they voted for him or not are needing pandemic relief and are supportive of a package that would address the daily realities that many of them face whether in red or blue states.

so really kind of talking about this new definition of bipartisanship, especially in terms of framing it along the larger question of unity and what that's going to mean for the country has been really interesting to watch, but i will also add, you brought up voter suppression and as a native of georgia, i am sorry to point out, this is really nothing new for republicans. my home state pioneered voter id laws more than a decade ago and regularly sought to curtail early voting or souls to the polls. so the new fight, absentee voting is precisely because of what we saw in 2020. the record number of voters abusing this method to the advantage of democrats. this is a solution in terms of a problem, voter suppression but in the absence of federal legislation, i think you're going to continue to see these efforts at the state level in republican controlled legislatures. >> errin is so right, john meacham. it's looking for a problem. i remember james baker and jimmy

carter after the florida recount looking at voter fraud and the bottom line is there really wasn't much. this idea that the only one who committed it is donald trump, doesn't seem to have reached the viewers of right-wing media and i wonder if you can answer this question. i don't mean to put you on the spot but i'm going to anyway, is the country governable with millions of americans taking in disinformation? >> it has to be because there's really no alternative. there has to be, and if i may, it's these kinds of conversations, not to be self-congratulatory about what we all do, but you simply have to tell the truth. the only way to fight a lie is with the truth. and if the bible is right, the old story about the preacher, jesus said and rightly, if the truth shall set you free, then you have to keep doing it. and i think errin's point about the historical nature of this is

exactly right and i do think the country's governable, mainly because joe biden won a greater percentage of the popular vote than harry truman or john kennedy or richard nixon in 1968, jimmy carter in 1976. more than clinton or george w. bush did. even in a non-polarized era, it was a pretty good win which is what makes this lie so particularly sulfurous and outrageous. so i think that if we insist that facts matter, truth matters, then i don't really know what the alternative is. so we have to just keep telling truth. >> too dark, at least at this point. john meacham and errin hains, thank you so much for spending time and having this conversation in particular. when we return, the race to vaccinate americans ahead of the dangerous covid-19 variants including a new one raising concern among health officials in california. that story is next. officials in california. that story is next we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment.

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now that the fda has officially endorsed johnson & johnson in single dose covid vaccine safe and effective, we could be just days away from a third approved vaccine and from a company that has now promised 20 million doses by the end of next month. more good news that comes as pfizer and moderna promise they will double their production with 140 million more doses delivered in just the next five weeks. it comes at a time when we need all the help we can get to continue to slow the spread of infection with new emerging variants threatening that progress. researchers have discovered a highly contagious home grown variant in california that produces twice the viral particles that other variants produce and might more easily evade the immune system and vaccines, but a threat to severe illness and death. joining our conversation, msnbc medical contributor, dr. naheed

and special pathogens unit at boston medical center. these days, the covid sections and i read them all, all the newspapers, have equal parts horror, really scary news especially about kids and viral load in kids and hope with the third vaccine being introduced. how do you, as a citizen, trying to make good decisions for your family and yourself, how do you square those two threads of information? >> you kind of nailed it, that feeling of just how am i supposed to feel right now because the cases are coming down. hospitalizations are coming down and again, i don't think there's one solid reason anybody has sort of explained. there's a couple of things that could be contributing to that and then there's this caution for the reasons we talked about with the variant. the way we look at it as a family is that it is important for all of us as our phases come up to get vaccinated and even regardless of what variants come

up, until we get to a point where we're protected, enough of us have been protected in our community, no matter what variant, the distancing and hand washing will protect you. but this news from johnson & johnson is really, it comes at a really precarious time because what we know, look at places like israel. once they have the vaccinating over 80% of their over 60 years old, the hospitalizations have gone down. age over 65, single largest. everybody of every age hospitalized and dies of this disease but adjusted, age over 65 is the biggest risk factor of mortality. once we get all of those groups in phase 2 vaccinated, we hopefully see those folks be protected in the face of this new variant that's coming up and the johnson & johnson vaccine, 100% protection against hospitalization and deaths and beyond that, some evidence that it's actually going to help

reduce transmission. 70%, potential 70% drop of asymptomatic infections that adds to all the other data we've seen from other vaccines which signals the same thing. get whatever vaccine you can get when it comes >> close to 300 kids have died, and i know there are some reporting that these new variants seem to result in a larger virus load in their nasal passages. for many, many reasons, there is a big push to get kids back in the classroom. do we need to understand the variants more? do we need to vaccinate kids before we do that, or is it full steam ahead? >> it's hard because i think we're noticing that there is more viral load. and that sort of poses the question does that make -- setup a situation where kids could potentially transmit more than what we've seen them transmit in the past. it's a health concern from that perspective. but in general, the illness and

hospitalization in kids tends to be much lower. unfortunately, when they do get hospitalized, the rare instances where they get hospitalized, they get very sick. that is a concern. it points why we need to follow the cdc guidelines to make classrooms safe and get the teachers protected before we push everybody into full indoor learning environment. >> when do you think we'll be at the point where the covid vaccine from any of the three companies making them will be available for general population at all of our local pharmacies where we would get a flu shot? >> i'm optimistic about this, nicole. again, i think take this with all the caveats. it has to be dependent on how successful projections are in manufacturing. we know things can go wrong. but the novavax vaccine is coming out and all these additional doses from mrna and johnson & johnson. i would say probably around may we'll see a lot more

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thank you so much for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we are grateful. "the beat" with ari melber starts right now. hi, ari. >> hi, nicolle. thank you so much. welcome to "the beat." i am ari melber. tonight we're tracking the demands for accountability and the process for getting it. congress probing not only the maga insurrection, but the wider evidence of mounting hate in america. from the auschwitz shirts, the confederate flags displayed on january 6th to a growing white supremacist threat that at times has been minimized for little reasons, which house judiciary committee members probed you see here at a hearing today. officials stating that most