january 6th insurrection. the justice department closing in on the specific insurrectionist, who is also responsible for the death of police officer brian sicknick. reporting in "new york times" describes it as a, quote, breakthrough in the case and adds that investigators have pinpointed a person seen on video of the riot who attacked several officers with bear spray, including officer sicknick, and the assailant discussed the attacks on video. charges against six members of the proud boys, and they say, quote, they traveled to washington these are the facts, the tragic truth, that is in the

sign that the gop has morphed into, the party is so invested in rewriting these facts that it no longer represents a political party at all. instead, it's a front for something darker and more dangerous, something that shields the murder of a police officer and the conspiracy of right-wing militia groups. from "the washington post," quote, a legion of conservative activists, media personalities and elected officials seem to be rewriting of story of january 6th, hoping to undermine the clear picture that emerged from video and audio evidence, journalistic accounts and the testimonyalities of the rioters themselves, that a pro-trump mob stormed the seat of american government to keep trump in power through violent means. that effort, the insurrection deniers including, if you will, those seeking to deny the fact of the trump-inspired attack on

the u.s. capitol took place on a stage in orlando, where the devoted followers of donald trump addressed a mask-averse crowd of fauci haters and election deniers to win the support of the fringeiest of fringe groups. >> you know, on january the 6th, i objected during the electoral college certification. maybe you heard about it. >> maybe half of don't -- we have a moral duty as republicans to restore trust in our election system. >> my biggest honor today is going to be that -- i think we're going to be on the same stage as, in my opinion, the real, the legitimate and the still actual president of the united states, donald j. trump. >> it's unacceptable to have this unconstitutional power grab on elections so what we saw this

election is what you will see every single election. >> we know there were dead voters, we know there were double voters. >> i guarantee you georgia is not blue. what happened in this election was solely because of a horrible secretary of state and a horrible decision that he made. >> that was not reality, none of it. we aren't even going to show you the former guy's speech. suffice it to say it was low energy. he's not the story anymore. the attack on the government is. here are the warnings previously issued by fellow republicans. >> no congressional audit is ever going to convince these voters, particularly when the president will continue to say that the election was stolen. the best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth. >> 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. >> people have been lied to. the extent to which the president, president trump for months leading up to january 6th spread the notion that the election had been stolen or that the election was rigged was a lie, and people need to understand that. >> the gop is a threat to homeland security is where we start this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. claire mccaskill is here, and "new york times" justice department reporter katie benner is back, and senior national security and intelligence -- john brennan is here. take us through where the investigation stands into officer sicknick. >> it's clear the investigators

have used video to pinpoint a video now somebody who was captured on video discussion attacking -- so it would having a premedicated attack and somebody they're working to identify in order to charge and arrest. the death of officer sicknick is one of the biggest miss rest and one that officers have banded together, wanting to know as well. >> katie, your reporting has this on the conspiracy charges against the members of the proud boys, saying the group coordinated their travel to washed and stayed together. they carried paramilitary gear and supplies, including camouflage, tactical vests with plates, helmets, eye protection and radio equipment into the capitol. prosecutors accused the group of

working together to force their way through a line of capitol police. once inside they traveled as a group, the department said. it reads like the, you know, charging or indiamond of anyone who carries out an attack. i think we've seen several now, about the threw the way they're -- and it's clear the investigators are moving toward a larger insdimt, it sort of starts to, this is a group that was inspired by people, including the president, to attack congress and stop the certification of the vote. when indictments like this actually happen, it's going to be a huge challenge for the

justice department and incoming attorney general to get the american people to believe the truth and see the justice department as an impartial arbiter or group that is acting for political reasons. >> director brennan, there's only one truth. the facts of the insurrection, the story is actually being told by the insurrectionists themselves, who in some of their pleas are articulating what katie is saying, they went there at the request of donald trump. >> and people continue to give credence to these conspiracy theories that they know are false, that the election was stolen from donald trump. what is particularly despicable is what we have seen what it's done, let to the insurrection, and led to the death of officer

sicknick as well as others. they're fueling these sentiments that could give rise, and we know that the fbi and others are already investigating plans of these groups to carry out additional attacks, as president biden gives his address to the joint congress. irgesz claire, trump polled at 58% among the trumpiest of the right of the fringe of the party that used to be known as republicans. i'm not even sure it's politically advantageous to throw down this way with the nextists. >> and poor josh didn't even make the board. [ laughter ] >> you know, really think about

it. the fist was for nothing. he got way out there. he caused the whole procedure to happen. had he not stepped up, we wouldn't have had the debate in the senate. we wouldn't have had the opportunity for trump to come to washington. he couldn't even make 2% in that poll. it's something that the lie continues to permeate. what is disgusting about it, nicolle, is not just the big lie, that the election was stolen, but even the bigger lie that brian williams, our friend calls ron-anon johnson that repeated this was antifa. the fbi has repeatedly said it's not true. that's also a lie.

people who are united states senators are repeating that lie today. let's just say it's not true. if it were, i think everybody in the reasoned world would be for their arrest as well. the thing is, if you play out their illodge call threat, and actually there's great "new york times" reporting on that as well. let me read from this piece. for those who hope mr. trump's don't believe your eyes tactics might fade, the mainstreaming of the antifa conspiracy most arde followers. this rewriting, and this is the substance of that great "the washington post" reporting, this rewriting is happen. why question is why are they so invested in rewriting a

terrorist attack? >> because they want to be the victims, not the perpetrators. >> but they mock people who are afraid. they don't want to be victims, either. they want to deny its reality. >> though i have never seen so many white men calling themselves victims as i saw over the weekend at cpac. they all think they have a huge grievance from a position of significant privilege. it is fascinating to me how ease in it has become for the trump followers to following in his footsteps, whether it's the laura ingraham saying on air that this was antifa, and then not correcting it on air when her source corrected it jim jordan lying about nancy pelosi turning down the national guard. he to this day has not

apologized saying it was nancy pelosi who turned down the national guard protection on that day. so it has become the norm for the new republican party that lying is just peachy keen. i can't believe the majority of america is going to accept that especially if we remain vigilant about pointing out what the facts are. >> director brennan, to that end, that's how we started with katy's great new reporting about the police officer. is puts to recent any notion that republicans care about the lives and safety of law enforcement. >> to claire point, i'm increasingly embarrassed to be a white male today, with what i see other white males say. with very few exceptions, there are so few republicans in congress who value truth, honesty and integrity.

they'll continue to gaslight the country the way donald trump did. the fact this has so many implications for the american public and for the members of congress, again, as claire said, it's a disgusting display of craven politics that should have no place in the united states in 2021. >> katy benner there was an attempt from the stage to feed some truth to this audience. let me read this to you. charlie spies, said i have to say it's simply not true. it was about voter fraud. he was asked what are we going to do with the voting machines that switched thousands of vote, the lawyer said, quote, that is simply not true. there is just zero evidence that that's true. >> yeah. what we're seeing is a trade-off between the transfer of power

and amazing of power. . if all you care about is amazing power and continuing to control the fuss of the country, we're seeing right now we've had this reporting in "new york times," "the washington post," other places that republicans all over the country in different states are reviewing voting laws and trying to control who can win. they're using this idea of the big lie in many cases to support that new legislation. so what we're seeing to director brennan's point of view is a trade-off, where republicans are harming our own national security about not being truthful about what happened on scrap wear 6th in order to push forward a bigger, and in their view, a more important goal, which is control of the country katy hit on sort of the why this matters every hour of every single day. frankly they were outed by brad

raffensperger for trying to push legislation to disenfranchise voters based on a lie, but that is precisely what they are doing. the reason for all of the venom directed at liz cheney, mitt romney, anyone who outs the lie, is that it makes it confusing for their supporters who need to march in lockstep. their position is to vilify access to voting in a way that they can muscle through legislation, and make it harder for people to vote. >> yeah, the big lie is a handy tool to add to a toolbox that was already full of ways to try to do voters suppression in this country. with all due respect to your party, nicolle, the one you used to hang out with, this has been

something they've been up to for a long, long time, way before donald trump. the people who are most transient needed in the country is people who need access to the ballot box very, very badly. the rpgs want to shut off access to the ballot box to people who may have been having living on the edge in terms of the economics of their life and their family's security. they want to make it more difficult for someone who has lived in four places in three years to access a ballot. those are the people who need a ballot very, very badly. so it's going to be all and on deck for the next few years for a variety of ways that they'll try to keep people from the

ballot box. >> i remember when president biden went to georgia, and talk about trying to colon stacey abrams. it's no joke when you talk about the next front of this fight. it's also young voters. republicans want to make it harder for them to vote. it's all the voters they have given up on, because they no -- how do you replicate what she's been able to do? i know she has an national effort, but this seems don't the rallying cry for republicans, claire. >> i mean, the shifting of the resources -- on television advertising. instead what we're beginning to

realize is the resources need to go into finding voters, mobilizing voters we were really hampered this year because of the pandemic, because door to door is really important we were being so careful on the democraticside of the ledger about going door to door, it's one of the reasons republicans got such a leg up in florida this time, because they didn't care about the spread of the pandemic. >> director brennan, i wonder if you could pull these threats together with katie's excellent point about trade-off and really politically speaking brute power disenfranchising voters at the expense of national security. i'm not going to play it, but here's what he said -- what

donald trump said about mitt romney, ben sasse, richard burr, lisa murkowski, whatever you think of them, they did vote to hold trump accountable. he saved the most venom for liz cheney, but all those people sought to hold donald trump accountability for turning his lie into a national security threat. >> i agree completely. this is just a corrupt pursue of power. as donald trump and others have said, it's all about winning. you lie, you cheat, you steal, they do not -- they only want to do what gives them the win, whether it's for ideological,

personal or other objectives. they're going to do so at any cost. it is very dangerous and should be seen that way by american citizens. they have people who have our future in the hands, willing too do anything just to win what they want to win. >> it also suggests that they don't think the american people are smart enough to understand these lies endanger all of them. anyone that they love that works in law enforcement or has any occasion to have their security at risk. director brennan, and katie, thank you for being here. lucky for us claire is sticking around. this is what progress looks like. shipments of our first single-dose vaccine heading out after the fda granted emergency use request for johnson &

johnson. and across dozens of states, how states are responding today, and new york governor andrew cuomo apologizing for the first time now for some of his behavior. the report who has been on top of this developing story from the very beginning will join us, all though stories and more. nd . n severity, using less or a lot less oral pain medicines. and improved quality of life. that's why we recommend salonpas. it's good medicine.

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one year ago today the united states reported the first death from the coronavirus. since then we have lost more than 516,000 souls, just in this

country. more than 28.7 million have been sickened. but today more progress. right now the first of the 3.9 million doses expected this week of the j&j vaccine is going out to state. it's a single dose with 85% efficacy against severe disease, and 100% effective against hospitalization and death from covid. injections earp expected to start tomorrow. johnson & johnson is promising to million doses over the next four years, and it's part of a larger effort to fully vaccinate millions by this month. dr. kavita patel is here, alongside claire. the vaccine news seems to get more and more

they don't mutate to kill people. they mutate for survive. as we vaccinate more americans, the fewer chances it has to

survive. so i think this is signs of progress. 2.5 million shots a day and growing. i couldn't have been happier to see those trucks pulling out of the kentucky facility. >> i know. >> it's like we go through all they emotions, but they leave me both in tears of happiness and tear of reflection. >> this is not from my post of being a cable host, but talking to my parents, their friends, what can you not do once you're vaccinated? >> hopefully we can start focusing on what you can and can't do. i think it's very safe for you, if you're vaccinated, totes together in a small group with other people vaccinated. i would feel safe if you're all two weeks after your last dose.

we still are waiting for the evidence. if i go outside and not wearing a mask, even though i'm vaccinated and feel comfortable, it sends a lot of confusing signals and people can't tell. i think there will be unfortunately a reality when we're on the outside real world. and then hopefully you're stopping any of the surface cleaning -- we shouldn't be as paranoid about transmission through surfaces and contact through surfaces. it's really respiratory contact, but these vaccines are highly effective. if you're around someone who is immunocompromised, you may still, even though both of you are vaccinated, be aware there's a risk there. we don't know how high, but you want to be aware of that. children is also something to think of a well. >> say a bit more about that. i saw that j&j had start trials

in infants, and other companies are starting with kids 12 and older, even children get sick, even though rare, some get very, very sick. >> look, my kids are 4 and 6. it's hard to see them getting vaccinated this year. i'll feel comfortable in high household, but i don't know if i feel comfortable taking them out into a larger group, for example, with people who might not by vaccinated and candidly until i feel like i can get them vaccinated, i'm not putting on a plane where i take on more risk for them. but that's an individual decision. we are going to get to the point where the activity in the virus, in the community will be so low that we will feel more comfortable with unvaccinated

children, because we have unvaccinated children potentially right now that don't get the flu shot, but now we feel like there's a lot less of that exposure risk. so with time we're going to have better answers for how to deal with unvaccinated kids, people who can't get the vaccine for other reasons, and then pregnant women, we are doing trials for pregnant women. that will be important to give them confidence about whether they should receive the vaccine or not. >> claire, all of it points to -- i don't have to call it a finish line, but a horizon for how it would end. where the vaccine one of them has a 70%, so we'll stop spreading it. what do you think about sort of

the collective ptsd? president biden make cure the company, healing the economy his objective. what do you think comes after that? >> well, we have learned a valuable lesson politicians and virus together is a deadly combination. we had a virus politicized by the former guy in a way that cost thousands and thousands of americans their lives. the politicization of wearing a mask, which we now know is the most effective tool for a virus that we now know is primaily contributing to -- i think we also have to say i think it's been hard. the doctor just went through in a very cautious and fundamentally sound scientific way all of the issues, with transmission with the reason

that people who have been vaccinated should wear masks. it just weighs in all of us in terms of pessimism. we have turned the corner with joe biden at the helm. i do think that it's important for us to remain optimistic and cheerful, and look over the horizon and see the sun coming up as it relates to the normalities of our lives. i get that the variant has to be covered, i understand we don't know everything about what people -- what risks are to people who have been vaccinated but i know this. my husband has been vaccinated. he was definitely at risk, and it's changed how we view things. that is a good thing. i think it's important to remember to emphasize that.

>> i think claire is speaking the reality that poll people are experienceding at this point. we are the lucky ones. we get to do our jobs from home. well, you don't. it's a privilege to have all this time with my child, but people do have the feeling if the vaccine isn't the end, then when? i wonder what you think, just putting a policy hat on, is getting people through the final stretch. i know there's some talk that once we have our vulnerable population vaccinated, maybe there needs to be a policy shift what does that look like in. >> i totally agree, and as usual, the senator is spot on. i hate to say it this way. my job is to kind of talk about the nuance and the risks and the benefits, because that's what i

do every day. both you and the senator are correct, in that from a policy standpoint, we need to re-continuously reevaluates. and i think they are. just as a reminder, there was the first time with any school guidance, and it quickly got criticism around the air quality piece. what did they do? they revised it. we will need to continuously understand, if you're vaccinated what can you do, not do? the reason i cried when i got my vaccine, when my parents get it, i can actually touch them and feel like i'm not doing something right. the national agenda does not align with state agendas. this has to be where -- this

can't fall on the shoulders of a cdc that's been cobbled away at through several administrations, candidly. we will need to rebuild trust in our public health structure that has decayed for decades. it is within reach, and everybody -- i know more people who want the vaccine than don't. so get your shot, whichever one they give you, get it. that will get us back to normal faster. >> thank you for spending time with us. we're grateful. up next, more on the grateful election guy by the former guy. it's fueling a nationwide campaign to undermine voting rights. one state official will talk about how his state is fighting back. about how his state is fighting back

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by fair fight. pushing back by efforts aimed at curbing early voting. what's happening in georgia is just one of dozens of ballotses unfolding across the country "new york times" writes -- republicans and state legislatures nationwide are mounting extraordinary efforts to change the rules of voting and representation, and enhabits their own political clout. arizona and pennsylvania are two key battleground states joe biden happened to win last year. joining us is josh shapiro from pennsylvania. claire is still with us. everybody that happens in terms of the republican party's bag of dirty tricks always happens in

pennsylvania as well. i wonder if you can talk about the effort there and how you're pushing back. >> they're continuing on with their efforts to try to undermine the vote, try to take away the voice of pennsylvaniaance. we talked about the run-up too -- we had at the others who pushed back and won and made sure the will of the people was heard. recognizing they couldn't win under these current rules, they're trying to change it. there are two real efforts under way. number one, they're trying to undermine the vote by mail law that they voted for two years ago. >> right. >> in fact more republicans voted for it than democrats did two years ago. now they're trying to make it harder to vote by mail. a little data on this. they pushed forward that initiative to increase voter

participation. the problem was 75% of those votes were cast for joe biden. they didn't like that. the second thing they're trying to do is gerrymander the courts hooer in pennsylvania. actually take away the right for people to election their judges. right now they elect 31 judges across this commonwealth. they want to pud their buddies in charge of selecting who the new judges will be, which no doubt will not reflect the will of the people and will certainly not reflect the great diversity of this commonwealth. . >> how close they were, that every effort -- and you're right, they made a lot of rules that they later tried to tear

down and not play by, because they didn't like the way the routs came in. what might have been different if any one of their tricks had worked? >> nicolle, you are so right. at the end of the day, notwithstanding trump and his enablers, just relentless attack, it was the county election clerks, the judges, the attorney general, the governor, the people who were in these positions of pow who are respected the will of the people and thwarted those efforts who were the ones who ultimately allowed the will of the people to be heard. imagine if we didn't have some of the leadership that we had. follow this through all the way to january 6th, when you had, you know, spineless enablers, like josh hawley, who went to the floor of the united states

senate, just moments after the insurrection was cleared, and continued with the lie. i said this before on your program, i'll say it again. had mitch mcconnell been the majority lead and a republican speaker in the house, i don't know if the institution would have held. i think they would have tried to steal this election even further, notwithstanding the good world of people across the country to protect the will of the people. when you have people willing to sell out democracy in the name of sucking up to donald trump, or any actor for that matter, that puts or situation, that puts our democracy at grave risk. thank god for the great state actors who did what they had to do, but we have a real gut-check moment in this country how we go forward and do some truth telling so we can get back to some basics in our democracy.

>> claire, this is the crisis, right? because the big lie was repeated so many times, and many members of the base believed it, the reps then sid, well, i have to serve my base. they only had to serve their base because they told their base a lie, and they believed it. >> if we're brutally honest, a whole lot of people who love your show spent a lot of time worrying about the former guy. so we need to take all of that energy and transfer it to paying attention to what's going on in state legislatures. i want to recommend democracy dock et. this is being run by the lawyers who won all of those cases across the country, all of the

cases brought by the big lie aficionados, and the clown car of lawyers including rudy giuliani at the steering wheel. the lawyers who combatted those lawsuits successfully are now looking at this legislation, you can find out what's going on in your state, what are they proposing, how do you need to get ahold of the people you to to fight this. i think we really need to turn our energy to protecting our democracy over the next 18 months, so we will be prepared to win these important elections in 2022. >> i think claire just told me to get off twitter and read something called democracydocket.com. >> you'll find them on twitter, too. the. >> i love it. i want to ask how this is

communicated day to day to the people you serve in pennsylvania? how is this meat as urgent on the other side as the liars make it on the right? >> i think folks have realized their fragility of their democracy. >> i think there's a lot of republicans and certainly independents who are now saying, you know, i didn't sign up for this. i may have voted for trump back in 2016, maybe even contemplated voting for him in 202, but this is not what i signed up for. i didn't sign up to suck up to one person. to me it's all about truth telling, making sure people understand what really happened,

not the nonsense that trump and his enablers are feeding them, and to make sure going forward we have these state actors to guard against attempts like this in the future. just because trump may not be on the ballot doesn't mean they issues go away. i think we have to remain vigilant in the protection of our democracy. that's the work i will do as attorney general, and i know many others are doing across the country. >> we will continue to turn to you and stay on it. thank you for sharing time with you. claire, nothing but love for you. that was perfect. claire is sticking around. and now there's an official inquiy against governor cuomo. we'll have the reporter breaking all the news on this story, especially the new developments over the weekend. stay with us. developments over the weekend stay with us

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general's office for an independent review after initially bungling the announcement by choosing a former federal judge to lead the investigation. this all came after "the new york times" reported that chart bennett made the governor made several inappropriate remarks about her sex life which she interpreted as an overture. cuomo has denied those allegations which nbc has not independently reported. joining our conversation is jesse mckinley, claire is still here. "times" has been really all over this story. take us through this account and where the investigation stands. >> well, charlotte bennett spoke to us last week in a series of interviews, basically outlining a series of uncomfortable conversations she had with the governor, most particularly one in early june where the governor mentioned their age difference, mentioned the fact that -- asked her point-blank if she was monogamous in her relationships, asked whether she had slept with

older men and that all of this in toto led ms. bennett to believe that the governor was essentially propositioning her. now the governor denied that but did not deny that he had made those remarks. so, that has led us to a weekend full of the cuomo administration basically trying to damage control a situation which is spiraling out of their control at this moment. >> jesse, you report that the governor's chief of staff moved her to another position so she wouldn't have any more interactions. is there any indication that those decisions and those records have already sort of been or under scrutiny at this point? >> i don't think so yet, but i certainly think those are going to be central documents. you know, there are going to be some questions as to the state's response to this. charlotte bennett did go five days after this very uncomfortable interaction with the governor to his chief of staff, said this happened. two days after that, she was transferred to another job on the other side of the state

capitol building and then later that same month of june of 2020, she spoke to a lawyer with the cuomo administration, once again outlining these allegations, so there is documentation on this. >> so, i'm curious. we have an older man, old enough to be this woman's father, who asked her if she's ever had sex with older men, alone in his office, and then he says he's sorry if those comments were misinterpreted. you know, really? i mean, yes, of course they were interpreted that way. you don't ask questions like that, governor, and so what i'm trying to figure out, how big is the political movement to get rid of him within the democratic party in albany? how many people are -- have already said, we're done with you, you got to get out of there? >> there's a lot of anger, i

think, in the hallways of the capitol right now at governor cuomo, not only because of the sexual harassment allegations but a couple of weeks we were talking about his mishandling of nursing homes and his, you know, basically withholding of data to state lawmakers about that. so he does not have a lot of goodwill here in albany. now, that being said, this is a democratic town. it's a democratic state. democrats control both houses of the legislature. impeachment seems unlikely at this moment, but as i said, this is a rapidly moving story. even in the last hour, charlotte bennett has put out a statement basically accusing the governor of predatory behavior, saying his apology didn't go anywhere near far enough, and asking other women basically to come forward if they have similar stories. >> i mean, and i think if we have learned anything, that these stories usually have a trajectory toward getting worse before they get better for any politician. jesse mckinley, your reporting, the "times" reporting on this has been so important. thank you for spending some time with us. claire, thank you for spending the hour with us. we're always grateful to have you for that much of the show. thank you. the next hour of "deadline

white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. k b. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity and gum gives us a dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend.

if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. 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. i think the public favors republicans and democrats coming together and putting their needs first. if 97% of the country believes something is the right thing to do, why would 50 people feel so comfortable being against it? >> but in choosing between bipartisanship and the biden agenda, they're going to pick the biden agenda. >> well, i can tell you on the american rescue plan, if our choice is to wait and go bipartisan with an insufficient package, we're not going to do that. >> hi again, everyone, 5:00 in new york. white house senior advisor cedric richmond there demonstrating a biden administration that is clear-eyed on the politics and what it's going to take to recover from the pandemic. this week, an inflection point on many fronts. levels of daily vaccinations hit new record highs with the current seven-day average at

1.7 million shots per day. a third vaccine, the johnson & johnson one-dose shot was authorized for emergency use. and millions of doses began shipping out earlier this morning. and the house passed president biden's first major piece of legislation, that $1.9 trillion covid relief package. here's the president marking its passage. >> if we act now, decisively, quickly, and boldly, we can finally get ahead of this virus. we can finally get our economy moving again, and the people of this country have suffered far too much for too long. we need to relieve that suffering. >> president biden's first few weeks in office are critical in terms of getting the virus under control. the economy back on track, and for setting the tone for his relationship with the rest of washington. from axios, quote, president biden has a thin, short path to success in his first six to nine months. top advisors tell me his success or failure will dictate whether he can hold off both republican

critics and activist democrats who want him to go bigger faster. president biden has stressed his preference to work with the other side of the aisle but as richmond alluded to, that reality has not come to pass. the challenge for president biden will be holding both sides together in the face of a unified republican opposition to secure a bill that white house officials believe will cushion vulnerable americans through the end of the pandemic and turbo boost the economy as it reopens in full. even without bipartisan support, the covid relief legislation is moving ahead and the approval of the johnson & johnson vaccine opens up access to millions more americans, but the picture the u.s. -- the country's recovery is still complicated by the spread of new variants, which are stalling the steady decline we've seen in new cases. the white house covid-19 task force today stressing the way out is to get vaccinated as quickly as possible and maintain those safety guidelines. the biden administration pulling all levers of power in the country's fight against covid is where we start this hour with

some of our favorite reporters and friends. former democratic congresswoman donna edwards is here, a contributing columnist for the "washington post" and an msnbc political analyst. also joining us, punch bowl news's founder and an msnbc contributor, our friend, jake sherman's back and nbc news correspondent, our friend heidi is back. the one thing we left out is that the package has over 70% public support. the country wants this. and when people get vaccinated and people get stimulus checks and when the economy comes roaring back in the fall, i think it becomes a politically perilous position to have been republicans who obstructed it, no? >> absolutely. and i think that we have to rethink our definition of bipartisanship. across the country, this american rescue plan is deeply bipartisan. republicans, democrats, and independents support it and just because political partisans don't support the plan, doesn't mean that it's not the best

thing to do for the american people, and i think some of those senators are going to have to ask themselves whether they want to stand in the way of recovery and stand in the way of support for children, lifting them out of poverty, and for families and workers, get in the way of their $1,400 checks and small businesses, be and i just think that the american people will hold them to account, and as bipartisan a way because their position, frankly, is untenable, even in this environment. >> yeah, i mean, jake, the republican play that is being run is eerily reminiscent of the republican tea party led posture on what they called obamacare at the time. it's become -- and i think then speaker boehner predicted this. it will become more popular every year that it is in place. but this is not that republican party. this is a country that by and

large supports everything in this package. i mean, the reason it has a 76% approval rating is because it includes $1,400 direct payments, $400 a week unemployment bonus, a per child allowance of $3,600 a year, billions of dollars to distribute the coronavirus vaccine. anyone who's online trying to get appointments for their parents, if it becomes easier, will credit the relief package. do any republicans see any flashing yellow lights for running this obstruction campaign against the package? >> well, a few things, nicole, that are worth pointing out. i think it's more analogous to say this is the same play that they ran with the recovery act in 2009 when the nation was kind of at the bottom of an economic pit, barack obama and joe biden came in and passed the recovery act, the stimulus bill, which republicans opposed in lock step, you're right, just like obamacare too. here's the difficult part to explain away, nicole. republicans have supported every element of this bill in the past. right? they're basically saying, all of

the things that we supported last congress, we don't need anymore, and now it's up to democrats to make that case that, yes, they do need these things and maybe inherently people just feel it. maybe they just know that they need another check. obviously, many people need another check and if republicans don't support that, they could pay for that at the ballot box. but it's also money for vaccines. it's a whole -- it's state and local money. so yes, there are just a host of priorities in this bill that people that are popular and republicans are left saying, you know, mitch mcconnell said last week, the last six bills we did were bipartisan, but it's not 2020 anymore. it's not march or april 2020 anymore. we don't need several trillion dollars of spending, because we're beyond that. we're at the -- there's light at the end of the tunnel. we have these vaccines. they're getting distributed. and we just don't need the kind of federal outlays that we once had. so, you know, it's both a

substantive bet and a political bet and i will also say one more thing, nicole. one of the things that republicans keep saying is that state and local revenues are up. tax revenues are up, so we don't need the -- the country doesn't need these big checks for states and localities, which is a centerpiece of this bill. so there's some -- there's just a lot of elements that republicans are trying to communicate, but at the end of the day, the bet that a lot of people have made, democrats and republicans, some privately, is that inherently, our country, the people of our country know that we're in a jam, know that we're in a bad spot, and believe that congress should do something, so republicans are voting against it. so, you have to be able to make that connection if you're a democrat to voters to -- in order to make republicans feel that pain. >> and i think the 76% approval rating is because if you walk around, i don't care if you're a democrat congressperson or a republican, if you walk around to the public school, they're struggling to achieve what you

reported on first on this show, appropriate ventilation to keep students and teachers safe. if you walk down once bustling main streets anywhere, restaurants are struggling to keep all their employees employed, to keep their kitchens working full force with takeout only. people have struggled to pay for all the retrofitting to have restaurants and eating moved outside. people are struggling regardless of their political association. people are struggling to schedule and get vaccines. states are struggling to have enough to protect their citizens. if there's a moment to not act the way we all know congress is, which is broken, this is the moment not to act broken. >> and i think that jake is right to draw a parallel back to 2008, 2009, when nobody in michigan who was in the working class held it against congress that they helped save the automotive industry. well, apply that nationwide where people are really suffering, like you say, at

every level, whether it's service workers or factory workers or people who old office jobs. i know for a fact that democrats are actually compiling data on specific dollar amounts that go to states of vulnerable republicans to use this for any republican who's going to vote against this relief, which at the end of the day, yeah, it's really popular, not just among the general public but even when you distill it down to republicans. so, the one thing i think that this might do, nicole, according to democrats who i talk to, is kind of hasten some of the internal pressure to do away with the filibuster, because a lot of democrats say privately, look, we're going to give republicans few months or so to show us why they're going to work with us before having this discussion, but i know from speaking with a lot of democrats that that timeline, they feel, the ones who are really for pushing this agenda through

aggressively, that that timeline has really been accelerated by the fact that they could not get any bipartisan buy-in on something that has so much popularity among the public. >> heidi, i want to follow up with you. you have reporting on two things we've covered here, on the new vaccine by johnson & johnson, the single shot, and a follow-up on your reporting about ventilation and the cdc clarifying their guidelines after your great reporting there in philly. >> nicole, thank you so much for giving this a showcase, because covid is really something so serious in america, the acute problem of public school infrastructure, which has been there but covid's just really kind of brought this to the fore. the cdc really did get some real criticism that in its official back to school guidelines, it kind of whistled past the issue of air quality in schools over the weekend, in response to some of that criticism, they did issue new guidelines, nicole, but a lot of the parents who i'm talking to, and this doesn't matter, actually, if you're in a

poor district or a more affluent district, say that this is a much bigger problem than just a short-term solution. we have schools that need entirely new ventilation systems. we have schools with no ventilation systems, that haven't been upgraded in dozens and dozens of years, and so, the cdc, when it told parents it's safe to send your kids back to school, there's low transmissibility in schools, that was done on the prevariant version of covid, and the concerns are now that when we send children back to school that at least there's some kind of a short-term stopgap solution in some of these schools to clean the air, because this form of covid is much more transmissible, nicole, and the school districts, as we send kids back to school right now, are really struggling with how to address this and hopefully the cdc guidance that was prompted will be more helpful, but the concern amongst some of the parents i'm talking to are

that congress step forward and not just give money to individual schools, they're afraid they're going to just use that money to plug holes in the deficit that they have, but they actually use it to make sure that the air quality is safe in some of these schools. >> i mean, donna, it just gets to, i think, something that jake is talking about. every individual piece of the relief legislation is comprised of things that both parties have been for in the past, and i'm sure keeping our children safe in their classrooms from these new variants, which are, as heidi said, more transmissible, that's what distinguishes them, all three of them, the uk variant, south african variant, their distinguishing features are transmissiblebility. no one is going to be vaccinating children. the very first trial from johnson & johnson on infants hasn't even started yet. so just put the political sort of games in the context of the lives people are living. i don't know that it has ever seemed more detached. >> yeah, and i think that this

is the reason that i think it was really smart of president biden to take this message to the public, to say, we know that we're with you and you know, sort of get around the political machinations of washington. i mean, there's not a parent that you talk to who doesn't want their children back in classrooms, but they want it to be done safely and even pre-covid, in so many communities, especially low income communities, the schools' ventilation systems were never good to begin with and then covid just adds a layer on to that, and so this relief package is about people's real lives, and i think that is why it has such wide support, because every individual can point to a piece of the legislation that will impact them directly in their day-to-day lives, and that's really hard to fight against on a, you know, sort of political,

procedural process argument, which is why it's not gaining any sway with the american people. >> jen psaki was sort of put on the spot this weekend, jake sherman, about bipartisanship. let me show you her response. >> and i think there have been more republicans in the house and senate sitting in the oval office over the last month, having a discussion, having a debate at times with the president about what they want to see in this package, what we can work together on, than perhaps over the last four years. the president has been open to hearing good ideas, hearing good ideas from republicans and democrats on how to make it better. we have not seen a substantive big proposal in response back from republicans. this is the scope of the problem and the scope of the kind of package that needs -- we need to pass to address that. >> i think it's been reported and maybe even acknowledged by the white house that the happiest president biden is, is when he's meeting with senators and lawmakers of both parties, but on the substance there, the republicans have not gone to him with an alternative package. there isn't a republican proposal.

>> no, there's not. and there's a lot to unpack here. there's a difference between having people in the white house and getting a bipartisan package and getting republicans to support something, and again, that's not a criticism, per se, of president biden. it's just republicans are not incentivized. they believe at this moment, to support this bill. now, what you had -- at the beginning of this hour, cedric richmond saying, we're not going to sacrifice time for bipartisanship and that's how the white house feels. i mean, that's what they say privately and publicly, and i do think there are opportunities for this white house to get republican support on a lot of different items. there's no question that joe biden likes, you know, the back and forth with republican senators and members of the house. there's no question about his relationships are stronger up here on capitol hill than certainly donald trump's were and even barack obama's were. but at this moment, he has not -- there's been, you could blame either side, a lot of people would blame republicans

more, but there just hasn't been a political incentive at this point for republicans to get on and they think that they can skate without supporting this with impunity. >> donna, i'll give you the last word. >> well, i mean, there is no counterproposal, and so you can't negotiate with nothing. and i think that that's what the president is saying. he's like, we need to go big. this is a proposal that's on the table. give me something back. otherwise, we're going with it. >> donna edwards, jake sherman -- did you want to say something, jake? >> yeah, they did have -- listen, i don't want to -- i'm not trying to defend republicans or democrats here. just to be clear, they did have a group of republicans did have a proposal. it was nowhere near what the white house wanted, and they rejected it out of hand, which, you know, that's kind of politics and that's governing. so there was one trade of a proposal. i just want to make that clear but it was a nonstarter with the white house. it was way less than what democrats wanted. >> and i -- to be fair, i do remember that meeting. i think senator portman and

susan collins were part of it and there wasn't a policy disagreement. it was about being very, very, very small. donna edwards, jake sherman, heidi przybyla, thank you. when we return, the rollout of the third coronavirus vaccine comes at a precarious moment in our country's fight against the pandemic. the head of the cdc warning that the progress we've made against infections may be leveling out. that story's next. plus, chris krebs, the top cybersecurity official at dhs who called the 2020 election, quote, the most secure in history will join us to talk about how republicans around the country are weaponizing a big lie about voter fraud to restrict the right to vote. and lebron james fires back after being told by a fellow athlete to stick to sports. lebron's response and why he plans to keep on speaking out about politics and policies, coming up later in the hour. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. ♪ hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play ♪

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today, clear signs that we have the potential and the tools if we choose to use them to stop a fourth surge of the pandemic in the u.s. daily vaccinations are at record levels and now the third vaccine, this one a single dose from johnson & johnson, is shipping out to states today. hospitalizations and deaths are still dropping. but cdc director rochelle walensky warns patience, vigilance and willingness to take whatever vaccine we can will be key to ending the pandemic. >> please hear me clearly. at this level of cases with

variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. the most important thing you can do is to be ready to get the vaccine that is available to you. it will help protect us all from covid-19. >> joining our conversation, our friend, pulitzer prize winning journalist laurie garrett, a health policy analyst and msnbc science contributor. laurie, what do you make of this moment of this vaccinations on the rise, variants threatening us, and a public that is weary? >> everybody's weary. we're all sick and tired of having to wear our masks everywhere, but we still need to. >> yeah. >> i think the downturn that we observed that gave everybody hope was not a genuine, you know, vaccine-related downturn. it was actually because the holiday surge, that horrible

triple holiday surge, was finally over. so, we sort of fell from this huge peak that we reached in late december, early january, back down to something roughly where we were in october and september. but that's a terrible baseline. that's still well over 70,000 new cases a day and 2,000 new deaths a day. now it's beginning to show an uptick. is it a huge uptick? no, it's only about 2% a day. but that can add up. and i think what's really concerning folks at cdc and in the white house is that we don't have enough people vaccinated yesterday that we could really be saying that we're going to make a dent with vaccination alone. but there's so much optimism out there that people are behaving in ways that are increasing the risk. and then finally, we have these variants in distribution and circulation. we're now up to about 10% of new

cases in america involve the so-called united kingdom variant, the b.1.1.7. it's a more rapid transmitter between people. and we're seeing new variants that are unique to the united states, especially this new new york variant that we're quite concerned about. >> there's some reporting in the "atlantic" that i read and i instantly wanted to ask you about. because i think this optimism is needed, but i wonder if we're feeling good about something that hasn't happened yet, which is i think what you're describing, vaccinations on a scale that aren't yet -- i mean, israel, which has seen the decline in transmission, has many more of their citizens vaccinated than we do. we've barely touched the surface. but let me read some of this to you, and then let's talk about it. "the atlantic" is writing about outdoor transmission. quote, there's solid scientific reason for the fact that there are relatively few documented

cases of transmission outdoors. the open air dilutes the virus very quickly and the sun helps deactivate it, providing further spreading. this seems instructive as people are sort of itching to just connect again, just to see people again. is this something, this sort of nudging people toward safer alternatives of being outside a good thing? >> well, first of all, i would take issue with the assertion made in that "atlantic" article you just read from. i mean, the rose garden is outdoors and the rose garden event at the white house was clearly a super spreader event that spread the virus through much of the attendees that were at the rose garden and continued to spread from there throughout the white house, so i take issue with that. but in general, it is true that ultraviolet light and outdoor air dilute the risk of the virus

and so one can feel a little more confident, but there's outdoors and there's outdoors. >> right. >> this winter, we're all kind of getting through the winter by sitting in these outdoor little caves that have been set up outside of restaurants, you know? and these are restricting the air flow considerably, so that in most cases, it's a three-sided structure with open air that the waiter comes in and out of facing one direction. that's not outdoors in stepping into the great outdoors. that's still confines air flow to a certain degree. so, i'm not quite ready to buy that whole argument in the "atlantic," but i will say this. mixed messaging is a real problem, especially as spring approaches. the days are getting longer. the sun is shining brighter. everybody feels the gloom and doom of winter is coming to an end. spring is almost here. and that lifts spirits and gets you wanting to go outside.

but danger still lurks. the virus is still spreading. and even if you had two doses of vaccine, you may not have had a sufficient time pass yet for the vaccine to have fully taken and produce sufficient antibody response in your body. so, i'm very anxious, and i hear the anxiousness coming out of the cdc today, and then i was asking in the white house press briefing this morning, what about this new york variant? because one of the interesting things about this new variant that has emerged in new york city is that it colonizes inside your nose and it attaches tenfold greater affinity to cells in the nose than the normal wild type version of the sars cov-2 virus and that means that you could carry a lot of virus in your nose, which if you don't wear a mask to cover your nose properly, you could breathe

out to others. so, it could conceivably mean, and tony fauci said -- agreed with me in the press briefing, it could conceivably mean that even vaccinated people could be carriers and thereby pass from their nose to other people, virus. so we're still in a period where there's uncertainties. there's confusions. and there's a need to keep our guard up. >> laurie garrett, you're always the best person to come to for a reality check. thank you for spending some time with us on all the day's headlines. >> thank you, nicole. still ahead for us, chris krebs, he called the 2020 election the most secure in history. he had the authority to say so. he was in charge of securing them. but that's not stopping republicans around the country from working to cut ballot access in a bogus effort, one based on a lie, to stop voter fraud. stop voter fraud. ...the itching ...the burning.

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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. there's no foreign power that is flipping votes. there's no domestic actor flipping votes. i did it right. we did it right. this was a secure election. >> those are facts. they come from the man who was the country's top election security official before he was fired by donald trump for telling the truth about the facts. chris krebs was one of the few republicans speaking out against

donald trump's big lie all the way back in november. trump's claims of a rigged election are as baseless now as they were back then, but gop lawmakers in the post-trump era are now trying to legislate major voting restrictions all across the country based on the lie of a fraudulent stolen election. joining our conversation is chris krebs, the former director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency at dhs during the trump administration. we wanted to talk to you for a long time. now, i hate admitting that i know this, but there are a bunch of right-wing bloggers who watch this broadcast and for any of those little honey buns, let me get some facts out. was there any voter fraud in 2020? >> at a very, very low level. >> enough to change the outcome of the election in any state? >> absolutely not. >> was there anything with the voting machines, either by systematic or dominion that flipped votes from donald trump to joe biden? >> not that we saw from an intentional perspective. there was, i think, human errors

up in michigan that were caught, as would normally happen in the tabulation process, and immediately corrected. >> was there any evidence presented in any of the 60, 70, 80 lawsuits that contradicts any of this? >> not that i'm aware of, and a number of those cases, despite some of the claims that they were purely decided on standing, a lot -- a number of those cases in wisconsin, pennsylvania, georgia were actually determined on the merits as well. >> did you ever get any sense before election day that the president didn't want the election to be secure? >> i think that there were a number of indicators over the course of the summer that the campaign and the president and others were attempting to undermine confidence in the process. if you recall, there was a lot of work over the summer to call into question the expansion of mail-in voting and absentee ballot use.

due to the fact that there was a pandemic ongoing and we wanted to make sure that -- states wanted to make sure that it was safe to vote. that was the, for me, the first real indicator that there were going to be some disinfo shenanigans in the 2020 election. >> when you watched the insurrection on live television on january 6th, as we all did, and you knew -- you knew at a technical level and a policy level and a substantive level that the lie was a lie and you had been saying it everywhere you could say it to everyone you could tell, what did you think? how did you feel? >> it was -- it was pretty surreal. i, of course, can't imagine what it was like for the law enforcement officers that were there actually having to deal with the violence, but sitting back, knowing what we knew, all the building blocks, all the indicators had been in place. we had released the year before an awareness campaign called the war on pineapple and it was really a decomposition of what a

foreign influence campaign looks like, and unfortunately this time around, instead of it being a foreign actor, it was domestic actors that were sowing the seeds of distrust and manipulating the minds of the american people, and that -- the last step in that campaign is taking things to the streets, and that's effectively what we saw, ultimately, the lid popped off and we had the insurrection at the capitol. >> and the capitol, the acting capitol police chief has warned that a joint address to congress from president biden would be a target. the department of homeland security in which you worked and the fbi have issued a pretty unprecedented terror threat that holds that through the end of april, the country is at a heightened risk of domestic terrorists who believe the big lie. what more should republicans who remain the enablers of donald trump's big lie, they flock to cpac and they clapped and they

echoed it, and they parroted it, and again, i think donald trump is off the stage, but there's servitude to him and their willingness to repeat this lie that led to an insurrection that remains a threat to the end of april, what is the security implication of that? >> well, you know, we've got a number of dates that are coming up that are important to the nostradamus types of the "q" following, march 4th or march 20th now. they're going to keep pushing the dates back of when the once and future president, the former guy, as you call him, is going to come back. and it's just -- it's fiction. it's false. it's nonsense. the bigger problem here is that we have, to your point about the servitude, the followers in the gop that, you know, one way or the other, this is the horse you're betting on, it's a really

bad strategic decision for a couple of reasons. one of the illegal exposure of the former president as well as just the fact that he's getting on there in age and i'm just not sure that in four years he's going to be a viable candidate. pull the band-aid off now. we have to change course. if the gop wants to exist in any sort of viable political party mode, then they've got to change course. they've got to do it quickly. but i think what we're seeing more than anything, what you saw at cpac, is that the base is ultimately driving the bus. >> but the base has been fed a lie that mitch mcconnell didn't rush to your defense that i saw when you were fired. kevin mccarthy, i think, still hasn't the last time i checked. i mean, how much did the two most senior republicans in congress contribute to the violence on january 6th by not knocking down the big lie that inspired it? >> so, you're seeing this manifest in a couple different areas. well, january 6th, of course, but look at what's happening in

the various state capitols around the country. some of these election integrity efforts that are afoot. look at what happened over the last several days down in florida with seven different election integrity panels. there was nothing of the kind. what's happening is that the trumpy republicans are providing feedback is the nicest way to put it. the constituents are providing feedback to their elected officials. their elected officials are reacting in a very emotional, visceral way. in fact, in georgia, the georgia legislative -- the republican leaders in the georgia legislature told their members that if their constituents are giving them static about the 2020 election, they should feel free to introduce whatever bill, no matter how crazy, they want. now, whether it becomes law is a completely different thing, but this is performative politics right now, and it is just one

more step in furthering the big lie. >> well, and i would push back a little bit. i'm not sure it's feedback. it's hysterical reaction to a big lie. i mean, what role do we as republicans or former republicans have in defeating the big lie? it can't -- they think democrats are the enemy of the state. they think people like you are the enemy of the state. i don't know what they call people like me. what role do we have in disinfecting the disinformation? >> well, i think it's efforts like representative cheney and representative kinzinger and, you know, a handful of the republicans in the senate with, you know, senator sasse and romney. it's keep pushing forward, calling out the nonsense. there's got to be some separation here from the, you know, the gqp side of the party. i don't think that this, whether

it's the republican single party or what, is going to continue on. there's going to have to be a fracture one way or the other, whether it's the trump side peels off or the more rational republicans peel off, but this just -- i can't see how it's a viable political solution. >> i guess my only last question is, if they can give sort of permission structure to coexist with insurrectionists and white supremacists, what -- i mean, in 199 of them voted to expel liz cheney from the island. what hope is there that liz cheney and mitt romney can push back against where all that heat is in the party? >> it's an uphill battle. it was -- it's much like my hope back in january that the president would be impeached and convicted. you've got to set some of your next gates out in front of you and try to work through them, but keep thinking to the future. there are people in the party.

they're not going to switch parties, i don't think, but if they can remain rational voices that perhaps others will come along if the former guy starts to have a little bit of, you know, his own troubles, his own challenges. if he does encounter some legal difficulties, i think that is going to start winnowing away the base. but also the fact that what we saw last night, i don't know if you watched it, for some reason, i did. but it was about an hour of -- yeah, i know, i'm a glutton. but it was low energy. you know, there wasn't a vision in there. it was more of, you know, just -- it's becoming now the party of victimhood, which is the craziest thing that you had -- the last thing you'd ever expect from the republican party, but it is. that was a lot of victimhood and, you know, claiming cancel culture, like, sorry, elections have consequences. yeah, you were canceled.

>> i did not watch it. i'm sorry for you that you did. i peeked in a couple times. i agree it was low energy. he did not slay. i would like to ask you, on the spot, on live tv, to come back and keep up this conversation with us about what's happening at the state level because it's based on a lie that you did your best to knock down with all of the stature associated with your position and the long affiliation with the republican party. >> absolutely. only if leslie jones is on too. >> we'll ask. we'll ask. chris krebs, thank you so much for taking some time to talk to us. it's great to talk to you. when we come back, lebron james and his fiery reaction when he was told not to talk politics and instead to just stick to sports. we've heard that before. our friend jemele hill will join us for that story next. jemele n us for that story next - love you.

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i would never shut up about things that's wrong. i preach about my people, and i preach about equality, social

injustice, racism, you know, systematic voting -- voter suppression, things that go on in our community because i was a part of my community at one point and seeing the things that's going on and i know what's going on still because i have a group of 300-plus kids at my school that's going through the same thing and they need a voice and i'm their voice. i use my platform to continue to shed light on everything that may be going on, not only in my community but around the -- this country and around the world. >> well, he does. that was lebron james on friday, the international superstar speaking out after he was criticized by a fellow athlete, a star soccer player, for using his massive platform to get into politics and policy. james's off the court initiatives have made headlines. his school in his hometown of akron, ohio, ejts and provides meals and housing to hundreds of children and more than a vote

organization, made waves by enlisting people to volunteer at polling centers all around the country. joining our conversation, jemele hill, a contributing writer for "the atlantic" and host of "jemele hill is unbothered." she's also co-host of vice's "carie and jemele stick to sports." thank you for being with us. under better circumstances, you were kind enough to join our coverage of accident, thank god he seems to be just dealing with his injuries there. but i want to ask you about lebron james's impact on detractors. why does he bother people for doing what he does when so many people are so thankful that he does use his platform and his voice the way he does? >> well, in this case, nicole, it was really kind of strange of where the criticism was coming from. you know, another international star, ibrahimovic, looking at

his background, you would be surprised that he would be critical of lebron for speaking out because this is the same soccer star who years ago talked about how much he loved muhammad ali and in the past, he's talked about what it meant for his family when his parents immigrated to sweden and the racism that they faced there being that they were bosnian and croatian. so i didn't understand why he thought that this criticism was appropriate when he himself had faced a lot of struggles and challenges and grew up in a way that there are some commonalities between him and lebron james. but lebron continues, much like a lot of black athletes in the tradition of speaking out, he continues to, unfortunately, invite a lot of criticism, not that it's his fault, but people generally have a problem, as we have seen throughout our american history, of when black athletes begin to speak up for themselves, speak out against

their conditions and the conditions that are faced by their people. people don't want to hear it because of where it's coming from because these are issues that they would rather not face. because it's funny how when other athletes speak out about things that people tend to agree with, then we don't things that people tend to agree with we don't hear stick to sports or these same kinds of things. and i just think in general people are just very bothered by black empowerment in any way. >> can you talk about it from the athletes' perspective? how much pressure is there on athletes if they make this choice to speak out? and i think you'd probably agree that lebron's in a league of his own and has a platform that not all fleets have. but we saw in the last 12 months a whole lot of athletes used their voices in the way he does. >> well, i think i would look at it as pressure or obligation that they feel forced into doing. the bottom line i think -- >> i mean the other side. what pressure do they get either from fans or from the press not to?

>> well, i think it's siificant. listen, there is a lot of -- there are a lot of people who look at somebody like lebron or really any black professional athlete, period, and they look at them as people who have, quote unquote, made it. and because they have made it they feel as if hey, you're playing a game, you're doing something that a lot of people would love to do, why are you deciding to get involved in very complicated and messy matters that might cause people to dislike you. certainly from a financial standpoint there's a lot to lose. and lebron, you're right. he's in a different position. who doesn't want to be in business with lebron james? there's a whole lot of people who do. so whatever it is he chooses to put his voice behind they're going to see this as an okay risk-reward. but there are certainly players on a smaller level who feel as if if they do speak out, if they do say something that it's going to cost them some kind of opportunity or they're going to -- what's going to happen to him is what happened to colin kaepernick. now, colin kaepernick is still

able to provide for himself. but the fact is it cost him his nfl career and a lot of athletes don't want to face that. but i think 2020 was such a different moment for a lot of them that they decided and they understood that they can no longer kind of hide behind that, that now more than ever is the time they need to use their voices and their platforms to speak out against injustice because staying quiet just isn't an option anymore for a lot of professional athletes. >> speak of voices and platforms i want to ask you about the atlanta dream being sold after players' revolt against one kelly loeffler. tell us about this. renee montgomery, who's appeared on this show, and we love hearing from her-s a former dream player and she's now part of the ownership group. >> well, when you look at 2020 and we're telling the story about how sports plays such a significant role in the election and in what happened in georgia in handing the democrats a majority, this is one of the greatest acts of political courage that we've seen from the

wnba players who decided to get involved in reverend raphael warnock's campaign. he was polling at 9%. and their decision to come out and support him against their own boss, against the woman kelly loeffler who was writing the checks, i mean, that's incredible. and then to bring this all the way full circle with renee montgomery being one of the players who chose to sit out last season to focus on putting her weight and her voice and her power and effort behind social justice causes can now be an owner of the team that all of this kind of stemmed from, i mean, it's just honestly a really wonderful story. and it shows, you were just asking me a moment ago about the athletes who feel as if they will face some heat if they get politically involved. this is one of these stories that we need to hold up as an example of what happens when you use your power and you use your voice. better things can come for you than had you stayed silent. had renee montgomery chosen not

to be involved then she might have not been in this position. and it's just a great story especially for the atlanta dream because i know a lot of fans were turned off by kelly loeffler's presence and now they have a reason to celebrate and to uplift this team once again. >> i need to know more about the players getting involved with raphael warnock's campaign. that's not something that i knew a lot about. >> yeah. so essentially -- and this is not just about them trying to, you know, frankly give kelly loeffler a middle finger of sorts. this is not just about that. they did their research. they talked to him. renee montgomery knew reverend warnock even before he decided to run for senate. and so they liked his platform. they liked what he had to say. they loved his compassion. they were very aligned on the issues. and they decided during one of their national televised games to wear a "vote warnock" t-shirt. and when they were asked about it they told -- they started talking about what he stood for in his campaign and they really

promoted him. this was somebody who was not known at all to the majority of the public. and next thing you know it's a runoff. and now he's a senator. and that all started from those women in the wnba who made this very courageous decision to get behind him. >> all right. we're going to spend some more time on them. i need to know more. jemele hill, thank you so much for spend mc-some time with us. it's always great to see you. thank you. >> always a pleasure, nicolle. thank you. >> when we return, as we do every day, we will remember lives well lived. lived e. 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. please help us get every bottle back. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right,

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raymond simon graduated high school and proudly served his country as a tank mechanic for the u.s. army during world war ii. he married his soulmate, virginia, and lived a life of peace. he was active at church. he liked gardening. he could strike up a conversation with anyone. and he loved the buffalo bills. but the center of it all was his

family. two children plus grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews. according to his daughter, all of them thought he hung the moon. the challenge of a lifetime presented itself when the love of his life developed dementia. he took care of virginia as best as he could for as long as he could, and it broke his heart to move her to an assisted living facility. but for the five years that followed like clockwork the two of them ate lunch and dinner together every single day. raymond never missed a single meal. the final months of his life were spent near his children, a gift they treasure. he contracted covid-19 and passed peacefully at the age of 94. raymond simon, family man, bills fan, and a life well lived indeed. thank you for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we're grateful. "the beat" with ari melber

starts right now. hi, ari. >> hi, nicolle. thank you. and thank you as always for that reporting that you do. i want to welcome everyone to "the beat." i am ari melber. we're tracking amidst what nicolle was just telling us about which is so important, remembering the lives lost, i will tell you tonight we're also track something positive breakthroughs in the ongoing response to covid. one, president biden's nearly $2 trillion covid relief bill passing the house. it needs 50 sloets from u.s. senators. and the president continued lobbying them today with a fast timeline slated to try to get the package back to the president's desk within two weeks in order to continue any benefits for americans before they woex pyre. senate rules are still allowing republicans to require a super majority in order to lift the minimum wage. and we should note that's now gone longer without an increase, did you know this, than any time in its entire 80-year history. some liberals demanding vice president harris use her role presiding over the senate to make a ruling that would allow it to pass that increase on a simple majority. now, in other progress on the covid