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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  March 3, 2021 9:00am-10:01am PST

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if you wanna be a winner then get a turkey footlong from subway®. that's oven roasted turkey. piled high with crisp veggies. on freshly baked bread! so, let's get out there and get those footlongs. now at subway®, buy one footlong in the app, and get one 50% off. subway®. eat fresh. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. as the head of the d.c. national guard has testified that pentagon officials were telling him on january 6th they didn't like the optics of authorizing national guard troops to help capitol and d.c. police during the riot, leading to hours of delay in getting the troops to come to the rescue. and p person on that call who made that comment, it was general charles flynn, brother of fired trump national security adviser mike flynn, who on that day had been one of the high-profile supporters at the rally dedicated to stopping the
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electoral vote count from taking place on capitol hill. >> at 1500 i directed that the quick reaction force that was based at andrews air force base leave the base, get to the armory, at all speed. we put guardsmen on buses, brought them inside the armory so nobody would see them putting on the equipment and getting on the buses. then we just waited to get the approval. at 5:00, i decided, hey, you know, we've got to -- there's got to be an approval coming so get on the buses, get the equipment on, get on the buses and just wait. and then a few minutes after that we did get the approval. based on my experience with the summer, and i have 39 years in the national guard, i was in the florida guard, hurricane andrew, been involved in civil disturbances. so i believe that number could have made a difference. we could have helped extend the perimeter and help push back the crowd.
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>> joining me msnbc justice correspondent pete williams, garrett haake on capitol hill, jamie ga relic from the 9/11 commission and a former general counsel at the pentagon and former fbi special agent with the joint terrorism task force, clint watts. garrett, the time frame they have described is extraordinary. for instance, it took a half hour from when the order finally came from the pentagon for it to even get to general walker, the head of the d.c. national guard, and there were questions about that from senator portman. let's listen to the discrepancy also in the testimony that you've been putting out on the time lines. >> at approximately 2:30 p.m., the secretary of the army met with the acting secretary of defense and other senior leaders of the defense department. after this meeting, the acting secretary of defense determined that all available forces of the d.c. national guard were required to reinforce the d.c.
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metropolitan police and the u.s. capitol police and ordered the full mobilization of the d.c. national guard at 3:04 p.m. the secretary of the army received the acting secretary of defense's approval at 4:32 that ordered the d.c. national guard forces to depart the armory for the capitol complex. >> immediately after that 1:49 call, i alerted the u.s. army senior leadership of the request. the approval for chief sund's request would eventually come from the acting secretary of defense and be relayed to me by army senior leaders at 5:08 p.m., about 3 hours and 19 minutes later. >> garrett, they're zeroing in on this because these are the officials who were involved. the riot was make taking place by 1:30, 2:00. we were watching them in real time breaking through and getting to the chambers. >> reporter: general walker
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said, you know, he already had national guardsmen who were deployed throughout the city helping mpd with things like traffic control for what they knew about the march on the ellipse and the presidential events there and so forth and that if it had not been for dod guidance he needed to go up his chain of command, he would have ordered naurdsmen to respond to the capitol immediately and simply report to the senior most u.s. capitol police officer they could find and essentially get to work. so this delay here is really infuriating to some of the senators in the room. you can tell. there was also a bit of a clarification when you heard the official there from the department of the defense say the guard was mobilized at 3:00. that doesn't mean they were mobilized to go anywhere. it just means that dod had agreed to essentially turn them on as a potential quick reaction force. i think the other thing that's becoming increasingly clear as the testimony continues here, these senators are going to end up wanting to hear from the former secretary of the army here and possibly even the former secretary of defense. the witness provided by dod
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today just can't really match up with the decisionmaking process that so frustrated general walker and his ability to respond more forcefully on that day. so good answers being provided here today and lots of new questions coming forward about what was going on at the pentagon. general walker and chief sund and others were trying to figure out the fastest possible way to get help to the capitol. >> pete, another thing that general walker has just testified to was the difference between june 1st, when they were facing a black lives matter protest around the white house and lafayette park, and general milley involved, william barez. it was almost instantaneous. different powers took place when they were trying to can get help to the capitol. >> it's clear the reason is because of all the controversy
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over the way the guard was deployed around the white house during the spring and summer. general walker said that army leaders told him during his first phone call that it wouldn't look good to have guardsmen standing around the capitol and might incite the crowd. it was clearly a reaction to what happened in the spring. so not only was there extra layers of approval needed, but the army itself was reluctant to do this. i think you have another factor here, an acting secretary of defense only on the job a couple months, and you had an army sort of gun shy about deploying the guard. you put all that together and this thing that's hard to understand, the fact that the secretary of defense approves the guard deployment finally at 4:32, but it's not only 5:08 that general walker actually gets the green light. the defense department has a lot of explaining to do here.
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>> we have general walking talking about that conversation. >> the army senior leaders did not think that it looked good, it would be a good optic. they further stated that it could incite the crowd. during the phone call with the district of columbia national -- the district of columbia leaders, the deputy mayor, chief sund, dr. rodriguez, who was talking about optics, were general flynn and general pyatt. they both said it wouldn't be in their best military advice to advise the secretary of the army to have uniformed guards members at the capitol during the election confirmation. >> the fact that general flynn was on that call as well was talking about the optics, clint, is obviously a red flag for anyone looking for connections to his brother, who was one of the big instigators, at least at the rally. >> that's right, andrea. this is kind of a pr disaster across the board for the
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department of defense. they're gun shy as pete said from last spring dealing with the george floyd protest and how the military was perceived in it. they pulled back. in the fall, the secretary and general milley e put out statements saying we have no part in the turnover of the election. if you look at the extremist spaces online, a lot of groups that were talking about going to the january 6th -- one of the conspiracies being advanced to include even by lieutenant general mike flynn, former national security adviser, was declaring martial law and using the military to go into the streets essentially to restore trump's rightful victory is the way they would sort of position it. if you're at the department of defense, you're doing everything you cannot to deploy troops and you're not in a forward posture in a rearward posture. when this happens at the capitol, it takes a long time to mobilize those forces and get them in place. there was not a concept of the operations in place because it
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seems like from the optics perspective they were doing everything they could not to be involved in it. >> jamie, another troubling issue is that general walker said he was talking to chief sund of the capitol police because they'd known each other, worked together, and he was trying to find out what was going to be done protectively, proactively. let me play that for you. >> i talked with chief sund saturday and sunday. i've known him for a long time. we're friends. sunday i asked him are you going to request d.c. national guard help and if you do, i need it in write, it has to be formal because the secretary of defense has to approve it. he told me he was not allowed to request support. i asked him if he wanted me to share that and he said no. i can't even ask you for the support is what he told me. but he did say, but if i do call
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you, will you be able to support me? i said yes, but i have to get approval the secretary of the army and ultimately the secretary of defense. >> it's the chain of command, jamie. you've been in government at justice, cia, and it seems like it take an extraordinary amount of time and there was such a caution about this chain of command, which of course, led up to the president, because d.c. doesn't have a governor and the mayor is not permitted to authorize the national guard. >> i would say three things. one, i will need persuading that optics was the only thing interfering with the agility of the national guard to show up. i am skeptical. that's number one. number two, if our defense department knows thousand do anything, it is plan. the fact they did not even make
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a plan that they could activate at whatever moment they wanted to is itself very, very telling. and third, i would just caution you the story you hear at the outset is very likely not going to be the story you end up with. i would just give you this example. we were told studying 9/11 by the ayers at the most senior levels that it had a plane that had picked up the plane that was headed for the capitol and would have intercepted it had it not crashed in pennsylvania. that turned out to be completely false. it was going in the wrong direction. it did not have that plane in it sights. and it would not have been able to prevent a plane flying into the capitol if that plane had not been downed by the passengers on it.
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so it's great to have this testimony. i would want to get underneath it and look at the documents and talk to every single person in that chain of command. >> you would want to find out who was telling the acting defense secretary and the acting secretary of the army was there white house interference, what was going on. we believe that mike pence -- you know, he was -- he was being sheltered. we believe, you know -- we know steny hoyer was making calls to governor hogan to try to get the maryland national guard. we believe others were calling to the white house, and we still don't know anything about what was happening at that level. right? >> one thing that has not been explored, which i think should be, was the wholesale replacement of the people who had been in the leadership of the pentagon in the weeks leading up to this event. >> fair point.
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thank you very much, jamie gorelick. pete williams has been on this, garrett haake. thanks to all. texas governor greg abbott saying his state is lifting its mask mandate and fully reopening. some local leaders say not so fast. the mayor joins me ahead. as president biden promises enough coronavirus vaccines for every adult by the end of may, country superstar dolly parton will help fund vaccine research at vanderbilt university to the tune of $2 million. ♪ vaccine, vaccine, vaccine i'm begging please don't hesitate ♪ ♪ vaccine, vaccine, vaccine because once you're dead that's a bit too late ♪ -go talk to him. -yeah, no. plus it's not even like he'd be into me or whatever. ♪♪
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we're now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in america by the end of may. >> president biden making a major announcement that will dramatically accelerate getting vaccines to all americans by getting two competing drug companies, merck and johnson & johnson, to work together to produce more of j&j's single-dose vaccine. the president is using the defense production act in a fashion not really seen since the war-time decisions by marry truman. this as top officials are concerned that texas and mississippi are rolling back their covid restrictions far sooner than is advisable given the threat of variants as well as the decline in covid cases plateauing at a very high level across the country. nbc news correspondent morgan chesky joins us from austin, texas. morgan, how is governor abbott justifying yankeesing restrictions now? >> reporter: the governor made
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this announcement in lubbock, texas, where he was pointing to the fact that about 7 million texans will be vaccinated in the next few days or so. as far as the met ricks he was referring to and justifying this big decision, a couple stood out. one, it was the hospitalization rate related to covid that's trended downward and he pointed to the state's positivity rate that has been the lowest it's been in months. however, critics are quick to point out that more than 40,000 texans have died from covid-19 so far and that the vaccination rate, while still about a quarter of the state's population, you still have 75% that are unvaccinated. so that's why so many are saying this is too much too soon. i had a chance to speak to several people here in austin yesterday about those visiting and business owners. here are their own words. >> we want to try to bring back the business, but we want to also keep the customers safe. >> with the mixed messages, we
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know that everyone's going to have their own opinion now as to what to do. and we want to require people to wear masks, but now this kind of changes i guess what some people are going to believe they should abide by. >> i'm going to feel worried because i want to care about -- like i said, first my family, and first, you know -- second thing, my friends, you know, and everybody else. i have to respect everybody. >> reporter: this announcement could create a potentially bigger issue, andrea, and that is you have business owners who want to be cautious and ask customers to wear masks, although those coming in, hearing the governor's words, may feel like they are under no obligation to do so. to it will be very interesting to see how things play out when this actually goes into effect on this day one week from now. andrea? >> morgan, thank you so much. joining us now to react to all of this is democratic mayor steve adler of austin, texas. mr. mayor, thank you so much.
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first of all, are you required to go along with the governor or do you have the local option of keeping the mask requirement? and what do you expect retailers, restaurant owners who have been so deeply affected economically, how will they react to it? it puts you in the middle politically. >> i think that most folks will say the governor's order probably controls and are not allowed to issue a penalty associated with our order, which has been consistent since the beginning to have people wear masks. businesses right now, people are hearing mixed messages like the person in the interview we just saw. and that's the real danger here. i mean, the health experts are near unanimous that masking works, it's effective, it's necessary, it's one of the reasons why we're doing as well as we are doing in texas. but to take away the mandate now sends a very mixed message. it's going to confuse people.
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it removes that incentive that might be necessary to get this done. i just hope our community basically ignores the governor and focuses on masking. at the very beginning of this process, he told us he would be guided by the science and the data. he's now broken that promise. the science and data is clear and now it's up to us. >> there are 200 texans who are dying on average every day, 200 souls lost. those people can't be reclaimed. and this could only get worse if the predicted surge takes place, which dr. walensky and dr. fauci from the cdc and the nih, are warning about. >> all of the health professionals are making the same warning including our local health professionals. they're concerned about the new variants of the virus that are coming into town.
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they're concerned about the fact that here in texas, because of the loss of power and the loss of water, we had people in more congregate settings. we don't know what the short term is going to show for us and to relax at this point when so many texans don't have a vaccine yet, i'm especially concerned about the essential workers under 65 that aren't even eligible to get a vaccine yet are now going to be asked to be at the front lines, interacting possibly with patrons that aren't wearing masks. it is not fair to them. it's not fair to their families. it's not safe. you know, we want to open up schools for more and more kids to go to school in person. we want businesses to be open without a threat of having to pull back. wearing the mask was and is the best and most important thing we could be doing other than vaccinations. and to send any kind of mixed message about whether that's
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important or effective is going to hurt us. people will die. >> that's a really grim forecast. thank you very much, austin mayor steve adler. appreciate you coming on today. >> thank you. dr. amesh adalja, senior scholar at the johnson & johnson hopkins center for health security. what are they thinking in texas and mississippi going against all of the medical advice right now at a critical point? and texas is not doing that well on its vaccination rate. >> i think that removing mask mandates and getting rid of this mask guidance makes no sense when you don't have a population that's been vaccinated sufficiently. there's a separate conversation we can have about inncreasing capacity in restaurants, which can be done but you want to make thur is the patrons and customers are wearing masks. they'll get exposure if not. likely it would have some room
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and flexibility with increasing capacity based on what's going on in the hospitals in texas. at the same time, to then remove the mask mandate is not the way to go about it. do the hospital capacity and keep the masks in place until more of your population is vaccinated. hopefully other states will follow that as we see restrictions lifting state by state. >> houston is reportedly the only city where all of the concerning variants have been identified so far. so this obviously contradicts that emerging threat of the vashts, which have not even been fully identified in the population. >> the variants are a little bit of a wild card. and the vaccine is the solution to the variants. but until people get vaccinated, we need people to continue to wear a mask. as we've learned through this pandemic, masks decrease the ability of this virus to transmit. you have to be more meticulous with masks when you're talking about variants that are more contagious. i would encourage people in
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texas, if they're going to go to the restaurants and enjoy what's open now, make sure you're still wearing a mask. you don't need the government to tell you to do so but i'm telling you to do so. keep wearing your mask until more of the population is vaccinated in that state. >> if on the plus side every american adult can get the vaccine if the supply multiplies because of this work that the president's ordered between merck and j&j, where would that put us as a country this summer? >> i think we'd be in a very good place if everybody is vaccinated by may or has access to a vaccine. i think we will be getting some semblance of normalcy as we move to those months. we'll see more normalcy as we get more populations vaccinated. we're seeing benefits with nursing home deaths and cases going down, hospital capacity being freed up. as we get to the community-dwelling high-risk individuals, people in phase 1b, 1c, we'll see a respite. we'll tame the virus. it won't go away completely but
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it won't kill at the rate it does or threaten hospital capacity again. >> dr. amesh adalja, thank you very much. appreciate your being with us. the new warning that capitol police are beefing up security on the hill today amid concerns that there might be another plot to breach the u.s. capitol tomorrow. california congressman eric swallow joins me next. more on today's hearing also in the senate on the january 6th insurrection. >> 3 hours and 19 minutes. 3 hours and 19 minutes from the first call, plea, really with his voice cracking with emotion as the major general said, you have the chief of police sund saying help, we need help, now. 3 hours an 19 minutes. that can't happen again. do you agree with that? >> senator, i do.
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today the u.s. capitol police are issuing a new warning of threats to the capitol saying in a statement they have obtained intelligence showing a possible plot to breach the capitol by an identified militia
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group tomorrow, march 4th, a day that has become a focus of qanon supporters online. it comes as the acting capitol police chief is warning that the threats to members have grown. >> in the first two months of 2021 there has been over a 93% increase in the threats to members compared to the same period last year. >> california congressman eric swallow serves on the house judiciary and intelligence commit tees and joins us now. congressman, what can you report about this new warning about march 4th? >> it aligns with warnings we've seen before the january 6th attack, post january 6th, and i have to say it angers me. it angers me that i have colleagues who have stood with some of these groups, who have
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perpetuated the lies told around the election and have done nothing to quell or condemn these groups. when that's the case, as elizabeth newman testified formerly from the homeland security committee to the homeland security committee a couple weeks ago, that when groups are not condemned, they feel ememboldened. the fact that i have colleagues that perpetuate this big lie about the election, that inspires these qanon folks and makes them believe that they have a permissive operating environment. that makes all of us less safe and affects our ability to do our job here. >> are you talking specifically about congresswoman marjorie taylor-greene? the congressman who keynoted a white supremacist rally in atlanta this weekend, matt gates? who are you talking about? >> the yes. congressman gosar went to a white supremacist event this
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weekend. congresswoman taylor-greene continues to align herself with qanon conspiracies. there was the insurrection reunion at cpac this weekend where senators cruz and hawley attended and did nothing to denounce the big lie. and so, again, that just emboldens and inspires people who have already been radicalized and want to take arms against their government. and right now, i wish we could see something that happened after september 11th, which was unity, unity as an antidote against the threat to our country. but right now the threat is within, within the united states and within the two bodies of congress because legislators have not completely denounced this big lie. >> acting chief pittman is saying that there are increased threats to members. what are you hearing from your colleagues? and do you think that some of your colleagues are in danger? >> well, i can tell you personally, get them every day
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by phone, by text, by social media. i'm grateful to the capitol police and my local law enforcement that seeks to protect me and my family. but what's most frustrating is that distracts from our job. we have a job here on covid relief, on voting right, on reducing the cost of health care, and if you're just constantly worried about your security, it affects your ability to help the people who sent you here. again, not saying that my colleagues are responsible for the threats coming into us, but i'm saying they are responsible for not calming these individuals, for not denouncing what inspires them the most. andrea, if you look at the cpac conference, the number-one issue when they were polled at that conference this weekend for a conservative organization, the number-one issue those attendees cited was election integrity. that really concerns me that they believe that our elections are not secure but they believe that because donald trump and ted cruz and josh hawley and others continue to perpetuate this myth. that makes all of us less safe
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because people feel they have to take arms against their government because the election was fraudulent. >> did threats against you and your district and embassy where increase after you were an impeachment manager most recently? >> yes. frankly, andrea, it increased after donald trump's state-run, you know, television network, fox news, showed my home and our street address on tv, which i thought was also unnecessary. but, yes, after january 6th, after becoming an impeachment manager. and that's okay. i signed up for this. i know what we got into. but it affects all our ability to help our constituents when we work in this fortress of a complex now and we're not as age to engage with people directly at home or here because these threats are just flooding our inboxes. again, the loser in automatic of this are our constituents.
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>> your reaction to what you've heard -- you've been busy today but over on the senate side, the joint hearing today and the chain of command issues which may be masking something else as jamie gorelick told me earlier on the show for why the pentagon was so slow to respond to the national guard. >> yeah. andrea, i believe we now have the best case as to why we need d.c. statehood. second, there's no reason that general michael flynn's brother should have been in that chain of command. he had a conflict of interest. his brother was a part of this big lie. his brother had attended stop the steal rallies in the past. and third, as somebody who had their work impeded for hours to think that over three hours we waited in that secure location to return to the capitol was so unnecessary and could have been signed off immediately. thank god that the national guard was able to come, grateful
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for their service, but it was a failure in leadership across law enforcement and the department of defense that day. >> congressman eric walwell, thank you very much. >> i appreciate it. >> neera tanden withdrawing her name for omb director. who might replace her is coming up next. visible is wireless that doesn't play games. no surprise fees, legit unlimited data for as little as $25 a month. and the best part, it's powered by verizon. but it gets crazier. bring a friend every month and get every month for $5. which is why i brought them. two $5-a-months right here. hey. hey. plus the players of my squad. hey. what's up? then finally my whole livestream. boom! 12 months of $5 wireless. visible, as little as $25 a month or $5 a month when you bring a friend. powered by verizon. wireless that gets better with friends. (noise of fridge opening) guy fieri!
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been her deputy, scholanda young, who had her hearing for the number two post yesterday. >> do you think you're ready to be director if that job was offered to you? >> senator graham, thank you for the question. i'm here nominated as deputy director. >> you'll get my support maybe for both jobs. >> going on running omb. you may be more than deputy. you may be the sheriff. >> and nbc news chief white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker joins us now. kristen, apparently jen psaki has just announced i guess as you were walking out they won't have an announcement this week. i would assume that in deference to neera tanden they don't want to move immediately to someone else to show how well prepared they were with the backup. >> reporter: well, i think that fits into our reporting, andrea, based on my conversations with a number of administration officials here. they say, look, conversations about neera tanden's replacement are just beginning in earnest.
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as you pointed out, this administration was very determined and focused on trying to get neera tanden confirmed, and they would not discuss a plan b, even as it became apparent that the votes just were not there. we know that she met with senator murkowski, but murkowski herself saying that she never told the white house one way or the other how she was going to vote on neera tanden, which suggests, andrea, that the votes weren't there because other senators were breaking with the president's pick. so the question is who will replace neera tanden and what will her role be inside the administration? the president, the white house still has not said what role she is being considered for, but you're absolutely right that there is now a lot of focus on young for the very reasons that you pointed out, and there does seem to be bipartisan support for her confirmation. she has spent some time on capitol hill. and she has the strong support of the congressional black
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caucus, so there is a sense if president biden were to choose her that she would be someone who is confirmable. now, this is really the first set back when it comes to president biden's cabinet picks. so it's not necessarily a devastating setback, but having said that, andrea, every day that he doesn't have the omb directorther day that he's not moving forward with that part of his agenda, andrea. >> it's an underestimated role, omb because they have the final say over all kinds of budget and policy divisions. omb was one of the two places that were badly handled during transition because the trump people really kept omb, you know, from cooperating. so we understand that that and intel were the two worst transition departments. i want to ask you about this iraq attack, because that really is going to set back the president's plans or hopes let's say of engaging iran in multilateral negotiations with
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the europeans. how can he do that now when there's been an attack that is suspected to be iranian backed again in iraq and an american contractor has unfortunately lost his life as a result of it? >> reporter: that's really the big question, andrea, because of course the biden administration, the president had sent signals to iran that it was willing to get back to the negotiating table to try to hammer out what they said would be a strengthened iran nuclear deal. but now that has been thrown into question. iran, we shall note, had said that they weren't going to go back to the negotiating table, so of course this attack overnight comes after last week. the biden administration lobbed air strikes against iranian-backed militias in syria. now, the administration at the time said, look, this was a proportional attack, that the goal was to make sure that there wasn't an escalation, but now it appears, andrea, that's exactly what is happening. we'll have a chance to ask president biden about all of this later when he has an event
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in the oval office later today. >> kristen, thank you so much. now on a sad note, and this is personal for me, as well, america has lost another giant of the civil rights movement, one who came from humble beginnings and went on to become one of the most influential voices in washington and business circles around the world. vernon jordan was a singular figure in the civil rights movement, politics, and business. i've known him for four decades. he levers a legacy that spans many, many years. >> vernon jordan was a friend and informal adviser to presidents of both parties and a king maker in corporate america. but the tall, elegant powerbroker's roots were in the civil rights movement and his youth in a public housing project in atlanta. >> my mother said that's not good enough for this boy. he's going to do things, and he's going to go places.
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>> he did go places. the only black student in his class at depaul university in indiana, then howard university law inspired by thurgood marshall. escorting sthar lean hunter and other students to desegregate the university of georgia 60 years ago. then still in his 30s, head of the national urban league and his first 'appearance before the supreme court. >> and thurgood marshall from the bench at the supreme court winked his eye at me. >> in 1980, he nearly died in a racially motivated shooting and was visited in the hospital by both then president jimmy carter and candidate ronald reagan, telling tom brokaw on "today" -- >> i feel like the same old jordan despite 98 days in the hospital and five operations. but i feel terrific. >> later rising to the pinnacle of washington power while continuing to mentor all who sought his help. former president clinton admiring his close adviser as a wonderful friend to his family.
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"we worked and played, laughed and cried, won and lost together. we loved him very much and always will." and president biden saying jordan knew the soul of america, all of its goodness and all of its unfulfilled promise. jordan's lifelong message of home and commitment to racial equality. >> we do not sing "we shall endure." we sing "we shall overcome." >> vernon jordan was 85 years old. our thoughts are with his family. even though he supported his friend of four decades, hillary clinton, against barack obama in 2008 in that bitter primary, he and barack obama became very good friends. the former president paying tribute on twitter saying, "michelle and i benefitted from vernon jordan's wise counsel and his fights for civil rights. he will be missed."
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new york governor andrew cuomo is scheduled to speak in about 15 minutes as he fights for his political life facing two growing scandals, three accusations of sexual
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harassment, and of course the charge that he deliberately under reported nursing home deaths during the pandemic, something he has denied. he has not been seen in the past week or more than a week since the charges first emerged. this as new york's legislative agreements are in broad agreement to try to repeal his emergency pandemic powers. joining me now is nbc's ann thompson who has been covering this throughout. we just learned he is going to have a briefing at 1:00. we haven't seen him. he has been notably silent and out of action. what are we expecting to hear from him? >> well, he says i think we're all focused on what he has called an announcement. i spoke to jay jacobs earlier today, the leader of the state democratic party. he said he had spoken to the governor. this was before the notice of the announcement. but he said the governor was anxious to get his story out. that he was very upset about the allegations that had been made against him. in the last few days governor
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cuomo has denied at least one accusation of sexual harassment and put out an apology, which said that the -- his actions were misinterpreted by the women. none of that has done anything to quell the growing calls for him to step down and to be impeached or to be impeached. state senator julio salazar explains why. >> i think he is just too compromised to continue in his position. >> reporter: is impeachment the best remedy? >> i think that we have to use every remedy and every mechanism at our disposal. >> reporter: and, andrea, i think the big question that we will get answered in the next five minutes, are we going to see andrew cuomo the bully, the man with sharpness who has left him few friends in albany or andrew cuomo the contrite who wants to hang on to his job?
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andrea? >> i don't think we've ever seen andrew cuomo contrite at least not in public. >> reporter: no, no. >> this is going to be fascinating. thank you so much, anne thompson. we really appreciate you being with us today. we look forward to that at 1:00. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember to follow the show online, on facebook, and on twitter @mitchellreports. chuck todd is up next only right here on msnbc. is up next only t here on msnbc. inflation rising, currencies falling. but i've seen centuries of this. with one companion that hedges the risks you choose and those that choose you. the physical seam of a digital world, traded with a touch. my strongest and closest asset. the gold standard, so to speak ;) people call my future uncertain. but there's one thing i am sure of...
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it's wednesday. the fbi, the department of homeland security, and the capitol police are sounding the alarm warning of a possible plot to breach the capitol tomorrow. as top security officials testify today about how and why it all went wrong on january 6th. plus, we're expecting to hear for the first time since all of these new allegations have surfaced from new york governor andrew cuomo. we expect to hear from him any minute, his first public appearance in days. three women accused him of inappropriate behavior as calls for his resignation grow. it is a covid briefing but we'll be interested to see if he takes other questions. and president biden promises enough vaccines for all adults by may. two months faster than planned. health officials are growing increasingly concerned as some states accelerate to defy the
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