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welcome to weekends with alex witt and here's what's happening. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. pacific time, big developments on the covid-19 front at this hour, a new warning today on the still evolving pandemic. dr. anthony fauci telling nbc another wave of new cases will follow the loosening of restrictions. >> it's happened in the past. and history has shown us that when you have that plateauing, that's usually the forerunner of another surge. we've actually seen that in the european union. they went up like us, came back down, plateaued and they pulled back on their public health measures, masking and things like that, and right now, they're going through the beginning of a surge, 5% or 10% increases. i'm really concerned if we declare victory prematurely that that's the same thing that's going to happen. >> and that rise in europe prompting france to reinstate a four-week lockdown in some areas and that includes paris. nonessential travel there is banned and only essential

businesses are allowed to open. back here in the u.s., a guideline change for schools. the cdc now says students can be three feet apart instead of six, allowing a higher capacity in classrooms. masks are still required, and teachers must maintain six feet of distance between themselves and their students. and today, more than a dozen states are seeing an increase in coronavirus cases, everyone, thousands are flocking to miami beach. that's for spring break and due to florida's lax covid restrictions, people can be seen all over, mostly maskless, and foregoing social distancing. let's go to msnbc's cori coffin who's joining us from miami beach once again. so, cori, what are you hearing from visitors about the concern? is anyone talking about, uh-oh, little worried about covid while i'm down here? >> reporter: you know what, visitors for the most part, by and large, are not concerned, and if you had any question about that, just look at the folks behind me. it will be a difficult thing to find somebody wearing a mask. i would say less than a quarter of people out here are wearing

masks, and of course, social distancing does not exist. at least on miami beach during spring break. and the situation really has become untenable. the mayor describes it as his city being under siege with how many people are coming in. the issue is twofold, alex. it's the amount of people coming in, which the mayor tells me he has never seen it this bad. this year is the worst he has seen, by far. but it's also the type of people that are coming and the actions that are happening with these visitors. it's more violent, the mayor tells me, and that is concerning local residents as well. they feel that the governor isn't doing enough to support what miami beach is trying to do to tamp down the crime that's come up from spring break. i talked to some locals here as well as visitors. listen to what they all told me. >> it's like we've become overrun. it's crazy. you cannot go out at night. the streets are full. >> i think the mask mandate should not have been lifted as soon as it was. we're not out of the woods yet in the pandemic. >> i have the vaccine so i felt

pretty comfortable, you know, just making sure -- >> i didn't. as long as we stayed, like, six feet apart, don't have no problem. trying not to get into the crowds or nothing like that. >> that's always the worry, but i mean, what are you going to do, not live? so, you know, you work hard, you got to play harder. >> reporter: you know, they are playing harder here, that is for sure. but the problem is they're not putting these other extra precautions in place and that's what the mayor says needs to be done. of course, this isn't just florida that we're talking about, right, alex, there's spring breakers flocking to many states that have similar relaxed reopening policies at this point. we know of, as you mentioned earlier, at least 15 states right now that are seeing more than a 10% hike in covid cases. it is especially concerning as we try to get this under control as more vaccinations roll out. it's hard to do that if you have a surge from spring break. >> yeah, absolutely. we don't want to go in that direction. okay, cori coffin, thank you from miami beach.

right now, a stop the hate rally is under way in atlanta. it's honoring the eight victims of this week's deadly spa shooting. and it comes as we're learning new details about the timeline of that tragic event, chilling new surveillance video shows the suspect entering the first of the three spas more than an hour before the shooting began. both the president and vice president in atlanta yesterday, meeting with local leaders and condemning the surge of anti-asian violence across this country. >> whatever the motivation, we know this. too many asian-americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake. >> well, our nbc news team is joining us from the white house with more on biden's plan to stop these hate crimes, but first, over on capitol hill, a leading democrat is joining the call for a potential change to the legislative filibuster. senator diane feinstein, in just

a moment i'll be talking with lawrence o'donnell and what that means. also on the hill, the outer fencing that has surrounded the people's house since january's insurrection will be taken down this weekend. it comes after a new intelligence report was presented to congress this week warning the country could see a rise in white supremacists and militias in the coming months. a bit later on this hour, congressman gallego will join me to discuss what congress is doing to address those threats. again, president biden wants congress to pass the covid-19 hate crimes act after the deadly shooting in atlanta so we're going to msnbc's monica alba joining us once again from washington. monica, what are we hearing from the president and vice president? >> reporter: this is a position that joe biden has found himself in many times over the course of his life, which is to try to confront an enormous tragedy and put into words for an audience and for the american people what that hurt really means, and we saw that on full display in atlanta, georgia, yesterday

where this preplanned visit that was under way, they thought they were going to be going there for a very jubilant event but when the shootings happened, of course they completely reracked the focus and decided they wanted to only talk about the asian-american community, the impact there and then of course meet with people, and it was notable that that is how the white house built the schedule. they wanted to be sure the president and the vice president both had a lengthy opportunity to meet with leaders on the ground, hear their concerns, offer any kind of consolation and really also be able to say we're here with you, we are listening to you, and we stand by you. after they were done with those meetings, though, both the president and the vice president offered their own remarks and of course it was very notable for the vice president to have a voice in this as well since she is the first woman of south asian descent to hold that role. take a listen to what both she and the president said yesterday during their remarks in atlanta. >> for the last year, we have

had people in positions of incredible power scapegoating asian-americans, people with the biggest pulpits spreading this kind of hate. racism is real in america. and it has always been. xenophobia is real in america, and always has been. sexism too. >> hate can have no safe harbor in america. it must stop. it's on all of us, all of us together, to make it stop. >> reporter: it was notable there, alex, that the vice president did refer to the former president not using his name, but really calling out donald trump and his administration for inflaming the rhetoric around the coronavirus pandemic. that's certainly something that this white house believes was a contributing factor to the uptick in cases we've seen of this anti-asian sentiment and really just horrific acts of discrimination around the

country, which is what they both wanted to address as well. >> and monica, let me ask you quickly about the u.s. recently sitting down with chinese officials, that meeting in alaska. tensions were really high. what led up to the heated exchange? >> reporter: yeah, fiery and on display in a way that we don't normally see, because a lot of this did take place on camera, and the united states accused china of grandstanding, but really, it was an opportunity for both sides to talk about what they really like and don't like about one another. the united states calling out china for human rights abuses and other things like cyberattacks, and then china responding in kind, but again, we got to see a glimpse of this diplomacy in a way that usually happens behind closed doors, but those talks have now wrapped up. there weren't any major diplomatic breakthroughs but these were the first high-level in-person talks of the biden administration, which they say will continue and will be remain to seen when the president meets with his counterpart in china and how that will take place beyond any virtual contact which

is all that's happened so far. >> okay. thank you so much, monica, from the white house. appreciate that. well, joining me now to discuss all of today's big political headlines, lawrence o'donnell, host of "the last word" here on msnbc. very exciting to have you here on a saturday with me, lawrence. thank you for joining me. so, let's get to the topic of china first. we have secretary blinken, who took a big risk confronting china in such a public way that we were just looking at. what does that risk do, do you think, for america? on the world stage, does it put us in any sort of certain position? >> well, confronting china is one of the tones that has to be used in relations with china because of the complexity, it can't be the only tone, and so what we just saw for four years was apparently the trump family trying to do business in china and talking about, you know, donald trump talking about how much he loves the dictatorship in china, and so this is the kind of thing that the chinese

government has been out of practice on with the american government, and so, this is -- this is stage one of, in effect, normalizing what had been the normal version of relations with china, which in some cases involved real cooperation about important issues and in other cases involved these kinds of tensions. >> okay, so i'm going to pick up on what you just said there, normalizing, because it's all happening as vladimir putin and joe biden have been having their back and forth this week, putin saying that he wants to debate biden. the white house is not really entertaining that. but listen to what some of the response has been on fox news. >> putin and biden, it would not end like rocky iv, i don't think the american would prevail. >> correct me if i'm wrong. are republicans who serve in the united states congress, lawrence, are they rooting for putin over the president? >> yes. yes, they are.

because professional republicanism now, which is not to say, you know, all of the, you know, 70 million people who voted for donald trump, but people who make their living as republicans basically now hold the position, the policy position, of whatever joe biden says we're opposed to. in other words, there is no policy. there's none. no policy to being a trump republican. and so, there's nothing but this kind of hatred of the other side, and it blinds them to the point where a congressman like that can come on and say the dictator, the murderous dictator in russia would win a debate with a democratically elected president of any other country, not -- never mind the united states. but because it's the united states, what you're seeing is the loyalty to the united states of america for professional republicans depends entirely on who the president is. and so, there is no loyalty now

for somebody like that for the -- to the united states. and let's remember how you win a debate. you win a debate by convincing the audience that you're right. and so, what that republican congressman just said, when i listen to a dictator who uses murder as a political tactic and whose cancel culture in russia includes long prison sentences in siberia and will poison people whenever they get in his way, to put it mildly, and deny democracy in any real functioning way in that country, that that republican congressman would cheer for that while joe biden was arguing against all of that. >> lawrence, matt gaetz is hardly alone in this approach, though. i mean, how pervasive do you think this mentality that we're talking about is in the gop members of congress? >> well, there really are no members of the house on the

republican side left who have any connection to policy or developing governing policies. it's all about getting on tv and scoring hits on twitter and right up to the leadership, right up to kevin mccarthy, who has absolutely no policy expertise. he has no policy history, none. paul ryan had kind of a sort of a policy history when he was the republican leader of the house of representatives, but even that was inflated. and that was his calling card, by the way, in republicanism, was oh, you know, paul ryan, he really knows the policy. that was exaggerated, but that was considered his value. there's not one person in the republican party in the house who they put forward and say, this is our policy guy. this is our policy expert. this is our policy leader. because there are no policies except, we hate the other side. >> you know, lawrence, earlier, i had on former rnc chair michael steele, a friend to me and to you as well. he said a lot of this is about

fund-raising, about the almighty dollar. do you agree with that? >> well, you know, fund-raising can go in a bunch of different directions. i think it's mostly -- it's mostly about fear of facing a republican primary with someone crazier than you are, so you know, these republicans stake out absolutely insane positions, knowing -- knowing that as marjorie taylor greene shows, there is a more insane position out there in their district ready to run against them. and you know, insanity is more of a winning formula on the republican side for house seats than money. being in the -- being publicly insane like matt gaetz and these people has become more important than being a powerful fund-raiser. >> wow. okay, let's talk about the filibuster, because as you know, overnight, senator dianne feinstein of california released

a statement saying, ideally, the senate can reach bipartisan agreement on some issues, but if that proves impossible and republicans continue to abuse the filibuster by requiring cloture votes, i'm open to changing the way the senate filibuster rules are used. the senator has been reluctant to support any kind of filibuster changes, lawrence, but what do you think was the final straw? i mean, you worked on the hill for years. do you think the filibuster serves any useful purpose and why do you think now is the moment that these calls for reform are picking up? >> well, strictly speaking, and we never do this on this subject, the filibuster, no, never serves a useful purpose because it's nothing but a long speech that ultimately ends. we are not talking about the filibuster. we have never been talking about the filibuster. the news media and many people in the senate have reduced this story to the word "filibuster" which does not appear in senate rules, okay? what this is really about is the

cloture rule, and the word cloture does appear in the rules and it currently takes 60 votes to get cloture, which is the senate term for closing a debate. and all dianne feinstein is saying is it looks like we may have to change that, which is to say, change the 60-vote threshold to a 51-vote threshold, which is what's on the table now, and so it looks like they're going to work their way through that, slowly. it sounds like what they're going to do is go out on the senate floor with a bill and challenge the republicans in effect to block it. it will be the voting rights bill. it will be hr1, probably, and when the republicans block it, then the democratic senators will gather, probably in the lbj room off the senate floor, and they will decide to go back in there and change that cloture vote threshold, but this is an important piece, and everybody -- i, too, have been ignoring this part of it. i'm just saying it here for the first time.

and i will be saying it more as this debate goes on. the filibuster will still exist untouched, and the reason for that is, we never see filibusters, ever. there hasn't been one in many, many, many, many years. i saw exactly one in seven years of working in the senate. there will be delays, but not every delay is a filibuster. and so the filibuster, the, quote, filibuster rule, which is mythological, because there isn't one, the filibuster rule will still exist and what that simply means is any senator, when the time is not restricted on the senate floor, can stand up and talk as long as they want, and that is how every single filibuster in history happened, and that's how strom thurmond set the record at 24 hours and 18 minutes and as soon as he walked off the floor, the senate then voted and passed the civil rights act of 1957 that he was opposing, and so like all filibusters, it had no effect.

>> can i ask you about hr1? do you think it's going to pass? >> it will if they change the senate rule on cloture that will allow it to pass, yes. >> okay. let me ask you about what happened this week, those 12 republicans that voted against the resolution and that would have awarded the -- or would award the congressional gold medal to officers who protected them, by the way, during the riots on january 6th. reportedly, lawrence, they don't like the word "insurrectionists" relative to this resolution. what's your reaction to that? i mean, republicans have always claimed to be the party of law and order. why not honor the officers who kept them safe that terrible day? >> they have never before in their history voted against honoring police officers because there was one in the statement that they did not like. they are lying, and they are all competing for the title of most

insane republican member of the house of representatives, and it's now a real contest. >> okay. do you have the person whom you think fits that profile and who would be the, i guess, the leader of that pack? >> i'm going to let them keep fighting over it and keep competing for it, you know, marjorie taylor greene set a certain standard that those other 11 all now want to challenge her for, and so i'll just watch them and let them disgrace themselves. >> okay. i'm going to watch right there along with you. let me ask you about the surge in border crossings, lawrence. republicans are certainly seizing on this issue of immigration. we have the a.p. that is now reporting that faced with president joe biden's early popularity, good news about vaccinations and americans' embrace of the covid relief bill, the gop is leaning in amid a highly charged issue. they hope immigration can unite the party heading into next

year's elections. do you think that's going to be an effective strategy? i mean, they've spent years excusing the trump administration's family separation policy. >> well, look, border policy at the southern border is difficult only for one reason. and that reason is it's a condition that makes it difficult, and the condition is, if you have any humanitarian concern at all for the people, the adults and children who are coming to that border, and the republican party professionally does not, they do not care what happens to them, they, in fact, cruelty was their policy, deliberately put into place by donald trump and jeff sessions, and so for them, it was easy. be as cruel as they possibly can and there's not a single trump voter who will make you pay a price for that on the trump side of our politics. the democrats have the challenge

of recognizing that the border has a function, the border needs to be controlled, and that humanity has a place in this policy. and trying to meet humanity and the policy has been a challenge for decades and decades, and that's what you're watching. you're watching people who care about government, who care about the border, and at the same time, who care about human beings. and it is a very difficult policy and they're going to struggle with it every day in this white house. >> it has been so great having you on the show, lawrence. any time, my friend, that you want to put a little on us saturday or sunday, any time, we'll have you. and for all of you, i encourage you to watch "the last word" with my highly esteemed erudite colleague, lawrence o'donnell, every weeknight on msnbc. you know on any given day, michael cohen has got a lot to say. what he's revealing after his

eighth visit with the manhattan d.a.'s office next. eighth visit with the manhattan a.'s office next more of the best. 5g from america's most reliable network. more plans you can mix and match and save. more of the entertainment you love. and the phone you want on us. all starting at just $35. only from verizon.

more now on mounting legal troubles for donald trump after his former attorney michael cohen was interviewed for the eighth time by the manhattan

district attorney. my colleague, msnbc's lindsey reiser is joining me now from outside the d.a.'s office. lindsey, what is michael cohen telling prosecutors and what do you think this means for trump's legal jeopardy? >> reporter: they're honing in right now on this investigation into his finances, so it's really into his assets and whether the former president inflated those assets to get tax breaks, to get favorable loan conditions and they're also looking into those hush money payments made to women, facilitated by cohen on behalf of the former president. now, donald trump denies any wrong doing, he says this probe is a witch hunt, but we do know that the supreme court ruled in favor of cy vance's office getting millions of tax documents from donald trump, and we also know that cohen just met two weeks ago with investigators over zoom for two and a half hours, and he spoke with ali on the rachel maddow show last night and he talked about the prosecutor that was brought in, the person he's talking to, and this person is an expert in white-collar crime and he's put away a lot of mobsters,

including john gotti. listen to what cohen said about this man. >> when you have somebody like mark, who is a seasoned veteran when it comes to this type of litigation, and he's been on both sides of the fence. he's been a tough-nose prosecutor and a hard-nose defender. he knows the game better than anybody, and i can't imagine who they're going to bring in, in order to challenge his capabilities. >> reporter: and cohen also said that his assessment right now is that indictments are imminent and alex, keep in mind this is only one investigation here. right now, we also know that trump is facing 29 lawsuits, two investigations in georgia over the election and also an insurrection investigation in washington, d.c., alex. >> okay, lindsey reiser, thank you so much from manhattan for that. a new intelligence report presented to congress warns of the rising threat of domestic terrorism. that report requested by president biden particularly talks about the danger of white supremacists and militia members and predicts that some threats

could increase in the coming months. this comes as the fbi releases new videos from the capitol attack and we want to warn you that this material is violent and disturbing. but these videos highlight what is described as, quote, the most egregious attacks on law enforcement officers during the january 6th capitol riot. agents are hoping the public can help identify those involved. joining me now is arizona congressman gallego. congressman, it's good to see you again. let's get into this here because it seems, and i'm sure you can agree with this, there's an endless stream of videos and information about that insurrection and future threats. how real are the threats of domestic terrorism, more to come, and do you think congress is doing enough to address it? >> well, i mean, it's pretty real because it's already occurred. we've seen domestic terrorism occurring not just on january 6th but prior to that, so this is not something that's just coming out of thin air. it's something that's been festering for many years and even decades but it really came,

i think, to a head under the trump administration where, you know, he really gave life and credibility to the white nationalist movement. so, it is real. it is a threat. i think what is congress going to do? i think congress needs to really aid our civilian agencies to really go after them and treat them like the threat they are. you know, this is bigger than al qaeda. we need to make sure that we really are investing the proper money and time into this effort. >> i tell you, it's scary, that perspective, but unfortunately i think many agree with you on that. the outer security fencing. go ahead, sir. >> well, at least since 9/11, certainly we have had a lot more domestic terrorist attacks, not to diminish al qaeda's did to us but we've had a lot more domestic terror attacks than foreign attacks here. and i apologize. >> no, there's no apology necessary. i think these are two things that we have to address equally and put a lot of focus in both. but let's talk about the outer fencing at the capitol. it's coming down this weekend.

timing-wise, is it the right time to scale down? >> it is. look, we, as, you know, unfortunately, we as members of congress have to make a certain amount of sacrifice. we cannot be living behind these walls. this is the people's capitol. it's not our fortress. and we are only letting these white nationalists, these people that attacked the capitol, these insurrections win by isolating ourselves. we can have safety. we can put some good safety measures, you know, add more police officers, but we cannot have a militarized capitol. we are the, you know, the fountain of democracy and we don't look like that right now. >> let me turn to what's been going on with the asian-american pacific islander community. as you know, they've been left stunned across this nation after the deadly shootings in atlanta and i know in your distribute in phoenix, the asian-american community is speaking out over the rise in anti-asian violence and there's one woman saying, quote, a lot of us are at home scared, not sure what to do, not sure how to navigate.

what, congressman, is your message to them? how do we keep this community safe? >> well, number one, this is your country and you have a right to be safe. the people that should not be feeling safe are these racists and white nationalists that are trying to intimidate our aapi community, and i stand with them on this. we need to stop asian hate and more importantly, we need to stop the anger and the bigotry that comes from it. and i think that's just as important, but you know, the other thing we have to remind people of, there's a reason this is happening now. this is four years of just this type of animosity that was created under donald trump, largely around covid, and it's kind of fed into this. i saw this happen during sb 1070 when there was a lot of anti-latino sentiment, anti-immigrant sentiment and people and latinos were getting attacked on the streets by random people because they felt that there was some credibility to it since politicians were speaking and breathing these hate words into life.

>> yeah. i want to talk about immigration with you and start with the comments of house minority leader kevin mccarthy. the things that he made, things that he said while visiting the u.s.-mexico border this week. let's take a look at that. >> it's not just people from mexico or honduras or el salvador. they're now finding people from yemen, iran, turkey, people on the terrorist watch list they're catching, and they're rushing in all at once. they're catching 100 to 200 people in that one section. >> so, the day after the gop leader made those comments, you wrote this on twitter. i'm the chairman of the intelligence and special operations subcommittee. i had an update on this a couple hours ago. it's mostly classified by the minority leader didn't receive that update, and he is at least misconstruing the information. can i ask you what did congressman mccarthy get wrong? >> i can't go into specifics because it is classified but he is distorting and misconstruing a lot of what is happening at

the border. to the point where it's, you know, more misinformation that is decidedly done to incite people and scare people. look, the border is always going to have crossings, and what we do have to recognize is people are being caught. and we have the caught people, by the way, in the past from these countries in question. but what we certainly know is that what he's talking about right now, what i know specifically, is a gross exaggeration, and lastly, the child humanitarian situation we're dealing with right now is entirely separate from the other border crossing enforce ms that we're doing right now. people are crossing the border illegally should be caught and should be repatriated back to their countries. these children that are coming here unaccompanied need to have a process, need to put them in foster care in the meantime, and reunite them with their families at the appropriate time after we've also tested them for covid. that's entirely separate from what mccarthy is trying to do,

which is just scare people into thinking they're all related. they're not. the people that we're catching that are not supposed to be here are being sent back. the people that have a right to refugee claims are given those opportunities, but they're not -- they're not all the same thing. but that's what the republicans do. they just need to misinform people and scare people because that's really all they have to sell right now and this is just another way for them to distract from the most important thing is that this president has gotten vaccines in people's arms and checks in people's pockets and the republicans have done zero to help in either one of those things. >> arizona congressman ruben gallego, thank you for your time. someone you know quite well on msnbc shares with me why the attacks on asian-americans are not a new thing and why it hasn't gotten much attention until now. that's next. sn't gotten much atn until now. that's next.

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speaking out. today, she told my colleague how this same kind of discrimination affected her own grandparents years ago. >> at that time, it was all about surviving and, you know, unfortunately having to prove your american loyalty, and i think they stayed silent a lot just to move on, to assimilate during those times, and you know, now, things are still kind of not much better as far as this violence that is happening. >> well, joining me right now, msnbc anchor richard louie. richard is also a part of a special report later today called ""american voices": hate on the rise." hello, my friend. i'm awfully glad to see you on a saturday afternoon here. there's a lot of stuff to get into and i know you have talked in the past a lot about this. unfortunately, these kinds of attacks, they are not new.

why do you think there hasn't been the kind of attention paid to them that there needs to have been? why is it happening now? >> you know, unfortunately, here, alex, as you and i have worked together over the years, i think it comes down to very one simple item. representation. and we're just not seeing the folks that we might see in other groups, where you might see leaders in politics, those that are out there and talking, that are asian-american pacific islander. another thing, alex, that you might consider as you look at this, it's also leaders in business, despite them seen as the model minority, right, that they would be the best at business and they do so well. yet, they don't seem to be making it to the leadership positions. when you see those two situations plus the lack of representation and cultural iconography, whether you want to see them as leading man or leading woman, those are all important in understanding that they have arrived, that this group is part of the great fabric of america. so, when we see horrible

pictures like this, it is the long-term effect, since the 1800s, of always being the other, of always being the perpetual outsider. it's hard to believe that. i know that, alex, as you and i have covered many different ethnic groups, they want to feel like they are here. this group perpetually, for centuries, has fels felt they are not here yet. >> the thing that's been really horrible for me today and the last few days in particular, richard, has been hearing asian-americans, our fellow citizens, talk about how they are afraid to leave their homes. i mean, how real is that sense? do you have -- have you experienced that or members of your family? >> yeah. i have thought about it in the last week. being a person of asian descent, and now, i'm starting to understand what other groups have lived through in our recent times. i've done some 200, 300 asian-american pacific islander

events in the last 15 years. this has always been a discussion, alex, but we never thought, never in the discussions, never in the speeches, never in the back and forths, and the q&as at all of these community events did we ever think it was going to explode like this, but the silver lining might be is will this reignite the efforts that happened in the '60s and in the '80s in this community when their civil rights movement was potentially born, and that's the question. >> yeah. nothing but respect for you, my very good friend, richard lui and all that you do for the aapi community. well done. >> thanks. and we're not done with you yet, so as i mentioned to all of you, i've mentioned that richard will be part of that special report. in fact, he'll be on with alicia menendez later about why there's more violence against people of color, immigrants, lgbtq people, who all is behind it, what can be done to stop it. watch """american voices" tonigt at 6:00 eastern on msnbc.

new developments in the derek chauvin murder trial as jury selection resumes on monday. this after the judge denied a defense notion move that trial out of minneapolis. defense attorneys claim chauvin could not get a fair trial because of all the publicity following that city's historic $27 million settlement with the family of george floyd. the judge will also allow evidence to be heard from floyd's 2019 arrest. >> 2019 evidence is only admissible for the limited purpose of showing what mr. floyd's -- as an example of mr. floyd's bodily reaction, his physical symptoms upon being confronted in almost the exact same situation. and joining me now, msnbc legal analyst paul butler. paul, welcome, good to see you. so, as we just heard, judge cahill is allowing evidence from george floyd's 2019 arrest to be admissible in the chauvin trial. give me your thoughts on that. >> this is a huge victory for

chauvin, alex. his defense will be that he didn't kill george floyd and that floyd died because of a drug overdose, and they say that when floyd knew that he was going to be arrested, he swallowed drugs so that the police would not find them and now they have video from another time when floyd was arrested where he also swallowed drugs in a way that was very dangerous to his health. the prosecution says that arrest was very different because then the police took mr. floyd to the hospital, not to jail, and obviously, mr. floyd survived that arrest, but the judge will allow this testimony and it could have a big impact on the jury. >> so, what does the prosecution do to prepare for this? >> the prosecution will say that it's not a coincidence that mr. floyd died after officer chauvin put his knee on mr. floyd's neck for more than eight minutes. all the prosecution has to prove is that what mr. chauvin did was

a major cause of mr. floyd's death. it doesn't have to be the only cause. >> so, $27 million, that got a lot of headlines and that became a sticking point during jury selection. two of the jurors were asked to step down because they couldn't be impartial. what do you think was the city's logic in settling with the family now rather than after the trial? >> so, i think the city is concerned that if there is not a conviction in this case, there's going to be protests and outrage and possibly violence. and so, by announcing this huge verdict, they're trying to be proactive. will send a message to the community that no matter what happens in the criminal case, this city is doing all that it can to take care of mr. floyd's family and also to have reforms and legislative measures to make sure that nothing like this

happens again. >> okay. paul butler, there's a lot more to come in this case, which means we'll be seeing you again. thank you. they are pictures that are making florida officials shudder and when you see them, you might think, why are people doing this? this and some breaking news from just moments ago from the sunshine state. that's coming your way next. fr sunshine state that's coming your way next. smos your stomach for fast relief and get the same fast relief in a delightful chew with pepto bismol chews.

darrell's family uses gain flings now so their laundry smells more amazing than ever. isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling. we have breaking news to share from central london where anti-lockdown protesters are clashing with police. this demonstration was deemed illegal under covid restrictions that the protesters actually opposed. police eventually detained an unknown number of protesters. there's no word on any injuries. we have a little more breaking news to share, this time from florida. it is now the third state to pass 2 million coronavirus cases. joining me now is florida's commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. welcome back to the broadcast. it's good to see you. i'm curious your reaction to this. it's a pretty grim new

milestone. >> it is. you know, and it's unfortunate because right now, our governor is going all around the state and the country declaring victory where our cases are going still up. we have also over, you know, a certain amount of the new variant here in the state of florida that was just released yesterday because they have to sue in order to get this information. so, it's heartbreaking and of course seeing those photos that you're looking at right now, all the spring breakers coming here to the state of florida. let me be clear. you know, i remember. i remember what it's like to be in spring break and be in college and i get it. but unfortunately, we know that we're not behind it, that the vaccines are slowly rolling out here in the state of florida, and in order for us to get back to these types of pictures, we've got to make sure that we're beating the virus and we're just not there yet so certainly there's light at the end of the tunnel but we've got to be following our science and this is not backing up what we need to be doing right now. >> nikki, why do you think governor ron desantis chose now, with spring break here now, to

lift the covid restrictions? because these numbers are still fairly high. >> yeah, you know, he has always been wanting to open up our state, and again, he goes around and, you know, pounds his chest that florida is open for business and all these other states are still closed, makes the comparison all the time that disney world here in florida is open, yet disneyland in california is closed. you know, he's proud of his record and his numbers and meanwhile not only have we hit the milestone of 2 million individuals but we also have people that, 33,000 people who have lost their lives so talk about their family, talk about their friends. we also have over 82,000 people who have been hospitalized on top of those who have died. our economy has fallen significantly. we had almost 60% less visitors here in the state of florida q4 and the governor has said mission accomplished six months ago. and he barely talks about the pandemic. he only talks about the rolling out of vaccine and how great he has done, but quite honestly, that's why i've asked for an fbi

investigation. he's also been only giving it to his rich donors and we have all these allegations across the entire state of favoritism and putting white wealthy individuals at the front of the line where a lot of our farm workers, our essential workforce, our teachers are still waiting to get these vaccines. >> so, then, the vaccine rollout is not going, sounds like to me, as well as you would like it to. meaning, underserved communities, they are not getting it. it's only going to a specific group that he sees a benefit towards targeting them? i mean, the vaccine rollout, it's not -- it's not enough to mitigate the small gatherings and the things like that you'd like to see around the state? >> no, the vaccine has been filled with chaos and corruption from day one. chaos because he kept changing the locations of where the vaccines were going to be rolled out, who is eligible, who was not. you then had this corruption aspect of only taking care of communities that had the wealthiest of zip codes in those counties, saw campaign contributions and donations to

the governor and to his party within, you know, months and weeks of receiving these vaccines in these locations and you saw also, you know, now that he wasn't going to promote and expand the eligibility of the vaccines, we saw all of these fema sites thanks to president biden popping up all over the state of florida, but going empty, couldn't even fill the lines and couldn't fill the vaccines that have been distributed to them because he refused to expand the eligibility, and then on top of that, he expanded the eligibility to vulnerable workers, but you had to have a doctor's note and 2.8 million floridians don't have a primary doctor, so again, creating additional red tape and oversight on this very necessity of getting this vaccine into people's arms. it's the only way that we're going to get through this pandemic is by staying masking up, keeping social distancing, and getting the vaccines when you are eligible. and the governor has refused to put any type of restrictions in place when local governors, local governments have been doing it on their own, now he's not even allowing them to do it

to protect their own communities. so, again, he just believes mission accomplished, and time to move on to his 2024 presidential race. >> got to tell you, disturbing to have this conversation as we go with the breaking news, noting that more than 2 million floridians have gotten covid. remarkable. nikki fried, thank you so much. we'll look forward to seeing you again. something's about to happen in the city of nashville and it has nothing to do with country music. well, there's a little bit of country music but that's not the whole thing. anyway, we're going to take you there next. g. anyway, we're going to take you there next hi mr. charles, we made you dinner. ahh, thank you! ready to eat? yes i am! tired of clean clothes that just don't smell clean? what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks? now they can! this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks.

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tragic shooting where six asian-american women were killed, eight total dead and three spas across the atlanta area, and right now, folks have gathered here for a stop asian hate rally that took place right under the steps of the capitol building here in atlanta, and now these guys are moving forward along this march, you're hearing shouts of, stop asian hate, shouts of ending white supremacy, a very large turnout here, i would say. several hundred people, close to a thousand of all racial groups, alex. there's a lot of solidarity being shown here today in atlanta from the community and from several people visiting from out of state as well. alex? >> all right, i know that you were speaking with the man who organized that rally, and he got a lot put together there in just a few days, so i'm sure he appreciates seeing all these people as we do too. thank you for that, deepa. at this hour, meantime, a remarkable seen playing out at a mass vaccination site in nashville.

it is the city's largest sing-day effort to date, a goal to vaccinate 10,000 residents against the covid virus today. let's go to gary, who's joining me from the nissan stadium in nashville. how many people have gotten the shot so far? because it's been up and running most of the day already. >> reporter: it's been running -- up and running most of the day, hey there, alex. about 5,500 people have gotten their vaccines so far, about another 5,500 to go in this clinic. i want to show you what this looks like. these are the folks that are getting into line here. they're going around to all the cones, a little bit of a maze and then they're looking to get into the line to get the vaccine. this is the johnson & johnson vaccine so they're coming in unvaccinated and leaving fully vaccinated. now, this is a parking lot here at nissan stadium that has seen really every part of this pandemic. it saw food drives. it saw ppe drives. it saw a testing center pop up here. and then, of course, it saw a command center take place here

for those christmas day nashville bombings, and now, it's a coronavirus vaccination site. folks here are really excited. folks here, it's really, you know, the soundtrack of nashville is a lot of country music, as you were mentioning. now it's running car engines and some real sighs of relief. i want to introduce you to a few folks that i spoke to that were in the waiting area after getting their vaccine. here's what they had to say. >> i'm very happy. i am medically high risk as i think are, you know, pretty much everybody here. but i've just been home with my family for a year. >> take my mask off. that's the first thing i want to do. being able to go see faces. still a little leery on touching people, but still. take the mask off. >> i moved to tennessee in a pandemic. so, it's been a little rough. i'm actually for guam so i'm a ways from home and so it's definitely been a rough year i. kind of got stuck here with the

pandemic, but you know, i'm really excited to be vaccinated, can't wait to be able to visit home safely. >> reporter: so demand is high here in nashville and excitement is high here in nashville but that's not the story everywhere here in tennessee. officials tell me there's 500,000 open vaccination appointments in tennessee right now. they simply don't have the demand in some of the rural parts of the state. >> yeah, got to say, though, that looks like when i drove my mom to dodger stadium in l.a. to get her vaccination, what a happy day that was. that's a wrap of this edition of weekends with alex witt. at the top of the hour, yasmin takes a look at what's happened to thousands of families impacted by the trump administration's ban next. es impacted by the trp um administration's ban next. s theo much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother alice. and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain!

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good afternoon, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. we got a lot of ground to cover, and a team of correspondents covering it all, including anger in the streets of atlanta over violence against asian-americans in the wake of the shootings there. new information in a just unsealed indictment targeting some of the alleged ring leaders of the capitol hill riot as well. promises of, quote, indictments flying soon from donald trump's former fixer, after his eighth, count them, eighth interview with the manhattan d.a. and a spring break surge