and if i'm bitter and angry, he's taking my mind, my soul, and my heart and i'm not giving him that. ♪ ♪ this sunday, the migrant crisis. >> don't come over. don't leave your town or city or community. >> the u.s. seeing the biggest border surge in two decades. >> why do you think it's picking up? >> i think it's a policy change, honestly. >> republicans blame the biden administration. >> mr. secretary, don't tell me this isn't a , crisis. >> and the administration pushes back. >> aat crisis is when a nation willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to deter people from migration. >> this morning, i'll talk to homeland security secretary

alejandro may morningas about migration and about the growing threat from extremist groups. >> domestic violence extremism now poses the most lethal and persistent terrorism-related threat. plus, fear in the asian-american community. >> this mass shooting, this premeditated act of violence, is reinforcing this sense of, are we ensafe? >> the killing of six women of asian descent in georgia places a spotlight on rising anti-asian violence during the pandemic. >> i am not a vice, and when you say things like that it hurts the asian-american community. also, those republican efforts to restrict ballot access. >> this is jim crow in new clothes. >> how far arero democrats willg to go a to protect voting right? my guest this morning, freshman democratic senator raphael warnock of georgia and retiring republican senator roy blunt of missouri. joining me for insight and analysis are eddie glaude jr. of princeton university, "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan, john ralston, editor of "the nevada independent," and

nbc news correspondentin julia ainsley. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press with chuck todd." and a good sunday morning. it's fair to call the deteriorating situation at the u.s./mexican border a crisis, even if the biden administration refuses to use that word, but it's more than that. it's a political crisis for the new president with no easy way out. republicans are quick to blame mr. biden for the growing number of migrants crossing the southern mborder, saying it's s rhetoric and policy shifts that caused this surge in migrants. the new democratic administration says it was left with a dismantled and unworkable immigration system by former president trump. look, conservatives want nothing less than a big wall and some stricter enforcement of the border. progressives want nothing less than humane treatment for migrants fleeing violence, wherever it is, and a path to

citizenship for those that are already here. far, americans largely approve of mr. biden's young presidency, and he wants to focus on vaccinations, covid relief, infrastructure, voting rights, racial inequalities and renewing america's image at home and abroad, but he can't control the news cycle.th just last week, an intelligence report reminded us of the threat from domestic terror groups mr. dbiden must confront, particularly after january 6th. events in politics have a way of applying their own pressure points, and right now, that pressure is pointed directly at our southern border. it's a growing humanitarian crisis, though it's not ang new one. >> why did you cross? i [ speaking foreign language ] >> in the rio grande valley alone, customs and border protection is detaining more than 500or unaccompanied childr a day with the facility at more than five times its capacity. >> how much of an increase have you noticed in the h last coupl of t weeks? >> it's quite significant. >> more than 5,000 children

under 18 are in border patrol custody. more than 500 held for over ten days. far longer than the 72-hour legal limit. nearly 10,000 more are in hhs care. surges of unaccompanied minors havemp been cyclical, occurring under presidents obama, trump, and nowen biden. >> it just seems like we just went through this not too long ago and here we go again. >> but the administration says the u.s. is on pace tout encounr more migrants on the southwest border than it has in the last 20 years, and is trying new, more aggressive messaging.re >> now is not the time to come to the border. >>to frankly, the message isn't don't come now, it's don't come in this way, ever. >> i can say quite clearly, don't come. >> that's after mixed messages on whether the president's approach may be motivating more migrants to come. >> the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision. >> republicans are seizing on what was donald trump's signature campaign issue -- >> they've caused a crisis.

>> c this is a crisis that is manmades by one man, joe biden. >> it's more than just a crisis. >> if that's not a crisis, it will do till one gets here. >> the biden administration is pushing back. >> crisis onis the border. is that a -- >> challenges on the border. >> a crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family.ar >> though president biden ended the trump administration's remain in mexico policy for asylum-seekers, he has kept in place title 42, a pandemic-era rule which allows the administration to expel migrants without due process for public health ocreasons. of the more than 650,000 migrants encountered at the u.s./mexico border over the last year, fewer than 1% have been able to seek protection, according to the "l.a. times." now, as biden works to restore faith that government is competent -- >> there's nothing, not a single thing we cannot do if we do it

together. >> -- he has asked mexican president lopez obrador to do more to solve the problem. on friday, mexico announced a crackdown on its border with guatemala, after the united states denounced it will share b 2.5 million vaccine doses with mexico. >> this action wille allow our neighbors to meet a critical vaccination need in their countries. >> and joining me now is the homeland security secretary, alejandro mayorkas. mr. secretary, welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you. good morning, chuck. >> good morning. >> good to be here. >> i want to start with something congressman vicente gonzalez, a texas democrat who represents south texas -- this is what he told the "washington post" yesterday. w "when you create a system that incentivizes people to come across and they are released, that immediately sends a message to central america that if you come across, you can stay." i understand on humanitarian grounds the policy change on unaccompanied minors here. are you concerned that a market efficiency hasd been created

where folks have decided, look, my kid's got a shot at getting in the united states if i don't go with them? i >> chuck, our message has been straightforward and simple, and it's true. the border is closed. we are expelling families. we are expelling single adults, and we've made a decision that we will not expel young, vulnerable children. i think we are executing on our plans, and quite frankly, when we are finished doing so, the american public will look back on l this and say we've cu secu our value and upheld our values and principles as a nation. >> how can you say the border is closed if there is this, what some would look at as a loophole? and is understand on humanitarn grounds, but if the goal is to get thesef asylum-seekers to sk the asylum in home country -- honduras,nt guatemala, el salvador, for instance, how do

you get them to do that if our policy is to let them in at the border? >> so, chuck, we have a short-term plan, a medium-term plan and a long-term plan, and the president and i haverm spok to thispr repeatedly. please remember something, that president trump dismantled the orderly,tr humane, and efficien way of allowing children to make their claims under united states law in their home countries. he dismantled the central american minors program, so we are rebuilding those orderly and safe processes as quickly as possible. but in the meantime, in the meantime, we will not expel into the mexican desert, for example, three orphan children whom i saw over the last two weeks. we just won't do that. that's not who we are. >> okay, i understand that. is this current policy, though, sustainable? or are you concerned that the word will go out and you'll get

unaccompanied minors from all over the worldie trying to comeo our southern border? >> well, it doesn't work that way, chuck. the system is a complex one. but let me just say that we are operating on parallel tracks.t we are safely processing the children who do come to our border. we strongly urge -- and the message is clear -- not to do so now.so i cannot overstate the perils of the journey that they take, andt regrettably, i am all too aware of the tragedies that have occurred and continue to occur along that journey. but in the meantime and in parallel, we are rebuilding those orderly systems, both in mexico with in close partnership with the mexican government and in the countries of guatemala, honduras and el salvador, so they, in fact, do not need to take that dangerous journey. we are working in parallel streams to rebuild a process

that has been entirely dismantled. >> do you want to get tore a process where unaccompanied minors do not come to the border? >> we certainly do, and we're working expeditiously to achieve that, in partnership with the northern triangle countries and mexico. we've had tremendous partnership thus far and we're only building on that collaborative effort. >> i t want to put up a tweet from -- you visited the border yesterday. i believe it was inte el paso wh a bipartisan group of senators, including senator chris murphy, democrat from connecticut. and this is what he tweeted. "i fought back tears as a 13-year-old sobbed uncontrollably, explaining through a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents." but he also said he saw an overcrowded facility and, frankly, i guess my question is, why can he see it and not the american public, and certainly not the news media?t >> so, if i can address a number of the points that you made,

chuck. number one, can you imagine expelling that 13-year-old girl whom senator murphy held in her hands, crying? that's not who we are, number one. number two, we have dedicated fema, the federal emergency management administration, to assist health and human services to build the capacity so that we relieve the pressure on the border patrol stations, which i have said accurately, quite frankly, that that's no place for a child. and third, we are in the midst of a pandemic. we are focused on our operations. in removing children from those crowded border patrol stations health and human services facilities that can best shelter them, and we are also working on providing access so the american public can, in a safe way, without jeopardizing our operations, see what is going on. we're working onat that. >> well, what does that mean? i mean, right now we have no accessgh to or photos of the

conditions in the facilities. there have been no ndride-along with agents. all inquiries are routed through washington. there have been strict controls one sharing data. local border patrol folks feel like they can't even talk to our folks down there. is there a gag order?lk >> there is not. that is unequivocally false, chuck.ls and let's be clear here, we are in the midst of a pandemic. we are, because of the extraordinary leadership of the president climbing out of it more rapidly than ever before, but we areha still in the midstf the pandemic. there is cdc controls in place.l and border patrol agents are focused on operations, on securing the border on addressing the needs of vulnerable children. we are not focused on ride-alongs right now. >> speaking of the pandemic, title 42. senator kamala harris thought it was unconstitutional. it is still in place. why?

>> chuck, title 42 is a public health authority of the center for o disease controls. it is not an immigration tool. and in the prior administration, it was used far differently than we are using it now. we have made a decision to serve the public health imperative to continue to t expel families, t continue to expel single adults because of the pandemic, but we have made a decision that we can address the public health imperative while addressing the humanitarian needs of vulnerable children. we aref using it as the title authority was intended and not as a bludgeoning tool under immigration law that the prior president used. >>pr do you have enough test ki down there to test all of the unaccompanied minors in these

shelters? >> the unaccompanied minors are, in fact, being tested. when they arrive in the shelter of health and human services, they are tested, isolated, and quarantined, all of them. >> finally, this interview's been all about one part of your job at dhs, which is the southern border and immigration. can we expect dhs to be able to walk and chew gumto at the same timew with this current crisist the border, with also dealing withbo the rise of domestic extremism? >> never underestimate the talent and dedication of the department of homeland security workforce. most certainly, we do. we are very focused on domestic violent extremism.vi it is the greatest threat, terrorist-related threat, that we face in our homeland. we are very focused on it. we've done a tremendous amount already. we have plans to do more. and i must say, when you mention

that, chuck, i just have to expressus the fact that our heas and our prayers go out to the victims of the tragic killings in the area surrounding atlanta. >> secretary mayorkas, i do have a lot more to ask. you've got a lot on your plate, but i'm out of time. i appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. thank you, sir. very much, chuck. coming vup, the shootings georgia that were just referenced. a focused attention on violence against asian-americans, plus the new warning about domestic terrorism. i'll talk with senators raphael warnock and roy blunt. k with se warnock and roy blunt. most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day, better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband. the fastest 5g in the world. this is the 5g that's built for you.

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welcome back. president biden and vice president harris traveled to atlanta on friday to show solidarity with asian-americans there after the shooting deaths of eight people, six of whom were women of asian descent. mr. biden made a point of highlighting the rise in violence against asian-americans over the past year. >> they've been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and

harassed. they've been verbally assaulted and physically assaulted, killed. >> in a moment, i'll be speaking with republican senator roy blunt of missouri, but first, i'm joined by freshman democratic senator raphael warnock, whose home state of georgia was the site of the violence. senator warnock, welcome to "meet the press," sir. >> thank you so much. great to be here with you, chuck. >> i appreciate it. i want to start with something that the fbi director said this week. director wray said, it does not appear the shooting was racially motivated. so, this is now the fbi director. we've heard local law enforcement. what are your -- are you hearing the same thing from law enforcement that you've been speaking with? >> well, first of all, let me say that our hearts go out to these families as they are dealing with unspeakable loss. i think it's important that we sent to the humanity of the victims. i'm hearing a lot about the shooter, but these precious lives that have been lost, they

are attached to families, you know, they're connected to people who love them. and so, we need to keep that in mind. i know that, look, law enforcement will go through the work that they need to do, but we all know hate when we see it. and it is tragic that we've been visited with this kind of violence yet again, and i'm going to be doing everything in my power as a united states senator to make sure that families don't have to endure this kind of violence in the first place. >> is there a necessary legislative response here? is this a, you know -- president biden said, look, we've got to change our heart. and there's no doubt, there's a morality aspect to this. but is there a legislative change you'd like to see make? it reporting in hate crimes, gun reform, police reform? >> well, i've long pushed for hate crimes laws here in the state of georgia. it took entirely too long to get one on the books here, but thankfully, we do have that law on the books right now. in addition to that, we need

reasonable gun reform in our country. this shooter was able to kill all of these folks the same day he purchased a firearm. but right now, what is our legislature doing? they're busy under the gold dome here in georgia trying to prevent people from being able to vote the same day they register. i think that suggests a distortion in values, when you can buy a gun and create this much carnage and violence on the same day, but if you want to exercise your right to vote as an american citizen, the same legislature that should be focused on this is busy erecting barriers to that constitutional right. >> do you think if you were not a u.s. senator right now, these changes would be going through the georgia legislature? >> well, look, i can tell you this, that the people of georgia stood up in a powerful way, and they sent the first african-american senator and the first jewish senator to the

united states senate. and when they did that, that was revolutionary not just for georgia, but in a real sense, they saved the country. we would not have passed the american rescue plan, had i not been elected. and i think it's unfortunate that some politicians have looked at the results, and rather than changing their message, they're busy trying to change the rules. it will not stand, which is why i'm pushing through the for the people act, which i'm co-sponsoring, which will make it easier, not harder, for people to vote. and it's the reason why we have to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act. >> let me ask you specifically on that. look, hr-1, then there's the version you just said. that's a very big, comprehensive bill, that frankly, has a lot of -- there's folks that argue, even on the left side of the aisle, that it maybe needed some changes. the voting rights -- the updating of the voting rights act, that has been something that has been fairly easy to get

done in a bipartisan way in the past. should that be the focus first? >> well, i like the fact that you point out that voting rights traditionally has been bipartisan. the last time we reauthorized the 1965 voting rights act, george w. bush was president, and it passed the united states senate, 98-0. i think the onus is on my colleagues to explain why they're not supporting voting rights. voting rights is not just one issue alongside other issues. it is fundamental. it is foundational. it is who we say we are as an american people. it's the covenant we have with one another, one person, one vote. and so, we've get to do everything we can to pass voting rights. >> is that -- i understand that. what does that mean with the filibuster? you have said you'd like to see a carveout. have you had a conversation with senators manchin or sinema about the idea of a democracy

carveout? >> oh, i'm talking to my colleagues all the time. i've been in the united states senate a few short weeks. but chuck, i have to tell you, i know that folks are focused on the filibuster, but this language about the filibuster is language much too puny. as an appropriate frame to talk about something as vital and as precious as voting rights. we have to pass voting rights, no matter what, and it's a contradiction to insist on minority rights in the senate while refusing to stand up for minority rights in the society. as someone who served as the pastor of congressman john lewis, who literally laid his life on the line crossing a bridge in order to secure that right for us, i'm going to do everything in my power to convince my colleagues to support voting rights. it's the reason -- it's the only reason why any one of us is in the senate in the first place, somebody voted for us. and right now, in real time, we've got 250 voter suppression

bills all across our country. we cannot allow this to happen. we have to secure our democracy. >> i want to ask you about the controversy regarding some comments senator ron johnson made. he defended himself from these comments, saying that he would be -- he wasn't afraid of the insurrectionists that were there, but he would have been if they had been black lives matter or antifa protesters. and this is what he wrote in the "wall street journal" defending himself. "it was also sadly predictable that liberals would hurl the accusation of racism. this isn't about race. it's about the riots. rioters who burned kenosha weren't of any one ethnicity. they were united by their radical leftism." what would you say to him? and have you had a chance to explain to him why you believe what he said was racist? >> listen, i'm a pastor and i'm happy to talk to my colleague. i think he's clearly misguided. but you know, chuck, i'm one of only three african-americans in

the united states senate, in 2021. i'm only the 11th black united states senator elected in the history of our country. and so, i think that part of what this underscores is that representation matters. and when you are inside of a kind of privileged echo chamber, you can say things and not understand the implications of what's going on. this is the reason why we've got to stand up for voting rights in our country. we've got to make sure that people from diverse backgrounds, with their life experience, that they bring this to the great debates about the direction of our country. and that's why we've got to pass the john lewis voting rights act, and we've got to pass the for the people act. >> senator raphael warnock, a new democrat from the state of georgia. thank you for coming on and sharing your views with us. i know on most sundays, you have another job you do, so i appreciate your spending a few minutes with us. >> i'm headed to church, chuck.

great to be with you. >> all right. thank you, sir. joining me now is the chairman of the republican senate policy committee. it is roy blunt of missouri. senator blunt, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> good morning, chuck. >> hey, i want to talk about the insurrection, itself. and why is it that we cannot get a bipartisan sort of 9/11-style commission here? i understand the republican critique of speaker pelosi is that it wasn't equal. all right. let's assume it's equal. why is there -- why can't we get past that? it seems like we can't get past the scope, forget the makeup of this commission. >> well, chuck, as you know, the rules committee that i've shared, that now i'm the top republican on, and the homeland security committee, we've held hearings on this, two hearings so far. i'm for holding more of those. we're doing a lot of in-depth interviews. i'm not opposed to a commission,

but you know, speaker pelosi has never suggested after her first suggestion that it would be overwhelmingly controlled by one side that there would be a bipartisan commission. i'd also think that this is a case where, in terms of the security of the capitol, whether the police board is functioning or not -- not the capitol police, but the board that, in my opinion, got in the way of decisions that need to be made that day -- we know those facts, and i think the congress, itself, could move forward and make the changes that need to be made. it's unlikely that the next thing we need to be worried about is going to be exactly like the last thing we needed to worry about, but clearly, security, from either domestic terrorists or outside terrorists are things we should be concerned about. and i think the congress, itself, has the capacity here to move forward. that doesn't mean i'm opposed to a commission, but frankly, i would believe that the commission would probably be a

reason to wait and not do the things that we know we need to do right now. >> well, i am curious. do you believe that any commission, that the scope should be about specific security measures for the capitol, or should it also dive into what motivated this crowd of radicals to do this? >> well, i don't know. that's certainly different than any commission we've ever had, where you have a commission that tries to become psychoanalyst of what went on. if you're going to look at what happened, why it happened, where the problems were, that's one thing. i think that suggestion really steps this up to a very different level, and certainly, a level that the congress shouldn't wait on to decide how we move forward with the security needs of the capitol and the country, but that's not the kind of commission, i don't believe, that's been discussed, and i haven't heard that

discussion. >> i want to play sort of two different sort of takes on what happened on january 6th, both from republicans, senator blunt. take a lusten. let me ask you about it on the other side. >> i knew those were people that loved this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break a law, and so i wasn't concerned. now, had the tables been turned and president trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of black lives matter and antifa protesters, i might have been a little concerned. >> i was disgusted. i was sick to my stomach to see our nation's capitol being stormed by hostile forces. >> i'm sure you recognize both voices. senator ron johnson was the first voice. former president george w. bush there. ron johnson called the insurrectionists people that loved this country. former president bush called them hostile forces. what's your view of this? >> well, i'm much more in

agreement with george w. bush view of this. i think it was a terrible day for america. i think it was absolutely unacceptable, and we can't let that kind of thing be repeated again in our country. all over the world people saw that, what people around the world would see as the citadel for democracy. two weeks later, i'm standing at the exact spot where a lot of that fighting occurred at the inauguration, itself. totally unacceptable, and we need to understand that that's an underlying principle of what happened on january 6th that we don't need to try to explain away or come up with alternative versions of. we all saw what happened. we know what happened. we know we can't let that happen again. >> well put there. i want to put up a quote you said on the day you announced your retirement. you're not seeking re-election. you said this -- "i think the country in the last decade or so has sort of fallen off the edge with too many politicians saying, if you vote for me, i'll

never compromise on anything, and that's a philosophy that particularly does not work in a democracy." you know, it struck me, though, when i heard you say that, senator, you're more likely to be replaced by somebody who has a philosophy that you are saying isn't constructive. how do you stop this trend? i mean, in your own state, you and josh hawley, i think, view this very differently. >> well, missouri voters get to decide who replaces me, and i've been saying this -- you and i have talked about this before -- this idea in a democracy that you run for office saying, this is exactly what i'm for, i won't accept anything different than this. i don't know how people even begin to think that's a position you can logically take in a democracy. a democracy is very diverse people coming together and trying to reach the solution that can be reached at that time. i hope we get back to that. now, you know, if there are two or three things, and because of your life history or your faith,

that you know you can never compromise on, that's one thing. but when you come up with a long list of things that it's either my way or nothing happens at all, you basically ensure that nothing's going to happen at all. this is a -- democracy is give and take, just like, frankly, at work, at church, at home. if you're not willing to have some give and take, you're not going to have a very successful or satisfying life, or in this case, not a very successful or satisfying united states of america. >> how much of this change in sort of how politics is conducted here in washington influenced you in not seeking another term? >> well, i don't think it did. you know, i'm optimistic about the future. i'm grateful for the chances to serve. i've actually been able, particularly in this last two years to get a lot of things done, a lot of things related to the vaccine and testing, mental health reform is moving dramatically in the right

direction, health care research, what we're doing to try to do a better job figuring out how we can keep up with the chinese and others. you know, at the end of this term, i'll have been in the congress for 26 years, and 20 years in missouri politics before that, 15 general election victories is not enough to satisfy even the most needy politician, i don't know what would be. >> the voting rights act, it has been supported bipartisan for a long time. i know where folks are on hr-1. i'm not asking about hr-1. the voting rights act. are you going to support this, if it comes to the floor? >> well, i'm for the voting rights act and always have been. i'm for people participating. what i'm not for is a federal takeover of the election system. i believe that the election system works as well as it works because of local responsibility and diversity, and i'm for that. now, in this bill, there are a lot of things that go beyond that, too. there is a partisan fes federal election commission, where for

the first time ever, instead of being an equal number of republicans and democrats, it's three of one side and two of the other. there's money out of the federal treasury for politicians for their campaigns. there are a lot of things to talk about here that don't have anything to do, in my opinion, with access to the ballot or security of knowing that what happened on election day is what voters actually wanted to see happen. >> well, that's why i wanted to split out the hr-1 conversation in my question there. i'm going to let you go. senator roy blunt, republican from missouri. did sound like there is room on the voting rights act, itself. i think that's where there is going to be room here. we shall see. senator, thank you. >> the voting rights act is the voting rights act that i've voted for in the past, and that's the voting rights act i'm talking about right now. >> fair enough. good to know. thank you, senator. when we come back, how will president biden tackle these two crises facing the country right now, the border surge and domestic terror? the panel is next. border surge domestic terror? the panel is next. try pantene daily moisture renewal conditioner.

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welcome back. the panel is with us. eddie glaude jr. of princeton university, "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan, john ralston, "the nevada independent," and msnbc's julia ainsley. julia, the border, immigration has been your beat. i want to start with first the media situation. he says there's no gag order, no official gag order there, but he also said they're not prioritizing ride-alongs. did you find that a bit dismissive? >> yeah, i did, chuck.

as we know, it has never been an official gag order. there was no memo that went out. but we know that in the past, there have been ride-alongs. i've gone on ride-alongs. i've had access to facilities where children have been held. and yes, we are in a pandemic now, but as we've seen local law enforcement is allowing media to do ride-alongs. they wear a mask. and at the very least, we get pictures, even if they're government pictures, of the conditions inside these facilities, specifically the overcrowded border patrol stations where we now understand there are more than 5,000 children in custody. that is far past their capacity. we know in rio grande valley, they have over 3,300 immigrants in a facility built for 250. we need to know, how are these children able to sleep? are they getting outside? and it's really hard to do that without access. at the very least, we could get pictures or ride-along, and this data, the numbers i just gave you, chuck? that's data that we have to dig for. those are internal numbers. those are not freely given up by this administration right now. and i think it comes down to

them not wanting to make this a central issue. they have so many things they wanted to accomplish in the first 100 days, but this is the issue they were handed. and more transparency, i think, is what would be in the interests of everyone right now. >> i want to play a bite from former president bush about immigration. it may be the understatement of the show, peggy noonan, but take a listen, anyway. >> one of the problems is immigration has become overly politicized. and it's really a rebuke of congress' inability to come together to get something done on immigration. >> like i said, peggy, maybe an understatement of the year there with that when it comes to this issue in congress. they've had all these shots at it and they always find a way not to do it. >> yeah. they've been finding a way to mess it up, actually. i was thinking the other day, for more than a generation, for

at least 20 years. the party leadership in washington just hasn't been able to get their hands around this. i have wondered in the past if it's because they really don't want to. donors feel one way. the base feels another. there's lots of disagreements, not just between reps and dems, but inside those parties. but chuck, it seems to me, the first thing is that this is a real crisis for this 3-month-old administration, which has been tooling along okay and has had a big bill passed and has had much to talk about in terms of mood, but this is a crisis. here is one thing i think we forget, and then i'll throw it back. immigrants, legal and illegal, to the united states, are intelligent. they are smart. they're hardy. we know that. but they follow things.

they pick up what's going on. they keep a sense of what's going on politically in america. you know from the moment donald trump was defeated that they concluded that illegal -- that those who want to come here illegally had concluded that illegal entry is more likely to work now, and so, they came. >> right. >> they figured it out. this was based on evidence. and so, we've got the biggest surge in 20 years in the middle of a pandemic, and with u.s. unemployment kind of high, not as high as some feared, but kind of high. so, i think the president really should step in, in a different way here. i think, first of all, he should stop the press blackout. americans don't like that when they see that's going on. and also admit you got it wrong. something was coming. he couldn't see it. he sees it now. >> eddie, is this -- is there

air here in not anticipating this? or is the error in sort of messaging and communication? >> it might be a combination of both. i'm not -- i don't want to suggest that they didn't anticipate it, but if they didn't, of course that's a problem. and the messaging is really clear here. i mean, it's important that, you know, you just can't simply add the adjective humane to the noun detention of children and think that that settles matters. and look, we must understand that it takes a lot for a parent to send their child away. something is happening in guatemala. something is happening in honduras. something is happening in el salvador. and we have to understand, i think i need to get a better sense in terms of the messaging, chuck, of what are the underlying principles of the immigration policy of the biden administration? has he changed the center of gravity? what is he keeping and why is he keeping it from the trump administration? what are holdovers from the obama administration?

but more importantly, what are the fundamental principles guiding immigration policy on the part of the biden administration? he needs to make that clear as we move forward. >> john ralston, the fact of the matter is, immigration can be political kryptonite at times. your state, you know, it can move politics for a short period of time. does biden have something to fear here politically? >> oh, i think so, chuck. and i think the real issue here is that, listen, he's using his rerhetorical bully pulpit in a different way, talking about being humane and having a heart. i was struck by how the secretary said, this is not who we are, this is not who we are. and that's certainly better than implying that there's murderers and rapists and that every undocumented immigrant is a member of ms-13. but chuck, anyone who has covered this for a while knows how complicated it is. and while the rhetorical tools

of administration are important, it's a hopelessly complex problem. i mean, just a few years ago, chuck, you had marco rubio talking about a path to citizenship, right? and to what roy blunt talked about, that kind of talk by a republican now would be banned, right? you can't even do that now! and so, you have the political shackles, and then you have the actual substantive shackles on making good policy here. >> both excellent points there. i'm going to pause it here. when we come back, president biden figured his 36 years in the senate was going to help him cut some deals with congress, but this is not joe biden's senate anymore. that's next. den's senate anymore that's next. give you a sort of . try new crest whitening emulsions for 100% whiter teeth. its highly active peroxide droplets swipe on in seconds. better. faster. 100% whiter teeth. crestwhitesmile.com

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♪♪ welcome back. "data download" time. some people believe joe biden's experience in the senate and knowing the players might make bipartisan deal-making a bit easier for his presidential administration, but so far, that has not been the case. and if you look at the makeup of the senate today, it's because there aren't many faces this president would recognize from his senate days. in total, roughly one-third of the senators currently in office ever worked with senator joe biden. 68 have left. they either lost re-election, retired, or died. and more than half of those senate departures were republicans, and the trend is continuing. in fact, as of now, five republicans are bowing out of the 2022 midterm elections. they're not all champions of bipartisanship, per se, but they largely represent what i like to refer to as the governing wing

of the gop. in reality, that part of the republican party has been in retreat for a while, accelerating since donald trump announced his run for president. 13 senate republicans arrived with mr. trump in 2016 or have won their seats since, most bringing a more defiant trumpian tone with them. and with the five announced republican departures, the post-trump number is going to reach at least 18 senate republicans, and there could be more departures to come, either forced with a primary or retirement, all of which is to say, the initial hopes about biden being able to build bridges were based on a senate that doesn't really exist anymore. and even if the democrats hold or grow their majorities in both houses of congress in the midterm, the path to bipartisanship, well, that doesn't look like it's going to get any easier. when we come back, confronting the surge of violence against asian-americans. the surge of violence against asian-americans. ay with secret. secret stops sweat 3x more than ordinary antiperspirants. the new provitamin b5 formula is gentle on skin.

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welcome back. this week brought home to the fact that we've had a rising issue in this country with asian-american hate incidents. i want to put up a graphic here to just show. even though hate crimes were down overall in 2020, they were up over 100% when it came to asian people, as you can see here. 42% reported by chinese-americans, 2 1/2 times of the reports were more women than men. eddie, i feel like this week has been one of those, you know, the

asian-american community's been talking about this for a year, basically, since the start of the pandemic, and it really took the rest of sort of collective political intelligentsia to take notice, sadly, after the tragedy of this week. >> right. i mean, look, you know, that community has always had to deal with two kind of contrasting notions, them being viewed as a model minority and being viewed as a permanent foreigner. and we see that when there are these moments of crises in the country, the idea of them being permanent foreigners subjects them to a kind of attack. let me say that there's a through line through the show today, from immigration to voting rights to dni report to now, and that through line is this kind of panic around the whiteness of this country. and i think we have to understand this within that frame, chuck. >> peggy, respond to that, because look, it does -- you know, there are times i look at these debates that we're having, and it's like we've been having them since the founding of this country, which is, who is an american and who can be an american? >> yeah.

and certainly, asian-americans have been under stress in this country and under various laws and strictures many times over the century. one of the things i think, bottom line, is that when a people tell you that they are feeling more threatened and that their position has become less secure in america, just stop and believe them. people don't report that for no reason. there were rallies around the country this week. that sounds sort of pro forma. i don't think so. i think it was a very good thing. what is needed very much now as we go through this huge cultural reckoning is a sense, i think, not only of affection and respect but a sense of we've got your back. you can't say it enough. we've got your back. we're all in this together. that's one thing. another thing, very quickly, is

that every time we deal with one of these violent episodes, it reminds me that we are in a mental health crisis in america. gun control won't solve everything. we're in that crisis. and at the center of it is our young men. >> john ralston, being on the rest coast, there's certainly the asian-american populations are larger, more integrated, and yet, we've been seeing these hate crimes out there, too. >> we have, indeed, chuck, and it's all very distressing. and even though, as you pointed out, it's unclear whether the atlanta shootings were a hate crime or not, it's good that this discussion is occurring. you know, eddie said there's a through line in this program. i think it is that words matter, chuck. and while this existed long before donald trump, the fact that he had an utter lack of empathy during covid and that he was so desperate to escape political responsibility that he

continually used phrases like the china virus, that clearly has exacerbated these problems based on the stats that you just put up there, chuck. and no law is going to solve that. and this is a place where joe biden, and especially kamala harris can do a lot of good, i think. >> well, look, unfortunately, i'm out of time there. and all these elected officials, when they talk about china, the country as a rival and an adversary to this country, be careful of your words. that matters, too, and i know there's a lot of fear that as the rivalry heats up with china, that these hateful incidents will also increase here. that's all we have for today. thank you all for watching. we'll be back next week. enjoy first full day of spring. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

breaking news overnight on the astrazeneca vaccine and the fight against covid-19. as the company releases findings of a large u.s. trial. the question this morning, how effective is it? it's pretty good news. plus, the latest from the southern border as the u.s. struggles to manage the largest surge of migrants in decades. the question is, does the biden administration have a plan to fix it? and the president and vice president make their first joint appearance to speak out against anti-asian hate, with incidents of violence and intimidation on the rise, the question is, what actions are being considered to address it? it's "way too early" for this.