good day, everyone, from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. it's high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "alex witt reports" and a happy easter for those celebrating today. we begin with battle lines drawn on capitol hill as the biden administration tries to sell its bold and costly infrastructure plan. democrats praising the legislation while republicans taking issue with what's in it. >> in so many ways we are behind many other countries throughout the world in providing for working families and the elderly

and the children. and i think now is the time to begin addressing our physical infrastructure and our human infrastructure. >> what the president proposed this week is not an infrastructure bill. it's a huge tax increase for one thing, and it's a tax increase on small businesses. meantime the battle over inviting rights is heating up not just in georgia but in nearly every state across this country. in the last five weeks 100 new restrictive election bills have been introduced in 47 states bringing the total to 361 potential new bills. congresswoman ilhan omar speaking on the issue earlier today. >> it is really important that every single state reexamine their voting laws and make sure that voting is accessible to everyone. and right now in minneapolis, a rally in support of george floyd is just getting

under way as the city braces for the start of the second week in the derek chauvin trial. this morning, george floyd's brother speaking with my colleague jonathan capehart on the emotional testimony. >> i can tell you this, that my brother was walking just fine, he was laughing, talking, before derek chauvin put his knee on his neck for nine minutes. that was sad. we don't want that for any other family across america. we will protest. we will do everything we can to try to stop more george floyds. also new today, a shocking investigation from "the new york times" finding that donald trump's supporters who thought they were donating only once to his 2021 campaign were actually charged repeatedly. the campaign was forced to issue $122 million in refunds. "the times"' peter baker will join me with that in just a

moment. also at 12:15, something remarkable is happening at the trial of derek chauvin and the question we will pose to a former police officer is this: will it be enough to deliver what the people of minnesota consider to be justice? at 1:30 p.m., nbc's mehdi hasan will tackle the gop matt gaetz problem. he'll react to something scathing the congressman told me yesterday about gaetz. and many are taking 36 minutes as a small sign of hope for post-pandemic life. but first, after strong new jobs numbers, we'll go to nbc's monica alba covering the white house, welcome to you, thank you for working on an easter, glad to see you, monica. lots of headlines to report today, right? >> reporter: absolutely, alex, happy easter to you as well. we got the clearest picture yet

so far from the biden administration of how they plan to message their infrastructure and jobs plan and we're also now getting a good sense of the bumpy road ahead and where they see some potential potholes and issues that could come up. they're really hoping to get this done by the end of next month. they hope to see a lot of progress by memorial day which was a new date that now we're hearing from transportation secretary pete buttigieg on "meet the press." that doesn't mean final passage. they're eyeing july for that. but that now sets a new marker for where they hope to see this go. but the other warning sign we're hearing from the white house economic adviser brian deese is that even though those jobs numbers are encouraging and there's a lot to feel optimistic about, they still have a very long road ahead of them. so they're trying to manage expectations through all of this as well. take a listen to what he had to say on one of the sunday shows. >> well, the jobs numbers in march were certainly a welcome sign. it's good to see the economy starting to improve.

we certainly think it's a sign that the economic and vaccination strategy that this administration has put in place from day one is starting to have an impact. but we have a long way to go. we still are down 8.4 million jobs from where we were a year ago. we have millions of people out of work. more than 2 million women have left the labor force because they've had to choose between caring for their family members and their jobs. and so we have a long way to go. >> reporter: on the issue of bipartisanship, alex, we also heard from the energy secretary, jennifer granholm, who was on another show this morning, saying that yes, they would like gop lawmakers on board but conceding if ultimately they don't come to the table and they can't hash out a deal, that democrats are prepared to go it alone. that is significant because that's what that party had to do in order to get covid relief across this finish line. it's something the president has said he would be open to as well. the difference here is that he is reaching out to republicans in a more expansive way.

he's going to invite them to the oval office which we did see with the last round. but he says what's different this time is he wants to get this passed but he knows a lot of changes and modifications are likely before they get that. but he says inaction is not an option, they would like to see something done not just on physical infrastructure but what they call human infrastructure. >> while infrastructure is not getting report from congressional republicans, it is getting support from their constituents. we'll see what happens with this one. thank you, monica. new reaction on capitol hill today from lawmakers as president biden looks to congress to pass his $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan. let's go to nbc's amanda golden joining us from the capitol. amanda, officially what are lawmakers saying about this? i made the point with monica,

lawmakers may vote one way but when all is said and done, you never know, the reaction could be different. >> reporter: that's exactly right, alex. traditionally infrastructure has been a bipartisan push, we've seen republican support in the past for issues related to infrastructure. but there's already republican pushback for this plan, specifically over the scope of what biden's proposal is pushing forward and there are discrepancies on how they should pay for it. there are not a lot of republicans on board with increasing the corporate tax rate to fund it. while we haven't seen any legislative text over this plan, we don't expect to over the next several weeks, there is already pushback coming from republican lawmakers including senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who says he doesn't think there's anyone within his caucus that would support this plan as it is proposed. but in the conversations that i've had with various republican aides, they tell me there are elements of this plan that their members would get behind, specifically bolstering the roads and bridges, very finite definition of what they see as infrastructure. when it comes to the excess spending outside of that $625 billion that would be allocated

for projects like that, they feel that it's superfluous and not something that should be used for this package at this time as well as not wanting to have the corporate tax rate increased in order to fund it. that's that definition of infrastructure that's playing out across party lines for members as we heard earlier today on some of the sunday shows. here is what senator roy blunt and senator bernie sanders had to say. >> when people think about infrastructure, they're thinking about roads, bridges, ports, and airports. that's a very small part what have they're calling an infrastructure package that does so much more than infrastructure. >> roads and bridges and tunnels are infrastructure. but i think many of us see a crisis in human infrastructure. when a working class family can't find good quality, affordable childcare, that's human infrastructure. >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi has indicated that passage of this plan could come as early as july 4. that timeline might slide. as she noted or indicated earlier this week during her press conference with reporters,

the final version of this package is not yet set. it might look very different from what president joe biden has been putting forward. >> they may need to adjust it indeed to try to get it passed. thank you very much, amanda golden. joining me now, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," peter baker. good to see you, my friend. do you think negotiations with republicans could be successful? we know the president plans no invite them to the white house for discussion. will democrats be forced to pass it through reconciliation like they did with the american rescue plan? >> yeah, look, i think they're going to make a show of reaching out to republicans to at least make it look like they do that. i don't think there's much hope that it will go anywhere. i don't think they'll invest a huge amount of energy into it beyond the courtesies. i think they're intent on passing a bill that is almost certainly going to be too large for republicans to swallow.

you heard senator blunt, as you just played, saying this is an infrastructure bill. he suggests if you only did 30% of that bill, republicans might jump on board. i don't see president biden designing to shrink it by 70%. if that was the opening gun on negotiations, that would be one thing. i don't think they plan to negotiate that far. so the likelihood is that while they're going to make efforts to look bipartisan, the real trick and the real challenge for president biden at this point is to make sure that his democrats are on board so they do end up going with reconciliation, which is the process where they can afford a filibuster and pass it with a 50-vote majority plus the vice president's tie-breaking vote. the house is pretty tight too, they can only afford to lose three votes in the house if they don't have the majority. >> absolutely. a recent reuters poll shows the majority of americans support many of the details of the bill. that includes an extension of high speed internet, national lady pipe replacement, also tax credits for renewable energy.

it also shows 45% support president biden's proposal, 27% against, 28% remain unsure. will the success of this bill come down to messaging? and succinctly, what are the messages from both sides? >> yeah, look, the biden administration's going to talk about exactly that, that we're way behind other countries in, you know, upgrading our roads and bridges and trains and all those kind of things. the messaging from the republican side will be that the democrats are on a spending binge, we already spent $2 billion on the covid relief package and now they want to spend another $2 billion and want to raise taxes. president biden says the tax increases would come from wealthier americans who make more than $400,000 a year. but republicans will talk about how that would stifle growth because the democrats would move the corporate tax rate closer to

what it was before president trump, and the republicans will make the case that the tax increases would indirectly affect the middle class because of the cost of services. it will be a classic dispute over the scope of spending and taxes. >> let's go to a pretty shocking "new york times" article, how trump speared unwitting donations. apparently it was all in the easily-overlooked fine print. can you explain the tactics used by the trump campaign? >> yeah, exactly. so what they did was they sent out solicitations to donors, people who wanted to give to trump, who believed in him. they had what they called a pre-checked box which means unless you happen to notice it and uncheck it, you've agreed not to give just one donation but in some cases weekly or

monthly donations without realizing it. so the trump campaign was reaching into people's bank accounts and taking out sums of money without the donors realizing what was happening because it was easy to miss the checked box. they had to uncheck the box to stop that repeated withdrawal. you had a guy in hospice care, dying of cancer, he decided to give trump $500 and the trump campaign took $3,000 out of his bank account without him realizing it, until suddenly he was missing bill payments and so forth. i think they had to end up refunding $122 million last year to donors, many of whom felt this was misleading them and forcing them to give far more money than they wanted or could afford. >> there was another retiree in that article who lost $800,000

-- $8,000 and was pretty darn mad about it as well. is this illegal? having to return $122.7 million, that's a lot of people who are going to be upset. >> it's a lot of people who are upset. you could argue, the trump campaign says we gave it back, if they had a problem, we gave it back. in effect it amounted to an interest-free loan from their donors, in effect, at a time when the trump campaign really needed it. they were having a hard time with money and they needed an infusion of cash. this helped them get through it at a critical period. i don't know about the legality of it, but it certainly raises questions about where the rules are on solicitations, not just by the trump campaign but all kinds of solicitations. you could imagine these pre-checked boxes raise all kinds of issues for any number of things, donors who may not be paying as much attention, or who may be older and didn't notice the small print, find themselves

fleeced in ways they didn't expect. it raises i think a lot of policy issues at the very least. >> okay, peter baker, appreciate your time here on a holiday, see you next week, i hope. thank you. after a week of emotional testimony in the derek chauvin trial, what can we expect when the trial resumes tomorrow? in just a moment, the prosecution's next moves, the defense's strategy, and the evidence that could be most convincing in the minds of the jury. but not every tomato ends in the same kind of heinz ketchup. because you can't be everyone's favorite ketchup without making a ketchup for everyone. i am robert strickler. i've been involved in communications in the media without making a ketchup for 45 years. i've been taking prevagen on a regular basis for at least eight years. for me, the greatest benefit over the years has been that prevagen seems to help me recall things

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a short time ago, new concern raised today over the trial of derek chauvin entering the second week of testimony tomorrow. it surrounds the question of whether the city of minneapolis is prepared for a hung jury or not guilty verdict. here is minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar. >> so the community is on edge about that. you know, we have seen justice

not delivered in our community for many years. and, you know, i think that there is a lot of confidence in attorney general keith ellison and the prosecutors in this case. but we are all eagerly awaiting to see how this trial shakes out. >> nbc's megan fitzgerald joins us with more. >> reporter: alex, earlier today, george floyd's brother spoke with our jonathan capehart and reflected on this emotional last week of testimony and how challenging that has been for him and his family to relive many of these painful incidents. but another piece here that stands out is how the family is

preparing themselves for what they say is a continuation of an assassination of their brother's character by the defense. i want you to hear how he described it and what he had to say. >> when you don't have facts, you have to assassinate his character. when they talk about the opioid abuse, you have to understand, there are tens of thousands of people across america who are self-medicating and they get addicted to things like opioids. i can tell you this, my brother was walking just fine, he was laughing, talking, before derek chauvin put an overdose of his knee on his neck for nine minutes. that was sad. we don't want that for any other family across america. >> reporter: derek chauvin's defense will try to convince the jury that derek chauvin died from an overdose, from drugs in his system, and from preexisting

conditions. next week, we'll be hearing from the chief of the minneapolis police department who will testify and talk about police policy. of course he'll be asked repeatedly about use of force. we will be seeing again that nine minute and 29 second video where derek chauvin has his knee on george floyd's neck. also we're expecting to hear next week from the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on george floyd's body. so prepare to learn more about the science of exactly what contributed to george floyd's death, alex. >> so meagan, i want to reiterate what you said, we'll see the full playing of that video again? because if that's true, a lot of people will have to brace themselves for it, myself concluded. so you can confirm that's going to be shown again in court? >> reporter: well, in speaking with a lot of legal experts, they believe that that could be used to try and help them. for sure, they tell us we'll be

seeing pictures that sort of will help, you know, going through the autopsy report. and so it will be emotional for sure, because again, we're going to be talking about, you know, the prosecution is going to be talking about how he died and what led to his death when the medical examiner takes the stand. >> okay, meagan, thank you so much for that. joining me now, mark claxton, retired nypd detective and director of the black law enforcement alliance, and joyce vance, a former u.s. attorney and now law school professor. mark, i'm concerned by the community being on edge over the potential that chauvin does not get convicted. >> there is absolutely concern about the possibility of conviction. listen, historically communities of color in particular have seen

case after case where they have not received justice. communities of color are saying, is this performative or is there the possibility of achieving justice? >> joyce, could it really be the mind of just one juror that could make this go from a conviction to an acquittal? is it just one person? is this a real possibility? >> there are actually three possibilities here, alex. one is a conviction, where all of the jurors unanimously agree on at least one of the charges against chauvin. then there is an acquittal, where they all agree he is not

guilty. what happens in the middle, and where just one juror could come into play, is that if the jury can't reach a unanimous verdict, we get what's called a hung jury, a jury can't decide. now, the judge will take steps to make sure that doesn't happen. if the jury signals they are hung, he will give them instructions and ask them to continue to deliberate and try to reach a verdict. but ultimately, just one juror could cause a hung jury. that would mean the prosecution would have to retry its case to try to obtain justice for mr. floyd. >> and joyce, look, viewers following this trial might think, given the evidence, that this is a slam dunk. but there are lawyers like yourself who point out we do not necessarily get unfiltered truth from a camera. >> these are really difficult cases for a number of reasons. we tried a number of these cases in my district both while i was

a line prosecutor and as a u.s. attorney, not death cases but serious injury cases. and even in the face of just this stunning evidence, compelling evidence, juries sometimes either hang, as we discussed, or sometimes they'll even acquit. that can either be because it's difficult to prove intent, that an officer had a specific intent to commit one of the murders or manslaughters that's charged, or because of causation. you have to prove that the substantial cause of death was the officer's actions. the video seems to make it clear, but we haven't heard the defense's case yet and that's likely where we're headed shortly. >> mark, you heard george floyd's brother today mentioning the evidence about drug abuse and the defense's questions

implying the anger of the crowd. what do you think about the prosecution introducing the factors of opioids and preexisting conditions to blunt the defense's use of those concepts? >> the prosecution's position is difficult, they're trying to blunt, as you say, the impact of some of the information coming out. i think what's substantial and important to note is that there seems to be a role reversal. people oftentimes think of police officers as being noble and courageous and full of integrity and compassion and full of humanity. in the case of george floyd, in particular the killing of george floyd, it was those brave women and women who were civilian

witnesses who displayed those characteristics. the police officers on the scene were either nonchalant or played as if they saw no evil, heard no evil, could speak no evil, while george floyd is being killed by one of their colleagues. >> mark, let me ask you this, though, because as a former police officer, to the point you're just making, when you then hear other people that are police officers, they're the ones really testifying against derek chauvin. does that make the case for the prosecution better, does it make it stronger? >> it does. it does make it stronger in one sense. but let's be realistic about it. much of the positions of the police, i would say to you if there was that level of concern about the egregious conduct that

was shown in the killing of george floyd, there is some indication that there was a history of misconduct by derek chauvin. it is right for police officials to point out that which is wrong, to point out divergence from policy, violations of policy, et cetera. but i'm just a little suspicious about, you know, the quality of their criticism, although i'm supportive of pointing out those things. we have to maintain a certain level of professionalism in policing. it goes a long way when you have those who are in charge, supervisors, heads of departments and agencies, pointing out what is the standard for professional policing. >> okay. mark claxton and joyce vance, guys, thanks so much for joining me especially on this easter holiday, i appreciate you both. the derek chauvin trial resumes tomorrow morning at 0k

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we're following breaking news out of florida where governor ron desantis has declared a state of emergency after a reservoir containing hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater is leaking and may be on the brink of collapse. the leak, south of tampa, has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate. in the last hour the governor told reporters his biggest concern right now is flooding. >> we're looking at now trying to prevent and respond to if need be a real catastrophic flood situation. the water quality issues that are flowing from this for us is

less than the risk of everyone's health and safety, particularly focuses who may live in the area. >> let's go to nbc's sam brock who joins me now from palmetto, florida. sam, welcome to you. let's talk about the primary concern at this point. the governor outlined both of them. but is it flooding or might it be what's actually in the water? >> reporter: we had heard so many reports, alex, for days about there being radioactive elements in these water supplies, not the one currently leaking but two man made ponds adjacent to it. today we're told that's not correct, that there's not elevated levels of radium, but there's a nutrient problem in the water which is to say too much nitrogen, too much phosphorous, to me ammonia, which would be an issue environmentally if it got out, but not one that rises to the

level of radioactive exposure. governor desantis says they're preparing for eventual catastrophe. within the zone, there are 316 homes that were told to be evacuated, the reason being if there is a breach, alex, and some of the good news is we started at 480 million gallons in that reservoir, it's now down to 350, and it's quickly accelerating in terms of how much they can get out and how fast, so that's coming down. but if it were to breach right now, the county administrator says there would be a 15 to 20-foot wall of water gushing out into the adjacent community. we know according to sources that not everyone heeded the warning, definitely some people are staying behind. you can tell people a category 5 hurricane is coming, it doesn't

mean they'll respond accordingly. the radioactivity did come up at the press conference. >> to be clear, the water discharged into port manatee is not radioactive. it's salt water from the port manatee dredge project mixed with stormwater runoff. >> reporter: desantis and the folks with environmental protection said all this water is tested and will repeatedly continue to be tested as they discharge it. one other point i would like to make, alex, there is a natural gas facility in the evacuation zone that i'm told supplies power to potentially millions of customers in the state of florida. that's another big concern, beyond just flooding and loss of property. what's going to happen to that plant, if you do see a 20-foot-high wave of water gush out? and how many people potentially would be impacted? i'm trying to drill down an answer from the gas company and from the county on that, so far i have not received details. we'll keep at it.

right now, everyone is kind of on pins and needles. lastly, in terms of how long this could go on for, originally they said it would take 12 days to drain all the water from that reservoir. with the acceleration, additional pumps brought in, we're now looking at an estimate of four to five days. if they can buy that four to five days, perhaps you can avoid catastrophe here. it is truly a race against time, alex. >> this is a mess, to say the least, it's obvious. it's clear why people are having to work on an easter holiday. the governor, emergency responders. wow. okay, sam, let us know, particularly if you find out any information from that gas company. we appreciate all of it. "the new york times" is reporting about an alleged trump campaign scheme to trick donors out of tens of millions of dollars. a trump spokesman reacts to the reporting and so will my panel, next. panel, next i want a bucket of chicken... i want... ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest.

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new investigation from "the new york times." donald trump supporters who thought they were donating only once to his 2020 campaign were actually charged repeatedly and that includes 63-year-old stacey black, who was in hospice care, battling cancer. he chipped in $500 to trump's campaign once in september. but over the following month, the campaign took $3,000 out of, without his knowledge, until his bank account was ultimately frozen. joining me, don callaway, democratic strategist and founder of the protection fund, susan del percio, republican strategist, and david jolly, former congressman from florida, and msnbc contributor, newly shaved, wow, david, it's a good look. they both were good looks. >> alex, we have a baby boy coming in two weeks, i have to meet him for the first time clean-shaven. >> and you need to take the time to shave before he takes up all your time, i totally get that.

susan, the campaign was eventually forced to return a whopping 122.7 million dollars in refunds. jason miller, trump spokesman, of course downplayed the fraud and the huge amount of money in refunds. he said, the fact we had a dispute rate of less than 1% of total donations despite raising more grassroots money than any campaign in history is remarkable, our campaign was built by the hard working men and women of america and cherishing their investments as paramount to anything else we did. but "the times" is pointing out, susan, $122 million refunded by trump and the rnc in total is more than any federal democratic candidate or committee combined. >> it's donald trump, so we think it's a scam, which of

course is probably is. peter baker earlier in your show pointed to something important. it was like an interest-free loan. the campaign was short of cash. would it be beyond them to try something like this, to rake it in, even if they had to give it back down the road? absolutely not. it's so unethical, what they did. not surprising given that it's donald trump, but it's so wrong. >> "the times" said the tactic scared scores of unsuspecting trump loyalists, even experienced political operatives. soon banks and credit card companies were inundated from fraud complaints from the president's own supporters about donations they hadn't intended to make, sometimes for thousands of dollars. are these republican values? are these trump values? is there a difference? >> yeah, that's a great point. you would argue today trump is the republican party, and

republicans are donald trump. and the scheme was to make the opt-in/opt-out selection increasingly complicated. and apparently with each evolution it got trickier and trickier for donors to understand whether they were opting in or opting out. what strikes me, alex, though, and this goes to kind of the value set of the organization, it would be rare for a president of the united states to know about the software platform for fundraising and collecting from donors. my question is did donald trump know about this scheme, and i would say maybe he didn't, which is even more indicting. the team around donald trump was as corrupt as he is, this is the culture of a trump organization, and the political team had a green light to engage in this type of predatory behavior when it comes to people's finances. >> let me take that one step further. that interpretation, which i hadn't thought of, that would also indicate that those around him would say, look, donald trump may not know about this but even if he finds out, he'll

be okay with it. >> look, the leader sets the culture for the organization. that's true for business and civics and nonprofits and in poli politics. you're absolutely right. i don't believe donald trump knew about this but we know his team had license to engage in this behavior because donald trump set that culture within the organization. >> don, "the times" is pointing out these recurring donations swelled trump's treasury in september and october just as his finances were deteriorating. he was unable to use tens of millions of dollars he raised after the election under the guise of fighting unfounded fraud claims. so he used donations, don, from his supporters, who he lied to, saying the election was rigged and he still had a chance to win, then used that to pay off supporters that he basically scammed. am i reading that correctly? basically is it robbing peter to pay paul? >> i'm smiling because you sound

so incredulous, but the answer is yes, you're absolutely reading it correctly, that's precisely what happened. they defrauded these people because their campaign was struggling to raise money in light of all the things he had done and said over the last four years. they were losing momentum. they found a way to defraud people into giving recurrent contributions. look, susan always said for the last several months that the big lie was a scheme to raise money. now we see what they needed to raise money for, not just the ongoing trump grift but the reimbursements of people they defrauded out of millions of dollars. i would agree with my friend congressman jolly. we know and have known donald trump ran both campaigns in a micromanagerial style and frankly, this is something he's done over the course of his career, from ripping off carpet and wall painting construction folks all the way to defrauding the american people every day of his presidency.

i see no evidence so you go he did not tacitly as well as explicitly approve of this behavior, because this is who he is. >> i want to switch gears and ask about congressman matt gaetz, who is well under fire after reports of the doj investigating that he had sex with a minor and paid for her to travel with him. "the new york times" is reporting gaetz allocated asked women to help recruit others who might be interested in having sex with him and his friends. nbc news has not seen those documents, however from gaetz's point of view, he has denied all these allegations, he's not been charged. the investigation is still ongoing. but you've spent, david, a fair share of time in florida politics. as a former republican, did these reports surprise you? have you ever heard acusations like these thrown around in republican political circles? >> no surprise at all, matt

gaetz always had a playboy reputation, in fact created a scorecard for how many women he slept with that he shared with colleagues. >> wait. he did what? >> as a junior legislator in tallahassee, it was well-known that matt gaetz had a scorecard with ratings for people he slept with. this is no surprise, alex. those who know matt knew he was either going to find scandal or scandal would find him. it's important that we contextualize this beyond scandal and beyond politics. what is alleged here, his colleague joel greenberg was indicted for, causing a minor to engage in a commercial sex act. if there is a child engaged in a sex act below the age of consent, if that's true, we need to focus in on the child victim, but on the notion that these two

men are sexual predators first and politicians second. this is a grave matter. the best thing matt gaetz can do is shut up, hire a lawyer, and resign from congress. >> let me say if that scorecard story is true, that's disgusting. but i want to reiterate at least at this point matt gaetz said he never paid for sex, that came from his office, he's denying the allegations. but susan, democrats are calling for gaetz to resign. the republican party has been largely silent. how come? >> because they smell that something's up. i mean, i didn't know about the scorecard as a state legislator. but everybody david jolly just said, everyone else knew about him. it's a small town. and people never rallied around him and then waited to see what the investigation proved. matt gaetz is about as popular as ted cruz in the senate.

he's not winning any popularity contest. people know when to stand away from somebody. their senses are, move away, stay away. and, you know, i think kevin mccarthy is trying to just hold the line a little bit by not taking away his committeeships, but he probably will have to take them away shortly. >> especially the judiciary committee, i know that congressman ted lieu who i spoke to yesterday said he has to go, while he's being investigated by this committee. governor kemp in georgia blasting the mlb for pulling the all-star game out of atlanta due to the restrictive new voting law. give me your thoughts whether the boycott threats against large companies is what's making a big difference here. >> it is what's making a big difference. bravo to major league baseball. shame on the atlanta braves for the ridiculous statement they

released. good luck to other teams who don't have active voter suppression or general people oppression laws in place. i was a member of the state legislature a long time ago. the reality is republican legislators try to call themselves fundamentally pro business, but look here, business ain't coming to your state if you're oppressing people and suppressing people's right to vote. business is not coming in the face of human oppression. that needs to be the new standard going forward. i hope these deeply red legislatures realize we can't detach economic behavior from the social construct. >> guys, appreciate you so much, good seeing you. if you want evidence that america's covid-19 battle is far from over, one state is exhibit "a" in this story.

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incredibly aggressive reopening was a too soon. people are doing things like crowding indoors and getting close to each other, sometimes without masks and infecting each other. happening ut what's in europe? they've seen this surge in cases the last few weeks. many are saying it's a forecast of what's to come in the u.s.

i think you've been on the show and said, hey, we're usually about four weeks after the fact, so do you think we're headed for a fourth wave? >> yeah, this fourth wave that is happening is different from what normally would follow the eu. the eu's vaccination pace is nothing short of atrocious. they've only had about 11% of their population getting first shots compared to 45% of the uk, compared to now in the united states, about 30% of our population being immunized. so, our picture, even though we will see an increase in cases, we are seeing an increase in cases, will not be as bad as the eu's. it has to do, again, with reopenings that are patchwork in the eu inconsistency with trust issues with the vaccine, the halt in the astrazeneca vaccine, which is their primary vaccine, combined with just a very slow rollout. we will fare better, but make no mistake, cases, deaths, hospitalizations, that could be prevented are going to happen here are happening here now.

>> dr. patel, many thanks for your time on this holiday. appreciate that. amid the outcry over georgia's new voting law, there's an onslaught of voting restriction bills, hundreds of them, butdr can congress do anything to stop it? two videos from marjorie taylor greene raising eyebrows and eliciting outrage. stay tuned for that. stay tuned . ♪ ♪ i'll be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease after trying other medications. the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief in as little as 4 weeks. and many achieved remission that can last. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,

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good day to all of you from msnbc headquarters in new york. welcome to weekend, alex witt reports. today the biden administration responding to criticism from republicans over those tax hikes to pay for the plan. >> just a few years ago the tax rate for corporate t