ow do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. new look for the show, everybody. good afternoon. good to see you on this easter sunday. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we've got a lot to cover on this easter sunday and a team of correspondents in the field ready to go with us. on the brink of collapse, a wastewater pond from a fertilizer plant could fail at any moment. a state of emergency has been declared in the county just south of tampa and st. petersburg. we're going to be live on the ground with the latest efforts to contain that situation. plus, spending $2 trillion. transportation secretary pete buttigieg calls it a generational investment. we're going to look at this proposal that has set up a giant battle over the size and cost of

government. and the boys of summer are back. it is opening weekend for major league baseball, but of course not without the risks amidst this pandemic. games are already being cancelled due to covid. we'll look at the challenges to keep fans and really everybody safe. also on the eve of another milestone achievement in space. i'll talk to a nasa engineer who is the lead on getting a helicopter to fly on mars. how cool is that? but we do want to begin with breaking news out of the state of florida where governor ron desantis has declared a state of emergency in response to a significant leak from a large pond of toxic wastewater in manatee county. sam brock is joining us. you've got 300 homes that have been ordered to evacuate and officials are warning up to 600 million gallons of wastewater could actually flow out of this

pond. how are officials there responding so far? >> reporter: with urgency. we saw governor ron desantis hold a press conference this morning and tell people there is a real possibility for catastrophic flooding and there is little doubt that that absolutely awakened some folks who were considering riding this out right now, much as you would a category 4 or category 5 hurricane. yasmin, i want to touch upon the fact originally it was thought we would need 12 days to pump out all of the water from the one pond. there are three man made pond. the one that is leaking had 480 million gallons of water to start. projections showed it would take a week and a half to get off the water out. and now they're saying four or five days as we've seen the florida department of emergency management bring in 20 pumps to try to supplement things and the florida national guard air dropped pumps onto that man made

pond. but can they beat time? try to bear with me but what i just learned from a family out here is their biggest concern is what their home would look like when they return. would they see flooding? would people come and loot it? a mom is on the edge whether to leave or not. she decided to go when she heard governor desantis. here's some of his remarks from earlier today. >> what we're looking at now is trying to prevent and respond to if need be a real catastrophic flood situation. the water being discharged to port manatee is not radioactive. it is primarily saltwater from the port manatee dredge project mixed with legacy process water and storm water runoff. >> reporter: for days, yasmin, the concern was that the leaky pond was essentially saltwater, as the governor just said, with some nutrients like hydrogen and

ammonia, but the other two ponds may have had radioactive elements. officials have dismissed that and said they have higher concentrations of nutrients which if it got out would be problematic for things like algae blooms and red tide. those issues would certainly be posing a threat here. we actually went to the university of florida and spoke to anphosphorus, and they said that's true. this is definitely acidic but not radioactive. so to assure people, the flooding is a concern but there are no worries at this point about toxicity that could affect human health. back to you. >> you said you spoke to some residents that live in the area, a mom of a young child. is this something that they had been warned of may actually happen, something that has been developing as we've been seeing reported for some time? >> reporter: absolutely. so the initial leak we are told

started earlier in the week. the woman, the mom that i interviewed said she had been sitting on this for three or four days. yesterday is when they were trying to fortify that leaky wall, realized they couldn't and that's when manatee county officials issued a mandatory evacuation for everybody out here. just to give you a snapshot, i asked them what percentage of people are staying behind? is it half? less than half. more than a quarter? they said, yes, more than a quarter. so you're talking about a substantial number of families, 60, 70, 80, i'm not sure, who are staying back and some of whom are having parties as all this is going on. that is concerning. >> yeah, it certainly is. all right, nbc's sam brock in manatee county, florida. thanks, sam. we're also following some breaking news from capitol hill where the capitol police union is urging congress to rev up security in the wake of friday's deadly attack and warns that officers may leave the force because of a lack of resources. in the next three to four years we have another 500 officers who will be eligible to retire.

many of these officers could put in their retirement papers tomorrow. i've had many younger officers confide in me that they're actively looking at other agencies and departments right now. meanwhile, one of the officers injured in the attack is now out of the hospital. officer ken shaver left the hospital yesterday as a crowd of his colleagues as you see there and medical staff as well cheered him on. the extent of his injuries is so far unclear, but he did appear to have a boot on his left foot. shaver was hurt when 25-year-old noah green rammed his car into him. officer william evans, who was standing at a barricade, evans died from his injuries and the attacker was killed by police. the investigation, though, is still ongoing. so president biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan has a bumpy road ahead as republicans continue to push back. here is what the transportation secretary, pete buttigieg, and the top senator on the

transportation committee, roger wicker, had to say about funding this morning on "meet the press." >> there's a lot of support for how the president is proposing to pay for this. we know that we as a country can afford to make big investments in infrastructure. we just need to make sure that corporations are paying their fair share. >> pete and i could come up with an infrastructure bill. what the president proposed this week is not an infrastructure bill. it's a huge tax increase for one thing. >> joined by vaughn hillyard on capitol hill and monica alba who is at the white house for us. vaughn, let me start with you at the capitol. i think really the question here is how far apart are republicans and democrats this afternoon with this over $2 trillion infrastructure bill, seeing a glimpse of it there on "meet the press" earlier today. >> good afternoon, yasmin. if i could make one point too, watching that video of officer shaver there, god bless him and

his family and the family of officer evans. for everybody who works up here on capitol hill, again, god bless to those families. but to your question here when we're talking about infrastructure, let's set up the timeline. speaker pelosi said that she wants to get this infrastructure bill passed by july 4th. so essentially you've got three months to convince republicans to come onboard. senator mcconnell in front of cameras here this week following joe biden's announcement said straight to camera that he does not see his side getting on board. democrats could potentially pass this infrastructure bill with just democratic votes but that is not what the biden administration wants or what democrats wanting. that's why infrastructure is what they saw as an opportunity to bring republicans onboard. there's just about $621 billion going toward transportation infrastructure. you'll hear from roy blunt and

then bernie sanders what their views are is very far apart. >> when people think about infrastructure, they're thinking about roads, bridges, ports and airports. that's a very small part of what they're calling an infrastructure package that does so much more than infrastructure. >> roads and bridges and items are infrastructure. but i think many of us see a crisis in human infrastructure. when a working class family can't find good quality, afford child care, that's human infrastructure. >> reporter: yasmin, so that $2 trillion package, about one-third of it is geared towards that typical infrastructure you think of, roads, bridges, highways. but there's $100 billion to expand broadband access. another $100 billion to renovate public schools. there's $400 billion to give americans greater access to senior and disability care. there's $300 billion to go towards small businesses and to

boost american manufacturing. that's where you hear from senator roy blunt seemingly suggesting that republicans could potentially get onboard if we're talking about infrastructure in the sense of roads, bridges, highways, but you're hearing from democrats they want to expand that notion to something a lot larger. >> monica, so let's bring you into the conversation here, right, because i think the major question, and vaughn brought it up briefly, which is this idea of budget reconciliation which democrats could pull that card if they can't get the support of any republicans going forward on this infrastructure plan. but what is the white house play here to make this a bipartisan effort? >> reporter: the president is prepared to roll out the blue carpet, yasmin, that is invite republicans into the oval office, have face-to-face negotiations. unlike the covid relief bill that passed last month, he's saying he's ready to make a lot of changes to what he put forward with this infrastructure proposal, emphasis on proposal. the president himself admitting

they're going to have to make changes and he's even open to hearing ideas from gop lawmakers on different ways to pay for it because we know there's so much republican opposition to hiking the corporate tax rate and other potential tax increases. so that's somewhere where they're looking to find common ground and it's a little bit of a departure. we all remember the president did invite republicans of both chambers to the white house on covid relief and they even offered a counterproposal and he said i'm not interested in that. i'm not shrinking this. this is the need of the american people and i am not going to allow inaction to proceed. but that really is why in this case it's a little bit different. he's saying he is willing to make some adjustments. but then you also have transportation secretary pete buttigieg on the air waves saying this is a very unique opportunity. the timing must be seized. he talked a little bit about that on one of the sunday shows this morning. >> this is a once in a lifetime moment. i don't think in the next 50 years we're going to see another

time when we have this combination of a demonstrated need, bipartisan interest, widespread impatience and a very supportive president who is committed not just to the infrastructure itself but the jobs we're going to create. >> reporter: jennifer granholm was also on the sunday shows and she was asking the question about going the reconciliation route. she said we're going to try to go bipartisan but if that fails, they are prepared to explore that so we could see a repeat of what happened with the american rescue plan but at least this time the president is saying he's going to give republicans a little more time to get onboard and he's given those cabinet secretaries and a couple of others the homework assignment of going out and wooing some of those lawmakers in addition to trying to sell the infrastructure plan to the american people before the fourth of july, yasmin. >> vaughn, just quickly here, does at this point the president of the support of all democratic senators in particular considering this idea of possibly having to go by the

route of budget reconciliation? >> yasmin, we're waiting for that actual legislation to come out until you get that official word from every senator. but the one senator we typically are always watching on the democratic side is joe manchin of west virginia who is known to sometimes push democrats more towards the middle and to compromise with republicans. just this last week, he said he was for a, quote, enormous package and he was supportive of increasing that corporate tax rate that monica was talking about, which is good news for this biden administration. >> all right. nbc's vaughn hillyard, monica alba, appreciate it. we're going to talk more about biden's infrastructure plan with tennessee congressman steve cohen coming up at 4:00 p.m. we'll get into the nitty-gritty of the infrastructure bill. you don't want to miss that conversation because it seems like this thing is much bigger than just buildings, roads and highways. this is also about racial equity to say the least. we are less than 24 hours

away from a murder trial continuing to decide the fate of a former police officer and the impact it's going to have on the nation's social fabric. week two of the derek chauvin trial is going to center around minneapolis' police chief. he's scheduled to testify about the actions taken by chauvin. the former officer places murder and manslaughter charges. meagan fitzgerald is in minneapolis for us. >> reporter: yasmin, this is expected to be another big week, certainly one to watch. as you mentioned, the prosecution is expected to call the chief of the minneapolis police department, who will likely testify about policies and use of force. certainly focusing on that video, that 9 minutes, 29 seconds where derek chauvin had his knee on george floyd's neck. we will also hear from the medical examiner, the doctor who conducted the autopsy on george floyd's body so jurors will be hearing about science and what contributed to george floyd's

death and certainly an opportunity for the defense to try and feed to their narrative that george floyd died because of the drugs in his system, not because of the knee on his neck. that is something that is concerning to george floyd's family. i want you to take a listen to what they 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 that there's tens of thousands of people across america whof self-medicating and they get addicted to things like opioids. but i can tell you this, my brother was walking just fine, he was laughing, talking before derek chauvin put appear overdose of his knee on his neck for nine seconds. we don't want that for any other family across america. >> reporter: while the city is hoping that things remain peaceful, you can see behind me here they are ready just in case things turn violent. you can see there's fencing around the hennepin county courthouse, a humvee behind me

here. we know that there are some 2,000 national guard members that are ready to be activated in addition to some 1,000 law enforcement officers. so again, things have remained peaceful, but the city is preparing for that worst-case scenario. yasmin. >> and we'll resume coverage of the chauvin trial next week. meagan fitzgerald for us in minneapolis. thank you. now to some breaking news as well. the biden administration is asking johnson & johnson to run a troubled plant in baltimore that manufactures its covid vaccine. emergent biosolutions ruined 15 million individual shots last month during production. johnson & johnson says it will install new leadership at the plant to maintain quality control. the company also says it will still meet delivery targets of its covid vaccine in the united states. so it's opening weekend for major league baseball, but not without risk for fans and teams. the reason, of course, covid-19. games have already been cancelled, fans are being

allowed back in the stands, but of course with some restrictions at hand. we are in philadelphia outside citizens bank park. gary, take us through this challenging time. it's exciting on the one hand, right, the beginning of the baseball season once again with spring. but nonetheless we're still in the midst of this pandemic with so many safety and security concerns for both players and folks wanting to attend. >> yeah, yasmin. baseball is back. it really does feel like we're rounding third and heading towards home on this pandemic, but there are a number of concerns that we have to deal with still with major league baseball. for example, down in texas, tomorrow for the rangers home opener, they're planning to have 40,000 fans pack the stadium there in arlington. president joe biden called that a mistake in an interview with espn. when you look in washington, d.c., the national had to cancel their entire home opening weekend against the mets because

of four nationals players that tested positive for covid and that means a number of others had to quarantine. so still a number of issues there. but fans that are going to stadiums across the country, there's a number of things that will look very different than the last time they were probably in a stadium. one of them is cashless transactions. most stadiums are going cashless, which means retail, food, everything is happening on your mobile device. it's also pod seating which means you're three or four feet away from any other family that you're at the game with and masks are required at most stadiums as well. fans are just excited to get back to a sense of normalcy. i want to introduce you to one group of people called the fandemic crew. they were out here against the fence screaming in support of the phillies because they couldn't get in the stands. today they were able to get in. here's what they had to say

about that. >> we're always here anyway, we always go to games. so not being able to be inside, it was cool, it was fun being out there but it's a lot more fun being inside. we get to see the players, interact with the players. we've made a lot of friends with the people that work inside and it's great seeing them. a lot of them because of the pandemic were laid off so it's good to see them. >> reporter: so yasmin, even though more than 100 million americans have received at least one dose of the covid vaccine, officials here in pennsylvania tell me they're concerned about events like this and about things like easter and memorial day causing a further spike. but a quick score update. it's about the eighth inning and still a tie game. that's what fans here are concerned about. >> all right, gary thank you. still ahead, too little too late. major georgia-based companies condemning the state's new voter restrictions after they have already law. jennifer rubin explains delta and coca-cola's belated support for democracy when we come back. .

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facebook once again in the headlines with data leaks. i want to turn to the fight over voting rights and just how big corporations are responding to the republican-led push to restrict voting access. a new op-ed in "the washington post" says the delayed opposition to the restrictive georgia voting law by companies like coca-cola and delta who have previously supported black lives matter and lgbtq rights highlights the, quote, lack of diversity at heads of major companies. joining me with more of this is the author of that piece, jennifer rubin, opinion writer for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor. thanks for joining us on this. i read your piece and it's so good. one of the things that stood out is this example that i think about when you see some of those super bowl ads and you think of the distastefulness or even oftentimes the insensitivity, the racial insensitivity that you see in some of these ads. you think who was sitting at the table that responded and said, hey yeah, let's give a green

light to this thing and put it on national television in front of millions if not billions of people. i feel like the same thing is happening here, a lack of representation, that people sitting at the table are not the people that are being -- that are being focused on. >> i think that's exactly right, yasmin. listen, not too long ago they took a look at the fortune 500 companies. how many african-american ceos of the fortune 500 and there were five and one retired so now there are four. it's that lack of diversity, plus only a few hundred -- less than 300 really in senior executive positions. so the lack of diversity at the top of these companies is really fairly astounding in this day and age. although they have all kind of talked a good game and, for example, they all came out with a bunch of new policies after the murder of george floyd, which of course is going to

trial right now, in this case i think they just had a complete blind spot. they thought that they could get away with not taking a stand, or in some cases mildly cheering legislation that they came to the conclusion wasn't as bad as it had been. there was an enormous blowback. there was an enormous blowback, from the public, from the media and also a letter circulated by 72 african-american executives saying this is not acceptable. you guys have to choose, democracy or not democracy. there's no in between here. and i think that sort of shocked them out of their sense of complacency. now they have begun to say more things critically of the legislation in various states. but the real question remains what they're going to do about it and if they're really committed to, for example, cutting off pac spending to those people who sponsored this legislation or voted for this legislation. are they willing to commit to, for example, giving every single employee paid time off to go

vote. it's those sorts of concrete measures that i think will have to really take otherwise the general view of these companies is going to be, well, they're talking a good game now after one law is passed. there are a bunch of other states, over 40 actually that are considering more of these bills. what are they actually going to do? it's not enough to say we're a posed to them. they have to weigh in and be good corporate citizens. that question is what are they going to do now. >> what kind of pressure do you think needs to be placed on these companies in order to create action from them? >> this is a big dilemma. you saw major league baseball decide in a very symbolic, very high-profile move that they were going to pull out of the all-star game there. the advocates, voting rights advocates have all been very tentative, very concerned about endorsing boycotts and that's because they don't want to hurt

the very people who they are seeking greater political protection, greater political rights for. if, for example, they stopped making movies in georgia, which some time ago was an issue that was raised, then the people who would be hurt will be the crafts people and the ordinary americans who work there and work in the filming district. so they have by and large dissuaded people from engaging in consumer boycotts. that leaves the question that you asked, what do they do? and my suggestion is that rather than staying away, you need to show up. they need to have some peaceful mass protests with very high profile people. they need to be clear that at least from these companies, they expect them to put their money where their mouth is. to make donations to people who are supporting voting rights and to withhold money from people who aren't.

but i think coming to georgia to make their voices clear, to show that there's a huge bipartisan in some cases support for voting rights, republicans in office don't feel this way, but average republicans are, i think, much more concerned about having many of the conveniences they got used to during the 2020 election taken away from them. so i think it's going to take some action on the ground. it's going to take pressure at the state legislative level and there's going to be great pressure put upon the united states congress to try to pass legislation that would supersede these restrictions, reinstate the -- and prevent these sorts of measures that are meant to frustrate and really prevent many people from voting. >> all right. jennifer rubin, i just want to be clear here. nearly 200 companies on friday alone joined in the strong statement against proposals that threatened to restrict voting access in dozens of states which

seems to be a sign of willingness from a lot of corporations to speak out at this moment. thank you, jennifer, great to talk to you. coming up, the first steps to returning to the iran nuclear deal are being taken. both sides now agreeing to indirect talks. we're live from tehran next with the latest on negotiations. the latest on negotiations if you love it, spoon it. introducing colliders. your favorite candy flavors twisted, chopped or layered into a dessert that's made to spoon. new colliders desserts. find them near the refrigerated pudding. - oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. find them near the lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety.

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welcome back, everybody. we've got new details on the potential of a renewed iran nuclear deal. washington and tehran are set to return to talks this week on how to return to a nuclear agreement, if they can return to a nuclear agreement. ali arouzi is joining me from tehran. great to see you this afternoon. this is exactly like how the original talks began as well, indirect talks in vienna, somewhat more hush-hush than they are this time around. so what are the, i guess, expectations, shall we say, at

this point? >> reporter: hello, my friend. well, the aim of this meeting on tuesday in vienna which will be a deputy ministerial level will be to try to get the u.s. and iran back into compliance through reciprocal steps. for them to figure out a synchronized mechanism that will be acceptable both in tehran and in washington. the meeting can offer an indication as to whether the two sides are ready for their first substantive moves that could revive the deal, but it's going to be complicated. for a start tehran has rejected any direct contact with the united states in vienna. iran's deputy foreign minister, who's also one of the chief negotiators, said with certainty that the united states will not attend any meeting which iran will be present at. also iran is still maintaining the position that it will only come back into compliance once all sanctions are removed, a position made very clear by

iran's supreme leader just under two weeks ago and reiterated today by a whole host of senior officials, one of whom said there is no step-by-step approach, just one step and that's the complete removal of all sanctions by the u.s. nonetheless, this is a step forward after months of elusive diplomacy that's failed to provide any clear path out of this standoff between iran and america. now, it may not have them in the same room, but they are in the same city talking, albeit indirectly. and if the u.s. is willing to give iran sanctions relief in the oil and banking sector, for iran to be able to sell its oil on the open market and not be frozen out of the global financial system that might be enough to get the ball rolling in tehran, to expedite coming back into compliance. so tuesday's meeting in vienna could provide our first indication as to whether there will be a breakthrough or

breakdown between these two old enemies. >> how are people in iran feeling about this step in this direction, a, and then, b, you and i, we're used to hearing this hard line drawn by iran saying really no negotiations until you lift all sanctions. but explain to folks that are watching just how desperate right now iran really is. >> that's right. well, i think to answer the first part of your question, i think people here are exhausted over this nuclear deal. it's been a headline here for almost eight years now. that's all they have heard about. they got the deal working, not working, sanctions be imposed, sanctions being lifted, so there's a lot of fatigue over the nuclear deal. but obviously i think the majority of people would like to see sanctions lifted so it could ease their lives, which answers the second part of your question. yes, this country has been hit very hard by sanctions, especially the last four years

of the trump administration, something like 1,500 sanctions have been imposed on the country. so the leadership here knows that on the one side they need to talk tough. they don't want to look weak in front of the united states. but on the other hand, they need to get rid of these sanctions. >> ali arouzi, my friend, thank you. great to see you. appreciate you joining us. up next, i am going to be joined by the host of the podcast "fake the nation" which breaks down the biggest news stories while also making a laugh. a quick programming tonight, tonight senior correspondent kate snow investigates for-profit companies that run youth homes. it is a system that some say profits off of and has failed many vulnerable children. so what's being done to fix it? watch "children that pay" tonight, 10:00 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away.

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welcome back, everybody. after a heavy newsweek, we're

taking a more light-hearted approach to this week's edition of "in the spotlight." my next guest's show is all about making listeners laugh and think while delivering a gut punch to the american political system. listen to this. >> what about the debt. the debt? do we care about the deficit? the intellectual laziness of the republicans to bring up the debt and the deficit now when one year ago, i believe almost on this day actually, they dropped $1.5 trillion into the stock market in like 72 hours. and it passed bipartisan support because all of these guys that are democrats or republicans make money off the stock market, doesn't really matter. they just bought a bunch of troubled assets. you didn't hear one of these rich guys or rich people say what about the deficit? >> joining me now is the host of "fake the nation" podcast,

nadine farside. i was listening to your podcast earlier today and it's brilliant, it's so good. >> thank you. >> it's so funny. i'm so happy that you came on today with us. it's so good to see us. full disclosure, we did some oddball pilot years ago if you remember. i'm not sure if you remember. >> yes, yes. >> it was like a decade ago. >> and we're still oddball. you can take the girl out of the pilot but she's still an oddball, so here we are. >> talk to me about this podcast. i was listening to your latest one talking all about the infrastructure plan which i believe you were addressing in what i just played for folks now and why republicans are pointing to the debt and why they wouldn't support a $2 trillion deficit. how do you approach these things when you're looking at something that is so kind of policy heavy, like infrastructure? >> yeah.

infrastructure can be really hard because it's so -- it can be so dry. >> yes. >> but i'm like a nerd in that way. talk to me about building bridges and roads and how we're going to pay for it. it is exciting. and just to actually talk about something that isn't like, you know, awful. we spent four years sort of like not actually ever talking about anything policy related. so to be able to talk about it now feels revolutionary and exciting, so i think that just the enthusiasm of that carries through. >> it's interesting, because when you were talking about infrastructure in your podcast, you brought up a really good point which we'll get into a little bit later on in the show. and it's about the fact that it's not just about buildings, it's not just about roads, it's not just about bridges in this infrastructure plan, it's also about social changes it seems as if the biden administration is putting in place. it's about racial equity.

>> yeah. i mean one of the biggest parts of the plan, i think what actually most of the money is sort of earmarked for, is money going to the care taking community, people that have been just historically -- jobs that have been historically underpaid. when it comes to caretaking. i have a kid now, a 2-year-old, and one of the things i learned by becoming a parent is that, you know, you can't drink as much. but also i learned that between -- between like 0 and 4 years old, so sort of think kids are self-cleaning ovens and we have no plan for how to take care of them. and also for the people who do the caretaking, we don't think they should be paid that much even though they're taking care of the most important people in your life. so the whole thing doesn't make sense. i think that this is one of the things that the infrastructure plan wants to address.

>> address child care. by the way, i can teach you how to drink as much when you have chipper and we can hang out later. i've figured it out, i'll just tell you that. can we talk about matt gaetz for a moment. but before we get into it, i want to play a bit of snl's take on what's happening with him right now. >> you were dating a 17-year-old and brought her on trips across state lines. >> allegedly. >> prostitutes say you took ecstacy and had sex with them in hotel rooms. >> allegedly. >> and your republican colleagues in congress say you've shown them nude photos of women you were sleeping with. >> which is not a crime, just horrifying. >> what do you make of this situation with gaetz? >> this matt gaetz story is -- it's shocking. it's just shocking to absolutely no one that has ever seen him speak before. he -- just to find out that one

of trump's main guys in congress turned out to be super gross allegedly is really not at all shocking. the story kind of wrote itself. and it's funny because i think when i started -- you know, when we got the new president, people were like, ew, are you worried that you have a political comedy podcast and trump is not going to be around anymore. and i was like, i don't know. politics attracts, you know, some really great-hearted people but also some really gross ones so i think there will be people to fill the gross void and here we go with matt gaetz filling that void. so in some ways, thank you, matt. >> you're going to be just fine, negin, you're going to be just fine. negin farsad, thank you for joining us on this. really appreciate it. send me on email and i'll send you those tips. you can listen to "fake the nation" podcast wherever you get your podcasts. new episodes drop every single

thursday. we'll be doing this again next time, so let me know what your favorite podcasts are. coming up, everybody, we are just days away from a historic moment in mars exploration. nasa's ingenuity helicopter is about to embark on the first power controlled flight on another planet. one of the people making sure it all goes as planned is joining me after the break with a preview. ak with a preview. & cheese versus the other guys. ♪♪ clearly, velveeta melts creamier. ♪ for decades, most bladder leak pads were similar.

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welcome back. the achievement humans have accomplished in space in the past 64 years are nothing short of amazing. from orbiting a satellite and then one person humans have since walked on the moon, built space stations and sent satellites beyond our solar system. once again we are on the eve of yet another first. this time a helicopter will fly remotely on another planet. it is called ingenuity which is part of the latest rover to land on mars. perseverance is one of the system's engineers on the team, farah alibay. great to see you. i first want to understand your role in this whole thing and talk to me as if i am a kindergartner because i don't really understand a lot about space in general. but it says you guide the rover activities to make sure the helicopter has all it needs to be successful. so that to me means you're essentially going to be flying this thing from here.

>> yeah, so we have two teams that are doing operations right now. there's the perseverance team, which i'm on, and the ingenuity team. my job is to be the interface between those two teams. i help operate the rover but when we're flying a helicopter, we have to deploy that helicopter on the surface of mars, we have to image it. we actually do all of the communication relay. the helicopter can't talk directly to the earth, so it talks through the rover back to the earth. so basically i make sure that the helicopter has everything it needs to succeed. during this first flight i'm essentially going to be a martian photographer through the rover as we image and video that first flight on mars. >> man, that is so incredible. so give me the 1, 2, 3s. are we ready to go? is the helicopter ready to go? are all systems clear, maybe, as you say? >> everything is looking good so

far. we deployed the helicopter on the surface of mars just yesterday. that was my big activity. i was in charge of preparing for all of that. we heard from the helicopter and so the helicopter is on the surface of mars. now the key thing we're going to want to look for in the next day or two is whether -- how it's doing, how it's surviving those really cold martian nights and then we're going to do a commissioning of the helicopter. wiggle the blades, test out all of the internal systems. so we're looking at about another week here before we can attempt to fly on mars. >> what's the goal here? what is the goal of this helicopter? what is it that you're looking for it to capture? >> we just want to try to fly on mars, that's it. it's a technology demonstration mission so it's not doing any science. we want to show that we can fly on another planet. and so if we can achieve any sort of flight, that will be a huge success. but even if we don't succeed, say that we don't fly for some

reason, that is also learning a lot, right? so it's strange for us engineers and scientists. failure is actually sometimes a learning moment because we think that mars behaves a certain way, we think that this helicopter should work but it might not. if it doesn't, that might help us design a new helicopter in the future that might work. >> so what does it prove if in fact this helicopter can fly? >> well, it shows us that we understand what kind of design we need to fly on mars. now, mars has 1% of the earth's atmosphere so it's got a really, really thin atmosphere. on earth, the air is what lifts airplane and helicopters. when you don't have as much lift, your design has to be really different. that's why we have a really light helicopter. it's only about four pounds and its blades are about four feet long. so that tells us we have the right design appeared the right ratio here. in the future that means we can be a lot more ambitious and we

can maybe fly helicopters for science, maybe scout helicopters for science and so it's really a stepping stone for big things to come. >> farah alibay, thank you for all the work that you do. best of luck to you and your team this coming week. we're going to be watching. coming up everybody in our next hour, tennessee congressman steve cohen is here to discuss president biden's infrastructure plan and the difficulties it will have making it through congress. we'll be right back. rough congress we'll be right back. forget what your smoking-hot moms and teachers say, just remember my motto. if you ain't first... you're last! woo-hoo! ice t, stone cold calling on everyone to turn to cold washing with tide. ♪ this is a cold call! ♪ hello, my name is ice t. can you spare a few seconds to learn about cold water washing with tide? hi my name is steve. did you know washing in cold can save you $100 a year on your energy bill. why wouldn't you turn to cold?

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welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. the full-court press is on to sell the president's infrastructure bill. >> we're still working off of infrastructure choices made in the 1950s. >> secretary buttigieg making his best argument with my colleague, chuck todd. but what's the real discussion between members of congress? i'll ask that very question to congressman steve cohen. plus the penalty he would like to see if state legislatures continue to pass voter restriction laws. an alarming new investigation from "the new york times" as well. donald trump supporters who thought they were donating only once to his 2020 campaign, they were actually charged repeatedly without their knowledge. we're going to dive into how his donors got duped. plus this. mr. president, you have not

condemned