way." dr. torres, we thank you very much. that does it for us this morning. kasie hunt picks up the coverage right now. good morning, i'm kasie hunt filling in for stephanie ruhle. it's tuesday, april 13 and and we're going to start with breaking news in the fight against the coronavirus. this morning we're learning the fda and cdc are relding health agencies pause administering the johnson & johnson vaccine while they investigate concerns about blood clots among a handful of people who got the shots. i want to bring in nbc's tom costello right away to help us sort through all of this. tom, this is, of course, news for millions of americans who have already taken the j&j vaccine, it's likely very alarming. there are likely people who have appointments today. how is this going to affect the vaccination effort overall and what do we know about how we got here? >> let's make it very clear, we're only talking about the j&j vaccine. we're not talking about moderna

or pfizer. those two actually are far more likely to be the vaccine you get. but in the case of the j&j vaccine, the fda is now recommending a pause, as you recommended, as you suggested, on administering the j&j vaccine because of a very, very small number of people who developed blood clots as a result -- they think as a result of taking this particular vaccine. it's a blood clot called a cerebral venus sinus thrombosis. it happened -- only six cases of it we should say, of women between ages 18 and 48 and roughly six days to two weeks after they had the johnson & johnson vaccine. the cdc is now going to gather together one of its advisory committees on wednesday to look at the data, decide what they want to do about it. for people who have now already received the j&j vaccine -- and remember, this is a one-and-done shot, you don't need the followup, one shot, if they develop severe headaches,

abdominal pain, leg pain, shortness of breath within a few weeks of vaccination, you should immediately contact your health care provider. johnson & johnson is out with statement today on this particular issue, johnson & johnson says, no clear causal relationship has been established between these rare events and janssen, that's the same company, janssen's covid-19 vaccine. we continue to work closely with experts and regulators to assess the damage. here's what the fda tweeted out this morning. fda and cdc have issued a statement regarding the johnson & johnson vaccine, according to the tweet, and we are recommending a pause in the use of a vaccine out of an abundance of caution. listen, we had 7 million to 8 million people who have now received the j&j vaccine. only six cases of their knowledge to a possible link. one woman, according to "the new york times" died. one woman in critical condition. this is a very, very small percentage of people who have experienced any kind of symptoms

at all. but this is really, kasie, going to cause a problem because the biden administration has been counting on this vaccine rollout to help get everybody vaccinated between now and the end of april, early may. this really now throws that timeline into question, because they were counting on these vaccines. as you know, there's been a problem with the johnson & johnson supply chain anyway, because of a manufacturing error in baltimore involving about 15 million doses that had to be thrown out. kasie? >> of course, that leads to potential concerns about vaccine hesitancy and other issues. tom costello, thank you. i know you will be reporting on this throughout the day today. now we want to turn to our other big story, new protests overnight and new clashes with police in the minneapolis suburb of brooklyn center following the fatal police shooting of a 20-year-old black man. the man, identified as daunte wright, was killed just a few miles from where george floyd died last may. the backlash has been swift. the city manager fired on

monday. the mayor said to decide on whether to fire the police chief as well. meanwhile, the female officer who shot wright has been put on leave is now under investigation. her name is kimberly potter, she's a 26-year veteran of the force. and body cam footage of the traffic stop seems to indicate she meant to hit wright with a taser but shot him instead. we are going to show it to you now, but please be aware some people may find this disturbing. let's go now to minnesota. nbc's ron allen was at the protest in brooklyn center last night. also with me, brittany packy cunningham, former member of the president obama's 21st century policing task force.

ron, let me start with you. what did you see there last night? >> kasie, for several hours, especially after curfew, it was extremely tense out here. a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. a lot of people who are just besides themselves this keeps happening, young black people are being killed at the hands of police. especially this case. this was a traffic stop. this was a young man pulled over because his license plates were expired. and this relate resulted in his death by being shot in point-blank range. and the explanation that the police were going for a taser leaves a lot of people frustrated. and people had to go home because they were violating curfew but after several hours moved out from the police headquarters behind me and formed a huge phalanx and marched down the street to clear

people out. they did that gradually. arrested about 40 people, perhaps more. and the crowd dispersed around midnight or so after several hours. during that time there was a lot of back and forth, rocks and bottles thrown at police. police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, reports said. the tension is still there. it's unclear whether the protesters will return tonight and in what number. there's still a curfew in effect. people are waiting to see if in fact this officer is going to be fired, if there will be criminal charges. if there will be swift justice if you will for this young man, who didn't get due process, many people will say here, when he was essentially killed in the street by police. yes, there were outstanding warrants for his arrest as well. still, i think people here look at the situation given what's happened over the past year with the george floyd situation, given the fact the trial is now in the third week and people are

wondering if in fact the officer, former officer, is going to be in fact convicted of anything. so there's a lot going on here, a lot of tension and a lot of frustration and it really boiled over last night. kasie? >> of course, we know he called his mother as he was being pulled over, according to his mother, which shows you the fear he had. brittany, we just saw the body cam footen of that traffic stop where daunte wright was killed be the officer yells taser several times. the chief then says that he believes the officer meant to tase him and instead pulled the gun by accident. is that a plausible explanation in your view? >> no, it's not plausible in my view. the idea that a 26-year veteran and apparently reportedly high-ranking official in the local police union could not tell the difference between two things that are shaped

differently, colored differently and weighted differently is not plausible to me. but the truth of the matter is this actually isn't a conversation about whether or not a taser would have basketball more appropriate to -- been more appropriate to use than a gun. tasers are more lethal, not less lethal. in a study reuters did in 2018, over 1,000 people were killed by tasers used by police and dis proportionate amount of those folks, you get it, were black. so the idea this is about what weapon was used is not the right conversation, especially when the institution that is armed with both the tasers and the guns, continues to be repeatedly fatal, racist, sexist and problematic. after that, nothing can be an accident. everything thereafter is state sanctioned and state funded. so this conversation about whether or not it was a taser or gun may just be about trying to ensure that she's got cover but

at the end of the day, daunte wright is still dead, katie wright is still mourning her son and an entire city is in grief. we repeat this cycle over and over again where we get caught on the details instead of questioning the institution. >> let's talk about the accountability for this so far. "the minneapolis star tribune" covering the city to fire the manager of the brooklyn's city center, writing council member kris lawrence-anderson said she voted to remove the city manager because she feared for her proort and retaliation by protesters if she voted to keep him. he was doing a great job. i respect him dearly. i didn't want repercussions at a personal level. what does it say to you this was the explanation for removing him, in the case of this council member? >> i find it interesting, especially given the repercussions we should be most

concerned about are that of the citizens they're there to represent, certainly the wright family and also protesters and those who live in the residential area around the brooklyn center police department. for the last two nights, we've seen the police have complete and wanton disregard for the children, elderly and the residents who live in that area, dispersing things like tear gas and pepper spray and rubber bullets as we saw several years ago and i personally experienced several years ago on the streets of ferguson. this automated response where the riot police are called, where folks are coming out armed like they are engaged in military warfare. this automatic calling of a curfew, that should indicate to all of us a constitutional crisis. what that says is the freedom of speech is not actually protected as a right as we've been promised, and the state killing people, which brought people out

in protest in the first place, is simply allowed. the idea elected officials are more worried about their personal reputational damage versus the fatal damage that happened to daunte wright and danger they put their citizens in is highly frustrating. >> all of this is playing out very close to where the derek chauvin will resume less than an hour from now. the prosecution is expected to rest, setting the stage for the defense to start making its case. the so let's go there now. gabe gutierrez is in minneapolis and charles coleman is a civil rights attorney and former prosecutor in brooklyn, new york. gabe, good morning. how is the prosecution finishing up its case? and what are we expecting from the defense as we head into that phase of the trial? >> hi there, kasie. the prosecution called three witnesses yesterday and told 38 witnesses that it has called now as this trial enters its third week of testimony, we heard last

from a national use-of-force expert from south carolina who, like others, said george floyd died because of derek chauvin's knee on his neck, because of the restraint, not because of underlying medical conditions and drug use. before him we heard from philonise floyd, george floyd's brother, who gave an emotional account of his life and the relationship with their mother. we spoke with philonise flood just after he left the courtroom. >> it felt good because i finally got the chance to let the world know who my brother really was. he was always a great person to us. he inspired us in the household. we prayed together. one thing i can tell you is i have the understanding that if i keep pushing and keep fighting for justice, we will get it. >> kasie, the prosecution is expected to officially rest its case this morning, and then, as you mentioned, the defense will take center stage. it's unclear exactly how many

witnesses attorney eric nelson will call. he had hundreds of witnesses on his witness list. but we know the judge doesn't expect it to last more than a few days. he's already told the jury to expect closing arguments on monday. but as for what witnesses we could expect from the defense, kasie, we do expect a former chief medical examiner in maryland to be called to the stand as well as potentially a minneapolis officer who testified earlier. and the big question, of course, will derek chauvin himself testify? and the two stories that possibly will converge here midday, the families of daunte wright and george floyd are expected to hole a news conference here at the courthouse later on today. kasie? >> charles, let me pick up right there because, of course, this has been the backdrop of the derek chauvin trial, now daunte wright is dead and we're going to see these two stories come

together later on today. what impact does this have on the chauvin trial? >> i think you have a significant impact, kasie. i think in the wake of what we're watching unfold in the chaush trial, to have something happen to daunte wright, just ten miles away, has a potential to impact this trial. in terms of how the jury can potentially process this, it actually does not allow the defense to create a sense of this being an isolated incident or this being a mistake. what it does is underscores the notion that policing in america as it is for black americans is deeply toxic and deeply problematic. so you see the systemic link between the problems that we have all been talking about over the past year, and for many of us much longer, around policing. that link cannot be made more clear than what we have just seen in brooklyn, minnesota. i think for the defense, however, it may have provided an interesting blessing in disguise

in that the defense at one point did move to have the jury in this case sequestered and that motion was denied. now with everything happens with rarz to protests and people being angry and news being out there, should it come out that somehow the news of daunte wright's killing impacted the jury or the jury is aware of that news or becomes more aware of it or seems to be influenced by it, that could create an appealable issue down the road. there's a sort of dicey, let's wait be see approach in terms of how this may play out. >> very important set of points. gabe gutierrez, charles coleman, thank you both very much coming up next here, we'll go back to the breaking news we told you about at the top of the show. the fda and cdc asking states to temporarily stop giving out the johnson & johnson vaccine. and the president of guatemala tells msnbc's ayman

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more now on that breaking news. the fda is set to hold a news conference in less than an hour after it joined the cdc in calling for an immediate pause in using the johnson & johnson coronavirus vaccine. the agencies say six people in the u.s. who received the j&j vaccine developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within about two weeks of

vaccination. let's go right to cnbc's senior health and science reporter meg tirrell. what's the latest you are hearing? what are we expecting at this news conference, and how concerned should americans be? >> at this point we are hearing this is an exceedingly rare event and no definitive link has been proven between the vaccine and these rare blood clots. what they have see according to the joint statement this morning, is the six case, all among women, were with the j&j cases distributed here in the u.s. we know in europe they're looking at similarities in the astrazeneca vaccine. these two companies do use the same technology, not the same way, but in the same general way to protect from the virus. they come with low clotting levels and placelets.

so what we are hearing is pause these vaccinations with the j&j vaccination as further investigate the situation and let doctors know to look out for this because if somebody does come in after having this vaccination with a rare profile clot, they need to be treated in not the normal way you treat somebody with a blood clot. you don't use heparin here because it could be detrimental. we expected to hear from the fda, what they know, they seem to have put everything in this statement but we will hear how it plays out. expect to hear from the cdc tomorrow. an outside committee of advisers will meet and discuss this in more details. right now they're emphasizing it's extremely rare but telling folks within three weeks of vaccination should look out for shortness of breath, severe headache and abdominal or leg pain and let their doctors know if they have it. >> meg, how concerned is johnson & johnson about this from the perspective of the company and whether people, even if this

pause is lifted and we sum gishing this vaccination, that people will worry it's not safe? >> certainly, it would be a huge concern for a company to have a pause like this. they say they're working with the regulators. they note that no causal link has been proven here between the vaccine and these events but certainly it's not something that any drug company wants to be associated with. so the best thing will be for this investigation to play out and risk/benefit to be established for people to understand what the risk is, and if floor any changes that should be made and we have to remember the risk of covid is very high for certain people in particular. so that may play out. but, kasie, from the broader perspective in terms of supply, we really are expecting a lot from pfizer and moderna. so i'm not hearing a whole lot of concern this will be a huge knock to the u.s.' vaccination effort, at least not at this

point. >> little bit of good news there. thank you very much for that. let's bring in global health researcher and infectious disease expert dr. william hassleteen. he's known for groundbreaking work on hv and cancer and also the author of "variants." doctor, thank you very much for being here. let me ask right off the top, what is your reaction to the news of this pause? >> well, it's concerning. we knew from the work in europe with the similar vaccine that a number of countries have either stopped and paused and then resumed. they both use the same vector, adnan virus investigator. i think the fda's reaction, though the syndrome is very rare, is part conditioned by what they saw abroad as well. most people will do perfectly well. some people are likely to have a problem. whether this is causally linked to this vaccine is not clear but it is linked to other vaccines.

i should point out this is a problem worldwide. there are three major vaccines that use the same technology. the j&j vaccine, astrazeneca vaccine and the russian's sputnik vaccine. so all three are gag to cause questions around the world, whether this fundamental technology with adenoviruses has this effect. >> doctor, we know this is blood clots reported with six women who had already received the shot. is there something noteworthy about the fact this is being found in women as opposed to men? >> same thing has happened in europe with the other vaccine, it's more prevalent in women. there are a number of issues that women have with autoimmunity, which this appears to be, your own body reacting against one of your key elements, in this case placelets responsible for clotting. this is a very unusual syndrome. it's never been seen with these

kinds of vaccines but has been seen with anti-clotting factors. so some factors that are designed to stop clotting actually in very rare cases promote it. the good thing about it is there are known treatments which have caused heparin-induced clotting. there are direct treatments so that's why people are now alert to the people who receive this vaccine, if they have the problems mentioned earlier in your program, they should immediately see a doctor to see if they can be treated for these effective treatments that work against this particular kind of blood clot. >> doctor, what happens next. how long does this pause last and what do the fda and cdc spend the next 24 hours doing? >> they're frantically looking for more patients. they're looking to see what the incidence in this type of

disease in people who are not vaccinated with the same demographic profiles and doing a lot of comparisons. when that was done in europe, they found there was an association. whether that's going to be true here, i should point out, the rate of this problem in europe seems to be -- at least from preliminary indications, somewhat higher than it is in the united states. it's more like one out of 100,000 rather than 1 out of a million, which we have been seeing. >> very interesting. doctor, thank you very much for your time and insights today. we really appreciate it. coming up here, before this year the last time an officer lay in honor at the u.s. capitol was in 1998. today officer billy evans will become the second in just the last two months. we're going to go live there next. live there next our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future... ...and in kevin's. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected.

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developing this morning, in just about an hour, u.s. capitol police officer william evans will lie in honor in the capitol rotunda. the 18-year veteran of the capitol police was killed in the line of duty april 2 during the attack at the u.s. capitol building and he becomes the second capitol police officer to lie in honor in the rotunda this year, after brian sicknick was killed in the january 6th riot. before that, the last time an officer lay in honor in the rotunda was all the way back in 1998. let's go live to my colleague garrett haake on capitol hill.

garrett, this is another sad and somber day for the capitol community all too soon after one that was far too similar. >> that's right. a tough day, tough year for the capitol hill community, especially the u.s. capitol police, and you touched on this, only six americans laid in honor under the dome at any time and two of them have been capitol police officers within the last year. officer evans was a proud veteran of this department, 18 years on the force. so much of what we're going to see today is geared towards his family, both his biological family, including his two children, and his fellow officers with whom he's been serving here. i think for people who are not part of this greater capitol community, the last couple of months since the insurrection with these officers who are working overtime and had to suffer the losses of some of their colleagues, who have just been trying to put one foot in front of the other and come back to work each day, this has been another blow. i think this ceremony will be really important today, it's

kind of a collective moment to grieve the loss of an officer, especially when you consider the presence of the president of the united states, who will be coming here today to pay his respects and speak on officer evans' behalf and to his grieving family. there was a lot of ink spilled over joe biden's fluency with grief, and i think we will see that here on display for a community who really needs to hear it, kasie. >> of course, his two children, logan and abigail, who our leigh ann caldwell reports, will be given very small models at the capitol today, just absolutely heartbreaking. garrett, thank you very much for that report. joining us now, lieutenant general russel honore, serving in response to the military response to hurricane katrina and most recently led security at the u.s. capitol in the wake of the january 6th riot. general, it's good to see you. thank you very much for being with us today.

considering this tragic attack on the capitol, do you believe congress is moving quickly enough in the wake of the insurrection to implement the security recommendations that you made? >> well, i would like to say first, kasie, condolences to the evans' family and capitol police officers. i got to know quite a few of them in the six weeks we spent there and have a full appreciation of the sacrifices they made to keep the capitol safe. to answer your question, the congress has had a lot on their plate, and it's the most deliberative body since 1/6. we all know what that is. pushing through the new executive team objectives and laws and bills as well as confirmation but it's now time since 1/6 for congress to move forward and take some of the

immediate corrections that need to be made to secure the capitol and at the same time make it accessible to the public. >> what does it say to you that this man targeted the capitol in the weak of the insurrection? we at this point don't have any reason to believe they're related but clearly, he thought, okay, i'm going to go drive to the u.s. capitol. what did that say to you about the security imperative? >> it reminds us that the capitol is a target, and it's a target whether it's a lone wolf like the one you referred to or what happened on 1/6. it's the center of our democracy. at the capitol today we're going to have the president, the leader and the speaker. that's equivalent to a state of the union event, where all types of security are needed to secure the senior members of our government. the capitol is the target, we need to remember that. the capitol police protect it. and now it's time to support

these capitol police with some of the improvements they need with the supplemental that congress is deliberating. this week on thursday there will be another hearing in the congress to discuss those things that will be funded in the supplemental and it's time to move that supplemental so they're protecting the capitol, could move forward with the construction, as well as the administrative requirements to hire more officers. >> general, the temporary fence that's currently there, the black fence you can see in the photos of the incident where officer evans died, it's set close to the road where many other officers normally stand, do you think the presence of that fence played any role in evans' death and striking of another and injury of another officer? >> no, all things said, what happened there and the attack

with a car going at high speed is -- would cause the death of the officer i think, and that's still under investigation. but fencing only works if it's protected by officers that are armed and ready to respond. in this case, the post 9/11 impact of having the baffles, the thing that stopped the car, and the little black posts you see around the capitol, are there to prevent automobiles from crashing into the capitol. in this case the officer was standing forward, where they go out to check the car, identification of the driver, check the trunk and see if that vehicle is allowed to move forward. and in this case, the car came in at high speed, which we could see on tv, and struck officer evans. this too will be reviewed and they are will adopt more tactics. as we continue to improve the

security of the capitol, those who want to attack it will find new ways and fencing won't stop them. good officers and improvements in infrastructure like the baffles will. >> general, what do you say to republicans who accused you of being partisan of your review of this situation? >> i spoke to a lot of the republicans, both on the senate and house. we had a team of 16 people. we came in, did an assessment, gave them a 79-page report with over 100 recommendations. we spoke to across aisles of both parties and send it to congress. by and large most recommendations we made they recognized. they know that the capitol police officers, 233, they know the capitol police need more

officers to bring terror protection and buy down the 27,000 hours of overtime many of these young officers subject themselves to so they can earn more money to support their families, and at the same time do their duty to protect the capitol. they need more officers. at the same time they know the outside of the capitol needs to be hardened. so the report codified what many of them knew. now it's time for them to act. it's also time for them to reinforce and show those officers support by making the capitol police retirement system equal to that of the park police. right now the capitol police, like many police departments, are struggling to recruit officers. one of the issues is retirement. the retirement system in the capitol police is not issue to the park police, the retirement pay, that needs to be fixed if

we're going to recruit those 233 officers short and hire another 800. congress needs to fix this. this is well known by many staffers in congress. they need to act on this now if we're going to do what we need to do to secure the capitol and take care of our capitol police. >> general russel honore, thank you so much. i would like to echo your words about the grieving capitol police officers, in particularly officer evans, whom we are mourning today. thank you very much for taking some time to be with us this morning. coming up here, president biden sits down with a group of bipartisan lawmakers to talk infrastructure. but what else is his team doing behind the scenes to get his plan through? and the biden administration struck an agreement between mexico, guatemala and honduras to curb immigration. we will go to guatemala to see what the situation looks like on the ground. looks like on the ground i'm draymond green. with my subway sub with tender steak and melty cheese. my sub will help you put points on the board,

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push right now to pass this infrastructure package. he just met with eight members of congress before both sides of the aisle, but now, of course, he needs to actually try to get it passed, which he says he wants to do by the end of the summer. let's go to nbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, it's always good to see you. how did the meeting go, and where is the white house's thinking on this? clearly they want to make a public demonstration they're reaching out to republicans but i have trouble believing, frankly, any of them will end up supporting it. >> good to be with you, kasie, and i believe you hit the nail on the head. there are sharp divides here when it relates to this infrastructure package. you start with the fact infrastructure is traditionally a bipartisan issue. that's partly why you have the president, administration saying this is one of packages we should be able to get bipartisan support for. we're willing to compromise. that is a different tone, kasie, and it's worth pointing this out than the administration took when it was dealing with the

covid-19 package. they're saying look, bring us your ideas. that meaning you talked about lasted nearly two hours. there were a number of different ideas that were floated. deb fisher, according to our frank thorpe, suggested breaking the infrastructure package up into various pieces. part of the opposition though republicans have -- and this is where it just gets very difficult, is the fact there's a lot in this bill right now. you saw some of the items that it's going to address, not just money for rebuilding roads and bridges but other issues like affordable housing, manufacturing, r&d, job training, those are some issues republicans are saying wait a minute, this is like throwing everything against the wall and trying to see what sticks. instead of proposing a traditional infrastructure package. the white house pushes back against that. they say this is all part of a broader picture when it comes to infrastructure. the real sticking point, kasie, comes when you talk about how to

pay for this. of course, the president is proposing increasing the corporate tax rate. he told me last week he's willing to negotiate that but it's hard to see that republicans are going to agree to any increase in the corporate tax rate. so still a big divide when you think about this package. but the timeline, again, is this summer so they still have time to keep talking, kasie. >> they do, and we should always point out that congress does really only operate when there's a hard and fast deadline. so i doubt we will see anything significant until we get to that point. kristen, thank you very much for that report. we appreciate it. also developing this morning, we are learning more about how president biden is handling immigration. he's set to nominate tucson police chief chris magnus to lead the custom and borders protection as the white house just reached agreements with mexico, honduras and guatemala to help pump the brakes on migration at the u.s. border. let's go to msnbc's ayman mohyeldin, who is on the ground

in guatemala city. it's good to see you. migrants have been fleeing from places where you are you now to come to the u.s. and there's a lot of talk of addressing the root cause of that. what have you been learning there on the ground? >> yes, kasie, we've been asking that question to everyone we've been speaking to, from officials to experts, even to the migrants themselves and what they're dealing with. the short answer to that really is two-fold. you have to try to deal with the structural problems, root problems, and most of that lies in the socioeconomic conditions in this country. you also have to deal with the short-term problems, things like dealing with the pandemic and economic fallout from that. over the past couple of days, we've gone to some of the rural parts of this country, seeing up close the devastation national disasters created, economic conditions. chirp are malnourished, making less than $2 a day. it's just very, very dire to say the very least. and that is what is forcing people to make this choice

between life and death. stay here, risk their kids starving to death or make the perilous journey across mexico to the united states and risk their lives on that trip. but it underscores how difficult the situation here is and a lot of that also has to do with the government. there's rampant corruption. there's organized crime. there's narco trafficking and it has made good governance in this country almost nearly impossible. that's why people are losing hope and making the choice to get to the united states, kasie. >> ayman, i know you had a conversation with the president of guatemala. what did he have to say about it? >> yeah, this was a wide-ranging interview. we asked him about a whole host of issues. what he said to us is he wants to create what is called a wall of prosperity, not walls to divide people. it was interesting, i asked him about this agreement with the white house about surging troops along the guatemalan border and he said, frankly, this is something guatemala does without the initiative of the united states. but they're not doing it

effectively to slow what we are seeing in the u.s. and mexico border. listen to what the guatemalan president said to me. watch. >> translator: our idea was received well by the white house. that we convert guatemala into a prosperity wall. physical walls don't stop people. we've witnessed this, but prosperity walls do. if people with jobs, health, education, housing and security, they don't leave. >> so that's what he wants to do here in guatemala but he said he can't do that with the help of the united states, foreign direct investment, financial aid. that's what is giving people a moment of pause. the concern among u.s. officials is pumping money into the guatemalan government as it has in the past, $2 billion over ten years, is probably going to get squandered. that money gets often siphoned off by corrupt politicians and barely makes its way to the

basic services needed in this country. here's the dilemma, how do you address the structural problems when you're dealing with a government in itself facing so many security challenges, accusations of corruption, accusations of corruptions, excuse me, and all of the economic problems that are accusations of corrupt government. >> all right, ayman, thank you for your very important reporting today. don't go anywhere, we'll be right back. day. don't go anywhere, we'll be right back

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comedian jon stewart is making another big push to help our nation's veterans. he is pressing congress to help vets get treatment if they were exposed to toxic burn pits while overseas. our own lester holt has the story. >> we need your help. >> this morning comedian jon stewart will take to the hill to once again support better health care for our nation's heros. >> you can't always have money for war and not have money to pay for the consequences of those wars. >> you see that as a pattern. >> i don't see it as a pattern, it is a pattern. >> jon stewart believes that burn pits have left soldiers with strange diseases.

it was used to dispose of everything from batteries to human waste at bases overseas. veterans say when they go to the v.a. for health care or benefits they're being met with resistance. in a statement to nbc news, the va says they follow the science on questions of health outcomes of military exposures and studies by the national academy of scientists have so far been inconclusive. >> i challenge any congressperson that says we're going to wait for the science too be settled to dig 100 yard pit in the middle of a town where your subsequents live and burn everything in that tour. >> stewart compares the situation to the fight to fund health care for 9/11 first responders. >> your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity, time. >> what the first responders were standing on top of was

essentially a burn pit. the jet fuel from the planes ignited it, but it was all of those materials from the world trade center. >> june's husband, michael, died of pancreatic cancer in 2019. he deployed to afghanistan three times as a brigadier general in the army national guard. >> how did he handle hearing about the diagnosis. >> he said to me "i thought i would see our grandchildren. his longest deployment was 15 months. so you know, for awhile you think he is coming home. but he's not coming home. >> stewart hopes congress passes a bill to make it easier for effected veterans to access care. >> the worst possible outcome that a bill like this can have is that we care for someone who

sacrificed themselves defending our country even though we're not exactly sure if that's where they got it. >> such important reporting from our lester holt. we're also, as we wrap up this hour monitoring a new statement from the white house saying the new pause on the johnson and johnson vaccine is not likely to significantly impact the pace that americans will be able to get vaccinated. hallie jackson will have more on that when she picks up breaking news coverage, next. breaking news coverage, next. (chuckles) she looks...kind of like me. yeah. that's because it's your grandma when she was your age. oh wow. that's... that's amazing. oh and she was on the debate team. yeah, that's probably why you're the debate queen. >i'll take that. >>look at that smile. i have the same dimples as her. (laughter) yeah. >same placements and everything. >>unbelievable. ♪ the things, you say ♪ ♪ your purple prose just gives you away ♪

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