if it's monday, the spotlight grows on policing in america, amid a pair of new police-involved shootings. the release of new body camera video. all as the nation tries to digest the derek chauvin guilty verdict, not even one week ago. it's a major moment in the biden presidency as the administration prepares to roll out new guidance on mask wearing. two days until his big speech before congress marking the end of his first 100 days as president. in about 30 minutes, we are expecting some sort of major announcement from attorney general garland. when that begins, we will bring it to you live. ♪♪ welcome to "meet the press

daily." i'm kasie hunt in for chuck todd. we begin with a question that we first posed last week in the wake of derek chauvin's conviction. what's the future of police reform in this country? it's a question we ask on a day in which the families of two more black men shot by authorities held news conferences. andrew brown, shot and killed last week in north carolina after deputies tried to serve a warrant for his arrest on felony drug charges. and isaiah brown who was shot and critically wounded while on the phone with 911 dispatchers involving a domestic incident. the deputy who shot him thought the phone was a gun. he had told 911 that he was going to shoot his brother. here is some of what we heard in the news conferences today. >> you know, they want me to label this. i'm not going to label this. as a whole right now, this country is divided. it's not one race. it's a lot of minorities that walk in daily fear. it's a fear that nobody should

have to feel. >> i'm tired of grieving and crying, tired of seeing the videos, then we protest, then we have a funeral, then we have another shooting, we grieve, we cry, we protest. so what i want you all to do today say little bit different. >> tell 'em. >> i want us to destroy the system that keeps putting us in situations like this. >> andrew brown's family is demanding to see bodycam video of the shooting in his case. authorities say they need more time to make redactions to that footage before showing it to the family. those voices have resounded on capitol hill where formal negotiations on police reform negotiations could begin shortly and perhaps move quickly. i will be joined by karen bass, house democrat point person in the talks. as for senate republicans, point person, senator tim scott, he will be delivering the gop's response to president biden's joint address to congress wednesday night. perhaps an indication that police reform could be a key

focus in congress in the coming weeks and months. as we pointed out last week, chauvin's conviction forced them to put pressure on an issue that has been around for years. leigh ann caldwell has the latest from capitol hill. i want to start in north carolina where nbc's kerry sanders has been reporting on the death of andrew brown, junior. kerry, can you walk us through the latest in this investigation and the latest with the body camera footage? >> reporter: they would like to see the body camera footage. they were led to believe they would see it today. there's a delay. we're not sure how long that delay will last. apparently, the sheriff's office has told the attorneys representing andrew brown's family that portions of the video need to be redacted. they are talking about concealing the faces of the deputies who were on this event that took place that led to the death of andrew brown. right now, about all we have is

the opportunity to listen to what appears to be the one witness to what took place. her name is ashley bektel. she lives kitty-corner to the home where the police came in with their s.w.a.t. teams. she was at her window on the second floor looking out the window. she says that she has been interviewed by the investigators following up on this. i have been unable to confirm that with the investigators. it's also important to note that her child's father is cousin to the victim here. all of that said, let's listen to what she says she saw as she looked out the window and saw the police arrive. >> he was sitting in his car. about that time, the police had pulled up behind him. he started to drive off. then started shooting.

you could see mud slinging up on the side of his house everywhere. they shot out the back window of his car. he lost control, and he ended up across the street in mr. mike's yard. and he hit a tree. they crowded around his car. they shot -- were shooting the front window of his car. >> reporter: from where you were standing, did it appear that his car speeding away could be perceived as a threat to the officers where they were standing? >> no. because they were standing behind him. >> reporter: behind him? there were no officers in front? >> there was a truck behind him and they got out.

>> reporter: again, ashley saying she saw all of this from the window on her second floor. i stood up there and there was a clear view of most of what she said she could see there. there was a portion where i believe the car would have been behind the house speeding out. i think the question that we're going to perhaps get answered, when and if this videotape is released -- the bodycam from the police officers -- is whether the vehicle was if reverse going towards the officers, thus feeling that they were being threatened by a deadly vehicle, a deadly device, so that they had to fire their weapons to defend themselves, or if they fired as the car was heading away from them. again, this is one eyewitness. it's apparently the only eyewitness in the neighborhood. a lot of things happen. you know with eyewitnesses very often, people think they see smin things they don't. this is the one person who says they saw what happened.

until we get the videotape, that's the best understanding of how we understand things unfolded here. >> kerry, why the redactions? what are they worried about? how does that tie in with the fact they declared a state of emergency before this has even come out? >> reporter: ben crump said there's no reason the officers should be afforded anonymity by having their faces concealed in the video. every state has their own approach, as you are well aware here in north carolina. it's not considered a public record. it's something that the family and their attorneys are allowed to see. it requires a judge's order to release the body camera video. in previous cases, that sometimes has taken weeks. it may be that it is released today. it may be released within 24 hours. we don't know. a lot of these things that

happen in the legal world, inside courtrooms have to interact with what's going on in the community. there's a real sense of urgency to get this video out so people can determine for themselves what actually happened rather than just listening to one and apparently the only eyewitness here. >> leigh ann caldwell, with the derek chauvin trial, this was front and center for the past couple of weeks. there was a sigh of relief after the verdict was read. now here we are on monday and we are talking about two more officer-involved shootings. congress is trying to figure out how to do something at the systemic level to try and address some of what is clearly an epidemic of this kind of violence. it's not been clear to us yet if they actually can get to a point where they could pass a bill.

how do you think this additional pressure, this additional focus on this issue is going to affect these ongoing talks about police reform legislation? >> reporter: there's some good news and the bad news. the bad news is that they just -- it's unclear how this ends up here on capitol hill. the good news i'm told is that the people who are leading these negotiations, democratic representative karen bass of california, republican senator tim scott of south carolina, and, of course, new jersey democrat cory booker, they have continued to talk. there were discussions over the weekend. both parties are sounding optimistic, because these talks are continuing. there's some good signs as well. there was some fact checkers who took some issue with senator scott's family history and the way he tells it. karen bass over the weekend, she went to twitter to defend the

republican senator. that puts forward a lot of good will as relationships are extremely important and trust is really important in these negotiations. they seem to want to get to a place. there's still several issues that are of concern, including where republicans are on banning chokeholds and no knock warrants. this idea of qualified immunity. also something that i think is going to become very contentious is intent. democrats want in their legislation, want to remove the fact that people have to prove intent to kill by police officers. lowering that standard to just reckless behavior, that is something that senator scott is not supportive of. where this ends up, it's really unclear at this point. unlike other components of legislation on capitol hill, it

seems like these negotiations are moving forward. >> better news than we often have seen of late on capitol hill. we shall see. leigh ann, i know you will cover every turn of the story. kerry sanders, thanks to you as well. joining me now is karen bass. she's the former chair of the congressional black caucus and is the point person for the talks on police reform. congresswoman bass, thank you for being with us today on what is another devastating day for two families and the communities that surround them. let me just start with the status of these talks. there's been confusion about whether you are formally negotiating and talking to your counterparts in the senate about this bill. are these formal negotiations underway? >> no. there are not formal negotiations underway. i hope that that will start this week.

basically, the difference between informal and formal is the authority that would be granted to us by our leadership. i have spoken to speaker pelosi. i know our counterparts, senator booker as well as senator scott, we are speaking to our leadership so that hopefully this week we can move from the informal to formal. >> what's the holdup? what's the holdup with leadership? >> i don't think there is a holdup. i think that you will see it move this week. i think we needed to get to a certain place. i feel like we are there now. i don't feel -- certainly, have been completed supported by speaker pelosi. i believe that senator booker and senator scott have received their support as well. we just need to now have that become public with public statements by our leadership, which i think that you will see in the next day or so. >> okay. let's talk about the content of

the legislation itself. my colleague leigh ann was talking through some of the potential differences that you have here. my question for you, is there a red line on any one of these particular issues if, for example, the ban on chokeholds is not in the legislation, democrats cannot support that? if there are red lines like that, what are they? >> no. first of all, i mean, you know that i'm not going to negotiate on tv, especially just one side. >> i predicted you would say that. >> i don't believe you can come to a negotiation and say, here, take it or leave it. that's just not the way it's done. i certainly have things that i want to see in the bill that might be my internal red lines. we have to see. the bottom line is that we have to have transparency. we have to have accountability. i think what's going on in north carolina is a perfect example of what we cannot continue to do.

that family, i know, was invited to view the video. they were prepared to do that. they had their counsel fly in from out of town. then they get there and they are told they're not going to view it because we're going to redact things. i'm sorry, but that sends a horrible message to the community, regardless of what the state law is that it has to be court ordered. they offered to show the video and then they reneged. i'm very concerned that something like that can be very disruptive in the community. those are the kind of things we have to stop. we have to stop this culture of us versus them. i believe that we can begin that through legislation, but so much more needs to be done beyond what the george floyd justice in policing bill will be able to do. >> congresswoman, do you think democrats in the house are going to be willing to support something that doesn't go as far as the current george floyd in policing act?

you will have to compromise to some degree with republicans on some of these questions to win their support. where do you think the balance is right now in terms of saying, we shouldn't do anything, because it's not good enough, and if it's not good enough, we simply can't support it or saying, we acknowledge this compromise may not go as far as we want but we need to do something? democrats have often come down as saying, if it's not good enough, we're not going to do it. where is your head? where do you think the caucus is right now on that? >> i think the caucus wants to see something done. i think america wants to see something done. i think those people that came out that maintained our majority, that helped biden and harris get white house, want to see something done. there is the current bill. but there are also things the bill didn't do that i believe we can add in. for example, one of the big spots that we need to fill is over mental illness, mental

health crisis. putting resources in the department of health and human services so that people can respond, clinicians, social workers can respond along with or without police to address crisis. when people are in a crisis, if you can treat them and make sure that they have proper health care ahead of time, you can actually prevent the crisis that results in people calling the police. unfortunately, that ends in tragedy far more than i think is reasonable. there are things that the bill doesn't do that i believe that we can add in. >> let me ask you as we wrap up here, one of the most contentious pieces is this idea of qualified immunity and potentially stripping officers -- police officers of that qualified immunity. do you think that what we have

heard and the reporting around some of what senator scott brings to the table, this idea the employer would have responsibility, does that go far enough for you in this question of qualified immunity? >> for right now, it does not. we want the officers to be held accountable, too. but i am open to listening to what senator scott says. the point is is that we have to find a way to hold officers accountable so they will stop shooting people. for example, we need to spend a lot more time, resources and emphasis on deescalation training. many officers i have talked to have said when they go through training, they spend very little time, a few hours, on deescalation. an awful lot of time on, of course, how to protect yourself but when you shoot that you shoot to kill. you don't shoot to wound. i think that there's a lot of issues that need to be taken up. accountability is number one. qualified immunity is one way for officers to be accountable,

civically accountable, if there's a civil lawsuit. then also the willfulness that your reporter was describing before, whether it's where the officer intended to kill or whether his reckless behavior led to a death or her, such as with daunte wright. how can you be on the police force for 26 years and mistake your taser for a gun? that's a situation where, if the officer received more training, how much more training do you need to know the difference? i question the quality of training. but i also say that qualified immunity is about accountability. if senator scott has some other way to hold officers accountable, i'm all ears. >> congresswoman karen bass, an illuminating conversation, as always. thanks very much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me on. coming up next here, president biden gears up to give a major address to congress in

just two days as he nears his 100th day in office. how will he close out the first chapter of his presidency? where will he shift his focus next? later, new coronavirus concerns today as health officials battle concerning new trends involving vaccine hesitancy as johnson & johnson shots resume across the u.s. in just two minutes, we expect to hear some sort of announcement from attorney general garland, a source familiar with the justice department tells us he will announce and pattern and practice investigation into the louisville, kentucky, police department. we will take you there as soon as that announcement begins. 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. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it.

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up to be a monumental week for joe biden. he plans to deliver remarks on the pandemic. on wednesday, he will give his first address before a joint session of congress. on thursday, he will mark his 100th day in office. in december, he vowed to administer 100 million shots in arms by his 100th day. he upped that to 200 million and the administration met that goal with time to spare. success with the vaccine is one of the reasons biden finds himself with a 53% approval rating in our new nbc news poll, higher than his predecessor around the 100 day mark. does he have the political capital to push ahead with an incredibly ambitious and progressive agenda? mike memoli is at the white house, vaughn hillyard is in arizona, one of the key county for biden's victory, also with us is nbc's sahill kapur.

mike, let me start with you. this is a monumental week for president biden with that speech right in the center of it. of course, as events that are out of his control, two more officer-involved shootings we are discussing also focusing the nation's attention on our challenges around police reform. what is the white house saying about the president's thinking about what he needs to accomplish with this address this week? >> what's interesting about this is that i was at white house covering the first 100 days of the obama administration, the first 100 days of the trumped a -- administration. officials were trying to downplay the significance of this milestone, not the case for president biden and his team. if anything, they have had this date circled on the calendar since before election day.

biden was reading up on roosevelt who popularized this action within the first 100 days. i think the way the week is structured gives us a window into how they see the task ahead. giving a speech on coronavirus tomorrow ahead of the speech i think signals the degree to which the speech to congress on wednesday is meant to be a pivot point from the immediate crisis that they inherited of the pandemic, the degree to which they put out the fire and now it's time to talk about rebuilding and moving ahead with what you say is a progressive agenda. we expect more details on the american families plan. the parallel to the jobs plan that he has introduced. also so interesting that he is going to georgia. when you talk about the way his agenda has unfolded so far, the fact that he has done what he has been able to do legislatively with democratic votes is owed to georgia. two democrats won those runoff elections in january set this white house on a very different

course than what it might have had to do were republicans in control of the senate, if mitch mcconnell were still the majority leader. as we look at our own polling of the first 100 days, the president enjoying such strong support. but the biggest reaction in that word cloud of why people support the president, not trump. that speaks to the degree to which and the challenge for the white to begin his agenda and build support for it. >> it's a good point. vaughn hillyard, let me go to you. one issue that mike didn't touch on that the president is struggling with, according to the new polling, is immigration. that's an issue that has played out in a significant way where you are in arizona. how arizona goes is going to be a critical test, really, for whether the trends that put biden in the white house are going to continue, are going to hold. what are you learning from the voters you are talking to here

100 days after the beginning of the administration? >> you are right, because this agenda has a big impact looking forwards 2022. not only is the governorship and other statewide officers and others up, but mark kelly will run in 2022. republicans see democratic -- an opportunity here in arizona to take the seat back. i want to introduce you to a sun city, arizona, voter who i just first met last summer here. he had only voted for a republican for president his entire life. he told me he was going to vote for joe biden for president in november. that's why i wanted to catch back up with him yesterday to see where he views this more liberal policy agenda going. then i wanted to talk to and met up with a longtime latino organizer here who first got involved at the age of 19 in 2012. i wanted to hear from her, somebody who is knocking on

doors across the valley here in the middle of summer, what she thinks so far of the first 100 days. listen to parts of our conversations. are you contend several months into this with this administration? >> yes, i am. i feel that the stimulus check represented a lot of working families. the child credit is going to help families with young children. some of the -- extended unemployment benefits as well. >> i think he is doing a great job. we have got somebody serious, somebody who has moral character and ethics trying to solve some of the major problems we are facing in this country. >> to your question when we talk about immigration, it was interesting because he told me he feels like he has evolved over the last ten years. this frustration with democrats on immigration has been something this arizona that percolated in 2010, 2012, but he

is willing to give biden room on that front here. >> very interesting conversations, vaughn. meanwhile, as we are focusing on the democrats running washington, republicans are essentially in exile. they have lost the house, the senate and the white house. they are gathered in florida for their retreat. house republicans are. they are dancing around this divide between people who see trump having a significant role in the future of the party and those who think that he lost any right to that, especially after the january 6th insurrection. what have we heard so far coming out of the retreat down there? >> one of the big areas of focus in the retreat, at least areas of attention, is liz cheney. she's the face of the republican parties at least the faction arguing that it should move away from the trump wing, it should focus on substance and ideas. the big thing that republican leaders want to do here is take

the focus off of them and put the focus on president biden. most of the strategists in the party that i have spoken to believe that they have a good, viable path to taking back the majorities in congress just through the fundamentals. they worry they could mess it up if they start to fight amongst each other and liz cheney is in a difficult position, because on one hand she has a good argument to make that president trump's approval rating is low, it's in the 30s. he is not someone that the party should be organizing around, at least in terms of loyalty. the intensity and passion among republican supporters for president trump remains strong. our poll, 77% of republicans have a positive view of the former president. 9% have a negative view. that creates a difficult situation for cheney and other republican leaders who don't want to have this war. who want to avoid and and want to strip away the oxygen from this battle that president trump has with figures like cheney who

voted to impeach him. she remains adamant she made the right decision. she's not rolling over to support the president on this. that's what they are trying to do, come up with a message that focuses on president biden rather than republicans. >> forgive me, we are waiting on the press conference with the attorney general. i have to cut you off, i apologize. what is the sense of how organized president trump's involvement in the midterm elections is going to be? is he able to focus his attention enough that it's worth being afraid of him? has he proven ineffective so far? >> he was pretty quiet for the first couple of months after losing the election. he has dialed things back up again. he is endorsing actively republican primary challengers against senators like lisa murkowski, against anthony gonzalez, both voted in favor of his impeachment.

he has dialed things up again. the polling that is public and the polling that republicans see themselves show that he retains a deep sense of affection and loyalty among republican voters. this remains a problem in their primaries. what the party wants to do is avoid a situation where it nominates candidates who may be loyal to president trump but are unelectable. they also don't want to create a situation where they have establishment candidates who president trump does not support and potentially says, you don't need to show up to support this person, and ultimately end up with a de-motivated base. part of the purpose of this retreat in florida is to come up with a message which they can all unify around. >> it's a challenge. mike, quickly, how does the white house look at this? historically, a white house would lose seats, potentially lose control of the house in the midterm election. they are looking at a more challenging governing situation.

do they think that they can buck history and hold on to the house because of the divisions within the republican party? >> absolutely. if there's anybody who thinks he can crack that code, it's president biden. he was the patron saint of the embattled congressional democrat in the 2010 and 2014 midterms. he got called on to go into tough districts. they weren't success on a lot of them. this white house learned a lot of lessons in the 2018 midterm elections that they applied to the 2020 campaign. i think you have seen by their agenda and some of the issues that they are intending to focus on through next year, especially health care, that they think will be a motivating factor for democrats to get them out in the 2022 midterm elections. >> mike, vaughn, sahil, thank you very much for your reporting. we appreciate it. we are expecting an announcement from the attorney again at any moment. we will bring that to you when

it happens. up next what we know about president biden's upcoming announcement on outdoor mask wearing. daily vaccination rates across the u.s. are declining. facing leaks takes strength. so here's to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable long-lasting protection. because your strength is supported by ours. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. these are real people, not actors,

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we see their commitment firsthand every day, and we recognize the complex issues that make their already difficult jobs even harder. the justice department is also charged with ensuring that the constitutional and federal statutory rights of all people are protected. as i explained last week, congress has authorized the department to conduct pattern or practice investigations to help it fulfill that responsibility. those investigations and the recommendations and actions that ensue do not only protect individual civil rights, they also assist police departments in developing measures to increase transparency and accountability. those qualifies are necessary to building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. and community trust is essential

to making policing more effective and less dangerous for officers on the street. today, the justice department is opening a civil investigation into the louisville jefferson county metro government and the louisville metro police department to determine whether lmpd engages in a pattern or practice of violations of the constitution or federal law. today's announcement is based on an extensive review of publically available information about lmpd conducted by the justice department's civil rights division. the investigation will assess whether lmpd engages in a pattern or practice of using unreasonable force, including with respect to people involved in peaceful expressive activities. it will determine whether lmpd engages in unconstitutional

stops, searches and seizures as well as whether the department unlawfully executes search warrants on private homes. it will also assess whether lmpd engages in discriminatory conduct on the basis of race or fails to provide public services that comply with the americans with disabilities act. investigation will include a comprehensive review of the louisville police department's policies and training. it will assess the effectiveness of lmpd's supervision of officers and systems of accountability. as in every justice department investigation, we will follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. if there is reasonable cause to believe there's a pattern or practice of constitutional or statutory violations, we will issue a public report of our conclusions. if violations are found, the

justice department will aim to work with the police department to arrive at a set of mutually agreeable steps that they can take to correct and prevent unlawful patterns or practices. if an agreement cannot be reached, the justice department has the authority to bring a civil lawsuit seeking injunctive relief much it will be led by our civil rights division and conducted by career staff of the division and western district of kentucky. they will work with the community, with public officials and with law enforcement officers. all of these steps will be taken with one goal in mind, to ensure that policing policies and practices are constitutional and lawful. that is the same goal as that of our investigation in minneapolis

and of every pattern or practice investigation that the department undertakes. whether we aannounced the investigation of minneapolis last week, we received cooperation. we briefed louisville on our investigation louisville. they, too, have pledged their support and cooperation. louisville has taken some steps of reform through its settlement with the family of breonna taylor as well as other measures. we comment those and our investigation will take them into account. it's clear that the public officials in minneapolis and louisville, including those in law enforcement, recognize the importance and urgency of our

efforts. we come to them as partners knowing that we share a common aim. there are approximately 18,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in our country. in each one, dedicated officers put themselves in harm's way to protect others. promoting public trust between communities and law enforcement is essential to making both communities and policing safer. our enforcement efforts as well as our grant making and other support will contribute to achieving that end and to protecting the civil rights of everyone in our country. thank you. >> that was the attorney general. let's bring in justice correspondent pete williams to help us understand a little bit

more about what is going on here. pete, he, of course, announcing a pattern and practices investigation into the louisville police department just a short time after they did made a similar move in the minneapolis police department. what were your takeaways here? what are we going to see happen next? >> takeaways are this is what happens when there's a change in administration and a different philosophy of these investigations. the trump administration under jeff sessions and william barr both thought they did more harm than good and were disruptive to the police. clearly, under this president, they have gone back to the practice used by members of both parties in the past, that these do more good than harm and are good not only for the police department but also for the community. a different set of things they will look at than in minneapolis. there are overlaps. they will look at whether there's unreasonable force. that's the same as in minneapolis. including in protests. same thing there.

but then this is a little different. looking at whether louisville police engage in a discriminatory practice of pulling people over, driving while black in essence, unreasonable -- unconstitutional stops, searches and seizures and search warrants on private homes. it was during the application of a such warrant that that botched operation ended up in her death and was one of the leading components of the black lives matter protest. also on the question of unlawful discrimination based on race and handicapped people, he specifically mentioned the americans with disabilities action, whether the police department is conforming with that. then as in minneapolis, look at the policies of the police, how are they trained and whether they are held accountable. in both these cases, they have now announced the launching of this pattern or practice, which is, is there a pattern or practice of discrimination?

they have been looking at these before. there's an initial look see before they formally announce the opening of the investigation. >> pete williams, thank you very much, as always, for jumping on this for us. we appreciate your reporting. just ahead, the current state of the pandemic in the u.s. as vaccine hesitancy grows among skeptics. hewy you can shop america's #1 pet pharmacy anytime, anywhere. it's so simple you can order on a walk, at the beach, even over breakfast. and with fast, free delivery there's more time for the good stuff. shop america's #1 pet pharmacy. visit chewy.com today. i had saved up some money and then found the home of my dreams. but my home of my dreams needed some work sofi was the first lender that even offered a personal loan. i didn't even know that was an option. the personal loan let us renovate our single family house into a multi-unit home.

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welcome back. daily vaccinations in the u.s. are declining, down nearly 14% from a week ago. roughly 2.7 million vaccines are being administered every day. that's down from a record high of nearly 3.4 million. this as a new nbc poll shows that nearly one in five americans plan to wait to take the coronavirus vaccine or only take it if it's required. another 12% say they don't plan to take the vaccine at all. overall, there are 13 states seeing increases in their daily

cases over the last two weeks. health officials worry a slower pace of vaccination will drag out of pandemic even longer. joining me now, top health officials from two states living two very different vaccine realities. main and louisiana. dr. shaw, let me start with you. what are you seeing in your state? how is vaccine hesitancy playing out in maine or not? >> we have been pleased to see and see robust demand for vaccines across the state. although there are some signs that in certain parts of the state it's slowing a bit. overall, for the past year, state health departments have been talking with folks not just about covid but more recently about vaccines. that's because we know in public health, vaccination moves at the speed of trust.

now we are uncovering another dimension. not so much a lack of trust, but a lack of convenience. one of the things that we are focused on in maine is making sure that vaccination can move at the speed of convenience. that is to say, making it easy to get vaccinated by offering walk-up hours, unscheduled times, evening hours, going door to door to make vaccination the easy option. >> dr. cantor, the situation is different in louisiana. maine has -- of course, they are facing this new round of challenges. they have a pretty significantly higher vaccination rate. what's the struggle that you are facing in your state? >> you are right. i agree with dr. shaw. it's trust and it's convenience. we have entered into a new phase. a lot of states have as well. people that were really excited, motivated to get vaccinated have likely already done so.

now there's a segment that you had mentioned earlier that are waiting. the majority of those folks are not refusers. they are just on the fence. they have questions. they want to wait and see, talk to people. that's the opportunity. that's the challenge is people. that's the challenge and opportunity right now to reach those people, empower them, have the type of conversations they need to feel comfortable. we have to engage them where they are, as dr. jha alluded to. we also have to hire entrusted people in the community. i need to be working with my partners to make sure the people that have questions, honest, understandable questions, have the opportunity to have those conversations. >> so, dr. jha, why, in your view, is it that you're seeing a spike of covid cases in maine as these shots are going into arms? are people just letting their guard down? >> that is one possibility.

we have seen an increase in cases over the last two weeks. thankfully, just over the last three or four days that has started to take a turn toward declining, which is a good finding. what we've seen in maine is a few things, and the confluence of those factors likely explains some of the increase, one of which is the likely spread of variants. we've been trying to sequence as many of the positive samples as we can in the state, and he found not just the variant that was detected in the u.k., but also one in south africa and brazil, all three of which we've seen circulating. thankfully the vaccine is effective against those. now we're moving into the segment of the population where much of the transmission is happening as well, that is to say, younger folks. as we continue to vaccinate younger groups of people, we're hoping and anticipating that our case numbers will come down as well. >> so, dr. cantor, are you

seeing something similar in louisiana? i was also wondering if you could address the johnson & johnson vaccine now that they've lifted the pause on that? do you feel comfortable trying to use that to go into these communities that we're talking about, young people, others who may be more heshesitant? >> yeah, we do, very much so, and i'll tell you why. this pause was unfortunate. it set us back on timeline a little bit, but at the end of the day, it added to our confidence in the process. if anyone had any questions on how serious the federal agents take safety and trantransparenc the answer is right here. it only took six cases to pull the trigger on this. this is a profound message to the american people that their interest and transparency and safety is serious. there were some polling recently by the beaumont foundation that we found to be very encouraging. this was after the j&j pause

came out. and over three-quarters of people who had not yet been vaccinated, this did not decrease their likelihood to do so, and over 85% of people who already were vaccinated said they would still make the same decision given this information. to me it adds to the confidence in the process that's going to make them stronger going forward, and we're excited to get j&j back in operation. >> all right. dr. joseph cantor, dr. jha, thank you for your insights this morning. we really appreciate it. don't go anywhere. we'll be right back. it. don't go anywhere. we'll be right back. yes. formulated to help you body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness, well done. - [announcer] welcome to intelligent indoor grilling with the ninja foodi smart xl grill. just pick your protein, select your doneness, and let the grill monitor your food. it also turns into an air fryer. bring outdoor grilling flavors indoors with the grill that grills for you.

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and that's going to do it for us this hour. chuck will be mack tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." you can always catch me on weekdays on "way too early," 5:00 a.m. et. don't go anywhere, my friend katy tur will take over. ty tur . municipal bonds don't usually get the media coverage the stock market does. in fact, most people don't find them all that exciting.

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good afternoon. i'm katy tur. there is breaking news as we come onto the air. just minutes ago merrick garland announced the department of justice is announcing a sweeping investigation into the louisville, kentucky police department. this is separate and in addition to a federal investigation that is already ongoing into the shooting death of breonna taylor. three louisville police officers

fired their guns