good afternoon. i'm katy tur. we are waiting for president biden to speak at any moment from the white house on the path forward as we emerge from the pandemic. and new help for restaurants. and when i say any moment, i do

mean any moment. we will interrupt when we see the president and bring it to you live. we're also following two explosive fights blowing wide open today, both with a battle over donald trump's big lie at their core. one, the internal republican civil war. on the surface it is about the growing effort to oust liz cheney from her leadership position, but it is also about so much more. the dean of the washington press corps, dan balz, writes, it is a sign of political cowardice. while shocking, it is not surprising for a party that has lost its way. the majority of republican lawmakers appear to have stopped believing in truth or lack the courage to speak the truth. cheney is not among them. more on that in just a moment. the other big fight over donald trump's big lie is today's decision by facebook's oversight board to uphold for now facebook's decision to ban donald trump from its platform.

>> the board has found that the suspension of former president trump was necessary to keep people safe, that the actions of the former president encouraged and legitimized violence. the board has also said an indefinite suspension is contrary to what should be clear and consistent and transparent rules, and that having an arbitrary penalty like that actually protects freedom of speech around the world. >> you will recall facebook banned donald trump after the january siege of the capitol, and donald trump's continued posts during the insurrection that the election was stolen, potentially inflaming the violence even further. the irony here is that facebook executives created this independent board to insulate themselves, allowing them to punt these kinds of hot button decisions to outside experts. but in upholding donald trump's ban today, the board punted the

final decision back to facebook. joining me now is "washington post" white house bureau chief ashley parker, william byers and roger zakmazee. my apologies if i have to interrupt you to see the president. dillon, to get this conversation started, can you walk us through what this oversight board decided, because it's not exactly clear. >> yeah, that's right. there are two parts to it, which is, one, they upheld the initial decision to place the suspension on trump in light of the fact that they deemed he was encouraging people who were engaged in violence. that was an acceptable decision. what was not acceptable in the eyes of the board was to place an indefinite suspension on him without really setting out clear rules or standards by which you

would apply this to other political leaders or just to other users across the board. and so the real issue here is exactly what you said, katy, which is that facebook created this board in part because, as mark zuckerberg said, it should not be making these tough decisions about content, about controversial issues on its own, and what the board has done is they have come straight back to facebook and said, i'm sorry, you cannot shirk responsibility on this. you have to at least make a decision, give us some clear rules so we actually have something to decide on. >> do we have any idea if there's been any reaction from inside facebook to this? >> yeah. facebook came out with a public statement and effectively said, look, we're happy with the fact that the board considered this issue, we will review their ruling and then make next steps. the board has given them six months to review this, so this kicks the can down the road quite a ways.

and then privately, i think there is probably a little bit of consternation inside facebook that they were not able to uphold this decision and the ball is back in their court. >> roger, you know facebook, you know mark zuckerberg. what is your take on all of this. >> so, katy, i think this has been a successful slight of hand trick by facebook to distract journalists but also politicians with facebook. we have an antitrust case on price fixing which could potentially involve prison terms for executives. it's a really important case that the federal government needs to consider. there are also all the issues relating to facebook's rule in causing the insurrection to happen, allowing it to be organized. it's really amplifying disinformation around covid. all of these are information we

should be talking about, but instead they're created this theater to take our eyes off of that and keep it on something else. as dylan said, the whole thing is perfect from facebook's point of view because they don't have to worry about it for another six months. we can keep talking about trump and not talk about the real issues. >> well, let's talk about the real issues, because as you said, there are all sorts of things that get amplified on facebook and shared around by millions of people, both here and around the world, billions of people, frankly. what is facebook? is facebook an open marketplace where anybody can post whatever they want? is it a street corner where anybody with a megaphone can scream whatever it wants? is it the decider of who gets free speech and who does not? at the core of this, what is facebook? if it's a utility and everybody in the world should have access to it, or is it a private

company? >> facebook is an entire communication system that replaces the government and politics in our national discourse. so it's crowded out deliberation, which is part of why we have a world right now where a third of the country lives in an alternative universe with facts that, you know, are not based on reality. and facebook is also, if you will, judge and jury on everything that happens on its platform, and it decides effectively how democracy goes forward with a business model that actually encourages the worst forces in our society. so i really think when we're looking at this, we need to have new laws for all of tech that requires safety, that people be required to anticipate and prevent harm and legally be held accountable if they don't do so. we need to have rules relative to privacy because our lives are being manipulated by these

companies. >> katy, if i may -- >> facebook is not just -- dylan, hold on one sec. facebook is not just operating here in the united states where laws might pen them in a bit. is this something that needs to be decided on a bigger scale than just by the united states congress? >> well, the one thing i would say, katy, is if we would like to have a democracy and we would like to beat the covid pandemic, we're going to have to do something about the business model of companies like facebook. because right now the biggest barrier to restoring democracy is internet platforms that allow a third of the population to live in an alternative universe, and the biggest barrier to beating covid is disinformation about the pandemic, and facebook plays a unique role in both of those. >> ashley, hang tight a second. dylan, what were you going to say? >> i was just going to say, and i say this with all due respect to roger, one, i think we're

sort of painting a lot of abstract statements about facebook's role in the world and making them out to be a bogeyman. the communication availability that we have is going to exist in a world where the internet is present. the reason facebook is put in a position where it's either mark zuckerberg making these decisions or a board that he's trying to turn those decisions to is an outsource of congress to live in the 20th century and figure out what it wants to do in order to establish clear rules and regulations that would make some of the problems roger outlines easier to solve. i think the least we can say about what happened today is that at least there was an effort that was made to try and bring in outside experts who could make decisions on something like this, and then that they had the wherewithall to actually go back and put the ball back in facebook's court.

i don't necessarily think that's a slight of hand. i don't think they are particularly happy about the fact that the onus is back on them to make this decision about trump's future, and as much as it's going to keep trump in the conversation, it's also going to keep facebook's responsibility and its platform in the conversation and the fact it has to take responsibility for that consent in the conversation. >> for the next six months, it's also keeping donald trump out of conversation, and ashley parker, i wonder, what does this mean for him and for the world surrounding him, all of the allies and the apparatus that surrounds donald trump if they do want to pursue a 2024 white house bid? and if it's not a 2024 white house bid, his attempts to influence 2022? >> it's fascinating, because even though former president trump is off all of these platforms, if you just look at the past couple of days, he has

very much found a way without the social media platforms to come roaring back, and you need just look at what you're also going to discuss on your show, with what's happening to liz cheney and the house republican leadership. donald trump, after she retained her leadership post, started weighing in very vocally very much against her, and it's now this looming shadow that influences this entire discussion that house republicans are dealing with right now. he's weighed in on a couple other primaries, he's finding a way to get his statements out. that said, the other thing that's fascinating is yesterday with much fanfare and much machian, donald trump revealed a website, what frankly looks like a blog from the early 2000s, kind of a dial-up modem blog. if you look on the side, there is a link to facebook and twitter, two platforms that the former president currently is

not allowed to use for his supporters to take his content and push it out there. so on the one hand, it's a somewhat savvy work-around, but it is also an acknowledgment that these platforms do matter for the president and that he would prefer to be on them than off them. >> well, this is a conversation that we can continue on social media if we so choose. we don't have any more time right now. ashley parker, always good to see you. dylan byers, roger mcnamee, we appreciate it. >> good luck with your baby. >> thank you, roger. i do appreciate that as always. another high-ranking republican is turning his back on congresswoman liz cheney. in a statement first reported on "punch bowl" news, he endorsed elise stefanik to take over the leadership role, saying she is the best fit in the leadership

majority. the congresswoman who does not support donald trump's statements cannot fight the gop. a statement from lays cheney through a spokesperson, liz will have more to say in the coming days. this is about more than a house leadership fight. joining us, nbc political analyst michael steele and jake. good to see you, jake, outside that little office for the past year. >> i feel free, katy. it feels great. >> give us the lay of the land for what's going on. >> reporter: liz cheney, basically the entire republican leadership has turned against liz cheney.

kevin mccarthy is trying to get her out of leadership and replace her with elise stefanik. this is her fourth term. it's difficult to detail how remarkable and stunning this is for a leadership team to completely collapse on one member of congress, and ms. cheney says this is more -- her spokesman said this is more than a leadership race. what she's trying to say is that she's going to continue to call out donald trump for lying about the election and the january 6 insurrection here in the capitol. the reality is, and the reality that a lot of people are communicating to cheney, and frankly, to other republicans in the leadership is they don't want to be talking about that. even people who voted for impeachment, many people i've spoken to said, we get it, she's made her point, but now we have to move on and talk about the other side. and cheney's point is, no, trump is dangerous and we need to be consistently and constantly reminding people of the danger that donald trump poses and the

fact that he can't be near the decision-making process again. that's cheney saying that, not me. it seems inevitable, katy, that next week when the house returns into session, virginia fox, a republican from north carolina, plans to introduce a motion to get rid of cheney. from all of my reporting, and i've been dealing with this the last 48 hours, it does not appear there is any chance cheney can hold on, and it seems almost certain that stefanik will ascend to the leadership in her place. >> michael, why don't i hear more from other republicans who agree that donald trump is promoting a lie? i know there are other republicans in congress who voted for mitt romney, and what about the others who know the election was not stolen, and that the house seems to be embracing it to serve their own

political purposes and not democracy? >> well, because democracy doesn't matter. trump matters more than democracy. trump matters more than the party. they don't want to be cheneyed the bay liz has been cheneyed, and they don't want to be romneyed the way mitt was romneyed over the weekend by boos at his own state party function. they don't want that pressure. they would rather see the democracy collapse under the weight of donald trump than to stand and hold that democracy up. and to make the point that liz cheney is correctly making, that donald trump is a danger to this country. not just the party. we're past the danger to the party. he is a danger to this country. and that is something that a lot of people agreed with last november. and so they want to persist in this narrative. so you're not going to see these brave souls come out and stand

with liz cheney. you know, congresswoman stefanik sees her opportunity. she's wormed her way into position by, you know, the payoff for chumming up to trump and will be the number 3 spot in the house. god bless her. good luck with that. >> jacob, do republicans want to see donald trump back in social media? they spent years pretending they didn't want to see a tweet from him. do they want to see him reinstated? >> it's a complicated question. i think many of them do. a key part of the public platform is social media's big tech, as they call them, has too much power. and i think they are not upset that they don't have to answer for the president anymore because all he does is send out these missives on e-mail and

he's going to have almost a tumblr page where he'll issue his feelings in the future. if you cast a quiet or secret ballot, put people on truth serum, inc. what you would hear republicans say is they would like trump to help win back the majority, and they would like to see him raise money for house and senate republicans and kind of live in his own world. i don't think that's anywhere tethered to reality, though. >> michael, just to you really quickly. when you say truth serum, i know a lot of people feel like politics, you speak one way, you believe another way. and that goes for everybody. this is on a whole different scale what's going on with the republicans and what they're choosing to perpetuate here. >> absolutely. this idea that they just think they're going to be able to manage trump. ask john boehner and paul ryan how that worked out for them. this is not a guy you manage.

this is a guy you extricate from your location. you put him offsite. you don't want him in your orbit. it's like the planet that shoots through the galaxy and bumps into other planets and disrupts things. these folks are thinking that all we need donald trump to do is raise us money, not primary us, and give us a clean bill of health with his voters, and we're good to go. there are consequences, dire consequences, real consequences that come with that, and you're seeing this play being played out as they're trying to eject from leadership one of the prominent, conservative leaders in the republican party for donald trump's sycophant. that's the party. >> it's like a cue ball that does not respect the laws of physics. >> exactly. >> michael steele, thank you

very much, jake sherman, appreciate it. coming up, derek chauvin wants a new trial. why his attorney claims the jury was both intimidated into a guilty verdict and committed misconduct. later, a former aide to ukraine's president said he was stunned after listening in on a call from rudy giuliani back in 2019. >> i was shocked. i was scared and i was bewildered because i expected that call to be a casual, nice to meet you phone call. >> more on that exclusive interview when he says what giuliani was pushing for in the 2020 election. biden wants 70% of americans vaccinated by july. what are they doing to hurry up this slowing pace of folks getting shots? health and human services

secretary xavier becerra joins me next. me next. more confident and carefree.

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after exceeding his doubled goal of 200 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days, president biden is now aiming to get 70% of all u.s. adults vaccinated by july 4th, less than two months from today. it is part of his plan to return to some semblance of normal by the nation's birthday. but it does remain an ambitious goal.

vaccination rates are slowing and health experts are struggling to reach those not sold on the vaccine. joining me now is health and human services secretary xavier becerra. mr. secretary, thank you for joining us. i do want to start with breaking news about the cdc. a federal judge has struck down the eviction moratorium that was upheld by the cdc. you're a former member of congress, you're part of the biden administration. is the biden administration going to try to correct this in some way? >> i believe the president will want to try to correct this or certainly continue to fight to make sure we don't see americans dispossessed and out on the street, not at this time. we're making too much success on covid, katy, to go backwards, so i know this administration will be looking for ways to try to make sure we keep people in their homes. >> so far the benchmarks when the president has put them out there, 100 million doses in 100

days and 200 million doses, he's easily been able to exceed those benchmarks. now he's saying 70% of the population by july 4th. what are you guys doing to make sure that happens? how are you reaching those who aren't so sure about the vaccine? >> yeah, and katy, i love hearing that it was easily reached, the goals were easily reached, because there was a lot of work put into it, but the president made it look easy and that's because he's really working hard on this. i will tell you we're going to reach people where they are. we're not going to wait for them to come to us, so it shouldn't surprise you that today nine in ten americans live within five miles where they can get that vaccination. the president has called on us to try to make vaccinations available without an appointment, so walk-in centers where you can go in and not have to worry about having an appointment. we're going to go ready to go if we get approval to start putting shots in arms in minors so that our children can also get vaccinated. if it's found by the federal government working together with

our cdc and fda that we can move forward there, we're going to turn to trusted advisors in the community, especially communities that haven't participated as much in the vaccination process to make sure we reach them, and there is going to be a special effort made to reach americans in rural communities and low-income communities. so we're not stopping, the president wants to make that goal by july 4th, 70% of americans with at least one shot. it's an ambitious goal, but you know the president. >> listen, if you follow the news, you watch any cable news or network news, you probably are pretty aware of whether you can get the vaccine, where you can get the vaccine right now, how easy it is. if you follow news needs on your phone, you're also pretty aware. i was just having a conversation with a 19-year-old who is not as plugged into this world as others are, and she didn't know she could just walk in and get a vaccine without an appointment. what are you doing to

microtarget those smaller communities of people who just aren't as exposed to everyday news, through cable news or network or local or whatever, as some others are? >> well, we want to turn to those trusted leaders, and hopefully, katy, you convinced this 19-year-old she has to get vaccinated. we want to turn to the faith leader or perhaps it's the teacher, the doctor, maybe it's the wrestling coach in your community who has just got a great reputation or the neighborhood watch coordinator in your neighborhood. whoever you trust, we're going to try to find them because, as i said, what's probably the most important thing, katy, is that we're not going to wait for you to come to where we are, we're going to try find you and go to you, and so we're going to use community health centers, we're going to do vaccinations in places that haven't always been thought about so we can go to where you are, and i just

visited a federal certified community health center here in the washington, d.c. area and they've done over 5,000 vaccinations. we can do this, we've just got to make sure it's clear, we're going to find you, help us. >> i asked you at the top of this interview about the cdc eviction and the judge's ruling. well, we have some breaking news. the u.s. department of justice has filed a notice of appeal to the d.c. circuit of this morning's ruling vacating the cdc's eviction moratorium. they're also seeking a stay, so the doj is already moving. i want to get on to the american families act paid parental leave, paid family leave. there are a lot of republicans who say -- and this is broader than even that -- the whole plan who say they're not willing to get involved given the tax structure. how willing is this administration to compromise on the tax structure to get this thing passed? >> katy, i think the most

important thing to the president is getting something done that helps the american people. by the way, early happy mother's day to you, especially given that you're going to be a mom again pretty soon, but i think for a lot of us, we understand how important it is, for example, to have paid family or medical leave. i learned what i think is an astounding fact, if it's true, that the country of estonia does a far better job of providing paid family or medical leave to its workers than we do. and so we have to aspire to reach estonia when it comes to paid family and medical leave. all those things are critical. i think the president has said he's willing to discuss the path that we get there, he just wants to make sure we reach the destination, and one of those things in the american family plan is providing paid family and medical leave to american workers. >> it's not just estonia, it's

virtually every other country in the entire world that does a better job than the united states. hhs secretary xavier becerra, thank you so much for joining us, sir. i wish we had a little more time but we are still waiting for the president to come out and speak. thank you, though. >> thank you. still ahead, disingenuous. that is how a federal judge described bill barr's handling of the mueller investigation as she orders the release of a secret doj memo. also andrea mitchell speaks exclusively to a former aide of ukraine's president who said he overheard rudy giuliani's phone calls. andrea mitchell joins me from ukraine in just a moment. t a mot if you wanna be a winner then get a turkey footlong from subway®. that's oven roasted turkey. piled high with crisp veggies. on freshly baked bread! so, let's get out there and get those footlongs.

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a top ukranian official is speaking exclusively with nbc's andrea mitchell following the raids on giuliani's home and office. it's part of a mission to find out if he violated laws and was part of a smear campaign for donald trump. he told andrea he had a front row seat with interactions between the ukranian leader and giuliani. >> reporter: has anyone approached you, have you talked with anyone in the u.s. about it? >> they haven't, and my theory on that goes as follows. basically they're focusing at the moment on the events that happened in february, march and april of 2019, so pretty much a month before president zalensky was nominated.

but rudy giuliani had three distinct episodes that i have a strong suspicion will be looked at. i expect to be contacted in due course. >> joining us from ukraine is host of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea, great to see you. what else did you learn? >> you, too. igor was asked to sit in and list ton a speakerphone with president zalensky's chief of staff. they thought it would be a social call, a casual call, and instead it was this pressure campaign. i asked him, what did he think that rudy giuliani really wanted, and he said he was shocked. let's watch. >> reporter: so what did you hear rudy giuliani saying to president zalensky's top advisor? >> he wanted two things. basically it was all about a smear campaign on them with candidate biden. basically the first request was multiple investigations, so he

wanted the situation with the ex-prosecutor daniel shokin investigated, and he was especially interested in getting ukraine to make a public statement and possibly back up this crazy allegation that it was ukraine, not russia, that meddled in 2016. which was obviously ridiculous, but that's what he wanted. >> for right now secretary of state antony blinken is on his way to these meetings and he's coming as a show of support to zalensky. the people of ukraine want more. they want joe biden to have a virtual meeting with zalensky as a show of support, a really tangible show of support for his presidency which is being undermined by putin, of course, with the navy and the black sea, with the troops that have

amassed at the border with equipment they've left behind. there is also concern that the g-7 and blinken have, that ukraine could lapse back in the kind of corruption that empowers putin. katy? >> it would be a really big deal. andrea mitchell. andrea, thank you very much. always good to see you. a judge is rebuking bill barr over his handling of the mueller investigation. in a decision reached this week, judge amy berman jackson accused barr of being disingenuous, her word, about his decision not to pursue obstruction charges against then-president donald trump. she ordered the doj to release a memo that barr had defended that position, which he said contained advice from top doj officials. the judge accused barr of both misleading her and congress, saying it contained a legal strategy and not advice, and that the decision to charge trump had already been made.

joining me now, pete williams. pete, are we going to see this memo? >> yes, we might. the justice department has decided to resist this order from the judge and fight it in court, but remember, this was the trump administration's decision to hold this memo. now it's the biden administration that has to decide whether to fight the judge's order. they will be looking at are there institutional reasons they want to keep this away so they don't set any type of legal precedent. this is a freedom of information lawsuit called by a group called crew, a watchdog association for the president, that he made this decision after consulting with justice department lawyers and the office of legal counsel. so for that reason the government said, no, we're not going to release this loc memo because it comes under the exceptions for predecisional advisory memos. the judge said basically, i've

seen this memo. it doesn't do that. a part of it is sort of strategic advice on how to announce the decision, but she says the decision was already made at the time the office of legal counsel wrote the memo. so she says, sorry, you can't conceal it as predecisional. so that's what the government has to decide whether they're going to resist or not. >> really interesting. any reaction from bill barr on being called disingenuous? >> no, but this isn't the first time a federal judge has done that, and he didn't respond the last time, either, so, you know, the issue here, by the way, where the judge says he's disingenuous is she says when he said, because mueller didn't make a recommendation about whether to indict the president, that decision falls to me, she says that's not true. i must say, i'm not sure exactly why she says that. her decision is not at all clear

on that. perhaps if we see the memo, then we'll understand why she says that. >> all right. pete williams. pete, thank you very much. still ahead, the first family separated under donald trump's zero tolerance policy are reunited. >> it's just a really cruel experience that i just hope no one has to go through. we also have news on the derek chauvin trial and what they want, the defense wants, and joe biden should be with us speaking live right after a break. stay with us. a break. stay with us 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster. vmware.

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and here is joe biden. earlier today i visited a restaurant here in town -- i'm going to mispronounce it -- las helimia, which is a pilot program for a restaurant revitalization fund and an important piece of the american rescue plan. one of my goals of the american rescue plan is to make sure we get this law's benefits quickly to the american people. so before i say a bit more about what we're doing to support our nation's restaurants, let me provide an update on what is happening through the american rescue plan right now as i speak. first is providing checks in pockets and shots in arms.

more than 163 million rescue payments have already gone out. these are checks, direct payments, of up to $1,400 that for a typical family of four making about $110,000 means a $5,600 check you'll get. by the time all the money is distributed or the -- more than 85% of american households will have received a check. the restaurant industry is also trying to get back in distribution. that's why 200 mill imprison -- million shots have been put in arms. it's helping shops stay in business, it's helping families stay in child care. the rest of the plan is offering food and necessary assistance to

families facing hunger, and hunger is already sharply down in the united states. it's also providing rental assistance to keep people from being evicted from their homes. it's making health care more affordable, it's cutting child poverty in this country in half. my list goes on and the message is clear. help is here. and the bottom line is this. the american rescue plan is working. america is getting vaccinated. job creation is soaring. the economy is growing and our country is on the move again. some of the parts of our economy need special help. at the top of that list is our nation's restaurants. when covid-19 pandemic struck, our nation's restaurants were some of the first hit and the worst hit. in 2020, more than 2,300 -- excuse me -- 2.3 million

restaurant jobs disappeared. restaurant are more than a major driver of our economy, they're woven into the fabric of our communities. for many families restaurants are a gateway to the community. they're part of the ethnic background in this country who built the american dream around a family, a family-owned restaurant. for more workers, their own story of economic progress starts in a restaurant. and the restaurant i just visited, and rehelio martinez, who emigrated to this country 13 years ago started working as a meat packer. now he's lead butcher and one of its owners. for one in three americans, a restaurant provided their first job. more than half of all americans have worked in a restaurant at some point in their lives.

before the pandemic, restaurants and bars employed 12% -- 12% -- of all the workers in our country. this is an industry that provided more opportunity for minority managers than any other industry in america. this is an industry where the staff feels like family and often is family. when the pandemic hit, restaurant owners and operators were resilient, creative and generous. almost overnight, restaurants put in place safety measures to protect their employees and to protect us. they stepped up to feed our front line workers. they changed their menus. they transitioned to takeout and delivery so they could be serving people dependent on them. but even with the changes, many had to furlough or lay off workers or close entirely. the restaurant i visited today went from 55 employees to just seven before it started to

bounce back. now as we vaccinate americans, customers are coming back. our vaccination progress and our economic recovery is going hand in hand. as that happens, we want to make sure that our restaurants, bars and other dining establishments can staff back up and they can come back as well. right now only about a quarter of the restaurant owners expect to return to normal operations in the next six months. we can do much better than that with the american rescue plan. the restaurant revitalization fund -- that's what it's called -- will provide direct relief to restaurants and a hard-hit food establishment, bars, bakerys, food stands. they can be used to cover rent, food and supplies, everything they need to stay open or

reopen. we are opening the doors of this program so that restaurants all over the country can open their doors again. we start accepting applications on monday. today is wednesday. we made it quick and easy to apply. within the first two days there were 186,200 applications from all 50 states for help. that's a staggering number. 97,600 of those operations came from businesses owned by women, veterans and social and economically disadvantaged individuals. right now it looks like we'll be able to provide help to about 100,000 restaurants and eligible businesses. when we passed the american rescue plan, some people said it wasn't needed. this response proves them wrong.

it's badly needed. about a year ago when the first round of the paycheck protection program opened up, a lot of the smallest firms saw the doors shut in their face. the law was written so that as we process these applications, a new one, we focussed first on those who were left behind in the relief programs. to make sure the relief was distributed fairly, we also set aside funds for the smallest restaurants, bars, food trucks and many family-owned restaurants that haven't gotten any help to date, and they need it. that way they don't have to compete above their weight class for these grants. sorry for all the numbers, but they're important. 61,700 applications have come from the smaller bars and restaurants already. i want to thank the small business administrator renee

guzman for the work she and her team are doing to make sure we get the money quickly and fairly to the businesses that need it the most. as i've said, i spoke to dozens of restaurant owners about the challenges they face. but i also received letters from people who want to tell me about the restaurant owners in their communities. i received one letter from a man who asked me to look out for a pair of local restaurant owners who he described as, quote, the hardest-working people i've ever met, end quote. another letter was from a woman who wanted to tell me about how important the couple that ran the restaurant in her town near her was. she said they are, quote, the strong, consistent foundation of our community, end of quote. whether it's our economy or our sense of community, we are relying on restaurants to play a big role in our recovery. if we want our economy to recover in a way that deals everyone in, then our restaurants need a seat at the table, no pun intended.

that's what we're giving them. that's what this program is about, a seat at the table. this is another example of how we're putting the american rescue plan to work quickly and effectively and showing the american people that their for again and do without waste. that we can vaccinate this nation and we can get our kids safely back in school, that we can get our economy back on track, by helping hundreds of thousands of small businesses reopen and stay open. and we can give the people of this nation a fighting chance again. that's what this is all about. god bless you all, and may god protect our troops. thank you. >> president biden, at the wto, are you going to back that? >> yes. i'll talk about that later today. yes. >> president biden you said earlier you don't understand republicans. what does it say about them if

they oust their leader shup for telling the truth about the election? >> look, um, it seems as though the republican party is trying to identify what it stands for, and they're in the midst of a significant sort of mini revolution going on in the republican party. i've been a democrat for a long time. we've gone through periods where we've had internal fights and disagreements. i don't ever remember any like this. and so as one of you said, and i'm not embarrassed by identifying them -- as one of you said on national television last night, we badly need a republican party. we need a two-party system. it's not healthy to have a one-party system. and i think the republicans are

further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than i thought they would be at this point. >> president biden, mitch mcconnell said about stopping this administration. do you think you can still work with him when he says things like that? >> look, he said that the last administration, barack, he was going to stop everything. i was able to get a lot done with him. again, look, uh, everything i'm proposing that be done to generate economic growth, employment and put us in a position where we can outcompete every other country in the world with research and development and moving ahead, i pay for.

we talk about -- i love how we talk about how this is going to cost so much money and not paying for it. the bottom line is this. my republican friends had no problem voting to pass a tax proposal that expires in 2025 that cost $2 trillion. not of it paid for. increased the deficit by $2 trillion. gave the overwhelming percentage of those tax breaks to people who didn't need it. the top one-tenth of 1%. they didn't need it. and it was argued that what it would do was generate this great economic surge and growth. it would increase productivity.

it would pay for itself. it would generate a sense of growth in america we hadn't seen ever before. well, everyone from the heritage foundation points out it hasn't done that. now i come along and the proposals that i'm suggesting are tried and true things, like when you rebuild bridges, things get better. when you rebuild highways, when you don't have to, you know -- airports, ports, it all matters. it increases productivity. and the programs that relate to people are programs that are the things that also generate economic growth. and i view them as, for example, tax cuts for middle class, upper middle class, middle class and

working class people. and so you eliminate a few of the just have the super wealthy begin to pay their fair share. for example, you have 35 or 30 corporations didn't pay a single penny last year, and they're fortune 500 companies. they made $400 billion. they paid no taxes. how can that make any sense? especially since these corporations, and i come from the corporate capital of the world. more corporations are incorporated in my state than all the rest of the country combined. if you notice, corporations aren't investing any money in research and development. somewhere, where the money going to? buying back their own stock. by some studies leaving less

than 10% for research and development, pay raises, et cetera. it used to be that not too long ago -- for example, during the bush administration, the tax rate for the very wealthy making well over millions of dollars was 39.6%. it's now 37%. raised it back to what it was before. it raises enough money from that savings to put every single person in community college who wants to go. now what's going to grow america more? what's going to help you in your security more? the super wealthy having to pay 3. -- yeah, 3.9% less tax or have an entire generation of americans having associate

degrees? that's why all the economists even in wall street are pointing out. guess what, it grows the economy. benefits everybody. hurts nobody. but now talk to ""the wall street journal," they call it a welfare program. it's about growth. the idea that it's just amazing. corporate taxes. they were 36%. our administration, last administration said we should lower it. we suggested it be lowered to 28%. well, it got lowered 20% or 21%. show me something that's benefited. what's happened? show me where the growth is. what's it being invested in?

yes? >> mr. president, on the corporate tax rate have you talked to ceos about that? >> yes. >> are you open to, say, 25%? >> i'm open to compromising, yes. it doesn't have to be exactly what i say. but to suggest that, which some of the folks are suggesting -- and i'm going to meet with republicans next week when they come back, and seriously meet with them. i'm willing to compromise. but i'm not willing to not pay for what we're talking about. i'm not willing to deficit spend. they already have us $2 trillion in the hole. and, by the way, you know, the last five leaders of the fed have come out and said -- what did they say? they said biden's plan is going to grow the economy. moody is talking about increasing up to -- i don't know what the most recent one was. 61 million new jobs. it's about growth.

not stunting growth. like i said not too long ago, i guess it was back in -- in the 2000 range. i'll have my staff come back to the exact date. the average ceo of the fortune 500 companies made like 36 times what the average employee of that corporation made. it's over 450 times as much now. and as my mother would say, who died and left them boss? no, seriously. what rationale? tell me what benefit flows from that. we're not going to deprive these executives their second or third home, travel privately by jet. it's not going to affect their standard of living at all, not a little tiny bit. but it can affect the standard of living of the people i grew up with, if they have a job.

make sure the standard of living for people like -- child care can afford it, so 20 million women can be back in the workforce. this is not -- makes no sense to me. but i'm going to have to be able to explain this. and i'm going to keep banging at it. i think i'm not being solicitous, and i'm not trying to ruin your reputation. most of you understand, whether you agree with me or not, you understand what i'm saying. it's fair to say this is about making the average multi-millionaire pay their fair share. it's not going to affect their standard of living a little bit. thank you very much. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin in new york. you were just watching president biden at the white house. although he is 1,00