ur favorite candy flavors twisted, ♪ chopped or layered into cool, creamy desserts that are made to spoon. new colliders desserts. find them near the refrigerated pudding. right now on "hallie jackson reports," the conserative crackdowns. florida's governor signing a law to revamp elections and doing it live on fox news only. texas republicans get ready to follow suit on their own bill. protesters about to go to the state capital to flood the gallery. we are live in both states with what republicans call voting reform and democrats call voter

suppression. here in washington, on capitol hill, gop leadership moving fast to boot liz cheney from their ranks. a move meant to cement the party firmly behind former president donald trump and his lies about the 2020 election. cheney's warning to her party this morning. her next steps and what other republican women are asking now. good morning. i'm hallie jackson in washington along with sam brock in florida and jane timm outside the texas state capital. sam, let me start with you. with the ink barely dry on the governor's signature in florida on the new voting law, you have at least one lawsuit and i think two that have been filed. >> reporter: multiple lawsuits, that's correct. good morning. 8:47 is when the governor here in florida signed senate bill 90, a controversial voting law. we asked when it was going to be signed and where. then this morning, we reached

out to the media line. minutes before it was signed, they could not confirm anything happening. just forget about florida's sunshine laws, which are some of the strongest in the country when it comes to public records access and media access. what about the u.s. constitution? i spoke with a constitutional law professor who is at st. thomas law school here in miami who told me this is viewpoint discrimination potentially. it would be one thing if there was no media. but to pick and choose which ones can report the information and it's not like covid is factoring in in terms of concerns over health and safety protocols. they were inside of a room and there was a media outlet there. what does this do? it focuses on mail-in boxes. i will say there's components to it. you cannot show up outside of early voting hours to drop off your mail-in ballot. there has to be a person standing over the ballot to watch you do it.

anyone who requesting a mail-if ballot will need to provide identification before they can vote. all of those are new amendments and new additions to the law. we saw this morning the governor try to get out of his bill signing without answering any questions. a reporter did ask him, why weren't we allowed in? here is that moment. >> where is our -- >> governor -- >> it was on national tv. it wasn't secret. >> why is this -- you won't tell us. we couldn't get inside. we were outside in the parking lot. >> one thing i would add, i spoke with a voting law expert who said it's like 1,000 paper cuts. it's not clear what any one of the components will actually do in terms of suppressing the vote. when you add them up together, it could make for a lot of bleeding when it comes to voter access. >> sam, tell us more about what some of the opponents of this bill, now law, are saying about

it and trying to do about it. is that what they believe is their best chance at trying to undo what florida has put in place is lawsuits? >> reporter: yes. of course, there's the question of can parts of the law be struck down while others are maintains. democracy docket is made up of voting rights activists, league of women's voters, other groups challenging in this immediately after it took affect. their argument is this affects first amendment rights, free speech. 14th amendment, equal protection under the law. what communities are impacted by not being able to potentially hail in their ballots or another component that i didn't mention, you can only bring two mail-in ballot per person. in larger households, will they get their ballots to the box in time or will they be able do it at all? those are concerns voiced right now. the proponents of the lawsuits feel they have a strong argument to be made. >> then you have what's happening in austin where you

are, jane. we know protesters have been getting together. in 25 minutes, there's this show of opposition against what they see as a restrictive voting bill in texas. tell us more about that. >> reporter: advocates and democrats are trying to make this as painful as possible for the republicans to pass this bill. they know they don't have the votes to stop the law. they want to highlight various issues about it. the bill makes it harder -- it adds criminal penalties to various parts of the election process, making it harder for election officials to talk to voters about absentee ballots and empowering partisan poll watchers and adding protections. numerous criminal penalties with felony penalties for various parts of the election process. people say this is a chilling affect. it adds rules as to how people can help other voters. i'm joined here by representative jessica gonzalez who is here to tell us more about what you hope to accomplish with these

amendments. you have 130 amendments, at least, under consideration. what do you hope to get out of this? >> we're hoping to make a compelling argument based on data, based on real data, not based on lies, which is what we continue to hear, lies. voter fraud is not a rampant thing happening in texas. we hear this over and over. this bill is -- it's framed as being election integrity when in reality it's going to disenfranchise people of color. we can't deny texas history on discrimination in legislation, trying to suppress people's vote. we were under the voting rights act, section 5 for years and years. we don't have that protection anymore. we have to make sure, we have to fight, we have to make that argument. we are hoping that through that, we are able to minimize damage that this vote would cause among texans. >> reporter: thank you. they say it can be fought by making people more aware of what's going on and educated about the process. that's what they will try to do

today. hallie? >> jane timm live in austin, texas, we will keep a close eye on what happens. sam brock, thank you. turning to washington and that other crackdown in the so-called republican civil war. both sides are getting more dug in with cheney defiant in her messaging. let me bring in nbc's leigh ann caldwell. anna palmer is with us, the founder of punch bowl news. thank you both for being here. leigh ann, liz cheney is not going quietly. she's not actively whipping to keep her leadership post. where does this go from here? >> reporter: she's not. she realizes she's going to lose this battle. she's not going to be -- she's goes to lose her seat at republican conference chair. that's the number three position among house republicans. she's determined to fight the larger war. she has no plans to go away, to

leave the republican party. she made that clear in an opinion piece in "the washington post" where she had a stinging rebuke of the direction where republicans are going right now. she writes in part that -- we must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. i'm committed to doing that no matter what the short-term political consequences might be. while she doesn't -- isn't going to win the short-term battle, she's determined to be involved in the long-term. there is an heir apparent, representative stefanik, who is going to replace her. it's notable that she fully embraced the former president. she's speaking on steve bannon's podcast as we speak, a clear indication where the republican party is going. hallie? >> as you talk about this, if

you look at some of the actual metrics, congresswoman cheney seems to do better as far as being in line with conservative policies. heritage gives her 82%. stefanik is 56%. they are calling her a liberal and fourth worst in the house gop. what does it tell you that she is running basically unopposed for the number three slot in house republican leadership right now? >> there's two things that are super important to think about. one, as you rightly point out, liz cheney's voting record is more conservative. that's not what this is about. this is about loyalty to one person and that is donald trump. house republicans believe that their pathway forward to the majority in 2022 is closely tied to being in support of donald trump and getting his base fired up and that is how they are going to return to power. the second thing that's very

interesting as somebody who covered congress for a long time, a lot of the leadership races, is the fact that elise stefanik has cleared the field. there's not a challenger. if liz cheney leaves, that she will be voted out, she's a shoo-in because donald trump is supporting her. >> here is a message that megan mccain says that sends. >> the message being sent by the highest member of republicans in congress is that women like me and liz cheney who refuse to bend the knee to president trump but remain loyal republicans, we don't have a place in this party. we are worthless. >> what happens to republican women who align with conservative policies but no with former president donald trump? what happens to liz cheney? what's the landscape in wyoming for her right now? >> i don't know this is about

women or not. i think this is about the politics and basically liz cheney is in a political party that is much more geared towards former gop establishment politics. you see a lot of others like that. adam kinzinger, mitt romney. she's not representative of the overall house republican conference. it's not just kevin mccarthy who is fed up with liz cheney. go up and down the ranks of the republican conference -- we have spoken to a lot of them. there was a frustration that she was unable to move forward. she kept bringing it back to january 6th and donald trump. that's where her energy and focus was. that's the big change here for where you see stefanik focus in terms of where her messaging goes forward. >> thank you both very much for that reporting. we will talk more about this later in the show.

see what congresswoman stefanik has to say about this. the decision to keep donald trump off facebook for now really fuelling that debate about whether the government needs to be reigning in big tech. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle upset. what do they plan to do about it it? the decision over covid vaccines and the pressure facing the biden administration that could affect who can get the shot all around the world. we are live in london next. in lt i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and get millions of flexible booking options. expedia. it matters who you travel with. hooh. that spin class was brutal. well you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oohh yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless. pick something we all like. ok. hold on. what's your buick's wi-fi password? “buickenvision2021.” oh, you should pick something stronger. that's really predictable.

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the white house this morning gearing up for a big fight with big pharma over the announcement that the u.s. now backs waiving patent protection for covid vaccine. it backs sharing vaccine breaks through -- breakthroughs here in the u.s. with the rest of the world. it's a historic decision that might have an impact beyond this pandemic and one that has global health activists and progressives praising it. the pharmaceutical industry is not thrilled about having to share their vaccine technology and formulas so other countries can make their own. for that and other news this morning on the fight against covid, i want to bring in matt bradley, who is in london, also with us dr. badelia, an infection disease doctor. matt, you are covering all things related to this protection drop, if you will. support from the white house is not a guarantee it will happen. what does have to happen next?

>> reporter: it does look like the white house will back it. it will go to the world trade organizations. the ones who have -- they make the global rules for trade. these global rules for trade have been the ones undergirding the vaccine development. a lot of the medical advances we have seen in the last generation. never has the world faced a crisis quite like this one. that's really kind of an understatement. the intellectual property right issues, they are not the sexy topics we latch on to. this is important. no underestimating how far this will go. what's next? is it the world trade organization? a body that makes its decisions among hundreds of members by consensus. that means everybody has to agree. it's going to be very difficult, just because the united states changed their opinion, there are other wealthy nations and not so wealthy nations, like brazil, who came out against this in

october when south africa and india made the proposal they wanted to waive the requirements for patents. what happens next now? it looks as though they will have to go to the wto. if the wto agrees, that means it could actually see a lot of developers, factories in the developing world start to make this vaccine. i spoke with someone who is a major advocate for this with the organization oxfam. >> right now, we are basically fighting this war against covid. one hand tied behind our back. you have access to life saving technologies that are held by very small numbers of huge pharmaceutical companies. it's not private industry alone that produced the vaccines. billions of taxpayer dollars, public funds, went into the research and development. >> reporter: you know, hallie, if this conversation sounds familiar, it's because we had it in the 1990s, when they were

talking about aids therapies. the big pharmaceutical companies, a lot of the wealthier nations made the same argument that this will damage innovation. instead, they agreed to it, temporarily. aids therapies flowed in huge numbers to the rest of the developing world. no one since has questioned that decision. hallie? >> matt bradley live in london covering that. thank you. you heard the argument for this move. from the pharmaceutical industry, you have a former ceo tweeting, who will make the vaccine next time? the co-founder of biotech said this could cause chaos in production basically. how do you see it? >> hallie, i think that -- look, what matt said is correct. the global production of these vaccines is not keeping up with the demand. and the distribution is not equitable. you see 1.1 billion vaccines produces but .3% are reaching

poor countries. beyond that, we are got 1.1 out of the 7.8 billion people on the face of the earth. we have a long way to go. then we are talking about boosters and potential evolution of the virus with the need for the vaccines being immense. there's two ways to approach it. one, support the current companies. help them find resources to produce the vaccines they are producing. the trouble is that many of the companies may set a price ticker that's higher than some countries could afford. not only that, in some places, pfizer in india and south africa, asked them to indemnify them against legal lawsuits. that's held back potential of getting those vaccines into the countries. on the other hand, you do what's been suggested. you temporarily remove the ip rights, waiver the rights. it opens up the field. what needs to happen is a negotiation. then asks the companies to share the trade secrets. then beyond that it requires

investment in manufacturing of the companies. there's not enough manufacturing capacity in many countries. regulatory oversight to make sure the quality is high. you need both. you right now, you need to have the current companies continue to make these vaccines, but you need to start looking at the fact that we have to invest in capacity. not just for this pandemic, but future threats. for example, the continent of africa, over a billion people. 99% of the vaccines are actually imported. that can't continue if they face the future threat and the end of the pandemic. >> let me get you on other news this morning related to moderna, announcing booster shots. seems to be responding against variants in south africa and brazil. i wonder what that means in the broader fight against covid, particularly as the cdc is saying, if people continue to get their vaccines, we could be

on the track to some kind of normalcy this summer. >> very good news from the pediatric side. moderna will add to the number of children they can be vaccinated between now and next fall. that will add to our ability to get to community level immunity. you see hesitancy in some adults. the other important step is the activity of the booster vaccines, potentially having them in hand. there's a study this week in the new england journal showed that against the initial variant discovered in south africa, that has protection. but there are breakthrough infections. the booster are potentially important in the future as well. >> always great to have you on. thank you for that. coming up, mitch mcconnell dodging a liz cheney land mine. in echos of 2010, lasering in on trying to stop the biden plan.

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back in texas, you have top democrats about to speak out about the voting restrictions bill set to come up today. protests are getting ready to flood the gallery to show their opposition. that is set to go down in the next couple of minutes. with moves like this unfolding all across the country, at least 361 new bills with restrictive voting provisions have been introduced this year alone. texas with 49. georgia with 25. arizona with 23. that's according to the brennan center for justice. i want to bring in victoria defrancesco soto. good morning. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure. >> you have this study from northern illinois university saying texas is at the bottom when it comes to how easy it is to vote. number 50. what would that bill that they

are looking at do in reality for the average voter in that state? >> it's going to make it even harder, like you said. we are at the bottom of the barrel there. this house bill that's up to today is really about partisan poll watching. loosening the restrictions on partisan poll watching. what does that mean? it means that it opens the door for intimidation. folks standing in line getting ready to vote, having folks either on the r or d side breathing down their neck. that's not good for democracy. you should be able to vote in a calm, non-partisan environment. that's the bulk of what we are seeing. the other thing i want to get on your radar is that there's kind of a parallel bill on the senate side. the talk is that they are probably going to be crunched together to form a frankenstein voting bill where the senate side doesn't really deal with the partisan poll watching but it brings in restrictions on

24-hour voting, on drive-through voting, things we know that make it easier to vote for those communities most vulnerable. we saw in the 2020 election, communities of color in our urban areas were the most likely to use that. you see this direct and indirect assault on voting rights, on the indirection side, that poll watching piece, the further criminalizing any mistake that happened in registration. on the direct side is just taking away the ease of voting, not being able to drop off your ballot at as many locations, not being able to drive through. >> what about the impact or the power of corporate voices, big businesses? now in texas, you have companied, several of them, like american airlines, you have microsoft, i think levi's coming out saying we oppose this. what pushback do you think the impact of that is in this instance? is it too little too late?

>> what we did see was here in texas, businesses learned their lesson from georgia. in georgia, we saw the business interests come out late, come out after the bill was passed. here we have seen the pressure being put on in the weeks leading up to this vote. the question is, how many moderate republicans are left that can be swayed by that business lobby, by that chamber lobby? the hope is that they are there. we saw a study two weeks ago that demonstrates the loss in revenue when you have companies and organizations boycott the state because of its voting laws. that's really -- that's the cliffhanger. what are those moderate republicans going to do when they know that dollars are at stake by passing something that's so restrictive? it hurts everyone in terms of dall dollars and cents.

>> thank you for being on with us. back now, the future of facebook and other social media companies with that decision by the oversight board 24 hours ago to uphold former president trump's suspension from facebook for now. fuelling the debate here in washington and really around the country about whether the government, whether lawmakers should step in and reign in big tech's big power. >> facebook fury with new reaction after the social media company's oversight board upheld donald trump's suspension from the site. >> they do whatever they want. they don't ask permission. they don't follow their own terms. they don't actually have any rules that they follow. they sensor conservatives. >> they have gotten too big. it's time they be broken up. >> donald trump got a huge boost from facebook which basically canceled him, making him a martyr. >> former president trump warning the social media companies that have banned him, facebook, twitter, google, must

pay a political price. mr. trump was initially suspended in the aftermath of the january 6th riots. >> he with will never give up. we will never concede. >> for his po posts fanning the flames of conspiracy theories. >> go home. we love you. you are very special. >> they say the vague penalty of indefinite suspension was not appropriate. calling on facebook to clarify its own rules and giving the platform a six-month window to put a time limit on the suspension, permanently disable mr. trump's account or perhaps let him back on. facebook pledging its next steps will be clear and proportion at. thomas hughs is the director of the oversight board. >> i can't say whether they are partisan or not. there needs to be greater transparency and predictability. >> the new decision highlighting the power of platforms like facebook and whether the government should do more to regulate them.

some lawmakers pointing out the line between protecting free speech and rejecting disinformation. elizabeth warren tweeting, trump should be banned for good but facebook will continue to fumble with its power until congress and antitrust regulators reign in big tech. >> when 65% of americans get some or all their news from facebook and google, shouldn't there be some rules of the road? >> i'm joined by senior media reporter dylan byers. can you answer that question somewhat from senator warner there, should there be rules of the road? where does this debate -- where does that debate go in congress? >> to your first question, yes, there should be rules of the road. even mark zuckerberg has said that there should be rules of the road. everyone seems to agree there need to be parameters that tech companies can understand where

the boundaries are. as to where the debate goes in congress, the debate itself will bounce around for some time. i anticipate that lawmakers will call on the ceos, representatives from companies to testify yet again. in terms of actual legislation, in terms of actual regulation, i don't see anything going anywhere for a long time. that's because you have a divided congress that can't even agree on what the problem is, let alone on what the solutions are. you have conservatives who want the tech companies to do less about the content that appears on their platform. you have democrats who want these companies to do more in terms of banning content. you have people who are thinking about protecting competition at the domestic level. that would reduce big tech's power. you have people thinking at the global level about whether or not tech companies need to be stronger in order to compete with china. then you have all of this happening in a country that

really abhors the idea of infringing on speech issues. truly, i don't see this going anywhere any time soon. >> the challenges that some of the social media faces. you have twitter confirming within the last hour that it has suspended an account with the handle @djt desk. we don't know if this had anything to do with the former president. it's stated in our ban evasion policy, we'll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace content affiliated with a suspended account. talk about the companies that need to dodge and block ways for people who are banned to get back on the site. >> sure. twitter has taken a different approach to this. they are able to in large part because they are a smaller platform. they have outsized influence in our world in media and politics. they have based a permanent ban on president trump.

their response is going to be any evasion, any attempt to circumvent that, they will step up and block. you look at a company like facebook, which is closer to what you could say is a global public utility, with an audience of billions, and it's harder for them to justify placing permanent bans on politicians, hence the oversight board and this debate and the six-month review. >> dylan byers talking about media and politics, thank you very much. when we get back, we will talk about what is behind mitch mcconnell's pledge to take on president biden's agenda. first, andrea mitchell sat down with secretary of state tony blinken who is in ukraine today as tensions remain high along the border with russia. vladimir putin yet to follow through on his promise to withdraw troops. here is a preview of her exclusive interview you will

only see right here. the full interview airing in just over an hour at noon eastern. >> vladimir putin had said he would withdraw. he has not. u.s. officials say there are 80,000 troops still on the border. he left his tanks and artillery. a continuing threat to ukraine. what is your message to vladimir putin? >> andrea, i'm here in ukraine for a message for the ukrainian people and our ukrainian partners. a big part of that message is, our commitment to ukraine's independence, its sovereignty. we stand with them, including against any aggression from russia. and also, a strong message that we stand with them as they work to make progress on reforming their democracy, making it stronger, on actually having a government that delivers for the ukrainian people. that's message i'm bringing. president biden wanted me to come here as soon as i could to

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[ding] don't get mad. get e*trade and take charge of your finances today. 100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration. >> mitch mcconnell trying to step over some land mines in the gop civil war in the house where liz cheney is fighting to hold onto her leadership post. if that messaging sounds familiar, it should. here he is more than a decade ago. >> our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny president obama a second term. >> with me now is the former communications director for the rnc and former deputy chief of staffer to eric cantor. >> morning. >> you heard what mitch mcconnell had to say.

focused on trying to stop the biden agenda. given that, what would be the point of next week's meeting between the white house and republican members of congress? did he shoot the whole thing dead in your view? >> no. if you look at the -- follow the debate on the infrastructure issues, there's infrastructure, roads and bridges and trains, which we know joe biden is passionate about, then there are things we wouldn't normally define as infrastructure that are included. where they can find agreement, they should. senator mcconnell would agree on that. i see that clip and hear the -- >> can i say, senator mcconnell said i'm 92% focused on stopping the biden agenda, except for roads and bridges. that's not how he is positioning it and messaging it. >> sure. everything that mitch mcconnell triggering democrats. if you go back to the dinner that republicans had on obama's inauguration night, that was proof they wouldn't do anything.

i go back to 2001 where there weren't democrats who said, we're going to work with president george w. bush, we will enact his agenda. they were calling him illegitimate. they were challenging the legitimacy of his election. in 2021, let's not do that. let's disagree on things we will disagree on. republicans don't support democrat policies. not a surprise. democrats don't support republican policies. not a surprise. where we can agree, we need to do so. we're in a political environment. moving forward, republicans opposing the biden agenda is a much better place than the latest outrage du jour created by donald trump as recently as this morning. >> that outrage has been the outrage du week. it will continue to be an issue if the leadership vote happens. you have elise stefanik who is the person who will replace liz cheney if she is, as most people

expect, ousted from the number three position. she's been on for the last 40 minutes as we have been on the air steve bannon's show, which is a podcast banned from a number of platformed, including youtube. we will not playing what she said. she said that her vision is to run with the president, meaning former president donald trump, and his coalition. how do you see this playing out here, doug, given the fact that there is an emerging consensus that congresswoman cheney no longer represents the core of what the republican party is because she will not pretend to go along with the idea that donald trump had the election stolen from him, which he did not? >> this is the problem that republicans face. this is what congresswoman cheney, her position is, is we can't move forward and talk about the biden agenda exclusively if we don't confront our past. a lot of republicans want to run lockstep with trump. here is the challenge for republicans. this is what history has taught us. when you make a deal with the

devil, it comes at a price. if you want to move forward, you know that donald trump can take you off that message any moment that he wants to and you are constantly responding to him. >> doug, thank you for your perspective. we appreciate it. coming up, why cyber ninjas are looking for bamboo in ballots. what else we are learning from the first independent look inside the arizona audit. that's coming up after the show -- or after the break, i should say. first, we are celebrating service this week across all of our nbc news and msnbc platforms. today, we are honoring nurses because it's national nurses day. never have we needed these brave nurses across the country more than during this pandemic. nurses like charlotte from los angeles. >> when we were at the brink of covid, almost every day someone died. it was very difficult. i think the ones that make it a little bit easier is the bond

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as if it weren't strange enough, what's being called an audit in arizona appears to be getting more interesting, i guess. outside observers are being let in. inside the room, the vote counters are sifting through ballots, examining them for bamboo fibers in the paper. like from china because of conspiracy theories they were flown in from china. ballots are left unattended, laptops are sitting around, sometimes abandoned, opened, unlocked, unmonitored. procedures are constantly shifting with workers who have not been trained using different rules to count the different ballots. the secretary of state, the top elections official, who is left out of the process, outlining the problems and more that she says have been reported by observers. now you have the justice

department getting involved. the civil rights division writing to the head of the state senate asking for information to make sure they are not actually breaking any federal laws in the room. with us now is a reporter behind that story in "the washington post," rosalind helderman. thanks for being on. >> thanks for having me. >> the head of the audit, who is a former arizona secretary of state, is denying the allegations, tweeting the audit continues. how is it being allowed to continue? >> well, there's very little law or rules that govern what they are doing. what they say this is is a legislative investigation to help their state senate figure out what new laws to pass to improve arizona elections. that's what they say. they say it has nothing to do with the actual election and who won it. for that reason, a judge has said in arizona that he does not think most of the state's laws and rules that would govern

elections and recounts apply here, which basically means, they can make up the rules as they go and they clearly are. >> the reason we know any of this is because you have independent observers let in. that wasn't the case when we first started covering the story. a lawsuit was filed by the setting of state. do you get the sense this might be the initial wave of reports coming in like this? >> absolutely. the secretary of state's office has contacted some national election experts from across the country who are now on the ground in phoenix and are attending that audit daily. i would expect we're going to hear more. i would also note that the local press in arizona has been doing really hard work. they fought for access as well. have also been attending and sending up a lot of reports of what they have been seeing. they are kept quite far away and have a lot of restrictions on what they can do and what they

can see. there's a limited amount that either these independent observers or the reporters are able to tell you about cyber ninjas is doing. >> can you talk about the time line for this? there's a graduation, i think, in the building or some ceremony later in may. they have to be wrapped up before then. right? >> well, they initially said that that was their goal. it's may 14th. that's how long they have the coliseum where the phoenix suns used to play. they had to give up the building starting may 14th because high school graduations are going to be held there. the problem is they have claimed they are going to count every ballot. there are nearly 2.1 million. they have only counted about 200,000 so far. it seems very clear they are not going to finish by may 14th. they have started to now talk about some alternatives, ways to pack everything up, move it out and start up again at some

future date. this is all very much up in the air. the story on it does kind of change day by day. >> would that even be allowed for them to take these ballots, stick them back in trunks or whatever and move them somewhere else? >> i mean, the one thing that everyone agrees is that they are required to secure the ballots and maintain a chain of custody around them. the observers and everyone else is going to watch really carefully what they would do when they try to pack everything up, move it, leave it for a while. that doesn't sound terribly secure. it does seem like that might be a moment when either the department of justice or an arizona judge could step in. if they could prove to a judge and doj they're doing it securely, maybe. there are -- as i said, there are no rules. they make it up as they go along.

>> we look forward to more of your reporting. thank you very much for being on. in just about ten minutes, you have the house oversight committee holding a hearing on the black maternal health crisis. this is the first hearing of its kind. testifying will be lauren underwood and alma adams, co-chairs of the black maternal health caucus, other advocates and experts. the reason, to welcome at the need for changes in the way the federal government makes sure that the health of black women is a priority, looking at investments there, too. black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection to their pregnancy than white women and face higher rates of complications, infant loss and miscarriage. we will bring you updates throughout the day. after the break, opening night at many public places across the country that have been shut down for the past year. next up, jake ward is live in san francisco with one theater getting ready to open its doors

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joining us from inside the daveys symphony hall in san francisco is jake. you are a little early. i feel like you are making sure you get a good seat there. how do people who work in these places feel about getting back to normal? there will have to be, i assume, some safety precautions in place. >> reporter: that's right. this is the first symphony hall to have shut down. now it's reopening. we have been speaking to workers across the country about their feelings about coming back. >> my feelings are going up and down at this point. i'm happy i'm back at work. but i'm just -- people listen and follow the rules. but, hey, we need to keep six feet apart. i don't understand how this is going to work. >> reporter: tonight, hallie, this performance is, of course, going to involve only a limited capacity. 380 people will fill this

enormous place. it will be first responders and donors who kept this place going. most importantly, just strings. no woodwinds. >> very good to know. thank you very much for that. appreciate it. that's the show for today. craig melvin picks up our coverage right now on msnbc. good thursday morning to you. i'm craig melvin. right now, voting rights protests are growing in texas. republicans are hearing a strong warning from one of their own. president biden is on the move. the word of the day seems to be, jobs. the president firmly in salesman mode. he is on his way to louisiana to pitch his more than a trillion dollar jobs and infrastructure plan. he is leaving just hours after we learned that the united states recor