full approval from the fda for the covid-19 vaccine for everyone 16 years of age and up, which requires six months of data as opposed to the two months needed for emergency use authorization. it also means pfizer can market the vaccine. pfizer is waiting on the fda decision on whether to grant emergency use authorization for the vaccine to children between 12 and 15 years old, which would mark another major milestone. it comes as the cdc is marking a milestone of its own, one that is long overdue and perhaps a sign of the continued effects of the leadership failures of the previous administration. the cdc now explicitly states in its public guidance that covid-19 can be inhaled even when you are more than six feet away from an infected individual, meaning covid-19 spreads via airborne transmission. this is a change, it is something a lot of people knew but a change from the cdc's prior stance that most infections only occurred through close contact and not through airborne transmission. that fact and so many others relating to covid-19 and the

pandemic was obfuscated to no end by the insurrectionist former president who politicized the cdc and used it to try to cover up how unprepared and undisciplined he was. meanwhile, some big news first reported by "the washington post". the trump justice department secretly obtained phone records of three "washington post" reporters for calls they made during three months in 2017 while reporting on russia's role in the 2016 presidential election. the subpoenas, which needed the former attorney general william barr's approval, sought records that would show who the reporters called and how long their conversations lasted. the revelation comes just days after a federal judge ruled that the doj must release a controversial justice department memo that barr claims helped guide his decision in declaring that the special counsel, robert mueller, and his investigation did not support a charge of obstruction. that is not what the mueller investigation concluded. joining me now is democratic

congressman jim himes of connecticut, a member of the intelligence and financial services committee. good to see you. thank you for being with us. i don't know where to start, there's so much stuff here. i guess part of it is just that the justice department, we are seeing the degree to which the justice department was a corrupt arm of the -- of donald trump really, not even the trump administration. >> yeah, well, that's right, ali. this is not new news. it is not in any way surprising. americans of any political stripe should be frightened by what we're reading today, that the attorney general approved actually the requisitioning of phone records from reporters. look, regardless of where you are in the political spectrum, it is illegal and not a good idea to leak classified information, but the protection of the journalists who get those leaks, i mean, you know, this is how the pentagon papers got put out there, one of the best

controls we have over government overreach, of course, is journalists doing their job. you're absolutely right, ali. look, whether it was barr in his memo lying about what the mueller report said that, of course, caused mueller to go back publicly at barr and say, "that's not what my report said" or whether it was barr lying to the american republic in the run up to the election saying the chinese are as aggressive in messing with the elections as the russian, we are putting a fine point on what we have always known, which is then-attorney general barr turned the department of justice into the donald trump defense firm. you know, that was a profound threat to our democracy. >> the other profound threat to our democracy, one that we probably didn't see coming before the election, is the crumbling of the republican party in front of us. president biden, in fact, lamented the idea that there's not a functioning republican party right now because he says

america does need two parties. what is your take on what is going on? you retweeted liz cheney the other day in a tweet where she said the 2020 election wasn't stolen. this is getting her essentially fired from the leadership of the republican party. >> well, that's exactly right, ali. i will tell you, it is bad for at least two cataclysmic reasons. number one, the country needs a functioning republican party that pushes back on my party. quite frankly, that is a good dynamic when we have people who disagree in good faith, who don't call each other traitors, who don't use language of good and evil. the republican party, of course, starting at the convention where they said, we don't have a platform, it is whatever donald trump wants, gave up that role. even more ominously, and this honestly keeps me up at night, you don't have a party anymore. you have a cult. think about the choice that's being made next week, right. elise stefanik, who is a friend of mine, elise stefanik was one of the most moderate, maybe in

some regards one of the most liberal republicans in the house conference. liz cheney is probably the most conservative, top five certainly, republican and they are tossing her to the curb because she won't bend a knee and tell a lie to the american public. so, you know, sadly the republican party no longer has leaders. it has subjects. if you don't kowtow enough to the cult leader, to donald trump, it doesn't matter what your platform, your beliefs or your talents are, you're out. >> it is remarkable. i was a little disappointed when i saw the jobs numbers yesterday morning. it does, however, underscore the fact that we continue to need government intervention into this recovery, something that a lot of conservatives have been arguing we don't need. we don't need the jobs plan. we don't need the families plan. the market is bringing this economy back on its own. apparently it is not. >> well, that's right. that's right, ali, and, look, the economy is still in rough shape. i have learned over the years

that if you watch every single month's job number or any number and decide that that's how you are going to set your sort of mental equilibrium for the month you will be a very volatile and probably unhappy person. this is, as the president said, not a sprint, it is a marathon. ali, i have to observe the very same people who are pulling their hair out and setting themselves on fire over yesterday's job numbers are precisely the same people who two months ago said it is way too big of a rescue plan, way, way, too big. the economy is doing fine, we don't need a rescue plan. it is a serious business and it is obviously tragic for a lot of people who are suffering, but i have been watching the republican party trying, you know, led by people like ted cruz now saying we are the party of the worker, we are the party of blue collar, we drink beer and wear blue jeans, we're not the party of giving tax breaks to wealthy people. you know what the message was yesterday? you know the problem here?

we have given too much aid to the republican party. the party of the american worker, blaming them and their laziness for a month down tick in employment is really a bad way to start. >> congressman, good to see you this morning. thank you for joining us. democratic representative jim himes of connecticut. by the way, the former insurrectionist president reportedly still believes he has a chance of getting back into power pre-2024 -- pre-2024, not by running again, just with the next step stemming from the results of the sham audit recount currently going on in arizona with which trump is reportedly obsessed. so now to surprise -- to the surprise of no one paying attention to reality, that partisan farce you are looking at on your screen may violate federal voting and civil rights law. the republican president of the arizona senate, who is separated from reality, says that the ballots are secure in the hands of cyber ninjas, the private firm led by an election denier

which currently possesses the ballots. they're holding on to ballots cast by american citizens, a private company, cyber ninjas, who thinks the election was a sham. the republican president of the arizona senate also says that worries about voter intimidation amid plans for a door-to-door canvas are unfounded, which is ironic because what is actually unfounded, if we want to talk about unfounded, are any and all claims of fraud and the election lie which brought about this partisan, nondemocratic and most likely illegal sham. joining me now, arizona secretary of state democrat casey hobbs. secretary hobbs, good to see you again. your case that you have made several times with me and others has been bolstered by the department of justice, which sent a letter to arizona republican officials saying, "what's going on here? we actually have laws in this country about how you handle ballots and recounts and audits and we suspect you might be

breaking some of them." >> yeah, absolutely. that letter really came as a surprise to no one. these concerns were raised earlier during this process, and with everything we have seen in terms of how this so-called audit is being handled doesn't allay any of these concerns. >> yeah, and this is the interesting thing. you can have an issue if you want with the votes and whether they were counted properly and all of that kind of stuff, but the issue that -- part of the issue that the deputy attorney general and you are concerned about is just the methodology, the chain of custody, there why is there this private company involved, how are we assured no one is remarking the battle, how do we make sure the ballots are safe and not altered because we are limiting access to journalists. in fact, the attorney general's office stated they're getting a lot of this information from news reports, which shouldn't be the way it is going on. >> exactly. i want to point out that the only reason that there are news

reports about what is going on is because we had to go to court to force them to allow journalists in the room. the court order also forced them to provide their procedures, which helped illuminate the fact that there is not enough security measures in place to assure the security of the ballots. the folks involved in this have tried to brush off these concerns and say, you don't need to worry about it, the ballots are secure. i want to really emphasize that it is not just the actual physical security of the ballots, although that has come into question anyway so i don't necessarily buy their assurances, but we're talking about the actual handling of the ballots, how they are moved from one box to another, how they're put together in batches when they're being counted. they're not being handled in a way that preserves the record of the election so that if somebody needed to go back and somehow do

an actual real audit or recount, it wouldn't be meaningful. they have destroyed the chain of custody of these ballots. >> i am not surprised, but i'm saddened by the fact that you've been receiving death threats and the governor has actually ordered protection for you, and you're not the only one. there are actually republicans who have spoken out against this sham process who are also getting threats. i mean this is becoming -- i mean i don't want to call it ridiculous because it is not ridiculous you are getting death threats, but what an untenable, unsavory situation. >> right. i mean it is unfortunate, although, as you said, not surprising that this is where we are. this is the second time in six months i have had a protective detail because of threats like this, because of the election. but you know what? i'm not going to be intimidated from doing my job. i'm standing up for the integrity of our election and working to protect the voters of arizona and i will continue to do that. >> however, you are an elected

official and you are able to make that choice. there is an almost of intimidation that the attorney general's office is concerned about in the recount because cyber ninjas or someone has said that in order to check the veracity of some ballots they may go and knock on people's doors to validate something? >> yeah, that was part of the scope of work laid out in the original audit. i think the senate president yesterday said that they have postponed that indefinitely, and so -- which, again, not surprising because they don't have a plan for anything that they're doing. they're making it up as they go along, so anyone who looked at what's happening could see it was a pretty ambitious scope of work. but i still have concerns. people -- voters in arizona are still contacting our office concerned about their privacy and who has their hands on their personal data. this is clearly people who are not concerned about intimidating anyone and are going after everyone that they can.

so i don't see why voters wouldn't be concerned about this. >> is this the weirdest thing in the world that you and i are having this conversation? i think about these conversations and i think if me of 10 or 15 years ago played this interview i would say, what are you talking about? we are talking about elections, cyber ninjas, people recounting elections, 190 days, this is weird. >> it is weird. i would never expect we would talk about the 2020 election six months post-election and you have folks who are actively continuing to try to overturn the election. i think there are people who know that the results of this aren't going to impact the election at all, but there are certainly followers, and i think earlier it was referred to as a cult, that do believe that this is actually going to overturn the election. >> yeah, including the former twice-impeached, disgraced president of the united states. katie hobbs, good to see you

again. thank you for joining us, arizona's democratic secretary of state. florida joining the growing list of republican states to restrict voting. governor ron desantis signed the bill live on fox news. you can't make this stuff up, people. florida was the site of what might be called the big lie tour. this motley crew from congress, matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene have begun their speaking tour, sending the message that the republican party is still trump's party. i will speak to virginia had senator kim kaine. that he next on "velshi." my apologies to the musicians of motley crew. e musicians of motley crew. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. ♪ it's grilled cheese time. ♪ ♪ yeah, it's time for grilled cheese. ♪ ♪ after we make grilled cheese, ♪ ♪ then we're eating grilled cheese. ♪

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♪ ♪ donald trump may have lost the election but his essence is alive and well in the republican party. it was on full display yesterday as two of his unwavering cronies in congress, matt gaetz and

marjorie taylor greene, took their america first tour on the road to sumter county, florida. there they captivated hundreds of unmasked loyal supporters inside a hotel ballroom, disparaging establishment republicans and continuing to push the big lie about the 2020 election. the republican stronghold is just a first stop on a tour which is part of a larger effort to submit the post-trump gop firmly in trump's image. meanwhile, gaetz is wading into the gop civil war. the florida republican calling for wyoming congressman liz cheney, the highest ranking woman in the party to be removed from leadership over her outspoken criticism of the failed former president. quote, we must inspire americans to again rally to the america first principles president trump so movingly brought to our politics and we must do better than liz cheney, end quote. joining me from florida is nbc news capitol hill correspondent leann caldwell. leann, i don't know how much you got to see in person but it was

wild. >> reporter: it sure was wild, ali. so there are -- could not be more die metrically opposed visions within the republican party right now that is playing out in washington and here in florida. first, there's the cheney side who wants to move on from the former president while continuing to call out the falsities that he claims about the 2020 election, and then there's the other side that wants to fully embrace the former president, and that is what happened last night here in the villages, a conservative retirement community with representative matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene, rallying a raucous crowd. let's listen to how representative gaetz put it. >> we send a strong message to the weak establishment in both parties. america first isn't going away! we're going on tour. this is our first stop, but there will be many more, and

america's greatest president and the undisputed leader of the republican party, donald j. trump, might join us on a few. >> reporter: and this faction of the party seems to be winning out, especially since house republican leadership has been willing to sack a member of their own leadership teerjs representative liz cheney, because she was not willing to ignore the former president. so it is sending a clear message to voters and republicans and the entire country really about how the republican party is thinking moving forward, ali. >> so this is a question. elise stefanik yesterday i believe on a radio show, you pointed it out to us, said that we need to support donald trump to win back the congressional majorities. arguably donald trump is the reason that republicans don't have congressional majorities right now, but that argument seems to land well with folks

like those at the villages. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. the people here at the villages and the trump base, they don't think that the former president is really the former president because they don't believe the legitimacy of the election, but they also think that he is the -- also the future of the party. that's the calculation that people like house republican leader kevin mccarthy is making. he thinks that they need the trump base, the energy of the trump supporter in order to win the midterms in 2022, to win back the majority in the house of representatives, which he thinks is going to propel him to speaker of the house. but that's not what the other side of the party thinks. they think that that is going to hurt republicans in the suburbs especially, which they think is actually the path to the majority in 2022, ali. >> lee-anne, good to see you as

always. nbc's leigh ann caldwell in the villages in florida. up next on "velshi", another restrictive voting bill signed into law. i will speak to the man standing in desantis's way, democratic congressman charlie crist. don't go anywhere. e crist. don't go anywhere. blood in up to zero bunching because it flexes no worries just always flexfoam finding new routes to reach your customers, and new ways for them to reach you... is what business is all about. it's what the united states postal service has always been about. so as your business changes, we're changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide. same day shipping across town. returns right from the doorstep, and deliveries seven days a week. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. limu emu... and doug.

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♪ ♪ behold, a master class on misleading stunts courtesy of florida's republican governor, ron desantis. >> what's going to be different about florida's election in 2022? what are you about to sign? >> so right now i have what we think is the strongest election integrity measures in the country. i'm actually going to sign it right here. it is going to take effect. [ cheering and applause ]. >> there you go. >> so the bill is signed. >> he actually signed the bill on fox news live on thursday

morning. well, he claimed to sign into law a voter restriction bill during a guest appearance on fox news. for its part, fox news distanced itself from the stunt saying the network only booked the governor for a guest appearance. they had no part in planning the bill signing but a desantis spokesperson admitted the governor didn't sign the real bill during the fox news appearance. he was just pretending for dramatic effect. but the bill did get signed and it is a bad bill. it places limits on who can use ballot drop boxes and vote by mail, it prevents political groups from handing food and water to those waiting in line to vote. civil rights groups sued florida officials arguing it will disenfranchise those of color and younger votes. republicans would rather discourage them from voting than try to win over. desantis, whose own staffers according to "politico", formed a support group because they say

the governor treats them like, quote, expendable widgets. despite his republican affiliation at the time, he signed bills to make it easier to vote. he said, they are consumed with protecting their own political futures even if it makes it harders for all floridians to vote. joining me, charlie crist, the state's republican governor from 2007-2011. he was an independent before switching to the independent party. he is planning to run for governor again in 2022, taking on incumbent republican ron desantis. representative crist, good to see you. thank you for being with us this morning. >> ali, it is a pleasure. thank you for having me. >> let's talk about this because you have had one of those rare opportunities to be on both sides of the aisle and in the middle of it. was this a thing when you were governor, the idea that you would make it harder for anyone

to vote? >> it was a thing. i can remember my first session after being sworn in in 2007, some of the staff from the republican party of florida came to my office in the capital and were showing me what they said were election reforms. be careful when they talk about reforms. so i saw these measures, many of which would have made it more difficult for my fellow floridians to vote, and i told them that i am not going to entertain those. they don't need to bring them to me because i just think it is wrong. frankly, ali, i have always felt, you know, it is not right versus left but right versus wrong. those things were clearly wrong. i told the staffers there trying to present these to me, i was not elected to be the governor of the republicans of florida. i was elected governor to be the governor of the people of florida, all of them. i didn't care if it related to republicans, democrats or independents, you got to do what is right, particularly when you

are the governor of the third largest state in the country. you want to do what is right to make sure especially our seniors are able to vote. this bill that governor desantis signed, i think it is really anti-senior because it makes it most difficult for those who use mail-in ballots, which are very popular among our seniors. my 88-year-old father, my 86-year-old mother really enjoy the opportunity to use mail-in ballots. it is very convenient. very convenient for a lot of our seniors and a lot of our people. to make it more difficult is just unconscionable. it is cruel. frankly, i think it is going to hurt the republicans, too. so i really don't get it. it is anti-democracy, frankly. >> a lot of these measures -- a lot of these measures were put into place where republicans were in power because they were just to expand voting for everybody and republicans seem to have been very comfortable with a number of the measures like absentee voting, no-excuse absentee voting, mail-in voting, ballot drop boxes until this last election. >> yeah, which is kind of weird.

i mean, you know, former president trump won florida. i don't think it is going to happen again, but what i think is important is you are right. i remember when jeb bush was governor when i was the attorney general of the state. at that time mail-in balloting, absentee voting was very popular among the republican leadership. it was very effective for everyone, and it is very effective now for democrats, too. we've kind of caught on to what was going on, and i think about 600,000 more democrats voted by mail-in ballot this past november, and i think it is really what is motivating this. i think governor desantis is trying to suppress the vote for the 2022 reelection that he seeks, but i don't think it is going to work. i think people understand when you are trying to, you know, put your finger on the scale and make an unfair -- i don't get angry very often, ali, but a couple of things frustrate me a lot. one of them is unfairness, and this is clearly unfair.

the other thing that upsets me is arrogance. i think it is arrogant, it is unfair, it is wrong. floridians are smart. they understand what is going on here. they're trying to exercise some gamesmanship, and then they keep the media out. whatever happened to the notion of free speech? i mean it is the first amendment to our constitution. >> what was that? what was that signing on fox news all about, signing a bill on one of the channel? >> i think it was attempted to be some kind of a cheerleading pep rally for the governor. i really don't know. when you only allow fox news in, one audience to be able to witness this live, you don't let local news in in west palm beach, you know, why do you lock out of fellow floridian journalists? it is an affront to free speech, it is an affront to our constitution, it is the wrong thing to do and people see through it. it is really shameful. it really is. >> let me ask you about, florida has been an interesting case study for republicans because it is a place where democrat

and republicans could put forth competing ideological positions, not that far from each other, free enterprise, definitely lower taxes is something florida has done successfully. it seems ron desantis has departed from that and he has a different kind of populace exclusive republicanism. it doesn't seem to be hurting him all that much right now. >> i'm not so sure about that. you know, we launched our campaign for governor on tuesday of this week in my hometown of st. petersburg. the sense i get going around the state, we first went up to the panhandle to pensacola, then over to jacksonville, orlando. we are in miami today. really barn storming florida is what we're doing, and the reaction has been extraordinary. i can't tell you how many people have talked to me and said, you know, thank you, governor, for coming -- you know, because i was governor before. but thank you, charlie, for coming here. i appreciate you are taking the time to listen to us. my father used to tell my three sisters and me as kids, god gave you two years and one mouth, you

should respect god's ratio. that's what i'm doing. i am listening twice as much as i talk and it is amazing how much you can learn when you listen. it really has been wonderful. >> charlie crist of florida, good to see you. thank you for joining us this morning. charlie crist as the representative from his home district and as we mentioned the state's former governor. now that the restrictive voting bill in texas is closer to being signed, at noon eastern the american civil liberties union is holding a rally in austin, texas, the state's capital. stick with us for coverage of that. the world is facing a shortage of micro chips. cars, cellphones, you name it, the shortage is putting the squeeze on goods and forcing you to pay more. we will dive in after the break. you are watching "velshi" on msnbc. ling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort.

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we faced a lot of shortages over the last pandemic year of necessities we never thought would be in scarce supply. now that we once again have enough toilet paper on hand and lots of sanitizer to go around, we are facing a chip shortage, the kind used to power our technology. you care about this shortage. in this week's edition of "in too deep" i will tell you why. you may not know it, but your daily semiconductor chip use is very high, computers, video game consoles, the obvious ones, but you have them in your washing machine, your l.e.d. bulbs and even some toothbrushes. it started to unfold last year as the pandemic took hold. millions began stocking up on items that used microchips, especially as people hunkered down at home and remote learning became prevalent. the demand for products with chips rose and the supply fell.

the lack of chip availability drove up prices for tons of consumer goods but had a particularly big impact on the automobile industry. not only is it driving up the cost of new cars, but it is also forcing some auto manufacturers to forego creature comforts like gps and entertainment systems in new vehicle inventory. over the last year more people wanted new cars and there aren't as many around, hence the higher prices. that means more americans are turning to used cars, sending those prices soaring as well. experts estimate that in the month of april used cars saw their biggest monthly price increase in 68 years. this is a difficult problem to solve. chips don't grow on trees. they are, in fact, expensive and complicated to make. they require great deal of time, physical space and resources to produce. even if chip makers could ramp up production tomorrow, getting the chips through the various supply chains so your new car could have the latest tech or your smart toaster could make

the perfect toast takes months. for that reason president biden wants to stop relying on other countries to produce the semiconductors we need and is looking to find money for this project in his next infrastructure bill. >> chips like the one i have here, these chips, these wafers, battery, broadband, this is infrastructure, this is infrastructure. look, we need to build the infrastructure of today, not repair the one of yesterday. >> it is a good point that it is infrastructure. biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal includes $50 billion for the semiconductor industry in the united states with an emphasis on expanding u.s. manufacturing of chips. it is an investment in the chip industry, but many of the things, most of the things really in our daily lives. former first lady michelle obama has weighed in on the state of race in america following the guilty verdicts against derek chauvin. >> the goal is to let leaders lead, but in certain times

people, you know, look to us, often, well, what do you think, how do you feel. we know while we are all breathing a sigh of relief over the verdict, there's still work to be done, and so we can't sort of say, "great, that happened, let's move on." i know that people in the black community don't feel that way because they -- many of us still live in fear. >> my colleague tiffany cross joins me now. tiffany, it was a revealing interview for the former first lady but it drove points home, that we can't look at things that happened in the last few weeks and suddenly declare success. >> right, exactly, ali. i'm so happy that the former first lady made that point. it wasn't the trial of derek chauvin. certainly it was a level of progress, but it is the system that's on trial. as you know, ali, the police officer who shot rayshard brooks in atlanta, he is returning to patrol and there's nothing that stops him from actually patrolling the streets. there's no rule in place.

and when you look at the case of andrew brown in north carolina, the judge just released 20 seconds of video to the family, and there's still a lot of questions around that. we have to remember that when we see these incidents there's not always camera footage around and, body cams, quite frankly, have only given us a better view of people being shot. so we will get into that on the show. i have angela rye, roland martin. i will have congressman who has a twitter beat with marjorie taylor greene. we will talk about this crazy things that are happening, ali. i hope folks stick around because we have a lot to talk about. >> that america first tour is crazy. i look forward to it as i always do, tiffany. stick around for "the cross connection" starting at the top of the hour at 10:00 a.m. eastern. april's expected hiring boom went bust and now president biden is making the case to congress to pass his spending plans. i will speak with democratic

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♪ ♪ the biden administration may have been hoping for better april jobs numbers, but it is using those less-than-stellar numbers to promote its agenda. president biden says the report proves we need to be more patient with our economic recovery. he said it also proves how much more we need to do to help with that recovery. >> today there's more evidence that our economy is moving in the right direction, but it is clear we have a long way to go. we have to build back better. that's why we need the american jobs plan i proposed, to put us in a position where we can build back better, to reclaim our position as the leading and most innovative nation in the world and win the future, the 21st century. >> build back better. it is a good slogan but it does not come cheap. the price tag on his

infrastructure bill, $2.3 trillion. the american families plan, which covering universal pre-k, extends a child tax credit and eases the cost of child care will cost at least $1.8 trillion, probably as much as $2.5 trillion according the a recent study by wharton. as ambitious as the white house's agenda may be, equally ambitious is the president's goal not to grow the deficit with either package. >> i will meet the 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. >> i'm joined by one of the senators working to pass the biden administration's agenda, tim kaine, democrat of virginia, former vice presidential candidate. good to see you as always this morning. >> absolutely ali. great to be with you. >> let's talk about this. president biden said something that you typically hear from republican presidents, i'm not

willing to increase the deficit in order to get this very expensive bill pass, but he didn't mean it the way most republicans mean it. he says, i'm not willing to do this without increasing revenue, which generally means increasing taxes on high earners. he is saying to republicans, i'm willing to talk to you in good faith, but a tax increase is probably not negotiable at the moment. >> ali, you're right about that. i agree with the president on that. for an emergency relief package, the american rescue plan, you know, all of the traditional economics says to get out an emergency, you can deficit spend for that. but especially for capital investments going forward, you got to pay for them because the society will be living off these infrastructure investments for four or five decades. so the president has a great financing plan on the infrastructure bill. take the corporate tax rate, which was at 35%, the republicans slashed it to 21%, far lower than most corporations were even asking for. take it back to the midpoint at

28%. that makes perfect sense to me because our american corporations will benefit from better infrastructure. we will debate about how to do it. it may end up being a mixture of revenue sources but i think that makes perfect sense. >> but that corporate tax cut was a massive hood wink of americans because the idea was that it is higher than most countries, but so many companies don't pay it. the point was to lower the corporate tax rate and close loopholes. you remember at that time, we talked to everybody about the idea, you guys are closing loopholes, there are loopholes that will be closed, can you tell me what loopholes will be closed? guess what happened, they just lowed the tax rate and didn't close the loopholes, so the revenue is just lower. it is not fair. >> no. that tax cut, as you know, ali, every democrat opposed it. we were shut out of negotiations on it. they gave us an opportunity to make one-minute amendment proposals on the floor, which the republicans voted down. guess what? it didn't work. it didn't appreciably increase

the nation's economy. the nation's economy was already strong. it put more money in the pocket of really rich people but it didn't do anything, and the republicans ended up even a year later, they didn't even campaign ot because they understood in the midterms voters been hood w. >> it did, in fact, increase the deficit. you got colleagues, shelley moore-capito is engaged in a conversation with the president in negotiations. i want to take a break and when we come back we'll talk about how much more you should compromise. tim kaine, we'll be right back in a minute. the dove beauty bar makes my skin feel amazing and clean.

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100% of our focus is on stopping this new administration. >> well, i'm anxious to stop the biden agenda depending on what it is. >> so a little bit of a walk back on that one. mitch mcconnell may be unsure whether he wants to work with or stonewall the biden white house. president biden plans to meet with these six senate republicans next thursday to discuss his economic agenda. tim kaine is back with me now. senator, you know these six republicans and i would venture

to say that i think they're working in good faith as conservative -- as economic conservatives which think they is fair. it may not be what you think is the right thing but i do think this represents some form of bipartisanship. >> i agree. i very much agree. ali, i'll tell you, i think the bill that we'll ultimately vote on in the senate will include many priorities that republicans have put on the table, however, i still expect virtually all of them to vote against the bill because of senator mcconnell saying our agenda is to battle joe biden. we may get a couple of votes. we'll certainly have a bill filled with priorities that republicans like, but i expect most will follow mitch mcconnell's lead and oppose joe biden because he's a democrat. >> it's strange though. i mean, it's not that we're surprised by it because mitch mcconnell called himself the grim reaper of bills but it was strange to hear it.

it was so stridently antidemocratic. it was so stridently anti-compromise. that's 100% of my agenda. he subsequently walked it back but that's a problem. he wasn't saying i will work with democrats to make better legislation or legislation that's a little bit different than they proposed. >> no. it was -- i was shocked that he was so blunt but i think he was being honest and i think the walk back was barely a walk back and, look, that's why we have to be realistic about this. the nation needs an infrastructure bill. we've been needing one for decades. the jobs report this month underlines we've got a long ways to go. the bill will be better if president biden and senate democrats listen to republican colleagues and put things into the bill. i put in a bill to modernize the shipyards. it was a bipartisan bill. it should be in an infrastructure planning. i don't think people will vote

for it. my thought is we should listen as best we can. we should put priorities in that are right for the country that will include bipartisan priorities but we shouldn't be unrealistic to think we're going to see a land rush of republican votes. this will be bipartisan because it will be popular with republican voters, republican mayors, republican governors. we may not get a lot of republican senators to go for it. >> so i want to put up a screen here with some of the elements of the american jobs plan, right? some people call it an infrastructure plan. it's broader than that or a new way of thinking of infrastructure. transportation, sounds like republicans can support it. safer drinking water, high speed broadband. affordable and sustainable housing. may be debatable. work force development seems bipartisan. home community based care foraging relatives and people with disabilities, republicans are definitely taking issue with that as infrastructure.

but the first four things on that list are entirely bipartisan. not only that, i might have thought in prior years or decades that that's a republican bill. >> right. and, ali, even to get to your second slide, things like work force development, not a single republican in the senate will disagree with this proposition. if we're going to do an infrastructure bill, we've got to do some significant training of the work force to do it. bridges and roads don't build themselves. we need to equip workers and we have a lot of adult workers unemployed or under employed. it's the perfect time. there are some of the educational opponents that you might not think of as core infrastructure that we have to do if we're going to do an infrastructure bill. >> senator, it is good to see you as always. thank you for joining me. we have much more to talk about and i hope that you and i get to revisit this idea of an infrastructure bill that has some bipartisan support or input. democratic senator tim kaine of

virginia. that does it for me. thank you for watching. catch me back here tomorrow morning from 8 to 10 a.m. eastern. don't go anywhere, the cross connection with tiffany cross begins right now. all right. i just got to check something. i just want to make sure i'm in the right place. tell me who is your president? that's my president too. okay. i just wanted to make sure i was with friends and family. did anybody in here vote for joe biden? do you guys really think he won? >> we have never abandoned trump and he has never abandoned america. he is still fighting for us. he will continue to fight for us and we're going to have his back when he does.

>> good morning and welcome to "the cross connection." as you just saw, the distorted reality that donald trump created was alive and well last night in florida as self-proclaimed florida man congressman matt gaetz and marjorie tailor green launched their america first tour. gaetz is under investigation for allegedly trafficking a minor and green the cue a nonspark plug were alive and well at the area in florida. even under several criminal investigations, absolute allegiance to this man is vital for success in the gop. case in point. >> if liz cheney could even find wyoming on a map and went there,