this is "andrea mitchell reports" with breaking news in washington where liz cheney has been exiled from the republican house leadership for telling the truth about donald trump. the house republicans officially ousting cheney from her position after she refused to support former president donald trump's lies about the 2020 election. the vote of no confidence brought by house republican leader kevin mccarthy and his desire to be the next speaker of the house. a clear sign it is still the party of trump. an all-out civil war taking place under the gop tent with influential republicans threatening to form their own party and cheney telling her fellow members in a closed door meeting this morning if you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, i'm not your person. you have plenty of others to

choose from. that will be their legacy. and moments after the ouster, congresswoman cheney speaking to reporters at the capitol. >> i think that it is an indication of where the republican party is, and i think that the party is in a place we have to bring it back from and we have to get back to a position where we are a party that can fight for conservative principles, that can fight for substance. we cannot be dragged backward by the very dangerous lies of a former president. >> kevin mccarthy after delivering the political dagger to cheney is now sitting face-to-face with president biden for his first white house meeting with other top congressional leaders. an irony given his refusal to recognize biden is the legitimate winner of the election and punishing cheney for doing just that. >> mr. president, you know what's happening with kevin mccarthy and his leadership? can you trust him and work with him? >> thank you, let's go. thank you. thank you, guys. let's go. let's go.

>> that was awkward. this hour you'll get a first look at savannah guthrie's wide-ranging exclusive interview with liz cheney. let's begin with capitol hill correspondent "way too early" host kasie hunt, and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker, former republican david jolly. take us through everything you've heard and seen. there was a voice vote, no roll call vote. i guess that protects everybody, the innocent and the guilty, from their standpoints. nobody can get tagged for supporting and nobody to be blamed by donald trump and nobody can be blamed for opposing her. >> reporter: right. and liz cheney also in the event there were only a handful of people willing to support her didn't have to take any hit to her own credibility. she, of course, took this head-on. this was a foregone conclusion. now that said the meeting was

extraordinarily short, even knowing that. it started at 9:00 this morning. there were some members who didn't even have a chance to participate in the voice vote because they were still walking into the meeting, and it had already happened. it had already transpired. it was just 15, 20 minutes and it was done. and, of course, we heard, as you showed, a little bit from liz cheney afterward and she took it very much head-on. this is clearly something that she knew she was going to use to add to her profile as a person who is willing to stand up in public to former president trump. and we have seen other republicans time after time not do that. and she clearly has made a distinction around the january 6th insurrection, what happened that day, the violence at this complex where i am standing now, and what that says about our democracy. and i'm looking forward to hearing what she had to tell our colleague, savannah guthrie. i know we have a little bit of

the exchange that i had with her briefly after the meeting because my question to her was, okay, how far are you willing to take this? how far are you willing to go to prevent former president trump from ever going back into the oval office again? i think we can play what she had to say. >> i will do everything i can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the oval office. we have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. we have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the constitution. and i think it's very important that we make sure whomever we elect is faithful to the constitution. >> reporter: so, of course, very direct words there. andrea, i should also note that as this voice vote unfolded in the room, cheney was up front in the center, visible to everyone, and she walked out through the center aisle past many, of

course, in the conference are men, who had voted to remove her as conference chair. so, again, i think she's taking this as an opportunity, frankly, to make sure she has a platform that can stand toe to toe with the megaphone that we know former president trump used throughout his time in office, andrea. >> it's extraordinary the way she gave her speech last night and her answer to you, the way she is just declaring she's in it to win it and to go after donald trump. kevin mccarthy, of course, headed from there to going down to the white house for his meeting with the president. and kristen welker, what's the dynamic there, do you think, given all the tension between them and president biden's avowed interest in bipartisanship. but so far what mccarthy and o'connell are giving him is the back of their hand. >> reporter: really an extraordinary meeting, andrea, we got to witness just a little

bit of it. my colleague, peter alexander, was in the oval office. you heard him there pressing the president, given all of the turmoil inside the republican party. can he work with leader mccarthy? does he trust leader mccarthy? it's hard to hear. we played the tape back a number of times. it appears the president did respond yes, but you can see the stone faces on the leaders when that question was asked because, of course, all of this turmoil comes against the backdrop of the president bringing these leaders in to try to get a deal on his infrastructure proposals, his job proposals. he wants to spend trillions of dollars and increase taxes on wealthy americans and large corporations in order to pay for it. right now republicans are saying all of that is a nonstarter. they will not roll back the trump tax cuts. in my conversations on capitol hill they do want to get something done, because they need to be able to show they have done something heading into

2022. and that's really the broader concern within the republican party, andrea. the fact you have this internal divide going on at a time when they want to be focused on trying to win back the house. does all of this not undercut that? and then to the point that you raised, the fact they are poised to elevate someone, elise stefanik, who questioned the legitimacy of the election results. does that not complicate in getting something done in a bipartisan fashion? i think it's unlikely you will see either of the bills or proposals pass in the large form they were initially put on the table. both sides have had a willingness to do something much smaller. all of these dynamics on capitol hill you can only imagine further complicating those conversations inside the oval office right now. >> and nancy pelosi sitting across from kevin mccarthy, who she excoriated in her xhenlts.

you have cross currents all over the place. official putting out their statement and aligning themselves to reforming the party from within or forming a new party. where do you stand on that? >> they are offended by the way they've overlooked the events of january 6th, and the willingness to double down on trumpism going into 2022. my concern, andrea, is i just don't think the numbers are there. liz cheney has made a principled stand and a lot of republicans are standing with her today and rightly so. this party is not shifting towards liz cheney, kevin mccarthy knows that. he made the calculus to follow donald trump and not liz cheney i admire my friends who are trying to reform the party, even

start a new center-right party. i don't think the numbers are there today for an ideological coalition like they're trying to imagine. >> how about the democrats, can they take advantage of the divisions that exist in the republican party as we know it right now? >> well, i think the smartest thing for democrats to do is to stay out of the muck and let the republicans fight among themselves and continue both in the executive from president biden to continue to lead and to govern. focus on the agenda and focus on trying to get it done. and if it's bipartisan, that's great. if there's not an opportunity for that being willing to move forward on some of these tough issues. for democrats, let them fight and just stay out of it. >> kasie hunt, let's talk about

where the party goes forward and, first, before we do that, savannah guthrie did sit down with liz cheney. we now have part of that interview. let's play part of it for you. >> are you the leader of the opposition in exile right now in the republican party? >> i intend to be the leader, one of the leaders in a fight to restore our party to bring our party back to substance and principles, and in a fight to make clear that we won't participate in the really dangerous effort that's under way. >> a lot of people frame this as a battle for the soul of the republican party. >> this is the opening salvo and it's a battle we have to win because it's not just about the republican party. it's about the country. >> the trump political team is actively looking to coalesce around a primary challenger to you. what is your message to them? >> bring it on.

>> well, i was going to say her message would be bring it on and it was exactly that. bring it on. what about david jolly's point the numbers just aren't there for the moderate or anti-trump republicans to create a new party, a new organization that could win primaries and an election in 2024? >> reporter: that's a key part of the challenge, andrea. i do think it is remarkable to hear a cheney deliver the message that way, just watching her say that. you can tell she's not afraid of former president trump, and there are so many people in this building who are afraid of donald trump, and that message was clear there. it does set up a real challenge in the primary if wyoming for the very reason that you just hit on, which is that if there is a single opposition candidate, donald trump is still very popular with wyoming republicans. i think the big question here is

what difference does what happened on january 6 make to voters and we've seen some evidence of this, who were willing to leave the republican party over it, become independents, voters who perhaps moved back and forth, dictate control of the house which tends to flip back and forth a little bit more with the winds of the day, if you will. if you look at the way liz cheney conducted herself, and savannah underscores this, but she said it elsewhere as well, january 6th changed things for her. it changed things for a number of republicans who maybe they were willing to put up with it and say it was a phase. well, how can it hurt or even in the weeks afterward, how can it hurt to let him have this view of things for a little while just to humor him? it became very clear on january 6th there was a very real cost. this building was attacked and

overrun by insurrectionists at the urging of former president trump. for liz cheney, that was a breaking point, and she has insisted that remains a breaking point. obviously kevin mccarthy made a decision. what is critical to watch how many americans also saw that as a breaking point because, david jolly, there weren't enough people before that happened who were willing to say, no, enough is enough. i don't want to put up with this anymore. at least not in the republican party and in the republican primary system. so that raises a question our system is not set up for her necessarily to take on trump directly in a primary. that's very obvious, but i do think there's something else going on here, and we still need to keep our minds and attention open to see what that actually is going to mean going forward. >> it's just extraordinary. she is so strong and so

determined, and i could see her in a presidential campaign context as well. kristen welker -- >> it wouldn't surprise me. >> exactly. and, kristen welker, the implications for the president's program. he also has divisions on the democratic side. and they couldn't even getting the voting rights bill out of the senate, and the senate rules committee in that evenly divided senate rules committee. going forward, joe manchin is against it. key parts of his program are still not heading toward any kind of successful vote. >> reporter: i think you're right, there are divisions in the democratic party, joe manchin. they are very concerned about his proposal to increase taxes and others want broad sweeping changes and pushing for the increases in taxes. that is where the president has a lot of work to do to unify his

party to get his proposals over the finish line not to mention trying to get something done with bipartisan support. that was a key part of his campaign promise that he was going to be a president who would usher in a new spirit of bipartisanship. he wasn't able to do that with that first piece of legislation that he passed, that covid relief bill. the white house says, look, that was an emergency piece of legislation. so they wanted to pass that. it passed along party lines clearly without any republican support and that's why they say there is a willingness and an openness to try to potentially work with republicans and reach across the aisle. i want to add one thing to kasie's analysis, the uncertainty aspect and the risk aspect here of what we witnessed today on capitol hill, because when you look at the numbers, andrea, former president trump's approval rating is dropping. and so i think kasie really hits the nail on the head.

how many americans saw january 6 as a turning point? they are gambling former president trump will help them win the election. will that still be the case in 2022 as they try to fight to take back the house? that remains an open question, andrea. >> and that's kevin mccarthy's big bet, betting on being speaker of the house. thanks to all. and you can see more, of course, of that exclusive interview tonight, savannah guthrie and liz cheney on "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. and the democratic response, i'll get reaction to the breaking news on liz cheney and the president's meetingwith congressional leadership. and we'll keep an eye on the white house and will come to you with any congressional leadership reaction as they come out and speak just ahead on "andrea mitchell reports."

nobody builds 5g like verizon builds 5g because we're the engineers who built the most reliable network in america. thousands of smarter towers, with the 5g coverage you need. broader spectrum for faster 5g speeds. next-generation servers with superior network reliability. because the more you do with 5g, the more your network matters. it's us...pushing us. it's verizon...vs verizon. and who wins? you. this is the sound of change.

the sound of a thousand sighs of relief. and the sound of a company watching out for you. this is the sound of low cash mode from pnc bank, giving you multiple options and at least 24 hours to help you avoid an overdraft fee. because we believe how you handle overdrafts should be in your control, not just your bank's. low cash mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. one way we're making a difference. we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... low cash mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. doug? [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has easy-to-use tools and some of the lowest prices. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. we know how much you count on us... ...and that's why we're here 24/7...

...and on the road maintaining a fast and reliable network. we're always working to ensure the internet meets your needs... ...by making access easier for all... ...with comcast lift zones and our internet essentials program. we're invested in making our apps easy... ...to give you personalized assistance around the clock. and we're committed to keeping our team and customers safe by working from home... ...and using precautions in store. see what we're up to at xfinity.com/commitment

and we have a lot more coming up on that breaking news. we had savannah guthrie's interview with liz cheney. more of that to come later today on "nightly news" and the "today" show tomorrow in full. i'm joined by democratic reaction by house majority whip jim clyburn of south carolina. you've seen a lot of action on the hill over the decades, but i don't know that we've seen anything like this, a voice vote that took minutes. they were in such a hurry to get it over with and get her out the door, and her declaring to savannah guthrie she wants to be the leader of an opposition party to restore the republican party against donald trump. >> thank you very much for having me, andrea. i have not seep anything like this. but we live in -- people are doing insane things that have

never been done before. and so i suspect that we are going to have some real difficult deliberations between both sides going forward. i would hope, though, that the republican party will remain a viable party keeping the country in mind. i agree with her when it comes to that. these issues we are faced with today, covid-19 and its aftermath, what to do about our crumble infrastructure, what we do to get children back in schools, these things ought to be done in a bipartisan way that both parties work on different philosophies and not arguing over the past. >> how do you work with kevin mccarthy as the republican leader, and he's at the white house right now sitting with the president, he doesn't even acknowledge that joe biden is the legitimately elected president. how does that work?

>> well, it doesn't work too well and i think that will be a problem for us. that's my point. i think to get the past behind us, the election is over. and nobody is going to kick joe biden out of the white house. and for us to still be arguing over what we know to be one of the biggest lies ever told by any american in this country, he reminds me so much of adolf hitler sitting in the stands waiting for jesse owens to fulfill his philosophy of black folks being inferior and storming out of the building when j jesse owens won the race. i think kevin mccarthy will have, and donald trump, similar experiences in the next year. >> meanwhile, the republicans in 12 states have passed new voting restrictions this year including

arizona and florida this week, a key senate committee, deadlocked, unable to send the house passed bill on voting rights to the floor. that's going to make it a lot harder to get this all back on track. >> it's not going to be easy. but i don't think any of us can looking for easy work. we know that what we have to do for this country, especially in this current climate, is going to be hard to do. the kind of thing we have to do. we have to work hard and get it done. and i do believe in the final analysis that vote, this issue vote, ends up on the floor, and i do believe it may take the vice president casting the vote. but i think you're going to get in a good place and will be able to pass that legislation. because, once again, our democracy is teetering on the edge, and everybody knows that.

and the majority of the american people have great faith in the president. 53% approval rating and to have a majority of republicans, republican voters, agreeing with the program. i think we'll get to where we need to be even the partisan shenanigans taking place in the senate. >> now you have a couple of breaking news on the economic front, consumer prices jumping by more than 4% according to new numbers just out this morning. how concerned are you about inflation? >> you always -- and that's why we have the feds there, and i think chairman powell is keeping his eye on this, and i think the fed will intervene if they need to intervene. that's always a concern. i would much rather that being a

concern than people in soup lines. >> and i was going to ask you about police reform because the compromise is apparently working towards some sort of conclusion. would you accept this reform on choke holds and no-knock warrants but did not include changing the immunity for police officers? >> i think people understood what i said when i said half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. no loaf is keeping things as they are. the full loaf is the elimination of immunity. the half loaf to me is finding a way between those two places of getting the compromise with everybody to live with. the problem you have is qualified immunity has always been absolute immunity.

when i consult the law dictionary, qualified means partial, it means limited. it means absolute. i think we need to find out where we can get between what is today and the elimination, which is what i would want, that's a full loaf, getting rid of it. give it the proper definition so that we can. that's the problem you have now. i don't want us to lose confidence in law enforcement. i want that perfection to stay true to what it is. serve and protect not to beat up on, not to desert but to serve and protect.

>> congressman clyburn, thank you for being with us today. and in israel the worst violence in years with the u.n. warning they're heading to an all-out war. the latest on the conflict up next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." we started with computers. we didn't stop at computers. we didn't stop at storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of technology that can guide an astronaut back to safety. and help make a hospital come to you, instead of you going to it. so when it comes to your business, you know we'll stop at nothing. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches, weakness or discomfort in your hands or feet? introducing nervive nerve relief from the world's number 1 selling nerve care company. as we age, natural changes to our nerves occur

which can lead to occasional discomfort. nervive contains b complex vitamins that nourish nerves, build nerve insulation and enhance nerve communication. and, alpha-lipoic acid, which relieves occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. live your life with less nerve discomfort with nervive nerve relief. voiceover: riders. wanderers on the road of life. the journey is why they ride. when the road is all you need, there is no destination. uh, i-i'm actually just going to get an iced coffee. well, she may have a destination this one time, but usually -- no, i-i usually have a destination. yeah, but most of the time, her destination is freedom. nope, just the coffee shop. announcer: no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. voiceover: 'cause she's a biker... please don't follow me in.

attention, california. new federal funding of $3 billion is available to help more people pay for health insurance — no matter what your income. how much is yours? julie and bob are paying $700 less, every month. dee got comprehensive coverage for only $1 a month. and the navarros are paying less than $100 a month. check coveredca.com to see your new, lower price. the sooner you sign up the more you save. only at covered california. this way to health insurance.

the last 24 hours we've seen

the worst violence in seven years between hamas and gaza and the israeli military sparking overnight rioting by israeli arabs across the country and fears of an all-out civil war. after more than 500 rockets from gaza rained down on the usual targets in southern israel, but also started targeting tel aviv and jerusalem. a civilian state of emergency was declared. prime minister netanyahu promising an overwhelming response as israel warned of apartment buildings to evacuate before their high rises were leveled. several were. secretary of state tony blinken moments ago making this announcement. >> i've asked deputy assistant secretary of state to go to the region immediately to meet with israeli and palestinian leaders. he will bring to bear his decades of experience and will urge on my behalf and on behalf of president biden de-escalation of violence. we are very focused on this. >> secretary blinken reaffirmed the u.s. support for israel to

defend itself but said both israelis and palestinians equally deserve to live with safety and security. nbc's molly hunter is in london following all the latest developments. molly, the u.s. has been criticized for not being more involved, and we're told the president is sort of holding back, he's not getting involved personally. they may need that down the road. but so far what this conflict is empowering is netanyahu is so weak politically and has not even been asked to form a new government in the next 30 days and hamas trying to show its strength against the palestinian leaders in the west bank who postponed april elections. so you have the two players here, netanyahu and hamas, gaining power through the conflict. >> reporter: andrea, that's right. you've got the people, the leadership, speaking out on both sides and both sides are incredibly divided, as you say, they do not have a majority of support on either side. prime minister netanyahu cannot form a government which means

israel is likely headed to a fifth round of elections. and that is the backdrop for the chaos. i want to show you a video that just came out, we just saw in gaza. take a look at this. this is an israeli air strike flattening a building. we're just learning a little bit more about this building. there were warning of missile strikes. it's a 14-story building and it houses mostly media organizations, andrea. i've been in that building. i've done live shots from that building. it is the tallest building around in that neighborhood. and you see it absolutely flattening. now we don't know anything about whether people were inside, whether there were wounded, whether there are any deaths because of this. but the israeli military has been very clear they will take down buildings that they believe -- even if they're residential buildings like we saw yesterday -- if they believe hamas, the military group, of course, that runs gaza, is operating out of them. we just got more information from the israeli military about a 21-year-old soldier that was killed today by anti-tank

missile fired by hamas bringing the death toll on the israeli side to six people. now hamas says -- sorry, israel says hamas has fired more than 1,000 rockets. for a point of reference in 2014 that war was seven weeks. that is the last time we saw this kind of escalation. they fired 4,000 rockets. just in the last two days they have fired 1,000 rockets. as you said in your intro they're not just targeting the southern israeli cities, they are tiring towards jerusalem, towards israel. we also have an updated death toll for you, andrea, from the gaza health authorities, 53 people including 14 kids. and you also mentioned how prime minister netanyahu is really digging in his heels vowing to respond intensely to up the rate of attacks. it's also about what's happening inside israel. so he was visiting a city earlier today mixed with israelis and palestinian citizens of israel. we have seen the biggest street protests in 20 years. he's now threatening curfews and one of those cities will be seeing a curfew tonight from

8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. >> really unprecedented. thank you, molly hunter. the worst violence since 2014. and fact versus fiction what is holding back many americans from getting a covid-19 vaccine? we'll debunk a lot of the myths surrounding the shot. stay with us. ahead of msnbc's town hall on vaccinating america with president joe biden joining host lawrence o'donnell. this is how you become the best! ♪“you're the best” by joe esposito♪ ♪ [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade. ♪♪ it's velveeta shells & cheese versus the other guys. ♪♪ clearly, velveeta melts creamier.

like you, my hands are everything to me. but i was diagnosed with dupuytren's contracture. and it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. thought surgery was my only option. turns out i was wrong. so when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. like you, my hands have a lot more to do.

learn more at factsonhand.com today.

[sfx: kids laughing] [sfx: bikes passing] [sfx: fire truck siren] onstar, we see them. okay. mother and child in vehicle. mother is unable to exit the vehicle. injuries are unknown. thank you, onstar. ♪ my son, is he okay? your son's fine. thank you. there was something in the road... it's okay. you're safe now. you could take your ulcerative colitis treatment in a different direction. talk to your doctor about xeljanz, a pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when a certain medicine did not help enough. xeljanz is the first and only fda-approved pill for moderate to severe uc. it can reduce symptoms in as early as two weeks, improve the appearance of the intestinal lining, and provide lasting steroid-free remission. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections.

before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers, including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. you could take your uc treatment in a different direction. ask your gastroenterologist about xeljanz. msnbc is hosting a special town hall meeting on vaccinating america. the campaign is slowing down. what is the white house's plan to get more shots into arms? president joe biden will be joining my colleague lawrence o'donnell at 10:00 eastern and lawrence will be joined by dr. anthony fauci, surgeon general

murthi, xavier beccera will all be answering audience questions. to preview the big event we are tackling the myths and our doctors will separate fact from fiction. joining us now dr. patell, our medical adviser for the town hall tonight, a former white house health policy director to president obama, and dr. emanuel, the prvost and a former member of the biden transition covid-19 advisory board. we have great doctors here. let's start sorting out some of the myths starting with myth number one. let's say people will say i had covid-19 so i don't need to get a false. true or false? >> false, andrea. it is recommended if you've had covid-19, we encourage you to get a vaccine for a simple reason. we don't know how long your immunity from covid-19 lasts

and, furthermore, the vaccines have been proven to boost immunity if you've had covid-19 and help protect against the concerning variants which probably cropped up after your infection and could be responsible for future infections. >> and so let's talk about myth number two, people are worried about long-term effects. the myth is what's the fact on this? >> we've administered 1.3 billion doses worldwide and over 320 million people have gotten both doses. and we've seen very, very few side effects. the most serious side effect was the clotting from the j&j and the astrazeneca vaccine and those occur very shortly after people were vaccinated, within two weeks. we have plenty of people who have been out six months and were simply not seeing a lot of

side effects. contrast that with getting covid, which we know has lots of long-term side effects. we call those long-haulers. the vaccines are much, much safer in the short term and long term compared to getting a covid infection. >> okay. myth number three, dr. patel, women worry about how the vaccine will impact their fertility or their pregnancy. >> all the vaccines really do is create your own body to develop the antibodies and the immunity against covid-19. people are worried that somehow these are substances being injected that will alter their cells or prevent them from getting pregnant. simply not true. there's been no effects on fertility and, in fact, just to dr. emanuel's point if you're pregnant or trying to get pregnant, covid-19 itself can cause more devastating effects, and we know that. so very important for young women, women of any age, to

remember it's a very safe vaccine, does not interfere with pregnancy and can, in fact, hem you if you are pregnant or want to get pregnant from getting covid-19 which is far worse. >> and dr. emanuel -- >> can i get on that? >> sure. >> more than 100,000 women who have been pregnant have gotten this vaccine, and we have not seen any side effects in pregnancy. in addition, women who are pregnant generate antibodies and those antibodies go to the fetus and also when they begin to breast-feed the baby after delivery they go to the baby protecting the baby from this devastating virus. >> it's a plus, plus, plus, plus when it comes to pregnancy. and no side effects. dr. zeke, what i wanted to ask you about is concerns about the new mrna technology. can you address that? >> yes. first of all, this mrna

technology has been in development for nearly 30 years. it's not as it were new. initially there were inflammatory side effects that prevent it had from being used as a vaccine or therapeutic. now it's very safe. it doesn't get incorporated into the dna of a person. it's used to make antigen -- or to make a protein that the body's immune response goes to. it has been used a lot. it just hasn't been used in this vaccine case. but, as i mentioned, 1.3 billion doses of these vaccines have already been given. we have a lot of experience with this mrna vaccine. >> and dr. patel, what about people who say they just don't want to take a vaccine? they're anti-vaxxers, suspicious about putting anything into their bodies. >> yeah, i think this is a concern that a lot of people have and really what they need

to do is have these conversations with their health care practitioners. i've told my patients that getting covid-19 and being a part of never having to worry about dying or having a hospitalization from this is incredibly important even as we're still seeing deaths each day, andrea. i think another important point about putting foreign substances in your body, these are not foreign substances that in any way alter anything other than provoking your own immune system to develop responses to deal with the viruses. and, in a way, i try to explain these viruses themselves can cause more harm by being in your body. we are still trying to unpack the long-term effects of covid-19, and it's likely it will be years before we understand what this really means. so, in short, get your vaccine and, number two, if you have these concerns don't delay in having a conversation. we're all taking these conversations very seriously and spending a lot of time to try to

counsel people without them feeling they're pushed into a corner. watching how people have been responding and even people with covid who have gotten vaccinated have seen some of the symptoms they had improve or go away. so it's a really compelling reason. and you can do your part, not just for yourself with the vaccine, but you will play a part in society returning to normal because you're actually going to help your community reach immunity. and that's something hard to grasp. an individual getting vaccinated can have a huge impact on the people around them who you probably don't even know, but it will help us get back to normal. >> a great message -- >> may i say one other thing? >> sure. you bet. >> cleveland clinic did a study which was just recently published, and more than 99% of the people who got admitted to the hospital with covid were not vaccinated. in other words, the vaccinated people really are almost completely protected from being

hospitalized or, god forbid, dying from this infect that should be compelling reason enough for everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated to avoid hospitalization and, god forbid, avoid death. we have very, very solid data that vaccines prevent those dire outcomes. >> and not only protect yourself, you can have a more normal life and protecting the people around you and getting the society back to normal as dr. patel said. thank you so much. we're looking forward to tonight. thanks so much for being with us on this. make sure to tune in for "vaccinating america" an msnbc town hall event as lawrence o'donnell sits down to answer your questions all tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. and from the scientific

wilderness to scientific acclaim, how one woman's decades of research helped unlock the secret empowering the pfizer and moderna vaccines. her extraordinary story up next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ you don't always set out to be a rock star. but when the spotlight finds you. you become one anyway. ♪ ♪ we are hoping things will pick up by q3. yeah...uh... you become one anyway. doug? [ding] never settle with power e*trade. it has easy-to-use tools and some of the lowest prices. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today.

real progress? when you're affected by schizophrenia, you see it differently. it's in the small, everyday moments. and in the places, you'd never expect. a little sign of hope. the feeling of freedom. we have breaking news. the republicans are at the microphones having just met with the president. have a listen. >> about infrastructure and i think i'm safe saying there is certainly a bipartisan desire to get an outcome. clearly, senate republicans are not interested in revisiting the 2017 tax bill. i think the president and vice

president understand that. beyond that, we're interested in trying to get an outcome and i think the first step is obviously to define what infrastructure is, the definition of it and we all think, all agree to work on that together. my preference is to include the committees, there where the experts are. the president has actually been meeting with members of my conference. coming down here tomorrow, who know the most about this and i don't favor having a top down dictation as to what this package looks like but rather a consulted process by which everyone in my conference is involved in it. >> i felt our meeting was strong when we talked about infrastructure. i think there is a place we can find bipartisanship and one thing i brought up to the president. we first have to start with the definition of what is

infrastructure? that's not home health. that's road, bridges, airports, broad brand. america wants to know you're not going to wait a decade to build it. we need reform. most litigated registration, we need to stream line. on average getting seven to ten years. we want to be competitive, we have to have things built now. i took the opportunity to talk to the president about my concerns about the rise in inflation, especially the numbers we see today. the concern of what happens where incentiizing people not to work. the concern i find from a number of people can't get them back to work. we need to get people back to work, back to school, back to health and back to normal. i also raised the concern along the border that i want to talk to the president about having traveled there a few times what i'm seeing there. just america was able to watch

those young girls, one even 11 months old that had a rancher not found them would they even be alive today? the sad part is that's not the only story like that. it's day in and day out and those are places we can work together and should work together to try to solve what is happening there. i'm really concerned what i see from a future of economics of america. we have not seen the inflation month over month like this since the 1970s and 1950s. we've not seen gasoline lines and we find rationing since carter was president. we should be looking forward, not backwards and the idea of not spending more trillions of dollars when you have a supply constraint is the reverse you want to do to keep america and make sure we don't have inflation going. yes? >> [ indiscernible question ]

>> we'll, first of all, the conference will decide but i don't think anyone is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. we're sitting here with the president today. from that point of view, i don't think that's a problem. >> the white house is talking about a $2 trillion package by raising corporate taxes, talking about 5, $600 billion on infrastructure. you don't want to raise corporate taxes. you don't want user fees. how do you come to an agreement. >> you won't find any republican that will go raise taxes. i think that's the worst thing you can do in this economy when you watch inflation. gas is going up. the gas price today, national gas price has not been this high since president biden was vice president. you watching food costs go up, housing costs, lumber cost. cars have not moved this high

month over month to 10%. raising taxes would be the biggest mistake you could make. remember, the economy we had when we lowered taxes to 3.5% unemployment. you had everybody having opportunity regardless where you are. the best employment. that to us is a non-starter. what we walked into the room with, where can we find agreement and i felt that was productive. i felt all of us as leader and the president, the vice president sitting down saying let's first decide what is the definition of infrastructure? if we can decide that, then we can work on what the need is and how to -- what we need to spend. that was productive and i felt coming out that's where we were ending up. >> yeah, and we're not interested in reopening the 2017 tax bill. we both made that clear to the president. that's our red line. we believe that in february of 2020 we had the best economy

we've had in 50 years. we believe that was a major reason for it. and so from my prospective, this discussion about the way forward on infrastructure will not include revisiting the 2017 tax bill. >> you know why you get the question? because you married a girl from bakersfield, who is fabulous by the way. yes? you definitely married up, but go ahead. >> we know that the president spent a lot of time on infrastructure with you guys today. are you satisfied you're spending enough time because we don't hear him talking about the border, the crisis in the middle east, the gas supply issues right now. is he spending enough time? is he meet -- are the satisfied with the leadership? >> i thought the meeting today was productive and i know he wanted to have the meeting on infrastructure, but i want to take the opportunity to talk about the concerns i'm hearing around the country.

from affordability, the price of gas, the crisis at the borde that's coming every single day, the ability to get people to go back to work. the incentive. the schools. the millions of kids who are not back at school. these are the concerns i'm hearing every day. i took this opportunity to raise them with the president. i'd like to have more and see action on that. i'm consider concerned with what is happening in israel. the president and i touched on that. he brought that up. i commended the president for his comments yesterday. israel's ability to defend themselves and they should be. >> let me add one thing on the issue of inflation and getting people back to work. last week i had round tables with businesses of all sizes, including hospitals, said what's your biggest problem? number one they can't get people to come back to work and number two, inflation. exactly the same thing that

kevin was hearing and others are hearing around the country. i think that's direct result of flooding the zone with an extraordinary amount of money. i will say this, there is great excitement at state government and local counties. they've never seen anything like what's headed their way with this mountain of money that's coming in. hopefully, we can capture some of that to make this infrastructure package go forward in a way that everybody would like to see it go forward. >> what made your change your mind on liz cheney? based on what you heard from the president today are you more optimistic working with this white house on infrastructure or less? >> no, i think there is an opportunity we can work together on infrastructure. let me rephrase that. as long as it's not tax increases and dealing with infrastructure we start with the concept what is the definition

and that we're able to make reforms so you can actually build the roads not decades away, that you modernize a law from the 1970s so money, roads get built and get faster. what i really want to work on is making sure turning this economy around and getting people back to work, back to school, back to health and back to normal. i believe in the vaccine that's why i'm not wearing a mask. i want people back in school, the other thing, too, you have to understand, those numbers we heard today on inflation, that should terrify every american because it's not a question whether there will be a tax increase, you just had the biggest tax increase you've had in more than ten years and it hit you already. for those who have lower income, it's getting hit harder. that's why we got to incentivize people to get back to work and get the economy moving again and stronger and stop this inflation and part of what congress has recently done by spending the trillions of dollars is the wrong action to take in the economy we have today that you

could propel inflation greater, make people's money worth less, the affordability is more difficult. those are the things i want to discuss and correct. last question? >> are you concerned about you future in leadership given you've protected cheney so long? >> not at all. >> you're not concerned at all? >> no, i'm looking forward to being the next speaker in congress. thank you very much. >> welcome to wednesday. you've just been watching kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell at a pool spray there outside of the white house. outside the west wing there. it's obviously been a very busy wednesday. it been an extraordinary busy wednesday for kevin mccarthy in particular. i think probably the most news worthy non-infrastructure part of the conversation and the remarks is we heard mccarthy claim his