good day to all of us from msnbc world headquarters. welcome to "alex witt report." we start on breaking news on the deadly attacks between israel and hamas. dozens of air strikes ki8d those in gaza and rescuers are working to help those survivors in the rubble. let's go to msnbc's roth sanchez standing by. >> reporter: alex, as you said, this is the single deadliest air strike we have seen in gaza. the death toll right now, 42 people killed, 16 women, 10 children. and that number has been

climbing all day as those rescue crews pull more bodies out of the rubble in gaza city. you asked how officials are responding. i've been asking the israeli military all day, what was the target here? what were you aiming for? a short while ago they came back to me with a statement. i will read part of that to you. they said they were targeting underground military infrastructure belonging to the hamas terror organization. the undergrournd military facilities collapsed causing foundation of the civilian houses above them to collapse as well, leading to unintended causalities. i should say nbc news has not independently verified those claims about an underground military facility. even if this was a legitimate military target, the question under international law, does its military significance outweigh this massive civilian -- we now have more

than 50 children killed in gaza in the last -- >> all right, guys, we're having some trouble. well, we're hearing a little bit. all right. are you back? can you hear me? >> reporter: yes. >> great. continue. i'm sorry. >> reporter: alex, i'm sorry. i was just saying, our team in gaza caught up earlier with a young palestinian-american who was caught in the strip, now finding himself in the middle of this fighting. and he reflected on the impact this is having on the children in gaza. take a listen. >> to these kids, this is not normal. they don't live normal lives. they're going to grow up in a different way other than the kids. you can't expect these kids to be normal in the future.

>> reporter: prime minister netanyahu of israel indicating earlier that he is not looking for a cease-fire right now. he wants more time on the battlefield to degrade hamas' military capabilities. so far, he's not under much public pressure, at least from the biden administration to go for a cease-fire. that may change as these civilian casualties rise. alex? >> yeah. okay, thanks so much. joining me now, ben rhodes, former national deputy security adviser to president obama. good to see you. as we look at this conflict, it's been going on for decades but right now it feels different. tensions have reached a new threshold. is that how you're seeing it? do you have a sense of what's prompted this level of attacks and why now? >> yeah, alex, i think there are a couple things different from past gaza wars.

first, the asimilar trihas grown. even hamas, a terrorist organization that threatens israeli people is dealing with rockets and the people bearing the brunt of these strikes appear to be civilians. i think the second thing that's really important, there's no hope for a two-state solution. even during past gaza wars, past conflicts, there was a peace process ongoing, a prospect of a palestinian state. it is the policy of prime minister netanyahu to never allow a palestinian state on his watch. he has said that. the settle manies have expanded, israeli settlements into east jerusalem, into west bank in a way that is making a palestinian state impossible. not only do you have the human tragedy of this horrific violence, obviously the threat to israeli civilians, but the far greater toll on the palestinian side with all these children being killed, included among them. but you also have a real loss of hope and a feeling among palestinians that there is no

prospect they're going to have their rights respected or they're going to have a state of their own. >> to have a level of hopelessness on both sides that something can be done. that's a difficult way to try to negotiate things. i'm curious what you think of the biden administration's approach so far. the president talked to both leaders yesterday, trying to de-escalate but there's no sign of a cease-fire in sight. what does the president need to do? does he need to change his stance? >> i think as you watch these images and you see the death toll mounting, and as alluded to in your package, you see the trauma this is going to inflict on people on both sides, i think acutely the people of gaza, i think president biden has to consider getting out there and publicly calling for a cease-fire, publicly calling for the israeli government to stop this bombardment, just as we obviously call for hamas to end these rocket attacks because the reality is, it's hard to see

what military objective outweighs the civilian harm being done to the people of gaza. frankly, some of these other issues around hamas' tunnel networks, around the weapon shipments into gaza can be dealt with in cease-fire negotiations with other parties in the region. right now i think the world is increasingly looking to president biden to publicly call for a cease-fire. i'm sure in private there are discussions taking place. when you get behind that position publicly, because as of now prime minister netanyahu is saying he's acting with the full support of the u.s. government. >> here's something former secretary of state mike pompeo had to say about it this morning. let's take a listen. >> every single step the biden administration has taken to date puts them in greater risk and puts friends and allies and partners of us in the middle east a great risk. there's a direct line between appeasement and war. we worked for four years to create sxaes stability in the

middle east. we made clear to the palestinians that we're not going to underwrite you. we're not going to send american taxpayer money to the palestinians while you're still committed to wiping israel off the face of the earth. this administration came in and immediately began underwriting the palestinians again. >> what's your reaction to that? >> welling, i think it's disgusting, frankly. first of all, it's completely counterfactual. the biden administration has talked about resuming the palestinian authority. that has nothing to do with hamas. that has nothing to do with the rocket attacks we see. i think more profoundly, though, what you saw under the trump administration was, in part, a kind of full embrace of the right wing of the israeli government's view of settlement policy, of the conflict generally. but you also saw this politicalization of this issue in american politics. i remember mike pompeo speaking to the republican national convention with jerusalem as his back drop, as if it was just

another political -- >> yeah, i remember that. >> this is an incredibly sensitive, complicated, historical issue that involves the israelis, the palestinians, it involves the base of three great religions, and to continually just treat it like it's some culture war issue in the united states is part of the problem. it's part of what has infected the efforts to pursue diplomacy to address these issues. i think viewing everything as mike pompeo and donald trump do as some extension of their domestic war against democrats does nothing to help secure israelis and nothing to ensure rights and security for palestinians. >> here's one approach, as there has been substantial pressure on biden to act, not just from -- it's also coming from the left wing of the democratic party. that includes senator bernie sanders who wrote in an op-ed this week, ben, saying the u.s. mes stop being an apologist for the netanyahu government.

should he take a stuffer stance against israel? talking about biden, that is. what would be the fallout of that. >> look, i think this is a politically challenging issue in the united states. there's very strong support in both political parties. i think the issue bernie sanders and others is raising, including other people, including me at times, is netanyahu has moved this relationship in an ins creasingly far right direction. you have seen him essentially undermine the foreign policy of the last president -- democratic president in the white house that i worked for, barack obama. you see him fully embracing donald trump during the trump presidency. you see him walking away from support for a two-state solution with palestinians and you see him increasingly embracing the israeli settlement movement moving into the west bank, using

incendiary rhetoric in the way he talks about palestinians. it was inevitable that this would force a series of debates inside the democratic party about policy towards israel. i think we all want to support israel and the israeli people. the question is, what has prime minister netanyahu done as prime minister? that's a distinct issue. we can support israel while having strong policy disagreements with what the israeli government has done. the reality is what the israeli government has done under prime minister netanyahu has done runs counter to what joe biden has said, a two-state solution. >> i have to tell you, given the difficulties of the topic of this conversation, i want to thank you so much for harnessing your expertise and bringing some really, really sage comments to this conversation. thank you very much. new today in the coronavirus pandemic, the country's largest nurses' union condemning the cdc's new guidelines that vaccinated americans don't need masks in most places.

national nurses united says it worries it will put frontine workers at risk while the pandemic is still present. the cdc is defending it, saying the decision was a needed first step. >> this was not permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. this was science-driven, individual assessment of your risk. now, what -- that's the first step we need to take in our guidance to understand what's the individual risk. cdc is hard at work now saying what does this mean for schools, for travel, for camps, for businesses? but we needed this foundation, this building block in order to revise all of that guidance. and starbucks is the latest to change its mask requirements. starting tomorrow, masks will be optional for vaccinated customers. walmart, costco, trader joe's and publix have lifted their mask mandate. let's go to new york at a pop-up vaccination clinic in the bronx and scott cohen in california.

thank you to you for being here. what are you seeing in terms of the vaccine demand and the masks there, how many people are coming and how many people are wearing masks or not? >> reporter: yeah, i have to note, alex, really quickly, this vaccine pop-up site has just ended. prior to this, just moments ago, it was very busy. it was a busy morning. and doctors tell me it was actually busier than normal. they think there is an effect from the cdc guidelines coming out. 30% of people were just coming through to use the subway and decided to get the shot. 60% heard from word of mouth. everybody i spoke to out here was excited to get the shot and move into the next phase of life. even though many of them did say they're going to continue to wear their mask indoors because they just don't feel quite ready yet, they do feel that it is an important first step in order to be able to get back to not just leisurely life but important things they need to do every day. their jobs, child care, that sort of thing.

listen to what one man told me. [ speaking foreign language ] >> translator: he feels great that he got vaccinated because this way he could get back to normal. he could now take his mask off. he could speak in ways people will understand him because they can see his face and this way everything is going back to the normal he knew before. >> reporter: of course, alex, these pop-up sites are the latest way for states to be able to reach communities and really, really hyperlocal communities that might not have otherwise had a chance to get the vaccine. we're seeing this more and more that states are having to get really creative. as a matter of fact, we have seen certain tourist destinations where tourists can get free vaccines as well. we're looking at about 30

million people who say they want the vaccine, they just haven't had a chance to get it yet. that's a sweet spot of trying get those people vaccinated as well. >> thank you from new york. we're going to head west across the country to scott cohen in san francisco where authorities are looking for ways to ramp up the momentum for the vaccine. so what's happening where you are, scott? >> reporter: yeah, alex. about 10:14 in the morning pacific time so it's early for a burger but when super duper burger opens up in about 15 minutes, they'll continue with their incentive of a free order of french fries for anybody who can show they've been vaccinated. this restaurant is one of four locations in the chain and it's been a difficult year for them, as it has been for most restaurateurs because of the pandemic. this is a busy touristy area of san francisco where. we're near the art museum and a few blocks from the masconi

center, a convention center. the hope is, obviously, to get more people vaccinated buzz the owners also say it's good for business. >> the safety of our employees and our guests, very important for us. so encouraging people to get vaccinated would seem to really help with that. if everyone's done their vaccinations and people are, you know, no longer worried about getting exposed to it, i think it will help the restaurant industry build its way back up. >> reporter: the bay area is among actually the best in the nation in terms of vaccination rates. in san francisco, 75% of the population now has gotten at least one shot. 60% fully vaccinated. and yet they're still offering these incentives to get more people in.

at levi stadium, home of the 49ers in santa clara, they're offering tour for teens who get vaccinated. free pizza in some areas here. santa clara the city offering fast food gift cards. a lot of food involved in all of this. in some parts of the country, the incentives are even richer. like in ohio if you get vaccinated now, you get entered into $1 million a week lottery. >> what? >> reporter: you could potentially win a full-ride scholarship at an ohio university. so, they are really trying to pull out all the stops to get people vaccinated. i guess if that's what it takes, that's what officials are willing to do, alex. >> i think there has to be people out there like you and me thinking, we got vaccinated too soon. anyway, it's all for a good cause. it's all good. thanks. a "new york times" piece on the demeanor of the president is drawing attention. i'll talk with someone who knows him personally next. robert gibbs will join me. robert gibbs will join me. incomparable design makes it beautiful.

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developing this hour, the house is expected to vote this week on newly agreed upon legislation to create a bipartisan commission to study what went wrong on the january 6th attack on the capitol. as that vote nears, house homeland security chair thompson told msnbc today he's going to stand up against any efforts by republicans to broaden the commission's scope. >> we're talking strictly about the event of january 6th. if there are some individuals who want to set up another commission, that's perfectly within their right as members of congress, but for what we have here today, we're looking solely from a scope of what happened on january 6th. >> meanwhile, we're getting a new look at how republican voters feel about congresswoman liz cheney being removed from her leadership post in the party. a new poll finds only 17% of

republicans thought cheney should have stayed in her position. congresswoman cheney giving new reaction today to her ousting. >> there's no question but that at this moment the majority of the republican party is not where i am. but it's my responsibility as an elected official, it's my responsibility as a leader to lead and to tell the truth. >> the vote to remove cheney still reverberating within the republican party this weekend. today republican lawmakers appear to be split on what role donald trump still has in the party as they try to navigate how to move toward. >> he's one of many leaders in the party. he's a former president. we're five months into president biden's presidency and there is a time to move on. you can't say he's the leader and then say we have to move on. i would love to move on. we're sitting here with donald trump throwing up all the smoke screen of four months ago. we to want move on. it's hard to do when he keeps bringing back to a stolen

election. >> it can be a big week ahead for president biden's infrastructure plan. the president giving republicans a tuesday deadline to present a new counterproposal to his plan. this past week president biden met with several influential lawmakers, including a group of republicans to attempt to inch closer to a bipartisan agreement. the president is hoping to strike a deal by memorial day. joining me now is msnbc political analyst robert gibbs, former white house press secretary under former president obama. good to see you. let's work on getting your thoughts on some of the challenges this white house has faced so far. that's going to start with the escalating violence in the middle east right now. i spoke with another obama administration alum just moments ago, ben rhodes. when president obama was in office, how did he approach the israel/palestinian conflict? how much of a hurdle do you think it's posing for president biden? >> well, i think it's

intensifying on the ground in the region and i think you have seen president biden have to get much more involved, calling prime minister netanyahu and president abbas. there's a senior enjoy that arrived recently in the region. i have no doubt this is taking up a growing amount of bandwidth inside of the white house. and i think there will be intensifying international pressure to get the u.s. more involved and to also put pressure on both parties to get to a durable cease-fire. there's no doubt the conditions that president obama inherited in 2009 and the conditions for long-term peace that joe biden inherited in 2021 are thousands of years apart, lightyears apart in those challenges. it's about managing right now. it's not -- we're not in this long-term look for the peace that many presidents had sought.

>> okay. from there to the cdc's new guideline on masks. i want to get your thoughts on that. according to "the washington post," the huge policy turn-around caught senior white house and business leaders completely offguard and prompted some physicians to criticize the move as premature. so, robert, the administration really didn't know this guidance was changing? does that surprise you? how would that happen? >> well, i think that's probably one good element of the story, i will alex. folks involved at the white house left this to the scientists at the cdc. i think that part of the story is good. i do understand, though, the strain of communicating this quickly and having lots and lots and lots of questions about what this means.

i think we've all been to events and places in the last 24 hours that will have a sign up that says, please wear a mask, but the guidance, obviously, is different now with that. i think it's really going to be incumbent upon the cdc to continue to communicate actively on this, to answer questions, to help businesses, to help cities and states understand how this guidance should be translated into the rule-making and the policy-making that has to be implemented at that state and local level. so, i think this is really the beginning of that process, not the end of it. i can understand the strain this puts on a lot of different people because just two days before this in testimony before the senate, it wasn't necessarily foreshadowed that this big change was going to happen just 48 hours later. >> absolutely. so, there's this "new york times" piece, robert, on president biden and it reads in part, beneath joe biden's folksy demeanor a short fuse and

obsession with details. this article goes on to say, quick decision-making is not mr. biden's style. his reputation as aplain speaking politician hides a more complicated truth. before making up his mind, he demands hours of detail-laden debate from scores of policy experts taking everyone around him on what some in the west wing refer to as his journey before arriving at a conclusion. i'm curious, given your experience with him, do you agree with that assessment? >> i certainly saw then vice president biden as extraordinarily deliberative. i had actually -- i enjoy the fact that he sometimes snaps at people for using too many acronyms or not using the language that most people use or that he should use as a communicator of those policy decisions. i appreciated that. but i think -- look, i think each president has his own style

in making these decisions. i think a couple of important things. the easy decisions don't get made inside the white house. there aren't meetings in the situation room for easy decisions. those meetings never get to the campus of the white house and they never go into the situation room. so, that, i would say, is certainly part of it. and i think presidents are held more -- not how they make decisions but by the impact of them. i understand and can appreciate the deliberate nature by which joe biden is undertaking the weight and seriousness of these decisions because each decision sent a one-off. it impacts other decisions that ultimately have to be made and a path towards different policy development. so, they're not easy to make and they're deliberative in nature. and i think most people will appreciate that as long as it doesn't appear as if the process is dragging on and decisions aren't being made. >> so in recent interviews white

house press secretary jen psaki revealed she talked to the biden transition team about a roughly one year or so term. does this surprise you? i'm wondering if you can give us a sense of how demanding the job is? i went years ago to a u.s. open match with then hillary clinton's press secretary lisa caputo. she had so much gear with her, beepers, back when there were beepers, and cell phones. it never stopped. this is at a tennis match. >> i will tell you this, alex, the one thing you learn in a senior white house position, and particularly press secretary, you don't control your own time. you aren't in control of what may or may not impact it. i can tell my child that this friday night we're going to order pizza and watch a movie and i just hope events didn't intervene in conspireing against that from happening. jen didn't seek this job. this job sought her. and it's incredibly hard once

the president-elect asks you to serve in such a big role at such a big moment to say anything other than yes, but i think she understands, you know, she's got a young family. she was very happy in the life she had, and i think, again, that constant strain of time -- i remember leaving the white house on christmas eve 2009, desperate to sort of unplug for a few days and figuring, if there's ever a moment to be able to do it, it's probably on christmas. >> yeah. >> and lo and behold, by 10:00 or so the next morning, i had already been called by the situation room because somebody tried to blow up a plane landing in detroit. we all remember that. and i had hoped to unplug for a few days and found myself back at the white house at 7:30 the morning after christmas. again, you don't control your own time. and you don't control events. that puts a tremendous strain on everything in your life, and it's hard. and i think jen understands,

she's got a unique view of history of the world right now at a big time and she has other things she wants to do as well. this gives her a chance to dive in but understand she doesn't have to do this forever. >> i always appreciate your insight into that sxa everything else you bring to the table. thank you. what congressman matt gaetz told a crowd yesterday about the sexual misconduct allegations involving him. allegations involving him. yes, thank you, that was fast. sgt. houston never expected this to happen. or that her grandpa's dog tags would be left behind. but that one call got her a tow and rental... ...paid her claim... ...and we even pulled a few strings. making it easy to make things right: that's what we're made for. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. get a quote today.

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republican congressman matt gaetz downplaying sexual misconduct allegations against him at the latest stop on his america first tour. meanwhile, his associate, joel greenberg, is set to appear in court tomorrow. he is expected to plead guilty to six charges and cooperate with a federal sex trafficking investigation. gaetz has not been charged and has repeateddy denied any wrongdoing.

let's go to von hilliard joining us. let's talk about what this plea deal could mean for matt gaetz. >> reporter: good afternoon, alex. when we're talking about congressman gaetz of florida here, the question is, is he potentially one of these other, quote, other men who joel greenberg, the florida tax official and associate of matt gaetz. is matt gaetz one of those, quote, other men who joel greenberg has indicated he is ready to implicate as part of this sex trafficking investigation that federal authorities are leading? what we know from court documents rye leased on friday, ahead of tomorrow's appearance in court by joel greenberg is that he has admitted to $70,000 worth of payments over the course of 150 transactions from 2016 to 2018 for commercial sex acts. not only for him, though but, quote, other men. in those court documents, those other men were not named by greenberg. the question in tomorrow's court

appearance is whether matt gaetz, the florida congressman s one of those individuals. now, we should know the congressman has vehemently denied these allegations saying that he has never paid for sex acts, but the other issue, the legal challenge potentially for matt gaetz is whether joel greenberg will name him as one of those individuals who engaged in a commercial sex act with a minor. among those women who sexual acts were paid for, there is one individual who over the course of part of that time joel greenberg has indicated was a minor. now, the congressman has also denied those allegations that he had sex with a minor. at the same time, matt gaetz, who is really kind of taken on the trump mantel in congress, he's been on the road. he was in florida in the villages one week ago. last night he was actually speaking to a roomful of ohio gop activists. i want you to see for yourself the statement in which he denied this saying, quote -- as i pull

up my notes. quote, saying i'm falsely accused but congress has renewt instituted a process a process that legalizes the corrupt money. essentially downplaying the allegations against him and equating them to why is there not greater focus on earmarks as part of congressional legislating. we're expecting to see matt gaetz be in arizona this upcoming friday with congresswoman marjorie taylor greene as part of their america first tour. >> something for us to keep an eye on. joining me right now is sara longwell, executive director of republican accountability program. and i know you're joining us because you are one of more than hundreds of republicans discussing whether to create a new party after liz cheney was

stripped of her leadership role. first i want to ask you about matt gaetz, who has been a staunch supporter of donald trump. do his troubles also weigh into any considerations by your group? >> you know, what i think is remarkable about the matt gaetz situation is somehow he remains a republican in good standing while somebody like liz cheney is being excommunicated from the party. when i was a young conservative, i sort of became a conservative in the clinton years, and back then the entire mantra of the republican party was the idea that character counts, that morality mattered. so, it is such a long trip from there to here. we're not only are the antics of people like matt gaetz tolerated but they're actually sort of celebrated. you see the way he talks about it there. he says naughty favors as though it's all a big joke. that is one of the ways donald trump has really completely reshaped the republican party and where voters no longer -- it

just doesn't matter to them that much that this guy is not particularly a moral or upstanding citizen. >> i've got to say, when you pointed out naughty favors, it just seemed kind of gross and sleazy when he put it that way. let's move on to the letter now. this group is calling for the republican party to rededicate itself to founding ideal as and condemns the gop's embrace of donald trump and the big lie. how did it get to this point with trump and before you turn any trump supporters, do you need to identify the secret of his success? >> yeah, and i think people have identified sort of the secret of his success. it's the celebrity, it's the anti, sort of cancel culture, attack on the left. i do focus groups with trump supporters all the time. they can't really tell you what they're for on a policy front. so, it's not like they have a lot of affirmative policy goals. what they tell you is how much

they dislike the left, how much they dislike the media. donald trump being this fighter, this guy who's just going to beat up relentlessly on their enemies, that's the thing they love about him. you know, as far as, you know -- i think what the letter is about and what a lot of conservatives who are like me, kind of old-school conservatives, is they like liz cheney. they would like the party to reaffirm itself to a principle. it's not good enough going around saying you need to beat up on the left. i will say, i didn't actually sign this letter. i'm not on it. i think it would be wunl thing to start a third party if bernie sanders had been the democratic nominee. then i would say we absolutely need a third party to kind of protect the center, but i think joe biden was the nominee and, look, he's a big government spending liberal but he's not a socialist. i think what you need with the republican party being in this

incredibly dangerous place, you need to build the broadest, biggest pro-democracy coalition possible to push back on the sort of anti-democratic place the republican party has gone. so for me, i would actually -- i'm comfortable in the short term joining with the democrats to kind of fight back against the republicans. i worry about third-parties. they can be tricky. you never know who they're going to help. >> and this broad group, though, a broad coalition for a republican party, does that include the level of white supremacists that seem to be attracted to donald trump? well, when i say a broad coalition, i actually mean, i mean a broad pro-democracy coalition. i'm talking about a coalition that spans from liz warren to liz cheney. you know, finding -- pulling together a group of people that are going to say, hey, the election wasn't stolen. what happened on january 6th was an attack on the peaceful transition of power.

and people like kevin mccarthy, who are out there pushing that lie, lying to voters, he should not have access to political power, that you have ensure this is not a person who deserves to be the leader of a party. i'm actually talking about joining a democratic coalition for the time being to ensure that you're holding off this sort of dangerous version of the republican party from having access to political power. >> okay. sara longwell, executive director of the republican accountability project. thank you for clarifying you hadn't signed that letter. see you again. thank you. in a moment, remembering a dear old friend who filled us with wonder and kept us looking up. up

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a bit of sad news to report. legendary nbc news correspondent jay barbie died in florida at the age of 87. jay joined nbc in 1958 and retired in 2017. he had a career of 59 years. he reported on every human space mission to leave u.s. soil until the very last shuttle mission in 2011, 166 flights in total. jay was, indeed, a regular on our program many times. here's some of his reporting from 2003. that's when we first learned of the shuttle "columbia" disaster

with some information on the investigation in the following days. >> we'll get to jay barbree. good morning to you, jay. what do you have to tell us? >> alex, we could have a situation developing here. straight up on the hour, mission control lost communication with the astronauts while they were high over texas. >> air force cameras picked up high resolution images of the descent, quote, heavy structural damage on the left wing near the fuselage. jay barbree joins us. good morning. >> as you said, we can now -- we have visual proof that the left wing of the shuttle "columbia" had high structural damage -- i should say, high structural damage as it approached its breakup. >> in the 1980 jay was among those being considered to be the first civilian in space. back in 2006 i asked him if given the chance, would he do it?

>> jay, before we let you go, would you still go there? >> would i still go? >> uh-huh. >> i don't think they would -- i don't think they'd let me go today, but kind of the bloom is off the rose because japanese journalist has already paid for his way into space aboard a russian spacecraft to the space station. but maybe one day they will. if they would let me go, of course i would go because i would certainly like this broadcast from orbit. >> we would love to have you, jay. thank you so much, jay barbree down at cape canaveral. >> jay is survived by his wife, one son, two daughters and six grandchildren. jay barbree of nbc news. thank you for all of your reporting, expertise and inspiring passion for all things space related. god speed, friend. our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future...

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a new fascinating article details representative elise stefanik's rise up the gop ladder to become the third highest-ranking republican. the piece titled "the handmaiden of trump." how elise stefanik went from moderate to maga. once known for embrace of facts, then parroted conspiracy theories from the 2020 election. and joining me now is the writer of this article, senior correspondent for "time" magazine. our friend charlotte alter. charlotte, welcome. and it's a great comprehensive article. i loved it. you write that elise stefanik was once hailed as the fresh face of the new gop when she was elected to congress in 2014. very detailed article. but in summary, what do you make of that moment and where she is today? >> well, when i first started talking to representative

stefanik in my book, she is one of the main characters, she was kind of the archetype of the modern millennial gop. she was someone who was trying to bring her party in line with her generation on issues like climate change, immigration, college affordability. she seemed to have a real understanding that millennials like her cared about a handful of really particular issues, and she was trying to offer conservative solutions to those issues. and now her party has changed in such a way that embrace of trumpism was really the only path forward for her. and so that's why you see this pivot from somebody who was really trying to bring the republican party forward into -- in order to embrace a new generation of voters to somebody who's now obsessed with sort of relitigating an election that happened in the past. >> i'm looking at the article. you quote one person margaret hoover saying elise could've been the face of a new generation of republicans that could represent a real big tent

party. you also spoke with one of stefanik's childhood friends. how did she describe her growing up, and did she see a change over the years? >> i spoke to several childhood friends of hers, old teachers, old allies, old mentors. i think probably the person you're thinking of is melissa derosa who was a good friend of stefanik's when they were in middle school and high school. and derosa, who's now a top aide to governor cuomo in new york. they obviously had really different politics but were really close. they were able to put politics aside and be really supportive of one another and kind of be there for one another. and now obviously that relationship has completely frayed. and, frankly, that's what happened with almost everybody i spoke to who knew stefanik back she was the old version of elise stefanik is that people who knew her back then are frankly alarmed by what she's become. >> elise stefanik spoke this

morning. let's take a listen to what she said. >> president trump is an important voice in the republican party. we are working as one team, and voters across america, certainly voters in my district in upstate new york, we believe that president trump's results, whether it was the economic growth, whether it was the historic accords in the middle east, whether it was being tough on china or the bipartisan coronavirus relief packages, these were significant results that helped everyday americans. >> look, that was not her tone even in 2016 and early in this administration she barely uttered his name. talk about that moment, an appearance in 2018, that made a real turning point for her towards trump. what was that about? >> so, yeah. in 2018 trump visited stefanik's district, and they together threw an art at a major military base in her district. and i think that stefanik's district is a really important part of her evolution in this

story. this is a district that voted twice for obama and then swung heavily for trump. it is a largely rural white working-class district, exactly the type of voters that make up trump's base. and the important thing to remember about elise stefanik is that she is a republican in new york state, which means that statewide office is going to be very difficult for her. so for somebody who is young and ambitious and wants a long political career ahead of her, she has to embrace where her party and her district is because that's the only sort of path forward for her. over the course of 2018 and 2019 she saw that her district and her party were moving towards trump, and she could kind of get on board or get out of the way. and it's clear that she needs to get on board. >> can you give me a sense of personality traits that have allowed her to rise up the ranks so quickly. >> she is somebody who everybody who knows her said that elise stefanik is one of the most intelligent people that they've ever met, period.

she's highly intelligent, she's highly articulate. she's somebody who is very good at communicating. she's somebody who's very good at making her ideas clearly understood. but, frankly, one of the things that has changed is that when i first started reporting on her for my book, people who disagreed with her said they admired her sense of integrity, thought she had a strong sense of moral character and deep ethical values, even if they disagreed on the politics. and now many of those people who, you know, had once told me that they admired stefanik as somebody who was, you know, willing to speak the truth and stick to her principles, now feel like they don't recognize who she's become. >> incredible. well, you can read about it in "the handmaiden of trump" in "time" magazine and also in your book. the book is "the ones we've been waiting for." you can get it now in paperback. it is a parade that prides

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good day, everyone, from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, welcome to "alex witt reports." here's what's happening at 2:00 p.m. eastern/11:00 a.m. pacific time. we begin with the cdc on the defense today as new mask rules for fully