we would think of, but a noose hanging outside of the capitol is something that terrifies people because we know what that means, we understand what it symbolizes. i think when you pick up "state of emergency," you get an tumt to understand what is happening in the mindset of those people who want to put back against the progress we're actually going to achieve. >> the book is "state of emergency: how we win in the country we built." tamika mallory, thank you. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi, there, i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. mis-monday, may 17th, let's get smarter. this morning celebration is giving way to a whole lot of confusion. the cdc said vaccinized

americans can happen but change is not happening overnight, some places not at all smxt letting people go without masks, some keeping mandates in place. some frontline workers, health care workers, parents of small kid say they're worried the cdc decision may be premature. the largest nurses center in the country said over the weekend the cdc guidance should be reversed. we will hear from president biden later today, while his cdc director spent most of the weekend explaining their position. >> everybody as we're working towards opening up again, are towards after 16 months getting out of this pandemic, will need to understand what they need to do locally and this was no permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. this was really science driven, individual assessment of your risk. >> joining us right now to discuss nbc's vaughn hillyard at a shopping center in leesburg, virginia. and dr. william hazelteen, he

wrote the book "variants" and is here to tell us what it means to all of us. and you're at a costco, target. people probably need to do to go to both. how is it working? >> a parking lot in america, which most americans will visit over the course of this week, but this one here in leesburg, virginia, is largely representative of the different policies. a target over here, 200 yards to the left, casco, different policies. costco is one of those corporations that rolled out an update change in policy over the weekend. essentially lifting their mass requirement for fully vaccinated individuals. take a look at part of their statement. they said in part, quote, we will not require proof of vaccination but we asked for members responsible and respectful cooperation with this revised policy, essentially creating sort of an honor roll system. fully vaccinated folks do not

have to wear masks inside of costco anymore. look at the list. it's not just costco. it is also the likes of walmart, trader joe's, publix. and just this morning all starbucks across america have also lifted their mask mandates for fully vaccinated folks. again, 200 yards. over this way, target, that's not the case. if you're heading into a target in america, you still have to wear a mask. they, target, saying they're looking out after that essential workers and look at this list, they're not the only one. along with target you have the likes of home depot, kroger, cvs, walgreens. major union, ufcw, their head over the weekend put outz this change they're not accounting the head to workers, the retail industry, grocery, are still facing through this pandemic. it's a big number. because almost two-thirds are americans are still not fully

vaccinated. >> the cdc can't control private business dutt do they need to do more. while businesses are figuring it out on their own, people are getting more confused and unfortunately angrier? >> it's understandable. it's very confusing. it's confusing for me and i lived my life in this world. my personal decision, i'm wearing a mask because there's still 33,000 people a day on average being infected in the united states. i don't know who i will be with. i will wear a mask not necessarily to protect them from me, but me from them. and the one thing i do see is a vaccine is not a perfect shield. there are ways to penetrate that shield. virus is very clever. look at the yankees, for example. viruses can get in even to some vaccinated people. the statement if you're vaccinated, you're protected, is not completely true. most people are protected, at least for some time against most

variants. that doesn't mean all people are protected against all variants for all time. and so many personal advice, be careful. it's fully understandable why there is confusion. >> lots and lots of people in that most people category feel like they've done everything they're supposed to do and tired of wearing masks. if there was a more clear, positive message across the board, you get the vaccine, everything will be open to you, wouldn't that help convince more vaccine hesitant people to get the shot. >> you know, that is an interesting argument and it's one that the cdc refused to many. they say it was not based to try to encourage people to take the vaccine. this was based on the idea most people were vaccinated, won't pass on the disease to others and won't get sick. i don't think, my own opinion, is if you're vaccinated the system, this is going to

encourage you to take the vaccine. it's just going to encourage to you do what you're always doing, go around without a mask, because most people who are vaccine resistant are also mask resistant. so i don't think it advances the cause of controlling the pandemic in the united states particularly well. dr. haseltine, thank you. i want to dig even deeper on this and bring in the mayor of the city of chicago, lori lightfoot. mayor, this is good news. you say you will follow the cdc's guidance. what does that mean, should people in chicago wear masks or not? >> i think we've got to get some clarification from the cdc. the rollout obviously, the reporting has been a bit abrupt and i think they have a lot of clarifications they need to do. i know for me personally, i'm going to continue to wear a mask in public and encourage others

to do so. we've got to make sure people continue to follow the public health guidance that has gotten us this far and masks i think are a big and important part of that. to say, well, if you're vaccinated, you don't have to wear a mask, that's great. what about all of the other people out there that aren't vaccinated, and there's no way to know that? so i think for the time being, most people are going to continue to wear masks outside, outside of their homes, and i think that's smart. >> when we're told follow the guidance, what do you think that is? what are you telling businesses in chicago? >> i'm telling them a couple of things and we're doing everything we can to provide support to those businesses. we're holding a series of vaccination events in downtown businesses so employees can get a vaccine in their workplace with people they know and feel comfortable and that helps bring them back to work. we're also continuing to make sure that we are social distancing e. even as we open up. we've got good news happening

here in chicago, but by no means, whether it's chicago or anyplace else in the country, are we out of the woods. the virus is still here. the virus is still real. we're still seeing deaths every day. so we can't afford to feel like the virus is gone and suddenly we can just go back to 2019. that's just not going to happen. >> will the honor code work? are we going to need people in some way to prove that they're vaccinated? >> i think that what we're going to see after these vaccines move out of the emergency use stage that employers, places of entertainment, are really going to put a premium on proving that people are vaccinated before they can gain entry, whether it's to work or places of entertainment. we're going to do a series of events this summer where we incentivize people to get vaccinated by only allowing people vaccinated into these events. so there's a lot i think we're going to have to do to break through this next wall of

hesitancy. anybody who wanted to get a vaccine has gotten a vaccine right now. now we've got to dig into those people who are vaccine skeptics or hesitant. >> you had previously said you wanted the city of chicago fully reopened by the fourth of july. does this new guidance change that timetable? >> it doesn't change the timetable but i think we have to clarify for people what we need to do to get to that point. we still have a long way to go to continue to bring down our case rates. our percent positivities is heading into the right direction but we've still got to get more people vaccinated, long and short of it. >> mayor, thank you so much. we have to move on because we're following breaking news in the middle east where the israeli-palestinian conflict just had its deadly day yet as the fighting rages into the second week. here at home president biden facing pressure to bring about a cease-fire after speaking separately to the palestinian authority president and israeli

prime minister benjamin netanyahu. our own richard engel has the latest. richard? >> reporter: the israeli bombings in gaza are by now the most intense of this conflict. overnight the israeli said 54 fighter jets, mostly customized american f-16s, attacked nearly 10 miles of tunnel. it says hamas is using rockets, nearly 3,000 rockets in the last seven days alone. but as precise as they can be, palestinian civilians are dyeing. the air strike destroyed three apartment buildings in gaza city this weekend in the deadliest attack so far. gaza is poor and cut off. it has no real emergency services so poorly equipped rescue crews had to dig for victims with their hands and construction tools. they pulled out dozens of survivors who have been entombed under their hands for hours and they found more than 40 bodies,

including, health officials said, two dozen women and children. south of tel aviv, i spoke to a senior israeli military spokesman by the iron dome defense system that israel says intercepted around 90% of hamas rockets that seemed likely to cause death or significant damage. >> we struck hundreds of other underground targets inside gaza and that's the one incident we saw houses collapsing into itself. i am going to look into it and i want to be clear, that is not our aim. we have no business killing civilians. it doesn't do us any good. >> but in gaza, that means little to this 10-year-old. she's already seen more death than most seen in a lifetime. >> i want to cry, let my anger out of my body because they're killing people they don't deserve to die. they're living their own self. they come and kill them. we don't deserve this.

>> reporter: nadine never left gaza, often called the world's biggest prison. she learned english watching youtube videos and has a strong message to americans. >> we can't do anything. we're just dyeing. the american people, stop giving weapons to them. that's the only way you can help us. >> that's a lot to watch. coming up -- congresswoman liz cheney strong words for leader mccarthy while congressman kinzinger explains why he and other republicans should not create their own party. and one devastating impact of the pandemic -- devastating health. how kids combat this. health how kids combat this and plans . at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com. this is the sound of change. it's the sound of low cash mode from pnc bank

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developing this morning, congresswoman liz cheney not staying silent. blasting fellow republicans and she's not just refuting president trump's lies about the 2020 election, she's taking direct aim at kevin mccarthy and her house leadership replacement, elise stefanik. >> i asked them about both mccarthy and elise stefanik. are they being complicit in what you consider the trump lies? >> they are. and i'm not willing to do that. i think that there are some things that have to be bigger than party, that have to be

bigger than partisanship. our oath to the constitution with one of those. >> garrett haake is on capitol hill and charlie sykes joins us, editor of "the bulwark." 66% of republicans say a top priority is to show loyalty to donald trump. given that, what are republicans on the hill telling you about where the party goes? >> hill republicans, particularly in the house, that number is probably higher among that category. this is the reality here. we've seen this place out over the last week or two. house republicans believe that donald trump is still their ticket back to the majority. that was why they saw the drama we did last week, with liz cheney being voted out, elise stefanik voted in. and the hope is they can wait out the cheney media blitz we've seen over the past couple of days from the "today" show interview to multiple sunday show appearances and hopefully eventually her criticisms will get quieter and get back to the

business of trying to define themselves to the biden agenda rather than being pulled back into the trump election conversation. the reality is, that will be much more challenging. we will see a vote this week on the creation of a 9/11-style commission to study the january 6th insurrection attempt. every time the former president puts out a statement from mar-a-lago about the election results, as he did several times over the weekend, it provides cheney a platform to once again leveller arguments and critique. house republicans are uniting behind trump and hoping this issue goes away. but the sheer moment of news events suggested that is highly unlikely. >> level those arguments to whom? charlie, what liz cheney is serving, you are certainly appreciating. you're an original never-trumper, okay? you got an msnbc opinion piece out right now saying it is time for anti-trump republicans like yourself to leave the party. i think most people might think they thought you already left

the party. i want to share what republican congressman adam kinzinger, why he said he will not leave the party and this whole movement is a bad idea. watch this. >> i have been a republican far longer than donald trump has and i will not let him come in and hijack my party and turn it into something that great people like ronald reagan and george w. and george h.r. bush, and all of the great leaders back did not want it to be. >> too late, adam, donald trump does run the republican party. >> i really admire adam kinzinger and what he's saying. i signed that same manifest as other republican officials but i think it's naive to think there's actually a chance to salvage the party. they wrote an op-ed piece in "the washington post" last week saying, you know, the ouster of liz cheney doesn't mean the fight is over. the fight for the soul of the republican party is just beginning. that's just wrong. the war is over.

the conspiracyists, cranks have won. reality is you have to understand that. it's donald trump's party and in many ways worse than that. they embrace the big lie. this is a litmus test. you look at the polls. the overwhelming majority of republicans doubt the legitimacy of this election, support donald trump. they are no longer interested in policy. right now people like adam kinzinger and liz cheney are far more likely to be defeated in primaries than somebody like a marjorie taylor greene or matt gaetz. that tells you where the republican party is. i appreciate what they're saying and what they're doing but it's time for a reality check here that those of us who had hoped somehow the republican party would find a way to heal itself or crawl back to rationality, that is just not going to happen any time soon. as garrett haake mentions, we are reminded of that on daily

basis. >> how does that square with this moment over the weekend towards a bipartisan commission to investigate the january 6th insurrection? if the republican party was all trump all the time, wouldn't they not want any more focus on january 6th? >> yes, absolutely. but let's see what happens with that. let's see whether or not kevin mccarthy opposes that, whether steve scalise whips against that vote. we had a handful of republicans vote in favor of it and a handful voted to impeach donald trump. but i think it's certainly possible by the end of this process, once again the overwhelming majority of republicans will vote against this because it's not in their interest to highlight january 6th or have people like kevin mccarthy testify under oath about what he saw, what he said and what happened that day. >> certainly would like to see kevin mccarthy do just that. charlie sykes, garrett haake, that you both so much. now we have to turn to

minnesota, where today kim totter, the officer charged with second degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of daunte wright, is set to appear in court. the brooklyn police chief said he believes potter went to use her taver and instead shot wright with a gun. she faces up to ten years in prison. coming up -- president biden set to return to d.c. to kick off a week focused on selling his infrastructure plan, as one community in tennessee gets a firsthand lesson and why infrastructure reform is needed. . my name is douglas. i'm a writer/director and i'm still working. in the kind of work that i do, you are surrounded by people who are all younger than you.

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minus the traditional markups. ♪♪ president biden has given republicans a deadline of tomorrow to bring him a counterproposal to his infrastructure plan. geoff bennett is live at the white house and we're at the sietz of the key bridge over mississippi that shut down last week because of a crack. what are we expected tomorrow as this deadline approaches? >> the next step is seeing what republican senator shelley moore capito brings back to the negotiating table. she is leading the group of republicans that 234ish8ly

offered that $568 billion offer to president obama's proposal. you see her meeting in the oval last week. the white house mentioned come back to us by next tuesday with your amended counteroffer. so we are waiting to see what that is. we know what the red lines are. republicans are wedded to the 2017 trump tax cuts. repealing that tax cut is their red line. . democrats are saying we're not going to have any sort of user fees. they're not going to raise taxes effectively on the middle class to pay for this. they want to raise corporate taxes to pay for this. we will see if there's any wiggle room between those points where there might be some negotiation. democrats said if republicans don't get on board, they will find a way potentially to do this with democratic votes alone. but there's something in it for everybody if democrats and republicans can get a deal. for democrats, it's being able to say they made good on president biden's pledge to work with republicans on at least one big piece of sweeping

legislation. for republicans, they would benefit from getting behind what is overwhelmingly popular projects to revitalize bridges, roads and broadband. then for the american people, look, you've got almost 50% of bridges in this country are at least 50 years old. this kind of spending on structure, steph, is way, way overdue. >> yasmine, take us to one of those bridges. that i-40 bridge, i might not go over it daily but 45,000 people do. it's been shut to traffic for nearly a week. i know you just talked to the mayor of memphis. what are officials saying about getting this opened? >> as you mentioned, we got 365,000 people going over this bridge on a daily basis. you think about the impact this shutdown has had. the barges outside started moving friday and there was a threat soybean prices would go up because the barges had to stay on the opposite side of the

bridge because the department of transportation had not given them the green light to go under the bridge. but the national conversation geoff mentioned, that conversation is happening on a local level. you have local congressman, steve cohen, say this is part of the infrastructure joe biden is trying to get pushed through. and the mayor saying we need all of the help we can get. but senator haggerty, republican on the other end, said we don't need a massive structure bill. we want a bill focused solely on bridges in this country. $115 billion part of biden's infrastructure plan focused on bridges in this country. i do quickly want to bring in the mayor of memphis standing by. what kind of help do you want from the federal government here? >> we want help with roads, bridges. fix this bridge as soon as we can and work with tennessee officials and get it open to the 45,000 vehicles that go through there every day. >> so, steph, it is a major economic impact here in this

state, the closure of this bridge. and that's why this infrastructure plan is so incredibly important. but, of course, that national conversation happening here on a local level. >> yasmine, thank you. today, of course, is tax day. and while you might be stressing over getting your returns in, lots of people earning big bucks year after year get away with paying a lot less than they owe. right now president biden is trying to change that with his infrastructure plan, asking for $80 billion to help the irs close loopholes and crackdown on tax sheets. he says it could generate $700 billion in revenue over the next ten years. jim tankerslessly has written about this for "the new york times." this seems like a no-brainer. you put $7 million in the front end and got $700 billion in the

back end. is that easy? >> it's not quite that easy. there's a lot to be captured. there's a tax gap in this country, the difference between how much we collect for taxpayers and how much they owe. the estimates from the irs are that could be as much as a trillion dollars a year. hey, there's a real opportunity to catcher that money but it's hard. there's a reason it's hard to get. some of it is technology, some of it is reporting. just throwing money at the problem may very well result in a lot more money coming back, a lot of studies suggest that, but it's very unclear how much it will do. >> why hasn't this been done already, right? this tax gap -- i just talked to scott gottheimer, who said this gap is worth $1 trillion a year. wouldn't we have solved this already, or tried to 1234. >> there's a lot of reasons why. politics is a big reason why. the concern is the irs has too much power, endorsement power to go after taxpayers, it could start essentially harassing taxpayers it doesn't like.

that's what republicans keep bringing up. going to small business owners instead of -- and that's the big fear from the republican side. >> hold on a sec. this fear of harassment by the irs, they wouldn't be harassing people or businesses who were in the right. they would be collecting money that's owed. >> well, i mean, again, to play devil's advocate here, i think the argument here is there are some small business owners with very complicated tax structures because of the nature of their small business who make a lot of money in income and actually don't owe more money but the irs might think they do so they can force them to play compliance costs. but i agree there's the idea of a lot of money not being paid. that's what the research shows us. the question is how laser-focused can you be to

target only the people who aren't paying what they owe and not spend a lot of time trying to chase after people who don't owe very much or don't owe anything. >> even if you didn't allocate this new $80 billion, there's been a problem, a staffing problem, for years at the irs. between 2010 and 2020, staffing is down almost 30%. how can we expect the irs to do their job with that many fewer employees. i couldn't put this show on if suddenly 30% of less people were working on it. why should we expect the irs to do that? >> and what we've seen is the irs had to make choices about whom to audit and they've not gone after the most complicated returns, the highest end taxpayers who are most likely to be abating taxes here. for example, people who claimed the low income tax credit at the low end, that has a low return

in terms of how much money they can recapture, but also it's easier to do. that's going to be the trick here, if you can give enough resources to the irs and another new technology because in many ways they're still trapped in the '50s and '60s. if you can update them, maybe they can go after those bigger fish, so to speak, who have been using more sophisticated maneuvers to avoid taxes. >> jim, what a good day to talk about tax affairs. we will leave it there. thank you very much. coming up -- matt gaetz's friend pleading guilty. what does that mean for the congressman? and bill gates and why he abruptly stepped down from the board. we will hear from a reporter who broke that stoext. our tuition the same through the year 2021. - i knew snhu was the place for me when i saw how affordable it was. i ran to my husband with my computer and i said, "look, we can do this."

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greenberg, is tote to plead guilty to crimes including sex trafficking. that led to the sex trafficking probe into gaetz himself, even though the documents filed for greenberg's plea do not mention him. gaetz has repeatedly denied wron dogg and downplayed it over the weekend. former prosecutor joyce vance is here with us to break all of it down and former prosecutor kerry sanders is here with us. >> in about an hour, joel greenberg will show up here and this is the plea agreement, agreeing to 33 counts, which you noted including the trafficking of child for sex. the reason this is all so critically important is not only is he agreeing to these charges which could potentially result in life in prison but including in this very lengthy agreement to plea here are these words, the defendant agrees to

cooperate fully with the united states in the investigation and prosecution of other persons and to testify. that is suggested although there's been no indication of actual hard facts presented by the prosecutors here, that there are others, including potentially representative matt gaetz, who was involved in these parties. now representative matt gaetz, the florida congressman, denied repeatedly he had anything to do with sex parties with underage children. at this point, the 17-year-old, i should note. at this point the investigation by the prosecutors is ongoing, widespread and now have somebody that potentially is going to provide them with more information as thwart of this plea deal. all of this stems initially from an investigation when joel greenberg was accused by another person here. he was first-time politician

decided that he would run for office against him and then all of a sudden some very salacious notes and emails were sent to the school where that other person was a teacher, suggesting inappropriate relationships, all which have since been proven wrong. but nonetheless, slimed his reputation. he was here today and came out and spoke to us briefly about the fact he has been exonerated and now, as we see here in a couple of minutes, there will be a plea. let's take a listen. >> i'm not a politician, and i never plan to be in politics. however, only one week after i filed to run for office in october 2019, i sustained an eight-month-long string of attacks on my character, on my right to run for office, and on my family's right to liberty. >> so, david butte there, the schoolteacher, has gone back into the courthouse with his

attorney and they will listen to the plea deal. of course, they like so many wondering when joel greenberg begins talking -- and we understand based on what we read in the plea agreement, he already has begun speaking to the prosecutors here, the federal authorities, what more may be revealed and who it may lead to. stephanie? >> joyce, prosecutors filed 33 charges against greenberg. he's only pleading guilty to six. a, what happened to the 27 he's not pleading to? of the 60 is, one is sex trafficking of a minor. what do you make of all of this? >> so this is a great question, steph, because the other charges he's not pleading guilty to will be dismissed but the plea agreement es-presley contemplates that if greenberg lied to other investigators that

they will be reinstated and he will still be charged with them. the key charge of sex trafficking of a minor carries a mandatory sentence of ten years. there's an aggravated identification charge that carries mandatory two years. so the best case for greenberg, unless something extraordinary happens via his cooperation, would be a 12-year sentence. he's on the hook in a big way here. >> joyce, thank you very much. now we turn to another gates story this morning. bombshell allegations of inappropriate behavior surrounding bill gates. microsoft reporting they launched a probe into claims he had a sexual relationship with a female staffer and stepped down from the board before that investigation wrapped up. just a reminder, bill and melinda gates announced their report less than a month ago. let's go deeper and bring in

"the wall street journal" reporter emily glazer, who's been leading this coverage. emily, what else do we know about these allegations and why he resigned from the board? it sounds like gates is saying it's a coincidence, his board resignation and relationship he had. can you clear this up? >> sure, steph. we know in late 2019, a microsoft employee, an engineer, alleged in a letter that that reached the board and the board members decided to open an investigation. they hired an external law firm. this was common when there's something sensitive. they want to do it right. amid this probe board members were realizing as more became clear, they did not think the relationship was appropriate and bill gates was not suitable to serve as a director. before the probe was finished, gates resigned. and so it's an important thing where our understanding from our sources is he saw the writing on the wall, but to be sure, he did resign before the board members' investigation was complete.

>> the staffer who came forward also wanted melinda gates to know about this story. did microsoft tell her? >> we don't know if melinda gates read the letter or not, but as you said, our nersing from our reporting is the female staffer wanted melinda gates to read the letter the employee wrote. in this letter the employee alleges she had a multiyear sexual relationship with bill gates and she also demanded changes to her job. but it's unclear whether or not melinda gates read that letter. >> you also reported board members and melinda gates were concerned about bill's relationship with now-deceased jeffrey epstein. what can you tell us about this? >> so we reported earlier this month that there was a major concern that melinda gates had were there ties to jeffrey epstein? and it is our understanding that some board members did ask and

make inquiries into bill gates' ties with jeffrey epstein. this is going back to the late 2019 time frame of the probe. they were told at that time it had to do with philanthropy and nothing more. >> philanthropy doesn't even make sense. gates foundation is one of the biggest, impactful philanthropic organizations on the planet. why on earth would he be talking to jeffrey epstein? thank you very much. we have to leave it there. we have breaking news at this very moment from the supreme court. let's go straight to pete williams. what have we learned? >> the supreme court will take a very big abortion case it will hear next term. it's a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks with very few exceptions. this is the first in the wave of anti-abortion laws passed in the trump administration hoping to reach the the security. the surprising thing, steph, the supreme court has been decided whether to take this case for eight months, since las

september. so today it said it will take the case. it will be argued next term. it is a big boost for opponents who hope the newly conservative court with 6-3 and conservative justices with three trump appointees would be favorable to something like this. miss is mississippi is hoping to revive its ban and very big deal, to be argued next term. >> very big. pete, thank you very much. please keep us updated. and now america's mental health crisis for children and getting them back into the classroom may not reverse the damage from last year. last year. heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue or light-headedness, don't wait to contact your doctor. because these symptoms could be signs of a serious condition like atrial fibrillation. which could make you about five times more likely to have a stroke. your symptoms could mean something serious,

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talk to your doctor and ask if latuda could make the difference you've been looking for in your bipolar depression symptoms. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. that delicious scramble was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. wright brothers? more like, yeah right, brothers! get outta here! it's not crazy. it's a scramble. just crack an egg. this past year has been especially hard on students forced into remote learning with so many kids isolated from their communities and their friends. the cdc says mental health emergency room visits for children have gone up

significantly during the pandemic. about 30% for 12 to 17-year-olds. and 27% for 5 to 11-year-olds. and as more schools transition back into in-person learning there's growing concern among experts of what's called a potential powder keg effect from that pent-up anxiety. sandy hill has just launched an important campaign to wing awareness for this issue. >> going back to school during a normal school year has been but even more. >> isolation and fear. >> kids really struggling. >> joining us now nicole hockley and matt bartley. nicole lust her 6-year-old son dylan and mark left his 7-year-old daniel in that deadly connecticut shooting.

nicole, sandy hook promised is focused on preventing school shootings. when i see the two of you it's always after or around a deadly school shooting. are you warning us that's what could be on the horizon? >> we're sending out a warning that people need to check in, in other kids and get more mental health support. we've seen a significant increase in life events including suicidal ideation. the kids need help now. we can't snap our fingers and think that covid-19 never happened. we do need to think adverse effects and this could be a precursor for more anxiety and violence. >> what does that mean, mark? this potential powder keg effect, what is that? >> well, stephanie, students are

experiencing a significant amount of stress related to the pandemic and isolation. they're spending most of their time socializing on online platforms and coordinating sometimes not even. and now re-emerging into face-to-face situations. we're seeing to our center about increased events of anxiety, suicidal ideation on the part of themselves and on to others. we're not supposed to be aware of this as adults in these children's lives to know there may be an innerstruggle going on. that we need to read the warning signs that are probably being exhibited and connect to those students and get them whatever help they need. >> to that point, nicole, you've made us aware. what do we do parents, teachers, other kids? >> there's a lot that can be done. first of all, learn the signs. recognize the signs of when a

child is in emotional distress. you can do that by download our no cost guides from our website. you can learn them from other suicide prevention hotlines. there are other resources out there. you can also support the stand-up act that's passed in the house and awaiting in the senate for a vote. and it's also going to help with suicide prevention training that provides long-term access for schools and teachers. and teachers have to look at what kind of support are we going to put in place now before the season starts. not just the kids, but also the adults. this has been a trying time for everyone. if we don't take action now it could be too late. >> is that going to help, mark? we know the president put aside money specifically not just for schools but mental health? >> that's right, stephanie, the biden administration would like to see all schools across the

country have onsite medical care professionals. we agree. as nicole said, we agree we need to be observant in the signs, be connected with the young people in your life. understand that they may be going through unprecedented anxiety, and we can mitigate more serious acts as we can take those steps now. as nicole said, if you were support stand-up acts, a wonderful piece of bipartisan legislation that's passed the house of representatives. it's been introduced in the senate. it will provide access to suicide prevention trainings to all students, grades 6 through 12. that's middle school and high school right there. there's a lot of good we can do. we just need folks to be aware of this and get on board with the solution. >> mark, nicole, as always, i just want to say i appreciate all the good you that do. we hope our audience can appreciate both of you tragically lost your children and every day you fight to protect our children.

thank you both. and if you at home or you if you know someone or you yourself needs help or support, there are resources out thereto. you can call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-talk. available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. please just remember, you are not alone, there are people out there who can help. that wraps up this very busy hour. i'm stephanie ruhle. hallie jackson picks up breaking news coverage on the other side of the break. the break

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♪♪ here at home and overseas, pressure is building on president biden to do more to stop the escalating crisis in the middle east. after the deadliest day of fighting there so far. overnight, israel launching a series of punishing air strikes targeting hamas which has fired more than 3,000 rockets towards israel. as we speak, more than 200 palestinians including dozens of children killed in the week-long conflict. we're live at the white house. we're following breaking news as we speak from the supreme court. justices agree to hear a major case on abortion rights. a case for mississippi intended to directly challenge roe v. wade. we're also waiting for big decisions that could come in the next 25 minutes or so. we're live with the latest on all of it. we're also live in a different courtroom, down in atlanta, that's where