for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. call today. good day from the brokaw news center in los angeles. welcome to alex witt reports. here's what's happening at 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. pacific. the u.s. senate is expected to determine whether a commission will be forced to investigate the january 6th attack on the capitol. but the prospects of getting ten republican senators to vote in favor of it is looking pretty grim this weekend. last hour, democratic congressman andre carson gave me his reaction as he calls on republicans to support the commission. >> my republican colleagues are calling this commission into question in order to score political points. so i think this is about protecting our democracy and

securing our capitol and those of my republican colleagues who are deeply concerned about the future of this democracy, they should support this commission and i think their constituents will very well understand. >> meanwhile, new reaction today after republicans rejected the white house's new $1.7 trillion infrastructure counteroffer. senior adviser to the president cedric richmond responding earlier today giving insight into where the president stands moving forward. >> soon, but is there meaningful negotiations going -- taking place in a bipartisan manner? he's willing to let that play out. but again, he will not let inaction be the answer when it gets to the point it looks like that is inevitable. you'll see him change course, but for now, we're engined in what we want to be a bipartisan infrastructure bill. >> and rallies are being held across the nation in remembrance of george floyd as we near one

year since his murder. that anniversary on tuesday was a deadline set by the president to get a police reform bill on his desk as congress appears likely to miss it. george floyd's brother terrence leading with lawmakers to get it done. >> what's taking so long? it's obvious. the time is now. the time is now. the more time you waste with this bill, the more people are getting -- still getting killed that we don't even know about. but it's still happening. but once that bill is passed, these police officers have to be held accountable. >> from there to nbc's kelly o'donnell at the white house. we have infrastructure talk certainly at a standstill. what else are we hearing from the white house today? >> the issue of infrastructure is important to president biden. and to some degree, republicans say it's important to them as well. that should be the makings for being able to get something done. but not so fast. right now if you recall,

president biden's original bid was 2.3 and now it's down to 1.7. so that is a big difference, and we're talking, you know, big dollars here over a ten-year period. and what has happened is their definition of infrastructure, republicans wanting the hard kind of infrastructure. roads and bridges and the like. president biden and his team with a broader definition. and they are willing to work on some of the issues, but they're also hitting another roadblock on how they would pay for it. so what looked like progress, what looked like a willingness toward bipartisanship, the back and forth of shuttle diplomacy, if you will now has hit this new standstill where what they have decided on and the counterproposal from the biden administration is not being met well by republicans. and what to do next. the white house says it should be republicans who come back. to give you a sense of what the thinking is today, cedric richmond, a senior adviser to the president talked about where they stand right now and what

they hope for earlier today. >> i think it shows the willingness to negotiate in good faith and in a serious manner. and the real question is whether the republicans will meet the effort that the president is showing. he came down on two areas. infrastructure and, you know, broadband. both areas that are important to him, but it's a sincere effort to move this country forward. >> and we've heard president biden talk about wanting the credibility that comes with a bipartisan solution. that's good for governing. that's good for his identity and his still new presidency. but as you've heard, there is the opportunity to put that aside at some point and use some of the tools of legislating and they'd have to rework this a bit to use those tools that would allow a democrats' only approach. we're still a little ways away from that. the question will be, can these proposals and counterproposals

generate another round of talks with some credibility? right now they appear almost farther apart than they did when this began. and that is either a very bad sign or it's one of those sort of dark moments before some light breaks through. hard to tell just yet and, of course, with the memorial day holiday coming and congress not being in session, that also complicates the timeline. the white house had hoped to have some real show of movement by memorial day. that seems to be slipping away. alex? >> i'm just going to say, based on your assessment there i think you are definitely a half glass full kind of girl. >> i try to be. >> i'll take it. i'm that way, too. let's go to the middle east where a cease-fire between israelis and palestinians is holding but tensions are on the rise. nbc's erin mclaughlin monitoring the situation from tel aviv. there have been a few clashes after the cease-fire went into

effect. what about now? how do things stand? >> well, alex, the situation remains tense. we were in jerusalem earlier today. there was a heavy police presence inside the old city as well as inside east jerusalem earlier today. they reopened temple mount to jewish visitors which served to raise tensions even further. just yesterday there were confrontations in east jerusalem, the neighborhood of sheikh jarrah between palestinian protesters and israeli police in that neighborhood. six palestinian families are facing eviction, and then on friday, we saw clashes inside the al aqsa compound between palestinians and israeli police. so it is a fragile situation and a fragile ceasecease-fire. take a listen to what the secretary of state had to say on abc earlier today. >> it was critical to get to the cease-fire. and president biden's focus on

relentless, determined but quiet diplomacy is what got us to where we needed to be, which is to get the violence ended as quickly as possible. we're dealing with the grave humanitarian situation in gaza. then reconstruction, rebuilding what's been lost. and, critically, engaging both sides in trying to start to make real improvements in the lives of people so the israelis and palestinians can live with equal measures of security, of peace and of dignity. >> secretary blinken is expected in the region in the coming days. he'll be meeting with israelis, palestinians, as well as other regional partners. alex? >> erin, thank you for that report from tel aviv. joining me is illinois congressman raja krishnorthi. >> thanks, alex. >> as you know, they are voicing

opposition to passing this january 6th independent commission. here's republican senator roy blunt earlier today on why he does not think a commission is necessary. >> i think we'll start waiting for a commission rather than moving forward with what we know we need to do now. there's a bipartisan effort in the senate with two committees to produce not only a report but also a number of recommendations, and we should be able to do that in the first full week of june, and we haven't even waited for that to decide what a commission should do. >> so i think i know the answer as to whether or not you agree with that. but if you don't, why don't you? what critical information do you think this commission reveals over other probes that are under way? >> well, i think that the bipartisan commission for january 6th that, quite frankly, you know, john katko and benny thompson need to be commended on

for arriving at a fair solution, is absolutely necessary because there's so many compelling questions that haven't been answered about january 6th and can't be answered in other forums. and it needs to be outside of congress, preferably by people who are not currently serving in government and won't politicize this in any way. and so what are some of the questions? for instance, why did it take hours and hours, almost four hours after the mayor of d.c., as well as the commissioner of the metropolitan police department requested urgent military assistance for any assistance to arrive? what did president trump mean when he was talking to kevin mccarthy that day and kevin mccarthy himself was demanding urgent assistance in telling kevin mccarthy, well, it sounds like you are less sympathetic to basically the big lie having

happened than the rioters are. and i think kevin mccarthy said to him, what the -- who the f do you think you're talking to right now? and so we have a lot of questions that need answers. and if we can't get those answers, i fear that we're going to be inviting another attack, such as what happened on january 6th. >> i tell you, getting reports of that conversation, the tenor of that between kevin mccarthy and donald trump in that call and the way kevin mccarthy speaks now, it's extraordinary to think that ever took place. >> we need the january 6th -- we need the january 6th kevin mccarthy back right now. >> yeah. what do you think it's going to signal to you if senate republicans use the very first filibuster under this president to stop the existence of this commission? and if that happens, what are democrats going to do about it? >> well, i've been on record. i think the filibuster has -- is overdue for either an overhaul or elimination, but in this particular case, i think that this inquiry is going to happen

one way or another, alex. either it's going to happen as part of a bipartisan commission or it's going to happen as part of some kind of a select inquiry, perhaps in the house, but we can't not answer these questions that bedevil us about january 6th. and as those police officers poignantly wrote, those u.s. capitol police officers poignantly wrote, they are suffering right now. they still see the holes in the walls and the doors broken and they see a lot of their colleagues still suffering from the mental anguish of 140 police officers having been injured and officers dead. and if for no other reason than for them, we have to get to the bottom of what happened and we have to protect our democracy. >> and, look, it's not as if it all stopped on january 6th because, according to new reporting, it's from the guardian, police records show increasing threats to lawmakers

and to public facilities in the wake of the attack. so documents have now been made public and they show how police stepped up surveillance efforts for signs of another attack by far right groups. this is all coming, today, the national guard ends its deployment at the capitol. do you think it's the right time to send them home? >> it's funny, i was just talking about this with my wife today. i personally think that we need to keep the capitol safe. we need to potentially keep these national guard troops as long as we are still unsure about the answers to the vital questions that bedevil january 6th. and we don't have the measures to make up for what happened. so i personally think we have to potentially retain them, but i have to say that the supplemental measure that passed the house and needs to pass in the senate, and we have to fill

those hundreds of vacant positions in the u.s. capitol police force. we have to erect barriers that don't currently exist on the ground while at the same time making it accessible to the public. >> yeah, let's talk about the new legislation that you introduced that provides funding for vaccinating 60% of the population from middle income countries from covid-19. give me a sense of how crucial it is to help this global fight against coronavirus, in fact, to ensure americans don't face another deadly covid surge. >> thanks for asking about it. it's called the novid act, a play on words meaning no more covid. the idea is this. joe biden and the administration have done a tremendous job of vaccinating much of our population in this country. helping our economy recover at the same time. but epidemiologists say that

within one year, alex, they believe that our first generation vaccine will be rendered ineffective because of variants that are multiplying exponentially abroad. and so that's why i am introducing this legislation along the lines of pepfar which so successfully dealt with reducing hiv/aids in africa to basically have the united states play the role -- the indispensable role which it can only play in helping to provide resources and working with industry to vaccinate 60% of the 92 countries in the world which fall within the low and middle income spectrum of countries that can't vaccinate their populations on their own with the resources they have. >> all right. well, i'm glad you're on the case. >> thank you, alex. can i just say that this is not only the morally right thing to

do, but it's the smart thing to do so that we can protect ourselves here at home. >> agree. absolutely. thank you so much for your time. happy sunday to you. thanks. here's the sad update to share on today's breaking news about the deadly cable car crash in italy. officials are telling nbc news that one of the children who was critically wounded has now died. one other child is hospitalized. 13 people were killed when this cable somehow failed and dropped that car into a wooded area. it happened at perhaps the highest part of the route. it's possibly as high as 1,000 feet. crews are on the scene investigating the cause of that crash. it's one of the biggest criminal actions in american history, but is it moving as fast as it should? a national security analyst gives me his take, next.

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on capitol hill this week, the senate could vote on a bipartisan commission to investigate the january 6th attack, but already 25 gop

senators have said they don't support the legislation as it stands now. in fact, none have said they will vote in favor of the commission. let's go to garrett haake joining me from capitol hill with more on all of this. so garrett, i mean, is there any chance that this bill passes by the end of this week? what negotiations would have to get under way to have it passed? >> very little. i think the more important number than the 25 senators who outright opposed this bill are the zero who support it from the republican side. you would need 10 republicans on board, and i think early last week when we saw the house vote, with 35 house republicans crossing over to vote with democrats in that chamber, it seems more likely that we would have some republicans coming across the aisle on the senate side. day after day through last week through this weekend we've seen more and more republicans coming out against. and they largely fall into two categories. this is where the possibility for this bill's success might

still be. it's politically toxic for republicans because it would involve talking in public about january 6th for much, much longer. those folks are probably not coming back or those who want to see the scale expanded to see other forms of political violence being investigated. there are those other republicans like susan collins, perhaps a handful of others who feel there are elements to this bill that need to be tweaked or improved upon to make sure staffing, for example, is done in an entirely bipartisan way or that there be a hard cap put on the conclusion of the commission's work at the end of this year. democrats will have to decide if they think that group includes ten republicans and is, therefore, large enough to be worth negotiating with to try to make changes to this bill and actually create this commission or if they want to put the bill on the floor, force republicans to take a very bad vote to filibuster is and then kick things back over to the house and let speaker pelosi find some other way to move forward, perhaps with the creation of a select committee on that side of the chamber.

>> wow. excellent breakdown on all of it. so succinct and streamlined because there's a lot to consider. thank you, garrett, for that. joining me is clint watts, msnbc national security annuality of, distinguished research fellow at the policy research institute and author of "mess with the enemy, surviving in a social media world of terrorists, hackers and fake news." great to see you, clint. according to this new article, this was from reuters. lawyers for more than a dozen of the defendants charged with storming the capitol. they are demanding their clients turn over phones and emails. what does this tell you about the way they're going about handling this case. >> what's key is that many of these apps, these social media apps that are being used, they

are encrypted or closed. so i think part of the deal they're trying to arrange, which each of these individuals in terms of their plea agreement is that they want to have access to that data because it will aid any other additional investigations that are out there. that will be critical for a closing out or building out any sort of conspiracy case. remember, there are two groups that are prolifically involved in this. the proud boys which we saw some charges brought against on friday and oath keepers. they were more savvy in some cases in terms of how they used their communications and in other cases they were outright filming themselves. that was part of the charges on friday, i believe -- >> so, clint, i hope you haven't frozen permanently there. just to clarify, the proud boys and oath keepers, these are people that, if this were -- these secure social media sites that had to be sort of specially

unlocked to do that, what they are risking then is giving up the goods on other people in this group and so are these people indicating that they're going to be willing to potentially take the fall so that the greater group doesn't get taken down by the fbi? >> yes. for the bureau and for the investigation writ large. they're trying to build to a larger conspiracy case. and they can't do that if they don't have premeditation or evidence of it, and they have to have those communications, really, to put those pieces together. that's why you're -- in the communications because they want to be able to use that for their bigger and larger investigation over time. >> what kind of questions do you want answered if this independent committee actually gets formed? >> i think what i would like to see is what they expect law enforcement, federal law enforcement to do in the wake of january 6th. what we saw from the hearings so

far is the d.c. police and -- saying, hey, we provided some warning and it's not our jurisdiction. and then in terms of the response, you're seeing some blaming at the pentagon and defense department. if we're going to defend our nation's capitol -- each of them what will allow them to do. can we let them watch open social media which i know i and many others were watching was very clear there were going to be problems on january 6th. >> yeah, i am sure. okay, clint. there are fewer things that i like or regret doing than cutting you short but we're having a little hiccup with your communication. we'll make it up to you next time. thanks so much, clint watts. up in, a four-letter word. not one of those but it's the number one reason the gop can't break ties with the former president. (vo) ideas exist inside you, electrify you.

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new concerns for businesses at america's summer hotspots. restaurants are struggling to hire workers as they approach peak tourism season. that's likely to bring record crowds. gary grumbach is in massachusetts on cape cod. what are the businessmen and businesswomen there telling you about this? >> you said it. we're just days from the unofficial start of summer. that's really exciting. people are excited to get back out to the restaurants and businesses and feel like it's a more normal summer. but that worries people like debbie mcgwire, the co-owner of the irish pub here in cape cod. she usually has 45 employees these days. on a normal summer. today she has 20. she usually has hundreds of applicants. today she has three. and it's not just debbie. we were just at lunch at a location that said they were down one-third of their workforce. the national restaurant association said 72% of restaurant owners are reporting

issues when it comes to finding workers and remaining those workers. everyone has a different opinion as to what's causing this. one of the things has to do with unemployment benefits from federal and state level. the other thing is child care. and something that is cape cod specific according to the chamber of commerce president. it has to do with the age of the people now living here full time. no longer high school students and college students that would be willing to take a busboy or bartender job. instead it's an older population, maybe less willing to do so. we also talked about what can be done about this. here's what he had to say. >> i think what it means is that people are going to be working overtime. they're going to be probably trying to give people an opportunity to work more and hopefully people are going to be up for it. and then, you know, it's going to be all hands on deck. it's going to be a challenging season to take advantage of the traffic that is here. >> of course, overtime is easier said than done. but because of that, debbie said

it's something that's really important that they'll need this summer is patience. but one thing we know about the american people, they're not very patient. >> yeah, i was going to say usually in short supply but thank you very much, gary, grumbach, for that. as the national guard prepares to end its mission on capitol hill later today, it appears unlikely that the senate will approve an independent commission to investigate the january 6th attack. some republicans said they're not happy about this. >> my party to this point has said things like, it was hugs and kisses. it was antifa and blm, anything but what it was, which was a trump-inspired insurrection on the capitol, and people deserve to hear the truth. >> joining me, elena tree, congressional reporter with axios and meredith mcgraw with politico. elaine, you predicted in fact, the senate will be this commission's graveyard as we see by the headline there. what's the latest you're hearing and has the needle moved at all

this weekend? >> not really, alex. i think, you know, it's tough with this commission. we haven't heard from any republicans who are willing to say that they support the bill in its current form. and the big reason we saw a lot of members this week take a step back from any sort of support and any say if not go as far as even to oppose it is because mitch mcconnell came out wednesday morning, the day the house voted and said he's against the bill. they've been having these discussions behind closed doors and lunches as well. and i think the key here, the people you should be looking for are the republicans who voted to convict former president donald trump in the impeachment trial earlier this year. many of them are not wanting to weigh in or even coming out and opposing it like senator richard burr. he told me he thinks these investigations are better handled in the committee form. and others kind of taking that approach as well. and so as we look to what's going to happen this week, there is still a slight chance some

people like senator susan collins has said that she would potentially support it if there are changes to it. senator mitt romney saying similar things. by and large, it doesn't look like republicans are going to back this. >> to your point there really the elephant in your article and the senate is donald trump's influence over the gop. so what can you tell us about these fears that support for this could be weaponized in the next election cycle? >> well, you know, it's, i think donald trump is still the most powerful republican politician in the country. republicans know that. it's a big reason why we saw the ousting of liz cheney from her house leadership role a few weeks ago. he is still kind of the kingmaker in the party and people are very wary of getting on his bad list and having him attack them in certain ways, particularly as the midterms are coming up. and senator john thune, i spoke

with him, he brought this up and said if it could spill into an election year and be weaponized for the midterms, that's what they're worried about. they're making public arguments that they think the investigation could be duplicative, but the behind the scenes private argument is this is going to be messy for them politically and something a lot of republicans just want to stop talking about in general and move away from in this commission, of course, would make that very difficult. >> yeah, so meredith, your new article, it gets to the heart yf republicans are once again embracing donald trump despite the january 6th sac. you say that even in exile, he's now the gop's cash cow. so what's led you to conclude this, that it's all about cold, hard cash? >> well, of course, in politics, money is king. and with former president donald trump, he's continued to play a important role in fundraising for the party, whether it's hosting big events down at mar-a-lago, with some of these 2024 hopefuls even and big names

in the party. republicans have been eager to make sure they have his support and that's because he's really tapped into an incredible donor base. but it's not just these top donors, these mega million-dollar donors that we're talking about. it's also small dollar donors. you see that so much with the outreach the party has been doing over the past few months. now there was a brief pause, of course, after january 6th when there was this view that maybe the former president is, you know, a toxic -- he's going to be a pariah. he continues to be mentioned in outreach online and in emails and the rnc and the party, they know that trump still has the attention of a lot of grassroots supporters that they want to be able to tap into leading into the 2022 midterms. >> but meredith, how are big donors justifying backing trump

after the january 6th attack? >> well, i think i've talked to quite a few of them, and there has been some reluctance. i think one of the main criticisms that i heard after some of the big donor events that happened down in palm beach was the president does continue to relitigate the 2020 election. he does continue to talk about all of his grievances, and that's something that they don't like hearing. they want the party to be more forward looking and to be talking about things like immigration and jobs and the economy and pushing back on the biden administration. but right now, there is still -- there is still a loyalty to the former president, at least until maybe we see some potential 2024 contenders really push their weight around in a different way. >> so alayna, you have

republicans citing ongoing investigations as at least part of the reason to be against the january 6th investigation. here's senator roy blunt earlier today talking about that p. i've actually opposed the idea of a commission from -- immediately from the very first. there's a bipartisan effort in the senate with two committees to produce not only a report but also a number of recommendations, and we should be able to do that in the first full week of june. >> so a report and recommendations in less than two weeks? how likely is that? >> it's a very quick timeline but that's what differing committees are saying. senator rob portman, someone that people thought may be in support of a commission like this is working in his committee, the homeland security committee in the senate, to put out this report. he's been promising that will come in the next few weeks. you know, hard to say when it comes to congress, things don't

normally move as quickly as they promise and tend to be slow. but we're all looking for that. the key here is, it's a different type of investigation than what democrats really and a lot of republicans as well, really want on this. that's why they want a 9/11-style commission, a bipartisan commission that really gets to the bottom of this. a committee report doing that isn't going to be the same thing. the argument, though, that roy blunt is making, other republicans against it is the idea of how long it takes to get staff together for these commissions and the january 6th commission that would be styled after the 9/11 commission and it's going to take a lot of time. so, of course, like you said, two weeks from now, very different timeline than a different commission that they were hoping to wrap up by the end of the year. >> meredith, your article also mentions the major donors' attitude toward president biden. is there any sense you're getting from the white house that biden is concerned by how they perceive him? >> no, not at all.

at least from my understanding. i mean, i think some of these republican donors are looking at the republican party as really missing an opportunity in some ways to be pushing back more aggressively on the administration and instead continued to have party infighting. of course, liz cheney's ouster was a good example of that. and they just want some of the drama to cool off and to calm down so that they can maybe focus more on policy issues and more forward looking issues. but one top florida fundraiser said he had heard from some of the biggest donors down there who -- some of them weren't, i would say, maybe lukewarm to trump, but now have come back and have said, look, you know, they want to get more on board just because of what they've

seen come out of the biden administration. >> okay. thank you so much. alayna, more dilth, good to see you both. it may be one of your favorite things to see in washington. next, rare exclusive access inside america's attic. liquid. can it one up whatever they're doing? for sure. seriously? one up the power of liquid, one up the toughest stains. any further questions? uh uh! one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi. (vo) nobody builds 5g like verizon builds 5g. thousands of engineers taking peak performance to a new level. that's why in parts of many major cities where people can use massive capacity we added verizon 5g ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world. nice. it isn't just a step forward, it's a leap forward. 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.

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so far more than 61% of u.s. adults have gotten at least vaccine dose and nearly half are fully vaccinated. now as more americans are inoculated and museums are reopening with new attractions, richard lui was at one special opening in washington, d.c. >> as america reopens, so, too, again, will its history. for nearly 60 years, on display here at the smithsonian's national museum of natural history in washington. >> we're thrilled to welcome people back after a very long hiatus. >> the building itself has been cleaned. all new air filtration. we joke it hasn't been this clean since it opened. we're instituting time-free passes. we're asking everyone over 2 years of age to wear masks inside so we ensure the safest and yet most educational experience. >> some of the new displays you'll see, never seen before, is this marquesa dress from "crazy rich asians" that

constance wu wore at that famous wedding. >> ah, as they say, we don't make mistakes. we have happy accidents, but not at the smithsonian. this is the easel, palette and knife and brushes from the painter. >> a look at how latino culture and baseball have long influenced each other. >> it's a long, complicated history. it weaves in both ingenuity, making your own bat. making your own ball. the interface of labor is from mexico and central and southern america, the infusion of culture really comes to light. >> but there's plenty more hidden deep within these walls. literally. >> we're going to pick you up and see some of our treasures. our camera is being taken to a place so secret we're not even allowed to show you how we got there. two more closed locked doors that we'll take you through. >> these are the vaults.

this is where all the secret stuff happens. >> the secret magic happens. our collection of about 1.8 million objects is spread across 110 rooms in three different states. you are at the nerve center. >> can i just open all of these up right now? >> no. but i can open some up. i want to show you something really special. muhammad ali holds a very special place in our hearts. >> i'm getting the shivers here. >> you can get the shivers because this is his robe. >> is this real? >> yes. signed by muhammad ali and truly worn. >> you are kidding me. >> this is prince's club guitar that he commissioned first for "purple rain." you may remember it. one of my favorites. this is a shop from dora as they were developing her character. the first bilingual cartoon character representing young latinas across the hemisphere. absolutely beautiful.

these are missy copeland's ballet shoes. she put makeup on them to make them her skin tone because they didn't make ballet shows for women of darker hues. it's this powerful indication of exclusion and breakthrough. this remarkable prop shield from -- >> are you sure i can't -- >> nope, by the powers vested in me, i can't. the shield from "captain america" from 2014. >> you know, i am actively pushing myself away from picking that up. >> this is billie jean king's tennis dress that she wore in the battle of the sexes. so now i'm going to show you something really special. i give you, richard lui, the national muppet collection. this is kermit. >> this is number one. this is kermit one. it all started right here. this is the very first grover. the first cookie monster.

>> don't you just want to go over and talk to them? >> absolutely. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> i can go home now. i'm -- >> so how many of you out there agree, we would love to just rerack and see that whole thing another time? that was fantastic. i know you, dennis, my cameraman, he was doing a lot of wows with me. that was richard lui reporting. thank you for that. by the way, just a sampling of the things set to go on display next year. an exhibition called "entertainment nation." check it out. and policing is different in the u.s. here than it is in different countries. but how different? especially when it comes to training? there's a new documentary that's going to shed some light on that. ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good ♪ start a new day with trelegy.

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their blunt and honest opinion about officers. officers reacted to seeing the video of seeing floyd's arrest. >> i don't understand why they ripped him out of the car. >> why isn't the officer telling him to get off the neck? >> three big guys. of course it's excessive use of force. >> the fact not one of them turned around and said get off his neck, it's almost arrogance. >> chauvin kept his knee on floyd's neck for a total of 8:46. >> that's a murder. >> joining me now is one of the filmmakers. wig welcome to you. it's interesting listening to them, it seems like they were so easy to say what so many americans were thinking about that video. but i'm curious, before the interviews, do you sense that officers outside this country had preconceived notions about american policing? if so, was it positive? >> so yeah, this video was part

of a larger series for "the new york times" opinion department. usually we talk to ordinary citizens around the world and have them react to ordinary life, and they often have preconceived notions about american life. but these officers face many of the same things american officers do. they have a lot of sympathy for american officers. i think they went into the project feeling they might be pushing back on some of the things i was showing them, but even they were still shocked by the things we talked about and the things i showed them about american policing. >> do you get any sense that the actions of rogue cops, the ones that were depicted in these videos that they all witnessed, is how all cops are seen? or is there a distinction between good and rogue officers? >> well, when we talked about that, i think we showed them in the video, incidents like the killing of philando castile or george floyd or other incidents of police misconduct and brutality are emblematic of much larger systemic problems.

when we showed the officers a clip about qualified immunity, which is a complex legal doctrine in america, it shields officers in america from being held liable for all sorts of misconduct. i think that's the most important point, accountability. and they all told me, you know, in their countries they often have multiple levels of oversight and it's important for officers to face the same consequences as everyone else in society. >> what you're telling me is qualified immunity does not exist in the countries of the officers with whom you spoke? at least most of them? >> yes, so many times they were shocked. they didn't understand what it was, really. you know, even other things we went into, like how police unions often defend officers, they were shocked by that. in their minds in their countries, the attitude is these are held accountable. they don't want to have that kind of immunity. >> is there anything the officers told you that surprised

you? >> well, i think that what surprised me the most is that, well, for example, a lot of these countries, officers are trained to adopt a guardian mindset, whereas in america, we're training officers often for a warrior mindset. even in countries like, for example, we have an officer in northern ireland who had seen civil unrest for decades. the officer from northern ireland told me he wakes up every morning and checks under his car for a bomb every day. he's had a pipe bomb thrown through his kitchen window. and even still, he does not think of himself as a warrior. he thinks of himself as a guardian. >> was there a policy or policies that any of them suggested to you that could be implemented here in the united states? >> well, i think that, you know, for example, in georgia, in the country of georgia i spoke to a woman who was a chief of police there and a chief of police in ukraine. they had such a problem with the traffic police there that they disbanded the entire traffic

police and rehired new cadets and started from scratch. i'm not saying that's the solution everywhere in america, but they all made it clear sometimes drastic reform is necessary. >> yeah. what do you think is the most important takeaway you want from viewers of this film? >> right, i think i have done a few of these videos where we talk to people around the world. what i always find fascinating is the importance of these sorts of conversations is it puts things into perspective for us. like things we as americans might take for granted or accept as a way of normal life or we don't see a way of changing, they just seem absolutely absurd to an outsider. and if we're going to tackle the systems in our country and reform them, it's important look at solutions all around the world. >> okay. thanks so much. the film is "i'm speechless." and thanks to all of you for watching alex witt reports. i'll see you next weekend.

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i'm yasmin vossoughian. breaking news. a deadly accident involving one of italy's iconic cable cars into the mountains. more nan a dozen killed. >> protests ahead of the anniversary of george floyd's death. >> new reaction to the republican effort to kill a january 6th commission in congress. >> a new texas law and a looming case in the supreme court puts abortion back into the national discussion. today. >> plus, later on this hour, we may soon know what we know about ufos. a senate panel will soon find out what the pentagon really has on what may exist out there beyond the stars. we're going to have more on that as well. but we do want to begin first