senator manchin would rather preserve jim crow on some outdated theory of bipartisanship. >> meanwhile, an explosive new report from "the new york times" concerning the 2020 election. in donald trump's final weeks in office, his chief of staff mark meadows repeatedly pushed the justice department to investigate unfounded theories about the election, according to newly uncovered emails provided to congress portions of which were reviewed by "the new york times." plus new reaction after a series of cyber attacks impacted basic necessities like food and gas. senators roy blunt and mark warner tell nbc news how to deal russia's involvement. >> there needs to be international repercussions, not

simply one-off, the united states acting alone. that's why president biden going and rallying the democracies at the g7 meeting is so important. >> those g-7 meetings are part of a critical week ahead for the president. the summit begins on friday. president biden writing an op-ed in "the washington post" saying, quote, my trip to europe is all about america rallying the world's democracies. first, we have some pretty exciting breaking news to share. as the duke and duchess of sussex just announced the birth of their daughter. it's the second child for prince harry and meghan markle. we'll get right over to london right now where nbc's matt bradley has the details on this happy story. what do you know, matt? >> reporter: alex, it turns out this new royal baby was born on friday in california. the baby is healthy, born a little before noon on friday.

and the names, this new baby will be called lily diana mountbatten-windsor, excuse me, it's a mouthful. there's a lot of different families there, different elements of the royal family. lily was actually the nickname of her great-grandmother, queen elizabeth, the current reigning queen, and diana of course is a tribute to her grandmother, princess diana of wales and the mother of prince harry. so there's a lot there. mountbatten-windsor is the royal family's name, that's the combination there. and the naming here is always an issue when you're talking about a member of the royal family, prince harry, who has had a very, very difficult sort of half-divorce and a contentious relationship with london, with the royal family here. so how this new baby will impact that, well, it's really hard to see. we haven't heard a reaction yet,

a formal reaction from the royal family. the announcement comes from the press representatives of the sussexes. there had been a lot of speculation on naming. "the daily mail" was reporting it was thought the baby was going to be born on the 10th so it was born about six days before had been predicted by doctors. the 10th, the date it was supposed to be born, was going to be the 100th birthday of prince philip who died several months ago, that's queen elizabeth's husband. so now it looks as though this is a situation that's going to have a reaction from the palace. we still haven't heard it yet, even though this is a couple of days old, alex. >> there's a lot to unpack here. as the mother of two children, i'm just going to say, she had her second child a little bit early. that's typically, just informing you, my friend, because you wouldn't know anything about it. >> reporter: thank you, no, i

wouldn't. i learned something. >> you did, there you go. this baby was born at the santa barbara college hospital, a very well renowned hospital there in santa barbara. meghan had originally hoped to have the baby at home through natural childbirth there but it was wise to go to the hospital just in case. the baby weighed, according to something i'm just reading, 7 pounds 11 ounces, a nice healthy-sized baby. that means big brother archie will be two years and one month older than his big sister. so i'm wondering about the sibling rivalry, you know, is that going to be happening. i wonder if harry will be hanging out with archie because meghan obviously is going to have duties with this new baby lily. the names are great, don't you think? >> reporter: there's never any drama in the royal family, so i wouldn't expect anything from that. there's not going to be anything like that, no sibling rivalries,

nothing shakespearean. >> but this is super happy news, and we're told mother and baby are doing well so congratulations to all, and thank you, matt, for giving us the great news. we go back to the president and his upcoming trip to europe. nbc's monica alba is at the white house. monica, welcome to you. the president has a very busy week both here and overseas. talk about the agenda and what's on it. >> reporter: a lot at stake, alex, absolutely, abroad and here at home. the president is going to be talking again to republican senators about a potential infrastructure deal, though after they rejected the lately latest counterproposal, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for compromise. he's going to have to leave that all behind in terms of a domestic priority because then of course he is going to head to the uk where he will, by the

way, along with the first lady, be meeting with the queen at windsor castle. there will likely be some congratulations of this new news of the great-granddaughter now born to harry and meghan there. separate from that, he will also be participating in the g7 summit in cornwall, will then go to brussels for the eu and nato summits and wrap up with the critical face-to-face meeting with vladimir putin in geneva, switzerland. throughout this while the president is gone, it's possible his top officials and aides will still be trying to work on infrastructure behind the scenes. but the expectation, alex, the timeline is getting shorter and shorter so it's not clear how they'll be able to proceed. what we do know is we got a little bit of insight from commerce secretary gina raimondo on what they think could be happening with these bipartisan talks as they reach a critical juncture. take a listen. >> no one knows better than president biden how to work with

congress and move to a bipartisan deal. so at this point in time, we're not there yet. and again, i can just tell you, talking to governors, talking to many, many private sector leaders, talking to senators, republican and democrat, folks want a bipartisan deal. if we don't get there, then we'll consider other options. but it's way too soon at the moment to say that. >> reporter: so bipartisan is still the president's preference. we know he will keep working at that. that will take a back seat in the coming days as the president embarks on his first foreign trip since taking office. there will be plenty of tests. the president wrote in a "washington post" editorial today that he's going to attempt to rally the world's democracies against threats like china and russia, alex. >> okay, monica alba at the

white house, thank you so much for that. now to an exclusive new interview with a look inside the mind of one of the capitol riot suspects. he's charged with assaulting capitol police officers on january 6th and says he doesn't regret his actions. speaking from a utah jail with nbc station wrc, randall copland tabbed about his role in the attack on the capitol and why he wanted to be there. scott macfarlane joins us from capitol hill. welcome, scott. this is going to be extraordinary to hear. how did this conversation go? >> reporter: hey, alex. it went for 20 minutes in the middle of the night when he got phone privileges at the jail where he's being held in his home state of utah. he was pretty open about his case considering he didn't have a lawyer present, knew he was on the record, had entered a not guilty plea, and faces the most serious charges, not just

assaulting police but obstructing an official proceeding, and unlawful entry. he's one of 130 defendants charged with assault that day. i asked him about those allegations of striking police. >> i don't think i committed a crime. you know, i have the capability to where i could have hurt those other individuals, but i didn't hurt them. one of them pushed me, i pushed him back. one of them pushed me with a riot shield, i took his shield from him. >> but they're police. >> i don't think i did anything wrong. i was not in a place i was not allowed to be. there was no signs that said authorized personnel only. there was no barriers. >> did you regret being there now that you've been locked up for a while, do you regret going on the 6th and being in the capitol? >> absolutely not. the lawyers and people in that building, the people that make the laws, they're so out of

touch with the average individual that they don't -- i don't feel like there's been a law that has expand human rights since the 1920s, whenever women were given the right to vote. >> reporter: there is another reason landon copland is among the highest profile insurrection because at a proceeding in may, he lashed out at the judge, screamed vulgarities, called the judge a robot and says no one can get him unless he wants to be gotten. he's back in court in a virtual hearing in d.c. alex, we have a lot more of this interview to get to and we'll have more coming up later this afternoon. >> in fact i'm glad you'll be with us the next hour because i cannot wait to hear what you bring us next, this is actually extraordinary. thank you so much, i appreciate it, scott. we'll see you in just a bit. joining me right now is california congressman adam schiff, chairman of the house intelligence committee. congressman, always good to welcome you, my friend.

are you somewhat shocked as you listen to what's going on through the mind that have capitol riot suspect who by his own admission has no regret? >> it is shocking to listen to. but my impression, after january 6th, i remember watching some of these insurrectionists in airports, harassing some of my colleagues. i remember thinking to myself, these people are true believers, they believe the lies that president trump told about massive fraud in the election. but the people i work with in the congress, by and large they know that those are lies, but they were happy to propagate them, they were happy to continue contesting the election even after the bloody insurrection. but yes, there are true believers like that guy that was just interviewed. and in fact, frankly, there are millions of americans who believe today that joe biden is not the legitimate president, and that's a threat to our democracy. >> that's a huge thing. but i'm trying to get inside the mind of someone who is in jail right now in utah, i'm trying to think of what light has he left

to sit behind bars in jail and say that nothing has been expanded in terms of human rights in this country since women's voting rights and the suffragette movement. i'm like, rights for what? to yell at officers, to attack officers, to yell obscenities in court? what do you do with this mentality in trying to right it? how can congress do anything to help regulate that -- not regulate it, it's not the word i'm looking for -- influence that. >> i think we have to understand better, which is one of the reasons we've been pushing for an independent and bipartisan commission to look into what motivated these people to come to the capitol, how much organization was behind it, how much money was behind it, and what do we do about this in the future, how do we protect our capitol, how do we protect our country. you know, the u.s. capitol was not the only capitol subject to

potential violence. you had that in the michigan state capitol and elsewhere. first of all, better understanding what was motivating these people, better understanding how they were incited in these attacks, and also pushing back against, you know, the continuing effort to lie about the election, to claim there was massive fraud, to justify the unjustifiable. these are all things that i think we need to pursue in congress, but outside of congress as well. >> so to that exact point, in a call last week, speaker pelosi listed four possibilities after republican senators blocked the creation of an independent commission to do exactly what you're saying, investigate the capitol riot. viewers can see these four different options on the screen there. do you have an idea as to the best path forward? i'm just curious, what are republicans afraid of by not supporting getting to the bottom of what exactly happened? >> the best path forward would be a bipartisan, really a

nonpartisan commission. when you look at what the 9/11 commission did and this legislation is modelled after that. its conclusions had wide buy-in from the american people because it was a very nonpartisan effort, because there were very credible chairs and vice chairs and members of the commission and it did a diligent and thorough job. that's what we want to do here. look, i think what the republicans are afraid of, the reason they don't want an objective look, is it will likely cast criticism on those who are propagating lies about the election. and they feel some complicity with that, and they should feel complicity about that, if they were engaged in part of that big lie. so look, i understand the reluctance. but when you look back at 9/11, initially the bush administration didn't want it because they thought it would be critical of their preparations before 9/11 and what they did or

didn't do. but the victims demanded it, and the victims here are demanding it too. the republicans have a different agenda right now. they're in state capitols all over the united states using the big lie to go further and to cut off access to vote by new jim crow laws. that's where they're coming from. if we can't get their cooperation to establish this commission than we'll need to investigate it on our own in congress. >> here is something that investigative reporters have gotten ahold of from "the new york times." they report that in donald trump's final weeks in office, his chief of staff mark meadows repeatedly pushed the justice department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. this is according to newly-uncovered emails provided to congress. what new layer does this add to the effort to undermine the election results? how serious is this direct link to the oval office and donald trump? >> it's very serious. and i served with mark meadows,

i know him reasonably well. this is tragic, when people allow themselves to do in the service of this unethical president, and to, from the white house, be urging the justice department to engage in bogus investigations, either to gratify the president's ego or even worse, to actually try to overturn the results, this is the president's chief of staff. we have the president's former national security adviser, mike flynn, openly opining but why we can't have a coup like in myanmar. we have the president and his supporters saying he will be reinstated in august, which is nonsense. these are leaders, former leaders of the country that were engaged in this kind of conduct. and with respect to meadows, it's, again, another assault on the independence of the justice department. they shouldn't be having those contacts about any subject that implicates the president. but the fact that he was doing it to try to overturn a u.s.

election shows what an anti-democratic party the republican party has become, anti-democratic, anti-truth. they have essentially forsaken one of the most important norms there is, the peaceful transfer of power after a presidential election. >> let's turn now to the latest string of cyber attacks that have impacted basic necessities like gas and food. nbc news has learned, sir, that the administration is moving to treat the attacks as a national security threat. they're going to use intel agencies now to spy on foreign criminals. they're, quote, contemplating offensive cyber operations on hackers inside russia. what could those cyber operations look like, and do you think they could help prevent further attacks? >> i do think they could prevent, help prevent further attacks. and i do support using our offensive capability to disrupt these criminal gangs, to disrupt

their attacks, to disrupt their use of malicious code, and to disrupt their payments through cryptocurrency. i think the idea that we've harbored in the past that we'll indict these people and hope one day to be able to grab them and bring them before a u.s. court, that's not likely to happen. so many of these gangs are operating from within russia, many within china and other countries as well. and so this is imposing a real cost on our economy, making real victims of american companies. and these cyber criminals often have a synergistic relationship with their host government and we need to hold those governments responsible as well and require them to indemnify the losses. >> when president biden meets with russian president vladimir putin, it's the bilateral summit scheduled for june 16, how does he confront these cyber attacks?

what do you think he should say to putin? >> well, i think this is going to be at the very top or near the top of the agenda. i think he needs to tell putin that he understands that these criminal gangs are operating with putin's blessing, they're operating with impunity, as long as they don't go after russian industry or russian companies, and russia can tap these hackers as a resource for the russian government, and that the united states is going to push back hard and we're going to hold putin and the kremlin accountable for these attacks because they could do something about them to stop them but they're not. so they're complicit. and we will impose costs on russia. and we'll use whatever cables we have to protect our people and our companies. >> so "the washington post," as you pointed out, says trump and his allies tried to rewrite, distort history of pandemic while casting fauci as public enemy number one. we saw this line of attack at yesterday's north carolina gop

convention. why this line of attack when things are looking pretty good in this country or at least going strongly in the right direction? >> this is part of the attack on truth by the trump administration and trump's gop. science is quintessentially about a search for the truth. and they wish to try to rewrite this portion of history because hundreds of thousands of people died under trump's incompetent watch. all of the mixed messaging on wearing masks, all of the dysfunction around producing the tests and rolling out the tests, the whole kind of trumpian world view that if you don't test people and they don't find a virus therefore the virus doesn't exist. look, fauci is speaking out about that, about the mistakes we made and how costly they were. so no wonder they're going after fauci. yes, they do want to rewrite history and they want to make the pandemic response some kind of glorious success when we had among the worst responses in the world. part of it is trying to resurrect donald trump, trying

to help a campaign in 2024. and whitewash his record. they've done this, or tried, in so many other areas. they're trying on the insurrection, to make it a normal tourist day. and they're trying to rewrite the history of the virus as well. >> there is an fbi investigation under way into postmaster general and trump ally louis dejoy. it all centers on campaign fundraising on dejoy's business. a spokesperson says dejoy has never knowingly violated campaign finance laws. what's your reaction to this report? >> look, if the allegations are true, it's very serious because it sounds like tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars of corporate contributions were made that violate the law, getting

employees to make them and reimbursing them with bonuses. if true, that's a very serious violation of our campaign laws. if he was involved in it or was too negligent to stop it, he shouldn't be running the postal service. frankly i don't think he should be running the postal service as it is, taking machines offline, casting a question on whether ballots would be counted. he has had conflicts with his private business. and this is just one more reason why i think we need to change the leadership at the postal service. >> all right. my fend, california congressman adam schiff, always good to see you, thanks for spending part of your sunday with me, i appreciate it. the former president's capacity for grievance is seemingly a bottomless well. we'll play a little bit of that for you later on msnbc and

later, more mystifying stuff from him. but first, how donald trump tried to attack democracy in the waning days of his administration. administration another day, another chance. it could be the day you break the sales record, or the day there's appointments nonstop. with comcast business, you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses, and you can get the advanced cybersecurity solutions you need with comcast business securityedge. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. get started with a great offer, and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. plus, for a limited time,

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a bit more now on the new bombshell report showing the lengths trump administration officials went to to stay in power during their final weeks in office. "the new york times" has reviewed portions of newly-recovered emails provided to congress and sent during the last week of december and january. in them, "the times" reports that then-chief of staff mark meadows asked jeffrey rosen, then acting attorney general, to examine debunked claims from new mexico and an array of baseless conspiracies that trump had been the actual victor. "the times" reports none of the emails shows rosen agreed to open any investigations and people close to rosen say he definitely did not do so. but this comes as trump gave a

speech in north carolina yesterday continuing to tout the baseless fraud claims. >> it was the third world country election like we've never seen before. look at what took place. i want to congratulate, by the way, republican state senators in arizona and other places for their great work. that they are doing in exposing this fraud and maybe, again, i have nothing to do with the arizona situation. >> joining me, "new york times" chief correspondent and nbc political analyst peter baker, good to have you. let's get to this report and how it adds context to donald trump's big lie. what do you think of trump, via theoval office, the pressure put on the department of justice? >> it didn't end when bill barr

stepped down, who had been so instrumental in president trump's tenure, said that he saw no evidence of widespread fraud that would overturn the election. that was bill barr, president trump's own attorney general, and then he stepped down. what we see now is it didn't stop the pressure from the white house on that justice department to find something, anything at all to justify finding a way to nullify or somehow overturn the election no matter how far-fetched. it could be some sort of italian conspiracy theory as was put in these emails, it could be anything. grasping at straws, literally, trying to find some justification to keep president trump in office even though he lost by 7 million votes. >> the italian one, i thought about explaining it to viewers but it's so ridiculous that i'm not going to bother. what about the fact that donald trump pointed to the review of the 2020 ballots under way, that recount in maricopa county,

arizona? npr says, experts call it a clown show but arizona audit is a disinformation blueprint. >> the president even now is focusing on this so-called audit in arizona and other efforts to try to prove one of these conspiracy theories might actually be true. it doesn't matter that, you know, it doesn't actually have any impact. he's telling people he think he can be reinstated to the president in august. obviously there is no method under the constitution in which that would happen no matter what happens. >> and can i ask you quick, when august comes and goes and donald trump is still living at marble, then what? what will be the next excuse or how will people interpret that and just kind of go, oh, yeah, i guess that didn't happen. >> yeah, you know, it will be passed along as if nothing ever happened, no prediction was ever made and people will move on. he's trying to keep himself obviously in the limelight. he craves attention, he craves,

you know, being part of the conversation. that's one reason he eliminated his blog, because it wasn't getting enough attention. so you see the beginning of a more campaign-style approach by him. this meeting last night he went to, he's going to be hosting a number of campaign-style rallies in the weeks and months to come. he will continue to tease out this idea that he might run for election again in 2024 as he did just this last week. and so i think he will try to keep in the public limelight. none of this is going to put him back in the white house by itself. he could in theory run again in 2024 and presumably win, but he's not going to be reinstated by these odd audits, if you want to call it that, in arizona. remember, this is a partisan effort being led entirely by republicans, it's not a state-sanctioned effort. and even if he were somehow to overturn the arizona elections, which cannot be overturned at this point, there are still two states other that he would have

to overturn in order to change the outcome of the electoral college and we can't do that at this point. it's been certified, president biden is in the white house, all of this is just feeding into conspiracy theories and fantasy views of the way a democracy works. >> guess what day it was certified? january 6th, let's remind folks. okay, peter baker. we'll have you back next week i hope to talk about joe biden's trip overseas and the results of that. thank you, my friend, good to see you. the ten-letter word that feels more like a four-letter word in washington these days and why democrats can't wait to see it go. go.

new and pointed reaction to an op-ed by senator joe manchin on why he's voting against the for the people act. he writes, i believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy and for that reason i will vote against the for the people act.

amanda golden is on capitol hill with more on this. some pretty scathing responses, amanda, to the senator. what are you hearing on the hill? >> reporter: that's right, alex, with this defense from senator joe manchin as to why he would not support s. 1, the for the people act, this is something prompting severe backlash from congressional democrats working to get this over the finish line. manchin is in support of the john lewis voting advancement act, a smaller bill that has bipartisan support from senator lisa murkowski. but without him voting for this, there's no path to 50. that's getting a strong response from congressional democrats. listen to what jim clyburn had to say today. >> i don't know if i'm smarter than senator manchin but i'm smart enough to know the difference between an up or down vote and a filibuster. and what he's doing is continuing to filibuster the vote and the debate rather than

the allow schumer to limit debate and set a date. and that's what we're trying to do. please, mr. manchin, vote to limit debate so we can set a date and have an up or down vote on whether or not we are going to have a continuation of voting rights in this country. >> reporter: so with senator manchin a know on s. 1 in his op-ed, he's defending his position on not changing or eliminating the filibuster, as many senate democrats are feeling more and more frustrated with what they say is antiquated rules of the filibuster that are blocking potential policies especially when it comes to president biden's infrastructure bill. manchin is not budging on his stances here, alex. >> we'll see when he gets face-to-face with people and see what they say to him. i know you'll report on it, thank you, amanda. coming up, they are speeches few democrats want to hear but

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and save at trelegy.com. new today, donald trump gearing up for summer appearances ahead of the 2020 midterms. msnbc's ali vitali has more on trump's speech to the faithful. hey there, ali. what all did he say? >> reporter: hey, alex. it began as an uncharacteristically muted speech during the north carolina republican party state convention dinner. then more than an hour in, the former president let loose about the 2020 election he lost. donald trump reviving false claims of a stolen election. center stage in north carolina. >> that election will go down as the crime of the century and our country is being destroyed by people who perhaps have no right to destroy it. >> reporter: the roomful of republicans cheering him on. some holding a flag announcing

"trump won" as he took the stage. >> i am not the one trying to undermine american democracy. i'm the one that's trying to save it. >> reporter: the trump-led big lie about a fraud-riddled election, the basis for republican-led efforts to pass sweeping restrictive voter laws across the country. >> they saw what happened in this last disaster. >> reporter: trump also taking aim at facebook after they announced a decision to ban him from their platforms including instagram until at least 2023. >> it's so unfair. they're shutting down an entire group of you, not just me. >> reporter: trump preparing for more public appearances in this summer and a big role in the 2022 midterms, making his presence felt in the senate primary contest, endorsing congressman ted budd. >> i'm giving him my complete endorsement. >> reporter: after his daughter-in-law lara trump declined to run in her home state. >> no for now, not no forever. >> reporter: but trump will do more than just campaign for others.

>> obviously the holy grail would be for him to run for president again. >> reporter: others prepared to survey the field. >> i think it's an open field for 2024. you're going to see a lot of different people pop out of the woodwork. >> reporter: including here in greenville. >> anything i've ever wanted to do, donald j. trump made possible. >> reporter: south dakota governor kristi noem praising trump, even with rumored presidential ambitions of her own. but not all republicans are marching in step. congress won liz cheney commenting on trump's refusal to accept the results. >> it's an ongoing threat. >> reporter: a blog set up to allow americans to follow the latest from the former president was shut down this week after less than a month of being active. it goes to show events from the podium are all the more valuable for the former president. >> ali vitali, thank you for

that report. joining me now, don callaway, democratic strategist and founder of national voter protection action fund. msnbc analyst and republican strategist susan del percio, and david jolly, national chairman of the serve america movement. don, your reaction of trump's rally last night. >> i think it's time for people of good faith to move on. he's so deeply irrelevant and so deeply unserious of a human being it feels me more empowered every time i see him go out, because i realize the people who he's talking to and who are continuing to express fealty to him are moving further and further away from people of good faith who are trying to move this country forward. i hate to see state gop officials follow that line.

but those of white house are seriously interested in policy, will the congressional republican gop join them along with the tiki torch folks at charlottesville and the insurrection of january 6th, will you join them in the confederacy of dunces and donald trump? >> david, the perpetuation of the big lie, trump did that. he also took time to, last night, applaud states who have enacted restrictive voting laws. take a listen to what he said. >> that's why i love what they've done in texas, i love what they are doing in florida and done in florida. i would like to see georgia be much tougher. they don't have signature verification. they don't have things. georgia has to be tougher. i love what's going on in so many states, 41 different

states, because they saw what happened in this last disaster and they don't want it to happen again. >> your reaction to all of this, and should his support of these laws serve as a five-alarm fire bell for democrats? >> yeah, it should, alex. and i largely agree with the spirit of don's comments, but i think unfortunately donald trump is still relevant for a couple of very important reasons. first, he is still the leader of the party until somebody replaces him, right? he has not receded into the shadows. secondly, he's very relevant because as leader of the party he continues to stoke the big lie, he continues to stoke this anti-democratic, illiberal attack on our democracy, if you will. that's a very dangerous moment we're living in. so it's relevant because it continues to -- it needs to be checked. but where i do strongly agree with don is, what i saw last night was a boxer who had lost a step. and if you're kristi noem, if you're ron desantis, if you're

mike pompeo, i think you saw your opening last night. donald trump is not going to make a declarative statement about his intentions in 2024, probably for a few years, it's no benefit for him to announce his intentions. the former president will likely remain former because he just doesn't have what he brought to the party, say, five years ago. >> a recent "new york times" article describes trump as a diminished figure and an oversized presence in american life. on a scale of one to ten, how much is donald trump hurting the gop, with ten being extreme damage? >> 42? that seems about right. it's the continuous damage that donald trump does the party is in who the party is attracting

and keeping. the republican party is not expanding, it's diminishing. and the people who are still in it or the few that are joining it are basically angry people looking for a voice of donald trump. they like what donald trump represents. his voice can diminish if there is another voice to carry the day. but -- >> but let me ask you about that. david was making the point, and he's absolutely right, you have noem, desantis, any number of others, he mentioned mike pompeo, who all would like to get in there. they're all considering a run for 2024. and as long as donald trump keeps his foot in the field there, they can't. so -- >> they can. they can. there are things that you can do as an aspiring candidate for president. you can go to the north carolina gop dinner or convention and speak. you can get yourself out there, still back the president, but look like you're ready to take

on that vacancy should it appear. it's the immediate concern of 2022 that i think we really have to go around. looking at don's point, two things. one, as a political person, i look at it and i say, you know what, it's great, let all these whack-a-doos have primaries at the state level for congressional seats, let them put the most extreme people out there and let them lose. >> okay. >> however, as an american we need to be better informed about this big lie. >> on the opposite end of all this, don, how much do you think trump is helping democrats? give me a ten as extremely helpful and one being not at all. >> that's tough. i think he's nine, extremely helpful, only because she's going to inspire people who are not as talented and not as well-funded as him to try to be like him and that always gives us something to run off of. i want to give susan props for

using the word "wackadoodle." >> here are a couple of things i want to ask you about, david. the "vanity fair" article titled, trump has fully lost it, won't stop telling people he's going to be president again this year, august, in fact, a popular qanon conspiracy, and second, more plausible, if you can believe this, trump thinking of running for congress in 2022. first of all, redistricting has to be completely figured out. but does he really think he's going to go back to the white house in august or is that one just for headlines? >> alex, you know, this is a top of topic for us to talk about as a nation. because we are not -- i am certainly not a clinician when it comes to evaluating mental health. but this is a clear detachment from reality. that's part of what was on display last night, as we talked about, a desantis, a pompeo, et cetera. you saw a person detached not

just from political reality in some ways from reality itself. it should be concerning to us that he could be a viable, legitimate candidate as he was before. on the notion of a run for congress, i don't see that happening. the speaker of the house of representatives doesn't have to be a member of the house. if republicans win again, kevin mccarthy thinks he's going to be speaker. but if donald trump tells his followers, hey, i want to be speaker of the house, watch the republican party in the house of representatives implode in that environment. who knows? all bets are off. >> okay. you know what, i just need to wrap my head around that one. hang on, please, we'll talk about trump's effort to vilify dr. fauci. also in our next hour for all of you, dnc chair jaime harrison will be talking to me about an ugly new gop attack line that dems cannot ignore.

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my job was to make a vaccine and use my institute and the talented scientists that we have there and that we fund in the various universities to get a vaccine that was highly safe and highly effective. and we succeeded. that's what i do. all the other stuff is just a terrible, not happy type of a distraction. but it's all nonsense. >> dr. anthony fauci there defending himself after a new round of attacks and trump and his gop allies and i'm back with my panelists. we're going to take a look at what trump said about fauci last night in north carolina. here it is. >> but he's been wrong on almost every issue and he was wrong on wuhan and the lab also. very wrong. but fauci is, perhaps, never been more wrong than when he denied the virus and where it

came from. >> so, i just want to go around the table and get all three to comment. susan, you first. >> dr. fauci still has his job, donald trump doesn't. >> oh, well, that sums that up. how about you, don? >> i trust dr. fauci. he has acted in good faith and relied upon science and been nonpolitical throughout the whole thing. i certainly trust his judgment and his discussion of anything coronavirus related, much more than i trust that of donald trump or josh hawley or his critics. >> lastly, david? >> yeah, alex, i've got about 25 or 30 years of history on capitol hill. last february, as all this was breaking out, i said at 30 rock actually, the world's about to get to know a man named anthony fauci, highly esteemed. the thing to look at is who is criticizing him? it's the newcomers, the young guns trying to make a name for themselves.

donald trump, josh hawley, it's not the kevin mccarthy and others. anthony fauci's reputation is solid and it's solid even among traditional republicans on capitol hill who have worked with him for decades. what donald trump is doing and his minions is they need an enemy. they need somebody to beat up on so they can make themselves the victor. it's wrong. it's immoral what they're doing. it's also adverse to our own public health interest. >> love having these conversations every weekend with you guys. thank you so much. well, tom petty once sang, the waiting is the hardest part, and if you waited until now to get your covid vaccine, you may be able to cash in in a very big way. how big? we'll give you details in a moment. w big? we'll give you details in a moment pain? yeah. here. aspercreme with max-strength* lidocaine. works fast and lasts. keep it. you're gonna need it. kick pain in the aspercreme ♪ look at what's happened to me.♪

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it's on an effort to get closer to president biden's goal of 7 on% of americans with at least one shot by july 4th. new york city's new vaccination site it outside the vincent van gogh site. i have tickets to that. i can't wait to go. let's talk about covid and the push to reach that vaccine goal. what do you know about that? >> reporter: i would say, other than broadway it's one of the hottest tickets in town to get in here. whether you're going to the zoo, the aquarium or the van gogh exhibit here, it's among the program of expanding added

incentives that this state is doing to try to make people vaccinated. now, the first 100 people in line to get vaccinated got free tickets inside and that went quickly because this is a popular exhibit. i spoke with the producer of this exhibit as well as people in line. take a listen. >> people just come and inquire. of course, it is super convenient, plus we have the boats coming in and out, we have the crowds that a lot of people are just passing by. of course, we're noticing a great movement here by having -- by having this site here, 100%. >> i think it's a great opportunity for people that may not feel as comfortable to come out and do it in a safe way. >> reporter: certainly not just new york, though, alex. ohio had their lottery. they were announcing winners of their lottery this past week. virginia, california, doing different incentives. nascar with sweepstakes to the 2022 daytona 500.

nfl to next year's super bowl. united airlines offering a year of free tickets to get vaccinated. >> what? >> reporter: there's a lot happening here when it comes to getting people incentivized. we have 29 days. we have 20 million people to go. so, the white house is taking this very seriously. 33% of the population still are a little hesitant to get that vaccine. so, when you crunch the numbers, alex, it means that some 600,000 people a day have to get vaccinated for us to get to that rate in 29 days. so, you know, we have these incentives. they're really big. you think with these big incentives, it will happen, but we'll have to wait and see. >> well, i appreciate you doing the math. 600,000 vaccinations a day, that seems like a pretty tall order, though, spread across the 50 states, maybe we can get there. we sure need to. thank you. by the way, i hope you get to take a sneak in there and see what that's like. email me when you do.

good day to all of you. welcome to "alex witt reports request the ". as we approach the top of the hour, 1:00 on the east coast and 10:00 p.m. pacific time, new this hour, another promise from donald trump. the republicans will be back in the white house, quote, sooner than you think. there's no indication of when these comments were recorded, but they were shared friday by the national republican senatorial committee. >> i want to thank everybody for the tremendous support you've. shown. we're going to take back the senate, the house and the white house, sooner than you think. a new reaction to liz cheney to trump's previously reported comments about a possible return to the white house. she's in a fight for her political life after going up against trump. she asked if her remarks gin up similar to january 6th. >> i think it's a very real threat and it's an ongoing

threat. and i think that president trump's continued activities demonstrate the falsity of the idea that if we simply ignore him, he'll go away. >> also new today, west virginia senator joe manchin breaking with democrats on sweeping changes to voting rights saying he believes they'll further divide the country. manchin says he will vote against the for the people act and reiterate his opposition to changing the filibuster in the senate. >> in 2013, at that time, harry reid, the leader of the majority party of the democrat it is, the nuclear option. come back 2017, then leader mcconnell at that time in the majority and he did away with it for the supreme court. so, what goes around, comes around here. they all understand that. there were 33 democrats in 2017 that signed the letter to please save the filibuster and save our democracy. that's what i'm trying to do. >> as we head off this hour,