good afternoon, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin in new york. the biden administration facing big tests at home and abroad. vice president kamala harris is starting her first trip outside of the united states in guatemala, the first stop of a two-nation tour to reduce the migrants coming from central america. a short time ago she held a news conference with guatemala's president in which she had this message for people thinking of making the dangerous journey. >> do not come. do not come. the united states will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border. >> later this week, president biden will visit europe on his first foreign trip since taking

office. he will meet with leaders from the world's most industrialized nations as well as nato and european leaders, and he will hold his first face to face meeting with russian president vladimir putin. national security adviser jake sullivan made one thing about that meeting absolutely clear. >> we do not regard a meeting with the russian president as a reward. we regard it as a vital part of defending america's interests and america's values. >> the biden administration's domestic agenda will face a big test this week, the president expected to talk with west virginia republican celly moore capito today or tomorrow about efforts to reach a bipartisan deal on infrastructure. and in just a few minutes from now the justice department will hold a news conference to update us on that colonial pipeline hacking that squeezed fuel supplies along the east coast for several days last month. let's start with that story, just with pete williams right

now who is at the department of justice for us. pete, bring us up to speed on what we know the impetus before this news conference? >> well, what we learned here is from law enforcement officials who say that the interesting thing about this, we knew that colonial pipeline's ceo had said that the company did pay the ransom in order to get its computer systems back so that he could keep the pipeline pumping, but what we are learning now is that the fbi was able to trace where the money was supposed to be sent to a cryptocurrency account, and then take it back out again. so we don't know how much of the money was able to be recovered, but what's happened here is that the u.s. has dealt a big blow to the hackers by depriving them of a good deal of what they hoped to earn from this hack. it's a remarkable piece of detective work considering how quickly the u.s. was able to attribute the attack to specific

hackers, and a specific account and get the money from cryptocurrency back so that it's been able to compensate or restore some of the money that the pipeline company was able to pay to keep the system working and we expect to learn more details here in just a couple of minutes from the justice department and the fbi. >> yeah. absolutely incredible, technical endeavor there. >> i want to bring into the conversation, stay with me, pete. >> no, i've got to go, but i'll leave it over to you. >> i know you have to head into that briefing and we'll touch base with you later in the hour, but let me bring into the conversation susan spalding, former cybersecurity expert and former undersecretary for the national protection and programs directed at the department of homeland security. suzanne, can you just tell us your reaction to this news, how big of a deal is it that the united states was able to recover some of this ransom given the fact that people often tout cryptocurrency as being this iron clad way of

transferring money. >> well, it's very interesting. we know with the cryptocurrency that there is actually a greater ability to track transactions even though -- even as it makes attributing those transactions to an individual harder, but if we can, using all kinds of mean, in fact, track those funds and make criminals think twice about their level of anonymity, that's a huge deal. that is a very big deal. ? so can you just talk to us really quick, suzanne, about the identity of these hackers and these people who demanded the ransomware from colonial pipeline. you're talking about their identity being anonymous online. does this, from a justice perspective, make it any more

likely that you can bring these individuals to justice as opposed to recovering the money for the activities that they're doing online. >> yes, i think it does. i think it holds some promise there. i think one of the advantages that cryptocurrency offers to law enforcement is that i mutable chain of transactions. the challenge has been then attributing that transaction to an individual and the ability to actually trace funds to a specific account and then go in and seize those funds is a step towards that attribution and again, combining that with other techniques and other ways of trying to identify the owner of the account is what's really promising. >> all right. suzanne spalding, thank you for your time. i'll ask you to stick around as we continue to track that press conference. when it does happen in a few minutes we'll come back to continue this conversation. meanwhile, we do want to go back to our coverage of vice

president kamala harris' trip to central america and joining us now is nbc correspondent kerry sanders who is there on the ground in guatemala city, and yamiche alcindor, and political analyst. the message she is sending today while on the ground in guatemala, tell us about that and how it was received there. >> well, there were several messages that happened, first of all, you have the vice president physically making the visit here. that is symbolic. it suggests to all involved in the triangle here, we're talking about guatemala, in el salvador, in honduras that there is a crisis that the united states recognizes and then she holds the news conference with the president along her side from guatemala and in the presentation they're talking about adding task forces to look into corruption and establishing a stronger judiciary, but in the

diplomatic back and forth when there is a press conference like this there is always a diplomat, in this case, the vice president who is speaking on those her side and trying to speak directly to the community that is listening in this country. so let's listen to what she had to say and then we'll point out the problem of what this delivery of message might be. >> we as one of our priorities will discourage illegal migration, and i believe, if you come to our border, you will be turned back. so let's discourage our friends, our neighbors, our family members from embarking on what is an otherwise an extremely dangerous journey where in large part the only people who benefit are coyotes. >> so what's wrong with that

message? nothing other than it may not reach the people she intended to reach. look, aymon, we've been here for a week and we've been high in the mountains and the houses have no electricity, no running water. if there was a suggestion or idea from an american perspective that these words will reach poor people on a cell phone or on a television, it's just not going to happen. they don't have that, so how does the message potentially get to them? that is word of mouth and we heard the vice president talking about the coyotes, these are the people who arrange for people to traffic them further north for payment. they are the ones who have been telling people the u.s. border is open and so this is the one-on-one information that they're getting from the coyotes as opposed to the message from the vice president visiting here that it will reach some of the population, but not a lot of them. >> yamiche, thanks for that, kerry. let me pick up on what kerry was

talking about there and that is the message to the people in guatemala, what are the white house's expectations for this trip? >> the white house's expectations for this trip are that the vice president will be able to be there, meet with the officials in different countries, including, of course, the president of guatemala and really try to work on the relationships between the u.s. and central america. there is, at this point, no deliverable that i can gather when i talked to white house officials on this, but there is the sense that she's working on the long-term goal of migration, that she's supposed to be working on the northern triangle and trying to work on the root causes of people's migration. the poverty, the violence and all of the issues and she's not coming, of course, with any word on increased aid that could help maybe possibly some of those situations, but she is, of course, coming with that message, which is do not come. it is a message that we've heard from president biden and officials over and over again and it's a message when we talk

to immigrants and migrants when coming to the border and it's a message that is not reaching them and also, i should note, this is a message that is reaching a population that is still very much in dire straits when they get to the united states. at least we're not going to be killed by gangs. at least we'll have running water and at least we have a chance at possibly going into the united states. so this is a really, really hard job for the president here. >> yamiche, one of the president's top priorities as he heads overseas is restoring america's relationship with its european allies and this european trip not just about restoring trust among european nations that by some accounts were lost by the trump administration. let me play what jake sullivan had to say about that, watch. >> what president biden can do is show the rest of the world what america is capable of. if we can lead the world in ending the covid-19 pandemic more rapidly, if the growth we are powering for the american people at home helps power a global economic recovery, if we

can help rally as the president did with his climate leader summit action on the climate crisis so that we actually beat this thing, ultimately, that will be the best way for people to say, man, the united states can do this. they can deliver. >> yamiche, you've covered both white houses. how deep are the scars from the trump administration when it comes to the relationship with the european allies and how much work does the president have to do to heal those wounds based on your reporting? >> based on my reporting and conversations with the white house and conversations with experts on nato and the g7, president biden has his work cut out for him because a lot of our european allies are deeply traumatized by former president trump who was hostile to european allies who talked about whether or not nato needed to exist and also was seen as the europeans as a response to some of the actions and the ideas of the american people. so when i'm talking to experts they tell me that president biden will be met with a lot of

cagey european allies and they'll be cagey because they wonder if president biden is someone who issa i space holder for between president trump and possibly someone that will be trump-like in 2024. that's a big issue this and as jake sullivan said there, they'll say that the actions of the biden administration being able to get the pandemic under control and that will be the real evidence to show that america is back and capable of moving past the trump era. >> okay, yamiche, i'll face it this week and thanks to the both of you. joining us now to continue our conversation on the vice president's trip to central america is the deputy director of the immigrants rights project. good to have you back on the show. let me play some of what she had to say during her meeting with the guatemalan president earlier today. >> most people don't want to leave home.

most people want to be in the place where they grew up, their grandmother, a place where they prayed and where the culture is familiar and when they do leave it is usually for one of two reasons. either they are fleeing some harm or they simply cannot satisfy their basic needs by staying home. >> i spent some time in guatemala reporting as you very well know and kerry highlighted, you are talking about institutional challenges and the kind of wealth needed to keep people there. what more do you think the biden administration needs to be doing to reduce the flow of migrants coming from central america in dealing with those migrants who have already arrived here in the united states? >> right. i agree with the vice president that people do not want to leave their country if they don't have to. we ought to be working on root causes, absolutely, but that's going to take time, but where i

disagree and where i think the conversation has gone off track is the border is closed. tell everyone the border is closed. the united states cannot tell people the border is closed to asylum seekers. people are fleeing danger, the border must be open. that is the commitment we made after world war ii. we've had that commitment along with the rest of the world and we have been a place where people can seek refuge. we cannot send a message that the border is closed for asylum seekers and unfortunately, the biden administration has closed the border to asylum seekers and continued the trump administration policy of not letting families into the united states even those with little children who are fleeing persecution and are desperate for a safe place. so we cannot continue to send a message that the border is not open. what we can say is if you are in danger, you can come. if you are not in danger then

you may not be allowed to be in the country, but this idea that we should send the message that the border is flatly closed. it is inhumane and in violation of our asylum laws and we have to say, look, if you're in danger you'll come in, and the government has to get rid of the title 42 policy and there's no safe way to bring asylum seekers in. >> okay. do you think that was the message she sent today, specifically the moment that we played earlier in the show, when she said do not come. do not come. we will continue to enforce our laws in the southern border and will that be how it will be received by people trying to seek asylum and how do you see the message when she said do not come? >> right. so i didn't hear everything the vice president said, and based on what i've heard the administration said previously, the message that i'm hearing is

do not come regardless of whether you're in danger and the biden administration has a title 42 policy that they've continued, unfortunately, from the trump administration that expels people back without any hearing. any hearing on asylum. it doesn't matter how much danger you're in, you do not get an asylum, eric. it is really troubling that that has kept up and the aclu and our partners have a lawsuit about that and we have to have a border with asylum seekers. this is a troubling moment in our history if we continue the trump administration policy of not allowing asylum seekers and the border is open if you're an expert. >> thank you very much for your time. i great le appreciate it, as always. we'll have the news conference on the colonial pipeline. we'll bring it to you as soon as

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let's cross over now to the deputy of justice, lisa monaco briefing. >> also with us are assistant attorney general for national security john de mers and acting assistant attorney general nick mcquade. ransomware attacks have increased in scope and sophistication in the last year, targeting our critical infrastructure, businesses of all type, whole cities and even law enforcement. ransomware and digital extortion pose a national security and an economic security threat to the united states. the department of justice working with our partners is committed to using all of our tools at our -- all of the tools at our disposal to disrupt these

networks and the abuse of the online infrastructure that allows this threat to persist. the sophisticated use of technology to hold businesses and even whole cities hostage for profit is decidedly a 21st century challenge, but the old adage, follow the money still applies and that's exactly what we do. after colonial pipeline's quick notification to law enforcement and pursuant to a warrant issued by the united states district court for the northern district of california earlier today, the department of justice has found and recaptured the majority of the ransom colonial paid to the dark side network in the wake of last month's ransomware attack. ransomware attacks are always unacceptable, but when they target critical infrastructure

we will spare no effort in our response. dark side is a ransomware as a service network. that means developers who sell or lease ransomware to use in attacks in return for a fee or a share in the proceeds. dark side and it's affiliates have been digitally stalking u.s. companies for the better part of last year and indiscriminately attacking victims that include key players in our nation's critical infrastructure. today we turned the tables on dark side, by going after the entire ecosystem that fuels ransomware and digital extortion attacks including digital proceeds in the form of digital currency, we will continue to use all of our tools and all of

our resources to increase the cost and the consequences of ransomware and cyber-enabled attacks. the seizure was part of the recently launched ransomware and criminal extortion task force which was to disrupt and prosecute ransomware and digital extortion activity. this is the first test of the operation of this kind. this work is important because every day the digital threats that we face are more diverse, more sophisticated and more dangerous. in this heightened threat landscape, we all have a role to play in keeping our nation safe. no organization is immune. so today i want to emphasize to leaders of corporations and communities alike, the threat of severe ransomware attacks pose a

clear and present danger to our organization, to your company, to your customers, to your shareholders and to your long-term success. so pay attention now. invest resources now. failure to do so could be the difference to be secure now or a victim later, but also know that we are all in this together. the u.s. government will continue to do more, to increase our nation's resilience while increasing the cost to our digital adversaries and those that enable or harbor them, and we cannot do so without you. the department of justice will continue to evolve as the threat evolves. that is why one of the first acts i took after returning to the department was to launch a

strategic cyber review, that is why federal prosecutors now report ransomware incidents in the same way that they report critical threats to our national security and that is why we will continue to work with our public and private partners both here and globally to bring our collective authorities together to confront emerging threats. there is no higher priority for the department of justice than using all available tools to protect our nation, that includes from ransomware and other digital threats. thank you and now i'll turn the podium over to deputy director paul abate. >> thank you. good afternoon, everyone. today the fbi successfully seized criminal proceeds from a bitcoin wallet that darkside ransomware actors used to collect a ransomware payment from a victim. since last year we've been pursuing an investigation into

darkside, a russia-based cyber crime group. the dark side ransomware variant one of more than 100 variants that the fbi is currently investigating. dark side developers, conduct attacks and share from seeds with the developers and a scheme used as ransomware as a service. in this case the fbi has identified more than 90 victims across multiple u.s. critical infrastructure sectors. those uncollude manufacturing, legal, insurance, health care and energy. based on our investigation into dark side, and incredible work with other u.s. government partners we identify a virtual currency wallet that the dark side actors use to collect payment from a victim. using law enforcement authorities, victim funds were seized from that walt preventing darkside actors from using them. this is just the latest

disruption that the fbi and doj have taken to impose risk and consequences on cyber adversaries. since announcing our new cyber strategy last year, we have dismantled the infrastructure of the criminal bot net through an unprecedented coalition of u.s. and national law enforcement and private industry partners. additionally, we have joined other government partners to expose a cyber tool developed by the russian gru. we have also used legal authorities to remove malicious back doors and installed in the microsoft exchange server customers across the united states. and just last week, doj announced the seizure of two command and control domains used by the perpetrators of a widespread fishing campaign. this focus joint action and collaboration is exemplified by the national cyber investigative joint task force which brings together intelligence community,

law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies for a whole of government approach against these cyber threats. our partners in the intelligence community and across government are central to these efforts. leveraging each of our authorities and capabilities, enables us to conduct, coordinate operations to respond to and deter malicious activity from groups like dark side. there's a lot of exceptional behind the scenes team work that goes into both identifying effective ways to target adversaries and predicating actions that we may take against them. i want to give major thanks to the incredible hardworking special agent, intelligence analysts and professional staff of the fbi's atlanta and san francisco field offices and the fbi cyber division along with governmentwide partners who assisted in this investigation and seizure. these cases require significant

level of determination and technical expertise and without a doubt, every individual involved displayed that through the achievements reflected here today. >> we continue to be committed to using the information intelligence we develop through our investigations to take early, meaningful steps to protect the public and be preventative. we will continue to work relentlessly, to seek authorities and world-class authorities for maximum impact against our adversaries. today, we deprived a cyber criminal enterprise of the object of their activity, their financial proceeds and funding. for financially motivated cyber criminals especially those presumably located overseas. cutting off access to revenue is one of the most impactful consequences we can impose. when the fbi combines our law

enforcement and intelligence authorities with those of our partners in government and the cooperative in private industry and when we have victims willing to share information to further our collective efforts against cyber adversaries we can have immediate, permanent effect on ransom ware actors. that is why it is so critical for victims to report it to us as soon as possible and then work with us to provide evidence and intelligence for our investigations leading to recovery, attribution, and ultimately prevention. victim reporting not only can give us information we need to have immediate real world impact on the actors, it can also help prevent future intrusions into other victim networks and prevent further harm from occurring. with continued cooperation and support from victims, private industry and our u.s. and international partners, we will bring to bear the full weight and strength of our combined

efforts and resources against those actors who think nothing of threatening public safety and our national security for profit. thank you, and i'd like now invite to the podium, the u.s. acting attorney for the district of california stephanie hines. >> i want to thank deputy attorney general monaco for inviting me to add my remarks. last week, deputy attorney general monaco spoke about the onslaught of ransomware attacks being carried out and suggested we all should focus organized resources on meeting this challenge. as the acting united states attorney for california's northern judicial district, i am directing my office to continue to marshal the resources necessary not only to apprehend and bring to justice ransomware

extortionists, but also to deprive them of the profits that incentivize their crimes. today we announce the seizure of millions of dollars in bitcoin paid by an innocent victim in ransom in a bid to regain control of computer systems. the extortionists will never see this money. new financial technologies that attempt to anonymize payments, criminals will not be permitted to pick the pockets of hardworking americans. this case demonstrations our resolve to develop methods to prevent evildoers from converting new methods of payment into tools of extortion for undeserved profits. the northern district of california is home to silicon

valley, an area that year after year fuels remarkable innovation and expansive, economic growth in the technology sector. as the nation increases its reliance on technologies developed within, and exported from northern california, so, too, do we increase our reliance on law enforcement to develop, maintain and employ the expertise necessary necessary to keep our technologies safe. criminal actors employ aggressive, complex tactics to attraction our infrastructure and our daily lives and increasingly can do so from anywhere on the planet. our efforts to disrupt and deter these threats must be creative and advanced. i want to thank our partners at the fbi for their professional deployment of expertise and for

their skill in coordinating with the prosecutors in my office and with our colleagues in the criminal division components, to allow us to reach this result. i'd like to turn the podium back to deputy attorney general monaco. >> thanks, stephanie. i think we're ready for a few questions. >> ms. monaco, how much of the money did you take out of the bitcoin account and did you clean it out, basically, and is this the first time the government has ever done this? >> so it's not the first time that the government has seized cryptocurrency in connection with ransomware attacks. this is the first such seizure that the ransomware and digital extortion task force has undertaken. with regard to your first part of your question, pete, i'll let the court documents speak for themselves. they lay out the probable cause that was presented to the northern district, to the judge in the northern district of

california with regard to the tracing of the criminal proceeds to the darkside actors. >> i was wondering, does this mean, based on this example, for other companies when this happens to them, does this imply that they should also pay if it is cryptocurrency because of the bloc chain technology and how the fbi was able to track the money and seize it? is that a tactic that the companies should consider? >> the message we're sending today is if you come forward and work with law enforcement we may be able to take the type of action that we took today to deprive the criminal actors of what they're going after here, which is the proceeds of their criminal scheme. we cannot guarantee, and we may not be able to do this in every instance. so the point here is it's a significant undertaking and this was an attack against some of

the critical infrastrucker ask this represents the total of they want, and representist of the entire ecosystem used by these tips of krim flal net w and their affiliates which are going in disruptive ways are critical infrastructure. >> i guess when you boil on the figures, they're technically walking away with $2 million in cryptocurrency. i wonder what you say to that argument is the deterrent factor is not in this case because this group is based out of russia and because of that isn't likely to face criminal consequences for these actions? >> well, i'm not going to get ahead of the investigative efforts and the full consequences that associated with this ongoing investigation, but this represents the seizure

and deprivation from criminal actors of exactly what they're going after which is criminal proceeds of their scheme and it was swiftly done based on and thanks to the quick notification by colonial pipeline and their work with the u.s. government and their message today that we will bring the tools to bear to go after these criminal networks including the ecosystem and the illicit and the abuse, frankly, the online infrastructure that they use including digital currency to perpetrate these schemes. >> thank you very much. if you have any additional questions please send them to me, and we'll get them answered for you. have a great day. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. >> all right. you were just listening to officials at the department of justice outline the measures they have taken to seize and retrieve money, at least cryptocurrency that was part of a ransomware scheme run out of

darkside, a nefarious group based in russia that targeted multiple u.s. infrastructure organizations including most recently the colonial pipeline. you heard officials pressesent and how and why they went after that seizure. henry with cloud strike and back with me once again, suzanne spalding, former undersecretary from the department of homeland security. sean, i'll start with you and i was fascinated because my head was spinning on so many different lefrlts and the first question that came to mind as i was watching this. what is the added advantage of announcing that the responsibility have an announcement chaufrnl the methodology of how hackers and ransomware organizations? >> well, i think it's all about the turns and letting the

adversaries know that they're not out of the reach of law enforcement. that law enforcement has capabilities and one of the big reasons as adversaries to extort funds from u.s. companies and to be able to slip into the ether undetected. i think by coming out publicly like this the u.s. has pulled the curtain back and said we actually have some capability using legitimate and authorized law enforcement activity, and things that have been used ayman, for decades, working in the crime groups in the physical world are being used to identify adversaries in the cryptocurrency. it is part of the deterrence, and it is to advise them that they're in the crosshairs and they need to be very, very careful going forward. >> so let me pick up on that, suzanne, if i can. this line between punitive and preventative and this was a punitive measure according to u.s. officials that they were able to deprive these attackers from the incentive that they

want which is the money, but in terms of actual justis and in terms of identifying the perpetrators, are we any closer to being able to bring them to justice? >> so i think this holds some promise. if we are able to go back and identify -- well, these ransomware attacks hit americans where they hurt the most, right? in their wallets and now we've been able to hit these criminals where they hurt the most which is their crypto wallets and if we're able to track and elicit funds to crypto wallet that does bring us closer to being able to pierce that anonymity, and in which you can bring the criminal in front of you because russia is protecting them, for example, at least make it much more

difficult for them to spend their ill-gotten gains by being able to at least identify specific cryptocurrency as the from seeds of criminal activity. perhaps even being able to use laws that would allow you to freeze assets prior to being able to make the case to seize them. >> so, shannon all of this comes against the backdrop of president biden set to meet with russian president vladimir putin and multiple times. talk to us about the significance and the fact that the department of justice, this white house making this announcement on the eve of a pretty significant meeting. on a number of fronts that they are going to take this issue extremely seriously, particularly when it comes to attacks on this critical infrastructure like you heard the doj official saying there. we heard from national security adviser jake sullivan just a couple of hours ago repeatedly

mentioned how ransomware will be a topic of conversation during president biden's trip to europe when he meets with g7 leaders and of course when he meets with russian president vladimir putin. the white house has indicated that responsible nations do not harbor cyber criminals like a number of organizations which have been linked to russia and that will be an issue that president biden will raise with putin when they meet and more broadly, the administration has been warning companies, as well and we have a top cybersecurity official telling they need to ratchet up when they're doing and we heard jennifer granholm, they should not be paying ransom because it encourages bad actors and telling them they need to report this and they need to tell the administration when this is going on so they can take action and this announcement by the doj shows that when they tell them you do

see some action in some cases and there is some result that can come out of it. >> shawn i have more for you and this is more of the tech nickable abilities of the united states. they think the united states certainly collectively on a level playing field. as a super power, perhaps, militarily, we aren't in this cyberworld. what does this say about the united states' technical capabilities to be able to counter -- go on the counter offensive, if you will, and seize these assets, and attack those that are attacking us? >> let me say, i don't know that the u.s. technical capability is what has enabled this to happen and the identification and the seizure of this particular bitcoin wallet. >> certainly, it was law enforcement agencies and there may have been some intelligence, but actually, it was poor opes and operational security by the bad guys where they let information be released and a bitcoin wallet was able to be

identified or they used a legitimate cryptocurrency provider that succumbed to or agreed to u.s. process, criminal process like a search warrant or a subpoena. i thank long term, this is going to continue to be a problem. the u.s. absolutely has to be more aggressive in terms of ramping up their deterrent strategies, but this particular issue, i think, is probably poor upset and adversaries using existing infrastructure have the way to get around this. this was somebody slipped up and made a mistake. >> all right. i want to thank shawn pettypiece, and suzanne for joining us. let's go to pete williams. i had a chance to hear your question. i'm not sure that the deputy attorney general answered that question specifically. i'm curious your thoughts, your takeaway from this briefing and what questions remain unanswered for you as someone who has been

following this? >> i have a technical question about where the bit coin wallet was and how the u.s. has court jurisdiction over it. that's a minor technical question that will get figured out. when we learned today is that the fbi has actually been investigating darkside for well over a year and that's why they basically had the keys to the kingdom. they had the password and they were able to hack the hackers and take the money out that the hackers in europe or russia were able to take for themselves. if you think about what's happened here. the fbi was able to attribute this attack very quickly and then able to get the money, get a good deal of the money back. so as the deputy attorney general said today they turned the tables on the hackers and it certainly is not the first time this has been done, but it's something they think we can expect to see the u.s. do a lot more. >> all right, pete williams,

appreciate you coming back out with us for that take. thank you. coming up, democratic senator joe manchin says he's opposed a sweeping voting rights bill backed by his party. we'll have the latest from capitol hill next. you're watching "ayman mohyeldin reports." this is the sound of change. the sound of a thousand sighs of relief. and the sound of a company watching out for you. this is the sound of low cash mode from pnc bank, giving you multiple options and at least 24 hours to help you avoid an overdraft fee. because we believe how you handle overdrafts should be in your control, not just your bank's. low cash mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. one way we're making a difference.

the massive elections and ethics reform package known as the for the people act now faces a grim fate in thest senate after west virginia senator

manchin said he'll vote against it. in an op-ed manchin write that is he won't support a partisan effort and reaffirms he will not abolish the filibuster. joining me now is leigha n n caldwell. what happens now? >> reporter: those plans have not changed. schumer insists to bring it to the floor in june. potentially the week of june 21. i'm told that the caucus, the democratic caucus is going to keep discussing the voting -- the for the people act to see if there's any way that they can get manchin on board and perhaps move this forward but the reality is even though manchin has come out against this legislation it's still doesn't

have the ten republicans necessary for it to pass. so even if manchin were to support it it would not advance the senate. the problem is that senator manchin said he doesn't support it without bipartisan support. that is dangerous for republicans because with the opposition it's bipartisan opposition and undercuts democratic messaging that this legislation is really necessary to counter all of the legislation and all the state legislature pieces of legislation rolling back voting access and this is not over. it is all going to center around senator joe manchin and where he stands. >> all eyes on that senator. thank you. now back to our main story, guatemala. where vp kamala harris is about to take part in a roundtable about the root causes of

migration. this isn't her only stop on the trip. later today she will travel to mexico for talks with that country's leaders to address the flow of migrants to the united states. nbc news white house correspondent monica alba joins us from mexico city. we have heard the message in guatemala. what will we hear from her in mexico today and tomorrow? >> reporter: it will be a similar message but the vp's office and the vice president herself certainly don't have many illusions about what they can solve on a trip like this. they're viewing it as nitial steps to craft a strategy to stop the flow of migration and coming here to mexico and she meets with the mexican president in the palace just behind me it is going to be a more

politically fraught conversation. of course the neighbors to the south is critical and so you will see the vice president come here and talk about that and how important that is to her but also just given the last few days here in this country, mexico just held the midterm elections yesterday and why you see behind me this area empty for her visit. so there's plenty going on here and then the vice president is also going to be talking about her own goals deepening the diplomatic ties and then trying to bring more economic development and the conversation does shift from the more humanitarian aid in the northern triangle countries to here more the relationships on the u.s. southern border and then vaccine diplomacy at play here. we are giving about a million doses to mexico given the u.s. global vaccination plan in the weeks to come. >> all right. monica live in mexico city,

thank you for that. before we go president biden's infrastructure plan includes billions of dollars to address america's failing roads and bridges but it also includes funding to address lead pipes which continues to be an issue for millions of americans. right now lead pipes feed water in up to 10 million homes and schools and child care facilities across the country and joining me from newark, new jersey, chris jansing. what's going on there in newark? >> reporter: behind me they're cleaning up for the night and the home stretch of more than a two-year project and pulling out the lead pipes and replacing them with copper. this is something that's going to be happening if joe biden gets his way in all 50 states because all 50 states have this problem. which disproportionately affects kids. they have serious health problems with lead in the water and affects communities like

this one, of color. i talked to a local activist saying even after the pipes are replaced it's caused so much concern here. people are still drinking water that's gone through a filter or bottled water. take a listen to what he told me about the impact this has had on this community. >> the thing is the -- you never know why one day it is good. the next day it could be bad and because of that i use all the precautions possible. >> almost sounds like you have ptsd from when you had lead in the water. >> i would certainly say that this is a mental health issue because i know so many people who have had the pipes chain and still buy bottled water and don't trust the water. >> reporter: two key things joe biden wants to address and that's racial equity and jobs.

>> all right. chris, thank you for that report. that wraps up the hour for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 3:00. "deadline: white house" with niccole wallace starts after this quick break. isn't round at. it's more cashew-shaped. planters. a nut above. needles. essential for sewing, but maybe not for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options.

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monitor, check and lock down you money with security from chase. control feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. hi there, earn. it is 4:00 in the east. west virginia senator joe manchin has ushered in an official death sentence for most of the biden agenda claiming that he will not back legislation that doesn't have bipartisan support. even if he backs the legislation. "the new york times" says the senator given republicans veto power saying he does not oppose the substance of the legislation. the west virginia senator delivering the fatal blow to voting rights legislation that would have undone the suppression laws racing through state legislatures