president biden's bilateral meeting with the french president, 'em manual macron. right now first lady jill biden in cornwall meeting with members of a volunteer group that helps uk military vets, first responders and their family. she is the second one from the right there. biden's agenda tomorrow includes an audience with queen elizabeth before heading to brussels for a nato summit. the trip concludes in geneva where biden will meet with russia's vladimir putin. america's russian sympathizing former president routinely pushed for russia to be admitted to the g7. you remember it used to be called the g8, and routinely attacked nato while making the united states' relationship with the alliance about monetary payments, insinuating to the global alliance america's army was a mercenary force for hire. while biden takes his first stab at rehiring america's image and role in the world, the attack on democracy here at home continues.

using donald trump's bill griffeth lie as a basis, republicans across the country are now pushing for their own sieper ninja style performance propaganda. the former president continues to be obsessed with the latest sham meant to overturn the results of the election that he lost, believing it appears this is his ticket back to power. however, those strong-arm mob tactics are having other dangerous consequences. a new reuters' report reveals new insights on the death threats, bomb threats and other threats of violence made by pro-trump thugs against election workers in polling sites across the country, all due to the former president's fantasies and lies. one threat e-mailed on january 2nd to officials in nearly a dozen counties threatened to bomb polling sites. quote, no one at these places will be spared unless and until trump is guaranteed to be potus again. potus means president of the united states. in georgia the family of the

republican secretary of state, brad raffensperger, this man, began receiving death threats almost immediately after the election and the threats have not stopped. raffensperger was infamously the subject of trump's authoritarian style attacks and anti-democratic demands. he phoned him and asked him to commit voter fraud so that 11,800 votes could be found so trump could win the text. raf enberger's wife shared texts which you can see on screen here. they're heinous. au and your family will be killed very slowly. please pray. i'm sorry. keep opposing the audit of fulton county's election ballots and someone in your family is going to have a very unfortunate incident. last november reuters reports people who identified themselves to police as being members of the domestic extremist group the oath keepers were found outside

raffensperger's home. they were not at the home, they went into hiding that day because intruders broke into the home of their daughter-in-law. the oath keepers like the proud boys were allegedly instrumental in the january 6th attack on the united states capitol. members of both groups have been charged with conspiracy related to the attack. now there are new conspiracy charges. six more individuals including a former police chief, all with ties to extremist groups u have been charged with conspiracy according to newly revealed court documents. all of this comes always we continue to learn more about the former president's newest scandal as evidence mounts that he tried to weaponize the justice department against the press, which he famously referred to as the enemy of the people and against democrats in congress. the department of justice announced that the agency's inspector general will investigate the trump-era seizure of communications records from journalists and from several democratic lawmakers. this move follows the bombshell report in "the new york times"

revealing in 2017 and 2018 the department of justice under the leadership of jeff sessions took the seemingly unprecedented step and successfully subpoenaed apple for data from the accounts of at least two democratic members of the house intelligence committee. then ranking member adam schiff, on the left, and representative eric swalwell on the right. in addition to aides and family members, one of whom was a minor. that was all part of trump's obsession with, quote, leakers and the administration's manic mission to find the sources behind reports in america's free press about contacts between donald trump's associates and russia, an important matter that the press was and should have been pursuing. the trump's department of justice even successfully secured a gag order on apple. the gag order expired last year or this year. that's why we know about this. in recent weeks the department of justice has disclosed other trump-era subpoenas for records from reporters at news

organizations including "the washington post" and "the new york times". "the times" also reports that the former administration's investigations into trump leakers were renewed with a new urgency under another of trump's key sycophants and defenders, william barr, once he became attorney general. following news of the doj's investigation, another internet service provider was subpoenaed for the records of someone associated with the house intel committee. microsoft released a statement last night revealing it too was subpoenaed for data from a single unidentified individual and microsoft, too, was issued with a gag order. the senate majority leader chuck schumer and the judiciary committee chairman dick durbin are threat rning to subpoena sessions and barr to testify before congress about the investigations under their watch. barr yesterday told "politico" he didn't recall getting briefed on the moves. he didn't recall getting briefed on the moves. just think about that for a second. the president of the united

states asks you to do something that could conceivably be illegal by snooping on journalists and members of congress and you don't really remember that happened? there's no likelihood you would ever forget that happened. nbc news was told by a former senior justice department official when sessions was attorney general he never approved subpoenas for members of the house intelligence committee in a leak investigation. joining me is democratic representative roger krishnamoorthi of illinois, a might be of the intelligence and oversight committees and as far as we know you have not been a target of this, but, you know, we keep learning new information every day. how do you feel about this? >> i'm shocked. i'm outraged. you know, these secret subpoenas are something you might see in vladimir putin's russia or xi jinping's china, not in the united states. we absolutely have to get to the bottom of what happened. >> you know, i was talking to your colleague, representative jim hines last night also on the intel committee and he said,

look, there might be a reason the administration or the department of justice needs to look into a member of congress's information. let's say roger krishnamoorthi all of a sudden comes into millions of dollars and is making strange votes in certain countries, but there's nothing here that indicates there was any reason for eric swalwell and adam schiff and a bunch of journalists to have been snooped into by the government of the united states except they were doing things critical of trump. >> that's exactly right. there's absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing here. in fact, one tell is that not only did they go after the members, not only did they go after the family of house intelligence staff and members, but they also went after the records of personal office staff. you know, personal office, just so your viewers know, have absolutely nothing to do with the intelligence committee or the issues at hand, which to me suggests there was a fishing expedition for more than just information about supposed

leaks. >> yeah. i want to ask you about the danger written large of politicizing one enemies using the apparatus of the state. as you said when you started, this is something you would expect out of xi's china or putin's russia. this is just -- i thought we had protections against this in the constitution, that this cannot be the president's justice department, even though he wielded it that way. bill barr seemed to have been a willing participant. fascinating bill barr says he has no recollection of this. how could that be possible, representative krishnamoorthi? >> i don't think it is possible and i would like to see him repeat those answers under oath along with jeff sessions testifying under oath as well. but you are absolutely right. we have put tremendous discretion in the hands of prosecutors in the department of justice because we assumed that these people, along with the attorney general and the president would be people of integrity, people of honor. i don't think that these rules, laws and regulations were

designed with donald trump, bill barr and jeff sessions in mind. now we know that we have to basically put guardrails in place, assuming that those types of people might come into power. another thing i just want to add, i was a little disappointed, quite frankly, that we learned about this secret subpoenas of intelligence committee members from apple and not from merrick garland's justice department. they need to also show that they are cleaning house and that they come clean with any other secret subpoenas or investigations or inappropriate targets that perhaps the trump justice department went after and those investigations are continuing now. >> congressman, good to see you as always. thank you for joining us this morning. representative roger krishnamoorthi from illinois. joining me senator deb au stab now of michigan, a member of multiple committees including the budged and finance

committees. good to see you. thank you for being here. i want to pivot because the president is overseas as we speak. we just had pictures momentarily of a few moments ago of the first lady meeting with first responders in cornwall, england. the president's message is very clear, america is back. we saw it, messages of support from angela merkel, from emmanuel macron, that america is welcome back. i wonder whether america is welcomed back as a soccer player who was off with an injury and is now hobbling back or america is back in its position of leadership at the g7 and in nato and in the world as it should be? >> we are back, ali. you know, on a personal note, i just have to say i saw you last night. you were going strong this morning. i just want to know if you ever sleep. you can tell me that privately. >> we'll sleep one day, senator. >> right, right. but, no, it is always wonderful to be with you. yes, we are back. i think there's multiple ways you can see that. first, it really is a breath of fresh air to see president biden

and to see the first lady representing us so well. i'm not worried about being embarrassed. i'm not worried about, you know, what could happen and what happened in the last four years, but we also last week passed major legislation, the u.s. innovation and competition act, to give the president tools to talk about at the g7 because this is a major investment in research, development. really taking china on directly in terms of economic competitiveness, and we are focused on making sure that supply chains are in america. we have talked about manufacturing semi conductors. we are dependent on taiwan right now for the automotive industry. but medical supplies, national security technology. i mean we have got to own it again in america, and we can do that. we actually have one-third of all of the poly silicon basic

material for solar panels, for instance, made in michigan, hemlock in midland, michigan. if we are investing we can bring back the solar panel manufacturing from china. we can make sure we're the ones owning the electric vehicle technology. on top of that the bill includes measures i have been working or for years to strengthen buying from america so we're buying what we need through the federal government that it is from american businesses and workers. >> let's explore that for a bit. we are a big failure on the solar front. under the obama administration there were efforts to invest in solar companies and now it was attacked by republicans and now china owns the whole bandwagon. with respect to your bill, i just had a great conversation with the public intellectuals just a little while ago about the idea we have swung from 15 years ago being about globalism

and trade and getting everything from everywhere into a place where we can swing too far into protectionism and don't buy anything from anyone. how do you square your bill with where we should be on that spectrum between absolute globalism and absolute protectionism? >> ali, it is a really important question. i would say of course we are in a global economy, but i want to make sure we are exporting our products and not our jobs. so back with president obama when we invested in supporting an american automobile industry and in technology, and i authored the clean energy manufacturing tax credit incentives for electric vehicles and efforts to move forward on clean energy manufacturing, we had one celebrated case that the republicans grabbed on to of a situation that didn't work among many and said, ah-ha, the federal government should not be involved in this area of moving

us forward on clean -- >> which was a highly misguided way to look at it, would you not agree? >> totally, totally. in fact, of course, when you are doing research, development, commercialization, there will be times when it works, there will be times when it doesn't work. so the point is to keep going. it is public/private in the united states as opposed to china where they've put about $150 billion into clean energy technologies and manufacturing. it is not an accident that they own most of the technology right now on electric vehicles. we're bringing that back. our companies are investing in battery facilities. we are going to bring back the semiconductor technology, and we're going to get that back, but we're going to get it back because president biden understands that, because the democrats in the house and senate understand that. we got something big through a week ago and it was bipartisan, which was great. >> yep. >> but we need to understand, we need to own this as americans.

so when this president is with the g7, when he's going forward, he can say, look, we're moving in america and we really are building back better. >> senator, as always, great to see you and have some good, solid policy discussions with you. senator debbie stabenow is the united states senator for michigan. go nowhere. much more from the president's trip abroad where he is currently attending the g7 summit. we expect to see president biden before he meets with french president macron toward taupe of the hour. plus, russia's president vladimir putin sat down with my colleague keir simmons for an interview where he answered the question, are you a killer. later on i will speak to washington state governor jay inslee. you know we are going to talk climate. stick around. much more coming up on "velshi." " and long-lasting gain scent beads. part of the irresistible scent collection from gain! i've never slept like this before.

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it. >> i'll tell you after i deliver it. a welcome message from the president of the united states, especially after our former commander in chief held several private conversations with the russian president and we still do not know exactly what was discussed in some of those meetings. president biden will get his turn to meet with vladimir putin four days from now in geneva. it will be the final stop on the president's first foreign trip. this morning some details about the meeting from the white house officials saying it includes, quote, the plan for both a working session and a smaller session, as well as a solo press conference by president biden following the meeting. adding, we expect this meeting to be candid and straightforward, and a solo press conference is the appropriate format to clearly communicate with the free press the topics that were raised in the meeting. in an exclusive interview with nbc news putin talked about the status of russian relations with the united states as well as comparing presidents trump and biden. >> translator: we have a bilateral relationship that has

deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years. former president mr. trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual. president biden, of course, is radically different from trump. it is my great hope that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages. >> that was a remarkable interview. we will bring more of that to you in just a moment. first, let's bring in nbc news peter alexander from falmouth, england. peter, last hour we talked about what is going on in the reception that president biden is getting from world leaders. it seems a warm embrace, but he has real work to do, both at this meeting and then later on with other meetings he is having. what is the agenda? what does success look like for president biden from this series of trips? >> reporter: yeah, ali, it is a good question. i think in a lot of ways the message is being sent by the photographs, the images you have already seen, these g7 leaders together on one page, at least that's the message the president is certainly trying to deliver here, effectively communicating

an embrace of america's allies as the u.s., the u.s. president prepares to confront one of his toughest adversaries in vladimir putin to take place in geneva, switzerland, in a matter of days from now on wednesday. so right now this morning a lot of the focus has been on foreign policy, climate change obviously, cyber threats among the issues that will be discussed here, the backdrop obviously being the covid pandemic. one of the ways of sort of communicating the soft power of the wealthiest democratic nations was the big announcement that's already come out of the gathering taking place here that the g7 nations, led by the u.s., would be purchasing and donating 1 billion covid vaccine doses to poor and middle income nations around the world, those who have been most in need. really an effort to show force, in fact, as it relates to fighting back against this pandemic. so that's significant. but obviously broadly as it relates to foreign policy specifically, you have the rising, the rise of china and then you have the impossible-to-ignore russia here. on those two items it is clear that this president wants to

deliver a strong message that the u.s., with these allies, will be leading the way. today the u.s. announcing what they're calling b3w, build back better world, using the phraseology the president has brought to the u.s. in his effort to try to improve the u.s. after the pandemic. this time it is a counter to the belt and road initiative in china, which is an effort to sort of rebuild infrastructure projects around the developing world, the u.s. trying to present a counter to that, ali. >> peter, thank you. always a pleasure to have you on the road. peter alexander is our chief white house correspondent reporting from the united kingdom. i'm going to bring you more of that exclusive interview with vladimir putin. my colleague keir simmons asks point-blank, putin, are you a killer. om liberty mutual! nothing rhymes with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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we are awaiting a glimpse of president biden on day two of the g7 summit. he is expected to meet with

french president emmanuel macron in the next 20 minutes or so, but it is the highly anticipated meeting with the russian president, vladimir putin, on wednesday that has dominated much of the conversation in its lead up. as part of nbc's exclusive interview with the russian leader, my colleague, keir simmons, was as direct as possible when addressing president biden's thoughts on vladimir putin. >> when president biden was asked whether he believes you are a killer, he said, i do. mr. president, are you a killer? >> translator: over my tenure i have gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretexts and reasons, and of different caliber and fierceness and none of it surprises me. as far as harsh rhetoric, i think it is an expression of overall u.s. culture. >> joining me max boot, senior fellow for national security studies with council on foreign relations, author of "the krougs of conservatism."

also with us, julian tett, author of "an throw-vision," a new way to see in business and life. welcome to both of you. jillian, watching vladimir putin, he is a master of stage craft. everything about him, the body language he gives off as he sort of sits like this, the laugh, the entire evasion of the answer, but he went on after that to talk about how this macho thing about killer is big in the united states, not here in russia. what is the message -- how is this going to go? when biden meets putin. trump loved that sort of thing. >> i find vladimir putin just fascinating because, in fact, i did my original academic research before i became a journalist in the soviet union. i was in the soviet academic system for a while and, you know, putin has come from that kgb background where you take the ability to play with information, play with the media, play with propaganda in

very subtle ways and treat it like a chess game. he's taken that lesson to heart throughout his career, and he is brilliant at playing with the pieces on the board and he played with donald trump so cleverly in so many ways and played with american social media. the question that's fascinating right now, and we just don't know the answer to yet, is how is he going to respond to the fact he's now dealing with president biden and he's dealing with an american media world that's very polarized, where there's still plenty of pieces he can play with in terms of whipping up dissent and essentially trying to undermine the institutions of democracy that the russian regime has been trying to undermine for a long time. but the chess pieces are different, both in terms of the personalities but also in terms of the public debate right now. so it is going to be fascinating to watch. >> yes, it is. max, biden is a guy who knows foreign relations. he knows the world, understands

diplomacy very well, substantially better than donald trump did, but that's not much of a bar. that said, despite what the russians may or may not have been doing in terms of misinformation in america, vladimir putin came out and said it last week, that the rioters on january 6th, they were not criminals but someone expressing their concerns, something you apparently can't do in russia given making the opposition party illegal right now. he has something on biden to say that your house is in a mess. >> as jillian said, putin is a master of this game playing and he is not bounded by the truth. he can just say stuff, so he cleverly is messaging in parallel with the republicans in the united states, kind of amplifying some of trump's messages and, you know, the love in between trump and putin continues. but, you know, what putin is going to discover very quickly, which he already knows and what

he is going the see in their meeting in geneva, is that biden is not going to be playing these games. in fact, he is the first leader since putin came to power more than 20 years ago, the first american leader who is not trying to reset relations with russia, who doesn't have any illusions that he's going to be able to make nice with vladimir putin. if one thing that, you know, one of the consequences of putin's outrageous attacks on the elections in 2016 and 2020, he has moved people like biden to the hawkish side of how to deal with russia. they're not going to try to kiss and make up. i think biden is going to lay down the law to him. i think it is good that they are meeting because i think it is important even when you are in opposition to another country like russia, like we were with the soviet union before, like with china today, it is still important to have those face-to-face communications. but obviously you have to be tough, you have to stand up. i think biden understands that

putin as an old kgb man, he respects power, he respects toughness. if you show weakness in the way that donald trump did, he will run all over you. >> you know, jillian, we talked about this reset to russia, right? but biden has several things he has to do on either side of the ledger. on one side of the ledger he has to deal with interference, hacking, expansionism, you know, on the ground. on the other side they've got to deal with nuclear nonproliferation and treaties they have to deal with. they need to deal with syria, they need to deal with iran. how do you walk that line? you go in being the tough guy but there's business to be done with the russians. >> there's absolutely business, and what complicates it for president biden is that europe may not be in exactly the same place all the time. the relationship between germany and russia has been complicated for quite a long time, so he does have a very tough line to draw. he does need russia to stop being a dangerous irritant. he can't really threaten to be an ally, but stop being a

dangerous irritant in relation to iran and the middle east, places like that. that's going to be a challenge. but the bigger challenge is really this. vladimir putin's genius is that he attacked the american system, the western liberal order but undermining trust in everything. it really was a tactic to undermine trust in institutions. and as we all know, trust once it is gone is hard to restore. the question really is, can president biden rebuild trust not just inside america, in institutions, but also across the g7. that really comes down to a very subtle, dangerous, difficult cultural game rather than any grandiose or geopolitical plan. >> back home, this is a matter that shouldn't be partisan. people across the political spectrum should agree with this political agenda whether with china, nato or g7, that there's

business to be done. as we discussed last time we were together, a reset at how we look at globalism, trade, wages and inequity. we have to have a tough line with our adversaries but we have to cooperate with russia and china on certain things. we have to strengthen our ties with nato. none of that stuff that i just listed should be remotely partisan. >> it should not be, but, unfortunately, with donald trump as you know everything became partisan and trump really challenged the foundation of post world war ii american foreign policy. you know, the question is to what extent have the changes wrought by trump taken hold in the republican party, because it is pretty clear that a lot of grassroots republicans simply do not view russia as the kind of threat that they once did or simply do not look upon nato as favorably as they once did because, you know, four years of donald trump kissing up to putin and trashing nato has had an impact on the republican party. now, i do think that elite republicans in washington, in the senate, are still generally

pretty hard line on russia. and if there's a bipartisan consensus on anything in the united states these days it is to be tough on china, i think that's true across the spectrum. but, you know, i think there is still a lot of questions about long term where does the united states wind up because donald trump transformed the political landscape so profoundly, changed the republican party so radically. i think there's a lot of questions, not just in my mind but in the minds of a lot of people around the country, around the world. a lot of our fellow leaders of western democracies about is the united states going to be on the same path it was on for seven years or is it going to go in a different isolationist, anti-democratic direction. i think that remains very much to be determined, and that's part of the challenge, part of the burden that biden has to deal with being in europe because everybody is happy to see biden but they just don't know, is this really the face of america or is trump the face of

america. that remains to be determined. >> last quick word to you. >> studying how the soviet kgb system used cultural of different countries to turn itself into a weapon against them, looking particularly at the islamic world. the russian regime's genius has been to take american culture and turn it as a weapon against america. >> they weaponized ourselves, yes. >> that is absolutely what has happened and what president biden now needs to try to deal with. >> you didn't do the second part of that, did you? how to undo that? >> sadly, not. >> we will discuss those. thanks to both of you again. max boot, with the council on foreign relations. jillian tett, editor at large of "the financial times." don't miss the nbc news exclusive worldwide interview with russian president vladimir putin in moscow. watch it in full on monday on "today," "nbc nightly news" with

lester holt and here on msnbc. coming up next, it seemed we were entering the dawn of a new department of justice but a series of questionable decisions has been the department of justice at odds with the biden white house. that's next when "velshi" returns. ♪ ♪ you don't always set out to be a rock star. but when the spotlight finds you. you become one anyway. ♪ ♪ there's interest you accrue, you become one anyway. and interests you pursue. plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com. gillette proglide. five blades and a pivoting flexball

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in a defamation lawsuit brought by a writer who accused trump of raping her in the 1990s. in another instance was revealed the biden doj didn't abandon the record to pursue record of several "new york times" journalists even after biden promised to do away with the practice. white house press secretary jen psaki had to distance the white house saying the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the president as policy direction to the department. the doj says it will no longer continue to seek reporter's records. i guess it is a start. joining me now, joyce vance, a legal analyst. let's start there. i have had discussions with members of the house intelligence committee, all whom have specific and good examples, reasons the government might have to look for information from reporters or members of congress because there might actually be serious violations of the law that endanger public

safety or our security issues. short of that, what -- there's got to be -- there's no good reason i would imagine for the government to be doing what the trump administration and the department of justice were doing. >> there's a sharp line between political persecution of your enemies and taking on a righteous investigation that's meant to protect national security. nobody is arguing here that we shouldn't have, you know, vigorous prosecution of leaks of national security sensitive information that gets out into the public domain and impairs the safety of the country. that's not what this is about. there are questions about what this particular investigation was predicated on since at this point we know that it looks like this investigation wasn't about everyone with access to this information, even if you believe it was sensitive and still classified after some steps the trump administration took, but it appears to have targeted only

democrats and perhaps only a handful of democrats who were in opposition to the former president. so this has all of the hallmarks of problematic political exercise, not a legitimate prosecution. >> so we totally get why this doesn't make sense until we learn more information under the trump administration and these things seem to started in 2017, which is even more unusual because democrats were not in charge of the house or the senate or the white house at the time. the curiosity here is why that a current department of justice is still involved in this. it seems like some of the same people might be there. and why that strange comment from jen psaki at the white house to say it is not consistent with president biden's direction. what do we think has happened since january 20th that led to the strange responses? >> so merrick garland has been at doj for about 90 days. he does not have his full team in place. for instance, there's no assistant attorney general in the criminal division where

presumably this happened. there is not a single biden-confirmed u.s. attorney in any of the 94 u.s. attorneys offices in the country. that makes it a little bit tough to get information because land mine cases like this one don't necessarily come with a red sticker attached. you have to rely on your people to let you know where all of these land mines are buried. so i'm willing to give this doj a little bit of grace to figure out where all of the problems exist. it is interesting that yesterday both of president trump's former attorneys general, both barr and sessions, distanced themselves from this situation and said they were unaware that subpoenas had been issued to members of congress. that tells us a couple of things. one, it tells you that there was never a very serious case against any of these congress people because the attorney general would have known if that was the situation. but it also suggests that these cases may have been buried,

programs it is possible that a deputy attorney general or even someone at a lower level decided they would take on the responsibility for doing this, and then when it was apparent that there was nothing going in the case it sort of slid off into the shadows. so let's let merrick garland get his arms around this, but what we need from him is a clear and transparent explanation of the problems he's facing at doj so he can begin to rebuild our trust. >> joyce, i have a minute left. i often say i got all of my legal knowledge from "law and order" but actually it is basically from you and your sisters-in-law. as a nonlegal guy, i did not understand why the government took over donald trump's defense in the e. jean carroll situation. i understand there's some legal basis for that. i don't understand now why merrick garland is continuing that. i don't understand why donald trump needs to be defended by the justice department for something that he apparently did in the 1990s, well before he was president. >> it is a good question. i'm on your side of this issue, but let me tell you it is a

close legal call. merrick garland's position in this case, which is at the second circuit, they get to decide if doj can get involved in the case or not, merrick garland's position is legally supportable. i just think he has the worst side of the argument because, as you say, it is hard to consider what trump talked about a two-decade-old rape allegation as part of his core duties as president. >> joyce has written on both of the topics, by the way, so please follow her on twitter and read those articles. she is a former united states attorney. trouble is brewing at home including out west where states are enduring a historic drought. i will be joined by washington governor jay inslee. he will weigh in on biden's push to fight climate change and much more "velshi" coming up. eat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue or light-headedness,

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♪ you wanna be where you can see(ah-ah) ♪ ♪ our troubles are all the same (ah-ah) ♪ ♪ you wanna be where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ you wanna go where people know ♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. as president biden attempts

to rebuild relationships with our allies abroad, we also want to look at the reality back home. his party is in turmoil. america's democracy is in jeopardy, and climate change, perhaps the greatest existential threat to our very existence, remains a looming threat. "the washington post" is reporting the democrats remain split over president biden's relentless focus on infrastructure. that comes as a new pugh survey for more than a dozen country paints a less than rosie picture about the world's assessment of our country. a median of 17% say democracy in the u.s. is a good example for others to follow while 57% say it used to be a good example but has not been in recent years. while the g7 leaders are vowing to address climate change, the western united states is suffering through an historic drought. lake meade's water level dropped to its lowest point in history. utah's government is asking citizens to pray for rain and more than half of the country's population is living in dry condition.

scientists say climate change is making it worse. to address this i'm joined by washington governor jay inslee. he is a former democratic congressman, he ran for president in 2020. governor, it is great to have you here. i know it is good and early for you so i appreciate it. let me start by saying we are discussing china, we are discussing russia, we are discussing america's reset on the global stage, but the most important thing to many is that the first thing donald trump did was back out of the climate accord, the paris climate accord which america was instrumental, possibly crucial in getting done, and there has been damage done in the ensuing four years. now we are trying to not just get back to the table but assume a leadership role on that table. can we do that? >> yes. not only can we, can we, we have no other choice. leading into this i saw a headline that said time is running out. time is out. we are at the buzzer. we have to take the shot. there's no more time.

the chickens have come home to roost. the carbon pollution, our forests are burning, we have no water for our farmers, for our fish, our kids can't go outside in the summer because of the smoke from burning forests. we are just out of time. we have to act. i'm glad that president biden is getting us back into an international stage, but i would suggest actually the most important thing at the moment right now is our ability to operate against climate right here in our own boundaries. we need an infrastructure bill that puts climate at the center of that, both because it will create jobs and because we have to act on climate. so right now that's where the game is being played, is in the u.s. senate in this infrastructure bill to get one that will attack climate right here in our hometown. that's where it is actually needed. >> so the interesting thing though is that the republicans who have made counteroffers, those even prepared to negotiate with the president, have counteroffered in a way that removers all of those extra things.

they think of climate and other matters in the jobs bill as extra. rebuilding roads and bridges is all they want to do. so there is a danger of this getting gutted if the president continues down this road. >> well, first off, i think the president's heart is in the right place. is in the right place. he has been extremely aggressive on climate and i very much appreciate he and his team's leadership, but we can't succumb to this rose and flock that somehow we'll just do this later on. this could be the only bus out of town in the u.s.a. we have to fight to keep that in there. look, having an infrastructure plan in 2021 in the united states without climate at its core would be like having an infrastructure plan in holland without having money for dikes. we have to have a beautiful country that we have inherited. there is no time to wait. we've got to act now and i'm confident he'll do the best he can in this regard because we

need to do that. it's really unfortunate that the republicans have refused to operate in a bipartisan way on climate. that's just a sad fact. it would be great to save the planet and have bipartisanship. given a choice, we have to save the planet. we can't have a planet that's toast, you know, without acting. so i heard center marquee say no climate, no deal. i understand that. i think that's the prevailing sentiment. >> stay where you are, governor. we're going to take a quick break. we'll continue the discussion after that. you're watching "velshi." thousands of smarter towers, with the 5g coverage you need. broader spectrum for faster 5g speeds. next-generation servers with superior network reliability. 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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we are united in our vision for a cleaner, greener world, a solution to the problems of climate change and in those ideas, in those technologies, which we're all addressing together, i think there are the -- there is the potential to generate many, many millions of high wage, high skill jobs. >> u.k. prime minister boris johnson, other world leaders say they support dramatic measures of climate change. that's the reason for the protest in falmouth, england. governor inslee, just in the

last couple of weeks we have had a suspension of drilling in anwar. we have had the cancellation of the xl pipeline ostensibly by transcanada energy but really because biden said it wasn't going through. we've got an extension of the clean water act in the united states, proposal to do so. are we doing enough? are we well on the way in the united states to undoing the damage donald trump did and then aggressively moving forward to where we were before 2016? >> no, we are not. president biden has done some fantastic things, some of which you have mentioned. he has acted just as much as he could using his executive authority and we ought to be delighted with his leadership on this subject. i could not be more delighted in joe biden's action on climate in the first part of his presidency, but we have to recognize that what's at stake right now is our ability to really limit long-term economywide and we need a clean

energy standard to do that. it is what democrats are working for on this infrastructure package to have a law that would cap carbon from our electrical sector and make sure that we get the job done. that really is pivotal to our ability. so all of the things that president biden has done are fantastic. he's been aggressive. he's been comprehensive but now we have to get across the goal line here of having a clean energy standard. we know it works. my state just adopted, we're proud of this, we just adopted the most comprehensive aggressive climate laws in the united states and we've got one of the best economies in part because of that. president biden recognizes this is a job-creating opportunity. we do in my state, that's why we know that clean energy is a main driver of job creation. that's one of the reasons our economy is so hot in washington state right now. so i'm proud that we have

senators who are committed to this to get this job done. >> this morning i have had representatives from sea to shining sea. i was talking to congressman peter welch of vermont and now i'm talking to you. both of you have expressed that while the g7's going on and president biden's there with pierre trudeau of my home country -- justin trudeau of my home country that they discuss reopening the borders between canada and the united states, this is really important to your economy although a lot of canadians have not been vaccinated. >> it is. canada's vaccination program has accelerated dramatically. great to see their progress. it is very important. we're very hopeful we can open up this border. it's obviously commerce, but it's also familial relationships, it's friends. i've got a place in my state you have to drive back to canada to get through the rest of the state. while we're reopening our domestic economy, i hope this will happen sooner than later.

there's some good news in that regard. ali, we want to make sure you all get home, too, to see your family. >> i have not seen my parents since march of 2020. i'm very, very, very excited to be able to see them soon. governor, always good to see you. >> we want to get you home. >> thank you for taking time to spend time with us. governor jay inslee of washington. that does it for me. catch me back here tomorrow morning from 8 to 10 a.m. eastern on "velshi." we're going to mark a big day in the president's first foreign trip. he's going to meet with the queen so get caught up on "the crown" tonight if you haven't done that. don't go anywhere. our coverage of g7 coming up jason johnson filling in on "the cross connection." good morning. i'm jason johnson sitting in -- standing in for tiffany cross. we start "the cross connection"

with day two of president biden's first g7 summit across the pond. biden is meeting with world leaders as we speak, including with french president emmanuel macron any moment. we'll bring that to you live. tomorrow the president and first lady will meet again with queen elizabeth, this time on her turf at windsor castle. this all comes before biden departs fortunate tow summit in belgium followed by his first face-to-face meeting with russian president vladimir putin on wednesday. here with the latest is matt bradley. matt, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, joshua. so, yes, this is the first real day of the g7. the second day basically. this is where we're going to start to see some actual working real sessions, actual meetings behind closed doors for the most part. that's all happening not right behind me but kind of the next bay over. that's when we're going to see with macron, he's going to be meeting the french president, all of this again.