he's given us a lot to chew on as we wait for president biden's meeting with president putin. >> yeah. and he really laid out clearly what president biden has in front of him as he goes into that meeting. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it's monday, june 15th, and we start this morning with breaking news. while you were sleeping, president biden arrived in brussels for a high stakes nato summit, the first of two back-to-back meetings with european leaders before he sits down with russian president vladimir putin. i want to bring in nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. she is traveling with president biden in brussels, nbc senior international correspondent keir simmons. he is in moscow where you just heard from eugene, he got an

exclusive interview with president putin ahead of wednesday's meeting. and andrea mitchell at nato. andrea, walk us through what we'll see today. >> i think these people will be reading transcripts if they don't have american television of keir's interview with vladimir putin. so much money is spent on allied intelligence of what was in putin's brain, what is he thichk -- thinking, and it is laid out there. that's the challenge president biden will face when they sit down in geneva tomorrow -- or wednesday, rather, thinking of how to get around vladimir putin and his what-aboutism when they confront these issues. they're talking about putin's impact. nato was originally, of course, created as a counter-soviet alliance of the western nations.

now it is more than that. but also the fact that nato has once, in its existence in 73 years, taken an article 5 vote to support one of its members against a foreign attack, and that was after 9/11 when the united states was attacked by al qaeda, and that resulted in going to afghanistan, which was a nato engagement as well as a u.s. engagement, of course, so the nato partners now today are talking about the disengagement from afghanistan, the end of the war which is actually taking place much sooner than what had been said on 9/11 this year. it's actually going to be over by the end of july, as far as we know the withdrawal schedule, and it's a complicated withdrawal schedule. plus there is a meeting between president biden and erdogan, president erdogan of turkey. very controversial, the president deliberately not calling and not getting a call from erdogan after his election. they've had icy relations in the past, and that was even before

erdogan became as much a dictator jailing americans, prisoners and others, opponents, journalists, so his human rights record welcoming soviet s-4 air defense systems, which as a nato member is really something that is very much against the alliance, going after syrian kurds in northeast syria, so there is a lot of issues. they'll have a first meeting -- they had a brief one poolside this morning, but they'll have a longer one today. the only conversation between them was when the president called erdogan and told him something he did not want to hear, that this president was finally going to declare the armenian massacre a genocide, something really important to turkey. there is a lot of dissonance there and it remains to be seen whether they can patch that up. also, of course, talking about the other issues, they're hoping, as tony blinken told me yesterday, they're hoping that this nato meeting as well as the

g7 will help arm joe biden as the president goes into the meeting on wednesday with vladimir putin with a unified alliance. >> admiral, andrea gave us some historical nato perspective, but get us up to speed. we know trump hated nato. he said it wasn't worth the time, it wasn't worth the money. obviously joe biden disagrees. for those who say it isn't necessary, what do you say? >> i say look at the numbers. the u.s. spends 700 billion a year on defense. those free-loading europeans spend $300 billion a year on defense. the europeans collectively spend more than russia and china combined. this is a wealthy alliance. number two, look at the missions in the world. even as we step away from afghanistan, challenges remain from islamic terrorism just to the south of the alliance that

could come back to haunt us in the united states. the arctic is becoming a zone of real competition, at least, if not conflict. cyber, cyberattacks. there is tremendous capability in those european allies, and that alliance, again, geographically parked on the western edge of asia, that is not a set of cold war bases, those are the forward operating stations of the 21st century. i would say the alliance is still good value for engagement on the part of the united states, and i'll close with this. afghanistan. when i commanded that mission, 150,000 nato troops tragically i signed 1700 letters of condolence of to families who

had their family killed. they are good allies. >> keir, you have interviewed vladimir putin before. you quarantined for two weeks leading up to this sit-down. tell us something that stuck out to you? >> reporter: it's such an important interview to do just because of the number of issues in the run-up of the summit with president biden. human rights, cyber. to give you an answer, the question of belarus, i think, is an important one. you remember that last month a commercial airliner was forced to land in belarus over claims there was a bomb scare. in fact, a journalist on board was arrested. belarus is run by a president who is often described as europe's last dictator. he is close to president putin. i wanted to ask president putin about it. what you'll hear in this piece of sound is president putin

doing what he does often. we can call it what-aboutism. i asked him about the plane being forced down, the airliner, he talks about, what about the time back in 2013 when the leader of bolivia's plane was forced to land in europe because people thought that snowden might be on board? take a listen. >> did you have prior knowledge that a commercial airliner would be forced to land in belarus and that a journalist would be arrested? >> translator: no. i did not know about this. i didn't know about any airliner. i didn't know about the individuals who were detained there subsequently. i found out about it from the media. i didn't know. i didn't have a clue about any detainees. i don't know. it is of no interest to us. >> you appeared to have approved it judged on your meeting with

president shenko afterwards. >> translator: not that i approve it, not that i condemn it. well, it happened. i said recently in one of my conversations with a european colleague, i told him about the assertion of mr. shenko who had told me about it. he said they told the pilot without forcing him to land in minsk and the pilot landed. >> and you believe him? >> translator: why shouldn't i believe him? it's a simple thing. ask the pilot. did you ask him if he was forced to land? because i've not seen or heard of an interview with the airport commander that landed in minsk. why not ask him? why not ask him if he was forced

to land? why don't you ask him? everybody accuses luashenko but the pilot has not been asked. i cannot recall another similar time when a plane in bolivia was forced to land in vienna at the orders of the u.s. administration. air force one, a presidential plane, was forced to land. the president was led out of the aircraft, they searched the plane, and you don't even recall that. do you think it was normal? so that was good, but what lukashenko did was bad? look, let us speak the same language and let us use the same concepts. if lukashenko is against it, how about the other incident, then? was it good?

in bolivia at the time, it was seen as humiliation of the entire country, but everybody kept mum in order to not aggravate the situation. nobody is recalling that. >> you're recalling it, but it's a completely different -- we're talking about commercial flights. shouldn't people be able to take a commercial flight across europe without fear of being shot down like in the case of mh-17 or forced down so that a dictator can arrest a journalist? >> translator: yes. look, i will tell you one more time. what president lukashenko told me, i don't have any reason not to believe him. for the third time i'm telling you, as the pilot, why don't you ask the pilot, was he being scared? was he being forced?

the fact that the information appeared there was a bomb on the plane, people had nothing to do with politics or any kind of domestic conflicts, that they could perceive it negatively, could worry about it, of course that's a bad thing. there was nothing good about this. and obviously we condemn everything that has to do with this, international terrorism and the use of aircraft and so on. of course we're against this. and you've told me that the landing of the aircraft of the president of bolivia is a completely different matter. yes, it is different except that it is ten times worse than what was done, if anything was done, in belarus. you just won't acknowledge it. you are ignoring it, and you want millions of people around the world to either not notice it or forget about it tomorrow. you won't get away with it. it won't happen. >> admiral, it seems very clear that it is vladimir putin's dream to bring all of these former soviet republics like

belarus back under his control to create one massive empire. what can you tell us about that? >> we have heard vladimir putin often say the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the collapse of the soviet union. really, compared to the holocaust, compared to the second world war, 80 million dead? i don't think so. he'll continue to beat that drum. he's a former kgb intelligence officer, as we all know. you see all his tricks on display in that interview that keir continued to drill at him, and well done, keir. at the end of the day, we're not going to change vladimir putin in terms of how he thinks about the west. and by the way, his greatest dream is to crack the trans-atlantic alliance, to split euroe away from europe. so job one is exactly what the president is doing. work with our allies. show them that we're back. engage with them and then go to

geneva and confront this killer. i think that's exactly what joe biden is going to do. i'll conclude by saying, you then have to have some carrots and some sticks if you're going to deal with vladimir putin, knowing he's not going to change. i think the sticks are things like cyber, going after cyber criminals in his country, using our own cyber. personalize them around the intimate circle of vladimir putin, going after bank accounts. we have things we can do in the world of cyber. we work diplomatically with our allies, we keep the sanctions, the broad sanctions in place, and then in terms of carrots, we can offer to work with him on arms control, because that's very expensive. he doesn't want to spend all that money on nuclear weapons. we can work with him on afghanistan where he has no interest in instability to the south after we depart. we can work for him, perhaps, on

climate. we've got to bend the relationship with putin. we're not going to change him. we don't want to end up completely breaking it and having an untenable situation internationally. >> keir, what did he have to say about the hacks and ransomware attacks coming out of russia? >> steph, i think, you know, what we're really now seeing, the curtain is pulled back. the 2016 election meddling allegations against russia in some ways were just the beginning and that now we are seeing, to some extent, an avalanche. you've got solar winds, the world's worst state-sponsored hack, and then you've got these criminals attacking meat processors, attacking the colonial pipeline and causing some americans not able to get gas. i really want to press him on that. i guess you'll be surprised that he denied all of it. take a listen.

>> mr. president, are you waging a cyber war against america? >> translator: where is the evidence? where is proof? it's becoming farcical. we know it well. we have been accused of all kinds of things, election interference, cyberattacks, so on and so forth, and not once, not one time did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. just unfounded accusations. >> russian-speaking criminals is the allegation, targeting the american way of life, food, gas, water, hospitals, transport. why would you let russian-speaking criminals disrupt your diplomacy? >> translator: you know, the simplest thing to do would be for us to sit down calmly and agree on joint work in cyberspace. we are willing to engage with

international participants, including the united states. you are the ones who have refused to engage in joint work. >> reporter: just to be clear, the u.s. intelligence community has produced evidence of cyberattacks by russia against the u.s. what's interesting in president putin, you heard there at the end proposing negotiations. i said to him in the interview later, how can you negotiate unless you are involved in the attacks? you can't call for a truce unless you are part of that war. another interesting point he goes on to say, i asked him, are you worried that the u.s. may be deep inside your systems and can do damage to russia? he said, yes, in fact, i am worried about that. i think it gives you the picture that president putin is a threat but that also he feels threatened. stephanie? >> well, there are a lot more interesting points to that interview, and we are going to be playing new parts of keir's exclusive interview throughout

the day here on msnbc, so you do not want to go anywhere. it is an extraordinary interview. keir simmons, admiral james stavridis and andrea mitchell. i want to bring in congresswoman devin sotnik. i want to start right there, congresswoman. president putin says he's willing to work with the u.s. and other countries to stop these cyberattacks. do you have any reason to believe that? >> well, i mean, listen, putin's overarching goal is to appear to the united states a global superpower who didn't lose the cold war and is now sitting next to us at the same level. and so, of course, he's going to say that. but truth is he keeps these organizations warm in order to get at us kind of under the surface. and until he deals with that, i'm not sure that we should be going into this as if he's just another ally or partner.

that said, we do need to do something about cyberattacks. the last couple of weeks have driven home for the american people. they've attacked our gas, they've attacked our meat, they've attacked our video games. it's hitting the average person, so they want to know that when biden is over talking to nato that we're talking about how we're going to amp this up in something that looks more like arms control than just kind of one-off diplomatic action to each and every attack. >> okay, then we've seen how vulnerable we are over the last few months to cyber and ransomware attacks. do you think our government gets it now? and if so, what do we need to do? >> i think it was super interesting to see the law enforcement reaction to the attack on the colonial pipeline. i'm sure most americans felt pretty darn good that we were able to get half the money back from the people who ransomed it from colonial because of some really great work by the fbi. we need to increase our capability on that level.

we need to make ourselves more resilient here at home and make sure all our companies are protecting themselves, but i do think the american people really feel like how are we punching back? they want to feel like there is a reaction and that it's effective. it's a new type of warfare. it's not planes and tanks like the old cold war. it's cyber tools, it's stuff that used space, and i think we are still adapting our doctrine to deal with it. >> and what do you want to doctrine to be? if they do it to us, we do it right back to them? because thus far, it's just about us getting the money back or trying to protect ourselves, but we're not punching. at least, it doesn't seem that way. >> right. of course there is stuff that goes on below the surface on a classified basis which we don't talk about. but you're right, i think the american people are just sort of like, where's the beef? how come i can't feel like we're pushing back? it's because americans aren't typically used to their government going and screwing

with a civilian organization in another country. that's not typically how we fight. so i do think some sort of arms control regime, some sort of big strategic plan to deal with this so there's more sanctions, there's more punishment. they feel the pain in places like russia or china if they let groups operate from their soil. they need to feel it. >> if you had president biden's ear just before he went into this summit with putin, what would you say is the one message he absolutely has to get across? >> just that there are very firm sticks to negative behavior. that we, of course, want to work with the russians wherever we can. we did it the entire time of it and there were real enforcement of the standards. we can't say and not do it. if i were with president biden

right now, that's what i would be saying. >> all right. thank you so much for joining us, congresswoman slotkin. i appreciate it. coming up, new details about secret subpoenas on democrats. we knew that. reporters not a surprise, but how about this? even the former president's own lawyer, right there on the right, don mcgahn. how rare that is and what it even means. a weekend of deadly violence across the country again. mass shootings in multiple cities. i'll be speaking to the mayors in one of those cities about what happened and what needs to be done to keep people safe. what happened and what needs to be done to keep people safe. when considering another treatment ask about xeljanz, a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop further joint damage,

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take attention to this one. congress and the watchdog both say they will probe trump-era data. apple turned over data on trump's attorney don mcgahn. we ever not yet heard back. this comes after we learned that trump's department of justice asked the company for data about democrats' reporters, and now we ever details about members of his own administration. but people in charge at the time, bill barr, ron sessions

and rod rosenstein all say they didn't know about it. so who did? let's bring in general naturally katyal, also chuck rosenberg, both legal analysts. chuck, what happens when they subpoena records? what exactly happens? >> this segment follows nicely from your last one about putin, because these are really putin-esque tactics, and what's going on in these stories, and it's unclear whether or not don mcgahn or congressional opponents like representative schiff and eric swalwell were directly targeted, but what we do know thus far is at least their information was sought by investigators. maybe not intentionally, maybe it wasn't direct targeting, maybe it was wrapped up in some other investigation, but it sure looks like they may have been targeted. and, of course, none of this would have happened if there weren't the kind of crazy stuff with russia that the trump

administration was doing, which is the subject of these leaks in the first place. a lot of times when it comes to trump administration wrongdoing, i know there is a long list, but russia and trying to cover up what was going on there is chief among the kind of motivations for bad behavior. and i think normally in administrations -- i'm sorry, go ahead. >> no, no, please continue. >> i was saying in a normal administration, there is some presumption of irregularity. you give the benefit of the doubt a bit to the justice department and say, look, they probably weren't targeting don mcgahn or adam schiff or adam schiff's family or things like that, but this administration was so fundamentally irregular at every turn, you can't give them any sort of benefit of the doubt whatsoever, even if you're inclined to do so. >> but there is a difference between something not being normal, something being unprecedented, and something being outright wrong or foul.

chuck, nobody is surprised that trump wanted to dig into his enemies. but don mcgahn, that's his own lawyer. why would you do that? >> well, it's also possible, stephanie, that it was a routine leak investigation and career fbi agents and career prosecutors were doing what they normally do in a leak investigation. i think neal makes a fair point. much of what the trump administration did does not deserve the presumption of irregularity. however, that's why we have an inspector general. you'll recall all the consternation about, quote, unquote, targeting about carter page, a relatively minor trump campaign functionary with alarming ties to russia. so the i.g. looked at whether or not he had been targeted by doj or the fbi for improper political reasons, and they determined that he had not been. there was no improper motive or political targeting of carter page. there were a bunch of errors in the pfizer process. but we ought to wait to see what

the inspector general has to say about this. if it's a routine leak investigation, then you investigate the people you presume are leaking the investigation. that means getting metadata, that means getting phone records. there are a bunch of policies in place to guide that work. were they abided? that's a really important question for the inspector general to answer. so until, i think -- well, until we have those answers from the inspector general, i would be really careful about leaping to conclusions here. >> all right. here's what i don't get, neal. bill barr, jeff sessions, rod rosenstein all say they didn't know about this. is that believable? i mean, who would have ordered don mcgahn? one would guess that someone really high up would have needed to know. >> right, so it does really go to the question of are they intentionally targeting those folks or were there targets of other people and it was just that this information somehow came out in the course of that

process. obviously if you're targeting a high-level government official or something like that, that would require an attorney general deputy approval, things like that, on those individuals you mentioned, and this is where that presumption of irregularity comes in, because bill barr is the same guy who basically lied in summarizing the mueller report, and now he's saying, well, i knew nothing of this. it's just a little hard to have credibility with him. and i completely agree with chuck. we have to have the investigation facts come out. but i think one thing that's significant here is that the targets of these requests, apple and the like, they were put under gag orders. they weren't allowed to talk to anyone for years about this. the "new york times," cnn, all of these folks were faced with fundamental squelching. so the reason we don't know anything right now is because these gag orders went on for a long time. i understand the need for some secrecy in the beginning stages of a law enforcement

investigation, but here we are three years later, different administration, and only now, fortunately, because merrick garland and joe biden are in charge, we're finding out about it. had trump won, the gag order might still be continuing to this very day even though this investigation appears to have gone nowhere. >> but we find out about lots of things that either appear or are inappropriate, and there doesn't seem to be many consequences. i want to share what speaker pelosi said. she was talking about this on one of the sunday shows yesterday. >> what the justice department, the leader of the former president goes even beyond richard nixon. richard nixon had an enemies list. this is about undermining the rule of law. >> undermining the rule of law. if i had a dollar, chuck, for every time we heard that or we said it over the last four years, i assure you, i wouldn't have woken up at 5:00 a.m. to go

to work today. she has a point, but we've been hearing this for years and years. nothing has come of it. there have been no consequences. now that president biden is in charge, are we going to see some accountability around actions that took place over the last few years? >> maybe, it depends on what people did, stephanie. i think speaker pelosi is a bit hyperbolic there. she might be right, she might turn out to be precisely right, but we don't know yet. that's why we need the inspector general. i referenced earlier the carter page investigation to see if there were reasons to target him. the i.g. said there was not. but an fbi attorney was charged with making false statements in obtaining that fisa warrant. so there are consequences when there is misconduct. and whether or not there is misconduct is something that we will know at some point in time. we ought not try and get ahead

of that. i understand what you're saying, i understand why she's upset. but i don't know that this is akin to what richard nixon did. there are lots of problems with the trump administration, there are lots of problems with what they did and how they conducted themselves. with respect to this case, these gag orders and these subpoenas, let's see what the inspector general has to say. >> we don't need to get ahead of it, but we do need to keep paying attention. chuck rosenberg, neal katyal, thank you both. we're going to leave it there. this morning a major power shift not here in the u.s., overseas in israel. benjamin netanyahu officially out. coming up, we're going to take a closer look at the group that unseated him as netanyahu vows he will be back. sound familiar? sound familiar

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now to the other very big story overseas. israel has a new government for the first time in over 12 years. after the country's longest serving prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, was ousted, the israeli parliament approving a new government by the narrowest of margins. couldn't be more narrow. one single vote. nbc's kelly koviae is following all of this. kelly, what's the latest? >> after the meetings with the world leaders, overnight the

government is getting to work. they met with the former governor and was interestingly on the phone with president biden, the very first phone call from a foreign leader that he received last night. the two sides, according to a white house readout, agreeing to work on stability, peace in israel and also pos terty for both israelis and palestinians. benjamin netanyahu is speaking out today, and we've also heard from the incoming foreign minister. he's the central politician that brought this coalition together, stephanie. he's now the foreign minister. he'll be the prime minister in another two years in this power-sharing agreement, and he said today specifically that this new israeli government

needs to really work with politicians of the united states, specifically needs to work on what he said were, quote, angry democrats, that the relationship there has soured and it needs some repair, stephanie. >> is there anything left that netanyahu can do to stop this? >> reporter: i think there is a possibility here. it's not an easy road for him, but he's vowing to continue to put all of his effort and all of his allies' efforts into destabilizing this government. we've talked about how diverse the government is, how they don't agree on a whole lot. his goal, and he has stated it pretty clearly, is to drive a wedge every which way that he can. he's now the leader of the opposition in parliament. he gave a speech yet again this morning after meeting with

natali bennet, gave a speech to his allies saying we need to stick together and bring the government down. it is not an obvious possibility, it's not necessarily something that could happen tomorrow, but look, it's a fragile government, it is a possibility, and it's where netanyahu is going to be putting all of his efforts in the days, weeks, months to come, steph. >> we'll be paying attention. kelly, thank you so much. coming up, a story you need to see. four different shootings in just six hours leave 38 people wounded and at least six dead across the country. one of those shootings in downtown austin as people just try to go out and enjoy their saturday night. we'll be speaking to the city's mayor, next. mayor, next. plus 8 b-vitamins for brain support. one a day and done. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted.

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nearly 40. all of this took place within six hours. friday night in savannah, georgia, one person was killed and seven injured after one person shot outside an apartment complex. and in austin's entertainment districts, they killed one and injured 13 others. after that a woman was killed ask nine others wounded in chicago after two shooters opened fire on a group that was just standing on a sidewalk. ask three more people were killed and at least six were shot early saturday in cleveland. but this is just the latest after weeks and weeks of weekend shootings, and now cities are bracing for more violence this summer. kathy park is all over this story. also with us, mayor cedric alexander. he is a former member of president obama's police task force. kathy, we have seen several weekends like this as cities are lifting restrictions, and they're actually getting more

dangerous. what's the latest? >> reporter: well, steph, when you look at the data, the numbers are trending in the wrong direction. we took a closer look at some stats provided by the gun violence archive, and the numbers are quite eye-opening, and it shows we have a real problem in this country when it comes to gun violence. so far this year there have been more than 270 mass shootings, and when you compare that to this time last year, that is a jump of approximately 40%. you go back just a little bit further to 2019 and the spike is approximately 65% compared to this time. so obviously the numbers are going up, and steph, also worth noting, the number of people who have died because of gun violence. that number is around 8,700, and the worry moving forward as we get into the summer months, typically, as the weather takes a turn, crime tends to spike across the country, and the

concern here is that these mass shootings will follow as well. steph? >> and it's not just comparing it to last year when we were all home. look at these numbers compared to 2019. they're going up. mayor, we know one victim from the austin shooting died overnight. how is your community reacting? people were just out socializing on a regular weekend. >> the loss suffered by the kantor family is unimaginable. doug kantor was here visiting our city and it's filled us with enormous grief. people are tired. the resolve, it continues to grow to do something to stop this, you know. the numbers that you just heard, almost 300 mass shootings this year alone, four in those six hours. over ten this weekend in cities across the country, mass shootings. but the numbers just continue to grow, and it's happening

everywhere. it's happening in cities everywhere. >> there may be resolve, mayor, but we have seen mass shootings across the country, but really, across the state of texas. and now there are barely any gun control laws in your city, in your state. are your police now changing the way they respond? do they need to? >> you know, when our state legislature, what our state just did with respect to allowing anyone to carry a firearm without registration is just absolutely outrageous. one thing is clear, greater access to firearms doesn't equal greater safety. no, we had not only full strength but automated strength on fifth street on friday. it was an abundance of officers able to do quick first aid that probably resulted in matters not

being worse. it wasn't a force issue. there are too many guns. doug kantor died and was killed this weekend in austin because two people had guns they shouldn't have had. >> cedric, police certainly don't want this. more guns on the streets make it harder for police to do their job, and washington isn't helping. what should police departments do to adapt? we know that gun sales has soared in the last year. >> the reality is in all of this, stephanie, is this. we have a number of states that certainly have very relaxed laws and we know accessibility is there, accessibility to thefts of these weapons particularly from stolen vehicles, from people's homes, et cetera. but it's also they can be easily accessible just about anywhere. when a young kid can tell you, i can get a gun quicker than i can get an ipad, we have a problem in this country.

we know we have a number of social issues that contribute to violence in this country. we know we're going to have to come up with a whole new methodology in terms of how we're going to confront this violence, and what used to work is not going to work in the future. now, when we think about crime in country there has been a reduction overall precovid even though the numbers are speaking up again, we're going to see it ebb and flow. often times we don't know the reason for it, but there are so many variables involved. the spikes do not concern me even though they're deadly and dangerous week have to try to get in front of this. we have to come up with new creative ideas. what used to work is not going to work today. here is what is really important in all of this, stephanie now post covid, we cannot blame this

on covid even though covid may have exacerbated and revealed some of the issues we have in our nation around disparities. we have to come up with new ways to fight and police this together. but what we don't want to happen here is to turn into a trend of elevated violence and that becomes the new norm. i wish we had at times, but we have to do something quickly in this country because as you said the mayor say, he and other mayors are struggling with this problem that is not appearing to abate itself and it is continuing to get worse. >> we will have time because we're going to keep covering it. are you worried about what this is doing to police forces out

there? are they not responding as they should be because of all of the scrutiny? what is this doing to our police. they are under a great deal of stress, they're chasing after bad guys. we have one shooting after another, the investigators and uniform officers are going from one place to another. it is like a faucet you cannot turn off if is having great impact on them. but they're in the fight to stay. and regardless of their scrutiny, they know at the end of the day they're going to continue to carry throughout message. we have thousands of good police officers out there as we all know that are doing a dynamic job and will continue to do so.

but yes, they're under scrutiny, but it's not going to stop them from doing the best they can. even with the shortages they're experiencing in the environments they have to confront every day. >> and we're grateful for those men and women. what are you hearing from your officers? >>. >> i think the officers are stressed. this has been an incredible year on so many different levels. and i know that we're dealing with cities across the country with increased retirements. but when these started to go off on friday night the videos show that our officers ran to them. and we're just incredibly appreciative. for our police force and those this that are dedicated to our public safety. this is a tressful time in this

time in the country. >>. >> thank you all for joining us. we're going to continue with this increase in violence, and what we need to do now to stop it. now let's go to breaking news in the coronavirus pandemic. novavax announced this morning it's covid-19 vaccine is safe and 90% effective. the company said it plans to file for authorization with the fda later this year. a federal judge now dismissed a lawsuit filed by more than 100 employees of houston's methodist hospital challenging the employer's requirement to be vaccinated. with the number of covid-19 hospitalizations dropping from it's all-time high in january, the director of vanderbilt hospital saying it should not be

a surprise. the overwhelming number of sick patients are people not vaccinated. with vaccines widely available, a study is now under way to see if a vaccine is safe and effective for kids between the ages of five and 11. joining me now is. tell me about this trial, what about this state that needs to get more people vaccinated. >> that is right. here doctors are saying this trial and the trial they're recruiting for shortly to getted toer will -- get toddlers and baby in. toddlers have a potential for spread still in the fall. there is hesitancy from parents and those on the advisory committee about how quickly they're authorizationing this vaccine for children.

i shoek with a family here, their mother serena noted, and they're they said that they're concerned about the heart inflammation cases. but with how rare those cases are compared to how severe, there is no question about it. they also said that they looked at the data and they trust the science and they're the krids going back to school in the fall. i chatted with kalil who says he is excited to back to school. he said the shot didn't hurt, it tickled, and he is excited to know that he is helping to keep the community safe and to make sure that other people are not getting sick. >> we are appreciative of kids like that. key to getting all of our kids

safe and back to school. thank you at home for watching. hallie jackson has breaking news coverage next. supreme court decisions are possible any minute, and more on the nbc exclusive sit down with vladimir putin and our own keir simmons. keir simmons. s gonna march her way right into your heart. -i'm sorry. can we stop? i know that we're selling car insurance here, but, you know, all the cute little animals, it's too much. define "too much." what's wrong with cute animals? -so are we doing this or what? -nah, it's over. [ sighs ] well, someone's got to break the news to mittens. [ squeaks softly ] she's a diva. [ mittens squeaking ] needles. essential for sewing, but maybe not for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an “unjection.” xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind

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