(music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ i'm stephanie ruhle live at bs msnbc headquarters in new york city. it is monday, january 31st, and there's a lot going on so let's get smarter. we start this morning with a standoff with russia. one hour from now, members of the u.n. security council including the u.s. and russia will come face-to-face. the u.s. ambassador insisting the russians should explain themselves to the world even as

130,000 of their troops stand ready to attack ukraine. if they do not back down, leader os tf senate foreign relations committee say they're on the verge of agreeing to, quote, the mother of all sanctions against moscow. i want to know what that looks like. key decisions on when and how the u.s. moves forward. we could hear about classified briefings scheduled for senate later this week. first, matt boughner in moscow. russia showing any signs of backing down? you're there. >> reporter: good morning. we have over the weekend seen two statement from the defense ministry claiming they have finished readiness checks on the western and southern military districts, but i'm going to say we are not seeing any evidence of a drawdown yet. we're looking at two different things here. it's important to remember that russia's buildup mostly comprises of troops from the

central and eastern commands that have traveled a very, very long way to kind of reinforce the troops that are always there. those would be the troops on the western and southern military districts. so it's not really looking like a drawdown yet. honestly, i'm not anticipating a drawdown, at least this week. it very much looks like russia is playing for time. obviously, we don't know to what end, but putin is flying to beijing later this week to meet with president xi and talk about all this. so i think we're not going to see this break one way or the other until after that. >> are people not worried about the threat of more sanctions? >> reporter: yes and no. sanctions have been kind of a part of russian life for a few years now. i've been here since 2014 since the sanctions started, and every time they've come through, they haven't had much of a deterrent effect on the russian population and it impacts their lives to various extents. the media is so centrally

controlled by the kremlin, it requires very little effort on the part of russian propagandists to twist this into anti-russia intent by the west and an i tack on russia. i've never soon it have the deterrent value many hope for, but it's definitely something people talk about. in of the sanctions are potentially stronger than the ones we've seen so far, but it's one of those things that i don't think anyone here thinks about it all that much. they're not thinking about too much of this at the moment. not even the troops on the border. >> so we're talking mother of all potential sanctions, but the people who would be impacted by it aren't. that's worth discussing. matt, thank you. i want to dig deeper on that point and bring in the congresswoman who just got back from ukraine, new jersey democrat mikie sherrill, a navy veteran, former russian policy offer, now a member of the house armed services committee. congresswoman, on this very topic, it seems like there's a

disconnect between how u.s. sees the russian threat and now ukraine seeings it. the ukrainian president was accusing the west of inciting panic. what's going on? >> thanks for having me. as you mentioned i was a member of the foreign affairs delegation that returned this weekend from ukraine. we met with leadership, met with president zelensky, the head of the ministry of defense, the foreign affairs committee to talk about ukraine. and i went as a member of the house armed services committee, so i was looking at whether the ukraine felt like they were receiving the military munitions they needed to deter aggression, whether the population was ready for potential aggression by russia and qua that might mean. i have to tell you, i was so incredibly impressed with the will of the ukrainian people to fight off any russian aggression.

and i think this is a big miscalculation on vladimir putin's part in that this is not 2014 when russia became the first nation to attack a european country and attack their sovereignty since world war ii. this is a very different ukraine. that attack, in fact, united the ukrainians behind their belief in democracy and against russian aggression. >> you're attending the briefing set for thursday. what are your biggest questions for administration on how we're handling this? >> so, i want to make sure that we continue to be aligned. another area that i think has been miscalculated by putin is this has reinvigorated our transatlantic relationship. as we went to this ukraine congressional delegation, we stopped first brussels. we did that so that we could talk to the heads of nato and the heads of the european union to ensure that we were all

aligned. i was a russian policy officer when i served in the united states navy, and i will tell you that the biggest i think deterrent to russia right now is the unity that we have, not just with the e.u. and nato and the transatlantic relationship but even the unity we have in congress. so this delegation was a bipartisan delegation, and we were all very unified as we went before the international community as americans promoting democracy. >> i want to ask you about potential sanctions and share a bit of what "the new york times" wrote about it where they say no nation has ever tried to enact broad sanctions against such large financial institutions and on an economy the size of russia's and the swift and severe response that the u.s. has promised could roil major economies particularly those in europe and even threaten the stability of the global

financial system. what in your mind does the mother of all sanctions look like? and don't we run the risk that we could be crushing russians, we could be crushing other countries, but it won't impact putin? he is a multisystem inflammatory syndrome -- multimultibillionaire. >> it will impact putin because what we're talking about is russian sanctions against russia and the russian people. even if as we heard the russians control the state media and that the russian people don't hear about these sanctions, they will feel those sanctions and it will create a great deal of unrest in russia. what we really want to do is deter this russian aggression. i know there are young people today that have not seen united states promotion of democracy at it finest as i did growing up during the cold war, the stories i heard from my grandfather, who fought world war ii, but what we've done here in international community, the creation of nato,

for example, has ended the constant cycle of wars that europe had been in for hundreds of years, that we were dragged into in world war i and world wa 2. we created this stability of the system and can't allow russia to threaten that, to say that somehow they have the right to take over a democracy, to impose incredible hardship on the people, to say that you can't post or tweet about what you want to do or you'll be thrown in prison. that's not how people in freedom-loving countries want to live or can live. and this is what the united states is promote across the world. >> do you feel like you have a good handle on putin's strategy here? if the idea is to get attention, let's be honest, he's already won. >> let's hope the idea is to get attention and now he can back down having felt that he has been heard, because i will tell you that i think he is underestimating the will of the

ukrainian people to fight any russian incursion. i think he's underestimating the unity of the democratic communities. and i think this aggression has really reig nighted the transatlantic relationship, which was a bit frayed under the previous administration. i think hopefully this is achieved what putin wanted to achieve. i think any further incursion into the sovereign territory of ukraine will result in crushing sanctions, which will be very, very bad for russia and the russian people. >> all right, then. congressman mikie sherrill, thanks for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. now to president biden's plans to replace supreme court justice steve brinier with the court's first black woman. nbc news has learned more than a dozen candidates are being considered but no so-called short list has been drawn up yet. biden said he'll announce a nominee in the next four weeks.

carol lee and allie join us. interesting things from the lawmakers over the weekend. the process itself, what can you tell us? all of these voices chiming in, it's amazing when you compare it to republicans who just steamrolled their way through and had success at it. >> we're hearing conversation about the politics behind this process else is the process that governors it. we've heard from republicans like roger wicker who have likened biden's promise to nominate a black woman to the supreme court saying it's akin to affirmative action. several of his republican colleagues took to sunday shows this weekend to rebut that kind of statement, specifically lindsey graham speaking not a u.s. about not just the process in general but one woman in south carolina who may end up getting this nomination. let's listen. >> i don't see michelle childs

as affirmative action. i do see putting a black woman on the court making the court more like america. >> the way the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best. it adds to the further perception that the court so a political institution like congress when it's not supposed to be. >> reporter: those two people will be watching closely in congress. they're both two republican senators who have voted for over 60% of biden's judicial nominees so far, graham expressing his preference for judge childs. he fell short of saying he would definitely vote yes on her but certainly the growing praise he hemoed on her could lead someone to assume that. and susan collins, she said the head of the judiciary committee, dick durbin, reached out to her and said he would make this

nominee available to her so she could ask as many questions as she needs. but democrats don't need republicans to come with together on this if all 50 stick together. but it would certainly be a good thing to have. >> the bigger bottom line, the administration needs to get someone through. carol, there's a new poll out that shows 76% of americans would have preferred biden to consider all nominees rather than select a black woman to fulfill a campaign promise. that number includes 54% of democrats. now, we know biden would certainly not be the first to do something like this. trump and reagan pledged to pick female nominees. trump did with his last one. is the white house worried about a potential backlash? this is a big chance for him to regain some momentum. >> reporter: yeah. look, to the extent there's backlash against the president for fulfilling his campaign

promise. to nominate a black woman to the supreme court, it's nothing compared to backlash the white house would be worried about getting from its own supporters if he didn't follow through with this campaign promise. the white house sees this as an opportunity to rally democrats, to you night them around the president's nominee. they are prepared to defend both the process of this and also when there is an eventual nominee to be out there defending her. as you noted, part of their pushback is other presidents have made similar promises and followed through with them. you can see them likely latching on to comments like those by senator graham saying that putting a black woman on the supreme court would make the supreme court look more like america. that's certainly how the president, how the white house is viewing this. and i'm told from white house officials that the president is in the phase of the process where he is reviewing the background of a number of candidates who are in the running for this. we're told that's more than a dozen as you noted, and in terms

of next steps the white house is looking to bring an outside team inside the white house, a sherpa team as it's called, to see this process through as the president looks to nominate somebody by the end of the month. he's got four weeks to do that, steph. >> the pressure is on. thank you both so much. now to the northeast. with millions of people digging out after that powerful weekend winter storm, it is blamed for at least four deaths, causing thousands of flight cancellations and knocking out power to tens of thousands over the weekend. but it's not over yet. the region is dealing with a deep freeze. kathy park is in boston who tied a single-day record of 2 feet of snow. how is cleanup and recovery going? >> reporter: good morning to you. there is still a whole lot of digging out to do. on saturday, the snowfall rate in boston was at times 2 to 3 inches an hour, so that snow started to pile up really quickly all across the city.

there are massive piles of snow, this one more than 6 feet tall. this morning it's a race to clean up. millions in the northeast waking up to a deep freeze, and for those still without power, it could be dangerous. this weekend's record-setting nor'easter with heavy snow and powerful winds creating blizzard conditions in parts of ten states. >> the last 36, 48 hours have been freezing, windy, and just treacherous. >> took an hour just for the first car. >> reporter: in massachusetts, some spots reported more than 30 inches of snow. and boston tied a record for the highest snow total in one day with nearly 2 feet. at the height of the storm, power outages impacting roughly 100,000 across the state. utility crews lined up for gas on cape cod as they rushed to get customers back online. homes along the shore took a beating from high surf and

extreme winds. freezing temperatures turned saturday's flood waters into ice the next day. while the sea spray on these homes also froze over. in rhode island, bus drivers digging out for hours to get ready for the school week ahead. >> we want the kiddos to be able to get to school and on time. >> reporter: the winter weather taking a tragic turn too. at least four dead on new york's long island, three dying while shoveling snow. hours of treacherous conditions paralyzing travel from maryland to maine and forcing airlines to cancel more than 5,000 flights over the weekend. >> heading to dallas, so hopefully cross our fingers we'll make it. >> reporter: the historic snow tay v day may have disresulted most weekend plans but incredibly not this outdoor wedding in rhode island. >> i now pronounce you husband and wife. >> one couple deciding a

blizzard wouldn't get between their vows. and now that the storm is long gone and a digout has begun, steph, as you can imagine, parking is a hot commodity in boston so folks are using anything and everything to mark their spots. yeah. including this beach chair here. back to you. >> that beach chair. glad it's found a purpose in a snowy morning in boston. stay warm where you are. for you, don't go anywhere. coming up, former president trump -- he just said that all day every day about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. plus, the promise he made to the rioters, the criminals who illegally stormed the capitol on gymnastics. that is sparking backlash from across the country and within his own party. also this hour, you know we'll cover it. joe rogan breaking his silence overnight after more artists are

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former president trump saying he wanted former vp pence to overturn the election and saying incorrectly, incorrectly, incorrectly, that pence has a right to do it, which he did

not. it comes after trump suggested that he might pardon people who were charged over the capitol riot if he wins the white house again. plus, the january 6th committee is moving full steam ahead, sending subpoenas to 14 of trump's so-called alternate electors and his former spokesperson. i want to bring in punch bowl news co-founder jake sherman. also with us, former u.s. attorney and senior i fbi official chuck rosenberg, both msnbc contributors. liz cheney said this morning that trump would do it again if he had the chance. the january 6th committee investigating his efforts to overturn the election. he said out loud that's exactly what he wanted pence to do. what else do they need to see? >> that's a good question. he's said this out loud. it's difficult to square because we know it was his intent in 2021. but what's interesting here is

he put out a statement also that said that congress is trying to rewrite the laws to make sure the vice president doesn't have a role, which means the vice president could have had a role and could have overturned the election, which is a wild misread of the law. i'm not suggesting donald trump is an expert on public laws, but the congress is to make sure that it's abundantly clear, without a shadow of a doubt, that congress, that the vice president of the united states, cannot and has no role in determining the outcome of a public election. that was already the case, but the law was written in 188. so congress is revising and reviewing it to make it abundantly clear in case somebody ever tries this nonsense again, that it's clear kit not happen. the committee is going to get testimony. they have reams of documents. i think we're all underrating how much work this committee has done and how much they have already turned up both from

subpoenas and from voluntary witnesses. >> charles, what do you make of this? >> first of all, i think jake is right. i think we have underestimated and underrate kwhad the committee has done. i think they've done extraordinary work so far. as well, if you want to be illogically consistent, then wouldn't kamala harris have the lawful right to decide the outcome of the next presidential election? mr. trump really does not think about what he says, and what he says is logically inconsistent and consistently wrong. the law should be revisited to make it clear that a vice president doesn't have the authority that trump ascribes to the vice president. but pence did the right thing. i'm sure harris will do the right thing. it makes sense to me, stephanie, to make the law more clear. logically inconsistent and consistently wrong would make for an amazing t-shirt.

the january 6th investigation is the largest criminal probe in u.s. history. trump now saying he might pardon 700-plus of those rioters, those people who were charged, if he wins again. could he even do that? >> well, if he wins again, yes, he could, because these are federal offenses and the president of the united states, any presidents has the authority to pardon or commute federal offenses. but i want to remind you, stephanie, not that you would need reminding, that one of the things the muller team found was that when trump dangled pardons to people like paul manafort, that was obstructive behavior, a signal, and not a subtle one, that if you keep your mouth shut and you don't cooperate with federal agents and federal prosecutors, i have something for you down the road, a pardon. so i worry that this is the exact same signal that people who have been charged but have not yet pled guilty and may be contemplating cooperating so

that investigators can move up the ladder, i think it's dangerous, i think it's wrong, and i think it's conceivably illegal. >> but, jake, does it even make sense politically? his comments, yes, they're going to lock in the votes of rioters, but those people are going to vote for him anyway. what does this do to middle of the road republicans, to americans who all they need to do is watch a campaign ad from the january 6th riot with joe biden or any other democrats saying trump things this is a-okay, he wants to free these people? >> what happened on january 6th as someone who lived through it, it was clear it was an attack on the capitol in an attempt to overthrow a lawfully elected president and government. period, the end. i think with time more people are beginning to realize that and we've seen a couple public polls recently that indicate that trump's sway with certain parents of the republican electorate are waning. i see that every day on capitol

hill. i do. i've been meaning to write this in some way, shape, or form. i can tell you donald trump plays no role in legislating on capitol hill, has no sway with any member of the senate, obviously has some sway with members of the house. but i would just say that with some time i think that we now see and i think it's abundantly clear what happened on january 6th, and if donald trump says it's nothing and says he wants to overturn it, i'm not a fortuneteller, but that seems like a bizarre political strategy and sububstantively, a chuck said, ridiculous. some folks have said these people deserved to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. >> the law and order guy, who has had a lot of support from police, military, law enforcement, what in the world will they think if trump says, yeah, those riots, a-okay? i'm guessing not good. chuck rosenberg, jake sherman,

thank you both so much. we have to save time for spotify. spotify paid $100 million for joe rogan to be on their platform, and amid the controversy, it's lost more than $2 million many market value to keep him there. what do they do next? does money talk? it appears to. it appears to. joints can be 3-d printed. and there isn't one definition of what well feels like. ere are millions. we're using our world to make your world a world of well. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪

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♪ was like any other... ♪ now to the story we have all been talking about, spot fiseting it will add a content advisory to podcasts that discuss covi after the backlash they received when they pulled neil young from the platform. joe rogan weighed in and promised real changes. >> sure, have that on there. i'm happy with that. also, i think if there's anything that i've done that i could do better is have more experts with differing opinions right after i have the controversial ones. i would most certainly be open to doing that. >> this comes as more high-profile artists including joanie mitchell and brene brown said they would boycott the platform too.

could these artist stop covid misinformation like the government failed to d? let's dig deeper and bring in benecol lins, senior reporter covering disinformation for nbc news, andrew ross sorkin, co-anchor of "squawk box" on cnbc and ethan millman, staff writing for "rolling stone." spotify is saying that care about the spread of disinformation, why? because it impacted their stock price? nothing changed from three weeks ago. they didn't care about it then. >> look, i don't know if it was the stock price unto itself. i think the real issue was there were other artist and potentially a mounting number of them who were willing to take their material off the platform. they had not reached a point where the drakes of the world or taylor swifts or adeles of the world were doing that, but had they, had this moment reached a new level of peak, if you will, their hand would be forced. i think they're trying to get

ahead of it. you could argue they're still behind it. i think what this raises is a question about both are these platforms platforms? are they broadcasters? they're spending $ 100 million on joe row ban. they are paying him. do subscribers leave? do the artists leave? do advertisers, a huge component of the revenue model for the podcasts on spotify in particular, do they leave? >> we're buying this argument they are putting this content advisory, this disinformation matters, andrew, yet the only thing that has changed is artists are pulling content and possibly users don't like it. they were completely fine with this content before neil young took action. >> i'm not disagreeing with you. they clearly were fine. by the way, people who are speak out but what wasn't happening was there wasn't this groundswell saying we're going

to take it and walk out the door. that could have a real impact on them. i think they're starting to really think about that. the other piece of this is that at some point, there could be a new discussion about the spotifies of the world and the context of the facebooks and twitters of the world. here they are putting badges and other things on the term. is it going to be enough? i don't know. do i give joe rogan some semblance of credit for saying he'll put somebody on the other side? sure. but the idea of putting certain types of controversial voices out, there and i'm a big believer in the first amendment, but when the information is demonstrably wrong and can hurt and injure and in certain cases kill people, i think there is a higher bar to clear. >> discussion about regulation and changing the rules, i'll believe it when i see it. let's play a bit more of joe rogan's response to all of this. >> i'm not a doctor. i'm not a scientist. i'm just a person who sits down and talks to people and has

conversations with them. do i get things wrong? absolutely. i get things wrong. but i try to correct them. whenever i get something wrong, i try to correct it because i'm interested in telling the truth, interested in finding out what the truth is. >> but if he doesn't correct it, at this point, given the regulations, there are no consequences. ben, is a content warning going to do anything? >> absolutely not. in fact, it might hurt people who are trying to have regular, real podcasts about what's actually going on with covid. if everything gets painted with this brush that covid is somehow controversial to talk about, then even good, useful information gets put in that scope. the larger problem here is this is the first step that every single one of these companies has gone through when they deal with disinformation. first they admit it's not a problem, then they admit it's a localized problem, then they say they're being targeted by people, the boy colts aren't for them and it's for this larger

cultural issue, and eventually they come to terms with the fact that maybe they gave a guy $100 million who held on some of the world's most prominent anti-vacciners had no problem what he's saying and the second a doctor goes on the show and saying myocarditis is more common with covid than those who get the vaccine. so, this is a much larger problem. he's their highest paid talent and the guy spreading the lies. that's not necessarily true with facebook or youtube. unfortunately for all of us, you are not entitled by the first amendment to get $100 million from spotify. i would like to be the first to know. >> you know what's not controversial, that wallpaper. it is fantastic. based on spotify's response, do you think they're getting a lot more pressure behind the scenes we don't know about? neil young and joanie mitchell

may be hugely important to me, but we're not talking about taylor swift, adele, and drake. >> they're certainly getting some pressure. all of us are talking about this because of a decision that neil young made. i think it ended up causing more of a conversation than some may have initially thought would happen. it seemed like it could have been, you know, just neil young maken an idealistic decision for himself, but more and more people have come out. but as we've already said, it would take the likes of a taylor swift or adele to make a more swift action than just putting out, you know, their content policy. and whether or not that will happen we'll see. i'm not sure yet. there's a lot of other young artists i'm sure may want to come out and talk, but it's not so easy for someone with the same level of clout or pull or success demanding their music be taken off. whether or not the younger developing artists want to do the same, i'm not sure. i'm sure there are some, but

whether they could is another question. >> i sort of see three outcomes, andrew. spotify feels so much pressure, they end up parting ways with joe rogan. joe row ban acquiesces more than last night and says i am going to change my ways. in doing that, he could lose hardcore supporters. or three, this news moves on and let's be honest, people forget about it. what do you think we could see? >> i imagine it may ultimately turn out to be closer to the third option if you will, and how you set that up. you could think about netflix as a model. there was a huge debate over the chappell show a couple months ago. we don't talk about that anymore. that leaves me there. having said that, you asked the question earlier, is something happening behind the scenes, i think, you know, harry and meghan, for example, have a deal with spotify, and there is word they were behind the scenes pushing and pressing. i imagine there are other

artists pushing and pressing. the question is what does spotify do, what does joe rogan do, and does spotify want to be like fox? i think the answer is not, because there is a real economic impact to having that impact them, especially with advertising. we haven't heard from the advertisers yet. that could be the next shoe to drop. >> the advertisers who have been hiding out. they don't want to have to deal with this. they say they want to do the right thing. but they certainly love that big fat joe rogan audience. we'll leave it there, gentlemen. but we are going to continue to pay attention to this story. it matters. up next, breaking news just moments ago. the report on parties held by prime minister boris johnson was released, and we have those details. released, and we have those released, and we have those details. i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all types of hep c.

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nationwide falling 31% in the last two weeks, and hospitalizations appear to be peaking. here's the thing -- the average number of daily deaths keeps going up, now more than 2,500. i need this explained. joining us to discuss, jake ward and dr. patel. san francisco has been the strictest in this country and the earliest to lock down in the beginning of covid. what are we seeing now? >> that's right, steph. because of thaerlly clampdown creating mask mandates in 2020, san francisco is reaping the benefits. as of tomorrow, the city says stable cohorts of people, that's people who are basically a regular cast of characters in, say, an office or a gym, can take off their mask indoors as long as they can prove they have not just vaccinated but boosted. and the good news in

san francisco is that the vaccine rate is way up above 80%, and the boosted rate is up above 60%. that seems to be the reason. we spoke to a gym owner here. you know how gyms have been suffering. he described how confident he is that this should work just fine for his customers. have a listen. >> we're fortunate most of our clients are walking in the door and they've showed us from the first day they've got their booster. we have a check box on their record that tracks as they've given that to us and as we still need to get it. so it has not been an issue for us at all in san francisco and especially here. >> a statewide mask mandate remains in effect across california, but this new removing of masks in the bay area, hopefully it's a good sign of things to come for the state and the nation as well. >> dr. patel, how could deaths

be up if cases are declining? i don't get it. >> this is what we call the lag that hospitalizations and death generally have during a surge. the omicron surge superimposed upon our previous surge, it looks like a shooting arrow up and a rapid descent down. so normally, this curve gets widened and these hospitalizations kind of keep extending and unfortunately deaths as well. it can take from the diagnosis to death several weeks. that's why we're seeing numbers coming up, especially amongst unvaccinated and unboosted people with chronic conditions. >> i know it's early, but what can you tell us about this new stealth omicron variant? how worried should we be? >> yeah. well, i worry about any variant and then you add the word stealth to it. the stealth kind of name is a misnomer because we can pick up this variant ba.2. it's a sister to the omicron variant that is prevalent in the united states. it is picked up by p and rapid

anti-gents. it lacks a certain gene like the omicron variant that is easier to detect. it is picking up in cases in the uk, denmark, other country, philippines, nepal. it seems to be a little more infederal regulators than omicron. it was-infectious for delta. what that means for united states, what jake alluded to, we are in a recovery phase. lit extend that recovery phase a little longer than we had thought, so we might see cases continue to decline but at a slower rate than they would have. but this is not the time to take off precautions because these precautions are what are giving us that rapid descent in the first place. so we have to probably tough through this for several more weeks. >> we just talked about misinformation and joe rogan. this past friday a washington state trooper made huge headlines over the last year because he quit over a vaccine requirement. he died of covid. that's after he was call adhere row. he was call adhere row by fox

news hosts, the same hosts, laura ingram, who are vaccinated, who work at a company with strict vaccine and covid policies. what can be done to fight this continued stream of misinformation? he was proud to be call adhere row, and then he lost his life. >> you know, steph, i kind of followed this story when it premiered and when they were featuring it on fox news, and literally the thought i had was how tragic is the take-away that, you know, this story resisting vaccine mandates or quitting your job over the vaccine mandate is regarded as a hero, and then fast forward to a tragic death, which is now exactly what we're seeing, i can't tell you how many patients have said to me, you know, my mother died, my grandmother died, they weren't vaccinated, i'm still not sure if i should get vaccinated that's what we need to air into the surface. he has a family. we need to hear from his family members and listen to what they're saying and actually try to have an honest dialogue.

and gaslighting him and his people on twitter that are also against the vaccine is not the answer either. >> forget twitter. think about his family. think about people getting all of the information they need, the facts about protecting themselves and their communities. themselves and the communities. dr. kavita patel, jake ward, thank you both so much. we've got to turn, because this morning, it is official. more people than ever thinking, talking, watching football. the next super bowl is officially set after the cincinnati bengals and l.a. rams pulled out tough, tough wins in two games that came down to the final seconds. but off the field, most people spend the weekend talking about tom brady, after reports swirled that arguably the greatest player of all time could be retiring. sources close to the 44-year-old say he has not made a decision yet, so let's discuss and bring in mike flurio and vann bolen, senior nfl reporter at "the

boston globe" who covered brady for years and years. mike, it seems we've got very different stories from all sides, multiple reports. what in the world is going on. >> well, i think brady is planning to retire. i think he wanted to announce it on his own terms, at his own time, and somebody blabbed, somebody let the cat out of the bag. and now he's trying to push back. he didn't want to upstage the playoffs. he wanted to do it when he wanted to do it. so we now wait for him to officially do it, unless for some reason he would react to the news getting out by saying, screw it, i'm going to play one more year. although, as fascinating as that would be, that's highly unlikely. >> you've covered tom brady for years and years, obviously as a new england patriot. what went through your mind when you heard the news? what are people in new england saying? >> i think people are surprised, a little bit. i mean, not -- i mean, he's 44 years old. he's breaking new barriers every single season that he plays. but he's always talked about how he wants to play until he's 45.

he's right there right now. one more season gets him to 45. he's still clearly at the top of his game. he led the nfl in passing yards and touchdowns this year and is probably going to finish second place for mvp. so he certainly, i think, could keep playing for as long as he's willing to put in the effort with his body, with his diet, as long as his family is okay with him. but at the same time, he literally has nothing left to prove. he's won everything, he's done everything. i think the biggest surprise with the announcement, though, was how it came out. kind of like what mike said. this did not seem like tom brady's big, grand retirement announcement at 2:30 on a saturday afternoon, while boston is getting hit with two feet of snow. i think brady is just trying to put the tooth paste back in the tube a little bit. and i wouldn't be surprised if that retirement announcement is coming very soon, potentially this week. >> mike, super bowl now set, after an incredible few weeks of playoffs, the rams actually getting to play a home game for the super bowl. what's your reaction to all of this? >> well, it's amazing when you look at how different these two teams are and how they were put

together. the rams have gone all in. they trade away draft picks and go after superstars. the bengals have drafted a couple of generational talents the past two years in joe burro, their quarterback, and jamar chase, the best quarterback in the nfl. they'll get together and we'll see which team has the better formula. we kind of expected the rams to be in the mix. we didn't expect the bengals to be there, and it should make for a great game in 13 days. >> well, gentlemen, it seems like more people than ever are stoked to watch the super bowl this year and that is good for both of your businesses. thank you for joining. we're going to leave it there, because we've got breaking news to cover overseas. before i let you go, uk prime minister boris johnson expected to make a public statement just 30 minutes from now, after he received the much-anticipated report investigating lockdown parties at his office and residence, when the rest of the country was under mandatory covid lockdown.

the report's findings were just released to the public moments ago, calling some of the behavior surrounding the parties, quote, zwriflts to justify. that has erupted into a major scandal in the uk with the prime minister now fighting for his political life. let's go right to keir simmons in london. keir, what, if anything, did we learn in this report that we didn't already know? garden parties that shouldn't have happened? but is it going to cost him his yeerm. >> reporter: yes, that's a great question, steph. this report is 12 pages long, but it doesn't include everything, because the metropolitan police, scotland yard are investigating, so the author of the report says she has to hold something back before that police investigation. that being said, there are pretty damning elements to what she has had to say. she says, quote, the excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional woshlg place at any time. keep in mind, we're talking about downing street and other

government offices. she says, some staff wanted to raise concern about behaviors they witnessed at work, but felt up able to do so. and she said, no member of staff should feel that way. she said, the leadership structures are fragmented and complicated. again, she's talking about downing street, number 10, the prime minister's office, and this has sometimes led to the blurring of lines of accountability. so, there is a lot in this and a lot that is not in this. and i suppose you could say that the prime minister may feel privately that he -- that he has enough political opportunity here to escape the worst of this and escape, frankly, losing his job, but he's not there yet. and as you say, he's going to make a statement to the house of commons. we wait to see what he says. you've got to imagine that he would apologize. he's apologized on several

occasions already, including apologizing for a party that took place the night before the funeral of prince philip, the duke of edinburgh. so the prime minister is in a difficult place, but maybe not quite as difficult a place as he was just at the end of last week. >> all right, then. we will be watching closely for when he makes that public statement. keir simmons, thank you. and thank you at home for watching this very busy hour, as we kick off what will be a busy week. i'm stephanie ruhle. my friend and colleague, jose diaz-balart picks up breaking news coverage right after this. news coverage right after this zeposia can help people with uc achieve and maintain remission. and it's the first and only s1p receptor modulator approved for uc. don't take zeposia if you've had a heart attack, chest pain, stroke or mini-stroke, heart failure in the last 6 months, irregular or abnormal heartbeat not corrected by a pacemaker, if you have untreated severe breathing problems during your sleep,

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good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart and a very busy monday. russia's massive troop buildup along the border with ukraine takes center stage at the united nations this hour, as u.s. senators may be close to a deal on what is being called the mother of all sanctions on russia. the list of people president biden is considering for the supreme court grows as the white house fights back against criticism the pick could be an example of affirmative action. we'll talk with someone who may be up for the job. as people in parts of the northeast continue to dig out after a huge winter storm over weekend, the entire east coast is dealing with colder-than-normal temperatures. meanwhile, british prime minister boris johnson is set to speak later this hour on the initial findings of a party that he and his staff held while