>> it's a name appropriate for a team owned by dan snyder. >> bingo. all right, the professor, as always, wise with his insights, and he says, by the way, if you're keeping score at home that i'm a good dude. thank you for having patience with us again this morning. we appreciate it. that does it for us today. stephanie ruhle, though, picking up the coverage right now. hey there, i'm stephanie ruhle, live at msnbc headquarters right here in new york city. it is wednesday, february 2nd, groundhog day, and we have got a ton to get to this morning so take a seat, and let's get smarter. we're going to start this morning's broadcast overseas with russian president vladimir putin, finally responding to western efforts to avoid a war in ukraine after more than a month of staying quiet. putin now saying his country's security demands are being

ignored but he also said diplomatic talks should continue. as we speak, members of two key senate committees are gathering for a closed door briefing by defense secretary lloyd austin, and secretary of state, antony blinken, we're expecting russia to be a very big part of it. in ukraine, the country's foreign minister is kicking off a news conference, one day after president zelensky warned if a conflict breaks out, it will not be just between ukraine and russia but a full scale war in europe, the likes of which we have not seen in 80 years. i want you to look at this new satellite imagery, it shows the build up of russian forces. this shows tents and equipment in belarus, to the north. and this one in crimea, you can see the massive numbers of fighting vehicles lined up, ready to go. on the other side of the border, ukrainian forces are digging in,

getting ready for a fight. i want you to look at this picture, it says it all. the ukrainians are now using vladimir putin's face for their target practice. if that is not a message, i don't know what is. so let's discuss and bring in nbc's matt bradley in eastern ukraine, and the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor who just got from kyiv. ambassador, you were just there. putin rejected what the u.s. and nato had to say. there could be a diplomatic producer. i spoke to gary, and he gags at this idea that you could even say the wordy diplomacy with putin in the room. >> gag or not, i think what mr. putin is saying to us is he is ready to back out. he's ready to negotiate rather than invade, which means that the strong position that president zelensky has been

taking, biden has been taking, nato has been taking has worked. it has deterred an invasion, it has demonstrated strong unity. it has demonstrated that nato allies are willing to provide and are providing weapons to ukraine that will deter and i believe have deterred an invasion for now. diplomacy takes time, and that's a -- that's the right step whether or not it's a gag, it is the right step rather than an invasion. >> it's certainly the right stop but seems like the opposite of what we have been hearing from ukraine. two weeks ago, zelensky is saying calm down, do not panic. now he's saying this could turn into a massive international conflict. that's a huge shift. tell us what it's really like there. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, stephanie if you're out here on the front lines and these are front lines again, not necessarily with russia, they're

front lines with russian-backed separatists, so ukrainians who are fighting against ukrainians in a trench warfare reminiscent of world war i. these soldiers i talked torks -- to, again they have that resigned feeling, and it's not that he was saying necessarily this isn't a big deal. he was asking the question of the foreign press, how do you expect us to behave. you're expecting us to panic, but at the end of the day, you have to realize we have been fighting this war for eight years, and the soldiers we just met in the trenches yesterday, they had the same attitude because they had been sitting in the mud and the snow and the rain for the past eight years, fighting on and off against these fellow ukrainians. so, you know, for them this isn't new, and that's why a lot of people aren't panicking in this part of the country because they have seen this war. it's been going on the whole time. here's what some of them had to say to us. >> some people say that the

ukrainian military is out manned and out gunned by the russians. how do you feel about that? >> translator: that's my land and death by hands for this land because that's my modeling. >> reporter: so yeah, as you can see, these guys aren't necessarily ready to take on the third most powerful military until the world with some fairly light artillery and rifles. if russia decides to invade, they will roll over the position with heavy artillery, air power, and naval power to hammer those positions. they will make a meal out of the ukrainian military before they cross the berm into ukraine. those soldiers know that, and that's why when i talk to defense officials and people who are close to the government, they say that the real plan is for more of a sustained insurgency led by the military against a russian occupation. so it's not necessarily all that bad.

they feel like they will be able to tax the russian military but not on the open battlefield. that's something they can't hope to do. they don't have the air and naval power, stephanie. >> i hope you're right. i hope a diplomatic route is the way we're headed, but if there's a war, what do you think it will look like. >> matt bradley who's doing a great job out there, by the way, i saw him when i was in kyiv. it will be terrible. it will be terrible. a war in europe, a war in ukraine, remember, stephanie, that russians who have crafted this war have already killed 14,000 ukrainians since they invaded the first time in 2014. so a new war that the russians acknowledge and will be clear to have the russian military moving into ukraine with all the power that matt just described will

cost a lot of -- will cost tens of thousands of ukraine soldier asks civilians dead. it will cost thousands of russian soldiers dead. the russian people are not eager to have this fight. they're not eager to see their country invade ukraine. they are opposed to that. >> explain to us how hard it would be because putin seems to believe if he invades ukraine, russia can take it over like they did crimea. crimea has like 2 million people. ukraine has like 40 million people. what would this look like for putin, this is no crimea. >> you're absolutely right. he has had no option, when he moved his troops, he's had his military troops in dombass for

the big fights in 2016 and also since then. what we're now talking about is a major escalation, and matt's right, while the ukrainian military is much stronger, much stronger than it was in 2014 and will impose costs on the russians as they come across. they've got better weapons. we know about the javelins but we also know that the ukrainian troops are defending their own land, but if russians try to occupy, as you say, it's a nation of 44 million people, it's a nation the size of texas or afghanistan, and afghanistan ought to be like a concerning memory for mr. putin, this is a big country, and they will fight. the ukrainians will fight. the military will fight, but the civilians will fight and the veterans. there are 500,000 veterans of that war, stephanie, and you showed their willingness, their determination.

i just saw it. i talked to people who are ready to go, already training to fight russians if they come to their villages and towns and cities. >> matt, do you feel safe where you are right now? >> reporter: you know, stephanie, like a lot of front line war zones, you don't get the feeling that danger is imminent. there are so many people just going about their daily lives and it's a lot like what president zelensky said where he played down or appeared to play down the risk of war. it's like what do you expect people to do. they're not going to start packing their bags, running around with their hair on fire. they have to go about their daily lives and will continue to do so. so the palpable feeling one gets around here is one of sort of a resigned almost boredom for what is for most people more of an inconvenience that's been lasting and persisting for the past eight years rather than an imminent threat that could come crushing down on them at any minute, and i think a lot of

people here really do think that putin is bluffing. they really believe that putin is once again as he's done with this country or as russia has done with this country for centuries, using ukraine as a kuj yol, a strategy that has been used for hundreds of years, and ukrainians are tired of it but also used to it. they dent necessarily expect to see a massive army come filing in. i spoke with civilians living near the front line, and they said, look, we love russian people, we love ukrainian people, but the fact is this is a war if there is going to be a war that's going to be waged between elites and the rest of us are just going to be victims. stephanie. >> that is one way to put it. they believe he is bluffing. they're banking on it. ambassador matt, thank you both so much. i appreciate it. we've got to turn to big news on the battle against the coronavirus for the youngest among us. pfizer officially requesting

emergency authorization for the two-dose vaccine for kids under 5. an fda advisory panel will meet february 15th to consider the request. a new poll finds many parents remain cautious about the vaccine. just 31% say they'd vaccinate their kids under 5 right away. 29% will wait and see, and 26% say they definitely will not vaccinate their youngest children. let's bring in meg tirrell and dr. paul offit on the committee that evaluates safety. walk us through what's going to happen next. >> well, steph, what we're expecting is that we get to see the data, and that's the most important thing. that should happen in a couple of weeks, a few days before the february 15th, advisory committee meeting, and that's so important because a lot of us are wondering what has changed since december when the last we heard from pfizer was that the dose for 2 to 4-year-olds didn't generate enough of an immune

response. they're adding that third dose in order to increase the protection. we know that the omicron surge has caused a lot of cases among kids and the fda pointed out a lot of hospitalizations as well in this age group. and there is an expectation backed up by some reporting from the "washington post" that we could even see efficacy data in this update, meaning how many cases did the vaccine prevent in this age group. if there are strong efficacy data coupled with strong safety data, that changes the game. right now, it's very uncertain when the last we've heard is the dose they were giving with just two shots was not high enough. >> doctor, you were on the fda advisory committee, what is your recommendation? >> wait to see the data. i think on february 15th, you will all be able to see the data. you can watch that meeting occur live, live stream it, and as meg said, you'll have the submission by pfizer, which will probably be 50 or 60 pages long. you'll have the submission by the fda who will have reviewed

all of that data. if it comes to be there is a two-dose vaccine that can stand alone, something that clearly is safe and effective, it would get an approval. that would have to be true. there has to be robust data showing that those two things are true, that it's safe and effective. otherwise we're not going to allow distribution of that vaccine, at least not recommend distribution of the vaccine for america's children. >> i've got two for you, doctor. we showed a poll that only 31% of parents would get their kids vaccinated right away. what would you tell those parents? >> i'm with them. i can't wait to see the data. i think they should be reassured everybody around the vaccine table is like them skeptical. if you ask me right now, would i give a vaccine to a child less than 5 years old, no, not until i see the data. if i data do support the use, then i think one should give it. it's disappointing that we have had since may a vaccine available for 12 to 15-year-olds

but 50% have gotten it. or a vaccine from 5 to 11, only 20% are vaccinated. when we see children over 5 who are hospitalized, they are not vaccinated and they could have been, and nor are their parents and children. once the data are there, the numbers should shift. >> meg, separate from what parents feel comfortable doing. once this does get approved do we expect to see a lot more businesses require a push to get their employees back? a lot of them have been waiting because lots of employees say i have young kids at home. once those people can get their kids vaccinated, are we going to see a lot of businesses say, time to get back to work? >> you know, that's a really great question and what we have been hearing is it's been really different for different companies. some are still saying we're going to be flexible. we're going to look at the overall amount of virus that's circulating in the communities to be able to decide whether we're bringing people back, but there is an expectation that

making this vaccine available if it is safe and effective for this age group will absolutely change the game. a lot of parents of kids who are under 5 like me have really been waiting for this piece to feel like, okay, we're with everybody else. we can get that protection if we want it, and we can go back to somewhat more normal of a life, you know, knowing that you have that protection particularly against severe disease. so many parents are waiting for that, and of course they hope it changes absences in schools and quarantine rules and things like that as well. that's a big hope. >> it certainly is. dr. offit, meg tirrell, thank you both so much. we're going to leave it there. another wicked blast of winter, impacting tens of millions of americans this morning. we're talking snow and ice with dangerous conditions from new mexico all the way to the northeast. let's go right to megan fitzgerald in chicago. this does not sound good. it doesn't look good. what's going on there? >> reporter: the snow has been coming down since late last night. it's not expected to taper off

here until late this afternoon. in some parts of illinois, expect to go see upwards of 20 inches of snow. here in chicago, you can see the snow just continuing to pile up here. we're talking about an inch of snow an hour. the governor of illinois issuing an emergency declaration. a declaration disaster. activating some 100 national guard members to be on the ready to respond in the event of any emergency. this is what we're seeing across much of the u.s. at this point. a lot of heads of state urging the residents to stay home. that's the safest place to be. we know the roads across the country are treacherous, as you mentioned from the border of mexico to vermont. one of the biggest concerns is ice, freezing rain, that's something that is being seen from arkansas all the way up to the ohio valley. and then of course you think of our friends in texas, many of them really concerned because last year, of course, freezing temperatures shut down the power grid. they were without energy for several days. that was a deadly situation

there, and so it's not just the roads, though, of course you've got to think of the skies as well, and at this point, we know that at least 2,000 flights have been delayed with 2,500 flights cancelled at this point. this is a storm that's expected to deliver a one-two punch. this is the first of it. we're going to see the rest of it coming tomorrow, steph! you better stay safe where you are. i mean, it's going to take hours to dig those cars out. i'm not sure how you are getting back to wherever you're staying, but hopefully you've got good boots on you. we have breaking news right now from the white house. i want to bring peter alexander in. peter what have you learned? it sounds like we lost peter. we're going to take a quick break and be back with that news on the other side. a quick break and be back with that news break and be back with that news on the other side. mm, smooth.

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. let's bring you that breaking news, nbc news confirming that president biden has formally approved plans to send u.s. troops to eastern europe in response to the russian threat to ukraine. i want to bring in nbc's chief white house correspondent peter alexander and bring back former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor. what do you know. >> reporter: i think this announcement will be formalized in the next 45 minutes or so when we hear from john kirby, the spokesperson of the department of defense. nbc news has confirmed at the president's direction and

following the recommendation of the defense secretary, secretary austin, the u.s. will be repositioning some forces already in europe into eastern europe, and mobilizing some american troops from here in the u.s. into europe right now. here are the specific numbers, and i'm told this by a senior administration official just during this commercial break that 1,000 american service members already in europe right now will be repositioned to romania. 2,000 american troops presently in the united states, who have been put on a heightened state of alert will be sent overseas to poland and germany. in both situations those troops will be augmenting, joining other american forces in those countries right now. here's the official statement that we received just moments ago, and because we're just learning this information, i want to share it with you. the most important take away here is that no american troops will be going to ukraine. ukraine is not a member of nato. they're not a u.s. nato ally. the u.s. will not be going there.

the statement reads as follows. it says at the president's direction, and following secretary austin's recommendation, the department of defense will reposition certain european based units further east, forward deploy additional u.s. based units to europe and maintain a heightened state of readiness of response forces to meet these commitments. it adds these forces are not going to fight in ukraine. they are not permanent moves. they respond to current conditions. again, stephanie, the breaking news right now is that president biden has now formally approved american troops to move into eastern europe given the circumstances right now, as it relates to the standoff between russia, the u.s., and the u.s. over ukraine, it's a total of 3,000 american troops at this time, just a matter of days ago, the president had said he would need to do this in the near term to do it soon. if he waited it would take too long to put the forces and america's allies in the region.

>> the near term is now. ambassador, we're fortunate you're still here. we learned what's happening. tell us what it means, what do you think? >> stephanie, i think it means that deterrence is working, that the active deterrence, not just saying we're going to do something if president putin sends those troops into ukraine, that's passive deterrence. active deterrence is when you actually take steps. when you actually deploy troops, and president biden is actively deterring president putin from that invasion. he is continuing the strong position that he and nato and president zelensky have taken to deter an invasion. i think this is a very good step. >> where do things go from here? these troops aren't going to ukraine, they're going to eastern europe. >> they're going to eastern europe, and now just to be

clear, there are u.s. forces. there are active duty u.s. forces in ukraine. they are in training mode. they are training ukrainian units and soldiers in the western part of ukraine, away from the front line, but we're already committed. we're very committed to ukraine, and i think this demonstrates that commitment and you ask, where do we go from here. again, i think this active deterrence is succeeding. it's succeeding because we're showing by this deployment and other things that we're ready to deter, ready to defend, and so mr. putin is looking for a way down and he sees rightly that negotiations is the way to go. so i think we'll see them move toward negotiations on a range of issues with the united states, and with others in order to solve some of these security problems. >> all right. we are going to keep you up as we get anymore developments.

at 10:00 a.m., there will be an official briefing at the pentagon. we will take you there live. ambassador, peter, thank you so much. the january 6th committee gathering to meet. they will hear from stewart rhodes, the leader of the oath keepers, he was charged with sedition, agreed to appear virtually before the committee, though he is expected to plead the 5th for most questions. i want to bring in ali vitali, and geoff bennett, chief national correspondent for the pbs news hour, and contributor here on nbc. talk about the way the committee is building its case. we're going to see stewart rhodes, he's going to get all of this attention. he's most like not going to say anything. on the other hand, mike pence's top aides have been speaking to them. what's going on? >> yeah, and the question is how much of a proxy are the former vice president's top aides for the former vice president himself and will the committee ever take the step toward

inviting the vice president or even subpoenaing him for his own testimony, but the committee, steph, is trying to paint this narrative of what led up to the violent attack on the capitol on january 6th, and what came after it that this conspiracy to undermine or completely overturn the election did not happen in a vacuum, did not just happen on january 6th, that there was a well coordinated effort that existed before it, and that continues in some ways to this present moment, and so with stewart rhodes, he has already been charged with seditious conspiracy and other crimes stemming from his alleged involvement in the capitol breach. as you mentioned, he's currently in jail right now, being held without bail, and he's expected to refuse to answer many of the questions and invoke his 5th amendment right against self-incrimination, but this is important, because there was this effort to wage this violent

assault on the capitol. they had allegedly stocked weapons across the river there in virginia as part of this coordinated and choreographed violent assault on our democracy. >> i can't believe i'm asking this, i feel -- actually, it is groundhog day, lindsey graham, he has been in the trump camp for a long long time. he spoke out against trump's suggestion that he would pardon the january 6th insurrectionists and like clock work, trump went after graham. he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and called him a rhino, i know i have asked you before, geoff, could this be a bridge too far if trump continues to side with these insurrectionists, could we see more republicans say enough is enough, and i know i have asked you this before. >> it's a good question, and the answer is i doubt it. donald trump dissing and dumping on one of his staunchest defenders, most loyal defenders lindsey graham, he said the

president's comments where he dangled the prospect of pardons to the january 6th rioters, graham said the comments were inappropriate. didn't call trump a bad guy. didn't say that trump was antidemocratic, didn't say trump had fascist leanings, just said the comments were inappropriate and the president responded by calling lindsey graham a republican in name only, one of the fiercist disses that the president with wage against anyone. lindsey graham has the national profile to withstand that kind of attack. lots of other republicans who might have said the same thing publicly don't. that's one of the reason why the president announced $122 million in the campaign war chest, more than the republican party itself, the campaign arm of the republican party itself, and that is why the president, despite everything that, you know, he has been accused of -- >> incorrect, mr. bennett. incorrect. the former president, the former president.

>> there you go. thank you. >> right now, lindsey graham has a job. right now, donald trump has got nothing. let's shift to the supreme court, what's the latest on how the process is going? >> one of the central people in this upcoming supreme court battle if we're looking at republicans who might come over and join democrats is senator lindsey graham, we heard him over the weekend talking specifically about the possibility of one of south carolina's own judge michelle childs potentially being nominated. he all but openly endorsed her. he didn't say he was going to say yes, absolutely on that nomination, but certainly an openness there. as we're tracking what this process could look like, there is the potential for republicans to come over and join with democrats on this. it's also, though, something that the white house has said they are more focused on looking qualifications rather than overt appeals to republicans. that being said, though, the white house and specifically the president himself understands keenly how these nominating contests and processes work for supreme court justices. to that end, he knows the role

of the senate, and that might be why he called senate minority leader mitch mcconnell yesterday to talk about the process going forward. it's making good on what he said is making sure the senate knows its role. listen to biden on that. >> the constitution says advise and consent, advice and consent, and i'm serious when i say that i want the advice of the senate as well as the consent. we can arrive on who the nominee should be. >> and look, certainly during all of these sorts of high profile nominating moments there are a lot of people who want to give their advice. the white house, of course, fielding that and capitol hill and beyond. among republicans, there is a split, there are those who are not going to consider this nominee, those who have gone further who say the promise of this entire process, some have likened that to affirmative

action, and there are republicans kwhof who have left door open. we talked about this as a numbers game. they needed all 50 democrats to come on board. they don't actually need republicans. that being said, sadly yesterday we got the news that new mexico senator ben ray lieu han suffered a stroke. he's not going to be in the capitol for several weeks. we wish him a speedy republican. it does change the numbers game. certainly as we get later into this process we're going to see how the numbers shake out as we see not just senators start preparing for the pick but the sherpa process taking shape as former senator doug jones chs was announced as a key member of the team. now to something happening just a few blocks from here. makes you take a deep breath. you are looking at new york's st. patrick's cathedral.

hundreds will gather for the funeral of wilbert mora, fatally shot while responding to a domestic violence call in queens two weeks ago. his partner jason rivera was laid to rest last week. friends describe the 27-year-old as a gentle giant, the biggest person in the room with the softest heart, and that was true in his final moments when mora requested that his organs be donated, a move that saved five other's lives. today we are honoring wilbert mora, and we're thinking about all of the people who work in law enforcement every day. t eve. who are all younger than you. i had to get help somewhere along the line to stay competitive. i discovered prevagen.

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ruth's chris who returned money they got after public backlash. beyond the headlines there were serious concerns about how the money was being used and we just learned that the program barely protected paychecks at all. with most of the programs instead going to the bottom line for the owners, plus it made potentially the long-term economic health of this country worse. with our national debt topping 30 trillion bucks for the first time, and partially due to things like this program. joining me now, the reporter behind that story, "new york times" consumer finance reporter stacy callley, also mit economics professor, david otter. he led a team of researchers who studied this very program. you found that most of this money went to business owners, their investors and their creditors, but the workers who would have lost their jobs didn't get the money. it didn't work out for them. how on earth did this happen? >> so it's a mixed picture. about a third of the dollars went to workers who otherwise

would have lost jobs, and it did keep some businesses from failing, so i don't want to say it was a total failure but it is the case that about 2/3 of the money went to business owners and creditors, and really about 80% of that went to the top fifth of households, the wealthiest households, and that's kind of the nature of giving money to businesses unrestricted. businesses are owned by wealthier individuals and by stockholders. so it was highly predictable and congress in some ways foresaw it, but realized it couldn't do much better because it didn't have the administrative systems to carefully regulate or vet businesses. it had to get the money out fast or wouldn't do much good at all. >> to your point, we sort of knew this would happen. any company had up to 500 employees, irrelevant of how well or poorly they were doing, they qualified for the money, but stacy, the government put more money in this program because the goal was to get it

to the smallest businesses that needed it most. did that money get there? >> it did, but it also hit a lot of bigger businesses. that was the challenge of the program. this was as david say, a fire hose of money directed at the small business sector. in the end, we had 9 million small businesses that got loans. the good news is that some of the smallest businesses that were most in need, one of the ones i wrote about in my article, which was a little juice spot called the norris spot, that had never previously been able to take advantage of a federal aid program. this was the first time they were able to, so we did see the very smallest businesses, the most in need did tend to get the money at a hugely high cost of a lot of businesses that didn't need the money as much also getting it. >> david, would you say this program was successful? >> i think it was congress's best answer under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. i would say there were a couple of things that made the program less good than it was originally, which is that congress kept loosening the

rules after they had issued the loans for who had to pay them back, and created all kinds of safe harbors for firms who didn't restore employment, and gave actually extraordinary tax benefits to the recipients of the loans, businesses, not the workers so that they could use that money and deduct expenses against it, all business expenses, yet they didn't have to treat as business income. they actually got a tax credit in addition to the money. and that was extraordinarily wasteful and added an additional hundred billion dollars to the cost of the program in the fore gone tax revenue in addition to the billion dollars in 2020, and another couple hundred billion in 2021. >> i talk to small businesses every day. restaurants call me all the time saying we need the government to give more money. we know there was the restaurant act, it was $30 billion, but we didn't get it. there was the restaurant act, ppp, there was all sorts of aid, are we forgetting now coming out

of it when so many businesses are saying we're getting another covid flare up, we need more money, in a normal year, businesses open, businesses close, that's part of the normal business cycle. the government doesn't show up every time there's an issue. >> yeah, in fact, business dynamism has been restored by the pandemic, and there are many more businesses opening now in the last couple of years than there were prior to it. there's a lot of creative destruction, i don't want to minimize the pain. the business sector overall is doing well. i think there were three major pandemic aid programs, there was the unemployment insurance extensions, there were the household payments, and there was the business payments, the paycheck protection program. of the three, the paycheck protection program probably had the highest cost per good done. and it was the most regressive in terms of distributional properties, most money going to wealthy households. unfortunately, consumers don't have lobbyists going to congress

saying i really love my 600 or $1,200 paycheck that i got from congress. congress hears a lot about how the paycheck protection program is a wonderful thing. the larger number of people who benefit from the smaller programs are not well organized to give the same message. most calculations of the effect on gdp or distributional properties would suggest the paycheck protection program was not the best of the three programs, probably the least good. >> we're going to keep following the money. it was a program created in an emergency during an extraordinary time. thank you both for joining us. i appreciate it this morning. coming up next, inside an alarming number of books being banned from texas schools, books, yeah, those are the problem. the parents at the center of this fight, and those who are pushing back. plus, a new warning about artificial intelligence. how much we really are relying on it, and how it could impact our ability to make decisions. the disturbing details next. r a. r a. the disturbing details next.icke a real challenge.

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bled. this morning, a suspected gunman is in custody after he opened fire yesterday killing two campus officers at bridgewater college in virginia. the officers were responding to a report of a suspicious person at the school when the suspect opened fire leading to a short man hunt which shut down the school and surrounding town. the shooter's motive is not yet known. following the arrest, there has been an outpouring of memorials for the two officers who were killed. not only were john painter and j.j. jefferson coworkers, they were dear friends. they were known on campus as the dynamic duo, and just last year, john was j.j.'s best man in his wedding. now let's turn to the state of texas, and growing controversy over what books should be allowed in schools, an nbc news investigation uncovered parents and politicians leading a massive effort to ban books from school libraries that focus on race, gender and sexuality.

antonia hilton has been digging into the story, and joins us now. antonia, it's not like we're watching the major motion picture "foot loose" this is happening now. when we have issues like school shooters, that's not the top priority, book banning is. >> you're right. this is one of the biggest book challenges we have seen in decades, altering school libraries across the state of texas. we traveled to katy, texas, right outside of houston, a district with 85,000 kids there. school administrators have been banning books, more than half of which feature lgbtq people. students, librarians are pushing back. take a look. >> texas schools are at the center of a national fight over banned books. an nbc news investigation finding that at least a dozen texas districts have removed books about race, gender and sexuality after a surge of parent complaints. >> why are we sexualizing our

precious children? >> since the fall, irish chang a junior at independent school district who identifies as queer has watched books vanish from her school library. >> what do you think these parents want? >> to keep their children in this protected bubble in which the only opinions they really hear are the ones that they themselves represent. >> reporter: records requests to nearly a hundred texas districts found that during the first four months of this school year, parents made at least 75 formal complaints, compared to only one filed during the same period last year. texas governor greg abbott even calling for criminal charges against staff who provide kids with pornographic books. it's part of a national pattern of parents and school officials banning books at an unprecedented rate. one tennessee district just last week banning "maus," a pulitzer prize winning graphic novel about the holocaust. george m. johnson's memoir, all boys aren't blue, is one of the books banned in katie and elsewhere. it's about a queer black child that at one point details sexual

abuse. what's it like now to see this fight play out on a national stage? >> to kind of wake up every day and see that more and more people within the country who have power are trying to deny kids who are like me access to my story is heartbreaking. >> reporter: katy schools denied nbc news's request for comment. katy parent was inspired to fight for book removals after parents fight over books during the virginia governor's race. >> what we're talking about is vulgarity that is inappropriate for any child. >> reporter: iris, a member of her school's speech and debate team, is no stranger to speaking out. lately, she doubts the adults are listening. >> it sends this message to myself and to my peers that our opinions aren't valued. >> reporter: librarians are now coming together and trying to keep these books on their shelves. some of them have launched a campaign called the hashtag

freed freedom campaign, to try to bring attention librarians' story. >> freedom to read. thank you so much for sharing this really important story. this morning, we're taking a turn into the world of artificial intelligence. everywhere you look, you'll see dozens of headlines about ai. and though the technology is billed as the future, it's not all good news. nbc's jacob ward has spent years studying the topic and he is presenting his findings in a new book called "the loop," how technology is creating a world without choices and how to fight back. in it, he argues that companies are using our behavioral patterns against us and that it is time to take action before it's too late. jacob, this is really scary stuff. when we think about driving, for example, we used to understand how to navigate. we knew the names of streets and towns zpis. now, if we can't type it in, we can't get there. >> that's absolutely right.

and that's starting to seep into every corner of our life, decide who gets a loan and who gets a job and who gets bail. the big finding of the last 50 to 100 years of behavioral science determines that we make the vast majority of our decisions with an ancient instinctive system. a system full of all kinds of unconscious patterns. and we do have the ability, you and i are using it right now, to talk and reason and be creative and create art and law and all of the things of our higher consciousness. but it turns out, companies don't want to sell to that part of our brain. of course, they want to sell to the ancient, instinctive system. so they're using artificial intelligence, which is a pattern recognition technology, to find those patterns, predict them, and sell us whatever they can in the process, stephanie. >> but it is too late, jacob. it is deeply entrenched in our

daily lives. how do we get out of it? do we actually have the will to do so? think of all of us saying, i don't feel comfortable with these social media platforms. and as we're saying it, we're scrolling instagram. >> this is the thing. i think as a society, we face this extraordinary turning point. this choice right now where we have to get a little bit smarter, as you always say, about how we make these kinds of decisions. one difference i would argue, we have to learn to draw is the difference between, for instance, when you and i are inspired by a to do something addictive, that leads us to be addicted to something like exercise, that we would argue, i think, is very different from something like a predatory company that tries to get people to gamble on on an online casino, as much as we possibly can. the same circuitry is being accessed in our brains, it turns out. that's what the researchers are all telling me in this book, but we can agree as a society, they have very different effects. so until now, the law has been very simplistic about this

stuff. we've always treated our attention and our choices as this kind of invisible, you know, endless resource. what i'm trying to argue here is it is not invisible, it is not endless, and we need to start figuring out new rules for governing it if we want to make a healthy future for all of us. >> i get the addiction part. it gets me watching endless hours of television and online shopping, the addicted to exercise, sadly, hasn't hit me yet. what are you doing in your life right now? you have studied this, you know how scary this. and regulation hasn't come. what are ways you've changed your behavior? you're a parent. >> well, the very first thing for me is my children, of course. i have an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and right now we're in the midst at my children's school of creating a pledge among all parents that we're going to not give our children individualized smartphones until high school. but i'll tell you, stephanie, that's a really hard conversation to have, not just with my kids, but with each other. it reveals all of our insecurities about our own

relationships technology, our relationship to our kids, and i'll tell you right now, nobody is coming down the pike to help us. it's only going to be small groups of parents like that that can make that happen, until someone runs for office on the basis of needing to change how we make decisions in the face of technology. and we're just not there yet as a country. >> i can tell you, i have been holding off on personal devices and phones until the age of 13 in my house. and it has been a battle. if you're that family who does that, you're the cheese standing alone. it's not that easy. jacob, fantastic to see you. amazing book, i highly recommend it. people need to read it. it matters. that wraps up this busy hour. i cannot believe i did not get to talk about the washington football team. we're going to need to tomorrow. i'm stephanie ruhle. any minute now, the pentagon will be holding a briefing after we just learned that president biden has formally approved plans to send u.s. troops to eastern europe. jose diaz-balart will take over breaking news coverage right after the break. will take over breaking news coverage right breaking news coverage right after the break.

be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. (vo) for me, one of the best things about life is that we keep moving forward. we discover exciting new technologies. redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like.

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