♪♪ a good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome, everyone, to alex muay thai witt reports. president biden holding a critical phone call with russian president vladimir putin as officials warn an invasion of ukraine could happen in a matter of days. the white house tweeting this

picture, writing the president made it clear if russia further invades ukraine, the u.s. and allies will impose swift and severe costs, urging putin to engage in de-escalation and diplomacy instead. meantime, preparations are under way for the worst case scenario. in fact, today, the state department ordering employees to leave the embassy in kyiv as defense secretary lloyd austin is repositioning about 160 members of the florida national guard who have already been deployed to ukraine for months now. let's go in depth with nbc's mike memoli in washington, erin mclaughlin in ukraine for us. starting with you, mike. did president biden and putin, did they make any progress on today's phone call? >> reporter: well, alex, given the urgency of the situation, remember the kremlin originally tried to schedule this call for monday. the white house insisting this call go ahead over the weekend today while the president's at camp david. it's something of concern that the headline from a white house official speaking afterwards was that there appears to be no

fundamental change in the dynamic that we have been seeing over the last few weeks. now, given the urgent warnings we have been hearing from u.s. officials that an invasion could occur at any moment, that's not a good sign, this official saying during the course of the conversation between the two presidents, it wasn't clear whether russia was prepared to advance its goals either through diplomacy or military effort at this point but that the president also made it clear to president putin that his level of concern about the potential safety of american citizens there, remember, of course, overnight, the u.s. announcing that it was evacuating its embassy of all but the core personnel there. now, all signs, as the white house, as other officials have been laying out over the course of the last few days is that russia is only moving closer to an invasion. we heard the same this morning from senator tim kaine, a member of the armed services committee. >> i think just the facts on the ground, the sheer movement of personnel, equipment, field hospitals, blood supplies into

the area surrounding ukraine and particularly in belarus near kyiv, these are the kinds of just facts on the ground that are leading president biden and others in the u.s. to conclude that an invasion could well be imminent. >> reporter: so the obvious question at this point is where do we go from here? an administration official saying that during the call, the officials will remain in touch in the coming days. u.s. and russian officials, we heard this morning from the secretary of state, tony blinken, who spoke with his russian counterpart, said they're awaiting a response from russia to some of the back and forth paper demands that have been going between the two sides. it's also -- we're still expecting the german chancellor, olaf scholz, to travel to meet with president putin in-person later this week but now as the administration officials said in the briefing after the call, the stakes are too high for the u.s. not to give russia every chance, diplomatically, to try to resolve this, but then again, the president made it clear, the cost that would be laid upon russia, if it goes ahead with an

invasion. >> okay. mike memoli from a very sober white house today. thank you so much for that. let's go now to erin mclaughlin in kyiv for us. we have several countries now pulling diplomats out of kyiv, and that includes the u.s. and russia. how is ukraine's leader reacting and are americans there lining up to leave? >> reporter: well, we have yet to hear any reaction from ukrainian officials to this latest diplomatic push by president biden, but earlier today, we did hear from president zelensky, urging people to remain calm, urging people not to panic, and for the most part here in ukraine, people seem to be listening. they're going about their normal lives, business as usual, and that includes one american we've been speaking to who said that despite these dire warnings from washington, both he and his family intend to stay inside ukraine. he said he has no plan b. take a listen.

>> i'm actually carrying on with my business as usual. my kids are going to school. my wife does her stuff. it is true that i may have to flee with my family, and that could be done with a plane if that's still available, and if not, then we have a vehicle, and we could drive to one of the borders. i think the real threat is the economic downside, which we're already seeing in my industry, all the deals are frozen. i think that that's ultimately possibly the hidden goal of russia is to bring the economy down. >> reporter: now, according to u.s. officials, hundreds of americans have registered their intention with the state department to remain inside ukraine. this despite u.s. officials making it very clear that in the event of a russian invasion, no u.s. military troops will enter

ukraine to evacuate them, that they will be on their own. and to that effect, today, the u.s. embassy announcing that as of tomorrow, it is suspending all consular services at the embassy here in kyiv, and the first major airliner, dutch airline klm, has suspended its flights to the capital as well. >> okay, erin mclaughlin, thank you for the latest from kyiv. joining me right now, barry mccaffrey, retired four-star u.s. army general, former gulf war division commander, former member of the national security council and currently our esteemed msnbc military analyst. general, thank you, my friend, for joining us. so, you have certainly been in tense situations before. how do you expect this phone call played out between presidents biden and putin? >> well, probably very badly. look, what's going on, i've never seen anything like it. since 1850, russian military operations are always masked in

a deception plan. where's the deception plan? huge presence of russian military forces, belarus, russia proper, sea of azov, black sea, all the indications, tactical intelligence are they're going in. but ukraine is 41 million people. it's the size of texas. it has a quarter of a million people in the armed forces who will fight. it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, so i'm still skeptical that putin's made the decision to go in. i hope he hasn't. it would be a gigantic tragedy. one other comment, alex. why are we pulling out our embassy in kyiv? this makes no sense. we got to put more people in there, cia officers, u.s. mil group officers, the ambassadors should be in continuous contact with the zelensky government. the last building in kyiv that

the russians would purposefully target would be the u.s. embassy. we didn't pull our embassy out of london during the blitzkrieg. anyway, we need a diplomatic, full bore engagement with ukraine and russia throughout the remainder of the week. >> okay, so, general, to the embassy point you're making there, we're being communicated with that this is happening, that it's the employees within the embassy. is it possible that that which you would like to see done is being done but more covertly and they're just not communicating that? >> no. no, i think the cia will stay in there. but we have publicly now we've got the european union diplomats are also leaving. the japanese, israelis. we've triggered a definitive reaction, saying we're all out. we've reassured the russians we're not going to fight you, so the ukrainians are on their own. but i've seen this withdrawal of the u.s. embassy package a dozen

times over my life. the last time you want to reduce the diplomatic contact is when there's a crisis going on. so, it's a mistake, but in the long run, i suppose it doesn't make much difference. what will putin do? he's on the edge of a disaster for russia. the thawing period, by the way, is early march, so he probably wants to act in february if he's actually going to go in. there's going to be a huge tragedy. millions of refugees for sure would flee ukraine throughout europe. and it would be a bloody mess. kyiv's got 3 million people. is he really going to seize an urban area where the ukrainians will fight? bad judgment. >> vladimir putin, the prospect of going in and seizing ukraine, does that outweigh, in a more positive manner for him, than what he and russia would face with the economic sanctions with the ire of the world, with the

solidifying of nato, which is exactly what he does not want to have happen if he were to go in. i mean, weigh the checks and balances from his vantage point. >> well, you know, from a logical perspective, if i was his unpaid military advisor, i would say, this doesn't make any sense. you're going to pay a dire cost, economically in particular, and the russian economy is not good anyway. the only thing russians has that anybody pays respect to is their nuclear weapons, which are thoroughly modernized and also oil and gas energy. so, it doesn't make any sense. but i do think that putin is a classic russian nationalist. he sees ukraine, georgia, and belarus as an integral part of the russian empire. so he wants to bring ukraine in particular back into mother russia. he thinks his time is running out. ukrainians are embracing capitalism, embracing european union, becoming a sovereign nation based on his threats, so

i think he may think, i got to act now or it's gone forever. >> what are the chances that he is doing this, not following what you have just suggested, but thinking, like, i am now the topic of the global conversation. all eyes are on me. all eyes are on my power that i am dictating what happens. i'm being seen as a strong man in the eyes of many, whether domestically or anybody outside of russia. how much is that a calculus potential for putin right now? and then he pulls back and looks like the good guy who used diplomacy and we didn't go into ukraine. >> yeah. well, i think you've summarized it quite nicely. that may well be the plan. i hope it is. it would certainly be better than a tragedy of tens and thousands of ukrainians getting killed and wounded, never mind a bloody nose to the russian army. by the way, they will pull off total grab of ukraine if they go after it. there's no question in my mind.

russian military, he's got his elite forces on the frontier. they'll pull us off. but you know, again, when you look at it logically, it doesn't make a lot of sense. this may well be, though, a historic moment in which putin, who is the center of world attention, now says, i got to act. i hope that's not the case. but we're -- i've never seen u.s. intelligence being rolled out in near realtime. we're burning sources and methods doing this, trying to prevent, i guess, through information warfare, a deterrent to the russians. but we'll have to see what happens. it's a perilous situation. >> as russia certainly, tensions are escalating there, i'm looking at the lead of an article that reads t cost of trump's iranian mistake, haunting the u.s. and in fact, as you know, iran unveiled a new missile

wednesday. iranian officials claim this missile is powerful to hit u.s. military targets. from what you've seen, sir, does this pose an immediate threat? >> well, their missile program's extremely competent, and it can clearly threaten u.s. military interests in the region as well as the israelis, who have allegedly 300 nuclear weapons and will respond if they think they're on the verge of a nuclear attack. but i think the real question is, trump withdrawal from a treaty, which was pretty shaky accord, has allowed the iranians at zero risk, they already have the economic sanctions, to continue developing a nuclear program. i think we ought to view them as a nuclear state now. they could assemble a weapon and clearly -- or more than one in under a year. they do have the delivery systems. i think getting the accord back on track is too late right now. >> okay. general barry mccaffrey, sage and experienced advice, thank

you for sharing. we're going to need to have you back as tensions are escalating. thank you, sir. we're also following the breaking news out of canada where the fifth straight day, trucker protests are blocking a key bridge along the u.s.-canadian border. police are now working to clear out demonstrators in a peaceful manner. nbc's cal perry has been watching things on the ground in windsor, canada. where do things stand now? i know there were further protesters or at least lookie-lous that had come in the last hour, prior to your noon easterntime hit. how about now? >> reporter: people are still coming. you can see people walking, still on their way. and as we swing and you saw sort of behind me, it's a little bit bigger than we saw an hour ago but about the same size and it's interesting because of the conversation here that a lot of people are having is, what happened? what happened? why did the police stop? what is the plan now? i think it's clear with more people here, it's a crowd control issue. we talked about that last hour. is it a resource issue on behalf of the police? we know there are protests now

all across the country. we know there are protests in the capital. there are protests here. this is a vital lifeline. this is the busiest land crossing in all of north america, $400 million a day, the canadian government estimates they're losing but people here say it's a bigger issue. this is about mandates and all the mandates, not just the mandates that are on truckers to enter the u.s. for a vaccine. so, right now, neither side is budging. obviously, as sort of it gets darker here, that will change things. the crowd inevitably changes at night. last night at about midnight, i looked at cctv from my hotel room and there was about a dozen people in the middle of the road so it has swollen back to the hundreds. it will be interesting to see tonight, alex, whether or not those numbers dwindle again. >> okay. well, keep an eye on things there on the ground, and from your hotel room. we appreciate all your efforts, cal perry. so, all the stuff of presidents. what can a former president take with them, legally, when they leave the white house? we've got answers to that for you. e the white house? we've got answers to that for we've got answers to that for you.

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the house oversight committee announced an investigation into the 15 boxes of white house records recovered from mar-a-lago. "the washington post" reports some of those documents that donald trump took were very clearly marked "top secret" or "classified." let's go to ali rafa from capitol hill. welcome you. what specifically are congress and the national archives concerned about, and how is donald trump responding? >> reporter: well, alex, the former president's habit of ripping up documents has been public knowledge for years now, but news this week of his handling of classified records is really sparking some new concerns. the house oversight committee says that when the trump white house packed up and moved out, items belonging to the u.s. government like letters from north korean leader kim jong un to president trump as well as a handwritten letter from predecessor barack obama were transferred from the white house to trump's estate in mar-a-lago.

the move is actually a violation of the presidential records act that requires items and materials be taken to the national archives at the end of a presidential term for preservation, and because of this violation, the national archives is now asking the justice department to step in and look into whether president trump was in violation of federal law by taking these items to mar-a-lago. now, house oversight democrats are actually calling out the president for this. listen here. >> when you sit in that white house, it belongs to the government, to the archives for us to maintain. he knows it, because we have him on record, and he, meaning donald trump, the former president knew how wrong this was because he used it in his campaign repeatedly of how he demonized hillary clinton for doing the same thing. so i'm very, very interested and prepared to have interesting

dialogue and investigation into these issues. >> reporter: for his part, the former president reacting in a statement this week, saying, all of these boxes were returned to the national archives without conflict and now the committee is asking for answers to a list of questions about how these boxes ended up there by february 18th. alex? >> okay, thank you so much on capitol hill. to further this discussion, we bring in melissa murray, msnbc legal analyst, professor of law at nyu. always a pleasure to have you here, so let's get into it. from a constitutional perspective, relative to presidential powers, what is a president allowed to take when leaving office? >> well, the constitution doesn't say very much about what the president can take when he or she leaves office. that's really down to statutory law, and here, the presidential records act and the former president's act will actually control, and so i think the real question here is not necessarily whether the president can take time once his administration is

completed to go through his documents and determine what needs to be turned over and what can be withheld. the presidential records act does not require the president to submit to the national archives documents that are of a highly personal nature, so there is some sifting and sorting to be done, and much of that may happen post the administration, when the administration is over, and so i think the real issue here is not that the documents were necessarily transported to another site but the nature of the documents were so sensitive. these highly classified documents, these clearly were not the kinds of documents that would have been considered personal materials or there needed to be some question about whether they should be sequestered. they were obviously documents that belong to the united states and they should have been transferred to the national archives as quickly as possible and i think that's really where the issue lies here. >> and you anticipated my next question, but with regard to what is deemed personal and what is deemed property of the united states, is there somebody that has to advise a president on that? i mean, i know you're an nyu law professor, you may not know the

inner workings of a white house staff situation, but is there someone who says, personal, check, u.s. property, check? >> well, presidents have been afforded a pretty wide array of discretion in determines what is actually personal and what is public, and for the national archives, and again, this is occurring in the context of an office where the person and the public role are inextricably intertwined in a lot of ways so this is a very subjective determination but i think in the case of these documents, letters from the north korean president, it's very clear those aren't going to be private, personal documents. those are documents of a very public nature. >> now, see, and again, i'm going to have steve, my director, put this list up. at least we have three things that have been categorized for us, letters from north korean leader kim jong un, letter left for trump by president obama, trump's map of hurricane dorian, we all remember that, when he used the black sharpie to

reconfigure the geopolitical map of the country. that said, the letter from north korean leader kim jong un, sure, that would have, perhaps, some implications given the nature of who he is. the letter from president obama, the one that is the tradition of previous president leaves one for his successor, could that be deemed personal? >> i think past precedent really is going to be significant. the fact that these letters have been handed down from president to his or her successor in good order and preserved and kept for the public to view, i think, would caution against thinking of it as a highly personal letter that does not need to be scloesed to the national archives but that's a matter of custom, not necessarily a matter of law. >> interesting. let's move to a major development. this in the nationwide voting rights battle. the supreme court has issued that 5-4 ruling allowing alabama to now use an electoral map that was previously blocked by the

lower courts, blocked due to racial bias. how significant is this? >> this is a major, major development, not the least of which, alex, because it now signals to other states who may be in the process of drawing their own districting maps that the supreme court or any federal court for that matter is not going to step in to require them, to redraw a map that has been skewed to allow for the consolidation of power within a particular party or within a particular constituency. the court in this decision, we saw a concurrence from justice kavanaugh and he seemed to suggest there's too little time between now and the initial primary and then the general election. i should note the general election is almost nine months away, but there's too little time for the alabama state legislature to go back and redraw their map, and so i think that is just an open pass to any other state legislature to draw their maps however they like, secure in the fact that there will be no check from the federal courts. >> okay.

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and it'll save up to $150 a year. and it's cold! so you will turn to cold? fine! i'll turn to cold! that guy needs to chill out! this was a cold call! back to los angeles and the escalating security concerns over super bowl weekend. thousands of fans certainly set to flood sofi stadium to watch the cincinnati bengals and the los angeles rams face off tomorrow. although there are no known security threats, federal, state, local law enforcement all have deployed land, sea, and air forces to monitor the event. >> all the super bowls that i have worked, the biggest challenge here, really, is just the enormity of the event, and that goes along with the enormity of the stadium. >> we have planned and prepared for all different types of

attacks that could occur. >> well, another major security concern as 70,000 fans come together for the big game is the security of their health. with covid. nbc's shaquille brewster is in inglewood, california, right there by the stadium. so, shaq, how are preparations coming along, not just for the game but for all these events surrounding the game, security and covid-wise? >> reporter: good point that you make there because it's not just the football game tomorrow afternoon or tomorrow evening, but it's also all the events that have drawn so many people to the downtown l.a. area. you know, one thing that we're seeing, we know in order to get into the game, it requires that proof of vaccination. it also requires that mask or a negative covid test, but you're also seeing those same precautions for many of the fan experience events around the game. we're talking about the parties that you have been seeing, fan experiences at the convention center. and even take a look at this, what we saw yesterday, a big carnival. it was shaq's fun house, the shaquille o'neal, he had a fun house, a carnival in downtown

l.a. look at some of the experiences you saw fans going in and dealing with last night. you know, last year, this event happened virtually, and that shows you what makes this one a little bit different this time around, that fans were able to gather, able to go out and have a good time, and i spoke to shaquille o'neal about that. listen to what he told me. >> everyone has to be vaccinated, of course. i want everybody to be safe. it's going to be a hectic weekend. i've always been a people person. like, when i'm out, it's hard for me to tell a kid no, mask or not. that's just me. i'm a military brat. i've always felt the aura of invincibility, but you know, i know that there's some people out there getting sick. i just want to wish them well. i just want everybody to be safe. >> reporter: the nfl has been leaning into this, trying to make it so fans have as much fun as possible but can do it as safely as possible. we know outside of some of the

experiences they have been having free rapid testing for fans where they can go, get that test, and get a result back within 15 minutes. there's also been a vaccination clinic. we heard some sound from someone who went to the show and got his booster at that fan experience because he wanted the city council to the fan experience there. that is what health officials are hoping for as fans flock to the l.a. area. they want people to have a good time, root on their home team, but they want to make sure folks have a good time. >> quick question. cannot be overlooked. have you ever had a shaq talking to shaq talk before? that was fun. >> reporter: was that fun? never on tv. i think that was the first time we got that done. i'm glad we got it in. >> yeah. very impressive, just duly noted. all right, shaq brewster, thank you, my friend. meantime, the super bowl could be the most bet upon event in history. more than 31 million americans are expected to gamble on the game, wagering over

$7.6 billion. that is a 35% increase from last year, according to a forecast by the american gaming association. 30 states plus d.c. have legalized sports getting since a 2018 supreme court decision overturned a federal ban on the activity. i'm joined now by darren, sports business analyst for the action network and thank you so much for joining me on this, because darren, for millions of americans, the super bowl, it's no longer simply about watching a terrific football game and with your bucket of wings and your friends and your jerseys on and stuff. real money is involved now. how consequential is this new shift in sports betting? >> well, alex, i think a whole lot of people might have bet with their corner bookie, but now that it is legal, that has changed the equation. they feel a lot better about it. you said 30 states. about 25 states are operational right now. 19 states are mobile. it's a lot different when it is legal in people's eyes, and so i

think it changes the game completely. we have real numbers for really the first time ever. you mentioned the almost $8 billion, you know, new jersey did almost $11 billion in sports bets in 2021. pennsylvania, nevada, $6 billion. so, i think the fact that it is largely legal is a big difference. >> but you know what's interesting, how many commercials have we seen? the sports betting companies, they're spending huge sums on marketing and advertising. they're offering free money to bet on these games. they're spending millions for a 30-second ad during the super bowl. for some, gambling becomes a real addiction, so is there any fair comparison to those days way back when, when the tobacco industry was getting people hooked on cigarettes with this sort of glamorous advertising they put out? >> there's certainly a lot of temptations, and there is addiction, and no matter what they have to do, these sports books, whatever they have to do as far as responsibility goes, we know that people can still get caught.

i would suggest that sports gambling seems to be one of the most tamest things around when you think about the meme stocks and the stock market, crypto, what's happening in memorabilia, even, we are all on tilt right now because we have not had normal human interaction in the covid years and i think people have had a chance to get addicted and to go deeper in things, nfts, whatever, than they ever have before, and so yes, i think sports gambling, you can gamble live, you can lose a whole lot of money. it is -- especially if it's on your couch. but you know, people are losing a whole lot of money potentially in crypto and other things. i just think everyone is certainly on tilt and it seems like the stakes have to have been ratcheted up because life is a whole lot more boring when we're not seeing people. >> well, to your point, let me ask you about the nfl, which as you know was staunchly against betting on its games. back in 2012, when new jersey was considering legalization, nfl commissioner roger goodell said in a court filing, the

spread of sports betting threatens to damage irreparably the public confidence in nfl football. so what's changed? are there still risks that gambling could impact the integrity of the game? >> no, that was one of the most ridiculous things, and you know, roger was one of four -- four commissioners, major sports commissioners, who were against gambling, but everyone knows that when sports betting is legal, it is much easier to monitor nefarious activity, because you see the numbers. when it is illegal, when it is taken on the streets by the book es, you don't see it at all, so the allegation that the legalization makes it harder, in some ways, just completely inaccurate and untrue because you can just see if there is nefarious activity. you can see it in a legal book, and they have to report it. a bookie -- corner bookie doesn't report anything. >> yeah.

no, good point. this could certainly be a big moneymaker for those 30 states as well as d.c. that's where sports betting is legal because any gambling winnings are taxable, right? so, what's your read on why states have chosen to legalize sports betting? was it maybe a response to their economic woes, particularly amid the pandemic? >> covid has definitely had an impact on the speed at which we are moving with sports gambling. with marijuana as well. for example, new york, 51% of gross revenues on gambling will go to the state for programs, educational programs. and so, that is major. now, the question becomes, you talked about all the ads. the question becomes, when it's at 51%, can all these sports books make it? because they might not even be able to do a whole lot of profit if they're giving more than half their gross revenues to the state. but i would say, absolutely, the reason you say this morning that 30 states have now legalized it instead of 15 or 20, is because

covid has kind of hastened the pressure at which they have to move. >> okay. darren, it's good to see you again, particularly with our familial relationship. you having been with cnbc, part of the family. welcome back. good to see you. enjoy the game. >> thanks, alex. next, repeat after me. monobob. altogether now. monobob. what it is and why you're going to hear an awful lot about it after tomorrow night. sfloechl to hear an awful lot ab to hear an awful lot ab after tomorrow nightso, it's no. you guys aren't gonna give me the fake bill fight? c'mon, kev. you're earning 3% cash back. humor me. sfloechl y wallet? i am paying. where is my wallet? i thought i gave it to you. oooohhh? oh, that's not it either. no. no. stop, i insist. that was good though. earn big time with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin,

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it's been a good day for team usa at the beijing olympics, looking at the snowflake flame, the u.s. has five gold medals, 11 overall and nbc's jay gray has the results from beijing. how's it going there? >> reporter: hey there, good morning, alex, from beijing. team usa celebrating after a big win in the mountains overnight. of course i'm talking about snowboard cross. think about this. you got two american athletes, one is in her fifth olympics, the other in his fourth. their combined age is 76, but they are showing on the mountain that they are in their golden years. of course i'm talking about lindsey jocobelli and nick baumgartner and they were the teammates in the mixed snowboard cross, rushing across the finish line and pulling a gold in for team usa. great to see there. another big win on the ice for team usa, and that's men's

hockey. look, they hadn't beat team canada in 12 years, hard to believe that, but it's true. and they beat team canada, really clearing a way in their pool to get through this and get a pass to the quarter finals in the medal round. just a bunch of college athletes. we didn't know what was going on without the nhl players. they looked so strong and fast on the ice. if you're going to tune into the olympics today, and of course you are, you've got ice dancing, the figure skating ice dancing. we've got three american pairs in that. two that really have a good chance at a medal. you've got the monobob, and so we finally get to see elena meyers taylor get out and actually get on the ice and compete. so it will be great to see that as well. a lot going on here in beijing. that's the latest right now, alex. back to you. >> okay, jay, i'll be parked in front of the tv tonight. thank you so much. my next guest has a plan you might want to hear about.

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mask mandating are ending but as the pandemic wanes, wealth inequality remains. by the fall of last year, american billionaires grew $2.1 trillion richer during the pandemic according to research. our next guest says it's time to tax the billionaires back to where they were before the pandemic hit. john nicoles is author of "coronavirus criminals and pandemic profiteers" and of course the national affairs correspondent for the nation. good to see you again. this is an interesting one, because these numbers you're putting out there are pretty ginormous. you are calling for not only accountability for those who exacerbated the pandemic by not taking it seriously but also for those who profited in the

crisis. so who do you hold accountable? >> look, there's a lot of folks to be held accountable and you're right, alex, that many of them are politicians who failed to take the crisis seriously, especially former president trump. we need to understand that at a time when our country was calling for shared sacrifice, when we were asking nurses to go into hospitals without adequate protection, bus drivers to get people to work, frontline workers all over this country to take immense sacrifices, we saw at the same time billionaires increase their wealth at an exponential level. the number of billionaires increased from about 615 before the pandemic to 745 after. and as you noted, their wealth expanded massively. the same thing happened with an awful lot of corporations, especially in the pharmaceutical companies, which are reporting doubling of revenues, just massive, massive increases in what they're making at a time

when other people are still struggling. and so it looks to me like there's a lot of billionaires and some corporations that didn't join in that shared sacrifice. >> and so, to that extent, john, you are saying that we need a 92% tax. 92% on billionaire profiteers. you have senator bernie sanders, he's calling for a 60% tax on the wealth gains by billionaires that were made during that first year of the pandemic, but why are you calling for 92%? where do you want to see that money go? >> sure. well, first off, it's rooted in history. during world war ii, which is not purely parallel by any means, but a national crisis where we asked everyone to sacrifice and to give of themselves. during world war ii, we had an excess profits tax on corporations of over 90% and a top marginal tax of 95%. after the war ended, that top marginal tax rate on the wealthy went down to 92% and we kept it

there through dwight eisenhower's presidency. it's not some radical idea that came out of my head. it's got a lot of grounding in what former presidents and former congresses have done. i would argue it should go to healthcare first and foremost. we should make sure that we fill the gaps that we saw emerge during the pandemic and also to look at those gaps in social welfare where to this day we still have an awful lot of people struggling because of the economic hit that came as a result of the pandemic. >> so, look, you referenced specifically big pharma and the ceos and the huge gains they got there. you're saying that they have exploited the pandemic, but what kind of responses did you get from these companies? we have to note, pfizer, it also helped solve a problem. it created a product that was beneficial to the global society, so shouldn't that be seen as a positive? >> look, i am vaccinated.

i'm boosted. and if another booster comes, i'm ready to get that. i celebrate the vaccines. i'm delighted that they're available. what i want to make sure that they're available to everyone who needs them. and the fact of the matter is, many of the pharmaceutical companies took advantage of research done by governments, the sharing of data by international groupings, that made it much easier to get started on this. at the same time, they were incentivized by governments and they have received massive contracts, ongoing contracts. at this point, according to oxfam, pfizer is making, as an example, a million dollars an hour in profits off its vaccine. and pfizer, moderna, biontech, by another study, they together were making, in revenues, $1,000 a second, $65,000 a minute, $93 million a day. when you put these numbers together, they're so astronomical, it's unreasonable that these companies wouldn't

first be sharing the vaccines in a much more appropriate and equitable way, and also that they wouldn't base at least some measure of taxation similar to what we've done in the past. >> real quick, john, did you get a response from pfizer on your proposal? did they react to that at all? >> they did not jump to embrace it. >> surprise, surprise. anyway, that's extraordinary, though, those stats and the amount of money they have made. thank you for sharing all that with us via the nation article and on msnbc. that's going to do it for me, everyone, on this edition of alex witt reports. i'll see you tomorrow. yasmin vossoughian is standing right over there, she continues our coverage in just a minute. ag right over there, she continues right over there, she continues our coverage ijun st a minute.m♪ but heinz knows there's plenty of magic in all that chaos. ♪ so different and so new ♪ ♪ was like any other... ♪ i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses.

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hi, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. we have got a lot going on in the two hours ahead. the pentagon is warning of an imminent russian invasion of ukraine. americans evacuating from the u.s. embassy there. and the president in a crucial phone call with the russian president. we have the latest on what they talked about. police move in to end an anti-vaccine protest by truckers in canada in a dramatic escalation. after a bridge blockade that has hit the american auto industry pretty hard, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. new questions today over what is missing from the former president's january 6th call