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 log. all of that plus we're following

the major medical news of the weekend. pfizer's surprise decision to withdraw a request to authorize vaccines for young kids under 5 years of age. a crushing blow to millions of parents across this country who thought their long wait was just about over. in a couple of minutes, i'm going to talk to the surgeon general about what happened. i want to go first to the developing crisis in ukraine. threats of an imminent russian invasion growing more serious by the minute. the president and russian leader vladimir putin wrapping up an hour-long phone call a short time ago and the president's last-ditch effort to stave off an invasion. the white house releasing a statement following their conversation, saying that while the u.s. is prepared to engage in diplomacy, it is also equally prepared for other scenarios. it is coming following defense secretary lloyd austin's decision to temporarily reposition florida national guard members who were deployed to ukraine in november. these troops have been advising

and mentoring ukrainian forces as part of a multinational training team and will now be sent elsewhere in europe. that move coming just hours after the u.s. state department ordered the evacuation of all citizens and nonemergency personnel from the american embassy in kyiv today, saying from tomorrow, u.s. consular services in kyiv will, in fact, be suspended. joining me now, nbc's mike memoli at the white house, nbc's erin mclaughlin on the ground in kyiv, and pentagon reporter for the "wall street journal." thanks for joining us on this. it has been a wild 48 hours when it comes to developments as to what's happening on the border with ukraine. and a possible invasion from moscow. a biden official saying, mike, the call was, in fact, professional but did not bring about fundamental change. that does not sound like good news to me. >> no, yasmin, and it's concerning when you hear the flurry of diplomacy that's

happening, including putin himself in most of those cases speaking today for an hour and two minutes with president biden, speaking in-person with the french president, emmanuel macron. the british prime minister just before that as well, boris johnson, and so what you hear the white house saying things like they still don't have a clear sense from the russian president of whether he's going to move forward with diplomacy or potentially military action, that's a real sign of concern. now, what's also concerning is that these conversations have been happening for well over two months. this is the third conversation president biden has had directly with president putin since early december. at each stage, the readouts are very similar, the president offering a diplomatic path but also making sure the economic costs. it's also concerning the fact that the two sides really are speaking different languages, literally and physically, when you consider the fact that the russian readout of this call today says that the call was happening in an atmosphere of unprecedented hysteria. they're really saying that the warnings coming from the u.s. of an imminent invasion are false. that's why it was so important

to hear from jake sullivan, the national security advisor, yesterday. he was pressed by reporters about what exactly is the intelligence behind some of the claims the u.s. is making, and here's his response. >> today, we are talking about more than 100,000 russian troops amassed along the ukrainian border with every capacity out there in the open for people to see. it's all over social media. it's all over your news sites, so you can believe your own eyes that the russians have put in place the capabilities to conduct a massive military operation against ukraine should they choose to do so. >> reporter: now, the white house is saying that u.s. and russian officials will continue to be in touch in the coming days. we also often see that when president biden speaks with president putin, there's a quick follow-up call in the coming hours, if not days, with the ukrainian president. it's important to notice the ukraine president has been sounding a very different note than the concern we've been hearing from the u.s., and we'll be interested to hear if that

continues to be the case. >> okay, so, with that, and thank you for that transition, mike memoli. we appreciate it. because i want to talk about just that with erin mclaughlin, this kind of shift in tone that we're hearing from the united states. so far, the ukrainian leader has essentially been playing down what has been happening at the border, saying this is going to happen. and ukrainians themselves are saying it's not happening. they don't really know what the bluster is all about. has there been a shift in tone there because of what we've been seeing and hearing from u.s. officials? >> reporter: not that we can see so far, yasmin. we heard from president zelensky earlier today, prior to this call, point to ukrainian intelligence, urging people to remain calm, telling people not to panic, and for the most part, people here seem to be listening. they're going about their normal saturday, business as usual, and that includes americans here in country as well.

we were speaking to dave egan, a retired veteran. he says he moved here three years ago and he has friends here, that this is home, and he intends to stay. take a listen. >> i'm not going anywhere. i don't know what's going to happen, but i'm not running. i can't see, really, why the russians would want to come and do this and destroy this place. i think it's counterproductive to them, and i think the ukrainian people will fight him very strong, and i'm trying to find ways to help that. i really think a lot of it's a bluff. i mean, i'm not a tactician or anything or a politician, but looking at what i'm, you know, i know the ukrainian people fairly well now, and i know they're not giving this up easy. so, it seems to me like unless putin wants an awful lot of body bags coming back, this is probably a big mistake. maybe it's just a bluff to get concessions from the west.

>> reporter: and many people here say they share his skepticism. according to u.s. officials, hundreds of americans have registered with the state department their intention to stay in country. the state department calling those americans personally, telling them that they need to leave the country. in fact, u.s. officials saying, any american in ukraine right now needs to have left yesterday. the situation is that dire. in the event of a russian invasion, the military will not be deployed into ukraine to help with their evacuation, that they cannot guarantee their safety, and to that effect, the state department announcing that the u.s. embassy here in kyiv, as of tomorrow, will suspend consular services, only offering emergency services based with a small group of diplomats in a city to the west of the country. >> all right, got to say, i find it fascinating, erin, hearing from dave egan there, saying, i wont if it's just a bluff.

we've been talking about the possibility of this being a bluff or bluster from the russian president and wondering if that is exactly what he's playing into at this point, saying, i'm not someone who bluffs on this stuff. and wondering if that's kind of part of his motivation here for all of this. gordon, let's talk about some of your reporting here as we were just hearing from mike and the readout. the conversation between the president and the russian president as well. what do you make of it, first and foremost, and secondly, is there anything short of giving into putin's demands to right side this thing? >> i mean, this is a bit of a hail mary, it seems, for president biden, today to have this conversation. of course, the leaders agreed that they would stay engaged regardless of what happens. u.s. officials were telling us today. i think they've always tried to say that diplomacy was open, it's still open. there's a possibility, of course, that some of this,

russians and even the ukrainians believe is hysteria on the americans' part is not maybe bluffing but is a forcing function by the u.s. side to, you know, demonstrate the level of gravity here. but you know, i think that they're still hoping that something comes out of it, but for now, as all the reporting is brought in, people are coming out, the embassy is mostly closing down, and the pentagon is sending over forces not into ukraine, they're pulling those out, of course, but to prepare for whatever might come. it's interesting, the gentleman who was interviewed there in kyiv, who doesn't want to leave because of course this is -- puts the u.s. in a rough spot, according to u.s. officials, if it really goes south, a full-scale invasion occurs, and some of these americans actually do get trapped and get stuck. >> gordon, i just quickly want

to read some of your reporting here, saying the pentagon said it would deploy an additional 3,000 troops to bolster the defenses of the nato allies that could house and support americans evacuating from ukraine. u.s. officials said earlier this week that hundreds of u.s. troops would be deployed inside poland along its border with ukraine to help facilitate the safe evacuation of americans and others from inside ukraine so it seems as if this troop presence is really to help and aid americans evacuating and keeping them safe from ukraine, because we have heard outright from the president himself, especially in that interview with our colleague, lester holt, saying, we're not going to war over ukraine if, in fact, russia decides to invade. >> right. i mean, the reporting is challenging because the white house is so sensitive about the idea that american forces would be going into ukraine to rescue americans looming over all of this, of course, is the chaotic withdrawal of americans and others from afghanistan just

four, five, six months ago, so they're very sensitive to the idea that americans would be going in to rescue americans. but these american forces. but these forces would go, i think, they're now getting ready to erect checkpoints and transit points to aid in the land withdrawal of americans should they start to get nervous and actually leave. >> mike memoli, erin mclaughlin and gordon lubold, thank you. coming up, william taylor with his perspective on the president's call with putin. plus congressman conor lamb on the real danger for american forces as well. we are also following breaking news in canada. police are still working to clear protesters from ontario's ambassador bridge where the blockades over vaccine mandates have crippled auto industries on both sides of the u.s. and canada border for weeks. that is where we find nbc's cal

perry joining me now with more. cal, good to see you. authorities at this point, cal, it seems, are saying, look, enough is enough, right? have they been able to make any headway here, clearing of the bridge, essentially? >> reporter: you know, that's the thing. i don't know that they did say enough's enough. the court said, enough's enough at 7:00 p.m. yesterday. then at midnight, there was a warning from the police that people needed to leave. but this morning, as of 7:00 a.m., they just started walking very slowly, very deliberately, moving the crowd back. the problem is, they stopped walking and what they left here is some cross between a protest and a dance party and what happened was, as best i can tell, people found out online and by watching the news that the police were moving on the protesters and so they've come down here in large numbers. this is as large a crowd as i have seen in the past 72 hours. i mean, virtually, what the police did backfired in the sense that now they have a crowd control issue. these are the trucker horns that

they are still blaring. this started, as you mentioned, as a trucker protest. the prime minister has called these folks here the fringe minority. these folks here have taken pride in that. there are now sweatshirts that say, fringe minority. the bigger question is, is it or is it just a growing minority that wants an end to all mandates? keep in mind, the original protest was about trucker mandates and people are nodding and we're being filmed all the time. it is that atmosphere. but people are nodding, they want an end to all the mandates. there is, yasmin, a very trumpian feeling to the proceedings. you have the hats, the banners, the flags. it is very nationalistic and it is growing. so, we'll see over the course of this weekend what the authorities are going to do, but they're in a difficult spot now because there are kids out here and the crowds have grown and the bridge, the busiest crossing in north america, remains closed. >> hey, cal, do you know, by any chance, the percentage of truckers that are actually vaccinated? >> reporter: the percentage -- it's over 90%.

79% of the population here in canada is vaccinated. over 90% of the truckers here are vaccinated. so on the trucker side, it is the vast minority and the vast majority of truckers are in port huron ready to cross back into canada because this bridge is closed. there is an irony in that. and when you ask people here, what about the economic devastation, the $400 million every day that the canadian government says it's costing you, they immediately say, but what about my economic devastation from all the lockdowns? when are we going to release that? that is their argument back. >> i got to say, though, it's astounding that this is still an issue, considering that high percentage of folks that are actually vaccinated, not only inside the country but also truckers specifically. >> reporter: yeah, and what's interesting about it, when you come here, is that the vast majority of folks seem to be for vaccines, but they're against the mandates. they're against the mask mandates, against mandates in restaurants, against mandates in bars and it's a difficult

political situation for the government because the government is lowering these mandates in restaurants and lowering the mandates in bars because they want people to be happier, plus cases are down but at the same time, the mandate on the truckers remains so it's a tough position for them to be in. that said, it is the law and at some point, the police have to start enforcing not only the international law but the law in this intersection. now it's a question of how do they do it. >> for now, they're just turning this protest into a dance party. for how long that lasts is really the question. cal perry, thank you. appreciate it, my friend. still ahead, everybody, don't say gay. florida legislation that would allow parents to sue schools for acknowledging lgbtq issues in the classroom. i'm going to talk to a mother fighting back against this. but first, changing course on vaccines for kids. pfizer's surprise decision to pull its emergency application for children under 5 and the impact on parents' hesitancy. the united states surgeon general, dr. vivek murthy, joins me live after the break. sfloechl dr. vivek murthy, joins me live after the break. sfloechl alert get him stressed.

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to believe that emergency authorization for a two-dose shot was imminent. with me now to talk about this is u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. thank you so much for jumping on with us, it is such a pleasure to speak to you this afternoon. and to answer some of the questions that so many of us have, me, specifically, as a parent of a 3 and a half-year-old and a 5-year-old, only one of whom is vaccinated. it's like whiplash, so many of us banking on this eua. between that and the confusing mask guidance, what we're hearing from the cdc and local officials as well, how do you explain this decision, this delay to parents? >> well, yasmin, let me just say first of all, as a fellow parent of a child under 5, you know, i know how disappointing this is for parents across the country. many of us were waiting for the opportunity to make sure that our youngest children had protection. i have a 5-year-old as well. he's fully vaccinated, thank goodness, but we want that chance to vaccinate our

4-year-old. let me explain what has happened here. the fda's top priority is to make sure that we have covid-19 vaccines for the population, particularly for kids. they proactively requested an opportunity to look at the data from the pfizer trial, and this is -- they're currently in the process of studying a three-dose vaccine. and they wanted to look at the data for the two-dose portion of that. when they had the opportunity to do so, just at the end of this week, the latest data that they saw led them to believe that, in fact, more data was required to feel confident that the -- that an authorization was, in fact, the right step to take. so, now, we have to wait for the data to be collected for the three-dose vaccine. one thing i want to be very clear about, though, this is not about safety. we actually have independent safety experts who are following this trial and there's no indication at all that there are safety concerns, every indication so far is that this vaccine is being well tolerated, but what the fda knows for sure is that it is the gold standard for safety and effectiveness of

vaccines. it takes that responsibility seriously. and it's going to make sure that it looks at all the data and that that data's consistent with the standard that it needs to see met before it can authorize the vaccine. that may take into the spring to get that full data, and until then, parents, please surround your children as often as you can with people who are vaccinated. please try to get them to wear masks in public indoor spaces. that's what i'm going to be doing with my 4-year-old as well. >> here's the tough thing in the way that you explained that, dr. murthy, is that we know, as you mentioned, the fda asked, actually, to look at this pfizer data. they urged pfizer to apply for an emergency use authorization, which, in fact, was a little bit out of the norm. it's not something the fda does, right? but we understand it was under the circumstances of dealing with the omicron variant. all of us, the laymen, the folks that were watching, knew that pfizer was still recommending a three-dose regimen. we knew the data wasn't there, because we kind of approached this about two months ago. this happened two months ago,

and they pulled it as well because they realized they didn't have the data in place for a two-dose regimen so first and foremost, should the fda have even gotten involved in the first place? was that the first misstep in this whole thing, and why not just wait, especially since we have such high degrees of vaccine hesitancy in this country, specifically with children? >> so, i'm really glad you raised this, because you're right that in -- earlier in december, we got news from pfizer that it wanted to do a three-dose regimen instead of a two-dose regimen. but here's what changed between that announcement and this month. the omicron wave happened and we had millions of people infected, including, sadly, many, many children that actually allowed for more data to be accrued into the trial and what the fda wanted to understand is, has that new data changed the landscape? has it changed the findings and conclusions that may be drawn about the efficacy of this vaccine? it's always a good idea to look at the data if there's new data

that comes in, but the fda was not saying what the conclusion would be. they wanted the opportunity to look at the data and to make an assessment. and when they looked at that, the data, their assessment was that, we need to wait and get more data to feel confident that this is -- meets the standards for authorization. so that's what happened. and it's actually an example of the fda being proactive, which is what you want the fda to do during a pandemic, but it's also an example of the fda not compromising on its standards. it knows it's the gold standard for safety and efficacy, and until that standard is met, it will not allow a vaccine to go forward for our children. >> you make such good points, but we are in such a different time right now, right? as you well know. obviously, in the position that you're in, with this pandemic, and what's happening with this pandemic and how science is viewed as being so much more political, and i think that's why it's so frustrating for so many individuals to see kind of this confusing messaging, i

should say, obviously, from the science community as well as from the white house, and with that, i should ask, was the white house caught off guard with this? >> well, the white house never presumed that this was a done deal. they didn't know what the fda's conclusion would be. they wanted to be prepared that if the fda did move forward and authorize, and if the cdc recommended the vaccine, that they would be ready to get it to families all across america. that's why they started working on the operations, working with states to make sure the distribution mechanisms were there, and people had, you know, would have the information they needed. but all of that was contingent on the fda and cdc moving forward, and if they decided not to, then the white house would hold on their plans. that was what they said from the outset, and it's what they continue to believe now. so, we've got to be ready when those vaccines are authorized by the fda. unfortunately, that day is not today. won't be, unfortunately, in the next couple of weeks, but we will do everything we can, certainly, to be prepared for when the fda does authorize it because there's nothing more important than protecting our

children. >> so, can we end on a high note here and look ahead? considering where we are in this pandemic, it seems as if we're heading towards more of an endemic phase of covid-19. obviously, we are awaiting authorization when it comes to children under the age of 5. what can people look forward to, i should say, when it comes to this pandemic? what's ahead for us right now? >> well, i'm really glad you asked, because if we actually look at the last two years, i know how tiring and frustrating it's been. many of us have lost loved ones, myself included, to this virus. even if you haven't, many people have seen family members get sick, and they have had their lives turned upside down. but i actually feel quite optimistic about the future. i think we are closer and closer to a phase where we can shift from the virus defining our lives to moving to a phase where we manage the virus and get on with our lives, and what enables us to do that are vaccines and

boosters that work and therapeutics, oral and iv medications that reduce the severity of the virus. it's also critical that we have now tools like high-quality masks and testing that are in increasing supply, being made freely available to the public. these also help us to reduce our risk, particularly when we're around other people, even whether they're masked or not masked. our high-quality masks can make a difference. so we have more tools than we had before. these tools are more available than they were before and i think we're thankfully seeing cases of omicron come down, which is good. we may encounter waves in the future of old or new variants but we have more tools to protect ourselves against them than we have ever had and that gives me hope. >> let me just ask you one last question and that is this. with two young children yourself, i believe you said two children, right? >> yes, that's right. >> do you believe children should still be masked in schools, and if so, for how much longer? >> yasmin, i do have two wonderful children, they're 4 and 5. they are in school, and they are

currently wearing masks when they are in school like their classmates where and i think the decision about whether children still need to wear masks in school depends on what's happening in the local community. we know that masks are a important layer of protection, that they are effective in helping reduce spread of the virus that has been demonstrated in studies. but whether you continue to need masks or not depends, again, on how things are improving in your community. if you look at the nation as a whole, we still are experiencing record numbers of cases, more than 150,000 cases a day, 100,000 people hospitalized with covid, more than 2,000 people dying each day. those are still very high levels, even though they're better than where we were two weeks ago, but as things improve, i anticipate we will reach a place where we can start to pull back on these measures and i know we'll all welcome that point. we just want to get there safely. >> dr. vivek murthy, surgeon general, thank you so much for joining us on this saturday afternoon. we really appreciate it. great to speak the you today, sir. i want to bring in now msnbc medical contributor

dr. bhadelia. i'm sure you were listening to my conversation with dr. murthy. it was an enlightening conversation. one of the things that sticks with me first and foremost is the interference of the fda in this process. and i think that is kind of what troubles me the most. the fda kind of asking to see this information from pfizer when we knew going into this, pfizer didn't necessarily have that data, because they had told us way back when this was going to be a three-dose regimen and they were studying that. what do you make of that? >> yeah, i don't know -- i kind of side with what dr. murthy said here. i wouldn't look at it as an interference because a lot of times, you do have that conversation, ongoing conversation, particularly in a public health crisis between regulators and those that might be making a potential intervention that's going to help that public health emergency. but the issue is the data, as you mentioned, that pfizer

released in december, there were two issues there. one was that they didn't see an efficacy or they didn't see the milestones that they wanted to reach, which is what they were trying to do there is something called immunobridging. they were looking at what immune markers they should look in the blood that they've seen in older kids who have been protected to be able to show that in younger kids to predict that those kids would be protected against infections, severe outcomes, and they didn't see that. they managed for the younger kids but didn't see that for 2 to 4. but those case numbers were really small, so i think that the fda asking to look for more data or asking for that data proactively was really a reflection of the high number of cases, unfortunately, that omicron caused. they were hoping that that would shed more light in terms of whether it should be released or not. >> can you just quickly talk to me about the differences between some of the children that we're seeing, right, my 5-year-old, vaccinated, he's literally 5

pounds more than my 3-and-a-half-year-old. my 3-and-a-half-year-old is a big kid, to say the least. but for some reason, the two-dose regimen works for my 5-year-old but not my 3-and-a-half-year-old. how does that play out? how does that work? >> yeah, so, you know, as vaccine producers look at the dosing in the trials, some of this is from the data that we've seen from other age groups and it's also testing the doses for their safety and efficacy. so the pfizer basically took a bet on the fact that with three micrograms, the dose that they're looking at for this smaller group, this younger group of kids, they might be able to hit the same kind of efficacy with those smaller doses, and they weren't able to see that and that kind of, actually, sides with what you said, which was that in their older population, the 2 to 4, they did not see, with the smaller dose, they did not see the numbers they wanted to see. so actually, it is in line. but i think in this kind of reflects why we need that data.

in my mind, as you said, in this conversation with dr. murthy, two things that i hope that people see this -- parents see out of this is that this was not a -- this was a change in strategy, but i think based on the fact that it seemed like there was more data but maybe not as much data on two doses to justify getting those out there, but there was, for efficacy, but for safety, this was not a safety signal. those two doses are already shown to be safe from the data that pfizer shared. it was really that, could you start giving kids those two doses, not knowing what the efficacy data would be for that third dose, and that's why i think it makes it even more important that we're now waiting so parents have all the data in front of them as they go out and vaccinate others. but i will say this, though. we talk about this age group but you've seen the horrendous numbers of undervaccination of kids between 5 and 11. we could do so much of a better job both in that population as well as older kids. >> yeah. dr. nahid bhadelia, thank you.

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welcome to the team, by the way. i know you're a new member of the nbc capitol hill team so we appreciate you joining us this weekend. do we know anything about why these records are missing, first and foremost, and what impact this has on the committee's efforts going forward? >> reporter: hey, yasmin, thank you so much for having me on today. well, sources tell nbc news that this gap in records could exist for a couple of reasons. one of which could be the former president's unorthodox habit of sometimes using his own personal cell phone on the personal cell phones of white house aides to conduct official white house business. and our sources also say the lapse could be the result of incomplete or redacted white house records as well as something as simple as the national archives having these records but not being able to provide them to the committee. that would be that missing piece of the puz puzzle there. this is the quest to fill in the

gaps of what president trump was doing during the hours-long attack on the capitol on january 6th. take a listen to what committee member jamie raskin said about what this group is hoping to accomplish. >> what we're doing here is we're filling in, with very empirically rooted, fine-grain detail exactly what took place, who spoke to who. we're trying to fill in the operational hierarchy of who gave orders to who. >> reporter: and despite this uphill battle, the committee is still very hard at work so far. they have interviewed over 500 witnesses and subpoenaed over 80 people, the most recent of those subpoenas was issued to former white house economic advisor peter navarro this week, who has said he is refusing to comply with the committee's wishes. yasmin? >> all right, nbc's allie raffa for us. thank you. i want to bring in glen

kirschner for more on this. here's the question. criminal accountability. will they or will they not find it when it comes to the former president? it's really about proving intent here. did he intentionally take these records to mar-a-lago? did he intentionally destroy records or flush paper down a toilet as is being reported by certain white house staff? did he intentionally not use the white house phone so things weren't caught? how do they prove this, how do they figure it out and if they figure out there is intent, is there criminal liability? >> yasmin, here we go again. we've been having these academic discussions, i think, dating back to 2016 every time a potential trump crime is reported. of course, we started with the michael cohen campaign finance violations that donald trump seems to have engaged in to gain unfair advantage in the election, and each and every time, you know, we take out the old blue book of federal crimes, the u.s. code, we crack it open,

and we see what kind of criminal exposure might donald trump be in for. this time, in the event the department of justice deigns to bring any charges, and i think it shows he potentially violated three federal statutes. the presidential records act. he was not supposed to whisk these boxes of presidential records down to mar-a-lago because they long to the national archives. there's also a criminal statute for concealment, removal, or mutilation of documents. there seems to be a good bit of reporting that he mutilated documents and all sorts of ways. some more creative than others. that is actually a three-year federal felony, and it comes with a ban, a ban from holding public office in the future. so, if he were prosecuted for it, he could be barred from holding office in the future. and then there's a third federal

statute, improper removal and retention of classified materials. that's a five-year felony. so, if any of these charges were actually brought against him, he could be in hot water. >> so, how do they prove if essentially those documents, you know, that you're talking about, were mutilated, that they were classified or not classified? and do you think merrick garland is going to do anything abit? >> you know, you prove intent. i prosecuted lots of folks. nobody ever said, i intended to commit a crime. you prove intent by looking at conduct, looking at statements, and inferring what is in somebody's mind, that they were acting intentionally and in violation of the law. and given the pattern of document destruction, i think former white house press secretary stephanie grisham said, you know what? we had no laws, and donald trump obsessively destroyed documents. we had no rules, excuse me. i think that if you look at his

conduct over the course of time, if you look at the briefings that he undoubtedly received about how to treat documents, including classified materials, proving intent is not all that hard. will merrick garland bring those charges? it's anybody's guess. >> glen kirschner, as always, great to see you, my friend. thank you. all right, we are following the canadian trucker anti-vaccine mandate protests plus the demonstrations in solidarity all across the united states. but first, children at the center of a political war on the lgbtq community. the legislation being called "don't say gay" bill and its real-life impact on kids and parents. "don't say gay" bill a its real-life impact on kids and parents. >> seems like you guys care if it's born and it has a heartbeat, but god forbid it should turn out to be a lesbian or a gay or a trans or a member of that community. you don't care about their heartbeat then, do you? t commun. you don't care about their you don't care about their heartbeat then, do you

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all right, let's talk about what's happening in florida. so, a piece of legislation being dubbed the "don't say gay" bill is making its way through the legislature, advancing through state house and senate committees. introduced by gop lawmakers, the bill would ban any discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in primary school classrooms. it also goes so far as giving parents the right to sue a school, to empower them to sue a school if they suspect any violations. the president labels the bill, quote, hateful. but florida's republican governor, ron desantis, signalled his support this week, citing so-called, as he puts it, parental rights. but my next guest, the president of the south miami chapter of the lgbtq advocacy group pflag and mom to lgbtq children, jennifer solomon, wonders, whose parental rights? only parental rights if you're raising a child according to

desantis. she joins me now. jennifer solomon. thank you so much for joining us on this. i appreciate it. it's an incredibly important topic. i imagine so frustrating for so many in your state right now. you also talk about the fact that this has an incredible impact on the kids, the children in the lgbtq community. you think about the high suicide rates amongst children that are coming to terms with their sexuality, feeling as if they're not accepted in society. talk to me about that. >> yeah, thank you so much for having me here. our children are already at risk, and we know that having one affirming adult, whether it's a parent or for many kids it's a teacher, decreases that rate. so taking this away would be so harmful for our kids. i can speak from personal experience how being in the classroom and having our children feel respected works. when my child was in second grade, my child identifies as gender nonconforming.

he was born male, identifies as male, but he wears things that society would say are for female, like a dress. being able to have books in the classroom and have the conversation open to why does he wear a dress, we were able to bring a book in, read it, and all the children really felt seen. my child felt that he was accepted and respected, and for other kids, if this passes, they'll have to go back in the closet and that's really dangerous. >> well, and so much a part of this is the discussion that's happening in these classrooms, talking to other kids about accepting people that are different than them. and if these things are left to the parents, who knows what other parents will be teaching their children and what type of atmosphere that will create in the schools? >> well, i think, first of all, we need to trust our teachers. we know that our kids are going to get information. they have the internet, and they have friends. why are we not trusting our

teachers? they're professional. to teach our children to love each other, respect each other, not allowing our children to be their authentic selves is dangerous. we're stifling their speech. we're stifling teachers' speech, and what's next? and i know that kids are really upset. my son's upset that he feels that his future, what his friends see as their future, really is not what politicians are projecting now, and they don't feel heard at all. they feel bullied. >> so, here's what cooper is saying, because your son spoke to nbc news as well, saying, i would just like them to know that it's okay to be like this. and it's not going to hurt anyone. sounds like your son is a very smart kid. what's pflag doing to stop this law, to stop this legislation from becoming law? >> so, pflag's an organization that supports families. they're always going to be there for families as resources, but i'd like to talk to parents and let them know that we support

them. there are organizations such as hrc and pflag that can help them, but be a voice for your child. make sure your child feels seen. and know that you're not alone. it's a real alienating place, and know that these lawmakers will not close our children out. they will -- they deserve safety like every other child, and that's, i think, universal, whether you're republican, democrat, whether you're trans, cisgender, i think that we all want our children to have an excellent education and a safe place to learn. >> jennifer solomon, thank you so much, and we wish you the best of luck. thank you. still ahead, everybody, the fight for one of the world's best to get back on the ice, an olympic update after the break. and reaction to the president's phone call with russian president vladimir putin. former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor, and congressman conor lamb, member of the house veterans committee joins me live. lamb, member of the house veterans committee of the house veterans committee joins me live.

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hi, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. if you are just joining us, welcome. if you are still with us, thanks for sticking around. so, we have two big developing stories this hour, a dramatic scene in canada as police move in on anti-vaccine protesters who have been blocking a bridge crucial to the u.s. economy. truckers costing other workers money and all but crippling the u.s. auto industry. we are also following the latest developments in a potential russian invasion of ukraine that could come at any any moment now. we are getting more details on the president's phone call with the russian president. also this hour, the latest on the former president, donald trump's mishandling of white house documents, including top secret ones, an issue that once again reveals the former president's hypo