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so we've got updates just in to us this afternoon from the pentagon and the white house as we come on the air. on the war in ukraine. with defense officials saying russia has stepped up its assault from the air over the past 24 hours. you see the pentagon on the left. we expect the white house briefing to start any minute. the developments happening after president biden's historic announcement just about an hour ago to rye to get a handle on the price of gas, announcing he'll be releasing a million barrels of oil every day for the next six months from our emergency stockpiles. and he's pushing oil companies to do more, accusing them of exploiting this whole situation. >> it's time to step up for the good of your country and the good of the world, to invest in immediate production that we need to respond to vladimir putin. coming up in just a minute, we're talking with the former press secretary for the ukrainian president, volodymyr zelenskyy, whose fiance has decided to join the front lines of this fight. i'm hallie jackson along with our nbc news team with a busy

one this afternoon. shannon pettypiece is covering the white house. ali arouzi is in ukraine. and let's start with this new announcement, shannon, from president biden to try to, you know, cut back on the pain that a lot of people are feeling when they head out to get gas. the big headline, that he's tapping the strategic petroleum reserves for a million barrels of oil every day for the next six months. could add up to something like 180 million barrels of oil. this is the biggest release from the stockpile in history. p he's calling on congress to put in place fees on oil companies who are not using their leases to drill on federally owned land. and he also plans to invoke the defense production act to boost clean energy by basically getting raw materials that electric cars need. we're talking about stuff like lithium and nickel and cobalt. as you might expect, there's already been some partisan pushback. mitch mcconnell calls this whole thing a drop in the bucket. steve daines calling it a band-aid on a bullet wound. shannon, bring us up to speed on where the white house is on this initial pushback here and the bottom line on how all this can

save people who drive under these new moves. >> reporter: just to put these numbers in context a little bit, whether or not it's a drop in the bucket i guess depends on how big the drop is and how big you consider the bucket. 180 million barrels is what the president is committing from the strategic petroleum reserve. in context, the u.s. consumes about 7 billion barrels of oil a year. so 180 million out of about 7 billion consumed every year. so the administration admits this is not a long-term solution. the president was asked directly how does he think this is going to affect gas prices. he said i don't know. he suggested you could see prices go down maybe 35 cents a gallon but it's hard to tell because this is a global market and a lot also has to depend on what other countries including the u.s. allies are going to do as far as stepping up their supply. but the white house is referring to this as a bridge. the president called it a wartime bridge to get to what they hope will be a bit longer-term solution. and a big part of that solution is u.s. oil producers upping their production and the

president putting pressure on oil companies to essentially drill more, particularly on federal lands, which is a bit of an ironic message from an administration that came in talking about trying to reduce the use of fossil fuels, reduce drilling on federal lands. here's what the president had to say. >> we have a choice. one, they can put those profits to productive use by producing more oils, restarting idle wells or producing on the sites they're already leasing. giving the american people a break by passing some of the savings on to their customers and lowering the price at the pump. or they can, as some of them are doing, exploit the situation. >> reporter: now, the administration repeatedly says there's a lot of federal drilling permits that aren't being used by the oil industry. the oil industry has said there are reasons they aren't using those permits, either because it takes years to get these projects under way, that there is litigation in the way in some cases, sometimes the land just epds up not being viable to drill on, so there's this back and forth going on between the administration, but ultimately

long term what the white house wants to see are people moving away from fossil fuels. that's why you also had the announcement you mentioned, using the defense production act to get more of these materials that are used in electric car batteries and reducing longer-term the u.s. dependence on china and other countries for those minerals. >> shannon, thanks. ari, let me go to you because at the end of that discussion, at the end of remarks by president biden he also took a question from vladimir putin and said specifically he doesn't see any clear sefd he's pulling his troops from kyiv. we're hearing again from a very skeptical president of this country about the moves putin is or is not making. all as we're getting this new assessment from the pentagon right as we were coming on the air here. defense officials say russia is really stepping up the air attack over the last 24 hours. attacks that have been focused on kyiv, the ukrainian capital. chernihiv, which we've talked about a lot. iszyum, mariupol, donbas as well. the ukrainians are still fighting for kherson in the south with russia launching something like 1400-plus

missiles into ukraine so far. give us the view on the ground from where you are, ali. >> hi, hallie. well, it shouldn't come as any big surprise that russia did exactly the opposite of what they said they would do. p and that's been backed up p by the head of nato, by u.s. officials, by zelenskyy and zelenskyy's commanders. there has been no dramatic withdrawal of troops from kyiv, from chernihiv and other areas. in fact, they've stepped up their assaults on those places. the russians said two nights ago that they were going to scale back their operations in order to build up mutual trust, but that's not what they've done. they continued to bomb kyiv even though they said they wouldn't. there's heavy fighting in the suburbs of kyiv. and when they made that statement, they shelled chernihiv all night, and that shelling continued well into the morning. so right now there might be a shift of focus to the donbas area. the only thing that has been truthful for them. and that's because the assault on kyiv has been such a disaster for the russians. and it doesn't look like they're

going to give up any of their defensive positions around kyiv because it's still so strategic for them. they've been bombing mariupol relentlessly for one month, and that's the only place that they look like they have made some gains. they've flattened that city. they've attacked it unconventionally. they've sparked a humanitarian disaster there. so by those accounts in the next few days mariupol may fall into russian hands. but the other areas the ukrainians are still holding strong despite this relentless attack by the russians. and it does really underscore that the russian military power has been much weaker than moscow had anticipated when they had amassed the 150,000 troops on the ukrainian border. they haven't made the gains they hoped they'd have. it wasn't a straight march into kyiv as they had anticipated. and that in part is because of fierce ukrainian resistance. and that's why this shelling continues. but they still haven't been able

to capture the crown jewel in this war, which is kyiv. so they are going to continue to bomb it, and they will probably keep troops around there. and chernihiv is turning into a disaster like mariupol. they've practically encircled that city. there's a lack of gas, water, electricity, food there. and of course chernihiv shares a border with belarus and russia, making it even more vulnerable to more attacks and more of that sort of siege and starvation tactics that we've seen the reductions employ in mariupol and other places. >> all of it as the president suggests vladimir putin is simply getting more and more self-isolated. ali arouzi, shannon pettypiece, thank you very much to the both of you. i want to bring in somebody now, iuiulia mendel, former press secretary to the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. she joining me live in lviv, western ukraine. thank you for being on the show. good afternoon to you. >> thank you for having me. good afternoon. >> i know what's happening in your country is so personal for

you on a lot of levels. you've written this op-ed in the post now about your fiance, pavlo, who decided to join the front lines of the fighting. can you talk about how he's doing, how you're doing? >> thank you. yes, it's personal for me on many levels, as you mentioned. and it's personal for every ukrainian. first of all, kherson is my hometown and it's fully occupied by russians theed days. but the second challenge was to understand my boyfriend, my fiance, who decided to leave for the army. actually, he tried to do this once and the army said that they had enough soldiers and he was not needed that much. so he started taking care about humanitarian aid that was coming from abroad. and i thought actually that we avoided this necessity to go to the place of shelling and real bombing. but then he came to me and said that you know, i needed to understand. there is this big conflict, that every man in this country has, because they feel that this is

their responsibility to go to the front lines and to actually put at risk their lives so they can defend our homes, you know, the families and their beloved ones. i cannot say where he is now. but he's in the very hot zone. he decided that he could contribute with the solution there. and this is very painful, but i understand that this is the fate of every woman here who let their sons, their beloved ones, their fathers, brothers, husbands and boyfriends to the front lines. and this is what we are doing and going through just to defend our country and to defend what we believe in, independence and democracy against russia's invasion here. >> you say pavlo texts you every day. without getting into where he is specifically, what's he saying about the fight on the front lines right now? >> most what i'm worried about

is what he is not saying because definitely first of all as part of the volunteers fighting for our land he cannot tell me the details. the second thing, he doesn't want me to worry much. but sometimes i'm just getting the pictures from the front lines and i understand that he is involved in the things that really put his life in risk. you know, he's trying to be in touch all the time. his family's in touch with me all the time because they understand he cannot devote all the time explaining everyone how he feels, where he is, what he's doing. so i'm trying -- but the -- he always finishes everything with only one phrase, and he keeps telling me that he loves me. this is so important. and i think we are moving forward. we want to finish this war so that actually, you know, we have

the country where we can love each other and this love can rebuild our country. this is the most important thing for all of us. >> yeah. and i'm sure that it is emotional for you and for so many people. you know, you have experienced some of this yourself. i know you were in kyiv recently, had some scary moments with some strikes nearby. you know the head of your country. you know president zelenskyy in a way that not many people do given you were such a close adviser to him. can you give an assessment of how you think he's doing now? >> well, i see that the president is on the verge of his physical capacitys. and i've been with him for two years. he with went through many crises. and i saw that he is super hard-working person. and he works round the clock when it comes to the crises. and he always looks like -- goes through all the challenges and finds like the second breath. you know, so that's what i see, how he looks now and how he talks now.

and i understand that he is really devoting all his life to finding a solution to finish this brutal invasion. i know, by the way, that volodymyr zelenskyy's family is in ukraine and he himself decided to devote himself to ukraine and to show ukrainians that he is going to stand with the people to the very end. and that's what his family's doing by staying in ukraine, you know, and staying with the ukrainian people. this is what the real leader and what the family of the leader must do in such heavy military crisis that ukraine is passing these days. >> iuliia mendel, we're so grateful to have you on the show and hear your perspective this afternoon. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> coming up after the break we're going to take you live over to capitol hill here in washington where the january 6 committee is apparently still talking to jared kushner even as we speak. we've got the latest reporting on how that's going. plus later is another covid wave coming? what you should know about that

subvariant of omicron, now the dominant strain in this country. you've got my interview with the assistant secretary for health coming up. plus, inside president biden's oval office meeting with the parents of trevor reed, the american and former marine being detained in russia. they're going to take us in that room live when they join me in just a minute. grillin', chillin', spillin', dillin'. bec-ing. never brie-ing. smokin', yolkin', flippin', dippin'. if you're not oozing, then you're losing. tater totting, cold or hotting. mealin', feelin', pie-ing, trying. color your spread. upgrade your bread. pair it. share it. kraft singles. square it. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance kraft singles. through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget.

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the first trump family members talking today, very possibly as we speak, to the january 6 select committee. the closest the panel has gotten to the former president so far. we're talking about his son-in-law and former white house sitting adviser jared kushner sitting for a virtual voluntary interview with the committee. kushner is not just a big player in the trump family, obviously, but the highest-ranking trump white house official to be speaking with the committee so far. joining me is capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell. we are literally just getting in during that commercial break a vote on monday for something

else related to the january 6 select committee, and that are these contempt charges against dan scavino and peter navarro. we think it will happen monday, right? >> reporter: yeah. it probably won't be the vote on the house floor monday but what will happen monday is it goes to this committee, that any -- >> the rules committee. >> reporter: yes. the rules committee. has to go there first. and so what this means, though, is that next week the house is prepared to take up this contempt vote for dan -- for scavino and peter navarro, these two people who the january 6 select committee voted on earlier this week to refer to the full house criminal contempt charges. so that means that the house is committed to taking this up and they plan to do it expeditiously, starting this process on monday. so that is some new development here in the january 6 select committee. we do know that the committee is also pushing the department of justice to actually act on these

contempt referrals. because after the house votes on it, which it will likely pass, it then goes to the department of justice for them to actually impose charges if they decide to do so. as far as kushner is concerned, he is behind closed doors for the january 6 select committee as we speak. he's not there physically but virtually. we know that he met with the committee for about three hours this morning. there was a short break. and all indications are that he is still talking to the committee. we don't yet know what he is saying or if he's giving any information. but we know it's been a long day for him and for the select committee and asking him a lot of questions, hallie. >> leigh ann caldwell live for us on the hill with those updates. leigh ann, thank you. coming up after the break we'll be joined by trevor reed's parents, who are fighting to get their son out of a russian prison, with what president biden told them in their oval office meeting just last night.

they'll join me live next. and then later, how the white house is marking this national transgender day of visibility. my one on one with the highest-ranking member of the biden administration who is openly transgender. in her first interview on this network. coming up in just a minute. once upon a time, at the magical everly estate, landscaper larry and his trusty crew... were delayed when the new kid totaled his truck. timber... fortunately, they were covered by progressive, so it was a happy ending... for almost everyone.

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what would you like the power to do? to a story we've been covering for months now on the show. the american family who's been fighting to get their son out of a russian prison getting some face time with president biden. not too long after you saw them on our show yesterday. we're talking about joey and paula reed. the parents of trevor. here they are. the former u.s. marine sentenced to nine years in prison on charges the state department says are in their words ridiculous. and last night the reeds ended up inside the building they've been demonstrating in front of yesterday, sitting down with president biden. this is them on their way to the white house, asking him to use his power to help free trevor. joining me again this afternoon to take us inside that room trevor's parents, joey and paula reed. thank you so much for being back. >> thank you. >> twice in 24 hours. we don't often do this but i know there are some significant updates here. tell us what you can about this conversation with president biden. how'd it go? >> went well. we weren't rushed for time.

he let us speak our mind for i guess about 40 minutes. which is a very long time. so we were just happy with that. like i said, it was never our intention to get a meeting while we were here. our intention was to get put on the schedule. so getting the meeting was excellent. >> what was it like when you got that call, that you were getting summonsed, basically over to the white house? >> a giant relief. >> really? >> yeah. >> can you tell us more about the conversation with president biden? i know you made clear yesterday that you felt like i aprisoner swap would be the best chance to get your son out of a russian prison. did that come up? did he seem open to that? tell us more. >> we didn't -- we can't discuss what the president talked about. we did bring up the things we've spoken about publicly about our views on it. we discussed our son. we told him about how he is as a person. we told about his resolve as a marine and how he's acted as a prisoner of war is what my son considers himself. and i think he was impressed by that. and then we told him how we feel about prisoner swaps because if

nothing else works we've always been told everything's on the table. so when are you going to get to it? and he didn't -- you know, he didn't make any commitments to that. >> okay. >> but a very generous, very compassionate, as we've always said, listened intently to everything we had to say until we were through speaking. amazing. >> and we also reiterated to him that trevor's medical condition necessitates a quick answer. they need to decide what they're going to do quickly because trevor's health isn't going to hold up too much longer. >> because he's on a hunger strike. >> he's on a hunger strike and he has possible tb. we reiterated that to him, that our son is very ill. >> we also spoke out as we always do for paul wheel sxn brittney. and we also spoke out for americans held hostage around the world. this is just one of many cases that our government needs to start addressing. >> so are you more or less optimistic now about the chances of getting your son out after this discussion? >> probably a little bit more even though he said don't get your hopes up.

>> really? trying to expectation manage i assume. >> yes. absolutely. >> joey? >> yeah, absolutely. and that's exactly what i would do in his situation. in his position. and you know, he doesn't want to get our hopes up. but he did. the fact that he listened to us. that has to have influenced him. and we're hoping that'll be, you know, to bring our son and the other americans home. >> you also had an opportunity to meet with i think your congressman while you were here in washington from your district. congressman august fluger. >> we just love august fluger. he has been behind us 100% since the very first day he got elected to be our congressman. he's just been great. we can't say enough nice things about him. >> yeah, him and michael mccaul have been steadfast flag bearers for our son. we're extremely thankful to him. >> one of the things that comes up is that your son has been in prison for a long time now. nearly two years. two plus. under a previous administration, a republican administration, now a democratic administration.

for you two this isn't about politics, it seems. this is about your son. >> absolutely. it's about our son, and we would hope that anyone who has a say in whether this deal is made or not made tries to think about what if it was their son, what would they do if it was their child? they'd want them home quickly. >> we can't imagine a president, vice president, senator, congressman's child being taken hostage by a foreign country and being there very long. >> what are the next steps for you now, then? you've been pushing for this meeting with president biden. i mean, ever since we've been talking here. you got this meeting. you were face to face. you delivered that message, joey, you said you wanted to tlifr, which is my son was putting his life on the line for this country. >> for the president. >> yea. you said that to him. so what happens from here? where does this go next? >> we give the president some time to fix this now that he's heard from us, but we keep advocating for our son and other prisoners, make sure it stays in the media as much as possible. that's where it really happens, when you and all the other media cover these stories, stuff

starts happening because they see votes. they see votes going on and they're going to act on it. so we need to keep their names in the story until the government starts acting. >> if you could get a message to transfer right now, what would you tell him, paula? >> hang in there just a little bit longer. we're working as hard as we can to bring you home. >> yeah. it's emotional, i know. >> it is. because the last time we were able to talk to him we could tell he had lost hope and thought he'd been abandoned. so i would love to tell him that he hasn't been. >> yeah. i'd tell him we love him and can't wait to hug him again and that everyone in congress, both parties, is behind him. >> yes, they are. >> and we talked to the boss. so don't get your hopes up but we're doing everything literally we can other than me chaining myself to the fence in front of the white house. >> you're looking forward to making that phone call. >> joey had said he was going to start camping out here next week if we didn't get at least put on the schedule. >> to be able to tell your son

you spoke with the president i know will mean a lot to you. >> yes. it will be. >> paula reed and joey reed. please, please keep us updated. really appreciate your time this afternoon. >> thank you. want to turn now to some other big stories out of washington including the president's announcement to try to drive down the cost of gas in this country. we talked about it a minute ago, this plan to release a million barrels of oil every day from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve for the next six months. the president's also asking congress to put more fees on oil companies who aren't drilling on federally leased lands. i want to bring in cnbc's brian sullivan, who is all over the energy beat for cnbc. we're so glad to have you right now because we've got the gallon of gas average stitt sitting at 4.23. 1.36 higher than it was a year ago. everybody knows gas prices are up. we wanted you to give us the gut check here. how much is this going to make a difference, what president biden is doing now, to try to have an impact on people like you and me and consumers across the country who are going out to fill up their tanks? >> all right. well, hey, welcome. good to be here.

tough to follow that story. best to that family, by the way. very emotional. listen, oil prices fell seven bucks today. i think the lockdowns in china over covid in shanghai have a lot to do with oil's recent drop as much as this release. a million barrels a day from the spr, probably not going to have a huge impact on gas prices. it just depends on where prices of oil go from here, hallie, whether it's back up next week or continuing to fall because gasoline prices move slower because as the president, by the way, himself said, and by the way, my dad owned a gas station when i was a kid, so i saw it firsthand. you buy a bunch of gas for like a week or two. so if your price is x, you can't lower your price. you may lose money on every gallon. so it takes time for gasoline prices to move. here's the thing. we have never taken more than a million barrels a day out of the spr. the technical max is 4 million barrels. in the last 20 years the most we've done is 900,000 barrels a day. so it's even unclear if we can get to a million barrels a day.

and i'll say this. hard as it is to believe there is still russian oil on the way. there's 17 oil tankers filled with russian oil heading to america right now. so i think the president's trying to get ahead of when that russian oil finally, finally gets cut off. it's about 3% of our supplies. not a lot. but enough to move prices marginally. >> cnbc's brian sullivan. sully, we love having you on. thank you. you really have a way of putting it in a way we can all understand. appreciate it. coming up, what else the federal government can and is trying to do to protect trans rights as those rights come under attack in some states in this country. my one on one with a member of the biden administration, the first openly trans assistant secretary for health, coming up next. ... the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®... ...most people saw 90% clearer skin at 16 weeks. the majority of people saw 90% clearer skin even at 5 years.

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are you taking a statin drug to reduce cholesterol? ask your doctor about it can also deplete your coq10 levels. i recommend considering qunol coq10 along with your statin medication. the brand i trust is qunol. we've got a little bit of breaking news to get to over from capitol hill with senator mitt romney telling nbc news there is an agreement at least in principle on a big covid relief package. this is something, you know, that's been in the works for weeks.

the white house has been really trying to amp up the pressure on congress to try to get this done. leigh ann caldwell is back with us now. okay, leigh ann, bring us up to speed because i know this is just coming in to the team here. >> yeah, it sure is. so congress, the senate specifically has been working on billions of dollars for covid relief money. this is something that the administration has been begging congress to do. originally, they had wanted $22 billion. that number had decreased to $15 billion. and that didn't pass. and now it is at $10 billion, our sources tell us. half of the money is for vaccines. another half is for therapeutics. and this is something that the administration says is critical. the reason these negotiations have been so difficult is because republicans have demanded that the money is paid for, money taken from previously allocated funds for previous covid bills that have not been used or allocated yet to be repurposes for this legislation.

now, this is something that has been tense negotiations between republicans and democrats in the senate. but they seem to have come to an agreement in principle even though this is much less than the administration wants and much less than many democrats want as well. one of the things that has been stripped from this bill, hallie ---ar not bill but in this agreement is about $5 billion for international covid relief money. so vaccines for the rest of the world. therapeutics for the rest of the world. and the reason is because they just couldn't find ways to pay for it. so it's been stripped from this proposal for the time noting. so perhaps they have a bill or a deal in principle. they're going to try to vote on something before the end of next week when after that they leave town for two weeks. but hallie, i will say there's still a lot of challenges left with this. speaker pelosi today was asked

if she would support something that's only $10 billion that does not include the international component of this, and she said it's a major problem. so we'll see where this goes, but this is one initial step that perhaps they're on the way to passing something that the administration is demanding, hallie. >> leigh ann caldwell live for us on the hill with that. leigh ann, thank you. some other news here in washington. government making by some big policy changes today on transgender day of visibility. this national day to mark trans rights. with the state department announcing a new gender marker on applications for passports. it lets people choose not just m for male or f for female but x for gender neutral. you've also got the tsa today announcing changes in screening procedures to make them more gender neutral and cut down on invasive pat-downs. but for all of that on a federal level things look different at the state level in some places. with 13 states passing bans on trans athletes playing sports on teams that match their gender identity, including oklahoma just on wednesday. and other states like arizona this week and texas last month

putting in place laws that basically ban gender-affirming care for trans judith. earlier this afternoon i spoke with a member of the biden administration about this and more. >> joining us now is assistant secretary for health and four-star admiral dr. rachel levine. she is the highest-ranking openly trans member of the united states government. joining us now for her first interview on this network since she was confirmed to her new position. admiral levine, thank you so much for being on the show this afternoon. >> well, it's my pleasure. >> we have a lot to talk about as relates to this national day of trans visibility. but i want to start with your day job. just a couple quick questions on the fight against the pandemic for you. because we are seeing, as you know, the prevalence of this omicron variant ba.2. how concerned are you about that and the possibility it's going to lead to a spike in cases soon here in this country? >> well, it is very important that we monitor very closely the incidence of ba.2. this is a subvariant of omicron, and it is if anything more

contagious than the original omicron that we saw. and so we'll see. if we see a spike. there have been spikes in the united kingdom, in europe that sometimes shows what's going to happen here. >> on covid funding we heard from senator chuck schumer today who said the gap between democrats and republicans looks to be narrowing to get to a deal. how optimistic are you that something's going to get done? and what is the drap dead date for congress to act before we start to see potentially very real consequences? >> sure. well, i will remain cautiously optimistic that congress will be able to offer us funding to continue our fight against covid-19. that funding is critically important for the therapeutics such as the monoclonal antibodies. it's important for continuation of our testing procedures and our test to treat protocol as well as the purchase and further development of vaccines and of

course funding for the uninsured. so there are so many needs that we have for this funding. so i'm going to remain optimistic. >> okay. let me ask you about this national day of visibility. really important i think to so many people in the lgbtq plus community, to the trans community. the white house is doing a lot today. i know you're having a conversation with trans kids, with the second gentleman. you've got a visit from "jeopardy" champ amy schneider over to the white house. you have secretary cardona in florida today for a roundtable, a state where the governor as you know has just signed into law the so-called "don't say gay" bill. we're in this point now in this country where almost half of americans know somebody who is transgender or who goes biend neutral pronouns. but this year more than 25 r 30 state legislatures are talking about passing anti-trans laws. as a doctor, as a member of the trans community, can you talk about what else can be done on the federal level by the biden administration, right? as you're seeing some of these actions on the state level. >> well, it is so wonderful that

we have a president, president biden, who supports us and advocates for us and who sees us. and he has articulated many times, including with an announcement today about his support for the transgender community and particularly his support for vulnerable transgender youth. so that support is being demonstrated throughout the administration with secretary becerra at health and human services, as you said secretary cardona of education, and so you know, this event at the white house further demonstrates the support for the -- of the president and the administration for vulnerable transgender individuals. >> how much do you see yourself in some ways, admiral levine, as a role model for trans kids given that you are such a high-ranking official in the government? >> well, thank you so much. it is such an honor to serve in this position. it's an honor to have been nominated and then confirmed as the assistant secretary for health. and then truly an honor to have taken the uniform of the united states public health service

commission corps as a four-star admiral. so i am truly privileged. i am honored to serve as a role model for transtransgender individuals. but i want to give back. the ways are to be very vocal and advocate for the lgbtqi plus community, specifically transgender, and to work on specific policies at hhs and throughout the administration that support diversity, equity and inclusion. >> you talk about being very vocal on the advocacy front. you told chelsea clinton on a podcast that was out i think this week that you hope that one day your identity isn't going to define you or any other trans person. and yet we're in this moment where some on the right continue to publicly misgender you. on a personal level how do you navigate that? >> well, you know, i am absolutely able to navigate that. i've been doing this a while. but what i worry is how those mean-spirited comments affect other transgender individuals

who are more vulnerable than i am, particularly trans youth who we need to support and to empower in their lives, not to denigrate. so i'm fine, but we have to support others that are more vulnerable. >> so then what is your message to, say, trans kids in this country who might live in a state that is looking at anti-trans legislation, legislation that would limit the rights of trans youth but are seeing what the biden administration is trying to do here? >> well, those anti-trans -- those transphobic actions that states have taken are quite politically motivated. and i've said before, they are egregious. we need to support and empower trans youth. so my word to them is that we have a president who sees us and supports us as we are, and it is so important for people to be authentic and to live free in the united states, to live in our nation as who they are and of course who they love. and we're going to continue to do everything we can to support them. >> assistant secretary for health dr. rachel levine.

admiral levine, we're so glad to have you on the show. thank you very much for your perspective. we really hope to have you back. >> my pleasure. thank you. pleased to be back. >> so in other news, new comments today from the man who's arguably the most powerful republican on capitol hill right now and the one who might want to be. both talking about just who should be in charge if the gop were to take back control of the senate come november. we've been reporting on and watching for weeks this sort of simmering fight, simmering debate happening a little bit publicly between mitch mcconnell and senator rick scott of florida. remember, it started back when senator scott, who's in charge of electing more republicans in the midterm, put out an 11-point rescue america plan, something that was almost immediately criticized by mcconnell and other top republicans for its tax policy. but folks who watch the hill saw this as maybe an indication scott could be looking at a challenge to mcconnell's leadership. senator mcconnell, though, not shying away from a fight, telling this to punchbowl news just today. watch. >> i'm proud that i've been

elected eight times to that position. but i don't own the job, and anybody in the conference can run who chooses to. if i'm the majority leader on the agenda will not be raising taxes on the american people. sunsetting social security or medicaid in five years. >> joining me now, somebody who was in that interview, co-founder of punchbowl news and msnbc contributor jake sherman. hi, jake. so listen, senator scott had a rejoinder, if um, at the heritage foundation after the interview you did with mcconnell. i want to play that and then i want to talk about it. watch. >> i'm not going to raise taxes. but we've got democrats who are lying about the plan and we've got republicans that are parroting what they're saying. >> there's like a lot to this. how does this play out? let me start there. how does this play out? >> well, no one's lying about the plan. he said he wants to collect taxes -- >> this is the other thing. it's in the paper. >> right. >> it's in what he put out. why does he -- >> right. this has been, hallie, one of the most clumsy rollouts of a

plan that has really no bearing on the reality, which is mitch mcconnell has the overwhelming support of almost every senate republican if not every senate republican, much like nancy pelosi he's an incredibly powerful leader. but rick scott took it upon himself to put out this plan. he's the chairman of the nrsc, the national republican senatorial committee. and the big problem, hallie, for every republican around the country is democrats are now running ads saying rick scott and republicans want to raise your taxes, they want to sunset laws including medicare and medicaid after five years and review them. that's in rick scott's plan. now, the ultimate -- the next question is can rick scott beat mitch mcconnell? and the answer to that is no, quite clearly. you need 50% plus one to become the majority leader of either party in the senate. mitch mcconnell, based on history, based on our reporting, has that quite easily. so but it is very interesting to

have the campaign chief for republicans coming into such stark conflict with mitch mcconnell. >> politico was reporting latest last month that former president trump is pushing senator scott to run against mcconnell if that were to happen. how much how much of a difference would that endorsement make? >> zero. it would not move anyone anywhere. by and large senate republicans despite what they say publicly don't care what donald trump says. his viewpoint in the capitol matters almost as much as it did when he was president. you will remember everything donald trump got involved with legislatively on capitol hill was an abject disaster. the shutdown that he got nothing to close out. if he endorses a challenger to mcconnell that would be another

disaster for her. >> he did work on taxes. >> he stayed mostly out of that debate. involving in that debate as i wrote in a book several years ago it almost blew up the deal and ruined the deal. that's all you need to know about that. >> 20 seconds left. the interview this morning was interesting. what else? >> he said the biden administration is picking up the pace in his words coming to getting weapons to ukraine. a rare piece of praise for the biden administration coming to ukraine. that's something that he is involved with and voiced vocal support for. >> jake sherman, thank you. >> thank you. we'll stay on the republican versus republican story line because there's another development. this one involves a series of words we don't often say. kick fueled beltway sex parties.

a republican senator tom tillis. this is the latest brush-off. mcarthur said he lost his trust. the congressman hitting back with a tweet. and a new campaign ad saying if the establishment wants to take him down he is not going anywhere. here's the thing about beltway drama. this along with other controversies like calling the ukrainian president a thug seems to make it into the district. "the new york times" talked with constituents that vote members of congress into saufs. a voter saying a pass on voting for cawthorn and has his work

cut out for him to regain the confidence the district had in him. joining sme the reporter that went to district. tripp gabriel. good afternoon. what's the big takeaway on the reputation in his district real talk? >> he has plenty of support. conservative district. the whitest and oldest congressional district in north carolina. he styles himself as an america first, pro trump republican and supporter for that in far northwest state. he is 26 and the brashness that got him elected a couple years ago curdled into a sense that he is reckless and immature and you cited a -- obviously the kick

and orgy comments are the latest in the zelenskyy slur. while russia tanks roll into ukraine is another example of that. he trails a long series of personal foibles and misstatements and inflammatory comments like that. there's a -- i was surprised. there's a significant amount of disenchantment. it's hard to unset an incumbent but he is got serious pry mash rivals. >> how significant is it based on the reporting that senator tillis announcing to back a competitor? >> very serious. late last week on the ground

tillis' people said he would not endorse in this race. a senior figure in republican party in north carolina had a hands off stance on cawthorn. this obviously is a bridge too far not only with kevin mccarthy but in the state republican establishment. >> we have seen some conspiracy theorys in this kind of rhetoric i guess you could call it from republicans do appeal to a portion of the republican base nationally. do you get the sense he might be over the skis with an ambition to keep and get support in the district? >> yeah. i think that's part of it. the redistricting of congressal districts and seats has gone through a labored process in

north carolina. he said he would run close to charlotte. speculation was to represent a district that was closer to the major media market in charlotte and the house map was redrawn and then he skipped back to his home district and it angered a certain number of people. it seemed to be -- reinforced the sense that he abandoned the people of western north carolina. during his tenure he hasn't been that attentive to constituents and one of the first he said was i've chosen the staff for coms and not legislating. and having abandoned the district at least temporarily

reinforced. >> did you hear from his people? >> you read it earlier. the tweet he put out. >> okay. >> standing firm. not apologizing. >> glad to have you on. thank you for that. thank you for watching this hour. i'll see at 5:00. "deadline: white house" starts right after the break. ♪ we believe there's an innovator in all of us. ♪ that's why we build technology that makes it possible for every business... and every person... to come to the table and do more incredible things. mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating and ethe rocket....

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