zelenskyy addresses the united nations, sharing some graphic descriptions of war crimes he says russia committed in bucha and saying there are many more city where is ukrainians suffered similar fates at the hands of the russians. god only knows what they've done in mariupol. and a new warning from the pentagon today that the violence will get worse as pressure goes for the u.s. and the international community to do more to punish russia and help ukraine. we've got new reporting on new sanctions that are rolling out in 24 hours. and later, former president barack obama returns to the white house for the first time since he left office. we'll hear from him and president biden this hour at an event touting obama's signature achievement, the affordable care act. welcome to "meet the press daily."

i'm chuck todd. as the atrocities unfolding in ukraine come into clearer view, president zelenskyy is urging a stronger response to russia as the u.s. says the war could be entering a new and protracted phase. the images we're about to show are disturbing. in his first address to the united nations security council, president zelenskyy offered new details of torture and killings in the key suburb of bucha where ukrainian officials say russian forces killed at least 300 civilians. russia is denying the allegations, blaming ukraine for staging the tragic scenes. our own richard engel, who will join us in a moment, he saw firsthand what happened in bucha earlier today. >> reporter: this was the abram ofs where irina lived with her father. after russian troops bombed the house, the russians grabbed oleg and brought him down this street

and they put him on his knees. irina was just coming out of the door and was able to see the russians executing her husband while he was on his knees. there's still some of the blood here on the pavement. the body was taken away. >> zelenskyy accused russia of committing the worst war crimes since world war ii. he compared russians to nazis and demanded an immediate response from the united nations including a war tribunal. >> translator: the massacre in our city of bucha is only one, unfortunately, only one of many examples of what the occupiers have been doing on our land for the past 41 days. and there are many more cities, similar places, where the world has yet to learn the full truth. i know and you know perfectly well what the representatives of russia will say in response to the accusations of these crimes. they will blame everyone just to

justify their own actions. they will say that there are various versions, different versions, and it is impossible to establish which one of those versions is true. but it is 2022 now. we have conclusive evidence. >> after zelenskyy spoke, the united states ambassador to the united nations called the killings in bucha brutal and added this. >> some of them, according to credible reports, including by the mariupol city council, have been taken to so-called filtration camps where russian forces are reportedly making tens of thousands of ukrainian citizens relocate to russia. i do not need to spell out what these so-called filtration camps are reminiscent of. it's chilling, and we cannot look away. >> just that phrase, filtration

camps. meanwhile, moments ago, nbc news was first to report that the biden administration will announce new sanctions on russia in coordination with the g-7 and european union. that comes as the biden administration is warning of a new strategy by russian forces, one that could indicate this war is weeks or months from getting close to an end. here's defense secretary lloyd austin moments ago testifying on capitol hill. >> the russians thought they could very quickly move into ukraine, capture the capital city and install their leader of choice, and they weren't able to do that. as they enter this phase, it will probably be a lot more deliberate, they'll be able to amass more, and so the violence will probably go up a notch there. >> if you're wondering why the secretary is on capitol hill, it's a budget hearing that he's

technically testifying at. but we expect that he and general milley were going to get asked questions, obviously, tact war itself. let me go to peter alexander, our chief white house correspondent, because the news about additional sanctions literally broke about ten minutes before we came on air. before we get to kyiv, where richard engel is, we want to get this news out there. peter, the fact that it's in coordination with the eu and g-7, they've been working on this in the last 48 hours, is this going to be considered in response to these awful pictures we've been seeing over the last 72 hours? >> reporter: yeah. i spoke to a source about the new sanctions and we are told they've intensified the new sanctions. they were in some form already in the works as a function of what they have seen take place in bucha. this didn't happen independent of what happened there, but they've intensified it. on top of that, they say they'll use all the accountability tools at their disposal to respond, so

this is only part of that. let me read more information that nbc news has now confirmed, first a report coming from multiple sources familiar with the matter, and they say this announcement will in their words impose significant coasts on russia down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation. it will include, according to one of these sources, a ban on all new investment in russia, increased sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in russia and sanctions on russian government officials and their family members. you'll remember at this time yesterday we heard from the national security adviser jake sullivan who said that the u.s. had already confirmed, come to the conclusion that russia had committed war crimes in ukraine and that the information from bucha appears to show further evidence of war crimes taking place there. so i think this is the most immediate response. it is not an isolated response. most notably, administration officials would say this is

happening in conjunction with america's allies and partners as they try to ramp up and further tighten the screws on vladimir putin as we witnessed these awful atrocities happening joefrgs. >> peter, i'm curious, there's no new energy sanctions directly though, here. i know there's talk in europe about cutting off russian coal and things like that. we shouldn't expect that in this round. >> reporter: we did not get further details on what specifically will address. jake sullivan said yesterday this is going to sort of hit the industrial sector in russia, part of the war machine or what's helping perhaps fuel the war machine but not clear it's what's helping fund the war machine, which obviously is energy. to be honest, i think at this point it remains to be seen exactly what these sanctions look like. they haven't further detailed exactly what it will target. >> peter alexander with that breaking news from the white house. thank you very much. please stay dry.

it sounds like you have a rainy day there. let me go to kyiv where richard engel is, also with uz courtney kube at the pentagon and former defense secretary bill cohan. we showed a little bit of your reporting, richard, in bucha earlier today. i know you spent the morning there. just do your best. tell us what you saw. and compare it to other -- you have seen, sadly, other war zone where is atrocities were committed. compare it, if you could. >> reporter: so i've been to many war zones, and you go into a place where a battle has just occurred and it's not uncommon to see bodies. that is a natural result unfortunately of war. that's what these weapons are designed to do. but this felt more like a crime scene. the bodies were -- many people have been executed at close range, soldiers were going house to house conducting searches,

stealing everything they could get their hands on. so i spoke to one woman and her apartment building sort of encapsulates the entire mood in bucha. on the doors they have written in handwriting we are just peaceful civilians, please don't bother us. it didn't help. the russians would burst in. most of the doors internally in the building had been pushed off their hinges. if they didn't come to your door immediately, and lot of people were trying to pretend you weren't home, the russians would kick in the door, shoot the locks in, and start searching through house. mostly they were looking for military-age males. sometimes they would take the military-age males away. but if you talked back to them, if you annoyed them in any way, we were told they might just shoot you on the spot. and that happened in several cases in just this one building. one of the people on the third floor was so afraid, he jumped out of the third-floor window

and ran away. he managed not to get badly injured and was able to escape the area. a woman who lived in this building told us that four people, just from that apartment compound, just from her building, were buried and that she and her husband buried them themselves behind the building in a little plot of land. she took me to see it. it was a small wooden cross over a freshly dug grave. that was just in one building. and each building had a similar story of russian troops who were firing at will at anyone and anything they chose to, terrorizing the people, stealing from the people, and if they chose, they would take you away or they would execute you right there. and that is not a common battle scene. like i said, you go to a battle scene, there's a lot of damage, sometimes you see dead people, dead animals, a lot of destruction. that's normal. but going house to house, terrorizing people, stealing

from them, and shooting them for any perceived transgression is unique. >> richard, do you have a sense of -- this was as the russians were so-called retreating, repositioning. this was as they were leaving bucha they decided to essentially ransack the city as they left? is that what happened here? >> reporter: no. that was my theory as well. and i went in and was thinking these were angry russian soldiers who were leaving in retreat and decided to just flatten the place. but it sounds like this started almost from the beginning. bucha was one of the first towns that was taken by russian troops. it was taken almost on the first day of combat, when that airport nearby, hostomel, was taken. they're just a few miles apart. and residents told me for the first week or so the russians were not acting in this way, but then they quickly started to

round people up, shoot people at will, sending people into hiding, just rolling down the streets in their armored vehicles, described as tanks but could have been fighting vehicles, and just shooting at buildings to their left and right. that happened not just in that last few days as they were leaving but happened right away. one woman we spoke to, her husband was rounded up because he was a military age male and they caught him on the street, put him on his knees, and shot him in the back of the head. his body was left on the ground for weeks because they were not able to recover his body. no, this was not done by an army frustrated in desperation on its way out the door. >> richard, itch to can ask you about the filtration camps. how many stories are you hearing? did you hear any of that in bucha? >> reporter: not in bucha. that is something we're hearing more in mariupol, something we're hearing in and around donbas along the border area, because so many people want to

leave mariupol and want to leetch the areas where russia has a high concentration of forces. russia has been playing with the idea of humanitarian corridor, saying you want to have a humanitarian corridor, we'll give you a humanitarian corridor, and it leads to russia. so get on this bus and we'll take you to a camp in russia where you'll be safe. and many ukrainians say that these people are openly being used as bargaining chips, they're being held e hostage, that russia is accumulating these people to use for some propaganda purpose or for some other purpose down the road. >> richard engel, who's now in kyiv for us with that just chilling footage from bucha. i imagine we'll see more of your reporting with lester holt later today. courtney, first of all, do we have satellite eyes on any of these filtration camps, so-called filtration camps?

what do we know about them, if we do? >> reporter: if we do, the u.s. isn't acknowledging it yet, but we know they have a lot more satellite imagery than we hear about publicly, including seeing things like places before they are attacked, places like mariupol, early on, before the russians really started to pound that city, and given the fact that the u.s. has such -- so much coverage over so many of these places, the assumption is they have been able to see these sort of fake humanitarian corridors where the russians were taking ukrainians out of there. but the u.s. is not acknowledging specific evidence of that. >> right. let me move to the budget hearings today that general milley and secretary austin are participating in. given they have outline kwhad they expect to be -- this is going to be perhaps entrenched warfare of sorts for some time, do we have the resources to

continue essentially nonstop a conveyor belt of weapons assistance to the ukrainians? >> so, yes and no. the reality is on the hill there seems to be this endless interest in providing support to the ukrainian people, the ukrainian military. so every single time there's been a need for more equipment, there's been no question that the u.s. is going to provide it. last week on friday, the pentagon even announced they were sending hundreds of millions of additional stanks, that they were actually purchasing directly from the defense industry, and sending it to ukraine as opposed to taking it from the u.s. stock. so they're taking new, different, much more aggressive ways to get ukraine the kind of equipment that they need. i also -- you know, you played the sound bite from secretary austin leading into this segment where he talked about the way forward and how it was going to potentially be more violent. and i think it's important to unpack why that is. so what richard was talking about, the russian troops that

are leaving some of these areas, frankly they're retreating from some of these areas, right, around kyiv specifically, the northwest axes going into the city. the russian troops have been moving up into russia, belarus, and the belief is that they're sort of refitting, they are restructuring, getting their act back together for what is believed to be another large offensive in the coming days or more likely in the coming weeks. they're more likely to move in from the east down towards donbas area. and why that is so significant, chuck, is that the problems that the rugs have been plagued with, two of the big ones logistics. they have been been able to resupply their troops. they can't get them food, logistics, food, fuel. the belief is they'll try to figure out what they've been doing wrong and fix that for the next part of the offensive.

another thing they are doing according to u.s. assessment is they are figuring out their command and control issues on the ground, and their coordination issues. so the easiest way to think about that is if you have russian air forces and russian ground forces, they weren't doing a good job of communicating with one another and working together. so ground forces were moving to an area and they didn't have air kover. and so that made them much more vulnerable to the ukrainian military. that's a big part of the reason they can't been able toed a vns in some of these areas that the u.s. believed they would be able to advance to, frankly the russian military probably believed they'd be able to advance. why this is so significant, what secretary austin was saying today, we could see a very different offensive in the east than what we've been seeing in the past several weeks, chuck. >> i think the question is should we be -- what can we do right now for ukrainians essentially to help them deal with what could be a much tougher russian force it sounds

like if they focus their offensive just on the donbas and that part of eastern ukraine. courtney kube with that report. thank you. let me bring in a former defense secretary, bill cullen. mr. secretary, let me talk about that. listen to what courtney just described. so, we have this idea, our commanders have this idea, they think they know what the russians are going to do here. they're going to regroup, try to sort of get their act together, and focus on the east and make these gains. what should we be doing right now for the ukrainian military? what should nato be doing, number one, to secure the gains they've made and make sure we don't -- you know, they don't feel like they are vulnerable again in kyiv and in some of the places that they've pushed them out in? and what can we be doing for ukrainians right now while the russians regroup? >> first, let me commend richard engel and the other war correspondents you have. they've been doing an outstanding reporting. but in terms of what we can do,

we can accentuate the positives, so to speak. we can accelerate the weaponry that ukrainians need to kill more of the russian soldiers. there has been an example of russian incompetence, and that starts at all levels. i'm kind of tired of hearing that president putin may not know what's going on, he may be misinformed. >> i'm with you on that. >> the commander in cheech, his job is to know what's going on. he can turn on msnbc. >> kgb. we know this, if he's in the dark, he's choosing to be in the dark. >> exactly. well, no commander in chief should want to be in the dark. he obviously knows what's going on, and he has miscalculated. it's obvious that he has poorly trained troops. they are being beaten on the ground. and so we say they're retreating. they've lost. they lost in their goal to take over kyiv. they lost in their goal to take the government. they're losing on the battlefield even though they

outnumber the ukrainians 5, sometimes 10 to 1 in terms of manpower and capability. they're on the retreat because they're poorly trained. they may be adequately equipped but haven't been trained. air force and on the ground as well. so they've made a big mistake. the problem is, it's still a big country. they have lots of weapons. they still have lots of people. and they're determined to take as much of the ukrainian territory as possible. i've always believed that the real issue for us is whether or not they are right, putin is right, that we will lose faith before the russians do in terms of the imposition of the sanctions, will they hurt us more than they're hurting the russians. i don't think that's the case in the long term. but in the long term, a lot of people are going to die. a lot of innocent people will be killed, murdered, executed in a way that we haven't seen since the end of world war ii. >> i'm stuck on these filtration

camps. >> yeah. >> it feels like -- we know what it echoes. when there were starving kosovoans basically being detained, it changed our calculus in the mid'90s, in this country and in nato. if what russia -- if they're doing what it appears they're doing with ukrainians and taking them to camps, should this change our calculus? >> well, it may change the charges that will be brought against them. i don't know that it will change the decision by president biden to say we're not going to initiate or in any way contribute to initiating world war iii. but i think what it does point out to the rest of the world, what we're seeing is not the de-nazi-fication of ukraine but the nazify case of the russians. what putin is doing is very

consistent with what the nazis were doing. if you look just outside of kyiv, there is a ravine there, and a very famous russian poet wrote a poem about it. there was a trench that they dug out. there was an existing ravine. and the nazis killed -- first they had the people stripped naked. then they shot them, dumped them in a mass grave. 100,000 people were dumped in that grave. 33,000 of them were jewish that were in ukraine. so, this is similar to what the nazis were doing, and yet he's using the language of de-nazi-fication in order to deflect from what he's doing here. the real nazis are putin and his soldiers. that has to be taken into account when the trials finally come, and they will come, they'll be charged with that. >> how do you negotiate? how do we end a war with putin,

and we need to end these atrocities, and i've admired how president zelenskyy has said my personal feelings i have to suspend because i'm the president of the people and this war has got to stop, but, you know, he's committing war crimes right in our face. this man cannot be allowed back into the world order under any circumstance, can he? >> i don't think he'll ever be accepted back in the world order. i don't think he'll be accepted in any form which has legitimacy to say that he should be there. i think he'll be regarded as having engaged in butchery, and it's evident every day. if the russians are serious -- i mean, they have increased the level of lying to the pathological level. the fact that they can have an ambassador to the united nations say this is all a myth, this is all fake, these are the ukrainians shooting themselves in the back of the head, this is all kind of fake news, i mean, that's pathological in terms of their capacity to lie to the

russian people and to the world community. so, i don't see he'll ever be able to be accepted as anything other than a pariah. >> as you said, we're watching the nazify case of the russians here, at least the russian government. and i hope the russian public is finding some way to get these facts. >> i doubt it. >> bill cohan, thank you. still to come, president zelenskyy's latest call for international help. we'll talk to his former press secretary. also, if it's tuesday, voters are voting somewhere. the new law in one key swing state that is making voting more complicated today as unfounded claims are changing laws more no reason. ♪♪ ♪♪

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welcome back. you heard courtney kube mention

satellite images that have been informing the white house and the pentagon. some of them, like what we're about to show you, are very graphic. according to a "new york times" announcement, these images from u.s. intelligence contractor maxar show boies lying in the streets of bucha before russian troops left town. they appear to corroborate recent social media posts and video revealing bodies in the streets left there for weeks. you heard richard say the firsthand accounts he's got. they directly counter russia's claims. joining me is the former press secretary for president zelenskyy who's been essentially a journalist these days, reporting on what she's hearing and seeing in her country. thank you for joining me. let me start with what -- look, we've seen -- i know you've seen some of these photos. the government has released. what more can you add of the

atrocities that the russians committed in bucha and elsewhere? >> thank you, chuck, for having me. first of all, let me say that in the first day of this horrible revelation, the ukrainian government picked up 400 bodies of civilians and took them for forensic study to have the proof of war crimes committed. this is already the number that is being counted in hundreds. and ukrainian government has 1,200 war crimes committed in the kyiv region only. we are really scared here, everyone is scared to understand what's going to be revealed after such things as mariupol or kharkiv will show those of war. bucha is the home for around 30,000 people as well as all of the other cities that you see, towns that you've seen in kyiv

region. and mariupol was home to 400,000 of people as well as kharkiv around 1 million of inhabitants. so it's really very painful to imagine what the future is going to bring to us. >> i was just -- you know, we don't know some of the things we haven't seen, right. we don't know what we don't know yet in places like mariupol or in the donbas region. let me ask you this -- we heard at the u.n. the so-called filtration camps. we hear story after story of ukrainians essentially being taken away by russians, those that aren't killed. tell me what have you heard on this? what can you add to these stories? >> yes. first of all, we have the capacity to see what russian has spread to us and the ukrainian side. but of course in ukraine we have the connections. we talk to people in every region. i'm in the southern region and i know a lot of people from the

donbas, which is in the east. of course it is horrible because people watching, they can't -- for weeks being bombed without heat, without food, without water. then they go out and everything they saw were russian soldiers, and russian soldiers that -- nobody needs you, everybody e forgot about you, ukraine doesn't need you anymore, so this is your last chance to get out of the city. they provided some kinds of buses or transport and then take these people out of ukraine to russian territory. and then they check the passports, documents, if these people know people from the ukrainian army, officials, and the worst that i've heard, they even check the body. if ukrainians have some kind of tattoo that would present a

national symbol, something like this. it's very scary. right now in occupied territories, where, for instance, there is no back level in mariupol, they go from home to home. they try to rob the homes. they catch the activists and also go and check the passports so that these people belong to this home, they try to get out if there is someone who is not from this region. so it's really scary everywhere with russians in war affairs. >> let me ask you this -- president zelenskyy said he may have personal conviction or feelings that are different than being the president of ukraine has to have in a moment like this, dealing with having to, whether he likes it or not, perhaps having to negotiate with putin just to end the hot war, if you will. but when you see these

atrocities, i've got to think it makes it harder for anybody to accept. and yet i assume the average ukrainian wants this war to stop. do you expect to be able to live next door to putin for the foreseeable future? >> we've been living next to him for years, and we have decided we have a large border with russia. i understand that president zelenskyy has a lot of personal attitude as every ukrainian does, and he is emotional, it is clear from his speeches. he is very open and wants the world to see all these atrocities and war crimes that are happening. at the same time, he unctions that he has the responsibility to stop this war, and he understands that putin is the only person who can withdraw russian troops from ukrainian territory. and that's why he continues to fight for this ability to have a dialect with putin, and there's why he encouraging this conversation. this is a very civilized approach, though it's very

difficult on a personal level to move with negotiations when you see the death around. >> yeah. when one side is being civilized and the other isn't, it's very hard sometimes to find any common ground. iuliia mendel, former press secretary to president zelenskyy, now in the role of journalist for us. iuliia mendel, thank you for sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you. still to come, as you can see in the box in the corner of your screen, we're keeping a close eye on the white house. we'll hear from former president obama. he'll be appearing with the current president, his former running mate, at i v any moment at a health care event. the first time we'll be seeing the two together here since biden was inaugurated. and the last time they got together on this date talking about health care the first time when it was barack obama and vice president biden, you'll recall the vice president had some colorful words for how big of a deal it was. you?

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insurrection at the capitol. with his announcement, that means 4 of the 10 will not be seeking re-election. the former president said in part, four down and six to go. ironically, a few days ago, my colleague vaughn hillyard sat down with upton to talk about his time in congress and how the targ tet former president put on his back weighed his decision to seek reelection or not. >> is trump a factor for you to not run again? >> it is a little bit in that some of the folks here are so beholden to trump that they don't accept those of us that are willing to stand up. number of people have come to me, colleagues, saying, fred, you can't leave because then trump might think that he pushed you out, you know, gets a win. >> fred upton is a legislator's legislator. he was a guy who went to

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there's a special mayoral contest in kentucky. today's elections have us taking a look at how voters are voting in wisconsin after a state judge recently declared unmonitored ballot drop boxes illegal in today's election. whether that ruling will stand for federal elections this year is pending a ruling in the state supreme court, but at least

today, wisconsin can't place their ballots in unmonitored drop boxes as they have long been accustomed to doing. you put them in regular old mailboxes. the ruling specifies a voter must personally deliver or mail his or her own absentee ballot, making it nearly impossible for some people to vote. shaquille brewster is with us. i have a few questions here. i know probably more than we have time to answer, but is it being enforced? i guess that's the number-one question i have. and the second is, are people not able to vote? >> reporter: its depends where you are. in milwaukee, they don't require a person to confirm they're turning in their own ballot. but other voters in the state said they went to my clerk and say i have my wife's ballot, can

i submit this, my wife has food reconstructive surgery, can't leave. can i mail her ballot or hand that to the clerk and they said they were denied from doing so. that is the consequence of this ruling that a circuit judge made back in january. you mentioned the supreme court here in the state is going to review that, but you have disabled voters who want to participate in this election here now saying they're forced to make a moral dilemma or facing a moral dilemma whether or not they vote and participate in this election or whether they ignore or go ahead and not participate. i want you to listen to my conversation with martha chambers, paralyzed from her neck down about 27 years ago. this is how she put it. >> i should be able to vote. it's my right to vote just like anyone else. and this particular ban goes against my ability to vote by saying that someone has to physically put their ballot in a

mailbox or hand it to someone. >> reporter: she doesn't think the judge was considering people like her when he made his ruling. i alleges talked to the person in the group who led that lawsuit that ultimately led to these changes, elimination of drop boxes statewide. the intent behind the law he says is they want to avoid partisan actors to be able to collect absentee ballots and submit them whenever they wanted to, ballot harvesting as it's called in some areas, but he admitted for cases like martha there may be future litigation or future legislation needed to help correct some of the errors of this circuit court ruling. >> i mean, shaq, the american disabilities act, it's very possible this is in violation of it, pure and simple. >> reporter: that's exactly what the director of the wisconsin -- excuse me, milwaukee elections commission told me.

that is why she has this workaround where she says that her clerks are just not going to check because she'd rather be in violation of, you know, one judge's interpretation of election law, a new berpt station, than being in violation of the americans with disabilities act and the voting rights act. but you know national conversation. people with say martha is voting illegally, when she doesn't physically have a way to hand her ballot to a clerk. >> the whole goal it appears is to shrink turnout, particularly in a place like milwaukee. that is what i've heard today. they're electing a new mayor, new voting rules, we'll have, what, 8 persian of the city decide ing who the new mayor is? also the timing of it. it appears to have had some

impact on turnout, no? >> reporter: yeah. you look back, the primary for this election was back in february. if february drop boxes were still there, the supreme court essentially said that circuit court ruling was on hold for that election. but for the actual general election, that is when the drop boxes are no longer there. so ways that voters were able to participate just two months ago, that's not the case right now. you'll see what happens with the august primary and the november election. a lot of confusion. >> the same election -- >> the same election. different rules. that's supposed to be illegal too. i mean, this could complicate this election, if it's a close election, somebody could essentially say you can't change the rules in the middle of an election like this. it could very well be a grounds for challenging the election results, shaq. >> reporter: yeah. the director of the milwaukee

election said each clerk is in a tough position. she mentioned she's getting letters from the republican party advising her on how her workarounds might not comply with law or at least suggesting that, but she's saying she is doing what she believes is right. but you have different clerks in different areas doing different things. i mean, voters in other parts of the state don't have that same benefit as you're seeing here in milwaukee, especially when, you know -- i spoke to a dbltd rights activist, and she made the point that this is a protected class that any one of us can join at any time. i could have gotten in a car accident on the way here and didn't have the ability to vote. that's why it's such a problem and why it will be looked into. >> congratulations, wisconsin. you've invited a bunch of litigation and only made lawyers money. shaquille brewster on the ground for us in milwaukee. shaq, thanks very much. let me bring in ali vitali. she's covering the white house event, vice president getting

ready to introduce the former president of the united states. ali, let's get to what this is about. are we really to believe this executive order president biden is going to sign is an actual fix or is it a dressed-up press release? >> reporter: fix the family glitch is what they're calling it. effectively we're talking about family members of folks who may have individual coverage available through their employer but their employees cost them all of that extra money when they're put on to that plan. this is for folks whose health care costs them more than 10% of their income. the white house estimates this impacts millions of people and by fixing this glitch they can put 200,000 uninsured americans onto insurance. of course, chuck, this is a moment where they're trying to tout the obama/biden administration, the successes of health care, at a point when in our nbc news poll we know americans are looking at their

cost of living. they are looking at the economy. it's a time of inflation. this is one of the things this white house and the democratic party at large are trying to remind people they want to be seen as the folks bringing down household costs. we've seen this white house try to take steps to alleviate prices at the gas pump overall with inflation and, of course, this is just another reminder of that as they try to set themselves up for a midterm that looks like it's going to be bruising but they try to make it as best they can. >> they're only doing this because they can't get the fix through congress, correct? >> reporter: exactly right this is one of the ways they can do it without having to go through congress. there's more they are trying to put pressure on congress to do. you heard kamala harris saying that. >>i vitali, thank you. >> please welcome barack obama.

>> thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you, everybody. have a seat. have a seat. thank you. vice president biden -- vice president -- [ laughter ] >> that was a joke. that was all setup. my president, joe biden, vice president harris -- [ applause ] our dear friend, madam speaker, nancy pelosi, all the members of

congress who are in attendance today, members of the cabinet, it is good to be back in the white house. it's been a while. i confess i heard some changes had been made by the current president since i was last here. apparently secret service agents have to wear aviator glasses now. [ laughter ] the navy mess has been replaced by a baskin robbins. and there's a cat running around. which i guarantee you bo and sonny would have been very unhappy about. but coming back, even if i have to wear a tie, which i very rarely do these days, gives me a chance to visit with some of the incredible people who serve this white house and who serve this country every single day.

a lot of times in the limelight they make this government function and they help people in ways big and small. and from the outside sometimes people don't understand just how grueling this is. and how many sacrifices people make because those of us who are in front of the cameras oftentimes get the credit. but it's a lot of people who are devoted day in and day out to making this country better that matter. a lot of them are represented here. and that's not just in the west wing, by the way. it's also in the residence. there are a lot of people who looked after our families that i will always be grateful to. it's wonderful to be back to say thank you to all of you. but, most of all, coming back here gives me a chance to say thank you and spend some time with an extraordinary friend and

partner who was by my side for eight years. joe biden and i did a lot together. [ applause ] we helped save the global economy, made record investments in clean energy. we put guardrails on our financial system. we helped turn the auto industry around, repealed don't ask, don't tell. but nothing made me prouder than providing better health care and more protection to people across this country. [ applause ] so when president biden said he

was not going to just celebrate the aca but also announce actions that would make it even better, i had to show up. i think it's been well documented just how difficult it was to pass the aca. [ laughter ] you can get a lot of testimony here in case folks haven't heard. as a country we have been talking about reforming health care for 100 years. unlike almost every other advanced economy on earth we didn't have a system that guaranteed access to health care for all of its citizens. millions of people didn't have health insurance often because their employers didn't provide it or because it was too expensive. but despite the fact that our health care system didn't work well, it was hard to change. health care represents about

one-fifth of our economy. that's trillions of dollars that are involved. so there were a lot of different economic interests that were vying to maintain the status quo. and because the majority of americans did have health care, some people naturally worried they would lose what they had. the media was skeptical of past failures. there was a lot of misinformation, to say the least, flying around. and it's fair to say most republicans showed little interest in working with us to get anything done. that's fair to say. but despite great odds, joe and i were determined because we had met too many people on the campaign trail who shared their stories.

and our own families had been touched by illness. and as i said to our dear friend, harry reid, who is missed -- i wish he was here today because he took great pride in what we did -- i intended to get health care passed even if it cost me re-election, which for a while looked like it might. [ laughter ] but for all of us, for joe, for harry, for nancy pelosi, for others, the aca was an example why you run for office in the first place, why all of you sign up for doing jobs that pay less than you could make some place else. why you're away from home sometimes and you miss some soccer practices or dance recitals because we're not

supposed to do this just to occupy a seat or to hang on to power. we're supposed to do this because it's making a difference in the lives of the people who sent us here. and because of so many people who made enormous sacrifices because members of congress took courageous votes, including some who knew that their vote would likely cost them their seat. because the incredible leadership of nancy and harry, we got the aca across the finish line together. [ applause ] and the night we passed the aca,

i've said it before, it was a high point of my time here because it reminded me and reminded us of what was possible. but, of course, our work was not finished. republicans tried to repeal what we had done again and again and again. and they filed lawsuits that went all the way to the supreme court three times. i see don here who had to defend a couple of them. [ applause ] they tried explicitly to make it harder for people to sign up for coverage. and, let's face it, it didn't help when we first rolled out the aca, the website didn't work. that was not one of my happiest moments. so given all the noise and the controversy and the