change is hard but necessary. progress is never easy. it's always possible. things do get better on our march towards a more perfect union. and at least 40 people including children are dead after a russian missile struck an apartment building in dnipro. a live report coming up this hour. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where nbc news is reporting that president biden is frustrated by the growing scandal over those mishandled classified documents and what the president views as sloppiness by aides who packed his white house office after his vice presidency. this according to three sources familiar with the matter. his irritation growing after five more pages with classification markings were found at his wilmington home on saturday and were turned over to

the justice department, according to the president's personal lawyer. that makes a total of three batches, including at least one marked top secret that were found. though the number of biden documents is far smaller than found in donald trump's possession in mar-a-lago and in biden's case were turned over immediately rather than withheld for more than a year and only recovered by the government after a court-ordered search. republicans are still claiming there is a double standard favoring mr. biden over donald trump. president biden may not have any personal legal exposure, if it turns out his aides mishandled the documents without his knowledge, politically this is becoming a five-alarm crisis. joining me now is monica, matthew, joyce, brendan and jeff. we have a full house today.

all experts in their field. monica, what do we know? you've been reporting on this all weekend, the discovery, the president's frustrations, the growing frustrations as republicans demand a visitor log of the biden delaware home. fill us in on that. >> publicly, president biden has been ignoring reporters questions for now the fourth day in a row. he just returned from delaware in the last few minutes. i along with other reporters tried to shout questions and instead he walked straight to the oval office. privately we know, according to recording alongside my colleagues that the president behind the scenes is very frustrated with the ongoing backlash to this controversy telling people he is particularly irritated of what he does suspect is likely sloppiness by those who packed his items when he left the vice presidency. but he's also pretty frustrated overall with how this has been handled in terms of the response to the news, feeling that there

wasn't always the transparency that was necessary in these moments, even though his personal attorney released a lengthy statement on saturday saying because the investigation is ongoing, the white house can't be as forthcoming on certain things as they may want to be. so this is a president who has always felt, according to these sources, that ethically he's above reproach and tried to maintain that. so the fact that now this moment can undercut that is a real concern for the president who is also worried that some americans as republicans continue to point out the former president's case in terms of mishandling classified information, these are two completely different circumstances. but the president is worried that americans may see some headlines and draw their own conclusions about some possible similarities, even though, again, the volume here is way lower when it comes to what we know so far about these classified documents from his time as vice president compared to mar-a-lago where there was an fbi seizure to recover more than

300 of those classified records after months of former president trump not cooperating with the national archives. house republicans have announced several probes. the one you mentioned in terms of seeking visitor logs from the president's personal home. i'm told by the white house and the u.s. secret service that those logs do not exist in the way that for former presidents -- they're not maintained because they're personal homes. that's not out of the ordinary. so this is something where the secret service does background and security assessments of anybody coming into contact with the first family at his homes in delaware, in wilmington and in rehoboth beach, but it's not something they keep record of. there's a retention schedule on those. eventually they expire. it's important to point out that house republicans want this information, but the white house, services the personal homes does not have this. when you talk about the white house, the white house is quick to point out that they have restored visitor logs here on the campus and they have released those, which is a

difference with the prior administration which had discontinued those. now the president, andrea, is huddling with top aides, trying to figure out how they'll continue responding to this, but for now just continuing to pledge fully with the department of justice and saying now because this is the hands of the special counsel there may not be much more they can address in this moment. >> so, matt, let's break this down. monica has superbly laid out the context and the differences, but also what house republicans are demanding. house republicans seem to be demanding and asking for those visitor logs is some are claiming -- as the oversight chair, you know, in terms of the house republican new weaponization committee, if you will, as members of the judiciary committee, they're asking about those visitor logs because they seem to want to connect the hunter biden probe with this probe. you can see the next request will be for a special counsel on the hunter biden incident.

do you see that coming down the pike as well? >> i think it's very unlikely there will be a special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. the investigator handling that is a holdover u.s. attorney appointed that job by donald trump and merrick garland made clear that basically whatever that u.s. attorney decides he wants to do with that case, within reason, i assume, he will be allowed to do. i think we can expect republicans to make -- to continue to try to make political hay about this, but it's incumbent upon all of us who watch these things and comment on them to inject perspective. not every problem for a white house is a crisis, not every controversy is a scandal. i'm sure the white house would love to go back and have the last week to do over again. they're in a difficult situation where they're trying to achieve two things at once, transparency and completeness. it's hard to be transparent when the information you communicate to the public may not be complete. we saw that as they had to issue updated statements. it's important that we remember that ultimately what would make

this more of a serious issue for the white house is any kind of intent by the president or anyone close to him to have removed these documents. there's no evidence of that. any kind of intent to retain that, not only is there no -- to retain the documents. not only is there evidence of that, there's evidence that when they found them, in every instance reported them to the archives and then the justice department. we always have to remember the context of this situation. when house republicans and others are trying to make comparisons that are not grounded in evidence to point out that that's the case. i suspect the white house now will try hard not to talk about this anymore. they're going to allow the investigation to continue. and i think that's appropriate. if at the end of this investigation everything the white house has said is true, i suspect we'll see it quietly closed and all this will look like a bump in the road. >> well, perhaps, but let's just go back to the beginning, matt and to all the rest of you. the fact is that if they had announced this themselves rather

than having it come out as a leak through the media, they would be in much better shape because they did not announce it in november, two days before the election or three or four days before the election, and, you know, really waited until this came out through the media. doesn't that create a political problem as well as the communications office in the white house has not been terribly adept at pushing back or explaining or contextualizing all of this? joyce, these are political questions, not legal questions. maybe let me bring in brendan to talk about that. >> sure. all the things that matt said may end up being true. i think you lose the benefit of the don't when you don't disclose. my goodness, this was two months after this happened. how do you let democrats get that far out on the limb and i'll just say, just because house republicans are looking into something doesn't make it illegitimate.

there are very -- if you're going to have to answer questions in depth with donald trump, and i understand why you would want to, it's reasonable to ask really serious questions about what happened here. monica's report, it sounded quite trumpy, blaming his staff, blaming his team for not -- how he handled it. he's the president. surely he knew for two months these things were out there, and he didn't do anything about it to disclose it. didn't disclose it a second time when there were more documents. so you lose the den fit of the doubt when you have a bit of a coverup when how this was handled. i think republicans are completely within their right. there's no question that this is a different situation to what donald trump, i don't think we can hold the standard to what donald trump did being a little bit better. clearly he made some big mistakes here and we have the right to ask questions about how it happened. >> what i would also suggest is that this is not a little bit better than donald trump. it's a lot better to have

notified them, the archives the day that they discovered these initial douments and turned them over the next day and it being a handful rather than hundreds, and it being withheld for a year, having subpoenas, ignored subpoenas, signed affidavits that everything had been turned over, and then the fbi search approved by a judge. joyce, let's jump in here. on the one hand and on the other hand you have the possibility of obstruction and a legal issue involving donald trump. and involving joe biden, the real possibility that this was the packers and the aides while he was traveling to switzerland. that is still the possibility that he was legitimately surprised that this took place. >> that's what he says and that's why it's important to have an investigation that people can have confidence in when these sorts of situations

arise. i think you're absolutely correct, there's nothing public at the moment that suggests joe biden has criminal complicity, but it's a serious matter any time classified documents are spilled like this and the american people are entitled to an investigation. that's what they're getting. there's a former trump united states attorney who will lead the special counsel's investigation into joe biden. that should give people confidence in the result that he arrives at. ironically, though, you also have someone who served -- though briefly -- asting u.s. attorney during the trump administration now as the special counsel leading the review of donald trump. there's a little bit of a double standard at play there. this notion you have to have a republican involved in the biden administration but donald trump is somehow entitled to that as well. i think that gets at what my concerns are here. these two situations are not alike.

trump did engage in obstruction of justice, he did claim the documents were his and refused to turn them over forcing doj to get a search warrant to get them back. that's different from what we know about joe biden's conduct so far. >> that said, of course -- i just want to, you know, also make it clear, we don't know the facts. now, joyce and to all of you, the lawyers for the president, for the current president, and former vice president, said they wanted to avoid the appearance of interfering with the justice department investigation. that also happened to conveniently also get them past the election and not having announced it right away, and then not announcing it again until it turned out to be leaked. jeff mason, talk about the political fallout. here you had, you know, joe biden on a high, having scored better than expected midterm, far better, held the senate, some significant legislative

achievements, bipartisan achievements and about to announce his -- what we leave from all of our sourcing was going to be a bid for re-election despite his age and despite some concerns within the party, he was the leading candidate. now what? >> now what, indeed. i don't think this upends his timeline or his plan for running for re-election. it does stop the momentum. >> i think we have a problem with jeff mason's camera. let me bring this back to brendan. from all of the reporting, there is a political problem here, and all that they can count on is that the house republicans will overreach. >> that's right. and there's a good chance that house republicans will overreach. i don't know that this will derail the president's re-election.

i think it helps donald trump more than it hurts joe biden. there were a lot of people -- still are a lot of people who are expecting a potential indictment on the way that donald trump handled these documents. of course, the situations are different, we'll have to see what happened in this one. you have to remember, republicans and donald trump in particular have been conditioning republican voters for year that the department of justice and the fbi are out to get him. they're somehow corrupt. if they don't see a clear transparent handling of that -- at least of these two situations handled somewhat similarly, they'll run with that and show this is more evidence that they're just out to get him. this is the latest, freshest example of why we believe donald trump was too reckless to be in the oval office again. if they can say credibly to republican voters, here they go again, they're out to get me, that's the stuff donald trump feeds off of, it's part of his

brand, and people are conditioned to believe it. >> monica, from my reporting as well as your reporting i believe and our white house team, a lot of this criticism of the white house communications on this is coming from democrats, not just from democrats. democrats are unnerved about how ham-handed it seems, correct? >> absolutely. even on "meet the press" yesterday it was called embarrassing given the past criticism former biden has thrown at trump calling him grossly irresponsible. now you see there's questions now about how he handled this information, it doesn't make it easy from a communications perspective, though again, democrats are defending how quickly the biden team cooperated and was able to hand the information over, drawing those major distinctions from former president trump's case and in the mar-a-lago matter. >> thank all of you. the president, the former vice

president, is getting ready to speak at today's very important martin luther king, jr. ceremony. let's watch. >> quite frankly, thank you for your partnership. you have been a good friend for a long time. it's an honor to spend the king holiday with the national action network and with the king family. i understand, you know, martin iii, congratulations, the honorees including your wife who i understand has a birthday today? look, my wife has a rule in our family. when it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday. ready? ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ happy birthday dear -- happy

birthday to you ♪♪ well, it's hell turning 30, but you got to put up with it. nancy pelosi, who i think is literally, not figuratively, the greatest house speaker in american history. true champion for the dignity of workers. everyone here, from the civil rights community and congress, it's wonderful to be with you on this special day. yesterday morning, what would have been dr. king's 91st birthday, i attended services at ebenezer. it was deeply meaningful and moving for me. it was because we face another inflection point in our nation's history. one that's going to determine what this country looks like several decades from now. you know, this is a time for choosing. will will we choose democracy

over atcrocacy, love over hate? these are the questions of our time and dr. king's life shows us the way forward. we just have to look back and be prepared. with all of you here, together we made some important progress. two years ago our economy was on its back, flat on its back. people were hurting, particularly minority communities. black americans and other people of color were disproportionately hit. kamala and i acted decisively with the help of people in this room, not only to rescue the economy from a pandemic downturn but to lay the foundation for a stronger, more resilient and more equitable economy for decades to come. one of the things i wanted to -- this is a slight digression, one of the big issues with the pandemic, i wanted to make sure that we spent the time,est and had the mechanism to make sure

that minority communities were not left behind. that were not left in the lurch. the highest percentage of workers in the minority communities were treated -- it was a single effort we had, and i'm very proud of the folks who ran that show that we got it done. we got it done. you know, i'm of the view and have been my whole career, which is only a couple years, i know. i know i don't look that way, but i'm tired of trickle-down economics. you and i have never liked it, have we? and i think the economy, the way it should grow in america is from the bottom up and the middle out. that way poor folks have a shot, middle class people do well, and the wealthy still do very well. they still do very well. but they start to pay their pair share. two years in, it's clearer than ever that i think our economic plan is working. we've created nearly 11 million

jobs, the strongest job growth on record for any president at this point in history. the unemployment rate is the low the it's been in 50 years. black unemployment is near record lows. wages for black workers are up, two strongest years ever for small business creation, including black small businesses. across the board, american families have a bit more breathing room, more black americans have health insurance than ever in american history. as of the first -- the 1st of january, our legislation is kicking in from last year. insulin now is capped at $35 a month for seniors on medicare, instead of paying up to hundreds of dollars a month. big pharma under the law we finally got passed with not much help from the other team, big pharma is in a situation where

if they rise -- if they raise a drug price beyond the rate of inflation, they're going to pay stiff penalties for doing so. that's a fact. so, we're trying to bring things under control. we're seeing the same progress on energy, on energy costs. folks can get tax credits when they install energy efficient appliances in their homes like dishwasher dishwashers, heat pumps, vehicles. we have cancer alley in louisiana or route 9 in my homestate where the refineries are. we're making sure these communities have a cleaner, safer environment and the jobs that are going to clean up the environment are going to go to the folks in that community. good-paying jobs. they'll get the jobs.

folks, these are all pieces of a big, new law we passed. now they're kicking in. americans can start to feel the benefits of these laws in their every-day lives. but that's not all. we're implementing a once in a generation infrastructure law with equity at its center. i mean that sincerely, with equity at its center. my justice 40 initiative means 40% of all the benefits in this infrastructure law, which is over a trillion $200 billion over the next ten years, those benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged and underserved communities. 70% of new infrastructure investments for shifting to electric school buses have gone to disadvantaged communities where kids are not breathing that polluted air from diesel buses. so 70% has done to minority communities. we're modernizing roads, bridges

and airports across the country and we're beginning to replace every poisonous lead pipe in america. every single one. we're already started. so every american can turn on a faucet at home or at school and drink clean water. a significant number of minority communities cannot access high speed internet. we'll make sure every community has access to affordable, high-speed internet so no parent has to drive to mcdonald's parking lot to have their kid sign up for a connection to do their homework. by the way, it's going to create millions of jobs. folks, look, speaking of education, instead of photo-ops, i know i've spent a lot of time -- some here from delaware know i'm a big delaware state guy, i went to the university of

delaware, but my political foundation is delaware state college, hbcu. i said i would help hbcus. they are as competent as everyone else, but they don't have the laboratories, the funding because they don't have the endowments to build the laboratories for these good, new paying jobs. we delivered nearly 6 billion in funding for hbcus to invest in the next generation of black leaders. look, to help close the wealth gap, the racial wealth gap, undersecretary fudge is leading the effort. we're expanding efforts to build black generational wealth like every other person. how did they build it? homes. investment in homes. if you build -- in the last 25 years, if you build a housing

development on one side of an interstate highway and you build the same one on the opposite side, and one is predominantly black and the other is predominantly white, guess what? the value of the exact same home built by the exact same builder is more valuable on the white side of that highway than on the black side. that's a fact. we'll aggressively combat racial discrimination in housing including working to restore the rule that says if a community gets a federal housing aid, it's not enough to say it won't discriminate. it has to be meaningful, affirmative steps to overcome patterns of segregation and give everybody a fair shot that lives there. the same -- by the way, if you're living in one of those neighborhoods and you have the same car i have in the other neighborhood, you pay more for your insurance on that side. no basis for it. none at all other than you're black and i'm white. we're also working with leaders to strengthen programs to redress the negative impacts of

red lining. one of the things as a young county councilman, that almost lost me an election, i'm proud of it, trying to take care of redlining and get rid of discrimination. we're announcing a $1 billion pilot project that nancy made sure got passed, thank you, to help reconnect communities where highways have physically been broken up and locked out predominantly black communities from opportuiies of economic growth. in the city of wilmington, delaware, i-95 goes up what used to be a predominantly black neighborhood. now you have seven, eight, nine lanes, exits, on-ramps, off-ramps that divide the community. it lost its coherence. there's remediation money in the infrastructure bill to be able

to pave over that, so there's a tunnel and put parkland in there, recreational facilities in there, community centers in there. finally, we're addressing the cruel fact that black families homes appraise at lower values than homes owned by white families. black small businesses a the engines and economic grew of any community. restaurants, law firms, barbershops, beauty shops, those are the folks who hold the community together. they sponsor the little league, the church events, they sponsor the local volunteer fire company. they keep a community going. well, to hold that community together we need to encourage more of that. so i'm proud i signed into law that permanently authorizes the minority small business development initiative, the first time in our history.

it gives expanded authority to help more black-owned businesses grow. my administration oversees hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts from refurbishing the deck of an aircraft carrier to rails in a federal building. there's a law that was passed in the late '30s that said if you, in fact, are going to spend taxpayer dollars then the president has to authorize where that's spent, it should be spent on american made products by american businesses. well, guess what? we're doing it. and an awful lot of people are going to work. folks, in that, when we awarded those contracts, i made a commitment increasing from what is now roughly 10% of those contracts going to minority businesses to 15%, to 15% by

2025. and the share of those dollars will go to small businesses, disadvantaged businesses including black and brown-owned businesses. that will mean an additional $100 billion going into creation of small businesses. $100 billion. we're making sure the wealthiest and biggest corporations finally start paying their fair share. far from it so far. you know, if you hold -- we are talking about -- you heard me say, and i apologize for repeating it, there's over 55 companies in the fortune 500 companies that made $40 billion in 2022. i mean 2021. you know how much they paid in taxes? zero. if you're a local cop, firefighter or nurse, you will pay 24% to 26%. they're paying zero.

we increased the corporate minimum tax, i want to go back at it, to increase the tax to 15%. that's not a whole lot for some of these major corporations, but no one earning less than $400 a year pays a single penny more in taxes, but 15% seems to be to be a bare minimum when corporations are making tens of billions of dollars. we are making this progress and at the same time reducing the deficit. they talk about big-spending democrats -- guess what? i reduced the deficit last year, $350 billion. this year, federal deficit is down $1 trillion plus dollars. hear me. that's a fact. it's going to be hundreds of billions reduced over the next decade. these guys are the -- fiscally -- fiscally demented, i

think. they don't quite get it. to deliver equal justice under the law, we're building a federal bench with judges that reflect all of america. your dad talked about give me -- give me judges, we'll straighten things out. fair judges. guess what? you probably heard of a lady called ketanji brown jackson. i made a commitment to you, al, i said i'm going to appoint the first black woman to the supreme court and she's about the smartest one of all of them, i might add. by the way, we have appointed more black women to the federal circuit courts than every other president in american history combined. every single president combined. by the way, have you seen dick durbin from illinois? thank him. thank him. he got them through. so many of you work so hard to

pass the george floyd and policing act, but since the senate republicans blocked it last year, i did the only thing i could do. i signed a historic executive order that included key elements of that bill at the federal level. bans chokeholds, creates a national database for officer misconduct that must be placed in the national database to tighten use of force policies, to emphasize de-escalation. we have to retrain cops. why should they always shoot for deadly force? if you need to use your weapon, you don't have to do that. to call a fresh approach to recruit and how we recruit, how we hire, how we train, how we promote and retain law enforcement. they come from the neighborhoods they serve and know the people they're charged to protect. i know a lot of people say community policing is not a good idea. come to wilmington, delaware,

the old neighborhood i used to work in in the east side, the buckhead, they need protection. they're asking for protection, but they want cops who are fair, they want cops who know their communities, they want cops who will do it by the numbers. that's tied to more community policing and advancing public trust and safety. that's also why about a month after buffalo and uvalde, and i visited both, i signed the first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years. i'll say what i said then and i'll say it over and over again. i am going to get assault weapons banned. i did it once, i'll do it again. there's no social redeeming value. deer are not wearing kevlar vests out there. i'm serious. and ban the number of bullets

that can go in a mmagazine. there's no need for any of that. i love my right-wing friends who talk about the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots. if you need to take on the federal government, you need some f-15s, you don't need an ar-15. i'm serious. think about it. think about the rational for this. it's about money. money, money, money. meanwhile, we're making historic investments in community violence interventions. studies have shown they reduce violent crime up to 60%. we've seen this kind of impact in baltimore and sacramento. even if i didn't want to do this, i would be in real trouble, my daughter is a social worker, this is what she does. if i didn't, i would be in real trouble with my ashley. you think i'm joking, i'm not joking. one other thing about equal

justice, i'm keeping my promise no one should be in federal prison for the mere possession of marijuana. no one. in addition to that, they should be released from prison and completely pardoned and their entire record expunged so that if they have to ask have you ever been -- you can honestly say no. folks, i just signed legislation to empower the fcc to cap the cost of phone calls from prison. prison. prisoners and incarcerated people. it's a step that allows for dignity. a lot of federal prisoners are put in prisons and they shouldn't be, far from where they live. thee should be able to communicate with their families, with their children.

we brought brittney griner home just in time for christmas. we have more to bring home as well. last year, i also held the first of its kind white house summit against hate-fueled violence that many of you called for and supported. rev, thank you for that as well. together, we're saying out loud, and we're saying it clearly, that in america, hate will not prevail. as my dad used to say, it's not original to him, he would say joey, silence is complicity. silence is complicity. we cannot remain silent even if all we're doing is pointing it out and putting pressure on things to change. silence is complicity. for example, with your help i signed a law, 100 years in the making, to finally making lynching a federal hate crime.

the silence, as your dad said, a crying voice of little emmett till, screaming from the rushing mississippi. folks, it takes too long. you just saw me at the bill signing for other victories, to enshrine marriage equality into law. to make juneteenth the first new federal holiday. the idea, if you can hold it a second here, the idea that we're supposed to remain silent on the -- on the abuses of the past, as if they didn't occur? that's not being woke. that's being honest. that's talking about history. folks, we have a lot of unfinished work to do, though. a lot of unfinished work.

we have to keep building on it and defend our progress because this new congress -- this new congress -- look, i know i get criticized from some of you and folks in our party, my party, but i'm ready to work with a new republican house on any republican congress to make progress for the people of america. but like many americans, i was disappointed to see the very first bill that the house republicans -- nancy, you were probably rolling over when you saw it -- are bringing to the floor would help the wealthy people and big corporations cheat on their taxes at the expense of ordinary middle class taxpayers. all these new irs ascents we have is because they fired a lot of them. a lot are retiring. guess what? who needs serious agents to know what they're doing and not doing? the billionaires.

the multi-multimillionaires. according to non-partisan congressional budget office this one bill alone will add $114 billion to the deficit. this is their first bill, and they campaigned on inflation? they didn't say if elected the plan was to make inflation worse. plus house republicans introduced another bill on the strategic petroleum reserve blocking action that would help lower gasoline prices and help consumers. they're preparing to vote on a third bill, they want a national sales tax. let me say this again, i know if i said that you would say what is biden making up here. they want to raise the tax on middle glass by taxing thousands of items, cutting taxes for the wealthiest because they want to supplant the money lost from taxes on the millionaires and billionaires with a sales tax on

virtually everything in the country. what in god's name is that all about other than what is obvious. they want working class folks to be paying another 10%, 20% in their taxes depending on where they live and how they spend the money and they're going to -- and reduce taxes for the super wealthy. now, if we didn't see it, you would think we're making this stuff up. if i told you in 2023 a party was going to run on a national sales tax, that's how they're starting their new term. cutting taxes for billionaires -- by the way, the number of billionaires went up during the recession. up. they didn't go down. they went up. raising taxes on working families, making inflation worse. let me be clear, if any of these bills happen to reach my desk, i will veto them.

any of them. what i was saying during this last election cycle, the next thing everybody said they have to be making this up. they're going to try to continue to try to cut social security or medicare, which americans have been paying into with every single paycheck they earned since they got their first job and they were 16 years old. but if republicans want to work together on real -- they want to -- they'll argue that the thing is that for them to be sustained, you'll have to change the way in which it works. instead of putting more money in to guarantee social security, they'll kind of cut social security. cut medicare. look, if they want to work together on real solutions to lower inflation, create jobs, build an economy that works for everybody. i'm ready. one more thing, i don't want to hear a word from the other side

about my student debt relief plan. let me tell you why i say that. it's going to help tens of millions of folks, folks on pell grants or hit financially because of the pandemic, 70% of black college students receive pell grants. for many black students the saving will be significant, my debt relief plan, including wiping out their student debt completely. that's a real game changer. by the way, it will increase economic growth, not diminish it. the other side is dead set against it. these are the same folks who didn't have any problem at all, any problem at all during the pandemic to vote for and make sure they get this so-called pandemic relief loans. we all supported it. guess what? a lot of these folks in the congress on the republican side

were beneficiaries of these debt relief loans. to the tunes of tens of millions of dollars. not individually, i think the highest individual one was 1.2 million or something. i didn't hear a word. i did not hear a word from them about they shouldn't be getting that relief. we didn't limit how much. we said if you have a loss and it was legitimate in business, then you get to wipe it away. and they're complaining about some kid being able to take away $20,000 of student debt that keeps him and his wife or his husband or her husband from buying a home or starting a business or just get going? or the same folks who are going after us, they voted for the tax benefits for the wealthiest and biggest corporations that weren't paid for. the trump tax cut was well over -- almost $2 trillion. not a penny of it was paid for.

so, give me a break. give me a break. currently the only thing blocking my plan is them suing us. my administration is making the case to the supreme court -- and i'm confident -- confident i have the legal authority to carry out our plan. you know me, i said you had my back, i aid i'd have yours on this one and so much more. i have your back. we got to stand together. we got to stand together including protecting a woman's right to choose. we have to continue to fight for racial justice. we got to cut black child poverty. we cut it in half in 2021 because of the child tax credit. we should be permanently be cutting it. now i need your help to make it permanent. i was pleased to see democrats and republicans working together to pass the electoral count reform act to protect the will of the people.

nancy, thank you for getting that done. and a peaceful transfer of power. we have to get the votes in congress for the john lewis voting right advancement act and the freedom to vote act. that's why i went to atlanta a year ago to make cheer we cannot let the filibuster be an obstacle to the sacred right to vote. many of you have been working on these issues for a long time. over the past two years we've gotten an awful lot done together. let's keep it going. we have the most vibrant economy in the world right now, in the world. we're doing better than any other major nation in the world today. that's what -- that's what i thought about yesterday at ebenezer, and that inflection point in history we're at. the path is clear, to go forward we need to go together. let's be guided by dr. king's light and by the charge of scripture which is let us never

grow weary in doing what is right, for if we do not give up, we will reap our harvest in due time. we're going to reap the harvest. let's remember who we are. we are the united states of america and there's nothing beyond our capacity. nothing, nothing, nothing if we do it together. so, god bless you all. god bless the king family, and, ladies and gentlemen, may god protect our troops. thank you so very much. ♪♪ >> president biden paying tribute to dr. martin luther king, jr. on what would have been dr. king's 94th birthday saying this is a time for choosing democracy over autocracy, community over chaos, love over hate. these are the questions of our time that i ran as president and

tried to answer. this is a clear illusion to a perspective run for re-election. joining me is the president and ceo of the national urban league. mark, very good to see you. >> good afternoon. good to be with you. >> a day of service, as it has been, you know, interpreted throughout the united states and really globally. >> a lot of community projects taking place, but an important day for the nation to reaffirm its commitment to dr. king's vision and his principles, which i believe are as relevant today as ever before given the times in which we live, the circumstances we face, the attacks on democracy, the rise in hate crimes, the legitimatization of extremism. dr. king's message is so important. i'm encouraging all the young people in my family to go to youtube and listen to dr. king's mountaintop speech. listen to his words on a day like today.

we have to celebrate this day, yes, with service but a reaffirmation and understanding as to what he stood for. >> i know we talked -- you have a son in college. how many children do you have? >> three children. grown daughter, who is married with first granddaughter. >> congratulations. >> 20-year-old son at u penn and a 17-year-old daughter who is a junior in high school. you know, we try -- i look at them and we all try to instill in our young people some sense of values around justice, but also the responsibility they have to work to serve and to push, if you will, the fight for american justice and democracy forward. >> now, how frustrating is it to you as a father and grandfather now, andrea waters-king whose birthday it is today, we heard that little off-tune rendition of happy birthday led by the

president, but martin luther king iii's wife, who is a leader of the movement, she on "morning joe" spoke about the frustration she and other people feel, people of color, white and black people, that we're moving backwards in many ways, not only is dr. king's dream not being realized, but we are losing the rights for women, losing to the -- to the people pushing hate, anti-semitism, anti-asian rhetoric. >> it's frustrating because i'm from a generation of -- my parents were civil rights warriors, fighters and activists, and much of our generation was built on the promise that the vision of a more just and integrated america would define our lives. so it is disconcerting sometimes

angering -- many times angering to see the assault that's taking place on voting, on democracy, on women, and to see that notwithstanding the great prosperity of thisnation. too many americans are struggling's yes, we have those in poverty, and the poor, but people who work every day. many times women who leave families struggling just to make ends meet to pay rent, to pay a mortgage, to be able to take care of their basic responsibilities. that is frustrating, but that is why dr. king's birthday is a continuation of a call to action. that we have to work for these -- work on these issues, and we have to build bridges around these issues, but there's an undercurrent in this country, and i think the trump years unleashed it, the normalization of hate, distrust, extremism,

racism, anti-semitism, and we cannot be silent. to be silent, to be accepting of it is absolutely the way to -- we have to fight back. >> how difficult for young people, "to keep hope alive" as jesse would say? >> in 2020 we saw young people take to the streets. we saw young people become activists. i think that spirit has to continue, and there's got to be an understanding, and this is how we educate young people. that activism for six months, eight months or a year is not enough. that it's got to be a continuation. activism has to not only continue but it's got to lead its way into the political system. it's got to lean its way into

the classrooms of america, to college campuses of america, to boardrooms of america, to the houses of faith in america. that sense that we're at an inflection point that senses that we're in a fight that we've got to work for a 21st century america that we can be proud of. these are tough and demanding times, but i do believe that there is this powerful coalition of people out here. this powerful cross-section of people who do, do embrace what dr. king stood for and are committed to working for it every day. >> it all brings back the way those of us who were adults at the time remember april 3rd and the, the great speech that he was giving, which sounded in some ways eerily -- let's take a listen. >> like anybody i would like to live a long life, longevity has

its place, but i'm not concerned about that now. i just want to do god's will, and he has allowed me to go up to the mountain, and i've looked over, and i've seen the promised land. i may not get there with ya, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land! >> your parents were -- tell me what it was like as a young person to -- >> i was 10. >> yeah. >> my mom was a classmate of dr. king's at bu in the '50s. i remember when the news came on television. i remember her shriek, and hurrying to the telephone. i guess to call my father, to

call her friends. i remember the sense of tension, that this was, this moment, and, of course, this is five years after the death of john f. kennedy. this is three years after the assassination of malcolm x. this is five years after the assassination of medgar evers so a sense that all of those civil rights leaders, their lives were being threatened and under attack and shot and killed. i remember that moment, and i remember -- the sense of -- despair in the country. the sense of despair in my family of this tremendous loss of this great man and the impact, we can look back now. it did not kill the movement. it dampened the fire of that movement, and it's been up to so many since then to try to carry it on, to try to build it, to

try to encourage others, and that's -- andrea, the fight today. i want to encourage people to remember dr. king wasn't an idle dreamer but a man of action. we need to be people of access. >> action. >> i can't think of anything better's tonight, a national day of racial healing, an msnbc town hall live from new orleans discussing hate speech across america and how we have to make strides toward becoming a more just and equitable society. that's tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc, and streaming on peacock. meanwhile, in ukraine at least 40 people have died including three children. 75 people injured over the weekend after a russian missile strike. rescuers looking for more survivors in the rubble after one of the most deadliest attacks against civilian targets

since the war began almost a year ago. bringing in retired general, former deputy commander of u.s. european command. general, thank you very much. talk to me about the war and any thoughts you might also have on the way the military fostered quality uniquely in our country on this most important day? >> yeah, andrea. it's great to be with you on this very important day, and, you know, as i heard mark morrell speak there, i'm a retired three-star general, and i would not be here today if it was not for dr. martin luther king. so i never take that for granted. i grandfather served in a segregated army, and he told me before he passed away, you know, if you serve perhaps you'll be a

sergeant one day but i ended up surpassing that because of dr. king and ended up a three-star general. i want to break and talk about ukraine. my certain as we hit here today is what's happening any the russians and belarus as they start these drills. that's going to cause the ukrainians to look in three different ways. in the south where they're currently fighting in-person. in the east currently fighting for soledar, and on their border there, they have a thousand-mile border with belarus and russians are going through training drills with the belarusians this week and so they have to watch that, because we're near the anniversary and the russians may have a plan to come across that border and attack kyiv again. >> and that is really alarming,

an alarming thought briefly, before we hit the end of our program today, on saturday britain announced first to give western battle tanks to ukraine. do you expect others can or should follow suit? >> i hope so. yes. uk offered up 14 challenger tanks and the pols would like to give leopard tank as well and trying to get germany to approve that. the germans build the leopard, but what is needed is for the capability the for ukraine to have over-max over the russians's 14 will not do it. what we really need to do is have all the alliance behind getting more armor into ukraine, and in many cases that is a risk to these countries, because they're worried about their own national security and their own forces to be able to retain that

pc equipment, but it is a balance that i think that we really need to strongly take a hard look at in order to provide the sufficient amount of armor to the ukrainians. >> we only have about 30 seconds left. do you think that we should overcome our reluctance to upset the russians and give them long-range utility and jet fighters? >> yes, i agree. at this point, you can see what the russians are doing. they're pounding the ukrainian infrastructure. they're killing civilians, and we must do something to break this. the fighters jets, apache helicopters, any kind of attack helicopters. the armor, everything needs to go in there to break this overmass, and we can get this war over. >> general twitty, thank you so much for everything you've done.

used to train ukrainian soldiers back in the '90s and all that training has certainly paid off in the way they've performed. again, thank you. thanks so much, general. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports" follow us online and on twitter. chris jansing will be here right after these messages. good day i'm chris jansing live in msnbc head equarters in new york city. political and ethical problems facing democrats and republicans growing deeper by the day. more pages of classified material found at the president's home, more head-scratching reports about republican congressman george santos' questionable behavior as his party looks the other way. where does all of it lead? plus, president biden honoring the legacy of martin luther king jr., toung