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bingo. >> good morning. it's 11 a.m. eastern, 8 a.m. pacific. i'm ali vitali in for jose diaz-balart. and any moment now, president trump is set to deliver remarks from the oval office. we're going to bring that to you once we have those remarks. but it comes on the heels of a brand new jobs report giving us the first snapshot of the state of our economy under a second trump administration in february, the economy added 151,000 jobs fewer than expected, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% from 4%. the report comes after large scale federal layoffs and after the president put the brakes on his sweeping tariffs, making temporary exemptions for some canadian and mexican goods. joining us now, nbc's vaughn hillyard at the white house and nbc's christine romans. vaughn, we'll start with you. what do we know about these remarks? you got to imagine the white house is going to be trumpeting something in this jobs report, right?

>> we actually don't know the basis of these remarks. they were not on the book until about 20 minutes ago here. so we expect any moment the cameras from the pool to be allowed inside of the oval office. we will not be getting that in real time, but we'll be passing notes along as they come out from there. we'll then have the video a few minutes after that camera leaves the oval office here. of course, this comes just hours after this jobs report, which shows hiring in the united states cooling. this is a moment here for president trump, where his direct economic policies and tariff implementation have hurt not only the stock market, but also commodities prices and caused forecasts for economic growth to slow. this for the trump administration has been a clear cut decision and an understanding that there are going to be consequences to the economy. you heard from president trump earlier this month when he, in his speech to the joint session of congress, suggested that there would be moments of discomfort for americans economically here, and we are starting to see some of

that. so the question here is, is he going to go forward with another executive order, try to explain the decisions that he and his administration have made. and then some, like the tariffs between canada and mexico related to the usmca, that he has rolled back in just 24 hours. is this going to be a moment here for the president to attempt heading into the weekend to try to stem some concerns among not only economic forecasters, but americans at large, about the direction of this economy at such an important time heading into the spring. >> well, christine vaughn mentions there the discomfort that the white house has acknowledged that discomfort felt so keenly in the federal sector. can you drill down for us on the amount of layoffs coming from the federal government? what does it tell us? and i think remind people that this is only a snapshot of early february. so a lot of the firing that doge has done might not appear in these numbers yet. yeah, just the tip of. >> the spear, really. you saw 10,000 net loss of federal jobs in these numbers. and we expect those numbers to get bigger and

bigger and bigger in the months ahead, because just the way they capture the numbers, the firings have just have just really started. and we know they're bigger than 10,000. so that will be a point to really watch, to see how the doge firings are filtering through those numbers. but there's a lot more than just that going on. you've got tariffs and you've also got an administration that is trying to fundamentally remake america's role in the world and role in trade. that will have implications. no, no question. and we're just the beginning of that as well. i would say these numbers overall seem solid. they're a lot like what we saw late last year in the biden administration. but the biden economy is transitioning now to the trump economy. and the trump economy is very, very different with a lot of transitions and chaos in the very near term here. >> yeah, christine, the chaos, the unpredictability has very much become a feature, not a bug of this administration. vaughn, you and i know from being on the campaign trail with the president for almost a decade that the unpredictability is something that he often uses as a silver lining or a selling point to the way that he likes

to negotiate. we're certainly seeing that when it comes to tariffs. we've seen the president and the white house threaten tariffs and at each turn say there's nothing that anyone can do to call us off of this or make us roll it back. and yet at each turn, we've seen them offer pauses or carve outs. in this case, it's carve outs and walk backs on certain goods from mexico and canada. so what's behind the reversal, and how long is this posture on carve outs in the auto industry, for example, going to last? >> right. i think actually scott benson, the treasury secretary's interview, lengthy interview on cnbc was very indicative of what the cabinet is wrestling with when it comes to the type of decision making from president trump that you noted, one that is often spontaneous, rash on the spot and can change from day to day. and that's where scott bessent was asked on cnbc about what the strategy from this administration is. and on one hand, he said that these were organic decisions, effectively

acknowledging that day by day, week by week, the administration is making their calculus based off of the responses of other countries and corporations and the decisions that are being made by some of these major companies, and the extent to which they will increase manufacturing here, or the extent to which they were looking at me, looking at economic barometers to make their decisions in the days and weeks that follow. but then you also heard secretary bessent follow and double down that president trump, when he was a candidate in 2023 and 2024, repeatedly said that he would go forward with major tariffs and promised to implement tariffs that are even higher than those that he's already placed on the likes of china and mexico and canada. so effectively coming to the defense of the administration, saying that the american people voted for policies, that president trump was very open publicly talking about on the campaign trail and interviews and now executing on

those promises. >> yeah, very much believe him when he says he's going to do it. that's very much the theme of this administration, christine. even if the delay on some of these tariffs, though, provide a temporary reprieve, what is the broader impact here on the economy? let's say, for example, that the auto industry carveouts that are extended for about a month don't get extended after that. i know a lot of folks on capitol hill who have been lobbying for carveouts like that explain why. >> and the president yesterday very clearly said, don't come to me and ask for another delay. they're going to happen in april. so he is still saying more tariffs are coming. you know, when i talk to people in the auto industry, they are very, very unnerved, concerned. and as one ceo told me, one president of an auto parts company told me, he says we're exposed. they're exposed to steel and aluminum tariffs that are going to go on next week, which will raise their costs. and they're exposed to these tariffs on the auto parts that cross back and forth across the border several times. they're exposed to that next month as well. so they're concerned. and

that means are you going to hire a bunch of new people. are you going to open up a new plant when you don't know exactly what's coming down the pike in the next 30 days? no you're not. these are supply chains with very, very long planning times. and so the disruption and the uncertainty certainly has a dampening effect on that kind of economic activity. and i will also say that there are a bunch of tariffs that are already on 20% tariffs on china. don't forget those are on and there are tariffs on canada and mexico right now. and the things that aren't in the president's trade agreement that he himself negotiated. and now apparently seems like he doesn't like that deal that he made. so there are tariffs that will be filtering through the economy, that tariffs mean higher prices in the supply chain. >> yeah. christine, you're referencing there the usmca, which was one of the hallmark trade agreements that the trump administration did the first time around. i wonder, christine, if you could talk about if you're pulling out your crystal ball as we wait here for the president to give these remarks, what would you have seen in this jobs report that

would make the white house feel good enough to go out and potentially talk about jobs, talk about something else. but if this were jobs focused, what do you think they would be trumpeting in this kind of a report? >> well, you see that february job creation was a little bit above january. so that meant that hiring actually increased. if you're measuring the number of net new jobs a little bit from january to february. so that's one thing they may want to talk about. the unemployment rate at 4.1%. it did tick up, but it is still historically a pretty low here. remember we've we've talked about this a lot. you've had two gangbusters year years in the stock market and in the jobs market. and frankly that is an inheritance, you know, inheritance that has been passed into this administration. so they've got a very good base to work from. the question is what do these very severe and dramatic changes that donald trump wants to make in the us economy, what do they do to

these sort of bottom line. pretty pretty much blue ribbon numbers that they have to work with. >> von christine is referencing the wholesale way that trump is trying to remake the economy. certainly we're seeing that on the tariffs front, but we're also seeing that within washington and within the federal government. doge has been really one of the central focuses of this administration, led by elon musk. i wonder if we could bring in a little bit of the politics to this, too, because when you see the president saying on truth social that he's met with cabinet members and that they're the ones who get to run their department, and that elon musk is just going to be in sort of an advisory capacity. trump also used language like they're using a scalpel, not a hatchet. it does feel like there might be some awareness there from within the white house and from the president himself of the chainsaw method that doge and musk using maybe not being good for public sentiment or for the government. >> right. and in polling, we've seen the reticence among broad scope of the american public, not just democrats, but almost by a 2 to 1 margin, independents

as well toward doge and elon musk's efforts within the federal government. and yet again, i think we should come back to the fact that the defense of elon musk and the broader effort that they have deployed here is that they promised to do exactly this on the campaign. at the same time, we have seen these litany of legal lawsuits, some of which have inhibited their ability to fully go forward, for example, with the termination of probationary employees. and we have seen much of these lawsuits be caught up because of the decision making power and where those decisions are coming from, not necessarily from agency and department heads, but from elon musk, the special government employee. and we have seen judges indicate that that is outside of his purview. and so i think there's the political question you ask about, to what extent is elon musk actually going to be reined in? is, is

potentially his direct power could be limited. and that's where, though i think that we have seen very little evidence that his indirect, influential power is going to be limited at all. he can still go on social media, he can still speak out publicly and urge the likes of secretary rubio or secretary hegseth or secretary duffy to implement or execute on certain staff workforce reductions or policy implementations outside of it, without necessarily being the one to directly make those things happen. from the executive office, the eisenhower building. but i think that that is where a lot of those questions moving forward are going to be. but so far, outside of the social media posts from president trump, we've seen little actual efforts to try to rein in his power. >> yeah, i think that's exactly right. plus, as we're tracking what the president has said about it, it's important to remark that the president also said if cabinet secretaries don't do a good enough job or they don't do it the right way, that musk can still come in and sort of correct them on their

course. a lot for us to be tracking there. christine and vaughn stay with us because we are still waiting for those remarks from the president. we'll bring you back, of course, when we hear them. but earlier this week, president trump spoke directly to farmers about the tariffs that he's putting on during his joint address to congress. >> it may be a little bit of an adjustment period. we had that before when i made the deal with china, $50 billion of purchases, and i said, just bear with me. and they did. they did probably have to bear with me again. >> joining us now is john boyd jr. he's a soybean farmer and the founder and president of the national black farmers association. john, an early apology from me. if we have to interrupt you because the president, as we've said, is going to be making remarks at some point this morning. but look, we've been here before, back in 2017. so how is it the same? how is it different now? and how are you and your farm dealing with the uncertainty around this trade war? >> well, thank you very much for having me. and the president said that he that he loves

farmers. and this is a very critical time for america's farmers. every time the president uses the word tariff, he calls complete chaos and confusion. and it's created a state of emergency for america's farmers. right now, there's $30 billion at usda that haven't been disbursed to america's farmers is planting season. we don't have farm operating loans in place. those are grants and other services that have been cut and frozen to america's farmers. and my message to the president today, if you love america's farmers, release that money so that farmers can get in the field and put their planters out here. from the last time the president talked about tariffs in his first presidency, the price of soybeans and i'm a soybean farmer went from $16.80 a bushel all the way down to $6 a bushel. and then he created the marketing facility program that basically black farmers and

other farmers around the country had to apply to usda to get financial relief. and anybody who's been following that story knows that black farmers and the government don't seem to go in the same sentence and work too well for us. and many of us did not get the money. and we were told this morning that the president is going to be helping white farmers from south africa come to the united states and offer them some type of homestead. and i'm totally opposed to that. when we have land and inventory that we can't get through. a case called boyd versus us usa, i'm calling on the president to resolve that and help 17,000 black and other farmers of color right here at home in the united states. >> what would your message be to the white house as it presses pause on some of these tariffs? but as the threat of them being extended for an amount of time, that we're not actually quite sure how long they could be on, what would your message be to him and what would be the most

helpful to black farmers that you represent? >> well, basically, the president's going to put some things in place to help us every time he makes these announcements. like i said, the price immediately drops. and the president announced these tariffs on the largest markets for america's farmers, corn for mexico. he announced those tariffs in china. soybeans china is the number one purchaser. and in canada, diesel fuel and other resources for fertilizer. these are all major parts and facets of agriculture in the united states. farmers and american farmers still produce corn, wheat and soybeans better than anybody around the world. and the president uses that where he said he loves america's farmers to bargain on and not put things in place to make sure that we can have a fair price for our commodity. right now, i'm asking the president to release emergency loans for black farmers so we can get in the

field and issue a complete mortgage moratorium where farmers don't lose their farms while the president is playing footsie with all these other countries and terrorists. those things have to be done immediately. the $30 billion release those payments immediately to america's farmers so that we can do what we do, which is feed people around the world. and, you know, farming is the occupation in the world. and we need support there. >> john boyd jr, thank you for coming on and sharing your experience and what your message would be to the white house. we appreciate it. and we're going to keep our eyes on the white house, because we do, of course, expect president trump to give remarks from the oval office at any time. we're not quite sure what the topic is going to be there, but we've talked through some of the potential topics. we'll get you those as soon as we get them into us. and coming up next, a little more on what we were talking with vaughn about just now, from chainsaw to scalpel, at least. maybe while president trump is doing to

potentially rein in elon musk after doge cuts thousands of federal workers, we're back in 90s. you're watching jose diaz, balart reports. >> selling a car is a big deal. you've had some big moments, okay? and some wrong turns. but when you're ready to sell, car gurus is a big help. get gurus is a big help. get multiple offers instantly, so upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better. six digestive symptoms. the power of nature. iberogast. ♪ the power of nature. like a relentless weed, moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya... with rapid relief at 4 weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation. at one year, many people experienced remission...

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conservative conference touting his slashes to the federal government. but now president trump is telling his administration to use a scalpel, not a hatchet. those are his words from social media when they're making these cuts. after meeting with musk and cabinet members yesterday, the president said his cabinet secretaries, not musk, are in charge of firings at their respective agencies. >> i don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. i want the cabinet members to keep the good people and the people that aren't doing a good job, that are unreliable, don't show up to work, etc. those people can be cut. if they can cut, it's better. and if they don't cut, then elon will do the cutting. >> this is all happening as we await remarks from president trump at the white house. those could come any minute now. but back with us as we wait. nbc's vaughn hillyard, still at the white house at his post, and former republican congressman charlie dent from pennsylvania, thankfully here on set with me, vaughn, i want to go back to the conversation that we were having just before the commercial break, because you're seeing the president just touting these

major cuts in his joint address on tuesday. but what do we know about why he seems to be reining in musk, especially if he's willing to go before congress and tout the work that musk is working on. >> right, ali, i think we're dealing with diametrically opposed statements coming from the president of the united states, who on one hand, is urging elon musk to continue to go forward. and if cabinet secretaries and agency heads don't go forward with the necessary cuts, he will send elon musk in to do so. but then at the same time, he suggests that he wants a scalpel, not not a hatchet to be used in the federal government in terms of workforce reduction. but so far it has been a hatchet, a cudgel. it's been a lot of things other than a scalpel that have been used in the first month and a half of this administration, and you are looking at tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of employees who have lost their jobs, are on the cusp of being placed on administrative leave. and i think that this is where the consternation is, not only here in the greater washington, d.c. area, but 80% of the

federal workforce are outside of this greater d.c. area here. and i know that you and myself, we have talked to federal workers from across the country who have seen the efforts of this administration and have been given no reason to believe that in the months ahead that they're going to go in any other direction other than to continue to cut because of the benchmarks that have been placed on the government going forward through budget negotiations about trying to cut down the amount the federal of the annual federal budget, and they see the workforce reductions as a means to the end to get to that. >> so, charlie, we know that republican lawmakers on capitol hill have been meeting with musk. he was up there this week meeting with the house, meeting with the senate. they have aired some of their frustrations pretty kindly, i would say in public, saying, well, i have concerns about the way that doge is going about this or i'd like them to see to be a little more careful in the way that they're cutting these same republicans, in some cases, are going home to their districts and seeing town halls where that frustration

from constituents spills over. is this really the tension point for musk in the administration? what's happening at home and what's happening in the government? >> well, there's no question that elon musk and doge are causing a lot of heartburn and aggravation for republican members of congress. their phones are lighting up largely because of doge and elon musk having access to their people's records at treasury. and that's that is not a small thing. and, of course, elon musk's own polling numbers are quite low. so he's become quite a liability. now we're talking about a scalpel a scalpel versus a hatchet. well, how about a chainsaw in a in a wood chipper, which he's he's used those terms. so elon musk's and doj's indiscriminate way of firing people very cruelly and inhumanely in many cases is causing enormous problems. i mean, a lot of folks, a lot of americans say, yeah, if you want to do a reduction in force that's thoughtful and well targeted, okay. they would accept that. but this is just so indiscriminate. and they're causing problems when they fire people who are in charge of the nuclear secrets or people

responsible for bird flu, or the guy who has the codes for the bathrooms at the national park. i mean, this is a problem. >> yeah. and it's i think the indiscriminate nature is the thing that some lawmakers and certainly constituents that i've spoken to have taken the most issue with. but you bring up the point that this is also about privacy concerns, because there there in people's data, in social security administration and other places. i wonder if this smacks to you at all of the tea party wave that ended up sweeping the country back in 2014, just sort of the grassroots backlash? could that be something that ultimately powers democrats here, or is it too early to make that kind of a comparison? >> well, no. i think there's a lot of energy out there. you saw it with these town hall meetings. this what's happening now reminds me of 2017 during the obamacare repeal and replace debates. we've had some really, really tense town hall meetings then that were well charged. of course, during the tea party movement when obamacare was being enacted. yeah, huge, huge sort of thing. and of course, you know, the party out of power has is angry and energized, and their voters are the ones who

are showing up making the noise right now. so every republican who's in any kind of a competitive situation going into 2026 knows that they are they are on the point of the spear, and they are at great risk politically because trump is not going to be on the ballot. but they will. and these voters are angry. they're going to take it out on somebody. they can't take it out on trump. >> i think that's an excellent point. and one of the things that could factor in vaughn, you and i know this so well is we are once again on the precipice of a government shutdown. next friday. is the deadline there. how concerned is the white house about that? i mean, trump met with conservative members of the freedom caucus. i got to imagine that getting some of these guys who have never voted for a continuing resolution to do so this time was probably on that agenda. >> right. and we've heard very little publicly from the president in terms of any concern about the government shutting down. of course, by and large, there's been some who have suggested that what he is actively seeking to do is shut down parts of the federal government, from us aid to the department of education. and there has been a lack of concern

on the part of this administration about key components and infrastructure of the us government coming to a close. and i think that that is where these conversations about the march 15th deadline are going to ever increase here over the next seven days. of course, on the house side, republicans can't afford to lose more than one of their members on a potential deal to continue to fund the government here. and of course, this is all separate from the larger budget conversation and reconciliation package. deal of that will include, ultimately, the extension of the 2017 tax cuts, as well as immigration and energy spending here. so there is a lot on the plate at a time in which there is a great focus on not only the immediate impact of these tariffs on the economy, the stock market, doj's efforts to cut there's basic government spending that is going to be have to be accounted for over here in the course of the next week, let alone the major

financial package that house and senate republicans are going to work to put on president trump's desk in the months ahead. ali. >> yeah. and, vaughn, i'm so glad that you separate out those two pieces, because although they all deal with how money flows through the government, government funding and keeping the lights on is a separate conversation from the reconciliation conversation. and both of them were tracking quite closely. but at the same time, a week in congress time is really an eternity. they've got the ability to avert this shutdown. the question is if they will. charlie dent, thank you. vaughn hillyard, please keep sticking around with us because we are still awaiting remarks from president trump in the oval office. we've learned that those are going to be about the jobs report due to come at any time. plus, we're also going to go live to moscow for details about the critical meeting taking place next week that could pave the way to end the war in the way to end the war in ukraine. you're upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better.

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>> we are all watching and waiting to see who is going to hold the line. don't miss the weekends, saturday. >> and sunday mornings at 8:00. >> on msnbc. >> looks like someone's going after these girls. >> then they have to know to watch their backs. >> are you looking into this? >> is. casey. >> you gotta let it go. >> i'll let it go when i find her. >> you. >> 31 past the hour here and new this morning. president trump is threatening sanctions against russia as a way to try to end the war in ukraine. in a truth, truth social post, trump wrote, quote, i'm strongly considering large scale banking sanctions, sanctions and tariffs on russia until a ceasefire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached. it comes as next week, president zelenskyy is set to meet with senior members of the trump administration. both the u.s. and ukraine are looking for a path forward. after an oval office meeting just one week ago today turned into a stunning shouting match and also new.

this morning, we're getting an exclusive look from near the front lines of the war in ukraine. nbc news is the first u.s. network to reach the region of kursk since ukraine took territory there in august of last year. joining us now from moscow is nbc's keir simmons. keir. what did you see when you were in kursk? >> well. >> ali, i will say this. i think what you're hearing from president trump there in that truth social post is an indication that the trump administration are realizing that russia is going to be tough to negotiate with. and that's what we found when we reached kursk. one example of that war is now just a fact of life there. take a look at this piece of video. just as we arrived in kursk and take a listen. you can hear the air raid sirens. and what's interesting, though, to look at that is how the civilians, the cars, the people crossing the street, no one flinches. no one moves because it's just normal to them. there.

now, we spoke to people in a town, a frontline town called rylsk, about 90 minutes away from kursk. as you see, there are some. is president trump right to say that russians are ready for peace? the mayor of rylsk told us, yeah, okay. we want peace. but remember, as you mentioned, ukraine holds some territory in kursk. he says we must liberate our territory. that has to happen at two. we spoke to a construction worker there in reelskins. he said, well, he, he he would not blame president putin for any of what anything has that happened in that region? he said it's down to vladimir zelensky to end the war. everything rests on zelenskyy, he told us, and not on putin. now, of course, we should mention that criticizing the war here in russia is illegal. you can have 15 years for that, but it is a sign, i think, amongst many, that the talks that president trump wants are going to be tough. there may not be an easy and quick

ceasefire. >> keir simmons, as always, thank you for that. excellent reporting. and joining us now retired four star general barry mccaffrey. general i want to begin with trump's post this morning saying he's considering large scale sanctions on russia. but it comes after this past week where trump attacked zelensky in the oval and then paused military and intelligence to ukraine. so what is this whiplash in policy say to our allies around the world? is it what keir is saying, which is that maybe russia is going to be more difficult on this than we thought prior, which is what everyone was telling the trump administration to begin with. >> yeah. well, obviously, the volatility that trump announcements over time is confusing to our allies at best. and i would go much farther, though, the 32 members of nato, 23 of whom, by the way, already exceed this 2% of gdp of defense budget. i would categorize mr. trump's comments as already having withdrawn us credibility

from the nato alliance. the purpose of that political and military alliance is deterrence. it's to keep the peace. and a lot of it, of course, is now in question because of russian aggression against georgia, chechnya, in syria, crimea and ukraine. so we're in trouble. the europeans are aware of it. they're planning a future without the united states. >> as they're planning for that future. we also just learned yesterday that president trump wants to change the u.s. policy towards nato. that shift could involve the u.s. not coming to defend a fellow nato member. if they don't spend a set percentage of their gdp on defense. you mentioned this. this is a promise that trump had from the first administration. but listen to what trump said about this last night watch. >> i've said that to them. i said, if you're not going to pay, we're not going to defend. i said that seven years ago. and because of that, they paid

hundreds of billions of dollars. i said, if you're not going to pay your bills, we're not going to defend you. >> so what does that mean for the alliance right now? >> well, look, i don't think there's any real question that the europeans defunded defense in a major way after the collapse of the soviet empire, and they are inadequately armed, and it is not appropriate for a political and military alliance to have some members, like spain, well under 2% spending on defense. having said that, though, it's hard to imagine in diplomacy publicly bludgeoning your allies and announcing in this quixotic manner that we might defend france but wouldn't defend spain. so it doesn't make any sense. it's confusing. we are damaging a deterrent alliance with nato. in the process of all these off the

wall comments. >> hard to imagine. and yet we're seeing the output of the way that this administration has gone about diplomacy, chief among them, that scene in the oval office just a week ago between zelenskyy, trump and vice president vance. general barry mccaffrey, thank you, as always for joining us. >> very good with you, alan. >> and coming up next, another suspected measles death is being reported this near the outbreak in texas. we're going to ask a doctor what she tells patients who don't want to get the shot. you're watching jose diaz, david takes prevagen for his brain you're watching jose diaz, balart reports. and this is his story. nice to meet ya. my name is david. i've been a pharmacist for 44 years. when i have customers come in, i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me, "david, that really works so good for me." makes my day.

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details, call or visit dental now.com. >> physicians mutual, physicians mutual. >> welcome back 42 past the hour and new developments. as measles cases are on the rise across the u.s. and now a second death related to the to the disease is being reported in the southwest. health officials in new mexico say an unvaccinated adult tested positive for measles after they died. the official cause of death is still under investigation, but this comes just a week after a school aged child in texas became the first person in a decade in the u.s. to die from the highly contagious virus. let's bring in now doctor kavita patel, msnbc medical contributor and former obama white house policy director. doctor, this outbreak seems to be moving quite quickly. how concerned are you? >> yeah, ali, it's not only moving quickly, but what's even more concerning is the rates of under vaccination or exemptions that we saw, not just in west texas, but we're seeing in pockets all across the country.

that's why you're seeing about nine states with these cases. and of course, unfortunately, the deaths and hospitalizations that come along with it. it's very concerning. so one of the most we've had in about a decade, and that's not good news. >> so what do you tell people who don't want to get vaccinated for measles, especially amid the backdrop of mixed messaging coming out of health and human services. and the secretary there, robert f kennedy jr. >> yeah, ali, this reminds me, unfortunately, of a lot of the misinformation around the covid vaccines. you were also reporting on this, so you are very familiar with it. i kind of revert back to a little bit of what we had to do then. number one, listen, don't dismiss them. the most common thing is to kind of have a little bit more of this patriarchal, well, i'm a doctor, i know better. that doesn't get anywhere with anybody. it doesn't get anywhere with me as a mother when people do that to me. so first thing is to listen, try to just hear them out. i often have to do this over several visits and say, tell me what you've learned. tell me what you've heard. tell me who you trust. because it's not probably going to be just me. it's going to be a neighbor

or a religious figure or somebody else that they're reading social media on. then i try to just go through the facts. i say, listen, i got vaccinated, i got my kids vaccinated. here's why. before we had the vaccine, about 500 kids could die. did die from this. this is a real disease. 1 in 5 hospitalized. i just go through the facts and listen. but it does take several visits. it's hard. >> i want. >> to stay. >> with you on the intersection of public health and the government, because one of trump's fda nominees is saying he'll review whether the abortion pill should only be dispensed in person. it basically takes aim at a biden era rule that allowed patients to access mifepristone via telemedicine was one of the outgrowths of the pandemic, allowing people in more rural areas, areas better access to this kind of care. what would the implications of that be? >> going back on what we've done to advance not just access to mifepristone, but all drugs that have the safety profile of mifepristone? so let's be clear, mifepristone is importantly singled out because of its reproductive and women's rights access. but there are so many

drugs where we have just as much evidence and we don't hold it to the same standard, because that risk profile has been proven over decades to be something that's so low and that we're so good at not only educating patients, we still counsel them, but we need to be able to kind of say like the evidence is sufficient. so i'm not surprised that he had to say that he was going to review this. it seems very in line with what rfk jr and the president and the white house have been saying. but i hope that someone who has the medical background that doctor macri does is going to look at the evidence and deem it sufficient. but it would be an incredible setback and a tragedy if we roll it back to the rems of previous era. >> a lot of people would lose access to that form of care. doctor kavita patel, thank you as always for cutting through the noise. and coming up next, why trump supporters are now calling one of his supreme court picks a, quote, die hire. you're picks a, quote, die hire. you're watching. jose diaz-balart [restaurant noise] allison. [swooshing sound]

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here. why is trump world turning on justice? amy coney barrett i'll be honest, when i was covering her confirmation battle, i couldn't have fathomed that we would end up here. >> yeah. >> i mean, the. >> first. >> thing to remember is that they're not turning on her. for voting to overturn roe v wade. they're not turning on her. for expanding gun. >> rights, for ending. >> affirmative action in college. >> admissions and all these. >> other rulings. >> where she's been a staunch conservative. >> vote on. >> the court. >> what they're. >> turning on her. >> for is this. >> usaid ruling. >> showed, is. >> that she's not. >> fully aligned. >> with the trump. >> agenda 100%. >> of the time. >> so for. >> some loud voices online who have a lot of followers, you know. 100% is. >> all that's needed, not 95%. >> and that's kind of where we are right now. >> they are very loud voices. but christy, remind hear of what this ruling even was because it was 2 billion in payments to usaid. but for contractors who had already done the work. >> right, the district. >> court. >> here issued a temporary order

saying that essentially, the president can't seize money that congress had already directed him to spend for work that was already done. and all the supreme court did. here is ask the district court, hey, clarify that order. they didn't disturb this temporary order. that's not to say they couldn't. later. they just left it in place for the time being. and that's not such an extraordinary, you know, act to do. and i think it really signals that at least justice barrett and justice roberts, they're not all that pleased with the presidents of the united states talking about defying federal court orders. and this may signal at least some solidarity with a lower court in saying that the government can't just ignore lower court orders, that they need to follow those. the one thing i will also say is that when you look at some of the criticism online, it is ugly and it is all about the fact that she is weak, she is timid, she's bitter, she's a di hire. these are very gendered criticisms of

justice barrett. and given how the as you know, as laura said, she hasn't really done anything to undermine her conservative credentials here. those seem wildly inappropriate and out of line. >> well, i'm glad that you bring this up because i want to drill a little deeper here, bring back up the graphic on the screen of the way that this vote actually broke down, and you'll see that justice coney barrett is on the same side of this equation as the chief justice, john roberts. and yet she is the one being called a di hire evil, a closet democrat. those are direct quotes. so what do you think is behind that? i mean, is this just the latent misogyny that all of us have covered within trump world right now? the undercurrent of it that is just so palpable online. christi. >> i, i agree completely with that. the one other thing i would say is they also, i think the difference between justice barrett and justice roberts is that trump appointed justice barrett and or nominated her.

and so i think given given that they expect that essentially she was going to be bought and paid for, and that's just not how it works. she's showing that she's independent. she's showing that she is willing to evaluate each case on its own and not necessarily always vote for trump's interests. and that's what anybody would expect of a good justice. the fact that this is a problem for conservatives online really speaks more to their issues than those of justice barrett. >> yeah, and yet it also speaks to the way that maga world has operated and the way that trump likes it, which is if you're on the team, you're loyal. and when you're not, that's when we start having problems. and certainly this ecosystem online fosters that. but we're watching it now spill over. lawrence hurley and christie greenberg, thank you both for bringing your expertise on this issue. and before we go today, a special honor for former congressman lincoln diaz-balart, who passed away on monday. flags in florida are

flying at half staff until sunset for the political giant, who is remembered as a fighter for freedom and democracy. lincoln diaz-balart was 70 years old and is survived by his wife, son and his three brothers, one of them being our beloved colleague jose, who usually hosts this hour. we are sending them all of our love and our prayers during this difficult time, and remembering lincoln for the work that he did here in washington and beyond. that wraps up this hour for me. i'm ali vitali. you can catch me right here every weekday at 5 a.m. eastern on the aptly titled way too early. christina ruffini picks up with more news after a quick break. >> so i can take the steak home. yeah, and as many butterfly shrimp as i want. cake. >> you can take home everything. >> ice cream machine, everything. dessert bar, everything. fork. everything. everything. fork. everything. that guy's had everything. (♪♪) (♪♪) get 0% apr for 60 months on 2024 gmc ev models.

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