cnn's kaitlyn collins has more on the white house response. >> reporter: well, the winter storms in texas have been so devastating even the white house is weighing in after president biden called the governors of several states, not just texas, several others that were affected by this. it's a subject that came up at the white house briefing on wednesday when the white house press secretary jen psaki was asked about this, she said she believes this is another point to why they need to build new infrastructure, create parts that are based on renewable energy so you do not have a situation like we are seeing so many texans live through. she pushed back on the idea that you've seen some people in texas, republican lawmakers, frozen wind turbines are to blame for what's going on. she disputed that, pointed to it's more with coal and gas and less with the wind turbines and talked about that matter as well. you can see just how far reaching this crisis is given what is going on and what the people of texas are living through. even the white house is weighing in, and fema is sending supplies to

cnn's kaitlyn is tracking this story from us. kaitlyn, what are you learning?reporter: this is a file we got from the defense team for jessica watkins. she is a defendant in the insurrection case. she is part of the extremist group that the justice is saying took part in the rally, but she was not involved in the riot, that she was given a vip pass, that she would be escorting people to the rally and that she met with secret security agents. we don't know the context of that and what she means by that, there wasn't much detail for us. this is what they said today. to carry out its protective functions on january 6, the u.s. secret service relied on the assistance of various government partners. any assertion that the secret service employed private citizens to perform those functions is false. now, remember this comes in a case against nine alleged members of the oath keepers militia group, and really there are more questions that are being raised about what this group was doing, what they believed they were doing. some of them, including watkins, said they bel

kaitlyn collins reports. >> reporter: returning to washington, president biden faced questions about his predecessor's looming impeachment trial. >> he's got an offer to come and testify. he's decided not to. we'll let the senate work that out. >> reporter: for weeks he's gone out of his way of weighing in. >> i think it's clear from his schedule and from his intention he will not spend too much time watching the proceedings if any time over the course of the week. >> reporter: biden is sent to counter program trump's trial as he attempts to keep the focus on his legislative debut. a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. >> we've already announced his plans to go visit the nih, to go visit the department of defense. >> reporter: biden has moved on from courting republican support and is now focusing on fast tracking the bill with only democrats on his side. >> obviously it's the most likely path at this point is through a reconciliation process. >> reporter: now democrats must battle it out over the bill and whether to include biden's $15 minimum wage proposal which he hinted in

kaitlyn collins, cnn, the white house. >>> and you can join us for a cnn town hall with u.s. president joe biden moderated by anderson cooper today at 9 p.m. eastern in the united states. wednesday morning in hong kong. >>> meantime, although donald trump was acquitted of inciting the capitol riot, the investigation into the insurrection is far from over. nancy pelosi is planning to establish an outside 9/11 style commission to investigate the causes of the attack. cnn's ryan nobles has more. >> reporter: some pretty big developments since that vote on saturday night that ultimately acquitted the former president. there's still a lot of questions being asked about what happened on january 6th, so much so that speaker pelosi has decided that she's going to push forward with plans to create a 9/11 style commission to look into what happened on january 6th. this is something that would have to be passed by statute, meaning the house and senate would have to pass it and sign in law by the president. these would be independent experts not affiliated with parties. they would not be

cnn's kaitlyn collins explains. >> an hour and a half with the president -- -- it was senate democrats turn. >> this is your home. >> reporter: after president biden met with republicans in those seats two days ago, he sounded hopeful about getting some of them on board with the coronavirus relief package even as democrats move forward without them. no congressional republicans have signed on to biden's plan so far, and utah senator mitt romney said it's unlikely any republicans will support the plan if changes aren't made. >> if it goes forward without any changes from what was originally proposed, i would predict not a single republican will support the $1.9 trillion plan. >> reporter: the president told house republicans he won't slash the $1.9 trillion price tag anywhere near the 618 billion that republicans have suggested. >> i'm not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to the american people. >> reporter: biden said he won't scale back the $1400 stimulus checks but he said he was open to targeting them further. >> can't walk away from an additional $1400 in dire

kaitlyn collins with the details. >> reporter: president biden preparing to take a crack at his nextegislative battle. >> there is a reasonable path to citizenship. >> reporter: democratic lawmakers unveiled what that reasonable path is, skintroduci the most far reaching overhaul in three decades. >> sometimes it seems that citizenship can defeat us before we try. i get it, i really do. congress has tried and failed in the past and we aren't naive about the challenges that we face. >> reporter: biden's plan would offer an eight year path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants while expanding worker visas and reducing restrictions on family immigration. it would remove the word alien from immigration law and replace it with non-citizen. >> everyone is entitled to be treated with decency, with dignity. >> reporter: passing immigration legislation in washington is like landing on the moon. it rarely happens. politics have only become more polarized since the last time lawmakers tried. >> i think 2013 is the year of immigration reform, i really do. >> we all wish we didn't

neil: well kaitlyn, are you kidding?hanks for joining us, you have a great dad, a gifted dad and it looks like it's in the dna, it's running in the family. looks delicious guys i should be over in about a half hour at the end of my show but i'll be taking a jet to you to make sure no one beats me to it. all right, stay with us. you are watching fox. ... do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. >> all right. you're looking live at capitol hill. they're bracing for two big storms, one quite lit

strokes of blues and yellows help ease our own blues in these unsettling times >> what do you think, kaitlynl. >> can you come in and forget the world outside for a little while. >> once you step into the room, we guarantee that you will forget. >> reporter: in this pandemic-laden dead of winter, we can all use an escape room for the senses. >> it's just amazing love it. >> reporter: dive in and lose yourself kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. >> hopefully that spreads to other cities as well so we can all enjoy it. >> i miss going to museums i haven't been since this whole thing started burke that's beyond impressive. so immersive. >>> i know the super bowl just ended and we're all craving football here's just a little bit more for you. check out this tackle. it's a mom in texas tackling a guy she says was spying on her teenage daughter through a window police arrested that guy, charged him with several different crimes the mom joked her next step should be trying out for nfl look we've seen it in slow mo perfect form, wrap up. >> hope she's okay the glass went right off with that tackle. >>

kaitlyn, we look forward to hearing from you during the next meeting. let's move ton to public comment. is there any public comment to report from the deputy director? >> there are no hands raised and no comments in the chat. >> seeing none, the public comment is now closed. the next item on the agenda is item 7 is the election of vice president. this item allow the commissioners to nominate and elect the seat of the vice president of the entertainment commission to fill out the term from february 2, 2021 to july 6, 2021. >> did i miss something? are we suppose to take action? >> are you interested in running again? >> i was going to nominate dori, i'll nominate her. >> second. >> to answer the question, yes, it has been an honor serving as vice president. i do think that -- i want to acknowledge mr. bleiman's leadership as president of the commission. just the work that we've been putting in together t especially during the pandemic and showing up for our community here. answer is yes. we have a first from commissioner falzon and second from commission

kaitlyn collins has more. >> reporter: good morning, laura and christine.ve taken that step paving the way to get the pandemic relief bill passed without any republican support. he wants to get republicans on board. as he told house republicans in a call, he said the idea they're going from the 1.9 trillion to what he's proposed to 6.9 billion is not clear. >> we're going to succeed or fail together. there have been three democratic presidents in 28 years. each faced tough mid-term losses. it happened in '94 and it happened in 2010. we don't want to let that happen here so let's stick together. >> reporter: he talked about the idea of budging some. he's not willing to walk away from the $1400 number. as soon as he gets in office he cannot break his promise to the american people. he's standing by the top line, several other aspects. they are willing to compromise but if they do so with republicans, it will be on their terms but not about the major aspects of the legislation. that is creating a natural question of what is it going to look like when it comes

kaitlyn collins, cnn, the white house. >>> the dow ended wednesday with its highest gains in three weeks. it finished up more than 400 points after fed chair jerome powell reiterated more support for the economy was needed. we may see how much help the economy needs when the latest jobless claims are released in the next few hours. cnn's john deftarios is live in abu dhabi. john, i imagine the numbers won't be good. from what the fed chair is saying, the situation may be worse than the numbers show, right? >> reporter: well, kim, we're almost lulled into thinking that claims week in and week out around 800,000 is the new normal. it's anything but new normal. this is after $3.2 trillion in 2020 and the pending package for 1.9 trillion that jay powell wants to see. let's take a look at the expectations. 838,000 is the consensus on wall street. that's a slight improvement over the week before but not much. we have 4.5 million people on continuous claims that don't have a job, need support and jerome powell spoke to lawmakers saying we need the stimulus. even the overall unemployment rate is

kaitlyn collins, cnn, white house. >>> former u.s. president donald trump seems to have nailed down a legal team to defend him in next week's senate impeachment trial. he parted ways with five of his attorneys last week. a source tells cnn the new team's defense strategy will focus heavily on the constitutionality of the trial and not on the baseless claims of election fraud. gloria borger has more on trump's strategy that will be presented in a pre-trial brief later today. >> reporter: i have some information from a source who's familiar with their brief, and he said to me that the focus is going to be on what he called the unconstitutional nature of the democrat's impeachment witch hunt. so he said there will be four to five major themes. the unconstitutional nature will be the biggest, but when i asked about the rigged election and where that's going to be on there, the response was that will not be the, quote, focal point. >> well, cnn's jim acosta reports on some of the attorneys trump has hired for his impeachment trial. >> if y

. >> reporter: now as for my colleague kaitlyn collins, if president trump has requested a briefing jeneah. this may never even come up if president trump doesn't even want the briefing. they may not have to deal with this. you know, some people who even were in his own administration have cast out whether he should receive those briefings. we will have to wait and see. jasmine, thank you. >>> 35 minutes past the hour. stocks hit record highs again monday. wall street is not main street, but there is one sign average americans and places they bank are starting to benefit. regional bank shares are soaring. they make money from deposits, mortgages, small business loans different from wall street banks. big wall street banks do significant business in stock and bond rating. a hot housing market, banks are lending more and they're taking more money in from deposits and savings. the personal savings rate was 14% in december. it was just 7.6% at the start of 2020 before the pandemic hit. for many consumers the security of a federally secure bank account despite low interest rates is more appe

. >> joining us now, chief white house correspondent kaitlyn collins. what was his response?eally doesn't want to talk about impeachment is what he told us. he said it is not his focus, it's not his job to decide what former president trump's fate should be. instead he's focused on getting people back to work, dealing with the pandemic. a lot of that has to do with rallying support for his pandemic relief bill. that's what he was doing in the oval office when we saw him earlier. he was meeting with top ceos, the top executives at walmart, lowe's, he believes they'll do their job and execute it well. he didn't say what he believes the outcome should be. that's a question he's declined to answer on several occasions. so he said he's letting the senate do their job while he will focus on doing his job. they are really trying to put a lot of distance between their early agenda that they are trying to move on and what is happening just down the street on capitol hill. >> it makes sense from a political standpoint that he wouldn't want to get too linked to this because no matter wh

kaitlyn thomas spotted the boy who appeared to be trapped, called for her grandfather, who quickly arrived it from washington. i am shannon bream. ♪ ♪ enough or nothing.” mercedes-benz suvs were engineered with only one mission in mind. to be the best. in the category, in the industry... in the world. lease the gla 250 suv for just $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. ordinary tissues burn when theo blows. so dad bought puffs plus lotion, and rescued his nose. with up to 50% more lotion puffs bring soothing softness and relief. a nose in need deserves puffs indeed. ♪ hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play ♪ ♪ hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid ♪ ♪ and all that glitters is gold ♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. when we started plebee's. our business we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy an

. >> all right, kaitlyn, thank you.tol, editor at large at the bull werk and glor gentleman borger. how did the white house miss calculate so badly on this. at the very beginning this issue came out, right, a lot of these tweets which were offensive, personal and partisan. they came out really early and they don't seem to have seen this coming. >> they weren't a secret, first of all. >> they were tweets. >> everybody in washington knew about that. but i think the white house's feeling was and remains to a certain degree that neera tanden was somebody who could possibly get some republican support. she was, after all, endorsed by the chamber of commerce. even mitch daniels, the former republican head of the office of management and budget, former governor of indiana had said she would be fine at the job. so they didn't do as much outreach perhaps as they should have because they also thought, once they got control of the senate, sure, they were going to get all the democrats. well, it isn't working out that way. once joe

kaitlyn, we look forward to hearing from you during the next meeting. let's move ton to public comment. is there any public comment to report from the deputy director? >> there are no hands raised and no comments in the chat. >> seeing none, the public comment is now closed. the next item on the agenda is item 7 is the election of vice president. this item allow the commissioners to nominate and elect the seat of the vice president of the entertainment commission to fill out the term from february 2, 2021 to july 6, 2021. >> did i miss something? are we suppose to take action? >> are you interested in running again? >> i was going to nominate dori, i'll nominate her. >> second. >> to answer the question, yes, it has been an honor serving as vice president. i do think that -- i want to acknowledge mr. bleiman's leadership as president of the commission. just the work that we've been putting in together t especially during the pandemic and showing up for our community here. answer is yes. we have a first from commissioner falzon and second from commission

people like kaitlyn dennis, a former college athlete now on daily medication and fighting brain fog.some days i can go around the block but once you've crossed that line of it being too much, my body just shuts down and i'm in bed for a few days. >> reporter: now back to that new variant here in new york city, researchers say they've identified at least 80 cases across the tri-state area. they also say that it shares a mutation in common with a variant from south africa and one from brazil but it is unique on its own and, again, will ?equire further investigation. >>y,hanks, w we are joined by dr. ashish jha. dean of the brown university school of public health. thanks for joining us, dr. jha. let's talk about the new york variant. how concern something it to you? >> yeah, good morning, george. thanks for having me on. we don't know much about it yet. i think we're going to see things like this. i'm not super concerned yet. we're learning about it. i remain optimistic our vaccines will work against it so i don't think we're at a point where we need to be excessively concerned. >> the

what you're looking at here, that is a couple just had a baby, kaitlyn and david's baby, they were ontle impatient. we're not going to wait till we get inside the hospital. this parking lot will do just fine and the baby was actually born there in the front seat of the car in the parking lot of that hospital so congratulations and molly joyce is her name. welcome to the world. >> everybody looks happy and healthy. that's fantastic. >>> coming up on "gma," tony bennett's family is revealing he was diagnosed with alzheimer's four years ago. how covid has added to it all and the early signs to look for in your own family. >>> thalts morning -- coming up in "pop news," big news for marvel fan, a "black panther" series might be in the works. lara is going to have the details. >>> plus, bachelor matt james joins us live after an explosive night on "the bachelor." stay with us, folks. we'll be right back. ♪ that audible's got a lot more than audiobooks? of course, podcasts. originals. bestsellers. future bestsellers. sleep stories. sleep stories? what are you talking about sleep stories? mal

james' post was applauded by andi dorfman, kaitlyn bristow and tayshia adams weighing in too.ealt with a lack of diversity and faced a class action lawsuit claiming it discriminates against people of color. >> i think what's hard is we are all linked and attached to this franchise and you don't want to be attached to something that seems to be so problematic when there seems to be so much that still needs to be done. >> reporter: james says he's been pushed to re-evaluate and process what my experience on "the bachelor" represents saying, i'll continue to process this experience and you will hear more from me in t he goes on to say, guys, in his statement he wants this to spark conversation. this is a history, this antebellum history, people should understand and some don't understand that an antebellum party can represent and glorify the same thing as a confederate flag to a lot of people. and so if that sparks a conversation and moves it forward, then fine. now, as far as the episodes go chris harrison, of course, taped months ago so he will continue to be part of the show a

kaitlyn, we look forward to hearing from you during the next meeting. let's move ton to public comment. is there any public comment to report from the deputy director? >> there are no hands raised and no comments in the chat. >> seeing none, the public comment is now closed. the next item on the agenda is item 7 is the election of vice president. this item allow the commissioners to nominate and elect the seat of the vice president of the entertainment commission to fill out the term from february 2, 2021 to july 6, 2021. >> did i miss something? are we suppose to take action? >> are you interested in running again? >> i was going to nominate dori, i'll nominate her. >> second. >> to answer the question, yes, it has been an honor serving as vice president. i do think that -- i want to acknowledge mr. bleiman's leadership as president of the commission. just the work that we've been putting in together t especially during the pandemic and showing up for our community here. answer is yes. we have a first from commissioner falzon and second from commission