congratulations on that mike memoli.u have better reporting than i do. there wasn't a plan b if the supreme court came to this conclusion today. what do they do next? >> yeah, the white house was clear throughout this process that they felt that this regulation was on firm legal ground, that they had the firm legal footing from federal law to do this, that the workplace standards they could set would be supported. the president released a statement a short time ago essentially saying there is nothing we can do here, this is up to the states and private businesses to take the lead here. jen psaki was asked about this as well during her briefing. she wouldn't answer whether the white house would take another swing at this in terms of rewriting some of the regulations in an attempt to see this. it is ironic when you think about it that on a day when democrats are debating changes to phil buster rules a supreme court that includes three justices that were confirmed after the senate republicans changed the phil buster thresho

mike memoli is back with me. we saw standing over president biden's shoulder, both senators from ohio, a democrat sherrod brown and republican rob portman. >> reporter: that's right. there was big news from the president in terms of american manufacturing and our global competition, in terms of our supply chain. it has to be said that it's also big news, whenever we see a republican at the white house, especially in the highly partisan times, and when you think about the challenges president biden has had during one year and one day in office, it has been about the promise of bringing americans together and working across the aisle. and one of the areas in which the white house is now putting its foot forward to show is there are smaller issues beyond build back better which has really exposed the visions within the democratic party. where there is bipartisan progress. you heard him talk about the innovation and competition act. it's passed the senate. we've barely talked about that on the air during the course o

. >> i want to bring in mike memoli and matt bradley overseas in ukraine. itchell joins us who covers you state department. admiral kirby from the pentagon, mike, up to 8500 troops on what is carefully described as heightened alert. very clear to say, these troops have not been deployed yet. there's no decision to deploy the troops but they're based on basically the heightened state of awareness that is possible to help bolster nato troops. >> yeah, hallie, we've been talking about it this crisis in ukraine for two months now. all along, the white house is saying that president biden is clear to put president putin -- there are two pathways to choose from, one is the path of diplomacy and one is the path of deterrence. when we've heard deterrence from the white house, it's focused on economic sanctioning, the crippling sanctions that they say the united states and european allies are prepared to levy. now, we're hearing from the pentagon, specifically about the kinds of numbers we're hearing, 8500 being put on alert that really shifts this into a new phase a

mike memoli, thank you.ee you. >>> breaking news from florida why the governor there held a briefing in the last hour. the big headline another missing person has been found leaving two missing. steve patterson is on the ground with more. good to see you. what else did we learn from the governor and officials at the prez conference? >> reporter: yeah. a couple headlines. one they are working as fast as they humanly can to clear out scenes like the one behind me to get people back to survey the damage and say there needs to be done more for mitigation for neighborhoods with the unpredictable natural of the fires and the climate. that's something they'll work on in the future. three, that media reporting that they have seen can compare to the level of devastation that you see on the ground here behind me. i concur with that talking to people that lost the homes and seeing the houses entombed in snow left in ruins is so heart breaking. i spoke to a teacher that works up the road here. this is lewisville. this c

mike memoli is spending the weekend there. what do we know about the nature of tomorrow's call?out you with you, that is the promise he made to president zelenski after the conversation with president putin saying he won't have discussions about ukraine's future without ukraine being at the table. that's why it's so important to be at the table tomorrow just two days after his conversation, of course, with president putin. now the white house said, in that conversation two days ago, offered putin two paths. the path of diplomacy but the further economic sanctions if he were to further escalate the situation in ukraine. talked about the call with putin yesterday as he and the first lady left a new year's eve lunch year. here's what the president had to say. >> made it clear to the president putin, that he makes any more moves, to go again to ukraine, we will have severe sanctions, we will increase our presence in europe with our nato allies and be a heavy price to pay for it. laid out some of his concerns about nato and the united states and europe and will negotiate some of thos

and mike memoli is with the president in delaware. liz, what's happening where you are?> joe, good afternoon. you can see behind me a steady stream of cars rolling into this testing site. it's a scene that we have seen all week. in fact, sometimes dozens of cars in line this. testing site actually switching to appointments only after just a few days ago there was a line that went all the way in the street. almost 100 cars that was blocking traffic and had to get the police involved to manage it. now they have moved to appointment only. so it is move pretty quickly here because of that structure. but it is still days until folks can get an appointment. if you signed on today, sometimes, two, three, four-day waits to get there. i spoke with a man in line who said that was tough for him. he had a potential exposure, tried to get tested as early as wednesday and had to wait day asks days to be able to do that. he planned to go to a new year's eve party last night but he had to sit at home, you know, with his girlfriend, instead of going to see friends. that's the reality for

let's go rice to msnbc's mike memoli joining us from wilmington, delaware where the president is spending the weekend. today's call with zelensky comes just days after the president spoke with president putin. what is the timing of the two calls. where does the situation stand? >> reporter: the timing of this call so quickly after president biden spoke with president putin is significant because as we've seen in the eight years now since russia annexed the crimean peninsula part of ukraine's territory there's been only a continued build up of pressure by russia on ukraine trying to undermine the government there. so that is why at every turn you see president biden, other administration officials doing everything they can to underscore the u.s. commitment to ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. there is this principle president biden has articulated especially since his earlier call with president putin in december which is no conversations about ukraine without ukraine. that is why he wanted to follow up as quickly as possible with president zelensky about just what he and pr

. >> joining me now from the white house is nbc's mike memoli and ali witt alley and also is vaughn hillyard. with mike, we have 72% of americans saying we're headed in the wrong direction in that nbc poll. americans are clearly exhausted with everything. how does the white house see the current moment and how do they make sure this is rock bottom? >> yeah, garrett. the official stated position of the white house in explaining all of those really brutal poll numbers that you just ran through is that as the president himself spoke to at his news conference last week, covid really is something of a wet blanket over which the country is generally putting all their frustrations through at the moment. so part of what the white house's effort to get around that is to first get its house in order on covid. you see the white house continuing to try to press on all levers to do what they can to show that they're in command of this omicron surge and you've heard increasingly discussion about improving the messaging coming out, especially of the cdc, which has been part of that problem. and then also b

our senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake, mike memoli, damon hewitt and la tasha brown, cofounder of the black voters matter fund. garrett, we'll start with you. the process of voting on the john lewis voting rights act set to start next hour. take us through how this is going to play out. >> reporter: we know how this process starts, but we don't yet know how or when it's going to end. this debate will begin at noon when the senate floor opens on the john lewis bill and the freedom to vote act. both have the support of all 50 democrats, but that's not enough to get them passed. i think we're going to see debate the next day or so and likely see a vote wednesday of thursday. when those votes fail, then we're going to see a vote in the senate on the rules that keep that 60-vote threshold. that is also expected to fail. there's even a question among democrats about whether they should have that vote, divide their caucus, because there are two democrats that don't support rule changes. but there are plenty of progressives who say we need to go on the record for this. that's what eliz

let's go to mike memoli in wilmington, delaware.n what these two leaders will be discussing during today's call? >> the biden administration has given ukraine officials their word that even as president biden has now spoken twice in the last month with president putin, we've also seen other conversations with other administration officials with their russian counterparts during this time. they will always be mindful of ukraine's concerns in this process. they call it the principle of nothing about you without you. no decisions about ukraine's future without making sure their concerns are heard. this call today is really meant to be an opportunity for president biden to tell president zelensky what he and president putin talked about two days ago and to hear from president zelensky what his concerns are. as we've been talking about the call between biden and zelensky all day, once president biden speaks with zelensky he'll have another call this afternoon with the leaders from the bucharest nine. these are nine nato countries in east

nbc's mike memoli is at the white house. i przybyla is in washington d.c., and steven sample, an emergency physician at memorial hospital in jasper, indiana. good to have you with us. mike, we can expect to hear more about the measures this afternoon when the president holds his news conference. what more can you tell us about this new plan for masks and this new website for the tests? >> yes. certainly, the president is going to be wanting to make sure the american people now know that for all the questions about whether there would be enough tests for americans, they believe they solved that problem. we saw the white house beta test the new website officially launching today where you can go on and request four take-home tests to be shipped to you. the white house says they'll be shipped out in 7 to 10 days. this is not a small thing. we know especially with so many veterans of the obama administration and this white house, the past problems we've seen when the white house tries to launch a website of this scale, obviously

msnbc white house correspondent mike memoly sent the new year in wilmington, delaware as did the presidento putin, that can't be an accident. >> yeah, this is absolutely a crucial signal from the united states about a principal that president biden has laid out over the course of this whole crisis, which is no conversations about ukraine without ukraine, and so it was expected that shortly after the two presidents, president biden and putin spoke, that biden would follow up with ukraine's president or read out what he spoke with putin about and to reaffirm u.s. support for ukraine's territorial sovereignty. it's diplomatic choreography in the days following the call. you can expect president biden to be speaking with other allies, yesterday the head of nato spoke with secretary of state tony blinken. we heard from the white house after the putin call, jen psaki saying the u.s. would respond decisively. the president made it clear he will respond decisively if russia further invades ukraine and we heard from the president directly yesterday in which he said he reiterated to putin directly,

mike memoli, dr. celine gounder, great to have both of you here today.e over voting rights legislation now stuck in limbo in washington, but state lawmakers are working right now to change voting laws and electoral maps in a key swing state that president biden won by only about 20,000 votes. we'll take you there minutes before a contentious court hearing. >>> well, voting rights legislation in our nation's capitol is doomed to fail later today. the battle at the state level is kicking into high gear. as part of our county-to-county series, we're going to wisconsin, where in just moments, the state supreme court will hear arguments that could determine the state's political maps for the next decade. nbc's shaquille brewster is at the state capitol in wisconsin. so, shaq, how did we get here and what are we expecting when the court's gavel falls in just a few minutes? >> we're expecting hours and hours of arguments inside the room behind me. i've seen some people going in and watched some of the parties enter and i saw lots of maps, lots of big cardboard

mike memoli, thank you, my friend, and happy new year to you.s great to see you. >>> meanwhile, as the administration is weighing its options, hospitals are confronting a surge in coronavirus cases as mike was just talking about, so severe they are already running out of beds. i spoke with dr. joseph about this crisis just yesterday. here's what he had to say. >> yeah, people around the country take care of patients and that is a problem. the problem is that most parents don't know if they have dealt or omicron and they are flooding the emergency departments. this is just going to be collateral damage for those people who truly need to go to the e.r., heart attacks and strokes and things like that. >> it is a pain our next guests are all too familiar with. their father, dale, a retired iowa school superintendent, waited 15 days for a bed that his hospital could not spare because it was so overwhelmed with unvaccinated coronavirus patients. tragically, dale died in late november, nearly one month after he had been diagnosed with sepsis, an indire

on the campaign trail he vowed any nominee would be a black woman and mike memoli reports the white house has a list. the top name in speculation right now judge katanji brown jackson, joe biden recently appointed to the d.c. circuit court of appeals to replace merrick garland. jackson is a former clerk of justice breyer, confirmed in a 53-44 majority by the senate. joining me is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, chief legal correspondent and host of "the beat" ari melber, kelly o'donnell and "slate" legal correspondent dahlia lithwick. pete, you broke this news. justice breyer himself has not announced it or made it official but can you tell us anything about the decision-making process behind his decision to retire? >> well, our understanding is he came to this decision within the last several weeks. he's obviously in good health. he is 83. he's the court's oldest member but that apparently did not -- his age or health did not play a part in this. we're told he's well aware of the current political climate. in the past supreme sort justices did not time their decisions in te

mike memoli is posted up in atlanta with the president. sahil kapur is on capitol hill, and we're joined by tia mitchell for the atlanta journal constitution. mike, let me start with you. a lot of optics here. president biden had a full day, a full afternoon meeting with the king family, visiting, as we expect, ebenezer church. to satisfy voting rights advocates, this has to be more about more than optics. >> that's the message his critics in his own party have been sending, but optics are an important part from the white house's perspective of what the president is doing. president biden, the first democrat to win the state in 28 years and two months later, giving democrats that very, very slim majority in the senate with those run-off elections in january. you talk about the city he's in, laept, represented in congress by john lewis, the legislation, one of the pieces of legislation they're trying to pass is the voting rights bill in his name. of course, the city sill associated with that fight for voting rights, and this campus he's on,

nbc's mike memoli is in wilmington, delaware, following president biden. we know about the nature of this call? >> well, alex, this call today is an important part of the sort of standard diplomatic choreography we see whenever a top administration official, in this case, the president himself, speaks with top russian officials. we saw secretary of state tony blinken speaking to secretary zelinsky before president biden's call with vladimir putin. a read out of what the two discussed and how they see things moving forward. one of the biggest debates within the administration, but also more broadly among the international community is just how serious is vladimir putin? just how willing is he potentially to move ahead with an invasion of ukraine. i want you to listen to what a top democrat, adam schiff, the airm chairman of the house intelligence committee said about this today. >> i think it will require enormous sanctions on russia to deter what appears to be a very likely russian invasion of ukraine again. and i think our allies need to be solidly on boa

mike memoli is in georgia ahead of the president's speech, ali vitali has the latest from capitol hillso joined by democratic pollster cornell belcher to unpack the politics of this. mike, let me start with the president's intent today. it's a speech, it's on one hand they're pulling out all the stops today. i mean, it feels like half the democratic senate is either on air force one or air force two and if you are on air force two going i think you get to be on air force one coming and vice versa. >> reporter: that's right. >> they're pulling out a ton of stops here but that's today. what's the plan going forward? >> reporter: well, chuck, as you say, this is a very big deal speech. everything that the white house has done leading up to this is meant to signal that and what's so striking, though, is that it's very out of character for this white house in at least two key ways. the first is this is a white house that has always been very careful with how they use the president's political capital, and you see that in those stats that you just laid out, thanks to our colleague sally bron

let's start with mike memoli. the president presented with options. what is the likely chances he'll be taking these options and when could that happen? >> according to white house officials, this all largely depends on what we see from vladimir putin going forward. that's why you're seeing the president convene with our european allies. as jen psaki put it, she's briefing reporters as we speak. this is about diplomacy and deterrence. the white house says in their view no decision has been made regarding any firm options moving forward but that what the president's call today is about is about refining some of the strategies that have been discussed over a period of months as this crisis has escalated. it's really important to look at today's call in light of two things. one is the president's comments last week in which he triggered a little round of cleanup on the part of the white house. he ultimately was discussing the ways in which potentially the response of the united states and our allies might depend on precisely what vladimir putin does and

i want to bring in mike memoli and garrett haake.founder of punchbowl news john bresnahan and robert gibbs, an msnbc political analyst. great to see you guys. garrett, how is it all going to unfold today and what happens next? >> reporter: the senate a back today, we expect to see a robust debate on these voting rights bills that will last well into tomorrow, i think we might see every single senator speak on this, it's entirely possible. the debate has been that heated. but then we know what will happen with the vote, all 50 republicans oppose these measures, all 50 krooths support them. so they will fail. what happens after that is an open question. chuck schumer the democratic majority leader in the senate has promised unspecified votes on rule changes that might allow democrats to get around the 60-vote threshold for legislation. we expect those votes will fail, too, after kyrsten sinema, joe manchin reiterated their opposition last week, there could be other democrats who feel the same way, that we have not yet heard from. we wi

mike memoli outside the white house, a unified response from the administration regarding what their plan is, what their intentions are and what they're willing to say publicly on this. >> i want to pick up where ned price was ending, and he talked about the two paths that administration has laid before the russians. there's diplomacy and dialog and deterrence and defense. it sounds more and more like the path we're going down is deterrence and defense based on the moves the administration is making and that's why the intensive cooperation and dialog on our own side the united states with our european allies and the call that the president was having at this time yesterday is so critical. yesterday, of course, the big news out of the administration was the announcement of that more than 8,000 troops being put on alert ready to deploy. the president amplifying that more by saying he could potentially deploy some of those in the near term. today we're getting more of a read and another focus from ned price at the state department about some of the economic sanctions, some of the new op

mike memoli joins me now. mike, what does president biden have to say? think the death of betty white is the last thing i, as a white house correspondent, would get called to the camera to talk about, but a measure of the impact of the life she had. it came from the president of the united states. she and the first lady, just across the street here in wilmington, on the way out he was asked if he had a reaction. he said it was a shame, she was a classy lady, and he quoted his mother, 99 years old, god love her. the first lady also chimed in to say, who doesn't love betty white? obviously the impact of her passing being felt here. i should mention, katy, the president also did talk about ukraine, his called with president putin yesterday. he made it clear if he were to invade, that he would face severe economic sanctions and also nato retaliation. also talked about the wildfires in colorado and said he's considering going there and has spoken with the governor there as well. so a quick conversation in what's otherwise been a quiet week, including the deat

to break down, stephanie ruhle and mike memoli covering the white house. the market can quite volatile. take us what it could mean for folks, mortgage rates, their credit card rates, their 401(k)s, all of it. >>> what we're expecting, craig, is that the fed will likely announce a plan to raise interest rates and it's tricky messaging. they have the ability to raise rates because we're in an economic recovery, because things are going well, but they need to do this because they're trying to manage inflation. we know inflation has hit a 40-year high. how is this going to impact us? truth be told it's like taking your medicine. we're not going to like it in the short term. it's going to take some time for prices to level out and what it will do most likely is make the stock market more volatile, which we've seen, and why is that? because when rates are at zero, that makes it really easy to borrow. companies borrow, companies grow, and from an investing standpoint there's no other place to put your money but the stock market. when the fed does that, it's like

mike memoli who keeps track of these, resident biden whisperer saying this is the second time the president seemed to be defending the administration a fair amount there. >> reporter: he did. you called ate victory lap. i think that's the way to describe this. in stark contrast to the portrait republicans paint of this jobs report calling it the worst of biden's presidency but the president had political argument today to make, too, talking about how republicans in his view don't want to acknowledge the economic progress biden said the country is making because so many voted against the very pieces of legislation that the president said are responsible for the progress he says we're making so you see him sort of trying to reframe the debate. hifr lighting the efforts taken on supply chains, the shipping around the holidays. the president made a brief reference to the build back better agenda and didn't go into detail. >> interesting to hear the president say covid as we know now it now is not here to stay. josh letterman at the white house, thank you. enjoy your weekend and yours, as well.

support for federal judgment shell child as a potential supreme court nominee, according to our own mike memoli -- thinks biden's pledge to nominate a black woman to the supreme court more than his own endorsement was what capital halted him to the nomination in 2020. joining us tonight is democratic congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez of new york. congresswoman, good evening, thank you for joining me on the show this evening. >> thanks. >> you are one of those progressives last year who said justice breyer should probably retire sooner rather than later. so i am assuming you are very pleased to hear this news today. do you think the pressure on him worked? >> i do. you know, well you know, there is no way of actually saying why is injustice by his mind. but i do believe the urgency of this moment, the fact that the countries very clearly on a precipice of fascism, and a return to jim crow. the sweeping attack on voting rights in this country, and the very real threat that we have of seeing what happened for example with -- ruth bader ginsburg passing during the trump presidency. we could ve

joining us now is mike memoli live in pittsburgh with the president and "los angeles times" eli stokelis here. mike, tell me about the president's day. >> reporter: we have been talking for a while now about the white house's efforts to reset or reboot in the new year given the political troubles they have been facing and planned the speech to do that. when you see pittsburgh on the president's schedule it is a moment to pay attention. he had a first rally in the 2020 campaign here. kicked off the 2018 midterm campaigning here and delivered a powerful speech here, as well. so the president was coming here to talk about roads and bridges. but no 30-minute speech as the president delivered could have gotten the message home about the pornts of the law like the events of the bridge collapse hire in pittsburgh and the white house once they understood no fatalities was able to add to the president's schedule and saw the president interacting with local law enforcement there and saying some of the 3,000 bridges being judged in poor condition this was one of them. are exactly the kinds of rea

i'm joined by my white house correspondent mike memoli and colleague in the room along with bridget bowmanthe white house preparing to pivot to a midterm messaging to take the president out of washington an entalk about the achievements. >> reporter: absolutely right? when you see pittsburgh on the schedule you pay attention. he kicked off the 2020 campaign in 2019. the year before gearing up the campaigning for democrats in the midterm elections it started in pittsburgh. it is who joe biden thinks the democrat party is and middle of america and this is for the white house a chance to talk what they have been doing for so long and parts of the agenda they want democrats to run on in the midterm election and spent time talking about build back better and don't know if there's a legislative path forward but made the case for it today. we really haven't talked about the innovation and competition act that's working the way through the congress and has a chance to be quietly enacted very soon. a big part of the message today. a steel mill at cutting edge of technology. >> bridget, we have been

. >> you told our mike memoli that you think president biden's pledge a couple years ago to nominate a black woman to the high court is what catapulted him to the democratic nomination. do you think that same energy can carry the party into the mid terms as well? >> yes. not alone but coupled with other things because i think a lot will come out in these hearings. and i think the public will get a chance to focus on the fact that not only has joe biden nominated an african-american woman during the hearing but he's already named eight women of color to circuit courts across the country. that equals the number of all presidents before him. he's got 42 federal nominations in his first year. that's more than any president before him. and i ask people to look at these judges. they are highly qualified. and they're people of color. joe biden is reshaping the federal bench as we speak, and he's doing it in the way that so many of us with the experiences that we had growing up in the south and meeting the challenges of being raised by a single parent and having to reach out to the community

joining me now, sahil kapour with the latest on what to expect in the senate, and mike memoli near the house as the president marks martin luther king day. so, mike, the white house put out this video today commemorating martin luther king junior day. the president says we must continue to commit to mlk's work. it seems like so many of biden's priorities are unfinished. where does he go from here? >> it's a great question. i think you see some of the strategy in the president's comments today. i want to highlight two. the first seem to be a rebuttal of sorts to what has been the favorite republican talking point of late talk act the fact as we heard from mitt romney talking yesterday and others, mitch mcconnell throughout the past few weeks in some ways it's harder to vote in new york or delaware than georgia where some of the voting laws that democrats have harshly criticized are taking place. you heard the president in his vid yes talking about the pernicious aspect of the voting law changes around the country. the changes to election boards. the changes to the process of counting th

on the campaign trail he vowed any nominee would be a black woman and mike memoli reports the white house

joining me to start us off, mike memoli, leigh ann caldwell, also with us is "the washington post" carol lennog, and carlos kurbello. welcome to all of you. thank you for joining us this hour. mike, i want to start with you at the white house. a snowy white house. talk about this strategy inside the west wing. i know you've been working your sources to try to restart talks on the president's agenda. and i guess the question is how high of an issue is voting rights against the backdrop of build back better all as we approach the anniversary of january 6th? >> well, i'm going to start 2022 by quoting joe biden, quoting his father which is to say you want to see what he values? look at his budget or in this case, look at his schedule. i find it really interesting that the first presidential event at the white house of 2022 is about what they're calling the meat and poultry supply chain action plan. that might sand like an obscure issue. it's a signal that as we begin what is an election year with control of congress at stake, the white house is focusing on literally kitchen table issues. th

i have an all star panel with me this morning, nbc's mike memoli is at the white house, ali vitali iscapitol hill, ashley parker is white house bureau chief for the "washington post" and onna for the pbs news hour, also heidi heitkamp who served six years as a democratic senator from north dakota. great to have all of you here. mike, big picture, what's your take away from the press conference? did you see the reset the white house had been promising? >> reporter: well, chris, obviously there was a lot made about the fact that that was only the second white house news conference that president biden has had since taking office, but it ended up being twice as long as his first one, a two for one deal. a lot of questions, a lot to unpack from that press conference, especially on foreign policy, but as we look at take a ways from his first year in office and the promises the president has made, those he hasn't fulfilled, you saw a little bit of that reset we've been reporting about for the last few days. the president saying he has been frustrated he's been spending so much time in washi

as our colleague, mike memoli has put it, this presidency has been almost a whack-a-mole presidency.tamp out the coronavirus, trying to pass build back better, turning attention to voting rights and dealing with infrastructure, and of course, any kind of presidency ends up dealing with multiple challenges. and you always can walk and chew gum at the same time. but i am curious out of all of those issues, is there one that is the most important? is it really tackling the coronavirus and devoting all of the attention to that. is it trying to end up having an historic type of presidency going in for the build back better? and so i'm really curious on how, as this reset happens, on a communications level, if there's also an issue reset, too, on what is the most important thing to get done, not only for history, but also for his party, as we head into the midterm elections. >> i want to bring in one of our colleagues here at nbc news, our political director chuck todd, the moderator of "meet the press" who is joining us now, along with ashley parker, bureau chief for "the washington post"