tapper. the cdc released its full set of guidance for americans, loosening some specific restri restrictions. >> if grandparents can be vaccinated they can visit their daughter and family even if they have not been vaccinated so long as their daughter and her family are not at risk for severe disease. >> vaccinated americans will still need to wear a mask in public and many other settings with unvaccinated people and travel is being discouraged for now. there's also a turning point in the battle against coronavirus today. there are now more than 31 million people fully vaccinated in the u.s., and that is more than all the americans infected during this entire pandemic, as cnn's nick watt reports. >> you can visit your grandparents if you have been vaccinated and they have been, too. >> reporter: finally, guidance for the fully vaccinated. how the government would like you to behave. >> fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing. visit from unvaccinated people from a single household at low risk of severe illness from covid without wearing a mask or social distancing. >> reporter: even fully vaccinated still avoid travel and out and about, still wear a mask. >> there's still a small risk that vaccinated people could become infected with mild or asymptomatic disease and potentially even transmit the virus to others who are not vaccinated. >> reporter: they'll update on the science evolves. for now, definitely don't do this. >> not all at once. >> reporter: mask-burning protests in boise idaho, over the weekend. >> it's not healthy to burn mask. we want people to choose to make the right decision to wear a mask. >> reporter: but will they? meantime nearly 2.2 million vaccine doses now going into arms on the average day. >> i know the pace is challenging. this is a war. we can't let up. >> new cases now averaging just over 60,000 a day. lowest number in about five months, but about 20% of those cases could be the more contagious variant first identified in the uk, according to one testing company. >> that today is wreaking havoc in parts of europe. we are in the eye of a hurricane right now. >> still, there is a creeping normalcy. this past weekend, air travel, biggest numbers since the holidays. >> miami is the place to be. >> spring break is here. and already pushback from the airline industry to that cdc guidance that even fully vaccinated people should still avoid travel. airlines for america says that with the air filtration in planes and all the masks, the risk really is very low, but, of course, travel is not just your time on the airplane and the cdc director says that every time we see a surge in travel, we see a surge in cases. pamela? >> all right, nick. thanks for that. joining me now to discuss is cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. as always, sanjay, great to see you. sanjay, rather. great to see you. what goes through exactly what the cdc says is safe once we have been fully vaccinated? >> sure, yeah. and, as nick said, we've been waiting for these for some time. basically defining who is fully vaccinated, starting off with that. it's two weeks after you've gotten your second shot, if it's the pfizer/moderna vaccine or two weeks after that single shot, the johnson & johnson vaccine. after that, it's a question of if you have been fully vaccinated and everyone else around you, if people gathering have been fully vaccinated you can get together without masks, physical distancing in a way that will feel much more normal. if you've been fully vaccinated and are going to go to a household who not necessarily has been fully vaccinated but low risk because they've been mostly at home, you can do the same. no masks or distancing necessary in those situations. those are considered low-risk situations. you're going to see a lot of this next graphic here from the cdc. these visuals to try to make this clear. green dots represent people who have been fully vaccinated. orange dots represent those who have not yet been vaccinated. you get an idea. if everyone has been vaccinated no extra health precautions. if one group is vaccinated, no public health precautions. this is basically what we're starting to see the beginning of as a first step here, pamela. >> and you actually just spoke to andy slavitt, working on the white house's covid response team about this process of putting together these recommendations that we've been waiting for, for a long time, as you said. what did he tell you? >> well, it was interesting. there's a few things. first of all, the recommendations themselves came from the cdc. he was clear to point that out. there was no interference, because that's been a concern, as you know in the past. no interference with anyone else to say you need to do this. he said this was clearly from the cdc, their scientific guidelines. he also said we're going to see a lot less kind of binary recommendations, absolutely do this, absolutely don't do this and more sort of low risk, medium risk, high risk sort of recommendations. to get people a sense of how concerning things are so that they can start to make smarter decisions. also, they used the word in this briefing today, first step about a dozen times, pamela. and i think this is an important point. again, this is the first step, first time we're hearing these sorts of recommendations. future recommendations, he says, will directly be tied to vaccination rates. so, 10% right now. in two weeks, we could be at 20%. at which point there will be new recommendations. so, every time we go up sort of one logrithmic step, there will be new recommendations that will be looser, let people do more things. >> it's interesting that he said they'll be making recommendations based on risk coming up, because one of the big questions coming out of today, of course, was traveling. i think people are still wondering why can't you travel, why are they recommending against travel if you've been vaccinated? dr. leana wen says this guidance is far too cautious, that the u.s. is missing an opportunity to tie a person's vaccination status to their level of access to openings, but if they're willing to get vaccinated they can fully travel. do you agree? >> it's tough. it's a tough call, pamela. i mean i talked to several people about this point. i agree with leana on this, but i think the concern is that this would not be considered a l low-risk situation because you could encounter a lot of people who may be unvaccinated from different households. some people may have vulnerabilities in terms of their age or pre-existing conditions. at a time when you still have 60,000 or so people becoming infected every day, are you going to add that in to the mix for recreational travel? essential travel, yes. again, i think within a couple of weeks, or maybe sooner than that, depending on vaccination rates, my guess is that they're going to hear looser recommendations around things like travel. it's not absolutely clear cut. i mean, that's the message i'm sort of getting as i talked to members of the task force. there's a nuance toerring on th caution. >> they're erring on the side of caution. it's to protect those who have not been vaccinated. there's still questions about how much people who have been vaccinated could be carriers and transmit the virus. what's the latest on the research into that? if you have been vaccinated, the level of risk you pose to others in terms of transmitting the virus? >> this is such an interesting point, pamela. i'll preface by saying that old adage, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. it's clear from a common sense standpoint that if you've been vaccinated you're far less likely to become infected and even less likely to become infected where you could transmit the virus. they have to prove that. that takes time. you have to follow people out in these clinical trials for some time. is it possible someone who has been vaccinated could still carry enough virus in their nose and mouth to infect other people? there's a hypothetical concern because they haven't proven that not to be the case. i think it's unlikely. i think about this all the time. i've been vaccinated. i do still wear a mask when i go out in public. i'm fairly confident that i'm not a potential carrier anymore. >> and i'm sure we'll be learning more about that. temperatures are getting warmer, more families are going to want to head to vacation. look, so many people have been locked down this last year. do you think that there is a chance we'll have these looser guidelines by the summer once more americans are vaccinated? it sounds like, based on your conversation, we're going to be seeing that. >> yeah, look, with great humility, i say yes. i think we have -- with humility, because we get surprised by this virus and certainly, you know, the variants that everyone talks about still could add -- throw a curveball into this. when i've been doing the math, talking to people who are responsible for the vaccine rollout, understanding how the recommendations are likely to change, probably every couple of we weeks or faster than that, i absolutely think by summertime we should be in a very different spot. i mean, we could even be in functional herd immunity at that point. it is possible, pamela, come fall the numbers start to go back up again as we saw last fall. i do think this summer, around these summer breaks you're talking about, i think we'll be in a very different and beneficial position. >> really quick, you think the numbers could go up in the fall even though most people could be vaccinated by then? the supply will be available in may. that doesn't mean everyone can get vaccinated then. we still think in fall we could see another rise? >> yeah. i mean, it depends -- if we had a third of the country still not vaccinated because of hesitancy or other reasons then, yeah, you know, you may see numbers that are much lower than they are now, but then go up. if we get down to 100,000 people per day becoming infected, you know, that's -- and then it goes up from there, it would still be going up, but i don't think it would feel as monumental or significant as what we have right now. >> just a reminder, these months, march and april, are still very important as well in terms of the mitigation efforts. dr. walensky just said that today as well. >> yeah. >> we could talk to you the whole show. unfortunately, we have to cover some other news. thank you so much. >> okay. you got it. thank you. a delay to the final step before president biden signs the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. new details on the timing. plus, the world reacting to the shocking meghan and harry interview, except for one place. at panera, when we make a pizza... we don't just “make a pizza.” we use fresh, clean ingredients... to make a masterpiece. order our new pepperoni and four cheese flatbread pizzas for delivery or pickup today. panera. that bombshell interview with prince harry and meghan is airing right now in the uk. so far the royal palace is mum on its claims. on race, the royal couple told oprah winfrey that there were conversations within the royal institution about how dark his skin condition might be. on mental health, meghan said at one point she felt suicidal and was turned down when she begged for help. >> i went to the institution and said i needed to go somewhere to get help. i said i've never felt this way before and i need to go somewhere, and i was told that i couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution. >> cnn royal correspondent max foster has the reaction this interview is getting today across the pond. >> i've spent a long time now not commenting on royal family matters and i don't intend to depart from that today zblsh addressing the elephant in the room, uk prime minister boris johnson sidestepped the question of harry and meghan's bombshell interview with oprah winfrey, commenting only about his admiration of the queen and her role as unifier. the royal palace having no comment whatsoever on the interview that highlighted just how disunified the royal family had become, leading to the so-called megxit. airing for the first time in full in the uk, the question is how damning will this interview be to the royal family? after all, it was everything it was billed to be and more, detailing a royal rift between father and son. >> i feel really let down. >> reporter: a gulf between brothers who weathered so much together. >> i love william to bits, but we -- we want different paths. >> reporter: candid and intimate, no topic off limits. >> i just didn't want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and frigh frightening, constant thought. >> isolation, barrage of drew her to thoughts of suicide. leading to a show of support today from the white house. >> for anyone to come forward and speak about their own struggles with mental health and their personal story, that takes courage. >> reporter: insidious undercurrent of racism perhaps the most damning claim in the most explosive interview to rock the royal family since his mother's interview with martin bashir. >> i was seeing history repeating itself but perhaps or definitely far more dangerous because you add race in. >> reporter: one of the most jaw-dropping accounts, that unnamed members of the royal family were worried about the skin color of harry and meghan's son. >> and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born. >> what? >> and -- >> who is having that conversation? with you? what? >> so -- >> hold up. hold up. >> there's several conversations. >> there's a -- >> which member or members of the royal family was it? harry and meghan wouldn't say. oprah winfrey on monday only saying she knows who it wasn't. >> he wanted to make sure i knew and if i had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather. that were part of those conversations. >> leaving open the question, just who could have said it? another shock, their son wouldn't be given a title or the security protections normally afforded to members of the royal family with no reason given for why. >> the idea of our son not being safe and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled the same way that other grandchildren would be. >> racism one of the key factors driving harry and meghan from the family. had they only had the family support, they would have gladly stayed. the very tabloid that they say drove their mental health to the brink was quick to get the splashy headlines, daily mail saying harry twist the knife, meanwhile, sussexes deliver enough bombshells to sink a fl otilla. it is lockdown, of course. it means more people will be sitting down to watch this interview, this moment in royal and british history and perhaps may sway their opinions here. >> there's so much to process from this interview. people in the u.s. who watch it are processing these bombshells that came from this interview. more than 17 million people watched it in the u.s. as it's airing in the uk right now. still not even a brief statement from the palace. you've covered the royals for years. what do you read into that? >> it's very hard to tell. i've spoken to people behind the scenes. they're saying we're not expecting anything quite yet. i suspect the various households in the royal establishment are trying to get together, one unified response to this. a lot of it was so personal, emotions are running quite high. will they give a no comment? that's highly likely. the other option is that they're allowing harry and meghan to have their voice, breathe here. i don't know if that's true. a statement is expected. i think that's widely the view of the british media here. they're under pressure to come out with a statement. it then becomes what do they say? comprehensive rebuff of all of those allegations that came out in the interview or something that says we're going to look at this and try to learn from it? it's impossible to tell right now. a lot of pressure on the palace to come out with something. >> they knew this was coming but did they know beforehand what the couple said? >> no, they knew nothing at all. i can tell you, pam ierk was having conversations last night with people in the palace. it's pretty clear that it was a tight group that had access to this. some people in the sussex's office hadn't seen it. no one knew what to expect. it was touted as this massive, blockbuster, bombshell interview. i think it exceeded anything that anyone expected, particularly about accusations of racism pointed at the established institution. >> let's listen to reactions on the skin color comments. >> when you say you were surprised about the skin tone conversation, were you surprised that would be true inside the palace or were you surprised they were telling you about it? >> i was surprised that they were telling me about it. >> is that the shocker, that this couple is saying the quiet parts of society out loud? >> yes, the revelations, and just who in the royal family was talking to harry about skin color? everyone was profoundly shocked about that. oprah adding today that, of course, it wasn't the queen or prince philip. the group is getting smaller of suspects, i would say, pam, and people want to know who it was. >> max foster thank you for bringing us the latest there on england. on the issue of mental health if you or someone you know had needs help in the u.s., you can call the suicide prevention lifeline at 800-273-8255. resources outside the u.s. include the international association for suicide prevention. they're online at iasp.info. you can also find help at befrienders worldwide.org. coming up on this monday, president biden is preparing for a first in his presidency. that's next. four, five, turn, kick. we got chased by these wild coyotes! they were following her because she had beef jerky in her pocket. (laughing) (trumpet playing) someone behind me, come on. pick that up, pick that up, right there, right there. as long as you keep making the internet an amazing place to be, we'll keep bringing you a faster, more secure, and more amazing internet. xfinity. the future of awesome. [drum beat and keyboard typing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [keyboard typing] ♪ [trumpet] [keyboard typing] did you know that every single flush flings odors onto your soft surfaces? then they get release back into the air, so you smell them later. ew right? that's why febreze created small spaces. press firmly and watch it get to work. unlike the leading cone, small spaces continuously eliminates odors in the air and on surfaces. so they don't come back for 45 days. just imagine what it can do with other odors. kamala harris is speaking at the white house on international women's day before president biden delivers remarks. listen. >> today, women military members are stationed around the world. i say this to remind us while it has only been five years since all combat jobs have opened to women, women have been in the line of fire, risking their lives to protect our nation long before that. to today, we know women make up 16% of our active duty military and 19% of our enlisted officers. we also know that women want to serve and that our military is stronger when they do. look no further than these two generals for proof. recruiting more women to our military, adjusting policies to retain more women, enforcing policies to protect women and ensure they are heard, and advancing more women on fair and equal footing will, without any question, make our nation safer. and that's the work ahead. so for now, let me congratulate lieutenant general richardson and general vanovost. it's my great honor to introduce our commander in chief, president joe biden. >> thank you, madam vice president, and thank you, mr. secretary. on friday, i submitted to the senate for confirmation my first slate of nominations for four-star command positions in our armed forces. among them, two outstanding and eminently qualified warriors and patriots, general jacqueline van ost, united states air force, currently the only female four-star officer serving in our military. i nominated her as commander of united states transportation command and when confirmed, the lieutenant general laura richardson of the united states army will be promoted to the rank and join general van ovost as another four-star general. i nominated her as united states southern command. when confirmed they will become the second and third women in history in the united states armed forces to lead combatant commands. each of these women have led careers demonstrating incomparable skill, integrity and duty to country. and at every step, they've also helped push open the doors of opportunity to women in our mil military, blazing the trail a little wider, a little brighter, for all proud women following in their path and looking to their example. and i wanted to shine the light on these accomplishments for those women today because general van ovost reiterated in an interview this last week and i am the second person to say this. it's hard to be what you can't see. it's hard to be what you can't see, but you'll soon see. today is international women's day, and we all need to see and to recognize the barrier breaking accomplishments of these women. we need the young women, just beginning their careers in the military service to see it and know that no door will be closed to them. we need women and men throughout their ranks to see and celebrate women's accomplishments and leadership in the services. we need little girls and boys both who have grown up dreaming of serving their country to know this is what generals in the united states armed forces look like. this is what vice presidents of the united states look like. so i would like to spend just a few minutes today, making sure that america knows who general van ovost is and who lieutenant general richardson is. they're aviators. both learned to fly planes before they were old enough to drive a car. general van ovost, first generation american, daughter of dutch immigrants who owned a flying operation. she loved the freedom of flight and, as a teenager, flew herself to see sally ride lift off as the first woman in space. 16 years old. goes down to see sally ride. she said she was at several thousand feet, watching from a distance. you know, women were banned from flying combat missions when the general joined the force. so, she focused on becoming a test pilot. and instead of learning to fly just one plane, she learned to fly everything, including air force two when i was vice president. general van ovost currently is overseas air mobility command, approximately 107,000 airmen and 1,100 planes, humanitarian assistance to go everywhere in the world if need be. from flying water to texas after the recent storms, to ensuring our wounded warriors are evacuated for medical care from anywhere in the world, she gets it done. lieutenant general richardson's parents were proud patriots. it must have rubbed off because lieutenant general richardson, her brother and sister all joined the army. her father encouraged her to join rotc in college, even though that meant commuting to a different school. lieutenant general richardson joined the army aviation branch, women were banned from flying attack helicopters. she flew in support of combat missions and conducting lift operations of so-called uey and the blackhawks. now, lieutenant general richardson overseas military ground responses here in north america, all over the last year that meant getting military medical personnel deployed to help in our response to this pandemic. more than 4,500 military medical personnel deployed in hospitals across 14 states in the navajo nation to treat covid-19 patients. it means more than 2,200 medical personnel are working or soon will be at vaccination sites in eight states in the united states virgin islands. i'm so proud of the work that lieutenant general richardson and her team have done to support the american people this year. american people are as well. they're warriors. they're crisis-tested commanders. best of all, best of all, they're not done yet. neither of these incredible generals is resting on her laurels or on her stars. using their voices and actively working to change policies in the military, to make it easier and safer for more women, not the just to join the military, but to stay in the military and to thrive. i'm incredibly proud that in 2015, under the obama/biden administration, we took the final steps to open up all positions in the military to anyone qualified to serve in them. the women who join today's military aren't told no when they apply to fly fighter jets or attack helicopters, just because of their gender. they aren't told no he they want to apply to ranger school or infantry officer basic training, but they all know that there's much, much more work to be done to ensure that women's leadership is recognized, that we have more diverse leaders, we reach the top echelons of command for all who are qualified, including all women, all women. and that all women feel safe and respected in our military, period. you know, some of its relatively straightforward work where we're making good progress, designing body armor that fits women properly, tailoring combat uniforms for women, updating requirements for their hairstyles. and some of it is going to take, you noerks an intensity of purpose and mission to really change the culture and habits that cause women to leave the military. women are making sure more diverse candidates are considering, being considered for career advancing opportunities at every single level. that women aren't penalized in their careers for having children. that women aren't just token members, but integral parts throughout all branches and all divisions and that they can completely, fairly engage in promotion and compete all across the board, including on age and gender neutrality, physical fitness test. you know, both members of the military, couples can thrive while serving, like lieutenant general richardson and her husband, lieutenant general richardson who, i might add -- i want to thank him for getting me off of a mountain. it was about 12,000 to 14,000 feet up on a goat path when our helicopter went down in a snow storm. it's good to see you, general. the ride down that mountain was more perilous in the truck than it was in the helicopter, but thank you. and we have to take, on sexual assault and harassment, violence in the military. it's abhorrent and wrong at any time. in our military, so much of unit cohesion is built on trusting your fellow service members to have your back. there's nothing less than a threat to our national security. i know secretary austin takes this as seriously as vice president harris and i do. that's why this first memo as secretary was a directive to take on sexual assault in the military and why he stepped up independent review -- he set up an independent review commission on sexual assault to make concrete recommendations for changes. this is going to be an all hands on deck effort under my administration to end the skourge of sexual assault in the military. we're going to be focused on that from the very top. i know we can do it. the u.s. military has defeated american enemies air, land and sea and this is not beyond us. i want to thank general van ovost and lieutenant general richardson for their exemplary careers, you're american patriotism at its finest, undaunted and absolutely, absolutely able to do anything, by any obstacle. determined to open wide the doors of opportunity and ready for the next challenge. it's my great honor to serve as your commander in chief. i look forward to hearing your active duty and recommendations of how we will work together to keep the american people safe, meet every challenge in the 21st century. i want to thank you both. and i want to thank the former general. i keep calling him general. the guy who runs that outfit over there. i want to make sure we thank the secretary for all he has done to try to implement what we've just talked about and for recommending these two women for promotion. thank you all. may god bless you all. may god protect our troops . marking international women's day, the first female vice president in this nation's history. president biden announced the nominations of two female general officers to become four-star combatant commanders. if confirmed they'll be the second and third women in u.s. history to lead a combatant command. let's bring in cnn's kaitlan collins. today kicks off a major week for president biden. >> it certainly does, pam. we should note what president biden did not mention there is this is what the "new york times" reported. two female generals whose promotions had been decided upon months ago but were held up at the pentagon because officials there, including former president trump's defense secretary at the time, were so worried if they recommended them to the white house in that normal process that somehow they would be thwarted by former president trump. they held off on actually recommending them to be promoted and nominated for these four-star commands. we should note that as well, something that president biden did not mention in his remarks but was certainly notable as well. you're right, this will be a big week for the white house. this is president biden's first speech of the week. it's not going to be his last. he does have his first prime time address happening on thursday. president biden will deliver his first prime time address to the nation thursday, to mark the anniversary of the coronavirus crisis. >> this week marks one year since the country was essentially shut down. >> reporter: biden's oval office address will happen exactly one year after this one. >> the vast majority of americans, the risk is very, very low. >> reporter: biden's first big address comes as he's also set to sign his first major piece of legislation. >> as soon as i get it. >> reporter: house lawmakers are now expected to vote wednesday on his $1.9 trillion relief package, meaning biden could sign by the end of the week. >> our focus right now is on getting this bill across the finish line, getting the relief out to the american people. >> reporter: a dramatic expansion of pandemic aid and federal safety net programs and underwent several changes before being passed by the senate. now, jobless benefits will remain at $300 instead of $400 and go through september while stimulus checks will be limited to those making under $80,000. stimulus checks should start going out this month, but the white house won't say if biden's name will appear on them, something trump insisted on when he was in office. >> this is a very popular question. in terms of what the checks will look like, i just don't have an update on that for you today. >> reporter: not a single republican voted for the stimulus bill, with many complaining it was too bloated. >> this was not really about coronavirus in terms of the spending. this was a liberal wish list of liberal spending. >> every public opinion poll shows people want this. they believe it's needed. >> reporter: meanwhile, biden is also facing a growing crisis on the southern u.s. border in a surge of migrant crossings. >> as you all know, we inherited a broken system. >> reporter: delegation of senior officials traveled to the border for briefings and to see the first facility for children that opened since biden took office. >> they went there because the president asked them to go, because he wanted to hear and understand tangibly what's happening on the ground. >> reporter: now, pam, two other things that we should note happened at the white house today. one, president biden signed an executive order forming the gender policy, taking efforts to make sure gender equality in foreign and domestic, a body that reports directly to president biden. and he also has instructed the education secretary to reassess some of those trump era policies that had to do with sexual assault on school campuses, something critics said afforded too much protection to those students accused of sexual assault and not the ones who said they were victims of sexual assault. you see this all come together on international women's day and, of course, the white house saying the timing is not coincidental. >> kaitlan, thank you for bringing us the latest from the white house. i want to thank my panel, dana b bash. it's not just for the checks going to all americans. it will give money to reopen schools, child tax credits, health insurance subsidies. how significant is it? >> it's incredibly significant for all the reasons that you just listed and much, much more. first and foremost, to get people help who need it. secondly, just more broadly, to attack the still very big issue with funding to continue the vaccine rollout, testing and, you know, schools and other things related to the coronavirus but also the economy. but then it's also just beyond the content of this bill, pamela. you know it's also about the setting of the agenda and putting a marker down for this president. it is his first big piece of legislation he made along with his top aides a very strategic decision to choose to do this, despite the fact that he did promise bipartisanship, saying pretty publicly, at least his aides have, he didn't think republicans would come along in a way that was big enough to do what it needed to do. he was right, because we haven't seen any republican votes. and so we're going to see it likely to pass in the house, big-time democratic unity. largely because of the content of this and because it is intended to give a win to their new president. we'll see what happens with other pieces of legislation down the road. >> that is a big question, too, how much will that hold, within the party hold? biden has his first prime time address on thursday, most likely touting this success. what tone do you expect him to take? >> we heard from jen psaki and other officials that the prime time address will be touting one of the biggest legislative packages in history with a single-year impact will focus on a lot of the sacrifices with, you know, individual americans' stories that people have made over the course of this year and pandemic that has killed nearly 600,000 americans. look, biden's ability to communicate this bill is really integral to democrats' 2022 electoral success and his ability to set the stage for his ambitious legislative agenda going forward, that infrastructure package that you and dana mentioned. that's why we're seeing this white house in sell mode ahead of this thursday address. administrative officials and democrats from one stretch of pennsylvania avenue to the other are already working very hard to communicate to americans the tangible benefits that are going to make the lives of americans better. so, yes, we're going to see president biden on thursday night speaking directly from the bully pulpit to americans, but on a week like international women's day, where we're celebrating and highlighting women's accomplishments, there is also no better spokesperson, perhaps, than someone like vice president kamala harris who also has been touting the benefits of this bill and how it can directly impact women's lives. of course, it's not just incumbent upon women to speak to these issues like the child tax credit that you both mentioned but again she is a uniquely important messenger for the white house. that's why you've seen her out there, speaking to the eu parliament today, hitting up various stops at women's small businesses in virginia last week. and i think we'll continue to see that leading up to this thursday address. >> jackie, dana, thanks so much. meantime, more women come forward with sexual harassment claims against new york governor cuomo. now a key political ally says it's time for him to go. ugh, there's that cute guy from 12c. -go talk to him. -yeah, no. plus it's not even like he'd be into me or 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join now, pay later! get your first 3 months free. offer ends march 8th! i always dreamed of having kids of my own. ♪ ♪ now i'm ready for someone to call me mom. at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. breaking news in our politics lead. sexual harassment claims against governor andrew cuomo, two more former aides have come forward alleging inappropriate conduct, bringing the total to five women. and now a growing list of new york state democratic lawmakers, including the state senate majority leader, are calling for governor cuomo to resign. as cnn's brynn gingras reports, the governor says he's not going anywhere. >> it was a painful year. >> reporter: at a krchd vaccine event today in new york city, no mention of sexual harassment allegations against governor andrew cuomo. the city's mayor joined a growing chorus of other state democrats calling for cuomo to step down. >> i just don't see how he can govern effectively when fewer and fewer people believe him. >> i think he would have to resign. >> new york state senate majority leader andrea stewart cousins putting out this statement, we need to govern without daily distraction for the good of the state, governor cuomo must resign. it was quickly assembled by other state senators to which cuomo said sunday -- >> there is no way i resign. >> while the governor is losing some support in albany, the state's democratic leaders in washington still not going as far. >> i've always believed that sexual harassment is unacceptable and should never be tolerated. i called for our attorney general to do a full and thorough investigation. >> reporter: this, as two more allegations that the governor acted inappropriately with former staffers were made public over the weekend. karen hinton, once a paid consultant to cuomo, said he inappropriately hugged her in a los angeles hotel room 21 years ago, corroborated by a friend of hinton's. the governor denies them and called hinton a long-time political adversary. and an aide to cuomo for two years says the governor asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception and once kissed her hand when she rose from her desk, according to "the wall street journal.." >> i say to people in the office, how are you doing? how is everything? are you going out? are you dating? that's my way of doing friendly banter. >> now five women, four who formally worked for the governor, have lodged accusations. >> he is a textbook abuser. >> reporter: the lawyer for accuser charlotte bennett telling cnn that the new york attorney general's probe should look into more than just the governor. >> in any sexual harassment scenario there are always enablers, people who allow the harassment to continue and simply transfer the women out, and we see that here. >> reporter: cuomo says he and his staff will cooperate fully with the attorney general's investigation, and pam we just learned from the attorney general who she will appoint to oversee, conduct that investigation. she tapped former u.s. attorney june kim and ann clark. they will have access to documents, records. they have subpoena power and we're told they will have to report to letitia james weekly before finalizing their report on these sexual harassment allegations which then will be made public. >> we could hear the governor address all of this in the very near future. is that right? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. we tried to ask more questions of the allegations while he was in new york city. it was very much talk about the vaccine today. a spokesperson did say he will be available for questions and answers later this week. of course, we would love to hear a response about these two appointments from the attorney general. >> brynn gingras, thank you very much. follow me or tweet the s show @cnnthelead. our coverage continues right now. welcome to our viewers. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." fully vaccinated americans are being told they can safely visit in small groups unmasked unvaccinated family members not at high risk. but they're also being told, being encouraged to continue to mask up in public and try to avoid travel. this newui