to socially distance but recognize that they need to point forward with the vaccines coming online, numbers dropping and less deaths. the president will talk about that. emphasis most certainly on what he's about to sign in a few minutes. keep an eye on, also, the administration launching into a blitz to sell and message this proposal. importance in their minds what this $1.9 trillion brings to the table. the president they announced yesterday will make a trip to pennsylvania tuesday and next week the president and vice president will be heading to georgia as part of the effort to talk about this profeposal. why does it matter? georgia and the two democrat whose hailed from that state because of runoffs, $ 1.9 trillion wouldn't have been possible. because of this, the president is able to sign his cornerstone proposal. >> phil mattingly, thank you. covering the white house for us. it is remarkable for president biden to be signing such a sweeping piece of legislation just seven weeks after taking office. how does it compare to past presidents and some of their sig ksig - signat signature ee lation slew. >> reporter: 51 days compared to much higher numbers for everyone else. what else were they doing? donald trump in almost first year occupied all time trying to get through a giant tax plan, of course, many were aware of at the time. was not necessarily so popular. a lot of republicans liked this tax plan, but that wasn't so much true of many other people in the population. especially as they realized the impact would not move their money the way they thought it would. a lot of people got advantage, but more concerned about the money that went to wealthy people out there and how it ran the deficit up. barack obama, affordable care act. pushed that through. something that wasn't so popular. passed by a razor-thin margin, but became more popular as th s population and passed with no gop support, no republican support. if we go further back and look at george w. bush, the u.s. patriot act. this one was fast when you think about where it came from. this was a response to 9/11. so it wasn't really fast in his term so much but certainly fast in terms of 9/11. bipartisan support. no tries there. a lot of concern in the country at the time. this one, popular at the time, not so much at it went on. privacy concerns. bill clinton, omnibus wcht reconciliation. what a title. the thing that led to a reduction in spending in the government, and the first surplus we'd seen in a long time in the federal budget and the last surplus we've seen in a long time in the federal budget. this was the antithesis of what happened to the budget under donald trump, and this is something that a lot of people may not look at and say it's popular or not popular, but absolutely had a big impact. came about not nearly as fast as what joe biden's doing now. see how that plays. >> omnibus budget reconciliation. like you said. that is -- >> rolls off the tongue. >> such a mouthful. >> a reelection campaign right there. >> yes. certainly is. tom foreman, thank you so much for that. appreciate it. some of the senior-most members of the military are smacking down a fox host for saying that pregnant women serving in the armed forces are a "mockery pea "of the u.s. military. end quote. what tucker carlson never served in uniform, maternity or otherwise, said only his show. >> so we've got new hair-styles and ma ceternity flight suits. pregnant women will fight our wars. a mockery of the u.s. military while china's military's becomes more mass cue lynn assembling the world's largest navy, ours is more feminine. what feminine means anymore since men and women no longer exist. bottom line is, it's out of control and the pentagon's going along with this. again a mockery of the u.s. military and corps mission which is winning wars. >> i really didn't want to repeat that, but i have to so that you can know what we're talking about here. to be clear, women are an essential part of the u.s. military according to the u.s. military and the creation of a maternity uniform loan program to help female service members with a costly process getting uniforms that actually fit them throughout a pregnancy signed into the law in the last defense authorization bill by former president trump. a bipartisan effort push by now interior secretary holland and the vfirst green beret to serve. >> this was brought forward to me by an air force matscher maj staff. a mother of five. tremendous expense but when we see the experience, an air force cyber warrior. we need her to stape iy in the military and continue to serve. they have a family, deal with deployments and shouldn't have to deal with these additional expenses. >> with us, a navy veteran. daughter of a navy vet and sister of a marine and worked with the nonprofit iraq and afghanistan veterans association. tracking the most pressing issues of american female veterans. we are also honored to be joined by the sargent major of the army, the senior-most enlisted member of the u.s. army. sir, with deference to you i am starting with the guest who has served in uniform, while pregnant. i want to know your reaction here. >> i mean, everyone is, of course, entitled to their own opinion. i happen to think that his opinion is wrong. someone who serves while pregnant, this is -- it's very disparaging to hear him say these things about woman. i served with many women, women who were pregnant at the time, and none of us let our pregnancies affect our positions and we all came to work every day ready to do our job and we loved our jobs. so, again, he's entitled to his own opinion but i believe the people in the pentagon making these decisions have a lot more insight into what our military service members need than someone who's never served a day in their life. >> i am going to have to pause for a moment. we have to go to the white house for the president. >> thank you for coming in. in the -- the weeks that this bill has been discussed and debated, it's clear that an overwhelming percentage of the american people, democrats, independents, our republican friends, have made it clear the people out there, made it clear, they strongly support the american rescue plan. yesterday with final passage of the plan in the house of representatives, their voices were heard, and reflected on everything we have in this bill. and i believe this is, and most people i think do as well, this his oreck legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country and giving people in this nation, working people, the middle-class folks, people who built the country a fighting chance. that's what the essence of it is, and i'm going to have a lot more to say about that tonight and the next couple of days, and be able to take your question, but in the meantime, what i'm going to do is sign this bill and make the presentation tonight, and then there will be plenty of opportunities. we're going to be on the road not only talking about what i'm talking about, the impact on the virus and how we're going to end this pandemic, and talk about all the elements of the bill, beginning friday and saturday and through the week. so thank you for being here. got it. thank you all. appreciate it. >> mr. president what -- >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you, guys. thank you. >> mr. president -- >> thank you. thank you all. let's go. >> come on, guys. let's go. thank you. thank you. let's go. >> mr. president -- >> all right. there you have it. president biden signing this huge almost $2 trillion covid relief plan. i want to bring in dana bash to talk about this. dana, this is a, a big day. this is a huge legislative achievement pretty early in biden's term here. >> reporter: it is. you started to say something that made me think of what he said to president obama when the -- >> hopefully i didn't. >> you did not. a big, blank deal, and it is. very different, and in so many ways, but it is, it sb presidency-defining for him at a very early time in his administration, of course. you know, just a couple of months in. and it is, promises kept for him on a whole hosts of issues that are inside this giant piece of legislation. and despite the fact that it was passed with only democratic votes, you are already seeing republicans kind of with a wink and a nod and maybe even a more transparent than that, you know, telling their constituents that help is coming, even though they didn't add to that help with a "yes" vote. now, what is very interesting and what is going to be noteworthy when we hear from the president tonight and, of course, when he gives, you know, people across the country a look at what exactly is in this is, how he explains all of the specifics, and makes people understand how this is going to affect their lives, because, look, there's so many things that here in washington they do that are, you know, obviously intended to affect people's lives, but as we've covered congress together, and we did several years ago, bri, there are a few things i can think of that will have much of a direct and immediate impact as this particular piece of legislation, now law, will have, because so many people are hurting, and this is going to get at their -- their wallets, get at their, their bank accounts. get at the schools, get at the health centers around them to help them get vaccines and on and on and on. >> yeah. it's huge. to think how much almost $2 trillion is, it's gigantic. dana, thank you so much for taking us through that. we appreciate it. i want to get back to this incredibly important story. another very important story that we are tracking today. that is a fox host saying that pregnant women in the military of a mockery of the u.s. armed forces. i want to restart our conversation with kaitlyn hetrick, a navy veteran and sergeant army major, senior enlisted of the u.s. army. i missed my bedtime watching social media light up over this, and then esai saw you weigh in it caught fire. it is very significant that you are calling outside this person by name saying that their words are divisive, saying it doesn't reflect values. why did you feel it was important to do that? >> thank you, for having me here. i think it's really fortunate say that, because, you know, the army has 185,000 women in our army today, and we have the most lethal army in the world, and that is because of our people, and that's all of our people. so i'm extremely proud of all of the women that i've served with in combat, that have been my commander in units across, in my 32-year career. so i'm extremely proud of all of those women, and i don't think those comments need to divide us as military, because we have the greatest military in the world. >> when you think of the contribution of women in the military. look, there's still obviously a minority in the military. but they are a significant fraction. i think almost one-fifth when you look across the branches and the branches, of course, vary. how essential are they in order to, you know, have force readiness? in order to make sure that you're hitting national security objectives? >> they're extremely important. i can just look no further than when general richardson, she was acting commander for forces command, the largest army component command in the army for about six months, which is in charge of all of the readiness in the army. and without her leadership for those six months we wouldn't have a ready army. that's extremely crucial for what we do as a military and it's because of her leadership there in that time and i'm proud to have served with her. >> and kaitlyn to you, it's not uncommon for women to decide to get out of the military when pregnant. a lot 67 women, decide to start a family, that's probably what happens to their career, and the military is trying to actually kind of turn that around. why are maternity uniforms and just the attitudes towards women who are mothers, why are they so important? >> i think it's so important, because we need to value obviously the women that are within our military and retaining them, because they bring diversity to the table, and we're focusing a lot on diversity right now, as we should be. and making sure that we retain those women because they have skill sets imperative to maintaining the world's finest military, which is somewhat we have. so i think making these decisions and expanding uniform options and even grooming standards is imperative to making sure that that women in the service feel that they are wanted, and accepted and that they belong there. >> and sergeant major a top leader in the army. specifically as the secretary of state major, your background in being operational, and, you know, having a lot of experience when it comes to that, you have a lot of -- there are a lot of young women who are new to the army or new to the military and they're looking to leadership to figure out sort of how they fit into things. sometimes there are some mixed messages. i know the miller that been trying to fix that, but what do you say to them? 's what do you say to young women in the military who want to know what their leadership sees in them as part of the armed forces? >> yeah. we see that at the future of the army and what we see in our young soldiers, both men and women. and it's important to make sure that our poemses are aligned that keep them getting promoted. one of the things we recently have done is allowed temporary pro motions for women that are preg mnant so they don't interrt their careers can. they can get promoted on time and give them the tools they need to get to and that's extremely important for the future of the army and we're extremely proud of all of them. >> some of the work you do, kaitlyn, focuses on, 500,000 femaleal veterans who served since 9/11. you focus a lot on how the needs specific to female veterans are addressed. this goes to the contribution they have made in combat as well. what are you working on as you try to highlight this important, these important issues for women? >> first and foremost, just acceptance. the issues that affect female service members definitely trickles over an affects female veterans trying to access services at the v.a. that starts at the door right now the v.a. motto explicitly leaves out female veterans. pushing to be inclusive of all who serve. the moment you walk through a door of a v.a. you feel like you belong. we have a wealth of other priorities that we have that affect women veterans. if you want to learn anything about that go to our website which is www.iva.org and read all about the things we are doing to help veterans. >> it is, look -- i'm so glad to have you both here talking to us. thank you so much. a huge week for women in the military. not because of this particularly, although it is great to hear you speak out on this issue, a big, big week for especially women leaders in the military as well. sergeant major, kaitlyn, thank you to both of you. >> thank you. next, the mayor of el paso, texas, joins me live as much of his state reopens. details on the emotional letter he sent to the governor about losing his mom and brother to covid. plus, prince william breaks his silence after his brother and sister-in-law accuse the monarchy of racism. >> just let me know, is the royal family a racist family, sir? >> very much not -- tanks. lots of ink. no more cartridges. incredible amount of ink. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. to support local restaurants, we've been to every city, including boise... ...and even bakersfield. yeah, we're exhausted. whew! so, tonight... i'll be eating the gyro quesadilla from...al quick stop...in... hyde park. 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he said the royals are very much not a racist family? >> well, i mean to start with, who gets asked the question, "is your family racist" and yes, we are. a knee-jerk reaction. we only have the queen's statement. although recollections may vapory and we're going to discuss this as a private family matter. to me this is not a private family matter. this is a very public matter, and it needs to be discussed publically and there needs to be aen toal investigation. until that happens, i'm not satisfied with the answer. >> clearly he felt compel told respond, though. that was very notable. right? >> absolutely. i believe they're not actually supposed to respond in that way. he did seem angry and upset and i totally appreciate those allegations make you upset but they're serious and need addressed. i don't think a statement of, no, we're not very much racist, is enough to satisfy the world, the british public, meg hahan a hear and what they said is clear, serious things happened and public money allocated for potentially the color of this baby's skin. one comment that we're not racist for me isn't enough. >> the statement from buckingham palace, clearly it shows that they are trying to retreat into this as a family matter, to be dealt with privately. basic will youy said there, that's not enough tore you. this is an institution as well. what do you want to see? what would you say, that is an adequate response to the allegations that have been made here? what would make you say that? >> well, an investigation needs to happen. as you said. it's an institution. i think there is a blurred line between the family and the institution. i think prince harry tried to discuss it during the interview and i think we're still not completely clear on it. but the fact of the matter is, this is an institution accused of racism within that institution and we need to see proper public investigation. who said what? what happened? hundreds of staff member, aides involved and men in suits we don't know who they are. the only people are faces of the royal family to attach blame to and question. we need to know what happened behind those closed doors. i think with the british public, and the royal family, the relationship between them, i think we're just not clear on what happens. they can't just say, all this is between our family members. they just can't. this is something that -- sorry. go on. >> sorry to interrupt you. one of the things that sort of struck me in all of this was in the statement where it says, recollections vary. so clearly, you know, harry's experience, meghan markle's experience, may -- what certainly they took away from something, perhaps -- look, i mean, take them at face value as a statement, perhaps that is not something that was understood to have happened on the other side of are this conversation. but that's not -- i think, to me, that's not unusual for there to be recollections that vary. and it doesn't mean that harry and meghan's experience is not valid. >> exactly. exactly. and for me i think the comment recollections may vary in that statement was quite triggering. it felt to me to be a, a very much a p.r. statement put out by a brand saying we're sorry you feel that way. that's what i heard as a mixed race british woman. sorry you feel that way, and -- i just -- i just think there's an element -- it feels likely to me and the reason why people are color in britain are so upset by it is that it mirrors experiences we have every day. trying to explain to people you're experience. no, this happened. this racism, i experience on be a daily basis happens. i feel meghan and harry eloquently laying out what's happened and to have that response -- sorry you feel that way. we're concerned. we're dealing with it -- it's tailoring to many people in britain. >> i think felt it on a personal level as well, right? for them. anna, thank you so much for coming to chat with us and have this conversation. anna myles. >> thank you very much. one republican senator touting the bill he voted against at donald trump demand credit for the vaccine. we will roll the tape. plus fireworks erupt on the house floor after a republican congressman says black lives matter doesn't like the traditional family. we will speak with one of the founders of the movement. antibacterial or moisturizing body wash? definitely moisturizer! antibacterial can i have both? new dove care & protect body wash eliminates 99% of bacteria and moisturizes for hours two for one! can i keep it? did you know that your clothes can actually attract pet hair? with bounce pet hair & lint guard, your clothes can repel pet hair. look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet! pet hair is no match for bounce. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. alright, i brought in ensure max protein... ...to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't (grunting noise) i'll take that. yeeeeeah! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar drink, play, and win big in the powered by protein challenge! so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? 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>> funny, conservatives have spent so much time at club fox watching potato head gyrate across the screen this month their focus on the huge bill was pretty limited. this credit-taking pales in comparison to the champion of all-time credittakers. donald trump. since twitter kicked him off its pl plat norm trump went to a fanszy letterhead. "i hope everyone remembers getting the covid-19 often referred to ar the china vaccine if i wasn't president you wouldn't be getting that beautiful shot for five years probably not at- all. i hope everyone remembers." fact, launched under the trump administration. fact, scientists and companies made history developing a vaccine in record time. fact, whatever credit trump and his administration deserves he xw squanders approaching an anti-science approach that cost more lives than any other country. he constantly downplayed the pandemic's threat promising americans it would soon be earver even when he knew that was a lie. he compared it to the flu. he politicized masks from the start. the original sin of his administration's pandemic response. he spread myths and conspiracy theories about the virus including that hotter weather would kill it. linking it also to a crackdown on immigration and falsely blaming former president obama for lack of testing, promoted and pushed unproven drugs and treatments, encouraged he'll to ignore social distancing guidelines. his own administration's gai gu guidelines, failed to create a national testing strategy, he shifted responsibility to states allowing him to lay blame on states for his failures. relied on discredited and crackpot medical experts to echo his conspiracy theories and instead attacked doctors like dr. anthony fauci and 400,000 americans died before he left office. a columbian universe office study felt the u.s. government's facial to act cost at least 130,000 of our fellow americans lives. and as many as 210,000 during his presidency. on top of this, the guy demanding credit for the vaccine is the same guy that secretly got the vaccine himself in january before leaving the white house. didn't tell americans he did it. and didn't widely promote it while in office, to help calm the nerves of a skeptical public and of skeptical conservatives who polls show are less likely to get the vaccine than liberals. credit where credit is due. next, a heated back and forth on the house floor after a republican congressman claimed the black lives matter movement "doesn't like old-fashioned families." i will speak live with one of the founders of blm in los angeles. ♪ ♪ ♪like an echo in the forest♪ [singing in korean] ♪another day will return♪ [singing in korean] ♪like nothing ever happened♪ we have the technology [singing in korean] ♪like noto do this.happened♪ drones deliver packages, and people with diabetes are still pricking their fingers? what? we've got self-driving cars, robots that vacuum, these things. we visited mars. and fingersticks? really? well, that's about to change. meet the dexcom wellit shows your glucose ge. right on your phone and where it's heading without fingersticks. finally, technology that mak it easier for us to manage our diabetes. looks like the future, but it's available now. allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your bodyike the future, from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst psst you're good fireworks on the house floor wednesday during debate over the covid relief bill when wisconsin republican congressman glen rothman decided to invoke the name of the activist group black lives matter while arguing against the trillion dollar plan. what he said -- >> one of the things that hasn't been mentioned here increased in earned income tax ed considerate for single people has a marriage penalty in it. i bring it up because i know the strength that black lives matter had in this last election. ip know itgroup that doesn't li the old-fashioned family. disturbed we have another program here in which we increase the marriage penalty. >> all right. that caught the attention very quickly of democrats, and democratic delegate stacey plaskett who represents the u.s. virgin islands and house impeachment manager during the trump trial rebuked her republican colleague. >> how dare you, how dare you say the black lives matter, black people do not understand old-fashioned families! despite some of the, the issues, some of the things you have put forward that i've heard out of your mouth in the oversight committee, in your own district, we have been able to keep our families alive for over 400 years, and the assault on our families did not have black lives or not even have black families. how dare you say that we are not interested in families, in the black community. that is outrageous. that should be stricken down. >> the co-founder of black lives matter, los angeles, and the co-director of black lives matter grass roots. thank you so much for being with us. you heard what the congressman said here. and you heard the response. what is your reaction to this moment on the house floor? >> it was just congressman, he was completely insensitive and disrespectful tore the long legacy of black people and black organizations, keeping black families together. we're grateful to delegate plaskett for speaking so forcefully against that allegation, against that false allegation. also it's kind of kucringe wort using terms like old-fashioned . we know what that means, that there's racial undertones to it and we need to recognize the deliberate anti-blackness that sought to destroy black families and it's been black people and black organizations including black lives matter that have kept black families together and helped us to thrive and grow, despite that oppression. >> he also called blm and its founders marxists, and i wonder what you think about that? you know, on its face, the message of black lives matter, i mean, how do you really argue? how do you argue with that? that's not what opponents, sort of having a different argument here. instead saying that blm is marxist. what do you say to the way they've tried to change that conversation? >> so they use that as a reasoning, as an excuse, to not fund black families. i'm speaking not just as an original member of black lives matter, but as a mother of three black children. as one who helps to keep black families together. what we're demanding, what we're saying as we value black families is that it's important that we prioritize resources to black communities so that black children can thrive. and so if that's called marxism, when we say we should be feeding our children. if it's marxism to say that, you know, we should be housing our children and our people, then maybe we need to really grapple with what we think the economic structure of this country should be, because we absolutely believe that families and children should be housed and fed and live in safe communities where we're not constantly under the assault of the state including police violence. >> this has become part of such a divisive conversation, or argument, i guess you call it here in washington. i do want to get your reaction to something that another lawmaker said. this is senator tim scott, equating what he called "woke" supremacy with white supremacy. >> woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy. we need to take that seriously. and to all of those folk whose oppose good common sense, math chew math -- matthew 5: 44 is still available to be read. >> what do you say about the equivalence that senator scott is making? >> well, senator scott needs to become a student of history. he needs to understand where the term white supremacy comes from. i know he thought he was coming up with a snappy slogan. right? but white supremacy is the foundation of this country, and if we're serious about building a country of equity, about building a country of fairness, about building a country of justice, we have to end white supremacy. we have to end the kind of racial hierarchy that puts black people, black families, black businesses, black workers, at the very, very bottom of virtually every social, political and economic measure, and so to come up with a snappy slogan like he's attempted to do, i don't think it's that snappy, and then say that that can be somehow given a false equivalency to quite supremacy is hugely problematic. i teach black studies. i invite senator scott to sit in on any one of my classes so he could learn a little bit about white supremacy >> melina, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you so much. a group of conservative texans are saluting their state's re-opening with a celebratory bonfire. they're burning their masks. mask burning is happening in texas since the state opened for business with zero coronavirus restrictions in place. freedom is what fox calls it. >> let me show you what 100% capacity looks like. this is freedom right here. >> all right. well, experts call it dangerous. joining me now is the mayor of el paso. mayor, you lost your mom. you lost your brother to coronavirus. this isn't an academic debate for you. it's not ideological. and you talk about them in a letter that you wrote to your governor greg abbott where you were urging him to let local leaders make the decisions that they need to requiring masks to protect people who live in their cities. what else did this letter say? >> you know, we talked about there's 254 counties in the state of texas. and they all have different needs. and it was important to allow local leaders of each community to kind of look and see how we could best protect our city. and that's what we talked about. i didn't write the letter of the governor because i wanted sympathy. i wanted to write the letter to show that we're not there yet. we don't need to go backwards at this point. it's really important that our city continues to protect each other. and that's what my letter talked about to the governor, how we continue to protect ourselves. all our businesses. and i'm a local business owner, and it was important that i protect my team members, because when they go home to their family, we need to make sure that they're safe and their families are safe. >> what is the el paso policy on masks right now? >> you know, we are following the governor's orders, but in all city facilities we are require masks, our local airport and our mass transit, which is our sun metro will also require masks. and we've asked all our local businesses to please follow the mask order. it is not mandatory. but i can tell you it's been very receptive after i wrote my letter and was published on local tvs and in the newspaper, we had hundreds of phone calls saying that they would continue to make sure they protect their business and protect their key members. i've been very humbled by the response of our community. and we k loo forward to continuing to protect each other. because if you look at it, the first people that really get affected by it are first responders and our medical providers. and it's important for us to make sure we protect them and protect each other to have a bright future for our community. >> i do want to turn now, sir, to the crisis at the border, which is becoming both a humanitarian and a political problem for the biden administration as the number of migrants, especially children, especially unaccompanied minors are coming across the border, and they are now in custody. that's something that's spiking. as you see this, is this a crisis as you see it? >> you know, in el paso we do not have that crisis today. and we need to make sure that we continue again to, as the borders are opening up, that we continue to protect our community. and i think that el paso is doing an excellent job today of making sure we welcome people into our country. >> um, as you see what is happening, sir, you're saying that you're not experiencing that. how do you see what is happening in other areas like mcallen? >> i can tell you that i'm not up to date on what's happened on mcallen. i am up to date on what's going on in el paso, and we keep in contact with our local medical providers and our office of management to make sure that what's going on in el paso and continue to be briefed. >> all right, mayor, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you very much. have a wonderful day. >> you too, sir. before we go, i do want to take a moment to remember a brave, spunky little girl. it would've been her first birthday. fran kesza was the daughter of our cnn colleague. and she died of a rare form of brain cancer on christmas eve when she was just mine months old. in her memory, cnn is launching a beanie with the hashtag team beans on it. i'm going to put it on so that you can see it. because i think you need this. i think kids like beans think you need this. all proceeds will be going to fund research at the dana farber cancer institute where beans was treated. research and treatment for this rare form of cancer that is typically seen in infants. we invite you to purchase a beanie at teambean.shop. and, beans, happy birthday, sweet girl. we'll be right back. with oscar mayer deli fresh it's not just a sandwich, far from it. it's a reason to come together. it's a taste of something good. a taste we all could use right now. so let's make the most of it. and make every sandwich count. with oscar mayer deli fresh here we go. >> you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. president joe biden has now officially signed this historic $1.9 trillion covid relief bill into law. ushering in long, overdue financial aid to millions of americans all across the country. >> in the weeks that this bill has been discussed and debated, it's clear that an overwhelming percentage of the american people, democrats, independents, our republican friends have made it clear, the people out there made it clear they strongly support the american rescue plan. yesterday with the final passage of the plan in the house of representatives, their voices were heard. they were