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>> yeah. i think first of all, i've been saying now for a few weeks that we need to open up vaccination to younger people. look, there are two goals of vaccinating the public. one obviously is to reduce death, and these vaccines are very effective at doing that. and we have vaccinated now a large proportion of the country at greatest risk of death. so in the united states, about 72% of people over the age of 75 have been vaccinated. 63% of people over the age of 65. so we're really getting vaccine to the people at highest risk. the other goal of vaccination is to reduce transmission. we now know from some pretty good studies that much of the transmission of this virus in this country is powered by young people, people aged 20 to 49. more than two-thirds of the cases are being transmitted by young people. so the way to put that down is to vaccinate young people, and we have the vaccine to do that. we have 33 million doses of vaccine that have been distributed to the states but not yet administered. so i think it's a great idea now to move towards vaccinating young people and that will help to drive transmission down. in terms of july 4th, look, if july 4th comes around and your family has been vaccinated and your neighbors down the street have been vaccinated, yeah, you can absolutely get together for a barbecue. getting shots in the arms is not just a ticket to vaccination. it's the ticket to getting people back in offices, to getting movie theaters open, to getting ballparks filled, to getting people on airplanes. getting shots in the arm, and this administration gets it. sometime tomorrow, the 100 millionth shot is going into an arm. that's an immense achievement. that's a real big deal. we're not there yet, but we're really on the way. >> let me ask you something that pertains to that because the president also said that dentists and vets will soon be giving vaccinations. that certainly should help speed things up, right? >> yeah. look, it will be great to get to the point where you don't even need an appointment. you can walk into a place and get vaccinated. the more places, the more venues that can give the shot, the more opportunity there is to get shots in the arms. look, we're averaging now somewhere around 2.5 million shots a day. we can get to 3 million shots per day, and then we'll have herd immunity in this country right around the fourth of july. now think about what happens in the fall. in the fall, our schools open and our colleges open. it's an entirely new world for us. >> yeah. >> it's an imperative to get the shots in arms, and it's happening now. >> party, party, party. i'm here for all of it. i was going to say i'm not even going to lie and pretend to be the anchorman. i can't wait for that moment to happen where i can go to a christmas party or a barbecue or just like hang out and not have to worry about not getting close to someone, if i'm going to get covid, you know? i can't wait for it. i'm here for all of it. thank you both. i appreciate it. i want to turn now, bring in our cnn political commentators, former democratic congressman joe kennedy and also amanda carpenter. good evening to both of you. amanda, hello. representative kennedy, can you hear me? i don't think representative kennedy can hear us, or he's frozen. i'm not sure. but anyway, hello, amanda. >> hey. >> president biden spoke out against the recent rise in hate crimes against americans tonight. i want you to listen to this. >> i will not relent until we beat this virus, but i need you, the american people. i need you. i need every american to do their part. that's not hyperbole. i need you. >> that was his call to action, amanda. so why don't we start there, and then we'll talk about asian-americans. so that was the president's call to action tonight. after a year of suffering through a pandemic, is that the kind of message americans need, amanda in. >> yeah. he gave a great speech, and i feel like a lot of the reaction has to do with how he positions against president trump. people always talk about the feeling of the relief they have hearing biden. but what he's doing now soars above that. this would be difficult for any president to navigate. he is steering a country out of a pandemic let alone grappling with everything in the aftermath of donald trump. he is doing a great job not only delivering on the plan -- what did the previous guest say? over 100 million doses have been out? that is incredible. and he's also being careful, managing expectations so that people can get back to normal in a steady way. and so it is really artful the way that he tries to bring everybody in. he doesn't stand up there and say, this is me giving it to you. he's always asking for help and bringing people in. innovative solutions they're coming up with, with the veterans and the dentists, that wasn't even on the deck. and of course that's a great idea. do that. so this is really masterful what he's pulling off. he hasn't done it yet. we're not back to normal yet, but everyone can see how we can get there together. and, man, that's a great thing. >> yeah. representative kennedy, i just want to play this. i mentioned it to amanda earlier but now i want you to hear the sound bite. this is the president speaking out about the rise in hate crimes against asian-americans. here it is. >> too often we've turned against one another. a mask, the easiest thing to do to save lives, sometimes it divides us. states pitted against one another instead of working with each other. vicious hate crimes against asian-americans who have been attacked, harassed, blamed, and scapegoated. at this very moment, so many of them, our fellow americans, they're on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives. and still, still they're forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in america. it's wrong. it's un-american, and it must stop. >> you know, representative, that is a far cry from the previous administration. how important is that message? >> critical. and, don, you heard what amanda said about the whole tone and tenor of the speech, trying to pull a country together but also reorient just the base level of decency in this country. i think he articulated what so many of us believe our country can be and should be and can be once again. but highlighting it, calling it out and saying, this is not okay is a huge step forward because it makes sure and reinforces to everybody what some level of decency and dignity and respect is in our country, and that's been missing for a while. >> amanda, tomorrow the president and vice president, vice president kamala harris, are speaking in the rose garden about the covid relief bill. only democrats are on the guest list. are republicans going to look back on this relief bill and see how they got rolled? >> you know what? i think they're still sort of figuring that out. republicans are trying to figure out what they're going to be for and, you know, amid the culture wars and them taking a back seat on the covid debate, it seems the only royal policy that animates republicans is voter restriction. that's the only thing that's moving in the states. that's the only thing that they can focus on when it comes to legislation, and so, you know, i don't think them missing the press conference is going to matter. the only thing that matters for politics going into 2022 and 2024 is did joe biden get us out of this pandemic. and everything after that, you know, is just details. >> sorry about -- representative, sorry about the technical issue, but we're out of time. we'll get you back soon. thank you both. i appreciate it. president biden focusing on covid relief for america while in the gop, the alternate universe in the gop, it's all dr. seuss, mr. potato head, and cancel culture. is it all about 2022, though? >> national unity isn't just how politics and politicians vote in washington and what the loudest voices say on cable or online. unity is what we do together as fellow americans. president biden kicking off his sales pitch for his covid relief package with his address at the white house tonight. but the next battle will be over voter suppression, and it could determine the future of our democracy. believe me when i tell you that the assault on voting rights is well under way. so joining me now, cnn political commentator and former democratic senator doug jones and cnn political analyst astead herndon. gentlemen, hello. senator, i'm going to start with you. the democrats have the spotlight, passed this massive bill. but there is a massive gop operation going on nationwide to try to ensure democrats can't win future elections, and i'm talking about voter suppression. is the democratic party and the white house ready for this fight? >> i think they're getting ready for it. look, you have to put first things first, and joe biden ran on getting us out of this pandemic. he ran on the promises that are in this package. so you have to put first things first. you have get past the impeachment. you have to get past this covid package. now they're going to turn their attention to not only voter suppression and h.r. 1 but immigration bills, you know, trying to raise the minimum wage. there's a lot that's going to be on the administration's plate, and democrats in congress, and it's going to be a tough road for sure. but i think they're up for it. they're going to be ready for it. they're going to already start reaching out to folks to see if they can get some things done by bipartisanship and working together instead of just having to do what they did this time with no republican help whatsoever. >> astead, i want to ask you about something you tweeted today. you said that these issues republicans are voting on, voter suppression, cancel culture, dr. seuss, mr. potato head, wokeness, aren't all separate issues, right? they're part of one master plan. what's the plan? >> it is a large-scale, long-term effort to think only about who has political and cultural power in this country. you know, it can seem as if republicans are kind of missing the point when talking about mr. potato head or dr. seuss in the moment of this covid relief battle. but this is basically a party that has decided that the only thing that motivates its base is the question of who kind of holds the cultural and political power in this country, and they're thinking that in the long term. so that i think relates to the voting rights and restrictions. that relates to who gets a say on what is canceled or not canceled. and that is basically a kind of pitch to the base by saying the power that you have had both as largely white, conservative, rural voters but also as kind of people in this country that have determined what is popular or not popular is slipping away, and that is something to be very motivated by politically. that's a party that has basically made that calculation over caring about policy. >> i was having a conversation just moments ago with someone, and we were talking about this voter suppression effort, senator, and wondering if it's too late. you have, what, 253, you know, bills trying to be passed, you know, on the table or at the verge of being passed around the country. if the end goal here is massive voter suppression, which it clearly is, how, then, will democrats stop them because they don't have the votes to pass a sweeping voting rights act in the senate without killing the filibuster. >> well, i think you're going to have to take a look at that filibuster. i've been one to be hesitant about this, but sometimes circumstances can overcome the institution of the senate and the institution of the congress. and that may be happening. i think to some extent now, what the republicans are doing across this country are overplaying their hand. they obviously are in a panic. their party is splintering between the pro-trump factions, the anti-trump faction, and they're splintering. so they are in a panic that they're not going to be able to win these races in these key states, in these battleground states. so they're doing the only thing they know how to do best, and that is try to pass these laws to try to keep people from voting. i think democrats can be up for it, but i think they're going to have to look at how best to do that. i think folks are going to take a serious look at the urgency of what is happening across this country, may demand that there's going to be a relook at the filibuster and come up with some way to get this passed. republicans are bringing this on themselves right now, and that's the way democrats are going to have to look at this, i believe. >> astead, do you think democrats are coming to recognize this as the existential threat that it is to their futures because without expanded voting rights in georgia, there would be no democratic senate, no covid relief, and i'm just wondering are they willing to act now? >> i think that is a key question. i mean it is unclear how much the kind of democratic apparatus is willing to see and meet republicans on their terms on this front. and not only is this happening now or in the last presidential election, this is something republicans have been laser focused on for the last 10, 15 years. you basically have a democratic party that is catching up with where republicans are on that, particularly on this kind of state legislature front. democrats have to motivate their base around this. they need to do better in down-ballot races in some tough races like alabama. but there is also a kind of larger question. is biden willing to part with kind of senate traditions? are some democrats willing to do that to be able to pass h.r. 1? that is a baseline, i think, to kind of recognizing the kind of clear-eyed nature of the importance of this fight. if he decides that, you know, the kind of themes of bipartisanship or unity are more important than that, that is going to be a priority that the white house will have to explain to not only progressives but really members of the base who know this is where republicans are motivated. >> thank you both. i'll see you soon. pentagon smackdown tucker carlson is hearing from the highest levels after making misogynistic comments about women in the military. plus prince william is outright asked if the royal family is racist. you're going to hear from him. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive. yet some say it isn't real milk. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit! chances are you have some questions right now here are a couple answers... lysol disinfectant spray and lysol disinfecting wipes together can be used on over 100 surfaces. and kill up to 99.9% of germs. lysol. what it takes to protect. so the pentagon and some of the most senior members of the military are slamming a fox host tonight for saying pregnant women serving in the armed forces are a mockery of the u.s. military. here's exactly what tucker carlson said. >> so we've got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits. pregnant women are going to fight our wars. it's a mockery of the u.s. military. while china's military becomes more masculine as it's assembled the world's largest navy, our military needs to become, as joe biden, more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore since men and women no longer exist. the bottom line is it's out of control, and the pentagon's going along with this. again, this is a mockery of the u.s. military and its core mission, which is winning wars. >> i wonder if he just does that for attention. but a mockery? he's never served in the mill. he's insulting women who do serve in the military. joining me now, one of the incredible women who put her life at risk to protect this country, and that is major mj hegar. i really appreciate you joining us and thank you for your service. so you're a woman and a veteran. what was going through your mind when you heard those comments? >> yeah, it's difficult. a couple things went through my mind. one, clearly he's never served. you know, i was involved with the fight to open ground combat jobs to women, and we found a lot of times and in my own combat experience i found that people who were the loudest against it were the people who have never served in combat. i would say those who have experienced, you know, with the bullets flying and really in the mix don't care what color you are, what gender you are, who you love, what your politics are. competence is everything. can this person cover my sticks? that's all we care about. you find like the real operators not weighing in and saying these types of things, but the wannabes or the people who are insecure. really what's going on here is people like tucker carlson see a pregnant woman warrior, who by the way we don't send eight, nine-month pregnant women into combat anyway. the flight suits are because people are serving in a job and the flight suit is an indicator of that job. it's also something you learn through going through pilot training and that type of thing. but what we find is these people who see these women doing these jobs and are threatened by it and think, gosh, i couldn't do that, they feel the need to hold us down and try to pull us down. but luckily we have so many women, men and mwomen, but we d have women serving bravely on the front lines and in support lines, keeping us safe, and i sleep better at night knowing that. i think if tucker carlson has so much admiration for the chinese military, his journalism style is better suited to that type of regime anyway, so maybe he should pack up. >> you have a lot of civilian men and women who support you as well. we just want you to know that. listen, he offered no apology tonight, major. instead, he is accusing the pentagon of a p.r. offensive against him when the reality is he was called out for his sexist remarks by soldiers and top br brass. now he is playing the victim. >> yeah. it's funny, right? the cancel culture is always bad until they do it to us, right? the hypocrisy, it's pretty blatant, i think. but something that's extraordinary to me and is actually really inspiring to me is it's pretty rare for top brass to make their opinions vocal. a lot of times, you know, in the military we're raised to believe that, you know, either you don't have opinions or you keep them to yourself. you certainly don't get involved in anything that looks political. so i am very heartened. i don't think this was a spontaneous, you know, support from senior leaders. i think it was an organized, you know, people got the okay to go ahead and make their voices heard, and that says something to me about the future of our military, the direction we're going, the fact that we're taking things serious. we have a serious culture problem in the military where we have, you know, like right in my backyard, vanessa guillen. we have sexual harassment, sexual assault, and we're not going to fix those things until the top brass are freed up to express these types of opinions and show support and really draw a line in the sand and let's make no mistake. these are the values of our military. we value a strong military. it is a military effectiveness issue to be able to employ all assets in the best ways that we can and not hold people back based on antiquated ideas of who is fit to serve. >> you know, women used to have to leave the military when they became pregnant. explain why maternity uniforms or flight suits -- you said they're so important because it represents the job they're doing. but explain to us why they're so important. >> yeah. you know what i also find hypocritical is that women used to be criticized for leaving the military when they got pregnant. they used to be forced to, and then they were given the option to goet out if they were pregnant, which some women get criticized for, and now it seems we're getting criticized for staying in. it blows my mind. i'm a mom, but i didn't have kids before i deployed. i did fly with a woman who had twins and was pumping milk on tdys and deployments and in between flights. she was so strong and so incredible, and that's what i think of. but these uniforms, it's important because if we only have a seat of like fatigues or btus, the camouflage looking uniform, which is what we used to have for maternity, when you're a pilot or other jobs that wear flight suits, the flight suit is a symbol of what you've accomplished. you're given the flight suit when you, you know, get your wings and that type of thing. so to put us in a different uniform when we're pregnant kind of signifies that we're getting taken out of the team. so i think it's great that they have maternity flight suits. it's not because women are flying, you know, at that size, that stage in pregnancy. and it's not because we're jumping into trenches and foxholes. it's because we are still valid, valued members of the team, and it takes all of us putting an oar in the water and pulling in the same direction to win a war. but people like tucker carlson would never understand what it takes to accomplish a mission like that. >> major hegar, again, thank you so much for your service. we appreciate you appearing here on the program this evening. i can see someone in your house is a huge "star wars" fan and i'm here for that as well. >> me and my kids, yeah. >> thank you so much. prince william's responding to harry and meghan's interview for the first time. we're going to discuss his reaction. here it is. >> is the royal family a racist family, sir? 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>> no, i haven't spoken to him yet, but i will do. >> can you just let me know, is the royal family a racist family, sir? >> they're very much not a racist family. >> a lot to discuss. kelechi okafor, an actress, writer and director. kelechi, thank you so much for joining us. what's your reaction to prince william today? what did you think about his response? >> i think his response was to be expected to say, oh, yes, guys, yeah, the entire family is racist, yeah, sure. of course he wouldn't say such a thing because that would be detrimental to the monarchy. it would be detrimental to the fabric of britain. >> when you look at what his brother, prince harry, said in the interview and his ability to recognize racism and learn from it, doesn't that show the importance of having people of color close to you, learning to walk in their shoes? >> definitely. i think that having, you know, people of color in close proximity to you does help with your learning. however, that proximity does come at a cost like the emotional labor, the physical labor, and being there while somebody unlearns -- that's something that we need to remember. every time we have these discussions about racism, we get all the black people, people of color together, and we say, okay. explain to us. is racism real? you know, have you ever been affected by racism? and we have to think about the toll that that takes as well. racism hasn't gone anywhere since the last time that you asked. >> so tell me if i'm wrong, but there's something i noticed. so when we saw prince charles yesterday, he had a number of black people. i think it was maybe one or two black people with him. then we see prince william today, and then there is a black lady with him. is that normal? >> not that i know of. i'm stunned and amused as everybody is that's looking on. you know, i think that that goes to show the desperation of the royal family at the moment. let's just grab some black people, any black people, and just get them in a shot with us just to show that, you know, we are not racist. i think it's interesting that prince charles went to a church. he went to a black church, quote, unquote, and i think that was meant to help us to feel more kind of endearment towards him. but actually what it made me think about when it comes to the monarchy and it comes to christianity and the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, what vehicle was used for all of this to happen? the fact that he would go to a church to kind of appease the black masses, as it were, in the uk or around the world was not well thought out by the p.r. team because people like myself, i can make those links and prove that we haven't moved very much further from the archaic or draconian mind-set that the monarchy possesses. >> you wrote a piece in the uk publication grazia called why are people still denying the endemic racism in the uk? and you write about meghan's experience. you say, meghan had not been subjected to the full manifestations of the insidious racism that is synonymous with britain, and it was still too much. meghan was able to choose an option which could preserve her sense of peace, but what about the women who are darker than meghan and aren't afforded the same socioeconomic privileges? that's a very interesting statement there, something that we have heard from those attacking meghan is, oh, she is rich. she's famous. how bad could it possibly be for h her? even if that were true, what about those that don't have the resources that she does? >> exactly. i think that when we focus on what's been happening to meghan and through the british press and with the royal family, what we're seeing here is that even somebody that some would say is white passing and, you know, would be racialized over here as biracial, even though they are that much, in terms of lightness, they're very light, yet the british public was so focused on the fact that she has a black mother, that they were still able to say, no, no, we don't like this and we're going to do everything we can to assert the stereotypes about blackness onto her. so then we consider the everyday black woman like myself that i don't have access to the kind of socioeconomic status that meghan had access to, i don't have the installation, as it were, yet we are subjected to a different type of racism in terms of the magnitude of it. it permeates every aspect of our lives. if we look at health care, black women are five times more likely -- four times more likely now to die during childbirth in comparison to white women in the uk. why are we dying disproportionately in comparison to white people? black people are disproportionately searched for and excessive force is usually used on black people. we found out today actually that -- well, yesterday now that the mug shots that police use, there's been an investigation that's been done that the mug shots police use is usually of black people when it's white people that are sentenced more if you think about the population of britain. so the narrative that's been pushed about blackness is one of criminality. it's one of vilification, of aggression, all of those things. i just think that meghan didn't even experience that, and she said, wow, i am gone. >> yeah. thank you, kelechi. thank you so much. we're out of time. you be well. texas is suing their own state capitol over its mask mandate. the mayor responds next. texas attorney general ken paxton is suing the mayor of austin for defying governor greg abbott's decision to lift the state's mask mandate. despite high daily case counts, 3,000 today alone, abbott lifting all restrictions on businesses and dropping the state's masking requirements yesterday. austin mayor steve adler says that his decision-making process is going to continue to be driven by the data and by the doctors, and mayor adler joins me now. mayor, thank you. this is very serious, what's going on there. we appreciate you joining us. you, a county judge, and austin's medical director are now being sued for trying to keep the mask mandate. why do you think austin needs those rules in place? >> i think because, as you said, the doctors and the data tell us that that's true. in fact, it appears to be the single most important thing we can do if our real goal is to have more students in person in our schools, to have businesses that can better open without a threat of having to pull back and to protect essential workers. nothing more important than that. it is absolutely the wrong time to be confusing the message to the public about mask-wearing. i think people are hearing what the governor's doing is a suggestion that masks aren't important or that they don't work or that we're past the crisis and we don't have to worry anymore. absolutely the wrong messages. we promised our community at the beginning that we would follow the doctors and the data. that's all we're trying to do. we're trying to let the rules of our health authority govern, and we think the law allows for that. >> right now the numbers in texas aren't great, okay? i got to be honest. the test positivity rate in texas is over 7%. that indicates a good deal of community spread. are you afraid that these case counts will skyrocket, especially with the variants out there? >> i think that is the concern. i mean the numbers have gone down pretty significantly from where they were, and i think that leads to a general feeling of optimism, and i think we should. but it's not optimism that we're done. it's optimism that we're moving in the right direction. we seem to be plateauing out here in austin with the numbers. but, yes, to remove the mask mandate two days before spring break in austin, texas, with the university of texas, to be moving away from the mask mandate when we have variants that are coming into our area and in our state in increasing numbers, we are so close. if we can get the community to hold on for just a little while longer, we can get the positivity where it needs to be. we can get vaccinations in more people. you know, texas right now, what we have, 8% or 9% of people. that's all in the state that have been fully vaccinated at this point. we have work to do, and while we're doing that work, we should be wearing masks. >> at what point would you be comfortable loosening restrictions? what criteria are you looking for to do that? >> well, we set up very early in the process a color-coded risk chart that tied different behaviors that would be appropriate for us to do based on the number of admissions coming into our hospitals. that number has been dropping. i would anticipate that by the end of this week, our health authority moves us to our next measured place with respect to returning to normalcy. but it's taking steps. it's taking measured steps that are associated with what we're seeing the numbers do. it's not an on/off switch, and that's what we feel that the governor did. so i would anticipate that this weekend even we could be moving up from 25% to 50% occupancy, to 50% to 75% occupancy depending on the location. but that kind of measured step is what we need to be doing. >> mayor, thank you so much. i appreciate it. keep us updated. >> take care. >> thank you. so before we leave you tonight, i just want to take a moment to remember a very brave little girl on what would have been her first birthday. francesca kaczynski, lovingly called beans, wasdied of a rare form of brain cancer on christmas eve, and she was just 9 months old. in her memory, you can buy a beanie like this one. it's really great. it's like this one. it's got the hashtag #teambeans on it. all the proceeds will go to the dana farber institute where beans was treated. you can purchase the beanie at teambeans.shop. teambeans.shop. make sure i get it in there. it's really great. so tonight and forever, we remember beans. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad was sold for less than $24; a playstation for less than $16; and a 4k television for less than $2. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. remember, shipping is always free. rely on the experts at 1800petmeds for the same medications as the vet, but for less with fast free shipping. visit petmeds.com today.