the suspect in the killing spree that left eight people dead at three different spas in atlanta felt tortured by sexual addiction. >> six asian-american women who were shot and killed yesterday. >> the asian community is once again being target. the country still averaging over 50,000 new cases every day. >> when we see a plateau like that that predicts another surge. >> we are vaccinating really well. that's the good news. these variants are spreading that's the bad news. this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is "new day." it's thursday, march 18th, 6:00 here in new york. erica hill is here with me again. >> always good to be here. >> we have a lot going on. this is what we know this morning. the asian-american community in this country is on edge understandably. the murder rampage in georgia left eight people dead, six of them asian women. anti-asian hate crime up nearly 150% in major u.s. cities since the start of the pandemic. now, the suspect in georgia is claiming to law enforcement the killings were not racially motivated but were the result of a sexual addiction. but there are new questions about how certain officials are approaching this after a county sheriff said the suspected killer of eight people had a quote, bad day. >> a bad day. that's not only raising questions but to be frank, there's a lot of outrage around those comments. overnight, crowds gathered in solidarity in washington, d.c. calling for an end to white supremacy and anti-asian hostilities. memorials have been set up outside of the three spas where the killings took place. i want to begin our coverage with natasha chen from cherokee county. >> reporter: good morning. the suspect is being held in custody and it could be as early as today he could be arraigned. now, right now the fbi is still investigating a motive here, but in the meantime he's been charged with eight counts of murder across two counties. this morning authorities are investigating why a suspected gunman killed eight people in three atlanta area spas and whether the massacre that left six women dead can be prosecuted as a hate crime. it started around 5:00 p.m. in the spa in atlanta and left three people dead. >> do you have a description of him, ma'am? >> reporter: that desperate 911 call came from gold massage spa 30 miles from first shooting and three asian women were killed there. >> some guy came in and took the gun and a lady got hurt. i think. everybody is scared so they're hiding. >> reporter: across the street at aromatherapy spa, another asian woman killed. atlanta law enforcement is withholding the names of victims but in cherokee county, police confirmed the names of the people who lost their lives and the man who was injured. robert aaron long is now behind bars and charged with eight counts of murder. >> even though we have made an arrest, there's still a lot more work to be done. >> reporter: authorities say long told them the killings were because he had a potential sexual addiction. >> the suspect did take response for the shootings. he does claim that it was not racially motivated. >> reporter: but atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms said it's hard to ignore that the majority of the shooting victims were asian women. >> i'm taking that with a grain of salt, this is a man who murdered eight people in cold blood so it's very difficult to believe what he says. >> this is an attack on all of us. >> reporter: grief and outrage are growing over the rise in attacks against asian-americans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. at the white house, president joe biden condemned the acts of violence. >> very concerned because as you know i have been speaking about the brutality against asian-americans for the last couple months and i think it is very, very trouble some. >> reporter: no matter the motive, sam parks says the shooting is spreading fear not only here but in asian-american communities across the country. >> there was an attack against asian-american women and members of our community and we want to protect everyone. >> reporter: and there are a lot of questions right now on whether he could be charged with a hate crime in addition to the murder charges. especially because most of the victims are women and were specifically women of asian descent. here in georgia, the hate crime law includes the targeting not only on nationality but one's sex so a lot to go through. >> thank you, natasha chen. joining me is grace maine who is taking part on the discrimination and violence on asian-americans today. good to have you with us this morning. you know, after passage of the resolution in the fall, your voice mail was filled one racist hate-filled messages. you shared those and i want to play some of that for the viewers right now. >> i'm calming about the pigs virus, the kung fu virus or wherever it came from asia. it's not racist, it's the truth. filthy people. >> you look like a wuhan, you fat ugly fat slob. >> they're disturbing to say the least. they're unsettling and unfortunately they're not new. >> no, they're not new and thank you for having me in and covering this issue. look, i have pretty thick skin. i can -- you know, it's okay that i got those voice mails but i really do -- my heart goes out to so many families who are afraid to let their elderly parents and grandparents go outside to the supermarket for fear of being harassed. for the parents, some of who have been texting me saying they're not going to let their kids play outside anymore because they don't want them to get bullied. i just feel so sorry for the asian-american community. >> you know, there has been an outpouring of support. i would say in the last year, but certainly in the last couple of weeks as we have given more and more necessary attention to these horrific acts of hate against the asian community. the numbers are really disturbing. so we know that anti-asian hate crimes in the u.s. in major cities are up nearly 150%. despite being down overall, we are seeing here in new york city that's a lot of talk of that i know. stop aapi hate, hundreds of hate crimes reported in the last year and there's a sense that specifically when it comes to anti-asian hate that it's really underreported. you're trying to move past that and to encourage more people to speak out. do you think it's working? >> well, definitely, and i'm really thankful for the allyship has been shown and has been pouring out especially in the last few days from communities beyond the asian-american community. we are so heartened by the encouragement and the show of solidarity. you're right, we are hearing more and more reports and these incidents obviously are not new in our history, but the number of incidents have really skyrocketed in the last 12 months or so. we are pushing legislation. our community is pushing two bills. one is the no hate act and the other bill is my bill with senator hirona to analyze and to focus on the hate crimes and to empower the community to make it easier for community members and victims to report these incidents. >> do you think incidents of anti-asian hate that have been reported, that have been experienced, have been taken seriously enough? >> well, we also need to look at these incidents and crimes with a wider lens and a wider perspective. just as with the case in atlanta right now, we hope that law enforcement are doing due diligence. you know, looking at the history of the person. looking at past emails and other people that they may have harass as well. >> you know, speaking of that due diligence a lot of reaction to what we heard from the cherokee county sheriff's office and i want to play a moment. this is f-6 for the folks in the control room and get your reaction to this. >> it's still early but he does claim it was not racially motivated. he apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places and it's a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate. >> he understood the gravity of it and he was pretty much fed up. at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> characterizing this as a really bad day for him and this is what he did when he was at the end of his rope, when you heard that what did it say to you? >> i hope that the sheriff in his tone and in his words that he used wasn't justifying his actions in any way. this young man had enough intent to drive i think it was over 50 miles to target an asian owned business where a majority of the employees were asian-american. he had enough intent and people don't get to do that if they're having a bad day, i'm sorry. >> representative meng, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. just ahead, a brand-new interview with a capitol hill police officer, a black capitol police officer, who defended the capitol during the insurrection. >> we fought against not just people who hated what we represented but they hated our skin color also. >> the racist abuse he said he experienced during that riot, next. ♪ ♪ locating your parked car with the touch of a button might seem... excessive. unless... getting lost is the whole point. ♪ ♪ hi. so you're the scientist here. does my aveeno® daily moisturizer really make my dry skin healthier in one day? 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>> it doesn't say much to me other than he did maintain an objective position. i don't know why anybody at his stature or his position he sounds more like a defense attorney than he does a county sheriff but let me say this to the people who lost their lives and their family and friends and not only in metro atlanta, but across this country in a very, very horrible place in terms of fear, in terms of their safety and not feeling like right at this particular moment they're part of this america. and i think we all have a responsibility to choose our words very carefully and also to make sure that our own stuff doesn't get in the way because we are still a nation of one and we have a responsibility at this very point and moment in time to be supportive of asian-americans who are really feeling threatened, even prior to this shooting and even more so now. >> so important and so true as you point out. as we look at what we do know with the limited information we do have at this point, the fact that the suspect's parents apparently, you know, saw this and they essentially turned him or they called and said we think this may be our son, how does that help an investigation? >> well, certainly it helps, it certainly expedited the investigation to be able to identify and track his movements and there was a lot of cooperation and coordination there in the metro area between police. and we all are glad and happy of the fact that they were able to apprehend him as quickly as they did. but it took a lot of coordination from those agencies in order to do so. >> it tells you something of his frame of mind. if his parents -- to get to seeing a picture, oh, my son may be a suspected mass shooter, tells you there are concerns there before hand and that could end up being part of the investigation. you have an op-ed and it had to do -- don lemon did an interview last night with harry dunn, a capitol hill police officer who was at the insurrection and went into depth on what he faced during that day. take a look at this. >> the black officers struggle with different as in -- like i said, we fought against not just people that were -- that hated what we represented, but they hated our skin color also. that's just a fact. and they used those words to prove that. they showed that they hated us and they hated our skin color. >> in your op-ed, you talk about this, and you basically are trying to grab america by the lapels and say, you have to pay attention to this. >> absolutely. and what the op-ed really suggests is that police is in this very peculiar place themselves as police has to decide whose side are they on, because as we all know from the january 6th episode, there were those who were part of the capitol police, who appeared to be real sympathizers of that insurrection on that particular day. and it certainly was not a good day for police and what it represents overall in this country. so here you have an african-american capitol hill police officer who you can just look at from that interview and tell that he himself has been traumatized not just from the fight that they had to have over a number of hours, but the name calling, the spitting on. those who say they support law and order, but police officers were beaten with flags, nazi flags, blue lives matter flags and they came up under attack, but for officers of colors, the african-american officers, they suffered even a worse attack of verbally and physically because of the type of individuals and the ideologies of those that were there on that scene that particular day. so we're going to have to do better because as police departments across the country, the majority go out and do it right. but for those who don't know what side they're on they need to figure it out real fast. >> they do. as you're following along on that day, following on social media, you're seeing the reaction, this is not who we are but i saw a lot of this is who we are. do you think there's been enough reflection on the fact this is who we are as a country and it has needed to be addressed for hundreds of years? do you think it's starting? >> well, i think what's being revealed to us as a nation, to all of us, we have this responsibility that we can be better than what we are. yes, what you're seeing is who we really are. we don't need to minimize it. we don't need to excuse it. we need to confront it and deal with it. that's the only way to move forward and we need to acknowledge things we could have done better as a nation so that we can continue to move forward. we're still a very young nation. we're still a very young nation and we made significant gains and i don't want to minimize that, but we still see in our communities across this country, across this state, we have divided ourselves by democratic parties. there's -- there's out there right now that suggest we're more divided by being democrats and republicans than we are by race. that's scary. it's scary enough by race. but we have to do better. we can do better, but we need to acknowledge we truly have to be one nation under god because that's what's going to take -- that's what's going to take us where we need to go. but separatists and what we're seeing, we can no longer do. thanks, john. >> as always, we appreciate you being with us. thank you for sharing your thoughts this morning. >> thank you for having me. thank you. so how common is it for someone who's already had coronavirus to get infected again? 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( horn blaring ) this morning 17 states are seeing a rise in new coronavirus cases. the orange and red states there on your map, two of them, alabama and delaware, are that deep red that means an increase of more than 50% of average new cases in the last week. cnn's adrian broadus is live outside a mass vaccination tent in detroit this morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. the cases of covid in michigan are rising faster than anywhere else in the nation. jennifer morris fears if this trend continues, michigan could see a reversal and all of the progress they've made. a concerning rise in coronavirus cases as vaccination efforts nationwide are ramping up. >> i think that we are on the cusp of that fourth surge. we now have the more transmissible variants becoming dominant here in the u.s. very quickly. >> reporter: the united states is averaging at least 50,000 new cases per day. and 17 states reported an increase in new covid cases compared to the week before. michigan has seen nearly a 50% increase in new covid cases since last week. dr. jennifer morris, medical director of the health department, contributes the spike to a list of factors including covid fatigue, rolling back restrictions, failure to wear masks and the variant first identified in the uk. michigan has the second highest number of confirmed cases of uk variant in the nation. the state is opening a mass vaccination site at ford field next week. in the northeast, concerns are mounting that a variant in new york city may cause another wave of cases. case counts are up in several states in the region. including delaware where new cases are up more than 50% since last week. this comes as rhode island, new york and new jersey are increasing indoor restaurant capacity and easing covid restrictions. >> my concern is that we prematurely pull back and don't give the vaccines time to continue to protect the country. >> reporter: and in california, disneyland is set to reopen with limited capacity at the end of april. the announcement comes on the heels of a w.h.o. designating two variants of interest in that state. >> we are in a race to stop the emergence of the variants that spread more easily and that's made it more challenging. >> reporter: meanwhile, more states are announcing plans to open up vaccine eligibility to all residents over the age of 16. according to the latest data, nearly one in eight people in the u.s. are fully vaccinated. >> we are vaccinating really fast now. we're averaging about 2 1/2 million shots per day, 113 million americans have gotten at least one shot. >> reporter: and back here in michigan, state data shows people between the ages of 10 and 19 have the highest number of covid cases across the state of michigan. and as you mentioned, erica and john, next week ford field, home of the lions, becomes a mass vaccination site. back to you. >> thank you very much for that report. so joining us now, dr. ali chan, from the university of nebraska medical center. you see the map where the states -- with states now showing an increase in cases. we wish we didn't see any orange or particularly red states that's of concern. why do you think this is happening? yes, there are some states that have lifted their mask mandates but it's not a one for one correlation. it's not as if you lifted your mask mandate you've got an increase in cases. what's going on here? >> good morning, john, always a pleasure. nice to meet you, erica. so you're correct, john. there's a couple of different factors going on. 17 states have canceled the pandemic and don't have a mask mandate and we're a race in time against the vaccine and the new variants and the pandemic fatigue. travel has picked up to almost pre-pandemic levels. mask wearing isn't as common, people are hopeful about the vaccines so they're not taking precautions and then specific things in individual states. michigan has a large outbreak within their incarcerated population with the new variant so it's a combination of factors. >> you know, it was really interesting to john and i, a study in "the lancet" yesterday published found that the 65 and older, it was more common for them to be reinfected. we know your immune system can wane a bit as you get older. what should we take away from this? >> well, there was robust studies, and what to take away is that the 65 years and older were more likely to get reinfected which means get them vaccinated and still keep those individuals protected, so it's really important to get disease down in our community with wearing a mask, social distancing and hygiene even after they're vaccinated. >> i want you to make this point again. people think if they get vaccinated and they survived, but the protection you get from the vaccine, how does it compare to the antibodies there? >> so absolutely you get excellent protection after vaccination and i recommend everyone get vaccinated with the first vaccine as soon as it's their turn. however, the light -- we're delighted that cases are going down in the u.s. but they're still higher than they were in the summer. so there's 56,000 cases a day, 1,200 dead and so there's a lot of disease in communities. even after being vaccinated please keep yourself protected. because there's no 100% protection. >> and those people who heard, we have heard this and just reinforcing the point, even if you have had the virus you still want to get vaccinated. >> oh, absolutely. you likely only need one dose, but the data is pretty clear that it provides an immune response. >> astrazeneca, this is the vaccine being used in many parts of the world, being suspended in some european countries and francis collins said it's likely fine and not causing the clotting that some european nations are concerned about. what do you think is going to happen over the next few days with that vaccine, particularly in europe? >> so john, i think the first thing is to remind people that there's a difference between these reported serious adverse events and being associated with the vaccine. so over 400 million people have been vaccinated worldwide and we didn't cancel their heart attacks or their car accidents or their cancers. those diseases are still going to occur, so the question here is the less than 40 cases of clotting that they have seen amongst 17 million people who have been vaccinated with astrazeneca is that really associated with the virus -- with the vaccine or not? and the uk, the european fda equivalent have said, no, the background rate is just the same if not less in -- the background rate is the same if not more in people who are getting vaccinated so i'm disappointed that they paused the vaccination. but i'm super excited that they paused the vaccination because this gets to the really important message there's significant safety monitoring that continues after the vaccine and reassures the americans feel safe. >> how do you feel about masks? >> masks on. >> dr. khan, thank you so much for being with us. all the best to you. >> thank you very much. so the intelligence community warning that false claims about election fraud almost certain to spark new rounds of violence. that's next. when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. lavender baths calmed him. so we made a plan to turn bath time into a business. ♪ ♪ find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com serena: it's my 4:10, no-excuses-on-game-day migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose of ubrelvy works fast. it can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours, relieving pain and debilitating symptoms. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. serena: migraine hits hard. hit back with ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. at this point in time, dom domestic extremism, those following the ideologies of extremism, those willing and able to take the ideologies and execute on them in up lawful, illegal violent ways is the biggest threat in the homeland right now. >> domestic violence extremism, and that election fraud claims will spur more violence. joining us now cnn correspondent from "the washington post," and as we look at this intel report, it specifically points out narratives of fraud in the recent general election. the emboldening impact of the breach of the u.s. capitol. conditions related to the pandemic and conspiracy theories promoting violence. in some ways it's not a surprise, but to see it there i just wonder is there a sense in washington of what the impact will be of this report? >> well, certainly, there's a couple of things. first of all, it underscores how important it is for lawmakers, democratic and republican, to tell voters, to tell the public that there was no systemic fraud in the election and try to do -- try to stamp out that claim as much as possible. clearly, something that many in the republican party have been resistant to do but i think another impact of this report is that it really is going to re-ignite again this debate over how to properly and fully investigate that january 6th insurrection at the capitol. what we're seeing is a little bit concerning. the further that we get from january 6th and the impact that had on the capitol, the more and more it seemed that lawmakers are kind of going to their partisan corners and arguing, for example, over the scope of this 9/11 style commission that house speaker nancy pelosi has proposed. but frankly has gone nowhere so far in the capitol over, you know, the disputes about the scope of the commission, and the partisan balance of the commission. so i think maybe what this report does is kind of reset everyone. maybe it brings lawmakers together to try to, you know, figure out a path forward to investigate the insurrection. but it will definitely -- we'll be gauging the impact later today. >> so mitch mcconnell basically warns about doing away with the filibuster. no one loves a good filibuster more than you or i do, and we're weird like that, but i want to ask this in a way that people think is more important or related to their lives. to change the senate rules, to make it easier for democrats to pass their legislation, as we sit here this morning, how far do you think democrats are willing to push this notion? do you think this is something that they will fight for over the coming months? >> it is certainly something that some democrats will fight for over the next several months, but the problem for democrats in changing these long-standing filibuster rules are frankly democrats -- other democrats themselves and it's not just the people that we hear over and over, for example, senator joe manchin of west virginia who has been so vocal in his support for keeping the senate the way it is virtually intact, as well as kyrsten si sinema. we have talked to those who are much more on this than those two, who are really nervous about changing the filibuster rules for many reasons. and i think one point that mcconnell has made over the last several days and one that certainly some veteran democrats are afraid of is what republicans would do with that power, with the lack of the filibuster. if and when they regain power in the senate and in the white house. because we know politics is cyclical. democrats are not going to be in power forever. you know, the senate is 50-50 and republicans can win back the majority as soon as then. so if the filibuster is eliminated, what happens to issues such as, for example, limiting abortion that republicans have wanted to do and that's certainly a question and a concern in some democrats' minds and that's an obstacle that these proponents of changing the filibuster will have to make on their own democratic colleagues. >> that specifically of course mitch mcconnell is laying out in the op-ed. here's what we could do. really quickly, in response to the horrific shootings in atlanta, former president obama was tweeting about gun reform and perhaps this is something that may finally spur some action. i'm not sure that this is the action it will spur, but if gun reform isn't it, do you think it will at a minimum hopefully raise more awareness and perhaps action when it comes to anti-asian hate? >> i think you raise an interesting point because that was a lot of the political reaction that we saw yesterday. you know, time and time again, after these mass shootings and these tragedies we see these renewed calls for gun control and gun overhaul legislation. we didn't see that too much today or yesterday aside from former president obama. really the focus from democratic lawmakers was calling out anti-asian rhetoric. even as law enforcement officials continue to assess what drove the motive for the shooter and democrats are pointing to the rhetoric of the former president that drove this rise of anti-asian sentiment and there will be a hearing at 10:00 on discrimination and harassment in the asian-american community and democrats are trying to bring light to this more important thing. >> thank you for being with us this morning. tensions rising between the u.s. and russia. the russian ambassador recalled after president biden calls vladimir putin a killer. now russian leaders are calling out the u.s. president. we are live in moscow, next. if you're 55 and up, t-mobile has plans built just for you. get 2 unlimited lines for a fixed rate of $70 bucks. and now get netflix on us. plus, switch and get a free smartphone for each line. our retirement plan with voya, keeps us moving forward. hey, kevin! hey, guys! they have customized solutions to help our family's special needs... giving us confidence in our future... ...and in kevin's. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. we made usaa insurance for members like kate. a former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa. some major developments in the u.s. relationship with russia. russia has recalled its ambassador to the united states for consultations after president biden said this about russian's interference in the 2020 election. >> he will pay a price. we had a long talk, he and i. i know him relatively well. and the conversation started off, i said, i know you and you know me. if i establish it occurred be prepared. >> so you know vladimir putin do you think he's a killer? >> mm-hmm. >> so what price will he pay? >> you will see shortly. >> the mm-hmm, i think he's a killer, is now a back and forth between russia and united states. matthew chance, what's the the latest? >> reporter: well, the kremlin is not happy at all and that president biden thinks that vladimir putin is a killer. here's what the kremlin spokesman said a moment ago. these are very bad statements by the president of the united states. he definitely does not want to improve relations with us and we will continue to proceed from this point. so quite tough word there is from the kremlin spokesman -- vladimir putin's spokesman and last night as you mentioned, russia recalled the ambassador to the united states. they brought him -- they're bringing him back to moscow for consultation about according to my sources those presidential comments, biden's comments, and also about the whole range of strains and issues in that fraught relationship with the united states. they want to decide we're told how to proceed, how to get the relationship with the u.s. back on the correct footing or on a better footing because of course there are sanctions against russia from the united states and other countries as well. they're crippling the russian economy. they know there are more sanctions on their way and the big concern in moscow right now is that this situation is spiraling downwards. what are they going to do to try to get those sanctions alleviated? >> it's crystal clear by the actions of the kremlin that they noticed a change of tone coming from the u.s. administration. i mean, these are actions that were not taken over the last four words or words not heard in the last four years so we'll watch this closely over the next several hours. matthew chance, thank you. a historic find in israel. new pieces of the dead sea scroll, 1,900 years old, and that sheds new light on our ancient past. >> it's the most amazing thing i encountered. i found, i have seen in my life. >> reporter: in these remote caves near the dead sea, dozens of fragments of a dead sea scroll baring biblical text. dating back nearly 2,000 years, they have been unearthed for the first time in 60 years. >> we found a manuscript of a translation into greek of the 12 minor prophets from the bible. >> reporter: archaeologists have been working in these caves and cliffs of the judean desert since 2017 to prevent the looting of antiquities. >> it was never conducted in the desert and we surveyed more than 100 kilometers of the cliffs of the judean desert and you can see the results. >> reporter: more historic elements were found. 6,000-year-old skeleton of a child and a complete basket thought to be the biggest and oldest intact in the world. >> we're looking at the basket which is about 10,500 years old and it's kind of huge. it contains between 90 to 1 liters. >> reporter: this basket may yield new information on how products were stored before pottery was invented. these fragments may look small but experts say they could provide a huge insight into the history before and after the time of jesus. all right. break out your brackets. march madness begins today. we'll take you live to indianapolis next. how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? 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"new day" continues right now. >> this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is "new day." erica hill is with us this