Address, including russias continuing cyberattacks on the u. S. Its detainment of several americans in russia. Its continuing interference in u. S. Elections. So many issues. President biden promising to challenge putin on those issues directly, poppy. Ahead of his trip to geneva, biden was in brussels where he reaffirmed the United States commitment to strong transatlantic ties at the eu u. S. Summit. Our team is following all of these crucial angles and sitdowns. Lets start in brussels. Arlette saenz is there. President biden spent the morning working with eu leaders. Do we know their focus . President biden had this morning really caps off his tour of assuring allies that the United States is back and will continue to support them. This coming, of course, after those four years of President Trump really testing and putting a strain on many of the United States relationships with allies. And in a series of meetings this morning that the president had with eu leaders, the president has really left brussels with two big deliverables. One of those being the formation of a new trade and tech counsel between the United States and europe to really try to counter a rising china. And then also the u. S. Has ended, settled a 17year Trade Dispute over subsidies related to airbus and boeing. President biden President Trump had really upped the ante in that dispute, Slapping Billions of dollars in tariffs in europe, responding in kind. But President Biden, his overarching message over the past week here in europe is that the United States has its a allies back. America is back. We are reasserting the fact that its overwhelming the interest of the United States of america to have a great relationship with nato and with the eu. I have a very different view than my predecessor. So President Biden once again stressing the importance of those transatlantic ties. But looming large over the past week of events has been that upcoming facetoface meeting with russias president Vladimir Putin. At each of the president s stops from the g7 summit to Windsor Castle with the queen and yesterday at nato, the president spoke with allies about that upcoming meeting and what he is hoping to relay to the russian president when it comes to cyberattacks and also treatment of opposition leaders. But now the president is about to head over. He boarded Air Force One a short while ago. About to head over to geneva for the facetoface sitdown with the russian president. Hugely important. Arlette, thank you for that reporting from brussels for us this morning. Jim . Joining me in geneva, Natasha Bertrand and frederik pleitgen. President biden uplike President Trump who would proudly say, no need to prepare for this. Our personal relationship is strong. I can handle it on my own. President biden has been preparing very aggressively for this. Very intensively. Hes been having meetings with his advisers every day. When he doesnt have these meetings with the g7 or eu leaders, hes been spending his mornings with antony blinken, jake sullivan, his National Security adviser, getting ready for this summit. Then another really important aspect of his preparation has been consulting with foreign leaders about what hes going to be saying to putin, what he anticipates is going to be on the agenda. And that is so that the foreign leaders can feel really involved in the process because joe biden has a lot of Foreign Policy experience, right . This is not something hes met Vladimir Putin before. This is not something hes brandnew to, but he and his advisers want to look like the foreign leaders are involved in this. They can emphasize that america is back as a leader and they are incorporating all their allies into this big consequential meeting with Vladimir Putin because, of course, his stakes could not be higher at this point. That, of course, another contrast to President Trump who had this go it alone strategy. Denigrated an Alliance Like nato. President biden said im going to approach this differently. Im going to bring my allies together. That show of force in brussels and at the g7 to indicate that. One of the issues on the table, and interestingly, sounds like they will speak about this, are americans detained in russia. In prison, russia says for crimes, the u. S. Calls these trials absurd. Joke trials in effect. Do we expect progress . I think there could be progress. One of the things you just pointed out is correct. The russians are saying they do believe this is going to be a big topic here. Quite interesting because one of the things that has been talked about in the run up to all of this is a possible exchange for paul weland who, obviously, the u. S. Says is unjustly imprisoned on the and convicted already of espionage. Very long jail sentence. Not doing very well in jail anyway. For victor boot, the merchant of death not expectly a boy scout. Non not exactly a boy scout but even the judge who convicted bout said maybe thats not such a bad idea. However, the russians came out today and they said that talks about Prisoner Exchanges have been going on for a while. The russians did say this is in the form of the Deputy Foreign minister that the issue of paul whelan was specifically excluded from the talks going on for a long time. However, earlier today, the spokesman for Vladimir Putin peskov said no one should speskulate about a possible exchange of victor bout for paul whelan. Thats something for the president s to talk about and then to possibly decide. So it looks like its one of those issues where there could be tangible progress. If the two president s do really talk about it which is seems for the president the russian president s spokesman even to articulate that idea because it puts it out there in a way that i suppose makes it more real. There are lots of differences between the u. S. And russia. But there are issues where theres agreement. In geneva, a deal negotiated in geneva, russia and the u. S. Were in the iran nuclear deal. The Biden Administration attempting to resurrect this. Do they expect to talk about this . Make progress on that and other issues where they agree . It does seem to be one of those areas where theyll talk about that issue. The Iran Nuclear Agreement is one of those issues where both sides have the same interest. The russians want the u. S. Back in that agreement. The u. S. Obviously wants to get back into the agreement. Just a matter of talking that through with the iranians and getting everybody on board. Afghanistan is another one of those issues. Both sides do not, with the u. S. Leaving afghanistan, do not want to see afghanistan descend into lawlessness. And then have some experience there. They certainly do. And they have a lot of experience of what happens in afghanistan when things go wrong. They carry that with them. And then arms control. Arms control is one of those issues where Vladimir Putin has said that he does value the new professionalism that is there in washington with the Biden Administration now where they have managed to extend the new s. T. A. R. T. Treaty. The russians seem to want to build on that as well. Of course, theres a lot of side issues also involved with the russians then also wanting to talk about Missile Defense systems, which they dont like in europe, but there are some issues where i think progress can be made. The cyber issue is really the one to watch, though. Thats where there are considerable differences but both sides want to talk about it. Some history in geneva with arms control coming back. Natasha, i remember covering the trump kim summits. The criticism of many on both sides of the aisle was having a summit without preconditions. Without sort of deliverables agreed to in advance. Here we have President Biden, in somewhat of a similar situation with putin. Nothing agreed to in advance saying this is a chance to deliver a maessage. How is it giving him a platform without any guarantees of something in return . Its a great question. This is causing a lot of anxiety even within bidens own administration. Last week, or the week before last week, the u. S. Sitting u. S. Ambassador to russia gave a briefing to senators warning them that the Biden Administration could be repeating the mistakes of its predecessors by going into a summit with no preconditions, such as waiving sanctions on the nordstream gas pipeline. Some see it as a reward to Vladimir Putin for his bad behavior. The white house is saying repeatedly, we are meeting with Vladimir Putin because of our differences, not in spite of them, or in spite of our differences, not because of them. But the bottom line being, they want to work this out directly with the russian president. They want to establish that line of communication so they can avoid misunderstandings. The goal is not a major breakthrough, but incremental progress. Jen psaki saying this is how diplomacy is supposed to make. Meet with your adversaries as well. Poppy, theres a lot at stake here in geneva. Well see where tends up. So much at stake. Im so glad you are there and were less than 24 hours away from the beginning of that putin biden meeting. A lot to come from it. New emails show former President Trump again trying to use the Justice Department for his own gain. This time in pursuit of the big lie. Well explain. Plus, new president , same tactics. And the Justice Department set to unveil a plan to combat domestic terrorism. This comes after a new fbi warning that qanon backers may carry out more violent acts. And as we go to break, here are live pictures from geneva, switzerland, as we wait for the arrival of President Biden. We are preparing for the historic summit between biden and putin. Well be covering it these next few days. Please do stay with us. When you buy this tea at walmart, walmart can buy more tea from milos. Milos can create new jobs, jobs for people like james and lacey and me. Me, i love my work family. Family here and home, is my life. Life is better for us because of a job. A job created when you buy this tea at walmart. I got love i got love i got love mama. Its another day. And anything could happen. It could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. Or it could be the day theres a cyberthreat. Get ready for it all with an advanced network and managed services from comcast business. And get Cybersecurity Solutions that let you see everything on your network. Plus an expert team looking ahead 24 7 to help prevent threats. 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New emails just released by democrats on the House Oversight committee shine a light on how former President Trump and his allies pressure the justice Dopt Challenge the results of the 2020 election. Lets bring in our colleague whitney wild. This is explosive new reporting when you actually dig into, as you did, these emails showing how many people pressured investigations of the 2020 election. All based on a lie. All based on fraud. Trump allies trying to push thenacting Attorney GeneralJeffrey Rosen to join this legal effort to challenge the results. There are severalweek period between december and early january, just a couple of days before the riot that shows the white house seeming to grow more and more hysterical, trying to pressure The Department of justice to take these Election Fraud claims to the finish line. Take it to the Supreme Court. And ultimately overturn the election. Here just a couple days to highlight that. December 14th was a highly consequential day. It was the same day that the state certified the Electoral College votes. That day, the president , through proxy, sent Election Fraud claims to top doj officials. That was before, poppy, bill barr had even resigned. He resigned in part because he was like, look, im not doing this Election Fraud this Election Fraud circus. I dont believe in that. He quit. It seems like the white house had zeroed in on his number two. Jeffrey rosen. Perhaps they thought hed be more tope the claims and manipulate him into carrying out possibly overturning the election through The Department of justice. So that all happening on december 14th. A couple of weeks later, the white house again pressures doj to file a Supreme Court lawsuit to nullify the 2020 election. So this happens, poppy, through a White House Assistant as well as a private attorney who reaches out to doj and says ive got this draft lawsuit. You could just file this with the Supreme Court and we would be all set. The president asked me to send this to you. So he was trying to use the president s power through this to try to convince the people he was talking to to actually carry out the president s wishes. This happened multiple times, poppy, December 31st the president meets with Jeffrey Rosen and other doj officials. On january 1st, Chief Of Staff mark meadows emails thenacting Attorney GeneralJeffrey Rosen three times to try to convince him to look into these Election Fraud claims. It went on and on and on, poppy. Eventually culminating in the January 3rd Meeting Where ActingAttorney GeneralJeffrey Rosen and another man named Jeffrey Clark go to the white house and they basically have this apprenticestyle meeting where theyre trying to pitch themselves as the acting Attorney General. This man Jeffrey Clark, poppy, goes into the president and basically says i can take the Election Fraud claims to the finish line. Make me acting Attorney General and im going to do this. And then Jeffrey Rosen argues the other side which is doj cant do this Election Fraud they cant get behind these baseless claims. In the end, there was a sigh of relief in The Department of justice because Jeffrey Rosen won. And that, at least for a moment, gave The Department of justice some calm. Again, just three days before the riot. So it really shows how hysterical the white house was getting until the very end. And how close it went to the very end. Whitney, thank you for that important reporting. Lets talk about this and di jo digest it all. Elie honig is here. You also have Jeffrey Rosen as whitney laid out, saying he refused to speak to the president s personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, about all of this. I guess twofold question, what should the doj do about this now . And is all of it legal . I suppose, right, to meet the request. What do you think of it . So poppy, its not necessarily a crime but i do want to be clear. This is utter madness. I just looked at these emails. They made me think of the worst, craziest emails that youll get, those junk emails that go into your spam box, only these are coming from the white house to the u. S. Department of justice. And this is really sort of the inevitable end result of four years of politicization of weaponization of the Justice Department by the white house. Of course, donald trump is primarily to blame for that. But he was not alone. He had his enablers, other highranking people around him in the white house. Its their fault. Its also the fault of Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein and Matt Whitaker and bill barr, all of whom facilitated this over the four years and encouraged this idea that doj can and should be used for political purposes. Now is it a crime . I dont think so. Is it a massive abuse of power . Absolutely. What can a new doj do . Well, Merrick Garland needs to make clear, we do not interact with the white house. Hes done a good job of that so far. They need to adopt specific internal guidance not yet on the books at doj saying we do not interact with the white house except through very specified, narrow channels. Pivoting here to another huge story over the last few days and that is the fact that the Justice Department, under President Trump, seized records from apple of metadata of democrats, specifically on the House Intelligence Committee and the Family Members and, oh, by the way, a minor. Not surprising, Mitch Mcconnell is saying, look, youve got the ig, the Inspector General looking at this. No need for any other committees to do so. Senate judiciary. Nadler announced the House Judiciary Committee is going to investigate this. Listen to mcconnells reasoning. The departments Inspector General is fully equipped to determine whether these procedures were followed in this case. So im confident that the existing inquiry will uncover the truth. Theres no need for partisan circus here in the congress. Except congress has power that the ig doesnt. Namely, subpoena power, especially for former employees. Especially for people like bill b barr, Jeff Sessions. Theres a huge difference, no . Exactly. Thats a cop out by Mitch Mcconnell right there because he knows full well the Justice DepartmentInspector General cannot force, cannot compel people to testify. Theyll likely not get testimony from Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein, bill barr. Congress needs to pick this up. Congress has a job to do. Now its trickier in the senate because senate rules say you need bipartisan support for a subpoena. Youd need a republican to go along with this. I will note senator ben sasse is part of the Senate Judiciary committee. If he flips and joins with senate democrats, they can get it done. Im looking at the house. They dont need any republican support. Jerry nadler was ineffective in following up on the nadler report. Nadler has to play hard ball. Serve subpoenas and if barr or sessions defy them, he needs to go to court immediately. Let me switch gears and ask you, theres a growing momentum among some democrats who would like to see Justice Stephen breyer retire at the end of this term in a few weeks. Hes 82 years old and they want to ensure, given what Mitch Mcconnell said in the last 24 hours about not the senate not moving if they retake the senate to have a Confirmation Hearing for bidens next pick. They want to ensure against that. What are your thoughts on that this morning . Generally speaking, poppy, i dont like it when politicians of either party, democrats or republicans treat and view members of the Supreme Court as members of their team. Its not supposed to be that way. Stephen breyer is not part of the democratic team. Hes not supposed to be. However, the reality is, if democrats want to get their nominee through, take Mitch Mcconnell at his word. He will not put somebody through if he controls the senate in the year 2024. So if democrats want to replace that spot, they better hope that Justice Breyer retires soon. Elie honig, thank you. We are live from geneva where, in just minutes, President Biden will arrive for his crucial summit with his russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Were going to be on top of it as it happens. And were moments away from the opening bell on wall street. U. S. Futures flat this morning. All of this ahead of a key Federal Reserve meeting. The s p and nasdaq both closed at record highs. Tech stocks were among the strongest performers. Were going to monitor all of it. Please stay with us. 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Versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. Boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. Boost® high protein. New projects means new project managers. Boost® high protein also you need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. Claim your Seventy Five Dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed. Com home. Come on over to my place come on over yeah yeah hey, you, were having a party well be swinging, dancing and singing come on over tonight your table is ready in the life artois. Just moments ago, President Biden departed brussels where he attended a nato summit to arrive here in geneva. In the next hour, this for his muchanticipated summit, facetoface meeting, the first at Commander In Chief with Vladimir Putin tomorrow. Joining me, evelyn farkus. Shes also a Senior Fellow at the atlantic council. Evelyn, good to have you on this morning. Lots of expectations management, deliberately, by the Biden Administration in advance of this. They are not telegraphing any enormous compromises here. What then constitutes success for President Biden in this meeting with putin . Thanks for having me on. Second, i would say we have to step back and remember why this meeting is happening because the invitation was extended by President Biden, by the white house when russia was amassing its forces on the border of ukraine, blockading the black sea. It looked like there was going to be another invasion of ukraine and Alexey Navalny was hanging on at deaths door in prison and the russian government wasnt transferring him to hospital. So this meeting was done in part to save ukraine, save Alexey Navalny. So thats already something. At least a shortterm gain. Now moving ahead, what i hope and expect is that President Biden will lay out consequences, clear, potential consequences to the russian government, to the president , to president putin, for his continued aggressive Foreign Policy. All these actions that hes taken against the United States and our allies as well as Human Rights Abuses In Russia and around the world. They will have consequences if he continues them. And thats what we have to convince the russian government to believe because if we dont, theyre going to continue doing what theyve been doing and eventually were going to have a lot of life and then, you know, a conflict. What are those consequences, though . Because successive administrations going back to george w. Bush and then obama and then trump and now biden have said im going to get this relationship right. I can turn it around. Im going to find the right mix of carrot and stick to change russian behavior. But none of their approaches have worked, frankly. And russias aggressive activities, hostile activities have continued, particularly in cyberspace. So what difference does President Biden have to offer in terms of consequences . Well, okay, first of all, in terms of approach, i think its really important to note that President Biden comes into office not seeking any kind of reset. Every other president has tried to start fresh with the russian government. So this president knows, he was Vice President , and hes dealt with this russian government, you know, Vladimir Putin, even as a senator. So he knows that were not going to change the regime. Were not going to change their objective. Wed like to temper their behavior. Wed like to change their behavior. And the consequences, theres a whole range of things we can do. Just taking sanctions alone, jim, the sanctions that we have put on russia are very targeted. If you compare them side by side with the sanctions we have on iran or north korea, they pale in comparison. Theres a lot of room there to ratchet up. So thats just one area. Obviously, on cyber we can respond in kind to the russian government which weve been doing more increasingly over time, even in the trump administration. You mention the reset. Of course, as i remember, it was in geneva that hillary clinton, the secretary of state, handed Sergey Lavrov that reset button to demonstrate that change. Of course, the reset did not happen in the Obama Administration nor in the trump administration. So when we look at this meeting as they meet tomorrow, how important is the message simply from biden that i am not trump. That i will not have a helsinki moment and take putins word over the word of u. S. Intelligenceagencies. Putin is a tough character. He doesnt listen to words much, does he . He looks at actions. That is correct. The best that President Biden can do is telegraph that hes full of resolve. That his government is resolved to respond if the russians continue. That there will be consequences. Look, they have ratcheted up the sanctions. They did this actually before the summit, before the agreement for the summit in order to show the russians that they were serious. They took some actions that have been considered under previous administrations and also by congress and not enacted. So they have been showing increasing resolve. But clearly putin is going to be watching to see what the real actions are, and undoubtedly, hell test us after this summit. Absolutely. Thats what he does. He always tests. Pokes for weaknesses. Sees how far he can do with consequences. Evelyn farkas, thanks for joining us. Well have a lot to discuss in the coming days. Thank you, jim. Ahead, a stark warning from the fbi. Followers of the experience group qanon could become more violent. The fbi warns lawmakers socalled Digital Soldiers may seek to harm, among others, democrats. Well have those details ahead. And a quick programming note. Be sure to watch a cnn Special Report that reveals new detalss about what happened during the insurrection on january 6th. Drew griffin talks to those who were there. Assault on democracy the roots of trumps insurrection is sunday, 9 00 p. M. Theres interest you accrue, and interests you pursue. Plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. At thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. To learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent. Com. vo this is more than just a building. Its an aipowered Investment Firm with billiondollar views. A cuttingedge datasecurity enterprise. Yes, with a slide. A perfect location for the worlds first onehour delivery. An inspiration for the next workout cult. And enough space for a pecanbased nutrition bar empire. It could happen. This is where dreams become brick and mortar. Find yours, on loopnet. This is the greatest idea youll ever hear. Okay, its an app that compares Hundreds Of Travel Sites for hotels and cars and Vacation Rentals like kayak does for flights. So its kayak. Yeah, like kayak. Why dont you just call it kayak. Im calling it. Canoe. Compare Hundreds Of Travel Sites for thousands of trips. Kayak. Search one and done. Comi had the nightmareavel sites foagain maxine. F trips. The world was out of wonka bars. Relax. You just need digital workflows. They help keep everyone supplied and happy, proactively. Lets workflow it. Then you can stop having those nightmares. No, i would miss them too much. Whatever you business is facing. Lets workflow it. Servicenow. A startling warning from the fbi that says Qanon Conspiracy here theorists may be emboldened to carry out more attacks. It was a Threat Assessment sent to lawmakers late last week. This comes as Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland is expected to announce a new strategy nationally on combating domestic terrorism. Lets go to evan perez following all of this. You have got this, which is terrifying, when you read the details and what they say could happen. Coupled with the announcement from garland coming today. Right. Garland is going to be speaking bat 11 00 a. M. Which is going to lay out this new domestic violent extremist policy that the Biden Administration has been working on, poppy. And one of the things that we saw from january 6th is that in the days and the weeks leading up to the insurrection, there were people who made clear that they had violent intentions. And the fbi didnt really know what to do with this. The Capitol Police had some of this intelligence and they didnt know what to do with this. So thats one of the things theyre trying to address here. One of the things the administration is laying out is what they are calling four pillars. One of them is to share domestic terrorist related information with the federal, state and local officials. Another one is to prevent domestic terrorism recruitment mobilization to violence. Disrupt and deter domestic Terrorist Activity and to confront longterm contributors to some of this. And look, the issue here is that theres a lot of things that people say online, certainly in the domestic setting, that is protected free speech. Thats one of the things the fbi had trouble with in trying to discern what was protected free speech and what were people making the their intentions known. The other problem is that we had a lot of the disinformation that was being that was fomenting this and feeding this was coming from the top, from the president. And people around him. And thats something that i think the Justice Department will always struggle to do. Certainly your Chief Disinformation Officer is the president of the United States. In this case, the former president of the United States. I think this new policy is going to help try to make some of this information more shareable. But in the end, theres no new domestic Terrorism Law thats being put into place here. So theres still going to be a lot of struggle to confront this issue. So much struggle when theyre confronting a big lie that so many people believe because its coming namely from the former president. Well, evan, thank you for that reporting at the Justice Department. Next hour, House Homeland Security chairman Benny Thompson and other Committee Chairs are going to speak with House Speaker nancy pelosi. They are expected to discuss a way to move forward with investigating the january 6th capitol riot. Lauren fox is on capitol hill with more. Lauren, walk us through what the options are. I just read pelosi said something like, ill let you know what i decide. Thats exactly right. This meeting that is going to happen in just a little under an hour, poppy, isnt necessarily going to be a meeting where a decision is made. Instead shes going to be talking further with the key chairmen about their options, which include some kind of select committee. Another vote in the senate to create this commission. They were short the republican votes just a few weeks ago when they had that on the senate floor. Theres also discussion of empowering a Current Committee to just go ahead and launch a bigger investigation rather than start a select committee, poppy. Those are their options. Now a couple of minutes ago, democrats are meeting in their caucuswide meeting. Pelosi gave them this sense she was still taking input from members. She wants to hear from her caucus to try to make a decision about what to do moving forward. Remember, in just a couple of months youll have members up for reelection really in full campaign mode. So a conversation has to happen about what is the smartest thing politically for some of those Frontline Members is a select Committee Going to just look too political. Those are sort of the issues theyre trying to balance right now, poppy. For sure. A lot of factors weighing in here. Before you go, hearing some momentum building, at least in the Senate Behind what looks to be a 1. 2 trillion infrastructure proposal, what are you learning . Well, this bipartisan group, of course, is going to go ahead and unveil some more details to their respective conferences today in private lunches. Then well get a better sense of whether or not republicans, Rank And File and democratic Rank And File are going to be behind this proposal. Although last night i had some conversations with several progressives who said they might be open to this modest bipartisan proposal if they can get some kind of guarantee from some of their moderate senators that they would back a bigger bill through that 51vote process known as reconciliation that gives democrats the ability to pass a bigger, more fruitful legislation through the votes with just democratic votes, poppy. Well watch. Youll watch for us and let us know on both those fronts. Ahead for us, the first state to shut down because of covid largely reopens today. That is california. Well take you there next. [ ] if you have diabetes, its important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. Try boost glucose control. Its clinically shown to help manage Blood Sugar Levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. Try boost today. I became a sofi member because i needed to consolidate my credit card debt. I needed just one simple way to pay it all off. It was an easy decision to apply with sofi loans, just based on the Interest Rate and how much i would be saving. There was only one that stood out and one that actually made sense and that was sofi personal loans. It felt so freeing. I felt like i was finally out of this neverending trap of interest and payments and debt. Introducing the new Bud Light Seltzer retro summer pack. [drum beat and keyboard typing] [keyboard typing] [trumpet] [keyboard typing] welcome back. After becoming the first state to shut down because of the pandemic, californias largely reopening today. It means most restrictions like Capacity Limits, social distancing, Mask Requirements will end for those fully vaccinated. Dan simon is in San Francisco this morning. Good morning, dan. Most, not all, restrictions going away. What stays . Reporter hi, poppy. First of all, it is a big milestone for the state of california. Actually, i saved the San Francisco chronicle when the stayathome went into effect. Were going back to march 17th, 2020. You can see the headline there. Look at the headline today. Grand reopening day as Virus Loosens grip. Now, what is changing . It can be a little bit confusing. Lets go through some of these things. If you are fully vaccinated, poppy, you can pretty much go anywhere without a mask, indoors and outdoors, but if youre unvaccinated, youre still asked to wear the mask indoors, but its going to be on the honor system. Businesses, they can still require the masks at their own discretion, but you have the big stores like apple, costco, safeway, saying that theyre not going to require anyone to wear masks. But you still need to wear the masks on public transportation, k12 schools, airports, hospitals, et cetera. Now, Capacity Limits are now all gone. You can pack into the restaurants and the bars and the movie theaters, but something to keep in mind, for indoor, megaevents. Thats 5,000 or more people, the organizers are asked, you know, theyre asking if you can show Vaccination Status or a negative covid test and 10,000 outdoors, its recommended that the organizers ask for Vaccination Status. But not everyone, of course, carries that vaccination card, so the state plans to require or theyre going to put out an electronic vaccine card coming soon. This is what Governor Newsom had to say about that. Well be doing something that provides you the opportunity, well announce this later this week, to have an electronic version of your Paper Version of vaccinations. Not a passport, its not a requirement, its just the ability now to have an electronic version of that Paper Version. So, it will be certainly good to have that on the phone. So, poppy, obviously, it took a long time for people to get used to the stayathome order and the mask mandate, et cetera. Its going to take a little bit of time for people to get used to the new normal, as well. It is. But, wow, those headlines, down, where your state, where it was and where it is now, its a big day for sure. Thanks, dan. Well, researchers at the National Institutes of health now have even more evidence that covid was in the u. S. As early as december 2019, that is weeks before the first case was officially reported. Lets go to our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen, who joins us now. Were about to cross sadly 600,000 deaths from covid in the United States. And it just makes you think, you know, knowing sooner would have meant action sooner. It could have meant action sooner. I remember, i remember asking questions of health officials, how do we know covid isnt here already or how do we know it wasnt there earlier . But lets take a look at how this has grown since january of last year. Its just been unbelievable. And what it is, whats interesting about this reporting is that it might have started even before january of 2020, rather, as we thought. So lets take a look. In massachusetts, the first patient was announced february 1, but in a new study, Nih Researchers found antibodies in Blood Samples from january 8th. Thats obviously earlier than february 1. And it takes two weeks for those antibodies to start up. So that means it was probably back in december of 2019. In pennsylvania, similar, but a little later, the first patient announced in that state, march 6th, antibodies found in Blood Samples from february 15th. So these were frozen Blood Samples. This is very good research. This really point us in the direction that there were covid cases in the u. S. Long before we thought there were. Yeah, if we had known. Elizabeth cohen, thank you for letting us know now. Thanks. Everyone living within three miles of this huge fire at Chemical Plant in rockton, illinois, has been told to wear face masks. Those living within one mile have been evacuated, those Officials Say air quality is currently safe there. The fire started yesterday. Its expected to burn for at least several more days. Look at those images. Wow. The fire chief says he does not want an environmental nightmare to occur by chemicals running off into a nearby river. The chief says the fire was started by a catastrophic incident, but they havent released many more details since that. Lets go back to jim in geneva. Jim . Reporter were now awaiting the arrival of President Biden. He left brussels where the nato summit had taken place a short time ago, expected to land within the next hour. We, of course, 24 hours less than 24 hours away from his summit, a crucial one, with the russian president Vladimir Putin, someone who he said ten years ago, as Vice President , has no soul. How will they deal facetoface now that biden is Commander In Chief . Well be watching. Please stay with us. Its another day. And anything could happen. It could be the day you welcome 1,200 guests and all their devices. Or it could be the day theres a cyberthreat. Get ready for it all with an advanced network and managed services from comcast business. And get Cybersecurity Solutions that let you see everything on your network. 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Over the next 10 years, comcast is committing 1 billion to reach 50 million lowincome americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything. I hope youre ready. cause we are. The Breaking News this hour, minutes from now, President Biden will arrive here in geneva, switzerland, ahead of his first and crucial sitdown with russian president Vladimir Putin. Good morning. Im jim sciutto, live in switzerland. Its great to have you there, jim. Good morning, everyone. Im poppy harlow, live in new york. Well, tomorrows meeting with putin comes on the heels of bidens First International trip as president , where he focused a lot on restoring and securing partnerships with some of americas strongest european allies. But all eyes are on, again, what is expected to be a tense, long meeting with his russian counterpart. The u. S. And russia have a long list of issues of confrontation, cyber attacks, russias continuing occupation of ukraine, its detention of russian dissidents, but also, Administration Officials emphasizing before this summit, areas of potential agreement, including on restarting the iran nuclear deal. In advance of the meeting, many years ago, biden called the russian leader a killer. But in advance of this summit, he said, hes a worthy adversary. I believe that he has, in the past, essentially acknowledged that he has there are certain things he would do or did do. When you write treaties with your adversaries, you dont say, i trust you, you say, this is what i expect. We begin with this meeting between biden and putin. Cnns Natasha Bertrand and Matthew Chance here with me this morning. Natasha, lets begin with what the Biden Administrations intentions and expectations are here. Theres been an enormous amount of expectations management. Saying, they dont expect any grand agreements here. They do want to deliver very