Transcripts For MSNBC MSNBC Live With Stephanie Ruhle 20240711

Guard before joining the Capitol Police. Sicknick was defending the Capitol Building and congressional lawmakers on january 6th when he was brutally killed by protrump rioters. Please consider this man lost his life protecting the building, his remains now lie in. His viewing comes just days before Donald Trumps Impeachment Trial begins, when a lot of those very same lawmakers paying tribute to sicknick will be in the same chamber deciding if trump will be held accountable for that deadly riot. I want to bring this Garrett Haake on capitol hill and Peter Alexander at the white house. Garrett, this is going to be a very emotional day where you are. Lets talk about this tribute and whats expected for the rest of the day. It it started with an emotional, somber ceremony last night when officer sicknicks remains were brought into the capitol in the bitter cold. Dozens and dozens of his fellow Capitol Police officers were lining the steps in the east front outside of the capitol. His remains brought past a window, still shattered in a door on the east front where he would lie in honor with a visit from the president of the United States last night. That ceremony last night was mostly for officer sicknicks family, both his Blood Relatives and family and Capitol Police. Today its an opportunity for the rest of the Capitol Hill Community to pay their respects throughout the course of the morning. Well have a Brief Ceremony in the morning where congressional leadership will speak and then his remains will be taken to Arlington National cemetery for interment. Really for All Of Us On Capitol Hill this is a Cathartic Moment and opportunity to reflect on what we all lost here on january 6th. The fact this is directly tide to former President Trumps upcoming Impeachment Trial, its stunning if you think about where we are as a country and as a society. Peter, on tuesday, the House Managers and trumps Defense Lawyers laid out their arguments for the upcoming trial. Can you break it down . Yes, so the president s lawyers, stephanie, want to make this as much about the constitutionality of the trial as they do about the president s culppability here. The house democrats, their Impeachment Managers are laying out in an 80page pretrial brief saying former President Trump is singularly responsible for the riot that took place, that he basically summoned the mob to washington, he whipped them up in a frenzy and pointed them like a cannon towards the capitol where the awfulness of four weeks ago today took place. The president s defense team saying his comments in effect were protected, First Amendment speech. They say the trial itself is unconstitutional. They make an interesting point to the president s argument he won the election. You remember he said he won it by a land slide. They may bring this argument back to the floor saying the president believed that he won so he was expressing his opinion, they insist, and they go even further saying theres insufficient evidence to prove the president s point wrong, despite approaching 60 different legal cases where the president s argument was either dismissed or thrown out of courts, including sometimes by trumps attorneys separately here. So they make the argument this is usns constitutional. The democrats push back on that and they say theres no january exception. The former president s team trying to say hes no longer president so he cant be held accountable or removed from office. Hes no longer in office. The president says what matters when he first takes office until he leaves office, theres no exception here and the former president needs to be held accountable, steph. Peter and garrett, you both have a long day ahead covering all of this. Thank you for doing all that you do. I want to dig in deeper and bring in paul butler, former prosecutor and professor at Georgetown School of law. Paul, lets start with President Trumps two primary defenses, one that he was just exercising his right to free speech, and, two, this whole trial is unconstitutional because if he believes its unconstitutional, doesnt that show he doesnt want to discuss what happened on the 6th given his involvement . When the facts are not on your side, you argue the law. So the president Issic Maing A very legalistic argument that he cant be impeached because hes no longer in office. The house has a very legalistic response. He was actually impeached as a sitting president and in order for any president to be held accountable, there must be a constitutional means after he leaves office. Otherwise the president could commit the most egregious act on her last day in office and escape consequences. The First Amendment argument doesnt carry water. Everybody knows you cant yell fire in a crowded theater. If youre the president of the United States, and you youve lost an election, the First Amendment does not allow you to sic a murderous mob to stop the vote count. Does everyone know that . This is a president when he was running for office, he said he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and it would be aokay. Thats the president s perspective. On the other side, the Democratic House manager said something that stands out, where they say, President Trump is singularly responsible for the violence and destruction that unfolded in our seat of government on january 6. To say that hes singularly responsible, arent they setting the bar really high for themselves . I think so, stephanie. Thats actually more than they have to prove for conviction. But i think in addition to the senate jurors, including the 17 republicans that have to vote for conviction in order for their president to face consequences, i think the audience is those senators but i also think the audience is history. When the house says that trump was singularly responsible for the insurrection, that means that if trump had not inflamed the mob, they would not have attacked the capitol. The house points out that no president has ever refused to accept the results of an election until donald trump. So i think the audiences history of the house is concerned about how they will be viewed for impeaching a president for only the second time in history and their point is, if this doesnt deserve impeachment and conviction, nothing does. This is the worst, most egregious conduct that a u. S. President has ever committed. We still dont know if theres going to be witnesses. If democrats want to make this as emotional and compelling as possible, which clearly it was on january 6th, wouldnt they want to bring witnesses in . As we speak, Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick lies in honor, reminding us of the horrific costs of the murderous insurrection. The senators themselves are witnesses. Theyre survivors. If i were the House Managers, i would consider calling Police Officers as witnesses to talk about how they were beaten and insulted and verbally abused by a mob, sent by the president of the United States. If youre a member of a party that claims to stand for law and order, hearing uniformed officers talk about how they were attacked should have a profound impact. If it doesnt move the senators to convict trump, who inflamed the thugs, then they dont have the courage of their convictions. Paul, always good to have you here. You make us smarter every time we see you. Were going to take a turn now surrounding congresswoman and Conspiracy Theorist Marjorie Taylor greene and questions about whether House Republicans have the stomach or the courage and conviction to hold her accountable for her actions in many of our reprehensible words. Garrett haake back with us. Garrett, what will we see there . Today will be a very important day for House Republicans to decide who they want to be in the years Going Forward. This afternoon House Republicans are going to have an internal Conference Meeting where theyre likely to discuss not just the fate of Marjorie Taylor greene but also of liz cheney, their number three member in leadership, who a lot of trump ally members would like to see stripped of that role because of her vote to impeach the president. This is against kind of a Ticking Clock on those Taylor Greene side of this because the House Rules Committee is set to meet later today. Theyre working through a resolution that would allow democrats to unilaterally strip congresswoman greene of her committee if republicans dont take some action on their own. Even democrats are a little bit nervous about starting a process that has the Majority Party, essentially refusing to let the Minority Party decide where their members are seated on committee. But all of this is going on simultaneously. Stephanie, the one person you do not want to be today on capitol hill is kevin mccarthy, House Republican leader who has to navigate all of the different elements of hi Conference Today and decide, again, exactly how they want to handle members with dissenting voices and what type of party they want to be in the next two hours. Garrett, thank you very much. Were going have a busy day here. Up next my exclusive interview with Michael Bloomberg and World Health Organization director general. What of two of them i cant even get my words out. What these two guys think about how the Covid Response has been messed up and the keys to moving forward. Plus what does bloomberg thing about the frenzy over gamestop . Hes a founder of the bloomberg terminal, and thats what these guys want to disrupt. Lets see what he thinks. I can help new homeowners not become their parents. Keeonoh. Nope. Coeenoah. No. Joaquin. No. It just takes practice. Give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] did you hear that . Yeah. swhs next . Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. No fussin, no cussin, and no hey, dad when you bundle home and auto with us. Hey, son no dad, its a video call. You got to move the phone in front of you like. Like its a mirror, dad. You know . Alright, okay. Hows that . Is that how you hold a mirror . 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I sat down with World Health Organization director dr. General tedros and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who serves as w. H. O. s global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases. I should note that i used to work at Bloomberg News before joining nbc. We talked about the w. H. O. s response to the pandemic, getting the vaccines out now globally and what a path back to normal life might actually look like. Mike, over the course of the last year, johns hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health, in some ways in terms of Data Collection and tracking, you have almost taken the place of the cdc. Did you predict it would be this bad . I dont know that number one, nobody knew. It always had the potential, and unfortunately, we did not respond the way we should have. People should have all put on masks. Most people did not. And thats the first thing. A mask was, you could argue, more important than a vaccine. And people didnt do it. So a lot of people got sick and a lot of people died. My barber gave me a haircut. Three days later into the hospital, came out in a box ten days later. This is a serious virus, and nobody knows when its going to go away. Nobody knows as it morphs from one strain to another whether or not the vaccines we have today will be adequate then. You cant take these things and treat them lightly. Were playing with peoples lives. And unfortunately, our government did not do what it could do, although you can find people all the way up and down the chain, the governors didnt do what they should have done in many cases, mayors didnt do what they should have done in many cases, the hospitals could have done things differently. I think you have to understand when everybody is yelling and screaming and petrified and panicking, theres no right answer. And so its easy to go and criticize World Health Organization. Thats just a cheap shot. Its easy to say, we shouldnt send vaccine overseas. Yeah, wait until some vaccines are only made overseas and we want them to come to us. And they say, well, you didnt send them to us. Were not going to send them to you. Were in this together. The whole world is in this together. People travel. Vaccines are the answer, dr. Tedros, and i know w. H. O. Does an enormous amount of work on vaccine equity, meaning how do we get vaccines to the poorest countries in the world, how do people here get convinced that thats a good idea, especially in the United States where we cant get enough vaccines for ourselves . How do you start to convince people that we need to be supplying them to other countries . Its an Economy Problem because the economic recovery will not be faster if we vaccine some parts of the world but not the rest because in a globalized economy, we will not have global recovery. So the livelihoods, even in the rich countries, will not return to normalcy. And we will not be able to stop the pandemic. So modern bankruptcy, Economy Problems will continue, the pandemic will not be controlled if we dont share vaccines. So what were saying to the wealthy countries is that sharing actually is in your best interest. Certainly in america, i dont think were going to have a shortage of vaccines. Its not the supply side. Its coming on. Machines are getting faster and theyre delivering them. Not quick enough but its coming. Youll have plenty of vaccine. Our problem is the demand side, theres a awful lot of people who dont want to take the vaccine. Antivaxxers, people who have other health conditions. If everybody doesnt get it, then theres people out there that can infect others. So it may not be a Supply Problem as much as a demand problem. Now, you go to the less developed world and then its certainly going to be a Supply Problem because the numbers are so big and its going to take a while to get there. I dont know, mike, were here in New York City, theres an awful lot of people who would love to get a vaccine and we dont have access to it et why. You were once mayor of this city. When you look at the way our cities and states are actually getting them in peoples arms, do you think were doing it right . Im not in office anymore, okay. I have criticized the federal government, i have criticized the state governments, and i have criticized the city governments. What i would have done day one is turn it over to the professionals. Who are the professionals who know how to distribute drugs and vaccines and that sort of thing . Theyre the big pharmacy companies. You just hire them. Weve done some of that already but its begrudging to turn it over. Every governor wants to be able to stand up there and say im making a decision in terms of whether you can open your restaurant, how many people you can put in your restaurant. That should not be left up to the governors. Thats where you have Health Experts and were not turning to the Health Experts and the Health Experts are the w. H. O. , e drugstore companies. We know what to do. We just are unwilling to turn it over and let the delivery of the vaccine be in the hands of the professionals. But oftentimes people would say that the pharmacy companies, for example, those are businesses, do you put that in the hands of businesses . Do you think the governors dont want whats best for their state. Stephanie, you, if anybody, should understand capitalism really does work. If you give people an incentive to do something, theyre going to do it. Our health and Hospital System is based on capitalism. We charge and people get better hospitals and improved health care. Whats wrong with experts who know how to distribute stuff . If youre afraid to go to your drugstores and buy cosmetics or drugs or whatever things you sell, i guess you can, but i dont think you really want to do that. These are the professionals. The reason people wouldnt say lean on capitalism because it who helps the poorest . If you put it in the hands of business, whos going to care thats just not true. You give them an incentive to deliver it to different groups in different neighborhoods in different manners. Capitalism really works. You just say to cvs or walmart or walgreens, this is what we want you to do. If you want the business, here are the rules. And they deliver enormous quantities of drugs all the time with very few errors. Mike, you run a Global Business. Travel restrictions make that difficult. Working from home makes that difficult. Yes. How long will we be in an office like this and it be relatively empty . Well, some businesses are very good. Some businesses you can do it remotely for a period of time. Im a believer that long term you have to have people working together face to face. Zoom is not a substitute for the water cooler. And we are getting there. People are starting to come back. President biden wants to open schools and hes already getting pushback. Whats your take on that . Well, i think what were doing to poor kids is a disgrace. These poor kids are not in school. They will never recover from this. And they had a bad education experience anyways. We have not had good schools for poor kids. This now is so much worse. The president has to stand up to the unions. The teachers unions . Yes, teachers unions. Teachers say, well, i dont want to go back because its dangerous. You have a lot of city and state and federal employees who run risks. Thats part of a job. You run risks to help america, to help your state, to help your city, to help your family. And theres just no reason not to have the schools open. The virtual classes are a joke. It is worse than a joke. Poor people dont have ipads, they dont have wifi, they dont have somebody at home to sit during the day and force the child to pay attention. Without that, the Virtual Learning just does not exist. And teachers unions you see in chicago and new york weve had problems. Its time for joe biden to stand up and say, the kids are the most important things. And important players here. And the teachers just are going to have to suck it up and stand up and provide an education. Otherwise, these kids have no chance whatsoever, stephanie. It is a disaster whats happening to them. When you look at the situation were in, when you look at the World Health Organization, theres been a lot of criticism its too bureaucratic an organization, its why potentially it took so long to actually call this pandemic what it was in terms of the Global Emergency. Do you need to make changes at the w. H. O. To prepare us for the next situation . Yes, thank you very much. First of all, the declaration from w. H. O. , the highest level of Global Emergency was declared on january 30th. This is a month after we got the first notification, after inviting an Emergency Committee that actually is composed of experts from many countries. These are not people who work for w. H. O. These are international experts, and based on their advice, we declared the emergency on january 30th. We believe that the Emergency Declaration was actually on time. We dont believe that there was a delay, but anyone can have a look. And as i said earlier, after the declaration, we had been saying this virus is dangerous. Whether are we going to get back to our real lives . When are we going to get back to our prepandemic lives . Its happening now in New York City. Traffic is better each day. Stores are beginning to open. February 14th were going to open the restaurants, at least to 25 of their capacity. And that will quickly go because the public is just going to demand this. The governor, im sure he wants to do whats right and we keep people from catching things but we have to have an economy too. And i wrote a nasty editorial about one of the companies who said to their people, you dont have to come back for a year. And i talk about, what about all of the people in the neighborhood who depended on your company and its employees to patronize the restaurants and shoeshiners and cleaning and the cab drivers and all of that sort of stuff . Were all in this together. And weve just got to go and build the economy back. It is just waiting to come back. People still want to work with each other. Im sure there are some people who have left new york and left london and other big cities. But the vast bulk of people know because this is where culture happens, this is where commerce happens. This is where medicines get developed. This is the future of america and of the world. And theres no reason to think that we arent going to go right back, pick it up. It will take a little while. Not suggesting broadway is not going to come back for another year because you really do have to get everybody vaccinated or critical mass, whatever, but we are coming back. And people want to come back. Mr. Bloomberg, dr. Tedros, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Next, we have much more on my exclusive interview with former mayor Michael Bloomberg. Why he calls the Market Frenzy over gamestop just a sideshow. Or on any new protein bowl so many ways to go pro at subway® its not amateurtein, its protein, baby go pro and get double the protein for just 2 more. Subway. Eat fresh. I had this hundred thousand dollar student debt. Two hundred and twentyfive thousand dollars in debt. Ah, sofi literally changed my life. It was the easiest application process. Sofi made it so theres no tradeoff between my dreams and paying student loans. Student loans dont have to take over for the rest of your life. 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If you see wires down, treat them all as if theyre hot and energized. Stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. Markets just opened and the gamestop surge appears to be over, with the stock now down 60 as of yesterday. But its more than just numbers. It is peoples lives, their savings, their 401 k s. One reddit user who inspired surge said he lost 13 million yesterday. And now regulators could be strepping in. Treasury secretary janet yellen is set to meet with the sec and fed tomorrow to discuss the volatility surrounding gamestop and several other stocks. As part of my interview i asked former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg who changed the investing world by creating the bloomberg terminal, the platform for all Ens Institutional Investing about what hes seen over the past several weeks and if he thinks his business is about to get disrupted. In the last year weve seen the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. This sentiment, eat the rich, we have even seen it play out in the past week with gamestop trading gamestop trading is just a sideshow of a bunch of people trying to lose all of their money. Theres no reason to buy a stock at 300 when its worth 3 cents. In the end that always ends poorly. It ended poorly in 2000. It ended poorly in 2008. Yes, there are inequalities here but the bottom line is that most of the problems weve had come from the last administration, and if biden can stop the craziness of binding coal on public lands, well live longer. He hasnt stopped that, he put it on federal land but not coal. Its a disgrace. We closed 65 of the Coal Power Plants in america and 55 in europe. Sahara club doing the work, Bloomberg Philanthropies funding it. I cannot explain what he is doing there. Theres just no explanation to continue to dig up coal, which kills people. What he should be doing is finding ways to put coal miners back to work, not in the mines. We dont go start wars to give soldiers a job. We find other things for the soldiers to do. In this case, you can have them go and tap all of these wells that are leaking methane into the atmosphere. It would give tons of jobs and make an enormous difference in how you and your kids and your husband live. One of the reasons you can give so much of this is Bloomberg Philanthropies. This business is built on you creating the bloomberg terminal. One of the big arguments right now has been we need to democratize finance so everybody can get in the game. Do you think this new movement is going to impact your business in any way . No, no. The gamestop thing is just its lasted two weeks. If its got another week or two to go, maybe it could be three weeks and its over. Youre not going to create the next robinhood . We deal with institutions. I think people are being illadvised to go out there and speculate. Somebody that is speculating with their College Tuition payment or their Mortgage Money should not be doing that. I dont run those kinds of risks and i can well afford to and i dont think others should do it. Theres just no excuse for thinking theres something free in life. Youve got to go out and earn it. And thats what america has always been. Coming up next democrats have set a deadline for covid relief bill as they take the fist steps to pass it without republicans involvement. Is President Biden behind . These are real people, not actors, whove got their eczema under control. With less eczema, you can show more skin. So roll up those sleeves. And help heal your skin from within with dupixent. Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. Dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. 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Com new this morning, President Biden is set to meet with Democratic Senators about his covid relief plan in just a few hours. At the very same time were getting new details about when democrats hope to have this package passed. Nbc news has learned they want it approved by march 14th. Why is that date so important . It is the same day extended Unemployment Benefits are going to run out for millions of americans. President biden isnt giving up though. Hes still looking to get some republicans on board, but a senior white house official said it is a lot more likely democrats are going to have to use reconciliation to pass this bill with or without gop support. I want to go live to Shannon Pettypiece in d. C. Shannon, where do we stand on all of this . Steph, we saw earlier this week ten republicans come to the white house, Make A Counterproposal that was about as third as much of the white house is asking for. The white house officials are saying now, that was nice and were glad everyone is at the table and were talking but theyre not going to negotiate themselves down. So substantially on this package just to get the 60 votes needed to pass this through the regular budgeting process, the regular legislative process. Thats why we are seeing democrats in congress now moving forward with the Reconciliation Process where they would be able to get this package through congress with just democratic support. Here is how White House Press secretary jen psaki described the white houses thinking at the moment. The president s bottom line is that this is a package, the risk here as hes said many times is not going too big, it is going too small. That continues to be his belief and thats why he supports the efforts by senator schumer, Leader Schumer, and Speaker Pelosi to move this passage he forward. Now, white house officials tell us they still want to get some republican support. They would still like to be able to call this a bipartisan bill, and they think that they can just because theres a lot of popularity for direct stimulus, like these payments to individuals. But theyre not going to try and necessarily get to that 60vote threshold if they dont have to. You mentioned the timeline, steph, one white house official told me they want this done by march 14th at the latest because they do not want these unemployment checks running out. They do not want to fall into a cliff for so Many Americans that will be running out of money if they dont pass this by then, steph. Shannon, thank you. Thats whats happening. Lets find out what it all means and bring in two very special guests, friends i havent seen for ages of the eddie going, chairman of the an american studies of Princeton University and elise jordan, former aide in the george w. Bush white house. Eddie, where do you think all of this is headed . I hope it heads to reconciliation with the democrats simply pass the bill. Theres no reason from my Vantage Point to believe the Republican Party will stand up and actually respond scaled to the problems we face as a country. We have seen over the last year since covid hit the republican response to the pandemic, it has been inadequate. We see even among those republicans who are trying to strike a bipartisan deal that theyre put forward a 600 billion response. We know thats not at scale. So part of what im trying to ask myself is what is the evidence, what are we actually valuing here, bipartisan . Evidence of whether or not the republicans are serious . But what are we valuing here, bipartisanship or are we trying to respond to the suffering out in the country . I think the latter should be our guiding principle. Elise, whats the risk reward here of democrats going the reconciliation route . Lets be honest, most people dont even know what reconciliation means but they know we need help. Well, i actually think theres not much downside for joe biden to go at it alone if you look at the numbers. The American Public overwhelmingly approves of this package. Over twothirds of americans support a huge Coronavirus Relief bill from joe biden. So i think while you have a lot of sniping, oh, this isnt actually the unity that we were promised from joe biden, at the end of the day, what did republicans bring to the table. Its a pretty huge hole between 600 billion and 9 trillion. Is there anything the Biden Administration will be willing to concede on in that bill . Are there any concessions theyre going to be willing to make to placate republicans . Thats what im curious to see. Or are they just go to plunge forward with this huge bill . Eddie, make concessions, the Biden Administration has already said theyll make concessions but 600 billion is a lifetime away from where the Biden Administration clearly says we need to be. Are we holding President Biden to an unfair standard saying, i thought you were going to go unity when we are not saying that to any republican who was asking for unity after democrats called for an Impeachment Hearing and certainly didnt ask the president to represent any form of unity in governing the whole country . You know, stephanie, i think thats absolutely right. And this is why oftentimes the appeal to bipartisanship is in fact a strategy to contain, right, democratic efforts to implement their policies. The idea is bipartisanship seems to only apply to those to democrats and not really to republicans when they hold office. So i think joe biden and his administration, i think the president needs to understand what his goals are, what the needs of the country are, and proceed accordingly. And try to move beyond the kind of partisan bickering and try to address the suffering that were experiencing. I think that should be the animating value. And that could in some waysou d that responds at scale, stephanie, that means youre not really going to try to respond to the needs of the american people. Eddie, i need to ask you about a sorie people shouldnt miss. What happens happening in georgia right now . We know republicans lost the Senate Runoff race there. But were not seeing republicans figure out how do they register more voters, how do they figure out their party or engage . Instead republicans in georgia are now trying to Ban Automatic Voter Registration and ballot drop boxes, and also limit absentee voting. If this isnt a clear attempt at voter suppression, i dont know what is. What do you think . I completely agree. Look, the Republican Party in georgia, just as the Republican Party nationally, understand the demographic shifts in the country dont necessarily mean they will be a permanent Minority Party, but it certainly suggests they will have a difficult time. So what we see is this ongoing effort to kind of limit who actually can exercise the franchise. Stacey abrams was shouting this from the rooftop. Before the election she was saying this was what kemp and the Secretary Of State were doing. Look, the democrats in georgia made the state that produced newt beginning rich obsolete. It made the politic thats produced that moment in 1992 when bill clinton stood with sam nunn in front of the Stone Mountain correctional facility with those black prisoners behind him to announce his tough on crime agenda, that politic is dead in the state of georgia. What can the Republican Party do . Only what they know how to do, to try to cheat and deny people access to the franchise. Heres a novel idea, if its clear that demographics are changing,ing rather than limit who can vote, will republicans consider to actually try to open up broaden their party to a more demographically diverse base . Or is that is that not how those people vote . Back in 2012, that was the gops conclusion when mitt romney lost the president ial race. So you have now almost a decade i mean, we have i guess another nine years since then, and if anything, were in a worse place with minorities. Were in a worse place with trying to reach out beyond just the most hard core of the hard core base. You could just try to broaden your base. Figure out how the country is changing, not limit people from voting. Eddie, elise, we have to leave it there because we have Breaking News open the house floor right now. I want to bring in my colleague Garrett Haake. It seems Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer is announcing a powersharing deal . Actually, were going to listen in to Leader Schumer right now. The threat of our time, the climate. As we all know Climate Change touches every aspect of our economy and involves virtually every aspect of public policy. So as the Biden Administration prepares a whole of government approach to combating Climate Change, the democratic majority will pursue a whole of senate approach as well. Some of this work has already started. Two years ago Senate Democrats established the first ever Senate Special committee on the climate crisis. I promise that any action we take on infrastructure in particular, we will prioritize Green Infrastructure and creation of green jobs and create many jobs, goodpaying jobs, we will. Personally, i have introduced legislation to speed our countrys transition towards clean cars that has the support of the environmental community, the labor unions and some of the car manufacturers. Make no mistake, in several different ways this democratic majority will compel the senate to forcefully relent and urgently address Climate Change beginning with work in all of the relevant committees. So as we set up new committee structures, i look forward to working the new democratic chairs on ways their committees will address the climate crisis. I look forward to speaking with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle about finding some Common Ground on this issue. And most importantly, i look forward to propelling this chamber into action on a crisis that concerns not only all of our futures, but the futures of our children and our grandchildren. Its our solemn obligation to leave behind a planet upon which future generations can grow and prosper. Now, on covid. Yesterday afternoon the senate took the first step in preparing a Rescue Package for an economy and a country that is still in the throes of crisis. The 1. 9 trillion Budget Resolution is designed to meet the needs of a country that has been devastated by disease and recession for nearly a year. Its been such a long time. We need real help. Unlike most crises which affect one particular sector of the economy or another, one part of the country or another, the covid19 for more on what all of this means i am joined again by Garrett Haake on capitol hill. Garrett, i dont speak senate. Whats he saying . Reporter this formalizes the reality that the democrats are now the Majority Party in the United States senate. Because we are in a 50 50 split we need to have an agreement over things like how committees will be run. A lot of the basic Sausage Making in the senate would happen. This was held up for a long time over an argument about preserving that 60vote threshold for legislation. Thats been passed for a while. A lot of lawmakers were starting to get a little frustrated that this handover had not been completed but you heard from Leader Schumer there the thiel diehl is done, it will be voted on today. That means Bernie Sanders is your new budget chairman, ron wyden is your finance committee chairman. A whole host of Committee Chairmanships switch over and democrats will be not just, you know, sort of theoretically but actually fully in control of the United States senate a month after they won it, steph. Garrett haake, thank you so much. This morning in Business News an american, really a Global Business titan is stepping back. Stepping down, but not stepping aside. Jeff bezos said he will be leaving his role as ceo of amazon later this year but will stay on its executive board. This move comes after 27 years in that seat when he founded amazon as a bookstore. Today the market value of this company is about 1. 7 trillion, making it one of the most valuable companies on the planet. Andy jassy the chief executive of Amazon Web Services will be taking over as ceo. I want to bring in the expert on all things amazon, brad stone, a Senior Executive editor for technology at Bloomberg News and he Just Announced his second book on amazon, amazon unbound. Its set to come out this spring. Clear this up for us, there is no scandal here, jeff bezos has led this company for more than 25 years. Thats a very long time for ceos and the world is changing. Duds he no longer want to be in the spotlight given all the fury, the enemy, the rage over his super wealth . Thanks, stephanie. I dont know if he no longer wants to be in the spotlight, but i think you put your finger on part of it which is that this job probably Going Forward isnt as much fun. We saw it last summer when he had to testify in front of the House Antitrust Subcommittee alongside tim cook and Sundar Pichai and mark zuckerberg. The questions become pretty difficult from here on out, its not just congress, its brussels, its the ftc, its state lawmakers. He also has a lot else going on. He has his philanthropy and he has a Space Company blue origin which frankly isnt doing all that well, elon musks spacex is outpacing it. You mentioned andy jassy, you have this capable second in command who is probably ready to take the next step. Amazon sales obviously soared during this pandemic while we you a millions of americans and thousands of Small Businesses go under. How big of a problem is their recent super success given the current climate in this country . Well, its certainly not a problem for investors or amazon employees. It does look kind of perverse at a time when so many businesses are having trouble, the Playing Field kind of tilts further toward amazon, but, look, the other side of that coin is that you have millions of customers out there who really appreciate amazon who are forging new habits, who might be Buying Groceries on amazon for the first time and who are now prime members. Were going to see in 2021 as hopefully we return to some degree of normalcy whether that wind is still in amazons sails, but the optics arent great as you point out, but this is probably a great time to be an amazon investor. I do want to play part of a very old interview with bezos from the 90s, watch this. I want to have lived my life in such a way that when im 80 years old ive minimized the number of regrets that i have. I think actually a lot of people do that, i think even if they dont call it something as dorky as Regret Minimization framework, they behave that way anyway. They think that way. Well, that is pretty dorky. Is this an exercise in Regret Minimization . Well, lets acknowledge first of all, stephanie, the remarkable physical transformation jeff bezos, you know, no longer looks like that. Hey, listen, a really rich makeover, its pretty common. Exactly. In some ways, youre right, i think it might be. He declared that he wants to address Climate Change with his wealth, he announced the bezos earth fund, he started making grants last year, hes got 200 billion thats an extraordinary fortune and, yeah, i think theres a lot more he wants to do with his time, with his wealth. Hes got the washington post, blue origin as i mentioned and the guy treated a 1. 7 trillion company, hes probably earned the right to kickback a little bit. Brad, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us. When we think amazon, theres no one better to have here. That wraps us up this very busy hour, im stephanie ruhle. Hallie jackson picks up coverage next. 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Oh, you think this is just a Community Center . No. Its way more than that. Cause when you hook our community up with the internet. Boom look at ariana, crushing virtual class. Jamol, chasing that college dream. Michael, doing something crazy. This is the place where we can show the world what we can do. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers to create wifienabled lift zones, so students from lowincome families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Oh were ready. The Capitol Building lawmakers are about to pay their respects to fallen Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick who is lying in honor. Vice president harris appearing there this morning ahead of the ceremony after the president and first lady visited overnight. Officer sicknick died in that very same Building Four weeks ago today protecting lawmakers and others inside from that insurrectionist mob. We will bring you that somber ceremony live when it begins just about 30 minutes from now. Also new this morning, President Biden talking with house and Senate Democrats as they try to push through the president s nearly 2 trillion covid relief plan with or wi