Do much more to dig out of a much deeper hole. Meanwhile, the president s cabinet continuing to take shape with the Senate ConfirmingLieutenant General lloyd austin to be the nations first black defense secretary. And former Federal Reserve chair janet yellen will be soon confirmed as treasury secretary after the Senate Finance committee unanimously approved her nomination. We also learned that the house will send the article of impeachment against former President Trump to the senate this monday. And we got the sobering news that more than 8,200 died from the coronavirus in the past 48 hours alone. Ana palmer, founder of punch bowl news, and ron insana, cnbc Senior Analyst and commentator and a Senior Adviser to schroeders na. Ron, lets begin with you and get your take on this economic action that President Biden is expected to take. We heard an outline of it from jen psaki earlier, as well as brian deese. Will they make much of a difference in the absence of legislation that as we mentioned, brian deese is calling for from congress . Well, certainly among those who have been hardest hit by the pandemic and those who have had to stay home, shelter in place, not work, whose kids have not had adequate access to nutrition, one of the things that have been shown since programs like head start and the supplemental nutritious program, is that children without adequate nutrition cant concentrate. So to the extent that theyre already distracted by having to do school and other activities remotely, this will go a long way, i believe, in at least addressing that issue. It is known as no substitute for comprehensive programs, but it is a start in the right direction, particularly for things like s. N. A. P. And any other Additional Resources that the poorest among us and those hardest hit among us can get access to in the short run. To that point, ana, lets play republican senator Lindsey Graham telling our nbc news Capitol Hill Team he doesnt actually think that President Bidens proposed nearly 2 trillion economic rescue package is going to make it through congress. Its actually a quote. Ill read it for you. But he did say that something needs to be done. Thats the quote on the screen, i think the amount would be hard, but there are components of it that i like. I think we need to do something. I dont think his bill is going to make it. So what are republicans looking for here . Listen, right now, republicans have gotten a newfound religion on spending. Back to the old days pretrump where they were much more focused on fiscal constraint and youll continue to see that. I think there might be some kind of places in the margins, some of these kind of discreet programs where you could see someone like a Lindsey Graham, certainly some of these more moderate senators who are now part of the sweet 16 game, thats going to be meeting with deese in the coming days, try to find some pathway forward, but a 1. 9 trillion package will be very tough, even though it is an alldemocratic washington, just given the numbers game. Jeff, weve been given the twominute warning, as im sure you are aware. Let me squeeze in a quick question for you, if i can, and apologies if i have to interrupt you. We know the president s team is speaking with a group of bipartisan senators this weekend. What can you tell us about his efforts to personally try to get this through . The Biden Administration, ayman, says that both President Biden and white house officials have been having ongoing conversations with lawmakers, democrat and republican, about the finer points of this 2 trillion, nearly 2 trillion covid relief package. So on sunday afternoon, brian deese, President Bidens top economic adviser, says that he will have a conversation with this group of senators, 16 in all, evenly split between democrats and republicans. And as youve been speaking about with ana, yes, there are those republicans who are scoffing at the size and scope of this bill. There are others who say, look, we just passed a nearly 1 trillion covid relief package a couple of weeks ago. Its too early. Its too soon to do it again. But essentially doubled. But what you heard from deese was the point that there is a risk to not doing enough. That theres less of a risk to doing too much. And we should say, you know, these lawmakers havent missed a paycheck. Many of them, most of them by now have been vaccinated. And so theres this great need among the American People to get the relief and heres President Biden about to speak about that. Lets cross over to the white house. A once in a Century Public Health crisis thats led to the most economic crisis in American History. And the crisis is only deepening. Yesterday we learned that 900,000 more americans filed for unemployment. 900,000. They joined millions of americans who through no fault of their own have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck. So many of them never thought they would ever be out of work in the first place. And just like my dad did when he used to lie awake at night when i was a kid, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep because he was worried about whether or not he was about to lose his health care or whether we would have the money to pay the mortgage because of the economic circumstance he was in. And now, a lot of these folks are facing eviction. Or waiting hours in their cars, literally hours in their cars, waiting to be able to feed their children as they drive up to a food bank. This is the United States of america. And theyre waiting to feed their kids. Folks who are able to still keep their job, many of seen their paychecks reduced and theyre barely hanging on and wondering what next . Sometimes the anxiety about whats going to happen next is more consequential than what actually happened. But this is happening today in america. And this cannot be who we are as a country. These are not the values of our nation. We can no, will not let people go hungry. We cannot let people be evicted by of nothing they did themselves. We cannot let people lose their jobs and we have to act. We have to act now. Its not just to meet the moral obligation to treat our fellow americans with the dignity and respect that they deserve, this is an economic imperative. A growing economic consensus that we must act decisively and boldly to grow the economy for all americans, not just for tomorrow, but in the future. Theres a growing chorus of Top Economists that agree. That in this moment of crisis, with this with the Interest Rates as low as they are, historic lows, it is smart fiscal investment, including deficit spending, and theyre more urgent than ever. And you know, that return on these investments and jobs and Racial Equity is going to prevent longterm economic damage and benefits that are going to far surpass their costs. If we dont act, the rest of the world is not standing still in terms of the competitive advantage and the competitive possibilities relative to us. But our debt situation will be more stable and not less stable according to these economists. And that such investments in our people is going to strengthen our economic competitiveness as a nation and help us outcompete on competitors in the global economy. Because were going to grow the economy with these investments. While the covid19 package that passed in december was the first step, as i said at the time, it was just a down payment. We need more action and we need to move fast. Last week, i laid out a twostep plan of rescue and recovery, to get through the crisis and to a better, stronger, and more secure america. The first step of our American Rescue plan is a plan to tackle the pandemic and get direct Financial Relief to americans who need it the most. You know in just a few days, its just been a few days since i outlined this plan, and its received bipartisan support from a majority of American Mayors and governors. Businesses and labor organizations have together welcomed it as an urgent thats needed. Even wall street firms have underscored its importance. In fact, in an analysis by moodys estimates that if we pass our American Rescue plan, the economy would create 7. 5 million jobs, just in this year alone. That would be on the way to the more than 18 million, i think it was 18,600,000 jobs that they believe would be create offered the fouryear period with our build back better Recovery Plan. And with our American Rescue plan, our economy would return to full employment, a full year faster than without the plan. Even President Trumps not some liberal organization, President Trumps top former economic adviser, Kevin Hassett said, quote, he absolutely is in favor of this rescue plan. It almost doesnt have a partisan piece to it. Were seeing the support, because this plan takes a step that we so urgently need. More than just a step, number steps. It funds big parts of the covid19 National Strategy they released yesterday, we released yesterday. Our National Strategy puts us on a war footing to aggressively speed up our covid19 response, especially on vaccines and testing and reopening our schools. I find it fascinating, yesterday, the press asked the question, is, you know, 100 million enough . A week before, they were saying, biden, are you crazy, you cant do 100 million in a hundred days. Well, were going to, god willing, not only do 100 million but more than that. But we have to do this. We have to move. The American Rescue plan provides Economic Relief for most americans who are in need. Were going to finish the job of getting a total of 2,000 in direct payments to folks. 600, which was already passed, is simply not enough. If you still have to choose between paying your rent and putting food on the table. Well extend Unemployment Insurance benefits for millions of workers beyond the deadline thats now set. It means that 16 million americans who are currently relying on Unemployment Benefits while they look for work can count on these checks continuing to be there in the middle of this crisis. The American Rescue plan also addresses the growing housing crisis of america. Approximately 14 million americans, 14 million, have fallen behind on rent and many risk eviction. If we fail to act, there will be a wave of evictions and foreclosures in the coming months, as this pandemic rages on. Because theres nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the snervelgs next several months. This would overall whelm emergency shelters and increase covid19 infections as people have nowhere to go and cant socially distance. The American Rescue plan asks congress to provide rental assistance for millions of hardhit families and tenants. This will also be a bridge to economic recovery for countless mom and pop landlords who cant afford not to have the rent. But they cant wait. So on inauguration day, i directed my administration to extend nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures. These crises are straining the budgets of states and cities and tribal communities that are forced to consider layoffs and service ruckuses among essential workers, police officers, firefighters, first responders, nurses. Theyre all at the risk of losing their jobs. Over the last year, more than 600,000 educators have lost their jobs in cities and towns. The American Rescue plan would provide emergency funding to keep these essential workers on the job and maintain essential services. Look, it will also help Small Businesses that are the engines of our economic growth. When you say small business, most people think the joirpt entiies that hire everybody. Theyre important, but these Small Businesses are the glue that hold these communities together. They are hurting badly and they account for nearly half of the entire u. S. Workforce. Nearly half. Our rescue plan will provide flexible grants to help the smallest businesses to survive the pandemic and entrepreneurs create and maintain jobs, plus create essential jobs and services at communities so desperately depend on. Our Recovery Plan also calls for an increase in the minimum wage, to at least 15 an hour. No one in america should work 40 hours a week making below the poverty line. 15 gets people above the poverty line. We have so many millions of people working 40 hours a week and still below the poverty line. Our plan provides access to affordable child care that allows women to get back to work, millions who are not working because they dont have that care. All told, the American Rescue plan would lift 12 million americans out of poverty and cut Child Poverty in half. Thats 5 million children lifted out of poverty. Our plan will reduce poverty in the black community by one third and reduce poverty in the Hispanic Community by almost 40 . I look forward to working with members of congress of both parties to move quickly to get this American Rescue plan to the American People. And then we can move with equal surgesy and bipartisanship to the second part of our economic plan, the build back better. Its a plan thats going to make historic investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, research and development, and clean energy and so much more thats going to create millions more jobs. Goodpaying jobs. Not minimumwage jobs. While we work with members of both parties in the country, there are steps we can take right now. On inauguration day, i directed my administration to pause student loan repayments for interest the Interest Payments for americans with federal Student Loans until at least september. So theyre not going to have to pay until september, they still pay the bill, as it stands now, but they will not accrue interest and they dont have to begin to pay until september. And we may have to look beyond that, i might add. Today, im signing an executive order that directs the whole of government, a whole of government effort to help millions of americans who are badly hurting. It requires all federal agencies to do what they can do to provide relief to families, small business, and communities. And in the days ahead, i expect agencies to act. Let me touch on two ways these actions can help change americans lives. We need to tackle the growing hunger crisis in america. One in seven households in america, one in seven, more than one in five black and latino households in america report they do not have enough food to eat. That includes nearly 30 million adults and as many as 12 million children. And again, theyre in this situation through no fault of their own. Its unconscionable. The American Rescue plan provides additional emergency food and nutrition assistance for tens of millions of children and families to address this crisis. But families literally cant wait another day. As a result of the executive order im going to shortly sign, the department of agriculture will consider taking immediate steps to make it easier for the hardest hit families to enroll and claim more benefits in the critical food and nutrition area. This can help tens of millions of families, especially those who cant provide meals for their kids, who are learning remotely at home, are not receiving the regular meal plans that they have at school for breakfast or lunch. We also need to protect the health and safety of the american worker. Right now, approximately 40 of households in america have at least one member with a preexisting condition. Just image, youre out of work, through no fault of your own, you file for unemployment while youre looking for a job, you find one, and you get an offer. But then you find out theres a high risk of your getting infected with covid19 because of your condition, and you and your loved ones have an even greater risk of death and serious illness because of the preexisting conditions. So you turn it down. Right now if you did that, you could be denied Unemployment Insurance, because you were offered a job and didnt take it. Its wrong. No one should have to choose between their livelihoods and their own health or the health of their loved ones in the middle of a deadly pandemic. Because of the executive order that im about to sign, i expect the department of labor to guarantee the right to refuse the employment that will jeopardize your health and if you do so, youll still be able to qualify for the insurance. Thats a judgment the Labor Department will make. Look, there are just two consequential ways that that the action im taking today will help people in need. Another way is by pausing federal collections on overpayments debts for veterans. Another makes sure that federal contractors are receiving taxpayer dollars provide their workers with the pay and benefits they deserve. These are where federal tax dollars are being made available to build things such as ships to staircases. And we let out the and right now there are up to 8 Million People that are eligible for direct payments because of the cares act. Theyre entitled to those payments, but not an easy way to access them. Were making it a priority today to fix that problem and get them relief theyre entitled to. A im going to close and summarize this way. A lot of america is hurting. The virus is surging. Were 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over 600,000. Families are going hungry. People are at risk of being evicted. Job losses are mounting again. We need to act. No matter how you look at it, we need to act. If we act now, our economy will be stronger in both the short and long run. Thats what economists left, right, and center are telling us. Both liberal and conservative, well be stronger and better across the board. If we act now, well be better able to compete with the world. If we act now, well be able to meet our moral obligations to one another as americans. I dont believe the people of this country want to stand by and watch their neighbors and fellow coworkers go hungry and lose their homes and hope of dignity and respect. I dont believe that. Especially in the middle of a pandemic thats so weakened and wreaked so much havoc and pain on america. The bottom line is this. Were in a national emergency. We need to act like were in a national emergency. So weve got to move. With everything weve got and do it together. I dont believe democrats or republicans are going hungry and losing jobs. I believe americans are going hungry and losing their jobs. And we have the tools to fix it. We have the tools to get through this. We have the tools to get this virus under control and our economy back on track. And we have the tools to help people so lets use the tools. All of them. Lets use them now. Im going to sign this executive order, but let me conclude again by saying, folks, this is one of the cases where business, labor, wall street, main street, liberal, conservative, economist know we have to act now, not only to help people who are in need now, but to allow us to be in a Competitive Position worldwide and be the leader of the World Economy in the next year and two and three and going forward. So thank you, im going to sign this executive order. The first one is the Economic Relief related to covid19 pandemic. The second one is protection protecting the federal workforce. Thank you very much. Mr. President , do you support Mitch Mcconnells timeline for february i havent heard the details, but i do think that having some time to get our administration up and running, i want to thank the senate for passing our secretary of defense. Looks like our secretary of treasury, looks like our secretary of state is in place. The more time we have to get up and running and meet these crises, the better. All right. So you were just listening there to President Joe Biden signing two executive orders, one to deal with Economic Relief for covid19 as well as an attempt to try and get some parts of phenomenal assistance and raising minimum wage for federal employees to at least 15. So the president making both the moral and an economic argument for the need to get Economic Relief and stimulus passed through congress. That remains to be seen. I am back with jeff bennett, ana palmer, and ron insana. Let me begin with ana, what i felt so compelling in that presentation there and in those comments by the president was that he made both the moral and the economic argument for this. And its going to be interesting to see the kind of argument that is put forward by republicans to potentially block and try and prevent him from getting that economic agenda passed, to bring back the economy, as he says, with that 1. 9 trillion relief package. He said it is both rescue and recovery and most economists say this is going to be the best shot at trying to get the American Economy back up and running, to make it competitive, to increase or to decrease unemployment, increase employment. Both in minority communities and across the board. It was a sobering message that the president delivered. And hit on both of those points. The heartstrings of the country as well as the Economic Impact and the economic kind of crisis that we are in. I do think that it will be interesting to see how republicans respond to this. Does that message change anything for them . I dont expect so for many of them. I think the price tag is going to be a lot. I think talking about minimum wage is probably not going to be the messaging that gets republicans onboard that he needs. One thing ill be looking for is what does mr. Deese say to this group of 16 bipartisan senators, following off of these remarks that might be more compelling to them. He has said that his message is going to be to push the president s package, but hes also willing to have a little bit of back and forth. So is there anything that republicans are willing to go on . Thats where this negotiation will happen . The final package is probably not going to look every bit as what joe biden would like it to. And he also mentioned that there shouldnt be any partisan objection to it. From your initial reporting, jeff, and i know were still in the early stages of this, do you have a sense of how long this administration wants to wait to try to build that unity before they try to go it alone since they do have control of both houses of congress that they can actually try and get their agenda done without a lot of republicans, if republicans decide to play politics and block this at every turn. Its a great question which right now there isnt a good answer. Theres that conversation happening on sunday, between brian deese and those senators, democrat and republican. We might get a good sense of how this will play out after that. But i think what we heard from the president was really a sober articulation of the moral argument and the economic one. He made the point that Interest Rates were at historic lows. Now is the time to be big and bold. To spend now that it will have positive, longterm effects. And to your point, he said, its not democrats or republicans who are going hungry. Its americans who are going hungry. And he said, now were in a National Crisis and we should act like were in a National Crisis. That was the compelling argument that he made. And to your point, we just, frankly, at this point, dont know if there will be enough republican buyin, or if democrats will have to find a different process, a different route to perhaps right the bill in such a way that they can pass it with just democratic votes alone. Im going to go out on a limb and say perhaps you are the smartest out of the three of us in assessing the economic argument that is being made. Certainly more than me. I wont speak on behalf of jeff or ana, but give us the argument that is to be made for what the president is saying. Is there any counterargument . Lets just put politics aside for a moment. Is there an economic target to be made that this is too ambitious . Perhaps not enough . Where do you see the economic challenges . The challenges at the moment are solely political. Its hard to make an economic case against doing what the president has proposed, insofar as that we are still in the midst of this. Unemployment, instead of improving, is now deteriorating, as the president himself said just a few minutes ago, jobless claims as reported yesterday hit 900,000. They were above that a week ago. That is higher than the worst number of claims we saw during the financial crisis. Its down as the pandemic forced a lockdown. But with respect to all of the economic arguments, the strongest one are for pandemic, employment assistance, state and local government aid, because there will be layoffs that will exacerbate unemployment. I would trade away the minimum wage right now. I think thats a separate track. But with respect to what we said earlier, if Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell come to a powersharing agreement, democrats have twice this year the opportunity to of use something called the budget reconciliation act that would allow them to pass an Economic Program without any republican votes. They would still need conservative democrats like joe manchin to sign on. But they have a shot at that at the moment, theres no good economic argument. After having amassed 700 million in debt during the trump years and now still being at the very depths from an unemployment perspective of this crisis, the economy needs a great deal of help. Tacking on structure afterwards will be important, but that will probably require some budget offsets down the road, which would not necessarily be appropriate here. Final question, if this does in fact go as it stands right now, it is going to fall short than the 2,000 that some within the progressive wing of the president s base have asked for. Theyre saying, you have Bernie Sanders and aoc and others saying, you need 200. Not only just them, also senator markey also asking for 2,000 to get people through this pandemic and even beyond that. Its obviously not going to start at that point. Yeah, i think its going to be hard for the progressives to get everything that they want on this. I think if joe biden can kind of find some middle ground here, where hes able to get republicans, thats clearly his preference, to not have to use budget reconciliation. But if he does, i think hes going to do that. And then all bets are off in terms of having to make any kind of deal with republicans here. And its going to be much more of a negotiation between the party and where they can settle on the moderates and the more progressive part of the Democratic Senators and in the house. Ana palmer, jeff bennett, thank you for sticking around and starting us off. Joining me now is mark copann, and he leads the congressional labor caucus. Congressman, thank you so much for your time. First, let me get your reaction to the news as we just heard there from the president , these two executive orders, as someone who is a strong labor advocate, how do you feel about the path towards a 15 federal minimum wage . Thanks for having me. I wish i would have heard that speech once in the last four years. Anything close to the tone and content of what we just heard, joe biden clearly shows hes been doing this for a while. This week has been a lot of activity and a lot of things long overdue for this country. And things like the minimum wage that hasnt been increased in over a decade, to be able to do that with federal contractors and the federal workforce will have a huge impact on people in all professions and help lift everyone up. Its a really important measure and everything hes doing right now addressing things like getting food to people who need it the most, addressing homelessness and people who might be evicted, as well as addressing concerns for people unemployed, these are all things donald trump should have done in the last year and didnt. And we finally have a president who gets what his job to do. Hes certainly making the moral argument. Do you think that President Bidens nearly 2 trillion relief package is far enough, do you think it will actually get through congress . Where do you fall down on these Monthly Payments . Should they have been 2,000 or is he starting it off in a place where it likely get passed or perhaps even reduced more. Many of us, myself included, wanted to see additional payments of 2,000. But when you look at the totality of the package hes putting out there, hes hitting all the right points. These are things that we tried to do going back to last may in the heroes act and we had to fight and fight and fight and could barely get very much done last year with Mitch Mcconnell and donald trump. And now, finally, were going to address people who are really hurting, who could have been evicted or were going hungry and were really addressing those front line workers and our state and local governments who are doing all the heavy lifting right now around covid. So the fact that were finally addressing covid, we actually are working on a vaccination plan and a way to get this out and taken care of, addressing the economy, because of covid, these are all things that should have happened exactly a year ago. But the fact that theyre happening now, i think youre going to see largely rejoicing in whats happening. Reality of it is, republicans may try to block some of these efforts, perhaps for political reasons. To what extent do you think the president should and try to get the Democratic Party and the Democratic Leaders in the senate to go it alone and try to get as much of this done without bipartisan support . Do you believe he should end the filibuster . You know, i think he should reach out to the other side of the aisle and hopefully reasonable people will come and work with him, because ae all want to stop covid and get the economy going, but if people continue to do what weve seen unfortunately for the last four year, i would recommend the president just move ahead. Well get it done with him because the American People need action now. We needed it in the last year. But top simply wait around, dont forget now, its not Just Tea Party folks. We now have qanon folks. When the tea party are now the moderates in the republican caucus, they have a huge problem. Were going to get things done. Regardless, it would be great if people would work with it. Lieutenant lloyd austin has been confirmed by the senate, allowing him as a recently retired general to serve in that civilian position. As you very well know, this follows general mattis getting that waiver during the trump era. Are you now at all concerned about the precedent that has been set for what is designed to be a civilian role through and through . Weve had that conversation as democrats. And you know, he was already five years out and the waiver is at seven. He was already pretty close to that point. But the significance of having your first africanamerican defense secretary and dealing with some of the issues of racism that we see within the military will be very significant. But hes done other things that are unique. Hell recuse himself from anything with his former defense contractor and employer. This is something that was very important to people like barbara lee and myself. And we want to reduce some of the Pentagon Spending. We want to invest in people and some of that money has gone to some pretty poor purposes. And i think we have a chance now to have a real conversation and really try to reduce some of that that Pentagon Spending and redirect it from people who from health care to housing. So im looking forward to working with him as we moves forward. Lets finally talk about the biggest story of the day that was announced by Chuck Schumer, majority leader, speaker pelosi, saying that the articles of impeachment will be dlifrd to the senate monday. What arguments are you hoping the house impeachment managers make . Are you hearing anything about what your colleagues are focusing on in the case that they are preparing . Whats unique about this impeachment is we all each and every one of us in the house and senate lived through the case. So you dont really need to remind people of what happened that day. We experienced it a few weeks ago. When you have a president who invited all of his supporters to come to washington, d. C. And march on the capitol and the rhetoric from him and the people around him, clearly, everyone experienced what happened on january 6th. So i hope its not a tough sell to senators to do the right thing and to hold donald trump accountable for the first breach on the u. S. Capitol since the war of 1812 by the british. It wasnt another country that attacked us this time, it was our own president. So i hope well do the right thing and the senate will impeach him as did the house and donald trump will never be able to run for office again. That would be best outcome. And we really then, i think, can move on once we have the real accountability thats needed. Congressman mark pocan, appreciate your time and thank you for your patience in sticking around while the president made those comments. Still ahead, President Bidens Foreign Policy challenges, one of them, without a doubt, their relationship with russia. Youre watching msnbc. P with russia youre watching msnbc. quiet piano music comfort in the extreme. The lincoln family of luxury suvs. Irresistibly delicious. Pour some almond breeze. For the maestros of the creamiestever, musthave smoothies. Its irresistibly delicious. More almond breeze, please fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. Fine, well sleep here. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. Were all finding ways to keep moving. And at fidelity, youll get planning and advice to help you prepare for the future, without sacrificing whats most important to you today. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident that the only direction youre moving is forward. With the Biden Administration laying out its plan to improve the rollout of covid19 vaccines, federal Health Officials and Corporate Leaders are warning that it will be impossible to immediately increase the supply of vaccines before april. This according to the new york times. Joining me now is nbc news medical correspondent, dr. John torres. So the Biden Administration, as it waits for manufacturers to try to speed up the production of more vaccines, this according to the washington post. It got hold of documents from fema, as they plan to open up 100 mass vaccination sites. The largest of which could administer 6,000 doses a day. Talk to us about how important it is to have sites like this throughout the entire country . Amin, i think this is a step thats been missing all along here. And i think this is a step that a lot of people are saying, thankfully were starting to do that. Were getting fema involved, which is probably the best thing here. If you think about any disaster weve had in this country, hurricane katrina, hurricane sandy, wildfires, fema is always there to help out. Well, in this case, fema hasnt been there until now. And so theyre starting to use them. And what theyre coming up with are ideas that need to be done. In other words, having these mass vaccination centers. Because people are having a hard time getting to where they can get the vaccine. As i always say, its much better to take the vaccine to the people than to have the people go to the vaccine. In this case, theyre opening up these centers. Some will be in huge stadiums, others will be in little areas where they can anything from 6,000 to 250 people a day depending on the site, but getting it done that way is important. Because the distribution san issue. But not as big of an issue as the administration. Getting those shots in the arms, and in some cases, theyre getting the vaccine, its staying in a refrigerator or freezer. Thats not helping anybody. Dr. Torres, ive got to ask you about the uk variant weve been hearing about. Im not sure if you saw yesterday, dr. Anthony fauci at that press briefing. He tried to kind of temper down concerns or worries that some people may have that the variant may not respond well to the virus or to the vaccine, excuse me. Today, the british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson announced that there is, quote, some evidence that the uk covid variant is associated with a higher degree of mortality. What more can you tell us about this . We should know that dr. Fauci will be on with my colleague Rachel Maddow tonight. She may ask him about the specific news that just emerged today, but what do you know about it . And i think thats the key there. Theres some evidence, but a lot of experts are saying, we dont really have evidence at this point, and its to a bit of speculation. And what theyre saying in the uk, what Boris Johnson said, is that it looks like it might make it a little more deadlier than we thought it was. And by that, we thought of instead of 10,000 per a thousand dying. A little bump in that death rate. The one thing we do know is that the numbers happen here, its more contagious, if more people get it, overall more people are going to have complications from it and overall, more people are going to die from it at the same time, dr. Fauci said, looking at that uk variant, our thera therapeutics, mainly monoclonal antibodies and vaccines seem to work very well against it. Hes looking more at the south african variant, because that is more questionable. But as far as the uk variant, this is very preliminary and a lot of experts are saying theyre simply not seeing that in the data. I think this is something to keep an eye on, but not something to really worry about, at this point. Dr. John torres, thanks for staying on top of that for us and dr. Fauci will be on with Rachel Maddow. Its been an historic week, but the honeymoon phase will soon be over for President Biden. Whats next for his administration. Youre watching msnbc. S administration youre watching msnbc. Like. Like its a mirror, dad. You know . Alright, okay. Hows that . Is that how you hold a mirror . [ding] power e trade gives you an awardwinning mobile app with powerful, easytouse tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24 7 support when you need it the most and 0 commissions for online u. S. Listed stocks. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. When you drive this smooth, you save with allstate the future of Auto Insurance is here youve never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today vo businesses are always making choices. Heres a choice you dont have to make the largest 5g network. Awardwinning customer satisfaction. Or insanely great value. Now, with tmobile for business, theres no compromise. Network. Support. Value. 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Joining me now is michael mcfaul, former ambassador to russia and an msnbc International Affairs analyst. Thank you so much for joining us. Im curious to get your thoughts on this right out the gate. Can the Biden Administration reengage in this treaty while also Holding Russia accountable . On one hand, you had russia who was blamed or implicated in the solar wind hack. That big Cyber Espionage campaign that we reported on last month, the former chief u. S. Negotiator under President Trump criticize the biden team for seeking that longterm extension of the start treaty, saying that it squanders significant leverage that the u. S. Had over russia. Well, thanks for having me. My general answer is yes. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Its hard with big powerful autocratic Companies Like russia and iran. But i think you can pursue both at the same time. We did during the cold war and they should do this again. Extending the new start treaty for five years is not a gift to putin. It is in Americas National security interests. And we should do whats in our interests and first and foremost, it extends the verification parts of that treaty, which i think are vital for our National Security interests. I was in the government when we negotiated the new start treaty. I was part of that team and i always said, it was a play on what reagan used to say. He would always say, trust but verify. I always said, dont trust, only verify. And thats what this treaty allows us to do. And at the same time, right, we should also investigate what happened with solar winds. I am afraid that is going to be a much bigger cyber attack than we know today. And we should speak up about what is happening with Alexei Navalny right now, the Opposition Leader who was poisoned, nearly killed by the russian government, went to recuperate in germany, and came back last weekend and was arrested again. Its a hard job, but thats what youve got to do. Youve got to be able to engage in things that are in our interests and also speak up for democracy and human rights. You brought up the issue of china, as well. Lets talk about that for a moment. When she was asked today about the im not surprised. Im sure they have a position on it, but they dont have a secretary of state yesterday. To me it was a mistake that the senate did not confirm tony blinken. This is not a time in americas place in the world that we should be without a secretary of state who is the designee for President Biden. I suspect youll be hearing from them very shortly on that. I just think they want their team in place first before they make these kind of policy decisions. Let me finally, if i can ask you quickly, about the team thats shaping up so far. How confident are you that they perhaps are not going to repeat some mistakes we had seen in previous administration, particularly the ones in 2008 with obama and biden the first time around. We would need a whole shoot to talk about that. I wrote a whole book about it, in fact, because they were also part of many successes in the obama administration. I do know all these people well. Almost all of them i served with in the obama administration. Its a complicated history. My book about it was not all rosecolored glasses. I talked about our mistakes, but i think all americans and the rest of the world should be assured these are highly competent people, very experienced, and with Jake Sullivan as the National Security adviser and hopefully tony blinken as the secretary of state, you have two people that have worked very closely with President Biden before. There will be none of these gaps we had between President Trump and his administration on many policy issues moving forward. Ambassador michael mcfahl, thank you for your time, sir. Challenges and crises are part of the regular order of business for american president s and their administration, but President Biden is stepping into a uneck situation. Hes facing an ongoing pandemic, a faltering economy and a rise in racial tension. Im joined by president ial historian michael beschloss. Its great to have you on the program. Let me start with a quote from the washington post. Rahm emanuel said lincoln had the civil wart, kennedy had the height of the cold war, and johnson had unprecedented civil social strife. Emanuel said biden has all of the above. I think thats true. I mean, i think joe biden has got problems that are of the level of lincoln and fdr and john kennedy, to some extent, in 1961, because hes got the pandemic, the number of people starving, this terrible economy right now, Racial Injustice thats been for four centuries and has come as to a head once again this past year. Climate change, and also our democracy almost collapsed two weeks ago with an attack on the congress that was sponsored by the former president of the United States. Theres no doubt anyone who has been following the news over the past 48 hours know theres a marked difference in the tone since biden came into office. Just the way hes been speaking about respecting your colleagues, there was something so different from President Trump, who almost seemed to relish going after colleagues and disrespecting them as weve seen on twitter and elsewhere. Talk to us about the difference this president has set, not just with President Trump, but with previous administrations as well. How has he been different so far with the tone and messaging . The immediate change is joe biden has untied this company from the railroad tracks. Another term of donald trump and i think there would have been an autocrazy, and we may have lost many of our democratic he structures, small d. Two days ago he said, lets all agree were going to tell the truth and deal with known facts. That was something that Abraham Lincoln or wood row wilson or Franklin Roosevelt did not have to do. Who would ever think you would have to have a president , as President Biden did yesterday, say please do not be disrespectful to the people who work with you in the federal government. If youre abusive, youll be gone, fired by me immediately. That happened because youve had four years of donald trump. The fortunate thing is after one tern, a lot of these ways in which American History has been hijacked and dragged off the mainstream highway, it can be pretty reasonably and quickly brought back into the center. Another term, i think that might not have been true. The amazing thing, eamon, donald trump was still president only two days ago. You led me to my finnell question. Its been two days ago, what a weeks its been. What moments stood out to as we close this weeks. Whats your final takeaway from this week . On wednesday you had a lo the of people predicting i didnt predict, but i was worried that we might have another bad security situation, given the pandemic and given the security threats after the 6th of january, and maybe it might not be a great idea to have an inauguration outdoors. I was wrong. It went off flawlessly. It looked like a normal inauguration. You had a new. And first lady just strolling down pennsylvania avenue in the open, as if nothing was amiss. That was a great sign things will be wonderful again. Perfectly capped off by that incredible poem. Couldnt have been better. Thank you so much, michael beschloss. That wraps up this wire for me and the week. Ill see you back here on monday. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts after this break. Nicolle wallace starts after this break xeljanz. 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On the second full day of his presidency, joe biden is moving to address the economic pain experienced by millions of americans reeling from lost jobs and the slowdown of the economy caused by an uncontrol pandemic. In Donald Trumps final week in office, 900,000 more american filed for Unemployment Benefits. Nearly 16 million americans remain unemployed, not counting those who have stopped looking for work altogether. Its a crisis one economist called, in comments to the new york times, staggering, worse than i thought. 15 million of our neighbors and friends, including 17 million children right now, are hungry, experiencing Food Insecurity in our country. Its a number that has soared during the pandemic