Executive orders, rolled out a National Agenda to combat the pandemic while delivering an honest answer to the tough times ahead. Let me be very clear things are going to continue to get worse before they get better. The death toll will likely top 500,000 next month. For the past year, we couldnt rely on the federal government to act with the urgency and focus and coordination we needed. And we are seeing the tragic cost of that failure. Our National Strategy is comprehensive, its based on science, not politics, its based on truth, not denial, and its detailed. Our National Plan launches a full scale wartime effort to address the shortages by ramping up production of syringes, needles, you name it. The new president s plan involves invoking the defense production act, increasing state aid, including rolling out fema, expanding testing and treatment and requiring masks on public transportation, including aircraft. Reopening more schools and businesses also a key part of the plan, which makes the vaccine component all the more important. Communities across our country experiencing vaccine shortages, including new york city, which is due to run out of vaccine by tomorrow. Biden has pledged his administration will vaccinate 100 Million People in his first 100 days. So far the cdc says the trump effort result in about 17 million injections so far. Today, amazon offered to help with the Vaccine Distribution effort. A Big Development today was seeing dr. Anthony fauci at the white house briefing. 80 years of age, a national treasure, recipient of the medal of freedom, and now finally able to speak freely to the press and the American People. Today he was asked about getting vaccines to as Many Americans as possible. We certainly are not starting from scratch. We are continuing, but youre going to see a real ramping up of it. The goal that was set by the president of getting 100 Million People vaccinated in the first 100 days is quite a reasonable goal. If we get 70 to 85 of the country vaccinated, lets say by the end of summer, middle of summer, i believe by the time we get to the fall, we will be approaching a degree of normality. Fauci also spoke about his time working with the Trump White House crowd and his concerns about the sidelining of science and the truth. It was very clear that there were things that were said, be it regarding things like hydroxychloroquine and other things like that, that really was uncomfortable because they were not based on scientific fact. You didnt feel that you could actually Say Something and there wouldnt be repercussions about it. The idea that you can get up here talk about what you know, what the evidence, what the science is and know thats it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling. Amid all of this, we have no Health Secretary to replace the outgoing trump suplicant. Bidens nominee has yet to be confirmed. Bidens cabinet has only one confirmed member, as a matter of fact, avril haines. She may soon be joined by retired army general lloyd austin now that congress has given him the waiver needed to run the pentagon as a civilian. Meanwhile, biden has decided to stick with trump appointee chris wray as fbi director. The agency is currently kneedeep in investigating the capitol riot, as well as being subjected themselves to a review of intelligence procedures ahead of that insurrection. Trump still facing a Second Senate impeachment trial for inciting that attack. Mitch mcconnell today offered majority leader schumer a proposal to start the trial in february, giving him more time to confirm biden nominees and trump more time to pelosi still hasnt sent the article over to the senate and is not giving clues about a time line. Im not going to be telling you when it is going. Are you at all concerned about moving forward with the impeachment process, that it could undercut that message and alienate republican supporters of the president . No. No, im not worried about that. Just because hes now gone, thank god, that we you dont say to a president , do whatever you want in the last months of your administration. Youre going to get a get out of jail card free because people think we should make nice nice and forget that people died here on january 6th. The big news for trump today . A lawyer has been found whos willing to defend him at the trial. South Carolina Attorney butch bowers will take the trump impeachment case on, recommended by trump buddy lindsey graham. With that, lets bring in our leadoff guests, john heilman, author, journalist, our National Affairs analyst, cohost of the circus on showtime. Julie pace, Washington Bureau chief for the associates press. And dr. Vin gupta back with us, Critical Care doctor specializing in these types of diseases, an affiliate assistant professor at the University Washington institute for Health Metrics and evaluation. Good evening and welcome to you all. Julie, id like to begin with you and your beat. In a city that cuts everything and everyone down to size, is there a barely perceptible but growing realization that bidens plan, this wartime effort, may, in fact, be what we need . Well, i think its certainly what a lot of americans have been waiting for, which is a National Plan, a National Strategy. I think the reality is what hes rolling out here is what Public Health officials have been recommending for months. And the challenge he has is that he has to make up so much ground. The fact that this plan is only being implemented now has left us in a situation where theres such a scattershot approach and response theres confusion among americans on what they should be doing, especially with news about new variants. When theyre going to get the vaccine. So, yes, i think this is very much the plan that the country has been waiting for. But big challenges await this president as he tries to implement that plan and get a lot of americans to get on board with it. Doctor, i assume you applaud the fact that someone is now running this. I assume you applauded just the mere sight of dr. Fauci being able to speak freely from the west wing of the white house today. If your cell phone rang tonight, it was joe biden at the other end asking you, doctor, whats the clear and present danger, whats the most urgent need where you are . What would you tell the president . Good evening, brian. Yes, to everything you just said. And theres hope. But what people all your viewers need to know out there is were still in the midst of the worst part of this pandemic, and vaccination, while its giving us that mediumterm hope, its not going to get us out of the thick of it right now. So theres two things i would tell the president number one, i would tell him to start messaging very clearly to the people about Monoclonal Antibody treatment. Ill do it right now, but for all those out there that meet one of the certain criteria, if you tested positive for virus, if youve had mild to moderate symptoms, if youre between 12 and 88 years of age and weigh at least 88 pounds and you might have a risk factor for a bad outcome, you have a preexisting conditions, or youre on the older end of the spectrum, go to covid. Infusion center. Org. There you can look up places that might have availability of these monoclonal antibodies that, say, President Trump received. We think you get it early and you meet some of those criteria, it could stave you from seeing me and my colleague in the icu. Why is that important . 4,400 people died just yesterday on Inauguration Day from this virus. We need to be talking about diminishing transmission, mitigating loss of life as were ramping up vaccination. Lastly, teachers should be vaccinated before they go to inperson instruction. We do not need another variable here to increase case transmission rates and hospitalizations. John heilman, let me pick up on our last conversation on this broadcast where you and i agreed that the looting of the capitol was one of those rare events that looms larger in its importance with the days that go by, the more we learn. Is the trump handling or more appropriately, mishandling of coronavirus the same thing . I dont know, brian, about that. I mean, i think look, theres no question that as the biden team comes in and discovers just how much malfeasance, misfeasance, malpractice and brings to light kind of by necessity as they start to figure out what theyre working with they had such a hard time in the transition getting transparency on what they were going to be working with on all fronts but this one in particular, were learning exactly how bad the situation was inside, so i think in that sense, yes. Theres no doubt that we learned more and what weve learn second down more damning. So in that sense i agree with you. In the place where its not quite the same is that joe biden has been clearly and rightly sort of made this his responsibility now Going Forward, and i think the one thing that i would say about this first full day in office was it reflected something that jen psaki said yesterday, which was joe biden wakes up in the morning thinking about how to deal with coronavirus. And he goes to sleep at night thinking about it. Mostly because its the most severe crisis, the most immediate crisis facing the country, but also i think the Vice President now president , sorry. Got to get used to those titles. The way that he ran last year and given the scale of the problem, he knows that getting on top of this virus is the main thing on which hes going to be judged. If they can get this right, hes gone to have an extraordinarily large amount of political capitol to work with Going Forward. Its going to reignite the economy and address the other crisis hes talked about. Because theyre making it central to their focus Going Forward were going to quickly move away i think from itll be important to history how badly the Trump Administration screwed this up, but the biden team is putting themselves on the line here, and theyre going to be where were now focused and where the country is now focused, okay, buddy, you said you could do a better job . Lets see it. Julie, Mitch Mcconnell, the old campaigner, has rolled the dice in one way of viewing it, saying, hey, lets put off this impeachment trial for lets call it two weeks. Well confirm more of your cabinet selections. Coming off my question to john, two weeks also gives us a lot more knowledge and evidence as to what went into the incitement of the riot on the hill, ergo, the trial of the former president in the senate where ill just throw this in, by the way, joe biden needs ten republicans to cross over to give him 1. 9 trillion in his signature package. Absolutely. I think that mcconnell is rolling the dice here a bit. There are a lot of different ways this can cut. On the one hand, its true, the senate is not great at doing multiple things at once, and biden does need to get his cabinet confirmed. So this would clear some space for that to happen. At the same time we are deep in these investigations. And the president s role with what happened to he and his allies in the leadup to that riot is central to some of these investigations. There are political factors here. Mcconnell has been sending mixed messages himself about how he might vote, leaving open the possibility that he could vote to convict but certainly not confirming that thats where hes headed and you can definitely be assured in the next few weeks hes going to be taking the temperature of his caucus, trying to figure out where the republicans are, not just what this vote means for the party Going Forward. They face an incredibly uncertain future as the gop. With these new strains on their way here with an increased rate of contagiousness, 50 to 70 , it just sounds unbelievably scary. A question we get all the time, for people who have had their first shot, for people, the lucky few who have had their second, what does that buy you . Do you live any differently . Should anything about your life and the way you are in circulation or not or go about your life change . Well, first, brian, it should buy you reassurance that these vaccines are safe and effective, and theyre going to keep you out of the icu. It will save your life. So thats the reassurance of knowing that is vital. What ill say is it doesnt mean that you should start not wearing a mask in public or go on Leisure Travel or not wash your hands or stop socially distancing. All those things still apply, brian, because we do not know with confidence if vaccines prevent transmission. Theyll keep you out of the icu, which is why everybody should get it, but be vigilant until we to reach herd immunity as defined by dr. Fauci and others. John heilman, even though were only in our second day of White House Press briefings, at the able hand of jen sack si, someone who is known to many of us, your folks over at the recount have already heard enough to be able to compare and contrast bidenera briefings and trumpera briefings. Well look at the compilation theyve put together, discuss it on the other side. Some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting. There will be times when we see things differently in the room. This was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period. Thats okay. Thats part of our democracy thats what you guys should be writing and covering. The importance of bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room. Ill see you on monday. Lets do this again tomorrow. Thank you, jen. Thank you, jen. So, john, whats the takeaway here . Do we just reset the way back machine to normal and put all compasses on true north and pretend abnormal isnt out there, pay no worship to the garish sun . No, i think actually the opposite, brian. I think its part of the reason why we wanted to do that piece of video. Why well continue to do it. I think its right when people say that donald trump is no longer the president of the United States and we should not be paying attention to him. Not bay attention to him at all because he still is a factor in American Life but the amount of coverage that donald trump gets now as a private citizen should be dialed way, way down. Thats right and proper. I think its important for the sake of exactly for the sake of reestablishing and rereminding people about what normal should look like and behaves in a way thats proper and responsible and responsive to remind them that there was this other thing, dont let it get sucked down the memory hole. Thats why were going to keep making videos of this where we will remind people when we see the Biden Administration doing its job the way that it should and ill trust me, when they dont, well call that out too but when its doing its job the way it should we want to remind people about what it was like when sean spicer gave that press conference and set the tone for Everything Else we would see Going Forward. Never forget is a good phrase to be applied to a lot of things in life and i dont think it will be helpful to our country to forget some of the worst trespasses of the trump era and dont think i think its also good for us to point out places where the Biden Administration is trying to make things right. Of course, no credit for the shakespeare quote, as if that happens on cable all the time. John heilman, julie pace, dr. Vin gupta, Three Friends of this broadcast, thank you. Appreciate you coming on. Coming up, tough times for qanon. Sure, as they see it, celebrities continue to molest children, drink their blood but the purge, the coup, the storm scheduled for yesterday never arrived. Where does that leave q and the proud boys, the whole gang now . Well ask our various serious experts on the topic. And later, what to do with a president who incited insurrection . Try him or pardon him . Well ask two Pulitzer Prize winning journalists to weigh in, all of it as the 11 th hour is just getting under way. We are being led to believe that qanon followers are in disarray after biden was inaugurated after all and the storm never came. The coup they predicted yesterday never got here, no mass arrests. In fact, one of our next guests ben collins writes this while biden took the post a top post on qanon forum said, i dont think this is supposed to happen and wondered how long does it take the feds to run up the stairs and arrest him . Meanwhile, the New York Times reports the proud boys have begun mocking donald trump, calling him a shill and extraordinarily weak according to messages reviewed by the times. Its a lot to talk about. We have to experts the talk about that. Jen is an author and professor at the university of Maryland College of information studies. And ben collins of nbc news who watches the darkest ends of the internet for us while were glad that is not us. Ben, id like to start with you. First of all, is there a typical qanon believer . Do they tend to be all in, or is there an a la carte approach where you just believe john f. Kennedy jr. Is alive or you just believe democratic celebrities are molesting children while making pizza . Who is the stereotypical believer . Well, theres all manner of qanon believer and i guess the scary part is over the last few weeks there were a bunch of new ones. There were qanon Text Messages all throughout the country and through Facebook Messenger too. And, you know, they said that exactly what you just outlined that Inauguration Day wasnt really Inauguration Day that donald trump would seize power and all these democrats that were at the inauguration werent really at the inauguration. They were all about to be rounded up. So thats the scary thing here is that this was reaching random people throughout the country. It wasnt just your standard protrump fan who is so into this and really, really hates Hillary Clinton, it was reaching yoga moms and religious groups and random people who had no selfidentification with qanon but got to them over the last few weeks. Thankfully since Nothing Happened there is no wiggle room for new supporters. And, professor, is that a pandemic related has the pandemic and everyone being within their own lives and existences and selves, some people order stuff on instagram, they live to regret, has this affected the pandemic, pushed people into conspiracy theories more than normal . Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one, a lot of us just have more time on our hands to spend poking around in the internet and playing these kind of mind games which were really at the heart of a lot of the qanon stuff. But also if you look at conspiracy theories more broadly people tend to buy into them especially when theres fear, theres insecurity, theres a lot of uncertainty in their lives, and, you know, if you can say anything about covid its that its created that situation for a lot of us, so psychologically its made lots of people right for buying into all sorts of conspiracy theories and qanon was prepped and out there ready to be bought into. Thats why as we said youve seen a lot of people even in the last couple months really jump on the q train, something going on since 2017. And, professor, you must in your line of work have the equivalent of a degree in psychiatry by now. It is tempting to say that people on the q train were on the train to crazy town. Whats the advice about how to approach people in your life who are either the all in or a la carte believers, people who may seem on the level, but the more you talk, the more you realize, uhoh . You know, its tempting to want to shame them, especially after yesterday when there was this big buildup there was going to be the storm and fog happened, right . I get the schadenfreude of the moment. You can have that private feel, i guess, but we dont want to have all of those people who are out there believing in qanon and its a lot. 56 of all republicans bought into some part of the q conspiracy. We dont want them all out there in conspiracy land but bring them back to be productive members of our political discussion and to do that they need an offramp from this kind of irrational space. We as liberals cant do that. The media cant do that because the heart of this conspiracy is that the media and liberals cant be trusted. They need people that they can trust to help bring them back to a space without making them feel bad. That may be their family members but it also i think is going to fall on conservatives and the danger if they dont do that is that someone is going to and what were starting to see is some of these white supremacist groups that werent necessarily buying into q part of the Trump Coalition are coming on to the q Message Boards and saying, hey, if youre really frustrated and mad about this, come talk to us because were mad about the same things so that offramp is being offered by White Supremacists. I think mainstream conservatives who didnt buy into any of this have to very quickly step off and offer another option for the q people to come join, be productive and focus on issues that they care about without shaming them for, you know, buying into this Conspiracy Theory. As if thats not scary enough, ben, what happens with the social media purges . What happens when you funnel the activity by throwing it off of other platforms . It doesnt go away. Yeah, thats the worry and what jen was talking about. Theres a term that white splem cysts use for these people who just been banned from parler. They call them parler refugees and expolitically are targeting these people, 70,000 qanon accounts that didnt have anywhere else to go. Qanon supporters might stop believing in parts of the Conspiracy Theory and thats great news but they dont instantly read the New York Times but go to the closest thing they had before that sort of confirms their priors. They still have this cast of character, they have a cinematic universe of bad guys, Hillary Clinton and john podesta and all these other people who they think again eat children, so they dont theyre not going to go read normal news but go to 9 closest thing and White Supremacists are glad to keep those fantasies up for them as long as they sort of hop into their cause so they will take in those parler refugees and single them out and bring them into, you know, from those large groups they have, they will talk to them in private messages and try to radicalize them and try to turn them into white supremacist terrorists. Thats the point of what theyre doing right now so, again, just like jen was saying, i think, you know, its very easy to laugh at these people over the last few days. And you should. I mean, they are what happened is very funny. But also its very sad, you know, a lot of these people had a horrific year and turned to answers that were ridiculous to us but to them made a lot of sense. And if we can provide them this sort of grace that they cannot provide us, you know, itll be better off for society in the long run. Well, thank you, both of you for that. Ill never heard a bet ever explanation and you both dwell in a dark world but we sure appreciate you explaining that from time to time to us and our audience. Professor jen golbeck and ben collins, thank you both. Coming up for us, biden calls the challenges before him a time for testing, but one of our next guests say its a moment for optimism. Some of us, in fact, are old enough to remember optimism. Well discuss after this. Dealdash. Com, the fair and honest bidding site. An ipad was sold for less than 24; a playstation for less than 16; and a 4k television for less than 2. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. Remember, shipping is always free. Folks, this is a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy and on truth. A raging virus, growing inequity, the sting of systemic racism, a climate in crisis. Americas role in the world, any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways, but the fact is, we face them all at once. Presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we have had. No president since fdr has taken over power at a time when america has been so low. Were in the midst of the largest mass casualty event in the modern era. We could have, as the president warned us today, 500,000 dead by february. Our economy is crippled. Our politics are broken and he wanted the job. We thought this was a good night to talk to two of the most heavily decorated journalists we now, hal raines is back with us, former executive editor of the New York Times and eugene robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the washington post. Gentlemen, good evening to you both. Hal, i get to talk to you. I havent talked to you in months, gene. I want to show you the cover of Time Magazine and, yes, in doing so, i realize that more people just now see it than will buy it at the kroger tomorrow, but it says, day one, the Oval Office Like the capitol has been tagged and defiled and looted. How did they get it about right . What an eloquent picture. Congratulations to time. As you just said, as the president just said and as rahm emanuel said today, no president in our memory has come in with this agenda of difficulty. And i was so pleased to hear dr. Fauci use the word liberated yesterday when i was listening to him because i think it captures something of the national mood. Ive been a professional watcher of politics for over 50 years, and no event that i ever witnessed brought me the feeling of relief that i felt in seeing this man take office and this other man leave the capitol. Now, as to the agenda of problems, i think i think joe biden is the man for this moment for several reasons. One, he has a rooseveltian temperament and got as you said a rooseveltian agenda of difficulties and also after 36 years in the senate and 8 years as Vice President , hes got the best political chops in washington. He is not to be underestimated and i just think its going to be really interesting to watch him push his agenda and also i think hes too smart to get caught in the game of punishing trump. Eugene, there was a measurable decrease in anxiety levels across the country, but take us into the future. Make the case for how the Biden Administration can impeach and chew gum at the same time, which is, by the way, what they would be asking of the u. S. Senate, especially if they accept this bargain from Mitch Mcconnell. Put it off for two weeks and well get some of your people confirmed then well take it under consideration. Well, look, i think the Biden White House has to go about the business of saving the country, go about the business of dealing with the covid pandemic and getting vaccines into arms and dealing with the economy and they have to go about their business. I think the u. S. Senate does have to take up the impeachment trial and i look, im agnostic as to whether they do it immediately or they do it in two weeks or a month or whatever. I just believe there does have to be accountability. You cant, you know, a president who tries to cling to power by assembling a mob in the capitol and sending it off to sack the Capitol Building and, you know, five people die and the entire congress, lives are endangered in that way. I mean there has to be accountability for that. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stick with us. Im going to sneak a break in now. That way we can continue our conversation at our leisure on the other side where important questions remain for both. Robinhood believes now is the time to do money. Without the Commission Fees so you can start investing today, wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. The president bears responsibility for wednesdays attack on congress by mob rioters. Mcconnell has said that former President Trump and other important people provoked those folks to come to the capitol. Do you believe the president provoked them . I dont believe he provoked them if you listen to what he said at the rally. Reversed himself over the course of seven days. What a change of heart from the House Minority leader on joe bidens first full day as president. Luckily still with us, howell raines, eugene robinson. Eugene, there is now officially nothing the likes of graham and mccarthy arent willing to say to support the home team, which still to my lights is the trump team. My fellow new jerseyan donovan dade who do i see to get my reputation back . Gentlemen like that are not so encumbered. They dont seem to care. Whats that about . Is it kind of just simply a political annoyism . I guess for Kevin Mccarthy who is trying to lead the Republican Caucus in the house, he has a lot of trumpists basically. Thats the bulk of his caucus is a bunch of trumpists, true believers and hes got to sort of straddle between them and the establishment Republican Party, which is trying to get rid of the trump influence. It sees this as an opportunity, i think Mitch Mcconnell is also walking that line. Mitch mcconnell is a better politician than Kevin Mccarthy, but, you know, mcconnell sees whats happening to the pear. He see what is happened to the party under donald trump, you know. He used to be majority leader and now hes minority leader and hes hopping mad about what happened on january 6th at the capitol and i think he would be happy to take this occasion if he could to rid the party of trump once and for all or at least to the extent possible. So, you know, youre going to see him try to walk this fine line and somehow keep their party together. Howell, there was a fever dream among democrats that people like the Lincoln Project and republicans against trump would have kind of a yalta conference, the modern day political equivalent of going through a dumpster behind a kfc and looking at the wreckage and the detritist of what used to be the Republican Party and maybe having a hand in assembling and drafting a new Republican Party. Clearly aint going to happen so what is the Republican Party thesis Going Forward . Whats its brand . Is it just a dissprart collection of views around a broken idea . Its a party in advanced decay and i think one of the things that we need to look to measure that is the polls tell us that at least 50 of the American People no longer believe in political reality as we have defined it in this country. That means if you address them, it would be like saying to someone who just told you i dont believe in algebra that we need to have a conversation about mathematics so i think that pathology has to play out as your previous guest suggested, maybe other conservatives, moderates, family members in their party can bring them back across this reality chasm but gene is right also to direct our eyes toward Mitch Mcconnell in this moment because that decay in the Republican Party is so illustrated in the senate. This is not the senate that once had republican lions like ebb dirksen and bob dole and john mccain. This is a senate of a paternity of ambitious brats like hawley and cruz and tom cotton, and that brings us back to mcconnell. Question rise to the level of statesmanship of a former kentucky senator who was a great advocate of bipartisanship, john sherman cooper, who worked with both jfk and lbj and in one of his terms as senator voted with the other party 50 of the time even though he was a republican . Does Mitch Mcconnell have the stump of statesmanship in him . I dont think so, frankly. I havent seen it yet, but if the party is going to reclaim Something Like its historic row, i think mcconnell is the man to watch. Because we are all of a certain age, ill accept your names and raise you three more. Howard baker, lowell weicker, mac mathias. I dont think we ever will see their like as long as were alive to draw a breath again. Its just not that party. Its not that country and, howell, to your point it sure isnt that senate. This is why we invited this these gentlemen tonight, because of this conversation though why the times never tried to hire robinson is beyond me. Howell raines, eugene robinson, Pulitzer Prize recipients all, thank you. The new and worrisome strain of coronavirus they tell us could be dominating here just weeks from now. S the time to do money without the Commission Fees and account minimums. So, you can start investing today, wherever you are even on the bus. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Why walgreens . With copays as low as 0. Walgreens makes affording your medicare prescriptions. No sweat. So you can get back to the thing youd rather be doing. In a year of changes. Dont take chances on your taxes. Be 100 certain with jackson hewitt. Well get your taxes done right, guaranteed. Dealdash. Com, the fair and honest bidding site. An ipad was sold for less than 24; a playstation for less than 16; and a 4k television for less than 2. Go to dealdash. Com right now and see how much you can save. Remember, shipping is always free. Cyber attacks are relentlessly advancing. To end them, cybereason built a Cyber Security solution so advanced. It can end attacks today on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. And deliver futureready protection, keeping you sharp for tomorrow. Join us, the defenders, in our mission. Cybereason. End cyber attacks. From endpoints to everywhere. If you watched the briefing then you know dr. Fauci today said the existing vaccines can fight the ability of the virus to mutate once the vaccines get out there and do their job. He also said the vaccine formulas can be tweaked along the way to react to these new strains so thats hopeful. Our Richard Engel lays out why these new strains are cause for so much concern. Reporter in london, covid deaths have risen to nearly twice last years peak, largely because of that new, more contagious strain of the virus 0 the cdc estimates could be dominant in the u. S. In march. Its not the only strain. A South African variant may have evolved to infect people more than once. This virus can spread a bit more efficiently from person to person. Reporter dr. Richard lesles discovered the South African variant. Were worried this variant may be able to escape some of the Natural Immunity thats by the virus. That means that its possible this variant is able to reinfect people. What about the vaccines we have now . Can they stop the South African variant . We dont know yet and thats really one of the critical questions were now addressing. Reporter while the data is still coming in a new Study Reports the South African variants ability to evade antibodies may make current vaccines less effective. Our thanks to Richard Engel for that report from london tonight. Coming up for us, the briefest reminder of where weve been to get to where we are tonight. Last thing before we go here tonight is about where weve been. Lets talk about what happened four years ago today. The comic initial appearance by sean spicer in the briefing room. A press secretary in the headlights in a now famous cheap suit. The first time we ever learned that trumps people were, in fact, willing to say whatever he wanted them to say. Then came trumps obscene appearance at cia headquarters bragging about crowd size in front of the wall that honors the dead. But, of course, there was Something Else that day, something historic. The womens march, the day humanity decided to push back. 500,000 peaceful people in washington, huge crowds in cities and towns across our country and around the world for that matter. And on that day, a song emerged, cowritten by a survivor of sexual abuse. It was rehearsed on skype across the country mostly among complete strangers, then shared with d. C. Area a cappella groups. They sang it when they all got together for the first time at the march. It had the added power of being starkly beautiful as we get to hear again tonight. I cant keep quiet no, no, i cant keep quiet no, no, no, oh, one more i cant keep quiet i cant keep quiet for anyone no, not anymore because no one knows me no one ever will if i dont Say Something take that hill they may see a monster they may run away but i have to do this i cant keep quiet no, oh, oh, oh i cant keep quiet no, oh, oh, oh a onewoman riot oh, i cant keep quiet let it out now how about that, the song is called quiet. The last four years have been anything but but fast forward to four years later. Joe biden inaugurated after his twiceimpeached predecessor fled town in disgrace. And just this moment from today, for example, the first woman Vice President swore in the first woman director of national intelligence, evidence of change that is the opposite of quiet. That is our broadcast on this thursday night with our thanks for being here with us. On behalf of all the men and women at the networks of nbc news, good night. Tonight on all in. Do you believe that president former President Trump provoked . I dont believe he provoked it if you listen to what he said at the rally. Republicans retreat from the truth as democrats take control of government. But will they use it . Tonight Mitch Mcconnells brazen move to seize power and the imperative for democrats to move quickly on impeachment, covid relief and more. Then, dr. Anthony fauci returns to the briefing room. Its interesting, im