atlanta area spas late yesterday. 21-year-old robert long has been charged with eight counts of murder, will make his first court appearance tomorrow. police say the gunman told them he was not motivated by race, but they of course have not ruled that out. we ve received a number of calls about is this a hate crime. we are still early in this investigation. so we cannot make that determination at this moment. the shootings come amid an alarming escalation of crimes against asians in this country. and yes, it coincides with ugly rhetoric from former president trump and others linking the coronavirus and china as the pandemic worsened across our country. one group tracking anti-asian hate say they ve received some reports of 3,800 incidents with over two thirds of the attacks reported by women. today the vice president, president, atlanta s mayor all condemned such crimes. whatever the motivation here i know that asian-americans are very concerned. we ve been speaking abo
and yes, it coincides with ugly rhetoric from former president trump and others linking the coronavirus and china as the pandemic worsened across our country. one group tracking anti-asian hate say they ve received some reports of 3,800 incidents with over two thirds of the attacks reported by women. today the vice president, president, atlanta s mayor all condemned such crimes. whatever the motivation here i know that asian-americans are very concerned. we ve been speaking about the brutality against asian-americans for the last couple of months and i think it is very, very troubling. i do want to say to our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged. this is an issue that s happening across the country. it is unacceptable. it is hateful, and it has to stop. just today the director of national intelligence, the dni, released a new report about extremist violence compiled with the help of the justice
he told police he was motivated by a sex addiction. neither the county sheriff, police chief or mayor would rule out classify the killings as hate crime. this is a man who murdered eight people in cold blood so it s very difficult to believe what he said. it s difficult to ignore the fact many of the victims were asian. in georgia, you can be charged with a hate crime. it covers a variety of areas and i personally think it would be appropriate but i will defer to the prosecutors to make that determination. all of this comes against a backdrop of growing attacks and harassment against asians and asian americans, particularly in the wake of the covid pandemic. the house judiciary committee will dig deeper into that with a hearing starting less than one hour from now. we re going to get more on that in a minute. but i want to go first to kathy park live in atlanta and tom winter, also with us. kathy, let s start with this arraignment. it was supposed to be today. why is it s
more charges, including possibly hate crimes. we are watching that we are also watching on the hill senators getting their chance to question dr. fauci and other top health officials who are warning of another potential spike in covid cases. it really is going to be a race between the vaccine and the potential new reporting from the white house, president bind could meet his goal of 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days as soon as today. plus, we are live on the border with details about a dispute with mexico, when it comes to dealing with the surge there, we will hear from house speaker nancy pelosi as well as latino lawmakers in about 30 minutes or so ahead of some key votes today on immigration reform. we will have an exclusive interview right here, my virtual sitdown with top women on the white house, with news on the relief law, how to make sure moms aren t left behind and what to do about the senate filibuster. kate, be clear, how far is the president willin
congresswoman told my colleague stephanie ruhle what happened in atlanta is a day that we saw coming. two senior administration officials are telling nbc news president biden and vice president harris will be meeting with asian american community leaders when they visit atlanta, georgia, tomorrow. in washington, the house just did something we don t see very often when it comes to major legislation. it passed a bill with pretty broad bipartisan support. we are talking about the violence against women act that expired two years ago. one of the bill s most vocal supporters, congresswoman debby dingell will share her experience with domestic violence right before that vote and she s going to join me ahead to talk about it. we got a big headline from the biden administration. according to a senior administration official, the president is set to meet his goal of 100 million shots in arms in his first 100 days and he is set do it as early as today. more than 40 days early. w