after six women of asian descent were among eight people killed in a rampage at three spas in the atlanta area. joining me now nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett in atlanta, nbc news correspondent dr. john torres and heidi presblea. tell us more about the visit to the cdc and the vice president and president s visit meeting with asian-american leaders this hour. the visit to the cdc officials told us that was the president and vice president s opportunity to get a briefing from their medical and health teams about this ongoing fight against the pandemic. but based on what we saw from the president in his own words that was his opportunity to thank the scientists, to thank those career staffers who have been working around the clock at the cdc. he said science is back. he thanked those career staffers he said for changing the psyche of a nation. since then the president has made the short trip from the cdc over to emery university where he s meeting privately w
murder and shootings at three massage spas in and around the city. of the eight killed, six victims were of asian descent. it s hard to ignore, who was targeted, or overlook the fact that this did not happen in a vacuum. it happened, as three new reports explain, each, from its own angle. at a dangerous moment for this country in a climate more conducive than it s been in generations for homegrown acts of violent hatred. yet, as we will talk about tonight, not everyone wants to con frontd the problem or even admit it. some people want to look away, to not see the mass killings in el paso and pittsburgh. and the white supremacist, conspiracy-driven mindset culminating in the capitol insurrection, is all being cut from the same, ugly cloth. today, in his first congressional testimony since being confirmed, dhs secretary, alejandro mayorkas made the threat clear. right now, at this point in time, domestic-violent extremism. the lone wolf. the loose affiliation of individuals f
in washington today the arrest of a 31-year-old texas man outside the naval observatory of the official residence of vice president harris. a rifle ask ammunition were recovered from his vehicle. he has been charged with several accounts. among them carrying possession of unregistered munition and large munition fueling device. the secret service says the secret service operators detained him. vice president harris wasn t there and a bulletin originated in the state of texas. the news continues right now. we ll hand it over to chris cuomo for prime time. i appreciate it, there is no question there has been a surge in violence and hate against asian americans. anti-asian crimes surged by nearly 150% in 2020. and we know the increase spiked there ut the pandemic and we know just yesterday trump went on hate tv and spewed his anti-asian hateful covid slur. and he did it again to deflect blame for the virus he chose to spread across our country. here s what we don t know. we
county official with a post erased in which he shared a t-shirt blaming china for the coronavirus saying the suspects in the shooting just had a bad day. he does claim it was not racially motivated. i spoke with investigators that, yes, he understood the gravity of it and was pretty much fed up, at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. this was a really bad day for the victims too. today, celebrities are speaking out. testifying on capitol hill after speaking to nbc. this man targeted places where asian-americans were working. you don t have to peal the layers back far. i ll speak to activist coming up and with president biden and vice president harris. the president has addressed the shootings on wednesday. i know americans are very concerned. as you know, i ve been speaking about brutality against asian-americans for months and i thinks it very, very trouble some. joining me now from atlanta, nbc news correspon
authorities say they are not ruling out that this was possibly a hate crime. president biden has ordered all federal flags to be flown at half staff in honor of the victims, and he will head to georgia tomorrow. and as the president said, as vice president harris said, as atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms said, whatever the motivation here, the fact is attacks on asian americans are on the rise. people are rightfully scared and we need to do more to combat that bigotry and violence and stand together. to that point, today in congress a house committee held its first hearing on the rise of anti-asian discrimination in more than 30 years. but things quickly took a turn when republican congressman chip roy of texas first said that all americans deserve protection and to live in a free and secure society. then he said some more things, and i want to warn you, some of this language is offensive. we re only going to play it once, and we re going to play it once because it not