hold on to ♪ ♪ to believe in this living is just a hard way to go ♪ >> our thoughts are with all those who are missing a loved one tonight. the news continues. let's hand it over to chris for "kcuomo primetime." >> what a year, what a year, my brother. so nothing is the same and nothing will be the same and we still don't know where we're going to wind up but the president was certainly pointing us in the right direction tonight. great coverage. i'm chris cuomo, excuse my voice. it's allergies and emotion. tonight marks one year since start of the pandemic, the deadliest year in the century. literally it started one year ago with the presidential address on our watch and now a year later, literally to the hour, a very different president with a very different message. the biggest anti-poverty measure in a generation. the law aims to lift 11 million americans out of poverty and cut child poverty in half, but president biden spent most of his first address to the nation not taking a victory lap but rallying us for the rest of the race to come. >> a year ago we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked, denials for days, weeks, then months that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness. we knew what we needed to do to beat this virus -- tell the truth, follow the scientists and the science, work together. my fervent prayer for our country is that after all we've been through, we'll come together as one people, one nation, one america. i believe we can and we will. biden also made a big announcement. he's going to tell all the states to open up vaccine appointments for all adults by may 1. and he were's the incentive for all of us. >> if we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by july the 4th there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your back yard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate independence day. that doesn't mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together after this long, hard year, that will make this independence day something truly special. >> celebrating independence day as a function of our co-dependence, of our interdependence. we have to rely on each other to get to that better play. the president said he has put government to work to ensure on may 1 there will be enough vaccine for of adult in the country. we have a team member from his covid effort who is going to tell us how that will happen and how big a challenge it is exactly, but the president also took on something just as dangerous as the pandemic in his address, the disease of division. biden tried to lift our spirits with a medicinal message about recovering our sense of collective cause, that we, the people, are the answer for one another. certainly it was healing in a way that the bloviating and blame that started us on this poison path a year ago tonight never was. >> this is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time. i will never hesitate to take any necessary steps to protect the lives, health and safety of the american people. the virus will not have a chance against us. no nation is more prepared or more resilient than the united states. >> and no nation was more put at a disadvantage by leadership than america. trump did hesitate. he intentionally refused to take necessary steps. he lied about the reality. he left states to largely figure it out for themselves at critical points. he called himself a wartime president and then all about fled the battlefield. even now trump refuses to be part of the solution. even when it means just telling people to take the vaccine that he pushed for. he is the only former living president who didn't take part in a new psa of former presidents and first ladies to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. he's still denying the reality of what we need from a leader even a year later. now when we were here at the beginning, i was a totally different person. it felt like our future was landing on our laps that night. >> we're waiting on the president of the united states right now, finally coming to address the nation, here he is. tom hanks just tweeted he and his wife, rita, are in australia, okay? they don't feel great, they got tested, they have coronavirus. we're just getting details on this huge breaking news from the sports world. the nba is going to suspend all games until further notice. at the time those occurrences, those events seemed unthinkable. little did we know how much worse it would become. for two minutes with that guy to tell him what was coming his way. again, yes, because of the virus but almost as toxic was the denial that we allowed to fester and the division that stripped us of our greatest strength, our interconnectedness and sense of common concern. instead we started down a path of us versus them that certainly took us backward in the fight against the virus but also took our democracy to the brink of ruin. imagine what it means that the right offered not a single vote to help their own constituents in this landmark legislation. it was notable president biden did not call out the right side of the aisle in his address tonight but i have to because they're now doubling down in a way that threatens everything that matters in our democracy. it is most frightening to think that the biggest challenge for biden and for all of us may not be what we've been through but what we're about to go through. the same opposers are harnessing trump's ugliest instincts when we are at our weakest and they are trying to take us back to the days of jim crow. 43 states trying to make it harder for people to vote, especially minorities. they seem to think the way to win in the future is to rig the election so that people can't beat them again. they want to win in the future by taking us to the past and that can't be america's destiny. the question is how to stop it. hr-1 is the only single step to stop it and it is not clear whether democrats will be able to get it passed. that's where we begin tonight with our better minds, the two davids, gregory and axelrod. david gregory was actually with me last year on that very historic night. david, could you have ever imagined what the year would bring when we started there thinking, wow, this is huge, the nba is not going to play. >> yeah. i mean, it touched popular culture in a way that night where all these things came together. the sports world, you know, a figure like tom hanks and rita wilson, people who are so recognizable started to bring it home. and then looking at a president who was facing down something that was so difficult, he didn't realize that he seemed in over his head that night and obviously in the days and months to come. this has been quite a year. but it's at least redeeming tonight that we have a different future that we can start to see the end of this. >> impact david axelrod, of the speech by president biden. >> you want to speak about the ordeal we've been through and honor of sense of pain and loss that people feel and still be optimistic about the future. you want to signify the progress that has been made without rolling up the mission accomplished banner, which is inappropriate at this moment. i give biden an "a" for his leadership on this virus. we're in a much better place than we were 50 days ago when we took office. i think the speech was probably a b. he tried to do too much, i think it was a bit grip at points. i think he didn't take enough credit. you can overreact to drath. -- donald trump. we are in a better place because the bill he passed was historic and will mean immediate help for people and will also accelerate the vaccine process and, therefore, there is hope today for people. and i would have leaned more into the hope than he did. i know he place as premium on empathy, and he is genuine and very effective at that, but i would have look at a more muscular speech tonight. up you know, the bottom line is not the speech but the actions that he's taken and the actions he's taken have been very, very pos positive. >> david? >> yeah, a couple of points on that. i think empathy is great and i think the president wears the presidency so well, especially at a moment like this. so just great credit to president biden in that regard. i frankly think he's got more salesmanship to do around this $1.9 trillion package. it's going to help a lot of people and there's certainly a lot of need but there's also a lot of questions and it's a big target. you can talk about republicans not being on board. david axelrod knows about that from the obama administration with much of the administration deciding they were going to oppose. but republicans as a political matter have gone back to something they're happy to be able to do with trump out of the picture, which is take on democrats for being captive to the left. this is a big target. we don't know how all of this is going to play out and i think biden's got more work to do to explain why each and every element of this is so necessary, point one. point two, i think he should have been more muscular on getting the schools reopened through high school and acknowledging the science that's there that tells us that it's safe to do so. a lot of parents are waiting for that message tonight. >> the guy who's going to follow you guys, andy slafvitt, does nt agree with what you said about the science being there to open schools right away. >> i'm listening to the cdc and that's what they say. >> they do. i'll let him answer the question but i got to tell you, i don't think it's going to be as simple as that. go ahead, ax. >> i think david is completely right about the salesmanship and it's very clear and the president said it unequivocally in his speech, they're going to spend the next few weeks really, really selling this plan and making people understand what is in it and what is about to happen because of the plan. and i think that's very wise, you know. he lived through 2009, he understands the importance of this, that people really understand. and unlike 2009, the relief that people are going to get is going to be immediate and obvious. they're going to get checks. they're going to get cash in their pocket and so he should go out and tout that and all the other aspects of this plan. so i understand why he didn't load up the speech on that tonight but he should take a bow for that. donald trump is a great marketer but he doesn't have much to market. joe biden has something to market here and the country needs to hear it and feel better about the future. in the cnn poll today, it's clear people are more optimistic now than they've been in some time in the end challenge. >> that's the challenge. you have 70% of americans who believe the worst is behind us. that is good but risky if they don't keep doing the things. one quick beat before i go to break. david gregory, i said at the top i think it's an existential cause they're about to have. the pandemic is bad. this spate of laws going across this country is something i would never have expected to see in my lifetime. this is a jim crow move by the right, plain and simple. and the only chance that there is to stop it in a single stroke, you can litigate your way out it of it but it could t years, is hr-1. do you have think the democrats can pass it in. >> i don't know if they can. everybody who wants to vote in this country should be able to vote. that makes common sense. but republicans are able to muddy this by in some cases legitimate questions about making sure elections are secure, issues around provisional balloting. these are fair questions. what are unfair questions is when you have litigants like from arizona say this is a zero sum game, we have to keep our advantage by making sure certain people can't vote. that's not a way to run a democracy. >> i know you have to run, chris, but the biggest fraud we've seen is the depiction of the last election as fraudulent and now they're using this depiction of the last election to rig the next one. >> right. all i want them to do is so me in these 253 laws is make it safer. they abridge periods and abridge access. you make it safer with more checks and safeguards. that's not what this is about. i never thought i'd see anything like this in my lifetime. pandemic, yes. not this. we heard the president's speech. now we'll go inside the strategy hob on how to get this done by may 1. how will that work? 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>> a heck of a lot of work has gone on in the last couple months. so the president to be in the position that he is tonight to make that commitment to the public after 50 days is i think quite extraordinary. but i think if you listen to the what the president said, he started to describe to americans what the end game could look like. but he did say we all have to do our part and pull together. you made an important point that if people get too complacent and feel like this means it's all over, then we won't get there. so sometimes the hardest part of the journey is the part in which you have to keep your patience at the end. i think the president is imploring us that if we do that, we have the resources to do what he says. >> conditional, i'll give it to you. what is the chance on may 1st i have you on and the vaccine is there and people can get in line. what do you think it is, 50/50? >> we're not in the habit of overpromising. i think this direction to the states is done with full knowledge that we will have the resources. a lot of modelling going on and a lot of work still to go on to make that happen, but we're quite confident the president's direction is going to be followed. it doesn't mean may 1st everyone can get the shot in their arm but on may 1st, you shouldable abl -- shouldin be able to get a t in your arm. what worries me is not everybody wants a shot. >> good. there's a casualness to it that they're not in as big a rush because things are going to open up anyway, and getting the vaccine is a pain in the hiney and they don't know they want to do it. and are you guys giving them enough incentive do it? the cdc guidelines are too conservative. what about the idea of a vaccine passport, you get the vaccine, you can do this thing, can you do more than people who don't have it. why no incentivize people to ant -- want to do something that increasingly they ewon't want t do? >> you are one step ahead because i think you're talking about the kind of things that are very much on their minds. before people get vaccinated, most of the talk is when can i get my vaccine? after they want to forget it and move on. three quarters of adults still haven't been vaccinated. i hope that the quarter of us that have been vaccinated will still remember there are a lot of people out there that are not yet as safe as we are. that bringing together that feeling for one another, that spirit of this country, that's what the president is trying to call on tonight. if we fail on that, we could still face setbacks. >> no, i got you but what i'm saying is you want me to get the vaccine, okay? listen, they're going to open up things anyway. but you should have it, you'll be safe. yeah, but it's a pain in the ass to get. >> but you'll be able to get it. well, what can i do? cdc guidelines won't let me travel. with my vaccine it should be almost fool proof. why not incentivize people, be a l little am bushesbitious as we'v with everything else. i can go back to work, i can go travel. >> it's an interesting conversation. i think the president is really playing it straight. i don't think he's trying to manipulate the public. people with their thoughts on vaccines -- the people who are on the fence don't want to feel manipulated. they don'