taped interview. the president discussing another giant news story, the investigation into former president trump's confidant rudy giuliani. >> i learned about that last night when the rest of the world learned about it, my word. i had no idea this was under way. this last administration politicized the justice department so badly, so many of them quit, so many left because that's not the role of a president to say who should be prosecuted, when they should be prosecuted, who should be not prosecuted. >> more on that story ahead. but first, the president's traveling sales pitch tees up a fascinating and consequential question, can a president whose party just barely controls congress win public support and the votes for a multitrillion dollar plan that gives family and the economy long overdue help and expands the role of government in challenging preschool for 3-year-olds and finding care for an aging parent. in a speech last night the president cast this as critical, he says reinvigorating america's place on the world stage. the president says america is again on the move. this morning a key data point backs him, you might say, in a big way. the economy grew 6.4% annual rate in the first three months of 2021. that beat expectations and it signals the economy is roaring back after a year plus of pandemic disruptions. republicans argue the growth proves the economy does not need all this new spending and that it might stall if the president raises taxes on the rich and on corporations. yes, the president did ask for bipartisan help during his address but he is not blind to washington's polarization, and he knows the political climate. and he knows many of his proposals are simply en simply gop. they need strict discipline from the democratic party. let's join kaitlan collins in georgia where the president holds a rally tonight, and he's meeting with former president jimmy carter. >> reporter: he did not attend president biden's inauguration because of the pandemic. the president is making a stop in southern georgia, plains, georgia, of course, where the carters reside, and they have since been vaccinated with the coronavirus vaccine. we're told they've started going back to church, started resuming normal life activities. you are going to see president biden stop by there first to greet him. of course this is something else that's a return to normal from what we did not see during the trump presidency, this interaction with the other living presidents. to talk to them and get their counsel. this has been something you've seen president biden pursue during his time in office. then he's coming to atlanta for this strive it rally, it's been rescheduled. he's touting the infrastructure plan and also the american families plan that he unveiled last night. and, of course, those are these big transformational packages that also have another "t," trillion attached to their. that is something he's trying to sell here after doing so last night in washington, unveiling that package. as you were saying, not just trying to sell it to republicans in the room but even those moderate democrats, people like senator joe manchin who says these proposals the president is putting out, they are going to have a lot of scrutiny throughout congress before you see them getting anywhere, gaining any traction and that's what president biden said last night. he said he wanted to introduce them before they got deep into the details so they can have those negotiations with lawmakers. but the other part that you're going to see them embarking on this week and next is selling it to the american people. because that was something they relied on when they talked about their covid relief bill when it did not get any republican support. they said it had a lot of republican support throughout the country so, of course, john, he is coming back here and another note about georgia, it is also the place that delivered him that small margin that he has in the senate. >> critical battleground state, interesting for the president to make this case, first on the road, kaitlan collins, grateful for the live reporting. now let's discuss his plan, joining me to share insights, dana bash and the chief correspondent at the "washington post" dan paul. dan, starting with you, there's a lot of talk in washington, the president has said i want to work with everybody but it's hard to have bipartisan when a lot of what you propose is outside of gop norms. the president was making the case last night in his speech, he said i'm going to raise taxes but only on the rich. don't believe republicans when they say i'm raising everybody's taxes. by the way, it's hard to have bipartisanship when the president of the united states looks republicans in the eyes and says the way you do economics is wrong. >> 650 people increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion during this pandemic. and they're now worth more than $4 trillion. my fellow americans, trickle down, trickle down economics has never worked. it's time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out. [ applause ] >> i'm right, you're wrong is what he was saying to republicans there. >> i'm right, you're wrong, and i'm going to transform the way that the leadership starting at the white house in particular has approached government since ronald reagan, since trickle down economics became a thing during reagan. and that notion of smaller government, trickle down economics being part of it, but particularly shrinking the government was what lured a generation of republican leaders, many of whom he has worked with, some of whom were democrats before, he is telling them that that is not what the american people want anymore. and by the way, it's not just republicans. bill clinton said the era of big government is over and it's not as if president obama was aggressively trying to expand the government. aca aside, i mean, obamacare is an exception to what i just said. but what joe biden is banking on in his democratic colleagues in congress is the fact that covid showed people you need government. you need government, in some sectors of your life, the private sector doesn't always work for you and he's trying to go big on that and transform the government in a way that we haven't seen in decades. >> dana says big, dan ball, bigger than in decades. you're right about that this morning. i want to read that, but first, the president looking the american people in the eye and saying i want a giant plan. it's a lot of money. he likes to use the word "jobs". >> american jobs will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come. it is an eight-year program. these are good paying jobs that can't be outsourced. nearly 90% of the infrastructure jobs created in american jobs plan do not require a college degree. 75% don't require an associate's degree. >> dan, this is how you cast this in the post today, his speech was a reflection of his presidency to date, an appeal for big and bold action, described in the most work a day rhetoric, by a leader whose demeanor and temperament are the opposite of his predecessor, former president donald trump. you go on to say biden is attempting transformative change on a base smaller by far than any of those previous presidents enjoyed, which is what makes the political gamble so big. that's the fascinating question. but back to how the president sells it, bernie sanders used to talk about a political revolution, joe biden says i'm going to give you a job, guy. >> yeah, it's so interesting, john, the way he has approached this. there was nothing in that speech last night that suggested that he wanted to talk about this in grand philosophical terms or in speaking of revolution or transformative change. he simply wanted to talk about the steps that he is initiating and proposing, and many of those as we know enjoy some support, probably majority support, but he's not trying to wrap it up with a big bow and to try to say i'm here to reverse the reagan revolution. though, in fact, that would be the impact if he's able to do that. but you know as you note and as i wrote today he's trying to do this with the narrowest majorities imaginable, and that's why this is such a big test and a big gamble for him and for the democrats. >> big test and big gamble. look, the president hopes this helps his party in the short term. an interesting part of his pitch was trying to appeal to american patriotism, appealing to republicans, although they're not going to like the details here. look, this is important at home but we need to do these investments, the word is watching a competition between democracies like ours and the president went out of his way several times to say this is a race, this is a fight with china. >> we can't be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century. secretary blinken can tell you i spent a lot of time with president xi. he's deadly earnest. on becoming the most significant consequential nation in the world. he and others. autocrats. think that democracy can't compete in the 21st century with autocracies. it takes too long to get consensus. >> dan, to you first, what did you make of that, the president casting all this as part of a very important domestic competition, but almost more impor importantly as a global fight. >> i think he's right on that. i mean, in the grand scheme of things, that we are in a moment in history in which there is competition between two forms of government, you know, autocracies and democracies. early on when he was a candidate, as you recall, he was criticized for seeming to be too dismissive of the challenge from china. it's clear as president about that competition and his willingness to lean into it. what we've seen so far in his presidency is that there is a clear focus on asia and china in ways that did not happen in either -- certainly in the obama administration, and so last night he wanted -- pure domestic politics of his fight, which is impossible to elevate out of, but nonetheless to cast it in a broader way that might make it more appealing to people who have some specific issues about the size of what he's trying to do. >> and i think, dana, to close the conversation, dan makes an interesting point, leaning into china, will there be a constant refrain? his former boss president obama mocked mitt romney when he said china was the largest geopolitical challenger, mitt romney was right. >> no question. it's very clear that is authentically joe biden, that he's truly concerned about china, and how important it is to, you know, combat china. if you look at it, and look at history, i mean, you know, we talk about moon shot for cancer zone and so forth, it's not dissimilar to what president kennedy did with regard to russia, you know, we've got to harness the abilities and capabilities of america, get together to do it in order to achieve a goal. then it was going to the moon. now it's staying on top economically, and preserving democracy. >> dana bash, dan balz, grateful for your reporting. big lies from donald trump and big legal troubles for his confidant rudy giuliani. a display of bipartisanship in the house chamber last night, a fist bump between the president and republican liz cheney. among my patients i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity and gum gives us a dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. well, well, well. look at you. you mastered the master bath. you created your own style. and you - yes, you! turned a sourdough starter. into a sourdough finisher. so when you learn your chronic dry eye is actually caused by reduced tear production due to inflammation ...you take it on by talking to your eyecare professional about restasis®... ...which may help you make more of your own 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is in deep legal trouble. the feds yesterday searching search warrants on his new york apartment and his office, that raid because of giuliani's stature likely required approval from way up. last hour president biden says he knew nothing about it. >> i give you my word, i was not. i made a pledge. i would not interfere in any way, order or try to stop any investigation the justice department had in our way. i learned about that last night when the rest of the world learned about it. my word. i had no idea this was under way. >> dana bash is still with us, and we're joined by evan perez. starting with you, you hear right there, president biden said this when he took office, i'm not getting involved in the justice department. that stuff happened in the trump days, i'm done with it. there is zero indication he knew about this, he learned about it, just like us, a walk through the process at doj for how this happened. >> well, yeah, john, look, this is something that's been in the offing, i think the president, the current president might have learned when we reported back in february, my colleague and i reported that this request for -- to do a raid on rudy giuliani had first surfaced here in this building back last year, and in the closing months of the previous administration. jeffrey rosen at the time. there are a number of reasons why they didn't approve it but it went to the deputy attorney general level and one of the reasons was, you know, there was an election, then there was the post-election litigation in which rudy was running around trying to play a role in. that made it difficult for the department. and also, they had some qualms about the evidence. in the end this came back to the current leadership, and it was approved. it went, as you said, it has to go up to the deputy attorney general's office in this case. it would have been approved or at least, you know, they would have to send it to the office of the deputy attorney general. that would have been john karlen at the time or lisa monaco would have had a chance to stop it or let it go through. in this case they let it go through. what the president is describing is exactly the way is justice department is supposed to work, which is, you know, the president doesn't get told about things, especially something that has like a political tinge on it. there's a political element to it, and they're very careful about that. >> what the president is describing, dana bash, is normal, as evan just said. oh, it's normal. but that's part of the biden appeal, after four years of chaos. >> absolutely. it is not normal, was not normal for president trump to get as involved as he did with investigations, basically of himself, you know, not directly, but people in and around him. and that was, that was a big campaign promise that now president made to not get involved and make clear that the attorney general, and people at the justice department represent the american people, and not him. >> evan, do we have any sense? if you're going to serve search warrants on somebody of rudy giuliani's stature, it's a big deal. does it tell us anything, or does our reporting tell us anything about where they are in the process of an investigation as in how close to a decision point? >> i think we're some months away, john, i think one of the things that we know is that they've had a lot of rudy giuliani's communications -- this has been going on now for about two years, it began under the trump administration, doj. they've had a ton of his communications already. so they know a lot of what they were looking for, and, you know, so long as nobody in rudy giuliani's world took bleach bit to the hard drives of any computers or devices, you know, i think, you know, the doj knows what they're looking for, and, you know, there should be -- you know, they can wrap this up fairly quickly, but, you know, one of the things we know is that his assistant was -- she received a subpoena to appear before the grand jury next month, john, and so we expect that this is going to go on for a few months before a decision is made of whether charges are brought. >> dana bash, closing on this part, it's an incredibly important legal investigation but also ripples into politics. last night, the republican response was, joe biden is a big spender, you need to trust republicans to keep the government running amuck. on a day warrants are served on rudy giuliani and when the former president of the united states, tim scott is saying trust republicans, the former president of the united states comes out and says this, i'm not going anywhere and i'm going to keep lying. >> are you thinking about running again, mr. president, in 2024? >> yes, 100%. and the polls show it, and everybody wants me to do it. 100%, i'm thinking about running. and we will -- i think, be a very successful. we were very successful at 10:30 in the evening everyone thought the election was over. and that we had won. all of a sudden late into the night they closed up the tabulation centers, and they came out with new numbers. this election is a disgrace to our country and the whole world knows it and they're watching. >> what the whole world knows, with the exception of a small group of people, i'll just leave it at that, is that that's a lie. that's a lie. they kept counting votes. the world knows we had an election that has now been audited and looked at and looked at and in arizona they're still looking at it, that he lost. he lost. how can the republican party say trust us, when he's their leader? >> that's a great question. not only is it that he's their leader, it's that you have members of the leadership, either ignoring those lies, sidestepping those lies, or co-signing those lies. that is the problem, that is the reason why liz cheney go out and is unabashed in her opposition to the notion of trump 2024. and to the notion of the 2020 election not being anything other than free and fair, and just optics wise, why you -- she made sure to walk towards the aisle in that clip you showed earlier, and fist bump president biden, not necessarily because she -- you know, she supports president biden, but because she supports the office, and the election that got him there. >> she supports integrity of institutions. >> exactly. >> and truth. the facts -- as i like to say, math, dana bash, evan perez, grateful for your time. president biden's wish list is long and costly. democrats in congress now need the votes to pass it. i'm still exploring what's next. and still going for my best. even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm reaching for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? i'm on board. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor 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(clap, clap) yum yum (clap) yum yum ♪ (text chime) (text chime) (text chime) (sighs) (text chime) (chuckles) (text chime) it's the biggest week in television. watchathon week is your chance to finally watch shows you missed for free. now you get to talk about them with your friends, no matter what time it is. say "watchathon" into your voice remote and watch for free this important news in to cnn, the beginning of the end for america's longest war. officials say withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan is under way. let's get to barbara starr for the details. >> reporter: u.s. officials are now confirming this, it is a small number of troops to begin with, perhaps less than 100, focusing on contractors, on civilian employees. but officially, yes, the withdrawal of u.s. forces from afghanistan now under way. they have to get a total of about 2,500 u.s. troops that are openly acknowledged to be in afghanistan, get them out. but there are also several hundred additional special operations forces that the military doesn't openly talk about, they, too, will come out. under president biden's orders, the withdrawal was to begin no later than may 1st which is, of course, saturday. the big concern now is to get this done safely for all u.s. forces, all u.s. personnel. there is a good deal of concern that the taliban could decide to strike, starting on may 1st, because that was the agreement, the trump administration had, everybody would be out by may 1st, and certainly now they will not be. so the military has assembled a pretty significant force, about 650 additional troops are going in, mainly army rangers, they will be on the ground to cover the withdrawal. there will also be artillery and rocket systems to be able to target the taliban, at greater distances so they don't get near u.s. troops if they decide to cause trouble they will be on the ground. an aircraft carrier will be in the arabian gulf to conduct air strikes if needed and even b-52 bombers will be in the gulf region. all of this, to really try and, you know, get the taliban to not attack u.s. forces on the way out. the u.s. is very adamant, this package will be available, they will be able to deal with the taliban but, look, they sure hope all of this goes safely, and smoothly. john? >> as do we at this important moment, barbara starr, grateful you're keeping an eye on it for us and we'll keep in touch over the next weeks and months. if you heard the president last night you heard an ambitious wish list. do the democrats have the votes to pass it? with a cfp® professional. a cfp® professional can help you build a complete financial plan. visit letsmakeaplan.org to find your cfp® professional. ♪ (man) eye contact. elbow pump. visit letvery nice, andrew. to find your very nice.ssional. good job. next, apparently carvana doesn't have any "bogus" fees. bogus?! now we work hard for those fees. no hundred-dollar fuel fee? pumping gas makes me woozy. thank you. no $600 doc fee? ugh, 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what's a long list. you've got a handful of votes to spare in the house. a lot of that is hard and controversial. what's realistic here. >> good to be with you, john, look, i think, that this congress, the 117th, will be looked at as one of the most historically productive in the modern history of our country. we have been busy and there are a number of competing priorities but the house and senate has worked hard to get as many of these priorities accomplished and across the finish line as we can. the president, as you've said, outlined a series of ambitious proposals last night to the joint session of congress, some more difficult than others to achieve. but at the end of the day, there's not a single proposal that he mentioned last night that isn't incredibly popular with the american people, broadly supported by most americans across the political spectrum. we feel confident we will be able to get done the once in a generation investments, for example, that the president has called for in early childhood education and health care and child care and so much more. >> i hope you'll come back in a few months and we'll put up the list, proposals passed by the house, proposals sitting in the senate, and we'll go through the dynamics of the moment but there does seem to be a movement, i don't believe it until i see it in this town and i think you share that view, but i want you to listen to the speaker, just moments ago, there's a police reform, the george floyd justice and policing act has passed the house, there are negotiations to try to compromise in the senate, the speaker sounds quite optimistic, listen. >> do you think that's a realistic deadline, can that be done? >> yes, i think so. i'm very proud of karen bass who has authored the bill in the house. now working in a bipartisan way in the house and in the senate with senator tim scott. >> "a," do you share that optimism, and "b," do you know anything about where they are in the specific language of the big hangups, qualified immunity? >> i do fare her optimism, john, and of course it couldn't be more important for us to ultimately get this done. i think that presidents call to action yesterday in a joins session of congress was important in terms of motivating folks in congress to get this done. i have had many conversations with chairwoman bass, with senator scott and booker as well, as well as with a number of other house republicans who are part of the negotiations that are now taking place. and those conversations, i will tell you, have been fruitful, they have been in good faith, i think every member is trying to solve this problem in a thoughtful way. i suspect that ultimately we will reach a compromised measure and that that will be something we're able to take up in may. in terms of how we resolve the qualified immunity issue and the various different proposals that have been suggested, one proposal i have emphasized to my colleagues privately and publicly is the colorado model, which was adopted successfully on a bipartisan basis in our state last year. that is -- offers a potential route in terms of getting this done, but look, at the end of the day, i know chairwoman bass, she's an incredible, thoughtful leader with the tenacity and the commitment to get this done. i believe that ultimately we will get a reform bill to the president's desk. >> a lot of praise for the president's speech from democrats last night but a couple of testing points. one is about the border. the president said he wants to bass the daca legislation, help the dreamers, pass the path for citizenship. but he did not talk much about the current crisis, a lot of children, minor children coming across the border. senator mark kelly, your democratic colleague in the senate from arizona told cnn's manu raju i didn't hearing anything on a crisis at the southern border, an important issue in the state of arizona, does the president need to say more and do more when it comes to that? >> well, i certainly respect my colleague senator kelly's view. i would say, john, i think the president when he referenced comprehensive immigration reform, was talking about both the border and the need to address the archaic immigration laws we have on the books in the united states. i think his call to action to the congress is to step forward and offer the political will or rather show the political will to get it done. you know, you've covered these issues for so long, you remember the compromise in 2013, and going back to 2006, the general contours of comprehensive immigration reform with respect to both border security and a pathway to citizenship for dreamers and addressing our refugee laws and so forth, those contours are fairly well established and broadly supported by the american public, by the way. the problem is that we've lacked any real political will in washington to git done. so i think that's why the president said what he did. i suspect he'll have more to say about the various issues on our southern border in the coming days and months ahead. >> you're right, i've been here a while, 30 plus years, what you get on immigration is a lot of talk and a lot of promises. very little action. congressman, grateful for your time. appreciate your time today. >> thank you, john. up next for us, one reason for vaccine hesitancy is vaccine misinformation. ♪ ♪ i had the nightmare again, maxine. the one with the lollipop— no, the other one. where the children go to the candy store, but it's out of wonka bars... it's ok, wonka. there are proactive ways to help keep customers supplied and happy. they're called digital workflows. they've made us more productive. and reduce risk. in fact, and i don't want to sugar coat this... whyever not? 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>> no, it's a lot of everything. so i think it's important to realize that hesitancy isn't just one thing. a lot of it, our attitudes about vaccination are shaped by the people around us, who our social group is, what media we're consuming, what social media communities we're in and it's about our prior experiences with vaccines, how we feel about the flu shot. there are different things caught up in shaping people's attitudes that are potentially contributing to hesitancy. >> and we see a lot of it, from the right, people who don't trust dr. fauci, who don't trust government and vaccines, but i saw in your work that that's only a piece of it, you see in political conversations what we would call the left. >> again, depending on what kind of communities you're part of, there are communities on the left that traditionally, in the context of childhood immunizations, have been anti-vaccine or vaccine hesitant. two different things. one of the areas in which we see this taking shape on the left, if you want to use that term, is in women's communities, for example, there's a lot of women who were concerned about things like their fertility, in a relatively unknown vaccine. so it is not so much that they are concerned about the -- what political influences you're seeing, as what they're seeing from the people that they follow on instagram, the wellness influencers that they engage with, what those people are saying has a little bit more of a direct impact on how they're thinking about the vaccine than something like who feels a little more removed like a president or politician. >> and how big of a problem is just an average american who has a question, that's legitimate, goes online to search for an answer, how much of what they see is reliable, science based and how much of it is not? >> that's really the challenge that's been plaguing us throughout covid-19, which is that there are certain things we just don't know. so it's a little bit different than childhood immunizations, where there's just a plethora of evidence documenting how safe they actually are. it doesn't necessarily when people don't feel hesitant when they're vaccinating their children. but when people are searching for information, reputable up to date information is out there. we see with covid, people just don't know. one of the dynamics as you alluded to in the opening, people looking to understand why the j&j vaccine was halted, for example, depending on what communities they're participating in, or where they're getting their information from, they're going to see very, very different messaging about that j&j halt. a lot of the news media did a great job covering just the facts, there were six instances of a rare but severe side effect, and that led to cdc and fda halting the shot temporarily out of an abundance of caution and the cdc's meeting last week, they chose to restart the process. if you were getting your news or following media influencers like, for example, tucker carlson, what you would have heard was a whole lot of just asking questions, why are they doing this? insinuating a nefarious motive or insinuating that perhaps there are way more than six, to taking a conspiratorial tone to conveying the story. again, if you're participating in one media ecosystem or one social media ecosystem you might be getting reliable information, and if you're participating in another, you might be getting highly politicized, or conspiracy theoryist information designed to keep you afraid or keep you outraged. that's really the challenge with a very kind of broadened environment we have today where people are actually getting the most reputable information possible. >> that's why we're grateful for your work and insights and help today. renee, thanks so much, appreciate it. up next for us, cnn's w. kamau bell sharing new conversations on policing and race, including what it's like to be black, and also be a cop. if you have... ...moderate to severe psoriasis, ... ...little things... ...can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea,... ...nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts... ...or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and... ...headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. the new season of cnn's united shades of america debuts sunday night, if you are not a regular viewer, i urge you to give it a look. w. kamau bell addresses the issues front and center in real america, race, policing, justice, here's a snippet. >> is this moment different as far as where we are in america and specifically around law enforcement? >> for me it's just this moment of being a black man in a police uniform. there are systemic problems in policing for a long time that need to be rooted out. you sit in this place, do i fit in? i'm a black man before i put on a uniform. i'm one when i take it off. >> and while you've got it on. >> right. >> we're lucky to have with us right now the man behind the program, the host of cnn's "united shades of america," great to see you. we were talking recently when we were together. in washington they're negotiating compromise on police reform, we talk about things in this town one way, and you're sitting with a black man who happens to be a police officer, walk through us with this about trust, respect and fear in the community. >> well, i think it's not only is that black man the police officer, he's now the chief of the oakland police department. he's in a very unique position where he's a black man in charge of police but one of the problems in policing is the structure of policing is that even as the chief of police he has to deal with the union and police unions around the country are always protecting their power more than they're seeking justice for their communities. so i think it's a very difficult position and whatever negotiation and compromise happens in washington, if it doesn't end up with us really examining the entire institution of policing in the country we're nibbling around the edges and not getting to the problem. >> whatever they legislate, let's hope they do reach a deal that addresses some of the systemic problems but then you have to build the trust and people have to follow the new rules, if there are new rules. it gets hard in this chair every day, some of the protesters out there and the family members legitimately say, say their names, it's too long of a list and just as we were waiting for the derek chauvin verdict you had another case out there, if you live in oakland in the bay area, mario gonzales, we're talking about andrew brown in north carolina, but walk me through mario gonzales and why it is yet another example of an incident that raises profound questions of trust. >> mario gonzales was a 26-year-old latin-x man who was in alameda, california and apparently, according to the lawyer for his family, was basically just a guy who had had a few drinks sitting in the park. drunk in the park. whether that is a crime, within a few minutes of being contacted by the police, he was dead. and some people are comparing it to george floyd because the police were putting pressure on him. let's be clear, multiple people called 911 because a guy was drunk in the park. even if those people weren't calling the cops to kill him, we have a system in such that you have to call the police, someone with a gun for a guy drunk in the park. that's a flaw in the system. if you're worried about a guy drunk in the park, you should be able to call somebody who shows up who's a social worker or somebody looking to help him. not his main tool is a gun or violence. >> i want you to listen to a snippet of the conversation in this town, the president gave his joint address last night, senator tim scott of south carolina, a republican intimately involved in police reform negotiations gave the response. race is obviously a question and an issue. i want you to listen to his perspective and the vice president of the united states. >> nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than in our discussions of race. hear me clearly, america is not a racist country. >> no, i don't think america is a racist country. but we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country, and its existence today. and i applaud the president for always having the ability and the courage, frankly, to speak the truth about it. he spoke what we know from the intelligence community, one of the greatest threats to our national security is domestic terrorism, manifested by white supremacists. >> that's the washington conversation. how does it relate? you get to learn. the great thing about our jobs is we get paid to learn and you're going into these communities and talking to people and one of the questions i always have is how disconnected is the way the politicians talk from the way real people talk? >> i think, you know, i hear two politicians being political in their answers, both trying to achieve maybe different goals, i think kamala harris is maybe trying to achieve a different goal than senator tim scott is, both feel they're being political in their answers, all due respect to vice president harris. the structure of this country is based on racism, this country started on genocide, and the trans-atlantic slave trade and the country was built on the backs of black folks who made this country as great as it is, whatever that means. until we recognize that, and specifically in policing, it was built on slave catching. that's the institution of policing was built on slave catching. until we recognize that and see how that has affected everything these institutions have done, we're not getting anywhere further. yes, america is built on racism. >> kamau, great to see you. >> thanks for teaching me how to use the magic wall. >> you were close on the password, wolf blitzer 36, you forgot the special character. can't tell you what it is. sorry, bro. best of luck, see you soon. reminder, so you don't miss the new season, starts this sunday at 10:00 p.m. don't miss it. thanks for joining us today, see you back here at this time tomorrow. don't go anywhere, busy news day. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. have a great day. ♪ hello, and thanks for joining me, i'm ana cabrera in new york, the president is hitting the road right now to pitch his vision, ambitious plans including a hefty price tag to the american public, soon we could hear from the president who is in georgia this hour, a state that's been crucial, voting in two democratic senators, enough to give democrats a slight majority in the senate, opening biden's path to push through his agenda. now, while in the peach state president biden, we know, will meet with former president jijirm jimmy carter, at least the fourth time he's spoken with one of his presidentia