House correspondent, Weekend Today cohost Peter Alexander, Garrett Haake on capitol hill, brendan buck, former Senior Adviser to house speakers paul ryan and john boehner, and former Maryland Democratic congresswoman Debra Everets and former senator claire mccaskill. Peter first to you. Lets start with the covid Relief Package. The white house releasing a statement after that monday meaning with republicans saying the president is open to reconciliation, but the republicans are in the conversation. So where do we stand . Are democrats on the Progressive Side getting nervous hell compromise too much, or are all saying hell go big even if it means going it alone . Reporter when everybody was said and done last night, it was clear President Biden, this white house wasnt really giving much ground here. They say that the meeting was substantive and productive but at the end of the day he said they had to meet this moment. The decision is whether to go big and go it alone or scale back this American Rescue plan with some republican support. White house officials are skeptical theres any scenario under which they would get ten republicans. Thats why they believe the reconciliation ultimately is going to be the course they need to take here, which means a simple majority would be enough. Democrats could do it alone. But they believe they can bring in in some of those republicans, perhaps not all ten who participated in the oval office meeting, but at the end of the day, they say unity is what most American People want, not necessarily what all republicans and all democrats agree needs to happen. There are some significant differences between these two plans right now, places where its very unlikely that this white house is going to concede. 1. 9 million versus 618 billion in the republican package. Theyre on the same page as it relates to Vaccine Distribution and testing. Take a look at these checks, for example. 1,400 the white house is proposing. The republican counteroffer saying 1,000 to far fewer americans based on conversations im having. I think thats one place where there is potential for some wiggle room. Other issues like School Reopening as well, the republicans proposing 20 billion versus closer to 170 billion from this white house. And garrett, lets go through Mitch Mcconnells recent statements. I wanted to play part of an interview with a woman whose son died defending the students in parkland. This is alex witt and her discussion with Marjorie Taylor greene. My first question to congresswoman greene was do you really believe that parkland and sandy hook were staged. Her answer to me was unequivocally no, i do not. I said if thats really what you believe, then come on air and tell the public just that. Well, her statement is clear because here i am with you and shes not here right now. You know, alex, truth the power, and if Congress Welcome greene believes that parkland and sandy hook were, in fact, real events, she would be willing to say that publicly. Her failure tells me that for congresswoman greene, politics trumps truth. And, so garrett, you know Mitch Mcconnell. Its so rare for him to reach over to the house said and intervene in party battle in the house. Reporter yeah. Thats true. I should add that congresswoman greene did come out yesterday in an interview on oan and says she believes those shootings were real so doing cleanup on this false flag question in an interview yesterday. As for Mitch Mcconnell, it is extraordinary to see him weigh in, really not just to essentially attack a fellow republican other than someone who might be running in a primary against one of his senators whom he always defendses, but also to weigh into the internal dynamics of the house. Thats just not something he does. Frankly, its not something many senators relish doing. They sort of leave the house to its own devices. I see the mcconnell involvement here as the strongest evidence yet that hes trying to put his imprimatur on whatever the future of the Republican Party is going to be. He wants it to look more like liz cheney, who he defended in a statement yesterday, and less like Marjorie Taylor greene and the sort of Qanon Associates around her. Claire, before we get too sweet on what Mitch Mcconnell is doing, hes also holding up the Leadership Agreement so the committees cant even form under democrats. The elections, you know, it was understand how these guys can talk about bipartisanship day in and day out and how they can criticize the possibility of reconciliation being used where they could pass things including the covid bill with only democratic votes when they wont even organize the senate. It is outrageous that Lindsey Graham is lecturing the chairman of the Judiciary Committee by votes when the hearing should be from eric garland and the Judiciary Committee. It is hard for people i mean, think of the voters in georgia that made a conscious decision to give the senate to the Democratic Party that Mitch Mcconnell is now for weeks refusing to acknowledge that he is no longer the Majority Leader and that those chairmen have to give up their gavels. The level of frustration is very high among my former colleagues right now. Something has to give on this and give on it soon. And it could affect the covid discussions as well, their willingness to go forward and do reconciliation, which is poorly named because it means going and doing it without the other party. Lets talk about the controversies. Marjorie taylor greene, persistent headache for Kevin Mccarthy . How tough a line will it be . We dont know what he might do, but of course the House Democrats are threatening to take action to start the ball rolling to try to strip her of her committees, not something they would normally do cross party. I was just handed a note. President biden and Treasury Secretary yellin will be joining the members at their meeting, the democratic regular tuesday caucus. So the democratic caucus, theyll be talking about their strategy going forward, perhaps a little cleanup after that meeting. The first meeting in the oval office with republicans, not democrats. I interrupted myself asking that question. Sure. Garrett had an important point. It is remarkable to me that Mitch Mcconnell is wading into the i believer problems of the house conference, not only he didnt just stumble into making comments about liz cheney and Marjorie Taylor greene. He put out organized statements to make sure everybody knew what he was doing. That tells me its not just about internal party politics. Its telling me hes really concerned about the direction of the party, and he knows it would be an incredible disgrace and a shame if liz cheney is punished for what happened on january 6th and nobody else. And Marjorie Taylor greene continues to go around and be the face of the new freshman class. He knows we should absolutely give Mitch Mcconnell credit. He absolutely believes everything he said. Hes also looking at it through a political lens and he knows there is incredible political downside that not only did he just lose the majority but may never be able to get it back. If were unable to be the party of conspiracy theorists. I couldnt associate myself with a party run by conspiracy theorists. Hes trying to put a stop to that because there arent a whole lot of other Republican Leaders who are saying much of anything in defense of liz cheney in particular, which is critical. Donna, when you look at the house in general, the fact that she is there and that she may have gone on oan, but she has not made a statement, a mainstream statement about all these other things shes done, the threats shes made, the threats gwen pelosi shes liked on facebook and twitter. Its just pretty incredible she has not been punished somehow by the caucus. Well, i mean, clearly Kevin Mccarthy is unwilling to take the steps that he needs in order to strip Marjorie Taylor greene of any power that she has. He wont even remove her from the Education Committee after these comments, whether shes trying to clean them up or not, about sandy hook and parkland. I think it shows the weakness of Kevin Mccarthy, that he has no ability within his caucus to be able to hold these people to account. And keep in mind, for republicans, it isnt just Marjorie Taylor greene. Its mo brooks and paul gosar and lauren and the list goes on. There is a problem that i think Mitch Mcconnell aptly describes as its not about preventing the cancer. The cancer is already there. And they cant seem to cut it out. And so im not really sure where the Republican Leadership goes in the house of representatives because if they cant hold one of their own accountable in this environment and democrats are forced to strip her from her committee by going to the floor of the house, then it speaks volumes about the direction of the Republican Party. And Mitch Mcconnell is not going to have any control of that. This is taking over the Republican Party and it is a cancer not just on that party but its a conditions cancer on democracy. And peteser before we go, i want to bring up impeachment. We are one week away from the start of the Impeachment Trial. Weve heard from the House Managers already today and were waiting to hear from the new trump legal team, which say theyre going to file even with only a couple days on the job. Reporter their deadline is noon today. That means it was a matter of minutes ago. I suspect well see that filing, our first glimpse of the formal defense of the former president moments from now. But we are seeing in that 80page brief from those nienhouse Impeachment Managers how they are going to lay out their case going forward, drawing a direct line between the former president and the riot that we saw take place, the siege and riot we saw take place at the capitol on january 6th. According to this document obtained by nbc news, among other things they will say President Trump was singularly responsible for that event. They will say he would do anything to reassert his grim on power if given the opportunity. Among other things, going at this idea of the constitutionality, the 45 republicans within the last several weeks saying they believe it would be unconstitutional to impeach a president who is out of office. They describe in this brief that there is no january exception, that the final days or weeks of a president s term are as important as any other time in the course of the four years they serve as president , saying this president needs to be held accountable. Andrea . And claire, now that we know that the president and janet yellin are going to weigh in virtually to the senate lunch today, whats the caucus reaction going to be . What are Senate Democrats going to say . Okay, you brought those ten republicans in to the oval office, that was your first meeting and youre appearing on zoom with us . I dont think people mind that his first meeting was with republicans. I think they get it. I think they know for this president to be successful it was all about unifying the country. And him showing in a major way that he is going to listen and try to find common ground, that does nothing but help the president gain Political Capital that will allow him to support the policies of the people in that caucus meeting today also support. And brandan, lets talk about the house caucus as we go towards covid. What are Senate Republicans going to do . Can they expand that moderate base . Is that a starting point, what the ten republicans presented yesterday . Because one of the red lines for democrats has been that something has to go to these states that are so beleaguered with Vaccine Distribution and the like. And theres nothing so far in their offer for states. Well, i think all ten of those republicans you can consider sincere and really want to work towards something. I think what has democrats probably a little spun up is we talk about this process of reconciliation, going on your own, 50 votes. It makes it sound simple. The reality is reconciliation is incredibly complex. There are six steps to take. The point being, it will take a while. I know joe biden would enjoy sitting around talking to those republicans for the next two, three, four weeks because i think he enjoys that kind of thing, but once they decide theyll go alone, it will take weeks if not a month for them to figure out how to do that. The clock is ticking so joe biden will have to make a decision. These people are probably very sincere, but i dont know he thinks he has enough time to sit around for two or three weeks talking to them, because that population of republican senators who are willing to vote for it is no bigger than that ten. He needs to get all ten of those, and thats a pretty tough task. Peter alexander, Garrett Haake, brandan buck, donna edwards, and claire mccaskill. Thank you all so much. Continuing now, any moment we are expecting an update from the white house on the Covid Response coordinator jeff zients problem with my throat as today is also the the u. S. Is racing to get covid vaccines into the arms of americans. One of the big problems of course the new highly contagious uk variant, which is threatening another surge in cases. The variant is now in at least 33 states. Experts are concerned it could become the dominant strains and that people whove already had covid could be reinfected. While the cdc is working to review 77,000 cases a week, the best thing to do is get people vaccine nuclear facilityeds because viruses cannot mutate if they cannot replicate. Its complicated by the noreaster closing vaccination sites today in new york and new jersey. Allison barber joins me in new jersey at Vaccine Megasite that remains closed today. I guess the weather is taking its toll. Reporter yeah, it is. In new jersey and new york, vaccination sites closed yesterday and today. We are at one of six megasites in new jersey that is closed today. You can see and hear the snowplows. E they have been working since 6 00 this morning trying to get this entire parking area where people who are coming to get vaccinated need to be cleared out and ready so they can open this back up tomorrow. Somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 people in new jersey were supposed to get vaccinated on monday and tuesday. Because of Vaccine Shortages and mostly the weather, that did not happen. But they say they are rescheduling those appointments. Most have already been rescheduled. Andrea . A dramatic snowstorm indeed, ellison. Now we go to the white house for jeff zients and his briefing. That means we have increased supply by more than 20 since we took office. And we have succeeded in our efforts to secure the equipment required to extract a sixth dose from pfizers vials. Vaccine kits ship to states, tribe, and territories with pfizer vials containing the syringe required to get a 20 increase in the pfizer doses. This is on top of the 10. 5 million doses we will ship this week. I also want to be clear that we are delivering on our commitment to provide states with three weeks forward visibility into supply. This is critical, and weve heard strong feedback from state and local leaders that this is helping give them what they need to plan and get vaccines administered more quickly. We know its not only the amount of voox that matters opinion another critical component is creating easily accessible places for americans to get vaccinated. Millions of americans turn to their local pharmacies every day for their medicines, flu shots, and much more. And pharmacies are readily accessible in most communities with most americans living within five miles of a pharmacy. Thats why were pleased to announce our first phase of a federal Retail Pharmacy program for covid19 vaccinations. This is a key component t of president Bidens National strategy, offering vaccines directly to select pharmacies across the country. This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities, and its an important component to delivering vaccines equitably. This Pharmacy Program will expand access in neighborhoods across the country so you can make an appointment and gets your shot conveniently and quickly. But i wanted to set expectation