afraid of donald trump's base to be more concerned for our democracy, our constitution, the american government and the body of the senate. >> we were never going to reach 67 votes in the senate without mitch mcconnell voting guilty, so he went up on the floor afterwards, he basically gave the speech that jamie would have given to the senate and tried to justify his vote for acquittal. >> i think mitch mcconnell's speech got a load off his chest obviously, and you put a load on the back of the republicans, that speech you will see in 2022 campaigns, so i like him, senator mcconnell, he worked well with president trump and i think his speech is an outlier regarding how republicans feel about all this. >> what does all of this mean? we are nearly a month into the biden administration, and his predecessor just got acquitted for the second time. donald trump has won, at least for now. there's a growing push from some former members of the gop to retake the party, and others are considering a new anti-trump conservative party. evan mcmullen is a former presidential candidate and out spoken trump critic and last night he toldous this program he plans to support those that oppose. >> i think we are committed to taking a new route to either fight for the direction of the gop or compete with it directly. >> whatever comes of that effort, democrats control the white house and both houses of congress and the white house had little to say about the impeachment trial while it was going on and the administration kept busy this week advancing president biden's agenda. now that the trial is over the focus turns to covid. it's hard to think we have been surviving the pandemic for nearly a year now, and just about everybody wants to know when we will get back to normal or whatever will count as the new normal. by our count the united states has 28 million cases of covid-19 and approaching half a million deaths. but there's good news surrounding the pandemic trends, cases and hospitalization rates are both at the lowest they have been in the u.s. since november, and daily vaccination rates continue to go up, and right now america is averaging almost 1.5 million shots per day. this week the biden administration finalized deals with pfizer and moderna for 200 million doses and this would be enough to vaccinate every american after deploying and administering the shots. let's check in with nbc white house correspondent, jeff bennett. what is president biden's plan to refocus the country on the pandemic now that the trial is over? >> that's the key word, refocus. white house officials tell me the president really is going to refocus the country's attention to the challenges we face and his plans for addressing all of them this coming week and he's going to do it in a way he has not done it in the past, and he will make his first domestic trip, and he has not done that given the travel restrictions due to the pandemic, but on tuesday he heads to milwaukee for a televised town hall and then heads to michigan to tour a pfizer plant that tours vaccines, and then the plan includes money for schools to open. remember, the biden administration wants to get as many schools open for in-person instruction as possible by the end of the first 100 days. there are the direct payments of americans that $1,400 where if you add it to the $600 that qualifying americans receive, that's $2,000 total, and then the unemployment extension benefits, and you say if this impeachment trial goes on for too long it will impeurl the biden agenda, and the unemployment benefits will no longer be extended so as they try and pass the relief bill through the convoluted complex process where they do it with just democratic votes alone, that march 14th deadline has been hanging over all of it and that's the thing really focusing on the minds of lawmakers and everybody at the white house. >> what about the concerns among some democrats about what the agenda would be following impeachment? i know there had been worry about derailing things, including within the democratic caucus once we refocused after the trial on getting bills passed? >> just because we are done with impeachment doesn't mean democrats will band together and march in lockstep, and we already saw there was fissures within the democratic side of this, and publicly in the early part of the negotiations, but once we went through that voter period in the senate before they went into impeachment world, it was clear there was a very vast difference of opinion on key items, for example, raising the minimum wage to $15. people like joe manchin said they would not support that. of course on the other side of that coin you have bernie sanders who will be aggressive, he promised, in pushing that through, and biden eluded to this himself because of the way the reconciliation process works. i would say when we saw the budget score come out on this, it does show there would be a bottom line to the federal deficit, and that's the kind of thing that bernie sanders needed to prove that he could push this through through a reconciliation process, and if it doesn't go through the reconciliation as part of the covid relief bill and it's going to be something that rears its head again, and there was also another reason that democrats were so concerned about what impeachment might mean for the biden agenda. all of this is really fertile ground work for the midterms. i know 2022 seems far away, but the early part of the impeachment, it sets the tone, and trump will be trying to be out on the campaign trail and they are arguing over what their party should look like, and you were talking about somebody that is going to be primarying that supported trump, and democrats are going to have to leverage the work they have done in the early days of the biden administration and any frustration out there for voters that may have wanted to see trump held accountable for what he did on january 6th, and all of this is percolating as we head into the background of the mid-term, but it's not. >> i am sure you just gave people some real -- no, no, let's us breathe. with regards to policy rather than politics, jeff, one of the people we heard from today, the new head of the centers of disease control and prevention, and she was on "meet the press" with chuck todd this morning, and here's what she said in terms of the administration's messaging on covid going forward. >> it's encouraging to see these trends coming down but they are coming down from extraordinarily high place, and as i said earlier if we want to get our children back to school, and i believe we all do, it depends on how much community spread is out there. we need to all take responsible to decrease the community spread including mask wearing so we can get our kids and society back. >> jeff, one of the things i noticed that chuck said to the doctor is it's nice just to have the head of the cdc out here so we can talk to this person, which has been hard to do for the last year or so. talk about how the administration is going to be talking to the american people about covid. >> we should say with the school reopening guidelines, i am told by cdc staffers that they were drafted inentirely by cdc career staffers, which sounds like a basic thing but it's not from what we know about the last four years in the trump administration, and i am told by folks that worked there, they had to deal with pressure from the trump administration, so now president biden made a stated goal, in the first 100 days he wants as many schools open for instruction, as many as possible and he's setting a metric where the american people can judge him, and now there are a number of schools waiting for the direct guidance of cdc, and the cdc under the trump administration put out sort of basic guidance, but now what you have a sort of clear directive from the cdc that says if the community spread in your area is x, then your school should open by, you know, under these sort of instructions and restrictions. that's the sort of thing that i think a lot of school districts had been clamoring for, just to get some basic guidance free from political interference about how they should best reopen their schools and do it in a way that is safe for students and teachers to return. >> alley, what is the best sense of the timeline for what happens in congress. the senate is off this week, and the house has some committee hearings and there are hearings on rather consequential matters, and there's a hearing on game stop trading and robinhood is testifying before a committee, and what should we keep an eye out for this week? >> that's one of the things i am actually looking for, because so much was made of game stop and the way the rioters were able to manipulate the market and i think it caught everybody's attention because people were so confused as to what was going on, and that's one of the things tackled this week, and we saw the contours of the relief parts of the bill coming out last week, and the house has been having two workweeks, last week and this coming week and so we could see more things coming out there, and i think the key thing is the tax credit rolled out initially as well as setting the matrix as who is able to get the $1,400 relief payments and there was a lot of debate at where the threshold would be set, and last week they were set at $75,000 and $150,000, and that's done as part of the covid relief bill, and march 14th is the cutoff here. i know nancy pelosi and steeny hoyer was going to try and get something out there and it felt optimistic at the time, and everybody wants to get back on track with this and get it done because everybody has to go home to the constituents and answer where those checks are. >> we appreciate you starting us off this hour. thanks very much. donald trump may be acquitted in the senate but faces criminal and civil cases across the country. a former federal prosecutor will walk us through them miles per hour also, what about a larger congressional investigation into what exactly happened on january 6th. nbc's ken will break that down for us. and we will talk about covid and the different strains popping up. and then we will talk about a campaign to recall california governor gavin newsom, and what would this mean for our most populous state and for the nation? 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>> so trump probably has more to worry about from state prosecutors than from federal prosecutors. georgia prosecutors have a legitimate beef against trump. he tried to nullify georgia's legitimate votes from counting in the presidential election and so they are looking at crimes like solicitation of election fraud, false statements and even racketeering. trump told the georgia secretary of state find 11,780 votes, and he said, and there's nothing wrong with saying you recalculated. that's pretty incriminating and it's on tape. and in new york, both the manhattan d.a. and the state's attorney general are following trump's money, and that usually does not work out well for him. >> what do you make of the way that, in particular, was discussed during the impeachment trial? does that have any baring on the other prosecutions, at least to hear the way his defense attorneys were talking about defining find, and i thought, you know, that would not go the way the defense attorneys wanted, but does one bear on the other at all? >> here's the thing, the issue in any criminal case is trump's intent. i thought the house managers did an excellent job of proving his criminal intent in the impeachment trial that he knew or there was a high chance that those remarks that he had been making for weeks were going to incite the crowd but that did not persuade the senate. joshua, here's the thing, jurors in atlanta or new york city will not be as sympathetic to the president or former president as the republican senators. >> what is your sense of what the department of justice might do in terms of investigating the former president? obviously there's the huge concern about the appearance of political involvement with the doj, which is exactly one of the things president biden said he would positively not subject merrick garland to or christopher wray. >> and obstruction of justice in the mueller investigation, or shaking down the ukrainians for political favors. remember the first impeachment. it's up to the new attorney general, that is likely to be merrick garland. first the criminal standard for conviction is much higher than for impeachment and prosecutors are not going to bring a case against a former president also it's a slam dunk. the second is one you identify, president biden is properly staying out of this. he's leaving it to merrick garland because he doesn't want to do the lock him up thing against biden that trump did against hillary clinton. but the vibe he's sending is that the biden administration wants to move the country on past trump and that's why trump has more to worry about from these state investigations than from the federal investigations. >> your point about the slam dunk is well taken and i am not convinced the justice department deems it's justice to bring that and i will set that aside. two questions from viewers i would like to get to, and both names are mary. is there any way the rioters could join in a class action for entrapment, and that's when they were coerced into it. isn't therefore trump liable for the legal expenses by the rioters who were coerced into the riot by the country's chief law enforcement officer. >> i think there would certainly be litigation against trump, and entrapment is typically not a tort or a reason to bring a lawsuit, but certainly as these criminal cases against the rioters malign their way through the system i suspect we will also see a number of civil lawsuits, not so much from the insurrectionists, but from the families of the police officers and people who were inadvertently swept up in the crisis. >> can they sue trump for injuries occurring on january 6th? >> no -- well, the technical answer is, yes, they can sue but they would lose. trump's complicity of aiding and abetting, it's about recovering damages, but no jury will be sympathetic to the white supremacists and insurrectionists that tried to undermine our democracy. >> yeah, suing damages while attacking congress, that's not a good look in court. thank you so much for your time, sir. >> always a pleasure. after the senate acquitted donald trump focus shifted back to the january 6th insurrection. some are calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate it. that is next. thing every time we walk into the door. it's just to be sure. just to be sure! tide antibacterial fabric spray. liberty mutual customizes- wait... am i in one of those liberty mutual commercials where they stand in front of the statue of liberty and talk about how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? uhhh... yes. huh... what happens in this one? seagulls. oh, i like it. how are you doing? 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what was known and who knew it. all of that. that builds the basis so this never happens again in the future. >> senator cassidy was one of the seven gop senators that voted to convict the former president. how will this investigation work? let's discuss it with nbc national security and intelligence correspondent. >> hey, joshua, you are right, voices as diverse as nancy pelosi and senator lindsay graham are calling for this kind of a commission to investigate what happened and what they are asking for is something similar to the 9/11 commission, which was a creation of congress and you get prominent people from both sides of the political aisle and they get a staff and money to investigate and they would potentially have subpoena power. of course, joshua, congress is capable of doing these large and complex investigations and the senate intelligence committee report on the trump russia matter was more formative and detailed than the mueller report, but this capitol riot spans so many different jurisdictions, and there are intelligence questions and law enforcement questions and questions about the fbi, dhs, the department of defense, and a commission advocates say it would make more sense and allow congress to do its legislative business while the commission is working in the background because there are huge unanswered questions around what did the fbi know and why wasn't there more security, as senator cassidy said. after the fact, what calls were made for the national guard to come in and what was the delay, and what did the president know and when did he know it as the violence was unfolding. >> what is your sense of the possibility of how this might move forward or how it moved forward, and some republicans said, no, we need not convict donald trump but we need a bigger investigation that should have been done before we got to this point. what does that path for that look like considering the capitol is still extra secure right now, the barricades have not come down from capitol hill yet? >> yeah, that's right, and that's one of the reasons why there's such an impetus for this, and in some ways january 6th was the 9/11 terrorism, and there was plans and planned it long in advance, and another large group of people acting more spontaneously, and there's a lot to learn from all that, and there's impetus on both sides of the political aisle, and they would have to pass legislation and fund it and it would take many months if not more than a year to get the answers. you are right, both sides agree they did not build a historical record in this trial. they laid out essentially a narrative based on media reports and they did not interview witnesses or subpoena people. there's still so many huge questions that both sides would like to get answers and it may make different agencies and constituencies look bad and may expose applause, and people think we need answers, because bottom line they never want anything like this to happen again. >> we have a few viewer questions, and it's in terms of a timeline of how that day went down. one viewer asked did they ever verify whether the secret service communicated to the white house if they were evacuating pence and when? it was implied the secret service was not doing its usual protocol and i doubt that. i doubt that, too. a, and then b, mike pence has to be within striking distance of the nuclear football in case something happens to trump. >> the state of the reporting on this, joshua, was when mike pence was whisked away under the threat of violence by the secret service that the secret service would have told the white house about that, but nobody has confirmed that call was made, and people inside the white house has not confirmed it but it's unimaginable that would not have happened. even if you leave that aside you have the phone call between trump and a senator where he confirmed pence was in danger and so at that point president trump was on notice his vice president was in mortal danger and yet he continued to egg on the rioters and not call for them to stand down until sometime after that and that's what people are focusing on. >> i will skip the next question and go to the third. is it a feasible situation that if trump had been convicted this could have generated more immediate retaliation from his violent followers? ken, i think that's one of the concerns that has hung over this whole process, that those on the far right fringes might use whatever is on the other side of the trial for violence? >> yeah, that's why there's a continued security presence around the capitol. there were threats to the inauguration and continued threats and in some ways some of the hard right extremists were emboldened by what happened on january 6th, and they may be fully emboldened by the acquittal, and one thing that is happening now that was not before january 6th is a massive fbi investigation into many far right extremist, so on that sense some of them are on their heels, joshua. >> thank you, kennedy lana for the latest. how can merry open schools safely as we fight covid-19? the latest guidance from the cdc when we come back. strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel... available over the counter. voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. voltaren. the joy of movement. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements— neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. with relapsing forms of ms, there's a lot to deal with. not just unpredictable relapses. all these other things too. who needs that kind of drama? 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>> yes, i thought it was fitting today. roses are red, violets are blue, i am really sick of covid, how about you. it sums up about how a lot of us feel these days? >> yes, yes, i agree and feel loved at the same time. i would love to have you answer, what is the status of the astrazeneca vaccine. other countries are using it, and when will it be approved in the u.s., and if given a chance to get a trial in the u.s., would that be better for waiting months for the others, so what about taking part in a vaccine trial? >> yeah, that's a great question. first part we are in the middle of phase three in the united states for the astrazeneca vaccine, so that phase has to be completed and the data has to be analyzed. we're talking, joshua, months, not weeks. and in terms of the second part of the question, i am a big fan of research and science and i think participating in a trial should be your decision, but it's not an either or, and i think it's absolutely where you can participate in a trial now and talk to the trial researchers where if your turn comes to get the vaccine what do they recommend, and they are ready for these questions and they are trying to make sure nobody is denied the opportunity to receive one of the authorized vaccines. we only have two right now, joshua, but that number will increase over time. >> another viewer asked about the covid tests, whether 42 can detect the covid variants we have been asking about? >> yes, the short answer is yes. they are looking for the copies, the rna of the material of the coronavirus, and you can look at the musicians, and then interestingly researchers have found the absent -- each of these are in what look like a fingerprint and the absence of some of the pieces of the fingerprint can be a clue to telling what the variants might be. yes, we do have ways to check for it. >> lori asks, i have been trying to understand what the percentage means when referring to the vaccine. 95% effective means 5% of the people vaccinated can still get it but not severely? 60% for the johnson & johnson means 40% can get it. what does the percentage have to do with the severity? >> joshua, this is the most common question and a great one laurie asks. the percentage of efficacy refers to the risk of reduction of getting symptomatic or kau veer covid-19, and compared to a population that is not vaccinated, so the absolute numbers are literally, like, 7 among 10,000 people who are vaccinated will get severe covid, not 5% or 5 of 100, so it's much better news than the percentages might lead you to believe. the most important percentage is really the fact that the johnson & johnson vaccine as you mentioned, johnson & johnson vaccine 85% reduction of severe disease. they were set up to look for an ability to stop severe disease and death and symptomatic, mild, moderate illness is decreased but it's a relative risk reduction. >> donna wants to know once you get the covid vaccine how long will you be protected? once your protection wears off will you able to get another vaccine or do you have to wait? >> the ceo of moderna intimated immunity to last for years. we don't know. people are trying to measure how long our immunity lasts so the question will you need to get a second vaccine or booster we are looking at an annual on seasonal vaccine like we're used to with the thru. >> i'm going to ask if we could flip our last two questions. sara has a question with something, please explain why kn95 masks are better or not than surgical masks or double surgical masks. i thought kn95 superior because it's a tight seal. true or false? could we talk about what we know about masks after hearing reserve that double masks is more than 0% effective blocking covid 95. >> the cdc did a simulation model. the surgical masks with the blue and loops around it, you put that on and three-layer fabric mask over it, a double mask, adds up to six layers that can get you higher potentially an 95%. sometimes it's not comfortable, you can wear that surgical mask and tie loops on the side. the cdc has a great graphic to show you, and that can be better than the surgical mask by itself. the kn95 is not approved like the n95s by the fda. the 95 filters 95% of the particles and covid can be prevented by filtration and resistance. >> dr. patel thanks very much. if you have questions about the vaccine, comcast has a website, plan your vaccine. what you need to know about getting vaccinated, information for different states, information if you have high risk health conditions or essential worker. planyourvaccine.com. we'll check the weather, and the climate, next. when it comes to laundry, everyone thinks their way is the right way. i wash on delicate. i just stuff everything in. you have to wash on cold, because it saves energy. the secret is, tide pods work no matter how you wash. so, everyone is right. it's got to be tide. how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? 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