Singular role in inciting the mob that stormed the capitol that day. For the New York Times on the new evidence that the house Impeachment Managers introduced regarding trumps conduct while the siege was under way. Evidence emerged about what mr. Trump was doing in the hours includes new details about two phone calls with two lawmakers that alerted him to the mayhem on capitol hill and the new information was clear proof of mr. Trumps intent to incite the mob and of his dereliction to stop the violence when he knew the life of Vice President mike pence was in danger. Mcconnell endorsed that evidence as proof of trumps guilt in inciting the riot. Watch. Theres no question, none, that President Trump has practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. And in this bipartisan agreement to the facts of trumps guilt turned out to be insufficient to convict trump but may signal the role is under review by other investigators. Currently, trump faces legal jeopardy and the District Attorney in Fulton County, georgia, is investigating finding the votes one more than joe bidens victory in the state. And the manhattans d. A. s investigation into the finances is a flashing red light. Legal experts also tell the New York Times that trump could face civil litigation from victims of the capitol rampage. Leading one to tell me that the post election grift was that, to fund raise off a grievance to help fund his litigation which will swamp him for the next years and nancy pelosi said hes moving forward on a bipartisan 9 11 commission to investigate the attack. And george will said, quote, although not nearly as tragic as 9 11 in lives lost and radiating policy consequences onesixth should become as it percolates into the National Consciousness even more unsettling. Foreign fanatics are perennial dangers and after 16 they know that in any democracy domestic fanaticisms are potential rank weeds when its fertilized by persons who are unscrupulous. And the Washington Post is out with new reporting about the department of Homeland Security. Of course that was created in the wake of 9 11 and its now turning its focus to domestic Terror Threats something needed after the 2019 massacre at el paso, but resisted by the trump white house. The ongoing legal threats facing the expresident and the ongoing Security Threat posed by him is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Msnbc Political Analyst our friend, Claire Mccaskill is back. And also andrew weisman. And the Washington Post Investigative Reporter and we start with msnbc News Reporter garrett haake. I have a copy of Nancy Pelosis letter. Speaker pelosi said its clear from the findings of generals review and of the Impeachment Trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened to protect our security, our security, our security, our next step is to establish an outside independent 9 11 Type Commission to investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the january 6th, 2021, Domestic Terror attack on the United States capitol. Well, the speaker has been talking about the need to do Something Like this for a couple of weeks. Make no mistake, this is not a short term thing. Its this kind of in depth, comprehensive nonpartisan fact finding that Speaker Pelosi believes is necessary here, not just because the Impeachment Trial in and of itself couldnt get to that at least not in the time line but the nonpartisan part of this is important. There are several investigating different elements of this but as we have learned so much over the last couple of years, theres this Trust Deficit in our politics right now. It may be necessary to have an outside body like this be the ones that have the final word for a report like this to have the necessary effect. This is going to continue to happen after the review by retired general onarray. Its on the capitol both leading up to january 6th and how it can be approved in the aftermath but its a much more long term more complete review and everything of the social causes, the president s rhetoric, everything, that set the table for january 6th. Not just what happened in the 24 hours. Garrett, obviously the general went down and had a sizable role after hurricane katrina. And the 9 11 commissions work. Im very familiar i wrote all the summaries when that reports came out for the classified and unclassified versions and inherent was trust in both parties is there confidence that Nancy Pelosis decision today is supported in a bipartisan way the way both the last post and the last 9 11 commission was . I think the desire to get answers is sport supported in a bipartisan way. And there were questions from the Republican House lawmakers about what Speaker Pelosi knew and what she knew about the situation on capitol hill. The desire isnt going away but is the selection of who runs the commission is very important in restoring trust as was the selection of the general who continues to have the sterling reputation as someone who is going to get things done in an apolitical way. Finding another tom keane, you know, to lead the 1 6 commission will be a its a very important thing for the speaker to report. Im going to embarrass you on live tv, you were spectacular last week as a broadcaster and as a human so thank you so much for holding all of our feet to the fire and really being the center of our coverage. Thank you. Claire mccaskill, let me come to you on the post impeachment dustup. Far from settling anything, Mitch Mcconnells seeming referral for Criminal Investigation and potential prosecution saying that donald trump hasnt been held accountable yet blew some oxygen into the embers around the criminal and the civil investigations into him and his companies. Yeah, lets be here clear. Mitch mcconnell gave a lock him up speech. He said hes not gotten away with this it he is cull basketball. So hell make it difficult for george will called the lout caucus yes. Thats the trump loyalists, the group of about five or six senators that some of whom are running for president. It will make it difficult for them to scream witchhunt when their leader basically gave doj and local prosecutors marching orders from the floor of the United States senate. I mean, am i you know, disillusioned that Mitch Mcconnell didnt step up and vote to convict the man that he knew was guilty, of course i am. But make no mistake about it hes said get after him. He is guilty. Let me play you andrew weisman, what one Michael Cohen thinks that might look like. Lets listen. The man has never been held responsible for his own dirty deeds. Now, i will tell you that, you know, everybodys aware that theres a District Attorney action currently being investigated. Theres an Attorney General action with Tisch James Being investigated. Who knows what the Southern District of new york is doing, that i dont know. My hope is in the event they do not file what was supposedly a dozen sealed indictments if they dont do that i would implore the next Attorney General and god willing it will be Merrick Garland to investigate why it didnt happen. If i can be charged with it and go to prison for another mans dirty deeds im curious how he can end up getting off. So andrew weisman, i think Michael Cohen gives voice to all of the legal exposure donald trump faced before the evidence was laid bare last week in the Impeachment Trial. Can you go through all of those vulnerabilities for us . Sure. Well, first and foremost, there are no vulnerabilities because you have georgia and manhattan with not so recently with open Criminal Investigations, also new york has an open civil investigation with the Attorney General. One thing to note which i think were all sort of On Tenterhooks The Manhattan Case is far reaching and one that has been up and back from the Supreme Court where donald trump lost. Its now back up in the Supreme Court where everyones waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether theyre going to take the case or not and its been waiting i think since mid october of last year. So many people thought that was sort of a nobrainer because this is the second time its up to the Supreme Court, but that case is about whether manhattan can get Donald Trumps accounting and presumably tax records if they dont have them already and those could be extremely important documents. In addition, theres the question of whether there will be federal Criminal Investigations of former President Trump. There is as you mentioned may have been breathed some life into them in light of what happened this past weekend. But it remains to be seen whether Merrick Garland and lisa monaco as the incoming presumably heads of the department of justice are going to take that route or whether theyll wait and see whether there are State Investigations that come to fruition and so they can focus on other matters. So if you were still in your role at the fbi and had to weigh in on all of this because obviously, these are really fraught decisions for obvious reasons. President biden has made clear unlike President Trump he will keep his hands out of the Justice Department. What weighs on if youre lisa monaco or Merrick Garland . So if you did not not have State Investigations, state Criminal Investigations i wont say the issue is easy, but the better argument if you dont hold any president to account then theyre de facto above the law. So i would insist on a thorough investigation. I wouldnt yet make a determination on whether he should be charged. Id wait and see what the investigation reveals, id want to hear from Donald Trumps lawyers. But i do think that would be necessary. But in light of the fact that there are state Criminal Investigations i could imagine one of the factors will be if he is being held to account already criminally in one or maybe two states is this really where we want to spend our resources, is it in the best interest of the country . Being sort of an aggressive prosecutor i would generally say i would want an investigation during the time of the State Investigations because you you dont want to do them because you have to worry about the statute of limitations and just on that, by the way, Mitch Mcconnells comments about, you know, these cases, i hope theyre brought but of course theyd have to be brought within the statute of limitations. The irony there is that he could have passed a bill that told the statute of limitations for those cases meaning that it gave prosecutors more time because they couldnt prosecute the sitting president. Right. For him to now be waving around the statute of limitations as a potential defense for the former president was its added to the list of ironic things in the last four years. You know, carol whennic, the post fleshes out this picture today of seven republican senators that came well short of enough republicans to convict, but their indictments of trump and the explanations for why they voted to convict are more scathing than anything that democrats came out and said. I think the democrats had a commitment to watch the facts and vote. The republicans who came out and voted to convict spent so much time and energy making the bluntest, the harshest and the most brutal indictments of Donald Trumps criminality of his incitement of violence, to the indifference to the life of pence and i wonder what the country is left to grapple with. That every democrat, the seven republicans, convicted trump of the incitement of the crime of insurrection. What are we left to do that with as a country . Youre right that the republicans remarks are striking because its been so as long as and im not picking a partisan side here, but its been so long we have heard the republicans speaking about what their party values and when donald trump tromps all over that as he has in the last four years never not taken him to task even in the mildest of ways. I took their speeches to be partly speeches to their own legacies. People are starting to realize that as the Wall Street Journals Editorial Board said, you know, it took only one day for donald trump to rip away his own legacy and his future and the legacy of january 6th weighs heavily on these seven. I would also say that these republicans were speaking to their colleague. And saying, look, you wonder why i care so deeply about this . Im not going to let you not hear me. So theyre speaking to their districts where im sure theyre getting a better reception but also to their colleagues and their own personal reputations because its hard as im sure it was for mcconnell to stomach what they saw without calling it out. Youre going to call this out, then hold it to account. Again, the theme of Donald Trumps presidency is hes never been held to account. Hes never faced any consequences. Not for the perfect ukraine call. Not for the four instances when federal prosecutors would have charged him with obstruction of justice. I could go on and on. Me too. Thats what the public hangover is and i want to read to you President Bidens statement here. President biden said the sad chapter in history has reminded us that democracy is fragile that it must be defended. That we must be ever vigilant that violence and extremism has no place in america and we ought to defend the truth and defeat the lies. Claire mccaskill, are there still republicans in the senate who havent worked to defeat the big lie, the big lie that it endangered all of their lives and the life of Vice President mike pence . And as everyone keeps saying, lets move on, lets move on. I would really like a microphone in all of the people saying to move on for the simple question, you know, to somebody like ron johnson or maybe skip him because he doesnt really matter. But, you know, to some of the senators who kind of hid with mcconnell on the vote behind the technicality of when they heard the impeachment from the sitting president. You know, did Joe Biden Win and was the election one that america can rely on . You know, along with the 9 11 commission this is the other work that has to be done in this country. Real permanent damage was done to america in terms of their faith in elections. Yeah. Thats a big deal. And we need to recruit not just a Bipartisan Group to pull back the curtain on Domestic Terrorism in this country which this commission would do. But to also talk about the fact that what donald trump did with the acquiescence of Mitch Mcconnell and every republican in that caucus was promote a lie undermining democracy for weeks and weeks. Claire, if you were asked to serve on the commission, would you say yes . I think it depends on what you think about my yes. Im pretty sure i know what the answer is. Thank you all for starting us off. When we come back, what will become of a party thats proven itself to be so politically paralyzed that it cant hold accountable the president who endangered them and his own vp . And the few republican senators as we have been discussing who voted to convict donald trump are already facing harsh backlash from their State Parties back home. Why some conservatives are saying bring it on. Plus, what might be the bluntest assessment yet from Kamala Harris on the disastrous vaccine plan that the Biden Administration inherited in the scramble to get the vaccines ahead of the deadly new strains. Scramble to get the vaccines ahead of the deadly new strains. Keeping your oysters Business Growing has you swamped. You need to hire. I need indeed indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com promo when you switch to xfinity mobile, youre choosing to get connected to the most Reliable Network nationwide, now with 5g included. Discover how to save up to 300 a year with shared data starting at 15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. Come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. You can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with Peace Of Mind at your local xfinity store. Major fractures in Donald Trumps Republican Party have only grown in the wake of what was the most bipartisan vote for an Impeachment Conviction in u. S. History. Even if 43 republican senators still voted to block that conviction most of them on a technicality. But that historic first as peter baker writes will haunt trump as well as his party for years to come. This impeachment will come with an asterisk in the History Books if not a dark strain. This time, donald trump did not have the east room to summon allies for a celebration to crow about eluding conviction. In fact the most bipartisan in history and even the republican leader castigated him. This was an escape, not an exoneration. Where trump and his party go after this, the Wall Street Journal wrote mr. Trumps behavior was inexcusable and will mar his legacy and the gop will remain in the winderness if it does too. Joining our conversation, my friend matthew dowd, founder of the group, country over party and claire is still here, of course. Matthew, i have been dying to hear what you think about everything and whether biden has a partner on the other side and stands for something other than letting trump off the hook . I dont think he has a partner, i think he has an adversary on the other side and im im not convinced that the split is so bad in the Republican Party they cant still win elections. I remember that the republicans in 2016, there was this whole discussion that theres a huge rift in the party because Donald Trumps a nominee, he cant win and then he becomes president of the United States and then four years of donald trump and all of the things he did, all of the norms he broke and the constitution he ran over and he gets 74 votes and comes within 50,000 votes of winning the Electoral College and he gets more republican votes than he got in 2016 by far, by a large number and a higher percentage of republicans. So until we go back to i want to go back to something that claire said and joe biden needs to be a part of this. Until we examine the soil upon which the weed of donald trump drew out, we are not going to solve this problem. You and i have talked about this before, every time when we have moved on too fast from some injustice, the injustice that existed continues longer and spreads wider. Keep in mind, barack obama got elected president in 2008 and everybody said, okay, we can now move on from race. We knew that was wrong. We discovered that moving on from race was wrong so i think the Republican Party has to do some soul searching. I think joe biden has to figure out who his partners in washington fundamentally really are. It may be just six or seven or eight republicans but i think this is a question for joe biden, what is going on in the soil of america that has not been excavated, that allowed this to grow and allowed it to foster in such a way that a mob ended up at the capitol and the person that led the mob isnt convicted. Well, matthew, nobody understands whats growing in the soil of america better than you do as a student of history and Public Opinion. What is it . To me, it goes back to a fundamental thing which has happened before in our countrys history which is every time the country and every time a more Diverse Group of voters in our country is is empower ordinary comes to leadership positions, it happened running up to the civil war, it happened in the movement of the civil rights as we saw and of course its happened now. The country is a multidiverse democracy. And theres a group of voters a very large small group of voters who does not like that. And we its as if we are still fighting the battles. We won the military battle of the civil war. We havent won the cultural battle. It still existed in the aftermath of the civil war that was fundamentally not done. Theres a group of voters who thinks theyre the real americans and donald trump in their mind represented the real america and theyre still willing to continue that fight of keeping the levers of power outside the hands of the diverse country that we now are. That is fundamentally our fight today. And whether or not democracy is only for a small group of people or for the country as a whole. And we have to figure out what structures, what ways of educations, which way of civics can somehow uncover that so we can move on and believe again that all Men And Women are created equal. You know, claire, im still mulling over President Bidens statement about the frailty of democracy. And what matthew is saying really underscores that. These people believe on hanging on to a past that was heinous for the brutality and they care about that more than democracy. It feels like a generations long endeavor. Well, i totally agree with matthew, but i would point this out. The president said a grievance and he did it in a bold and disgusting way and he did it day after day with lies and with various things, policies he enacted. He fed that angry grievance that is the result of the resentment that matthew referred to. So the question is, does joe biden have to win all of those people over . Or does he have to do better with 60 to 65 of country . I believe hell concentrate on the 60 to 65 of the country and right now his Approval Rating is already brushing up against 60 and hes working on policy that wide swathes of americans support. Regardless of their party. If he keeps doing that, if he keeps stressing the policies that matter to people, whether its getting rid of college debt or whether its infrastructure or whether its covid relief or raising the minimum wage, he will be able to reassure those people that rewere kind of on the bubble s this socialism s this the end of the country, that joe biden as president is not anything to be feared. Its something to be welcomed. And i think hes going to be able to find enough senators who feel guilty republican senators about what they participated in that hell get a lot done. To claires point, i think thats right. How he governs, but you read the reporting in the Washington Post, the entire department of Homeland Security is in need of being pivoted toward protects americans from americans because that group of people who have the Belief System you articulated now represent a domestic Terror Threat. Well, they not only represent a domestic Terror Threat but we have for first time in our history one Political Party that represents only a minority of the country and the reason why its empowered is because the structures of our democracy as they exist today empower them. So i agree with claire. I think joe biden represents a majority of the country. The problem is the way our democracy now unfolds and is designed and structures allows that small group of people to be way more empowered they should be. Look at the United States senate. Six members of the United States senate have the same population as 60 members of the senate. Think about that. Six members have the same population as 60 and we have gerrymandering which overemphasizes a certain portion of the population so yes, i think joe biden can govern from the middle but hes going to run square into unless we figure this out, the way that Political Parties are done that prevents what the majority wants from happening. Matthew dowd, Claire Mccaskill, thank you for always going deep under the soil. When we come back, the good news is that more states are expanding access and eligibility for the coronavirus vaccine. The not so good news, the supply is not keeping up. And new variants of the virus continue to spread. Thats next. Inue to spread thats next. We made usaa insurance for members like martin. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. 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Enroll now at coveredca. Com. There was no National Strategy or plan for vaccinations. We were leaving it to the states and local leaders to figure it out so in many ways were starting from scratch in something that was raging for almost an entire year. Vice president harris there on the realities of the road ahead as the Biden White House works to vaccinate an entire country and an entire population. Despite the pitiful Vaccination Stockpiles and data she say they inherited. So far, they have ramped up the vaccinations up to 1. 7 million and with the severe disease states say the supply is weak and waning for those who need it most. Here is white house senior covid advisers warning this morning. Most people who havent been vaccinated yet, hold on, this is not the time you want to get covid. Joining our conversation, our friend dr. Vin gupta and yamiche alcindor. Mr. Gupta, first, the warnings about the dangers of the new variants are a stark reminder that all of the things that people have been doing are almost more important now than at any point. Hi, good afternoon, youre right. Whether its guidance on double masking, nicolle, or recommend going out to the Grocery Stores for only 15 minutes a week, theres vigilance on making sure that the American Public doesnt let theyre guard down. Its going to take months because of their lack of a head start. Because of what happened in the prior month before they took office. They didnt have they could have had more Supply Options but we didnt participate with the w. H. O. And their covax initiative. There are more vaccinations out there that we didnt leverage early on. Theres money that has been day delayed to state and local departments of health that can actually help stand up some of the vaccination sites. As we have talked about previously, theres no standardized way to register the individuals or to track those who have been who received their vaccinations. Thats really vital, nicolle, because lets say with the new variants lets say you have been infected or reinfected we want to know whos gotten the vaccine and whos not and who might be more who might be vulnerable to these new variants based on vaccination status. Dr. Gupta, can you explain the new variants . Theyre being explained as more contagious and more lethal at the very moment that i think its sinking in for all americans that on demand vaccines wont be a reality for many, many weeks. You know, nicolle, were still learning more so let me qualify it, so it looks like the way that the covid19 virus attaches to human cells in the lungs, for example, these new variants that are identified in countries overseas, they can make that attachment more easily. What does that mean for all of your viewers . That means you could potentially get exposed an infected more easily if you just breathe in some Virus Particles for a few minutes versus what we have been talking about the original version of the virus which is to say you need maybe 15 minutes in close proximity of an individual infected with the virus. Maybe that time duration is shorter now, nicolle, because it can attach to your lung airway cells more easily. Yamiche, President Biden won in part because of his promise to beat the virus and donald trump i think donald trump and President Biden would agree with in analysis, President Trump was weakened by the response to the pandemic which was catastrophic. I wonder how long the Biden Administration believes they have the countrys patience to ramp up this woefully inadequate supply of vaccine . Its a great question, nicolle, and it really is a question that is at the heart of why President Biden every time you ask him about every topic he brings it back to the coronavirus and the urgency he needs to move to get this under control. Because they understand theyre on borrowed time. Theyre on time where americans are continuing to see Family Members die of the pandemic, where people are losing their jobs, people are getting evicted. America is terrified and completely up ended and at some point its going to get old to say well, we didnt have a plan. Well, theyre three weeks into the Biden Administration and people are going to see, what are you doing for us now, we hired you to fix this. The number one thing i hear from my sources when i say how bad is it, is it worse than you thought it was when former President Trumps response to the virus, literally nine out of ten times they say its worse than we would have imagined and the sense i get from the Administration Officials theyre dealing with the situation because President Trump was too distracted with his own failed political fortunes he stopped caring about the virus and the things needing to be getting done they werent getting done at all. And i heard from a number of people who say that the plan was essentially to dump the vaccine into states and let states handle it. Thats just the way that it was. There was no okay, well deal with these cvs pharmacies. Here are the cities that are most hit, here are the most vulnerable populations there was none of that. It was lets hand it to florida or california or whatever and let them handle it. You have the Biden Administration who are starting from scratch and you have people who are still skeptical of taking the vaccine and i talked to my own Family Members who were skeptical to desperate to get the vaccine. They may have some policies that suggest they feel like putting kids back in schools with teachers that may or may not be vaccinated yesterday is a wise thing to do are those plans subject to reevaluation based on what dr. Gupta is talking about with the unknowns about the variants. When you hear dr. Fauci and others say say thats room to adjust because this is a virus theyre still learning about, and the cdc guidelines that came out, they put a lot of thought into it, a lot of Scientific Data and Research Went into the guidelines. I think these are the best going forward. You see Teachers Unions and some Public Health officials backing them and there are some pushback wondering if its too hard to reopen schools because theres issue when it comes to Community Spread versus what could be spread in the school. If we get to the situation that the new variants are not only easily spread but more lethal which i think there are some questions about whether or not theyre more lethal. You can imagine they have to start adjusting to say heres what we have to do now. I ask that because the data out of uk about the spread in the schools is frightening. Its time to bring in my friend Heidi Przybyla as the teachers and the students are eager to get them back into the classroom especially in philadelphia where thousands of teachers are refusing to return to the classroom. Heidi przybyla live for us in philadelphia. Heidi . Hi, nicolle. Thousands of teachers would rather protest in frigid conditions than go back to the classrooms and why is that . Twothirds of the schools here in philadelphia do not meet basic Safety Ventilation standards according to the independent outside analysis. In fact, 30 of the schools here in philadelphia have no ventilation whatsoever. Im standing outside Richmond Elementary School where you can see that the temporary solution to this is to install these plastic fans that are attached to plywood with duct tape to get some air flow going there. But this temporary solution it is causing an absolute uproar among some teachers and parents. Take a listen. So richmond is almost 100 years old and there is no working functional ventilation system. And thats a big concern for students and staff when we dont have a system to take care of ventilation. The fans are too small and narrow to provide the kind of air flow thats needed and what they do in particular is blow air in a very straight linear kind of directional way which means theyll blow air from one student who may be infected. But not showing symptoms to another student. So they can actually distribute the virus throughout the room. So directional air flow is not a good idea. Those are residential fans and youre talking about putting the fans in the windows when its cold outside. We talked to the citys superintendent of schools here, nicolle. He said, look, this is a very difficult situation. This is a temporary solution. And what the cdc said is that we want to get air flow going. Thats what were doing. Take a listen to his side of the event. We actually have reports of every space, so we have tested the air and every space to measure the amount of fresh air and based on the fresh air it determines how many people can be in the space and then we apply social distancing guidelines and we take the lowest of the two numbers. We have done that in every space that we would use in the district. Nbc also reach out the the independent environmental engineer Whose Organization was referred to us by the cdc and he said this is a real concern that you dont have the directional air flow but this is not just a philadelphia problem. This is a problem nationwide. We had a National Report the first one in ten years on the state of School Infrastructure and it found that 36,000 schools nationwide are either in need of major Ventilation Upgrades or completely new Ventilation Systems. So what covid is doing here is essentially just exposing a problem that has really been decades in the making, nicolle. But we have the new variants coming, we know theyre more contagious. We know that they may even be more harmful. We dont have that yet but were looking into the studies if they mere more harmful to students as well. This is really causing all of the issues to come together and in a very combustible way here in philadelphia and other major underserved urban communities, nicolle. Dr. Gupta, can you add your voice to this debate and this is so emotional, our teachers are so precious we cant live without them so what is the answer to keeping our teachers and keeping our kids safe in the School Facilities from coast to coast that are sadly neglected . Well, heidis reporting is so vital for this national conversation. This is the criticism of the cdc guidelines and much credit to dr. Walensky for putting out what we crave. As a lung doctor dealing with a respiratory pandemic, that is top of mind. We have been Preaching Ventilation for months and months. Stay outdoors, dont have indoor gatherings and its noticeably absent from the cdc guidelines. Heres the upshot here. What heidis report shows here how darn difficult it is to update Ventilation Systems in Public School districts across the country. So my response here is you dont want the opening and the shutting of the schools for next several months without the unknowns. The quickest way to reopen schools is just to prioritize adult and teacher vaccinations. Adult staff teacher vaccinations and this way youll mitigate the loss of life in school settings. Thats the way to keep them ope. Vaccinate teachers. You heard it from dr. Vin gupta. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Up next for us, 150 million americans are right now in the path of a recordbreaking winter storm. My friend al roker joins us next. My friend al roker joins us next . My truck. Is my livelihood. So when my windshield cracked. The experts at Safelite Autoglass came right to me. With service i could trust. Right, girl . Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. This is how you become the best [music youre the best by joe esposito] [music youre the best by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] dont get mad. Get e trade and take charge of your finances today. These are real people, not actors, whove got their eczema under control. 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I can help new homeowners not become their parents. Keeonoh. Nope. Coeenoah. No. Joaquin. No. It just takes practice. Give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] did you hear that . Yeah. Its a constant battle. Were gonna open a pdf. Whos next . Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. No fussin, no cussin, and no at wayfair. When you bundle home and auto with us. You can spend less on sofas that bring the whole family together. No matter what you need for your home you can spend less and get way more. There is a major Winter Storm Plowing across the country today bringing a mix of heavy snow, ice, and freezing temperatures to 26 states across the south and east. The dangerous conditions have left millions of americans without power and millions more are bracing themselves as the storm continues to intensify. Lets bring into our conversation, my friend, al roker, cohost of the today show. Hi there. We only get to talk when theres tragic weather news, so im happy to see you and im sad to hear this is what so many of our viewers are facing. Yeah, and unfortunately, nicole, weve got one more storm behind this one. Lets take a look at the maps, but it is good to see you. Not so good to see this weather. As you take a look, we got winter storm number one. This one is going to be affecting much of the eastern half of the country today and tomorrow with snow, ice, and rain. Then, coming into the pacific northwest, weve got a west coast storm, heads to the gulf, and then up to the east through friday, following the path of this current storm. 38 states were talking 143 Million People under some sort of Winter Weather advisory. You can see the snow now stretching from arkansas into missouri on up into ohio, icy conditions and then heavy rain down to the south, and in fact, we are talking about the risk of tornados in the panhandle of florida and southern georgia, so were going to be watching this. Plus, to the west of that, weve got impactful ice storm stretching from louisiana All The Way Up into the northeast and southern new england. Behind that where the really cold air is, heavy snowfall, nicole, up to an inch an hour, difficult driving conditions, near blizzardlike conditions some places picking up to 8 to 12 inches of snow around the great lakes. And weve got 21 states, 54 Million People under windchill alerts. Tomorrow morning, brutally Cold Windchills and air temperatures, and in fact, three cities alone will be seeing once in a generation cold. Oklahoma citys low tomorrow morning, minus 7. Three. Three degrees in dallas. 12 in houston. Coldest in houston since 89, 96 since dallas. Oklahoma city since 89 as well and that second storm were talking about by wednesday, bringing a mix of rain, snow for texas, Parts Of Louisiana On into arkansas, tennessee, snow, sleet, Freezing Rain Moves to the east, more strong storms down through the southeast, and then it all pushes away on friday, moving off the coast of england, heaviest snow will be into those areas that are interior sections as well. Snowfall amounts, upwards of a foot or more as you get into Northern New England and upstate new york. Moderate amounts as we work our way back into the appalachians and the mid ohio and Mississippi River valleys, nicole, so, Stormy Weather pattern that shows no sign of stopping. This is the time of year when you are the most important person anyone gets to hear from because it affects all of our lives. Al roker, nice to see you, my friend. Thank you for spending some time with us. After the break, more on the dangerous cowardice of Donald Trumps enablers inside the gop. The next hour of Deadline White House starts after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. We are just getting started. Ndot go anywhere. We are just getting started. System, your body needs routine. Centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. Season, after season. Ace your immune support, with centrum. To veteran spouses everywhere we salute you. We salute how you balanced work, family and home life. We salute your courage. And your service. By offering you our service. Newday usa specializes in helping you make the most of your va benefits. From Home Purchase to refinance. We successfully prosecuted him and convicted him in the court of Public Opinion, and in the court of history. Hes obviously a Major Political problem for the Republican Party, and as long as hes out there attempting to wage war on american constitutional democracy, hes a problem for all of us. Hi again, everyone. Its 5 00 in new york. This weekend, we witnessed the unanimous and bipartisan declarations of Donald Trumps guilt, rendering his Acquittal A Flagrant Dereliction Of Duty for the gop senators who voted to let him off the hook for inciting an insurrection. A party that is now on the record as doing nothing about an american president who put the lives of everyone at the capitol, including his own Vice President , at risk and showed zero remorse for the horror he caused there. The cowardice of trumps enablers laid bare by one of the few from his own party who voted to convict trump. In an interview with the New York Times yesterday, senator bill cassidy of louisiana said this. My whole life, reading about great Men And Women who sacrificed for our country, who sacrificed so that we could have the freedoms that we have here today, and the idea that somebody would attempt to usurp those and destroy them, it still angers me, he continued. It just angers the heck out of me. Times adds this. Many republicans privately shared mr. Cassidys rage, but the fact that only seven of them were ultimately willing to find mr. Trump guilty underscored the extraordinary fealty the former president still commands in the party. Now in the wake of this trial, the gop is left divided and flailing. From the Washington Post, quote, one day after the senate acquitted former President Trump and his second Impeachment Trial, republicans continued to digentlemen of the jury in what the future of their party should be with the Chasm Widening between those who want nothing to do with the former president and those who openly embrace him. The division is playing out as trump promises a return to politics and as both factions within the gop vow they will prevail in the 2022 midterms, leaving conservative stalwarts mourning the party they once knew. Pete wehner, former speech writer for george w. Bush expressed his anguish, writing, he not only incited an insurrection, he delighted in watching it unfold in all of its violence. In all of its devastation, in all of its horror. For hours, he did nothing to stop it. Yet in the aftermath of that, the vast majority of republican lawmakers stood where they always have for the last four years, shoulder to shoulder with donald trump and precisely because they have done so time and time again, we became inured to how troubling the alliance between mr. Trump and the Republican Party turned out to be. Where trumps senatorial defenders not only shameless and remorseless but belligerent. Now former member of the Republican Party tom nichols put his assessment this way. Quote, the acquittal of donald trump proved with final certainty that the republicans are driven only by ambition, comfort, and selfinterest, and the constitution be damned. The Republican Partys sealing its oath to donald trump above all else is where we start with hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. John heilemann is back. Nbc news and msnbc National Affairs analyst, host and Executive Producer of showtimes the circus and host of the Hell And High Water podcast. Also olivia troye, who worked in the Trump Administration until august and as an advisor to Vice President mike pence and Homeland Security and counterterrorism. Shes now the director of the republican accountability project. And daniel goldmans back. He was the lead counsel for the democrats during trumps first impeachment as well as the former assistant u. S. Attorney for sdny. Now, lucky for us, an msnbc impeachment analyst. John heilemann, i want to start with you. Our friend, charlie sikes, put some numbers together. Number of republicans who backed the texas lawsuit to overturn the election, 126. Number of republicans who voted against certifying the electoral votes of pennsylvania, 138. The number of republicans who voted to protect conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor greene, 199. The number of House Republicans who voted against impeachment, 197. So, overall, the protrump gop vote in opposition to impeachment was 240 with just 17, 10 house members and 7 senators, voting for it. Its quite a picture. Happy president s day, nicole. Happy president s day, my friend. You know, it seems appropriate to have this conversation as we discuss the continued viselike grip that the former president , beaten like a gong in november of 2020, dispatched from the white house, exiled to maralago where he is free to indulge in overpriced and overdone cheeseburgers and play golf with a bunch of people who dont mind his inveterate cheating from hole to hole, taking a mulligan or two every hole and keeping deflating his handicap. I mean, you know, that guy that guy, nicole, Retiree Donald Trump in south florida, continues to be the most powerful person in the Republican Party and the party has sworn its allegiance to him in the face of a guy who tried to kill them all or was perfectly willing to let them all die, like literally, you know . We talked about this last week. I mean, the kind of Textbook Definition of a monster, a morally depraved monster, who wanted to see was happy to see his Vice President killed. Perfectly did nothing to try to save any of their lives. They are so utterly without core, principles, ideology, intellectual ballast, convictions, beliefs, principles, positions. All they have now is trump. And thats, you know, im you know, im tempted to say, well, im not just tempted. Ill say it. I think the Republican Party is dead now. I mean, ive said a couple times on the show that i think its a zombie party at this point, right . It continues to exist in the world and accumulate millions of people who vote for it. But it is without all of those things i just said, meaning its a holloweyed sort of Game Of Thrones character. Its a white walker, right . Its like a its you know . I dont know who to say other than that, and i think if you think about it that way, i think it is the day that we will look back, i think, its the the sequence of these events and the votes that charlie totaled up, that is the beginning of an obituary for a Political Party. And i think when the obituary for this party is written, one of the early paragraphs will describe these events, these votes and say this is not the beginning of the story but the Tipping Point where the party was beginning to bury itself in the earth. Well, and i think thats right, and i think that story is told by republicans. I think that whatever compelled mitt romney to stand up and annihilate any notion that donald trump was other than dead to rights guilty, guilty, guilty, he said morally and practically, which has serious implications for future investigations, if you are practically guilty as charged, that means there is tangible evidence and morally means that i dont know what it means about Mitch Mcconnell voting to acquit, other than he found some nook and cranny in the constitution that ted olsen and chuck cooper did not see and clung to it, hid there. He didnt do that. Go ahead. I think all all he did, nicole, was he laid out the case as powerfully against trump as anybody. He knows trumps guilty. He said so. He just looked at his caucus and said, if i vote to convict donald trump, i will no longer be leader of the leader of the Republican Party. Theyll throw me out. I wont be Minority Leader anymore, and all Mitch Mcconnell cares about is power for himself and his party, so he looked at the caucus, saw that the caucus was going to be dramatically against him, was not a leader, obviously, in any meaningful way, the absolute opposite of leader but he just did the exercise and said, if i vote to convict, they will throw me out. I wont be Minority Leader anymore. I dont want that. All i care about is me so im going to do this thing. But he knows the truth. He knows its constitutional and he knows that hes guilty. Olivia, i want to ask you about mike pence. He figured so prominently into the case that was made by the House Managers. Donald trumps now well publicized and well reported out indifference to his safety, to whether he lived or died. Why havent we heard from mike pence . Well, i think that you are looking at a calculation of mike pence and where he thinks he stands with the party and where his future is with the party, unfortunately. And you know, ive got to say, i felt like i was grieving this weekend, nicole, and i wasnt grieving just because i know that the gop is in a really dark place and theyre going to have a hard time coming back from this, if ever, but i was grieving for the legacy of what that acquittal of donald trump meant for the country in terms of national security, in terms of the these movements and this hatred and this divisiveness, and the fact that that was a stamp of approval by these republican senators that voted to acquit and that this behavior, this type of, you know, movement of these type of people is okay, and that, to me, was a really sad day, and i had hoped that mike pence would, you know, Seize The Day and take the opportunity for leadership finally and say, enough, and that mcconnell would have come forward, you know, instead of playing the monday morning quarterback, so to speak, in terms of his speech and saying, yeah, hes guilty, but oh, im going to be selfinterested and protect myself and not encourage the party to go with me. And thats just a really sad day for our country. Let me read you something that amanda carpenter, who spent her career in republican politics, but is now one of its harshest critics wrote about mike pence. Over the coming months, the former Vice President is going to spend lots of time speaking to and for the same movement that built up, supported, and defended the president who put a target on his back on january 6th. Aside from morbid curiosity, its unclear why anyone would listen to what he has to say. Pences strategic silence shows us that hes either unable or unwilling to stand up for his own health and safety. Why would anyone trust him to Stand Up For America . Fair . It is fair. And i saw amandas piece and you know what i thought of . I thought of a very, very close advisor to donald trump who one day in the white house looked at me and said, mike pence will never be president because he is weak, and he will not take a stand, and he doesnt have the guts and the conniving energy that it takes to become president like donald trump did. That says it all. Yeah. Well, i think this human tick, though, i mean, just to come back to the politics of it all, im not clear on how you run on nothing, and i agree with you, John Heilemann, that what is clear is that the Republican Party is not a governing party that comes to the a table with the other party and enthusiastically and, you know, in a spirited way defends their ideas. They are a Permission Structure for the darkest forces in american political life. But they also stood against Holding Accountable someone who attacked mike pence after he was told that he had been evacuated and had fled for his own safety. That seems to deepen it and darken it. Well, i agree, nicole. Its part of why, you know, why i use that word, monster, earlier today and last week when we looked stare squarely in the face of that behavior on trumps part. Ill say, you know, the point you just made about pence and amanda carpenter, its not just that pence was not willing to stand up to donald trump and come out and speak out against him, now knowing that he that donald trump was willing to feed him to the mob. Its his family. I mean, pence is up on capitol hill that day with his family, and donald trump fed mike pence and his family to the mob. Stoked the mob when mike pence and his familys lives were in jeopardy. Donald trump, not only didnt try to protect him, but fired up the mob, like basically tried i mean, i dont even know how to say it. I cant believe im saying these words about someone, even donald trump, that he was perfectly willing to encourage the mob when his Vice President , who had been the most loyal lackey of all, for four years, now, a smart republican actually, a smart journalist who covers republicans said to me, in the moments after, you know, pence was loyal to him until he wasnt and he wasnt willing to do the thing that trump wanted in the end, the last thing, which was to fight the certification of the Electoral College. I said, he had no there was nothing mike pence could do, literally there was nothing he could do. Mike pence had no power to serve trump so this is not a question of loyalty. This is trump decides after four years of loyalty from pence, and all that toaddying, when he asked him to do one thing he literally could not do, that was enough for donald trump to turn on pence and say, im happy to have your family and you killed in this in the middle of this insurrection, in the middle of this riot, and that that is something mike pence has not stood up and spoken out about. What kind of a human being forget about political leader. Forget about leader of party. Forget about someone with principles or the capacity to lead a movement or lead america. What kind of human being takes that from another human being . I just i mean, it shows someone who is utterly bankrupt in every possible on every possible level and lacks not just Leadership Skills but i think the core humanity to ever be the nominee of any party, even this Republican Party. It certainly doesnt leave him with anything to you know, i mean, i think the country benefitted from him going in there on the 6th and doing his constitutional duty, but in the middle of an Impeachment Trial, and dan goldman, you have brought a case for impeachment where similar to this case, the facts were not in dispute. Witness after witness after witness after witness after witness after witness testified to the very same pattern of events, the very same conduct. John bolton may have come out after the fact and corroborated them from deep inside, but none of the facts were in dispute, none of the facts were disproven after the fact. What do you think the Lasting Impact is for the country to have, again, not only none of the facts being disputed but being corroborated by people like Mitch Mcconnell who take to the senate floor to say, i agree with everything that was said in this courtroom this week, everything the House Managers laid out was true. And to go even further than they did, say practically and morally, he caused the insurrection, he incited it. But to still lose the case in terms of not getting to 67. Where does that leave the country . Well, i think the clear thing from 57 senators voting for impeachment and the poll was out today that 58 of the country believed that donald trump should be convicted, what we realize is when the framers created a 67, twothirds of the Senate Retirement for conviction on impeachment, there were no entrenched at that time. And there were factions, but i dont think that they anticipated the entrenched nature of our party system. So, what i do think is true is that the Impeachment Process is somewhat illinformed for or illdesigned for the situation that were in now. But nicole, i fear something a little bit different than what you guys have, i think, so cogently touched upon about the Republican Party. Im concerned about some of the reports that have come out after the fact about how a number of witnesses, including other republican congressMen And Women, other people close to trump and to pence, who were afraid of cooperating with the house Impeachment Managers. Donald trump has a long history of Witness Tampering and witness intimidation. The difference now, after january 6th, is that he has these paramilitary organizations at his beck and call, and they and we all know now that they will exact violence at his direction. So, when Marjorie Taylor greene goes on twitter and says, Donald Trumps 75 million loyal supporters are watching you, representative Herrera Butler, that is a clear threat to her safety, and perhaps to others. And i think that this witness intimidation, this sort of ruling by bullying and by threat that donald trump has used so far for the last four years, it was one thing when he would just issue, you know, send out a mean tweet. But its another thing when he has the proud boys and the oath keepers and these Domestic Terrorist organizations behind him, and i think theres a real issue here that Donald Trumps words now carry a lot different meaning than they did before january 6th. I dont want to lose this thread. This is really important, daniel goldman, and again, this is all in the public record. Donald trump tells the proud boys to stand by and stand back and stand by. The proud boys make sure it was stand back and stand by on them. Johns calling alex wagner has done extraordinary sitdowns with the Militia Groups who were standing by for Donald Trumps order. He basically gave the order by saying other than a victory for me is a fraudulent result. He has to this day not withdrawn that. I had heard from a source close to the house Impeachment Managers that the witnesses had gone cold by the morning, that even witnesses potential witnesses who they were in contact with the night before were no longer willing to be willing witnesses by the morning. Obviously, you could have subpoenaed them, gone to court, but The Don Mcgahn Testimony is still being litigated in court for the case you brought. Tell me what the remedy is for what you just described, though. The only real remedy is a sweeping Criminal Investigation that wraps up the proud boys, the oath keepers, these Domestic Terrorist organizations, which, as i understand from reading the press, are currently being investigated as well as other people who are close to donald trump or some of these republican congressMen And Women that we have heard about, and they need to be fully debriefed and vetted about what they felt, what contacts and communications they received. I think representative Herrera Butler needs to be spoken to by the fbi or other Law Enforcement authorities, and there needs to be some repercussion against anyone whos issuing these threats, who is tampering with witnesses, and then you just have to sort of trace it up the line. Where does it go from the people issuing the threats . Have they had any communications with anyone else . Its a massive and longterm investigation, but it is clear where we are right now that this is a significant Domestic Terrorist threat and people, whether donald trump, you know, intends it or not, are acting at his direction and when he doesnt disavow these groups, and when he doesnt recognize the legitimacy of the election, he is continuing to foment unrest and violence in this country. Something well be talking about for a long time to come. Olivia troy, thank you so much. Daniel goldman, im going to embarrass you very much. Thank you so much for getting so many of us, the hosts here through last week with your expertise and experience. Were grateful. Heilemanns sticking around. When we come back, Mitch Mcconnell says donald trump is still liable for everything he did in office, so where do those investigations stand right now today . Well dig deeper into the legal threat facing the twice impeached expresident , including whats happening in georgia. Thats next. Plus with impeachment in the rear view, President Bidens big, bold agenda is taking center stage, and hes Finding Support in some unlikely places. And as one coronavirus surge seems to be easing up just a bit, another may be right around the corner. What the new Coronavirus Variants mean for the next few months of the pandemic here in the u. S. Deadline white house continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. Continues after a quick break. Dont go anywhere. This is what Community Looks like. Caring for each other, protecting each other. And as the Covid Vaccine rolls out, well be ready to administer it. This is how you become the best [music youre the best by joe esposito] [music youre the best by joe esposito] [triumphantly yells] [ding] dont get mad. Get e trade and take charge of your finances today. We made usaa insurance for members like kate. A former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. So when her car got hit, she didnt worry. She simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said. I got this. Usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it easy. She can even pick her payment plan so its easy on her budget and her life. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa. To support local restaurants, weve been to every city, including baton rouge. And even topeka. Yeah, were exhausted. Whew so, tonight. Ill be eating the roast beef hero from. Parm. In. Soho. doorbell excellent. And, tonight. Ill be eating the coconut curry chicken from. Pikliz. In. Winter hill. doorbell giggle oh, theyre excellent. I had so many fried plantains i thought i was going to hurl. Do ya think they bought it . Oh yeah. President trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office. As an ordinary citizen. Unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while he was in office. Didnt get away with anything yet. Yet. We have a criminal Justice System in this country. Really . Mitch mcconnell there on saturday echoing the sentiments of Donald Trumps own lawyer, bruce castor, of what might lie ahead for the former president with his second Impeachment Trial now concluded, more Serious Problems could be headed trumps way. Serious legal problems that have politicized senate cant help him with. Trump awaits investigations from several different states and entities, including the district of columbia, the Southern District of new york, and most recently, georgia. Investigations that could lead to criminal prosecution there. The investigation into trumps phone call with georgias Secretary Of State is being led by Fulton County d. A. Fanny willis, who discussed the investigation on the air with my colleague, rachel maddow, last week. Whether there was an impeachment or not an impeachment would not change the fact that something occurred here within my jurisdiction that may be criminal, and if that is the case, it needed to be investigated. Joining our conversation, msnbc justice and security analyst, our friend matt miller is back, former Chief Spokesman for the department. We have turned to you so many times when the center of the political universe became georgia, and your beat. It now seems that its possible that one of the centers of Donald Trumps ongoing continued legal problems could once again be georgia. Yeah, youre exactly right, and fani willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, is about to become probably the most watched local prosecutor in the nation because of this investigation. And while you mentioned it centers on that famous phone call the president former President Trump made to Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary Of State, asking him to find enough votes to overturn the election, its also broader than that. It also involves what we think involves President Trumps former President Trumps attempts to convince Governor Kemp to call a special session to reverse the election outcome, to pressure other State Officials to reverse the his defeat in georgia. And potentially other parts of the investigation that could involve rudy giuliani, his lawyer, and b. J. Pack, the former prosecutor who resigned january before the primary. Its so interesting that you point out the broad nature of it because when you listen to the call, and i listened to the whole phone call, everyone should listen to the whole phone call, its one of the most enlightening windows into how donald trump bullied, how corrupt his motives and his conduct was. But its clear thats not the first time theyre going to any of these guys. Its very much part of an ongoing effort and i know that you have also reported that Lindsey Grahams call could be under investigation as well. Could you talk about that . Exactly right. Part of the investigation includes a phone call that Lindsey Graham allegedly made to Secretary Of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to find some way to throw out some of these ballots. Lindsey graham denies that and says he was just asking about the process by which ballots are counted in georgia, Absentee Ballots are counted in georgia, but this is part of that wideranging probe as well. This is a Serious Investigation that involves all sorts of potential violations. According to the letters that we obtained, Election Fraud, false statements, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of Oath Of Office so theres a broad array of different, potentially criminal charges that fani willis will be looking at. Matt miller, there was some reporting in early december that as he got ready to leave office because even donald trump knew his lie was a lie, at times, he thought about pardoning himself. And i wonder what you make of that, in hindsight, because its clear and i talked to an ally of Donald Trumps after the Election Fraud had gone on for many weeks and i said, what is he doing . He said, hes raising money for what he knows is going to be years and years of litigations around his company and around his conduct. What do you make of just how it seems that even donald trump knows hes in a lot of legal trouble. Yeah, look, i suspect he ultimately didnt issue himself a pardon because he knew that it would be an enormous controversy. It would make him look guilty, and it wouldnt ultimately solve his most serious legal problems. His most serious legal problems now arent on a federal level anymore and couldnt be absolved with a federal pardon. His most serious legal problems are this investigation in georgia and the investigation being conducted by the District Attorney in manhattan looking at potential tax fraud and Insurance Fraud and bank fraud crimes where donald trump wouldnt be able to talk his way out because it wont be about his words. It will be about documents he filed and whether those documents show him committing fraud. I think the surprising thing for me about the georgia case when you listen to that phone call, and youre right, everyone should absolutely listen to it, is how brazen he is. If you go back and look at where some of the other investigations, you know, where its been hard to prove the case against him, it comes down to, you know, Michael Cohen described as him talking in code. Michael cohen, remember, said that donald trump doesnt give orders or ask questions. He speaks in code, and he expects you to know what to do. Well, he wasnt speaking in code when he talked to Secretary Of State raffensperger. He didnt say, go out and do the right thing. He said, i want you to find the exact number of votes it will take to overturn the election. There was nothing in code about it. It was a straightup Direct Pressure that very much looks like a crime. The bar, of course, for indicting and prosecuting would be very high, but he absolutely has serious liability. Matt, youve had the role of being a Senior Advisor to an Attorney General, and i wonder if you were advising this current team, Merrick Garland and lisa monaco, what you think their thoughts are about what Michael Cohen said on our air yesterday. He said, there were crimes there for which i was charged and went to prison. There has to be basically something on donald trump. Youve also got, outside of sdny, whether theres something there or not, youve got the u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia, clearly doing the kind of prosecution and investigation where theyre working their way up from the insurrectionists themselves All The Way Up, starting to hear their defenses, which are over and over and over and over again. I just did what donald trump asked me to do. What do you think the i dont want to say policy, but sort of tone and tenor will be from the top of the Justice Department about these investigations at the federal level that very likely could touch donald trump. Look, i suspect that they will be very clear theyre not going to go back and reopen any of the old investigations. You know, the Mueller Report or what sdny looked at with Campaign Finance probes. Those probes are over. Theyve been closed. It would be unusual. And i dont think necessarily warranted for the Justice Department to reopen them now. But that said, with the federal probe into what happened on january 6th, they absolutely have to look at Donald Trumps conduct. I suspect they will. Again, there will be a very high bar for prosecution, and i think they wouldnt, you know, they wouldnt consider an indictment unless they were very sure of conviction, and thats going to be an incredibly high bar, but it would be derelict not to examine it. Theyll have Career Prosecutors doing it. You can trust that the recommendations will come up to a career team that the u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia, who apparently is being discussed to stay on in some role, continuing to examine the insurrection, is someone that was put in place by bill barr. If he were to recommend indictment, you could, you know, you would have a hard time making a case that it was a political indictment. Thats a long way down the road, though. I suspect theyre just going to take, you know, the very appropriate view that were going to follow the facts and the law and this is a different Justice Department than the nation saw for the last four years. Were not going to make political decisions one way or another. Were not going to indict donald trump just because hes a political opponent of President Joe Biden in the same way we wouldnt overlook cases of the people close to the president. Were just going to follow regular order, the way the Justice Department is supposed to do. That in and of itself represents a big departure from the way its been the last four years. Matt miller, greg bluestein, thank you so much for spending time with us today. When we return, President Biden pushing ahead on his 1. 9 Trillion Covid relief bill and his ambitious plans dont end there. That storys next. That storys next. For veteran families, when it comes to finding and buying your dream home, well be there to make it happen. Well be there when you want better rates too. Or to get money for retirement. Well be there because we work only with veteran families like yours to help you get the most life out of a home for the life of your family now that the second impeachment of donald trump has arrived at its sadly inevitable conclusion, the nations focus turns to the grinding wheels of governing this country. Its a Biden Administration obviously eager to turn the page, to enact its vision, its agenda without the specter of Donald Trumps impeachment hanging over everything they do. According to the New York Times, President Biden will quickly press for passage of his 1. 9 trillion Coronavirus Relief plan before moving on to an even bigger agenda in congress. That includes infrastructure, immigration, criminal justice reform, climate change, and healthcare. Thats a lot, especially considering the context of this moment. President biden and the democrats currently hold a loose grip on the house and senate, but biden will have to deal with an opposing party seemingly ready to challenge him at every turn. Joining our conversation, eugene robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post and msnbc Political Analyst, and John Heilemann. Eugene, the variable here that President Biden seems acutely aware of his singular ability to control is Public Opinion. Let me read you some of the Public Opinion numbers for his agenda. 7 in 10 of all americans support bidens 1. 9 trillion package. That includes 37 of republicans and 64 of republicans support 1,400 direct stimulus payments. Right. And that matters, nicole. It does matter. I mean, there is, you know, huge opposition from republicans, particularly in the senate, to the 1. 9 trillion relief plan. However, there is what sounds like potential acquiescence to a lot of it, especially the direct payments, because theyre so popular. And frankly, so much of the plan is popular. The payments to state and local governments are popular with republicans who have to run state and local governments. Theyre just not popular with republicans in congress. You know, we heard republican after republican during the recent Legal Proceedings say, we shouldnt be wasting time on impeachment. We should be doing important things like covid relief for the country. And so, what i think the Biden Administration should call them on those words and say, okay, you said this is what we ought to be doing, lets do it. You know, John Heilemann, im, again, this is where sort of my Muscle Memory as a former staffer taints my view of things, but i think that the biden team has very strategically picked their moments, and i think they stayed out of impeachment for strategic reasons of not wanting to do anything to dampen this enthusiasm among republicans. When youve got 65 of all republicans who support 1,400 stimulus checks and 70 of americans behind a massive stimulus, that is that doesnt just happen. That is an accomplishment derived from very careful and meticulous messaging and planning. 100 . 100 , nicole, like, they did there was not a, you know, its not the joe biden the joe biden and the administration know that democrats are on the same wavelength with him about trump. He doesnt need to say to have weighed in on this and weighing in on it only risked was not going to gain any votes in the process and it was only going to risk potentially alienating republicans and republicans, to your point, not republicans on capitol hill, their definition, their evolving definition of bipartisanship is not to worry about whether they can get a certain number of republican votes on these measures that theyre going to try to that theyre going to run up through capitol hill, because they know they might not so theyre going to try to get the republicans if the cost is not too high, but their definition of their evolving definition of bipartisanship is, do we have republican support out in the country . So, they wanted to steer clear of saying things that would alienate republicans in the country on impeachment when it was unnecessary and youll notice, nicole, the best example of your messaging point is that when biden eventually weighed in and said something about this, he took the words of Mitch Mcconnell rather than having his own words on this question, so its like, you know, if youre going to say something, while mcconnell gave him that gift, mcconnell went out and gave that speech, which allowed biden to basically quote mcconnell, which also gives him a kind of political insulation from potential republican backlash, again, out in the country, not necessarily on capitol hill. Theyre playing the outside game and in this environment, when the inside game is so toxic, so polarized and so gridlocked on party lines, the outside game is not. Theres lots of republicans who like these plans. So theyre going to go out there and appeal to them. Its an ageold technique but theyre doing it very well p. I want to read you some reporting in your paper that bolsters the points John Heilemann is making. Republicans oppose the relief bill, casting it as bloated and budget busting but to many republicans at city halls and state houses across the country, the Relief Package looks very different. Instead the blue state bailout derided by gop lawmakers, republican mayors and governors say they see badly needed federal aid to keep police on the beat, to prevent battered main street businesses from going under, and to help care for the growing ranks of the homeless and the hungry. I mean, historically, keeping police on the beat, preventing battered main street businesses, and keeping the homeless and the hungry off the streets and from suffering, have garnered bipartisan support. I mean, i think to the conversation we started the hour with, this is a washington Republican Party that seems way out of the mainstream of republicans outside of washington. Right. Increasingly out of touch with those republicans outside of washington, and so you look at somebody like jim justice, the governor of west virginia, for example, who, in one of the most republican, you know, trumpy states in the country, and he keeps saying that in this Relief Package, Congress Needs to go big, because people need the help. Governments need the help to keep police and fire and essential services going. And so, again, it is as John Heilemann said, i think, very smart the way the biden team has played this. And its made it is making a difference. Its going to make a difference when this package eventually gets through, which i think it will. And of course the whole idea is to make a difference in peoples lives, which will just reinforce the messaging. Eugene robinson, John Heilemann, thank you so much for spending time with us on president s day. When we return, will those dangerous new variants of the coronavirus keep schools closed just as many of them are making plans to reopen . That storys ahead. Ans to reope . That storyshe aad if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, now might not be the best time to ask yourself, are my bones strong . life is full of make or break moments. Thats why its so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. Only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. Do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. Serious allergic reactions like low blood pressure, trouble breathing, throat tightness, face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. Tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe Jaw Bone Problems may happen. Or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual Thigh Bone Fractures have occurred. Speak to your doctor before stopping, skipping or delaying prolia®, as spine and other Bone Fractures have occurred. Prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium, serious infections, which could need hospitalization, skin problems, and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. Dont wait for a break, call your doctor today, and ask about prolia®. Top u. S. Health officials are warning today that the recent significant drop in covid cases could be deceiving. A new study has discovered seven new variants emerging across the u. S. That likely originated here and british Scientists Say the uk variant, already identified in more than 1,000 people in 40 states, is likely 30 to 70 deadlier. Heres top american epidemiologist, our friend, dr. Michael ostherholms prediction. The next 14 weeks, i think, will be the worst of the pandemic. People dont want to hear that, but if we look at what these variants are doing, particularly this one from the united kingdom, and see what it did in europe, see what its done in the middle east, its now beginning to start that here in the United States, we are going to see that unfold, so overall, with schools, they have to fit into that, and i think what were going to see is big efforts to open the schools. We will get some open beyond what we have now, but then its going to likely be a real challenge for them in the next six to eight weeks as the Surge Numbers begin to increase and this will last for at least likely up to 14 weeks. Joining our conversation, msnbc medical contributor, dr. Roy, Internal Medicine physician and someone we turn to when the news is hopeful and when the news is bleak, like that prediction from dr. Olsterholm. Is that what we should be bracing for . Nicole, its good to be with you. Lets just take a step back. We now have 27 million cases or infections in the United States. Over 485,000 lives have been lost. We are still very much in the midst of a pandemic. While there are some promising signs with overall cases going down, hospitalizations going down, we have all these variants, as professor osterholm mentioned and dr. Fauci, variants all over the world. Its not actually surprising. We know that viruses mutate. Their sole purpose is to survive and to thrive. We just want to make sure that we do not create more of an environment thats conducive for the virus to continue to mutate and survive and thrive. The uk variant, as you already know, nicole, b. 1. 1. 7 has found to be not only more transmissible but studies are saying it can be 30 to 70 more lethal. Were not sure why that is. We think that its because it can confer a higher viral load and a higher viral burden has been associated with increased disease severity, but i am hopeful, nicole, that if we continue to practice really double down on mitigation measures, we can still fight this, nicole. You know, one of the debates, i think, that is i think that is really straining communities from coast to coast is about how to reopen schools. With the Serious Mental Health impact on our youngest and our our treasures as well as our teachers. Theres no one to teach our kids. If teachers dont go because they dont feel safe or heaven forbid get sick or lose their lives. How do you lay out the terrifying data about the variants with this equally urgent need to get our kids back into school . Really important topic. Its our Education System and keeping our children educated but while also keeping teachers and other adults in the Education System safe. First of all, lets take a step back. I am so reassured that we finally have a plan. The cdc has released actual guidance. As you know, nicolle, Public Health people like me has been asking, begging the federal government since last year for an Actual National plan. Specific guidance. And the cdc guidance has just come out with specific plans and recommendations that are rooted in science, not just speculation or conjecture. And what they are recommending is that masks, distancing between seats within classrooms, good ventilation, and Contact Tracing are really measures, mitigation measures that will keep both students and teachers and other adults safe. Dr. Lippi roy, we will continue to turn to you as we go through all this together. Thank you for spending some time with us today. When we return, as we do every day, we will remember lives well lived. R lives well lived. Yourself in your new glasses and think, ooh but if you get home and your ooh is more of a hmm. You have 100 days to change your mind. 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We are tracking right now this continuing fallout over the unusual scene saturday night as the United States senate made history with the most bipartisan vote to convict a president ever. A recordbreaking number of Senate Republicans joined democrats to convict donald trump of a high crime against this nation, inciting insurrection. Leading to tonights news of Speaker Pelosi calling for a brand new independent probe of that maga attack on the capitol. Despite the understandable fatigue and skepticism out there, nothing about this trial really