Bidens relief plan may end up being a democratsonly bill. Of course, they control both chambers. They could pass it with a simple majority if necessary. Nbc news Reports Biden is also getting an Immigration Reform bill ready, looking for Congressional Democrats to help push that through as well. Key elements will include a pathway to citizenship for those undocumented, expanding refugee resettlement, more technology to patrol the southern border in lieu of a wall. Wall street journal reports even though biden and the democrats are in fullcourt press mode, republicans have the freedom to ramp up their opposition. Quote, by the Sunday Morning after the impeachment trial, it was clear that one cause will be to rally in opposition to mr. Bidens agenda. While trumps second impeachment may be history, the fallout, aftershocks from the trial, and the riot that set it in motion, all intensifying. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moving forward now with a plan for a 9 11style independent commission to investigate, report on the insurrection. She also want more funding to protect the capitol and the lawmakers inside it. Meanwhile, one of the 43 republican senators who acquitted trump gave this extraordinary interpretation of the events of 1 6 during a Radio Interview just this morning. The fact of the matter is, this didnt seem like an armed insurrection to me. If that was a planned armed insurrection, man, you had really a bunch of idiots. Im sitting back in my office watching video of the armed insurrectionists staying within the lines inside the capitol. Im seeing a bunch of people milling about. You know, it wasnt till i really saw the video in the trial that you really saw, you know, what was happening and how officers got, got injured. Unbelievable explanation from ron johnson, which weve had translated from the original russian, of course. If you were watching on saturday, you saw Mitch Mcconnell convict trump in his speech moments after acquitting him. The guy who held off the trial until trump left the presidency said they just couldnt convict trump because he had left the presidency. Tonight mcconnell has a new oped in the Wall Street Journal apparently written by gaslight, responding that complaints that his Scheduling Decisions somehow affected the senates ability to actually remove trump from office before he left on january 20th. Quote, consider the claim i could have steered around the jurisdictional issue by recalling the senate between january 14 and 20, while mr. Trump was still in office. The salient date is not the trials start, but the end, when the penalty of removal from office must be possible. No remotely fair or regular senate process could have started and finished in less than one week, said mcconnell, after the weeklong trial. The senate fell 10 votes short of the 67 needed to convict trump of inciting insurrection. An abc news ipsos poll showed 58 of our fellow voters say trump should have been convicted. Trump has made no oncamera comments since the acquittal. In his statement he issued saturday night, he signalled hes not done with politics. He was back on the golf course in West Palm Beach today. Local trumpers threw him a mini ego boost parade. He was visible waving from inside his armored Chevy Suburban just across the Intercoastal Waterway from the maralago resort. With that and its a lot, lets bring in our leadoff guests. Phil rucker, pulitzer prizewinning senior washington correspondent for the washington toast. A. B. Stoddard, Associate Editor and columnist for real clear politics. And neal katyal, former Justice Department veteran, hes argued dozens of cases before the supreme court. A. B. , i think you knew this was coming. Youre going first. Senator Lindsey Graham called for the future party to be something akin to, his words, trump plus. Now, considering trump plus or trump minus lost them white house, house, senate, how do you reckon theyre going to try to win elections with trump plus, a kind of Super Unleaded . Right, i dont think right now theyre worried about the people we see in polling that have peeled off from the insurrection and the trial. I think theyre just thinking that they are so afraid of those voters who are enacting all these purity tests at the local parties and state party levels, Censuring Members who voted for impeachment, and they just want to make sure that they tell those devotees, theyre in their corner, and theyre not going to abandon President Trump even though Lindsey Graham told us that he was going to on january 6th. So i think that sort of Panic Scramble to cement the base is top of mind, and you see that from deranged comments, like senator ron johnson, the whitewashing of the insurrection. And it really tells you about where they think they have to cling. I mean, they see the polls we do. They know theres been this erosion since january 6, and some cases since november 3rd, and that trump cost the republicans the georgia runoffs. But theyre going to cling to the 70 that remain. Because they think without that, they have nothing. So, neal katyal, mcconnell got up and gave a speech that was kind of lock him up. Not that mcconnell wanted to do that. He was suggesting it for others. We have a graphic showing other legal matters already in the pipeline. To use a legal term, are any of these worth a damn if that is your goal . Very much so. I think Donald Trumps gone from fighting a onefront war with party to fighting a threefront one. So youve got criminal activity now in investigations, thats both at the federal and state and local level. The possibility of a 14th Amendment solution to try and bar trump from future officeholding, and now today you have the speaker of the house announcing this january 6th commission, and that commission very well may have the power to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. And in the past, those went nowhere because bill barr was the Attorney General. But bill barr is not the Attorney General any more. And this kind of metastasizing, brian, is what happens when you dont get a clean victory, and trump got anything but a clean victory on saturday. I think he got the reverse. I mean, just a week ago before the trial began, the trump folks were all predicting major victory pointing to the twothirds vote that would be necessary under the constitution. They never quite predicted what would happen. First, the spellbinding presentation by the House Managers. Second, pretty much the opposite by the trump lawyers. Third, seven republican lawyers seven republican senators, excuse me, seeking to convict, voting to convict donald trump. And then 43 acquittals, but on a technicality that they didnt have jurisdiction. Indeed, many of them said trump did it, like mcconnell. Thats really the exclamation point. At this point even the Wall Street Journal oped editorial page agreed trump is toxic. Pretty soon the only sympathetic outlets trump is going to have left is the one he started with, russia today. So, phil rucker, is there a new gop strategy or is it way too early . Do they all need to see where the pieces fall and in plain english, because they are how they are, how much trouble these seven senators get in . You know, brian, its way too early to see if the party itself has a new strategy. But for right now the strategy seems to be trump plus, as Lindsey Graham laid it out. You do not see Much Movement in this republican party. And of those seven senators, i believe only one, Lisa Murkowski of alaska, is facing judgment from the voters in the next twoyear cycle. Shell be up for reelection in 2022, and she, of course, has survived interrepublican battles before. She got reelected as a writein because she lost to a tea party nomination. Republicans facing the ballot are sticking with trump as of now. Things could change, of course, and a lot of that depends on, you know, the court cases and what sort of a presence former President Trump is going to be having in politics on the National Stage in the next several months. But clearly there is a desire by Republican Leaders to move on from trump. Mitch mcconnell certainly feels that desire, but theyre unwilling to really break from him. And to articulate it out loud. Because as a. B. Was saying, theyre so fearful of these trump devotees, the millions of them in their states and congressional districts. A. B. , lets go one step deeper. That burr and cassidy were immediately censured by their Home State Parties tells you everything you need to know. May tell us a lot about Home State Parties where the rubber meets the road. The big lie lives on in so many people and so many places, and this piggybacks on our first exchange. How is a party going to win on that . Well, brian, im going to be brief because a Meandering Filibuster of mine last week precluded final comments from phil rucker. I want to quickly say i am really alarmed stepping back from impeachment where we focused on the insurrection to see that there are only fewer than a dozen i mean, two handfuls, maybe, in the senate and the house, and ill include mcconnell, who voted to convict, because he called out the trump lie, who are willing to tell the voters, you have been lied to and we are in the middle of a mass delusion. The Attorney General of indiana has now just been flagged on twitter for a tweet about the stolen election that twitter says could spur violence. We really are just in the beginning of what this big lie has done. Counselor, neal, i want to show you two members of congress who we got to know as managers. We are proud around here, both of them are veteran guests on this broadcast. Here are plaskett and neguse with Rachel Maddow tonight on the subject of why no witnesses. I know that so many people felt that, you know, maybe if we had more witnesses it could have changed more senators. But i think as youre seeing these statements come out of those 43 individuals, we know that there was no additional witness that was going to change their mind. We felt that we had made our case overwhelmingly, was able to get in the additional statement, and rested our case. It was fairly clear to us that any witnesses that might have some probative evidence to share could very well end up tying the impeachment in litigation for months, perhaps years. Neal, i need two answers from you. Your honest personal opinion. Were you buoyed, but then crushed, when you woke up that morning and learned that by dint of Sheldon Whitehouse having spoken overnight, it was gaining currency, it was gaining traction, until it did not, until they cut a deal, no witnesses . The second part of the answer id like is, how much shenanigans to congressman neguses point, how much shenanigans could the minority have come up with . Can they truly have bollixed this up for weeks . I was buoyed saturday morning, brian. I thought finally, we might hear the truth, we might hear witnesses that might not just humanize the story, i wanted to hear from pence, i wanted to hear from trump. I think the American People deserve that. I do think the House Managers did an exquisite job. They were right to say in the end the problem wasnt the facts. They overwhelmingly proved the facts. But do i think humanizing is a good thing. Now, with respect to the second part of your question, i think the New York Times has reported that senators such as joni ernst and others threatened to shut down the business of the senate if they had witnesses to the point of saying, no nominees, no covid legislation, and things like that, which is to me unbelievable. They need to be held accountable for this. The idea that they were so the republicans were so afraid of the truth that they were willing to prevent coronavirus legislation and people from getting confirmed and the like. But heres the deal. At the end of the day, the fact that there are no witnesses, we can make lemonade out of these lemons because that just invites, then, further proceedings in which we do have witnesses, whether theyre criminal proceedings or 14th Amendment proceedings or Something Like that. The American People really should hear from trump under oath as to what happened. Mr. Rucker, youve been recognized for a period not to exceed two minutes. The gentlelady from washington has yielded you the remainder of her time, and heres the question. Now biden comes to this. You could really restart the count we use at the top of the broadcast as we said and start his presidency today, not viewed through the trump prism. Has toxicity increased by dint of the impeachment we just witnessed on the hill that is going to negatively affect what biden asks for and wants, he says to get our country healthy again . Brian, it very well may, in part because of what the Congress Went through last week was the most partisan and political of exercises. Even though it was a trial based on the facts of what happened on january 6, it was seen by both sides through a partisan lens. And that could very well corrupt any hope that biden may have of some sort of bipartisan unity here at the beginning of his presidency. And lets keep in mind, this is a nation convulsed by crises. You know, youve got the economic crisis, the health crisis, the climate crisis. I could go on and on. And biden has a very ambitious agenda for that. He has not been able to get really anything through legislatively in this first month, and theyre eager to get going. Thats why hes hitting the road tuesday, again on thursday. And then hes beginning some Foreign Policy outreach. Hes going to be addressing the munich security conference, a collection of americas western allies, european allies, who are all too eager to see new leadership here in the united states, and theyre going to hear from him for the first time on friday. Thank you for all that. And thank you, gang, for starting off this week with us. Phil rucker, a. B. Stoddard, neal katyal. Greatly appreciate having the three of you on. Coming up for us, will the future of the gop belong to trump or Mitch Mcconnell . And could you tell the difference . Two political veterans standing by to weigh in next. Later, cases are down but variants are up. Here we are again as a Media Reporting good news and bad. Were going to check in with an Emergency Room Doctor in the american heartland about what hes seeing on the ground, on the front lines, as a whole lot of states start lowering their guard because thats apparently what we americans do. All of it as The 11th Hour just getting under way on this monday night. A Migraine Hope from aimovig. To show up. For the sweet. The hectic. The tender. The tense. And the fiery. But for many, migraine keeps them. From saying. i am here. we aim to change that. With. Aimovig, a preventive treatment. For migraine in adults. One dose. Once a month. Is proven to reduce monthly migraine days. For some, by half or more. Dont take aimovig if youre allergic to it. Allergic reactions like rash or swelling can happen hours to days after use. Severe constipation can happen. Sometimes with serious complications. High Blood Pressure can happen or worsen with aimovig. Common side effects include Injection Site Reactions and constipation. It doesnt matter what each day brings. So long as you can say. I am here. Aim. To be there more. Talk to your doctor about aimovig. Aim. To be there more. sam gamers verizon 5g Ultra Wideband is here, with ultra. Low. Lag so start becoming the best gamers in the ga avatars oohh sam 5g Ultra Wideband, now in parts of many cities. This is 5g built right. Hes excited about 2022, and im going to go down to talk with him next week, play a little golf in florida, and i said, mr. President , this Maga Movement needs to continue. We need to unite the party. Trumpplus is the way back in 2022. Hes mad at some folks, but i understand that. Dont ask him to quit him because he cant. Our friend Charlie Sykes of the bulwark is out, trumps party but worse. He writes it this way. Over the last five years, republicans have shown willingness to accept or at least ignore lies, racism and xenophobia, but now it is a party willing to acquiesce to sedition, violence, extremism, and antidemocratic authoritarianism. Maybe thats what Lindsey Graham meant when he talked about trump plus. Well, back with us tonight, two gentlemen were excited to have on this topic. David plouffe, former Obama Campaign manager, Senior Adviser to the president , and on the Board Of Directors for the obama foundation. We welcome to our Broadcast Someone weve been trying to get on here. Matt lewis, Conservative Commentator and senior columnist for the daily beast. Matt, it is a great pleasure. Longtime viewer, firsttime caller. So, lets talk about trump plus. You had me at hello. Is the plus insurrection . Is it like disney plus only its Insurrection Videos . Are you prepared, are you psyched for the party of trumpplus . Im not psyched. But i am psyched about Charlie Sykes. That guy can write a good column and i think he nailed it actually. This is, you know, all the bad stuff and even worse, right . You know, if you came for the racism and the xenophobia, stick around for the insurrections. I dont see where things are going to get any better any time soon. The one thing that gives me hope is just that things sometimes do change, right . Ten years ago sarah palin was the toast of the republican party. Im not sure the last time i heard of sarah palin. So maybe donald trump will fade away eventually, but its not going to happen any time soon. David plouffe, ill come at this a different way where you are concerned because of your role and influence within the party. What would your counsel and advice be to democrats who want terribly to buy into this notion of a party destroyed, embers, smoke column visible, needing to be broken down to the studs and rebuilt. How would you counsel your fellow democrats . Well, first, brian, what i would hope for is actually the nontrump side of the party to begin to win primaries in 22 and 24. Even if that would mean democrats winning fewer races. Because at the end of the day, the country is going to remain in grave danger if candidates who Pledge Allegiance to trump, and now were saying trumpplus accurately, win. The picture i paint is when you look at congressional and state primaries next year in 2022, first half of next year, youre going to have candidates on that stage saying, covid was a hoax. I never wore a mask. Trump won the election. It wasnt an insurrection. Nancy pelosi is to blame. All of those things. And those candidates right now, i think in most districts in most states, youd give the advantage to. Now as matt said, things can change. The question trump will have an Expiration Date politically, the question is how quickly does that come . But that is the question for the country, not just for the republican party, is when candidates can win republican primaries everywhere in the country, saying, i believe in the rule of law, i believe joe biden won the election, i believe covid was real, i believe the insurrection was wrong. Until that happens, our country needs to remain on defcon 1 in terms of election status. As long as you dont tell me they landed on the moon, im okay with all of that. Matt, i want to play for you, with Everything Else going on saturday morning, this is a jawdropper. Here is Mitch Mcconnell minutes after voting to acquit in the well of the senate. Theres no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. President trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office. As an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations is run, still liable for everything he did while he was in office. Didnt get away with anything yet. We were on the air live with that, and it darn near left us without words to describe it in the immediate aftermath. In the aftermath as of last night when he filed this column, heres what one sentence out of what george will said. Mcconnell has his eyes on the prize, 2022. Perhaps the most crucial nonpresident ial Election Year in u. S. History. Matt, first of all, lets take a moment to note how deeply cynical that is for the percentage of the audience who thought we were seeing some process within Mitch Mcconnell, maybe this is Mitch Mcconnell. George will, whose first rodeo this is not, is saying, no, no, no, this is about this is about those swayable Republican Voters and needing to win the house back in 2020 and needing to make Mitch Mcconnell Majority Leader again. Do you agree . I think so. Mitch mcconnell is supposed to be about playing the long game, though, right . Theres always another election. That other election is the most important election in history, you know . I know he wants to be Majority Leader again, but hes going to die someday, we all are. And what will people remember about us . Mitch mcconnell had a pretty good record as a republican. Im a conservative. So is Mitch Mcconnell. So hes a conservative on a lot of issues, but hes taken some other stances that at the time were really heroic. In fact, he was a civil rights champion as a republican in a time when that wasnt so common, unfortunately. I think Mitch Mcconnell ought to be worried about his legacy, not being Majority Leader again in two years maybe. He had a chance to take a stand on the right side of history. And as he i think very eloquently made the case that donald trump is, in fact, guilty, you know, of fomenting this riot, this insurrection, and yet he didnt vote for that. Thats what confused me. And i was perplexed by that. Yep, we were all hoping for some sort of viewers guide after we witnessed that event, as i said, on live television. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay here while i just fit in a quick break. Well resume our conversation on the other side indeed. Coming up, joe biden keeping a low profile during impeachment as he had to. But how much of his Administration Still remains overshadowed by that man in shadow . St office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. 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Cyber attacks are relentlessly advancing. To end them, cybereason built a Cyber Security solution covered california. This way to Health Insurance. So advanced. It can end attacks today on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. And deliver futureready protection, keeping you sharp for tomorrow. Join us, the defenders, in our mission. Cybereason. End cyber attacks. From endpoints to everywhere. Until we really examine the soil upon which donald trump, the weed donald trump grew out of, we are not going to solve this problem. I think this is a question for joe biden is, 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, the Biden Administration looks to put impeachment in the Rearview Mirror as they must and focus on his agenda. The Washington Post sums his challenges up this way tonight. Quote, the coming months will tell how much of his predecessors legacy biden can erase, and how much of trumps imprint, despite his chaotic style, will endure. We are happy and lucky to have with us both David Plouffe and matt lewis. David, ive been saying since 1 6 that the insurrection video, the still photography, learning about it, its one of the few events in modern American Life that increases in its importance and impact with each passing day since. I still cant believe there was someone with a Confederate Flag inside my capitol building. I cant believe there was a Guy With A Camp Auschwitz hoodie on, brazenly, openly, and the list is long. So the talk is to have a 9 11style commission. It pains me to say this, but stop 100 americans on the street, ask them to name one provision of the 9 11 commission, and they probably couldnt tell you because were americans. We read the first Graph Summary on our phones and move on. So a dual question to you. Would it serve a purpose, and would it hurt anything if we did that, if we did a full organic bottomup investigation . I think we need to, brian. To me this is the test of the country, which is we cant move on until this poison is eradicated from our body politic. As matthew dowd said, the soil is still ripe. So there is going to be a lot more great journalism done, 9 11style commission that Speaker Pelosi announced. There may be other criminal investigations. So this is going to stay front and center. So lets just say six months from now, lets be optimistic. Weve got enough people vaccinated. That the pandemic, if not over, is in our Rearview Mirror. The economy is beginning to heat up. Kids are all back in school. Bidens got a lot of other challenges. Climate change, Foreign Policy. But what an amazing place hed be. But the thing that still remains, close to half the country, 40 of the country didnt believe the last election was legitimate. Youre going to have people running for congress this next time who as sure as were talking here, brian, are already considering a strategy that says, im just going to say the Election Results dont matter. You have Voter Suppression Legislation Sprouting up all over the country. So this is not just joe bidens problem. Its all of our problem. But we cant turn away. I think things like the 9 11 Commission Report will keep it front and center. I also think the American People, brian, are highly interested in this, in part, because of all the visuals and the video and some of the new material that the house Impeachment Managers brought forward. I dont think the American People are tired of it. But this is the test, because ultimately there is going to be more coup attempts. Theres going to be more insurrections. Theres going to be more people who dont believe in the constitution seeking office, including the highest office in the land, unless this gets rooted out. So, matt, with the big lie still out there and still out there bigtime, and if you dont want to resort to what so many find this offensive and patronizing and classist line about deprogramming trump followers, how would you counsel biden and National Democrats to approach that constituency that david just made plain is out there and fully functional . Well, right now i agree with what david said. And i mostly agree with what matthew dowd said, except i dont think the onus is on joe biden, right . I think that what we have is really almost a generational challenge now. There is a cultural problem in america. There is a spiritual problem, probably in america that needs to be addressed, you know, by pastors. This is going to be a Grassroots Effort to win hearts and minds as sort of an insurgency that may sound offensive as well to some people to say, but thats kind of what it is. Its about winning hearts and minds. I think the thing joe biden can do is be joe biden. Is be a healer, be a uniter, and get things done, accomplish his agenda. There are other people out there, including the media, that i think have a responsibility, including people in the community, just really all of us have to step up. But i think when it comes to democrats and joe biden, the worst thing that they could do is to come across like theyre heavy handed, like theyre looking down on conservatives and on people on the right. Thats not going to help anything, but only i think make things worse. Now, look, should there be a commission . I think there should. This needs to be investigated. If Law Enforcement decides to pursue donald trump, whether its on the insurrection or on other, thats fine. I dont think joe biden should be focused on that. I think it would be actually a big mistake if he is. David plufr pluffe, matt lewis. Gentlemen, this has been a terrific conversation and im in your debt for coming on. Thank you so much for joining us this monday night. Coming up, the pace of vaccine distribution, lets not forget, continues to improve, but supply issues have not improved commensurate. Well ask one of our doctors on the front lines about that when we come back. A Migraine Hope from aimovig. To show up. For the sweet. The hectic. The tense. And the fiery. Dont let migraine keep you. From saying i am here. aim to be there more. With aimovig. A preventive treatment. For migraine in adults. One dose. Once a month. Is proven to reduce monthly migraine days. For some, by half or more. Dont take aimovig if youre allergic to it. Allergic reactions like rash or swelling can happen hours to days after use. Severe constipation can happen. Sometimes with serious complications. High Blood Pressure can happen or worsen with aimovig. Common side effects include Injection Site Reactions and constipation. Aim to be there more. Talk to your doctor about aimovig. Its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Can it help with snoring . Aim to be there more. Ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem. And. Done. And, now, save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed plus free premium delivery when you add a base. Ends monday. We will be able to report that every state has given one vaccine shot to at least one in ten people in their state. For most people who havent been vaccinated yet, hold on. Be very, very careful. This is not the time you want to get covid. States are racing to boost their vaccination efforts, expanding eligibility and inoculation sites. The New York Times analysis showing the number of Coronavirus Vaccine doses administered has now surpassed 2 million per day, and thats a victory. But many Officials Say supply is not increasing quickly enough. And severe Winter Weather threats slow efforts down, of course. Back with us again tonight, dr. Steven sample, an e. R. Doc at Memorial Hospital in jasper, indiana. Also happens to be a Volunteer Sclinl Faculty Member at Indiana University school of medicine. Doctor, thank you for coming on. Ill begin the way we always do, asking you for a status report on the level of illness at your Community Hospital and the level of vaccination in your community. Good evening, brian. Thanks for having me back. Since the last time we talked, its been about the same. We are still in that lull that we saw as we have fallen off. Numbers in indiana are doing very well compared to just a few weeks ago. This week ive seen more injuries from falling on ice than ive seen covid in my e. R. And while that sucks for the people who have broken ankles and hips, they cant infect people and spread that broken ankle and hip down the line. So its been a pretty good week. Were covered up in snow right now, but ill take it for now. Whats worse, those who have a chance to get the vaccine and have, for whatever reason, passed it up, or those who really legitimately cant wait for it and perhaps cant get the doses . Oh, man. That is such a thats so frustrating. I see people with some frequency who have sort of passed on their passed on their opportunity to get the vaccine, and its just its an exercise in frustration. Im doing the best i can to teach as many people as i can all day every day on the importance of this. Not only the 65pluses who are able to get it in indiana right now, but also the 20, 30, 40yearolds who may not think they need it because theyre probably not going to get terribly sick from this themselves. Its just a constant battle of education, education, education. Heres a place where we in the news media tire quickly of doing and saying the things that we in the news media often do, and that is the good news and the bad news. I saw a map sure. Of the lower 48 today that was all green, meaning, all reporting lower 48 states are showing a drop in case numbers. Thats fantastic news. I read today the death rate is down about 18 nationwide. We have fully vaccinated. Its a start. 4. 2 of our country. On the other hand, these variants, doctor, are just scare you to death. Every one of them scarier than the other. And the worry is, of course, people heading back to their favorite pizzeria, people getting together, especially in a warm place for the weather were having. Were in a vulnerable period of otherwise good news. Youre absolutely right. This is a super vulnerable period because we are, were seeing this lull in cases. And my biggest concern about this is we are getting kind of rocked to sleep on a boat of complacency right now because were seeing our numbers come down. You know, i feel a weight lifted off of me, so im certain that, you know, the people who dont spend their lives thinking about coronavirus all day every day and taking care of patients are starting to feel like, wow, this is getting better. And they may not see these variants for what they at least potentially can be. Just like president ial politics, you know, im a political junkie. Clearly you are. Happy president s day, by the way. Thank you. For the most part people arent paying attention to this stuff as closely as you and i are. And so they may not be aware of this. People change their behaviors when theyre forced to, not when theyre told to. Not when, not when, you know, some guy on tv says, hey, theres this stuff in the middle east, it looks really terrible. So i think we just have to keep educating. Education is everything on this. People dont want to hear it. My wife calls me a fun sucker. It is what it is. I understand it. I get a little bit of that, too. Dr. Steven sample, its always a pleasure. Thank you for having us in your warm and wondrous home. We appreciate it very much. Another break for us. And coming of age is up next. In the middle of a pandemic. If youre at home with young ones, then you know about the toll this is taking. You may have heard about this over the weekend. One of the messages from fridays updated pandemic guidance can be summarized this way, quote, the cdc recommends middle and high schools be virtual only unless Mitigation Strategies can be met. Well, as you know, thats a tall order for a whole lot of School Districts across our country. And for students who have been attending School Virtually for almost a full year now. Believe me, it is taking a toll. The combined networks of nbc news are taking a closer look at this desperate and urgent issue in a series of reports called kids under pressure. Nbc news correspondent rehema ellis has tonights report. Reporter all across the country, students are facing unprecedented challenges. Were all really struggling. Basically, it sucks. Im definitely less interested. Reporter weve been following 16 students since the first day of school, and they echo what was found in our massive survey. Ive never felt so much stress in one school year. Reporter the study surveyed 75,000 students from 2018 to 2020, and in the fall of 2020 alone found that over 56 of students said their stress related to school increased compared to the time before coronavirus. I definitely feel very stressed. Probably get around, like, four to five hours of sleep. Why am i having so many mental breakdowns . Reporter in october, we saw that in our student in chicago. Allegra went from frustration with online glitches the whole thing would just kick me out. Reporter to a near meltdown. I dont understand and i cant ask teachers for help. Reporter and looking back now what was your lowest moment of the school year so far . It would be that time i cried over my physics project. At that point, i was like, this online is not going to work. Reporter the study also found 41 said their effort toward learning decreased. My attention definitely decreased. Im still surprised at how much onlines affecting me. Reporter that was john in pennsylvania last december. Now he says hes constantly distracted. Snow blowers, dogs barking, parents going in and out. And it really can mess with me. Reporter another finding, 50 of students said the strength of their relationships with teachers has decreased. I sent a followup email to one of my teachers telling him about everything thats been going on. And it took him almost four days to respond. Do i bleach kids will be okay and make it . Absolutely. Ops do i believe they will be able to do that alone . No. Reporter learning how to manage im just trying to think positively. Im trying my best. Reporter in a year filled with the unexpected. Rehema ellis, nbc news. And coming up for us, this season of our discontent, and we have some facts you may not believe from across the country. sam gamers verizon 5g Ultra Wideband is here, with ultra. Low. Lag so start becoming the best gamers in the ga avatars oohh sam 5g Ultra Wideband, now in parts of many cities. This is 5g built right. These folks, they dont have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the services of the Post Office Plus ups only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Can it help with snoring . A 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale ive never heard snoring. Exactly. No problem. And. Done. And, now, save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed plus free premium delivery when you add a base. Ends monday. Welcome back to the weather channel. No, this is not the New York State Thruway in buffalo. This is i20 in louisiana. Look at this. Almost a whiteout. Theres one truck there, theyre heading westbound towards shreveport with the blinkers and doing, what, 15 miles an hour. Theres hardly anybody out, which is good, because these roads are snowpacked, snow covered. As you can imagine at this latitude, this far south, they just dont have that many plows. That is my friend and National Treasure mike seidel over at the weather channel, and the weather we are having across our country would be simply notable and historic if it werent for so much suffering tonight. First, some numbers. An enormous storm system now affects fully half of the lower 48. 25 of our 50 states wrapped up in this. 150 million of us are under Winter Weather warnings, watches and or advisories. Here in the northeast, where winter already has all the charm of minsk, its an ice storm with a long legacy stretches across the country. The same ice storm that caused the horrifying wreck we all saw in texas. The same cold that has frozen the louisiana bayou. Think about that one for a minute. Ice on power lines in kenner, louisiana, just outside new orleans, caused some Spectacular Arcing along those said power lines. Parts of texas are straightup a disaster. The governor is asking for help. Houston is the nations fourthlargest city. Over a million of its people have no power tonight. Close to 5 million in the dark statewide. The Houston Chronicle announced tonight theyre unable to put out a paper version. Houston and el paso both fell to 17 degrees. Lowest temperature in decades. And it was coldest in houston than it was in anchorage tonight. And because its texas, someone recorded video of a snownado. And perhaps the most awesome number of them all is this one. Its 94 degrees warmer in miami than it is in south dakota. And a reminder from tennessee that even of us that drive large marauding fourbyfours like to think we got this . No, you dont, in fact, the ice got you. Ice is the great equalizer. Cars cant drive, planes cant fly, people cant go out to get the mail because the ice owns us all, just as the ice owns a good chunk of our country tonight. Be careful out there. That is our broadcast for this monday night as we start what is just the seventh week of this still new year. Thank you for being here with us. On behalf of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. Tonight, on all in. Hang mike pence was the chant and they just dismissed that. Why . Because maybe they cannot get another job. America agrees with nancy pelosi and Mitch Mcconnell. President trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. Tonight, where democracy stands after trumps second trial. And the ongoing questions about the decision on witnesses with house impeachment manager ted lieu. Then, he escaped the senate, but tonight, new reporting on where the criminal investigations of donald trump are headed. Plus, why it feels like the insurrection never ended for state republican parties across the country. As states slope down and vaccinations ramp up, is joe biden actually doing what he promised . In 100 days we can change the course of the diseasch