>> it is, you know, either you stay in your house and, you know, you are cold and you freeze to death and you have no food -- this is really what is happening here in houston. this is people's lives right now, right? or you go out and go from ho hotel to hotel and you risk getting covid. i feel like i'm failing my children. when i think about the bigger picture my sadness turns to anger. we all knew this was coming for quite some time now. >> we all knew this was coming for quite some time now. in fact in 1989, and then again in february 2011, ten years ago exactly, a big winter storm hit texas and there was rolling blackouts. after that 2011 crisis the federal energy regulatory commission put out a report warning texas that it could happen all over again. they said you need to insulate your power infrastructure. texas did not heed that warning and nor did it half to. as we showed you texas is on it's own grid in order to keep the federal government out of it's business. there is the earn grid, the western grid, and the texas grid all on hst own. gabe gutierrez said that the texas power grid was seconds and minutes away from catastrophic failure if rolling outages had not been imposed. tell that to the millions that feel like this is a catastrophic failure. in the meantime the storms are also impacting the covid crisis. vaccine distribution facing widespread delays in the south and up through the midwest and the northeast. and as these disasters leave so many people in misery, so many texans in misery, texas senator ted cruz jetted off to mexico. he was headed to cancun where the temperature is in the 80s. cruz is coming back to texas today, but the uproar is, as you imagine, intense. joining me now is gabe gutierrez is joining me from houston. mike, who lives in texas, and abby livington all joining me. gabe, what is it like on the ground? >> reporter: good afternoon, this is the water that is being loaded up by the city of houston officials that will soon be distributed to senior centers throughout the area. and katy that is the big problem today. thankfully overnight the power situation improved dramatically here in houston. we went from about 1.4 million people without power to about 100,000 or so. and we're continuing to see an improving power situation, but clean water is what people are looking for. you see all of this again being distributed throughout houston. we snow some water tankers are being prepared. but katy you mentioned earlier we heard from officials this morning and that raised a lot of eyebrows. it said that things could have been catastrophic if they did not impose those images on saturday night. what that means is is if the season is collapsed completely it could have taken months to rebuild it. many people feel it was a catastrophic view. dallas still dealing with extremely cold temperatures right now. here in houston we're above freezing right now which allowed for some of this improvement, katy. a lot of questions about why this power grid was not prepared after that winter back in 2011 as you mentioned. why they didn't winterize the power grid. this is still an ongoing situation here in houston as all of this water is literally being shipped out as we speak. back to you. >> i'm blown away, it looks like iowa at the start of caucus season in january. just so much snow on the ground in texas still. ted cruz is facing a ton of backlash today. it took many hours for the senator or his office to confirm that he was in fact in cancun. we just got a statement from cruz, let me read it to you in all. this hand been an infire rating week for texans. the greatest state in the greatest country has been without power. we have food lines, gas lines, and people sleeping at the neighbors houses. our homes are freezing and our lights are out. like millions of texans, our power is out too. our girls asked to take a trip with friends, wanting to be a good dad i flew down with them last night and i'm flying back this afternoon. we're in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in texas. we want our power back, our water on, and our houses warm. we will continue to use all of our resources to keep texas informed and safe. i have 12 hours after the reporting that he was leaving. we're getting a statement saying he was just doing it for his daughters. >> i mean first of all i will remind the audience that we're in the middle of a pandemic and many texans are not traveling. a senators job is three-fold. they're supposed to reach out to the president for fema aide which he did do. on the back end they're supposed to help get money to solve the problem after the fact. in the middle there is not a lot for the senator to do. but one of the problems here is that the senators are supposed to get out in the political gravity lava of how you boost morale. people are filling toilets with pool water. this is becoming a desperate situation. i had a former senate aide tell me today that if this situation happened under his boss's watch and it was a staffer, not the senate, the staffer would have been fired if they travelled out of the country during a situation like this. this is just very, very bad political optics. >> so senator cruz inth past went off other lawmakers for being hypocritical about saying one thing and doing another. it seems like this is something that he would have known, i guess, not to do. i'm trying to understand the political thinking or the thinking behind this period since there is talk that he has presidential ambitions once again. >> absolutely and that is something that a source pointed out to me today. when you criticize other places and states for doing the same thing you make yourself a target. and i think what has come to light in the last week and is i wonder how many officials in texas and beyond think their job is to get on twitter and to make insults for other people. my central question going forward not just for texas but as people play these games on twitter is how did that tweet you just sent to insult someone help your constituent solve their problems? >> that is such a good point. let's go to mike. you live in texas, you're living through this disaster, under scoring with so many people are experiencing, i want to put a few of your tweets on the screen. you said after we lost power and the pipes burst your toddler choked on a peanut in your dark house. you rushed him across town for emergency surgery at a hospital that doesn't have enough water pressure to flush toilets. you clarified that the hospital does not have any water, they're trucking it in, nurses and staff are exhausted. many of them are away from their families who are stuck in frozenousing and doing a great job pairing for your son. how is your son today and how are you. >> thank you, i'm getting a little emotional. >> i'm also trying to be a good dad. and it is a challenge right now. my son is doing well. he is downstairs watching sesame street. our power came on last night, but it feels like we just roll from crisis to crisis this week. i can tell you when he was choking and in the aftermath it is always, that will be a scary situation no matter what. it was made so much worse because we could not get a cell signal. it was hard to pull up the number to our doctor's office. it was is this an emergency, is it not? thankfully i was able to reach a friend who is a nurse at texas children's hospital and she said just go, take him. later if the hospital had not, thank god i had signal at the moment that the hospital called me back and they said we found something, he needs emergency surgery right now. this is like midnight after four hours in the e.r. and i had too zoom across town, running redlights, through intersections where there are not even lights on, with my three kids in the back because they didn't want to be separated. my wife didn't want to be separated because of the lack of cell service, power, and water. thank god we got there. the hospital was so busy filled with children that need electricity to power their ventilators or other equipment to live. it was very hectic and there was no water. so it was -- he's okay now and i'm relieved and feeling better about that, but now we're back home with power and maybe people will be able to fix our burst pipes. so many pipes burst that they just can't get to everybody. so that is where we're at. >> these are insane images of burst pipes. i feel for you going through all of that trauma and the terror of wondering whether or not he will be okay in the middle of this already horrible crisis. are you struck by the fact that this was all preventable. that texas was warned in 2011 that you have to winterize your pipes. and your generators, winterize your electrical equipment. if you don't you will go through rolling blackouts and have disaster again and texas refused to do it. from your sense of talking to people do you think texans will want to allow the federal government in to force this issue? to make sure this thing doesn't happen again? >> bearing in mind that texas is a very big state and houston is a large city. i have talked with my neighbors and several of them thought when they saw rick perry commented that texasens are willing tone -- endure blackouts to keep the federal government out, the neighbors approached me and wanted me to know that they thought that was garbage and that, you know, they don't know what the solution is or whether or not federal regulation will fix it, but no one is interested in doing this again. people are dieing and i think, you know i can relate as a human and as a dad. there is a couple moments that could have gone in a different direction for me and the power failure is what caused it all. the next morning after my son was recovering from surgery, the anesthesiologist came in to let me know if we had been a few hours later, if we had not come in, if they missed it, or if i had not called that nurse, it could have been life threatening for my child. anyone that is willing to just endure this for any political reason is far fetched. >> many people not able to charge the batteries for their oxygen tanks, it is remarkable. we're so happy that your son is okay. stay safe. >> in the north ooets, another winter storm today, the tristate is expected to get between six and eight inches of snow in the next 24 hours. winter is not a surprise, but this is a particularly difficult winter given what we're dealing with already. three of the state's mega sites closed for today forcing the cancellation of thousands of appointments. joining me now is casty park. cathy? >> yes, the snow looks like it is starting to taper off even before the sun came up this morning and as you know here in the northeast the winter weather has been brutal, relentless, and it had a big impact on the vaccine rollout. state and local officials don't want people coming out driving in this weather to get to their appointment. because of the naturewide weather. they are coming in a little delayed and he mentioned that today. that is happening here in monmoth county. but earlier today we caught up with several people who said they didn't know about the schedule change. they are scheduled here today and they told us they didn't know about it adding to the confusion and the frustration. take a listen. >> they told me i would be contacted and i wasn't. >> very professional, in and out for the first one. they held me here for 20 minutes after after i had the vaccine to make sure i didn't have an effect. and i'm looking forward to getting the second booster shot. >> and here in new jersey the goal is to inoculate nearly five million people here. the on going winter weather has certainly put a dent in the pace of the rollout. katy? >> when time is of the essence, every minute lost is a big deal. thank you veteran much. lawmakers got a chance today to answer to traders of game stop. andrew cuomo has been answering questions about how data from nursing oklahoma -- home deaths was handled. first, president biden throws his weight behind democrats latest proposal for sweeping immigration reform. does it have a chance of passing? 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(announcer) find out more at aerotrainer.com. that's aerotrainer.com. you will never win an argument that you don't have the courage to make. we will make our case for long lasting reform. >> it is long overdue. >> democrats lead by new jersey bob menendez introduced an immigration bill over zoom this afternoon. they are expanding it significantly. it it can grant legal status to 11 million people. that is if democrats have enough political capital left to get the bill to the president's desk. >> it is a bill that i'm trying to read through right now. they want to move to a more fair and safe and orderly and humane immigration process. this is their attempt to kick start that conversation. at this point there is politics piece of it. is it piecemeal, is it reconciliation. the process through overcoming the u.s. progress, and for me what is more important is the pathway to citizenship. they are living as undocumented. also beyond that what does border security look like moving forward it has proceeded trump by my decades quite frankly in democratic and republican mad administrations. so what do the changes like like on the ground and that is where the politicking of all of this are coming into play. >> jajacob, thank you very much. let's go to a democratic congressmen of new york. thank you for joining us. we just heard about the procedures to get it through congress. it seems like democrats are all on board for a bill this aggressive are you confident that democrats will all line up behind proposal? >> it will take our operation to find out why they are here. and surely it is making our policy more humane. five million workers, front line workers, are undocumented. they're working in our transportation system, our food, our health care system, they pick our food in the fields. to if we want to open up as a country again we're going to need them. >> are you sure that the democrats are all on board. we have been on touch with a number of democrats today in congress and across congress. and very few of them want to come on and talk about this. >> well that may be the case. i think at the end of the day they understand that this is an issue both republicans and democrats -- we want to put in our rearview mirror. we don't want to continue addressing this and work on a dysfunctional immigration system that is really the laughing stock of the entire world. and so we want to address root causes of immigration. we want to ensure a path to sitz for 11 million. we will see how long it will take. we will disect the biden bill in congress. so we will have some input in the process. also what else needs to be included. this is a great opportunity for cross roads to address immigration reform. >> they want 11 million people to start paying taxes and what will that mean for their ability to contribute on paper? >> that is a great opportunity to increase our revenue, but aside from that just think about it. who was delivering our food when we were quarantining because of covid-19? it was undocumented food delivery people. who was working public transportation when this was happening? who was working in many cases in our health care system exposing themselves to the virus. i think i will make america stronger, they will pay their taxes, they paid taxes, sales taxes, and they contribute to ourcoffers already. those of us, members of congress that are not completely convinced will have an opportunity to go through the bill page by page and we'll answer any and all questions they have. i think this is good for america. >> congressman, thank you very much for joining us. coming up next hour, senator robert menendez joining us for a exclusive interview that is right here at 3:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. and does a covid relief bill discriminate against single parents? and the fb iergs, the doj, and now his own party are all looking into governor andrew cuomo's handling of data about covid deaths in nursing homes. the details, next. you have 100 days to change your mind. that's the visionworks difference. visionworks. see the difference. is there any regret in the decision to bring those back that had the disease back to a long-term care facility? >> even if you want to put on the monday morning quarterback lens we're number 34 in the nation. 33 other states lost more people per capita. we followed federal guidance that discriminates against a covid positive patient as a nursing home and that's right. as i said you do everything you can. but at the end of the day mother nature and god make the determinations. i'm wondering -- >> no, i never did it that. >> you said anyone asking about nursing home deaths in your organization is from president trump. >> no, i said they want to play politics with this. right? and there are republicans who are trying to make political hey out of this in my opinion. >> not only did you release the number of infections -- >> i don't know where the department of health is on department of he's is on the data. >> he is facing allegations that his administration hid the true scope of the covid-19 deaths in nursing homes. now the u.s. attorney is investigating the handling of the data. some are making moves to strip him of his emergency powers to act unilaterally during the pandemic. one senator that has been critical of his handling of the pandemic said that the three-term governor threatened to destroy him in a phone call. >> for ten minutes he berated and yelled at me. told me my career would be over. he has bighting his tongue for months against me. it's my job to ask these type of questions and i should not be punished for doing my job. >> governor cuomo calls those allegations a lie. joining me now is tom winter and jesse mckinley. layout what governor cuomo is facing. >> sure, first of it is very early in this process. it's an investigation that is probably a week or ten days old, tops. it's an ngs that at this point they're exploring what avenues they could go down here. it's not as if there has been a specific crime identified per se, but there was any false statements or misrepresentations made at the justice department when they starred an inquiry this last summer. that appears to have gone nowhere. the second something where there any sort of issues of fraud here as it came to money that the state, state agencies, or nose that interacted with new york state receiving any federal funds that were misallocated as a result of this. this issue, the governor stated numerous times that this decision was based on cdc guidance, on his own health department's guidance. no one has batted a thousand, but people are concerned about the state legislatures. secondly statements made farce what information was provided and what information was provided at the justice department. the question here, katy is why did it take so long for the state and governor cuomo's administration to provide us with the updated in your opinions here. if there was nothing nefarious, if it was a policy that just didn't work out, a virus that was just ravaging new york state at the time, why did it take so long to get the data right? is there a criminal component to that? >> i remember we just played some of that. i remember repeatedly at news conferences when he was holding those daily briefings they were asking him for updated information on the numbers of nursing home deaths. and i'm struck when he says that new york state was 34th in the nation on nursing home deaths i wonder if that number was right when he was telling it to me given the lack of information that we now, or the lack of information that we had. >> i think that is the construction of it. wrornt the government, the governor, could be trusted with the data he is provided. as of three weeks ago the state of new york was reporting about 8500 deaths. they have now updated that number as a result to this report and now they're at 15,000 and that is a doubling. that shows that the governor was not telling the whole truth to the people, the lawmakers, and members of the nude media when he said we're 34th or 46th, another statement he made on several occasions, in terms of deaths in those facilities, so i think it strikes to whether or not there was any fraud penetrated as i was talking about before. >> and the state legislature want to take back power from him. >> yes, i mean more than a majority, a super majority. new york is a very democratic state. the republicans have not won the state in an election year in almost 20 years. the fact that the senate being dominated by democrats will bring up a bill next week to strip him of these powers is a slap on the wrist. we'll see if the assembly does the same, but at the very issue they say it illustrates the tension here but in democratic quarters all across the state. he got great reviews early on and the last few weeks have been the toughest couple weeks of his administration. >> that is an under statement. tom winter, thank you gentlemen, both of you for joining us today. comcast and nbc universal have launched a campaign to help you find out when and where you can get a vaccine. get your phone to the out and take a picture of the qr code or you can go right to planyourvaccine.com on your phone and type it in yourself and you will figure out when you're eligible to be vaccinated. >> coming up, nasa's most ambitious mission yesterday. if success. the perseverance rover will have to land on mars, but first it will have to survive what nasa is calling seven minutes of terror. what do two traders have in common? probably not a lot, but i will ask congresswoman katie porter about it next. katie porter about it next. and get the same fast relief in a delightful chew with pepto bismol chews. wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live. some say this is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™ janssen can help you explore cost support options. so right now the house and human services committee are holding a meeting with the ceo of robinhood and a reddit and youtube user. they are testifying before the committee. maxine waters accused hedge funds of inappropriate actions. joining me now is congresswoman porter of california. she was on the financial services committee in the last quarter. if you were on that compete right now asking question of those that came before the hearing room today, what would you want to know? >> i would never reveal my trademark questions beforehand, but i do think the hearing is really a question about whether or not our financial markets put small dollar investors on the same footing to larger investors. there is going to be a lot of efforts to bash the hedge funds. but the reality is those were narcotic manipulation, a pump and dump, being done by retail investors or not is problematic. is our financial system allowing regular people to earn and have the opportunity to earn in the same way as the big guys? >> do you think congress will be able to get to the heart of it? and would there be regulations involved? reddit and robinhood, when they locked it, they were manipulating the system at that point. there was a lot of outrage. should the federal government get involved in regulating apps like that? >> those kinds of stops, when a share is experiencing extreme volatility actually happen to all kinds of companies that are part of good market regulation. people involved with robinhood didn't know that and understand that. so what is really happening here is that every day people are being invited into robinhood and other technologies are being invited into very complex trading strategies. i think the question to ask here is one, do we have the right regulations in police station, and were they used properly here? if not why not? who is to be held accountable. the second question that some of the republicans are getting at is do we have a financial system that allows every day people to compete. and should we? and is the solution to that to allow individual people to take on more risk or is the solution to this to create a level playing field by not allowing edge funds and wealthy speculators to make money and gamble in ways that regular people can't? >> so you are the only single mother of young children in congress. there is a lot of debate about covid relief and how it is being targeted. you're saying it's not helping single parents as much as it should, explain. >> yes, so right now we have a proposal from the administration and from the house and senate to enhance the child tax credit. this is really important during the pandemic with remote schooling and more people having to deal with childcare costs. as the proposal is currently structured if you're a married couple you're more likely to get the tax credit and a bigger tax credit than you are if you're a single parent. that makes no sense. there is no discount for being a single parent. if there is, please point me to it. single parents have to pay for a of the costs of the household. do all of the house work, and pay for all of the childcare or figure out how to do that. the goal here is helping children. making sure children have what they need. no child nould get more or less of this benefit because of the status of their parent's marriage. >> the proposal you have is it going to get through reconciliation. do you have enough democrats on board to make it happen? >> we're actively picking up people interested in this and hearing about it. it illustrates why it is important to deal with people with different perspectives in congress. when i raised this much people thought i never thought about it that way. you're right, let me get back to you. i think there has been a lot of willingness from party leadership and leaders on both sides to understand this topic. the fact that i was the first -- the only single parent this congress or last congress and i was joined by another one, this issue was not thought about in this way. >> it is just remarkable. congresswoman katie porter. thank you for joining us. i have about 100 more questions for you so you'll have to come back again soon so we can get them all out. we appreciate your time today. in the 3:00 p.m. hour nasa will take the next steps and the most ambitious mission, it is hard to say together, ambitious mission to mars to date. but first scientists will have to make it through what they call seven minutes of terror. we have a story for space geeks. stay with us. for space geeks. stay with us retire sooner, she'll revisit her plan with fidelity. and with a scenario that makes it a possibility, she'll enjoy her dream right now. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. ♪♪ it's velveeta shells & cheese right now. versus the other guys. ♪♪ clearly, velveeta melts creamier. hey, you have to wash jason alexander hoodie. that looks clean to me. is it though? 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(sam) gamers! he who is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. take fuzzywuzzy28. blamin' losses on a laggy network. only one or two. verizon 5g ultra wideband is here, the fastest 5g in the world, with ultra... low... lag! stop blaming the network and start becoming the best gamers in the ga-- that escalated quickly. (sam) 5g ultra wideband, now in parts of many cities. this is 5g built right. only from verizon. [typing sounds] i had this hundred thousand dollar student debt. two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. ah, sofi literally changed my life. it was the easiest application process. sofi made it so there's no tradeoff between my dreams and paying student loans. student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. thank you for allowing me to get my money right. ♪♪ work will culminate in one of the most daring robotic maneuvers in nasa history. replete with nail-biting drama sure to thrill space geeks everywhere. after traveling hundreds of millions of miles through space the nasa rover perseverance or percy will attempt to land on mars at 3:55 p.m. today, just about an hour from now. if successful percy will embark on a two-year mission to search for life on the red planet, but first percy will have to survive what nasa is calling seven minutes of terror. the rover will descend through the martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour, all while with standing temperatures of 2,300 degrees fahrenheit and then without nasa's help hit the brakes and guide itself down to an inhospitable landscape and to what scientists believe is an ancient river delta on the planet mars. joining me from nasa's jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena, california, is nbc news correspondent steve patterson. steve, i love this. i love this story. talk me through it. what's happening? give me everything. >> reporter: well, speaking for the aforementioned space geeks, as you mentioned, this is a huge, huge moment. the anticipation, the excitement is hanging in the air, it's palpable. one of the team members here described it almost as the super bowl of science. i can answer some of your questions, but let's in bring in somebody that's a little more qualified, i have jackie sly a robotics engineer on the project. jackie, thanks so much for joining us. just tell me what is this mission going to accomplish? this is essentially the search for any possible sign of ancient life on mars. how exciting is that and what exactly are you guys doing? >> it's so exciting. i have so many butterflies both about this landing and about the science work we're going to do. yes, we are looking for life on mars, we found so many great clues to mars life that we want to continue studying, we want to continue looking for water, but we absolutely want to be looking for signs of life because that will help us to answer so many questions we have, even about earth. >> this seven minutes of terror we are less than an hour or so away from it. you probably worked a lot of your life on this project. how nervous are you about what is about to happen? >> i spent four years working on this project and i am very nervous, but at the same time i have so much confident in our team and in the number of tests that they performed, the simulations, the practice. i think we're well-prepared, but no matter what it still is nerve-racking. >> what else is this mission set to accomplish? i understand that this could set up a possible human expedition. what are the things that this rover could find that others couldn't when they've traveled to mars? >> absolutely. this rover is really special because it's the first time that we will be sampling. we're going to actually make samples of the martian rock, package them using our assembly, we have new components of this rover, this external arm that's equipped with sensors and a drill, but we also have a whole system that includes a second arm underneath the rover. very exciting. we have the moxy instrument which we will be doing in situ resource tests to see if we can generate oxygen on mars which is an important component to establishing a pathway to manned missions. there's a lot of stuff going on. >> part of it is scientists have to follow this thing as it's traveling on mars. mars has a different system of time, it's a little bit slower -- or faster there on mars, right? tell me about adjusting to mars time and what team members have to do to stay up. >> absolutely. so mars has a 40 minute -- about 40 minute longer day. so when we have 24 hours, mars rotating on its axis experiences 24 hours and 40 minutes. in the past we saw team members having to switch 100% to mars time. we are still having a lot of team members go into that which is a big change in schedule but we also have more autonomy so the rover will do more on its own. >> good luck on the next hour or so. again, extremely exciting day for the scientific community but a nail biter at nasa as we all watch, as the world watches to see what happens next. back to you. >> it is really interesting. if you want to geek out more, steve, if you haven't already there is a great documentary called "the planets" on pbs. really fascinating. the mars episode was super interesting itself. steve patterson, thanks so much. and that's going to do it for me today. if you are going out, wear a mask. if you're saying in ayman mohyeldin picks up our coverage next. in ayman mohyeldin picks up our coverage next nobody even sees them. 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