Houston. Antonia you were speaking two days ago to a mother who had been driving around because her children needed their medicine at a certain temperature. That certain mother faces Gas Shortages and youre talking to people without water. Whats it like for them . Reporter stephanie, the challenges of this week are starting to have a cumulative effect on people, particularly families that are low income. The lights, the power, the heat is starting to come back on for most people in the city of houston and in harris county, but thats being replaced by a water crisis. People dont have safe water to drink, or they dont have any water at all in many cases. Ive spoken to more families who have been driving around, going to Grocery Stores and gas stations, trying to find someone who can sell them drinkable water. I met with a family yesterday that took somebodys pool water so that they could boil it and allow their children to bathe in the water and to wash some of their clothes because they hadnt done that properly since last weekend. I then spent the evening at an Affordable Housing complex where i met residents who say they have no water at all. I only met one person in this large complex who said they had some cold water coming through. I want you to hear the story of cheryl walker, works at a local hospital and lived in that housing complex and her husband right now is suffering with kidney failure. Take a listen to what theyve been dealing with. Whats this like for your husband whos on dialysis . To be in these conditions. Im scared right now for my husband. I really am. Lord knows im scared for him because hes really congested really bad. I say, honey, you okay, you okay. He say, yeah, babe, im okay, i say, no, you dont sound okay, charles. You dont sound okay and you show he aint looking okay to me either. Reporter you can hear the pain in cheryls voice right there and, you know, you have to keep in mind right now, stephanie, these same communities like the neighborhood right there, they have been hit the hardest by covid over the past year, and now in the midst of this crisis they have the fewest resources, the fewest options. They dont have another home they can go to or places where theyve been able to warm up and now they cant even cook food with their water, or clean their clothes. Its been a horrible week for texans here, stephanie. A horrible year. Thank you so much for reporting these important stories. There is no doubt texans are in a desperate situation, many are going to dangerous lengths actually to get themselves clean water and to keep themselves warm. I want to stay on this and bring in dr. Samuel prater, an Emergency Room Physician with ut health out of houston, texas. Doctor, we know youve been seeing an increasing number of injuries, specifically Carbon Monoxide poisoning linked to this crisis. Tell us about it. Yeah, youre absolutely right. Started on monday night, you know, i think folks had been without power for over 24 hours at that point, frigid temperatures and so very desperate times and resorted to Desperate Measures to try to warm themselves and to warm their families and their children. So those who had access to a generator to warm Space Heaters had generators in improper locations, so inside an attached garage or outside right next to a window. Mostly what we saw is folks bringing in charcoal grills, barbecue pits, Campfire Stoves or even their stove top and using that to burn whatever they could to try to get heat and inadvertently poisoned their entire family. My gosh. How about those who need power for all of their regular medications, people who are on dialysis, people who need nebulizers, what do they do in a situation like this . Yeah, whats really its really a desperate situation, and a sad situation, and this is, you know, in no Uncertain Terms a Public Health disaster in our local area, hospitals were already full when the freeze hit and we then had no ability to discharge some of these frail patients who do require these sorts of things at home, like power to power a Nebulizer Machine or a Home Ventilator, so we couldnt discharge them. The hospitals were already full. And then Carbon Monoxide poisoning hit and folks without power too long, they cant power their Nebulizer Machines, Home Ventilators and all the Dialysis Centers were without power and they had no water. Over the last, i would say, 48 to 72 hours, weve been seeing a significant increase in the number of patients with complications related to no dialysis for the last week. When you talk about this disaster, youve been facing this disaster or a different one for over a year, dealing with the pandemic. How has does covid play a role in all of this and the hospitals ability to treat people . It certainly does because the hospitals were already full from the recent spike after the holiday period so hospitals were already full. We were already stressed and challenged and then you compound that with the inability to discharge patients to frigid homes and homes with no power, and then add on that, the increase and spike in volume from Carbon Monoxide poisonings, mechanical injuries from slipping on ice, all the medical necessities that patients cant get when they dont have power in their homes. It really has taxed the Health Care System in houston, like nothing that ive ever seen in the last ten years. Youre an emergency room doctor, you have seen a lot. Do you think that the death count at the end of this could be higher than weve seen so far with so many people in their homes, unaccounted for at this point . Definitely. I think thats one of the things that were that the Health Care Community at large is worried about is this weekend how many patients are we going to find who died in their homes from accidental hypothermia, or who died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning or who died because they just didnt have access to power for dialysis, for Home Ventilator use, for Nebulizer Machines and all that stuff. So its you know, thats what were worried about seeing this weekend. Well, doctor, thank you for all that youre doing, we appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Now lets bring in the mayor of houston, texas, sylvester turner, mayor, tell us about the situation in your city, we understand most of the power has been restored. But not the water. Let me just say, yeah, this has been a tough week for people across the state of texas and certainly even in the houston region. Where we started off without 1. 4 Million People, customers without power, now that number is under 10,000. But for that 10,000 its still very real for them and very tough for them. So i dont want to minimize that. At the same time theres been a cascading effect, you lose power, it impacts the Water Pressure. I will say that when you fall, when the Water Pressure falls under 20 psi, the regulatory requirement for it to be above, you are required to give a boil water notice. So that took place, for example, on wednesday. As of yesterday, on thursday, we were able to push that pressure above 20. It averaged yesterday at about 29. And today that pressure is now above 30, and we are continuing to push it. So there are a lot more people who have water. Were still trying to push it even higher. But there are still some, especially, for example, if you live in apartments and youre on the second, third, fourth floor or higher, its going to be tough but today it should get increasingly better. Weve made some improvement but we still have a way to go. Youve got at least two more days of freezing temperatures. Whats your biggest worry Going Forward . Well, my biggest worry is that as, for example, as power is being restored, but water the pipes are bursting, and im especially concerned for people in our lowincome communities, for our seniors, who dont have the means, for example, to go to a hotel, they dont have fireplaces, for example, they dont have the means to get a plumber out there as quickly as possible. So im really concerned with those individuals, people who are already on the margins, and they have been pushed further down. Im concerned about those individuals who dont have insurance, dont have the financial means, and so i have put in place a steps to create a fund for those individuals who fall in those categories. We want them to know that even after their power is restored, where theyre suffering damages in their homes, we want to do everything we can to assist them. Is the state and the Governors Office helping you do this . No. This is separate and apart from the state and the Governors Office. In fact, i have not talked to the governor at any time during this crisis. Youre the mayor of houston. The governor of your state hasnt reached out to you since this began . I have not talked to the governor. But were pushing forward. We recognize that there are a lot of people who are suffering. And just bear in mind, for those who have means theyre inconvenienced and theyre impacted. But for those who dont have means, for those who are on the lower level of our social economic strata, they are the ones who are being devastated by these conditions and the fact that the state did not produce enough generation to prevent a lot of these blackouts. Having said all of that, i am so proud of houstonians and people in our region who come together, who lend support, who open up their stores like jim mcavail, gallery furniture, opened up their churches, and people who are giving, people who have stepped up and given to this fund. We will come together. And well get past it. But it has been it has been a tough week and i dont want to understate that. And especially for people who have been suffering through the coronavirus, people who have lost their jobs, people who have been struggling to take care of their families and then all of a sudden here they come, power outages, theyre losing everything in their refrigerators, their ceilings are falling, they dont know where to go. They dont have fireplaces, they cant go to a hotel. Theyre sleeping in their cars, theyre dying because of Carbon Monoxide poisoning, hypothermia, there was a Senior Citizen the other day that was found in her home dead in the cause was hypothermia. People are just trying to find ways to stay warm. And so this is an opportunity, the time for us to rally, to be supportive of one another, and were going to stay with it until we come through this crisis. But recognizing that even after we come through this crisis, for many people, for many families without means, this crisis will continue long past Water Pressure being restored and the lights being turned on. Then its an opportunity to do better for them. I do want to ask you about one specific texan who is trying to stay warm going on vacation to mexico, ted cruz, the Houston Chronicle reports that Police Officers from your city provided security for him when he left the country on wednesday. Did that divert any resources from those suffering residents that youre talking about . Well, you know, resources are stretched very thin, you know with our Police Officers, for example, ever since sunday all of them have been brought back in uniform to do everything they can to assist houstonians. So they have been stretched thin. Our firefighters have been stretched thin. You know, look, let me just put it this way. Leaders lead. And when as elected officials we have a fiduciary relationship with the people who are in our cities or in our state, and when things are happening on our on the ship we simply we stay on the ship. And thats the commitment that we make when we sign up for these positions. And people expect, if nothing else, they expect us to be there when they are suffering, when they are in pain, when theyre trying to figure out whats my next step, how am i going to take care of my families, my kids, at the very least our obligation is to be there and saying i hear you, i see you, im standing with you, and until we can get Additional Resources im going to be by your side. Thats what we thats what we do. Even if it comes at the expense of our own families. So well you know, well continue to move forward but what i want the people in this city to know is that until every Single Person is in a better shape as a result of this winter storm, were going to be right there with you, and were not going to leave you behind because most of the folks lights may have been restored and most of the folks may have their water, were going to stay there because we recognize that for our most at risk and vulnerable populations, this is not their first time being stretched thin or being pushed down. And at the very least they need to know that they are not going to be abandoned in their moment of need. Mayor, thank you so much for all that you do and thank you for joining me this morning. Thank you for having me, appreciate it. We are sending safe and warm wishes to our brothers and sisters in houston. Still ahead, pfizer just announcing it will start Covid Vaccine trials on pregnant women. Ill be asking the former acting cdc director what he would tell expecting mothers who are questioning the safety of the vaccine. Plus, wall street and tech ceos facing questions from lawmakers over the gamestop frenzy. But what if anything did we get out of yesterdays fivehour hearing . Plus more of my exclusive interview with senator elizabeth warren. I do believe theres a very important place in our economy and in our market for individual traders, retail traders. I think they could very much form the backbone of our economy on wall street. But they need confidence. That is not a rigged casino. Yes. The answer is no. 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. 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Pfizer just said it will start Vaccination Trials on pregnant women, it is the first time this is being done in the United States, and theyre hoping to get 4,000 expecting mothers. This, as a new study found that the Covid Infection rate is 70 higher in pregnant women, especially women of color. So not everyone is comfortable with getting this vaccine. I just need more time for the data to mature. Im looking to those people who can actually understand the science and read through it, digest it and really get to a point where they feel comfortable recommending it. Thats when i think i would feel more comfortable taking it myself. I want to bring in dr. Richard besser, the president and ceo of Robert Wood Johnson foundation and also the former acting cdc director. Doctor, do you feel comfortable recommending the vaccine to expecting mothers . You know, stephanie, this is one of those challenging questions. And its one where a pregnant person needs to talk to their doctor. What i would be asking, if it were one of my relatives, or one of my patients, is what is your risk of exposure . Do you work in an area where theres a high chance, or significant chance that you could get infected with covid . If so, i would recommend it. And the reason for that is that we know that pregnancy is a risk factor for more severe Covid Infection. Greater likelihood of having a severe illness that could land you in the hospital. You know, one of the challenges of the way we develop vaccines and medications is that in the first round of trials, women who are pregnant are excluded. And thats done out of an abundance of caution because early on the question of could there be harm weighs very heavily on those who are developing products. The challenge with that is that when you have a vaccine then thats approved or a medication thats approved is theres no information, theres no data on pregnant women and so you have to balance those risks until those studies can be done. If there for someone who go ahead, stephanie. If theyre done and they prove successful could this have a positive impact on Reopening Schools . Think about teachers, many of whom are young moms, women who plan on getting pregnant, and werent comfortable going back to school because they didnt want to get the vaccine. Yeah, i think any information that allows people who are pregnant to make a more informed decision will be helpful. You know, when it comes to school reopening, thankfully the science is showing that there are ways to reopen schools safely. Without vaccination. Vaccination will add another layer, and given that there are so many women of reproductive age who teach in the schools, who work in schools, having that information will be very, very helpful. You and i have spoken a lot about health care equity. Were learning that pharmacies, walgreens, cvs, are partnering with Ride Share Companying to give people who dont have transportation a ride to get the vaccine. Thats great. But isnt that a secondary issue . The primary issue, youve got all sorts of people without the technology to go online and get an appointment to begin with. Yeah, you know theres been such an obsession over the number of people being vaccinated each day. Not enough attention into whose arms are these vaccines going into, are they going into the arms of the communities that have been most affected, black, latino, Native Americans who have been hospitalized and dying at rates that far surpass the proportion of the population. And so many being infected because they are essential workers, theyre working. And if youre not setting up systems to ensure that youre meeting peoples needs where they are, you know if youre vaccinating 9 to 5, then people who are working arent going to be able to get there. If youre vaccinating 9 to 5, people who dont have sick leave or medical leave wont be able to get there. So, you know, for the Community Pharmacy approach, is a good one, people are used to getting flu shots and other shots at their community pharmacies, these Ride Share Approaches are good but one of the things that i want to see and were not seeing is every single state reporting data by race, ethnicity and neighborhood on vaccination. So you can see whos getting vaccinated, and whos not, where do you have to put Additional Resources, without that kind of information youre kind of going blindly into this. I definitely want to see that info. Dr. Richard besser, thank you for joining us, you always make us smarter when youre here. Thanks, stephanie. Right now President Biden is getting ready to head to michigan for his second domestic trip as president. Hell be visiting the Pfizer Facility where we first saw Covid Vaccines shipped out two months ago but first he will be part of the g7 Virtual Meeting this hour and hell be speaking at the virtual Munich Security Conference later this morning. Lets go to my friend Kristen Welker at the white house. Kristen, President Biden is under an enormous amount of pressure to get something done on covid relief. Lets be honest, the clock is ticking down to march 14th. Whats his goal for todays trip . Reporter well, his goal, steph, is exactly that, to make his public pitch for his 1. 9 Trillion Covid relief package. Hes going to be touring that plant in kalamazoo, michigan, and touting the fact that he is prompting as many as 600 million vaccine doses by the end of july so thats his target for when the vast majority of americans, he says, will be able to get vaccinated but hes going to make the case, steph, that in order to do it he needs funds from congress. That that is a critical piece of this equation. So expect that to be part of what you hear today, and of course it comes amid some pushback from democrats and republicans who say that the overall price tag, that 1. 9 trillion is just too steep. Its just too high. But the administrations response to that is, look, we have put the pieces together and this is what is needed, not just to deal with the covid crisis, but also to deal with the economic crisis. So thats one piece of messaging that were going to hear from President Biden today, steph, you also mentioned the fact that the president is going to be speaking virtually at those two international summits. His message will be that, it is a Global Responsibility to fight covid. In fact, hes going to be announcing a new donation to the kovax fund and hes going to be talking about the fact that under his leadership the United States is going to strengthen and reengage with its traditional allies. Of course during former President Trump there was an America First foreign policy. So hes turning the page on that, steph and it comes against the backdrop of this news that the administration has announced it is open to sitting down and resuming talks with iran and other partner countries to potentially, potentially talk about resuming the iran nuclear deal, steph. It is a busy day ahead, Kristen Welker, thank you. Coming up next, the ceo of robinhood saying hes sorry for what happened with the gamestop frenzy. But is an apology all were going to get . Plus, more of my interview with senator elizabeth warren, why she thinks distrust in the market caused by what we saw with gamestop is bad for the overall economy. 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. 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If you smell gas, youre too close. Leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. Covids still a threat. And on Reopening Schools, we know what happens when we dont put safety first. Ignore proper ventilation or rates of community spread, and the virus worsens. Fail to provide masks or class sizes that allow for social distancing, and classrooms close back down. A successful reopening requires real safety and accountability measures. Including prioritizing vaccines for educators. Parents and educators agree reopen schools. Putting safety first. If you see wires down, treat them all as if theyre hot and energized. Stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. This morning a whole lot of questions still remain after lawmakers spent more than five hours grilling wall street and tech ceos about the rise and fall of gamestop and other stocks last month that were amid a volatility frenzy. Most of the questions and the fury was aimed at robinhoods ceo vlad tenev under fire after his app caused stocks to surge, costing some users millions. Despite the unprecedented Market Conditions in january, at the end of the day what happened is unacceptable to us, to our customers im sorry, and i apologize. Please know that we are doing everything we can to make sure this wont happen again. Now thousands of those customers are suing robinhood, including kevin kelly, a High School Football coach from little rock, arkansas. Were at the 10 yard line about to score a touchdown. We have passed Everybody Else, nobodys going to stop us. Its over with. And we were about to sell and make our money that next day. And they wouldnt let us. Its like the refs blew the whistle and were at the 10 going were about to score, theres nobody in our way, Everybody Else is way back there. And were about to score and so, yeah, they did change the rules just like in a football game. But lawmakers say its about more than one crazy week on wall street. Its about protecting investors and actually the entire economy. Its important to everyone because the overall functioning of the economy is good for all of us. Its how people get jobs. Its how salaries go up. Its how we have goods and services that were able to buy. The stock market may seem like something thats far and distant but in fact it touches peoples lives every day in multiple ways. A good, functioning stock market is good for the American Economy joining us now to discuss, scott galloway, Professor At Nyu School Of Business and cohost of the pivot podcast. And alexis goldstein, were used to seeing these hearings with all sorts of fire works, ceos in the hot seat, Mark Zuckerberg sweating with a thousand cameras in his face. The fact that this whole thing unfortunately was awkwardly on zoom, did it kind of miss its moment to get something done . Yeah, i think we all missed those moments of electricity and sort of those unscripted moments and someone on zoom, two dimensions, naturally reduces the power. There were still some powerful moments. The key takeaway was there wasnt a conspiracy against traders in that week. Theres a larger conspiracy, and that is on robinhood, when your Business Model is payment for order flow your primary objective is to get people to trade more and take more and more risk. And the the statistics are pretty straightforward. 80 of day traders lose money. 80 of options expire worthless. 80 or the people on traders on robinhood on a size adjusted basis trade 80 times the number of options as other trading platforms. When you detach from the most powerful source in the universe and that is time and youre at a poker table with other people and its a zero sum game and a couple of those poker players have supercomputers, youre naturally at a disadvantage. The good news there wasnt a conspiracy last week. The bad news is the conspiracy is much broader than that. Okay, but then alexis, heres the bad news, for many of those individual traders who are suing robinhood, theyre not suing to be protected. Theyre suing for more access and more ability to take risk. The opposite of what scotts talking about. Well, im inclined to agree with scott. I dont think there was malice on robinhoods part but i also agree with representative ocasiocortez was there incompetence on the part of robinhood, because they didnt have their internal risks in order at their company. And this lets not forget that robinhood had a series of outages over the summer. Theyve had problems with their user interface. Its not the first time theyve gotten into trouble and i think mr. Tenev failed to explain what really happened at the end of january and he also threw out some bogus numbers, this 35 billion of both realized and unrealized profit which you dont get to take unrealized profits to the bank and he didnt disclose how many assets under management robinhood has, which makes that a meaningless number. There are a ton of open questions about whether robinhood has a handle on their business. Thats part of what happened with this lawsuit and a lot of people suffered as a result. Scott, whats amazing that weve seen over the last year, many people that in other scenarios wouldnt be trading and investing, because they dont have disposable income, were doing so in part out of desperation. Yesterday while all of this was going on we actually heard from walmarts ceo Doug Mcmillan about raising wages for his employees, watch this. We do think the federal minimum wage should go up. 7. 25 is too low, too long since its been adjusted. So some form of an adjustment there, and hopefully indexing it to something so that over time businesses large and small have some certainty around what the federal minimum wage is going to be. As you know, around the country states have started to move, weve moved, our Starting Wage Rate is up 50 since 2015. Do these two things tie together in any way, and possibly if people are making more of a living wage they wont be in desperate Gambling Situations . 100 , stephanie. As alexis pointed out in her powerful article this morning in the New York Times, Lottery Ticket sales go up, in times of incredible income inequality. The underlying incendiary, i believe, to all of this, are very scary statistics for the first time in our nations history a young man or woman at the age of 30 isnt doing as well as their parents were at 30. That involves shame. That involves rage. Youve had billionaires increase their wealth from 1. 9 trillion to 4 trillion in ten years, meanwhile the federal minimum wage has exploded from 7. 25 to 7. 25. This stimulus has done four and five people have received this stimulus say theyre not going to spend it, it goes into the market, exploding stock prices who owns 90 of stocks and real estate by gross dollar volume, the rich, everything we have done in terms of our tax policy, in terms of our legislative policy has one aim, and that is to transfer wealth from people under the age of 40 who tend to be less white, who tend to be asset holders, less male to transfer it to an older generation that tends to be more male in terms of asset ownership, and more white. Their rage is absolutely warranted. Yeah, they dont have the opportunity to pursue the American Dream and they deserve it. Scott, alexis, thank you so much and i recommend alexiss piece out today in the New York Times. Up next, senator ted cruz is back in texas. Hes now apologizing after his planned vacation to cancun. While his constituents suffered without power or water. 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He admitted last night that he planned to stay through the weekend and he changed his flight after he had second thoughts. Well, look, in hindsight, if id understood how it would be perceived, the reaction people would have obviously i wouldnt have done it. It was a mistake. At the same time, look, i mean, i ive got to admit, i started having second thoughts really as i sat down on the plane. After he had second thoughts, after he was caught by the media. Joining us now to discuss, someone who knows this state better than anyone, jim moore, hes been writing about and reporting texas politics and culture for decades. Jim, your reaction to ted cruzs shortlived trip to mexico, is this a big is this part of a bigger problem with texas leadership . Its certainly part of a problem with ted cruz, stephanie. I think the mis understanding people have about this guy is that he did not make a mistake in judgment. He was simply being ted cruz. You heard him on that clip you just played, what he was concerned about was perception, not the morality, not the reality of the fact that he was abandoning his state as people are burning their furniture, theyre standing out in lines in subfreezing temperatures waiting to get buckets of water to take home. There are people filling up their dinner ware and their tupperware with snow to flush their toilets and there are people literally dying here and hes worried about the perception, the misunderstanding of ted cruz and what he is in texas is that he didnt think about this at all. He didnt think about how can i help, what can i do for my state, can i facilitate things with fema, can i talk to people and help washington better understand what is needed down here . Instead he did what a lot of mexicans do, which is to cross the border and travel 1,200 miles to find heat, light and water for his family. Then if this is just ted cruz being ted cruz, why does he keep getting elected . What does that tell you about texans . It tells me something rather disturbing as a guy whos lived his entire adult life we keep electing these people that give us problems like weve experienced. We have conservatives in texas who simply think that not just Less Government is better, but almost no government. In fact, the governor today is complaining about ercot, the electric Reliability Council of texas which screwed up the entire grid when the storm hit, and hes talking about reforming it and fixing it. But hes culpable in this thing. He has known for years that the grid has not been hardened against catastrophic Weather Events. There were recommendations about ten years ago that the grid and the generating plants be upgraded in a way that would protect them from huge Weather Events like storms and freezes of this nature and they ignored it, because they have their own grid, we are not susceptible to federal regulations because we contain it inside our borders. If you spend millions of dollars to upgrade, youre cutting into profit, it never happens. This wildly disingenuous of the governor and ted cruz and Everybody Else in the Conservative Movement in texas to come back and say, oh, were going to fix it, were going to solve this problem. They knew it was there. They simply ignored it because its profitable to ignore. Knowing texas as well as you do, when we get past this, when the sunshines again, when things warm up and people are safe in their homes, hopefully, are texans going to forget about this and go back to the way they were . I think thats the big, big important question, stephanie, and what id like to believe is that this is a kind of seismic event that the covid and the coronavirus have been for donald trump. I think that this may be the moment that has peeled back the covers on what conservatism is all about. In this state we are ignoring medicaid. Theres 100 billion that texas has sitting on the table for ten years if we expand medicaid. But no, we dont want government to come into the state so we have four and a quarter Million People who are uninsured including 625,000 children. We dont raise our gas tax. Since 1991 in texas. And consequently what happens is, we bring in companies to build toll roads and we pay a tax that way. Its a shell game. Weve got although we have no State Income Tax and they brag about that we have bond and indebtedness that approaches like 60 billion. And they hide it so the politicians can say, hey, i didnt raise your taxes. But my hope is that this incident has unveiled whats really going on in texas, and people like ted cruz and greg abbott will pay a price for it and the people in the state will realize if you want infrastructure that works, if you want roads and good schools and highways, and mass transportation, you have to pay for it, just like you do everything else. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, i appreciate it. My pleasure. Were going to move on because weve got Breaking News in our nations capitol, the Capitol Police Department Says it has officially suspended six officers with pay as part of its investigation into the january 6th attack on the capitol. The Office Of Professional Responsibility investigation is looking into the actions of 35 officers on that day. We are told the investigation is ongoing. Next, a huge move by the Manhattan Da Signaling just how serious things could be for former President Trump. Turns out theyre going to investigate trump like they would a mob boss. Wait. I want a bucket of chicken. I want. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. man im a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right, the only one from americas most reliable network. We designed our 5g to make the things you do every day better. 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Talk to your doctor and ask if latuda could make the difference youve been looking for in your Bipolar Depression symptoms. Been six days since former President Trump was acquitted by the senate, but his legal problems still remain. Maybe worse than ever. A california Million Dollar donor to trumps inauguration was just sentenced to 12 years in prison for tax evasion and for providing Illegal Campaign contributions. And we just learned that trumps former fixer Michael Cohen was interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorneys Office. This as the New York Times reports that the da cyrus vance has recruited Mark Pomeranz to investigate the trump family business. He is a former federal prosecutor and an expert in white collar crime. Lets bring in Andrew Weissmann the former Senior Member of special counsel muellers probe and he is now an msnbc legal analyst. I am so glad you are here. They just got the same guy that prosecuted john gadi jr. To investigate trump. What does that mean when a Mob Prosecutor takes on a case like this . Good morning, stephanie. So i really had my ears perk up at this news. There are two things that cy vance did that i think are innovative, unusual and really signal to me that theres a therethere to paraphrase gertrude stein, and that is Mark Pomeranz being added to the team along with the news several weeks ago that the Manhattan District Attorneys Office also added fti, which is an outside accounting firm. To me what that signals with Mark Pomeranz given his expertise in White Collar Criminal Defense is this is an active White Collar Investigation where its serious. Its hard to imagine that you would bring in both fti and Mark Pomeranz if there wasnt something that you thought was worth Serious Investigation and youre gearing up for the potential indictment of people, either the former president or people around him or both. The das office already interviewed Michael Cohen, they have heard his story, weve heard his story. He wrote a book. Why interview him again, the president s former fixer . So i view that as not really news for exactly the reasons that you said, stephanie. I can imagine if you are Mark Pomeranz or fti you want to drill down on anything that he recalls or remembers, but i cant imagine that he is going to be a central witness, unless you can essentially corroborate the hell out of him because hes spoken so much and he obviously would be a difficult witness for the government to present, but he could have significant leads. In other words, having an insider to tell you where the bodies are buried to continue sort of the mob analogy is really useful and incredibly important in a white collar case. It was something necessary in the anon investigation, in the special counsel investigation i just did. So having him on the inside pointing out things can be extremely useful to people like fti and Mark Pomeranz. This is just one of the criminal cases being looked at against trump. Could it have impact on others . Potentially, but i dont i really dont think so. I think that the georgia case that weve heard about seems very separate, the Incitement Case that could be brought potentially in d. C. Also seems separate. This seems like, you know, the main case focusing on trump organization, financial potential misdeeds, i think all the action will be in the Manhattan District Attorneys Office, unless and until we see the federal government, you know, joining in. Well, we will be watching. Andrew, thank you for joining me. As always, i love the turtleneck. That wraps us up this hour and this week. Im stephanie ruhle. Thank you for watching. Hallie jackson picks up breaking News Coverage on the other side of the break. On the other side of the break Liberty Mutual customizes wait. 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I signed up because i was curious. I learned about my grandfathers life on ancestry and it was a remarkable twentiethcentury transformation. He did a lot of living before i knew him. Bring your Family History to life like never before. Get started for free at ancestry. Com crisis to crisis for texas this morning with about half the state now dealing with unsafe drinking water, although the power at least is coming back on. Watch. Im trying so hard not to cry. Im very stressed, too, with everything going on. Its hard. But im trying. A fifth straight day of record cold, busted pipes, frozen lines, damaging countless homes. Look at this, thats what happened at a garage in galveston, cars encased in ice after a pipe apparently burst