Into our offline discussion. Were out of time, and sacha, thats the only reason aaron got the last word. Thanks for joining us tonight. Okay, sacha did get the last word. The 11th hour with Brian Williams starts now. Well, good evening once again. Day 44 of the Biden Administration, and the president s plan to slow the spread of a virus thats killed over half a million of our fellow citizens, wiped out about 10 million jobs is now up against a full on assault from republicans in the u. S. Senate. Bidens nearly 2 trillion relief bill is being read aloud right now on the senate floor. That would be 628 pages of it to a mostly empty chamber being read by the clerk at the request of Wisconsin Republican senator and conspiracy theorist ron johnson who made good on his threat to lead his partys effort to drag out the process of getting to final passage. This all got under way earlier today after Vice President harris broke the 5050 tie on the vote to begin debate of the bill. Marathon readings have been going on around since 3 30 this afternoon. Its expected to end early tomorrow morning. Senate democrats were not only unphased but defiant. We are delighted that the senator from wisconsin wants to give the American People another opportunity to hear whats in the American Rescue plan. Let everybody listen pause it has overwhelming support. I wish ron johnson would use his time to explain to the trump voters that the election wasnt stolen and that millions of people, you know, didnt vote for donald trump instead of joe biden. Chuck schumer will need to keep his caucus together to make this key part of the biden agenda a reality. Today Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell added another challenge aside from calling the bill too expensive. He argued its not needed. Its become a right of passage for a new democratic president to begin with a poorly targeted Spending Spree that doesnt give americans what they need. We already laid the foundation for a roaring come back. The Biden Administration inherited a tide that was already turning. This morning we woke up to news that another 745,000 americans lost jobs last week alone, slightly higher than the previous week. The clock is ticking to get this bill to the president s desk. Federal Unemployment Benefits run out in ten days. Meanwhile, Capitol Police want National Guard troops to stay right where they are for a few months longer to help protect the congress. Police officials waiting from approval from the pentagon on that. This comes after federal officials warned about intelligence indicating extremists might try to launch an attack today, just two months after the insurrection. This was qanon Inauguration Day, by the way. Bidens Homeland Security chief says such threats are at the top of his departments agenda. We are watching the threat stream, the information on social media, other sources with respect to this particular day, march 4th. But quite frankly we are vigilant every day as we must be when the threat is as acute as it is in the Domestic Violence extremism context. House of representatives canceled todays session because of the most recent threat to the congress. Theres now a partisan divide about heightening security. And some of the strongest objections are coming from the very senator who raised his fist in solidarity with the crowd that overran the capitol. This is the peoples house. It should be open to the people, and just to say, hey, maybe forever well have a massive guard presence and to have it fenced off from the public i think is the wrong choice. We should have them here as long as they are needed. We have to ensure with our security that we are safe enough to do our job. Nbc news Reporting Tonight that retired u. S. Army Lieutenant General russell honere, a friend of this broadcast and the task force hes been heading up reviewing what went wrong on 1 6 will present their findings and recommendations to lawmakers on monday. Biden white house now facing a new challenge as it ramps up its effort to reduce the number of Coronavirus Infections across our country. State governors are now taking various approaches to restrictions and mask mandates even amid clear signs that the pandemic is nowhere near over. Theyre all doing it to stay on brand. Today alabamas republican governor said shell keep the statewide mask mandate for just another month and drop it in april. In connecticut ned lamont a democrat announced on thursday his state will soon end capacity limits on a lot of Business Categories while keeping a statewide mask mandate in place. The decisions by the leaders of mississippi and texas to lift the mask mandates led biden to call the moves a mistake and, quote, neanderthal thinking. Well, today governor greg abbot of texas claimed dropping the Mask Requirements wouldnt make a big difference in his state, and he offered a blatant falsehood in an attack on the Biden White House. The Biden Administration was spreading covid in south texas yesterday because of their lack of constraint of testing and quarantining. People whod come across the border illegally. The Biden Administration was exposing texans to covid. That is a theanderthaltype approach to dealing with the covid situation. Theres also news in another story weve been keeping an eye on. The New York Times Reporting Tonight top aides to new York Governor Andrew Cuomo rewrote a report in summer of last year to hide the number of nursing home deaths due to the coronavirus. Its a lot and with that lets bring in our lead off guests on this thursday night. Shannon pettypiece, our senior White House Reporter for nbc news digital, our eyes and ears on capitol hill, nbc news correspondent garret haake is with us. And Clint Watts Returns to the broadcast, distinguished fellow at the research institute. Our National Security analyst, also happens to be the author of messing with the enemy surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. Garret, because of your beat on the hill and whats going on there id like to begin with you. Also this quote from phil bump over at the washington post. While the senate reads the Coronavirus Relief bill and to be specific its just a clerk to a mostly empty chamber. Nearly 1,400 americans may die from the virus. So heres the question. Any fear from republicans that they may be on the wrong side of this pandemic relief . Well, republicans have been trying all week long to take a shine off of this relief bill. Half a dozen News Conferences with republican lawmakers trying to convince the public that this bill is too big, its unnecessary, that it would have been appropriate for March Of 2020 but its not necessary for march of 2021. And well find out, brian, and the only republican lawmaker who still seems to be in play to possibly vote for this bill is lisa murkowski, the senator up for reelection in 2022. And youve got a bill thats got 60 to 70 popularity, democrats are going to pass it anyway with 50 votes and its free money. When you have a chance to vote for free money for your constituents when youre in cycle thats usually a pretty easy yes. But republicans are making a longterm bet by the time theyre up again for reelection this pandemic will be long enough behind us there will be perhaps Something Else to worry about, Something Else to run against. And the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats are laser focused on getting this done before they leave town probably some time in the very early hours on saturday morning. Shannon, indeed, same question to you in your reporting. Have you detected any signs of weakening among republicans, or are they all willing perhaps save murkowski of alaska are they all willing to go off a cliff for this . This seems to be a unifying moment for the republicans and something that they have needed to unify around because there has been this obviously you could call this a civil war, a divergence of opinions, but there has been been this Identity Crisis going on in the republican party. So this has given them something to rally around. And yes, politically it is a bizarre thing to rally around. Were to rally around opposing funding for vaccines to oppose stimulus checks. This is widely popular, and it has genuinely seemed to surprise people in the white house that republicans are so in lock step opposed to this. They did seem to think they could actually get one or two republicans if nothing else because of how popular this was. So this has been a bit of a wakeup call to the white house about how difficult it is going to be to get republican support for anything. You know, you cant get republicans to join onto support stimulus and Vaccine Funding as they have a number of times and other covid relief bills, how are you going to get them on criminal Justice Reform or immigration or something that really is a partisan issue . Thats going to be the challenge for them going forward. Theyre continuing to hold these bipartisan meetings at the white house trying to, you know, continue having conversations and address these things down the road. But so far republicans are in lock step against this, and we are at the polarized washington that joe biden had pledged to, you know, sort of disseminate, to create that unity. Were not seeing that yet. I have a followup question on that. Well go to Clint Watts First and your lives work, the intel world. Clint, evan perez over at cnn has a clean kill on a story tonight that the feds are looking into phone records, linkage, communication between members of congress and the rioters, whether witting or unwitting did they help with the planning and execution of this. Dual question, clint. Is the fbi likely to find all the comes that are out there, and do you think some lawmakers may have something to worry about . I think the answer is no on the first one. What theyll do is essentially match up calls, essentially call records well be able to kelkt. And if there were congressman or Staff Members of those Congressman Coordinating or communicating with the rioters as they come into the capitol, youre going to have a big problem. That signal will definitely be touched off. That leads to the second part i think what you were addressing which is the fbi, they now have i think at last count it was 280 people theyve already issued complaints or criminal complaints, had another 300 open cases, that means theyve got witnesses. So you can take those call records. You can look at where those signals were, and you can start to ask questions of those people that have been arrested. And as weve already seen with people who have interviewed out in the open media, people that have been detained for their breaking into the capitol, theyre starting to talk. So i imagine for the fbi its theyre leading these investigations and they have a more understanding of the threats and thats why you saw the bulletin come out yesterday about a potential attack that could have occurred today. Garret haake, help me understand something. If the members and the house and senate were targets on 1 6, and they were witnesses to 1 6 and it was their capitol, their chamber, our capitol that was looted why is there a debate over securing the capitol . Is it like mask wearing . Has it just fallen along partisan lines . But whats the other side of the debate . Well, its actually not partisan, brian. Theres a pretty big i think actual majority of lawmakers who dont like the National Guard presence, who dont like seeing the capitol surrounded by 8 foot, no scale fences topped by razor wire. They think theres perhaps a less heavyhanded way to keep the capitol secure and allow them to do their jobs. For folks who dont spend a lot of time in washington, access to the capitol could not be more different in normal times than access to the white house. The Office Buildings are accessible to the public. So too are all the parks in the surrounding capitol. And lawmakers really like having that access to their constituents, and their constituents having that access to them. They are hopeful that theres a solution that might be a little bit less aggressive at having 5,000 people with automatic weapons guarding them every day. Were getting a briefing on monday when ive been doing my very best to get him to leak to me the copy of his final recommendations of what hed like to see put in place on the capitol. But we know hes going to want more Police Officers and some kind of more permanent fencing, some structural changes to the campus that i think a lot of lawmakers from both parties are going to resist. They want that open campus that has been such a staple of the Capitol Hill Community and that part of d. C. For such a long time. Good luck with honore, by the way. Ive known him for years. A leaker would not make the top of the list. Shannon, back to my followup. Lets go one deeper on bipartisanship. Is the Biden White House continuing to pursue bipartisanship . And forgive me if this sounds cynical so at least they can say we pursued bipartisanship, we invited as many of you over to our side as possible. We had some of you over to the oval office. Well, they had to pursue bipartisanship if they want to get any legislation passed going forward. They were able to get this through with 50 votes and all the democrats held the line. So that appears theyre going to be able to do that. Going forward anything else they want to do, they need ten republicans to join onto so infrastructure, criminal Justice Reform, immigration, even just some of the general business of the government, even the minor stuff theyre going to need to get those 60 votes. So if theyre going to want anything done theyre going to have to get bipartisanship. That is the ultimate route people are thinking about do you get rid of the filibuster and then you dont need those 60 votes, you dont need those republicans. Thats an area that has some problems, one, because President Biden has repeatedly said hes philosophically opposed to that. Thats not something hes open to, but even if he was so then do they, one, have the 50 votes among just democrats to get rid of the filibuster . And then if you dont have the filibuster, lets say you do get rid of it, are there 50 democrats who can agree on immigration . Are there 50 democrats who can agree on a minimum wage increase . Are there 50 democrats who could even agree on neera tanden . The answer to a lot of those is no. They dont even have democrats united on a lot of the big complicated issues. So i think thats where we get back to the bipartisanship and President Biden just going to have to continue to beat this drum. Imagine infrastructure. Theres no Running Water in jackson, mississippi, and texas, a state of 30 million people, home state of garret haake just about fell apart after a winter storm was left cold and dark. Clint, you get the last question. This is out of politico. The fbi on thursday arrested Fredrico Coastline on charges related to the storming of the capitol. In connection with the attempt to Block Congress from certifying bidens victory. The alleged presence of a trump political appointee at the riot may tie those events more closely to the president. Clint, what should we make of this . Do you think well see more of this . I think its probably just the tip of the iceberg, brian. If you look at the context of the leadp to january 6, the day before, the night before there were open rallies where you saw lots of coordination, you saw lots of planning and you saw very clear resource of this. The other part was the president himself on separate occasions the day before he tweeted out, this is going to be wild. He indicated according to vanity fair to acting secretary of defense miller, youre going to need a lot of people tomorrow. He even goes out onto the lawn and what does he say . Im going to walk to the capitol with you. It was a coordinated event. Weve seen the president speak of this before where hell throw things out really forecasting or foreshadowing whats going to happen in the future. And when you look at the coordination of the stop the steal movement which was online for weeks leading up to this, this is how we knew this was going to be a significant issue. I think youre definitely going to see connections both in the white house and with a lot of the president s supporters some of whom that he probably just pardoned which were also part of these rallies that happened the day before. Three friends of this broadcast starting us off on a thursday night, shannon pettypiece, garret haake, clint watts. Coming up for us, what do you call a republican who refuses to wear a mask . Well, long time conservative bill kristol who is standing by has a name for that. Hell join us next. And later why some catholic bishops are saying no to one of the covid vaccines. 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Again, lets just call it staying on brand. Alabama is the latest state to announce it will lift its mask mandate two days after texas and mississippi upped the pressure by saying theyre doing the same. Meanwhile in florida lets talk about this. Trump ally ron desantis, the governor there is at the center of a vaccine scandal. This promises to get worse. The miami herald reporting today, quote, as floridas eldest residents struggled to signup to receive their first dose of the covid19 vaccine nearly all those age 65 years and older in a wealthy gated enclave in the florida keys had been vaccinated by midjanuary. Its also home to many wealthy donors to the Florida Republican party and gop candidates including governor ron desantis. For more we are getting the bteam back together again tonight. And by bteam the three of us mean that in the nicest way. Baratunde thurston, and bill kristol, arthur, writer, thinker, editor at large over at the bulwark. Gentlemen, great to have the gang back together. Thank you both for coming on. Baratunde, is this story about florida, it feels to me every time we have the discussion about about equity this kind of thing means we should just put a just kidding at the end of it. Think about the bus driver from new york who after working all his or her life lives in a single wide in florida because that was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They got to retire in florida. Think about what we know about black and brown communities, what we know about the socalled deadly trinity in black america, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes. If youve been paying attention over your adult life you know who should get these shots first, and its not happening. No, it isnt, brian. And thank you for having me back. Good to be here with you and bill. Whats up, bill . Ron desantis continues to disappoint. And i think theres a Counter Point in his own history. When he wanted the government to want inefficiently and ineffectively he and Florida Republicans gummed up the works, slowed it down, made it harder for people to get Unemployment Benefits. When there was a record run on the system millions of people were left out in the cold. Millions of people were left without any resources because they didnt want the government to work. And what you said about corid is absolutely true. Its poorer communities, its indigenous communities. Its black and brown communities that are more exposed to this disease that are more wrecked by It Epidem Logically and economically. Yet when ron desantis wants the government to work, to show up effectively and efficiently its only for his people, only for the wealthy people in these enclaves and its not surprising but no less disappointing. Bill kristol, as you often do, you drop something on social media this morning that got our attention and made us think. And ill quote from it. Mask refusers appeal to liberty. But even staunch libertarians know that checking the spread of disease is legitimate government function. The hostility to masks isnt libertarian. Its nihilistic. Nihilism has come to characterize a significant part of todays conservatism. Bill, nihilism really leaves nothing standing. The question for a guy like you with your history in modern america, how did the party of shining cities on hills embrace nihilism, what were seeing right now . Yeah, i wrote that when i was so struck by some of the coverage republican governors are loosening up, theyre abandoning all the restricts on restaurants and also the ban on mask wearing. I mean, opening up the restaurants, opening up schools there are arguments for doing so. I think many of these people in these states have done so too quickly and irresponsibly, others are doing it more gradually. Theres a cost to not opening up, to be fair. Its a general tradeoff between Public Health and peoples jobs and in the case of kids education. And thats the debate were having. But whats the case against mask wearing . Theres no trail. Theres nothing. I mean, its a total public good. Some lives are going to be saved. Some hospitalizations are going to be so the case against mask wearing is just i dont want to do it. And its not libertarian as this are my freedoms at stake. We will do certain things for the sake of Public Health and decent human beings do certain things just out of, you know, respect trying to help out the community and help out their neighbors and not endanger others. So ive always thought the hostility to mask wearing is really sort of its own it has its own particular character thats a little different from the Public Policy debates about the schools or the restaurants or the businesses. And seeing these governors just say no more mask wearing when its obvious we have these new strains, the numbers are going up in mississippi and texas, the two states that have stopped mask wearing, they went up last week the number of cases. We see the light at the end of the tunnel, so lets hang on here a little bit and then the vaccine really will liberate a lot of people. To do it now is just a pure performative nihilism in a sense we dont want to do it so were not going to do it. And maybe these peoples biggest backers have already gotten vaccinated so they dont care like ron desantis wealthy friends. Its interesting. The governor of mississippi did announce she was going to remove the mask mandate but only in a month to be fair. And the governors of West Virginia and utah, two pretty conservative states with republican governors said, no, we need to hang on here for a month or two and keep doing the right thing for Public Health. It does seem particularly irresponsible whats been done in texas and mississippi. Talk about how to citizen. Used to be you could live your whole life and not really bother to learn the name of your states governor. What covid has done is enforced to everybody exactly who their governor is and exactly what they stand for and what they dont. Both of these kind gentlemen have agreed to stick around during a break. Our conversation will continue on the other side. And coming up, a healthy majority of americans are saying show me, slash us the money. That means really that every republican senator is prepared to return to their home states and explain why they didnt vote to send money to the folks back home. I dont know why were showing ron johnson of wisconsin. I dont know why were showing ron johnson of wisconsin when donald trump was president they were willing to vote for a total of over 3 trillion in aid. Now that President Biden is president and the economy is in the same pickle generally speaking, they dont want to vote for a nickel. I wonder why. I wonder why. Guy has a point. Theres a new monmouth poll out tonight. This is democrats and republicans all mixed together like thatll ever happen in 2021. It finds 62 of americans surveyed say they support the president s nearly 2 trillion covid relief package slowly working its way through the u. S. Senate. Still with us Baratunde Thurston and bill kristol. Bill, you get to go first this time after a dramatic reading from trip gabriel in the New York Times. He writes, quote, as the election returns rolled in showing trump winning strong support from blue collar voters in november while suffering historic losses in suburbs, senator josh hawley in missouri, a republican declared on twitter, quote, we are a Working Class Party now. Thats the future. But since then republicans have offered very little to advance the economic interests of blue collar workers. So, bill, how do you think the working class hero, he of stanford and yale law school, mr. Hawley, is going to go home and explain to the missouri working class from st. Louis all the way to joplin exactly why he voted no not just on this but on every single Biden Cabinet appointment . Hell say the democrats and the Biden Administration are the party that want to cancel dr. Seuss and mr. And mrs. Potato head and play every Culture War Card and frankly every race and ethnic card he can i suppose. I think its a missed opportunity for the Biden Administration. Maybe they could have shaped the bill differently, but now theyre going to get it through. The Vaccine Production has been accelerated, theres going to be a lot of money flowing out. And in three, four, five months we could be in a decent shape as a country in terms of Public Health and in terms of an economic comeback. And politically the interesting question for me is how does joe biden spend that Political Capital . Democracy reform, voting rights, immigration . He might get a second wind in a way that president s often dont, though, by lets say september if the Public Health situation is improved dramatically, schools are reopening and economies are doing well. And hell be able to take credit for it because hes the person who did the vaccines and the economic package. Nicely previewed the question i had planned to ask you and thats about cancel culture. Its becoming a thing, a phrase. Its going to be a thing absent other issues that people dont want to talk about during the next primary season. It gives jim jordan something to talk about other than his troubles. Mr. Potato head, dr. Seuss, next thing youll know well find out he ever wasnt a doctor. Where do you put all this . What is perspective on what were living through . I have a hard time taking the term cancel culture seriously unless were going to take in the great sweep of this countrys beautiful and ugly history. Ask the indigenous nations who were here before there was ever a nation called the u. S. About cancel culture. Ask all of the cultures of the African Peoples who were brought here to slave away for no compensation whatsoever, lost their language, their religion, their family ties, about cancel culture. And of this republican party, the most absurd thing i can see is that after january 6 when a vast majority of elected federal republican officials voted to cancel the results of a free and fair democratic election, dont come to me about cancel culture. Look, the good news is this. They lost. The good news is joe biden on his Inauguration Day signaled what it meant. Enough of us have come together to move all of us forward. Right now that enough are democrats in the u. S. Senate, and im grateful to them. And that, ladies and gentlemen, of the audience is why we invite these two gentlemen on the broadcast. We are so grateful to both of our friends, Baratunde Thurston and bill kristol. Thank you both. Coming up after a break, Fact Checking some of the latest fears about these covid vaccines with a prominent Public Health physician. Vaccines with a prominent Public Health physician. Right now basically were in like a titanic situation. Weve all been dumped into freezing coldwater which is this disease, and there are a limited number of life boats. I say climb into whatever lifeboat you can get. Whatever vaccine you can get, get. Dont try and choose among them. That is the message weve heard across the board from Health Care Officials to end this pandemic. The country is now administering an average of 2 million vaccine doses every day. The New York Times reporting the one shot one and done j j vaccine is not just proving popular, its allowing states to rethink their distribution. So back with us again tonight, dr. Erwin red hp liner, a Founder Director for columbias Disaster Preparedness who advies us on Public Health. As you and i have discussed i think there was a huge pr failure unintentional either on the government or j js part or both. During the rollout of j j the numbers on efficacy were different from The Other Two. So was the control group, the sample. Once and for all is there a discernible difference between these three in their ability to keep you from getting sick, keep you out of the icu . Or is it a distinction thats Numeric Without A Real World difference . Good evening, brian. And let me say it this way and i want to get to the punch line and then ill wind back. So the punch line is literally get whatever vaccine you can get as quickly as you can get it, period. All three of them are very effective in keeping people out of not just the hospital but the icu. And they are totally capable, it seems, and comparably capable of keeping people from dying. That said, the testing, the monitoring, the Data Collection from moderna and pfizer were different from what j j did. And the ultimate, the reality of this difference is really not meaningful for people. Because what j j is saying, were not quite as effective maybe as suppressing mild disease as The Other Two are although we dont even know that entirely. But were equally as effective in keeping people from dying and keeping them out of the icu. Take whatever you can get and as quickly as you can get it. Last, we have a complication today from the Catholic Church. Some catholic bishops are saying their parishioners should avoid Johnson Johnson if they can because they call it a morally compromised vaccine because of its abortion derived cell lines. Some cooler heads have prevailed in the church and told people if you have a chance for the j j, youre not making a moral decision by getting it. I wont drag you into religion, doctor, but how should we view this . So, brian, this is not the first religion that has gone against Public Health principles. We had evangelical churches throughout the south early on and throughout the pandemic that were still allowing people to gather in large groups and often not being face protected. We have Orthodox Jewish confruigations defying vaccines in general and also gathering in large crowds for religious purposes and funerals. And now we have the Catholic Church with this particular message. Brian, i cannot emphasize how strongly enough, how important it is for Church Officials and trusted officials in the church if not the bishops but others to say, listen, were dealing with a deadly pandemic, youre going to die. And if you can get the Johnson Johnson vaccine, youve got to take it. Even if this message has to come from the pope, and i hope it does, were trying to squelch a very serious Public Health crisis. And whatever it takes, it needs to be done. But what we dont need now are sort of religious principles from any religion impeding what we need to do to keep our population safe and healthy, brian. Here here. I agree. In the commercial break a friend of mine texted me to remind me that none of us know anyone with the seasonal flu. Ive yet to meet anyone with a common cold over the past year. That might be evidence that masks work, and yet listen to these governors. Texas, mississippi and now alabama. Texas is home to, what, five different variants. I am guessing these governors didnt check with the likes of dr. Erwin redlenner before lifting Mask Requirements right with the end zone in sight. Yeah, i checked my messages, brian, and i didnt hear from greg abbot. But heres the reality. On july 2nd abbot proposed and got a mandate to for everyone must wear masks. On that day there were about 7,200 new cases of the of the covid19. Of course he imposed the mandate. On the day that he talked about lifting the mandate exactly the same number of cases appeared around 7,200. So theres no rhyme or reason. This is i guess some political issue. Maybe its a response to maybe he wants to change the conversation after really failing the state with response to the crisis with weather and the loss of heat last week. But whatever it was certainly in my mind with absolute ignorance a level of political calculus here. I was thinking about this too, brian, one of the things donald trump did very effectively, he erased what used to be a hard line between politics and Public Health. We just didnt go there. We didnt cross that boundary on the assumption that every human being on the planet and in the United States from whatever political stripe or ideological bed they came from, they wanted us to be safe and not to die from a pandemic. So this whole idea of crossing that boundary and mixing politics and Public Health and the pandemic is kind of crazy and outrageous. And i think one of the things that biden needs to do now is to get that demarcation cleared up, and thats how hes going to reestablish the credibility of the federal government and the messages about being safe during a pandemic, brian. I can almost see Heads Nodding and hear people agree with you as they watch and listen to your comments across the country. Dr. Erwin redliner, as always thanks for coming on and taking our question. Coming up for us, our president trying to get money to the deserving people who need it. Sadly, other people are getting it, too. You need to see this next story. Its important right after this. Its important right after this. As the democrats are trying to deliver 2 trillion in relief, this next story is about the cost of good intentions. Good money, our money, whats intended as relief money winding up in the hands of bad people. We get the story on the scammers tonight from nbc news correspondent jo ling kent. This is a National Pandemic to go along with our own pandemic in terms of covid19. Reporter when Orange County prosecutors raided this Strip Mall Stor in Southern California they found clothe and pack packs stuffed with hundred dollar bills, stacks of Stolen Taxpayer Money meant for unemployed workers. There was so much cash they didnt even know where to put it. Reporter prosecutors say a Company Called wen social services filed false unemployment claims, part of a scheme they say Cost Taxpayers in california an estimated 11 million alone. Government programs have long been targets of scammers. How is this different . Its not different. Anytime you have an opportunity where people are moving quickly and theyve not safe guards in place, there are people lying in wait. State and federal officials tell nbc news the National Scale of fraud during the pandemic has been staggering. In colorado officials disclosed they have seen more fraudulent claims than legitimate ones. An audit in found nearly 70 of cares act unemployment money was misspent through the first half of last year alone. Several states refused to tell nbc news how much theyve lost in the pandemic. The prime suspects, crime rings, Prison Inmates and cyber criminals. Its prompted the Justice Department to launch a 50 State Task Force and the Labor Department Inspector General is currently investigating saying at least 63 billion may have been stolen. Experts say the real amount could soar well above 100 billion, bigger than the Bernie Madoff scandal or enron. The Unemployment Assistance Program allows you to basically take any identity and selfassert youre a driver or that youre selfemployed and you can get 20,000 in and a debit card. There literally is no other prize like that for organized crime. Reporter and as the Senate Debates a third round of unemployment relief, a warning about fraudsters next move. They have their next scheme about how to rip us off already in place and we dont even see it coming. As i said, tough to hear but we all need to hear it with our thanks to jo ling kent for that report from the west coast. Coming up, republicans are saying bidens being mean, and notably theyre managing to say it with a straight face. Notably theyre managing to say it with a straight face. Never holds you back dont settle for silver 1 for diabetic dry skin 1 for Psoriasis Symptom Relief and 1 for eczema symptom relief gold bond champion your skin dont settle for products that give you a sort of white smile. Try new Crest Whitening Emulsions for 100 whiter teeth. Its highly active Peroxide Droplets swipe on in seconds. Better. Faster. 100 whiter teeth. Crestwhitesmile. Com why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number . Because quality sleep is scientifically proven to help improve your Overall Health and wellness. Introducing the new sleep number 360 smart bed. The only bed that effortlessly adjusts to both of you. Proven quality sleep, is lifechanging sleep. Youve probably heard that mentioned i dont know how many times since the president used the term neanderthal comments. Well, first of course, joe, its not the type of a word a president should be using. Lets begin right there with the last thing before we go tonight. Please note the governor of texas just said neanderthal is not a word a president should be using. You could argue one of the reasons that governor of texas was such a slavishly loyal, reliable, Compliant Trumper for the last four years is the same thing that cost most elected republicans their dignity. They were so scared that a president who did truly say mean things often on a daily basis was going to Say Something mean about them. Donald trump never called anyone a neanderthal, its true. But he made up for it in other ways. Were being led by stupid people, folks. President obama, he is the founder of isis. Crooked hillary. Youre such a nasty woman. Lying ted and little marco. Low energy jeb. Crazy bernie. Hes crazy as a bedbug. Elizabeth pocahontas warren. Smoky steve, bunch of losers. The top of the fbi was scum. Comey choked like a dog. Little pencil neck adam schiff. Mini mike. Hey, sleepy joe are you corrupt . Its bullshit, okay. Just something to roll around in your mind the next time the governor of texas calls out the president for using the word neanderthal. And think of this most texans would have gladly chosen to live by gaslight when governor abbots statewide Power Grid Quit and the people of texas were denied the basic necessities of life during a winter storm. That is our broadcast for this thursday night with our thanks for being here with us on behalf of all my colleagues here at the networks of nbc news, good night. Tonight on all all in. Vo the affirmative and the motion to proceed is agreed to. The covid Rescue Package moves forward in the senate and republicans keep their eye on the ball. Lets not attempt to steal knowledge of our nations history from our children like the grinch attempted to steal christmas. Tonight the latest gop stunt to keep americans from getting relief. Then why the man arrested after breaking into Nancy Pelosis office was just dragged kicking and screaming back to jail. Plus why the Voting Reform Bill that just passed the house is crucial for democracy. And as Vaccination Rates climb, dr. Peter hotez on why we may soon hit an antivaxxer problem