pushing to get the 50 votes needed for the legislation to pass. >> we are determined to get the american rescue plan across the finish line. we don't care how many amendments they have, how many hours, how many days, we're going to get this done because this is about, you know, getting vaccinations in people's arms and financial help to people and kids back in school safely. >> we're going to be talking to that senator stabenow ourselves. in the meantime, if successful, the bill will head back for one final vote and on to president biden's desk for his signature. the final version of this bill includes a third round of stimulus checks, $1,400 for those who qualify, billions of dollars in funding to state and local governments and, again, $300 a week in jobless benefits until september, with a tax relief provision, 11th hour compromise that sparked this heated exchange on the senate floor overnight. >> suddenly, if you're on unemployment insurance, you don't have to pay taxes but if you're working, you do pay taxes. how does that make sense? >> on a party that claims who wants to help workers on their taxes won't lift a finger! >> notably absent from this bill is that minimum wage hike. all senate republicans and eight members of the democratic caucus voted against that provision. we're told right now chuck schumer is speaking, everyone. let's take a listen. >> amendment number 891. >> mr. president, i ask unanimous concept for two minutes of debate, equally divided. >> without objection, so ordered. thank you. >> mr. president, this amendment -- >> the senator from ohio. >> this amendment comes after about 24 hours of discussion here as a surprise so we're just looking at it for the first time but there are two things that are very disturbing about it. one is it completely distorts workers compensation for federal employees, which substantially increases costs to taxpayers, of course. it also sets a terrible precedent for how workers' comp works. if you have been injured on the job, you have to show you're injured open the job. that's how it works, basic principles of workers' comp. this changes the rules to -- >> we've keeping an eye out on, senator leahy, you heard him as well, schumer. we are keeping a close eye and ear on all of these details as they get worked out in the senate. let's go to some reporters across washington for us covering the developments. amanda golden, we will start with you on capitol hill. i said glacial pace with some people wanting to see this thing get done. do we have any guess estimate on how long until there's a vote and people say, okay, it's going to have to go back to the house now? >> i will couch it as best i can because it continues to update as we see, inch along, glacial pace i understand but snail's pace i would take. we're inching closer to the final passage of the vote. but there are some elements of technicalities going into this parliamentary procedures. you're going to see a prayer and pledge. you will have a roll call vote take place within the senate and then final voice vote before that. before some remarks before senate majority leader schumer before we get to that final passage vote in the senate for the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. they've gone through the main amendments, 37 amendments brought during this vote-a-rama, which has taken place for ver 24 hours. after the major delay from senator john manchin yesterday, where he was not yet on board for the democrats' unemployment benefits package and there was back and forth, intense pressure from the white house as well, making sure the entire democratic caucus was in line to be able to move forward with this and that's so crucial because of the 50/60 split in the senate. they cannot have any room for error. they need everyone within their entire party on board for this. as the amendments have come to the floor, we've only seen, as i said, 37 take up a vote and there were over 500 amendments put on to the floor, not all getting the vote. in the last vote-a-rama, there were over 900 amendments brought up and only about 40 got a vote. two key ones that came up that caused a little bit of a scuffle, that serious debate on the floor, heated exchanges. there were two main amendments i want to point, and one was to bar inmates from getting stimulus checks and another to bar undocumented immigrants from getting stimulus checks. senator dick durbin has harsh words back to the senator who put those amendments out there. take a listen to what he said. >> the statement from the senator from texas is just play false, false. let me be clear, undocumented immigrants do note have social social security numbers and they do not qualify for stimulus relief checks period. and just in case you didn't notice, they didn't qualify in december when 92 of us voted for that measure and they don't qualify under the american rescue plan. nothing has changed. and for you to stand up there and say the opposite is just to rile people up over something that's not true. >> you see durbin pushing back there, alluding to the fearmongering that's taking place to push for that there couldn't actually be stimulus checks for undocumented workers, that it's such a crucial party line issue and both of those amendments that came to a vote were failing on party lines as they move forward. so we're waiting here to see when this final vote passage will take place. we're eagerly watching to see what the next step will be. as you noted, the entire bill will have to go back to the house to be repassed before it could go to president joe biden's desk to be signed into law. democrats and white house continue to push for this to happen by march 14th, just one week away, when unemployment benefits across the set to expire, alex. >> let me personally thank you, you've been up and running since 5:00 a.m. keeping a close eye on this. i thank you very much for being here with us this hour as well. let's go from that to nbc's monica alba in washington, of course. let's get to the white house and reaction to the changes made to the relief bill ahead of the vote and extent to which we made hear from the president at some point after a vote? >> the plan is alex, for president biden to speak once this is passed. that is the hope for white house officials in the next little bit here, the president will be able to come out, thank senators for coming to agreement in his own party and also make sure, as amanda pointed out, this now moves swiftly back to the house for his signature in the next couple days or so. we expect to hear from the president in the next hour most likely once this all gets wrapped up. it's similar to what happened a week ago today when the house passed the american rescue plan. and the president offered very brief remarks after that moment. instead offering his thoughts to the senate to say, please, speed this up, there's not one single moment to waste. that's really been his message this entire time and that's likely what you will hear today as well, the sense of urgency. and that's why we know president biden was working the phones himself yesterday, speaking with john manchin personally a couple of times, we're told, and really trying to get him over the finish line because the democratic party had its own test of unity, which we saw. >> absolutely. hey, monica, chuck schumer, the senate majority leader is speaking. let's take a listen to this together. here he is, everyone. >> the most sweeping federal recovery efforts in history. it's never easy to pass legislation as momentous as this but it will all and soon be worth it. now, i know on saturday morning the american people are not watching our proceedings here. they're probably out walking the dog or sitting down at breakfast with the kids. but i want them to know help is on the way. that they're government is going to give one final push to get us over the finish line. i want the american people to know that we're going to get through this and someday soon our businesses will reopen, our economy will reopen, and life will reopen. we will end this terrible plague, and we will travel again and send our kids to school again and be together again. our job right now is to help our country get from the the stormy present to that hopeful future, and it starts with voting aye on the legislation before us. vote yes on the american rescue plan. vote yes. and before i yield the floor, one final vote. let us all express our deepest gratitude to all of my colleagues who went through a long, long period in the last day, to the staffs of the committees, and the personal senate offices who worked so hard to put this legislation together, and especially let us thank the great floor staff, the clerks, the cafeteria workers, the custodial staff and the capitol police. [ applause ] many of them have worked for as many as 36 hours straight. my notes here say let's give them a round of applause, but you've already done that. of course, one more thank you to my great and wonderful staff. i'll thank all of them by name at a later date because i want them to be awake and alert. >> it was nice to hear a bit of unanimous applause there for all of those workers that helped keep 36 hours of this vote-a-rama under way. let's go to my colleague nbc's garrett haake. garrett, that may be the only thing we hear unanimous applause around. tell me what's going on now, what is the holdup? how is it expected to play out? >> we're in the final moments here really. the last vote that you just, voice vote, was a perfecting amendment. essentially an opportunity the senate worked all night long, they made a couple changes to the bill. even during that time, they were scrubbing the text of this 628-page bill to make sure that everything in it actually does what they think it does, right? writing legislative text isn't as easy as just saying we want to spend x number of dollars on y. so what you just saw was basically finish off the perfecting of this legislation and we're now going to have this final roll call vote on the entire $1.9 trillion package as amended by the senate. this will be the senate's last piece of action on this bill. >> okay. so, garrett, does that happen immediately, or will they take a pause? i was led to believe before coming in to the studio here, there may be a little delay before a vote. would that make sense to you? is there anything to fine tune, despite the fine tuning you have just described? >> no, this should be it now. i think the fine-tuning is what we saw the last few minutes. we got mitch mcconnell speaking out and keeping an eye on them on the floor here, on my other monitor here. this is typically what we see in the end before final votes. bill speech from the majority leader and minority leader and then i expect to see the vote called. really the last bit of drama we're watching for does, a, republican senator lisa murkowski of alaska, whose vote sheen of bipartisanship by voting for it? she's been playing her cards close to the vest, very involved trying to shape this package to make it friendlier for small states like hers, did she get any of what she wanted here and not to cross over and make it technically a bipartisan vote here in the senate? that's what i will be watching for in a moment when they get started. >> we hear this via voice vote. i mean, how closely will you be listening to west virginia democrat john manchin and the way he votes, an aye or nay presumably. will there be anything to read in terms of the way he approaches this? because there's been fair amount of consternation around this vote. >> no. if john manchin doesn't vote yes on this bill, democrats have much, much bigger problems than anything we've talked about. this was the holdup yesterday when what was technically a vote on the minimum wage portion of this bill, sort of a show-your-hand vote. we knew the minimum wage wouldn't be included in this bill because of the budget reconciliation rules but there was this vote yesterday that ended up being held open, ended up being the longest vote in senate history, held up for more than 12 hours while fellow democrats, the president of the united states, basically everyone worked on john manchin to get him to support one of the last outstanding pieces of this legislation, unemployment insurance revision. manchin is on board with that. >> so, garrett, listen, i'm going to ask nick if we can take a listen to this. we're going to listen in. this is kind of exciting. we're going to listen for the yeas and nays. here we go. >> mr. cardin? mr. carper? mr. carper, aye. mr. casey? >> aye. >> mr. casey, aye. mr. cassidy? >> no. >> mr. cassidy, no. miss collins? no. mr. koontz -- >> aye. >> mr. koontz, aye. mr. corn cornyn? >> no. >> miss cortez masto? >> it aye. >> mr. crapo? mr. crapo, no. mr. cruz? >> no. >> mr. cruz, no. mr. danes? >> mr. danes, no. miss duckworth? miss duckworth aye. mr. durbin? >> aye. >> mr. durbin, aye. >> miss ernest? miss ernest? no. mrs. feinstein aye. mrs. fisher? no. mrs. gillibrand? >> aye. >> mrs. gillibrand, aye. mr. graham? >> no. mr. graham, no. mr. grassley? mr. grassley, no. mr. haggardy? >> no. >> mr. haggerty, no. miss hassan? >> aye. >> mr. hawley? >> know. >> mr. hawley, no. mr. heinrich? >>aye. >> mr. heinrich, aye. mr. lick enhooper? aye. mr. hovan? >> no. >> mr. hovan, no. >> mrs. hyde-smith? no. mr. innoff? >> no. >> mr. johnson. >> no. >> mr. johnson, no. >> mr. kane? mr. kane, aye. mr. kelly? >> aye. >> mr. kelly, aye. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. >> mr. kennedy, no. mr. king? >> aye. >> mr. king, aye. miss kwloeb klobuchar? >> aye. >> mr. langford? >> no. >> mr. langford, no. mr. leahy? >> aye. >> mr. leahy, aye. mr. lee? no. miss lummage? >> no. >> miss lummage, no. mr. manchin? >> aye. >> mr. manchin, aye. >> mr. markey, aye. >> mr. marshall? >> no. >> mr. marshall, no. >> mr. mcconnell? >> no. >> mr. mcconnell, no. >> mr. menendez? >> mr. menendez? aye. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> in merkley, aye. >> mr. moran? >> no. >> miss murkowski? >> miss murkowski? no. >> miss murkowski, no. >> mr. murphy, aye. >> mrs. murray? >> aye. >> mrs. murray, aye. >> mr. ossoff? >> aye. >> mr. ossoff, aye. mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. paul? >> no. >> mr. paul, no. >> mr. peters? >> aye. >> mr. peters, aye. mr. portman? mr. portman? no. mr. reed? mr. reed, aye. mr. risch? no. >> mr. risch, no. mr. romney? >> no. >> mr. romney, no. miss rosen? >> aye. >> mr. rounds? >> mr. rounds, no. >> mr. rubio? >> no. >> mr. rubio, no. mr. sanders? >> aye. >> mr. and sanders, aye. >> mr. sauj? >> no. mr. shots? aye. >> mr. schumer? >> aye. >> mr. schumer, aye. mr. scott of florida? >> no. >> mr. scott of florida, no. mr. scott of south carolina? >> no. >> mr. scott of south carolina, no. mrs. shaheen? >> mrs. shaheen, aye. mr. shelby? >> no. >> miss sinema? >> yes. >> miss sinema, aye. miss smith? >> aye. >> miss smith, aye. >> miss stabenow? >> aye. >> mr. tester? mr. tester aye. >> mr. thune? mr. thune no. mr. tillis? >> no. >> mr. tillis, no. mr. toomey? >> no. >> mr. toomey, no. >> mr. tuberville? >> no. >> mr. tuberville, no. >> mr. van hollins? >> aye. >> mr. val hollen, aye. mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. warnock? >> aye. >> miss warren? >> aye. >> mr. white house? mr. whitehouse, aye. mr. wicker? >> no. mr. widen? >> aye. mr. young? >> mr. young, no. >> all right, everyone, we've taken a listen to the ayes and the noes, and it's gone very, very much along party lines, as we bring back in nbc's garrett haake. garrett, i listened john manchin got the aye. when murkowski came along there was a bit of a pause, what is she going to do? she voted no. i know there was a lot of pressure, right, a lot of pressure on her to keep with the coalition -- to keep the coalition together. by the way, did you hear the final tally vote? i think my audio was cut. did you hear it? >> no, i don't think it's been called yet. sometimes they leave these things open. it is possible we have a senator who wasn't in the room as they started so we may still be waiting for a final vote to be gaveled in here. you know, the murkowski vote is a little bit surprising. she towards the end of this vote-a-rama process had a bipartisan amendment she offered with john manchin that was approved by voice vote, and, you know, going into -- going into today, going into yesterday, when this process started, i talked to a couple of other republican senators who were familiar with murkowski's thinking on this and it was she really wanted to try to continue to shape this bill and she felt if she could shape it enough that she could go back to alaska and sell it as a win to alaskans, she might vote for it. i thought perhaps with the i collusion of her amendment, that might give her the cover to say, i know the rest of my party doesn't like this bill but here's what i was able to get and why i'm voting for it, but decided, the murkowski decision to vote no, joining with susan collins, who they often vote in bloc, those two women often do, keeping this exactly party line vote. you will note dan sullivan, her fellow alaskan, not voting. this is why kamala harris doesn't have to be here today, the vice president, to break the tie. sullivan had to return to alaska for a last minute for family emergency. if and when this vote is gaveled shut, it should be 50 ayes and 49 nays, once they finish the work here. >> good, that's a very good point there and necessarily maybe we're perhaps waiting to finally gavel in that vote once they get that final vote for the other alaskan senator. garrett, stand by on all of this. just let us know when you hear more details you need to brief us and the viewers on. i appreciate u as well as amanda golden, continuing to stand by for us on capitol hill with any more details she may get. joining us is congressman jason crow, former democrat from colorado and member of the small businesses committee. congressman, i know we were going to have you come on initially to talk about the situation in the wake of the capitol hill riots, level of security that remains on capitol hill, but i'm keeping an eye now on senator patrick leahy, president pro tem. and we are seeing the final vote there, 50-49 but there's one in absentia, senator sullivan from alaska, who returned home for a family emergency. give me your sense, sir, on the fact this is a straight party vote. there was some questions as to whether or not senator murkowski would vote yes. she indeed voted no. what are your thoughts on the way this all went down? >> thanks for having me on, alex. i think it's hard to overstate the importance of this vote in this moment. we heard the voices of those senators saying yea or nay, this could be the beginning of the end of the pandemic. that's what the american people want it to be about, getting shots and arms and open our commerce back up and tell people we can get the shots in arms and get to a safe place. we're starting to see the light through the tunnel, and let's not take our foot off the gas now though. that's what this plan will do, help us get to the finish line and get through it and regardless whether or not republicans joined in this, history is going to show what this plan did, and what the leadership of president biden is going to do here. >> congressman, you all sent a certain bill to the senate. there have been amendments. what are your thoughts on the reduction of unemployment benefits, specifically that and also the removal of a minimum wage aspect of this bill? how will this be received when it returns to the house? >> listen, let's take a step back here and just soak in the moment and what's actually happening and what we are seeing unfolding. two months ago today, or two months ago today there was a violent insurrection that killed a police officer, brutally beat 140 others, tried to derail our democracy, try to kill members of congress. president trump was soon to leave office, we have no vaccination plan, people were fearful and afraid. fast forward to today, president biden is working this legislation, calling people, making it happen. whether that's a legitimate policy debate on the floor of the senate, unemployment benefits, but technical details of this bill and we're hashing it out. and played the process into working the way they should be working. this isn't exactly the bill i would like. not the bill i voted for, but it's a pretty darn good bill. that's a bill that will make a big difference. so i think we have to see how far we've come in the last few months. >> we do expect the president to weigh in on that and i wonder if he will say -- with his typical vernacular, he might say this is a pretty darn good bill, to quote you, sir. with the $15 minimum wage, i understand and grant you want to rest on a certain level of positivity with the significance of that package, but that did the make it. there are a lot of people really across the spectrum who very much wish that it had. what are your thoughts on that? >> well, i'm one of them. we needed to get that across the finish lien. we didn't. i'm very disappointed. i think that's my source of biggest disappointment in this bill. there was a moment there where senators stand up and gave applause to the staff, workers at the capitol, and much like we have frontline health care workers, service industry workers, our essential workers. that reminds me of when i came back from iraq and afghanistan, veteran, took the uniform off, couldn't find a job, wasn't getting my day benefits. people thanking me for service, in fact, every time a perspective employer would thank me for my service, that's when i knew i wasn't going to get a job. what i really needed was help, benefits to get me on my feet here. and that's what we need to do, the best way to thank these folks is get these folks the benefits they need to have a living wage, benefits and food. >> how much discussion do we need to have given the fact you think you wish it was different. a lot of progressives feel that way certainly. is this something you think will make its way back to the democratic house? >> the thing about the democratic party, we're broad respect of votes, we have debates much like america has debates. with he represent america from broad strokes from all over the country, political believes, races, ethnicities and like a caucus, we have that debate too. nobody is ever completely happy. that's the way it works in legislation and the way it works in congress and our government. but we have to get to a point it's good enough and people can live with it and delivers the maximum amount of benefit and go for the american people. that's the process. we have to get away from this thought that there's a perfect solution that everybody should be happy with because if you keep on pursuing that, we will never find it and all disappointment. so just understand we have to get to a bill as a government that has an impact. >> congressman, one way any democrat who might oppose the bill in the form it's sent back to the house, look, there can be an abstaining of a vote, and given the narrow lead democrats hold right now, are you concerned at all about that kind of action being taken by some of your colleagues? >> what i'm concerned about is actually not just delivering relief. people that talk about the politics of this and vote counts and whip counts and what rule is being used, reconciliation, that is d.c. talk. that's people in d.c. doing that analysis. people in my district, nobody asked about reconciliation or the count, they just want the relief. they want the pandemic to be done, economy opened up and businesses to survive. that's what i want to. i'm a long believer and believe if you deliver relief and good government, the politics kind of takes care of itself. >> congressman, you made the very somber note that we're exactly two months since the capitol hill riots. you get to work every day and you see a bunch of national guardsmen there protecting dcp safely. there were disturbing developments this week relative to the safety of you, your democratic colleagues. how long do you think it is going to be before there will be a return to normal? do you think the presence of the national guard to the except it's there is warranted right now? >> i actually don't know the answer to that question, alex. first of all, the presence is warranted. i don't know how long it will be until we return back to normal. there are very real threats being assessed and we have to meet those threats. let's remember on january 6th nobody was asking, you know, should we have national guard there? of course we needed national guard. when you do the reaction of these things, it's always good to have a little bit more, be extra cautious, than too little. we saw that in glaring detail on january 6th. we'll do what we need to do to make sure that the capitol complex is secure, our democracy is secure and members of congress are secure. on monday i'm going to get a brief, along with many other members of congress, on the findings of the january 6th task force and see what they found, what they are recommending. the challenge before us is we have to address the extreme violence movement, the radicalized extremism that's been on the rise in america but we have to do it in a way that doesn't change the character of who we are as a nation. doesn't change the character of capitol hill. too often it's acceptable to folks, much like it was before. and there's a way of doing that that actually balances at the time and we just have to get there and anxious to see the results of the task force monday. >> congressman, will those recommendations you get monday, will they be made 100% public? >> i don't know the answer to that yet. my guess is not all of them will be public. because there are security assessments that shouldn't be public. the public shouldn't have access to all of the security checks and protocols that are done, that actually would undermine the actual process during a complex like that if you're telling people everything you're doing to secure itself. i think most of them will be public but my guess, and my hope is, there will be things that will be done that will be kept in confidence as well, as they should be. >> democratic congressman jason crow, thank you, sir, so much for joining us. particularly with all of this breaking news. we appreciate the pivot on topics from what we had expected. i thank you so much for your town. just as i'm about to thank michigan senator debbie stabenow for joining me, democratic member of the budget and finance committee. we were looking at you front and center in the front low in your lovely lavender there. how are you feeling after that marathon vote-a-rama, what does it mean getting the bill across the finish line? >> alex, this is so important and even though i know i'm tired and going to crash at some point, i actually don't really feel it at the moment because it is so significant. my democratic colleagues and i are very proud of what we've been able to do with our house colleagues and the president of the united states and vice president and most importantly, what this means to the american people. because that's what it's all about. folks who have been through so much well over a year now, since all of this started, people want their lives become and want to know somebody's got their back. that's what this bill is about, american rescue plan, people getting shots in their arms so they can be safe and making sure they get direct checks in their pockets and other help. i'm the leader of the agriculture committee and leading the effort on food assistance and a number of areas that are really going to make a difference. and, of course, unemployment and, of course, childcare. intention support. when you look at getting children back into school safely, which is critical if we're going to get our lives back and get the economy going and on the other end, we've got millions of folks that have retired or are going to require, who all of their lives maybe didn't take that pay increase so they can put money into pensions that now to their pension being cut or threatened and we are protecting pensions for people as well. really important breadth of economic security. help with childcare, all of those things that families are juggling. and honestly, the most important thing is you've got to start and stop with covid and making sure that people get the vaccine, that we're helping our hospitals and doctors and nurses. >> well, to summarize it and put it all together, it very much encapsulates the reasons for the title the american rescue plan, all of those details you're sharing with us. are you disappointed at all, senator, that this was not a bipartisan vote, not one republican crossed the aisle to vote with the democrats? >> alex, i work across the aisle all the time, and i will tell you, you have to have people on both sides who want to do it. so we have bipartisan amendments, very first amendment and we started working on this bill bipartisan. but the most important thing is that it's bipartisan in the country. when we have over 75% of the american people, of all walks of life, all parties and political persuasions, yes, my family needs help, i want to make sure my kids are safe in school, i want to get the vaccine, that's a tough bipartisanship. when you look at this that we have republican senators that voted against this attempt to support children out of poverty this year with the increased child tax credit, they voted to cut food assistance. they had amendments that they filed to cut wic, women, infant and children. when you look at the effort to cut back on unemployment assistance for our farmers that are hurting and small businesses, you go right across the board, i think it's stunning they will be able to go home and say what they wanted to do was give them less help, less checks in their pockets, less opportunities to get vaccines so you can be safe and your family can be safe. let's support from your school. i don't know how that is a winning message but i can see i'm glad i'm not going to be the one trying to sell that. >> i was going to say, we've heard in live form on this broadcast the way those senators voted, yea or no. so they're going to have to be accountable for those votes to their constituents at some point in time. let me ask you before i let you go, is there any scenario in which you think this does not pass the house and get signed by president biden before next weekend and the running out of unemployment benefits on sunday? >> i'm very confident that we worked so closely with the speaker and democrats in the house worked so hard and we worked really closely with the president and vice president and their team, so this is going to get to the -- that's the whole reason, i don't know how many hours we've been up, but the whole reason of not going home this weekend to be able to get this done, even if we had to go through all of the amendments and cuts for people, we would stay no matter how long it took to get it done, and the reason was, we can't have people lose their help starting march 14th. so this will get to the president and i'm sure that he is going to sign it with a big smile on his face because this is really important for american people. it really is. >> it indeed is. i'm always -- i always mean it when i say thank you to you, senator stabenow, for coming on the broadcast but this time i really mean it, considering how long you've been up and to spend the extra ten minutes getting right, front and center, one of the pivotal players in this particular incident. thank you very much. get some rest. safe travels when you go home. we look forward to seeing you again, michigan's democratic senator debbie stabenow. if ever there was a david and goliath story, one is playing out right now in america. it involves a company whose representative might be coming to why are doorstep today. the details who's david and goliath next. right. so we're upping the benefits without upping the price. introducing magenta max. now with unlimited premium data that can't slow down based on how much smartphone data you use. plus get netflix on us, and taxes and fees included! you won't find this with the other guys. in fact, you'll pay more and get less. right now, pay zero costs to switch! and bring your phone -- we'll pay it off! only at t-mobile. ♪ pepto bismol coats and soothes your stomach for fast relief and get the same fast relief in a delightful chew with pepto bismol chews. what is humana doing sending me a diy test kit? 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>> similar reaction. i didn't get into all of the details of the bill, it's massive. but i really was hoping and maybe -- maybe hr-1 is the place where this happens, but we need to see that attempt at good faith bipartisanship. i realize the majority of the republican party would not negotiate in good faith but there are some that are trying and it would be really great to see some sort of attempt to try to -- to work through some of those policy interests that the good-faith republicans are trying to raise alarms on. so disappointed, it needed to pass, i'm glad it's done. hopefully teach every legislation can show more good bipartisan that president biden campaigned on. >> michael, everyone in the country could have listened to every single detail of this bill when we had it read aloud, all of the 600-plus pages there. but your thoughts on the way it passed and your sense of what this says about the biden administration getting this done? >> i think it says a lot about the biden administration, their stick to itness, their ability to fick out what's around the corner before they get to the corner, a better sense of anticipation in that regard. willingness at least on the face of things to open up both sides of the table for conversation. i think very much to elizabeth's point, there's an opportunity on the back side to maybe in the reconciliation office, to the degree there is one on the bill, when it gets back to the house maybe look a little closer to some of things that was raised by those good-hearted republicans who have an interest in a particular aspect of the bill. by and large, i'm kind of over this disappointment in republicans not coming to the table. i think we need to stop anticipating that and just figure i think the biden administration has, that every bill, every effort is going to be met with a wall of opposition and you just figure out where you need to bore a hole in that wall and go through it. >> it reminds me actually representative jason crow, who took it a step further and said, listen, i'm going to enjoy this now. i'm going to revel in the fact it passed before it comes back, as it will in the house and focus on the positive at this point. guys, let me reread, because we moved off topic regarding the new reports. again, this fbi report about the communications between a proud boy member and trump associate. here's what the finding was, although investigators found no contact between rioters and members of congress during the attack, they did find evidence in the days leading up to january 6th of communications between far right extremists and lawmakers who were planning to appear at the pro-trump rally. on the heels of that "the new york times" excerpt i just read, adrienne, what's your reaction to that? does it shock you these extremists would potentially even have connections as high up as the trump orbit and into certain lawmakers? >> you know, sadly, alex, it doesn't shock me. i spent ten years working on capitol hill. every time i walk into that building, i felt like i was in the safest place literally in america. that, of course, is not the case anymore. so it is -- it sadly does not surprise me. what i think has got to happen, and i think we're going to play out in this investigation is do we get to a place where we need to start vetting staff who work on capitol hill? members of congress have their own discretion in terms of who they hire to work for them. if you go work in the white house, if you go work at an agency, you go through a very concerted vetting process. you don't go through that if you're working in congress. so i look forward to the findings of this investigation to see what steps can be taken to mitigate this sort of thing from happening in the future but it is very disturbing. we cannot allow staff and, frankly, we should not allow members of congress to walk into the halls of those buildings if they're coordinating with a white nationalist domestic terrorist organization. >> yes. that former trump political employee, michael, arrested on thursday according to "the new york times," he's been charged with battling police during the capitol hill riot. nbc news is reporting when told he will remain in custody until next week's hearing, he said i'm wondering if there is a place i can wait in detention where there's not cockroaches crawling everywhere. i haven't slept very much. he's behind bars. >> poor baby. >> what can he expect? >> i feel so bad for you, cockroaches? that's too bad. in prison? okay. talk to the family that lived in parts of our inner cities with cockroaches every day and then we'll have a conversation. get over it. all of this for me, i think to adrienne's point, demands across the board a 9/11-style commission to unwrap, unpack and explore for the american people exactly all of the elements and components and the people involved in what i think could possibly be a broader conspiracy, not in the traditional sense that everybody is kind of getting in the huddles of the room and decides to do that but the way it all comes together and layers one on top of another to allow something like january 6th to happen. i think we need to do that. i think as citizens we need to get comfort with that. and i think to adrienne's point, it may demand that the way we look at bringing people into that orbit on the hill, to hire, et cetera, needs to be expanded and regardless of whether you're on the executive branch or congressional branch, this process demands greater scrutiny than we had thus far. >> there were new revelations this week, elizabeth, why it took more than three hours, close to 3 1/2, 3:19, for pentagon officials to deploy the national guard january 6th, even as we had police officers begging for backup. who was behind that decision? let's take a listen to this. >> chief conte and chief sun passionately pleaded for the national guard to get to the capitol with all deliberate speed. so the army senior leaders did not think that it looked good, it would be a good optic. they further stated that it could incite the crowd. he was talking about optics, where general flynn and general piatt, they both said it wouldn't be in their best military advice to advice viez the secretary of the army to have uniformed guards members at the capitol during the election confirmation. >> elizabeth, there was an angry, armed mob storming the capitol and these officials worried about the optics of the national guard? >> yeah, it's inexcusable. what remains to me we don't know whether this was just really bad judgment, which is possible. you have a whole slate of political appointees installed in november. they didn't understand the department maybe at the level they should have and perhaps you have the commanding officer level below them very nervous about upsetting these new political appointees. maybe it's just that. but there's so many questions that the american public deserve to have answered, whether there's actual malfeasance here, whether there's interest or plan to try to let the riot, let the insurrection unfurl to see if it might lead to a point where, you know, the president could declare martial law. after all, general flip's brother, michael flynn, suggested that's the way president trump could stay in office. it raises so many questions. and i go back to what michael steele said, it's really hard for the hearing, the congressional apparatus, to get at the truth. we need an independent commission with subpoena authority to dig into all of this. and we saw with the news reports out today, maybe the criminal investigation will lead us to that. it's not entire will he clear if everything that they did incorrectly was actually criminal, but if they did krosh that criminal threshold, hopefully that investigation will show who among trump's orbit needs to be held accountable for the lack of preparation for january 6th and the various responses to january 6th. >> adrienne, elizabeth, michael, thank you very much for the chat on these big topics today. we're going to go now back to capitol hill. i understand chuck schumer is speaking. let's take a listen to what he has to say about the passage of this covid relief bill. >> and sometimes it takes some discussion, and sometimes it takes some work, but we don't let our differences stop us in achieving success. >> shouldn't that have been involved in the front end? >> people make different decisions, people come up with different ideas at different times, and we still have to take everyone into account and pull together as a team and that's what we did. no one's going to pay attention to the fact -- well, i don't know no one, that eight hours is meaningless compared to the relief the american people are going to get. if it helped us get to that, great. unity, unity, unity. that's how we got this done. >> can you expect the house to pass what the senate just passed as is entering to a number of people? >> i spoke to a number of members of the house, including the speaker, and they feel like we do, we have to get this done. it won't be everything everyone wants, no bill is. especially a massive comprehensive bill like this. but the beauty here within our caucus and i think between democrats and the house and senate, is we all realize we've got to pull together to accomplish something. that's far more important than our differences. that's true of my caucus and that's true of the house and senate democrats. >> do you think the president will be signing it before the march 14th -- >> yes. >> -- expiration? >> i definitely do. i have no doubt about that, none. that's what we said. everything we said we would do, put together a strong, bold bill. we put together things that do the things the american people wanted. >> okay, we're listening to senate majority leader chuck schumer, he's taking a bit of a victory lap. he very much appreciates what just happened after hours and hours of debate. the american relief plan passed in the senate. it's been the notable good news of this hour. we will take a short break and be right back at the top of the hour with more on "weekends with alex witt." itt. rthritis. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred... ...as have certain cancers, including lymphoma, and tears in the stomach or intestines, and changes in lab results. your doctor should monitor your bloodwork. tell your doctor about any infections...and if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. take on ra. talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief. rinvoq. make it your mission. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. not everybody wants the same thing. if you can't afford your medicine, that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 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