it would either take a coordinated lockdown to stem the spread or a mass vaccination as soon as possible because our leadership at the time was incapable of doing so. one year later, we mourn more than 530,000 americans who have lost their lives to this plague. but we can also take some heart from millions of american who's have been vaccinated. and president joe biden's promise to have a shot ready for every american in about seven weeks as the vaccine appears to have convinced much of our reeling nation that we're clearing all-clear. and the president's historic relief package offers a lifeline to americans of all walks of life. tonight we'll be talking about what it will do for millions of our neighbors facing hunger and for overlooked black farmers slated to receive more aid from the federal government than they ever have. all of this, of course, without any help from republican lawmakers and all of that tonight on "politics nation." but first joining me now is white house senior adviser on covid-19 response andy slavitt. mr. slavitt, thanks for being with us this evening. let me start by saying president biden addressed the nation and shared that he is confident that he is ahead of the 100 million shots in 100 days goal. he believes that the u.s. will achieve this milestone by day 60. he also went on to announce that states should make all adults eligible for the vaccine by may 1st. but on this show, we pay special attention to outreach and access for minorities to get the vaccine because throughout the rollout, a major concern has been equity, that communities of color will be left behind. how confident is the president that all americans who are eligible actually go out and get the shot, especially communities of color? >> well, thank you for having me on and good evening. you know, i can tell you that i don't think i've had a conversation with the president or the vice president where they haven't pressed us on how we can do a better job making sure that everybody, particularly people in hardest hit communities, particularly racial and ethnic minorities are able to get access to the vaccine in every state, territory, or tribe. but it is a challenge. it is an enormous challenge that we are doing a better and better job on, and it's becoming easier in areas where we have direct federal control. so where we have vaccination sites that we've launched federally, we can put them in the communities that need them the most. when we have retail pharmacies, we can locate them in regions we need them the most. reserve appointments for people that live in the zip codes so people don't come from other zip codes and take them. but if we continue to take all these steps, i think the president is confident we can get there, and we need to get there for every american. >> now, there is a new trend of states starting to reopen before the majority of residents have had access to the vaccine. for example, in connecticut, restaurant capacity limits will end on march 19th. in texas, the mask mandate has been lifted although only 9% of the residents have been fully vaccinated. is the president concerned that governors are moving too quickly? >> well, we are not done yet, and i think one of the things that president biden tried to make clear in his remarks last week is that the only way we get to the goal that he set, being back to a state of normal by the fourth of july, is if everybody does their part. and if we quit early and removing a mask mandate now, we believe to be a big mistake. if we quit early, we are putting at risk our opportunity to get back to normal life. so we know that it requires a lot of patience. we know people have had a very tough year. but we urge people to recognize that even as trends head in the right direction, we are not done yet. we should not be spiking the football just because we caught it. we need to get to the end zone, and we're not there yet. >> this week, former presidents and first ladies came together and released a psa for all americans to get vaccinated. the psa shows all of them getting the shot except former president trump. is president biden concerned that getting vaccinated is becoming a partisan issue? >> well, look, president trump, because we now know that he had the vaccine, he really ought to be talking to his supporters and his followers and letting them know why it's an important thing to do. you make a really important point. vaccines shouldn't be any more of a political issue. they should be about the health of you and your family. and i think people who are making this decision for political reasons, they really shouldn't. now, people may have valid reasons to question why they should take a vaccine, and of course it's their personal choice. but we can get them good information about how good these vaccines are, about how safe these vaccines are. that's how people should be making this decision, no the color of their jersey, what team they think they're on. that's the wrong way to think about this, and we're doing everything we can to try to take many of the politics out of this. after all, you know, this is an effort the republicans should know began before we got here, and we are carrying it out. this is a completely nonpartisan effort. this is an effort at making people healthy and allowing us to get back to our normal lives. >> let me ask you this. what is the idea behind president biden and vice president harris going on the road this week to sell the relief bill? >> well, look, i think that -- i listened to your opening, and there are so many remarkable ways that this new legislation is life-changing. taking families who are choosing between their health care, their lives, and their livelihoods, and saying, you don't have to choose. if something bad happens, you have a floor underneath you finally, a real safety net. reducing child poverty by 50%. putting money into schools. putting money into broadband so everyone can enjoy access to the internet. and we could go on and on. black farmers, as you said. so going out and talking to the public about this and making sure they understand it and take advantage of this is essential. and of course that doesn't even mention the $1,400 checks, the extended unemployment, and all the money for vaccines and vaccinations. it's an extraordinary piece of legislation. it's one i think we should all be proud of, and it's very popular around the country. >> there's a lot of disinformation out there, and i hope the real information gets out to the degree that it is accurate information. white house senior adviser andy slavitt, i thank you for your time. joining me now is congresswoman pramila jayapal, democrat of washington state. let me go right to it. as the chair of the house progressive caucus, you were vocal about your disappointment that the $15 minimum wage was taken out of the relief bill, as many of us were. but you still praised president biden, calling this bill bold and transformative and progressive. you said, quote, where candidate joe biden started is different from where president joe biden started. please explain that. >> yeah. well, i think for many of us as progressives, joe biden, to be totally frank, was not our first choice during the election last year. we were afraid that perhaps he wouldn't be as bold as he needed to be given all the crises that are facing us. but i have to tell you that i think that president biden has come out with a transformational agenda, with a bold progressive agenda, and he came out with this package for $1.9 trillion loudly, proudly, made the case to the american people, made the case to congress. and then we fought for it in the house progressive caucus with speaker pelosi and of course made sure that the senate didn't undermine what we fought for. so i do feel that perhaps it is the level of crisis that this country faces, reverend al, and the disparity that you have, you know, talked about on the show so much with the racial wealth gap, racial inequality. i feel president biden understands that. he understands the grief, the loss, and the need for government -- government is us -- to step up and help people in this terrible time that we have experienced and are experiencing. >> now, your district in seattle is a success story that illustrates the value of united and timely strategies for fighting the coronavirus. how can other cities and counties and states do the same? >> well, the first thing is we've got to take the virus seriously. and for a year, we had a president who didn't take the virus seriously. luckily our governor, our mayor, our county executive did take it seriously. all of us pitched in. we put in place strict restrictions, and every time we started to, you know, ease them up, if we surged, we also cut back again. we understood that nothing gets better if we don't crush the virus. and so mass testing sites early on. we addressed racial disproportionality by putting some of those testing sites in places where we have black and brown and indigenous folks to make sure we could get them tests. you know, our governor put in place some regulations around testing and vaccines that specifically targeted farmworkers, for example, who we know are facing disproportionate burden. so i think we've done a really good job here in washington state and in seattle, and i just hope that the rest of the country does not shy away from taking the bold steps that are necessary, including sometimes shutting down, so that we can quickly come back to normal. >> you know, before entering politics, you know i know you were a civil rights activists, focusing on pro-immigration policies among other issues. this week the house prepares to debate and pass two immigration bills, one providing a path to citizenship for dreamers and the other people with protected status. and the other provided legal status for farmworkers. republicans argue that the biden administration's softer messaging on immigration has given a green light to illegal border crossings, leading a surge of migrants, especially children, at the border. they also say that migrants are bringing covid-19 into the country. your response to that. >> more of the racist demonization of immigrants that the republicans under trump have been engaged in, and it's unfortunate, reverend al, because the reality is that the united states is great in part because we acknowledge that there are people around the world who need our assistance. we have celebrated our history, as checkered as it has been in many ways. we have celebrated those moments where we have been a place of refuge. the republicans are hypocritical. they spent no time talking about the border and the humanitarian crisis at the border. in fact, they put kids in cages. they separated families, many of whom are still separated. and now they want to do a p.r. trip down to the border to somehow talk about how this it all joe biden's fault when it was trump who put in place all these terrible policies, cruel policies, and destroyed the infrastructure that would allow us to process people across the southern border and make sure that we do it in a humane way. so i don't listen to a lot of what the republicans say on immigration unfortunately, but i do believe that these two bills we passed will have a tiny group of republicans that vote with us for them because they understand that their districts need immigrants. our country needs immigrants, many of whom are on the front lines of this crisis. >> now, i must ask you this. the department of justice is facing perhaps its largest investigation ever in the aftermath of the capitol insurrection with over 300 people facing charges and 100 more still to be charged. do you expect this investigation to intensify now that merrick garland has been confirmed, and do you have areas that you want them to particularly focus on? >> yes. i think that merrick garland being confirmed, hopefully anita gupta being confirmed, this is a really good team at the department of justice that understands that if we don't take on these insurrectionists, domestic terror, white supremacist groups -- if we don't take those threats seriously, and if we don't fully investigate, including, you know, what relationship members of congress may have had to some of these individuals -- >> so you're saying that some members of congress -- you're saying some members of congress ought to be part of what is investigated here? >> well, i think the department of justice is investigating the specific people who assaulted the capitol, the insurrectionists. but i also think they are looking at what ties there are to people that are within congress that may have assisted or abetted. i separately have called for an investigation of three members of congress from the house congressional ethics office, and i think that this is very important because we do need to know who was a part of the assault on the capitol, whether they were inside congress or whether they were outside, and we need to hold them all accountable. >> all right. that's very, very interesting. thank you as always, congresswoman jayapal. joining me now is my panel, danielle moody, co-host of the democracy-ish podcast and host of the woke af podcast. and irina shaw, founder of relax strategies and founder of republican women for biden. let me say this. there are hundreds of voter suppression bills under way in dozens of states, perhaps worse than iowa, florida, georgia, and the house has already passed the "for the people" act that would supersede many of them. danielle, how important is this bill, and do you think democrats have the political will to kill the filibuster to get it through the senate, which they will likely have to do to get it passed through the senate? >> rev, this bill is integral to our democracy and the fact of the matter is that we have seen since the voting rights act has been gutted by the supreme court, we have seen a myriad of attacks by republicans, by governors in order to gut our voting rights, right? we have seen -- we just saw last week iowa governor deciding that she's going to cut early voting rights by nine days, that they are going to roll back early voting. what is the reason for this? they can never provide us a reason, but every time that we have a historic election, every time we see black and brown people come out in historic numbers, we see republicans act in kind, not to try and win their votes, but to try and suppress them. so this is integral. this is as important to our democracy and to the safety and well-being of our country as the covid-19 relief bill, which republicans decided that they didn't want to be a part of either. >> among the investigations into the former president, in georgia is a possible racketeering charge. this is part of a law meant for organized crime, mobsters, gangsters. what would this charge mean for donald trump's legal liabilities? >> well, this charge means a great deal for him now that he's a private citizen. it means that he's actually going to be held accountable in a court of law for his actions to interfere with how georgia did what they did. he wanted to interfere with the rights of every georgian that cast a ballot, and that is something that we take very seriously in this country, or at least we used to. so what i hope to see is even more information come out. we've now learned a great deal through the media by way of audio of the calls that were recorded, the president not just putting subtle pressure on these elected officials in georgia, but to find votes. that's not just to say, hey, go find whatever number of votes. it's so say, find votes in my favor, and find a certain number. there is no question here to anybody who has a working brain that this is something that we should not let slide. so what we will find out, though, is perhaps even more egregious actions that the former president took to find even a way to go even a step forward and get people who are people of color to not have their voices heard. he knows that minorities voted against him largely. now, look, republicans will tell you, we had record numbers of black voters this time. where are they missing their great point here? they are counting, picking at straws, and they don't realize that their most national leaders don't want a certain type of voter. senator ron johnson of wisconsin said the part out loud this week. i was beside myself. this is a party i made my career in. i no longer recognize it. this was something that many of us let slide at private gatherings on capitol. we knew it was happening. but this is the time where they are so emboldened. why? because they think nobody's pay attention, rev. senator josh hawley, he thinks who's going to notice? nobody's going to know. >> well, we're going to make sure that people are paying attention. let me also ask you this, rina. republicans in congress are dragging their feet on the formation of a special independent panel to investigate the insurrection. why are republicans so afraid of a fair accounting of what happened that day? >> because they are past the point of kumbaya. like they had the actual guts and moral values in the past, rev. in the recent past, ten years ago, when i was on capitol hill, i thought at least an incident like this would bring people together, get them to understand that this was a literal assault on democracy. when it comes to your house and it's on your door, it should change everything for you forever. i mean that is -- that is really the reality here. but we saw the other reality is that senator mitch mcconnell likes to have his cake and eat it too. when they talk out of both sides of their mouth, they feel like they can keep everything secret. and just to pick up on my latter point, is to say this is why h.r. 1 matters. we have a broken democracy, and our senators have a responsibility to our republic to fix it, not just for a certain mass of us, but for all of us. we know through people who are doing pro-democracy work this democracy is in decline the world over. and here i thought it would never happen here. but we saw it on january 6th. >> let me ask you this, danielle. you just heard representative jayapal say that some members of congress should be investigated for their part in encouraging or possibly even conspiring with the capitol insurrection. what do you think? >> i think absolutely. look at these members of congress. look at josh hawley and the picture of him with his fist up in the air. look at what senator cruz said down in georgia right before the insurrection. look at the members of congress that were participating in the rally that took place right before they stormed the capitol building. and also i worked on capitol hill as well, and i can tell you that there are times that you get lost around there, and i find it really convenient that the people that were in the capitol building that were storming it also knew where the unmarked doors were, knew where certain offices were. how did they get that information and intel? it is important for us to pull the records, the phone records of those members of congress that were on the floor. every single person should have their records pull. every certain person should have their social mediapulled. we cannot look past this. this is what we're doing to rina's point when mitch mcconnell is saying we need to have bipartisanship. this is the man who stood on the senate floor and said he had absolute power to push through a supreme court court -- we can't have these people have their cake and eat it too. we can't have them participate on a commission when they were giving intel to a mob that smeared feces on the halls of our democracy. this is something that with he need to have investigated, not something we need to overlook. congresswoman jayapal was 100% right. if i were a member of the congress, i would be in fear if i was a democratic member about what they were planning next and what they were up to. >> all right. thank you for being with us. coming up, the united states seems more divided than ever. that is why i am calling on all of you to rise up and come together. but first my colleague cori coffin with today's other top news stories. stories we're watching at this hour. there are now more than 29.5 million confirmed cases of covid-19 in the u.s. and more than 536,000 americans have died from the virus. the tsa says it screened more than 1.3 million passengers on friday. march is estimated to be the busiest travel month of the pandemic so far with more than 1 million passengers screened per day across the u.s. in the past week. in london today, calls for the metropolitan police chief to resign after a peaceful vigil ended with officers grabbing and handcuffing attendees. the public held a memorial last night in honor of 33-year-old sarah everaar who was killed allege lady at the hands of a police officer. and earlier in the day, the duchess of cambridge, kate middleton, traveled to the memorial to pay her respects. everard's death has sent shock waves. more politics nation with reverend al sharpton after the break. ♪ and all that glitters is gold ♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. only at applebee's. one of the worst things about a cold sore with any handcrafted burger. is how it can make you feel. but, when used at the first sign, abreva can get you back to being you in just 2 and a half days. be kinder to yourself and tougher on your cold sores. fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. psst! psst! allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! you're good. so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. . for this week's "rise up," i want to talk about this great country and specifically its name -- the united states of america. in choosing that name, the founders articulated something important about the nature of their newborn nation. that for all our strengths as individual citizens and states, we are stronger together. in times of great national crisis, we must rely on one another to make it through to the other side. while this pandemic is an unprecedented challenge for americans, this isn't the first time we've had to pull together. and joe biden isn't the first president to take office in the midst of a national emergency. franklin delano roosevelt was inaugurated for the first time during the great depression, and as americans looked to him for a solution, he instructed us to look to one another. >> if i read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other, that we cannot merely take, but we must give as well. that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline. >> fdr asked for help and cooperation, and americans delivered. we found that common discipline, coming together through the depression era. then in perhaps the greatest collaborative effort in american history, we emerged victorious from world war ii, but only after years of common sacrifice by soldiers abroad and on the homefront, where ordinary citizens collected scrap metal and rubber, grew victory gardens, and went to work. so it's no surprise that john f. kennedy, who faced an era of unparalleled upheaval himself, offered this presidential call to arms. >> and so, my fellow americans, ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. >> so what can you do for your country now, decades later as we find ourselves in yet another dire crisis, a pandemic that has caused over half a million american deaths? it starts at the top. now that we finally have a president wise enough to follow the example of his predecessors and ask the american people for help. >> but i need you, the american people. i need you. i need every american to do their part, and that's not hyperbole. i need you. i need you to get vaccinated when it's your turn and when you can find an opportunity and to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get vaccinated as well. >> the american people have never shied away from a challenge, and we sure won't start now. so it's time for us to rise up together as we've been doing for generations when called upon. with three vaccines now approved and more people eligible every day, it's time to do our part. get vaccinated. i did so myself, and i can tell you that it will save your life and keep your community safe at the same time. the president is calling on each and every one of us to do our part, and with history as our guide, we know we can beat this thing, but only if we live up to our name and rise up together united. you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ it's a new dawn... ♪ if you've been taking copd sitting down, it's time to make a stand. start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. t-mobile is the leader in 5g. we also believe in putting people first by treating them 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. welcome back to "politics nation." in addition to helping americans keep their lights on, the president's newly passed covid relief package aims to correcting a historic wrong, allocating $5 billion with a "b" in aid to the nation's black farmers, who have seen nearly all of their farmland lost over the last century, having been largely shut out of federal programs that benefited their white peers. but rather than view their aid as helping a historically disenfranchised group, republicans have of course called it racist and tagged it with that other "r" word, reparations. joining me now, john boyd jr., founder and president of the national black farmers association. mr. boyd, as you just read from my intro, i want to reiterate that since 1910, black farmers have lost 90% of their land, some 12 million acres, largely due to systematic racism. for our viewers, what does that discrimination look like, specifically where banking and access to federal aid are concerned? you and i have talked about this for years. you've been on the forefront of it. explain what has happened historically and why this means something. >> well, reverend sharpton, thank you for having me. first of all, i'd like to thank you for helping with the claims remedy act of 2010. it helped nearly 20,000 black farmers receive their settlement from the united states department of agriculture. but what this new measure does is it rectifies a wrong for black and other farmers of color, who have been totally shut out of the u.s. farm subsidy program, u.s. farm lending at the united states department of agriculture, rural development loans. we've been totally shut out. and under the last administration, reverend sharpton, they pulled out $29 billion to primarily white farmers in this country, where black farmers didn't participate at all. and when we put this bill in a part of the covid relief bill, ten senators sponsored amendments to pull our language out, and senator lindsey graham, who is a very outspoken critic, said it really bothered him that we were a part of this spending bill. so we've had an uphill battle for decades, and we've been fighting this fight for a very long time. and now is the time to change it. and right now, reverend sharpton, for the first time in history, we have two blacks on the senate agriculture committee, senator warnock and senator booker, and we have a president and vice president that certainly are receptive to helping our nation's black farmers. >> let me go back to what you said because as expected, the assistance to black farmers contained in the president's relief package has been attacked as racially discriminatory. perhaps the most vocal detractor being, as you mentioned, south carolina senator lindsey graham, who has called the aid reparations. just listen to this. >> in this bill, if you're a farmer, your loan will be forgiven up to 120% of your loan, not 100%, but 120% of your loan if you're socially disadvantaged, if you're african-american, some other minority. but if you're a white person, if you're a white woman, no forgiveness. that's reparations. >> now, clearly he has no problem or interest in fixing the systemic discrimination that black farmers have faced for decades. but that's to be expected. what are your thoughts on the senator's complaints, though, mr. boyd? >> well, i tell you, reverend sharpton, i lobbied senator lindsey graham as a congressman. i lobbied him as a senator. i've been by his office and asked him to help me fix the problems at the united states department of agriculture that caused black farmers to lose millions of acres of land and address the lack of loans and subsidies, and he's never once used his megaphone to speak out against the discrimination. but as soon as we get justice some 30 years later, his very first words he said he found it troubling. and his last part of his statement, he said, we need to check them. he should have been checking us when we came by his office to ask him to help fix the problems at the united states department of agriculture. she have been checking us when we were sharecroppers and survived by jim crow. so i find his comments racist, and we're calling on him -- the national black farmers association is calling for him to apologize, senator lindsey graham, and we're making that announcement on your show. he needs to apologize not only to our black farmers but to black people in this country who struggled for so very long and now get a chance for a little bit of justice, and he uses his megaphone to play this race-type thing when he knows firsthand that black farmers have suffered, when he has 6,000 black farmers in his state, and he won't help us. but he uses his megaphone to try to deny payments to black farmers. >> you know, a century ago there were a million black farmers. now there are fewer than 50,000 according to the department of agriculture. agriculture secretary tom vilsack says he's aware of the disparity and wants to grow more farmers of color. apart from this relief package, where should he start? >> he should start just like you said, immediately to get the debt relief out to the thousands of black farmers that desperately need it right now. i spoke to secretary vilsack yesterday and urged him to hurry up and put in place the commission and to get the debt relief to not just black farmers but farmers of color, native american farmers, hispanic farmers, and other socially disadvantaged farmers. he can't be the same secretary vilsack he was under the obama years. he's going to have to take a more aggressive approach to help fix the culture, the discriminating culture, reverend sharpton, because nobody has been fired for the act of discrimination, for discriminating against me and thousands of other black farmers. >> yeah. >> the only one i know that was fired was shirley sha ra. some heads need to roll so that people know this can't be the same old united states department of agriculture. and secretary vilsack needs to make a quick announcement that usda is open for business for blacks and other minority farmers. >> all right. i have to leave it there, but you worked on this a long time. i've been there with you, and i'm glad to see some light in this darkness. thank you for being here. coming up, the pandemic isn't the only crisis facing americans. i'll speak to the woman trying to help end hunger in the u.s. that's after the break. hey, everyone. i'm alicia menendez. on tonight's show, we take an in-depth look at how democrats can deliver on president biden's immigration promises. i'll speak with congressman raul ruiz. he's chair of the congressional hispanic caucus, but how they plan to do that beginning this week. that's all tonight, 6:00 p.m. eastern, "american voices" right here on msnbc. ♪♪ comfort in the extreme. the lincoln family of luxury suvs. (judith) at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understand why. comfort in the extreme. 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(doorbell) rock on. tonight i'll be eating lobster thermidor au gratin. really? sh-yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. make it two calzones! ♪♪ (car horn) ♪♪ (splash) ♪♪ turn today's dreams into tomorrow's trips... with millions of flexible booking options. all in one place. expedia. ♪♪ ♪♪ comfort in the extreme. the lincoln family of luxury suvs. with the rollout of a vaccine, the pandemic may have reached a turning point. but for millions of americans, the issue of hunger remains. in the past 12 months alone, the pandemic reversed a decade worth of progress toward ending hunger in the united states. now a projection made by feeding america shows that in 2021, approximately 42 million people are at risk of food insecurity. joining me now is the ceo of feeding america, claire batineau fontaneau. let me ask you this, claire. feeding america has launched a covid-19 response fund. in the past year we've seen a hunger crisis across the country. according to your team's research, you project that, quote, 42 million people, 1 in 8, including 13 million children, 1 in 6, may experience food insecurity in 2021. a year into this pandemic, why are americans still going hungry? >> well, reverend al, as you also indicated, there have been tens of millions of people in this country who have been struggling with hunger for a very, very long time. what the pandemic did was made it worse and also made it more visible. so there are lots of underlying systemic reasons that speak to the why of it. but one of the things that's so clear to see is that so many people, working-class poor people across this country live paycheck to paycheck. so when a pandemic strikes and it has the economic implication of shutting down businesses, that means people are not going to have enough money to make ends meet. and food insecurity at its core is really -- it's a symptom of poverty. we also had about 22 million kids before the pandemic relied on free lunch. when schools shut don, that means those kids don't have access to food. so that's why we saw what we saw. and until and unless we address some of the underlying issues, we're going to see these type of things play out again. i'm really encouraged by the most recent legislation come out of the biden administration. it's a great foundation to build up, but the reality is this is more likely to be a marathon than a sprint and we're going to need people to stay in this with us. >> now, you just announced the food security fund which commun color, known to be disproportionately impacted by food insecurity and the covid-19 pandemic. tell us about this. >> sure. so let me start with the fact that hidden in plain sight for a very long time has been the fact that while i heard it said that while we are sometimes in the same storm, we are seldom in the same boat. that's certainly true when it comes to food insecurity and to communities of color. on the low end, communities of color are at least 1.75 times more likely to suffer with food insecurity. for african-americans, that's about two times more likely. for native americans that's about three times more likely. the reality is that we cannot solve for hunger in this country without addressing equity at the same time. so i'm really excited that we had among many generous gifts to our work over the course of the last year, mckenzie scott entrusted us with a $20 million grant, and we're going to be using that grant to start that equity fund that you just alluded to. what makes this fund, i think, important is that rather than start with the paternalistic approach where we go into communities or from a national perch, we tell communities what they need, we are going to help to create new tables where people with lived experience and black and brown people who lead community-based organizations get to be at the decision making tables at the front end of the process. >> people on the ground that's doing this work. >> that's exactly right. you know all about community activism, and that's where the power is, on the ground. i don't believe nor does the data suggest that what communities need is for someone else to come into the community and tell them the solutions that they need. what they need sometimes is resources to get it done. >> now, in a tweet on saturday, the president boasted that a single mom of four could receive a $7,000 check. of course, a check for any amount is better than nothing, but are these inconsistent and unpredictable payments from the federal government just a band-aid for a problem that will take much more to fix? >> well y would say it's an awfully big band-aid. i don't want to say anything that would disparage how important this step is. it's very important, and it's going to change the lives of kids especially in this country. however, as you acknowledged and i must repeat, there are some systems that need to be addressed, and until we do that, we're not going to in a sustainable way really make certain that vulnerable communities don't find themselves back in the same situation in years to come. so i'm grateful as are we all in the anti-hunger movement grateful for these investments, not only are they investments in children but also in working families, also in seniors. so a great, great series of first steps. but we have to build on them. we have to use this moment to move forward, to build a brand-new playbook for people facing hunger, for vulnerable communities, and as a society, it just should be unacceptable that 35 million people were food insecure in this country before the pandemic. that 42 million people would be food insecure as a result of the pandemic. 13 million children. i mean, this should simply be unacceptable, and when we decide that it is unacceptable, reverend, we're going to do something about it. i know that our organization is going to be at that table helping to create solutions and to resource solutions that communities come up with. >> all right, claire. i thank you so much for your time. up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. needles. essential for pine trees, but maybe not for people with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an “unjection™”. xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. needles. fine for some things. but for you, there's a pill that may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. xeljanz. an “unjection™”. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes more tare waking uprs ago. to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. what do we want for dinner? burger... i want a sugar cookie... wait... i want a bucket of chicken... i want... ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. we're still honoring women's history month here on "politics nation." i would like to think we honor the impact and the accomplishments of women every week on the show, and today, i would like to focus on someone in particular. former congresswoman marcia fudge was sworn in as secretary of housing and urban development this week, making her the first black woman to lead the agency in more than four decades. she will now have to lead an agency where the morale among civil servants has plummeted under the leadership of ben carson, who weakened fair housing enforcement and other civil rights protections during the trump administration. fudge said that one of her main priorities would be to narrow the racial wealth gap. how can former congresswoman fudge use her new position to achieve that goal? as a start, she has an open invitation to come on this show and make her case, as she has as a fighting congresswoman. we have honored and will continue to honor women of the past, but also those of the present that continue to make history. not just the names you know like vice president kamala harris and people like stacey abrams, but people that are in the public space, like mignon wall, like tanya lumbart, or activist like ebony riley. they're the ones who don't seek the limelight, but they keep the lights on for justice in this country. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next weekend at 5:00 eastern. my colleague alicia menendez picks up the coverage now. >> hello, everyone. i'm alicia menendez. welcome to "american voices." we begin tonight with president biden and vice president harris taking their first big win on the road. they're lay out the fine print of the american rescue plan, maying clear what help democrats just sent to americans struggling to recover from this pandemic. >> it's the most significant change for middle-class people, for poor people, people trying to get into the middle class, in decades, in a very long time. and it has amazing things in it. >> this is a critical moment. this is a moment where we have to make sure that the american people know what's in this plan. they understand what's in this plan. >> and by the way, this bill is 90 some percent coronavirus centric. this is similar to the bill we wrote in may, the h.e.r.o.e.s. act, some of which was implicated in december, much of

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