all set up at a studio at home. >> what's happening? >> olivia is calling. somebody answer olivia. >> someone answer that, please. >> and i-65, going to go ahead and apologize, my alexa is going off. alexa, off. >> a downstream effect playing out across the system. >> sorry, you're hearing my dog park at the mailman. >> sorry, this is my cat. >> the maps aren't going to move because he just whacked the computer with his head. let me just verbalize the forecast. >> 62 in pasadena. we'll talk about this storm -- he walks now, guys, so, i've lost all control. >> hold on one second. sorry. yes. you can have two biscuits. >> sorry about that! >> and run to the supreme court, as they've indicated, clearly, that's failed. they've refused to intervene and ultimately, now, those ballots are going to be counted. >> oh, my gosh. >> you know, i understand why people do their show from their home, but if we ever did, it just wouldn't feel right, mika. that's why we have maintained our -- >> you're a pioneer. >> we've maintained -- we just wouldn't do that. >> yeah. nas so funny, though, to see. especially the dogs and the kids and the cats. i love it. i actually love it. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, march 15th. daylight savings kicked in. >> how you feeling? >> it can be a little brutal, actually. >> yeah? >> yes. >> with us, we have white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan la mir. >> how you feeling this morning, jonathan, daylight savings time? >> joe, i'm a little tired, balls a little tired. and watching those clips, one of the biggest surprises of the pandemic is that neither my 9-year-old or 6-year-old have invaded my shot at any point. but there's still a few more months of this. there's still time. >> there's lots of time. >> you've got time. >> the host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton joins us this morning, as well as washington anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay joins us. good to have you all onboard. so the u.s. hit a daily record for coronavirus vaccinations over the weekend. that's kind of nice to say, that we hit a new kind of record. but there are growing concerns about what it will take to convince enough americans to be vaccinated in order to stop the spread. yesterday on fox news, dr. anthony fauci was asked about a concerning new poll that shows republican men in particular, those who supported president trump, are reluctant to get the vaccine. >> according to a recent poll, 49% of republican men said they don't intend to get the vaccine. how much of a difference will it make if president trump leads a campaign for the people who are most devoted to him to actually go out and get the vaccine? >> chris, i think it would make all the difference in the world. he's a very widely popular person among republicans. if he came out and said, go and get vaccinated, it's really important for your health, the health of your family, and the health of the country. it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him. i'm very surprised at the high percentage of republicans who said they don't want to get vaccinated. i don't understand where that's coming from. this is not a political issue. this is a public health issue. >> yeah, you know, katty kay, as always, the president is such a hypocrite. he gets the shot himself in private. >> secretly. he and melania. >> yeah, he and melania secretly get it in january. >> and then they won't show anybody else. and won't tell other people to get it. and he's been -- he's been playing with conspiracy theories his entire presidency. and now, 47% of gop of -- people who supported donald trump say they're not going to get the vaccine. again, it's this personality cult issue. and you wonder why the president who got it himself doesn't tell everybody else, get the shot. >> we know that the one thing that is critical, if we'll get to that july the 4th deadline and make it that joe biden lined out this weekend for being the kind of return to normalcy, it's not going to happen unless large numbers of americans get the vaccine, right? the vaccine is our way out of this. we all know that. world leaders around the world have got their vaccines in public, in order to persuade their voters, the people who support them and follow them to get the vaccine themselves. we know the power of role models in this. we've seen role models in the african-american community come out and say specifically, we are trying to get you, because you believe in me, i'm going to get my shot in public, so we know that it does work. for donald trump, though, to do it in public, i guess would be -- he said it at cpac, he did say, go get your shot, but that was just people that were listening to cpac that heard that. but for him to go on camera and do it would have a huge amount of influence on the people who have, you know, supported him to the end of the world, would clearly go and get it, if he got it in public. but for him to get it in public would be what, somehow admitting that joe biden had some kind of credit or coming out and credit. that's why he didn't take part in that psa announcement with the former presidents. he didn't want to give any credit to this administration. so doing anything that would help this administration, i guess that's why he's not wanting to do it now. >> joe, doesn't he take credit for the beautiful shot? he takes credit for it in terms of the accomplishments that the biden administration put together so quickly, in record time, compared to his botched response to the pandemic, where he didn't pretend it existed for months or came up with literally like crazy ideas that came out of nowhere, out of some crackpot's brain, like putting bleach in your body to get rid of it. he came up with crazy ideas to counter it. but he never actually got anything substantial done. in fact, most people would say what he did during his time as president during this pandemic led to more deaths. >> well, so, we have a couple of things going on here. and katty is right. he did say something in passing at cpac. he's not getting out there, telling people, go get your shots. and reverend al, how interesting that donald trump and all of his supporters will screech and yell about the importance of operation warp speed and why isn't he getting enough credit for operation warp speed. well, he should get credit for operation warp speed. but how bizarre if that's such a big damned deal, why are one in two republicans, for the most part, not getting the vaccine or saying they're not going to get the vaccine? and why isn't donald trump, if he thinks it's such a big damned deal, if he thinks he created such a, quote, beautiful shot, why isn't he making sure that people are getting it so we can open this country back up? >> this is the real display of the real pettiness and dark side of this president. he wants to take credit for something, yet he won't promote what he's taking credit for. but at the bottom of it is he shows a real insensitivity, if not a sense of not caring about the health and life and death of his own followers. he would rather play these games with biden, of who's going to get credit and i'm not going to enhance what biden is doing, rather than say, wait a minute, we have to be concerned about the very people that voted for me, that support me, and that still support me. at some point, i don't care how big an ego maniac you are, you should be concerned about the public if you're a public servant. and it shows how really hollow this man is in terms of any moral concern for anyone outside of himself. >> so let's just make this very simple. if the president wants to go off and say nothing, that's fine. it's not his responsibility anymore. but if he's going to keep taking credit for the vaccine, if he's going to put out press releases about the vaccine, if he's going to talk about his beautiful shot, if his people are going to keep whining about how he's not getting enough credit for operation warp speed, which he should get credit for operation warp speed. if he's going to be engaged in that debate, then you know what? then, stay engaged in that debate. and do what's best for america and do what's best for your supporters. do what's best for your supporters' families. do what's best for your supporters' grandkids, grandparents, everybody. do what's best for reopening the schools, reopening small businesses. tell your supporters to go out and get the vaccine. let them know it's safe. you took it. we all know what a hypo hypochoc you are. you wouldn't take that shot unless you knew it was safe. >> why can't you share that with your people? >> it's always weird when people have asked you, donald, questions about ant-vaxing things. you've always skirted in the middle and you won't come out and say it. well, okay, again, that's your business. you lost. you can keep acting that way, because you don't represent anybody. but again, if you want to be engaged in the debate over vaccines, then be engaged in a positive way. be engaged in a way that can actually save lives going forward. you made a lot of mistakes, you know you did. you know, donald, you were responsible for a lot of deaths. you know that's going to stay with you throughout, you know, decades, years to come in the history books. just be positive here. and get that one out of two republicans that voted for you, tell them to do what you did. get the vaccine. save themselves. save their families from a possible bad situation and let's get this country opened up again. >> nbc news international correspondent kate snow has more on the effort to convince americans to get the vaccine. >> reporter: at holy name medical center in new jersey, i met so many who had been desperate to get a vaccine appointment. >> it's overwhelming and i'm -- i feel that i'm lucky. >> reporter: but there are also millions rejecting it. >> i'm not getting the vaccine because i'm honestly not scared of the virus. >> i don't trust the vaccine at all. >> reporter: many of them white conservatives like gena millatello, a mom of four who works at a school and voted for former president trump. >> leading public health officials and scientists and doctors are saying, we should get this vaccine. why are you so concerned about it? >> i don't think it's 100% safe and effective. and i believe that the risk is worse than what the benefit would be. >> the benefit. you're concerned that it hasn't been tested enough. >> yes. >> reporter: a new poll finds nearly half of trump voters do not plan to get the vaccine compared to just 10% of biden voters. dr. melody weaver runs a clinic in rural idaho. >> you have people believing that masks don't matter, the vaccine's a conspiracy, and maybe they're out to get us. >> reporter: it's a huge concern for dr. paul offit, who serves on the fda panel that approved the vaccines. this country needs everyone to get this vaccine, right? or at least a certain percentage of people to eventually get to herd immunity. >> you're right. we need about 80%, at least, of the population to be immune. >> reporter: dr. ashish jha is at brown university. it's politicized now. you hear people say, i don't believe in this administration, i don't believe in these vaccines. >> yeah, this is one of the more disturbing things in my mind, kind of disturbing turn of events. there's nothing political about this virus. the virus doesn't care if you're a democrat or a republican. and the vaccines work just as well for democrats and republicans. >> for me as a scientist who's also a christian, this is an answer to a lot of prayers. >> reporter: public health officials are targeting conservative media and a new public service announcement features former presidents, including george w. bush. >> it's important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated. >> reporter: but not donald trump, who got his vaccine privately. what if your employer says you need to get the shot before going back to school? >> i would have to find another job. >> reporter: why is it so important for every one of us to get this vaccine? >> my message is really simple. we want to put it behind us and get our lives back and be able to see family and friends. the best and only real way we can do that is if most americans get vaccinated. >> make that choice, because to not make that choice is not only to put yourself at risk, but to put everyone with whom you contact with at risk. >> this is where the alternative facts environment that so many donald trump supporters live in, this is where it impacts them. and it's not -- no, it's not people living in the ozarks, living in a tent. it's everybody. it's, you know, one of my friends who's highly educated. who's got a lot of children, who's got -- and people that obviously have a household that needs to be safe. he refuses to take the shot. he's a donald trump supporter. he's been educated. he knows better. he should know better. but he's not going to. and jonathan la mir, can you help us out here? you obviously followed donald trump. this is a public health crisis. that we obviously have to get behind us. and we can't do that if one-half of the 75 million people who voted for donald trump aren't going to get the vaccines. i mean, it's bad for them, but worse for this country. can you explain donald trump's hesitancy to go public with this, based on everything you've seen in the past. how he skirted questions on anti-vax issues or qanon issues. >> well, joe, you hit on a few pieces of this already. certainly, his history with anti-vaxers is well documented and the reluctance to do something that would appear to give joe biden any sort of credit. that, too. but there's a little bit more, people that i've talked to around him. first, it's so trivial, but the idea -- the embarrassing idea that the president, he didn't want photo shot, thought he would look weak if he had to have a shot in the arm with his sleeve rolled up, didn't want that on camera. but trump has always has this reluctance to say anything that would upset people that already support him. and he knows that there are a number of republicans and trump supporters in particular who don't want to have the vaccine, who perhaps his fear is would be alienated if he was suddenly out there, relentlessly promoting it. and this is all backwards, because they don't want to take the vaccine because of the antiscience approach that he and people around him have taken for years. and now he could, indeed, be the person to change that. but he doesn't want to alienate them. so it's in this terrible cycle that doesn't seem to want to be broken and is dangerous for them and all of this. this current white house is aware of this. they know soon enough that the challenge with the vaccine is not going to be supply. there's going to be enough supply. the challenge is going to be convincing americans to take it. distributing it to where it needs to go and getting those reluctant to take the vaccine to actually do sop and jen sack ji, the white house press secretary was asked this week about exactly this. is joe biden the right messenger for conservatives? she acknowledged, perhaps not. that it would be useful to have a conservative figure get out there and advocate it. president trump could be that person, but he to this point is refusing to do so. >> even though, again, as you said, even though he got the shot himself, in private. hey, jonathan, let me ask you really quickly while we have you, and then we'll go on and do the story about governor andrew cuomo's problems in new york. what's the white house's response to the cuomo scandals, i'll say scandals, the nursing home scandals and all the women who have come forward. what is the white house's response after chuck schumer and kirsten gillibrand. you go down the list, a lot of leaders in new york state, both at the state and the national level, all calling for his resignation. where is the white house. >> the white house publicly is trying to steer clear, as difficult as that has been. i pressed jen psaki last week in the briefing room about this very matter. and her line was, well, the investigation is ongoing. we should see where it goes. i also said to her, but wait, governor cuomo is in charge of the covid-19 response, the vaccine distribution in the state of new york. does the white house still have confidence in him? and there was this -- she sort of danced around it, acknowledging, look, some of his pandemic gubernatorial powers have been stripped from him. that this is -- he's in a difficult spot here. biden -- president biden yesterday did publicly, he was asked about it as he came back from the white house, from delaware. he, again, sort of said, well, there's an investigation that's going on. we should see where it leads us. behind the scenes, there's real concerns here. they know that cuomo is damaged, in particular when schumer on friday said cuomo should resign. that was perceived among many democrats as almost the final straw. though cuomo was telling people, he won't go and it would take a push from biden to actually get him to resign. to this point, the white house is saying, no, they don't want to be stuck up in this like barack obama's white house was when david patterson, another scandal-engulfed governor of new york was asked to step aside about a decade or so ago. it's a distraction. they're hoping it gets resolved on its own, but it may not. the president may get pulled into it further. >> here is president biden as he was asked yet to weigh in on the mounting calls for new york governor andrew cuomo to resign. take a look. >> do you think governor andrew cuomo should resign? >> i think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us. >> all right. so the investigation underway, here are the latest developments concerning new york governor andrew cuomo. a longtime adviser to governor cuomo reportedly called county officials to gauge their loyalty to the embattled governor amid an ongoing sexual harassment investigation. that's according to multiple officials who spoke to "the washington post." one of the democratic county executives that was recently contacted by larry schwartz, head of the new york's coronavirus vaccine rollout, filed an ethics complaint with the state attorney general's office. according to the post. the executive feared retaliation against the county's vaccine supply if schwartz was not leeds with his response to questions about supporting the governor. when contacted by "the post," schwartz acknowledged making the calls as a 30-year friend of cuomo's. but said he, quote, did nothing wrong. schwartz said he did not discuss vaccines in the conversation. the governor has denied touching anyone inappropriately, though he has apologized for any past behavior that may have made people uncomfortable. >> hey, reverend al. let's be straight here. if you've got the guy that's in charge of your vaccine rollout calling county officials, seeing whether they're still loyal to andrew cuomo or not, you don't have to tell them that their answer is freighted with real meaning for whether they're going to get the vaccinations that they need. it's -- it's obviously why cuomo -- which it's disgusting. it's obvious why he had his vaccination czar, his coronavirus czar, calling these county officials. show loyalty and maybe you get more vaccines. don't show loyalty and you don't. and even if he didn't say anything, that was the clear suggestion with the person he chose to make those false for him. >> at best, it is clearly not the person that should be making false. and in fact, the implications are there. i think what a lot of people are torn with now is even those of us that have said, well, we're not going to call on him to resign, let's see where the investigation goes. we have confidence in the investigation, now have to raise the question, can he govern? and i think that there are two separate issues. one is whether you want to set a precedent where based on accusations, before an investigation, do you force someone out? but then the other part is, if you have both the u.s. senators and the majority of the new york state legislature calling on you to resign, can you continue to governor in a state that is still facing critical issues. and i think that is where this morning, many people including many and the state are looking at, one of two very serious issues. in the middle of that, though, to have people that are going to be your representatives, to be in positions that even remotely can be compromised, and this is not remote, i think only adds to the furor that a lot of people are trying to be clear sighted before they make an ultimate decision. but evening when schumer and gillibrand come out and the state legislators come out, this has raised this to a whole different level of whether or not you think he is guilty but whether or not you can think he can govern. >> let's bring in wall street reporter jimmy vealkine who covers the new york government in albany. i think we need to take a look at where these complaints stand. the number has escalated since last week. and let's take a look at sort of the level of escalation, as well. so who has come forward and what are the stories they're telling? >> well, mika, so far, we've heard from three former female aides to the governor, who have described either sexual harassment or inappropriate workplace conduct by the democratic executive. and there's a fourth woman who is currently on andrew cuomo's executive chamber staff, who says she was touched inappropriately by the governor during an encounter last year at the state executive mansion in albany. that complaint was first reported by the albany times union and confirmed by "the wall street journal." in addition to these four women, there are several others who have come forward and described encounters they had with the governor, some at social encounters, some in other areas of the workplace, and all of this is going to be sucked up and reviewed by an independent investigation overseen by the state's attorney general, letitia james. as this process is unfolding, as reverend sharpton said, the political consequences are playing out. and the situation in albany changes not just day by day, but hour by hour. right now, lawmakers are trying to finalize a state budget, but clearly, the situation with the governor is having big implications. >> i mean, it's got to be extremely distracting and you mentioned one woman on his staff. can you explain the parameters of that complaint, which, i think she doesn't want to come forward, but how is this working? is she still working on his staff? and how distracting that must be if you're trying to govern. >> well, our understand is that she is still on his staff. an attorney for the woman says she will speak at the appropriate time through the legal process. "the times" union has reported that the encounter involved governor cuomo asking for assistance with a technical issue on his phone and again, according to "the albany times union," the woman says that the governor reached up her blouse and touched her breasts. she then sought to leave the executive mansion. many people i'm talking to say they see this as far more damning than some of the other alleged complaints. other women have talked about comments prosecute governor. charlotte bennett, a 25-year-old scheduler, says that she felt governor cuomo was making overtures towards her for sex. and the governor, of course, has apologized, as you said, for making people feel uncomfortable. and i should note, he's denied inappropriately touching anyone, including the unnamed woman who said that she had the encounter with him in the executive mansion. >> so, jimmy, break down the numbers for us, as far as impeachment goes. obviously, there's an inquiry going on into impeachment. a good number of representatives, new york representatives have asked the governor to step down. how much breathing space does he have in the assembly and in the senate before he's looking at an impeachment process that actually could remove him from office? >> well wing that the most critical person for governor cuomo's fate with respect to impeachment is carl hasty. he comes from the bronx and thus far he has not called for governor cuomo's resignation. the leader of our state senate, andrea state cousins has called for governor cuomo to step down. but in the state assembly, we know that there are approximately 39 republican members. there are just 43 republicans in the 150-seat chamber, who say that governor cuomo should be impeached. there are seven democrats as of last week, who have called for the governor's impeachment, but a larger number have said that andrew cuomo should step down. again, this gets back to reverend sharpton's point about being able to effectively governor at a critical time for the state. that means that more than half the lawmakers in that chamber have said that they want to see governor cuomo leave office, but it's still a far cry from saying that they're ready to pass an impeachment resolution, which would require 75 votes. a majority of that 150-seat chamber to pass. >> "the wall street journal's" jimmy veilkind, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we cover stories about women's empowerment and making sure that women or heard and taken seriously. what does this stand in the sea of cases like this that we have seen sort of cross our desks over the past five years? >> yeah, i think for many women, it had felt over the last year or so that the whole me too movement had kind of quieted it down and we hadn't heard much about it and women were starting to ask, what did we actually achieve? and the cuomo case has brought the whole movement back into focus again. what do we always look for in cases like this when there are allegations against a powerful man? it's often a pattern of behavior, right? it's not just one allegation, it's whether there are more allegations. and that's why i think the reporting that we're having now, that there are now four women who have made allegations against the governor and this latest one, which is of a particularly sexual nature and is physical wing, could be a turning point, if that were to come out in public. and then the governor losing support around him. i mean, there's a reason the governor is losing so much of that support. and it was interesting listening to that reporting there from albany, about just how many state legislature members are now either calling for impeachment or calling for the governor to resign voluntarily. he just has no basis of support. and you think, where is that coming from? why does he have no friends? it doesn't seem to me like there's a few individual allegations, it looks like there's a culture. you look for the culture in the allegation and the repeated allegations and the pattern of behavior, and that's when you start thinking, there's something there there. and i just don't see how the governor can carry on governing effectively in the middle of a pandemic when he doesn't have the support of the people around him. >> yeah. all right, katty, thank you. still ahead on "morning joe," republican senator ron johnson says he didn't feel threatened during the deadly capitol riot. and adds that he may have felt differently if the mob had been black lives matters prosecutors protesters. and when it comes to bipartisanship, some are drawing the line with the defense of january 6th. leigh ann caldwell joins us with her new reporting on that. you're watch "morning joe." we'll be right back. hat. you're watch "morning joe. we'll be right back. 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(laughing) (trumpet playing) someone behind me, come on. pick that up, pick that up, right there, right there. as long as you keep making the internet an amazing place to be, we'll keep bringing you a faster, more secure, and more amazing internet. xfinity. the future of awesome. i knew that even though those thousands of people that were marching the capitol were trying to pressure me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, i knew those were people that loved this country, that rule respect law enforcement, and would never do anything to break a law. so i wasn't concerned. now, had the tables been turned, joe, this could mean trouble. had the tables been turned and president trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of black lives matter and antifa protesters, i might have been a little concerned. >> oh, my god. >> first of all, let's get a couple of things straight. so that guy, ron johnson, said that the people who were bashing law enforcement officers' brains in with american flags and cracking their skulls and trying to, by jamming their head in doors, that were beating law enforcement officers to death and the law enforcement officers were saying that they were sure they were going to die and were wondering how their four girls were going to survive without having their father, because he'd been killed by trump terrorists, these people right here, these are the people that ron johnson says truly respect law enforcement. no, they actually brutalized law enforcement. they actually beat up police officers, abused police officers. beat them with american flags. what they did was despicable and showed utter contempt for law enforcement, showed utter contempt for police officers. it was really disgraceful. and so, you know, reverend al, when ron johnson's -- when this quote became available this weekend, somebody said, well, this is how racism works subconsciously. and i said, not really. there's nothing subconscious about this racism. this is just -- this is overt bigotry, where ron johnson says that he is more concerned by black lives matter marchers than he is with white rioters. white seditionists. white criminals who are now white convicts who keep getting rolled up and arrested by the fbi. and here's the takeaway that i think actually is the most disturbing part of this. ron johnson wants his listeners to know he's a bigot. he wants his listeners to know that he's more afraid of black marchers, black protesters than he is with white rioters, white seditionists, white terrorists who brutalize police officers and commit sedition against the united states of america. >> well, what is so unbelievable is that this man is sitting in the u.s. senate and has no problem at all being not an unconscious bigot, but a proud, proclaimed bigot. saying, let me explain to you my bigot, my bias. he literally says that these people came into the chamber to try to deal with how i would vote, which means that he acknowledges they wanted to deal with the certification of the electoral college. but there's nothing wrong with that. but had they been black, had they been somebody else, for whatever reason, i might have been disturbed about that. but they can bash policemen, even crush one law enforcement person who died, that's all right. they're law-abiding, because they have the right to be disruptive if they're going to stop an election. they have the right -- in fact, they're not even doing anything illegal to be beat on law enforcement people. this is expressions of the con confederacy if i ever heard it. to stand there and defend something that a hundred years ago jefferson davis would be applauding. >> again, it seemed like he was purposefully letting listeners know that he was a bigot. that white terrorists, trump terrorists scared him less than black people marching. you know, mika, ron though also may not be the sharpest tool in the shed. because by admitting they were coming up and attacking the capitol to try to stop him from certifying the electoral votes, he actually helps prove, if you look at the statute, he helps prove one of the points that needs to be proved in approving sedition. that you were coming and you were committing violence in hopes to stop a legal process by the united states government or a constitutional process by the united states government. so i'm sure the prosecution in all the cases appreciate ron johnson, a sitting senator stating that, yes, that's exactly what they were trying to do. >> extremely helpful, that's for sure. >> thank you, ron. >> some democratic lawmakers are now say they won't work with any republicans who voted for against the affirming of the election. so how is that going to work, leigh ann? >> it's becoming a big issue in congress among democrats. there's a deep mistrust in congress that we're seeing in various ways. you saw how speaker nancy pelosi put up the magnetometers outside the house chamber. but also what's happening, individual democratic offices are creating their own litmus test on who they're going to work with on legislation. and we're not necessarily talking about the big headline-grabbing legislation like covid relief or the george floyd bill or immigration, things like that. but the nitty-gritty, small pieces of bills that do pass through the house, do the pass the senate and reach the president's desk. and there's a lot of lawmakers who went on the record, which i was surprised about, to tell me about these individual litmus tests. for example, representative brad schneider of illinois, a member of the problem solvers' caucus that usually works across the aisle with republicans. he told me that he has a task force that he leads with representative jody heiss of georgia on this toxic contamination. he had to tell representative heiss that he can no longer co-lead that task force with him, because of how he voted and his statements since the insurrection. and i have a long list of examples of democrats who are just telling their republican colleagues that they can't work with them anymore. >> yeah, this is definitely the line. nbc's leigh ann caldwell, thank you for that reporting. appreciate it. and coming up, the biden administration works to stock up enough covid vaccine doses for every american. and then some. now the u.s. is facing pressure to free up some shots to share with the rest of the world. we'll get over that, next on "morning joe." we'll get over that, next on "morning joe." 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 hi sabrina! >>hi jen! so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin? exactly jen! calm + restore oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. and strengthens skin's moisture barrier. uh! i love it! aveeno® healthy. it's our nature.™ the epson ecotank. no more buying cartridges. look at all this ink it comes with. big ink tanks. lots of ink. no more cartridges. incredible amount of ink. the epson ecotank. just fill and chill. welcome back to "morning joe." it's 46 past the hour. it's daylight savings, the first monday after daylight savings. it's always kind of hard. got to wake up there in the white house. biden administration officials tell nbc news the united states has no plans to share its stockpile of astrazeneca's covid vaccine with other countries, despite requests from the european union. right now, the food and drug administration is waiting for additional data on the astrazeneca vaccine before deciding whether to clear it for use in the u.s. the vaccine is already being used in europe. officials there have asked the united states to share some of its stockpile doses in order to help with vaccine shortages in the european union. jonathan la mir is still with us. and i'm just wondering, before we get to our next guest, jonathan, what is the logic inside the white house as it pertains to this one particular vaccine that's not available for u.s. usage yet? >> right, mika. i asked white house press secretary jen psaki this at the end of last week in her daily briefing. and she made clear -- and this was the most forthright the white house has been about this particular topic. they're not going to be sharing their vaccine supply with the rest of the world anytime soon, until more americans have it. she said president biden's focus is getting americans inoculated with moderna, pfizer, johnson & johnson, those three approved already, but as noted, there are contracts, the astrazeneca vaccines that the u.s. has purchased, not approved yet, but they want to hold on to this. they feel like the approval process could happen in the next few weeks. they want to have that supply on hand for americans. but they're facing criticism they're not sharing it with the rest of the world and missing out on a chance to engage in vaccine diplomacy, but also helping countries that are having trouble generating their own supply. >> joining us now, the counsel of the president on foreign relations, richard haas and ed loose. ed, you warned about this issue of countries keeping vaccine doses in a piece back in january, entitled, "the west's vaccine myopia." and you write in part this, "we have heard increasingly urgent warnings about vaccine nationalism. a better term would be vaccine myopia. in theory, nationalists are putting their own country first or continent, in the case of the eu. in a global pandemic, that approach makes no sense. if protecting your people is a priority, as it must be, nationalist logic should endorse global vaccine equity. either the west tackles coronavirus globally or we totally wall ourselves off." which we can't do, ed. so what you're saying is if you attack this globally, there's a chance we can really put an end to it. if we are nationalistic about it, we risk the vaccine coming back. i mean, the coronavirus coming back? >> yeah, i mean, what i think we need to pursue is enlightened nationalism here. that we're only as safe as the rest of the world. that say america gets herd immunity by june and european may be a bit later in the year, but the developing world, which is the majority of the world's population, only has about 20% vaccination by the end of 2021, which is what the projections are. only a fifth of people outside of the west. then you're going to see, first of all, a perfect alignment for more variations and mutations of this virus to develop and spread and come back across our borders, because there are no walls that can stop viruses from moving. but you're also going to see a failed economic recovery in the rest of the world. and our economic recovery is going to be contingent on a return of the global economic machine. so on many levels, both health, epidemiological, but also in terms of our economic self-interest, we should be leading the way to get vaccines into the arms of people in africa and south asia, in latin america. that should be as much of a priority for us as getting our on people vaccinated. >> richard haas, katty kay is with us and she has a question for you. katty? >> we know that politics likes a vacuum and if the united states isn't doing something, somebody else probably is. china has distributed half of its doses to 45 countries around the world and clearly think it's in their self-interest to do so. isn't it in america's self-interest to do so, as well? >> 100%. ed's exactly right. it makes sense in terms of our own physical recovery. it makes sense in terms of our own economic recovery. there is a sense of diplomatic competition. but let me give you another argument. one of the biggest crises facing the biden administration the surge of people coming in from the southern border. one of the reasons that surge is going to continue and grow is if there's a major gap between the public health situation in the united states and say, central america, and the economic situation in the united states and central america. if we want to narrow that gap and reduce the pressure along the southern border, one of the best ways to do it is by either sending vaccines over there or in many cases, we won't even have to do that, katty. we can license the production of american-originated vaccines in the rest of the world. so that way, we're not even taking anything away from ourselves in order to help others. this is actually a really straightforward question that the president should get out there and explain why helping others helps ourselves. >> so richard, you mentioned the situation at the border. the biden administration is deploying fema to the u.s./mexican border to help care for the surging number of unaccompanied migrant teens and children overflowing detention cells in tent shelters. the deployment marks another escalation in the administration's response to the growing crisis. according to reports, about 8,500 teens and children are living in shelters run by health and human services, as unaccompanied minors arrive more quickly than officials can place them with sponsors. "the new york times" notes that roughly 4,000 young people were in customs and border protection facilities last week. that's more than the roughly 2,600 children and teenagers held in such detention facilities back in june of 2019. the acting commissioner of cbp said nearly 9,500 children, including teenagers, were detained at the border without a parent in february. that is up from more than 5,800 in january. so i guess first of all, richard, what's the reason behind these rising numbers? >> a couple of reasons. some, as i just explained are because of the growing gaps and conditions in the united states linked to covid and linked to the economy. some of these people are leaving for the reasons i've always had. a fear of violence, crime, drug cartels and the rest. but also the administration has somewhat brought this on itself by signaling during the campaign and the rest that we are going to have a more open, humane immigration policy. the message has gone out and so people are coming here to test just that. and i think it's putting the administration in a real jam. there's a lot of pressure on it to maintain not just the rhetoric, but adopt such a policy, but if we do, tens of thousands of hundreds of people could head in this direction and we're simply not ready for it. the real question is, are we going to adopt the tougher question at the border. and as we used to say, go to the course. rye to dress the problems in mexico and central america and elsewhere that are driving people to leave in the first place. >> reporter: ed luce, richard's right, part of the problem is that the biden administration announced such a permissive immigration policy, to try to counteract what had been going on over the past four years in the trump administration that they did invite some of this on themselves. and while they are not deliberately separating children from parents, as the trump administration did, that was their stated policy, they even voted on it, they still have a humanitarian crisis at the border. now, in part, because there are a flood of -- a flood of potential immigrants and potential refugees who think they're going to have a better shot of getting in now that joe biden is president. and he's sending a friendlier signal to them. >> yeah. i'm not sure what he can do to stop this, because, you know, biden is not going to endorse the sort of draconian measures that were put in place under trump. and to some extent, under the previous obama/biden administration. he's just not going to do that. nor should have. the separation of children from parents, et cetera. and turning away children. that's ended. they're not turning away children at the border. i can't see biden, with everything that he stands for, climbing down on this for the sake of stemming the flow of people to the border. so i would agree fully with what richard just said. you have to go to the source here. you know, one of the reasons that the flow has got much higher and is expected to get higher is because of the effect of the pandemic on central american countries that had already been suffering all kinds of things, you know, gang warfare, the effects of climate change, regimes. the biden administration can focus on countries like honduras, guatemala, helping them with a covid vaccine roll out and with assistance including human rights assistance to try to make life more palatable for people there. without becoming trumpian on the border. because they don't think that biden wants to do that and i don't think we should want biden to do that. >> all right. thank you so much, ed luce. thank you, richard haas. so the question is, how do we balance this, reverend al? obviously, donald trump had inhumane policy as it pertained to illegal immigrants coming to our border. barack obama also had a very tough approach, which actually drove down illegal border cross ings to a 50-year low. but what does a biden administration do? how do they balance it? because sending an open invitation to illegal immigrants to come to the united states of america is one way to guarantee that the southern border is always in a chaotic situation. >> balance is the word. i think when you look at the fact that you've got to have engagement with the countries they're running from. people are not running here for no reason. they're running from something if we engage and try to resolve and solve some of the things we're running from, i think you can bring the flow down. but at the same time, you've got the stop the continued, the astronomical numbers is coming to build up towards of people running in and losing our ability to control the flow at the border. when americans, people here are suffering with increased unemployment and hunger due to the pandemic. >> all right, reverend al sharpton and katty kay, thank you both very much for being on this morning. still ahead, a member of the senate foreign relations committee, tim kaine joins us here. plus, top democrats fan out across the country to promote the new covid relief package. what to expect from the president and vice president this week. we're back in one minute. residet this week. we're back ionn e minute hi sabrina! >>hi jen! so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin? exactly jen! calm + restore oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. and strengthens skin's moisture barrier. uh! i love it! aveeno® healthy. it's our nature.™ did you know you can go to libertymutual.com to customizes your car insuranceno® so you only pay for what you need? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ after 15 years in the saints and 20 years in the nfl -- >> our dad is finally going to retire. >> so that he can spend more time with us! yay! >> so cute. the drew brees era in new orleans is over. the quarterback is retiring after 20 nfl seasons, making the announcement with the help of his four children in a video posted on social media yesterday. 15 years to the day after he signed with the saints, the decision comes after the 42-year-old won 9 of 12 regular season starts, missing four games this year with multiple fractured ribs and a collapsed lung. the future hall of famer brees is league leader with yards passing. joining the conversation, we have professor at princeton university, eddie glad jr., and nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early," kasie hunt is with us. presidential historian doris kearns goodwin joins us and chief national correspondent for "the new york times" magazine, mark leibovich is here as well. >> doris, we're so excited to have you here on this day. 56th anniversary of lbj's address to a joint session of congress, talking about the voting rights act. tell us about that moment, why that was so extraordinarily important in the history of the united states of america and sadly, i say, sadly, why it is so relevant today, because what's going on in georgia and other states across america. >> oh, joe, it's so important to remember, because it's the second half of what brought about the voting rights bill. you have what we were commemorating a week ago, what happened at the pettus bridge, which enflamed the conscience of the country, brought that issue of voting rights to the floor of the congress, and you have one senator, now president, lyndon johnson, from the south, giving the most extraordinary address called the we shall overcome address, so moebize the congress, to pass the voting rights bill, which it does four months later and it means so much to me personally. because little do i know, and i was listening to that speech, i had been at the march on washington in 1963. i had listened like everybody and watched what happened at the pettus bridge and when we listened to that speech when i was in graduate school, we were crying. we knew something big was really happening. a linkage between the outside movement and the inside. it starts off every now and then, history and fate meet at a certain time, in a certain place. so it was in selma, alabama, so it was in appomattox, so it was in lexington and concord, so it was at selma, so it was in an appomattox. if i ever thought i would end working for the man, lyndon johnson, who delivered that speech, or marrying the man, richard goodwin, who had worked on that speech, i would have never believed it possible. and now those rights are back in jeopardy. we have to fight again. it is deadly wrong, he said, deadly wrong to do this. and we have to remember it. this is the next big civil rights struggle. >> let's listen to just a little bit of that speech. >> oir duty must be clear to all of us. the constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. we have all sworn an oath before god. >> and now, 56 years later, here's voting rights advocate stacey abrams calling out republican state legislators for attempting to restrict voting rights access in an obvious effort of to stop people of color from casting ballots. >> i do believe it's racist. it's a redux of jim crow in a suit and tie. we know that the only thing that precipitated these changes. it's not that it was a question of security. the secretary of state and governor went to great pains to assure americans that georgia's elections were secure. so the only connection that we can find is that more people of color voted and it changed the outcome of elections in a direction that republicans do not like. so instead of celebrating better access and more participation, their response was to try to eliminate access to voting to primarily communities of color. >> it used to be, eddie, that people would at least try to disguise their foul efforts behind, you know, polite language. but we showed a clip of ron johnson earlier saying that he wasn't scared of white rioters or white terrorists, but would be afraid if they were black marchers coming on the capitol on january 6th. that's obvious, plain, in your face bigotry. the same thing happening in the state of georgia and other states where the republicans run the legislature. they're desperately trying to stop black and hispanic voters from having access to the voting booth and having their voices heard. >> absolutely, joe. over 250 bills filed in 43 states to curtail voting in this country. and what that reveals in so many ways is that there are those among us who aren't committed to democracy in any robust sense, right? that democracy can only be thought of as the possession of white citizens. and those of us who are here, who happen not to be white, we should shut up and be grateful. and we see that kind of politics over and over again. and so, you know, to celebrate the anniversary of that wonderful, that extraordinary speech by lbj in this moment is to also call attention to the long history of this country with regards to the franchise. we had struggled when it comes to our democracy, when it comes to our democracy in relation to black brown and brown folk and other folk. and this is a long instance of that struggle for us to become a truly multi-rarely democracy. think, 250 bills filed in 43 states by republicans to curtail the voting of american citizens, joe. >> yeah, specifically black citizens, in underrepresented communities that are always, it seems to me, always have less places to vote. always have longer lines to wait in. and georgia, a state that is breaking, going from red to purple and i suspect, soon from purple to blue, is a state where it's sort of the epicenter, mark leibovich, and you're writing about this, about the political hurricane that is sweeping through that state. >> georgia has become the epicenter for a lot of these issues. certainly the tension around demographic change, but certainly voting rights. that's where the real focal point where a lot of this stuff is playing out. and as everyone's mentioned, as eddie was just mentioning, there was some real seminole bills that are wending through the georgia house and senate right now. governor kemp, you know, it will probably get to his desk at some point in the very near future. and stacey abrams is in the middle of fighting against this. and look, that is sort of the existential thing right now, which is the demographic and the change in the electorate that has been realized for democrats in georgia over the last cycle is sort of meeting head-on with these fundamental changes to voting rights or attempt to changes to voting rights that republicans seem to be banking on a great deal. >> so, kasie, what we talked about last week about the reverse engineering that joe manchin is going to have to be going through. because we all understand what he said about the filibuster understand that and respect it. if that's his view, that's fine. but we also know, he's not going to be the person responsible for stopping either john lewis' voting rights bill from going through to passage or to stop hr 1 from going through to passage. that lbj speech and his voting rights bill was specifically designed to stop states from doing everything that they could do to stand in the way of black voters and other minorities at the time from being able to vote. here we are, in 2021, and the state of georgia and a lot of other states are doing the same thing again. so something has to be done from washington, d.c. the question is, how is joe manchin going get to where he needs to get to make sure hr1 passes and that states like georgia aren't going to be able to pass legislation that block people from voting? >> it is the question of our day, frankly, this question that we are exploring right now, in terms of who is going to be able to actually have access to the ballot box because of the way that our country is changing and, you know, joe manchin has harkened back to previous eras where you had people who were willing to stand up to do something that was potentially controversial or unpopular. but he is living in a much different era, even than the one that we showed of lbj taking a stand on this and saying that it is, as dorris quoted, deadly wrong to stand in the way of people having access to the ballot box. so i do think he's going to have a decision to make, as we head down this road. and democrats are using different ways and other issues, pulling out very popular pieces on other areas of their agenda, whether it's gun reform and background checks or the dream act as part of immigration policy, and i think that it's all part and parcel of an argument over this very question that the things that are embodied in hr-1. because it's pretty clear it's not going to pass unless there is a significant change to how the senate does business. and if they can get it through, it will change perhaps what the senate looks like over the lounge run of the country. >> so the president and vice president will be hitting the road to begin promoting the new covid relief package this week. the president begins with an event at the white house today while vice president harris will appear at a covid vaccination site in las vegas. tomorrow, the president travels to pennsylvania, while the vice president will be in denver. both the president and vice president plan to visit atlanta on friday. jonathan lamir, you've got reporting on this from the ap, as the president has really taken the show on the road, so to speak. >> yeah, he is about to do that. and mika, let's flash back to 2009, when then vice president biden was put in charge of implementing that relief bill, that the obama administration had gotten passed, that massive bill to help stimulate the economy. and he dubbed himself sheriff joe. and his job was to work behind the scenes, on the phone, four, five hours at a time, pushing governors and mayors to make sure that they received the funding they requested. making sure that the administration gets that cash, that stimulus out the door. his role this time will be a little bit different. salesman joe, as white house aides have put it, and we've already seen it begin. he, of course, touted the relief package last week in his first prime-time address. did so again in his first rose garden ceremony, that was on friday. we'll hear from him today as he announces gene sperling will be the new implementer. he will get the position to oversee the distribution of these funds. and then he does hit the road. it's not a coincidence where he and the vice president, the second gentlemen, the first lady, where they're all fanning out. they're all battleground states, all purple states that matter greatly for the democrats, both in '22 and '24. the president himself, pennsylvania tomorrow, and then georgia. and i'll be part of this trip on friday, with georgia being, of course, sort of the epicenter of politics right now. the state that gave democrats the majority in the senate because of those two victories in the runoffs that allow them to pass this bill in the first place, that are so key to their efforts going forward. this bill is popular, it polls well, and they want to show the american people what's in it, make sure they understand it, and continue to put the republicans on the spot for opposing it, trying to build momentum as they move into the next part of their legislative agenda. >> you know, doris, barack obama did not push his bill in 2009, stimulus relief package, the affordable care act as much as looking back at the administration, which is, they would have done so. sort of reminds me of george h.w. bush in 1989. didn't make a big deal out of the cold wars ending, because he didn't want to humiliate russia or other countries in eastern europe. but you've written a book, actually called the bully pulpit. talk about why it's so important for joe biden to go around the country and explain what exactly is contained in this massive new piece of legislation, this new law. and how it's going to impact americans' lives. >> oh, you know, joe, it's so important. because we're learning from history. you see that he is learning from history. remembering that situation with president obama, where because they didn't explain obamacare well enough, the republicans were able to message the bill to be something else. there are death panels on this bill, you can't have your doctor there and they lost control of the message. what the bully pulpit mean, it doesn't really mean bully, it means a platform where you can educate the country. and that's one of the president's most important responsibilities. that's what fdr did in his fireside chats. if i can go back for a moment to what kasie said. i think this right to vote now was the central vote. if i were 22 years old, oh, my god, i would be out there fighting for this. what lbj did in the middle of that speech was to say, at a certain point, the big fight is not simply the right to vote, but the right for opportunity, the right for equality. and if we work together on that, we shall overcome. that means you have a president of the united states taking the anthem of the civil rights movement, that linkage that is so powerful between the outside movement and the inside power, and we need it not only in that, we need it in voting, we need it in other things that are part of hr-1, gerrymandering. if i were 50 years younger, i would be out on the streets fighting for that right now. >> mark leibovich -- >> maybe i will be, anyway! >> yeah, do it! he's going on the road. but what about answering questions? some republicans, you know, might find an area there where they feel he should be doing more news conferences. answering questions on all of this. yeah, it's not just republicans. certainly, i have a horse in this, but i think reporters certainly would like to see him answer questions and be as transparent as possible, and he has not done that yet. and i'm not sure -- i don't think this is a major voting issue. i don't think people around the country are sort of talking about this very much, but i also think that it should be a central part of what the president does, which is make him or herself available and answer questions. so, yeah, speaking for the home team here, and again, the home team is the media, it would be nice if he came out and he hasn't yesterday. he's compared president trump, to president obama, pretty much every president in recent history. he hasn't done this yet and he would be nice if he did. hopefully he will soon. he says he will and we'll keep him at his word. >> all right. dorris kearns goodwin, mark leibovich, thank you both for being on the show this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe," after a major victory on coronavirus relief, democrats are turning their attention to other legislative issues. senator tim kaine is standing by and joins the conversation next on "morning joe." before we go to break, last night's 63rd annual grammy awards was an historic night for women with the top prizes all going to female artists. beyonce set a new record for most grammy wins by a woman with three new awards, bringing her total to 28 grammys over her entire career. taylor swift also made history becoming the first woman to win album of the year three times this year for her 2020 album "folklore." it was also a big night for rapper megan d'stallion who won best rap performance for "savage" along with beyonce. while also winning the first new rapper award. other top prizes went to billie eilish for "record of the year," dua lipa for best pop vocal album, and "i can't breathe" by her was named song of the year. we'll be right back. r was namedr we'll be right back. ♪ for every idea out there, that gets the love it should ♪ ♪ there are 5 more that don't succeed ♪ ♪ and so are lost for good ♪ ♪ and some of them are pretty flawed ♪ ♪ and some of them are slightly odd ♪ ♪ but many are small businesses that simply lack the tool ♪ ♪ to find excited 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indeed.com/bike. welcome back to "morning joe." it's 23 past the hour. it's time to wake up. if you're feeling tired, it's because of daylight savings. secretary of state anthony blinken and defense secretary lloyd austin are traveling to japan and south korea for four days of talks starting today. ahead of the trip, blinken and austin have written an op-ed in "the washington post" entitled, "america's partnerships are force multipliers in the world." and they write in part this, "from his first day on the job, president biden has emphasized america's reenengagement with the world because it's critical for us to meet our global challenges of the time, our alliances are what our military calls force multipliers. we're able to achieve far more with them than we could without them. it would be a huge strategic error to neglect these relationships and it's a wise use of our time and resources to adapt and renew them to ensure they're as strong and as effective as they can be. a fundamental debate is underway about the future and whether democracy or autocracy offers the best path forward. it's up to us and other democracies to come together. and show the world that we can deliver for our people and for each other. joining us now, democratic member of the armed services and foreign relations committee, senator tim kaine of virginia. >> senator, thank you so much for being with us. obviously, these are perilous times, because of the past several years. and china and our relationship with china has to be at the top of the biden administration's list. what is the message that we deliver to china's leaders. [ inaudible ] -- relationship in the world. the relationship between the u.s. and china. they are an adversary in every domain. and basically, what we've got to do as the two secretaries indicate, is link arms with allies who have similar concerns. i know you guys noticed last week, a very important announcement. the u.s., australia, japan, and india, revising this notion of a quad of nations in the endopacific and the announcement was about the production of vaccines that could be used in india and asia and elsewhere. but the linking of these four democracies to promote strength in the democratic model in the indoe pacific is a very strong indication that joe biden is going to go a different direction than donald trump, who likes to go mano y mano or matchup on our own. that was just not part. the biden administration's focus on alliances that the one thing we do better than anybody else, that is smart. >> senator, the ap's jonathan lamir has a question for you. >> i wanted to ask you the authorization of military force. you know, you have spoken out in the past administrations, republican and democrat alike, that congress should be consulted on this and should receive appropriate notice and guidance, provide guidance. what are you seeing so far with the biden administration on this? they did launch air strikes, its first set a few weeks ago. and there were certainly some complaints among congress about how that played out. walk us through what happened and what you would like to see changed. >> well, jonathan, you're right. the air strikes against iranian-backed militias in syria, they were limited in scope, but they do have an escalatory effect, because you saw them fire back and you saw iran at least temporarily back out of a potential diplomatic discussion about denuclearization. congress is required to be involved in war making, because if you let executives do it, even prudent executives, you end up in situations where you escalate into wars that may be unnecessary. i'm happy to say, though, that the biden team really gets this and wants to come to a better understanding. remember joe biden, senator for 36 years, chairman of the foreign relations committees, he understands the congressional prerogatives as well as anybody who's ever been in the office. so here's what's going on right now. there's a significant bipartisan effort in the senate and house to repeal the two iraq war authorizations, '91 and 2002, to show that congress can't just pass a war authorization, but it can actually appeal one rather than leave it out there like a zombie to do mischief in the future. the second issue that's even more important, and the biden administration has pledged to work with us on this, is to take the 9/11 authorization, 20 years this september, we've operated under it in many countries, and to dramatically narrow it down, so that it still gives us military authority to go after non-state terrorist groups, but imposes some kinds of limitations, so it can't be used everywhere, for as long as this or future administrations want it to be. >> senator kasie hunt has the next question. kasie? >> we started off with this awe autocracy versus democracy question and it brought to mind for me jamal khashoggi, the journalist who was brutally murder, and we know that there are ties to salman, and the president says he's not going to take action in the wake of that, at least not publicly. do you think that the biden administration and president biden himself should do more to punish mohammad bin salman over this, the crowned prince? >> i think the united states should do more. obviously, the biden team has done a lot to reset relations with saudi arabia by ending the u.s. participation in the war on yemen, stopping armed sales, at least temporarily. stopping nuclear transfers that would end run congress. and doing magnitsky sanctions against the khashoggi murder. and i think the u.s. should domore. and that may be on congress to take those steps. because you're right. this "washington post" journalist, a virginia resident, with family members who are virginia citizens, he deserves more justice than what he has received thus far. and the u.s. should stand up for human rights in this case. >> senator, eddie glaude has a question for you. eddie? >> senator kaine, you also mentioned -- >> hi, good morning. you also mentioned the contrast between joe biden and donald trump's approach to our allies and the like. and in some ways, we talked about the kind of collapse of the post world war ii consensus and how the world was organized. what do you think will be the elements of a philosophy that will order or arrange our relationship with our allies in the upcoming future. now that the post world war ii consensus has in some ways collapsed, we can't return to it. what will be in its place in a general frame, in your view? >> eddie, that's a great question. i wrote a piece in foreign affairs in the summer of 2017, and i know richard haas was on earlier, and i said, look. the world now is a competition not between a u.s. block and a soviet politic, but a competition between democracies, authoritarians and non-states. and a lot of that piece was calling upon democracies to stitch themselves together better, because just a u.s.-led group of democracies or a u.s.-european led group of democracies isn't an accurate portrayal of democracies in the world. we have democracies on every continent. and we have to include them. so some of the traditional alliances like nato or oecd, which had been primarily northern hemisphere, they're sort of -- they still can be helpful. but we've got to broaden the club of democracy. you see, president biden has announced later this year or early in 2022, to do a summit of democracies from around the globe to pull them together, to both shore up our own weaknesses. because, look, we've got internal challenges among the democracies, but also starting to make the case from a salesmanship standpoint that democracy remains the better path than the authoritarian path. we have to make that through the power of our example rather than just dictating terms to others. but if we pull the democracies from every continent together, we can start to do that. >> senator kaine, that's such an important point. and you talk about expanding the scope of democracy. let's talk about expanding the scope of democracy here at home, as well. obviously, we've been talking this morning about laws passed in georgia and other states that are meant to restrict access to voting. dorris kearns goodwin was on in an earlier segment, talking about how today is the 56th anniversary of lbj's address to a joint session of congress to push his voting rights bill. right now, we have hr-1 that is maintain to expand the scope of our democracy in america. hr-4. john lewis' voting rights act. i find it hard to believe that the democrats won't figure out a way to pass that that legislation. to stop these efforts on the state level, to stop black and hispanic voters, asian american voters from getting out to the voting booth. what is going to be done? do you think we'll find progress? maybe an exception to civil rights and voting rights legislation for the filibuster, the same way the republicans pass that exception to supreme court justices? >> joe, you asked the question in a really good way when you said, you can't imagine that democrats will block efforts to protect voting. i'm just like you. when we were on the floor trying to pass that covid relief bill, i knew it was going to be nasty and tough amendments and there were going to be twists and turns. but i knew we were getting to the destination. how we were getting there and how long it was going to take was up in the air, but i knew we were getting there. we have to. i heard the clip you played this morning of stacey abrams saying, when georgia officials tell you that the election in november 2020 was as secure as possible, but then immediately moved to try to strip away people's ability to participate, that tells you that what they're about is disenfranchising minorities. that's what's going on state after state in this country, who didn't like what happened in november 2020, and they see their path to stripping minorities' voting powers. so we're going to get there. and you know what, the chief beneficiary long-term will be the republican party, because what they'll have to do is instead of trying to shrink down participation, they'll have to look in a mirror and decide how to appeal to a majority of americans. >> senator tim kaine, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. and coming up, the waiting room was a bit more enjoyable at one massachusetts vaccination site this weekend. thanks to an impromptu concert. we'll get to that story, next on "morning joe." we'll get to that story, next on "morning joe." ♪ hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play ♪ ♪ hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid ♪ ♪ and all that glitters is gold ♪ get 5 boneless wings for $1 with any handcrafted burger. only at applebee's. use a single hr software? nope. we use 11. eleven. why do an expense report from your phone when you can do it from a machine that jams? i just emailed my wife's social security number to the entire company instead of hr, so... please come back. how hard is your business software working for you? with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com for a free demo. hon? first off, we love each other... serena: it's my 4:10, no-excuses-on-game-day migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose of ubrelvy works fast. it can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours, relieving pain and debilitating symptoms. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. serena: migraine hits hard. hit back with ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. ♪♪ 39 past the hour. those getting vaccinated over the weekend at berkshire university were in for a surprise. yo-yo ma gave a surprise concert at the vaccination site. he received his second dose on saturday at the community college, and while spending 15 minutes in observation, he took out his cello and played for those waiting. the performance comes one year to the day after the cellist first posted on social media about his project, songs of comfort. sharing a video of himself playing to calm an anxious country as lockdowns began. ♪♪ very nice. meanwhile, as more and more states begin to ease covid restrictions, dr. anthony fauci warned yesterday that this is not the time to declare victory against the virus. >> we absolutely need to avoid the urge to say, oh, everything is going great, which it is going in the right direction, but once you declare victory, you know, that metaphor that people say, if you're going for a touchdown, don't spike the ball on the five yard line, wait until you get into the end zone. and we're not in the end zone yet. and that's one of the issues that when you plateau, there's always the risk of a surge. that's exactly what the europeans have experienced. >> in response to that surge overseas, starting today, much of italy will be closed, including shops, restaurants, and schools. the entire country will also be placed under a nationwide lockdown for three days over the easter weekend. and in france, paris may be facing new lockdowns as variants of the virus are filling up intensive care units. special medical planes are being used to transport patients from the hardest hit areas, where a limited vaccine supplies are hampering inoculation efforts. the french government has been relying on curfews, as well as closing restaurants and other businesses to try to control the virus, but the head of the national health agency, jeremy solman says it may not be enough. if we have to lock down, we will do it. the situation is complex, tense, and is worsening in the paris region. soloman says there are currently 600 patients requiring icu care, outnumbering the number of icu beds the nation had pre-pandemic. coming up, president biden weighs in on the harassment allegations against new york governor andrew cuomo but stops short of calling for a resignation. "morning joe" is coming right back. signation. 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dr. glaude? >> no. >> let me tell you something. >> joe -- >> this format. this clubhouse format. i'm just going to say it, it love it! now, most of the rooms that i went into to listen on different topics, i mean, first of all, it ain't twitter, right? it's just not twitter. you go in and you start looking at the people that are talking, and it's like ph.ds from cambridge or ai experts from like places that intimidate me. >> so not for you -- >> for eddie, but not for me. >> not really. and there's a guy that would -- it seems like this guy that usually moderates a lot of the -- the ones i go into, sounds like the guy on head space. >> calm. >> sunlight, that is streaming into your body and expanding. and so it's all cool, and then eddie, you and me, we go in there and we break the whole thing. it just blows up. it's just an hour of just -- i loved it. i loved it. and afterwards, you say, you can't do that. and i say, i've done town hall meetings in northwest florida for years. this is like -- this is fun! i enjoy this back and forth! wasn't it great? >> it was amazing, right? particularly when mika jumped in and said, it's time for dinner, that was hilarious, by the way. but you know, i thought -- we both didn't know what exactly we were doing. remember when they said something about mods, and we both were kind of like, what's a mod? at least i did. but we were trying to have this really important conversation about history, the 1619 project and the 1776 project. what kind of history ought we to reach for to help us clarify the choice that is before us now. and then there were these moments, of course, where folks came in and they were triggered by you, joe. my sigh -- >> they were. >> but again, you know, cat recowski had this wonderful kind of description of clubhouse. something like it's a cocktail party meets a.m. talk radio. and it felt like that in retrospect. but it was a wonderful -- we had a wonderful time. >> it was a great. and yes, i find i generally can be a triggering person, just in general. but it was -- i enjoyed it and it was very educational. and eddie, you and i need to keep doing it. and we'll keep doing the same topic and you'll just drive that one all the way across the country. and kasie hunt, so let's talk about vaccines for a second. we've been talking about how about 50% of donald trump supporters don't want to take a vaccine. apparently in congress, we don't have all members of congress getting vaccine. only three in four havethem. do you know what's going on there? >> first of all, i'm sorry i missed out on this clubhouse conversation. >> no, you are not. >> i have to reset my alerts so i don't miss it next time. members of congress have been able to get vaccinated since late last year. continuity of government meant they had a chance to get those vaccines before the rest of us. new reporting shows in a memo from the house attending physician that only 75% have decided they're going to do that. there could be exceptions if members got vaccinated at home and didn't report it. these numbers could be slightly off. the bottom line is that the politics of this are affecting members of congress. it's one of the things that's just destroying trust. you have the wake of january 6th and the way republicans have handled that. now this is preventing the house from potentially getting back to normal business, because the doctors can't say, yes, we're going to relax social distancing restrictions, all 435 can come down and be on the floor, because 25% of them still don't have the shot, which, of course -- the republican -- young republican from north carolina has said in december he wasn't going to take it because he didn't think the virus was bad enough for him to take the vaccine. that means it takes hours for the house to vote on the floor because they have to go in in small groups. it's causing a lot of tension between republicans, democrats and others. in theory -- i realize you were once in congress, but members of congress are supposed to be role models in the country and frankly are not stepping up, a chunk of them. >> i guess i kind of blew that up when i got into congress. >> you were great. >> speaking of blowing things up, nbc sports soccer analyst and co-host of "men in blazers" roger bennett, a beautiful sweater as always. i want to talk -- >> my eyes hurt. >> the north london darby. joey scarborough, he is an alabama fan. the auburn of london football, they have their masters numbers, they have arsenal's number. >> it was north london darby weekend. you know my sweater is the talk of clubhouse right now. this is the true march madness. two teams who lived out roller coaster seasons. comedy and a tragedy are intertwined. grammys for harry style, the outfit styles. 33 minutes in, look at this, ludicrous. if patrick maholmes was a footballer, this is a one in a million shot. firing the torpedo. the argentinean's cheeky feet. arsenal, tenacious and bold for a change. they responded ten minutes later. he lands it. second half, penalty to arsenal. worse than pierce morgan. followed by the celebration. god bless. this is the face you pull when the stimulus check hits the bank account, america. you remember him, scorer of the outrageous winner of the gold that would get sent off for a different hit. what a day. a gold, two yellow cards, an ejection. this is a hat trick. sending a wolf blitzer off the line. first win in six for arsenal. look at his eyebrows. arsenal are back. >> roll tide, they are back. walk us through it. >> there's two others. i'm not proud of this. this is my team, the hopes of a top four finish given a serious doubt. a moment of poetry. one of the goals of the season, like some kind of pale english pele. this is harder to look at than tucker carlson. >> come on. >> the defense splits. city win 3-0. other top of the table, 17 wins in the last 18 games. that's gonzaga level. >> roger, we will tune in to "men in blazers" on nbc sports network. looking at that league table, it's very sad. >> it's awful. >> you are living the nightmare. tell us about that sweater. >> no. >> do you have any idea on this sweater? >> no. >> i have no additional information on the sweater. i would love to hear what roger has to say about the sweater. >> it's awful. >> mika knitted it. it's very modest. she doesn't want to talk about it. >> right. >> i do love coming on the show and getting so much style praise. you make my feel like a bold harry styles. god bless. >> this is over now. still ahead, more on the vaccine conversation. donald trump wants credit for the covid vaccines. is he willing to do the work to get his own supporters vaccinated? we will get into that straight ahead on "morning joe." ♪ over 10 years ago, we made a promise to redefine everything a truck can be. ♪ and while we've made good on that promise by winning back to back to back motor trend truck of the year awards, the work is never done. ♪ ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ the excuse me ma'am,ne. did you know that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? thank you! hey, hey, no, no, limu, no limu! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i have an idea for a trade. why don't you call td ameritrade for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. get a strategy gut check from our trade desk. ♪♪ my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™ janssen can help you explore cost support options. and now, a look back at one year of tv news with pandemic precautions. >> you may have noticed something a little different about tonight's newscast. >> like many of you, everybody here is practicing social distancing. >> we are standing six feet apart here on the set. >> it's social distancing. >> this is six feet right here. >> it feels like i have to shout at you now. >> i know. >> we have microphones and we don't. >> i'm coming to you live this morning from my home. >> you look great sitting there all set up at a studio at home. >> what's happening? >> someone is calling. >> we can say hi. >> someone answer that. >> going to apologize. my alexa is going off. alexa, off. >> a downstream affect playing off. you are hearing my dog bark at the mailman. >> it has been a week since i have seen her. this is my cat. that's the perks of working from home. >> the maps aren't going to mop because he hit the computer with his head. let me verbalize the forecast. >> 62 in pasadena. we will talk about the storm. he walks now. i lost all control. >> one second. sorry. yes, you can have two biscuits. >> sorry about that. >> run to the supreme court as they indicated. clearly that failed. they refused to intervene. ultimately those -- >> oh, my god. >> i understand why people do their show from their home. if we did, it wouldn't feel right. that's why we have maintained our -- >> you are a pioneer. >> we maintained. we wouldn't do that. >> that is so funny. especially the dogs and kids and cats. love it. i love it. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's monday, march 15th. daylight savings kicked in. >> how are you feeling? >> it can be brutal. >> yeah? >> yes. >> with us we have white house reporter jonathan lemier. >> how are you feeling? >> joe, i'm a little tired. but i'm always a little tired. watching those clips, one of the biggest surprises is that neither my 9-year-old or 6-year-old have invaded my shot. >> yet. >> we have a few more months. there's still time. >> there's lots of time. the host of msnbc "politics nation" reverend al sharpton joins us this morning as well as washington anchor for bbc "world news america" katia cage joins us. the u.s. hit a daily record for coronavirus vaccinations. that's nice to say. there are concerns about what it will take to convince enough americans to be vaccinated in order to stop the spread. yesterday on fox news, dr. fauci was asked about a concerning new poll that shows republican men in particular, those who supported president trump, are reluctant to get the vaccine. >> according to a recent poll, 49% of republican men said they don't intend to get the vaccine. how much of a difference will it make if president trump leads a campaign for the people who are most devoted to him to actually go out and get the vaccine? >> chris, i think it would make all the difference in the world. he is a very widely popular person among republicans. if he came out and said, go and get vaccinated, it's really important for your health, the health of your family and the health of the country, it seems absolutely inevitable that the vast majority of people who are his close followers would listen to him. i'm very surprised at the high percentage of republicans who say they don't want to get vaccinated. i don't understand where that's coming from. this is not a political issue. this is a public health issue. >> you know, as always, the president such a hypocrite. he gets the shot in private. >> secretly, he and melania in january. >> then they won't show anybody else and won't tell other people to get it. he has been playing with conspiracy theories his entire presidency. now 47% of gop people who supported don't trump are now saying they're not going to get the vaccine. again, it's this personality cult issue. you wonder why the president got it himself and doesn't tell everybody else to get the shot. >> one thing that's critical if we get to the july 4th deadline and make it for being the kind of return to normalcy, it's not going to happen unless large numbers of americans get the vaccine. the vaccine is our way out of this. we all know that. world leaders around the world have got their vaccines in public in order to persuade their voters, the people who support them and follow them, to get the vaccine themselves. we know the power of role models. we have seen role models in the african-american community say, because you believe in me, i will get my shot in public so we know it does work. for donald trump do it in public -- he said it at cpac. he said, get your shot. he came out in public there. that was people listening to cpac that heard that. for him to go on come are a and do it would have a huge amount of influence on the people who have supported him to the end of the world, would clearly get it, if he got it in public. to get it in public would be somehow admitting that joe biden had some kind of credit or coming out in credit. that's why he didn't take part in the psa announcement. he doesn't want to give credit to this administration. doing anything that would help this administration, i guess, that's why he is not wanting do it now. >> joe, doesn't he take credit for the beautiful shot. he takes credit for it in terms of the accomplishment that the biden administration put together so quickly in record time compared to his botched response to the pandemic where he didn't pretend it existed for months or came up with literally crazy ideas that came out of nowhere, out of some crackpot's brain, like putting bleach in your body. he came up with crazy ideas. he never actually got anything substantial done. in fact, most people would say what he did during his time as president during this pandemic led to more deaths. >> a couple things going on here. he did say something in passing at cpac. i was talking about the presidents, he didn't do the psa announcement. he has not gotten out there telling people, go get your shots. reverend al, how interesting that donald trump and his supporters will screech and yell about the importance of operation warp speed and why isn't he getting enough credit? he should get credit for operation warp speed. how bizarre if that's such a big deal, why are one in two republicans for the most part not getting the vacvaccine? why isn't donald trump if he thinks it's a big deal, if he created such a, quote, beautiful shot, why isn't he making sure that people are getting it so we can open this country back up? >> this is the real display of the real pettiness and dark side of this president. he wants to take credit for something, yet he won't promote what he is taking credit for. at the bottom of it is he shows a real insensitivity, if not a sense of not caring, about the health and life and death of his own followers. he would rather play these games with biden of who is going to get credit and i'm not going to enhance what biden is doing, rather than say, wait a minute, we have to be concerned about the very people that voted for me, that support me, and that still support me. at some point, i don't care how big a ego maniac you are, you should be concerned about the public. it shows how really hollow this man is in terms of any moral concern for anyone outside of himself. >> let's make this very simple. if the president wants to go off and say nothing, that's fine. it's not his responsibility anymore. if he is going to keep taking credit for the vaccine, if he is going to put out press releases about the vaccine, if he is going to talk about his beautiful shot, if his people are going to keep whining about how he is not getting enough credit for operation warp speed, which he should get credit, if he is going to be engaged in that debate, then you know what, then stay engaged in that debate and do what's best for america and do what's best for your supporters, do what's best for your supporters' families, do what's best for your supporters' grandkids, grandparents, everybody, do was best for reopening the schools, reopening small businesses, tell your supporters to go out and get the vaccine, let them know it's safe. you took it. we know what a hypochondriac you are. the biggest hypochondriac i met in my life. you wouldn't take that shot as a hypochondriac and germaphobe, you wouldn't take that unless it's safe. it's weird when people ask you questions about these anti-vaccine things, you skirted and refused to strike it down. you skirted when asked about qanon. you won't say it. again, that's your business. you lost. you can keep acting that way because you don't represent anybody. again, if you want to be engaged in the debate over vaccines, then be engaged in a positive way. be engaged in a way that can actually save lives going forward. you made a lot of mistakes. you know you did. you know, donald, you were responsible for a lot of deaths. you know that's going to stay with you throughout decades, years to come in the history books. just be positive here. get that one out of two republicans that voted for you, tell them to do what you did. get the vaccine. save themselves, save their families from possible bad situations. let's get this country opened up again. >> coming up, kate snow has an interesting look at this very issue. we will dig into that and get new reporting from the white house straight ahead. first, let's go to bill with a check on the forecast. >> good morning to you. this historic winter storm lived up to the hype this weekend. we start in colorado with just epic snow amounts. we knew this had a chance to be a big deal. it ended up being the fourth largest snowstorm in denver's history. in cheyenne, wyoming, they ended up with 36 inches of snow, a record for the city. it wasn't just the snow. saturday night, we had scary tornadoes. 17 tornadoes reported. thankfully, no injuries, no fatalities. these tornadoes left some significant damage behind. this family was in their basement. a lot of people saw the tornadoes coming and were able to get to shelter. scary scenes and a typical strong early season spring storm. it's still snowing in a few areas. we add up the totals. the highest total, 52 inches of snow in wyoming. that's over four feet of snow. crazy stuff. we have a little bit more snow to come. maybe a little around chicago. how about the winds last night in the northeast? the windchill is brutal. negative 13 windchill in vermont. it's a cold day in the northeast. tomorrow, things return to normal across the country. look out, here is your heads up. wednesday, st. patrick's day, a new storm is moving in. we have a huge severe weather threat, a tornado outbreak is possible for our friends from arkansas through the deep south, louisiana, mississippi and alabama included. more in that as the week develops. active weather as we go throughout this monday as we dig out in colorado and wyoming. stay tuned. more right here on "morning joe." wealth is breaking ground on your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. principal. for all it's worth. i think the sketchy website i bought this turtle from stole all of my info. ooh, have you looked on the bright side? 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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. welcome back to "morning joe." we have been talking about the country's fight to beat back the coronavirus. while many americans are on the hunt to find a vaccine as quickly as possible, it's not the case everywhere. nbc news news senior national correspondent kate snow has more. >> reporter: in new jersey, i met so many who had been desperate to get a vaccine appointment. >> it's overwhelming. i feel i'm lucky. >> reporter: there are millions rejecting it. >> i'm not getting the vaccine because i'm not scared of the virus. >> i don't trust the vaccine at all. >> reporter: many of them white conservatives like gina. she's a mom of four who works in a school and voted for former president trump. public health officials and leading doctors are saying we should get this vaccine. why are you so concerned about it? >> i don't think that it's 100% safe and effective. i believe that the risk is worse than what the benefit would be. >> reporter: you are concerned it hasn't been tested enough? >> yes. >> reporter: a new poll finds nearly half of trump voters do not want to get the vaccine compared to 10% of biden voters. dr. weaver runs a clinic in idaho. >> people believe masks don't matter, vaccines are conspiracy. maybe they are out to get us. >> reporter: it's a huge concern for this doctor who served on the fda panel that approved the vaccines. this country needs everyone to get this vaccine, right? or a certain percentage of people to eventually get to herd immunity. >> you are right. we need 80% at least of the population to be immune. >> reporter: this doctor is at brown university. it's politicized. people say, i don't believe in this administration, i don't believe in these vaccines. >> this is one of the more disturbing things in my mind, disturbing turn of events. there's nothing political about this virus. the virus doesn't care if you are a democrat or republican. the vaccines work just as well for democrats and republicans. >> for me, this is an answer to a lot of prayers. >> reporter: public health officials are targeting conservative media. a new public service announcement features former presidents, including former president bush. >> it's important to get vaccinated. >> reporter: but not donald trump who got his vaccine privately. what if your employer says you need to get the shot before you go back. >> i would get another job. >> we want to put it behind us, get our lives back, see family and friends. the best and only real way we can do that is if most americans get vaccinated. >> make that choice. to not make that choice is not only to put yourself at risk but to put everyone with whom you come in contact at risk. >> this is where the alternative facts environment that so many donald trump supporters live in, this is where it impacts them. it's not people living in the ozarks, living in a tent. it's everybody. one of my friends who is highly educated, who has a lot of children, who has -- people that obviously got a household that needs to be safe, refused to take the shot. he is a donald trump supporter. he has been educated. he knows better. he should know better. but he is not going to. jonathan, can you help us out? you followed donald trump. this is a public health crisis that we obviously have to get behind. we can't do that if we one half of the 75 million people who voted for donald trump aren't going to get the vaccine. it's bad for them. it's worse for them. but it's bad for this country. can you explain donald trump's hesitancy to go public with this based on everything you have seen in the past, how he skirted questions on anti-vaccine issues or qanon issues? >> joe, you hit on a few of the pieces of this. certainly, his history with anti-vaccine is well documented. the reluctance to do something that would give joe biden credit, that, too. there's more. people i talked to around him -- it's trivial, but the idea of an embarrassing idea that the president, he didn't want the photo shot. thought he would look weak if he had a shot in the arm with his sleeve rolled up. he doesn't want that on camera. as part of the qanon or refusal to denounce it or the white see -- white supremacy, he has reluctance to upset anyone who supports him. he knows supporters don't want the vaccine who his fear is would be alienated if he was out there relentlessly promoting it. this is backwards because they don't want to take the vaccine because of the anti-science approach that he and people around him have taken. it's this terrible cycle. it's dangerous for them and all of us. the current white house is aware of this. they know now soon enough that the challenge with the vaccine is not going to be supply. there's going to be enough supply. the challenge is going to be convincing americans to take it. distributing it and getting those reluctant to take the vaccine to actually do so. the white house press secretary was asked this week about exactly this. is joe biden the right messenger for conservatives? she acknowledged, perhaps not. it would be useful to have a conservative figure get out there and advocate it. president trump could be that person but he is refusing to do so. president biden weighs in on the scandals facing new york's governor andrew cuomo. unlike the state u.s. senators, the president isn't explicitly calling for cuomo to go. that's next on "morning joe." 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gear and with an earpiece and armed with pepper spray. the justice department argued that after an analysis of photos from the day, the likely intended target of his pepper spray assault was the line of law enforcement officers present in the photographs. the photos do not show him spraying the officers. his lawyers say he plans to plead not guilty and only marched on january 6th because of former president trump's, quote, invitation to do so. joining the conversation we have longtime media executive and editor at large at "newsweek" and cnbc contributor tom rogers and state attorney dave aaronburg joins us. dave, what is happening? what should be happening to the people who attended, so to speak, the capitol riot and stormed the capitol and did things like he is accused of doing? >> what progress has been made? >> good morning. the department of justice is trying to build enough evidence to build conspiracy. it's not enough to just charge trespass and unlawful entry. to do justice, you need to go up the chain. you saw that there were nine oathkeepers charged. you have this guy who was charged as well. the leader of the oathkeepers, he was on the phone before, during and after the siege with his members. some of the members were guarding roger stone, the former president's henchman was pardoned. this guy, when he was pepper spraying officers, he was wearing an earpiece. who was he talking to? who was he getting instructions from? that's what prosecutors want to know. if you can charge conspiracy, that's the most serious charge filed in connection with the riots. you could be eligible for up to 20 years in federal prison. you need to show you had an agreement between two or more people to shut down the counting of the vote. the best way to do it is to get that paper trail, to go beyond the encryption of signal and get the messages amongst the rioters. if you can do that by getting people to flip, then you can establish a claim. final point is that federal prosecutors have not done a lot of these cases in recent years. when they have done it, it's been with mixed results. you want to make sure you are thorough rather than fast. >> the question is, who was on the earpiece directing him, if anybody? the people on stage, rudy giuliani, the people were screaming to go to the capitol. they use -- the words were incendiary. >> combat justice, rudy giuliani. >> that's one person. then there's the president. let's move to tom's piece for "newsweek." you write this, tom. even as trump himself needs to face justice, it's also critical to bring justice back to the justice department itself. so that we remain truly a country of laws and not a country whose laws can be molded to fit the personal interests of whoever happens to be president at the time. our new attorney general will need to act to ensure the justice department is never weaponized again as a political tool. under garland's tenure, it will be essential that the department reverse its current trump administration positions to ensure they never again will defend the personal interests of any future president. the bottom line is this, to bring justice to justice, wrongful users of the justice department can't be allowed to stand. there needs to be very clear rules outlined that make any justice department lawyer know that their responsibility is to stand firm against presidential attempts to abuse the concept of justice at the department for which it stands. >> what are some of the specific things that merrick garland's doj needs to do? >> good morning. thanks for having me. there's a long list of things where the justice department was used as a personal law firm for donald trump. if things aren't done and done quickly to reverse these positions, they become precedent for how the justice department can be misused by a president for his own personal interest. the justice department went into court on the issue of trump's personal taxes and financial records and argued on his behalf the president's personal records couldn't be reached for investigative purposes. they went into court where a woman accused donald trump of defamation stemming from the alleged rape of her by trump a number of decades ago and the justice department went in and defended him as if they were his personal law firm against that defamation charge. the court said, justice department, you can't do that. the justice department appealed that and it's the official position of the justice department that it can do that. the justice department, as we know, many times went after people, most notely michael cohen, to intimidate them not to write books or allow books to be published dealing with issues prior to trump being president, intimidating cohen, threatening to put him back in jail. the court saw through that one and said that no way the justice department can be used for that. there are no policies in place to protect that going forward. friends of the president, most notely giuliani, were barred, search warrants going after giuliani for investigative purposes, personal friends of the president being protected by the justice department. these are positions that have to be reversed. >> dave, you read tom's article. you have also -- we have been talking about how you bring justice to the justice department, how you help bring reform back into place. for an institution that was probably under donald trump, probably had the most constitutional norms and political norms breached over those four years. how do you clean things up there? >> joe, as a current prosecutor, i can tell you the fact that merrick garland is there already helps our profession. it restores credibility to the doj and to all of us. you are replacing a man with someone of integrity. we are in a divided political environment. he doesn't come from the world of politics which is why he got 70 votes in his confirmation. he needs to do more than just reverse policies of his predecessor. he needs to adopt affirmative measures to ensure that the doj is never again weaponized as a political tool. one proposal that i like that tom mentioned is to create this presumption that if you act in the president's interests as opposed to the public's interest, that is unethical. you could be disbarred. the next time a prosecutor is told to spike an investigation into rudy giuliani because he is the president's lawyer or to stop a case against a michael flynn because he is the president's buddy or to send a michael cohen back to jail because he is writing a book about the president, they will think twice. the current guardrail is the inspector general's office in the doj. you need something more. something that threatens to take away your law license. when it copcomes to the rule ofw saying i was following orders isn't enough. >> yep. tom rogers, jonathan is here with us. he has a question for you. >> tom, good to see you. president biden has made clear that he wants to do things differently in terms of his relationship with the department of justice. he wants it to be an independent entity. it's being put to the test by, of course, the case surrounding hunter biden who is under federal investigation. now president biden said he wouldn't be involved in any way, shape or form. let me get your assessment so far in terms of not just that case but just on the whole, it's still early in the biden administration, but do you feel like he has taken the appropriate hands off approach? what grade would you give him in reversing what his predecessor had done? >> the hunter biden case will be watched closely because, obviously, if there's any political interference there, it will look as if there is a real problem where the trump policies haven't been reversed. merrick garland just was confirmed. he hasn't had an opportunity to put his stamp on the justice department. the investigations into trump himself are going to take time. they are very complicated and the issue of whether they should be left to state and local prosecutors. these things about the personal law firm use of the justice department can be reversed quickly. i think joe biden will clearly support the department doing that. the reform i mentioned in terms of making sure that there was a presumption that if you do interfere as a justice department lawyer, you have acted unethically and are subject to disbarment is so important because it deals with the issue at the time. we can't wait until new attorney generals like merrick garland, who are people of integrity, step into the justice department and have four years go by and a change of administration being what marks this. we need to have something at the time that causes justice department lawyers to think not twice, not three times but four times before they step into anything like this. hopefully, there will be a policy put in place so there will be no question about justice department lawyers dealing with things like this, whether it's a biden administration or any other administration. >> tom, thank you so much. your insights are invaluable. dave, we greatly appreciate you being with us, too. i'm sure we will see both of you very soon. for the past five years i have been talking about the institutions were going to keep donald trump in check. the court certainly did that. the one institution that i became most fearful of over donald trump's four years was the department of justice, was bill barr as attorney general. when it became obvious that he was not representing the interests of the united states of america but rather donald trump personally, what are some of your thoughts on how we reform the department of justice, how we make sure the attorney general does exactly what merrick garland has tes testified to what he will do, look to the best interest of us instead of just the best interest of the president of the united states? >> you know, i was sitting here thinking as we were talking about tom, about barr's behavior. that's his conception of executive power. there's one way to characterize what he was doing as representing donald trump as president of the united states. another thing is that he was representing his conception of the office of the presidency as such. his understanding of the scope of executive power is so expansive or was so expansive that one found it hard to imagine checks and balances of the executive branch. here we have merrick garland who has a much more -- i would say it's more in line with our view of executive power. we have to get clear -- i would love your view on this. clear about the scope of executive power. we just experienced what an imperial presidency that isn't committed to democratic norms, what it would look like. we have experienced an attorney general who is committed to that notion of the imperial presidency, what that would look like. it seems we have to take a step back as well and actually interrogate what we mean by the executive, if that makes sense. >> it certainly does. i will say, before i talk about that, when you look at bill barr, you have to look at also just some instances that went beyond his view of executive power, some abuses. when he lied did it intentionally to buy donald trump time. he was more public relations mouthpiece than he was attorney general of the united states. also, he testified in front of the house and the senate several times, gave misleading questions, most likely perjured himself. when it comes to the balance of power question, so much question to that and balance of power at the end of the day but i have to say at the end of the day we need to figure out how to make the attorney general's position a more independent position than it is now. that's one thing donald trump showed all of us over his four years in the white house. >> absolutely. u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen is sounding an optimistic note for getting the american economy back on track. >> you said we last 9.5 millionp jobs. if we were preferably registering unemployment, it would register over 9 p%. i believe there's enough support in this package to relieve suffering and to get the economy quickly back on track. i'm hopeful that if we defeat the pandemic, that we can have the economy back near full employment next year. i think this is the package we need to do that. >> wow. the nationwide unemployment rate was at 6.2% last month with jobs still down by 9.5 million compared with pre-pandemic levels in february of last year. the treasury secretary is one of the countless women working to get the economies of the world back on track and many of these women are doing probably what is the most important work of their careers in their well-past age of 50. that's "know your value" teamed up with "forbes" for a special 50 over 50 list, to celebrate women who achieved significant success after that age and showcased the misconceptions of women and age. and after 50 is increasingly where the power lies, the "forbes" list of most powerful women average age is 55. let's bring in the chief content officer of "forbes" media and the co-author of "earn it" and contributor to "forbes" for this list. daniella, let's talk about firsts on this list, janet yellen. she has so many firsts. fist woman to hold this position in the 232 history in the u.s. department of treasury. she's the person american in american history to led the white house council on economic advisers, federal reserve and treasury department and at 74 is showing just how long that runway can be for women. >> mika, we know the importance of having women like yellen in a field that is very much male dominated. we talked about how this triples down not only to the confidence but ascension of young women in these fields so it's absolutely pivotal to have women like her in these leadership positions. her career doesn't just show she's crushing stereotypes about age, which is a focus of the list but gender as well. randall, this is just a smidgen of what makes her important in finance. she's had a pivotal roll in the fallout of the pandemic. >> we saw that clip now. her credibility is very important as a tool to sell at $1.9 trillion paquin, she talks about being the right size and because she's so qualified, by the way, all of her right jobs you mentioned she had over 50 but because she's arguably the most qualified treasury secretary ever is that credibility that's helping sell this package. >> daniella, second on our list is the youngest on our list today, at 57, cecilia rouse is of council of economic advisers. tell us about the impact she's having. >> she's the first plaque leader named for that role. she decided actually to study economics at the encouragement of her mother of her freshman year at harvard university for a specific reason. it was the 1980s, unemployment was worst since the great depression and she wanted to study it for that reason and the why behind it, why are people not getting the economic opportunities and the role education could have but she has experience in both academia and government and now she's being lauded as the voice in the white house and constantly highlighting the economic needs and barriers women of color and women are facing at the forefront of this economic conversation. what's most incredible she's actually spearheading a initiative at the council as the council's chair where she will audit ways in which the government collects economic data and prak it down into better race and graphics to better dpraf these in a tangible way. >> and you know who else is on our list, andrew, she's the vice chairman of bank of america but she made sure that bank of america put skin in the game right when the crisis started, i'll say it's about $100 million to be exact. >> obviously, we talk about the government package, the private sector that leads us here will lead us back. and she gave capital a force for good. she's someone leading action with $100 million in extra spending and taking public policy, turning governor nance, environmental policy into action. >> last on our last, we have a special category international here, chris aina georgieva. i'm blown away by the amount of win completely in charge of financial systems. >> yes, mika, i was actually listening to a conversation between christina and janet yellen a few days ago in honor of women's history month and christina was talking about how she would tell her staff economic is not just a dry science. it has real people behind it. i think sometimes we forget that, that policies are for people and livelihoods are at stake and it should be treated with empathy. i think this hit home to her. she grew up in bulgaria and in the 1990s when there was a huge economic collapse, and she and her family suffered because of it. for her it's really personal. we talk about women in leadership roles like hers that have a deep understanding of people and their needs it shows us and it shows young women you can be assertive, you can be commanding and you can reach the highest ranks and at the same time you can be an empathetic leader. i think sometimes having to choose between one or the other and great, tremendous lesson in what great leadership looks like and what it should be. >> randle? >> yes, the i in the ims is someone who is not only bureaucratic she holds herself up with empathy and talk about being a first responders, that really brings it home. >> and raddle lane, thank you very much, danielle apair of bravo, 24u67. and i will hear you on clubhouse tomorrow night. by the way, to go knowyourvolume.com or forbes.com and click on 50 over 50 to learn more about the very powerful list coming up in the future. >> all right. and jonathan lemire, the minute remaining, tell us what the week looks like. what are you looking at? >> the road show begins for president biden in terms of him selling the american rescue plan. he will address it today from the white house. announce who will be overseeing the implementation, david sperling. we're going to see him on the road to pennsylvania tomorrow, georgia later in the week. best advertisement for this bill, the fact some americans have already started receiving $1,400 direct deposit stimulus checks showing up in americans' bank accounts. democrats and white house want to get out and tout what's in this bill to americans, build political momentum and they will use everything they can, presidential travel, advertisements, interviews, perhaps even clubhouse. >> perhaps, well, speaking of dr. glaude, dr. glaude, i will be seeing you in clubhouse again this week. but what are your thoughts, what are you looking at this week? >> i'm looking at that political momentum and i'm watching manchin and the progressive wing of the party. i want to see what happens as we take the next step after the covid relief bill, joe. we want to see what's going on next. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi, there, i'm stephanie ruhle. it's monday, march 15th. let get smarter. as of this morning, covid relief bill is the law of the lapd. banks getting checks this weekend. and why is the president working so hard to sell this bill? we will dig into that with the president, vice president, and her husband joining the dnc this week. and a new ad that builds on the president's promise that help is on the way. it is titled "help is here." all of that, plus how much financial relief you can expect from the bill. i will be breaking that down just ahead. first, i want to bring in a