washington and albany. the allegations, denials and calls for his resignation continue. ♪♪ welcome to monday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm kasie hunt in for chuck the biden administration is facing an urgent crisis. due to a surge in migrant crossings and in unaccompanied mine grant children, the white house is trying to surge resources to the southern border. federal facilities are being overwhelmed. they are deploying fema and building temporary shelters. they are housing migrant children for longer than the law allows. they are facing difficult questions about how much their border and immigration policies might be contributing to the problem. last week the white house coordinator for the border said it might by a response of the softening of the hard line and in some cases inhumane immigration policies. she and other officials have emphasized, the border is not open. as "the new york times" notes, migrants' hopes have been drummed up by human smugglers who promise the administration will welcome them. house republicans are about to hold a press conference in el paso as they look to seize on the crisis politically. immigration, of course, an issue that unites their party and tends to fire up their base. amid the turmoil, house democrats are also pushing a pair of immigration bills this week as progressive democrats try to shape the white house's agenda in its image. the current administration, they are facing an uncomfortable reality. what's happening at the southern border represents one of the most difficult emergency situations to navigate for any new administration because there are no easy answers, politically, morally or legislatively. garrett haake and dasha burns are following this from the texas border. garrett is in el paso. i'm joined by kelly o'donnell. it's good to see you all. garrett, let me start with you. we are waiting on this press conference in house republicans. what have you seen so far as you have been down there at the border in el paso? what are you expecting to hear from republican leaders today? >> reporter: on the ground in el paso, the reality of migration is well-known. this is a recurring issue. it's a seasonal issue. you see more and more people start to come every year as the spring and summer begin. the numbers, as you pointed out, particularly of unaccompanied minors are on a track, ahead of where we should be for february and march, suggesting this problem could get worse and worse into the spring and summer months. people here are i think relieves fema is now getting involved. the emergency disaster specialists, logistic specialists for the federal government who can help alleviate some of the problem. on the politics end, this is an easy to understand why republicans are coming after this issue. this is something that they feel like the biden administration has made meaningful changes to immigration policy, they feel as though they can point to that and unite their voters around an issue on which they are comfortable. the problem i think for republicans is prescriptive. beyond improving border security, what else can they offer here? what do they have as an answer to the humanitarian efforts? are they supposed to wait in the desert until the pandemic is over? if they are coming, what do do you about it? when you are in the minority and you can say, it's up to the other side to govern, that's part of it. i think that's the difference here. that's what i would like to press kevin mccarthy on. if this really is a humanitarian problem, what are we as a united states of america prepared to do to solve it? there's not a lot of good answers. >> incredibly difficult problem that so many administrations have had to grapple with. garrett, what's your take on the democrats' approach to this in congress? this was tricky terrain for democrats to talk about and try and legislate around that took a dramatic shift under the hardline policies of the trump administration. it's difficult for them as well. >> reporter: the house is voting this week on two immigration measures that were broken off from the broader biden administration comprehensive plan. they deal with dreamers and with farm workers. neither deal with this issue at all. there's no obvious easy legislative solution to the problem of these particularly central american younger people working their way up through mexico and coming here or this would have been solved in the bush or obama administrations when these were creeping up. it's a massive problem. you have to deal not just with the pull factors from the u.s., which is what house republicans accuse democrats of doing. making the u.s. more inviting. the idea our policies have changed. more people want to come here specifically. you have to deal with the push factor. the incredible crushing poverty, hurricanes, all of the things that have hit the central american countries so hard to give the people there such a sense of desperation they have to go somewhere. solving both of those problems in tandem has proven too big for congress going back decades. >> garrett, stand by for me. we see the press conference behind you. we will let you go. make sure you don't miss any of that. bring back anything if you get news for us. dasha, let me to you about what you are seeing at one of the facilities. the difficult reality for the children, there are rules about how long they are supposed to be held. they are not being -- we are not able to follow because we don't have the kind of resources or we also have concerns about letting them go into the country potentially into the hands of people who might hurt them instead of people who are going to take care of them. as you have conversations and see what's going on, what's unfolding there? >> reporter: as you heard from garrett there, this is a real test and challenge for the bide biden administration. they want a more humane immigration policy. the reality on the ground that we are hearing from sources is that they are far from that, especially in places like this facility behind me here. the reality right now is, we don't know a lot about what's going on in there. we have asked for access. we have not been granted that. they put out images of the facility before there were people in it. we don't know what it looks like right now. we know that it was set up to be -- to house around 250 people. i have talked to the lawyers who have talked to children inside of this facility. they say there are a lot more people inside this facility than that right now. that's really where we are getting a lot of information, lawyers talking to these children. they say that they are all very distressed, upset. the woman i spoke with met with children as young as 1 to 17 years old. she says they were freaked out. they were hearing children cry. they weren't allowed to leave their partition for most of the day. they were getting limited access to showers and hygiene. i spoke to the mother of a 4-year-old girl who was detained here. she came to the border with her aunt, was separated from her aunt. her aunt was not allowed to enter the country. she was detained here, then sent to foster care, although her mother and father are in the united states here. thankfully, she was able to connect with a lawyer who was able to advocate on her behalf. as i heard from that lawyer, that is a very unique case. most people don't have access to that. the stories i heard from the mother of hearing her daughter on the phone -- they got one phone call. hearing her scared, confused and seeing her and seeing that change within. she was lonely. she was scared. the reality is, nobody thinks this is good. you talk to advocates, democrats, republicans, nobody wants to see this. these are not facilities meant children. these are meant for single men and meant to be temporary. 72 hours. a lot of kids are being held significantly longer than that at this point. hhs, they are supposed to be taking these kids from the border patrol facility, putting them in more appropriate facilities that do have access to education, to outdoor space, places where kids can actually safely be. they are overwhelmed right now. they are not able to keep up with the numbers. that's why the announcement about fema and others coming to help out here is huge. right now, it's a tough situation with not a lot of great solutions in the short-term here. >> of course, the people charged with trying to find solutions at the white house, kelly o'donnell, there has been back and forth and this is a problem that the biden administration inherited from the trump administration. i want to show everyone a little bit of what the white house chief of staff, ron klain, had to say about this. then we will talk about it. watch. >> the biden administration is trying to fix the broken system that was left to them by the trump administration. >> we are working very, very hard on this problem. we inherited a real lack of capacity. it's hard to ramp up that capacity. you can't just take children and put them in a hotel room. they need to be in a place where they are safely protected. >> kelly, you covered all of the trump administration and are now covering the biden administration. what is it exactly that they say was broken? we have seen all of the horrible images. we know about the zero tolerance. this was predictable we would see a surge like this. what work is being done behind the scenes by the biden administration to try to address this as quickly as possible? >> reporter: on top of all the important points that have been made in this conversation, i think when you look from the white house perspective, what they see is a very complex, difficult problem that is really the essence of being in the administration, problems come to your doorstep that are not something you can control. this certainly is one of those. you can talk about the policy issues and things that the welcoming nature of the biden administration as compared to the trump administration toward immigrants broadly and is that an influence. they are trying to surge federal resources from departments with expertise, fema and beyond, hhs and so forth, to be on the ground and look for available spaces that are more suitable for young people. that is something that happens in a very behind the scenes, bureaucratic way to look for resolving this issue. what they are not wanting to do here at the white house is call it a crisis, because words in politics matter. that bumps it up to another level. they don't want to say that their policies are an inducement in any way. some of the migration is always seasonal. some of it is based on conditions on the ground in the country of origin. some has to do with what's happening in the united states and the perceptions about what may or may not be doable at the border may be. this is a complicated problem, one the biden administration knew it would have to deal with over the time. immigration, a big piece of its political agenda. this particular surge of young people unaccompanied in particular and not having the facilities, that's really the kind of problem that a white house and a new white house, even with a lot of people with past government service, this is the kind of problem that pops up. it is nothing but bad options and bad choices for them to try to resolve this quickly. you don't get much credit for moving fast in these situations, because there's so much real world human heartache that's associated with it. >> there is. kelly, you and i have covered just how difficult these conversations about immigration can become on the political level in congress when groups of people try to fix this problem. we have tried over and over again, i don't know how many times in the last ten years or so to grapple with this in a more comprehensive way. the biden administration said we want to do this out of the gate. >> reporter: when you have headlines that are inflaming the situation, that's a very different political playbook than when you are choosing the kinds of issues you want to focus on. if they want to choose things that deal with other pieces of the large immigration picture, whether it's dreamers, who are in the united states, or it's dealing with certain types of visas, those are different issues than a hot, urgent, human problem like this. it compels the administration to have to alter its path to look at these issues, to find resources and to try to both deal with the problem in the basics of what the problem resolves and deal with it politically. the obvious move by house republicans to put an event on at the border is a way for kevin mccarthy and his team to put pressure on the biden administration on this issue and more broadly. while the country may look at the covid relief plan and things where the administration has something to cheer about, this is a big problem and one that will take a lot of work, a lot of expertise and patient which is hard to come by. >> thank you. appreciate your reporting. thanks to dasha and garrett as well. authorities have arrested two men and charged them with assaulting police officer brian sicknick. he later died as a result of the injuries he sustained in the january 6th attack on the capitol. according to court documents, the two men are not, however, being charged with officer sicknick's death at this point. their initial court appearances are scheduled for this afternoon. the case is part of the sprawling federal investigation into the siege, which is expected to result in charges against at least 400 people. coming up next, the chair of the hispanic caucus joins us. what he is doing to help get vulnerable americans vaccinated. the latest out of new york as governor cuomo continues to resist the calls for his resignation. president biden weighs in on the investigation. as we go to break, look at something positive. positive signs of life after lockdown. ♪ the calming scent of lavender by downy infusions calm. laundry isn't done until it's done with downy. this is the planning effect. as carla thinks about retirement, she'll wonder, "what if i could retire sooner?" and so she'll get some advice from fidelity, and fidelity will help her explore some different scenarios, like saving more every month. ♪♪ and that has carla feeling so confident that she can enjoy her dream... right now. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. welcome back. any minute now we are expecting house republicans to speak at the border in el paso, texas. happening right now, jen psaki is holding her daily briefing. she faced questions about the response to the growing humanitarian crisis at the border. republicans are looking to pin the situation on the president. perhaps with an eye toward 2022. joining me now is california democratic congressman raul ruiz. he is a medical doctor who today is administering covid-19 vaccines, which i think helps explain your backdrop. thank you for that. i want to get to it in one second. let's start with the situation at the border, because while we are obviously seeing a political display here, i want to keep the focus on the humanitarian challenges that are facing people who clearly are making an incredibly gut wrenching decision to have their children try to cross the border alone because the situation, the place where they are coming from is so -- the risks are so terrible to their own health. i'm wondering for you, what are the action items you think need to be taken right now? is bringing fema in a good step? what more do we need to be doing? >> it's very important to understand that this is a humanitarian issue, because children are fleeing persecution and violence. we hear stories about how the children aren't joining gangs or other criminal activities, that they would rape their family, their sister or they would be killed. parents are scared. they are trying to get their children to safety. what we need is a humanitarian response that puts the welfare of the children first. that's what the biden administration is doing by ensuring that fema is there and they will also increase staff with caseworkers, social workers, child specialists, psychiatry. they are looking at expanding short-term housing for children in order to expedite their ability to get to a loving, safe and caring relative's home in the united states while their case is being processed through the courts. >> congressman, i want to show you something the department of homeland security secretary said earlier this month about how the new administration's tone toward this may or may not be affecting what we are seeing. let's watch. >> we are not saying don't come. we are saying, don't come now because we will be able to deliver safe and ordinarily process to them as quickly as possible. >> congressman, should the biden administration be telling people not to come? >> i think whether the biden administration says it or not, we know that this has nothing to do with who is in office and more to do with environmental and the failed states in their nation and the violence there. this happens every so often. usually in spring. it happened during the president. what we witnessed for the past four years is a policy of hate, fear, cruelty, family separation, intimidation and a useless border wall that was ineffective. it still didn't work. i think that the focus here is to follow our own asylum and refugee laws and to ensure that the children are safe, to treat them with dignity, unlike the last administration that contained them and detained them in inhuman, subhuman standards which led to several deaths under their responsibility. the approach is the right one. it's very clear that this is not the time to come to the united states, because the system has been dismantled by the trump administration. therefore, it needs to be built in a way that can process the claims as quickly and efficiently as we can according to our laws. >> congressman, the house is set to consider a couple of immigration-related pieces of legislation, including one that could offer a path to citizenship for migrant farm workers. this is something that there has been some republican support for in past congresses. do you think now is the right time to be moving legislation like that through the house? >> absolutely. it is the right time, because we're in the middle of a pandemic. i'm the son of farm workers. i grew up in a trailer park. i know how hard they work. i understand the risk they are taking in getting infected and dying from covid-19 in order to feed america. this bill will stabilize the workforce. it will help our economy. it will help us rebuild during this pandemic. for dreamers, we know dreamers are doctors and nurses. there may be dreamers here administering vaccines to save people's lives in this event. this is the right time to pass the dream and promise act and form workforce modernization act. i'm proud the congressional hispanic caucus have been leading the way to defend these human rights and to create pathways to citizenship for our hard working immigrants who want nothing more than to work hard, contribute to america, keep america safe and to contribute to our economy. this is a great accomplishment. it is a bipartisan effort. we will pass it out of the house. we will give it to the senate to make sure that they also pass it this year. >> congressman, you mentioned vaccinations. i know you are a physician who is there administering doses now. what have you seen in terms of how these vaccinations are getting into arms, the logistics of that? have you learned lessons? i'm particularly curious if you had any conversations with people who have been reluctant to take the vaccine, where you had to reassure them that, in fact, it's safe? how we are doing that, especially in underserved communities. >> there is no doubt that we are in a turning point under the leadership of president biden and here in california under the leadership of governor newsome where we are seeing an incredible increase in the amount of vaccines hitting our communities. we are going to do that more so as the weeks and months go on. for many different reasons. we have a president who understands what the word equity means. a governor who understands what equity means. the vaccines are getting to the people who need them the most. right here, for example, throughout the entire county of riverside county, 47% of the population are hispanic. they represent 65% of the cases of infections. yet have only received 19% of the vaccines. these are gross disparities that puts lives and communities in jeopardy. president biden's focus on giving vaccines to community health centers, to the retail pharmacy programs and governor newsome's focus on making sure 40% go into medically underserved areas like my hometown, is very important. this is the manifestation of the hope and transformation that we are seeing. what i'm hearing from individuals when i have been out in the field or into the vaccination clinics, into the community, is some questions about the vaccines. there's nothing extraordinary that would prevent them from getting vaccines. for example, once you explain to them that the vaccine does not cause infertility or that the vaccine doesn't cause people to get sick with covid, then they are willing to get the vaccine. what's more important -- which is a bigger factor of why the hispanics and african-americans and native americans haven't been vaccinated are not because of hesitancy. it's very important to understand that the disparities exist primarily because of the sis. >> tommy: -- systemic barriers. once you bring the vaccines here, you see the room is full. yesterday, in two hours, we vaccinated 700 individuals who work in the fields because they are desperate to get protected, to help their family and their community. this is where public health on the ground needs to get organized and take the vaccines into the community in programs like this. >> congressman ruiz, thank you for being with us today. we appreciate your time and insight. still ahead here, more key democrats are abandoning new york governor andrew cuomo. the governor is as defiant as ever. the white house kicks off a tour to sell the covid relief package with president biden expected to speak in a few minutes. don't go anywhere. we will be right back. but the right pad can. only always ultra thins have rapiddry technology and, they absorb 40% faster. the gush happens fast. that's why always absorbs faster. (man) i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right, the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world. this is the 5g that's built for you. this is 5g built right. only from verizon. this is the epson ecotank color printer. no more buying cartridges. big ink tanks. lots of ink. print about this many pages. the new epson ecotank. just fill and chill. bike shop please hold. bike sales are booming. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your $75 credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/bike. this is how you become the best! ♪“you're the best” by joe esposito♪ ♪ [triumphantly yells] [ding] don't get mad. get e*trade. welcome back. new york governor andrew cuomo refuses to resign despite calls to do so. now, cuomo's vaccine czar called county officials in the state to gauge their loyalty to the governor. one executive was so alarmed, the official plans to file an ethics complaint. the executive feared the vaccine supply could suffer if he was not pleased with the response to his questions about support for the governor. kathy park joins me from outside the state capitol in albany. what's the latest we are hearing? >> reporter: so, the governor was touring a vaccine site just moments ago. he did not address the ongoing scandal that he finds himself in. there's a big headline that from this weekend, that larry was hired as secretary to the governor and was brought on as an advisor this spring to help with the vaccine rollout. "the washington post" first reported that he made phone calls to county executives to gauge where their loyalties lie with the governor as he finds himself in this scandal. one county executive thought it was questionable. why is this vaccine czar calling me? and decided to flag this to the state attorney general's office, because he felt that he could potentially be impacting the vaccine rollout in his particular community. this is something that larry says he denies. he did make the phone calls but did nothing wrong. also said that he was making the phone calls as a friend to governor cuomo. beth garvey, who is representing cuomo doubling down and issuing this statement saying, larry answered our call to volunteer in march and has since then worked night and date to help new york through this pandemic. she went on to say, any suggestion that he acted in any way unethically or in any way other than in the best interest of the new yorkers that he selflessly served is patently false. beth garvey has been in the headlines a lot recently defending cuomo as these allegations continue to surface. >> kathy park, thank you very much for getting us up to speed. with me now is ruth marcus. always good to see you and get your perspective on things like this. let's start with the reporting we were talking through. for anyone who covered new york politics, it's not ought of the realm of possibility that a call like that could be read as a threat or intimidation and in this time of the covid-19 pandemic, it's so incredibly loaded and difficult to deal with. how do you see what this report is saying, that essentially cuomo's top vaccine official was trying to figure out if he could find support for the governor potentially with their vaccine stake on the line? >> it's stupid. as you say, not entirely unexpected or out of the ordinary here. he has something that the people he is calling want. he has a supply of vaccines. he doesn't need to mention that in the same call. sometimes it seems he did. to know that when you are calling to say, i want to know how you are feeling about the governor and where are you, are you with us or against us, that's just inherently coercive, in the same way that the governor's alleged behavior towards subordinates is coercive. there's a fundamental irony here. governor cuomo is calling -- i have sympathy for this -- for due process and let the investigation uncover what the investigation will uncover. you can't simultaneously call for due process and try to affect the process and interfere with the process. you can't have it both ways. you can try. >> you can try. yeah. 100%. do you think that there's kind i have a trumpian aspect to this saying the people of new york elected me, we have seen polling that shows new yorkers are supportive of cuomo continuing to hold the job? >> there's an obvious trumpian aspect, which is even going back before the allegations, the bullying behavior. then there's this really complicated question, i think, about how the political system -- when we deal with elected officials, how we should deal with allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. when you -- as with the president, as with president trump, not in terms of the allegations of sexual misconduct against him but the allegations that led him to be indicted twice by the house, when you don't have a majority of people calling for you to be removed, as is the case according to the recent polling with governor cuomo, but you have a majority of both your senators, state congressional delegation, the chorus of people in your state who are elected officials, who is the boss of you then? the voters elected you. there's a reasonable argument that if a majority of them don't seem to want you to leave, why should you resign? i do not see how had is going to end well for governor cuomo. the more facts that are going to come out, i don't think from everything we learned are going to be in his favor. he is playing desperately for time in a way that is not going to work out as well for him, i don't think, as it did for president trump. at least president trump was not re-elected, so it did not work out for him in the end. he was able to avoid being -- >> is ralph northam the same? cuomo has not said he will rule out running again. >> i would bet a significant amount of money on governor cuomo not running for re-election and on him not serving out his term. governor northam did something totally inappropriate and quite a long time ago. he had the extra complicating factor of allegations against his lieutenant governor that arose at the same time. he did provide the brazen it out road map that governor cuomo seems to be following and hope will work out for him. i think the measure is the same of serve out your term but honestly his political career is over. >> what a rise and fall. ruth marcus, thank you very much for being with us today. we really appreciate it. we are expecting president biden to speak shortly as top administration officials are hitting the road to try to sell the stimulus. one of the hardest areas, workers are still worried the money still won't be enough. st. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks. alright, guys, no insurance talk on beach day. -i'm down. -yes, please. [ chuckles ] don't get me wrong, i love my rv, but insuring it is such a hassle. same with my boat. the insurance bills are through the roof. -[ sighs ] -be cool. i wish i could group my insurance stuff. -[ coughs ] bundle. -the house, the car, the rv. like a cluster. an insurance cluster. -woosah. -[ chuckles ] -i doubt that exists. -it's a bundle! it's a bundle, and it saves you money! hi. i'm flo from progressive, and i couldn't help but overhear... super fun beach day, everybody. we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment. that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back. this is wealth. that completes the circle, and reduces♪ ♪astic waste. this is worth. that takes wealth. but this is worth. and that - that's actually worth more than you think. don't open that. wealth is important, and we can help you build it. but it's what you do with it, that makes life worth living. principal. for all it's worth. if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. welcome back. the first stimulus checks hit bank accounts this weekend of the biden administration. they are launching a tour to promote their nearly $2 trillion covid relief package. the president is expected to kick it off with remarks from the white house in the next few minutes. kamala harris is in las vegas today where the $1,400 stimulus and extended unemployment benefits are providing aid. after a year of the pandemic, many las vegas workers are in a long-term economic hole that this upcoming check just isn't going to fill. we have been talking to workers about the latest round of covid relief. it's great to see you. thank you for being here. the reality for so many people is that this has been a long year of scraping and patching and just trying to make it to the next month. there have been protections in place, eviction moratoriums, bars of forclosures of homes. because we are coming to the end of this, it doesn't mean people have money to pay the bills that are still out there. >> reporter: right. that's exactly right. workers that we talked to are grateful for the check that's coming in from the stimulus package. the word they have been using is calling it a band-aid solution. the vice president coming to las vegas today, meeting with some union workers, meeting them at the culinary academy, and some of the local folks tell me they plan to bring those concerns to the vice president. talking about the sustainability of the solutions. these are short-term is what one worker told me. we met a work who hasn't been to work in a year. some of that is affecting the union contracts. it means that after one year, she might not have a job at all. listen to what she told us this weekend. >> there's still a lot of people that they laid off for almost a year now that they haven't called, not even one day. that means in march 17, for those people haven't been called back to work even one day, we are automatically terminated. for me, that's not fair. i love my job. i'm not a lazy person. i appreciate the help from the government, don't get me wrong. like i said, little thing helps. i really appreciate. those are short-term. >> reporter: those are short-term solutions like you heard her say. she's grateful for this money coming in, but she calls it money spent for her. it's going towards her car payments which are overdue. she needs that car to drive to the food pantry in order to feed her family and her neighbors. the long-term solutions here still very much question marks around all of it. it's a lot of stress and anxiety for many workers here in las vegas. >> of course, underscores why it's so important that we all get the vaccine when it's our turn so that workers like the woman you spoke to can get back to work. thank you very much for your reporting today. coming up next, what europe's coronavirus surge means here at home. are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. our kids are bad at hiding things. but we found out their clothes hide a lot. which concerned us, especially with their sensitive skin. that's why we always look for new tide hygienic clean free. it removes the visible and invisible dirt. it's got to be tide hygienic clean free. mom and dad left costa rica, 1971. and in 1990, they opened irazu. when the pandemic hit, pickup and delivery was still viable. and that kept us afloat. keeping our diners informed on google was so important. the support from our customers, it honestly kept us going. i will always be grateful for that. plant-based surfactants like the ones in seventh generation detergent trap stains at the molecular level and flush them away. it's just science! just... science. seventh generation tackles stains. i'm jayson tatum check out my subway sub with delicious turkey and crispy bacon. it will help you hit shots from anywhere, unlike those other subs. my sub has steak. wait, what did he say? steak! choose better be better and now save when you order in the app. subway eat fresh. how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance and now save when you order in the app. so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... uh-oh, sorry... oh... what? i'm an emu! no, buddy! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ once you declare victory, that metaphor that if people say you're going in for a touchdown, don't spike the ball on the 5-yard line, wait until you get into the end zone. we're not in the end zone yet, examine that's one of the issues, that when you plateau, there is always the risk of a surge. that's exactly what the europeans have experienced. >> welcome back. that was president biden's chief medical adviser, dr. anthony fauci, with chuck on "meet the press" yesterday, warning that our fight against the coronavirus is not over yet. europe is seeing another significant surge in virus cases, including a 10% increase in italy last week. italy, which was one of the hardest hit countries during the surge last year, is in another international lockdown starting today. over the course of the pandemic, the u.s. has closely mirrored europe's pattern of surges and declines, lagging by a couple weeks ago. but the experts say the united states' plan could maybe break the cycle. joining me now, dr. vin gupta. dr. gupta, nice to see you again. thank you for being here. i guess people are watching what's happening in europe with some concern, but on the other hand, our vaccination rates are going up and we seem to have some positive numbers. which destiny are we headed for, do you think? >> good afternoon, kasie, good to see you. the most likely amount is we'll see a decline over the summer. that's because in hot weather, the coronavirus doesn't like to spread. we'll be benefited by people eligible to get the vaccine, but now we're seeing polls that show increased skepticism. we have to address that head on. and then there's the variants. the variants right now are concerning. if you give them the upper hand, continue to change, continue to evolve, that will be problematic. that's why you're seeing the policies of governor abbott, for example, be so troublesome right now. it's just giving these viruses more of an ability to change the symptoms this virus is able to produce. you'll see that most european countries are pausing its deployment. it's okay to take chances, but the relation of a blood clot is so rare, and all we're doing is providing more fodder for those who are skeptical. there is a lot of threat here that might put at risk this hope for normalcy by midsummer. >> i'm glad you brought up the astrazeneca vaccine. it's here on my list of things to talk about, and i was hoping you could explore just a little more that europe's experts were seeing that caused them to take this step. if you could just expand a little bit on why people should not be worried that it's unsafe. >> so, kasie, essentially what's happened here is that there have been a few episodes of blood clots in vital organs, in a handful of them amongst the tens of thousands who receive the astrazeneca vaccine across the world. this is one of the most accessible vaccine worldwide, if not in the united states, at least in the rest of the world. it's very effective, we believe, at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, but the fact that these very rare incidences of blood clots are happening after the administration of the vaccine is no reason to think the two are related. things happen all the time. normal medical complications happen all the time for people who are otherwise predisposed to things like blood clots or a heart attack, who knows, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the incidents of that rare complication is because of the vaccine. it has nothing to do with -- the two are not necessarily related. what you're seeing here are european regulators say, let's pause, let's take a look at the data. every single expert out there that is looking at what's happening for all your viewers strongly do not believe the two are related. vaccines do not cause this type of phenomenon from happening. that's why there are a lot of concerns here, that we are drawing a lot of attention to this, but it's very unlikely that any type of vaccine is going to cause a blood clot. >> that makes a lot of sense. my question broadly, too, and i think people look at these surges, they see news about lockdowns, and they're nervous that maybe it's going to happen here again. do you think the way that europeans are vaccinating their populations differs significantly from here? are we doing a significantly better enough job to avoid what is happening to them right now? >> i think we are. the vaccination program is by far a world beater, it's one of the best in the world. so, yes, i am optimistic that we can avoid the worst of it and another lockdown as you're seeing, for example, in italy. but again, there are threats that could put that at risk. >> okay. dr. vin gupta, thank you very much, as always, for your straightforward expertise. we have appreciated your voice along with us. thanks to all of you as well for being with us this hour. chuck will be back tomorrow with much more "meet the press daily" and you can catch me every morning on "way too early" at 5:00 a.m. et. we continue with my friend katy tur right after the break. katy tur right after the break. at fidelity, you can have both. ♪ freshness and softness you never forget, with downy. keeping your oysters business growing has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo (man) i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right, the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world. this is the 5g that's built for you. this is 5g built right. only from verizon. student loans don't have to take over for the rest of your life. with sofi it's possible to get them paid off and start new. want to save hundreds on your wireless bill? with xfinity mobile, you can. how about saving hundreds on the new samsung galaxy s21 ultra 5g? you can do that too. all on the most reliable network? sure thing! and with fast, nationwide 5g included - at no extra cost? we've got you covered. so join the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction... ...and learn how much you can save at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings. good afternoon. i'm katy tur. we are waiting on president joe biden who we expect to see at any moment in the state dining room at the white house to speak about his american rescue plan. with nearly $2 trillion in relief now law, it's time for the rollout. and getting that right is just as important as getting it passed. as vice president in 2009, he saw firsthand the rocky rollout of obamacare, then democrats took a shellacking in the 2020 midterms. that is why the president has tapped an expert, gene sparling, to oversee the interpretation which may