misleading attacks on joe biden over to people in trump's circle. the report identifies them as people close to trump and his administration. just as in 2016, this new report out now documents how the democrats white house bid had to contend not only with its own campaign rival, like usual, but also fight on two fronts against a well-funded, armed, independent country with its own agenda. now, there are differences as well. this time many voters may be more on gourd against foreign prop ga da. the russians had a plan for that, too. they tried to get prominent u.s. persons and media conduits to launder their narratives against democrats so russia attacks on biden might seem more american by coming through u.s. officials and audiences. and then there is this. >> rudy giuliani debunks the impeachment hoax and exposes biden family corruption in ukraine. watch top ukrainian officials testify under oath. the side of the story schiff doesn't want you to hear. >> that heavy handed promo is for a piece that ultimately aired on the conservative channel oan in january, a piece of propaganda built on the plot that got trump impeached the first time. this new intelligence report put all of this back in the news tonight with the new york times stating the report appears to reference giuliani amidst that intelligence network. he was already busted for meeting with pro-russian political figures in europe and pushing the ukraine plot. u.s. intelligence cites his wider work as part of this russian disinformation campaign, noting the controversial movie that aired on a u.s. television network in late january 2020. now, we all lived through russia, if you're listening, we lived through the mueller probe. we lived through all the foreign trump mishigash to borrow a yiddish word for clownery. at this point, i got to tell you, i covered a lot of this stuff. i lived along with you. it would be understandable for many people to want to just move on. but experts say that very emotion is misplaced. president biden's new intelligence leaders, they're not moving on or just burying this any more than rob mueller who told everyone russia was at it again in 2020. he was right and told everyone we need long-term american non-partisan vigilance to informed and defend our no, ma'amsy. even this declassified version of the report has many disturbing details. now, when it comes to an attack on the very information process that we use in the democracy, well tonight intelligence experts are saying the best defense is an informed and factual offense. i want to get right to it. we have former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul and washington post reporter lib by casey. ambassador, your view of what's important in this report, and as i stress, why viewers living through so much other stuff right now should care about a non-partisan process of intelligence that outs this stuff? >> the first thing is that it is non-partisan. this report was actually done before the biden administration took over. that's very important to understand. number two, the report is very clear that russia intervened to help trump and hurt biden. remember, many times on your program we have talked for years that in the last time around, it was a, yeah, they helped trump, but they were really trying to sew division in american society and most certainly that was true in 2016. this report is about help for trump and against biden. and the other thing is, there is news here about china. we tend to lump china and russia together. these are our autocratic enemies that we need to contain. but russia intervened very directly. china did not. and the last thing, you just said it, but they used new mechanisms. they used new means, including working with mr. giuliani in a different modality than they did in 2016. >> yeah. build on that, ambassador, because, you know, we protect free speech around here. rudy giuliani has the right to be wrong. he even, under supreme court precedent, generally has a right to lie. there are exceptions. he's not accused tonight of a felony. but he is being roped into something that goes beyond traditional speech, which is potentially being a knowing asset or cooperator to a foreign intelligence operation. walk us through what that means to you. >> well, i'll let you speculate or others about knowing or unknowing, right? i don't know that for sure. but the evidence in here is overwhelming. >> well, let me jump in. i'll let you finish. but when i say "knowing," i appreciate your precision. when he met with public ukrainian officials tied to putin, he knew who they worked for. he could say, well, yes, you meet with all kinds of people. he's not signing on. but he certainly knew that he was getting dirt from people who were pro-putin. go ahead, sir. >> and it is extraordinarily well documented in this report. i would like to know a lot more details, right? they obviously know more than what's in this short report. that's knew. that's important for americans to understand what great lengths that putin went to try to dig up false dirt, you know, not dirt, not real dirt, lies, disinformation about now our president biden. right? and it's an extraordinary conspiracy that they did to do that. and i applaud the odni for doing this. i think, like you said at the top, getting out information about what putin does to try to intervene and influence electoral preferences, that's good for the american people to know. and i hope they continue to do these kinds of reports moving forward. >> libby? >> well, very important point here, we're not talking about ballots changed and votes changed. that's a false narrative donald trump was trying to put out at the end of last year. no, this is specifically about effecting the minds of voters, not the votes and that is very important. and we have talked about this being a nonpartisan report. it's compiled by career officials. so this is outside of the partisan jurisdiction and that's another reason why this is so important. >> yeah. as you mentioned, it was about getting inside people's minds, not inside the ballot boxes. and i'll read just that part of the report before we move on to other big news tonight. again, no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes or disrupted the ability to tally votes. that's one thing that, again, this non-partisan board says they didn't do. good news for democracy there. l stay with me. we're bringing in an analyst and friend of "the beat." and both of our experts will join me for this next story. president biden rallying the nation, trying to explain exactly how the covid relief bill will hit america and affect your life while also combatting misinformation about vaccines. today he was visiting pennsylvania. 111 million people have at least one dose. but resistance continues along political lines. a third of republicans saying they won't get the vaccine. a quarter haven't had the shot. vaccine hesitancy is higher among certain groups like, today, white republicans. while people can make up their own minds, some of the politicized attacks on the process are hurting. >> how effective is this coronavirus vaccine? how necessary is it to take the vaccine? there are things we don't know about the effects of this vaccine. should this scare you? we don't know. you're not allowed to ask questions. >> you're not allowed to ask questions in a series of concern trolling questions. now, honest and good faith questions are fine. they are welcome. but there is a political context here and it suggests that some are making what are essentially bad faith partisan attacks because they want to take down anything biden does on covid. >> here's the word that scares the hell out of democrats and the media. it's called "vaccine." >> in october, surprise, where the president is able to announce, you know what, we got a vaccine. >> credit where credit is due. president trump, he really did push hard on this. >> he is definitely the prime architect of this operation warp speed. >> trump can claim victory in operation warp speed. >> why not name the vaccine the trump? you know, make it like, have you got your trump yet? >> i'm not even -- i'm not even going to get into that last one. but your thoughts on this? because we put that together to show that very recently, for some of these folks, vaccine was good. if you could call it trump. and now we're seeing a really doubling down on the antipathy. >> well, i wonder what changed their mind, ari? quite frankly, i'm not surprised to see that the g.o.p. voters, the republicans, are explicitly hesitant, especially after biden won the presidency, but also after almost a year of drumming from trump about withholding information about the virus, ignoring science, ignoring ethicacy of scientific recommendation and now we still have a drum beat of g.o.p. leaders ignoring all of that data still. so i'm not surprised to see 33% of republicans hesitant to see this vaccine, which their own body has been against anyway. and seeing that number of about 25% of members of congress still haven't been vaccinated is yet again showing that there is a lack of trust here, that it's translating now into these concerns we're seeing for republicans, which is not surprising to me as to why they're not lining up to get vaccinated. >> libby? >> i mean, so dangerous, ari. you know who has gotten the vaccine? donald trump and melania trump. when you see a clip of tucker carlson asking questions, posing curiosity, it's signaling to viewers that it's not safe. it's not just asking authentic questions. it's planting seeds of doubt in their mind that are not genuine. they're politicized. a challenge is how the scientists, the health community and the biden administration respond to that. and my colleague dan diamond had a great piece in the post about a group of republicans talking about getting the vaccine. and by the end, they were saying, i'll get the vaccine. but what they needed to hear was not about the politics. it was about the science and the process. so the biden administration here as to push through all that noise and keep people focussed on the science and the facts. >> yeah. and juanita, i mentioned this in the program. we do try to keep an open mind for everyone. there is evidence that older individuals who have every reason to pay attention to this are, even within the republican party, pushing back on that kind of attack. and that it's the younger mans who may perceive they're in less danger. majority of republicans age 65 plus say they have already been vaccinated in this survey, while most under age 45 expressed hesitance. i think we can look at this more than one way, but it certainly suggests that the more skin you have in the game, the more likely you are to actually be skeptical against partisan attacks on this that are just trying to damage biden. but older republicans may be saying, whoa, not if it's going to damage me. >> especially if it's going to damage me or cause me physical harm and also contribute to the isolation that we know that older americans across the country have been experiencing throughout this pandemic, whether that's separation from family, not being able to engage with their friends. so i think you're absolutely right about who has the skin in the game. thus their willingness to step in and get that vaccine and receive the individual benefits and protections. >> yeah. thanks to both of you. coming up in our shortest break, just 30 seconds, we have been working on one of our special reports digging into this fight about your safety and who makes the call particularly as we re-open the economy. we're back in just 30 seconds. s. here we are, one year into this pandemic. we have all felt the great devastation and the great powers by the government to combat it. strict rules on where you can do and what you can do and whether your employer will be allowed to be open or forced out of business, forcing you out of business or out of your job. many have accepted these rules, especially as immediately important to your safety. but over time, we have also seen many see them as overkill or intrusions, sparking a backlash and protests, remember, in both states red and blue. >> raise the lockdown! >> yes, i believe the virus can be dangerous to certain people. but we don't shut down the country every time a virus comes along and people get sick. >> putting all of these workers out of business is just -- it's a disaster. >> we want the governor to know that we have a voice, too. >> the clash is not only about what to do. it is also about who gets to make these calls. in the u.s., many of the big calls are made by the states. that premise is so fundamental that fauci, biden and trump have all acknowledged it. >> you know, the tension between federally mandated versus states rights to do what they want is something i don't want to get into. >> some states will be able to open up sooner rather than others. >> all stepping up all across the country, filling the vac sum of leadership. >> as biden put it, those leaders in government have been making decisions trying to balance individual freedoms with everyone's health and safety. and that's a big deal in how we are governed. as for the level of the restrictions, there is no doubt they're huge. it is a point recently made by supreme court justice ali toe (. >> the pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty. we have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020. >> that is legally true. many, many people also say it's worth it. that the ends obviously justify the means when so many lives can be saved. this is a theme in many classic tales and superhero movies. if you save lives, you must be on the right side. but his closest adviser warned of too much power in one person's hands. >> beautiful, isn't it? >> beautiful? unethical, dangerous. you have turned every cell phone in gotham to a microphone. this is too much power for one person. >> that's a real question. if there are powers to be used and trade-offs to be made. should most of them be up to one person per state? we know states began with a unilateral approach. first time that ever happened in u.s. history, by the way. and that granted each governor vast powers, which is how we have been living, the power to close down schools and businesses, designate who is an essential worker, compel people to stay at home and collect vast data. those are tough calls, which is why we're doing this special report tonight, on the debate over who wields these powers. it is especially key as we try to reopen and rebound. it gave way to a new reality. this was not special power for some quick, temporary emergency. i think we all know this part. it is our new normal over a long haul? should it be just your governor making a long haul? or should your legislature be involved? legislators tend to have more views and more diversity than just one governor. i can tell you there are more and more pushes at the state level to claw back some of these emergency powers that governors have been using to unilaterally combat the virus. some states are already doing it, limiting the emergency covid powers of once mighty governors in new york and pennsylvania. and these battles don't just go away as the pandemic evolves. i can't cover all 30 states tonight, but in the media sometimes the national stories get to be the simple ones. this is a national story that's important and complex. so we can show you some states that are instructed for the road ahead. take ohio, conservative state, went for trump in november, it has a republican governor, though, who broke with trump over covid. you may even remember him, mike dewine, spent two decades in congress as a strong conservative with independent streaks like gun control. >> i have worked to expand access to care. >> today, madam president, i come here again to the floor of the united states senate to honor and to remember another young ohio soldier. >> i'm asking the general assembly to pass a law that requires background checks for all firearm sales in the state of ohio. >> if we're going to change the united states congress, one of the ways we have to do it is to have term limits. >> now, as governor, dewine runs a state hit hard by this virus. when it first arrived, many lawmakers were concerned about the cruels that could harm the economy. people in bars and restaurants that can't just zoom their way to work. he talked about that, too. >> you know that you're inflicting pain on people and on small businesses, as you just pointed out. and, so, these are real people. >> dewine discussed that challenge for real people. seems like he meant it apathetically. but he didn't use it as an excuse to back down on safety rules. he ordered lockdowns. he told constituents that while those concerns were certainly very real, they would not justify policies that just let people die. so, yeah, it's tough. but we made the decision. we got to first keep everybody alive. >> and dewine soon found top republicans in his state like josh mandela attacking him as both an authoritarian and a squishy republican. i guess voters can decide what's worse. >> with the stroke of a pen, governor dewine shut down businesses throughout our state. this authoritarian state, deep state, if you will, not just by radical liberal governors but newsom in california and cuomo in new york, but even by squishy republican governors like my governor, dewine, in the state of ohio. >> the pressure continued. one conservative lawmakers demanding dewine be indicted. but his approach put ohio ahead of many states. cases dropping. ohio is actually clearing the way there for everyone over 40 to get vaccinated. experts are encouraged by the high demand for vaccines in that state. none of this means the governor should just get emergency powers forever. and while dewine beat back those critics, this is interesting. he's also addressing the clash over these powers with the compromise based on the science. dewine will give up some power on the basis he took it, by following medical facts and saying his orders will end when the cases drop to a less deadly level. >> so tonight i'm announcing that when ohio gets down to 50 case per 100,000 people were two weeks, all health orders in the state will come off. >> and these clashes do go far beyond red ohio. take the blue state of connecticut. protests over his emergency powers. >> people want their businesses to be open. they want their churches to be open. they want their schools to be open. they want to be able to make incomes for their family. governor lament months to rule us for 11 months by executive order. we're saying no. >> those concerns have gotten farther in connecticut than other states. the law clashing with conservatives, taking him to court. and like the ohio governor, lamont insists using emergency powers was vital to beating the pandemic, to getting testing and he pushed back on critics in his state. >> one thing has come crystal clear to me why it's important that we have this emergency decl declaration, is it gives us the opportunity to get more testing capacity faster for all the people of the state of connecticut. >> look, whatever i'm doing with emergency powers is specifically related to covid, nothing else. there is plenty else we need the legislature to opine on and weigh on. >> that may sound reasonable. but lamont's finding, the concern over one person having too much power forever, that matters in our system of government, whether it's the supreme court holding presidents in check or at the state level, a connecticut judge who just ruled partially against the law for doing so much through the unilateral powers without the legislature. the judge ruling lamont cannot just go it alone on covid orders