authorities say they are not ruling out that this was possibly a hate crime. president biden has ordered all federal flags to be flown at half staff in honor of the victims, and he will head to georgia tomorrow. and as the president said, as vice president harris said, as atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms said, whatever the motivation here, the fact is attacks on asian americans are on the rise. people are rightfully scared and we need to do more to combat that bigotry and violence and stand together. to that point, today in congress a house committee held its first hearing on the rise of anti-asian discrimination in more than 30 years. but things quickly took a turn when republican congressman chip roy of texas first said that all americans deserve protection and to live in a free and secure society. then he said some more things, and i want to warn you, some of this language is offensive. we're only going to play it once, and we're going to play it once because it not only matters, not only the violence matters, but words matter. and words can trigger violence. here's what he said. >> i would also suggest that the victims of cartels moving illegal aliens deserve justice. the american citizens in south texas that are getting decimated because of what's happening at the border deserve justice, looting and rioting last summer deserve justice. we believe in justice. there is old sayings in texas about find all the rope in texas and get a taller tree. we take justice very seriously. my concern about this hearing is that it seems to want to venture into the policing of rhetoric in a free society, free speech and away from the rule of law and taking out bad guys. now we're talking about whether talking about china, chi-coms, the chinese communist party, whatever phrase we want to say, if we're saying those guys are the bad guys for whatever reason. let me say clearly, i do. i think the china communist party running china, i think those are the bad guys. >> again, this hearing was supposed to be about discrimination against asian americans, and in 2021, after everything that we have been through in this country, we know that words matter, and we know that words have consequences, especially words spoken by somebody in a position of power. here's how democratic congresswoman grace mang of new york responded. >> we cannot turn a blind eye to people living in fear. i want to go back to something that mr. roy said earlier. your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don't have to do it by putting a bull's eye on the back of asian americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids! this hearing was to address the hurt and pain of our community and to find solutions, and we will not let you take our voice away from us! >> congressman roy responded with a statement about his remarks that ended with the words, "no apologies." joining me now is investigative correspondent andrew winter, correspondent leah caldwell. leah, how productive can this be when it seems like some of the members are contributing to the problem? >> that's a good question, katy. roy doubled down with that statement, saying that he had no apologies, and he wasn't the only one to make, let's just say, questionable remarks, either. another republican, representative mcclintock, he said that if america were such a hate-filled, discriminatory society filled with animus toward asian americans, how do you explain the remarkable success of asian americans in our country? so there was this hearing that was supposed to talk about ways to come to a solution to deal with the increased hate against asian americans. some of that rhetoric was espoused at this hearing. representative ted liu, a democrat, he implored members. he said, i am not a virus. please watch your language. but it wasn't completely partisan in people's responses. there was one member of congress who is asian who is a republican who testified at that hearing, representative young kim. and she is one of the people who is saying that hate crimes and attacks against asian americans have increased since covid and that it needs to stop. so where this goes from here on capitol hill is a big, big question because rhetoric has completely dissolved, especially as trust between the two parties has disintegrated as well, katy. >> joe, you've been covering this story as it's been developing, as this rise in violence has been occurring across the country, you've been sounding the alarm. what do you make of the argument that, number one, it's free speech, you can say whatever you want, and number two, that what are we talking about with asian violence? don't worry about that, asians are doing so well. the two arguments you just heard lee ann describe. >> well, when you think about the model minority myth, which is what you're talking about in that second question, it's something asian americans have had to grapple with for a long time, and it's an issue that is relatively incorrect and inaccurate. when you think about the economic disparity in the asian american community, it's larger than some groups. people are led to believe that asians are successful, in quotes, and doctors and lawyers and fulfill those types of roles and stereotypes in our society. so in terms of the rhetoric, a lot of people have been reaching out, saying that it's unproductive. and the whole point of this hearing from their point of view is to institute change to make it better for everyone. and i thought that daniel day kim, the actor and producer, really put it well when he said at the end of his remarks, this is not about white versus asian or hispanic versus asian, this is about everyone against hate. that's what they're really trying to combat here and fix permanently. some of the proposals that have been put forward did not get a lot of attention in the hearing, to be quite frank, talking about issues of tracking and reporting hate speech, why the asian american community underreports hate incidents for fear of retribution, language barriers, a lack of documentation, all of these issues piling up and yet not necessarily getting the limelight as democrats and republicans often were sparring about these issues. and representative ted liu was very passionate in his remarks because he says as an active duty air force veteran, he fought for the freedom of speech, but he also is unwilling to allow people to pin the coronavirus and all of its exacerbation on the asian community to allow for such hateful incidents to happen. and so it was a lot of emotion, and it was deeply personal. it was a big question mark. i agree with lee ann, it's a question of where congress goes from here, what kind of concrete step they're willing or able to take as a group. >> hold on a sec, jo, because i want to talk more about the victims of this mass murder. first let's go to tom on the latest investigation. the suspect was supposed to be in court today. that was canceled. no reason why. now there will be a news conference with atlanta police at 3:00 p.m. what do we know about what's going on? >> katy, 24 hours ago when i was speaking with you, answers were coming in fast and furious. we were able to talk about the gun purchase and that information flow has slowed down significantly today, not for lack of our phone calls, questions and inquiries. there is a couple things i would like to know. what was found on his cell phones or computers? have witnesses been able to speak to police? was there any sort of a prior sex addiction professional help that occurred? we've heard rumblings of that. we don't know the answer. who is going to be the lead agency or county here? we have two different counties in georgia where these crimes occurred. who is going to be taking the lead, who is going to bring the prosecution? why was that arraignment, as you said, canceled today? still trying to get our hands on court paperwork that would help fill in details and information about statements, what he was involved with. just briefly, with respect to the asian hate component of this, having spoken with detectives who are on the nypd asian hate crimes task list, who are going to be speaking to the witnesses and some of the people in these day spas? do they have the language background? are they people who understand the complications here? so i think that will be important as well. >> that's a very good question. the police said that the suspect, the alleged killer, had a very bad day. >> cherokee county, just to be clear. >> cherokee county, i'm sorry. apologies for that. jo, let's talk about the victims, the women who lost their lives. what do we know about them? >> we know that of the victims, six were of asian women of descent and we have a list of names released by cherokee county in the last 24 hours. we know it's delaina ashley yaun, xiaojie yan, daoyou feng, no address, no city disclosed there, can paul andre michels and elise hernandez-ortiz who was injured. nobody knows anything about the victims so far, but the mayor said yesterday as the police were giving their press conference, she said she will not stand for any victim shaming or victim blaming, that these spas are businesses that do not, to her knowledge, have a record of engaging with the police or any sort of issues on that front, so we're waiting to get a lot more detail on this front, and frankly a lot more questions than answers right now. >> even if they did, i don't think having someone come in and kill a bunch of people would be justified. jo ling kent, thank you very much. tom winter and lee anncaldwell, we appreciate it. the fbi is asking for help with this video. there are ten suspects who they need help with identifying the individuals of what they're calling egregious crimes, and the fbi is trying to crowd source any available information. joining me now is security corbin and contributor ken watts. ken, they're still looking for people who caused harm on january 6th. what can you tell us? >> what they've done is extracted these videos of violent assault on police officers, and they managed to tease out very clear images of their faces so that anybody who knows these people would be able to easily identify them. they're asking those who do to please contact the fbi. they've arrested more than 300 people in the capitol riots and charged 65 people with assaulting law enforcement officers, including two who allegedly charged dr. brian sicknick who later died. there are some 250 other suspects they haven't been able to identify who are on their website, and they're asking people to go to that website and peruse those images and let the fbi know if they can identify any of these people, katy. >> when they ask the public for help, i know they do that often, what does that mean about the status of the investigation? >> i think it means they're trying to triage, katy. if you think about it, they have hundreds of cases, if not a thousand, different cases that are out there. they're trying to look at those most violent. you can see what's occurring there in the video. it often means there is not open identifiable or imagery they can use to pinpoint who the person is. i think that's another important part. and the public, if you get this out in the public, especially in the arab social media, they're going to do a lot of this work for you. they will know who these people are. those faces will look familiar and it's really about just getting it to the places where these individuals are at. i think it's a very smart strategy and i like that they're trying focus on those that were the most violent that day. >> it is remarkable when you just watch, gentlemen, when you watch online the people as they track the individuals from the insurrection. they go from the insignias on the clothing, where a hat is made, any indicator that could give you an idea of where that person is from. that's how they identified a lot of the oath keepers. ken dilanian, in terms of the investigation, does the fbi feel any frustration right now? do they feel like they've hit a wall? >> not necessarily that they've hit a wall, katy, but the low-hanging fruit has been plucked, essentially, and now they're really struggling to identify some of these people. we live in a world where face recognition technology would allow that to be possible. but the reality is the fbi doesn't use it in a way that it would allow them to just run those pictures in a huge database of social media photos. it's very possible, but they don't do it, so they need the public to identify these people and call them and tell them. they've made a lot of progress in this investigation, but now they're getting to the tougher parts where other kinds of leads have not pointed them in the direction of these people, and they need the public's help to call 1-800-call-fbi. >> ken dilanian -- in the prompter i almost called you tom winter. ken dilanian, chris watts, thank you very much. three weeks after getting her covid shot, a woman has delivered a baby with covid-19 antibodies. what that could mean for women who are pregnant. and the shock of asian americans. >> the pandemic was made to be against asian americans. we have a target on our back. >> most of the victims were women, so why is law enforcement still questioning the motive behind these attacks? live from the southern border where gabe gutierrez caught up with teenagers moments after they crossed the rio grande. rio grande freshness and softness you never forget, with downy. are you packed yet? our flight is early tomorrow. and it's a long flight too. once we get there, we will need... buttercup! ♪ new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. this is andy, my schwab financial consultant. here's andy listening to my goals and making plans. this is us talking tax-smart investing, managing risk, and all the ways schwab can help me invest. this is andy reminding me how i can keep my investing costs low and that there's no fee to work with him. here's me learning about schwab's satisfaction guarantee. accountability, i like it. so, yeah. andy and i made a good plan. find your own andy at schwab. a modern approach to wealth management. the biden administration has repeatedly said the border is closed to anyone who is not an unaccompanied minor. but nbc news has just learned that's not quite accurate. there is a caveat that allows any family with a child under the age of six to currently seek asylum and be let into this country. with thousands of migrants, roughly 600 of them kids, arriving every day, the government is running out of safe places to house them while they are being processed. people are only hearing secondhand since the administration is still refusing to allow journalists, and in most cases lawyers, in to see the facilities themselves. joining me now is news correspondent gabe gutierrez who is in mission, texas, and nbc news correspondent jacob soboroff, also the author of "separated in tragedy." gabe, you were doing a ride-along with border patrol and you came upon teenagers who had just crossed the rio grande. tell me what you saw and heard. >> reporter: hi, katy. a bit of clarification. i was not about the border patrol, federal agents, there. they were with the contra costa office. they assisted border patrol especially at night because border patrol agents have been seeing so many of these unaccompanied minors and families coming in. now, we did run across a group of eight unaccompanied teenagers yesterday. night had already fallen. they had just come up through the brush after crossing the rio grande and they were exhausted. we just spoke with several of them. they're 15, 16, 17 years old, all from guatemala. they say they took two, three, four weeks to get to the united states. we asked them if they had any idea about the changes in the biden administration in terms of policy for unaccompanied minors coming to the u.s. they said they had no idea. they said that they were coming to the united states because they wanted a better life for themselves, and it was too dangerous in guatemala. local law enforcement officials we spoke with, they do believe the change in the biden administration's policies with regards to administration, with regards to asylum seekers and unaccompanied children, that is fuelling surge. i spoke with one pastor across the border in mexico who also thinks that. we did speak to teenagers, but they say because of violence in guatemala was the reason they were coming here, and they weren't sure of the specifics of the border policy here in the united states, and frankly, barely knew who joe biden was. the biden administration is trying to walk a fine line here. on the one hand, they're blaming the trump administration, and yet they're saying that their administration is trying to give migrants hope, yet they're denying that is causing them to come to the border. certainly a lot of unanswered questions here at the border and a very complicated issue as this uptick in unaccompanied minors and families as well continues, katy. >> you know, jacob, gabe referenced it at the top of his live shot, correcting me. he was not with customs and border patrol because customs and border patrol can't talk to the press. this administration promised to be fully transparent and we're getting very little transparency on the issue of border crossings and what's happening to the unaccompanied children, the families who are being held and processed. what's going on? >> reporter: i think the biden administration is making a mistake here, katy, and i say that as a journalist and a reporter like gabe who wants to have access to what's going on. i think what's a mistake is, look, the biden administration has been very transparent about where they want to go, a more safe and orderly immigration process, but you're not going to do that without explaining why that needs to be done, and the answer lies behind the doors of the texas border patrol office and listening to migrants who are coming here directly, listening to who they are and why they're fleeing. it means border patrol where gabe is needs to press them about the lingo they're using and what justification they have to hold kids in the facilities they're in. i understand covid is happening right now, you need to have protection inside these places, but they let us in. they wanted to see the cruelty of the separation policy. now it's the biden administration's turn to open the doors so we can fully tell the story of not just where they want to go but why they want to go to that place and show the american public ourselves. >> we haven't gotten a clear answer from the administration about why they're closing everything off. jacob soboroff, gabe gutierrez, gentlemen, thank you very much. anthony fauci got into it today with senator rand paul over the continued interrogation about wearing a mask. >> you're wearing two masks. isn't that theater? >> here we go again with theater. let's get down to the facts. it may not have been full front page news but violence against asian americans are spiking across the country. we're going to show you what has been happening and try to understand how to stop it. understand how to stop it. with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an “unjection™”. xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor sho