u.p.s., apple, macy's, univision, hbo, oreo, rolling stone, fox news, starbucks, geico, goodyear, amazon, at&t, nfl, comcast, and merck, which happens to make propecia, the drug donald trump takes to slow his balding down. what's the chance that donald trump actually gives up diet coke or his bald head medicine? none. but he wants you to. >> okay. little cancel culture on both sides. good morning. that's jimmy kimmel. willie, i understand there was a basketball game last night, but far more important, i don't know if you saw "return of the jedi," but there was that moment where the emperor was walking off his ship and he turns to darth vader and he says everything is moving forward as i have foreseen. and it's exactly what jonathan lemire said to me at the very beginning of the red sox. he said, we're going to lose the first three games. and then we're going to win 159 in a row. so, of course, they get the phone call last night at 10:45. and sure enough, willie, everything is proceeding as the emperor as foreseen. and the yankees had a pretty good night, too. >> it's a slow start for both of our teams. we need a few reps to get ourselves out of the box. we strike out a couple of times before we read the picture, and put the bat on the ball. we lost two out of three to the jay's. but both the sox and the yankees back on their horses. ready. it's about 6:15 a.m. eastern now in the al east and we're both ready to go. >> yes, the red sox planned to have that listless 0-3 start so the rest of their league would let their guard down has gone well to this point. it was a pretty dreadful weekend against the orioles, but things are now pointed the right direction. and willie, congrats to you. i saw that aaron judge homered last night and were in the lineup at the same time last night. i know that doesn't happen often considering their injury history, so i hope you enjoyed it. >> i know that was a setup to something awful. >> big game last night, joe. >> huge. >> baylor highly anticipated matchup, undefeated gonzaga, who everyone saw on saturday night survived on a three off the backboard to beat ucla and they looked gassed. they looked exhausted. baylor ran all over them, suffocated them on defense, hitting three-pointers out of the gate and never let up. gonzaga closed it to 10. they'd been down as many as 19, but baylor put its foot on the gas to win 86-70. gonzaga had been this underdog program 20 years or so ago and building to this moment. they made it to the national title game a few minutes ago and lost. this felt like their year, though. mark few has built an incredible program. they get undefeated to this game, but didn't have enough for a baylor team that was great on offense, but more importantly, jonathan lemire, on defense. if you watch even the first half of that game, gonzaga couldn't do anything of the things it had been so dominant doing all season. >> willie, you're right. joe and i, our attention was on game four of a 162-game season, but i did watch some of the basketball, too. and credit to baylor, they were relentless. they played terrific defense and they jumped out to that start right at the beginning. gonzaga couldn't get a basket early. i believe at one point, it was 26-8. and they made their run, but baylor never trailed. they just had extraordinary speed. gozaga did seem exhausted from that classic a couple of nights ago and baylor had the fresher legs and played better and they deserved it. i know it's disappointing from gonzaga which has come so close now and an undefeated season would have been so historic. but last night, no question, the team that played better won. >> yeah. this was a matchup everyone was looking forward to, joe. these were really the two best teams all season. they got to this game. they had had a game canceled earlier in the year, so both were anticipating this. baylor was just much better last night. baylor is your men's national champion. stanford is your women's national champion. came down to the last shot. but congratulations to both stanford and baylor, national champs. >> and you look at how baylor ended, too, just such dominance. dominance against houston in the semis and dominance last night in gonzaga. and it has been a very strange college basketball season. there's no doubt who finishes it. the best team in the nation. let's also bring in former chair of the republican national committee and an msnbc political analyst, michael steele. also, professor at the lyndon b. johnson school of public affairs at the university of texas, they've got a basketball team, too, msnbc contributor, victoria dee francesco soto. mika, you can tell, where is she? the south of france. i don't know where. she's just going. it's like willie, it's like following talented mr. ripley. of course, she doesn't, you know -- she's much nicer than that character, but she's just -- she's all along. maybe she's in the italian riviera. i don't know. i'm just sitting here. i'm putting on my mines cap, going down in the mine and working so she can spend her days and nights in the south of france. >> that's right. you got your lunch pail and your hard hat, just going to work. let's be clear, if mika were here, this sports conversation would have ended about seven minutes ago. let's tie sports into what's happening in the country right now. major league baseball now, we're told, will hold this year's all-star game in colorado. sources telling espn major league baseball has chosen coors field in denver, home of the colorado rockies, for the game. it was originally scheduled, as you know, at the braves' home park in atlanta, but the league on friday said it would move the game in response to georgia's controversial new voting law. nbc news contacted major league baseball overnight for confirmation and details of the move, but did not immediately receive a response. meanwhile, marco rubio is calling out manford. he sent manford a letter asking whether manford plans to give up his membership at the exclusive augusta national golf club where the masters is being held this week because the club is in georgia. in his letter, rubio said the decision to move the all-star game will have a bigger impact on countless small and minority-owned businesses than the new election law will ever. he also said the decision wreaks of hypocrisy. >> michael steele, far be it from me to say positive things about little stunts that marco rubio pulls. i think he embarrasses himself a lot. in this case, he's got the mlb commissioner dead to center. and he's got him that way, because, oh, oh, you can't play an all-star game in atlanta, georgia, because, well, that would be helping the state of georgia and you think they're doing horrible things, so you want to get events out of georgia. oh, okay, aren't you a member of augusta national? he actually has a pretty good point. if georgia's not a good enough state to do fwhiz, then certainly it's not a state that you would want to fly down to and spend your money and be a member of augusta national. so should we expect that the commissioner of major league baseball is going to be giving up his membership at augusta national? >> uh, no. no, he won't. >> but you've got to admit, it's a good point. you read that letter, you go -- >> i don't see it. i don't site. i think, you know, a business decision versus a personal choice, i think, a corporate decision in which -- i don't think the citizens care whether or not the ceo of a company has an association with a golf club, unless they don't allow jews and blacks and women in it. but everyone contributes to, you know, participation through their dollars in his business. and they felt like they had some say from individuals who consume to those who are shareholders. so i think it's a different -- i get the stunt and i appreciate it. yeah, you feel like you've got them up against a wall, but that's a personal choice and whether or not he decides to do that doesn't impact the overall flow of business for his company. because that's a personal decision, it has nothing to do with his main, core business. with respect to his main, core business. a whole lot of people had something to say about it. and it wasn't just the folks in atlanta. it was folks around the country. who would use the services of that business. so i think the dynamics are slightly different and at the end of the day, he's going to say, that's a personal choice. he may decide to give up his augusta national membership, but then again, i don't think there's going to be any national pressure or even local pressure in atlanta for him to do so. >> victoria, in one instance, yes, being a member of augusta national is for most business people, that's a dream. that's a feather in his cap. and probably something he takes great -- but it's in the state of georgia, a state, again, that he thought had moved so disastrously off-course that he is pulling an all-star game from a city and a state where it's going to be working class people who will be hurt from the revenue loss. it's going to be middle class people who will be hurt from the revenue lost. you've got stacey abrams that was saying all along, please don't take this game out of atlanta. jon ossoff saying, please don't take this game out of atlanta. we can do better keeping it here, drawing attention to it here. you had ralph warnock saying the same thing. does it seem inconsistent to you who this guy -- as marco rubio also said, he does business with communist china, he does business with cuba, he's -- he apparently didn't even read this bill before making this decision. doesn't it seem hypocritical of him to keep that membership at augusta but yank the all-star game out of atlanta when it's going to hurt middle class and working class georgians? >> joe, i think the key here is the separation between the financial interests and the culture war. so i think that when we're talking about the big corporations that have come into the spotlight because of the georgia voting bill, it's very easy to zero in on the mlb, the big corporations, the delta, the coca-cola. in terms of augusta, i'm going to agree with michael steele here. i do think that marco rubio can better frame it as a personal decision. this is not a corporation, this is not part of the culture war. this is something that marco rubio is going to try to keep private because he likes going to augusta. he likes doing that, as do many of these elite folks who get that membership. but it's very easy, as we're seeing now, we're seeing it in texas and georgia that the political polarization that we've been witnessing over the last decade is now moving over to the consumer realm, which is interesting and also quite frightening that we're seeing that move over. donald trump, love him or hate him, is extremely good at framing, at marketing. his brand, make america great, trumpism, that was a political brand. so you see the very close linkage from that political brand over to the consumer marketing world. and now we're going to be living in a society that's separated not just in terms of who you vote for, but where you go and spend your dollars. >> and operations are being made to choose here. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is criticizing corporate ceos who have come out against the georgia voting law. >> i found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate ceos getting in the middle of politics. my advice to the corporate ceos of america is to stay out of politics. don't pick sides in these big fights. >> senator mcconnell telling big business to stay out of politics. but the ap notes that mcconnell is among the most outspoken champions of the promotion of big money and elections. promoting the free flow of dollars to campaigns as a form of constitutionally protected free speech. that is true, jonathan lemire, as your associated press points out, but republicans like marco rubio and mitch mcconnell and across the country, governor kemp even, believe that they are on to something. that they have hypocrisy in their hands, with the corporations and with democrats who are in fact lying about parts of this law in order to win the political day. >> they're seizing upon the culture war issues. rather than the biden administration itself or its response to the pandemic or the legislation that it's rolling out. and certainly, major league baseball felt like their hand was forced. players felt like they may not go to the all-star game. which, of course, would have been a debacle for the game. and they moved it to colorado. a state that certainly does not have a hot-button voter -- change to its voter laws. it does, certainly, it's less diverse than georgia. it does require some form of voter i.d., but it's a mail-in balloting state, it's one that has same-day registration. one that's largely praised by election advocates as a place where it is much easier to vote. ranks much higher than georgia does, which ranks near the bottom of the list. and we are seeing this increased pressure on other corporations. you're right, certainly, mcconnell's not one to talk about the influence of corporate money in politics, as my colleagues so rightly lined out, but this is what republicans are seizing upon now. including indeed, former president trump, who called for a boycott of any number of corporations. and it should be noted, one of them being diet coke. we know president trump has a rather fondness for diet coke, we shall say. he had a button on his desk at the white house that he could push at any point and someone would bring him a diet coke and yesterday his former aide, stephen miller tweeted a photograph at trump's office at mar-a-lago and plain as day, right there on his desk, a diet coke, just two days after he called for a boycott of the brand. >> well, i, of course, have a similar button on my desk. i press the button and dreamland ribs shipped in from tuscaloosa, alabama, are brought out on my desk. doesn't matter what time of the day it is. it's never too early for a half rack of ribs from dreamland, tuscaloosa, alabama. >> that's good. but let's listen, though, listen to what jonathan just said to see where we are here. the lunacy of it all. so major league baseball has moved to denver and then jonathan starts talking about how -- what colorado's rules are on early voting, what they are on same-day registration, what they are -- i mean, are we really at place now where we're going to be deciding where baseball players play the all-star game, one of america's really most cherished mid-summer institutions, based on voting rules? it really, again, it's ridiculous. it's and for democrats, it's short-sighted. a lot of democrats don't want to hear this, a lot of activists don't want to hear this. but willie, i've talked about before, when i was on the phone nonstop, five times a day to florida republicans who i have known for 20 years who are the best data people in the state, who predicted everything that was going to happen, when i was saying, but, wait, biden's up -- no, he's not. but biden's up in this poll -- no, he's not. biden's going to lose the state. we don't know if it's by a hundred thousand or 500,000 but biden's going to lose the state. republicans have this thing nailed down. afterwards, i said, how did you know? they talked about three issues. one, they talked about socialism and how it worked really well with hispanic voters in south florida. and they used that wedge issue. the other was defund the police, also saying it worked really well with hispanics in miami-dade. one of the sources says the nfl did so much great work. he said, what are you talking about? he said, the culture wars. he said, all across central florida, all across north florida, he said, that was -- it kept coming up. we weren't even asking about the nfl. we weren't asking about people kneeling. it just kept coming up. and we never even added it as a question. and people were talking about politics and sports. and how it was turning a lot of swing voters off. males, men. let's be very specific here. whether it was hispanic men, black men, white men, it was making a difference. so here we have a dream opportunity for the republican party, willie. it's not the nfl now. it's mlb. now, i don't think it's going to stick, especially with all the momentous things that are going on right now, on capitol hill and the biden white house, but this is the republican strategy. we're going to lose on legislation. we're on the wrong side on the covid relief bill. we're on the wrong side on the voting rights bill. we're on the wrong side on the transportation bill. we're on the wrong side of taxing the rich. so let's talk about major league baseball. that's their plan and if people want to know why they're doing it, it's because them speaking out against the nfl and kneeling for the national anthem worked so well in 2020. >> there's a reason you hear the word "cancel culture" in every other sentence from a republican politician's mouth is because it work for their voters. they voted unanimously amongst a covid relief bill that had 75% approval in the country. so they had to change the subject somehow. but you're right that major league baseball put itself in a box here by saying, we're not going to have it in georgia because of restrictive voting law. wherever they put the game, you're going to be able to find a law that was restrictive in some way. now that it's reported to be headed to colorado, i'm sure many people are digging through as we speak right now to show how colorado restricts the votes in some ways, too. we, of course, will come back to this story. we want to turn to minneapolis, though, where the police chief took the stand yesterday to testify against the officer accused of killing george floyd, saying derek chauvin's knee on floyd's neck violated policy and defied the officer's own training. >> so is it your belief then that this particular form of restraint, if that's what we'll call it, in fact violates departmental policy? >> i absolutely agree that violates our policy. once mr. floyd had stopped resisting and certainly once he was in distress and tried to verbalize that, that should have stopped. once there was no longer any resistance and clearly, when mr. floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, to continue to apply that level of force to a person, proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no, way, shape, or form is anything that is by policy, is not part of our training, and is certainly not part of our ethics or our values. >> on cross-examine, chief arradon the arradondo, who fired all of the police officers, that neck restraints were permitted and that handcuffed suspects can inflict harm. earlier in the day, the doctor who pronounced floyd's death said his cardiac arrest was due to a lack of oxygen. >> based on the history that was available to me, i felt that hypoxia was one of the more likely possibilities. >> and hypoxia has an explanation for his cardiac arrest meaning oxygen insufficiency. >> correct. >> and commander katie blackwell, head of the training division at the time of floyd's death also testified, looking at a photo of chauvin on floyd, she said, quote, i don't know what kind of improvised position that is. it is not what we train. let's bring in professor of law at georgetown university, paul butler. he also is an msnbc legal analyst. paul, good morning. it's good to see you this morning. let's start with the chief's testimony, which was powerful opinion because he spoke very specifically about policy in the minneapolis police department, saying in no way, shape, or form was what officer chauvin did part of our policy or what we teach. saying directly, that the officer violated department policy. >> in most prosecutions of officers, police chiefs don't get involved or they actually support the cop that was on trial. but when the chief does show up for the prosecution, he brings the fire. cops are professional witnesses and this chief was competent and authoritative. he schooled the jury in the law of excess force and how chauvin should never have put his knee on mr. floyd's neck, because that's considered deadly force so just like chauvin could not have taken out his gun and shot george floyd, he did not have the legal authority to do this body weight pin on mr. floyd's neck. >> so, paul, we heard the defense. we heard over the last week that they believe that george floyd, this is their theory they're putting out, died perhaps because of the drugs that the medical examiner found in his system. what we heard from the emergency room physician yesterday and played part of just there is that he believes in his medical opinion that george floyd died of high poxya, meaning he didn't have enough oxygen to his brain. how important was that testimony? >> so, again, chauvin's defense is that he literally did not kill george floyd and that mr. floyd died of a drug overdose and his pre-existing health conditions. so the most important point this emergency room doctor made yesterday was that mr. floyd died of a lack of oxygen. this is key to the prosecution theory and the next phase of the trial is the battle of expert witnesses on the cause of mr. floyd's death and the defense has one star witness, the medical examiner whose report says that mr. floyd did not die of asphyxia, but rather that he died of heart failure. >> so, paul, we've seen far too many instances of black men getting shot and killed by police officers or in the case of eric gardener, being choked to death for selling cigarettes in new york. and we've seen one police officer after another police officer be acquitted of any charges for a variety of reasons. but usually, the jury was convinced that the police officer were in danger, they had to do what they had to do for reasons that give examples of how in the past sop situation turned very badly. so police officers were being as cautious as possible. and in this case, though, we're seeing one police officer after another police officer after another police officer up on that stand saying what happened to george floyd was not sanctioned by the police. broke the rules. was not permitted. and in fact, was a fireable offense. what impact, just -- i know you can't look into the mind of the jurors, but just based on past trials that you've seen, what impact do you think it may have on a jury that might separate this case from other cases, where one law enforcement after another law enforcement officer. is testifying for the prosecution against a police officer? >> joe, i think police officer testimony could have a profound impact on this jury for two reasons. last week, when the defense cross-examined the eyewitnesss, it would always suggest, well, you're not experts in use of force and obviously cops are and they've all testified that chauvin not only crossed the line, but committed a crime. i think the prosecutor's strategy is to also reach jurors who might be worried that voting to convict floyd means they don't support the police. so the chief's testimony and all of these other cops testifying sends the message that the police aren't on trial. this is about derek chauvin. >> and again, what the police chief said yesterday is in no way, shape, or form what chauvin did part of policy. still ahead on "morning joe," how a new ruling from the senate parliamentarian could help democrats pass more legislation without republican votes. plus, new reporting about human smugglers turning to social media to spread false information about illegally crossing into the united states. also this morning, doctor anthony fauci will be our guest. tons to ask him, including about whether schools should now be reopened. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ed you're watching "morning joe." we'll be rhtig back. 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give us the vaccines and we're fine. give us the vaccines, even though dr. anthony fauci says we all need to go back to school, and now in l.a., they're saying, okay, well, we got the vaccine, now we need child care before -- was that in their contract, willie? >> well, certainly, it's a demand from the teacher's union. i'm not sure the teacher's union is taking into account the parents of their students who have been sitting at home for more than a year really, really hoping they could get some help with child care, as in putting them back into school. and joe, the rule in new york city, the medical experts have long said the two-case rule. if there are two cases in a school, you have to shut it down again, makes no sense whatsoever. you have parents outraged that their kids have been in and out of school for a year now. at least in new york city, the science is not on the side of the argument against this two-case rule that bill de blasio now says he's going to get rid of, but hasn't announced quite yet because of his discussions with the teacher's union what they're going to replace it with. >> we can't say this enough. if you've been critical of donald trump for the past year and a half or past year and couple months, as, for not following science, you should be angry mayors and teachers' unions and other leaders who are not following science now. who have been told by one medical person after another that schools should reopen and let me say again, there is a mental health crisis sweeping america. you can talk to any mental health counselor, you can talk to pediatric mental health counselors. they will tell you that there was always a balance. and there were always mental health challenges, but as you get passed a point now where dr. fauci a month ago said children should go back to school, that they needed to go back to school, where other mental health professionals are -- or medical professionals are saying, they should go back to school, and they're still not going back to school, and now they're saying, oh, and we're not going to go back to school until you give us child care. and saying derogatory things, if you remember what happened, i think it was in san francisco, where members were saying derogatory things about parents. jonathan lemire, you almost get the sense that some of these people are using covid as an excuse to not go back to school. because they would have never said that before anthony fauci said they need to go back to school. i would have never said that before they got the go ahead from health care officials to go back to school. i would have never said that when scientists are saying it's better for schools to be open than closed. but they all said that and they've been saying that for months. we still have a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months to go, but science is on the side of reopening the schools. and they're still not doing it. so tell me, why aren't they reopening schools when fauci and everybody else is saying they should? >> yeah, a few points here, joe. first of all, on the new york city rule, the two cases to cause a school to close when there's no connection whatsoever, no evidence of other spread, that had been criticized for quite some time by parents and those in the science community who suggested it was simply unnecessary, and it's not what the federal government was advocating. look, it's understandable reluctance among some teachers, some teacher's unions, particularly, in some of the big cities, where they were. so we see a surge in cases early on in this pandemic, where particularly in communities of color, which is disproportionately as we know suffered because of the pandemic. we're teachers, we're getting sick. back last march, april when the virus was starting to spiral out of control. that said, things have improved. there's no question. vaccines have been distributed. teachers have been eligible to get the vaccine for quite some time across the country. school systems are working to try to offer for some days of in-person learning. they're back, at least the younger grades. every other day or so, depending on what school you're in. and i think we're seeing this as an issue for the biden administration. which has said, it laid out as one of its primary goals for the first 100 days of its administration, which runs out at the end of the month, which has the majority of the schools open but they're now coming out strong. it was vital. and i think they recognize, republicans recognize, this is a moment where that administration could be vulnerable, if these schools don't reopen. and i know there are plenty of people who just say, look, the focus should be september, the focus should be making sure that next year's school year is conducted as normally as possible. but there are places now where there's still time in the school year to get kids back, which would be good for parents, of course, but also good for the children who will learn more in school and need that socialization with their friends. >> and with -- and victoria, with over 100 million americans vaccinated, with a third of the population at least having one of those vaccinations, with 4 million people being vaccinated per day over the weekend, with the death rates going down, with the hospitalizations going down, and again, a month passed where america's health professionals were saying, kids need to be back in school, with mental healthcare providers saying, we are at a crisis, we are at a tipping point, those kids need to be back into school. i just don't think there are any excuses left. i have nothing against teacher's unions. nothing at all against teacher's unions. a lot of members of teacher's unions. friends in teacher's unions. i'm just thinking about the children that right now are suffering. i'm not even -- listen, i know the parents want to go back to work. i understand that. but we've got to focus on the children and especially working class and middle class children are falling behind every day and it's causing an accumulation of mental health crises. >> joe, i'm going to speak to you not as a professor, not as a political analyst, but as a parent of a 6 and a 7-year-old. and the piece about mental health is really what is key here. we have the baseline that it is safe to go back in terms of first of what dr. fauci said, looking at the numbers across the country, even in deep red texas. we have vaccination rates going up. but my children have been able to be in school for most of the year and even then i have seen those difficulties of those day they have been online. you know what the 6-year-old does? he tunes out. he walks away. because how can you do kindergarten online? and i'm very lucky to have the privilege to be able to take the time and sit with them and coral them. i don't have to work two jobs to put food on my table. i don't have to work the overnight shifts. so when we're looking at the communities that have been most affected, our communities of color, our lower ses communities, both in terms of the parents and the children, this becomes an issue of equity. yes, there's the health portion, but regrettably, this isn't a stand-alone issue. and we have to figure out how we're going to allow these kids to not just survive, but thrive. because this is an issue that lags. all right? if you fall behind one year, it's not just, we lost this year. that can hold you back, in effect, your education through the rest of your life. this is such an important issue and one i feel really strongly about. we really need to weigh the consequences. there's no perfect decision in this life. but in terms of getting our kids back to school, this is really imperative. >> everything's a balancing act. things are far different post-easter 2021 than post-easter 2020. i've ticked off the list of all the things we're doing as a country, moving forward more quickly, new therapeutics. we know what causes covid, what doesn't cause covid. we know how safe reopening all the schools would be. victoria talked about her children, also talked about -- we've talked about working class children, children of color who are disproportionally being impacted by this. our dear friend clint watts this weekend posted about his daughter, pepper, who has autism, and talked about how just torturous this year has been for her. not being able to go to school. the impact it's having not only on her, but imagine the impact it's having on parents with kids with autism, that their children are falling even further behind day by day. it is a nightmare scenario. and i really hope that mayors, i hope that school boards understand, there is no time for delay here. >> yeah, you're right. this has been a very difficult time for special needs students. also, we should point out the report that said that there were 3 million children. 3 million children in this country who have not had contact with their school since schools closed last year. that means they're not just missing schoolwork, they're missing everything, anything having to do with being a part of their school community. and as victoria said, slipping back another year. information was put in last summer, just as we were learning everything we could know about this virus. now we know that schools have actually been very safe for children, so it doesn't make a lot of sense, according to most medical experts. michigan, by the way, is emerging as a new hot spot for the virus. the state reported more than 8,000 cases on saturday alone and surpassed 700,000 cases in total. michigan leads the nation in new infections by population. joining us now, democratic congresswoman, hailey stevens of michigan. also with us, an er doctor in west michigan and executive director of the committee to protect medicare, dr. rob davidson. good morning to you both. dr. davidson, i want to start with you. just a bottom-line question here. what's going on in michigan? you're getting people vaccinated, if you look at the numbers, so why the spike in cases? >> well, i think there's probably a few factors going on. one, we have the second-most number of variants of any state in the country. and we have seen, these variants are more virulent, they spread more easily, and some of them tend to evade some of the vaccines. it's a race of vaccines against variants. we've also seen significant numbers of outbreaks coming out of schools, particularly school sports. governor whitner has instituted new rules for testing for kids in school sports and now she's being sued by a group that doesn't want to have kids have to be tested to try to make sports and schools safer. and that's the third thing michigan, from the beginning, we've had a challenge of a significant number of people suffering the politicization of this virus, you know, from the legislature suing the governor with over $600,000 of taxpayer money to sue her, to take away powers to a plot to kidnap and assassinate her to significant numbers of people resisting the vaccine. we hear of informal polling of people in west michigan, up to two-thirds of people in some counties saying they just don't want the vaccine. it's a real significant challenge. >> to pick up on our previous conversation, dr. davidson, what exactly are you seeing in your schools? you talk about sports, kids going out and mixing it up and playing sports may contribute to the spike. but what about the act of going to school? how safe have schools been in michigan? >> we've seen all along, kids generally don't get that sick. but i've seen a lot of kids come in with that long covid syndrome, headaches, fatigue. i have two teenage kids in middle school and high school and they have both had to come home a few times because of close contacts. they didn't get sick, but had this very strange hybrid, going to school, coming home, and that has been a significant challenge for a lot of families. >> congresswoman, there's been some talk of going back to lockdowns in the state of michigan. something i know you don't want to do. the governor doesn't want to do either. what is the possibility as you look at these numbers of new restrictions in michigan? >> look, i think we are seeing this play out with our schools. and i deeply appreciate those conversations. just yesterday, i was on the phone with superintendent, i gathered on zoom a group of parents and these parents were saying thank you for testing our students. i think the public health guidelines are what are most imperative here. we all know we have pandemic fatigue. but we need to be wearing our masks, we need to be social distancing. i am seeing case after case, and this is just coming from our subsequents who were saying, i was just about to go get the vaccine and then i came down with covid. and that's stalling our progress. we have 35% of our state with the first dose of the vaccine that's really promising. in detroit, we have ford field that's vaccinating up to 5,000 people a day. but we've got to practice the public health guidelines. and our schools have been a wonderful template for this in many respects. in my district, i have some who are still in school, some who are saying, hey, you know what, week after spring break, too many cases, we'll do remote this week, sports can continue, but owe need to be tested while you're playing. >> congresswoman, michael steele is here with a question for you. >> we've been talking about the culture wars this morning and no better front line for that has been the covid-19 pandemic. michigan was at the forefront of that in many respects with the protests at the state capitol and so forth and going up against the governor. how do you in your role as a member of congress and given some of the colleagues that you work with in that hothouse at times, how do you assess bringing some sanity into the space around this? this has been one of the hardest things, getting people to appreciate wearing the masks, getting the vaccine. what type of public service do you think members like yourself can commit to, particularly now as reports are coming out about students and education and the impacts there, to lessen the impact of the culture wars on the health of the american people and the people in your district. >> well, michael, i come from the hotbed of automotive manufacturing. and i'm going to remind you where i was a year ago. that our big three had shut down and all of the suppliers. there's a lot of uncertainty about what was going to happen in our economy. if you look at what has buoyed us throughout this pandemic and the story and the role that michigan has played with our manufacturing sector, producing the ppe, sourcing the masks, making the ventilators and the respiratory devices, and then producing the vaccine itself. this is still a very exciting moment in michigan. and when you talk about the things that we do here for a living and what drives our regional economy and the reality that we have seen tough times before, you bring people together. now, michael, let's make no mistake about it. tensions are high. we know that. you're not going to win everybody. but what i have been doing over this easter holiday, as i've had the privilege to be in my district and just every so often connect one on one with people, is i listen. i commute to learning and leading and that's as a public official how i can be successful. as somebody who is trying to unite and also deliver and we're also seeing that with president joe biden's agenda. unity through delivery. covid rescue is here. >> all right. michigan congresswoman hailey stevens and dr. rob davidson, thank you so much for keeping us posted on what's happening inside your state. we'll be talking much more, i'm sure. and coming up, we'll be joined by dr. anthony fauci. let's to talk about with him, including this question about opening schools across the country. 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freestyle libre 14 day system. and visit freestyle libre.us to try it for free. >> welcome to "jeopardy!." as a lifelong fan of "jeopardy!" it is an incredible honor to guest host. i've had the opportunity to do a lot of amazing things, but winning celebrity "jeopardy!" and getting to share the stage with the legend alex trebek something i'll never forget. alex was such a gentlemen, so smart, so precise. i was in awe. and i will work hard to honor his legacy. >> that is green bay packers quarterback aaron rodgers kicking off his stint as guest host on "jeopardy!" last night. rogers, as he said, a former celebrity "jeopardy!" champion, revealed on a podcast he watched, quote, hours and hours of the show to prepare for the hosting role and chose a more clean-shaven look to honor alex trebek. rogers also said he would be open to becoming the full-time host of the game show. that comes amid speculation he may retire from football. in the final "jeopardy!" portion of the show, a contestant asked a question many football fans have been wondering for a couple of months now. why the packers decided to kick a field goal from the 6 yard line rather than to let rodgers go for a touchdown in what was that loss to the tampa bay buccaneers. >> scott, did you come up with the correct response? who wanted to kick that field goal? that is a great question. should be correct, but unfortunately for this game, it's incorrect. you will always be all-time in my book, my friend. first show that's what you said at the end. thank you for that. >> joe, scott bringing the heat there to aaron rodgers, his first day on the job. >> no -- it's pretty crazy -- i'm really looking forward to "jeopardy!" next week. one of the guest hosts, i'm not sure if you've seen this or not, but major the white house -- >> oh, no. >> yeah, he's going to be hosting next week. >> no, he's going to be in his happy forever home in wilmington, delaware. and we certainly wish him all the best, don't we, jonathan lemire? >> nothing but the best. nothing but the best. >> we do -- we wish major biden all the best. and i get nervous every time he comes up on this show. but good for aaron rodgers who had a good sense of humor about what was a catastrophic coaching decision. he has said he could balance the hosting duty with quarterbacking, but it does come amid a lot of speculation about his future. >> you can really tell from the beginning of this hour to the end of this hour, mika is in the south of france. we'll be right back. , mika is ie south of france. we'll be right back. u get advic: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette beautiful shot of new york city at 6:59 a.m. and yes, that is the beautiful comcast building. look at that. willie, what's prettier? that view, the silhouette of the comcast building or the comcast commerce tree, when it's put up outside of the comcast building at 30 rock, where, of course, all good little children come from across the world to look up in that tree. and the little christmas balls are going buy things, go to the nbc store and buy willie geist sweatpants. do they have willie geist sweatpants in that nbc store? >> they should. we have a mug for "sunday today" and slippers, but you can get the full complement of "morning joe" here in that store. the commerce tree is great, but i think there's no substitute, maybe it's just me, for the silhouette of the antenna up against a rising sun on a beautiful spring day. you just can't beat it. >> there it is. so you've got the eiffel tower, right? you've got when the sun is rising behind the pyramids in egypt, right? that's number two. i'm thinking this is -- i think this is number three. look at that. hold on! it's gorgeous! it's beautiful, as the guy said at the end of "raiders of the lost ark." boy, i can't wait to get pack to new york city so we had a basketball game last night. of course, with i was busy watching the red sox begin their 159-game win streak. let's talk about the basketball game last night. because man, baylor, you talk about finishing strong not just last night, but also against houston. i don't think i've seen a team finish as dominantly as this baylor team has their last two games. >> you had the two best teams in college basketball all year. they started 1-2 in the pre-season poll, kind of on a collision course it felt like all year. they had a game scheduled earlier in the that got canceled because of covid. they both made it to the final and baylor just ran all over, previously undefeated gonzaga last night. the final score was 86-70 but it really was never closed. they got blitzed gonzaga out of the gate. it was 9-0. before they knew it, they were down by 19 points a couple of times in the first half. they did cut it to 10 at halftime. feeling good going into the locker room, but baylor put its foot on the gas, winning 86-70. a 16-point victory in a national championship with chip and joanna gaines on hand, waco's good luck charms but the defense, it was the defense that stood out. they were shooting the lights out, but gonzaga just couldn't do anything. for a team as good as gonzaga is with a couple of nba lottery picks in their starting lineup, they were totally thrown off. couldn't even get into their offense. >> willie, last night to me was like christmas eve. i had four baseball games going between the tv and my ipad. and then the ncaa final four, last night, the big game, baylor, gonzaga. i turned on that game and you know, i'm not the greatest basketball fan in the world, i love college baseball, i'm not an aficionado for the ins and outs of the game, but i enjoy watching the game. that game to my mind was over in the first three or four minutes. baylor just blew them off the floor. i was stunned at the speed of baylor. gonzaga could do nothing that they formally did in every game they played this year. >> gonzaga was stunned, too. and this was supposed to be the year for gonzaga, who people wil remember, they were this great underdog story in 1999, and the head coach has built this incredible program that's competitive for the national championship every year. undefeated going into the game. but i think they probably had a little taken out of them by that crazy game on saturday night where the freshman jalen suggs had to hit that three pointer off the backboard to beat ucla. the combination of being a little wiped out from that and playing a great baylor team last night did them. >> it was a great game. and this kid, you've got to put him somewhere between sandy cofaction. and we have ever seen them together in the same picture. i don't think we have this guy, he had a pretty good night. and jd on fire after a pretty cold year last year. >> yeah, there were questions about j.d. martinez. he hit about 200, if that, with very little power last year after two almost mvp-caliber seasons. it's nice to see him off to a good start. there aren't that many other red sox hitting just yet. but we broke through. there will be no winless season in fenway we have lured our opponents to sleep after that 0-3 debacle this weekend against the orioles. and now college basketball season is behind us. all of the nation will join you and i, joe, and i know mike, in spending every night locked in on this red sox team as they look to go 159-3. >> no doubt about it. by the way, a programming note for those of you at home keeping score. mika will be coming back tomorrow and we will not be able to talk about sports for the rest of the year. so with that, my only other question is, it just occurred to me slippers. you've got willie geist slippers, i need some of those. >> it's a nice open toe, which i know you'll appreciate. you can air out the dogs a little bit. mika, worry not. you'll be back tomorrow and all of this will end. former rnc chairman michael steele still with us, as well. and joining our conversation now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too kasie hunt. let's talk about congress, maybe. senate majority leader chuck schumer's plan to use budget reconciliation to pass more democratic priorities may be closer to reality. the parliamentarian ruled that senator schumer's interpretation is correct that a simple majority can be used at least three more times before the midterm elections. that opens the door for democrats to pass large legislative packages, like infrastructure, voting rights, without republican support or the threat of a filibuster. senator schumer's office says the ruling, quote, confirms the leader's perception of the budget act and allows democrats additional tools to improve the lives of americans if republican obstruction continues. democrats stress, they have not yet committed to this route and still are looking for republican cooperation. senator joe manchin, however, voicing his opposition to a key aspect of president biden's infrastructure plan. the west virginia democrat said yesterday, he would vote against raising the corporate tax rate above 25%. meanwhile, the biden administration not backing down from its 28% proposal. >> this bill will not be in the form. if i don't want vote to get on it, it's not going anywhere. so we're going to have some leverage here. and it's more than just, hoppy, there's six orsen other democrats that feel very strongly about this. >> the president felt it was responsible to propose a way to pay for his proposal. that's exactly what he did. he knows some members think it's too big, some think it's too small. there have been folks that have come out on both sides. he knows that some will come forward with different ways to pay for this package. and some have views that it shouldn't be paid for at all. >> senator manchin is not the only democrat with his doubts. senator mark warner of virginia also telling reporters that he has reservations about the package and has reached out to the white house to discuss them. he knows he's not going to get a single republican vote to pass this infrastructure bill, but it seems like he has to worry about a couple of democrats just to get to 50. >> that's exactly what this sets up. if your only going to do it with democrats, the majority is so, so narrow, that you still need every single one of them to get onboard. and big picture, we're way down in the process weeds when we're talking about reconciliation. the big picture here is that this will give democrats more opportunities between now and the midterm elections to try to push through some of their priorities. and that's going to be particularly important next year, as we hit the election season. i'm skeptical that they're going to be able to do things like voting rights and guns under these rules. because everything still has to relate to the budget. but it could impact economic policy, health care in particular could be a major focus heading into the midterms. democrats, i think that's a win. but you know, willie, joe manchin is really interesting to me in all of this. he's right, there are other democrats that have some concerns about raising taxes. but none of them are outfront of the cameras taking the lead. manchin is both reveling in his public role, but he has some more freedom to do it, because his state is so red. there is no democratic base really in west virginia that he has to worry about. yes, there are a chunk of progressives in west virginia, the democrats that live in west virginia tend to be very, very liberal. but there are so few of them. he knows that he holds that seat because there are people, frankly, who voted for donald trump twice who are also voting for him. he's trying to take the public lead. and you saw jen psaki trying to walk this careful line of trying knitting together those who make the public majority with an increasingly powerful progressive left. and so far they've managed to hold it together, but that's going to be the central tension wins considering this decision from the parliamentarian that we're going to be covering from here on out. >> and you know, michael steele, let's look at the politics of this. because i know a lot of progressives get very upset with joe manchin every time a package comes out and he says, i don't like this part of it or that part of it. but let's look at the politics so everyone can understand what's going on here. there are a lot of democrats that may have concerns about a bill. maybe they don't want the corporate rate to go up to 28. maybe they only want it to go up to 25. but they don't want to get out front, for a lot of political reasons. if you're kerstin sinema, maybe you're balancing things. if you're mark warner, former governor hickenlooper. you may not be as comfortable getting out and saying that crossing the president, upsetting your base. so when joe manchin does that, coming from a state that donald trump won with 68% of the vote, it's good for everybody. it's good for manchin in west virginia to prove his conservative bona fides and prove that, listen, i can be a democrat and still represent this very red state. but also, manchin is doing a service for a handful of democrats who don't want to get out in front of him. i guarantee you, like he said, he's spoken to four, five, six, maybe seven other democrats who are feeling the same way that he's feeling, but can't say it out loud. so when manchin does this, it's really in a lot of cases, a win-win for everybody. >> it is, except for the administration. which has the political problem and the obvious sort of view of this from this perspective. but you're right, i think he is sort of the front man for, you know, that chorus of six or seven democrats who some of whom are likely up next year and again what the battle for the senate will look like, as little exposure is possible to those democrats who may be in purplish states, the better. but for the administration, there's the problem of being sandwiched between the filibuster and reconciliation. and how do they carve the perfect sandwich? you know, carve the kind of meat to put between those two slices of politics to get the president's agenda through? that's what miss sake was talking about yesterday and trying to point out what the reality is on the hill, but also, what the white house recognizes, joe. and i think that what you'll see from the administration is a more intimate conversation with the joe manchins in the democratic party about how best to navigate this. what these are right now are the early flares? okay, here are the guidelines. here are posts we're going to drive this car through and keep it within these lanes and we'll be okay. and we'll see how they'll able to widen the lane a little bit. but right now, joe manchin is behind the wheel and the six or seven other democrats in the back of the car aren't saying much to stop the way he's driving. >> so what's the white house's plan to widen that lane even further by pointing out that in republican states across the country, they have an idea for new roads, rebuilt bridges, airports, broadband, what's their plan to address it directly? the nucleus of the infrastructure bill to republicans specifically. >> well, there's always been, mike, this idea that infrastructure should be a bipartisan issue. because republicans and democrats alike say that's what they want. they realize that's important. and in reality it's been very hard for these two parties to agree on just about anything, and that includes infrastructure. but the white house plans to go about it this way. first of all, much like they did with the covid relief plan, they're going to point to public polling that suggests just how popular this idea is with republican voters, even if republican lawmakers are reluctant. we know, not a single member of the gop voted for the $1.9 trillion covid relief plan, but it polls extremely well with republicanses across the country. regular people. they're going to use that tact again to put pressure on it and say, look, this can be a bipartisan bill. look at the support we're getting. they're also giving themselves more time. the covid relief bill was sort of seen as an emergency action and they wanted to get it done asap and it was signed into law within two months of the president taking office it's going to be a little different now. the white house has suggested they want to have negotiations and leave them open noirld. that's another six to seven weeks that they'll talk with republicans and democrats alike. there are fewer nongauchables in this bill. the last time around, there were things the white house demanded on. this time, though it's certainly ambitious, carry lead pipes with water, to roads and bridges and more traditional infrastructure, they're going to talk to republicans and democrats and say, where can we meet in the middle on this? but at the end of the day, if needed, they will forge forward on their own. they want to get this done some time over the summer. and if needed, they feel like they can keep enough -- the democrats in line to go with it by reconciliation. they're going to reach out to republicans, but feel like they don't need republicans. they feel like the voters will reward them by being able to give them tangible things they want and being able to defend a lack of tax hikes on rich corporations. >> and mitch mcconnell has been clear that republicans are not going to vote for anything that raises taxes. let's turn now to developments in the murder trial of former police officer derek chauvin. the police chief in minneapolis took the stand yesterday to testify against the former officer, accused of killing george floyd. >> is it your belief then that this particular form of restraint if that's what we'll call it, in fact, violates departmental policy? >> i absolutely agree that violates our policy. once mr. floyd had stopped resisting and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that should have stopped. once there was no longer any resistance and clearly when mr. floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that that in no way, shape, or form is anything that is by policy, is not part of our training, ands is certainly not part of our ethics or values. >> again, that's the minneapolis police chief saying it was a violation of policy. earlier in the day, the doctor who pronounced floyd's death said his cardiac arrest was due to a lack of oxygen. and commander katie blackwell, head of the training division for the minneapolis pd at the time of floyd's death also testified, looking at a photo of chauvin on floyd said, quote, i don't know what kind of improvised position that is. it's not what we train. joining us now from minneapolis, shaquille brewster. so what's your sense of the impact of that testimony yesterday, first from the chief of police. we're not accustomed to seeing that, frankly, when the chief of police comes out and says in very clear terms that the former officer violated department policy in the death of george floyd. >> reporter: yes, willie, this was definitely a rare sight to see the chief of police taking the stand against one of his former officers. you heard in opening statements, the prosecution teased the fact that they would not mince words when he says that he believes that derek chauvin used excessive force and that held up yesterday. you heard him in that sound you just played saying that not only did he not act according to the training and policies, but he didn't act in accordance to the values and ethics of the police department. that he didn't follow the de-escalation policy. it was very clear that the police chief from the top, and he's following the testimony of other senior-level minneapolis police department officers, it's very clear that the prosecution is focusing right now on the use of force and how they believe derek chauvin violated that use of force in his actions against george floyd. you also heard and you mentioned that testimony that we heard from the physician. the first person to see george floyd in that hospital, when essentially his body was transported via ambulance to the hospital. they tried to resuscitate him for nearly 30 minutes. you heard the key testimony there where they said they believe the cause of death was oxygen asphyxia. they said, for every minute that cpr is not provided on a patient like mr. floyd, their chance of survival drops between 10 and 15%. he says that no one told him that any cpr was provided. and we see from the video and the other testimony we heard already, including from the paramedics that first arrived on the scene, we heard them say that the officers never provided that cpr. it was extremely powerful testimony and you saw inside the courtroom, according to the reporters inside, that they definitely took note of it. willie? >> shaq, were you able to get a sense of the impact of the testimony of the two police officers in that courtroom yesterday. powerful, powerful testimony coming from professionals and his boss. >> and not just the two yesterday, but we also heard from lieutenant zimmerman on friday. he's the most senior member of the minneapolis. this is the part of the use of force component of this prosecution. and you see the case really developing. it started with those eyewitnesss. the bystanders who were pleading with the officers. then we heard the medical testimony in and extremely rare to hear multiple officers come up and give their direct opinion freely about what they believe they saw and how what they saw did not comply with that policy when you look at the notes of the reporters in the room, they say that those are moments where the jury is looking up. they say, this one pool reporter said that the police chief was talking about that hobble technique and the dangers of it and how you want to roll someone over to a recovery position. that was a moment that jurors were looking at the chief intently, watching his hand movements as he explained these different techniques. to have a police officer, especially the chief of police, a high-profile figure in this city come and take the stand, it is incredibly important to the prosecution's case. >> all right, nbc's shaquille brewster, thank you so much for your great coverage. we really do appreciate it. appreciate all the great work you're doing out in minneapolis. mike, i wanted to just get your reaction to something we were talking about last hour. obviously, when you were working for the globe and on the beat in boston, all the cases that you've actuallyo covered or fold through the years, i wanted to talk about the impact of having law enforcement officers on the stand, actually testifying against another police officer. so often jurors don't want to charge or send a police officer to prison. don't want to charge them with a serious crime, because they want to do their jobs. sometimes it's tough, sometimes it's difficult. we're not there. so you have jurors more often than not lining up with police officers. i'm curious, what is the impact of one law enforcement officer after another law enforcement officer after another law enforcement officer saying, what this guy did was inconsistent with training, was inconsistent with the law, but most importantly, it was inconsistent with our values as a police department. what type of impact do you think that ultimately has on those jurors? >> i would think it would have to have a powerful impact on the jurors, joe. i mean, first of all, police officer s pretty good on the stand. they're on the stand in their own cases, multiple times during the course of their year. on the job. and on this one, the powerful testimony of the chief as well as the other officers that shaq just alluded to and poisoneded out are incredible, because the jurors are listening to police officers, especially the police chief who are sort of circumventing or shortstopping the ability of the defense to basically try and get this thing knocked down from the ultimate murder charge that he's not charged with now to maybe manslaughter. but this sort of takes that way. because the police officers, especially the chief again yesterday are saying, no, this is a violation of what we teach, a violation of what police officers in minneapolis and elsewhere are told not to do. it's all laid out there right there for the jury. so you're thinking, this is really something i've never heard of before. >> the trial resumes just over two hours from now in minneapolis. of course, we'll be covering that on msnbc. and coming up here, coronavirus vaccinations across the country topping 3 million per day, but case numbers are still on the rise. we will speak with dr. anthony fauci next on "morning joe." ny fauci next on 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before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. see every delivery... every yikes... and even every awwwwwwww... wait, where was i? introducing self protection from xfinity. designed to put you in control. with real-time notifications and a week of uninterrupted recording. all powered by reliable, secure wifi from xfinity. gotta respect his determination. it's easy and affordable to get started. get self protection for $10 a month. welcome back to "morning joe." mike hendrix tweeted this morning, willie, and said don't the "morning joe" team understand that there's baseball in other places than the east coast, which -- i'm supposed to know that? from what i can tell, willie, baseball is an east coast phenomenon, right? >> well, at least we're transparent about it. and we just come out and say that the moment either the red sox or the yankees are eliminated from the al east race or knocked out of the playoffs, that baseball season's over and we turn our attention to sec football. that's just the way it is. >> exactly. exactly. mike come on. it's almost like they're accusing us of being parochial here. you've got the yankees, you got the red sox. because kasie is on, you've got to say you've got the orioles, the nationals. you know. you have four to five teams playing the sport. >> did you say that the dodgers are leaving brooklyn? >> i hear they may. >> we've got to ask dr. fauci about that. i think he's a brooklyn native. we're going to be asking him. lest bring in -- maybe he can tell us whether the dodgers are leaving brooklyn or not. let's bring in the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, dr. anthony fauci. he is chief medical adviser to the president. dr. fauci, you're a brooklyn guy. we've been accused of being parochial and only following teams in the al east, but we hear the brooklyn dodgers may be moving to l.a. sometime soon. that has to be heartbreaking for you as a brooklyn native. >> yeah, i still have posttraumatic stress over that, joe, sorry. >> were you a brooklyn fan. >> yankee fan and that's not unusual. >> oh, my god. >> but joe, that's not unusual in brooklyn to have, you know, a split between yankee and dodger fans if brooklyn. that was the whole fun of it. arguing who's better. that was the whole fun of it. what you're telling me is all of the spear theories about you are true? >> so i want to know, for people who don't understand, you grew up in the golden age of baseball, and i can only do this because mika's not here, but a new york team, and ken burns does this beautifully in baseball, but a new york team won the world series in '49, in '50, '51, '52, '53, '55, '56, '58. what a time to be a new york baseball fan, huh? >> well, you know, it was really a distortion of reality, because when i grew up, i was 6, 7, 8, 9 years, 10 years old. i thought the only team that ever won a national championship would be a new york team. it was a given. it was really a distortion of what the world was really like. >> yeah. well, dr. fauci, thank you so much for joining us. actually, i better ask you some questions or mika is going to be very angry at me when she gets back from the south of france. so dr. fauci, there's a bit of a debate going on right now about whether a fourth wave is appearing. there are really bright people on both sides that are debating that right now. i know nobody has the answers. what are you looking at? does it look like there's a fourth wave coming? >> certainly there are uptick in cases in multiple states. that's for sure. we had the big, big peak over the winter, over the christmas and new year's holiday. it came back down. and instead of going all the way down, it plateaued at a really unacceptably high level. it was around 30, 40,000 cases per day. but then over last few weeks, it's creeped up to 50, 55, and 60,000 cases a day. so what's happening is that there clearly is an increase. the difference factor that's going on right now that was different from the surges we saw last year is that we have a highly efficacious vaccine now. and every day, at least 3 to 4 million people get vaccinated. we have well over 50 to 60 million people who are vaccinated completely, about 100 million who are vaccinated at least partially. and every day it gets better and better. so we're looking at a race between the vaccine that is highly efficacious. we're seeing it start to creep up now. so the real question is the efficacy of the vaccine going to prevent that from going up the way we saw it in previous surges? i hope not. as long as we keep vaccinating people efficiently and effectively, i don't think that's going to happen. that doesn't mean that we won't still see increases in cases. whether it explodes into a real surge or not remains to be seen. i think that the vaccine will prevent that from happening. the other wild card is, even though everyone has covid that fatigue and wants to get back to normal, we don't want to declare victory prematurely, because we have a variant that spreads really quite efficiently. and if you pull back on masking and avoiding congregant setting, you're really taking a pretty big risk. if we can just hang in there a bit longer. because every day that we hang in there and not just give into getting away from all restrictions, every day we do better and better, because 3 to 4 million people get vaccinated. >> i was going to ask you about how things looked over the past year. if you saw hospitalizations down and deaths down. what was coming in seven to ten days. how much has that changed, not just because of the vaccine but also because the viral load may be less now than it was than at the beginning when people have covid. we have a better understanding today. how much of that comes into play? so when you see the cases start to go up, it doesn't naturally mean that -- i'm not trying to be pollyanna, but looking at the science and medicine, it doesn't mean that a surge if deaths and a surge in hospitalizations are going to automatically follow that surge in infections. >> well, yes to everything you said. but one other factor that we really need to mention, joe, is that right now, more than 75% of people over 65 years of age have received at least one shot of a two-shot vaccine. which means that when people get affected, it's more of the younger group. so although they can get seriously ill and hospitalized, there's less of a risk of a severe outcome requiring hospitalization and even leading to death than the elderly individuals. so we prioritized the elderly. and for the most part, relatively speaking, they are more protected now than the younger people. in time, younger people will be equally as protected. so what you're saying is absolutely correct. we're seeing infections now, but the age ranges skew much more towards younger people. and although they can get seriously ill, the overall rate of hospitalizations in them is less than if you were an elderly people. >> dr. fauci, it's willie geist. great to have you back. i got my first shot of the vaccine yesterday. i feel great, mild soreness in my arm, but it feels good. i'll go back in four weeks for my second dose and my wife and i, who went together yesterday up in new york felt nothing but gratitude for the doctors and the scientists and the public health officials like yourself who brought us to this day. so i know i speak for a lot of people in this country when i say that. with that said, you mentioned texas and that full ballpark in arlington yesterday. there was a lot of concern last month when texas effectively opened up, dropped all of those restrictions and said, it's back to life and if you go to texas, as you know, it looks like 2019. the restaurants and bars are full and open. the ballparks are full. and yet, we've seen cases and hospitalizations since then continue to tick downward. so what do you make of that, as all of us look around and try to consider how safe it is to get back to normal life? >> it can be confusing, because you may see a lag and a delay, because often, you have to wait a few weeks before you see the effect of what you're doing right now. there are a lot of things that go into that. when you say that they've had a lot of the activity on the outside like ball games, i'm not really quite sure. it could be they're doing things outdoor. it's very difficult to one on one compare that. you have to see in the long range. i hope they continue to tick down. if they do, that would be great. but there's always the concern, when you pull back on methods, particularly things like indoor dining and bars that are crowded, you can see a delay and all of a sudden tick right back up. we've been fooled before when in situations where people begin to open back up, nothing happens, and all of a sudden days later, things start exploding on you. we've got to be careful we don't prematurely judge that. >> you've been pretty clear over the last few months, and so too as dr. rochelle walensky about schools. they should be opened as long as it can be done safely with some of the mitigation in place. yet so many schools across the country remain closed. as we sit here in april, a full year since schools closed and a lot of schools have lost contact with their schools over that time, where are you right now? should schools be opened in this country? >> i think we should try to get them open and keep them open. i lean towards let's getting them open as quickly as we possibly can. you want to follow the cdc guidelines, but let's just do it in a manner in which that we look at the big picture. and i feel the same way. we talk about this all the time. you want to balance with the negative effect of keeping kids out of school with the potential effect of illness of keeping them out of school and and in school. you have to really be careful, there's a delicate balance there that we have to continue to evaluate over time. it's very important. you want the kids in school, but you want them to be safe. some really good news, and this is important, is that a recent study showed that kids from 12 to 15 years, the vaccination was 100% effective in protecting them from clinically irrelevant disease. that's going to be huge. because high school kids are the ones you're most concerned about about spreading. and another thing about schools, one of the real important pockets of spread have been in team sports as opposed to kids in the classroom. so when you bring people back to school, you might want to consider the relative risk of participating in sports, which seem to be a driver of infection as opposed to a child sitting in a classroom learning. >> the ap's jonathan lemire is with us and has a question, dr. fauci. >> dr. fauci, good morning. great to see you again. i know there was a lot of concern over the weekend with the report that 15 million vaccine doses were ruined at a manufacturing facility and -- but yet, overall, vaccine supply in the nation seems to be surging. the president, we're reporting is going to announce today that he'll have hit 150 million doses since inauguration day and moving up the deadline for all states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine up to april 19th, which is just right around the corner. while there's a lot of vaccine out there, my question to you is there are real pockets of resistance of people refusing to take it. what do you think can be done there? because there can't be true herd immunity, true safety, if there are so many americans who won't take the vaccine? >> that's a real problem and really quite discouraging particularly given the fact that the vaccines are so highly efficacious. and when you look in the realtime, real-world effectiveness, they maintain their efficacy and their highly effective in the community. we're trying to get trusted messengers, people in the community who are trusted and those who believe them when they talk about the importance of getting vaccine. we started last week, a covid-19 community core uh in which a group of trusted messengers are given information from the cdc to be able to spread that information effectively about why people should be getting vaccinated. you're exactly on the money. it's very frustrating, but we really have got to get more and more people vaccinated. we have the vaccine supply. we have the vaccinators, we've just got to get as many people as we possibly can who have some degree of hesitancy, to get them to turn the corner with us and get vaccinated. >> all right, dr. anthony fauci, american hero and new york yankee fan, a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mystery. thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate your time. we'll talk to you soon. so, mike barnicle, a lot of great information from dr. fauci. talking about how as far as looking at the infection rate going up, doesn't necessarily mean hospitalizations and deaths are going to go up, because what we've learned over the past year, because of the vaccines, because of the therapeutics and a lot of different things, but also the quote that i saw that really stands out still is when he asked about schools, he said, quote, get them open, keep them open, obviously following cdc guidelines. and being cautious. but he's still very clear that when you balance all of the needs and the interests of children and parents, he wants those schools open now. get them open, keep them open. follow the cdc guidelines. masking, 3 feet apart, be safe, but get the schools open. >> joe, his last answer got to the core of things. it surrounds too many parents who are reluctant to have their children vaccinated or to be vaccinated themselves. but schools are the core of the issue largely in this country, because it opens the door to so many other things, about parents going back to work, feeling comfortable going back to work, because they know their son or daughter is in a school monitored by a teacher. i don't want to knock the teacher's unions. my mother was a teacher, god bless her, more nearly 40 years. but teachers have to play a larger role in this. teachers have to show that they are eager to get back into the classroom. of course, there's always the fear involved of, oh, it's still out there, i could get the virus, because we've got to cope with that, we've got to confront and it get the kids back in school. the more kids that are back in schools, the better off this country will be. the faster we're going to move forward. >> this was a cool moment on vaccines. and from the university of illinois, had a couple of reasons to celebrate. this is 20-year-old evan manavong to match a career career-high vault routine and reaching into his uniform and flashing an index-sized car in celebration. that is his vaccination card. using that platform to send a message that everyone should get their vaccine. for those who didn't immediately recognize what the card meant, he explained on twitter, quote, that is my vaccination card. go get vaccinated, everybody. cool moment there. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." t there. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe. ♪ ♪ there's more to a yard than freshly cut grass. 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(all together) me too. hey. you really outdid yourself. yes, we did. the all-new buick envision. an suv built around you... all of you. we made usaa insurance for members like kate. a former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa. welcome back to "morning joe". >> today is april 6th, three months since the attack on the capitol. a new poll shows more than half of republicans still believe false information surrounding what happened that day. according to the latest reuters poll, 60% of republicans believe the election was stolen from donald trump. 56% of republicans surveyed believe the riot, the attack was led by violent left-wing protesters trying to make the president look bad and 51% of republicans believe that people would gathered at the capitol on january 6th were mostly peaceful law-abiding americans. joe, there is no mystery to this and it is what they're hearing on facebook feeds and tv outlets and what the former president is still pushing when he speaks out in public. >> right. it is. the numbers are still too high. kasie hunt, for people trying to figure out why republicans are still voting the way they are, why they're voting against bills that 76% of americans support. you look to a lot of the numbers and you look to where the republican base is, it is still attached to donald trump. and i wonder if you look at those polls, kasie, and thinking about when the numbers were in the mid-70s, sometimes in the 80s and i see them coming down into the more 50s range and then suddenly they drop more and suddenly some rain street republicans, some conservative republicans, some traditional reagan republicans could start getting elected to senate and house seats. >> yeah, i think that is a real question, joe. and that last number that we showed that 51%, i hope that the 49% of republicans who say that they saw people breaking the law, they saw violence at the capitol are talking to family members. i do think that it is possible that there is something going on that we just haven't picked up yet in the wake of january 6th that could move exactly what you're talking about. and one of the things that i'm watching is there is a house race going on in texas, it is a special election after the congressman who held that seat unfortunately passed away. and the republican primary, it is wide open field but it is likely this is going to be a republican seat. there is a runoff. but the candidate that just got the endorsement of the "dallas morning news" is running on a platform to restore the republican party. they've been endorsed by adam kinzinger and this is the first test, is the liz cheney adam kinzinger model be replicated in places like the dallas suburbs where you have people that may have watched what happened at the capitol and then been absolutely horrified by what they saw even if they still consider themselves to be conservative on issues like abortion, like spending, like guns in particular, some of the other cultural issues that the republican party is hitting on. so i think that the jury is still out on that question. >> well, and i don't remember the candidate's name but i was struck and we need to get a clip of that and play it for our viewers, michael steele, i was struck that there was a candidate that was a rock ribbed conservative, when you are talking about spending, whether you are talking about taxes, guns, immigration, he took pretty hard core conservative stances and there was just one thing that he didn't say that would have made everybody in the crowd happy and that is he talked about how the party needs to move past donald trump. what happened on january 6th was unforgivable and it is time to move forward. this guy, i think he's a marine, a strong candidate. that is the future. and i'm just wondering, michael, you, like me, our friends, our tribe, they're republicans, their conservatives. those are the people that i talk to every day. i've yet to talk to one person, many of whom defended so much garbage, the breaching of constitutional norms, deficit and debt spending, outrageous things that the guy did, i've jet to talk to anybody that defended what happened on january 6th. most of republicans -- [ technical difficulties ] is moving back to more centered conservative base than where donald trump yanked them over the past four years. >> yeah, that is a good question, joe. you're talking about michael woods, the candidate in texas and there are a number of candidates like him that are beginning to emerge in a number of races. adam kinzinger and i have been talking about a few of them along with some others out there and we're trying to assess where the sweet spot is for the candidates who can affirm those rock ribbed conservative values and principles that drew us into the party when we were young men. and yet still make that declared statement about, you know, what we are and what we aren't and what we aren't is trumpism. that is one piece. but here is the reality that still confronts us. when you look at the reuters poll, i think you're seeing a way too high number of republicans that are in la la land on what happened on january 6th and still denying the facts and the science of that day if you will. and the reality is how much damage is done to the party. so that, yes, you've got these candidates who can, you know, turn the corner and maybe run that competitive race and win, but what are they winning and running for and what is the party look like and what is the messaging of that party longer term. with each of these polls, you're losing -- you may focus on the numbers coming down, but then look at the number of people just writing the republican party. who are just i don't care at this point. this is not someone or something i'm going to support or vote for. so when you get into the tight races next year, those margins will matter. and i know it is something the rnc and the nccc and committees are concerned about because there is great exposure there for the party at large. yeah, the numbers may be coming down among republicans who are now aligning themselves with the rest of america, but rest of america are moving on past the party and that could be a real risk. >> and for the moment republicans are sharpening their criticism against major corporations that have pushed back at new voting laws. when we come back, we'll discuss that in one minute on "morning joe." ght, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? 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at&t, harley-davidson and merck which happens to be making propecia, that donald trump takes and what are the chances that donald trump gives up diet coke or his bald headed medicine, none. but he wants you to. a lot to talk about this morning. red sox on the way to 159-3 record, a great place to start. but go through all of the news, we have a.p.'s jonathan lemire, former rnc chairman michael steele and victoria defrancisco soto. >> get as go to the news. >> in colorado, sources telling espn major league baseball has chosen coors field for the game. it was originally scheduled as you know at the braves home park in atlanta but they would move the game in response to the controversial new voting law. nbc news contacted major league baseball overnight for details of the move but did not immediately receive a response. meanwhile, senator marco rubio of florida is calling out rab manfred following the decision to move the game out of atlanta. senator rubio sent him a letter asking whether manford plans to give up his membership at the augusta national golf club where the masters is being held this week because the club is in georgia. in the letter he said the decision to move the all-star game will quote have a bigger impact on countless small and minority owned businesses in and around atlanta than the new election law ever will and said the decision wreaked of hypocrisy, joe. >> yeah, and michael steele, far be it from me to say positive things about little stunts that marco rubio pulls. i think he embarrasses himself in this case, in this case he has the mlb commissioner dead to center and got him that way, because oh, you can't play an all-star game in atlanta, georgia, because, well, that would be helping the state of georgia and you think they're doing horrible things and so you want to -- you don't -- you want to get events out of georgia. okay. aren't you a member of augusta national? that is a pretty good point. if georgia's not a good enough state to do business in, then certainly it is not a state that you would want to fly down to and spend your money and be a member of augusta national. so should we expect that the commissioner of major league baseball is going to be giving up his membership at augusta national? >> no. no, he won't. >> but it is a -- you got to admit, it is a good point. you read that letter and you -- >> i don't see. i think a business decision versus a personal choice, i think a corporate decision in which, you know, i don't think the citizens care whether or not the ceo of a company has association with a golf club unless they don't allow jews and blacks and women in it, but everyone contributes to, you know, participation through their dollars in his business. and they felt like they had some say from individuals who consumed to those who are shareholders. so i think it is a different dynamic. i get the stunt and i appreciate it. you feel like you got them up against a wall. but that is a personal choice and whether or not he decides to do that, doesn't impact you know, the overall flow of business for his company. because that is a personal decision, it has nothing to do with his main core business. with respect to his main core business, a whole lot of people had something to say about it and it wasn't just the folks in atlanta. it is folks around the country who would use the services of that business. so i think that the dynamics are slightly different than at the end of the day he's going to say that is a personal choice. he may decide to give up his augusta national membership. but then again, i don't think there is any national pressure or even local pressure in atlanta for him to do so. >> no, victoria, in one instance, of course, yes, being a member of augusta national is for most business people, that is a dream. it is a feather in his cap and probably something he takes great -- but it is in the state of georgia. a state, again, that he thought had moved so disastrously off course that he is pulling an all-star game from a city and a state where it is going to be working class people who are going to be hurt from the revenue loss, it is middle class people hurt from the revenue loss. you have stacey abrams that was saying all along please don't take this game out of atlanta. jon ossoff saying don't take this game out of aatlanta, drawing attention to it here. and you have ralph warnock saying the same thing. does it seem inconsistent to you, that this guy, again, as marco rubio said, he does business with communist -- china and cuba and he apparently didn't read this bill before making this decision. doesn't it seem hypocritical of him to keep that membership at augusta but yank the all-star game out of atlanta when this will hurt middle class and working class georgians. >> joe, i think the key here is separation between the financial interest and the culture war. so i think that when we're talking about the big corporations that have come into the spotlight because of the georgia voting bill, it is very easy to zero in on the mlb, the big corporations, the delta, the coca-cola. in terms of augusta, i'm going to agree with michael steele here. i do think that marco rubio could better frame it as a personal decision. this is not a corporation. this is not part of the culture war. this is something that marco rubio is going to try to keep private because he likes going to augusta. he likes doing that as do many of these elite folks who get the membership. but as we're seeing it here in texas, we're seeing it in georgia, the political polarization that we've been witnessing over the last decade is moving over to the consumer realm which is interesting and quite frightening that we're seeing that polarization moving over here because it is ultimately a culture war that we're seeing. and donald trump, love him or hate him, is extremely good at framing, at marketing. his brand make america great, trumpism, that is a political brand. and so you see the very close linkage from that political brand over to the consumer marketeting world and now we're living in a society that is separated not just in terms of who you vote for, but where you go and spend your dollars. >> and korms corporations are being made to choose. mitch mcconnell is criticizing those who have come out against the georgia voting law. >> i found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate ceo's getting in the middle of politics. my advice to the corporate ceo's of americas is to stay out of politics. don't pick sides in these big fights. >> senator mcconnell telling big business to stay out of politics, but the a.p. said he is one of the most outspoken champions for elections promoting the free flow of undisclosed dollars of campaigns as form of constitutionally protecting free speech. that is true as you point out but as those like mitch mcconnell and marco rubio and governor kemp even, they have hypocrisy in their hands and for the corporations, with democrats who are in fact are lying about parts of this law in order to win the political day. >> and it continues, the trend from republicans. we've seen in the early days of the biden administration where they're seizing upon the culture war issues. these wedge issues and news of the day issues rather than the biden administration itself or its response to the pandemic or the legislation it's rolling out. and major league baseball felt like their hand was forced. players in the union had suggested they might not go to the all-star game. some of the biggest names in the sport said they wouldn't attend if the game remained in atlanta which would have been a debacle for the game. and then they move it to colorado, a state that is certainly does not have a hot button voter change to its voter laws. it does certainly -- it is less diverse than georgia and does require some form of voter i.d. but it is mail-in balloting and same day registration and praised by election advocates as a place where it is much easier to vote, it ranks much higher than georgia does which ranks near the bottom of the list. and we're seeing increased pressure on other corporations. mitch mcconnell is not the only one to talk about corporate money in politics as my colleagues so rightly lined out. but this is what republicans are seizing upon now including indeed former president trump who called for a boycott of any number of corporations and it should be noted one of them being diet coke and we know president trump has a rather fondness for diet coke. he a button on his desk at the white house where you could push and someone would bring him a diet coke and yesterday stephen miller tweeted a photograph of them at trump's office at mar-a-lago and plain as day, a diet coke just two days after he called for the boycott of the brand. >> still ahead, the minneapolis police chief said derek chauvin absolutely violated policies when he knelt on george floyd's neck. the latest 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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. we want to turn to minneapolis where the police chief medaria arredondo took the stand yesterday to testify against the officer accused of killing george floyd saying derek chauvin's knee on floyd's neck violated policy and defied the officer's own training. >> so is it your belief then that this particular form of restraint, if that is what we'll call it, in fact, violates departmental policy? >> i absolutely agree that violates our policy. once mr. floyd had stopped resisting and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped. once there was no longer any resistance, and clearly where mr. floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way, shape or form is anything about that is by policy, it is not part of our training and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values. >> on cross-examination, chief arredondo who fired all of the police officers involved in floyd's death, agreed those under his command can at times use force to de-escalate a situation and neck restraints were permitted by the department at the time and handcuffed suspects could inflict harm. the doctor who pronounced floyd's death said his cardiac arrest was due to a lack of oxygen. >> based on the history available to me i felt that hypoxia was one of the more likely possibilities. >> and hypoxia has an explanation is cardiac arrest meaning oxygen insufficiency. >> correct. >> and commander katie blackwell, head of the training division at the time of floyd's death testified looking at a photo of chauvin on floyd, she said, quote, i don't know what kind of improvised position that is. it is not what we train. let's bring in professor of law paul butler and a msnbc legal analyst. it is good to see you this morning. let's start with the chief's testimony which was powerful because he spoke about policy in the minneapolis police department saying in no way, shape, or form was what officer chauvin did part of our policy or what we teach saying directly that the officer violated department policy. >> yeah, willie, in most prosecutions of officers, police chiefs don't get involved or they actually support the cop who is on trial. but when the chief does show up for the prosecution, he brings the fire. cops are professional witnesses and this chief was compassionate and authoritative. he exuded competence and probably made a big impact on the jury. he schooled the jury on the law of excessive force and how chauvin should never have put his knee on mr. floyd's neck because that is considered deadly force. so just like chauvin could not have taken out his gun and shot george floyd, he did not have the legal authority to do this body weight pin on mr. floyd's neck. >> so paul, we heard the defense, we've heard over the last week that they believe that george floyd died perhaps of the drugs that the medical examiner found in hi system but we heard from a emergency room physician is that he believes in his medical opinion that george floyd died of hypoxia, he didn't have enough oxygen to his brain. how important is that testimony. >> he literally did not kill george floyd and that he died of a drug overdose and his pre-existing health conditions. so the most important point this emergency room doctor made yesterday was that mr. floyd died of a lack of oxygen. this is key to the prosecution theory and accused the next phase of the trial which is the battle of expert witnesses on the cause of mr. floyd's death and, willie, the defense has one star witness, the medical examiner whose report said that mr. floyd did not die of asphyxia, but rather that he died of heart failure. >> paul butler, thank you very much as always. coming up, vaccinations are ramping up but some states still are struggling. among them michigan. why that tate is seeing a major up tick in cases and whether it may be a start of a fourth wave. "morning joe" is back in a moment. 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110... seriously? but zerowater- let me guess. zero? yup, that's how i know it is the purest-tasting water. i need to find the receipt for that. oh yeah, you do. as we continue to return to classrooms... parents like me want to make sure we're doing it safely. especially in the underserved communities hardest hit by covid. trust me, no one wants to get back to classroom learning more than teachers like me. using common sense safety measures like masks, physical distancing, and proper ventilation. safety is why we're prioritizing vaccinations for educators. because together, we all have a responsibility to do our part. and together, we will get through this, safely. michigan is emerging as a new hot spot for the virus. the state reported more than 8,000 cases on saturday alone and surpassed 700,000 cases in total. michigan leads the nation in new infections by population. joining us now, democratic congresswoman haley stevens of michigan and an e.r. doctor in west michigan and director of the committee to protect medicare, dr. rob davidson. good morning to you both, dr. davidson, i want to start with you. just a bottom line question here, what is going on in michigan. you're getting people vaccinated, if you look at the numbers, so why the spike in cases? >> well, i think there is probably a few factors going on. one, we have this second most number of variants of any state in the country and as we have seen, these variants spread more easily and some of them tend to evade some of the vaccines and so it is race of vaccines against variants and we've seen significant numbers of outbreaks coming out of schools, particularly school sports. governor has implemented new tools for testing in school's sports and now she's being sued by a group that don't want to have tests to try to make schools safer and that is the thing from the beginning we've had a challenge of a significant number of people suffering the politicization of this virus from the legislature suing the governor with over $600,000 of taxpayer money to take away powers to a plot to kidnap and assassinate her, to significant numbers of people resisting the vaccine that we hear of informal polling in our area in west michigan, up to two-thirds of people in the county saying they don't want the vaccine so it is just making it a real significant challenge. >> to pick up on our previous conversation, dr. davidson, what exactly are you seeing in your schools. you mentioned sports, people going out and mixing it up and it may be contributing to the spike but what about the act of going to school? how safe have schools been in michigan? >> well i think we've known all along kids generally don't get that sick. although i see a significant number of kids coming in with that long covid syndrome with headaches and chronic fatigue and emotional issues relating to having a minor case of covid. i have two teenage kids in middle school and high school and they had to come home for quarantine because of close contacts. they didn't get sick, they got tested but they had a strange hybrid, going to school and coming home and going back and forth and that is a significant challenge for a lot of families. >> congresswoman, there is talk about going back to lockdowns in the state of michigan, something you and the governor doesn't want to do either, what is the possibility as you look at the numbers of new restrictions in michigan? >> look, i think we are seeing this play out with our schools. and i deeply appreciate this conversation, just yesterday i was on the phone with superintendent, i gathered on zoom a group of parents and these parents were saying thank you for testing our students. but i think the public health guidelines are what is most imperative here. we all know we have pandemic fatigue. but we need to be wearing our masks, we need to be social distancing. i'm seeing case after case and this is coming from my constituents who were saying i was just about to get the vaccine and then i came down with covid and that is stalling our progress. we have 35% of our state with the first dose of the vaccine that is really promising, in detroit we have ford field vaccinating up to 5,000 people a day and we have to practice the guidelines and the schools have been a template for this. in my district i have some who are still in school and some who said week after spring break, too many cases we're going to do remote this week and sports could continue but you need to be tested while your playing. >> haley stevens and dr. rob davidson, thank you both. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." before nexium 24hr, anna could only imagine a comfortable night's sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? 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you personally. >> it is. and i'm sure people all over america are going wait, a minute, what channel am i watching right now. and when you say "new york times" number one best-seller debuting, that is a lot. i had no idea what it meant but you as a prolific author knows that means people are going to -- ready to receive the message of whatever it is that you're putting out there. and i think this is the right moment and right time for this book. because it could help us have these very profound and sometimes uncomfortable conversations that you have on your program all of the time when i tune in watching you and eddie glaude and willie have these conversations, and of course mika as well. and when you look at what you were just discussing, a short while ago about what is happening in minneapolis, what happened in the summer of 2020, i think the book is very timely and i think it is necessary in the moment. >> and you did a deep dive into your family's heritage. >> yeah. >> and i'd love for to you tell our friends about that. talk about what you found and really how deep you dug to find out about your family and its past. >> people are often and they should be very proud of who they are and where they came from, if they came over on the mayflower or a slave ship, one should be proud of it and it is tough for many african-americans to figure it out because the records only go back so far. sometimes one or maybe two generations and sometimes three generations if that. and that is not an issue for white americans because they weren't just known as property. so african-americans were just deemed as property and they're often off the records so i went back to the slave coast in africa to trace my ancestors with my mother a few years ago and recently i went with dr. skip gates, i didn't go with him but did he a tracing of my ancestry and it gave me this pride that i didn't really have before. i've always been proud to be a man of color in america. but knowing that my ancestry goes back beyond just slavery in america, which is something to be very proud of, helping build this country for free, but knowing there was something beyond this continent and it is something very pride filling for me and i think all americans, especially african-americans, should go back and get their ancestry done. it is interesting because you could trace a lot of it, which they weren't able to do it before through white plantation owners and white relatives and that happened with my family as well because i have a history of black and white in my family. and even some of the plantation owners, joe, being the father of my ancestors, owning my ancestors and selling them property as well, land meaning. so it was very interesting and very heartfelt. >> don, it is willie. great to see through morning. welcome to this side of the street for a few minutes anyway. congratulations on the big success of the book. i'm curious, these incredible journeys you took, whether it was to the plantation or the slave coast of ghana, whether it reframed the way you look at what we're going through as a country right now in terms of race, specifically what we've been going through, the reckoning of the last year, how did that instruct the way you're looking at the country right now. >> i think if we go back to the beginning, then that will set us on the right course. because if we -- we must look at history in the way it is taught in this country. history is taught in a way that is whitewashed here. children don't learn about the contributions of people from africa and in they're history books so in their book i try to give -- not try, but i give some of the history, if you know the true history of this country and if you know before the mayflower there were people here on the continent helping to build the country, you won't get people acting on a big lie and an insurrection on capitol hill because people are operating from truth and fact and understand this country was built in the image of not just white people but all people in this country and all people should be included in this country about every right and every privilege. so i think that was the part for me that sort of informed what i should be writing about and what i should be teaching so that we're not acting on a lie, that it is hard to get someone to put a knee on someone's neck when you know the true history of this country and when you realize that all of your countryman, black and white, are part of the same process that we're looking for a more perfect union and we want the rights and privileges that everyone else wants in this country. >> michael steele, i know you have a question for don. but what don said was just so important to where we are in 2021. you know, last year we of course had the horrors, the tragedy of george floyd. but also a raging about the 1619 project. and people saying, well, i didn't like what this said, don't like other people having -- maybe a tweet was wrong here. and i've grown up being a 1776 guy because that is what i've learned. but with this country, i hope is learning, is to use thinking to where 1619 and 1776 can coexist together because they do coexist together and that is exactly what don is saying and in a positive way that, yes, the genius of our founders in 1776 has fed and freed more people on the planet than anything else but you can't just start there. you need to go back to 1619 to understand what don is talking about right now and that is that 1619 is a reality we have not grappled with enough as a country. but we could grapple with that and still celebrate 1776. they can exist together. >> well, i think that is exactly right. you don't get to celebrate 1776 without experiencing 1619. that is one. number two, what the 1619 project made clear is you no longer get to write my history. white america no longer gets to tell just one side of the story. and that there were black lives that had played a role and were impacted. which gets to, don, in your book, and man i'm so excited for you. i remember having a brief conversation with you while you were writing this and sort of hearing your passionate that time and excited to see it come to fruition. you do bring the fire as we all know. but tell me what you say to your friends about racism? what is it that they need to know and it is not -- an interesting thing that is i think is important, it is not just white folks that need to understand this, but also some black folks, too. that racism, you know, oddly yuf doesn't have color. it is really about a lot of things and it is not just about the color. so how do you have that conversation with your black and white friends about racism? >> well racism is also about agency. it is also about having -- in society and about who holds privilege in society. so, yeah, i have conversations with my black friends and my white friends but those are often two different conversations. i think if black people read the book and hope you read it, michael steele, you'll look at it and read it and say, oh, yeah. i get it. i understand. and then there are often times among my white friends, oh, my gosh, i can't believe that happened. so there are two different conversations. but i think that in the moment that we're in right now is a moment that we need to focus on white supremacy. we all need to learn lessons about racism and what it means and our roles in it, but at this particular point in society, i think joe brings up a very good point. considering what happened at the capitol in the summer of 2020 and we need to focus on white supremacy and start with the truth. so my conversations always start with the truth about what we're saying right now. where the country started, the true history of the country. if you want to say, as we were talking about 1776 versus 1619, we often learn in elementary school, that columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered america. he did not discover america. now you if you say that to native americans, they didn't discover america. america was here and thriving before columbus came over. and there is nothing wrong with saying that. that is not wiping away someone's history. that is basically telling the truth about the founding of this country. and the history books, whitewash the history of this country, elevated one group of people and lowers and denigrates another group of people. why? because there are people who feel like the country was built in their image. and as i said before, this country was built in the image of many different people, many different contributors to the starting and founding of this country and we all need to be celebrated and included in that history and if we start from the very beginning, then we could start having true conversations about race and especially in this era, white supremacy. >> hey, don, i'd like to ask you about graduation day, a long time ago, baker high school, east baton rouge, louisiana, when don lemon graduated from high school. and went on to have an incredibly popular television show each night on cnn and he is now number one on the "new york times" best-seller list. and i'd like to know how many times in your life -- in your path that you've traveled to all of this success, have you stopped an looked in the mirror and said, wow, i can't believe this. >> why do you want to do this to me early. early in the morning. i try not to think about it. and i thank you for that question and i try not to think about it. but i have had, as you know, times in my career when people told me i would not make it in this business. especially as a journalism student and you should go do something more suited to my abilities. it is overwhelming if i stop and think about it. because i was always told no in so many ways as a kid. only people who told me yes were my family members who believed in me and there were some of them that didn't. they said i left louisiana because of racism and because i know that if i wanted to achieve what i wanted to achieve, i would have to leave that place. there are people who said you'll be back. you're not going to make it and you'll come home and others didn't believe that i could make it. and even in this business now, as you know, joe, as you know because you have fight for where you are, you have to fight for your show, are people who don't believe that you could carry a show, right. and especially a man of color who happens to be gay who -- and a southerner, there were people who did not believe that don lemon could achieve or carry a show in prime time that people would watch and the only person who believed in me was me. so while i appreciate your question and you're making my cry early in the morning, i thank god, i thank my family and the handful of people who did believe in me and i thank the people who allow me the opportunities to be able to talk about it like you guys on this program. so thank you for your question, but i really don't have time to think about it. i can't. it is overwhelming sometimes. >> but i will say, though, we have -- i hear from parents who tell me that their children watch this show because their forced to watch the show, because while the parents are sitting around the breakfast table getting ready for work and school, their kids are watching and they listen to a lot. so those kids wouldn't probably be reading this book. but your story about believing in yourself, listening to a voice inside of you regardless of what the whole world is saying to you, that is such an inspirational message and it is a message that i hope there is a child in baton rouge, louisiana, this morning whose parents are watching this show or maybe in brooklyn or maybe they're in oregon and their listening to this show and you're incredible message and they're being inspired by it because i'll tell you what, it is a great story and, don, we thank you so much for being with us this morning and congratulations on all of your success, but especially this book. >> thank you, joe. i was looking down because i got a text message just moments ago about the exact thing that you were saying now. someone had a -- someone over doing some work at their house and they were concerned about racism in this time and where the republicans and democrats were going and she handed this young man, who happens to be white, my book and he was so overwhelmed, she had no idea that he was a fan and that he watched every night and that i had some influence on him so i appreciate what you're saying and people do watch and you're able to change things so thank you, joe. thank you, guys. i areally appreciate you having me. >> all right. well thank you so much. the book is "this is the fire, what i say to my friends about racism." don lemon, congratulations and thanks a lot and good luck. willie. >> thanks, don. congratulations. still ahead, our next guest is trying to pick up where einstein left off. dr. michio kaku on the theory of everything when "morning joe" comes back. comes back calling all brick masons and boiler makers. steel workers and steam fitters your country is calling you to rebuild america. to create a cleaner, safer, more prosperous future for all. tackling climate change, this is the job of our lifetime. it's time to build back better. let's get to work. i try to put my arm around any vet that i can, absolutely. at newdayusa that's what we're doing. we put our arm around the veterans. when i think of the veteran out there that needs to refi his home, he may want to purchase, we can help them and provide that financial solution for they and their families. it's a great rewarding feeling. everybody in the company, they have that deference and that respect and that love for the veteran that makes this company so unique. since you're heading off to school, i got you this brita. dad... i just got a zerowater. but we've always used brita. it's two stage-filter... doesn't compare to 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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. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette if i'm being honest, i never forgot about string theory. it's remarkable. the closest we've come to a theory of everything. something even einstein couldn't figure out. >> well, if he couldn't figure it out, maybe it's just wrong. did we do it? did we just solve string theory? >> i appreciate your enthusiasm but this is not the sort of thing we can figure out in a night. people have been stuck on this for decades. >> decades, really? it's a string! how hard can it be? >> how hard can it be, as seen there from the show "the big bang theory." a new book by world-renowned physicist michio kaku titled "the god equation: the quest for everything" and an attempt to answer that question. dr. michio, let's explain what the theory of everything. how can you explain it in terms even joe and i could understand? >> well, when i was a child of 8, something happened that changed my life totally. a great scientist had just died. all of the teachers passed a paper of his death of an unfinished manuscript of his greatest work. i said wow, why couldn't he figure that? what's so hard? why couldn't he ask his mother? well, i went into the library and i found this man's name was albert einstein and that look was to be the god equation, the equation no more than one inch long, that would allow us to, quote, read the mind of god. even school children know m equals mc squared and unified m matters with e, energy. and einstein was not satisfied. he wanted a bigger theory that would unite the nuclear force, gravity, electro magnetism, into one simple equation. unfortunately, he failed. but today we think we have it. it's not in its final form, that's why i'm still working on it but it's called string theory and it has satisfied all of the requirements for a theer of everything. theory of everything. the just remember the greatest minds of humanity for 2,000 years had wanted a single paradigm, a theme, a design for the entire universe to explain the diversity of everything there is. well, that could be string theory. >> so dr. kaku, if you do figure this out beyond what you have just outlined here, aren't you going to put yourself out of a job if we can is explain everything? do we need physicists anymore? >> well, the universe i think is like a chess game, and after 2,000 years of investigation, refinally figured out how the pawns move and bishop and the knight. one day we will figure out the god equation, that is the rules of the universe and become grand masters. so, no, i'm not going to be out of a job. we'll still have to work at the frontier of relativity. for example, time travel. is time travel possible? are there other dimensions and other universes? what happened before the big bang? what's on the other side of a black hole? and when you talk about parallel universes, many people ask me the question, will you answer the question? is elvis presley still alive in a parallel universe? the answer is, quite possibly yes. he might be belting out hits even in a parallel universe. >> so, doctor, the string theory and everything that it entails that you articulated here, do you believe in god? >> i believe in the god of einstein. the god of spin oza, that the universe is gorgeous. it's simple, elegant, its simplicity is dazzling. of and it could not have been an accident because it would have been random, chaotic, ugly, and here we are in this gorgeous universe. we can put the theory of almost everything on a simple sheet of paper. one a thing that remains relativity, the quantum theory. it didn't have to be that way. the universe could have been boring, it could have been empty, and yet here we are conscience be beings with self-awareness, consciousness, wondering about the great themes of the entire university itself. that's why i believe in the god of einstein. now, galileo put it this way, the purpose of science is to determine how the heavens go. the purpose of religion is to determine how to go to heaven. in other words, physics is about natural law, the laws of the universe. religion is about ethics, how to be a good person, how to go to heaven. in other words, i see no contradiction, they were complementary. >> so the universe as you just described it is all of those things as you just described it but it still gets back to the question i initially asked you, who created the universe, do you figure? piece of string, einstein, galileo? who created it? >> we have something called the big bang, and stephen hawking, my former colleague, thought tha god could not exist because there was no time to create the universe. so stephen hawking was an atheist. i am not. i believe that our universe is a bubble. the bubble's been expanding and we live on the skin of the bubble and that's called the big bang theory. but string predicts there are bubbles out there, other doubles. when these bubbles collide in a bubble bath at universes, that's the big bang. the big bang is nothing but the creation of bubble universes in a much larger arena. so there was plenty of time for god to create the universe because there was a time before genesis, a time before the beginning of time. this is the multi verse theory and it's the dominant theory now in cosmology. >> the new book is "the god equation: the quest for a theory of everything." we've only scratched the surface here. fascinating, dr. michio kaku. dr. kaku, thank you so much. great to have you on this morning. joe, i'm surprised our producers don't have the breaking news banner up right now. one of the world's leading physicists just told us elvis is alive in a parallel universe somewhere. huge. >> you didn't know that? listen, you get into the science stuff and i'm completely lost. i'm going through my sunday "the new york times" and i get to the science section, if i open it up often, i pass out. the only thing i really understood is when he said multi verse, i started thinking about the avengers, okay, that's cool and made me want to go and see "captain america." a final thought? let's go to kasie, kasie, i'm sure you didn't fail out in science like i did. what are your final thoughts? >> i'm still stuck on elvis being alive in a parallel universe, i guess. that's also the universe where the orioles sweep the red sox at fenway. so that's all i got for you. >> all right. michael steele, final thoughts? >> parallel universe, i got hair. that's all that matters at this point. i'm looking good, feeling good. >> mike barnicle, final thoughts. can you give us something on the red sox? quite a game last night. >> it was quite a game last night. the reason is elvis is on the squad. he's on the 26-man squad. he's in the bullpen. elvis will reappear in a memorial day doubleheader. >> all right. and, of course, this was all predicted long ago -- >> and he comes back tomorrow. >> ellis being alive was predicted long ago. willie geist by the 1990s band bush and everything then. i don't believe elvis is dead. >> wow! >> listen to it. it's a great song. that does it for us. stephanie ruhle probably really confused what we're talking about. >> she is. >> but she picks up the coverage. who wouldn't be? i'm confused. now it might be best to turn it over to stephanie ruhle, who picks unthe coverage right now. stephanie? now stephanie? she is confused. hi, there, i'm stephanie ruhle. it is tuesday, april 6th. here's what's happening this morning. in the next hour the trial of derek chauvin is set to resume for day seven of testimony. in 30 minutes, the

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