Rockets take off. For people just joining us and just waking up, what happened about 12 minutes ago . 5 49 a. M. Eastern time, we had a spacex crew 2, their rocket with dragon on top, thats the Space Capsule, lifting off from the Kennedy Space center in yet another pictureperfect launch here. And then within 11, 12 minutes, they have already reached orbit. 17,000 Miles Per Hour on their way towards the International Space station. What is amazing here, guys is, as we have reported, time and again, the spacex track record on putting people into orbit has been perfect. Every single launch so far has gone without a hitch, same thing again today. Onboard, we have four astronauts. Commander shane kimbro. Im listening to Mission Control as we go here. Commander shane kimbrough. Pilot megan mcarthur. Say hi to the crew, let them know. Theyre congratulating the crew and each other for a great orbital insertion. I wanted to mention the pilot, megan mcarthur. If you missed it earlier, she is sitting in the exact same seat, in the exact same Space Capsule that her husband was in a year ago. Bob benkin was on the very first Spacex Manned Mission or crewed mission, we should say. And now she is sitting in the same seat as the pilot. So commander shane kimbrough, pilot megan mcarchur, thomas pesquet. And the first time a european has been coming on a nasa rocket in ten years. The nasa rockets have been grounded since the Space Shuttle was retired. And also a japanese astronaut, akikoa, hashide, who is a veteran of the Japanese Space Agency and a veteran astronaut. All four on their way to is a sixmonth mission to the International Space station. The one piece of video were waiting to see, and weve had a little bit of a telemetry problem, but im waiting to see that shot of the Rocket Landing, the booster Rocket Landing out there on the drone ship in the atlantic ocean. This is all part of the spacex way of doing business. They reuse these parts. This Booster Rocket that is flying today was on the same flight a year ago. And the Space Capsule, draggone, was used a year ago. Theyre reusing these pieces and trying to drive down the cost all along. Theyre doing an awful lot of science. 200 science experiments while theyre up there. But this is all part of now turning over space travel very much to the private sector. Spacex owns it right now. Eventually the whole biz, boeing will be contributing. Well be looking for that moment when the booster lands, which is unique to spacex. Almost as astounding adds the liftoff itself. Look at these pictures. Thats just a breathtaking image were seeing on the right side of your screen there, tom. So if you can, four astronauts, three countries represented here. A little bit about why theyre on their way up there, what theyre headed to do at the International Space station. Like i said, its a sixmonth mission. And they will now bring to 11 the total number onboard the Space Station. As you know, this is all part of a constant presence onboard the station. And now that america is flying its own rockets with its own crews up to the station, no longer fully dependent on the russians, were at a full workforce, if you will, on the station. In fact, its a little crowded up there. They havent had 11 people onboard in years. The most they had before this, i think, was 13 or 14 or so 3 and if you missed it, this is kind of an interesting piece of information. They just put a Third Commode up there. A third toilet. Good news, right . You have 11 people up there, they have a Third Commode. But they dont have enough Sleeping Quarters for all 11. As a result, at least two, maybe three of these astronauts will have to get into a sleeping bag when theyre on station and tether themselves to a wall or a ceiling or whatever, for just about a week or so, until the crew that arrived last november until that crew that launched last november is expected to come back to earth, probably next week or so. Not a big deal according to the nasa chief, who i talked to. He said, listen, this is the third dimension when youre in space. You dont have to always be, you know, crowded into a room. You can be floating on the ceiling and it doesnt really matter. And one astronaut told me she had phenomenal sleep up there in space. So it will be a little crowded for a few days, but by next week, they should all have their own Sleeping Berths to themselves. A growing family needs that third bathroom. We know that very well, tom. We just saw images from inside the rocket there of, frankly, the astronauts looking pretty casual. Sitting back on their ipads. What are they experiencing right now, physically. How fast are they going . Whats it like in there . Theyve now hit 17,000 Miles Per Hour and they will stay at that trajectory until they dock with the Space Station at 5 10 a. M. Eastern tomorrow night. I think these images are fantastic. I love the spacex way of doing things. They put a small camera, a gopro on every possible Vantage Point and they beam all of those images back down to earth live. Look at these particular images of the earth and a piece of the Rocket Engine there. Its all really phenomenal. Listen, the other part of this equation we havent talked about much is boeing. If you had banked on which of these big companies, spacex or boeing, would be would really take the lead into getting people into space. If you would have banked on this ten years ago, you probably would have said boeing. Theyve been around the long. But boeing has really struggled. In december of 2015, they did an unmanned test of their spacecraft. It did not go well at all. They had to abort, they had a software problem. The clock was literally off by 11 hours. They had to bring the thing back down toert. And they have struggled to recover from that. They say that they are now ready to do another test mission with that boeing spacecraft, but guess what . The launch schedule here at the Kennedy Space center is so busy, so packed that boeing probably wont be able to test their unmanned vehicle until september or so. So we are not going to have a manned mission involving the boeing crew vehicle, maybe the end of this year, maybe into next year. They are really behind spacex at this point. All right. Tom costello, krewe 2 blasting off from pad 39a at nasas Kennedy Space center. The crew Dragon Capsule carrying those four astronauts from three different countries. Just a beautiful sight. Tom, thanks so much. Im sure well be back to you this morning. More news from space. Yesterday the mars ingenuity helicopter took to the red planets skies for a second time, flying for 52 seconds and higher than the first flight. Nasas jet Propulsion Lab tweeted, go big or go home. The Mars Helicopter successfully completed its second flight, capturing this image with its Black And White navigation camera. It also reached new milestones of a higher altitude and a longer hover and lateral flying. Mika . Before we move to other news, i want to bring in former nato Supreme Allied Commander, retired fourstar Navy Admiral James stavridis. Hes chief National Security and diplomacy analyst for nbc news. And im just wondering, in terms of the space missions, just looking at the connection here with our relationship with russia, which is so frayed now, but yet space used to be a place for some commonality or healthy competition. Indeed, mika. In the midst of all of the jubilance appropriately about this really extraordinary new mission, both of them, weve got to remember, go back ten years ago, 15 years ago, the u. S. And russia cooperated in space quite a bit. Our astronauts would ride russian rockets to the Space Station. In fact, as relations with the u. S. And Russia Cratered and we put sanctions on them, a head of the russian nasa tweeted that, i guess the u. S. Will have to go to the Space Station on a trampoline from now on. Well, when this went up, elon musk tweeted, the trampoline works. I would say its working pretty damned well. And its just an indication, your point, of our relations with russias are frayed. Okay, well figure it out. Well, we will if you could, stand by. Well be coming back to you on what is going on in russia, the troop buildup and the situation with Alexei Navalny, which is really heating up right now. But first, lets get to another miracle of science, and that is the vaccines. Federal Health Authorities are scheduled to meet today to decide whether to resume use of the Johnson Johnson vaccine after finding only a limited number of additional cases of a rare Blood Clotting Disorder among recipients. The cdc Advisory Group is leaning toward lifting the pause and use could start as early as this weekend. Resuming use could look similar to the European Unions continued rollout which contained no restrictions, but a warning. Use of the vaccine was initially halted after of 6 women out of nearly 7 million vaccine recipients developed blood clots. Two Government Officials tell the Washington Post that the current stance could be affected if a flood of Blood Clot Reports come in, but that seems unlikely, willie. Despite that possible continuation in the use of the j j vaccine, the white house seems to have written off the pharmaceutical companys shot. Sources telling politico that privately, Senior Health officials have grown frustrated with the companys Production Issues and have concluded that it cannot be counted on until it gets the go ahead from regulators to resume shots. The company has faced several setbacks, including a contractor mixup that ruined 15 million doses, revealing serious safety and Hygiene Concerns as well as the rare blood clot disorder. According to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, if testing of the vaccine reveals more contamination, it could take j j four months to replace doses at its other facilities. Lets bring in White House Reporter for the Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire. Jonathan, good morning. So what is the white house telling you about this j j shot . And do they feel like they can push forward with this massive Vaccination Effort without it . Well, willie, theres some real frustration in the white house, in the senior levels of the Biden Administration, as to how this has played out with Johnson Johnson. We do expect to hear some sort of guidance today about the pause with the shot. That will be one roadblock cleared. But youre right, theres been a series of missteps from Johnson Johnson, in particular, the plant in baltimore that was manufacturing and had to be shut down and tens of millions of doses tossed out. A plant that has now been taken over by another company to run better and more efficiently. Theres a suggestion, though, that the white house still have enough shots domestically. But the Vaccination Effort under the Biden Administration has been a success, full stop. They have cleared paths, every goal theyve set in terms of getting shots in arms. But the pace of those shots has really slowed down. And my colleagues a to the Associated Press are reporting today, a number of states like louisiana, mississippi, kansas, are actually turning down vaccinations they would be receiving from the federal government, turning down doses because they simply cant use them and they would go to waste, because theyre having a really hard time convincing people to come out and take their shot. Just right now, as there are concerns about Johnson Johnson no doubt and they want to get that back online because that onedose shot would be so effective in places that are rural, hard to reach, that dont have the facilities to have max Vaccination Efforts that were seeing in a lot of big cities around the country, they believe that the Johnson Johnson shot could be helpful in terms of reaching the places that to this point have been reluctant. Theres also going to be a doortodoor effort at some point to get people to have their shots. Going to Little League baseball games, going to supermarkets, knocking on peoples doors to have the vaccine. And the Johnson Johnson shot would aid that effort immensely. So there is concern about this as the pace of injections slows. Well be following this. A lot of information could come out today. Well be getting back to this momentarily. Hundreds of mourners filled a Minneapolis Church yesterday for the funeral of Daunte Wright, the 20yearold black man who was fatally shot by police earlier this morning during a traffic stop. In the early this month, excuse me. In the emotional twohour service, civil rights leaders, family members, and lawmakers all came together to pay their final respects amid calls for justice and Police Reform. Here is some of Daunte Wrights mothers tribute to her son. And then some of Reverend Al Sharptons eulogy. I never imagined that be standing here. The roles should completely be reversed. My son should be burying me. My son had a smile that was worth a million dollars. When he walked in the room, he lit up the room. He was a brother, a jokester, he was loved by so many. Hes going to be so missed. I was talking to one of the relatives and i said, well, why are they what are they trying to justify . They said, once, they said they saw some Air Fresheners in the back of the car. Well, we come today as the Air Fresheners for minnesota. We trying to get the stench of Police Brutality out of the atmosphere. Were trying to get the stench of racism out of the atmosphere. Were trying to get the stench of racial profiling out of the atmosphere. We come to minnesota as Air Fresheners, because your air is too odorous for us to breathe. We cant breathe in your stinking air no more. As i talk closer to the family, they said that, well, the real reason they stopped was because his tags had expired. Well, i come to medicine to tell you, your tags have expired. Your tags of racism have expired. Its time to renew and get some new tags. A tags of righteousness. A tags of fairness. A tags of treating everybody the same way. Tags of no justice, no peace. Rev, youve preached at too many of these to hear another mother saying, i shouldnt be standing here burying my baby, he should burying me some day. What was it look to be there in minnesota yesterday . It was very emotional. And i think that some of the real lift the family got was that so many other families, the family of philando castile, who was also killed by police in minneapolis, George Floyds family, who just two days ago watched a policeman convicted of three counts. Two counts of murder, two counts of manslaughter. All of these families were there, so it gave them a sense of bonding and people who understood their pain. So the thing that really gets you is that youre going to funerals of people that were killed by police. And youre standing there telling the family that, yes, this is wrong, but you have to have the strength to fight on. And youre telling the community, these are not all police, because ten police testified at the trial of Derek Chauvin, which is what helped to lead to his conviction. But at the same time, weve got to have federal legislation to deal with how we can make sure we hold criminal police accountable. So it was all of that mixed together, the governor was there, both the u. S. Senators were there. He was really given a tremendous send off, but who wants a sendoff at 20 years old, because they say the tags on your car expired and the Police Officer said, i thought i had a taser in my hand and it was a gun and killed him . Yesterday, of course, was all about grieving that young man. But is there a sense, rev, as you travel around and talk to people that the conviction of Derek Chauvin is some kind of an inflection point, that things may change. We hear congresswoman karen bass talking yesterday about the likelihood of getting the george floyd policing bill through. Tim scott talking about it on the other side. Is there a sense that in this moment, things may change . I think that the possibility of change is absolutely there at this moment. Ive talked to congresswoman bass. Ive talked to senator cory booker. There are conversations going with tim scott. If, as you saw a conviction of chauvin, and then you see during the trial, the killing of Daunte Wright, and now we have a situation were looking to see what it is in ohio and north carolina, all in this short period of time. Breonna taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and all of these cases happen right around the time of george floyd. If we cant do it now, when will we ever be able to do it . I think the time has come for the nation to deal with it. President biden and Vice President harris has said it needs to be dealt with. We are seeing the absolute time that policing must be defined by the federal government. And if we dont do it, well continue to see these things and it will end up tearing this society apart in an irreparable way. Reverend al, thank you for being there yesterday. In a rare bipartisan vote, the Senate Overwhelmingly passed the covid19 hate crimes act. The bill is aimed at curbing the rise in antiasian hate that have spiked since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, crimes against asians. The Senate Passed the bill in a sweeping 941 vote. The bill now heads to the house. Senator mazie hirono spoke about the importance of the legislation after the vote. I cannot tell you how important this bill is to the Api Community who often has felt very invisible in our country, always seen as foreign. Always seen as the other. As important as the content and substance of the bill is the message of this bill that we in the senate are going to stand with our Api Community and indeed, any community that is discriminated against. The lone senator to vote against the legislation was Republican Josh Hawley of missouri. He explained his decision not to back the bill in a statement that reads, quote, its too broad. As a former prosecutor, my view is its dangerous to simply give the federal government openended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents. Joining us now, former aide to the george w. Bush white house and state departments, elise jordan, and senior columnist for the daily beast, matt lewis. I guess i need to understand more what josh hawley is talking about. Matt, can you explain what too broad at this point would mean . He was the only senator to vote against a bill, trying to stop asian hate crimes. It seems like a nobrainer and 94 others felt that way. Right, mika, to put it in context, ted cruz thought this was a good idea. What was persuaded to, ultimately, with amendments. Tom cotton thought this was worth voting for. So these are pretty conservative republicans who voted for it. Josh hawley did not. And i think this has more to do with the fact that he is staking out, as kind of one man, nobody to the right of me turf. And this is not the first time weve seen this happen in the case of some confirmations, where josh hawley is just staking out this pretty extreme territory. And i guess the bet is that when he runs for president in 2024, one of these issues will be potent and hell invoke it, probably in a debate against ted cruz. But, yeah, he is a very lonely voice this morning. Elise jordan, what is the message being sent by his no vote here . I want to second what matt said about josh hawley going out of his way to really outcruz ted cruz which is quite something. And you have to really work hard to try to be more loathe than ted cruz, but josh hawley seems to have decided that is his way and his glide path to the republican nomination. I was struck, though, by the bipartisan cooperation and senator susan collins, what she did on the other side of the aisle with senator hirono. And the 19th has great reporting on those two women worked together to bring together this Bipartisan Group and consensus that its completely unacceptable that there have been over 3,800 reported hate crimes against Asian Americans over the last year. And so that the overwhelming 94 votes for this bill shows the seriousness with which lawmakers are taking this. And its a strong statement. And its an important one. And im glad that we could come together on this issue. Yeah, and matt, moving beyond josh hawley, mr. Insurrection, what does this outcome bode for Police Reform and infrastructure and other bills . Is there hope that there will be more bipartisan outcomes . We can certainly hope for that. Infrastructure, honestly, i think that a lot of that is in the hands of joe biden in terms of infrastructure. I think that you definitely could get republican support. Probably not for 2 trillion. Probably not for things that we call infrastructure, but are actually not infrastructure. So i actually put that in joe bidens hands. In terms of Police Reform, that is something that i would really hope could happen. And this is an area where we actually have seen in the past some bipartisan work done, right . Even donald trump was able to work on criminal justice reform. Obviously, this is something that tim scott, the South Carolina senator, is passionate about and has talked about in the past. So that i see some cause for hope here, without being too naive or quixotic. All right Jonathan Lemire, on the question of bipartisanship, its something that President Biden has actually been striving for, hasnt achieved it, obviously. Hes brought in those republican senators, first on the covid relief plan and then on this infrastructure plan. No votes yet. Is Hope Dwindling that there actually might be a breakout of bipartisanship under President Biden . Well, willie, i think we saw some small signs of progress yesterday on a few different issues. Certainly this, josh hawley aside, on this covid hate crime bill. There seems to be certainly some momentum on policing, which is also good. I should note, there appears to be no momentum on any sort of bipartisan solution on guns. That is something that, of course, has reemerged as a daily a neardaily dangerous headline with all of these Mass Shootings that weve seen across the country. The white house would like to start moving on that, but so far theres been zero appetite from republicans. But the big under shadowing over all of this, of course, is this well north of 2 trillion infrastructure bill. And the white house has not given up yet on bipartisanship. Theyre giving themselves some time. They feel like there wont be a final version of the legislation until memorial day. Thats still five, six weeks away. Theyve had meetings with republicans. I was at the white house earlier this week when the president hosted a couple of different groups of republicans. And though the gop, at least so far, are much, much smaller than where the white house wants to be. Theyre looking for a transformative bill. And they are prepared, as much as they would like to have bipartisan support, to go it alone. But i should note one more thing. In order to do reconciliation, they need to of course have this bill passed and there have been some Warning Signs even among democrats who dont love everything in there, who may, indeed, object to it and it would cause some revisions to this bill. Theres a long way to go in these negotiations, even if the white house is eventually trying to push it through via reconciliation with no republican support. Were going to move to the developing story out of russia. Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny says he is filled with pride and hope after learning about the protests demanding his freedom this week. In an Instagram Post, the imprisoned navalny called his supporters the salvation of russia, for protesting across the country on wednesday. The protests seem to have had an impact, according to a top aide for navalny. He says as soon as they were announced, the putin critic was moved from a Prison Hospital to a civilian hospital. Meanwhile, russia has ordered its troops to withdraw from the Ukraine Border after recent Military Action sparked concerns all the way to washington. Troops will return to their permanent bases by may 1st, though some weapons and Armored Vehicles will stay. Back to former nato commander admiral james stavridis. Admiral, give us a sense of what the status is in terms of u. S. Relationship with russia and how Alexei Navalny symbolically plays a huge role in this. Yeah, both are correct, mika. Lets start with mr. Navalny, whos really become a global figure at this point. And deservedly, so. He has managed an extraordinary level of activity in an utterly oppressive authoritarian state. I give him his enormous credit for his strength of character and his ability to move a message. Its really quite remarkable. I think its having a real impact into Foreign Affairs broadly. Putin is feeling the heat on the international scene. And that brings us to ukraine. Here you see 100,000 Russian Troops on the border. Thats a Massive Movement of troops. Think about the u. S. Moving 100,000 troops to the border of mexico, for example. Its an absurd thought. But theyve done so. Now theyve kind of blinked and are stepping back a bit. Did navalny have something to do with that . Perhaps. As well as the sense i think that Vladimir Putin isoverexten ukraine, on navalny. And i think hes waking up to that fact. Elise jordan has the next question. Elise . Admiral, Alexei Navalnys statement yesterday was just incredibly moving. And you realized just how high the stakes are for his mission and for the russian people who want a better life with freedom and to be removed from Vladimir Putins authoritarianism. What should the International Community be doing . What more could the International Community be doing to support Alexei Navalny and his mission . Thats such a wellphrased question, elise, in the sense that people would normally say, what should the u. S. Be doing about this . And theres an answer to that question. But the real Heart Of The Matter is the way you phrased the question. Its, what should the International Community be doing . We need to get this out of the channel of u. S. Versus russia and get it into russia versus the world. And so, i would start with bringing our european allies who are closest to this issue, very close to us, including nato. And weve seen the Secretary General opine on this, but it really needs to be even broader to this democratic of nation idea that the Biden Administration i think quite correctly is pursuing. Japan, new zealand, australia, all of our pacific allies. Our friends in latin america and the caribbean, our friends in africa. There are nations, a hundred and more, who will take on this issue with us. And to answer the specific of the question, frankly, its sanctions. If you look back to apartheid and what finally brought down that regime in south africa, it was international sanctions. They need to go higher and need to be more personally directed, perhaps reaching into the office of the president of russia, Vladimir Putin. Youve been busy, but keeping an eye on Alexei Navalny. His condition in these marches in the streets of moscow . And certainly as an activist, you have to admire navalny. But i want to ask admiral. He just touched on something. I was honored to be with Nelson Mandela when he addressed the u. N. On sanctions and youre saying sanctions could work in terms of where the Global Community could rally around navalny. What is the way you feel, knowing and studied how putin operates, is there a way he could release navalny or change his position on him without saving or risking him losing face as the you know, invincible leader of russia that cant be questioned . Yeah, youre a student of these movements, rev. And the short answer is, i think putin would gladly allow navalny to leave, to go to germany, to go to western europe, to come to the United States, to go to harvard and set up a center and just get him off the stage. And navalny, decidedly, will not allow that. And navalny, what i really admire him, like Nelson Mandela is hes putting his life on the line, minute by minute, day by day, month by month. Hes in it for the long haul and he will not allow putin to simply remove him from the stage. Admiral, we havent talked to you since last week when the Biden Administration announced that troops in afghanistan will be coming home before the 20th Anniversary of september 11th. Whats your reaction to it . Its goten mixed reviews from some of your friends, former military and current military, as well, admirals, generals, general petraeus doesnt like the move. Others say its time to come home. Where do you fall on that spectrum . I think all of us who have the dust of afghanistan on our boots, i manned that mission for four years, all of us have mixed feelings, to be honest with you. If i were advising President Biden, i would have said, you know, its only 2,500 troops. Keep a small presence there. When i commanded the mission, there were 150,000 troops, willie. Now were down to 2,500 u. S. Troops. Its leverage. But its an issue upon which reasonable people can disagree and therefore, in the end. Like i think all military, the other side of the coin is, we are at the end of a long road in the military context. Whats important, ill conclude with this is weve got to keep the political, the diplomatic, the economic pressures that we can bring to bear at play in afghanistan, to keep the heat on the taliban. If were going to withdraw that military instrument, weve got to substitute for it. And ill close by saying, my good friend bill burns over at the cia is going to have his hands full. Hes got to construct intelligence, protect our interest, keep an eye out for a reflash from al qaida or the Islamic State without u. S. Military boots on the ground. Thats a big job for our cia officers. Retired admiral james stavridis, thank you so much for being on this morning. We really appreciate it. Have a great weekend. Still ahead on morning joe, republicans unveil their counterproposal to President Bidens massive infrastructure plan. What do democrats and the white house think of it . Plus, new reporting about the barrage of criticism republican criticism liz cheney faced from her male colleagues after voting for president trumps impeachment. A fascinating story. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Ure watchi well be right back. We made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. When a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. Oh, we can help with that. Okay, imagine this. Your mover, rob, hes on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. 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And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. Yesterday, joe and i were on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which we discussed the current state and direction of the Republican Party. Robert draper wrote a story talking about liz cheney. One of the more conservative people in washington, d. C. , conservative with a capital c. And draper interviewed a republican who said, yeah, you know, she used to be a conservative until she said, you know, donald trump should be impeached. Which is just absolutely ridiculous. Their definition of conservative, their definition of what a good republican is is somebody who is in this Personality Cult Following donald trump. And its sad, because conservatism has suffered because of it. The Republican Party is i think going to suffer in the longterm because of it. So heres more from Robert Drapers piece in the New York Times magazine that joe was referencing. He writes in part to the one third of the conference who wanted her removed from the leadership position, cheney offered no gesture of appeasement. Standing outside the Visitor Center conference room, cheney described the vote to reporters as a very resounding acknowledgement that we can move forward together. But this was true in only the most limited sense. A clear fracture in the gop between those who continue to view trump as the party leader and those now led by cheney, who wanted to move past him and his presidency went unaddressed. As for cheney, who had until recently been viewed as a potential rival of mccarthy for the title of house party leader, her standing it and with it her career was far from a settled matter. The conference voted to keep liz in that position because weve got bigger fish to try, fighting the democrats, winning the next election, and this is a distraction from all of that, jeff duncan of South Carolina, who voted against cheney in the meeting later told me. But he added, i think theres a huge disconnect with liz and some others in the conference and the American People. She did have a conservative record, but then she became almost a never trumper, and ive been disappointed in her lack of humility. It struck a lot of people as not only odd, but just as wow. Matt lewis, wow. Your thoughts . I think liz cheney is heroic. Shes like The Iron Lady of the Republican Party right now. Shes tough. You know, a lot of times weve seen people who well, most people either, you know, cave to donald trump, bow down to him. And then there are people who stand up to trump. They do it in sort of a weakkneed way. Not liz cheney. She is tough, she is a fighter. She never backed down. She is defiant. I think its heroic. I think its admiral. I think its what its going to take if were ever going to wrest the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party back and i think theres a semantic issues here at play. Earlier on this show, i referred to ted cruz and tom cotton as being very conservative. You could say that theyre actually radicals. Liz cheney is a real conservative. And shes also a fighter. And theres more from drapers piece, male gop lawmakers harshly criticized congresswoman liz cheney during that Conference Meeting over her decision to vote to impeachment trump. Several of the comments were decidedly sexist and sparked outrage among gop women in washington. One such comment has generated particular outrage. Pennsylvania congressman mike kelly reportedly said, quote, you look up into the stands and you see your girlfriend on the opposition side. Thats one hell of a tough thing to swallow. According to the times, a female colleague yelled in response, shes not your girlfriend but the comment quickly spread among the female gop circles. I would think some men were shocked by this too. In other comments, congresswoman ralph norman insisted that cheney has a, quote, Defiant Attitude and congressman John Rutherford chastised cheney for not being, quote, a team player. The Conference Meeting went so far as to have several members requesting that cheney apologize for her vote, to which the congresswoman responded, i cannot do that. So elise now, i feel i have to chime in here, although im sure liz cheney does not need to hear this from me. But she is a woman and knows her value. And it just seem like weve got a bunch of whiners here, who are still kowtowing to an insurrectionist, which makes their words even more pathetic. Like, theyre afraid of her and they want her gone or something. Well, and mika, also, just addressing a member of your leadership as its your girlfriend in the opposing stands. What . and telling her that she isnt being humble enough, she isnt being conciliatory enough. Basically, theyre saying, you arent bowing down to us. And liz cheney is refusing to do that. I and love the reporting in this piece brought by Robert Draper is just incredible. And the details of how liz cheney said, lets do a vote. Lets vote whether to keep me or let me go. And she knew she had counted her vote. She won the vote. And was confident that at the end of the day, there were enough republican men who did not want to support an insurrection by donald trump, but she knew that they were cowards. And they werent willing to do what she was willing to do, which was to go forth publicly, put her cards on the table, and say, its unacceptable for the president of the United States to not accept the results of ar capitol. And unfortunately, there are very few republican men who are willing to follow her lead. Jonathan lemire, as reported in the story and weve heard previously, many republicans asked liz cheney, go out and apologize for her vote to impeach. To go out and publicly apologize. She said flatly, i cannot do that. But as elise points out. We should pull back and remind people why shes become an outcast in the party, because she would not vote to overturn an election. A free and fair election, that republican and democratic across the country said was free, fair, and secure. Shes an outcast because she wouldnt go along for the ride on the insurrection. Willie, you say it very well. And that is thats it. And it is a lie told by then President Donald Trump. A lie that is still shaping the Republican Party. And it shows trumps continued influence that, yes, there are a couple of republicans who have broken from him. Most notably, liz cheney, mitt romney, one or two others. But they are very few and far between. And even now, this shows his continued hold over the direction of the gop. And youre seeing some, as mentioned, josh hawley, i completely agree with comments earlier. This is his chance to position himself for a 2024 race. Weve seen ted cruz do similar stunts. But the field is frozen a little bit here. Even mike pompeo can go to iowa and we can talk about mike pences book. But its hard to imagine many of those members of the Republican Party really jumping out there until they know that donald trump himself is not going to run. And people around him, the former president , say its too early to make that decision. Some of them will lean against it. They dont think he will, because theres risk losing a second time and being branded in history as a loser. But hell milk this for as long as he can. That much is clear, everyone agrees. Hes not making the decision anytime soon. So therefore, most republicans fearful of his influence, even without twitter, and mindful of how popular he remains among the republican base, are largely going to stay in line. Therefore you will see more moments like this, where the few who are willing to speak out against him, like representative cheney take heat from members of their own party and would need to stand strong in face of that criticism. Rev, its still his party. Republicans go down, make the pilgrimageage to maralago. Nikki haley viewed as a frontrunner, maybe not this time, but next time says, im not running if he runs, explicitly saying, this party belongs to donald trump. It is really a classic example of them misreading the public. Because while they are still in this cult as Joe Scarborough likes to say, of personality with donald trump, the American People, even republicans, are on a daily basis more and more moving away from that kind of politics. And theyre stuck there. And to act as though liz cheney was the unfaithful girlfriend, thats really what theyre saying, is the height of misogyny. But it is classic trumpism. That is the way that trump and those that follow him think. The person i think that will break loose is the one that has the courage to say trump has no place in our party and begin rallying against that. And if they started now and did that for three years, they could build a real following. The antitrump is the one to watch for 2024. All right. Reverend al, thank you so much. And matt lewis, thank you, as well. Now to the inside story of one of the most powerful women in american political history. Joining us now, Washington Bureau chief for usa today, susan page. Shes the author of the new book, mada Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the lessons of power. Susan, congratulations on this book. I cant imagine what a pleasure it must have been to be working on this. What are some of the key stories or points about Speaker Pelosi that surprised even you when you were working on this . You know, mika, one thing that surprised me was, of course, we know that shes the daughter of a legendary political figure in baltimore, they were as prominent as the kennedys of boston when Nancy Dalesandro was born. But one thing that surprised me was the influence of her mother. Her mother was name big nancy. She was known as little nancy, a nickname she didnt get away from until she went to college. Her mother was a restless, ambitious, curious entrepreneurial, risktaking figure ahead of her time. Nancy pelosi told me, if her mother was born today, she would be president of the United States. So the influence of her mom was, i think, one of the most interesting things that i have discovered. Yeah, and its ion, people often think this is because of her heritage, especially, that she was always in politics. But she had a whole life, and i believe, five kids, before she entered politics. Yeah, thats right. And she said that having five kids, raising them, which she did before she got into elected office, was the best possible training for being speaker of the house. Mother of five kids, so youre dealing with chaos, youre trying to deal with grievances real and imagined. Youre dealing with shifting alliances within the family all the time. And she says this to woman to whom she tries to recruit to run for office. Sometimes women say, im not qualified, im just a homemaker. And she said, that was what taught her the skills that she has applied in this remarkable, historic career as the leader of house democrats. Thats so funny. Elise jordan, jump in. Over the course of researching your book, what was the most surprising thing that you learned about Speaker Pelosi . Well, you know, to think about her relationship with donald trump, one thing i found was that she had actually intended to retire after the 2016 election. She assumed, like a lot of us, that Hillary Clinton was going to be elected president , Hillary Clinton would protect the Affordable Care act and other democratic priorities. She could step away. So election night, 2016, she sees that donald trump is winning the presidency. She says, it was like the kick of a mule, the physical kick of a mule, it made her change her plans on the spot. She decided to stay in and of course she became the face of the democratic opposition to donald trump for the next four years. Jonathan lemire . Susan, congrats on the book. You certainly nailed it right there, when Hillary Clinton lost, nancy pelosi became Donald Trumps foil when he was in office to great success. I want to give you a pitch forward. Obviously was now, democrats have the white house and the senate and nancy pelosi is still speaker. Whats your perception, whats your reporting tell you that youve talked to so many people close to the speaker about whats next for her in terms of how she views this, what could be perhaps her final term as speaker. How she views this as sort of a coda to what has been such a remarkable career. Of course, shes dealt with a series of president s. Some in battles like donald trump, some in alliances like barack obama. But there has been no president she is closer to than joe biden. She told me in an interview last week that he will be a transformative president. He says his experience on capitol hill is so deep that they can speak in shorthand. But i agree, i think this is likely to be her last term in congress as the leader of house democrats. She is ready to step back once again as she had planned to do years ago. You know, she is 81 years old. And in any other workplace than congress, that would be a natural retirement age. The new book is madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the lessons of power. Susan page, congratulations. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your book with us this morning. And still ahead, an historic morning for spacex as the Company Launches its third crew into space in under a year on a recycled rocket. Plus, President Biden calls for new action on Climate Change and lays out his goals for cutting Greenhouse Gas emissions. Well talk to White House National climate adviser Gina Mccarthy about that. Morning joe will be right back. Will be right back the lexus es, now available with allwheel drive. This rain is bananas. Lease the 2021 es 250 allwheel drive for 339 a month for 39 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Not everybody wants the same thing. Allwheel drive for 339 a month for 39 months. Thats why i go with Liberty Mutual they customize my Car Insurance so i only pay for what i need. cause i do things a bit differently. 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T ouour Juryry Aorneneys Hehi called the barnes firm. That was the best call i couldve made. Im rich barnes. Its hard for people to know how much their Accident Case is let our Injury Attorneys know he how much their Accident Cget the best result possible. Lets talk about something serious here for a second. Marijuana has been legalized in new york. Yeah. Who would you rather get high with . Mika or joe. I love how you said, lets get serious here for a second and i was anticipating something different. But im going to go joe on this one. Heres why. Joe can do deep dives on all the things you talk about when youre high, im told. You went to vanderbilt, buddy. Nice try any response . He picked joe . Yes. Yeah. Oh. Im surprised, too. That glass of red wine tells me youre ready to relax at all times here. Joe, how do you take that description as you as the guy who can get deep on the doob. You know what ive never seen i would love if i were going to do that, willie would be the guy i would choose. Really . Okay. Why . Gayle king. Gayle king. Well thats who i was going to ask, what broadcaster would you want to get high with . Absolutely. You have no idea what shes going to say when shes not high, so. Well, mika, i have a solution welcome back to morning joe. All of us together. You, me, joe and gayle. And donny. Lets get donny, too. No, that would be awful. Theoretically. You know, i think the best idea is to just not. Welcome back to morning joe. It is friday, april 23rd. That was fun last night on colbert. And thanks, willie, for picking joe. Well talk. It wasnt it was a binary choice. Its not to say that i wouldnt want to enjoy those pleasures with you as well. Yeah . Okay. I would pick steve rattner. Steve rattner would be the guy i would pick. Okay. You know, talking about how crazy things would get. Thats the guy i would go with. Think about those charts. The aps Jonathan Lemire is still with us. Joining the conversation, we have nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early, kasie hunt. Donny deutsch is here. And Associate Professor of Political Science at fordham university, christina grier. We apologize for this conversation, Christina Joe will be back on monday. Were going to get to the news now. Lawmakers on capitol hill take a key step forward toward Police Reform. We have new reporting on that in just a moment. But first, we want to look at this weeks verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, one of the alternate jurors is recounting the testimony she heard and is weighing in on why she feels she would have voted guilty. She spoke with nbc news correspondent Gabe Gutierrez who filed this report. Its really sad. How did a 20 bill in question end up in somebodys death . It boggles my mind. Reporter Lisa Christiansen was one of the alternate jurors who did not get to deliberate over Derek Chauvins fate. Were you disappointed when you were dismissed from the jury . Absolutely, i was. Reporter you wanted to vote . You would have voted guilty . I would have. What stood out to me, that video, they took a still photo of it, him on mr. Floyds neck with his hand in his pocket. I feel like he was being defiant. You would you have liked to have seen Derek Chauvin testify i dont think no, i dont think it would have helped him. She lives in Brooklyn Center outside of minneapolis, not far from where protests erupted following the Police Shooting death of Daunte Wright in the middle of the chauvin trial. I could hear all the press helicopters. Also, i could hear the flash bangs going on. Reporter but she says it did not impact her work on the jury. For her, the prosecutions key witness was dr. Martin tobin, the worldrenowned pulmonologist that testified that george floyd died to a lack of oxygen, not drugs or a Heart Condition. What was so powerful to me, he pointed out when mr. Floyd actually lost his life. Reporter also crucial, the emotional testimony from the bystanders, especially the younger ones. My eyes started watering and i started tearing up. Everything was so real and genuine. I felt their feelings and their guilt. One of the alternate jurors there. Gabe gutierrez reporting for us. Lets turn to Police Reform. Democratic congresswoman karen bass says shes blessing of house leadership to enter into negotiations with tim scott. And yesterday she received word that she can move forward. She has our full support. She is fair, she wants to get it done. I trust karen bass knowledge of the subject, but also her knowledge of the ramifications that it would have on the people that were trying to protect, which is everybody in our country. Including our Law Enforcement officers. So, i would i trust her to keep on the table what can be accomplished. Reporter Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell who has already praised senator scotts efforts is next so to sign off on formal negotiations. Congresswoman bass says she and the South Carolina republican already have been Trading Documents and exploring areas of compromise. Senator scott said earlier this week, a deal may be reached within the next two weeks. So, kasie, were talking about the sort of back and forth negotiations on this. But lets get into the policy of it. Where are the areas that they might agree and where are the Sticking Points . So willie, the top Sticking Point here is what to do about something thats called qualified immunity. And thats a way of describing whether Police Officers are liable themselves for their conduct, when something bad happens, or whether it is simply the Police Department or some other entity that a family would have to sue. So republicans are concerned about removing, eliminating qualified immunity, whereas democrats say, thats what we absolutely need to do in order to have any meaningful change here. There are also conversations around other things like noknock warrants, like choke holds. Those are issues that came up in the cases of Breonna Taylor Breonna Taylor and eric garner in new york. So those are some of the other things here. But broadly, i think they are prepared to make some changes. Theres some discussions about whether they may be able come to a compromise, for example, on the qualified immunity question by making Police Departments more liable in those particular cases. So i think from a big picture perspective, we are at this point where there seems to be a willingness for both sides to talk to each other on this. A push to actually do something that republicans may go along with. I think that underscores the impact, wlapd to george floyd, the protests that have swept the country and the impact that has had on our politics. Professor grier, im just curious, in studying the event that led up to the death of george floyd, and also the events that led up to the death, everything that happened before the shot was fired into Daunte Wright, leading to his death, what does Police Reform really look like and is it all about the cops . Is it only about the cops . Mika, im sorry, im still jarred every time i see the video of Derek Chauvin leaning on george floyd. We cant get pun to that, thats one. But i think we have a real conversation about institutional change. Many of the Police Officers in the minnesota Police Department have gone through extra training and clearly it didnt work. Well see that when the other remaining officers go on trial in august. A great start is we have Merrick Garland at the head of the doj and hopefully some really substantiative change, if we confirm kristen clark, the work of Juanita Gupta and Civil Rights Division will set some pregnant not just in the doj that will trickle down to Police Departments across the country, large and small. Its beyond a few bad apples and a few incidents. We have to have a real, widespread, systemic clearing out of officers and officers who aid and abet type of behavior. There are far too many communities and families that have gone through this very same thing that the floyd family have gone through and we dont even know about it. You think about what that does to a community, it has to be a system change from washington, d. C. To Police Departments across the country. Absolutely. Republicans have a 568 billion counterproposal for an infrastructure package, one that republican senator Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia calls, quote, the most robust plan that weve ever put forward as republicans. Nbc news reports it calls for 299 billion for roads and bridges, more than 60 billion for both broadband and infrastructure and Public Transit systems, 35 billion for Drinking Water and wastewater. 44 billion for airports and 20 billion for rail systems. It also sets aside a collective 45 billion for ports, water storage, and safety items. The plan calls for the tax cuts passed under former President Donald Trump to be kept in tact and to repurpose federal funding passed as part of Relief Packages for infrastructure spending. White House Press Secretary jen psaki said aides plan to look into the details of the proposal and discuss it with Congressional Staff in the coming days. Donny deutsch, hearing the framework of what the republicans are putting forward, just, the hope for bipartisanship, i dont know, is it dimming a bit . I think its dimming. Im a little bit more on the side of the republicans at this point. Im a deficit hawk. I ran a business and at some point, you cant just keep spending. And i know were giving biden a lot of, you know, kudos for making a lot of big moves. But i think the coronavirus package could have done the job with half the amount of money. And i dont know if we need the total amount of the infrastructure bill. You start to get to a point where your gut tells you, you just cant keep spending and basically bottomless pit. At some point, the music is going to stop and there are going to be people without chairs. Its very easy to get caught up the public is buying of course the public is behind it. If you said to the public, lets send 5,000 to everybody and bankrupt the government, it will be fine. At some point, and also at some point, i know im going to get lambasted from this as the guy at some point, taxes get to a point where its just, you cant raise taxes to a certain point where you start not to deincentivize capitalism. Im going to get thrown off the air for all of this stuff. Everybody knows where my heart is, but theres something as a Business Guys that tells me, were running a little amok here. Theres a lot of other reasons that we would throw you off right now, actually. Kasie, in the list that i read, and i know that theyre going through this with far more detail, but was there any room for bipartisanship or for some sort of agreement in this republican proposal . Well, mika, i dont think thats laid out in the republican proposal in terms of spending is necessarily going to be disagreements. I think the difference is simply how much and what kinds of projects are you willing to pay for. And you know, just to push back slightly on what donny had to say, the idea that the Biden Administration has put forward is to pay for a lot of this with an increase on corporate rates that would not take those corporate rates up as high as they were before. They were under 30 under the Trump Administration. Theyve been there for a long time. We have rates that are competitive compared to other western countries. The Trump Administration lowered them all the way down to 21 if joe manchin said 25. Were not talking about some sort of Business Count increase that would be Out Of This World or a huge change away from the capitalist society that we have been living in this entire time. And its actually popular with voters when you say, okay were going to rebuild bridges in your town, help make it easier for you to take care of your elderly or aging parents. Were going to offer additional family leave and were going to do it by taxing corporations. That plays well, and also doesnt necessarily represent the type of Deficit Spending that might get us into trouble. The reality is, we may see a bill where that doesnt happen because it is hard politically to raise taxes and democrats are still likely to go it alone. And they may do it that way. They may use more Deficit Spending than what was laid out initially in the Biden Administration plan. So its complicated. But i think that the top line here, mika, i would say is that people are actually talking to each other. There are efforts underway. Some of them are bearing fruit, not necessarily here, but in other areas. That bodes well across the board. Jonathan lemire, you know were talking big numbers whe 568 billion is a Lowball Offer from republicans. What does the white house do with this counterproposal . Weve heard in the last couple of days from senator chris coons, a democrat from delaware talking about breaking this up and doing the infrastructure, the roads and bridges that the parties agree on as one bill where you could get 60 votes and doing the rest on reconciliation. How is the white house taking this counteroffer from republicans . Yeah, willie, we havent seen dollar signs this big since we totaled up what the yankees spent okay, you went a long way for that. The white house is looking at this, yes, they are hoping to do this in a bipartisan fashion. But one of their arguments here. President trump and the republicans cut your taxes more than you requested. All were trying to do now is bring it back up a little bit. Nowhere near where it was before. A politically popular measure. So thats part of this. They also suggested perhaps some openness to paying for some of it by user advisories, like tolls and so on. Thats something thats being negotiated. Were also seeing, though, to disappoint donny, theres going to be more. In the president s speech next week on wednesday, when he hits the 100day mark. Thats when he unveiled part 2 of this program, which could be another 1 trillion. This one more focused on health care and child care and reshaping the american economy. More of the personal rather bricks and mortar. And yes, this is all up for negotiation. The white house has taken a very different tact here than they did with the covid relief bill. They said, look, this is what were doing, we want to do this as quickly as possible. Were not going to negotiate much around the margins. They got that done in under two months, signed into law. This one, theyre giving themselves a lot more time. Theyre willing to perhaps right now they want to do it in one big piece. Theyre not ruling out splitting it up. Theyre not ruling out anything. Initial promise around memorial day, hash it out over the summer, have it done by september. That seems to be the rough timeline. They believe that gives them the freedom and flexibility to come forth with some sort of deal that perhaps could get republican support. But again, they have the Reconciliation Card in their back pocket. They can do it on party lines if they have to. Christina grier, im just curious. What do you think bipartisanship means when the Biden Administration touts it, is it because a certain measure or proposal is popular in the country in a bipartisan way among democrats and republicans or actually getting votes from republicans, which could be hard to come by on some levels. I think it will be difficult to come by, for sure, because republicans have shown theyre just not interested in working with democrats in many ways and want to be obstinate still posttrump days. But we have a few areas of optimism. One, joe biden was a Public Servant for several decades and he can have some hard conversations with some of his colleagues, hoping to pull them out of the haze that they were under, under donald trump, and convince them that this is whats best for the American People. And hopefully, one, maybe two will break away from their party and be brave and do whats best. Unlike kasie, i am going to push back on donny, because part of the Social Safety Net is what democrats constantly try to build and explain to their republican colleagues. This is what needs to happen. We see this pendulum constantly spring. Republicans give tax breaks to the wealthy on some antiquated reaganomics trickledown nonsense, which just doesnt happen. White people dont put the money back into the economy and democrats have to come back in and build the Social Safety Nets. Republicans come back into power and give tax breaks again to the wealthy. This is a cycle that has to end. And hopefully joe biden can articulate to certain senators especially, that it is in the best interest for them and their stay to actually help pass this bill for the good of the American People. Okay, donny, you have been voted off the island, so. Yes, can i can i do a little im saying things that a lot of people believe. We cant keep spending. Its common sense. Kay, kay. What do you mean, kay . I ran a business. I want puppy dogs and ice cream and fairy tales and all of these things. You cant just keep spending. Its that simple. Youve got to look at a ledger sheet. It doesnt its just basic economics. And if you got a lot of economists on that dont agree with you. I know im the bad guy and a grinch and scrooge and all of it and im a progressive guy. I know at some point, i look at a ledger sheet, it goes and goes and goes and at some point it blows. Im a bad guy. Ill go to fox. Theres nothing wrong with spending as long as people pay their fair share of taxes. And thats where the rubber hits the road. Im a guy that if you add up what im paying, im in trouble. Im going to get killed on this one. Im paying over 70 cent on the dollar. But, historically im going to stop. Donny, go to the corporate tax. Forget about you and your furniture budget. We can see that behind you. But go to the are there helicopter taxes . Corporate taxes, going up to 28 . What does that do to your company . By the way, im okay with that. Lets focus on the spending. You just cant keep spending guys. No matter how i slice it, im coming from a place where im an easy target. You cant just keep spending. Lets leave it at that. To validate, i actually do understand what you are saying and it is a valid point, donny. But we arent kidding about voting you off the island. Well revisit this. Its a really good conversation and debate. Well move now to russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny addressing his supporters in an emotional Instagram Post yesterday. The Imprisoned Putin Critic wrote in part that hes proud to be a part of the people who are not afraid to, despite all the anger and hatred that is now flowing from the kremlin. Because Vladimir Putin understands to be afraid now is to lose, sell, and waste your own future. You walked with me yesterday, but today i will lie on the bunk and imagine how i am walking with you and for you. Joining us now, correspondent for gq magazine, julia ioffe. Julia, if you could tell us everything you know about exactly whats happening with Alexei Navalny and why his life sort of hangs in the balance in this u. S. russia relationship, because in some ways, some might say that putin would want to get rid of him. At the same time, it seems like that would be the last thing they would want to happen now. Can you explain that . Well, putin did try to get rid of him in august of last year, as we now know, poisoned Alexei Navalny with novichok, a Military Grade Nerve Agent and he barely survived made it out there and returned to russia knowing that he would be arrested, the authority said as much, and he was arrested right at passport control, was separated from his wife, taken into custody and eventually given a two and a half year sentence. Hes been experiencing numbness in hisextremities, in his hands and feet and not clear if this is something new or the aftereffects of the nerve agent, because so few people have survived poisoning with novichok. And heads been on Hunger Strike for over three weeks now, consuming only water. And people who have seen him, including his lawyer, say he, you know this past weekend, they said he could die at any moment and that it was just a matter of days. Yesterday, we saw an open letter from his doctors saying, please stop the Hunger Strike. We got some results. We got some movement from the authorities, there was a release of his test results, he got some Vitamin Treatment and they are begging him to stop the Hunger Strike, because it has become so dangerous. I do think, though, if the kremlin did manage to off Alexei Navalny while in prison, this has been a bone of contention a little bit, if he starves himself to death in kremlin, hes kind of doing the kremlins work for him. So its a fine balancing act. But they killed boris nemkof in 2014 and suffered no repercussions. Theres very little the u. S. Can do to russia. The sanctions, russia just take it in stride and decided its worth the pain to chi their geopolitical and domestic political objectives. If Alexei Navalny, god forbid, were to die in prison, theres not that much that the u. S. Could do to punish russia and russia knows that. And so the very russian government that tried to kill him, as you described, is there an effort to try to force feed him, keep him alive because of the stakes. Or do you think the stakes are not that high . And how does he fair . What is Alexei Navalny the symbol of right now in russia, for russians . So this week, he was transferred to the hospital of a nearby penal colony, which is even worse and more notorious than the one he was in before. Former inmates have spoken about being tortured in this hospital. An orderly in this hospital was investigated for torturing a prisoner to death. So its not much of an improvement, but hes apparently getting some sort of a vitamin drip and a glucose iv, so hopefully getting pulled back from the Jaws Of Death a little bit. I think the reason you saw so many people come out to protest in moscow and st. Petersburg, including in fairly provincial towns and cities, despite all the threats coming from the kremlin, despite all of the promises of punishment for protesting, navalny remains the only voice, credible voice and organized voice of opposition to Vladimir Putin and the regime he created. And you saw this crazy russian troop buildup on the border of ukraine. At the same time, the russian government had to stop exporting grain because theyre trying to Control Prices internally, Control Prices for basic food stuffs like eggs and sugar. Theres talk of a Sugar Deficit this year in russia. A poll came out today saying that over half of russians are in favor of food stamps, because things are just not going well internally. Meanwhile, the elite is buying, you know, using taxpayer rubles, evermore lavish palaces which navalny and his team keep highlighting and i think people are sick of it. This is the only kind of feasible, barely, Alternative Tom Vladimir Putin. All right. Julia ioffe, thank you very much for being on. And still ahead on morning joe. The pause in the use of Johnson Johnsons Coronavirus Vaccine could soon be lifted. But has the white house already written off the shot . Plus, we continue our conversation about whether wearing a mask is necessary if youre outside. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Utside youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Birds flyin high, you know how i feel. Breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. Its a new dawn. If youve been taking copd sitting down, its time to make a stand. Start a new day with trelegy. No oncedaily Copd Medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. With three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. It also helps prevent future flareups. Trelegy wont replace a Rescue Inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Tell your doctor if you have a Heart Condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. 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Do you think that if you are outside and not close to people you still need to wear a mask . You know, this is a question that were looking at. One of the things i think thats really important to understand is while theres wonderful news and were getting more and more people vaccinated every single day, we still had 57,000 cases of covid yesterday. We still had 733 deaths. And so while we are really trying to scale up vaccination, we have this complex message that we still have hot spots in this country and we will be looking at the outdoor masking question, but its also in the context of the fact that we still have people who are dying of covid. Thats cdc director, dr. Rochelle walensky yesterday on the today show talking about the debate over whether people should still be mandated to wear a mask outside. Joining us now, physician and fellow at the brookings institution, dr. Kavita patel. Shes a former Obama White House Health Policy director and an msnbc medical contributor. And writer and reporter for the New York Times, david leonard. It was something to watch dr. Walensky kind of hem and haw over that question. Is there any Scientific Evidence that shows that not wearing a mask far from other people outdoors is a risk of covid19 . Hi, willie, good morning. Ive rarely seen an issue that divides the Public Health community so fervently as this one. But to your question, there is very little scientific proof that if youre outdoors and youre not symptomatic and youre distant, that you do not need to wear a mask. The risk is very low. And Infection Transmission has not been recorded. I have not seen any evidence of it. And ive been telling people, prevaccination, postvaccination, if youre away from others, you do not need to wear a mask. However, we still have a lot of factors going on such as community transmission. We have places where cases still are rising. And we have the threat of variants, as well as the fact that we still only have about half the population vaccinated. So today, i think its very reasonable and i wear a mask if im an outdoor space, but with kind of crowded people, a rally or an outdoor concert of some kind and i know im not going to be able to reliable keep distant from people. So is the cdc worrying that if they say, you dont need to wear a mask outside at all if youre distant, that the American People will say, you dont need to wear a mask anywhere. Why dont they just come out and say, if youre out for a run and theres nobody around, you dont have to have your mask on. Its part messaging, and a lot of it is the science. We look at cases. Israel dropped the outdoor mask mandate, willie, only when they went to barely only cases and about 85 of their country being vaccinated. Im using that as a milestone. The cdc is looking at data kind of daily for 100,000 case rates. And the effect that you mentioned is really a critical one. If they send the signal that outdoor masks are not necessary, ive had the very conversation with mayors and governors who said, what constitutes outdoors. What im worried about more, ill be honest, the outdoor mask debate, i would much rather replace that with the indoor mask debate, which is still being debated in some states, where they do not have indoor mask requirements. And i would plea and beg to say at a minimum, make sure that we have indoor masking until we get to a certain level of vaccination. And ill just add that im watching whats happening in india and other countries. The threat of kind of concerning variants does not escape any of us who study Public Health. And as policy makers, which is what the cdc has to think of, their job is ultimately to protect and mitigate risk. And to be honest with you, i dont know how wearing a mask puts you at that much risk or is that much of an imposition. I understand its not convenient, but its certainly not a big intervention in the big picture. Since you mentioned india, the scenes were seeing out of that country are just breathtaking. The numbers were seeing are breathtaking. What is going on there and is there any lesson to be learned for us here . Yeah, ive actually had family almost on a daily basis we have a large family still in india, im a patel, and almost every day im getting a call that someones died or asking if i have a connection that i can send remdesivir or steroids. So it kind of breaks my heart to think about, you know, how much we have and what they dont have. But for lessons learned, a couple of things, willie, we thought india would escape the worst of it because we hadnt seen the numbers, and it just reminds us, even though we dont see some of those numbers in places like texas and other parts of the country right now, its entirely possible we could get there if we dont make sure we deal with people who dont want to get vaccinated. And i heard your coverage of bidens infrastructure bill, around health care, i will tell you, india, the Worlds Largest democracy, the Public Health infrastructure, virtually nonexistent, especially in many parts of the country. So its another reminder that these are investments that have to be made, that need to be something of a global investment, if you will. Theres some talk that the United States should send surplus vaccine to india to help stem this terrible problem. So david, youre writing about this. Irrationalal fe fears in americ about covid. There is a sense that people are afraid to step back into normal life, that taking off the mask, if youre out for a run or taking it off as you eat dinner inside, is a violation of the things we have come to september as necessary. I think there are a few things going on. One, i think the Public Health messaging has been off. There isnt a single documented case ive been aware of anywhere in the world of brief casual outdoor contact, like passing someone on a sidewalk, leading to transmission, none. This is a tiny risk. And i understand why the cdc often wants to be extremely cautious and they want to do study first and they never want to say anything that might lead people to take more risks. But Public Health messaging should trust people a little bit more and basically say, look, you do not need a mask outdoors. If you want to wear one outdoors, thats fine. If youre in close conversation with someone outdoors, you should wear one, kpushd really, really wear one indoors. People will be more willing to listen if were honest rather than always dialing it up. We take risk every day in our lives. We get in cars and eat food which we could choke on and we go swimming. So i think it would be really helpful if we started treating people a little bit more like adults than the cdc has been doing and saying, look, the risk of this is virtual zero, so you can feel comfortable with it. These other situations are truly dangerous. Please, please, please, wear a mask indoors, absolutely, as often as possible. Especially if you are not vaccinated. David, Jonathan Lemire is here with a question for you. John . David, in your piece, you started with a professor who talks to his class every year with a specific allegory, this time especially about covid19. Can you tell us about what to take from it, as were all trying to somehow get through this pandemic. And as we see an end stage hopefully a few months away. I love that fable. Judge guido calabrese. He says, i want you to imagine that a god comes forth and offers society a wondrous new invention. It makes your life better in almost every way. You can have jobs you wouldnt have had. You can spend more time with friend and family. But theres a cost. And the cost is that this god will strike down a thousand young women and men in exchange for the invention every year. And he says to the class, would you take it . And almost invariably, they said, no, we wouldnt take it, thats not worth it. And judge calabrese says, well, whats the difference between this and the automobile . The automobiles kill 40,000 americans every year. And to me the last thing here is when were confronted with a new situation, a new risk, we are extremely cautious. But there are a set of enduring risks that weve just come to live with, like the automobile. And were in this funny case with covid right now, which is covid has been horrible. The worst Infectious Disease that any of us have ever lived through, but for vaccinated people, the risk is tiny. Its tiny of getting it, smaller of getting sick, and tiny of infecting others. Well have to start moderating our behavior, and say, the risk is not zero, but its so low, we have to start thinking of it more like a Lightning Strike or a shark attack. Im really worried about the effects on kid. Im worried about the effects on lowincome people who cant work if we dont get back to normal. And thats why i thought of the fable this week. Its a great one. And 89 Million People on our screen are fully vaccinated in this country. 200 million vaccinations passed this milestone this week, but still a long way to go. Just over half of the countrys adults have been vaccinated. Great conversation. Thank you both for being here this morning. Coming up, the economy and jobs will be the focus of day two of the president s climate summit. Were back in two minutes with former epa administrator now top climate adviser to President Biden, Gina Mccarthy President Biden, Gina Mccarthy so you only pay for what you need . Really . I didnt aah ok. Im on vibrate. Aaah only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Where can a healthier heart lead you . For people with Heart Failure taking entresto, it may lead to a world of possibilities. Entresto is now approved for more patients with chronic Heart Failure. Dont take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if youve had angioedema with an ace or arb. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low Blood Pressure kidney problems, or high blood potassium. Ask your doctor about prescription entresto. So youre a small business, or a big one. You were thriving, but then. Oh. Ah. Okay. Plan, pivot. How do you bounce back . You dont, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. I tell you, im generally optimistic because so much is beginning to happen and because i believe in our ingenuity and our capacity i know President Biden does. Ive heard him talk about it. He believes we can do anything. Youve heard him say it. And think about it. We are the country that went to the moon. And we didnt know how we were going to get there when president kennedy announced that goal, but we did it. We are the country that invented the internet. Some people might regret that today, but we did that. We also got vaccines that are working and weve shown we have the ability to get them out and put them in peoples arms. So i believe that we have the ability. That was u. S. Special president ial envoy for climate, john kerry, expressing his confidence that the country will make the Emission Reduction goals set yesterday by President Biden. Joining us now, White House National climate adviser, Gina Mccarthy, who helped establish the new emissions goals announced by President Biden yesterday. Great to have you back on the show. I would like to ask you about that goal and im looking at all of the country and businesses involved in this summit. You have all of the big players at the table, but whats going to make something actually happen . Well, the u. S. Is back, that will make things happen. That helps. And were bringing the World Leaders together to tell them that. And really, the commitment we made was to send a very clear signal about the seriousness of what were doing and have to get done on climate and that the u. S. Is interested in leading again. And its very exciting, because nothing has happened for about four years, even in the International Community. And so we have to keep moving forward, but the fun thing is and the teeup is right. I am actually running off to do a jobs panel at a climate summit. And people might remember why. The reason why is when joe biden hears climate, he thinks jobs and vice versa. What we put in the table was a strong commitment, but its based on the understanding that clean energy in the United States is an area where we are growing jobs. It is not an area where were going to be sacrificing. Its the opportunities of the future here. And the president is interested in moving his american jobs plan forward, so that we can make the kind of investments thats going to grow really goodpaying union jobs, and bring real opportunity back to the United States, to grab the future again, reignite our manufacturing. Spend money on our transmission grid. Because if we dont, well have more problems like we had in houston, texas. It is time for us to invest in our own country and grab that future for ourselves. Thats what this is all about. And absolutely on a nuts and bolts level, it is key to integrate jobs with the goal. You mentioned the u. S. Is back. Can you discuss, can you talk about the challenges given the past four years about perhaps making sure that the United States credibility to its commitment on these issues is put back in place. Mika, weve been asked that question a bunch of times, but if you were at the summit, you would get a great sense that other countries are welcoming us back, because they know that we have a worldwide challenge. And they need the United States to stand up and be counted. Thats what yesterday was about. Thats what the conversation is. But the most important thing is that, you know, President Biden has created a people plan, not a climate plan. You know, he has made people understand that Climate Change is a problem, but the unbelievably interesting thing is that hes made it real for people again. Hes said, yes, were going to move away from this pandemic and build hope and opportunity again. So hes made it all about jobs, all about good housing, all about our roads and bridges and yes, our transit system, our airport system. Hes told people that in this country, we can invest in ourselves and it will work for all of us and build that middle class again. And were going to make sure its paid for not by people who make 400,000 or less, but by corporations who havent done their fair share. It will right the ship in the United States, not just make sure that were taking care of our planet. Thats why people are excited aint. Thats why were going to move forward and were going to get this done. Gina, its kasie hunt, i want to ask you about the mine workers and the work youre doing more broadly to try to bring along people who are worried about being left behind. People who are worried that the jobs they have or have had in the past wont come along with this. And at first we reported that the mine workers are enthusiastically backing the plan. But now theyre saying, we like some of this, but we actually want as many coal jobs to remain as possible. How do you reassure those people theres a place for them . President biden in this plan has left everything on the table. All kinds of solutions. So we know that theres real opportunity with cob and capture and sequestration to actually make sure that were retaining that and putting it, sequestering it under the ground. But if you want to look at this, kasie, the president has been very clear since day one that a transition has been happening away from coal and other fossil fuels to clean energy. And that transition is economically bound. Its about whats less expensive. So with eyes wide open, weapon went into this acknowledging that challenge, saying were developing a plan. Were releasing this plan. And just last week, we had senator manchin and we had cecil roberts, who is the president of the United Mine Workers standing up and saying, we are backing President Bidens plan. So they know theres a transition, but they need help and they need jobs. And were bringing jobs to them now. Jobs they can have in their own communities, jobs that match their skill set. And were going to spend money on training. Were not going to leave any worker or any community behind. Gina mccarthy, thank you so much for joining us. Well be watching all of this play out today and we really appreciate your coming on the show this morning. And before we go to break, donny deutsch, the one no vote on a bill to protect Asian Americans from antiasian hate, 941, josh hawley. You wanted to say something. Yeah, you know, does that mean hes prohate for asians . Its very interesting, earlier in the show, you were talking about the calculus of him running for president. And its easy to just step back and think, this is pure hate. You know, this is a guys whose fist was pumping during the insurrection. And we talk about this sometimes as political figures and we forget despicable humanity associated with it. And history has shown us that characters like this, we dont pay really hard attention to them, this is coming off the anglosaxon caucus by Marjorie Taylor greene. These are despicable humans filled with hate. These are despicable, hateful human beings. Donny deutsch, thank you so much. And still ahead, joe and i joined Stephen Colbert last night. Well show you more of that interview. And kasie, before we go to break, the nbc team that covers capitol hill with up way too ea. Tell us why. Yeah. So did i. I really appreciate you giving us a minute. Alex mo, who is our house producer, is leaving nbc news. This is her very last day. So i was up early to make sure i didnt miss any of it. Shes going to leave to spend some more time with her precious infant twins, devin and abby. She is liked and respected by everyone that she works with. She and i spent four years together in a tiny booth and she became like family to me. She is just utterly irreplaceable and we are going the miss her so much. So our entire team got together, got up early to tell her just how much we love her. Watch. Im up way too early because its alex mos last day. And i cant figure out who else is going to tell me to read my email. Because when i ask a question where the answer is in my inbox, alex is the person to let me know. Im awake because if alex isnt here, i dont know what day the house is in session or where the house even is. How did i get lost in this holeway . Alex, please dont live. Im up way too early because i just couldnt sleep thinking about how much im going to miss alex around this place. And i know shes up way too early with her cute twins, abby and devin. Im up way too early because alex is always up way too early making sure we have this crazy place covered and keeping our place in line. I dont know how does it with decaf. Im awake because i couldnt sleep because its alexs last day. Ive been racking my brain trying to figure out who we can replace her with. The answer is nobody. Alex is completely irreplaceable. Ble. 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And she really hates that. How great is it that we get to tell everybody how Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance mabel here isnt a real cow. So you only pay for what you need . I mean it. Uhoh, sorry. Oh. What . Im an emu no, buddy only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. Welcome back to morning joe. Willie geist, what do you have planned for sunday today . Another good one for you this weekend. My interview is another one, in person with actor justin thureau. He has a bar. We sat and talked and went out and walked his dog. His rescue pit bull, kuma. Went for a walk around the lower eastside. A super charming, smart dude. Obviously hes a great actor. Hes in the Mosquito Coast based on the famous novel written by his uncle. And, of course, was married to jennifer aniston. So it was interesting to talk to him about being this somewhat well known actor who stepped into this crazy celebrity spotlight and what that meant for his life and how jarring that was. Really great conversation with a fun, smart, cool guy. And kuma was with us at the bar the entire time. So cute. I love that. Thank you. Still ahead, nasa and spacex team up to help end americas reliance on russia by launching four astronauts toward the International Space station. Well play for you the moment it happened this morning. And mourners gather to remember the young father who was shot and killed by a Police Officer during a traffic stop. Well speak with the Reverend Al Sharpton who delivered a powerful eulogy. Morning joe is back in two minutes. Eulogy. Morning joe is back in two minutes. Bipolar depression. Its a dark, lonely place. This is art inspired by real stories of People Living with bipolar depression. Emptiness. A hopeless struggle. 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Youve been looking for hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. Oh, we can help with that. Okay, imagine this. Your mover, rob, hes on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. We cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, asap so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. Yeah i shouldve just led with that. With at t business. You can pick the best plan for each employee and only pay for the features they need. Im ordering some burritos oh, nice. Burritos . get a freshly made footlong from subway® instead. With crisp veggies on freshly baked bread. Just order in the app ditch the burgers choose better, be better. Subway®. Eat fresh. Welcome back to morning joe. Lets get right to the news. The federal Health Authorities are scheduled to meet today to decide whether to resume use of the Johnson Johnson vaccine after finding only a limited number of additional cases of a rare Blood Clotting Disorder among recipients. The cdc Advisory Group is leaning toward lifting the pause. And use could start as early as this weekend. Resuming use of the vaccine could look similar to the European Unions continued rollout, which earlier this week included no restrictions, but a warning citing that the benefits outweighed the risk. Use of the vaccine was initially halted after six women out of nearly 7 million vaccine recipients developed blood clots. Two Government Officials tell the Washington Post that the current stance could be affected if a flood of Blood Clot Reports come in. But that seems unlikely, willie. So despite that possible continuation in the use of the j j vaccine, the white house seems to have written off the pharmaceutical shots. Privately, Senior Health officials have grown frustrated with the companys Production Issues and concluded it can be be counted on until it gets the go ahead to resume shots. The company has faced several setbacks including a contractor mixup revealing safety and Hygiene Concerns as well as the rare blood clot disorder. According to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, if testing of the vaccine reveals more contamination, it could take j j four months to replace doses at its own facilities. What does the white house telling you about this j j shot and do they feel like they can push forward in this Vaccination Effort without it . There is some real frustration in the white house about how this has played out with Johnson Johnson. We expect to hear some guidance today about the pause, which would be one road block cleared. But youre right, theres been serious missteps with Johnson Johnson. There is suggestion, though, that they believe the white house that they still have enough shots domestically. But theyre facing a bit of a crisis point here. Lets be clear. The vaccination point has been a success, full stop. They have a clear pass, every goal theyve set in terms of getting shots in arms, but the pace of those shots has slowed down. And we, my colleagues at Associated Press is reporting today a number of states like mississippi, louisiana, kansas are turning down vaccinations theyve been receiving from the federal government, turning down doses because they simply cant use them and they would go to waste because theyre having a really hard time convincing people to come out and take their shots. So right now as there are concerns about Johnson Johnson, no doubt, they want to get that back on line because that one dose shot would be so effective in places that are rural, hard to reach, that dont have the facilities to have mass Vaccination Efforts that were seeing in a lot of big cities around the country. They believe the Johnson Johnson shot could be helpful in terms of reaching the places that to this point have been reluctant. There will almost be a door to door effort at some point to get people to have their shots, going to Little League baseball games, going to super markets, maybe knocking on peoples doors to have the vaccine. And to have the Johnson Johnson shot would aid their efforts tremendously. So there is concern about this as the pace of injections slows. We will be following this. A lot of information could come out today. Well be getting back to this momentarily. Hundreds of mourners filled a Minneapolis Church yesterday for the funeral of Daunte Wright. The 20yearold black man who was fatally shot by police earlier this morning during a traffic stop. In the emotional two earlier this month, excuse me. In the emotional twohour service, civil rights leaders, family members, and lawmakers all came together to pay their final respects amid calls for justice and Police Reform. Here is some of daunte writes mothers tribute to her son and then some of Reverend Al Sharptons eulogy. I never imagined that id be standing here, the roles should completely be reversed. My son should be burying me. My son had a smile that was worth a million. When he walked in the room, he lit up the room. He was a brother, a jokester, he was loved by so many. Hes going the be so missed. I was talking to one of the relatives and i said, why are they what are they trying to justify . One said, well, they said they saw some Air Fresheners in the back of his car. Well, we come today as the Air Fresheners from minnesota. We trying to get the stench of Police Brutality out of the atmosphere. Were trying to get the stench of racism out of the atmosphere. Were trying to get the stench of racial profiling out of the atmosphere. We come to minnesota as Air Fresheners because your air is too odorus for us to breathe. We cant breathe in your stinking air no more. As i talk closer to the family, they said that, well, the real reason they stopped was because his tags had expired. Well, i come to minnesota to tell you your tags have expired. Your tags of racism has expired. Its time to renew and get some new tags, a tags of righteousness, a tags of fanness, a tags of treating everybody the same way, a tags of no justice, no peace. Youve preached at too many of these to hear another mother say i shouldnt be standing here burying my baby, this is the opposite, he should be burying me. What was it like to be there in minnesota yesterday . It was very emotional. And i think that some of the real lift the family got was that so many other families, the family of philando castillo, George Floyds family, who just two days ago watched a policemen convicted of three counts two counts of murder, one count of man slaughter, all of these families was there, the list on and on. So it gave them a sense of bonding with people that understood their pain. And the thing that really gets you is that youre going to funerals of people that were killed by police and youre standing there telling the family that, yes, this is wrong, but you have to have the strength to fight on. And youre telling the community, these are not all police because ten police testified at the trial of Derek Chauvin, which is would help lead to his conviction. But at the same time, weve got that federal legislation to deal with how we can make sure we hold criminal police accountable. He was given a tremendous sendoff, but who wants a send off at 20 years old. Yesterday was all about grieving that young man, but is there a sense as you travel around and talk to people that maybe the conviction of Derek Chauvin is some kind of inflexion point, that things may change . Is there a sense that in this moment, things may change . I think the possibility of change is absolutely there at this moment. Ive talked to congresswoman bass, ive talked to senator cory booker. There are conversations going with tim scott. If, as you saw a conviction of chauvin and then you see during the trial the killing of Daunte Wright and now we have a situation, were looking to see what it is in ohio and all in this short period of time, Breonna Taylor and ahmed arbery, if we cant do it now, when will we ever be able to do it . I think the time has come for the nation to deal with it. President biden and Vice President harris has said it needs to be dealt with. We are seeing the absolute time that policing must be defined by the federal government. And if we dont do it, were going to continue to see these things and it will end up tearing this society apart and in an irreparable way. Still ahead, you will never guess which single senator voted against an antiasian hate crimes bill. Need a hint . Its the same guy who was pumping up trump fanatics before they stopped the capitol in that massive insurrection. ac dc Back In Black the bowls are back. Applebees irresistabowls all just 8. 99. I think the sketchy website i bought this turtle from stole all of my info. Ooh, have you looked on the bright side . Discover never holds you responsible for unauthorized purchases on your card. giggling thats my turtle. Fraud protection. Discover. Something brighter. We look up to our heroes. Idolizing them. Mimicking their every move. And if she counts on the advanced hydration of pedialyte when it matters most. So do we. Hydrate like our heroes. Do you struggle with occasional nerve aches, weakness or discomfort in your hands or feet . 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In a rare bipartisan vote, the Senate Overwhelmingly passed the covid hate crimes acts. The bill is aimed at curbing the rise in antiasian hate that have spiked since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, crimes against asians. The Senate Passed a bill in a sweeping 941 vote. The bill now heads to the house. Senator maizesy hirono spoke about the importance of the legislation after the vote. I cannot tell you how important this bill is to aepi community who often has felt very invisible in our country, always seen as foreign, always seen as the other. As important as the content and substance of the bill is the message of this bill that we in the senate are going to stand with our Aapi Community and indeed any community that is discriminated against. The lone senator to vote against the legislation was republican josh holly of missouri. He explained his decision not to back the bill in a statement that reads, quote, its too broad. As a former prosecutor, my view is its dangerous to simply give the federal government open ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents. Joining us now, elise jordan and senior columnist for the daily beast, matt lewis. I guess i need to understand more what josh holly is talking about. Matt, can you explain what too broad at this point would mean . He was the only senator to vote against a bill trying to stop asian hate crimes. It seems like a nobrainer and 94 others felt that way. Right, mika. To put knit context, hit crews thought this was a good idea what was persuaded to with tom cotton felt this was worth voting for. These are pretty conservative republicans who voted for it. Josh holly did not. And, look, i think this has more to do with the fact that he is staking out a one man nobody to the right of me turf. This is not the first time. Weve seen this happen in the case of some confirmations where josh holly is staking out this pretty extreme territory. And i guess the bet is that when he runs for president in 2024, one of these issues will be potent and hell invoke it probably in a debate against ted cruz. But, yeah, he is a very lonely voice this morning. Alesse jordan, what is the message being sent by his no vote here. I want to second what josh said about matt holy going out of his way to outcruise ted cruz. And you have to work hard to try to be more loath than ted cruz. But josh howly seems to have decided that is his way in his glide path to the republican nomination. I was struck, though, by the bipartisan cooperation and by susan collins, what she did on the other side of the aisle with senator hirono. And the 19th has great reporting on how those two women worked together to bring together this Bipartisan Group and consensus that its completely unacceptable, that there have been over 3,800 reported hate crimes against asianamericans over the last year. And so that the overwhelming 94 votes for this bill shows the seriousness with which lawmakers are taking this and it was a strong statement and its an important one and im glad we could come together on this issue. And moving beyond josh holly, mr. Insurrection, what does this outcome bode for Police Reform and infrastructure and other bills . Is there hope that there will be more bipartisan outcomes . Well, we can certainly hope for that. Infrastructure, honestly, a lot of that is in the hands of joe biden in terms of infrastructure. You think you could get republican support, probably not for 2 trillion. Probably not for things that we call infrastructure. But are actually not infrastructure. So i actually put that in joe bidens hands. In terms of Police Reform, that is something that i would really hope could happen. And this is an area where we have seen in the past bipartisan work done, right . Even donald trump, you know, was able to work on criminal justice reform. Obviously, this is something that tim scott, South Carolina senator is passionate about and has talked about in the past. So that i see some calls for hope here without being too naive. Coming up, how far is Vladimir Putin willing to go to crackdown on the protests inside russia . Admiral weighs in next on morning joe. Russia admiral weighs in next on morning joe. Some say this is my greatest challenge ever. But ive seen centuries of this. With a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. The gold standard, so to speak ; hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. Oh, we can help with that. Okay, imagine this. 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Powered by the largest gig Speed Network in america. But is it secure . Sure its secure. And even if the power goes down, your connection doesnt. So how do i do this . You dont do this. We do this, together. Bounce forward, with comcast business. Russian leader Alexei Navalny says he is filled with pride and hope after learning about the protests this week. He called his supporters the salvation of russia for protesting across the country on wednesday. The protests seemed to have had an impact according to a top aide for navalny. He says as soon as they were announced, the putin critic was moved from a Prison Hospital to a civilian hospital. Meanwhile, after recent military activity sparks concerned all the way to washington, cripple lynn Officials Say troops will return to their permanent bases by may 1st. Some weapons and Armored Vehicles will stay. Back to former nato Supreme Allied Commander james tevredis, admiral, give us a sense of what the status is in terms of u. S. Relationship with russia and how Alexei Navalny symbolically plays a huge role in this. Yeah, both are correct, mika. Lets start with mr. Navalny who has really become a global figure at this point, and deservedly so. He has managed an stroidz level of activity in an utterly oppressive authoritarian state. I give him enormous credit for his strength of character. Its having a real impact into Foreign Affairs broadly. Putin is feeling the heat of the international scene. That is a good thing. That brings us to ukraine, right . Here you sauce 100,000 troops on the border. Thats a Massive Movement of troops. Think about the u. S. Moving 100,000 troops to the border of mexico, for example. Its an absurd thought. But theyve done so. Now theyve kind of blinked and are stepping back a bit. Did navalny have something to do with that . Perhaps. As well as the sense, i think, that Vladimir Putin is getting that hes overextending in syria, in ukraine, on navalny, on interfering in our elections. It is building badly against him and i think hes waking up to that fact. Admiral, Alexei Navalnys statement yesterday was incredibly moving and you realize how high the stakes are for his mission and for the russian people who want a better life of freedom and to be removed from Vladimir Putins authoritarianism. What more could the International Community be doing to support Alexi Navalny and his mission . Thats such a Well Phrased Question in the sense that people would normally say what should the u. S. Be doing about this . And theres an answer to that question. But the real Heart Of The Matter is the way youve phrased the question. It is what should the International Community be doing . We need to get this out of the channel of u. S. Versus russia and get it into russia versus the world. And so i would start with bringing our european allies who are closest to this issue very close to us, including nado. And weve seen the Secretary General opine on this. But it really needs to be even broader to this community of democratic nation idea that the Biden Administration, i think quite correctly is pursuing. Japan, australia, new zealand, all of our pacific allies, our friends in latin america and the caribbean, our friends in africa. There are nations, many hundred and more who will take on this issue with us. And to answer the specific of the question, frankly, its sanctions. And if you look back to apartheid and what finally brought down that regime in south africa, it was international sanctions. They need to go higher and they need to be more personally directed, perhaps reaching into the office of the president of russia, Vladimir Putin. Youve been busy, but keeping an eye on Alexi Navalny. His conditions in the streets in moscow. And certainly as an activist, you have to admire navalny. But i wanted to ask admiral, he just touched on something. I was honored to be with Nelson Mandela when he addressed the u. N. On sanctions. And you are saying attentions could work in terms of where the Global Community could rally around navalny. What is the way you feel knowing and having studied how putin operates . Is there a way he could release navalny or change his position on him without saving our risking him losing face as the you know, invincible leader of russia that cant be questioned . Yeah, youre a student of these movements, rev. And the short answer is i think putin would gladly allow navalny to leave, to go to germany, to go to western europe, to come to the United States, to go to harvard and set up a center and just get him off the stage. And navalny decidedly will not allow that. And navalny, what i really admire about him is hes putting his life on the line minute by minute, day by day, month by month. Hes in it for the long haul. And he will not allow putin to simply remove him from the stage. Admiral, we havent talked to you since last week when the Biden Administration announced the troops in afghanistan, american troops will be coming home before the 20th Anniversary of september 11th. What is your reaction to it . Its gotten mixed reviews from some of your friends, former military, current military, as well, admirals, generals, general petraeus doesnt like the move. Others say its time to come home. Where do you fall on that spectrum . I think all of us who have the dust of afghanistan on our boots, and ive got a pair of them, my combat boots from those days, i commanded that mission for four years. All of us have mixed feelings, to be honest with you. If i were advising President Biden, i would have said, you know, its only 2,500 troops. Keep a small presence there. When i demanded the commission, there were 150,000 troops, willie. Now were down to 2,500 u. S. Troops. Its leverage. But its an issue upon which reasonable people can disagree and, therefore, in the end, like i think all military, the other side of the coin is we are at the end of a long road in the military context. What is important, ill conclude with this, is we have got to keep the political, the diplomatic, the economic pressures that we can bring to bear at play in afghanistan to keep the heat on the taliban. If were going to withdraw that military instrument, we have to substitute for it and ill close by saying my good friend, bill burns over at the cia is going to have his hands full. Hes got to construction intelligence, keep an eye out for a reflesh from al qaeda or the Islamic State without military boots on the ground. Thats a big job for you or cia officers. Thank you so much for being on this morning. We really appreciate it. Have a great weekend. Coming up from Climate Change to policing, weve heard the voices of younger people, loud and clear. Up next, new polling on how the next generation is sizing up the state of america. Morning joe is coming right back. My plaque psoriasis. The itching. The burning. The stinging. My skin was no longer mine. My psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen. Painful. Emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. Tremfya® is also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. Tremfya®. Emerge tremfyant™ janssen can help you explore cost support options. Dry eye symptoms again . Inflammation might be to blame. Time for ache and burn overthecounter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. Those probably wont touch me. 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Now as youre thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. Finding new routes to reach your customers and new ways for them to reach you is what business is all about its what the United States Postal Service has always been about so as your business changes, were changing with it with ecommerce that runs at the speed of now next day and twoday shipping nationwide same day shipping across town returns right from the doorstep and deliveries seven days a week its a whole new world out there lets not keep it waiting generations really, really put behind the eight ball. You get all these degrees, you end up with all this debt and youre in a position where you cant get a job because no one is hiring or if theyre hiring, theyre hiring at low wages. So we have to make sure that you get the opportunity. My children, my grandchildren, you are the future. You are the future. I owe, as i said, for example, i made the comment that i view myself as a transitional president. Is transition to your generation. Youre the best educated, youre the most open, youre the least prejudice generation in american history. The future is yours and im counting on you. That was then president ial candidate joe biden appealing to gen z voters, a group who is prt happy with this presidency so far. Joining us now, director of polling at the Harvard School institute of politics, john delevolpe. Hes here with what 18 to 29yearolds think about the state of our country. Also with us, former Senior Adviser for the House Oversight committee, kurt bardella, and White House Correspondent for politico and coauthor of the playbook i, Eugene Daniels. So, john, lets go through these numbers that you found in terms of president joe bidens favorbility rating from 18 to 29yearolds. How did you break it down . What are they think about this presidency and the future . This poll gave me whiplash. Joe bidens favorbility was at 34 a year ago. Today, its at 54 . His Approval Rating as president among all Young Americans is at 59 . Among College Students its even higher, the highest Approval Rating weve had in the history of this poll among registered voters who are in college. So this is like whiplash. When i was reflecting upon this, i think we saw over the course of the last year, a lot of people took joe biden for granted, like he was the boy next door. But as the campaign went on, as we saw in that town hall, as he listened and engaged, people realized that there was more to him than they thought. And they are very much going to approve of ways in which hes handling government, especially the coronavirus right now. So hes caught up with Bernie Sanders. I want to know what that is in the minds of young people. What theyve realized about joe biden is his values are not necessarily different than Bernie Sanders. He had a different approach to reaching the end state and the end goal. So what people are responding to are his vaults and helping the vulnerable of protecting the climate, of dealing with systemic racism, and other issues that are in the hearts and minds of Young Americans. Again, he listened to them. He made that very clear during that campaign. Hes actually considered his favorbility number among democrats is 10 points higher than Bernie Sanders reese now. Hes outbernieing bernie. This number that jumped out to me the most is the one about hopeful, about the future of america. Just extraordinary numbers among 18 to 29 yields, 46 . Hispanics, 69 hopeful. Black, 72 . And look at that right column, how much its jumped since 2017. Up 11 points. Among white, 18 to 29yearold webs up 40 points among hispanic and up 54 in the last year among black 18 to 29yearolds. What is driving that . That talks about the power of on politics. I wrote that question five or six years ago when a young africanamerican woman stood up in a focus group or at a town meeting and said because im black, a female, a black person in america, i have no hope. That has changed dramatically as you said. People feel included. Our students wanted to ask others of their generation how they felt relative to trump. Thats what we see. They are respected, they feel like theyre being listened to. Its only 100 days or so, but so far, they feel like theyre part of the solution. The hard work that they did during the campaign, turning up in the battleground states and in georgia. In a long series of challenges, they have been been addressed by older generations. The extraordinary jump in the last four years in those numbers in all categories, what is your read about why that is happening . We talked to young voters and young people in general. Theyre hopeful because theyre looking at their friends and seeing people that want to do more on Climate Change, that are more inclusive, theres the numbers in here that many of these kids say they couldnt be friends with someone who has differing opinions on race than they do. So theyre looking around and seeing that that is happening. At the same time, you have joe biden doing things, surprisingly, that progressives and younger people tend to be a little bit more progressive. They are really enjoying it and its something that theyve been surprised by, pleasantly surprised, and theyre cautiously optimistic by it. There was all this concern among young voters. And what weve seen instead is this redefinition of bipartisanship by the Biden White House and Biden Administration that it is about what the people think and not so much about bipartisanship in congress. So theyre willing to use reconciliation and do votes without republican votes and that is something that young people are going to continue to like if they continue to do it. Kurt bardella, as a result of the Biden Administration, the question was my life will be. This again among 18 to 29yearolds in the Harvard Kennedy school of Politics Survey white 18 to 29yearold webs 30 say better. 28 worse. Hispanic 51 say better. Only 10 say worse. And among black people 18 to 29 years old, 54 say their life will be better under the Biden Administration, only 4 works. What do you see here . I think were seeing what happens when you replace somebody at the top with the biggest microphone perhaps in the world. When they have used that to amplify hateful rhetoric and you have someone who, instead, has empathy, who sees the world for how it is. Who wants to implement true reforms, who says that we need to have things like social justice, we need to have reforming our police and Law Enforcement policies, that communities of color are seeing. Ive seen it firsthand just in how this president has responded to the rising violence against asianamericans. And that is something that, again, 18 to 29yearolds have been the heartbeat of the stop Asian Hate Movement in this country. And everyone in these demographics, theyre seeing the president respond. Theyre seeing the president listen to us, hear us, and take action. We spent 34 years feeling like we have been under siege. And now finally we have real leadership in this white house and hes doing things and making decisions, implementing policies to address the real cracks in the foundation of our democracy that have been hurting all of us. And i think one of the things that joe and mika were talking about last night on their great appearance on The Late Show, they talk about how biden was acting progressively, but he talks and has a demeanor that is much more accepting, much more middle of the road and that is working, not just to younger voters, but to all voters. That is why his Approval Rating is so popular even with republicans right now. So, john, lets dig into the issues a little bit here. You asked a lot of these kids or young adults what is most important to you. I remember when i was graduated from high school, everyone was very focused on the iraq war. Obviously now were grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. Where does joe biden get the highest marks . With the coronavirus pan dem wick almost twothirds rate his approval 65 gave him approval. 3 in 5 said the same thing about Climate Change. He has a majority approved on every single issue, especially race relations. Again, this poll walls taken in the middle of march. It was taken well before, obviously, the chauvin verdict, which i think will only elevate and his response to that will elevate those numbers even further. John and kurt, thank you very much for being on the show. Kurt, well be reading your new piece of usa today entitled with new hate crimes bill, asianamericans take a sledgehammer to insulting stereotypes. Up next, breaking news out of russia where Alexei Navalny has ended his Hunger Strike. W50e8 get the latest from moscow. Before we go to break, joe and i joined Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to talk about politics. And for some reason, pot. We also discuss know your values partnership with forbes on a special 50 over 50 list, celebrateling women who have achieved notable success at mid life and beyond. Take a listen. My sister, mary, said she got better at everything over 50 because she just did not care what everybody thought any more. Exactly. And also we live longer. We take good care of ourselves. So there are women literally on this list youre going to see an incredible array of rages and incredible power and impact that you just you didnt think about it until you looked. These women have really been not given the attention they deserve. Theyre doing so much for our country, for our health, for our in finance. You wouldnt even believe it. And yet you always think of women at different stages. No one has ever considered this demographic. And forbes has gotten more the biggest response that theyve ever gotten to an inaugural list. They had over 10,000 submissions so its going on be really exciting. [sfx psst psst] allergies dont have to be scary. Spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. Psst psst all good incomparable design makes it beautiful. State of the art technology, makes it brilliant. The visionary lexus nx. Lease the 2021 nx 300 for 349 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. I think the sketchy website i bought this turtle from stole all of my info. Ooh, have you looked on the bright side . Discover never holds you responsible for unauthorized purchases on your card. giggling thats my turtle. Fraud protection. Discover. Something brighter. [ crowd cheering ] [ engine revving ] [ race light countdown ] when you save money with allstate you feel like youre winning. Safe drivers save 40 saving is easy when youre in good hands. Allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Vo calling all builders, saving is easy when youre in good hands. All welders, and roofers. Engineers and electricians. 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. Its time to build back better. Lets get to work. Welcome back to morning joe. The Elon Muskowned spacex launched four astronauts into space about two minutes ago. One japanese restaurant, one french astronaut now are on the way to the International Space station and expected to take a day with astronauts docking at the Space Station early tomorrow morning. Such a cool sight. Breaking news out of russia, jailed russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny said he will end his Hunger Strike after 24 days. He made the most on instagram in morning. Joining us now from moscow, matthew bodder in. Good morning, what prompted the Hunger Strike and what does it mean . Willie, good morning. Hes been on this for 24 days, and as he explains in that letter that was posted on instagram this morning, what really got his attention were the words from his doctors yesterday that if he waited any longer to end this Hunger Strike, there would be no patient to treat. Theres really more to it than that. As he explains in his own words, doctors i completely trust issued a statement yesterday that we achieved enough to end the Hunger Strike. Like i said, if he waited any longer, there would be no patient to treat. Also, other things factored into it, and it was very interesting. Over the past few weeks weve seen a number of other groups, a few individuals, nothing major but others within russia joining navalnys Hunger Strike in solidarity, including some survivors groups from terrorist attacks. When navalny heard about that from his lawyers, he said he actually cried and he appreciates the gesture, but he cannot ask others to suffer for him. So having achieved essentially the goals he set out to get, independent medical treatment, not from his own doctors, hes received at least evaluations so far from what we understand, from independent civilian doctors and civilian hospital, saying thats sufficient, you have to stop now. This is obviously a welcomed development for his family and supporters. One of the more positive outcome thats could have come from this. But hes still not out of the woods yet. Those underlying medical conditions that sparked all of this persist and its going to take him 24 days or about to gradually exit the Hunger Strike. So were going to have to keep an eye on this still. There are grave concerns, of course, about his health. Navalny writing in that Instagram Post, quote, my heart is full of love for you. Im losing the feeling in my arms and legs. I want to understand what it is and how to treat it. Wish me luck. I wont let you down. Nbcs Matthew Bodner in moscow, thank you very much. Mika . Well be following that. Now to a bit of a Surprise Development in arizona, where a bill to sign to change how the states early voting works stalled in the republicanled state senate. Republican state senator telly townsend joined democrats in voting against the bill. She said she wants to wait for the results much an audit. Orchestrated by the gop in maricopa county, the audit is reportedly set to get under way this week and last through midmay. The bills sponsor said townsends vote was part of a, quote, temper tantrum because her electionrelated bills were not among the ones that were successful in committees. As the battle over Voting Rights wages on in states across the country, another fight is gaining steam. More than 250 antilgbtq bills have been introduced in state legislatures this year with eight already having been enacted into law and ten sitting on governors desks right now. This is according to the human Rights Campaign. Human Rights Campaign president Alfonso David wrote an open letter to carpet america asking them to rally around this issue as they have for Voting Rights. Alfonso joins us now. So twopronged question, what what have you asked from Corporate America . Who exactly have you approached . And what tangibly can they do . Thank you, mika. Thank you for having me. I am asking for companies to publicly denounce state legislation that discriminates against lgbtq people and specifically discriminate against transgender and nonbinary people. Im asking companies to refuse to advance new businesses in states that are hostile to lgbtq people and corporate social values. Im asking companies to refuse to support sporting events where Transgender Athletes are being banned or athletes are being penalized for taking the knee. As you said, we have hundreds of bills that have been introduced in state legislatures around the country. Theyre looking to erase transgender people. Theyre looking to make lgbtq second class citizens. These bills, bills that make it a crime for families to provide genderaffirming case to transgender youth, with penalties up to ten years in prison, bills that effectively require transgender students who play sports to be inspected by doctors before they participate in those sports, teachers being denied the ability to teach anything about lgbtq people without getting consent from parents, these bills are incredibly dangerous and we need corporations to rise up against it, because we know that stigma leads to violence. We know at least 44 transgender people were killed last year. We know people are still dyeing and we need corporations to rise up, we need them to engage, we need them to make sure they are having their voices heard by state legislatures across the country. Alfonzo, Eugene Daniels from politico has the next question. Eugene . A lot 6 these things, we are seeing them happen on the state level. Im curious what you guys want to see from the federal government or, more importantly, i think, is this white house doing enough . President biden was the first president to recognize the trans day of remembrance and im curious if you want to see more from the federal government on this . Certainly appreciate President Bidens support of lgbtq rights. Hes been incredibly supportive. Hes put the equality act, as many of you know, would provide comprehensive Legal Protections to lgbtq people. Were asking the Biden Administration to continue to work with us, to advance the equality act. In addition to that, we do need help in the states. Were asking for federal agencies to weigh in. Were asking for the Biden Administration to more actively weigh in. Because the arguments we are seeing in the states we are also hearing as it relates to the equality act, that we are not treated as equal. We are secondclass citizens. As i said before, the collateral consequences are too severe. The transgender youth attempt suicide at a rate of four times that of its cisgender peers. We purport to live in a democracy, but we all know its not functioning for all of us. Its not functioning for black people, brown people, certainly not functioning for lgbtq people, and that has to change. Alfonzo david, president of the human Rights Campaign, thank you very much. And in our final moments after quite an incredible week, Eugene Daniels, i wonder if you can share your thoughts after fully processing everything that has transpired. Yes, i think that just personally, it was i talked about this in playbook and on the air a little bit, i felt it was to see the relief black people all around the country felt after the chauvin verdict. But seeing more cases of Police Violence happening so i think black people maybe are still waiting to see what can be done. It looks like in congress Police Reform will be top of mind, even for republicans, tim scott, senator from South Carolina is on board and has been leading this effort. Talk about areas of compromise with senator cory booker and karen bass and the house. Looks like things may be happening and i think thats something i will be watching and everybody will be watching to see if the feelings we felt after that verdict are going to continue or if were going to go back to the status quo. Thank you so much. That does it for us this morning. Have a wonderful weekend. Ster Stephanie Ruhle picks unthe coverage right now. Hi, there, im Stephanie Ruhle, its friday, april 23rd, and this morning we are watching several major stories across the nation. Today we could get an answer on the Johnson Johnson vaccine delay. And a cdc Advisory Board meeting in just hours to decide whether to resume emergency use of the shot, remember, as it paused last week after a few cases of rare blood clots. Across the country concerns over policing are at the forefront this morning. In minneapolis, minnesota, hundreds gathered for