months we've been allowed and able to share a zip code, shea nothing of an entire television studio. >> brian, it is great to be with you in person tonight. fantastic to be together. joint of course by our beloved colleagues nicolle wallace and joy reid who are here at my sides, my sisters in full vaccination status. it is good to be together, you guys. with the band all back together again, we are awaiting president biden's joint address to congress. this is a speech we are not supposed to call a state of the union, although that's effectively what it will be. modern presidents have generally given this speech in february, just about one month after being inaugurated. president biden has waited much later, until now, late april. today is his 99th day in office. >> indeed this president will address the nation tonight over a year into our pandemic, which of course has claimed the lives of over 570,000 of our fellow citizens. given the ongoing public health crisis, tonight is going to look very different. the chamber built to hold 1,600 people will instead tonight only seat 200. most of the cabinet stays home except for the secretaries of state and defense. most of the supreme court stays home except for the chief justice. visually there will be two women behind the president during the speech, the vice president and the house speaker. that's a first, as is the fact that we're expecting both to be masked for the duration of the speech. we expect to hear a lot about the president's big legislative goals and big price tags that come along with them. also social justice and the urgent topic of policing in our country. police body cam footage showing people of color dying at the hands of police dominated the news today in multiple american cities. tonight will mark the first joint session of congress, of course, since january 6th, the day of the deadly attack, the looting, the insurrection inside our u.s. capitol. we'll be here to watch it all. but first the breaking news from today, the raid on rudy giuliani by the feds, which cuts deep into the circle of the last president. rachel, of course you were one of the first to report on the escalation of this investigation back in december of last year. >> that's right, brian. it was four months ago that we and our colleagues at nbc news were first to report that federal prosecutors in new york were seeking a warrant to obtain rudy giuliani's electronic communications. we were first to report that they had discussed that possibility with officials at justice department headquarters in washington. it was nearly two months after that, weeks after donald trump had left office, that cnn and "the new york times" were reporting that those prosecutors in the southern district of new york were repeatedly blocked from getting that search warrant by trump-appointed officials at the u.s. justice department. well, trump-appointed officials are no longer running the u.s. justice department. the new u.s. attorney general, merrick garland, was sworn in last month. lisa monaco was sworn in one week ago today. and today "the new york times" was first to report that federal investigators at 6:00 a.m. today executed search warrants at rudy giuliani's manhattan apartment and his office. agents seized mr. giuliani's electronic devices. one source close to mr. giuliani tells nbc news that those included a mobile phone, a laptop and an ipad. the investigation reportedly revolves around mr. giuliani's dealings in ukraine. you will recall that before he was peddling conspiracy theories about the november election being stolen, he was peddling conspiracy theories about joe biden and the biden family and supposedly nefarious dealings in the nation of ukraine. donald trump, of course, was impeached for pressuring ukraine's president to announce an investigation into the made-up biden scandals that giuliani was promoting. at least two of the people giuliani worked with on his efforts to manufacture biden-related scandals have since been sanctioned by the u.s. government was foreign agents working on behalf of russia. another of giuliani's sources for his get biden project was a ukrainian oligarch named dmitry firtash who's wanted for bribery and corruption charges. one american lawyer and fox news pundit, victoria toensing was also reportedly served with a search warrant this morning. she also briefly appeared as one of the cast of characters pushing the conspiracy theory that trump won, biden lost and it was all somehow stolen. mr. giuliani's lawyer released a lengthy rambling new statement this evening saying this is all a travesty and a hoax and also what about the biden crime family? and what about hillary clinton? indeed. what about hillary clinton? seriously. what about hillary clinton? joining us now is andrew weissman, a senior member of robert mueller's investigative team and former general counsel at the fbi. also joining us is katie benner, justice department reporter for "the new york times." it's nice to see both of you. thank you both for being here. andrew, let me start with you. the execution of the search warrants today at mr. giuliani's home and business, a lot of observers are telling us that an overt act like that, which is not something you're trying to hide from the person who is the subject of these warrants, can sometimes tell you at what stage the investigation is. is it fair to read into those actions today by fbi agents in terms of telling us where we are in the investigation? >> yes and no, rachel. the question is, in order to have the authority to do what happened today, a court had to find that there was probable cause to believe that there was evidence on those devices of a crime. so that means that they're certainly further than just issuing a grand jury subpoena for which there is no showing at all other than relevance. but it's also important to know that there really is no way for the government to get this data other than through a search warrant. in other words, if you issued a subpoena to a target like rudy giuliani or what we would have done with the special counsel to somebody like paul manafort, they are extremely likely to assert the fifth amendment and not voluntarily produce incriminating evidence. of course that's everyone's right in america to do that. so this is a relatively routine way to get evidence when you believe it's in the hands of somebody who is the real target and subject of the investigation. >> and, katie, let me ask you from your reporting on the justice department, let me just ask you if you can talk to us about the timing of these raids. it is four months ago that we first reported on what was then a months-old story, that the -- when we learned that sdny prosecutors were seeking this search warrant on mr. giuliani, he, because of public reporting, has known for a long time this was coming. there has been further reporting that justice department appointees from president trump blocked these warrants from being executed. what do we know about the timing here, why this happened today? >> what we know is that at least twice prosecutors in manhattan wanted to execute a search warrant on rudy giuliani and at least twice they were rebuffed. both times officials under the trump administration cited the idea of the election and that it could sway the election both before november when they wanted to execute a search warrant and they were saying it could sway voters and create a portrait that's very damning for donald trump as he runs for office. even after the election, officials continued to say because this election is still being argued, because the president is still arguing that he may have won and rudy giuliani is the lawyer behind that effort, we still cannot act. but we saw for reasons that people inside of the justice department with the previous administration, we saw that action stymied. what we're seeing now is a very aggressive prosecutor's office finally unleashed, able to do what it would like to do, what it's wanted to do, that also feels that it's necessary in part because giuliani has known about this investigation and they're not convinced that evidence that exists in his possession will continue to stick around forever. >> andrew weissmann, two questions for you. one, what exactly are they looking for to prove guilt in a foreign agent investigation and what if some of that evidence leads them to donald trump? >> great question. the statute is the foreign agents registration act is enacted so the american public knows whether foreign governments or foreign principals, it doesn't have to be a state actor overseas, any foreigner is trying to lobby people in the united states or is seeking to influence public opinion. so this is actually a relatively easy investigation. what you want to find out is who were rudy giuliani's clients? were any of them foreign principals? either state actors or not state actors. you can look at telephone records, you can follow the money. i assume that is why they are looking at victoria toensing pause she had a foreign client who reportedly was retained at the behest of rudy giuliani. and then you're going to look to see what it is that rudy giuliani did in the united states. one of the more interesting aspects of this investigation would be who did rudy giuliani meet with in the trump administration either in person or on the phone to importune and if he does that for a foreign principal it is a crime because he did not report it to the department of justice which is required. and you'll recall some of the crimes that paul manafort, rick gates, flynn were all charged with. >> a question to that very point. rachel maddow did an interview with lev parnas back in january of 2020 in which he named the people he said were, quote, on the team. and he named william barr. he said that bill barr was in full knowledge of what was happening in terms of this attempt to sort of concoct a fake scandal related to joe biden. he named joe digenova, dick vic toensing and so i wonder if any of them should be concerned about this investigation, right up to donald trump? >> well, i'll start off and say rudy giuliani has said publicly that he couldn't have committed it because his ultimate client was the former president. if it was to be proved that he was only doing this for the former president, that would not be a foreign agent registration act problem because his client would be an american, not a foreigner. but i suspect that a reason that a judge signed this search warrant is because there is at least probable cause to believe that rudy giuliani had foreign clients in ukraine, possibly elsewhere, that he was acting for. and if that's the case, then i think that people like donald trump and many other people in the administration who met with rudy giuliani are going to be potential witnesses as to what it is that rudy giuliani was asking for. >> katie, let me also ask you the process here. the response from sort of team giuliani today has been to deride this as a politicized act, as some sort of act of revenge or partisan score settling by the biden administration. obviously those kind of charges feel different now after four years of the trump administration in which those questions about how the justice department was running under president trump were very much live wires. andrew weissmann wrote a fascinating book on the subject, which i recommend to all of our viewers. it's not going without notice that this is a week after lisa monaco has been sworn in as the new deputy attorney general. how much does the change in administration make a difference as to the actions of the independent justice department on a case like this? >> i think that the change in administration, it is fair to say, would have an impact in that the prosecutors wolf they no longer have pressure from washington not to take investigative steps into rudy giuliani. it's interesting that giuliani's lawyer talked about the politiciation of this and said it to infer that the biden administration is politicizing it when we know from our reporting that this is a 2-year-old investigation. the bulk of the investigation happened while donald trump was president and there were political pressures, but they seemed to be to slow the investigation, which had the effect of not killing it but pushing it forward into a new administration. people inside the trump administration were convinced that donald trump would win the election and that would have all sorts of implications including for these politically charged investigations, that they would continue under his leadership, which unfortunately for mr. trump did not happen. >> katie benner, new york times justice department reporter, and andrew weissmann, senior member of robert mueller's team, we're grateful to both of you for being here tonight. thank you so much. nicolle, i will just say when geoffrey berman got fired at sdny, one of the things that we now know from reporting was on his plate was this investigation of giuliani which was being stymied by main justice. william barr pushed him out under weird circumstances. sdny appears to have held on to that case for all this time. >> that was june of 2020. bill barr didn't fire him because bill barr couldn't fire him so he fake fired him. he incompetently fired him. it was so badly botched that he had to call trump. the only time where he had to call trump and get trump to do his dirty work. then they had another mess. they tried to install his deputy. it was a huge mess. and the timeline will not lie. i think the other thing to keep in mind is some of the "times" great reporting was around this intake that was set up. the u.s. department of justice set up an intake process for rudy giuliani's bleep bleep crazy stuff that we may find out through this investigation was funded by maybe ukraine, maybe russia. it's really an important investigation in terms of understanding what was flowing into the united states justice department. that wasn't trump's justice department, that was the u.s. justice department. >> at some point does william barr pay some price for obstruction? his name keeps coming up. >> if he created a special channel to funnel information that is from an indicted ukrainian oligarch and two people who have been sanctioned as russian agents and created a channel for that, not to isolate it and prevent it from infecting the real justice department process but instead to stovepipe it into prosecutions, that's going to be a problem for him. but we won't know about that until we get further into this case. brian, back over to you. >> we're inside 45 minutes. the vice president has arrived at the u.s. capitol we are told. the president will be arriving next. we mentioned most of the cabinet sitting this one out, staying home. usually it's just one member. luckily for us the man who went from being mayor pete to secretary pete, the secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg, will join us right after this. our live coverage continues after this break. ♪ and i will lend a hand to you ♪ ♪ would you lend a hand to me? ♪ ♪ everybody ♪ ♪ deserves to be free ♪ vo: calling all builders, 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. it's time to build back better. let's get to work. ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yuuum yum yum yum yum yum yum yuuum ♪ ♪ yum ♪ ♪ yum yum (clap, clap) yum yum (clap) yum yum ♪ wanna help kids get their homework done? 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'cause we are. live picture of the white house. around back on the south lawn just outside the south portico, the motorcade has formed which will be taking the president down to the hill. tonight has been declared a national security event, which just adds another layer of security, but something they are used to for these events. there are elements of the motorcade that snake through there, the national guard and the fencing remains at the u.s. capitol. in keeping with custom the white house has released portions of the president's address in advance. president biden is expected tonight to make a direct appeal to the american people to sell them on his massive infrastructure proposal. again, here is an advanced look at language in part of the speech that the president will use to highlight the millions of jobs his infrastructure plan in his view would create. he's going to say, quote, i know some of you at home wonder whether these jobs are for you. you feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that's rapidly changing. let me speak directly to you. independent experts estimate the american jobs plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in economic growth for years to come. the american jobs plan is a blue collar blueprint to build america. indeed there's another portion where the president will say the middle class built our country, unions built the middle class. so going deep, going old school back to his roots. rachel standing by with a special guest. >> joining us is the u.s. secretary of transportation pete buttigieg. it's great to see you. thanks for joining us this evening. >> same here. good to be with you. >> how do you like being transportation secretary? how is life in washington? >> i love it. it's an interesting job in any season, but right now when we're on the cusp of what might be the most transformative thing that's happened to transportation in my lifetime, it's thrilling. of course we've got a lot of work to do but i'm thrilled to be working on these issues and really honored to be part of his cabinet. it's an incredible feat. >> in terms of those transformative proposals, one of the things that we've noticed is that you have emerged as one of the administration's most articulate advocates for the president's plans, especially when it comes to somewhat hostile audiences. and so i have to ask if all the conversations you have been having with republicans and with the folks at fox news and other entities like that, have they taught you anything about this emerging political reality where republican voters seem to like what president biden is proposing and what he's doing even while republican members of congress, republican senators won't go along with any of it? >> you're putting your finger on i think the defining dynamic of the moment at least when it comes to domestic policy. we have policies that have such extraordinary strong bipartisan support out among the american people, but just because that's true doesn't mean it's reflected here in washington. and that's where i'm trying to earn my paycheck, engaging with members on both sides of the aisle, reminding them this is not one of those moments where we're asking them, as administrations sometimes do, to vote for something that's unpopular and the american people don't understand or want. this is something that's popular and it's popular for the very good reason that it's going to create millions of jobs. as the president will remind americans tonight. those are jobs whether you have a college degree or not. the plan revolves around infrastructure but fundamentally it's a jobs plan. coupled with the families plan that the president is rolling out tonight we're asking congress to support something the american people have long known we need to do. >> secretary pete -- can we call you secretary pete? i'm so used to calling you mayor pete. so there has been some movement in terms of republicans coming to the white house, having conversations about a smaller infrastructure plan. they want to get rid of human infrastructure and have it be just bridges and roads and traditional infrastructure. do you have in your mind both a deadline for when you stop talking and stop negotiating and an amount that you're willing to reduce what is a very ambitious, very large infrastructure plan that the white house has in mind, how far are you willing to reduce it? republicans are talking about in the $500 billion area and the president is much, much higher. >> we believe we need to go big. that means also going big above the baseline of what would have happened anyway, which is really important when you're looking at these different proposals and trying to get an apples-to-apples comparison. the president is a big believer in a bipartisan approach. i've been in meeting after meeting talking to both parties in both chambers, we've had oval office conversations, good conversations with both parties. i think the president really wants to make sure that we engage in that process, but he's also been clear that doing nothing is not an option. he wants to see real progress by memorial day, which is going to be honest before we know it and that we have to do something that's really go to rise to this moment. so we welcome the fact that the other side is coming to the table with specific proposals. we need to make sure that we have something that's really going to answer the fact that america has fallen to 13th place in infrastructure, headed in the wrong direction. we really stand at a crossroads here. are we or are we not ready to make a future generation proud of what we here in the early 2020s did to make sure that america could thrive going into the rest of the century. >> mr. secretary, as sort of the designee to what rachel described as hostile, i'll say slash skeptical audiences, first of all, the superpower of this white house seems to be the redefinition of bipartisanship to legislation and policies that are wildly popular among democratic and republican americans and leaving the washington equation to fester in whatever way it will. but how important is the messaging around how we're going to pay for really transformative policies in keeping those high levels of bipartisan support in the country among the public? >> i think it is important. again, a little bit different when you're engaging with the members on capitol hill, but among the american people, the way we're going to pay for it actually makes it even more popular because people have known for a long time that having major corporations sometimes making billions of dollars in profits paying zero in taxes doesn't make any sense. if you think about it, corporate taxes in this country are either too high, they're too low or they're just right. and i think most americans agree that they're not just right. they're not too high when some companies are paying literally nothing at all. tonight you'll be hearing about how the families plan will be paid for and that again involves a tax code that rewards work, not wealth. we're not calling for high taxes, we're calling for fair taxes and that reinforces the support that this commands among the american people. you know, the president's proposed plans that are paid for. if the other side has different views on how to pay for things, let's have them bring that forward and we can talk about it. but this is about making sure that we collect the revenue we need in a fair basis in a way that's something for the economy and make investments that are even better for the economy which is why independent forecasters see these steps adding trillions of dollars in value and millions of jobs to the economy. >> mr. secretary, speaking of transportation, we have been watching taillights on the other side of the screen while we were been talking to you because we are watching that motorcade get ready to head from the white house over to the capitol. let me ask you a question about a major portion of the infrastructure proposal and one that gets always included, whenever anybody does a short bullet list of points. one of the things everybody makes sure to mention is that there's a big investment in broadband. we're going to get high-speed broadband to everybody in the country, including rural and underserved areas. yay, nobody is against that. i live in a part of the country that has had real trouble getting broadband. and i feel like i have been hearing this proposal for a long time. i have been hearing this proposal since almost the days of dial-up internet. and certainly through my experience of satellite internet and all of the other terrible things that don't work if you don't have fiber. why is it doable now when previous administrations have said they were going to do it, have said they were committing to it and it just never seems to advance. why now? >> everybody is for it, everybody always says in their campaign they want to do it. what's different this time is a plan that's going to include the money to get it done, the will to get it done and a lot of it is about funding. some of it is what's going on in terms of the structure in the way we look at telecommunications in this country, ensuring that we're tearing down any barriers to getting good quality and affordable broadband to every american. but it's not like there's some cosmic barrier making it impossible to do this. it's a set of decisions. it's a set of policies. the president is proposing the policies that will actually make it happen. it's important that this is not just saying we're going to add broadband or increase it by a certain percentage, he's saying 100% and he means it. by the way, that last couple percent is going to be hard but he believes in rising to do hard things. in a way, it sounds counterintuitive but i actually think that it's the broadband piece that maybe in the finest tradition of american infrastructure. what i mean by that is all of the great moments and big choices in era defining decisions about infrastructure from the erie today until through the transcontinental railroad to the interstate highway system, part of that great tradition was each one of those decisions expanded the traditional vision of what infrastructure is. we're living in a time where being connected to the internet is just as important as being connected to the interstate highway system. you need both. after years and years of talk, the president is laying out a way to finally get it done. >> transportation secretary pete buttigieg. we really appreciate you being here on this big night. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> it's interesting to see -- obviously we're looking at the shot of the motorcade and the drive over to the capitol. it is interesting to be talking to a cabinet secretary tonight with his normal zoom background. it's because it's just the secretary of state and secretary of defense who are there. all the rest of them are watching from home. no designated survivor tonight as brian was saying. >> mark millie is going to be the one general among the joint chiefs as chairman of the joint chiefs to represent all of them. an explanation as to why this shot has so much video breakup, this is from the moving van that has the pool television camera. they're about to clear the exit of the white house grounds, which nicolle wallace can confirm is 18 acres, and then take a right and go along the most heavily traveled motorcade route in the united states. i am told nancy pelosi, speaker pelosi is at the dais in the house chamber. she will be gaveling what is a limited house session into order so they can in effect receive the president. we are under 30 minutes until the start time. the motorcade has a quick drive across town. we will be back to show you the president's arrival on capitol hill as our live coverage continues. continues. ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yuuum yum yum yum yum yum yum yuuum ♪ ♪ yum ♪ ♪ yum yum (clap, clap) yum yum (clap) yum yum ♪ like many people with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease, i was there. be right back. but my symptoms were keeping me from where i needed to be. ♪♪ so i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who have uc... ...or crohn's disease. and humira helps people achieve remission that can last, so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you... and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. cal: our confident forever plan is possible with a cfp® professional. a cfp® professional can help you build a complete financial plan. visit letsmakeaplan.org to find your cfp® professional. ♪♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yum yum ♪ ♪ yum yum yum yum yuuum yum yum yum yum yum yum yuuum ♪ ♪ yum ♪ ♪ yum yum (clap, clap) yum yum (clap) yum yum ♪ (gong rings) - this is joe. 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[joyfully laughs] protection... i just got vaccinated- i just got vaccinated! noah just got vaccinated... hope... so that we can get to all the other moments. let's get you to the exhale you didn't know you were waiting for. let's get it... together. so we can be together. let's get to immunity. now's your moment to get vaccinated. emergency planning for kids. we can't predict when an emergency will happen. so that's why it's important to make a plan with your parents. here are a few tips to stay safe. know how to get in touch with your family. write down phone numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbors. pick a place to meet your family if you are not together and can't go home. remind your parents to pack an emergency supply kit. making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency. without delay, we witness a history-making moment. the elbow-to-elbow greeting from the speaker of the house to the vice president. kamala harris just took her place at the dais. applause going on in the house chamber, even given the limited number of seats that are filled. kasie hunt is our correspondent inside the house chamber tonight. we can't see her because we aren't allowed a dedicated camera in keeping with the health guidelines. thankfully we can hear her, and kasie can explain the white sheets of paper on the seats and perhaps tell us, since it's only 200 guests in a chamber built for 1,600 as we see lindsey graham, kasie, what determined getting a ticket to this tonight? >> reporter: it's good to be with you appear it feels surreal being in here for a joint address. in other years they're referred t as the state of the union and to have so few people on the floor of the house. i have stood in this gallery where i'm standing now, right above the house floor, hundreds of times and this feels like any one of these random days that i might be up here covering this place than it does the celebratory atmosphere that a normal state of the union or joint address would lend itself to. there's a little more activity now that the senators have come across the aisle. to try to answer your question about tickets, it's still a little bit of a mystery. they were split in half by party and some of it was determined simply by who wanted to be here. you're going to see more freshmen members of the house and senate, people who have never been able to attend one of these things where before. it is, let's not forget, a history-making moment for all of the human beings who have been here in congress and who want to have this experience with the president of the united states, regardless of which party they may be a member of. to describe a little bit to our audience what they're seeing, if you see a white piece of paper sitting on top of a chair, you're not allowed to sit there. if you see a name card taped to the back, that's assigned seats. that is entirely atypical. this is normally as you remember, brian, from covering many of these a free-for-all. you'd have members of congress, people like elliott engle, who would spend literally their entire day camping out to get a seat on the aisle to get a chance to shake hands with the president of the united states and that is not what happened this year. in fact, brian, there are two things at play here that are really changing the feel. obviously the pandemic. you can see that every time you look at this chamber. that's why we're distanced, that's why there's so many fewer people here. people who are attending, every single person had to show proof of vaccination or a negative covid test in order to enter the room where i am standing. that applies to members of congress and members of the press. the second piece of this, though, is what happened in the aftermath of january 6th and the insurrection. there were members of congress tonight at least on the house side, we are still trying to figure out more details about what happened with the senators who came in here. but members of the house were required to go through magnetometers to come onto the floor tonight to view this speech. that is in line with new rules to get onto the house floor in the first place, that were put in place after the january 6th insurrection. but it's never been part of the process before. there has never been this line of thinking that perhaps a member of congress could be a threat to the u.s. president. that is really a very stunning reality. of course guests have always been screened. i, every time i have come in, this is my fourth president i've seen one of these addresses for and i've been here in the chamber for at least six of these types of speeches. guests, reporters, always going through magnetometers. anyone who is invited to attend typically screened but never before were members of congress screened. we're still trying to figure out what the process was for senators. they in many ways do things their own way. we've now entered this very strange period where people are milling around, sort of waiting to see what happens next. normally this room would be full. you would see cabinet secretaries, the supreme court justices. we'll see the cabinet of course, the members that are going to attend escorted in here in a minute. but it's fascinating how you can really see individual interactions on the floor in a way that you can't under different circumstances. i watched congresswoman debbie dingell of michigan who often is with our viewers on msnbc. she crossed all the way across the floor, which is a relatively rare thing in these circumstances, especially considering how divided we are, and she spoke first to lauren boebert, the congresswoman from colorado who has been at the center of some of these controversies around security and she walked over and had a pretty extended conversation with congresswoman liz cheney who does have one of those seats right on the aisle or as close to the aisle as you can be. the aisle seats are actually three seats off the aisle at this time. we may be able to get an elbow bump with president biden as he walks down the aisle. now, i saw liz cheney talking with congresswoman dingell and some others but she is two seats away from leader kevin mccarthy. the two of them i have not seen them speak since they walked in here. it is entirely possible i have missed something but i've been trying to keep a really close eye on the two of them. so far there's been no interaction. we know there's been a very chilly air between the two of them as they of course returned from their retreat in orlando to come back up here for this joint address. so again, brian, this casual feeling in here is just utterly bizarre and surreal heading into such a historic moment. >> kasie, while you were talking our cameras zoomed in on a boebert/cruz conversation. senator kennedy using his mask as a handy chin strap. a decidedly as kasie was saying casual atmosphere born of necessity during a pandemic. rachel, i know you have a special guest who happens to be standing at the big board. >> standing by in his trademark khakis. steve kornacki is here with us tonight. steve, i know that you've been taking a look at where president biden's popularity stands at this point compared with other presidencies at this point. it's a little complicated this year because usually the first not state of the union address like this is in february. in this case we've waited until almost 100 days. >> there are some different variables with different presidencies. we'll take a look here. but a couple of different ways of looking at the numbers here. let's start with the bottom line here. this is the average approval rating for all the polls that are outer there at the hundred hundred day mark. number one, let's compare him to his immediate predecessors, donald trump. where was trump's average? there's a 10-point average. biden 53, trump was 43 at this point. this has been consistent for the first 100 days or so. biden has been running north of where trump was. in fact trump for four years as president could not break, failed to break 50% in his approval rating. the entire four years as president. the first time it happened since polling came around. so biden's number is above trump's number. if you took it a level further, their disapproval rating, biden's disapproval is 42. trump's average was 52. this is not a near perfect trade-off but a general rule of thumb when you look at these poll numbers is the folks who approved of trump disapprove of biden. the folks who disapproved of trump approve of biden. there's an awful lot of that when you look at these numbers here. compared to trump, higher than trump started off as president, higher than trump ever got as president. if we take a step back to all modern presidents, we're going back to gerald ford since after watergate, here's how they stacked up 100 days in. this is the average approval rating. here the biden number falls near the bottom of the list. the trump number is at the very bottom. gerald ford came in in the summer of '74. in those first 100 days he pardoned richard nixon and that's why his number was so low. otherwise it's biden, trump. carter a democrat, reagan a republican. you used to have just in general more robust approval ratings early on in a presidency. one thing that's changed over time when you dig into these numbers, check this out. this is the approval rating from members of the other party, meaning if you look at biden right now, on average 11% of republicans say they approve of the job he's doing as president. when you look at donald trump, it was 9% of democrats. very few. basically around 10% members of the other party approving of the president. it didn't used to always be this polarized. take a look at every other modern president. just go back to obama. at this point of his presidency nearly 30% of republicans approved of the job he was doing as president. go back to the reagan/carter years, getting near 50%. members of the other party. it used to be, especially in those early days, early months of the presidency, there was a little bit more, i think, bipartisan good will, good will from members of the other party towards the new president. wouldn't always last, that's for certain, but it tended to exist in the early days. you can see here it kind of dwindled from where it was in the '70s and '80s to where it was probably about 10, 20 years ago. with donald trump, it took another big jump in terms of polarization and that's where it still seems to be, that polarization. that seems to be the word that describes a lot when it comes to presidential approval ratings. >> listen, the lived experience of this, steve. a fascinating look and counterintuitive to people who have been watching the news. but the lived experience, if you are old enough to have lived through the change in american politics in the '90s, both in terms of what was happening in republican politics in congress and the way that the clinton administration was in the permanent campaign and the way the two parties existed there, the whole newt gingrich era, it felt like there was a change where partisanship became the magnetic pole that organized everything in political life. and that's exactly what steve is documenting. that approval rating among the opposite party, it exactly maps to our lived experience. >> and republicans sort of reverted. it's stunning to me having been there that 31% of democrats approved of my old bush, george w. bush. it never felt like that. >> that was only a hundred days in. >> but frankly after 9/11, he sustained very high approval ratings. so it is a sign of how the republicans, and it's some of the same individuals, really did road test sort of their personal politics with the clintons and that is what the republicans reverted to. that became the model for the permanent slash and burn. >> even though biden says he wants to reset that in american politics, he's certainly not benefitting from that. >> i was surprised a little bit by it only because it feels like biden's policies do reset it a little bit. >> his policies poll higher than he does. >> and people will like what he's doing but still register extreme disapproval because he's joe biden. >> can you fact check that for us, steve. in terms of the polling for his policies versus polling for him personally, do we have anything on that? >> that's exactly the dynamic you're getting. take a look at some of the stuff we're going to hear about tonight. for instance, this is a poll in the past week from monmouth. the infrastructure plan for biden, 68%, 29% oppose. paid college tuition, 64/34. the taxes on corporations, taxes on wealthy individuals, basically consistently 2-1. in fact if you look at what was the signature item of biden's first hundred days was probably that stimulus. when that stimulus passed, here's the monmouth poll, it was close to a 2-1 support or oppose. but again, as i keep coming to that word polarization, don't mean to sound like a broken record but you see when you look at the overall assessment of biden as president, you probably see, and this is true of both parties, polarizations kick in and maybe it's more issue. >> but you can't get to a 62% support number with only democrats. >> right. >> that's right. >> you have to be bringing along some independents and some republicans into a 62% positive number on, for example, covid relief bill. fascinating. >> the thing that they spent the most time and effort on is the shots in arms and that polls even higher than infrastructure or the total package, polls close to 69 to 72, the most recent polls. >> you had on tim miller, an interesting piece that, talked about what democrats should be doing. my initial thought before i started to read a word of it, biden seems like such a -- he difuses people's rage. that's not what i'm hearing in these polls but i wonder approximate that means that democrats have to almost -- do they have to vrs biden from the biden policies in order to sort of reset themselves in the mid-terms? i thought biden was a net plus. was my assumption, because he is a diffuser of rage. >> i'll hand it over to brian who are n this photo, we have noted these images are historic, to have two women there. as a woman, as nicole is, from northern california, to have kamala harris of oakland and nancy pelosi there, it hits you in the prime. >> and i'm sure you've all heard this in your own calls and kamala harris, vice president harris just said what should people think about this historic night? she said it should be normal. >> yes. their big message is this is just normal. this is just the way it should be. >> how strange it's going to look when we grab tape of this event years from now. the mask wearing and social distancing. the president is in the holding room. we will see first lady jill biden and second gentleman doug emhoff get escorted into the guest gallery. we saw a shot a bit ago of the door. something to think about when we see joe biden come down this aisle, 36-year veteran of the senate. so far, because of the pandemic, and he has never used terms of victimization, he has been robbed of so much of the majesty and pomp of the job. campaign stops. convention speech. after he won, giving his acceptance in a parking lot, in wilmington. an inaugural address. these are the representatives of the diplomatic core coming in. it is vast. they are sparse. but that is the nature of what we're doing. the parliamentary word for what you're watching is we're stalling until the top of the hour when the speaker of the house will queue the sergeant of arms who will announce the pre of the united states. luckily for us, there is second gentleman doug emhoff coming into the honored guest gallery. luckily for us, former u.s. senator claire mccaskill and michael steele, two of our friends along for us. claire, this must be highly unusual for you. i'm sure you have traffic to share with us of your former colleagues and how highly mush this is for them to be sitting there tonight. >> yeah, this is really weird. this is one night in washington where there's a dinner held for the senators, spouses are always in town. there's a lot of social interaction before going down to the speech. i remember watching the diplomatic core walk in that i used to favor a seat close to the diplomatic core on the very edge and my secret was, brian, that meant i could get out of there quickly when it was over. because i wouldn't have to wait for everyone to go down the front aisle. this is very different. tonight will emphasize what we all knew when we were sitting in the chamber and listening to the speech. this speech is not about who is in the chamber. it's a speech to the american public. jb will know that clearly. when he looks out, he will not see all of his friends that he expected to see in his first speech to congress. >> michael steele, we're watching the chief justice come in. your analysis of this strange scene thus far? >> yeah, it's strapg, but in one sense it's transitional. we know what lies ahead. the president will lay that out tonight for the american people here. we're hoping we can go back out and begin to restart those things we're most familiar with. i look in that room and, yes, it has the tapes on the seats and folks are wearing masks but it's a reminder of where we have been asp as it is a statement about where we're going. and i think that is something that joe biden wants us to take to heart tonight, in his message to the country. i think it is porp to note that the chamber is somewhat empty and that is appropriately reflecting of joe's intent in an interesting way, to speak more directly to the american people and not necessarily get caught up in who is not applauding, who is standing up who is sitting down, but rather have a straightforward conversation where we can all sbermize ourselves. >> first lady being escorted to her seat of honor in the visitor's gallery. claire, let be honest about something here. most members of the supreme court loath attending this speech. some of them famously have fallen asleep some of them into a deep rem sleep. members of the cabinet have been split on attending. we'll see secretaries of state and defense representing the entire cabinet. ditto all the lawmakers who may enjoy the event, may have sincerely wanted to be there tonight, but didn't make the cut of the black tape that is roping off these seats. >> all the judges, diplomatic core and members of congress have in common is they're not used to sitting and listening to somebody else talk. they're the talkers. so, it is painfully obvious during this speech that everyone is fidgety. you have the speech in front of you. it's all typed out. you could read along. there is a sense of let's get along with it. these are people who think highly of themselves and are not used to sitting for an hour listening to someone talk to them. on the other hand this is a special night, particularly for the women of congress, to look up and see those two women on the dias. i'm very jealous for them on that opportunity. remember, brian, famously, the supreme court, some of them quit coming after barack obama confronted them about citizens united during his state of the union speech, alito famously nodding his head no when barack obama said exactly what was going to happen with that decision in terms of dark money flooding the airwaves during political campaigns. >> michael steele, i wonder if there isn't some benefit -- i agree with you, it is a transition, the safety procedures have almost become part of the message. i worpd if he's not doing an end around the hijinx and theatrics. they're literally not in the room. >> a lot of folks are taking note of that. the story earlier in the week where, you know, it was about democrats trying to get the tickets and then the story was about the republicans who didn't want it. and everybody kind of yawned. it's like, who cares if they're there or not? >> right. >> really, it doesn't matter if they're in the room or not. because they're not about governing. they're not about being the loyal opposition in the most republican, and i mean small r use of the word. joe biden is aware of that. and he knows. he will make whatever relational deal he needs to make on the back end with whomever he wants to make it with, whomever is willing to ache make it with him. he's moving forward. despite the obstacles, the president has led and has stood firm in his leadership and i think that's reflected in all of these polls you see, whether they like the man personally or believe he's uncle joe or whatever, they're buying what he's offering the country right now. for republicans, it's hard for them to come pack and say, you really don't want that. what? you don't want infrastructure, covid shots? you don't want to open up your communities again? tell me what it is you don't want. and i don't know how you make that an easy-winning narrative with americans when they're liking what they're hearing from joe. >> the wide shot, of course, that we're seeing is underlying the -- undergirding the strangeness of what it means to have this big chamber with all the social distancing and covid protocols with so few people compared to what we're used to. about an eighth of the number. but that tight shot is the pure history of the female vice president woman of color and female speaker of the house sharing that diaz for the first time ever. we are seconds away from president biden's first joint address to congress. any moment now we expect the sergeant of arms to announce his arrival. president will walk into the chamber, up to the lectern to deliver his address. that was just about where this speech will stop resembling any former joint address to congress or state of the union. there is no blueprint for this. they're doing their best. addressing a packed chamber of more than 1500 people.

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