Though, from washington, former President Donald Trump is exhibiting his absolute control over the Republican Party today as he explicitly endorses a candidate to replace wyoming congresswoman liz cheney as she has emerged over trumps repeated false claims and efforts to overturn the election. The former president threw his support behind stefanik. President biden was asked about that situation when he visited a Washington Restaurant Just moments ago at the white house. Watch. President, do you have any comments on the efforts to oust liz cheney from the house by republicans . It seems as though the Republican Party is trying to identify what it stands for, and theyre in the midst of significant sort of mini revolution. We need a twoparty system. Its not healthy to have a oneparty system. And i think the republicans are further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than what i thought they would be at this point. Meantime, facebook upheld the companys decision to bar trump from communicating with his 34 million followers on instagram, which trump called a total disgrace. However, facebook has six months to justify its decision, the board says. The board is saying to facebook, you need to go back. You need to look at this case again, and you need to be clear and apply a penalty that exists within those that you have as your stated penalties. Weve got lots to cover this hour. To kick things off with us, we are joined by Garrett Haake on capitol hill and ben collins who covers misinformation, extremism and the internet for us. Garrett, ill start with you as support for Elise Stefanik grows. Adam kinzinger tweeted this out. Every gop member of Congress Needs to go on the record as to how they will vote on liz cheney in Operation Coverup january 6th and concerned donors should take notes, i will vote for liz. Garrett, what is congresswoman cheney doing against efforts to oust her . Were seeing more of her allies step up . The problem is mostly she has the wrong friends to defend you in the House Republican congress. The people were hearing speak out on her behalf are folks like adam kinzinger, mitt romney, and even Speaker Pelosi have defended liz cheney. Thats not going to do very much in the House Republican conference. Cheney, if she is whipping votes on her behalf to keep that conference chair job. These are two separate jobs, whether cheney stays or goes and a vote on who would replace her. Its not cheney versus stefanik. I think people shouldnd that. If she is whipping votes, she is doing it very quietly. My source arent saying anything about it of ive not seen any public reporting about it. Were not hearing much from cheney aside from a statement from a spokesperson saying this is not just about the House Republican conference here that shell have more to say in the coming days. So far, saying very little in this moment, as her foes are speaking quite loudly, calling for her ouster. Theres an interesting dynamic about this trump shadow, because 538 crunched the numbers and found liz cheney voted with former President Trump nearly 93 of the time as opposed to nearly 78 of the time for Elise Stefanik. So, what does this tell us about the priorities of todays Republican Party and how much donald trump is firmly in charge here . This is not a vote about who supports the president more on policy and positions. This isnt a vote about conservatism. Clearly, liz cheney is and long has been a conservative republican. She is in the crosshairs because she has vocally been going after former President Donald Trump about january 6th, about the fact that he continues to perpetuate the big lie that the election was stolen from him, which we all know is not true. I think theres frustration among House Republicans, though because, as you say, it is the party of trump. They believe they need donald trump in order to win the majority back in 2022. And the fact that liz cheney is talking about january 6th more than most democrats are was a real source of frustration and a feeling among the leadership in the House Republicans that she was not on their team and that that wasnt going to work for the next year and a half until the midterm election. Ben, the Big News Today was that the facebook Oversight Board made their decision, director of administration spoke to my colleague, Hallie Jackson about the message the board was trying to send back to facebook itself. Saying to facebook, although you were correct on the day, although it was a severe violation, you didnt apply the right penalty. Its not proportionate to have an indefinite suspension. However there are clear recommendations, in the future what kind of tests should be applied and how users should be handled, Techly Political Users and political leaders and how that should be addressed. A stern message to facebook that they have to do something about this arbitrary suspension. Does this mean trump could end up being reinstated on to the facebook platform as well as instagram . Its inherently possible. This is basically the Oversight Board saying we didnt have a constitution to work with, and youre asking us to make a hard and fast law like a supreme court. We dont have real rules. We have to figure out the rules are first and then come back and make a decision on this one case. So, what they said to them was youve got six months. Basically, lets figure out what it takes to get expeled permanently from facebook, and if thats a thing, and if it applies to politicians, extremists, for example. If you cant ban anybody, can you not ban extremists . Whats the deal here . Theyre sending Back Guidance to facebook and thats get your act together. Its been a few years now. Have we heard anything from facebook about what their next steps will be on this issue and others youve raised . No. They said theres a top line thing here. This is binding, legally binding. We have to do what they say. They will do this. They will go, take six months and figure out some rules and if you can expel people from facebook, and then well go through this all over again. Former President Trumps aides, axios reported, view facebook as the linchpin to his strategy. What could this mean for the 2024 president ial bid if the president is ultimately kicked off facebook . They have six months and then they may have another shot of getting back on to the platform. I was talking to republicans today, and they were saying privately that, you know, there was almost a sense of relief that the president wasnt going to be back on social media. They feel like hes a distraction from the party and that he has not having to deal with him on a daily basis is good for their candidates, particularly in the senate side. If youre Donald Trumps folks, youre looking at this is one of the key ways for them to raise money. He will need a lot of it to try to run. If he doesnt run he will try to raise as much money as possible in the intervening time. We heard President Biden talk about having a twoparty system. Wall street puts it like this, purging liz cheney would diminish the party. Do House Republicans believe removing liz cheney will turn the page on trumps claims of Election Fraud . Whats the end objective of removing her from this Leadership Position . The strategy, as best i cannd it, is a shortterm one. It allows them to hopefully, they hope, stop answering questions about donald trump and particularly about donald trump and january 6th in the short term. Its instructive to look at how Mitch Mcconnell has handled this so differently from liz cheney. Mcconnell excoriated trump after voting to acquit him in the second impeachment and then basically stopped talking about him. Liz cheney takes every question about trump and answers it honestly. We can have a debate about the morality of how each of those actors have chosen to address questions about the former president but politically, tactically, House Republicans appear to believe that talking less about those things would be better than talking more, and thats the choice they are essentially forcing here for liz cheney. They seem to forget the president himself is the one who continues to keep talking about that and driving that conversation as well. Ben, Maggie Haberman of the New York Times tweeted that trump is obsessed with the controversial arizona audit and has told people he thinks it could undo the election. How pervasive is this belief online that the Election Results somehow could still be otherturned, even 100 days in President Bidens administration . Its extremely perfect vasy in the qumt amount non set. Thats in part because its pushed by the guy a lot of people think is q from qanon, ron watkins. He is spending a lot of days on telegram, pointing to Security Camera footage, this audit. A lot of people involved in this are on the far right. Theres a guy who stormed the capitol that is counting those votes, part of the audit. It is all over the place, farright, qanon parts of the internet. Its hard to find it otherwise because people have been deplatformed from places like facebook and twitter. If you follow these people down the rabbit hole, thats all theyre talking about right now. Anna palmer, Garrett Haake, thank you for starting us off this hour. Former Attorney General bill barr helped guide his decision to not charge then President Trump with obstruction at the end of the mueller investigation. In her ruling judge Amy Berman Jackson sharply criticized barr, saying he was disingenuous about the process, a Freedom Of Information Lawsuit brought by a Government Transparency group that sought the 2019 memo but the doj refused to provide it, saying it represented the private advice of lawyers. Barr could not immediately be reached for comment. Joining me now, a Law Professor at nyu and nbc news legal analyst. Also the author of where law ends inside the mueller investigation. Great to have you with us. Based on judge jacksons ruling, what do you expect to see in this memo . Well, this decision by judge jackson, who doesnt mince any words, is a bit of a bombshell in two ways. One, she it is not new to your audience that the Attorney General misled the American Public in his socalled fourpage summary. What is new is that judge jackson has seen in camera, meaning she, herself, has seen the memoranda that she has ordered to be disclosed, and she says in her decision that it provides further evidence of the deception played by the Attorney General, including his statement to the American Public that Robert Mueller left it to the Attorney General to decide whether the president had committed a crime. And she says thats simply not the case. The second part of her decision that was pretty upsetting to many of us was that she said that the Trump Administration lawyers who presented the arguments to her were misleading to her. So, she was obviously, as a federal judge, quite upset that those statements were made to her that she said were essentially belied by the actual submission, which they fought to have her not see, but she insisted on reading. And when she read it, it led to this decision, saying that the memoranda has to be disclosed. So you raise two very important points there, which ultimately begs the question, what do you think the Justice Department now, this current Justice Department under Merrick Garland will do, can do, should do . So, thats a hard question because, of course, you and i dont know what is in the sealed submission. One part of her decision seems pretty unasailable. She says theres part of that memorandum that is clearly not legal advice and had not even been told and no argument was made to withhold that. She was quite upset, it seems, by the fact that this was something that they just decided not only not to produce but not even to address. It seems very hard for the current Justice Department to say that that part should not be when would. I think what the current Justice Department will do is see whether there are really legitimate arguments, just legal arguments. Even though they might disagree with what Attorney General barr did here, if they think there is a legal base under the Freedom Of Information Act to withhold these documents, they may take an appeal, but my bet is that they wont. Remember, Attorney General garland, in his confirmation hearing, said he thinks that foya needs to be very liberally construed in favor of disclosure and transparency. So i would say my money is on this department not appealing this. So let me ask you, if i can, about another subject. And that has to do with this breaking story following last weeks raid on Rudy Giulianis home in manhattan. A lawyer for giuliani has had conversations with a lawyer for trump about whether any of the material seized by the fbi could be protected by Attorney Client privilege. The u. S. Attorneys office in manhattan asked a federal judge to appoint a Special Master to review potentially privileged material seized by mr. Giuliani. Could this be a potential significant roadblock to that investigation . Not at all. This is something that is i wont say fairly routine, but this is something that federal prosecutors do. In fact, any prosecutor does when they think theyre going to obtain documents that could be covered by the Attorney Client privilege, which is to ask the court to appoint a Special Master or, more common, to create a socalled filter team that would review material to screen out any Attorney Client communications so that the team thats actually investigating doesnt get access to that. We did that, for instance, in the special counsel investigation and it works very well. The only thing that this means is that the process is slower, because you have to allow that filter team time to review and discuss it with, you know, mr. Giuliani and potentially the former president to make sure theyre screening out Attorney Client information, but only material that is actually subject to that privilege. Andrew weismann, thank you for your insights. Greatly appreciate it. Thank you. The nations top general says hes now open to changing the militarys Sexual Assault policy, that failed to curtail a pervasive problem among the military ranks. Ill be joined by navy veteran Mikey Sherrill after the break. Former aid to ukrainian president who said he heard first end Rudy Giuliani asking ukrainian officials to investigate joe biden ahead of the 2020 election. Youre watching msnbc. D of the 2020 election. Youre watching msnbc. A capsule a day visibly fades the dark spots away. New neutrogena® rapid tone repair 20 percent pure vitamin c. A serum so powerful dark spots dont stand a chance. See what i mean . Neutrogena® what happens when we Welcome Change . We can make Emergency Medicine possible at 40,000 feet. Instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. We can create new ways to connect. Rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. With app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps Companies Navigate change. Faster. Vmware. Welcome change. Keeping your oysters Business Growing has you swamped. You need to hire. I need indeed indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com promo which shows will you be getting into tonight . How bout all of them. Netflix. cause xfinity gets you really into your shows. When one burns for someone who does not feel the same. Daphne, lets switch. From live tv to sports on the go. Felix at the finish you can even watch your dvr from anywhere. Okay, thats just showing off. You get all of this on x1. So go on, get really into your shows. You need a breath mint. Xfinity. Its a way better way to watch. Last month a panel stripped the commanders of authority to. How significant would it be if the recommendation is ultimately approved . It would be huge, ayman. This has been something thats been discussed for years. Whats critical here is that members of the u. S. Military, the leadership, the uniform Service Members, they have been against this potential change for years. Well, now, as you mentioned, we have chairman of the joint chiefs who says hes open to it. What would this mean . For years when theres a Service Member who claims to have been sexually harassed or assaulted its generally handled within that Chain Of Command. This would change that. Any kind of investigation and any recommendation for a courtmartial or for some kind of adjudication of the issue, that would go into the hand of a civilian, who would take it and do the investigating and make the recommendations. It would be a potential sea change here, because the u. S. Military has pushed back against this idea, claiming it would hurt good order and discipline and somehow erode that Chain Of Command structure. Now we have not only general mark mille who says hes open to the idea of this change, but his predecessor, former chairman, admiral mike mullen, also says after years of being against it, is he in favor of potentially doing this. Why they have changed their minds is that for years the military has tried to take on and battle the skourge of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault with very little success. And theyre saying now, look, were willing to do just about anything that might potentially move this needle and help this problem, ayman. Courtney kube for us at the pentagon. Thank you. Mikey sherrill of new jersey, veteran of the u. S. Navy, congresswoman thank you and welcome back to this program. You were harassed during your service at the navy and the naval academy. Does this investigation to let independent prosecutors handle Assault Claims go far enough for you . You know, i think this is a critically important change. And as you heard for years, our military commanders have been reluctant to do this. Appropriately not seeing the changes we want to see, were finally seeing the seniormost person in our military uniform, general mille, saying hes open to it. I think not enough peoplend what this means or had an this looks like inside the military. Your boss, who had been friends with a lot of senior people at your company was the Decision Maker for Sexual Assault cases, and that his friend, his good friend assaulted you as a Junior Member of that team, and you had to go forward and make your case when his good friend had been the one that you were accusing. Imagine the real Conflict Of Interest in that. Thats what weve seen in our military too many times. Unfortunately, im still hearing the stories of Sexual Assault and harassment that i could have heard 20 years ago at the naval academy. It is quite remarkable when you put it the way that you did. Why if the principle applies for Sexual Assault or harassment, why does it not apply to other Military Misconduct . Why not have an independent prosecutor address all areas of Military Misconduct . There are instances of the Commanding Officer putting out rules. You couldnt go buy a motorcycle without talking to a senior person in the command because we just wanted to make sure that our young people joining didnt get themselves in trouble and get themselves hurt. Stuff like that is something that a Commanding Officer is well within his or her purview to adjudicate. It really is when it comes to issues involving Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment that again you can see those conflicts of interest. Let me switch gears for a moment. On the political side, congresswoman liz cheneys days as a gop Conference Leader look to be numbered as republicans campaign against her for her criticism former prrp. What does this infighting within the Republican Party say to you . What do you make of it . You know, this, to me, is the Republican Partys continued desire to whitewash, quell dissent within the ranks of what happened on january 6th, the fact that President Trump incited an insurrection against congress, as we were performing our constitutional duty, and certifying the election and, you know, to see that Behind Closed Doors previously, the republican conference overwhelmingly voted to keep liz cheney in a Leadership Position, it will be very interesting to see how this vote goes, but i would like to see some more courage on the part of republicans in really quelling this idea that this was just a benign event and really holding the former president accountable for his actions. Speaking of courage, the only republican, at least notable republican speaking out in her defense, adam kinzinger, hes calling this Operation Coverupjanuary6. Do you agree with that . I do. To say these were Peaceful Protesters and look at other instances and try to divert attention away from what happened, this was the president of the United States inciting a violent mob to attack members of congress, myself included. I was in the chamber. As we were certifying our democratic elections, trying to keep us from our constitutional duty. And the fact that too many republicans dont want to hold him accountable for this and keep wanting to put loyalty to President Trump before the interest of our nation and our democracy is really, really something thats a shame to see. And im hoping that liz cheney prevails in this and we see some acts of courage in the Republican Party, but it doesnt seem like thats where this is headed. Congresswoman mikie sherrill, thank you for your time and insights. Appreciate it. Thank you. President biden just rolled out a nearly 30 billion program to help restaurants hit particularly hard by the covid pandemic. And a migrant family separated at the border years ago is back together again. Well have that story for you right after the break. Youre watching msnbc. T after t. Youre watchg inmsnbc. Youre clearly someone who takes care of yourself. So why wait to screen for colon cancer . Because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of Colon Cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Ill do it. Good plan. Up at 2 00am again . Tonight, Try Pure Zzzs all night. Ill do it. Unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. And longer. Zzzquil pure zzzs all night. Fall asleep. Stay asleep. upbeat music [narrator] this is kate. She always wanted her smile to shine. Now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. Crowd Cheering therabreath, its a better mouthwash. At walmart, target and other fine stores. phone rings hello . Hi mommy, i won a medal. Thats amazing going back to the place we love i got in with endless Summer Nights hes walking comes alive i dont need the rain when the sky is blue celebrate all the moms in your life with sparkling gifts from pandora jewelry. Hooh. That spin class was brutal. Well you can try using the buicks massaging seat. Oohh yeah, thats nice. Can i use apple carplay to put some music on . Sure, its wireless. Pick something we all like. Ok. Hold on. Whats your buicks wifi password . buickenvision2021. oh, you should pick something stronger. Thats really predictable. Thats a really tight spot. Dont worry. I used to hate parallel parking. [all together] me too. Hey. You really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The allnew buick envision. An suv built around you. All of you. Just last hour President Biden joe biden spok on the newly launched Restaurant Revitalization Fund and spoke about what he sees so far as the success of the American Rescue plan. Watch. The American Rescue plan is working. America is getting vaccinated. Job creation is soaring. The economy is growing. And our country is on the move again. Joining me now is nbc news shannon pettypiece. What did we hear from biden on the American Rescue plan and this Restaurant Revitalization Fund . And does the white house feel confident that their messaging is working on this . Reporter yeah. Well, youre hearing the president still trying to sell this covid stimulus bill passed back in march and this program for restaurants is a 20 billion fund that would provide assistance to restaurants, primarily those that are majorityowned by women and minorities and give them up to 10 million in assistance. It could provide a big boost to an industry thats really been the hardest hit, even though the industry says thats not nearly enough money for them. But this, of course, comes as hes trying to sell two more Stimulus Plans in the white houses description, Infrastructure Plan and then this child care plan. The president indicating hes open to negotiating a bit, a few moments ago on one of the key sticking points among republicans is the Corporate Tax rate. Have a listen to what he had to say there. On the Corporate Tax rate, have you talked to ceos about that . Yes. Are you open to, say, 25 . Im open to compromising, yes. It doesnt have to be exactly what i say, but to suggest that, which some of the folks are suggesting and im going to moob meet with the republicans next week when they come back, and seriously meet with them. Im willing to compromise. But im not willing to not pay for what were talking you about. Reporter as you heard the president say there, we anticipate some republicans coming to the white house next week for talks, but white house Officials Say they want to see a counterproposal from republicans by mid may. And by memorial day they expect to see some significant progress here or theyll reassess this attempt to get bipartisan support for this bill. Shannon pettypiece, thank you. Switching gears to a reunion more than three years in the making. A mother and son brought together yesterday. The first migrant family reunited under the Biden Administration after being separated during the Trump Administration. Nbc news correspondent Jacob Soboroff was there for that reunion. He joins me now. Quite a moment there. Tell us about it. Reporter it was an extraordinary moment, ayman. It doesnt take much to see or understand that. This family was separated for more than three years like so many thousands, honestly, of people separated by the Trump Administration and that Zero Tolerance policy that deliberately and cruelly took mothers away from their children from the sole purpose to stop them from coming to the country. President biden promised to reunite those families and the first family was reunited. Take a look. Reporter a stark contrast to these images from june 2018. The first and only from inside a facility used to house some of the over 5,500 migrant children, some as young as infants, separated from their parents. President biden telling craig last week his administration is working to reunite the more than 1,000 families who remain separated. And were still continuing to try like hell to find out where they are. Its a fullblown effort were making. Reporter this is the Port Of Entry where brian and his mom arrived in late 2017. They were detained together and a few days after that, they were separated. Brian was sent to a shelter. He was told his mom was in a jail. He never spoke to his mom until she was deported without him. After weeks in that shelter himself, brian was released to Family Members in the u. S. When did you find out you guys would be reunited this week . I would say three days ago. Reporter how did you react . It was really exciting to like get to see my mom again. Just amazing. According to his lawyers, 15yearold brian and his mom fled mexico after cartels kidnapped and murdered his dad and uncle and demand brian join their gang. What do you want people to know . Its a cruel experience that i hope no one has to go through. Reporter theres 1,000 people still in the same position as you. Its just unbelievable. Reporter inspired by his mom, once in the u. S. , brian graduated high school a year early to pursue a career. Whats it been like . You went through this just unspeakable thing in order to find yourself here in high school, like a normal kid. Its really amazing, as you said, but at the same time it was hard to grow up without a mom. Like when i graduate, she wasnt there. And like my birthday, she wasnt there. Reporter when you see your mom this week for the first time, have you thought about what youre going to do, what youre going to say . Oh, my god, i dont know. Just like i love you mom and i hope we are never separated again. Reporter last night, they finally saw each other again. There are no words to describe the happiness that im feeling right now. Ayman, he is an extraordinary guy. I have to tell you, not only did he thank his lawyers after he was reunited with his mom and his dad but he went to work with his lawyers for the first time. He will be working at the pro bono Nonprofit Legal Services firm that protects migrant children. He wants to make sure that what happened to him never happens to anyone else again. Extraordinary and a remarkable young man that should have never been put in that situation. Thank you for your reporting, my friend. Thank you. Andrea mitchells interview with a former aide to ukrainian president volodymyr zenesky. What he heard on a phone call between Rudy Giuliani and zelensky back in 2019. D zelensky back in 2019. Try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. Versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. Boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. Boost® high protein. Tech every customer has their own safelite story. Boothis couple was onlso a camping trip. When their windshield got a chip. They drove to safelite for a sameday repair. And with their insurance, it was no cost to them. Woman really . Tech thats service you can trust. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. 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. Hey, dad choose behey, son better. No dad, its a video call. You got to move the phone in front of you like. Like its a mirror, dad. You know . Alright, okay. Hows that . Is that how you hold a mirror . [ding] power e trade gives you an awardwinning mobile app with powerful, easytouse tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24 7 support when you need it the most and 0 commissions for online u. S. Listed stocks. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. You could take your Ulcerative Colitis treatment in a different direction. Talk to your doctor about xeljanz, a pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe Ulcerative Colitis when a certain medicine did not help enough. Xeljanz is the first and only fdaapproved pill for moderate to severe uc. It can reduce symptoms in as early as two weeks, improve the appearance of the intestinal lining, and provide lasting steroidfree remission. Xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. Before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. Tell your doctor if youve had hepatitis b or c, have flulike symptoms, or are prone to infections. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers, including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. Taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. Tears in the stomach or intestines and serious allergic reactions have happened. You could take your uc treatment in a different direction. Ask your gastroenterologist about xeljanz. New projects means new project managers. In ayou need to hire. Ion. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. Claim your Seventy Five Dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed. Com home. As federal investigators continue their examination of Rudy Giulianis dealings with ukrainian officials, nbc was granted an exclusive interview with someone who listened in on a phone call between giuliani and president zelenskys, as he pressed them for an investigation on the bidens. What did you learn in your new interview on this subject . Reporter so much about how much Rudy Giuliani was pressing ukraines president zelensky and his staff to smear joe biden when he was running for the nomination to be the democratic nominee. This is back in july of 2019. And he was asked by the Chief Of Staff to listen in, this is igor novikov, listen in what they thought would be an introductory call from President Trumps former lawyer, but instead it was something entirely different. It was a real pressure campaign. Lets listen. So at the time Rudy Giuliani is the president s friend, associate, some time lawyer. He has no role at the state department. Was he also affecting policy . Well, from our side, it seemed that was the case, unfortunately. I mean, even the title changed throughout the phone call. He began the conversation by introducing himself as President Trumps personal lawyer, but then in the middle of the conversation, he already became his adviser and friend. And towards the end of the conversation, he was pretty much going in parallel saying feel free to talk to President Trump, calling president zelensky, ill talk to him myself. We were under the impression he was up there in terms of Foreign Policy in ukraine. Reporter of course, Rudy Giulianis role here in ukraine is central to the investigation now into giuliani and, of course, the fbi raid on his home and his office, as well as what role, if any, he played in the pressure that we believe was considerable to get rid of, remove the u. S. Ambassador, marie yovanovich. She has still not been replaced two years later. You know how significant that is, as this country awaits the arrival very shortly of Antony Blinken, secretary of state, for the dpchlt7, coming here for his first visit. He will address all of this with president zelensky, trying to shore up ukraine against putin and urge them not to backslide into corruption. Ayman . You will be speaking to Antony Blinken in an exclusive interview. Reporter yeah. Andrea mitchell, thank you for that very important reporting. Coming up, Breaking News on the push for covid19 vaccine patent waivers. More on that after the break. First, lets get a quick check on the markets before trading closes for the day. Economic optimism pushed the major averages higher throughout the trading day. Dow jones industrial up 120 points, s p up about 6 points, the nasdaq is down about 30. Youre watching msnbc. S, the nasdaq is down about 30. Youre watching msnbc. Im searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like im just wasting time. Thats why Td Ameritrade designed a firstofitskind, personalized education center. Oh. Their awardwinning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. And it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. So its like my streaming service. Well except now youre binge learning. See how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from Td Ameritrade. Visit tdameritrade. Com learn this is a gamechanger, who dares to be fearless even when her bladder leaks. Our softest, smoothest fabric keeping her comfortable, protected, and undeniably sleek. Depend. The only thing stronger than us, is you. vo nobody dreams in conventional thinking. It didnt get us to the moon. Depend. It doesnt ring the bell on wall street. Or disrupt the status quo. Tmobile for business uses unconventional thinking to help you realize new possibilities. Like our new work from anywhere solutions, so your teams can collaborate almost anywhere. Plus Customer Experience that finds solutions in the moment. And firstclass benefits, like 5g with every plan. Network, support and value without any tradeoffs. Thats tmobile for business. [announcer] when you earn a degree from Southern New Hampshire university, its worth getting loud. Woo i did it People Cheering [announcer]. And emotional. [woman]woo hoo cool [man] were proud of you, right, trav . Yeah [announcer] Snhu Graduates recognize what they can accomplish with a supportive university by their side. I did it. You can too [announcer] start your celebration at snhu. Edu 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. 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 the only medication of its kind 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. [tv announcer] come on down to our Appliance Superstore where weve got the best deals on refrigerators, microwaves, gas ranges and grills. And if youre looking for. We are following Breaking News at this hour. Today a federal judge vacated the federal freeze on evictions that has been in place since last summer to protect people from losing their homes since the pandemic. The judge says the cdc overstepped its authority. Anyone who lives outside of these 18 states and the district of columbia that continue to have local moratoriums can once again be subject to eviction. White House Press Secretary jen psaki says the white house Justice Department is reviewing that decision. News on the global vaccination front, u. S. Trade representative Katherine TaiJust Announced the Biden Administration now supports waiving intellectual protections on vaccines. It could remove a major hurdle for countries around the world vaccines that have been shown to be safe and effective. Last year then candidate biden was asked by Health Activist if the u. S. Would commit to sharing Vaccine Technology to help other countries. Heres a part of his answer. Absolutely positively. This is the only humane thing in the world to do. Joining me now is director of center of inif he recollects Disease Research and policy, dr. Michael osterholm. How impactful do you think this step by the administration will be to help other countries like india dealing with a major outbreak . Actually this is a complicated topic that isnt a simple yes or no answer. What i mean by that is the real challenge we have had is developing the Manufacturing Capacity and having the expertise of the individuals that can run the plants to make the vaccines. So its less about are we transferring technology that the companies have already said they willingly would do but if you dont have a place with the expertise to make the vaccine thats the challenge and will have to address. Is making the vaccine more readily available to other countries, would that help them in the current fight or already in the middle of the surge that the vaccine is almost at this point too little too late . The current surge in india and now pakistan and nepal, vaccine even if available there is going to be an only helpful not a game changer and i say that because the surge which is occurring and if i vaccinate people today i might not have protection for three to five weeks at the very minimum and so we have to do other things such as the kind of distancing recommendations, keeping people from having contact. But for the global picture overall we need vaccine for everyone. We know from the Variant Standpoint that they threaten the very security of our vaccines and if we have unchecked transmission in the world we threaten the very vaccines protecting us. So its not an issue at all but how to do it and trance fehring intellectual property doesnt provide you with trained highly skilled individuals to deliver the vaccines. Thats what we really need right now. In recent weeks you have probably seen a significant dropoff in the rate of vaccinations. How significant is this . How do you explain this . How should we interpret this . I dont think this is a surprise. In fact, last december i did a podcast calling it the last mile the last inch and about getting vaccine to the communities that we need to deliver so that vaccines could be administered. We had many more arms available than we had doses of vaccine. We knew we would hit a Tipping Point where the number of people wanting vaccine is less than doses and occurred earlier because i give this Administration Great credit for the amount of vaccine delivered. Remember when President Biden took office there was a debate whether he could deliver on 100 million doses in 100 days. The administration delivered on 220 million doses in 100 days. We really have done amazing work getting people vaccinated. The problem we have now though is we have a sizable number of people and state that is arent vaccinated yet. If you look 13 states right now have less than 50 of the population of even 1 dose and less than 6 states have less of the population vaccinated and they are ripe for outbreaks like michigan and oregon. Obvious you saw the announcement and the president unveil the goal of 70 of americans one dose by july fourth. Which is approximately 45 of the total population with consideration what we heard from dr. Fauci earlier why what do you make of the president s new goal . It is aspirational and the right thing. We are not done with this virus yet and it is not done with us. We need to get as many people vaccinated as possible and to get us to a new normal to enjoy life again and people vaccinated can get together in groups and celebrate the time together. We can only accomplish that if we get people vaccinated so i give the Administration Great credit for setting that goal. The other thing is they did not say it. They actually are putting in place plans did go almost house to house, zip code by zip code to find people to try to help them understand why vaccination is so important, what it will do to protect them and their loved ones and an important part of the 70 goal. Thank you for your insights. Thank you. And that wraps up this hour for me. Before deadline white house begins i want to turn things over to katy tur after she got bumped by the president earlier this afternoon in her hour. Its okay when you get bumped for the president but i know you have something important to share. Listen. He had very Important News to share of his own and totally fine. But thank you so much for allowing me to come on and say goodbye. It is not really goodbye but see you soon. I hope to make it to the end of the week but in the interest of not having this baby on Live Television and it is time for me to take a break. So this show or the 2 00 p. M. Show and all of you out there are like a family and dont worry. Well share the good news once it comes and reiterate how incredibly lucky i am to get this time off paid for by the company to both be with my baby and recover myself and heartened to know in the two years since i came back from my last Maternity Leave federal employees have 12 weeks of paid time off. Great news. But unbelievable that the same doesnt apply for every person in this country. Everyone. You hear people say the United States is the only rich nation or the only industrialized nation that doesnt offer anything at the look, if your wireless carrier was a guy youd leave him tomorrow. Not very flexible. Not great at saving. You deserve better. Xfinity mobile. Now they have unlimited for just 30 a month. 30. And theyre number one in customer satisfaction. His number. Delete it. Im deleting it. So, break free from the big three. Xfinity internet customers, switch to Xfinity Mobile and get unlimited with 5g included for 30 on the nations fastest, most reliable network