Coronavirus. Did it come out of a lab in wuhan . Thats whAt Theyre looking at. Questions also this morning surrounding the Summer Olympics in tokyo, as japan struggles to get its covid outbreak under control. What a new study is saying about immunity from coronavirus, for those who have beaten it and those who are vaccinated. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could force a vote as early as today on a commission to investigate the January 6th attack on the capitol. But we begin unfortunately with the latest from San Jose, california, where nine people now are dead after an employee opened fire at a Light Rail Yard. Police say the shooter took his own life. According to authorities, the victims range in age from 29 to 63 years old. Law enforcement sources say the gunman was an employee of the Santa Clara Valley transportation authority. Investigators say so far, the Motive Sun clear. Nbc news national Correspondent Miguel Almaguer reports. This is an active shooter. Reporter The Sound of steady gunfire ripped across this Rail Yard in northern california, moments before an army of Police Officers arrived. Pd has multiple Units Code 3. Many, if not all the victims believed to be coworkers. Officers followed The Sounds of gunfire, cornering the suspect in a room. They went into the building while the shots were still being fired and confronted the suspect. And the suspect then took his own life . Yes. The chaos unfolding at 6 30 a. M. At the Rail Yards dispatch center. Even with the suspect down, the Threat Wasnt over. Police feared explosive devices may have been inside a nearby building. The Bomb Squad methodically working around the active Crime Scene to clear the area. The Bomb Squad is pretty much activated and theyre searching every crevice of the whole building. Just a few miles away, the gunmans home engulfed in flames, likely set on fire, police say, shortly before the Mass Shooting. Miguel almaguer reporting there. Lets go to the scene in San Jose. Thats where we find Msnbc Weekend anchor, lindsey reiser. Lindsey, good morning. We know another victim died overnight. We know the identity there. What more can you tell us about what we know since the shooting took place . Willie, definitely a sad Morning Beginning here to the day, here in San Jose. As you mentioned, a Ninth Victim dying At The hospital overnight. And late last night, we learned the names and the ages of the victims. We are going to show you those now. And the ages range from 29 to 63. And all some, if not all, are vta employees. And this took place, willie, during Shift Change. So workers from the Midnight Shift and workers from the Day Shift were there At The same time. And the victims were taken to a local Trauma Center where, again, a Ninth Victim died overnight. Were still working to find out exactly how many people were hurt in this massacre. We know thAt The sheriff said the proximity of the Sheriffs Office likely saved lives. Its practically right across the street. And were learning more about the shooter. 57yearold samuel cassidy, a vta employee. Neighbors call him standoffish. His exwife spoke to the associated press. They divorced in 2005, havent spoken in 13 years, but she said he had a bad temper. And he did discuss wanting to kill people at work. She obviously never thought that he would follow through with it. We should mention to add a little bit to miguels reporting there, At The same time the shots fired calls were taking Place Yesterday Morning around 6 34 in the morning, there was a call for a fire At The home belonging to samuel cassidy. And right now, investigators are working on these two investigations as though they are linked, looking At The possibility thAt That fire was set before he went to work and youre looking at video right now of that house fire. Now, investigators inside that home found rounds of Ammunition And Gas cans and the Bomb Squad was called to the scene as well. At the vta facility, they had bombsniffing dogs here, as well. And one of The Dogs, at least one of The Dogs picked up on at least one device. They sent in the Bomb Robot, and At This point, it is our Understanding And Belief thAt The device that was picked up on by The Dog was not an explosive, so the building was given the allclear. Now, the sheriff is shedding a little bit more light on the chaos that unfolded here during the shooting. That when officers and San Jose Police Officers were on the first on scene, when they arrived, the shooting was still taking place. There were still shots being fired and those officers ran into the room and confronted the suspect. The suspect, cassidy, shot himself. Its not believed thAt There was any gunfire exchanged between the two, but the sheriff does tell us thAt They were yelling through the halls, sheriff, sheriff so that cassidy knew thAt They were encroaching on him. We also heard from the governor about this senseless tragedy. We know cassidy used a handgun, possibly multiple handguns and the governor, Gavin Newsom was incensed and he vowed to not make this meaningless. Lets listen to some of what he said yesterday, willie. It begs the damned question, whAt The hell is going on in the united states of america . WhAt The hell is wrong with us . When are we going to come to grips with this . When are we going to put down our arms, literally and figuratively, our politics, stale rhetoric, finger pointing, all the Hangwringing Consternation that produces nothing except more fury and frustration, more scenes like this repeated over and over and over again. Reporter President Biden ordeRed Flags to be flown at halfstaff. Hes also urging Congress To take action on Gun Control measures. And willie, there will be a Vigil Tonight at city hall. Lindsey reiser on the scene for us in San Jose. Lindsey, thank you so much. President biden released a statement on the shooting. It reads, there are at least eight families who will never be whole again. There are children, parents, conspicuouses who are waiting to hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters, good, honest, hardworking people who are mourning their own. Once again, i urge Congress To take immediate action and heed The Call of american people, including the vast majority of Gun Owners, to help end this epidemic of Gun Violence in america. Jonathan lemire, At The White House, obviously, this president has a lot on his plate right now. Hes trying to push through infrastructure among many other things while grappling with a pandemic. Where do guns, where does Gun Safety Fit into that puzzle . Willie, for a while, President Biden received some criticism from Gun Control activists, Gun Safety advocates who said he wasnt doing enough on guns. Well recall that guns were thrust to the center of the national conversation a few months ago with those shootings in those spas outside and around atlanta. And the president , in fact, used a trip to georgia to start talking about both antiasian violence and the scourge of guns on our country. We may have a similar setup today. Ill be traveling with the president as he heads to ohio. Hes giving a speech in cleveland on the need for his Infrastructure Plan, on the jobs plan, but undoubtedly, well be hearing from him on this, as well. This tragedy that unfolded in california. And guns are something that is, as you said, just one item on an extraordinarily busy agenda. The aides have set an informal memorial Day Deadline to see if they can actually broker some bipartisan progress on his sweeping infrastructure deal. Were expected to get another republican counteroffer this morning, just after 9 00 a. M. On that. We know thAt Theres some movement. Theres some signs of optimism, measured optimism among both democrats and republicans on the police reform bill, thAt They think that could come together some time in the next few weeks. But now therell be new focus on guns, as these Mass Shootings continue to happen. And there has been some talk among republican and democratic senators about a deal that may strengthen background checks. But that itself is relatively a small measure, compared to what others really want. And the White House aides right now, willie, are debating how much capitol to use on guns. Can the president do a fullcourt press on guns when hes trying right now to bring infrastructure to get some sort of deal done. Again, nine people killed while doing their jobs at a Rail Yard in San Jose. Were going to come back to this story, shortly. But speaking of the president s agenda, President Biden is calling for the Countrys Intelligence agencies now to conduct a closer review of where the coronavirus originated and how. Nbc News Chief white House Correspondent Peter alexander has more. Reporter with suspicion growing that covid19 emerged from this chinese lab, President Biden is ordering u. S. Intelligence to redouble their efforts and provide a report on the originals of the outbreak within 90 days. Its dramatic shift for the White House, that just said any investigation should be run by the World Health Organization. The president revealing that u. S. Intelligence is currently split over two possible scenarios, both with low or moderate confidence. Two agencies suspecting it came from Human Contact, with an infected animal. And another leaning towards a laboratory accident. It comes after a u. S. Intelligence report found thAt Three researchers from the Wuhan Institute Of Virology became sick with covidlike symptoms and even went to the hospital right before the pandemic began. Former President Trump endorsed the Lab Leak Theory more than a year ago, when asked if hes seen evidence giving him a high degree of confidence thAt The virus came from the lab. Yes, i have. And i think thAt The World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves. Reporter later, a joint study between the w. H. O and china dismissed the likelihood of the lab leak, but recently, dr. Fauci joined others now questioning chinas claim thAt The virus came from nature. No, im not convinced about that. I think that we should continue to investigate what went on in china. Reporter President Biden suggested the inquiry may have specific questions for china. Why do we think that china would cooperate. This is something you have to ask the chinese government. This is something that should matter to them. So, Katty Kay, obviously, this has been a theory thats been out there since the very beginning of the crisis. Not just abroad, but here in the united states, members of congress raising the Red Flag about some kind of a lab leak. That doesnt mean it was created as a weapon in the lab, but maybe there was just an accident in the lab that led to 3. 5 million deaths across the world from coronavirus. Why do you think President Biden has escalated this to the Intelligence Community and clearly is taking it more seriously than he has in the past. Its interesting. Whats new that we know now, willie, is thAt There were the three employees who were sick enough around the time of the outbreak of the coronavirus in November Of 2019 thAt They actually had to be hospitalized. The w. H. O had told us a while ago thAt There had been a few employees in that lab who had had some sicklike symptoms, but they dismissed it as just kind of seasonal colds. They didnt seem to take it very seriously. Now we know thAt Three of them were sick enough to go to hospital. That raises a Red Flag about why did they have to go to hospital . We dont know that it was covid. But the fact thAt Three of them went to hospital with serious enough symptoms At The time covid was emerging in that city suggests they may have had covid. I did an interview with actually a doctor in australia who was one of the very first doctors in the world, and the australians have been really in the forefront of this theory, To Push For an investigation of that lab, To Push For, you know, more information from the chinese. And the one thing he told me is thAt There is something about the nature of the pathogen of covid19, the way it spreads so efficiently from humantohuman, that had always made him suspicious of the notion that it came via an animal. He said, this pathogen didnt look to him, as a virologist, like something that came from an animal, it looked more like it came from humans and that made him want to investigate the Lab Theory more seriously and its interesting to hear dr. Fauci really changing his tune on this notion. The other thing this dr. In australia said, we have to take the politics out of this. It could be that we have not really explored the Lab Theory enough, paradoxically, because it was the theory that Donald Trump was pushing, and so there was some opposition to looking at something that Donald Trump was pushing and taking it seriously. And Michael Steele, if you look At The statement put out by the White House, whAt Theyre basically saying is, we are now taking this seriously. We havent concluded thAt This is how this happened, but we are looking at it and whAt The Intel Community said, i want the president to tell me within 90 days what happened here. What is clear here, though, at long last, President Biden and the White House has taken this away from the w. H. O thats been running cover for china for too long. Yeah, i think thats the real rub here, is thAt The White House is making that break, and theyre trying to make it in a way that we get actual results and answers to important questions. You know, certainly, from former President Trump and others, youll get a lot of i told you so and justification, but i think to kattys point, you cant really look At That and get stuck on that. We now have Intelligence Evidence that is telling us something very differently than whAt The w. H. O and certainly china has been telling us. So the key thing right now is to understand exactly how this virus started and really kind of get behind whats in that origin story. And sort of look at how you prevent something like this in the future. Its an opportunity, i think, for the administration to press globally for a broader, wider truth about these issues when they come up, as opposed to the, you know, immediate kind of cya, and sort of protect an institutional interest as opposed to being more concerned about the global impact. And thats going to be one of the stronger points the administration can make in pushing down and Back On the w. H. O. So, jonathan, it was just tuesday thAt The White House said publicly that any investigation into the origins of the pandemic should be left to the w. H. O. Yesterday, 24 hours later, they come in with this new idea, were going to take control, send our Intel Community in and figure out the origins of this. And yes, we are taking seriously the Lab Leak Theory. So why the quick aboutface . Right, willie. For that White House that doesnt change course correct all that often or certainly this quickly, this is a striking one. This is from the president and his aides and the Intelligence Community learning, seeing these reports, wanting to learn a little bit more about what happened. Again, as noted, theyre not concluding that it came from a lab, but that i have seen enough evidence, theyve seen growing evidence according to our reporting thAt They think this is a step that needs to be taken. The conclusion might be thAt This still came from that Wet Market in wuhan, but they want to be sure and thorough here, as the u. S. Is moving into a different phase of our own response to that pandemic. Also, of course, china is At The linchpin of President Bidens foreign policy. If he wants to Focus On Asia and this rivalry, this competition with china going forward. That undergirds everything hes right to exhibit from a foreign policy. And we should note one thing about former President Trump and some republicans who seem to be almost taking a Victory Lap with the idea, because of their theory thAt The virus may come from a lab, thAt This proves thAt They were, quote, right all along. Thats not what President Trump said when he was first in office in fact, we At The ap reported way back in January Of 2020, as virus was coming out on the World Stage and starting to become a concern here before it really exploded here, thAt Then President Trump was leery about talking about the virus. Sure, for fear of rattling the stock market, but also for fear of upsetting china, because he was so desperate to get a Trade Deal done with china. He thought a deal with President Xi, working with beijing would allow him to have something that would be part of his reelection campaign, part of his Reelection Plank there. And he was leery for months of upsetting china. He eventually took very harsh rhetoric to beijing. But right now he and his allies are practicing some revisionist history. And well have 90 days to see if we can get to the bottom of what exactly happened, perhaps definitively from the Intel Community. Staying in asia, were less than two months from the start of the Summer Olympics in tokyo, which remains under a State Of Emergency, with japan reporting roughly 5,000 new covid cases per day and facing growing calls now to cancel the olympic games. Nbc news senior international Correspondent Keir simmons has more. Reporter as the torch Tours Japan and Test Events are underway, tokyo organizers say theyre not considering canceling the olympics, but pressure is growing. An influential japanese Newspaper And Sponsor for the games writing, its simply beyond reason to hold the olympics this summer. While in the new new England Journal of medicine, u. S. Scientists say calling off the games may be the safest option. There are not serious efforts to put in serious measures to protect the athletes and the public. Reporter even the cdc and u. S. State department Warning Americans not to travel to japan. Organizers point out theyre putting extensive Safety Measures in place. The u. S. Olympic committee says its confident in those steps and Team Usa will go. The ioc says at least 70 of athletes and officials will be vaccinated, but so far only 2 of the japanese public is and 80 are against the games, polls say. Keir simmons reporting. We should point out, nbc universal, which is the Parent Company of Nbc News and msnbc, owns the u. S. Media rights to the upcoming olympics. Obviously, not just for that reason, but for all the reasons, we want to see these olympics Go On, Katty Kay. It is fascinating to see japan struggling so mightily, still, katty, with coronavirus. A country we think as very sophisticated in terms of technology and medicine. Whats going on there . Yeah, and a lot of it is around the vaccination distribution. And weve seen in countries around the world, basically, willie, if you dont have the vaccine, youll have a surge in coronavirus cases. And thats what japan is going through At The moment. They didnt buy they messed up on the acquisition early on of vaccine supplies. And i think that is what has come back to bite them. They didnt do the contracts they needed to go early on. And im sure theres a lot of secondguessing going on about why that didnt happen. Youve got these very low Vaccination Rates in the single digits. Youve got a surge in cases in tokyo and a huge public turning against the olympics. When you look at how excited tokyo was to get the olympics when it happened, its really sad. Now you have a population, 80 when i lived in japan, i dont think i ever saw a public opposition to a State Measure like that. The whole time i lived there. But youve got a lot of outspokenness in japan about people saying, were just too afraid that if we bring the olympics to japan in this perilous moment, its going to cause a huge spike in cases and theres no upside to them. People are saying that against the backdrop of what every country that hosts the olympics goes through, the massive amount of expense thats spent on building the olympics, the prestige that comes with it, all of that money has been spent already, and yet still the japanese public is saying, please stop these olympics. Its just not safe. Its really remarkable to see and remarkable to see how badly japan has had a vaccination rollout. So far, the ioc says the games will Go On. Remember, they were delayed by a year because of the pandemic last year. But as katty says, that 2 Vaccination Rate in japan is stunning when you consider weve hit 50 here in the united states. Still ahead on Morning Joe, the latest on Amazons Acquisition of mgm, which is just the latest sign of a major shift playing out before our eyes. Steve rattner breaks down whAt The Blockbuster Deal tells us about Entertainment Industry media and americas changing viewing habits. But first, Bill Karins has a check on us of some severe weather. What are you looking at . We have severe storms to deal with and a complicated forecast for the Holiday Weekend. Let me show you this tornado out of texas yesterday. This looks like something out of a movie, like cgi. It was incredible. Look At The base of the tornado, just picking up all the Dust And Debris there in the farmers field. And then if you look up towards the top of the screen, you can actually see where the condensation is, just a clear funnel. Amazing. And yesterday, we had 28 torrents. Thankfully, a lot of them were just like this one, they didnt do any damage to any peoples properties. It was mostly just damage out to the farmers fields. Lets get into today. We have 19 Million people at risk of severe storms today. The biggest risk is going to be from areas of oklahoma, texas, into missouri. The northern half of arkansas. Today, we get a break in the northeast after yesterdays severe storms. A lot of cleanup and a lot of Tree Damage was done. And as we head through the Holiday Weekend, we start with a Soaking Rain in areas of the ohio valley. Thats not severe weather on friday. Thats like an allday rain. It moves into the northeast friday evening. If you have travel plans friday evening, new York City, philadelphia, washington, d. C. , youll have some issues with some rain and some delays. Saturday, that Storm Kind of linger along the midatlantic. New storm on sunday. If theres one good day for the East Coast for the pool, the Beach And Everything else and the lake, thats going on on monday as the temperatures will be a little too chilly for the each early in the Holiday Weekend. As we said, a lot of complicated weather coming as we head into the Holiday Weekend. More Morning Joe when we come back. Weekend. More Morning Joe when we come back magenta . Magenta crying Magenta Announcer the epson ecotank. No more cartridges. Just lots of ink. Print whatever makes you happy. The epson ecotank. Just fill and chill. Vo the world is racing to create the clean energy jobs that will solve the climate crisis. President biden has a plan to make sure america wins that race. Biden doing nothing is not an option. The world is not waiting. If we act to save the planet, we can create millions of good paying jobs. And i want to put the world on notice, america is back. The competition of the 21st century, the future, will be built right here in america. 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Dr. No and the rest of the James Bond catalog now will be part of the Amazon Empire after yesterdays announced major deal. Nbc news senior business correspondent, Stephanie Ruhle has the details. Amazons newest deal is starting off with a bang. Amazon acquiring Mgm Studios for 8. 5 billion. Amazon is behind in the Video Streaming wars, its trying to play catchup and its costing them 9 billion. The deal gives them access to over 4,000 classic movies, including the James Bond Franchise And Oscar winners like Silence Of The Lambs and raging bull. Theres no way im going down. Can consumers expect to see a jump in pricing. I dont think amazon will try to charge you more for amazon, they just want you spending more time there, whether its to buy more stuff or look at stuff. This acquisition made in the final months of Jeff Bezos Tenure as ceo is the companys second largest to date after the purchase of whole foods in 2013. Bezos saying, its going to be a lot of Fun Work and people who Love Stories are going to be the big beneficiaries. Giving fans hope that reboots and sequels to some of their favorite films could soon be on the way. Stephanie ruhle reporting. Joining us now, economic analyst steve rattner. Steve, good morning. This just following a trend were seeing obviously towards streaming, towards these big acquisitions, towards consolidation of media. Last week, we had the massive deal for discovery. What are you looking at here in terms of where the future of media is going, because it seems to be happening very quickly in the last week. Its happening enormously quickly, willie. And its really driven first and foremost by technological change. When you and i were a good bit younger, the only real way to get television was through a bundle through your cable television provider. And then through streaming, weve had ability to cut the cord. And this shows you the decline in traditional paid tv households, which is the Blue Line coming down, and nonpaid tv households, which is people who get their entertainment from somewhere else going pup and the losses cross out in 2024 or so, at which point more americans will be getting their televisions socalled over the top than through a Streaming Service. And the consequences of that for the socalled streaming wars are fairly profound. Youve had number of companies do fairly well in streaming and others still trying to figure out whAt Their plan is. So you can see there are three major companies that dominate the Streaming World. Netflix, used by about 65 of the people. Then you have Amazon Prime video and for a while, people thought amazon was just in this as a bit of a lark. Theyve made a clear statement theyre in it to stay and its a Core Part of their business and you can see they have huge viewership. And you have Hulu And Disney, which are actually owned controlled by disney. Disney has its own service, Disney Plus and it controls hulu. So thats a massive competitor. And then It Starts to drop off. You can see why the next name under disney, and discovery the second from the bottom, are merging to create more heft and more competitiveness, and you have service like Peacock And Appletv and Paramount Plus that have yet to get a huge amount yet to get the Content And Viewership they need to meet the to equal the big guys. Yeah. Peacock making a push here at nbc. And Michael Steele, if you look At The numbers that steve gave us, 20 of millennials say theyve never had cable, theyve never had a satellite tv, barely even know what it is. Theyre just streaming. I know, thats how it is in my household. My boys growing up, they dont own televisions. The concept was foreign to me thAt They didnt want a television. Like, i got my monitor, i got my laptop or my desktop, im god to go. And so they were downloading and pulling all their information from the net long before i discovered it. Im sitting here, you know, what is the Cable Number again . So, steve, this opens up a whole new frontier, man. Its exciting, consumers, i think, should be the ultimate beneficiaries here At The end of the day. How does this sit with cable companies, where you now see the verizons and the comcasts and so forth trying to figure out how to play in this market where, you know, my sons, theyre not buying a verizon package. You know, theyre going to grab a little hulu, get a little peacock, and theyre going to they want the flexibility of, you know, picking and choosing from a menu of shows and programming thAt They want. They dont want to be told, here, youve got to spend 400 a month for a package, 90 of the stuff you dont havent want to watch. So how is that impacted by this Amazon Deal . Thats a great question, michael. First, you saw it on the screen a minute ago, a graphic showing there have been not just these two big recent deals, but also, of course, disney buying fox. These companies bulking up on product in order to be competitive. Its hugely expensive to provide one of these Streaming Services. Amazon just paid 250 Million, just for the rights to lord of the rings, before they even get to making it. And there are a few companies that may still be well looking for a Dance Party in order to do that. You mentioned At T so the future for people is simply going to be a package of services, 10, 12 a month, whatever they happen to be, and theyll decide how many they want. Each Streaming Service is trying to have some mustwatch product, like The Crown and things like that, that people will Pay For, because they want that show so badly. But let me just say one other things. You mentioned at T And Verizon. Because theres another thing thats been going on literally in the last few weeks that is equally important. Which is that At T, as we talked about, is divesting itself, infect, of its warner media assets, but we didnt get as much attention a couple of weeks ago that verizon is selling it aol and its yahoo businesses, its content businesses, its version of trying to compete somehow with content and the result of that is that at T And Verizon are becoming infect, wireless companies with some landline telephones, still, but heavily wireless companies, and youll see them push mump harder into broadband, not the content, but the delivery, providing an alternative to cable for people who want highspeed internet, which verizon and At T are not that good at yet, but freed up from all of this content stuff, i think youll see them focus on that, put capitol into that, and perhaps consumers ending up with a choice between a couple of robust Broadband Providers instead of just their cable company. Interesting, steven. You look At That first graph you had, you can see how much room for growth there still is for Streaming Services, because they could capture the whole market. One of the things ive heard from Media Analysts is that streaming companies are a little concerned that people might buy a package from Disney Plus, for example, for a month or two months. Theyll Binge Watch whatever the show it is thAt They want to watch, and they cancel that scription. What are Streaming Services going to do to try to get people to stay with them longterm, in the way thAt They were staying longterm with cable, not just kind of chopping and changing as they go from show to show thAt They want to watch across different platforms . You know, thats a great question, katty. And i certainly also know people who do that. Its interesting thAt The Streaming Services have two basic approaches. Netflix tends to release all the episodes of The Crown at one time, so you can Binge Watch. Hbo follows the old model of releasing one a week, so at least you have your audience for that period of time. The ultimate idea of making these products sticky and not moving around month to month from service to service, is to have such a robust library of content that a viewer is sufficiently interested every month to want to have that service as a regular part of their programming. And so, for example, amazon has bought the rights to Thursday Night football at an extraordinary price. It will only be on Amazon Prime, starting, i forget when, in a year or two. So if youre a football fan, every Thursday Night in the fall, youll want to have your amazon. So they are becoming fullfledged competitors in effect to the old traditional television networks, but in a somewhat surgical way, requiring people to subscribe to multiple services in order to get everything they want. Its so interesting and its all happening so quickly, right before our eyes. Steve rattner, thanks so much. GreAt To see you. Katty kay, this Big Deal was overshadowed a bit by some other news that rocked the media world, which is thAt The great Katty Kay, an institution At The bbc, announcing she live look senior Editor And Executive producer of ozy media. Congratulations to you, katty. Thats great news. Thats exciting. Its hard to leave the bbc. Its been my home for a very long time and ive loved all of my years there. Its taken me to africa and asia and here to america, it brought me to washington and i have a lot of great colleagues there. But ozy came forward with a proposition that excited me for the very reasons that weve just been talking about, willie, which is thAt There is a whole New World of broadcasting and a way of reaching people that ozy understanding. And its all about digital and its all about streaming. And if you want to reach new audience with great content, its really good place to start. I am going to learn so much. I am going to learn about all of this. Im going to learn that youtube is for more than cooking videos, for example, or for finding out how to repair my car. Im excited to learn and stretch my wings. Ill still do a politics show. Ill do a politics interview show. U. S. And global politics. So in The End, it was just a decision that i couldnt it was an offer i couldnt say no to. Im really excited to join them. Im going from the bbc to a california startup. Talk about a culture shift. Ill have to be At The top of my game. We certainly hope so. Its a bellwether that you, Katty Kay, are leaving a Legacy Media Institution like the bbc for a startup. How do people find you when you Start Up in the fall on ozy. On youtube . Well announce where the show will be cast. Watson and i, who have been my cohost on a podcast that weve done for the last eight months now, carlos and i will carry on doing our podcast. Wherever you find your podcast, you can still find carlos and i doing that. We take a stepped back look at what happens in the country. Whats shaping the future of america. And then, i will be doing a show that will most likely start on youtube, so as soon as that is there, i will tell everyone where to find me. And whats great is that i have obviously people that watch the bbc all around the world. You can find youtube everywhere. This is the other thing that i think is great about streaming. Its totally global. There are no borders here. You can pick it up wherever it is that you happen to be watching. Im a little nervous, of course. Its a big move for me after a long time with the bbc, but im really excited and theyve been just so welcoming. Its going to be great. Congratulations. Youll have to learn how to tell viewers to smash the like button, subscribe. Theyll teach you as you go along and shes not going anywhere with us. Shell be with us just as youve seen her for all of these years. Congrats, katty. Coming up, the latest on Infrastructure Talks as this morning republicans will announce their counterproposal to the White House plan. Well have the details when Morning Joe comes right back. Morning joe comes right back how great is it that we get to tell everybody how Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only Pay For what you need . I mean it. Uhoh, sorry. Oh. What . Im an emu no, buddy only Pay For what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. Oh dont burn down the duplex. Terminix. I order my groceries online now. Shingles doesnt care. I keep my social distance. Shingles doesnt care. I stay within my family bubble. Shingles doesnt care. Because if youve had chicken pox, youre already carrying the virus that causes shingles. In fact, about 1 in 3 people will develop shingles, and the risk only increases as you age. So what can protect you against shingles . Shingrix protects. 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To learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent. Com. Welcome back to Morning Joe. 6 44 in the morning here on the East Coast. The latest Quinnipiac University Poll has President Bidens Approval Rating at 49 . Democrats and republicans mostly responding along party lines. Independents, though, were split. A Fox News Poll has President Bidens overall approval a bit higher at 54 . Also in that Quinnipiac Poll, 85 of republicans said they prefer to see candidates running for office who mostly agree with Donald Trump. 53 of all respondents say they prefer to see candidates running who disagree with the former president. As for whether Joe Biden was legitimately elected, 64 say he was. However, twothirds of republicans believe he was not. So Michael Steele, this is more evidence of what weve seen poll after poll after poll, which is that a vast majority of republicans do not believe that Joe Biden is the legitimate President Of The United States. Theyve bought into the lie thAt Theyve been fed by Donald Trump and through the media they consume. Yeah, they have. And its been a steady Drum Beat reinforced by the likes of Kevin Mccarthy and Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and others, who presumably, in leadership positions, know better. But that craven lust for power and grifting off of the fears and concerns of a lot of americans out there, you know, is the order of the day. So thats reflected in this poll. But i think the bigger and more important takeaway for me is beyond the republican party and this speaks more, i think, to its future demise than its present sights on taking the house back next year, for example. Is thAt The american people right now standing with the president , thAt They have been unable to categorize, demonize, or otherwise vilify in a way that would move voters away from his policies and away from the president , personally, towards back to Donald Trump into his loving arms or to the republican party. So if im a State Chairman or if im a national chairman, im looking politically At The landscape. At some point you have to take into account where the american people are telling you. So i think, you know, part of that answer or that accounting may come today when republicans lay out their trilliondollar Infrastructure Plan and maybe begin this conversation to try to move people on policy, as opposed to move them on the politics. Well see. But right now, the politics for them, at least, they think, work, as reflected by the republican numbers. The bigger problem is, with the rest of the country, it doesnt. Mike barnicle is joining us as well, fresh back from the Ballpark Last Night after a Big Red Sox victory. Mike, you look at some of these numbers, Joe Biden holding just over 50 in most Public Opinion polling. 49 in that q poll. But the numbers from the republican party, no longer surprising, are being sustained by people who are telling the lie, who are perpetuating the line. When you have twothirds of republicans who say that Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected President Of The United States. We should underline that 65 of all americans say that he is, but thats still an awful lot of americans who do not accept the result of that president ial election. Yeah. Well, willie, that is the former president s ultimate gift to america. A constant source of division. An almost daily source of Division And Contempt for the established order, for law, for the constitution, for everything thAt The country stands for. Why . Because of his enormous ego and the fact that he cant tell the truth. Her we are, sitting in a country badly in need of repair. Were talking about the Infrastructure Stuff now, highways, bridges, new schools being built. Airports being rebuilt, in order don The End and cope with the competition of the 21st century. And we have a permanent divisive force in american politics. And we have a permanent, seemingly, cadre of cowards in congress, In The House and in the senate. Largely republicans and their leaders. Kevin mccarthy. He cant be that ignorant. He cannot be that ignorant. But clearly, he is that cowardly. In order not to confront the truth. Once you confront the truth of what happened in the election last year, then the country is going to move forward. And the republican party might move forward with it. But i doubt thats going to happen. And i dont know whAt The future of the republican party is. Ive been listening to Michael Steele now for a about week and a half, two weeks, wherever hes on, talking about the future of his party. I dont think There Is A Future for his party, the way its currently constructed, with the basis of their beliefs. Its not there. Its just not there because its not real. Michael . Yeah, no, i think mike makes an excellent point, which is why there is a Battle Line clearly drawn inside the party by the likes of Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney and adamkinzinger, myself, and a host of republicans who are not so much fighting for the future of the party, but fighting for a set of principles that are important, whether they reside inside of this things called the gop is another matter. So, you know, the Battle Line is not over, oh, gee, do we have a republican Party Tomorrow . Thats not what its about. Its about, do we, as citizens, value the proposition founded by the our forefathers all those years ago or not . This party seems to say, that is of less value now. We are replacing that with this thing called trump, which is whAt That poll reflects. We want a candidate that agrees with Donald Trump. Regardless of the batyou know whatcrazy, we want you to follow Josh Hawley, you know, were with you, insurrectionists, kind of authority. Thats whAt They want. Thats not democracy. So someones got to draw the line. Its easy to walk away, willie, its easy to walk away and say, im done with this, right . But then what . Because you let all of that ferris, theres no counterstory, if theres no other narrative for the american people to understand why what youre seeing play out in this party is so wrongheaded, going in such a wrong direction, and is so damningly bad for the country, that gives it more license. It gives it more and so if you dont have people with the label, with the r on their shoulder, making that case, it becomes harder when its at a critical moment to pull americans away from that level of stupid. Thats why we looked to the leaders initially that failed us. Thats why what Liz Cheney did is so important, why they hate it, because its such a powerful counternarrative to the crap theyre putting out there in front of the public right now with the big lie, the audits in arizona, whAt Theyre trying to do in michigan, again, et cetera. That number in the Quinnipiac Poll is 85 . 85 of republicans who want candidates who agree with Donald Trump. Its not such of a Civil War when its 85 against 10 or whatever is left there. Jonathan lemire, i know youve got to jump on a Plane And Travel with the president to ohio right now. Lets talk about state of the infrastructure negotiations. We hear republicans are going to come back with a counteroffer today. Where is this headed . Willie, thankfully ive got Tsa Precheck for Air Force one. Yeah, today is a critical day for the ongoing Infrastructure Talks. The republicans the group of Senators Led by Senator Capito are going to present just after 9 00 today their counteroffer. Weve had a few weeks of going back and forth between the White House and republicans. The White House have been frustrated and the republicans hadnt really upped their offer. There are only about 550, 600 million. Way less than whAt The White House wants. We now think thAt Today well get an offer from republicans of about 1 Billion. That is a significant number. But still nowhere near the 2. 3 billion or so the White House wants. But the issue is also how its going to get paid for. The republicans are suggesting they pull a lot of the money from their offer from unused Covid Relief funds. And the White House is saying thats a nonstarter. They dont feel like that Thats Something thAt They want to do. First of all, they say that most of that money has already been spent. Secondly, if theres another surge, another need for emergency Covid Relief funding, they want to have that pool of money At The ready. We will see if theres an impasse here. We know republicans have been steadfastly opposed to touching the 2017 Trump Tax cuts. They dont want to have any Tax Hikes themselves. The White House is saying, they wont raise taxes on anyone making less than 400,000, but those including potential user fees. We may be an impasse here on how its going to be paid for, but i will say as a final point, there is some energy here to try to find some sort of bipartisan agreement on this part of it. The hard infrastructure, roads, highways, broadband, the other stuff the White House wants, there seems to be little republican support for that. Thats probably where theyll have to do a Party Lineonly Reconciliation vote. Theres some hope thAt This can lead to a breakthrough to maybe some sort of bipartisan agreement. And that Tax Hike is the big hang up, as you say. Jonathan lemire, well let you swing through the Hudson News and the cinnabon on your way to Air Force one. Well Catch Up with you tomorrow. Thanks jonathan. Still ahead, what a new study tells us about immunity from coronavirus and what dr. Anthony fauci is saying about the need for covid Vaccine Booster shots. Some important news when Morning Joe comes right back. N Morning Joe comes right back na na na na na na na na. Hey hey hey. Goodbye. Na na na na. Hey hey hey. Goodbye. Na na na na na na na na. The worlds first sixfunction multipro tailgate. Available on the gmc sierra. 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. We are back. Just before the top of the hour on Morning Joe with the latest from San Jose, california, where nine people now are dead after an employee opened fire at a Light Rail Yard. Police say the shooter took his own life. According to authorities, the victims range in age from 29 to 63 years old. The gunman was identified as an employee of the Santa Clara Valley transportation authority, Law Enforcement sources tell us. The early Morning Attack came at a particularly busy time At The transit hub, as the overnight workers overlap with colleagues checking in for early morning shifts. Investigators said the motive is unclear. President biden released a Statement Mourning the loss of the victims and urging Congress To, quote, take immediate action and to heed The Call of the american people, including the vast majority of Gun Owners to help end this epidemic of Gun Violence in america. We will have a live report from the scene in San Jose in just a moment. But first, to the future of the independent commission to investigate the January 6th attack on the capitol, which this morning hangs in the balance. The senate could vote on the procedural motion to advance the housepassed resolution as early as today. Right now, Senator Lisa Murkowski is the only republican who supports the bill outright. Senator Susan Collins and Mitt Romney want to see changes before establishing the panel. Meanwhile, Senator Collins is making a Lastditch Effort to broker a bipartisan deal on the January 6th commission. Senator collins plans to vote yes for the procedural vote to establish the panel, but against the republican filibuster. Collins finished her revisions to the housepassed bill yesterday. Her changes include allowing the Chair And Vice chair of the committee to, quote, jointly appoint staff and to disband the panel 30 days after the commission submits its final report At The end of the year. Nine other republicans would need to sign on in order for the revised bill to pass. Nbcs Kasie Hunt joins us now. So kasie, help us sift through all of this. From susan Collins Point of view, it appears to be a staffing question. She doesnt want a partisan staff, i guess. But is that enough to hold up this commission . Its not likely that its going to be enough to actually make this commission become a reality, willie. Shes trying to address the two things that republicans have said are issues with the commission. One is the timing of it. We know thAt They dont want to be talking about this well into 2022, so this would say, okay, you do your work, were done, and thats that. The other piece of it is, okay, republicans say they want some input into who would be hired to do the investigative work. Thats another significant criticism. She wants to try to fix it. But the overarching political reality here for a republican party that is still enthrall to former President Trump is thAt They simply dont think thAt This is going to be something thats going to help them, heading into the 2022 former Midterm Elections and former President Trump wants them to stop it. So thats whAt Theyre doing. Collins is making this Lastminute Effort to try to overcome a filibuster. It is worth noting, this would be the first on the Senate Floor Filibuster of this particular congress if this, in fact, plays out the way its set to, it seems, today. But it seems really, really hard to count to ten. Thats how many republicans you would need right now. We stand only At Three, willie. Katty, this feels like nibbling around the edges of The Point, here, which is the staffing questions, when the heart of the matter, as Kasie Points Out is, these republicans dont want to cross Donald Trump. They dont want a fullsome look back at what happened on January 6th and the Rhetoric And Everything that led up to January 6th and what happened on that day. Web talk about, whos on the staff of this panel, but thats not going to move a republican whos fundamentally scared to review what happened on January 6th. Yeah, and they clearly dont want this to drag into anything like the Midterm Elections, which is why theyre trying to make sure theres a short time frame on it, willie. But youre right, its really theyre putting up roadblock after roadblock. I had a conversation with general russel honore, whos the only person whos done any kind of investigation into this, and i was talking to him yesterday. And he was saying its amazing how the longer we get away from the actual attacks themselves, the more members of the house, in particular, just seem to be in denial that it ever happened. They just dont want to take it seriously anymore and thAt Then kind of gives a cover to the party more broadly to say, okay, well, we dont need the investigation, we dont need the commission, because, you know what, it wasnt such a Big Deal. Is there risks thAt The more this drags on, the less and less likely every day that we get something meaningful . I think thats right. And i think thAt Those of us, especially who were there in the building on the day and who covered it and who covered not just, you know, the events and how we felt and what we saw, but how republicans across the board reacted At The time. You had Lindsey Graham down on the Senate Floor saying, enough is enough to Donald Trump. Mitch mcconnell was angry. We reported behind the scenes. He was insistent thAt They get Back Out there and actually certify the election. There was broad agreement in the immediate aftermath that a bipartisan commission was not just necessary, but obvious. I mean, incredibly obvious. This was the worst attack on the capitol since the war of 1812 and it was our own countryMen And Women who did it. Whats happened in the aftermath is thAt The party realized thAt Their core voters didnt necessarily see it that way. I think we have seen some people leave the republican party in the wake of this. We dont know how many yet. We dont know if theyll be able to get the coalition that would win a general election. But their actual core voters, even in the wake of this, stuck with the former president. Youve seen increasingly what you laid out there. I do wonder if maybe the House Speaker Nancy pelosi made a little bit of a miscalculation. Her first Opening Offer on this commission was more partisan in its setup. It would have had more democrats than republicans on the panel, and that may have caused a delay here that saw the political Urgency Seep out of this. So, you know, i wonder if they didnt miscalculate there. But i think democrats are still likely To Push Forward with some sort of select committee, like we saw republicans do with benghazi. But frankly, thats a different type of an investigation with different type of result. So i think we all thought thAt This was going to be so bad, that it was going to change fundamentally what was going on. And i think its been pretty disheartening for people who saw what happened, who are looking At The truth, to see the politics of this evolve the way that it has. Republicans just want to walk away from it. There is a new layer to this story, kasie. In a joint effort, both the mother and longterm partner of late Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick are pushing to establish a January 6th commission. They are requesting meetings with all republican senators to urge them to vote for the independent panel. The two women want more answers about the offers death. Sicknick suffered two strokes and died of natural causes a day after confronting rioters on January 6th. His mother, gladys, releases a scathing letter that reads in part, brian and others fought for hours and hours against those Animal Whorps trying to take over the Capitol Building and our democracy, as we know it. Not having a January 6th commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the face of all the officers who did their jobs that day. I suggest all congressmen and senator who against this bill visit my Sons Grave in Arlington National Cemetery and while there, think about whAt Their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward, putting politics aside, wouldnt they want to know truth of what happened on January 6th . If not, day do not deserve to have the jobs they were elected to do. That is Brian Sicknicks mother, gladys. Kasie, how in good conscience could any senator, republican or democrat, turn down a request for a meeting from a fallen officer . I dont know, willie. I mean, that letter is a punch if the gut. I mean, this woman her son died protecting all of them. And if you say no to that, i dont i dont think i could get up in the morning, myself. I mean, im speaking from an emotional place here, not necessarily from a Reporting Point of view. But you know, what weve seen from republicans on that score is clearly a willingness to say, nope, were going to put politics first. They say, we want to win the Midterm Elections. Were not going to do that if were talking about this in a year, a year and a half, so were not going to do it. Thats the reality. Mike, its bad enough weve heard members of congress, weve heard senators say, yeah, they looked like tourists strolling through statuary hall. It wasnt as bad as the media made it out to be, even though as we see them beating officers, Officer Fanone on the ground there, receiving a beating. He survived, thank god, despite a Heart Attack from what were watching right here. But to not honor the mother of the officer who died with a meeting, which is the very least a senator or a congressman can do. As kasie said, how you look yourself in the mirror . I dont know how they do that, willie. I really do not know how they do that. This is deeply, deeply depressing. Its depressing ever day. We talk about it and weve been talking about it every day since January 6th. But theres an edge to the depression in terms of how zprezing it is, when we speak about it today. We are right on the advent of Memorial Day weekend. The root of memorial is memory and it used to be a much larger day in america. When i was growing up, Memorial Day was a huge day with a parade and flags and Little League games. But always, always woven into Memorial Day was a trip to a cemetery to honor and remember Men And Women, but largely men who served in World War ii and korea. I remember those days vividly, right now, as we speak. January 6th was an attack on america, as was September 11th, an attack on america. But now the difference is, in the entire republican party, it seems, the republican party, determined to erase memory. Not to live with memory. Not to be not to learn from memory. Not to honor those who died in every battle since or on January 6th and Michael Steele, again, i hesitate to come to you, because youre carrying so much of the burden here, in trying to explain the inexplicable, and the inexplicable happens to be mitch mcconnell, Kevin Mccarthy and Congressman Scalise and so many others, over 140 members of the House Of Representatives who voted not to legitimatize the election, the legitimate election of the President Of The United States on January 6th, later in the day, after the capitol was vandalized. What is wrong with these people . You know many of them. What is wrong with them . I dont think theres a Couch Big enough for the answer to that question. You know, i think, you know, kasie put her finger on it. Its the politics. It is the politics of expediency. It is its not even fear of a base anymore. It may have started out that way. Its Acquiescence And Acceptance thAt The tail will wag the political dog. That, you know, trump sitting down at his, you know, Modernday Elba known as maralago can dictate the terms of engagement for the rest of the party and declare himself the head of the party and make those kind of decisions. And to have a feckless leadership represented by the likes of mccarthy and others who refuse to say, excuse me, were going to go in a different direction now. You lost the house for us, you lost the senate for us, and you lost the White House for us. I think weve done enough losing, but theyre not done. And thats the harsh reality here. The wound of a mother At The loss of a child is one of the most profound wounds we can ever know. And yet when she reaches out from that space to ask for Help And Clarity and understanding and theres Hesitation And Resistance to just meet with her and to talk to her and to hear her plea that you get to the core reason why her son died protecting them, thats thats unspeakable. And it says to me, at least, how depraved youve become. How unserious you are about such things. You know, remember, these are the same people you know, members of my party were the first to speak to how the familys impacted and whAt This means for a mother and whAt This means for a family member. And to push that narrative out there and push back against the politics, now they stand in whole opposition to that. And i just the only thing i would say to the american people is, you can stop this. You know, you have an election coming up, starting this november and you have to make very clear what direction the party to go. Do you want to take from a mother, or do you want a leader who will lead them to that . So i dont understand, you know, the republicans At This point. Ive stopped trying for a while now. My goal is to try to set a different course, a different conversation and to hold that up and well see where we go from there, because the rest of it makes no sense. And i think we waste time trying to figure out whats in the mind of people who clearly have no heart. Well, Gladys Sicknick will be up on Capitol Hill today. Shell be knocking on the doors of republicans. Well see how many open the doors and take the meeting. For her part, Liz Cheney tweeted out yesterday, hashtag, im with gladys. So at least one person will take the meeting. Lets turn to President Biden ordering u. S. Intelligence officials to redouble their effort to determine the origin of coronavirus and to report back to him within 90 days. This is a sharp reversible from just a couple of days ago. The White House said tuesday, any investigation into the origin of the virus should be run by the World Health Organization. The Intel Community is split on the issue. The president revealed yesterday thAt The two agencies suspect the virus occurred in nation from Human Interaction with an infected animal, while another Agency Leans towards a lab leak. Here is where dr. Anthony fauci stands on it. I still believe thAt The most likely scenario is thAt This was a natural occurrence, but No One knows that 100 for sure. And since theres a lot of concern, a lot of speculation and since No One absolutely knows that, i believe we do need the kind of investigation where theres open transparency and all the information thats available to be made available to scrutinize. I understand why we want it to get done, but why do we think that china would cooperate . This is something that you would have to ask the chinese government. This is something that should be it should matter to them. But this is a question for them. Has the president specifically asked or made this ask of President Xi of china for their cooperation in that effort . Im not going to go into details of private conversations thAt The president may have, may have had with President Xi. All i can say today is that were going to do this 90day review. What more can the Intelligence Community be doing thAt Theyre not already doing . Well, i think, you know, weve talked about making sure that we are getting the data from china. Right, making sure that were getting more information, so that we can you know, its hard to prejudge these things. Its heart to make pronouncements of something when you dont have all the information that you need. So this is going to take some time. Lets bring in senior white House Reporter for Nbc News digital, shannon pettypiece. So shannon, why the quick aboutface here . Again, we should point out, ths is not the White House saying, the Lab Leak Theory is the one. He still believes the theory about Animal Transmission is more likely. But they are open to the possibility that it did leak out of this lab in wuhan. Why did it change so quickly on tuesday after leaving this investigation to the w. H. O . You can see how this has been building for a number of weeks and months now, within the White House. President biden said that back in march, he asked the Intelligence Community to conduct this review. They got back to him earlier this month, several weeks ago with their findings of that review, which you outlined. And essentially, it goes further than i think we have been hearing from some public health officials, when you hear Anthony Fauci say, were not 100 sure. This report says, this Intelligence Community is basically conflicted over this. You have two parts thAt Think thAt The animal Origin Theory is most likely, they lean towards that, though they do say thats with lowtomoderate confidence, but another part of the Intelligence Community thAt Thinks thAt They lean towards this Lab Accident theory, but again with a Lowtomoderate Level of confidence in that. Thats a conflict mere. You know, we saw this Wall Street Journal reporting come out earlier this book that evaluated this issue. Administration officials say this is something they have been talking about and discussing long before that Wall Street Journal report came out. But that certainly heightened this. But even, i would say, in the last day or two, before this statement, we could see Administration Officials starting to take a stronger tone against china and the w. H. O calling for them to do more. You see my colleagues in the Press Briefing there, what more can we get china to do . Can we get the w. H. O to do anything . That seems to be completely unclear. But the u. S. , what is clear, is picking up this effort on their own. And the u. S. On their own is starting to conduct more of an independent investigation and not relying as much on the w. H. O, like they had been that a lot of officials felt this report was very disappointing. Why did they sit on this information thAt Three of the workers in the lab were sent to the hospital in 2019, with symptoms severe enough to get them to the hospital. And does the administration have a plan as to how theyre going to carry out that investigation, given thAt The relations with the chinese are bad. How will they get inside wuhan and inside china to find out what happened . I think thats the question No One has answered yet, katty. What pressure can be put on china . And does the administration want to use those, you know, diplomatic tools and levers they have to pull on this. And i think it also goes to a bigger question of what do you do you do find out the answer was a Lab Accident . What is the consequence . Is there any consequenc towards china. As far as these reports of the Lab Workers, we have heard people to some extent say, you know, thats not definitive proof, of course, thAt The virus originated from the lab. It could be an indication thAt The virus was circulating in wuhan before december, before it was first identified, and it was maybe coincidental thAt These Lab Workers happened to get infected with it. You know, that is sort of one piece of intelligence that information out there, but Administration Officials have also been saying, you have to put that in the big, broader context of what we dont know and all the unanswered questions out there. We will know more in 90 days when this report comes back. Shannon pettypiece, thank you very much. Back now to yesterdays Mass Shooting in San Jose, california, where an employee opened fire at a Light Rail Yard killing nine people. Nbcs national Correspondent Miguel Almaguer joins us live from San Jose with the latest. What more can you tell us this morning . Reporter good morning. The Crime Scene behind Me Mere is still being processed by investigators At This very hour. Theyre looking for any clues. What we still dont know is why the gunman, samuel cassidy, opened fire on his colleagues in what has become the deadliest Workplace Shooting in this citys history. This morning, nine families are grieving the loss of loved ones. This morning, a shattered community is trying to pick up the pieces after another deadly Mass Shooting in america. Thus an active shooter. Reporter early wednesday, as the workday was just starting, shots rang out At The San Jose authority Rail Yard. When it was all over, nine people were killed by the gunman. Most, if not all were transit employees, including tutage singh, a Husband And Father of two, who lost his lives trying to warn others were coming. It took hours for Michaels Family and friends to realize he was never coming in. I checked in with his wife and she also had not heard from him. At that point, obviously, you start to really get concerned. Reporter just moments after the first 911 calls came in, Police Officers swarmed the scene from a Police Station and Sheriffs Office right across the street. They went into the building while the shots were still being fired and confronted the suspect. And the suspect then took his own life . Yes. Reporter the suspected gunman, an employee of the company, seen in this security video, leaving his home Wednesday Morning carrying a duffel bag. While the 57yearold has been identified, his motives remain unknown. I was in shock. Reporter Cecelia Nelms was the suspects exwife. She describes him as a bit of a loner. An exgirlfriend says thAt The Nbc Bay Areas Station says thAt The suspect scared her and often complained about his job. In a court filing, the exgirlfriend said the suspect had Mood Swings as a result of Bipolar Disorder made worse by alcohol. On wednesday, Bomb Squads methodically worked to clear the area. Just before the shooting, First Responders Arriing At The gunmans house. A fire likely set, police say, shortly before the rampage. Back At The Crime Scene, Family Members waiting for hours, desperate for news about their loved ones. Its been the longest day of my life. Reporter governor Gavin Newsom angry and emotional over the latest Mass Shooting in his state. This morning, another senseless shooting and a tragic loss of life. Investigators tell us there are two Crime Scenes here, but its unclear if the suspected opened fire in two separate locations or if the victims went from one building to another. We know he worked here for over a decade. Whats unclear is why he snapped. Willie . Nine hardworking people on a Shift Change at a Light Rail Yard killed yesterday. Nbcs Miguel Almaguer in San Jose. Thanks so much. Still ahead on Morning Joe, a republican counteroffer to the White House Infrastructure Plan is expected this morning. Independent senator Angus King of maine joins us with more on those negotiations and on republican efforts to hold up the commission to investigate the attack on the capitol on January 6th. Youre watch Morning Joe. Well be right back. 6th. Youre watch Morning Joe. Well be right back. I order my groceries online now. Shingles doesnt care. I keep my social distance. Shingles doesnt care. I stay within my family bubble. Shingles doesnt care. Because if youve had chicken pox, youre already carrying the virus that causes shingles. In fact, about 1 in 3 people will develop shingles, and the risk only increases as you age. So what can protect you against shingles . Shingrix protects. Now you can protect yourself from shingles with a vaccine proven to be over 90 effective. Shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. Shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. An increased risk of Guillainbarre Syndrome was observed after vaccination with shingrix. The most common Side Effects are pain, redness, and swelling At The injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. Talk to your Pharmacist Or Doctor about protecting yourself with shingrix. Shingles doesnt care. But we do. 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Well, thats the way the sandcastle crumbles. You Cant Beat Turkey hill memories. Wanna help kids get their homework done . Well, an internet connections a good start. But kids also need computers. And sometimes the hardest thing about homework is finding a place to do it. So why not hook Community Centers up with wifi . For kids like us, and all the amazing things were gonna learn. Over the next 10 years, comcast is committing 1 Billion to reach 50 Million lowincome americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything. I hope youre ready. cause we are. Welcome back to Morning Joe. 7 28 in the morning At The united states capitol. Joining us now, a member of the intelligence and armed services committees, independent senator Angus King of maine. So much to go through with you. Lets begin with this deal that were hearing about. A counterproposal from republicans on the infrastructure bill, expected to be about 1 Trillion. One thing we know and theyve been explicit about, though, is theyre not going to go for a Tax Hike, which is fundamental and At The core of whAt The White House has proposed here. So do you see room for negotiation . Is there potential for a deal, because there are a lot of people in washington saying, no chance with the nonstarter of the Tax Hike. I think it depends a lot on whAt They come back with today. The president has made it clear, hell promise. I was in a meeting with him and a group of republicans a couple of weeks ago saying, look, im not wedded to this, make me a reasonable offer. The big question, as you point out, is not whats in the bill, although there are a lot of discussions and debate about that, but the real question is how will it be paid for. The president was pretty straightforward. And i give him credit for at least coming forward with a payfor, which in this Day And Age is you know, thats news. He said, lets move the corporate tax rate, which was reduced from 35 to 21 in the Trump Tax cut, back up to 28, which is somewhere near the international average. And that will largely Pay For this. The republicans have said, no way, thats our Signature Achievement in 2017, were not going to do. It and so theyve been talking about youll hear the phrase, user fees, which frankly surprises me thAt Theyre talking about that. Thats a euphemism for the gas tank. And thats really what is in discussion here. The White House has rejected that. Theyve said thats a reaggressive It Tax that applies to everybody, it hurts lower income people more than the wealthy people. So they want to go with the Income Tax. The other solution is, lets collect the taxes thAt Tax cheats arent paying. The estimates are half a trillion to 1 Trillion a year, willie, of money that isnt collected, mostly from highincome people who have all the lawyers and the accountants to game the system and thats one way, and the republicans play no to that as well. The rock that its going to founder on is how its paid for and im fascinated to see whAt Theyll come up with today. Youre talking about the new legislation that youre talking about closing the tax gap. You want the taxes already on the books to actually be paid, to actually be collected . Yeah, think of that. You and i pay our taxes, but there are others that dont pay theirs. The irs has been essentially crippled. Going back to the obama administration, theyve lost a lot of their funding. They used to audit something like 1. 5 to 2 of returns. Now its down to less than half of 1 . And unfortunately, in the last few years, theyve been focusing their audits on lowerincome people, are they cheating on the earned Income Tax credit, where theyll collect hundreds of dollars, instead on the highincome, highroller cheats where they could collect millions of dollars. Were saying, hey, lets just enforce the law. Everybody in america that gets a w2 and has withholding, theyre paying their taxes. How about the people that are cheating the system. Only two things happen if someone doesnt pay their taxes, either you and i make up the difference or borrow the difference from our kids. To me, thats the solution. Its not raising taxes, its not cutting essential programs, and thats one way that we can attack this thing. Kasie hunt is here with a question. If i could ask you to put your Intelligence Committee Hat on. Weve had some potential news about the covid19 originals. And the senate just passed an amendment to try to require the Odni To Declassify whAt They know about where it came from. Im wondering, based on what you know, how seriously do you take this idea thAt This virus could have been leaked from a lab . Basically, i saw dr. Fauci on your program a little earlier and he said, you know, im not sure. And thats the way i feel. Its a possibility. It seems like quite a coincidence thAt Theres a lab in the city of wuhan, which is where we know this disease came from that experiments with viruses so it seems to me its worth tracking down. Although our Intelligence Agencies will do the best they can. But the chinese know the answer to this. And frankly, if it was Lab Accident. I dont know why they dont just say so and say, look, this didnt happen on purpose. Were trying to defeAt These viruses, it was an accident and we move on from there. But the only concern i have by the way, i was asking Josh Hawley saying we need transparency and the american people deserve the truth, it was all very highminded. And then i thought, wait a minute, this is the guy who opposes the investigation vigorously, that we want to do into January 6th. So you can have some fun with that clip. And talk about the January 6th investigation, which was a pretty serious attack on democracy, but ill put that aside, but the thing that concerns me is whAt They call sources and methods. We want to be careful about declassifying the information that we have so that would enable the chinese to reverse engineer the Information And Figure out how we go it. That would compromise whatever sources we may have had or whatever methods we had for obtaining that information. Thats always the challenge when youre talking about declassifying information, but everybody wants to know the answer to this and we should pursue it in whatever way we can, but the easiest thing would be for the chinese to come clean. We may be waiting a long time for that. Senator, Mike Barnicle has a question for you. Mike . Lets stick with this topic for a second, if you dont mind. The chinese have been nothing less than evasive on their responsibility with regard to the Wuhan Labs and we dont know the story. We might never know the story. But if it were to turn out thAt The chinese did have some culpability in terms of what happened, in terms of a Lab Accident, what do you think would be their global responsibility to the world, to countries around the world, who have been so impacted by this horrendous and are still being impacted, by this horrendous disaster. Were talking about maybe three or four months lag time in between the time the accident occurred, if it was an accident in the lab, and when the world really became alerted to the morbid circumstances of the virus . Well, i do think they have some responsibility in this case. If thAt Turns out to be the case. And how you would define that, it goes from everything from compensation of victims to some support of efforts to spread the vaccine to the poorer countries. But, you know, the chinese, again, their instinct is secrecy and i think in this case, they hurt themselves. I remember hearing that one of the doctors that first reported this ended up in jail or ended up being punished in some way and the chinese are trying to have it two ways. They want to be players and accepted on the World Scene and theyre investing in other countries and right to reach out around the world and yet At The same time, theres this very, very closed system, oppressing their own people, not coming clean on the origin of the virus and in the Long Run one of the things i said to someone the other day in thinking about this, you know, we have allies, china has customers. And if they want to ultimately have allies, theyre going to have to start playing a game by some kind of recognized international rules and one of them is accept responsibility and do what you can to ameliorate the effects. So far, they have not done that. Senator Angus King of maine. Always good to talk to you. Coming up on Morning Joe, ohio announces its first milliondollar winner of the vaccine lottery. Morgan radford joins us from ohio with that and her reporting on how americans are getting ready for a Memorial Day that feels a bit more normal. 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And enough space for a pecanbased nutrition bar empire. It could happen. This is where dreams become brick and mortar. Find yours, on loopnet. Welcome back to Morning Joe. Beautiful, live picture of bayhead, new jersey. I can already hear the coolers being loaded on to Nj Transit for the ship down to the shore for this weekends Memorial Day. Americans getting ready for a weekend that will feel a bit more normal this year, thank goodness. Nbc news correspondent Morgan Radford joining us from columbus, ohio. Reporter good morning, willie for more than a year now, weve all heard health officials issue some pretty severe warnings ahead of Holiday Weekends, but this year, its a little bit different. In fact, those health officials are saying thAt Those Backyard Barbecue and those Summer Pool days are in full swing and you have the green light to go. But if and only if you are fully vaccinated. The unofficial start of summer, marking the official end to many covid restrictions. So, excited to get back to normal. Hawaii dropping its outdoor mask mandate. New jersey will no longer require physical distancing and masks indoors, starting friday. Massachusetts will fully reopen standard, with Pennsylvania Lifting Business and gathering restrictions on monday. The u. S. Is now reporting a sevenday average of nearly 23,000 cases per day, down 26 from last week. Cities and states taking advantage of the Holiday Weekend to get more shots in arms. Do you feel comfortable traveling At This stage in the pandemic . Yes. Just locally here, but yes. Not ready for the big trip yet . Not quite yet. Reporter travelers in illinois will be able to get vaccinated at Union Station and other travel hubs. In new York City, those looking to enjoy the Sun And Sand will find mobile vaccination sites at beaches. Were going to combine the joy of summer and the beaches reopening with the vaccination effort. Reporter other creative vaccine initiatives have already found success. In ohio, Abigail Buginesky is waking up vaccinated and 1 Million richer after becoming the first winner of the states vaxamillion lottery. And Joseph Costello won a fullride Scholarship Program to any ohio school as part of the under 18 vaccination lottery. Memorial day marking the first major Holiday Weekend since the Vaccine Rollout and since the Cdc Announcement that people who are fully vaccinated no longer need to physically distance or wear masks. I would encourage people to take advantage of kind of open air activities, even with others involved, but just not crowded. Reporter the Cdc Director still urging caution for those who have not gotten the shot. You remain at risk of infection. You still need to mask and take other precautions. Reporter precautions to have a safe kickoff to summer. So willie, while we are all looking forward to this Holiday Weekend, the biden administration is actually looking ahead to another Holiday Weekend. And thats july 4th. Thats when he wants at least 70 of americans to have at least one of their shots and so far, pennsylvania is now the tenth state to reach thAt Threshold. Willie . That would be getting us close to where we are told herd immunity would start to be established. Nbcs Morgan Radford in ohio for us, morgan, thanks so much. Good to see you again this morning. Lets bring in practicing internist, health care educator, and mental health advocate, dr. Lucy mcbride. Dr. Mcbride, i want to read from the piece you cowrote from the Washington Post in which you write this. Here is one simple recommendation. Children should return to their normal lives this summer and in the upcoming School Year without masks and regardless of their vaccination status. Overall, the risk to children is too low to justify the remaining restrictions they face. Schools should lift mask requirements for children, especially outdoors. They should also do away with plexiglas barriers, face shields, and deep cleaning, which were never supported by science. Instead, schools should rely on Staff Vaccination to protect adults and children. Even small steps towards normality can have a large impact on a child. The simple gesture of allowing a child to take off their mask might give them more sense of control and allow them to see that reassuring smile from a friend. So dr. Mcbride, this is something a lot of parents have been hoping to hear from someone like you, that it is safe to fully return to normal for most children. So can you just underline some of the data that brought you to this conclusion and how unlikely it is for a child to contract covid . Not impossible, of course, there have been a lot of serious cases, but how unlikely it is . Sure, willie, and thanks again for having me Back On the show. In my piece cowritten with super amazing Physician Scientist Tracy hope, monica gandhi, and allison crew, we talk about the facts thAt The chance of a child being hospitalized from covid19 is somewhere between 0. 1 and 1. 9 . You also then take the fact that even over the past four weeks in the united states, as more shots have gone into american arms, the incidence of covid19 in kids has gone down 50 . So one of the ways we protect children is by vaccinating wide swaths of the population. Kids are indirectly protected as adults are vaccinated, and therefore do not likely transmit the virus to others. Next, we see the emotional toll of kids in re restricted from their normal lives. Suicide rates are going up. In colorado just this week, we saw a pediatric State Of Emergency declared because of the number of suicides in that state. In other words, when the risk of covid19 to children is relatively low, and the benefits of them resuming normal life are enormous, then its time to really shift the public narrative and shift our policies towards ones that are based in fact and not fear. The mental Health Piece of this is so important. I cant tell you how many times in the course of casual conversation over the last year, a friend of ours or someone we know has said, yeah, you know, our child is seeing someone, talking to a therapist. Its been a very, very difficult time for kids across the spectrum in this country. So are you seeing schools responding appropriately here . I think, you know, a lot of these municipalmunicipalities, angeles, new York City have said, schools are open in the fall. Were coming back. Do you see that across the country . I think the schools are largely waiting for the cdc to issue more nuanced guidance. The first thing the cdc needs to do is lift mask restrictions on children and everyone vaccinated or unvaccinated outdoors. It doesnt make any sense for anyone to be masked outside. If you wan to, you can. If youre more comfortable in a mask, wear a mask outdoors. But theres no reason for a mask mandate. The cdc needs to amend their camp guidelines even further throw vaccinated, you know, counselors and campers to have more freedoms. And then cdc needs to go further and say what we have said in our opinion piece, which is that we can expect in the Fall Case rates to be so much lower than they are now. We have the luxurious ability in this country to vaccinate more and more people with each passing day, and theres just no scientific reason to have plexiglas barriers. You know, deep cleanings, and to mask children, vaccinated or unvaccinated when case rates are so low. Kids need school like fish need water. It is an important, essential part of their social and emotional health. We need to put kids first, willie. We need prioritize their needs. There is no child student union. There is no voice for these kiddos. They are suffering silently behind closed doors. We can measure suicides, we can measure hospitalization for depress and despair. We cannot measure as raadly kids depression, loneliness, isolation. As you know, kids are not safe in many cases in their homes, kids are not being fed without school. This is a national emergency and we need to invest in kids mental health, just like we have invested in the american Rescue Plan with gusto. Amen to that. And there are millions of kids who have completely lost touch with their school, which is the one touchstone, the one safe place thAt Theyve had. So dr. Mcbride, i think there are a lot of parents and kids, middle School Age and high school, who now thAt The vaccine is who now thAt The vaccine are available for kids 12 and up say im good, im ready, lets send them back to school. Even for parents who agree with you, they say for elementary school, im still a little worried. My kid is not vaccinated to throw them all back in a classroom again and to take away all these mitigation efforts. What do you say to those parents . And i say to those parents who, by the way, are my patients, i understand your fear. I understand your anxiety. I have patients who are immunosuppressed who dont have to most robust response to the vaccine who are higher risk, whose unvaccinated kids are a higher risk to them. And i say to them, i hear you. I understand your anxiety. But it doesnt make sense to the entire population in the united states of kids to mask when people can have the option of masking if they want to if they are at high risk or live with a high risk the adult. Most kids are largely spared from the risks of covid19 and most kids you know, some kids are pandemic proof, but most kids have suffered enormous and yet to be fully quantified losses in the pandemic. So i say to those adults and parents, look, i hear you. But remember that your child is protected indirectly by vaccinateded teachers. The teachers being vaccinated protects kids from getting covid19 because theyre less likely to transmit. More over, by august when school starts, rates will be so much lower and the risk to children is, in general, tiny already. So lets think about school as a place to restore their mental and physical health and a place to go to with hope and to anticipate hope for the fall. Dr. Mcbride, Mike Barnacle has a question for you. Mike. Right. Hey, doctor, i have a question about kids and socialization who havent really learned he to socialize yet. Im talking about children in prek, first grade, sometimes day care. And the lack of socialization in this formidable aspect of their lives, talk about that. Sure. You know, kids need the pulling range of facial expressions and to interact with their peers truly for their brain development. And their social emotional health. This is not a small point and a really, really excellent question youre asking. It is really doing so much harm to these kids. Now, parents may think, oh, my child doesnt mind wearing a mask. He or she is not bothered. And that may be true in the moment. But we feed to look At The faces beyond the masks. We need found that developmentally kids need to have peer to peer interactions and human connections to really develop. So im with you that we need to realize the difficult to measure yet no less important metrics here on Kids Brain and emotional development. Dr. Mcbride, its Kasie Hunt. There are two new studies out that suggest people who had mild infections of covid and got vaccinateded had antibodies nearly a year after being exposed. And the Lead Author of one of the studies says certain strains are so strong thAt They fight off variants as antibodies continue to evolve. This might suggest if youve had covid and gotten the shot, you may not need a booster. What does this say about the adults who will be in schools with our kids and how do we keep them safe . Yes. Thank you for this question. People think, incorrectly, that antibodies are the only way we are protected from covid19 or from infection. In fact, b cells, which make antibodies are only one arm of the immune is many. We have t cells that are robust and respond in incredible ways to the covid19 vaccines. We also have the ability to make Memory B cells that retreat in our bodies and that are ready later in life should we need them to make fresh batches of antibodies to fight the threat of covid19 if were exposed to it again. So this study in nature that came out on monday and this reporting is wonderful because it reminds us to trust our immune systems, thAt The immediate threat right now is not variants or the need for boosters. That is not something i think about every day with my patients. I think about the immediate threat right now being not having our public policies and our internal narratives in science. We need to practice taking small steps to reclaim our lives and mitigate risk because, of course, people are still at risk for covid. Its just more nuances. Dr. Lucy mcbride makes a convincing argument in her piece. Always greAt To talk with you. Thanks for being here this morning. Still ahead on Morning Joe, with u. S. Troops heading for the exit, afghan troops are surrendering posts to the taliban at an alarming rate. Ala. 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. [sfx revving trucks] pilot over radio here we go, lets do this. Pilot over radio right there, right there. [sfx revving trucks] pilot over Radio G complete. How do you introduce the Largerthanlife Gmc Yukon . With the worlds biggest tweet. 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Intel agencies to launch another investigation into the origin of the coronavirus. Did it come out of a lab in wuhan . Thats whAt Theyre looking at. Questions surrounding the winter olympics in tokyo as japan struggles to get its covid outbreak out of control. What a new study is saying about immunity from coronavirus. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could force a vote as early today on an investigation of the January 6th capitols. We begin in San Jose, california, where nine people are now dead after a Shooet Shooter took his own life. The victims range in age from 29 to 63 years old. Law enforcement sources say the gunman was an employee of the Santa Clara Valley transportation authority. Investigators say so far, the motive is unclear. Nbc news national correspondent Ma Gill Almaguer reports. This is an active shooter. The sound of steady gunfire ripped across this Rail Yard in northern california. Moments before an army of Police Officers arrive. Pd has multiple units, code 3. Many if not all the victims believed to be coworkers. Officers follow The Sounds of gunfire, cornering the suspect in a room. They went into the building while the shots were still being fired and confronted the suspect. And the suspect then took his own life . Yes. The chaos unfolding at 6 30 a. M. In San Jose near the Rail Yards Maintenance And Dispatch center. Even with the suspect down, the Threat Wasnt over. Police feared explosive devices may have been inside a nearby building. The Bomb Squad methodically work around the active Crime Scene to clear the area. The Bomb Squad is he pretty much activated and theyre searching every crevice of the whole building. Just a few miles away, the gunmans home engulfed in flames, likely set on fire, police say, shortly before the Mass Shooting. Miguel almaguer reporting there. Lets go to the scene in San Jose where we find lindsay riser. We have another victim died overnight. We learned the identity there. What more can you tell us about what we know since the shooting took place . Yeah, welly, definitely a sand Morning Beginning here to the day here in San Jose. As you mentioned, a Ninth Victim dieing At The hospital last night. And late last night, we learned the names and the ages of the victims. The ages range from 29 to 63. All of some if not all are vta employees. And this took place, willie, during Shift Changes. So workers from the Midnight Shift and workers from the Day Shift were there At The same time. And the victims were taken to a local Trauma Center where a Ninth Victim died overnight. Were still working to find out exactly how many people were hurt in this massacre. We know the sheriff said proximity of the Sheriffs Office likely saved lives. And were learning more about the shooter. 57yearold samuel cassidy, a vta employee. Neighbors call him standoffish. His exwife spoke to the associated press. They divorced in 2005. Havent spoken in years. She said he had a bad temper. He did discuss want withing to kill heem at work. She never thought he would follow through with it. At the same time, the shots fired were taking Place Yesterday Morning around 6 34 in the morning, there was a call for a fire At The moment belonging to samuel cassidy. And right now, investigators are working on these two investigations as though they are linked, looking At The possibility thAt That fire was set before he went to work. And youre looking at video right now of that house fire. Investigators inside that home found rounds of Ammunition And Gas cans and the San Jose Bomb Squad was called to the police department, as well. So At The vta facility, they had bomb sniffing dogs here, as well. At least one of The Dogs picked up on at least one device. They sent in the Bomb Robot and At This point it is our Understanding And Belief thAt The device that was picked up on by The Dog was not an explosive. So the building was given the all clear. Now, the sheriff is shedding a little bit more light on the chaos that unfolded here during the shooting. When officers and San Jose Police Officers were the first on scene. When they arrived, the shooting was still taking place. There were still shots being fired. Those officers ran into the room and confronted the suspect. The suspect, cassidy, shot himself. Its not believed thAt There was any gunfire exchanged between the two, but the sheriff does tell us they were yelling through the halls, sheriff, sheriff, so cassidy knew they were encroaching on him. We also heard from the governor about the senseless tragedy. We know cassidy used a handgun, possibly multiple handguns and the governor was incensed and he vowed to not make this meaningless. Lets listen to some of what he said yesterday, willie. It begs the question whAt The hell is going on in the united states of america. WhAt The hell is wrong with us . And when are we going to come to grips with this . When are we going to put down our arms literally and figuratively, politics, stale rhetoric, finger pointing, all the hand ringing and consternation that produces nothing except more furry and frustration, more scenes like this repeated over and over and over again. President biden ordeRed Flags to be floen at halfstaff. Hes urging Congress To take action on Gun Control measures. Willie, there will be more tonight. President biden released a statement on the shooting that reads this way. There are at least eight families who will never be whole again. There are children, parents and spouses wait dog hear whether someone they love is ever going to come home. There are union brothers and sisters, good, honest hard working people, who are mourning their own. Once again, i urge Congress To take immediate action and heed The Call of the american people, including the vast majority of Gun Owners, to help end this epidemic of Gun Violence in america. Jonathan lamere At The White House, obviously, this president has a lot on his plate right now. Hes trying to push through infrastructure along with many other things while grappling with the pandemic. Where does Gun Safety Fit into that puzzle . For a while, President Biden received criticism from Gun Safety advocates who said he wasnt doing enough on guns. Recall that guns were threat in the center of the national conversation a few months ago with those shootings in those spas outside and around atlanta. And the president , in fact, used a trip to georgia to start talking about both antiasian violence and the scourge of guns on our cup. We have a similar setup today. Ill be traveling with the president as he heads to ohio. Hes giving a speech in cleveland on his need for the Infrastructure Plan, for the jobs plan. Undoubtedly, well be hearing from him, as well, this tragedy that unfolded in california. And guns are something that is, as you said, one item on an extraordinarily busy agenda. The aides have sem set an informal memorial Day Deadline. Were expected to get another republican counteroffer this morning just after 9 00 a. M. On that. We know thAt Theres some movement. Theres some signs of optimism, measured optimism among both democrats and republicans on the police reform bill, thAt They think that could come together sometime in the next few weeks. But now there will be a new focus on guns as they Mass Shootings continue to happen and there has been some talk among republican and democratic senators about a deal that may strengthen background checks, but that is a small movement. Others right now are didnting how many Capitol Couse on guns, can the president do a fullcourt press on guns when hes trying to bring infrastructure to get some sort of deal done. Still ahead, President Biden orders a closer review on the origins of coronavirus. U. S. 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Well keep you ready for whats next. Comcast business powering possibilities. President biden is calling for the Countrys Intelligence agencies to conduct a closer review of where the coronavirus originated and how. Nbcs chief white House Correspondent Peter alexander has more. With suspicion emerging thAt The coronavirus emerged from this chinese lab, President Biden is calling on intelligence report. Its a dramatic shift. The president revealing u. S. Intelligence is currently split over two possible scenarios, both with low or moderate confidentiality confidence. Two agencies suspecting it came from Human Contact with an infected animal and another leading towards a laboratory accident. It comes after a u. S. Intelligence report found three researchers from the wuhan institute went to the hospital. Former President Trump endorsed the idea months ago. Yes, i have, and i think thAt The World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves. Later, a joint study between the w. H. O. And china dismissed the likelihood 069 lab leak, but recently dr. Fauci and others question the claim thAt The virus came from nature. No, i am not convinced about that. I think we should continue to investigate what went on in china. President biden suggested the inquiry may have specific questions for china. Why do we think that china would cooperate . This is something that you have to ask the chinese government, right . This is something that should matter to them. So Katty Kay, obviously, this has been a theory thats been out there since the very beginning of this crisis, not just abroad, but here in the united states. Members of congress raising the Red Flag about some kind of a lab leak. That doesnt mean it was created as a weapon in a chinese lab, it just means maybe there was an accident in the lab that led to 3. 5 billion deaths around the world with coronavirus. So why do you suspect President Biden has escalated this in the Intelligence Community and clearly is taking it more seriously than he has in the past . Yeah. Well, its interesting. What we know now is there are three employees who were sick enough around the time of the outbreak of the coronavirus in November 2019 thAt They had to be hospitalized. The w. H. O. Had told us a while ago thAt There had been a few employees in that lab who had had kind of some kind of sicklike symptoms, but they dismissed it, the w. H. O. , as seasonal colds. They didnt seem to take it very seriously. Now we know three of them were sick enough to go to hospital. That raises a Red Flag about why did they have to go to hospital . We dont know that it was covid, but the fact thAt Three of them went to hospital with serious enough symptoms At The time covid was emerging in that city suggests they may have been covid. I did an interview with a doctor in australia who was one of the very first doctors in the world and the australians have been in the forefront of this theory To Push For an investigation of that lab. He told me there is something about the nature of the path again of covid19, the way it spreads so efficiently from Human To human that had always made him suspicious of the notion that it came via an animal. He said this pathogen didnt look to him like something that came from an animal. It looked more like something come from humans. And its interesting to hear dr. Fauci change his tune on this notion. The other thing this doctor in australia said, we have to take the politics out of this. It could be that we havent explored the Lab Theory enough because it was the theory that Donald Trump was pushing so there was some opposition to looking at something that Donald Trump was pushing and taking it seriously. And Michael Steele, if you look At The statement put out by the White House, whAt Theyre basically saying is we are now taking this seriously. We are looking at it and i want the Intel Community to tell me within 90 days is whAt The president said. What is clear, though, is at long last, President Biden has taken this away from the w. H. O. That has been running cover from china for too long. Yeah. I think thats the real rub here is thAt The White House is making that break and theyre trying to make it in a way that we get actual results and answers to important questions. You know, certainly from former President Trump and others, youll get a lot of i told you so and justification, but i think to kattys point, you cant really look At That and get stuck on that want we now have Intelligence Evidence that is telling us something very differently than whAt The w. H. O. Has been telling us. So the key thing is to understand exactly how this virus started and really kind of get behind what is in that origin story. And sort of look at how you prevent something like this in the future. It is an opportunity, i think, for the administration to press globally for a broader, wider truth about these issues when they come up as opposed to the immediate, oh, Cya And Sort of protect an institutional interest as opposed to being more concerned about the global impact. And thats going to be i think the stronger point the administration can make in pushing down and Back On the w. H. O. So, jonathan, it was just tuesday thAt The White House said publicly that any investigation into the origins of the pandemic should be left to the w. H. O. Yesterday, 24 hours later, they come in with this new idea that, no, were going to take control and send our Intel Community inspect and figure out the origins of this and, yes, we are taking seriously the Lab Leak Theory. Why the quick aboutface . Youre right. For a White House that doesnt course correct all that often or certainly this quickly, this is a striking one. This is from the president and his aids and the Intelligence Community learning, seeing these reports, wanting to learn a little bit more about what happened. As noted, theyre not concluding that it came from a lab, but theyre seeing growing evidence thAt They feel like this is a step that needs to be taken. The conclusion might be thAt This virus still came from that Wet Market in wuhan. But they want to be sure. They want to be thorough as the u. S. Is moving into a different phase of our own response to that pandemic. China is At The linchpin of President Bidens foreign policy. He wants to Focus On Asia and this rivalry, this competition of china going forward, that underscores everything that hes trying to exhibit from a foreign policy. We should know one thing about former President Trump and some republicans here who seem to be almost taking a Victory Lap with the idea because of their theory thAt The virus may come from a lab thAt This proves thAt They were, quote, right all along. Thats not what President Trump said when he was first in office. We At The ap reported back in January Of 2020 as this virus was start to go come out on to the World Stage and started to become a concern here in the united states before it exploded here thAt Then President Trump was leary about talking about the virus, sure, for fear of rattling the stock market, but for fear of upsetting china because he was so desperate to get a new Trade Deal done with china. He thought a deal with President Xi would allow him to have something to be part of his Reelection Plank there. And he was leary for months of upsetting china. He eventually, of course, took harsh criticism from beijing. Coming up, what does freedom really mean . 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Amazons acquiring Mgm Studios for 8. 5 billion. Amazon is behind in the Video Streaming war. Theyre trying to play Catch Up and its costing them 9 billion. There is to way im going down. I dont go down for nobody. Can consumers expect to see a jump in pricing . I dont think amazon is going to charge you more for Amazon Prime. They just want you spending more time this. This acquisition is the companys second largest procurement to date. Bezos saying its going to be a time of work and people who Love Stories are going to be the big beneficiaries. Giving fans hope that reboots and sequels to some of their favorites could be on the way. Stephanie ruhl joining us and steve ratner, good morning. This just follows a trend were seeing, obviously, towards streaming, towards these big acquisitions, towards consolidation of media. Last week we had a massive deal for discovery. What are you looking at in terms of where the future of media is going . Because it sure seemed to be happening very quickly in the last week. Its happening enormously quickly, willie, and its driven, first and foremost, by tech logical change. When you and i were younger, the only real way was to get a bundle. And thanks to the internet and streaming, people have the opportunity to cut the cord. This chart shows you the decline in traditional Pay Tv households, which is the Blue Line coming down and nonPay Tv households which are people would get thlg entertainment from somewhere else going up. And you can see the fact thAt The lines cross out in 2024 or so at which point more americans will be getting their television called over the top than through a Streaming Service. And the consequences of that for the socalled streaming wars are fairley profound. Youve had a number of companies do really well in streaming and others still trying to figure out whAt Their plan is. And so as you can see on this chart, essentially, there are three major companies that dominate the Streaming World At The moment. Netflix reports, which we all know, used by about 60 of the people. Then you have Amazon Prime video and for a while, people thought amazon was in this with a bit on of a lark. Obviously with the purchase of mgm, theyre in it to stay. And then you have Hulu And Disney which are owned by controlled by disney. Disney has its own service, Disney Plus, and it controls hulu. So thats a massive competitor. And then It Starts to drop off. So you can see why hbo, which is the next under Disney And Discovery which is the second from the bottom are merging in order to create more heft and more competitiveness. And then you still have services like Peacock And Apple tv and Paramount Plus that have yet to get a huge amount to get the content and the viewership thAt They need to meet to equal the big guys. The steve ratner, thank you very much. 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Get started with a great offer, and ask how you can add Comcast Business securityedge. Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Call today. Welcome back to Morning Joe. Military officials tell the new york times u. S. Troops and their nato allies intend to be out of afghanistan by early to midjuly well ahead of President Bidens September 11th withdrawal deadline. The u. S. Is grappling with huge unresolved issues that officials thought they would have more time to figure out, including how to combAt Terrorists threats like Al Qaeda from afar and securing agreements to secure american troops in other nearby countries. There are new reports of a number of african surrendering bases to taliban. With Morale Diving as american troops leave, each collapse feeds the next in the afghan countryside. Joining us now, sebastian junger. He is identity with a new book titled freedom. Its greAt To see you. I want to do a deep dive into your book in just a moment, but as someone who has covered the war in afghanistan so closely, been going to afghanistan for 25 years i think it is, what is your reaction to america after nearly 20 years of war pulling up and leaving . What will that country look like . I can talk about the risks, i think, without the u. S. There. Were pulling out a very small number of troops. 2,500, i believe. Theres 40,000 cops in new York City. So that gives you a sort of on perspective on the size. But that was enough to sort of keep the country more or less glued together, protect the government without those troops there, clearly, the taliban are at risk of taking the entire country and imposing their own style of regime of the afghan people. Theyre very sophisticated thinkers or they couldnt have brought us to a stand still for 20 years. So im not sure theyre necessarily going to impose this really harsh islamic society thAt Theyre emphasis for because they dont want to revisit this story with the united states. So they may be more shrewd than that, but clearly the price for this withdrawal will initially be paid by the african people by suppression. Eventually maybe Al Qaeda will take root again in afghanistan, but the taliban may not make that mistake twice. So who knows. Perhaps the message being sent, but you are as plugged into the Veterans Community as anybody in this country, sebastian. What is the feeling among the Men And Women you know who for 20 years put their lives on the line. Many of them have given their lives for the cause there. Yeah. You know, interestingly, i think its been long enough for most of those guys that i say guys because i was in a unit that was all male. Obviously many women have been there. I was there in 07, 08. The majority of our course was there a few years after that with the surge. I think its been long enough thAt There isnt a huge amount of conversation about it. There was a huge conversation. It was a very icon ic symbolic place. And as some veterans pointed out, wars understand, outposts get dismantled. Thats what happens at every war and we shouldnt expect anything different of this one. Sebastian, there was some talk among military commanders that if only u. S. Forces had a few more years, three to five more years, then they could have short up the afghan forces to resist an eventual possible taliban takeover of the country. Do you think, do you buy into the argument that another two or three years would have made any difference to the country . Personally, i dont buy into that. I think the main reason the afghan forces, theyre dependant on a government for their ammunition, for their air supply, for reinforcements, a government and a military that is riddled with corruption. And the u. S. Never really tackled the corruption in that country. We went in with a Light Footprint after 2001 and a ton of money we threw around. The money made the corruption even worse. As the taliban were taken over, what i was told by many afghans, they were letting the taliban in because the taliban were better than the corruption thAt The afghan society was living with. So the u. S. Did not address the main grievance thAt The afghan people had, thAt The taliban were offering a solution to. And another few years on of fighting isnt going to help if we dont address that core issue. Your War Documentary Film must read, must watch to understand whats happened there over the years. Lets talk about your latest book, freedom, sebastian. Its fascinating because you really touch on so many different moments of freedom over, you know, 5,000 years or something like that. And It Starts with this incredible trek that i would love to hear you talk more about, 4 hunl miles, i think it was, where you and a clump of other guys just started walking from washington up to philly and then turned west into the allegheny mountains. All told, it was 400 miles. Why did you do that and what did you learn on the trek . Yeah, thank you. We called it high speed vagrancy. We were moving 10, 15, 20 miles a day. We were you know, its completely legal out there. There arent a lot of cops out there unless theyre looking for you. But we always managed to avoid them. The rip lines are these swaths of no Mans Land that crisscross america. And you can sort of do what you want, right . We were drinking out of creeks and sleeping under bridges and abandon buildings. Its not the wilderness where youre supposed to hike. Its this weird mix of urban and farm and woods and suburbs. Its a mix of everything. You have to hide from the trains because the engineers will call you in. We got very good at moving sort of tactically. By that, i mean sort of staying out of sight, taking care of ourselves, we had one machete to protect otherwise if it came to this. We never did, obviously. I realized At The end of this, we had all been in a lot of combat. The sort of close fraternity of a small group in tough circumstances felt very familiar and very, very good. What i realized later is that over 400 miles, we were the only people in the world who knew where we were, right, and thAt That is one definition of freedom. So i Go On from there to talk about how humans, for tens of thousands of years, one of their core values is freedom. Its defending their community and their children and freedom. And its one of the few things that people will die for. So i write about how humans maintain their freedom. You can run away from your oppressor, you can defeAt Them in battle and you can outthink them. So my book is divided into run, fight and think. Sebastian, as you know in the news, just even today, theres been such a bastardzation of the term freedom. Im not going to wear a mask because of my freedom. Im not going to get the vaccine because of my freedom. Those are recent examples. What does freedom mean to you . Obviously it means different things to different people. What does freedom mean to you . Its like im not going to stop at red lights because of my freedom. You can phrase it differently and it shows you how absurd it is. People, when they say the Word Freedom in terms of this society, theyre talking about their rights. Its not freedom. Theyre talking about their rights within our society. Those rights are decided upon by the group. You may disagree. You can move to somalia if you dont want people telling you whAt To do. But essentially what you have the right to is to be free from oppression. You dont have the right to be free from obligation. If you live in a society, you have to accommodate its rules and its norms and sometimes wearing a mask. The government might be wrong. You might disagree. Theres avenues for recourse. You can go to the courts, you can go to the ballot box, but as long as youre benefiting from the society, you kind of have to play along with its rules. That has been true since humans were living in groups of 30 and 40 people in our history. It doesnt change that basic relationship between the visit and the group. I love where youre going with this book and this concept. Theres a difference between being free from oppression versus being, you know, free of obligation. What do we do and how do we respond and what is your experience in the journey you took to understand that distinction and why are so many of us getting it wrong . Why are so many of us distorting that very fine line between being free from an oppressor to The Point that we ourselves, in promoting that, become oppressors . Yeah. I mean, look, its an eternal debate between conservatives and liberals. Where does the Governments Authority End in terms of what it can tell you to do, right . And i would say the conservatives are they err on the side of the government doesnt have any right to tell you whAt To do and liberals, i think, err in the opposite direction. Its a sort of Nanny State that can frankly be annoying to everybody. So what i would say, though, is thAt There is a right now, the whole thing, masks, vaccines, every single thing has been politicized. And we have lost sight of whAt The reality is of disease, the political machinery of this country and how it needs to be run. When you make everything about a matter of freedom, youre sort of laying the groundwork for saying im completely selfdefining and, for example, if an election does not go the way i want it to, then i dont have to respect that, either. Its sort of the thin end of the wedge that allows for, frankly, an antidemocratic conversation. I think conservatives are perpetrating that right now. I think liberals could also conceivably do something like that. I heard some very bizarre things after trump was elected about hes not my president. So as a democracy, we have to be very, very careful about how much legitimacy we give to people who are simply saying i make the rules, the government doesnt, and those rules extend all it is way up to who inhabits the White House. Thats obviously absurd. Katty. Sebastian, youve traveled a lot in your reporting. Often to War Zones, but other countries, too. I was wondering whether you explore it in the book or whether you think there is a uniquely american interpretation of the notion of freedom. We often hear thAt There is. I wonder if you found that. Yes. Well, you know, i think there is. Freedom has been a very important part of the Nations History in the sense that we overthrew a monarchy. We over we outfought the greatest empire in the world At The time and established our own selfgoverning entity. And not only that, the people, the framers of the constitution, the first political leaders of this country made themselves subject to the laws of the land that apply to everybody else. They instituted in the constitution the bill of rights, a system where they themselves had to be legally accountable. They were not themselves exemptions like a king would be. So the idea of freedom goes to the core of creating a Society And One that is free of arbitrary authority such as from a monarch. So that word is its sacred, right . That Word Freedom is precious. Its sacred. And thats why i think when it gets sort of dragoon into surface for more conveniental venal ambitions, youre degrading something that should be sacred to all people and all americans and it might be reclaimed. Its like the word patriotism. It must be reclaimed from being the domain of one political party. We only scratched the surface of this fascinatesing book. Its called freedom. Sebastian junger, congratulations on the book. GreAt To see you this morning. Thank you. Likewise. Take care. Coming up next on Morning Joe, our next Guests Journey was a few thousand miles longer than sebastians. Its a new documentary shedding light on the challenges faced by american veterans after they return home from the battlefield. Morning joe is coming right back. Battlefield. Morning joe is coming right back tonight, ill be eating a Pork Banh mi with extra jalapenos. [doorbell rings] thanks, baby. Yeah, we bout to get spicy for this virtual date. Spicy like them pajama pants. Hey, the camera is staying up here. This is not the second date. Some say this is my greatest challenge ever. Hey, the camera is staying up here. But ive seen centuries of this. With a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. The gold standard, so to speak ; if a man see me oh my gosh i guess you never know what you got til its flow oh my gosh where man go oh my gosh if a man see me oh my gosh i guess you never know what you got til its eh uh, eh i became a Sofi Member because i needed to consolidate my credit card debt. I needed just one simple way to pay it all off. It was an easy decision to apply with sofi loans, just based on the Interest Rate and how much i would be saving. There was only one that stood out and one that actually made sense and that was sofi personal loans. It felt so freeing. I felt like i was finally out of this neverending trap of interest and payments and debt. Finding new routes to reach your customers, and new ways for them to reach you. Is what business is all about. Its whAt The united states postal service has always been about. So as your business changes, were changing with it. With ecommerce that runs At The speed of now. Next Day And Twoday shipping nationwide. 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He fought in the battle of ra mad ji known as the magnificent bastards. They suffered the highest casualty rates in the iraq war. Like so many veterans, hancock struggled when he returned home from the war, struggling from ptsd. To confront that drama, he walked nearly 60,000 miles from his home in maryland to Camp Pendleton in san diego. He stopped at home along the way and documented his journey in a new Film Called Bastards road. A maryland has has been walking across the country since last year. 9,000 kilometers, its a long, bloody road out there. They lose part of themselves when we go to war and we just hope we can help them get all of those parts back together. I dont think were looked at as patriots or heroes, i think were looked at as damaged goods. I dont think its over. Its just beginning. We go off to war and youre going to be asked to do unspeakable things, or think you just went over and did your job, thats pretty ignorant. Most people look at ptsd and see weakness. Its a survival mechanism. Situations over there demanded us to behave in a different way. No one else knows what we went through but them. Not to be able to see these guys and not knowing how theyre doing, you tend to lose it. Its hard to communicate. United States Marine John Hancock joins us now. John, its so greAt To have you with us. Were so grateful for your service and so grateful you would step up to speak out about this issue that affects so many of your brongers and sisters. Lets hear first a little bit about your journey home. We laid out the battle of ramadi and other places where you fought over the course of the years. What was it like for you to come back home . It was pretty jarring. So its a fish out of water idea, right . I left the marine Corps End of 2009 honorably and moved directly into the university of maryland. Im double majoring in arabic and russian. Immediately, im in a really weird position where i dont have anybody as a Support Network inside the college, and although i do have friends around, im not really talking to them either. So i found the bars. Once i found the bars, i stopped going to class and then i started finding more alcohol and then using that as a coping mechanism to deal with some of these memories. Heres one dui, a year to the day a second one, followed by in short order a suicide attempt, which landed me in the baltimore va hospital. Once i was there, of course, i realized this was Rock Bottom and this was the impetus of the entire journey that would turn into Bastards Road somewhere down the line. Hi no idea i would turn this into a journey until about 1,300 miles in in alabama a friend of mine called and said, hey, i think we need to document this. Thats how this entire thing came about. We talk a lot over the years about the 1 in this country and its actually less than 1 who go and pack up and ship out and fight our wars for us. It used to be World War ii, korea, vietnam, you come home and theres a bunch of people on your block that served. I imagine that adds to the isolation when you look around you and theres almost No One who can relate to what youve been through. Youre not wrong in that. When you start really talking about veterans versus tried and true, experienced, prolonged combat veterans, that percentage goes down either further. And so when you start looking At Those numbers, you realized were so spread out and we dont communicate with each other and i have found i went into a hole versus deciding to speak out. John, Katty Kay is here with a question for you. John, thank you for the documentary and talking about this. I have known veterans actually from the second World War but many more from subsequent wars who described their service even war journalists as this trial of incredible Tensety And Clarity and simplicity out on the War Zone and when they come back, life is complicated and perhaps even a little grayer. How do veterans find something to replace the experience, however traumatic and terrible it might have been, something to replace that experience of intensity of being out in the field, of being in the field of war with something that fits with normal, everyday life . I wont and i Cant Speak for every veteran. I can can tell you what i experienced, and i can tell you in that question, i do feel the same way. I do feel thAt There was a lot more yes and no, a lot more black and white in combAt Than there was returning home. Once i did return home, i found in order to replace the highs of combat because you will never feel anything like that ever again, thats true. For me at least, but i did find substance abuse, if you will. Alcoholism, just drinking too much. I found thAt Trying to replace the thing that i knew i was never going to be able to replace was almost depressing to 34e, and theres a great picture out there somewhere that says, you know, ill never be as good as anything as i once was at war. And that kind of speaks to me, so i had to try to find something that i could be as good at. And i found that being a spokesperson, to not only speak about myself and my experiences but to give thAt To other veterans but to hopefully, unconsciously, give them the ability to start opening up and telling their families whAt They experienced. I want to hear from another veteran from the film named Chris Mcintosh who captures the feeling youre describing. Lets listen. I go to sleep thinking about people i shot or screaming friends. I wake up with that exactly on my mind as soon as im still laying in bed, trying to roll out, im thinking about their friends or just deaf, 24 7. Its weird. I think more about death in life and im living. I Cant Figure that one out. Its hard to listen to, john, but its so real. How do we do better as a country . How do we do better as a government taking care of our veterans but really as a society acknowledging the pains you and other vets are going through and doing something about it . Thank you so much for that, man. I really enjoy that question because i think i have a few answers here. One, i can spend the next year disparaging the va. I wont. Its a broken system. We have realized that. The beautiful thing is veterans have taken it upon themselves to build nonprofit systems to help each other and there are A Million nonprofits out there that are absolutely worth your time and energy. Theyre all over the country. I urge you as civilians to go out and seek out nonprofits in your local area. I dont care if you can give a dollar, give it if you want, but volunteer with them, experience seeing what veterans do when theyre around each other because it is absolutely healing. I think secondly and im going to give you a little something here, its kind of a secret in the Veteran Community so i will probably get yelled at for it, we make fun of thank you for your service. We dont make fun of you we make fun of how we respond to it, because for combat guys, its thank you for your service. What are you thanking me for . Killing a kid, watching my buddy die . And then open the opposite side of the house, the guys and galss who never got to do their job in combat, are you thanking me for training and never getting to go and complete my job . It becomes a very awkward position for Bong Position involved. I think its easier if we dispel that all together and we say welcome home. When we say welcome home, we mean it. We have to bring these guys and gals back into the folds of society. Give them a chance of progressing through life and being an open ear and listening without judgment. A lot of us and, and i know that for a fact, esis specially in my world, it took me a long time to open up for fear of reprisal. What youre going now is important as anything you can be doing. I agree with you, thank you for your service is contrite At This point, easy, cliche thing. Intentions are good but i hear what you say and i hear the same things from veterans i work with all the time. The fact youre making this film and coming out publicly and talking about it is so critically important. Were so grateful youre doing it. The film is called Bastards Road. Its streaming now video on demand. Every american should stop, look, listen and help where you can. John hancock, thank you so much for everything and congratulations on this film. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi, there, im Stephanie Ruhle. It is thursday, may 27th. And theres a lot going on this hour. We are keeping an eye on Capitol Hill, where any minute now republicans unveil their infrastructure, counterproposal, expected to have a Price Tag of 1 Trillion over the course of eight years. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren will be here in a few minutes to react to that proposal and talk about where lawmakers can go from here. Also this hour the Mother And Girlfriend of officer Brian Sicknick, who died one day after he confronted rioters during the Capitol Insurrection January 6th are meeting with republican senators, urging them to back the January 6th commission. They just met with senator romney, who has said he would back the plan. But we have to start with breaking news out of the state of california. Ninth person has now died of