two technically. the president's lengthy news conference, the white house's scramble to clean up a few of his comments on the legitimacy of 2022 and russia. the new numbers from our nbc news poll, though, all point to the same predicament facing this administration, after 365 days in office the president is now having to try to regain his long-time political identity. his job approval stands at just 43%, it's the second worst of in i president in modern history at the one-year mark except for one, donald trump. the numbers are stark, the public doesn't believe that president biden has lived up to the promise of the biden presidency to candle covid, unite country, to in a phrase build back better. his approval ratings on the pandemic and the economy have fallen dramatically since the opening days of his presidency. far more voters are giving him low marks on his blt a to unite the country than when he first took office. and just 5% say his presidency has been better than expected. that is the lowest number on record in our poll and we've been asking this question going back to bill clinton after 1992. this is just after a one-year mark. at yesterday's press conference biden seemed to be acutely aware of the political problems facing him. he pushed back on criticism that he's trying to push the country too far to the left, calling himself a main street democrat and reminding folks that he is not the socialist like bernie sanders and even name-checked bernie. i tried to take the fight to republicans, accusing them of not standing for anything other than trying to stop him. biden also acknowledged he's got to get out of washington more, to take his message directly to voters, but the president's attempts to rebrand politically have so far been swallowed up by the white house's efforts today to clean up two of his comments, one, suggesting that the u.s. might not retaliate against russia for a minor incursion into ukraine. and another suggesting that the u.s. might not have free and fair elections in the midterms. first, here is his comments and then the cleanup on russia/ukraine. >> russia will be held accountable if it invades. and it depends on what it does. it's one thing if it's a minor incursion and we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera. >> if any, any assembled russian units move across the ukrainian border that is an an vegas and invasion and it will be met with coordinated economic response as well as laid out clearly for president putin. but there is no doubt, let there be no doubt at all, that if putin makes this choice russia will pay a heavy price. >> of course, the president yesterday, i think that's what michael kinsly used to call a washington gaffe, when they accidentally speak the truth and the fact is european allies aren't ready to punish russia as aggressively as the united states is. and here are the comments and the cleanup on the issue of integrity in the upcoming midterm elections. >> imagine if those attempts to say that the count was not legit, you have to recount it and we're going to discard the following votes. sure -- i'm not saying it's going to be legit. the increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is a direct proportion to us not being able to get these -- these reforms passed. >> i've talked to the president a lot about this and he absolutely is not predicting that the 2022 elections would be illegitimate. >> so joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent carol lee. carol, it's clear they decided they had to clean up. i want to start with russia/ukraine because i don't know what president biden said that everybody already didn't know, which was we can only respond as aggressively as all the allies are willing to do. what are they cleaning up? is that just -- is that because public -- people -- people are upset that it went public? i mean, do we think that putin or zelensky didn't already know this? >> reporter: you are absolutely right, chuck. i think this is designed for u.s. allies. there's also a little bit of a domestic audience. the president is getting criticism for this from republicans. president biden has long had this phrase where he says no one doubts, i say what i mean, the problem is sometimes i say too much of what i mean. this is what happened. he spoke -- saying the quiet part out loud. all of the things that he said he does think that putin is going to go over the border. the allies aren't united and ukraine -- the belief in the u.s. government which everybody says behind closed doors is that ukraine is not joining nato anytime soon. all of those things were things that he said. you saw him trying to clean this up, you saw him reading from a piece of paper and that's pause this is something that really upset u.s. allies overseas, particularly partners at ukraine, the ukrainian government is not happy about this and it's been seen and interpreted by some here in washington as essentially an invitation for putin to cross the border. >> let's move to the other cleanup they made on the legitimacy of 2022. i will be frank with you, i thought his comments were confusing yesterday. that was when he was -- you could tell -- i don't want to put thoughts in his head but it almost sounded as if he didn't want to undermine the importance of voting rights for 2022 but it also seemed to be acknowledging that everything they are worried about is really about 2024 not about 2022 but he didn't know how the answer the question. that's what it struck me as. he had no idea how to answer the question in a way that didn't offend certain constituencies. >> reporter: and what you saw the white house do in responding to that was pivot to the 2020 election, what they call the big lie, and say that, look, he is not saying that the election would be illegitimate, he's saying that if former president trump was successful in getting states to do what he wanted them to do in 2020, then that would have been -- then it would be illegitimate. so he was trying to draw this link to the voting rights legislation and how it needs to be passed and try to emphasize the reasons why it needed to be passed in terms of the legitimacy of elections and it just got very confusing and, again, they had to clean it up. >> carol, do you think this is a white house that is going to look at what happened yesterday and say, hey, we need to get him out there more, people need to get used to the way he talks, this is who he is, he's been this way forever, or are they going to retreat again and keep him away from the press corps for ten months? >> reporter: look, it's a great question, chuck, because the president wants to be out there more and he wants to be meeting with people more. there's a number of ways he wants to do that, he wants to travel around the country, meet with americans, spend more time talking to the press and also have more people come into the white house, influencers or diverse thoughts from think tanks, editorial writers to historians. he said this all yesterday. you know, that's something that he wants to do and yet he stood out there obviously for an hour and 45 minutes yesterday and now they're having to do some cleanup. i think the trick for the white house is what they want to do is for the president to be out there more and focusing just on covid and the economy. that's it. they want him talking about covid and the economy and that's where they think that he can try to turn this around before the midterm elections. >> all right. carol lee getting us started from the white house. carol, thank you. he. i want to bring in somebody from the biden administration, a pretty close confidant of the president, white house senior advisor, former louisiana congressman so somebody who has faced voters, which everything i hear is something that matters a lot to president biden when he seeks your advice, cedric richmond. cedric richmond, welcome to the show. >> thanks for having me, chuck. >> let me start with this, you look at the current situation and polling and the political environment and you look at what you're doing in the white house, do you believe you have a communications problem or do you believe you have a substance problem? >> we don't have a substance problem and the truth s chuck, i think that americans are exhausted just living their daily lives right now. people are focused on making sure that they protect themselves and their families from covid, making sure that there's food on the table, making sure that their kids remain in school. so people have their head down and are really just living their lives. we have our head down trying to do the best we can to meet the challenges that families are facing, which is why we're just -- we're working. now, if the question is could we go on a tour and tout all of our accomplishments, we could, but at the same time we acknowledge that there's work to do and people are facing real challenges and we want to tackle them. >> you know, it seems we've got a lot of people saying, hey, you have to fix this and then somebody else will come at you, oh, yeah, but you have this problem over here, and the two don't necessarily coincide. i want to talk about voting rights. i'm here in georgia, i talked to people that are more work on this issue, base members of the party, and they're very disappointed in voting rights. i had another group of voters, swing voters, first time biden voters, first time democratic voters in a long time and they're like, hey, focus on inflation, focus on the kitchen table issues. is there a point where these two competing factions make it almost impossible to deal with both of your issues at the same time? >> no, we can do both, and those people who are concerned about the economy, we remind them that there were almost 20 million people unemployed when we started, there's less than 2 million people unemployed now. we brought the unemployment rate down to 3.9% and we have record job growth, 6.4 million jobs adding more than any president in this history. at the same time we were there in georgia fighting for voting rights and the president was very clear that it's a defining moment. you have to decide what side of history you want to be on. we're going to continue to fight for voting rights and we're going to continue to fight for the rest of the president's agenda, build back better, bringing down costs for people. so when you talk about the inflation concerns, we hear them, we acknowledge them, we are working on them, and that's why build back better is so important, it would bring down the costs that families face anywhere from child care to health care and prescription drugs and we will keep working on t we have to pass it. >> all right. you're still talking about it as a larger package. speaker pelosi today said, hey, i don't know who thinks we can break this up, it's part of a larger reconciliation, but the president seemed to indicate there was going to be an attempt to break this up. walk me through this. what should we expect? is build back better getting trimmed or broken up? >> no, the president is still fighting for his framework that he put out there, but i think that he's also acknowledging that there will have to be compromises and we won't get everything we want, but we will continue fighting for those portions of the package that don't get included. so, remember, the package was scaled down from initially well over $3 trillion, now it's in the $1.75 trillion neighborhood, so there are things that we will not get, but we're going to continue to fight for those things. >> is this -- the president emphasized child care and, you know, it seemed that he was emphasizing that you may have to pick. i know you want to do senior care, i know you want to do some fixes on obamacare, but if you think about the issues that folks are dealing with covid, right? frustration over child care. is focusing on universal pre-k and that, does that become the easier piece of build back better to find a coalition to pass it? >> well, some elements find universal support among democrats, but the goal is to not break it up and we understand how important child care is because it will allow people to get back into the workforce and they're paying so much of their salaries for child care but also educating three and four year olds so that we can outcompete the world. it's not an either/or situation, we're fighting for all of it, whether it's elder care, maternal health, community violence intervention or funding for sbcu. so we're fighting for it all, but with the reality that you may have to compromise. >> you were a member of congress, you know what happens when the calendar becomes an even number. be realistic with me. how much time do you have to get this piece of your agenda passed before politics forces the pause? >> well, the short answer is the sooner the better, however, the one thing that encourages me and why i appreciate working for president biden is that it's not about him. this is about people, it's about their families, it's about the community and delivering for them. so i know that a lot of people would look around and look at polls to say how am i doing. that's not how we look at it here in the white house. we look at it as how are we addressing the challenges that families face and we want to address the families sooner rather than later and i believe that there's time for the midterms to take care of themselves. i think this whole gloom and doom is -- i think it's far premature and i am optimistic about it. >> let's talk about the midterms. the president's comments about whether he will accept the results of the midterm elections it wasn't clear. clear it up for me, cedric richmond. are you going to be confident in close elections that democrats lose statewide in places, let's say, here in georgia? >> we don't have a reason to question the legitimacy of elections, i think the president was highlighting the fact that the last election in 2020 should be celebrated, more people voted than ever, it was safe, secure, accurate election. but at the same time he was highlighting that these laws that people are passing around the country are a threat to democracy and if trump was able to have his way in 2020, he would have had secretaries of state go find 11,000 so votes so that he can be the winner, and i think that highlighting that is very important so that people are aware that there are challenges out there, threats out there, to a safe election. >> is it fair to say, cedric, that the electoral college act is now where all the action is going to be when it comes to election reform? >> absolutely not. we are still focused on the john lewis voting rights bill, we're very focused on all of the pieces of legislation. we are not picking. the john lewis bill is very important so that we can stop discriminatory laws before they actually go into place instead of having to sue them. and the for the people act, those -- those pieces of legislation are vital to protecting our elections. >> jim clyburn seemed to think there's a chance you could take some of the pre clearance language in the john lewis voting rights act and make it part of the electoral -- a little bit of an expanded version of that and perhaps get buy in from susan collins and mitt romney. is that a reasonable compromise idea to you? >> well, look, our position here at the white house is very clear, that we think we need all of those pieces of legislation. congress will do its will. i don't challenge the wisdom of the majority whip. i think that he has vast experience in legislating so we will see where he goes with that. certainly i wouldn't discourage him, but we think we need all those pieces of legislation. >> all right. cedric richmond, senior advisor to the president. i said it's my understanding that when it comes to getting advice he does like to hear from somebody who has actually had to win a vote or two. we really appreciate you coming on, sir. >> thanks for having me. up next, we're live here in atlanta, georgia. what's it really going to take for the president and his party to turn the page heading into his second year in office? we will have much more on what voters here in georgia are telling me about what matters to them this november. plus a new development today in the investigation into former president trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 results right here in georgia. you're watching "meet the press daily." in georgia. in georgia. you're watching "meet the press their only friend? the open road. i have friends. [ chuckles ] well, he may have friends, but he rides alone. daily. we're literally riding together. he gets touchy when you talk about his lack of friends. can you help me out here? no matter why you ride, progressive has you covered with protection starting at $79 a year. well, we're new friends. to be fair. eh, still. my hygienist cleans with a round head. so does my oral-b my hygienist personalizes my cleaning. so does my oral-b oral-b delivers the wow of a professional clean feel every day. welcome back to this special edition of "meet the press daily" in atlanta. as we reported at the beginning of the hour one year into his presidency biden's standing with voters is slipping. in year two the biden white house needs to figure out how to catch itself and do so fast. for more on this i'm joined by two democratic strategists, nbc news cornell belcher and a current nbc news contributor our newest colleague symone sanders. well low to both of you. symone, you were most recently in the administration. i'm curious, give us insight on how -- you're now watching the last 24 hours the way we and the press watched the last 24 hours. we see this big press conference, there's clearly an attempt to shift tactically on message and there's a lot of cleanup. tell me what's going on inside that west wing right now over the last 24 hours. >> so i would actually argue it's not an attempt to shift tactically on message, chuck, i think what you saw from the president yesterday and the white house today and what you will see from them going forward is to respond to this narrative that it is a fact that the president had not done a press conference in a very long time, but it's also a fact that he regularly took questions from the press after speeches. they are realizing that, you know, that is not good enough. we have to feed the beast a little bit more, if you will. so that's what you -- that's what you saw from the president yesterday. you also saw from the president, though, that he is going to forcefully defend his own agenda and his own presidency. the president watches television and reads the papers just like everyone else, just like all of us here and he sees the narrative that's out there and he vehemently disagrees with it. what you saw yesterday was a counter to him telling his own story about his administration. >> cornell, i want to bring up our job approval ratings and i apologize to my control room in advance, i'm giving them lead time, it was number six of our graphics for the first block, i'm buying time here, symone, you will learn this as you keep going on the other side of the camera. >> i can told hem up if you want, i have them right here. >> all the different groups, cornell, i know you have it, and the drops are everywhere among african american vote he wishes, independents, among each part of the biden coalition, if you will, right now those approval ratings by issue, i was looking for his approval rating by different voting groups. it's down across the board. i've heard from disappointed base voters here in georgia and disappointed moderate voters in georgia and they're disappointed for different reasons. how do you solve a riddle like that, cornell? >> well, i think they are going about trying to solve that riddle right now in fighting and taking on the issues that these young voters care about. look, you are at ground zero there in georgia and, look, in georgia's ground zero in a lot of different ways because the demographic sort of changes that you see taking place across the country, that is really coming to focus in georgia's ground zero when you look at the number of young people being engaged and gen zs and millennials are the most diverse generation of americans ever in the history of our country, and you look at sort of growing power of the african american vote in georgia. it is ground zero in the changes that are happening in this country. when you look at that coalition that helped flip georgia, young people, people of color and college educated suburban voters, they have to pay a lot of attention to that, because, look, i look back to what i had -- you know, our internals had obama at going into 2010. chuck, with african-americans you had 94% approval. biden is now -- biden has dipped significantly below that with african-americans as well as young people is the drag on his job approval. his job approval i think at nbc polling was 43%, 44%. if his approval is in the eights among young voters and eights among african american voters he's causal flee close to a r50% approval mark. when you look at young voters and african american voters, you know, front and center is voting rights act and no more is that more front and senter than in the state you are in. >> symone, i talked to one frustrated activist on voting rights issues and she said to me, look, there's no way i can ever support the other party. i think the other party doesn't want me to be a member of their party she goes but i didn't agree with what that other guy did but he always seemed to be doing something. what she was saying was it feels like this president is not able to each get a small thing done. now, i know that's not true, there's a lot of small things, but she's not hearing it, right? do you think little incremental progress on voting rights can sort of snap this part of the base out of their doldrums? >> yes. i think incremental progress, which is going to happen, look, i don't think voting rights is dead. i think that there are a number of different avenues that democrats in the white house and republicans frankly could employ to get it done and i think we're seeing some of those proposals trickle out into the press. look, i think the activists there are a number of constituencies here and i think the activists on the ground are an important one, the people who watch television, are plugged in every day are an important constituency, but also people who don't feel like things have gotten better are extremely important and i think those folks are reflected in this poll. it's my understanding, though, i think we heard the president say this yesterday, is that he knows what he has to do. he knows what they can do better. you've heard it from the vice president, she said at the end of last year her biggest regret is that things she learned this year -- last year is that she needed to get out of washington more and people laughed at -- i remember people laughed, i saw some tweets about that, i saw some conservative articles, but the reality is that the president and the vice president are correct. they have to get out and meet the people where they are. joe biden in my opinion, and i might be biased here, is one of the greatest retail politicians currently out there right now and he knows that, but he has not been able to do that. i think that the white house is looking for a strategy that allows them to do that, but also under the constraints of covid and they obviously haven't found the right mix yet, but that's where we are right now in this day and age. >> i hear that and symone, i'm curious, i mean, are they being too cautious with the president's ability to meet people? >> well, i think the president has been actively on the ground, i think -- there are some people out there that will say, oh, the president should be on the road every week and he should be out there selling the agenda, but then some of those same people, chuck, i watched "meet the press" this weekend and some people on your panel said that the president shouldn't be going up to the hill to sell his agenda to the dem caucus. i think you're danged if you do, danged if you don't, but they have to do something and i think you see the president doing something. >> you know, it's interesting, cornell, i actually thought what i heard from the president was that he was trying to respond to some of these criticisms and he even said -- this is why i enjoyed his press conference, he says quiet parts out loud. i want to know what he's thinking and understand his rationale. he seemed to admit, yeah, i need to stop being a senator. >> i think that's spot on, but also, chuck, i think some of what we look at, you know, inside washington as not being perfect and we're critical of, the american people look at it as authentic. you know, one of the things -- and we've had this conversation before, chuck, where -- look, there's nothing -- there's not a variable more important in american politics than likability. don't tell me your ten-point plan. do voters like you, right? we didn't -- you know, we beat up george bush a lot but in the end voters -- until the war, voters really liked george bush. i think there is this likability about president biden and his authenticity that comes across when he speaks. i agree with my dear friend symone, and congratulations for joining the team here -- that he does need to get out there more. he has to go around washington. one of the things, really quickly, chuck, that he brought up yesterday and i almost fell out of my chair when he said -- you know, he told president obama he should go out and do a victory lap, and obama basically said we're too busy, we have too much to do. i think in retrospect many of us wish he had, in fact, gone out and did a victory lap and started telling the american people what he has been doing and talking directly to the american people about what he has been accomplishing. >> sometimes i wonder if everybody watched how trump was overly braggadocios and think i don't want to be like him and you're like, yeah, but don't overcompensate the other way, either. cornell belcher, symone sanders, symone, i con kerr with cornell, welcome. it's great to have you. >> thank you. all right. still to come, the nation and the globe a bit more on edge as president biden predicts putin will indeed invade ukraine. we're live in moscow next. you're watching "meet the press daily." ukraine we're live in moscow next. you're watching "meet the press daily. welcome back. as we told you at the top of the hour president biden clarified his comments about russia and ukraine today, saying that any russian troops entering ukraine will constitute an invasion, period. no use of the word incursion. earlier ukraine's president pushed back against biden's comments tweeting, we want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the lost of loved ones. russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops along its border with ukraine and u.s. intelligence has warned that moscow may be planning a false flag operation. secretary of state antony blinken who met with vladimir zelensky plans to meet with russia's foreign minister tomorrow warning putin of harsh consequences if he were to invade his neighbor. >> we have been very clear if any russian military forces move across the ukrainian border and new acts of aggression against ukraine, that will be met with a swift severe united response from the united states and our allies and partners. >> let me bring in our nbc news colleague matt bodner, he joins me from moscow. matt, before the president's comments yesterday did the kremlin believe it didn't matter whether it did a small little incursion in donbas or a full on incursion or do they believe the europeans are more wavering on this and it will depend on what they do? what is the kremlin position? >> reporter: so i think the kremlin right now they're kind of in this holding pattern, chuck, where they're kind of circling around, looking at the west, trying to look for any kind of cracks or divisions to see if there's something they can exploit there. it's essentially the kremlin playbook we have seen the past few years. they may have been taken aback a little bit last week during that marathon week of diplomacy at just how united at least initially the west seemed to be in its position. all the emotion we're seeing around this comment that biden made i think is just because the stakes feel very high, the emotion in europe right now is high, especially in eastern europe and everyone knows that russia as it's trying to calculate its next move, now, it's not clear that russia actually anticipated everyone to kind of fall in line the way that they appear to do last week. everyone is conscious that russia is looking for this kind of thing, looking for divisions and it's important to remember that there's kind of a sense now, particularly in this administration that's the obama administration may not have done enough to deter russia's actions in 2014-2015 and that is what we're talking about with a limited incursion, i think, technically. that's what's on everyone's mind here. >> matt, give me a taste, give our viewers a taste of the propaganda about what's happening on the border of ukraine that the average russian citizen is seeing in moscow. >> reporter: sure. so, you know, for several years now we've seen kind of, you know, russians have this very strong emotional connection to ukraine and this is obviously amplified by russian state media, it has become very aggressive and the general narrative is that ukraine is a brotherly country that has been lured by the west and needs to be brought back into the fold. there's a real sense of betrayal. so they're being told all of russia's actions, all these maneuvers on the board, are preparation for a defense against possible ukrainian aggression on russian speakers in eastern ukraine. >> matt, i'm glad you said that. i think it's always important to understand what the propaganda is on the other side. matt bodner in moscow for us, matt, thank you. up ahead, an fbi investigation that could change the course of a key primary race. plus our county to county reporters talk to voters about the economic pain they're feeling one year into biden's presidency. you're watching a special edition of "meet the press daily." u're watching a special edition of "meet the press daily. plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. yeah i should've just led with that. with at&t business. you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smart phone. this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but whatever work becomes, the servicenow platform will make it just, flow. whether it's finding new ways to help you serve your customers, orchestrating a safe return to the office... wait. an office? what's an office? ...or solving a workplace challenge that's yet to come. wherever the new world of work takes your business, the world works with servicenow. ♪ when you have nausea, ♪ ♪ heartburn, ingestion, upset stomach... ♪ your business, ♪ diarrheaaaa.♪ try pepto bismol with a powerful coating action. for fast and soothing relief. pepto bismol for fast relief when you need it most. i know there's conflicting information about dupuytren's contracture. i thought i couldn't get treatment yet? well, people may think that their contracture has to be severe to be treated, but it doesn't. if you can't lay your hand flat on the table, talk to a hand specialist. but what if i don't want surgery? well, then you should find a hand specialist certified to offer nonsurgical treatments. what's the next step? visit findahandspecialist.com today to get started. welcome back. as we head into the midterms one of the businessest issues impacting voters day to day is rising prices. everything from food to the roof over their heads. two of our county to county reporters, guad venegas and dasha burns are in nevada and pennsylvania, but they're hearing similar stories on the lack of affordable housing. making even the simplest housing projects pricey and lengthy to complete. >> projects are taking way longer, costing way more to build, we're adding six months to a year to our time frame to build it because of supply chain problems and labor shortages. >> how high is the level of frustration for you right now? >> sometimes i wonder it's all worth it to keep building. >> where do you point the finger and who do you think needs to step up to the plate here? >> the current administration. >> and as the cost of building houses goes up the cost of buying one is increasingly out of reach for many middle class families in places like reno where the economy is booming, unemployment rate below 3%, you have this money and want to buy a house but you can't find one. one prospective home buyer said she feels like she's being priced out of the market. >> i think it's getting harder to live that american dream. it comes with buying a home and kids, there you have it, there's the american dream, you know, but it's just getting harder and harder to live here and be able -- really maybe live anywhere. >> that's the issue, the barrier to entry, the housing market now, that barrier has never been higher financially these days for first-time home buyers. our county to county reporters will continue their reporting on issues like this all campaign year long. we turn to news out of texas where there was an fbi activity, if you will, near the home of democratic congressman henry cuellar yesterday. an fbi spokeswoman confirmed the fact that fbi acts were there. they were present in the vicinity of his home directing court authorized activity. the cobs man was considered one of the most conservative democrats in the house and is facing a primary challenge in less than 90 days, mind you. said he will fully cooperate with any investigation. joining me now to discuss the possible electoral implications of this decision is our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what struck me about this story, look, we don't know the substance, but march 1 is the texas democratic primary, primary day. he is in a very competitive primary, probably the most competitive that there is on the democratic side, if not in the entire state. correct me if i'm wrong i always thought there was some sort of window to not potentially influence a campaign with law enforcement activity for elected officials. walk me through that. >> so a couple of points. first of all, court ordered law enforcement activity that's in the fbi statement, that's fbi talk for search warrant. secondly, so they're definitely conducting a search. and, by the way, the u.s. attorney's manual says that if somebody is going to search the home or the property of a member of congress where documents could be found that relate to legislative activities, they have to get a sign off from the justice department's public integrity section. so main justice would have to have signed off on this. doesn't mean the attorney general or deputy did, but public integrity does. secondly, you're right, there is a policy but it's not what many people say. it's not like there is a buffer zone in front of an election during which you can't conduct any law enforcement activity. what these policies say that have been repeatedly art clalted by different attorneys general, they always modify them some or somewhat, say that you can't carry out law enforcement activity in order to influence an election. you can't conduct a search, you can't, you know, subpoena somebody in order to affect the election. it doesn't say you can't do something that would have the peripheral or collateral effect of affecting the election. it doesn't mean law enforcement activity has to stop. i think that's what many people think it says and, in fact, it's different. so as long as the government isn't doing this in order to affect the election, there's nothing that would violate the policy. >> how high is the bar for the public integrity section when it comes to essentially executing a search warrant on a sitting member of congress? how high is that bar? >> well, they would look at it to make sure that the u.s. attorney, that the folks wherever it's being conducted are aware of the sensitivity about legislative documents, because of the constitution speech or debate clause, and secondly to make sure that it's, you know, sound, they've got -- they've got what they need. remember, you can't get a search warrant unless you can go to a court and show that there's probable cause to believe that if you conduct a search you're going to find something that could be evidence of a potential crime, but, of course, we still don't know what that crime s who the potential victim is, you know, we know none of that. >> here is what i do know, we are less than two months from the democratic primary in texas. >> and we're just over a month from early voting. early voting, i think, in texas starts in the middle of february. >> right. so weeks, not months there. pete williams, as always, sir, on the beat for us in justice. pete, thank you. coming up, georgia, of course, has been my mind politically and legally as the district attorney in fulton county where i am right now wants a special grand jury to help investigate former president trump's efforts to overturn the state's election results. you're watching a special edition of "meet the press daily." results. you're watching it is. so is screening for colon cancer. when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. hey, cologuard! hi, i'm noninvasive and i detect altered dna in your stool edition of "meet the press daily. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider if cologuard is right for you. (all) to screening! welcome back to this special edition of "meet the press daily." i'm live here in atlanta where on the ground, i've been talking to voters and experts on the issues that matter ahead of the midterm elections. i spoke to young voters and organizers at emory university. listen to what two young democrats had to say about the president's first year in office. >> there's been a lot of things weave been seeing that show the parties are more divided than they ever have been and i think it makes people doubtful even in the people they voted for, right? >> for me, when i said there were areas that i was disappointed in the current administration, voting rights is at the top of that list. it would be a true devastating oversight if the administration thinks that action on voting rights will not have a concrete impact on the 2022 elections. >> joining me now is the longtime anchor of our atlanta affiliate, wxia, one of their lead political reporters, jeff hollinger. before i get to the general nature of why we're here, fulton county d.a. is asking for a special grand jury to investigate the president. a lot of people were assuming there would be a criminal investigation of what the president did on that infamous phone call with brad raffensperger. a special grand jury, how often does that happen in fulton county? >> it's a rare occurrence. the district attorney of fulton county is new, she defeated paul howard who held the office for six terms. a mysterious figure, he was very quiet. somewhat difficult to get ahold of if you had any questions. the current district attorney is very different, a high profile individual who is seen and heard in this job that we haven't seen in long time in atlanta. >> do you expect her to be a more visible d.a.? >> she's frustrated that she can't get anyone to talk to her. even though this is an unusual occurrence of investigating a u.s. president, but she believes she is without a conflict of interest, that she is pure of thought, pure of deed, pure of action. >> i have long believed this is actually the most potentially lethal action against the former president, bigger than what happens happening in new york, because of the evidence. you heard from those students. what's the bigger problem for the democratic coalition here? the fact that i talk to these new biden voters yesterday, independents, they're like, you know, talk to me bin inflation, talk to me about the supply chain or these more activist voters who are like, you're not doing anything on voting rights? what's the bigger problem? >> i think it's very tough to take a look at a place like atlanta and atlanta metro. this place is ever-evolving. i'm not just saying the last three or four years politically. in the last three to five years, it looks so different here. pick a suburban community, a suburban county in atlanta metro. >> is it 30 points in 12 years? >> how about cobb county, the land of newt gingrich, now flirting with going blue. this is unheard of. i find it interesting when national figures, democrats, come to town and do the traditional choreography of going to the hbcus, the king crypt, and not going to the suburbs. going to the suburbs is a place that would rattle the cages of the republicans here because they have an opportunity to make serious inroads here which will of course lead them in a different direction as far as what we've seen with the governor's race. >> is stacey abrams a little more immune from that disappointment among those that care about voting rights because they don't view her as disappointing them, they view it as washington? >> i think she's had so much success nationally and with getting people to vote with her movement, that i think she has been somewhat teflon-free of losing to brian kemp. you don't hear much of that. at least publicly, you hear in atlanta, atlanta metro and georgia as well, around the country as well, you hear about her great success at getting people to the polls. . >> you bring up something that hasn't been mentioned historically, rematches, it's a tough thing to do, but you're right, she does not have that scent of, quote, loser. >> no, she doesn't have any of that at all. you don't have to be chuck todd to know that this battle between david perdue and brian kemp is a wild card here. what does that look like for republicans as they head into november, what are the ramifications of this, which is clearly going to be a knock-down, drag-out kind of battle? >> what upside is there for republicans? >> it's hard to imagine one. >> does kemp have to win by 40? >> i don't know what it means. i don't think anybody does. i think we're in new territory. when you talk about david perdue and you talk about brian kemp, there's not a lot of difference in terms of how they view issues. the issue is donald trump here, who stands and looms very large here. but look, kemp and perdue, very similar, but different personal styles entirely. >> perdue looks more like the romney wing of the party. anyway. jeff, i'm running late. good to see you. >> always great to see you. >> one of my great colleagues. thank you all for being with us. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily." tune in to "meet the press" this sunday. we'll have a conversation with voters and a whole bunch more on our nbc news poll including pessimism or optimism about our ability to bring this country together again. msnbc coverage continues with katy tur after this break. cont katy tur after this break. maybe it's another refill at your favorite diner... or waiting for the 7:12 bus... or sunday afternoon in the produce aisle. these moments may not seem remarkable. but at pfizer, protecting the regular routine, and everyday drives us to reach for exceptional. working to impact hundreds of millions of lives... young and old. it's what we call, the pursuit of normal. ♪ ♪ ♪upbeat music♪ transitions™ light under control. ♪upbeat music♪ transitions™ signature gen 8™ available now, in 4 vibrant style colors. transitions™ ♪♪ ♪♪ good to be with you. i am katy tur. breaking news from capitol hill this afternoon where the january 6th committee now wants information from former first daughter ivanka trump. in a letter sent this afternoon, the panel asked her to voluntarily provide information about her discussions with her father who they say she was in direct contact with at key moments during the insurrection. in a statement to nbc news, a spokesperson for ivanka neither accepted nor denied the request from the