good morning. and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, april 20th. i'm jonathan lemire. russia declared yesterday that the next phase of the war was under way in eastern ukraine, claiming it sames to, quote, liberate, the donbas region. british intelligence is saying that russian forces are still struggling. according to the uk, the ukrainian military continues to beat back russia, attempts to advance, even amid the increased shelling and strikes. british intelligence also says that russia's inability to progress is impacted by the resilience of the ukrainian military and by the same environmental, logistical and technical challenges that have hindered russia's forces. and they expect to be launched in the coming weeks. at least one killed and three others injured when a russian rocket hit the see of kramatorsk. and also rocked the southern city of kyiv. this agency the state emergency service of ukraine yesterday said that russians heavily bombarded the city of luhansk, in the donbas region, destroying several buildings in a gas pipeline. according to a u.s. official, russia has added more combat units in eastern ukraine in the past 24 hours. to this point, largely stepped up the shelling ground force advances expected in the days ahead. meanwhile, moscow has renewed its push to take the besieged city of mariupol. russia gave ukrainian troops holed out in a steel plant in the city a new ultimatum to surrender or face an end that they say will be quote, bitter. the head of national control center yesterday said if ukrainian forces stop fighting by 2:00 p.m. local time today they will be quote, guaranteed life, safety and medical treatment. the russian defense ministry said it offered a new deadline after no ukrainian soldiers responded to its previous ultimatum a few days ago. thousands of ukrainian troops are holed up in a sprawling steel factory, one of the biggest in europe, that is believed to be the last pocket of resistance in that city. joining us now, nbc foreign correspondent raf sanchez in lviv. raf, good to see you, give us the latest from mariupol. and what more do we know about the deadline and is there any suggestion that the ukrainians are going to accept the russian offer? >> reporter: jonathan, that deadline, 2:00 p.m., we'll see what happens, we should not expect to see the white flag of surrender remains over of that steel plant. the ukrainian fighters, marines and azov militia that they've been holding out under unbelievable bombardment. they say russia is using heavy bunker-busting bombs on that steel plant now. the commander of one of those marine units released a video overnight. he said his forces are outnumbered 10 to 1. he says there are hundreds of civilians still inside that steel plant, but he is not planning to surrender. he is pleading for the international community to try to organize an extraction for both his troops and the civilians to a third party country. there is no sign yet of any progress towards that possible extraction. the russians have them completely surrounded by concentric rings of troops. but they seem prepared to continue fighting for the last bullet and possibly even beyond, despite the enormous damage that has already been inflicted on that city. jonathan, there was a little bit of good news for mariupol today. the deputy prime minister of ukraine says she has secured an agreement for humanitarian corridor to at least get some women and children out of the city. as we've seen time and time again, these agreements on corridors are made and then they fall apart when russians renege. jonathan. >> that would include the safe surrender that the steel plant. raf, you had a chance to speak to the ceo of ukrainian railways. tell us about that. >> reporter: yeah, jonathan, alexander commission is one of the more interesting people i've met here in ukraine. he's 37 years old. he's been in this job for just six months, and he's now running europe's largest railway line in the midst of war. he told me 95 of his staff had been killed so far by russian fire. a quarter of his total railway line has been damaged in the fighting but he's absolutely determined to keep the trains running. take a listen to a little bit of our conversation. what did president zelenskyy's instructions been to you about the railway about the war. >> his instructions are simple, he says, keep running the country, keep doing the job. now bringing economy back to life. we've brought the people from cities under shelling to people cities. and all of the more than 3 million people. >> reporter: now, jonathan, the trains have been absolutely crucial, moving refugees from the east to the west. they've been crucial for moving humanitarian aid from the west to the east. but they've also been really important for keeping ukraine connected to the rest of the world. the airports are closed in this country. the skies are full of russian fighter aircraft. but foreign leaders have been traveling to kyiv by train. a senior european union official arrived today. we saw boris johnson arrive a couple of weeks ago. and alexander commission told me he would like one day for president biden to get on one of his trains and come to kyiv to meet his president volodymyr zelenskyy face-to-face, he said it would be an enormous gesture of solidarity with the ukrainian people. jonathan. >> we'll have more on a possible presidential visit later in the show. biden is certainly fond of the railways as we know. raf sanchez, thank you. stay safe. ukraine's president has been asking for nato countries to send fighter jets since the war began. now, a group of ukrainians are appealing directly to the world's wealthiest people. >> where you are, a businessman, an actor or singer, we for the country, help us stop the terror. buy me a fighter jet. >> this video is being shared across social media with the hash tag buy me a fighter jet. many twitter users have been tagging the world's richest people, elon musk, jeff bezos and. bill gates. the biden administration is announcing another military aid package for ukraine. three officials tell nbc news that the package is expected to be similar in size to the $800 million one announced last week but this package is expected to include more weapons and tens of thousands of more artillery rounds which are critical to fighting in ukraine's eastern region. >> we're doing the best we can to focus on, a., the kinds of capabilities we know they need and they say they want and are using. b., secondary to that, to try to get them systems that they don't need a lot of startup time for. that they can put in the field almost immediately. >> mr. president, will you be sending more artillery to ukraine? >> yes. >> ukraine officials are saying the need for this rmamints increasing. >> when asked an in interview that aired sunday if he would like president biden to visit, zelenskyy said he absolutely would. yesterday, president biden was asked about it. >> will you visit kyiv, mr. president? >> the answer is i don't know. >> do you want to visit ukraine? >> i've been to ukraine many times, just haven't been there recently. >> as of a few days ago, u.s. officials leaning towards sending a cabinet level, perhaps secretary blinken, floyd austin but the situation is fluid and no decision made. as you saw, president biden hit the road to draw up support for his domestic agenda. plus, ron desantis takes his fight to disney and florida legislature. and baseball purists aren't going to be happy with the san diego padres. we'll explain why and have a check of the weather when we come right back. come right back. staying up half the night searching for savings on your prescriptions? just ask your cvs pharmacist. we search for savings for you. from coupons to lower costs options. plus, earn up to $50 extra bucks rewards each year just for filling at cvs pharmacy. ♪♪ plus, earn up to $50 extra bucks rewards [ sneezing ] are your sneezes putting your friends in awkward positions? 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>> it's up to them. >> would you like to appeal the rules that the judge made striking the mandate? >> i haven't spoken to the cdc yet. >> people are split on the mask mandate ending. some of openly excited about traveling with without a mask while others are fearful it will spread covid-19. the change comes as new variants rising in parts of the country and hospitalizations are starting to go up, too. this tweet we're showing here with more than 16,000 retweets slams delta air lines flight attendants for offering champagne to, quote, celebrate no more masks. the caption reads in part, quote, it's not only childish but creates a hostile environment for those of us still masked. republican congressman crenshaw posted this celebrating walking into an airport maskless. the cdc updated its international covid advisory system dropping up countries from highest risk category. the agency on monday removed all of the destinations from its level 4 designation which warns travelers to avoid nonessential travel due to high infection rates. and now level 4 notices for only extreme such as rapidity escalating case trajectory. before the change, 90 countries were in that category. that's as cases continue to soar in many parts of the world including europe. elsewhere, florida governor ron desantis is escalating over the opposition to what critics call the state's don't stay gay law. desantis has asked the state to consider stripping disney of its power. disney has had that power since 1968. giving the legal right to operate in central florida. the move could leave disney on the hook for millions of dollars a year in local taxes and with far less autonomy over its own property. the law comes after limited now legislatures discuss lgbtq issues in the classroom. high cost of buying a home hasn't let up and has left buyers asking whether any relief is in sight. nbc news correspondent emily ikeda has the latest. >> reporter: sprain means sales. with the mortgage rates the highest in more than a decade, economists say the housing market could be starting to cool. >> now, we're seeing three or four solid offers. maybe one offer, but definitely not 10, 20 more. >> reporter: homes are a lot more expensive than a few months ago. with borrowing rates currently 5%, nearly two points from january. on a $400,000 loan that's a difference of nearly $370 a month. the surging mortgage rates are on top of record high home prices, increasing by 20% in the past year. the costly combo has prompted families like this to press pause on their search. after landing a home, even going $50,000 above asking price. >> if we didn't lose out on the pricing we lost sometimes on the terms. >> reporter: the housing industry is the lowest since 1999. as builders continue to be bogged down by lack of labor, and soaring costs of materials. >> everything is going up, unbelievable, due to the supply chain problems we have. >> reporter: for one of the homeowners, experts say consider expanding the surge type of location and home. and if you can tolerate mortgage rate hikes, hang tight. competition can start to thin out in the months ahead. buyers navigating a spring selling season, unlike any before. still ahead, an injury scare for an nba title contender. wimbledon makes a strong political statement. and the san diego padres sell out. we've got a lot for you coming up in sports. don't go anywhere. allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! flonase all good. ♪ ♪ nice suits, you guys blend right in. the world needs you back. i'm retired greg, you know this. people are taking financial advice from memes. 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[crowd cheers] voya. be confident to and through retirement. running off the clock, approaching two. shot clock at seven. and mckellen, in with it. got it again! >> so, this is a surprise, the first round western conference series between the new orleans pelicans and the phoenix suns now tied one game apiece. a game-high 37 points scored by brandon ingram led the pelicans to a 125 to 114 win last night. and new orleans took advantage of an early exit for the sun start devin booker who left the game 31 points in the third quarter, because he suffered some hamstring problems. he's had that problem before. we should note phoenix heavily favored in the series, meanwhile in memphis, the grizzlies also got even. the eastern win over the timberwolves marks the grizzlies' largest margin of victory in the postseason. >> the win over the atlanta hawks, miami wins that series, two games to tonight. and now wimbledon is expected to announce a ban on russian and belarusian players. the ban of the all-england club would make the first tennis event to restrict individual athletes from competing. four russian men are ranked in the top 30 on the atp tour including reigning champ daniil medvedev. the ranking include five russian women in the top 40. wimbledon is set to begin in late june. the san diego padres are now the first team to announce ads on their sleeves. a logo will be worn on the sleeve. the move comes as baseball's new collective bargaining agreement allows teams to sell on helmets and european soccer has been doing this for a long time. now, to the action on the field. we'll start in detroit where the tiger gifted the visiting yankees an early lead last night. >> with the bases loaded, popped up, behind the plate. barnard backing up and it's going to be dropped! it's dropped. two runs will score. >> i'm shaking my head in disgust here. my 10-year-old's team would have caught that ball. that sloppy fielding put new york up 2-0 in the first inning. yankee ace gerrit cole gave it right back to the bottom of the second, but he was bailed out by new york's bullpen. cole only got five outs. yankees beat the tigers, 4-2. a new york ace not struggling, max scherzer in his home debut. scherzer struck out ten batters allowing one run over six innings of work to deliver the mets a 3-1 night cap win. that comes after a walkoff hit in the tenth inning of the 5-4 win in game one of yesterday's doubleheader. you're seeing it there. this marks the mets first twin sweep since 1969. time for the weather, let's go to meteorologist bill karins. bill, it's been a wild week so far, what's it look like out there today? >> it is. jonathan, what time does brooklyn even up that series tonight? do you know when that starts? >> hold on, the tip-off is this evening, 7:00 or 8:00, entirely too late for me to see the end of it, unfortunately. i think the celtics could go up 2-zip, but i think it will be a good one. i'll say this, if you're a nets fan, you have to see how close you came to winning game one, despite having the shoddy performance by kevin durant, he won't play that badly again. >> i know. i'm looking forward to it. maybe 7:00 is the tip-off and we can stay up late. let's get to the forecast, it is going to be a chilly start. yesterday, with heavy snow, we still have over 100,000 people without power in new york state. mostly in the southern tier area, around the binghamton area. the highest snowfall total, 18 inches in the adirondacks, this morning in the wake of that storm. it's a cold morning. 26 million people freeze warnings or frost advisories, if you put your plants out early this season in south carolina, north carolina, virginia, it's a cold morning. bundle up it will improve, temperatures will jump up in 40s and 50s. we'll watch areas of oklahoma, is the biggest concern. overall, it's a lot more tranquil the next couple of days than how we started this week. >> tranquil the forecast, but clearly not tranquil we will keep an eye on that. bill karins, thank you so much. still ahead, president biden kicks off a new effort to sell voters on his infrastructure bill. we'll talk about the administration's focus to bring back to domestic issues despite the war in ukraine. we're back in just a minute. ira. it all begins with the most innovative technology... ...like the new miracle-earmini™. available exclusively at miracle-ear. so small, no one will see it. but you'll notice the difference. and now, miracle-ear is offering a 30-day risk-free trial. you can experience better hearing with no obligation. call 1-800-miracle right now and experience a better life. i always had a connection to my grandfather... i always wanted to learn more about him. i discovered some very interesting documents on ancestry. this is the uh registration card for the draft for world war two. and this is his signature which blew me away. being able to... make my grandfather real... not just a memory... is priceless. his legacy...lives on. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. this is xfinity rewards. ♪ our way of saying thanks, with rewards for the whole family! from epic trips... to the original jurassic park... on us. join over 3 million members and start enjoying rewards like these, and so much more in the xfinity app! and don't miss jurassic world: dominion in theaters june 10th. the bad guys is the winner of the truly moving picture award. oh, stop! you making me blush. it's an action packed animated adventure. show the world that you're more than just a scary stereotype. everyone will love. is this wagging? - good right? ♪♪ welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 a.m. on the east coast. 2:30 out west. i'm jonathan lemire. president biden completed the first leg of his bicoastal trip this week to highlight the bipartisan infrastructure law. the president yesterday traveled to portsmouth, new hampshire to sell voters on the impact ahead on november midterm elections. it's part of democrats' plan to highlight the law to get things done in washington despite the other majorities. >> last month, we talked about infrastructure week for four years. we know we now have infrastructure decade. this is going on -- 1 billion, $200 million. now, we used to have the finest infrastructure in the world. we now rank number 13 in the quality of our infrastructure. china's ahead of us. some of the other countries. folks, this matters. it matters to our safety, our security, our health and the whole -- >> he loves the infrastructure week jokes. tomorrow, the president will hit the west coast visiting portland, oregon, on to seattle on friday for earth day event. joining us now, as you can see, white house reporter for the associated press, darlene superville. darlene, tell us about the president's travel. he's made a concerted effort to get back on the road despite the war in ukraine, in any part of mind. what's the message they're trying to send this week? >> good morning, jon. the white house had telegraphed that the president would be accepting up his travel structure to promote infrastructure and other things. of course, as you mentioned russia invaded ukraine and that's been dominating his schedule for the past month. now with the war continuing, no end in sight, they're trying to get him out to talk a little bit more, or a lot more, actually, about infrastructure, which is one of the things he accomplished last year. to talk about albout all of the benefits, all of the money spent on things like repairing courts which is the issue he talked about in new hampshire yesterday. rebuilding bridges. laying down fast internet around the country. those kinds of things. and, you know, he wants to show people that i've done this, and all of these things, in addition to improving infrastructure across the country that is going to help with some of the supply chain issues that have contributed to pushing inflation to a 40-year high in this country which is an issue, gas prices high. food prices high. that's on the minds of a lot of voters and something that could hurt democrats in the fall. >> yeah. certainly, those economic issues may be the central issue. you just mentioned it. the midterm elections are going to be here before you know it. i want to get your take on the new poll, there's a new politico survey finds that elections were held today, 43% of voters would most likely vote for the democratic candidate while 42% would let me vote for a republican one. these are generic ballots, we certainly know, darlene, don't we, that republicans are far more bullish than what they see in the polls? >> absolutely. and inflation that you and i just talked about and i would say about that poll, those numbers, it's in april, it's still a little bit early for a lot of the public to kind of focus in on the november elections. right now, they're just trying to get through the day, the week. the next trip to the gas station. the next trip to the supermarket. and deal with those issues. so, i think that may be what we're seeing in those polls, that republicans do definitely feel like they have the advantage going into november. especially if the supply chain issues and the inflation issues, those pocketbook issues, don't let up and people feel better about the future. >> darlene, we also wanted to you have on today to offer our congratulations about your new cook which you co-authored with your associated press author, it's entitled "jill: a biography of the first lady." tell us a little bit about it. >> what we wanted to do with the book is basically introduce the country to the woman who is the first lady. joe biden has been married to jill biden for a long time. she's kind of been in the background. he lived in delaware a long time. she lived in delaware when he was vice president. she was kind of in the shadow of the first lady michelle obama. and it's kind of like a coming out party. we felt a lot of people don't know a lot about her and telling the story, introducing people to her, where she came from, where she's been and what she's doing now. >> the book is "jill: the biography of the first lady." it's out now. thank you for being here today. >> thanks, jon. still ahead, we're live with cnbc for an early look at the markets following yesterday's rebound. and netflix needs you, yes, directly you, to stop sharing your password. we'll get into that next on "way too early." looking to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? 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ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. the sleep number 360® smart bed is on sale now. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts so you both stay comfortable all night. it's also temperature balancing so you stay cool. and now, save $1,000 on our most popular smart bed. only for a limited time. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com. time now for business, for that, let's bring in cnbc's julianna tatelbaum who joins us live in london. good morning, julianna. the markets fell pretty sharply on monday but has since rallied. what's helping drive that rebound? >> good morning, jon. well, it was a really interesting trading session yesterday because on the earnings front we actually saw a pretty mixed bag. but despite that, u.s. equity advance, very significantly, the s&p 500 posted its best day in more than a month. and tech stuff outperformed on the same day that we saw a rise in bond yield. usually, the correlation between bond yields and tech is the office that we usually see, rising bond deals and a pullback in technology stocks but it looks as though the gains may be short lived. u.s. futures point to a pullback at the open today. a lot of that change in sentiment came in after hours when netflix reported a pretty dismal set of numbers. >> well, you just teed me up. netflix numbers were huge news yesterday. it announced it lost 200 subscribers in the first quarter. the first decline in paid users in more than a decade. calling into question some future of some of these streamers. how is netflix going to adjust? what do you think we can expect in the next quarter? >> jon, you really can't overstate the significance of these numbers from netflix. shares didn't just fall, they cratered in after hours yesterday, wiping almost $40 billion off netflix's market cap. not only did they lose 200 subscribers during q1, they're expecting to lose another 2 million subscribers in the second quarter. now, on the earnings call the ceo rick hastings tried to ensure that the company is taking measures to improve in the future. things like cracking down on password sharing, as you mentioned. also they're exploring a version with ads so potentially moving away from a subscription model. there's a lot of debate happening now about whether we have reached peak subscription. the other major streaming services did see an impact after hours. disney fell as much as 5% after hours. roku retreated more than 6%. so it's going to be crucial to keep an eye on the other streaming platforms to see whether they've also seen a reduction in subscribers to decide if this is a netflix issue, or if this is a wider subscription with services and if the latter, it may have an impact on investors. >> some of those subscription services announced previously they're going to cut back on production costs for initial content. inevitably, they'll run together and look like cable. the international monetary fund, expecting global economic growth to slow significantly this year. tell us what that means. are we looking at a recession? >> well, these new imf forecasts are certainly getting a lot of attention, the funds of the economic fallout from russia's invasion of ukraine will, quote, propagate far and wide. so the funds slashed their global growth outlook for this year and next, now predicting global gdp to rise by 6.6% in 2022, with inflation set to weigh on the outlook. and also importantly, the fund warned about a sharp rise in risks to the financial system. so, a pretty downbeat set of new forecasts from the imf. >> cnbc's julianna tatelbaum, we appreciate the updates. thank you for us. she joined us live from london. coming up, we've got a preview of france's presidential election, where the rematch of 2019 stands before voters go to the polls for a crucial debate tonight. we'll be right back. ght. we'll be right back. 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and how much of a role do you think le pen's connection to putin will play? >> i have to tell you, i'm nervous about the debate five years ago, le pen and macron were facing each other in the election and macron had a stellar performance and it's one of the reasons he won. now i think the expectation he will outperform again, he has very little to win, and le pen has a lot to win if she performs tonight. of course, he's more valuable now, five years ago, he was a political upstart. he was almost like barack obama, you know, not yet that famous for that long. and so everybody could project on to him. now, he's been in office for five years, so a lot of people are quite acquainted. so they might be able to score big points tonight. >> certainly, he has a record on which to be judged. polls widened a little bit over the weekend. but certainly, they're far closer than they were five years ago, when these two met. what is sort of your expectation as to what we'll see on sunday? >> yeah, this is the third time that le pen faces a second runner. the first time, with her father jean-marie qualified and barely increased the advance. he got about 17% of the vote in the second round, everybody rallied around jacques shumac. and in the second round she got 34% in the end. a lot more than her fatherearli. the polls show her at 48.5%. so with the last-minute pull as such, and polling she could have a chance of winning. i can with macron, perhaps at 48 something like that but we can thought exclude the possibility of her winning either. >> a le pen victory would be destabilizing for europe. she may pull france out of the european union. talk to us about that trend you're seeing, even if macron is able to win, perhaps it's a narrow victory. what does it say about the strength of the far right in france, frankly, across europe? >> yeah, i think it says a lot which is when you have a completely pessimistic narrative about the fate of society winning out, and in the far right saying immigration isn't working and these people have immigrated and spreading that. society, it counters with a similar pessimistic manner. yes it's true it's integrated and society is fading so much that makes voters tempted to go to the far right. so one of the things that the french will have to do in the next five years is change the narrative to the extent to which integration is succeeding. there's a lot more news about integration in the country and about society that hasn't been emphasized. and, you know, the pessimists keep winning if they say the future can only get worse. and that makes it easy for marine le pen in france and donald trump in theway, donald trump in the united states, to win. >> briefly, what sort of role does the war in ukraine play in the election, beyond putin's potential ties to le pen, but macron's involvement. is that in his favor? >> i think it is playing in his favor and against marine le pen. french public opinion, as american public opinion, is obviously in favor of ukraine, but it doesn't seem to have harmed her nearly as much as people assumed two months ago. as in france, like other countries, mostly care about domestic issues. >> we have the debate tonight and election sunday. we'll be watching both carefully. the book is "the great experiment, why diverse democracies fall apart." thank you for being here. that was incitement. up next, the politics of inflation. coming up on "morning joe," live reporting from the ground in ukraine, as russian forces appear poised to capture the besieged city of mariupol. plus, expert military analysis from retired u.s. army colonel peter mansoor. as the white house prepares to announce a new round of military aid for ukraine, under secretary of state victoria nuland joins the conversation live. 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>> reporter: a different stress point for this 7-year-old small business, active wear for plus sized woman. fabric delays from asia are costing sales. 50% of small businesses now report they are significantly impacted by supply chain disruptions. >> for us, the top issue has definitely been supply chain. we just literally aren't able to keep our most popular items in stock, meaning we can't serve our customers the way we'd like to. >> thanks to nbc's kelly o'donnell for that report. joining us now is congressional reporter for axios, alayna treene. >> today is a look at inflation and how both parties, republicans and democrats, differ wildly in how much they mention it. new data i reviewed shows that republicans have mentioned inflation more than 8,000 times since january 1st, whereas democrats have mentioned it just roughly 1,300 times. that is a six times difference. i think it is really revealing of just where both parties stand. i mean, this is going to be not only a huge issue for the midterms but the biggest political flashpoint. we're really seeing republicans take it and run with it. also, a lot of people saying it is concerning, how much they don't think democrats are actually discussing it and using the term "inflation." this data that shows republicans talking about it six times more, i think, is really revealing, and it is going to continue to be the key messaging attack from the right ahead of the midterms, as well as something that democrats are really concerned about and know that they need to try to find ways to address it and find better ways to message on it as the midterm election cycle ramps up. >> yeah, the white house certainly keenly aware that inflation, far more than the war in ukraine, likely going to be an animating principle for voters this november in the midterms, hence biden's trip to the great state of new hampshire yesterday and pacific northwest later in the week. who among the republicans is talking the most about inflation, alayna? >> the two members, i mean the biggest members so far is republican chairwoman, the chair of the conference and the house, elise stefanik. she's talked about inflation the most, more than 148 times since the beginning of this year. right behind her is house minority leader kevin mccarthy. i think it's telling that the two members are both in leadership in the house as well as members of the house. but this also includes the senate. senator tim scott comes in third. there's other members listed in our story that show really the ones who are trying to be the -- in the forefront on this issue. as for the democrats, we're seeing elizabeth warren, actually, is the democrat who mentions it the most. this really comes down to corporations. her big thing, and she wrote about this in a "new york times" op-ed the other day, is that she thinks a lot of corporations and companies are talking about inflation and price increases. really, they're actually seeing higher profits. she's trying to call out the discrepancy between what they're saying outwardly and trying to tell consumers, whereas internally and looking at profits, their line on that doesn't really message up or line up. so her and congresswoman pramila jayapal lead on the democratic side. >> back next week for the beginning of a spring sprint. give us a preview of what to look next week when they get back. >> a lot of things. i think there's definitely, you know, a narrow gap of time now with the midterms, for them to get major legislation across. so in the senate, particularly, they're looking at a lot of big bills, trying to see if they can revive the build back better package and bring some of president biden's agenda to fruition. >> we've increased urgency from the january 6th committee, including potential public hearings in the weeks ahead. alayna, thank you, as always, for being with us today. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this wednesday morning with us. "morning joe" starts right now. delta, american, united, southwest, jetblue, frontier, and spirit announced they'll no longer require passengers to wear masks. though spirit airlines didn't have an official mask requirement because they don't have windows in the planes. >> delta updated their website to say, masks are now optional for employees and customers following the white house announcement. spirit airlines released this cocktail napkin, spirit has never valued human life. >> airlines are basically turning off the seat belt sign for covid and telling it to move freely about the cabin. if you thought omicron was bad, wait until you meet the spirit variant. >> oh, no. >> wow. >> ouch. >> kind of going after spirit. >> good morning. >> hold on, look at that shot of new york city. >> i know, it's beautiful. >> i mean, if you can have a shot of new york city coming in at 6:00 a.m. on