Bidens agenda as wel hell have some allies to push through his immigration policies. They call themselves the closers, one jo lofgren, i will talk to her about that and Something Else she knows quite a bit about, impeachment. She was an impeachment manager in President Trumps first trial. Shes taken part in all four modern day impeachment proceedings. Well get her perspective on that in a few moments. In a few hours, senators will be sworn in for the trial. This is what Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer told my colleague Rachel Maddow about that. I hope hes voted guilty. The trial will be done in a way that is fair, but with relatively quickly. The evidence is all out there. We have not negotiated the details of the trial and we will. Hopefully we can come to an agreement. We dont want to give the republicans an excuse it was unfair. On the other hand, we dont want them to delay it forever either. Lets get to Garrett Haake on capitol hill. Lots happening there, senators sworn in for the trial in a matter of hours. The last public bit of this process well see for a while. What more do we know about the trial and how big of a climb are democrats going to have to face to convict former President Trump . The impeachment managers will have a significant climb ahead of them. The details about the structure of the trial are still being negotiated. We dont know how many days it will go although were told it will be short and dont know if it will include witnesses and documents that democrats and the impeachment managers felt like they needed in the first impeachment trial. In this case maybe less important given the fact that all of the senators who will act as the court here were also witnesses to the attack in question. Now, were going to see today some procedural roadblocks put up by republicans that tell you a little bit about their thinking on this trial. We expect senator rand paul of kentucky to go to the floor and raise a constitutional point of order, essentially arguing this isnt business the senate should be engaged in at all, having a trial for a former official. Also today Jonathan Turley the conservative law professor or at least who has allied himself with conservatives to push back against both impeachment efforts of donald trump will be speaking to Republicans Senate lunch today. Thats the kind of thing you expect will arm those Senate Republicans with more procedural arguments about why they believe this shouldnt be done. Thats where we start with two weeks to go here before we even get into the arguments on the merits. A lot of republicans essentially looking for off ramps to avoid having to do this trial in the first place. Craig . Garrett there for us on the hill, thank you. We turn to congresswoman jo lofgren, democrat, california, Senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee and brings a unique perspective to impeachment having taken part in, again, all four modern day impeachment proceedings. She was an impeachment manager in President Trumps first trial last year. Congresswoman, thanks for your time this morning. President trump, of course, acquitted in that first impeachment trial. Is the case stronger this time . Well, i thought the case was strong the first time, but in this case, its pretty obvious what happened. He incited a mob to attack the capitol, to try and prevent the congress of the United States from performing its constitutional duty to receive the electoral count, electing his successor. Its unprecedented and if that isnt an impeachable offense, i dont know what is. Speaking of unprecedented, the unique nature of this impeachment, all of those involved in the process are not only prosecutors and de facto jurors, if you will, youre also victims and witnesses. How does that changes the approach that we should expect to see from the impeachment managers this time around . Well, im not a manager this time for which im grateful, so im not going to substitute my judgment for theirs on how to bring the case. But i will say, in the case of the first trump impeachment and really the other two that i worked on, the evidence needed to be uncovered. The misbehavior had been hidden. This misbehavior was out there for everyone to see in tweets, on video, so its not as if a big evidentiary effort needs to be undertaken. The real question is whether the senators will allow themselves to judge this case on the merits and well see. The jury is still out on that. I mean to that point, though, congresswoman, do you need witnesses . I mean if you were all there and you all saw it, what are witnesses going to really add . Well, you might have witnesses on the georgia count, as you know there was a provision relative to the president s misconduct in trying to get the georgia officials to basically throw out their vote. You might need witnesses on that. You might theoretically could call witnesses about the rally. It turns out from news reports that although the president was trying to distance himself, his people paid for it, organized it, so, you know, you could have witnesses. But, you know, whether theyre necessary to prove the facts is the second question. While i have you, congresswoman, lets talk about President Bidens immigration plans. Youve been dubbed one of the closers on this immigration bill in the house. This morning, politico is reporting that President Biden is apparently open to breaking his immigration bill into pieces. Is that a better strategy considering what weve seen over the years . Well, last year we did that. We passed two big bills, one to allow the dreamers to gain legal status, and the second which was took me a yer of work to legalize farm workers, not only had a bipartisan vote, but bipartisan authors, and the big vote in the house. Now the senate isnt act on either one although we thought there was some chance they would before the pandemic hit and they went back to confirming judges and dealing with covid. So its possible we could move those again. Right now were focusing on the biden bill and whether we can move that. But i think people want us to get something done. Were dealing with a framework, an immigration framework, that basically the structure was written in 1965. Is it a surprise that its not really serving the best interest of the United States in 2021 . Thats a good spot to end it. Congresswoman, thank you. Thanks for your time. You bet. This morning at the white house President Biden moving forward with his agenda and the focus for today. Equity. Nbcs cara lee joins us with the president s day ahead and were joined by Washington Post reporter tracy jan, covers the intersection of race and the economy for the Washington Post. Let me start with you, what do we expect to see today and how does this theme of equity fit into the president s larger agenda for his first 100 days . Were expecting the president to sign a series of executive actions aimed at promoting and advancing racial equity. Were told that one of the actions that the president will sign essentially directs the department of housing and urban development to promote equitable housing policies. Another action of the president is to supposed to take is that he will disavow racism and xenophobia particularly when it comes to Asian Americans who, as you know, have been targeted since the coronavirus pandemic. Other topics that were told that the president is expected to address include things like criminal justice reform, voting rights, health care and economic issues, things like that, and the way that this fits into his broader agenda is that these are things that he had campaigned for months on saying that he would make progress on if he was elected into the white house. Now these are executive actions and as quickly as he can sign them into law anyone who comes after him can undo them. There is a limit in terms of how much teeth a number of actions can have. It remains to be seen how effective theyre going to be but the idea is to show that hes trying to make some headway on these issues while he has yet to been able to get his agenda any momentum there in congress, craig. Thats the thing with executive orders and actions. Anything done by executive order or action can be undone by executive order or action. You wrote a piece for the post and i want to call attention to the subheader here for our viewers and listeners on sirius satellite radio. Black americans propelled biden to the presidency, now their accounting on him to deliver his promise to end systemic racism. How a far can todays executive orders go on helping to deliver that promise. There are going to be reversals of the trump era policies. The bar is low. For the last four years weve had a president who has not only used race as rhetoric when it comes to roots but rolling back civil rights protections for black americans and latino americans especially in fair housing. It is not a surprise that Biden Administration will reverse the trump era administration as civil rights enforcements because the obama hud did strengthen those protections. In your piece you also talk to the chairman of Howard Universitys Political Science department, robbie perry, who told you, quote, black youth today find racial equality goals to be directly tied to their livelihood and have little to no tolerance that Many Democrats have tried to woo them with. Biden famously moderate and establishment. How does the president walk that tight rope between pragmatism and bold action . Biden has said more than other candidates when campaigning and even acknowledging the systemic racism exists and needs to be tackled is something that former president did not spend a lot of time on. He dodged those questions during the debate and simply acknowledging it, collecting the data, trying to address it, is a big step forward. It is true that these racial wealth gaps have existed for decades and under republican and democratic administrations, black americans trail whites on every single economic indicator, whether weather, income, employment, housing, home ownership, so as i said before the bar is low in terms of making progress. You talked to a 22yearold black man named maurice jones, an Aspiring Police officer from omaha, and you write if your piece that jones had, quote, considered himself a republican before trumps divisive are rhetoric that drove him away from the party and said he pushed his extended family including those living in mississippi to register to vote in 2020 for biden. Tracy, in your reporting in the conversations that you had for your piece, did you get the sense that voters could soon grow impatient if they arent seeing tangible changes quickly . Yes. Absolutely. Especially young voters like maurice himself. He doesnt really consider him a democrat yet but did vote for biden and urged his family who many of whom had not been registered to vote before, many of them registered for the first time this election, to also select biden and this is a kid who grew up with a single mother, didnt have Running Water at times, they would have to buy jugs of water to flush the toilet and hes in college and wants to be a police officer. He really is expecting concrete changes. One of the executive orders, as carole reported the president will be signing will disavow discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans specifically. As you noted on twitter, racist attacks against the aa pi community including doctors and nurses in this pandemic has gone up dramatically. The former president s rhetoric thought to be pretty much the cause of that. One of the causes. Its a subject that youve covered extensively, tracy. These executive orders today how will they address that problem . Again, just simply acknowledging that words matter. It wasnt just former President Trump. There were other republicans who were talking about the coronavirus and attributesing it to asianamericans and that has real repercussions. Theres been an uptick in verbal attacks, physical attacks, including against our frontline workers, doctors and nurses, who are treating coronavirus patients. And being spat upon and asked being told to go back to china when some is of them arent even chineseamerican. Tracy and carole, appreciate your time this morning. We are following some breaking news in alabama on this tuesday morning. Search and rescue operations under way right now after that powerful tornado struck Central Alabama late monday night. At least one person confirmed dead so far. More than a dozen others have been hurt. As you can see here the tornado left a path of destruction in the birmingham suburb of fultondale. That tornado destroyed homes and businesses and tossed furniture and appliances and tree limbs around like toys. Right now, were keeping a close eye on the senate where the Homeland Security committee is meeting. That committee will be voting on President Bidens nominee to run dhs, Alejandro Mayorkas any minute. Well let you know when that happens. From the next potential dhs secretary to the first, tom ridge is standing by with former Vice President ial nominee joe lieberman. They have a big, bipartisan strategy they say could end the era of pandemic threats as we know them in ten years time. First up, more americans getting vaccinated every day now, so whats behind the hold up for millions of Americans Still waiting for an appointment . F am waiting for an appointment do we really need a sign to live, laugh, and love . Yes. The answer is no. I can help new homeowners not become their parents. Keeonoh. Nope. Coeenoah. No. Joaquin. No. It just takes practice. Give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] did you hear that . Yeah. Its a constant battle. Were gonna open a pdf. Whos next . Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. No fussin, no cussin, and no im still going for whats next. Even with higher stroke risk due to. Afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin,. I want that. Eliquis. Eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. And has less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis has both. Dont stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking, you may bruise more easily. Or take longer for bleeding to stop. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding, or unusual bruising. It may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. 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No rioter, no act of insurrection or domestic terror, no desperate despit can take away all we have built and hold dear. Ve built and hold dear right now, 39 states across the United States are seeing a drop in the number of covid cases over the last two weeks, but the numbers are still jarring. Heres the latest facts on the pandemic at this hour. Just monday, we lost more than 2100 americans to the coronavirus. So far, more than 422,000 people in this country have died since the pandemic started. For perspective sake, that number would be like losing almost every Single Person living in oakland, california. This morning the first case of the new virus variant from brazil was identified in the United States, potentially more transmissible. The patient is in minnesota. That patient had recently traveled to brazil. Right now, President Biden is upping his vaccine goal to 150 million vaccinations in his first 100 days. The president says that country can administer 1. 5 million shots a day in the coming weeks. According to the cdc, though, fewer than 23 million doses have been given so far. Governors and mayors across the country say if they had more doses of the vaccine, we could vaccinate more people. Folks scrambling to get appointments. Miguel almaguer is in las vegas where a little more than 2. 4 Million People have been vaccinated so far. What are you hearing from people there trying to get vaccinated . Craig, the word we hear the most is frustration but that is simply turning too anger over the last couple days. Seniors all across the country have been urged to get the vaccine in states where they can. The able group is 65 and over in means places. Some locations its 75 and over but for many of the folks we have talked to from coast to coast they simply have not been able to get on to websites or get into a Vaccine Center to get their vaccine. Some folks told us they waited hours in their car only to be turned around. Here in california, for example, theres been some confusion. The governor a couple days ago announced that those 65 and older would be able to get their vaccination, but in all parts of this is state many are still struggling to find a Vaccination Center where they can get their first dose, much less than second dose. Heres what one gentleman told us a short time ago. Theres nobody there that you can actually talk to. You get canned responses back from the doctors, well call you, dont call us kind of thing. We dont know where the vaccine is. We dont know how many vaccine vials are being distributed to any location. So the frustration like that is simply mounsing all across the country and take again, california, for example, were told that the state may actually get rid of the tier systems where folks were able to know where they stood in line for vaccines and the state may replace them with an age group. For example, right now here in california 65 and older you can get a vaccine if you can find one, that could change to just age groups over the next couple weeks, craig. Miguel almaguer in los angeles thank you. Lets turn to an assistant professor emergency medicine, college of medicine, doctor, lets start with the vaccine rollout, President Biden upping his goal to 150 million shots in arms in his first 100 days. Like we heard from miguel, states all over the country struggling mightily with the lack of supply. What do you think of the president s expanded goal . Realistic . Well, i think the higher goal you have the higher outcome you achieve. As for whether its realistic or not theres no way of making it realistic if you dont try. It is easier if you have a National Coordinated effort and some states are against that, including the governor of florida saying i dont want your help, but that being said, clearly the distribution of the vaccines have been different state by state. I think that the advantage of a National Coordinated effort is you can get them out more efficiently. Its good to have high, lofty goals. The real issue will be coordinating every state, town, city and the people getting vaccinated to be able to do so efficiently. You mentioned florida. Thats where you are right now. Doctors as you know, a lot of folks talk be about these wealthy International Tourists, florida is one of the states where folks are struggling to get vaccinated. The surgeon jen until florida signed a Public Health advisory requiring vaccination providers to ensure that every person who gets the shot lives in the state. How big of a deal has this become in florida, the wealthy International Tourists coming in and essentially stealing vaccinations from floridians . Yeah. So first off, craig, it is the minority of people, right. Its not its a vast majority of International Tourist coming in. But they are. Miami and florida has been a hot spot for retirees and the wealthy. We know people have been trying to come in and get the vaccine. Some of these people are actually floridians and go back and fort like snow birds do and theyre coming in for the vaccine shot under the assumption be i should count because i partially live in florida. Were trying to avoid people having exposed themselves to others unless necessary and for the ones that arent even citizens they are really cutting the line by coming to florida because in a lot of times thats why the Surgeon General made the rule where you have to show proof of residency. Again its the minority of people, but its unfair to the people who are waiting. As youve heard, people have struggled to get appointments to get the vaccine who really want them. Its unfair to them that if youre wealthy or a celebrity or have the means to do so you can cut in line. This morning, regeneron came out with news, i want to get your take on it, this mono colonial antibody cocktail preventive in preventing those infected. Regeneron plans to talk about the results with the fda, a panel you advise we should disclose. What do you make of this . How significant would this be . So again, there have been a lot of monoclonal antibodies that have been studied and a trial shown two monoclonal antibodies might be better. It could be helpful in terms of reducing hospitalizations potentially, but remember, we dont want to bank on just monoclonal antibodies. There are things we have that are very effective, distancing and masks. Remember, countries like taiwan, like new zealand, they dont have a magical vaccine thats way better than others, they dont have monoclonal antibodies that are better than ours, what they did was follow guidelines, distance and wear masks. They effectively beat covid. Its great to have data and trials to come out with vaccines or monoclonal antibodies but the most important thing is Wearing Masks and distancing. Its simple. A salient point. Really quickly, Washington Post reporting that on thursday, President Biden expected to take more executive actions, this time to reopen federal market places selling Affordable Care act health plans and to lower recent barriers to joining medicaid. What would that mean in terms of fighting the pandemic . Yeah. I mean this gets partially political, but remember, access to health care is critical in terms of people being able to actually get health care. Emergency physicians well, on the frontline and see patients of all walks of life but you can imagine there are some patients who are afraid to seek care because they dont know how they will be billed. Its ironic we have a system like that and surprise billing in this country but any measure that advances access to health care, whatever metric that may be that you use, that advances the ability of people to get access to good health care, i think is a plus. There are different ways of doing it and people can disagree on that, but the fact that some people are afraid to seek care because they dont know how much it will cost, really is ironic in a first world country be. That doesnt seem political at all. Doctor, thanks as always. Well let you get back to work. Straight ahead, the bipartisan man to completely end the threat from pandemics by 2030. Ill talk to two of the folks behind it. Former secretary of Homeland Security tom ridge, former senator and Vice President ial nominee joe lieberman, what they say we need to do now. Thats next. Ats next. announcer do you want to reduce stress . Shed pounds . Do you want to flatten your stomach . Do all that in just 10 minutes a day with aerotrainer, the total body fitness solution that uses its revolutionary ergonomic design to help you maintain comfortable, correct form. That means better results in less time. And there are over 20 exercises to choose from. Get gym results at home. 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Democrats had hope when senator Mitch Mcconnell moved from majority to minority leader, the senate might work differently and see more votes becoming more laws, more bills becoming more laws, but now senator mcconnell is at the center of a new clash and could put of President Bidens in jeopardy. We are reporting on this particular story from the hill. Walk us through the conflict, sahill. Craig, it is ultimately in plain terms a question of how much if anything President Biden is going to get down. He has a narrow majority in the house, 50 50 senate, and it takes 60 votes to pass most pieces of legislation. There is no viable path to major actions on immigration reform, gun control, raising the minimum wage to 15 because those do not have the support of ten republican senators or close to that. The question is how much the filibuster is going to stand in the way of President Bidens priorities, whether democrats are going to consider maybe abolishing it. Right now this rule standoff between senator schumer and Mitch Mcconnell was about the filibuster. Currently democrats do not have the votes to eliminate it. They did not commit schumer did not commit to keeping the 60 vote threshold and he talked about this fight in terms of whats at stake in the agenda. Lets have a listen to what schumer told Rachel Maddow last night. I worry about the future of this democracy. If people continue to be disillusioned that this government cant do a thing to make their lives better when so many are angry, sour, think they dont have a chance to get ahead, i worry about the future. We will not let Mitch Mcconnell dictate to us what we will do be and not do, period. Reporter and there you have senator schumer laying out the stakes in plain terms of essentially what democrats want to do. They want to take the voter some big accomplishments in 2022. The one procedural escape they have is the issue of reconciliation, a parliamentary maneuver which you can pass budgetary measures by bypassing the 60 vote rule that could include covid relief and aid to states. Theyre linted with what they can do. Beyond that the filibuster looms over President Bidens agenda. Sahill ka pur on the hill, thank you so much. You are looking at live pictures of the Senate Commerce committee. That committee holding the confirmation hearing for rhode island governor gina armando for commerce secretary. The Top Republican on the committee expects her to be confirmed. Well be right back. Confirmed. Well be right back. In a year of changes. Dont take chances on your taxes. Be 100 certain with jackson hewitt. Well get your taxes done right, guaranteed. What if i told you there could be a way to eliminate future pandemic threats by 2030 . One group with some pretty big names claim it is possible, but warns that we are at a turning point right now. The group known as the Bipartisan Commission on biodefense is calling on the federal government to pursue a strategy its calling the Apollo Program for biodefense. The goal, to develop and deploy the technologies needs to defend against all biological threats that includes a list of everything from pathogen surveillance to needlefree drug and vaccine administration. I want to bring in the cochairs of this group, certainly recognize them, tom ridge, our nations first Homeland Security secretary, who served in the george w. Bush administration, and former connecticut senator joe lieberman, the democratic partys Vice President ial nominee in 2000. Gentlemen, honored to have you both and thanks for your time. Senator lieberman, ill start with you. Your commission claims this program could effectively end this era of pandemic threats in nine years roughly. Thats a bold claim to make. How does it do that . Thanks, craig. Heres the difference. Infectious diseases will always be with us, but we have the capacity to stop them from becoming pandemics as covid19 did. We have the science, we have the technology. Were calling it the Apollo Program, obviously based on the moon start that president kennedy started because its a Great National goal and involves saving hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars in lost growth and income in our economy and the amazing thing that governor ridge and i have learned is that during the 60s during the Moonshot Program the truth is that some of the technologies were needed that that were needed to get to the moon didnt exist. Today, weve got that science and technology. We just have to organize it and invest in it and we can make sure the next time theres an Infectious Disease outbreaks we have vaccines and testing equipment and masks and all the rest to go out to people to be used by themselves. Vaccines will be administered through nasal sprays or pills and testing that people can do themselves. This is an achievable goal. We just have to have the will, the leadership and the willingness to invest a reasonable amount of money to make sure we learn from the tragedies of this last year and this pandemic. It doesnt have to happen again. Secretary ridge, the commission warned back in 2015 in a report back in 2015 that the United States was not prepared for biological threats, something this pandemics has obviously validate. Right now secretary ridge, what are our countrys greatest weaknesses and when does our window for effective action close . Well, first of all, i think the window is open now and i would rather talk about keeping it open with a Bipartisan Commission, bipartisan commitment, led by President Biden to take the Lessons Learned, both good and bad by the way since january 2020, apply them, make a sustained commitment for ten years as my colleague and friend senator lieberman pointed out, we have the science and the technology. Everything weve talked about in this plan is something that we can achieve in ten years. Let me put it in perspectivetive for your audience. We are going to be talking about nearly a 2 trillion spending package and something close to that in the next several weeks. If you spent 25 billion a year for the next ten years, i know its a quarter of a trillion dollars, but think of it, the return on that investment so that you would have the capability based on Lessons Learned good and bad during the past year as we fought the scourge of the pandemic, we will never get rid of Infectious Diseases but we have the capability, if we have the will, the bipartisan will, sustained funding we can get to this goal. Weve done it before in america, the manhattan project, moonshot interstate highway system, this is a national emergency, lets address it. If we do its a legacy everyone on both sides of the aisle can be proud of. If we dont its a legacy that they should be ashamed of. You both are out with an oped in usa today that makes this interesting point about the Program Secretary ridge alluded to. We spend billions preparing for other threats to american lives like war but little to prevent Infectious Diseases which tragically kill more people. Spending on biological Risk Reduction would be far less than the significant cost of continuing to let future pandemics harm our people and weaken our nation again. Senator lieberman the Commission Points out that this ambitious program, 10 billion annually, would be as the secretary noted, a small fraction, small fraction of the cost of this pandemic so far. How do you make the case to lawmakers if how do you convince republicans and democrats to appropriate money for this on an annual basis . Well, this is a really important question and it explains why when we made our report in 2015 and told people in washington that an Infectious Disease pandemic was coming, it seemed unreal to them and the cost of doing something about it seemed too high. Now weve got the painful reality in terms of lost lives and lost money of the impact of covid19 pandemic, so when you look at any of the numbers, we think as governor ridge has said, that this apollo project for biodefense can achieve somewhere between 15 and 25 billion a year. Thats 250 billion over ten years. A quarter of a trillion. But think about the lives it will save if an Infectious Disease outbreak doesnt develop into a pandemic, youre just not going to have anywhere near the more than 400,000 deaths we have already had. The other thing to say is that the system now are that the pandemic, this one, will cost our economy over 16 trillion, unbelievable. Now to spend a quarter of a trillion, maybe even a half a trillion, to avoid all that death and all that Economic Loss makes a lot of sense. Just to bring it down to the defense budget, were going to spend over 700 billion this year to get ready to protect our National Security, national defense. And yet, this pandemic has already killed more americans than were killed in world war ii. So it just the facts now cry out to us from last year and the answer, the solutio to the problem speaks to us from the extraordinary capabilities we have in science and technology. As we saw most of all with the development of vaccines. We can do it in all the other areas so next time an Infectious Disease, which is inevitable, does not develop into a pandemic which is not inevitable. Secretary ridge, as you know the president , President Biden, has released his own National Covid strategy that includes a section on a pandemic preparedness. In part the administration has restored a National Security council role for biodefense. Its putting white house infrastructure toward monitoring emerging risks. It plans to establish a center for forecasting as well as strengthening our supply chains among other priorities. Word came down in the last 48 hours that fema is going to be called in to try to administer more vaccinations around the country. If you were advising President Biden right now, secretary ridge, what else would you be advising him to do to get this pandemic under control . You know, first you have to tip your hat to the president. Hes developed a Strategic Plan and its something that we longed for and we actually submitted the need and addressed that issue five or six years ago, so the president has taken up the mantle. If he takes a look at the recommendations we made five or six years ago, embedded in the apollo plan, he will find its very consistent with and can easily be incorporated into his Strategic Plan. At the end of the day, it will be his leadership, its leadership out of the white house, whether its from the National Security apparatus, hopefully maybe even a Deputy Assistant to the president , who knows, but with his leadership embedding this plan, and the previous recommendations, i think we can achieve the goals in 2030. What i really like about the strategy is that the about the is the president within the first two weeks said we need a strategy and we say to you, mr. President , respectfully, and we have a plan to help you eliminate the threat of pandemic by 2030. A worthy legacy for all. Former secretary tom ridge, former senator joe lieberman. Thanks to both of you, gentlemen. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. President biden focusing on expanding opportunities for those of color and underserved groups. What areas are especially troubling . Schools. The pandemic may be making things worse. Well go live to tulsa, oklahoma, to dig into some longterm concerns. My nunormal fewer asthma attacks. Less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Infections that can cause shingles have occurred. Dont stop steroids unless told by your doctor. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. May cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. Ask your doctor about nucala at home. Find your nunormal with nucala. President joe biden will focus on equity in education today, and this pandemic is exacerbating the educational divide for lowincome and minority communities especially. Priscilla thompson has made her way to oklahoma, where School Districts are reporting doubledigit declines in preschool and kindergarten attendance. Priscilla, walk us through the challenges that teachers are facing there and whats being done about it. Reporter craig, there are a number of challenges result of this. One of the concerns is that these students who are not in school are going to have to come back eventually, and so teachers could be looking at larger class sizes because students are no longer with their original classes but are now going to be in different grade levels, having to take those courses. And teachers are also going to be dealing with a wider range of ability levels in those classrooms because of the disparties in education that have been exasperated by this pandemic. We dont have comprehensive National Data of what these dips in enrollment look like across the country, but we know chalk beat, in conjunction with the associated press, did an analysis of 33 state where is this data is known and found that around theres ban dropoff of around 500,000 students, large by being driven by prek and kindergarten enrollment. In tulsa public schools, prek enrollment is down by 33 , and kindergarten enrollment down by 15 . And we spoke with district officials who are very concerned about this and even parents who have Young Children and say theyre not sure those students are learning even as they are attending virtually. So its a very big concern as schools look to reopen here. Craig . Okay. Priscilla thompson for us in tulsa, oklahoma. Thank you. Thats going to do it for me this hour. Andrea mitchell reports starts after a short break. Break. D alw. Never letting anything get in my way. Not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. And certainly not arthritis. Voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. And it can help you too. Feel the joy of movement with voltaren. Tmobile is upgrading its network at a record pace. We were the first to bring 5g nationwide. And now that sprint is a part of tmobile were turning up the speed. Upgrading over a thousand towers a month with ultra capacity 5g. To bring speeds as fast as wifi to cities and towns across america. And were adding more every week. Coverage and speed. Who says you cant have it all . Hey you, yeah you. I opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized i could be earning interest back on my money. I just discovered sofi, and im an investor with a diversified portfolio. Who am i . i refinanced my Student Loans with sofi because of their low interest rates. Thanks sofi for helping us get our money right. Good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. As the senate is about to approve key members of President Bidens cabinet at this hour even as one of the most important, treasury secretary janet yellin, is getting sworn in shortly. The highly experienced economist and former fed chair becoming the first woman secretary of the treasury. Even with the senate embroiled over the conflict of the second impeachment of donald trump, a final vote is also to confirm l tony blinken in the senate. That will let him tackle a host of problems overseas. And bidens top Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice will be joining e press secretary jen psaki
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