Coronavirus. That number hit a new record yesterday, 4,131 americans. On top of that we just learned a few minutes ago that 900,000 americans filed Unemployment Benefits for the first time in just the last week. Just add that to the millions and millions of americans that are already out of work right now. It is a crisis. And we cannot forget that the building directly behind me, the u. S. Capitol, was attacked by domestic terrorists just about 15 days ago. We know that President Biden is laser focused on trying to heal this country, and bring people together. He said it over and over yesterday. But he also knows it will not be easy. There are moments in our history when more is asked of us as americans. We saw that in the civil war. We saw that with dr. King. Dreaming from these steps across the mall. We are in one of those moments now, the pandemic, economic crisis, racial injustice, the climate crisis, and threats to our very democracy. And the question is, are we up to it . In his first few hours in office President Biden got to work by reversing a number of trump policies on issues like immigration and climate change. Today it is all about tackling the covid crisis. I want to dig deeper and bring in nbcs chief White House CorrespondentPeter Alexander and eli stokols, White House Reporter for the l. A. Times. Peter, talk us through what the president is going to do today in terms of the virus. Reporter yeah, its a good question, stephanie and its clear that the priority for this new president is the pandemic, already signing 17 executive orders yesterday, ten more today, heavily focused on the coronavirus crisis, including a series of steps hes going to take to try to combat this, particularly as it relates to the defense production act, implementing that act which allows the government to use sort of wartime powers to help get up to speed in terms of vaccination, the production of supplies, one of the significant priorities for this administration. You see part of the checklist there, expanding testing and treatment. There will also be new guidance, steps that will be taken to help reopen schools and businesses safely. Joe biden announcing that hell be requiring masks be worn in during transit, on trains, and on planes and the like. Also addressing some of the racial inequities, how communities of color in particular have been so hard hit by this over the course of this last year. And in particular what were hearing is a real frustration within the Biden Administration, one that they communicated even in advance of their arrival here, about the impediment as described by one of the covid coordinators provided by the last administration, not giving them the visibility they needed into the situation here and theyre really trying to create a National Covid strategy. Real coordination that would include some of these vaccination sites, the gymnasiums and stadiums that would be implemented and run by different folks from federal agencies, members of the military as well as First Responders to try to crack down on this right away. Biden, President Biden recognizes that is the most urgent issue on his plate. Eli, executive actions are one thing, but to get this massive Covid Relief Program through, hes going to need congress. Is joe biden going to have to give up a lot of whats in his plan to get that done . Republicans arent going to want to play ball. Well, its true that theyre going to have to do some negotiating and they dont want to give things up right off the bat, steph, but certainly they understand that what theyve put out is a starting point. The administration is really trying to do a lot of outreach to those lawmakers who are seen as centrists, people who can tip the balance in the senate and the house. Obviously there are small majorities for democrats in the house and a 50 50 split in the senate and so they believe that, you know, working the middle of the field is a way for them to potentially get a majority of people supporting this plan, and joe bidens going to continue to talk about urgency of putting more money in americans pockets above all else because thats the biggest selling point, i think, to the country and the thing that will put the most pressure on lawmakers to come along with him. But obviously this comes at a difficult time in terms of the partisanship. Joe biden wants to tamp that down and create space for bipartisan governing and yet you have the possibility of an impeachment trial of donald trump occurring in the senate, you have all these executive orders that he signed already on his first day that weve seen give republicans a reason to begin sniping about rejoining of the paris accord, to sort of ramp that partisanship right back up to a ten. And so its going to be difficult. But this is an administration that unlike the last one has a real team doing legislative outreach and has a president who instead of reacting to the television is going to be coordinating with his chief of staff with others in the white house, going to be working the phones to congress himself, and i think youll see more people in the west wing all pulling in the same direction. A very different team, that press Briefing Room was very different yesterday. Peter, you were there. Sean spicer, President Trumps first press secretary, his first day he in the press Briefing Room he was talking, lying about crowd sizes, people laughed at it at the time, they did snl skits but things devolved. That press Briefing Room became a war zone and essentially by the end there werent even bless briefings at all. What was it like to be back . Steph, youre exactly right. Im reminded of that first Sean Spicer Press briefing where he stormed out of the room, that one happened the day after the inauguration, by design for the nirt in modern history the press secretary held a briefing on Inauguration Day itself. I was sitting there, one of the first couple rows for that yesterday and jen tsaki the new press secretary said to the room of reporters and americans watching that it will be her job to communicate the truth, even sometimes when the truth hurts, a function of the crisis were in right now. But this is all by design, steph. We know there are going to be briefings, not just every few weeks, every few months, maybe once a year, but every day, at least, as best its communicated so far, jen tsaki will be back at the modium at 4 00 p. M. Today. Shes be joined by dr. Anthony fauci, taking a prominent role in the effort to combat coronavirus. I was struck in my reaction with her yesterday youre not bracing yourself for attack. Well continue to ask tough questions, i challenged her about whether President Biden has faith in the fbi director christopher wray. She didnt have a particular answer on that, deflected on that, raised some eyebrows perhaps in the Intelligence Community but shes going to take tough questions but there can be a good discourse back and forth that benefits all sides. Well, peter, youre not going to be responding to tweets all day long and figuring those out but you are going to have to do home work and put together real questions every day. Very different job for you. Peter, eli, thank you both so much. I want to talk about the other big story on wednesday, the power shift in the u. S. Senate. New Vice PresidentKamala Harris led the swearing in for three new democratic senators, raphael warnock, jon ossoff, that puts control by a thin margin both houses of congress. Pennsylvania democratic senator bob casey joins me now. Senator, you have not had unity in years. It was extraordinary to see yesterdays speech, to watch lawmakers go to church together. But lets be honest, do you think theres a snowballs chance in you know where that theres going to be any unity . Youve got members of congress who wanted to block fair election. Yeah, stephanie, theres no question that today is the day when in terms of moving President Biden forward. Thats going to be difficult. I have no doubt that his rescue plan, the basic elements of it, will get passed. And i would not want to be a republican senator going back and saying i was the one who balked money to reopen schools, i was the one who balked money to get extradition. They have to join us in those fundamental priorities for the American People. As your reporters have just outlined were still setting records for deaths from the virus. Still setting records in terms of unemployment. We have a lot of work to do, and i think they would be wise to work with us for the new president. However, Mitch Mcconnell was the one who held up the last stimulus package for months because he cared about liability shields and while that was going on he was elected again. Given what a high bar bipartisanship is, what can you get done that doesnt require republicans. Theres no question sometimes were going to put forward legislation, and wont be successful. But that shouldnt deter us from doing it. Look, our candidate won the election for president. We have a majority in the senate. We should never, ever negotiate against ourselves. Thats why i think it was really important that joe biden went big on the first legislative initiative. You want to tackle the virus, get the economy out of the pit and rebuild the country, youve got to go big. And you cant be bashful about it. So when i consider just back home in pennsylvania, were right now at a point where we have more deaths in pennsylvania, were at about 20,000, more deaths than there were killed in action in world war ii in my home state. Weve got to knock this virus down, and theres no question that republicans are doing the same thing when they go home. Democrats and a whole lot of American People have been furious over the last few years about President Trump, former President Trump abusing the system, even in the last few days. He extended secret service protection, something very expensive, for his entire family, 13 extra people. In the last minute he changed the ethics rules so his aides can immediately become lobbyists. Is there anything that you want to change right now about the rules so they dont get abused again in the Different Administration . Well, certainly, i think on ethics, that should be the subject of a lot of attention legislatively because the one thing people back home hate about washington is any kind of ethical happens all the time, probably more than it does in reality. But theres no question that ethics should be the subject of our attention. But right now weve got to focus on the virus, and on jobs. Those two issues, first and foremost. Look, i think theres a lot of support for that when you look across the country. One of the reasons we have a majority is because those two races in texas or in georgia for warnock and ossoff, one of the reasons they won is because they said they wanted to focus on those issues, fundamental issues that have been ignored for far along. Were going to use this majority as long as we have it. We know we have it for at least two years to get things done for the American People, and move the agenda, move President Bidens agenda forward. Things fortunately were very peaceful in washington today but today were looking at the National Guard packing up and heading home. Does that worry you . Because the threat hasnt gone away. No, stephanie, i think that the capitol police, im sure, learned a great deal from january the 6th. I think members of congress did as well. You have to have a strategy to not only secure the capitol, but you can have one of the Biggest Challenges we all face as a people, not just joe biden, we have to do something for the core of this country when it comes to rooting out White Supremacy. That was at the core of what was happening at the capitol yet people going to the capitol to kill the Vice President , kill the speaker in order to stop the electoral vote count. We have to stamp out White Supremacy. That means every legislator has to do that. That means every member of the administration has to be focused on that. Thats how you do it ultimately. You cant just build a wall around washington. We have to get to the core of this problem. Its White Supremacy and racism and weve got to do a lot about it and i think we can, not just by way of prosecution, but also by way of changing the culture and educating our children in a different fashion. No doubt. Senator, thank you so much for joining me this morning, i appreciate it. Thanks, stephanie. Coming up next here live in washington, d. C. Weve been talking about it all morning, a Record Number of people died from coronavirus yesterday, yesterday. As our nation still struggles with the National Vaccine plan, ill be asking West Virginias trump as hes known as, governor jim justice why his state is emerging as a vaccine leader. What they are doing right, what the rest of the country needs to learn, and how West Virginia, a state that overwhelmingly supported President Trump, is reacting to President Bidens calls for unity. 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It has powerful, easytouse tools to help you find opportunities, 24 7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures Contract Prices around. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. The facts at this hour. On the same day President Biden took office the United States reported a new daily record for covid19 deaths. 4,131 since the pandemic began. 407,000 american lives americans lost their lives due to the virus. This morning the new cdc director is giving a new reality check and status update to President Bidens goal of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days. And amazon now offering President Biden assistance with the National Distribution of vaccines, nbc news has obtained a letter of amazon that they sent to President Biden shortly after he was sworn in on wednesday. Saying the company has agreements in place with licensed third party Health Care Providers to administer vaccines on site at amazon facilities. Lets go live to allentown, pennsylvania where mass vaccination tents are in place and ready to distribute 5,000 shots a day but so farther just sitting there. Mara, why . Reporter stephanie, were here in the majorly large parking lot that the valley has set up. The tents are already set up. Setting up the computers, heating lamps already here, lines, the traffic cones ready for cars to come through but theyre not driving through here yet simply because the Health Department doesnt have the doses available. Now back in the fall they held a flu vaccination site here and were able to distribute 8,000 vaccines a day so clearly they are they know what theyre getting into, they are prepped to do it but the problem the Health Department tells me is that