party? maybe this could be a signal. house minority leader kevin mccarthy is meet with trump in florida today. he, of course, said the president bore responsibility in the days afterwards and then backtracked. we re covering all the headlines this morning. jeremy diamond following all the latest on the covid relief package. we re hearing the president may be willing to pare down the size of the overall package to gain bipartisan support. i m curious how, and is he confident that he could get republican support if he does so? look, president biden and his aides are clear eyed about the facts this $1.9 trillion price tag is going to have to come down if they are going to get bipartisan support in congress. but at the same time, i spoke with a senior administration official this morning who made very clear that while the ultimate number is going to have to probably come down, if there is going to be a bipartisan deal, that they still consider all of the components of this deal
president biden said there will be enough to vaccinate every american by the end of summer or early fall. that s a remarkable that s good news. it s a remarkable goal. let s hope we can get there. the president has a detailed plan, one based on science. the question is, what will it mean, especially for communities of color suffering from unequal vaccination rates so far. urgency is clearly growing and january we now know is the deadliest month from covid yet in the united states. more than 79,000 lives lost to the pandemic so far this year. a stunning rise in deaths per month from november. the white house is holding its first official covid briefing of the biden presidency. that will happen a little later today. and that is where we begin at the white house. jeremy diamond joins us. good morning. transparency has been promised from this administration. what can we xhectexpect today? you ll remember last week when president biden laid out his national strategy for comb
pan pandemic news. the u.s. coronavirus death toll has top ed topped 424,000 peopl. saying this is a national emergency, everything is on the table. let s begin with breaking news. evan perez is joining us. tell us, evan, about this department of homeland security warning about the threat by domestic extremists of violence. reporter: that s right, wolf. this is a relatively rare alert that we ve gotten from the homeland security department that has to do wholly with domestic extremists. and it has to do with the belief that perhaps extremists have been emboldened by the attack on the u.s. capitol on january 6th. it talks about the continuing threat of violence following the inauguration of joe biden and the possibility that elected officials, government buildings will be targeted as part of a series of attacks. i ll read you just a part of what the dhs bulletin says. it says, quote, a heightened threat environment will persist in the weeks following the successful president
company says its phase 3 trial in the u.s. found its 72% effective in preventing moderate to severe symptoms and says it will file for emergency authorization in the coming week, that could mean approval by the end of february. here s what s key, the vaccine does not require ultra cold temperatures for storage and shelf life is good for up to two years, huge win. the other breaking story we re following, scientists warning the u.s. is in a race against time with the new coronavirus variants popping up across the country and one of those strains, the south african variant, is now officially here. two cases have been confirmed in the state of south carolina. even more concerning, the state department s public health warning says that two infected adults had no recent travel history and no connection to one another. and it s raising concerns the strain may already be circulating within the community as new data indicates the vaccines we have may be less effective against this on
ukraine, none of us will be able to say we didn t see it coming. the consequences will be horrific, which is why this meeting is so important today. a representative for ukraine also addressed the security council today but russia did not hear it. moscow s diplomats left before ukraine even began. there s a new sign today that russia could be, we re stressing could be, in the final stages in preparing for military action. an official confirms to nbc news that russia began moving in supplies to the blood to troops along the border in recent days, giving them more capability to begin a military campaign more quickly. at the same time it s getting increasingly intense inside ukraine. in kyiv, a small group of volunteers including business owners and teachers are now teaching with ukrainian veterans running weekend exercises to better prepare in case of a russian incurtion. false alarm bomb threats are continuing to terrorize communities and schools even, and the ukrainian gove