problems being too lax. i think it has to be done piece by piece. >> jim, thank you very much. i know you're sticking around for "morning joe", so don't go anywhere. we have been talking about domestic policy issues. i want to underscore what we were talking about with janis mackey frayer. it will be a priority with chuck schumer, one place where there might be bipartisan cooperation, which underscores the urgency which is what is happening with washington and beijing. thank you for getting up "way too early" with us on this thursday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts now. >> 1,000 cases in 38 states and washington, d.c., the largest cluster in the company. . >> the national guard has been called in. . >> new states of emergency have been declared in colorado, massachusetts and michigan. >> we will see more cases and

things will get worse than they are right now. bottom line, it's going to get worse. >> we have the assessment that covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. >> we have already lost 24 of our citizens. . >> we're heading towards an epidemic in the united states. the question is what the scope is going to be. >> tom hanks and his wife rita wilson, have both tested positive for coronavirus. . >> to keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from europe to the united states for the next 30 days. >> all right. exactly one year ago today when the country began to feel the full effects of the coronavirus. march 11th, 2020 was the day the world health organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic. and in the u.s., shutdowns kicked in, cities began limiting gatherings. schools began to close.

and major sports leagues started to halt play. everything seemed to stop. can you believe it's been a year, joe? >> i know. willie, it seems so much longer than a year. now that we look back on that time period we understand actually what the president knew and when the president knew it. we understood for all the lies, for all the denials, all the efforts to say it was one person coming in from china, all the efforts to say it wasn't contagious, that it was going to just go away, in fact, he said that a year ago yesterday. relax. it's going to go away. basically nothing to see here, that he had already spoken with bob woodward in february and explained that he knew it was an airborne illness. he knew it was five times as deadly as the flu. he knew that it could affect people of all ages. and it was a real killer, i

think were his words. fascinating the president yesterday was talking about the vaccine and saying, hey, remember, remember, the president doesn't want to go down memory lane about those press conferences, hydroxycholoroquine, bleach in the veins, crossing anthony fauci saying it won't come back in the fall, it's not going to come back. we could go down the list. but looking at all the information we know now, it's such a scandal. his biggest scandal, actually, that the president knew what he knew and still fiddled while rome burned and there are now

over 500,000 people dead in part because of that negligence. . >> if someone came out on march 111th, 2020, saying there will be half a million americans dead by this time next year, you wouldn't have believed him. the early numbers were 240,000. that seemed impossible. we're well past double that now. you're right. you can't help but watch the clips and think what if we had gone on war footing, what would happen if he acted like the wartime president he said he wanted to be. what if he had been honest about what was coming and what could come as dr. fauci did in the testimony. he said it's going to get a lot worse. boy, was he right. we are doing it now, but we are doing it a year after we could have done it. that is the tragedy and the loss of lives, loss of jobs, the loss of an entire school year when will be lost in the education

system. the word lost comes to mind. >> yeah. . >> the saddest part of it is it is preventable loss. . >> absolutely. it didn't have to be this bad. along with joe, willie and me, we have co founder of "axios", jim vandehei. and jill miller. the house gave president biden his first major legislative win with the final passage of his 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. the vote was 220-211, mostly along party lines. jared golden of maine joined all republicans in voting against the bill. democrats erupted in applause after the roll call. >> on this vote, the yays are 220, the neys are 211.

the motion is adopted. >> this picture of them applauding. he said he will sign it tomorrow. >> historic, tphoeric victory. everything addresses a real need. together, we're going to get through this and usher in a healthier future. there is real reason for hope, folks. real reason for hope. i promise you. later today, president biden will give his first primetime address to mark one area since the world health organization declared covid-19 a pandemic. you know, elizabeth, i think many of us have been almost lulled -- not lulled to sleep but lulled a bit by how tranquil

things have been in the white house the past few months compared to the past four years. and i think history has perhaps snuck up on us here. we all remember after the huge battle over ach, leaning over and whispering to barack obama, this is a big blanking deal, well, it is. it was. but what was passed yesterday by all democrats and no republicans, might be the biggest teal. >> it is a very big deal. you're right. it's one of the biggest anti-poverty efforts in generations. it is -- what is so interesting about this bill, aside from its

sheer size, is how much it is targeted to the poor. it's very different from the bill passed in 2009. we have been looking at this several days now. half foes to the unemployed, to people who are food insecure, who are struggling, who are hungry. it's really extraordinary. there's help for children, for families, for the unemployed. and the economic analysis is it could help growth in this country by growing 6.5% in the next year. it is a bill the democrats have long wanted. biden didn't propose something that big in the beginning. but chuck schumer and the democrats brought him along and said we have to go bigger this time. and he went along with it. now he has a whole month to sell this to the american people.

they want to avoid the mistake they feel obama made by not selling the big bill that passed in 2009. they feel they have to go and take credit for this, especially as americans are, for whatever reason, trashing it. a very popular bill, even among republicans. . >> yeah. very popular bill. that's a funny thing. republicans will have a terrible time trashing this bill. you have some members of the united states senate who are republicans who voted against the bill, putting out press releases, taking credit for some things inside the bill, which leads to the bigger question. if you're the republican party and you've just opposed a bill in lock step that 76% of american people support, what's the strategy? what's the end game? they've already lined themselves up for pretty tough 30-second ads in the midterm elections. . >> i think it's a tough one for

them, obviously. because i think people getting a check, they like getting a check. people getting assistance who need assistance, want to get assistance. the republican argument will be, well, this is a liberal wish list. there is no doubt there is a lot of policies the left wanted for a long time imbedded in this in a short-term nature. sit a huge experiment. targeting people who are poor, in poverty. and we'll be able to see whether it works. and they will argue it raises a deficit. that's a tough one. they spent so much money under donald trump, george w. bush. this is empirical that republicans are more responsible than democrats in spending money. republicans included. the big test case for all of us, when you talk to these people, joe and mika, when you talk to people at treasury or former treasury secretaries and people in congress, you say at what

point can we have deficits this high and spend this much money, how long can we have free money in the system where you don't have to pay up? nobody can answer that question. nobody really knows. this is a small fear at this point inside the biden administration is do we end up with a massive inflation pause there is so much liquidity in the economy. not to repeat the mistake they made under president obama, going too small and not doing enough to juice the economy, getting people back to work. that has always been the game plan. can you get rid of the virus and can you get people back to work? we talk about a lot of things that have gone wrong. and i will say it again. we will look back at the creation and distribution of this vaccine as a modern day miracle. go back a year ago. nobody thought that you could

produce vaccines at scale with this high efficacy that went through validation of the fda process and that are having the effect they thought they could. this is something we should all celebrate, both parties. that you would private sector working with the public sector to be able to do the unthinkable. and now it looks like by summer you could have most people vaccinated for the first time. i run a company. for the first time, i'm asking conversations this week about when do people get to come back to work? life is going to start to return to normal. people are going to go to restaurants. people are going to spend those checks. people are going to go on vacations. people are going to get in the airplanes. that is something good we can take from this, pause it is something we will apply in future paeubgs which had highly likely if you think about different manifestations of this virus or others to come. >> yeah.

>> not being in 30 rock is gnawing away at me every day. i can't be in "30 rock". the commute was really -- that was my favorite part of the day. jim is right. operation warp speed launched under president trump. did see the moving of the vaccine forward very quickly. of course the biden team in december were -- they were horrified when they saw that actually the trump people had no plan to get it out to the country, and that was job one. we talked about it a year ago, how we were going to see something remarkable because this was the first time in the

history of mankind that you had every scientist, every doctor, every smart person, every i.t. person working on the same follow, moving toward a vaccine, getting that vaccine distributed. and you had also had, and i don't mean this as a negative. you know, i also see you had big pharma companies that understood if they were the ones who unlocked this code it was going to be a huge payday for them. and that was something that was going to get people. that incentive as well, other than doing the right thing, that bottom line incentive was going to push people to work around the clock, 24 hours a day, to move towards a vaccine. well, it's happened. and i will say that the biden team has done a great job in putting together a game plan to get every american vaccinated. . >> yeah. i mean, we're ahead of schedule,

as president biden announced last week that every american adult who wants one should be able to get one by the end of may. two months ahead of schedule. i'm so glad jim brought that ever. everyone is so cynical about politics and the country often. we see everything through the prism of politics. my gosh, look what the world did over the last year in creating a vaccine where we know they take 5 to 10 years to develop, test, and get approval. they did it in one year. because of that, may get the country back on its feet by fall for school and work and everything else that comes with it. we ought to pause and celebrate that. we will talk to the ceo of pfizer coming up in just a little while. as we talk about this relief bill, it did pass without a single republican vote. democrats warned yesterday republicans would try to take credit for the outcome. here's what house budget

congressman john yarmuth said yesterday. >> the republicans are going to vote against this, show up at every rib been cutting and pump up their chest and take credit for all of these great benefits coming to their citizens. . >> the congressman is clairvoyant. it's already happening. despite voting no, roger wicker yesterday touted funding that would help independent restaurants. hours after the bill passed, he tweeted independent restaurant operators have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief. >> 1.9 trillion bill doesn't mean i have to vote for the whole thing. it goes without saying. i issued a statement but i think it's a stupid question. . >> stupid question? . >> absolutely. i'm not going to vote for $1.9 trillion just because it has a

couple of good provisions in it. . >> joe, that is senator wicker of mississippi. the argument goes, yes, of course there's targeted relief i like and would have voted for on its own. it's all the other stuff that progressives piled into the $1.9 trillion package that i couldn't vote for. . >> yeah. i think roger is going to be fine in mississippi politically. the thing is there are going to be races in pennsylvania where pat toomey is leaving, where roy blunt is going to be leaving. there's going to be races in ohio where rob portman is leaving. there are going to be a lot of swing statement races possibly in iowa. . >> north carolina. . >> yeah, north carolina. that -- talk about another great swing state race we're going to have that. elisabeth, people can put out statements all they want to, but when you see that 30-second ad that says congressman so-and-so

voted against this. he voted against relief for your town. . >> right. >> he voted against relief for your family. he voted against relief for your business. he voted against relief for your hospital. he voted -- and go down all of that list, whether that ad appears on television in a 30-second spot or appears online. there's just no getting around steaming locomotive that's coming right there way politically. .$1,400 check. he didn't want you to have it. i don't understand the political strategy here. i think perhaps they feel that by midterms in two years that people have forgotten and there will be something else they're thinking about. i just don't understand these

votes. again, they will take credit for it and hope people forget. i think that is one reason you are seeing this big effort by the biden white house. this will go on for a month. biden is going to philadelphia this week or next week. he has the entire cabinet out. it is just this blitz. they are going to delay the address to congress by at least until april. because they are determined to sell this bill which they are very pleased about. so, again, i think the republicans think that by 2022, fall of 2022, people will have forgotten about the bill and they could move on to something else. it is a mystery to me. . >> he ya, it is a mystery, willie. i still, for the life ofme, can't figure out why republicans didn't find a way to get to yes. but they didn't.

they keep thinking this is 2009, that joe biden is barack obama. he's not. the guy has been there 40 years. barack obama had been in washington 40 weeks before he was running for president. biden's team has been extraordinarily efficient setting this up, getting what they wanted. i can't figure out what the republican strategy is. >> and the white house set this up. they called in the republicans to the oval office to show publicly but also privately they were reaching out. they wanted to get some kind of deal. they didn't get a single republican vote in the house or senate. the president can say he tried to work for republicans. it didn't work out. so they had to go the route of budget reconciliation.

sam stein showed 75% for the bill. they will have questions to answer, republicans will, when they go back to their districts. it's not just about the stimulus and getting through coronavirus. the pieces that fight poverty in this bill also likely are very popular with people in their own states, many of whom fall below the poverty line. . >> seeing how this legislation is setting up for the first three, four, five six months of joe biden's presidency, you start with one of the most popular bills in recent memory >> yeah. . >> if you just look at the polls. the next is the bill that will stop americans for having to

stand in lines so long at the voting booths. a bill that will actually expand participation in our democracy. and, mika, while washington insiders on the republican side will be against it and while --. >> and claim it was made by the devil. >> party bureaucrats will be against it. people are just going to look and at some point more and more independents are going to say, what's wrong with these people? . >> it's a pivotal moment in history. >> trump is gone. what's wrong with these people? they voted against my check. they voted against my kids' school, against the community hospital. they voted against -- >> our voting! >> now they are trying to make it harder for me to vote. it's not really -- it's not

really a good, unifying platform for any party. . >> you don't have to fight everything. still ahead on modern joe, congressman jim clyburn will be our guest. what's next to the democrats' agenda now that the covid relief bill is done? >> plus, former presidents are coming together to encourage americans to get vaccinated. but one is missing from the new ad. >> wait. is bush not there? >> no. he's right there. and he got ready. he's looking fit, joe. also, merrick garland finally gets a confirmation vote. we'll have that update and more on where president biden's cabinet stands. you're watching "morning joe". we'll be right back. ing "mornin. we'll be right back.

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right now the covid-19 vaccines are available to

millions of americans. and soon they will be available to everyone. . >> this vaccine means hope. it will protect you and those you love from this dangerous and deadly disease. >> i want to go back to work and i want to be able to move around. >>. >> with michelle's mom, to hug her and see her on her birthday. >> i'm really looking forward to going to texas rangers stadium with a full stadium. . >> we have lost enough people. and we have suffered enough damage. >> in order to get rid of this pandemic, it's important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated. . >> i'm getting vaccinated pause we want this pandemic to end as soon as possible. . >> so we urge you to get vaccinated when it's available to you. . >> roll up your sleeve and do your part. . >> this is our shot. . >> now it's up to you. >> so did. >> you know, i love this country, willie.

i'm such a sucker for it. i see former presidents. i think about all they've gone through. >> that's right. to serve. >> to think about all the terrible things i have said. . >> stop! >> you look at them and you just think about how much they all move this country and how lucky we were to have every one of them in the white house. and i've got to say, look at bush. bush has got the guns. . >> he's doing some weightlifting. >> wanted dead or alive. . >> he's doing more than mountain biking. there is steel beams in texas. . >> look at that. >> laura bush looks fantastic. . >> laura looks great >> she is saying, bushy, you don't need to spend so much time

in the gym. go back to your paint stphrg just to see the tableau over all of these 40 years or so, it's extraordinary and important, by the way. there is a significant percentage of this country that is reluctant to get the vaccine. they may not like one of those men but they like the other telling them to go get the vaccine. it would be helpful if the most recent president, president trump were there too. he has such a large following who frankly does what he says. he got the vaccine in private we know in january. it would have been great if he had done it publicly to signal it was safe and he was getting it himself. for now we will take the presidents we see there. >> it's just weird, right? he took the vaccine. he obviously thinks it's effective for himself. you're right, a lot of people if you look at the polling that would take it because he did. that is a power he has over a

segment of the republican party. i just don't get it. i understand some political arguments you kind of squint and get it. i don't get why you would not take the vaccine. the efficacy rate of it is insane. it is so much higher than the flu vaccine. yes, the side effects for a day kind of suck. but you are basically guaranteeing you are not going to die from a virus that could kill you and you are not going to spread it to other people. to me it is pure insanity. it would only help you. i don't understand why he does a lot of things he does. clearly he's making some calculation that he doesn't want to do it. >> the calculation, willie, the calculation is he has qanon, anti va xers on his side.

he won't do anything to offend the most extreme parts of his base. but he is constantly playing to the lowest common denominator. he could have worried about the country before himself, worried about other people before himself. but we have no evidence that he has ever done that. what does he do? he takes the shot in private. and he doesn't push people to go out and get the vaccine. and then he puts out a press release yesterday telling everybody to remember his performance over the past year. none of it makes sense. . >> yeah. he wants credit for the vaccine and he not the vaccine, but he is not willing to step out and tell other people to get the vaccine. you're right. there's so much garbage online from anti-vaxxers. imagine if he got a percentage of people who voted for him to go out and get the vaccine.

>> it shows why we have so much respect for the president who did show up and come together. i just love all of them. it's great seeing them together. and, again, doing what bill clinton and george h.w. bush did. working together for the tsunami. we saw jimmy carter do it since january 20th, 1981. what an extraordinary, extraordinary record of public service he has had both in and out of the white house. it's really -- we are so blessed as a country. so, elisabeth, carl holson, jonathan martin, i don't want to speak in shorthand here. michael, carl, and jonathan wrote it. it talked about the transformation of scranton joe,

right? this moderate middle class white candidate that always frustrated progressives in the party. and his transformation and his decision, and i know like schumer's people are leaking schumer said this to him. at the end of the day, it was joe biden's decision. biden decided i'm going big, i'm going all the way. and if republicans don't want to come along, i don't care. but he's been transformed now. and if you just look at the legislation to one of the greatest champions to the poor of any president, just looking at this legislation since lbj. . >> right. it is an amazing evolution. in nearly four decades in the senate, he was on the judiciary committee, the foreign realizes committee. so economic policies, especially liberal economic policy is not what he did. he did international relations.

he did supreme court nominations. he did gun rights. gun roll. he did a lot of -- he was never focused on economic policy. but, you know, the world happens. the pandemic happens. and, yes, he was brought along by schumer and by the other democrats. it's not just chuck schumer who said you have got to go big. his aides say, and it's not hard to understand, he was also really, really personally moved by the inequities of the pandemic. people can really see how it affected the poor, minorities the most. they suffered the most economically, health-wise. and he just, you know, we have a quote in the story from clyburn saying, you know, he met the moment. he saw what was happening in this country. and so there he is.

it's a very interesting evolution. the white house wants to say he has not forgotten the middleclass. child tax credit. there's a lot there, the expansion of the affordable care act. all of that is still in the bill. half of it goes to the poor. >> yeah. jim, what elisabeth was staoeug, it reminds me of a column that talked about presidents also have plans on what they're going to do the next four or eight years, and then a big event will happen. john lemon said life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans. covid happened, joe biden ran. and suddenly it's just george w. bush was transformed from a guy who said we're going to have a

humble foreign policy, to making sure there was not another 9/11. here you have joe biden being transformed into a president who passes sweeping legislation, the likes of which we haven't seen in decades. >> and this evolution started early in the campaign. whether it was for political reasons or not. the party is a lot more liberal than it was even under barack obama. the a lot of things joe biden talked about on the campaign trail, obama couldn't have touched. the party is at a different place. like you said, you are inheriting a pandemic. listen, he knows and he has known since he started running that he, if he won, and now that he has won, will be judged by two things. can we get rid of the virus and can we get people back to work. no one is going to care if he spent this much or that much or the social engineering you might do underneath it. they want to know do i have a job and can i go the a

restaurant, can i see my tkpwapbd ma. grandma. if he goes back to the package that is too small under barack obama. back then people thought it was way too big. how people think about money is spent has changed. look at europe. there is just free money being pumped into the system by the fed. people are just approaching economics different right now. and i think he's riding that wave. and the question is going to be at the end of the year are we healed, is the virus gone or is it basic live tempered. and are people working and is the economy growing without massive inflation. if the answer is yes, he is going to have a lot of leverage and power. if the answer is no, it will be a difficult presidency. and he knows that. he telegraphed very clearly exactly what he would do in the first 50 days, and he's done it. we always want to measure someone, successful or not, you might love the bill or hate the bill, but he had a 1.9 trillion

bill aimed at these things. yes, he got it. nobody thought he would get more than a handful of republicans. he had power and he used it. he did what liberals and democrats wanted him to do. it will give him a lot more power when he goes to do infrastructure. we spent $5 trillion. they want another $3 trillion in infrastructure spending. that they will fund by raising taxes on the wealthy and super wealthy. people like projects. and people don't like rich people usually. republicans are saying they want to work with the working class. well, what are you going to do when the road projects and construction projects are sitting there when you can fund it. are you going to let it sit there or not? . >> they don't want to do anything for the working class. they want to talk about cat in the hat and mr. potato head. but republicans have put themselves in a terrible

position, mika, just a terrible position. because the size of the bill, $1.9 trillion, that's going to help so many americans, middleclass americans, working class americans, poor americans, going to really make a huge difference. going to explode this economy. >> right. . >> we're going to have economists are now projecting the fastest economic growth since 1983. that's remarkable. republicans can say, oh, you spent too much money. but they have set themselves up in such a bad position. a democrat can say, but, wait, that is the same amount of money you blew from america's treasury to make sure that bill gates made billions and billions of dollars off of the trump tax cut. to make sure that jeff bezos made billions and billions of dollars off the trump tax cut.

he made like $10 billion in one day in july last year. the multinational corporations like amazon paid zero dollars in taxes last year. i want you to think about that for a second. amazon parade no income taxes last year. none. >> how is that possible? . >> you know how it's possible? because every republican and donald trump voted to make that possible. and you certainly -- i'm just your humble country lawyer. you don't have to take my word for it. the night that donald trump signed that bill we all know he flu down to mar-a-lago, he had dinner with a bunch of his billionaire buddies. and he said to them, you all should all love me. i just made you a lot richer today. so are republicans really going to contrast their record on making mark zuckerberg even

richer? jack dorsey even richer? bill gates even richer? with joe biden and the democrats, just about every democrat, helping middleclass americans, helping working class americans keep their houses, let their kids go to college, let their kids get back to school, get everybody vaccinated, and get this country moving again. that's not a contrast any republican will want to have. ideological intensity has risen, our next guest asks, will the quest for secular redemption through politics doom the american idea? that conversation is straight ahead on "morning joe". n is str ahead on "morning joe" ♪ ♪i've got the brains you've got the looks♪ ♪let's make lots of money♪

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i am still a baptist but i can no longer identify with southern baptist. i love so many southern baptist people, so many southern baptist churches, but i don't identify with some of the things in our heritage that haven't remained in the past. moore has been at odds with the denomination about speak out against sexism, advocating for sexual abuse victims, and for rejecting trumpism. she most recently spoke out against the type of christian nationalism that played a role in the january 6th attack on the

capitol. a month before the attack she tweeted in part, i have never seen anything in these united states of america i find more astonishingly she deductive and dangerous to the saints of god than trumpism. this christian nationalism is not of god. move back from it. >> this christian nationalism is not of god. move back from it. >> joining us now is contributing writer at the atlantic and a senior fellow at the brookings institution, shadi hamid. his newest article is "america without god." he writes in part, as christianity's hold in particular has weakened, ideological intensity and

fragmentation have risen. american faith, it turns out, is as fervent as ever. it's just that what was once religious belief has now been channeled into political belief. >> thank you so much for being with us. this is such an important article. and what's interesting as a baptist, as a conservative, as i guy from the deep south, i heard growing up that liberals -- government was so important to liberals. they in effect worshipped secular institutions and worshipped winning political campaigns because that was all they had. so here we are five years after trump emerged on the scene, six years after trump emerged on the scene, and these same people that criticized liberals, as beth moore has said, have

embraced christian nationalism and idolized a demagogue and put that over a lifetime of values. it is remarkable how much has changed in five or six years. >> and that's why i think one of the main lessons here is be careful what you wish for. secularists have been saying for a long time that if america becomes less religious, we will become more rational, reasonable and sensible. but that actually hasn't been the case. we see this across the political spectrum. younger republicans aren't as religious as the older generation. we have been more divided. that said, we are still a nation of believers. but as i say in the piece, religious belief is now being channeled into other things and other ideologies are filling the vacuum. one of those ideologies is this

weird fusion of trumpism. and mid side, which is more on the left, we see wokism rising. if we were more like europe, we would be able to maybe fall back on shared ethnicity or long history. but the american idea isn't based -- it's not a normal nation. we are based on a creed and a founding ideology. and that's why we'll probably stay a nation of believers for some time to come. but we find ourselves in a difficult place. and i should say i'm not a christian. i'm a muslim. but even i is someone who does recognize that having some kind of common christian culture can be a productive thing. because at least with religion you can postpone judgment until the next life. there's forgiveness, grace, and

mercy. but when we are talking about trumpism or wokism on the left, it's our fellow americans who are judging us and trying to punish us in this life. there is no postponement of judgment. i think we are in a dangerous place in that regard. . >> and the judgment is immediate. we were at about 70% church membership from mid 30s to the late 90s. for a long time it held steady. now it has dropped below 50% in the united states. and all these other ideologies have filled that vacuum, as you said. how do you account for the drop in church membership. what's happened the last 20 years. >> well, so i mean, what we have is the rise of the so-called nus who are now about a quarter of the population, people who don't have traditional religion. agnostics, atheists.

they might be spiritual but not part of a church. it is something we thought we were immune to for a long time in that in europe we wouldn't necessary follow that course. but it is coming to us in a pretty profound way. there are a lot of different reasons for that. secularization does tend to happen over time in highly industrialized societies. but for whatever reason, christianity isn't as compelling to younger americans as it once was. it's not for me to really provide an answer to that question. i think that maybe deserves inward looking reflection on the part of christian leaders. there is a role of christian elites who moved more in a political direction as joe mentioned, that has turned off more and more americans from religion. and it's not filling the gap that it went did. >> elisabeth?

>> i have a question about trump and evangelicals and conservative questions. we had run a piece in the "times" probably about a year ago about how evangelicals and conservative christians feel they understand that trump is certainly fallen man. his values are not their values. but they see him or saw him as president as their protector. he was going to protect them from this changing, frightening world. and so i'm curious now that he is no longer president, does he still have that hold on them? he can't really protect them in terms of government anymore. i just -- and i -- the only thing ever explained to me how, again, how evangelicals could embrace trump when his life and his values were so different from theirs.

>> well, i think one answer to that question is white christians feel more and more under attack. . >> right. >> they are becoming a minority in this country. and we might say, well, they shouldn't feel under attack, or they're still powerful. but that is their own perception. and they saw trump as kind of the last bastien for them. and i think that will only get worse. liberals, during the trump era, they had let's say the cultural and media lead was more liberal. now liberals have political power. and that will probably only make the sense of being under attack worse. and i hear this more and more from republicans and christians more generally, now they feel completely shut out of elite culture and elite power and they are going to have to dig their

heels in. that's why i feel there is some role that liberals can play and democrats can play to do what they can to uphold values of religious liberty and not to see all christian supporters of donald trump as an enemy or opponent to be defeated. there has to be some kind of effort to bring folks in and to make them feel that democrats aren't a completely secular party. there is still a room for religious christians. but this also applies to orthodox jews and muslims. in my own muslim community, there is more grumbling about the democratic party. oddly enough, according to various surveys, trump actually got significantly more muslim votes in 2020 than he did in 2016.

it went from 10% to 30%. >> that follows up with what david shore told us yesterday, that we look -- i look at donald trump proposing a muslim registry, and telling muslims that are members of congress to go back home. and you think that would have a negative impact and make the vote count worse. you're right, a lot of these issues, these so-called values issues has a negative impact. so i was to confirm what you said as a guy that was born in the middle of the century in the suburbs of atlanta, georgia, and moved to meridian, mississippi, lived in northwest florida most of my life. spent my life in baptist churches, yes. evangelicals, especially

southerners, felt they were being mocked by academics, hollywood producers, big media. and that really did, amount of that, over 50 years's time, from the '60s on, probably led to donald trump. but you talked about wokeism. and, you know, we have a situation now where christians that aren't falling in line, for instance, with certain things. like, for instance, 10 years ago when barack obama was still in his first term. barack obama opposed gay marriage. he said as a christian he believed that a man and a woman should be married to nobody else. that was 10 years ago. that was barack obama. ten years later, christians are saying, hey, if i say that today, i'm going to be canceled.

i'm going to lose my job. i'm going to be this, i'm going to be that. and so that's the sort of thing where christians feel like they're besieged. a lot of christians. i'm not speaking for myself. i've always been far more libertarian. i will leave that up to god. people are saying barack obama said that 10 years ago. now i'm being canceled because of xy or z. and donald trump is the only guy that can protect us. . >> you're right. the shift has been so massive so quickly. it is really remarkable when you think about it. and that seems like a parallel universe. so you have a situation now where people are just -- they're not able to get on board with this new cultural mainstream. and liberals definitely won the cultural war in a very

definitive way. that makes people nervous. it also hasn't solved the problems. with wokeism, they have their own clerics, scripture of authors. they get really into. there is this culture of atonement. so they are replicating some of the same features of christianity, but one might argue in the service of a false god. because ultimately nothing in this world is equivalent to god. if you're a religious person. and the folks on the right always in fear of being canceled. and they probably overestimate that. cancel culture is a problem, but it's probably not the biggest problem in america today. it's still something we have to address. but i think on both sides, there

is this unwillingness to accept the other that each side has an increasingly let's say constricted view of what's acceptable. what is a good american. and i would argue that all of our fellow americans with perhaps the exception outright racist and white supremacist are still within the fold. we probably shouldn't try to push them outside the political arena. there's 74 million trump supporters and they live in our country and we have to figure out how to live them w them. >> thank you very much. we will be reading the new piece in "the atlantic." thank you both as well for being on this morning. we started last hour with a look at where we were exactly one year ago as the pandemic took hold.

here is massachusetts governor charlie baker fighting back tears yesterday on that somber note. >> so this is the one year anniversary of the signing of the -- executive order that put the commonwealth into a state of emergency. and i have to say -- first of all, i wasn't expecting this. when i think about what we went through in the first few months to try to find ppe in a world where every supply chain had basically been frozen because of the pandemic, and the difficulties associated with

getting very basic protective equipment to our health care workers, first responders, long-term care workers and so many others number massachusetts who were looking for it, this is really in some respects a very special moment. and a happy anniversary. >> wow. let's bring in msnbc contributor mike barnicle, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early", kasie hunt. and reporter for the "washington post", eugene scott. good to have you all on this morning. . >> mike barnicle, obviously a very moving moment for your governor in massachusetts. things are starting to slowly open back up.

things are starting to open back up, slowly but surely. >> yeah, they are, joe. and you can feel it, you can sense it. when you go to the grocery store, the gas station, and you can sense there's a bounce in people's step that has been missing for a year. you saw charlie baker there yesterday addressing the situation. it has been an emotionally exhausting experience not just for our governor, charlie baker here in massachusetts, but most governors. and certainly for everyone involved. every american citizen. and that's why the passage yesterday of the american rescue plan that we've been talking about, that you have been talking about for the past hour, is really an historical achievement. it harkens back i think to 1964, 1965, lyndon johnson and the great society and the impact that things like medicare had on

people's lives. this is going to have an enormous impact on the lives of most americans. and you can see why in charlie baker's emotional reaction yesterday the fact that the light is at the end of the tunnel. we can see light at the end of the day that there is improvement in the way we live. it's truly heartening and rewarding experience for people. >> yeah. absolutely. the house yesterday gave president biden his first major legislative win, as mike was talking about. but the final passage of this $1.9 trillion relief bill, the vote was 220 to 211, mostly along party lines. one democrat joined all republicans in voting against the bill. president biden said he will sign it tomorrow. and tonight he will give his first primetime address to mark one year since the world health

organization declared covid-19 a pandemic. willie? >> the president, the vice president also planning to hit the road to promote the passage of this billment the first stop scheduled for next tuesday in pennsylvania. vice president harris in denver next week. a lesson learned from the obama administration. the ap's jonathan lemire writes this, many are of those working in biden's west wing are veterans of the obama administration and they acknowledge that not enough was done to sell the 2009 recovery act. >> we didn't adequately explain what we had done. barack was so modest he didn't want to take, as he said, a victory lap. i kept saying tell people what we did. we don't have time. i'm not going to take a victory lap. and we paid a price for that humility.

>> what they will be selling next week is, yes, the push to get the country back on its feet after a year of covid. but also these poverty-fighting measures imbedded in the 1.9 trillion. so, in other words, yes, it will get us through this crisis we all hope. but also it will do work to lifting people up out of poverty. >> what biden was trying to prove to many voters, they are doing things in response to this very devastating pandemic and economic downturn. and they hope to push forward legislation that moves people out of poverty, such as the child tax credit and the stimulus checks and extension of

unemployment benefits to people who lost their job over the past year. >> kasie hunt, given that republicans for the most part supported president trump's tax cut for the very wealthy, what exactly -- who is the audience, what's the need they're catering to voting against this? >> it's the question of the day, mika. and i think that it essentially is an attempt to demonstrate that they're unified together and that they can then weaponize any political sentiment that may evolve between now and the midterm elections saying they didn't participate in any part of it. something we have talked about over the course of the last couple of weeks, this is a very different situation than what we saw in 2009. and i think the broader context for this is important too. remember, this came out of the financial crisis where the government essentially -- they

bailed out big banks, the automakers. they bailed out, in the view of many people, the big guys, and hung the little guys out to dry. and that's not what's happening here. there was a rebel onagainst federal spending because there was the perception that the money wasn't helping average people. in this particular case the opposite is true. average people have been hurting. this has been for many the worst year of their lives. they have lost family members, they have lost personal freedoms, they have been living in anxiety and fear. and the government is now sending checks to help them bring the gamm to get through to the summer when hopefully enough people have been vaccinated that we will all start to trust that it's safe to go out, stay in hotels, patronize restaurants, all those places that employ so many americans. we still need help to get us to that point. and i think the politics of that will be dramatically different. donald trump wanted to sign these checks. and republicans were more than happy to send them out the door

when he was going to get credit for it. >> right. >> i fail to see how this is going to be different. if biden goes on the road and sells it, you have to check your mailbox and understand where that help came from. much different than the signs on the highway that said this highway was rebuilt by the stim louse act of 2009. >> right. right. federal health officials wednesday substantially relaxed government guidelines for nursing home visits citing vaccinations and the slowing of coronavirus infections in the tpralts. the federal advice from the centers for medicare and medicaid services said outdoor visits are preferred even when everyone present is vaccinated. but in the case where resident's health or the weather might make it impractical, they permit indoor visits at all times and for all residents even if people have not been vaccinated. now, to the ongoing

fund-raising battle going on between former president trump and the republican party. the "new york times" reports that senate minority leader mitch mcconnell privately boasted at a weekly party lunch to fellow republicans saying their fund-raising efforts has raised more money than the trump super pac in what seemed to be a response to former president trump's recent attempts to steer donations away from the party and over to him. three people who were briefed on the comments and spoke on the condition of anonymity said mcconnell said the senate leadership super pac outraised trump's super pac in 2020, that he had printed on cards that he shared with his caucus that read in three cycles, nearly 1 billion. below that were former president's statistics. trump, 148 plus million.

referring to america first, the outside group that was formed to support mr. trump in 2020. >> david drucker. ron johnson started questioning mitch mcconnell's political acumen, it is not the smartest thing to do, ron, especially coming from you. at the end of the day, mitch mcconnell is the most powerful republican in america. he's going to raise the most money. he's the guy that is going to decide where that money goes. i mean, he flexed his political muscles yesterday. and donald trump, well, he's down at mar-a-lago putting out a ridiculous statement about vaccines. >> look, joe, i don't doubt that president trump is going to be able to raise a lot of money in the post presidency. at least in the immediate. because he still has the affection of so many grassroots americans that give money in small doses and repeatedly so. but mitch mcconnell is not a

shrinking violet here. super pac senate leadership fund run by his allies have raised gobs of money. with a 50/50 senate, they will continue to do so. the danger for republicans is not that president trump, former president trump has his own pac and wants to raise money and help to elect republicans, it's as we saw from the two statements released this week -- by the way, if you noticed, the statements are coming out twitter sized in tweet language. so very familiar. he's suggesting that you shouldn't give to the republican committees, that the money would be better spent with him. there are a lot of grassroots donors that republicans have been able to accrue the last four years mainly because of trump and because he attracted them to the party and how it revolutionized the digital fund

raising well behind the democrats, that these people will listen to former president trump. and it will cost the republican congressional committees, not to mentioned rnc. so i think that's the danger for republicans. and this is sort of a war that they may have to have but they would be better off not having. donald trump always makes it so you're in a war with him. you're always going to find out in the end that he is going to throw you under the bus. poor kevin mccarthy, while he's reading cat in the hat, he has to be looking over his shoulder seeing that he and his republican party will lose a lot of small political donors. of course that's where all the money is these days.

by saying losing small donors, that's what adds up and gives a lot of house members and members of the senate the money they need to win elections. >> well, and it's really changed the landscape, right? because you don't have to rely on big institutions to raise money. you can do it online with a tweet or a viral moment. how do we explain marjorie tay marjorie taylor greene's behavior in the house. look at mike pence. he has been loyal for four years. his supporters are chanting that you should be hanged. and you hear nothing from the person you have been loyal for to for all that time. it is such a stark example. to your point more broadly, there has been reporting in the "new york times" that mcconnell actually handed out little cards to senators touting how much he

had raised or his allies had raised, i should say, in their super pac to this trump super pac to reinforce to his people, hey, there's still a price for crossing me. you potentially lose access to all of these resources that i have if you cross me. and eugene scott, i know you have been doing reporting on this as well. what have you learned about how republicans are trying to walk that line, to show the party establishment still does wield some power somehow that can counter donald trump, just one man who we should say is facing investigations into his own financial dealings? >> part of the strategy is the republican party knows if they will make the gains they need in the house and the senate to take these bodies back, they're going to need to win new voters, particularly some of the voters that trump has offended. so you see mcconnell wanting to

distance himself away from trump. if they win more women, more latinos, they can't say we are still the party of trump, which is what so many people, including marjorie taylor greene, want to communicate to voters, that trump is still on the throne. and mcconnell is wanting to say, actually he's not and he can't be if we're going to have the success we need to have to defeat these proposals that the democrats are putting forward that remain so popular. and so i think we're going to see more of that. in addition to mcconnell reminding people how effective he is, we're probably going to see a diversification of the faces, of the republican party with the hope that it connects with new voters and brings them to the polls. . >> mike barnicle, as we wait tonight to hear the president of the united states give a primetime address, sign the bill on friday and go out and hit the road in pennsylvania and beyond to explain to the american people what exactly the white house and the united states congress pulled off here with $1.9 trillion of new money going out to squash the coronavirus

pandemic but to infuse money into the economy for people who are living in poverty, which is the second sort of phase of this bill. how big a deal, to borrow a term from joe biden way back when about the affordable care act, is this to this president? >> oh, i think it's a huge deal, obviously, willie. and it's sort of a real nice portrait of the growth of joe biden. not only as a politician but certainly as a president of the united states. now he's been in office for, what, 45 days or so. and in the course of those 45 days, he has clearly decided and made a conscious decision one of his objectives is to help people who need help the most as much as i can and as long as i can. that's what he is doing with this particular act. and i think also he's thinking about the fact that, okay, i've sort of restored normalcy to the office. i've calmed the country down a

bit. i've boosted vaccine distribution to an enormous level. people are feeling more comfortable about the immediate future. the american rescue act will make them feel more comfortable about the long term future. by long term, i'm talking about through the fall. he still has an infrastructure bill being prepared to be introduced at some point in the congress this year. all of those things combined i think and the president's natural reaction to reflect on history, not only his history, but the history of this country is making for a really interesting at this point in the presidency. a week ago yesterday he had a group of historians, many of whom we know, many of whom have been on this program, to the white house for a two-hour conversation. and i'm told that the conversation had a huge impact on everyone involved. on both the historians as well as president biden.

and i'm also told that president biden, after the two hours was done, told someone, you know, i could have gone another two hours it was so interesting. so i think he's clearly thinking about his position in history and the events of the last 45 days or so will cement him into history as perhaps the most active president for people at the bottom of the social and cultural and economic ladder in this country, poor people, as well as the middleclass, of any president since lyndon b. johnson. >> well, willie, one thing we know, if that meeting of historians was moving and had a huge impact on everybody that was there, meacham was obviously absent. because while i know the 46th president of the united states wants to hear about crockery and the french and indian war and also what really was the rebellions, you know, biggest

take away for modern man, yeah. i don't think -- i just don't think he could have held the audience that long without slipping into some really mundane historical mumbo jumbo. >> once you get into hour 3 you get into zachary taylor territory. that's when you start looking for the exits. we love him. but the two hours about the lemon. i think the president found out about that last week. judge merrick garland was confirmed to be the next attorney general. the vote was 70-30. he received wide bipartisan support with backing from senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and several other members of the republican party. kasie hunt, this one was delayed a little bit but never really in doubt, was it? >> it was not in doubt, willie. and for garland, obviously, you know, this is something of a full circle situation to have

mcconnell back this nomination after he refused to hold a hearing for garland when barack obama, president obama nominated him to the supreme court back in 2016 and of course the same then majority leader who pushed through amy coney barrett in the final weeks and months of the trump administration after ruth bader ginsburg passed away, drawing accusations of hypocrisy. so garland giving up a lifetime opinion on the circuit court to take this job in the biden administration. we have not seen significant issues with president biden's cabinet the way we have seen under past more normal, shall we say, situations than the trump administration. neera tanden ran into trouble for the office of management and budget. xavier becerra has been

nominated. it may require adjustments to the very many complicated systems that we use to try and care for people, especially elderly people in this country. and he has generated a lot of opposition. chuck schumer had to use a special maneuver to get him out of committee because no republican would vote for him there. it is something to keep an eye on as something that could flare-up the next week or two. . >> david drucker, let me ask you about what you are hearing about the republicans' response to the first couple months of joe biden's administration. because kasie is right, for the most part, other than neera tanden, things have gone smoothly. you usually have one or two blowups at the beginning of every presidency. bill clinton had a couple right off the bat. even george h.w. bush had john tower. the obama administration, trump

administration also seemed to -- it's just natural. sort of getting adjusted into the white house. that has not happened yet. things are going smoothly. what are you hearing from republicans on the hill? >> look, i think republicans are still grappling with how to approach joe biden from an oppositional standpoint. he is not the sort of cultural boogeyman that bill clinton was, that barack obama was. so you hear from republicans a lot more discussion about this policy is bad, this issue is a scandal, republicans are focused on immigration. they are focused on the american rescue plan and what they think is wrong with it. all of this is expected, right, joe. but the difference is somebody is saying joe biden is the problem.

they say it but it doesn't take hold. you see the radical left, things like that. and there's talk still in republican conservative talk radio circles about biden's cognitive disabilities, or what they think is cognitive disabilities. all of that is something to latch onto that can make biden polarizing and give cultural oomph heading into the next election. it reminds me so much of the trump campaign in 2020. you don't bounce back and forth and back and forth. at the ballot box, they were able to do it at two midterm

elections based on how he was running his administration. so i think what you're going to see from republicans is this continued search for how to deal with their opposition in a way that is more motivating. at the end of the day, it may not matter. majorities are so thin for democrats given the historical norms for how midterm elections go, they are likely the get enough to win back the majority. but you see this floating around, looking for what works. >> and, david, you're so right. they are trying some of the things they tried in the campaign. and none of it worked. donald trump, who was of course -- people always talked about trump could play something, you know, tag a name on anybody it would stick. he could never figure out how to land a body blow. it was like ali in the early '60s fights.

they are still talking about cog fifth abilities. it just passed the most sweeping piece of legislation in 20 or 30 years. mika and i were talking about this after the show yesterday. we really should just stop for a second and think about how much different this is. when i ran for congress, i didn't run against my democratic opponent. i ran against bill clinton. everybody did. when democrats ran for congress like 2001 two tine, they ran against george w. bush. and then of course barack obama came in ran against barack obama. then donald trump. it's been constant. this has been our political life the past 25, 26, 27 years. a guy gets into the presidency

and then people run against him to take over the house and the senate. that's changing at least for now, with joe biden. so they're not attacking biden, like you said. they're talking about dr. seuss and mr. potato head. and we laugh at it, but that's the reality. that's all they've got. . >> well, look, first of all, for republicans today, all politics is cultural. it is meeting the demands of their base to talk about these issues. i think the question for joe biden is can he take his success, effectively deal with what is an emerging crisis at the southern border because of some of his new immigration policies, deal with that. will public schools reopen. that is a promise he made. even though he doesn't have

control over teachers unions and local school boards. people are going to expect him to deliver on that. republicans have to find an effective way to communicate to suburban voters, independent voters that they deserve to offer a were counterweight to the leadership. the democratic control of washington is not as effective as it would be if there was shared control. they are still searching for a tpaoupb find message that does that. something that will bring along their base and appeal to voters who are not in their base. sitting in the middle is former president donald trump. if he remains an ever present figure within this eco sphere, that could have an impact on how voters, democrat and republican, approach the midterm elections. >> rt there. david drucker, thank you so much. eugene scott, so much going on

right now. what are you working on today? . >> making attention to the efforts to move forward with this voting rights legislation that democrats are hoping extends the opportunities and rights to vote for many americans, something many republicans in state capitals and washington, d.c. protested on false and unproven claims on voter fraud, that made the gop unpopular with a lot of demographic groups that hemmed democrats control the house, the senate, and the white house in the most recent election. >> eugene scott, thank you very much. we have more now on the fight against the pandemic. president biden announced plans to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the johnson & johnson vaccine with pharmaceutical executives. . >> today i'm directing jeff and my hhs team to produce another 100 million doses and purchase another 100 million doses of the

johnson & johnson vaccine. i'm doing this because in wartime efforts we need maximum flexibility. there's always a chance we will encounter unexpected challenges or there will be a new need for a vaccination effort. a lot can happen. a lot can change. we need to be prepared. we need to match the science with the massive logistical undertaking of vaccinating 300 million americans. >> joining us now andy slaven. thank you very much for being on. i want to ask about the administering of the vaccines not just across the country but around the world. from the data you are looking at, is the vaccine going to be able to keep up with the strains that keep popping up. and is the speed of

administering it an issue? >> well, good morning. it's a great question. we absolutely -- let me start here in the u.s. where we inherited a situation where we were well behind and only vaccinated 8% of seniors. today we just passed the 50th day of the president's term and gone past 60% of seniors. we have done that with a lot of help from people across the country. and so i am more and more optimistic we will be able to protect the most vulnerable people, people over 75. we're not even close to there yet. we have 25% of adults in the u.s. vaccinated. we need to do more and step on the gas in the next few weeks or months to get that done. it's a great question about the rest of the world. because where this virus circulates, the virus can return. not only that, as a nation -- as

a wealthy nation, we have a commitment to the rest of the world that we have to make sure we are helping. so kovacs is the primary way we have been doing that. as we enter an historic partnership with merck and johnson & johnson, we will get massively more production. that will help the u.s. and the rest of the world. >> good morning. it's willie geist. tomorrow joe biden, the president of the united states, will sign this $1.9 trillion package into law. big numbers we're talking about here. but if you can bring it down to street level, what does it mean explicitly for people in this country in the fight against coronavirus? what will happen next week, two weeks from now, a month from now? how does all of this money change things? >> thanks for the question, willie. a couple priorities we need to take stock of getting the country vaccinated. certainly more vaccines, which we spent a lot of time on. the states need more vaccinators, more vaccination sites. we need to bring vaccines to

people. we have been playing a massive scale game, sup. we have been building large scale vaccination centers. increasingly, we are going to need to be reaching people who may not have the ability to get to these kinds of places that may have questions about the vaccines. states will need to set up mobile vans, more community accessible vaccines. so people who are in hard-hit communities, we're going to need to have the resources, the infrastructure, the capabilities to bring those things to them. and i would also add schools to the mix. you mentioned schools earlier in the broadcast. a lot of money will go to make sure schools have the things they need to we can permanently get kids back into the classroom and close the learning gap. and i could go on. as you know, there's a longer list. but it really represents a banner acceleration for the country. >> andy, mike barnicle is here

with a question for you. mike? >> andy, everyone knows that there's so much we don't know about the virus. but there might be elements of the unknown about the vaccines people are getting. my question to you, having gone the vaccine, if you have gone the vaccine, how long does the protection last? into the fall, will we have to get another shot of vaccine like a flu season shot? do you know? does anybody know? >> well, let's start with what we do know. we know the vaccine is safe and almost -- it's effective in numbers that are almost unprecedented, except for maybe something like the mmr, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. all three vaccines we're fortunate to have. none of them, after 30 days, have shown hospitalizations or deaths. so it saves people's lives. and we have small numbers of

negative reactions to them. the question of durability is an important one. it is one reason why the moderna and pfizer have a second dose. the second dose is considered critical to the longevity of the vaccine. we have to live through this long enough to know how long that immunity is going to last. and there's different speculation from different scientists. but people feel good that it is going to last a good ways and we will have to monitor that over times. >> white house senior adviser for covid response andy slavitt. and still ahead, we're going to talk to the ceo of pfizer, whose vaccine was first cleared for use here in the u.s. you're watching "morning joe". real be right back. ing "morning. real be right back with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™.

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40 past the hour.

fort lauderdale morning. windy morning. ron desantis is facing scrutiny over vaccine favoritism. multiple outlets are reporting on text messages between the governor's office and the organizers of a vaccine distribution event last month in manatee county. nbc news has not obtained a copy. the texts were focused more than just vaccinations. the organizers were also keenly aware of the political optics of bringing the governor into town to promote vaccines in their republican rich neighborhood. and rather than rely on a random selection of vaccine eligible residents, reports say the governor's staff wanted the organizers to create a list of who would get a vaccine. the developer of lakewood ranch where the event took place reportedly sent a text message to manatee county commissioner

vanessa baugh saying the governor should try to see if that would help him get exposure here. excellent point. after all, 22 is right around the corner. she was referencing the 2022 race for governor. an advance team for the governor visited the site and a select members from two zip codes was compiled to be eligible, including the commissioner herself. at a news conference on tuesday, desantis was asked about those text messages between the organizers discussing how the event might be politically beneficial for him. he did not address the messages but said it's a mystique to try to demonize certain seniors.

mike barnicle, i mean, this is painfully obvious in so many ways. yeah. and it's not the only story around governor desantis and the vaccines. we led the hour with the governor emotionally reacting to one years of dealing with the virus. in florida, it's a little different. the arrogance of governor desantis has been on display for quite a long time. one further example, in addition to the one you mentioned, was out of south florida, the ocean reef club. the former governor of illinois, bruise brown, former republican govern ofr illinois is a member of the ocean reef club. he contributed, gave $250,000 to governor desantis. and lo and behold, nearly

everyone who wanted to get the vaccine, members of the ocean reef club, a wealthy enclave, got the vaccine. this in a country, and i assume in a state like florida as well, where people have been traveling hundreds of miles looking desperately to get a shot of the vaccine in order to help save their lives. but governor desantis has a shortcut to all of this. it is called just drop a dime, give me a cash contribution and you too can get a vaccine. not good. >> no, not at all. coming up, congressman jim clyburn helped joe biden win the nomination. and he just helped him pass his first sweeping bill as president. the house majority whip joins us the conversation straight ahead on "morning joe". ersation strai on "morning joe"

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take action in support of this campaign. >> it is absolutely clear now that unless you connect your purpose and values to all your stakeholders and the wider work, you're going to get. >> i'm pleased to support global citizens recover together campaign. . >> it does not matter if you have money, if you're old or young, what sex you are, what race you are. none of that matters. what matters is that we come together. >> last year global citizen rallied to help lead advocacy efforts which resulted in over $1 billion being disbursed to support the pandemic response. now, global citizen has launched a recovery plan for the world. a year-long campaign to end the virus and kick start the global

recovery. joining us now with more details on the effort and upcoming plans is co founder and ceo of global citizen hugh evans. hugh, it's great to have you back on the show. it seems, actually a global effort to end this pandemic is the best way forward because you can't just contain ending the pandemic in one country. it's a world problem. >> absolutely. good to see you, mika. it is absolutely a global problem. we saw joe biden say this last night. he said we won't be safe until the whole world is safe. unless we can control the variants of the virus we won't get this under control. the only way to control the variants is make sure everyone has access to a vaccine globally. that's why we launched in partnership with the world health organization and the eu a recovery plan for the world.

it's a five-point plan focused on how do we end the pandemic, and then all the next critical steps to enable the world to recover better together. to end the pandemic we need 2 billion doses to those who need it most. that's going to require that the u.s. government along with other governments share a small proportion of their vaccine load for the community health workers in the world's poorest nations as soon as we see in may, which we're projected to see, that finally supply equals demand and the vaccine will be available to every adult across the united states. >> it's so exciting. obviously our network has been a part of global citizen for the past several years. but from everything that i've seen and heard and i went on your website and we've talked a few times, it seems like this year is actually going to be global citizen's biggest year

yet in terms of having the biggest events, having the most spectacular gatherings across the world for one purpose -- and that is to get people to take action to do so many things that have to be done right now. talk about the year ahead. >> this year we'll start in may with a global broadcast event to overcome vaccine hesitancy. this is an important effort in collaboration with the state of california, with iheart media, with live nation, so many of our partners to rally the world to get the vaccine to everyone. then on september 25th, assuming that by then the pandemic is more under control, god willing, we'll host global citizen live. a multi-hour global event featuring the most incredible

lineup that global citizen has ever put together with performances all around the world. it's centered around that recovery plan. we'll host live events in new york's central park, in front of the eiffel tower in paris, and we're also going to host events in seoul, south korea, dubai, lagos, nigeria and more around the world. we're so excited about this opportunity to bring the whole world together. we believe this could be the largest broadcast event since live aid. it would be so awesome to have you involved, joe and mika. i don't know if you have plans in september, if you would consider coming with us to paris and being on the host committee in paris, it would be the greatest honor of all. >> well, we would love to do that so long as willie comes along with us. willie is our interpreter wherever we go. he speaks 47 languages and more importantly he knows all the great parisian bookies. so, yeah -- no, seriously --

>> are you serious? this would be fun. >> we'd be honored. >> we would genuinely be honored. >> i actually speak french. i would happy to be your translator and baggage handler. just mika, joe. you're on your own, my friend. >> hugh, i wanted to ask you, we've known you for a long time. you've been so ambitious and audacious frankly in what you're setting out to do with global citizen in getting rid of poverty around the world. you say that's an achievable goal. i want to ask you about this $1.9 trillion focused just on america, of course, but with the child tax credit by some estimates could cut child poverty in this country in half if it does all the things some people say it could do. what do you make -- your piece of this, covid, but also the anti-poverty measures, what do

you see in this bill? >> the most important thing we saw with the $1.9 trillion stimulus is that it contains an $11 billion global response. some of that money will go to the global fund, some to the vaccine alliance, some to sepi to deliver the vaccine. it's an extraordinary act of generosity from the american people to support the global pandemic response. one thing to keep in mind, while this extraordinary act of generosity is there, we still need to raise $19 billion over the coming months to make sure we can get a vaccine to the 2 billion people on the planet who need it. while it sounds like a lot of money, the 2,150 billionaires on our planet gained a net worth of $2 trillion just during the pandemic. that's enough money to help fund a vaccine for everyone on the planet 74 times over.

so it's not a lack of money, it's just about the political will. it was great to see the administration put forward that stimulus package but also included a strong global response. >> all right. co-founder and ceo of global citizen, hugh evans, thank you. joe, willie, i think we're going to paris. >> sounds great. >> no complaints from here. thank you very much for being on this morning and for everything you're doing. coming up, president biden will hit the road to promote the covid relief plan he's about to sign into law. it's part of a lesson he learned from his time as vice president. we'll explain that ahead on "morning joe."

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there are now more than 1,000 cases in 38 states and washington, d.c. >> the largest cluster in the country is happening in the new york city suburb of new rochelle. >> new states of emergency have been declared in colorado, massachusetts and michigan.

>> we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now. bottom line, it's going to get worse. >> we have therefore made the assessment that kofd covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. >> we already lost 24 of our citizens. >> we're heading towards an epidemic in the states. >> tom hanks and his wife, rita wilson, both announced they tested positive for the coronavirus. >> to keep cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from europe to the united states. >> all right. exactly one year ago today when the country began to feel the full effects of the coronavirus. march 11th, 2020 was the day the world health organization declared the coronavirus a

pandemic. and in the u.s., shutdowns kicked in, cities began limiting gatherings. schools began to close. and major sports leagues started to halt play. everything seemed to stop. can you believe it's been a year, joe? >> i know. willie, it seems so much longer than a year. now that we look back on that time period we understand actually what the president knew and when the president knew it. we understood for all the lies, for all the denials, all the efforts to say it was one person coming in from china, all the efforts to say it wasn't contagious, that it was going to just go away, in fact, he said that a year ago yesterday. just relax. it's going to go away. basically nothing to see here, that he had already spoken with bob woodward in february and explained that he knew it was an airborne illness. he knew it was five times as deadly as the flu.

he knew that it could affect people of all ages. and it was a real killer, i think were his words. fascinating the president yesterday was talking about the vaccine and saying, hey, remember, remember, the president doesn't want to go down memory lane when it has to do with covid over the past year, about those press conferences, about hydroxycholoroquine, bleach in the veins, reopening by easter of last year, saying it will go away soon. crossing anthony fauci several times saying it won't come back in the fall. it's not going to come back. we could go down the list. it's exhaustive. but looking at all the information we know now, it's such a scandal. his biggest scandal, actually, that the president knew what he knew and still fiddled while

rome burned and there are now over 500,000 people dead in part because of that negligence. >> if someone came out on march 11th, 2020, saying there will be half a million americans dead by this time next year, you wouldn't have believed him. the early numbers were 240,000. that seemed impossible. we're well past double that now. you're right. you can't help but watch the clips and think what if we had gone on a war footing at that point. what if he acted like the wartime president he said he wanted to be. what if he had been honest about what was coming and what could come as dr. fauci did in the testimony. he said it's going to get a lot worse. boy, was he right. we are doing it now, but we are doing it a year after we could have done it. that's part of the tragedy here and the loss of lives, the loss of jobs, the loss of an entire school year when

we look at it, some of whom will be lost in the education system. the word loss comes to mind, but it's preventable loss. >> absolutely. it didn't have to be this bad. along with joe, willie and me, we have co founder of "axios", jim vandehei. and "new york times" bureau chief elisabeth bumiller. the house gave president biden his first major legislative win with the final passage of his 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. the vote was 220-211, mostly along party lines. one democrat, congressman jared golden of maine joined all republicans in voting against the bill. democrats erupted in applause after the roll call. >> on this vote the yeas are

220, the nays are 211. the motion is adopted. >> the white house posted this video of president biden and vice president kamala harris applauding as the bill was passed. president biden said he will sign it tomorrow. >> this bill represents a historic, historic victory for the american people. everything in the american rescue plan addresses a real need. together, we're going to get through this and usher in a healthier future. there is real reason for hope, folks. there's real reason for hope, i promise you. later today, president biden will give his first primetime address to mark one area since the world health organization declared covid-19 a pandemic. >> you know, elizabeth, i think many of us have been almost

lulled -- not lulled to sleep but lulled a bit by how tranquil things have been in the white house the past few months compared to the past four years. and i think history has perhaps snuck up on us here. we all remember after the huge battle over ach, leaning over and whispering to barack obama, this is a big blanking deal, well, it is. it was. but what was passed yesterday by all democrats and no republicans may be even more significant. is this not one of the most sweeping landmark pieces of legislation to pass congress in decades? >> yes. it's a very big deal, you're right. it's one of the biggest anti-poverty efforts in generations. it is -- what is so interesting

about this bill, aside from its sheer size, is how much it is targeted to the poor. it's very different from the bill passed in 2009. we have been looking at this several days now. half foes to the unemployed, to people who are food insecure, who are struggling, who are hungry. it's really extraordinary. there's help for children, for families, for the unemployed. and the economic analysis is it could help growth in this country by helping to boost growth by 6.5% in the next year. it is a bill the democrats have long wanted. biden didn't propose something that big in the beginning. but chuck schumer and the other democrats brought him along and said we have to go bigger this time. and he went along with it. we saw what happened today.

now he has a whole month to sell this to the american people. they want to avoid the mistake they feel obama made by not selling the big bill that passed in 2009. they feel they have to go and take credit for this, especially as republicans are, for whatever reason, trashing it. a very popular bill. >> jim -- yeah. a very popular bill. that's a funny thing. republicans will have a terrible time trashing this bill. you have some members of the united states senate who are republicans who voted against the bill, putting out press releases, taking credit for some things inside the bill, which leads to the bigger question. if you're the republican party and you've just opposed a bill in lock step that 76% of american people support, what's the strategy? what's the end game? they've already lined themselves up for pretty tough 30-second

ads in the midterm elections. >> i think it's a tough one for them, obviously. because i think people getting a check, they like getting a check. people getting assistance who need assistance, want to get assistance. the republican argument will be, well, this is a liberal wish list. which it is. there is no doubt there is a lot of policies the left wanted for a long time imbedded in this in a short-term nature. it's a huge experiment as elizabeth talked about. really targeting families who are poor, children who are in poverty and we'll be able to see whether that works. and they also argue it raises the deficit. that's a tough one. they spent so much money under donald trump, george w. bush. there is no evidence -- this is empirical, that republicans are more responsible than democrats in spending money. republicans included. the big test case for all of us, when you talk to these people, joe and mika, when you talk to

people at treasury or former treasury secretaries and people in congress, you say at what point can we have deficits this high and spend this much money, how long can we have free money moving through the system where you don't have to pay up? nobody can answer that question. nobody really knows. one of the fears -- and this is a small fear at this point inside the biden administration is do we end up with massive inflation because there is so much liquidity in the economy. i think joe biden is thinking i don't care about that now, i want to get through the coronavirus, get the economy moving again. not to repeat the mistake they made under president obama, going too small and not doing enough to juice the economy, getting people back to work. that has always been the game plan. can you get rid of the virus and can you get people back to work? we talk about a lot of things that have gone wrong. and i will say it again. we will look back for

generations at the creation and distribution of this vaccine as a modern day miracle. go back a year ago. nobody thought that you could produce vaccines at scale with this high efficacy that went through validation of the fda process and that are having the effect they thought they could. this is something we should all celebrate, both parties. that you would private sector working with the public sector to be able to do the unthinkable. and now it looks like by summer you could have most people vaccinated for the first time. i run a company. for the first time i'm having conversations this week about when do people get to come back to work? life is going to start to return to normal. people are going to go to restaurants. people are going to spend those checks. people are going to go on vacations. people are going to get in airplanes. that is something good we can take from this because it's something we will apply in future pandemics which had highly likely if you talk to people who talk about different

manifestations of this virus or others to come. we'll speak live with the ceo of pfizer. and we'll hear from house minority whip jim clyburn as the house celebrates a victory in passing the coronavirus relief bill. you're watching "morning joe." what's the #1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ ♪

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♪♪ all right. live look at new york city. 17 past the hour. welcome back. just out this morning from pfizer is a report that confirms the vaccine's effectiveness in fighting the coronavirus. joining us now is the chairman and ceo of pfizer, albert

bourla. congratulations, this is up there as one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time. i guess one of the biggest questions is how did you do it? >> i don't think i did it. i think it was a whole group of brilliant scientists that did it. there were some lessons learned of how we all did it. i felt the organization was prepared to do right for the occasion for something like that. the second is that thinking big can make anything possible possible. many times we were hearing this cannot be done. many times we said it must be done. the third thing, more important than everything, i think the lesson learned is the power of the science.

the power of human ingenuity particularly in the private sector setting. so, i'm very happy that we were able to do it. >> so now i have to ask what are some of the hurdles that you foresee ahead? i guess part of making a vaccine successful is making sure it gets to everybody who needs it before different strains of the coronavirus take over or different parts of the world don't have it. what do you see as the hurdles ahead in terms of getting the world in order as it pertains to the coronavirus and what are some of the concerns you might have about these second, third and fourth strains of the coronavirus? >> it's a great hurdle. the first hurdle was developing and discovering a vaccine.

the second hurdle was scaling up manufacturing so everybody can receive it in the world as quickly as possible. and i think we did pretty well. the amounts that we are manufacturing right now are going up and up. so i believe pretty soon that will not be an obstacle anymore. as president biden said for example, in the u.s. by may likely there will be enough doses manufactured to vaccinate everyone. i think then it is the issue of the vaccination of people. that is a determination between the state and the local government and with measures that can improve this capability. again, i believe that in the recent month or so there's been such an incredible improvement, all the indexes and the metrics are indicating we're doing a great job on that. also that will not be an issue pretty soon. then i think the remaining would be that i still believe that there will be some citizens that

will be skeptical about the vaccine. so i would try to focus on them right now. try to explain to them the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, try to explain the consequences of not getting the vaccine for them and for humanity. and try to address this. >> good to see you this morning. as you know, israel's ministry of health came out with the results of a study that showed two weeks after receiving the second dose of your pfizer/biontech vaccine, 97% effective in preventing symptomatic disease, severe critical disease and death. do those line up with the numbers you're seeing? that would be extraordinary after two weeks it's 97% effective. >> it's very, very impressive. i'm very happy that we were able -- in it's ministry of

health to release that positive data. it comes back to what the human engineering can do. a year later we have hope in front of us. let me explain that data. one is what you just said. it involves at least 97% efficacy for all three metrics, deaths, severe disease and hospitalizations and any type of disease with symptoms, even the mildest one. 97% in real-world setting. higher than the 95% than we had in our studies. in the real world after 5 million people were vaccinated in israel, they're all in a system with data, electronic monitoring system, this is dramatic. the second thing is for the first time we have demonstrations for millions of people of 94% prevention of asymptomatic infections. not of disease, asymptomatic infections. this is extremely important. the asymptomatic patients, the

asymptomatic carriers are the ones spreading the disease more easily than anybody else because they have the virus and they don't know that they have it, so they don't take the same measures of isolation as those that know they have the virus. that's the first time we have confirmation like that. we were expecting and hoping, but frankly i didn't think we would go all the way to 94% efficacy. the third and also important is that 80% of the virus circulating in israel was the uk mutation. we were able to achieve high results in the dominant presence of the uk variant. >> going back to your second point, 94% effective on asymptomatic. that's a huge deal. i want to ask about this variant, the brazilian variant that so many people have been concerned about. you worked hard in the last year to get this vaccine, there were concerns of will it cover all

these variants we're seeing. the brazilian one is the one we're hearing from. the "new england journal of medicine" suggests your vaccine covers the brazilian variant. does that line up with what you're seeing? >> yes. we feel very good about the brazilian variant. >> what does that mean exactly? do you have a sense of how effective it is against that? >> we expect -- we don't have clinical proof, but the expectations based on the data we have right now, it's exactly the same like the normal virus, the chinese mutant. the chinese virus, original. >> so, albert, a lot of people have obviously been paying close attention to you and to your life as you've been leading the effort to, as mika said, help be

a part of one of the greatest scientific achievements of our time. you've talked about and others have talked about your family and the fact that your family survived -- your family was only 2,000 of about 50,000 in the community that survived the holocaust. i'm wondering, i read some articles where it meant the world to you to be able to deliver not just these vaccines to israel in memory of your family and your grandparents, but also to germany and to countries all across the world. talk about your family's extraordinary journey from barely surviving the holocaust to where you are now. >> thank you. my parents were coming from a

town in -- a city in greece, they had a community of 50,000 jews, and they were 96% exterminated. 2,000 survived. lucky for me, my two parents. both of them, particularly my mother nearly escaped the firing squad. she was lined up against a wall, together with many others, and at the last moment they removed her and someone else and the rest died. so what was lucky for me is two things. one, my parents spoke to me about this experience to me and my sister and the nieces and nephews they had. because, you know, many holocaust survivors never spoke about their experiences because it was very painful to do that. but my parents did. the second thing was they never spoke to me about anger or revenge or hate. they didn't want to pay back

those who did this to us. what they were doing is celebrating life. they would say to us, look at us. i was in front of a firing squad and i survived. i have you. i remember my mother telling me. life is good. life is a miracle. enjoy. and that is what gave me maybe the optimism that i have. of course it made me who i am. i was very happy i was able to give the vaccine to the world. i didn't give the doses to israel or to germany or to greece because they were my country or israel has jews or germany for any other reason, but i was happy to give the doses to everyone in the world. i'm sure that from up there they are proud of me. >> wow. that's amazing. >> dr. dave campbell is with us and has a question. dave? >> hey, dr. bourla. the recent study that came out

looking at neutralizing, it iters for the engineered mutants, which is an amazing study for me as an orthopedic surgeon to think how you were able to engineer and manufacture and produce these variants to study. it gave me a little pause when i saw that the engineered variant that you were studying with the serum, people who had been immunized with the pfizer/biontech vaccination, was less effective when there was a full set of mutations in the variants. does that speak to any concerns that we have moving forward as the variants evolve and we see new ones arrive up with a wider array of spike protein changes that may make the need for pfizer and other companies to make boosters or change or evolve the vaccine over time? i, too, have great hope, but it gave me a little pause. what is up with that?

>> i think you're absolutely right. i think we should be prepared for something like that. it's not unthinkable and it is one of the possible scenarios, but a mutant could escape the protection of vaccine may emerge. i don't think this is the case right now with any of the three known mutants, but it could be in the near future. for this reason we need to be well prepared. we don't need to be scared but prepared. from our side, preparation means that we are surveying all variants in the world and proactively we are going to build -- even if we are not sure that they will escape the vaccine, we will build dna templates, which could take some time, so we will be ready in case we need to create a vaccine. following that, we will be able to make all the tests that are needed and if we determine that this variant escapes a certain degree that is worrisome, the

protection of the vaccine, within 100 days to bring a new vaccine. that's all we can do. and i believe that we have powerful medical tools right now. the mrna technology has been proven very, very powerful. i think i'm cautiously optimistic we will not face problems. >> mr. bourla we've been talking about the miracle the last year has been in the development for vaccines for yours, moderna, johnson & johnson and how quickly it's been done relative to how quickly vaccines are developed. can you put into perspective for our viewers how fast this process was? how you made that happen? how different it was from past attempts to develop vaccines? >> it was clearly very different, that's why i said in the beginning that people were thinking this is impossible and kept thinking it's possible and kept thinking it was impossible.

every week in our meetings when we said we had to do something, a few people would say that's impossible. people don't know what they can or cannot do. they just have to believe. don't take no for an answer. try to find solutions. when the cause is so normal, when people feel that what they're about to do, it's going to save lives not only of their people -- millions of people around the world, they're extremely motivated to find the solutions. this is what happened. practically this was complete out of the box thinking. we did thinks parallel instead of sequentially. we removed the cost out of the equation. our people had to open a checkbook to do it. we protected them from the external bureaucracy. that's why we didn't take the money from the government. if you take money, it was very clear that they wanted to be part of the decisionmaking.

they want to know are you going with this study or that study. i didn't want that. i wanted my scientists to do whatever they thought was appropriate. i did the same for the internal system. there's layers of management that one needs to decide something, it's approval to the next, approval to the next. we were working without hierarchy. i was the hierarchy. the others, four levels of management were in the same meeting. so everyone could say what's on their mind and a decision could be made immediately. all of these things made people to think out of the box and they came up with genius ideas. >> all right. albert bourla we learned so much about you as well in this interview. as we close, another fact we didn't know about albert. he was a veterinarian and started out at pfizer in 1993 in the animal health division.

pfizer's ceo, albert bourla, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. congratulations and thank you for what you've done. dr. dave, stay with us. we have more to talk to you about. we move now from the health crisis to the economic one. president biden will sign the american rescue plan into law tomorrow. a sweeping aid package that our next guest calls the most transformative bill he's seen in his nearly 30 years on capitol hill. joining us now, the third ranking democrat in the u.s. house of representatives, majority whip jim clyburn. he also serves as the chairman on the house select committee on the coronavirus crisis. >> jim, it is great to have you on. i will have to treat you to a breakfast. >> oh, boy. >> when you come to south carolina to congratulate you for this. what a -- to paraphrase joe biden, what a big, big deal,

buddy. what a big deal. talk about it. >> thank you very much, joe. thanks for having me. i look forward to that. things are getting much better now in south carolina and around the country. we will be able to sit down for breakfast very, very soon. thank you very much for that. this bill, as i said, is the most transformative thing i've seen. i thought the affordable care act would be a big deal, it was a big deal. but, you know, it affected a corner of our economy. in this bill, what we're doing is rescuing the hard earned wealth and professions and other endeavors of people across the board. what a like most about this bill is 61% of republicans say they

support the bill. i call it a bipartisan bill. it says that joe biden is keeping his promise to do as much for the people who did not vote for him as he will for the people who did vote for him. he's being a president of all americans. let's take the black farmers. the black farmers have been fighting the battle now since before i came to congress. they have never been able to consummate a full -- let's just say recovery from what happened back to them in the '60s and '70s. i used to work for the south carolina division of farm workers, working on behalf of rural farmers in the low country of south carolina. this bill puts them on a path of coming back to the thing they love so much. i see a lot of young african-americans now going into farming. they would like to be able to

farm as if their grandparents did it and not what happened to their parents that drove them off the farm. we had policy at the federal level and the state level that drove african-americans off the farm, they lost their land, they lost their wealth. this will start to make them whole again. in fact, i saw a description in the "washington post" saying this may be the best thing that's happened to black farmers since the civil rights act of 1964. that's what this is all about. getting all americans back into the game. so they can do the things they love doing so much. everybody is not in the big cities. people like to stay in their environments, do the kind of work that's in their blood and a lot of it is farming and other forms of economic activity in rural america. this is a big, big deal.

i can go into a lot of other things as well, but we'll get our kids back in school. we'll get teachers back on the job. we'll get restaurants back open again. i want to bring you down to charleston where i saw you hanging out one time before. >> well, we can do it in columbia, we can do it in charleston, we can do it wherever you want to do it. let's talk about another issue that obviously is so important to you because you've lived for it, you've bled for it, you sacrificed for it, that is voting rights for all americans. hr-1 is most likely next. republicans are fighting it tooth and nail. they want to kill the bill. let me ask you, how important is

it for democrats in the senate to figure out how to pass this voting rights act that guarantees an expansion of democracy in america with or without the filibuster? >> i think it's very important for us to do everything we possibly can to make the greatness of this country accessible and affordable for everybody. the vote must be accessible for everybody. you cannot have a thriving democracy unless you have an unfettered vote. i think it's necessary for us to take up civil and voting rights. hr-1 is very important, not just to vote, it's the way we finance our campaigns, the way we draw up our legislative and congressional districts. we ought to do it in a transparent way and do it in a

way that's fair and equitable. that's what hr-1 is all about. joe, i'm also interested in hr-4 that we have renamed the john r. lewis voting rights act. that ability we're working on doing, the supreme court said we should do it. we think we'll be finished with our work on that by the end of june. i would love to see us bring that to a vote as well. it should not be subjected to a filibuster. that's what made the filibuster so bad. people started using it to deny civil rights and voting rights. the filibuster should not apply to voting rights and civil rights. that's all i'll say about it. i'm not going to argue with president biden if he wants to maintain the filibuster. i will argue with anybody who will allow my civil rights, my voting rights to be filibustered away. that's what strom thurmond was doing in 1957 when he set the

record for filibustering. he wasn't trying to extend debate. he was trying to deny civil rights to people of color. that, to me, is not the way you bring a country together. >> congressman -- >> it seems, willie, that it makes sense. if we're going to have an exception now for filibusters for supreme court justices, federal court judges, it makes a lot of sense that we also have that same exception for voting rights and civil rights. >> congressman, that's my question to you. as you look at the dynamics of congress today in the year 2021, a lot of progressives, a lot of democrats say we can't get a single republican to vote on this bill you all just passed that enjoys 76% popularity in the country including among 60% of republicans, so why bother trying to get them on board of this. why not just get rid of the filibuster? what do you make of that argument? >> i think it's a good argument.

they want to have their cake and eat it, too. the bill was voted against and a tweet was put out for the greatness of the bill for restaurants down in alabama. you know, throughout the country really. so my whole thing is let's look at this and say republicans, the same things that you laugh about you might be crying about later. let me give a good example. the 50% plus one runoff requirement that was put in to force racialized voting in georgia. that's why it was there. you look at the debate that led up to that runoff requirement, it was to set up contests between blacks and whites and then white people would prevail because black peoples votes were being suppressed. look what happened. we won both those races in georgia because of the 50% plus

one requirement. if they did not have that, they were the one that -- what's his name got 49.6% of the vote. because he didn't have 50%, he was forced into a runoff and ended up losing to the first jewish member to represent georgia in the united states senate ever. the other seat went to the first black guy to be representing georgia ever. that's when you now cry for that which you laughed about when you put it in place. yeah. >> all right. jim clyburn, thank you very much. it's always great to see you. looking forward to that meal in south carolina. >> okay. >> wherever. the grits. >> you will pay. >> yes, of course. i'm paying. i'm paying. dr. dave, i want to circle back for a minute here and talk about

that remarkable interview with the ceo of pfizer. and albert brought up some remarkable numbers, but 94% effective against asymptomatic and higher numbers against preventing the disease. i mean, the numbers are just from these studies are just coming in. it's every bit effective or more effective than advertised. >> yeah. it amazed me to hear the number come out. it also amazes me that pfizer and that gigantic team of theirs that of course includes biontech that were useful and helpful and important in manufacturing the vaccine and developing it have been looking forward to how to not lose their eye on the ball and see that as the virus

circulates around the world, it is continuing to mutate. as it continues to mutate, there is the ongoing risk that the current vaccines, the ones that were made against the wild type, the original variant, the original virus that came out of china and then has now circulated with some variants, they're looking forward. i'm exceedingly encouraged that we are not going to see those companies, the major companies that are making the vaccines, just sit back and rely on what's been made. they're going to use those same teams of same scientists to work to keep us safe moving forward. to figure out the durability of the vaccinations. when to evolve them. when to change them. 100 days to go from one vaccine type to another is amazing. the platform of this mrna vaccine that both pfizer and

moderna use is very nimble, joe. it is a scientific accomplishment that we will look back some day and realize was amazing. >> all right. "morning joe" chief medical correspondent dr. dave campbell as always, thank you very much. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." i'm draymond green with my subway sub with tender steak and melty cheese. my sub is gonna dunk all over your sub. excuse me?

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♪♪ joining us now is senior editor at the dispatch and columnist for "time" david french. also founding pastor of redeemer presbyterian church, timothy keller. his new book is "hope in the times of fear." he has written a deeply personal piece for "the atlantic" entitled "growing my faith in the face of death." in which he asks, i spent a laf time counseling others before my diagnosis. will i be able to take my own advice? we welcome you both to the show. >> thank you for being with us. tim, as somebody that has known

you, my family went to redeemer in new york and we were so moved by you every sunday. obviously the news jarred us, but i in news jarred us, but reading this extraordinary piece, could you share with us what -- how have you been able to follow your advice that you've given so many other people throughout the years? >> yeah, that was the issue because i had started this book on the resurrection about -- because it was supposed to be a kind of companion book to a book i did a couple years ago on christmas, you know, christmas, easter. about a third of the way into it i found out i had pancreatic cancer. you know the stats are very bad, about 80% of people who get that

diagnosis die within a year-over-year or year and a half of diagnosis. so i suddenly had to finish if book and the book was like the medicine i'd been giving people for 45 years dying or death. the book was the occasion for the article. but the article basically explains how i did have to go back to the sources, and i had both intellectual work to do, which is the resurrection did it really happen, and i had to do existential work. is it an abstraction or something so real to my heart that i can actually face every day with this imminent, you know, death sentence over me? and the article's saying, yes, with struggle, but yes. >> it's so remarkable the parallels between the book that you were writing on a general

level and then the lesson that you taught others and are learning yourself now, applying to yourself now. as i read your introduction to the book i love that you used a quote that i think of every easter when people tell me, yes, it's a nice story but -- and it was john updike's words, let us not mock god with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping tran sen december, the faded credulity of earlier ages, let us walk through the door, the stone is rolled back. what do those words mean to you now? >> it means if i believe that jesus christ actually physically rose from the dead, that it's not just a nice symbolic story about how spring comes after winter and the good somehow triumphs.

if i believe he got up out of the grave physically and was seen then as a believer in jesus, i can face death and say it's going to be all right. in fact, everything's going to be all right because in the end jesus is going to create a world of justice without suffering and evil. so if jesus literally rose from the dead everything's going to be okay. if he didn't i think everything's up in the air. >> david prince. >> you know, one of the things that i thought when i read tim's piece, which really moved me as i read it, i think there's a reality about us that we don't know who we are until it's tested. you know, so we don't know if we're an honest person unless honesty carries a cost. we don't know if we're a brave person until physical courage is required. and in facing these kinds of existential moments really sort of show us, are we the person in this area of our life that we

thought we were? and that was the thing that i thought was so powerful about what tim was saying was how you had to take a look at all of the advice that he had given and then apply it to himself and how many pastors have been in that situation? how many pastors eventually, over the course of the their life and over the course of their career, find themselves being the physician that has to heal themselves and apply their own advice? and i thought that that was not just a powerful look at how we all live but the life of pastors as well. >> so tim keller, i mean your piece is entitled growing my faith in the face of this diagnosis. what was the impact of the diagnosis on your faith? was there one? >> yeah, certainly. i think at first you stagger, which i think is the right thing. there's a place in the old king

james bible where it says that when abraham was told that even though he was -- he and his wife were very, very old and facing death but they were going to have a child the old king james bible, in hebrew it says abraham staggered not at the promise of god. it's a terrific term that shows in the beginning you do stagger and then you get your footing. and so i was trying to get my footing, but then ultimately i try to say in the article that actually -- my life every day, my days are sweeter than they've ever been. i actually enjoy the particular joys of earthly life every day much more than i did before. so there's a certain sense in which i can say i'm actually happier than i've ever been before and i can say that without exaggeration or being try to. >> i zeroed in on that passion of enjoying life.

you write there was no point anymore in trying to make the world a heavenly place. you could enjoy the things you saw around you as you walked around. when did that flip for you? >> that's a good question. sometime before the end of the summer when we were sitting out -- we have a balcony. we've been here for 32 years and the balcony looks -- i'm on roosevelt island, we look at you, by the way, and across the river. this summer i started to realize i just enjoyed the water in a way i never have before. i've been here for 32 years. sun on the water. the different colors the water takes depending on the weather. and even we finally -- we got vaccinated and we actually had our older granddaughters over for the very first time in quite a long time and even there afterwards kathy said you know, you enjoy them more than you

ever have. and i think that's the sort of thing that's -- i think by the end of the summer, and i learned about the -- my cancer in may, willie. so i think in the prayer and the wrestling it probably took two or three months. >> david french has a question. david? >> yeah. you know, one of the things that i wonder, in your position, in your pastoral position, especially one with such a public voice that you have and so many people who when they heard your diagnosis were stricken by the news, do you find yourself ministering to other people about your own condition? >> yeah, yes, david, and i have to try to say i am not expendable. you can't make a heaven out of me either. willie just made reference to the fact when i stopped trying to put all my hopes in this world and start to enjoy the world better and you can't put that many hopes in me. i mean, in other words god knows exactly how long i have to live

here and exactly how much he wants me to do here and if i even could extend my life one more day it wouldn't -- it would be worse than god's plan. so -- by the way, david, i just want to say i appreciate, though, in your case that you've grown a beard so people don't mistake you for me. if it wasn't for that beard, you know, people would start to -- but actually, if you wanted to shave you could probably pose as me in the future. it's up to you. >> tim, finally talk about hope in times of fear and what believers and those who are interested in the faith will receive from the book as we move towards easter. >> well, i try to say in the last chapter that the original idea, and there's a lot of non-christian scholars that

teach this, that the idea that history is progressing and getting -- we're getting better and better is basically a christian idea that has been secularized now and so we still -- so you still have star trek talking about how, you know, the world's getting better and better. the fact is, though, the christian idea, the idea of death and resurrection. very often we get better through difficult times. and so the christian idea of historical progress is not a -- just, you know, a bell curve. i mean, a curve up. it's a step. sometimes we have to go down before we go forward. and yet in the end, yes, god is going to bring in a new heavens and a new earth. what that means is we can have bad times. every generation does not have to have it better than the next one. but we have to keep going because there is hope. we just shouldn't expect that every single generation is going to be better. science will always answer every issue.

no, i mean, christianity incorporates the idea of difficulty in suffering in the progress. >> we could talk with you for hours, timothy keller, thank you so much. the new book is hope in times of fear, the resurrection and the meaning of easter, and his piece for the atlantic is entitled "growing my faith in the face of death," and david french, thank you as well. we appreciate it. thank you all for joining us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is thursday, march 11th. the exact date that all of our lives changed dramatically one year ago. this morning we're going to look at where we are and where we're going. but first we have got to look back. march 11th, 2020 started like a relatively normal