NBC News NOW Full Broadcast - March 2nd, 2021 | NBC News NOW

hey everyone i'm alison mars you are watching nbc news now welcome to our new studio setup fbi director christopher wray making it clear today the attack on the capital was domestic terrorism ray testifying for the first time today about the january 6th riot senators grilling him on missed warning signs intelligence sharing and how the bureau is fighting threats from white supremacists and far-right groups ray calling the danger persistent and evolving january 6 was not an isolated event the problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now and it's not going away anytime soon over in the house democrats kicking off their annual issues retreat today president biden taking part in that virtual conference this afternoon speaker pelosi reiterating his message of building back better for all americans to listen to our colleagues the various enthusiasms that they have and how we can channel them into building back better for the people advancing justice opportunity and prosperity in every zip code we start this hour with fbi director ray's testimony on the hill nbc news justice correspondent pete william joining me now pete ray repeatedly said there was no evidence that antifa members helped organize the capital riots rather that extremists were responsible take a listen is there any evidence at all that it was organized or planned or carried out by groups like antifa or black lives matter we have not seen evidently have any evidence to that effect thus far in the event and is there any doubt that the people who stormed the capital included white supremacists and other far-right extremist organizations there's no doubt that it included uh individuals that we would call militia violent extremists uh and then in some instances individuals that were racially motivated violent extremists who advocate for you know the superiority of the white race so pete what were your takeaways from ray's testimony today well that wasn't one of them because i you know i just think that was sort of emblematic of what a missed opportunity this hearing was the democrats seem to be very eager to get the fbi director to say as all law enforcement has been saying since the sixth this wasn't fake trump protesters right this wasn't antifa right and the republicans seem to want to focus on other things and and what we didn't hear is a lot of questions about exactly what did the fbi know about threats to attack the capital on the sixth and does the fbi think that it needs more tools to be able to investigate domestic terrorism that's what this hearing could have been about and just it just wasn't it was a lot of sort of questions like antifa so in terms of what we did learn though is the fbi director did push back on this claim by the capitol police and the metro police last week that they didn't get enough of a heads up when the fbi sent a warning in on the night of the fifth that there was some discussion among white supremacists about an attack on the capitol what the ray said is within an hour after receiving that at headquarters it was briefed at a command center set up with all these law enforcement agencies before the electoral vote count secondly it was brief to the joint terrorism task force here in washington that includes representatives of metro and capitol police and thirdly it was put on what they call the law enforcement portal which disseminates it even more widely so he said you know we did pass it along he also said the number of domestic violent extremism investigations has really gone up over the past year from a thousand to fourteen hundred at the end of last year to now over two thousand but he acknowledged that it's very hard to get the fbi's arms around this threat because it is so amorphous and it's expanding and there's a lot of use of social media and the fbi's legal authorities to monitor this is limited but he did say you know we need better sources we need better intelligence about this potential threat uh he said clearly there were some plans and there were some elements of coordination among a small number of these people that attacked the capital but if the fbi knows exactly who started talking about attacking the capital or who was in charge it hasn't yet said pete you're also reporting on a new study from george washington university this study found that over half of the people charged in the capital riot had no connection to extremist groups but researchers also warned that so-called conspiracy communities are playing an increased role in right-wing extremism and violence what else did gw find out about the people who took part in this riot so they've analyzed something like 260 or so court cases that were filed as of late february and looked at other sources too and they say there basically are three groups there are the militia types the people who were coordinating and talking to each other and planning and had these right-wing views but that's quite small it's about 33. then you have the second group of people who had some connections to each other maybe family connections maybe they were communicating with each other online to share conspiracy thoughts or so forth but the largest group over half of the number of people who were at the capitol had no connection to each other until they got there they didn't discuss coming to washington they came on their own they ended up at the capitol and the fbi director said today some of the people who were in there were sort of just sort of swept in and it's a very small number of people who have seemed to be uh at the points where all the mischief was created where they were kind of at the pointy end of the spear where the police lines were broken where the windows were broken that first let people get into the capital and that were most heavily involved in assaulting police officers so uh it's it's an interesting picture of how these these kind of conspiracy theories have nodded these people together in this common cause which it says is a growing threat that law enforcement needs to get a better handle on and that was one of the fbi director's messages today pete senator coons asked director ray about the role of social media and online extremism ahead of january 6. here's how the fbi director responded certainly social media on january 6th as for the domestic violent extremist threat more broadly has become a major factor a catalyst if you will the increased speed dissemination efficiency accessibility that it provides it facilitates a greater interconnected uh nature in a more decentralized way and so we you know i sometimes say terrorism today and we saw it on the sixth moves at the speed of social media pete how is the fbi what do we know about how the fbi is addressing this growing threat of domestic extremism particularly online well it's a huge challenge because number one the simply the volume of it what christopher wray said is they need better analytics which i think is is law enforcement code for maybe some computer assisted ways of filtering through some of this stuff and and then uh kicking out things that need further scrutiny so they're not just trying to wade through a huge pile but you know one of the members of the senate said today is how do you distinguish real plans from somebody who's just a drunk at the bar kind of raving and and that is a big challenge all right pete williams always great to see you thank you so much you bet [Music] capitol police increasing security and warning lawmakers about possible protests because of a conspiracy theory claiming that this thursday march 4th is the true inauguration day for former president trump the acting sergeant at arms issuing a security alert saying at this time the united states capitol police has no indication that groups will travel to washington d.c to protest or commit acts of violence however as a precaution and to support the safety and security of members and staff the uscp will have additional personnel posted throughout capitol grounds nbc news capitol hill correspondent leanne caldwell joining me now leanne what are you hearing from lawmakers about this new warning from the sergeant at arms kind of scary stuff even if they don't think that anyone is necessarily heading to the capitol well the capital security including the sergeant-at-arms are doing their due diligence here especially after what happened january 6 and lawmakers are still extremely pressed on getting answers on how the security failures happened nearly two months ago but this warning went to all congressional offices on capitol hill and just informing them that they are aware and that they are monitoring is the real message there of course there is still the security perimeter and the fencing around the capitol we are instill this kind of fortress-like atmosphere the national guard is still here as well as there's been a lot of reluctance by capital security to take that down at this moment at least through the president's joint address to congress later this month but but the message was that they are monitoring they are aware and that they say they are on top of it should anything happen even though they aren't necessarily expecting it to allison lee and democrats started their annual issues conference today other than covet relief what are some of the big items on their agenda democrats have a long agenda list uh and that has been reiterated by house speaker nancy pelosi including in a closed-door meeting with her leadership last night and that agenda list includes lgbtq rights which the house passed last year the george floyd policing bill which they are expected to move to the floor this week voting rights access immigration gun control and the list goes on and on but still plaguing democrats is what to do with this minimum wage component that has been stripped from this coveted bill because it does not comply with senate rules let's take a listen to what house speaker nancy pelosi said about the minimum wage just a few minutes ago the fight for 15 is one that many of us have been involved in for a few years and just because this may not survive the senate right now doesn't mean that that fight is anywhere near over this pathetic minimum wage seven and a quarter all these years later is really a gift to underwrite those who will not who are exploiting their workers in many respects some people just can't afford businesses just can't afford to pay the full fifteen dollars and we want to help them so the minimum wage continues to be a major priority for democrats something that they say impacts especially women workers of color it impacts more than 30 million people and they are vowed to get it done they just aren't sure yet how to do it allison lien you have some new reporting today on growing frustrations among moderate democrats about their party's leadership tell us more what are their main concerns here well some of these moderates are concerned and they're growing frustrated because the democrats how the house democratic leadership is continuing to pass a lot of this legislation these priorities without republican support they are not changing the bills then any way that they as they were passed last year when there was no chance of them being brought up in the senate but now that there's a democratic-led senate and a democrat in the white house these moderates are saying let's work with republicans because we know that we need some republicans in order for this legislation to pass the senate and they say that it's not being done they say they came to congress not to pass messaging bills but to pass laws and they are really concerned about the impact the the outcome of this priority list because of the partisan nature now this a lot of the progressives their responses well that's why the senate needs to get rid of the 60-vote threshold known as the filibuster so they can pass legislation along party lines that's what they say needs to be done regarding the minimum wage the equality act regarding lgbtq rights the george floyd policing bill and the list goes on and on on all of these democratic priorities but the senate has not yet said that they're going to get rid of the filibuster and they don't have the votes yet to do it either alison so they seem to be still in this political stalemate even though democrats control two of the branches of government all right leanne caldwell updating us on the latest from capitol hill we appreciate it thank you [Music] the white house brokering a historic new deal between pharmaceutical giants johnson and johnson and merck to boost vaccine supply here's white house press secretary jen saki certainly having three vaccines approved by the fda the fact that we have taken these actions we have used the full power of the federal government to expedite the manufacturing that certainly should expedite the process and should make vaccines more readily available to americans president biden says to talk about this partnership later today he also met again today with senate democrats as they take up his sweeping coveted rescue package this week nbcnews.com senior white house reporter shannon petty piece joining me now from washington d.c shannon let's begin with that j j merck deal how did the white house help bring two longtime competitors together well what sake said is that when the administration learned recently that johnson johnson was having some manufacturing issues the federal government stepped in to try and expedite this process but we know there's been a lot of talk and speculation for a while about drug makers pairing up to help ramp up production and to help each other out to meet this capacity so this is something that has been discussed and speculated about for months now but of course there are things the federal government can do to get involved in uh helping speed this along for example any manufacturing plant or facility where a vaccine is going to be made that has to be approved and cleared by fda regulators so that's the type of stuff that the federal government can step in and expedite we're expecting to hear more uh in the next hour or so as you mentioned from president biden who's going to make an announcement around this soon shannon on covet relief some democrats are still proposing changes to the bill they cannot afford to lose any votes here so what is president biden's strategy to get everyone on board to pass his plan right he he continues to have meetings with democrats meeting with house democrats senate democrats uh today you know as you heard leanne mentioning a few moments ago there is this conflict a bit i guess i don't know if conflict's a little strong but a departing of ways to some extent between the progressive wing of the party and and the more moderate wing of the party particularly when it comes to the issue of minimum wage at this point most indications are that the democrats will stick together and vote on this current proposal but going forward progressives are still going to want to see some sort of 15 minimum wage it is unclear if the white house wants to use the political capital use the oxygen that it takes to get through a separate minimum wage proposal they have been talking about moving on and focusing on infrastructure and they know they don't have the votes to get a minimum wage increase at 15 through the regular legislative process because then they'd have to get republicans on board so i think that's going to continue to be a tension point going forward doesn't look like it's going to be enough to impact this current relief bill but it was something we should expect to hear down the road as more future pieces of legislation come up shannon the treasury department announcing new penalties against russia today for the poisoning and imprisonment of alexey navalny what else do you know about the biden administration's plan to hold moscow accountable here right well these sanctions go after seven senior russian officials a number of russian companies they largely mirror what the european union did last fall that the trump administration declined to join into and at that time former president trump declined to even assign any blame to the attack on navalny so it certainly represents a shift in u.s relations towards russia the biden administration says they are trying to send a signal to russia that hostile actions will have severe consequences but they are acknowledging at the same time that the u.s needs to continue to work with russia particularly on matters like the middle east like north korea so they are not seeking to escalate tensions here but mainly send a signal that actions will have consequences all right shannon petty peace thank you it is time to check in with nbc news now correspondent simone boyce has the very latest headlines from nbcnews.com simone what's happening well nigerian officials say almost 280 schoolgirls were released after a group of gunmen abducted them last week the incident was the latest in a series of mass kidnappings in the west african nation and this is the story that everyone has been talking about on social media today dr seuss enterprises will stop publishing six books due to racist and insensitive imagery the books include if i ran the zoo as well as and to think that i saw it on mulberry street and volvo cars says it will go fully electric by the year 2030. the company is looking to remove cars with internal combustion engines in order to meet this goal and civil rights icon and former clinton advisor vernon jordan died yesterday at the age of 85. in a statement bill and hillary clinton wrote vernon jordan brought his big brain and strong heart everything and everybody he touched alison i'll send it back to you all right simone thank you so much [Music] shortness of breath fatigue hair loss some people dealing with these symptoms for months after having coveted 19. medical experts haven't figured out yet why long-haulers are experiencing these chronic symptoms but the national institutes of health is studying them to find out here's nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk hey there allison these so-called long haulers have only been identified very recently the virus really hasn't been around that long what's striking is how little we know about it and when researchers at the nih realized what was going on they went to congress launching this billion dollar study to try to understand why some people can get rid of covid but not the symptoms imagine having a fever for nearly a year starts out in the 99 range in the morning and escalates throughout the day to the 101 range after getting sick with covet 19 last march 47 year old amy watson is technically virus free but she is still suffering symptoms she says she coined the phrase long haulers on april 29th i created long-haul coveted fighters i named it after trucker cap that i wore to my drive up covet test the name stuck and the support group she started just keeps growing it's taking a long time for the medical community to catch up to where we are and we are suffering and we need help the nih wants to change that launching a billion dollar initiative to study long haulers respiratory viruses like a cold if it's minor or the flu if it's not so minor people tend to get better after a couple of weeks and with covid for a lot of people that doesn't seem to be happening the brain fog just won't go away body aches tired can't think straight my chest hurts feels off like i'm searching for words nih director dr francis collins says there is no pattern to who gets hit with long covet young old some really sick with covet at first while others weren't sick at all we know there are people that have had these lasting effects for months do you suspect it could be longer than that years even i fear that some people who have had these effects who are already three or four months out may not be on a path to get better in a few more months and this could be something that becomes a chronic illness while there are still many questions medical professionals say there are theories about the cause one is that the immune system clears the virus but just keeps on fighting as if it's there nih neurologist dr avindra nath showed us what that can do to the brain so those little marks right there that are on that slide they shouldn't be there they shouldn't be there all this green stuff should not be there you said earlier they're leaking the damage of the blood vessels allows the leakage of this protein into the brain itself i'm not a neurologist but leaking in the brain is not a good thing right not a good sign unfortunately the brains he is studying are from people who died suddenly from covet but didn't have serious symptoms dr nas says this brain damage may not be severe enough to kill someone but could be the cause of some of the long-haul or symptoms amy watson who is still unable to return to her teaching job in portland will soon be taking part in the nih study i'll be able to access treatment that will help lessen my symptoms and make me feel normal again i just want to get back to my life a lot of the long haulers that we spoke to told us that one of the problems they've had one of the challenges is trying to convince the people around them that what they're going through is actually connected to covid and before this nih study even really gets off the ground what it does for them is provide a kind of validation while also promising to look for a way to help them alison to drug makers joining forces to get more vaccines out to americans merck will help produce johnson and johnson's covenant shot as part of a deal brokered by the biden administration let's bring in nbc news medical contributor and former obama white house health policy director dr kavita patel dr patel it's always great to see you especially on a day with news like this so we know merck tried to develop its own vaccine but scrapped the drug after got some unsuccessful trial results how significant is this new partnership with johnson and johnson i'm not a medical expert but it sounds like a big deal to me yeah allison it's great news in what i think has been important great news just with the authorization of the johnson johnson vaccine over the weekend itself here's what it really means number one it was the result of the biden administration using the defense production act to really scour the country look for manufacturers that have the capacity to help build more vaccines simply put and its second significance has to do with what's very true merck is a rival to johnson and johnson in a number of ways so this is unusual for kind of competitors to be this cooperative and then number three good news allison it means we're gonna get more vaccines not right away because you can't just make it it's not like you know me running to a printer and just copying a piece of paper but we will get more vaccines to americans as a result of this probably after two months at least sounds like a pretty big net positive glad to hear that let's talk about variance people with covid19 immunity are still getting affected we under infected rather we understand with the brazil p1 variant according to some early research now these are studies that have not yet been published in scientific journals but how concerned are you that new variants could derail our progress in the fight against covid yeah allison and just briefly that research you mentioned came out of brazil where they found as many as 25 to 61 of infections were probably reinfections due to this variant and that's very alarming and it tells us that as you're asking you know the variants concern us the p1 which emanated from brazil really concerns me because it kind of is telling us that our immune system might not protect us from another infection if we see that variant the good news is that all of these vaccines that we've been talking about that are authorized have some effectiveness against these variants so it's important to get those shots in arms quickly but i really do think allison this means that we are not going to have just one set of coveted vaccines looking at these variants it points to the fact that we are probably going to need at least a yearly if not seasonal covet vaccine in colorado more than 800 people dr patel were reinfected with covet 19 according to state health officials so what do we know about possible reinfections here in the u.s whether this has to do with variants how common this is do we have much information here yeah it's a great question so look first of all we've all we now have had a year of people bust with covid so a lot of these infections that they're seeing in colorado are actually what we would call second infections allison think of it as you getting the cold twice in one year it's not from that same first kind of virus or reaction but a whole new virus that kind of infected you giving you the same symptoms so if it's been more than 90 days what we think was the immunity from that first infection has not been long enough to protect you from getting a second infection to your point though they're looking to see if people have been reinfected by doing genetic sampling of the actual virus that they were infected with and in many cases they're finding it's still rare to be truly reinfected but when they do it is from these variants and it is concerning so bottom line we need to probably make sure that people who had infections way early in the year in march they really do when they're trying to get vaccinated don't just think that because you had the infection that's your immunity lasts for very long dr patel enlarged lymph nodes could be a covid vaccine side effect and in some cases they could be mistaken for cancer according to a new york times report what else can you tell our viewers about this and what should they know not just about this but if there are any other new vaccine side effects that we're learning about as people start to get vaccinated in larger numbers yeah i think that i have a lot of patients who are women who are at the age where they need to get their mammograms and a lymph node just as a reminder is kind of in parts of your body it's in your in your neck area in your armpits and in your groin and it's kind of where your body body's immune system revs up to help fight so lymph nodes can be enlarged when you have an infection and we've noticed that after vaccines the coca-19 vaccine and other vaccines as well allison that you can get sometimes some temporarily enlarged lymph nodes when you go in for a mammogram or a ct scan it can show up and be flagged by a radiologist as abnormal so a little pro tip get your mammograms women get your mammograms before you get your coping vaccine or at least when you get your covered vaccine space out your mammograms at least six weeks after the vaccination both dose one or dose two if you're getting the two doses and then what it tells us about other side effects allison is that you know this wasn't something that was really researched in the study trials so we're seeing effects like that we're also seeing some cross reactivity from the tb test it tells us that anything that can make your immune system kind of respond like a vaccine could potentially be seen as another type of infection or response in your body bottom line when you go to the doctor make sure they know when you've been vaccinated or when you're planning to get vaccinated so that we can time these things for you as a patient dr patel that is great advice and i personally thank you as someone who is thinking as soon as i get vaccinated i'm going to run out and make all of those doctors appointments that i've been putting off during covid so great advice to know about spacing those out really appreciate it a last question for you texas governor abbott announcing today the state is fully reopening 100 percent ending its mass mandate increasing capacity at all businesses and facilities uh your thoughts on that move right now yeah very disturbing i'm my heart's in texas my family's there parents and siblings and i grew up there and i will tell you allison this is not the time to do that attempting god knows i want 100 of our country to reopen but we are right at that important fork in the road where what we're doing now will make a difference four to six weeks from now so that allison we can fully reopen sooner rather than later i worry that a hundred percent is just going to send an incredible opportunity especially because most texans have not been vaccinated yet they're still in the less than 10 population so my worry is that this will just give the variance a heyday to reproduce and we could see a mini surge in the state of texas and surrounding that because of people's travel dr patel with texas roots her mug gives her away thank you so much thank you thanks [Music] illinois now the first date to offer medicaid access to low-income seniors regardless of immigration status the policy expected to help 4 600 people who previously didn't have insurance nbc news now correspondent mora barrett shows us how it's already changing lives [Music] is [Music] juan is one of 2200 people with what they call a new lease on life and a restored peace of mind for their families juan's daughter there's been an impact i think to know in one way or another that he can pick up the phone and just call his primary care doctor so that has been so relieving that didn't used to be the case for juan who immigrated to the u.s and was uninsured but now illinois is the first state to offer medicaid access to low-income immigrant seniors whether they're legal permanent residents or undocumented state representative delia ramirez sponsored the bill that made it possible but getting her colleagues on board took some time in your eyes what role did the pandemic play in the ability for the legislation to be passed the reason that the legislation passed was because of this pandemic but a number of people who have not really seen the impact and disparities particularly for the most vulnerable undocumented saw it face to face during this pandemic they saw that seniors were dying they were dying because by the time they made it to the hospital they weren't just having to deal with covet they had diabetes they had blood pressure issues that they had not received medication for and they saw that kovit was killing people and it was a human rights violation this neighborhood has the third most coveted cases of any zip code statewide and in this vibrant community about two-thirds of the senior population are immigrants this community is a predominantly latino working class community a lot of folks who reside in the area are undocumented they're hardworking essential workers who have been exposing themselves and continue to expose themselves uh to covid because of the reality that they have to step outside of their home in order to earn a living jeff mcginnis and miguel blancarte work at esperanza health center where nearly half of their senior patients are eligible for this new program we have a high rate of uninsured patients if you're uninsured you frequently will defer care and if you're a senior that can be deadly if these individuals would have the opportunity to prevent self-care they wouldn't end up in an emergency room nearly dying and that cost us three to one more than if they had the access to health care coverage to begin with in total the policy is expected to cost the state about 50 million dollars a year according to the illinois department of health care and family services the cost to ensure an individual senior would be about 8 500 per year but keeping seniors uninsured costs too the average charge to an uninsured hospitalized covid19 patient is 42 to 74 000 for a six-day stay i think that is more critical than ever ever that people come out of the shadows and get the care that they need so concerns about privacy especially around immigration status have always been something that we're very sensitive to and you know as a result we don't collect or maintain any information on our patients with respect to their immigration status while illinois is the first state to successfully pass this type of policy it's certainly not the only state to try california attempted to pass a similar plan but failed and in may of 2020 illinois republicans said the plan was part of a quote irresponsible budget providing quote free health care for illegal immigrants do you see this being an opportunity for other states to adopt the same model i absolutely believe so there are far more people that needed this program than we even thought the data doesn't even begin to show the need juan and elizabeth want more families nationwide to share their experiences [Music] if everyone has the same ability to seek care i think overall it makes us a stronger and healthier society a stronger and healthier community [Music] it's a brand new book out today lucky how joe biden barely won the presidency in it nbc news digital senior national political reporter jonathan allen and his co-author amy parnes write this book is about the reality of the 2020 election it is about joe biden's victory over trump it is the story of a candidate whose life politics and message best met the moment as judged by the collective wisdom of the 155 million-plus americans who cast ballots john allen joins me live now john first of all a huge congratulations on the book and a big thanks to your people they sent me a pdf of it because i pre-ordered lucky from an online retail giant whom i will not name here and sadly my copy is coming tomorrow uh let me tell you though nothing is more fun on a monday night after work than trying to read a 413-page book with the words embargoed stamped on every single page so thank you for that uh but jokes aside look at that beauty it is a terrific book john thank you so much allison and uh i love you with all my heart for pre-ordering it even if it didn't get there on time and i apologize uh imagine all the people that had to hand stamp embargo over and over and over again i mean that is some serious work you have a serious team they're also i appreciate and i notice your little tuesday sign there on the bookshelf because i have to be honest with you until tacos are served in my home uh i'm not sure what day it is so i wasn't i wasn't entirely clear all right enough of the fun let's get into this awesome book you open the author's note of lucky with this the day before we finished work on this book president donald trump incited his followers to march to the capitol storm into the people's house and commit acts of terrorism against the united states of america john you say this is the story of a candidate who met the moment how did the capital riots put that into perspective as you were finishing up this book jobin campaigned on restoring the soul of the nation sometimes he said battling for the soul of the nation his basic campaign promise was that he would take down the temperature that he would govern seriously uh that he would uh strengthen institutions rather than weakening them and i think what we saw uh over the course of time with biden was that he was extremely resilient and so the title lucky talks about all the breaks that went his way um you can go through a fourth place finish in iowa that was obscured by the fact that the caucus's application didn't work out folks probably remember iowa caucus night nobody could tell who won um you know almost running out of money in new hampshire or a distant second in nevada and then the sort of resurrection in south carolina that he went through uh you know on the strength of largely african-american voters and the endorsement of jim clyburn go through all that in the primary um and he then has a candidate he's running against in the general election donald trump who manages to bungle the the major crisis that he faces in office and so you go through all those things you say look joe biden uh you know put himself in a position to take advantage of all the breaks that went his way in a similar fashion our founding fathers put together this incredible architecture of a government that could bend without breaking that could undergo a lot of duress and people uh often say that luck is the residue of design and amy and i uh write that it was for joe biden and it was for our republic john a lot of people know about some of the big campaign moments right kamala harris saying that little girl was me to go after biden on school busing of the democratic debate jim clyburn's endorsement as you mentioned uh the fly on mike pence's head at the vice presidential debate but some of the lesser-known tidbits in this book are really fascinating the biden campaign superstitions about tacos and getting haircuts on election day those little things really added so much color to it uh could you tell us one or two more like little things like that that the average person wouldn't know sure absolutely allison you know it's funny uh we talk about writing uh in a fly on the wall style we never thought we'd be writing a fly on the head uh scene in the book but sure enough it was there um sure so when you talk about some of those just little moments and you mentioned the food superstition at joe biden headquarters because there were a couple of uh days where they ordered uh district taco and bad things happened so steve roshetti is now counselor to the president banned district taco at campaign headquarters um but you know there are a number of of those sorts of moments where you kind of sit back and and chuckle to yourself or think about kind of a missed uh thing that happened you know mike bloomberg gets torched in a debate by elizabeth warren essentially knocking him out of uh contention and he was sort of breathing over joe biden's shoulder even before getting into the primary he goes on a debate stage kind of gets knocked out and afterward he's so phased uh that he's uh he's sort of wandering around by himself off stage you know kind of mumbles a hello to people to judge but um very clearly kind of lost in his own thoughts after what was perhaps the worst debate drubbing in presidential campaign history um so you know there are a lot of moments like that uh in this book and um you know i hope folks will take a look and and read it like you did and thank you for reading it oh my god i enjoyed it it was a fun night i i pulled up a bag of chips and i was i settled in for the evening it was great john we have to talk about covid you mentioned it and how that changed the 2020 election you write on february 12th about two weeks before trump's internal polling hit a new peak his campaign manager brad parscale issued the president a warning speaking by phone to trump and a small group of his white house aides parscal said the coronavirus was one thing that could derail the trump train uh let's just talk a little bit more about the role that kovid played in joe biden's presidential victory it's um it's impossible to uh overstate the importance of kovind for so many reasons in biden's victory i mean number one it created the contrast in such stark relief that he had hoped uh at the beginning of the campaign he would be able to draw with donald trump which is one of his empathy and compassion uh versus trump who barely ever talked about the death toll of disease you know biden uh biden's strength as a politician his strength in governing is uh is not uh his ability necessarily on the campaign trail these days um this was a situation where he now uh because of covid because he's decided to stay at home and observe and model behavior for others uh he he wasn't in um in a lot of situations where it was likely that he was going to foul up or have an unscripted moment that was something his advisors were always at least a little bit worried about one of his top advisors anita dunn told an associate uh that covid was the best thing that ever happened to biden and and the meaning of that you know probably more than anything was it simply allowed him to be scripted uh allowed him to have the message that he wanted to have and be very clear with it when he when he gave it and also to step away from the stage and let donald trump stand in front of the american people and uh and and hurt his own campaign hurt his own standing with the public um with moments like when he was at the white house and and said that people should uh inject bleach to try to combat uh covid so um you know we talked to a lot of sources inside the biden campaign it's not something they want to talk about publicly but they know uh that the disease was something that helped them politically there were so few things in these there are so few things in these partisan times that change people's minds but uh it's very clear that uh kovid was something that the president didn't recover from politically in large part because he he didn't really shift course on john we got to talk about the vice presidential pick uh you write the killing of george floyd on memorial day permanently altered the dynamics of the vice presidential search tell us more about joe biden's decision here would you describe as head versus heart yeah so we'll go back for a moment because you'd ask about kind of funny moments or interesting moments uh in the campaign uh in the south carolina primary debate uh right before that jim clyburn had told by and he wanted biden to announce that he was going to pick an african-american woman for the supreme court this mattered more to clyburn than an african-american uh vice president because he believed that the supreme court justices can have more lasting power with their lifetime appointments if you look at uh for instance what thurgood marshall has meant for juris prudence uh in the in the generation or so after he left the court um so you go back to that moment and jim clyburn's watching biden on stage and biden's not saying it and not saying it not saying it clyburn jumps up uh runs backstage in a commercial break and says goodbye you better not leave this stage without saying um you know and uh um so you know that was sort of one of those moments and uh and now i'm forgotten sorry i also forgot the original question no i know where you were going with this one john because he wanted him to mention that he would pick and make an african-american supreme court he messed that up and this leads us to the vp yeah right and so and so he calls biden calls climber before he's going to make his pick and as you said he's the biden says to climber i'm struggling between my head and my heart and his head told him kamala harris bowling told him kamala harris a lot of people told him kamala harrison by this point biden had promised in a subsequent debate that he was going to pick a woman uh the george floyd uh killing really changed the dynamics and that that really started to narrow the field more closely to an african-american woman it wasn't just african-american women in the pool at the end uh elizabeth warren who's white and gretchen whitmer the governor of michigan were among the sort of finalists but that also came down uh not only to harris but to stacy abrams uh from georgia and to susan rice the former national security adviser who's now the domestic policy council chief um and and ultimately uh you know there was some friction between biden and harris the moment you mentioned earlier with bossing in an early debate um but biden ended up going with uh going with his head which was kind of a no-brainer john i have more questions i would ask what my producers are telling me i gotta wrap it up the book is so good uh i really enjoyed it i mean as someone who covered this day in and day out i thought i knew a lot about what was going on during that campaign and i learned so much so a big thanks to you for being on congrats on the book i know this is not your first rodeo uh but it's just terrific congratulations thank you so much for having me on allison good to see you soon lucky how joe biden barely won the presidency out today you're the first and only black female residency program director in the history of tulane school of medicine it came with a lot of weight but it also came with what i began to see a pattern of exclusion and a pattern of abuse in october 2020 dr princess dinner filed a federal lawsuit accusing tulane of discrimination and creating a quote race and gender-based hostile environment for her and her students minority residents particularly black and brown residents were being evaluated very differently among other allegations dinner's lawsuit claims residents from minority backgrounds were forced to take on a quote more difficult rotation schedule than their white classmates they were burdened with not having an equitable educational experience in comparison to their white counterparts less than five months after her suit was filed dinner was suspended from her leadership position after 13 years in the role the first people i think i thought about were my residents oh my goodness what's going to happen to them who's going to stand up for them but overnight the school reversing course lee hamm the dean of tulane school of medicine issued a statement reading in part after careful consideration yesterday evening i offered to end the interim suspension and restore dr dinner as program director of medpedes this offer is predicated on dr dinner's acceptance of several support mechanisms to help ensure issues reviewed do not reoccur adding quote i am committed to our important work to end racial disparities in the health system and believe that tulane must be part of the solution dr denner says she plans to review the offer with her attorney but added racism and sexism have not been addressed in the offer issues that dinner says came up even before she landed the position during the interview the chairman who at the time and now the current dean made a remark to me and that remark was that we don't want to change the face of tulane and that white applicants medical students would not follow or rank favorably a program that has a black program director the dean of tulane's med school denied allegations of discrimination and unfair treatment if you don't value someone as powerful as dr dinner how can we be convinced right now in medical school that at some point you will value us you can just cancel dr dinner after all she's accomplished after all she's done who are we third year med student russell leday organized this now viral photo 15 black doctors in training on a louisiana plantation an inspiration he hopes for the next generation we need more doctors in our city we specifically need more black doctors in our city and dinner says in medical schools black women physicians are either being pushed out or they're leaving academia only five percent of all doctors in the u.s are black the percent who teach in medical schools is even lower at 3.6 according to a report by the american association of medical colleges we have a lot more work to do in terms of valuing diversity and what diverse people bring to leadership positions the controversy has attracted national attention thanks in part to an online campaign calling on med students to boycott or quote do not rank tulane when raiding residency programs experts fear this could hurt students and patients in the predominantly black city of new orleans we got some black people at tulane who are pretty vulnerable there now we have black students there who need support we have black patients there who need to see black doctors so i personally am concerned about a campaign to say okay now let's have no black people go there until they straighten this out i'm concerned that that is putting to some extent the blacks who are there the black patients and the black trainees at risk capers says real change must come from within the best way to hold our academic medical centers accountable will be with accreditation and then ultimately with funding diversifying medicine is an excellence initiative we're not doing it because we like to see diversity in the graduation photo it makes us better why did you stay so long and endure all of this why because i'm human and so there are many times i wanted to walk away and i thought about my four daughters i thought about them living in a world who they also want to be physicians living in a world where they didn't have to go through what i'm going through and i stayed because i don't want them to have to fight this fight hey nbc news viewers thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

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Keywords: NBC News NOW, Joe Biden, More From Stream, Coronavirus, Coronavirus - Politics, nbc news, nbc, breaking news, us news, world news, politics, nightly news, current events, top stories, pop culture, Johnson & Johnson, Merck partnership, President Joe Biden, Vaccine, Covid-19 vaccine, coronavirus latest news, coronavirus update, covid-19 news, coronavirus news, johnson and johnson, covid-19 updates, covid vaccine, pandemic, cdc, FBI, Christopher wray, FBI director, Capitol

Id: g4wEJR3EfYI

Length: 51min 52sec (3112 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 02 2021