this is a tough night. we mark one year of our nightmare collectively, right? here at cnn and our family, it's not just tough because what we've all lived through with covid. the president was right. we need to be the answer for one another, and that is brought home in such painful variety today. yeah, it's a year for all of us. but there's something else today should have been. today would also have been the first birthday for a very special little girl to us, francesca, known forever as beans. that's what they called her. the daughter of our dear friend and colleague, the brain behind the k-file, investigative genius. his wife, rachel, beans smiled bravely in the face of another health monster, a rare form of brain cancer. she fought. they fought. they moved. they did everything. they believed. they loved. inspired all of us. with what they were clear eyed and committed to. she didn't make it. she fought. she died on christmas eve. i remember it. i remember hearing about it and the heartbreak. and then soon after, the hope that andrew and his wife had that they could do something for somebody else. bean's short life would inspire a long commitment to what people at dana farber cancer institute do. i want you to be on team beans. now, this hat, cnn put together for us. it's a really good thing to do, by the way, unusual in my business. team beans. now, i am going to start a little action on social media. and whoever wants this hat the most will get it and i will send you everything that we do for my show as well, and i will owe you one. if we can raise money and help another family, what a beautiful thing. you go to teambeans.shop. i'll tweet out the link. if you want this hat, make me an offer. thank you for watching tonight. let's get to the big show. "cnn tonight" with the big show d. lemon. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a wore this today. i wore this one as well. this is scott beagle. he died in the marjory stoneman douglas school shooting. so, the mask makes us remember covid. and this for really amazing colleague and his entire family, team beans. i went there today. so, make sure everybody, you go there, you support it and it goes to supporting cancer foundation. and not one more child should have to deal with this. not one more family should have to deal with it. >> kids are going to lose but we can make a difference. and the reason we did is, look, we care about our own always. but andrew and his wife, special people that fought a hell of a fight and really did it in an inspirational way. i've never seen people come together around their kid any better than they did and made all of us them and beans. make me an offer. highest offer will get the hat and everything i offer on the show. i'll tell you, this is an emotional time. we all lived through such horrors this last year. everybody lost something or someone. and now we're trying to figure out how to mark mark life going forward, whether the loss is permanent as it was with beans or temporary like with me with the long haul thing. my daughter turns 18 tomorrow, my biggest one. >> oh, wow. yeah. >> you know, it really makes you think. everybody says it went by in a blink. no, it didn't. no, it didn't. it's 18 years is a lot of time and it just makes us all remember -- >> joe biden, before he was president, first time in the white house as vice president, he lost two children. he lost his wife. and you could feel in his speech tonight the compassion that he had -- that he has. and i think for the time that we're in right now with covid, with people suffering so many losses, with just what's happening in the country, the right person, the right time at the moment, that's not political. that's coming from a place in the heart, a compassionate place of the heart. i have to tell you, we're thinking about everybody who has suffered from covid, all the losses we've had, and especially the kusinski family right now. chris, i love you. i'll see you tomorrow night. >> i love you, don lemon, especially tonight. team beans. >> make sure you go to the site and check it out. this is cnn tonight, i'm don lemon. thank you so much for joining. so, we have breaking news. i think it is fair to say, and i think you'll agree, most of you, the country is at a turning point tonight and the president of the united states speaking to the american people in his first primetime address on where we stand after a year of covid. this has been a long tortuous year. don't you think? a long year. think about everything we've gone through. the quarantine, the lockdowns, the misinformation, the crazy statements, fighting over masks, all of that. but right now where we are, this president is promising every one of us, every adult will be eligible for a vaccine no later than may 1st, urging americans not to let masks divide us. condemning hate crimes against asian americans as wrong and unamerican. and demanding they stop. >> too often we've turned against one another. a mask. the easiest thing to do to save lives, sometimes it divides us. states turning against one another instead of working with each other. vicious hate crimes against asian americans who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated. at this very moment so many of them, our fellow americans, on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives, and still -- still they are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in america. it's wrong. it's unamerican. and it must stop. >> compare that to the racist memes names for the pandemic that the other president called. none of it tonight, none of it, not a trace. how refreshing. how human. how compassionate. how american. president biden acknowledging it won't be easy, saying, i need you to get vaccinated and wear masks to get us to something close to normal by the 4th of july. >> i promise i will do everything in my power, i will not relent until we beat this virus. but i need you, the american people, i need you -- i need every american to do their part. this is hyperbole. i need you to get vaccinated when it's your turn and when you can find an opportunity. and to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get vaccinated as well. because here's the point. if we do all this, if we do our part, we do this together, by july the 4th, there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or your neighborhood and have a cookout or barbecue and celebrate independence day. >> what the president is saying is, help is on the way. that's how the preacher says it on sunday morning, right? help is on the way. come on, everybody. help is on the way. if you just do your part. right? there was no, i alone can fix this. no, no. no, i know better than the generals. how about, we're all in this together. i need your help. we're all americans. whew! ham lieu i can't. hallelujah. how different is that. how different from the me, me, me, me, me. me, me, me that we heard for four years. i need you. now the president has to deliver, though, on his promises. and on the monumental covid relief bill that he signed just today. all that as we mark one year of covid. a year like nothing we have ever seen really in most of our lifetimes in this country, nothing. the deadliest year in the recorded history of the united states. think about that. the deadliest year in the recorded history of the united states, a year of covid and a year of lessons about leadership. exactly one year ago the then president of the united states said this. >> the vast majority of americans, the risk is very, very low. >> now here we are after a year of denial. of downplaying the virus. of saying it would just go away like magic. saying, we can inject disinfectant. after a year of lies. that cost the lives of more than 530,000 americans. we can never, ever, ever forget those who we lost. but if president biden is making his promise to keep covid relief his first priority, the gop or the gqp is completely failing to meet the moment. republicans are hard at work trying to disenfranchise americans in a voter suppression effort, the likes of which we have not seen since jim crow. there are more than 250 bills nationwide to roll back voter access. 24 of them in arizona alone since january. where one arizona republican is really -- he is taking saying the quiet part out loud to new heights, or maybe probably better, new depths. senator kavanaugh, arizona statehouse, putting it right out in the open here. listen to this, okay. he says, quote, everybody shouldn't be voting. i'll say that again. he says, "everybody shouldn't be voting. not everybody wants to vote. and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they're totally uninformed on the issues. quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes as well." do you believe it? he actually said that out loud. now you know the thinking. everybody shouldn't be voting. you mean like when voters had to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar, like that kind of stuff? like when black folks were turned away? like that kind of stuff? like poll taxes? you know what i'm talking about. suppression. you mean like when literacy tests were used to keep people of color and sometimes poor whites from casting ballots? what he is saying is the definition of voter suppression. because you know why? everybody should be voting. that is the american way. that is the foundation of our democracy. free, free, free and fair elections. not quality of votes. free and fair. if you care about democracy, then you want everybody to vote. everyone is equal under the law. come on. everyone is equal under the law. not the quality of this person's vote is better than the quality of this person's vote. that's not how our democracy works. and if joe biden vowed to open up vaccines to all american adults by may 1st, his predecessor is trying to take credit 0 for it. look, the vaccines were developed under the trump administration. the former president who was secretly vaccinated, by the way, in the white house, for him to now want to take credit for vaccines is really something. is it any wonder he is the only living president who wasn't photographed getting vaccinated? the only one. is it any wonder he's not part of the president's club urging americans to get vaccinated? >> in order to get rid of this pandemic, it's important for our fellow citizens to get vaccinated. >> i'm getting vaccinated because we want to end this as soon as possible. >> we urge to get vaccinated as soon as possible. >> so roll up your sleeve and do your part. >> now it's up to you. >> ah. there's one in every bunch. or in this case, there's one not in every bunch. and over at the fox propaganda network, the people who brought you the gop outrage machine with dr. seuss, mr. potato head and neanderthal thinking, now we have tucker carlsson single handedly managing to turn the military against him. really. this is how you appeal to the gop base, by infuriating the military with slurs against women in uniform? okay, i hope everyone is sitting. turn up the volume because you have to hear it to believe it. rolling. >> so we've got new hair styles and maternity flight suits. pregnant women are going to fight our wars. it's a mockery of the u.s. military. while china's military becomes more masculine as it assembles the world's largest navy, our military needs to become -- mr. biden says, more feminine. whatever feminine means any more since men and women no longer exist. the bottom line is it's out of control, and the pentagon is going along with this. this is a mockery of the u.s. military and its core mission, which is winning wars. >> i told you. a mockery. a mockery. pregnant woman in uniform a mockery. how do you think he got here? can i tell you what's a mockery? let me tell you what's a mockery. a host on the fox propaganda network who never -- never served in the military mocking women who do. that's what a mockery is. the pentagon incensed at the disrespect of women in the armed forces, pentagon spokesperson john kirby said, secretary of defense showed the same revulsion as many military leaders. >> we absolutely won't do is take personnel advice from a talk show host on the chinese military. maybe those folks feel they have something to prove. that's on them. >> mr. secretary, certainly he shares the revolt of so many others to what mr. carlsson said in his opening statement. >> new jersey congresswoman mikey cheryl said, who spent almost ten years on active duty in the navy, by the way, tweets that she served with women who risked their lives to protect our country. tucker carlson did not. and over on the propaganda fox propaganda network, he is playing the victim after getting called out for mocking the women who served in our armed forces. who risked their lives to protect our country. the pentagon won't stand for it. and we shouldn't either. we shouldn't stand for any of it. not the propaganda, not the voter suppression, none of it. we shouldn't. america is at a turning point right now, as i said, and the president is making some big promises. now he has to deliver on those promises. >> there is hope and light of better days ahead. if we all do our part, this country will be vaccinated soon. our country will be on the mend. our kids will be back in school. and we'll have proven once again that this country can do anything. future. it means healthcare for all. even in places where doctors are scarce. enter medibus, a state-of-the-art clinic on four wheels, powered by cisco, dispatched from the cloud to create a 21st-century lifeline. and all because one company dared wonder if the road to better healthcare could literally be the road that runs through town. cisco. the bridge to possible. that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back. president biden addressing america tonight marking one year of the deadly covid-19 pandemic saying the virus has taken a terrible toll, but often messages of hope. the president it will states to make all adults eligible for vaccine by may 1st. we have a lot to discuss. chief correspondent dana bash is here and kaitlan collins as well. let's start at the white house. president biden addressing the pain of the nation for over a year, but with an eye toward the future, setting some big goals over the next few months. what did we hear? >> yeah, officials said that he really wanted to strike that balance, acknowledging that, yes, you are still seeing 1500 people die every single day. but look ahead to what's going to come. so he was setting some goals tonight. we have dates from president biden and one of the biggest i think and most significant that people are going to be looking at is that may 1st date. saying this is when he's going to direct all states which the white house says he has the authority to do via the health and human services department to make sure all americans are eligible to get the vaccine no later than may 1st. they are talking about tolls to find a way to schedule vaccine points. they're going to have a federal website to look at where the closest vaccine to you is. they'll have a call center for those who don't have access to internet. the other thing i think so many have asked about is when are schools going to reopen and reopen the way we saw them before. they were talking about the money they're going to be investing in doing that as well. looking at that, expanding also as the vaccinations are going forward, who can actually conduct these vaccines. so you saw several steps coming from this, but i think at the end, what you heard from them was saying this is not just on the federal government. it's also on individual americans to make the decision, go out there and get the vaccine when it's their turn. i think he spent part of his speech actually addressing that vaccine hesitancy which you've heard from so many federal health officials which is a concern. when supply is here and people can get it, they will be reluctant to do so. you saw him take time in tonight's speech to address that part of that. >> dana, i want to play a little more of the president tonight and then we'll discuss. here it is. >> it's the details of life that matter of most. and we miss those details, the big details and the small moments. weddings. birthdays. graduations. all the things that needed to happen but didn't. the first date. the family reunions. the sunday night rituals. it's all exacted a terrible cost on the psyche of so many of us. we are fundamentally a people who want to be with others. >> dana, there was compassion, there is empathy there. this is what president biden does very well. what did you think of his tone and message? it wasn't until the end that he touted his rescue plan. >> yeah, that part was vintage joe biden. taking the realities of people's humanity, the realities of what people need and want in their everyday lives and relating to it and making it clear that he understands it. and, you know, that is something that is so basic that we had become, until the last four years, used to seeing and hearing from presidents, you know, the kind of sympathy factor, the empathy factor, and the relatable notion of somebody who is, yes, in the white house who is the most powerful person, you know, in this country and, you know, in the world. but somebody who understands the struggles people are going through and there are few politicians who really get that at their core like joe biden. and, you know, that was a good part of what he was doing tonight. in addition to the policy prescriptions, in addition to the promises that he made that kaitlan was talking about. >> let's talk a little more about the promises. he relayed a story about a woman he said he met on the campaign trail this past summer who said, i just want you to tell me the truth. just tell me the truth. i can handle it. he believes americans want the truth. so, having said that, from the very beginning, dana, president biden has been managing expectations and trying to exceed them. now people are going to be very excited about may 1st and getting life back to normal soon after. is that a risky promise? >> yes, it is a risky promise. but, you know, the fact that this president, who understands the expectations game when it comes to politics and when it comes to leadership felt that he could say and his advisers felt that he could say may 1st, speaks to the competence he clearly has with regard to the supply. there are all kinds of problems with regard to finding a way to get the vaccine, each state, here in d.c., processes are cumbersome and certainly not uniform. the big thing is supply. and the fact that the deal that he helped to bring together unprecedented deal between two major competitors, merck and johnson & johnson, that is one example. and just the fact that there are three really good vaccines on the market of why he felt like he could say that. but to go back to your original question, is it risky? yes, because if he can't get that done, then that's a bar he set for himself. >> kaitlan, we talk about a study in contrasts here. president biden condemning the rise in violence targeting asian americans -- listen, i remember when he -- i'm sure you were there as well. i know you were there as well when he would get into, you know, skirmishes with asian-american reporters at the white house. so talk about a different message than the former president who used to use racist language to describe the virus. >> reporter: