i had a little bit with him tonight. you guys are playing it too safe. and this is a balancing test. okay, there are going to be cases, but the vaccine, the rate of vaccine, who we've gotten vaccinated already, the fact that there is an increase in masks, messaging has been working with trump out of the way, not all surges are the same. and you have to balance that against the depression to the economy, the depression to our way of life of just straight up depression, and you're playing it too safe. >> how -- better safe than sorry. i don't believe in this playing it too safe. >> i agree with you. but i'm saying here's the argument you could make. >> oh, got it. is you're playing it too safe. give me a vaccine passport. i want to be able to go and businesses say the vaccinated only. so don and chris get vaccinated and now we can go to dinner. >> how about what the president said, give me a patriot passport, give me a better countryman passport, an american passport that says we should look out for our fellow man. this is not about being selfish. hey, i got mine. you get yours. that's what people are saying. so if i get this -- if i get the shot, let's say i'm fully vaccinated tomorrow, i'm not going to run out and flaunt it and then take this mask and, like, oh, throw caution to the wind, i'm going to burn it. you know why? because i care about other people. i care about something more than myself. i care that there may be someone who has a preexisting condition who may not have been vaccinated. i care that there is a woman who is trying to get pregnant, who has concerns about the vaccine, and may not have taken it yet. >> i agree. >> or a woman who is pregnant. >> i agree. >> who has not taken the vaccine because she's worried about her unborn kid. i get that? because why? i am a thinking, compassionate, empathetic person and i just don't have politics at the top of my head. >> i agree. >> that's what -- why don't you be a patriot, a decent human being and stop trying to be so negative and get dr. fauci or joe biden. guess what, here's the thing, here's the thing, joe biden is doing a fantastic job when it comes to the pandemic. he's saying all the right things. he's doing all the right things. he's getting shots in people's arms. he's following the science. he's not giving you lies. he's not telling you that light and bleach and disinfectant is going to help you when you inject it inside of your body. so stop it on the right because the guy you had in the office did really dumb stuff and told you crazy things and lied about you, gaslighted you, and you fell for it and you believed it and now you're walking around and you don't want to get the vaccine. why? because you say you don't trust it but you really don't want to get it because joe biden is doing a great job with it. that is the truth. now take that to the bank. >> now, for nose people -- >> or as my grandmother used to say, put that in your pipe and smoke it. >> go on. there is that group, and i think rand paul is probably playing to them. >> yeah. he is. >> that is what it is. >> i need water after that. >> i can imagine, i've never seen anybody say so many words in a row. don't choke. the thing is that you also have a lot of people who would benefit from being incentivized but something in addition to a sense of humanity and altruism. i don't think there's anything wrong with the messaging or political suggestion of that. the science as it's been suggested to us from fauci and others is that it's a maybe, not a must, that if you have the vaccine you can still spread infection. it's a maybe. so the argument becomes, all right, well how much of maybe because you're really not giving people a hell of a lot of incentive to get the vaccine. the vaccine is for you. it keeps you from getting so sick you would have to go to the hospital. it's not so much about transmission. that's what masks are about. so i think that they could play it a little bit more aggressively but that's different than saying you're lying, you don't know, there's no science. that's my -- that's where rand paul and i take ways. there are different ways to look at it but you're looking at it as a position of just bringing down fauci, and that ruins his argument. >> okay, how about -- let's see. so if i was -- i'm coming up with a slogan. so you know how we say don't hate. participate. don't hate if you're extreme on the extremes. moderate. what about that? but the best one i think i just came up with this as you were talking. >> genius. >> don't hate, vaccinate. >> wow. >> how about that? >> i can't believe it took you that long to get to that. i think chacha had that in a project in fifth grade. >> turned it in. >> people have got to get vaccinated. that's how you get back to your loved ones. >> i will tell you this, i have gone over to -- which is near where we work, the javits center, man that is a well run operation. >> it is run well. >> people are not waiting in line. >> to be fair, forget about new york, because that's my brother, right, but biden's doing a good job, i don't disagree with that, his team is doing a good job because they're allowed to do their job and the states are killing themselves to get this done. so there's a lot of components to success. failure has one father. success has many. but biden is not stopping them from doing their job and that can make all the difference. and i look forward to this time that i think the media is getting ahead of. the media is getting ahead of this reverse curve of supply to demand. we're not there yet. >> nope. >> we have a lot of people who want the vaccine and can't get it. you're looking at two of them right now. >> this is what -- see my water? it's more than half full. so that's what i'm thinking. it's not like, you know, almost empty or -- it's more than half full. so the glass is half full, and it's not half empty. so i prefer to be optimistic about the summer, and i prefer to -- don't hate, vaccinate. >> just because you said it doesn't mean nobody else has said it before nor does it make genius. you write one book and all the sudden -- >> here it comes. we've got to get to the news. >> everybody was going to buy it until that. d. lemon, i love you, thank you for sharing your book with the radio audience today. they loved what you had to say. >> they loved what we had to say. >> i didn't get to say much, to be honest. >> that's change because usually you talk more than i do. you love to -- no one loves chris more than chris. if you don't believe him -- >> it's only because i've got no competition. >> chris. >> i've got no competition in loving chris, i come in first every time. i love you, d. lemon. >> cnn tonight, i'm don lemon, thank you for watching, everyone. on to the serious stuff and we all need a little levity and a little friendship and a little love in the times we're in. that's why chris and i do what we do every night. we know where the hate comes from. we don't know yet whether the shooting spree that killed eight people in and around atlanta, six of them asian women, we don't yet whether it was a hate crime. at least not according to police. we know what we think in our heads and where that takes us, where common sense takes us but police haven't declared it that yet. so let's see. but we know hate crimes are on the rise. we know that for sure and we know asian-americans across this country are terrified. >> so is the investigation -- the investigation into a possible hate crime, is that still on the table? >> our investigation is looking at everything, so nothing is off the table for our investigation. >> so that's atlanta police and here's what they're saying. they're saying that they don't have a position on whether this is a hate crime but nothing is off the table, okay, and nothing's off the table. but we do know that the president, president biden and vice president harris are set to meet with atlanta mayor keisha lance bottoms, and asian-american leaders are doing that tomorrow. even before this horrible case, though, these terrible murders, asian-americans faced rising hate, racist comments, serious violence. but like i said we know where the hate comes from. look. we shouldn't dance around this. we should not pretend that we haven't heard it with our own ears over and over and over and over. >> at that time we called it the wuhan virus. wuhan. >> china's cover-up of the wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world. i can name kung flu. i can name 19 different versions of names. kung flu, yes. you know sounds like -- see, i like the china virus. or i like the plague from china. got about 24 names. i can call it from covid to china virus. i can call it the plague. i call it the china plague. we and the whole world got hit with the china virus. the incredible people and families who suffered so gravely from the china virus, it's a horrible thing that was put onto the world. >> so there you go. like all the hate and racism in this country it was here before the trump presidency. it will be here with us long after unless we're willing to do the work to defeat it. but he fed it, and he fed up on it. and when you sow the wind, you know what you reap, right, the whirlwind. mayor keisha lance bottoms telling -- a suspect who killed eight people, six of them asian women, is a white man, who got the bad day defense? >> he understood the gravity of it, and he was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> eight people are dead, six of them asian women. and he was having a bad day. just imagine what they might have said about a black suspect, or a brown suspect, or an asian suspect, or an asian suspect. right? they probably wouldn't have gone right to having a bad day. so the sheriff says those comments weren't intended to disrespect as disrespect for the victims, the gravity of the tragedy, or to express empathy or sympathy for the suspect. but that spokesman captain jay baker has been taken off the spa shooting case. meanwhile photos have surfaced allegedly posted by captain baker showing shirts with a racist anti-asian message about covid-19. shirts that say covid-19 imported virus by chyna -- c-h-y-n-a, with a caption love my shirt, get yours wild they last. we know where that comes from. we know who said chyna over and over and over. the account that posted it has been deleted. cnn was able to access photos through a cash copy. the name on the facebook account matches jay baker, and it claims that the individual is an employee of the cherokee county sheriff's office, when contacted by cnn about the post baker told cnn no additional comment. but you really only need to hear congressman chip roy to understand how big the problems of race is -- big the broproblef race is in this country right smack in the middle of a hearing on discrimination and hate crimes against asian-americans and pacific islanders he equates justice with lynching and then makes it all about himself. launching into a defense of exactly the kind of rhetoric the hearing was supposed to be condemning. >> we believe in justice. there's old sayings in texas about, you know, find the -- all the rope in texas and get a tall oak tree. we take justice very seriously and we ought to do that, round up the bad guys. that's what we believe. my concern about this hearing is that it seems to want to venture into the policing of rhetoric in a free society, free speech, and away from the rule of law and taking out bad guys. i'm not going to be ashamed of saying i oppose the chi christian coms, when we say things like that and we're talking about, we shouldn't be worried about having a committee of members of congress policing our rhetoric. >> first he should pull his mask up, but -- what is he talking about? let me give you some free advice. okay, sir, let me give you some free advice. lay off the talk about all the rope in texas and the tallest tree. the united states congressman talks openly about lynching, one of the most horrible crimes against people of color in the nation's history. and don't give me that fake i'm being censored, don't mel me what to say b.s., you can still say you oppose the chinese communist party. you know. that's not what this is about. it's not about chip roy. it's not about the people who have a voice and a platform. it's about hate. i almost said something. it's about hate. god, i want to say it. it's about violence. especially against the people who don't have that voice and platform. it's about people across this country who are terrified. you should be standing up for them, not making this about yourself. that's all we have heard from people who have been so aggrieved because black, brown, asian, because people don't want to be discriminated against but you're so aggrieved because you can't say something offensive because you want to say offensive things with impunity. then when you are checked on it, when you have to face the consequences for it you scream, cancel, i'm cancelled. no, you weren't cancelled. you were held accountable. you said something stupid. and you must pay the consequences for it. that's how it works. congressman grace meng getting choked up as she slams chip roy for what she says is putting a bull's eye on the backs of asian-americans. >> your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don't have to do it by putting a bull's eye on the back of asian-americans across this country on our grandparents, on our kids. this hearing was to address the hurt and pain of our community, and to find solutions and we will not let you take our voice away from us. >> congressman ted lieu condemning roy's racist rhetoric and saying it hurts the asian-american community. >> i served active duty, you can say whatever you want on the first amendment, racist, stupid stuff if you want but i'm asking you to please stop using racist terms like kung flu or other netic identifiers. i am not a virus, and when you say things like that it hurts the asian-american community. whatever political points you think you are scoring by using ethic identifiers in describing this virus you are harming americans who happen to be of asian descent. so please stop doing that. >> and you know what? it's not just chip roy. congressman rodney davis telling cnn the real problem is political correctness. >> it's all political correctness and that's what the american people are sick and tired of the d.c. bubble, wanting to determine what is politically correct and what is not. >> it's always some excuse. for saying some b.s., for being racist or bigoted or letting it slip, maybe these days. i don't know if it's letting it slip. people just say it. that's what the former president did. but came the -- for bigots. say it right in the open. not behind closed doors. right out in the open wearing a suit. i know that the grammatically correct thing so say is this is not about political correctness. it ain't about political correctness, okay, if you're listening. this is about hate. it's about hate. hate that is exploding into violence all across this country. this is about asian-americans who are afraid to go to the store. afraid to lead their daily lives. to wait for a bus. just play with their kids outside. it's about hate. stop making it about you. my freedom. my freedom to be a bigot, to say racist things. my freedom to be -- it's politically correct, it's cancel culture. please, i'm sick of it, shut up. take a good long look in the mirror. stop being a bigot. stop it. so what is the administration going to do about racism and hate in this country? i'm going to ask a top adviser to vice president kamala harris, simone sanders, is next, and just wait until you hear how dr. fauci answers this. >> you want people to be able to get the vaccine, give them a reward, instead of telling them the nanny state is going to be there for three more years and you've got to wear a mask forever. everywhere. where everyone is included. where everyone has access to information, education, opportunity. ♪ ♪ ♪ when everyone and everything is connected. that's really beautiful. anything is possible. good morning. cisco. the bridge to possible. something great from mr. clean. stop struggling to clean tough messes with sprays. try clean freak! it has three times the cleaning power of the leading spray to dissolve kitchen grease on contact. and it's great for bathrooms! just keep pumping the power nozzle to release a continuous burst of mist and make quick work of big jobs. it even works on stainless steel. it cuts through 100% of dirt, grease and grime. available with easy-to-swap refills. to get three times the cleaning power, try clean freak from mr. clean. the harry's razor is not the same our razors have 5 german-engineered blades designed to stay sharp so you can enjoy lasting comfort and we never upcharge you for high quality harry's. available in store and at [♪]rys.com anlooking to repair dry,u fodamaged hairty without weighing it down? 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>> don, it's just first of all our hearts go out to the families and friends and the people in the surrounding atlanta area who are grieving today the president ordered flags to be lowered at half staff, in light of the shooting that happened on tuesday. so it -- it's just so harrowing and heartbreaking. the president and vice president have a track record here, don, the administration has a track record here. in january i'd like to remind folks that the president signed a number of executive orders specifically about racial equity and one of them was specifically about addressing the xenophobia and discrimination against the asian-american community here in the united states. so tomorrow this meeting is really to hear from local community advocates, elected officials, community leaders about how they are feeling in the wake of this horrific, horrific shooting but also to discuss solutions going forward and the commitments that the president and vice president have made to the