Good day from msnbc World Headquarters in new york. Welcome, everyone, to weekends with alex witt. Developing this hour, President Bidens 1. 9 trillion plan is one step closer to becoming a reality. In a new excerpt from cbs news, the president giving a new insight into where key provisions like Minimum Wage Hike Stand as lawmakers work to get the bill to his desk. Its somewhere between an individual making up to 75 and phasing out and a couple making up to 150 and phasing out. But im wide open on what that is. You also want to raise the minimum wage to 15. Is that something you would be willing to negotiate on to get republican support . Apparently thats not going to occur because of the roles in the senate. Youre saying it will not be in it . My guess is it will not be in it. Today marks one month since the attack on the u. S. Capitol left five people dead. The Impeachment Trial will start just days from now. Trumps defense team confirming he will not testify under oath. Congressman val demings, an impeachment manager in last years trial, joined me last hour with her reaction. If the president can separate him and his responsibility for the shameful, tragic, horrible events that occurred january 6th, i think he with want to come before the u. S. Senate and give his side of the story. He does not want to do that and his Defense Attorneys definitely do not want him to do that. A pair of republican lawmakers are paying up for bypassing the newly installed Metal Detectors on capitol hill. Congressman Louie Gohmert and andrew clyde fined 5,000 each after congress voted to mandate the punishment. Congressman clyde pushing back against the move. This is a constitutional issue. Those Metal Detectors are there to detain us and thats a violation of article one, section six of the constitution. Youre going to pay the 5,000 . Im going to fight it and appeal it and then take them to court. This is unconstitutional. I think ive already done it a couple of times. That fine was for a couple days ago. I had a couple since then i think. Im probably up to 25,000 for now. The Metal Detectors are there to detain you . I think theres more to it than that, congressman. Meantime to help us this hour, mike memoli is covering the president in wilmington, delaware and monica alba from west palm beach, florida, with the latest from the former president. Mike memoli, you will start us off here. The president spending time with his family this weekend at the wilmington white house. I love that. Im going with it. What are we hearing from the white house about the status of the covid relief bill . Alex, the word we heard most often from President Biden and Senior Administration officials about this effort to pass the 1. 9 trillion relief bill is urgency. They say even as President Biden talked about unity, as much as he wants to try to bring republicans on board and act in a bipartisan manner, theyre not going to let that come in the expense of getting the action that American People need both on the vaccination and covid relief as well as economic stimulus as well. So thats why we are hearing more from Administration Officials about two things as they entered their second full week in the white house and thats progress and polling. On the progress front, we saw it in the senate this week, the latenight note with Vice PresidentKamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote to advance the package in the senate, the house also acting this week within narrow margin democrats hold in the house to move it forward. Really hoping to keep that momentum Going Forward. Theyre also talking about the polling. Yes, while some republicans on capitol hill may not be supporting it necessarily at this point, the American People, including a lot of republicans, according to public polling, overwhelmingly support components of this deal. The one exception there, even though it is getting support from as many as 60 according to one poll is minimum wage increased to 15 an hour and you heard the president say maybe that one component of this plan wont make it into the final package. Another thing that threatens the momentum the white house is trying to build here, of course, is the Impeachment Trial and everlooming specter of former President Trump as they try to move forward. We saw that President Biden himself addressed the former president in one of these politically thorny questions when he was asked yesterday by Norah Odonnell at cbs news about whether the former president should still have access to Classified Intelligence. Lets take a listen to that answer once again. I think not. I just think that there is no need for him to have that Intelligence Briefing. What value is giving him an Intelligence Briefing . What impact does he have at all other than the fact he might slip and Say Something . Now, whenever the white house has been asked about the president s views on the impeachment process itself, they always deflected saying hes focused on thats work for the congress. Hes focused on doing his job. This question of whether the president can be withhold the intelligence from his predecessor, thats up to the president himself and the white house is out with a statement this morning clarifying a bit about what is going on here. Jen psaki, the White House Press secretary, saying in those comments President Biden was simply expressing his concern about President Trump having access to sensitive information. But she goes on to say, he has deep trust in his own Intelligence Team to make a determination about whether the president should have that Classified Intelligence when he requests it Going Forward. So making it clear while, yes, the president has now made his views known, theres still an ongoing review happening within the Intelligence Committee that will make this determination Going Forward, alex. Mike memoli, thank you very much. From wilmington to west palm beach, lets go to nbcs monica alba. What can you tell us, monica, about trumps Defense Strategy going into trial this week . Weve known for weeks now, alex, democrats tend to use a lot of the videos and realtime imagery from the events of january 6th and insurrection at the capitol against former President Trump. That will be a centerpiece of their case. Theyre going to be using his own words also, for instance, in that rally that he spoke to that crowd of thousands just before those protrump supporters went and breached the grounds of the u. S. Capitol, where he told them to fight like hell. Now were hearing from the president s legal team, actually they also intend to use some videos and some democrats in their own words from events last summer when we saw, of course, all of the social unrest that stemmed from the killing of george floyd. So that is now what were getting an insight into from bruce castor, that was not previously known. Hes one of the former president s new lawyers whos been brought on and he says that will also be a big part of their defense. Theyre going to try to use this in response to that and argue that somehow Donald Trumps words there were protected by the first amendment. Take a listen to a little bit more of the legal strategy from bruce castor on fox news last night. When you have the president of the United States give a speech and says that you you should peacefully make your thinking known to the people in congress, hes All Of A Sudden a villain. So you better be careful what you wish for. Its all prosecutors trick, when you dont have a good enough case, you put up the flashy stuff and smooth over the fact it doesnt really connect up to the guy thats on trial. So thats a little bit of what we do know, alex. What we dont know is how long this trial will go for. Were also not sure of what other attorney may join the team. We heard over the last couple of days that they do intend to add someone to the president s defense team. That will be notable given there were so many attorneys who were brought on board in the last week sore so who then actually parted ways with him because they couldnt agree on a legal strategy. Its unclear who that third person will be that will also be in the chamber making these defense arguments, along with bruce castor and david schoen. The other major Question Mark is how, if at all, we will hear from the former president in terms of press releases, or will he be making a statement on camera . He could ostensibly hold a News Conference or do a newsmaking interview but hes done very little of that since leaving office a couple weeks ago, alex. Instead spending his time here in South Florida mostly on the golf course. Okay, thank you very much, monica alba, for that report. Lets go from there to the latest facts on the coronavirus pandemic as the u. S. Has just under 27 million confirmed cases. More than 460,000 americans have died from the virus. The u. S. Is now averaging more than a million vaccinations a day, 28 million americans have gotten at least one dose. 7. 5 million are fully inknock lated with both doses. President biden is invoking the Defense Production Act to Ramp Up Supply The Vaccine and ppe, specifically surgical gloves. The country has almost depleted its current supply. Officials say by the end of the year, the country will be able to produce a billion gloves a month. New cdc data shows statewide mask mandates correlated with a decline in covid hospitalizations across the state. The study from october 2020 did a 5. 5 decrease in rates after mandates were in place for at least three weeks. The new max Vaccination Site at Yankee Stadium in the bronx is giving new hope to underserved communities. Many locals say theyve been struggling to get access to vaccine. Lets go to nbcs aaron gilchrest, whos there for us. Aaron, its a big day at Yankee Stadium and its not even baseball season. I know Spring Training is close. But what are you seeing there now . Has it been smooth sailing for all of those folks in line . Yes, alex, it has been fairly smooth sailing thanks to the National Guard who have been out here helping. We will show you the line of people with appointments to get their vaccinations today at Yankee Stadium. 150 or so in line now. Much longer this morning when the doors opened at 8 00 a. M. This is an effort between new york city, the state of new york and Organization Called somos, to try to get more people in this case in the bronx vaccinated against the coronavirus. Theres been a disparity, we know across the country really, for black communities, hispanic communities, lowincome communities to get access to vaccines so only people who live here in the bronx are able to come here to get an appointment. One of 15,000 appointments being made available this week here in the bronx only for residents. We talked to a couple of people who were in line here today. Take a listen to what they had to say. I couldnt get through and then i saw this advertisement on channel 12 news so i said let me get up and come early this morning so i will be able to make an appointment at least and hopefully take the shot at the same time. Its about time, you know. Its really important to make access, make everything more equitable for everyone. Yeah, i think it was a little late but im excited were able to get the shot and the community has access to it. The young lady you heard from there is a teacher here in new york, so she is in the group thats eligible to get vaccinated right now. You heard from someone who also talked about coming here hoping to get registered for a vaccination. Thats what this much shorter line is. People who didnt have an appointment who came here today hoping they could get an appointment to come back later in the week hopefully to get vaccinated. Theyre making that available to people here. This organization, a local group of doctors and Health Care Providers running the Vaccination Clinic here, they are hoping to become a model, alex, for this effort around the country to try to get into underserved communities to make sure theres more equity distributing the vaccine. Amen to that. Very lucky for all of the bronx residents there taking advantage of that. Ern aaron gilchrist, thech. Marjorie Taylor Greene plays the victim card and wants you to think shes the victim standing up for free speech. Anybody buying that . When you drive this smooth, you save with allstate the future of Auto Insurance is here youve never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn before it begins . Heartburn happens when Stomach Acid Refluxes into the esophagus. Prilosec otc uses a unique delayedrelease formula that helps it pass through the tough stomach acid. 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When the democrats and 11 of my republican colleagues decided to strip me of my Committee Assignments, education and labor and the budget committee, you know what they did . They actually stripped my district of their voice, they stripped my voters of having representation to work for them. Congressman marjorie Taylor Greene firing back at democrats and handful of republicans who voted to remove her from Committee Assignments because of her many statements encouraging violence and embracing qanon conspiracies. It is one month to the day since the violent mob stormed capitol hill. Many of whom were inspired by those same conspiracies. Now one congresswoman is trying to bar anyone who participated in those riots or anyone associated with conspiracy groups from receiving Security Clearances necessary to hold any government positions. Joining me now is the lawmaker behind that legislation, congresswoman stephanie murphy, democrat from florida. Congresswoman, welcome to the broadcast. Im glad to talk to you about this. Can you react to what you just heard marjorie Taylor Greene say there . She is saying that the district voices her constituents, their voices, are being stripped. Could that be a roadblock for your legislation, barring certain people no matter how extreme their believes may be from Holding Office even if they were fairly elected by their constituents . Great to be with you, alex. Thats a great question. You know, the u. S. Congress is just like any other workplace, we have standards of conduct, dress codes and level of expectation on how you treat your colleagues. Unfortunately, rep greene has indicated and supported violence against her colleagues. She has used her platform to advocate Conspiracy Theories and demonstrated that she is more interested in building her twitter following than she is in legislating. And so this week the house took a vote to remove her from the education committee, which seems about right for somebody who doesnt believe in school shootings, thinks theyre falseflag events, how can that person be in charge of ensuring School Safety . The sad thing is not the house had to vote to remove her but rather the republican didnt take care of this themselves. I remember in recent history when they removed a member from their committee of being prowhite supremacist. They understand theres a standard for conduct and decorum in the u. S. Congress and they want