that everyone in this country age 18 and above will be able to receive the coronavirus vaccine by may 1st. may 1st. that's it. you will have your appointment by may 1st if not already have the vaccine in your arm. president bide ensaid this goal is to allow people to be able to -- his goal is to allow people to be able to gather in small groups on july 4th to celebrate our independence and to celebrate our independence from the coronavirus. today was the triumphant high point of the biden presidency so far with house speaker nancy pelosi delivering the biden covid relief bill to the white house for the president's signature one day earlier than expected. signing the bill into law today means relief checks of $1,400 could be flowing into people's accounts as early as this weekend. >> people can expect to start seeing direct deposits hit their bank accounts as early as this weekend. >> president biden stepped up to the microphone in the east room of the white house tonight to tell americans what they will be getting from the covid relief bill and when they will be getting their vaccinations. but he began with what we have lost. >> i've told you before i carry a card in my pocket with the number of americans who have died from covid to date. it's on the back of my schedule. as of now total deaths in america 527,726. that's more deaths than in world war i, world war ii, the vietnam war and 9/11 combined. >> president biden described the progress the biden-harris administration has made on vaccinations. >> when i took office 50 days ago only 8% of americans after months, only 8% of those over the age of 65 had gotten their first vaccination. today that number is 65%. just 14% of americans over the age of 75 50 days ago had gotten their first shot. today that number is well over 70%. i said i intended to get 100 million shots in peoples arms in my first 100 days in office. tonight i can say we're not only going to meet that goal, we're going to beat that goal because we're actually on track to reach this goal of 100 million shots in arms on my 60th day in office. no other country in the world has done this. >> tonight president biden made a new promise on vaccinations. >> tonight i'm announcing i'll direct all states, tribes and territories to make all adults, people 18 and over, eligible to be vaccinated no later than may 1. let me say that again. all adult americans will be eligible to get a vaccine no later than may 1. >> the president described the mobilization that he is organizing to get that vaccine into people's arms. >> we're mobilizing thousands of vaccinators to put the vaccine in one's arm, calling active duty military, fema, retired doctors and nurses, administrators and those to administer the shots. and we've been creating more places to get the shots. we've made it possible for you to get a vaccine in nearly any one of 10,000 pharmacies across the country just like you get your flu shot. we're also working with governors and mayors in red states and blue states to set up and support nearly 600 federally supported vaccination centers that administers hundreds of thousands of shots per day. you can drive up to a stadium or a large parking lot, get your shot and never leave your car and drive home in less than an hour. we've been sending vaccines to hundreds of community health centers all across america located in underserved areas. and we've been deploying and we will deploy more mobile vehicles and pop-up clinics to meet you where you live so those who are least able to get the vaccine are able to get it. >> president biden gave a specific date to look forward to when we are all fully vaccinated and ready to gather in small celebrations once again. >> if we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together by july 4th there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate independence day. that doesn't mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together. after this long, hard year that will make this independence day something truly special. where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus. but to get there we can't let our guard down. this fight is far from over. as i told the woman in pennsylvania, i'll tell you the truth. on july 4th with your loved ones is the goal. >> joining us now john heilemann, msnbc national affairs analyst and host of the hell and high water podcast from the recount and jennifer palmieri. former communications director for the obama white house. both are co-hosts of showtime's "the circus." and john, it's a moment like i've never seen before. this was a victorious moment in this presidency 50 days in, giant legislative achievement. the president addresses the nation, but he begins with the sadness of what we've lost. he delivers optimism for where we can get to but cautions us about the fear we have to maintain of how to hold our own personal health in a safe space as we move forward through this coronavirus plague. it was an amazing range of notes that he was delivering there. all in this continued effort to keep his presidency on course, keep us on course in dealing with this virus. >> yeah, that's right, lawrence. i think there's -- people underestimate joe biden at their peril i think, and i think that is part of what this first 50 days of the administration has shown just as his campaign showed the same thing. he comes -- he has extraordinary -- he's not like a politician who has -- like he's not a five-tool player, right? he doesn't have all the skills, but the skills he has and the temperament he has are just about perfect built for this moment. and his mastery of the legislative process, his personal experience, everything people understand about his acquaintance, his deep, sad acquaintance with profound grief, the empathy that's brought out in him, and the fact that i think he understood something that donald trump never understood, which was that the country wants to be called to sacrifice, wants this notion of him striking that tone again even now as it seems like victory is maybe in sight with the coronavirus, saying again that i want to have the country on a war footing. it was the one time in all of 2020 that donald trump did well on covid for about three days when he said he wanted to be a wartime president. and i think biden understands you cannot give up this fight too soon, victory has to be total, and that tempered measured cautious optimism and realism as he kept coming back to again tonight, telling people the truth even if the truth is not happy talk, that that is the path and the path that will keep him where he is right now, which is an extraordinary position of political strength. >> jennifer, you've been in a white house approaching big days like this. it turns out the bill signing was a day sooner than they expected. and these bill signings as you know and you participated in are highly choreographed and planned and yet this one was rushed by 24 hours so that that money could move quicker into people's direct deposit accounts. and then you've got this speech to prepare for tonight and the notes to decide to hit in this speech tonight. what is it like for the west wing going into this speech tonight? >> they were planning on having a big signing ceremony tomorrow with leaders from the hill and everyone coming down. and that's something you put a lot of time and effort into and you have to decide. i think the decision was we can't have him give a speech about a bill he has received and has not signed. we've got to get relief going as quickly as possible. he made the decision to do that. and you really have to nail this speech. and what i found -- what i love to look for in these presidential addresses is what is the story of america that the president is trying to tell us, right? that is something that speechwriters have, you know, at the forefront of their mind. there's this sort of deliverables you have to tick through, but it eclipses the bigger story. and i think biden is -- he went through things the administration had done, but he said america is leading this, right? we are vaccinating more people than anywhere in the world. we're no longer leading in deaths. we're leading in vaccinations. and only america could do this and we did this together. it's a very far cry from donald trump's "i alone can fix this." he's making -- he's like restoring america's pride, patriotism and having this victory, you know, not quite won yet but we're on the path to defeating the virus. america's victory and trying to drain politics out of this. i see him in so many ways in a usually relatively subtle try to take down the heat when it comes to partisanship, and i think this is something in terms of defeating the virus he wants america to think they did, we did it together. it's not something joe biden -- >> one of the things in the speech i like the best and this is a biden note. this is a note that i think he among our politicians is the best at delivering, is the note of humility. and he's rattling off statistics about how great his administration has done with vaccines and vaccinations and how much better it was than the first vaccinations run by the trump administration. and yet he says at the same time if we make mistakes in delivering the covid relief bill, if there are aspects of this that don't work, i will tell you. he's anticipating the possibility that what he's trying to do won't work perfectly, that he can make mistakes at various stages of this there are things that won't work. and he'll admit that, and he's telling you up front humbly that this might not be perfect, everything i'm describing to you. >> yeah, lawrence. that's a guy who's been around the block a few times, right? someone who has seen their -- has their share of battle scars, someone who lived through eight years in the obama administration where things like the affordable care act, the obamacare website was such a problem. he's learned i think joe biden over these many years in the senate and white house, he's learned to under-promise and over-deliver. and he's also learned to set those expectations in the way you're talking about it. and finally the other thing jennifer just said a second ago which i think is so true is this notion of trying to part and parcel of leaching the politics out of things, turning the temperature down is to focus on his competence and to try to focus on very readily achievable metrics and markers, things that the administration, it feels very confident they'll be able to deliver so that step by step he grows the country's confidence, that grows his political leverage. and it also without ever mentioning donald trump strikes the most vivid possible contrast with the most incompetent administration in history. >> jennifer, i'm going to read you some polling numbers that i have to read them out loud to believe them because i've never seen anything like this. 75%, cbs poll, 75% approve of the covid relief package. 75%. jennifer, this is a gigantically complex bill. it's literally the biggest bill democrats have ever passed, any democratic president has ever signed. the public in arriving at that 75% approval number has to be basically extending some amount of trust to joe biden because they haven't read all 600 pages of that bill. >> right. they don't know the details of what's in it. they know that they were told repeatedly from economists, administration officials across the board the biggest mistake we can make is to go too small and the public put their faith in joe biden we needed to go big and they supported that. and they know there's going to be actual checks in the mail soon that's going to help relieve some of the pressures that they're feeling. that is the good news. but i lived through the obama administration where we passed a stimulus bill, you know, part of the recovery act very early on in february of 2009. but the problem -- the political problem that developed was people didn't -- the economy did not improve dramatically. it was like a constant battle of us telling the public if we had not passed that recovery bill things would be worse than they are. that is not a message you can sell. and so i think what going forward with the administration is going to do is show the economy is getting better and the recovery act is -- the rescue plan is the reason why. >> jennifer palmieri, john heilemann, thank you very much for joining us tonight, starting us off. and thank you very much for observing the msnbc rule of no profanity, which you do not observe on your showtime show. it's john heilemann we're really talking about here. the must-see "circus" on showtime. thank you very much for joining us. really appreciate it. and when we come andy slavitt, president biden's senior advisor on the coronavirus response will join us later in the hour. but first what do you think should be next on the agenda for the biden-harris administration? the answer is one word, and it's something donald trump did 231 times. that's next. ♪♪ (car horn) ♪♪ turn today's dreams into tomorrow's trips... with millions of flexible booking options. all in one place. expedia. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. now no fruit is forbidden. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? to support local restaurants, we've been to every city. including little rock and even worcester. and tonight... i'll be eating the chicken quesadilla from...tony's tex mex...in... katy. (doorbell) (giggle) do ya think they bought it? oh yeah. how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance do ya think they bought it? so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... uh-oh, sorry... oh... what? i'm an emu! no, buddy! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ now that president joe biden has his first big legislative win, the west wing and the democrats are asking, as they always do, what's next? senator sheldon whitehouse has a one-word answer. judges. >> courtrooms ought to be open places where you know who is present, not a place where powerful players can come masked behind front groups hiding both their own identity and their interconnections. the supreme court should not be a place that has a special interest controlled fast lane bringing certain special interest chosen cases before the court at high speed without the trappings of a real case or controversy. the court itself should not tolerate this. but if it won't respond, we must. >> mitch mcconnell worked in nonstop coordination with the trump white house counsel to appoint 231 federal judges at all levels including three united states supreme court justices. many of those judges were unqualified, and all were the result of a right-wing screening process funded by dark money contributed by people in corporations who want the courts to serve them. those judges now have lifetime appointments. president biden and the senate democrats have a long way to go to catch up, and it will take the same kind of relentless use of the confirmation process to get biden judges into courtrooms. joining us now is democratic senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island. he's a member of the senate judiciary committee and chairman of the subcommittee on federal courts, oversight, agency action and federal rights. senator whitehouse, thank you very, very much for joining us tonight. the story of the trump judges, which now joe biden has four years to try to counter with his own appointees, the story of the trump judges as you tell it is not just who they are and how unqualified some of them are. it's how they got there and who put them there. >> precisely. it's a question of who's behind this whole operation. and one of the things you see right now the same donors, the same entities, the same operatives, the same machinery that in the trump administration was driving the court capture operation has now swiveled and turned its guns, the exact same guns, same money, same people, same organizations to voter suppression. and if we don't show the american people what this dark money operation is and try to dig at who's behind it, then we're doing a real disservice to the american people. and if we can show them, i think that'll give us a whole new lease on life in terms of how the public appreciates what these three judges went through to get onto the court and what it means that they were ushered onto the court by secret special interests. >> and now the judges who were put on the court at all levels from the supreme court to the federal district courts by those special interests, those special interests will be in effect in the courtroom in voter suppression cases that they will be hearing over the next few years having been put into these positions by the people who are fighting those voter suppression cases. >> with litigants in the courtroom with bogus names like the honest elections project, which is run right now by the same person who led the project that put these judges on the bench. so they'll be in the courtroom when these voter suppression cases are litigated to remind the judges, yes, i am the one who got you there. now it's payback time. >> when you were watching especially on the judiciary committee where the confirmations were just, you know, speeding through the committee during the trump years of federal judges, when you were watching that and out on the senate floor watching mitch mcconnell just bring those judges up, bring those judges up constantly, mitch mcconnell of course was unburdened by any concern about trying to legislate, so he was happy to do confirmations all day. were you all sitting there thinking wait till we get our chance, wait till we get our chance? are you going to be trying to run as high-speed a confirmation process as mitch mcconnell was running? >> gosh, i hope so. but the thing front of mind for me is why don't we tell the story better? these are not things that are happening. these are things that are being done. and the force behind all the rule breaking, all the norm breaking, all the hypocrisy and position reversals, all of the -- the whole thing just smells and people don't behave that way if there's not a reason. and the reason was that machine was behind all of this. it gives money to this operation that funds mitch mcconnell's independent so-called political operation that has now turned its guns on voter suppression. and it was just so frustrating to me when people would treat these as events that just happened, it was somehow just a thing that occurred and wouldn't look at what the driving force was that was making this happen. there's an octopus behind all these tentacle tips and we've got to start paying attention to it. and i hope through my little subcomittee we can pay a lot of attention to it. it certainly drives them crazy when you go after them. >> how much does hr1 if passed solve these problems? >> enormously. enormously. it would do two things. first of all, it makes dark money a thing of the past for contributions over $10,000. and then second, it takes the money spent on judicial confirmations and treats them as what they are, which is a political advertising expense that has to be disclosed also. it would make an enormous difference. as soon as the american public as citizens sees who the players are on the stage, they get the plot right away. and that's why these nasty big dark money players love to hide behind masks and try to fool the american public and deny them the knowledge of who's on the political stage.