because i won it during the day because i won a grammy that nobody wants to see a performance about. so it was like on the earlier part of the day when they do like the smaller grammys kind of -- yes. you are very nice, lawrence. i was -- susan and i were on a beer run and we had driven to a local brewery to pick up some hooch and we were driving down the massachusetts turnpike when we heard the news streaming on susan's cell phone and it was very surreal. >> i can imagine. and so the audience should know that this is not an easy category. you were in the audiobook category. by the way, your director scott also i believe gets a grammy for his role in this, the greatest -- >> he deserves them all. he is fantastic, yes. >> he has directed my audiobooks and of course has gotten so recognition for it because why would he? because they're me. but -- but, rachel, so here's who else was in the field you were nominated with. okay? because -- >> wait. i lost you. >> oh. rachel has to hear this. we have to get sounds to rachel somehow. >> i'm not being weirdly falsely modest. i've lost you. sorry. but now i can hide under the desk. >> so rachel's gone but here's what you have to know. the category she was nominated in included someone named meryl streep. rachel won the grammy instead of meryl streep for audiobook reading. and reached for comment i'm sure meryl streep would have said that it's an honor just to be nominated with rachel maddow. boy, we needed to see rachel on the meryl streep part of that but that's the way the tech stuff works these days. well, what could be the most important arrests yet in the investigation of the trump mob that attacked the capitol on january 6 occurred yesterday exactly two days after merrick garland's first full day on the job as attorney general of the united states. here's what merrick garland said would be his first priority as attorney general. >> if confirmed i will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the capitol on january 6th. the heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government. i can assure you that this will be my first priority and my first briefing when i return to the department if i'm confirmed. >> on thursday, attorney general garland had his first full day on the job and he had his first briefing on the attack on the capitol. exactly three days later, on sunday, the fbi arrested two men in the assault on officer brian sicknick, who was hospitalized after that assault and died the next day. yesterday the fbi arrested george tanios of west virginia and julian khater of and both suspected made brief court appearances today and remain in custody. prosecutors say they attacked the officers with a, quote, chemical spray. according to video quoted by prosecutors in their charging documents they seem to be referring a spray used to subdue attacking bears. bear spray. according to the charging documents julian is quoted, give me that bear stuff and reaches into the backpack on tanios' back. and then he states, hold on. not yet. not yet. not yet. and then saying they just f'ing sprayed me and khater is seen with a spray can that appears to be chemical spray. cameras show julian a few feet away from three officers including officer sicknick who were behind a bike rack barrier. nine minutes later khater is observed with the right arm up in the air appearing to hold a canister in the right hand and aiming it in the officers' direction while moving the right arm from side to side. according to the complaint the officer reported to his supervisors and colleagues that he had been sprayed in the face with a substance. the cause of officer sicknick's death has not yet been determined by an autopsy report. u.s. capitol police say they are still awaiting the results of a toxicology test. george tanios and julian khater were identified by citizens after the fbi circulated their photos to the public. george tanios and julian khater face charges that are punishable by up to 20 years in prison. if they can be linked directly to the cause of death of officer sicknick they could then be facing more severe charges. another member of the trump mob facing multiple charges in the attack on the capitol is this guy. his name is timothy hale kusanelli and if you think that looks like a hitler mustache, well, yeah, that's exactly what he intended. a witness interviewed by the fbi said that he heard timothy hale say, quote, hitler should have finished the job. when he attacked the capitol, timothy hale was working for the federal government as a government contractor with a security clearance at a military base in new jersey. why do nazis like him love donald trump so much? timothy hale loves hitler and trump. he loves hitler and trump. and he's not the only one. the capitol was crawling with nazis on january 6th. some of them have been arrested. they were ready to do anything for donald trump, just like the nazis who were ready to do anything for adolf hitler. joe biden crushed those nazis' dream of a trump re-election and then on january 6th police and national guard eventually crushed those nazis' dream of taking over the capitol and the nazis' dream of installing donald trump as president. and now attorney general merrick garland will deal with the nazis who invaded the capitol and with the men who attacked officer brian sicknick. leading off the discussion tonight is democratic congressman tim ryan of ohio, the chair of the legislative branch subcommittee which oversees the capitol police. congressman ryan, this major arrest, the first one linked to the assault on officer sicknick coming just days after merrick garland officially took over, had his first full day of work, is it likely that these arrests were being held so that the attorney general could review exactly where these most important cases stood? >> yeah. i'm certain, i think most of us are certain that they were waiting for the confirmation, for the attorney general to make this decision. clearly it is an important decision that needs to be made but it also says there must be a lot of evidence that's there to make sure that this is done properly. and i think it also shows, lawrence, how extensive -- you see the pictures -- how extensive the investigation is. how complicated it is. and why it's taken some time to identify all of these people. but we're very, very pleased with this. and we want to encourage this investigation to continue. >> so a government contractor shows up at work in a military base in new jersey impersonating adolf hitler and nothing happens to his security clearance. >> yeah. >> do you have any insight as to how that could happen? >> i was thinking the same thing as i was reading the report. how does this guy continue to have a security clearance? this is clearly a danger. you don't have pure first amendment rights when you are dealing with sensitive information, when you have the level of clearance that he had. so i think this is going to give everybody some pause to go back and maybe review. and i think in this day and age with the technology we have it will be very easy to especially when you're posting this kind of garbage on facebook to really be able to identify quickly and revoke the clearances and security clearances as quickly as possible. >> what do you think is the next stage of the investigation that you need to conduct to prevent this from ever happening again? >> a couple things. one is working closely with the chair of the appropriations committee, rosa delora, and speaker pelosi to make sure that the fbi has the resources they need to continue the investigation. that's first and foremost. they have exhausted a lot of resources on this, as you can tell, by the intricacies of the investigation. we want to make sure they the move forward. and it keeps getting back to intelligence and training for the capitol. we need more intelligence officers that are interfacing with homeland security and the fbi and others and local law enforcement around the country. so we know who the enemy is. and then hardening the capitol, making sure that we have the training, a rapid response force like general honore recommended so someone could immediately show up at the capitol with hundreds of national guards ready to protect us, similar to what the jet planes that get fired up if there's a threat to the white house. we want that same kind of reinforcement being able to come to the capitol. so those are the kind of next steps we're going to be taking. it will take a little time, probably a little more time than people want but we have to make sure that we do it right. >> what was your reaction to senator ron johnson saying he wasn't afraid of the people that attacked the capitol because he thought they were all good people who would not commit crimes. now that hundreds have been charged with those crimes and now that some of the people who ron johnson says are good people have been charged with the assault on officer sicknick? >> that's just blatant racism. that's the bottom line. you are not afraid of people bringing bear spray to spray capitol police that killed a police officer, no concern at all. chasing mike pence and others around the capitol and you are not afraid but if that crowd happened to be people of color all of a sudden you would be afraid. to me that's the definition of racism. >> congressman tim ryan, thank you very much for starting off our discussion tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thank you. joining us now is andrew weissman, a former federal prosecutor. he worked on the mueller investigation. he is an nbc news and msnbc legal analyst. andrew, with your knowledge of the workings of the fbi, if you had the big arrests pending on the people involved in the assault on officer sicknick, would you wait until the new attorney general was on the job? >> no. if you have the facts and the law and you can arrest these people, you go forward. you don't wait. and i don't think they did wait here. i just can't imagine law enforcement doing that. but i'd like to pick up on something representative ryan said that i agree with. and one thing i disagree with. i think it's really important to view what happened today with respect to two people who attacked three police officers with chemical weapons. and who it took two months to arrest. if you want an illustration of racism, compare what happened taking two months to arrest these folks and it's great that they're under arrest. the proof looks very strong. it is all very public. but where was the fbi at the time? it should -- this is not a question of needing more resources. you want to know when they had resources? on may 30th in new york city when black lives matter had protests two african-americans were arrested the very same day on a saturday for attacking an empty police car with chemical weapons and they were -- the book was thrown at them. if they did what they did that's fine but that took less than a day. and what is the difference? the difference is their color and they didn't support donald trump. and, you know, that is not a fine moment for law enforcement that there's such a huge dichotomy in terms of its reaction. what happened today is fine but let's not forget that this is not a question of resources. the resources were there when the people who are committing these crimes were black. >> so how do you fix this? and what is merrick garland do to fix this? >> well, you know, the fbi director testified that the fbi doesn't care about motives, it doesn't matter if you're violently protesting on the left or right. and i'd love to believe him but the reaction was quite different. and this is really where a norm was changed with donald trump, which is i think politics really got involved and people did not respond the same way depending on whether those people supported the president or not and i think the current president is setting the right signal which is that law enforcement has to be completely apolitical. and i'd love to say that this is something that a law can change but it's really something that we either believe in our hearts our we don't. and i mean, it sounds like, you know, pablum to say it requires education for people to understand what this country is supposed to be founded on. >> for whatever reasons they still don't have an autopsy report in the death of officer sicknick. when they get that, how could that change the charges against these people? >> well, there's something called felony murder where it is hard to show that the people here intended to kill a police officer. they clearly intended to spray them with this chemical weapon. but if in the course of committing one felony another -- a murder happens, there's something called felony murder and you can face those additional charges. the big question, as you point out, lawrence, is what caused his death? and we still don't know that but it's important to remember the crimes they're charged with are incredibly serious. they assaulted with a deadly weapon not one but three police officers and it may or may not have caused the death of one of them. but just think about the reaction if this resulted as a matter of a black lives matter protest. it would be i think played up in a very different way in a huge segment of the country. >> andrew weissman, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. anc coming up, have you received your $1,400 direct deposit yet? there's much more than that in the biden covid relief bill, including big upgrades to the affordable care act that will help more people afford health insurance. congressman sean patrick maloney joins us next. joins us next. when i'm shaving down there not just any razor will do new venus for pubic hair and skin with a patented irritation defense bar for a smooth shave with blades that barely touch 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administration is planning a nationwide tour to make sure people understand the benefits they have coming to them from the biden covid relief bill which has now taken its place in law under the title the american rescue plan. >> when i signed the american rescue plan last week, i said help was on the way. this week i can report this isn't just on the way. it's here. sooner than many ever thought possible. over the next ten days we will reach two giant goals. the first is 100 million shots in people's arms. will have been completed within the next ten days. and 100 million checks in people's pockets in the next 100 days. shots in arms and money in pockets. that's important. >> the american rescue plan provides a third round of direct payments up to $1,400 for individuals, $2,800 for couples and an additional $1,400 each dependent. some americans received the payments over the weekend. according to the biden administration, 85% of american households will receive a stimulus check by the time all the money is distributed. after four years of republicans trying to repeal the affordable care act, the american rescue plan includes the biggest changes to the affordable care act since it was enacted. those changes are designed to make health care more affordable for more people. they are big upgrades that include the fact that they temporarily provide larger subsidies for health insurance to people for all income levels for the first time. these changes will only last for two years but some democrats are already trying to make them permanent. other reforms include reducing deductibles, covering the entire costs of c.o.b.r.a. for those who recently lost jobs and giving states more money to support and expand medicaid. according to the congressional budget office the changes cover 1.3 million more americans who will now be part of obamacare and cost about $34 billion. joining us now is democratic congressman sean patrick maloney of new york, the chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee, it is his job to keep the democrats in the majority in the house. and you have a two-year campaign that you're embarked on every single day with that. this legislation is part of what nancy pelosi intends for you and other house members to use to give voters a reason to keep democrats in control of the house. >> i sure hope so, lawrence. thanks for having me on. this rescue plan is going to end the pandemic and it is going to save the american economy. if you think about a family of four in putnam county, new york, where i live, maybe they have a small business making $75,000 a year, a couple of young kids, between just the direct cash payments, the child tax credit, and the reduction of their affordable care act subsidies you can be looking at $15,000 for that family. that's 20% of what they make in a year so it is real relief to american working families. and meanwhile the republicans took a walk. the republicans had no plan, no empathy. and they are talking about dr. seuss and mr. potato head and trying to enact a bunch of racist voting laws in georgia. so we are focused on the needs of the american people. i sure hope the people know it. >> the reason i concentrated on the affordable care act elements of the bill is that there are so many things in this bill that have been higher profile, more news reporting on them, that the details of the expansion of the affordable care act have largely gone unnoticed in a lot of the coverage. but it is the single biggest expansion of that legislation since it was enacted. >> well, it is really important. and i hope people understand that this is going to lower the premiums, significantly, for people who are on the exchanges but of course you also mentioned the expansion of medicaid and we are also going to cover people's c.o.b.r.a. so if they try to hang on to the employer based health care they can do so with those costs covered. so this is really a comprehensive set of protections around people's health care. and the small business loans that have kept just in my district 11,000 businesses, 100,000 people working here just in my congressional district. that means people are still tethered to the health insurance so this is really a plan designed to address the dramatic needs that the pandemic has created. and it's going to happen immediately. >> there is a report that 25% of house members have either refused to get the vaccine, have not reported getting the vaccine or are avoiding it because of medical conditions. i'm not sure what medical conditions suggest avoidance but i'm sure there are some. what is your sense of the colleagues' refusals to get the vaccine so far? >> it is just the latest chapter in a series of disappointments, particularly in the new radical republicans who have come to washington. i hope people understand that here in my district all the county executives are basically republicans, the town supervisors and mayors are republicans. they al