suspect says he has an issue with sex addiction. authorities said long was apprehended last night after a brief manhunt. appears he was en route to florida at the time, possibly to carry out additional shootings. when we hear president biden address this incident, he'll be speaking at a virtual meeting with what is a tradition in this country on st. patrick's day, ireland's prime minister. they'll be commemorating st. patrick's day. normally, this event is inside the white house. for covid reasons and travel restrictions, it is not being done this way, nor was it done that way last year. nbc's chief white house correspondent kristen welker is standing by, awaiting remarks from president biden. todd winter is covering this, as well. blayne alexander is in atlanta. kristen, this is a mostly ceremonial event with the irish prime minister. what do we expect to hear from the president? >> reporter: well, i think we can expect to hear him address the shooting off of the top of this event. chuck, i wouldn't be surprised if that's the first thing that we hear from president biden. and he will likely echo what we heard from vice president harris earlier today, in which she condemned hate crimes against asian-americans. she stressed the fact that there is still no known motive in this instance. chuck, she did make that point because these shootings, and the victims of these shootings, do include asian-americans, and she reaffirmed the fact that this is an administration that condemns any behavior, and it comes in the wake of reports that there has been an uptick in anti-asian sentiment. >> okay. >> reporter: so i think that's the type of tone that you can expect to hear from president biden, chuck, when he addresses this in a short time from now. i also think you're going to hear him reaffirm the united states' commitment to ireland, to its partners overseas, particularly coming in the wake of the trump administration and trying to reset some of those critical relationships, chuck. >> well, let's not forget, president biden talked about this violence and this xenophobia against asian-americans in his primetime speech last week. let me bring in tom winter for a little bit more on this investigation. at the end of the day, while there are a lot of people condemning the -- what looks to a lot of people like a hate crime, that is not necessarily where this investigation is at, tom. walk us through where we're at. >> right, chuck. of course, it is important to remember that this investigation is ongoing. they will develop, surely, more evidence and speak to more people. at this point, the investigation is guiding investigators along the lines of this is somebody who, one, has admitted to the crime, according to sheriffs and police officials in georgia when they briefed us several hours ago. two, this is an investigation that began shortly before 5:00 p.m. yesterday. it's not even 24 hours old. according to statements that the suspect made, and apparently he'd been speaking almost immediately, he admitted to the crimes. on top of that, he made statements that he had some form of a sex addiction. so, you know, i've been trying to follow up and speak to law enforcement officials. okay, fine, if he had that and he wanted to quote, unquote, end his addiction by committing these crimes, why not go after maybe a strip club in atlanta or go after, you know, different types of stores that might sell pornography? why attack these particular places? obviously, predominantly the victims here are asian. the idea is that he may have visited some of these or all of these spas in the past, and so as a result, he may have been trying to quote, unquote, end his addiction by killing the people that might have been behind it, in his mind. so that's something they're following up. that's something they're continuing to track. all of this, of course, occurs in the backdrop in an increase of asian bias and asian hate crime incidents that we've seen since march of last year. something we've been following closely. something that law enforcement officials across the country have been paying attention to, particularly in large cities or areas with large concentrations of asian communities. so it's something that is definitely worth following, and an investigation that is not yet complete. >> yeah. tom, do we know more about who this person is, the shooter? any of his -- did he have a job? did he go to school? we know he's a young adult. do we know much about him beyond what authorities have said so far? >> so you're asking me what we refer to in law enforcement circles as suspect pedigree. as far as education, we don't know much. we know he is robert aaron long. he is 21 years of age from woodstock, georgia. charged with four counts of murder, one count of aggravated assault, just in cherokee county. remember, there's a couple scenes, as you eluded to at the beginning of the show. we expect more charges from additional counties to be brought in this case. the charges as of within the last hour when i got off the phone with the clerk's office in cherokee county, the charges are still under seal. presumably, more background information is still contained in those filings that we can't see yet. we do know from the police briefings and separately from conversations i've had with law enforcement that his parents appear to have been very much aware of the problem. they were instrumental in leading to his arrest, providing information that led to his arrest yesterday. helpful in that regard. obviously, this idea in his troubled background, this is not the first time this has come up. obviously, his parents are well aware of it, according to law enforcement. as far as those particulars, job, background, any prior history of domestic violence against women, i'm curious about that, that's information that would be great to get. all of those things are still a little bit unknown, here less than 24 hours after this started. >> tom winter with what he knows from his law enforcement sources. tom, thanks very much. let's move to blayne alexander, who is down in atlanta. we've been hearing from law enforcement and, obviously, where they thought this investigation might be headed, it seems to be moving in a different direction. what can you tell us from your perspective on the ground? >> reporter: yeah. chuck, i want to start with one of the things that tom mentioned. the fact that this is carried out over a number of different crime scenes. to give a lay of the land, there are a lot of moving pieces here in atlanta and outside of atlanta. where i'm standing right now, i'm in front of the gold spa. this was one of the three spas that was targeted. the other one is just across the street, literally a few feet away. those two were in very close proximity. the shootings actually happened -- the first of the three happened 45 minutes to the north of where i am, just outside of atlanta. a city called atworth. that's where four people were killed. another person was shot and is injured. we understand if you just kind of look at how quickly all of this played out, all of this was over the course of about an hour or so, the first calls came in at about 5:00 p.m. as officials were working on that, they got a call here in atlanta saying that, hey, there's been a shooting here. while they were in one location, they were getting calls about shots fired across the street. now, those are the three locations. he was ultimately apprehended two hours to the south of where i'm standing right now. we're talking about multiple different jurisdictions, all of them working in a coordinated effort to bring this guy into custody relatively quickly. that's notable, chuck. of course, he did tell law enforcement he was on his way to florida, driving down 75, planning to go to florida and, he says, commit the same kind of similar heinous act. the fact they were able to work quickly and get him into custody certainly saved some lives. we're also learning a lot about, though, the people who were killed. we're talking about eight individuals who died during this kind of spree last night. six of them asian women. the other two victims were white, we understand. we're learning a little bit more about these individuals, and we also know there was one person who was shot and is in stable condition currently in the hospital. chuck? >> i'm curious, blayne, i mean, do they feel like they have all the footage of the crime? are there cameras all over these places? they know exactly this guy's movement at every one of these places at this point? >> reporter: well, that was part of the reason they were able to apprehend him so quickly, chuck. the shooting -- we became aware of the shooting yesterday, and it was very quickly after that that he got that surveillance photo. we were able to see pictures of the shooter, pictures of his car, pictures of all of these things that ultimately led to his apprehension very quickly. and atlanta police have said, yes, they knew it was connected because they were able to match those images with the surveillance taken down here. i do think that kind of speaks to just how quickly they were able to get him into custody. there were a lot of surveillance cameras and photos. then, of course, as we spoke about before, the fact that his family was cooperative in this. you know, law enforcement officials made that a very big point, to talk about that fact when they were talking in the news conference earlier today, as well. >> yeah. one wonders how much more we're going to learn, how much more we're going to learn about what his family knew about these problems going forward anyway. kristen, tom, and blayne, thank you for getting us started on this tragic story. we expect president biden will comment on the shootings soon. when the event with the prime minister of ireland begins, we will bring that to you when it happens. up next, the growing issues on the border are taking center stage on capitol hill. president biden's homeland security chief is facing questions over the administration's handling of what is turning into a humanitarian emergency. first, as we go to break, another look at life after lockdown. how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance 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. ♪ i'm susan and i'm 52 and i live in san francisco, california. i have been a sales and sales management professional my whole career. typical day during a work week is i'm working but first always going for a run or going to the gym. i love reading. i love cooking healthy. it's super important to me. i was noticing that i was just having some memory loss. it was really bothering me. so i tried prevagen and it started to work for me. i wish i had taken prevagen five or ten years ago. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. some say this is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) welcome back. right now, homeland security secretary mayorkis continues to be grilled by congress. he has been defiant in the virtual hearing that this administration is not willing to resort to the kind of hard line and what they call inhumane policies of the last administration. border crosses surge and federal facilities begin to be taxed beyond their capacity. mayorkas has been pressured to deter migrants from making the journey, and he has been pressed to call it a crisis. he has been clear to the lawmakers that there are moral and ethical lines that this administration is simply unwilling to cross. >> the tools of deterrence sometimes defy values and principles for which we all stand. and one of those tools of deterrence that the trump administration employed was deplorable and absolutely unacceptable. if we want to speak of language, then let me speak of language. a crisis is when a nation is willing to rip a 9-year-old child out of the hands of his or her parent and separate that family to deter future migration. that, to me, is a humanitarian crisis. and what the president has committed to, and what i am committed to and execute, is to ensure that we have an immigration system that works and that migration to our country is safe, orderly, and humane. >> republicans, of course, say the administration's humane approach is what, itself, is unsustainable, and it is fueling a dangerous surge of crosses amid a global pandemic. they argue the president's approach is playing into the hands of cartels, who are using his softer rhetoric to falsely claim the border is open. president biden this morning was pressed about whether the administration needs to take a more forceful approach. >> do you have to say quite clearly, "don't come"? >> yes. i can say quite clearly, "don't come." we're in the process of getting set up, and it is not going to take a whole long time. but you'll be able to apply for asylum in place, so don't leave your town or city or community. >> nbc's leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill. morgan chesky is outside the dallas convention center, which is opening its doors to serve as a temporary fema center for unaccompanied minors at the southern border. also, white house correspondent for pbs news hour and msnbc contributor. morgan, i want to start with you. i'm curious, what are you seeing there now? is it being prepared, or is it already being used? >> reporter: yeah, chuck, great question. it's our understanding that, right now, it is still being prepared. i had a chance to speak with some red cross volunteers who were very tight-lipped, but they've been seen walking in and out of the building behind me. hhs says it could accept those, at least first few hundred migrant teens, on or around today. we don't know when their exact arrival will be. we do know they could house up to 3,000 migrant teenagers here, specifically between the ages of 15 and 17. when i had a chance to speak to an immigration attorney about what the conditions will be like inside, since we're not allowed in to take a look ourselves, he likened it to what you would expect at a hurricane relief center. cots, socially distanced, spread apart. he said the teens will be provided classwork here. some sort of education. they'll, obviously, have cleaner conditions than what he believes they're subjected to closer to the border because they simply have the space here, that those centers do not have further south, closer to the border, that have simply been overrun due to the uptick. we're also along to governor greg abbott, who is speaking right now across the street from where i'm standing. he is calling on the biden administration to provide more clarification, saying they haven't given at least him answers on perhaps how they would treat some of these teenagers, should they become infected with covid-19. he was saying about for the past week now that he is concerned that the teenagers that are coming across, all migrants for that matter, present the risk of potentially infecting texas with these variants of covid-19. i presented that to an immigration attorney who is closely following this situation, and here's what he had to say. governor greg abbott has said publicly he's concerned immigrants are bringing covid-19 to texas. >> governor abbott just dropped the mask mandate without any scientific or medical basis, and now he wants to blame the spread of covid on these kids. that is gutless and cowardly. >> reporter: now, as far as as long as this center will be utilized, hhs officials say they have up to 90 days to use the space here at the kay bailey hutchinson convention center. at that point, they can either renew the lease, but the immigration attorney you just heard tells me that, hopefully, within that amount of time, three months, which is still a long time, they can connect these teenagers with foster families or with loved ones. however, that process, the vetting, of course, is not exact ly easy. typically, he said it'd take hhs about 60 days to do so. he thinks they're adding an extra 30 days on top of that simply because these numbers, chuck, keep going up. >> morgan, are they going to test these kids when they bring them in? i assume they'll have covid testing kits. are they? are they at least going to do that? >> reporter: we have reached out to the federal officials with hhs here to ask some specific questions. we've only been given a statement saying that, you know, health protocols will be followed. nothing further on that. it is important to note that in our conversations with city officials here, they've deferred completely to hhs, saying they are the sole organization -- agency, rather, responsible for running this, and will be the only point of contact from this point forward. chuck? >> morgan chesky outside the dallas convention center. morgan, thank you. let me bring in leigh ann caldwell and yamiche on this. leigh ann, on what secretary mayorkas is dealing with, is there any constructive criticism coming from the right, or is it all sort of -- just sort of talking points and press releases, so they can look like they're being tough? but is there any constructive, like, hey, why don't we solve the problem like this? any hint of that? >> reporter: that's interesting you ask that. because when i was listening to the hearing, that's what i was wondering, if there were going to be some new ideas or proposals that we would hear that could perhaps lead to some sort of solution. but we're not really hearing that. not really from either side, actually. republicans are saying that they did support and they still do support president trump's remain in mexico policy. they're saying that that worked, so they're pressing mayorkas to perhaps continue that. we know that is not going to happen. the reality is that this is a political problem for democrats, if you just want to talk about the politics of it. the policy, of course, is -- >> leigh ann, i'm going to pause you here. >> reporter: yup. >> sorry, we got no warning. the president is speaking. we're going to go to him right now. >> it's good to have you on television. next year in washington. next year inyears, as you know, celebrated this st. patrick's day. i always put on a breakfast at my home, at the vice president's residence. >> in fairness, they gave us no warning. the folks at the white house. we're going to replay his comments on atlanta. give us a few minutes on that. leigh ann and yamiche, we'll focus back in on immigration. we'll get to the president's remarks about the shooting in atlanta. finish your comment there. is there, you know -- i think you were picking up on the political problem this has turned into for the democrats. >> reporter: yeah. there is the policy at issue but also the politics of it, as well. democrats know this is a problem. this is a crisis the president is dealing with early on into his administration. it was immediate, and so you can see the sense of change that -- the optics of what people are thinking across the border regarding immigration. the house is voting on two bills this week, the dream act and at worker bill. none is dealing with what is happening at the border. they don't address the situation, so there's no solutions at this point, chuck. >> yamiche, i want to play something joe biden said to george stephanopoulos, in the interview this morning, that his election, in some ways, has kicked off this mini surge of sorts. take a listen. >> first out of all, the idea that joe biden said "come," because i heard the other day that they're coming because they know i'm a nice guy. >> they're saying this? >> yeah. here's the deal, the adults are being sent back, number one. number two, what do you do with an unaccompaied