trip to atlanta taking on a whole new significance. the president will offer his support for the aaip community in georgia and across the country. they ll look into what led to a mass shooting spree that left eight dead including six asian women. it has been such a challenge, we re actively looking at guidance to update it. the president promised 100 million shots in 100 days. it s outpacing the ability of our vaccines to work. welcome to our view ers in the united states and all around the world. it s 6:00 in new york. alisyn is off. erica is here. just here to help. this morning vice president harris will meade with asian-american leaders in atlanta, offering support to their community grappling with fears and frustration after a deadly shooting spree in three spas around the city. police are working to determine the gunman s motive and they say nothing is off the table in the investigation. the shooting sparks a rise. protesters outside one of the spas call
agency is releasing some new crucial guidance about school reopenings. they now say classrooms can reduce their physical distancing rules from six feet to three feet, a game-changer for administrators and teachers. but there are some caveats. we ll talk about that. and a heat confrontation between the biden administration and china unfolding on camera. this is a rarity during these types of diplomatic meetings. we ll show you what secretary of state tony blinken said that caused such an uproar. we begin with cnn s steve zeleny and natasha chen. steve, first, who are the president and vice president meeting there with today? reporter: president biden and vice president harris arrived on the campus of emory university moments ago and they are meeting hyped closed doors with members of the asian-american community. elected leaders in the state and house who have been speaking out urging the white house to forcefully condemn these shootings and acts of violence, which the whi
we re going to be joined tonight by congresswoman grace meng who had a moment today in a house judiciary committee meeting that gave powerful voice to the thoughts and emotions that many asian-americans have been experiencing this week in particular. and you could see in that moment a frustration that had been building for much longer than just this week. congresswoman grace meng took on a republican congressman from texas who tried to change the subject of the hearing when the subject of the hearing was supposed to be about violence against asian-americans. we ll show you what happened in that hearing when grace meng joins us later in this hour. today the fbi released new videos of what officials called ten of the most violent but still unidentified suspects in the january 6th attack on the capitol. quote, the fbi is asking for the public s help in identifying ten individuals suspected of being involved in some of the most violent attacks on officers who were protecting the
the secretary of homeland security called it a, quote, difficult situation. question is, why won t he call it a crisis? and democrats press forward with key agenda items like immigration and voting rights but with a slim majority in the senate and the filibuster getting in their way, the question remains, what are they going to do about it? it s way too early for this. good morning! and welcome to way too early, the show that s really wondering if we could just spring forward to friday? i am kasie hunt on this thursday, march 18th. we ll start with the news. the suspect arrested in the murder spree at three spas in the atlanta area has been charged. 21-year-old robert long faces eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. police say he killed four people inside one spa, three people inside another and one person inside a third spa. officials say he was arrested while on the way to florida, possibly to carry out more attacks. six of the eight victims we
three people in a gold s spa. then we are told he walked across the street and kill another woman at another spa. his car is shown at all three crime scenes. he was arrested driving south about 150 miles from atlanta. officials say 6 of the 8 victims appear to be asian and police are investigating the possibility that the attacks were racially motivated. this comes amid an increase in attacks on the asian community since the coronavirus pandemic. the new york police department says it will deploy counterterrorism in the city out of abundance of caution. we will keep following this story all morning and bring you any new developments as they happen. let s go now to the white house and coronavirus with the white house aiming to distribute more than 2 million doses of covid-19 vaccine in the next week. that would be a new record in the u.s. fight to contain the coronavirus. states are expected to receive more than 16 million doses of the three approved vaccines. that is slight