welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is a president's day edition of "early start." we have reports from the white house, jerusalem, hong kong, johannesburg, and west palm beach, florida. >> we are everywhere. i'm laura jarrett. monday, february 15th, 5 a.m. in new york. the impeachment trial is over and the new white house has an ambitious agenda. president biden has a chance to use his bully pulpit for a $1.9

trillion covid relief package. jasmine wright is at the white house. lay it out. what do the next few days look like for the president? >> reporter: president biden wakes up today, his first president's day, as he looks to turn the page and push forward on his agenda. first up, we expect him to push hard on that $1.9 trillion covid relief bill now that the senate is free to fully focus on it. now as impeachment went on last week, the house made substantial effort and progress on that house bill having it go through markup in various committees. now on friday president biden did his own part hosting bipartisan governors and mayors who sat and talked about it including republican governor of maryland, larry hogan, who talked about the advice he gave

to president biden on -- with jake tapper yesterday on cnn. take a listen. >> we had an hour and a half meeting in the oval office and i said to him, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. i said that i thought it was good for, you know, his agenda over the next four years if he started out by getting some republicans on board in a bipartisan way. >> reporter: now it is unclear of whether that bill is going to garner that bipartisanship support. biden agreed with his advice. again, we have no senate republicans outwardly saying they would support a bill of this size. now as we know that democrats want to fast track it, that possibility is still there for them to go it alone. so this bill will go through the house as democrats attempt to push it forward, then possibly going to the senate and we know that there will be negotiations there on both sides. if democrats go it alone, they have to stay united.

they have to stay together because they cannot lose a single vote because of their slim majority to get this thing passed. >> jasmine, covid relief is obviously the first priority, but there's a lot more on the president's agenda. there was an infrastructure meeting at the white house thursday that sort of got lost but biden is talking about common sense gun reforms. he says he won't wait for the next mass shooting to call for background checks on gun sales and ban on assault weapons. what else is on the agenda that you're learning? >> reporter: president biden has a busy week and towards pushing the covid relief bill. it's to getting the bigger campaign promises done. on friday president biden will virtually attend his first g7 meeting talking to leaders across the globe and we expect him to push a solution for this coronavirus pandemic globally and that is a break from former president trump who sought to go

it alone without the allies in attacking this global pandemic. also, president biden will be making his first domestic work trip going to milwaukee where he will have a cnn town hall. that's on tuesday. on thursday he will go to michigan to visit a pfizer vaccine manufacturer, all in service of that covid aspect. bigger issues are going to be who's going to round out the cabinet? right now he only has 7 out of 23 nominees confirm. he's going to need people like that, like his attorney general nominee merrick garland to push through that and those reforms to make those through the country. >> pretty amazing. he only has seven confirmed and not an attorney general confirmed. jasmine, see you back in a little bit. thank you so much. president biden will join anderson cooper live from milwaukee, wisconsin. a cnn exclusive starting

tomorrow night at 9 p.m. eastern. so a majority of u. ss. senators voted to convict him. 7 republicans voted but not enough. serious legal troubles may be ahead. mitch mcconnell voted to leave him off the hook but he's trying to limit his chances of trump staging a comeback. >> president trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen. unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he's done. >> boris sanchez has more. >> reporter: donald trump and his legal team expressing relief for his acquittal. privately according to sources close to the former president,

he is concerned about potentially facing criminal charges over a litany of issues. for one, federal investigators have laid out to cnn that they are looking at anyone and everyone involved in the insurrection on capitol hill on january 6th and that includes the former president. we're also hearing that dc's attorney general says that trump could potentially face charges locally in the district. that office apparently weighing its options as we speak. trump could also potentially be indicted in georgia for his effort to overturn the election there. local investigators confirm they are looking into brad raffensperger and trump's financial dealings in new york are under scrutiny by investigators. trump is also facing defamation lawsuits by a pair of women accusing him of sexual assault. so even as we hear rumblings about trump's future in

politics, whether it's campaigning or fundraising against republicans who he feels betrayed him over the impeachment saga or potentially running again for president in 2024, there are a number of legal hurdles the former president will first have to overcome. christine, laura. thank you for that. instant fallout for those who voted to convict the former president. the louisiana republican party censured senator bill cassidy. overnight he defended his vote writing i have no elusions this is a popular decision. i made this decision because americans should not be fed lies about, quote, massive election fraud. police should not be left to the mercy of a mob. mobs should not be inflamed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. >> carolina republican party will vote on censuring senator richard burr. lisa murkowski of alaska is the

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>> conditions are very slick in oklahoma. a fiery crash involving several trucks and cars northeast of oklahoma city there. highway patrol responded to more than 80 crashes sunday. at least one person was killed and in houston police responding to more than 130 crashes on icy roads. all this in areas reeling from a separate storm last week and another strong storm system likely tomorrow. meteorologist tyler maudlin is live with the details. walk us through, what are folks in store for today? >> we're going to see the temperatures continue to drop. we have this arctic air plunging down across the plains and if it's not below freezing, below zero where you live, it certainly feels like it's below zero. we have wind chill warnings in effect from canada all the way to texas for the first time in history. houston, texas, is under a wind chill warning. temperatures at 50 degrees below average for monday. that will last into tuesday. are we going to see records

broken? yes, absolutely. over the next 48 hours we have the potential of seeing 250 cold record temperatures or cold temperature records, rather. we also have the snow, too, and the ice as well. you can see that here. down in southeast texas we're dealing with not just thunder snow but thunder ice. this is moving to the northeast. that is the reason why we have winter storm warnings from the southern plains all the way to new england as this low pressure system ejects to the northeast. it's going to bring heavy snow. it's going to bring that cold air with it and it's also going to bring the threat for ice. it's really the ice that is going to be problematic for us over the next few days. so we could see upwards of a foot, maybe more of snow across the ohio river valley and the great lakes. when it comes to that ice you can see from the lower mississippi valley all the way into new england up the spine of the appalachian, we could see more than a half inch of ice

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and ask how to add comcast business securityedge. call today. welcome back. this morning we are seeing positive trends in the pandemic. hospitalizations are way down with a little over 67,000 right now. that's about half of where the number stood in early january.

the cdc says it's critical right now not to let our guard down, but this can't help. more than 900,000 people at the airports. the holiday trend drove numbers up in december. questions surrounding reopening schools. the cdc director weighed in with this. >> i am a strong advocate of teachers receiving their vaccinations. we don't believe it's a prerequisite for schools to reopen. >> the cdc guidelines issued friday require this, mandatory masks, desks 6 feet apart. hand washing, staggered dismissal curbing transmission in the community is a part too. teachers need to be vaccinated before a return to the

classrooms. a year into the pandemic and the travel industry still crushed and there's no clear road to recovery. border closures and stay at home orders. industry officials warn if severe restrictions remain demand can recover to 38% of 2019 levels. remember thousands of companies rely on travel and tourism to make money. according to the world travel and tourism, they require 330 million people in 2019. half of the workers have been layed off or furloughed. earnings including norwegian air, hyatt and marriott have some insight into the recovery ahead. investigators into the world health organization are looking into the origins of the coronavirus have discovered signs the outbreak was much wider in wuhan, china, than previously thought. now they're trying to access blood samples that china has

kept under raps. nick pet top walsh has this exclusive report. >> reporter: the leader of the w.h.o. mission to china investigating the origins of the coronavirus has told cnn the virus was likely much wider spread in china in december 2019 than was thought. he revealed the 174 positive cases found that first december likely severe cases meant there could actually have been an estimated 1,000 plus total cases in and around the city of wuhan that month. >> the virus was in wuhan in december. it's a new finding. >> reporter: 174 would suggest 1,000 or so plus? >> yeah, probably. very likely, yeah, because that's a good amount that we

have looked at. >> reporter: he also established that in that first december there were as many as 13 slight variations of the virus from samples of all or bits of its genetic code circulating in and around wuhan where this seafood market is thought to have played a role. >> we have 13 strain s. >> reporter: that many variations can show it was circulating for some time but it's unclear how long. it's tense and frustrating conditions. >> we had the entire planet on our shoulders 24 hours a day for

months which doesn't make the work amongst scientists easier. as always between professional scientists, you get heated discussion and argumargumentati. >> reporter: there are hundreds of thousands of blood bank samples dating back two years. china's pledged transparency with the investigation. >> there is about 200,000 samples available there that are now secured and could be used for new studies. >> reporter: you want to look at that urgently? >> yeah. that would be fantastic if we could work with that. >> reporter: is it not amazing that they haven't already looked through those samples? >> you could say that, but we understand that these samples are extremely small samples and

only used for authentication purpose. >> reporter: so many more questions to answer, first if china would let them back in. nick peyton walsh, cnn, washington. the end of donald trump's presidency and impeachment trial. covid relief isn't the only thing he's pushing for next. el robbins to blake griffin, is there a more fascinating place than audible? no. and i've done the research. of course you have. audiobooks, podcasts, audible originals. all in one place.

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what's inside airborne? a blast of immune support that's more than just vitamin c. it's a unique crafted blend of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. take on your day with airborne. good morning and welcome back to "early start." i'm laura jarrett. >> i'm christine romans on this presidents' day. president biden finally gets the chance to use the power of his

office to get moving on his agenda now that the impeachment trial is over. he's making a big push for the $1.9 trillion covid relief package. let's go live to the white house and bring in cnn's jasmine wright. take us inside the white house. early in any administration there's a flurry of activity. biden had a delayed transition, then the mob stormed the capitol forcing impeachment, senate trial, coronavirus means fewer people are actually working in the white house. are they keeping pace with where they want to be, jasmine? >> reporter: look, president biden is looking on this presidents' day, first in office, to push ahead, turn the page and push forward with his coronavirus relief bill. that is that $1.9 trillion relief bill that he has proposed as his way to start his assault on this coronavirus pandemic. now as the impeachment trial went on last week we saw it make substantial movement. in the house it moved along

going through these different committees, going through getting marked up, turning that proposal into legislative texts but, again, it's not exactly sure whether or not this is going to get bipartisan support. we know that democrats want to fast track it and we know that there is that possibility there for them to use that rarely used budget process to do that and to go it alone, but, again, if they do go it alone, they're going to have to stay together, stay united because they cannot pass this covid relief bill losing any democrat as they go along because of their slim majority. that is what they are going to be looking for in the next week, really pushing forward on that covid relief bill. >> beyond that, jasmine, there's common sense gun reforms. also talking about infrastructure, laying the ground for infrastructure. beyond covid, what else are they working on? >> reporter: i mean, the president's -- the president's going to be doing a lot in this

last week -- excuse me, in this next week, right? he is going to be pushing forward with the $1.9 trillion relief bill. also on friday he's going to be meeting with g7 summit, first summit, and really fulfilling that promise that we heard from him on the campaign trail to restore relations with his allies. in that summit on friday we expect him to talk about how to tackle the coronavirus pandemic globally. that makes a big departure from president trump. of course, biden is going to be looking for the first legislative victory in the coronavirus relief bill. up until this point he has governed by executive order. he's issued nearly 50 so far so, again, we're going to see president biden look to change that governing from just executive order now to legislative. it is a time to get bills passed and already he's spoken about that infrastructure bill he wants to pass having folks come

into the oval office to talk about it. yesterday we -- yesterday he issued a statement on urging congress to pass gun reform on that parkland anniversary, so we're going to continue to see him push towards making legislative moves in a way that he just spoke about on the campaign trail that he wouldn't want to do via executive order. so that is something that we can keep our eye out for but, again, there's going to be practical things, those day-to-day issues. biden will be going to milwaukee to do a cnn town hall. on thursday he'll be looking at a vaccine manufacturing plant in michigan. so the day-to-day biden white house still continues but, again, he's going to be looking to fulfill some of those big campaign promises as well as getting his first legislative victory with the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. >> 1.9 trillion is a lot of

money. thank you so much, jasmine. nice to see you, laura. time for three questions in three minutes. let's bring in john avlon. >> hey, john. >> good morning. >> while the senate was knee deep in impeachment, the house was moving on key parts of the president's relief bill. right now this plan includes more than $125 billion to expand health insurance subsidies. more child tax credits. huge issue christine and i have been talking about. child care assistance so the parents can go back to work and do their job. a bigger tax credit to low income adults and above all of that, stimulus checks. president biden is trying to fight income inequality. >> reporter: that's right. that's why this $1.9 trillion bill is being pushed so hard by the administration. it is signature. it is covid relief to deal with the immediate crisis, but it's much bigger than that. it's dealing with long-term priorities that this president wants to deal with including

income inequality being at the heart of it. this covid relief bill is about much more than covid. >> the child poverty part of this i think is potentially legacy building if you can get this through. you're talking about making sure the irs gives money to families every month, not through the tax code but give money right there every month to families to help them feed children and that is something that is really critical here. some democrats like to see that become permanent, not just in one year. let's talk about the senate here. let donald trump off the hook. trump could face a jury of his peers next. let's show you the list of civil criminal cases. his call to the georgia secretary of state. that is under investigation at the moment. what should he be most concerned about here, john avlon? >> reporter: it's a bewildering array of problems he's facing, all self-inflicted now that the presidency protection has been removed.

georgia case is serious because it's on tape. it's not a tough call. we have all seen what he was trying to do. >> sure. >> the new york district attorney and new york attorney general has had the longest runway looking at the financial improprieties alleged. i would say the new york d.a. and the new york a.g. have got the tip of the spear of the problems he's going to face focusing on his financials. he's struggled so hard trying to get his taxes released? why? what does it show? they know. >> as he's battling all of these other legal issues, senator cassidy says president trump's force is waning. senator graham says he's the most important force for the party and essentially republicans can't do 2022 without trump. who's right? >> reporter: i mean, you know, look, i'm going to put my money on cassidy and the eyes of history. >> is that wishful thinking or do you think that's right?

>> reporter: look, no, i think ultimately the people siding up to the strong man and conspiracy theorists will be the short side of history. donald trump isn't pulling his weight, the enthusiasm will be reduced behind the republican's base, but if you care about the future of the party, you want to do the right thing. why? that's always the smart thing politically. the fact that cassidy got censured by the state party, that's ultimately going to be a badge of honor. there's a fundamental problem and you're not going to dig yourself out of the hole if you keep digging. that's what lyndsey graham is advising. >> 7 -- >> the most bipartisan impeachment -- >> majority of u.s. senators wanted him -- >> i hear all of that but he's still facing zero consequences for what happened. >> so far. >> so far. you sound like senator mcconnell. >> there's' pony in there somewhere. >> thanks, john.

appreciate it. president biden has made a lot ever phone calls to top allies and even some adversaries. a month into his term one leader he hasn't spoken to yet, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. sam kiley is live in jerusalem. this isn't just optics, this is a critical security partner for the united states. why haven't the two spoken yet? >> reporter: well, i think you put your finger on one of the questions that is questionable. is israel more important to the united states or vice versa? the answer is very clearly certainly from the israeli point of view that the united states matters a great deal to them. it does matter to the optics for benjamin netanyahu, who's got elections coming up on march the 23rd. he's struggling to put together a coalition partnership that is now including homophobic and racist parties, avowedly so.

he's hoping to win with that. in previous campaigns he's played the trump card frequently. now he seems to be unable to do that because the biden administration, this is a point that benjamin netanyahu made about a week ago, is prioritizing rebuilding multi-national, multi-lateral coalitions, rebuilding poor relations with much more important european allies and in netanyahu's words will get to the middle east soon. that is a view that's been echoed by the state department, department of defense and the national security office in the white house, all of whom have been in touch with their counterparts in israel. it does smart for benjamin netanyahu because he enjoyed a red line, a hotline straight into the oval office for president trump. that is clearly something that he's not going to be enjoying in the future. certainly not enjoying in the present. in the past, of course, these two leading politicians know

each other very well. >> so interesting. of course, israeli elections coming up. netanyahu fending off corruption charges. a lot there. always great to get your analysis. sam kiley, thanks so much. tax season is here. here's what you need to know about filing your taxes during this pandemic. do you have to pay taxes on your stimulus checks? no, that money is tax free. you could be in for a surprise if you received jobless benefits. it is treated like benefits. check, you will have to pay taxes on the jobless benefits. last year the deadline to file was pushed back because of the pandemic. if you are not ready, you can file for a six-month extension. your federal taxes won't be due until october 15th. the deadline so file is april 15th. we'll be right back. ...with ri.

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despite concerns about a new coronavirus variant, south africa is reopening borders with all of its neighbors. cnn's david mckenzie is live for us in johannesburg. david, all signs point to the variant spreading north. why open the boarders now? >> reporter: well, laura, i think it's a calculated risk because most scientists believe that here in south africa they are certainly at the end or towards the end of a very dramatic second wave driven by the variant of covid-19 discovered here. so one of the reasons to open, i think, is the severe economic impact it has to cut off south africa from its immediate neighbors. but also they say they will institute testing for anyone moving back and forth. of course, the risk is, laura, if you open up, give the opportunity for the variant or other variants to spread both to

and from south africa, but it really is a sense that the cat's out of the bag. we were in ma lawi where they hd spiked infections and eight states at least in the u.s. the so-called south african variant has been found. there is good news. the confirmed infections have gone down. deaths as well as the all-important positivity rate here in south africa have gone down. the big risk now though, because this variant is potentially problematic for at least one major vaccine is there will be another wave and another wave and another wave. just later this week they have got an approval to roll out the johnson & johnson vaccine for health workers in a so-called implementation study. that will be critical to understand whether this variant can be stopped by this vaccine and the answers to that question aren't just important to here in south africa, laura, but obviously have global implications. >> certainly a good thing that

deaths are down but hopefully it doesn't roll back any progress made. thanks so much. to new zealand which has been an example for containing the coronavirus. they have a lockdown in aukland. will ripley is live in hong kong covering the story for us. a local family tested positive and the whole city is going on lockdown. tell us about it. >> reporter: the reason why new zee land health authorities are concerned is because they tested positive for the u.k. variant. nobody has traveled. they're in the process of intensive contact tracing to figure out if the virus is out there in the community or if the mother in this family who works at a company that provides laundry services and catering services for dozens of airlines may have somehow picked up the virus at work even though she didn't have face-to-face contact with anybody coming in from outside the country. to lockdown new zealand's

largest city and have three confirmed cases so far might be overkill. in new zealand the prime minister said this is a formula that has worked, that has kept their country of just around 5 million people in remarkably good shape throughout the pandemic. if you look at the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths, they have just over 2300 cases for the entire pandemic and 25 deaths. they say the reason for that is that they take these kinds of measures early on when numbers are small, get the case numbers under control, contained, then life goes on as normal. the prime minister is saying this is a 72 hour lockdown, asking people to be patient. meanwhile, a travel bubble with new zealand and australia has been suspended for at least 72 hours. they try to arrange something where people can fly back and forth. those plans are on hold right now and new zealand tries to investigate this small cluster. >> will ripfully for us. thanks, will. back here in the u.s. this

morning, a suspect is charged with murder in connection with four subway stabbings in new york city this weekend that left two people dead. police say a suspect is a 21-year-old man with a criminal record who was living in a brooklyn homeless shelter. the four victims were homeless and the attacks appear to be unprovoked. they have requested an additional 1,000 nypd officers to patrol subways and buses. markets to start the short trading week. markets in china and hong kong, gains in asia. those markets are closed now. europe has opened up higher here, more than 1% advance for london stocks. stocks are closed on wall street today to honor presidents day. president biden is going to continue the outreach for stimulus package. urgent plea for funding for

semiconductor funding. if you can't get the chips, you can't make the cars. general motors and ford have temporarily shut down some of the plants because they can't get the chips. ford has been forced to cut production of the f-150, its biggest money maker. the shortage adds urgency to the conversation about the need to increase chip manufacturing in the united states. all right. some royal baby news for you. prince harry and megan markle are expecting their second child. max foster is live in london with all of the details. it was just a few months ago that meaghan revealed the loss, now tell us everything. >> reporter: the last baby news we had, frankly, was news of the miscarriage which the duchess revealed in november. it happened over the summer. and she used that as really a rallying call for people who have suffered in a similar way to start talking about it. it's a taboo subject. she wanted to ask people if

they're okay. she brought that out for the wider mental health issues in relation to the pandemic. huge moment for the family on any occasion, but particularly one suffered in this way. the photograph i'm told was taken remotely by a friend who is a if you ever on a tablet. an extraordinary photo bringing much joy, of course. baby archie, he's now going to have a younger sibling. archie currently, there's an interesting constitutional question that comes out of this. archie is a u.k. citizen. is he seventh in line to the throne. this new baby will be eighth in line to the throne. if it's born in the u.s. will be a u.s. citizen. potentially we could have here for the very first time someone who could go on to become head of state not just in the head of the state and u.s. constitutional historians looking at this as well. >> the photo is just gorgeous. so happy for them. thanks so much, max. to sports here in the u.s. a fiery wreck on the last lap leads to a dramatic finish for

the daytona 500. andy scholes has the bleacher report. >> good morning, christine. long day for the drivers and 30,000 fans. the race didn't end until just after midnight after having a nearly a six-hour rain delay. we had some drama in the final lap. brad keselowski trying to pass teammate joey logano. they bump. leads to a fiery crash. michael mcdowell able to storm through the chaos, take the checkered flag. mcdowell had never won a race going 0 for 357 in his nascar career. started the daytona 500 at a 100 to 1 underdog and he seemed in disbelief in victory lane. >> i'm so thankful. such a great way to get a first victory, daytona 500. are you kidding me? >> now nearly half the field was wiped out.

this 16-car wreck. bubba wallace, meanwhile, making his debut as a driver for michael jordan, denny hamlin's team. wallace meeting jordan for the first time. wallace making history in the race becoming the first black driver to lead at the daytona 500. he finished 17th after being involved in that last-lap crash. check this out, driver chase briscoe, he got hungry during that extended rain delay so he drove to a nearby panda express still in his fire suit. his wife tweeted out that pic from the drive through. unseated american jessica pagula beat number 5 svitolina. 26-year-old, the owner of buffalo bill's and buffalo sabres. next up is the all-american

match-up number 22, jennifer brady. 23-time grand slam champ serena williams advanced to the quarters on set. finally wizards star russell westbrook proving everyone can have an off day. lines up to take this free throw against the celtics. throws up an air ball. he kind of stares at the rim for a little while like did that really just happen? wizards still go on to win that game 94-101. >> that face is priceless. >> that is me, andy, most mondays. that is me right there. it's monday. what happened? what just happened? >> all right, andy. nice to see you. thank you. >> thanks, andy. thanks for joining us on this president's day. >> i'm laura jarrett. "new day" is next. even brighter. ♪ it's the valentine's day gifting event.

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there's a lot of other investigations going on about this man. he is done. >> he still has a lot that he's going to have to deal with. all of these legal woes. donald trump is the most prestigious member of the republican party. >> i hope they will get on board and i am confident they can get something through th