we are luckier in the u.s. not to have those regulators. >> we don't have a king or queen and don't have these weird speech rules. >> i'm not worried about piers morgan. i'm geuessing he's going to lan on his feet after an outburst that sometimes gets rewarded. i see you thinking about trying it. "new day" continues right now. congress is set to pass a $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. >> we could have had a bill that was a fraction of the cost. >> reporter: no more mask mandate in texas and businesses can open without restriction. >> i don't believe the onus should be on small business. the british royal family is now speaking out. the whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for harry and meghan. >> the idea that there's going to be a change here was always a fantasy. >> reporter: this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> reporter: welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world.

this is "new day" and it will be an historic day in the u.s. congress. you're looking at live pictures of the u.s. capitol where later this morning, we do expect final passage of the $1.9 trillion relief package. this is a monumental piece of legislation that will have a huge impact. a new round of direct payments, the largest ever to americans, but it does much much more than that. child tax credits, more money for schools and health care on and on. the president will sign it ahead of his first prime-time address to the nation tomorrow night. and then he'll hit the road to sell the plan, which may not be that hard. we have a brand-new cnn poll which shows strong bipartisan support for the bill and especially what's inside it. >> the president's prime-time address will mark one year since the official start of the pandemic. today, nearly one in ten americans have been fully vaccinated, but there's still a along way to go for herd immunity. and public health officials say people need to remain vigilant. yet, masks and social distancing now no longer required in texas.

coronavirus restrictions in that state were lifted at the stroke of midnight. so we'll talk to president biden's chief medical adviser, dr. anthony fauci in just a moment. but first, cnn's lauren fox is live on capitol hill on this historic vote. how is this going to play out today, lauren? >> we expect one last stop up here on capitol hill, for the covid relief bill. it will get passed out of the house of representatives, where democratic leadership is confident that they have the votes that they need. and even despite the fact that they have a very narrow majority in the house of representatives. of course, this bill is something that democrats are hoping to tout. that the president is hoping to go on the road and sell, and that is because of what it includes. $1,400 checks for americans making $75,000 or less. an expansion of the child tax credit in a way that they hope they will be able to expand well into the future. not just for the next year. of course, that will take some conversations with republicans. the bill also includes more money to get americans

vaccinated, more money to get small businesses off the ground, despite the fact that they've been dealing with covid restrictions in their states. so the house of representatives will begin debate on this bill around 9:00 a.m. this morning. they'll debate things for two hours. then they will have that final vote. it will go to the president's desk to be signed into law and that will all come before those unemployment benefits expire in just a matter of days, over the weekend, so democrats getting in under the wire. this has been their goal all along to make sure that americans didn't have any gap in those unemployment benefits. john? >> all right, lauren fox on capitol hill, thank you very much. joining us now is dr. anthony fauci, he is the chief medical adviser of president biden and the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious it hases. dr. fauci, thank you so much for being with us. this week marks one of those really important anniversaries. it's been a year since the w.h.o declared this a pandemic. it's been a year since restrictions went into place. i imagine you've never had a

year quite like this. what's the most important, significant thing you've learned? >> a lot of important things, john, but one of them is the incredible capability of this virus to just do things that you would not have anticipated. i mean, if you had turned the clock back a year and when we had a decision of shutting down travel from europe, which was a year ago tomorrow on the 11th of march, i never would have imagined, even though i've been through multiple outbreaks of different diseases, the thought that you would have 525,000 people in america to have died in about, you know, infections in this country would have really been unimaginable. this virus is a very formidable enemy, if you want to be metaphorical about it. it's just extraordinary. >> and it still is. >> it still is.

things are going much better in the right direction, particularly because of the scientific advances that allowed us to have now multiple highly efficacious vaccines. but we're not out of the woods yet. even though we really want to be and we're going in that direction, but if you look now, even every day, although the infections are coming down, it's kind of plateauing a bit. which is giving a little anxiety there. we hope that it continues to come down, but the deflection of the curve that was sharply going down is now starting to plateau a bit. so we have to keep an eye out on it. that doesn't mean -- you know, i get very discouraged about it. keep going in the right direction. keep making step-by-step towards some form of normality. but it's got to be slow and prudent. >> how and when will you know if we've passed the threat of a new surge? >> you know, john, you never know for sure, but you can get a good idea when you see the

infections continuing to go down, day by day, day after day, more and more going down. simultaneously, with the other side of the coin, as more and more people get vaccinated. so we're averaging now 2 million or more people getting vaccinated each day. so every day that goes by without a surge, at the same time that more and more people get vaccinated, then we're getting closer to being safe from another surge. you never can put your guard down completely, which is the reason why, although everyone wants to get back to normal now, it's a totally understandable, including myself and my family, but the fact is, when you look at this virus, and what it's done, you've got to be very careful and pull back in a very measured way, and not just turn the switch on and off. but we will know, i think, john, probably, as we get into the spring and very early summer,

you know we'll have enough vaccine to vaccinate everybody by the end of may. then we've got the logistic challenge of getting it into the arms of individuals. once you get a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated, that is a very, very strong defense against there being another surge. >> i don't know if you're a cancun guy or a miami beach guy, but how concerned are you about spring break? >> you know, i am, john. you know, we've discussed this on your show a few times in the past. wherever you get a situation where you're going to have people traveling to go to a separate location where there's going to be congregant setting, a festive atmosphere, it's totally understandable that people want to do that. but that's something we've really got to be careful of. we want people to have a good time on spring break, but don't put your guard down completely. just be prudent a bit longer. we are going in the right direction, we are almost there. spring break is a classic time,

as we all know, we've probably all been through it in school, but we've just got to be really be careful this time and be prudent about it. >> we know from the biden administration that they say they will make their decisions based on science. what's the science behind not saying it's safe for people who have been vaccinated, received two doses, to travel? >> you know, that's a very good yes, john. and the cdc is carefully heading in that direction. you note, when dr. walensky made the announcement a day or two ago about the fact that when you have a couple of people, two or three or more people in a family setting, both of whom are vaccinated, even if it's someone from another -- a friend, it doesn't have to be a member of the family, that was the first in a multi-step process that they are going to be rolling out. they're being careful, understandably. they want to get science, they want to get data. and when you don't have the data and you don't have the actual evidence, you've got to make a judgment call.

and i think that's what you're going to be seeing in the next weeks. you're going to see little by little, more and more guidelines getting people to be more and more flexible. the first installation of this is what can vaccinated people do in the home setting? obviously, the next one is going to be what you're asking. what about travel? what about going out. what about getting a haircut? what about doing things like that? that's all imminently going to be coming out. >> in terms of the boosters, where are we right now in making determinations about how to give people boosters against different variants? whether it's one booster per variant or some kind of cocktail? >> great question, john. what we're seeing, which is good news, is that the vaccines that we are using now seem to be working quite well against most of the variants. for example, the 117, what we're calling the uk variant, if you look at the antibodies that are induced by the vaccines that we're using now, the moderna, the pfizer, et cetera, et

cetera, those antibodies are quite effective against 117. when you look at the other one, the south african isolate, the 351 isolate, when you look in the test tube, it looks like it diminishes somewhat the efficacy, but there was a recent study showing that one of the mrna vaccines look at the antibodies, they do quite well against the south african. so i think we need to be careful, don't be overly optimistic about it, but i think what we're seeing is that boosting with the wild-type various vaccine, wild-type means the standard one, not a variant, can actually protect you against a variant. having said that, we are also starting tests now where you're making a vaccine directed specifically against the variant. so you're going to see two ways of going at this. boost against the regular virus, which will have a spillover and protect you against the variant,

or specifically boost against the variant. i think both ofpromising. >> got a couple more questions that i'm running out of time. when you see texas lifting its mandates and pictures from didao and kids burning masks, and the same in texas, what's your reaction to that? >> it's concern, john. we understand people's need to get back to normal and we are going in that direction. but when you start doing things like completely putting aside all public health measures, as if you're turning a light switch off, that's quite risky. we don't want to see another surge, and that's inviting one when you do that. >> we know that you had threats to you and your family over the last year and for much of the last year, you had security. has that changed at all? or what has the change been over the last 50 days for you personally in terms of your security and safety? >> well, certainly, the threats come and go, you know, it just

depends. it's really amazing, john. i could say something to you that somebody doesn't like, like, you shouldn't be removing mask mandates. and then all of a sudden, you get a bunch of threats, because people don't like what you say. it's just extraordinary. i've never experienced anything like this before, for sure, and hope never will again after this. but the situation is right now things are really going well. the biden team is working very, very hard to get the science to be right up on the forefront. i mean, we have meetings with the team consistently and constantly. and it's always, what are the data, what are the evidence, what do we need to do? have we done anything wrong? if so, let's correct it. it's a completely different kind of atmosphere. it's always, looking ahead, about how we can do better with the main focus on the public health aspects of it, without distractions about the other things that we knew from before. >> well, here's to the next year being a much better year.

dr. anthony fauci, thank you for what you've done. thank you for being with us this morning. >> thank you, john. thank you for having me. all right. so the huge relief package that we expect to be signed into law the next 24 hours. how are americans feeling about what's inside it? and what about the president's approval? we have a brand-new cnn poll, next. someday i'll ask you a question that will change me forever. ♪time after time begins to play softly♪ yes. ♪time after time continues to play softly.♪ start your someday today with 20% to 40% off all bridal.

serena: it's my 9:12, no-days-off migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose can quickly stop migraine in its tracks within two hours. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrp protein, believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. serena: ask about ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine.

the house of representatives will begin debate this morning on president biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill. it is expected to pass along party lines. a new cnn national poll finds that the majority of americans support this relief bill. 61%, right there. and while it's a major victory for president biden on his 50th day in office, his approval rating is just 51%. that's only slightly higher than president trump at this point in his first term. joining us now to talk about all of this, we have cnn political analyst, david gregory. great to see you, david. >> good morning. >> so the scope of this act is being likened to the new deal. nancy pelosi says it's the most consequential thing she's seen in her 33 years, except maybe

with the affordable care act, but she thinks that this one will have an even bigger impact. so what's the significance today? >> well, it's a huge legislative victory. it's his first major piece of business. it's a lot of political capitol on the line. and so the president has an opportunity to not only notch a victory, but go out to the american people and say, look, i'm delivering something for you during a crisis. and that should matter to you. and it is big in scope. it's also something that the progressive wing of his party is very excited about. yeah, there were some areas of compromise, but primarily, this includes a lot of things that progressives want to see government do. and wherever you're a president in position to directly deliver checks to the american people, talk about it, do a road show promoting it, that's a good thing. but the only negative is, the partisanship in washington, which pre-dates president biden,

that is the overhang that will impact the rest of his legislation and gives you some insight into how republicans plan to position themselves. >> well, let's talk about that. because this bill, this act, is popular with the american people. we showed 61%. but when you dive into the details, it's even more popular. if you ask americans, do you like the larger tax credits, some 85% do. if you ask them money for returning students to the classroom, 77% of americans. this is as bipartisan approval as it gets in this day and age. and yet, as you point out, you hear from all sorts of different republicans, who say they don't like this at all. and they're using different arguments. liz cheney's argument is -- she called it, quote, a real strategy, because she believes that if it were more targeted, it would have had broad bipartisan support. is that true? could anything have had bipartisan support right now? >> no, i don't think she's right about that. and i think republicans, conservatives, are holding that

up as a way to say, look, we would never support something that's this big in the dollar amount and this sweeping in terms of what it's doing for people. so i think we should point out a couple of things about why it's popular. first of all, the obvious thing is, the government's giving away a lot of money. and support to people who have really been hurting. that's going to be popular, up and down the ideological chain. the other piece of it that you underlined i think is really important. that's giving schools more support to get back to business. i think for a lot of people in this year of the pandemic, the fact that kids have not been in school has just, a huge blow. because it bank accounts families in so many different ways. and, of course, it impacts workers as well, whose kids are not going back to school. so the idea of that kind of light at the end of the tunnel, i think, becomes really important, and makes this popular. the economists are going to debate whether this is too much gasoline on a kind of hot

economy, whether there's inflation down the road. that will become more apparently. the politics of this right now is what you said, it's popular. the president's achieved something big. and he has used a lot of political capitol. he doesn't have an unlimited amount, by the way. he's got about a year to get some things done before we're in full election mode. >> david gregory, great to get your analysis. thank you very much. the war within the republican party intensifying. fueled this morning by former -- the former president. he's taking aim at the republican fund-raising efforts with the goal of ousting lawmakers who opposed him. joining me now is cnn political analyst, maggie haberman, she's a washington correspondent for "the new york times." you've got fresh reporting on this, maggie. the battle between the former president and the rnc. and you say, seconds ago, because i read this kind of stuff, you say, the president's attempts at a hostile takeover of republican money are walked back a little bit. >> reporter: a little bit, john. so the president issued a statement, you know, we've now

gotten very used to these statements that he is putting out from what he has fashioned as something of a self-styled government in expile from florida. but first he put out a statement saying, don't give to rinos, republicans in name only, give to my pac. and there was a flurry of activity between him and his advisers and some republicans and he walked it back, of course i support republicans and republican committees, but i don't support rinos, still give to my pac. a lot of people who support him and are inclined to give low-dollar donations are only gong to give to his pac. is this partly about getting back at republicans who didn't support him, but it's also about the fact that there's a giant pile of money available to him through low-dollar donations with very little restrictions on how he can spend it. >> he can pay himself a salary, right? >> in theory, he could pay himself a salary. people close to him say that that has not been under discussion. in theory, he could pay his

children salaries. now, it does not appear that that's been under discussion at the moment. but it is worth noting that historically, he has a habit of happening relatives on some form a payroll with his political committees and using the committees to, you know, spend money at his properties, which indirectly enriches him. >> alisyn reliably informs me this morning -- and i just didn't believe her, because i know how much the former president hates mail-in voting, obsessed with the idea of mail-in voting being fraudulent. alisyn reliably informs me that he voted by mail in palm beach. how can this be, maggie? there it is! there's the application for a mail-in ballot! how can this possibly be? >> as you know, john, the president has a long -- the former president has a long habit of saying something and doing something different. in this case, he has a long history of voting by mail. over the last couple of years, he also has a habit of listing a place where he was not actually living at the time, which was

mar-a-lago, when he was voting. now he is. but by doing this by mail, it meant he didn't have to go in person and cast a ballot in a local election. it is going to raise obvious charges of hypocrisy. it is also a reminder for republicans who do want there to be at least some discussion about reforming election laws and changing election laws and there's a debate about what that should look like or could look like, but that's not what he's talking about at all. he broadly talks about the system as tainted, a system that he himself uses. >> reporting this morning that new focus on the former president's real estate, particularly in westchester county, the seven springs estate, what's the interest there? >> the interesting there is the question of whether he basically falsified or inflated the valuation of the property in a way that could have impacted his tax benefit. and this is going to be something that you're seeing prosecutors look at in terms of other properties, as well. but that is one that they have keyed in on, in recent weeks.

look, cy vance is the manhattan district attorney is in very early stages. they're interviewing witnesses or looking at witnesses who the office makes clear are not targets of prosecution, like people who work for former president trump. but it does seem very clear that they are moving towards trying to make a clase. and we will see what that looks like. >> maggie haberman, thank you very much. thanks for being with us this morning. all right. we have breaking news. cnn just learned new details about how meghan markle is fighting back. it has to do with piers morgan and his storming off the set. that's next. still your best friend. and now your co-pilot. still a father. but now a friend. still an electric car. just more electrifying. still a night out. but everything fits in. still hard work. just a little easier. still a legend.

just more legendary. chevrolet. making life's journey, just better. keeping your oysters business growing chevrolet. has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo re-entering data that employees could enter themselves? that's why i get up in the morning! i have a secret method for remembering all my hr passwords.

my boss doesn't remember approving my time off. let's just... find that email. the old way of doing business slows everyone down. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in one easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com for a free demo. some say this is my greatest challenge. governments in record debt; inflation rising, currencies falling. but i've seen centuries of this. with one companion that hedges the risks you choose and those that choose you. the physical seam of a digital world, traded with a touch. my strongest and closest asset. the gold standard, so to speak ;) people call my future uncertain. but there's one thing i am sure of... (customer) movie night. (burke) should have been watching the stove instead. (customer) tell me something i don't know. (burke) with your farmers policy perk, guaranteed replacement cost, your home can be rebuilt, regardless of your limits.

(customer) that's really something. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

breaking news. cnn has just learned that meghan markle, the duchess of sussex, launched a formal complaint with itv network following piers morgan's on-air comments about her mental health. morgan stormed off his morning show on tuesday, amid very heated discussions about markle. cnn's max foster live in windsor, england, with all the

breaking details. what's the latest, max? >> reporter: there were huge amounts of complaints to the british regulator about piers morgan's comments, really, about the duchess following that interview with oprah winfrey. they were very personal attacks. i think he would accept that. ultimately, he had a conversation with the chief executive of itv and he resigned. we haven't -- so what subsequently happened is that we've learned that the duchess of sussex made a formal complaint directly to itv, not, i'm understanding, relating to the personal nature of those attacks, but her concerns about the impact it could have on the seriousness of mental health issues, effectively the impact piers morgan's attacks could have on others, apart from her, effectively the audience here in the united kingdom. we don't know whether that was directly playing into piers mo morgan's decision to resign. we're trying to get more details about what happened behind

boardroom doors here, but who we have heard from is piers morgan this morning outside his home. this is before we had it confirmed that the duchess had made a complaint, although he may have already known. >> if people want to believe meghan markle, that's entirely their right. i don't believe almost anything that comes out of her mouth. i think the damage she's done to the british monarchy and to the queen at a time when prince phillip is lying in hospital is enormous and frankly contemptible. so, if i have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about meghan markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it. >> reporter: she's basically saying, it doesn't just affect her, it affects a lot of other people. he's making it a freedom of speech issue. he should be able to say whatever he likes about her. i think, you know, other people would say, it wasn't just about her, he was talking about mental health issues, they're very

serious, and a lot of people would sympathize with the duchess' view. it was very controversial, that appearance earlier in the week on itv. they will, i'm sure, come up with some kind of comment later on. but itv not commenting besides the fact they've confirmed that mystery morgan has resigned. >> all right, max, it seems like there's breaking news in this story every hour. bring us more as soon as you have developments. joining us now, richard quest. also with us, journalist and former british talk show host, tricia gooddard. tricia, i want to start with you. how about that piers morgan, huh? who is he to say who is having emotional struggles or mental health struggles? >> well, piers and i have been colleagues for many, many, many years and we've had our differences. most recently, just a couple of days ago, about the question of what is and isn't racism. i think the backdrop, well, definitely the backdrop of this

is many-fold, number one, i have to declare my hand. i've been a mental health campaigner for many, many years, a patron of mind mental health charity in the uk, a government adviser on mental health in australia and so on. and itv has signed up with mind, with other charities, mental health charities, to actually run a really important initiative of getting people to speak out when they are going through emotional turmoil. so you have a whole network, which is geared towards that. and i don't know if you know, but in the uk, there was a television presenter that was very much loved, caroline flak, who took her own life, because of press intrusion and a lot of personal issues and so forth. and channel 4 is about to do a documentary on this. so it's something that's very, very raw to the british public and very, very raw to the media. in fairness to piers, after he'd

been taken to task about his remarks about not believing the duchess when she said she was suicidal, he did apologize. but the impact, it is very, very dangerous, because in mental health, we are always trying to get people to speak out before they self-harm or things go too far. so when someone in a very prominent position says, you know what, i don't believe this person, when that person has obviously struggled to actually say that they were so desperate they wanted to take their lives. and it's not just meghan markle, remember, prince harry actually said he went to a very dark side. so, you can't say one is talking quote/unquote bilge without saying prince harry was doing the same. so it's -- it's something that piers did apologize for, but in 24 hours or however long between that apology came, a lot of damage can be done. >> i think that's an important point right there. if you're saying you don't

believe someone crying out for help on the issue of mental health, that can have serious damage there. i want to ask a question on a different subject, richard, which is how the palace has handled this. they did finally put out a statement and said that they are concerned. chi understand means something different in british than in american. that means really worried, i've been reliably told overnight, as opposed to just sort of, oh, i wonder what that means. but they also say they want to handle the accusations about racism privately. i'm not sure they get to handle it privately. aren't they trying to have it both ways. if you're going to be the royal family, if you're going to still play this game of this constitutional monarchy and be the official, you know, monarchs of this country, then it's not private. then if a senior member of the royal family is saying racist stuff, it's not private. >> we're back to square one here, john. you're on your soap box. no, john. they are basically saying that this is a family matter and,

yes, obviously, because there is a constitutional monarchy and it is the will of the people that they continue to be the monarch, that is the link and that is the relevance. but it does not mean you have to have a full public inquiry and the royals have to then prostrate themselves in front of everybody. now, i can hear you, john, i can hear your blood pressure slowly going higher -- >> quickly. >> -- as you fume at the prospect of not getting into the nitty-gritty. but the british people will basically say, look, we've decided for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health they're what going to have a royal family. and the way that's normally dealt with is this. if it becomes egregious and if it becomes too much, obviously, the mood of the people will change and in doing so, the royals will have to accommodate that accordingly. that's the way it works. but this idea that you've got this morning, john, that somehow freedom of speech is almost nonexistent, at the government is regulating television networks left, right, and center, is simply not -- i

don't -- i don't recognize it. i'm sounding like piers morgan now. i don't recognize it -- maybe i'm embarrassed, but i'm not sure which this morning. >> the issue i have with the regulation and the royal family are two separate issues. two separate gripes i may have with the system there. but on the royal family, i take your point. i disagree with you, but i take your point. >> tricia, what about that? they are saying that they have a different recollection than meghan markle. why not come out and clarify that. wouldn't that help this whole situation? >> no. no, it wouldn't. and i think if you look at it, this is a family. let's put royalty aside. this is a family, and things happen. and i can tell you with my daughters or, you know, my parents, we have different recollections of similar situations and what have you. i think to go into the nitty-gritty would feed the monster, if you like. somebody said something inappropriate and i think there's a danger of it being a witch hunt as to who said what

when. and that completely negates what should be done. i mean, you've got to understand that the monarchy, the empire was built on what we now call out to be racist and very, you know -- some awful atrocities. all countries were built on those. the empire and the royal family certainly was. but the family today obviously needs to hunker down, as you'd say here in america, and say, look, how are we going to deal with this? and can i just say, i know piers, not really, really well, but as a colleague over the years, and people have been saying, oh, he's racist. i don't know that. i don't know him well enough. but like many of his age, what they think is okay to say actually isn't. weave moved on from that. and i would say to anyone who comes out with a diatribe -- the whole thing about meghan markle was talking, diatribe, and piers

was right to call them out, because he's on the queen's side, does it strike anyone that the queen and meghan markle were actually very close. and this would hurt the royal family, hearing about the -- their grandson's mother being talked about like this, day and night and nonstop. because we've all got that family member who does things to tick us off, but we don't want other people going on and on and on and putting them down. if we're going to say anything, we'll do it behind closed doors. you don't want a family member, however problematic, to be, you know, to have this against them day and night. >> for the record, also, richard, i would support you being royal. i would give you any number of royal titles. you've earned them! >> i knight you, sir, john. >> you've earned them! which makes it different that night other systems to begin with. richard, what happens in a week or two? where will this go in a week or

two? >> all right. what happens, in my view, is it sort of -- the press -- absent piers morgan and off-comment all of that, it settles down, it settles down into something classically british, where nothing is really said or done or moved forward. the tabloids still volume, was over time, you might get another statement from the palace talking about changes or sensitivities. you might get some sort of movement. you'll see efforts made of rapprochement between the sussexes and the families, because whether or not they're all going to go for prince phillip's 100th birthday celebrations later this year. so i think the calmness comes in, the backbeat behind the seams scenes takes over. maybe a statement, maybe a bit of guidance from the palace over time. but you know that famous british frame, move along now, nothing to see here. move along! >> on your bike. >> that seems really healthy. that's all i can say. >> richard, tricia, we love

talking to you. thank you for all the insight. it's really helpful. >> thank you for having me. now to this -- a record number of children are now in custody at the u.s./mexico border. we have a live report on this crisis, next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ ♪ comfort in the extreme. the lincoln family of luxury suvs. at panera, when we make a pizza...

we don't just “make a pizza.” we use fresh, clean ingredients... to make a masterpiece. order our new pepperoni and four cheese flatbread pizzas for delivery or pickup today. panera. so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business. nicorette® knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey are you kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette®. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette® do you have a life insurance

policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance.

when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $300 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store.

today, we will hear from the white house about the growing emergency tununfolding at the southern border. the number of migrants has surged in recent weeks, alarming officials who are strapped for resources and a record number of children are now in border patrol custody. cnn's rosa flores is live near the border in mccallan, texas, with more. what's happening, rosa? >> reporter: alisyn , the rio grande valley is the epicenter of this migrant surge.

the growing concern right now is a number of unaccompanied children that are flocking to the border and ending up in border protection custody, because their facilities are more like jail cells and they are not suited for children. they are not child shelters. last week, customs and border protection had about 1,300 children in their custody. yesterday, that number was 3,400. now, under u.s. law, children are not supposed to be held for more than 72 hours. well, nearly 1,500 of those 3,400 children have already surpassed that. on top of that, customs and border protection only has about 500 beds for children. now, to deal with this surge, officials at customs and border protection say they have been moving migrants away from the rio grand valley where i am now to other centers for progressing. abbott has a point. publicly, the biden administration has been calling this a, quote, challenge.

well, we know that internally, in an email from dhs secretary alejandro maymayorkas, he refer to it as a surge and that the numbers were quote, overwhelming. the white house press secretary yesterday suggested that the biden administration knew that this was coming because of their change in immigration policies, away from the trump era immigration policies. so, john, that begs the question, if they knew that this was coming, why did they not prepare? why did they not do something ahead of the surge? >> all right, thank you so much, rosa. joining us now, cnn immigration reporter, priscilla alvarez. prisci priscilla, why are we seeing this surge? >> there's a number of reasons that migrants come to the u.s.u. u.s./mexico border. the central america region was hit by the pandemic that decimated their economies. they were also on top of that hit by two major hurricanes. those are motivators for the flow, but the key reason that we're seeing more unaccompanied children in custody is because

the trump administration took on a policy that they were going to turn them away during the pandemic and the biden administration said they're not going to do that. so they are taking these children into custody, allowing them in the united states, and the u.s. government is just not prepared to take them on. >> how is the biden administration handling this differently than the trump administration? >> well, the key thing here, again, comes back to taking in these children versus turning them away. so, essentially, what happened was, last year during the course of the pandemic, the trump administration invoked a public health law that allowed them to turn everyone away, adults, families, children, under the law of public health. but the biden administration, while they're still leaning on that policy to turn most people away, said we're not going to turn away children. we're going to let them in. and so that's why more and more, we're seeing these kids come into custody and frankly not enough shelters to transfer them to. >> well, what about that being in custody?

what do we know about what their conditions are, when they are in custody? >> so border patrol facilities are intended for adults. they are jail-like facilities intended to process adults. they are never designed to care for children and border patrol agents are not supposed to really care for children either. and so what happens here, because border patrol is the first line, they're the first ones to encounter these children, they come into their custody and then they're supposed to work with the health and human services department to transfer them out of custody into shelter networks. now, what's happening here, there's a bottleneck. the border patrol agencies are taking in these kids. but when they're trying to find shelters to put them in with hhs, they just don't have the room. and a big part of that is because of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of these shelters had been working under limited capacity to >> priscilla alvarez, you do excellent reporting on this. thanks for being with us this morning. as we mark one year since

the pandemic forced shutdowns, the spread of disinformation has not let up. we have a "reality check" next. germ proof your car with armor all disinfectant. kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses.

cell phone repair. did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? just get a quote at libertymutual.com. really? i'll check that out. oh yeah. i think i might get a quote. not again! aah, come on rice. do your thing. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

wealth is your first big investment. worth is a partner to help share the load. wealth is saving a little extra. worth is knowing it's never too late to start - or too early. ♪ ♪ wealth helps you retire. worth is knowing why. ♪ ♪

principal. for all it's worth. one year into the pandemic, millions of americans struggling. the job market is slowly recovering, but that recovery is uneven. chief business correspondent christine romans joins me with who romans, has been left behind. >> a year into this pandemic, the devastation has been felt unevenly and the recovery has highlighted inequality in the american workplace. the economy, as you know, is still in a deep jobs hole, down 9.5 million jobs since february. at this pace of job creation, it's going to take two years, two years to get back where we

were. and the pain so far is uneven. the lowest earning workers are down 7.9 million jobs in the pandemic. the top quarter of earners, those jobs are actually growing for high income earners. there are more jobs today for the high income workers than a year ago. recessions reveal realities. every time. and the reality here is the american recovery has been slow and not working for everyone. jobs have not returned to normal for any racial demographic. employment for black and hispanic women is down the most. it's why we've been calling this a she-cession not a recession. if you look between gender, between genders, women slipping behind men across the board. for black women, almost 10% fewer employed than last year, for white men, only down 5%. now the issue here, the millions employed in low-wage part-time work in the service and hospitality sectors, women make up a disproportionate share of that workforce.

at the same time, women are dropping out of the labor force because of health, child care and education challenges at home. alisyn, this has not been a garden variety recession by any stretch of the imagination, but it's revealed real pressures on women, especially women of color. alisyn? >> thank you for explaining all of that and keeping our eyes so focused on this, christine. it's been a year since major covid lockdowns changed the way we do just about everything. but one thing has not changed. and that's the endless flow of disinformation about the virus. john avlon sorts it out in our "reality check." >> it's been one year since covid changed the way we live costing more than half million lives here in the united states alone. while more than 2 million vaccines are being administered per day, we're still dealing with the effects of misinformation and disinformation. ranging for body politic spreading fear and confusion. at the outset of the pandemic, some of the misinformation came from right-wing media and even

ex-president trump. but much of the willful disinformation gets pushed by foreign powers like russia and china. now if you flipped over to fox news one year ago, you would have heard laura ingraham say this. >> the facts are pretty reassuring, but you'd never know it watching this. while the number of affected persons is more than 650, the death toll is 26, the risk to the average person does remain quite low. >> you can say she didn't have accurate information or could have been downplaying it for partisan politic reasons. but you can't say the same thing for trump who told the american people this exactly one year ago. >> we're doing a great job with it, and it will go away. just stay calm. it will go away. >> he was not telling the truth because trump already knew it was deadly stuff. and despite all the information at his disposal trump, with his false promises and quack cures, became the largest single driver of covid misinformation in the

english speaking world, according to researchers at cornell university. but notice i said english speaking. and that's because china and russia have been behind a lot of the disinformation that spread confusion and conspiracy theories at home and abroad. the virus, of course, began in wuhan, china. we know the chinese government tried to initially hide the outbreak, punishing doctors and reporters who tried to tell the truth and warn the world. at the same time, china pushed their own domestic and global disinformation campaigns to deflect blame. last march, a spokesman for the chinese foreign ministry suggested via tweet the u.s. army fully brought the virus to wuhan and as cnn showed, this turned into a full-court press by the chinese government to spread a baseless conspiracy theory blaming the u.s. for starting the outbreak. at the same time, chinese operatives were amplifying covid disinformation in the united states via social media and texts to spread panic and division. russia was playing their own game as well.

first in the eu. then spreading it to the u.s. now they are pushing disinfo to undermine confidence in u.s. vaccines. fueling anti-vaxxer fears while trying to promote their own vaccine. and not only that, according to a new report from the german marshall fund, those russian efforts have been echoed by state-backed accounts from china and iran. baseless fears around vaccines remain a major stumbling block for a full recovery from this pandemic. but just maybe some of those folks will think again if they realize they've been getting played by foreign propaganda. so listen to the science because disinformation can be deadly. and that's your "reality check." >> thank you for that reminder, john. "new day" continues right now. >> the american rescue plan is transformative. >> it's a left wing giveaway, a left wing social agenda. >> heaven forbid we pass something that's going to help the damn workers!

>> texas set to reopen the same day its mask mandate reopens. but businesses can't keep their own requirements in place. >> requiring us to take a side on the mask isn't right in my opinion. >> the british royal family is now speaking out. >> the royal family simply don't recognize some of the things harry and meghan told oprah. >> this is a slap in the face, i think. >> this is "new day," with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> morning, everyone. welcome to our view ers in the united states and all around the world. house lawmakers will take their final vote on president biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. it will deliver the largest ever direct payments to americans. bringing help to millions who are struggling. >> this is the president's 50th day in office. he plans to sign this bill ahead of a primetime address to the nation tomorrow night. one year after the pandemic first plunged the country into