thanks for being with us on this busy news day today. i think it's going to be busy news day through the rest of the week. i'll see you tomorrow night. "way too early" is up next. challenges we face are deeply woven in to our history. they did not arise today or last year. building trust between community and law enforcement whether take time and effort by all of us. but we undertake this task with determination and urgency knowing that change cannot wait. >> attorney general merrick garland announces an investigation into the minneapolis police department a day after the murder conviction of former officer derek chauvin. the question, is this just the

beginning? plus, police release new body camera footage in the deadly shooting of an ohio teenager. the question, does it provide in notice answers about what happened in columbus? and the latest in the fight against covid, with more than 200,000 americans now vaccinated, what is the biden administration doing to build on that success? it is "way too early" for about this. about this. bout this. out this. ut this. t this. this. this out this ut this t this this. good morning and welcome to "way too early," the show marking earth day. and we'll start with the news. less than 24 hours after a minneapolis jury convicted derek chauvin in the death of george floyd, the justice department opened a civil rights investigation to determine whether the law enforcement officers engage in a pattern or practice of policing that violates the constitution or federal civil rights laws. attorney general merrick garland announced the investigation.

>> yesterday's verdict in the state criminal trial does not address potentially systemic policing issues in minneapolis. the investigation i am announcing today will assess whether the minneapolis police department engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force including during protests. the investigation will also assess whether the mpd engages in discriminatory conduct and whether its treatment of those with behavioral health disabilities is unlawful. >> the civil investigation will include a comprehensive review of minneapolis police policies, training, supervision and use of force investigations. it will use both community and police input to make findings and recommendations for change. >> i strongly believe that good officers do not want to work in systems that allow bad practices.

good officers welcome accountability because accountability is an essential part of building trust with the community and public safety requires public trust. >> the justice department also has a separate criminal investigation into george floyd's death. meanwhile, former minneapolis police officer derek chauvin is now in a 23 hour a day solitary confinement after being led out of court in handcuffs tuesday following his conviction for the murder of george floyd. the 45-year-old faces 40 years in prison for kneeling on floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes. a spokesperson for oak park heights prison, a maximum security facility, says that he is being kept in an isolated wing for his own safety. the "new york times" reports the court has set sentencing for june 16th. let's go to columbus where police released new body camera footage showing the fatal

shooting of a black teenager. the 16-year-old ma'khia bryant was fatally shot tuesday afternoon. officer reardon responded to the scene where she appeared to be stabbing two people with a knife. and a warning that this body cam video is disturbing. >> hey, what's going on? hey, hey, hey, get down, get down. get down. get down. [ shots ]. >> what appears to look like a kitchen knife was found next to bryant after the shooting. police also released two 911 calls about the disturbance. it wasn't clear who made the calls or whether bryant who was in foster care at the time was the caller. officer riordan has been put on administrative leave.

demonstrators have staged peaceful protests in the wake of the shooting. and today there will be a vote on a hate crimes act, anti-asian-american hate crimes. chuck schumer said that there will be votes on three republican amendments before a final tally on the bill. by around 1:30, voting is expected to be concluded and we should have a result there. meanwhile two sets of senators are preparing to release their own alternate versions of president biden's infrastructure plan. senator wicker and other republican lawmakers told nbc news that gop only group will release its counter proposal today. mitch mcconnell has expressed support for that group's efforts. and a bipartisan group met to discuss their own ideas. among those lawmakers are mitt romney and susan collins and as

well as joe manchin and dick durbin. figuring out how to pay for any infrastructure bill remains one of the biggest sticking points for all of these separate groups to agree on. joining us now to discuss this is andrew, thank you so much for being here. and let's start with the infrastructure discussions because i think that my main question here and what we have been trying to sort through is what is real, what is messaging, and then what is actually going to than. and the reality is this proposal from republicans only is really in my view just an attempt to say okay, we are trying to do something on this, we know it is popular. it is not what is ultimately going to become law. but that bipartisan group, what kind of influence do you think that they could have over this process? >> they could have significant influence. and look, the idea here is let's agree on what we can agree on

and then let's fight on things that we can agree on. what that means in practical terms is the idea that the sghat senate would pass on a bipartisan basis a bill that would fund hard infrastructure, roads, bridges, airports, broadband, things like that, that republicans and democrats can maybe agree on, and then, you know, after that pass a democrat only infrastructure bill authorizing programs that only democrats support and what you would do is you would use the wonky bunch the either process of reconciliation whereby that you can pass a bill in the senate with only democratic votes and still get it through and evade the 60 vote threshold of course which we've talked about endlessly here over the last few months. the main sticking point is how to pay for it, right? decreases say that you need changes to the tax code, namely raising corporate tax rates in order to pay for it, republican

there is their proposal want to impose transportation user fees for this hard infrastructure that they talk about. so that will be the main sticking point in these negotiations if they can get something off the ground, something that they can actually agree on. >> right. and of course the question too, democrats can also say that we'll pass it ourselves without paying for it at all. so an incentive to maybe negotiate on things like the corporate tax rate. andrew, stick around because i want to talk to you about something related to this next story. more than 1400 protestors were arrested in russia yesterday according to reuters for speaking out against the treatment of imprisoned opposition leader alexei navalny. in cities across russia, protestors demanded that navalny get access to his own doctors. and close allies say that his is rapidly declining. and a spokesperson was taken into custody hours before

protests even began. one protestor described the demonstration as a last gasp for a free russia. so andrew, with this stage set, the tensions between the u.s. and russia very much on display here, you have new reporting that could impact our diplomacy with russia potentially in a significant way. what are you reporting this morning? >> yeah, that's right. so we are reporting this morning that the pentagon has briefed top lawmakers two key congressional entities, the gang of eight and senate armed services committee, about intelligence around sspected energy attacks. and we are told that they haved identified russia as the likely culprit. russia's involvement in syria over the years especially recently is very well documented. but what is difficult for the u.s. is attributing the directed

energy attacks or electromagnetic attacks as they are sometimes refr edreferred t because the symptoms are very inconsistent and it is difficult to attribute these to a specific about type of weapon rate. what we do know is that the pentagon last year became so concerned about these suspected directed energy attacks that they opened up an investigation, began their own task force within the pentagon to try to address this and we are told that earlier this year, the pentagon briefed top lawmakers about this effort. there have been some cases that have been found to be simply food poisoning for example in terms of the symptoms that u.s. troops have exhibited. but others they suspect might be the result of the quote/unquote directed energy attacks. the parallel that you might remember is havana syndromesynde u.s. diplomats in cuba that were attacked with these

electromagnets. so a lot more to learn. >> all right, andrew, thank you for that. we'll keep our eyes for more reporting from you. still ahead here, the brother of george floyd pens a powerful op-ed. and it is a new milestone in the fight against coronavirus. and a check of your weather when we come right back. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches,

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welcome back. the nba's lebron james is responding to criticism after deleting a tweet targeting the police officer involved in the shooting of ma'khia bryant. in the since deleted post which fold his one word reaction in the conviction of derek chauvin for the killing of george floyd, pictured the police officer with the caption you are next.

and hashtag accountability. among the critics was republican senator tom cotton of arkansas who accused james of inciing violence against the police i've saying that this is disgraceful and dangerous. james said that he was tweeting out of anger before gathering the facts and tweet down saying that this is about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. i'm so desperate for more accountability. and the brother of george floyd thanked the raiders for the organization's support after the team drew unexpected criticism for its twitter post reacting to chauvin's conviction. hark davis said that it echoed the same phrase used by

flinoise. and he said let's take a breath together in honor of my big brother who couldn't. now to the nhl, they say that they never guaranteed that they would relax covid safety protocols after the goaltender ripped the league for what he kept unkept promises. >> we were promised things if we got vaccinated. it was a lie to our face, do this and you will get this and now it is not happening because of competitive edge and i think that it is totally unacceptable. look at the nba, nfl and the other leagues. they have already implemented these things and now we are -- we are vaccinated and we're still going to be trapped in a prison? >> he later clarified his comments in the nearly 11 minute speech with a multipost thread on twitter saying that he was advocating dealing with mental

health issues and apologizing for likening the isolation measures to being in prison. meanwhile the knights 5-2 victory over the sharks makes vegas the first nhl team to clinch a spot in the playoffs. let's go now to major league baseball and finale of the three game series between the twins an athletics. boston saves a run for minnesota in the bottom of the sixth, sprinting about 60 feet and diving for the ball caught in left center. nice. but the as would tie the game and send to extra innings where after falling behind by two runs in the 10th, oakland is helped by a defensive error in the bottom of the frame. a pair of walks loads the bases and the minnesota lead is cut to one after an infield grounder is mishandled by the twins second baseman. and with the bases still loaded, oakland's next batter hits one that should have been an easy out at first, but the ball was overthrown.

yikes. back to back errors led to a 13-12 walk-off victory for the as, their 11th straight win. time now for the weather and let's go to bill karins for a check on the forecast. bill, it is freezing in the northeast. what is going on? >> that is what everyone else is complaining about all week long and now it has finally arrived in the northeast. yeah, we had the nasty thunderstorms roll through the northeast too. that was the dividing line between the warm air and the cold air that has now pushed in. so let's give you the details. 89 million people affected by frost advisories or freeze warnings from the midwest all the way to the northeast. so how bad does it feel right now? if you are heading out the door, pretty unusual to have a windchill in atlanta of 33 degrees. we have 20s and 30s pretty much covering the man. we'll recover nicely. especially in the midwest and in the south, this time of year the sun is pretty high in the sky,

so 64 later atlanta, but still a windy and brisk day for all of the northeast. and tomorrow, friday, a little bit better in the northeast, but we have a severe weather outbreak to worry about coming into oklahoma and texas and we'll track that all weekend long. so there it is friday in areas right from houston up to dallas, areas of louisiana and then saturday, we could have severe storms from areas of atlanta, charlotte into kentucky. and then be prepared for a wet soggy sunday in areas of new england especially. so we'll track that next storm starting tomorrow. so bundle up today, and then we'll return to spring type weather over the weekend. >> sounds good. bill karins, thank you very much. we'll see you tomorrow. and still ahead here, president biden makes a new push to get more americans vaccinated. he is asking companies to provide paid time off so employees can get their shots. we'll talk about that new effort coming up next. from dry and stressed, to bright and smooth.

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welcome back to "way too early." it is just before 5:30 here on the east coas the brother of george floyd penned an op-ed saying this is what justice feels like. he writes in part, this verdict is historic, but it shouldn't be historic to punish people who do bad things even if they wear a police uniform. this week our family received a measure of justice because regular citizens and those in authority took the most basic human action. they did the right thing. it is up to all of us to build on this moment, we must end the qualified immunity that too often shields law enforcement officers from responsibility, require police to maintain body camera and dash camera videos

and ban chokeholds and no-knock washtss. now it is time for the u.s. senate to do its past and begin the work of transforming policing in the united states. what does justice feel like? it feels like maybe we can finally take a breath. and to that point, senator tim scott the republican point person on police reform expressing optimism that is deal is within reach. the bill named in george floyd's honor passed the house in march but stalled in the senate. one of the outstanding issues is qualified immunity which protects officers from being sued. democrats want to eliminate it, but republicans say the move would hurt recruitment. scott proposes allowing lawsuits against police departments instead of against individual officers. another sticking point, chokeholds. democrats want them banned outright. scott wants to study the issue.

and republicans argue that not all military gear are lethal. scott says a deal could be reached within the next week or two. joining us now, pbs news hour. always great to have you here on "way too early." thank you for being with us. i want to talk about those comments from tim scott because i know i and others on our al congressional team here at nbc took notice when he said yeah, we may be able to get a deal. it was much more optimistic than what we had been hearing in the past. of course the big question, can he bring nine other republicans along to potentially vote for this bill on the senate floor that would actually make it become law. but what did you make of what scott said and what do you think the chances are that question could see something happen here? >> good morning, it is always good to be with you. i like you took notice, tim

scott came out and said that and i think a lot of us sat up and took notice because it was the first sign of real hope that we saw that there could be some kind of bipartisan approach to this. the sticking koint as you mentioned is that issue of qualified immunity. but take a look big picture. some of the things that you mentioned and the floyd family has mentioned that they want to see advocates working in the state that they quants to want to see, banning of chokeholds, no-knock warrants, this is at the federal level and that would incentivize the local level action. and so making individual officers accountable. tim scott's potential compromise, that police departments bear the burden of accountability seems like it could start to get traction. it is at least a beginning of a

negotiation and compromise that we haven't seen. and when you think for a moment about what it took to get here. right? it took the murder of a man caught on camera. it took a year's worth of worldwide protests and then finally we have some kind of a reform here. at least everyone is now on the same starting page that some reform is necessary. but advocates in the space will tell you that we have banned chokeholds in some places and they are still implemented by police officers. some places have banned no knock warrants. so until the federal incentives come into play, there is a worry that none of this will go into effect at a local level. >> and streets all of course tied to funding that the departments get from the federal government. how far do you think that democrats are willing to go here? one dynamic we've seen is often there is a feeling that if we don't go far enough, it is not worth doing anything because this is our one shot at this. do you think that for example

nancy pelosi house democrats would then have to pass the senate version would be willing to go for something that represents a compromise with tim scott? >> interesting, you've seen some of the same dynamics within the democratic caucus play out on this policing bill. yes, you have people saying that we will figure out a way to reach some kind of compromise, this issue of qualified immunity as you mentioned is the main sticking point. and others are coming out immediately after tim scott said what if we change the burden of responsibility, make departments accountable. some folks in the senate like raphael warnock says absolutely not, that is not a starting point because they argue that that is basically the way it happens right now anyways, that the departments end up bearing most of the account ability and the burden if police officers abilities recklessly and get charged. we know that the holdup is not

necessarily whether departments or individual officers, but when you look at what is happening with police reform, and this is where the interesting data is to look at, you look at a place like ithaca, new york and they are reimagining policing. folks say that yes the funding has to follow, but it should be up to each individual community what public safety looks like. the idea is to take rm aed officers out of those everyday encounters, things like low level traffic stop, things like mental health and social work calls where black and brown measures end up getting harmed. so i'll say as you know, you know, watching congress, seeing some kind of compromise, seeing some kind of negotiation is a starting point. it is a sign of hope for folks who have followed this for a while. but there is a long way to go before there is a deal done. >> indeed there is. thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate your reporting.

and still ahead here, a totally different host for jeopardy lands the gig. jeopardy lands the gig when you have metastatic breast cancer, what does it mean to be a thriver? it means we grab a hold of what matters most. we sweat the details. ask for what we want. get what we need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali.

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or too many memories to make. but when it comes to a vehicle that will be there for it all. there's only one. jeep. welcome back. time for something totally different. seven years after the series finale of the sitcom "how i met your mother," a spinoff is in the works. hulu gave ten episode order to how i met your father. and the series will following sophie and her group of friends trying to figure out what they want out of life and how to fall in love in the digital age. the series is created by the show runners of nbc's "this is us" and executive produced by the original "how i met your

mother" creators. that's fun. and the fans have spoken. and finally lavar burton is getting his chance. the former reading rainbow host is part of the final roster of "jeopardy" guest hosts this season, after hundreds of thousands of fans signed online petition vying for him to be the new host. burton thanked his fans writing in part, i'm overjoyed will do my utmost best to live up to your faith in me. and he joins other guest hosts including robin roberts, george stephanopoulos and joe buck. spacex is preparing to send four astronauts. the crew-2 mission has been

delayed until tomorrow at 5:50 a.m. eastern time due to unwaiverable weather withins. and they are recycling their dragon capsule for the mission. it is also the most internationally diverse crew yet for the company, with astronauts from france and japan joining two nasa astronauts. the crew-2 mission will relieve the current astronauts from their post working on the station for about six months. very cool. all right. still ahead, after 2 million shots given over his first 100 days in office, what president biden is doing to help more of america's workers to get vaccinated. and as we go to break, a look at this date in history. 50 years ago, millions of americans concerned about the environment observed the very first earth day. >> earth day demonstrations began in practically every town and city in the united states this morning. the first massive nationwide protest against the pollution of the environment.

they were wearing gas masks, small children on the way to school cleaned litter from the street, many cities including new york banned the automobile from at least one major street. (vo) conventional thinking doesn't disrupt the status quo. which is why t-mobile for business uses unconventional thinking to help your business realize new possibilities. only one 5g partner offers unmatched network, support, and value-without any trade offs. ♪

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worth is knowing why. ♪ ♪ principal. for all it's worth. i'm calling on every employer large and small in every state to give employees the time off they need with pay to get vaccinated. and anytime that they need with pay to recover if they are feeling under the weather after the shot. no working american should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated. >> after achieving his elevated goal of 200 million shots in his first 100 days, president biden has announced a new tax credit for small business which is will

reimburse those that give workers paid time off to get their vaccines. it will be funded by the american rescue plan which was passed last month. joining us now is director of paid leave for all, a collaborative of organizations working to win federal paid family and medical leave for all working people. dawn, thank you so much for being here. and president biden having do this i think really does underscore the challenges that we have in this country, the idea that it is not possible for many workers or that it would be a worry for many workers that they couldn't take afternoon hour or two out of their day to go get a vaccine and that they don't have potentially access to leave that will allow them to make sure that they are still paid if they have to recover from this. so this is one example of a much bigger problem. what kind of pressure is there to make some real changes here? >> absolutely there is pressure. and thank you for having me. when the pandemic hit, more than

30 million workers in the united states didn't have access to even a single day of paid leave. four in five workers do not have access to paid family leave. so this was a crisis long before covid. but we still now do not have any form of national paid leave and we are one of the only country in the world where that is the case, where this is simply not a given and this is our opportunity to finally change that. and we have that opportunity and a man date thousand come now coe pandemic to finally build back better. >> and so if you are a company that is thinking about trying to return to the office and there are some, many, that are looking at june or maybe september. there are a lot of workers out there who are looking around at the way that their lives are structured, they don't know where they will send their kids to school and nervous about returning to office. how should companies setting aside what the government can do, how should companies be

thinking about their employees and their flexibility and their giving granting of paid leave to workers? because as you point out, this pandemic has unup ended everybody's lives. >> i think all the research shows that paid leave boosts everybody's bottom lives and makes workers more productive. higher performance. it reduces turnover. so it actually reduces costs. so it has either a positive or neutral effect on bottom lines. and we found that two-thirds of small businesses support or want a national paid leave plan. so this is something that is good to business. more and more businesses that you will hear are getting on board and asking for a policy because i don't think that we can leave it unto voluntary measures or the private sector. this is something that again needs to be universal no matter who you work for, no matter

where you live. and so this is the opportunity to finally make that change. and if there is one thing we've learned from the pandemic, it is that every one of us will need to give or receive care in our lives and we can't always plan that. so when a care giving need arises, we need to have this peace of mind. >> all right. paid leave for all. thank you very much for getting up with us and putting a spotlight on this very important issue. we appreciate your time today. and earlier on in the show, we asked all of you why are you awake? pat writes i'm up to catch the sunrise. hi, pat. looks beautiful. and another viewer says i'm awake because romeo because begging for his breakfast. and adam tweets i was hoping to hear a win for my twins. sorry, yes, it is friday eve. and our new puppy missy wanted

to watch her daddy preston your technical director switch all the cameras on your show this morning. hi, guys. we really appreciate you being up early even though maybe you have to. hi, preston. there he is. thanks, guys. and coming up next, a look at t axios one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," house majority leader steny hoyer will join the conversation to discuss democrats' new moves. and we'll hear from senator todd young about what he's doing to keep the tech industry competitive with china. "morning joe" just moments away. a "morning joe" just moments away. e psoriasis, ... ...little things... ...can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea,... ...nausea or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have

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and value-without any trade offs. welcome back. the head of the u.s. capitol police says the threats against members of congress continue to top concern. acting chief yogananda pittman appeared before the subcommittee yesterday and had this to say. >> our personnel are highly trained and deeply committed to our critical mission. and our mission, however, has become more difficult. in the first four months of this year, we've had a 65% increase

in threats against members compared to 2020. from 2017 to 2020, there was 119% increase in the total threats and directions of interest against members with the majority of the suspects residing outside of the ncr. as the nation well knows, the capitol complex is also a target. >> reporter: back in march, pittman testified that threats against lawmakers were up 93. 5% in the first two months of the year, compared with that same period a year ago. let's go to the southern border, where 250 national guard troops are being deployed in arizona to help handle the unprecedented migrant surge. nbc news reporter dacia burns has more. >> reporter: facing a record migrant surge, arizona's governor deploying the national guard. >> the u.s. border patrol is overwhelmed. >> reporter: declaring a state

of emergency in multiple counties. we were there with sheriff's deputies along the border as these two men were apprehended by border patrol. >> we asked them why they came to the united states. to work, to provide for my family one man told us. in march, broader patrol see a 10% increase. even as a number of migrants crossing into arizona is soaring, the border patrol help he counts on is now being diverted to deal with the surge of unaccompanied children elsewhere. >> what do resources look like? >> we've lost a lot of our federal support. they've been reassigned for child care, processing, and things like that. >> reporter: around 23,000 chirp are now in u.s. custody, after the biden administration changed border policy, allowing unaccompanied children and many families to stay in the u.s. while they await court hearings.

>> our thanks to nbc's dacia burns for that report. >> joining us now with axios, nicholas johnson. what's the big thing today? >> today's big thing is an expected ruling on trump's facebook ban. as you remember, earlier this year, after his repeated lies about the election and insurrection at the capitol, trump was kicked off both twitter and facebook. in the coming days or weeks, we're expecting facebook's independent oversight board to make a ruling on whether trump can come back. this is something very closely watched by folks in the pet community and a lot of people in congress and around the world. the two key things are whether the board allows trump to come back. this is something facebook must follow. his an independent review board. a supreme court for facebook that makes a decision on whether content can span. folks we're talking to think that trump will be allowed to return, but the bigger thing to

watch, under the subtext here is a bunch of policy recommendations that this board makes. setting rules and guidelines on how facebook can make these kind of decisions in the future. this is something that's very closely watched. democrats on the hill are worried about facebook's unilateral power and kicking people off. wondering how it's applied to other types of leaders around the world who foment violence or say things similar to what trump said. and of course, conservatives are furious that facebook took this action against trump. and will very much use any kind of these policy recommendations as a future baseline for how they want to approach regulation, breaking up these big companies. a lot of their approach to some of their legal liabilities and how they're protected by so-called section 230. this is a big thing coming down the pike. how they treat big tech in the future. look for this in the coming days or weeks. we're on the edge of our seats waiting for the first signs this might be coming down the pike. >> so, nick, you called it the supreme court for facebook.

but can you explain how this board is set up and why people should trust they're actually independent from mark zuckerberg and sort of, it's hard not to view it and see, okay, are they trying to use this to get out of accountability for making their own decisions about stuff like this. >> they're totally independent. we've spoken to them. they are funded separately from facebook. they don't have to do anything. when they were calling us about their plans, they don't have to facebook about any of these kind of things. it's a who's who list. former heads of state, former lawyers and professors who are on top of this. their independence is not in question. but what is very interesting to watch is what their ruling is and what their policy recommendations, which are not binding, how facebook will treat those. how to treat these kind of things in the future, if other heads of state say inflammatory or things that incite people to violence, should they be kicked off? how should they treat ceos or other public figures. these social platforms have incredible, incredible power. when trump was kicked off of facebook and twitter, we don't hear him a lot on the internet

anymore. his statements are released in email and don't have the same kind of effect. they are such a mouthpiece for reaching people in an unfiltered way. and so a clear set of policies on how facebook should do this going forward i think would be very interesting. and that's the rub, although facebook has to follow the decision on whether to allow trump back on, they do have a leeway on whether they follow these sorts of policy recommendations. and that's one thing that they'll be pushing people to respond to wan 30-day league limit. >> and you also mentioned other leaders around the globe. there's been some suggestions that facebook has allowed more egregious behavior from other leaders. >> that's 100%. that's what conservatives are so angry about. why is trump kicked off, but why are the leaders of china or iran or north korea still allowed to post on facebook. the ruling they make on trump will very much factor into how aggressive republicans will be on fighting these big tech regulations they'll be pushing

later this year. >> all right, nicholas johnston, thanks, very much, my friend for being here. i want to underscore something we talked about a little bit earlier. senator tim scott suggesting some optimism that there could be a compromise on police reform. that is something to watch and a sign of hope for advocates who are hoping for real systemic changes. thank you so much for getting up way too early with us on this thursday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. >> this week in covid history. it's mid-april, 2020, and nobody knows what to believe. >> first, there were 2.2 million who were supposed to die in the united states and then it was a 1 million. then it was 500,000. the models, folks, are just plain wrong. >> yeah, no way 500,000 americans will die of covid. especially not with president trump's new plan. >> sun, sunlight, heat. heat, heat and sun. heat and