we have convene some of the largest philanthropic organization in the united states were all international in their footprint to see how they can extend the work they do and partnership with the united states government and the other friends we are bringing to the table. over the last couple of months, we have brought together civil society leaders both in the united states and those of guatemala and i was privileged to be able to meet with them. after our first meeting that was virtual and in person yesterday. the work we with doing includes reaching out to our u.n. embassador, linda thomas greenfield, to the united nations from our friends around the globe, to renew their focus on this region of the country, understanding the needs that

exists here but also the capacity. what had been become clear to me d during the course of the meeting is manager i already knew but enforced. people have pride in the place they are from. when we talk about the work we are doing, we must understand the capacity of people and not just their needs. understanding they are pride associated with where they are from for good reasons based on the history of those places, based on the culture of those places and the contributions that those places have made for thousands of years.

this is the work we have been doing, the agreement we have reached are the results of the work leading up to this week and they are tangible and specific. do i declare this trip a success? yes, di do. >> it is success in terms of a pathway that's about progress. we have been successful in making progress. so as it relates to guatemala, out of that trip we came out of that trip with agreements to establish an anti-corruption task force. this is one of the most dominant teams in my conversations with the variety of people we met in guatemala including concerns about those who are in exile. out of the trip in guatemala, we have an agreement to create a

smuggling and traffic task force. one of the issues not only there but here in mexico. and an issue i have worked on for a long time in my career before i reach the senate much less became vice president cht the need to address, the fact that there are some of our most vulnerable populations that are susceptible to abuse and susceptible to fraud and more horrible things as a result of the smuggling we have been seeing. from guatemala, we came out of that with an agreement, and dedicating 40 million u.s. dollars to that initiative. i knew it before. it is not unique to this region. it is an issue of the united states as well. we need to do more as a globe and those of us who have resources need to do much more to invest in girls and women around the world .

>> we came out of that trip to support agriculture and entrepreneurs and businesses. i spoke with young women who i met with entrepreneurs. one of the biggest base of the economy in guatemala is agriculture. if you have met or know a farmer, you have met some of the most innovative in the world because they have to adapt and creative and be thoughtful of creating out a situation that may be unpredictable. something that's productive. we are investing in guatemala in that regard. in terms of mexico.

i met with the president this morning, he and i one-on-one and during the course of our bilateral meeting. one of the first agreements, there was a signing ceremony, a me memorandum of understanding how mexico is a partner of the united states and we are with the united states and focusing our resources on central america in particular three countries, honduras, guatemala and el salvador. we understand the capacity of the united states and one of its closest neighbors, i joke our first cousin, our canadians are also our first cousins. how we can work together with the resources that we collectively have this in region to focus on central america. we came out of the bilateral today with the president of mexico and his leading cabinet members with an understanding about what we are going to do

about dialogues which is going to include top members of the united states and working together with top leaders and mexico to see how we can expand our economic relationships and understanding the interdependence and connection between the united states and mexico when it comes to our economy. we have seep ovn over the cours our history when one is doing well. the united states is going to see an increase in our gdp. we believe in prosperity will be shared by the nature of it and can be shared with our neighbors and in particular our closest neighbors. wi talked about agreements around security. again, the point about smuggling

but also the trafficking of guns. the trafficking of drugs, we had a specific conversation about fentanyl and the need for security around the ports in mexico which the president is working on, understanding in large part that comes from china and mexico and goes north to the united states and for those in the united states press, you know, the damage it had done when it turns to opioid and the havoc it has caused in our country. the interconnection and the interdependency. we came out of our meeting today also declaring and announcing 130 u.s. dollars that we are going to dedicate to the labor reform movement in mexico. president biden and i are proud of the fact that we'll be the most proyou-union administratioe

have seen. we see an alignment with the leadership in mexico. so we took a meeting today and i took a meeting with leading labor, activists and professionals and people who are organizing on the ground to talk about how we can support and understanding the interconnection that we have between the united states and mexico when it comes to our labor force. this is some of the work we have done. >> the issues are never going to be solved over night. it is important that we make progress. >> i remain optimistic of the potential for that progress. i also believe that if we see

the capacity of our people and invest in their capacity, wem see great returns on our investment with that, thank you all and i am happy to take questions. >> thank you, our first question will come from jeremy diamond at cnn. >> can you commit that you will visit the u.s. mexico border and you will do it soon. >> we will and i have before. especially if you are from california and you know, i have spent a lot of time on the border both going there physically and aware of the issues. but the reality is we need to

prioritize what's happening at the border and we have to prioritize why people are going to the border. and so let's talk about what's going on in the places that are causing the issues at the border. i think it is short s-sided for any of us who are in the business of problem solving to suggest that we are only going to respond to the action as oppose to addressing the cause. that's just a fact if we want to -- we all know that in our lives and personal lives. if you want a deal with the effects of a problem then you have to go to the core of what is causing it. and so that's the approach we are taking. when the president asked me to deal with this issue, it was about addressing the root causes of migration. the root causes are based on the problems and the challenges that people are facing in countries like guatemala, which is why i was there.

>> you also said a warning "do not come," why did you feel it was important to relay that message while in guatemala. are you worried it may have drown out your message of hope and on the domestic policy front, joe manchin opposes of the people's act. given manchin's position on that and the current makeup of the senate. what is your vehicle for moving forward on voting rights in congress and is it time for you to perhaps look outside of congress for progress on that issue? >> i know our capacity to give people hope that region and particular those three countries in central america. i have no question in my mind that the work that we have done including the agreements i have

announced today much less will come of those agreements in terms of those work ahead is going to have a positive impact. it may not be evidence over night but it will have a positive impact. when we look at what is happening in terms of the experience of people who are fleeing their home country, traveling through the entire country of mexico to come to our border, it can be treacherous and dangerous track. and i don't take that lightly. i don't take that lightly. the reality of it is that we have to address the root causes of why they are. again, ilg tell you, over and over again with the people i have met who represents a broad swath of people of every stature and cohort if you will from the indigenous people and

representatives and leaders in guatemala, to people who represent lbgtq, individuals who have been the subject of persecution. whoever i meet, what they will say is ultimately they want to be safe at home. they want to have corruption addressed. so that's been the focus. on the herb of voting rights. the legislation is critically important and we have been as an administration and the president have been unambiguous, s1, the

people's act needs to be passed. what we are seeing around the country is interfering of the fundamental rights which is a foundation of our democracy. by the way, this is not even a bipartisan issue. from my perspective is non pattnon-s- patt partisan. >> those boxes don't have signs of democrats or republicans. we are going to keep pushing for what we need to do to push back and stop these efforts to sup ppr suppress the vote and infringe the people's rights to vote. we can make sure everyone is aware of what's happening and

that's about the bully puppet and elevating discourse around the issue. the president has announced this in terms of executive orders. we'll encourage folks to register to vote and continue to remind people that in this day and age, i spoke earlier of a new era and the president talks about it all the time. part of this new era is a debate that's occurring around the world about the relative strengths or weakness of au autocracy verses democracy. that's real. one of our strengths is holding ourselves out the world and hopefully travel to places where we have some level of respect because we say that we are a democracy and we are true to our democratic values and again, one of the most fundamental events of free and fair elections that people have the right to vote and it is unimpeded.

there is a lot at stakes on this issue that's about the legislation but it is also about fundamental rights. so we are not giving up. >> thank you, our next question will come from "the wall street journal." >> where are you? >> i am in the back, ma'am. >> in our conversation on this trip, have you made any commitment to expand legal pathways for migrants including work permit or asylum seekers to apply in their home country. >> we had discussions about the need to re-examine travel restrictions and there was an announcement after my meeting with president lopez that you

may be aware of where we are soci setting up a working group to address that and how we can move forward in that regard. there was a discussion about what mexico will do in terms of increasing its temporary work visas for people entering mexico through a southern border. there were no promises made but we did have the discussion. we did not discuss title 42. >> our next question will come from amanda at "uni-vision." for thank you, madame president, for me it was an honor, i got to vote for the first time as a naturalized citizen and i voted for you. >> what would you say to those women and colors on both sides

of the borders, as a message of hope and also what will you do for them in the next coming years? >> that's a great question and thank you. it was actually the subject of both days and a priority for me to convene women leaders to talk about exactly this issue. again, this is not unique to any one region. we can look around the world and see there is still so much work to be done to fight for the equality of women, to fight against the disparities that existed in every sector via education or the economy. and to your point to give people hope in the process of doing that. what we saw in guatemala, for example, were, actually it was a theme that's in the united states, in guatemala here, access to capital. big issue.

are women given equal access to capital to the financial resources they need, to invest in their own entrepreneurship in a way they can achieve economic health and success. it is an issue that we discussed in the united states. i am working on this as it relates to our community banks. but it is an issue here as well. so the work that we are doing in terms of our women empowerment, young women of every age in guatemala is about a number of things including looking at issues of access of capitol. the conversations i had there included that women, if they don't have collateral, we are not given a loan but because of certain customs and the way things work out, they may not have title theo the collateral that would be the basis of the

loan. here we talk just in this room with women entrepreneurs about a very similar issue and what we can do to also use technology to get direct relationships with these women and connect them with financing institutions. this is some of the work i have been doing in convening the ceos in the u.s. including folks like mastercard and microsoft who are interested in growing the capacity in terms of digital health of those women. it is called thin tech. financial in technology. in my experience having done this work for many years, there is a connection of that in terms of violence for many women. it is a fact that a woman will

endure any abuse if it means making sure her children are fed and a roof over her head. one of the best ways we can ensure that women have power and agency in those situations is to make sure they have economic independence. so they can make the choices about where they are and they don't have to accept a false choice of feeding their children or enduring abuse. and so when we look around the world, we know that is true. and that these issues are connected and so let's see the interconnections because part of the focus for us in this region is about violence. we talked about safety and security but when we do that let's also remember the violence against women and children and usually disproportionately so. there are many avenues through which we can address that and economic empowerment is one of them. thank you for that question.

our next question comes from mo monica alba from nbc. >> yesterday, you did not wanto focus on the grand gesture, today you stated that you will be going. can you help us understand how this trip help ship your thinking on that position in particular and now that you have seen the root causes of my congratulation where that journey begins for many, how soon will you go to see where it ends for many of them as well. >> the issue of root causes is not solved in one trip that took two days. this is an issue that's long standing. it is in many cases generational. it is not a new issue for the united states to feel the effects of those root causes on our shores. it is not new. it is not new for us to experience that people will come to the united states if they are

fleeing situations where they can not feed their ch children. this work must be done to going deep and make a commitment knowing that nothing we can do we'll address it over night. that's my perspective on this issue and i am committed to doing what's necessary in the time that we have to deal with the complexity of this. >> it would do a disservice of the issue itself if that's the issue that concerns some. to address the root causes as though if it is something that could be dealt over night. >> our last question --

>> you are listening to the vice president kamala harris talking about the situation on the southern border, and taking reporters' questions. our jeremy diamond was in that press conference and asking whether she will go to the border, here for the first time as vice president it has been asked a lot. the answer is yes, she will and gloria borger is with me now. he's walking a tight rope on this issue and you heard the nbc reporter asking that question as well. she does not want the focus to be that optics but it is a crucial question. >> she made it clooer that she does not want to go to the border for a photo-op and throughout this conference what she said is you will have to address the root causes of what the migration at the border and

that she had been to the border many times as a member of congress and from california and etcetera but she said the only way to fix the problem is to understand the problem. the only way to understand the problem is to try and figure out and she said it over and over again why people want to come to this country. she says they don't leave their country easily. they love their countries and most of them want to go back. so you have to understand and that's what she was trying to do on this trip, trying to understand what causes them to try and come here under such duress. she was not having any of it. she didn't say yeah, i should have gone there or i will go there tomorrow. eventually we'll see her there. >> although there is the question of what they are doing about it. they're giving $130 million to

the labor union, i am sure some of the left may applaud and some will raise questions like what that has to do with raising the issues. >> i think quite honestly that's where they have a bit of a problem. it has come from the president. i think what she's got to do as vice president and not president is go back, tell the president what her conversations were this week. tell them what she found and then i assume we'll be hearing more and more but when she says it is a fact-finding mission, i think exactly that's what it was. >> gloria, thank you very much. i appreciate that. i ism. more breaking news, the vice president's press conference happening at a top item -- talks

between biden and shelly capito falling apart tonight. a source telling cnn that biden broke off the talk as white house officials view the negotiations as dead in the water. biden making farm work concessions with republicans and certainly he had all the way through. he cut the price tag in half because republicans and his own senator joe manchin. kat kaitlan collins is out front. what does it look like and where does the white house go from here? >> reporter: it is essentially working on plan b this whole time in case they found themselves in the scenario where the white house and talks at the capitol where it did collapse. it was kind of writing on the walls as of friday where you saw president biden rejecting

capita's offer. it was a conversation that lasted five minutes or so. i think all of this is complicated by the fact that you are seeing president biden leave to go on his first foreign trip. the white house says he's going to stay in touch with those key senators who are working on those proposals. that they can actually get pass. whether or not that's happening is far from certain. we heard from sources and today of the senate democrat lunch, they said progressive members argued that don't think we'll automatically get on board of whatever the proposal the bipartisan group come to. you heard the frustration like people like bernie sanders saying they don't think they'll get the vote on infrastructure

proposal they want to see. it is a big sweeping package. it is really going to be complicated and delicate as we see this negotiations take forth. but, erin, it does come amid this backdrop where you are seeing and really meet the reality of this slim majorities that they do have in the house and certainly in the senate and so that's the question going forward of how this affects his agenda and what it will look like. we know several democrats want to make it a democrat only bill so they can make it big and broad as they like to see it. >> it is hitting a real wall there with the numbers and not having everyone on board within their own party. kaitlan, thank you very mump. >much.

the long time partner falling off of brian sicknick is out front to respond. how much of the world's richest people paid in taxes and it is stunning. j jeff bezos, not a penny in t taxes. and dr. fauci warned that the highly variant in india can't be allowed to come to the u.s. ping] ♪ ♪ ♪ [keyboard typing] ♪ [trumpet] [keyboard typing]

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this is it, it is called examining the u.s. capitol attack, 127 pages. it does knnot tell the whole story. in order to get the republican caucus to buy into this, history was whitewashed. you don't find the word insurrection used to describe the attack in here.

it is only used in the footnotes. it did not describe the event. the definition of insurrection according to meriam-webster. an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government. something senate minority leader mitch mcconnell refused to call it an attack when asked about it today. >> look, i have said a lot about that already. i said it on january 6th and i said it again on february 13th. i have covered that comprehensively and i really don't think there is anything i can add. >> today's report completely avoids trump's role in inciting the insurrection. this is crucial. if you are looking at a review of the response failures and why

people didn't know things at certain time, you got to look at history of the big lie. on page 22. following the state's certification, president trump cont continued to the assert that the election was stolen from him. further down the page, president trump addressed before noon, the president continued his claims of election fraud and encouraged his supporters to go to the cap capitol. this is really crucial. it did not say that claim was false so it was a lie. this is really, really important. it does not actually detail that trump told that claim again and again for months leading up to. >> we are not going to lose

this. but you have to fight hard and you fight hard and you hit them back. this election was a fraud. it was a rigged election. i hate to say it. this was a rigged, at the highest level, it was a rigged election. you know this and you see it. they're trying to take it from us through rigging fraud deception and deceit. now i am a time to fight harder than ever before. >> if you don't fight to save your country with everything uch, you are not going to have a country left. >> we are going to try and give our republicans the weak ones because the strong ones don't

need any of our help. we'll try to give them the kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country. let's walk down pennsylvania avenue. >> months, months and so many more where it came from. none of those lies, none of tr trump's calls to fight are mentioned in the report. it is clear that most republicans have no appetite to fully investigate what the truth is. >> do you think that means further investigations of the origins and trump's role in all of this. >> no. that was senator james langford. to put a former version in the

history book. voyeurism. many republicans for months have been trying to whitewash the event that day, something far less sinister. i want to play for you what some of these members of congress have actually said. you are going to see that and on the right hand side of your screen, you are going to see what actually happened that day. >> it was not an insurrection and we can't call it that and be truthful. >> you didn't know the tv footage was from january 6th, you would think it is a normal tour visit. >> the doj is harassing peaceful patriots. >> some people stood out. a very few did not share the jovial --

>> in a moment i am going to speak with the long time partner of officer sicknick. he died after responding to the insurrection. first, i begin with whitney wild with what's in the report. >> shocking and damming. >> reporter: the operational and intelligence break down. >> it is widely known that it would be a violent crowd that was coming to washington, d.c. >> reporter: the report shows u.s. capitol police knew in december about pro-trump blog posts urging people to confront members and carry firearms to the protest. the report goes onto say the capitol police failed to share intelligence on possible violence on january 6th with their own officers. >> reporter: december 21st report flagged a map of the

campus. surround every building with a tu tunnel commit. capitol police leadership gave one radio command while other officers shouting for help. >> you are going to need to get help up here. we don't have enough people to hold the line. >> reporter: the report says too many officers left riot training. one officer is reportedly hurt on the radio asking does anybody have a plan? >> clearly a fail krur of leadership. >> reporter: the report points out the intelligence agency struggled. the department of defense was criticized too. the report states dod and dc&g have conflicting records. no one could explain why dc&g

did not deploy until after 5:00 p.m. >> it is important to know root k cause of anything, period. >> the capitol police department was criticized in this report. they're responding that basically there was no agency that they were working with and no law enforcement partner who could have predicted this many people would descend in such a violent way at the capitol. they had intelligence suggesting there would be severe violence by a lot of people on the capitol. they still insist that there was no intelligence to support the conclusion that what ended up happening would happen, erin. >> whitney, thank you very mump for your reporting. i want to go out front now sandra garza, long time partner

of officer sicknick. i appreciate you speaking out, i know it is incredibly hard to do so. what happened and the truth matters. when you hear this before. they had information about a threat on january 6th and did not warn the rest of the department. the federal intelligence committee fail to warn as well. capitol police were not prepared. what's your reaction? >> honestly, i look at it a little differently here. i don't think that it is all capitol police's fault as well as a failure of intelligence, i mean i also don't blame other law enforcement agencies. let's face it, the secret service clearly did not get the memo either. they had the vice president in the building. i did read if the report that

and i don't know the reasons but it appears that the department of justice, the department of homeland security had not given the committee all the information they need. i don't know what that's about. i do know the fbi in particular as well as some of these sister agencies have been working diligently and incredibly hard to bring these people to justice that assaulted officers brutally that day and going through all of that footage throughout the entire capitol grounds and inside was a heck of a job and i commend them for that. so i don't know if it is an herb issue or timing and get a proper response for them or if it is fear. the way i look at this is every experience even though this was

a terrible experience. i personally and i certainly don't want to speak for all of the family members that have lost loved ones, the officers themselves. i mean i am not in their jobs. they were the ones with boots on the ground and they're the ones had to deal with leadership throughout their time working as officers there. i mean i certainly don't want to speak for them. but, personally for me i look at it as let's look at this and see what we can do better and fix it. i think if they take too much of a punitive approach, i think that's when people get really scared and we are not going to make any progress. maybe some of these people ado not want the o come forward because they are terrified. >> it is possible. as you look at this and i was just going through obviously,

trump's role inciting was not apart of this report in any meaningful way at all. i know you and officer sicknick did support former president trump. you mentioned that officer sicknick had donald trump playing in the background and he was a supporter. i know you are a supporter because you believed in blue life matters and you believed in the former president's defense in the department. what do you think this report does not look at trump's role in what happened that day. >> that bothers me immensely. and, i think it goes back to why glad gladys and i were up on capitol hill and we were meeting with the republican senator have them

do this full 9/11 style commission. this report is important, we can get a lot of good information from it. we need to go deeper than that. i know gladys feel it deeper than i do. to hear mitch mcconnell asking us do us a favor and vote no on this. that's atrocious. why does he not say that to officer jeffery smith's family or the numerous officers who were uniinjured that day. one officer lost an eye and officer hodges almost lost his life that day, almost crushed to death. or even myself, i was not working for two months because i was so devastated and broken up over brian's death. i actually carried a lot of

guilt. brian and i, i had made a decision to take a break in our relationship and so six months before he passed away. i was absolutely broken, devastated. i mean it is just absolutely atrocious and it makes me even angrier and they are doing this to protect donald trump. for trump to say and i watched his speech in north carolina, for him to say that he loves america and he's a patriot is dis dis disgusting. those are the true patriots and those are the people that love america and by the way, i said on that interview with cbs, i had said that i would be willing to meet with trump, not because

i want to sit down and have tea and cookies with them, no, i want answers. i am going to slam him with hard questions. i am not intimidated by donald trump like some of the people on capitol hill. i have no respect for these people. they are selling their souls for power, for reelection and like gladys had said in an earlier interview, it aligns their pockets, it is disgusting. >> you and gladys are making a difference. i look forward to speak with you until we get answers. >> i thank you so much for the bravery of doing that. >> thank you, erin for having me. next, some of the richest people in the world, americans paid no taxes. new details of covid's origins

from a pulitzer prize winner report. et us here. securing federal funding, vaccines and making sure public schools are welcoming and safe for everyone. this fall, it's back to school. five days a week. we're excited to be with our students in person. as a parent, i had concerns, but with safeguards in place, i'm ready now. let's do this! we're all-in! ready to help every child recover and thrive! a message from the american federation of teachers.

we have never seen real tax information from any of these people before. it had all been estimates and guests. the major take away, you went to the 25 richest people. they paid little if anything in taxes. what surprised you the most? >> that's actually right. the first surprising thing was we got this enormous trove. one of the largest discovers in the history of government data. >> i think very few people would have thought that jeff bezos

would have pay zero of income tax in two years or elon musk you and i and most of the viewers are in attack system. we get salaries. we get our taxes extracted from that you're outside the texas contracted in americaed the. >> so this is what is fascinating. so okay, you mentioned jeff bazos. let's start with him. he's going to space next month. you mentioned he didn't pay federal income taxes in two years. so what you report is so crucial so i try to summarize it here. in a four-year period his wealth grows by $99 billion. his wealth grows by $99 billion. but the income that is taxable was only 4.2 billion and on that he paid $973 million in taxes.

you look at that and do the math and say the tax rate in terms of what he paid versus how much wealth he has a .98%. that is stunning. i know this is -- you know, we tax income in america. we don't tax wealth. that's obviously wo ly one of t things that stands out there. >> absolutely. that's the message. we do not tax wealth growth. that's 98 cents on every $100 that his wealth grows and what you really see there is how little income he takes so he's got almost 100 billion in wealth growth but he's only taking 4% of that in income so what happens with the super wealthy is that they take income at the time and place of their choosing and sometimes they don't want to take in any income at all. warren buffet takes very little income. elon musk took very little income very often.

what happens is some of these guys, many of these guys then instead of taking income they borrow against the stock. they borrow and they pay a little bit of interest on that borrowing and don't have to sell and don't have to pay taxes on the sale of their stock and they're in a system that allows them to do it and circumstance come vents the entirety of the tax approach. >> yeah, well as you point out, they don't -- loans are not counted as income. you can take that loan at a lower rate to make a higher rate on your invemstments and there s no income in the transaction. i think it's important to make the point that what you're reporting happening here is it's legal and the way the system works. i mean, warren -- i'm sure if there is anything illegal as you say you'll be going through this data all year but you mentioned warren buffet and he stands out reporting. he paid what you call a true tax rate of .1%, which shows what buffet himself has said for years is true including about

his own assistance tax rate compared to his. here he is. >> debbie works just as hard as i do and she pays twice the rate i pay. i think that's outrageous. i think we should raise taxes on the very rich and maybe cut taxes for the middle class. the wealthy are definitely under taxed relative to the general population. >> warren buffet responded in detail to your reporting, jesse. what did he say? >> well, it's very, very interesting because buffet talks about his tax rate and he talks about it on taxable income and his tax rate is relatively low compared to the average secretary or working person but that's basically irrelevant for warren buffet because his true tax rate, what we're calling the true tax rate is the taxes that he pays on his wealth growth and he takes so little income and then it's taxed at a relatively

low rate that he doesn't really stand in the system at all. so when he talks about raising income tax rates or even capital gains tax rates, it's basically irrelevant for someone like buffet because he doesn't take income and doesn't really take capital gains. what he said was among other things, he said i'm going to give 99% plus of my fortune to charity when i die and that's quite admirable. most people think it's admirable to give to fa. a lot of us would prefer to pay our tax dollars to the things we want. we want bridges. we want schools. we don't want the military. we'd want to have a stronger defense but i don't want to pay for social security but we don't have that choice. >> right. >> you and i are in the tax system. we don't have a choice how to

allocate our money. warren buffet and bill gates stand outside the tax system and get to decide an in undemocratic way what they think is best for society. >> jessie, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. now for tonight's inside look, a rapidly growing coronavirus strain called the delta variant first identified in india could increase hospitalization risk. dr. anthony fauci warning tonight it cannot be allowed to become dominant in the u.s. which is hard to imagine not happening given that the masks are off everywhere and things are reopening. "outfront" now lawrence right the author of the book "the plague year america in the time of covid." so lawrence, given what you know from your reporting and writing this book on america's handling of the pandemic, do you have confidence that the u.s. is prepared for what looks to be, what we're being warned from multiple scientists is a more

severe variant? >> not at all. nor is any nation for that matter, erin. what we're learning about this particular virus is it's going to be with us forever finding new forms and mover, it's just one of many if you just look back since the turn of the century, we had ebola and sars and zika and west nile, one after another. we're facing a cascade of new viruses because of our encroach 7 ment for sanctuaries for animals and global warming chasing animals out of the habitat and this margin for sieve vags and t -- civilization is a focus for these new diseases. >> so in your book, you dedicate an entire chapter to the virus' origins including discuss the lab leak about the wuhan lab. you noted that the scientific

consensus is that the virus likely developed naturally from animals to humans but you write and i quote you here lawrence, pathogens do escape from labs, even highly secure ones. do you think that we'll ever know definitively where this deadly virus that frankly change ourd ed our lives in this world originated? >> we might if they find it in bats or an animal, it might be enough evidence to say yes, it was natural. it's not like sars where they found it in bats and civic cats. this virus seemed to have sprung so that adds suspicion with the lack of transparency from the chinese so if it's a lab leak, i don't think we'll be able to

find out about that because the chinese are keeping wraps about it. >> so you talk about china and how they with held such vital information on the onset. you said dr. robert redfield spoke in early january with his counter part and says there is no evidence it spreads between human to human transition and write in your reporting in another conversation that first week of the new year, dr. gao started to cry. i think we're too late he told redfield. we're too late. lawrence, how less catastrophic would this pandemic be if china had been transparent at the begi beginning? >> it could have made a huge difference. they never disclosed the virus circulating the that's something taijuan discovered. if they had been forthright transparent, if they had allowed

international authorities in for instance when redfield asked to send a cdc team, the chinese authorities wouldn't let them in. had they done so they would have foundwas spread asymptomatically. we didn't know those things. >> thank you so much. i'll read anything you write. i read your fiction book at the worst time of the pandemic but i thought it was incredible how everything you said was. i appreciate having you, thanks. >> thanks, erin. >> thanks to all of you. anderson starts now. > . breaking news on a break down in the infrastructure lane. john berman in for anderson. weeks of talks beginning a bipartisan deal on infrastructure have ended. president biden pulled the plug on negotiations with a gop group. the focus now shifts to another