to you and getse eadvice from y because that could be very, very significant. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. to our viewers, thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer "the situation room." erin beurnett "out front" start now. "out front "next, breaking news, the sweeping voting rights bill dead tonight. mitch mcconnell says there is nothing to fix and he's okay with the arizona election audit. plus, dr. anthony fauci says the delta variant is the greatest threat to progress of covid in america. it may account for one in five infections across the u.s. dr. sanjay gupta with reporting and the billionaire's race to space, let's go "outfront". good evening. i'm erin burnett.

"out "outfront" tonight, the voting bill is dead. the voting right the bill that would have been the most far reaching federal election overhaul in decades killed before there was a debate on this crucial issue. democrats needed 60 votes to move the bill ahead and would have the filibuster role and senator joe mansion and kirsten cinema are dead set against that. with zero republicans back in the bill, the fate is sealed. leading the opposition for republicans, senator mitch mcconnell who says nothing is wrong with america's voting system. >> there is nothing broken around the country. the system upheld very well during tense stress in the ladder part of the previous congress. >> that was in reference to january 6th. let's just point out one thing. he is right the 2020 election was free and fair if that's what he was saying. the most so in history according

to donald j. trucmp's election cyber ssecurity chief but to sa nothing is broken. that's not true. look around the country now. mcconnell knows it's not true. >> are you okay with states like arizona that's conducting its own audit to throw into question joe biden's victory there? >> i'm okay with the state sorting this sort of stuff out and so regardless of what may be happening in some state, there is no rational for federal intervention. they will figure it out and go to court. >> with all these courts and figure it out, a third of this country still believe the election is rigged and trump is president. the sham audit in maricopa county is illegitimate and that's what happens when things are broken. let's be clear, some republicans in arizona, though, are standing up to the lies of that audit,

too. >> just stop indullging this. stop giving space for lies. >> they allowed it to turn into a very bias audit where they speak only to the people that believed ahead of the time that the election was stolen and haven't really produced any evidence to the maricopa county supervisors say it time to end this for the good of the senate, for the good of the country and democratic institutions that define us as americans, the cyber ninjas have been scrutinizing for bamboo fibers, cheese dust. that audit has been going on for 60 days and way, way over due. arizona has not quote sorted this stuff out. as trump supporters and qanon followers are clinging to every development, they're ready for the date and ready for this to come out. trump is pouring gasoline on the fire. >> let's see what they find. i wouldn't be surprised if they

found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes so we'll watch that very closely and after that, we'll watch pennsylvania and georgia and you're going to watch michigan and wisconsin and you're watching new hampshire they found a lot of votes up in new hampshire just now. so that was a rigged election. >> so the former president makes all this stuff up just completely makes it up. he's saying it's a rigged election. but mcconnell says nothing is broken. nothing is broken when it comes to the american democratic system. >> there is nothing broken around the country. >> you know, it's actually also news what he said if you believe him. to many members of his own party who echo trump's belief the election was rigged and believe trump should be reinstated. republicans in fact passing laws to fix what they say is a broken system. according to the brennan center 14 states already passed laws making it harder for americans to vote and there are 61 more bills now moving through state

legislatures. all right. moments ago senator chuck schumer using incredibly strong language to call out mcconnell. >> if senator 60 years ago held that the federal government should never intervene to protect voting rights, this body would have never protected or passed the voting rights act. the republican leader uses the language and the logic of the southern senators in the '60s who defended states' rights and it is an indefenseble for any senator, any senator, let alone the minority leader to hold. >> here is the thing about that. i just laid out reasons why mcconnell is dead wrong to release the conversation to call him out for saying there is nothing broken about the system. he's wrong. calling him a racist, which is what schumer did for all intensive purposes isn't product ti and doesn't tackle the serious conversations at all.

it soews more division. manu raju is live outside capitol hill. they were unanimous in doing so but you have a hand full of senate democrats opposed to eliminating the filibuster that would have been the way to get this passed. you could have done it with a simple majority if you get rid of the filibuster but that's not going to happen. >> no, it's not. there is really no path forward to getting this bill into law. the republicans are unanimous against it and democrats are not on the same page about whether or not to reduce the filler buster from a 60 vote threshold to a simple majority so many on the left are trying to push their members to get behind. one senator of hawaii warned earlier today that if they don't change the filibuster, then their priorities will be stymied and could lose control of the both chambers next year. that's not the way some democrats like joe mansion and

kirsten cinema view this concerned about changing the filibuster could under mine the institution all together and come back to haunt them if they are in the minority. what they plan to do on this issue about voting and voting rights is they're trying to bring up the legislation again, chuck schumer the majority leader said he may try to bring a version up for another debate. that almost certainly blocked again by republicans. in the meantime, they're trying to spotlight the issue. i'm told the senate rules committee led by dell camocrats amy klobuchar and voting and voting rights plans to have a field hearing in that state to draw attention to the issue democrats want to make this heading into the 2022 midterms, which is why it important they believe to get the whole caucus unified and get joe mansion moving ahead to debate the proposal because they can argue they believe republicans are blocking efforts to ease access to voters' rights. >> of course, it's important

when you emphasize. moving forward to debate. there were certain anythings in there joe mansion was not okay with and would not have supported. he made that clear. this is a move to have those discussions. you have more breaking news, i understand, manu the investigation on the deadly insurrection of january 6th. that failed by a vote but the house speaker has something else planned? >> reporter: yeah, i'm told by multiple sources she planned to move ahead with creating a select coal mmittee to investig what happened on january 6th, the attack on this capitol in the aftermath filler bustering legislation to create a bipartisan outside commission that would be evenly divided by the two parties. since then pelosi has a democratic led committee in the house and made that decision. i'm told she made it clear to members in a meeting today and called it a quote pursuit of truth investigation so we're waiting for more details about

who shared this committee and how many members will be on it but almost certainly subpoena power led by democrats and have hearing and argue they will get to the bottom of what happened here on that day. >> manu, thank you very much and i want to go to democratic senator from montana a co-sponsor of the bill called the for the people act. not a single republican voted for obviously to be clear for the bill would be to discuss it, right? to see if you were going to make changes or what you're going to do with it. there were dell camocratic sena that don't want to gut the filibuster. the bill is dead. what now? >> i think, look, there may be another run at it. leader schumer may take another bite of this apple but it is collect, erin, the 50/50 vote was discouraging. i think that things like this and things like the january 6th commission, these should both be very, very bipartisan bills and

they're not for whatever reason. i think in commission, i think it's former president trump that's directing the band on that one and of course, on the voting rights bill it's obvious that senator mcconnell is telling everybody to vote no. in the end, i will tell you that this is not about democrats or republicans. it about making sure we have a right to vote for a lawful, legal citizens in this country without putting up undue obstacles and i think if you take a look at what the legislatures have done since the 2020 election. >> right. >> we've seen obstacle after obstacle being put up in a very partisan way. >> let me replay what senator schumer said. senator mcconnell made it clear he's been the face of this and told people how to vote. that's fair. here is what senator schumer said about senator mcconnell about the vote. >> if senators 60 years ago held that the federal government should never intervene to protect voting rights, this body would have never passed the

voting rights act. the republican leader uses the language and logic of the southern senators in the 60s who defended states' rights and it is an indefenseble position for any senator, any senator let alone the minority leader to hold. >> do you agree with what he said and how he said it or does using language like that very thinly veiled, you know, calling someone a racist and jim crow and evoking the 1960s, does that make it harder for you to work with republicans? >> you know, i don't know. we didn't get one vote so i don't know it gets much harder than that. i can tell you it was more than just southern states that have messed around with the elections since the 2020 election. montana did away with same day voter registration. did away with college students ids as a form of id.

look, all that was done simply by republicans with democrats opposing it right down the line. i think that's been the case in every state. i don't know what chuck -- if chuck's language makes a darn bit of a incdifference. chuck has a hard job and doing the best he can. in the end, we need to make sure the voting rights so many fought for and died are available to everybody, not just a select few and that's what s 1 is about. >> so you brought up id when you mentioned college ids in montana, senator. so democratic senator joe mansion voted with your party to advance this to discuss but he's been very clear he wants voter id in the bill in someway and to be clear you know as well as i know that the concept of voter id has overwhelming support among the american public. the latest number 80% a poll of all americans, 91% of republicans support a require 789 that voters show id to vote. the new bill does not have voter id in it. my question to you is if you

want bipartisan support and a bill that reflects what the american people say they want, i get there is detail. why wasn't a require the for voter id in it instead of this feeling we don't need voter id? >> my understanding is there is voter id but very, very broad based voter id that's included? s 1 more than just a very few ids are allowed but very broad based ids and if it's not in the bill, that can be negotiated in. the problem with montana is they have specific ids that aren't broad based at all and that happened in a lot of states and we have to take a look and walk in the shoes of people trying to vote. they don't want to spend their life to figure this system out. they want to make it easier. by the way, when i got in the state legislature, we work in a bipartisan way. that changed ten years ago and for whatever reason, whether citizens united or whatever, it a very partisan issue and i will tell you this bill fixed things like dark money and it fixed things like id and same day

registration which i think is a step in the right direction. >> so many of your fellow democrats want to get rid of the filibuster whether for this bill or other things, they want to get rid of it. you've been open to changes to the filibuster but have not yet flat called for the end. how do you feel tonight after this? >> i feel very disappointed in this vote. 50/50 vote there is no way it should have been a 50/50 vote unless it wasn't giving marching orders by the leader that is unfortunate. i'll say it before and say it again, i think the filler buster makes legislation that will pass the test of time but i also tell you that they didn't come here to get nothing done and didn't come here to watch the filibuster be used as a weapon to stop good legislation. i think the legislation on the january 6th commission was good legislation and should have had bipartisan support. i think s 1 today is good legislation that should have had bipartisan support because quite frankly, most montanaens and

americans want people to vote so their voices are heard. >> do you feel like you'll end up in a situation where you do get rid of the filler buster but you're concerned about the long term repercussions? >> we'll analyze that situation when it comes about and make the determination then. but like i said, these are two very important pieces of legislation to me. i was here on the 6th and watch what happened and it was disturbing and watched what happened with elections in the last ten years. we need more transparency into our elections and make it so people can vote. >> another crucial bill, of usually, core part of biden's agaenda is the infrastructure plan and you're trying to do this on a bipartisan basis and met your group doing this bipartisan group, met with the white house. i know that there may be another meeting later today even or tomorrow. senator mansion hopes there could be a deal which is significant given his position on this. what can you tell me senator? will there be a deal tomorrow? >> i left that meeting to come

talk to you, erin, and i'll be going back to it when this is over with. i'm encouraged but certainly not there yet. we're very, very close and i'm hopeful we can get an agreement very, very soon. i think time is of the essence on this. and i think it will be good for the country. an infrastructure bill would be very, very important to get passed so that not only businesses get a fair shot ubut we can compete with china. >> certainly americans agree with you, maybe not all the specifics but want that infrastructure bill. thank you, appreciate your time. >> thank you. he goes back into the meeting now and we'll talk about republicans pitching a farfetched theory in the state of michigan and it has to do with the computer that republicans claim may have manipulated the vote tally. it didn't. >> plus, voting underway in new york city's mayoral race. right now it's anyone's game so

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♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ new tonight republicans pushing another farfetched ere election theory to say the election was fraud and stolen. gop commissioners in mitchigan where trump won are requesting evidence an unauthorized manipulated the presidential election tally. this is state republican steve who is also running for congress next year calls for a statewide forensic audit. whatever adjective tis you want put in front of the word audit. joshua benson, appreciate you taking the time to come back with me. sorry it appears every time i'm talking about these shenanigans. first, let me give you a chance

to lay this out. your reaction to the county board, a county trump won easily want a hand recount to investigate whether computer manipulated the vote totals? >> yeah, there have a couple things one in michigan we've done over 250 actual legitimate audits at the state level, local level with 1300 republican and democratic clerks done by the works affirming the results were a reflection of the will of the people. there are laws that protect access to the ballots, equipment, to ensure thatenanig don't come to fruition and the clerks in the counties at the local level have the authority to do additional, official audits through eac accredited vendors and our job at the state is to make sure the rules and laws are followed to protect the election mater kbials and machi.

>> it is incredible. people don't realize the specificity and scientific nature of audits. they are specific and scientific. you said there are 250 of them. it's important people understand. it's been checked and czecheded a -- checked and checked and checked. on this theory, secretary, can you say for sure there is no evidence this occurred, this whatever computer that manipulated vote tallies? >> yes, i mean, this is the most scrutinized election in probably in our state's history and we have supported that scrutiny because i had faith in the integrity of the elections and that's why we did more audits than before in the state. to look into concerns and audits are important and audits are a secure review of election materials and procedures to affirm the results of an election. you can't just sort of throw things together and call it an audit if it doesn't compile with certain security regulations.

in fact, it's very dangerous when you do that because it allows for misinformation to flourish that unnecessarily and wrongly causes citizens to doubt democracy and that's what this is about. it's a continuation of that effort to sew seeds of doubt and cause chaos and confusion and deter people from believing in democracy and that's what i'm fighting against every day because people have a rightly placed faith in their vote making sure it counted and that's why legitimate audits are important but fake audits only cause more problems and really ultimately harm democracy. >> look, this has been going on since well before election day when these seeds were planted and after all these talks about audits and courts and, you know, so i don't want to imply arizona is now but arizona is the focus and you know, you heard me mention your state rep calling for a forensic audit in your state. he says oh, this isn't about overturning the election. he wants to verify his results

and his reason is it the number one issue i'm hearing about from people in the community. now look, this is a chicken and egg and i'm not trying to go there on the nature of it, secretary. how much do you think right now this kind of rise in the audible level is because of the arizona audit? >> well, certainly that's keeping -- that's achieving the goal of those behind it, which is keeping the big lie out there as part of the narrative. keeping this confusion alive and, you know, the representative is right. the issues facing our democracy and attacks on democracy is the biggest issue of our time. we have to look at the facts and what the attacks are is an attempt to dismantle people's faith in the process through misinformation. that's what we have to fight against, not fuel fake audits or forensic audits that aren't a thing in the election community as i've said repeatedly. still at the same time, i'm proud to stand by the results of our election and that's why we conducted so many official secure transparent audits and even live streamed one of them

to give people who are looking at the facts and focused on the facts and sin scere in doing th. >> so let me ask you because you speak from the prospect ti of som state who has done the audit and say let be transparent. there are specific terms one uses for various types of audits. there are specific processes. this isn't a really smart person to count and have someone else recount. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell today talked about the arizona audit and says he has no concern about it for this reason. let me play the exchange. >> are you okay with states like arizona that are conducting its own audit to throw into question joe biden's victory there? >> i'm okay with the state's sorting this sort of stuff out. they will figure it all out and go to court and determine whether or not there is any rational basis for this. that's not unusual in this country. >> okay. so from where you sit in this broader conversation, are you

glad he's saying i'm okay with the state sorting this out, that they're not trying to big foot or are you frustrated because you wish congress and washington would understand the problem that you're seeing in the states? >> well, i'm frustrate that we don't seal to beist history whi healthy democracy requires states to work with the federal government and the federal government provides a floor under the u.s. constitution of protections for every voter in every state and the states are laboratories of democracy to build on that and it is that partnership breaking down when one side absolves them soself t protect the one person, one vote principle which is what we saw today, that commitment and partnership that the federal government must play if we are to ensure democracy truly works for everyone. >> secretary, appreciate your time as always and i thank you. >> thanks for having me, erin. next, new yorkers still

heading to the polls. it is one of the most watched mayoral races in the country. america's biggest city. i'll talk to bill de blasio what he expects once the votes are counted tonight. >> dr. fauci warning the highly contagious delta variant is the quote greatest threat in covid. dr. sanjay gupta has reporting on the highly contagious strain. ...from a lot of that. keep your car cleaner longer. armor all extreme shield plus ceramic. like many people with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease, i was there. be right back. but my symptoms were keeping me from where i needed to be. so i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with uc or crohn's disease. and humira helps people achieve remission that can last,

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or visit an xfinity store to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds. tonight polls are closing in just over an hour in new york city where voters are casting ballots and frankly, this incredibly unpredictable race for mayor because it rank choice so if one doesn't get enough, then you go to two and it's a complicated algorithm. the top contenders have been across talking to voters about the issues frankly that are plaguing the united states across this country a surge in violent crime to the post pandemic recovery and what the economy is going to look like. what are you hearing from voters there in this final hour? >> reporter: well, erin, it's

not just unpredictable but highly consequential and not lost on the voters and del democratic primary will be the person that will lead the city as mayor. when it comes to the issues people are thinking about when they are coming out to the polls, i had the opportunity to speak to many voters. some are affordable housing, unemployment. one of the big issues is they want this issue, this overwhelming issue of crime in the city addressed. this is what some voters said today. >> there is definitely a lot of crime going on in this city but there also needs to be a lot of training for police. so it's one of those things where it kind of is a double ended sword. >> i know maya wiley wanted to move a billion out of the police budget into other things so i feel like would help the community. >> we're talking about the vast inequality in the city and the racial inequality in the city.

>> reporter: so we mentioned consequential, we mentioned unpredictable but it's quite fluid here. you mentioned this is the first time that voters in new york city will be actually voting using rent choice voting and basically, what they're doing here is afforded the opportunity to rank the top favorite candidates in order of preference here. to put it quite simple, as one of the voters told me erin, it like coming here and filling out the name at the top of the list for the person they want to win and including those they can live with for the next few years. >> all right. thank you very much. i want to go to the current mayor bill de blasio as you and i are talking here, you know, this whole rank choice thing has made this so fascinating, you know, for the whole country to watch. i go for one and if that person doesn't win who do i want second, third? who do you think has the upper

hand? >> erin, it is so fluid. i'm on the end of my seat personally because i've been through a lot of mayoral elections in new york city and never seen anything like this. it's in someways the most fluid election we've ever seen and right now rank choice is one of the big x factors. do people actually fill out multiple choices or think of it as their first choice and walk out? it's really unpredictable and now it's raining. that could affect turnout. turnout seems low. that could make it worse. this one is going to be potentially a real nail biter and then here is another curveball. we're probably not going to have a final result for several weeks because of the complexity of the count you need with this system. >> right. i mean, that's what i used the word algorithm and i'm sure math ma people will say i used the wrong word. as perhaps races count in new york, in a final twist andrew

yang and kathryn garcia decided to campaign together and they were trying to take advantage of the rank choice and give the impression of well, put me as one and the other person as two. that was the concept to beat the person who from the polls seemed to be ahead, eric adams. adams said this is an effort to suppre suppress black votes. here he is. >> for them to come tagt like they are doing in the last three days, they're saying we can't trust a person of color to be the mayor of the city of new york. >> do you think that's fair, mayor deblode blasio. >> it was strange to form an alliance ator than early on in the election. you expect alliances between people that share views, not sure these two do. so i think it creates a certain amount of confusion. i don't think it was so much about race as about yes, an effort to win the election but

in the way that certainly raised eyebrows. >> two of the mayoral candidates worked for you. maya wiley, kathryn garcia but you didn't endorse either one. why? >> i decided, i thought about this long and hard, erin. look, two people i respect worked for me for many years. other folks in the race have worked very closely with including eric adams, the president of brooklyn where i'm from. it just didn't make sense to me in the end. i'm going to have to work with whoever is the winner on a really strong transition. this passing of the baton is not like normal elections. this is in the middle of the pandemic and the recovery. this has to be a seamless transition so i decided it was best to stay back, keep my views to myself and i'm ready to work with whoever wins. new york city is coming back strong c strong. it amazing to see the energy out there and amount of economic activity but this next mayor will have their hands full with

the recovery for sure. >> can i ask one question? when you voted, i know you voted, did you do multiple choice or settle for one? >> i was adamant with everyone i spoke to, we did millions of dollars of advertising telling people please do all five because otherwise -- >> so you did. >> you can waste your vote. if you do one and your candidate doesn't make it, your vote is dead. you do all five, your vote stays alive looking for a home as it were with one of the remaining candidates. i was pleading with people to choose five. we did a pizza topping contest to teach people how to think about it because every new y yorker has a strong opinion on pizza topics and know what they can live with. we want to key into what new yorkers care about. >> i want to ask you one other thing you have going on as mayor. the trump organization suing because you announced after the january 6th insurrection you would terminate the contract for one of trump's golf courses. they are suing you and the lawsuit says mayor de blasio had

a politically based decision to terminate the contracts and to use the events of january 6th, 2021 as a pretext to do so. your dislike for trump is no secret. what's your response? >> erin, if that's the case, why didn't i do it in 2015, '16, '17, '18? no, i didn't like donald trump but we were doing business with the trump organization but what changed things was the president of the united states incited an insurrection, a violent insurrection against the u.s. government. he was then impeached by the house of representatives and multiple organizations disconnected from him including the pga, which we were depending on to provide a tournament at the golf course. this is based on objective facts, not personal views. i was about personal views, it would have been a long, long time ago i assure you. >> appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you, erin. >> next, a restaurant owner we first introduced you to last year finally getting back on his feet after the pandemic but now

he's struggling to keep his business running and you'll see exactly why. plus, dr. sanjay gupta with reporting on the delta variant that could soon make up half of covid infections in the united states. to support local restaurants, we've been to every city, including baton rouge... and even topeka. yeah, we're exhausted. whew! so, tonight... i'll be eating the roast beef hero from...parm...in...soho. (doorbell) excellent. and, tonight... i'll be eating the coconut curry chicken from...pikliz...in... winter hill. (doorbell) (giggle) oh, they're excellent. i had so many fried plantains i thought i was going to hurl. do ya think they bought it? this past year has felt like oh yeah. a long, long norwegian winter. do ya think they bought it? but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people.

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a little preparation will make you and your family safer in an emergency. a week's worth of food and water, radio, flashlight, batteries and first aid kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com in tonight's inside look record job openings in the united states and not enough people who seem to want those jobs.

the labor department reported an unprecedented 9.3 million job openings in april but employers are struggling to get workers. one story we've been covering since the beginning of the pandemic is the story of a restaurant owner in l.a. that's spending thousands of dollars trying to recruit people still not getting enough applications. "outfront" is tom. he's owner of the restaurant employees only in los angeles. tom, in terms of where you are now, look, people are back. things are reopening and i know that that is traensnsformationa for you. you got to get people to do the jobs. how is the recruitment struggle impacting you right now? >> it's been really difficult. you know, we've spent thousands of dollars on recruitment ads just trying to get people through the doors before we put up an ad. we used to get 30 or 40 resumes, now we put up an ad and get five, six, seven resumes so it's a prolonged process.

>> so, you know, we hear about companies offering unprecedented perks, hiring bonuses, wage increases, help with statement loan payments. there is all sorts of creative things going on out there but a lot of them are happening from big companies or chains. you're a small business. right? you're trying to operate, you know, a restaurant. is it even possible as a small business owner to compete with that? >> not really because a lot of these bigger hotel chains and groups are able to add incentives such as signing bonuses, just elevated pay, even medical insurance and this is something a small business cannot afford. our margins are already as thin as possible so, you know, we can't really compete at that level. we can't offer those same benefits as much as we want to. so it's been a struggle for us. >> all right. so let's talk about how this could be fixed.

i mean, right now in your state california nearly a million people are filing for unemployment. the state is continuing to offer enhanced unemployment benefits so people who are filing for unemployment get an extra $300 through covid relief funds weekly. of y obviously, a lot of states decided to ended enhanced benefits because they're not set to expire until september. do you think that ending those now would be the best thing to do in order to get people back into the economy? is that what is holding people back? >> i think it's part of the problem. definitely the additional $300 that people are getting right now on top of the $400, that's more than minimum wage so they can essentially sit at home and make more money at home before the lower wage positions and then the other issue is also for at least los angeles specific,

we're a transiant city. a lot of people that moved back haven't come back. the aspiring actors and singers make up a good majority of our work force in hospitality so those are the two major problems that we're facing at the moment. >> so i began by saying it's great to see you just because now you're talking about how to fully get employees and it's obviously serious challenges but i remember the first time that i saw you. it was in march of 2020 and obviously, the world was in a very terrifying place. you didn't know whether your business would survive the shut down and trying to figure out how to live through this and you were so worried. your wife, your 2-year-old daughter. here is what you told kyung lah on that day. >> are you scared? >> i'm concerned. yeah.

all we can do is help each other. >> you know, you hear yourself and, you know, you see your own tears, you remember that emotion, the fear and helplessness that you felt. how do you feel now? do you feel that you've really made it to the other side? >> i think we're getting there, but, you know, a year and a half ago i was at a moment like wow, we're about to close down our business. i'm about to lay off 40 plus employees and these are people i talk to and hang out with almost every day and it was a really sad moment for me. now, fast forward to today, you know, we've brought everybody back and we're doing better than ever. we're trying to open the indoors, as well. we're essentially twice the size of our original restaurant. so now we need more people. so now we just have a different challenge. but i'm definitely more grateful to be on this side.

>> i'm sure. it nice to talk to you and see your smile. >> thank you. great seeing you, too. >> all right. next, dr. fauci with a very sober warning tonight about the highly contagious delta variant. why he's calling it the greatest threat. and richard branson and jeff bezos, two billionaires battling it out in a race to space. t

the calling highly contagious delta variant the greatest threat to the american attempt to eliminate covid-19. that variant now spreading so rapidly in the united states that it's expected to become the dominant strain in the next few weeks, maybe even two. chief medical correspondent

dr. sanjay gupta has been reporting on that delta strain and has new reporting on this and joins me now. it was just a few percentage points and they're saying it's going to keep doubling and double, now we're looking at they say 50% of covid infections in the united states in the next few weeks. dr. fauci says it's already at 20% of the samples they're even testing and poses the greatest threat out there right now. so how serious is this variant? >> well, this is lot more transmittable. we know this, 60% more transmissible than the u.k. event than the strain before that. we can show you the bar graph. this isn't a big surprise. the percentage of cases that are delta variant will double because it is. it's just going to outrun the other strains. i think what's important is that it's becoming clear, erin, as we

talked about, it's a bright line now between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. if you are vaccinated, you have good protection against this variant and against the u.k. or the alpha variant as well. we have real-world data now to look at from this country and other countries around the world. it's very effective, 90% plus effective in terms of actually protecting you against getting severe disease. if you only get one shot, however, that's the far-right graph, that protection goes way down. so you have to sort of -- this reminds us -- remember, we were having this discussion earlier. should we give as many people one shot instead of two? that graph shows you why that's not a good idea. >> last night we were talking about this florida government office in manatee county where there was an outbreak. four people are dead, four hospitalized. all of them got it except for the vaccinated person. the county administrator is an epidemiologist. he told me that six unvaccinated

employees got knit a two-week period. one of the additional people who has it had only the first shot. also hospitalized. to your point that if you're not hospitalized, i mean, if you're not vaccinated -- i mean, you're looking at four people, two of them died. and then if you had one shot, that person's hospitalized as well. >> right. i mean, that's sort of the thing. when you have the full immunity of these vaccines, what does it really doing for you? it's not that you may not necessarily become infected still, even that one person who had just the one shot obviously got infected. it's really a question of how well it's going to prevent you from getting serious disease. so we know that obviously in the fully vaccinated individuals atlas lower likelihood of getting infected in the first place, but the critical component you're bringing up, even if you do get exposed to the virus, as they clearly were, it was in the office building,

the virus gets inside body, they might even test positive a breakthrough infection. but the idea that it won't replicate -- i want to show you this graph from florida. even if you are an unvaccinated person living around primarily unvaccinated people, that's a big problem. that's the line in red. you see the delta variant is growing faster in those areas where it's primarily unvaccinated people. if you were an unvaccinated person living among a lot of vaccinated people, there may still be the delta variant circulating, but you're less likely to get infected. it comes down to that, erin. >> it comes down to that vaccine. when something makes it this much more transmissible, it's there, it's going to find you, right? that's the reality. all right, sanjay, thank you so much. >> you got it. thank you. >> our dr. sanjay gupta. next, a new race to space between two billionaires, bezos

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over which of their companies will dominate the new frontier of space tourism. here's rachel crane. >> and we have liftoff. >> reporter: the billionaire race into space is taking off. richard branson and jeff bezos competing to be the first into space with their space tourism flights. bezos' blue origin currently set to be the first up, with his historic space flight scheduled to lift off july 20th from west texas on the 52nd anniversary of the moon landing. it seems the amazon mogul leaped frogged branson, who many believed would win this race. >> sold, $28 million. >> reporter: that's how much one unknown bidder is paying to be part of history and take the 11-minute trip into space with bezos. >> it's a thing i wanted to do all my life. >> reporter: the billionaire will also be joined by his brother, mark bezos. >> i want you to come with me. would you? >> are you serious?

>> i am. >> reporter: the flight goes 100 kilometers into space, allowing customers to have three minutes of weightlessness. while bezos is making the headlines now, virgin galactic is poised to be the first space commercial space line. looks like virgin won't be the first and blue origin might win that part of this race? >> i will point out we've sent seven people in into space and we've made five my astronauts. we were the first of the space companies to get people up there. but we honestly don't see it as a race. >> reporter: branson tweeted his congratulations to bezos on their someplace flight plans. virgin galactic selling cnn while they remain on track to finish their final test runs, they isn't set an official launch date. both companies have had successful suborbital test flights over the past decade. virgin galactic had a setback

when a copilot was killed on a previous model of spacecraft. the company has since sold 600 tickets at more than $200,000 each a cost that's likely to go up. so far fewer than 600 people have been to space. whether it's bezos or branson, this first flight is sure todic -- kick off a new type of tourism, their own set of astronauts wings and bragging rights for life. rachel crane, cnn, new york. >> thanks to rachel. thanks to all of you. anderson starts now. good evening. we begin tonight with breaking news. senate republicans tonight unified in blocking further action on sweeping voting legislation backed by democrats. by withholding the ten votes needed to break a filibuster, they didn't really vote the bill down, nor did they vote against having a vote on the bill. all they did, which is enough under th