on cnn. bruce springstein, journey, barry manilow a few of the performers. you can see it right here only on cnn 5:00 p.m. tomorrow night eastern time. i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo primetime." i'm looking at the storm track. there is a chance you and i may be spending some quality time together on sunday maybe even monday depending on how hard this hits. >> i'd love to see you but i hope that's not true. >> look, we can find a better occasion. but, you know, the last real hurricane that hit, you know, was a category 3 was in 1938. >> i know. i know all about it. it quilled a lot of people in west hampton. >> right. you know the area well. the long island express hurricane they called it wept up into new england. it created the inlets that are now all the way down the island.

so hopefully this is nothing like that, it'll be a tropical storm. but this has people on edge, and we're watching it obviously, and we'll see. and i'll be watching tomorrow night, my brother. be well. >> you, too. all right, i am chris cuomo, and welcome to primetime. there are two things i'd like to make clear. one, to all the veterans who questioned what this withdrawal from afghanistan means about your incredible sacrifices. first, please know this. we have been safer because of you. thank you. i've covered this war against an idea since 9/11. i was there that day. i was scared in a way i never thought i could be. i watched you pakistan, iraq and afghanistan from there and here. if i were told in 2001 that they would not get us again in any major way for close to 20 years i would have never believed it.

but your work, your commitment, your sacrifice, you, you brothers, your sisters, your families, was a huge pillar in the bulwark of protection for this entire country. it is hard to see how we would have ever been this safe this long if you had not done what was done in afghanistan and elsewhere. now, it remains to be seen how the biden administration can keep america as safe without a presence there. that is worth concern. but please have your gratitude and know you made a difference. we have all these polls of what happened in afghanistan. i wonder if the polls had asked the question this way. do you want america out of afghanistan if it means you will be vulnerable to attack at home?

i wonder where we would be today. i wonder if trump would jump at the chance at the afghan government and do a deal with the taliban? i don't know but it is not going well. and it is not on donald trump's watch. it is on joe biden's watch. this is his problem. all week i have been hard on the administration and president biden. i told you neither party is going to get a pass here. i told you wait and see. here we are. this administration has not had the urgency nor the answers needed. they have lacked the head and frankly the heart. that said, people who see this as a failure are getting ahead of things. we don't know how this is going to end up, but it is not going well. this had better be a wakeup call for joe biden. the media and his party have done him no favors this week. will the democrats have his back the way the gop had trump's back

in low moments? nope, not judging by this week. so he had better rise to this occasion. and today once again president joe biden did not. case in point, the defense secretary told members of congress today that the taliban is beating americans trying to get to the american. that squares with our reporting on the ground that you'll hear in a second. but it did not square with what we heard from the president today. >> since i spoke to you on monday we've made significant progress. we're in constant contact with the taliban working to ensure civilians have safe access to the airport where challenges for americans we have thus far been able to resolve them. >> resolve? nothing is resolved. the concern is whether the white house has the resolve that we need right now. in fact, a concern i voiced earlier this week has been confirmed.

the white house doesn't even know how many americans are still in afghanistan let alone how to get them all out. listen to the president's answer to an obvious question of if americans are getting through. >> we have no indication they haven't been able to get in kabul through the airport. we made an agreement with the taliban thus far. they've allowed them to go through. it's in their interest to go through. so we know of no circumstance where american citizens carrying a american passport are trying to get through to the airport. i thought the question was how can they get to the airport outside the airport, now that's a different question when they get into the rush and crowd of all the folks just outside the wall near the airport. that's why we had to i guess yesterday or the day before we went over the wall and brought in how many? 169 americans. so it is a process.

>> okay. be honest, it's not a great answer. it's not really a straight answer. the straight answer is from cnn's reporter on the ground. listen. >> we had difficulty getting into the airport. getting to this airport is like a rubix cube. i can't get into the details how we did get in, but it's very difficult. thousands of people crushing into each other, taliban fighters with whips pushing people back, shots being fired into the air. anyone who said any american can get in here is, you know -- technically it's possible but it's extremely difficult, and it is dangerous. >> our embassy is closed, but the officials who are working at the airport in kabul keep warning americans, quote, please use your best judgment and attempt to enter the airport at any gate that is open.

keyword, attempt. but again, president biden offered assurances that all will be fine. >> let me be clear, any american who wants to come home, we will get you home. >> will you commit -- would you make the same commitment to bring out afghans who assisted in the war efforts? >> yes, yes, we're making the same commitment. there's no one more important than bringing american citizens out, i acknowledge that. but they're equally important almost as all those sivs we call them who in fact helped us. >> by the way, it has taken until today for the president to say it as plainly as that. yes, all americans get out. yes, the people we made our promise to get out. should have been that way from jump. now, the reality we're not walking the walk, right? at least he's talking the talk now. these panicked afghans outside, they're waiting for evacuation, closed gate at the u.s. controlled side of the kabul airport. they made it through two taliban

checkpoint said in order to get to where they are here. when they arrived the gate was closed. why? they can't handle the flow. there was a big backlog today. as many as 10,000 were processed. now, let's stop for a second. amazing work by the men and women on the ground. once again -- once again this is not about our men and women in uniform. they deserve only respect. they don't have the numbers. there was no plan given to them and they're figuring it out. processing 10,000 people today. they're doing the job. are they getting support? are they getting plans? i don't know. what i do know is no flights went out for many hours today because there was nowhere to take them until the pentagon could find countries that would accept them. however, one message we heard today from the president of the united states was exactly right, and here it is. >> the only country in the world capable of projecting this much

power on the far side of the world with this degree of precision is the united states of america. >> he's right. but is america proving that right now? no. a voice in the storm calling for calm all week has been a former cia counter terrorism official who played a big role in forming the now fallen afghan government, mr. phil mud. good to see you, brother. i used an analogy earlier in the week, don't say the race is over, it's not fair. the first couple of laps have gone lousy. now we're a bunch of laps into the race. how we looking? >> chapter 2. look, chapter 1 the government was caught off-guard. the through put at the airport was slow. the numbers of people not only getting into the airport but get on airplanes, if you're talking about only 2,000 per day that's pathetic. we've gone over chapter 2 in the last 48 hours in two regards.

number one, as you mentioned in your intro the president of the united states is in front on this, acinformationing in some cases it hasn't gone well. and more importantly the through put on the ground, the number of people in the airport, the number of people outside, you're talking 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 people pretty good. that's an optimistic look. we've been focused on one piece of this puzzle. how many people get into the airport and how many people get out. not the piece to focus on. we've lost time. the piece you need to focus on is does the sort of tenuous agreement with the taliban hold? if they decide tomorrow that they want to shutdown the airport, if there's a food fight in downtown kabul, if there's a helicopter from the u.s. military that's picking up people as we saw today that gets fired on by an rpg, we're in trouble. the days we lost are precious. we're getting more through put, but i just hope that the agreement on the other side with the taliban hold. i'm not sure, chris.

>> question, why all this respect for the taliban? why is it the state of play this? listen, we need the bogroom base back, we've got to get these people back. if you say no we're coming back and we're coming hard and heavy, and we've got a president who's going to need this to redeem his reputation which means it's going to get ugly and it's going to get ugly early? what is all this will they keep the agreement, will they be nice, will they let us -- >> no way. >> come on. >> no way. no how, no way. let me give you a cup of reasons why. number one, i've flown into bagroom, it's not close to kabul. number two, there are thousands of people, i don't know how many americans that i can explain to you. i understand why the americans don't know how many people are there. there could have been people who showed up without registering with the u.s. embassy. i don't know how many americans are there. i don't know how many sivs,

special immigrant visas, people who work with the embassy or military who need to get out. as soon as you tell the taliban no, they're going to kill people. so what's your choice, chris? is your choice to deal with an organization you don't trust but hope within the next 10 to 15 days we get people out, or is your choice to challenge them and have them go house to house and murder the people who helped us? i'd tell you the choice i'd make, you've got to take a risk. and that risk is let's keep trying to see if this works and if it doesn't, we've got to go to force. right now force is not the right option. >> do you believe this is a defining moment in the presidency of joe biden? >> not yet. the question on september 1st, on september 15th will be did we get tens of thousands of people out, american citizens, friends of america, the people who supported the pentagon and others. did we get those people out? did we get them out relatively

safely? if we got 50, with the french, with the u.k., a year or twos time people are going to say that's an incredible success. let me give you one simple parallel. i'm not talking about in seriousness, i'm talking about in american mind-set. the affordable care act, the only conversation when that started was the website sucked and nobody could get insurance. today the only conversation is universal insurance or is the affordable care act good for america? people have forgotten the disaster of the destruction of the affordable care act. people will forget this if we get immigrants and americans out. right now i'm not sure. >> i hear you except people not getting insurance is hardship. people getting dragged through the streets, decapitated we know who these people are -- they've got to run things now. these are not people you can trust at any level. nobody knows it better than you.

phil mudd, you've been on it, you've been right and you have the right take. i'm testing you, that's my job. but i trust you. >> don't test me, chris. see you later. now, we're talking about the taliban. why do i push phil on the idea of negotiating with them, trusting them, hoping they keep their word? because they don't. in fact, there are too many of who believe we've got to let this country do what it's going to do on its own. a lot of these people, the taliban, are not from afghanistan. the organization has a long history. you have to know and really i've been remiss but i did this when we started this war showing you who the taliban was. you need to know who you're dealing with and who's taking over afghanistan. and it's not a bunch of concerned afghan citizens. richard clark is back tonight to take us inside these groups that call themselves the students. next.

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we're going to be dealing with what happens in afghanistan for a long time. that's the way it is. that includes the reason that we went there, al-qaeda. the president saying this. >> look, let's put this thing in perspective here. what interests do we have in afghanistan at thi al-qaeda gone? >> there's always another group. the taliban gave way to al-qaeda, gave way to isis. you're fighting an idea, right? terror is a function of religious extremism that is borne of poverty, hardship, giving somebody a reason to believe in something about their lives, which too often is animus. that's what we're fighting. the group is almost irrelevant. so an hour later after he said that the pentagon had to clean it up. >> we know that al-qaeda is a

presence as well as isis in afghanistan. what we don't think is -- what we believe is that there isn't a presence that is significant enough to merit a threat to our homeland as there was back on 9/1120 years ago. >> he's right. john kirby is a solid guy. he knows what he's talking about, straight shooter. but the reason it's tamped down is because we were there. now that we're not there, there will be festering especially if it's up to the taliban. they have no interest in doing anything right by us. they're not a bunch of concerned citizens. so let's get into what is going to happen in the graveyard of empires, afghanistan, with a man who has advised multiple presidents on the region, richard clark. thank you for coming back. you schooled me on this when i was on abc news when we started this 20 years ago. you gave me a number of books to read when i first met you

about -- you won't even remember because you were doing it for so many of us but the idea of what the taliban is. the taliban is not a bunch of people from afghanistan. you're hearing all the talks from the interpreters about them speaking erdu or pashtu. who is the taliban and what are they worried about? >> they began in 1994 when the pakistani intelligence service wanted to get a group that could defeat all the warlords because in 1994 there were like six warlords in afghanistan all fighting each other. and pakistan wasn't one government and they want any of the warlords to be in charge. they found these religious fanatics, some of them were afghans but they were going to religious school in pakistan. but they trained them, equipped them, they ran them and gave them this technique of going into a city negotiating with the

warlords, negotiating with the troops there, paying them off and then moving into the city without a fight. and they did that really quickly and they took over the whole country. sound familiar? >> very. now, the idea is, well, i heard last night from one of the main negot negotiators during the trump administration with the taliban they really want to be taken seriously now. they want to run this country, they're going to be amenable to making deals, they're going to want aid. since when? >> they don't care about international standards. and what they want is to have control of their country so they can bring back to the 14th century. and they will. they will as soon as we get out of there and as soon as the press turns its attention elsewhere. they will bring it back to the 14th century. they will also allow al-qaeda --

and i know admiral kirby and i respect him a lot, but i have to disagree with him when he says there aren't enough al-qaeda in afghanistan to do what happened on 9/11. it doesn't take a lot. yeah, there were 10,000 or so al-qaeda in afghanistan on 9/11, but there were only 19 hijackers. the infrastructure needed to do that kind of operation is in the hundreds not the thousands. and i think kirby made it pretty clear, we don't know how many al-qaeda guys are in afghanistan today, and we won't. we know -- >> we know a bunch were just released out of prison by the taliban. >> exactly. you stole my line, absolutely. we know one thing for sure there are a bunch just released and are as mad as hell at us for having locked them up for years. and we also know that the taliban will help them because the taliban hasn't changed its stripes since the mid-1990s.

you know, al-qaeda formed a military brigade, the 55th brigade that fought side by side with the taliban to take over the country. these two organizations are glued at the hip. and just as the taliban has come back like the phoenix from the ashes, i bet you they have in mind that al-qaeda will, too. >> how long until you and i are taken back in time to 2005, '6, '7, '8, where there was all about trying to figure out what's happening in afghanistan, there are threats being targeted, new leaders saying we're coming for the united states. >> i think that's going to happen, regrettably, and i think it's going to happen probably next year. and we will not have people on the ground. we will not have the kind of intelligence infrastructure that we've had for the last 20 years.

i know the president says he's going to have some magical over the horizon capability, but i know what our magical capabilities are, and they're not that good. we're not really going to have the kind of intelligence we need to stop training terrorists there or to stop plotting attacks around the world from there. >> richard clarke, as always literally 20 years we have been doing this, and we'll see how this next chapter is written. thank you for the help as always. >> thank you. i should tell you something, 20 years we're back dealing with the same group in charge. and again, they are not concerned citizens of afghanistan who want to make the place a better place. not who they are, not who they'll ever be. the president says he stands by his commitment to evacuate those who helped us and their families. can he? we have another former afghan interpreter tonight who wants to

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amid the chaos, president biden continues to highlight his promise to not only get all the americans out -- not that they know how many there are -- but our allies as well. listen. >> there's no one more important as bringing american citizens out, i acknowledge that. but they're equally important as those sivs we call them who in fact helped us. they were translators, went into battle with us. they were part of the operation. >> he's right. my next guest is a man who interpreted for the u.s. forces in afghanistan, and he is clinging to that promise.

right now his parents, his five sisters, his brother, his two-month old nephew are all trapped in kabul. he's been talking to them daily and knows the reality on the ground. and he joins us now to give us more insight into what they're actually seeing, what the reality is, okay? we're going to call him achmad to protect his identity. it's good to have you with us. >> hey, chris. thanks for having me. >> what is your family telling you about the reality of your safety and what they are learning about the taliban's plans? >> first, they fear for their lives. every day they're living in fear. they're getting different rumors, different reports the taliban are searching houses, finding out people where they work and any who helped the united states government especially the armed forces in the last 20 years.

you know, they're getting them out. and there are reports, there are news around. they're getting all kind of these reports and also news from different people that they are searching for people. they are really, really concerned, and i'm concerned here day and night. >> you are in the united states. explain to people why you have the type of fear that you have for yourself that you're wearing a mask not because of covid, you're wearing a mask to conseal your identity. why? >> that's correct, chris. because we know who talibans are and what they have done in the past. you know, we're not going to just fall into their games that they say, you know what, we are not going to attack or punish or harm anybody because we took over the power and everybody's safe, they can live their life.

i will say this, chris. this is a lie. we know who talibans are. they have beheaded soldiers who handed themselves over to them 20 days ago. they put their weapons down, despite their promise they shot all of them dead. so we cannot trust this regime, this terrorist group, period. >> that's what you heard about what happened to afghan soldiers there? >> correct. that's what i heard. >> what do you think about what the united states is trying to do right now? >> you know, the -- what i'm hearing, what i'm seeing is the evacuation is great but i think we need to find a better way of evacuating these people. all this crowd we see out there, there are two different type of people or three different types -- citizens, immigrants and the people who they have approved cases. but then we have got the fourth type of people they have no documentations, no nothing, they just want to get out of the

country. so we have perhaps a better way to take care of those people who really help the united states of america. their families are in danger. we have to act soon, fast, find ways we can get them out. >> what is your biggest nightmare for your family that is still there? >> not being able to see them again. that's my biggest fear. >> and how real is that fear in your mind? >> real. 100% real. in the last couple of days i've had just a little bit of sleep. every night i sleep only two or three hours. i keep calling them nonstop to find out how they're doing. >> listen, i've been saying this and i mean it every time. thank you for your service to this country. i hope the country keeps its promise, and i know they told you when you said that you'd help that don't worry, we know they'll come for your family, they're part of the package, they'll help you as well. i hope they keep their promise

and i hope it happens, and i'll cover it all the way through. and i'll give you my number and check in with me and let me know what's happening. we'll do it on the break. on the covid front, the fda is about to announce news that could get many more people vaccinated. so stick for that. plus we have a precdose of covidiacy, a very smart politician who could have a huge future is making a bet that i just don't understand. next. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis.

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woman: from our classrooms... man: ...to the playing fields. maybe more than ever before, we are ready for this school year. i'm so excited to see all of my students. we're doing all we can to make sure our schools are safe... woman: ...to make sure our schools are safe. i want to thank parents and families for working with us. and continuing to be our partners. thank you so much. we can't do it without you. we can't do it without you. woman: because we know quality public schools make a better california... good news. white house insiders tell us full approval of pfizer's covid vaccine could happen as early as monday. why does that matter when, you know, you'll hear all these experts on this show and others say we know everything we need to know, it's safe, it's safe. because it matters to people.

in every bit of polling i've seen it's almost 50% of people who are vaccine hesitant who say if it were fda approved it would make a difference, and that's especially true when it comes to giving it to their kids. of course, it's bip a long time coming. more than 91 million people have already been fully vaccinated with the two-dose pfizer shot. so let's discuss what this could mean, how big the impact could be. d. leana wen. thank you for joining me especially on a friday. what would it mean to you in terms of how it could drive acceptance of the vaccine among adults, kids and for a booster? >> i think this is really huge news, chris. and a long time coming. i think a lot of us have been wondering why has it taken the fda so long, and i really hope this is true. on monday they're going to announce the vaccine is finally officially, formally approved. there are two main reasons why this would really help.

one is that there are businesses, colleges, schools -- they keep on saying, well, when we have full approval we'll go the next stepch so it'll help them to increase vaccinations that way. the other thing, too, to your point we do have polls showing people somehow this label on emergency use they're uncertain about. and perhaps now we have a label of that full approval we can say this vaccine should be treated no differently than any other vaccine we routinely get anywhere. >> what does the pfizer approval mean for people like you who got the j&j single shot? >> well, it doesn't mean anything officially, but i think it could actually mean a lot practically. what i mean is that right now under emergency use authorization, a physician technically cannot be prescribing the vaccine to our patients off label. for other medications even if our patients don't meet the

exact qualifications of that particular medication we're able to prescribe it. we're able to use our clinical judgment. and as long as there's a medication fully approved by the fda we can prescribe it to our patients. when these -- when these vaccines are officially approved, fully approved by the fda we can treat those the same way. so a patient who got the one-dose johnson & johnson vaccine could in theory then be prescribed a pfizer second dose by their doctor. right now we know tens of thousands of j&j recipients have already gone out and gotten a second dose, but they've had to sneak around. sometimes they had to go find different pharmacy chains or even cross state lines. now they can go to their doctor. their doctor can use their clinical judgment and prescribe this medication. >> i want you to listen to what florida's governor said today. >> i think it's absolutely something underutilized. what people don't know or not as many know of the people admitted to hospitals for covid over 90%

of them didn't get the monoclonal antibody treatment. if most of them had done it i think those admissions would have been much less. >> your take. >> well, the governor is not wrong in some respects. although, i think that his point is -- it actually shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how medicine works. so monoclonal antibodies are a type of treatment. they are really helpful for a small subset of patients, people who have mild to moderate disease early on in the course of their illness if they get this infusion treatment, it prevents them potentially from being severely ill and end up at the hospital. so having this treatment available is really good. the thing is, though, that's not what's going to stop the surge of covid-19. this is highly contagious disease. treatment alone is not enough. you have to prevent people from getting this disease and spreading it to others. what works in this case is masks and vaccines. >> equating the antibody

treatment with the vaccine is wrong? >> absolutely. one is prevention. that's the vaccine. the antibody treatment is treatment. somebody already got infected with covid-19. maybe they infected a whole bunch of other people during the time that they were contagious. you've got to do both. if somebody is ill of course they have to treat them. but at the end of the day what has to stop the surge is exactly what governor desantis is not doing which is mandating masks and requiring vaccinations. >> again, people underestimate desantis the same way they do trump. this guy is a veteran, he served at a high level as a lawyer. he's ideally educated. not a dumb guy. he's a smart guy, and i'm really wondering what is his play here by saying things like this. dr. leana wen, thank you for your take. appreciate you. >> thank you, chris. all right, so, look, you want to talk a little politics? it's friday, why not?

pandemic, afghanistan, bad for biden's approval numbers. why? and what does it mean, how does it compare to where former presidents were when it comes to let's say a war exit? let's bring in the wizard of odds because this is a big moment in this administration. next.

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there'll be plenty of time to criticize and second guess when this operation is over. but now -- now i'm focused on getting this job done. when this is finished we will complete our military withdrawal and finally bring to an end 20 years of american military action in afghanistan. >> he's not even dealing with the hard part yet. this was supposed to be the easy part. the hard part is keeping america safe without a presence there. 20 years since 9/11 this september we haven't had another major attack. can we keep that going? the president may be remembered

for accomplishing something his past predecessors could not, getting out of afghanistan. but how will that be judged? let's bring in the whiz harry henton. i know the president would like everybody to with hold judgment but that's not how the so steady. it was historically steady in the mid '50s through the first six months of his presidency. the last few months we've seen a decline even before the withdrawal of afghanistan. within the last 20 days, the approval rating in the average drop two points and if you look at individual polls, you'll see a larger drop so there is no question in my mind as we look at the data that the american reaction to this has been negative and it has been hurting biden's approval rating. >> look, first, it was benefitting from low expectations because he was coming off trump. five points isn't that big of a deal but as you say, it had been steady and the question is where

does it go from here? how might the crisis in afghanistan affect him in terms of eight, ten months down the road? >> one of the things we have to keep in mind is that the american mind can move on to different issues very, very, very quickly. so you know, if you look at biden's foreign policy approval rating right now, it stands at 41% and that's after the withdrawal from afghanistan but you look back at other withdrawals from iraq with barack obama. it was 48%. not that high. he still won reelection. remember when george h.w. bush, we won the gulf war. his approval rating was 83%. he didn't win reelection. you might recall when ronald reagan withdraw peace keeping troops. in february of 1984 he easily won on to win reelection. the thing i would keep in mind right now is yes, biden's approval rating is dropping but that doesn't really mean too much a year from now or eight, ten months down the line. a lot of things can change.

the american mind can move very, very quickly from one issue to another. >> if you want all the different chefs in the kitchen with afghanistan, ronald reagan is in the beginning of the list in terms of who started putting money in the situation. biden's handling of covid. now, how is that a balancing fact for him now in the midst of afghanistan? >> this to me is interesting because biden's biggest strength was his reaction to the coronavirus. remember, it was his number one issue over donald trump last year in the election and his approvalness is so high. it was 60, 61, 62% most of this year. look at it now. it been declining. it's at 52% in the average. so what you essentially have is sort of this dare i say use the term, the hurricane force of multiple different issues that are coming together where you have the withdrawal from afghanistan, which people don't approve of, where all of a sudden you see the approval rating on the coronavirus is

dropping and i think those two combined is creating a storm where by his overall approval rating is dropping. so the recent drop, i wouldn't prescribe to the withdrawal of afghanistan but partially has to do with people not approving as highly of biden on the coronavirus. >> in terms of quick fixes, covid is going to be really his opportunity. if he were to be stronger on mandates, stronger on going after the governors, would it matter? >> it could. it could. and i tell you right now, you know, the number one factor in my mind when i keep looking at things that are driving people's opinion on the coronavirus is fear. it's fear, chris. and you can see right here what you see is the percentage of americans who are extremely very worried about getting a covid-19 infection is up significantly since june. it's nearly doubled. we're basically back where we were at the beginning of the biden administration at 43%. anything that biden can do to help drive down the fears, keep those fears at a lower level i

think can raise his overall approval ratings and this to me is the number one thing going forward because the coronavirus consistently over the last year has been a topp issue, even onc the situation in afghanistan, hopefully we get to a better place there. the coronavirus is not going away. that to me is the thing that i would keep my eyeballs on and more than that, we know that case -- the case levels are continuing to rise. so once afghanistan goes away perhaps as an issue, coronavirus will still be there. >> that's why the fear is going up because the delta variant is all over the place. it's 99% of transmissions and cases are popping all over the place. remember when i said, harry, if you speak to the people who are afraid, most of them are vaccinated, that's the new constituency and the us and the them in this country. the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. that's who needs to speak to. have a good weekend. stay out of the storm. >> i'll stay out. you stay out of the storm and i'm keel p you up to date with e forecast.

i'm an armature meteorologist. i went to weather camp back in the day. >> my job is to be the storm or be in the storm. see you. we'll be right back. some help from fidelity, and she'll feel so good about her plan, she can focus on living it. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. [sfx: psst psst] allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! all good why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? because a quality night's sleep is scientifically proven to help increase energy and improve recovery. and it keeps you at your best all day long. the new sleep number 360 smart bed is temperature balancing. and it helps keep you asleep by sensing your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both effortlessly comfortable.

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we are tracking tropical storm henri that is strengthening and could strike new england in 30 years, the strongest. we don't know that will happen. we'll know better tomorrow. of course, if you live in the area, as i did, pay attention to the local officials. they'll know best. do what you have to do. better safe than sorry. right now, we see sustained winds of 70 miles an hour. could bring flooding. 6 inches, 10 inches. we don't know. we'll know better tomorrow but we do know this. we're not very sponging out east. we get wet and get wet fast. i'll be on the air as henri bears down.

stay with cnn for the very latest. again, we will know better tomorrow what's happening but you must prepare as soon as possible. better safe than sorry. thank you for watching. it's been a hell of a week. the catchup right now with "don lemon tonight," you're lucky, you get the upgrade. laura coats. >> it hasn't let up. a hurricane. we're all watching this. i hope people heed your warning better safe than sorry. scary time. >> in a weird time, the act of nature, the tropical storm is more predictable and more understandable than what is going on afghanistan. i'm torn. i got to see what this storm is going to do because i have to be there for my family. long island is vulnerable. you lose power very quickly. it's hard to restore it. it gets wet. it floods very