good evening. after two decades of war in afghanistan president biden today tried to forcefully defend how he ended it, when he ended it and how final chapter

unfolded. that's one headline from his address to the nation today. one that's of immediate importance, especially in a domestic political sense. the other headline could be far longer reaching with much greater impact on how this country maintains its presence in the world and at what cost in dollars and lives of american service members. namely, the president's commitment to avoid fighting another war like the one he just ended. we'll talk about both tonight. today new polling from pew research showed that americans by a 12-point margin, 54% to 42%, approved of the decision to withdraw. however, as the president's overall handling of the situation, 42% said the president did poorly. substantially more than those who rated it either fair, good or excellent. this part of his remarks spoke to that. >> let me be clear. leaving august the 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline. it was designed to save american lives. my predecessor had made a deal with the taliban. when i came into office, we

faced a deadline, may 1. the taliban onslaught was coming. we faced one of two choices. follow the agreement of the previous administration and extend it to have -- or extend to have more time for people to get out. or send in thousands of more troops and escalate the war. >> the president said between 100 and 200 americans with, quote, some intention to leave, unquote, remain in country. most, he said, are dual citizens who decided to stay because of family roots there. for them, he said, every diplomatic effort would be made to get them out whenever they want to leave. which to be clear falls short of the commitment he made just a couple weeks ago. >> so americans should understand that troops might have to be there beyond august 31st? >> no, americans should understand that we're going to try to get it done before august 31st. >> but if we don't the troops will stay? >> if we don't we'll determine at the time who's left.

>> and? >> and if there's american citizens left we're going to stay till we get them all out. >> well, today as you heard he said staying longer was not an option. nor, he said, was any third way possible such as keeping several thousand troops in afghanistan for years to prop up the former government and hold the taliban at bay. now, there are experts who disagree on that, and some flatly differ with the president on it, saying the risk and cost would have been low compared to seeing the country fall. we'll take a look at that tonight. here's how the president made his case. >> we've been a nation too long at war. if you're 20 years old today, you've never known an america at peace. so when i hear that we could have, should have continued the so-called low-grade effort in afghanistan at low risk to our service members, at low cost, i don't think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1% of this country

who put that uniform on, willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation. maybe it's because my deceased son beau served in iraq for a full year. before that -- well. maybe it's because of what i've seen over the years as senator, vice president and president traveling these countries. >> now, agree or disagree, it's a long-held belief for this president and his commitment today to avoiding future afghanistans could have long-term implications. if it's even possible. cnn's jeff zeleny joins us with more from the white house. the president gave i guess what he would say would be a defiant defense of this withdrawal. what was his message to those who say that the administration should have started evacuations sooner? >> anderson, president biden did not give an inch to any of that criticism. he's been hearing it for the last several weeks. and of course all of those

questions will be answered in the weeks to come. this didn't dismiss those questions. but he was going straight forward on a message he's long wanted to deliver, that it's time to end america's longest war. but a lot of this criticism in recent weeks has been about how the operational ending has gone. so he said simply he had no other choice, but he also said he takes full responsibility. >> now, some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner and couldn't this have been done in a more orderly manner. i respectfully disagree. imagine if we'd begun evacuations in june or july, bringing in thousands of american troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. there still would have been a rush to the airport, a breakdown in confidence and control of the

government, and it still would have been very difficult and dangerous mission. >> so again, he did not necessarily resolve all the questions that many critics, democrats and republicans alike, have about the rushed exit of this, but he was simply trying to redraw, refocus attention on the overall strategy here. it's one he believes to his core. anderson, i got the sense listening to president biden today this is a speech he has wanted to deliver for at least a decade but finally as commander in chief he is in control, he can push back against the pentagon. so this is a core belief here. now, one aide i talked to today said look, the politics will fall where they will, but he firmly believes this. and they also firmly believe, you know, deciding this any earlier in the spring or earlier summer would have simply caused the chaos earlier. again, those questions will be answered in hearings on capitol hill. but this was pure joe biden today that was conviction coming out also as anger. >> jeff zeleny.

cnn's also reporting that there was a deal that the taliban actually escorted some americans to the gates at kabul airport in kind of a secret arrangement with the u.s. what more is known about them? >> this is really interesting. of course we've known for the last several weeks the u.s. has been working alongside with the taliban in terms of getting out evacuees but we've not known how specifically our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is reporting that there were actually secret channels of communications, secret gates even that taliban members were escorting some afghan partners and even americans right up to the gates of the airport and then the american forces were dragging them in. there were conversations, call centers happening between the two. so this is really a first look at how deep this partnership was going on between the u.s. government and the taliban. this isn't necessarily anything new, though. of course we should remember president trump during that administration, he negotiated directly with the taliban,

allowed some 5,000 taliban members to be released from prison here. this is a continuation of that. but very much on the ground they were working together here to get some of those afghan allies and the americans out. >> jeff, appreciate it. president biden has a personal connection it turns out to one afghan still trying to get out. an interpreter named muhammad who helped rescue three senators including then senator biden back in 2008 when their helicopter was forced down in a remote part of the country in afghanistan during a snowstorm. the interpreter, muhammad, is now in hiding, pleading for the president's help. the "wall street journal" broke the details of the story just before the president spoke today. white house press secretary jen psaki was asked about it a short time later. >> he told the "wall street journal," "hello, mr. president. save me and my family. don't forget me." what's your response to him and why is he and other afghan allies like him still in the country if the president believes as he said today that the mission was an extraordinary success? >> well, i would say first our

message to him is thank you for fighting by our side for the last 20 years. thank you for the role you played in helping a number of my favorite people out of a snowstorm and for all of the work you did. and our commitment is enduring, not just to american citizens but to our afghan partners who have fought by our side. and our efforts and our focus right now is as you heard general mckenzie say and others say over the last 24 hours is to the diplomatic phase. we will get you out. we will honor your service. and we're committed to doing exactly that. >> just before air time i spoke with muhammad and the "wall street journal's" dionne nissenbaum who broke the story. and at muhammad's request for his safety we have altered his voice. >> muhammad, can you explain your situation? i understand you tried to evacuate, you made it to the airport at kabul. then what happened? >> i am hiding in my house.

they can take over my country. >> you're hiding in your house. but you had tried to make it to the airport. what happened when you got to the airport? >> i showed my documents to the marine guys, but because i had no passport, only i had my i.d. with myself, but they leave me -- >> you worked for american forces from 2001 to 2008? >> yeah. i work for a long time with them. >> in 2008 you helped rescue senator biden, senator kerry and senator hagel after their helicopter came down during a snow

snowstorm. today the white house press secretary jen psaki addressed you directly. she said, "we will get you out. we will honor your service. and we're committed to doing exactly that. do you believe her? >> what's your sense of how

serious the wlous is taking mohammed's situation? i don't know how many special visa applicants say they've had contact with the person who's now president of the united states. >> let's see the plan. i think that those of us that have been covering this for the past few weeks have seen a lot of chaos and disarray and people don't have plans. and we don't see a plan yet for this. and there isn't a lot of time. the taliban are out looking for people. so where is the plan? what is the plan? you've committed to getting people like him out. so how are you going to do that? >> how difficult do you think that will be in mohammed's case? >> it's, you know, increasingly difficult by the day. he's in hiding somewhere. that's the first difficulty. the taliban are everywhere. they now control all points of entry and exit. any deal will have to be worked out with them. you're not going to be able to smuggle people like him out. so you know, you have to find

countries to take people. there's talk about trying to get people out to the countries, to every corner. uzbekistan, tajikistan, pakistan. but you know, there are still americans here. there's lots of people that are trying to get out and as far as we've seen so far there isn't a plan coming together for making that happen anytime soon. >> do you believe that president biden is going to send people to help you? >> mohammed, thank you very much. i wish you the best. dion nissenbaum from the "wall street journal," thank you so much as well. thank you so much. one late note on this. a short time ago on the streaming network peacock white house chief of staff ron klain was asked about the case. he promised to cut through the

red tape. his words. those were his words. to get mohammed and other special visa holders out. with that we're joined by cnn contributor and new yorker staff writer evan osnos, author of "joe biden: the life, the run and what matters now." evan, you've probably listened to just about every speech joe biden has ever given in his life. what stuck out to you in this one? >> there are victory speeches, anderson. there are concession speeches. then there is this very painful realm in between. this is what we were hearing today. you know, the dominant message from him frankly was frustration with what he called endless military deployments and the philosophical project of nation building. it was not a speech, anderson, that's going to appeal to everybody. obviously, he did not accept the criticism that people have lumped on the operation of the last seven days. he touted the scale of what they've undertaken. you know, this was a case in which he wanted to leave the american public with one message above all. as he said, the choice was leave or escalate. he said there is no such thing as low-risk, low-cost war.

i think he wanted americans to think about not just 17 days but 20 years. >> how much of the tone do you think might have been the president trying to kind of frame or reframe the beginning of his legacy? >> very much so. he wants people to say that this was i ahard choice that had to be taken. and on some level what he believes, whether you agree with it or not, is that it was incumbent on a president to finally say that this was a war that was not being waged by all americans. you know, he talked about the fact that it was 1% of americans after all who had been deployed in the war since 9/11. i was thinking about it. anderson, as you go over the list of those 13 u.s. service members who died last week, you look at the small towns, home towns that they came from in many cases, a lot of these -- a lot of the casualties, in fact statistically more than twice the number of casualties of the post-9/11 wars have come in small towns and cities rather than in large places.

and you heard him talk about that today. 18 suicides among veterans every day. up to $300 million in investment that has gone overseas every day. what he was trying to say was look, this is going to be something that people are going to be fighting about my legacy forp a long time but i think it's about what the united states owes to the people that have been doing this fighting. >> is there -- often one talks about a doctrine associated with a president. is there a biden doctrine to discern in this? >> we're beginning to see the outlines of one. one of them is a term that he raises a lot. the vital national interest. one of the things he said was we have to really think about what is in our vital national interest. and frankly, that sounds like it can be quite harsh in some cases because for the afghans who didn't make it out on those planes, who are left behind, indeed in some cases for americans who are still there, he drew the perimeter around american vital national interests more narrowly than some of his predecessors. he said this is about deciding what can the united states

expend in terms of blood and treasure. did we want to embark on as he put it another decade of war in afghanistan? so you are likely to see him return to this idea over and over, whether it comes to questions of the -- inevitably the coming threats over the horizon, the kinds of challenge from russia and china. how does the united states define its vital national interest, and where do we need to be wise and prudent about where we expend it? >> the president also touted just how massive an airlift this was in kabul in recent days, which is certainly true. it was a massive airlift in terms of the sheer numbers of people. ultimately who got out. but there were americans left behind and obviously many more allies afghans as well. how does he square that reality with the commitment that he had made to get them out? >> i mean, the tape speaks for itself. he made a commitment at this point in the end i think partly based on the fact that there was this intel showing that the risk to americans was substantial, the risk to afghans at the airport gates. the decision was made to get out

as fast as possible. now they embarked on the diplomatic version of this. how do you get people like mohammed who we just heard from, try to get them to safety? but this is not easy. and the fact is he made a commitment and in the end u.s. forces were gone before that commitment was fulfilled. look, i think what we're about to enter into is a process in which part of this is going to be political, we know that. his critics of course will be saying over and over again that he failed in this initiative. and there will be others who are saying look, if we're going to have a substantive debate about this process let's talk about the s.i.v. visa program. what can we do differently next time to ensure if we are in this situation again that we're making promises to allies abroad that we can keep and once we make those promises that we fulfill them? let's have those kinds of hard conversations. >> what i don't understand with the s.i.v. program is that a lot of these people have been in the process for years and this stuff has been slow-walked by the prior administration, i assume even during this administration. so for all these people who suddenly care about afghanistan and care about these interpreters, this has been

going on for years and years and years. we've been doing stories about this. and it happened in iraq as well. >> it is true. i know of cases in iraq specific lipp of people who had been waiting essentially to get what they think the united states owes them. i think this is one of the glaring questions that we now face in this kind of after-action part of the process. to say why is it, what are the bureaucratic, the functional impediments? we're the united states of america. if we're going to i can ma the moral commitment to people, if we expect to occupy a position of any moral prestige in the world, we have to be able to answer that question. and the answer is we don't have a good answer. so far it has been a series of stories about frustrating obstacles that go back years. and i think part of this administration, it ran for office, president biden said put me in because i'm going to talk honestly about what's working and not working. part of this has to be a conversation about why this s.i.v. process has not been working and what they can do to fix it. >> enosnos, appreciate it. thanks. coming up next after a victory that surprised even them with how quickly it came how the

taliban, seen here with u.s. -- seen here right after u.s. troops had departed, is now coming to grips with actually having a country to run. later our gary tuchman and his team were the first crew to get access to one of the areas hardest hit by hurricane ida. his exclusive report on what folks there are now facing ahead. scientific clean here. and here. which is why the scientific expertise that helps operating rooms stay clean now helps the places you go too. look for the ecolab science certified seal.

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and emboldened. they said they had defeated the biggest superpower in the pworl. and it was a warning to other countries. now they know what's going to happen to them if they interfere in afghan affairs. but at the same time they were also reassuring the international community that they had no ill intentions. they were saying they wanted to cooperate with other countries. they invited people, civilians to come to their country, invest in the country, travel in the country as tourists. so it was a kind of a two-way communication. it was a communication that was threatening but at the same time also trying to reassure the international community. >> there's the cnn reporting that taliban members escorted some americans to the gates at kabul airport in a secret

arrangement with the u.s. is there a sense the taliban are actually going to try to help on the diplomatic front to get any remaining americans out of the country who want to leave? >> i think two different layers of taliban. you have the leadership. that part of the leadership who have communicated with the rest of the world, who have negotiated with the rest of the world, who have traveled dpensively in western counsel, in china, in russia, in central asia and these people, they really want to show positive signals. they want to cooperate. they are trying to reassure the international community but also the segment of the afghan population that nothing's going to happen to them. but at the same time you have the other layer of the taliban and you have some of the leaders who have been off the radar in pakistan, in hiding or in rural afghanistan who haven't had contact with the international

community, who haven't done any diplomacy, and you have all the battle-hardened fighters who have no clue about how to run a state. and these guys, you know, the question is whether these two layers in the taliban, they can cooperate and whether they're in sync. because we are hearing stories about taliban members chasing people from the former administration. we are hearing about threats. and it is happening. the question is whether it's going to be on a big scale. >> what is it like on the streets of kabul? what have afghans been experiencing just in the last 24 hours? because in the pictures we see it's really -- it looks like mostly men are on the streets. it looks like there's hardly any women on the streets. >> the thing is that the women, they are really scared, the women, because some of them, they are old enough to have memories of the former taliban government who harassed and, you

know, really put pressure on the women to live up to their picture of being a modest muslim woman and, you know, who threatened them and we've seen pictures of them getting beaten if they didn't wear the clothes that the taliban said was obligatory in islam. and then you have the other segment of women who haven't experienced the taliban but they've heard all the stories, all the horrific stories about how taliban were treating women. and a lot of them, they're staying home. they don't dare to go out on the streets because they're scared. because of their memories or because of the things that they heard. and it's you true. you don't see as many women on the street in kabul as you saw before. you see them but it's not the same amount. the question is is the taliban going to keep it this way or are we going to go back a little bit, you know, through those times? everybody's waiting and they're nervous. >> yeah. najib haja, i appreciate your

time. thank you. be careful. >> you're welcome. coming up next we're going to turn to other breaking news tonight. the damage left behind in louisiana after hurricane ida swept through the state. we'll take you to grand isle on the southern tip of the state where cnn's gary tuchman and his team were the first tv crew to get to the area after the storm. what they saw, when we come back. advil dual action fights pain 2 ways. it's the first and only fda approved combination of advil plus acetaminophen. advil targets pain. acetaminophen blocks it. advil dual action.

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>> reporter: anderson, grand isle is about 100 miles south of new orleans. if you average 60 miles an hour it takes about an hour and a half to get there. but because of the all the destruction along the way it took us longer than four hours. we expected it to be bad there. and bad it was. when you get your first look at the town of grand isle, which sits on a barrier island on the southern tip of louisiana, you gasp. utter devastation. colorful gulfside homes destroyed. vehicles still under flood waters. most importantly, though, there are no known deaths or injuries here. which is clear evidence how seriously evacuation orders were taken. grand isle is a peaceful, beautiful place. that's why it's so emotionally wrenching right now. to see it decimated like this. remember, the eye of katrina passed over mississippi.

this eye passed over louisiana. >> only a few miles to the west of this very town. ricky poke built this home with his family when he was 19 years old. he is now 58. he and his family evacuated. and he feared what he would find when he came back. his worst fears now realized. >> katrina we had lost our front porches and steps. but the house was intact. the roof was intact. everything was intact. >> his house now like so many other homes unlivable. >> a few things. my wife is wanting me to get the wedding video and stuff from our wedding. i'm trying to find that right now. >> i'm so sorry for you guys. >> thank you. >> how are you coping with it right now? is it disbelief? >> we trust the lord and he gives and he takes away. so. >> reporter: ricky says he doesn't plan to rebuild. after almost four decades living here he says he and his wife will move to kentucky, where they have family. most residents have not yet come

back here. they will face similar decisions, to rebuild or not to rebuild, on this wonderful but very vulnerable barrier island. >> so sad. what was it like in some of the other small communities you passed on the way to grand isle? >> reporter: on this drive, anderson, there were hundreds of utility poles and wires on the streets leaning prekarrosly. there are still many flooded roads. many properties are flooded like this right behind me. we saw one gas station on the 100-mile drive. and that one gas station had one pump that was operating and there were about 100 cars in line to get do that pump. and finally, anderson, i want to mention one thing that will stick with me about this trip. when we were saying goodbye to ricky at his house he was smiling, he was holding an old bible and it was totally soaked. he told me it was a family bible his family's had since 1873. and i thought about it. this family's had this bible for nearly a century and a half. and seeing this man just so grateful. it was totally wet and soaked but it wasn't gone. it didn't disappear.

he was just grateful that he still had it. >> that's great that it lasted through. gary tuchman, appreciate it. thank you so much. in other parts of louisiana there are growing concerns not only about power but about the ability of first responders to get to people who need help. flooding, downed trees, officials say are restricting access in some places. as gary mentioned, there's a gas issue as well. a survey showing nearly 13% of the stations throughout the state are without gas and that number jumps to more than 35% in baton rouge, which is the state capital. our brian todd joins me now from a station where the lines are very long. brian, gary jauftz saying he saw long lines. what's the latest on getting critical services restored? >> reporter: well, the lines are very long here, anderson. i'm going to give you a visual of of that. the urgent and sometimes desperate measures people are taking to get the things they need. it's not just gas but it's food, water, other supplies. this is the line for gas here in new orleans. in the chalamet area just southeast of new orleans. look at this line. this line goes down this street, and i'll have our reporter

journalist jake scheyer throw his shot as far as he can in the dark. you can see some of the cars on the adjacent cross-street going that way. he with walked down that line. that line goes as far as the eye with see. we talked to motorists who have waited three, four hours to get gas. this is their destination, this racetrack station in chalamet, louisiana just outside of downtown new orleans. we tried to talk to the owners of the station to get an assessment of how much gas they have left, when they think they might run out because there was a shell station that we were at just next door yesterday. he ran out of gas as of last night. and there were long lines of very desperate people to get gas the ahis station. and there were some altercations along the way. so again, it's a very tense situation tonight as the gas shortages continue here in new orleans. now, we did get some good news tonight from the mayor of new orleans, latoya cantrell, and from the energy corporation. saying they believe they're going to restore at least some power to the city of new orleans by late wednesday evening, tomorrow night.

they said in a statement they're going to do it one of two ways, anderson. they're going to either try to tie the new orleans grid somehow to the larger grid in the larger region and turn on the power that way or they say they're going to create an island, somehow create some kind of an island of a small power grid to service just the new orleans area. but they did say they think they're going to be able to bring some lights on by this time maybe or late tomorrow evening. that's a welcome sign for the people in new orleans and of course for the authorities, for the police, for everyone there, anderson. >> what's been the impact of the power outages on oil and gas production? >> reporter: it's been horrific. we've gotten word today from louisiana state officials that so many of the production platforms, i think 278 is the number they gave, 278 production platforms remain offline. nine oil rigs remain offline. nine refineries remain offline. i think the figure was more than

90% of the oil production and 90% of the natural gas production facilities are just -- remain offline. some of these refineries and other facilities i just talked to you about, the oil rigs, they're still evacuated. so they've got to get the people back to these facilities in the first place and then try to get these facilities back online. so that gives you an idea. i mean, when you look at numbers like that, you may see lines like this for several more days. >> brian todd, appreciate it. thanks. up next, breaking news from capitol hill in the january 6th investigation. the top house republican's threat to companies that cooperate with it.

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more breaking news now. a new tourn in the house january 6th committee's effort to find out who was talking to whom about it and when. including perhaps lawmakers. earlier today house minority leader kevin mccarthy issued a threat to any telecommunications or social media company that cooperates with the committee on this. an existential threat to their ability to do business in this country. the committee's just responded. cnn's ryan nobles joins us from washington. so explain what kevin mccarthy's been saying. >> well, he didn't really offer too many specifics, frankly, anderson. he put out a veiled threat on

twitter where he suggested that if these social media companies and telecom companies comply with the january 6th committee's request to turn over records that they could be in violation of some law. now, he doesn't say what that law is, and when we tried to follow up with mccarthy's office they didn't give us any other specifics. he also warned of serious political retribution for the democrats that run the january 6th committee. he said that republicans wouldn't forget that they are taking this step. and this comes after jim banks, who is the chair of the republican study committee, he was of course a member of the select committee until he was blocked by the house speaker nancy pelosi, put out a similar letter earlier in the week suggesting that republicans would offer payback essentially if the democrats continued down this road. now, we should point out, anderson, that this of course is part of cnn's exclusive reporting on the january 6th committee. the committee itself has not revealed the names of the individuals that they're

interested in but we've obtained a list that did include a number of lawmakers. so it's clear all these lawmakers are republicans and mccarthy is nervous about what this committee may uncover. >> just to be clear, mccarthy's nervous about what this committee may uncover about telecommunications with republican congressmen around january 6th. mccarthy is saying that companies that cooperate with a duly impaneled congressional committee investigating the insurrection would somehow be going against u.s. law? >> that's what he said in the statement, anderson. but he did not say what law that might be. this is essentially an empty threat any way that you look at it. especially when we followed up and tried to get that information. and there is precedent for this. these committees have subpoena power. they have the right to ask for this information. and it should also be pounted out that they haven't turned over a single document yet. this is just a request by the committee to preserve these records if over the course of the investigation they determine

that they want this information. so we aren't even at the stage yet where they have to turn a single thing over. so it begs the question, is mccarthy attempting to get in the way of that process before it even begins? >> members of the select committee, what are he this saying in response to mccarthy? >> the slikt committee has made it clear they are not going to be stopped at all by mccarthy's attempts to get in the way of this process. they issued a statement just a few minutes ago where they said, "the committee's efforts will not be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events of january 6th or obstruct our investigation." and when you look at the timeline of events with this, anderson, you have to look at kevin mccarthy's role in this from the very beginning. there were long negotiations about forming an independent bipartisan commission that would operate outside of the congress, you know, the speaker nancy pelosi offered up a number of concessions to make this commission a reality but it was

kevin mccarthy who blew the entire process up. it did pass the house but then it was ultimately blocked in the united states senate. then he appointed a number of members to the select committee that would serve as republicans that were a part of the obstruction of the election results. these were people that objected to the election results and also continued to peddle the big guy about the election results in 2020 that really formed as the basis of what motivated so many people to come to the capitol on january 6th. so this is another step in mccarthy getting in the way of this. again, if there's a law that they're violating he could simply tell us what that law is. at this point he's just been unwilling to do that. >> or unable. ryan nobles, appreciate it, thanks. just ahead some positive news about the number of vaccine skeptics in this country. just as we're learning about yet another prominent anti-vaccine voice on the right who's died. we'll be right back. what if you could have the perspective to see more?

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a newly passed mask mandate in one south florida county, florida, resulted in a physical fight outside that had to be broken up by deputies. take a look. the voice you hear a local news reporter is on the scene. >> reporter: as you can see fists are now flying. all of this on live television. fists are flying. unbelievable what we are seeing here today. unfold live.

>> those kinds of fights and outrage sadly not uncommon these days. however, a new poll finds people who say they won't get the vaccine is at a new low and the latest axios poll 20% of respondents said they won't get a shot. back in march it was 34%. it may be because of the spread of the delta variant and subsequent spike in covid deaths and hospitalizations. in recent weeks several prominent voices on the right opposed to vaccines have died. mark bernier was a conservative radio host from florida who told husband listeners he would not get the vaccine. he is now dead. his employer did not list a cause saturday but the station who broadcast him previously said he would not be on air quote due to complications from covid induced pneumonia. we have been unable to reach a family member. his story is one of several of prominent vaccine skeptics on

the right. >> do not be vaccinated. you must survive the genocide. >> reporter: there is a growing number of conservatives who have used their platforms to bad mouth covid-19 vaccines but did not live long enough or are too sick to tell their public just how much they regret it. >> i didn't want to be a guinea pig. he didn't want to be a guinea pig. >> reporter: amy lee hare is talking about her friend florida conservative radio show host dig ferrell who repeatedly told people not to trust the vaccine. why get a vax promoted by people who lied to you he posted. and vaccine bogus bull he proclaimed. that was early july. a few weeks later he was in the hospital dying from covid-19. >> they told me this pandemic ain't no joke and he said you need to get the shot and he told me he wished he had. >> reporter: the statistics that more than 600,000 americans have died from covid hadn't swayed

him or her. why did it take dig ferrell's dying from covid for you to say i'm taking it? >> there is a pandemic of misinformation out there and i think there is no truer thing ever was said. >> reporter: didn't dick ferrell add to that misinformation? >> oh, yeah he did. >> reporter: but she is sharing his last words to her hoping they resonate. >> there are a whole bunch of people who said because of dick i went and got it. hopefully he did some good in the end. >> reporter: ferrell's story is not an anomaly. two weeks after his death conservative radio talk show host and vaccine skeptic phil valentine also died of covid-19. before he got sick he wrote a song mocking the push to get vaccinated. ♪ and i don't care if you want me ♪ >> reporter: changing the beatles' tax man to vax man. valentine told everyone he was not getting the vaccine. he got covid instead.

his family had to relay his regret. >> he recognizes now that his not getting the vaccination is probably caused a bunch of other people not to get vaccinated and that he regrets. >> reporter: valentine died but his brother said his story influenced dozens to get the shot. no surprise to behavioral scientists. >> when there is a vivid story about someone you trust, you know got sick, got hospitalized, or even died that story will carry more weight. >> reporter: but there are a litany of other vaccine skeptics who got covid and have yet to acknowledge the benefits of the vaccine. from conservative cardinal burke who used his pulpit to spread baseless conspiracy theories about the vaccine and ended up on a ventilator. >> and even a microchip needs to be placed under the skin of every person. >> i am not going to be vaccinated. i am going to be one of the survivors. >> reporter: he, too, was hospitalized with covid but remains defiant about the vaccine. how big an influence is our own ego? >> they don't want to recognize that you have made a mistake

especially publicly. >> reporter: but here has no problem saying she changed her mind to honor her friend's wishes. >> i just thought it was important i put it out there because i did change my mind. >> reporter: cnn, los angeles. >> i hope more people do. up next a bill in texas now just a signature away from becoming law. [relaxed summer themed music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ summer is a state of mind, you can visit anytime. savor your summer with lincoln. up here, success depends on the choices you make. but i know i've got this. and when it comes to controlling his type 2 diabetes, my dad's got this, too. with the right choices, you have it in you to control

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