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compared to where i was three years ago, i'm kinda killing it. ♪ a new tropical threat to the u.s. gulf coast tonight, plus flash flood watches are in effect for parts of the northeast already devastated by ida. so how bad are tonight's storms expected to be? >> well, i guess, you know, you could imagine you went through this with millions of others. anxiety is high. nerves are still rattled after the catastrophe we had with ida and you you toss in a pretty potent cold front. a severe thunderstorm watch went into effect and will be in place until midnight. it's a thin band, a narrow band but it is potent and has thunderstorms that have been producing some hail, downing

some trees. but more importantly some of these storms have beena dropping an inch of rainen a hour. that's concerning. we're not going to see the 10 to 15 inches of orainfall, but the ground is so saturated and so much debris in all the streams and rivers that that normal flow of water is going to be impeded. so we could see not just some ponding in some of these creeks but spill over in some communities. so it is a severe weather threat as well. we could have a few spin up tornados with this. so just the anxiety of this storm moving into the region after the national weather service put out this flash flood watch and for good reason. if you want to stay safe stay in and avoid those flood prone areas. >> there's also tropical storm mindy today that developed off florida emphasis gulf coast. >> about 5:00 p.m. the national hurricane center, we've got not only a center but we've got ourselves a tropical storm. mindy was the next name on the

list and it's about ready to make landfall. maybe in the next hour. across the big bend, we're not looking at a massive storm surge but this is going to mess up the beaches. already some wind gusts over 45 miles per hour. could knock out some power, already some flash flooding but this could be on georgia's coast by 2:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. >> let's hand it over to chris for "cuomo primetime." i'm chris cuomo and welcome to the prime time covid command center. and here's why we're doing it. this is the fact. there's never been a more dangerous time for children in this pandemic than right now. the days of saying, well, at least the kids aren't getting this, those days are over. kids make up more than 1 in 4 new weekly cases in america, 1 in 4. and now the whole country is heading back to school. i got kids just starting in

middle school, high school and college and i live in a pretty righty place, and still parents are on edge and worried about kids getting sick especially one that can't be vaccinated, and they're right to feel that way. more than 251,000 kid infections just in the past week according to the american academy of pediatrics. it's the largest number since the pandemic began. cases are accelerating. so are hospitalizations. and it will likely get worse at least for a while. that's the problem. what's the solution? solution has always part them, part us. a lot of kids getting sick are unvaccinated. when will the fda approve the vaccines for kids 12 and under or under 12? right now it's 12 to 18. i'll be talking tonight to an influential member of congress who's pushing for answers and so will we. los angeles could become the first major school district in the nation to mandate covid vaccines for students 12 and older attending class in person.

mandate. the board of education there has a vote scheduled for tomorrow. now, as for us too many adults remain unvaccinated, and that puts kids at risk. too many places are playing politics with masks, and that means refusing to wear them. that's the only kind of politics that can be played with masks. and the longer those politics are played, the worse the spreading will get. covid claimed the lives of 13 school employees from the miami-dade county public schools in florida over the last three weeks. three weeks. all were unvaccinated. the second circuit judge there just ruled against the governor's appeal to ban mask mandates in schools. saying the governor's mandate would violate the florida parents bill of rights. during the appeal the ban is banned.

governor desantis remains defiant. >> i don't know why the mass have politics around it. if you want the masks do it, if you don't want to do it, don't. the data has never supported that schools are driving community spread. >> first of all, that's a false premise. the issue isn't whether schools are causing cases all through the community. it's how do you keep kids from getting sick in communities? it's a false premise. now the good news is new case numbers in florida are down a bit from a record high last week is of more than 151,000, so you would think this is a time to be extra safe, and the governor knows he is making it political. remember he is mr. don't fauci my florida. this is about the school community and what your kid

exposes my kid to. see, that's where your freedom to do what you want ends, right? you get to do what you want until it impacts somebody else and their freedom. the governor knows this. he's an ivy league trained lawyer. he knew a judge would likely not allow him to ban masks. meanwhile parents are paying the price for the politics. let's bring in two of them who are part of a lawsuit that led to this florida judge's ruling today to allow mask mandates in schools without punishment. john and robin mccarthy. they got a 6-year-old, liam, got asthma. he's now quarantining at home because he was exposed to another first grader at school who, guess what, tested positive. welcome both of you to prime time. how's the little man? >> he's well. thank you. >> good.

and i know you've been doing some of the rapid tests and so far they're negative. >> we got both today and they're negative. so the masks worked. they really did. >> nobody thinks the mask is perfect. nobody should think the vaccine is perfect, but they help. you guys are concerned about your kid. you're concerned about you, but, john, you're also concerned about your parents, right? >> correct. i mean a child gets it if they have masks i believe they're protected. if they don't have masks like some of the counties in the state of florida, they get it, the teachers get it. as you said 13 teachers here in miami-dade county had already died from this. what do we have to do? i mean, we have to follow the science, do what we have to do to not just protect our children but to protect our teachers and protect the people that are elderly that are the most

vulinable. i believe my son and others in his class are vulnerable as well. that's why we're pushing to keep this a common sense thing. we're looking for a solution. we're not looking for a problem and just to keep our kids safe. i mean where in the united states of america have we ever had to go to quarantine to keep our children safe? i feel like i'm in a dry zone. >> for us what happened to us this weekend we weren't even told a kid tested positive it will tuesday and we had already gone home to celebrate the jewish holiday with my parents. and my dad teaches at university of florida and is a doctor and professor. so the whole issue is we endangered our parents we exposed -- >> let him go. let him do what he wants. >> it's his nap time. yeah, you can't control 6-year-olds. we didn't even get told until tuesday, and he was exposed on friday so the whole issue is that we exposed so many people but thank god our pcr test literally came back two hours ago.

>> here's the good news, he's got plenty of energy and i like the spiderman shirt. luckily it's not iron man or we've got a problem. happy new year. it's not getting off to a great start, though, for us caring for one another. why is let parents choose not good enough? >> for our situation it's not good because as you can see they just put our child in danger not necessarily in his school, but he has asthma. so when parents send their kids to school without a mask on they potentially expose him which could be fatal. so for us if you don't wear a mask you could potentially endanger a child. >> now, the governor makes a different case. he says this is about parents making choices, john, for their kids. and that's the way a school and

a community should run. what's your response? >> i mean, the governor i don't believe believes what he's saying. i mean his kids are being home schooled, so it's either him or his wife. so you have children going in. look at some of the other counties where they're having to quarantine the whole school. our son was next to somebody who had covid. i don't believe he caught it at the school. his whole class is fine. why? because we're following the science in miami-dade county. we know what works. and we're doing a fantastic job, so we have one child out of 21 that had covid. as of right now none of those other kids in the class caught this. so my response to the governor desantis is he's not sending his kids to school. he's home schooling them. we don't have that luxury.

so this is about using common sense and keeping our kids safe. and i just -- i don't -- i do not believe that he believes some of the things he's saying. or his wife doesn't, one of the two. >> go ahead, john, finish your point. >> i mean the point is if he believed what he was saying, why isn't he sending his kids to school? he pulled his kids from school, what, back in august. so he wants our kids to go to school. we live in the largest county with the most cases. my niece works in miami children's hospital and they're just full there. the whole state of florida is full, and i'm talking children. the new variant of the delta -- i'm not a doctor but it's supposed to be more transmittable and more dangerous. and if you a child like my son who has asthma he could end up in the hospital. my nephew was in the hospital 14 days. imagine a child being in the hospital not being able to see mommy and daddy. could you imagine that? they have to stay outside because they have covid. >> i hear you. i get the fear. it's real and that's why you've been so active.

you john but also you, robin. you're part of a separate federal suit with other parents claiming that desantis' mandatory school mask ban violates the ada, americans with disabilities act, because it places your medically sensitive kids, you know, him having asthma in jeopardy. what's the update from the lawyers in that suit? >> they just had a hearing today. i believe desantis was arguing we hadn't exhausted all the remedies. but that's kind of a moot point because we're saying all children should have access to safe schools, so i think we're waiting on the judge's ruling and we're going to go from there. that's pretty much it. >> i guess the fear has got to be that kids -- how long have you been back in school? >> two weeks. >> all right, so you're weeks. you're ahead of us. in the north we say we usually go back after labor day. a couple of school districts went back before. but it's just ramping up. that's the concern, right? kids are just starting to be together again in big groups.

we still don't know when we can get them vaccinated. even if you can get liam vaccinated you're going to have to talk to the doctor obviously about the asthma. but is that your concern, john, this is just the beginning? >> my concern is that we do everything we can to keep our children safe so they can get vaccinated. i don't know if it's going to be next month or the month after. it's worth the wait. we shouldn't put any children in harm's way. the vaccination some say it's going to be in october. some say november. we're going to do what we've got to do to get where we want to go. and that's what we're doing for our son, the teachers, and other floridians here in florida trying to keep everybody -- this is a pandemic. i mean, my grandparents were from new york. and in new york they had the spanish flu, and you know how they beat it. they used masks. they didn't have the science we

have now, and they were able to get over that. so we're going to do what we got to do to get where we want to go, and what we want is our child at the end of the day safe and your child and other children safe as well. >> let me ask you one thing and then you can go take care of the kid. but i've got to tell you, he's doing a good job. for saw him share some of his snack. that's some rare air for a 6-year-old boy especially to be sharing. you guys are doing a good job. in fairness to desantis, you've got a 6-year-old. his kids are like 5, 3 and 1 so a couple of them are barely in school yet, so i take your point about whether or not he believes what he's doing. how are other parents -- your school was already going against desantis' ruling. are the parents with you on this, john? >> yes, 100%. i've never seen such a group -- and remember we live in miami-dade county. it's a multicultural county. people from argentina, brazil, columbia and europe and new yorkers now like us.

so it's -- we've all come together -- you want to give me an oreo? >> i want an oreo. liam, let me have one of those. move it towards the camera. >> let me have the cream side. >> he doesn't always eat this unhealthy i promise you. >> that's a staple right there. oreos are one of the food groups for me. >> we're lucky in that respect. >> that is true. god willing he stays healthy, the tests hold up and you guys get to keep your kids safe down there, and i look forward to checking in with you. and i hope we have a very good and sweet new year. we could use it. >> thank you. >> thanks for the cookie, liam. appreciate you. one more. thank you very much. take care. have a good night.

all right, look, we need to understand not only how many of our kids are getting covid but you've got to see where and of course why. that's why we have the wizard of odds. he's been looking at the numbers region by region. what the distinguishers? he's got some interesting points to make and the numbers come from the cdc. next. ♪ ayy, ayy, ayy ♪ ♪ yeah, we fancy like applebee's on a date night ♪ ♪ got that bourbon street steak with the oreo shake ♪ ♪ get some whipped cream on the top too ♪ ♪ two straws, one check, girl, i got you ♪ ♪ bougie like natty in the styrofoam ♪ ♪ squeak-squeakin' in the truck bed all the way home ♪ ♪ some alabama-jamma, she my dixieland delight ♪ ♪ ayy, that's how we do, ♪ ♪ how we do, fancy like, oh ♪

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friday, okay? tonight his parents are celebrating the small victory from the judge's ruling on mask mandates while the case is appealed meaning that desantis can't stop schools from mandating masks and keeping kids safe. those parents aren't alone. nationally an overwhelming number of parents support mask mandates in schools. there you have it, okay? and parents across the country have critical reason to feel that way considering the number of coronavirus cases among kids are rising dramatically. harry henton, the wizard of odds joins us now to break down the numbers. so let's look at it first in terms of new cases where and then let's get to why. >> yeah, i mean here's the key thing. i want to get to the why as well, which is that if we look at this, what do we see? we're seeing more. that's the word i keep using, more.

look at this surge in pediatric cases versus all cases in the latest data we have. pediatric cases are overwhelmingly growing compared to all cases. why? here's the reasons why or some potential reasons why. number one, more people are generally going out taking more risks. more. more transmissible, the delta variant far more transmissible. kids, more of them are going back to school and that potentially raises the risk. and more -- more of them are not wearing masks because of a lot of the restrictions on mandates we're seeing and more people taking risks just generally speaking. now, i think what's important to point out, though, we sort of have a pandemic in different regions, right? we're in different stages. so if you take a look here at the top five states where there have been the most childhood

cases over the last week, look at this. about 1,000 new cases per on average per 100,000 where the most new cases, and the five states where there are the least new cases only about 125 new cases per 100,000. what's the difference between these two places? one thing we know is it's not just masks -- it's not just they're wearing masks. more people are vaccinated in those area as well. how many people are vaccinated at this point? this i think tells the entire story. 72% of the folks vaccinated of the eligible population in the state with the least number of new cases versus the number with the most-only about 54% are fully vaccinated of the eligible population. >> now, let's hit one more beat here about the vaccine. once again we're hearing numbers, oh, you know, they said it was going to be a panacea. they said the vaccine was going to be perfect, but now i'm hearing about more and more breakthrough cases, so maybe it's not so good, maybe i don't need it. first only trump said the vaccine was a panacea. he said it would be magic and it would make the virus just disappear. fauci and the others have been qualifying it and you can argue about their messaging and whether they stay ahead of the data enough. but nobody has said it was a panacea.

but what does the data show us, harry, about the difference in terms of real illness if your vaccinated or unvaccinated? >> well, concentrate right now on the childhood hospitalizations, those zero to 17. obviously some of those folks can be vaccinated, but a lot of them can't. look at the trump states versus the biden states. and we obviously know there's a lot more vaccination in the biden states. what we see is it's basically a flat line if we go back to september. look at the trump states, at an all-time high in terms of

coronavirus hospitalizations among those age 0 to 17. we know in the places in which we have the most vaccinations we know the hospitalizations are lowest among the most vulnerable. this is to me as clear a sign that you can see the vaccine works not just to keep cases down but to prevent kids from going to the hospital. >> and look, raises a couple of questions. one, how many people can you get vaccinated, but how many can you get to kids? because 0 to 17 a bulk of that can't get vaccinated. on the one side, the clinical side, when will the fda approve the vaccine for kids? not saying to rush it, but how fast can they get it done? we have an influential parent. she's a member of congress leading the bipartisan effort to get answers. we have katie porter. what has she heard from the fda? and what's her plan to help families like hers going forward? next. we made it our mission to help change the world... in healthcare, our imaging expertise and ai technology aims to help diagnose disease earlier. but why stop there? when we can apply our expertise in cell biology and specialized technologies to help make vital vaccines and treatments available to all. we'll never stop innovating for a healthier world. fujifilm value from innovation

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calls for the fda to authorize a covid vaccine for kids are growing every day. parents, teachers, even the american academy of pediatrics have joined the chorus. now lawmakers are leading the fight for answers. last month more than 100 members of congress led by democratic representatives ro khanna and katie porter signed into a bipartisan letter demanding a briefing from the fda to clarify this timeline. congressman porter joins me now. it's good to see you. three weeks ago, what have you heard? >> well, we did get a response back from the fda. it was very brief. essentially repeated what we already knew is that the fda is working on it, but we did

schedule an in-person briefing when we were back in washington so congress can get more information. i think the biggest concern i have is just the confusion. we have people say the beginning of next year, people saying november. pfizer is going to submit the data in september. we missed a real opportunity to be in conversation with parents out back to school, which is really trust me as a parent i'm getting a lot of information back to school time would have been nice to have a better sense what are the steps in the process and what is the potential timeline. >> right, because, you know, we care about the kids. you've got two teens and a 9-year-old. i've got two teens and an 11-year-old. we care about them being sick the younger they get, right? it scares parents more and more. so unfortunately the bulk of the kids that we're most worried about are in the age category that can't get vaccinated. so here's the fine line for you to walk. you need to get it done, but if they say you're rushing them, then you're really in the soup because now people aren't going

to want to take it. >> well, i think that's exactly what we're concerned about is the information flow. so the more that the fda tells families about these are the steps in the process, this is where we are, this is what comes next, this is what we're looking for scientifically, these are the data they're collecting, the more transparent they are, the more trust they're going to build in the process. so when the science says that it's safe to vaccinate kids we'll have parents ready to go trusting and informed. so nobody is suggesting that we rush the science. what we are suggesting is that the fda can keep americans better informed about this process. >> right. and look they don't have a great track record for this. this would be for emergency use for the kids. and they had all this data, and we kept having all these big shots come on the show and say with the regular vaccine for adults, look, it's fine. it's really good. they're just crossing the "ts"

and dotting the "is." they already have the data they need. it's fine, but they didn't approve it. but you had about one in three people who were vaccine he hesitant, not resistant. yeah, that would matter to me if it were approved. so they didn't do that great the last time, they're not doing it great this time either. >> well, it's a black box. we all need to trust the fda and the scientific process, and i do. but as a member of congress i also have an obligation to get answers and do an oversight of the fda. it's their job to build that trust in the vaccine process, in the authorization process, and part of that is helping parents understand the steps, what is coming, what is next, how many kids in the trial, what's the steps? and back to school, we've known back to school is coming for a while. my kids start counting down the day school starts to vacation. we could have used that time to inform parents about what to

expect and to answer questions about it. we missed that opportunity, but i'm going to try to get information and share it with my constituents as much as i can. >> look, you know, we had orientation for the middle schooler today because the kids have to have the masks on in school, public school, but they want the kids masked up. and, you know, people are on edge. they want the information, and you're right, congressman, if you don't prepare the parents when they're told to get the vaccine they're going to have have all the questions they have right now. let me ask you something else which is trickier as a situation. you want to prioritize child care in the new budget bill, and i totally understand the need. but politically i think your party is in a jam because you have this spending bill somehow married to the infrastructure bill. and i've been saying for a long time there's no way these two things happen at the same time. and do you think that you can find a way through your party to

get a reconciliation bill done on spending that gets anything done that you want? >> absolutely. >> look, when we talk about infrastructure, we talk about making an investment in our economy. we talk about how improving roads or bridges or ports would help our economy grow, would help us compete globally. it is the exact same conversation with regard to child care. the lack of affordable child care is creating a productivity crisis. it's creating a weaker economy, and there's no american whether they're a parent or not who doesn't benefit from a strong economy. so these things are absolutely tied together. they're tied together in president biden's build back better plan and they're going to be moving through congress at the exact same time. it doesn't do me good to create roads or bridges if workers can't leave their homes, can't leave their children to go through those jobs. >> let me tell the audience the part i think is interesting. low and middle income households would pay no more than 7% of

their income on child care for kids younger than age 5. wages for those in the child care work force would also be raised to $15 an hour. now, that is really important because that's a group of parents that struggle the most to make ends meet. but do you think that you should just draft that bill as a stand alone? because the moderates in your party -- and i don't think it's just joe manchin. i think you've got several of them. they just let him do the talking in the senate. they just don't like the price tag. >> let me be clear investing in child care is worth every single dollar we put it in. let me give some quick facts. womens work force participation is at a 30-year low. the job numbers we saw in august 12% of those jobs went to women. and child care in this country in more than half of the states cost more than in-state college tuition. it's not just low and middle

income families who can't afford child care. it's all american families. in the exact same way we see a lot of families up and down the income spectrum struggling to afford college. i'm pushing for a bill in which no more has to pay more for child care. that's going to give us the maximum work force participation and help businesses put people into jobs. and help women go into leadership position, help us be globally competitive with other countries who have long ago made these investments in child care. we absolutely need to make this investment in our work force if we want to have a strong, stable and growing economy going forward. >> i disagree with none of that. and in fact we've seen that exacerbated by covid in kids having to stay home from school. and very often it has been mothers who have been sacrificed to have to stay home because now they can't work. they're not getting back into the work force as quickly. there's no question.

i'm saying the politics. are you better off making it a stand alone because i do not think that you're going to get through your own party a bill that has anywhere near the price tag that you guys keep throwing out there, $3.5 billion, trillion, whatever it is that they're not going to want to do it. should you try to go small ball here? this is very important. make it a stand alone, make people have to vote on this. >> we need to do this part and parcel because part of what we're conveying is that women are part of the work force. women are part of the economy, that this matters. we tie these things together because they are tied together in reality in peoples families. you can create jobs. you can build roads and bridges, but like i said if people can't leave their houses they can't take those jobs. with regard to what this is going to cost, look, it's an investment. you look at every dollar you spend and what is your economy going to get back? and also we are not done in congress working to figure out how we're going to pay for this bill.

we have large corporations that are paying nothing, nothing in taxes even as low and middle income families and parents are dropping out of the work force because they can't afford to even get to their workplaces with child care. so we need to raise the revenues through having a fair tax system so that we can pay for things that will make our economy grow for everybody. >> i am not questioning the problem at all. i just want that to be clear. i'm just saying when you mix this remedy, this wrong arguably, and the remedy, in with all of the other stuff that's going to be in that bill, it may get, at a minimum, slowed up, if not hacked up for the sake of some deal. that's why i was laying it out there. i appreciate you making the case. it's hard to rebut because the facts are the facts. congresswoman katie porter, the problem you are right about. i help the solution helps a lot of families and women in this country because they need it. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. be well.

let's keep firing up your brains. katey porter, super smart. but, again, will her party make that deal? the need is there. should it be a stand alone? we'll see. there's a quiz. i want you to take the quiz. it's easy. you can't not get the questions right, and we're going to talk about it on the other side of the break. go to the "the new york times" website. it's just this story is in "the new york times." what i'm saying is this quiz is there on its website. it has to do with who you are in these polarizing political times. i am going to take a basic advocacy position although i am going to question what i'm advocating for with the mastermind behind this quiz that you're going to take. the two-party system has failed us. everybody agrees. what is the fix? i just tweeted out the quiz, a link to it on my

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here's my position. the two party system sucks. the ideological system is too broad now. we need a system that reflects the stakeholders. so many of you identify yourself as independent now because you don't want to be democrat or republican and most of you don't even get the difference these days anyway because there seems to be left and right but never reasonable. did you take the time during the commercial break to take the quiz? if you did you'd see when you went there that there is a different paradigm, six parties basically breaking each of the existing ones into three. so let's bring in the better mind that put that format together for "the new york times." he's also the author of breaking the two-party doom loop. the case for multiparty democracy in america. lee drutman. it's good to see you. >> it's good to see you, too. glad to have you onboard.

>> absolutely. i'm much older than you. i've been saying this for a very long time because the two-party system being binary in nature foments decision and makes opposition part of the nature. which is as long as drutman sucks i'm okay. and what it does is it stymies progress and we see where we are now and why it seems so intractable. in terms of why it won't happen, first let's start with the benefit. why do you believe six parties, four parties, five parties would be better than two? >> well, first of all for the reason that you imagine which is i'm tired of you saying i suck but the lesser of two equals only works when there's just two parties. when you have four or five or six parties you can't get away with that in campaigning. you've got to actually stand for something, so we get rid of the demonization. fundamental problem of our governing now is that everything

is in terms of wins and losses for one of the two parties because both of the parties are trying to get back into power or getting a old on power. so no one actually wants to solve any public problems. they just want to have issues that allow them to win the next election. and it also creates a situation in which we have one party that's the party of the cities of cosmopolitan, multiracial america and another party that's the party of rural small town traditionalist christian america. and they are -- they are so separated in geographical space and by social networks that they view the other party as a fundamental threat. it's fundamentally different. and when you have a binary system in which people are sorted like that, it's really eeasy to demonize. but when you have five or six parties people are going to have more diverse networks and be

willing to engage with other ideas. it makes politics more complicated and forces us to actually think. >> so just going right to left basically the way lee did is was you've got your christian conservatives that are morality first, and then you've got your trump-type people, your populist americans. and then you have whatever you want to call growth and progress, which are traditional republicans. fiscal austerity. but, you know, center-center-right on social issues. then, you get to the new liberals, which would be, like, you know, cory booker. and then, you get, you know, which is the old democratic party which is where joe biden wants to be. working for populous and that stuff. then, you get into what the democratic party has become which is the intellectual elites, right? and then, you have the far-left progressive wing of it which would be the aocs and the ilhan omars with the defund the police and the radical ideas of a lot

more spending and a welfare state. so, that would be the ideological spectrum which is not that far off. in terms of timing, you know, historically, we have had moments that create fundamental change, almost always from the ground up. revolutionary war. 1830s. more people get the right to vote. then, in the 1890s, the gilded age. corruption leads to the progressive era. recall elections, et cetera, et cetera. we used to have states pick the senators, and eventually -- so, things can move. you have the civil rights era. it's about 60-year cycles of reform. you think we're ready for one? >> oh, i'm ready. are you ready? >> i've been ready because this seems unworkable to me. but now, here's the problem. lee, and if you read his piece and if you look at his book, he outlines how you are going to have to change how you do congressional races to make them bigger areas so that you can have multi-representatives, which would encourage other parties, other stakeholders. and then, what you would have is an exigency on cutting deals so

you could keep your plurality. you could keep your power in place. but here is the big obstacle, lee. the electoral college because all these other parties would be squeezed out in the electoral college. and it wouldn't be an equal footing to become president. and if a party doesn't have any chance of ever having a president, why would people get onboard? >> well, that -- that is an obstacle. you can certainly do it for congress, and there's legislation. the fair representation act which would create multi-member districts with rank-choice voting for the house which i am very much onboard with. i'd love to change the electoral college. it's a weird, strange antiquated thing we have but you're right it is going to put a strange pressure. although, i will note there have been a few elections in our political history in which we have had four parties competing for president.

and those have been really elections that have kind of transformed american politics, 1860, 1912. so it's certainly possible that you could see that. but i think what we would see at the presidential level is less focus on the d or the r in front of the candidate or whatever labels are most popular. and more focused on the candidates, themselves, and their policies and their promises. and their character. and so, people would be more open to voting for different candidates for president and those presidents would be able to govern in a -- in a more broader, unifying way. and work with congress of the opposite party. sometimes, get -- or opposite parties -- get pushback from congress. it would be more of the kind of checks-and-balances system that we had at an earlier era. >> absolutely. i'm with you. and look, i had a caller just today on my radio show. and, lee, i want to have you on there, and have a longer

conversation act this. >> absolutely. >> um, say to me, look, if trump ran again, i don't like what he says. i don't like a lot of these things but you know what? i'm not voting for a democrat. so i'd vote for him again, yeah. that is a broken system. lee, thank you for doing the brainwork of thinking about ways to make it better. and let's keep talking about it. i appreciate you. >> yeah. well, let's fix it. we -- we -- it's really up to us. >> i mean, here's the benefit we have. we know the way it is now. it can't stay this way. all right. i'm going to take a break. i'll be right back, after this break, with a very important bolo. next. ing one more bite! no! one more bite! ♪ kraft. for the win win.

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guy are considered domestic terrorists by the government, and he is among those still at large. the reward for finding the would-be bomber is up to 100 grand now. you know why? in part, because of what he did. and part, because of what authorities are worried people like him may do, again. the next legit concern? it's in less than ten days. september 18th. the date for what's being called perversely justice for j 6. i say perverse because it's this notion that those who attacked the capitol are somehow victims. those we all saw storm the cradle of our democracy. and attack police officers they say they report -- they support. look, i'm gonna keep showing you this video because i hear and see too many trying to change the reality and that's not going to happen on my watch, especially when these same insurrection types are planning more chaos. an internal capitol police memo,

reviewed by cnn, notes the intel community is seeing a noticeable uptick in violent chatter. so much so, they want to put the fence back up to protect the capitol. the same people saying that freedom means not wearing a mask are really okay with people attacking the bastion of our freedom and planning more violence? hashtag be better. we'll be right back with the handoff. how come we're always saying no to the stuff we really love? at panera, we say it's time to yes to the good stuff. yes to this! and this. and definitely this. and yes to more bread. panera. live your yes. free delivery on our app.