patience is wearing thin. also tonight, the justice department suing the state of texas over its new law banning all abortions after six weeks. and with less than a week to go before california's recall election, we'll visit a republican county where democratic governor gavin newsom is having a hard time finding support. i want to start now with cnn's white house correspondent john harwood and political commentator amanda carpenter. good evening to both of you. good to see you. john, president biden announcing new vaccine mandates that could impact 100 million americans. what are you hearing from the white house about how this is all going to work and why didn't they go even further? >> well, in terms of why they didn't go further, the biggest proposal that i've heard from people like our colleague jonathan reiner, who you have on your show a lot, the doctor who has said that he should have mandated air travelers be vaccinated.

the white house says they didn't do that because they think it would jam up airports, impede the economic recovery without doing all that much to improve vaccinations because a high proportion of air travelers are already vaccinated and all that much covid is not spread because of good air filtration systems on planes. in terms of how it's going to work, what joe biden is counting on here is the threat of fines on businesses applied through osha, the occupational safety and health administration, to impose vaccine mandates on large businesses, affecting tens of millions of workers. they're also counting on the fact that business itself wants to have the cover to impose some of these mandates. business roundtable came out tonight saying we support what the administration is doing. we've got to get aggressive in order to get on top of this. finally they're counting on mobilizing the social political pressure of the three-quarters of american adults who have

gotten vaccinated against the holdouts who haven't, who are extending the pandemic, costing everyone money, and generating a significant amount of suffering and overload in our health care system. >> so i had to ask you -- i don't understand the economic recovery part of it because remember when we were taking our shoes off, and after 9/11, the economy took a nosedive after 9/11. i should say the air travel took a nosedive and people had to take their shoes off and they were worried about that. so if someone has to show a vaccination card in order to get on a plane, i don't understand that thinking at all. >> well, i'm just relating what the white house has said. they believe that this would generate enormous tsa lines and make air travel more difficult. again, on a cost/benefit analysis, they say the cost would significantly outweigh the benefits. >> all right.

okay. lines are long still. you know, maybe hire more tsa workers, get more people back to work, but i digress. amanda, the president was clearly frustrated today. his speech felt like he was rep remanding the unvaccinated, saying our patience is wearing thin. is it the right strategy to convince people who have held out this long to get the shot because we see the bad-faith responses from the right already? >> i don't think the speech was for them. i actually agree with that strategy. at this point in time, given all the covid fatigue among the people who are working so hard at hospitals and really just even look in every sector and try to find people doing the right thing. they're frustrated. so biden said, we're going to give you some help here. and i think the message was pretty clear. he vented that frustration, and that's, i think, where the majority of people are. 70% of adults have at least one dose. i mean he is on the side of

popular opinion here. that said, there are going to be arguments over this. i don't think it's bad to have a discussion about the constitutionality of mandates and private business. that is a reasonable discussion that people can have in the courtroom. henry mcmaster is saying we'll fight you in the gates of hell. no, really, you can file a legal brief and we can have an adult conversation about this. i welcome that. that moves the conversation among the people who are so opposed to it to a better, more productive realm. but really one of the things i'm most excited about that isn't really being covered is the fact that testing is coming back. if you have kids under 12 in a house hold, you need access to those rapid tests. giving help so schools can do that testing on a weekly or somehow more regular basis is going to give a lot of parents more confidence sending the kids to school and just a peace of mind until those vaccines can be approved for children.

>> john, there is a recent gallup poll that finds that only 40% of americans say president biden has communicated a clear plan to combat covid. do you think that he effectively reset things today? >> i don't think results like that, don, are a function of the clarity of biden's plan. he's been pretty clear all year long. get vaccinated. he's said that over and over, almost every single day of his presidency. i think what that result reflects is the fact that the pandemic is back, and so if it looks like you're not on top of the pandemic, then there are various criticisms people will make of your leadership. and what the president was doing today was an expression of his frustration, you know, amanda talked about the frustration of the vaccinated against the unvaccinated who are making things harder for everyone else. it's certainly a source of huge frustration for the president because he's been saying over

and over get vaccinated. they started in the beginning of the administration where there was more demand for vaccines than there was ability to give them out. and then it was easy, low-hanging fruit once the supply was ample. people rushed to get the vaccines. now it's a situation where there's very ample supply, and there's a whole lot of resistance. and so what he's trying to do is ratcheting up his level of aggression on that continuum from encouragement to requirement, move closer to requirement and try to get people to come along. and if he can do that, if the delta variant peaks and the cases start to go down, then you'll start seeing his approval rating on covid and people's assessment of his clarity improve to his benefit. >> amanda, you're the perfect person for this next question. the republican governor of new jersey, chris christie, spoke at the reagan library. this is part of what he had to say about the gop. >> we need to face the realities

of the 2020 election and learn, not hide from them. we need to renounce the conspiracy theorists and the truth deniers, the ones who know better and the ones who are just plain nuts. [ applause ] we need to give our supporters facts that will help them put all those fantasies to rest so everyone can focus with clear minds on the issues that really matter. we need to quit wasting our time, our energy, and our credibility on claims that won't ever convince anyone of anything. >> so clearly he's thinking about 2024, but how significant is it that he's coming out and saying the gop has to renounce conspiracy theorists? >> yeah. i mean, listen, those remarks in a vacuum, i would be standing up and cheering if i didn't know the person saying them. the reality is chris christie was a strong backer of donald

trump. you know, i believe he was backing him in the 2020 election after lafayette square, after all the covid hoaxes. so, i mean, it falls a little flat. >> and at the reagan library, it's not like he's going to a trump rally saying that. he's at the reagan library saying it. >> the message isn't the problem. the messenger is. >> very clear and concise there. thank you very much, amanda. thank you, john. i appreciate it. i want to bring in now dr. william schaffner. he's a professor of infectious diseases at vanderbilt university medical center. and art kaplan, the head of medical ethics and new york university's grossman school of medicine. good to see both of you. so doctor schaffner, a lot of the americans the president has been trying to reach hasn't heard his message. biden is showing frustration today. listen, and then we'll talk about it.

>> the vaccine has fda approval. over 200 million americans have gotten at least one shot. we've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us. so please do the right thing. but just don't take it from me. listen to the voices of unvaccinated americans who are lying in hospital beds, taking their final breath, saying, if only i'd gotten vaccinated. if only. it's a tragedy. >> doctor, when you look at where we are in this pandemic, should this have happened sooner? >> well, don, you know, politics, public policy is the art of the possible. this may be the best time to have done it. think of it as a war against the virus. to date, we have had a volunteer army. those are the people who have come forward to be vaccinated.

but the enemy has just been reinforced with delta, and now a volunteer army won't do. we have to have a draft. we're saying, you've got to serve not only yourself but your country, your neighbors, your community by coming forward and being vaccinated. i think it is a strong step, a bold step, and i think it's a necessary step, and i think it will be an effective step if we can implement these mandates. i think it's very important. >> that's the question. can we implement it, because, art, biden says that the new rules will apply to 100 million americans. his plan includes paid time off to get vaccinated, and companies could face fines if they don't comply. do you think this can be effectively put into practice? >> oh, i think so. >> don -- >> this is for art. >> sorry. >> go ahead, art. start over, please.

>> sorry. i think we're late in getting these mandates through. i've never been a big fan of volunteerism. there are too many selfish people out there putting the rest of us at risk. it's unethical. it's immoral. the country has every right to say stop this pandemic. get our economy going. get us back to school. get us back to some tolerable level of misery from this virus, and mandates are the key. you know who the strongest proponent was, don, of vaccines? donald trump. it's his sort of little dwarf imitators out there, the desantises and the ron johnsons and the rand pauls who seem to have forgotten that donald trump told us last year, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, and went out and did it. so can we implement? yeah, but we've got to go further than president biden has gone. we need a vaccine passport or

authorization card. not going to do us a lot of good to say do this if we can't prove that you did it. and i think to make mandates stick, you basically say it's not just a question of being able to go to work. you can't get into a restaurant, a gym, a bar, a sports stadium, a theater without proof of vaccination. i mean i don't want to be talking about this a year from now. we don't really get tough as we roll into the winter with schools open and a lot of kids unable to vaccinate, i worry that the implementation won't get us where we need to be. >> and a lot of people going -- people will be in close confines going into the winter. art, what about the ethics of allocating care and resources like icu beds? should someone who needs lifesaving cancer surgery have to postpone it because someone else refused to get vaccinated for covid? how are these decisions being made? >> well, look, my friend dr. schaffner will know this too.

we always teach in medical ethics don't sort out the sinners. don't punish people who wind up sick. you're never quite sure did they not get a vaccine because one wasn't available to them or they had a family situation where they were just overwhelmed. it's tough sometimes for doctors to make the assessment of who's virtuous and who isn't. so i don't want rationing in the e.r., in the icu, by vaccination status. but what i would accept is if you are not vaccinated and that is leading you to die with less chance of rescue because you have other complicating conditions and someone else might do better, then i think vaccination status might be taken into account if it is predictive of outcome. >> listen, i don't think anyone expects someone to show up at a hospital and a doctor refuses to vaccinate them. what i have been saying is if you don't believe in it, then perhaps you should not yourself go to a hospital or expect treatment when you have not done

what is right. the onus should be on you. if you think it's your freedom not to get a vaccine, then when you get sick, then, you know, hey -- >> you know, it's funny. i'm going to kind of remind you, i have said -- and i said it here, and i've said it before. if you want the courage of your convictions and you don't want to vaccinate, then give your slot, give your position to somebody else. bear the consequences of what you do. don't ask the doctors to do it. you do it. >> that's exactly what i've been saying. and then, you know, the critics try to do the jedi mind trick. oh, doctors should -- it's not doctors refusing. stand by your word and your convictions and what you believe in. if you don't believe that covid is real, then don't show up at the hospital when you get sick with covid. dr. schaffner, i'll let you respond to that, respond to what art said. >> well, don and art, i don't think that will work in real

life. when people get sick, they will seek medical care. but i think you heard a cheer go up today from many of the overworked people in intensive care units around the country. over 90% of the people who are being admitted to hospitals, they are unvaccinated. and these people who are dedicating themselves to the care of those folks are just -- they're both frustrated and profoundly saddened that so many of these illnesses could have been prevented. and frankly, they ask the question, why didn't you get vaccinated? because here you are, sick with covid and exposing me, the health care worker, to care for you when none of this was necessary. >> mm-hmm. >> so i think the caring will continue, but the hope will be that these mandates will start reducing those unnecessary admissions to the hospital. >> listen -- >> hey, don -- >> art, i want you to answer this.

this is not comparable because people get sick. that's why there are hospitals, right? that's why there are doctors. but when you're in the middle of a pandemic, it becomes different. you're overwhelming the hospital system. if someone is obese or if someone has a heart attack or if someone has some other disease and they go to the hospital, or some other illness, it is not comparable to people going to -- overwhelming hospitals in a pandemic, in emergency situations when there aren't beds when it is preventable. so the stupid comparison about, well, what do you say to smokers, whatever, it's not the same thing. it's not even comparable. it's apples and oranges. >> we're in the middle of a plague. i was just going to point out today, i got two stories given to me. one, we had a kidney transplant postponed in the united states today. no bed for the person. you'll remember amy klobuchar said she put off going in for a breast exam and she was worried about covid. there are plenty of facilities

around the united states that can't handle a heart attack, can't handle a colonoscopy because they're full of covid patients. so let's at least call out -- it's not just you're overwhelming the medical staff with covid. you're killing your neighbor. you're imperiling your friend's child. you're making life miserable for everybody else. i guess i'll agree with dr. schaffner, in the real world we're not going to sort of stay, oh, stand aside or hope that they're going to volunteer to stand aside. but we better turn up the moral rhetoric a lot more on those who are selfish and burdening the community because they won't do the right thing. >> yeah. listen, just because i think selfish people won't do it -- and i agree with you. they're not going to do that. but it doesn't mean they shouldn't hear it or at least think about it. maybe it will convince them to actually go get a shot somewhere. thank you, gentlemen. i appreciate it. the doj taking action where the supreme court wouldn't, suing texas over its six-week abortion ban.

but can they make the case?

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the justice department suing the state of texas over its six-week abortion ban. attorney general merrick garland calling the state law unprecedented and unconstitutional. since the law went into effect, clinics across texas have stopped offering abortions after six weeks and some have closed down altogether. let's discuss now with ana navarro and scott jennings. good evening to both of you. so good to see you. let's get into this. ana, this doj suit against the abortion ban is coming days after governor greg abbott signed voting restrictions into law. tonight abbott is saying he will fight back against biden's vaccine mandate. texas has always been conservative, but these actions move the state clearly more to the right. is this a head-to-head showdown with the biden administration, do you think? >> oh, i think so. look, it's obvious that it's a head-to-head, but there's now a lawsuit. you can't get more

confrontational in tangible ways than that. look, i think the biden administration had no choice but to do this because the supreme court didn't take it up when it could have taken it up. so there's a decision coming up on this, and i think, you know, there was also a need for the biden administration to do this because really so many people in texas and across the nation watching this are in distress. look, the approval ratings on abortion have changed not to the same level that marriage equality have. but right now it's almost 60% of people who think abortions should be legal in most cases, with some exceptions. and this law does not allow for exceptions. it does not allow for a rape exception. it does not allow for an incest exception despite the fact that texas is a state with the most number of rapes in the nation. >> scott, you say that you think there should be exceptions when, you know, incest or rape are

involved. but this new law doesn't allow for that. and when you look at what this law does to women, when you look at how the new voting restrictions will impact people of color, does this just narrow republicans even further in the general public? is that the point, that the base is all that matters here? >> well, i think there's two issues here. number one, there's the issue of what was the standard republican position on this been for going on 40 years now, and it's to be pro-life with the exceptions rape, incest and life of the mother. as you point out, this seems to go a little farther than that. the other issue is that conservatives over the last several years have felt rather stymied because many state legislatures and state governments have passed laws that they think are pro-life in nature that would restrict abortions only to see them struck down, only to see them, you know, rolled back in federal court. so what texas goes out and does is they come up with a rather

ingenious way around the nullification of pro-life laws that we've seen around the country. so there's really sort of the political question of what's the correct political, you know, disposition for a republican to have? i think pro-life with the three exceptions is a pretty reasonable political position. but then there's the whole legal question of how do we eventually get to a place where state governments can do what they want to do and do what their constituents want them to do on protecting life? >> mm-hmm. >> so ultimately, don, i think this is the short term question. this was a procedural matter, which most conservative lawyers i know think was decided correctly. the real issue will probably come next year maybe if the supreme court decides to go ahead and overturn roe v. wade, which would then return the question of abortion regulation to the states. >> i think making this a question of -- you know, talking about this law as if it had a rape or incest exception is not honest, right? let's talk about the law that's in front of us in texas.

it has no exception for rape or incest. it's got a deadline of six weeks. it deputizes anybody, anybody in any state with no connection to the people involved, directly involved, to become bounty hunters and get this $10,000 bounty for snitching on somebody. so, you know, a deer hunter in alaska could call up the hotline in texas and snitch on some uber driver and try to collect the $10,000. it makes no sense. it is absolutely insane. you could be for abortion. you can be against abortion. that doesn't mean that you don't agree that this law is egregious, and it is an overreach. it is crazy. i mean it's downright crazy. >> mm-hmm. scott, i was going to say the question was, does this narrow the republicans' port even further in the general public, and is that the point of appealing directly just to the

base because it doesn't gain republicans any support generally. >> well, i think it's a question of what state you're in. ultimately if roe were overturned and this question went back to the state, what voters could do is elect people that match their views on this issue. i think in texas this law has pretty wide support. i think you would find support for more restrictive abortion laws than the more conservative states and in the bluer states that were more liberal, you'd find support for more abortion-friendly laws. i think that's ultimately sort of a question -- it's not a national question at that point, don. i think for the republican party at large, we are the pro-life party. that's not a surprise to anybody. and the position of most republicans is what we discussed, pro-life with the three exceptions. but there is something to be said for local jurisdiction and for the political questions to be resolved by voters. and so if you're in texas and you don't like this law, you can go out and elect a new

legislature and a new governor that will change that law. what democrats have wanted over the years is for courts to essentially own this question and take it out of the hands of the voters. and in texas, they've come up with a way to get around that. it's really a rather interesting and creative thing they've done. my personal view is that i'm pro-life. i want to see pro-life laws. but i also believe in state governments, and i believe in voters electing state governments that reflect their views. i'm pretty sure in texas there's broad support for what they've done. >> ana, i've got to get to the break here, but when you think about what scott said, let's just say -- you know, i'm just -- a hypothetical here. in texas, the legislature says no. in louisiana, it says yes. i'm just giving you a hypothetical. what's to prevent someone from going over the louisiana/texas state line and getting it? >> i'll tell you what's to prevent people. money. resources. access to medical care. look, if you're a person who doesn't have the money to travel from texas to mexico or new

mexico or louisiana, then you're at a disadvantage. this gets very similar to how the marriage equality case was decided, right? in some states you could do it, and some states you couldn't. the supreme court made the -- >> that's my point, ana. i understand what you're saying. what's the point if it's illega some places and not legal some places? >> i think it's got some -- if we're honest with each other, the great motivator in people's beliefs on abortion and choice and life, a lot of it has to do from the religious foundation, right? and this is a country where there is a separation of church and state. so, look, i believe in marriage equality, but i don't believe i can impose marriage equality on the church and force the church to marry lgbtq people. in the same way, i don't think i

should be imposing my religious beliefs on other americans because this is not the vatican. it is the united states of america, and we have a separation of church and state. >> thank you. fascinating conversation. i'll have you both back. no icu beds available, not enough staffing. covid ravaging the state of kentucky. one nurse says it's destroying the city where she lives. not touching is still touching protection. adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria. detergent alone, can't. lysol. what it takes to protect. do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. the brand i trust is qunol.

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covid-19 surge striking especially hard in kentucky where the vaccination rate is just under 50% and vaccine refusal is high. governor andy beshear saying the

state had 30,000 cases last week, the highest number ever in one week. hospitals across kentucky overwhelmed and the majority don't have enough staff to meet rising demand. beshear calling the situation dire. here's cnn's miguel marquez. >> it's more than a cold. believe ta. >> reporter: billy couch didn't think much about covid until he got. >> this is not fun and games. i've been here so long, i want to go home. but i can't go home because i can't breathe still yet. this is not a game at all when you feel like you're going to die. >> reporter: in the hospital 19 days now, the unvaccinated 42-year-old isn't sure how he picked up the virus. he toughed it out at home for eight days before being admitted. how serious is covid? >> it's bad to the bone. i recommend everybody wash their hands, do what they got to do, stay home. stay social distanced because it's bad. trust me, it's bad. >> until you had it, did you think it was bad? >> no. >> what did you this inc. it

was? >> i didn't pay it no attention to be honest, but i do now. and get your shots. >> reporter: wanda combs manages the nursing staff in the covid icu at appalachian regional health care's largest facility. a nurse for 30 years, the job never tougher. >> it's been very, very hard, and i get emotional because it is our community. icu nurses work very hard. they work very hard every day. but you can usually see a difference, so you work hard and you see a difference, and that's okay. you don't care that you're tired. you've made a difference. so with this, they still work just as hard, harder, and it really hurts when you don't see a difference. >> reporter: just when they thought they were through the worst of the pandemic, it's come roaring back. patients younger, sicker, harder to treat. >> the family, you know, it's hard for them to realize, oh, you mean this is the end? you really mean this is the end? it is our community. it's people that we know, or we know people they're related to.

so that's what's really hard on the nurses is the emotional part too. >> reporter: in the covid icu here in hazard, every bed taken by those suffering from severe cases of covid-19. every patient intubated except for one. what is this virus doing to places like hazard, kentucky? >> it's destroying us. we're -- i mean, everybody's getting it. everybody's getting sick. everybody's -- we're just seeing a lot of it now. >> reporter: appalachian regional health care has 13 facilities across eastern kentucky and west virginia. its entire system now overwhelmed by covid. >> we have no icu beds available, zero. >> zero? >> zero. >> across 13 facilities? >> across 13 facilities, we have zero icu beds available. we have 35 patients waiting in

our e.r.s for beds. >> reporter: today, appalachian regional health care has three regular beds available across its entire system. they've cleared space and made for 200 beds that sit empty, unable to staff them. >> we have applied for fema disaster medical teams at multiple of our hospitals. our understanding is right now that louisiana is in dire need, and so most of their teams are there. so we are on the list, and once they have availability, we hope that we will be able to get support. >> reporter: the hospital system needs 170 nurses today to open up extra beds. nurses now working longer hours and doubling up on patients just to keep up. >> one respiratory therapist should comfortably have four ventilator patients because we work with the nurses as well. but right now i have about seven to eight ventilators per respiratory therapist. >> reporter: here in hazard, patients are coming in younger

and sicker than nurses have ever seen. younger patients than we did bef >> very sick actually for their age. >> reporter: so where we are standing right now is perry county, and today, right now, this place has one of the highest rates of transmission for covid cases in the entire country. the hospital system thinks that those cases and hospitalizations for them will continue to rise through late september, maybe into october, and then hopefully they'll begin to come down. and i know i will sound like a broken record here. but more than 95% of the patients who are admitted to this hospital system with covid-19 are unvaccinated. don? >> thank you, miguel. appreciate that. just days away from the

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the city of bakersfield is on the other side of the spectrum politically. >> newsom out, elder in. >> reporter: it's where you'll find america's last woolworth's luncheonette counter, serving up burgers, shakes, and a side of nostalgia. >> california was once a really nice place. >> governor newsom says a lot of things, but he does all bad things. >> reporter: when it comes to governor gavin newsom, some of the diners here have had their fill. >> if there's not a change, my wife and i, we're out of here. >> really? >> we're leaving the state. >> reporter: many republicans here think their voices aren't heard. >> no, i don't think so. >> no, not really. >> reporter: to some degree, they're right. >> thank you, california. >> reporter: in 2018, just 41% of kern county voters went for newsom. >> the best is yet to come. >> reporter: but he won the state by a landslide. now republicans are hoping to flip the governor's office, an uphill battle in a state where

registered democrats outnumber republicans nearly 2 to 1. >> sometimes i wonder if it's worth voting because, you know, my voice may not be heard, or both of us feel like, okay, is it really going to matter in california? it's always going to be democrats. >> reporter: at the kern county gop headquarters -- >> did you get that in the mail? >> reporter: -- they're trying to change that with phone calls, ballot drop-offs, and yard signs. >> the outcome is anyone's guess. this is an odd time of year to have an election, september 14th. but we've had people pouring in here for the last two weeks. >> reporter: kern county gop member kathy abernathy says republican voters are energized. >> you have some ballots for me? >> i do. >> reporter: and she's hoping for a boost from independents and some democrats. >> these extremes produce a switch in parties, and i don't believe all the democrats in california are of the same philosophy of the democrats in that state capitol building. >> reporter: with just a few days left to convince california to change track, larry elder is

banking on bakersfield. lucy kafanov, cnn, bakersfield, california. now i want to bring in cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein. you heard one republican woman tell lucy she wonders if it's even worth voting, asking if her vote matters in a big blue state like california. republicans may be outnumbered there, but this isn't a typical election. what are you watching for? >> right. i mean the one republican hope in pulling this off was that turnout would be very low. but, in fact, newsom has regained the upper hand in this race and energized democrats over the summer, partly because he spent a lot of money and partly because he's had a lot of help from big-name national democrats from barack obama to eliz bernie sanders, to elizabeth warren. he has turned around this race by leaning into his support for

mask and vaccine mandates and portraying and attacking republicans for promising to repeal those mandates on day one. 6.8 million people have already voted. if you get much above 10 million, certainly 11 million, you simply run out of republicans in the state, and the fact that newsom has been able to energize democrats by leaning into and not being defensive about mandates, i think is very instructive, and i think you perhaps saw one of the ripples in the very strong, much stronger stance that president biden took today, not only in his proposals but in his language about the unvaccinated. the vaccinated, as i said to you a few weeks ago, have kind of had it across party lines with the unvaccinated. i think you are seeing that play out in practice in california. >> mm-hmm. ron, larry elder is now baselessly raising the possibility of election shenanigans.

any surprise to you that he's going there? >> it's quite ominous because not only is he doing that, but you have a case where one of the republican possible senate candidates in nevada is already talking about preemptive lawsuits against fraud. we are moving into a period where essentially any election republicans lose, you're going to have a substantial part of the party claiming fraud. and that's why, look, i mean democrats face an existential -- by passing some version of h.r. 1 through the senate. i mean there's no more consequential decision they face on whether manchin and sinema will agree to create some kind of carveout because this is only a small preview of what's ahead. i do think it's a preview also -- this recall is a preview also in the way that newsom has talked about mandates. this is a big change in terms of going on the offense around this. you know, last year republicans

ran against democrats for closing things down and locking things down. but newsom has been able to argue it's the republican position that threatens to close down schools or businesses because by undoing vaccine or mask mandates, you would allow the virus to get to that point. he's leading 2 to 1. two-thirds of voters who are vaccinated in california says they are opposing the recall, including about one-fifth of vaccinated republicans. you see terry mcauliffe making arguments across this like the country. in virginia, he's up 20 points among residents who are vaccinated. republicans right now are kind of boxing themselves into this corner of standing up for the, quote, rights and, quote, choices of the unvaccinated minority. certainly i think president biden has drawn those lines in a way that is going to frame the debate in exactly the kind of way we're seeing play out in california. so far very effectively for the democrats. >> ron brownstein, pleasure as always. thank you, sir. we'll be right back. >> thanks, don. essed,

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welcome to all of you watching here in the united states, canada and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. ahead on "cnn newsroom" life- >> my message to unvaccinated americans is this, what more is there to wait for? >> trust frustration at the white house and republicans are promising to fight. and plus the justice department takes on texas' controversial abortion law. and