lauren: history class. stuart: one president, two vice presidents. that is why you have more vice presidents than number of presidents. 49 veeps and only 46 -- lauren: learn so much on this show and so do we. stuart: so do we. we got to put the guy or the lady, i don't know it is who creates these questions, have to put them on the air to answer for themselves. time's up. neil, it is yours. neil: what is weird, grover cleveland counts as president twice. when he talks about 46 men president of the united states, technically 45, right, counted twice, which is weird. i never understood that. stuart: whatever you say, neil. neil: as they were explaining, neil there is so dull that you're going right back. anyway, i'm always fascinated by that. i had a thing in my heart for cleveland. he was a big president.

stuart: still going neil. you keep on going with this. neil: yeah. i could talk about the dow down 39 points but i figured oh, let's go with grover cleveland. stuart: much more interesting. neil: diligence for me. stuart, thank you very much, we're down 39 points the battle over presidents notwithstanding. this particular president is having a devil of a time getting out of his own way. there are couple of polls that he is under 50% approval. "real clear politics," tracking 538, show the trend is not his friend. a lot on the afghanistan implosion. we'll get updates from the white house, where this is going, how the taliban is responding. so far so good but the devil in the details, how long they allow to be on the perimeter of the airport. a lot of looking to see if the taliban follow up on commitments they already made.

we have jennifer griffin at the pentagon with the latest how that is going, act questions to the airport in kabul. jennifer? reporter: neil, i'm afraid the news is not good but defense secretary lloyd austin, general mark milley, chairman of the joint chiefs have been meeting with the president at the white house this morning to brief him. this afternoon we will receive our first briefing from them since the fall of kabul to the taliban. there is the pictures of the future leader returning to kandahar, apparently flown in on a qatari on military transport plane. he will make his way to kabul. u.s. officials privately tell us, it will be quote, very challenging to meet president biden's deadline of august 31st to fully evacuate u.s. citizens and their allies. there are still thousands of u.s. troops flying in kabul, being housed at international

airport, all surviving on mres right now. thousands of american citizens remain stuck in kabul on the other side of the taliban cordon, cut off from the airport and safe passage out of the country. there are issues how much it costs to fly out of the country. these are not free flights for many afghans who managed to get a seat on the planes. at their first press conference the taliban said they would pardon those who fought against them. however some of the however some images of those beating people trying to get to the airport suggest otherwise that the taliban are carrying out a massive pr push that they are kinder gentler group that took over kabul in 1996, that instituted a rein of terror until the u.s. over threw them after 9/11. the question what happens after the u.s. leaves and reporters

leave. there is controversy about closing bagram airbase. it was hour 1/2 north of kabul. it was the largest base the u.s. had in afghanistan over 20 years, the largest airbase. one former infantry officer tells me quote, i knew when we closed bagram we would have the problem evacuating americans and vulnerable afghans. it is only place with a runway and was able to be secured. there are now 4500 u.s. troops at the airport in kabul. now the very same specialized air force unit, the 621st contingency response wing, the same unit that just closed down bagram airbase a month ago is back securing the airport in kabul. the problem is the taliban control all the checkpoints leading to the airport. neil? neil: jennifer griffin, thank you very much. let's go to connell mcshane at the white house right now we're talking about freezing assets. connell what are you hearing? reporter: yeah they are. that may be one one of the

points of leverage u.s. has left dealing with afghanistan given what jennifer reported. it is interesting the public face of the white house is not related to the afghanistan at all. it is all about covid. a speech that the president or remarks that the president will deliver this afternoon all about the plan to roll out the covid booster shots. we heard from dr. fauci, other medical officials about that, if you have moderna and pfizer recommended to get a booster shot eight months after your second shot. that is what they're saying in public. behind closed doors you do have the top officials in this administration who advised the president, chairman of the joint chiefs, general milley, the defense secretary lloyd austin, you have the secretary of state antony blinken they're all here, they're not speaking from here nor is the president about this issue. jennifer says the briefing will happen at the pentagon today. it is interesting, as all this happens with the evacuation happening in afghanistan you think about it the leverage is the money.

the u.s. needs to work with the taliban to get safe passage of people out to the airport. last week we're following the figures. the country of afghanistan had nine billion dollars in total reserves, assets kept in reserve. this comes from the country's former central bank governor. almost all of it is held outside afghanistan. majority held by federal reserve in the united states. looks like the taliban will not have any access to the money. administration official says any assets hello here in the u.s. will not be available to the taliban. there are imf dollars may not be made available to the taliban. the imf what i've been told they're in the process of serving member nations to see if they recognize the taliban the legit government in afghanistan. if they don't recognize they essentially don't get the money. that is something coming over the days and weeks that the taliban set up a legitimate government. they might need funds to do it.

one thing to control a country but a separate idea all together to govern that effectively. we'll follow the funds to see how things end up. neil: yeah. i also wonder about the taliban's reaction to the point about those funds being frozen. will they be cooperative allegedly they have been or at least the administration argued they have been as a result. connell, thank you very much for that. what we are learning about the 20 some odd thousand afghans who will likely make their way to the united states is that a good many of them will be housed in army bases in three key areas. they include camp mccoy in wisconsin, fort lee in virginia and fort bliss in texas. david spunt has a lot more on how that part is going. david. reporter: neil, many of these people are desperate to get out of afghanistan, get into at least these army bases as you mentioned right now. those folks leaving afghanistan, they are trying and hoping to seek ref gee status, refugee

status is the top status. it's a legal word. it is recognized by the international community. we're told that the majority of these people that are coming over from afghanistan into the united states when ever they may come over will be actually recognized as refugee. someone can be deemed a refugee if they are escaping human rights violations. arguably, neil, the taliban's track record contain as long list of human rights violations over the past two decades and even longer. the afghans who worked alongside the american government past 0 years, analysts, translators, they are applying for coveted visas called sivs. they are the first candidates coming to the united states but there is still a backlog even during this emergency. fort lee, virginia, south of richmond, there are 2,000 special immigrant visa holders. there are vetting going on there other bases are being prepped not only for siv holders but family members as well.

>> applications take up to two years if not longer. so the administration really need to accelerate the processing of these applications while yes, insuring that security measures are being followed, people are being vetted but there is no reason why this system cannot move more quickly. reporter: neil, what makes things more complicated the mere definition of human rights. you go around to different countries around the world, there are actually different definitions in different countries. most allies of the united states have similar thoughts what human rights are but in order to be recognized by the international community as a refugee there has to be some sort of a proof of a violation of human rights. neil. neil: it's a slippery slope, a slippery definition. david, thank you very much for that. let's get the read from all of this from kirk lippold, had serious warnings about this before it went down, former uss cole commander. how is this unfolding?

>> neil, unfortunately it is a heartbreaking to watch, the united states is negotiating a surrender to the taliban. they are victors and they won. we have very little leverage of their word which is the word of a u.s. designated terrorist organization whether or not we'll be able to get all the americans, all of our afghan allies, all the afghan citizens who deserve to get out, because they deserve the refugee status, the ability to have a safe life. let's get them here to the united states but let's start mobilizing the national resources to do it instead of dithering and discussing and let's make it happen. neil: you know commander we understand the taliban has said if you want to access the airport you can. the americans take you wherever but they're still, you know, that is a -- [inaudible] there not making good on that. maybe, maybe i give them the benefit of the doubled doing

this at behest of american soldiers in the area where they don't want to flood the tarmac as we were seeing a couple days back. i'm wondering will they make good on the commitment if you want to leave you can leave? >> i doubt they will, neil and the reason why the taliban are watching, the brain trust that could help them run that country bleed out in trying to leave. the problem with doing that is that they are going to be left with a shell after government that eventually is going to take a lot more support from pakistan who continued to give the taliban safe haven. they are still a designated terrorist organization and that we're going to have to work very hard. we're in a position of complete weakness at this point. while we could strike with that many american citizens still there, the taliban want to get us out but they also want to insure that they're able to run a country effectively once we're gone and use all the equipment that we left behind, the billions of dollars that we have

left behind there in aircraft, in trucks, in vehicles and in weaponry. they're going to take advantage of that. so we're in a position where we can't really negotiate our citizens safety and hold those assets at risk at the same time. neil: i also wonder, kirk, about the 22,000 who will be evacuated from afghanistan here to these three bases and that is just for starters. it could grow exponentially bigger. are they all okay? i some nefarious characters potentially slipping through the cracks? >> neil, there is always going to be a possibility that nefarious characters are going to slip through the crack but when you look at what the biden administration is doing with our southern border, where they are checking no one, virtually vet being no one, where border patrol is told to abandon their posts to leave it to local law

enforcement. where is the vetting process? we've had ms-13 gang members. we've had murderers and terrorists coming across the southern border and virtually no checks to find out who is coming. the argument that we need to vet every single person coming out of afghanistan when we're doing nothing on our southern border, that argument don't hold any weight anymore. when we're looking pat this debacle of a withdrawal, how it is handled, how we're doing, it jeopardizes the national security. at the end of the day the military safeguards our national security interests so we continue to have a strong economy and that businesses can operate around the world. now we are beginning to have world leaders and subsequent businesses begin to question whether the united states can be a reliable partner and that's a scary proposition. neil: very scary. commander, very good seeing you, thank you for weighing in on all of this. meantime we did bring you up to date what has been happening on the covid front and the administration plan to push

booster shots as soon as next month for those who might have immune systems compromised, or the elderly, or both but when donald trump was talking to our bartiromo this morning whether this was more like a money making scam, calling it out right crazy, after this. ♪ ♪ it's a wishlist on wheels. a choice that requires no explanation. it's where safe and daring seamlessly intersect. it's understated, yet over-delivers. it is truly the mercedes-benz of sports sedans. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers. ♪ ♪

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neil: you've been vaccinated. the read from our health officials in the united states federal government is that you might need a booster shot and biden administration indicating such shots could become available as soon as next month around september 20th. they will be provided through pfizer, moderna rollout through the third week in september. let's get all of this through jonathan serrie. why is this is being recommended. reporter: in recommendation only applies to pfizer and moderna vaccines now. because those are the first ones made available in the country. the first johnson & johnson shots were not administered till march so they're still collecting data. expect a recommendation on j and j in coming weeks.

they are recommending a third dose for people fully vaccinated with the pfizer and moderna vaccines. this is pending a an independent review by the fda a. if approved the first booster shots could be administered by the week of september 20. the recommendation that they receive a booster shot eight months after the receiving the second dose. this comes to a growing number of studies showing effectiveness of vaccines against mild to moderate cases of covid decreases in the months following vaccination. >> even though immune data vaccine protection remains high against the worst outcomes of covid we are concerned that this pattern of decline we're seeing will continue in the months ahead which could lead to reduces protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death. >> concerns over the delta variant have prompted officials in los angeles county to impose

a mask mandate on large outdoor music events that order takes place this friday. a school newspaper from quinnepiac university school administrators sent warning letters to several hundred students who have yet to submit proof of vaccination as required by the university. the quinnepiac chronicle reports that students who don't comply with the university's order and don't have a vaccine exemption that is approved by the university, they could face weekly fines starting at $100, increasing steadily and also facing removal of their wi-fi access. neil? neil: wi-fi thing that will really burn them. all right, jonathan serrie, thank you very much for that. want to go to dr. tom price, you remember our former health and human services secretary under donald trump. former georgia congressman, former orthopedic surgeon.

he checks all the boxes as a authority are concerned. doctor, good to have you. do we need these booster shots? a lot of people were told once you got the vaccine, you both doses you were equivalent medically bulletproof, i guess not? >> i don't know that was said. as you will recall in our conversations, neil, i mentioned this as early as last spring potentially a need for a booster shot. folks like to think about it like they think about the annual flu vaccine. the flu vaccine is given every single year. like extra booster shot every single year because the virus changes. that is what happens here. as your immunity begins to decrease, that can happen, it has been demonstrated it does happen, then a booster shot is necessary. people need to look at it just like they would the kind of public health things they need to do to keep themselves safe and families safe in any other instance. neil: i hear what you're saying, doctor, but your old boss donald trump, talking to maria

bartiromo this morning didn't seem impressed with this push for booster shot. this is from the president this morning. >> back to the idea of a booster shot. yes, you're right. >> that sounds to me like a money making be you know what? that sounds to me like a money making operation for pfizer. think of the money involved, extra shot. tens of billions. how good of a business business is if you're a pure businessman, you know what, let's give them another shot, that is another $10 billion of money coming in. the whole thing is just crazy. neil: the whole thing is crazy. what you did you you think what he said? >> the studies on this are much more complete than the studies done to prior emergency use authorization. that is because we've been following people who had original vaccine, pfizer around moderna for almost a year now

and so what we have gotten evidence that demonstrates that the neutralizing antibodies that fight the virus when one gets infected or one is exposed actually tend to decrease over a period of time. as jonathan serrie said, it is not to a point now where it is harmful to individuals but you don't know how low that is going to go and the last thing you want to do with this disease is to be playing catchup, which is what we did all of the previous year. so i would suggest that individuals again ought to look at this like a booster shot for the flu, that the annual flu vaccine that you get and take it for yourselves and for your family and for others who are potentially at significant risk if they're exposed. neil: yeah. there are a lot of people who swear by everything that donald trump says and he has his doubts about the booster. do you as a doctor, as former health and human services secretary regret that he cast doubt on these boosters?

>> well, everybody is open to their own opinion but i will tell you that the science is clearly, clearly behind the need for booster shots in this instance, especially because we're seeing these other variants. delta rate now, lambda is potentially on the horizon and the important thing for people to appreciate about the pfizer and moderna vaccines that they are more effective against these variants than individuals are if they had covid before. so it is the vaccination, it is the vaccines that will allow you to fight off a potential increase in disease incidents because of these variants that are occurring and will likely continue to occur as this virus potentially becomes endemic in our society. neil: it certainly seems to be already, right, doctor? i don't know what success booster shots will have, who gets them, elderly and compromised, i get all of that but i'm wondering what's happening globally in the cases that have put hospitals near full capacity, icu centers and

the rest, particularly down south, going at loggerheads how to handle the influx of patients, are you worried we're in for something worse or is this a passing wave? >> well i think it will pass but there is no way to know how long it is going to take. there are all sorts of things we can do to mitigate challenges we have as we face this virus. the problem that we're seeing right now that hospital beds are filling up, icu beds are filling up. what that means is that individuals that have other kinds of diseases, whether cardio vascular disease, hypertension or other things we take care of in our health system routinely, that require hospitalization, those individuals are being closed out from being able to continue their treatment, whether it is cancer or something else. that's why it is incredibly important for us to increase the number of individuals that are getting vaccinated. those that have been vaccinated to get boosters so we can return

to the ability of our entire health care system to provide the kind of treatment necessary for all of our citizens across this country. neil: all right. doctor, secretary, great catching up with you on this, getting your read on the booster necessity which sounds to me like you think it is a good idea. we'll follow that very closely. following mixed read we're getting on retail sales. remember the market went into a tailspin because home depot saying number of customers it is seeing is shrinking a little bit, not so much the what they're buying but amount, number. along comes target with a report not only blows past estimates but shows a pretty rosy forecast. who do you believe? after this. ♪ ♪ and one we explore one that's been paved and one that's forever wild but freedom

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last month, four times worse than most were expecting. then we get sort of a problem mat tick report -- problematic report, out of home depot, customer, sales revenue momentum, earnings momentum was okay, maybe not as many customers were coming by. lo and behold, likes of target, lowe's, it is not all that bad. it is very confusing. shana sissell, spotlight group chief investment strategist. so shana, what is the state of the american shopper right now? >> we had consumer sentiment surveys come back mixed as well. i think the delta variant is is impactings activities willingness to leave the house. the difference between home depot and target, one benefits from the rush of people stuck in their houses doing home improvement projects, trying to make their home a more comfortable space. i think we're kind of past that point in this pandemic. now people are starting to think

about getting out of the house. so they're becoming more concerned about apparel and things of that sort which would benefit someone like target. obviously you're not buying any new clothes at home depot. neil: so we had a very robust back to school shopping season. it is not over. we have seen a lot of people spend a great deal on travel and fun this summer. it is not over. i'm just wondering how you see this going heading into the fall? >> i'm a little concerned going into the fall. we're starting to see a little bit of pullback in travel activity. i know that the passenger levels at the airports from tsa data has started to show some decline which is concerning. also starting to see some in-person activities, conferences, are being canceled or going virtual again. people are very concerned about the delta variant and so i'm concerned to see how that might impact the next few months.

but whatever impact it has, it is likely to be short term. just like every little bump in the road we've had previously, there is a pent-up demand that sort of builds behind it. whatever disruption we see now we'll probably drive momentum and have stronger data later on as we kind of get through this part of the covid next wave with the delta variant. neil: you know what is kind of interesting, you step back, what had been a retail juggernaut through the pandemic, post the pandemic, parts of the pandemic, amazon. when you look at it year-to-date, it is sort of dead money. even money toward a run-up. wonder what that might tell us? that investors got ahead of itself, stock got ahead of itself or is it telegraphing something else? >> i think it's a little bit of both. obviously investors were very

positive on the stock as it really did benefit as you said through the pandemic, the ability to have everything delivered to your door. you couldn't really leave your house but again it goes back to what i said earlier about the target home depot thing, as people start to think about leaving their home, they think about things they haven't thought about in a while, like what they're going to wear. most people have not done upgrades of share wardrobe going back to the office got used to wearing jeans and alt leases sure. they're thinking how to upgrade their wardrobe. most people are not going to target, i'm sorry, amazon, for that. most people like to go into the store, try on clothing to figure out what will work for them. people also want to get out of the house. that there is that aspect of it. i don't think amazon is dead money going forward. it got ahead of itself. probably a slowdown people using amazon for purchasing for a lot

of different reasons. obviously amazon is a juggernaut for a reason. i don't see in-person shopping all of sudden going back to pre-amazon days where that was what people preferred. i think going forward there will be a mix of purchasing things online that are sort of your everyday necessities and then going out for the things that make sense to want to be in person like apparel which i think is really driving the differences you're seeing here and buying activity and consumption with the u.s. consumer is really based on this shift from being stuck at home, working remotely, to now, going forward, thinking about getting out of the house and back to the office. neil: all right. i know you like shopping. there is this personal experience. but it would take, you know, a major, major push for me to go to a mall voluntarily, to go through that experience but i understand where you're coming from. shana, thank you very much. shana sissell.

in the meantime you probably heard a lot about these ghost kitchens popping up during the pandemic. it is all arranged for take-out, delivery, that sort of thing, but not sit-in dining. they're festering again. what to make of all of that with lydia hu following all of that. lydia? reporter: hi, neil, yeah, we're seeing an expansion of the ghost kitchen concept as continued demand for food delivery. we're inside or in front of a new mommy burger. right behind me at the counter they're serving up burgers. in the kitchen behind the scenes they're cooking fried chicken for delivery only under a couple of ghost kitchen brands like in the bun, the other side. to get insight on this, we're here with chef rossi. thank you for your time. you saying having ghost kitchen brands behind the scenes adds 20, 30% of additional revenue to

this kitchen's operation. does having a ghost kitchen offset rising cost of food? we know that is going up too. >> it offsets not only rising cost of food and labor, helps in action bringing in another revenue stream for these locations. on top of that we're able to offer a variety of different cuisines, optimizing these kitchens to the fullest extent. reporter: you say another competitive advantage rolling out these ghost kitchens. your company c-3 has 250 restaurants and you're expanding nationally and globally. the footprint is something to consider. tell us about that. >> we're optimizing not only kitchen itself, looking at kitchen, seeing how we add as many different cuisines as possible but we're partnering with world-renown chefs creating these wonderful brands. what we want to do, we don't want to create brands that are exclusive. we want to create things that inclusive to the world, get these citizens basically, getting all these different

names with us, working with us to do these things. reporter: one of the things i heard you talk about when it comes to the real estate, it is an opportunity to turn properties that might not be the best dine-in location into a functioning kitchen, neil. the idea these are delivery only. you can bring ghost kitchens to places like parking lots, remote areas outside of cities to deliver where people are. we're seeing concept catch on with some big mainstream brands, kroger grocery stores and five guys burgers announced they will launch a ghost kitchen and wendy's, they're bringing 50 of these to market by the end of the year. they think each one of the ghost kitchens for wendy's offer delivery only could earn up to a million dollars a year. neil, back to you. neil: incredible. restaurant industry, amazing how resourceful it can be in the aftermath of a pandemic, maybe returning to one, finding

another avenue for which to get their stuff out there. fascinating. lydia, thank you very, very much for that. back to afghanistan when we come back. it is fair to say that president biden probably figured he would get a lot of republicans ripping the totaling tumbling in afghanistan. i don't think he counted on many in his own party, virtually everyone in his own party coming out even worse.

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♪. neil: all right. we're just learning from german chancellor merkel that president biden has discussed what is going on in afghanistan with her. there is the outgoing german leader saying that they did talk, i don't know how long they talked amid criticism that the president had not been talking to foreign leaders what has been happening in afghanistan. john bussey, "wall street journal," associate editor with us right now, not

only what it created abroad but here, particularly among fellow democrats. john, what is going on? >> well the president messed up and the administration did. this is kind of no way to talk your way around the chaos that we've all seen unfold in kabul. you have got a lot of veterans from afghanistan and iraq wars in congress now that were kind of raising the alarm early and within the administration, outside the administration. so you know, whether or not we should have withdrawn, whether or not we kept a nominal level of troops there, that can be debated but getting prepared for a vietnam-style exit where you try to avoid what happened in vietnam just didn't seem to be in the cards with the president. i think that is going to be part of his legacy. neil: i'm just wondering where it goes from here though? assuming, hoping we get the people that need to get out of there out of there, that is no

guarranty that taliban will help in that process, you never know, i am wondering about the residual and damage concerns in the whole region? >> the region more broadly, how much can the u.s. be dependent upon you know, as an ally? some of that can be overwrought, you know. i've seen analysis that, well should taiwan be worried about the u.s.'s commitment? there are bigger strategic concerns that the u.s. has that are, that they're directly on u.s. interests. in afghanistan it became less of one. i think that most people kind of understood that and nato understood that too. getting out though sort of leave as bad impression at a minimum of our organizational ability. the president says we left behind a big army, we left behind a big air force. well the air force was used by

pilots to get out of afghanistan and they flew the planes and helicopters to tajikistan. this was known in the military. this president saw what happened in vietnam. he was old enough to see it. my father worked at the embassy in vietnam. at last minute they were burning papers. he flew up to da nang in a government plane to get civilians out helpful to the u.s. the plane was stormed at the airport by terrified young south vietnamese troops. they took off left millions behind. this is in american history. we know what happens when we depart expeditiously from someplace that is highly unstable and the president should have known. neil: at least my memory of the north vietnamese didn't get in the way. you want out america, we'll sit on images a long time.

they are great pr for us. i wonder what the taliban's frantic take on it, don't interrupt, let it go? >> 2 can't be any better pr in the world for the taliban to sort of show yet another empire, sort of the graveyard of the empires. the russians, the british, the u.s. and the u.s. failing pretty badly to get its own people out. in answer to your question will the taliban step aside and let people just go to the airport forever i don't think so, nor did the north vietnamese do. a lot of people were put in reeducation camps. a lot of people discriminated against, harmed in a variety of ways for rest of their lives in vietnam. the same will hold true in afghanistan. the taliban aren't known for generosity in these

circumstances. neil: yeah, you're right about that. probably the understatement of the year. john bussey, "wall street journal." thank you my friend. >> pleasure. neil: we'll keep you updated on push for booster shots for everybody as soon as next month. meantime seemingly country-wide push it to get everyone to put the mask back on whether you're inside or outside, after this. ht liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical horn blows ] i mean just because you look like someone else doesn't mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication. oh, yeah. that's the spot. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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neil: you're not imagining it, masks are being required in more places right now. they have temporarily tabled the motion in miami-dade, the school district there they were revisiting possibly requiring that for all students, teachers, staff this year, but tabling it doesn't mean they are not going to address it. with us the chief financial officer, the great sunshine state of florida. very good to have you, jimmy. where does this stand the whole back and forth on mask requirements for returning students and more? >> sure. so i mean it is unfortunate. this conversation has become much more polarized than it should be. governor desantis wants to put parents in charge. he wants to put them in the

driver's seat regarding their own children's health care. look, some of the media implicate his order means that children can't wear masks. it does not. but you know i know this, nih spent $42 billion on research last year alone. none of it went to studying masks on children. unfortunately the way this is being debated by some, not doing a year long experiment on our own children. neil: so i mean the governor did raise the possibility that denying funding, even cutting pay for teachers and administrators who force the issue. he dialed that back. i'm wondering whether this has become so. of a political football? does he now accept, do you by extension the idea if you're a parent, you want your kid to wear a mask you can, just the opposite if you don't? >> well, look there is some pathways where parents definitely, they want to take care of their children, want the children masked, nothing

prohibiting mom or dad putting a mask on their child. as the government made his arguments wanting to empower the parental rights you had democrats in the state of florida who went out wanting to illegally influence policy of those school administrators by creating these gofundme accounts to essentially pay money to change policy outcomes it got blown way out of proportion, democrats watched it back, what they were proposing, was illegal and considered by some bribery. neil: say what you will, mask push is on not only some districts and counties in your state, los angeles county, where the requirements are coming back. since there is no way to sort of get a consensus among parents on this, if majority of them in a school district said, kids should wear masks, you would be okay with that, the governor

would be okay with that, if it ever came to that? >> again it is about making sure parents have the rights to do with their child. i have a dear friend whose child has a cleft palate. developmental age. she is passionate about the ability of her child understanding and enunciating, being able to understand to develop the young little mind at a some age. some parents are very passionate about wanting to have their children, having normal type of development and -- neil: so what you're saying it would not be a simple as majority of parents rules. >> right. neil: those want an exception, so be it, don't force the issue. are you surprised the backdrop of spike in cases in your state? happening everywhere to be honest. wondering governor, yourself was caught off-guard with that? >> if you look at you know the admittance into the hospitals, less than 10% are over the age of 65. why is that?

because we were so aggressive vaccinating our seniors. those that are in our hospitals now are the unvaccinated. it is unfortunate that, it's a belief, you need to sit down talk to the doctor. if you need to get the vaccine, get the vaccine. the governor is out there pushing rolling out regeneron treatments, if you catch early enough you can get people back into society. it has been so emotional, so challenging and so political. neil: all right. we'll follow it closely. jimmy patronis, the florida cfo, chief financial officer. thank you, sir, thank you very much. they're dealing with in florida, across the country, all 50 states seeing spikes in cases. we hasten to add, not nearly as serious as the last time spike in cases. not trying to minimize what is it going on. stay with us. experience, hyper e that takes you further. at the lexus golden opportunity sales event.

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neil: all right, that makes it two foreign leaders, president biden has talked to about the situation in afghanistan, just got off the phone a little while ago with german chancellor angela merkel and they did speak in some depth about what's going on there. we're expecting a read-out of that pretty soon, british prime minister boris johnson has also spoken to the president about this. we don't know the details of

that conversation, but it's safe to say that the president was outlining exactly how that exit is and the removal of potential ly tens of thousands of afghans and americans is going there so far we're told from the administration's point of view good. trey yingst in jeremy with jerusalem with what's happening there. reporter: neil, good afternoon the situation on the ground in afghanistan remains extremely unstable. people today are still trying to rush the airport, though it's a bit calmer than the past several days. there are just a limited number of military planes taking off and the taliban is firing into the air, outside the airport, to push people back. the biggest problem developing right now is access to this airport. even afghan's and foreigners with exit papers aren't being allowed to leave. taliban fighters are blocking the entry gate and firing to disburse the groups of people. outside of kabul in the city, protest against the taliban erupted. flags of the group were pulled down and replaced with the afghan national flag.

local media reports at least three people were killed and a number of others injured when the taliban fired on the demonstrators. the chaotic scenes across the country that you're seeing are only what's being captured by local media or civilians. there are reports of assassinations and beatings in numerous other cities. given the circumstances right now, the focus for the administration and the u.s. military is going to be on figuring out how to get the americans upwards of 10,000 american citizens in different parts of the country, and in different parts of kabul to that airport, and ultimately out to safety. neil? neil: all right,trey, thank you sew much the white house is going to get back on offense, connell mcshane right there with the latest. connell? connell: neil, you know, the private meetings that the president has been having and the phone calls you referenced angela merkel certainly have been focused today on afghanistan but the public face of the administration has all been covid-related and even the president himself when we see him later today at the white house will be speaking about the

white house plan to rollout the booster shots for covid-19 come september so that's what they are talking about publicly. i will say that the defense secretary, lloyd austin, and the chairman of the joint chiefs general mark millie have been here meeting with the president also with the secretary of state , anthony blinken and all those meetings taking place in the west wing of the white house so all of that is happening. the phone calls are happening but again publicly the conversation is about covid. a lots been said about the president possibly having overruled some of these military leaders and other advisors and deciding to pull out of afghanistan and the way that the pull-out happened. we will hear from secretary austin today. we haven't heard from him this week at the pentagon we're told there's a briefing later this afternoon so the evacuation continues today. to the point trey was making we're trying to figure out how many americans are in that country upwards of 10-15,000 has been floated on capitol hill as a number of americans, but we're not entirely sure. we know when we were told that

1,100 were evacuated yesterday, it's still tough to get some of these people who want to get out though to that airport, and you know, even some democrats here in washington started to get frustrated because it's not just about evacuating americans. take a listen. >> we need to get out all the afghans who helped us whose lives are at risk who will be slaughtered by the taliban if we leave them behind and that's been a bipartisan consensus at least among veterans in congress we need to stay in kabul until that mission is complete. reporter: until that mission is complete there seems to be some question, neil about whether it can be completed by the deadline president biden put in place which is the 31st of august. again the only briefing we'll get on this will be from the pentagon later this afternoon. neil: connell thank you for that very very much. so you need the perspective of someone whose on the ground and has been on the ground, knows afghanistan very well, we're very lucky to have annie with us senior non-resident associate with the center for strategic

international studies and a deputy chief of the mission in the u.s. embassy in kabul back in 2017, believe through 2018, so very good of you to come, ann ie, thank you. what do you think of what you're seeing and hearing? >> i think that all of the issues of the distressing situation at the airport are an urgent need for the u.s. to come together and do the right thing, to find a way to negotiate a way for people to be evacuated, but the main point that i really see is that we have to stay engaged in afghanistan. this can't be an issue of a successful evacuation, and then we turn our faces away. neil: you know, you know the whole issue and with the taliban particularly. women's interest and where they stand. the taliban is putting out statements to the effect that they can continue to work and all but of course the requirement that some of these other things that are just

part of law they remain in effect so if that's the case, it is not a hospitable environment for women in afghanistan right about now. >> no, i think women are extremely worried on a number of levels. activists, some of them are at this point, moving houses every day or so, in order not to be found, because the taliban are actively looking for them, and there are others who are simply worried that the lives that they had begun with education, with businesses, those will be interrupted, and i think people don't understand what the taliban's vision is of an islamic emirate, so these laws, there's an issue of atrocities that could happen, and the laws that force women to stay-at-home, to not move, to wear certain clothing, this is how atrocities start. neil: you know what i'm wondering too and you know the country well and the customs

well and the whole taliban pretty well, so when they say that they are a different taliban, or the same from 20 years ago, and they still adhere to the law and all these other things that are not only offensive to women but great concern to the entire afghan population, i would imagine do you think they've turned a new leaf and do you think as the administration has been arguing that they want in with the international community, they need the international community, they need the financial help, do you buy any of that? >> i think that first and foremost they believe that they won because they were true to their own ideals, and their own ideology. that is the lesson they're taking away from this. even though they were supported in large part by outside powers like pakistan, they think it was their own true ideology that brought them to this place, so their motivation to change now and to be a different group, it's very low. that said, the reality of

afghanistan in 2021 is, i think, from all reports, is surprising them, and they have begun to realize almost immediately that someone who knows what they're doing has to turn on the lights and turn on the water, so i think there's some accommodations ahead, but i don't believe that the taliban has fundamentally changed. neil: well, they understand money, i guess, and to your point, and now we're hearing from a number of central bankers including the afghan former central bank chief that the country faces a dire financial outlook. who comes to their rescue if that is the case? >> there are assets that have been frozen in the united states they will need access to them, and they need the world bank, and they need the international monetary fund, so, you know, what i think as a diplomat is that you look at the situation you have, you figure out what you want, and then you look for your leverage.

at this point, cash might be part of your leverage. also, international recognition. we gave away so much leverage already. we have to wait and negotiate a better deal and not give away that recognition. neil: but you almost wonder whether it's too late, right? i mean, if the taliban is holding all the cards we can freeze assets, i guess we've already frozen up 9.5 billion. there's a lot more that could be frozen but the carrot and stick or i guess our approach with a stick, it's a little too late for that isn't it? they've already taken over. >> i think it's never too late for us to get the best deal that we can with the vision of what is in our national security interest, and at this point, for example, i think we need to figure out how to keep our promises internationally. it's not just about what happens from the ground in afghanistan, it's how do other people see the united states as a

partner. so we have to be a better partner in afghanistan in order to get what we want in other parts of the world and china, apparently, has a well-prepared set of talking points they've spread to all of their embassies to tell people look we told you this is what happens when you depend on the united states. neil: yeah, it's amazing when you think about the 20-year commitment we had and we're somehow fleeting in our commitment. it is wild, but annie, we'll follow very closely, very very good insight and i do appreciate it. we're getting a bit of a sense now from the administration how this is going and the logistics of getting these thousands of individuals out. they, right now, the goal is to ramp up an evacuation of planes per hour and the understanding seems to be with 5,000, 9,000 evacuees leaving per day. we already have 4,000 troops at the ready and already at the airport, likely 6,000 we are

told in just a few days. that exodus will continue. the logistics are so startling that it calls for housing up to 22000 evacuated afghans at three different military bases in this country, one of them fort bliss, texas. we'll have more, after this. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've honorably served. no matter their rank, or when they were in. a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely.

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neil: all right, its happened again, a big hacking incident this one involving t-mobile, lauren simonetti with the details on that and other top business headlines hey lauren. lauren: hey, neil this t-mobile hack is pretty big. t-mobile is confirming that more than 40 million customers had their information stolen, and those victims include anyone who might have applied for credit with the carrier, and those who might have post paid plans. the data stolen includes name, social security numbers as well as driver' license numbers no financial information , however. let's take a look here because mortgage rates, yup, still low historically but they did hit their highest level in a month and with that the mortgage bankers association says applications to buy a home, they fell 1% last week, and they're down 19% from a year ago. it's the latest sign that there's sticker shock out there. home buyers are starting to pullback as prices continued to

go up and now, rates start going up a little bit as well. no wonder we're spending more money, right? everything costs more, and there's fear of missing out. mass mutual says we spent $765 a month more than we did last year , last summer. it's because we want to be out and about enjoying the final moments of summer, especially for young people, right? but you also have parents going back to the office and spending money to do that, spending money to send the kids back-to-school, and maybe, you know, before the cold weather comes, neil and we get those potential covid restrictions, we're trying to enjoy the final moments of freedom while we have them, but it's true. we want to be out and about, web www weight watchers, people aren't dieting because there's too much to do. neil: very good point, lauren,

your kids get older and they go to college and they hold just as much. lauren: put down the golf clubs and backpack. neil: exactly, lauren, thank you very very much let's go go to erin gibbs on all of this , but the economy and the reopening and all of that, and along the way, what do you make of this? >> i think the discussions around tapering and interest rates is actually healthy and there's a lot of arguments that we should be because we haven't really seen a decline in unemployment but we're seeing this massive rise in housing prices but that's obviously not matching up, and housing prices are really going to shoot up so to avoid these low interest rates pushing up housing prices

but we still can't get materials , we should see a little bit of tapering since that really isn't doing what it's meant to do. neil: you know, i'm sorry, erin, how will that be greeted when it happens because its been waiting for the tapering has to happen sooner or later and i just wonder when the fed announces it , if it announces it or if you just find out through sales and securities in the market that its begun. how do you think the markets will react? >> so the big fear that it's going to be like 2013 where we had this huge taper tantrum where interest rates, that's what wall street initially was really worried about is that interest rates just shoot right backup but i think because its been in such a long discussion also we're getting press release s every single month versus quarterly, also we have stronger unemployment, higher, more robust economy, so we're in a very different economic

environment, and its already clear that even from today's announcement and at 2:00 we'll see what the markets do when the notes are finally released but it does feel like a very different environment and it looks like rates aren't going to pop-up, and so i think it's going to be a little smoother and we're not going to see that sharp rise and then decrease in prices. neil: you know, i know these minutes are going to be closely scrutinized but if you think about it they almost seem a world away. it was all before the collapse of afghanistan and everything else going on, and the mixed retail sales news, and the housing sputtering. i know its not been consistent but its been a lot since they last met, so how much you put in and what you're going to get? >> that's a great point, neil because even this was from the end of july and this is even before a lot of the new mask mandates were coming back and increased concerns over booster

shots, so for us, yeah, the world, this is just a few weeks this is how the world has changed, and we're talking about a tapering that may not be about until october possibly november so yeah, i think that's a great point that also keep that in check,. neil: you know i have a question because i don't mean to be but i skew politics, but whatever your views are, but i do wonder the heat that the president has taken for this collapse in afghanistan, he ignored his generals and top military guys and i wonder the outcry he's gotten in the media, against nothing democrats and republican s and foreign leaders whose frantically trying to assure phone calls i'm just wondering whether it wounds not

only foreign policy but some of the domestic initiatives he wants to see happen including infrastructure package, the human infrastructure package , all those goals, i mean , he does look for the time being like a wounded leader, that generally doesn't help your legislative foot. >> yeah, it's rare that board policy might have typically doesn't have such a big or such a figure in foreign policy, and would have such a big impact but i think the images that we're seeing right now are so dramatic that it is carrying over and carrying over to questions on his other policy and it's just also that combined with california's referendum, i think there's just a lot of people that are more openly questioning some of the policies, so i think it is rather unusual just because with the dramatic nature and some of the images that we're seeing today. neil: erin, well said. very good catching up with you, erin gibbs, gibbs wealth management, ceo. when we come back the former

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>> we are assuring the safety of all those who have worked with the united states and allied forces. >> we need an immediate help. mr. biden, please help all these afghans who did support you, who helped. >> the taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to make that commitment. neil: all right, if they don't hold true to that commitment robert charles the former bush 41 staffer, former bush 43

assistant secretary of state all bets are off after that, right, robert? >> you know, neil, this is completely unprecedented in my view. this is a breath taking lapse of responsible moral, legal, operational, political decision-making by this white house, and i think it's stunning that we don't see the president, the vice president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, we don't see any of the senate confirmed decision makers here. this is, i get realtime intelligence now rolling at me from people who are talking to those on the ground, and just in the mid-term, right now, you do have, according to the f-77 form more than 15,000 americans presently around the country trying to get out. the taliban were very effective, they are much more organized than they were historically. they took kabul last and setup checkpoints so that people can't get out of these various locations, kandahar, all these

places. the problem we've got right now is you've got about 15,000 americans at risk that they may or may not let out of the country after about a week, maybe two weeks, then they just shutdown. you've got some 40,000 who help ed us and helped our allies over there, who are desperate. they believed us. we had 20,000 applicants who worked for us for two years and the state department put just four people processing those a month ago. i am told the head of isaf, former briefer two months ago the ambassador in afghanistan, the u.s. ambassador and said this is going to happen and he was basically shown the door. i'm told that three weeks ago, the secretary of state, blinken, actually signed a document that abolished the crisis and contingency response bureau because they didn't want to be accountable for the evacuation so they decided to blame the defense department in advance. you don't abolish a bureau overnight. that's the bureau, by the way, that trump setup about 18 months ago, to get more than 100,000

americans from around the world home with covid, so the bottom line here is this is complete and total in responsibility and i sort of wake up every morning believing that somehow, this isn't happening, but it is happening, and of course, what you just pointed to, i think, earlier, was that this has ripple effects all over the world. our credibility all over the world is at risk now and it will remain at risk for months if not years, because of what this administration has just done. this was utterly preventable and then to see the president of the united states get up in front of the american people and blame the intelligence analysts who can't talk to the media, who don't do policy, and who undoubtedly put this option in front of him, i was an intelligence analyst for the navy for 10 years. you don't blame the low level intelligence analysts. this is a real responsibility and i get to a point where i'm not quite sure what to say any more, neil because this will have long term, big time impact

all over the world and it's just beginning. neil: yeah, and i'm thinking too , whether you say the buck stops with me and all that, when john kennedy made those remarks, the different time, different period, he could have just as easily pinned it on his predecessor and all of the military honchos, because he had his doubts about it but not to second guess that he took the blame, and then he famously said, you know, success has a thousand authors, failures, but he onlied it, and it was weird about that, as you know, the approval ratings went up 10 points because the american people, you know, supported him and were impressed with his acknowledging that and his responsibility for it. i just worry that if you don't claim responsibility, the commander-in-chief, for what happens under your watch or you blame the predecessor, or predecessors, you're only doomed to repeat the same mistakes, aren't you? >> so neil, an excellent point.

i read, actually, the bay of pigs post-fact press conference recently, as well as what happened after the debacle in the desert with jimmy carter. this is more significant than either of those events by magnitudes and the notion of taking responsibility in the military there's an understanding, when you say you take responsibility that means you pay the consequences. this is not about approval ratings. this has to do with taking real responsibility and paying the consequences personally and professionally for what you've done. neil: very good point. >> there's nobody, military experience is pretty thin in this white house, not the president, not the vice president, not the secretary of state, not most of the folks that are in the white house, and so as a direct result of that, you've got a failure of what it even means to be responsible for something. you know, i look at this and i've looked for comparisons. i look at saigon, i notice a lot of people talking saigon so let's talk briefly saigon. march of 1973 we signed an

accord that essentially brought that to an end. it was april, two years later april of 1975 when we evacuated, when saigon was overrun, so they held out for two years, but more to the point, and that's because in part, we supported them with intel and other things we didn't support the afghan security forces with, but the bigger part is, when we did go to leave, we brought 7,000 vietnamese with us and we took a thousand of our own people with us, we left nobody behind, and we did all that in 18 hours smooth as silk, so the bottom line is this is a complete miscarriage of operational, moral, and legal authority, and i'm just going to say someone not only needs to be accountable in the long term, and also for the downstream effect on taiwan, on israel, and on eastern europe, and on other parts of the world where people begin to get more forward-lean ing because they think we're weak, but we need to get in and get our friends out of there now and i think the business about, i read this morning that the president said he hopes the taliban will

help. hope is not a strategy and hoping on a terrorist organization is about the worst strategy i can think of. neil: powerful stuff, robert charles. thank you very much for saying what you said, but more importantly, for your incredible service to this country, and your respect for something else, history. it has happened before, it is playing out right now, by the way, we are still learning a little bit more about that exodus from the airport here. the americans are ready now to process thousands of flights upwards of 6,000 maybe 7,000 per day leaving the country on the hour. they hope to avoid scenes like this where better than 600 people were crammed into a government jet but it's not easy it's not easy at all. that spin class was brutal. well, you can try using the buick's massaging seat. oh. yeah, that's nice. can i use apple carplay to put some music on? sure, it's wireless. what's your buick's wi-fi password? it's buick envision. that's a really tight spot. i used to hate parallel parking.

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to run a growing business, is to be on a journey. and along the ride, you'll have many questions. challenges. and a few surprises. but wherever you are on your journey. your dell technologies advisor is here for you - with the right tech solutions. so you can stop at nothing for your customers. neil: all right the call to get vaccinated is on, and it is spreading, and now to banks, charlie gasparino, with the latest on that, charlie? charlie: and banks wanting the

feds, the state, the city from what i understand, and neil , we should point out this is the new york city big banks, the jpmorgan, the morgan stanley, the goldman sachs, but you can see this across corporate america, because it often follows in corporate america what happens here on wall street, but they're waiting for some sort of mandate from the fed, from the state, from the city on vaccines before they put a full mandate on their workers for vaccines, so what's in the air at these firms or at least are being discussed is the need for a safe harbor. if deblasio, the mayor of new york city, bill deblasio, comes out tomorrow and says we want all office workers in new york city to be vaccinated, that relieves them of some legal liability, if they impose a strict mandate on their employee s and we're talking about tens of thousands of people here in new york city, and i think that's kind of where we're going. we're hearing that the firms are in contact with the mayor's office, and that the mayor' office, which did not return our

calls for comments, is at least thinking of some sort of a broad guideline that says listen, if you want to work in an office in new york city, you have to be vaccinated and that's when you'll see the jpmorgan, the goldman sachs, the morgan stanley, et cetera, impose very strict mandates on their workers what will be really interesting, neil, is i don't know if they are going to go here is if a worker says no i'm not going to get vaccinated, okay, you can't come to the office, okay, well then you get fired. are they going to go that far? i don't know, but they're clearly talking about mandating vaccines. that's being discussed right now they need the sort of backup from the government so they don't get sued because you can get sued on a lot of levels if you just mandate someone to get a vaccine apparently. at least that's what they are telling me so keep an eye on this , neil. this is just another twist in the whole covid return to office saga. a mandate that you got to get a vaccine and being backed up by the various levels of government so the firms don't get sued and

if it happens here, i guarantee it's going to go across corporate america. you'll see a split and see some places saying google, you can work-from-home until whenever. but if you're working at home depot maybe you've got to get vaccinated. neil back to you. neil: yeah just a matter of time it is spreading. charlie gasparino, thank you very very much. in the meantime, we keep talking about the president's debacle going on in afghanistan and how that spread not only a concern among other foreign leaders with whom he's been rapidly trying to touch base, and makeup for lost time but even support for some of those things he wants to lead , like an infrastructure package, separately that human infrastructure package, brendon arnold joins us the national taxpayer's union executive vice president. i would imagine you'd welcome an infrastructure package that falls apart. i know your organization had said that just the $1.2 trillion initiative on the part of the administration, the so-called bipartisan plan is a lot more costly and will add a

lot more to the debt than anyone has been figuring including the congressional budget office, so you would welcome that wouldn't you? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, the infrastructure bill adds in our calculations about $400 billion to the national debt at a time when we have trillions of dollars of red ink. it's absolutely fiscally irresponsible, they can address infrastructure, which is a high priority for this country, they can address it without running up the tab on future generations , but they failed to do so, so yeah, this collapses because of democratic in- fighting that's certainly fine with me. i think there's a better route forward for taxpayers that doesn't involve mountains and mountains of red ink. neil: i'm wondering and we've seen this before, when presidents slip in the polls or they are under pressure and certainly this president is dealing with that his approval rating dipped under 50% in two tracking polls. first time lows for this president, that this will extend to other areas.

what's your sense of where we go from here? >> i think that's certainly problematic from the biden administration's perspective, because right now, they've operated as if they have a mandate from the voters, those voters put them in the white house, gave democrats both houses of congress, but because those margins are very thin and because their popularity is starting to wane, not just of afghanistan but certainly because of the handl ing of covid there's a lot of in-fighting emerged. democrats in the house of representative for instance can't agree on the size of the package, they can't agree on the tax rate, they can't agree on whether mission should be included or excluded. they can't even agree on the sequencing of these big piece of legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure deal, and the larger budget reconciliation deal that supposedly is going to cost $3.5 trillion, a phenomenonal amount of money which is too small from the progressives perspective so there's a lot of opportunities for this entire package to fall apart, which be good news for taxpayers in my opinion. neil: you know, when the president was weighing in on

those 19 republicans who voted for the infrastructure-only package, he was more or less putting out, you know, the read that they're traders led by mitch mcconnell. president biden's bidding and then they will regret it. i don't quite know when he was saying that to maria bartiromo what he meant, but do you think president trump will play a more prominent role than might have earlier been the case, especially since what's happening in afghanistan? >> i'm not sure that he will to be honest. right now if pelosi put that bipartisan infrastructure deal on the floor of the house, and put it up for a vote it would pass easily. so i don't think even with republican deflections they have a problem there. the problem is because progressives have decided they want to do the bigger package first, because they're afraid if the smaller one passes it might take some wind out of their sales, they have a problem there , but if they're just doing a pure vote on the infrastructure deal, i think they have the votes, there will

be some republicans that support it and there will be the majority if not all democrat s that do so. the problem is they can't get their act together, because they have so many different priorities within their own conference. neil: yeah, it's a mess, but things change you never know, brendan arnold, we are waiting in fact 17 minutes we'll get the fed minutes this is from the july meeting that almost seems ancient because it was before afghanistan, before the slippery slide that we've been seeing in retail sales activity. the bumps along the way in housing activity, not all of the housing numbers, so the big issue that we want to get a hint of, when those minutes come out, is the federal reserve's appetite to sort of wind-down all of its purchases and the treasury notes and bonds, i think to the tune of about $120 billion each and every month, so it would not be, you know, so much tipped off here but they could be signaling what they might do in the future, and maybe sooner than you think. we're monitoring that.

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the united states tells you to get vaccinated, it's fair to say a good man it of you are not listening but what if the pope told you to do so, that it's better for you to get vaccinated than not, well apparently, he has so listen up here. the pope is saying getting the vaccines that are authorized by respective authorities is an act of love and helping a majority of people that do so is an act of love, for ones self, families and friends love for all people. love is also social and political, there are social and political love. it is universal, always over flowing with small individual gesture, capable of transforming and improving society. the pope's way of saying, if you don't get this vaccine, you're going to go to hell. he didn't say that, but it's one more guy pushing up the ante to make sure people across the globe are vaccinated. don't know if everyone is going to rush to that. they are already having a devil of a time responding the mask mandate, grady trimble though in the windy city of chicago, grady what's going on there? reporter: neil, the pope says get vaccinated, here in the windy city, mayor lori

lightfoot says wear a mask again ear if you are vaccinated and certainly some concern among business owners because this new mask mandate applies to a whole host of businesses including bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and gyms. pretty much any indoor public space, and it's for all individuals two years and older, as i said, regardless of your vaccination status. i've been talking to folks throughout the day here in chicago, and there are some mixed opinions as to whether this is the right decision or the wrong decision, but what pretty much everyone agrees on is that it feels like a step in the wrong direction. >> there's pros and cons. i totally get it. i get the safety aspect of it. >> i'm okay withe it's the right thing to do. i wish we didn't have to do this i thought a few months ago with the vaccines rolling out to everybody, that this be in the past. >> i think we may go back into another lockdown, that's what we're setting up for , so i'm

not a fan of it. reporter: some folks we talked to expressed frustration with people who aren't vaccinated, hoping that if the numbers were higher we wouldn't have to go back to wearing masks. nonetheless you'll also have to wear masks for quite a lot longer on planes, trains, and buses, as well, because the tsa is extending the mask mandate on all of those public transportation options. it was supposed to expire in september, now you'll have to wear a mask on all of them through january 18. neil? neil: all right, grady trimble thank you very very much. my next guest is not the pope, but very very influential when he has been recommending for quite sometime long before the pope, that people should get vaccinated and mark mcclella n, the former fda commissioner to bush 43 director for center center for health policy at duke university. mark good to have you. what the do you make of the pope 's plea that this is an act of love, forget about the controversies of whether you think it's a good idea or not, you're doing it for your fellow

man. >> well good to be back with you, and we now have more evidence than ever that the vaccines do help your fellow man, as you said, we're dealing with a tough new variant that the delta variant is much easier to transmit than the original virus, and we now have good evidence that for people who are vaccinated, there are breakthrough infections but they are relatively infrequent, and when they happen, they're less likely to cause transition, so one important reason to get vaccinated is to protect yourself. the other really important reason to get vaccinated is to protect those around you and i think the pope was expressing those sentiments very eloquently neil: let me switch gears a little bit, because while there is this rush to make sure people at least get vaccinated, now the move for booster shots, maybe it's soon available as next month, i think by september 20 that's the biden administration's goal. what do you think of that, the need for booster shots?

the need for a follow-up? >> we've been seeing evidence accumulate overtime that this was where we're headed, so the vaccine is very effective especially against the early versions of the virus, the alpha variant, and the original version. they're looking a little bit less effective against the delta variant in terms of people getting mild symptoms so very well-protected at least for now against hospitalizations, but that affect does seem to be declining overtime so the data has been coming together for a while and i think the u.s. government announcement today, the president will be talking about it this afternoon, is a reflection of that. if you got vaccinated recently, you are probably protected for a while, so this is only eight months after your second dose, and should be done first, probably for the people who are at highest risk so front line healthcare worker, people who are over 65, people with other medical conditions, so there's going to be time to deal with all of this , but it does seem

like an important and appropriate new development. neil: mark, president trump weighed in on this whole booster thing which seemed very cynical about it in an interview with our maria bartiromo saying that pfizer is profiteering on boost er shots and the whole thing to quote him "is just crazy." what does you make of that? >> well i think we've got to look at the evidence and that's why there's going to be an announcement this afternoon, that's why there's a meeting coming up in the coming week, by the experts, advising scientific experts, independent experts advising the center for disease control, but the evidence, as i said, is accumulating that the boosters will make a difference, and this is actually not new. this is a way that most vaccines work. you try to give a couple doses typically at least several months apart. we did two doses early on for this one, to have maximum immunity fast because so much covid was spreading in the united states, so this is

actually pretty typical, just because you're getting another booster shot in the coming months doesn't mean you're going to need one, every six months hereafter. this one should do a good job, that's what the data is showing in preventing further infection for a while. neil: so i guess what i'm asking is whether president trump did a disservice there, maybe not intentionally, because fans and supporters who say all right tumultuous isn't keen on this , i'm not keen i'm not going to >> yeah, i hope people actuallr questions answered. i've seen governors all across d response but they are all unified behind the importance of getting vaccinated and my hope is that we're going to see that same kind of unity going forward as all of the new evidence

that's coming out on the effectiveness of that makes its way into the planning that states are undertaking and the decisions that americans are making. neil: commissioner, always good seeing you. thank you for weighing in on all this breaking news on the covid front what have you. we'll have a lot more after this the dow down now 38 points here, having a much better day thus far than the craziness of, well actually the last few days, right? stay with us. over the years, mercedes-benz has patented thousands of safety innovations. crash-tested so many cars we've stopped counting. and built our most punishing test facility yet, in our effort to build the world's safest cars. we've created crumple zones and autonomous braking. active lane keeping assist and blind spot assist. we've introduced airbags, side curtain airbags, and now the first-ever rear-mounted front-impact airbags. all in the hope that you never need any of it.

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♪. neil: all right, the pope latest to say you better get your vaccine shot. do it for the good of mankind. some will say, all right, that the pope is recommending but what is charles payne saying? the choice between the pope, charles payne. you can follow either of their advice. here is charles. to you, sir. charles: thank you very much, my friend. good afternoon, everyone. i'm charles payne, this is "making money." breaking right now you can seal the anxiety in the air. it is palpable. the market is certainly less vulnerable. we have worries about the fed. just now releasing fomc minutes, worries about the delta variant. worried about the sagging internals in this market. by the way did someone mention the hindenburg? the fear-mongers are on their

soapbox.