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tv   Meet the Press  NBC  July 11, 2021 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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by december of that year, the taliban, had collapsed. and then on may 11th. and on thursday, president biden said 20 years was enough and he
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announced that the united states would complete its withdrawal from afghanistan by the end of the month. later, actually, than former president trump had planned. left behind, though is a resurging taliban and also left behind, the afghan translators and contractors. america's nation-building efforts, along with the hopes of establishing a greater level of freedom and more independence for women in that country. in fact, even as he announced the withdrawal, president biden admitted the mission hasn't failed yet. even if most americans forgot about this war, has richard engel reports from kabul, for those left behind, this war is still very real. >> the taliban are laughing it up in this video reposted by a police spokeman, and why not? d ? the taliban have taken control of most of afghanistan in weeks
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often after firing a shot. troops are sur ending handing over posts and weapons the taliban give each soldier the equivalent of $80 pocket money for the trip home. the united states spent more than $80 billion to train annie equip afghan security forces the return on investment so far is low. >> corruption is the main defense for some of the taliban. >> reporter: this member of parliament extremists have tried to kill her twice. >> i had a meeting yesterday who tried to run away. they were steeling me stories because there was no food for them. >> reporter: when we visit the air base it was empty, i was able to bike down the runway no one even asked what i was doing. the soldiers seemed almost unaware there is a war going on.
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but two units are fighting afghanistan small air force and the commandos on a mission i saw them on the attack advancing into gun fight but there are just 30,000 commandos up against around three times as many taliban. the commandos are doing 90% of the fighting so perhaps no one is holding afghanistan together more than the commando's general. >> everyone was relying on our american colleagues and friends hereinaf here in afghanistan. we will learn to fight this fight. >> reporter: what about extreme fighters, terrorists we are starting to understand they are starting to come back in zbin. are you seeing evidence of that? >> we are. you may have been tracking just in the last month we have killed
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dozens of al qaeda in different parts of the country. >> reporter: do you think afghanistan could once again be a spring board for international terrorism? >> even worse than 911, i'm telling you. because over the past 20 years, you are the main enemy now why do you think you will be safe why do you think you'll be protected? you have killed people in afghanistan. >> reporter: the threat afghans face are more immediate, especially women who flock to schools and take up careers denied by the taliban. and no one is at more risk than the thousands of contractors and interpreters that work for u.s. troops men like tom that americans called him is now in hiding. >> if i stay here i will be killed. >> reporter: tom worked for the u.s. military two years and five
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months he has numerous letters of recommendation including from his former commander. >> i trusted tom 100%. as things deteriorate he has a legitimate reason to fear for his life. >> and richard engel joins me now live from kabul. before we get into the debate should we stay or going, how we are leaving looks very haphazard and rushed we don't seem to have a plan in place yet how we'll deal with the translators. that's what it looks like from here is that what it looks like to you? >> reporter: very much so. the translator tom, just as an example, it took us 45 minutes to connect with his former company commander. and he has been waiting for his visa for four years. so it's been very organized to et go the troops out of here, to make sure they are evacuated safely but in terms of a plan and dealing with all the people who worked with us, that seems very,
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as you said, haphazard, and could be done better. >> all right let's talk about the larger debate here, which is, and we may not know the answer to this debate for 20 years let alone 20 days or months and that is, are we going to see history repeat itself as the taliban takes over afghanistan will it be a safe haven for reconstituted al qaeda or islamic state? >> reporter: many senior analysts, military officials in this country and beyond believe that's what's going to happen because of the vic vital a ban has been given right here. they achieved what isis couldn't they were able to achieve a victory over the united states and establish a new safe haven for islamic extremists and that is drawing them in but just a few minutes ago before coming here i was speaking to the former senior adviser, national security adviser for the ex taliban
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leader, and he assured me it won't happen that the taliban learned a lesson from hosting al qaeda ke won't be a spring board for international terrorism. they will bring islamic law here and tradition but focus on afghanistan not causing problems for the rest of the world. the question is do you believe that and can they control it? >> let me ask you this about bagram air base. what's the more likely future, that the taliban controls it, that u.s. controls it, or some day we'll have to attack something we built because our enemies are somehow using it. >> reporter: well, the big factor of bagram right now there are thousands of taliban prisoners and others inside. some of them top leaders from the taliban.
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and military officials have told me they are concerned because the power is out, base defenses are disrupted, and if the taliban tried to liberate their prisoners, and they are already in other towns and cities tried to liberate their prisoners, if they were able to free those, and anywhere from 5 to 10,000 prisoners inside, if they were able to free them, bagram is on the door steps of kabul, could become a tipping point and based on what i saw it's very vulnerable. so afghans think it's possible bagram could become a target because of those prisoners then will the u.s. have to attack it? watch it happen? come back? they'll be some very tough decisions that will have to be made in realtime if that happens. >> all right richard engel on the ground in kabul for us as he always is in these unsafe and unstable places richard, thank you. >> reporter: sure. >> all right joining me now is democratic senator of rhode island chair of
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the services welcome back to "meet the press. i do want to make a note a lot of you were going to see jake sullivan here. the white house told us yesterday he would be unable to appear for personal reasons. senator reed is the current head line in the economist. america's longest war is ending in crushing defeat it's a pretty rough head line. do you agree with it >> it's not accurate the purpose that we went into afghanistan for was to degrade and disrupt al qaeda to limit their ability to project attacks outside of afghanistan to a great degree we've done that the job is not over. this is not a closure. this is a transition we have to maintain continual involvement, both with the afghan government, by supporting them financially, also providing the kind of technical assistance they need for their air
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importance and other elements. but i think the president was presented with a bad series of choices. the trump administration had said we were leaving by may 1st. the taliban had no real responsibilities in that agreement, none that they carried out that i can see, yet that date would have prompted incredible increase of violence directed towards the united states so i think the president made a difficult but the best of many poor choices. >> you know, after your i believe it may have been your first trip to afghanistan in 2002, you said, you reassured the leadership at the time, of afghanistan, that america was going to be involved for the long haul. there was this constant fear among afghan reformists that whatever we did, we were going to leave well, isn't that what's happening? aren't their greatest fears
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being realized didn't you basically, is that an empty promise that was made? we have now turned tail? >> no, i think some of the facts is that we have to consider is that in 2002, we were prepared, and we had a situation, we had to destroy the taliban one of the critical strategic mistakes was the pivot to iraq, which i opposed, and one reason i opposed icy thought it would eventually lead to compromising our resources and attention to afghanistan. and it did we tried to resuscitate that approach to afghanistan over several surges, they have not been successful. and 20 years of effort and thousands of american lives i don't think represents a shallow promise in 2002. >> let me ask you this, had president biden decided that, you know, because there was this debate are we at war or not at war? but some thought of a
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stabilizing force, not similar to japan or germany. would there have been support in congress for stable ilizing for at bagram for an indeterminate amount of time >> perhaps but i don't think there was overwhelming sense in congress that we should say i think their reaction to the departure has been one of generally acceptance i think the other factor that should be considered is as long as the taliban had a safe haven, which they do in pakistan, they would continue to flow in, put pressure on, we can hold them perhaps a day, but i think at this juncture the president decided any type of increase enforce is an increase in presence would be long term
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ineffective. and particularly in the taliban continues to gain strength. >> i want to show the taliban strength here. we have this map courtesy of the defense of democracy their long war journal and here in the dark red are where taliban control things as of april 13th. watch how this only gets reader as you see here. it gets reader and reader. gray area is what is controlled by afghan security forces. and the pink, by the way, is contested. the point is the taliban have control over half the territory. do you think kabul will hold >> i think kabul will hold the question is can it hold long enough to create a political solution between the sides what you've seen is the encroachment of the taliban most
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of that without military action, most of it is persuading and pay tg off the local leadership and they have been preparing for that for man this is an nbc news special report. here's willie geist. >> good morning. i am willie geist in new york. we are coming on the air with the launch of the new era in space travel. 70-year-old billionaire richard branson is about to rocket 50 miles above earth, and they will experience weightlessness before returning and landing on a runway in a new mexico desert. it is hanging below the mothership and then will be
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released. he's making the trip a week and a half ahead of the world's richest man, jeff bezos, that plans to do it on his own ship. tom, an extraordinary day. what are we seeing right now? >> reporter: at this very moment we are right at the point where we expect that richard branson's spaceship, "unity," will detach from eve, the mothership, named after his own mother. we are getting a live feed from vergin galactic. it's their own broadcast production. we are watching closely. in a moment, that feed would suggest that they are still, in fact, attached. when they do detach, branson and the others onboard will rocket
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at a very accelerated mach 3. the bottom line is to try and achieve the goal of 50 miles to 56 miles above the earth and that would put them very comfortably in what nasa and the military calls the edge of space, or into space. as you know, there has been a back and forth, some of the bezos' team suggested, that's not high enough for space, and be the blue origin will go to space and branson won't be. does it matter? the faa and nasa acknowledged it's impact space. it all comes down to this right here as we await this moment when it detaches and rockets to the edge of space. >> when we talk about what we are about to see where they
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rocket to space, and i think the best way to describe the for a layman, it's like a roller coaster at six flags, it's a steep climb and then straight down. what does that feel like for the people onboard? >> it's the curve at the tpaup, right, where you experience the weightlessness. you get 20 seconds of weightless, and guys, i'm watching right right now. let's watch the feed right now. a critical moment is approaching. they have not -- here we go. >> these days, more and more systems are becoming automated.
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what is exciting about the vergin galactic spaceflight system is they are hands on throughout the flight. >> we are looking where the pilots talked about detaching. 46,000 feet, and that's about the level we expect them to detach. you will hear the pilots all the way down to l-1, and that's where they detach and drop. we are just now hearing five minutes away from detachment. this has been a little bit of a moving target because we don't have a typical nasa mission control which is giving us minute or second-by-second updates. we are flying by the seat of our pants. but look inside the spaceship as they prepare to detach, probably 4:30 minutes away or so at an
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altitude they talked about. >> yeah, they are hitting a spot ahead of them. to orient our viewers, tom, that's the mothership "eve," and attached under the ship is the "unity." how calm everybody looks? looks like they are catching the shuttle from d.c. to laguardia. really something to watch. >> reporter: spectacular view. i just heard them say we have now gone through l-4. that means they have gone from number 10 on the checklist to 4, and seeking clearance for release. as you can see, they are at 46,000 feet. literally, playing this by ear, guys. none of us have seen this before with passengers onboard. we will listen to vergin galactic's mission control here.
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>> various departments and disciplines within the country, and they are verifying checks along the way. >> we are three minutes out from release at this point. it's getting really exciting. i don't know about you, i can feel anticipation just watching the screen. look, they have big smiles on. we are 2:30 out -- >> let's bring in a former nasa astronaut, the current senior adviser for space programs at the intrepid space museum in new york. good morning. it's great to have you with us. mike, as tom said, this is not something we have seen before, even those of you who have been
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to orbital space. >> thank you for having me on. it's a very historic day, and a lot of work has gone into this, and a lot of work needs to be done during the flight and it's a very exciting day for everybody involves. >> colonel, you have four space walks under your belt. what do you imagine these passengers are feeling right now? >> it's probably a mixed bag. certainly excitement and probably butterflies in there. i think they are well aware this is a life-changing moment for them, and hopefully they are savoring it. >> what do you think they are about to experience, the calm before the moment when they
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release from the mothership and begin the rocket ride. that will happen very quickly. what is that sensation? there are not many people that can speak to it on earth and you are one of them. >> they will experience g force with the acceleration, and they are going to be going really fast and get there really fast, and then they are going to be going from being pushed back into the seat from the force, to being weightless instantly, and that's the moment when they realize their dream had just come true, and they are weightless and in space. the most amazing thing will be the view out the window, and they will watch the sky turn blue from black, and it will be incredible. >> colonel, we are about to see the separation. tom costello, let's go back to you. we are seconds away from the moment. let's watch. >> reporter: release, release,
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release, right now. >> there's mach 1, trimming now. trim complete. "unity" is facing up and we are 30 seconds to mach 2. everything is looking really good and stable. 40 seconds. 45 seconds. 50 seconds. approaching mach 3. there's mach 3. 60 seconds, and that is a full burn, folks.
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we are headed to space. the passengers in the back have been cleared to untrap. 279,000 feet and climbing. >> reporter: so this is it. this is where they should be experiencing weightlessness for about three to four minutes. we expect to have a live shot from within the spaceship. they will start feathering the wings back so they can start the very slow process of re-entering. as we have said, you know, this is a critical moment, as they enjoy those few moments of weightlessness. once they cross the boundary to space, richard branson will be speaking and we expect him to make some sort of major
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announcement from space. i'm l they have been working on for 17 years building up to this moment, and the hope is paying passengers will be coming soon. >> tom, as we wait for the images inside the spacecraft of that weightlessness, and i think back to the interview you did with richard branson where he said i have been dreaming about this day since i was a kid since 1969, i started to dream of this moment. >> reporter: yeah, and i think they just said 280,000 feet right now. you know, it's funny, willie, that's one of my earliest memories. i was six years old and my dad woke me up at 11:00 at night, and he said don't forget this
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moment, the astronauts are walking on the moon. and the same affect it had on richard branson. everybody was watching from planet earth on that day. this is a culmination of his dreams, of him taking his own spaceflight, not to the space station or moon, but an altitude of -- there we go. we have pictures on the inside. assuming the technology works and they can get the live shot -- >> tom, we have been using the term feathering here and university climbs and lands. what does that mean, exactly? what are we watching here? >> reporter: the bottom line here is they -- i may even defer to the expert in terms of mike, because you have a fellow pilot right there and astronaut in terms of how this works, because it's a delicate procedure as
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they feather the wings back for re-entry. >> mike, what does that mean to feather as they return here and land shortly on a runway in new mexico? >> it's interesting technology they are using here, they are combining the aspects of a capsule re-entry which is fairly safe, and they will form inline with the spacecraft, and then they can deploy them again for the landing. it's a capital re-entry along with a shuttle landing on the runway, so a cool way to do it. >> colonel, you flew f-16s in the air force. >> yeah, i did. mike explained that well.
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they are getting the best of the aerodynamics of the capsule and also of an aircraft. >> reporter: i was going to make the point, yeah, this is a glider coming back not unlike the space shuttle. they have a massive runway in new mexico that they can come right back to. not much in the way of a go around opportunity here, so they have to come in and hit the landing right on the money. as we said before, they have a veteran chief pilot in charge, a veteran of the royal air force and he has been a virgin test pilot for years. a spectacular view. the curvature of the earth, which your guests have seen firsthand, and now typical -- virgin employees, but typical americans are able to experience it firsthand. that's the point here.
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we are told the wings are, in fact, locked, and it's a glider inbound in glider formation, allowing them to come into the port here. >> passengers have taken their seats again and they are strapped in. let's bring in our correspondent. steph, this is a man, richard branson, who tried to circle the globe this a hot air balloon, and it was an ill-fated trip, and he got there on his second trip crossing the atlantic. this is the second frontier for richard branson? >> without a doubt. he has broken records for kite boarding. whether you are talking about richard branson or jeff bezos or elon musk, they have achieved
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all sorts of success, betting on themselves and their own brands. if there's one thing richard branson is known for and fantastic at is branding. look at today. you saw that launch, boom, vergin galactic, we are watching this on his own network. this is going to be the first push into commercial space travel, and there will be room for richard branson or jeff bezos, and there's bickering if branson is really making it into space, and bezos says he's not, but for people who are home watching this, he's in outer space. he's fulfilling his dream to be the first one out there. >> yeah, steph, there was a picture, by the way, posted this morning by richard branson having breakfast with none other than elon musk when he left to
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take his flight. is this really another step forward? is this the step towards commercial space travel, for at which point it goes for a pop, and are they bringing it to the people or are they joy rides for billionaires? >> the plan is to bring it to the people, but what people? it's the richest of the richest. the richest of the people have gotten a whole lot richer so they can certainly afford it. they are betting on themselves -- >> steph, i will interrupt you. richard branson is speaking. let's listen. >> now, i'm looking down at our beautiful space port. congratulations to everybody for creating such a beautiful day, congratulations -- 17 years of hard work.
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>> richard branson thanks everybody who made that mission possible, admiring the view. steph, i will let you pick it back up. >> luxury and extreme travel sl what richard branson does by profession. the goal is now how do we move into commercial high-end travel? if this mission is successful, and jeff bays bezos is successful. branson's effort is more of a plane, and bezos is truly the
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rocket experience. if you ask if they are going to bring it to the people? it's a small, small sliver of the most richest people. >> yeah, they hope sometime down the road to change that. tom costello, as we approach altitudes that we humans can relate to at 19,000 feet, what happens next at vergin galactic? >> reporter: just a few minutes ago, we heard the twin sonic booms here, and they are coming back in glider formation. we expect them to be on the ground within a few minutes. you can imagine if you are coming in in a 737, and you can think about your glide slope, but this is going to be a lot quicker than that.
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they wanted to prove that this technology is here and now and not only for the justin bieber's and tom hanks who spent a lot of money buying these tickets, and 700 tickets already, but this is going to be accessible for everybody eventually, at least that is their hope as they bring down the price. i will tell you we have seven land rovers on the tarmac standing by, and the fire department is standing by, just in case, and by the way, a fire department dedicated only to the space station port, so they don't get a lot of action, and this is their sole customer right now, but what a spectacular view when they come into space port america. remember that name, willie. this is going to be a name and something we are going to be hearing about increasingly over the years as this becomes more and more of a common occurrence,
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and just hearing the voice on the ground, which is right in front of the sun overhead of us, and i don't see it but you are getting a better view on tv with the long-range telescopic ranges. >> do you see -- >> reporter: he's right over the top of us, willie. right over the top. if you didn't know better, you would think you are looking at a particular passenger lane with a com trail behind it. we should note that they had a spotter plane shortly after they lifted off, and by the way, we now see the mother ship --
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yeah,i think we see "unity" in the lead here, and the mothership trailing it, and they are coming in a heck of a lot faster than the mother ship can. "unity," looks like it has the lead, and it's looking like it's making a big arc and coming in down for landing. boy, it's moving fast. it's really buzzing along. >> mike, what does it feel like on the human body to go through what that crew of six just went through? two pilots, four passengers. as we see the internal cameras, all smiles and it appears everybody is doing well. what does it feel like, though, on your body to go through that? >> they are feeling great right now, just out of pure joy i would imagine. they probably pulled some gs going up to space, and they were weightless for a while, so you
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are floating there, and so your sense of motion is a little distorted and you come back up and the g forces build up again, and they probably have pure joy, and just the excitement and the happiness they are experiencing right now is the overriding feeling. >> tom costello, looks like we have a clean and safe touchdown landing on that runway? >> could not be more perfect on this beautiful day in new mexico. the only delay was it left 1:45 late, because of the winds on the ground and delayed the fueling, and other than that it seems to have gone flawlessly from the moment they lifted off through lighting the rocket and accelerating to 56 miles or so
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above the earth. i will be interested to see what number they hit at 56 miles above the earth. nasa and the pentagon have yet to recognize 50 miles as the edge of space. full stop on the runway here at space port america. >> what an external moment. next week jeff bezos and blue origin get their turn in a different ship, a rocket. and elon musk and spacex are working on their own orittal space trip. what does this mean for the possibilities in the future? >> i think it's a historic mow many. the first historic moments to come are baby steps to opening up space for everybody. stephanie talked about how right now it's just for the billionaires, but it's reminiscent of the days of early aviation, where it was a rare
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occurrence where somebody flew in an airplane. i know it was the dawning of flying from point a to point b on planet, where during a flight you are up above the atmosphere. i think it's a historic moment and all of these steps are leading to that. when you bring in the price scale coming down, it will be feasible for more people. >> an exciting morning. thank you all for being with us. this has been nbc's special coverage of the vergin galactic spaceflight. the coverage continues on msnbc and more tonig, is it not? afl- be on the same page.
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does that help >> i think we have to see. the chamber of commerce is in a different spot than in the past. the bottom line is republican and democratic senators are looking to see what mitch mcconnell is going to do, whether he's going to say to his caucus, to his conference, it's fine if you vote for it. mcconnell's people will dispute that they say he'll just stand back and listen, the whole conference will decide. i think that's the underlying dynamic. the one thing that can save it, chuck, if republicans decide politically the better thing to do is let this go through, claim victory and beat democrats up on the big reconciliation package. >> as long as trump is playing the role he's playing, mcconnell has no choice but to let this deal go through. when we come back, why it's getting harder and harder to deny climate change wherever you live now live now ayitus my dvt blood clot left me with questions... was another around the corner?
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record-breaking year in terms of extreme weather events politicians in washington and state capitols, they're going to be forced to start debating the existence of climate change. they're going to have to start dealing with it. it is here let's start with hurricanes. this is the earliest we've ever hit the es in the atlantic side ever, okay by the way, when we run out of letters of the alphabet on storms, we use the greek alphabet we're using the greek alphabets for covid variants, too. things could get very confusing by the end of this calendar year heat wave in the northwest look at the records in portsmouth, salem. it's turned deadly in these places, 30 deaths in washington state. a whopping 116 so far in oregon. this is not just confined to the united states. remember, it is winter down in
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new zealand. this is their hottest june ever. hong kong, hottest may ever. again, we're seeing this as a global issue then, of course, let's not forget what happened in texas and what happened, that winter storm that basically almost shut down their power grid. led to 150 deaths, most expensive winter storms ever, over $150 billion. this issue of climate change, it's here. we're dealing with it. politicians have to deal with it, and this aftermath is something that we're only starting to see. when we come back, author and senate candidate j.d. vance was against trz. so many republicans like him so many republicans like him have decided to suck iupnd ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪
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we should do the kitchen next! oh, yeah, we found where the pros go. now, we're unstoppable. explore floor and decor in person or online at flooranddecor.com welcome back as we said, we want to focus on the republican side of things. al, this is fascinating. j.d. vance, the author of "hil "hillbillyilogy," a pretty high profile trump critic as we's wanting to be an ohio senate candidate, here is how he put it
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trump is the leader of this movement if i care about these people and the things i say i care about, i need to suck it up and support him. circumstance months and five days after january 6th, after lindsey graham said enough is enough, i'm off this train where has the republican party gone at what point, that now you have to suck it up and deal with this trumpism >> there's a winning at all costs commitment, i believe, to get through 2022 j.d. vance personifies it. when you watch something on tv, it hits you different ln than when you have a personal conversation i've had personal conversations with j.d. vance along with mitt romney so this is particularly shocking to me. after you talk personally to somebody about what their values are and how they feel about something, and now this is it -- >> the j.d. vance you met personally is a different person than the one we're seeing? >> without a doubt. >> the j.d. vance you could have
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heard talk two years ago, he went to yale law school. the second effort has been prevailing in the republican party for the last five years. what is the line what's the hurt in humoring him for a little bit longer? this is essentially cover your eyes and hope for the best in 2022 >> the big difference here, though, in making decisions now, is they've seen what happened for the four years of donald trump being in office and they saw what happened on january 6th. this has all unfolded after the riot on the capitol. in the beginning, yes, we had so many republicans saying i'm going to keep my head down, try not to rock the boat so i can continue to have some influence, we got that sort of in the beginning, maybe, let's see. we saw how it works. the answer is it didn't. >> the beast is growing. look what happened in oklahoma. >> oklahoma! >> look what's happening in texas.
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the beast is growing the beast is not satisfied with just that premise. the beast wants more and i, to this point, don't know where the beast is going it's unheard of that an abbott would be challenged from the right, that a langford would be castigated by a party chairman these things i'm seeing are just unheard of. >> we spent a segment debating the progressives and pragmatists in the democratic party. there should be a debate there's not a debate on the republican side. he brought up greg abbott. yet, he's the moderate now compared to alan west. >> he's hardly a moderate. look what he's doing in texas. >> he thinks he has to do that. >> he has to, but i also don't think he has a problem with it >> they are looking for the wedge issues which they think will drive out their base. the democratic party, we did
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just talk about progressives versus moderates, whether eric adams is the new face of the democratic party i don't necessarily agree with that but the democratic party is a big-tent party that's not true for republicans. al, as you said, that kbeeft is growing. that beast has taken over the republican party j.d. vance, although he is a complete phony, he is voicing -- giving voice to what every republican is thinking right now, that i do have to suck this up there's not enough republicans who have the courage to stand up >> the state party chair in alaska, mark leibovich is against the republican incumbent. the state party today is challenging the challenger donald trump has taken over these state parties. the elected leadership has apparently no way to stop it >> look, they are absolutely playing to that base
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the question is are they going to lose a republican primary in that's states? probably not. >> are you sure? >> no, i'm not i'm not in oklahoma. but i also think you're right. these are , very substantial voices in the party. what if you're lisa murkowski right now. you're up in two years you have all this friction coming from the right, from trump himself who is going to probably campaign. i don't know how you do this i think at some point this is not new york and eric adams, this is not suburban virginia where you have people voting for where you think the critical mass is. these are people who could not win elections because of it. >> there seems to be fear to call this out. mitch mcconnell, kasie hunt, when on tv and said he was, quote, perplexed by the reluctance of some to get vaccinated apparently he hasn't turned on fox lately
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the amount of them passing on misinformation that's leading to the death of people. it's astonishing that this is happening. but i don't think we should be perplexed. >> no. i don't think we should be perplexed. however, i think mcconnell is speaking from a personal perspective when he said that because he suffered from polio as a child and has been, to his credit, one of the republicans out there the most saying you need to get vaccinated you're right the media ecosystem that travels through facebook -- pinterest has had a problem with anti vax. it's another example of how the republican -- the trump ecosystem is talking to itself in a way that is separating it so far away from the big tent that is kind of the rest of america. that tent would include liz cheney, adam kinzinger, who you just spoke with. these people really don't have a home they don't have a place anymore.
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i think that's really where the danger lies going forward. >> al, this misinformation, this is in english and spanish in south florida now. >> yeah, it sure is. it's caught on in south florida. i imagine it's going to catch up in other places. to back up kasie, there's a direct relationship between the percentage of people voting for donald trump and the percentage of people vaccinated in those states throughout america. now we have 90-some percent of people hospitalized with covid because they didn't vaccinate. it's bad for america we need to do something about this. >> miss informers have blood on their hands. that's all we have for today thank you for watching enjoy the olympics let's go team usa. remember, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press.
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