this sunday, the fourth wave. >> the rate of increase that we've seen over the last two weeks is staggering. >> covid racing through the country at rates not seen since mid winter. >> if you're not vaccinated, you will get covid at some point in time, and the only question will be how sick you will become. president biden calls out texas and florida governors for opposing measures like mask mandates. >> if you're not going to help, at least get out of the way of people trying to do the right

thing. >> prompting push back. >> why don't you get this border secure, and until you do, i don't want to hear a blip about covid from you. plus, as schools reopen -- >> i did not want to go to school -- >> the debate grows over masking children. and over possible vaccine mandates for teachers. my guests this morning, dr. anthony fauci and the head of the country's most powerful teachers union, randi weingarten. andrew cuomo facing impeach. >> governor cuomo sexually harassed multiple women by engaging in unwanted groping, kisses, hugging and by making inappropriate comments. the new york governor denies the allegations, but his fellow democrats say it's time for him to go. >> are you now calling on him to resign? >> yes. joining me are amy walter, editor and chief and publisher of the cook political report,

jake sherman co-founder of the punchbowl website, donna edwards, and former white house political director for george bush, sara fagen. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. it's nice to be back after a few weeks away. i hope you've enjoyed the olympics. i know i've enjoyed watching team usa do pretty well. we return with the country facing two compounding challenges, the delta variant and polarization. delta is burning through the country creating a growing but sadly preventable fourth wave of covid infections. the seven-day average of the number of new confirmed cases has soared to nearly 118,000. this is the highest we've had it since february. while vaccination rates are rising again and 50% of the

country has been fully vaccinated, this is now largely a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and that's a direct result of the political polarization i was referring to. vaccination hesitancy or just plain opposition is infected by politics. check this out. nbc news has found that the 20 states with the highest rates of vaccinations, they all voted for president biden. 18 of the 21 states with the lowest rates all voted for president trump. need we say more? nevertheless, the wave is taking its toll on president biden. he's the president of all the states. in a new cnbc poll approval of mr. biden's handling of the coronavirus is sitting at 53%. that's down from 62% in april when cases were falling dramatically. the president's overall approval rating is holding steady at 48%, still higher than president trump ever was during his four years. the irony that the unvaccinated, who sparked this surge, never supported mr. biden in the first

place is not lost on this white house. but, as mr. biden is learning, whether he likes it or not, as covid goes, so goes his presidency. >> this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. we have to get more people vaccinated. >> with cases speaking in 38 states and up in all 50, the delta variant is driving a surge of hospitalizations and deaths, ripping through the southern united states. >> if florida and louisiana were countries and not states, they would be number one and two in the world for the incidents of covid. >> we're admitting one covid patient per 45 minutes. >> we're back to square one. that's why i'm frustrated. >> 16 states have banned vaccine mandates in some form. eight have banned mask mandates in schools, as cases in children and teens are on the rise. president biden's whose presidency rests on his covid response expresses frustration.

>> i say to these governors, please help. if you're no going to help, please get out of the way. >> florida governor fired back as new cases hit an all-time high. >> we can either have a free society or we can have a biomedical security state. i can tell you, florida, we're a free state. >> many public officials frustrated by deja vu are are beginning to point fingers. >> time to blame the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. >> you've lost your minds. you the ultimate knuckleheads. >> vaccination rates are up in some of the hardest hit states. for those who remain unvaccinated, just 37% says delta has prompted them to wear masks. >> never been vaccinated. i think a lot of it is bs. that's my feelings. >> we truly have two ohios, one group of people who are safe, one who are not. >> this weekend an estimated 700,000 are gathering in

sturgis, south dakota, for a motorcycle rally which became a super spreader event last year. seeking to combat a rising tide of misinformation -- >> what's in the vaccine? give me the insert sheet. >> -- some republican officials are shifting their tone. >> we're going to be living with people dying if we do not increase our vaccination rate, so i still -- >> while a growing number of companies institute vaccine environments for employees and states and cities begin to consider them, too. >> i think we need to get all hands on deck informing people how important this is, but i don't think we can sell a mandate in montana. >> hospital rates among the vaccinated remain low, but worries over a rising number of break through cases prompted another message. two weeks ago. >> if you're vaccinated, you have exceptional levels of protection from that vaccine, you may choose to add another layer by putting on your mask. that's a very individual choice. >> days later cdc recommended

vaccinated people wear masks indoors in nearly 90% of the country. >> those people can now with the more transmissible delta variant transmit to other people. >> joining me now is dr. anthony foucher, the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. dr. fauci, welcome back to "meet the press." it feels like deja vu all over again, sir. >> it sure does, chuck. it sure does. this is a very difficult situation, and you described it very well. >> let me start with the cdc guidance and a bit of that confusion. i know it's easy to backseat drive right now with delta. you were concerned about delta in june. obviously the w.h.o. was concerned about it in may. and yet here you -- in late june you were saying you feared this was going to be the dominant strain and perhaps become a problem within a month. here we are. but in that intervening days, there's been a ton of confusion about the cdc ability when should we wear masks for the

vaccinated, how transmissible is delta among the vaccinated. some of this has contributed i think to the frustration that we see out there today. can we try to clear some of this up? how dangerous is this delta variant for the vaccinated and the unvaccinated? >> well, it's extremely dangerous for the unvaccinated, because if they get infected and if they stay unvaccinated and don't wear masks, ultimately they'll wind up getting infected. that's what we're concerned about. it is, as we said, a pandemic of the unvaccinated. if you're vaccinated, you or very well protected against getting infected. since no vaccine is 100% protective, there will be what we call breakthrough infections. that's the bad news. the good news is almost invariably that will be an infection that is either without symptoms or minimally symptomatic, which means the

vaccine still protects extremely well against severe disease leading to hospitalization and deaths, but the interesting and unfortunate thing that we found out that gets to the mask issue is this virus is so easily transmissible that, if a vaccinated gets a -- which will happen, chuck. you can expect that, because no vaccine is 100% effective. back when we were dealing with the alpha variant, the level of virus was very low in the nasopharynx if they got infected. now we're finding the level of virus is really quite high which means, one of the bad things about this, even though you're protected from getting severe disease, if you're infeked, you can transmit it to someone else even if you're vaccinated. that's the fundamental basis of now saying people should be wearing masks in indoor public places when you're in a region that has a high level of

infection. >> how much of this cdc guidance changes has come from the fact that we're not doing enough surveillance? are we doing enough testing of the vaccinated? it seems now some people wish we had been -- instead of doing what we had in provincetown, that maybe we should have more testing of the vaccinated so we can know more about these breakthrough cases. do you have enough information as a scientist to know what these breakthrough cases are doing to people? >> previously we didn't. we have to admit that. early on it was to give testing to people who were in contact with people who were infected or symptomatic. we know now from experience here and other countries that you will have people who are asymptomatic who get into contact with an asymptomatic person who is infected, and you know there will be more infections that other ways would have gone undetegted.

you're quite right, we need to do more testing. >> let's go with what the next month is going to look like. you seem to have a dire picture. you expect -- we're at 118,000 cases today, the seven-day average. you're expecting it to hit 200. our peak was 256 according to our data. this is pre vaccine. this seems to be not only are we back to square one, but where does this lead us for the next three months? are we going to have an even worse fall and winter? zblt well, chuck, there are two really serious aspects about this. as we've said all along, this is fundamentally an outbreak, a pandemic among the unvaccinated. that's proven true. you said that in the lead-in to the show. no doubt about that. one of the problems of that is, you don't want people to get sick and get hospitalized and to die. that is actually happening now

predominantly, overwhelmingly predominantly among the unvaccinated. there's another aspect to that that concerns us in the public health sector when you have the dynamics of virus that continues to have the virus circulate in the community, as we're seeing mostly in unvaccinated parts of the country, usually the southern states, as you mentioned. what happens if you allow the virus to freely circulate, there's a tenet that everybody knows in virology, a virus will not mutate unless you allow it to replicate. if you allow the virus to freely circulate and not try and stop it, sooner or later there is a likelihood that you will get another variant that could -- i'm not saying it will -- that could be more problematic than the delta. fortunately for us, the vaccines do quite well against delta, particularly in protecting you from severe disease.

if you give the virus a chance to continue to change, you're leading to a vulnerability that we might get a worse variant. then that will impact not only the unvaccinated, that will impact the vaccinated. that variant could evade the protection of the vaccine. so people who are unvaccinated should think about their own health, that of their family, but also the community responsibility to crush this virus before it becomes even worse. >> you've brought up regionally the south. out in the plains, the great plains, sturgis, south dakota, a gathering now of some 700,000 people. last year it was a smaller turnout and it was over about 150,000 people, and it led to a massive outbreak in the dakotas where they became number one and number two for essentially the rest of the calendar year of cases. what do you expect this rally to do to that part of the country?

>> i'm very concerned we're going to see another surge related to that rally. to me it's understandable that people want to do the kind of things they want to do. they want their freedom to do that, but there comes a time when you're dealing with the public health crisis that could involve you, your family and everyone else, that something super seeds that need to do what you need to do. you're going to be able to do that in the future, but let's get this pandemic under control before we start acting like nothing is going on. something bad is going on. we've got to realize that. >> vaccine mandates. we know the government isn't going to do vaccine mandates, but are you going to attempt to create the conditions to allow private businesses and other entities to do vaccine mandates?

is that sort of the next phase of what the federal response can do? >> absolutely, chuck. as you know, and i've said it several times on your show, you're not going to see a federally -- from the federal government mandating vaccines from the country. i'm almost certain -- in fact, i am certain, that as soon as the fda fully approves the vaccines -- >> i don't mean to interrupt. but when is that? >> you know, chuck, no one wants to get ahead of the fda because they're an independent group that makes their decisions. that's good in many respects because there will never be any concern that we're influencing that. i hope -- i don't predict, but i hope it will be within the next few weeks. i hope it's within the month of august. if that's the case, you're going to see the empowerment of local enterprises giving mandates.

that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety. i certainly support that. the time has come, as we have to go the extra step, to get people vaccinated. you want to persuade them and that's good. i believe some people on their own, once it gets approved with full approval, will get vaccinated. for those who do not want, i believe mandates at the local level need to be done. >> i want to go through a couple of myths that are out there about the virus. first of all -- and this is among people that don't want to get vaccinated. i want to play some sound for you of some folks explaining why they haven't gotten vaccinated. take a listen. >> no, i have not been vaccinated. i have had covid as he had last winter. >> i had it. >> i had it already. i kicked its butt. >> that seems to be -- i've heard this from friends and

family in my circle. i've had covid, i don't need the vaccine yet. what do you say? >> there have been recent studies that clearly show that, if you've had covid, you might be protected for a while against the original virus that you were infected with, but when variants come along, you are vulnerable -- there was a study that came out within this past week that showed, if you are infected, recover and get one shot of the vaccine, your protection doubles what it would be if you got two shots of the vaccine and were not infected. so it is a major advantage for people who have been infected and recovered to really strongly protect them against getting reinfected with a new variant. that's the reason why we strongly recommend that, even if you have been infected, that you get vaccinated. >> let me get another myth, and we've heard this from some health care workers who are being resistant to getting the

vaccine, well, i wear a mask and i keep myself healthy. i use all the sanitation that there is and i'm very careful, i don't need to get vaccinated. what do you say? >> well, i think just the reality -- the reality, chuck -- and history proves that wrong. there are people who have tried their best, put masks on, washed their hands. this is a very, very transmissible virus. the best protection is getting vaccinated. there's no doubt about that. >> by the way, should there be a vaccine mandate for all health care workers? i have to tell you, it seems almost irrational that we don't have a vaccine mandate in senior homes, the idea that that isn't there. i understand what you said and there's some talk of using federal funds to almost coerce some of these folks.

you're a leading person in the medical community. can you imagine having anybody that works in the medical community refusing the vaccine? >> it happens, but that is amazing. it's inexplicable to me. you're a health care worker. your profession, the thing you've devoted your life to is to protect people, to make them well, to protect them from disease, but, chuck, this is not something that's new. i see patients at the nih clinical center. if i don't get flu vaccine or hepatitis vaccine, i'm not allowed to see patients. this isn't something that's brand new with covid. i'm very much in favor of mandating -- if you want to see patients and you want to participate in health care, you need to get vaccinated, period. >> i want to talk about boosters. there's a lot of folks over the age of 60 watching. they're hitting their six-month

mark. what do you tell them -- they've been saying -- there's a lot of noise out there saying they're probably going to need a booster. considering this delta variant, some may go out there and get one anyway. what would you say to someone watching right now who is wondering if they should get this booster because they've hit their six-month anniversary? >> chuck, first for the clarity of our viewers, some things sometimes get confused. if you're a person who has an immune compromise, transplant, immuno suppressive therapy, you likely never got a good response to begin with. it isn't the durability of the response went down. for those individuals, i'm strongly in favor of getting them that additional shot as soon as possible. then you get to your question which is the elderly and others. there's no doubt that over time you're going to have an an ten asian of protection. if you look at the data from pfizer, pfizer shows it went from the 90s down to around 84

after a few months. the recent data from moderna shows it isn't really going down, but everyone assumes, and i think correctly, that sooner or later you'll see an at&tenuation to the point that we'll have to give very likely the elderly before you give it to otherwise normal people who are not old. that's going to happen as soon as the data gets to us and we're following it on a weekly basis, as soon as it looks like it's getting below a critical point, we'll get the vaccines for those people. >> they may get a booster. kids 12 and under are yet to get a vaccine. we're seeing an alarming number of hospitalizations now, particularly in children's hospitals, down in florida for sure. how concerned are you about this, and we have a lot of semi comfort that, hey, if kids got covid they were going to be okay. that doesn't seem to be the case

now. >> no, it's not. that's something we've been saying all along, where others have said, no, no problem with children. there is a problem with children. you've got to separate and make sure you get the facts. the likelihood of a child getting serious disease compared to an elderly person or someone with an underlying condition is absolutely less. but less doesn't mean zero. there are a lot of children now -- all you need to do is do a survey of the pediatric hospitals throughout the country, and you're seeing a considerable number of young people who are not only infected, but who are seriously ill. again, the numbers compared to the elderly are less, but that's a false comparison. these kids are getting sick. we've really got to make sure we protect them. >> can you imagine an elementary school anywhere that didn't have a mask mandate considering what we're seeing with kids under 12? i know the politics of it. leave that out of it. just with what you're seeing on the scientific basis. >> there's no doubt about that in my mind.

there are two things you do with children who are not vaccinated, and that's the recommendation. you surround them with those who can be vaccinated, whoever they are, teachers, personnel in the school, anyone, get them vaccinated. so protect the kids with a shield of vaccinated people. for the kids who can't get vaccinated, that's the reason why we're having a strong recommendation that in the schools everybody should wear a mask, whether or not you're vaccinated. we've got to protect the children, chuck. >> that's a topic we're about to tackle even more in depth in a few minutes. dr. anthony fauci, appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise with us. >> thank you, chuck. thank you for having me. when we come back, more on that issue with kids. should teachers be required to get vaccinated. get vaccinated. i'll ask the head of this is andy, my schwab financial consultant. here's andy listening to my goals and making plans. this is us talking tax-smart investing, managing risk, and all the ways schwab can help me invest.

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with many children returning to school this month, the debate over whether teachers should be required to be vaccinated has grown. until recently, randi weingarten said her 1.7 million union members shouldn't be co-versed into getting covid vaccinations, though she'd note just about all of her members said they either had or were going to get them. on thursday, weingarten said the widespreading delta variant has left her open to being supportive of a vaccine mandate. she joins me now from new york. let me start right there. i know this is probably -- there's probably a lot more that goes with this. you'd like to see a vaccine mandate is my understanding. but what does that mean for the teachers union? >> so let me -- first off, chuck, thank you for having me on. i've been around the country this week. i was in florida and missouri and we're pushing a full-court press for back to school.

the delta variants are alarming, and the spread is alarming. you've already said it's a pandemic of the unvaccinated. i'm not going to repeat what you or dr. fauci said. let me just be personal for a moment which is that vaccines are the single most important way of dealing with covid. we've always dealt with -- or since 1850 we've dealt with vaccines in schools. it's not a new thing to have immunizations in schools. and i think that on a personal matter, as a matter of personal conscience, i think we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates and all their vaccine policies. i said last week that i wanted to bring my leadership together, and we are this week, to revisit and to reconsider our policy that passed in october about voluntary -- that the best way to do this was to do it

volitionally. let me say, my members have stepped up. 90% of the teacher members have actually gotten the vaccine, but i do think that the circumstances have changed and that vaccination is a community responsibility and it weighs really heavily on me that kids under 12 can't get vaccinated. so that's -- i very rarely separate my personal views from where i am as a leader of the union, but i have really watched, particularly in florida and missouri -- i was in st. louis yesterday, i was in florida on saturday. you just see this, and we have to counter -- you said it earlier, we have to counter the misinformation. this is a public health crisis and the politics are infecting it. i felt the need to bring people together and to stand up and say this as a matter of personal conscience.

>> this emphasizes the point you're making about the explosion of these cases particularly among the unvaccinated. in this case it's kids. cases continue to climb. throughout the month of july, 71,000 cases this week of children. let me put it this way, should there be an elementary school teacher in america that's allowed to teach children in class that isn't vaccinated? >> well, look, there are significant religious objections and exemptions and significant medical objections and exemptions. as someone who is married to a rabbi, i want to be very careful that we have to honor those religious exemptions, but there's ways of which you can do accommodations in all sorts of different ways which is part of the reason you have to work together on these vaccine policies. i thought what joe biden did in terms of the federal government of saying vaccine or test is

important and we're supporting that. i thought what bill de blasio did was important as well. the combination of vaccines and masks i think will protect our youngest children, but we also have to work with parents, like we were in st. louis yesterday, in terms of getting our kids vaccinated. i think when the fda gives final approval like the kaiser family foundation suggested. you said 30% of the unvaccinated would be more comfortable. the disinformation campaign, what people like governor abbott and governor desantis are doing, they're hurting people with this disinformation campaign. i know i will now get a huge amount of pushback from fox. fox, that disinformation

campaign is terrible. i'm glad sean hannity got up and finally said i support the vaccines. people need to hear that. the disinformation of our teachers, they've been heroes, they've been out there trying to help in every which way. >> we've got a handful of states that have banned mask mandates. we have several states trying to put a mask mandate in schools despite the law signed by the governor. how many teachers do you have in your union that may not show up for work if there's not a mask mandate? >> there's a lot of fear right now across the country. teachers actually know the single most effective protection for them is to get a vaccine which is why you see our numbers, nea's numbers, the white house's numbers. i think we're probably the most vaccinated profession right now.

but, yeah, they're scared. we're polling them right now. but they also know -- let me just be clear. the number one priority is to get kids to be back in school. that's why i'm all across the country. that's why we've moved $5 million to our locals to do these back-to-school campaigns. and the scope of it is vast. we have 1800 locals of the 3500 engaged in these back-to-school campaigns. as i said from st. louis, part of what we were doing yesterday with the district was a vaccine clinic. so, yes, people are scared. they want to protect everyone. our north star has been keeping everything safe as you've heard me over and over again. but we know kids need to be in school. >> randi weingarten, president of the american federation for teachers coming out for a vaccine mandate for teachers. i know implementing it will be difficult. i appreciate you coming on and sharing your views with us.

>> thank you. when we come back, we'll look at the politics of covid and the other big story of the week, the sexual harassment findings against new york governor andrew cuomo and his fight to s (vo) while you may not be a pediatric surgeon volunteering your topiary talents at a children's hospital — your raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your passions, and the way you give back. so you can live your life. that's life well planned. did you know diarrhea is often caused by bad bacteria in food? try pepto® diarrhea. its concentrated formula coats and kills bacteria to relieve diarrhea. see, pepto® diarrhea gets to the source, killing the bad bacteria. so, make sure to have pepto® diarrhea on hand. if you're 55 and up, t-mobile has plans built just for you.

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>> joining me is amy walter. jake sherman, co-founder of the punchbowl news website, former white house political director during the w. bush year, sara fagen and former congresswoman donna edwards. welcome to you all. i want to get to the como story. i want to get to covid politics here, amy. let's frame the discussion, biden, desantis. here is the back-and-forth. >> some governors aren't willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses and university who want to do the right thing to be able to do it. >> joe biden has taken to himself to try to single out

florida over covid. this is a guy who ran for president saying he was going to, quote, shut down the virus. what has he done? he's imported more virus from around the world by having a wide-open southern border. >> by the way, both of them have shakier poll numbers than they did a month ago when we weren't at 100,000-plus cases. >> it's interesting chuck, looking from april into now in many of these new polls. what you're seeing is as the delta variant has come into play, people have actually become more hardened in their partisanship. so republicans have become more against mandates. democrats more solidly for them. republicans against the cdc masking, saying they disapprove how the cdc is handling mass democrats. democrats approve. both sides are digging in

deeper. as you know, in politics and life, you're not going to convince anybody. >> jake, this feels like -- we just saw it with schools. this feels like this is about to explode as schools come, and this hardening shows up in the classroom. >> biggest problem joe biden faces. i was talking to a member of congress the other day who said his entire presidency is about covid. he's already facing a ru surging republican party who thinks they'll win the house in 2022 with good reason. it's obviously not the end of his presidency, but this next -- he's facing that real possibility that republicans are going to take the house, schools are becoming less and less certain what the climate is going to look like. i think that's a huge problem for him. >> sara, there's some risk for governor desantis to double down on the base rhetoric -- his numbers are going down because

floridians are frustrated, too. >> people are frustrated everywhere. they were told when the vaccines came out and when they got vaccinated, it would all get better. it's not. some are the unvaccinated. but we're seeing these breakthrough cases. i think any chief executive is experiencing frustration from their constituents. but at the end of the day, this is joe biden's pandemic now. that has become very, very clear. he rode in to office as cases were starting the go down in april. they're going up. if we're sitting here a month from now, i don't think that's going to be the case. >> donna, the biggest ball drop here communications-wise has been with the cdc. before we thought it was the way the trump folks were handling the cdc. where are the daily briefings? i get the sense that's where there's a bit of a ball drop on this end of things? >> i do think the public has been really confused because the

messaging has been -- it's been a lot of mixed messaging. on the other hand, i think what you saw over the last week is the white house taking control of the messaging coming out about where the administration is going with vaccines, what the rollout is going to be from the fda. i think that it's a moving target because this virus is a moving target. >> right. >> until there's more control over the virus and getting people -- more people vaccinated, it really complicates the message. >> we could have used those daily white house briefings the last two weeks, i will say. those things we mocked a half year ago, those might have been helpful. let's turn to the dominant political story of the summer and that's andrew cuomo. here is letitia james, laying out the investigation. >> the investigation found that

governor andrew cuomo sexually harassed current and former new york city new york state employees by making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women. >> as a colleague said on the air to me, i said he's a man on an island and this person said, yeah, high tide is coming. so it's not a matter of the, but when. >> and how. >> i was going to say how. >> and how. >> how does this work? >> do you want to be impeached and be the second governor from new york -- >> a cuomo not being able to run for office. think about that. >> do you want to do that or say i'm not running for re-election, but i'm not going to resign. >> a little late for that. >> do you want to say i'm going to resign? other politicians have been able

to survive. we think about bill clinton and donald trump. in part because they had the base with them. both of those still had core support from their base. you go back and look at the polling. even a month ago, chuck, 50-something percent of democrats said he shouldn't be impeached. today 50-something percent of democrats say cuomo should be impeached. >> if the -- there's no incentive for them not to impeach him. >> it doesn't matter. his career is over, whether he's impeached, resigns, doesn't run again. there's no coming back from this for him. >> no doubt. if you're the democratic party of new york, when do you need him out? you need him out when the calendar says '21, not '22. >> democrats don't need this to be an ongoing story. it's not just a new york story. it's a national story. so i think that's why you see

mario cuomo -- >> andrew. i've been doing it, too. >> he has not one democratic defender. that's the difference between clinton and others. there are no democrats defending him. >> he's a particularly callous kind of abuser. it's one thing to be it. it's quite another -- both are terrible. but it's quite another to be on the forefront to have the most aggressive legislation, the most aggressive language flanked by hollywood actresses, you're the standard-bearer for what is right in america, and then to have this come out. >> jake, some interesting insiders who have been very much prominent on the me too movement have gotten caught up in this. this has dealt a credibility blow for some of these folks. >> absolutely. i think what's most stunning is just the chuck schumer, all of

his longtime political allies are taking the opportunity to throw him under the bus and to ask him to move on. i think, back to what amy said, if he says i'm not running again, i still think they have to impeach him, i think they have to get rid of him. >> that was a three-month-ago idea. he never chose to go that path. he was going to run for re-election as of a week ago, according to folks i talked to. when we come back, yes, there's a strong progressive movement in the democratic party. party. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪

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we asked for kisqali. ask your doctor about living longer with kisqali. welcome back. it's data download time. there's been talk for the past few cycles about the left taking on more control. the squad gets a lot of headline. this weekend, congresswoman cory busher's program forced action from the white house. at the polls, it's a much different story. the moderates keep winning. it started in 2020 with the big

bernie versus biden primary. biden won quite handily. there's evidence number one. it's continued all this year. this was a special congressional election in louisiana, it was the pragmatist, the moderate that beat back a progressive challenger. we saw it again earlier this week in akron, ohio, where you saw shonn tall brown beat nina turner who was a well-known surrogate for bernie sanders. we saw it in the virginia gubernatorial primary and we saw it in the new york city democratic mayoral primary where eric adams beat back a slew of progressive candidates. the bottom line is, at the ballot box we have an idea of what the base of the democratic party looks like. it looks a lot more like the democratic coalition joe biden put together. in congress right now, the base of the party is perceived of the progressives. the question is, where are democrats going to govern? govern towards that base in the

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welcome back. we've told you about some of the special elections just now in

data download. donna edwards, this progressive versus the biden wing of the party, it seems to be pretty one-sided right now. there's some sore feelings. i'll play the nina turner -- i guess i should put the word concession in quotes, the here it is. >> i am going to work like this never happens to a progressive candidate again. see, we didn't lose this race. evil money manipulated and maligned in this election. >> hakeem jeffries who is in leadership, a new york democratic, he said this. this is somebody who endorsed the progressive. here is what he said, almost indirectly to nina turner. the extreme left is obsessed with talking trash about mainstream democrats on twitter when the majority of the electorate constitute mainstream democrats at the polls.

in the post trump era, the anti establishment line of attack is lame. >> there are a lot of things that went into that ohio special election. the other thing, if you look at policies and where the progressives -- progressives are winning that. whether that plays out in primaries and elections is a different question altogether. i want, as the extreme left in a democratic primary. >> yes, but you also had an ethically challenged opponent, if i'm not mistaken at the time. >> i think that's true. but what i will say, though, is progressive policies can win. you see that both coming from the white house, but also looking at what's happening on capitol hill. >> look at what happened this week, right? cori bush slept on the stairs of

the capitol and forced the administration to do a complete 180 on the eviction moratorium. i think progressives are learning in a big way how to fight back legislatively. that's not something we've seen from an organizational perspective. it's a big -- they are winning policywise. i'm not really wanting to admit that, but yes, they are. >> sara, on the right we saw a similar thing, conservatives would win more on policy but not sometimes do as well at the ballot box or sometimes vice versa. i think the democrats are four or five years behind the republicans where the moderates are winning the elections, but eventually the progressive will catch up and learn more. you'll see the polarization win more in this country. progressives aren't just winning the policy debates.

look at the infrastructure debate. this bill that's about to pass, this truly bipartisan bill is going to get held up in the house of representatives because nancy pelosi has to placate her west wing. joe biden should have a signing ceremony this week in the east wing. he's not going to get that. >> i don't know that's really true. i think what's happening on the budget reconciliation is democrats struck a deal. this is widen's reconciliation. you look at every one of those provisions, and they are the ones being promoted by the president. >> this will be the most significant biden accomplishment aside from covid relief and the progressives are holding it up. >> it will be a big win. >> i think it's too bag to fail right now. i think democrats are going to line up when all is said and done. what's changed so much, sara, from the time when we were doing this work was that it's not just that the progressives are

winning, it's that the people who were in the middle or the conservative democrats are all gone and the more moderate republicans are all gone. so we do have more homogenous caucuses. i do agree, i think on policy this white house is much more progressive than the obama white house was. they don't have votes on specific new things like a green new deal or medicare for all, but on the just picture policy, when you think about how much further to the left the policy is, that clearly has been happening. >> are we starting to see, jake -- are congressional democrats more progressive than their electorate? >> in some respects. i kind of agree with sara here. democrats are about to pass a $3.5 trillion budget. when i started hearing these numbers a couple months ago, i didn't believe it. bernie sanders had a large

constituency of people who were willing to pass a $6 to $10 trillion budget. there's absolutely no question that the progressive -- mitch mcconnell says that, bernie sanders has won the ideological argument in the party. the party has gone to the left on capitol hill. i completely agree with that, and i think probably -- the electorate is probably in the middle, but the members of congress are not. >> a bunch of those individuals will vote for republicans in the next election. they don't recognize their democratic party right now. >> a lot of it -- that's why we may see a lot of donald trump in ads perhaps coming. >> 100%. >> from the left perhaps, some of those moderate democrats. i've got to leave it there. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. we won the gold and the medal standings. how about that team usa? let's make sure to note that. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

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. narrator: when you see this symbol, you know you're watching television that is educational and informational. stay safe the more you know on nbc. dylan: hi, everybody, i'm dylan dreyer. welcome to "earth odyssey". today, we'll travel around the world, but below the surface as we explore the most fascinating creatures on earth that love the water, like the humpback whale, the mammal that is a mammoth among fish. and then, we'll discover why this sluggish sloth turns its jets on when it's taking a relaxing dip. and later, what makes this legendary lizard the only

species of its kind that thrives underwater? plus, how this species of whale is the glue that holds the