respect but at the same time thinks he can only really get attention by being aggressive and assertive. in a sense, biden has an easy job at geneva in that -- in the first instance, all he has to do is not be donald trump. when the interview is over, he just has to not agree that putin said the right thing, that he's going to side with putin and not u.s. intelligence. if he does that, he's ahead of the game. >> well, there you go. david ignatius, thank you very much as always for your deep insights. helene cooper, thanks to you as well. i know hallie is going to stick around next hour with geoff bennett. geoff? >> good morning to you. we are awaiting president biden who is expecting to hold a news conference at any moment from the nato summit in brussels.

we'll bring it to you as soon as the president appears. the g7 summit in the u.k. was about holding our closest allies. this summit may prove even more of a challenge with the country's alliance still unsure about the commitment to the nato pact which has shaped the world since 1959. boris johnson threatens to end nato as we know it. the key to nato's purpose is offense. an attack on nato to one member is an attack to all of them. it's no coincidence that biden wants to solidify the nato pact and get everybody on the same page ahead of meeting him tomorrow in geneva, switzerland. prior to that, putin sat down

with keir simmons in a world exclusive. >> are you waging a cyber war against america? >> where is evidence? where is proof? it's becoming farcical. we know it well. we have been accused of all sorts of things, election interference, cyberattacks, so on and so forth, and not once, not one time did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. >> first of all, the u.s. has produced evidence of russian hackers targeting u.s. government agencies and private businesses critical to our food and fuel supplies. you can be sure it's one of many contentious issues that will come up with putin, but for his part, president biden seems to be tempering expectations while putin appears to have a foggy memory of sorts about their previous meeting. >> well, first of all, there is no guarantee you can change a person's behavior or behavior to his country.

autocrats have enormous power and they don't have to answer to the public. >> he said to you, i'm looking in your eyes and i can't see a soul, and you said, we understand each other. do you remember that exchange? >> translator: but i do not remember this particular part of our conversations, to be honest with you. he probably has a good memory. >> and it's not just about combatting the rising threat of russia. just a short time ago, nato leaders declared that china poses a constant security challenge and is working to undermine global order. joining me to start the hour is nbc white house news correspondent joining me from brussels. senior correspondent keir simmons. here in the studio we have our washington correspondent and my good friend and colleague hallie jackson. with us is the former member of the national security council under george w. bush, corey

sacky. he said there is no point and the u.s. doesn't want a part of it. >> this is definitely not that, geoff. the president will be coming to that microphone any minute. in other instances, you would probably be overseas traveling. there is no one who knows this better than you of what the issues are that face president biden, and there are a number of them. you mentioned a couple of them in the introduction to this show we're doing. not just russia, not just china, you've got turkey, you've got afghanistan. you have a slew of issues that biden is facing and he will be questioned about that by the roughly 50 or 60 reporters in the room. i doubt a lot of them will get questions. we'll probably see some get questions as this is fairly lengthy. for president biden this is the chance for him to present the united states argument not just to the people in the room, geoff, but to, frankly, the rest of the world.

and, listen, to vladimir putin. because that summit in less than 48 hours from now is critical to the way that biden will be able to come off with this foreign trip, right? it's whether or not people will see it as a success or not, depending on how firm he is with vladimir putin, depending on what he says to vladimir putin, and frankly, how putin reacts coming out of it. no one made that more clear than keir simmons who conducted that exclusive interview with putin. there is a part where he talks about russia being used as a certain bogeyman, if you will, in u.s. politics. >> reporter: that's right, hallie, what we've seen come out of this interview and the tactics that putin often using, to sit down with president biden, i know the u.s. wants an updated version of president putin's talking points.

we know he tries to change the subject. what you'll hear from this particular piece of sound from the interview is the way he tries to show russia as a target for america as domestic politics. it's quite a sophisticated argument for president putin to make, but it's also changing the subject. president biden needs to prepare for this kind of argument with president putin when they sit down together. take a listen. >> of course, one can present this for domestic political consumption which i believe is what's been done in the united states in the last few years where the u.s.-russia relationship was sacrificed for the sake of a fierce political strife inside the u.s. we can see that. we know it well. we have been accused of all kinds of things, election interference, cyberattacks, so on and so forth, and not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or

proof. just unfounded accusations. i'm surprised that we have not yet been accused of provoking the black lives matter movement. >> reporter: of course, some would say some of the cynicism of that, guys, is that president putin's strategy is actually, you could say, to get attention. his idea of the way history played out is that russia was dismissed after the fall of the soviet union and that what he is trying to do is ensure that russia is at the table. so he'll use leverage, he'll use threats. perhaps you can even say he'll use a tax to get to the table. there are some suggesting that this summit with president biden, just the very fact of president putin there to sit down with the 45th american president, that in a sense is a victory for the kremlin behind me here. on the other hand, you can say that, of course, just talking is worth it just to make the simple point russia, of course, has

thousands of nuclear weapons. so arms control is one of the issues liking to be on the table this week. both sides agree about that, and it surely has to be worth talking just to get those agreements in place to control the arms control issue. >> yeah. and, keir, it's such a great point you make because white house officials say, look, there is nothing really deliverable they expect to come from this meeting. what they want is a degree of stability that's even possible from vladimir putin. >> and it's setting up the floor, right, for this relationship, and that is also expectation setting on the part of the white house, right? go in with expectations and there's more you can deliver. we'll talk about this more on the show if this press conference happens, including contact that president biden

made. >> there are a couple things that caught our eye. russia's interference in cybersecurity, and there is a mention of covid testing our nation and our resilience. it looks like the biden administration got most of what they wanted out of this nato communique. tell us why it's important to have this written in black and bhit and how the u.s. will leverage this going forward. >> geoff, so much of our focus as the press corps here on this trip is looking ahead to the geneva summit and the meeting with vladimir putin. but so much of what the white house has been wanting to accomplish behind the scenes in part has to do with china. the g7 which issued its own communique yesterday, no prior communique had even mentioned china. not only did it include china as an area of concern for the g7 leaders, but it called out china

specifically for inhumane practices, and now as we look at this nato document, it's the amping up of the rhetoric around china as well. nato's secretary general saltenberg talking about alliance as well. the idea of democracies counter to autocracy, the test between the two. as well, what we expect to hear from the president later today, i can't help but think about the time i spent on the campaign trail with him, and how often now president, then candidate biden, would talk to audiences about his view that if donald trump was re-elected as president, it would mean the end of nato as we know it. that wasn't a particular applause line on the road, but

it was something that was clearly important to the president as he was laying out the stakes of these election voters. when the president does come to the microphone, he's going to highlight in his view nato is back, and he's been trying behind the scenes as part of the many discussions he's been having both in the larger group and the smaller meetings he's been having one on one with nato and g7 leaders to try to call on them to up the ante, to do more to sort of modernize this alliance for the 21st century to focus on things like cyberwarfare. it is, indeed, as you pointed out, something the western world needs to work in concert to try to confront. that's part of what the president is hoping, i think, to come out as part of his remarks to really come forward with some real tangible goals. you've covered these foreign multilateral, multination

summits. often there is a lot of language in these statements. that doesn't really amount to much and the white house thinks they have come guard with some tangible successes here. >> what a polite way to put it. >> we've read some duds in our time. >> mike, stand by for a second. corey, let me go to you. if you were the one sort of in president biden's ear right now ahead of what we expect to see in geneva, what's the number one thing you would be telling him? >> that talking in public about president putin isn't nearly as helpful as threatening him in private. i think the russians are actually doing a lot of very dangerous things. the policy of president putin's actions throughout the last five years has been to collapse confidence throughout the nato allied government that russia

can or will play a positive part in europe. so that has served to cement everybody together, and that comes through clearly in the g7 statement, it comes through clearly in the nato communique. president biden shows up with a line of american allies standing shoulder to shoulder. and that's very likely to make president putin behave even worse than normal, and so privately making clear what the consequences of that behavior would be would be what i would emphasize to the president. >> i want to bring into the conversation bill browder. bill, you've been a target of president putin and you know him for better or worse. take us inside his mind as much as you can. what is he thinking going into this meeting in about two days' time with president biden? >> i would say vladimir putin is really happy about this meeting, because he's running a country

with an economy the size of the state of new york and a military budget 90% less than the u.s. military budget and he's been put on the same stage as the most powerful, important person in the world. and so just showing up, just having the summit in the first place is a huge validation for him at home. it makes him look strong, it makes him look important, and so he's coming in there and he's a smart guy. he's been around for like many prime ministers and he knows how to play all these people and how to play the international public, make himself sort of a winner out of this in whatever way he wants to make it. it's really a win just to give him the summit, and i'm actually against the idea of even having the summit. all the things that were mentioned before could be mentioned in a lot of different ways that don't require giving him an equal stage to the u.s.

president. >> i want to talk briefly about the issue of prison swaps. this came up over the weekend where president biden was asked by our colleague peter alexander if he would bring up this issue of prison swaps with vladimir putin, and he said he would. vladimir putin told keir simmons that he was considering it. hallie, you reported this morning that this is a very real issue and bill has a particular view of this because it was president trump who, back in 2018, talked about swapping bill browder. >> there is a whole slew of issues there. this is an interesting one, geoff, and bill, i'd be curious about your thoughts on this, too, because this is so deeply personal to the families of u.s. citizens, american former marines permanently imprisoned in russia. tony blinken told andrea mitchell that this will be on the agenda with president putin in geneva, that they will be fighting to release these

prisoners every step of the way. which they think sham imprisonment, which is how they look at it. there are two people who might be under consideration for this, two russian prisoners in the u.s., one is a guy who has been convicted on drug-related charges. another is a notorious arms dealer viktor bout, who had this movie based on him. i was struck this morning, trevor reed's parents talked to the "today" show and they said, we don't care how trevor gets out, whether it's a swap or release, we just want him out. his father said this looks like an easy thing for president biden to come home with. of all the things on the agenda, it's probably the easiest. do you think that's a fair assessment, and what are the potential pitfalls for president biden here, because it's not as though president putin has

proven himself to be perhaps the most trustworthy negotiator. >> first i would say the two americans you mentioned are hostages, they're not prisoners. neither of them committed any crimes. they were taken hostage by vladimir putin specifically to create a situation where putin could then get two very serious criminals, the drug dealer and viktor boot, the lord of war, out of u.s. prison. and so it's kind of a hard thing to do, because on one hand, these two americans should not be on russian soil, and i would imagine that vladimir putin is putting a very high price on their release. it's not going to be easy for sure. but t one thing i could say is i i created families and i would argue that biden could really come down hard on putin in terms of paying penalties, and those

around him for saying, these are the two guys we want and therefore you have to release them. i think we can say, okay, if you want to take some american hostages, we're going to make your life an absolute misery in a lot of different ways, and we know how. >> bill, that's an important perspective. we should note for folks, you're looking at the left side of your screen at an empty microphone. we do expect president biden to step up to that mic. geoff, prior to this, he had been in that bilateral meeting with president erdogan, and i wonder if sometimes this is a sign -- sometimes the meetings go long. if that's a sign these two are involved in discussions. we don't know if he has another discussion on the sideline with somebody else, but it is something to be looking at. sometime in the next couple minutes, we will potentially see him come up to this lectern. >> as you know, president biden brings into each of these

meetings a half century of public service. >> which, by the way, very different on that front than president trump as well. >> foreign chairman of the relations committee. on the issue of putin, i want to come back to this. in your interview with him he tried to deflect confidence on you. in earlier hits today, you referred to it as what-aboutism. biden could potentially come down on his issues with israel. >> reporter: it's hard to say what he's going to crack down on. the coronavirus is going up very, very quickly. that can shake confidence in a

leader. another aspect of this is in a autocracy, it's not like a democracy, and it's difficult to judge the judgment of a leader. they look strong before they look weak. one thing i thought was very interesting was a conversation i had with president putin after the interview away from the cameras. he spoke to me leaning in, trying to keep eye contact, kind of urging me to believe him that, for example, the west was funding political opponents here in russia. it may have been trying to use persuasive powers on me, but on the other hand it could have been president putin not just a threat, but also someone who feels threatened. i think that is a useful

insight. . it is fortunate that he will try to assess his team the best he can get with this russian leader. >> after the cameras start rolling, as we wait for president biden to step in front of the camera to speak with reporters, what do you think is the most important for him to be answering to, and what do you want to hear, kori. >> i would love to hear that the president got the release of those two prisoners. i agree with bill browder's assessment of that. i like that his "washington post" article that we threat

enputin with exposure of criminality, because the russian government really is more like a mafia organization than, like, a representative government. and so i don't think there is much of a positive agenda, right? we can't cooperate with russia on terrorism, because what they consider terrorism, we don't. so there is not a very broad and collaborative agenda, which means that will be hard to make tradeoffs on things, but i really would like president biden not to be needlessly provocative but to make it clear we are not going to let vladimir putin turn the national order into a massive, opaque, criminal undertaking. >> kori schake, thank you. as we've been talking about the differences between the former president and the current president, the former president is making a broad statement out

to his e-mail list in the last 40 seconds or so. >> of course. kori schake, bill browder, keir simmons and mike memaly, you'll stick around as we wait for some action in that press room in brussels. of course, you can watch more of keir simmons' interview with president putin. ly. also ahead, it turns out democratic lawmakers and reporters were not the only ones whose data was subpoenaed by the department of justice. what we know happened to records of this guy, former white house counsel don mcgahn. n mcgahn pow, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron.

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it's about half past 2:00 in washington and we continue to await a news conference in brussels that should start any moment. it comes after a critical meeting with our allies and about 48 hours before the president's meeting with vladimir putin. there is a lot to cover in this q&a, and we'll bring it to you live as soon as the president appears. meanwhile, we're following breaking news in the justice department where the trump organization has ordered a review of his political rivals. the attorney general garland said, political or other improper considerations must play no role in any investigative or prosecutorial decisions. these principles that have long been held as sacrosanct by the doj. >> this effort to track down leaks have been by the former president's own organization.

they subpoenaed apple for the records of white house counsel don mcgahn back in 2018, according to two people familiar with this. this is while don mcgahn was still white house counsel in that white house. they informed don mcgahn and his wife, by the way, of the subpoenas just last month. he does join a growing list of people who had their data seized, a list that also includes the people you see on the screen right here, democratic lawmakers adam schiff and eric swalwell, both trump critics, along with journalists. >> democrats on capitol hill are now demanding testimony of former attorney general bill barr and jeff sessions, along with rod rosenstein. all three have denied any knowledge of the data seizures. joining us now, msnbc contributor charlie savage. and david loftman who previously saw leak investigations in the

export control section. charlie, we'll start with you because you said prosecutors sent apple that subpoena on -- in january 2018. we don't yet know whether this was a deliberate and intentional targeting of mcgahn, but what else was happening at this point that could have made potentially mcgahn a target? >> right, so there is several things to flag here. one is, yes, we don't know that they knew they were going to get mcgahn's data when they subpoenaed apple for account information about something, maybe his phone number, maybe his e-mail address. maybe that was part of a long list of people who were in contact with him. there is a lot of unanswered questions here. we also don't know if this was a leak investigation or the trump justice department. it could have been the mueller team, for example. we're looking at all kinds of people who were in contact with mcgahn either as the top lawyer

for the 2016 trump campaign or his white house counsel. so there is a lot of unanswered questions here. to your issue what else was going on? yes, mcgahn was fighting with trump over the fact it had been leaked that he had -- trump had tried to get him to fire mueller and he refused right around that period. that, however, doesn't seem to be classified information. that would be the type that you could investigate using an instrument like this. there was an investigation that was spun off from the mueller probe that was happening in virginia when this subpoena happened involving michael flynn in turkey as opposed to russia. remember, the justice department was trying to get some of michael flynn's business partners being registered for agents and that was happening in the same courthouse at that time. michael flynn would have been in contact with mcgahn at least during the campaign. and this was also happening around the time of these -- this very controversial subpoena that went to apple for information that sucked up lots of information about members of congress and their staff where

it looked like someone was in contact with people like adam schiff and eric swalwell and apple identified who owned those accounts, though not necessarily the content of what they said to anybody. so all this is swirling around the issue of leak investigations, about the power of the government to seize data and impose gag orders so people don't find out about it for years at the same time as the controversial subpoenas for phone records and gag orders to the "new york times," the "washington post" and cnn that don mcgahn will be meeting with executives about later today. >> and issuing a statement before that meeting as well, charlie, to geoff right here on the air about the inspector general investigation and the sacrosanct nature of the department of justice. david, give us the insider objective of this.

how serious is this to look at these records and what the intent is here, whether it was done in good faith or not. >> well, it's long been a standard of the department and republican administrations to investigate leaks. that's been an informal investigation the last several years. i came back to the department at the end of the obama administration. we were certainly issuing leak investigations robustly then. i would say the tempo and intensity picked up under the trump administration. at no time did we ever take any actions that were buffeted under political pressure but it was certainly ratcheted up by trump. there is some general walking around since that career people have, and i know the people responsible for this have in their chain of command and recognizing when certain career

actions are of a sensitivity that require nor intense, rigorous oversight within the department, and i have no reason to believe right now, at least at the career level, procedures and policies weren't being followed. but we are now at a period where the department has lost credibility after the grotesque abuses under the department of justice, under donald trump. they've lost the benefit of the doubt and that's why it's so essential that department leadership has commissioned the ig to undertake the comprehensive withering look at what happened and why to provide the transparency we need and understanding why these accidents were taken with respect to members of congress or mr. mcgahn. there are a lot of unknowns, as charlie pointed out, and the only way we'll get to that is not through congressional hearing which is political theater, but the rigorous fact-finding the ig will conduct. >> as investigators look more to find out what happened, as a result of this investigation, a

doj official is now stepping aside. this is someone who was a trump administration holdover. what more can you tell us about him and whether or not this reveals anything about how high this went? >> so the head of the security department is a holdover trump appointee. i think you see across partisan lines, he's a straight shooter and the biden people decided to keep him on when they took over for continuity reasons while they waited to figure out who their own nominee would be, and he was supposed to say until their nominee was confirmed, who is matt olson and has not been confirmed and will not be confirmed for some time. so he thought he would be gone by summer. he's going to be gone by the end of next week even though his successor is not yet confirmed. whether that has to do with this

furor or not, i cannot say. it's certainly interesting timing. it came a day after colleagues, the senior ones, were calling on him to testify before congress about what he knew about these various subpoenas. he was one of the few people, when we talk about media leak investigations, one of the few people other than the attorney general who is permitted to sign off ongoing reporters' records. our reporters reported that jeff sessions and bill barr did not know about the "new york times" one, and they will be asked what were you doing and what were you thinking if they pick up that subpoena. >> referencing that discussion that we know the current attorney general, merrick garland, is having with various media outlets given these records, can you talk about your expectation, as you have it, before this discussion and why that is an important

conversation for a.g. garland to have. >> i think it's essential for the attorney general to be messaging precisely in the way he is about the core ethics and principles of the department of justice. that's exactly the right messaging to send. it's fine for him to undertake an internal apology. there has been disproportionate action by the biden administration to essentially jettison the administration for conducting investigations that could require or lead to the investigation or the acquisition. bad news stories make bad policy. the policy that eric holder refine the 2013 isn't perfect, but it's not bad with respect to balancing these competing interests of protecting first

amendment principles and enabling the executive branch to investigate crimes. so it's a healthy debate to have. i think we all need to just kind of take a step back now as passions cool and allow department leadership and the i.g. to do their work. >> david lofton and charlie savage, thanks to the both of you. a capitol police officer has been arrested due to the insurrection at the capitol. the criminal complaint crites gps data of cheswick's movements and 30 selfies and text messages sent from inside the building, like this one on the screen. he was stripped of his police privileges earlier this month when the department learned he was under investigation. we have a lot more coming up on the show on "msnbc reports," yes, including that microphone you've been looking at in the last hour.

this is a delayed conference even by the standards of an overseas trip. we do expect president biden to address the nato in a minute. up next, pressuring joe manchin. how civil rights leaders plan to bring the moral case for voting rights to the senator's own turf. stay with us. senator's own turf stay with us i'm here and suddenly... ...my migraine takes me somewhere else. where there's pain, and nausea. but excedrin pulls me back in a way others don't. and it relieves my symptoms fast for real migraine relief. [lazer beam and sizzling sounds] ♪♪

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he's going to be confronting president putin in geneva on wednesday. we'll bring it to you live the second it begins. >> democrats are increasing their pressure campaign on senator joe manchin of west virginia. nancy pelosi says she's not giving up on manchin to back the for the people act, which gives voting rights the way the democrats see it. they continue working with him to a bid to get his support. you have barber leading a moral march to the door of the senator's office. talking about this and more, correspondent ali vitale in west virginia and leigh ann caldwell. good afternoon to both of you. ali, let's start with you and some of this organizing that is really starting in the grassroots in west virginia,

right? talk about the message they're trying to send, and perhaps more important, ali, how much joe manchin is willing to receive that message. >> reporter: well, the activists here on the ground are hopeful that manchin is going to listen to their message, but they're also prepared to keep pushing if necessary until their message is heard. really, what this comes down to, hallie, is pressuring him not just on specific policy items, like the 15 there are minimum wage and the right to equality, but really this is a push to get those items voted on in the senate. manchin is one of the key senators on the hill who stands in the way of reforming the filibuster or getting rid of it altogether. by getting rid of it, that would put on the table a whole slew of democratic priorities to be able to be passed by a simple majority, a much more tall order than the way things stand right now. they are making a moral case for a lot of these issues. i want to read to you part of a letter they'll unveil here today. in this letter these leaders say, we know that you have, speaking to manchin, the ability

to do tremendous good not only for people in west virginia but also for the entire country. as a public servant who professes a faith guided by love, justice and mercy and who has sworn a public oath to support and defend the constitution, your public statements will the filibuster are a moral contradiction. the filibuster as it is currently being used is not just bad policy. it is sinful. these people will march about a mile until they get to manchin's office. there is this march today but there is also a plan for next week to march in washington, d.c. with kentucky and west virginia voters lobbying not just manchin but also senator mitch mcconnell as well. guys? >> this is really interesting to see, hallie and ali, because a couple years ago -- i guess several years ago i covered the

moral mondays that reverend barber and the poor people's campaign conducted in north carolina, and it was aimed at north carolina's leadership. it's interesting to see how it has ballooned from that to what it is today. hallie, the house speaker says she's not counting out joe manchin about the political office of what can and can't get through the senate. but you had some reporting on it today, and you made clear it is not just joe manchin who continues to be an obstacle for the agenda items that democrats hope to get cleared through the upper chain. >> that's right, geoff, and all the attention goes to senator joe manchin, but there are a lot of people who are opposed to things happening right now in d.c. concerning the agenda, mainly kyrsten sinema of arizona. she is starting to get a lot of attention as well. she is trying to come up with an infrastructure plan with republicans to pass through the

senate. now, representative ocasio-cortez and members of congress are getting very frustrated with the bipartisan talks and blaming democrats, saying they are the ones who are blocking the biden agenda. now, the progressives, they want a massive $4 trillion infrastructure package passed at one time. they think that bipartisan talks are a waste of time, but this isn't just palace intrigue. what this is, this has real life consequences because the reality is democratic leadership needs both the progressives and both the moderates like kyrsten sinema and joe manchin to pass any legislation up here on capitol hill, including infrastructure. so they have to figure out how to move forward getting their entire caucus together. geoff, hallie? >> thanks to both of you.

hallie, there is still no time as to when this press conference in brussels is supposed to begin. when it does happen, we'll of course bring it to you live. we also have other things happening on show, including a new covid vaccine vaccinating people in countries in need. we're talking about that after the break. e talking about that r the break. with certain inflammatory conditions. because there are options. like an “unjection.” xeljanz. the first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to severe ulcerative colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death.

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president biden at the nato summit in brussels. he is expected to take questions a day before his meeting with vladimir putin in geneva on wednesday. there is never a shortage of topics reporters can cover with president biden, and we'll bring it to you as soon as it starts. there is a dismissal of a lawsuit over a houston hospital ordering their employees to get vaccinated. the employees said they were being bullied into getting the shot. >> covid case numbers are no longer falling here in the u.s., and they actually seem to have plateaued, experts say. part of the reason is roughly a third of the americans are reluctant to get the shot. couple that with a new contagious spread of the variant, the delta variant, first identified in india now accounts for 10% of all cases in the u.s. joining us now is mario ramirez.

he is an emergency physician and managing direct of opportunity labs. it's good to see you. thank you for your time this afternoon. give us a sense. how concerned should we be about the combined influence of vaccine hesitancy and in the spread of this so-called delta variant? >> i think this should be a big concern for folks who are unvaccinated, geoff. what i've looked at over the last week or so is really what we're seeing in the u.k. right now where this delta variant has become more penetrant. in that country that has a really high vaccination rate, they're seeing case counts go back up. it's important because the u.k. primarily used the astrazeneca vaccine and he with used the different vaccine, the pfizer and moderna vaccine, which is said to be more effective against this new variant. however, what we have in this country is large geographic swaths that are not well vaccinated. i think for the southeast and particularly people in the great plains region, this will get worse in the next six to eight

weeks. >> what would a surge mean for people that are opposed to mandated mask orders and social distancing, and what it would mean for people who are already vaccinated as well? >> it's a bit of an open-ended question, hallie, because you have a variant that could spread in case counts go back up, but those are also in states where governors have put laws in place saying we're not going to follow any more mask mandates or require testing or vaccines. you have the politics with the potential rebound. i think there is a case for these variants to cause a significant increase in case counts in those unprotected populations. it's an open question whether or not governors are going to pull back on those requirements or whether employers themselves might choose to lean in a little harder and say, well, maybe seeing what happened in the methodist case, we're going to require vaccines or maybe we're

going to implement a broader testing regime to try to mitigate this. >> dr. ramirez, i want to ask you about the novavax vaccine because they announced they would ask for fda approval sometime soon. i had completely forgotten about this novavax vaccine in the pipeline. tell bus it and what it means for folks who might be hesitant or indifferent to have an extra vaccine on the market. i say to people who have questions about the pfizer or moderna vaccine because of the mrna technology, if that's the case, take the j&j vaccine. >> it is overall good news, geoff. this is the fifth candidate we've been tracking pretty closely and that the u.s. government invested in pretty heavily, so it's good to see it coming through the pipeline. i think it's unlikely to have a big impact on vaccination here in the united states, because as you mentioned, we have a number of other candidates that are already approved and already being distributed. however, it's really good news for the rest of the world,

however, and it's possible novavax may choose to rejigger their particular formulation or code to try to change for variants in the fall. we may see this deployed a little later this year. you're right to point out that it uses a different technology than the mrna vaccines like pfizer and moderna. this is, again, a sort of new approach, and i think the 90% efficacy they showed is promising. however, it's important to note that novavax conducted their trials in the u.s. and mexico, as opposed to other candidates like johnson & johnson who actually tested their vaccines around the world where there were other variants circulating. to this vaccine at 90% efficacy rating really was a measure of the variants circulating through the u.s. and mexico which does not include the india variant. so we need a little more time to see how this performs in an overall setting. otherwise it's good news. >> real quick on this novavax

vaccine, however, is it possible that if there is a need for booster shots down the road, can novavax be useful on that front here at home? >> absolutely, hallie. importantly the nih just kicked off a big study a few weeks ago where they were comparing and trying to determine whether or not people can mix or match various vaccines. an open-ended question has been if you got pfizer the first time around, did you have to get pfizer for any subsequent booster shots? the nih is trying to figure that out, and if it turns out you can use any of them, novavax could become a player in the booster market. >> thank you for being here. theaters are looking into reopening. theaters are looking up and box ticket sales are on the rise, but it's not back yet.

>> some americans still a little hesitant to sit side by side with people you don't know, strangers, indoors. so how are theaters trying to convince audiences to come back? joining us now from the historic chinese theater in hollywood, california is correspondent steve patterson. steve, good afternoon. listen, if there's anywhere in america that's going to get people back to theaters fast, it's got to be where you are in hollywood. what are you hearing from folks there? >> reporter: no kidding, and i think in relation to the pandemic, we're starting to hear real excitement from hollywood, from the studios, and now from the theater chains and operators that are here seeing these big receipts from the last two or three weeks or so. there is some real excitement. however, they understand as well that this is a tenuous relationship with movie goers. a lot of chains are afraid it only takes one incident for people to decide to stay at home with more options on streaming. so there is a real focus with providing a safe environment, providing an environment that's

enticing for people to come in. here at the chinese theater, this big institution that has been here for so long, influences so many other chains and theaters. i'm standing next to gary cooper's handprints right now. so there is a lot of emphasis on influencing and making the right decisions. so we wanted to speak to the operator here to find out what exactly they're doing to entice people to come in. here's what we found. >> when you come inside, you have to be fully masked up. we do temperature checks at the front door. social distancing on the seating. movie theaters, including the chinese theater, have gone above and beyond to ensure that audiences and employees are safe. you're going to have a great experience. you're going to sit down in an environment which is just absolutely incredible to go into a journey and a place. movies have always been about escapism. after this last year we've had, there is no better place to escape than in a movie theater.

>> reporter: the other thing is obviously combatting streaming, box office versus streaming. did you watch "in the heights" at home or did you actually come to the theater? there is a sense that until studios go all in at the box office, anything that's not a genre movie, it will suffer. back to you. >> although i heard you have to see "in the heights" in the theater. >> i livestreamed it and thought when it was over, you need to see this in the theater. i'm going to go throw in my $15 or whatever. we continue to wait for president biden for a news conference in brussels. he was supposed to start a news conference a while ago, but as you can imagine, there is a lot happening behind the scenes that we cannot see. >> so let's get an update. please, let's get an update. we're with mike. mike, we've seen this a thousand

times. you have almost a hundred reporters in the room. no president is on the reporters' time, right? do you have a sense, though, is this president biden doing his thing? is he having other meetings on the sidelines? are you getting anything from white house officials on this front? >> reporter: well, hallie, we were in cornwall which is british standard time. that's five hours ahead of time in washington, d.c. now we're in central european standard time. that's six hours ahead of east coast time. but we're all just living on biden time which is whenever the heck he wants to come out. we'll know when the time is right. but you're right to raise what's happening behind the scenes is what i'm thinking about. yesterday when the president touched down here in brussels, there actually was a little bit of a delay before he got off air force one and we were speculating what that could be. it turns out he was on the phone with the brand new president of israel. whenever you have these unscheduled, unprompted delays -- by the way, the president of israel is a huge

story, and i can only imagine what he's talking about, but perhaps he'll tell us when he comes out. >> perhaps he will, and if anybody is going to report on it, it will be you. mike memoli overseas. >> hallie, i thoroughly enjoyed this. >> this has been a lot of fun. thank you. our colleague picks up our coverage coming up next. s up our coverage coming up next. [ chuckles ] don't get me wrong, i love my rv, but insuring it is such a hassle. same with my boat. the insurance bills are through the roof. -[ sighs ] -be cool. i wish i could group my insurance stuff. -[ coughs ] bundle. -the house, the car, the rv. like a cluster. an insurance cluster. -woosah. -[ chuckles ] -i doubt that exists. -it's a bundle! it's a bundle, and it saves you money! hi. i'm flo from progressive, and i couldn't help but overhear... super fun beach day, everybody. ♪all by yourself.♪ you look a little lost. i can't find my hotel.

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good evening, everyone. we're waiting for president biden. he is expected to answer questions on a host of topics. we will bring it to you live as soon as it begins. the news conference comes after a day filled with meeting with nato leaders, with the president working to repair relationships with key nato allies that became frayed during the trump administration. we're going to have a lot more