♪♪ if it's wednesday, another big day in washington as president biden and the attorney general merrick garland are gearing up to talk about the strategy with the violent crime caused by gun violence. and on capitol hill, growing dilemma for democrats with progressives from their own part. the chair of the party, camilla jayapal there be here with more. and the first protester in the january 6th attack about to be sentenced just as nancy pelosi is eyeing the investigation of a select

committee to combat the siege if a bipartisan submission is doable in the senate. ♪♪ welcome to wednesday, it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd on a very busy hump day for the white house and democrats. they're dealing with the fallout, today, the president puts his focus on the issue of gun violence. democrats are struggling with both of those issues as well as democrats see an opportunity to seize a political advantage. to do anything substantive on the issue, they either need to get ten republicans to come aboard. that won't happen, or they need to convince kyrsten sinema to kill the filibuster, or some sort of middle ground which a

lot of folks seem pessimistic is even worse. but party leaders don't seem the face with the current strategy to push the bill that can't pass isn't working. >> in the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish line. let me say that again. in the might for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish line. >> other part of it is the john lewis voting rights act. which we will pass. we must pass that this year. >> the bottom line is the president and i are very clear, we support s.1, the john lewis voting rights act and the fight is not over. >> but it is, as democrats seem unwilling to relevel with their base and regroup. later today, president biden is going to deliver remarks about a recent rise in crime and gun violence, according to a study from criminologists, homicides

have risen sharply in large cities, up 20% in 2020. and up another 24% beginning to this year, lisa monaco told police chief those statistics are staggering and sobering and she also called it profoundly troubling and a bad trajectory. but the crime rate is down. and it is a bit of a nuanced story. president biden comment as will come, with the barrage of attacks from republicans to tie violence on progressive calls from police. even though most prominent democrats and a handful of quite a few progressives did not back those calls. they're struggling with combatting the politically damaging narrative that they did. what ties both of these explosive issues together, voting rights and crime, is that democratic leaders have struggled to navigate the passions of their progressives and realities of washington. mike memoli is outside the white

house for us and singh kapur is outside the white house. mike, let's talk about the biden administration to use the bully pulpit to talk about crime. it is a nuanced story because the overall crime rate is down. it's the specific in violent crime and mass shootings that is up. so, clearly, he's trying to help his party out here. what is the goal? >> reporter: well, chuck, with all thatis swirling today and around the white house today and this week on a number of fronts, it's a time that i'm reminded for all of the talk a few months ago of president biden being the most progressive since lbj or fdr he was not the most progressive in the democratic primaries. if you ask those in powerful positions in the white house the reason he became the nominee and

is the president of the united states is because he understood that progressives were a very important part of the party. and you see that in the crime strategy that the president will be laying out this afternoon. it is focused not on defunding the police but on funding the police. in fact, tying the rise in the spike of violence, especially gun violence to the pandemic and freeing up covid relief money to state and local governments to spend on things like community violence, prevention, also taking the full tools of executive actions that he can. again, the author of the crime bill for which we was pillarated in the crime bill but making sure that federally licensed firearms dealers are enforcing and following the letter of the law to the extent possible. all of this is tied, by the way, to a confirmation bill that's scheduled thursday in the judiciary committee for his apf nominee. >> right. >> reporter: then you also see this playing out in the voting rights discussion, as well as the infrastructure talks.

i think the president understands as much as anybody, how limited political capital is and is very careful about how he uses it. there are some progressives who are not happy that he hasn't been out there every day, the last days and week, to pound the republicans on this issue. the statement from the white house last night said he would speak more about this next week. hrs 1 is not necessarily the voting rights bill that joe biden would have written and knows it's doomed all along. this is the joe biden philosophy, one of those areas where you don't try to work with the republicans where opportunity, you try to go out and beat them. this is an issue for this year's administration that progressives might want to see him pounding the pavement now on. >> well, it's notable the white house chief of staff highlighted a comment on twitter about how much work behind the scenes the president is doing. today, he's got a big speech. it's not on voting rights. it's on the issue of guns.

sahil, i am intrigued how the white house is framing this. take a listen. >> from the administration's perspective, why is this happening? >> well, look, a bunch of reasons i believe, one is proliferation of guns on the streets of america. the fact that we've led the nra govern this country for far too long and the president is willing to take them on directly. two, we need to make sure that we're investing in our children that we're giving them recreation programs. our strategy to fight cram is to prevent it from happening in the first place and we're going to invest in police also. >> sahil, what intrigues me about this framing is there are some progressives that would say, hey, don't accept the premise that this rising crime rate is an issue that has to be addressed. and biden is saying, no, no, we'll accept the premise. we won't have that debate with the right. but we will have the debate with a republican governor in texas

has died there should be no more gun laws, basically. and anybody can walk around with a permit. and try to at least create a wedge for the other side. it does appear to be an attempt to keep his party on the same page, even if they disagree on things like the specifics of some parts of police reform and other issues like that. >> that's right, chuck. joe biden has been around the political arena long enough to know the political impacts of crime and how it can be devastating to the democratic party it can lead it higher rates of inequality, violent crime in particular. it can lead to the rise of strongman or law and order politicians who want to throw more people in jail. and it tends to be lower income people who bear the brunt of that. biden has been around. he has seen that happen. that's why he ended up being the author of that '94 tough on crime bill which ironically, he walked back somewhat in the campaign.

but, look one joe biden has always been, you know, good at doing, he did this in the campaign that mike memoli and i covered is balancing the demands that he thinks they want. you got to adopt and rejecting exotic ideas like defunding police and creating migration that could be poisonous outside of deep blue territory. that's what he's doing here. talking about crime and addressed the fact that violence crime is rising to a progressive issue which is gun control. a lot of this crime does come from the proliferation of guns. and he's also tying it to the pandemic and economic hardships that occurred during those lockdowns and economic shutdowns. he is tackling an issue, but doing it delicately because progressive passions are not quite on this issue. >> let me ask you this, let's transition to voting rights. mike, first to you, why hasn't the president been able to find that sweet spot with voting

rights? >> well, i think the president, he's talked about this as a battle for the soul of the country, right? that was the premise of his campaign. and voting rights is a very important part of this. but i think there is a recognition that democrats sort of maybe overpromised. remember what h.r. 1 was, it was a democratic messaging bill, that's what frees you up to introduce those kinds of messaging bills. without appreciating you need 60 votes. yes, you have a majority, you need a clear path. so, i wonder how much of a conversation there has been with the senate leadership about whether the john lewis voting rights bill should have been the one prioritized or not. but as i said, this is something that they see as a voting issue, potentially next year as an argument to get more democratic senators and not necessarily something in the place of immigration reform and other priorities that they would have liked to have moved on at this point instead.

>> sahil, it does look like there hasn't been much coordination between the white house and congressional leadership on voting rights while there is on other issues like infrastructure and guns. >> i think that's right, chuck, i think on the issue of infrastructure and economics, one of the reasons the white house is so invested in this, they see a path of getting this done with or without republicans. there is a filibuster proof track that worked on the covid relief bill that is possible with infrastructure. whether or not they got a deal with republicans that is possible on these other multitrillion economic plans that president biden wants to invest in safety net, child care. that filibuster proof track is not available on things like voting rights and immigration and gun control. which is one of the reasons why the white house has been less overtly and publicly invested in that. they see where the math is, and they're putting their chips where they're more likely than not to yield dividends, chuck.

>> sahil kapur, mike memoli, appreciate it. i want to bring in congresswoman camilla jayapal. congresswoman, good to talk with you. let me start with what -- i'm going to ask you what i think appears to be the divide among democrats right now and sort of the different factions. do you think it is a divide on tactics, more than it is on substance, particularly on voting rights? >> chuck, it's great to see you. and i absolutely think that we are united as democrats on the goals of making sure we have free and fair elections. that the vote is not being suppressed. and i think the question is how to get it done. we progressives have obviously been saying for some time that the filibuster is stopping and blocking essential reforms that the american people across party lines support. and voting rights is one of those very important issues. and i would say, frankly, it's one of the most urgent issues.

what's a democracy, if you don't have the ability for people to vote. and with the extended republican bills that are passing in state legislatures, on a partisan basis. we cannot be fooled into thinking that somehow there's going to be bipartisan support for the kinds of voting right reforms we need. >> let me ask you about h.v. 1, you brought up what's happened in the states. this bill was written before that. it was not a reaction of the states. in fact, some say, hey, h.r. 1 and even h.r. 4, although we can make often argument that the voting rights may actually be a tool to deal with the administration changes taking place. but the real undemocratic changes that have been made are not the voting hurdles. it's who counts the vote, right? who gets to decide what a valid vote is.

with voter suppression, at least you see where the hurdles are. and you know you can climb the hurdle. if you have unfair umpires, there's nothing you can do about that. is it fair to say this legislation doesn't address that issue? >> no, i mean, that we actually have had a lot of experience in voter suppression over many years. that's what led to h.r. 1 and that's what led to the incredible popularity amongst the american people before h.r. 1. so, it's not like we haven't seen these things happening. it's just that they're happening with tremendous speed and with a brazenness that is stunning to me, really. that republican-led legislatures are putting forward some bold tactics as denying people who are standing in line water, you know, targeting black voters in particular, to make sure they can't do to the polls, by changing the timing when election polling places can open. these are kinds of things that

perhaps in detail they are brazen, but they're not in terms of substance of how we see voter suppression happening. so this bill, h.r. 1 may not fix every single problem. but it certainly fixes a vast majority of problems combined with the john lewis voting rights act which actually says we need to do these fixes to the voting rights act. but these two things go hand in hand. they're not to be traded off once again the other, they both need to be done and done urgently. >> i guess the question i have is -- i want to put up something that speaker pelosi said. she said democrats will not be deterred in our fight for the people act. our republic is at a crossing roads and it's it up to us to save it. they also said the voting rights is so important, and i guess you take it instead of focusing on h.r. 1, that instead focused on

the john lewis voting rights act first, where at least there's a history of republicans supporting it, that that wouldn't have made your point stronger if they did end up filibustering? wouldn't be it easier to do h.r. 1 than 4, and have ground to go after manchin and sinema. >> i think they were both written by john lewis. but i think the important thing is to look at republicans, regarding of which of these voting rights bills are passed or sort of the first ones to be tested. the reality is there's ample evidence that republicans are not going to go along with this. i think on h.r. 1, i could make other arguments to you about how-those pieces are incredibly popular across the country on

the way people understand directly and impact on themselves. on the john lewis voting rights act, there are other reasons to put forward, but not everyone understands the detail of preclearance. so, i think there are different reasons. the reality is the republicans are the same republicans, regardless of which bill they're talking about. they're not going to come along. certainly not in a public that is -- you know, sufficient enough to override the filibuster. i actually think, chuck, if you brought either one of these bills up and you did not have a filibuster, you would see bipartisan bills. you would see a couple of republicans coming forward and voting with democrats. ones that still have a conscience, and are interested in preserving voting and understand it's the basis of our democracy. but with a 60-vote threshold, that doesn't happen. at the same time, this is urgent. which is why i think the president has to lean into it, not just publicly behind the

scenes, but in full view of the american people that are watching their rights being stripped away state after state after state. >> you just transitioned to the next question i want to ask, what do you want to see from the white house. it sounds to me the point i heard earlier which is they make their choices on what he gives public speeches on and what he doesn't. there's been one major speech he gave, it was on tulsa, on voting rights. i take it, you don't think he's done enough publicly? >> he had a tremendous amount in front of him when he came in. he needed to focus on the rescue package and infrastructure and families plan. but yes, now, i think he needs to do more on the issue. it is so fundamental to how the democracy works. we need the president of the united states weighing in publicly on what is. happening. i'm telling you, chuck, i am hearing every single day from people across the country in different states. i met with the texas legislators

when they were here. we have a full meeting with them again this friday. and we are hearing from the states about how desolate they feel about what's happening. and now urgent it is that the federal government step in. the president needs to say that from his bully pulpit. >> i want to ask about the issue of crime. we're going to hear the president address it, focusing a bit on the gun issues. look, seattle's had its challenges. and i take it the city is sometimes a tough place to govern because i've noticed a lot of mayors don't like to seek re-election. i'm curious on your take, what you see on the ground in seattle, and how you would advise president biden to address the crime issue? >> well, chuck, i'm so proud to say that seattle -- of all of the major cities in the country had the biggest influx of people in the last few years. we are continuing to see people want to come to seattle because it is an amazing place, really

innovative. and i think a lot of what goes out on the media is not actually accurate. we have some increases in, you know, certain types of crimes. but if you look across the board, seattle is continuing to manage this, as are many other cities. we believe what i saw cedric richmond saying which is we've passed bills on gun reform, sensible gun reforms in the house. those need to be taken up in the senate so we can actually control the number of guns that are on the streets. and we believe that something like the jobs and families plan is actually what is needed to build a strong stable foundation for people, as we continue to support community ideas for community safety. that's ultimately where we are. and i think that a lot of what people say about seattle has to constantly say, have you been there. have you come and seen us. to know that we're number one for where people want to work. companies locating and people moving in. so, i would just invite

everybody to come out and see our beautiful city. >> oh, please, it's my wife's favorite place that she's lived other than here. so, the love for seattle runs deep in my household, i promise you that. very quickly, i notice the phrase -- the phrase defund the police, is that a phrase you'd like to see go away? >> i just think it has created divisions that are, you know, sometimes, exploited by the other side. at the end of the day, again, we are united by the police that we need accountability for law enforcement. that is why we passed the george floyd justice and policing act. and i think it needs to stay very, very strong. at the end of the day, we also believe that local communities know what they need to do, as far as community safety. so, those two things have to go together. and i think that's where we're going to be. >> congresswoman camilla jayapal from seattle. good to talk to you, democrat

from seattle, washington. >> thank you, chuck, come visit us. >> oh, we will. up ahead, president biden speaks on crime. we'll hear from the law enforcement veteran about the latest from congress on the police reform. plus, the delta variant keeps spreading, we're going to talk with the governor of louisiana, governor edwards. but first, president biden was those honoring the legacy of the longtime senator john warner. the influential republican died last month at the age of 94, he was known as a statesman of willingness to reach across the aisle. >> every senator wears the pride of his or her state on their leave. but john's love for the people of virginia was something special. and they loved him back, kept re-electing him. because they knew john

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welcome back. as we mentioned at the top of the show, the biden administration is turning their attention to gun violence as negotiations continue on capitol hill, and the issue ris me form and murder rates have skyrocketed during the pandemic. preliminary data reported overall violent crime went down, murder and nonnegligent homicide rose. the report on criminal justice paints an even darker picture. violent crime rates, and gun assault which we expected president to highlight rogs 8%.

joining me, a former dekalb county police commissioner and county executive. cedric, this is a place where social media and sometimes, hot take headlines missed the nuance. as somebody who has delved into these crime statistics for so long, this seems to be an unusual that we have, where we have a rising violent crime rate, but a declining overall crime rate. what does that tell you? >> well, first of all, let me say this, chuck, thank you for having me. >> of course. >> but here's what we have to look at. for over a decade now, prior to covid, we had experienced a reduction in violent crime across this country. and just prior to covid, we began to see an uptick in those numbers. then covid hit. the company became disarrayed.

all of the other social issues that you can imagine certainly were affected by the pandemic in and of itself. so, here we are coming out of this pandemic. but let me be clear about something, from my estimation, this is not because of covid. this is because what was beginning to emerge event before covid. and then covid hit made this much more challenging. but we have to get to the root causes of these issues in our country. and hopefully, that will be addressed by the president today. and that certainly includes unemployment for both adults and youth. it includes housing, homesness, mental health, all of these social issues, chuck, we talk so much about, having a profound impact on an uptick in crime in this country. while we're doing this, we also have communities across the country who are negative engaged with local police, asking for reforms to take place. and we're going to have to find a way to do both of that, at the same time. and they are doable. >> well, you know, funny you

bring that up, let me go there first. because striking that balance, right, you're hearing -- you're hearing a lot of anecdotal evidence that police recruiting has plummeted. how much of that do you attribute to what's been frankly i think plummeting in the popularity of that job overall. >> well, if you consider all of the anecdoal information that we received and important in the days and months ahead, certainly we've got to look at evidence-based programs that we know work around crime. but we as got to lean to the academy researchers to give us a better idea. look, when it comes to policing leaving the jobs we're going to have a certain amount of attrition anyway. you compound that with you'll have a lot of police agencies

certainly feeling demoralized and criticized because of actions of a few. but it certainly has attained policing across this country in a way that has had an adverse effect. yes, you'll have those who go ahead and decide to retire, et cetera. but the flip side of that, chuck, when it comes to recruitment, we also have to keep in mind this, is that it also becomes difficult to recruit. not just because of how young people seeing police are treated. they also struggle with the fact of some of the actions of police, young millennials, xs and ys are not happy about that's keeping them away from finding a profession as well. this is all anecdotal. but this is what we have. but certainly we're losing police officers across the country. that has to be attended to. we have to get our arms around a lot of things, crime, and

reform, and maintaining those relationships and supporting police across our country. because at this very moment, in this violence that we're living in, we've got to have police, we've got to have good supervised policing as well. >> so, let's talk about the specific issue. we have this rising murder rate, but, you know, we've seen, and i have my own theory as to why the nonviolent crime may be down. frankly, i think that nobody thinks they can get away with anything, you're not going to -- robberies and those things might be down because of that, i don't know. i'd love to see research on that. but what would you be doing as a police chief to deal with the rising murder rate? is it more cops on the street? is it more -- is it tighter federal gun laws or more tools to deal with gun trafficking. i know you have an all of the above approach, if you could focus on one or two, what would

it be? >> primarily, what's going to have to happen in many communities across this country, first things first, we have to encourage them and motivate that there are communities supporting them and we always hope that internal police and external police are going to have the responsibility because they're hurting us. that is what has to be done immediately. we have to win our police departments back and let them know we support them. secondly to that, whatever personnel power you do have. whether too many officers or not. we got to devise new strategies and things prior to covid that we did do that worked well. look at some of those techniques and strategies that worked for us. because we're in the here and now moment. hopefully, as we recruit. hopefully, as we train and do a better job of doing that, that is more long term. but in the immediate moment that we're in, it's all hands on

deck. it's all men and women in our police departments. >> yeah. >> but joined by our communities, chuck, that is going to address the issues here and now. they both need to be supportive of each other. everything that you hear the president talk about today is going to be long term. what we need immediate action to stop this that is going on across the country on violent crime. >> said deliberation alexander, former police chief of illinois, thanks to get your perspective, sir. thank you. >> thank you. coming up, multiple developments today in the prosecution surrounding the january 6th insurrectionists. on the first sentencing and a get plea, in one of high-level cases involving a member of the oath keepers. out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster,

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fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. welcome back. we have some new developments in the criminal case stemming from the january 6th attack. a second person accused of being a member of the oath keepers has reached a plea guilty. and the 49-year-old grandmother is the first to be sentenced in the january 6th capitol riot. scott is joining me now. scott, i'm curious, are either of these folks cooperating as part of these -- >> reporter: that's a great question, chuck. yeah, one is going to cooperate. one need not. this is the most impactful day in the prosecution since january

6th. we'll start with the first person who is going to be sentenced today. she's anna morgan-lloyd, grandmother of indiana. not accused of any damage here on january 6th. not accused of assault anyone, a lower-level case but an important one because the first to go to sentencing and gives the first tea leaves to read. the defense is going to ask for three years of probation. anna morgan-lloyd is going to ask for a few days of community service. we'll see where the judge goes. some down the middle or lean toward prosecutors or either of those barriers. it will be an indication how judges will sentence in lower cases. they're not go for cooperation, it's a lower-level case. the second case from oath keeper that happens in d.c. federal court that could come with requirement of cooperation. the first accused oath keeper, john sheaffer of indiana, they mentioned the possibility of protection before his formal

sentencing. the second is graydon young. he pleads at 2:00 p.m. d.c. time. he faces a conspiracy charge, an assault charge. this is the epicenter of the prosecutions. the fbi has said as much the far right group members accused of plotting and planning bringing encrypted communication, bringing military gear. using that military stack formation to reach the police line, very interesting to hear what's said in court at 2:00. one footnote on anna morgan-lloyd, the sentencing, let's see what she has to say for herself? does she mention donald trump? did she mention what happened this day? does she apologize? really impactful day so far. >> no doubt, and having somebody on the record pleading guilty to conspiracy i think tells you where this could be headed down the road. scott macfarlane for us. scott, thank you. up next, the vaccination rates in southern states aren't

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there is a danger, a real danger, that if there is a persistence of a recalcitrance to getting vaccinated that you can could see localized surges. which is the reason why i want to emphasize what all four of us have said, all of that is totally and completely avoidable by getting vaccinated. >> welcome back. that was dr. fauci. he's continuing to push folks to get vaccinated especially as the variant is on the rise. now accounts for 20% of cases in the u.s. and it's been doubling about every two weeks. and the places at risk are the places with the least number of people vaccinated. as sadly as that. according to the cdc, four states have vaccinated less than half of the adults with at least one shot.

one of those states is louisiana. their governor edwards joins us now. governor, i know it's not a list you want louisiana to be on. so, tell us, tell the feds, what do you think isn't being done that could be done that would help increase your vaccination rate? >> well, first of all, chuck, thank you for having me on. this is an extremely important topic. there's not a more important thing going on in the state of louisiana and in the country. you're right, we need more people to be vaccinated and happen quickly. here in louisiana, we're not where we want to be. we do understand that individuals have a choice in this matter. obviously, we want to dispel hesitancy, and that happens in large part when you answer people's questions about the vaccines so that they have can confidence about safety and efficacy. but also, i believe it will help warrant the emergency use authorization for the full

licensure of the vaccine. because we have a number of individuals with the influence of when they get vaccinated as well. we obviously have a lot of work to do. in terms of the feds, i will tell you, they've been really good partners. and we just -- we just have more to do here in louisiana. you know, for example, there's over 1500 locations in the state of louisiana where people can get vaccinated. we're doing community events. we'll go to places of employment. we'll go to churches. we'll go to homes, of people who are home bound. we just have more work to do. i'm optimistic that i win back the louisiana campaign. we'll continue to increase. and we're just shy of 50% of 18 and over of at least one shot. i think we're going to get there in the near term. and as you probably know, we want the shot at 1 million to get more people vaccinated

sooner rather than later. >> look, there's carrots and there's sticks. and i understand what you said early on that, you know, people have a choice. but, you know, at some point, you have to have certain vaccines if you want to enroll in public school. where are you on this issue post full fda approval of these vaccines? do you think that maybe vaccine requirements might end up being the only way we can get to a 70 or 80% vaccination rate? >> well, i hope it doesn't take that. but, certainly, once we have full fda licensure, i would expect that the covid-19 vaccines will be on the list of the mandated vaccines for high rate just like we've had vaccinations mandated for many, many years. there's no reason not to have the pfizer and moderna vaccines right here on that list as well. but we're not there yet. and i will tell you that, we've

got work to do, obviously. we're optimistic that we're going to see an increase. and by the way, part of thissing out ought to come with understanding how it is happening, it's transmitted, and that it results in more serious cases and more death. and that might help people to get vaccinated as well. but, you know, the hesitancy, really, i don't think you can scare them into being vaccinated. you have to make sure addressing their questions, meeting them where they are, and dispelling the hesitancy as best you can. and that's certainly what we're doing right now, chuck. >> governor, what does it say about our information ecosystem? i mean, it seems pretty clear to me that they're just -- you know, either misinformation is having an impact. or no information. whatever it is. but it certainly looks -- you can't help but notice the

political correlation between certain areas of vaccination rates being high. and certain areas being low. is this a consequence of our poisoned media ecosystem? >> i certainly think that adds into it. and i'm at a loss to understand why people are as they are after all of this time. you know, we've had 10,700 deaths in louisiana. we have had a day that we reported zero deaths. 99.9% of those 10,700 deaths were among the unvaccinated. and yet, we still have people out they're not engaged or if not engaged they're getting their information from unreliable sources.

and we're working as hard as we can to dispel the myths out there. and we obviously have a lot of work to do. chuck, we're not giving up. we're going to work extremely hard so people will make the choice to get vaccinated. >> speaking of unreliable information, you set to veto a bill that i guess would make it harder for trans-kids to play sports in school. in your veto message, you said you seem to think this is a solution searching for a problem. again, this feels like a legislature that is responding to a broken media ecosystem? >> well, look, the bill was a solution in search of a problem, because it was not any testimony in the legislature. even though the bill indicated that any of this is happening on louisiana. but we know that the bill itself presents a problem because these

are children by definition. and they're some of the most emotionally fragile people in the state. so the full weight of the state behind them and i believe it's unnecessary to use a sports metaphor, and on top of that, to be the host of ncaa championship events and so forth going forward which is really an anchor of so much of our economy mere in louisiana. so, it just didn't seem like there was any real reason to do it. i know the author of the legislation. she's a good person. i mean, we just see this issue differently. but i'm hopeful that the legislature will reconsider what they did. and we won't pursue that path because it is totally unnecessary. and i believe would create a problem where otherwise isn't.

>> john be bel edwards, thank y. governor of louisiana. i look forward to going to new orleans to watch my hurricanes win a national title. >> let's get it done. coming up, we're live in another part of the country struggling with vaccinations. that happens to be the area represented by the controversial congresswoman lauren. that's next. congresswoman lauren that's next. it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win.

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hi, i'm debra. i'm from colorado. i've been married to my high school sweetheart for 35 years. i'm a mother of four-- always busy. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen and then i started taking it about two years now. started noticing things a little sharper, a little clearer. i feel like it's kept me on my game. i'm able to remember things. i'd say give it a try. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. welcome back. as you heard before the break, concerns about the delta variant

are on the rise across the country but especially places where vaccinations lag. one of those places, mesa county, colorado. vaccination rates are below the rest of the state and it's dragging down the state's covid numbers. colorado has also more delta cases more than any other state in the country right now. again, when you look at it, there's a political divide potentially explanation for it. joining me from grand junction, colorado, mesa county, west of the rockies is dasha burns. dasha, this is a case where you can't just look at the state's overall rate to tell the story. >> reporter: yeah, chuck, it feels like a tragic case of deja vu standing in front of a hospital, mesa county, 95% right now, they're seeing numbers comparable to november when they had their peak but things are very different than they were back then because there is a

vaccine that can prevent all of this but mesa county is lagging significantly behind the rest of the state when it comes to vaccination rates. and experts here tell me that is the biggest factor and biggest concern. chuck, look, this is a conservative, more rural county, this is congresswoman lauren boebert's district where folks pride themselves on personal choice. on lack of government intervention. and in this case, that has translated to vaccine hesitancy. and misinformation that has resulted in a pretty tough information behind the doors of this hospital and others in the area. speaking to the president of community hospital here, he tells me the way to combat this is not going to be from the top-down approaches from the state lottery, it's really going to have to be community driven, but political leaders have can have influence. folks came in and got

vaccinated. but it does come back to the politics. meantime, the nurses here watching the other states get back to normal while they're really in the thick of things here, chuck. >> well, dasha, you bring up something that's been a real shame, that the former president did not get vaccinated so that people could actually see him get vaccinated. we only had to take this word for it. dasha, thank you. before we go, a reminder, we're partnering the american film institute, docs, watch the film now. that's does it for this hour. and msnbc coverage continues with geoff bennett, right after this break. ♪ ♪ are you down, down♪ ♪d-down, down? are you♪ drivers who switched saved over $700. ♪ allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less.

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♪♪ it's great to be with you i'm geoff bennett. as we come on the air this hour the president is about to hold a white house summit with community leaders on the rise of gun violence in american cities since the start of the pandemic. we'll have my interview with one