them, unnecessarily. concerns are growing for other buildings in the area. >> and later, just days ahead of the 4th of july, the last remaining u.s. troops officially left bagram air force base in afghanistan marking a decade of a military presence. a live report from kabul just ahead. welcome to friday, it is "meet the press." i'm chuck todd. we have a bit of an ominous briefing yesterday from public health officials as officials hit airports and roads and are

set to break pandemic levels. this morning while delivering remarks about the covid recovery, president biden laid out his concerns as the u.s. is sadly set to fall short of his u.s. vaccination goal. >> i'm concerned that people who have not gotten vaccinated have the capacity to catch the variant and spread it to other people who have not been vaccinated. i'm not concerned that there will be a major outbreak, in other words, that we're going to have another epidemic nationwide. there is a concern that lives will be lost. >> a lot of lives have been and will be lost. and inany cases right now completely unnecessary. last month we lost about 10,000

americans from the virus. it's really tragic because around 99% of them would be alive today had they been vaccinated. that is based on recent cdc data. the uncomfortable truth is that when it comes to vaccinates there are one of two americans of the 19 states that surpassed the goal, all voted for biden. of the ones far below the average numbers voted for trump. here is a piece of our conversation. >> let's talk about the delta variant. it is clearly the most transmissible variant yet. is it lethal, how concerned are you that it could cause another spike in this country.

>> i don't think you're going to see anything nationwide because fortunately we have a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated. so it will be regional. and that is the thing that will be confusing when people look at what we do. we're going to see, and i said almost two types of america. those regions of america that are highly vaccinated, and in some places some states, some cities, some areas with a level of vaccination that is low and the level of virus dissemination is high. that is where you're going to see the spikes. >> again you can catch my full interview with dr. fauci on sunday on "meet the press." we're going to focus on a deep dive on how covid changed our lives. we have dr. vin gupta, i want to

dive into this. a race between our vaccines and the variants. the bad news is that the variants have probably a lot more running room right now because the vaccines are not widespread enough. >> yeah, that's right. the vaccines are still holding up to the lofty expectations that we had for them. they are still working against the variants, but the variants are pummelling vaccinated communities. it is the less that the vaccine shield is likely to hold. firstly because they're imperfect. they're very good, but they're not 100%. that means if community transmission is very high, there will be more breakthrough cases.

also the more that the virus tears through unvaccinated communities the more of a chance it has to more variants. it is the protections that the vaccines afforded us. >> i'm going to play what was said yesterday. i imagine that you will jump off of her comments. let me play you what she said. >> we continue to see overall low numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. however looking state by state and county by county it is clear that community that's are unvaccinated are communities that are vulnerable. as it continues to spread we expect to see transmission in the communities unless we can

vaccinate more people now. >> you know, dr. dup ta gupta, to say that it is concerting. the fact that we had 10,000 americans die in june, and you sit there and you think about them being completely preventable. we could think about the first 199,000 deaths. how many were preventable deaths. but we know right now that these vaccines were available for everybody and basically 99% of these deaths were unavoidable. somehow we're still having these deaths. it is beyond frustrating. it is beyond alarming. it is also a bit sad. >> yeah, chuck, good afternoon, good to see you. what i will say is that it is frustrating as a clinician, a

30-year-old with the rest of their live in front of them, they're coming into my hospitals and going into intensive care. they're going into the course of 2021, the notion that the threat that existed in late 2019 and 2020, we had known that if you're vulnerable or say 70 or 80 years old with a pre-existing condition, you end up on a ventilator. that had a residual effect on how young people think of covid. we need to maybe label it difficultly but this changed and the message is not getting through. 20% and 30% levels of vaccine upticks at this moment. colleges in nashville are seeing spikes, a 70% increase in

emergency room cases. the variants will call regional surges like dr. fauci mentioned. >> so ed, you were talking with quite a few folks that we're going to have a little bit of a hint this summer in the south on just how -- what do we expect to learn this summer in the south given these vaccinations. >> i think we saw last year that the virus, even the vanilla original virus given the opportunity. ff it happens this year it gives us worrying indications of what we might expect in the fall and winter perhaps as protections,

other protections ease off even further. they are taking part in the protections that vaccines offer and a lot of what we're seeing for vaccination rates are also still to do with difficulties of access. the idea that because people are eligible for the vaccine. there is some vaccinations, and we should not turn our backs on people that are vaccinated, we should try to get them better access to these shots and better

trust in the medical system. a lot of these folks are being mislead. i think that is part of it. we have a massive misinformation problem. we know this, we know the social media impact on the behavior. there has been attempts to go more local with the shot to do these things. but you had many employers, perhaps they're too hesitant to help out with this. what would improve the access in in some of them.

they are in the side effects from the mrna. >> dr. gupta, do you think we could do, you mentioned the issue of young they took comfort in the fact that they are preying on older and more vulnerable populations and that there was perhaps some immunities that they would have from it. what other ideas do you think we're doing. this i a constantly moving effort. whether or not it is mobile

clinics personally and and i have been involved with an effort to answer questions. it is tougher to scale to millions of young people. that's why engagement with their medical provider, people they trust is vital. i will say quickly with the johnson and johnson information released yesterday that we need to start more clearly discussing and defining to the american people, an excess of options here in the country. six months ago, and i was at the top saying this, getting the first vaccine available to you to take them to the hospital. we have encouraging data about johnson and johnson versus the

delta variant and averting serious illness. the question that i get from young people, especially young parents, is what happens if i go unmasked. i come back home and i remain unmasked. there is likely a difference in the ability to transmit the virus. especially with a changing threat paradigm with all of these variants. we need to delve into that detail. >> i know we talked about doing everything we can to get people to vaccinate. would it mandate a little stick here. i think they're an issue of

trust. trying to build trust where it has been lacking, not just in terms of misinformation but long brewing medical trust especially among minority groups. i think they're going to do a lot better to improve vaccination rated by rebuilding that trust in community that's have many of them have good reasons to lack it. >> well, there are, unfortunately some people doing misinformation because perhaps they think it is good ratings for whatever reason or taking advantage of people and that, sadly, is putting people's lives at risk. i appreciate you leading us off in this discussion. speaking of other issues, we're just 32 days into hurricane season, and we have reached our fifth named storm.

tropical storm elsa has turned into a hurricane and the caribbean islands are under high alert. warnings have also been issued for the st. lucia island as well. right now the entire state of florida on the panhandle is in the cone of uncertainty. we'll keep a close eye on the storm and bring you updates as we get them throughout the weekend. coming up, back to surfside. what we now know on day nine of the search for survivors. we'll be live with a full report next. later what we just heard about june's job report and what the numbers could mean for the hefty infrastructure package on the hill. senator angus king, the independent, will be here on our show. we'll be right back. will be her show we'll be right back.

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zlmplgt what is the situation

today and how much is weather not cooperating. >> yeah, i mean they're out there working. this is probably the only day in the last six or seven days where it has not been raining at some point. we know what is likely around the corner at this point. you mentioned them wanting to remove the remaining structure. they want to make sure there is not a situation or a scenario where workers are unable to keep searching for people or recover bodies that may be under that rubble. but taking down that building, that will take time. weeks, most likely, and obviously we could feel the effects of hurricane sa as early as sunday night. i'm told that we could start to see equipment moving out of the area here any minute. and that initially when people start to see things move it is

equipment leaving and it doesn't mean that rescue efforts are stopping. i spoke with a firefighter and she said that what is first is things not being used in the active search and rescue effort. she said they will keep searching until they're forced to leave that pile of rubble and if they're told to go they will be back as soon as it is safe, as soon as the storm passes and they're able to return to that mound. they say they will be the first ones pack on site, and they want them to know that the families of those missing, they come back. >> we're not going anywhere. and we expressed that to them today in the family meeting. explained to them that once the greenlight is given every piece of equipment can come back and rescuers can be allowed back on the pile even without the rest

of the equipment being here we'll be back to work. the last ones to leave and the first to be back. >> 20 lives lost in this building collapse. 128 people still unaccounted for. this is the 9th day of rescue efforts. >> alison barber on the ground. i'm now with the man who has been put in charge with the building collapse recovery. let's start with the issue of the remaining part of the building. it will obviously have to come down. how does that process work? and how does that fit into your investigation? one part of the building is one that is severely damaged.

and i believe the building will be, when it is taken down, it will be in three pieces. before it is taken down, which we have been trying, working in the last couple days to work out. either before it is taken down or after it is taken down, the debris will be taken to a secure site and we'll be looking at the debris to learn things about the materials and how they're put together and everything. >> i got to they with this hurricane coming, and look there is, i'm a south floridan. we know they can take a lot of weird turns, but if south florida is going to get a version of this, this can't be the debris, itself, could become problematic for the area. what's the best way to secure the site in preparing for the

storm? >> well, we're doing some computer models now that we should have done by tonight or tomorrow that are proving what load we think it can sustain given the condition it's in. the issue is is if we're going to get those wind blows you're not able to do anything to shore up the building in the time frame. and not in a very long time frame. it will be to get the rescue people off of the debris pile so they can't be hurt if parts or bigger parts of this builden are blown down by the hurricane. that is the only thing that you can do. >> so let's talk about your investigation. obviously i'm guessing this will take months. you're going to want to look at everything you can of that building and how much do you want to -- how much of your

investigation do you want to conduct before the rest of that building is brought down? how much is there to learn, do you believe, in your investigation before you make the decision to have that controlled demolition for the rest of that building? >> we started the investigation last friday and we're looking at drawings, looking at information. listening to what people saw or thought they saw or heard. and all of that is being put together. when we do these investigations we start with what are the responsible causes that could make this happen, and you end up with 20, 30, 40, whatever, absolute possible causes. and then you essentially attempt to eliminate them as you get the information. you're looking for the trigger mechanism. the building sat there for 40

years and it didn't come down. so you try to find a trigger. you look at the original design drawings. the tests that we're doing, and then you say okay, so this thing wasn't perfect, no building we have ever been involved in is perfect, and there are design mistakes sometimes. and you say if this was the trigger, or possible triggers, if that one thing would have been perfect, would it have still happened? so you go through a huge chinese puzzle of throwing four or five puzzles in the air, mix them up and try to figure it out. that is the process that we're going through. >> you toured the north building, what did you learn and i'm curious, would you, the mayor of surfside said he would not sleep in that building, would you? >> yes, i would. more important than that is would i allow my kids or grand kids to sleep in that building

because i'm 80 years old. yes, i would let my kids, based on what i have seen on the exposed and visible conditions, mainly the garage, i would let my family stay in that building, yes, sir. >> what did you learn from that building in a you think will help you understand what happened in the south building? >> i'm not sure that there is anything that we have learned great that building that will help us on the south building. i just could see the exposed and visible conditions. now we may be doing some nondestructive or possibly destructive testing in the north building and we will test those and compare them. so we might use them as part of a science experiment, seeing how that compares to what we find out the south building was.

well, i'll tell you this. i was going to ask you if you had a running hypothesis and you said there is about 40. so i imagine we'll be checking in. >> the u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan is nearly complete as we inch closer. we have the latest on what it means live from kabul, next. it means livero fm kabul, next. (vo) singing, or speaking. reason, or fun. daring, or thoughtful. sensitive, or strong. progress isn't either or progress is everything.

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one way we're making a difference. afghanistan's bagram air base is now back in the hands of the afghans. more than 100,000 american troops passed through the gates. the withdrawal is a majorstep toward withdrawaling nearly all u.s. troops. this feels like we're moving faster than that. richard engel is in kabul and witnessing what it happening. so symbolically leaving bagrum feels like we left. so after this how many more u.s. troops are there before we are totally gone? >> so it is more than a symbol

in is a major base. it was the center for a lot of operations in and around kabul. one of the first bases established after 9/11. they came to look for osama bin laden. how many more troops are left is something of a military secret. they pulled out very quietly siting security concerns. they're not saying how long it wi take or where the troops are coming from. where the next withdrawals will be, how many have been taken out, when it will be completed. there was reporting that it could be completed in the next several days. i'm getting guidance that it might not be done in the next several days, but it is really just guidance. we don't know. the military is trying to keep this very quiet. and that is understandable because there is still the

taliban here and there is a surge risk to american forces being fired on as they're leaving. the other side of it is as american troops are leaving after 20 years and not really projecting what they're doing it creates a lot of uncertainly. the taliban will take over, they are leaving them in the dead of night, after not saying a proper goodbye. and they're making inroads. some of the district centers they're taking without even fighting as afghanistan security forces, police and soldiers, are handing them over, handing over their weapons, and collapsing as their life support, the american troops, are leaving. very quickly, can the afghanistan security forces be able to hold on to bagram? >> holding on to the bagram,

potentially, but the afghan security forces are already starting to fracture. what we're seeing now is the war lords in afghanistan, and there are many war lords regionally based predominantly, trying to form a coalition to back up the afghan security forces. so a lot of the old war lords from before the american presence here are starting to reemerge and bring their guns out. and it is going to be very difficult to create unity. so you have a dynamic where you have americans leaving and the taliban for say loose coalition of everybody else. some people say it is a formula for civil war. >> yeah, well, everything old is sadly new again it looks like in the country that is afghanistan. richard, thank you, up next, president biden's reacting to

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the last time the economy grew at this rate was 1984 and ronald reagan was telling us it's mourning in america. it is close to afternoon here and the sun is coming out. our economy is on the move and we have covid-19 on the run. welcome back. that was president biden discussing the new jobs numbers. beating expectations from economists. the unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged. but we still have 5.9 million americans out of work and the economy is still transforming

amid the coronavirus pandemic. we still have a lot of people that have not goten back into the workforce. this is as congress debates infrastructure measures to put trillions of dollars into the economy. it is maine's independent senator angus king to caucuses with the democrats. we made this a nearly decade long annual tradition. good to see you. >> good to see you, chuck. >> let me start with look, our economy appears to be on the move, in the words of president biden, and that lead to a debate about how much more stimulus, how much more investment from the government is necessary. i know you guys were on this bipartisan infrastructure deal, but what is a moving economy do to the reconciliation debate taking place inside of

democratic party. >> well, i think we have to take account of what is happening in the economy, and i would separate the infrastructure from the stimulus. the real intent is to shore up the basic building blocks of our economy of roads, bridges, highways, and rail and broadband. it will stimulate jobs and the economy, but this is -- this is a one in the a generation paying down of deferred maintenance, if you will. so getting the infrastructure package done is the first job. and then we can talk about what additional stimulus or indeed, is it stimulus or simply shoring up some places that really need help like homecare, childcare, and those kinds of things. one of the reasons people are not going back to work is a lack of childcare. if you have a 7-year-old and a

9-year-old at home you can't get anyone to take care of them and you can't go to work. >> how much deficit spending are you comfortable with? it appears there will be some pay fors in this package, some pay fors in the larger, let's call it the human infrastructure package that the democrats only bill being worked on, there will be some pay fors there. but it is clear there will be additions to the deficit there. how much are you comfortable with. >> i'm not comfortable with very much because we're already in such a deep hole. to me the only way to get out of a hole is to stop digging. the last thing that we were talking about was pay fors. i think whatever, going forward, should be pretty close to deficit neutral. simply because we were in this hole and our kids will have to bail us out of it and i don't

think the worry about the deficit is not an abstract concern, it's interest rates. interest rates going back to anything close to normal we'll have over $1 trillion a year of debt service payments by the federal government. so that is the thing that everybody, progressives, conservatives, everybody ought to be worried about that. if you're in a hole, stop digging. >> so would you not support a bill if -- would you not support a bill if say it is a $3 trillion reconciliation and they have $2 trillion in pay fors? >> first, don't negotiate over television. i'm not going to draw a line right now. i'll see what the circumstances are at the time. what is being recommended. but my inclination is to want it to be close to being paid for.

you have to define close. >> all right, let's -- >> fair enough. i'm trying to get you to define close. i hear you, it is all subjective and no one wants to show their cards. i asked aoc and she said the number is not important, it's what's in it. you have all learned this lesson. let me ask you about the broad center in american politics. let me show you this most recent nbc pole. favorable ratings of the two parties and the two presidents. the former and the current. the republican party, the democrat party, both under 40% favorable. donald trump at 32% favorable. his coalition is bigger than the democratic party. it includes people like yourself in this broad center. is it a strong enough center to

sort of stick or are we going to continue to see this vacillation between the two parties. >> well, i think you put your finger on a real problem. and i have not seen a lot written about this, but the real danger of the political situation that we're in right now is the fact that compromising is seen as a politically dangerous or deadly thing to do. you know this is 4th of july weekend. the founding of the country. and this country was founded on compromise if those folks at that convention in 1787 had not compromised on a lot of things, we would not have a country, or we would not have a constitution. so the real danger that we have now is with these gerrymandered districts. if you're viewed as someone that

will listen to the other side and have a compromise, you can lose your seat just for that. that is very dangerous in our ability to get something done. >> how much of this is a communications problem. there is plenty of polling work that shows a broad center that want this is consensus. but the conversation and those with the mega phones are the two political bases. and they denounce those efforts. and we see what happens in primaries. it feels like we're really disconnected here before the majority of what americans want and what a majority of americans hear. >> i think the problem is that that broad center that you talk about doesn't vote in primaries. if you have a gerrymandered congressional district that is 20 points republican or democrat, you have to be furthest to the left or right to win that primary. the center gets left out. that's one of the problems of the primary system. it was invented to open up

democracy and control over who we nominate, but principally the activist vote, so the center doesn't have a constituency in the primary. there is no incentive for you to compromise with the other side. all of the incentives are to not do it. not to somebody who is drying to be reasonable. i spoke to a senator facing a right-wing primary. he said they're going to charge me with being reasonable. we're in trouble when that is a deadly sin in politics. >> yep. you said it very well. senaor angus king, the independent from maine, who caucuses with democrats, happy independence day, sir. >> you got it, thank you. i'm going to speak with

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can you name them? could you name as many as you can remember? >> oh, good lord. >> florida. there was -- ga bard or gib-bard? >> elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and the guy from texas. oh. >> oh, bay -- bedo o'rourke. >> and the guys from texas, the twin brothers and whatever their names are. >> welcome back. anyway the guy with the twin brothers is julio castro and he is up next, and we will talk to some of the 2021 candidates about the state of the

democratic party, and no one better than julio castro, because the biden party is not driven by the younger candidates that castro was trying to appeal to, and biden made biggest gains with married men and suburban voters and trump improved with the hispanics and so i want to talk about this and lessoned learn, and julio, it is good to see you. >> hey, great to be with you, and thanks for the walk down memory lane. >> i thought that it would be fun. hey, you know, something stuck with me that you said to me, and i don't know if you remember saying this to me, and i want to say about two years before the campaign started and you were looking and researching the various presidential campaigns, where there were open nomination battles on the democratic side, and '76 and '93 were the two

that you dove into, and you said this is a lot like '76 and you were more prescient than you realized, because one way to look at what happened in '76 is that the country went with the person whose the temperament was the most opposite of what they didn't want, and in that case, i would say that biden was the opposite temperament of donald trump. do you think that you ended up stumbling upon the correct answer? >> well, you point out something that is obviously very true. and i think that the number one lesson for me after that 2020 campaign was that the person who wins nomination, and then ultimately the presidency is the person who has the most experience. and joe biden had the most experience and temperament and that was joe biden.

>> so, look, you are not alone in making the argument that you believe that there is a coalition here that the democrats can build on of the younger voters and particularly the latino voters, and yet, we saw that the latino voters' turn out was mix and those latinos who did turn out donald trump made some inroads here, and what have you taken away from the general election, and what have you learned from that? >> that the democratic party is the big tent party, and the pew research poll that came out was fantastic to get that insight with that research, and sure donald trump made gains with latinos and i saw that in texas for instance, but still, almost two-thirds of the latinos overall supported donald trump, and supported joe biden against

donald trump, and there is a strong coalition of latinos of african-american and asian voters and also the suburbanites who make up the base of the democratic party and promising for the future, but having said that, as a party, we cannot take latinos or other groups for granted, and we cannot assume they will vote just in one direction, because they have traditionally done that, and in that sense, 2020 was a wake-up call. i said it before the election, and i said it in the weeks after the election. we have to invest in voter registration, and we have to invest in turnout, and we have to do it more than three months or six months before the election, and it has to be a 365-day/year full-cycle effort throughout the country. >> no, and this has been time and time again that you are not alone here, and every cycle that

you cannot show up in the election year and i'm short on time, and are you on a ballot in 2022? >> you know, i have not taken that completely off of the table, but it is unlikely right now. i feel like i have just ran a marathon in 2019 and early 2020, and i'm happy supporting the progressive candidates running in the 2022 cycle. it is unlikely right now, but if i change my mind, i will be sure to let you know. >> i would appreciate that and former hud secretary and former mayor of san antonio and someone frequent on this program, julian castro, thank you for coming on and sharing your memories and perspectives with us. thank you. >> thank you and good to be with you again. >> and if you have not been vaccinated, please get vaccinated and if you know

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