no payments for eighteen months. it's great to be with you. as we come on the air, a tropical storm is closing in on florida. forecasters say elsa could strengthen into a hurricane before it makes landfall along the gulf coast but the national hurricane center is warning of life threatening storm surge, flooding and isolated tornados. there are evacuations underway and the airport in tampa is set to shut down less than 3 hours from now. it's the other side of the state watching this track with the most alarm. at the scene of that collapsed condo tower north of miami, strong wind gusts could make the rubble even more unstable and dangerous. >> we do continue to expect occasional gusts and strong showers today.

we're closely monitoring the weather and we now have our weather service embedded within our search and rescue teams to work closely to track for any changes that could impact the work to assure the safety of our first responders. >> you've likely seen it by now, demolition crews setting off explosives sunday to bring down the part of the tower still standing, officials taking no chance that is the remaining structure could top until this storm. four more victims found since yesterday and 113 people still unaccounted for. we'll have a live report from surfside in just a moment. first, let's bring in nbc's katie beck in tampa and meteorologist bill karins. you're about a 4 1/2 drive hour northwest of surfside in tampa. this isn't a monster storm, but those surge warnings sound

ominous. i understand you have some breaking news about the threat of tornados. >> reporter: storm surge the main concern here in tampa, but right now we are looking at a massive tornado watch throughout the state of florida ranging from tampa down to miami, basically the southern and central part of the state all covered in a tornado watch from now until 11:00 p.m. tonight. those popup tornados are so unpredictable even when the storms are offshore producing patterns we can't predict. this watch is in effect from now until 11:00 p.m. tonight. tampa airport will be suspending flights at 5:00 p.m. they're hopeful they'll resume flights at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. at that point, the worst of the storm will have passed through the tampa area. for now, people are keeping

their eye on that track. we are just hours away from some of the impacts. conditions are mild at the moment, but that storm is making its way north and could intensify because the waters are so warm, providing sort of a fuel for that storm as it heads north. the storm surge, 3-5 feet is what they're looking at in tampa. as that storm comes north, tampa will experience that. they are no stranger to flooding. we have seen folks getting sandbags ready to expect flooding with this. the storm is moving, that's the good news. this isn't one that's going to stall out and sort of drench the area, but that storm surge has potential to cause real problems here. >> bill, take us through the track of this storm and the different threats it poses both for the gulf coast and for that search in surfside on the other

side of the state. >> the good news with surfside and miami is the squalls we had yesterday were worse than anything we've seen so far today. winds have been 20-30 miles an hour in the afternoon which is typical for miami on any summer day. all of the problems have been in the keys and now heading up the west coast of florida. this is the intermediate advisory. it gives us a new intensity. on satellite you can see it looks a little more like a tropical system. the winds have really gusted strong for 2-3 hours in key west, up to 70 miles an hour. all of the strong winds are offshore. key west is still at 51. i'm not expecting a lot of wind damage with this storm. we have that tornado threat that

goes from orlando to miami and even to west palm beach. these are more of a smaller variety tornados but they still can take a roof off and knock down trees and that can be deadly in itself. here's the new update. it was 60 miles an hour. now we're up to 70. all it needs is another 5 miles an hour uptick and we'll have a hurricane once again. they're predicting this to be a hurricane at landfall. a category 1 storm can do some scattered wind damage. this was the 11:00 a.m. advisory. the new path will be out at 5:00 p.m. i have the closest it will get to pinellas, clearwater and tampa around 3:00 p.m. landfall near cedar key early. tomorrow and thursday this will

head up the east coast. the mid atlantic region and possibly cape cod could get some strong gusts and rain from this system, nothing that would cause any damage, but definitely some travel delays. 3-5 is the storm surge tonight. that's one concern out there. we'll look to see if they update these wind forecasts. we may get some stronger gusts than this. i think this will be updated by about 10 or 20 miles an hour later. >> bill karins, i know you'll keep us posted. katie beck, our thanks to you. it's been two weeks since the condo tower came crumbling down in the middle of the night. lightning in the area forced searchers to pause their efforts. joining us is vaughn hillyard. what have you noticed differently there today given that researchers or searchers

have been able to get access to a wider swath of the pile? >> reporter: we have to say today has been a good day here. that storm was on the brink of hitting here with wind initially foreseen anywhere from 40-60 miles an hour before that storm started to move west. today we're expecting rain and wind gusts up to 30 miles an hour. but so far today, there has not been a single drop of rain. that has allowed those rescue teams to get into that rubble. four individual have been recovered here today alone, potentially more. we're expecting another update this afternoon. you can see the progression of that storm. just about 30 seconds ago we heard our first boom of thunder. that is significant because the rescue mission will stop whenever there is lightning within 2 1/2 miles of this rescue location. this area of surfside, this

shoreline is also under that same southern florida tornado watch here. i want to let you hear from maggie castro, one of those rescue team members here from miami-dade fire. i asked her the question about the impact that wind has. take a listen. >> as the winds pick up and as the rain picks up, we're still going to keep working. the only thing the winds have affected a little bit is the heavy machinery, the big 400 ton cranes. those when they try to pick up the big pieces of debris, the wind is too strong and starts to swing that debris around. instead of those, they're going to use the lighter machinery, but the men and women will still be out there working as long as we don't have that lightning issue. >> as you just heard, these potential wind gusts impacting potentially this rescue effort here. again, today up until this point was a good day. we just heard our second boom of

thunder here. 117 still unaccounted for. >> vaughn hillyard, thanks to you as always. with me is dr. benjamin abo of miami-dade fire's urban search and rescue. thanks for your time. i know you've helped others after the haiti earthquake, after hurricane katrina. i also understand you know personally four people who remain unaccounted for in this condo collapse. how are you doing? >> i'm keeping at it. i'm doing what we need to do. i have a lot of support just like i'm giving support to my men, women and dogs. i'm hanging in there, but getting closer to getting my closure. yes, i personally know four people who are still not accounted for. >> how are the first responders holding up? two weeks of painstaking work in the heat, the elements, the rain, an approaching hurricane,

how are folks faring there? >> it's tough work for all of us. at the same time this is exactly what we spend years training to do. this is what we do at a moment's notice with we don't get paid for what we do. we're paid for what we're prepared to do. it feels good, for lack of better words, to be able to use our specialties and our expertise to do good and help bring closure to people and help people out. so we've been working hard to keep an eye on each other in peer support, so that really helps with it also. >> a question about the search and rescue effort. how has the demolition of that remaining tower made the process either quicker or safer for first responders to do their work? >> so no matter what, safety, we can say it's a first priority but really it's a high priority,

not the first. we need to keep safety in mind, but if it was first priority, we wouldn't be able to get our jobs done. it's a dangerous situation with weather, elements, moving debris. with the fact now we have that building which was extremely dangerous from all different levels, literally and figuratively making it dangerous to do our job, now that's out of the way we're able to control that set of variables and make a lot more progress to get into areas that, quite frankly, was not worth us putting ourselves into close to the building with air-conditioners and debris that could have moved at a moment's notice. >> is it known how long this search and rescue effort will last? are we talking about a couple more weeks or a month, potentially longer than that? >> really, it's unknown. it's definitely a lot easier to

be able to continue doing our round-the-clock 24/7 work as we've been doing, minus a couple breaks for lightning and thunder and things like that. but really it's not known how long. this isn't a planned demolition for the building and the rubble we're going through, so you can't really guess how long it's going to take to search a spot, move debris carefully and culturally sensitively move human remains and things like that. it's really tough to say. i know that i am prepared and my team is prepared as well as the other teams to do whatever it takes. i personally have set an extended amount of time to be able to be here and do what we need to do. it's hard to estimate. >> thanks so you and to the other first responders there at that site. >> thank you. still ahead, after six

months and 500 arrests, how is security at the u.s. capitol now? plus, if at first you don't succeed, try again. the president set to announce a new vaccination push this hour after falling short of his july 4th vaccination goal. first, with u.s. troops no longer on the ground, afghanistan's forces must take on the taliban alone. richard engel got us an exclusive look. ard engel got us exclusive look >> what is it like fighting all on your own, no american support? >> so we are ready to fight. if we die, we don't care about it. if we die, we don't reca about it washed your hands a lot today? probably like 40 times. hands feel dry? like sandpaper. introducing new dove handwash, with 5 x moisturizer blend. removes germs in seconds, moisturizes for hours. soft, smooth. new dove handwash. [peaceful music plays] [soft cymbal crash]

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afghanistan's northern border is providing a worrying sign of things to come. a taliban resurgence just days after the u.s. military ramped up its withdrawal. district after district has fallen to taliban insurgents in the weeks since president biden

announced a full military withdrawal by september 11th. afghan security forces are operating with stretched resources and without american support and have already surrendered many military outposts, sometimes without a fight. this situation has allowed the taliban to seize more weapons and has added to a heightened sense of anxiety throughout the region. richard engel got an exclusive look at the afghan effort to keep the taliban from strengthening its foothold. >> reporter: outside kabul, the commandos huddle for a pre-mission brief. tonight, they'll raid a taliban safe house and try to kill or capture the fighters inside. they pray for success and protection. these soldiers had u.s. support before, shoulder to shoulder. now they're on their own. what is it like now fighting all on your own, no american support? >> so we are ready to fight.

if we die, we don't care about it. >> reporter: the commandos set out in old american humvees, the vehicles slow down to a crawl when they think they spot an ied. the ied may have been a false alarm and they push on. the last leg is on foot, quietly. the commandos hope they can surprise the taliban. the building is a mosque. they think there are 15 taliban fighters inside. but before they reach their target, the man on point spots the taliban. fire is incoming too. they launch rocket propelled grenades to clear a path and fire wherever they see movement or muzzle flashes. finally, the commandos reach the mosque. the taliban have left it. they escaped? >> yes, escaped. >> reporter: but the taliban haven't gone far. the commandos keep after them, kill three taliban in hiding.

the afghan air force providing top cover, kills three more. it's a small setback for the taliban, who have captured more than 150 afghan military posts as u.s. troops leave. the commandos consider tonight's mission a success. >> this mission is a very good and very successful for ours. >> reporter: this time the taliban got away but the commandos showed their presence, disrupted a checkpoint and proved to the taliban there are afghans willing to fight for their country. without american troops on the ground, it's now mainly down to the commandos to stop the taliban from taking over. >> our thanks to richard engel for that incredible exclusive reporting. with us is kitchen baron. we are seeing playing out in realtime the unintended consequence of american withdrawal from afghanistan. what should we make of the fact that the taliban resurgence is happening so quickly and so

soon? >> it's the worst case scenario for every critic or supporter of the american plan right now to see so many areas falling. there's a lot of folks already looking ahead to wonder how far this will go. we're seeing the taliban saying they're actually holding back their advances, they're waiting to see that the americans and other international forces leave by september 11th. if they don't, they've promised to go after them. they've also made pledges they're not after diplomats. they're not planning on taking the city of kabul. so how much the taliban gains ground is one thing, how much they gain influence and are able to topple the government is the next phase. but to hear these fighters in richard engel's report say they don't care if they die, they're ready to fight. you want to hear soldiers who are ready to fight, but survive and win and hold their ground.

right now it's looking more and more like a free for all out there. >> on the matter of the u.s. withdrawal, afghan military officials say after nearly 20 years u.s. troops left the airfield by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the new afghan commander who discovered the american's departure more than 2 hours after they left. what do you make of that? >> this story is interesting. it's being told as the americans did something wrong by squirrelling away through the night and didn't need to be so secretive about it. in my experience, this is pretty normal. the united states when they make these major moves and pull out of a base, they don't want to be targeted as they go. they have a lot of equipment and people top to move in a quick time so that's how they do it.

what was left behind is eerily similar to what happened with iraq. the troops are more important. we've heard they'll leave 650 u.s. troops at the embassy. there's still 350 troops at the airport as well just this morning central command gave out a new update of numbers. they're saying the u.s. has pulled more than 50% of its equipment out. this morning they changed it to more than 90%, which means a lot of that was equipment and personnel at bagram itself. >> the u.s. troops are of paramount concern. coming up next, it's been six months since a mob stormed the u.s. capitol. has enough been done to counter

the security failures we saw that day? later, this weekend donald trump offered a public defense of the criminal charges facing his company. company. to . >> they go after good, hard working people for not paying taxes on a company car. a company car. you didn't pay taxes on the car. . here you go, let me help you.

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today marks 6 months since the january 6th capitol riot. congress has finally approved a select committee to investigate the insurrection after objections from republicans. but half a year since the deadly attack on congress's place of work, we're just beginning to get some answers. more than 500 people have been arrested so far in connection with the riots, but many of them were the low-hanging fruit. investigators are still working to identify more. as congressman adam schiff, who

sits on that new committee, told msnbc, there are still many unanswered questions, including who knew what and when. >> what was the organization of that event like and how much forewarning was there of violence among those who were organizing it? how many foreknowledge was there in the white house this may turn violent? what happened on the day of the insurrection? why did it take so long to get reenforcements to the capitol? was there anyone standing in the way of sending those reenforcements? >> joining us are leigh ann caldwell and benji sarlan. you work in the capitol every day. give us as sense of what has changed over the last 6 months. >> reporter: i've governored capitol off and on for the past 15 years. it is extremely different from last 6 months ago.

hard to explain the mood up here. fundamentally, there is a major breakdown of trust between the two parties, especially in the house of representatives where some democrats say how can you expect us to work with some of these republicans who are either january 6th deniers or gaslighters? that is manifested in the lack of distrust is manifested in the fact that there are still metal detectors outside the house chamber for house members to enter the house floor to vote. you will see the politics in disrepair of the january 6th commission and the creation of a select committee when that commission was not possible with republican leader kevin mccarthy not even yet saying he will definitely appoint republican members to that committee. so the politics here has just become much more divided than i personally have ever seen it, jeff.

>> let's talk about sort of the physical security of the building. what is capitol police doing differently? the acting capitol police chief pitman put out a letter outlining reforms but an overwhelming no confidence vote for her and she's still on the job. >> reporter: they sure did. she tried to outline areas where there have been improvements from january 6th, taking the inspector general reports and others to implement some of these changes. she talks about increased training for the civil disturbance unit, including riot training and training with the national guard. she talks about increased intelligence sharing with rank-and-file members who have these security clearances to increase communication. but one thing she doesn't address in a lot of detail is

recruitment. they say they are trying to expand recruitment, but it is very difficult to get new members to join the capitol police. that is a function or a problem also with replacing yogananda pitman. they need someone to replace her and it has been very difficult to find people as the capitol police is going through a difficult period of very low morale. >> let's talk about one of the factors that led to this insurrection, donald trump's big lie about the election, suggesting fraud where there was none. you write about how the idea of election fraud and the danger that it presents to the future of our democracy, explain how january 6th ties into that fear? >> january 6th was the culmination of something people worried about under donald trump in both parties for years, which

was people using violence to try to overturn democracy. but there has another element. in the short-term, yes, they were trying to disrupt the certification of the election with violence. but it fit into this broader effort by donald trump which was to install him as president for a second term by any means necessary by using the false pretext of conspiracy theory about voter fraud to try to get republican officials in key states and the house and senate to overturn the election results, to band together, to unite and to specifically reject the election results. that threat, according to democracy scholars i've been talking to in recent weeks, has only grown. you've seen it in the house. the number three house republican on the day of january 6th is basically persona nongrat that in the caucus, liz cheney. she was replaced with someone extremely loyal to donald trump.

the same thing is happening at the state level where you see state and local officials who stood up to donald trump and certified the election are now targets either facing primary challenges or even threats. there's no guarantee the party won't be made more in trump's image and more around the big lie in 2024. our system is not set up well to deal with this when one party is abandoning core tenets like who gets the most votes wins the election. once that breaks down, pretty much anything is on the table. >> you're right. that's the thing that keeps election officials up at night, an overturned election in 2024. now people know how to do it. people know who their secretaries of state are. nobody knew that before the 2020 election. there's a blueprint to overturn a free and fair election.

>> exactly. this was mostly trivia for political nerds. this is something you now have a whole movement of republicans poring over and looking for which chokepoints in bureaucracy could be leveraged in the future potentially in overturning an election. there was an alarming poll by a political scientist the other day which found that 46% of republicans said they supported state legislators overturning the vote in state's biden won and awarding the electoral votes to donald trump. once that becomes something that rank-and-file voters expect as an option and not an extreme fantasy scenario, it creates all sorts of perverse incentives. one is there might be a motive for partisan officials in state to run a worse election. because if the election does not work out well, there's greater

pretext to step in and say we don't know who won, but we're going to award the votes to who we think should be president and that is x, you know, the candidate they want even if it disagrees with the vote count. these are scary things we have not had to worry about in prior elections. it's definitely the case in the 6 months since january 6th, this movement has in many ways gotten stronger. president trump and his family have a habit of publicly confirming the wrongdoing they're accused of, like when donald trump jr. tweeted out his e-mail scheduling a meeting with russians about hillary clinton in the months leading up to the 2016 election. or when the former president admitted he asked ukraine to dig up dirt on the bidens and publicly asked china to do the same. or more recently when trump and his sons didn't dispute that the

trump organization cfo did really commit the crimes he's being charged with. >> he's 75 years old on crimes of avoiding paying taxes on a fringe benefit. people in corporate america get a corporate car. jessie, i'm sure you paid taxes every time you've taken a car to and from work. >> these are employment perks. these are a corporate car, which everybody has. i guarantee you there's people on this network that have corporate cars. i guarantee there's people in every company in the country who have corporate vehicles. this isn't a criminal manner. >> yet, they go after good hard working people for not paying taxes on a company car. a company car. you didn't pay taxes on the car! or a company apartment. you used an apartment because you needed an apartment because you have to travel too far where your house is and you didn't pay tax. or education for your grandchildren. i don't even know. does anybody know the answer to

that stuff? >> joining us is former fbi senior official and former u.s. attorney chuck rosenberg. he's also an msnbc contributor. i don't know whether to call this stupidity or shamelessness or both, but this is par for the course for trumps. they try to neutralize what they're being accused of by talking about it on the record. what legal risk does that carry? >> there are two ways to think about it, one through a political prism and the other through a legal prism. politically, maybe it plays with their base, although i imagine much of their political base doesn't have corporate apartments and cars. maybe it helps with the fund-raising. legally, to your question, none of this is helpful if you're a defendant in a criminal case. attorneys always tell their clients "stop talking." prosecutors always hope defendants in criminal cases keep talking, because under the

rules of evidence there are times under certain circumstances where you can use this stuff at trial as evidence of their knowledge and intent. so it doesn't make a lot of sense to me legally. i understand it politically, but i'm not the best person to talk about politics. i rather disdain it. but legally not at all helpful except if you're a prosecutor trying to get evidence about knowledge in a criminal case. from my perspective, have at it, keep going. >> so what's the bar of admission? could prosecutors use those public statements? >> theoretically, yeah. it depends on the circumstances. they might not be able to use it against mr. weisselberg. you notice he has rather thoughtfully and professionally kept his mouth shut. but mr. weisselberg is not the only defendant in this case. the trump organization, the entity, is also a defendant.

if prosecutors can make an argument -- and i think they can and i think they'll try -- that donald trump and eric trump and the trump kids are all agents or representatives of the trump organization, then they might seek to have those statements admitted against the company. again, we're parsing it pretty closely here and i don't want to get too evidence nerdy on you, but it might come in against the trump organization and it might not come in against mr. weisselberg, but it's not at all helpful if you're the lawyer trying to defend the company in a criminal trial. >> i'm a-okay with being evidence nerdy. one more question. let's talk about some documents. the "washington post" reports that prosecutors have internal spreadsheets showing the concealed payments. it says prosecutors treated the spreadsheets as the accounting equivalent of a confession. the ledgers showed the sides of the fraud, estimating that the cfo alone had avoided paying more than $900,000 in taxes.

that concealment showed that the trump organization knew it was wrong. is this a smoking gun, chuck? >> these are essentially what you're describing as a double set of books, a second set of books. in white collar cases and fraud cases, one of the hardest things to do as a prosecutor is to prove intent to prove that something was done intentionally, not by accident or mistake. if a company is keeping a double set of books for its own internal purposes to show what employees are actually being paid, because i'm sure they are expensing that, deducting it as business expenses and they have a second set of books that shows sort of the fraud, the crime, the coverup. that's great stuff as a prosecutor. all of that goes into evidence. mark that as exhibit 1. that's what you want to put in front of a jury because it proves intent. very important stuff. >> chuck rosenberg, appreciate your insights as always.

and we are following some breaking news out of new york city where new york governor andrew cuomo has just announced what he called the first in the nation statewide disaster emergency to combat gun violence. 51 people were shot in new york over the fourth of july weekend. the new executive order frees up more resources for state and city officials and, the governor says, the state will treat gun violence like the public health emergency it is. russian hackers are demanding $70 million after pulling off the biggest ransom ware attack on record. now the pressure is on the biden administration to respond. and at any minute president biden is expected to announce a new push to get americans vaccinated. e a new push to get americans vaccinated

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that prevagen seems to help me recall things and also think more clearly. and i enthusiastically recommend prevagen. it has helped me an awful lot. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. any minute now president biden will deliver remarks on the covid-19 response and the vaccination efforts in the u.s. the nation fell just short of the white house goal to have 70% of all adults in the u.s. with at least one vaccination dose by july 4th. currently that number is hovering at 67%. meantime, the delta variant is gaining ground. delta now accounts for nearly half of all cases in several states across the midwest. and the cdc says the new hyper transmissible variant could be the cause of an overall 10% increase in new covid-19 cases across the country. joining us now are l.a. times

white house reporter eli stokeles and dr. natalie azar. eli, what are we expecting to hear president biden say any minute now from the white house? >> a couple of things, jeff. there will be sort of a victory lap not talking about the fact that 160 million americans almost have gotten the vaccine. this will be the president, again, urging those americans who haven't to do so and outlining new steps the administration is taking along with the private sector and with state and local officials to make it easier to find the vaccine, make access easier, so getting the vaccines to doctors, expanding mobile clinics, helping set up workplace vaccination sites, making it easier and emphasizing this is really easy and really important with these variants on the rise. but i think this white house is trying to do that at the same time when the president is also trying to not just take a victory lap, but demonstrate, as he did over the weekend in michigan, to demonstrate that

things are almost back to normal. the president appeared at a cherry orchard briefing hundreds of people up close, not wearing masks. so they are really trying to convey accomplishment and progress against the vaccine that life is almost back to normal while also telling people we're not out of the woods yet and those who haven't gotten the vaccine yet really need to do so. >> in states like mississippi you have a 29% vaccination rate, falling far short of where they need to be. what more can the white house do at this point? we're now a year and a half into this pandemic. people now should know they need to get vaccinated and if people don't want to get one, there's not a whole lot the administration can do to change that. >> i know. there's a lot of conflicting opinions on incentives too. it's important to remember in

this country every year only about 50% of individuals get the flu vaccine. we are not talking about a population who was necessarily accustomed to executing or agreeing to recommendations from public health experts than covid-19. one thing that was just pointed out is the idea of allowing doctors' offices to be able to administer the vaccine which is so important. mobile clinics are important, individuals having paid time off to get the vaccination is to important. but people are more likely to get the vaccine if their friends and family are vaccinated or if they get the information from a trusted resource. that is their doctor. i spend a significant time of my encounters discussing why. i have to say my track record is pretty good at getting my

patients vaccinated. individuals who have been vaccinated have questions about boosters and stuff like that. as we know now with the delta variant being even more transmissible, the need for herd immunity gets even more important and the percentage gets even higher. you're going to get there one way or the other. it's either by vaccination or by natural infection. i assure you you would rather do it by vaccination. >> in the minute that we have left, how quickly does the u.s. need to ramp up the vaccination rate in order to keep the delta variant within control? >> unfortunately, very quickly, jeff. experts are saying really by the end of this month it's very likely going to be the predom inant strait. it's incredible efficient at passing amongst people and of

course we know that will just sew the right kind of scenario for even more variants to emerge every single time the virus has an opportunity to infect someone, it has the ability to replicate and mutate. replicate and mutate .

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the biden white house is being pressured to respond to the largest ransomware attack in history. revil targeted hundreds of u.s. businesses. hackers infiltrated them using software developed by a company that helps small businesses. they're demanding a $70 million ransom to give them their data back. they also attacked jbusa weeks ago. president biden urged putin to do more to stop cyber attacks, perpetrated by russian hackers. with us now is nbc news national security and intelligence correspondent. ken, what more do we know from

this attack that is different from the ransomware attack on jbs? >> thisd the software supply chain to maximize the impact. the hackers breached an i.t. firm that serves other i.t. firms which in turn served thousands of companies. so the mallware made the way down the chain disguised within a trusted vendor until it locked up the data of 1,000 companies in 30 countries. sweden's major grocery chain had to shut down 800 stores over the weekend because the cash registers dn the work. just one example. we have the biggest ransomware attack carried out by a group based in russia three weeks after president biden warned russian leader putin to crack down on russian criminal hackers. i asked one expert whether that warning had an impact. take a listen to what he had to say. >> it hasn't had an impact. we don't know if that's because the message was not received president putin decided to ignore it or maybe he didn't

feel like this should be a top priority issue. maybe he thought this would be handled over time and negotiations. but we don't have time here. we need to act now. we need to demand that these individuals responsible for this particular hack get arrested. the key gets turned over to the businesses that need to decrypt their data. >> biden has not called out putin publicly about this attack. but jen psaki said that biden officials are meeting to discuss ransomware. it is possible they will deliver a private warning. jeff? >> yeah. beyond the warnings, president biden, he warned putin that the u.s. will use cyber operation it's the kremlin doesn't reign this in. what retaliation might we see in the case of the attack. >> one thing military hackers can do is take down the networks used by this hacking group. there is precedent for this. u.s. cyber command took down troll farm on election day in 2018 to stop disinformation.

but, look this is a risky step, jeff. there is always danger for russian retaliation. it's a really tough problem for the biden administration. jeff? >> thank you, ken. thank you for spending the hour with us. ayman mohyeldin picks up our coverage next. ayman mohyeldin picks up our coverage next. foot-warming, temperature-balancing proven quality night sleep we've ever made. and now, the new queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is only $899. only for a limited time. the instant air purifier removes 99.9% of the virus that causes covid-19 from treated air. so you can breathe easier, knowing that you and your family have added protection. ♪ ♪ centrum multigummies aren't just great tasting... they're power-packed vitamins... knowing that you and your family have added protection. that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. ♪

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leaders to get more americans vaccinated against the coronavirus. this as the white house announces it will convene an interagency meeting tomorrow to discuss the cybersecurity efforts following a seismic similar attack that struck hundreds of u.s. companies. the intelligence community has not yet attributed the attack, a russian based hacking group has claimed responsibility just three weeks after biden warned russian president putin to crack down on such activities. >> president made clear that if the russian government don't take action against criminal actors, we'll take action or reserve the right to take action on our own. >> in florida, teams are tirelessly digging through the remains of a collapsed condo building in surfside, the approach of tropical storm elsa has residents there on edge. we're tracking that storm for you and will bring you an update. overseas, in