hi, there. i'm in for stephanie ruhle. it is wednesday, july 7th. here's what's happening. as we speak, tropical storm elsa is charging up the west coast of florida. nearly half of that state this morning under a state of emergency. residents warned of potential life-threatening storm surges, flooding and isolated tornadoes. and just south of key west, a rescue mission. the coast guard pulling 15 people out of dangerous waters, releasing these dramatic images while nine are still believed to be missing. thankfully, the storm mostly missed surfside, florida, where crews have pulled eight more bodies from the rubble. this morning our first close-up look at that site and a status hearing for one of at least five lawsuits filed in connection with the condo collapse. and two big battles on capitol hill. a republican leader vowing a hell of a fight over infrastructure, and then later this hour president biden will

huddle with administration officials on how to fight back, after more attacks from russian hackers. a group known as cozy bear hitting the rnc. but let's start by bringing in antonia hylton in clearwater, florida, and michelle grossman, who has been tracking the storm. antonia, what's the big concern where you are? >> reporter: good morning, chris. elsa did its worst to this area, the tampa bay greater area last night. as you can see behind me, the effects are still being felt this morning, particularly high winds. what people are really looking at right now, as we approach high tide around noon today, there is still a risk of storm surge, of flooding, particularly to those who live in low-lying areas. and officials in the days ahead of this asked people living in those communities to please leave, to stay with family and friends on higher ground. some of them took officials up on the opportunity to stay in designated shelters and many of

them are there throughout the day today. people also gathered sand bags and have been barricading their homes to protect from flooding as the waters come very quickly ashore. right now there are no reports, thankfully, of devastation, but this community is still under flood watch for the day and they're not entirely out of the clear yet. >> thank you for that update. michelle, elsa was briefly the first atlantic hurricane of the season. it is back to a tropical storm, as we said. having said that, what kind of damage could it do? what are we worried about? >> hi, there. good to see you. we're talking a strong tropical storm, so pretty close to category 1 status. we'll look at the stats in just a bit. you saw where antonia was. the storm surge is probably the biggest threat in northern parts of florida today as the winds will push the waters onshore, in addition to the isolated chance for tornadoes. let's take a look at current radar. we're seeing some very heavy rain, expected, though, as you

take a line to the west, you can see exactly where the center of elsa is. we're seeing strong tropical range, where you see the yellows, oranges, reds, that's really heavy rain. in for the myers you can see a six-hour loop and ft. myers was under the gun of tropical rain for so long. they have been inundated with the rainfall over the past eight hours. we'll see improvement there. let's take a look at the winds. 65 mile per hour winds, located 35 miles west of cedar key, florida. that's where we're expecting to see landfall. so in the next few hours somewhere in the northern region of florida, in the big bend region of floored is where we expect the landfall. it's moving north at 14 miles per hour, a very good speed for a tropical storm. when we're talking about northern florida, we're talking about rainfall. that's going to be a big threat. but it's sandy soil, so they can handle it there. we'll see storm surge over the next few hours and isolated chances for tornadoes. but as you go into georgia and

carolinas, this is where the impacts change a bit. we're looking for localized flash flooding, could be deadly. that's something we'll worry about over the next 48 hours. so through georgia, then the carolinas, and then by friday, even the early parts of tomorrow night we'll see the effects of elsa as a tropical storm in parts of the mid-atlantic. so what's going to happen, it's going to jump over the chesapeake and then pop into the atlantic. still warm for this time of year. it will hold onto the tropical storm status as of the latest advisory that came out at 8:00. so boston, by friday afternoon you could be seeing some pretty gusty winds and heavy rainfall. new york city could be seeing it for the friday morning commute. so up and down the coast, we still have a hurricane warning in the red in parts of northern florida. then the alerts stretch all the way up the coast into parts of virginia. tornado threat, that's what we're worried about the most in terms of the wildcard.

they're isolated, there could be one or many, and that's what we'll be watching over the next several hours. it's going to move quickly over land within the next few hours, making landfall and then quickly into georgia and the carolinas. >> we'll be following it all day. thanks to both of you. let's go to surfside, florida. that is where we have, for the first time, gotten a very close-up look at exactly what's happening on that pile. let's go to morgan chesky, who has been there for us. dramatic pictures that you were able to bring back for us. tell us what's the latest on the ground. >> reporter: good morning. and the latest here on the ground is that the death toll sits at 36 people, more than 100 others still missing in that pile of rubble. and we did have a chance to visit this collapse for the first time since this tragic event took place. we were able to stand just across the street from it. and i have to tell you, when you see it for the first time, the thing that jumps out first is

just this massive void left behind where this 12-story building once stood. and this debris pile is just incredible. we have pieces of concrete as big as cars that rescuers are having to navigate, rebar jutting out in every direction, and that has been what rescue crews have faced 24/7 since this essentially took place. we're also getting new video in of just how they're able to move this bucket by bucket. at last check, crews have moved more than 5 million pounds of concrete from what's left of champlain tower south. so the search still ongoing. the worst of elsa has passed from this area and that's really giving everyone here at the scene a chance to hopefully move a bit faster in removing some of that debris from the site and getting deeper inside what could be the first through four floors of that building.

>> and as so many families continue to wait and wonder, we know for others the funerals have begun. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: yeah, it was a very tough scene yesterday. just a few blocks from where i'm standing we saw the funeral play out for the guada family. family of four, all lost in the collapse, two little girls ages 2 and 4. the family had decided that the sisters would share a casket adorned with two ribbons and their funeral was one of several that took place yesterday. unfortunately, those services will only continue as the death toll rises. and just nearby, the church where that was held, the memorial only grows. we're seeing volunteers bringing fresh flowers to the site that spans more than a city block, and they're placing those flowers next to the pictures of people, more than 100 of which,

as of right now, are still missing. >> so reminiscent of what we saw in the days post-9/11. morgan chesky, thank you for your ongoing reporting. we do appreciate it. now we want to get to breaking news out of haiti where its president has been assassinated and his wife injured during a brazen overnight attack at their home. let's go to nbc news national security and global affairs reporter. this is an island nation, 675 miles off the miami coast. long ties to the united states. what is the situation there at this hour? >> it's a very volatile situation. as you said, there was a brazen attack where the president of haiti was gunned down and his wife was also shot, and it comes against the backdrop of tremendous instability there. moise had been accused of pushing the country an authoritarian direction and trying to re-write the constitution and there had been

protests for days and weeks and months because the opposition says he should not be in office, that his term has expired and there have to be elections. and he had rejected that argument. so it's a very worrisome situation. you have tremendous gang violence, as you know, terrible poverty there, and on top of all of that, covid is a real concern because there have not been really any vaccination efforts there. >> thank you so much. we're going to keep our eye as that develops on the ground in haiti. more than two weeks after voting ended in the democratic primary for new york city's mayoral race, believe it or not, a winner has been announced. nbc's steve kornacki at the big board to break down how eric adams came out on top. first, crossing biden's red line, after pulling off the biggest global cyberattack on record, more hackers broached a contractor for the rnc, too.

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action, any minute now president biden will meet in the situation room with heads of several federal agencies to figure out how to fight hackers, and this morning he's got his hands full. the russian hacking group cozy bear reportedly tried to breach a contractor for the rnc last week. it's the same group accused of breaching the dnc in 2016, and the solar winds hack in december. it comes days after the biggest ransomware attack we've seen yet, when a different russian group revil, reached the company kaseya. i have so many questions. let's start with the twin attacks that do appear to cross the red line that president biden drew for vladimir putin. we've had gasoline, meat processing, small businesses, politics. give us a sense of kind of the

breadth of the challenge being posed by the hackers, and i guess by extension the challenge facing the biden administration. >> good morning, chris. here's how devilishly complicated this is. this attempted hack on the rnc may not cross any red lines. if it was just espionage by a russian intelligence agency to gather information, that's the kind of thing the united states does around the world every day. that's in one bucket, we live with those kind of attacks. and even solar wind was essentially an espionage attack, a massive one. but it wasn't akin to the ransomware attacks. these are attacks by criminal hacking groups, we believe largely based inside of russia, that are doing -- that are visiting destruction upon american businesses, and that's the kind of thing that the biden administration, they really inherited this challenge that's been going on for years through the obama administration and the trump administration and the united states has been reluctant to hit back because we are more

vulnerable than anybody in cyberspace. now what experts are saying is this behavior has gone unpunished for years and it's reached a tipping point where it's massive, where it's affecting critical infrastructure, like gas pipelines, meat processors. now we've seen the biggest ransomware attack that appears to have come from russia and the biden administration is confronting exactly what to do about it and there are no easy answers. >> let's talk about what we've tried, sanctions. so what are some of the harsher options available to send a clear message the u.s. is not going to tolerate russia harboring these bad actors? >> the united states has incredible cyber capability, much of it at u.s. cyber command and there's a precedent for them going after criminal groups, taking down in one case a giant bot net and going after a russian troll farm in 2018, they took down the internet research agency for a day to prevent them

from interfering in the election. they can do this stuff but it's a legal proposition and there's arguments about whether it's legal for the military to go after trans national criminals. the problem, chris, if we take down this ransomware network in russia, those guys can just get new servers and start business again tomorrow. the real game is to put pressure on the russian government to crack down on these criminal hackers and that's a difficult thing because putin doesn't have an incentive to do that. >> no, he does not. thank you so much. joining me, a navy veteran and former russia policy adviser. you're the perfect person to talk about this, congresswoman. you heard what ken just said. we all know how complicated this is, and we also know that we have an incredible offensive capability in cyberspace. what do we need to be doing about this?

>> well, thanks, chris. and ken was exactly right. we do have a lot of capabilities and we need to be utilizing them. the president needs to be thinking through how we respond to these hacks. some of this has been going on for years, and i think some of this is putin testing the new administration, what are the lines. biden laid out some of our red lines for infrastructure. where are the pressure points that putin can exercise and get away with? and that's why it's so important that biden respond to this aggressively and appropriately. and anything we choose to do, whether it's sanctions, whether it is a cyberattack of our own, we do better in concert with our allies. we do this better, and the u.s. has always promoted our global power better in concert with allies around the world. and that's why not only does the president need to be thinking in the near term how we're going to respond to this to ensure that russia does not continue these

cyberattacks, but we need to think of a long-term strategy, and that involves a global discussion of bright lines so that we can bring that force to bear against russia when they act inappropriately. >> let me ask you about the short term because you can read putin's behavior like a book. you know how he operates. i think to your point, there was a quote in "the new york times" from a cybersecurity expert saying, when you're a thug, the first thing you do is test that red line, and so what is going to get vladimir putin's attention? >> i've said it before. vladimir putin understands power and the utilization of power. what you have to do is have a cost to him exercising this, whether it's russia's reputation globally, whether it's engagement in the world, whether it's economic sanctions. and, again, the best way that we do this is with our allies across the world.

we can make russia a pariah if they choose to act in this inappropriate way. >> i also have to ask you about afghanistan. the pentagon just said the u.s. withdraw is more than 90% complete but our friends at sky news got an inside look that i want to show you at what's happening there now. >> we're the first foreign journalists to see the latest army base the taliban have captured in the province and they want to show us the treasure trove of military riches they've seized with it. many of these boxes supplied by the americans haven't even been opened before the taliban got hold of them. from this base alone, the taliban say they seized about 900 guns, 30 humvees, and 20 armored pickup trucks. >> a treasure trove of u.s. military equipment now in the hands of the taliban, according to that report. you served in the middle east as a navy helicopter pilot.

what's your reaction to that? >> you know, chris, this has been a really difficult exercise to get our troops out of afghanistan. the last administration had committed the u.s. to pulling out of afghanistan without a real plan to do so. and so while president biden has said that this would not have been the way he would have executed this withdraw, we had committed to this and our decisions, what we were left with, was either to surge, a troop surge to protect our troops there in what we would anticipate would be further attacks by the taliban if we did not withdraw, or to continue that withdraw. i think, after 20 years of fighting in afghanistan with the world's best, most professional, most well-equipped military, the united states military, after 20 years if we had not found a pathway to creating a stable democracy, that could not be found. the u.s. military and our troops

there have been incredibly successful at combatting violent extremism and protecting the homeland and we owe a debt of gratitude to our soldiers who have fought and protected us here at home. but there was not a pathway towards creating stability or our military would have found that. >> so i understand what you're saying about planning and the announcements that were made during the trump administration. let me give you an example. the main operation center for the war and now afghan officials are accusing the u.s. of leaving without telling them. looters broke in as a result of that. the pentagon is denying it. are you worried in the big picture about how we're leaving? >> one of the critical things that i'm worried about right now are those afghans that helped our u.s. troops. i can't tell you how many people i've spoken to who have said, i wouldn't be here today if my

interpreter or my driver hadn't warned me of an attack or a trap. i owe my life to afghans to saved my life. we have got to now reciprocate. we have to make sure that we are getting those afghans and their families out of country as we rapidly move out, and protect them as they have protected so many of our soldiers and country. >> is that happening? >> we do have plans. some of this is a state department plan. i was in the house armed services committee hearing. we do have the military plans to do so. we have now passed in congress legislation to cut through much of the red tape for those special immigrant visas, but what the administration has to do and what is so critically important and why we're moving many of those afghans into third countries is that this has to rapidly happen. some of our plans in congress will take time as we get those special immigrant visas through,

as we vet the afghans and their families. but we need to get those people out of afghanistan quickly as we are doing this withdraw. >> if this is a paperwork problem, that seems to be something that could be addressed. thank you so much. after weeks of ranked choice confusion, eric adams has emerged as the winner of the democratic primary for new york city's mayoral race. but is it really over? nbc's steve kornacki joins me next. and one we discover. one that's been tamed and one that's forever wild. but freedom means you don't have to choose just one adventure. ♪ ♪ you get both. introducing the wildly civilized all-new 3-row jeep grand cherokee l. ♪ ♪

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developing now, the hotly contested race in new york city's democratic primary for mayor, and it finally appears we have a winner this morning. let's go right to steve kornacki for the results. this election has been wild, controversial, some way even ripe for conspiracy theorists. what do the numbers tell us? >> and long. primary day was last month. new york city did this very differently, ranked choice voting. folks showed up and marked who their first choice was, but they could mark second, third, fourth choice. complicated process. let's work through what happened. these are the first choice numbers. yesterday we were waiting on a whole bunch of mail-in ballots. they processed them. this was the first choice total, a giant field of all the candidates. you note that eric adams had the

lead, a wide lead on the first choice. maya wiley and kathryn garcia a distant fourth. they work from the bottom up and start eliminating candidates. the lowest candidate gets eliminated first. whoever the second choice was for the voters, they get reallocated and a computer does this in real time. they work through one after another until they get down to a final two. so basically what happened here was they started working their way from the bottom of the field here, eliminated all the candidates here, started eliminating the candidates here. and it was really pretty evenly distributed to the order of candidates, where things started to change dramatically is when you got here. when you got to the final four. when you came to adams, wiley, garcia, and yang. when it was just those four left, let me take you through what happened here. so when it was just those four, andrew yang was in fourth place. it means he was eliminated. he had quite a few votes, so they look at the ballots. yang voters, who did they say

their second choice was? look what happens. it goes from adams, wiley and garcia, first, second and third, to adams, garcia, wiley. so garcia got a lot more support from andrew yang voters than wiley did, and suddenly it's adams in first, garcia in second, wiley in third. then how this works, three candidates, third place, bottom candidate, maya wiley, she gets eliminated. so wiley gets eliminated. look at all those votes, a quarter million or so that wiley has. who is the next choice for those voters? is it adams or is it garcia? it's now adams or garcia. one of these is going to be the nominee. the wiley voters are going to decide it. so it goes from 40 to 30, adams over garcia. here it is. adams in a squeaker. look at this. a margin of under 9,000 votes, eric adams finishes ahead of

kathryn garcia. adams barely held on. an awful lot of those wiley votes went to garcia. not that many went to eric adams. it was almost a two-to-one split in terms of how they went. there wasn't quite enough to get garcia over the top. there was enough to make this the closest runoff they've ever had in new york city. the end result, eric adams is going to be the democratic nominee and there's a general election this fall. eric adams now the clear favorite to be the next mayor of new york city. >> my floor director dom is nodding, finally understanding what this ranked choice voting is. and, actually, quite grateful that he lives in new jersey as a result of it. steve kornacki, thank you so much for that. the fastest woman in america officially will not be competing in the tokyo olympics. setting off a firestorm of controversy this morning. sha'carri richardson will not compete.

her one-month suspension for marijuana use, meaning she wouldn't be in the 100 meter race, but she still could have been selected for the women's relay team. that event happens after her suspension expires. but usa track and field said, while they applaud richardson for taking accountability, they need to, quote, maintain fairness for all. supporters point out pot isn't a performance enhancing drug and it is legal in the state where she was. still, richardson was entirely apologetic. >> as much as i'm disappointed, i know that i represent myself, i represent a community that has shown support and great love. >> a lot of people have opinions about this. appeals from members of congress, for example, alexandria ocasio-cortez of new york, and jamie raskin of maryland, urging officials to overturn the decision. did not work.

richardson is promising a comeback and predicts she will be the world champion next year. don't bet against her. heavy winds and life-threatening storm surge, the latest on when and where tropical storm elsa will make landfall as florida residents brace for potentially devastating flooding and a long, hard hurricane season. the mayor of jacksonville on how his city is preparing. no sugar. no pizza. no foods you love. stressed? no stress. exercise. but no days off! easy, no? no. no. no. no. but with freestyle libre 14 day, you can take the mystery out of your diabetes. now you know. sir, do you know what you want to order? yes. freestyle libre 14 day. try it for free. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high you know how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing]

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storm elsa. more than 10,000 people are without power this morning across the state of florida. lots of flight cancellations. and the ongoing threat of flooding and the storm hasn't even made landfall yet. let me bring in the mayor of jacksonville, lenny curry. good to see you. you've been spending time with the duval county emergency operations center. what's the latest on the potential impact for your city? >> good morning. well, since we went to bed last night and woke up this morning,

it took a slight move to the west, which is good for us, good for jacksonville, but we've been through this multiple times over the last five years. i've had to issue two evacuation orders over the last five years. so the weather is unpredictable. we're prepared for this one. we could have flash flooding. we're just asking people to be ready. but really, given that it's moved away from us a little bit, we're reminding people that it is hurricane season. you should know your evacuation zone. you should have your storm kit prepared. if you don't, this one is a reminder to do it. >> let's talk about the pace of this storm season. already ahead of last year's, which had held the record. how much does that worry you about how early we're seeing this? >> well, it's not a good feeling. again, having been through erma and matthew here, both events which you plan for this stuff, but then the unpredictable

happens. when we were in erma, we knew to expect flooding, but it got so severe we had to send people out on rescue boats, our fire department on rescue boats the next morning to rescue people from their homes. so it's concerning, but we're ready. we stand up our emergency operations center well in advance of these events. we communicate clearly with people, ask them to take all the right precautions. and then we mobilize our fire department, our police force, our public works department, electric, utility and all the people that step up for the cause during these uncertain times. >> we're watching the surf go onto the docks in clearwater. you were hit last week by pretty heavy rain. does that complicate the situation for you when you think of the potential for flooding now? >> absolutely. we have had flooding problems in the past related to storms, it's been like a confluence of events. one time we had high tides that

had been hanging around. we don't have that this time, but we do have significant rainfall. last week it rained every single day. so in the event we get a big rain event here, we do have problem areas that we're going to be prepared to pump that water out. our concern would be that people get in their cars, but we're not facing a hurricane right now coming over our city. so people may be out driving around. they see standing water, the risk is they drive into it, which can be incredibly dangerous. >> warnings out there to folks. jacksonville mayor lenny curry, good luck to you guys and thank you so much. we appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. be safe, everyone. developing this morning, the delta variant sweeping across the nation. the cdc says the more transmissible variant now accounts for more than half of all coronavirus cases in the u.s. president biden pointing to this more dangerous strain, intensifying calls for unvaccinated americans to roll

up their sleeves. >> right now, as i speak to you, millions of americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected. and because of that, their communities are at risk, their friends are at risk, the people they care about are at risk. this is an even bigger concern because of the delta variant. >> the administration is now going to concentrate on getting vaccines to family doctors, lom pharmacies, mobile clinics and they've got more programs going door to door. i've got the best team to break all of this down. rehema ellis in new york city, dr. patel, an msnbc medical contributor and former health policy director for the obama white house. great to see you both. dr. patel, we see this has been happening, the biden administration shifting the focus from mass vaccination sites to more local outlets. but i wonder if this is going to really move the needle if people have already decided the vaccine just isn't for them. >> yeah, chris, you're right to

be kind of offering a little bit of cynicism, which is exactly how some of us feel in primary care settings. it will help to get this into pediatrician's offices, family practice offices, but by and large many of us have the vaccine. our biggest challenge is twofold. number one what you identified. people who just have said no, i've got 15 minutes with them, how do i convince them. we need tools to do that. i need to hear more coming out of the biden administration. what we really need are practical tools, tips, advice, we need to crowd source what's working and we need to be honest. it's not going to work if i keep trying and i could find someone that individual respects and listens to. it's not a mass vaccination effort. it's not a regional or state effort. >> individuals being convinced to do it. i want to talk to you about the delta variant but there's also what i think is good news. new york city was the epicenter

of the virus for a lot of us, you and me who lived there, 7:00 every time, hearing people going out of their windows cheering those first responders, kind of kept a lot of folks going. and now there's another way we're going to be honoring those folks. >> reporter: absolutely, chris. and we're here on broadway in lower manhattan in what's called the canyon of heroes. what you see is traffic, officers putting these barricades, bicycle fences in place. there's going to be another kind of traffic and it's going to include ten bands, 14 floats, one of the largest parades the city has ever seen for a city that's normally doing this for dignitaries and politicians, athletes, today this parade will be for the everyday hero, the health care workers. but also the city is saying they want people to remember some 260 different groups of workers who also were essential in keeping the city going. and that's sanitation, transportation, delivery food

people. but at the head of the parade will be sandra lindsey, a nurse here in new york who was the first person in the country to receive the covid-19 vaccine. we also spoke yesterday to another nurse who is going to be on one of the floats and she talked about what it was like in the unit. she said sometimes it was like a war zone. and she is honored that they're being remembered for their work today. take a listen. >> we are grateful that we are being recognized for all the hard work that we did. and i'm going to try to enjoy it, you know, because i'm going with the thought that i'm representing everybody, everybody who worked on this unit, who did the job, who got it done the best way we could do it. >> reporter: it's going to be a hot day out here. emts will be on duty but they will not be in the parade. they are boycotted because of a contract dispute. but this route will be lined with so many hundreds of

thousands of people who are going to say thank you to those emts and everyone else as part of the first responders group who helped keep people safe and put their lives at risk doing it. >> we can never say thank you enough. thank you for that. dr. patel, meantime, there's a lot of folks wanting to get out of town, wherever they are. they're planning vacations, they're going to travel this summer. but then we see not just the delta variant, but we're starting to hear about some other variants in different parts of the world. what should folks think about when they're traveling, either in the united states or internationally? for example, how much consideration should they be giving about vaccination rates where they go and letting that guide how they behave? >> yeah, chris, those are exactly the things americans should consider. so number one, we have now incredible growing evidence that our current vaccines, the three, pfizer, moderna, johnson & johnson, are very protective against the variants, all of them, including delta. so that is good news. the bad news is that we also

know and have accumulated evidence that not all vaccines are created equal. so we could be going to a country, you mentioned some other variants. peru has seen a growth of the lamb da variant. that could be a place people want to visit. but they are experiencing a variant that hasn't crept up in the united states yet and it hasn't been tested against our vaccines yet. so that, combined with a low vaccination rate in most countries, chris, but even countries like israel where we have higher vaccination rates, are also taking precautions. so number one, practically speaking, think about where you're going, but also think of our own risk. if getting out of the town or country helps you mentally, you're fully vaccinated, just take precautions. if it's too stressful it probably isn't worth it and you might want to stay until we see how this plays out in vaccinating the globe. >> some people have to stay home with their boyfriend netflix, right? dr. patel and rehema ellis, stay

cool out there. believe it or not, congress could be closer to striking an infrastructure deal, this after the house problem-solvers caucus endorsed the senate's bipartisan plan. two members of that caucus will join me next. of he watch out. the “make way, coming through” great... the storm alert... dad. and the subtle but effective ding. that's why we created low cash mode. the financial watch out that gives you the options and time needed to help you avoid overdraft fees. it's one way we're making a difference. because we believe how you handle overdrafts should be in your control, not just your banks. low cash mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪

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bipartisan problem-solvers caucus backed the bipartisan senate proposal negotiated with the white house. but there's a catch. the group said they want a stand alone vote on it asap and house speaker nancy pelosi only wants a vote if the families plan goes with it. joining me now to out co-chairs of the caucus, josh gottheimer and brian fitzpatrick. congressmen fitzpatrick, let me start with the basic question. have all 29 republicans in your caucus agreed to vote yes if it reaches the floor? >> thanks for having us, chris. we endorsed the package so our caucus rules are if 75% of the overall caucus agrees and 50% of the party members agree, we agree to stand together as a block. we en, toed this go round. we had our own plan the building bridges plan we endorsed, a framework that we came up with and just endorsed is a statement

of support of the senate plan for a standalone vote, that's the key here, what we want. the bills should be up or down voted based on its own merits, no strings attached. >> as you know, congressman gottheimer, speaker pelosi said she wouldn't put anything on the floor until the senate passes both bills. it's a risky strategy on both sides. have you had conversations with speaker pelosi about it? >> thank you so much for having me and it's great to be here with brian. something that's rare here, democrats and republicans in the house and the senate actually coming together and agreeing on something and there's nothing more pressing than fixing the infrom structure. what i believe and members of the caucus endorsed yesterday, let's get together and get a vote on this bipartisan infrastructure package the white house backed and we've been working together now for months

on and doesn't prevent us from doing something further down the road on another package. we have great momentum here, roads, bridges, rails, tunnels, water infrastructure, clean energy going. this is a great chance to get that done and i believe we can get it done so i believe we should get a standalone vote. >> back to the question, which is have you had a conversation with nancy pelosi? could she derail this? >> of course i'm always in touch with the speaker and let her know we are working on this and i'll leave it to you to talk to her. you've got democrats and republicans who are speaking clearly together this is something we can get done and again this is rare. we've been working on this as brian said with our senate colleagues, democrats and republicans for months now, able to get to an agreement. you saw president biden said we should get a bipartisan package done so ultimately if that's what we get to, she with you get a vote done and i believe we it

and should get it to the floor. >> congressman fitzpatrick, let me dig deeper on this standalone vote. the second proposal is expanding child care, fighting climate change. is there no support in your party for either of those things? >> of course, chris. we support those concepts. the question is what is in the final bill, what does it look like and is it a product of bipartisan input. our caucus stands for something very faithful, two-party solutions. we don't think one party has a monopoly on good ideas. our families operate and personal relationships operate and businesses function, the normal common sense americans wants us to govern. do we support child care and protecting our environment? of course. i was one of two republicans that supported the phrain instruct trur bill that was put on the floor by the house. i support both of the concepts very much but what we're here to announce today is we have a bipartisan agreement in the

house and the senate that the white house supports that should get an up or down vote. this is common sense and what the american people want. >> it may be what the american people want but when you listen to the leaders of both parties they sound entrenched. let me play for you something mitch mcconnell just said. >> this is going to be done on a bipartisan basis. this is going to be a hell of a fight over what this country ought to look like in the future. i don't think we've had a bigger difference of opinion between the two parties over the best thing to do for america than we have right now. >> so i want to ask both of you really quickly and i'll start with you, congressman gottheimer, how do you get there to agreement where the problem solvers caucus is, when you have both sides, the leaders on both sides as far apart as they are. in fact, and you just heard what he had to say, they've never been more far apart on what the future of the country looks

like. >> in the senate we've got 11 republican senators who said they would back the bipartisan deal and wet the democratic senators and get a deal done. the same for the house. the bipartisan caucus with 29 democrats and 29 republicans that back a package. what happens is the coalition comes together and i believe at the end of the day the country is speaking clearly here they want us to work together and do common sense, be smart and get something done for them. that's why i press the bill. >> we have seconds left but do you think this can get done, what is your feeling right now? >> i do. we have a 50/50 senate, a four-vote majority in the house so we just had our 58-member block support this and senate supports, democrat and republican behind this and the white house. if that can't get done, i don't

know what can. >> congressmen, thank you for being with us today. >> thanks for having us. we have to honor a milestone love story. today former president jimmy carter and first lady lady rosa carter celebrate their 75 year anniversary. rosalynn rejected his first proposal but eventually said yes and they married this day in 1946, the longest ever married first couple and the former president has called the marriage the pinnacle of his life. happy anniversary. that's going to wrap up this hour. i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruehl. hallie jackson picks it up next, joined by the mayor of tampa as tropical storm elsa bears down on the city.

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nothing rhymes with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ millions ready for impact as elsa barrels toward the coast. dangerous winds, heavy rain, a state of emergency as we come on the air, expanded now across florida with tens of millions of people from the south up to new england in its path over the next few days. we are live on the ground and with its track. plus in south florida, going inside that nonstop search for rv