good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports." i'm kasie hunt in washington where president biden is facing political pressure during a hot summer as democratic allies and voters demand results. the president fresh off a national security meeting on afghanistan will pivot to an afternoon discussion with a host of civil rights leaders who want assurances that protecting the right to vote is a priority for the white house. mr. biden's immediate domestic priority, trillions in infrastructure development is stuck in legislative limbo as members of both political parties hear from their constituents back home. turning to the coronavirus and a grim milestone. the global death toll surpassing the 4 million mark as japan bans spectators to prevent further spread and ensure olympic athlete safety. >> the measures having been

established to protect everybody, the japanese people and the participants of the games. all these strict measures have proven to be successful. >> and down in surfside, it's the first full day of the recovery operation to find dozens of bodies inside the rubble of the condo collapse. i'll speak to the leader of the elite israeli unit working with miami-dade fire rescue. let's begin the hour in washington with chief white house correspondent weekend today co-host peter alexander, garrett haake and congressman david jolly, former maryland democratic congresswoman donna edwards and civil rights attorney david henderson. thank you all for getting us started today. peter, the president knew that there would be plenty of times like this. joe biden of all people has seen it all and where there would be things on multiple fronts, but what are you hearing about the white house's strategy going

into this afternoon's meeting especially in the wake of what had to have been a tough conversation about afghanistan. >> yeah. kasie, it's a good question and it's a lot of what will happen behind the scenes with civil rights leaders with the president and vice president in attendance today will focus specifically on building that strategy as it relates to voting rights more broadly. the president is facing, as you noted, a lot of pressure right now to do and to say more on this topic specifically, the white house, the prs has been previewing that he would have a major push on this issue and there is no speech on this topic scheduled this week, the big remark will be focused on afghanistan and among those in the room and the national urban league will be there, and the national action network and the naacp legal defense fund will be represented as well as they try ultimately to do a better job to sort of mobilize their supporters among others and

allow for all americans with better opportunity to vote especially in the face of restrictive rules that have been enacted in a series of states and white house officials telling us that there's a constitutional right and the president referring to the restrictive rules as un-american and wrong. as we noted he would be joined by the vice president kamala harris today within the next hour or so. she's expected to speak at her alma mater, the historically black college howard university where she will announce expansions to the dncs, the mobilization effort and at the end of the day those are some efforts where they can infuse money and resources toward, but the pressure point is on what they can do with the stalemate in congress and the senate was unwilling to take up that for the people act that would have allowed for many of these issues that the democrats are trying to focus on right now. >> well, and to that very point,

david henderson, we've had such a tragic year and the deaths of george floyd and dante wright and the shootings, democrats haven't been able to move forward on these bills that are designed to protect minority voters. how much frustration is there right now among civil rights leaders who are heading to the white house. >> kasie, i think there's a lot of frustration and the word i might use beyond frustration is a lack of hope. it's hard to put one foot in front of the other when you don't see light at the end of the tunnel and what stands out in today's meeting is the timing. decent efforts to curb voter restrictive laws have failed in congress. last week the supreme court made it significantly more difficult to challenge policies on the basis that they discriminate because of race. in light of these recent developments and also today, of all days, one of the states is trying to pass more restrictive voting laws, texas as if they didn't already have enough has convened a special legislative

session exactly for that purpose. given the time of what's going on around these issues is the civil rights leaders and that's why it is so important for the president to have this meeting combatting what he's termed as an attack on american democracy. >> well, and donna edwards, this political stalemate on voting rights legislation is because congressional republicans blocked it and the reality is reforming the filibuster doesn't seem like an actual possibility with the votes in the senate. what can the president actually do here? >> well, you know, for democrats, i mean, it is both a moral crisis of, you know, black voters, minority voters being really shut out of the process, but it also means that it's a political crisis for democrats. these rules and restrictive rules that have put in place in the state are such that it could

really cost democrats seats in the house and the senate and that is how serious it is, and so i think that there's going to have to be a level of urgency raised by the white house, by the president, by the vice president around the country both inside and outside strategy that is going to lift up the need to do voting rights, not in a year or down the line, but right now and i don't know that i've seen that urgency yet. i hope that i've seen it coming out of the white house from this meeting today, but some of these democrats just have to get onboard and republicans are not going to come onboard. we know that. so let's stop existing in that fantasy world and get down to the business of passing legislation that is going to make it easier and not more difficult for voters to cast their votes come the following

election. >> what do you think the white house could say to joe manchin to convince him to change his mind? >> well, i mean -- look, i think that joe manchin also has some priorities, and you know, if it's sitting down with him and asking what are the tools you need to accept in order to move voting rights forward. the president will have to use the weight of both the bully pulpit around the country, but also the weight of the white house through the vice president if that's the strategy to begin to lean on these senators. it is really not acceptable anymore. black voters make up the base of the democratic party. they are loyal voters. they show up at the polls and this white house and this house and senate cannot continue to let those voters down by not

curtailing what's happening in these states and it can be done at the federal level and it's not just up to the courts. we've seen that. it's not just up to the department of justice. what is happening requires a national strategy, a national legislation to make sure that these voting rights are upheld. >> so garrett haake let's turn to the other domestic issue facing the white house and i'm not sure which we're on at this point, but obviously, the administration wants to get the bipartisan deal passed and they, of course, have to pair it with the reconciliation package, but even though they're pushing on the time line it's still not clear it me that they can get the enormous amount of work done in time to put it on the floor this summer. what's your take on all of that? >> kasie, any week can be an infrastructure week if you try hard and believe in yourself and

what we will see is many weeks in august that might otherwise be set aside for recess could continue to be infrastructure weeks because democrats know they have a limited amount of time to get something done this year on two plans that have to move in tandem, and so while there's been some reporting that democrats would like to get the bipartisan framework into bill 4. remember, it does not exist as legislation as yet and they would like to get a bill formed and it will have it move to keep progressives happy in a step by step basis with the reconciliation piece that is not yet a bill and it will have to go through budget committees and go through a voter amma in tandem with the house and these are behemoth concepts that when they become legislation will move simultaneously and i think democratic leaders that if they get half way done with this and coming back and finishing is

even more perilous, and they'll stretch into a long, hot summer to get things done before both chambers call it a planned summer for the recess. >> it's easy for them to say we have to do these things in tandem and this giant reconciliation package will move it right along and it's just an enormous undertaking and we lose sight of that. the other piece of this, david jolly is even if democrats and this kind of goes back to what are the republican incentives to go along with this bipartisan deal and mitch mcconnell hasn't said one way or the other whether he thinks it's better to let it go through because we've also seen him in particular take and in this case it was the american rescue plan which democrats did on their own, he went home to kentucky and he took credit for it anyway, politically speaking. so take a look at this montage of what mcconnell said in

kentucky versus what the president had to say about his comments and i'd love to hear your thoughts. >> mitch mcconnell loves our programs. did you hear what mitch mcconnell said? >> so you will get a lot more money. i didn't vote for it, but you'll get a lot more money. >> he told me i wouldn't get a single vote with the help of everybody here, the $1.9 trillion program for economic growth. look it up, man. he's bragging about it in kentucky. >> kentucky will get close to $700 or $800 million. it's getting $8 billion to help the poor. >> if you add the total amount that will come into our state $4 billion. my advice and the legislation and to other local officials is spend it wisely.

>> i mean, david jolly, if there was ever cynical politicking, explain this. >> very few politicians can ever be accused of being consistent and that is what we're seeing with mitch mcconnell here and vote for the legislation and take credit back home and it's indicative that democrats rightly know, but should also be reminding themselves, there is zero incentive for republicans to work with democrats, none, zero, so don't count on it. there will not be a loyal adversary or loyal partner. you may bet the bipartisan infrastructure package, but it will be unremarkable and the reconciliation package that includes the infrastructure and the biden, more progressive priorities and ultimately what you're seeing is president biden and they'll wrestle with is the bully pulpit is so big and it

only carries so much weight and while biden is trying to balance infrastructure priorities and voting rights priorities, he has to choose to do this sequentially and we've seen that from biden and i think the reason he's leaning into infrastructure perhaps more so than voting rights right now despite the urgency around voting rights is he knows the votes are within reach in infrastructure because of reconciliation, and the votes are not within reach in voting rights and he doesn't want to go down that road and ultimately fail before the american people. >> david, you said there's no incentive for republicans to work with democrats. if that's the case, why are there 20 republicans out there that say they will vote for this bipartisan package. why does it matter? why would it help them? >> kasie, you know this very well from covering the hill. infrastructure moves through a massive omni bus authorization process that democrats and republicans are happy to vote for and say hey, we're building roads and bridges and that's

essentially the bipartisan package that's moving and it's plussed up some, but what republicans are not going to cooperate on are any of the new biden priorities and the congressional democratic priorities and they're not going help in any way on that. republicans will have it both ways, excuse me, on infrastructure saying we supported the parts that reflect responsible infrastructure spending, but not the more progressive parts. they are gearing up for a 2022 that's part of the progressive contrast, that's it. that's what they want to focus and they'll isolate democrats' progressive agenda and say we're against every bit of that and have voters decide in november 2022 about which way they want to go. >> i can't imagine why americans are frustrated with our government when you put it that way. yes, we can. thank you all for getting us started today. we appreciate you all being here. coming up next, state of emergency. japan says spectators won't be allowed at the olympic games as

covid rages out of control. what it means for team usa and for the fans that hoped to cheer them on. plus the latest from surfside as operations start a grim new chapter. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ahhh! get out of here mouse. ahhh! ♪♪ don't flex your pecs. terminix. (vo) nobody dreams in conventional thinking. it didn't get us to the moon. it doesn't ring the bell on wall street. or disrupt the status quo. t-mobile for business uses unconventional thinking to help you realize new possibilities on america's largest, fastest, and most reliable 5g network. plus customer experience that finds solutions in the moment. and first-class benefits, like 5g with every plan. network, support and value-- without any tradeoffs. that's t-mobile for business.

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welcome back. it's official, there will be no spectators this year at the summer olympic games in tokyo. the news comes hours after japan announced a state of emergency over mounteding coronavirus concerns just two weeks before the city is set to hold the international games which were already postponed from 2020. nbc's tom llamas has the latest from tokyo. >> reporter: the prime minister declaring a state of emergency surrounding the covid-19 pandemic. this happening just two weeks before the olympic games are set to begin and now we are also learning the government saying they will not have any fans at

the olympic games. the prime minister saying this is because there's been a small uptick in cases in tokyo, but the bigger reason is because of the influx of foreign travelers. thousands of athletes, members of the press, coaches. they're really worried about the delta variant and they don't want an outbreak or a super spreader event to happen during the olympics as well. so they've asked restaurants bars and karaoke parlors not to serve alcohol. they are worried about crowd con terrell and they don't want the areas to get congested. when you speak to the japanese people out in the street it is hard to believe they are having the olympics in tokyo and people in tokyo are not excited about the games. a recent poll shows that more than 50% of the japanese people wanted the games either canceled or postponed. that's not going to happen. it's just too late in the process. there's also very strict guidelines for the foreigners coming in. we are under a 14-day quarantine and the president for the ioc, the man responsible for the

olympic games. he just got to tokyo and he also is under quarantine. it goes to show how strict the rules are and the major headlines today, tokyo now under a state of emergency and the olympic games, for the first time ever will not have fans in the stands. back to you. >> all right. tom llamas, thank you very much for that report. joining me to talk more about this is dr. patel, former obama white house medical director and msnbc contributor. let's start with tokyo. i want to get your reaction to the breaking news. it must be bad on the ground there if they're banning these spectators. what should american athletes be worried about, if anything? >> good news for american athletes is that the protocols in place not just for americans, but all athletes is incredibly stringent, probably more so than the olympic sporting events that we've seep in the united states and abroad, and that's good news

for the athletes and for safety. japan prior to this recent surge had 920 new cases in the last several days and the highest number they've ever had in japan was 1,000. so you have to think through the context with which a country like japan would call a state of emergency and they don't do it lightly. so anybody -- my heart goes out to the people that will go with the olympic athletes and friends who were counting on being there to cheer people on, and the other thing we have to do is underscore that we have had other countries that have had athletes that tested positive, but that reenforces how seriously the olympic committee and the country are taking these protocols. so i do feel good about the games continuing, but it is disheartening to hear the country, japan is scared and that's significant. >> yeah. it's pretty difficult. let's talk about the delta

variant. today does mark a devastating milestone, 4 million deaths and that's the equivalent of the entire city of l.a. being wiped off the map and now the world health organization is issuing these stern warnings to countries that are talking about re-opening. should the u.s. be concerned about that or do we have enough vaccine that we don't need to be? >> kasie, it's a big concern. bottom line, the united states and i don't think that anybody takes the delta variant or the threat it causes lightly. we have local and state government officials sounding alarms as you and i discussed and cities and regions that have had 20% to 30% of their area vaccinated. what i hope to see is somehow an alignment between what other countries are experiencing and how the united states thinks about travel advisories. i do hope that we start to have a little bit more education about quarantine when people come back from other countries.

we have a requirement for a negative test to get on planes, but casey, this reminds us that it is a global pandemic and travel is for anybody coming back or from an area that's highly vaccinated and think about quarantining yourself. if you are vaccinated you are highly protected, but it's never too cautious to think about your actions and the implication it could have on those around you who are not vaccinated. >> well, speaking of vaccinations, "the washington post" is reporting on a new study that looked at people who got the first shot and not the second shot and the study shes that if you didn't get both shots then you didn't get any protection against delta. what should those people do? should they start the whole process over again? should they get one booster shot?

what about those that failed to show up the second time. what should they do? >> you should get a second shot. we are giving second shots several months after the first shot, and we are showing the second shot can help and that reenforces that people who have had just one shot only about 10% of them have protection against the delta variant, even if it were delayed by several months, that protection rose from 90 to 95%. those are lab studies and we're still looking for real world evidence and it doesn't matter when, come into your pharmacy or doctor's office and just show them your card and you will get a second shot. it's not really a booster and it's just completing the series and wooe not starting people over. we're giving them the second shot. >> that's very, very helpful. really good to know. you also mentioned biden officials and the delta variant

and the way they talk about these things and they're trying to start the most vaccine hesitant populations and one of the efforts was the shops at shops initiatives and this is something that the biden administration was talking about. they sent doug emhoff the second gentleman to a barbershop in illinois and there was a barber working there during the event who said it didn't matter that the second gentleman was going to come in and do this. he said he was asked if the visit made him rethink the decision to get the vaccine and perry said, no way. obviously, the second gentleman is a political figure, but still it's a lot of -- it's a lot of peer pressure that's being projected here. what else can be done? who else is the right messenger if not mr. emhoff? >> honestly, you said it. it's peer pressure, but we have to analyze who the right peer is and my concern is that you have to get somebody that they can relate to and now we're getting,

kasie, i'm using -- it's not just statistics that this will prevent death. i have to say if you're a 29-year-old woman, here's what other 29-year-old women who got covid, here's what happened to them. it has to look like them and is in the same demographic. i do think that peer pressure can work. i think everyone including myself have to look at who the peers are because if they're not getting the vaccine to date, kasie, they have in many ways made up their mind and it will take something incredible to change that thinking. >> which is why, of course, it is so important for those of us who trust us in our own lives to get the shot. dr. kavita patel, thank you very much. we appreciate your time. up next, from rescue to recovery. rescue crews make a heartbreaking realization. what it means for the teams, working through the rubble.

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welcome back. the search effort in surfside florida is in its first day of a recovery operation. two days after the condo

building collapsed. rescue workers, other first responders stood in front of a mountain of rubble holding a moment of silence. finding survivors was, quote, no longer possible. morgan chesky is in surfside. a pretty somber day. what's the latest? >> you're right. the mood has definitely shifted in surfside. a moment of silence held yesterday evening and at about 1:30 this morning those rescuers just taking pause on top of the pile to pay tribute to the lives lost and those that they're still working to reunite with their families who have spent two weeks in an agonizing waiting game and it's important to note that the actual work of the first responders on top of the collapse about two blocks behind me has not really shifted. they are delicately moving that debris. they are saving personal items to hopefully be reunited with family members at a later time

and they're also in the meantime helping geotag and gather evidence in what's going to be a massive investigation into seeking the cause of this collapse. these first responders tireless and we had a chance to hear from miami-dade mayor cava yesterday with a heartfelt thank you to those who really have been working nonstop since this collapse took place 15 days ago. take a listen. >> i want to thank all the first responders and all of the teams who have given everything they have to our search and rescue and now to our recovery mission. you are our heroes and sheroes. please pray for the families who are grappling with the impossible news and are grieving, may god give peace to those whose hearts have been broken and watch over and care for this community in the difficult days and months ahead. >> these rescue workers are very much trained for this sort of

operation, but important to note that it is more than a job, one of the captains of the teams telling me that any time they did find a body buried in that debris everyone stopped and formed a line on top of the pile as that person was taken from that area down to first responders to be taken away from this location. so he says there was not a dry eye from anyone as they've worked through this. it just goes to show how personally this has impacted so many people here. kasie? >> honestly just hearing you walk through that it's just so, so, so incredibly devastating. morgan chesky, thank you very much for your reporting today. we really appreciate it. >> coming up next here, accelerating advance. the taliban seizing control just days after the major withdrawal of u.s. troops. what does it mean for our allies

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welcome back. president biden will address the drawdown of u.s. troops in afghanistan after pledging to complete the military exit by the 20th anniversary of the september 11th attacks. the taliban has taken control of one-third of the country and today british prime minister boris johnson confirmed most british troops have already left afghanistan nearly 20 years after the uk sent troops to the region. joining me now is washington post, kevin baron of defense one. ashley, let me start with you, just straightforward. what do we expect to hear from the president today? he had bristled recently when he was asked about this on the fly. >> that's right. he'd said that at that point he preferred to talk about happy things which was revealing in

the sense that this is -- this is not a happy topic. it's america's forever war. it's something every president since george w. bush has grappled with and even though president biden made a clear decision and is doing something he promised during the campaign, it's not an easy or obvious or uncomplicated choice for him either. what we are expecting today and the white house has not revealed a ton, but it's for them to announce in terms of tangible things what they are doing to help out those translators to get out of afghanistan and get to safety, some to the united states and some to sort of other third countries for a while. that's one of the tangible things and we are expecting him to sort of explain again his decision, why he made this decision and what we should expect in terms of the drawdown. >> so, kevin, i'm glad ashley mentioned the translators because there is a new politico ad out that kind of underscores

the seriousness of this issue, interpreter, drivers, engineers, security guards and all these people who helped u.s. troops and many who are familiar to the troops that they worked with and they are in so much danger now with the u.s. pulling out of afghanistan. let's take a look at the ad and then i want to ask you. >> i'm a veteran. i'm a veteran. >> i served in afghanistan. >> i served in afghanistan. >> i am alive today because of my translator? my translator -- >> chose to fight for our country. >> my translator is as much of a veteran as i am. >> as i am. >> as i am. >> our wartime allies. >> remain left behind. >> our nation made a promise. >> to ensure no one is left behind. >> really emotional ad there, kevin, and of course, such a challenge because the visa system is all tied up here. in the u.s. there seems to be a proposal to send them to guam.

what is the pentagon thinking here? what is the white house thinking here and what are we actually going to do for these people? >> we'll find out from the president this afternoon. the issue of these translators and you're right, they're not just translators and anyone in afghanistan who helps the united states military who might be in danger with the taliban somehow gets it in, the united states military leaders have said for a long time and they said this back in iraq that they feel a lifelong obligation to people that help this cause and if the united states want to be there to provide protection there is no obligation to bring them out. in the trump administration bringing foreign refugees of any kind from muslim countries and the wars became an issue and they shut the border to some of these countries and now it's become a liberal calling, a liberal military calling and human rights first to put that ad out in kabul and they're the ones who are trying to put the

military lens and make this a patriotic duty is this needs to happen. i think what it shows is it's one more thing that shows how the biden administration got this a bit backward of the cart before the horse and without a plan for the attacks and without a plan for getting these translators out and without a plan for helping the government or being clear about what the u.s. military issue was and what exactly were the remaining security interests in the country. so the president has a lot of explaining to do today and there's been a lot of questions at the pentagon and it shouldn't be the pentagon's job to explain these things and this white house and the national security council, and i'm very eager to see what kind of speech he's going to give us. >> ashley, one of the things that we've been talking about the last couple of days was the u.s. leaving bagram in the middle of the night, cutting off power and leaving all of these

vehicles behind, creating a sense of the vacuum here and was the white house surprised by that? has there been concern about it and have they been taken aback by the speed with which the taliban is moving? >> the broad thing is that the white house knew on the one hand that this was something that president biden had promised, had long talked about and when he got in he continued and he was confident and he understood this was not one of those areas where they could change his mind and he also knew this was not an easy place and this is not an easy war or uncomplicated situation and one of his predecessors would have solved it. in general terms they did expect hiccups and challenges and dismay, but again, i think what we are seeing in realtime you can never exactly predict that

and that's what they'll have to adjust to on the fly which in many ways, as you point out is perhaps worse than some people initially expected. >> all right, ashley parker, kevin baron, thank you very much for being with us this afternoon. we appreciate it. coming up next, fighting for their rights. voting rights advocates parting to gather on the steps of the texas courthouse as they push a restriction bill. we'll head to austin next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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welcome back. today the texas state legislature briefly convened for the kickoff of the special session taking up 11 issues including one big headliner, voting restrictions. republicans introduced a bill placing limits on voting, one was passed in may that was blocked when democrats staged a walkout denying the quorum that was needed to act on the legislation. the special session is giving them another bite at the apple to push it through. nbc's priscilla thompson is in austin. what's in this bill that is concerning democrats and voting rights advocates? >> yeah, kasie.

so the house version of this bill dropped overnight, and i believe the senate version has just been filed as well, but what we know is in the house version is some of the same things that we saw in that bill that democrats walked out on in may. so it is a ban on overnight voting, a ban on drive through voting. voting, also still make it a state felony to send out unsolicited vote by mail ballots, so those are a lot of things that was concern. in just a few moments, the advocates and democratic leaders are going to come out and hold a press conference i i'm here with carissa lopez with the texas freedom network, one of the advocates in this world. i want to put this question to you. you're watching everything unfold. what do you make of it? what's most concerning to you? >> thank you have having us and for being here. we're correspond about a whole

host of issues. the top of that agenda is voter suppression, and we're still digesting the bill. the hearings are supposed to be on saturday with just a few days' notice, so we're worried about them undermining democracy again, even though we defeated this with a regular session, and also trying to pass this through back-door deefls. >> reporter: what are you hopes that democratic lawmakers can do here? >> in texas republicans have been in charge for a long time, but democrats have gotten good at defeating things creatively through procedural moves. we saw what would become a real uphill battle, but the democrats still defeated that bill by walking out. that's on the table again for special session. we're here as advocate to go rally, show support, put

pressure on to make sure. tt ou lawmakers will use every tool in their toolbox again to makes sure that they defeat this bill. thank you. >> reporter: katie, that is the message we're hearing from democratic lawmakers. as we know, there will be committee hearings held into the weekend. we expect things to pick up here on those bills sometime next we're. kasie? >> priscilla, thank you. joining me now is texas state democratic representative anna johnson. thank you so much, ms. johnson, for being with us today. as we were just hearing, we've had some of you saying everything is on the table, including another walkout to stop this bill from passing again. realistically, is that something that you think is going to happen? if you do it, will it stop the passage of this bill? >> so our concern as a united

front of democrats is to fight to ensure the promise of democracy is real for all texans. that meaning we'll use every tool to stop what's in a long line of suppression. we're seeing here the same concern, just as you said, we got called to a special session of an agenda by the governor that's nothing more than a buff face of red meat, and last night 47 pages of a new voter suppression bill got dropped us on us, which we will fight. we see attacks on the elder and the disabled, and that's why we'll use every tool available to ensure that democracy stands in texas. >> there have really been minimal reports of voter fraud in texas.

there was a university of texas/"texas tribune" thought that 42% believes ineligible votes are rarely or never cast. does this warrant a special session? why do this in texas? frankly, texas already has some of the most restrictive rules in the country. >> that's exactly right. this is a solution in search of a problem. the only problem we have is the governor is staying true to the allegiance of donald trump. this is the next domino try to go fall for republicans in an effort to create voter suppression, so that republicans can try to maintain some level of power, disregard the rights of many texans across the board. you're absolutely right. the republican secretary of state said this last election was safe, smooth and secure. there was no issue with the

integrity of our election system. if republicans are worried about the integrity of something, they all to look at the integrity of our electrical grid. people died not only in a winter storm, but just recently in houston, 911 went down because of the power grid. if we should by here fighting for texans, we should preserve our energy and keep people's lights on. this plays into primary red meat voters. >> so some republicans have basically said the quiet part out lout in different bills and places, and acknowledged it's about making it harder for democrats to win elections. do you think if this bill is made law, it's going to be less likely that texas turns blue? which i realize is a general statement, but it's obviously a theme we have talked about, kind of over and over again. >> we should be fighting for voters to vote on ideas.

we shouldn't be trying to pick our voters or suppress our voters. you're exactly right, like health care, like the power grid, like gun safety. that's not what republicans are interested in doing. you raise the issue, they have said the out loud part, which is our break of quorum, expose the voter bill for what it was, in an attack on communities of faith and civil rights and souls to the polls, an attack on 24-hour voting, so we're going to do everything we can to preserve the integrity of the election and we should win on ideas, not from fair -- we'll be watching, we appreciate your time. that is going to do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online and on twitter. you can also follow me. but don't go anywhere.

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♪♪ if it's thursday, president biden will deliver remarks about the u.s. troop withdrawal from afghanistan this hour. as america leaves an increasingly unstable country, with an increasingly resurgent taliban. after two decades of war. plus tex kicks off a special session, with an agenda chock-full of issues like voting sures, so-called critical race theory, as governor abbott is facing a primary challenge from his right. two people are under arrest after the braising assassination of haiti's president. the question does remain, who is in charge of the country?