kabul. and major news in the fight against covid with pfizer now saying it is developing a booster shot of its vaccine that strongly extends protection against the original virus. history was made yesterday at the annual scrips national spelling bee. we'll show you who won and what the winning word was. oh my gosh, love that. we're going to start right now with the extreme and dangerous weather impacting much of the country, thunderstorms and heavy rain hit new york city and its suburbs yesterday. videos on line, flooded streets, rainwater seeping into subway stations. some uptown stations getting hit the hardest. subway service was largely interrupted with only the northern most end of the a-line shutdown. the interim president of the new

york city transit said the flooding was due to overwhelmed drains. and more rain hit the area overnight thanks to tropical storm elsa wreaking havoc in new york city. and out west, states are preparing for another scorching weekend. forecasters predict temperatures will be up to 25 degrees higher than average. this comes as california governor gavin newsom asks residents to cut water usage by 15%. the state is grappling with a record breaking set of temperatures and a drought. joe, 100% of california, the state of california, is dealing with high temperatures. just unbelievable. >> it is unbelievable. it also follows up just historic record highs in oregon, in washington state, in the pacific northwest. why don't we go right now to meteorologist bill karins for more on the forecast.

bill, i think you said those temperatures a few weeks back weren't temperatures you saw every ten years, or even every hundred years, they may be every thousand years. and now it's happening again, this time in california. >> las vegas has a chance for their all-time record hottest temperatures. let's start with elsa, then go to the west this weekend. elsa got stronger overnight, back over the water, just over the jersey shore. heavy rain over new york city, d.c., baltimore, philadelphia, you're done. the rain is over with. the good thing about the storm, it's moving quickly. up in new england, that's where you're going to deal with the storm during the day. let's track it. by 8:00 a.m., you notice the rain is over eastern long island, done in new york city for the most part.

boston it looks like the storm is over for you by about 2:00 p.m. or so. could get winds on cape cod for power outages. and even maine is done with the storm by 8:00 p.m. we had the heavy rain yesterday and storms, today another 3 to 6 inches from hartford to providence to boston, 41 million people in the flood watch. and how about out west with the drought concerns. where you see the darker reds, that's where it's extreme and exceptional. we have almost all of utah, nevada, california. this time last year, it was only 40%. we are going into this fire season so much dryer than even last year. and now this weekend, this heat warning, guys, 27 million people impacted. i'll leave you with this, death valley this weekend, the all time record is 134, that's the hottest temperature ever

recorded on earth. and look at saturday and sunday, 130, sunday 131. they are forecasting the third hottest temperature ever recorded on earth this weekend in california. >> my lord. bill karins, thank you very much. we'll be watching this. now to afghanistan, president biden is defending his decision to bring all american troops home from afghanistan. even as taliban forces take control of more than one third of the country's districts. we'll get a report from the ground in kabul from richard engel in a moment but first kelly o'donnell at the white house. >> reporter: answering criticisms and questions. the president defending his decision to end the presence in afghanistan by august 31st. >> it was not for the united states to continue fighting this

war indefinitely. >> reporter: mr. biden was a vocal critic of keeping u.s. forces there indefinitely. achievable forces happened long ago. >> to get the terrorists that attacked on 9/11. >> reporter: but dangers remain real. after the draw down in april was announced, taliban fighters began gaining ground. and some republicans say this will embolden isis. >> i think we're going to see a return of terrorist attacks inspired or otherwise here in the united states. >> reporter: the president flatly rejected the u.s. would bear responsibility for bloodshed among afghan civilians. >> no, no, no. it's up to the people of afghanistan to decide on what government they want. >> reporter: this direct message

to critics. >> let me ask those who want us to stay. how many more? how many thousand more americans, daughters and sons are you willing to risk? >> after sacrifices made by a generation of warriors, the president said he is satisfied the job is done. kelly o'donnell nbc news the white house. kabul where american troops are leaving afghanistan. president biden insisting the afghan government and military have sufficient force to maintain stability. >> is the taliban takeover of afghanistan now inevitable? >> no, it is not. >> why? >> because you have the afghan troops have 300,000 well equipped, as well equipped as any army in the world. >> reporter: but afghan soldiers and police have been surrendering to the afghans in droves often without fighting

and surrendering its weapons. the afghan government is relying on their elite special forces the commandos. they're motivated and effective but a small force, only about 30,000. the president also delivering this message to the thousands of afghans who worked as interpreters and contractors for the u.s. troops. the taliban considers them traitors. >> there's a home for you in the united states. >> reporter: but when? president biden was asked about the fate of the afghan women. >> they are very concerned with good reason. >> reporter: we visited a modeling agency this week now operating in secret. >> if you went back to your village, which was taken over by the taliban, right now dressed like this, what would happen to you? >> we will die. >> die? >> yes. >> reporter: the taliban and other groups in afghan oppose

women doing anything other than motherhood. girls schools have already come under attack. let's bring in "the washington post" bureau chief susanna george live from kabul. and from the associated press, jonathan lemire. good to have you both. tell us what you're seeing on the ground in terms of the feeling of people given this draw down and sort of dramatic departure, to an extent. especially given richard engel's reporting. it's gone from being flooded with light and people and help to nothing. >> i think that what we've heard from president biden is a much more optimistic take on the security situation in afghanistan at the moment than what most afghans are seeing and feeling. especially those living in

government-held territory. people definitely expected the taliban to make gains across the country as u.s. troops withdrew, but the gains that have been made have happened at a much more rapid pace than anyone expected. and that's largely -- it's looking largely like it's because of these surrenders that troops are making, especially in the north. some commanders are cutting deals and other cases troops are just laying down their arms in the face of taliban attacks. and while biden stressed the well equipped aspects of the afghan army and the numbers of forces in the afghan army, when we talk to afghan forces who have surrendered, have laid down their weapons to the taliban, it's not because of the overall equipment that the afghan army has access to. it's because they themselves at the remote outposts are not getting the munitions or the

support they need from the central government. >> susanna, there was a state department spokesman yesterday who suggested that the taliban would sit down for peace negotiations because they knew that would be the only way they would gain legitimacy with the afghan people. there's no evidence of that, is there, in any of the actions, taliban fighters or leaders are taking right now? >> yeah. the negotiations that are happening in qatar have been staled for months. i haven't heard anyone speak hopefully about those negotiations for a very long time, probably the last time i heard someone speak hopefully about those was just a few weeks after they began, that was last september. if you look at the taliban's actions on the ground in afghanistan, it not only is at odds with what the negotiations are supposed to achieve, which

is a settlement to the conflict by political means, but it also places the group in a much stronger standing if they ever do want to return to the negotiating table. so it's not something people here are looking to. i know it's something that u.s. officials point to as a possible way the conflict can end but in afghanistan, very few people, any hope at all that the negotiations will bring the conflict to a close. >> susanna george live from kabul. thank you very much. >> let's go back to the white house with jonathan lemire. yesterday the president striking a defiant tone even though he knows many oppose this move, think it may lead to disaster down the road. yet a recent poll over the past

months say americans support biden's withdrawal overwhelmingly. >> yeah, west wing aides are quick to point to those polls as part of this decision. we heard at length about his commitment to move american troops, end the combat, the war footing by august 31st to pull the troops home. he was defiant. he said he would not accept any responsibility, in fact. he said the u.s. would not be responsible for any violence that follows our leaving afghanistan because at the moment we're just going to leave a small force behind to defend the embassy. he's for a long time he wanted to make this decision, even before he became president. aides in recent days told me they're trying to frame this as an unwinnable war. this is not a mission accomplished moment. this is not the white house suggesting they did everything

they wanted to do there. they do not want to get into nation building. but president biden said he couldn't ask another family to give up a son or daughter in afghanistan. so despite the gains the taliban has made in that area, the white house is sticking to their decision. toyota said they're no longer going to donate to those who voted against certifying in january. they faced a lot of blow back following this ad. >> toyota gave more money to the politicians who voted to over turn the 2020 election results. toyota's number one at finding ways to financially reward the very party that took our nation to the brink on january 6th,

helping finance a movement that helped take votes away from customers, not to mention toyota's own employees. if they don't reconsider where they send their money, americans will reconsider where we send ours. >> following that announcement, the lincoln project said it will no longer air the ad. and michael avenatti, the lawyer who once represented stormy daniels in lawsuits against then president trump was sentenced yesterday to two and a half years for trying to extort $25 million from nike. he said, quote, i alone have destroyed my career, my relationships and my life. and there is no doubt i need to pay. the judge said his severe

remorse justified a lower sentence than the 9 to 11 years outlined in the federal guidelines. he was convicted of extorting nike by using the case of an amateur basketball coach who hired him to sue the country. he faces another trial next week for allegedly defrauding clients. the upcoming summer olympics just two weeks away, organizers of the tokyo games announced there will be no spectators. senior national correspondent tom ya mas has the details. >> reporter: when the olympics kick off, these seats will be empty. organizers pulling back on plans announced just two weeks ago to allow some local spectators. the ban on fans coming just hours after japan's prime minister announced a new state of emergency in tokyo, which begins monday and will run

through the entire olympics. one of the reasons for the state of emergency, officials want to thin out the crowds in restaurants and bars like here. officials are urging those businesses not to serve alcohol. they want people to watch at home. even the olympic rings are being shut off early. the new restrictions come after an up tick in covid cases due to the delta variant. while transmission here is still relatively low compared to other hot spots. the vaccine rollout is slow. >> the vast majority remain unvaccinated. they're afraid of the olympics kick starting another surge. >> 70,000 people from around the world are expected here from the olympics, including ioc president thomas bach who just arrived and is now in quarantine. >> so much news we're reading right now suggesting the united states is actually getting set

apart from the rest of the world perhaps because as much as we complain about only hitting 67, 70% of americans we're doing better than most countries. you look at tokyo, they're banning fans from the olympic. i know you, like me, have been watching some of the euro 2020 matches over the past month. limited seating in some places hardly any fans at all. i believe south korea is talking about reinstituting mask mandates. it does seem the united states is standing out. is there any pressure on this white house to follow some of the actions of some of these other countries? >> certainly it's going to be a stark scene if the olympics does not see any fans. the white house had intended for first lady jill biden to attend the olympics as a representative of her husband and the nation. and those plans are now in flux

whether she'll still make that trip. right now the u.s. government, they're proceeding as is. we have seen like los angeles county suggesting people should wear masks again indoors. and there's fear in the states where there's huge pockets of unvaccinated people, particularly down south and out west. we heard from dr. fauci, other white house public officials there isn't a decision to lock things down again. that would be at the state level anyway. biden from the other day, at the july 4th speech touted the progress the u.s. has made. the vaccination rate is still far higher here than anywhere else in the world and giving americans a sense of normalcy that they don't have in other countries but they are watching, if the case rates start to grow

again throughout the country, not making any predictions as to what measures may have been taken. right now the focus, get vaccinated. believing that's the best way out of this, trying to convince those who are hesitant to take the vaccine. if they don't, that could lead themselves and others to some day lockdowns being imposed. >> it's remarkable, you look at japan, europe right now. right now european nations are saying we can come visit as americans, tourists are welcome in europe, but americans don't want europeans here right now. it is just again because they're not doing as well. britain continues to battle covid. so it's -- you talk about -- it's almost like a tale of two pandemics, in 2020 when we were so slow to adopt some basic

measures our numbers skyrocketed, we went far ahead of every other country in the globe. still, 600,000 deaths -- over 600,000 deaths. this has been a nightmare for so many americans and american families. you move to 2021, though, and as i said, we actually -- the trump administration bet on the right vaccines last year, the biden administration has done an exemplary job in varks nating as many americans who want to be vaccinated quickly. we're really -- right now, we're the country i think most other countries would be looking to right now to see how we actually have done at least this phase of the pandemic right. >> yeah. although the political the police situation in this country leaves our biggest problem being the vaccine hesitant. and most of the people in

hospitals with covid right now are unvaccinated. there's that. >> that is important to say we've seen statistics that 99% of the people who are in hospitals right now with covid are unvaccinated. >> that's the bottom line. >> i guess my point is, even with the stops and starts, even with all the bad information throughout 2020, even with the conspiracy theories that have been ginned up in the united states against the vaccine and against doctors and against medicine and against health care and even against this virus. even with all of that, the united states is still doing so much better in the summer of 2021 than the rest of the world. >> so vaccine developer pfizer said it's working on a booster shot that targets the highly contagious delta variant. the company said clinical studies could begin as early as

august subject to regulatory approvals. executives from pfizer have said people will need a likely booster shot or third dose of the vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated. so that could help to those open to the vaccine. meanwhile, europe has mostly opened its borders for american travelers but we don't know when the u.s. will resipry indicate. secretary of state tony blinken said the administration will be guided by the virus. they are not yet ready to to put a date on when to open to international travellers. one last item, a new study suggests wearable fitness trackers such as fit bits can help track patients' recovery from covid-19. researchers found that people who tested positive for covid-19

were wearing fit bits displayed behavioral and psychological changes such as elevated heart rate. these symptoms lasted longer in people with covid than other respiratory illnesses. >> we've heard about the long-term effects of covid even on the level of superb athletes. we've seen the difference at least in the first half of the season with standouts like dj lemahieu with the new york mets -- with the yankees, i'm sorry. who started out with a terrible batting average and unfortunately when the yankees rolled into fenway he started hitting the ball much better and seemed to come around. same thing with erod for the red sox. even with these athletes who train all the time, train year round. there have been some athletes that got covid last year, young,

healthy athletes that have been slow to recover back to mid season form. >> i'd be happy if dj lemahieu went to the mets. >> yeah. >> call it in. >> you're right. some of the best athletes, cam newton, the patriots quarterback last year started strong, got covid was never the same even after he returned. jayson tatum, the boston celtics young star it took him a month to get his air back, to feel like himself again even after a mild case of covid. the long haul is something doctors and scientists are learning about. i think there is a sense of still the unknown as to what the long term effects for covid could be years from now, which -- could symptoms crop up four, five decades from now, no one knows. this is a talking point used right by by the white house and

other health officials to say get your vaccine, don't take the risk. there's so much about this disease, virus we don't know yet. why take the chance. the longer the virus is allowed to be out there, it can grow and spread and mutate, at some point there could be one that defeats the vaccine. the delta variant now, i should say, is better about getting around the vaccine and others still the vaccine provides good protection. the fear is another variant could emerge down the road that would be more dangerous. still ahead on "morning joe," the death toll from the surfside condo collapse is growing as authorities pledge to continue recovery efforts with urgency. the latest from south florida. plus civil rights leaders visit the white house amid a fight over voting rights. and alzheimer's has done 18

years without a new treatment. this week the fda confirmed a new drug but limits who can receive it. you're watching "morning joe," we'll be right back with all that and more. right back with l that and more. ♪ welcome to allstate, ♪ ♪are you down, d-d-down, d-d-down, d-d-down♪ where we're driving down the cost of insurance. ♪ ♪ are you down, down♪ ♪d-down, down? are you♪ drivers who switched saved over $700. ♪ allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands. click or call for a lower rate today. ♪welcome back to that same old place♪

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♪♪ m-u-r-r-a-y-a. >> that is correct. >> oh my gosh. 14-year-old ziala avant-garde won history last win becoming

the first black american champion of the spelling wee. she won on the word murraya. m-u-r-r-a-y-a, which is a type of tree. this year marked the competition's return after the pandemic forced its cancellation last year for the first time since world war ii. this isn't her only title. avant-garde also holds three guinness world records for dribbling a basketball. she's amazing. >> doing a lot. fantastic. >> i love that so much. >> i love those. back to reality. the biden administration is renewing its push to pass voting rights legislation. president biden and vice president harris met with a delegation of civil rights leaders at the white house yesterday to discuss how to combat the wave of restrictive republican voting laws. civil rights activists argued

the need for joint cooperation between the white house, congress and local leaders. >> democracy is under vicious, sinister attack, beginning with the events of january 6th at the capitol and cascading like a tsunami through state legislatures across the nation. >> a movement from the ground up is starting to be the only way that we can preserve our right to vote. we informed them that this is going to come not from the white house down but from our houses up. >> i told the president we will not be able to litigate our way out of this threat to black citizenship voting and political participation. we need legislation to be passed in congress, both hr-1 and hr-4.

>> let's bring in the man you just heard there, host of msnbc's "politician nation," reverend al sharpton. what happened yesterday? update us. any progress made? >> i thought it was a good meeting, it was scheduled for one hour, went almost two hours. and it was basically eight of us from eight national civil rights organizations saying to the president, in light of the supreme court decision last week, which really further gutted the voting rights act, that we need to escalate where we are in terms of civil rights leadership on the ground, working with grass roots activists, young activists and church groups, faith groups around this country because we cannot afford to have legislation to answer what is clearly the judicial leaning of disenfranchising millions of black and brown and other

voters. and we wanted to know whether the president and the vice president would use your bully pulpit to add a lot of acknowledgement and a lot of recognition to this. he was very, very passionate about the fact he understood where we were, what needs to be done. he's willing to continue to speak out even more. we challenged the vice president, which she was very enthusiastic about, she needs to go on the road with this and have town halls, meet with young people, older people. we need to develop a movement. this cannot be a beltway kind of conversation. we are looking at the absolute demise of democracy that has been championed by donald trump and others that want to use the big lie to say that they were robbed but use that to cover to going back in to knock people

off of voting rolls and to in many ways orchestrate a way to go back to states' rights on voting, which the supreme court decision led to doing. >> the roberts court several years ago said the civil rights laws needed to be updated and congress needed to update those laws. jon lewis drafted a bill, right now hr-4, much more likely to pass than hr-1, which many democrats said will never pass in its current form and i know there's negotiating going on to figure out what version of that bill can pass. any specifics about moving hr-4 first? i know you've spoken with joe manchin as well? >> we met with joe manchin, eight of us a couple weeks ago and he convened 13 republicans that met with us by zoom.

i think a lot of us will be reaching out collectively to meet with people. but more than meeting there's going to be rallying. even in their district, their state, martin luther king iii, and his wife andrea, king and i called this massive national march august 28th. there will be rallies, state rallies and a lot of movements on the ground from la tasha brown to a melanie campbell leading up to that. so there has to be how did we get the voting rights act in the first place? there was a combination of what johnson and others were doing in washington and what dr. king and roy willkins and others were doing on the streets. that's what we told the president we were going to do, turn up the street heat as we hope he and others do what they do in washington. but we cannot, i repeat cannot sit by and allow them to erode

our voting rights, which we are on the precipice of. >> thank you, reverend al. you've been very kind to us coming in for several reasons. this, of course, a huge meeting at the white house yesterday. you came in to talk to eric adams a man who earlier in the game said he would weep if you did not support him or supported somebody else. we appreciate you being with us. i guess you're going to be talking about this on "politics nation". >> i'm going to talk about this, and we'll talk about how i did a eulogy for a white 17-year-old young man, hunter britton, who was killed by law enforcement and whose family is supporting the george floyd bill. i'm going to talk about how we need to go outside of our comfort zones to do what we do

in this country. >> jonathan lemire, let's go to you at the white house and just talk about these two bills. we've all heard hr-1 is -- has been dismissed by many moderates as just unworkable democrats that it wasn't going to pass. joe manchin is negotiating with progressives and leaderships trying to get votes on that one but even hr-4 having trouble getting to the threshold it needs to pass. what is the latest on the two voting rights bills and what does the white house believe their best chance is to actually pass legislation to push back on some of these more restrictive state laws? >> joe, as we report this morning, the associated press, and i've talked to a lot of aides in the growing days, there's pessimism about getting anything done on the federal

level here. i think hr-4 has a better shot than hr-1, it's more focused, less sweeping, but it's going to be an uphill climb. republicans seem steadfast opposed to both and questions that senator manchin and others would touch the filibuster. he has said he will not. yesterday they painted the meeting in a positive fashion but the focus is more the legislation. they're playing up the idea that there's going to be legal challenges, the department of justice is weighing in. they're urging democrats to register more voters making sure that things are working on the voter rolls so they can turn out and vote next year pointed to the success they had last year in a pandemic get people out. but they recognize that's a harder challenge in a midterm election when it's not a presidential year. we'll finally hear from president biden on the subject.

white house aides have been teasing for weeks that he would deliver a major address on the subject, it looks like that could happen as early as next week. perhaps tuesday we will finally hear from him at length about the need to protect the ballot. >> mika -- >> coming up -- >> they're either going to get to 50 votes and joe manchin and kirsten cinema are going to make exceptions the same way mitch mcconnell and harry reed made exceptions for judges or they're not going to pass this legislation. so it's good to have these meetings. it's good to talk aspirationally about passing certain pieces of legislation, but at some point, you know, the rubber meets the road and you've got to actually add the votes up to 50. and whatever it takes to do

that, that's what they need to do p. it's just not happening right now. >> it's also not an option to do nothing. it's not at this point. >> right. so they have to figure out -- >> they have to. >> -- how to get to 50. and get -- make an exception -- a filibuster exception for voting rights the same way that republicans and democrats have made an exception for federal judges through the years. that doesn't seem like that much of a reach but we'll see if they get there. coming up our next guest recently sat down with ohio senate hopeful jd vance as amanda carr penter puts it, i can't shake the idea that jd vance is impersonating josh hawley, who is impersonating trump. it's like a nesting doll of

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welcome back to "morning joe." as we take a look at a very slippery, wet times square. we discussed yesterday with mike allen of axios how the ohio senate race is the one to watch in the 2022 midterms. that's because jd vance, the author turned venture capitalist who just announced his run for senate continues to try to change his entire tune on former president donald trump. josh mandel, who is also running for senate compared vance to mitt romney while attacking him

for not saying that the election was stolen during an interview vance gave to our next guest. let's bring in molly ball, who sat down with vance. also columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" eugene robinson. and podcast host donny deutsch. >> politicians need to be careful before they sit down with interviews with you, obviously, because you got jd to say all of the quiet parts outloud. he called himself a flip flop flipper on trump and then made an incredible concession to you which is, well, he's head of the party if i want him to vote for me, i got to follow trump.

were you surprised he was as straightforward as he was in this political transaction? >> a little bit. we had a very frank conversation. as you know, jd vance has a lot of friends in the main stream media having been one of us not so long ago. having had a cnn contract and been in plenty of the main stream media green rooms so i think he feels a sense of ease, you know, he goes on fox news a lot. so he was quite unguarded. i appreciate that. i like when politicians are willing to open up and say what they think. so it is true that politicians are not usually quite this frank but i wish they would be. >> how surprised are you that jd vance, a guy sitting in green rooms for some time, who was quite critical of donald trump, has made this conversion? are a lot of his peers and admirers in the media world surprised? >> i think you can tell from the

reaction to the article and other interviews that he's given recently that a lot of people are surprised. this is a book that sold many, many, many copies. many people read it, responded to it. so it was clearly a powerful description of where jd vance was coming from. his roots in appalachia, his childhood in his family growing up in rural ohio. so the fact that he would then turn around and where he originally was to say i see people responding to trump and his issues but i don't like trump himself. so that's where this idea of a flip flop flipper comes from. he's saying, i appreciated trump i just was against him. so he's saying that he's now come full circle by coming back to trump because he originally agreed with trump's issues. so it's a rather complicated little tap dance he's doing here. but he has seen if you want a

viable political career in today's public party you have to voice support for trump and he's basically saying that in so many words. >> here's a piece i reference, vance admits it took him time to come around but points to his book and commentary as evidence he understood trump's appeal before most. i sort of got trump's issues from the beginning vance says i just thought this guy was not serious and was not going to be able to really make progress on the issues i cared about. adding, trump is the leader of this movement and if i actually care about these people and i say the things i care be, i need to just suck it up and support him. gene, this is a guy that put his opposition to donald trump in religious terms five years ago saying, as a christian, in so many words, christians witness would be compromised if they supported donald trump because

everyone was watching. >> yeah, this is a -- as you know, as molly said, at least he puts the cynicism right there in front and just owns it in a kind of weird way. and it should shock us i guess but not surprise us. he just says, this is the price of being a republican candidate for anything these days is that you have to bend the knee to donald trump. so he's bending the knee to trump. my question, and it's and you know, amplified by this interview and other things, how good a politician really is jd vance? and i guess we'll see as he tries to win the senate seat. but i question whether he's anywhere near as good a politician as he is an effective writer.

i thought hilly billy-ology was a good book, i thought it was about his own family's dysfunction more than anything else. but he wrote powerfully about that. but is he a good enough politician to get elected to the u.s. senate. and i think the jury is very much out on that. >> yeah. so donny deutsch, i am reminded in watching jd vance and a lot of these other ivy league republicans who are phony populists, just horrible actors. every time i see somebody stumble on the stage like this, i'm reminded of a quote about, i think it was the '62 mets, jimmy breslin wrote a book with the same title, "can't anybody here play this game".

this guy he had an incredible brand, republicans loved him, independents loved him, some democrats loved him. it seems to me that he decided to trade that in like a day trader's move. it was a rookie move. it was an amateur move and i find it hard to believe he's going to get anything out of this in the end. i could be totally wrong, maybe republican voters in ohio are extraordinarily stupid and believe this, but i know republican voters in ohio, and let me tell you, they're very smart. donny, why is this guy trading in this brand of his that he could convert if he was just patient until this fever of trumpism broke? >> i want to push back a little bit, joe. there's this weird inauthentic, authentic, inauthentic, authentic, authenticity to this.

he's like admitting my ends justify the means. if you're a trump supporter, okay this guy is bending the knee. if you're not a trump supporter, he's kind of saying i really don't back him but i'm here to play the game because i'm here to win. you can say this guy is the most inauthentic guy in the world or this guy is the most authentic guy in the world. there's a weird nerve. from my point of view the jury is out. he's recognizing this is this absurd parlor game he's playing, i'm playing the game, i agree with him on some issues but i'm still holding my nose. i get that you get that i get, thing goes on here. >> molly, he sees a guy who

before he painted himself as a right wing hero, he was openly pro-choice, aggressively pro-choice. he was aggressively for gun control. in 2008, during the crisis, he talked about nationalizing the banks to larry king that he would support nationalizing america's banks. he supported the bailout. i mean, you just go issue after issue, i guess jd vance is looking at donald trump saying if he can flip flop, so can i. >> i think there is an element of this that is similar to trump in that he is presenting himself as a traitor to the elite class in a way that he believes republican voters in ohio will respond to. he was one of the elites in those ivy league corridors in those green rooms and so, and he's turning around and giving

people like you and me the finger and saying i'm willing to betray the elite class and that's part of why you should like me. so i think that there is an element of that that is what donny was talking about, this attempt to present that to the voters as a sort of authenticity or sacrifice on his part and aligning himself with the republican base that is increasingly, or has been for a while, in that anti-elite move. >> i have to say, i love when venture capitalists who went to ivy league schools, when you have republicans that went to yale and harvard or went to yale and stanford, give their finger as a populist to elites like me who went to tuscaloosa and gainesville, florida for their schooling. it is, mika, the phoniness that

is just outrageous. you know, not only accepted to ivy league schools, mika, there was a watch list. i would go into bookstores to buy their t shirts they wouldn't let me in. i applied to yale law school, it say, no. sincerely yours. come on, this populism from these guys, these cloistered guys, they have been elites their entire life from the time they stepped into their first ivy league school to the time they graduated from their last ivy league school. it's never enough to go to just one ivy league school. if you're ted cruz, you have to go to princeton, then go to harvard. it just goes on and on. and the populism is so phony. and it really, i think again, willie and me are going to set

up this like go fund me website just for acting classing for them. because they're such bad phony ivy league boys. >> remember in the debate when joe biden was asked about where he went to school and he just got so defensive. >> they said -- by the way, not being defensive here, i love alabama, i'm glad i went there, i love florida, i went there. i will say one of the highlights of the campaign when joe biden -- somebody said you'd be the first non-ivy league person to not go to -- to be president if you'd be elected. joe biden got mad. it reminded me in the saying in lion king where the hyenas said who's the pig. one of my favorite scenes from "the lion king". >> very good.

>> that said, the phoniness continues with these ivy league princeton boys and harvard boys and yale boys. >> like name them. >> it's exhausting. >> every hypocritical republican. >> josh hawley -- >> please. >> -- he went to yale. >> biggest hypocrite. >> he went to stanford. ted cruz went to princeton, wonder who club he was in. then he went to harvard law school and then he worked for supreme court justice. >> poor josh hawley. >> i could go on and on. all of these ivy league boys, whether it's princeton or harvard or whatever else, now they're populist. and now jd vance, venture capitalist. >> the worst. >> right. i'm sorry i don't mean to bring molly in on this, but what ivy

league school did he go to? did he go to harvard? >> he went to ohio state undergrad and then yale law school. >> ohio state, that's good, a state school. we got one state school in there then he went to yale. the school again a won word rejection letter to me. no. >> that's okay. joe, you'll get over it. my dad was obsessed with being denied tenure -- >> sometimes i wonder what i may have accomplished if i was accepted at one of these schools. alex reminds me it's the top of the hour. >> it's friday, we have people here with us. >> the wall street journal board is out with a piece entitled the eric adams lessons for democrats. in which the board argues the victory is proof that democrats need to get serious on crime. it reads in part, the primary

wasn't originally a single issue contest. then the rate of shootings, which started rising last summer, this may reaching a 73% increase over 2020. and ipsos poll that month found that crime had eclipsed the pandemic as the voters' top concern. mr. de blasio gave voters a clear sense of the choice they faced by consistently denying the crime problem. he held a press conference tuesday to celebrate a drop in shootings compared to june of 2020 but failed they remain above june 2019. mr. adams said denying what is happening in broad daylight is contributing to the problem. joe, can i just launch you here -- >> please preach. >> i feel -- am i missing it but are democrats running around with a defund police flag? i feel they understand that is not necessarily a productive

slogan but it's republicans who tend to be dragging it out, because it was used. >> you know, they've been -- >> i don't see them doing it now. >> no. every democrat, do you support defunding police? no. yet republicans keep going democrats are saying they support defunding police. if you look at the fact that an ex-cop tough on crime won brooklyn, the bronx, staten island -- a black guy won staten island which reverend al said that wouldn't have happened years ago -- won queens. as a side note i love ivy league schools. if you went to an ivy league school, congratulations, great job. it's the phony populism. i celebrate people that go to

ivy league schools just like i celebrate people that go to schools like university of alabama. i love ivy league schools some of my best workers through the years have come from ivy league schools. sorry, i couldn't help myself. donny deutsch you usually say something that insults viewers on friday morning. >> let's go deeper on this. >> why don't i throw this whole eric adams wins thing over to you. just say your take on it. i'm sure there will be something insulting in there to people. >> last week when i said american workers were lazy? >> by the way, so when you said that, lazy and all this other stuff. i went like this off camera, i was like do not show me in a double shot with donny deutsch. i do not want to be associated with this. so tj, if you can, i just asked

him a question, if you can take me off the screen when he starts to answer. what do you think -- thank you. what do you think of eric adams' victory. what does it foretell for the future of democratic politics. you're on your own. >> let me dispel the negotiation that ivy leaguers are intellectuals, i'm an ivy leaguer. i wish every democratic candidate could be an excop or exmilitary. they need that in that party. the republicans have left the flank open in terms of they would not investigate january 6th. cops getting beat up, cops getting killed, and we're okay -- not that we're okay with that but we're not going to dive any deeper into that. this is the answer and i think the democrats have been great at keeping that crazy left wing, you know, nut job defund the

police thing very, very quiet. eric adams had a great set of words -- >> there's the quote, go ahead. >> -- the justice we deserve, the safety we need. great words. if we go back to the midterms or the presidential, it was the democratic moderates that were winning across the board. none of the progressives for the most part. so this is not complicated. even a non-intellectual ivy leaguer like me can get this. >> please, you sell yourself short, donny. tj you can do a split screen with me and gene. it's hard to take too much out of one election. >> um-hum. >> but let's look at two

elections. let's look at joe biden as the only moderate to conservative democrat running and winning in 2020. but eric adams, conservative, tough on crime guy winning queens, bronx, brooklyn, stat ten island. he lost parts of manhattan. i always hear people grumbling, the democratic party used to be for the working class people. it seems like that democratic party spoke up. working class people of color, working class whites. it seems like that working class party is reasserting itself from south carolina in 2020 to brooklyn and queens and the bronx in 2021. >> well, certainly -- look, democrats can be as pragmatic as anything else, right. and that was certainly the case

of south carolina democrats, mostly black south carolina democrats in 2020, giving the victory to joe biden and really propelling him to the white house. but use the biden example. joe biden came into that race as -- seen as a more moderate democrat. in fact, his positions were really quite progressive. and indeed, in office he's been quite progressive. and i think that may be the sweet spot. it may be to have that identification, that ability to speak to those more moderate working class democrats, some of them former democrats. some of them people who have left the party or become empathic about the party.

the ability to speak to those people which there's some new data from pew about the election results that said that joe biden effectively did speak to those people. but recognizing that the sort of political center of gravity of the political party has shifted to the progressive side and i would argue our politics in many ways are shifting in that direction. just because of the needs of the country right now. and so maybe eric adams hit that sweet spot. i find it difficult to generalize from new york city elections because new york city is kind of not like any other place. but there are parts of new york city, staten island, queens, that you can draw some lessons from. >> it's interesting, gene brought up the pew research that came out a week ago that showed

that joe biden won because he actually did better among married men and did better among veteran house holds than hillary clinton had done four years earlier while not doing quite as well with traditional democratic constituencies. a lot of mixed signals for democrats going into 2022. where is this internal battle going with the party? >> i think you do see this internal battle playing out among democrats and this issue of crime in particular is going to be a big test for where the party wants to go going forward. a lot of nervous democrats i talked to, looking at the stas you cans wanting to know is this a trend that's going to continue, something voters will have on their mind a year from now. and do they need to fully embrace the sort of eric adams

sweet spot as you call it on the crime issue specifically. this is an issue that has changed so much, really the top of mind national issue a decade or two ago or more and we've seen the controversies over policing. but i think it's different when you're talking about violent crime, people being victim of violent crime, how are democrats going to approach that in the era of movements like defund the police which are quite unpopular, except in the left wing fringe. i think you have a lot of democrats internally talking about how they're going to approach the issue and how much they're going to need to address it on the national level. i think as much as of it is true, a democratic primary in new york city is its own animal is a har binger of this issue becoming more prominent. >> thank you both for being on

this morning. appreciate it. the biden administration is renewing its push to pass voting rights legislation. president biden and vice president harris met with a delegation of civil rights leaders at the white house yesterday to discuss how to combat the wave of new voting laws driven by republican led state legislatures. joining us now someone in the meeting, president and ceo of the black coalition on participation. melanie campbell. thank you for being on this morning. was anything hopeful accomplished yesterday? i know there was a discussion about getting community leaders, the president, congress, working together. is that possible? >> first of all, it is an honor to be on your show, i love you and joe. >> thank you. >> i'm a native of florida. mims, florida so it's an honor to be on your show.

i am a fan. yesterday i think what was really critical for us and my colleagues was really to encourage president biden to use his bully pulpit. to elevate this issue we feel is in a state of emergency when it comes to our voting rights being attacked across the country and as the leader of the party to do all he can. but also we shared what we are going to do and coming from mims, florida, i grew up around the understanding the realities of voting rights. and so for us, it's that red line of the ten republicans that did not allow for even a discussion two weeks ago on the senate side, it sent electricity through me, if you will, and many of us, to say we have to be

more vocal and challenge the pruls, the democrats, we have to stay in the streets and continue to push -- because pressure, it's about the people, and not to allow a discussion to take place sent chills down a lot of our spines so we are going to be in the streets all summer. it's a summer around activism, voting rights. we can walk and chew gum at the same time so we know we can deal with other critical issues in return, like george floyd and the justice in policing act. but we know justice of the people still wins in this country. we're going to ask the vice president as well, who's part of that team with biden and harris to do all you can from the executive branch from the legal perspective, all that you can from the power of that position. it's some good things that can happen from that position and some bad things that can happen

from that position. we're saying we need you to get up as congressman jon lewis told us, we got to get in good trouble together. >> good morning. it's jonathan lemire. the white house said the president is going to be out soon delivering a major address on this, turning up pressure, but they're looking more towards legal remedies. they seem to be skeptical of the math in the senate as to whether one of these bills could get passed. can you tell us about the specifics of the discussion yesterday and would it be acceptable to you if that federal voting rights legislation is not passed and other parts of the strategy are endorsed instead? >> we have to have federal legislation to pass. it is not an option. what's happening in -- with these state laws across the country. we talk a lot about the impact of the voter suppression, making it harder to vote. but one of the things, one of our leaders in florida -- not

florida, excuse me, georgia, helen butler, she sits on a board, lives in athens, georgia, been active on her local board of election for years it's something you try to keep nonpartisan or some cases bipartisan. that bill passed in georgia also allowed for them to take people like helen butler off the board of elections so you can put lackies in with control of the count. so these laws go at the heart of how election administration takes place. we know as african-americans we have had to have federal interventions. and we know if we can't win in the courts we have to have legislation. with my colleagues who are the

sharpest legal minds out there, broke it down how we had to fight for our vote when the courts weren't there for us, we had to have legislation passed. you can go as far back as the 1800s. it was laid out, as a matter of fact, yesterday. we have to have it, it's not an option. our democracy is at peril. it's not just what's going to happen to african-americans. it's the whole idea of what our democracy is built upon is the right to vote and have that vote protected. >> thank you so much melanie campbell. >> thank you. >> greatly appreciate you being on. we're honored to have you on the show. >> good to see you, home boy. >> good to see you, too. >> i love it. >> hope to see you again soon. thank you so much for your work. so important. let's move to the economy now, surging covid cases and an unpredictable economic rebound

is worrying investors. markets slummed with the do you sliding nearly 260 points. but a part of the economy we are seeing just explode is the housing market. as home prices are rising at record rates. if you're selling, it's a great time for you. if you're buying, good luck. >> it's crazy. it is just crazy. it seems like it's crazy everywhere. >> as one industry expert quipped, if you have to sleep on it, you won't sleep in it. joining us is economic analyst steve ratner. >> steve before we get to the crazy housing market. it's crazy it seems all over the country, the wall street journal this morning saying bond prices are suggesting that the inflationary pressures may not be as bad as some feared and also suggesting that the markets believe the economy's recovery

may not last as long and be as sustainable as once believed. what's your take on that? >> yes, the movement in the market has definitely changed a little bit and there are two reasons that you alluded to, joe, that i'll flesh out slightly. one is the potential resurgence of covid cases we haven't seen much of an resurgence in this country but the delta variant has now gotten to 50% or more of the cases here and we know it's highly contagious so there are fears that there will be some entrenchment from the full opening we've all been able to enjoy. the other thing hanging over the market is the question of how much more stimulus is going to get passed in washington, i think some of the excitement in the market was around the idea we were going to have $8 trillion of essential unfunded stimulus programs coming into the economy, which

would have created inflation, in all likelihood in my opinion anyway, and would have affected the economic recovery. but now the bond market perceives that the politics passed will be more likely smaller than larger and paid for than unpaid for so the market is more relaxed about the money coming into washington over the next few months. let's talk about the housing market. the interesting thing about the housing market is whether i'm talking to friends that are in south florida, that are in the northeast, that are in upstate new york, that are out west, it doesn't matter where they are, rural, urban, it just -- it seems like the housing market is crazy everywhere. what's going on? >> the housing market is crazy everywhere. that's an absolute fact. there are a number of reasons for it. it's great to be a seller not so

great to be a buyer. we'll look at charts to give you a sense of what's going on. prices have escalated as you said, and the dotted red line is the trend line that we've had for the last several years of house price increases and then in april we got the biggest single increase in a month we've ever had. up 15% taking the average house to $315,000 if we stayed on trend it would have been more like $290,000. you can see houses are snapped up on the market almost as fast as they're putting on them. the average house stays on the market now 39 days compared to 59 days over the last couple years. it is a red hot sellers market. the question is why. why is interest rates, one factor. look at interest rates we all know this i think, but it's dramatic when you see it. mortgage rates which have been coming down substantially since the great financial crisis took

a tumble from 4% to 3% at around covid. that increases the affordability of people who get houses. if interest rates go from 4% to 3%, your interest bill is actually 39% less than it would have been over the time of your mortgage. so people are able to afford more houses, bigger houses, and they're going out and finding them. the other thing we should talk about and the other factor i want to mention is the supply of houses. we don't have enough houses. why don't we have enough houses? as you see on the left chart, during the great financial crisis, housing starts plummeted down to a million houses being started, which is way below what we need to deal with new households being formed and increased population. it's been working its way back up, but if you look at the right where it shows you what the trend was again, you can see where the trend was going and

where we ended up, we're about 4 million housing units, whether it be apartments or single family houses, about four million short of where we would like to be, where we should be, given the growth in the population and the increase in household formation. so that's the pressure cooker we're in. not enough houses, very low interest rates and also, by the way, people's balance sheets are in good shape, they saved a lot of money during covid because they couldn't spend it and now they're spending it and houses prices are the ultimate reflection of that. >> i was going to ask you that, over the past couple of months, it seemed like a bubble because if things seemed to be too good to be true, they're usually too good to be true. how could it be that everybody could sell their house wherever they are and seem to be making 20, 30, 40% on it. so then i started talking to smart people like you, started talking to bank executives, and

whenever i drew the comparison to 2008, is this going to be a bubble like 2008, i'd always get the same answer, no. because 2008, obviously was a credit crisis. here so many people are paying cash for this. and so, i'm wondering, our savings rate was so low in 2008 when we had the crash. has our savings rate gone up significantly over the past 13 years? >> they've gone up significantly very recently, especially during covid. they did gradually go up then we had an explosion in savings driven by two things. people's incomes went up during covid, a lot of that or some of that was government transfers, the stimulus checks, unemployment and so forth, but there's an extra trillion dollars of income that people made in 2020 relative to what trend would have suggested.

and there was less money than what they spent because they were in lock down and couldn't spend it. so there's $2 trillion of excess saving out there right now in people's bank accounts and yes, the savings rates it's not a historic high, a certain recent history high. so people have this money in their bank account whether they want to get a mortgage and save there, or pay cash. there's so much money sloshing around in the system in people's bank accounts, obviously not everybody, but that's driving the housing price increase, that's right. >> steve ratner, thank you very much for that. we're watching this happen across the country. last week steve had charts for us about amtrak and this morning we learned of a historic deal by the company. amtrak announced this week it is buying up to 83 new trains that

will operate mostly along the northeast corridor. the deal marks one of the biggest investments in 50 years of operation. the price tag is $7.3 billion. and gene, before you go, your latest piece for "the washington post" is entitled, an olympics without fans is the right call but it illustrates the ongoing cost of covid-19. tell us about it. that is going to be weird with nobody in the stands. >> it's going to be really weird. i'm going to watch the olympics because i always watch the olympics but imagine it without fans. imagine, you know, usain bolt breaking the world record twice without the cheering crowds. imagine michael phelps doing his amazing feats, winning 28 medals without the crowds cheering him on. he couldn't hear it at the time, he was in the pool but people were there.

it really will be weird. imagine the opening ceremonies, which is always kind of a touching moment, the opening ceremonies are always kind of cheesy, but the parade of athletes coming into the stadium and waving their national flags and really, you know, for that evening you get the sense that maybe the world's going to be okay. we can all get together and wave our flags and have this great competition. and it's done in front of this huge cheering crowd and the crowd is not going to be there. it's not going to be there. it's going to be a strange olympics but these are the times we live if had. this is the reality in japan. still ahead on "morning joe," several states agree to a multibillion dollar settlement with purdue pharma. the delta variant leads to an increase in covid cases now a

booster shot could be on the way. and president biden defends pulling u.s. troops out of afghanistan as the taliban makes advances in the region. we'll talk to press secretary john kirby. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination.

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♪♪ some medical news to tell you about. in a reverse mood the food and drug administration is now limiting who is eligible to receive a controversial new alzheimer's drug after facing intense criticism. the fda says patients with mild

cognitive impairment or early dementia, the population that participated in the clinical trials are the only ones who will have access to the drug. this is a major change from the original label that included everyone with the illness. the drug was approved early last month, becoming the first alzheimer's medication cleared since 2003. after years of negotiations, states that once opposed a settlement plan with perdue pharma in its role over america's opioid pandemic said they're now on way for the wealthy sackler family to pay billions but is it enough? kate snow has the details. >> reporter: with the bankruptcy court deadline looming, 15 states cut a deal with purdue and the family that founded the company, the sacklers. >> they should be held responsible for their conduct and that's what we're doing

today. >> reporter: the biggest new item, millions of documents will be made public. >> our job as ags was to look at what our families needed. they wanted to full disclosure, transparency, a light shown, the secrets to be told. >> reporter: the sacklers will pay more than $4.3 billion in a settlement, they called it an important step toward providing substantial resources for people and communities in need. but no agreement to remove the sackler name from museums, they're shielded from future liability and don't admit any responsibility for the opioid crisis. nine states and washington disease still oppose the deal. washington state's attorney general saying the plan allows the sacklers to walk away as billionaires with a legal shield for life. >> once they pay this, they're

done. >> we first met sandy and her adopted daughter eva in west virginia in 2019. eva was born dependent on opioids then six she struggled to sit still and sing her abcs. >> she can't count to 20 and say her abcs all the way through. >> you think there's some deficits there? >> i'm sorry. it's just -- that's my baby. >> reporter: eva is one of thousands seeking compensation after the purdue bankruptcy. of the total settlement, just $750 million is being set aside for individuals and a fraction of that for kids born dependent. eva can sing to z now. but she still has behavioral issues and learning delays. lawyers expect kids like her to end up with about 8 to $12,000. that's before attorney fees. >> the money they're talking about, is that enough for what

eva will need in her life? >> i don't think any amount can compensate for the life long therapy she's going to require. >> reporter: she worries even a settlement worth billions on paper is not enough to fix the lives destroyed by opioids. kate snow nbc news. we're going to turn back to politics now. let's bring in nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt and white house correspondent for politico, eugene daniels also an msnbc contributor. the fence around the capitol is coming down today. give us a sense of how security efforts to keep the building safe are going, because i think there's going to be concern for some time to come. >> there is for sure, mika. but this is an important symbolic step the fence starting to come down because i think lawmakers want to send the message this place is -- we're

going to be what we're supposed to be. we're supposed to be open for the public. but concerning news this morning, too, punch bowl is reporting in their newsletter that the u.s. capitol police are potentially running out of money. we haven't confirmed this at nbc we're asking around as we speak but we know they were facing financial trouble because they had to pay so much overtime to the officers because they've had to work around the clock to try to protect the building with additional staff in the wake of the attack and congress hasn't been able to agree on a package to actually put into place the recommendations that general russell and his team assembled in the wake of the riot, none of that has been done. the hardening of the capitol is stalled in the senate because of how much money should be in the bill. republicans expressed concerns that the police should be paid out of the regular appropriations process. that has democrats accusing

republicans of defunding police, et cetera. it's a huge mess and another example of how congress is struggling to protect itself, its own house and the people that are suffering are these police officers who, as we pointed out time and time again are the ones beaten by american flags while they protected the people who are now responsible for making sure they get their paychecks. >> kasie, help me out here if you can. why are republicans opposing this bill? i know democrats passed 1.96 for funding, security there. and some reports suggest that they were surprised that republicans -- all republicans opposed this funding. why are they opposing the funding? >> it's not entirely clear to me, joe, except in the house republicans were in some ways cut out of the drafting process and it became kind of the same

sort of partisan fight it always does. but they were able to get it out and now it's in the senate and for whatever reason it's not in position to get 60 votes because they don't want to spend the extra money on the extra security, it seems. which is hard i think for a lot of people to understand. i think there's also probably concerns that this is going to highlight just how bad january 6th was. i think one of the questions i have is, are there concerns that the former president is going to look poorly on votes in favor of this bill to harden security at the capitol. that's not a question that i have an answer to, but i think the former president hovers over all the decisions and all the political calculations around this. again, just to underscore, these are the people that go to work in this building every day, the cops that protect them. and like i said, we have this report that they may have to furlough employees of the u.s. capitol police if something isn't done. >> it's jonathan lemire,

speaking of the capitol, congress will be back next week, therefore the white house's efforts on infrastructure will be renewed, both on two tracks at once. the bipartisan deal, which, of course, we saw wobble a little bit two weeks back or so before the recess. and, of course, also this reconciliation, it'll be democrats only. what's the latest you're hearing in terms of your reporting, in terms of the white house outreach to the hill and negotiations happening. for now will resume next week behind closed doors and what have kind of timing can we see for both of these bills going forward? >> they're constantly in contact, every source i talk to in the white house said that process has continued even with recess happening. we know congress does love their recess. and the timing they won't say yesterday in the press briefing, jen psaki wouldn't say what the timing was. we've done some reporting at politico that even next week we might see both of those wanting

to hit a floor. she said that is the beginning process and not a deadline. they have obviously blew past many deadlines over and over in this process, i think they're getting weary of trying to set them at this point. but, you know, some of the stuff that is concerning in the reconciliation bill for the left leaning democrats is still a concern. they're still worried about how much climate change information is going to be there. saturday we talked to climate activists around the country who said something similar. they're worried that the president isn't as invested in climate change as they thought. we saw last week, including the surfside issue, the fire in the gulf of mexico, tornado warnings in washington d.c. and so climate activists are still very concerned about the reconciliation bill. they're worried there's not going to be enough money in that. everyone thinks that who wants

something. but when it comes to the bipartisan deal, that framework they announced seems to be moving forward, seems to be the framework they're moving forward with. the white house is confident that is still going to be bipartisan, 60 votes, allowing them to get to that reconciliation bill. >> turning back now to president biden defending his decision to pull all u.s. troops out of afghanistan. we're going to be joined by pentagon press secretary, john kirby. good to see you. i guess my question to you is the president hearing the criticism from abroad? from the people on the ground in kabul and afghanistan who are going to be dealing with the void that's going to be filled with death and destruction, especially to women, as the taliban moves in? >> i think we're all mindful of the security situation on the ground, mika.

and some of the taliban's resent advances. but we're also focused on transitioning to a new relationship with the afghan forces we're not walking away from them or the idea we have to help them in their capacity and capability. we're still going to be able to do that. nobody wants to see this desolve into civil war. that's why the president made it clear, two things we're going to keep a diplomatic presence in kabul, stay attached to the programs and initiatives to keep the progress going for women and girls but also we're going to continue to put a lot of energy into the diplomatic solution to the war. we believe there's not going to be a military solution here sustainable for the afghan people or the region. you have to get the taliban back to the table, get a negotiated settlement and a form of governance going forward that

the afghan people can believe in. >> admiral, it's always great to talk to you. good to be talking to you again. >> you too, joe. >> you say we have to get the taliban back at the table but we left. there's no incentive since we announced we were leaving, they have become even more aggressive across the country. what leverage does the united states -- what leverage does the international community have over the taliban to get them back to the negotiating table? >> it's difficult to make the case, joe, that our presence on the ground was the leverage to get them to the table because they still haven't been able to negotiate. even when we had more than 250 0 troops under the trump administration, there was about 10,000 on the ground at no time during the trump administration were they able to have that quote/unquote leverage to get the taliban to negotiate in good faith. so it's difficult to say it's the troops getting them to the table to make a difference.

we hope the international community pressure. the taliban, they have governance designs, if they want to be part of the respected community, if they want to help govern afghanistan in a legitimate way they have to you come to international rules of order, negotiate in good faith and participate in governance in good faith. if that's their intention you would think they would want to go to a political table to serve the afghan people and the region. there will be consequences for them, diplomatically, economically in the international community if they achieve a level of governance and don't ascribe to that level of accountability. >> when barack obama removed troops from iraq, the overwhelming majority of americans supported that move. recent polls show the same to be true here. the majority of americans

support the withdrawal of troops, 62% approve, 29% disapprove. but as you know very well, as isis's reach grew in the region and we saw gruesome videos coming out of the region, the united states and the obama administration felt compelled to send troops back to the region. aren't we at risk of the same thing here? especially if we start seeing women being brutalized? if we start seeing women being executed for going to school or for running businesses? >> one of the key reasons why the iraqi security forces weren't able to stop the rise of isis, they had succumbed to fractionalism and the politicalization. the iraqi security forces when we left in 2011 were competent and capable in the field but they were mismanaged and misled going forward.

so this is a moment for president ghani to make sure the capacity and capability that we have invested remain solid, remain steady. they have an air force, the taliban does not. they have weapon tri and am -- ammunition the taliban does not. they have bigger numbers than what we think the taliban has on the ground. now it's up to them to use that. we know they love their country, they're brave and courageous, now it's their time to step up and we're going to be there to support them. but it is going to depend on the kind of leadership they can get out of kabul to make sure they can preserve that capability in the field so it doesn't go the way of iraq. >> i wanted to focus on a group of citizens who have helped americans, the american military for years, in particular the translators, many of whom are

fearful of their safety in afghanistan with the taliban grabbing more and more territory and power. the concern on the ground is the president's timetable is too slow that the translators need to get out and get out now. can you give us an update on the process and procedure to get them out and is there any accelerated timetable to save these lives? >> we're already on an accelerated timetable. the entire agency is working at it hard. the state department is, working to get more special immigrant visa quotas available to them. we have a couple thousand that have reached through process already and we're looking for transportation to get them places and to sustain them as they complete the process. there's a lot of energy applied on this. you heard the president say yesterday we're going to be able to start moving some of them out of the country in the next couple weeks or so, and

certainly by august to transport them to installations overseas we can complete this process. we here at the department know we have a sacred obligation to these men and women and their families who helped us over the last 20 year. we're going to do it as safe and efficiently as possible. the demand signal doesn't seem to be at a level where we're in crisis mode but we know we have to move quickly and we're doing that. >> admiral, kasie hunt is with us and has a question for you. >> yes, sir. >> admiral, i would like to follow-up on that, if, in fact, the taliban get closer to kabul where these people live their lives are going to be in more danger and could take those numbers to crisis levels. i guess my question is, why is there all this red tape? can't the administration break through it for them? >> we're working very hard at that kasie. as you heard yesterday we're working with congress to trying to get the program expanded and

accelerated. the program has a significant purpose but it wasn't designed to work in an emergency. it wasn't designed to work at those numbers in an emergency. but that's the process we're using because it also has a lot of healthy vetting involved in it. we want to make sure that we're actually getting the right people out of the country. so we're working at this very, very heard but you heard the president say of the couple thousand or so that reached the level of approval to be moved out of the country, less than half expressed an interest to move out of the country. so the demand signal hasn't reached a level we think we're in a crisis right now. that said, i don't want to leave any impression we aren't taking this seriously and aren't working hard at finding locations they can go, support while they're there, transportation to or from as well. this is something the entire government is working very hard

at. >> admiral kirby thank you so much. great to talk to you. appreciate your time this morning. >> thank you. this is an issue i must say where perhaps there's a bigger disconnect between official washington, the foreign policy community and main street america. there aren't a lot of people in official washington, certainly not in the foreign policy community that support our troops leaving afghanistan. y thr troops leaving afghanistan they're similar. it's a 2-to-1. what's the feeling in congress to most members of congress support this withdrawal? >> i think you know members of congresser work with public approval. right?

if something is made popular, they feel it's a good idea, for the most part. so i think you are hearing that from a lot of members of congress, this is a war that exhausted many of the american people. it's one of the reasons why president biden wants us out. this isnt a war that he has bee talking about and criticized for a very long time and in congress, it's kind of the same thing. but you do have some of those veterans that have maybe complicated issues. they were maybe over there at some point. so they have complicated issues with the way they think about thehe translator that helped th while they think about how, you know, troops, if something that really bad ends up happening, if theni taliban ends up taking ov kabul, if there is too much death and destruction as put earlier, do american thoops have -- troops have to go back? that is the concern. president bind moved up the time

line. what that means is he owns this. whatever happens here, it happened on his watch. it was his decision to move. when you talk to some folks behind the scenes, not at the white house n but out in the foreign policy space, they do have concerns why was the deadline get moved up? all of those conversations. so whatever ends up happening here, president biden is going to have to own that, including if it gets really bad. that's why we keep asking, you guys were asking the admiral there, what's going to happen to these translators, their families. whyor the time line? i think the american people are ready to move on and president bind as has been said over and over, in fact, he said yesterday in the press briefing that they don't think they can you know win the war militarily. so we'll see diplomatic, if they can do it through the diplomatic way. it will be interesting considering the taliban has yet to prove to be a negotiating

partner at any point. >> politico's eugene daniels and nbc news' casey hunt, thank you both for coming on this morning. and coming up, we are following new details about the arrests made in the wake of the assassination of haiti's president. plus the latest from the biden administration on those cyber attacks from russian soil. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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♪♪ . >> okay. one baseball highlight to show you. something scripted out of a movie. bases loaded, your team down and this is when you decide to get your first big league hit as a pitcher. >> right off, to right field! he plays it inside san diego. are you kidding me? the padre's pitcher they just

brought up from empass so the san diego kid. >> san diego, daniel happens to be from san diego. so his entire family got to watch his heroics. it was the first grand slam ever by a pitcher at pepco park. the padres down 8-0 came back to beat the nationals 9-8. >> that is a storybook ending. >> i got chills. >> the family in the stands, getting to watchle. how exciting. a storybook ending, unlike, of course, what will be happening in boston. you and i called it. i told you mayhue is getting better and now we're, the red sox are on a terrible skid. it looks look the dream is coming to an end, jonathan. >> this was spectacular. 28-year-old rookie, only his second at-bat of the season pinch hitting pitcher, grand

slam in front of his home-town crowds. you couldn't write the script. the inev itable demise of the red sox, as you say. look. they've lost two in a row. it's the beginning of the end, it was a good first half of the season. >> it was a good one while it was going on. you look at the rays are only 2-and-a-half behind is. i got to say the yankees may be the best 44 and 42 team in the history of baseball. we're in such trouble. >> okay. up next, we are tracking the extreme weather from coast-to-coast, from major flooding in new york city to more record-breaking temperatures expected out west this weekend. bill karins will tell us what you need to know before leaving the house this morning. we are back in one minute with a packed hour. a packed hour. ♪ maybe i didn't love you ♪ ( ♪♪ ) ♪ quite as often as i could have ♪

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good morning, a wet, windy sloppy morning in time's square in new york city. welcome to "morning joe." it's friday, july 9th. we are following a number of developing stories this morning. it's the weather that's making a major concern across the country, whether it's major flooding on the east coast or historic heat in the west and even reports of an earthquake. president biden forcefully defends his decision to withdraw all troops from afghanistan. we'll have a live report from kabul. and major news against covid, pfizer is developing a booster shot of its vaccine that strongl extends protection against the original virus. history was made yesterday at the annual scrips national spelling bee. we will show you who won and what the winning word was.

oh my gosh. i love that. we will start, though, right now with the extreme and dangerous weather impacting much of the country. thunderstorms and heavy rain hit new york city and its suburbs yesterday. videos posted online, flooded streets, rain water seeping into subway stations, some uptown stations getting hit the hardest. subway service was largely interrupted but only the northern-most end of the a-line shut down. the interim president of the new york city transit said the underground flooding was due to overwhelmed drains, each more rain hit the area overnight thanks to remnants of tropical storm elsa, we'll be right backing havoc in new york city. then out west, states are preparing for another scorching weekend. scorching. forecasters predict temperatures will be up to 25 degrees higher than average. this comes as california

governor gavin newsom asks residents to cut water usage by 15%. the state is grappling with a record-breaking set of temperatures and a drought. joe, 100% of the state of california is dealing with high temperatures. just unbelievable. >> it is unbelievable. this of course, follows up just historic record highs in oregon, in washington state, in the pacific northwest. why don't we go to meteorologist bill karins for more on the forecast. i think it's said that those temperatures a few weeks back weren't temperatures you saw every ten years or even every 100 years, maybe every thousand year-like incidents. now it's happening again, this time in california. >> yeah. and los vegas has a chance for the all-time record hottest temperature this time. so let's start first with elsa, deal with that. then we will tell you what is

happening in the west. elsa is a strong storm. it got stronger over the water, it's over the jersey shore. heavy rain is in new york city, d.c., baltimore, philadelphia, are you done. the rain is over with. the storm is moving quickly at 31 miles per hour. so new york city by about 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., the rain is completely over with and done. let's time it out and track it. by 8:00 a.m. you notice the rain is over eastern long island, it's done in new york city for the most part. boston it's over about 2:00 p.m. we could get high winds on cape cod. maine is done with the storm by about 8:00 p.m. rain is the problem. we had heavy rain and thunderstorms. today another possible 3-to-6 inches, especially from hartford to providence to boston. 41 million people in the flood watch. how about out west, everywhere you see colored in this map has

some drought conditions, the darker reds, it's extreme and exception am. we have arizona, utah, much of california in this. right now 95% of the west is in drought. this time last year, it was only 40%. we are going into this fire season so much dryer than last year. now this weekend, this heat warning, 27 million impacted. i'll leave you with this. death valley this weekend, the all-time record is 134. the hottest temperature ever recorded on earth. look at saturday and sunday, 130. sunday 131. they are forecasting the third-hottest temperature every recorded on earth this weekend in california. >> my lord. bill karins, thank you very much. we'll be watching this. now to afghanistan, president biden is defending his decision to bring all american troops home from afghanistan,

even as taliban forces take control of more than one-third of the country's districts. we'll get a report from the ground in kabul from richard engel in just a moment. first, here's nbc news' kelly o'donnell from the white house. >> reporter: answering questions and criticism, the president defended ending the war in afghanistan august 31st. >> i judge it is not in the interests of the united states to fight this indefinitely. >> reporter: he made multiple trips to afghanistan was, himself, a vocal critic of keeping u.s. forces there indefinitely. achievable goals, he said, happened long ago. >> we got the terrorists that attacked us 9/11 and delivered justice to osama bin laden ro. >> reporter: dangers remain expanding. after the draw down in april, taliban fighters rapidly gained ground against afghan forces.

some republicans say removing american forces will embolden groups like isis and al qaeda. >> president biden turned his back on the afghans, pulled out all support. i think we will see a return to terrorist attacks inspired or otherwise here in the united states. >> reporter: the president flatly rejected the u.s. will bear responsibility for bloodshed among afghan civilians. >> no, no, no it's up to the people of afghanistan to decide on what government they want. >> reporter: this direct message to critics. >> let me ask those who want us to stay. how many more, how many thousands more american's daughters and sons are you willing to risk? >> reporter: after sacrifice is made by a generation of american warriors, the president said he is satisfied the job is done. kelly o'donnell, nbc news, the white house. >> kabul, where american troops are leaving afghanistan threatened by a taliban takeover

and civil war. president biden insisting the afghan government and military have sufficient force to maintain stability. >> is the taliban takeover of afghanistan now inevitable? >> no, it is not. >> why? >> because have you the afghan troops have 300,000, well equipped, as well equipped as any army in the world. >> reporter: but afghan soldiers and police have been surrendering to the taliban if droves, often without fighting, handing over their weapons. to hold on, the afghan government is relying on elite special forces, the commandos. nbc news joined them this week for a mix. the commandos are motivated and effective. a small force, only 30,000. the president delivering this message to the thousands of afghans who worked as intrernters and contractors for u.s. troops. the taliban considers them traitors. >> there is a home for you in the united states.

>> reporter: but when? translators tell us they are worried the country is collapsing around them and president biden was asked about the fate of afghan women. >> they are very concern with good reason. >> reporter: we visited a modeling agency? kabul now operating if secret. if you went back to your village taken over by the taliban right now, dressed like this, what would happen to you? >> we would die. >> reporter: die? >> yes. >> reporter: the taliban and extremist groups oppose women doing anything beyond motherhood, girls schools have already come under attack. >> let's bring in the washington post and pakistan bureau chief susannah george live from kabul and at the white house, white house reporter for the associated press jonathan le mere. good to have you both. susannah, tell us what you are

seeing on the ground in terms of the feeling of people. you have given this drawdown in sort of dramatic departure especially given richard engels reporting. it's gone from people and help to nothing. >> yeah, i think what we have heard from president biden is a much more optimistic take on the security situation in afghanistan at the moment than what most afghans are seeing and feeling, especially those living in government-held territory. people definitely expected the taliban to make gains across the country as u.s. troops withdrew. but the gains that have been made have happened at a much more rapid pace than anyone expected. that's largely, it's looking largely like it's because of these surrenders that troops are making, especially in the north. some, their commanders are cutting deals. if other cases, troops are just

laying down their arms in the face of taliban attacks and while biden stressed the well-equipped aspects of the afghan army and the numbers of forces in the afghan army, when we talked to afghan force was have surrendered, who have laid down their weapons to the taliban, it's not because of the overall equipment the afghan army has access to, it's because they, themselves, at the outposts are not getting the ammunition and the support they need from the central government. >> susansusannah, there was a s department spokesman yesterday who suggested that the taliban would sit down for peace negotiations because they knew that would be the only way they would gain legitimacy with the afghan people. there's no evidence of that, is there? and actions the taliban fighters

or leaders are taking right now? >> yes. the negotiations happening in kabul have been stalled for months. i haven't heard anyone speak openly about those negotiations for a very long time. the last time i heard someone speak about those was a few weeks after it began. that was last september. if you look at the taliban's actions on the ground in afghanistan, it not only is at odds with what the negotiation are supposed to achieve, which is a settlement to the conflict by political means, but it also places the group in a much stronger standing if they ever do want to return to the negotiating table. so it's not something that people here are really looking to. i know it's something that a lot of u.s. officials point to as a possible way that the conflicts could end. but in afghanistan, very few people have any hope at all that

the negotiations will bring conflict to a close. >> "the washington post", afghanistan and pakistan bureau chief, susannah george, thank you. still ahead, the summer olympics, no spectators allowed as they deal with the state of emergency over covid. you are watching morning joe. we'll be right back. ♪♪ ight back. ♪ welcome to allstate. ♪ ♪ you already pay for car insurance, why not take your home along for the ride? allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands. click or call to bundle today.

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to the pandemic's impact on the upcoming summer olympics now just two weeks away, organizers of the tokyo games announced there will be no spectators. nbc news correspondent has the details. >> reporter: when the olympics kick off, these seats will be

empty. no claps, no cheers. no fans at all. organizers pulling back on plans announced just two weeks ago to allow some local spectators. the ban on fans coming just hours after japan's prime minister announced a new state of emergency in tokyo, which begins monday and will run through the entire olympics. >> one of the reasons for the state of emergency, officials want to thin out the crowds at restaurants and bars like here in downtown tokyo. >>. >> reporter: officials are urging them not to serve alcohol. the olympic rings are shut off early. it comes after an uptick in covid cases in tokyo due to the delta variant. while transmission is relatively low compared to other hot spots, the vaccine rollout has lagged. >> the mass people remain

unvaccinated. they are afraid of the olympics kick-starting another surge. >> reporter: 70,000 people are expected here for the olympics, including the ioc president thomas bach who just arrived and is in quarantine. >> there is so much news we are reading every day suggesting the united states is getting set apart from the world as much as we complain about only hitting 67, 70% of americans, we are doing better than most countries. you look at tokyo, they are banning fans from the olympic. you like me have been watching the euro 2020 matches over the past month, unlimited seating. hardly any fans there at all. south korea is talking about reinstituteing mask mandates. across the world, we are seeing fuse. it does seem the united states is standing out. is there any pressure on this

white house to follow some of the actions of some of these other countries? >> reporter: well, joe, concernly, it's going to be a stark scene if the olympics does not see any fans. there is real public concerns there. the white house attended first lady jill biden to attend as a representative of her husband and the nation. those plans are in flux. they haven't committed one way or the other whether she will make that trip. right now the u.s. government are proceeding as is. we have seen local municipalities, los angeles county is suggesting people should wear them indoors. there are real worries about the delta virus, which has become the dominant strain in the united states and there is huge pockets of unvaccinated people, particularly down south and out west. right now, there is not a national sense. we heard from dr. fauci, the white house, there isn't a decision here to suddenly start locking things down again. that will be at the state level anyway. biden from the other day, in his

july 4th speech, touted all the progress he made. the vaccination though it stalled is far higher than anywhere else in the world. we are giving citizens a sense of formalcy citizens don't have if other countries. okay, they are watching nervously the case rates grow again. they are not making predictions as to what measures may be taken. the focus is for everyone to get vaccinated. they try to convince those hesitant or downright refusing to take the vaccine. if they don't, it could lead to some day lockdowns being reimposed. >> it really s. it's remarkable. you look at what's happening in japan, what's happening in europe. right now the european nations are saying we can come visit as americans, and tourists are welcome if europe. but americans don't want

europeans here right now. i mean, it is just again because they're not doing as well, britain continues to battle covid. so you talk about, it's almost like a tale of two pandemics. coming up, the reverend al sharpton joins us to discuss the meeting he attended yesterday between sill rights leaders and the president over voting rights. "morning joe" is back in a moment. rights "morning joe" is back in a moment front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and get millions of flexible booking options. expedia. it matters who you travel with. the instant air purifier

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. >> m-u-r-r-a-y-a. >> that is correct. >> oh my gosh. a 14-year-old made history last night when she won the scripps national spelling bee becoming the first black-american champion. the new orleans natist won on the word murraya, m-u-r-r-a-y-a.

i said it wrong. after the pandemic forced its cancellation for the first time since world war ii. this isn't her only title. avant-garde also holds three guinness world records for dribbling a basketball. hello. she's amazing. >> doing a lot. that is fantastic. how nice. >> i love that so much. all right. back to reality. >> i love those. >> the biden administration is renewing its push to pass voting rights legislation. president biden and vice president harris met with a delegation at the white house yesterday to discuss how to combat the wave of restrictive republican voting laws. civil rights activists argued the need for joint cooperation between the white house, congress and local leaders. >> democracy is under vigorous,

vicious and sinister attack beginning with the events of june -- january 6th at the capitol and cascading like a tsunami through state legislatures across the nation. >> the movement from the ground up is starting to be the only way that we can preserve our right to vote. we informed them that this is going to come not from the white house down but from our houses up. >> i told the president, we will not be able to litigate our way out of this threat to black citizenship voting and political participation. we need legislation to be passed in congress, both hr-1 and hr-4. >> let's bring in the man you just heard there, the host of msnbc's politic nation and president of the national network, reverend al sharpton,

what happened yesterday? update at city progress made? >> i thought it was a good meeting, it was scheduled for one hour. it went almost two hours. there was basically eight of us from civil rights organizations saying to the president if light of the supreme court decision last week, which really further gutted the voting rights act, that we need to escalate where we are in terms of civil rights of leadership, oak, we're doing young activists and church groups, paid groups around this country. because we cannot afford to not have legislation toance hear what is now clearly the judicial-leaning of disenfranchising millions of black and brown and other voters. and we wanted to know whether the president or vice president would use their pulley pulpit to add a lot of acknowledgement and

a lot of recognition to this. he was very, very passionate about the fact that he understood where we were, what needs to be done. he's willing to continue to speak out even more. we've challenged the vice president, which she was very enthusiastic about it. she's in love with this to have town halls, meet with young people, all the people. we feed to develop a movement. this cannot be a beltway kind of conversation. we are looking at the absolute demise of democracy that has been championed by donald trump and others that want to use a big loo i to say that they were robbed, but use that to cover going back into trying to knock people off of voting rolls and to admitting where he's orchestrated where they can maneuver going back to state rights on voting, which the

supreme court decision leaned towards doing. coming up, can a 30-year-old protest derail president biden's nominee for a key environmental post? new reporting on that next. plus an incredible story out of kentucky. a 6-year-old girl is snatched off her bike and stuffed in a car, kidnapped if broad daylight. cops jump into action and we see the body cam footage of the moment she is rescued by police. we are back in a moment. police. we are back in a moment. when you have metastatic breast cancer, what does it mean to be a thriver?

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or the day there's appointments nonstop. with comcast business, you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses, and you can get the advanced cybersecurity solutions you need with comcast business securityedge. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. get started with a great offer and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. call today. welcome back. more now on this morning's development in the fight against covid. as pfizer now says it is developing a booster shot of its vaccine that strongly extends protection against the original virus. we get the latest from nbc news' miguel almaguer. >> reporter: pfizer says a booster shot, a third dose of

its current vaccine could offer americans five-to-ten times more protection against covid, given six months after the second dose, pfizer believes those inoculated would be highly protected against the delta variant, which is now exploding across the u.s. the company expects to deliver new data to the fda within weeks. it is also working to develop a delta-specific version of its vaccine. it comes as new covid cases and hospitalizations both climb at a dangerous pace. some hospitals are now in the middle of their most dire days. >> the competition for beds is higher than during the peak last year. >> reporter: perhaps the new epicenter delta variant is fueling 97% of cases, in missouri, with a federal response team on the ground, 93% of covid patients in one icu are on ventilators.

>> we are seeing the younger population become very ill. we see patients becoming more ill quicker than we did before. >> i'm so glad it's over. >> reporter: though vaccines are effective against delta, the unvaccinated are fuelling the spike with a third of adult americans not yet inoculated, researchers at georgetown say these five undervaccinated clusters of the country could become a breeding ground for the new variants, putting the rest of the nation at risk. to florida now, where ten more bodies were found in the rubble of that collapsed condo in surfside florida, the first full day after rescuers made the painful decision to shift the search-and-rescue mission from rescue to recovery. nbc's some brock has been surfside with the latest. >> reporter: amidst the lines of first responders, family and leaders all linked shoulder-to-shoulder in an

acknowledgment that silence can speak louder than words. rabbis in prayer, rescue efforts turn to the furs day of recovery. racial spiegel's mother judy is still missing. >> it's so difficult. what aim dreading is the next phase. i'm not quite there yet personally, my family is not there my kids are not there. >> reporter: miami-dade fire and rescue telling families, we mourn with you. this powerful scene against a backdrop of community-wide concern. right now many residents in miami beach are wondering at what risk am i at? there are 500 undergoing some form of recertification right now. the city immediately sprang into action. how soon after the collapse did you skwump jump into inspections? >> the next day.

>> reporter: it awaits a deeperb dive within 21 days, ten have been red flagged for visual deficiencies. what is your threshold for having to evacuate a building? >> if we can't get a letter from a structural engineer that it is safe for occupancy, with may have to pull that trigger. >> reporter: miami had 76 people remaining unaccounted for. still those on the front lines lifted by the nearly 500 thank you cards coming from students. at this time of silence, the love doing all the talking. >> nbc news' sam brock reporting for us from surfside. we are also following new developments tied to the assassination of haiti's president. there are a wave of arrests, including two haitian americans. nbc news' correspondent gabe gutierrez has the latest. >> reporter: these are the suspects haitian authorities they are responsible for the country's murder of the president, lined up for world to

see, behind a table displaying firearms, machetes and colombian passports. in a news conference overnight, haiti police chief says 28 people were involved in the brazen assassination of president jovenel moise. so far 50 men were arrested, including 30 colombians, four suspects died in a gun battle. fin others are still on the run. >> dea operation, eb back up, stand down. >> reporter: the haitian government says they were foreign mercenarys posing as dea agents when they stormed the president's private home, killing him, critically wounding his wife. she is being treated another a miami hospital. the prime minister declared a state of siege. the ambassador to the u.s. denies it's marshall law. >> i don't think it is. there is a way to give us more

space than the national police. >> reporter: protesters gathered thursday outside a police station where some of the suspects were held, some raising questions of whether the assassins had inside help. others skeptical that sophisticated attackers, who supposedly penetrated the president's security team would be caught so quickly. . >> our thanks to gabe gutierrez for that report. the security council is set to vote on keeping the border opened for humanitarian aid. if the saturday deadline passes with no new agreement. russia who stood in the way of keeping the border open would reportedly put forward its new resolution to renew access into syria for at least six months. last year, it was russia and china who vetoed an extension resulting in the closures of three-to-four entry points. the u.s. state department

spokesperson ned price said, in part, quote, millions of likes are on the line. "time" magazine reports biden administration officials doubt russian president vladimir putin will do anything to end the cyber attacks within russia. last month when president biden and putin met in geneva, they agreed to crack down on criminal hackers targeting americans, but less than a month later, russian hackers are being blamed for two major ransomware attacks. a meeting between the two countries specifically about ransomware attacks is scheduled for next week. meanwhile, one small town in maryland had to be taken offline last week after one of those ransomware attacks, the one from technology firm cassia. the washington post first harted the administration for leonard town, which is about an

hour-and-a-half north of baltimore was warned to shut everything down and didn't have time to read the whole e-mail before her computer froze. it's a client of the hacked firm kaseya. "the washington post" reports that the former president's new jersey golf club charged the secret service more than $10,000 for agent's rooms back in may. record were recently released in response to a public records request shows that since trump left office in january, u.s. taxpayers have paid his businesses more than $50,000 for rooms used by secret service agents. meanwhile, former secretary of state mike pompeo is facing scrutiny for spending nearly $65,000 in taxpayer money on his lavish madison dinners.

that's according to records obtained by the non-profit citizens for efrtics in washington. the total bill is $21,000, more than the amount disclosed in ongoing freedom of information act lawsuits. they analyzed more than 500 pages of expense reports, invoices and checks released by the state department. the dinners hosted by pompeo and his wife susan were first reported by nbc news in may of last year. with us now, national political reporter for nbc news, josh letterman. are you the one reporting all these dinners. now we hear about these disclosures. just as background, the buzz was at the time the information of these madison dinners came out is pompeo was trying to line up reporters for a fit political run. what can you fell us about those

dinners? >> major lawmakers and supreme court justices and billionaires, they were all paid for by taxpayers. now the good governance crew obtaining these documents that show they cost tax 35iers nearly $65,000. those dinners first revealed by nbc news last year. that's about $21,000 more than we previously knew that pompeo had spent, $16,000 of those had gone to customized pens and journals at dinners at the state department. you have a nomination battle for a key interior department post. tell us about it. >> reporter: that's right. to run the bureau of land management in a tree spiking plot in the early 1990s and early 1980s the republican for john borasso is accusing her of

working with ecoterrorists. she was involved with a controversial group earth first. they allegedly hammered 500,000 pounds of 8-to-10-inch spikes into trees to prevent loggers from cutting them down. they show she did not participate in it herself. she typed the anonymous letter warning the forest had been spiked and wrote to the forest service, you bass tardtards go in there, a lot of you can get hurt. this was all decades ago. in the years since, stone-manning developed a reputation of a bridge builder. one of those groups, the dallas safari plug pulled its support writing that although her involvement with earth first was

many years ago, participateing in an organization that perpetuated violence against fellow americans is simply unacceptable. the biden administration are standing behind her nomination with a spokesperson telling us she would be an important addition to the team a. biden official described this as a massive vetting by the white house to allow this to go forward despite knowing the headache it would create while bind has so many places to fill. >> josh, thank you so much for your reporting. appreciate that. now to a very scary scene in louisville. last week, video showing the moments police rescued a 6-year-old girl who had been grab fareed her bike if an attempted kidnapping. nbc news' peter alexander has this story. >> reporter: neighbors say it happened in an instant. >> he came around the corn, parked his car, got out.

i mean within 15 seconds. >> reporter: just like that, a 6-year-old girl outside with her bike disappeared. >> grabbed her by the collar, threw her in the passenger's seat. >> reporter: they immediately called 911. >> they dropped everything they were doing. we had 13/14 cars. >> reporter: among them, sergeant joseph kieling and joseph baba. >> every second feels like hours. >> reporter: within minutes they found that car. >> hey. keep walking back. get on your knees. >> reporter: a 40-year-old man arrested. >> when i approached the vehicle, i didn't know what would be behind the door. >> in the front seat, that brave little girl. >> it's okay. >> both fathers, themselves, the moment hit home. >> it was tough. >> reporter: why? >> you have kids. >> mama, daddy! >> it's overwhelming, very

overwhelming, especially when you hear her crying and asking for her family. definitely a gut check. >> a gut check and thankfully a rescue. >> nbc news' peter alexander with that story for us. >> incredible. incredible life-saving work there. up next, our colleagues at sky news have a report on the afghan people who will be left behind when the u.s. completes its withdrawal from that country. it is an incredible piece of journalism that you won't want to miss. we'll play it for you next on "morning joe." we'll play it for "morning joe." you're strong. you power through chronic migraine - 15 or more headache days a month, ...each lasting 4 hours or more. botox® prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. so, if you haven't tried botox® for your chronic migraine,

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♪ as western involvement in afghanistan comes to an end, sky news takes a closer look at the afghan people who face the most risk when the troops leave. particularly the afghan women and young people who have carved out a life for themselves in spite of or perhaps in defiance of the threat of violence against them. sky news special correspondent alex crawford reports from kabul. >> reporter: afghanistan's hospitals are filled with the war wounded, many of them children. the latest here is a 13-year-old girl. she's never known peace. the doctors will patch her up and remove the shrapnel in her, but she'll emerge back into a country where survival is getting harder and harder.

there's been a spike in fatalities and casualties as allied troops begin to pull out after nearly 20 years and the afghans fear it will only get worse. no one's safe, not even medics saving lives. he's a doctor, shot after refusing an x-ray on a patient he suspected had coronavirus. there are multiple dangers facing everyone in this country. and he signals his appreciation to his fellow medics. >> i'm okay, thank you. >> reporter: but despite his bravery, he's vulnerable, because he also worked with the americans. many who worked alongside the u.s. troops are fleeing for their lives. fatima, that's not her real name, and her children have gone into hiding after death threats from the taliban for her work in empowering other women. she thought she was building a

new and better afghanistan, but now she's viewed as a spy and enemy collaborator by the taliban. and her former u.s. partners are leaving her to face the fighters alone. >> translator: i feel extremely abandoned. i am in danger. it's not only that i am in danger. now my kids are in danger also because now, you know, they came behind my daughter. they sent me messages to the phone. they got in touch with me in many different ways so it's the lives of my children and myself, both of us, especially my kids at this point. they won't leave me alive. >> i'm worried about my people. what's going to be happening with them. >> reporter: female activists like maboua told us of the fear of the advancing taliban. >> unfortunately, we have no flights. >> reporter: she and her staff are trying to arrange emergency flights for fellow human rights defenders in cities now surrounded by taliban fighters.

i was given rare access and allowed to film inside a secret refuge she runs for dozens of women. no men are permitted to cross the threshold. every woman and child in here has run away or been rescued from abuse or violence and they're terrified of the return of the taliban. >> their worst fear is they will disrespect them, use them, abuse them, molest them or whatever, and also they will kill them and then there was one of them that is afraid her two children would be taken by their father because their father is a taliban. >> reporter: here, they don't believe the taliban reassurances that they've changed. they tell me of shocking lives, of forced marriages, of beatings, of rapes, where they have no say and no rights, and that is what they believe the taliban envisage for women. this 21-year-old told how she was being forced to marry a

13-year-old boy. i felt like my life was falling apart, she says, until i got here. their fear of the taliban is real and growing as the group gets stronger and snatches more territory. another says she too was forced to marry a young boy and repeatedly beaten by her in-laws. with the taliban in power, will this just get worse? i think it's definitely going to get worse, she says. the young women of today's afghanistan have had a glimpse of free thinking and independence. although those in this taekwondo club have all battled family disapproval to be here. and their martial arts training combined the skills necessary in this country, how to survive

bomb blasts and bullets. all but one has been caught up in terror incidents, many near their schools. the taliban insists they're more relaxed about girls' schooling but their learning centers are still frequently attacked. weeks before the pullout of international troops, a car bomb detonated outside a girls high school killed at least 90 people. every girl here knows they're risking death every time they set off to learn. how scared are you about going to school? >> translator: i'm scared a lot. whenever i leave my house, i'm scared, because we don't know if we'll come back alive. >> reporter: 18-year-old katara gets emotional telling us she won't give up trying to be a lawyer. the explosions are normal to us now, she says. she's not afraid for herself, but she's terrified her family will be killed.

have you lost anyone? my cousin and uncle died in an explosion, she says. almost everyone here has experienced death. parts of afghanistan are unrecognizable to taliban times. women owning and running their own businesses like this cafe. but they fear they'll be amongst the first to be banned by a taliban regime. there's a new generation who have grown up with these small freedoms, and they want more, not less. >> i'm not feeling good, because if they come back to afghanistan, we will have lost all of these rights to go out or even go out of home. >> i don't like scarf, but i can, like -- >> she has to. she has to wear a scarf. >> if taliban come, i have to wear a scarf, and it's awful for me.

>> reporter: next door to the cafe, there's a beauty salon, again owned and run by a woman. all this was taboo under the taliban regime, and many fear it won't be long before the strict rules about what women can and can't do are enforced again. on top of the hills surrounding the capital, there are monuments to the school children killed in terror explosions, and these graves are still increasing. with few optimistic about afghanistan's immediate future. alex crawford, sky news, kabul. >> wow. incredible reporting. and it really shows, joe, just how complicated this has been for two decades. i mean, on this very show, there have been many critiques of the government for staying there too long, for this forever war to end. at the same time, it's just beyond heartbreaking to see now

what will inevitably start happening again in the void that america leaves. >> yeah, the united states definitely has to think long and hard before it goes into other countries at war and also what the most sustainable course is for countries like afghanistan. whether it's 2,500 or 3,000 or 4,000 troops who were so effective in afghanistan and also so effective in syria. is there a sustainable fighting force that can keep the peace and protect people like those that we saw in that package or not. and that's a question that policymakers and politicians are going to be figuring out for some time. hey, really quickly, this just coming in from the "wall street journal." president biden on friday is going to be signing a broad executive order that aims to promote competition -- competitive markets and limit corporate dominance that the white house says puts consumers, workers, and smaller firms at a

disadvantage, targeting agriculture, healthcare, transportation, technology, and other sectors in a new executive order. this is something we've talked about for some time, whether you're talking about tech monopolies or just massive consolidation of large corporations. be looking for that later on today, the president making a move to try to increase competition in the marketplace. and we will see you monday. that does it for us this morning. chris picks up the coverage right now. ♪♪ hi there, i'm chris jansing in for stephanie ruhle, it is friday, july 9th, and we start with several major breaking developments in the fight against covid-19, including new threats and growing concerns about the economic recovery. at this hour, pfizer saying it's now developing a coronavirus booster shot specifically targeting the delta variant and will seek emergency use authorization next month.