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.

that setting off a heated debate. at the same time, politico citing two biden administration health officials who say the delta variant is far more widespread than federal estimates. the variant already makes up more than 50% of u.s. cases. but in some parts of the country, like a midwest and upper mountain states, that number is closer to 80%. right now, the seven-day average of covid-19 cases in the u.s. has gone up by about 11% just since last week, particularly in states where vaccination rates remain low. in fact, cdc director rochelle walensky says around 93% of covid cases in recent days have occurred in counties with vaccination rates of less than 40%. and in just about 30 minutes, the markets are set to open after a beating on thursday with the dow closing down more than 250 points on concerns about the global economic recovery from the pandemic. i've got the best team with the latest details to help make sense of all this.

shaquille brewster in missouri, dr. jha, and ron, cnbc senior analyst and commentator. good morning to all of you guys. so, shaq, let's start with this booster shot. what's pfizer saying? >> reporter: yeah. well, pfizer is saying it plans to submit for federal authorization for a booster shot of its vaccine, citing some research saying that if taken within a third shot, if the third shot is taken within six to 12 months after becoming fully vaccinated, that can provide additional immunity, especially against that delta variant, which continues to grow and spread across the country. but overnight, the cdc and fda releasing a joint statement touting the effectiveness of the existing vaccines that are already on the market. i'll read a little bit from their statement. they say, americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time. they say we are proceed for all booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they

are needed. you see their primary focus is on vaccinating the unvaccinated, especially in areas like missouri where the delta variant continues to spread and hospitalizations and case numbers continue to rise, targeting those who are unvaccinated and you know, here in missouri, you're seeing all hands on deck effort to vaccinate as many people as possible, including from the fire department. i had a conversation with the fire chief yesterday. listen to what he told me about what he's seeing out in this community. >> i would equate what's happening in my community right now as a mass casualty event. it's happening in very slow motion. the delta variant is spreading rapidly through our community. certainly we've taken aggressive measures to get us to this point through social distancing and isolations and masking, but there's only so much that we can do. now it's an individual responsibility. >> reporter: he compared the need to -- for a vaccine to the need for having a smoke alarm in

your house, saying it's something you hope you never need to use, but having it the save your life. you're seeing all across the community, an emphasis on having trusted members of the community get that vaccine out there. the goal, to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible. chris? >> yeah, dr. jha, let me go back to the booster. the fda, cdc, obviously pushing back but they're not alone. some critics have been, frankly, pretty blunt. they say this makes pfizer look opportunistic, that's the money-making, not science based or health based venture. what's your take on this? >> thanks for having me back. the way we look at this is we've got to be guided by evidence and science, and so far, the data says that two shots of the vaccine, being fully vaccinated, offers a very, very high degree of protection. so, what i want to see is what is the data that pfizer is basing its recommendations on, but all the evidence and all the data so far says two shots is more than good enough. everybody does need to get two shots. and obviously, if new data comes

out that says we need a booster, i think we're all going to want to reevaluate that, but right now, i haven't seen anything that makes me think a third shot is necessary. >> so, obviously, part of the argument for the booster includes that efficacy may wane after just six months, vaccination drives are slow, ohi want to ask you about in the journal "nature" claiming it can sidestep your body's immunity response. if this is the answer, the combination and the boos e, is there a danger? >> i wouldn't say there's a danger. what i want to do, though, is i really want us to be guided about what the evidence says about infections so we can look at antibody levels and lots of different metrics. at the end of the day, the question is, are fully vaccinated people getting infected at a high rate? if they are, are they getting sick? if the answer to those two questions is no, and that's what we've seen so far, then i think

we just keep going with focusing on getting more people vaccinated. if, obviously, the answer changes, then we want to change our approach, but right now, i haven't seen the evidence that makes me want to do things any differently. >> obviously, we're trying to get this big push to get people who aren't vaccinated vaccinated, but what about testing? certainly it seems like a new york city, i see these testing centers set up. i haven't seen anybody at them. do we need, if we're going to know about variants and their spread, do we need to do more testing? >> absolutely. i actually think this is one area where we have kind of let the foot off the pedal because, again, we had vaccines and we thought, boy, we're going to be over this pandemic. as we're starting to see increases, i think we need more testing, certainly in unvaccinated areas. that's going to be really important. but i also have been pushing for, and i believe that even in highly vaccinated areas, we are going to see breakthrough infections. we want to catch those early. we want to know who's having breakthroughs, how often they're

having. none of that is going to happen without testing. some of it is in these testing sites. a lot of it is going to have to be at-home testing and we've got to make that much more readily available. >> which brings us all, ron, to the economic impact of this. not a great day on wall street yesterday, i think the futures in the stock market are a little bit better. but how jittery and the stock market about the potential of these variants, for example, we're seeing huge outbreaks in africa. we're concerned about this new variant in south america. how are the markets feeling? >> well, i think it was jittery yesterday, chris, as you described, insofar as when you look at what's going on in tokyo, for instance, where there's a state of emergency and the olympics start in a very short number of days, and then on top of that, they've just banned any visitors to pack the stadiums, and so we're seeing an economic impact in those places that have not been successful in vaccinating their population, so there's been an outbreak of just a delta variant and the coronavirus more broadly, and

that reduces the likelihood of a synchronized global rebound and we're seeing a slowdown in china's economy as well of late for other reasons and so the market got nervous about a couple of things, china cracking down on big business, chinese companies that list in the united states, we have the concern about the delta variant yesterday. we've seen inflation pressures roll over. so, it was really a multifaceted set of circumstances that caused the decline, modest though it was yesterday. and again, as you point out, as we're seeing right now, the markets poised to get back a lot of what was lost. but you know, wall street remains ever vigilant for the types of things that can blindside it and a spread of the delta variant, particularly in the u.s., among the unvaccinated, could undo some of the reopening that's taken place over the last couple of months. >> ron insana, thank you for that. shaquille brewster, dr. jha, thank you. from vaccines to a different protective action. the remaining protective fence

that's is set up around the capitol expected to start coming down this morning. but most visitors will still not be allowed inside the capitol building. let's go right to nbc's leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill. why is the fencing coming down now? >> reporter: good morning, chris. so, the u.s. capitol police board, which is the governing body that oversees security up here on capitol hill, has made the decision that this, what they call incremental change, can take place. now, the black fencing that has surrounded the entire capitol complex or at least the capitol building, has really been a symbol and a reminder of what took place on january 6th, and it has become a major political battle as well with republicans charging house speaker nancy pelosi with keeping the barrier up for political reasons, as a reminder of what happened on january 6th. speaker pelosi would always point to security and saying it's up to capitol police to decide when they feel they are safe enough to take the fence

down. now, the fence has been reimagined over the past six months. it has been moved back, and it has been shortened, but this taking down of the entire fence is a big development as far as security is concerned up here, chris. >> well, speaking of capitol police, what can you tell us about these reports that the department's running out of money? >> reporter: yeah, so, the department is running out of money for salaries, and the reason is, is because there has been so many demands on capitol police officers. there's been a significant amount of overtime, and by mid-june, our sources tell us, they could run out of their money for salaries to pay these officers. now, there's some budgetary gimmicks that they can do, like transferring money and cutting down on some door operations, et cetera, but senator pat leahy a couple weeks ago, the head of the senate proegss committee, released a statement saying this is very dire. there's been an appropriations bill that has been tied up in the senate. the house passed it a couple months ago, providing another

$31 million for salaries for capitol police, but the senate has not yet acted, chris, and so they are raising awareness that this could become a big problem, especially as security is still extremely necessary up here. >> to say the least. leigh ann caldwell, thank you for that. happening now, tropical storm elsa making its way up to east coast and it has been slamming the tristate area. even before elsa hit the new york region, another storm system drenched new york city with heavy rain and flash flooding overnight. videos posted online showing those flooded streets, and look at this. rain water seeping into subway stations. i saw one video with a woman up to her waist in water. tropical storm elsa will continue moving northeast, reaching canada by tonight. the storm is blamed for at least one death in florida and a damaging tornado in coastal georgia. president biden defending the quick withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan. we'll look at the chances that country could spiral into a civil war.

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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. right now, growing concern that afghanistan is at risk of spiraling into civil war. president biden defended the quick withdrawal of u.s. troops in the region, even pushing up the deadline to finish it to august 31st.

>> we did not go to afghanistan to nation build. and it's the right and the responsibility of the afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country. >> that comes as the taliban seized a key border crossing with iran, their latest win after several attacks on districts controlled by the afghan government. courtney kube is all over this story. also with us, paul, founder of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. so, courtney, the president sort of contradicted the warnings that some military officials had been giving. how's the pentagon reacting to this? >> reporter: there were three contradictions, really. the first was this notion that the withdrawal has been sped up or even that it's really going to go until late august. the reality is the vast majority of u.s. troops are already out right now and that's been planned for some time. it was a security measure and it was put in place virtually at the same time the president announced that u.s. troops were going to be leaving.

general miller, the commander there, decided, look, to keep our men and women safe, we're getting them out quickly. the other contradiction, though, was the assessment -- two of the others were the assessment that the taliban is not necessarily going to take over. well, yes and no. so, the taliban may not march into kabul and take it over tomorrow or even next month, but they're already taking over large swaths of the country right now. and they're focusing on these more rural areas where the afghan security forces just aren't as strong, they don't have the support from the central government, and it's much easier for them to move in and take over. the question is, does the taliban actually want to come in and actually take over kabul, or do they just want to take over so much of the country that they sow instability, that they're able to go back to the negotiating table from a very strong position and then actually take over the government in a more legitimate fashion. the other notion is that president biden said the afghan

security forces can take on the taliban. that's kind of true as well. there are about 350,000. they've been building to that for years the commandcommandos pretty strong, but the military in the rural areas, we're seeing them lay down their weapons in some cases, hand them over to the taliban and others, and really fall back and retreat to hand over land to the taliban. so, the idea that they can actually defend anything more than maybe the provincial capitals and kabul against the taliban, that's really disputed by some defense officials who i'm speaking with, chris. >> paul, i know you know this. a lot of afghanistan veterans say they have personally some very complicated, conflicting feelings about what's happening right now. but from a political standpoint, from a military standpoint, what do you make of how the biden administration is handling this? >> i think it's a mixed bag. they've gotten some things right and they've gotten some things

terribly wrong. i think most agree that it's time to get out, that the biggest threat to america's national security is not in afghanistan, things like domestic extremism and cyber attacks. we know this has been coming. many of our allies are headed out with us but there's a real feeling that we're doing it the wrong way, that we're washing our hands too quickly, that we're leaving our allies to die and we're kind of putting the whole thing in our rear view mirror without a recognition that what we've created may fail. we may have more than just a civil war. we may have a humanitarian disaster on our hands where to most veterans, importantly, our allies are being left to die. there's a plan that the biden administration didn't have a plan to get them somewhere safely. they should already be on planes. there's a proposal to get them to guam but there are elements that the biden administration didn't have squared away in time. >> let me ask you about that specifically because the pentagon is rushing to find

places to send thousands of translators until they can be brought to the u.s. our richard engel spoke to one translator who was part of more than 150 combat operations but he says he's been waiting four years to get his visa approved. you see him there, richard looked at all the paperwork. take a listen to what he told richard. >> reporter: you helped the u.s., now the u.s. needs to help you. >> yep. >> reporter: simple as that. >> yeah, yeah. right now, we need help, so u.s. army, the u.s. government have to help us. >> that translator says, paul, that his colleagues are already being killed. is that part of your point? we can't afford to wait at all to get them out. >> yes. it's more than the military and strategic imperative. it's a moral imperative for america. this is about the soul of who we are, and it's not just about afghanistan. it's about sending a message to the world that if you stand with america, for 20 years, you risk your life, you put your family on the line, that when the end comes, we won't leave you hung out to dry.

we won't leave you to be slaughtered. there's precedent to move people to american territories like guam. this is the united states. we just put a robot on mars and the white house is telling us that they can't get our friends out of afghanistan? it's too many excuses. it's not enough detail. and the reality is, it's an evolving situation where heroes, people who stood alongside me and countless others in places like iraq and afghanistan and around the middle east, are dying. i've got two interpreters that are living in america now. one's in connecticut, one's in tennessee. they're thriving. one of my interpreters is still in iraq or might be dead. i don't know what happened to him. that's happening now across afghanistan and to families throughout the military and the active duty that are very concerned about these heroic people that have stood with america and are being left to die. >> finally, i want to play a little bit more of what president biden had to say yesterday and get your reaction on the other side. >> nearly 20 years of experience has shown us that the current security situation only confirms

that just one more year of funding afghanistan is not a solution. but a recipe for being there indefinitely. it's up to the afghans to make the decision about the future of their country. >> we wonder what their abilities are. you know, courtney was talking about the fact, about how well trained they are, how, frank e look, how many of them there are, that the air force is in much better position but you have in the rural areas, people just giving up. what is your assessment, having spent so much time there, having talked to so many people knowing it intimately? what is your very real assessment of what you are going to be watching for in the coming weeks and months? >> i think we're going to watch a deteriorating security situation and a slaughter and potentially a humanitarian disaster. i think biden's got it half right. yes, we have to loef. we understand that. we don't want a forever war. but how we leave is absolutely

critical and it's up to him not just to decide to move troops out but how's he going to protect women on the ground? how's he going to protect our interpreters? what's he going to do about pakistan? is another american president going to send us back in? we have a history here. many times we've abandoned the kurds and allies in syria. people feel like they've been jerked around for decades and even generations so he's got to get it clear and present a comprehensive plan for withdrawal that doesn't -- that recognizes that maybe the afghans won't do it and then what are we going to do? that's the question he's got to answer if this continues to spiral down. >> paul, courtney kube, thank you so much. we appreciate you. also developing this morning, toyota now saying it will stop contributing to republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 election. this comes after the lincoln project, you know it, the

anti-trump political pac formed by republicans and some former republicans, started running ads criticizing companies that donated to those lawmakers. this ad specifically targeting toyota, and it ran on thursday. toyota says it made the decision because it, quote, troubled some stakeholders. the lincoln project applauded the move. it comes six months after a mob of trump supporters attacked the capitol on the same day the election results were to be certified. and were. a high stakes battle for access to voting is about to resume in texas where democrats are trying to fight off republicans' proposed restrictive voting laws. we're going to go live to austin right after this short break. g n right after this short break feek why should i cure my hepatitis c? how can i handle one more thing? you can stay on track and be cured in only 8 weeks with mavyret. you can keep your momentum with mavyret. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b,

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this morning, texas democrats are facing an uphill battle as they try to fend off republican efforts to enact sweeping voting restrictions for the second time in two months. the legislative session called by governor abbott was unfolding just as civil rights leaders were meeting with president biden in washington. insisting he needs to push congress harder to do more and promising a summer of activism. i want to bring in priscilla thompson covering the developments in austin. peter alexander is at the white house for us. latasha brown is the cofounder of black voters matter. and matthew dowd, political strategist and founder of the group, country over party. he also wrote the new book, "revolutions on the river." good to see all of you.

priscilla, get us up to speed on what's happening in texas today. democrats stopped those efforts in may with a now famous walkout but what are their options now? >> yeah. well, chris, they're certainly going to try to stop it again, but in a state where the gop controls both chambers of the state legislature, democrats know that they are in for a fight here. we now have the two bills that have been proposed in both the house and the senate, those new voting bills, and we see that they include many of the same measures that democrats pushed back against in the regular session, so things like a ban on overnight and drive-thru voting, also creating new criminal penalties for election officials. meanwhile, bolstering protections for partisan poll watchers. now, there were some small concessions on the part of republicans. they reinstated those early sunday voting hours and also created a new process for curing

ballots but at this point, democrats are analyzing these bills and figuring out what exactly their next steps are going to be, but at the same time, they are calling on federal lawmakers to take action, and i spoke with the democratic caucus chair here, representative chris turner, about his message to lawmakers in d.c. take a listen to what he said. >> my message to them would be, we need your help and we need it now. we need hr-1. we need the john lewis voting rights act to be able to block suppressive laws like the texas legislature wants to pass, republicans here want to pass, and in other states around the country. >> and as for what comes next here, both chambers will gavel in, in just a short while, but the big day is really going to be tomorrow. that is when public hearings are being held on both of these bills and already voting rights advocates are putting out an all call, trying to get as many of their followers here to give public testimony at those hearings. chris? >> so, matthew, look, you know

texas politics well. i mean, what are the chances the democrats are going to make any headway here, and why is this so important to governor abbott? i think he's only called special sessions a couple times before. the last time in, i think, 2017. >> well, i think it's very difficult, as was just laid out, for the democrats to succeed in blocking this in texas, but i think their point, which is a very valid one, is to point out all of the problems and the problematic things that exist in this legislation and that continue to attack on the democracy. i think governor abbott had decided to be craven to the most basest part of the republican party, whether it's a long-term political prospect he has or it's just who he is or who he's become in the course of this. look at what they're -- besides the voting rights stuff that they're pushing back against, look at what else they're having a special session. they've got a critical race theory agenda item. they got more restrictions on women's right to choose. they have a tax on the transgender and not allowing

them to play sports. it's filled with stuff that appeals to the republican base and the fascinating thing is that it's directly counter to what a majority of texans want, but greg abbott calculates that as long as he appeals to the base, and then simultaneously restricts voting so he's not held accountable for bad policies, it succeeds for him. it's craven. it's cruel. but that's where the governor is of the state of texas right now. >> yeah, and peter, let's talk about what's going on in washington. civil rights leaders gathering with president biden while all this is going on in austin. we know they want more action on federal voting rights, but realistically, is there anything more the white house can do to make that happen? >> reporter: yeah, chris, that meeting that was scheduled to last an hour going close to two hours yesterday behind closed doors with both the president and vice president yesterday and in my conversations with white house officials who really do hear that acknowledgment of the challenges they face for anything to happen at the federal level, even really a pessimism about their ability to get anything done right now, given the republican

recalcitrance as it relates to the one bill that was blocked from further consideration in the senate, the john rights -- the john lewis voting rights act as well, that effort, obviously, not getting anywhere at this point. but the president, i'm told, is likely, as he has promised to go out and try to use the bully pulpit on this issue, acknowledging the limitations, nonetheless, as the potential discussions happening here at the white house that he may deliver another speech on this issue as early as next week and just yesterday, at howard university, her alma mater, we heard from the vice president, kamala harris, who announced that the dnc would be spending $25 million to protect voting access, to improve voter education as well, all of this ahead of the 2022 midterm elections here. but this, at the end of the day, is going to have to be about more than legislation, many of these folks say. the doj getting involved to try to find legal remedies here, and beyond that, they're hoping to have a repeat of what happened

in the last election, even in the midst of a pandemic where the democrats were able to boost voter turnout by really working to get out the vote efforts around the country, chris. >> in the meantime, latasha, all of this is happening after the supreme court upheld arizona voting restrictions and the president of the urban league, marc moriel, talked about that after the meeting at the white house. let me play it. >> when we look at what is happening in this nation, we see an effort to impose a system of american apartheid. you use the nullification of the supreme court, which just recently undercut the voting rights act, to try to thwart the power of this grand and glorious multicultural nation. >> to anybody who listened to that press conference after the meeting with the president, it was sobering, i thought,

latasha, to say the least. is marc moriel right? is this an effort to impose a system of american apartheid? >> absolutely he's 100% right. you know, we have to accept that right now, democracy -- american democracy is being tested and we're going to have to decide, as a country, as a nation and the leadership of this nation how we're going to respond to it. what i experienced and saw and talked to people in austin, texas, as i was there yesterday, people are very concerned. here it is that you have a special session essentially to be able to suppress the vote. it's a leading issue, agenda issue. we're seeing the same kind of legislation, seeing the proposed legislation in 47 different states. the bottom line is there is no way around it. we have to have federal legislation that can protect the rights of voters in this nation, and if that means that the democrats have to end the filibuster, whatever we have to do to protect democracy at all costs, we have to be willing to do that because i think this is the biggest threat that we've seen around democrat participation in this nation in

my entire lifetime. >> a story that we're going to continue to follow very closely, priscilla thompson, peter alexander, latosha brown and matthew dowd, thanks to all of you. and we have a winner this morning. a 14-year-old girl from harvey, louisiana, the 2021 national spelling bee champ. >> n-u r r-a-y-a. >> that is correct. >> her victory dance makes you want to jump up and down. she won with the word, murraya, which is the word for a genus of plants, and with seven letters, she becomes the first african-american winner in the scrips spelling bee's 90-year history. yet she says spelling is just a hobby, even though she practices seven hours a day. not to mention, she's a basketball prodigy with three

guinness world records for dribbling multiple balls at the same time. that's crazy. she hopes one day to play in the wnba. but in the meantime, she's soaking up the glory. >> my family thinks it's really cool and stuff, especially my father. it was kind of his idea to put me in spelling. of course, my -- it was me and his idea to put me into spelling so he's kind of like the main impetus behind it but my whole family is super excited. >> i would hope so, and don't we all want to be like her when we grow up. meantime, down in florida, some red flags being raised about the safety of some waterfront buildings after the champlain towers collapsed. we'll tell you why some residents may be forced out of their homes when we come back. sf their homes when we come back.

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let's talk about south florida where urgent efforts are under way to make sure no other buildings are at risk of the same fate as the champlain

towers in surfside. and recovery efforts at the site of that condominium continue. we've just learned that miami dade officials will hold a press conference, newest information, at 11:30 eastern time this morning. nbc's sam brock is where he has been throughout, in surfside. sam, we've been so focused on the work going on at that site, understandably so, but we haven't talked as much about what's going on at other buildings, and i know that there's a lot of concern down there, a lot of people for their safety. tell us what's going on in that regard. >> reporter: yeah, chris, good morning. look, there's no question there's been a ripple effect to all of this, the mayor of miami dade, daniella levine cava, ordered an audit and out of that, chris, last week, north miami beach, which is its own city, did in fact evacuate crest crew towers, about five miles away from the surfside site after it was deemed structurally unsafe. that came courtesy of a report

that was issued in january that they uncovered now after this audit. it's 150 units that were evacuated and in fact, chris, some of those folks are going back there today, they get a 15-minute window to get inside the building, get their possessions and leave. aside from just that, miami beach took actions immediately in the wake of this. they ordered two things. one was a visual look at all of the 500-plus buildings in miami beach that are at some stage of the recertification process, that 40-year timeline and also a 21-day mandate to get a structural engineering report from all those buildings as well. what they found, chris, were a number of buildings that had clear visual deficiencies just from the eye test. here's a city manager describing the steps they took. >> we sent our structural engineers with a team to visually observe and if there was anything that we saw that was of any concern, and that's an evolution, we're in that process right now. >> reporter: how many instances of that do you have so far? >> we have identified, within the last two days, ten buildings that meet that criteria. >> reporter: of the ten, how

many have people in them? >> all of them. >> reporter: what's your threshold for having to evacuate a building? >> if we can't get a letter from a structural engineer assuring us that the building is safe for occupancy, we will have to pull that trigger. >> reporter: and chris, just to expand that a little bit further, there were 15 buildings total that were red tagged. ten of them happened to be occupied at the time, and i'm sure the next question becomes, how are those residents feeling? what are they going to do? they are all aware their building has been spotlighted for further inspection and if they don't get a letter within the next couple days from a structural engineer saying it is sound, they will be evacuated. >> sam brock in surfside for us. thank you so much for that. now to the breaking news we've been following out of haiti where two american citizens are among more than a dozen people arrested in the assassination of that country's president. police literally lined up the suspects for the cameras but say they are still searching for others they believe were part of the plot. nbc's gabe gutierrez is with me now. that was quite a show overnight. but the question is, how

confident are folks that investigators actually have the folks responsible and who are the two americans that we're hearing might be involved in this? >> a lot of questions here, and you know, yes, that is a question, what is the evidence that linked these smts to the plot? now, authorities say that nine others are still on the run, but we're also asking more questions about those americans. they are 35-year-old james and 55-year-old joseph vincent. we believe they are from south florida, but there are still a lot of questions, including whether he worked for a contractor about a decade ago that provided security to the canadian embassy in haiti. but not -- there's not a whole lot of other details here. and the numbers kept shifting overnight, chris. we were -- the authorities were saying that at least 28 suspects were involved in this. so far, 15 have been arrested, 13 of them colombians, two of them, those haitian-americans we discussed, four suspects have been killed, and nine on the

run. but still, a lot of questions about who else is left and whether some suspects, as officials suggested earlier in the week, may have already left the country. >> and meantime, there's a big headline in "the new york times" warning that the turmoil could fuel a human catastrophe, a country already rife with violence. they have absolutely no vaccinations going on, poverty. and obviously, the assassination. and that this could lead to a mass exodus from haiti. what are you hearing from folks on the ground? >> chris, as you know, there's been political instability in haiti for decades, huge exodus, back in the '90s and now, you know, the dominican republic has shut down its border because of concerns that there could be a mass exodus here, and what's really concerning is that there seems to be a political power vacuum right now. you have the incumbent prime minister, who is clinging to power there, says he's in charge, but another prime minister had been appointed just two days before, and so this

u.n. security council met yesterday to discuss this issue. they have been assured by haitian officials that scheduled elections will go on as planned, rounds of elections in september and then in november. but yes, as you mentioned, lots of concerns about how this plays out in the coming months and as this investigation continues, whether that will suffice for a republic that is growing increasingly more skeptical, chris, because, well, you saw that. that was quite a show. you know, how exactly did a sophisticated group of killers, as officials were describing, how were they arrested so quickly, and were there other people involved? who was really behind the plot? still looking for answers to many of those questions, chris. >> gabe gutierrez, great to see you in the building, by the way. how long has it been? >> it's been quite a while. march of last year. good to see you in-person, chris. >> thank you so much for being here. a tragic consequence of the record heat wave in the pacific northwest. we're going to tell you about the devastating impact it's having on marine life when we come back. n mari lneife when we come back. (vo) parents have a way of imagining the worst...

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crisis. experts believe a perfect storm of low tide coinciding with the hottest part of the day exposed sea animals to the worst of the extreme heat. one marine ecologist discovered beds of dead mussels while on a walk in vancouver. she joins me now and an adjunct professor at the university of british columbia also with me, emily carrington, a professor of marine biology at the university of washington. i'm so excited to talk to you. alyssa, first you told "the washington post" that this is the first time you've ever seen anything with this magnitude of mortality. tell us what you saw. >> yeah, it actually started with a smell. i went down to the beach to cool off because it was incredibly hot and it just smelled like cooking shellfish, sort of rotten putrid cooking shellfish smell and that triggered alarms

for me and went and looked closer. you can see in these images mussels during low tide should be closed. they should be completely closed and holding water in to withstand the high temperatures and these had just all of them that i was looking at had died and you're seeing at the top of these rocks all of the mussels that were there died because -- >> were you just completely shocked? looking at these pictures, i can't believe what i'm seeing? >> yeah, i had been worried about the high temperatures because of the coincidence with the low tides but hadn't expected anything like this. these animals do experience high temperatures regularly. they are adapted to live in these sorts of conditions. but this was hotter than they could handle. they were just literally cooking on the rocks. some of them up to 120 degrees. >> so, emily, what does this mean? i mean when you see pictures like that and understand what's happening, what is the real

world impact? >> right, so mussels are known as a foundation species and they provide a lot of ecosystem services to the coastal communities, one of the things they do is provide habitat for a lot of other organisms so we expect a lot of mortality associated with the loss of these mussels. they're also really important food for things that humans care about, things like crabs, and other shellfish and then finally, they filter a lot of water so it's estimated that just one mussel can filter about six gallons of water per day so when we think about a billion mussels, it's a billion gallons of water that aren't being filtered and cleared for things like that so we rely on clear waters in coastal communities. >> alyssa, if people are looking at this, shocked at it as you were, fortunately those of us who are just looking at the pictures can't smell what you smelled.

what are you things people can do and should be doing to address what this tells us is wrong. >> i mean, this is a fundamental climate change issue. these animals can't move. this is where they live. and so we, unfortunately, the thing that needs to happen is we need to stop the progression of climate change in order to make this area livable for them. at the moment one of the things can you do if you live in an area with a beach nearby is go down and take images and see if you see dead mussels. and that will get us -- give us more information about how many died during this event. >> we only have 30 seconds left literally, emily, but is there one tangible thing you can say to people who are concerned go in that you can do this weekend? a change in your personal habits, for example. >> sure, anything that would reduce carbon emissions, so, you know, there's lots of things

that we can do in terms of changing our daily habits, changing our travel plans, using less fossil fuels and the other thing you can do is just support your local politicians, get involved locally and get involved nationally with our different policies. >> alyssa, emily, such an important topic and to "the washington post" for bringing this to our attention. thanks to all of you for watching us this hour. i'm chris jansing in. hallie jackson will pick up our coverage next. t. and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole.

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get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. here in washington, the most symbolic change on capitol hill since that deadly attack six months ago, the rest of the fencing around the capitol coming down maybe as early as today and the people who protect that building, apparently running out of money. a source telling us that funding to pay capitol police officers might run out in just a few weeks. we are live on the hill and we're live with the chair of that january 6th select committee with what's happening behind the scenes as that investigation gears up, plus, on the covid front what you need to know about pfizer's announcement it's working on a third booster shot and why the fda and cdc are saying, not so fast. all of it as public health officials warn a