trump's presidency. why the highest ranking military officer made comparisons to hitler's takeover of germany, and his deep concern that that commander in chief would try to use the military to stay in power. that official set to speak just moments from now. we've got our team standing by. plus next hour at the white house, the current president touting his last spending plan with cash hitting bank accounts today for families with kids 17 and under while selling his next massive spending plan, trying to rally democrats around the biggest bill in history, health care, climate change, all as the moderate wing takes a wait and see approach, we're in the halls of congress with new reaction as the senate comes into session. and live one on one with one of those moderate democrats. watch for those headlines in just a minute. my look inside a medical marijuana farm. cannabis grown by veterans for veterans. why one vet tells me she would

be close to death without it. our exclusive sitdown with one senator. a lot to get to this morning. we start with that explosive reporting on the nation's top military leader. head of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark mille sharing concerns about a potential nazi germany era-esque coup, general milley reportedly describing weeks after the election like a reichstag moment. milley looked at the pre's supporters and far-right extremists taking to washington on that million maga march, describing what he saw as brown shirts in the streets. phil rucker and carol leonig.

mark murray, senior politics editor, courtney cube, and mark jacobs, nbc military analyst. mark, there are some experts in this book that we now can report that demonstrate how real milley's fears were, right? a description on the evening of that million maga march you referenced, he called mcmaster to ask if a coup was eminent asking bluntly, what the "f" am i dealing with? he then began to strategize how to block donald trump from using the military to stay in power and later with rumors circulating that gina haspell was on the hot seat he confronted mark meadows to ask what the hell is going on here? meadows responded don't worry about it, with milley shooting a warning back, just be careful. mark, this is explosive reporting coming out of this book from rucker and leonnig.

>> they're extraordinary revelations and not the first time we've heard from ex-members of president trump's cabinet or people associated with the military. i think back to general mattis, who was the former defense secretary, also john kelly, the former homeland security secretary, who all ended up criticizing former president donald trump's fitness for office, his values, his morality and, of course, this comes well after donald trump's own presidency. it also ends up coming after milley himself apologized for his role in that lafayette square appearance back in june during the george floyd protest across the country and in washington, d.c. but, hallie, as you and i have also talked about, too, new revelations from milley ended up coming after the election was decided after news networks called joe biden the winner.

>> that's right. >> of course, milley was concerned that donald trump was continuing these false attacks on the validity of the election and those results and that's what concerned him. >> on the left side of your screen, so folks know, that is where we expect to hear from general milley. let be clear. we have no expectation that he's actually going to talk about the book, right? he's delivering remarks on something completely separate related to nato. however if there's an illusion to it, given the significance of the news this morning, we're there, watching it live. courtney you, i know, have been covering the pentagon through all of this, in the early trump years now through the biden years. how is it being perceived in the building you're sitting at right now? >> the ex-erts have come out on what milley was thinking at time was how there was a public persona compared to behind the scene, if this report something correct, which ooh have no doubt

it is. these are excellent reporters. there was a lot of talk behind the scenes about some sort of coup, donald trump using the military to somehow stay in power at the time. it was all over the tv airwaves. >> right. >> we were hearing about it behind the scenes. i spent a lot of time talking to very senior people in this building, people very close to general milley at the time and they were dismissive of any real effort at the time for the president to be able to do this, saying that the military would never be used in this way and they didn't believe he was actually going to do it. the fact that behind the scenes there was so much consternation about it when they were trying to tell us, in fact, that he not the case, is interesting now. to mark's point about the former trump people who have come out and started telling the real story, what's more striking about general milley, he's still in the job. >> that's right. >> still the senior military commander in the pentagon right down the hall from here and he is now telling this story about what was actually going on behind the scenes while people were telling us something completely different in public

at the time. those are the two things that really strike me about these allegations in the book. one other thing is they talk about general milley, maybe this effort for a widespread resignation. we asked about that at the time. that was completely denied, that there would be any kind of mass resignation if, in fact, the president tried to use the military for some sort of a coup. i will say carol leonnig reported several months early that general milley considered resignation after st. john's lafayette square when he was pulled into this political event and spoke to a number of people around him asking if he should resign. the fact that he was considering resignation before and after the election, that doesn't surprise me, hallie. >> you could only describe it as a lafayette square as a photo-op. he ended up apologizing for that, courtney. i want to play some of that here. >> i should not have been there.

my presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. as a commissioned, uniformed officer, it was a mistake that i have learned from. and i sincerely hope we all can learn from it. >> colonel, before i get to you, courtney, i don't want to get you out over your skis and obviously only want you to say things you're comfortable with. i want to pull on a thread you seem to be laying down here. is it your sense that perhaps during the trump administration, people behind the scenes at the pentagon were saying one thing because of who was in the white house and perhaps now something else is coming out, given that donald trump is no longer in power? am i reading too much into what you're saying here? >> no. >> i want to make that clear. >> absolutely. you're absolutely correct, hallie. that's exactly what's very clear here. at the time -- you know, when there was all this talk of the military being pulled into some kind of keeping trump in the white house, people were laughing at me, openly laughing

at me asking the question around here and saying don't buy into all this hype. it's not actually going to happen. people very senior in this build ing at the time were mocking that notion. the idea that then they were going into meetings and talking about it, maybe even planning for this possibility. >> right. >> and considering steps, i mean, it's kind of maddening now, to know that at the time we were being pushed so away from this idea of something they were concerned about. this is the military. this is the pentagon. they plan for everything. there's a plan somewhere for what the military is going to do if there's a zombie apocalypse in the united states. i mean, truly. so, i get it. they do plan for everything. but the idea that they really were taking this more seriously than they were conveying to us here is frustrating, frankly. >> general milley, of course, at that event in norfolk speaking, again, on nato. obviously not giving a speech in front of troops on this book. we know that's not happening. it's possible he could reference it. colonel jacobs, i want to get to you here. house speaker nancy pelosi

shared publicly after january 6th that she and general milley talked about trying to limit donald trump's ability to launch some sort of nuclear strike, right? the book reports that milley reassured her that they had checks and balances in place. you now have this morning former president trump himself coming out with a statement, going after pelosi for this. this is sort of in the blood stream. i wonder as somebody who served how you see this unfolding, and what the significance is to you here, given that we are talking about a person, former leader, who is actively in the mix for potential 2024 run to retake the white house. >> it's fairly complicated, obviously. the easiest way to understand it is to go back to basic principles that all people in uniform are inculcated with. i apologize for using that phrase. >> i love it. >> it's something that general

milley said in his apology. he's a noncommissioned officer and anybody in uniform will tell you exactly the same thing. you're authorized to follow only lawful orders. and you're not only asked to, but you're obligated to refuse any unlawful order. so no matter what donald trump would have decided he was going to do, i can't see anybody in the chain of command following an order which they perceived to be either illegal, immoral or delitarious to the existence of the united states. one reason they probably told courtney, they laughed about -- probably a lot of reasons they laughed about the prospect of something really bad happening, one was public relations, but the other was based on the notion i just talked about. nobody is going to follow an order from any president that is deletrious to the country. that's something to keep in

mind. that raises something ellsworth considering. it would have been the worst thing in the world for general milley to resign. the last thing in the world this country needs is to have the leadership, military leadership in opposition to what the president decides instead of refusing to follow an unlawful order, and instead resign and leave the military in the hands of people who will not dig in against illegal orders. it was important that he was advised to and did not resign. >> do the hitler-esque comparisons from general milley as reported in this book, let's be clear, did those surprise you? >> yeah, it is surprising. it's a bit of a stretch, since what happened in germany in the '30s was vastly different than what happened during the trump administration in that the military establishment was

already subsumed under the thrall of hitler and the black shirts, ss and so on. they were already part of the hitler operation. so that was not the case during the trump administration. and i'll go back to what i mentioned earlier. refusal to resign and instead to uphold the oath that officers and ncos and enlisted men all take when they go into uniform, that was the thing to do. and thankfully, that's what happened. >> colonel jack jacobs, appreciate your time. mark murray, courtney kube, great reporting. you'll be joining us and watching the rest of general milley's comments here, the speech as he gets ready to deliver that in virginia. we'll keep an eye on that. thank you, guys. appreciate it. we'll bring you headlines as we get them throughout the show. a ton of news to get to this morning. senator jon tester, joining me live. there he is. whether he will get on board or not, senator, with democrats

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. whether every senate democrat is getting on board with that massive spending bill they just put out. so massive. the biggest bill ever in u.s. history. if democrats can pull this off it would mean a once-in-a-generation investment in health care, education, including universal pre-k, free community college. on their own would be a big deal and here they are in one piece. in the senate, progressives seem to be happy with the plan. >> are you surprised this president is willing to go this far? >> if you don't tell anybody. >> reporter: yeah, sure. >> yeah. this is, i would say, the most

consequential piece of legislation being proposed since the great depression. >> senator sanders speaking with our garrett haake there. leighann caldwell is joining us here. i'm about to speak with one of these moderate democrats but if they don't all get on board with this, this isn't going anywhere. it's doomed. >> reporter: that's right because they need every democratic senator to support this legislation, using a special budget mechanism that enables them to pass this legislation with just 50 votes and there are 50 democrats. and so it is critical that they get every single democrat on board. that's why you saw president biden up here yesterday, trying to unify the caucus and behind closed doors, a big pep rally, some called it. this is just a major restructure ing of government priorities, if this were to pass. it's also a major restructuring of the tax code and the tax

system, as well. because one of the main things that some of these moderates are going to be looking at is if this is fully paid for. $3.5 trillion in the way the democrats and president biden have outlined is by making corporations pay for it. people, families making over $400,000. now the moderates will be key. progressives are pretty thrilled at this point in the process. i caught up with one of those moderate senators, mark warner, of virginia, who is part of the budget committee, who came to this agreement with the rest of the budget committee, including bernie sanders. i just talked to him a few minutes ago. and listen to what he had to say. is it going to be hard to get your moderate colleagues on board? >> i think it's going to be, you know, a long slog. we're talking about record investments. i had to be convinced that these were the right and appropriately

targeted investments. i got to that point. and i'm ready to make that case to my colleagues. >> reporter: hallie, let's remember. we don't have legislative text yet. we're still far away from that. it's just a budget outline. it's just a framework of what we have of these buckets of what is going to be included. and so when people say it's going to be a long slog, like senator warner, that means there are many, many steps left in the process, and it's going to be extremely difficult to keep the caucus united. hallie? >> leigh ann caldwell, live on the hill. senator jon tester, as we've been promising, live now on capitol hill. thanks for being back on the show. >> great to be with you. thank you. >> of course. we should note you're a member of the bipartisan group working on the more narrow senate track. are we going to see details on that release today? i know there was some discussion around that. do you anticipate bringing a bill to the floor by next week? >> hopefully, we will see

details, at least by tomorrow. we're working hard to iron out. look, the hang-ups now are pretty small, to be quite frank with you. there are still some issues on pay-fors, but it's a great group of ten people. we've worked on harder things than this. we'll get it done. hopefully, it will be out tomorrow and hopefully be ready for prime time next week for a vote. >> senator john thune called it, in his words, awfully hard to look at your bipartisan framework. >> they're two separate bills, dealing both with infrastructure, different kind of infrastructure, of course. i will tell you that the five republicans and four democrats on the committees and that's who

i'm hearing from. we're probably not going to get all the republicans or all the democrats but the bottom line i think we'll get a good vote out of the senate on this bipartisan piece of legislation. >> let's talk about, frankly, the partisan piece. i know you said you're in wait and see mode. let me ask you about that price tag. are you scared away by that size or not? or i should say, are you concerned by that size or are you comfortable with it? >> there's a lot of needs out there. $3.5 trillion is not unreasonable. there's a lot of demands. >> okay. >> what's important is how it's utilized and i don't know that yet. i will know by the time we get this bill to the floor. and we're going to be looking at it, trying to improve it every step of the way. and trying to meet the needs.

as i traveled around over the fourth around the state of montana, i heard from folks about workforce, child care, and other things contained in this bill. we need to make sure it does things to make child care more affordable, housing, workforce housing and those kinds of things. you get the drift. >> yeah. >> it is a lot of money. if spent appropriately, it will do this country a lot of good and probably needs to be spent. >> that's significant. that's news here, senator. before i let you go, let me ask you about your position, frankly, on the filibuster. i know a couple of months ago, you were in support of it. lately, tell me if i'm reading this wrong. it seems like you might be cracking the door a bit, basically saying if the gop continues, in your view, to weaponize it, that maybe that's something that's opened here. given what texas lawmakers are coming to the hill to talk about democrat joe manchin, they're asking for a very narrow carve out for the senate rules change just on voting rights.

on that specific change, senator, what say you? yes or no, is that something you could support? >> look, i don't want to dodge your question at all because it's important. >> i worry you're about to dodge it when you state that. >> let me tell you something, voting rights are really important to me. we ought to make it easier for people to vote. we shouldn't put up roadblocks. it's fundamental to our democracy. if, in fact, roadblocks are being put up to vote, we'll analyze it then and potentially make a decision based off of that. >> what i hear from you, senator, is that you're open to it. i don't hear a closed door -- sorry, i didn't mean to -- i don't hear a closed door from you on this. >> no, that's correct. >> okay. >> i hope we get voting rights done in a bipartisan way. >> senator jon tester of montana, thank you for your time this morning. talk to you again soon. >> you bet. >> as we were talking about with senator tester, texas, right? there's a prayer and justice

march. you're watching that live, happening now at the state capital there. we'll be there live. plus a huge look at the democrats protest in d.c. delta variant fueling a surge in covid cases in arkansas, one of the states that has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. a push to protect young people from one doctor who is calling it the dark days ahead. and a new warning you won't want to miss from the surgeon general. t want to miss from the surgeon general. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪

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some health officials are now warning the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic are actually ahead of us. not behind us. and it comes as there is a new warning now from the surgeon general, pointing to another cause of covid spread, misinformation, calling it an urgent threat to public health and citing 67% of vaccinated adults have heard at least one myth about the covid vaccine. it comes as cases are on the rise in virtually every state, as that very contagious delta variant spreads. see those dark red states, that's where cases are spiking. let me overlay the map of vaccination rates. vaccinations are down 54% in the last week. let's not forget that this is

affecting people's family, friends, loved ones. gabe gutierrez is speaking to clara meyers, whose sister battled the virus for three week. she didn't think the vaccine mattered. she died on friday. >> she shouldn't have got sick. it destroyed her family in the blink of an eye. one minute, she was okay, and then one minute, she wasn't. >> nbc's chris jansing joins us from hard-hit arkansas. we keep hearing that patients are getting younger and younger. you have back-to-school around the corner. what are you seeing on the ground there? >> reporter: this is ground zero, epicenter of the covid pandemic right now. arkansas, number one in new cases, number two in deaths, which is why here at this school, they've got a vaccine clinic that's just getting upped way. we've got two students who happen to be brother and sister who are going to get the vaccine right now. we're going to let you watch it. while i tell you that the governor has been pushing

really, really hard. but there is a huge political element to this. and that is that the legislature voted that no school can mandate that masks get worn. and that's a real problem for a lot of superintendents. yesterday, i was at another vaccination clinic, at a much bigger school, more than 3900 students, just 50 of them showed up. 50. the hope is that folks like this getting vaccinated will convince other students with peer pressure to get vaccinated. while we watch elise get vaccinated, let's listen to what the superintendent told me yesterday. >> two weeks from now, there will be an exponentially larger amount of pressure placed on those kids from other kids. dude, you're our fullback. you're our linebacker. you're our only tenor sax player. you got to get a shot because we

can't march, we can't play, we can't do what we all want to do. >> reporter: so you just got your shot. what finally convinced you? >> i really outweighed the pros and cons and thought that the vaccine was worth of risk of what covid can do to people. >> bennett, you're an athlete. what i hear a lot from folks is if one person gets sick, the whole team has to go out. what made you decide? >> i don't see the reason we shouldn't all get vaccinated and everybody is kind of living life better once they're vaccinated, and i hope we just get back to the same thing we were doing before covid hit. >> reporter: thank you both. congratulations on your shot. they got their button. let me give you one more stat here, hallie. the governor set the bar by a lot of standards. he wants 50% by the end of the month to have at least one shot. there are 75 counties in arkansas. only one, only one has met that standard so far, hallie.

>> that is a starting statistic. it's great to hear from those students here and from you in arkansas. thank you so much. to the southwest of chris in texas, clergy members are holding a rally at the state capital, pushing state lawmaker, the ones who are still there, to rethink restrictive voting bills making their way in the legislature. back here in d.c., those state house democrats are getting ready for, listen, one of their biggest meetings today, right? they met with vice president harris today. that's a big one. next hour they'll be talking with the one and only joe manchin. he is a senator, of course, these advocates see as their one and only hope of enacting some kind of new voting legislation. why? he currently doesn't want to change senate rules. that's what would need to happen to move that forward. priscilla, what are sources telling you about what they realistically expect out of this discussion? >> reporter: yeah, that is a great question, hallie. that's something that they are hoping to figure out, hoping that with all of them being

there in d.c., it will sort of being able to move the needle with joe manchin in some way in terms of the filibuster and what can be done there. but while those lawmakers are in d.c., i want to talk about what's happening here in texas. activists are still on the ground, continuing to press the lawmakers who remain here. i want to give you a look here. tons of clergy members and folks praying this morning. they've been praying for about the past half hour, praying to cover those lawmakers who are in washington, d.c., that as they have those conversations with people like senator joe manchin, like the possibility of a meeting with the president that it will have an impact and it will move things and change things here in texas. and when they complete these prayers, all of these folks are going to be heading inside of the state capitol and will be lobbying those lawmakers who remain here against the passage of these more restrictive voting laws. as one preacher put it when he was up there, they want to pray

the hell out of those lawmakers. they say this is something that's happening in the political space and now they're taking it up to the spiritual level. they want to see movement. they want to see impact. when they finish at the state capital, heading to the governor's house. hallie, back to you. >> priscilla thompson in texas, thank you. with that meeting with texas senators and joe manchin happening next hour, we'll bring that to you. a damning inspector general report finding the fbi knew in 2015 that multiple gymnasts had made sexual abuse allegations against larry nassar but it took them a year to open an investigation, as he continued to abuse young athletes. a string of failures in the fbi in the earliest stages of the larry nassar case, including not handling the allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency they deserved.

justice correspondent, who also covers the fbi, pete williams, is joining us. pete, walk us through more of what's in this report. a lot of the blame, it seems, is pinned on this now retired fbi agent, who was actually looking for a job with the u.s. olympic committee? >> reporter: that's one of the most surprising things about this report. while all this was going on in the indianapolis office wasn't doing anything, he was trying to get that job, which he ultimately didn't get, and then later denied when asked about it whether he had applied for the job. the fbi called his conduct and that of another agent in the indianapolis office inexcusable and a discredit to the fbi. the fbi says it's taking steps to make sure this didn't happen. july 2015 when one of the athletes first began to complain about this. the fbi did question that person on the phone, but there was no formal documentation of it. the indianapolis office didn't tell any local officials about what was going on. there seemed to be some questions about whether the fbi had jurisdiction, given it was in indianapolis, nassar was in michigan, whether it was truly a

violation of federal law. nothing really happened. eight months later, more complaints were made to the office in los angeles. a little more investigative work was done. again no follow-up, no alerting of the local officials. and it wasn't until almost a year later when this thing began to get reported in the news that the fbi finally opened an investigation, which ultimately helped to lead to his prosecution and conviction. the disturbing things are that one of the agents who questioned this first person who came to indianapolis never made a record of it and then went back and made one 17 months later to try to make it look like indianapolis was more active than it was, and that report was full of errors. and that's heavily criticized. it turns out that the inspector general referred both that agent and the special agent in charge to -- for possible criminal prosecution, but the justice department declined to prosecute. hallie? >> pete williams, it is important reporting. thank you for bringing it to us. i appreciate it. coming up here, busy morning with president biden set to speak at the white house just

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taking align can help. align contains a quality probiotic to naturally help soothe digestive upsets 24/7. try align, the pros in digestive health. president biden is set to deliver remarks later this morning as the first installment of the new child tax credit goes out. these payments, they are a big deal for american families. they were approved as part of president biden's american rescue plan. what does it mean? it could lift as many as half of these country kids out of poverty. congress approved these benefits through december of this year and the white house is hoping to extend the credit for another four years. mike memoli is at the white house for us. expect what we can hear from the president later this morning. this is an issue we've covered on this show. house speaker pelosi described it as the biden child tax credit. to be very clear, this is something that democrats delivered with american families with republican opposition.

>> reporter: yeah. this has been a major priority for some democrats in congress for decades and the white how was able to get this enacted as part of that $1.9 trillion covid relief law in march. now, i don't know that the president is going to come out and call this a big bleeping deal, like he famously did about the affordable care act a little more than a decade ago. the way that the white house, democrats more broadly, are messaging around this moment today, when millions of americans are seeing hundreds of dollars show up in their bank accounts really speaks to what the white house feels is potentially a political benefit for the party moving forward. what are we talking about here in this child tax credit was initially $2,000 a year as part of that one-year covid relief law we are seeing those benefits expanded to $3600 a year for children under age of 6, $3,000 a year for those between the age of 6 and 17. and the other thing that the white house really fought for as part of this was to get those monthly benefits through the end of this calendar year, thinking that part of the benefit here is

seeing tangible results from what the government did, is doing. but part of what the white house goal here as well, hallie, you mentioned it. this is a one-year deal that the white house wants to at least make the case for the foreseeable future, if not a lot of democrats want to make it permanent. it's part of what the senate democrats reached an agreement on, at least in theory, on $3.5 trillion as part of that reconciliation deal. this is a moment of looking back to get some credit for what they've done here but also to continue to build political momentum for what they want to do moving forward, hallie. >> mike memoli for us live on the north lawn. craig melvin next hour talks with the deputy treasury secretary about the child tax credit. elsewhere at the white house, german chancellor angela merkel heading there today. she is set to retire in september, ending her 16-year run as germany's leader. she'll meet with the president and vice president today. and you can expect them to talk to everything about vaccine

distribution, climate change and security challenges facing both countries. our white house team keeping an eye on this visit. we'll report as it unfolds. the medicine veterans say they want and need but the government will not let them have. that's next. will not let them have that's next.

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want to share with you news coming in moments ago from the senate floor. you're looking at mitch mcconnell. before he started speaking chuck schumer was up, confirming that the first procedural vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill we've been talking about will probably be next wednesday. that's something you heard senator tester allude to earlier this hour. majority leader now formally announcing it. we'll keep an eye on announcements there. as part of our red, white and green week here on msnbc, the medicine veterans say they need that their va doctors cannot give them, cannabis because of how it's classified by the federal government. we are back from our reporting trip to hi, one of the states to legalize medical marijuana and where one in ten patients are an american veteran.

they say the federal government needs to change how they think about marijuana. on a spectacular stretch of land on the north shore of oahu sits this farm. its exact location not publicized for security reasons. inside these greenhouses sit 400 cannabis plants grown by veterans, for veterans. each of these plants belongs to somebody. is that what these tags are? >> yes, that's correct. >> reporter: jason hanley runs this co-op farm where people grow their own medical >> they grow medical marijuana cheaper than where they can get it anywhere else. >> these ten plants belong to gemma osborn. she was deployed to the world trade center almost immediately. >> about seven or eight of us got really sick. and i'm still the last survivor out of the group.

>> it is stage four kidney failure for both kidneys? >> yeah. >> what does that do to you? >> i vomit a lot. i get weak, stomach pains that could kill. >> she was losing weight fast and she was persuaded to visit hawaii. >> what happened the first time you smoked cannabis to alleviate your symptoms. >> i got really, really, really high. i didn't feel the pain. >> where would you be if you had not found this farm and cannabis? >> cannibas works for many vets but it is illegal for many. that means right now even in the 36 states plus dc where medical miles per hour is league to treat conditions like chronic

pain vets can only access it if they can find it on their own. now a new push in washington hopes to change that. >> it is an affordability issue. senator tim cane is leading the way on the issue. yet the ca hospitals in the states like virginia that allow use of maryland cannot offer that as a solution. >> leah kunz is still doing that. >> if we don't want pharmaceuticals, awesome. that should not be the only option. the va does not have a position on bills that authorization cannabis use for vets. they cannot help those who get it but they will not be denied use. >> i always tell people that's

the best job i ever had. >> was in the air force? >> the air force. you just want to see them open the door to something that was tig matized that you found as a miracle plant for you. >> not almost, it is. >> part of the reason they argue is that it expands the tool kit for their doctors. right now there are only two drugs approved. so some advocates are now saying, okay, this might be the time to open the door to something new that they say works. just minutes from now senator joe manchin here in washington set to meet with the texas state lawmakers. we'll take you live to the hill next hour. hour. . i want that. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin.

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covid at a six month high for infections and we're under a state of emergency here. but athletes are starting to pour in. we saw simone biles and other parts of the women's gymnastic's team touching down here. she never competed without her family watching or without fans but she is still honored to represent team usa. and another concern for men's usa men's basketball team. bradley beal is under a health training issue. there has been a covid care on the team, and others are reporting that it is, indeed, bradley beal. we should learn more about his status later today. this as several countries had to

isolate players because they had problems with people coming into close contact with someone that tested positive on the flight over or here in tokyo. so athletes had to isolate in place, they will be tested every day and if they don't have covid of course they will be able to compete. tokyo put out what they call play books. there is pretty much a rule for everything. this was sort of, you know, we knew this would happen. tens of thousands of athletes, reporters, broadcasters, all coming to tokyo. we knew this would be a reality. but so far it looks like tokyo and the olympic committee has this under control. >> tom llamas there for us from where the olympics will be in just a few hours from now. find us on twitter on msnbc. we have more coverage coming up next with craig melvin.

good thursday morning to you. parents have you checked your bank accounts this morning? if you have kids younger than 18 there may be a new deposit of a couple hundred dollars there. an estimated 39 million families set to see direct payments up to $300 per child. that is all part of the biden administration's expanded child tax credit. the white house says it could lift as many as half of america's children out of poverty. about 45 minutes from now we expect to hear from president biden and vice president harris about this. and in just a moment i will talk to the deputy treasury secretary wally adeyemo about what you need to know. meanwhile on capitol hill, texas state democrats will be meeting with joe manchin.

their goal is t