[♪♪] if you have diabetes, it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost today. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> and good day, everyone. this is "andrea mitchell reports" with breaking news in washington. president biden meeting with covid advisers who are sounding the alarm on the concerning new spike of coronavirus cases across the country. >> there is a clear message that is coming through. this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. our biggest concern is that we are going to continue to see preventable cases,

hospitalizations and sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated. >> the new numbers are staggering. more than 90,000 new covid cases just in the last 48 hours. all 50 states and washington, d.c., seeing an uptick in cases and 11 of those states seeing a spike of more than 100% in cases over a two-week period. the biggest areas of concern again, the south. southern states including tennessee, south carolina, louisiana and alabama with the majority of residents are still unvaccinated and california with a sharp increase in cases has led los angeles county officials to re-instate indoor mask mandates as of tomorrow and the sports world is taking a hit with six new york yankees in covid protocols postponing the matchup last night with the red sox after the all-star break and washington wizards star guard bradley beale off of the u.s. olympic team for reasons connected to the virus. also this hour i'll be talking

to michael wolf author of the bombshell book of president biden's final days in office. let's begin with the coronavirus guad venegas and gabe gutierrez in memphis. gabe, let's start with the latest from tennessee. >> reporter: andrea, tennessee now beats the nation in the number of new covid cases per capita over the last two weeks. the state is seeing a more than 340% increase during that time and some of the remote counties around memphis are seeing that sharp rise as those patients are ending up here at the baptist memorial hospital. the state's vaccination rate is just 38%. one of the doctors we spoke with here says that one of the most disappointing things about this surge is that so many of these hospitalizations and deaths are completely avoidable. virtually all of the patients that they're seeing right now are people who chose not to get vaccinated and some are telling

doctors and nurses that they regret not getting the shot. the cdc director, andrea says that tennessee's decision to halt vaccine outreach to teenagers is, quote, incredibly disturbing. of course, as you know, this comes after a top state health official says she was fired for sending a memo to physicians outlining a state policy that allowed minors to seek medical care without parental consent. that has touched off a wave of controversy here, and has led critics to say that vaccine outreach has become politicized. andrea? >> thanks to you, gabe gutierrez. let's go west to guad venegas. the timing of the setback is difficult for residents. they're seeing the school year just around the corner. >> andrea, yes. in los angeles, a lot of residents thought it was time to throw away the mask and now they're coming back with this mandatory mask mandate.

all across the county, it will start on sunday and health released numbers why they're implementing the mask mandate saying they had a rapid growth in cases and 83% growth last week largely driven by the almost 4 million unvaccinated in los angeles. they're doing two things and implementing this new mask mandate coming back and they're trying to get those people to get vaccinated and all of california like here in l.a. county, they have all of these incentives for people to get vaccinated and there is a partnership with mcdonald's. they have partnerships with sports venues. they also give away cards, gift card, anything they can do to try to convince the people that are unvaccinated to get the vaccine. one of the things they said when they announced this new mandate was that people that were unvaccinated were taking off the mask for many reasons. one of these because they didn't want to be identified by others as someone who did not get the vaccine and there were several other reasons.

so they just decided it was time to implement this mask to try and reduce -- to implement the mask mandate, to try and reduce the large number of cases that had been growing over the last week. >> guad venegas, thanks to you and allison barber in mississippi. talk to us about the medical experts and what they're trying to do to stop the spikes there and the concern they have over children and of course, the delta variant. >> reporter: right. children are a focus in part not necessarily because of the new delta variant causes more severe symptom, but because it seems to be spreading so very fast that particularly those children under the age of 12 who cannot get vaccinated, they are living in a state where a lot of the adults and the older teens who are eligible to get vaccinated have chosen not to, and that means that they aren't totally protected within oftentimes their own homes and their own communities and because when people are unvaccinated there is a bubble that protects people

that are unvaccinated. the american academy of pediatrics say there's new information out today and they're seeing the trends of a substantial reduction in covid vaccine uptick around children. i want to run through numbers. at the end of may, the number of first dose vaccination for children was at a peak of 1.6 million and that was when vaccines were eligible for children 12 to 15 and now it is not even a third of that. the number of vaccinations for the week ending on july 14th is 315,000 for children. where we are is the only designated children's hospital in the state of mississippi. they have 600 hospitalized because of covid-19 right now and three of them in intensive care and hospitalized because of covid-19. at this hospital alone, 13% of that are children.

they say that is the highest number that they have seen since this pandemic began. andrea? >> ellison barber, thanks to you. joining me now is the infectious disease expert senior scholar for johns hopkins health security. let's talk about a conversation that gabe gutierrez had. a family in arkansas, a husband who along with his wife did not get vaccinated and then they tested positive. four of their five children tested positive and his wife lost a baby while on a ventilator and here's what they had to say talking about the father. >> it was not proven yet and i hadn't -- i just wanted to see more data on the vaccination. i take the flu shot, i'm not anti-vaccination. >> what would you tell people who are skeptical of getting the vaccine. >> i would say your chances are a lot better of not getting really, really sick if you get the vaccine. >> the mindset of people --

here's someone who gets the flu shot, but was afraid of this shot and look at the tragedy that ensued. so how do you reach those people? >> you have to really sit down with them one-on-one and try to understand what's holding them back from getting the vaccine. not everybody has the same reason. some people might be waiting for full today licensure and some people have questions they want to have answered. when you show people the data in a very close format that they can actually understand how the vaccine has benefited everyone's lives and how safe the vaccines are and how vaccines are the path forward in this pandemic and how they're a value to the individual lives of the people being vaccinated, i think you can nudge them to get vaccinated. i think there are people that are beyond that and i think you can make headway for people looking for answers, but it's very difficult. it takes a lot of work to get each additional dose of vaccine out of someone's arm because we've hit the wall of vaccine hesitancy and there's so much

politics now that it's very, very difficult. something we haven't seen with any other type of vaccine. >> and we're reminded of what we played at the top with dr. walensky saying today this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. we're trying to -- we'll show you in a few minutes more of dr. fauci's attempts to reach the influencers to try to reach young people, trying to reach young men and the southerners and people seem to be programmed with a political resistance and the misinformation which is of course what the surgeon general was saying that this is a health threat. misinformation on the internet. >> i do think the false statements being spread around the internet about covid-19 are a major health threat. so many people picked them up. if you look at the vaccination rates of health care workers it's 96%+ for nurses. everyone is not -- even if you have medical knowledge you're not immune to picking these

types of things up and it's very important that we put the facts out there. these vaccines sell themselves because we have so much data and so much information available on them it's extraordinary. this attack began even before the vaccines were developed and it's something that we have to really think about because our ability to be resilient and not just to covid-19, but to the next infectious disease emergency will hinge upon vaccines and we have these great vaccine technologies like mrna vaccines and a vaccine is not the same thing as a vaccination and if people don't take vaccines we will not be able to be resilient for the next threat. this has to be something that we take on head on. logic, reasoning and nationality is on our side and we have to call out the anti-vaccine for the damage and destruction and the pure needlism that's behind what they're doing. >> how about the fully

vaccinated people? how concerned should we be about these breakthrough cases? >> if you're a fully vaccinated individual they're holding up against the delta variant and the beta variant and they're essential from protecting you from severe disease, hospitalization and death. what you are seeing is what they said, now in the united states we see measles cases only in the unvaccinated and this is something that will be a problem for the unvaccinated and the vaccinated will be able to go about their lives and we're facing the two americas where we have the swaths of unvaccinated individuals who will be facing covid-19 disruptions and the hospitals that will be worried about being inundated and it the high levels will not think of covid-19 the same anymore. >> doctor, thanks so much for your advice. have a great weekend. pop singer olivia rodrigo

visiting the white house this week. she was there to encourage young americans to get vaccinated. she and dr. fauci sat down together to answer fans' tweets. take a listen. >> i'm just so excited to go to a concert, aren't you? >> i agree. i want to go to a concert for sure. for sure. if i tell you the greatest concert i've ever been to you're going to faint. the reason is i'm so old it goes back to the late 1950s at paramount theater in new york city with the temptations, the four tops -- i'm sorry. >> oh, my god! >> i'm a really old guy. >> that's incredible! >> the temptations and the four tops! you're playing my song, dr. fauci. bombshell revelations, just how close was the top brass in the military to taking unprecedented action in the final days of the trump presidency and deadline looming, house minority leader

kevin mccarthy meeting with president trump about the midterms and still has not announced his picks for the january 6th committee is he even going to make his picks? former cia officer elisa slotkin is joining us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. urgent. need new contractor for town arts center development project asap. is lefranco construction in? if he was gonna pull this off, he needed to rent another crane. like, yesterday. so he turned to his american express business card, which allows him to pay off his balance over time. and boom. crane time. contract signed. art for all. get the card built for business. by american express.

mm. [ clicks tongue ] i don't know. i think they look good, man. mm, smooth. uh, they are a little tight. like, too tight? might just need to break 'em in a little bit. you don't want 'em too loose. for those who were born to ride there's progressive. with 24/7 roadside assistance. -okay. think i'm gonna wear these home. -excellent choice.

coarse hair with 24/7 roadside assistance. thin skin when i'm shaving down there not just any razor will do venus for pubic hair and skin with a patented irritation defense bar for a smooth shave with blades that barely touch skin so... i know you and george were struggling with the possibility of having to move. how's that going? well... we found a way to make bathing safer with a kohler walk-in bath. it has the lowest step-in of any bath. it has handrails, a wide door, and textured surfaces. so it gives you peace of mind. and you would love the heated backrest - and the whirlpool jets - and the bubblemassage. and, it was installed quickly and conveniently by a kohler-certified installer. a kohler- authorized dealer walked us through every step in the process and made us feel completely comfortable in our home. and, yes, it's affordable. looking good, george! we just want to spend as much time as possible, in our home and with our grandkids. they're going to be here any minute for our weekly spa day.

ooh, that bubblemassage! have fun! stay in the home and life you've built for years to come. call 1-800-986-5068 to receive fifteen-hundred dollars off your kohler walk-in bath. and take advantage of our special offer of no payments for eighteen months. . revelations that the pentagon's top generals were

ready to resign if former president trump refused to leave office. nbc news has not independently verified this, but "the washington post" phil rucker reports in their new book "i alone can fix it," in november last year, mark milley was so concerned about the president's comments he reached out to a retired general, a friend, h.r. mcmaster for advice. mcmaster warned milley about qanon, white supremacist and others in trump's base who refused to believe trump lost. telling milley, you're dealing with some of the weirdest blank ever, he confided to close deputies, they may try, but they're not going to f-ing succeed, you can't do this without the military. you can't do this without the cia and the fbi. we're the guys with the guns. only two months later trump supporters attacked the capitol trying to overturn a legitimate election. despite all that, house republican leader kevin mccarthy

yesterday was traveling to trump's summer home in bedminster new jersey to meet with the former president as republicans try to take back the house. we should add that a spokesman for general milley declined comment. joining us now congress woman elissa slotkin, former acting assistant secretary of defense with your military and pentagon intelligence including deployments overseas, congresswoman, talk to me about your first reaction when you read credible accounts by superb pulitzer prize-winning reporters about what general milley was concerned about which was a coup and which was the president of the united states refusing to leave office. >> yeah. it did not surprise me at all and in fact, many of hus been thinking about this including general milley for quite some time ever since lafayette square early june of 2020, we had been working certainly on the house arms services committee, a few of us to get general milley and secretary esper on record of what they would do and what they

would not do if president trump, after the election attempted to stay in office. the president, former president telegraphed that to us since may of 2020, that if he didn't win it would be an illegitimate. so we worked hard to ask general milley questions on the record about how they would respond if they attempted to intervene in the election about not being allowed to have peaceful transition of power and before the gain of the president and not the national security interest of the united states. so we knew this last summer, and i'm just very glad that general milley and others were there to help prevent it. >> did you get reassurance that the military and other national security officials would protect and defend the united states against, say, a rogue commander in chief? >> um, i did. we wrote a letter to secretary milley.

it was public. he responded -- i'm sorry, to general milley and he responded in late august on the record. secretary esper also responded in september, not quite as clearly, and then, you know, we had a lot of informal communication with general milley and just making sure that he knew it may really come down to him that he might have to make some tough decisions in the latter-days of the trump administration and it feels like he did. >> did you have increased concerns after secretary esper left and was replaced by acting secretary miller and there was a wholesale transformation at the pentagon of civilians who included a lot of shall we say very hard line people who had been at the white house than in the intelligence community and had checkered careers, to put it kindly. >> yeah. absolutely. i think even before secretary esper was formally relieved of

his job we knew here in washington that he wasn't getting access to the president and he wasn't innovated to the situation room and he was being boxed out because of how he responded to the events of lafayette square. so clearly, president trump was waiting for the election to happen and that was just another person who could physically have a chance at being in the room with president trump to stop some sort of military escalation or use -- or attempted use of the military in our peaceful transition. so, of course, it raised alarm bells and it put more pressure on the uniformed military who are typically super uncomfortable being involved in this in any way. they don't want to be mitt cal. we don't want a political military. >> former president trump did put out a statement after the book came out slamming general milley saying, quote, he lost respect for him when he walked across to lafayette square to the photo-op and he said milley

choked like a dog when he said it was a mistake to be there in uniform and he was in camis that day and later explained he didn't realize he would be trapped into a political photo-op and went on camera and apologized to the troops and to the country and that that cost him the respect of the president. >> well, then i'm glad he lost the respect of the president because i don't think americans understand what exactly the importance was of lafayette square and this idea that we would use uniformed military to clear peaceful protesters so that a president could have a photo op. we used hospitals to fly in low, to move people across the city. i just -- i think for a lot of us who worked alongside the military that was a real moment of inflexion and a real moment, how are we going to take and use our apolitical military in america? are we going to go with tradition? were they not involved in political events or are they

going to start being beholden to political whims? i think milley and esper both responded and said it was a mistake and they both paid for it with their relationship with the president and i'm glad that they did. >> congresswoman elissa slotkin providing a lot of new information and context there. thank you so much. joining us now nbc news presidential historian michael beschloss. talk about content, the tradition of having civilian leadership of the military, but having the military out of politics, it goes back all of the way to our founders. >> absolutely. that was the whole idea. >> the founder, george washington, a great military leader said we shouldn't have a standing army even so there would be no threat, among other things to the continuance of democracy in america, and you and i have seen probably more than once, i haven't asked you seven days in may which was a

great classic. anyone should see it now. it was made in the early 1960s because john kennedy was worried that generals, actually right-wing generals, would plot against the president of the united states and remove him from office. here we've got almost the reverse where we are counting on a non-political military beginning with mark milley and others saying we take an oath to protect the united states and not to protected whoever is president of the united states, thank god. >> when there was talk in the white house, concern among the generals and among the national security officials about a coup, the reaction and the book came out with those concerns. the reaction of donald trump was, he said that if he were to, quote, do a coup it would not be with general milley. there are so many layers of that. >> that's the same comment he

made about certain women who were alleged to be involved with him and it's sort of his standard response and it's amazing that he would use thatta something as important as something that's a danger to the united states democracy such as a coup d'etat. you have a president who was at wit's end trying to keep himself in office. he loved being president and also, as you know, he was worried about losing legal immunity that would be with him if he served a second term. he's now suffering the consequences and he's in legal jeopardy all over the place. that would not be the case if he were president. >> "the washington post" also publishing this excerpt from the book what was happening inside the white house as officials tried to persuade trump to do something about the attack on the capitol, january 6th. mark meadows would call ivanka to say the president needs more persuading. i need you to in back down here. we need to get this under

control. that's in quotes. ivanka was described to me as a stable pony. when the racehorse gets too agitated you bring in the stable bone toe calm him down. he asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the rioters. quoting trump, well, kevin, i guess these people are more upset about the election than you are. i mean, all of this, as he's watching and he's in the dining room and he's watching all of this glued to the television, but not in horror, but kind of enjoying it according to these books. >> hoping that it would succeed and even if the cost of that was the hanging of mark pence of the gallows and the kidnapping and hostage crisis or assassination of the speaker of the house and other figures, we have a president, and i hope we never see it again, who is indifferent to and contemptuous of democracy and was happy to take the country down to keep himself in

power. alexander hamilton warned about that, the idea that a rogue intriguer would become president of the united states and he was very foresighted. >> all of these comparisons that have been written about now, him praising hitler for doing some good things and talking about hitler, it strikes you that there was an extraordinary lack of knowledge of history, the holocaust. >> hitler killed millions of jewish people and others. hitler was the worst autocrat in recent history. hitler was something that half a million americans gave their lives to fight in world war ii. what would franklin roosevelt say? what would harry truman say? what would dwight eisenhower say if they came back and heard from an american president saying hitler did some good things. i wonder if the good things that donald trump was thinking about was maybe the beer haul push in

1923, a coup d'etat attempt against the germany or the fire of 1933 which was exmighted by hitler to become a teacher. >> remember in -- 6 million is enough. michael beschloss, on a happier note, thanks to you and congratulations on your new show on peacock "fireside chat" with michael beschloss. >> be there and the fireside is right behind me. >> you bet. flood the century. hundreds are dead and 1,000 missing. the water rising in parts of europe. we'll have a report. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. winner, seven years in a row.

in fact, subaru has won most trusted brand for more consecutive years than any other brand. no wonder kelley blue book also picked subaru as their best overall brand. once again. it's easy to love a brand you can trust. it's easy to love a subaru. this isn't just a walk up the stairs. when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪ this is a cold call! this is annie. will you turn to cold washing in tide. unsubscribe. wait, wait, wait this helps the environment. it saves you money.

i will take that money. for the environment. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪

in europe terrible tragedy. more than a hundred people are dead in germany and other parts of europe. more than a thousand unaccounted for as huge areas have been devastated at what is being called in german media a death sludge. after days of torrential rain rescue efforts are under way amid destruction including collapsed roofs, cars overturned and trees torn from their roots littering the streets. germany is the hardest hit, the floods have also hit belgium, luxembourg and parts of the netherlands. joining us now is claudio la

vanga live from erfstadt, germany. what is the situation there? >> reporter: well, as you can see here, this is very much an ongoing situation, an ongoing catastrophe as angela merkel, the chancellor of germany called it yesterday. as you can see behind me, this used to be a gentle waterway in this town of erfstadt which is one of the towns in this area that have been the most affected by the floods. even though it hasn't rained since this morning for the first time in several days when torrential rain came down at record levels in this area, it is still a raging river which is being fed -- i don't know whether you can see it behind me by the tons of water that is coming down from the fields, back from the fields that have been completely inundated and under water for the past couple of days. this is an ongoing catastrophe

because there are towns like this one in erfstadt, we are about an hour's drive from cologne where people are still calling for help to get out of their houses. there was a posting from the local authority here saying that the problem now, after the devastation called by the flood is the rapid and massive -- this is what they said, local administration, rapid and massive under washing of the foundations of the houses and of the infrastructures that are now at risk of collapsing. there are still people stuck in there that are calling rescuers for help and would love to be taken out either by helicopter or inflatable boats. there are more than a thousand still missing. andrea? >> claudio lavanga in erfstadt, thank you so much. turning to south africa, where a week of deadly protests have left a hundred people dead and

thousands arrested. after jacob zuma. it's deployed 10,000 troops and requesting another 15,000. nbc's kelly cobiella joining us live from johannesburg. what is the government doing to respond? >> andrea, first off, they're making more arrests into why this started and how it started and deploying more troops adding to the 10,000 who are already on the streets and that's after a week of scenes in which it seemed as though police were overwhelmed and outnumbered in many cases. residents forced and business owners forced to defend their property on their own, in many, many cases, unsuccessfully in these two very heavily populated provinces in south africa. the south african president said that these -- this violence

suggested anyway that the violence was deliberately provoked. he said that instigators wanted to spread instability and there had been a lot of reports in local press, unconfirmed by nbc news, that this was instigated by zuma reporters as a -- supporters as a way to pressure the government into releasing jacob zuma and then simply snowballed that the conditions were ripe. inequality is on the rise, poverty rates are extremely high. youth unemployment is very high and the match was lit essentially. andrea? >> a terrible situation there. kelly cobiella, thanks for keeping track of all of that and here at home, ultimate betrayal. what one of donald trump's picks for the supreme court did to draw the former president's ire. inside the oval office as the january 6th riots were raging on capitol hill. michael wolf, author of a new bombshell book joins us next.

you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. get outta here! it's not crazy. it's a scramble. just crack an egg. among my patients i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. it's a scramble. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity and gum gives us a dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. don't settle for products that give you a sort of white smile. try new crest whitening emulsions for 100% whiter teeth. its highly active peroxide droplets swipe on in seconds. better. faster. 100% whiter teeth. crestwhitesmile.com washed your hands a lot today?

probably like 40 times. hands feel dry? like sandpaper. introducing new dove handwash, with 5 x moisturizer blend. removes germs in seconds, moisturizes for hours. soft, smooth. new dove handwash. the instant air purifier removes 99.9% of the virus that causes covid-19 from treated air. so you can breathe easier, knowing that you and your family have added protection. ♪ ♪ hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? family have added protection. sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough.

we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance starting at just $9.95 a month. there are no health questions so you can't be turned down for any health reason. the $9.95 plan is colonial penn's number one most popular whole life plan. options start at just $9.95 a month. that's less than 35 cents a day. your rate can never go up. it's locked in for life. call today for free information. and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner, so call now. (soft music) ♪ hello, colonial penn? (piano playing)

here we go. ♪♪ [john legend's i can see clearly now] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ make your reunion happen with vrbo. your together awaits. vrbo (realtor) the previous owners left in a hurry, so the house comes with everything you see. follow me. ♪ (realtor) so, any questions? (wife) we'll take it! (realtor) great. (vo) it will haunt your senses. the heart-pounding audi suv family. get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer.

we won the election by a landslide. we won it big. >> when you win in a landslide and they steal it and it's rigged it's not acceptable. we won this election, and we won it by a landslide. this was not a close election. this was a landslide. >> oh, it was a landslide, indeed. not. thanks to our friends at the 11th hour for pulling that together showing that donald trump was singing the same song even after the january 6th insurrection at the capitol, as recently as his last weekend. "landslide" the final days of the trump presidency, michael wolff detailed it. joining us now is michael wolff. >> glad took here. >> let's talk about the chaos.

when you write that rudy giuliani was telling the president that he won. what was happening there? who was the president listening to? why did he think he had won the election? >> well, one of the -- i was going to say amusing or perhaps horrifying details is that when rudy was trying to make his case and he was first, and he was sort of on the phone with the president and making the case to anyone he could, he was pulled aside by some of trump's key aides and he was pulled aside into at the white house, the china room and at that moment rudy was incredibly drunk, weaving this way and that way and the china those place settings from every president are very valuable and trump's -- trump's aides were obviously -- or rightfully concerned about --

about -- about what giuliani was saying to the president about the -- about the election, and giving him this misinformation, but they were also concerned that he was going to break the china. >> literally break the china in the white house. >> yes, because -- he was really drunk. >> he was so irate when fox news called arizona for biden and they did it before the other networks did and trump said how can they do this we were winning. >> it's very strange to talk to trump because certainly, it's strange to talk to him about any subject and particularly this because he immediately digresses into all kinds of weird math

kind of symbolic, if someone told him something would happen and this would absolutely mean that he had won the election and in fact so many other things had happened to make that irrelevant doesn't make any difference. he sticks these things and they get into his head and they stick there and you cannot shake him. >> and you write that he was so completely focused on the daily challenges that all-day briefings and the security briefings were cancelled. >> after november 3rd, the white house closed down or at least the west wing as -- as the leader of the executive branch absolutely closed down. >> so mark meadows, the chief of staff was taking over and sort of running the country and supposedly running it in transition which didn't take place. we know that.

we were covering that. >> i must say from -- for meadows, i mean, was there somewhat of a saving grace that meadows went around the president and contacted the biden team and began the rude iments of a transition that the president wasn't doing and was against. why was a transition needed when he was going to be the president on january 20th? >> when the supreme court, according to the book, refused to hear any aspect of the election challenge, the president then trump, blamed it on the three justices that he had appointed and specifically focused on brett kavanaugh. you write that trump said, quote, there were so many others that i could have appointed and everyone wanted me to. where would he be without me? i saved his life. he wouldn't even be in a law firm. who would have had him? nobody. totally disgraced. only i saved him.

so that was really explosive falling out. why was he so incensed with brett kavanaugh? >> he was incensed because he believed that kavanaugh owed him, essentially worked for him, and that when the time came he would deliver for him. giuliani threw out the election -- the election challenge and kept saying it doesn't matter that we're losing in court and they lost case after case after case because when we get to the supreme court it's in our pocket. you appointed these people and obviously will decide in your favor and trump understood this and accepted this. this was the quid pro quo. he had put them on the bench, therefore they would vote for him and particularly brett kavanaugh who he had put on the

bench despite widespread opposition. he had stood by him so therefore, of course, kavanaugh would come through with him. that's how things work in trump world. >> well, it's a fascinating account of trump's world in those closing days and michael wolff, "landslide." the last days of the trump presidency. arizona want more time in leeway in the 2020 election results even though there was no problem with election fraud in arizona. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. and the world's best, and possibly only, schmelier. philadelphia. schmear perfection. this may look like a regular movie night. but if you're a kid with diabetes, it's more. it's the simple act of enjoying time with friends,

knowing you understand your glucose levels. ♪♪ my hygienist cleans with a round head. so does my oral-b my hygienist personalizes my cleaning. so does my oral-b oral-b delivers the wow of a professional clean feel every day. the instant air purifier removes 99.9% of the virus that causes covid-19 from treated air. so you can breathe easier,

knowing that you and your family have added protection. ♪ ♪

this past year has felt like a long, long norwegian winter. knowing that you and your family have added protection. but eventually, with spring comes rebirth. everything begins anew. and many of us realize a fundamental human need to connect with other like-minded people. welcome back to the world. viking. exploring the world in comfort... once again. - stand up if you are first generation college student. (crowd cheering) stand up if you're a mother. if you are actively deployed, a veteran, or you're in a military family, please stand. the world in which we live equally distributes talent, but it doesn't equally distribute opportunity, and paths are not always the same. - i'm so proud of you dad. - [man] i will tell you this,

southern new hampshire university can change the whole trajectory of your life. (uplifting music) president trump lost the 2020 election eight months ago. so in places like arizona, the republican-backed so-called audit that was meant to end months ago is actually ramping up. the state gop now saying they need more material and the contractors running the audit say they want to go door-to-door to ask voters about their participation in the election. that's something that the department of justice has warned verges on voter intimidation. joining us now, mark mckinnon, former adviser to george w. bush and john mccain. it's great to see you. mark, where does this end? this is endless. they've already confiscated the machines because they can no longer be used in the election because they've now been

tampered with. they've been opened by unverified people. >> yeah, well, they're not finding any examples of systemic voter fraud. the greatest proud in american politics right now, andrea, is this notion that there's systemic voter fraud. there is none. there's simply no evidence, republicans and trump supporters have had more than six months, millions of dollars, court cases. the texas attorney general took the case to the supreme court to try to overturn the election. spent 22,000 man hours trying to find voter fraud in texas. they found 16 bad addresses. that's 130 man hours per bad address. so the fact is, it doesn't exist. there's no examples of it. and to the extent it happens at all, it's usually just something accidental, somebody didn't know what they were doing. they had a bad address, didn't realize they were on parole and that that was a violation. but nothing systemic anywhere. >> and you see this now in arizona and texas, republicans doubling down on voting restrictions in response to the

false claims of voter fraud. it seemed like the trump-allied wing of the party is going away anytime soon or is this going to run all the way through 2022 and '24? >> oh, no question. i would say the trump wing of the party is stronger than ever before. and -- but it is a purity test now. in order to be a republican, particularly any republican running for office, you have to meet the litmus test, and exhibit "a" of the litmus test is you must say that the election was a fraud. in order to run for office, in order to be a republican in good standing, you have to lie about the last election. and that means we're getting a whole field of candidates in the republican party who are not telling the truth. and, you know, that's a huge problem for the future of the republican party. >> and are primarying people like lisa murkowski, you know, jim langford, who stood up to the president. and one person who represents the other wing of the party is liz cheney. there's a new excerpt from the upcoming book from phil rutger.

cheney describes being with james jordan during the siege saying, i'm standing in the aisle and he said, we need to get the ladies away from the aisle. let me help you. i smakd his hand away and told him, get away from me, you f'ing did this. so, she's now being challenged by, you know, half a dozen or more republicans in wyoming. >> well, and that sort of says everything you need to know about where the republicans is. the notion that liz cheney, who has been such a solid conservative in the republican party and number three in leadership would be bounced out of her chair, simply for defending the constitution of the united states, suggests that the republican party is clawing their way to the bottom and getting there fast. >> is there anything that she or others like her can go to try to fight this off? >> well, andrea, you know, i think that this election fraud notion is one of the greatest violations of public trust in the history of the country.

and so dangerous to our democracy that i think that, you know, i really appreciate what liz cheney is doing and others who are willing to stand up, despite the repercussions from people like donald trump. i just think that everybody, liz cheney, you know, anybody who really believes in american, in the constitution, has got to keep banging this drum as loudly as we can. >> mark mckinnon, as always, thank you. thanks so much. that does it for the addition of "andrea mitchell reports." but before we go, a special good-bye to my colleague, casie hunt. today is her final day here on msnbc before she starts a new exciting chapter in her career. we have covered so many election cycles today and have had so many long hours and we've learned so much from you over the years, kasie. your reporting on capitol hill and your friendship means so much to all of us here. and so, good luck. happy trails to you. just one more thing before she goes, kasie hunt is up next

anchoring "mtp daily," only on msnbc. t anchoring "mtp daily," only on msnbc. he's a fast talker. a fast walker. thanks, gary. and for unexpected heartburn... frank is a fan of pepcid. it works in minutes. nexium 24 hour and prilosec otc can take one to four days to fully work. pepcid. strong relief for fans of fast. the instant air purifier removes 99.9% of the virus that causes covid-19 from treated air. so you can breathe easier, knowing that you and your family have added protection. ♪ ♪ knowing that you and your family have added protection. cynthia suarez needed to buy new laptops for her growing team. so she used her american express business card, which lets her earn extra membership rewards points on purchases for her business. now she's the office mvp. get the card built for business. by american express.

♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪

ah! to dmy helicopter haslogy better wifi than this. you thinking what i am? upgrade time. don't worry i have the best internet people. hello xfinity. get me xfi pronto. that was fast. yep. now we just self-install. and we're back baby. do more of what you love when you upgrade to xfinity xfi. baby ninjas? i love it.

age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. if it's friday, president biden is about to be briefed by his medical team, as health officials battle with surging covid misinformation amid a spike of infections across the country. and the fda says those under 12 will have to wait until mid-winter for vaccine approval. plus, the latest on the investigation into the january 6th attack following a series of

stunning revelations about what was going on inside trump's white house leading up to the siege. congressman adam schiff, a top member of the house's select committee on the attack, joins me this hour. and later, the death toll climax above 100 as massive floods destroy parts of western europe. more than a thousand people are unaccounted for and more rain is in the forecast. we'll be live in germany with a full report ahead. welcome to friday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm kasie hunt in for chuck todd. at this hour, president biden is scheduled to huddle with his top public health advisers in the oval office. it comes as there are signs everywhere that the pandemic is not over. not only that, but there are signs that it could be surging again as millions remain unvaccinated. just look at some of the headlines across the country, sounding the alarm from florida to california, where l.a. is reimposing a