claudio lavanga, thank you so much. i will see you again tomorrow at noon eastern. our coverage continues with joe fryer in for yasmin. ♪ ♪ good afternoon. i'm joe fryer in for yasmin vossoughian. a lot going on today. the events of january 6th continue to reshape american politics, but we're still learning from that moment. even today, more than six months later. we will show you the new destruction, items stolen and how the next sentencing will shape what is in store for others facing legal trouble. winning the hearts and minds of cuba. demonstrations inside and outside that communist island are happening right now with a familiar face we haven't seen since his retirement. we are on the ground in ha van vana with the layest. plus another back and forth fight over daca, the program that shields those brought to

the u.s. illegally as children. how a new ruling is putting pressure on congress and the biden administration to come up with a permanent fix if they want to continue the program. we begin this hour with breaking news about an alleged plot to attack the democratic party headquarters in sacramento. two men have been indicted, charged with an alleged plot to destroy the building after the election results were announced. federal authorities say ian rogers and jarrod copeland planned to use machine guns and explosives to inspire militia groups and start a movement. the fbi is getting praise for stopping the plot. >> again, thank you the fbi for their work. but in this day and age, you know, we should not be concerned about violence and terrorism just for participating in a democratic process. >> this comes as we're learning about new developments in the investigation into the january 6th attack on the capitol.

newly approved house spending bills are full of changes inspired by the attack, just two days before the biggest hearing of the insurrection we may be getting new insight into how the rest of the investigation could play out. nbc's scott mcfarland joins us from d.c. scott, i understand you have new reporting on the house spending bills. what can you tell us? >> hey, joe. good afternoon. this is the time of year, july, when the u.s. house typically approves spending bills to fund the government for the next year, in this case 2022. as we read through the hundreds of pages in the bill this weekend we see some of it is dripping in language inspired by january 6th. a few examples. the funding bill for the department of justice includes more spending for salaries and expenses to help them prosecute all of these cases. the new spending bill for the department of homeland security has a requirement the secret service issue a new report about lessons learned january 6th and how best to prevent future electoral college counts from being disrupted. and the spending bill for the va

requires the agency do something to stop disinformation from social media from impacting so many veterans. there are many veterans among those charged in january 6th. it is not surprising to see this language, but it is practical for one reason. the spending bills are going through a very tight needle, a very small hole to pass the u.s. house. what is more, it is a reinforcement, a statement to america that january 6th was significant, the insurrection was real, and the congress is keenly aware of both of those things. joe. >> so, scott, what can you tell us about paul hodgkins? he is the first january 6th defendant to face sentencing for a felony. we are scheduled to learn the sentence monday. why is it so important? what could it tell us? >> it could be the biggest hearing yet, joe. he is sentenced on monday. the first defendant to be sentenced in what the justice department would consider a serious case, a felony case from january 6th. prosecutors say hodgkins was in the senate chamber, among the

first in there, carrying rope, gloves, goggles. in the prosecutors words he was ready for the possibilities of violence. the feds have recommended 18 months in prison for hodgkins. what will the judge decide? will the judge spare hodgkins from prison? will the judge go over the prosecutor's recommendation? if it is the latter, joe, it is quite a statement to other defendants who are coming down the road >> all right. msnbc's scott mcfarland. thank you so much. coming up later in the hour, retired four-star army general barry mccaffrey joins me with his thoughts and reaction as word of the insurrection started to build and that time on edge for so many between january 6th and january 20th when president biden was sworn in. we go now to cuba and the country's biggest anti-government uprising in decades. this week across the island cubans have been rallying against food and medicine shortages, blackouts, a failing economy and sanctions, demanding political change. this morning thousands attended

a pro-government counterrally in the capital of havana amid a major increase in police presence. that's where we find nbc's ed august. ed, take us through what is happening on the ground in havana. i understand this heavy police presence across the capital is in anticipation of possibly more anti-government protests today? >> reporter: yeah. the government got caught very much off guard last sunday, and they haven't made that same mistake from their point of view again today. a thick, heavy police presence throughout havana, and as you said in your introduction, thousands are cubans got up well before dawn to attend a pro-government rally. now, from my experience in cuba and reporting here for a number of years and looking at this pro-government rally here today, you have a mix of people who were instructed to attend, people like teachers, people in unions, people in factories who are told, look, here is a demonstration tomorrow, you need

to go and show your support, yes or yes. you have people that go because they want to go. there have been rumors circulating there would be an anti-government demonstration, the likes of which we saw in last sunday's historic uprising and demonstration. so far very, very quiet. a thick police presence. we've been in contact with people around the country, and for the most part things are quiet. >> ed, we understand was raoul castro supposed to be at the pro government rally today? >> reporter: yeah, he was at the pro-government rally. he is 91. it is rumored that he has two forms of cancer, so he did not make a speech but he was there waving his flag and showing support for the country's president. his handpicked man, miguel diaz canal, as he made a speech and blamed u.s. sanctions and u.s. cyber warfare on provoking from their point of view a lot of the

protests that we saw last week. >> yeah. more on those comments. the president there barked back at president biden's comments. he called cuba a failed state. how has the government been reacting to these demonstrations? really, how does this all play into america's relations with cuba right now? >> reporter: i think the likelihood is this is going to be very damaging for cuba/u.s. relations. of course, we have come a very long way since the obama period when we saw normalization, we saw engagement, we saw former secretary of state kerry and obama visit havana and tourism blossoming. after four years of trump, how far we have come, and comments like failed state from president biden provoke a reaction from the cubans who are blaming all of this on the united states. there's a real risk now that this could lead to a deterioration at the rhetorical level between the two governments that will make normalization far more

difficult. the problem is for many cubans' point of view that those billions and billions of dollars that the government and people have lost are playing out in huge medical and food shortages. if relations between the two governments continue to deteriorate, there's every chance the humanitarian crisis will continue. >> nbc's ed august in havana. thank you so much. that outrage abroad is spilling over into the cuban american community here in the u.s. among the american leaders calling for action, miami mayor francis suarez who suggested the u.s. explore airstrikes against cuba as tensions rise. joining me is stephanie stand in miami. while things had been quiet in cuba in recent days, certainly not in florida. talk to me about the

demonstrations going on there. >> reporter: yes, joe. in fact we are here in downtown miami. preparations are under way for a big rally set to take place in a few hours. you can see behind me, this is the freedom tower. there is already a small but lively crowd gathered. we understand that hundreds if not thousands are expected to show up here. they are coming here, they are taking to the streets to draw attention to the plight of citizens in cuba. we saw demonstrations all week long here in miami. we also saw them, of course, in cuba, which, as we know, is quite unprecedented because the cuban people typically do not protest for fear of the regime, but that appears to be changing. the residents in cuba, citizens say that they are fed up, they are not able to get basic necessities such as food and medicine. now, as far as this rally today, it is being organized by a slew of cuban american activists. many of them are urging people,

everyone to come out here and make their voices heard. earlier we spoke to one of those organizers, a very prominent cuban american actor, a singer/songwriter. he spoke to nbc news about this rally and the plight of cuban citizens. >> what is happening in cuba is not just an abuse of power. it is not just -- it is not just 62 years of a totalitarian system killing and abusing our people. it is a humanitarian rights issue. we ask that everyone stand with us outside of the freedom tower at 5:30 as a gesture of solidarity with our cuban people. >> reporter: and that was john carlos canella. he is, again, is organizing this event alongside several other prominent celebrities and international activists. as you can see back out here live, a very small crowd has already started to gather, a

very lively crowd. this event gets under way at 5:30 this evening, joe. it will run about three hours. it will end at 8:30. at that point we are told that they are expected to light up the freedom tower with red, white and blue colors in honor of the cuban flag. >> all right, nbc's stephanie stanton in miami. stephanie, thank you so much. now we turn to washington where the president is responding to a texas judge's ruling that declared daca illegal. federal judge's declaration is sending shock waves throughout the immigrant community. now the white house has released a statement calling the court ruling deeply disappointing and saying that although the court's order does not now affect current daca recipients, this decision nonetheless relegates hundreds of thousands of young immigrants to an uncertain future. nbc's josh letterman is with us from d.c. at the white house. josh, daca was one of the landmark acts of the obama/biden administration. is the president saying what he plans to try to do now to try to

save it? >> reporter: yes, a significant blow, joe, to this major accomplishment from the obama/biden administration, especially given all of the failed attempts in the years since to actually be able to get a comprehensive immigration overhaul through congress. so immigration activists have been urging the white house in the last 24 hours not to waste any time in pushing back on this. indeed, president biden says in his statement that he will push back to the extent that he can, putting out a statement saying that the department of justice intends to appeal this decision in order to preserve and fortify daca. the president going on in that statement to say, but only congress can ensure a permanent solution by granting a path to citizenship for dreamers that will provide certainty and stability that these young people need and deserve. to that very point, in addition to putting forward new regulations from the department of homeland security to try to shore up daca in the meantime, democrats are looking to use

this massive $3.5 trillion infrastructure spending bill to actually try to get through some of the immigration priorities that they've had for a long time, including a path to getting a green card for some dreamers as well as farm workers, others who have been protected by the temporary protected status program. but, in fact, it is interesting, joe. the hold up or the obstacle in this case is not going to be the one we have talked about so many times, which is senator joe manchin from west virginia. he actually said he is supportive of including immigration measures in this infrastructure spending bill. he notes he has been a supporter of immigration reform in the past including the 2013 bill that was never successful. so he is on board. the real challenge for democrats here is going to be the fact that these measures that pass under reconciliation, as we've talked about, they're supposed to be budget matters. they're supposed to be taxes and spending, not policy measures. so democrats saying that the measures they will take on immigration cost about $120

billion, saying they're technically budget matters. entirely unclear how the senate parliamentarian will rule on that, whether democrats will be able to get anything through on that as they're trying to shore up this program now under threat in the light of this new court action. >> the parliamentarian issues have come up before earlier this year so we are familiar with that. nbc's josh letterman at the white house. josh, thanks so much. now some breaking news. nbc news has learned that three of the democratic texas state lawmakers who traveled to washington, d.c., have tested positive for covid. more than 50 state senators left a special legislative session in austin to keep republicans from passing new voting restrictions there. another new development, texas governor greg abbott says if they come back he is going to have them arrested. as that is looming, texas house speaker dave failan, a democrat, is offering the democrats from the state a free chartered plane flight home. vaughn hillyard is in austin. we want to get to the breaking

news happening this afternoon. what do we know about the covid news, the three texas lawmakers that tested positive? >> reporter: exactly, joe. there were 56 texas house democrats that flew on the plane this week to washington, d.c. last night one of the members tested positive for covid. two more individuals received positive rapid tests today. that's three members total here. now -- excuse me. every single one of these members said that they are fully vaccinated. upon their departure here from texas to washington, d.c. but, as we know, there is still the risk of transmitting covid here even if you are vaccinated. but i want to let you hear from james talarico, one of the texas house dem members here, because there's still a greater mission here despite the three members testing positive. they plan to be in washington, d.c. for weeks to come because of that 30-day special legislative session here at the texas capital. this is a group of lawmakers that broke quorum, headed to

washington, d.c., to essentially cause a stalemate and keep those house and senate bills, those voting restriction measures that they say from passing. but i want to let you hear from representative talarico, who says what they intend to do here in these coming days. >> all we're asking them to do is make one exception to one senate rule to save american democracy. it is not that hard. it is a pretty light lift when you consider what is at stake. our national democratic peers hold majorities in the house, in the senate and they hold the white house. there are no excuses not to pass the voting rights bill to ensure that millions of americans in texas and in georgia are able to access their sacred constitutional right to the ballot box. >> reporter: now, the republican governor here, governor abbott, has said as soon as those lawmakers will come back he will just call in another special session, essentially suggesting that there is no way that these

bills are not going to eventually pass. that is why you hear representative talarico saying it is imperative that federal legislation, the for the people act as well as the john lewis voting rights act, are passed at a federal level. we should note there's actually a senate hearing tomorrow happening remotely in the state of georgia, in atlanta, which democratic senators will be holding a virtual hearing. not on capitol hill in washington, d.c., but they will be going to the state of georgia to also make that case that these very texas democratic lawmakers are making. of course, we will be watching to see if there are any additional texas house members that come down with covid. of course, for everybody's sake we hope not. joe. >> the lawmaker says it is not that hard, but he probably is learning it is not that easy either. vaughn hillyard, thank you so much. coming up at 4:00 p.m., we will hear from a texas democratic state representative who is among those who left austin to try to thwart the voting legislation. state rep julie johnson joins me live with more on her party's plan. marking one year since his

death, vigils are taking place in atlanta and across the country to honor civil rights icon john lewis. the anniversary comes amid an urgent push to pass federal legislation in lewis's name to protect voting rights and counter a growing list of voter restriction laws passed at the state level. doubling down on lewis's message of making good trouble, vice president harris released a statement honoring the congressman. she is urging lawmakers to carry on his lifelong fight by passing the john lewis voting rights act and the for the people act. texas house dems who traveled to the capital earlier to prevent the state's legislation from passing are expected to attend. still ahead, the nation's top military brass compares the former president to the furor according to an explosive new book about former president donald trump's final days in

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the delta variant continues to ravage unvaccinated communities across the country, with covid-19 cases surging 70% nationwide in just one week. joining me from two communities impacted by this, nbc's gaud vinegas. we will start with you. what is the latest there? >> reporter: joe, it is a drastic change for people in los angeles county who thought the masks were done. health authorities here made the announcement, also sharing numbers to try to justify why everyone will have to wear a

mask while being indoors in public settings. they communicated to los angeles residents they had an 83% growth in cases just over last week, and they focused a lot on the 4 million people that remain unvaccinated in los angeles. yesterday we spoke to some of the residents to see how they felt about this decision. >> i think people react to a new mask mandate in the ways that they've reacted all along. some people will fight it and be angry and resentful at other people will be glad and feel relieved that our government is doing what it can to keep us safe. >> i find it is disappointing. i got my vaccine, all my friends and the people i work with have gotten theirs. in the film industry in which i got, they got it because of a matter of professional need to do it, and everybody is pulling in the same direction. i feel that a lot of this is because a lot of people just thought irresponsibly that they didn't have to.

>> reporter: now, two things about everyone we spoke to on the street. one is most of them had a mask with them just in case the mask was necessary. although all of them told us that they hate the mask, they did say that they plan to wear it because it is for the best of the community. they want things to improve here in los angeles, and with these numbers that we've been seeing, you know, they think that it is necessary to mask. health authorities here saying also that the unvaccinated are five times more than likely to get the virus, especially with the new delta variant. meanwhile, health authorities in california and in l.a. county will continue with the campaign to try to vaccinate all of those that haven't, offering gift cards, in some places even free food or anything they can to try to convince everyone in los angeles county to come out and get the vaccine. joe. >> thank you. to the east coast now. a similar story beginning to emerge, especially on staten island. that's where we find cori. what can you tell us about what is happening there?

>> reporter: staten island quickly becoming ground zero for the delta variant here in new york. when you look at the rates, you can see the pattern. so staten island has among the lowest rate of vaccination in the state, 53% here compared to manhattan's 70% for example. here in staten island the new cases are double that amount of manhattan, so you can really see the pattern start to emerge. the cdc's director, rachelle wilensky, spoke about what that means, not just here for staten island and the state of new york, but also how we are seeing the same pattern nationally. listen here. >> there is a clear message that is coming through. this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. we are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk. and communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well. if you are not vaccinated you remain at risk, and our biggest concern is that we are going to

continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated. >> reporter: all right. so you heard from gaud with the state of california. i could talk about many other states but i will give you two examples. one, arkansas with the lowest vaccination rate at 35% and currently the highest increase in new cases total in the entire country. it is a sobering reality, as one health care worker said, quote, of all of our critically ill covid patients in at baptist health facilities, none have been fully vaccinated. none. now, let's talk about the state of florida which accounts for 20% of all new cases in this country. one state accounting for a fifth of all new cases. florida has an infection rate four times the national average right now, joe. so what this means is as this starts to bleed into other states as well, we're going to start to see that surge. so let's take a look at the graph. if you are looking at it, you can see the winter months and the holiday travel, that mass

surge we had. we will go to the very end. we're at the very beginning of the surge, and health officials believe we're not going to peak from the surge of the delta variant until september or october. the reason it is such a problem, joe, is we will start to get into the colder months where covid cases are going to naturally rise, making it that much more difficult for us to defeat the pandemic while we have the chance, especially in these unvaccinated communities. >> yeah. it is the big worry and why they want to get so many people vaccinated now, especially before the school year starts. msnbc's cori coffman. thank you so much. coming up in the 4:00 p.m. hour we will speak to dr. peter hotez, codirector for the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital. he will weigh in on the risk to young children who are unable to get vaccinated as the delta variant spreads as well as the growing problems states like missouri and tennessee are facing. the most iconic site in paris is once again open to

tourists. the eiffel tower has reopened after an eight-month shutdown due to covid. this was the longest the tower was closed since world war ii. masks are still required for visitors older than 11. visitors must show a french government health pass. just one weeks before the games begin, the first person has tested positive for covid-19 at the tokyo olympic village. that person, one of 44 affiliated with this year's games to have tested positive since july, but the first at the olympic village. the identity and nationally have not been revealed. but the tokyo 2020ceo said saturday that the person came from overseas. more than 11,000 athletes and 79,000 journalists, officials and staff are slated to attend the games. coming up, reaction to explosive reporting about feerts the former president would try to mobilize the military to stay in power after losing the election. retired four-star army general barry mccaffrey joins me live with his take. stay with us. his take. stay with us

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welcome back. concerning new details are coming out this weekend about former president trump's final days in office. excerpts obtained by nbc news from the new book "i alone can fix it" reveals new fears from joint chiefs chair general mark milley. he was concerned that trump would try to use the military to attempt a coup after the 2020 election. milley reportedly said, quote, they may try, but they're not going to 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. the former president is denying he ever spoke about a coup and now says that milley should be impeached or court-martialed if what he said in the book is accurate. joining me now barry mccaffrey, retired army general, nbc military analyst and former member of clinton's cabinet. i want to ask how concerning is the reporting we are hearing

coming out of the new book. obviously it is different from your experience with a president, but is it hard even just to fathom some of the reporting we are hearing about what was going on in the final days? >> a lot of what is in that book, i was a hearing in a contemporary time frame. so i'm looking nord to reading it. it comes out tuesday. it will be early history, which will be very kind, i might add, to general mark milley, the charge of the jcs. but, look, there's no question between -- and we understood this at the time, between november and january, trump tried a series of moves to overthrow the election and remain in office. it is a direct assault on the constitution. the good news, and we have to remind ourselves of that, is that the electors held firm, the court system, the governors, the media, vice president pence did his constitutional duty, and, of course, of final response, the armed forces and law enforcement

remained loyal to the rule of law. so he didn't pull it off, but there's no question that he didn't try. not just instigating that terrible attack on the capitol, but also his language in the oval office, reaching out to state officials. this was a near criminal regime. >> speaking of language, i do want to read another excerpt from the book obtained by nbc news. it says that milley saw parallels between trump's rhetoric of election fraud and adolf hitler's insistence to his followers at the nuremberg rallies that he was a victim and their savior. this is a reichstag moment. what do you make of that, a parallel to hitler coming from the joint chiefs? >> i've been very careful not to relate anything to the nazis. they killed 40 million people and wrecked europe from the ural

mountains to the channel. having said that, i think there's a historic parallel between the 1930s in germany and how trump conducted himself. he had no commitment to the mores, to the values of the constitution and the american people. so i think his language -- he was talking about shooting people and executing people for treason, and the blow to us was when he fired a distinguished secretary of defense, mark esper, and the top four people in the pentagon, civilians, and substituted a retired lieutenant colonel, white house operative, and several other senior figures. you know, i was saying at the time, if i was a foreign intelligence official looking at a third world country, we would have all concluded, hey, the guy is about to run a coup against his own government. he couldn't pull it off. part of it was the honesty and

determination of the uniformed chiefs, and, for that matter, the fbi director and cia director. >> general milley also reportedly praised the fact there was a peaceful transition of power, saying, the line bent but didn't break. i mean do you agree? you talk about how the systems held, but are there lessons we should learn from this so we don't come close to breaking that line again? >> i think he is quite correct. you know, we ought to be proud we got through this perilous procedure. by the way, the protection of the american people is to ensure we elect presidents to office who share a conviction, a sense of loyalty to the constitution, who have decent character and integrity. in this case we didn't. we had someone that was willing to take any authoritarian measure required to stay in office. he just couldn't get people to cooperate with him. so poor general milley and the service chiefs, who, by the way, let me add they have no command

authority at all over the armed forces by law. the only people who can give orders to the 11 combatant commanders are the president of the united states, trump in this case, and an acting secretary of defense. we had a real challenge there and we're lucky we got through it. >> retired army general barry mccaffrey. as always, thank you so much. we appreciate your expertise. >> good to be with you. a live look now at del rio, texas, where you see texas governor greg abbott. he is joined by florida governor ron desantis attending what is called a border security briefing. we will keep an eye on it and bring you any news out of it. still ahead for us, evangelicals in the post-trump era. what a new survey says about the current role of the religious right in the political arena.

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welcome back. one of the signature features of donald trump's republican party takeover was his unwavering alliance with white evangelical christians. new data from the public research religious institute suggests whatever influence they have is declining significantly along with a number of those who affiliate with evangelical churches. my next guest asked if it has anything to do with the increasingly political nature of evangelical churches and his embrace of the make america great again movement, and his answer is yes. jennifer, good to have you with us. i'm going to ask you, what were the key takeaways from the annual survey? and then what were your takeaways from those takeaways. why does all of this matter? >> well, i think the most significant takeaway is that evangelicals, white evangelical protestants who used to make up a majority of the population of

the united states, have gone through a precipitous decline. their numbers are really declining very steeply, in part because younger white christians are not affiliating with them. as a result, their political power is declining. i think this, coupled with their sense that america is more secular and that the culture is somewhat hostile, they think, to their religion, they have become politically active in a desperate and really undemocratic fashion, which led to i think their support, their adherence and almost a cult-like relationship with donald trump. they see him as their savior. the language they use for him sounds heretical to people because they refer to him as their savior. as a result, i think they have become the core group of the most emphatic and, unfortunately, the most violent of his supporters.

we all saw on january 6th all of that christian imagery at the capitol, and we see that in evangelical churches. as your statistic showed on the screen, 27% of them believe in the qanon conspiracy, which is bonkers. so this becomes a problem when we have a significant number of people who really dominate one party, and that party renounces democracy in favor of a strong-man view of history where they hope to seize power, keep power, and, thereby, protect or extend their religious philosophy. we are in trouble. america was not founded to be white, to be christian, to be anything. it was founded to be a multi racial, multi-religious

democracy. that's why they're teaching is heretical. that's why you see these efforts to suppress the vote, in the case of january 6th to overthrow the election, and it is an ongoing party for the republican and for america as a hold. >> quick catch on the cellphone, by the way. i want to dig deeper into the number we saw on the screen because i think it is surprising to see the connection between evangelicals and qanon. you dove into how qanon goes into the desperation of ee evangelicals. >> you would think that his defeat would shake their belief in him, that they would kind of move on, but it is the opposite. now that their savior has lost power, they have grasped on to these conspiracy theories even more strongly, as you network has reported. there's an entire group of people who believe that he somehow is going to be

reinstated as president in the month of august. so what this has done is i think shifted the republican party from a party that was conservative but rational to a party that is anti-democratic and irrational. that is a severe problem for american politics. we really need two parties that buy into the prospect, buy into the ideal that we're not a country for -- only for christians or a country only for whites. we are a country where all men are created equal. we are based on a credal notion and that we all have to buy into democracy and to respect the rule of law. when one party checks out of that, we are in trouble. >> jennifer rubin, interesting piece. check it out if you can. thank you for your time today. from voting rights to infrastructure, our power political panel will dive into the biggest issues facing the biden administration.

still ahead, recovery efforts out west where wildfires are raging. why forecasters believe it is only going to get worse and the brakes it is putting on one government agency. stay with us. t know what i shou. just wear something not too crazy, remember it's a business dinner not a costume party. on a spotty network this is what she heard... just wear something crazy, remember it's a costume party. a costume party!? yes! anybody want to split a turkey leg?

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this is the scene in western europe as rescuers race to find survivors after the historic flooding there. parts of germany and belgium received two months of rain in just two days, leading to landslides and large-scale devastation. at least 160 people are dead, hundreds more are still missing. water levels in many towns remain high and houses continue to collapse as the search for survivors continues. back here at home, a disaster of a different kind. in california where wildfires are getting so bad, i.c.e. has announced it is suspending operations in disaster response locations. the statement reads in part, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided. this is happening as water levels are dangerously low in the state's reservoirs where we find nbc's scott cohen near one of the reservoirs in santa clara county.

scott, how worried should we be about the critically low water levels and what are officials on the ground doing to respond? >> reporter: it is worrisome on a lot of levels. this is lexington reservoir, part of the system of reservoirs that serve silicon valley. you can get a sense how low the levels are. that finger of land in the middle, people around here have never seen that before. that's how low the water levels are. they have a couple, maybe three months before the autumn rains hopefully begin so it has to last them. that's the kind of thing they're looking at. officials are trying to get people to cut back on their water use. in santa clara county they're paying people to take out lawns which drink up a lot of water. governor newsom has instituted voluntary restrictions, asking people to cut back 15% of their water use, but some experts say that's not good enough. >> i think those calls have been too little and too late. i think we know we can do better

than that. every gallon of water we don't use is a gallon we save in our reservoirs for next year if it is dry or stays in our rivers for the fish that are incredibly stressed and dying from the current drought. we could cut back more water in agriculture with smarter irrigation technology and changing crop types. we know we can do more, but we have to be asked to do more by our politicians. >> of. >> reporter: around this time in the last drought, then-governor jerry brown issued mandatory restrictions, asking to cut back 25% of water use. some experts say though that some of those actually became permanent and so the need might not be as great this time. then again, this drought is really severe. take a look at the situation across the western u.s. vast portions of the region looking at exceptional levels of drought. california, all of california is in some manner of drought. now, there have been monsoon rains in the southwest which relieved some of the situation

there, but here is the problem. those monsoons are spawning potential thunderstorms up here in northern california, and those would be generally dry thunderstorms. that means lightning. we're already seeing the fires kick up way earlier than they normally do, and there's a big worry that in the next 24 hours or so we could be looking at more lightning strikes and potentially more fires. joe. >> and we're still just in july. scott cohen, thanks so much. reporting from california. we appreciate it. approaching the top of the hour. this is msnbc "reports." welcome back. i'm joe fryer in for yasmin voss ougan. if you are still with me, thank you. if you are just joining us, welcome. coming up this hour as the nation pauses to rethe life and legacy of congressman john lewis one year after his death, voting rights are facing challenges at

the state and federal level with the president calling it the most significant attack on democracy since the civil war. i'll have a conversation with a texas state representative who traveled to washington with fellow lawmakers to try to stop republicans in her state from passing restrictive voting laws. how long is she willing to hold out and is she getting results from lawmakers in washington? plus this. >> on covid misinformation, what is your message to platforms like facebook? >> they're killing people. i mean they really -- look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and that -- and they're killing people. >> the president puts his passion on display when it comes to spreading misinformation about coronavirus and vaccines, but was is his administration doing behind the scenes to stop it? we'll so you. plus, the interview stunning prosecutors in the investigation into former president donald trump's company. what the ex-daughter-in-law of