investigate that attack? jim jordan. and what about the people who believe the lies that trump and his friends are peddling. one is about to see the inside of a prison cell. we'll get to the latest on the first rioter to be sentenced for a felony crime linked to the insurrection. when it comes to covid, it is back and in a big way. what you need to know about the delta variant. willie, why don't we begin right there. >> good morning, mika. right now only about two thirds of americans across the country who are eligible for covid vaccine are even partially vaccinated. in a moment gabe gutierrez reports from a hospital in florida which once again has become a hot spot. but first, miguel almaguer has the latest on a new call for all school children over the age of 2 to wear masks. >> reporter: with children

nationwide soon returning to the classroom, the american academy of pediatrics says all students older than 2 and staff should wear a mask at school. an added layer of protection for the 48 million kids under 12 who still don't qualify for vaccination. the former surgeon general and others suggesting whether americans are vaccinated or not, universal mask wearing is needed again. >> it's not like we're asking people to go to the trenches with shooting war. we're just asking you if it looks like it's going to help, put the mask back on for a while. >> reporter: the face of the nation's most divisive restriction is more than a new mandate indoors in los angeles county as covid cases spike by 300%, 10 additional counties are also recommending the fully vaccinated use face coverings inside public spaces. cities like new york not going

that far. >> we do not intend mask mandate. >> reporter: while cdc guidelines say the vaccinated don't need masks, less than half the u.s. population is fully inoculated and as new vaccinations plummet by more than 35%, infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to soar. >> it's more veer lieutenant. patients that could otherwise handle an infection getting very, very will. >> reporter: the fight to get people vaccinated is also a battle of misinformation. the president walking back comments about facebook. >> my hope is, they would do something about the misinformation instead of taking it personal that i'm saying facebook is killing people. >> reporter: in jacksonville, the covid resurgence has been

ferocious, almost overnight. >> we saw one positive covid patient and now there hasn't been enough time to realize we're back to where we started. >> reporter: cases here doubling each week. florida accounts for one fifth of new infections in the entire country. >> we're gaining cases at a rapid rate. we don't know where it's going to stop. >> reporter: statewide, hospitalizations and deaths are far short of where they were in january before the vaccine was widely available. but these nurses say it is busier, at least here. >> reporter: this is one of the hospitals with four covid units at the start of sunday they had 86 covid patients now 143 more than 40% increase in one day. >> it was insane to go from having one covid patient to having all covid patients again. and it's just insanity. it really is. >> reporter: about 85% of seniors in the state have been vaccinated. but there are people like

65-year-old deborah wells. >> did you get vaccinated? >> no. >> reporter: we spoke with her by phone through the room's window. >> why didn't you get vaccinated, ma'am? >> i was scared. >> reporter: she's been here since saturday. do you regret not getting vaccinated? >> i regret it, yes, i do. i was dying. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. >> let's bring in dr. vin gupta, a pulmonologist and msnbc news medical contributor. here we are again, thinking back to february of 2020, before most of us realized how serious this was, you all in washington state had the first death in the united states, you've been treating covid patients since back then. what is your assessment of where we are right now, and can we stem this tide that seems to be coming? >> good morning, great to see you. i think it's important for us as a nation to remain calm and to recognize that even if cases are increasing, they're decoupling

from hospitalization trends across the country. yes, there are zip e codes that are hot spots as mentioned. but across the country the bigger trend here is that hospitalizations and deaths remain at some of the lowest points in the last 18 months. that's a great thing. we need to remind the people that are not vaccinated, i think we need to stop talking about reinstituting mandatory mask mandates in big counties across the country that may not need it and double down on our messaging to those that remain unvaccinated. we know two doses of the mrna vaccines are very protective against the delta variant if you're otherwise healthy. the vaccine break through cases we're hearing about it from the olympics and elsewhere. typically, the rare individual who tests positive even after they've been fully vaccinated, usually they're mild and are completely asymptomatic of

illness. only if they're 65 years of age or immunocompromised, exceptionally rare event do they end up in the hospital. so we need to decouple who we're worried about with delta variant. that's why booster shots could be necessary for that vulnerable group, but everybody else just look at the positive trend. we're making great progress overall. >> and the bottom line is you and others said time and time again, if you get vaccinated you're all but completely protected from serious cases of covid and death as well. it's interesting that you talk about the messaging. there was a big turn yesterday, something happened internally i guess at fox news, which is very important because that's a completely different media ecosystem where they were coming out publicly, many hosts, including sean hannity saying i got vaccinated, you should get

vaccinated, i believe in the science, we need to get this done. you mentioned masks we got the guidance from the american academy of pediatrics that said they're adviing kids should wear masks in the fall at school, what do you make of that? we thought we were through this and kids could get back to normal. >> i agree with it, adolescents to 12 years of age, they're not yet eligible to the vaccine. we have no way to standard diez are they or are they not vaccinated. the majority of people, young kids in school, will not have access to the vaccine. even though it's rare, kids can have adverse effects from the virus. to your point about fox news, if

i may, i think they're recognizing that they are -- that they could be potentially culpable for putting out misinformation that could kill people. at this point saying not to get vaccinated, which some anchors still continue to draw questions on or inject uncertainty about, there's well known anchors that continue to do that, i think they're recognizing that they might be culpable in a court of law. that is actually putting out misinformation that is harming people. >> this is all going to be really looked at down the road, in terms of where this disinformation is coming from and who is responsible for it. two questions for you, dr. gupta, you talk about the risk of unvaccinated people getting covid to the delta variant to vaccinated people and them maybe not getting as difficult of symptoms or really not feeling symptoms. but isn't there still the risk

that vaccinated people, who are infected with the delta variant then can spread it around to others who are not vaccinated? it doesn't stop the spread, does it? >> mika, thank you for asking that question. that's something i get all the time. there is no evidence that's published suggesting that if you're otherwise healthy, that's going to be the key operative phrase there, otherwise healthy, not immunocompromised, and fully vaccinated, two doses of the mrna vaccine under my definition, there's no evidence they can transmit even if they test positive. you're probably wondering why do we call that an infection? if somebody is asymptomatic and cannot transmit medicine doesn't have the right dialect. testing positive if you're asymptomatic and you can't transmit, that's not really an infection so we need a new word. >> dr. gupta, in terms of the

disinformation for those unvaccinated because they're choosing not to be and depending on information that's scientifically incorrect, what do they need to hear from? who do they need to hear from, to perhaps make them make the right decision for their own health? >> i think they need to hear from more authentic messengers in the fight, caring for their peers. my colleagues, for example. myself. others who have actually been caring for younger people in icus and hospitals across the country. i think we need to take a page from the most successful public messaging campaign in history, the anti-smoking campaign targeted towards youth. this is your lung with covid, this is your lung without covid. we need to go to the graphics, story telling to reach the unvaccinated. >> well put.

dr. vin gupta, thank you very much for being on this morning and being on this issue. another texas democrat has tested positive for covid, six members now of the texas house democrats have now tested positive since arriving in washington d.c. after fleeing the state in order to avoid voting on a republican-backed election bill. a spokeswoman for the texas democrats said the undisclosed member is self-isolating. it's believed those who have tested positive have also been vaccinated. a 38-year-old florida man who breached the u.s. senate chamber carrying a trump campaign flag was sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison. the first punishment handed down for a felony charge in the january 6th capitol riot. paul hogekins pleaded guilty last month to a singlecount of obstruction of an official

proceeding. "the new york times" reports that he told the judge that he was remorseful for breaking into the capitol, calling it a foolish decision. in court papers the times writes his attorney invoked abraham lincoln's words saying that judge moss had a chance to show malice toward none and charity toward all by foregoing prison time entirely. but the court suggested that would simply encourage future attacks and noted yesterday that hodgkins brought goggles and a pair of gloves with him as if prepared for conflict. the judge said he deserved less than 18 months prosecutors requested because he didn't assault anyone and didn't damage government property. willie? >> let's bring in nbc 4 reporter

scott mcfarlane. he's been covering the sentencings and plea bargains for those in the attack. let's talk about this case, mr. hodgkins, a 38-year-old man from florida in the chamber, asking for mercy, some charity. the judge said no this would set a bad precedent. giving 8 months, less than prosecutors had hoped for. what's the precedence in this case? >> this is the first test case, willie and people don't like the score. paul hodgkins got half of what the prosecutors were seeking, 8 months versus 18 requested by prosecutors. he told the judge what he did was foolish, not inspired by politicians and said that joe biden is the rightfully elected president of the united states. but he was angling to avoid any prison. his attorney argued if you send

him to prison, he loses his job, his home, he'll have trouble caring for his cats. the judge didn't go for that. the prosecutors said, this was powerful, what he did was part of a domestic terror incident that day. and congress had to evacuate its own chambers because of what hodgkins and the mob did. i was talking to former prosecutors who said when the judge goes that far below the sentence it could lower the bar in other cases because they do strive for uniformity in sentencing. >> the judge rejecting the idea we heard from many of the other people arrested, i was just following the crowd, if i had known it was going to get this out of hand i wouldn't have gone in the first place. the judge saying that's no excuse for what you did. let me ask you about this question of competency.

maybe you can explain a little bit. we're hearing some of the defendants talk about competency, whether they're fit to stand trial. tell us about some of them and what that explanation is and what may happen to them. >> first, pauline bour, a restaurant owner in pennsylvania. her hearing went off the rails. she is trying to represent herself in her case. and she told the judge yesterday she's a sovereign citizen and not subject to the court's authority or u.s. authority. that detoured the hearing. she was talking over the judge, the judge was correcting her. the judge will allow her to defend herself. we'll see what happens next. and lan don copely, he's a veteran. i spoke to him by phone. he's still trying to get his competency exam to move forward. he said the government is slow

walking it, we'll see where that goes. it's just another hurdle in an already large -- the largest criminal investigation and prosecution in u.s. history. >> so much still to play out here, but we have the first sentencing of eight months we'll see if that becomes the standard. scott, thanks so much. good to see you. house minority leader, kevin mccarthy announced his picks for the select committee investigating the january 6th attack, including congressman jim banks of indiana, jim jordan of ohio, rodney davis of illinois, kelly armstrong of north dakota and troy neihls. three of them previously voted to overturn the results of the november election. >> you got a mix from the entire group, people who objected, people who didn't object.

>> saying he did not speak to donald trump. mccarthy's choices still need to be approved by house speaker nancy pelosi but she has not signalled any plans to turn down those choices. the select committee is scheduled to hold its first hearing next week. witnesses include officers from the u.s. capitol police department and the d.c. metropolitan police department. let's bring in reporter jonathan lemire, associate editor of "the washington post", eugene robinson, and curt bar della, a columnist for "usa today" and "the new york times." good morning to all of you. jonathan let me start with you. kevin mccarthy was going to nod to the base we knew that. but three of the five, majority of his picks, voted to contest the november election. >> three of the picks, willie,

did so and they did so after the insurrection. the vote came after the rioters breached the capitol. so it's a clear signal here from republican leader kevin mccarthy as to which direction he wants to take the hearings. sure two of the members there, didn't do that. they didn't vote to decertify. they did go along with the democratic process and acknowledge that joe biden was indeed elected president. jim jordan, as we know, is one of former president trump's most vocal defenders and has been willing to say untruths in order to defend the president, and we know he still speaks to the former president frequently. so there's no sense that the house speaker nancy pelosi will object to these picks but we will learn more in the next day or so if that were to be the case. but i think there are real fears among democrats this is going to be a side show. this is going to be more of the

same from republicans. that they will continue to latch onto the big lie, that they will need to contest the election that there were voter irregularities, and continue to downplay what happened on january 6th to try to whitewash the riot that day in order to move forward with their eyes on the midterms next fall. >> given kevin mccarthy's recent trip to visit president trump, i find his answer to reporters that he didn't talk to trump about this to be questionable at the very least. curt bardella, another one of the folks on the committee is troy nehls. why does he stand out to you? he's from texas? >> if speaker pelosi is looking for one member she may want to think about not proving it's congressman troy nehls. this was somebody fired from the richmond police department in texas for not handling evidence

the right way. when he was fired, the person in charge of that, who made that decision, his commanding officer sent him a letter with more than 20 documented infractions of breaching and breaking with quality. if you are not qualified to be a police department member in texas how are you qualified to serve on an investigative committee, where you could have access to sentencive and classified information about a domestic terrorist event in the united states of america. this is somebody grossly unqualified, ethically questionable. and demonstrated when given the choice to make the right decision, moral decision or his own personal interest decision that's the side he goes for. so for kevin mccarthy to appoint somebody to this committee with this history, who has been fired from law enforcement before is disturbing. and tells you the level of

severity the republicans are taking in wanting to get to the truth in understanding the full scope of what happened on january 6th. >> you were among many who were pushing for a select committee on this. explain to us what's next and how you think democrats should handle this. >> what's going to happen next is coming up here at the end of the month they'll have their first committee hearing and it's going to feature the law enforcement personnel as witnesses who were on the ground. and it's going to really put democrats in the position to challenge republicans to say, if you think this was just a terrorist event, if you think this wasn't violent, what our eyes and ears tell us it is from the footage, listen to these officers, listen to these blue lives matter, protect and serve, law and order, listen to their testimony and sit there on that diyas jim banks and jim jordan and pretend like this didn't happen. that's the things that democrats

need to do, they need to use the opportunity to put on a show for the american people that challenges republicans to contradict the brave men and women who put their lives literally on the line, were attacked and assaulted, they need to challenge the republicans to go against them sitting in front of them in real time. >> that's the thing, gene robinson, we know jim jordan will be an obstructionist. but is he going to sit across from a d.c. police officer or a capitol police officer sworn to protect jim jordan's life and question his version of the events that day. it'll be interesting to see, i expect, the existence of the select committee he'll be question and why it's necessary. but it's hard to change people's hearts and minds. people are solidified in this country. we can't get them to take a vaccine that will change their

life. what has been marked we expect? >> we should expect clownish behavior. that's what jim jordan does and will do, come out in shirt sleeves, not wearing a jacket because that's his thing, and he'll try to send this committee off the rails, and that's clearly his assignment on this committee. and democrats will just have to -- democrats plus liz cheney and maybe the -- maybe there'll be some seriousness from the two republicans who did not vote to decertify the election. but they'll just have -- the serious people on the committee will have to just press ahead and assert control over jordan and nehls and whoever else is essentially trying to destroy any possibility that the committee actually finds answers and does serious work.

it is astounding that mccarthy would take this path, his own life been in danger on january 6th and that of all the members he is supposed to lead. but that's what he did. and, you know, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. we know who kevin mccarthy is, and we know who jim jordan is, that's what they're going to try to do, try to send it off the rails. all right, kurt bardella we want to thank you for being on this morning. shortly after the sun rises today in west texas, billionaire jeff bezos will be launched into space. tom costello has the latest from the launch site. >> reporter: in remote van horn, texas, the anticipation is building, the launch pad 45 miles in the desert, set for billionaire jeff bezos' lift

off. >> people say they go to space and come back changed, i can't wait to see what it's going to do to me. >> while blue origin has flown 15 unmanned test flights this is the first to carry passengers. the simulator, an exact replica of the capsule that carries all four 62 miles high for 3 minutes of weightlessness and six massive windows. >> it feels like the earth is falling away from you. >> watching the whole thing through your window. >> exactly. >> reporter: like richard branson's virgin galactic, paying passengers are lining up. they plan to send six people at a time. but there are no professional astronauts or pilots on board. blue origin insists the ship is set with safety backups with the great escape set for 9:00 a.m.

eastern. >> we'll have coverage leading up to the launch here on "morning joe" a couple hours away. and still ahead on "morning joe," senator majority leader chuck schumer sets up a vote for infrastructure. could the growing number of covid cases impact america's economic recovery? steve ratner joins us with a look at yesterday's rocky day on wall street. and we're joined by carol leonnig and phillip rucker on their new book "i alone can fix it". you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ summer is a state of mind, you can visit anytime. savor your summer with lincoln. ♪ ♪ dry eye symptoms keep driving you crazy? inflammation in your eye might be to blame. [inflammation] let's kick ken's ache and burn into gear! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. those drops will probably pass right by me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. [inflammation] what's that? [inflammation] xiidra? no! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye,

and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait fifteen minutes before reinserting contacts. [inflammation] got any room in your eye? be proactive about managing your symptoms by talking to your doctor about twice-daily xiidra. like i did. [inflammation] i prefer you didn't! xiidra. not today, dry eye. ice cream is like whooping cough, it's not just for kids. whooping cough is highly contagious for people of any age. and it can cause violent uncontrollable coughing fits. ask your doctor or pharmacist about whooping cough vaccination because it's not just for kids. so, you have diabetes, here are some easy rules. no sugar. no pizza. no foods you love. stressed? no stress. exercise. but no days off! easy, no? no. no. no. no. but with freestyle libre 14 day, you can take the mystery out of your diabetes. now you know. sir, do you know what you want to order?

yes. freestyle libre 14 day. try it for free. your skin isn't just skin, it's a beautiful reflection of everything you've been through. that's why dove renews your skin's ceramides and strengthens it against dryness for softer, smoother skin you can lovingly embrace. renew the love for your skin with dove body wash. every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of re the new mobile servicekin designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the fastest, most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just 30 dollars per line per month when you get four lines- or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.

the state department and cdc

both issued their highest warnings about traveling to the uk as they grapple with a rise in covid cases again. it comes as they lifted restrictions despite a jump of cases in the uk. the uk adding more than 50,000 cases on saturday and 40,000 on sunday. those numbers greater than in i said knee sha, which is the epicenter of the pandemic. news of covid spikes among unvaccinated people led to the worst market decline since may. joining us now, economic analyst steve ratner. you have charts on the market drop but also explain just your thoughts on the dynamics around what's going on with covid, where we're headed and how this applies to our economy. >> sure, mika. let's start with yesterday's market drop. it was the biggest since may for

the s&p and actually since last october for the dow jones. you can see the dotted black line toward the top is the s&p 500 you can see it was having quite a good year before this started. it had risen by about 16% through the end of last week but that red circle in the upper right is what happened yesterday, it was a significant drop but doesn't nearly begin to reverse the upward progress the markets had all year. the other two lines reflect industries that are travel sensitive, airlines, hotels and cruises. they started under water, for obvious reasons from the shutdown still going on at the end of last year, a strong beginning of the year, rising by more than 20%, each of those sectors but then they did start to decline way before yesterday as investors began to think the growth story was oversold, people weren't going to travel as much, and that the stocks

were a little bit overvalued. so they had been coming down before yesterday, which was certainly the worst of it. if you look also now at treasuries, which had an interesting day yesterday as well, long-term treasuries, 10 year treasuries, you can see the little red circle at the right which is a decline in interest rates yesterday and what happens when the markets get nervous, investors go into treasuries for the safety and security and that's what happened. but again treasury rates that had risen as the country reopened, treasuries have been declined for a while also as investors had become nervous about the growth cycle and concerned that the fed would allow inflation to run away. but that is a bit different from how consumers think about all this, which is shown in a university of michigan survey that came out on friday and what that showed was a couple of interesting things if we can put

that chart up on the screen, which is that it showed that consumer sentiment, which has been pretty stable for the last few months had actually dipped down for a couple of months now, but that's happened at the same time as concerns about inflation, that's the red line. this is how consumers feel about inflation has risen. so consumers are getting nervous also, they're more nervous about inflation. the bond market is more nervous about growth. and the stock market probably is best described as more nervous about covid and what impact that's going to have. i'm not a public health expert. the future of the stock market depends a lot on the future of covid. if you can tell me how bad the delta variant is going to be and how likely we're going to lock down, i can tell you what i think the stock market will do. but if we go on as normal, i

don't see any change in our business, for the first time since this started, i went to a money manager in another building in new york and i had to take out my id, all these things i haven't done in a year and a half. so so far still operating normally. >> if you look at the number of the unvaccinated, that does give you a little bit of a road map in terms of the delta variant because 99% of people going to hospitals and all of the deaths that we're having from covid right now according to the u.s. surgeon general could be prevented. but steve, president biden, speaking about inflation, made comments yesterday trying to calm concerns about that. take a listen. >> we see some price increases. some folks have raised worries this could be a sign of persistent inflation. but that's not our view. our experts believe, and the data shows that most of the price increases we've seen were expected and expected to be temporary. i want to be clear.

my administration understands that if we were to ever experience unchecked inflation over the long term, that would pose a real challenge to our economy. so while we're confident it isn't what we're seeing today. we're going to remain vigilant about any response that is needed. >> biden also acknowledged that he and fed chair, jerome powell, have been talking about what to do in case those price increases are not temporary. steve, what do you make of that? >> before the covid resurgence happened, this was the great discussion among the investor community, we have had strong price increases the last couple of months, some is reversing weaker price increases from last year but some of it is quite worrisome you can see cost pressures throughout the economy, in everything from used cars to goods that people are buying to services, everything has been going up a good bit and

it is a great concern. and as you saw before, america is a concern, which is why i think the president felt he needed to respond to that. the federal reserve has been so far maintaining it's very strictly easy money, not so worried about inflation policy. j powell last week did acknowledge inflationary pressures were worst than we thought but the fed was standing by to do something about it. i think the president sensed yesterday, as i showed you in that university of michigan survey, there is rising concerns on the part of americans and i am glad he acknowledged it and we'll see what happens as the numbers roll in. >> i want to ask you about the labor shortage we're in right now. it's amazing to me that to a business owner, everywhere i go, a restaurant, coffee shop, landscaping firm, we'd like to

be open full-time, expand our business, we can't do it, we don't have the people. what is your sense if this is something seasonal, whether something changes when the checks from the federal government stop going out or how much this is a shift in the economy away from these kinds of jobs? >> great question. you're right, we all see this everywhere, businesses can't operate, especially seasonal businesses which depend many cases on seasonal workers coming from out of this country. but more broadly, people are not going back quite the way we thought. we have a record number of jobs open, over 9 million jobs open and people still leaving the labor force for a variety of reasons. i think the unemployment insurance benefits go off in september, definitely played a role. there are child care issues and personal health issues which may get exacerbated. there was a poll the other day

that really showed there are other issues going on out here. some people don't want to return to the office. many people don't want to return to -- i hate to call them menial, but to low wage jobs they consider to be more like treasury and because households have a fair amount of cash right now because they couldn't spend like they would normally last year and because of the government stimulus checks they're in a position to not rush back to work and that's what's happening americans are not rushing back to work for these reasons and that's creating a labor problem for businesses around the country. >> steve ratner, a lot to talk about. thank you so much for being on this morning. coming up we'll talk about president biden's inflation remarks when kate bedingfield joins the conversation. with days to go until the start of the tokyo olympics, more athletes are coming down

with coronavirus. and facebook's misinformation problem appears to be growing. according to "the new york times," the social media giant doesn't even know some specifics about how false information spreads on its platform. "morning joe" is coming right back. this is cynthia suarez, cfo of go-go foodco., an online food delivery service. business was steady, until... gogo-foodco. go check it out. whaatt?! overnight, users tripled. which meant hiring 20 new employees and buying 20 new laptops. so she used her american express business card, which gives her more membership rewards points on her business purchases. somebody ordered some laptops? cynthia suarez. cfo. mvp. get the card built for business. by american express. ♪ ♪

i had the nightmare again maxine. the world was out of wonka bars... relax. you just need digital workflows. they help keep everyone supplied and happy, proactively. let's workflow it. then you can stop having those nightmares. no, i would miss them too much. whatever you business is facing... let's workflow it. servicenow. limu emu... and doug. so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. oh um, doug can we talk about something other than work, it's the weekend. yeah, yeah. [ squawk ] hot dog or... chicken? [ squawk ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. oh. their award-winning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service. well except now you're binge learning. see how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from td ameritrade. visit tdameritrade.com/learn ♪

search and rescue efforts for survivors in western europe are intensifying after the worst flooding in decades as the death toll continues to climb. nbc's meghan fitzgerald has more. >> reporter: days after catastrophic devastation, the best of humanity. >> so many people came and ask can we help? it's nice. nice feeling. >> reporter: neighbors and strangers helping each other clean up after the worst

flooding germany has seen in more than half a century. so many people lost everything, decades of memories now piles of rubble lining the streets of neighborhoods across western germany. three months of rain falling in 24 hours, streams and creeks turned to raging rivers, tearing through towns and everything in its path. >> so many dead. >> reporter: the death toll nearing 200. while police continue to look for the nearly 300 still missing, the devastation setting in. >> he was calling help, help i can't swim. >> reporter: there was little neighbors could do in the face of surging water but doing as much as they can now to help each other rebuild. that was nbc's meghan fitzgerald with that report us. senator majority leader

chuck schumer made good on his promise to set up a procedural vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill for tomorrow, whether or not it's finished being written. schumer reminded republicans there is precedent for voting to continue debate on the bill without the finished text. >> the motion to proceed is about getting the legislative process started here on the floor. it's not a deadline to determine every final detail of the bill. a yes vote on the bill to proceed means the senate is ready to begin debating and amending a bipartisan infrastructure bill, no more, no less. but many republican senators are saying tomorrow's infrastructure vote will not pass. the fast time line was an attempt by the senate majority leader to push lawmakers into agreement on a deal.

instead, they're saying there's no chance they'll take on debate on a bill that is not finished. one of the members of the negotiating team, senator lisa murkowski of alaska said she did not believe the republican caucus would be ready in time for this vote. while senator roy blunt of missouri said the move is akin to chuck schumer killing the bill. mitch mcconnell saying republicans will not vote on moving forward without seeing finished text. so jonathan lemire pull us out of the weeds a little bit here explain what's going on exactly to remind people, this is the bipartisan bill that you have five republicans and five democrats negotiating to get to 60 votes, that's separate from the larger bill that democrats are likely going to have to pass through reconciliation. >> that's right. the white house has poured a ton of energy into this part of it, the bipartisan part. it's important to president

biden to reach across the aisle and get this done. you could sense his frustration yesterday when asked about this, when he said we shook hands on this and expected republicans to uphold their end of the deal. we know from biden, his favorite expression is, i give my word as a biden, he believes a deal is a deal. tomorrow is a procedural vote to get it moving forward. right now it does look like it will fail. if that's the case, there's a real risk it could poison the waters on the bill as a whole, maybe it would fall apart with stuff being settled with the pay force, now that the irs enforcement appears to be out of the bill, there are questions how it will be funded and if the republicans and democrats are angry at each other over this procedure tomorrow that could damage negotiations. that said it doesn't have to go that way. tomorrow is an arbitrary deadline, schumer said it to push things forward. he can set the deadline back,

extend it, particularly if there's progress in the next 24 hours and the two sides will still be meeting. and if progress is made, republicans maybe will say we'll vote for it. that's seems unlikely. but we'll know more in the coming days whether a bipartisan deal, that looked like nearly a sure thing a week ago, will fall apart and if it does, then this might have to go to the reconciliation package making that harder to pass, too. it's high stakes stuff, willie. gene robinson, what do you make of this, has chuck schumer exposed the democrats to unnecessary failure? >> he created a crisis to concentrate the mind of the senators who are working on this. and so he set an arbitrary deadline. and as john said, he can extend that deadline if he wants to.

if he sees progress. so he's got a lot of options. he's still in control of the agenda. but it's -- this is not a new tactic in congress, in washington. you know, artificially create a crisis, deadline, and get people moving and maybe you make that deadline, maybe you don't. maybe you have to extend it. but at least you get things moving forward in a more constructive way. that's what he's trying to do and we'll see if he can pull it off. >> coming up, ahead of the fall school year, a federal judge rules in favor of one university's vaccine mandate. what it means for other schools considering similar requirements. plus the biden administration has sent a warning to russia about recent cyber attacks. will china be next? the white house is pointing the finger at beijing for a hack on

microsoft's email server. "morning joe" is coming right back. replace old pipes? i can do that. install energy-efficient windows? i can do that. build an electric car? i can do that. weld the tower of a wind turbine? modernize the grid? install 10,000 solar panels? do what i've been doing my whole life?

rebuild the country and protect america against climate change? we can do that. there's interest you accrue, and interests you pursue. plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. assets you allocate, and ones you hold tight. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. and with the right guidance, you can get the financial clarity you need, and live a life rich in meaning, and gratitude. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com.

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. this is a hero, walking his youngest down the aisle, which to his bladder, feels like a mile.

yet he stands strong, dry, keeping the leaks only to his eyes. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you.

president biden is condemning china for a massive cyber attack, but so far no action has been taken, nbc news white house correspondent kelly o'donnell reports. >> reporter: blaming china for cyber crimes for the first time the u.s. joined by european allies and nato partners publicly condemn china for malicious cyber hacks and directly hiring hackers. the attacks include the sweeping intrusion of the microsoft exchange server in march. the department of justice is also bringing criminal charges against four accused hackers from chinese intelligence. but so far no further consequences for china.

a stark difference from sanctions imposed on russia after cyber attacks. naming and shaming china but no sanctions why? and is that effective enough? >> they're still determining exactly what happened. >> reporter: while the president often calls out russia's vladimir putin to stop hacking, today he did not address the chinese president directly. >> the chinese government, not unlike the russian government is not doing this themselves but are protecting those who are doing it and maybe even accommodating them being able to do it. >> and coming up with coronavirus cases on the rise, a leading pediatrics group recommends masks for children in school this fall, even if they're vaccinated. plus, billionaire jeff bezos set to blast off into space in about two hours from now. we'll have live coverage of the

history making flight. "morning joe" is coming right back. i don't know what it's going to mean for me. everybody who's been to space says it changes them in some way i'm excited to see how it changes me. >> personally i'm hoping it changes him into a person who pays any taxes. pays any taxes fermentation? yes. formulated to help you body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness, well done. from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination.

if you have this... consider adding this. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this... consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. ♪

changes me. changes me.

speaking of trump, check out what the authors of a new book said about the recent interview with the former president. >> at one point in the two and a half hour sitdowns with the book's authors suggested that if george washington came back from the dead and chose abraham lincoln as his vice president, it would have been very hard, he says, to beat them. >> if george washington came back from the dead and chose lincoln as his running mate. does trump think abe lincoln is still alive? >> that was jimmy fallon on one

of the many revelations featured in our next guests new book. carol leonnig and phil rucker join us in a few minutes with that. welcome back to "morning joe," it is tuesday, july 20th. joe has the morning off. with willy and me we have jonathan lemire and eugene robinson. we start with the pandemic and the debate on mask wearing. it's heating up again, with a call for all children over the age of 2 to wear them as the delta variant pushes up cases in every state, only about two thirds of those eligible are partially vaccinated. miguel almaguer has the latest. >> reporter: with children nationwide soon returning to the classroom, the american academy of pediatrics says all students older than two and staff should wear a mask at school.

an added layer of protection for the 48 million kids under 12 who still don't qualify for vaccination. the former surgeon general and others suggesting whether americans are vaccinated or not, universal mask wearing is needed again. >> it's not like we're asking people to go to the trenches with shooting war. we're just asking you, if it looks like it's going to help, put the mask back on for a while. >> reporter: the face of the nation's most divisive restriction is more than just a new mandate indoors in los angeles county as covid cases spike here by 300%. ten additional counties are recommending the fully vaccinated use face coverings inside. >> we do not intend mask mandate, we do intend to double down on vaccination. >> reporter: while cdc guidelines say the vaccinated don't need masks, less than half

the population is fully vaccinated and as vaccines plummet, infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to soar. >> patients that could otherwise handle an infection reasonably well getting very well. >> reporter: the fight to get americans vaccinated is also a battle of misinformation. the president walking back comments about facebook from friday. >> the hope is, instead of taking it personal that i said facebook is killing people, they would do something about it. a federal judge ruled indiana university can require employees and students to get the covid-19 vaccine before attending this fall. the judge rejecting a request while they pursue a lawsuit. they claim the policy violates

their constitutional rights by forcing them to receive unwanted medical treatment. but current indiana law requires that students get immunized for six diseases in order to attend state colleges. in the ruling the judge said the constitution permits the school to pursue vaccinations in, quote, the legitimate interest of public health for students, facility and staff. friday marks the beginning of the olympic games in tokyo but the coronavirus has already affected some members of team usa. tom yamas is in japan with the latest on what's being done to slow the spread. >> reporter: the olympics in a tug of war with the pandemic. the first american athlete here testing positive for covid. cara acre, an alternate for the super star women's gymnastics team. the 18-year-old from the kansas city area was vaccinated. she's asymptomatic and

quarantining at a hotel. >> as a parent you feel helpless to do anything except keep her spirits up and hug the heck out of her when she gets back. >> reporter: confirming the fellow alternate on the gymnastics team is also in isolation, she's tested negative. the alternates had been training in the same facility as the six athletes who will compete here, including simone biles. usa gymnastics said the groups were kept separate and protocols were in place. i visited the new gymnastics center where the team will compete. these hand crafted wooden seats will stay empty. imagine you pull off a gold medal routine in tokyo and there is nobody around to witness it, including your family. organizers thought of a solution. it's called the athlete moment cam. think of it as a zoom call where

athletes will speak face-to-face with their families back home. >> katy lou samuelson also testing positive. and zack lavene is in protocols. >> you have to keep your distance try to keep yourself safe. everyone is wearing masks. it feels very separate. >> tom yamas from tokyo. the opening ceremony is friday night on nbc. mika? in miguel almaguer's report we heard some of president biden's new comments about facebook. softening his claims that the company is killing people by spreading misinformation about the pandemic. >> it was pointed out that facebook, of all the misinformation, 60% of the misinformation came from 12 individuals. that's what the article said. so i was asked that question

about what do i think is happening? facebook isn't killing people, these 12 people are out there giving misinformation. anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it. my hope is facebook, instead of taking it personally that i'm saying facebook is killing people, that they would do something about the misinformation, the outrageous misinformation about the vaccine. that's what i went. that's what i meant. >> so if facebook wants to parse words, they had disinformation on their platform and as people consumed that disinformation and the disinformation does things like, say you shouldn't get the vaccine, coronavirus is a joke, or whatever else, and they decide to believe that information because they think it is from facebook, which they think is credible, and that is where they get their news and then they die of covid, somehow they are connected with people dying. facebook.

meanwhile, it seems that facebook doesn't even know how coronavirus misinformation has spread on line. "the new york times" reports that at the start of the pandemic, a group of data scientists at facebook held a meeting with executives to ask for resources to help measure covid-19 misinformation on the social network. two people who participated in the meeting told the times that data scientists believed figuring out how many facebook users saw false or misleading information could potentially take a year or more. they looked to add additional people to the team so that the company could understand how misinformation was spreading. according to sources, facebook executives never approved the resources and the team was never told why. now, as the white house requests specific data, it is becoming clear that the social media

giant does not know the full impact of its platform's role in fuelling coronavirus misinformation, let alone other types of misinformation, like about the election. now to the long awaited book from two outstanding washington post journalists "i alone can fix it, donald j. trump's catastrophic final year" is out today and details the start of the coronavirus and ends with the insurrection of the capitol on january 6th. and the co-authors join us now, reporter for "the washington post" carol leonnig, and senior washington correspondent for the washington post and political analyst for msnbc and nbc news, phillip rucker joins us. you both actually travelled at donald trump's invitation to mar-a-lago to speak with the former president.

among the many questions you asked concerned the events at the capitol on january 6th and you write in part this, i would venture to say i think it was the largest crowd i had ever spoken to before, trump said, it was a loving crowd, too, by the way. there was a lot of love. in all fairness, the capitol police were ushering people in, trump said. the capitol police were very friendly. they were hugging and kissing. you don't see that. there's plenty of tape on that. i don't know where to begin, but why don't we back up, and carol if you can fill us in on why you think he invited you to mar-a-lago and allowed you to sit down and talk to him about this. >> i think phil and i both recognize, as you do, because of how long you've been chronicing this presidency. donald trump loves an audience. when we had come to see him he

was stripped of audiences, no longer was he on the south lawn talking to reporters every morning, he was on twitter. and he wanted to get across his version of reality to us and, as he said, get the word out. many of the things he said to us do not square with reality and do not square with the evidence that we have and facts that we've done in our reporting. but donald trump wants that alternate reality out there and he wants to explain to the public that he really didn't lose, that he won arizona and pennsylvania and michigan. he wants people to believe that the january 6th riot was a peaceful, loving event in which his supporters were just basically great loving people. we know what we saw. the rioters were slamming flagpoles and batons and bear spray at police officers, and some of them died that day or the next day.

>> and phil, when he said things like that, did you all push him? did you say, with all due respect, that is exactly not what happened. people died and this was an insurrection, among many other things. what was the conversation like or was he allowed to just talk? >> we pushed him reapedly in a number of different areas, including his allegations of voter fraud. this is two months after he left office and he was still filled with grievance about the fraud he believes existed or at least he tries to persuade his supporters that existed when there's no evidence for it whatsoever. we also asked why as president he thought it was okay to tell the american things that were not true, to lie again and again, he said to us, there's a beautiful word and it's called disinformation. >> carol, it's willie, congratulations, guys, on this book, one scoop after another. i'm reading your piece in

"vanity fair" that chronicles your interview on march 31st, when you went down to mar-a-lago and sat down with former president trump. i'll begin at the end, i actually enjoyed this, for some sick reason i enjoyed your interview. he goes just about anybody you could criticize and criticizes them, down to george washington, abraham lincoln, ronald reagan, john mccain. what is your sense of why he wanted to sit with you for as long as he did and what he needed to get in the record despite he does this, his protests you guys are unfair and your previous book was fake news, et cetera. >> i'm glad you asked that question in that final moment it's one of our favorite as well. the former president is really being pretty aware of himself at that moment by saying, you know, i am addicted to your questions and your attention. it is a sickness in some

respects. however i would argue part of the reason he sat with us for so long is because we were eager to hear his explanations, his narrative of this incredible consequential and ultimately catastrophic year. we wanted him to have a chance to explain that. mostly what he talked about was how often people around him failed him. he believes bill barr was addicted to the media and too weak to resist the criticism that he was facing, and that's why bill barr failed him. he argued that mitch mcconnell was stupid and lacked personality, and this was a huge yolk around his neck to have a republican leader who was so fair to mid, i guess i would say. the next thing he argued was that pence, his vice president, was weak and could have done

more to protect the constitution if he had followed donald trump's words. a lot of people would disagree with the president about this, but i think it's interesting his narrative is basically he alone was the brilliant genius and everyone else was enemy or weak, paltry stand in. >> and president trump told you guys, quote, had mike pence had the courage to send it back, you would have had a different outcome in my opinion. i think the vice president of the united states must protect the constitution of the united states. i don't believe he's supposed to be a statute who gets the votes and hands them over. if you see fraud you have an obligation to do one of a number of things. end of quote. many people would say that mike pence did defend the constitution that day. he also criticized supreme court

justice, brett kavanaugh, he goes after chris christie, said nikki haley put out nasty statements. the island is down to about rudy giuliani, kevin mccarthy and some immediate family members right now. but you have a passage about president trump committing to the lies with a straight face. i encourage everyone to read the piece because he goes off on every conspiracy theory. if you had someone in your family speaking to you the way he speaks, they'd call an emergency meeting, there's something wrong with dad. what's the accepts of he needs to believe the garbage to be spewing or needs it to be out there to tell himself and supporters he did win. >> it's hard to get inside the head of donald trump, but he repeats the lies again and again so often that they might be true in his mind. when you're down there talking to him, there's a distorted reality he's presenting. not only to us, but the dozens

of guests that come to mar-a-lago every night for dinner and give him a standing ovation at sun set. and then you leave mar-a-lago and you realize what's happening in the world the reality is so different from what he's trying to tell his supporters. so many americans still continue to believe what donald trump is telling them. and in our book we interviewed more than 140 senior officials in the government, advisers to the former president, witnesses to these events and again and again they told us about how concerned and alarmed they were by what the president was doing and saying in office, especially in those final weeks after the election and before joe biden's inauguration. >> so, guys, i'm just having -- you know, listening in my mind and imagining that scene of him getting that standing o at mar-a-lago, which he gets for himself whenever he wants it.

and thinking of kevin mccarthy going to visit him and these leaders in washington who follow him, who fear him. and i've made this point before earlier this week, this doesn't feel like a cult, this appears to be a cult. how would you describe the relationship between donald trump and his followers, especially given the sort of color that you're telling us about in your incredible book? >> i'm so glad you fix on that issue of the parade of people that we watched come in to sort of kiss the ring of donald trump. months after he has lost the election. so many republican congressmen are coming to mar-a-lago to basically get his endorsement, his stamp of approval, because they know what we all are watching in front of our eyes. that so many americans still

cheer for donald trump. as we like to say, if a primary were held today, he would probably be the republican nominee for president. he is the standard right now and the most prominent republican. voters who supported him believe the wall-to-wall basic coverage of his comments and believe that covid is not as bad as people say because he said so. believe masks don't work because he rejected them. believe that the election was stolen because he repeatedly said so and continues to do so. >> guys, congrats on the book. cannot wait to read it. carol one of the pieces that's gotten a lot of attention so far is what mark milley and his concerns he had. suggesting this was what was happening in the, you know, after the election, before january 20th, akin to hitler's germany in the 1920s and '30s. what steps were he and others in

the government perhaps doing to prevent what donald trump wanted to do? >> you know, jonathan, it's such an important moment because it begins june 1st. from our reporting we learned that general milley decides, after june 1st in that brutal clearing of lafayette square for an opportunity for a photo op for the president, he's never going to let that happen again, he's not going to be played as he tells his aides. the military will not be deployed on his watch for political gain. but he becomes concerned there's a plot afoot, a coup in the works. he gets a call from friends, military aids, h.r. mcmaster, watch it here's something going on, here are the people you need to be careful about. he begins meeting with the joint

chiefs, army, navy, air force to talk about what they will do to block dump if he takes a step to use the military to keep and maintain his grasp on power. they decide, basically, as phil and i learned, on a reverse saturday night massacre if anyone is familiar with that moment from nixon's presidency. they start talking about how they will resign one by one basically to stop the president in his tracks if he does something insane. >> extraordinary. so phil, cover of your book has the picture of donald trump pulling off his mask upon his return from walter reed medical center after he was diagnosed with covid. when you talk to him in your interviews here and as you report in the book, do you have any sense of all about any second guessing how he handled the pandemic? anything he wished he would have done differently for what was the defining issue and moment of his presidency, at least until

january 6th. >> his management of covid, catastrophic failure we know that right. setting aside the development of the vaccine. when we asked him what he would do differently, he had no regrets. nothing he wished he could turn around. but one regret in a different area. he wished during the black lives matter protests that started after the killing of george floyd that he had put american troops in u.s. cities to go after the protesters. he thought he should have looked stronger than he did, and he regrets not having sent troops into the streets. >> congratulations on the book, this is gene robinson. what an amazing achievement, amazing story. >> thank you, gene. >> there are words for people who speak the way donald trump spoke to you and words like demented and delusional.

so in all the interviews you did with people who work for him, do they think he's off his gourd or do they think this is all intentional and what's the mixture of those two things that the people who were closest to him perceive? >> gene, you know, this is such an interesting point because we went back and forth with so many sources. every time we sat down with them, we were stunned to learn that some of them still had not figured it out. they're not sure whether he believes the lie, the one he commits to so physically, the one he sounds like when he's selling the snake oil that it's a miracle cure. some are still not sure whether he believes what he is saying. i'll tell you this, one of the most shocking sort of takeaways for both phil and for me is how many ardent supporters, who looked like they were silently standing by his side, no

objection, how panicked they were behind the scenes. you know, what we learned in our reporting, bill barr very unsettled and disturbed by the president's insistence on sicking troops on americans who had a right to protest. he was worried about another waco because of what trump was pushing. we had mark esper, the secretary of defense, worried about providing real information to the president about the success of the early trials of the vaccine because he feared the president would start forcing americans to be taking these vaccines before they were carefully vetted and went through the proper trials. you know, we had mark milley worried about a coup. we had mark meadows and pompeo and milley having last minute end of the trump reign, conversations to check in to make sure nothing went off the

rails in those 14 days between january 6th and the inauguration. basically inside there were a group of people fearing for themselves, fearing for the country. >> as you say, if president trump decided he were going to run again in 2024 he would be the nominee in a walk. you got it at with him in your interview he didn't say whether he was going to run but he did say i have 97% approval inside the republican party. you asked if he would run again with mike pence if he did decide to run. he said, he's been disloyal. did you walk out of mar-a-lago feeling like donald trump is preparing to run for president? >> we left mar-a-lago feeling like trump is preparing to be an active force and leader of the republican party. whether that takes the form of an actual campaign running for president i think is to be determine ld but he gave every

indication to us that he wants to continue at the forefront of the gop, shaping the gop and potentially leading it as its next nominee. you're right if the primaries were tomorrow he would be the nominee for the republican party. that's why looking back at the year 2020 and how he managed it is consequential. this is not history, this is current events. it's really scary for some of the people that served trump at the highest levels to contemplate that and it's what he's thinking about probably at this hour as he watches your program from bed minister new jersey. >> i have to -- >> yep, he does that. go ahead, carol. >> i think it's completely plausible based on the conversations that we had with him that he is not just toying with the idea of running for president. i think we should all prepare for the strong likelihood that he will. >> carol and phillip, you walk

out of mar-a-lago, you get in the car, what is the first thing you guys said to each other? >> i don't think we can tell you. >> it's something along the lines of holy and then a word we can't say on the air. >> yeah. that's what i figured. >> it was sort of leaving his brig don. we entered his inner sanctum, his castle. and so many things he said didn't square with reality. we left feeling he had hardened his narrative, everybody was against him, he didn't lose. the only reason he seemed to lose on paper is because everyone failed him. >> the new book is i alone can fix it. donald trump's catastrophic final year. carol leonnig and phillip rucker congratulations. thank you for writing this book. and thank you for coming on this morning. up next from the former guy

to the current guy. today marks six months since president biden was inaugurated. white house communications director kate bedding field joins us. and we'll have live coverage of billionaire jeff bezos's space flight just over an hour from now. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. 'll be righ. ♪ ♪ oh, focaccia! ah, there's no place like panera. enjoy the toasty, saucy chipotle chicken avocado melt on freshly baked bread. panera. order on the app today. wondering what actually goes into your multivitamin? at new chapter, its' innovation, organic ingredients, and fermentation. fermentation? yes. formulated to help you body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness, well done. only 6% of us retail businesses have a black owner.

that needs to change. so, i did something. i created a black business accelerator at amazon. and now we have a program that's dedicated to making tomorrow a better day for black businesses. ♪ ♪ i am tiffany. and this is just the beginning. serena: it's my 3:10 no-exit-in-sight migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes, without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrp protein, believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. serena: ask about ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine.

there's an america we build and one we explore. one that's been paved and one that's forever wild. but freedom means you don't have to choose just one adventure. you get both. introducing the wildly civilized all-new 3-row jeep grand cherokee l my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks.

tremfya® is the only medication of its kind also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. janssen can help you explore cost support options. ♪ watch the olympic games on xfinity ♪ tremfya®. emerge tremfyant™. ♪ root for team usa and feel the energy ♪

♪ 7000 plus hours of the olympics on display ♪ ♪ with xfinity you get every hour of every day ♪ ♪ different sports on different screens ♪ ♪ you can watch it anywhere ♪ ♪ and with the voice remote ♪ ♪ you never have to leave your chair ♪ show me team usa. ♪ all of this innovation could lead to some inspiration ♪ ♪ and you might be the next one to represent our nation ♪ ♪ this summer on your tv, tablet, or any screen ♪ ♪ xfinity is here to inspire your biggest dreams ♪ the american story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us. on we the people who seek a more perfect union. this is a great nation. we are good people. and over the centuries, through storm and strife, in peace and at war, we've come so far. but we still have far to go.

we'll press forward with speed and urgency for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities. much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build and much to gain. >> today marks exactly six months since president biden was sworn in as the country's 46th president, inheriting a politically divided nation just weeks after the deadly u.s. capitol attack and a struggling economy amid a global pandemic. joining us now, white house communications director kate bedingfield. kate, it's good to have you. >> good morning. >> a lot has been done by this administration. i think a lot of folks feel like there was finally a return to competency as it pertained to the coronavirus and as vaccines got out to the people. but i want to ask you a question that is actually dove tailing

off the interview i did with carol leonnig and phil rucker about their time with donald trump and the fer-venn si of his following, and i'm connecting it to the obvious disinformation that is out there on social media and i'm deeply concerned about this cult following, not cult-like, cult. and i wonder what the administration plans to do in areas where it actually can, as it pertains to these big tech companies and disinformation traveling through them to millions and millions of americans. >> well, one thing i would point out, mika is president trump himself has gotten vaccinated. he was one of the earliest to get the vaccine and has said so to his supporters. and that's great. but one thing we know is that the most important thing that people think about when they're making a determination about getting the vaccine. i know you're raising a broader point about misinformation, but one thing that people think about is what their friends,

what their doctor, the people they trust and their community have to say. so we're going to continue to supply information to encourage people to get the vaccine. what we're seeing is that right now this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, 99.5% of people in the hospital or who have died from this virus are unvaccinated. so president biden is going to continue to make every effort to convince people to take the vaccine. with regard to social media and misinformation, he has raised we all have a responsibility here, the social media companies have a responsibility, news outlets who are promoting misinformation, using their airwaves to promote misinformation have a responsibility. he is going to call it out, going to continue to push and we as an administration are going to continue to provide good, accurate information particularly about the vaccine to make sure people get the shot so we can get this pandemic behind us once and for all. >> kate, definitely calling the shots and calling it out is

important but as a candidate, the president said he was open to getting rid of section 230. and i'm just wondering if he's open to amending 230 when facebook and twitter and other social media outlets spread false information that cause americans harm, shouldn't they be held accountable in a real well? shouldn't they be liable for publishing that information and then open to lawsuits? >> we're reviewing that and certainly they should be held accountable. i think you heard the president speak very aggressively about this. he understands this is an important piece of the ecosystem. it's also, the other thing the president has pointed out and spoke to, when he was asked about this yesterday, it is also the responsibility of the people creating the content. again i go back to there are conservative news outlets creating irresponsible content sharing misinformation about the

virus that's getting shared on these platforms. so it is a big and complicated ecosystem and everybody bears responsibility to ensure we are not providing people with bad information about a vaccine that will save their lives. really, when you get right down to it, that's the issue. the vaccine will safe your life. you should get it, encourage your friends and family to get it. it's safe. one of the pieces of misinformation out there is the idea the vaccine was rushed through. it was based on decades of research. and now 300 million doses have been administered. we're seeing in real time that it is safe and protecting people. so president biden is going to continue to make that case forcefully. >> let me ask you about that vaccine and message. as you know there are people in the country who will tune out president biden, some don't even think he's president, as you know and they're listening to their own media ecosystem. an interesting turn on fox news as a number of anchors came out and said we got the vaccine, you should go get it too.

maybe an important step in telling the audience that the vaccines are safe and good. as you pointed out, this is a crisis of the unvaccinated when we've seen the cases spike. what is left in the white house tool box to get the message out, you can get it on every street corner, you said every day it's safe and effective. we see the numbers that 99% of the cases in hospitals and deaths are among the unvaccinated. what is left for you all to do in the messaging? >> we're going to continue to try to use trusted voices. people who are most trusted are people in your community, friends, neighbors, we're continuing to make sure we get resources across the country into communities, whether that's mobile vans, making the vaccine available in pharmacies where you can walk up to your local pharmacy and get it and talk to your local pharmacist who you have a relationship with and who you trust. that's one way. we're going to do creative things we had olivia rodrigo to

the white house last week to use the power of her platforms last week, which reach an enormous number of young people and we see young people, 18 to 25, are the groups in the country who have been getting the vaccine at a slower rate. so we're going to continue to use every tool available to us to make sure that we are talking about the safety, the efficacy of the vaccine and we're going to make sure that we're ebb -- encouraging others who might reach that universe of people who are going to not necessarily tune into what the white house is doing or the president we're going to make sure they have good information too. >> let's travel up pennsylvania avenue a little bit where tomorrow the senate is going to take a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal, a vote that faces an uncertain outcome. the president yesterday seemed to stress some frustration that republicans were perhaps going back on their word about this

deal and maybe getting cold feet. can you give us a sense how worried you are about the status of the bipartisan infrastructure deal? and also, what is the president doing right now? is he going to spend today, tomorrow, ahead of the vote making phone calls? is he going to call his former senate colleagues, republican colleagues to make sure they stay in this? walk us through it. >> he's been involved from day one in this process, in contact with members of congress on both sides of the aisle throughout the process. he's going to continue to do it. he'll be on the phone, offering his advice, support, and opinions. so he's been very, very close to the negotiations and will continue to be. look, this is -- it is a hard process to make a bill into a law. right. this is a difficult process. it takes time. what i would say is, this is something that president biden has prioritized from the day he came into office. it's something he promised to do

on the campaign trail and he's making good on that promise, pushing forward to get his agenda passed and done. we're encouraged by where things stand. it's a negotiation, it takes time. but what i would say is, i think the american people have waited long enough. we think the american people have waited long enough. these are important investments, they're broadly popular investments. you can look at support from across the coalition from business leaders, labor leaders, democratic and republican voters across the country. they're important investments to create jobs, fix our roads and bridges. so we're hopeful we'll be able to get it across the finish line and we're encouraged by the hard work and the president appreciates the good faith of members on both sides of the aisle involved in the process. >> kate bedingfield, thank you very much for being on this morning. congratulations on six months. and still ahead, there's a

global contest going on between democracy and dictatorship. and one critical example today is in belarus. up next we'll talk to a leading opposition figure in that country about her fight to live in a free and open society. "morning joe" is coming right back. en society "morning joe" is coming right back not everybody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a bit differently. wet teddy bears! wet teddy bears here! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination.

to make my vision a reality my varilux progressive lenses provide seamlessly transition from near to far. with every detail in sharp focus. that's seeing no limits. varilux lenses by essilor. there's interest you accrue, and interests you pursue. plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. assets you allocate, and ones you hold tight. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal. and with the right guidance, you can get the financial clarity you need, and live a life rich in meaning, and gratitude. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com.

russian opposition leader is meeting with top u.s. officials this week to drum up support against what's often called europe's last dictatorship. she was forced to flee belarus last year after challenging the five-term president in a national election. lukashenko once again declared himself the winner in that race, sparking protests and the imprisonment of hundreds of political activists. one of those prisoners,

political prisoners is tsikhanouskaya's husband, sergei. now she's calling on the u.s. to stand with belarus. also with us democratic member of the foreign relations committee senator gene shaheen of new hampshire. so svetlana tsikhanouskaya's i would like to start with you, and can you tell us about your family and about your husband and how you came to become -- you came to be a candidate for president. >> good morning, america. more than one year ago i brought my documents to election commission, instead of my husband who had been detained at that moment. and i started the election

campaign. i couldn't do anything alone. it's up to belarusan people to give me that hope i get from them. and after fraudulent election in august 2020, 100,000 belarusans rose up to fight against stolen votes. and since the -- more than 300 days already people are fighting on the ground, but regime is escalating violence. and every day new detentions are happening in the belarus and ermorning you wake up and guess who else is detained today. journalist, activist, human right defenders, everybody is under this repression machine. but people, despite this

violence, despite the tortures in jails, they are continuing to fight, they're trying to do their best on the ground. but, of course, we understand that it's very difficult to fight when you're alone and the hold -- unless the whole world is with us. you know, the usa is the biggest democracy in the world. and president biden declared that it's ongoing struggle between autocracy and democracy, and belarus now is on the front line of this fight. i'm sure that the usa will be with belarusans because it may be -- how to say -- moral obligation of any democratic country to be with those who are still on the fight, on the path to democracy. >> i understand you met with the secretary of state tony blinken yesterday. did you receive any signs of hope that the u.s. might be able

to help you in your efforts? what came out of that meeting? >> absolutely. we had warm and truthful meeting. we understood that the usa will prolong the support of belarusan people. on the one hand pressure should be imposed on the regime, to isolate him economically and politically but on the other hand civil society need assistance. and i'm sure united states will be very helpful in this this in approaches. >> senator jane shaheen, explain why this matters in the grand scheme of things. i can think of a few things at the top of the list, but in terms of sort of the global effort toward democracy, how can belarus be an example if, perhaps, her efforts can be backed up by others?

>> we're very happy to welcome sviatlana to the senate today. she met virtually with the foreign relations committee weeks ago, and we're looking for ways we can support her and the opposition in belarus, that we can send a message. you ask why is this important to america? well, it sends a message to people all over the world about u.s. support for democracy, for freedom efforts, for ensuring people who are oppressed have hope for the future that things are going to change. that's one of our messages for sviatlana today to see how we can continue to help in the senate. there are bipartisan support for her efforts. a bipartisan supporter met her in lithuania which is very important for opposition figures who have fled to lithuania.

so we need to do everything we can to say we support your efforts for freedom from working with this dictator who is working with putin and is so oppressive. >> good morning, you mentioned vladimir putin and he supports lukashenko. ultimately he wants to swallow it up and make it part of russia. what do we need to do to help stem the tide and support sviatlana in belarus? >> continuing to show our support publicly is a start, and that's what we're trying to do today. also looking at sanctions that can make a difference on the economy of belarus which has been really oppressed by the sanctions and what's happening in the country, looking at sanctions on the industries that are most important to the country. it's one of the things that

sviatlana told the foreign relations committee when she met with us virtually, that we need to look at those industry sanctions. we also need to look at the other countries around belarus. ukraine, georgia, the other countries in western europe where they are trying to have the same impact and make sure we're supporting them as well, so there is a message to the people of eastern europe who are trying to get rid of russia and the dictatorship and the authoritarianism that that represents, who want freedom, that the united states is going to stick with them. >> jeanne shaheen, sviatlana tsikhanouskaya, thank you for being with us this morning. the olympics haven't even started and they already have an asterisk attached. i don't know, i kind of saw this

coming. but tell us. >> i love the olympics. i always watch the olympics. i'll watch the olympics again this year, but wow. they're trying to hold the olympics in the middle of a pandemic in a mostly unvaccinated country, bringing athletes from around the world, many countries where there is not the levels of vaccination that we have even in this country. and already you're seeing u.s. athletes like coco goff, the tennis star, had to pull out because of the covid diagnosis, the alternates for the gymnastics team are in quarantine now, and this just seems -- it threatens to cascade. you know, there will be no spectators in the stands when the athletes parade in on opening night, you know, waving their little flags and there is always this warm welcome from the crowd.

there is not going to be a crowd. there is not going to be a crowd watching simone biles as she seeks to dominate gymnastics and prove once and for all she's the greatest gymnast of all time. and that's -- you just have to wonder, you know, why are they going ahead with this? why didn't they postpone it yet another year? i know they didn't want to do it, the ioc didn't want to do it, japan didn't want to do it, but here we are, and it seems like everybody's worst fears could be realized. >> no audiences. still ahead, florida has become one of the country's biggest hot spots for the delta variant. we'll go inside a jacksonville hospital that is seeing a record surge in coronavirus cases. plus in just about one hour, billionaire jeff bezos will fly to the edge of space in the capsule developed by his company, blue origin.

we'll have full live coverage of the launch. "morning joe" is coming right back. joe" is coming right back i've spent centuries evolving with the world. that's the nature of being the economy. observing investors choose assets

to balance risk and reward. with one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. agile and liquid. a proven protector. an ever-evolving enabler of bold decisions. an asset more relevant than ever before. gold. your strategic advantage. replace old pipes? i can do that. install energy-efficient windows? i can do that. build an electric car? i can do that. weld the tower of a wind turbine? modernize the grid? install 10,000 solar panels? do what i've been doing my whole life? rebuild the country and protect america against climate change? we can do that. a pool floatie is like whooping cough, it's not just for kids. whooping cough is highly contagious

for people of any age. and it can cause violent uncontrollable coughing fits. ask your doctor or pharmacist about whooping cough vaccination because it's not just for kids. [relaxed summer themed music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

summer is a state of mind, you can visit anytime. savor your summer with lincoln.

during the campaign, vice president would get thousands watching him. president biden got 50,000. also reminding everyone of donald trump's super spreader rallies. that was on january 6, the same day insurrectionists stormed the capitol. so who did they pick to organize that attack? jim jordan. what about other people who believe the lies that trump and his friends are peddling? one is about to see the inside of a prison cell. we'll get to the latest on the

first rioter to be sentenced for a felony crime linked to the insurrection. and when it comes to covid, it is back and in a big way. what you need to know about the delta variant. willie, why don't you begin right there. >> good morning, mika. right now only about two-thirds of people across the country who are eligible for the covid vaccine are not vaccinated as the delta variant pushes up out of the state. florida once again becomes a hot spot. but first, miguel almaguer has the latest on a new call for all schoolchildren over the age of two to wear masks. >> reporter: with children nationwide soon returning to the classroom, the american academy of pediatrics says all students older than two and staff should wear a mask at school, an added layer of protection for the 48 million kids under 12 who still

don't qualify for vaccination. the former surgeon general and others suggesting whether americans are vaccinated or not, universal mask wearing is needed again. >> it's not like we're asking people to go to the trenches with a shooting war, we're just asking you if it looks like it's going to help, put the mask back on for a while. >> reporter: the face of the nation's most divisive restriction is more than just a new mandate indoors in los angeles county. as cases spike here by 10%, they are asking for a mask mandate inside public spaces. while cdc say the vaccinated don't need masks, less than half the population is fully vaccinated. as new vaccinations plummet by

35%, infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to soar. >> it's far more virulent. patients that otherwise could handle a viral infection reasonably well getting very, very ill. >> reporter: the fight to get more americans vaccinated is also a battle against misinformation. the president now walking back comments after pointing the finger at facebook friday. >> my hope is that facebook, instead of taking it personally and saying facebook is killing people that they would do something about the misinformation. >> reporter: at uf health in jacksonville, the covid resurgence has been ferocious, almost overnight. >> i thought for a while we saw the light at the end of the tunnel with only one covid-positive patient. and now there hasn't even been enough time to realize that we're back to where we started. >> reporter: cases here are doubling each week. florida now counts for one-fifth of new infections across the

country. >> we're gaining cases at such a rapid rate, we don't really know where it's going to stop. >> reporter: statewide, hospitalizations and deaths are stopping short in january, but nurses say it is busier, at least here. >> this is one of four hospitals with covid units. on sunday the hospital had 84 covid patients, now 123. a more than 40% increase in just one day. >> it was just insane to go from having one covid patient to having all covid patients again. and it's just insanity. it really is. >> reporter: about 85% of seniors in the state have been vaccinated. but there are people like 65-year-old debra wells. >> reporter: did you get vaccinated? >> no. >> reporter: we spoke to her by phone through her room's window. why didn't you get vaccinated, ma'am? >> i was scared. >> reporter: she's been here

since saturday. do you regret not getting vaccinated? >> yes, i do. i was dying. i don't wish it on my worst enemy. let's talk to dr. vin gupta. he is a pulmonologist. i'm thinking before february 2020 before most of us realized how serious this was, you in washington state had the first death in the united states. you've been treating covid patients since back then. what is your assessment of where we are right now and can we stem this tide that just keeps coming? >> good morning, willie, good to see you. i think it's important for us as a nation to remain calm and realize that even as cases are increasing, they're decoupling from hospital trends across the country. yes, there are some zip codes with hot spots as mentioned. but across the country, the biggest trend here is that hospitalizations and deaths still remain at some of the lowest points in the last 18

months. that's a great thing. we need to remind the people that are not vaccinated -- i think we need to start talking about reinstituting mandatory mask mandates in big counties across the country that may not need it and really double down in our messaging to those who have remained unvaccinated. that is the key here, because we do know that two doses, especially of the mrna vaccines, are very protective against the delta variant if you're otherwise healthy. let me say real quick, these vaccine breakthrough cases, the rare individual, who test positive even after they've been fully vaccinated, usually they're mild or completely asymptomatic in terms of illness. it's only if they're over 65 years of age or generally immunocompromised, again, exceptionally rare event do they end up in the hospital. very rare, but it's vulnerable

here. so the couple that is worried about not getting vaccinated that they remain vulnerable. for everybody else, we should look at the positive trends and really focus in on that. we're making progress overall. >> and the bottom line is, you and others had said time and time again, if you get vaccinated you are all but completely protected from serious cases of covid and from death as well. the statistics bear that out. it's interesting that you talk about the messaging. there was a big turn yesterday. something happened internally, i guess, at fox news, which is very important because that's a completely different media ecosystem where they were coming out publicly, many of their hosts including sean hannity in prime time saying, i got vaccinated, you should go get vaccinated. i believe in the science. we need to go get this done. you mentioned masks. we got that guidance from the american academy of pediatrics which stopped a lot of parents in their tracks yesterday which said they're advising kids should wear masks in school this fall.

what do you make of that guidance? i lot of us thought perhaps we were through this and our kids could get back to some semblance of normal life at school come fall. >> well, willie, i agree with it, because those individuals two and up, two to even, say, adolescence to 12 years of age, they're not yet eligible for the vaccine, and we have no way to standardize between 12 and 18, are they or are they not fully vaccinated. to me this is a conservative approach that makes sense, because the majority of people, young kiddos in school, will not have yet had access to the vaccine, and even though it's rarer, kids can have a reaction to that virus. and i think they're recognizing that they could be potentially culpable for putting out misinformation that could kill people. at this point saying not to get vaccinated, which some of their anchors still continue to draw

questions on or inject some uncertainty about whether or not you should get vaccinated, whether vaccinations are correlated to death, for example, there are some very well-known anchors that continue to do that, they might be culpable in a court of law, that that is actually putting out misinformation that is harming people. >> yeah, this is all going to be really looked at down the road in terms of where this disinformation is coming from and who is responsible for it. two questions for you, dr. gupta. you talk about the risk of unvaccinated people giving the delta variant to vaccinated people and then maybe not getting as difficult of symptoms or not feeling symptoms, but isn't there still the risk that vaccinated people who are infected with the delta variant and can spread it around to others who are not vaccinated? it doesn't stop the spread, does it? >> thank you for asking that question. that is something i get all the

time. there is no evidence that's published suggesting that if you're otherwise healthy -- that's going to be the key operative phrase there -- otherwise healthy, so not immunocompromised and fully vaccinated, my definition of fully vaccinated is two vaccinations of the mrna vaccine -- there is no way they can get it if they're vaccinated. medicine just doesn't have the same dialect. we call it an infection, but testing positive if you're asymptomatic and you can't transmit, that's not really an infection. so we need a new word. >> and, dr. gupta, in terms of the disinformation, and for those who are unvaccinated because they're choosing not to be and they are depending on information that is scientifically incorrect, what do they need to hear from, who do they need to hear from to perhaps help them make the right

decision for their own health? >> i think they need to hear from more authentic messengers who have been in the fight, who have been caring for their peers. my colleagues, for example, who have been caring for young people across the country. we need to take a page from the most successful messaging campaign in history, the anti-smoking campaign targeted towards youth. we spared no expense and rereally focused on graphic visualizations, this is covid, this is your lung on covid. we need to do the storytelling to reach the unvaccinated. >> dr. vin gupta, thank you so much. still ahead, jeff bezos is poised to take flight just moments from now. what the billionaire, founder of amazon, hopes to accomplish when he heads to space this morning. we're counting down to liftoff as "morning joe" comes right

back. right back flight, that's not a weekend trip. fifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board. excellent. and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. have a great flight. thanks. we'll see ya. ah, they're getting so smart. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪♪ (customer) hi? (burke) happy anniversary. (customer) for what? (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too? (burke) sure. your parents have maintained a farmers home policy for twelve consecutive months, right? ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

(burke) start with a quote at 1-800-farmers.

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. ♪ ♪

here are the two battling to the line knowing that you and your fam and allyson felix...tion. simone manuel's above her trying to fight on, and above simone... getting an opportunity to show her stuff. nonstop, displayed at the highest performance level... finding something and the us takes gold! ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ - yes! ♪ ahhhhhhh ♪ ♪ dream until your dreams come true ♪

a 38-year-old florida man who breached the u.s. senate chamber carrying a trump campaign flag was eight months prison. the first punishment handed down for a felony charge in the january 6 capitol riot. paul hodgkins pleaded guilty last month to a single count of obstruction of an official proceeding before congress, for disrupting the certification of joe biden's election win. the "new york times" reports mr. hodgkins told judge randolph moss that he was remorseful for breaking into the capitol, calling it a foolish decision. in court papers, the "times" writes, his attorney invoked

abraham lincoln's words, saying judge moss had a chance to show malice toward none and charity toward all by foregoing prison time entirely. but the court suggested that would simply encourage future attacks, and noted yesterday that hodgkins brought goggles and a pair of gloves with him to the capitol as if prepared for conflict. the courts said hodgkins deserved less than 18 months. prosecutors requested, because he didn't assault anyone and didn't damage government property. willie? >> let's bring in nbc4 washington investigative reporter scott macfarlane. he's been covering those accused in the riot. scott, let's talk about what mika just laid out. a 38-year-old man boldly invoking lincoln's second

inaugural, asking for mercy, asking for some charity. the judge said no, this would set a bad precedent, giving eight months, which is a little less than prosecutors had hoped for. what is the precedent we see set in this case? >> this is really the first big test case, willie, and a lot of people don't like the score. paul hodgkins got less than half of what prosecutors were seeking in this case, eight months plus the 15 suggested by prosecutors. he said what he did was foolish, that it was not inspired by politicians and even said, willie, that joe biden is the rightfully elected president of the united states. but he was angling to avoid any prison. his attorney argued if you send hodgkins to prison, he will lose his job, lose his home, he will have trouble caring for his cats. the judge didn't go for that. he said what hodgkins did was part of a domestic terror incident that day, and the judge remarked that what happened was

so extraordinary that congress had to evacuate its own chambers because of what hodgkins and that mob did. but after talking to former federal prosecutors who say when the judge goes that far below the recommended sentence, it could lower the bar in other cases because they do strive, willie, for uniformity in federal sentencing. >> in fact, the judge rejecting this idea we've heard from many of these other people who have been arrested saying, i was just following the crowd. if i had known it would get this out of hand, i wouldn't have gone in the first place. the judge saying yesterday, at least in this case, perhaps in the future, that is no excuse for what you did. scott, let me ask you this question about competency. we're hearing some of these defendants talk about competency, whether they're fit to stand trial. tell us about some of them and what that explanation is, what may happen to them. >> let me tell you about two of them, willie. first, pauline bower is a restaurant owner in california.

her hearing was going and it went off the rails. bower is trying to represent herself in her case. she told the judge yesterday she's a sovereign citizen and not subject to the court's authority or u.s. authority, so that kind of detoured the hearing. she was talking over the judge, the judge was correcting her. the judge will allow her to defend herself. she's back in court in september. let's see what happens next. i also want to tell you about landon copeland. he's locked up in a county judge in utah awaiting his competency hearing. i spoke to him from his jill cell. he is still trying to get his competency hearing moving forward in this case. he's len left languishing in jail for months now. we'll see where that goes, but another hurdle, willie, for the largest prosecution in american history. >> we have this first sentencing of eight months.

we'll see if that becomes the standard. scott mcfarlane, good to see you. coming up, it might be the most famous case, but britney spears is not the only one caught up in controversy surrounding conservatorships. we'll take a look at that and family members often trying to protect them. plus jeff bezos staying busy after stepping down as amazon's ceo. he's set to lift off just minutes from now in a space rocket developed by his own private company. our live coverage continues when "morning joe" comes right back. "morning joe" comes right back 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. there's interest you accrue, and interests you pursue. plans for the long term, and plans for a long weekend. assets you allocate, and ones you hold tight. at thrivent, we believe money is a tool, not a goal.

and with the right guidance, you can get the financial clarity you need, and live a life rich in meaning, and gratitude. to learn more, text thrive to 444555, or visit thrivent.com. (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.

all right, welcome back. we are counting down to liftoff. there you see the location there in west texas in the desert southeast of el paso. jeff bezos is soon to be blasting into space with a few others on board "new shepard," the blue origin spacecraft that is named after alan shepard. he's the first american in

space. and "new shepard" is more of a traditional rocket. it will take off vertically, and as you can see this morning, the four men on board, including jeff bezos, are preparing to get ready to blast into space. the passengers, once they head above the 62-mile boundary often considered to be the beginning of outer space, the passengers are going to unbuckle and float around the capsule, experiencing four minutes of freefall and seeing views of eart and the blackness of space from the capsule's large windows. this has been a dream of jeff bezos that is coming into reality just about 40 minutes from now. bezos is bringing along his younger brother, mark bezos, as one of the passengers.

and then also a student from the netherlands, 18-year-old oliver daemen was the runner-up in the auction. he purchased a ticket and was bumped up. a pilot in the 1960s among a group of women who passed the same rigorous criteria that nasa used for selecting astronauts. we'll be taking this live and we'll be watching the liftoff in just about 33 minutes from now. all right, now let's turn to the story a lot of people have been talking about, mostly from one angle, though. britney spears' new lawyer promising to end the pop star's father's control of her estate. >> this matter is, as i said in court last week and outside, my firm and i are moving

aggressively and expeditiously to file a petition to remove jamie spears, unless she resigns first. >> the singer has been fighting to end a decade-long conservatorship enacted after she had a public breakdown in 2008. and she may soon get her wish after a judge recently allowed her to choose a lawyer to represent her. a conservatorship is a legal guardianship that is put in place by a court for a person who cannot manage their own affairs. conservators can handle everything from finances to doctors, appointments for the people they are in charge of. in spears' case, she has described what she called conservatorship abuse at the hands of her father, and has told the court she wanted to press charges against him. in a moment we're going to speak with two bipartisan members of congress who have a plan to

protect those under conse conservatorships from abuse and. doctor, thank you for coming on the show. i'm curious, in a perfect world, what is a conservatorship supposed to do? >> in a perfect world, a conservatorship should really do what's in the best interest of the individual to help them kind of choose the direction of their own life with some scaffolding in place to support them. so it shouldn't take away their total autonomy but, rather, provide an advocate in their court to help them. >> in this case, there was a person with massive notoriety, hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. i just wonder if you have any thoughts on how this was set up,

any concerns. i certainly wouldn't want you to take a side on this, but just on the concept of a conservatorship of someone with a lot of fame, and someone with a lot of added complications to a complicated situation, is a parent the best way to go here? >> even setting aside the fame, oftentimes in my role as a psychiatrist when we're looking at conservatorships for mental health reasons, we're not recommending that family members be in that role. instead we really oftentimes will recommend a third party who is neutral, who theoretically doesn't have the same type of emotional and financial conflicts of interest. we know those as professional fiduciaries. so i think in situations like this where it's very clearly entangled and contentious and seems to be not in her best interest that something like that would have made a bit more

sense, if a conservatorship is necessary. >> often when people are suffering, their spouses, loved ones also suffer, too. can you speak to that? because i think not enough has been said about the difficult position that loved ones, spouses, perhaps, are in someone who is struggling from mental illness or disorder. it's almost like they are kind of frozen out, at the same time constantly wanting to help but they have no voice. i sort of see a potential pattern playing out in this very public story, but it does seem like there are some questions that could never be answered, and i wonder if you could speak as a doctor, as a psychiatrist dealing with people who suffer but also with the family members who love them so much. >> yes, absolutely. so i think we really try to look at the whole family system, not

just the individual, and really try to support them and give family members education about what's going on for their loved one, what do we know, what don't we know, how can we all sit with the uncertainty around mental illness. because oftentimes family members will look to us and say, can you keep my loved one safe? can you guarantee they're not going to hurt themselves and someone else? the reality is we really can't, and that can be really, really, really terrifying for all involved. and i don't think that our system does the best job at providing the guidance and the support to families. >> dr. carlene mcmillan, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. willie? >> for more on this, let's turn to democratic congressman charlie crist of florida and

representative nancy mace. they are here to discuss the free act. good to have you both with us this morning. congresswoman mace, let me begin with you. what exactly do you seek to do with this legislation? how do you give more power to the person under the conservatorship? >> first of all, i want to thank britney spears for having the courage to come forward as a very public figure to tell her story to the entire world, what she has been through for most of her adult life now. britney spears' conservatorship is a nightmare. if it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone. what this will do is allow the individual to petition the court to request and ask for a public guardian who has no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, that they believe they're being abused and are not satisfied with the individual, the member of their family, business partner, et cetera, that has their conservatorship

at that time. so this is a small but meaningful first step to conservatorship reform. >> so, congressman crist, i think, as you know, these conservatorships usually start with the best of intentions to protect someone. oftentimes it's used in the case of dementia for people who may need help guiding their financial affairs from that point. but what did you see in britney spears' case that made you look deeper into this, and what else do you hope happens because of this legislation if it passes? >> i think as it relates to britney spears, one of the most disturbing parts of her story was she was forced to implant an iud in order not to have children. that sort of decision should be very sacred and something taken very seriously, obviously. that really draws your attention. as nancy said, i would agree that her courage, britney's courage, as well as nancy's, frankly, bipartisan legislation

that we're sponsoring, it's not really, willie, about right versus left, it's more about right versus wrong. that's the point we're trying to make here. we can unify, we can work together, and we can do things for the american people that make common sense, and we need to do more of that. >> i'm curious, congresswoman mace, in the legislation that you all are pushing, are you keeping in mind that there are a lot of people out there who are suffering, who have family members who love them, and perhaps can help them through their time of suffering? i just wonder, what are you doing about the balance of rights between the two parties? because i do understand that you commend britney spears for having a voice and using it, but i also wonder about this legislation as it pertains to family members, loved ones, those who have the best interests of those who are suffering in mind. >> right. and we're trying to find that

balance here, which is why we started this legislation with a narrow focus, to get the ball rolling, to find something that democrats and republicans could agree on and has a real chance of getting through the committee process and passing the floor of the house of representatives and getting to the senate. i think in this case small parts make a big difference, and there were human rights in conservatorships long before britney spears ever topped the charts. so we do want to recognize that. but in some cases that individual needs to have, absolutely needs to have the right to petition the court, to find an individual to represent them in a public guardianship role who doesn't have a conflict of interest in their life. sometimes that person, it's better offer when they're not a family member. i was disgusted when i heard the story. i want to talk about the story of an iud limiting her reproductive rights. i'm a mom, and it's disgusting

to see what's happening here, and it's all the more important that we take a first step in the reform movement today. >> congressman and congresswoman, thank you very much for being on this morning. up next, we'll go live to the launch pad before jeff bezos and the blue origin crew blast off into space. nbc's tom costello is standing by for us to set the scene. tom? >> hey, mika, good morning. we're in the middle of the vast texas desert outside van horn, texas. inside that space capsule, jeff bezos, mark bezos, 82-year-old

alan daemen are about to take off. we'll be back. alan daemen are a off. we'll be back.

among my patients i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues.

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.

every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the fastest, most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just 30 dollars per line per month when you get four lines- or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.

52 years ago today, lance armstrong and buzz aldren became the first men to walk on the moon in the apollo. another space travel in a few minutes as blue origin is set to launch its crude mission. jeff bezos sets three other passengers to lift and back. let's bring in news correspondent tom costello who covers aviation for us. tom, it's good to see you. you and i were on the air together nine days ago for

richard branson's launch. this one much different, of course. what are we about to see 18 minutes from now? >> reporter: first, let's acknowledge that a lot of folks are saying, okay, alan shepard did this 56 years ago, right? these guys are not going into orbit, they are not going to the moon. this is all about paid passengers going forward. it was what richard branson was about nine days ago, it's what blue origin is about today. branson was in a space plane. they took off at mach 3 and they dipped their heads, their toes, into space. they lasted about four minutes and then they came landing back in new mexico. this is different. it is a rocket instead. they like the rocket. it is a very quick trip up into space around the carmen line. they will be there for three or four minutes and then will parachute back to earth, much like the astronauts did, except

instead of landing in the ocean they'll land in the west texas desert. there is an ocean of sand. they can land anywhere under three parachutes and a retro rocket that softens their landing, so it's like landing on an air cushion. at this very moment right now in the space capsule we have jeff bezos, his brother mark, 82-year-old wally funk, and if you haven't heard her story, it's fascinating, chosen for the mercury 13 program with women but she was denied ever going into space because she was a woman. she's going today, and then 18-year-old oliver daemen from the netherlands. his father is a wealthy dutch investor who essentially paid for this trip. so that's it as the space capsule is on the rocket. liftoff is set for 18 minutes from now and it should be a fun 11-minute trip. that's it. 11 minutes from the moment they

start until they're back on the ground in western texas. >> they've been testing this without people on board. there is a crew. one thing we note in terms of a difference between richard branson as well, i saw you inside the capsule getting a bit of a tour. those big windows, which will give them a view of earth below. >> reporter: yeah, and i neglected to make probably the most important point, and that is that there are no pilots, no professional astronauts on board. this is all remote controlled from the ground. now, contrast that to branson. they had two professional pilots who were really taking care of that entire ship. listen, i've talked to the blue origin folks and she say they are convinced that not only is this safe, it is incredibly safe with multiple layers of redundancy built in, because this is not just a one-off. as you know, willie, this is now setting the stage for future paying passengers. they say they've had more than 700 people expressing interest in coming aboard. but they're not telling us the price tag. we know that branson and virgin

galactic has paid over $250,000 and the price tag has gone up in the last couple months. we think this is $500,000 for the blue origin versus the branson plane, but they are not telling us how much it costs to ride. if you have to ask the price, you probably can't afford to pay it. >> yeah. i love wally funk's story. i'm curious, tom, about the option winner who decided to not go on this trip due to scheduling conflicts, is what we have here. and instead 18-year-old oliver daemen is going, and apparently his father paid for that, you said? how much was that? tell me more about why the winning bidder bowed out. >> reporter: somebody had a scheduling conflict, and i noticed that you are anchoring

this morning, mika. i'm not drawing my parallels, i'm just saying whoever this was, they had $28 million to spend and they couldn't come here because they had a conflict. we don't know who it is, and as i mentioned, we know this kid from the netherlands, oliver, seems like an awfully nice young man. 18 years old, between high school and college, and his father is an equity investor of some sort. but we don't know how much he paid for this ride. we know they were bidding at one point to be part of the bidding process. they were one of those bidders, but we don't know ultimately how much they paid for this ride. it's three minutes of weightlessness. that is a hefty price tag for this occurrence, getting a look at earth, and six massive windows, really very thoughtfully put together. the space capsule incredibly thoughtfully put together, because as you recline in your

seat -- and they had me do that in the similarity -- you recline in your seat and you look out to your right and the entire wall is really the window. so you will see the earth go by or sink below you as you rise, and then you'll look out and you'll have a phenomenal view of the earth, then they let you goly. there is a voice submission control that comes over the intercom and says, okay, everybody, unbuckle. you've got three or four minutes. then that voice comes back on the intercom and says, strap back in. there is no flight attendant on board, there is no astronaut saying back in your seats, we're going to check your settings. oh, no. this is what they go through two days of preparatory training for. >> it's just two days for prep for this? the entire experience is 11 minutes. i saw you sitting in

reclining type seat trying it out where these passengers will be sitting. what preparatory training if things don't go as planned were they given? >> we don't have those details. some of this is tightly held to the chest by blue origin. we do know it's two days of training. you're taught how to buckle in and buckle out. it's a five-point harness. if you're in a military plane, you sometimes have to be in a point hive point harness. they are very excited they will cross that carmen line and call themselves astronauts. i think there is a good deal of skepticism among veterans who say, okay, how does that compare to neil armstrong or buzz aldren or spend two months in the space station and have astrophysics

degrees. you certainly are not getting the astronaut experience. but are you a true astronaut? that is up for debate. >> i know you have to get ready for this launch in about 15 minutes here. we should point out to viewers, this is a dream for jeff bezos, not just in the last couple years, but since he launched blue origin in 2000, he called this his most important work. this is something he was thinking of of before amazon was so changed by apollo 11 moon landing. today is the anniversary of it. they at that moment decided they, too, wanted to go to space, to experience that in some fashion. neither one chosen for the astronaut program, essentially they built wealth and decided i am going to build a space ship and that's what they've done. they've both done it, and now

they think there's a big enough market out there for people willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to support this massive infrastructure on the ground. i wish i could spin the camera around. bezos built a very significant presence in the middle of nowhere west texas. they've put up massive buildings and engine testing facilities, a high end experience if you're on a ranch with the horses and everything else. they've done that. over in new mexico as you know, the state spent $250 million building the spaceport because they believe there's a future for commercial, paying passengers lifting off from the ground. clearly people are putting money where their dreams are. they believe there's enough interest, people with that kind

of money to support it going long term but believe the price has to come down. one last point. it is in nobody's interest for somebody to fail, right? if there's an emergency or if there's a problem, that will effect everybody, whether you are on the branson team or the bezos team or for that matter elon musk team. everybody needs to root for each other, for all the obvious reasons. >> tom, quickly before you run for benefit of viewers, countdown clock has been held at 15 minutes for some time. on three minute hold. what does that mean exactly? >> reporter: i can't tell you, buddy, you and i have been talking, haven't been listening to mission control. i will try to figure it out as soon as i can. one thing to keep in mind, they're not competing with satellite traffic or anything, not having to match trajectory to get to the space station. they've got wiggle room in terms of launch time. >> tom costello.

we appreciate it. bring in anchor stephanie ruhle. she, too, is in west texas for the launch. great to see you. put this in business terms. you and i began with tom, on the air together nine days ago, watched richard branson take off in his spacecraft. today, on the left, you see blue origin spacecraft, different from branson's. this is a space race between two of the richest men on earth. >> reporter: it absolutely is. you have to think back. this isn't just about jeff bezos dreaming of being an astronaut his whole life, his brother mark joining him on the trip, not just space cowboys as kids playing in west texas. he has been determined to change space travel. in his high school valedictorian speech said the future for mankind is not on this planet. why is this so important? why is jeff bezos here. what made him the richest person on the planet?

amazon. amazon hasn't been his life goal. space travel has. so the question today, when he gets down from the trip and lands on earth will be this passion of yours, will this now become your life's work, your life's mission. all of us can say that's crazy, you won't see people do it day-in and day-out. people said that about airplanes years ago. that's obviously how we got here today. this could change history. jeff bezos has already done it with retail. >> stephanie, gosh, we're getting close to count down. but not in the 15 minutes. i feel like i can touch on some criticism here. there has been some about the fantastic amount of money this is costing, the government contracts for space business, and the guy that doesn't have to pay as many taxes as most americans. what are you hearing, what do

you think? >> okay. it is an absolutely valid debate. there are lots of questions around should very, very wealthy business people be able to run these types of companies, they get huge government contracts and at the same time these same businessmen legally avoid paying a lot of taxes that everyday americans can't do. that's a valid argument. but that argument doesn't take away from what's happening today. the launch we're going to see today, the research that has gone on in the last 20 years is extraordinary. we can have that debate in an hour or tomorrow and it is still valid. you have to remember, space exploration in the united states from our government, we pulled back in a huge way in the last few decades and we have seen private businesses like blue origin step in. right now, we see them use commercial spacecraft to get to the international space station. if they couldn't use these types of vehicles, they have to hitch

a ride with the russians or chinese. businesses are stepping in where the government has pulled back. >> interesting. i know jeff bezos talked about going into space in his high school valedictorian speech. i have a feeling after the 11 minutes that this won't be his last effort in space. what's next for him and are there any other billionaires, moguls, scientists trying to make their way into space? >> reporter: well, you know, richard branson is and elon musk. i am going to speak to jeff bezos later today. without a doubt, many of us believe, i would say surely he is going to be back up there in relatively short order. blue origin is going to have more missions this year. as you said, this is jeff bezos' passion. he said for his entire life, the earth needs a backup plan, we need ways to get to other places. he is going to be focused on

that. what we want to find out, now that he is no longer ceo of amazon, how much time he will spend here, how much time he will spend not just to go as far as he has, how about to the moon. >> i love it. stephanie ruhle, thank you very much. and the launch is just moments away, live coverage here on msnbc. hallie jackson picks up coverage right now. good morning. i am hallie jackson, stephanie ruhle will be joining me for special coverage. blue origin's first space flight, less than 15 minutes away. we are literally in count down mode with what the control room announced as brief hold before launch. expect to see jeff bezos and his team of three, his brother mark, wally funk, and teenager oliver

daeman. first, you have the launch itself. after liftoff, the rocket will stay intact until altitude of 45 miles. the capsule will separate from the booster, that capsule carrying the astronauts will hit mock three, two minutes in, and zero gravity a minute later. at that point, bezos and others get out of their seats, look around, look out the windows, hiss peak of flight four minutes in, rising to 65 miles beyond the boundary of outer space, then the ride back down, buckle up, capsule starts to float to earth after nine minutes. in all, talking about 11 minutes of history. groundbreaking for all kinds of reasons, including that it will make funk, who is 82, and

daeman, the oldest and youngest to travel to space. the crew will be checked from medical experts, we will hear from them when they hold a news conference. you will watch every minute live here on msnbc. i want to bring in morgan chesky in van horn, texas, and with me, former astronauts may gem son, first african-american woman in space, head of the star project working to human interstellar flight, and clayton anderson, a veteran that spent five months aboard the international space station in 2007. good morning to all of you. morgan, start with you. looks like all systems are go. give us a sense what's happening in the ground and inside the control room. >> reporter: halle, you're right. cool but most importantly clear morning in west texas, we are minutes away from "new shepard"

rocketing skyward, blue origin confirming they're strapped in, the door is closed. now we have watch and wait as final preparations are under way. the crew together for the past 72 hours, going over everything one more time, rehearsing the final sequence that will be important to know. piloted completely from the ground. they have a safety switch to use to abort on board the ship. but right now we have countdown temporarily paused. but it since resumed. you can sense the excitement here. we are 20 miles from where this rocket will take off in the west texas desert. people are gathering on nearby highways, hoping for a glimpse of history about to be made. halle? >> and there's no -- not like some launches you may have seen in florida where there's a place for everybody to gather and watch. highways are about as