wally -- >> oh, i'm sorry. >> thank you. lauren just remained me. i have one more thing which -- christina, i might need your help on this. mom, could you come up for a second? where's my mom? you don't have to come up. i can come to you. i have -- i wore this -- i wore this necklace -- i wore this necklace, and it is a feather and i wore it up in space and now it's for you. [ applause ] >> i would put it on her myself, but i need my reading glasses. [ applause ] >> okay.

>> and now, wally, last, but not least, amelia earhart, what a lovely transition. an aviation icon and now an aerospace, a space icon. what was it like? >> ooh! i can't tell you! i had such a good instructor. he took us through everything we were going to do, so when i went up this morning the noise wasn't quite as bad and we went right on up and i saw darkness. i thought i was going to see the world, but we weren't quite high enough, and i felt great. i felt like i was just laying down. i was just laying down, and i was going into space, and i want to thank you, sweetheart, because you made it possible for me. i've been waiting a long time to finally get it up there, and i've done a lot of astronaut training through the world, russia, america, and i can always beat the guys on what

they were doing because i was going stronger and i've always done everything on my own! and i didn't do dolls. i did outside stuff, and i flew airplanes and i flew 19,000-some hours. i loved it, and i love being here with all of you and your family and the four of us -- we had a great time. it was wonderful. i want to go again -- fast! [ cheers and applause ] >> and then when i got off the ship they gave me the tail end of one of the balloons and i'm going to cherish that forever. >> and by the way, we can confirm that wally, once again, in training outperformed the men on the mission. 100%. >> i was going to say, she beat the three boys up to the top of the crew access. everybody saw that.

there's video footage. >> we have proof. >> indeed, darling, you did, you did. wally funk, the oldest member to ever go to space and the first founding member of the blue origin frequent flier program? >> when i do lectures or wherever i am around the world in the united states i'm only 45. [ laughter ] >> you're being generous. i keep hearing somebody say she's 82, you're only 28. it's a typo. we know this. let's see with our own eyes. i'd like to roll the tape. >> okay. >> oh, wow! oh, wow! >> that's incredible. >> space. >> oh. is it everything you thought it

would be? >> fantastic. >> hey, look, oliver! >> oh, that's great. >> can you move your head a little, wally? >> hi, mom! >> i love it! >> look at the blackness of space. >> here, catch! >> oh, yeah. >> ready? >> woo hoo! >> here it comes. >> you just have to wait for it. >> who wants a skittle? >> see if you can catch this in your mouth. [ cheering ] >> toss me one. let me try! >> here it goes! >> try again! >> i can't get it up. >> awesome. >> oh, wow! oh, my god.

woo! >> this is incredible! >> oh, i love it! i love it! >> oh, wow, wow, wow! >> man, this is different, isn't it? >> it's a little different. >> i cannot -- >> wonderful. woo! [ cheers and applause ] >> that was a good catch. >> go ahead, mark. >> that was a good catch! [ laughter ] >> wally, was it everything you expected and more, you've been waiting years to experience this. >> i loved every minute of it, i just wish it had been longer because i have been in space -- not in space, but up in that area and could do a lot more rolls and twists and so forth, but there was not quite enough room for all four of us to do all those things. it was great. i loved it. i can hardly wait to go again. >> next stop for you is the moon, wally. >> yes, sir! >> any other impressions now

having seen the video of it? is it one of those things when you just took it in and it's hard to compare to video? >> what are other sensations that come from having seen right now? >> it felt way cooler than it looked. [ laughter ] >> well, so after, of course, their four minutes of weightlessness and the fun that you had. of course, we got you buckled back in and you descended under those beautiful three parachutes. i think we have another video here of your descent back to our beautiful west texas valley. why don't we roll that right now? >> that moment felt pretty good, i'm not going to lie. >> when you see the three main chutes out. that was relaxing. >> that was just so easy. it was just incredible. i didn't feel that.

>> well, that's kicked up by a cushion of air and you only hit it at 1 mile an hour. it feel it is like if you stand up on the chair it would plop. [ cheering ] >> welcome back, astronauts! [ cheers and applause ] >> oh, my god! that was so great! >> our family was happy to see us. that's a good sign. >> what was that moment like coming back and seeing your friends and your family here? you have supported them or they have supported you, that is. your dreams, to get to this point and oliver, your father is here, joseph. thank you so much for being here. what was that like? >> well, he was a bit more emotional than i would have thought. everyone on the ground was much more emotional than we were. we were just having fun. [ laughter ] >> that is so true.

>> yeah. yeah. i think that our families have been extremely supportive through all of this, and i think, you know, i know that my wife was an absolute rock leading up to this which made, you know, the adventure much easier for me, but i know when we came down it was sort of time to let those emotions out a bit and it was great to see everybody and it was more emotional than i had anticipated, as well. >> jeff? >> you know, i wasn't that nervous, but my family was somewhat anxious about this, and so -- it was so sweet, actually, to get hugged by them after landing. especially my kids and lauren and my mom and dad and really all of you guys. we have a bunch of close friends here, too, and it just makes me realize how much i love you and how much i'm loved. >> and wally, your friend mary

is here. >> yes. i am so happy she's here. she knows what i'm going through. she was one of my flight students, and i've had many, many former flight -- 3,000 flight students and i don't know if they'll get to see this or not, but i felt so charged. i was not nervous -- i was just normal, normal person going up into space and that's what i wanted to feel. >> i can confirm that wally was never nervous. >> she was wondering what was taking so long. [ laughter ] >> that's true. we had a six-minute hold on the pad and wally was, like, are we going to go or not? [ laughter ] what the hell? we're burning daylight. let's go! [ laughter ] >> but then, wally, once we got you going, we got you going fast going over mach 3 and it's this beautiful rocket here our new

shepard rocket that got the team back to space and by the way, it also made it's landing back on the landing pad and why don't we take a look at that landing that we have here. [ cheers and applause ] >> that was a bull's-eye. absolutely, bull's-eye. jeff, a beautiful piece of engineering that our team here at blue origin has developed. would you like to talk to us a bit about why we chose vertical takeoff, vertical landing and being powered by this be-3 engine because today is not the end, right? we're going further with this

technology. >> no. that's a helpful question because the fact of the matter is that the architecture and the technology we have chosen is complete overkill for subliminal tourism mission. we have chosen the vertical landing architecture. why did we do that? because it scales. it's an architecture that can grow to a very large size. so we want to have experience with architectures that can grow big, and one day to new armstrong. so to have the idea that you want to build big from the beginning, choosing the architecture, the whole point of this was to get practice and other kinds of architectures don't scale in the same way to a very large size. vertical landing does. in fact, you can think about it very easily because when you are landing a rocket vertically, you are solving the inverted pendulum problem and you are balancing a broomstick on the tip of your finger, and you can balance a broomstick on the tip

of your finger. you know what you cannot balance on the tip of your finger? a pencil. basically, the smaller the object, the harder it is to balance. as the object gets bigger and bigger and bigger it gets easier and easier to balance and it's easier because it has more momentum so it's easy to get under it. so that architecture skill, that's why we chose it and the second thing which is a puzzling architecture choice which is puzzling to people who know about rocket, you would never use liquid hydrogen for tourism. it's completely unnecessary, it's the most higher performing rocket fuel in the world. again, practice, we chose that propellent, what you see behind me is basically the second stage of new glen. so every time we fly this tourism mission we are practicing flying the second

stage of flew glen and that's when you do want hydrogen, on the second stage of a vehicle that is designed not only to go into low-earth orbit, but to bodies outside of earth orbit. the reason we chose it is it's the first environmentally benign propellent. when you burn hydrogen and oxygen, you get h20, and it is water and that was very important to us, as well. that's why we chose this architecture you see behind me and the engineering team did an incredible job. they also built two vehicles, what you see is not really a vehicle because i can assure you the escape system was at least as complicated, hard to design and to test and demonstrate as the main booster itself. so that was -- it's almost like building a whole separate vehicle and i am also extremely happy we didn't test it today. [ laughter ]

>> thank you so much. again, congratulations to you all. with that, i'll turn it over to linda mills head of communications here at blue origin to start the press conference. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> woo! >> let's give another wound of applause to our amazing newly minted astronauts! [ applause ] >> all right. i would like to give a thank you to our journalists who showed up at 2:30 this morning to get set up. >> thank you. >> i know it's been a long day for all of you. >> i can't believe you guys are still smiling. thank you. thank you. >> so we'll be able to take a few questions and then we'll pose for a few photos. rachel, why don't you start? rachel with cnn. [ inaudible question ]

>> yes. so i'll split my time between blue origin and the bezos earth fund. the bezos earth fund is about climate change and sustainability, and that is -- those two things and there's going to be a third thing, and maybe a fourth thing, but i don't know what those are yet. i'm not very good at doing one thing. [ inaudible question ] >> hell yes. how fast can we refuel that thing? let's go! >> all right. next question. let's go -- reuters. [ inaudible question ] >> so eric asked about the cadence and the capabilities. >> okay. we're going to fly human missions twice more this year,

and what we do in the following year i'm not sure yet. we'll figure that out and what the cadence will eventually be. we want the cadence to be very high and one thing we found out through the option process and what we've been doing is private sales. we're approaching $100 million in private sales already and the demand is very, very high. so we're going to keep after that because we really do want to practice with this vehicle. so we'll have to build more booster -- more boosters to fly more frequently and we'll be working on all of the operational things to do and what practice does is lets you get better. right now we have a mission life somewhere between 25 and 100 flights for one of these vehicles. we'd like to make that, you know, closer to 100 than to 25 and once it's close to 100 we'll push it past 100. that's how you get operational use.

you have to remember, big things start small. i told this crew when we got in today we were sitting there on the pad waiting to lift off. we had time to ourselves, and i just said, guys, if you're willing -- let me invite you, when we get up there and there will be all kinds of adrenaline and all kinds of excitement and novelty, but take a minute. take -- take a few seconds to look out and calmly think about what we're doing is not only adventure. it is adventure and it is fun, but it is also important because what we're doing is the first step of something big, and i know what that feels like. i did it three decades ago, almost three decades ago with amazon, and we are -- big things start small, but you can tell -- you can tell when you're on to something and this is important.

we're going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build a future, and we need to do that. we need to do that to solve the problems here on earth. this is not about escaping earth. every time i read an article about people want to escape earth. no, no, no. the whole point is this is the only good planet in the solar system. we've sent robotic probes to all of them. this is the only good one, i promise you, and we have to take care of it. and when you go into space and you see how fragile it is you'll want to take care of it even more and this will take decades and this is a big vision, but big things start small and this is how it starts and we are going to build an infrastructure, just like when i started amazon i didn't have to build the postal service or royal mail or deutsch post. there was gigantic worldwide

infrastructure to deliver packages. that infrastructure today is for space and way too expensive and it doesn't work, but if we can practice with tourism mission and continue and build bigger and bigger vehicles, time lines on new armstrong and sonic, i can't really give you because we don't know, but what i can tell you is we're going to keep working at those things step by step ferociously, and i want to emphasize the ferociously. >> we have time for one last question. [ applause ] tom costello with nbc. >> tom costello with nbc news. congratulations to all of you. jeff, to follow up on that question and your discussion there, how do you make this more reasonable for everyday people who would like to fly? it's pretty steep right now. how would you bring the cost down so that this could be more accessible for everybody? >> great question. how do you bring cost down over time so it's more accessible to

everyone. you've got to do it the same way we did it with commercial airline travel. we're really almost in the barnstormer phase, right? so this is -- these are byplanes and they're flying into a farmer's field and charging a small price to fly people around for a few minutes in the air. that's what we're doing right now, but you know where that barnstorming phase leads? to 787s and that's what we have to do. >> all right. let's give -- that's all of the time we have for questions today. these astronauts have had a very long day so let's give another round of applause for our astronauts. [ applause ] >> jeff, you had one more thing. >> guys, i have one more thing. i have a little surprise for you. i am announcing today a new philanthropic initiative, and if you can put the slide up so people can see it.

it is called the courage and civility award that recognizes leaders who aim high, who pursue solutions with courage and who always do so with civility. well, -- let me tell you how i feel about this. i feel strong enough i actually wrote something down. we live in a world where sometimes instead of disagreeing with someone's ideas we question their character or their motives. guess what? after you do that it's pretty damn hard to work with that person and really what we should always be doing is questioning ideas, not the person. attacks have been around a long time, but they don't work and been amplified by social media. we need unifiers and not

vilifiers. people who argue hard and act hard for what they truly believe, but they do that always with civility and never at attacks and unfortunately, we live in a world where this is too often not the case, but we do have role models, and this award -- do you have another slide here? go ahead. i didn't tell you what the award was for that. you see who the first recipient is, but let me tell you what the award is. the courage and civility award is a $100 million award so that the awardee, the recipient can give $100 million to the charities, the non-profits of their choice and these people -- these are people who have

demonstrated courage -- by the way, it's easy to be courageous, but also mean. try being courageous and civil. try being courageous and a unifier. that's harder and way better and makes the world better. so we have two awardees today that will each be getting $100 million to direct to the charities of their choice as they see fit. no bureaucracy, no committees. they just do what they want. they can give it all to their own charity or they can share the wealth. it's up to them and the first courage and civility award goes to van jones. van, come on up. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you, brother. sometimes dreams come true.

sometimes dreams come true. the headlines around the world should be anything is possible if you believe, and -- lauren and jeff don't do nothing small, man. they don't do anything small. they just don't do it. they dream big. they love big, and they bet big, and you bet on me, and i appreciate it. and i'm going to tell you, the only thing i worry about when you say courage. i haven't always been courageous, but i know the people who are, and they get up every day on the front lines, grassroots communities. they don't have much, but they're good people and they fight hard and they don't have enough support. can you imagine grassroots folks from appalachia, from the hood, native-american reservations having enough money to be able to connect with the geniuses that have disrupted the space

industry, disrupted taxis and hotels and bookstores to start disrupting poverty, to start disrupting pollution, to stop disrupting the $90 billion industry together. you take people on the front lines and their wisdom and their genius and creativity and you give them a shot. they're not just going to turn around neighbors and they'll turn around this nation. that's what's going to happen, and i appreciate you for lifting the ceiling off of people's dreams. you have lifted the ceilings off of the dreams of humanity today, and that's an important thing. don't be mad about it. when you see somebody reaching for the heavens, be glad, because a lot more heaven up there to reach for and we can do that together, and the last thing i'll say is this. if this small group of people can make miracles happen in outer space, a bigger group of people can make miracles happen

down here, and we're going to do it. thank you very much. [ cheers and applause ] >> guy, can you roll a little video we put together about van jones? can you roll that little video, please? a short video. ♪♪ ♪♪ >> van has been a part of much change. he has birthed a number of different grassroots community organizations. he also helped us bring together climate justice and racial justice and what that meant in particular for low income communities of color. >> you can't live in a country -- >> and good day, everyone. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington watching the history unfolding in texas. jeff bezos, the world's wealthiest man touching down after the unpiloted, sub orbital rocket launch carrying civilian passengers including the youngest and oldest people ever to go in space.

joining us now nbc's morgan chesky in van horn, texas and engineer, physician and former nasa astronaut and also the first black woman to travel into space. jeff bezos, does he sound like something content about traveling into space? he's talking about more missions and almost $100 million in private sales so far. talk to me about what it was like out there. >> andrea, in short, it was incredible. we saw the anticipation rise in response to the launch and we know there have been 15 test flights prior to this one and this is the first manned flight and everyone can kind of feel that today as the countdown went down to the final few minutes and paused temporarily with 15 minutes left for them to do final, few checks and resumed rising from the west texas desert of van horn. i can hear it with my ears and

just a few minutes later you can see the rocket trail leaving the desert, going skyward more than 62 miles above the surface of the earth, crossing the karman line with the gravity for space. none of us were on that rocket, but we being all feel the gravity of the situation, and it was a very momentous occasion particularly when we saw that rocket land back on its very pad and then we felt the sonic booms that followed, as well when that capsule carried by those three parachutes came back down and had a soft landing here on the desert floor. so an incredible celebration upon walking out of that capsule. bezos has made it very clear, andrea, that this is the first step of many. blue origin is already planning to have a flight in october, september, as well and important to note they plan to use the very rocket they used today. jeff bezos has said he wants to

build a road into space and that it's his goal that all of the heavy duty machinery and industry will be done outside of space to protect the very precious resource that we have in planet earth. andrea? >> and dr. jamieson, what does it mean for the future of space flight if this really becomes a commercially viable road into space? >> so i want to say this this is really a continuation of the road that is being built for the past 60 to 70 years and what's really special about today as well as with virgin galactic and spacex is the commercial industry is this is being done by private industry so they build the vehicles to their specifications and remarkable engineering has gone into building on the knowledge that we have, and so that -- that vision is a vision that has been

filtered up since i was a child and before we had an opportunity to do what's best done via space and to save what's here on earth. so it's a continuation of a lot of hopes and dreams and thoughts. it's a very great day and one that we did need to pause and look at and understand how we all can be involved. >> and we also saw, by the way, jeff bezos has $100 million award. van jones, and the second one is dr. jose andres, the great philanthropist chef, world food kitchens and we followed him all over the world in haiti and elsewhere where he has done great humanitarian aid. dr. jamieson, you are a physician also. >> yes. >> what is really striking here,

i know they were only in space in zero gravity for minutes and not hours and days as the apollo astronauts were, but they got right out of that capsule, walked out, hugged their families and were talking and then, of course, having this hour-long news conference. pretty extraordinary. what is the physical effect of weightlessness for only minutes is it something that they practice in astronaut training? >> so it's very different between whether you're up for a long period of time or whether you're up for a short period of time and there's also a big difference between people that have the zero g plane when you have 20 or 30 seconds of weightlessness and they're very different effects on your body. so it is striking that they said it felt very comfortable and like we were born to be there. i'm sure with the adrenaline rush, but no, our bodies weren't

born to be there. you lose muscle mass and some of the coordination between your eye and your inner ear, but for three to four minute, it was probably spectacular. especially with the adrenaline looking out of the window and seeing the curvature of the earth and with the gentle landing, that allows you after ten minutes to be able to come out and bring your enthusiasm and energy to bear. >> and the excitement was so palpable, of course, from wally, but jeff bezos was just when asked would he do it again he said -- let me get this, hell yes! how soon can we refuel this thing? let's go! i should also point out, of course, dr. jamison, you're a physician, engineer and astronaut. all of those great talents come together and thank you for joining us. morgan chesky, thanks for joining us, as well from out there in the desert and turning to the other big story today,

the coronavirus, as the delta variant fuels a dangerous spike in cases across the country. we are seeing exponential cases in massachusetts. we may be witnessing a potential fourth wave. hospitals in george a mississippi, south carolina, alabama are on high alert and in tennessee there is a staggering 650% increase in covid cases over a two-week period. >> over the last week, we have averaged 239 deaths per day, an increase of nearly 48% over the prior week. each death is tragic and even more heartbreaking when we know that the majority of these deaths could be prevented with a simple, safe, available vaccine. >> i want to underscore what dr. walensky just said a few moments ago. we have the tools to end this epidemic. it is up to us to utilize those tools to their maximum. >> later in that senate hearing

again this morning, again, dr. fauci having to push back against months of attacks again today, attacks and disinformation from kentucky republican senator and doctor rand paul. >> i have never lied before the congress, and i do not retract that statement. this paper that you are referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being the gain of function. >> what was -- >> let me finish. >> you take an animal virus and transmit it to humans -- >> that is correct and senator paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and i want to say that officially. you do not know what you are talking about. rarely, if ever, do you see a government official respond to a senator that way, but there's plenty of provocation that goes

back months and frustration, clearly from dr. fauci. right now there are 21 states in washington, d.c., all seeing a triple digit percentage increase in covid cases in just the last two weeks. nbc's gabe gutierrez is in lafayette, louisiana, gabe, you've seen some extraordinary things over this difficult year and a half. you've been out there on the front lines. talk to me about louisiana and about the woman you interviewed from the icu by the telephone. >> reporter: yes, andrea. here in louisiana hospitalizations have doubled over the past few weeks and the hospital we are at right now, our lady of lourdes medical center have seen significant increase and they've gone from 11 covid patients to now 40 covid patients and other parts of louisiana are seeing a bigger increase with baton rouge and this is something we're seeing in different parts of the south. in the covid unit yesterday in

jacksonville, florida, at u.n. health and we got to see the dynamics playing out there in that hospital was telling us that they were seeing a 40% increase in the hospital overnight and actually broke their record that they had set in mid-january. andrea, we did speak with a patient inside that hospital and we spoke with her through glass. she was in her hospital bed and she had been there since saturday. her name was deborah well, 65 years old, and i spoke to her about what message she had for people unvaccinated at this point. take a listen. >> did you get vaccinated? >> no. >> why didn't you get vaccine aid, ma'am? >> i was scared. >> do you regret not getting vaccinated a little soon? >> i regret it. yes, i do. i felt like i was dying. i couldn't do nothing for myself. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. it's horrible. >> reporter: again, that was a

hospital we visited in florida, yesterday and we are here in louisiana. we are seeing some of the same thing, andrea. the vaccination rate is 47% here in this parish, lafayette parish that drops 33% in other parts of the state are seeing it lower in the 20s. at this point public health officials are warning people, look, whatever it takes. please, you know, decide to get vaccinated. we did speak with some that are finally taking that advice this morning when we visited a vaccine clinic here. they said they finally made a decision to get vaccinated all these months later. andrea? >> gabe gutierrez, thanks so much. joining us is dr. sharif, president and ceo of university hospital in newark. your reaction to what you're seeing in your own community of the potential surge in the coronavirus with the delta? >> thank you so much for having me on, and the first thing i'll

say is it's simply heartbreaking. we have a situation where the cdc director that every single covid-19 death is essentially preventable at this point. to know what that poor woman is going through who was just broadcast right now and to know how many deaths we're still seeing in our community, but certainly in undervaccinated parts of the country is really upsetting and we really have to take all of our responsibilities to talk to our loved ones and our family members and our communities, if every person in this country has that responsibility including our leadership to encourage vaccination. we all want to turn the page on covid. i understand that, but as long as we have undervaccinated areas of the country to the tune of 45% and places like missouri. you have l.a. county which has indoor mask mandates because of the undervaccination of that population. we are still going to see surges of this disease and we won't be able to move forward as we all

want to. >> dr. fauci said that he is supporting the american academy of pediatrics for suggestions of children having to wear masks at school and it's a hot-button issue with parents across the country. do you agree with that? >> i do agree, andrea. when you have the delta variant which is more than double the transmissibility of the virus that filled up my hospital with patients just last year, when you have something twice as good as spreading from person to person and infecting young children in schools and otherwise, it only makes sense as long as vaccination is not an option for them, and that goes for adults, too, who are unvaccinated and this is a strain that is so much more easily spread from person to person, and you are going to see more and more morbidity and death if you don't do things like mask if you are

unvaccinated. so really important to follow those orders. >> dr. s shereef elmnahal. thank you for all you have been doing in the newark medical community. you have turned this around for your folks. >> thank you. coming up next, the havana syndrome hot spot. now they're reporting symptoms of the targeted energy attacks. who or what are behind them? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. 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.

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as many as 200 americans are reporting possible symptoms of directed energy attacks on every continent except antarctica. it's been called the havana syndrome from where it started because the neurological symptoms were first experienced by u.s. diplomats in cuba. roughly two dozen cases have been reported in vienna by u.s. intelligence officers as first reported by "the new yorker." diplomats and other government officials have been involved. adam ento staff writer for "the new yorker." josh, first to you, including the american and central asian country of kyrgyzstan, including a baby. are there possible throughs yet? >> the government is saying

there is no known culprit for this although the leading theory remains with the u.s. government. what came out of the national academy of science report that pulse energy is the most likely thing to have affected these diplomats and they've alarmed u.s. officials and adam was first to report recently about these incidents in vienna at nbc news, we are exclusively reporting that there were incidents reported in germany including in berlin that led at least one official to have to be brought back from their post to the united states and i think back, andrea, to 2017 when you and i were first reporting on this. you traveled down to cuba, and the big topic of debate at that point was who would be able to carry something like this out on the island of cuba. the russians, the cubans, obviously, perhaps the venezuelans and the chinese. now we are seeing is whoever or whatever is behind this seems to be able to carry this out fairly

undetected anywhere in the world with you pointing out every continent other than antarctica having reported cases and cases now reported here in the united states. >> and you've been reporting deeply on this. the first cases in vienna which the u.s. government -- excuse me, reversed to unexplained health incidents. what else are you reporting? >> basically, this started with the first case two months after the inauguration of joe biden. so unlike what happened in the past this was being reported live as it was happening back to washington. so this wasn't diplomats or spies who were reporting retrospectively about things that were happening to them before. this was literally happening in the real time and so with the administration, the biden administration and the cia with the new director that was keenly focused on this and has put more resources not only to the health issue and the intelligence and

law enforcement investigation that's going on. these roughly two dozen suspected cases were sort of unfolding two months after the inauguration, but the same questions, you know, which has persisted since the very beginning and they've so far not been able to find intelligence that points the finger to have this working hypothesis which we just heard that this is a post-microwave device of some kind. >> so importantly, which you are reporting in "the new yorker." the fact that this administration has taken charge of this with the national security council, creating this interagency, two task forces that william burns at the cia is so importantly focused on it and so is real haynes, the real head of national intelligence because in the past, initially, the fbi reported that it was mass

hysteria which was so offensive this was the first study in 2017, 2018. they did not get help from walter reed. we did interviews with the former cia official, adam. the difference now seems to be a coordinated approach and they want people to come out and that's why we're hearing so many more cases and they want people to come forward to distinguish what might be part of the syndrome and what might want be. it is very clear it is not the cuban syndrome, it would not be popping up in moscow, china and all over the world. adam? >> definitely, the bar as an official told me, the bar is very low and they want people to report. the results may be that the numbers that we're seeing and the numbers that you guys are reporting today as many as 200, you know, we don't really actually have a grasp of the numbers. you know, basically, people report incidences.

they're investigated. doctors look at the cases and they decide whether this should be on the list of possible cases. i imagine there had been some reporting about soldiers in syria who became sick, and for a while that was suspected, maybe they're cases and it turns out that there was food poisoning. the symptoms are in some cases very common and that leads to actual numbers. as one official told me the only thing they know for sure about the number is that they don't know the number. so we don't really have a grasp yet of how many of these are really it, and there is still, you know, the difficulty of trying to get to the bottom of it which despite the additional resources that have been committed as far as i can tell, not very much progress has been made in trying to actually gather evidence in this case. >> at least they are now

beginning to get treatment and josh, as you're reporting, they're trying to come up with devices that can mitigate and protect people from it. josh, we'll have to leave it there. i'll have more on "nightly news" tonight. house minority leader kevin mccarthy announcing his picks for the select committee. he is going to hold his first meeting next week. those chosen are mixed republicans. all five voted against impeaching donald trump for his role in the insurrection and three of them were against day. mccarthy told nbc news he did not discuss the committee when he met with the former president last week. speaker pelosi was one of president trump's most vocal critics. joining us, former congresswoman, and brandon buck.

donna, what do you see behind the -- pelosi has veto power, do you see any chance she will use it? >> it is unclear if she will use it or not. what you see, the crowd will be led by jim jordan who is one of the most vocal critics, strongest supporters of donald trump. i would be surprised if jim jordan didn't get a subpoena himself because he has been, he was talking reportedly with donald trump on january 6th. i see this as a committee that will be showboat and a loud and attacking. democrats have to keep their heads down, stay focused on facts, presenting witnesses, letting the american people judge what really happened january 6th. >> and brandon, representative

cheney reportedly told him you expletive did this during the capitol riot. now the two can be on the committee together investigating the insurrection, how do you see the dynamic? >> it is one of the most interesting wrinkles. there are two things they'll look at, the sort of security, operational failures, i think that will be a bipartisan effort. what led up to this. we know donald trump and his lies contributed, but there are members of congress who you could say contributed to the riot that day and the rhetoric. participating in speeches. curious to see whether they try to bring those people together. given the options, kevin mccarthy did pretty good. jim jordan is obviously well capable of conflict and fighting with democrats, probably the number one thing they're looking for. i think jim banks is a talented

politician, i think they're running interference. the one i am interested in, rodney davis. people call him a moderate. i would say rodney davis is a normal republican. there's no crazy in him. he will be interested getting to the bottom of how the capitol was so easily breached. he is chairman or ranking member of the house administration committee which has oversight of the capitol complex. that's the one i'm keeping an eye on, whether he is straight and narrow or has to feed into a little of the trumpism of the rest of the panel. >> donna, quick procedural question, do the republicans have veto power over subpoenas or can the democrats outvote them, issue subpoenas? >> no, the republicans don't. they gave that up by choosing not to have an independent committee and speaker pelosi going with this select committee, that that gives democrats all of the power they need to get to the evidence.

>> i want to turn to troubles of the infrastructure bill and the republicans challenging funding of it, especially if they have lost the irs money that was punitive at best. now the committee for responsible federal budget, very well respected nonpartisan group, released new estimates showing $3.5 trillion price tag for the infrastructure deal could be between 5 to $5.5 trillion over a decade if made permanent. the price point on this is already a stressor for republicans because of the way they stretched it out. she described it again as kind of budget, exactly the budget gimmick republicans used to bring down the costs of the 2017 tax bill. what happens now? is infrastructure really on life support? >> well, i think one thing to appreciate, everybody got way ahead of themselves when everybody was celebrating

bipartisan structure framework. framework is just framework. there are a lot of difficult steps after a framework, that's what we're running into. some of the pay fors were questionable. big question marks whether the bipartisan deal can move forward. what happened this week with chuck schumer threatening a deadline that they need to be done by tomorrow put a lot of pressure on this. i think he is trying to retake control of the process because the bipartisan senators were really in control and he failed. there's not going to be a deal by wednesday, not going to be 60 votes. when you can't move forward on the bipartisan plan, that's track one, you can't get to track two. they need to get a hold of the process quick. >> let's not forget the significance of what happened today. as we celebrate today's success of jeff bezos and blue origin, 52 years ago, the nation celebrated another space first. >> one small step foreman, one

giant leap for mankind. >> and the fact man was on the moon. neil armstrong, michael collins, buzz aldren on that flight. they spent 21 and a half hours on the crew surface. the crew left behind an american flag and plaque that said we came in peace for all mankind. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." garrett haake is in for chuck todd next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. against dryness fo fter, smoother skin you can lovingly embrace. renew the love for your skin with dove body wash. over four million people on medicare... made a choice... to take charge of their health care. with an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare.

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minus the traditional markups. ♪♪ if it is tuesday, dr. fauci and rachel walensky testify. the mixed messages on schools, the scourge of misinformation on vaccines. we learn of break through cases among white house and capitol hill staff. plus, the bipartisan infrastructure bill could be in real danger as chuck schumer makes a move intended to get the deal done. meanwhile, mccarthy makes his move, picking republicans to serve on the january 6th select committee, including several who objected to certifying joe biden as president. later, newly identified potential cases of mysterious havana syndrome mean as many as