we're just about high noon here. welcome, everyone, to alex whit reports. we begin with president biden officially six months into his tenure hitting the campaign trail last night for the first time during his presidency, stumping for terry mccullagh. he talked about the vaccine push and efforts to pass an infrastructure package, despite facing an uphill battle on both front. >> i think the administration has a lot to be proud of. we've vaccinated over 160 million americans. [ cheers and applause ] >> we've created over 3 million new jobs, more than any administration has in the first six months in entire presidential history. >> and the president even taking jabs at his predecessor, calling him out by name. >> the country is looking, this is a big deal.

terry and i share a lot in common. i ran against donald trump and so has terry. [ crowd chanting ] >> it's not a trump rally. let them holler. no one is paying attention. >> the president, former president, is expected to speak today in arizona, one of the swing states that in fact cost him the white house in november. and on the covid watch this hour, we have nbc's monica alba. monica, you first, as we have president biden with some of his strongest comments for the rise in covid cases. what exactly did he say? >> reporter: it's something, alex, the white house is following very closely. the president just got a lengthy briefing from his covid response team yesterday in the oval office. that was behind closed doors, but what we do know is they're evaluating and weighing whether to change any recommendations or guidance when it comes to masking or social distancing. as of now they say there's no

intention to alter those, but that the science will really be the driver. so last night when he spoke in virginia the president did start by touting the success of vaccinations in the earlier part of this year, and he did highlight virginia as an example and one state that really has done a good job of driving hospitalizations and deaths down. but he really did acknowledge that elsewhere in the country it's become a huge problem, particularly because of the delta variant. take a listen to how he framed it. >> here's the point. all the covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations are today among young vaccinated people. and i know this has gotten a bit politicized, but i hope it's starting to change. it's not about red states or blue states, it's about life and it's about death. >> reporter: the president was met with some protesters which you may have heard in the background, as he was stumping for former governor terry

mccullagh who is running for that position again in november. but what really stood out to me were some comments he made about a different governor, a republican one, kay ivey who just over the last couple of days has been talking about how low the vaccination rates are in her state and urged those americans who are sitting on the sidelines waiting to get their shots to do so. in fact, she was so kpas separated, she said i don't know what else i can do to motivate this population. the president said he applauded her, that more republicans essentially need to come out and send this urgent message. this is something, again, that's significant because in just the last couple of days the president hasn't always been that precise in his language. at the town hall we saw earlier in ohio, he seemed to imply if you got the vaccinations you won't get covid and you don't need to worry, and we know that's not the case given breakthrough infections, something we've pressed the white house to give us more details on since we know there

have been examples on the campus. they're declining to say how many officials it has affected since vaccines became available in january. >> you know what you say about gop and coming onboard when you've got the likes of representative steve scalise who just got his vaccination and is now touting the merits of it. you're right, there's a change out there for good reason. thank you so much. the concerns go beyond the white house as the number of infections are spiking in every state. let's go to my colleague joining us from hudson, new york. welcome to you. so what about health officials, what are they telling you there? >> reporter: yeah, there's this interesting thing happening, alex, where you're starting to see a slight uptick in vaccinationness some of these states that have the lower vaccination population because they're rising in the delta variant cases and the surge of the cases, and that is translating into about a 14% increase in vaccinations nationwide, according to the white house. good news there. but the problem is the cases are

still going up because the delta variant is being driven by these largely unvaccinated communities and there's a lag in the data to see where we're going to be in two weeks. nationally according to johns hopkins university, we are up 65% over last week for new cases and up threefold over two weeks ago. three states are driving the majority of these cases, florida, texas and missouri now reporting some 40% of new cases, and, you know, we're talking about adults who have the choice to get the variant who are now saying, okay, we're starting to see my community being affected, i'll go ahead and get it. then there's the group under 12 who do not have the choice and cannot get it. it seems like we report every day about the next camp or group of children that are seeing infection. and i spoke with local county officials about the latest outbreak here at one camp where 31 kids had to be sent home. that is leading to a lot of questions about in-person

learning in the fall as well. listen to what the county health director told me. >> they feel like they're in limbo right now. they have some huge issues, transportation, these school districts, rural school districts can't go out and buy or acquire twice the number of bus thas they have. if they were going to socially distance kids on the bus that's what they would have to do. they're waiting for something from the state health department on that. lunches, you can't keep your mask on when you're eating lunch. we are concerned, the superintendents and i are concerned about the delta variant. we are hearing stories out of england that it's ripping through schools over there and we are concerned about that when it comes to the fall. >> reporter: alex, these state and local health officials are in a very unique position to try to protect kids, but also wait for a vaccine to become available to them. and even as the death rate is expected to triple by october with this delta variant, a new ap poll has some sobering

numbers here. according to the ap poll, 45% of unvaccinated people say they definitely will not get the vaccine. 35% say they probably will not. 65% say they have little to no faith that the vaccine will work on the variants, which health officials have confirmed that it does and is effective against. alex? >> it is extraordinary, those numbers, probably as a result of the misinformation that's out there. but thank you for trying to correct it. we're going to do that even further now. joining me is msnbc medical contributor and professor at boston university school of medicine. a big welcome to you. you've got to be frustrated by the continuing misinformation that's out there. let's look at the rise in cases and what we know. it is primarily because of the low rate of vaccinations, but also the breakthrough cases. let's talk about that. how surprised are you by those breakthrough cases? >> hello, alex. i'm not, because no vaccines are

perfect. we knew even from trials that you get very high protection from hospitalizations and deaths, but you may still get infections. in most cases those might be mild or asymptomatic. the difference is delta is so much more transmissible, and there's new data coming out from israel that i think needs to be validated, that shows that even though protection against a severe disease is still there and you can see that in our numbers, the majority of the hospitalizations and deaths is still being carried by unvaccinated, you may see increased breakthroughs, some of which might be mildly symptomatic. what does that say? it actually says we need to vaccinate more people. because if everybody in your community was vaccinated, you will see those cases start to go down because vaccinated are less likely to get infected, less likely to transmit, less likely to get sick. and the other difference is in the interim, it tells me that we don't have enough people

vaccinated and we need to think about layering those mitigations, particularly in areas where there's under-vax nation, because deaths went up again. at this point, a year and a half down the road, 33% increase in deaths in this country. in those areas that are highly affected, they should consider reinstituting indoor mask mandates, although it's unclear with politics that that will happen, and to surge those areas with increased testing so that we can control the transmission even more. we've got to go back to what we knows works until we can get the vaccination levels up. >> those that have been vaccinated, let's look at the studies that look at the efficacy of pfizer and j&j against the delta variant. two shots of the pfizer vaccine appear to be very protective against the variant. j&j appears to offer somewhat less protection. it has been suggested, doctor, that anyone who got a j&j vaccine, they may need to get an mrna dose as a booster. do you agree with that? and what do you say to those who

took the one and done j&ja vaccine if they're worried? >> even there, the protection against hospitalizations and deaths have seem to hold out even in johnson & johnson. but there is a conversation, you know, in infectious diseases, we know if you give people a second dose, it tends to strengthen the longevity of the memory that we have, so with the increasing data, i do think the cdc needs to comment on this. the data is a lot more clear and what i'm hearing from the chatter is particularly for people who are immunocompromised, there should be potentially change in guidance coming soon about a second dose. that's the group i'm most concerned about are people who never mounted an immune response to vaccines, to make sure that they get a boost or another dose that allows them to bring that up. i think that there's enough evidence that we should now get more input from fda and cdc to

suggest, you know, what is needed until we can pass that, and it should come before the fall, before we start seeing more of the cases go up because of the delta variant and the weather. >> doctor, thank you so much. very comprehensive. we'll see you again soon. for all of you, we played some of what the president said at the rally in virginia, but there's a lot more, including something he described as a republican fog. details on what exactly he meant next. jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day. the scent made quite an impression. ♪ i swear ♪ it was like that towel and jaycee were the only two left on earth. but... they weren't.

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a big week coming up on capitol hill as tuesday will be the first hearing in the select committee's investigation into the january 6th insurrection. it comes as new reporting shows speaker nancy pelosi is mulling whether to add more republicans who were critical of trump in the committee, after vetoing two of kevin mccarthy's picks. one name being thrown around,

congressman adam kinzinger. joining me, political reporter sahil, what is the likelihood we're going to see speaker pelosi appoint kinzinger or someone similar? >> reporter: it remains up in the air whether speaker pelosi will add another member to the commit committee. all eyes are on adam kinzinger. he's the only member of the party who voted to create the committee. he's been outspoken of his party's leadership and its handling of the january 6th riot, as well as former president trump, and he would really be the only candidate, probably the only candidate who will be interested. it's poised to have its first hearing on tuesday. they will hear directly from police officers, capitol police and dc metro police, who were tasked with defending this capitol from those rioters.

in addition to that, president biden yesterday mentioned the january 6th committee when he was across the river in virginia campaigning for the democratic candidate for governor. take a listen to what he had to say. >> listen, i mean, think about it. turn on the television every day and seeing a replay of what happened on january 6th, and saying, i was told there were a lot of peaceful, wonderful people. god, no, i really mean it. think about it. it is bizarre. we have to keep cutting through the republican fog and show that we, the people, are the solution. >> reporter: now, a little bit of a dig there at his former rival, donald trump, who has not yet accepted that he lost the 2020 election, and the part about the fog at the end, making government work and conveying that government can work, that ties into everything democrats are trying to do here on capitol

hill, from the aggressive economic agenda to the january 6th committee, where they are attempting to show the country a version of events that can be trusted and that can cut through the kind of lies and disinformation that have plagued this entire conversation. >> interesting. thank you so much for that. we're going to pick up before we left off now. joining me, texas congressman, marc veasey, in energy and congress committees, co-chair of the congressional voting rights caucus. welcome, my friend. good to see you again. my first question to you, why not adam kinzinger to the committee? wouldn't it help refute claims of partisan findings by adding another republican to the group? >> absolutely. it would be great if kinzinger were added. he's a very thoughtful person. we don't agree on a lot of issues, but he takes his patriotic duty seriously and i think that he would be thorough

and that's what we need. we need for the american public to be presented with all the facts and for there to be conclusions about what happened on january 6th and it has to be credible. and individuals like banks and jim jordan that want to go up there and racially bait and be silly with conspiracy theories and what have you, would not give us the closure and the answers that we need about what happened on january 6th. >> kevin mccarthy is not ruling out booting liz cheney from the armed services committee, which you also serve on. cheney has received to step down from the panel after being the sole republican at this point appointed by speaker pelosi. what would be the point of taking her off the armed services committee? >> it would be ridiculous to take her off the armed services committee. i've served on that committee with representative cheney. again, we don't agree on a lot but we actually have worked together on some armed services

issues, and, again, she's a very thoughtful person. for a party that literally lectured the american public all last year about censorship and the first amendment, why would you remove someone from a committee that simply doesn't agree with you? it's very un-american. she should be able to stay on the committee and she should be able to be a part of the investigation on what happened on january the 6th again. so republicans, independents, liberals, democrats, can have some closure and some conclusive real facts about how our capitol was overrun by insurgents. >> can i ask you how much you think other democrats feel the same way that you do right now, that they want some republicans on it? and when i say republicans, i mean true republicans, that you can work with people who understand facts and truth, you just can't work with people who are in, to quote the president,

a republican fog. >> no, absolutely. we want this to be something that all americans can have faith in, we want all americans to see democrats and republicans on this panel asking real questions, not being sensational or silly, like oftentimes you'll see jordan do and how you see banks, when he says, you know, a lot of the issues, particularly things that banks says around race, that's not what people need. this was very violent. i mean, alex, think about it, we still have capitol hill police officers that are dealing with the psychological scars and pains of what happened on january the 6th. it would be a slap in their face to put clowns on the committee that aren't going to really thoroughly vet all of this information out and find out what happened.

we have pipe bombs that were placed in places we walk past every day, at the back of the dnc headquarters and rnc club. every day we walk by those. so many people could have been hurt, maimed or killed. >> can i ask how much that haunts you and the fact that we have the fencing down and you need more money to build up the kind of protection, potentially, that you need to avoid a repeat performance of january 6th, under whatever circumstances? how much are you haunted by that when you walk into your office at work? >> yeah, no, it's very sobering to think about the fact that, just walking by the rnc club, the other day, it just hit me, it's very sobering to think that someone could put a pipebomb and any one of us could have walked by at any time had it not been

discovered. but what's really more of an insult and what i think should be more sobering to all americans, regardless of their political affiliation or their race or their demographics, is the fact that we have republicans that are still trying to downplay this, saying they were walking through the halls peacefully, it wasn't that big of a deal, it's being blown out of proportion. you can see the videos of policemen being dragged and sprayed with bear pepper spray. it's ridiculous. and the fact that people want to be in denial about what happened on february the 6th should be something that i think is even more concerning. >> those that articulate that, they're just defying logic and truth. let's move on and talk about the house democrats from the state of texas. they've been meeting with several members of congress in washington. they met with you, too. they've left the state to block restrictive voting measures from being passed. you're a former state representative in texas. what is going on in that body and will it work? >> i've got to tell you, i think

that these are the truest texas heroes that we have seen in a long time. the state representatives, the state senators that are here in washington, d.c. are making a case, trying to let the american public know that in texas we need help. of course we need to pass hr-1, but in texas and in florida and in georgia and north carolina, we need the voting rights act, the john lewis restorative voting rights act bill to be passed so we can have protection when it comes to these type of bills that are being passed and when it comes to the upcoming redistricting, to make sure that voters of color don't get completely run over in form and fashion like we haven't seen since the 1960s, alex, if we don't get this passed. the fact that they're here and shining a light on this, i think that is great. it's letting the american public know how important it is that we

get this legislation passed, because it would stop a lot of this nonsense. the reason why the republicans are doing this is because they feel that they have a majority on the supreme court and that it's open season on black and hispanic voters. that is why they're doing this now, which is why we need to pass hr-1 and hr-4, and particularly hr-4, because we need protection, we need clearance back in the state of texas and other old southern states to stop these sort of things from happening. this is just the beginning and i want people to know that. they're going to continue to push the envelope more and more. first it was voter i.d. and now it's this ridiculous bill that allows people to use their cell phones to record other individuals while they're voting and to allow judges to overturn elections, like we live in some place like cuba. it's absolutely ridiculous what's happening in texas and georgia and other states, and we need legislation to help these brave individuals that came from

texas to dc so they can have some support. because they're not going to get it from the speaker of the house in texas and they're certainly not going to get it from our governor, who has a huge problem on his hands right now. >> thankfully this has become a national conversation. congressman marc veasey, thank you so much. prepare yourself for another onslaught of election falsehood frs donald trump, but can nancy pelosi as far as him to testify about the capitol attack? chuck rosenberg joins us.

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see yourself. welcome back to

the mirror. and know you're not alone. because this is not just a mirror. it's an unstoppable community. come on, jesse! one more! it's every workout. come on, you two! let's go! for everyone. so join in now. and see your best self. in the mirror. donald trump is speaking at a rally in arizona for the first time since losing the state in 2020. this comes as the state is churning through a month's long election audit, all in response to trump's false claims the election was stolen. let's go to steve patterson standing by in phoenix, arizona. what are you hearing from folks

ahead of tonight's rally? >> reporter: well, i've recently heard from a political commentator who essentially said that as long as the former president essentially draws breath and continues public speaking that he sets the tone and the agenda for the republican party. and that is what this event is about, even more than questioning the integrity of our elections in this country, it is an event to pledge to donald trump, especially for people who are running for office across the country. and there are people here running for senate, house, secretary of state, all across -- again, all across the country, here to be in his orbit. in doing so, they are essentially glomming onto this idea that there is widespread voter fraud and the election was somehow stolen from donald trump. nowhere is that more poignant than right here in phoenix with the audit that has been going on more months that has caused 2.4 million votes, and cost

taxpayers $150,000 so far and has found no evidence of voter fraud whatsoever. but the point is that people believe it, people here believe it. there was a recent poll that found that the majority of republicans that took the poll believed in the sanctity of the audit and there are thousands of people waiting to get into this venue. we spoke to some of them about the aud and it about trump. here's what they said. >> i'm ready to hear the president speak. i'm hoping to have some sort of hope that he's either going to be back, whether it be in the midterm elections or in the 2024 presidency. i'm crossing my fingers. the amount of ballot dumps that were happening in the middle of the night and, i mean, we've seen signature accounts not matching up. i'm 100% sure that he won the 2020 election. there's no way that joe biden got 80 million votes. >> reporter: the former president will likely be happy to hear that so far by all accounts, this is a max capacity

crowd. 5,200 strong expected inside. they've been waiting all day. some have been waiting since yesterday to get in. the president speaks after a slew of other speakers all day long. back to you, alex. >> i wish you could have seen my face. i was listening to eli speak there, and i was like, no, no, no. stunning. steve patterson, thank you so much. more members of congress are now saying they want to hear the former president speak, but this time as a witness about january 6th. congressman khanna wants the committee to force trump to testify on what he was doing that day and for his role in what happened. let's bring in former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor chuck rosenberg. good to have you here. what are the rules for calling a former president to testify? are there any legal hurdles for congress doing that? >> well, there's really no paths, alex, and i think both of them strike me as somewhere between impossible and unlikely.

path number one, the former president could consent and just show up and testify as any other citizen could do. but as you know, he hasn't shown much inclination for cooperating with any inquiry when he was president. i don't think that will change. path number two, they could try to subpoena them and compel him, but i would imagine that would end up in court. the president would invoke some kind of claim that he's privileged not to appear, and you know from past experience these things get tied up in court for a very long time. so i don't imagine that we will see him testify, whether it's consent or compelled. >> but let me ask you about the privilege not to appear. that might apply to a sitting president, but he's a private citizen now. how would that argument hold any water? >> well, there's a big difference between a meritorious suit and a suit. so you can file anything in court and get a hearing and get a ruling. it doesn't mean you're going to

win, it doesn't mean it's legitimate. but that said, a former president still, i would imagine, has privilege about some conversations and some things that happened during his tenure. i also think, and this is a really interesting question, what the biden administration, what the biden justice department would do on that question strikes me as very important. look, all presidents, not just trump, but all presidents have an interest in maintaining a privilege, and so does the biden justice department take an institutional perspective, alex, and argue on behalf of the privilege, or do they try and argue that the president, as you point out, the former president no longer has one? i think it's the former, that some privilege will last even though he's no longer in office. >> interesting. let's turn now to the discussion around trump ally tom barrack. the charges are acting as an

agent of the uae and obstructing justice. he's expected to plead not guilty. this is one of the biggest bail deals ever. what did you make of the amount, $250 million? >> it's a lot of money. and it's a lot of money for a couple of reasons. one is that, as i understand it, mr. barrack holds a foreign passport, he's a wealthy man with access to his own plane. if he wanted to take off, it wouldn't be that hard to do. it certainly would be harder for you and me than it would be for him, alex. although i can't imagine that either of us are going to flee the country any time soon. so they set the bail pretty high. that makes sense to me. he now has to appear in federal court in brooklyn, new york, where he will face charges on being an unregistered agent of a foreign government. and as you pointed out, obstruction of justice and lying to fbi agents. >> look, if he's a guy that can afford to post $250 million

bail, maybe he's a guy that could afford to lose it. i don't know his finances, but they're certainly significant. why even grant him bail in the first place? if he's that much of a flight risk? >> good question. you would have to look at the statute and the statute on bail in the federal system has a predisposition to being released. if a judge under the law can set a condition or a combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the appearance of a defendant at a subsequent hearing, that's the language of the statute, then they have to find a way to do it. in other words, there's a preference against holding someone in detention pending trial. it happens, of course, particularly in violent crimes. but in this case where he has no criminal record and where the sentencing guidelines, if convicted, would be relatively low, i don't think any judge would be inclined to hold him. so you set the bond high at a quarter of a billion dollars and you hope that he shows up. >> the fact that he's been released, could it be a

potential opportunity for him to work with prosecutors relative to donald trump and what he knows about his actions? >> yeah, so another good question, alex. whether released or not before trial, lots of folks who are facing the potential of going to jail want to cooperate. most do. whether or not he has something on mr. trump is a completely different question than whether or not he might want to cooperate and lower the risk that he spends any time at all in jail. i read the indictment, alex. there's nothing in there that suggests that trump was part of this scheme. that said, he could be part of some other scheme. we don't know. and that's something that prosecutors and agents would want to ask mr. barrack, if they have the opportunity to do so. >> chuck rosenberg, i love asking you questions, my friend. thank you so much. so there were two moments this week that you must hear too get a sense of where republicans stand on covid-19, the vaccine and masks, and science. and at once, it may be

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function. >> if you take an animal virus -- >> let me finish. >> -- and you increase the transmissibility to humans, you're saying that's not? >> that's 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. >> okay, someone got schooled in that heated exchange between senator rand paul and dr. anthony fauci this week, after the republican senator accused fauci of lying to congress about the role the national institutes of health played in funding search in wuhan, china. just the latest example of the deepening divide between science and politics on capitol hill. joining me now is director of progressive programming at siriusxm and "usa today" contributor and democratic congressional campaign committee adviser. hi, guys. can i get it right? did he get schooled?

did senator paul get schooled by anthony fauci? and was he just trying to score political points by disrespecting the medical community? >> well, i think that the right wing has made dr. fauci into a boogeyman, alex, and i feel like finally dr. fauci had an opportunity to say what i think a lot of us have been thinking when we watch these exchanges between dr. fauci and senator rand paul, who is an ophthalmologist, but does not know what he is talking about when it comes to covid-19, alex. and i think what you're seeing in this week is the republicans turning a little bit towards the science and deciding that perhaps they don't want their own voters to get sick and seriously ill and pass away. and so to quote my favorite singer, jojo, it's too little too late, but i'm glad that dr. fauci was able to say that as clearly as he did, because senator rand paul has a problem

with bad faith, alex. that was a completely bad faith argument he was making and it was completely unnecessary and not based in fact. >> you know, this week we saw a growing number of top republicans begin to urge their gop supporters to get vaccinated. that includes mitch mcconnell and steve scalise. it's marking a notable shift away from anti-vax conspiracies. but why now? i mean, to quote her favorite singer jojo, is it too little, too late? >> well, i think that it might be in that i think it's very tough to undo months and months and months of politicizing science and then try to undo all of that with just one week of a few statements. i mean, what we've seen from republicans and from conservative right wing propagandist media, from the onset of the covid virus to the

development of the vaccine, to the distribution of the vaccine, has been a nonstop chorus of don't trust the science, don't trust the facts, give amplification to conspiracy theories, and you just can't undo that with the snap of a finger. you can't spend month after month after month telling your audience one thing and then expect them on the turn of a dime to change their mind just because you finally woke up and realized, it turns out, owning the libs at the expense of killing your voters isn't really a good strategy in the long term. and you look at the states that are being hit the hardest, states like alabama and missouri and oklahoma and mississippi, all these anti-vax, high wire trump cultist states and they're the ones that are seeing the big death -- was it 99% of people who have died right now of covid have died because they aren't vaccinated? the stories is the same in every

story we see, it's the victim lying in the hospital helpless, wishing that they had listened to the science, and then dying. of course they're going to start trying to convince everybody, they're going to try to convince everybody that we're for vaccines now and none of this is our fault. >> so, despite the description here that kurt is aptly providing for us, not all republicans are changing their tune. some are doubling down on misinformation. punchbowl news reported that a roundup of republicans who are smoking fears about the vaccine. boebert said don't come knocking on my door with your fauci ouchy. you leave us alone. it's not accurate. but why do this? are they just putting their own constituents, to kurt's point, in even more danger? >> yes, they're putting their constituents in more danger, alex. but i think what their

constituents should pay attention to here is what these republicans are doing, they're putting their own re-elections over people's lives, and so they don't care. the lauren boebert's of the world, they think their own re-election prospects are more important than, let's be frank about it, alex, childrens' lives. as kurt pointed out, this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated right now and dr. walensky made that point this week. do you know who is unvaccinated in the united states? any children under 12. so it's up to us adults to do the responsible thing here and get the vaccines and these congresspeople, i don't know how they sleep at night, honestly. because a 5-year-old died in marjorie taylor greene's district this week of covid-19, so i hope that she sees that little boy's face at night when she's misleading the public along with her colleagues about the science. >> you mentioned marjorie taylor greene. let's take a listen to something she said earlier this week.

here it is. >> have you, yourself, gotten vaccinated and do you disagree with the republican view? >> your first question is a violation of my hipaa rights. with hipaa rights, we don't have to reveal our medical records and that also involves our vaccine records. >> a reporter there asking -- says that asking a lawmaker their vaccination status is, in fact, not a hipaa violation. she does not understand what hipaa covers or she's openingly lying about the applicability of federal law because she does not want to say whether she's vaccinated. thoughts on that, kurt? >> it's just do as i say, not as i do. almost every single person who is out there in the right ring sphere poo-pooing on vaccines -- i almost cursed and that was the only word i could come up with. they are vaccinated. don't be fooled. the sean hannity, tucker carlsons, they are vaccinated. they just don't want to admit to

it because it would reveal that everything they're doing and everything they're saying is a con. they are conning their supporters, their voters, and they are trying to monetize it and gain power and gain political power, and get re-elected. that's what this is all about. that's what this has always been about. they're engaging in a form of really health care domestic terrorism at this point because they are leaving the most vulnerable, the most exposed to something that is going to kill them and it's sad that the last thought that some of these people are going to have when they're lying on their death bed, gee, i can't believe i fell for that. >> i appreciate the fact you're trying to put logic behind this. i still don't get it. it doesn't make sense to me. anyway, you guys usually do, so thank you so much. no, i correct myself, you always do. thank you. >> and all be sure to catch zerlina maxwell as show, the choice, from msnbc.

as the first full day of competition unfolds in tokyo, a new threat to the games emerges and it's not covid. 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

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ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. the 2020 summer olympics are under way in tokyo after being delayed for almost a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. just a few hours ago, first lady jill biden left tokyo after leading the u.s. delegation to the summer games. before leaving, though, she cheered on team usa at a few events this morning, first sitting in the stands to watch them compete in swimming races, and then later to support the u.s. women's soccer team as they took on new zealand. team usa pulling out a 6-1 win, just the bounceback they needed after losing the opening game to sweden. but as competition is under way, covid cases are climbing among people accredited for the olympics and severe weather is threatening to disrupt the competition. nbc's stephanie gosk is in tokyo with all the details.

hey, there, steph. >> reporter: hey, alex. as you know, the pandemic delayed these games a year and they've also been battling incredibly high temperatures here and heat that has been disruptive, and now as if that wasn't bad enough, there is a possible typhoon headed towards tokyo. now, it's still a tropical storm, and they're saying it could be upgraded, but they're worried about it potentially affecting some of the competition. they've moved the rowing that was supposed to take place on monday, they've moved it to sunday just in case. they've got their eyes on maps and forecasts to see what's going to happen with this storm. in terms of covid here, we now have 127 cases, positive cases of covid connected to the games. but i want to put that into perspective a little bit. there are tens of thousands of people who are accredited for these olympics. 127 cases, what is surprising about that number is that it's actually not higher than that. we are, however, seeing it start to affect the competition. there was a beach volleyball

game today that had to be forfeited by the czech republic team. japan wins that game. an interesting case with the czech republic, they're investigating the delegation of possible clusters among athletes and coaches. the local press saying they're looking specifically at a charter flight taken from the czech republic and the doctor who was on that flight who may not have been vaccinated. that will be the big question here among all of the athletes in this possible spread of covid, will be how many of them are vaccinated. we know more than 80% of the u.s. team is vaccinated, but we don't have a really good sense of the rest of them. outside of that, competition has really taken off. you had the first gold medal given to a china shooter and we are seeing people get back in the pool and the u.s. women's soccer team play, trying to redeem themselves after that terrible loss to sweden, and, you know, the hope here among officials, organizing officials and athletes and all the rest of

them, is that these headlines about the pandemic are overtaken by headlines about some of the competitions and the achievements here in tokyo. alex, back to you. >> those are the headlines we want, stephanie gosk. thank you so much. it is a bridge over troubled water and a nightmare for one motorist, and it's next.

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one? >> reporter: hi, alex. good to see you. that's exactly what scientists are saying. they're saying that climate change is the root cause of all of these devastating floods and fires we're seeing from north america to europe, to asia. more specifically they're saying that it's soaring temperatures in the arctic that is causing the heat to make high-level winds, like jetstream to decel decelerate, which causes storms to slow down and deliver concentrated rains. scientists are saying the temperatures in the arctic are the cause for all of these fires we're seeing as well, like the ones in siberia that are currently raging. and siberia the one of the coldest places on the planet and that's why scientists are so alarmed with the frequency and intensity of the fires there. they're saying