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 that the land in siberia has never been this dry in living memory, the temperatures are far higher than they ought to be at this time of year. that's causing the permafrost to medical which is fueling the fires and the environmental disasters have knock-on affects. as the fires rage, that's causing dangerous carbon emissions, which is making the air pollution very, very bad. and scientists are warning that time is running out. if something isn't done about this, these floods, these fires, are going to be regular features in our life at great cost to our planet. so it's time to wake up and take these things very seriously, otherwise we're not going to leave much of a future for generations to come. >> it is a stunning and sobering report. thank you so much. good to see you.

a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters. welcome to alex whit reports. we're beginning with the rising number of covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths. the daily averages in the u.s. are averaged at 49,746, that's more than 28,000 hospitalizations, 270 deaths and 49% are fully vaccinated of those patients. the new outbreaks are driven by the delta variant and as millions of americans continue to hold out against getting the shot patience is running thin among health care providers and the vaccinated as we hear from nbc's miguel almaguer. >> growing frustration from those on the front line of the pandemic that should not be spiraling out of control again. >> it's a little bit like being on the titanic and offering life boats and have people turn you

down. >> if you are dying today in america from covid, it's because essentially you're unvaccinated. why would you want to die? >> this 33-year-old nearly did die, telling us she's still not sure about getting vaccinated. >> i don't want to be -- i don't want to just jump into something not being 100% sure about it. >> just stunning. this uptick in new cases is driving vaccinations in the states with the highest case rates. according to nbc news data the u.s. is averaging about 699 first doses per 100,000 residents across the past seven days. it is up from 590 the week before. vaccine supplies keeping up with new demand with pfizer and biontech announcing that the federal government has purchased an additional 200 million doses of their covid-19 vaccine, now for a total of 500 million doses. joining us now, nbc's antoni yo hilton is covering the surge in provincetown, massachusetts,

monica alba is at the white house with the president's latest comments on the unvaccinated. as provincetown is experiencing a covid surge, how many of those positive cases are from people who are fully vaccinated? >> reporter: well, alex, right now it stands at about 69% of the reported 430 cases of covid here, and these stem out of july 4th celebrations, where officials say large numbers of unvaccinated people came here and partied in close quarters with residents and people who are fully vaccinated. so these breakthrough cases are concerning to people. the good news is that these cases have been mild and asymptomatic, but the frustration and the concern comes from the fact that this is a community in massachusetts that is the most vaccinated part of massachusetts, which is already one of the most vaccinated states in the country. as i talk to people here, they feel like they went out, listened to their doctors, got their shots, and they worked hard to keep their businesses afloat and welcome people here,

and now visitors are potentially putting them and their businesses at risk. i had a conversation just yesterday with one of the men who was one of the breakthrough cases. he's a cab driver here for the summer. take a listen to what he shared with me. had you thought that the vaccine was kind of like a shield, that you were just never going to get covid? >> pretty much. i think i figured -- because i knew that i had been exposed previously when i wasn't vaccinated, and so i think i figured, like, if i'm vaccinated and i hadn't caught it when i was unvaccinated, like there's going to be no chance that i'm going to get it. and i guess that's probably my message to young people my age, that it's still possible. >> reporter: many of the employers here work with young men like michael and they tell me that it's these folks who are getting exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people a day, who are representing a lot of the breakthrough cases here. some of the employers tell me they're instituting zero

tolerance policies that go beyond the town's mask advisory. they're saying that if you want to come on their property or stay at their hotel, you absolutely need to show proof of vaccination, no exceptions. alex? >> can i just say, i'm really glad as i watched the interview that you were wearing your mask. i'm sure you noticed, michael was not wearing his. just voting. thank you, my friend. let's go to monica alba at the white house. you have the president, who is back on the campaign trail sending a strong message about the rise in covid cases. what is he saying about it? >> reporter: the president was at an event lost night that we could not have imagined for him last summer with more than 3,000 people. a giant crowd, mostly maskless. that's because he said most of them were vaccinated. and he made this big point of the fact that we now have, in his words, two different pandemics. one for those who have gotten the shots, and one for those who have not. and he says, really, is risk still remains the highest for those who have ate waited on the sidelines. that was his overall message,

while still wanting to tout what he believes was a success. the white house had fall short of the goal of 70% of all americans with one dose by the 4th of july, and just a couple weeks ago the president was here on the south lawn trying to declare our independence from the virus, but clearly the virus has not declared independence from us given the rise in delta cases. here's how he talked specifically about what he hopes people will think about as they make decisions about getting these shots, alex. >> i know folks are watching the number of cases rising again and are wondering what it means for them. here's the truth. if you're fully vaccinated, you're safer with a higher degree of protection. but if you're not vaccinated, you are not protected. and now -- what we have now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

>> reporter: note his language where he says you do have a higher degree of protection. we know the vaccines aren't completely foolproof and don't offer a 100% shield and that's why we've seen some of these breakthrough cases. we continued to press the white house on sharing more details and the cdc has started to track them and those that result in hospitalizations, but we still don't have a good understanding whether they can lead to long haul covid. we're still waiting for a lot more details about that. all of that at the backdrop for the white house, the cdc and hhs as they continue to have conversations about whether they need to update any rules, guidance or recommendations. we know come the fall when students are going to be back in the classroom, some districts are taking this into their own hands and saying we're going to require masks, especially for those under the age of 12, and they're saying we're not going to wait for the federal government to tell us what we should or should not do. that's one example of how many different states are going to have to decide for themselves what direction they want to go,

and with the white house saying they have no plans to change mask guidance, but they reserve the right to follow the science and if health experts say it should be altered, they'll do that, alex. >> pay close attention. thank you so much for that. some other headlines developing at this hour, beyond covid the president spoke on a wide range of other issues, while campaigning with terry mcauliffe. he weighed in on the race and the economy, as well as giving an assessment of his administration now that he's been in the oval office for six months. >> i whipped donald trump in virginia and so will terry. [ cheers and applause ] >> the guy terry is running against is an add oh laid of donald trump, for leel. i think the administration has a lot to be proud of. we've vaccinated over 160 million americans. we've created over 3 million new jobs, more than any administration has in the first six months in an entire presidential history. it's time to build the economy

from the bottom up and the middle out. that's where we are. >> meanwhile, supporters of donald trump lining up in phoenix as the former president gets set to speak at a rally there today. his appearance comes as arizona presses ahead with his republican-led audit of maricopa county ballots from the 2020 election. on capitol hill the january 6th house select committee is getting set to hold its first hearing on tuesday. it comes after house speaker nancy pelosi fired back at minority leader kevin mccarthy, for pulling his five appointments, a move he made in response to pelosi blocking two of the picks. now the speaker is deciding whether to administrator am kinzinger. and joining me, sahil from the capitol. what are you hearing on the hill and do democrats want more republicans on this committee? >> reporter: alex, some democrats appear intrigued by the prospect of one republican

in particular, adam kinzinger, the congressman from illinois, apart from liz cheney, who is already on the committee. he is the only other republican who voted to create it. benny thompson, the chair of the committee, called mr. kinzinger a fine representative and the type of person who would be good for this committee. speaker pelosi a couple of days ago joked that everyone else seems to think he would be good. the bottom line is this is a decision for the speaker and the speaker alone to make and she's not given any indication that she will add new members to the committee. the eight appointees of hers are a quorum. they will have their first hearing on tuesday. and the reason for all of this, the speaker and many democrats want to bolster the bipartisan credentials of this committee to maximize the chances that the american public trusts its finding. you recently had congressman marc veasey on. i want to play some of what he said about that. >> 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. >> reporter: now, that's easier said than done, because kevin mccarthy, the house republican leader, is deeply invested in undermining the legitimacy of this committee and he's using the fact that the speaker rejected two of his appointments as ammunition. that is the box democrats are in as they open their first hearing for the committee on tuesday. >> it's going to be a big day. thank you so much. rewriting history in a way that might make your jaw drop. my next two guests speak with the former president about january 6th and the crowd that invaded the capitol. this is where the president actually was when things got violent. violent. glucos ntrol.

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now to some newly released bombshell audio of donald trump talking about the deadly january 6th attack on capitol hill. the former president sat down with the "washington post," phillip rucker, in march, for an interview for their book where he spoke about the insurrection and attack inspired by his election lies and gave a completely false interpretation of what actually happened that day. joining me now, i'm so excited to become phillip rucker and carol leonnig "i alone can fix it". where do we begin? so, guys, with a welcome to you both, i'm so glad to see you. this book is just epic. i want to first play part of the audio of the conversation with the president and talk about it on the other side. here is clip number one. >> what did you hope they would do when you said go up there and stop -- >> well, i heard that people

wanted to go down. you know, that wasn't my rally, per se. there were a lot of people that spoke. they had rallies the night before. they had speakers all over the city. you had hundreds of thousands of people. i would venture to say, i think it was the largest crowd i've ever spoken before. it went from that point, which is almost at the white house, to beyond the washington monument and wide. >> but if you could have waved your wand -- >> and it was a loving crowd. i've heard that from everybody. many people told me that was a loving crowd. and, you know, it was too bad. it was too bad that they did that. but my statement -- >> mr. president, i apologize. what we're trying to understand is, not blame, not castigate, we want to understand what did you want when you said go up there?

what would you have dreamed for them to do? >> that you will show not to go in, although they were ushered in by the police. in all fairness, the capitol police were issuing people in. they were very friendly, hugging and kissing. >> okay, guys, so we know that straight up that is not what happened. you have both covered donald trump for years. why do you think he is rewriting history here? first question to you, carol. is there a sense that he knows he is partially responsible for what went down? >> well, that is the 69,000 -- i mean $69 million question, and, you know, i'll just tell you that when phil and i were there at mar-a-lago, the president -- forgive me, the former president, donald trump, has a kind of physical commitment to this lie. he doesn't display any indication, and he doesn't believe this from his forehead to his toes. i'll tell you, also, that many of the sources, and we

interviewed more than 140 front row witnesses to this presidency, many of the sources who were at his shoulder are still unsure if he believes this about the rigged election or not. add one more thing, alex, to your very good question, which is if it benefits and behooves him politically to continue to stoke this lie. it has been essentially the wind under his wings to continue to be the leader of the party. as president, he stoked fear and confusion and it helped him a great deal. his people who were angry turned to him, people who were afraid turned to him. and that's sort of what this lie is helping him do now. >> before i get to you, phillip, you mentioned the 140 front row witnesses, if you will. how many of them differ from the president's recollection, just in general? i mean, how many of them are repeating what the president says and how many are saying, we see it a different way? just a ballpark.

>> i saw phil crack a smile, 99.9%, 99.999% agree. again, alex, that is one of the biggest take-aways for all of the reporting phil and i did, how many ardent supporters, people who wanted to enable donald trump's agenda, wanted to enable some of his worst impulses, wanted him re-elected and were working nonstop. how many of those people were chilled by his -- his kind of new delusional reality. bill barr told him straight up, mr. president, i have looked into these, our prosecutors all over the country have looked into these claims of a rigged election, they are nonsense. people on the day of january 6th, his chief of staff and his daughter, tried to convince him for two hours to call off the dogs. this was violent.

this was not hugging and kissing and capitol police officers ushering them in the door. >> to that point, i know it was the third take from reading the book, the third take is what it took to put out any sort of a statement that his advisers thought would be helpful to sort of quell the situation. i've got to wonder what in the world was he saying in take one and take two. we'll leave that for people to figure out as they read the book. i'm curious, what donald trump was doing during the insurrection on the capitol. he was awol on most accounts. what was he doing? >> that's such an important question and it's one we tried to answer in our reporting. in talking to people who were witnessing trump that day, we learned that trump spent most of the afternoon as the riot was taking place in front of a television. he was in the private dining room just off the oval office watching tv, watching the live images unfold, and he liked what he saw. he was happy to see so many of

his supporters showing force at the capitol, waving his flag, wearing his maga caps. it wasn't until the scene became truly violent and lives were beginning to be lost that he sort of recognized that something was awry, and yet, even then, he as the president, as the commander in chief, did not do anything to try to quell or try to gain control of the capitol. our reporting shows that it was vice president pence, not president trump, who stepped into that role of commander in chief and was in conversation with the brass at the pentagon and federal law enforcement leaders to try to marshal some sort of response to the capitol to regain control of the capitol, who had been under siege by these violent rioters. trump was just watching the television and it took his aides, and his daughter ivanka, several hours to convince him to issue the statement where he

told his supporters to go home. and a lot of people around the president that day thought that was a true abdication of his duty. >> you mentioned mike pence and i have to say, he refused for his own safety to be removed from the capitol, according to your book, because he says we are certifying this election as demanded by our constitution. he refused to leave, which was pretty bold. and i don't think it was quite apparent for most people before the reporting in this book that that was a really strong position that he took. you also write in the book about how general mark milley and heads of each of the branches of military began, quote, informally planning how they could block a presidential order to use the military in a way they considered illegal or dangerous and ill-advised. so carol, how serious of a situation was this internally? >> about as harrowing as you can imagine, alex. you know, general millie was on alert ever since the summer when he was, as he told aides, played

and used in the walk across lafayette square. he felt the president was willing to basically cross any line for his political gain, including using the imagery of the military, using this idea of he was the law and order guy, he was the guy with the guns. and so millie was already on guard. and as the president refused to concede a totally fair, in fact one of the most carefully monitored elections in history in america, when he refused to concede, millie was on all alert and becoming increasingly concerned, along with the joint chiefs, army, navy, air force, about the very real possibility that trump or other allies that he knew were whispering in his ear, were going to try to execute a coup, to keep power. and this worry was so serious, alex, that the joint chiefs did something they haven't done in history, which is talk about how they might, one by one, slowly,

resign if donald trump tried to give them an order they didn't want to comply with, and which they thought was dangerous. they feared, really, a wag the dog moment or an effort to try to create chaos that will allow president trump to consolidate power. millie compared this in his mind to what adolph hitler was doing in the 1930s. sowing fear, essentially, and they thought the military would be used this way. so the joint chiefs got together and started planning how would they block him. it was a reverse kind of saturday night massacre to stop their own president, their own commander in chief. >> that's just stunning to hear. you also talked to donald trump about mitch mcconnell and here's what he said about him. here it is. >> i tried to convince mitch mcconnell to get rid of the filibuster, to terminate it so that we would get everything and he was a knucklehead and he

didn't do it. he wouldn't do it. >> i'm curious, phillip, how you interpret the relationship between the former president and former senate majority leader. you report that whatever it was then, the two men have not spoken since mcconnell schooled donald trump on how elections are actually won? is that true, they have not spoken since? >> that's correct, alex. the relationship is nonexistent at this point. and in our interview with trump he actually went on to call mcconnell a stupid person. those are the words that the former president used. there are a lot of criticisms that people could make of senator mcconnell, but stupid is not usually one of them. he's one of the smartest tacticians on capitol hill in terms of moving legislation and keeping his party together politically. but the relationship that he had with trump is effectively over at this point, and it had been worsening over the years, but january 6th was really a pivot point for them. and it actually predates that.

there was a moment december 14th when the electoral college counts were certified in all of the state legislators when mcconnell formally recognized joe biden as the president-elect and congratulated biden and trump saw that as a betrayal. he was upset with mcconnell over that and upset with how mcconnell conducted himself and with the speech he delivered on the floor on january 6th about the importance of certifying the results of a free and fair election and not trying to contest whit there's no evidence of fraud. >> here's the best part of having both of you. nick is granting us two segments for this discussion, so we are not done with both of you yet. >> lucky us. >> lucky me. coming up next, the lies about the november election, whether the former president really believes them. we're going to ask. diabetes made food a mystery. everything felt like a “no.” but then paul went from no to know.

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as promise, we're back with the "washington post" phillip rucker and carol leonnig, the authors of "i alone can fix it". let's listen to the audio of when trump talks about the november election. here is that. >> i happen to believe the election was rigged at a level like nothing has ever been rigged before. there's tremendous proof, there's tremendous proof. statistically it wasn't even possible that he won. i mean, things such as if you win florida and ohio and iowa, there's never been a loss. >> did you need better lawyers? because he took it to court but they didn't convince the judges. >> i needed better judges. the supreme court was afraid to take it. don't forget, if you take all of the -- everything out, take all of the dead people that voted, and there were thousands of them, by the way.

we have list of a pitch wears. if you take the loyal immigrants that voted, if you take the indians that got paid to vote in different places. we had indians getting paid to vote. many, many different things, all election changing, not just 12 people, because they were all very close. >> carol, all of that is false. i almost feel guilt having played it because it leads to disinformation being disseminated. there is not tremendous proof, as he claims. after talking with him, do you think he genuinely believe these lies or is it his way of keeping that dreaded moniker, something he fears more than anything, the moniker losing from being applied to him? just don't ever acknowledge it? that's how you keep that moniker from being part of your legacy? >> it's absolutely so 1000% truth that the moniker loser or

weak is probably the worst curse word that donald trump could hurl at anyone, and he certainly doesn't want it reflected back on him. so there's a certain internal compulsion to make sure this election was rigged and to say it over and over again. as for your excellent question about, does he believe it, one thing phil and i learned in the reporting for this book was that a lot of things donald trump said before the election and the night after the election indicated he realized he had lost. he had some awareness that he had lost. he was disappointed, and he asked how in the world it could have happened, but he was reflecting that he realized it. now, of course, in the months that have passed, his narrative, his inner narrative and the narrative he wants to share with his base, which he still thinks he commands, and he does, that narrative is that the whole thing was corrupt, corrupt at a level i've never seen before, as

i said. and that he's got proof of it. now, keep in mind that during those terrifying months, late november, december, january even, he was being told by very trusted allies, i'm sorry, mr. president, it is entirely possible that you lost, and it is entirely baseless, these claims of fraud that your friends, sidney powell and rudy giuliani keep bringing to you. hugo chavez and his ghost did not invent a machine in pennsylvania and arizona and take votes away from you and give them to biden. bill barr told him in a very strong way, i have an entire team of prosecutors, i have the entire justice department, we've run down every single one of these claims from your buddies, and none of them have any basis. in fact, he called them bull-s. i won't go any further than that. the president was livid.

and it actually led to barr resigning within two weeks, because trump didn't want to hear it. >> stunning, these conversations that you are reporting, that they even happened. there are the excerpts that have been published by the "washington post" that say donald trump was absolutely desperate to beat joe biden in the election, telling aides, i can't -- i'm not going to say the word, but f-ing lose to this guy. was he so desperate, phillip, was it the meade to beat joe biden specifically? can you figure that out? >> you know, alex, it was driven by his desire to win and sort of his ego, his narcissim, his inability as you put it earlier to accept being the loser. but throughout that year and a half he tried to castigate joe biden and he had in his mind an image of joe biden as a sleepy,

demented old person. in his mind, joe biden was such a weak candidate, he couldn't fathom losing to him. on election morning he told his advisers that i can't lose to that f-ing guy and it was something that his children said as well. so when trump did start to lose to joe biden, he went apoplectic. we have a seen in the book on election night right after fox news and the associated press called arizona in biden's favor, that trump just started cursing at his top advisers, you know, f-ing get rupert murdock on the phone, f-ing get the anchors on the phone. they've got to reverse this. i was winning in a landslide, they're stealing the election from me. i'm paraphrasing, but that's the kind of fury the president shows behind the scenes and it built until 2:00 a.m. when we all saw with our own eyes him give the speech where he claimed he won the election.

>> let me ask you each quickly, is there something when you were talking to people about the book that there was a shocking revelation to you? carol, you first. >> there were so many times that my jaw was on the floor. it's hard to give one. i'll tell you one that surprised me, the coup, of course, was a stunner. none of us realized, and we were hard-nosed reporters reporting in real time trying to deliver this to the public. we didn't know the degree to which the military was frightened and what they were doing to protect america. there's one other, though, which is in the summer the defense secretary, mark esper, learns from the head of operation warp speed that the vaccine trials, or at least the development, the early development, is going really well, and early tests, very preliminary, showed the effectiveness of the vaccine at something like 80%. and that elation is immediately

replaced by fear. he doesn't want donald trump to find out and he starts wondering how they can hide this from him, because he fears the president will force americans to start taking a vaccine or force his health agencies to start injecting people before it's properly vetted. >> that's interesting. phillip, last one to you. something that shocked you. >> yeah, you know, alex, we learned that early on in the coronavirus pandemic there were a number of u.s. citizens who were working for the state department in wuhan, china, and the surrounding area and there was a state department effort to try to bring them back home to the united states. that's only natural. these are americans, they were working for our government over there. and trump resisted that effort. he said he didn't want them to come back to the u.s. because it would increase my numbers, as you put it. he's referring, of course, to the possibility that they could test positive for the coronavirus and, therefore, the number of cases in the u.s. would go up and that could make

trump look politically bad. it's just one example of many in the book where trump put his personal and political interests ahead of the health of the country and ahead of the obligation to american citizens who were abroad. >> oh, you guys, i can't thank you enough for making the time. the book for all of you, "i alone can fix it", phillip and carol, it's a thud. it's a huge book. it will take you a while to get through it. you can pick it up and put it down. as i told you during the commercial break, jaw-dropping. just incredibly revelatory. thank you so much for your time and thank you so much for writing the book. we all need to read it. thanks you. eight months a capitol hill rioter learns his sentence. why my next guest calls the judge who handed down the punishment smart and selective. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please!

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tom barrack is scheduled to be arraigned on monday just days after he was released on a whopping $250 million bon he's accused of acting and inspiring as an agent of the uae. his spokesman denies the allegations, saying barrack is not guilty and will be pleading not guilty. joining me is msnbc national security analyst and former director of intelligence at the fbi. the indictment alleges that barrack was funneling non-public information to the uae. what's your reaction, frank, to these charges, and would those actions then define him as an agent of the uae? >> indeed, that is what the government is alleging. there's a couple of significant points here that are being overlooked with all of the news in the 24-hour news cycle. first, as you said, there's an aspect of this that involved actually passing what they call non-government information to a foreign power.

that's extremely significant. the second thing is that while many people are mischaracterizing these charges as a foreign agent's registration act case involving some lobbying and paperwork problems, that's not what he was charged with. he was charged with a much stronger statute, which is directly knowingly working for a foreign government. that's a problem. it's the same charge that maria butino was accused of. there's an obstruction charge and a lying to the fbi charge. this is significant. one of the items he's charged with lying to the fbi about is he was asked the question, did you help set up a meeting with prince mbc and donald trump. they're saying he lied about that. so the question is, who is he covering up for? it's a fascinating case.

>> let me ask you about the column you wrote for msnbc.com, you write it's often said that the cover-up is worse than the crime, it's also true that a cover-up can help prove the crime. how does that apply in this case? >> again, this gets around the obstruction and lying charges. if you think this was an honest mistake, i didn't know these people were representing a foreign government, i didn't intend to work as a foreign agent or a double agent pretending to be allegiant to the united states and working for a foreign power, then just don't lie about it. but to have repeated lies when you're being interviewed by the fbi, i think there's something deeper that's being covered up. and the timeframe of this investigation, these interviews likely occurred while bill barr was the attorney general of the united states, and while his people were in power at southern district of new york in some positions and eastern district. what does that mean? it means we have reporting that they tried to bring this case

earlier against barrack, and there were misgivings, quote/unquote, at doj, and the u.s. attorney's office. now all of a sudden new administration, new attorney general, and here come the charges against barrack. i wonder if this was delayed for political purposes. >> let me ask you quickly before i let you go about what happened with the first person, paul hodgkin's, who was involved in the january 6th riot. in another column i'm looking at, you called the judge who handed down the eight-month sentence smart and selective. but what does this verdict mean for the almost, what, 600 or so other defendants facing charges? >> yeah, you know, they say if you're in any decisionmaking role, including a judge, one sure way to know that you've found a middle ground is that no one is particularly thrilled with your decision. so if social media reaction is any response, no one is particularly happy about this. put yourself in the judge's robe, as they say. there's the largest case with the most defendants ever out of

one event being charged federally in the history of the united states, perhaps, right? and there's multiple judges involved. and the defendants each have their own different unique scenarios to their cases. so he's got to come up with a decision and a sentence that's going to allow some room for growth and some formula for decisionmaking. were you involved in violence, are you refusing to cooperate, are you refusing to plead guilty and may being us go to trial, do you show remorse or not. in this case the defendant pled very early, he showed very genuine remorse, he was not involved in violence. so the message here is you were involved in this insurrection, you're going to federal prison for at least eight months, but we need to leave room for all the far more dangerous people that are going to come up in the courts very soon. >> you called it a goldilocks like balance and there you described why you said that. thank you very much. so what to make of a new study about the pfizer vaccine and how it might protect against the delta variant next. l my emps

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new and growing concern over the surge in covid cases fuelled by the delta variant. the number of infections spiking in every state. there is still a lot of hesitancy among unvaccinated americans according to a new poll. 45% say they definitively will not get a shot. 35% say they probably won't get vaccinated, and 64% say they have little to no confidence in the vaccines against the variants. joining me now, dr. tom preden, former cdc director and president and ceo of resolve to save lives. what is your reaction as i welcome you, sir, when you hear those kinds of numbers? >> it is concerning because what we're seeing now is an increase in cases and especially among the unvaccinated. we are likely to see an increase in deaths. i don't think those numbers are hard and fast. there are going to be more and

more people willing to get vaccinated as they see cases increase, and we have seen about a 14% increase in vaccinations over the past week or so. the problem is that for far too many this will be too late to save their lives. we're still losing 200 to 300 people a day in this country. i think we have gotten hardened to this from the thousands of deaths that we had a year ago. 200 to 300 a day, that's 100,000 a year. that's more people than die from the horrific opiate epidemic or from diabetes or alzheimer's or other leading causes of death. >> yeah. what about mask mandates? should there be new ones across this country? >> we're going to have to face the reality that we have a new variant that's more than twice as infectious, that there are some breakthrough infections, but they're very rare and usually not fatal. so in places where there's a lot of covid spreading, it makes sense to make sure that people indoors are wearing a mask. because there's no way to know

who is vaccinated and who is not, practically speaking that means that places that want to try mask mandates to keep things open are going to be well within a reasonable approach by doing that. >> so there is a new study in the new england journal of medicine which shows two doses of the pfizer vaccine are effective against the delta variant, providing almost as much protection, that being 88%, as it does for the alpha variant where it is 93% effective. dr. frieden, does this shape the ongoing pandemic response? >> the bottom line is that the vaccines being used in the u.s. are remarkably effective, even against the delta variant, especially against what you would like it to do best, which is prevent severe illness and death. delta is the way to stop the deadly path of -- vaccination is the way to stop the deadly path of delta, but far too many

people are unvaccinated. because it takes two doses, then a couple of weeks after that, the sooner more people get vaccinated, the safer they will be, the less spread of delta we'll have, and the less risk we will have of interrupting reopening, including the critically important issue of getting our kid back to school in person in the fall. >> but when you have these numbers, 88% of the pfizer vaccine in fact efficacy against the delta variant, what is behind the breakthrough cases? >> well, no vaccine is 100%. they're remarkably effective but nothing is perfect. what it is really effective at doing is preventing very severe illness and death. so with 162 million vaccinated people, there will inevitably some vaccinated people who get illness, a small number who get severely ill, and tragically a few people who may die from it. what we need to learn in the coming weeks are the basic

details about who is getting breakthrough infections and are there some people, for example people with kidney transplants who maybe should get a third dose of the vaccine. that's not a booster. that's a different dose schedule or vaccine schedule for people at highest risk. >> it is extraordinary. a lot of this we are learning as we go along because we've never seen anything like this. all right. dr. tom frieden, thank you so much. very good to speak with you. some new questions about the fbi background check into supreme court justice brett kavanaugh is making for explosive headlines and a lot of questions from congress. 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.

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volatile situation following the u.s. troop withdrawal? >> reporter: hey, alex. we are learning that several thousand afghans have been told by the u.s. afghans that helped the u.s. government over the years to prepare to evacuate the country either to the united states or a third country in the coming days. but the plan isn't that simple, alex. in order for them to get out of the country they've got to make their way to the capital city, kabul, and for many of these folks they're in far-flung parts of the country and it is simply either too expensive or far too dangerous for them to get to kabul. most of them don't have the money to pay for a flight, which would be the safest passage to the capital, which only leaves land routes. that's just too dangerous for them because most of the roads are now controlled by the taliban and people that have worked for the u.s. are in fear of traveling on the road, getting captured by the taliban at best or getting killed by them at worst. they're also fearful of staying in their homes because they feel

that the taliban may root them out there. so they're caught in this awful catch-22 of, you know, either staying at home or going. both pose immense risks for them. we have to bear in mind, alex, all of these people, many of these people that helped the u.s. didn't help the u.s. with the notion of, you know, trying to get themselves to america. they wanted to better their lives, the lives of their children or, most importantly, get the taliban out of the country. that obviously hasn't happened. so it is a very desperate situation for them. just to underscore how unsafe the country has become, even though the u.s. is now pulling out of afghanistan they were forced to launch some more airstrikes in that country just recently because they had seen that the taliban had stolen military equipment that was a direct threat to the afghan army. so if they're doing that right now while there's still a u.s. presence there, you can only imagine how badly the country is

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