it is great to be with you. i'm geoff bennett. as we come on the air, president biden is meeting at the white house with the prime minister of iraq, and the two leaders are expected to announce the end of the u.s. combat mission in that country. as soon as we hear from them, we will bring that to you life. we start with busy day in washington, and dramatic moves ahead of the first public hearing ahead of the house select committee addressing the house attack on the u.s. capitol. it is expected to be emotional

first round from the officers who faced the horrors of the front lines and the intensity of the violence coming into fresh focus with the release of each new video, and we are expecting the committee to play video that the public has not seen, but the standout of the hearing could be the member of the committee itself, congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming and one of two republicans of the panel appointed by speaker pelosi, and the newest member added is gop congressman adam kenzinger. >> come republicans are saying that the gop should play ball with this committee. >> really? who was that, adam and liz? aren't they kind of like pelosi republicans? >> are you pelosi republicans? >> we have very serious business here and important work to do, and that is pretty child ish. >> so pelosi republicans. and now, responding to that new attack line from mccarthy, and

he says "we'll see" if he moves to punish cheney and kinzinger, but it is liz cheney who will give an opening statement, and it is liz cheney to set the tone and the tenor for the inquiry itself, and the push to uncover what we still don't know about then president trump's actions before, during and after the insurrection. all right. joining us now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell, and playbook coauthor eugene daniels and former fbi special agent and msnbc national security analyst clint watt. it is great to have the three of you with us. leigh ann, we have heard the new attack line of pelosi republican, and also about the

phone call when he heard that she was going to nix two of his picks, and help us unpack this. >> it is not a traditional committee, and you have two republicans on the committee of course, representative adam ken zinger and liz cheney who are like-minded on the claim that the false claims that the election was stolen or that he did not lose the election, and so this is one that is not commonly seen up here on capitol hill. that group of nine members just broke up from a preparation meeting ahead of tomorrow's first committee hearing regarding the capitol police officers and the rank and file d.c. metropolitan police officers. and our colleague haley talbot

caught up with adam kinzinger, and he said that leader mccarthy can say whatever he wants to say, and that the remarks are childish, and he is honored to serve. so this is interesting spectacle as far as the members are concerned. and meanwhile, we will see the emotional and raw testimony from these rank and file capitol police officers who are going to steal the show tomorrow. >> and eugene, you can argue that congresswoman liz cheney has a higher profile than before, and she a ranking committee member of the select committee, and what does it mean for her, and democrats to really benefit from having her and kinzinger for that matter to participate in the committee meeting? >> yes, and one thing that we said in playbook when liz cheney was taken from her leadership months ago is that what happened is that mccarthy giving her more power than ever before, and

giving her more attention than she has had before, and most people in the country have not heard of her until then, a now she is taking center stage of like leigh ann talked about of giving this opening statement tomorrow, and what that means for her is the head of the republicans of resistance, even though liz cheney is one of the most conservative members of congress to this day, despite the pelosi moniker that we are going to be hearing about more ander mo, and for democrats what they are focused on this whole time is how to make it bipartisan, and make sure that it is taken seriously, but the problems with politics nowadays and the politics of the entire country, no matter what happens, whoever is in charge, the opposite party is not going to believe what the findings are of the committee, and that is likely what we are going to see. we are going to see for months

and months, mccarthy and others to attack this committee, and former president donald trump is going to obviously attack this committee, and the outcome that everybody wanted after january 6th, and everybody on january 7th to move on from trump to get something from trump to figure out what is happening, and that outcome seems far and far away. >> and clint to, the question of the committee's actual work product, to eugene's point of how this is going to last months and months and months and after the hearing tomorrow, and the committee and the house generally is taking a seven-week-long break, and also some new sound with our colleague garrett haake. >> you talked about january 6th, and there is a hearing and a lot of other investigations going on, and what steps need to

prevent something like this going forward. >> you won't be happy with the answer, but i have read all of the reports and i have a list of recommendation, and the investigations come out with additional recommendation, i want to see them as well, but what i do know is that based on all of the reports that have been done, i have a real good sense of what we need to do to improve some of the policies and training and all of those types of things. i have a good sense of what needs to be done. >> so clint, what do you make of that, the new capitol police chief who is a law enforcement veteran who says, i know everything about what there is to know about the capitol complex, and the fact that this work is on a two-month pause given the congressional recess? >> he is right on the tactical presence of what the intelligence needs to be at the capitol, and there is the

general honore review, and we heard all of the remarks, and articulated that, and the bigger questions are the strategic ones. there are two veins in that. regarding the domestic ones, and the report of what the federal government and the fbi is to look at. it was a glaring gap in report and a real pass of the buck to the senate. and also, the senate response, and the capitol officers there, they were ambushed that day and overrun, but what is the response plan? if you are reading some of the accounts of president trump on that day, and vice president pence, i am not sure what the chain of command was for calling out the department of defense that day. according to every time line that i have read, they have respond quickly, but there was a complete breakdown in terms of the elected leaders and who was

in charge and who makes the calls. it is a bigger strategic issue and not the capitol police of who to get the answers, but it is of how to defend the homeland and that was not answered in the report. >> and leigh ann, you have democrats saying that they will try to get testimony from the people who were around donald trump that day, and steny hoyer was in the rose garden for that event, and he told pbs that anybody who had relevant knowledge of that day, and anybody around donald trump should be called as witnesses, and then adam schiff told hallie jackson that the committee cannot wrap up the work by this year, and it is going to stretch into 2022 which is an election year, and this is the thing that gave the republicans a lot of concern, and this is the thing that the republicans gave up when they blocked a bipartisan commission.

>> that is absolutely right. this is definitely going to go into 20222022, considering it i almost august when they return, and this committee is ramping up, and hiring staff. they will spend august and september laying the groundwork of the investigation, and they have a lot of work to do, and they are at the beginning stages. this is absolutely going to go into the midterm election year. especially if they want to talk to former president trump aides who have been defiant in any investigation involving the then president, and former president. so there could be a lot of legal battles that persist as well. geoff, this is the very beginning of this story that is going to be probably a very long one. >> yeah, and eugene, as we are looking ahead tomorrow, and we will hear from the law enforcement officers at the capitol on that day, and if people were not moved from what

they have seen and heard from attack by now, what can we hear from tomorrow that could change minds about the need for an investigation like this? >> i think that what the concern is that minds are made up about this, right. but what we will see, and that everyone on this committee and the people who work and doing a lot of the work, and the staff on this committee, they are hoping what we saw on the days of the impeachment, and looked at the videos and mitt romney getting so close to the insurrectionists, and the videos and people start to break down a little bit, and see how dangerous, and how concerning this was, and is, right. because it is not just about what happened, but then, how do you prevent it, and what are the breakdowns, et cetera, et cetera, and that is something that the folks are hoping to see. i am not sure how we will see in the way that minds change, and looking at the polling, and talking to people out and about.

and minds are made up based on the r and the d. that is something that is consistent for years and gotten worse. so unless donald trump comes out and it is hard to see the republican voters and trump vote se voteers are going to change their minds, because it seems that is going to be consistent as well. >> my thanks to three of you. we are following another unfolding story where the bipartisan infrastructure bill could be on the verge of collapse, but if you are thinking, i have seen this movie before, and it is always a no until it is a yes on capitol hill, you are probably right. with us from capitol hill is national reporter sawhill kapur. and this is a dangerous line of work that i got out after the

president trump presidency. so what is the deal? >> this is a lockline since president trump the, and negotiators have been with it more than a month when they stood with president biden, and turns out a deal to make a deal, and the biggest ones are the distributions of the highways and the transit. the democrats want the 90% of transit and 10% for highways, but republicans want less for transit, and that is biggest roadblock. and there are others as well. one of the democrats says that they are still establishing policies around broadband and water around covid provisions around the davis/bacon act. but once the transit and highway

actions are resolved the rest of the bill will come together smoothley. you are seeing the back biting with the republicans are saying that the democrats are not reasonable in the requests, and the democrats saying that the republicans are moving the goalpost. so whether it is tough negotiate from the two sides, it is yet to be seen. >> my inbox is filling up with comments from both sides. and has speaker schumer given the latest on the vote? >> well, he doesn't have a choice. he has to wait for the group to finish, because he doesn't have the vote. he needs ten of them on board, and not a single republican is willing to work forward with a deal until it is finalized and until now, it is not finalized. >> thank you, sawhill. if we get a movement on that deal, move back to the camera,

and we will get to you. and now, the latest on the trump case, and the whopper 1 million bond that he paid to get out of jail. and now, a state where few are vaccinate and we will go to the state with the fewest vaccination rate in the country, and the cases are up 500%. we will go lye to the white house where president biden is meeting with the prime minister of iraq, and formally ending the combat mission of america in that country. here we go. ♪ rock the boat don't rock the boat, baby ♪ ♪ rock the boat ♪ see disney's jungle cruise. it's time to rock the boat, america. ♪ all by yourself.♪ - oh. - what? rain. cancel and stay? done. go with us and get millions of felixble booking options. expedia. it matters who you travel with. what's on the horizon?

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the chairman of the donald trump inaugural committee appeared before a judge this afternoon. tom barrack pleaded not guilty to charges that he was a foreign agent on behalf of the united arab emirates. and now this follows his release from a federal prison friday after posting one of the largest bonds in u.s. history $250

million. and joining us now are nbc news correspondent tom winter and new york law school professor and manhattan district attorney, and tom, walk us through what happened in court today. >> geoff, this whole court appearance here today was to get tom barrack to brooklyn to enter a plea, and for the judge to go over the finer points of the $250 million bail bond secured by four properties, and he has to wear a ankle bracelet which they put on him late friday afternoon and he cannot travel anywhere except for his presence in colorado, aspen, colorado, and to new york where he has to be in court, and on top of that, he is limited in the domestic transactions with respect to banking and wire transactions to $250,000 and he is going to give up the private plane, and he cannot travel outside of the united states and had to

surrender his passports. he did not speak at the hearing, and his attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf, and that is what they signaled last week they would do, and what they have done today. early next september is when they will be back for a status hearing, and according to the u.s. attorney's office they will start with discovery which is voluminous with a significant amount of text messages, and emails and recordings, and all of that handed over to the defense in the coming days. >> and that is setting up my next question, rebecca, with him being accused of acting as a foreign agent for the uae and how hard for this to prove? because the text message trove helps things. >> yes, the text message trove helps things as do the charges about lying. because, you know, one of the defenses that he could launch, and i think that it would be smart for his defense attorneys

to launch is that, look, i was doing this in my own financial interests or on my own, i wanted to advance the interests, and i thought that this is in the interest of the united states, and of course, the text message belies the defense, but if you lied to federal agents when they asked you about this, why? it is a consciousness of guilt, and a sense that he knows that he was doing something wrong, and that is going to make the defenses quite a bit more difficult. >> so, tom, this bail that he posted on friday, and how is tom barrack's legal team able to convince a judge that he was not a flight risk and a citizen of lebanon and private jet and hundreds of millions of dollars at his disposal? >> they worked with the federal prosecutors do this and significant effort they said so in court friday to get to that point. as we discussed for somebody like tom barrack, the idea of spending the weekend in jail was

not appealing, and not to anybody i don't think, so that the two sides come together here, and what they have to establish is one, how do we keep track of the assets and make sure that there no money flows here to help facilitate some sort of a effort to flee the country, right? so we talked about that with the domestic transactions and giving up the passport is a huge part of, this and no private jet limits options for him, and the ankle monitoring is the key, and knowing where he is at all times. it is fairly specific, and it is not, you know, pinpointed to barrack moved from the first to the second floor in colorado, but alert authorities if he is moving from the aspen area but to the courthouse in brooklyn, so they can have some detailed tracking on him, and putting it together with the fact that this is not a violent crime, and no accusations of witness tampering here or anything that he is doing to subvert the process now

that the process has begun, and now he is charged with lying to the fbi, and no additional allegations of any efforts to thwart law enforcement since the arrest, and typically in a case like this, the more of the white collar case, and nonviolent case, the judges will go for the bail package here, assuming it is meeting the burden of the high flight risk of curbing that potential of barrack leaving the country. >> and rebecca, what impact of this case of tom barrack into the investigation of the trump organization or to the ongoing investigation of the spending around the trump inaugural, and any connection of the three things? >> you know, i think that there might be. there is probably not a connection with the new york case. i think that the inauguration is a much more likely target here. i am sure that prosecutors especially the federal prosecutors are sharing information they might have that might intersect with that case

to the extent that the investigation is ongoing, and hard to know at this point, because we don't know what the status of the investigations are to know exactly in what way information gathered throughout the investigation could be useful to that investigation, and in these kinds of cases you have some sort of commonalities and one of them is that there are all of these people combining business interests, and personal interests, and political interests and in ways that are political and illegal, and that is the pattern and then are there facts that overlap that could be useful for one investigation for another. >> rebecca, thank you for the analysis, and tom winter, thank you for all of the excellent reporting. coming up, we will talk about the vaccine mandates, because new york city is expanding the vaccine mandate to include all city workers and the mayor says he is not going to stop there.

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handcrafted like the olden day. designed for the golden days ahead. ♪♪ ♪♪ covid cases are rising across the country and the states with the lower vaccination rates are seeing the worst of it. 97% of patients currently hospitalized with covid-19 in u.s. hospitals have not been vaccinated. in alabama covid cases are up 573% over the last two weeks. you heard that right. 573%. the state has the lowest vaccination rate in the nation

with just 34% of the el vibl people getting the shot. nbc's gabe guterres is in birmingham with more. >> geoff, good afternoon. with 34% of the population vaccinated, alabama has the lowest vaccination rate, and here at uab, university of alabama at birmingham, they are saying that they are seeing a rise of patients and increase from 35 patients on friday to 54 today. and there has been an increase in the hospitalizations across the state. more than 300% since july 1st. alabama's governor is also facing some backlash from some in her state for comments that she made late last week where she blamed the unvaccinated for the latest surge, and said that the unvaccinated were letting the rest of the population down. >> the new cases in covid are because of unvaccinated folks.

almost 100% of the new hospitalizations are with unvaccinated folks, and the deaths are certainly occurring with unvaccinated folks. these folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain. we have got to get the folks to take the shot. >> here in birmingham, this hospital's lab says that of the 31 recent covid samples that they have tested, all of them have come back positive for the delta variant. geoff. >> our thanks to gabe gutierez. and today at the white house, the president was asked again about how the slow the surge. >> mr. president, how can we get the unvaccinated americans vaccinated? >> we have been.

>> meantime in new york city, the mayor bill de blasio announced a new vaccine mandate for all city workers. >> on september 13th, the entire city workforce will be mandated under the covid safety mandate to either get vaccinated which is far preferable or get tested once a week. >> add to that a new joint statement from 50 state worker groups to mandate the vaccinations to keep the vulnerable populations safe in the surging. joining us is rehema ellis in queens, new york, and nbc medical contributor who is the founder and ceo of advancing health equity, and big welcome to you both. rehema, what can you tell us about the new mandate from the mayor's office there in new york?

>> well, geoff, as the mayor said, this is far and broad reaching covering every single person who works for city of new york which includes more than 330,000 people, and including teachers, police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers and again as the mayor stated, it will take effect september 13th, and that is by the way, the first full day of the school year, and that would include teachers but also everybody who works inside of the school including the cafeteria workers. we should also mention that the mayor said it is all about keeping people safe, and bringing the city's recovery back to its fullest state possible. and this is coming on the heels of him issuing another mandate just last week regarding all new york city workers in public city hospitals, and he said that they have also got to be vaccinated or they will be subject to weekly tests. he is urging this also, and he is taking this a step further

saying that he thinks that new york city company, and those companies based in new york should also mandate this thing for their workers as well. geoff. >> and dr. blackstock, we are less than two minutes away from seeing president biden and the iraqi president, and it says that the department of affairs will require 115,000 of the front line health care workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus in the next two months. so this is a mandate from a biden administration department and with that thought, let's go to the white house the hear from president biden. >> iraq has been a vital partner for the united states for some time now in the middle east, and we have been engaged deeply in iraq for my entire career back in the senate, as vice president and as president. i have worked with iraq, and as a matter of fact, my son beau

was in iraq for a year with the army national guard. the sacrifices that so many have made to build the relationship there is real, and it is consequential, and the biden administration is committed to strengthening the partnership, mr. minister, and the iraqi strategic dialogue is about commitments that expand our cooperation on issue like health care, climate, energy and as a matter of fact, i am going to tell you that i am told that on behalf of half a million, 500,000 covid vaccines were told they were not going to be there in a while, but they are going to be there quickly. so we support strengthening iraq's democracy and anxious to make sure that the election goes forward in october, and we also

committed to our security cooperation, and the shared fight against isis is critical for this stability of the region, and our counter terrorism cooperation will continue as we shift to thare t i am looking forward to talk to the prime minister today, and we have a lot to talk about, and he is a good friend and i am looking forward to talk with you. the floor is yours. >> it is a pleasure to be here with our american friends, and we have a strategy partnership, and i am here in washington to talk about this partnership, and how the improve the relationship between our two countcountries. americans help iraq, and together we fight and defeat isis. i would like to thank america on

behalf of the iraqi people, and i thank you, mr. president, and all that america has given for a free and democratic iraq. today, the relationship stronger than ever. our partnership for our economy, environment, health, and education, and culture and more. i am looking forward to work together to bring our countries together for iraq and the united states to go forward for our two countries. thank you, mr. president. >> whoa, whoa, whoa. whoa, whoa, whoa. whoa, hang on a second. if you want to talk about iraq, ask me a question about iraq.

>> can you ask how the relationship changes with the dialogue of iraq -- >> this most recent time you are talking about? >> yes. >> well, the foreign ministers and the cabinet have been talking a lot, and we are looking forward to seeing an election in october. we are working hard with iraqi government to make sure that the u.n. and the gcc that we have oversight with the full and fair elections. i have been in contact with -- at any rate, i think that things are going well, and our role in iraq will be as a dealing with not -- and it is just to be available to continue to train, to assist, to help and to deal with isis as it arrives, but we

are not going to be there in a combat mission. >> and can you tell us about the veteran affairs -- >> is veteran affairs -- >> you are a pain in the neck, and this has nothing to do with iraq, and i will answer your question. yes. veteran affairs is going to in fact affair that all docs working in those facilities will have to be vaccinated. >> thank you. thank you. out this way. out this way. >> all right. sot president biden there in oval office meeting with the prime minister of iraq talking about the end of the combat mission in that country, but the president said that the counter terrorism operation will continue, and you have heard the president say what is there with dr. uche blackstock and what he

said about all of the front line worker to get the vaccine, and we will continue that conversation, but i want to first bring in correspondent shannon pennypiece about the time line of the drawdown in iraq, and the troops to stay in iraq to assist with training? >> well, the administration is the framing this not so much as a pullout of troops, but a change in mission to go from combat mission to advising and training mission, and you heard the president there saying that the u.s. is going to assist the iraqis and help to deal with isis as need for that may arise, but trying to emphasize the shift here from this combat mission. as far as the number of troops, of course, that is what everybody wants to know, and the press secretary jen psaki said down from 9,000 to 2,500, and she would not lay out a time line as to what is happening with the rest of the troops, and the big picture context of this,

we heard the president make similar comments about afghanistan and talking about ending the u.s. operations there, and nearly all of the american troops are out of afghanistan now, and as he tries to shift the focus from the area where the president sees the biggest national security threat china, and he does not see a military solution to the conflicts going on in iraq and afghanistan, and so that is where we are seeing the focus shift to china. that is the hope of the administration going forward here. >> shannon pettypiece, our thanks to you, and joining us now is four-star retired general barry mccaffery and he served as commander in gulf war, and i don't have to tell you but on a day like this, the u.s. has been tangled up with iraq for 18 years and how significant is

this announcement? >> not significant at all. it is just politics. ever since the guard was killed at the baghdadi airport, the political tensions have been inflamed inside of iraq, and in particularly the shiite militias surrogates for the iranians. they want us out. we have not been on a combat mission there in a couple of years and it is train and advise. we have been using air ops, and primarily trying to take the heat off of the iraqi minister and redefine the public face of the u.s. presence. >> practically speaking though, it was president obama who withdrew the troops in 2011 only to send them back three years later to fight isis, and how is this so-called official end to the u.s. mission there going to be different? >> i don't think it is much

different at all. as long as the iraqi parliament continues to support this so-called change nation of the mission. it is important for us to stay there, because we get better intelligence, and we can use your air power more effectively, and the training is of significant help. i don't think that the iraqi military and police are going to fold again. we have weakened isis and the al qaeda elements. so it is primarily a civil war with the iranian surrogates, and we are a point of contention. they want us out. i don't think that we are going to get out unless we are forced to. >> as we are drawing on the deep experience in the region, let's talk about the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, because the american general overseeing the operations says that the u.s. could continue air strikes against the taliban. so do you see that as the new normal after the official

drawdown is done? >> i was interested in that. general frank mckenzie, three star, very experienced commander made that comment today. in theory, 31 august, it is over, and we are no longer carrying out the missions in afghanistan. basically, we are out already. and swred about -- we have about 650 troops protecting the embassy and the airport, and we are gone, and almost no leverage, and thank god for the u.s. navy carriers and air force in the region flying long range missions. i don't know how they are controlled the, and probably the cia to keep the taliban from sweeping the country. they have half of the districts right now are in taliban hands, and the 34 provincial capitals that the taliban have held off capturing them, but we don't know where this is going, but i can't imagine that we would

effectively use air power after 31 august. >> all right. general barry mccaffery, thank you for your insights, sir. we will return to that discussion about the vaccine mandates, and with us is the medical contributor dr. uche blackstock, and thank you for rolling with us. i wanted to pick up what the president was confirming in the oval, the department of affairs will have to get the vaccine, and it is a mandate before the vaccine is fully authorized by the fda. what do we make to that? >> it is sending a strong message that the biden administration has wanted to refrain before the legal waters of the vaccine, and jen psaki said that the federal government's role is not to be involved in vaccine mandates, but today, an announcement that there are going to be vaccine mandates for health care workers

and everyday we are hearing more and more about different institutions and cities to mandate vaccines. we are in a country where only half of the total population is being vaccinated and we are seeing the surges. so until we get this under control, we will have the mandates like this to motivate people and encourage people to get vaccinated. >> as a practical matter, does it matter that this is happening before the vaccines are fully authorized? >> it is a great question, and that is part of the legal concerns that some people have, but the fact is that the vaccines have been given to hundreds of millions of people, and we have tons of clinical data showing that the vaccines are safe and effecttive, and in addition to the process that the fda is going through to get the emergency use authorization is a rigorous process as well. so, i don't think that the fact that these are not fully

approved yet should be an issue. >> the cdc is calling it the pandemic of the unvaccinated, but it is true that vaccinated people are passing the vaccine. so should we be masked up? >> the term of the pandemic of the unvaccinated has bothered me, because we are seeing breakthroughs of those vaccinated. so in provincetown, those unvaccinated have spread among vaccinated residents so the cdc is reconsidering the mask guidance and especially in the areas with low vaccination rates, universal mask mandates should be considered, because we are seeing the breakthrough infections, and we don't know if fully vaccinated people can transmit to unvaccinated people,

and if they can develop long covid symptoms yet, and so it is a area that is to be researched and we should have a research on that soon, and that mask mandates should be reinstated. >> another question of the known, unknowns, and i want to ask you about congressman clay higgins who has contracted covid twice. he wants others to get vaccines, but he has not confirmed whether he has gotten the vaccine, because he has natural immunity from the first covid. have you heard of this where people get covid twice? >> i will say that, you know, if you have had covid once, this natural immunity is not robust enough to protect you against the variant. so we don't know. it is possible that he has been reinfected after having covid before and that is rare, but it is possible that he is totally vaccinate and infected.

we need more information but the take home message for everyone is that even if you have had covid previously, you should get fully vaccinated, because the natural immunity is not going to give you protection against the variant. >> dr. uche blackstock, thank you for your insights as always. coming up next, why the wildfires in the west are not just a hazard to the environment, but a growing hazard. ent, but a growing hazard. old me, that i should get used to people staring. so i did. it's okay, you can stare. when you're a two-time gold medalist, it comes with the territory. (vo) when you are shopping for a new vehicle, how do you know which brand you can trust? with subaru, you get kelley blue book's most trusted brand

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from the western wildfires spreads. american lung association says 135 million americans already live with polluted air and it expects that number to rise as we approach peak fire season. with covid-19 being an added concern this year, experts are looking into whether the smoke poses even more of a danger than usual. joining us from salt lake city is nbc news correspondent cal perry. utah is being hit hard by these fires. what do the air quality experts in the area telling you as we see that haze there behind you on the highway. >> yeah. exactly. salt lake city is over this shoulder. you have mountains behind me. you can't see them. there is a live look over the smoke over the u.s. this is the second year in a row that we have seen historic wild fires. there are 88 wildfires, 20,000 firefighters battling the fires

sending the smoke all over the country. it is the air quality that the cdc is growing increasingly concerned about. listen to what an expert told me a short time ago. >> you can see increased incidents of hospital admissions. you can see increased death rates for all causes. you can see asthma xas bagss and increased use in asthma medications. the when you put it all together, wildfire smoke is responsible for billions of dollars in increased health care costs. >> now the cdc puts on line air qualities available for everyone to take a look at f you look at the worst it is yuz in america, the air quality levels are in the 400s. 100 is considered acceptable. four time the national level is the day when people are just going to start to need to stay inside and do research on the hepa filters. it is something that i think people need to be more and more concerned with. >> cal perry, thank you. we want to take a minute to remember the bob of bob moses, a

civil rights legend that died this weekend. he was a soft spoken and towering leader that endured beatings, threats, and jail times to register black voters in mississippi in the 1960s n 1946, moses helped organize the mississippi freedom summer proekt j. it was a massive voter drive that helped generate national publicity and ultimately pressure for congress to enforce voting rights. its what helped persuade president lyndon johnson to sign the civil rights act that summer and the following year the voting rights act. bob moses didn't stop there. 20 years later, he founded the algebra project, a math education initiative aimed at rural and inner city students. president barack obama is remembering bob moses as a hero. the former president writing his quiet confidence helped shape the civil rights movement and to inspire generations of young people looking to make a difference. bob moses was 86 years old. what a legacy. and that does it for me today. ayman mohyeldin picks up our

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the capitol that day. the newest member illinois congressman adam kinsinger talked about why you joined the panel. >> you have the conspiracies that continue to thrive, when you have lies and misinformation that continue to thrive, it essential for us as members of congress to get to the answers. >> at this hour, the senate is back in session as democrats and republicans continue their work to finalize the bipartisan infrastructure bill. in a moment, we'll talk about where things stand on that front with krus van holland. over at the white house, iraq's prime minister are discussing a plan to officially end the u.s. combat mission in that country. the president talked about the role the u.s. will play in iraq in the future. >> it's just to be available, to continue to train,