way as it would actually keep the rain off during an event in soggy staffordshire, britain. even prince charles appears amused as the bumbershoot refused news day again today against all odds, a landmark bipartisan infrastructure package has advanced tonight in the united states senate. we'll be talking to senator jon tester, one of the senators who helped negotiate that deal in just a moment, and hopefully he can walk us through exactly

what is in the bill. but first, we have breaking news, right off the top. here's the brand-new headline tonight at the washington post, quote, as trump pushed for probes of 2020 election, he called acting attorney general rosen almost daily. now we have known before tonight that donald trump had tried to pressure the justice department in the days after the election asking the department of justice to investigate fake claims of voter fraud which would help delegitimized biden's victory. but until tonight, we did not know how extensive donald trump's efforts were. according to the washington post, president donald trump called his acting the tierney general nearly every day at the end of the last year to alert him to claims of voter fraud or alleged improper vote crowned in the 2020 election. and quote. in those calls, the post calls the personal them -- and asked what the justice department was doing about it. here's the kicker, those calls

did not just a phone calls. there is a paper trail. quote, attorney general rosen told few people about the phone calls even in his inner circle. but there are notes of some of the calls that were written by a top aide to rosen named richard donahue who was present for some of the conversations. those notes will by the way soon be turned over by the senior judiciary committee to see why bill barr so suddenly left the justice department after the election. those notes could head to congress in the matter of days. unless donald trump moves to block that from happening. joining us now is devlin barrack, one of the lead reporters on the blockbuster story in the washington post tonight, dublin, thank you for this and thank you for being with us tonight. as unorthodox as things were during the door donald trump presidency, this goes for. they're the idea of a presidentl interest with this attorney

general is stuff that we think about when we think about richard nixon. >> right, and one of the things that we've all been working to understand a little better is exactly how hands-on did trump get with his aides and his senior officials. as he pushed for this and as he sought to frankly pull the justice department into things like litigation and attacks on the vote certification. and now we know a big part of that, an important part of, that was in these calls to the nation's top law enforcement official at the time, jeff rosen. and those calls, at least some of them, are documented in these notes and it's entirely possible that in a matter of days those notes may be produced. >> let's talk about the two parts of that. the notes tell us something about how rosen may have seen these phone calls, or at least have -- this aid to rosen might have seen these phone calls. generally seeing speaking, you don't take notes of things that

are meaningful. the notes that are there, does that say something about the attorney general's state of mind? >> i do think there was a great deal of caution and concern at the justice department at this time. and i think the notes reflect a really tricky tight rope that senior justice department officials were trying to walk at that time which was, in their minds, they have to take the call, they have to talk to the president. but they also don't want to be pushed or shoved, or even wrongly told that they have to go take trump side in these fights. a lot of what was described to us, a lot of these conversations involve the president saying things that he's concerned about, things he's upset about, and the acting attorney general jeff rosen said, okay, i hear you mister president, don't worry, we will investigate any serious allegations.

and trying to change the subject at times and, frankly, not succeeding at that. >> so it sounds a little like that call to georgia election officials that we all heard around christmas time, that there is a president trying to convince someone to do something and the person on the receiving and understanding that this is probably unorthodox, somewhere between the line of an orthodox and entirely wrong and possibly illegal and not commit to anything. >> and you see that in an implicit gentle way in rosen's testimony before congress back in may. he made a point of spelling out all the things he did not do in that time period. and i think in hindsight, now that we know about these phone calls, i think in hindsight that testimony stands out more clearly as rosen tries to draw a line for people even though he cannot say publicly, and say, look, whatever was said to, me was brought my way, i did not go down the road that some of these folks wanted us to go down. >> great reporting double, an

important report reporting that is in front of us in the following days as congress investigates january 6th and the accusations of election fraud. thanks for being with us devlin. all right, here's a question for you, do you remember how january 6th started? do you remember the first thing that happened that day? we all know where the day ended up, with a violent insurrection at the u.s. capital, and we know that right before the viral and's eruption, trump gave a speech in front of the white house in which he wild up his supporters and told them to march up to the capital. but that speech doesn't start until noon. at that point, the stop and steal rally on the lips have been going on all morning. the whole gang was there, trump family members, rudy giuliani, the attorney general of texas who was under indictment and in the midst of an entirely separate fbi investigation. he had tried to get the supreme court to overturn the election. but do you recall who began the

day, brighton early at 9 am? who really set the tone for the event? it was this guy. >> today is the day american patriots started taking down names and kicking butz! >> that was how the day started. that was alabama republican congressman mold brooks setting the mood for january 6th. congressman brooks recalled how, our ancestors quote, sacrifice their blood and lives, and quote, he has the audience if they were willing to do the same. are you willing to do what it takes to fight for america? carry the message to capitol hill! the fight begins today. all of those are mold brooks words. now democratic members of congress tried to censure brooks that day.

but some of them had a different idea. -- along with the other speakers of the january six, stop the steal rally, including president trump, in which he accused brooks of inciting an insurrection. and response to the lawsuit, brooks had a novel defense, i was just doing my job. he said he couldn't be sued for his job because he was acting as the united states congressman. so the court turned to the u.s. justice department and asked the department to weigh in on whether congressman brooks was just performing his official duties as a federal employee. and the justice department is now delivered its reply to the court. and it says, in essence, you are on your on, mo. it did seem like a long shot that mo birx would get the u.s. department of justice to come to us with -- spelling out their reasoning. this is an actual quote from the filing.

the complaint alleges that brooks conspired with others to investigate -- to instigate a violent attack on u.s. capital and incited a riot there. instigating such an attack plainly could not be within the scope of federal employment. quote, alleged action to attack congress and disrupt its official functions is not conduct a member of congress is employed to perform. welcome to 2021, where the united states department of justice is forced to clarify in court that inciting an insurrection is not part of the official job duties of a member of congress. but here's one thing that's worth pulling out from the argument that move brooks tried to make about what he was doing at that rally on january the six. he says the reason why his speech was part of his official duties he made it, quote, in the context of, and in preparation for, congressional votes, and quote. votes that were held that day to certify the presidential election. it was all part of the

preparation for the certification of the vote. and that preparation had been going on for weeks of that point, this was the headline at politico on december 21st of last year. house republicans meet with trump to discuss overturning election results. now see, the sub headline there, trump loyalists are planning a last stand january 6th. we inside the article, president donald trump huddled with a group of congressional republicans at the white house on monday, where they strategized over a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results last month. representative mo brooks who spearheaded the long shot pushed to overturn the election, results in congress organize the trio of white house meetings which lasted over three hours and included over a dozen lawmakers. during monday's meeting at the white house where lawmakers washed at -- snuck of meatballs and pigs in a blanket, trump talked with members over an hour about how january six will play out. you know how who else was at

that white house meeting, planning for january 6th? congressman jim jordan. who just last night, after a lot of hemming and hawing and avoiding the question, admitted that yes, he did speak which president trump on january 6th. this is the guy that republicans try to install in the house code select committee to investigate the insurrection. this cheney, one of the republican members of that committee, said she agreed with the decision to not allow jim jordan on the panel because they would likely have to subpoena him as a witness. maybe they should think of subpoenaing mo brooks to. mo brooks who spearheaded weeks of planning to overturn the election on january six who says his man in the barricade speech that morning was all part of his preparation for that day's vote, i mean the violence that day took most people by surprise, including the police officers on the front lines. according to their testimonies

of yesterday. but apparently it did not take brooks by surprise, and that's how we know. that congressman brooks tonight tells a reporter, jim newell at slate.com, that he was wearing body armor when he gave a speech on that morning on january six. quote, because of a tip he'd received about potential violence, brooks had been wearing body armor at the same very ellipse speech in which he encouraged rally and attendees to start taking down names and kicking butz. quote, that's why was wearing that nice little wind breaker, brooks told me with a grin, to cover up the body armor, he didn't say who warned him or what the risk was that he had been warned about. those sound like good questions for the new committee investigating the generous sixth attack. we don't know who will be getting subpoenas from that committee, but benny thompson told us, on this program last night, that those subpoenas are going out soon. in terms of what led to and prompted the january 6th attack?

the lies about election fraud, the narrative of a stolen election, the fantasy that donald trump's election loss could be overturned, that needs to be investigated by the select committee. but that is not just stuff that happened before january 6th. as far as a false narrative about the 2020 election that is inciting people to violence or potential violence, we're all living in an active crime scene right now. this is ongoing. take the so-called audit that arizona republicans have been conducting of the 2020 election results, in maricopa county, and arizona, the cyber ninjas guy, who is a qanon -- under ultraviolet via light. looking for bamboo fibers because maybe the ballots were secretly said to a merica from east asia. today, the guy who had been overseeing the audit for the

arizona republicans quit after being walked out, that is -- he was actually physically locked out of the building where the audit was taking place. that was this morning, he quit. and later today, he unquote. so that is going well. the whole arizona audit circus was meant to last a few weeks, we are now four months. in the senators say that the new batch of subpoenas that -- they're just gonna keep on looking. this thing is gonna go on forever so that donald trump and his allies can keep pointing to it and say proof of all the fraud is coming, it's just around the corner. and it's spreading. in wisconsin, the republican chair of the assembly elections committee is gathering up for her own arizona audit. she doesn't just won a forensic audit, she wants a cyber forensic audit. we don't know what that is but i'm sure that it is much fancier than the regular audit.

this is how a wisconsin we republican made a pilgrimage -- this is on top of the investigation initiated by the republican speaker of the wisconsin assembly who wired some ex cops to dig into the 2020 election results for him under the watchful supervision of a republican former wisconsin supreme court justice who became a stop the steal activist after the election. and there's also the audit of ballots in, wisconsin being carried out by a crew of random wisconsin citizens including a guy convicted of bank and mail fraud. today, the justice department issued new guidance to states, basically warning them, about conducting these uncertified audits breaking federal law. sanjay department well justice says we are concerned that if they're going to conduct the so-called audits, they have to come decked with federal law. not in a way that will intimidate voters. we will see if that guidance

manages to dampen republican enthusiasm for these audits in any of the many states that are considering them. it's hard to find any kind of braking mechanism for this out of control car that the big lie has created. if the election was stolen, the people in power are illegitimate, if americans have been the victim of a vast conspiracy to deprive them of their democracy, what wouldn't you do? one action wouldn't be justified in that situation? today on capitol hill, local election officials from across the country -- country came to testify and how the big lie is affecting them. how the false narrative of a stolen election and the fake audit creating distrust in local elections are run, how it's created an atmosphere of fear, and threat, and violence, for election workers. they described it as feeling like a local small-scale version of what happened on january 6th at the capitol. >> we had armed almost riders in maricopa county.

we had alex jones literally was someone else arm in arm shouting for other election officials and myself in the parking lot. they were armed with some pretty heavy duty firearms. that was certainly no civil active protest. that was not a grievance. the presence of those weapons are a threat in that situation. it was a step away of what happened here. the motivation behind these threats, is the lie. that needs to end. >> when we are going through ways very much the same as what happened here. except they are coming to our homes, and they are making us very uncomfortable. some of my colleagues have been shot at, simply because of what we do. all of us have been threatened. it is unfair that we are

attacked for doing our job i feel afraid. i feel afraid, and i know it might not get some repercussion from sitting here, but i decided to come anyway because i believe in the right to vote. >> might face rip questions just from singing -- sitting there. january 6th attack, he's a member of the committee on house administration which held the hearing today with a local election officials. congressman, thank you for being with us. yesterday's testimony was incredible to hear lawrence o'donnell and i we were talking about it this weekend thought we heard everything we had to hear about january 6th. having the police officers talk again with stirring. same today. these people, election officials in michigan and arizona telling them about how they've been threatened? people have gone to their homes,

people have threatened their safety. what did you take away from that? >> these are additional brave heroes who are administering -- and they are the fabric of our local communities. they are under assault. our hearing today and house administration was about a bill from williams, and it's the preventing elections -- of 2021. it's making it a crime to intimidate and harass election officials because we know that's what they're trying to do here. they're trying to use the combination, the backdoor law change with its base rooted in racism, combined with the audits, as you mentioned, that's casting doubt on a free and fair election system. it's administered by the very individuals who are under attack.

>> the department of justice -- they've done this with maricopa county in the state of california earlier, sort of sent them a warning to say don't lose the chain of custody of ballots, don't fiddle was stuff. they have written again to states to say election -- are no longer under the control of election officials. this could lead to things being lost, stolen, altered compromised or destroyed. the department of justice is warning states of exactly what's going. and they will keep counting, storing, messing with the ballots until there is nothing left of the balance. until nothing -- no one can prove anything. >> that sounds about right. that will continue and it's exactly what they want, to cast doubt on the fear -- free and fair elections.

sometimes they used to try to hide it, now they are not. it's very clearly a problem in these communities. congress needs to step in. we wanted to put a spotlight on what was going on, and i tip my hat to these local election officials. the one you showed there, and each of them talked about the threats they had against them. against them, their families, loved ones. that shouldn't be the case. these individuals, they really are the bedrock of democracy that we have back home. thousands of them across the country administering our election laws. they deserve to do the work without intimidation. >> i don't know if you had a chance to see devin barrett and his recording of the washington post and donald trump in december was calling his attorney general baseless with this. lots of people want to know who

this points to, who was involved, how donald trump and mel brooks were involved in facilitating this. what does that look like to you? does donald trump and all these people get subpoenaed before the select committee? >> we have a lot of work to do. you show the brave officers yesterday to d.c. metro police officers, to capitol police officers, told a story in very graphic detail of what they went through, protecting democracy. we owe it to them. the last question the chairman asked, what do you want us to do? what do we get out of this? just like you highlighted, they said justice and accountability. they want truth. we will not be intimidated, we will chase the truth, we will work and lift over every rock -- rock.

we are going to do our best to produce a document that gives proof of what happened and what led up to january 6th. that's what our work can do. there will be subpoenas and we'll move forward in an expeditious way. i will let the chairman talk about a work plan moving forward. >> congressman, thank you for joining us. good to see you tonight. pete aguilera, a member of the house committee of january 6th. if you are superstitious, you may think that tweeting out that it is infrastructure week would jinxed any chance of a bill passing. this might be the real deal. one of the key senators involved in the game -- negotiation joins us next.

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...plus up to 400 dollars off her wireless bill! wow! cheer on team usa with xfinity internet. and ask how to save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill when you add xfinity mobile. it's exactly one week after a get started today. bipartisan infrastructure deal failed to clear its first procedural vote in the senate. tonight, a new 550 billion dollar proposal from the same bipartisan group, cleared the upper chamber with the support of 67 senators, bringing a fresh round of opposite -- optimism to the senators. the top republican senator mitch mcconnell join everyone to begin debate on this bipartisan infrastructure plan. after the bow, the bipartisan group of senators for weeks, took a victory lap.

>> it's not about republicans or democrats, it's about making america more efficient and improving the lives of the people we represent. >> the word in this town, all across this country from the naysayers, is that bipartisanship is dead. it doesn't work anymore and that government is broken. we are here to say, no. it works. >> we have still got a long ways to go before we get to the finish line, but this was a vitally important first step. >> i think the country needed a bit of good news. what we are delivering tonight, is that tonic and away for the soul of america. >> tonic for the soul of america. america could sure use some tonic. today the white house applauded the deal, noting that included some of the largest investments in public transit, passenger whale -- rail bridges, clean, water and

vehicles. tonight vote, it's significant and it marked what might be a difficult road. senators will now have to start filling in the details, crafting legislative language for the bill. they have to get it scored or priced out by the congressional budget office. they have to vote on amendments, then get at least 60 senators to vote for it again in a technical vote before the final vote on the passage. even if they do manage to do all of, that this bill is still going to have to pass the house, where progressives are already making clear they will not vote for this bill, unless it is accompanied by another much bigger democratic proposal that includes many of their key priorities. just ahead of tonight's vote, congresswoman permian jayapal who leads the caucus released this statement. progressives have been clear from the beginning.

end quote, as i said, there is a long road again. synergy leader schumer said that he promises to get it by the end of the summer but there was no doubt that after weeks of frustration, the nation's capital, tonight's vote is a leap forward. joining us now is one of the group of ten senators whose work led to this agreement today, montana senator jon tester, senator, good to see you. i know we don't often start an interview with you smiling, so your feeling like this is a big accomplishment, so congratulations on that front. how do you address this other thing, this 800 pound gorilla in the room, the idea that this package,, there are a lot of democratic progressives that say that it has to be paired with a much bigger

reconciliation bill before you get their full support. >> you take a look at each and weigh on their merits. this bill is traditional infrastructure, is what the country needs. hopefully we will get it passed into the house. then we have reconciliation. and hopefully we can get a reconciliation bill that leads to childcare, or housing, or senior care, whatever it might be. and make sure that it is paid for and move it along to. i will tell you that what morris said is correct, this country needs -- we need to show that we can work together to get something passed. and i think this bill is -- i'm talking about the bipartisan bill, and once we get this done, once we get into reconciliation, that bill may be really good too and we will make that assessment once that

bill gets drafted, and, built and amended, all of these things that the bill is gonna go through over the next. week >> you and the other nine senators involved in doesn't negotiation have overcome some stuff, so talk to me about looks like reconciling two things, you have jayapal who represents what the house has to say, kristen cinema issued a response about the reconciliation bill in which he says, i do not support a bill that cost 3.5 trillion, i will work in good faith to develop this legislation but my colleagues and the administration to strengthen arizona's economy and help arizona's every day families get ahead, so what we have here is two pieces of doubt, both cast by democrats at the moment. tell me about how you negotiate this going forward. >> i think we have to talk about the merits of the. build i think this bill is about two things, it's about jobs, and a lot of jobs all over the country, good paying jobs, livable wage jobs, and

national security. the truth is, china wants to replace us in this world as a leading economic power. and if we don't get our act together, they will do exactly that. if we don't start to unite and quit dividing, then we're doomed in this country. so i think this bill is a step forward that we have five to democrats and republicans that fought for months but we have the same goal in mind to get -- then we threw it at the white house and they pushed it. and we threw in senator schumer and leader mcconnell and they all wanted to get to it. we need to continue that moving forward, not only through the senate in the house, to get this bill across the finish. line our country needs this to maintain our position as the leader, as an economic power in this world. and if we don't, shame on us. so we have a lot of work to do, ali, you are right.

but we have gotten a lot of work to get at this point, and we will roll our sleeves for the rest. >> so 60 votes in the senate is these days, reserved for something like naming the post office. things that nobody has any disputes over. you mentioned, leader mcconnell voted for this. this is a procedural bill it's one that stirs debate. do you think there's some way you can get 60-plus votes to close this debate some point -- i think you would probably get the 50 plus votes in the end. but you're still going to need ten extra republicans all along this road. >> i think that if people look at this bill for what it does for this country, i think we can get more than 60 votes moving forward. truth is, as i said before, we need investments in roads in bridges and broadband, the list goes on and on. and this bill does that. it is the largest expenditure in infrastructure in this country's history. we need to talk about that, we need to talk about how we get

this done. it will not be easy. nobody thinks it will be. through a lot of games being played, there are folks in the senate who will try to derail us. but we need to stick together just like -- and if we're able to do that, we'll get this bill through the senate with a good healthy vote. i think it's going to be north of 67 votes in the end. once people get a chance to see what this bill and what it does, i think there will be more than 67 senators who will vote for. it >> talk to me about what happened to jerry moran of texas, he was on the team, and he voted no to this procedural, bill do you know? why >> jerry is a good friend and i cannot speak for jerry, we will have to sort that out in the process. but i don't think that juries a lost cause. i think if he sees this bill you will be good for kansas in the country and he'll get on board. like i said, jerry is a good man. he'll analyze it on the ground when he sees that it's important act according. lee >> senator is very good to see, you montana senator jon tester. still ahead tonight, what

happens when a group of republicans at the local instead level how telling the democratic leader to how deleted city that she leads. that's next. that's next. . biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are.

and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. so there was this hearing about

mask mandates in that st. louis last night that was just bananas. and i mean that in a literal sense. >> good evening, i want to let you know, i followed your rules. i wore my mask, i social distanced, and i washed my hands. heck, i even washed my bananas and my oranges! i was overboard, okay? i still got covid. so how did that happen? i'm alive, i am a covid survivor. the counties i could've doctor page yesterday was illegal. i hope the cancel recognizes this and votes according lee.

>> okay, there is a lot going on there. this was last night at a county council meeting in st. louis. members of the community like that you lady yelling about her clean bananas, were there to as the city council to repeal a new mask mandate. and if you felt the first lady was something, dozens of people showed up just like her. the county council meeting went on for hours, and the most shocking thing about all of this is that it worked. last night, the st. louis county council voted 5 to 2 to reverse the brand-new mask mandate in the county, and acted in response to the dangerous delta variant that's ripping through the region. the county executive who issued the mandate said the council's vote was meaningless and that the mask rule remains in effect for st. louis county. but there is a fight in the courts as well. the republican attorney general in missouri has filed a lawsuit asking the judge to overturn mask mandates in st. louis county, and the adjoining city of st. louis, once and for all.

new covid cases are skyrocketing, not just in st. louis right now, but the entire state of missouri. look at the right side of your screen as rachel has been reporting for a few weeks. but only 41% of the population in missouri is vaccinated right now, which is a dangerous combination. we talked to the head of the cdc last night who told us that the vast majority of the counties in the united states with high or substantial covid transmission, that's the stuff in red and orange in this map, have low vaccination rates. and look at missouri, where the hours pointing. most of the state is lit up bright red. all of those red counties in missouri are exactly the type of places the cdc had in mind when it reversed its guidance on masks yesterday and asked to start wearing masks indoors in areas of high covid transmission, regardless of vaccination status. but look at what happened in st. louis county yesterday, after leadership tried to enact one of those mask rules, endorsed by the cdc.

people who lived there went nuts. the republican attorney general sued not the county, not just the county, but the city of st. louis as well to try to council out a concurrent mask mandate that was enacted by the mayor of the city of st. louis. what are local leaders supposed to do to protect their constituents when they live in an anti-science state? as far as the mayor of st. louis goes, she had this to say about the republican a.g. attacking her public health policy. quote, i wish that he would put more of his attention toward serving the people of the state of missouri. joining us now is the mayor of st. louis, to sharia jones, mary jones, good to see you again. thanks for being with us tonight. you have a serious issue in your state and in your city, and would be one thing if you had a serious issue and you're putting a mask mandate encourage people to get vaccinated we get to the end of it, but you're actively fighting people as this covid virus is once again attacking your state. >> yes, we are fighting people on two sides, we are trying to

get people vaccinated and to keep them safe and that's with the people of st. louis city and st. louis county, like myself and doctor page to do. it should be noted that page is a and anesthesia office -- i have a ten year career working in hospitals as a health administrator. so i think we know what we are talking about. weber also following the guidance of the metropolitan task force made up of the leaders of our rescue agencies including our local hospitals, they have been recommending that we go back to a mask mandate for about a week now. >> you and i talked right after you got into office for about 100 days do you think that you're gonna change how you deal with? this three one a half months ago, we thought we were in a different place with covid, we were getting these vaccines, out we assume that a lot of people would take them it was

difficult to get. it and now you have an entirely different problem to solve. yes. absolutely. we thought that vaccination rates would be higher. we thought that our leaders would be more bold and recommend people get vaccinated. st. louis city alone, we are looking at another problem related to 80% of new cases on the african american community and only a little over 22% are vaccinated. we have a whole different issue to deal with, but vaccine hesitancy among minority populations is a thing. >> you deal with both -- both those things the same way differently? vaccine hesitancy and minority population versus anti vaccine conspiracy theorists? >> we have to deal with it at the same time or else we won't get out of the pandemic. we are looking at a surge in the state of missouri, and we have to address vaccine hesitancy as far as myself and my family, all are vaccinated,

including my 75 year old father and 13 year old son. others will follow the science as well. it's your best offense against the horrible side effects of covid-19 up to and including death. >> what does the fight look like on the ground? the attorney general suing you, aside from, that are you able to challenge the resistance on the ground and people are abiding by mask mandates? >> we find people are abiding by them in st. louis city, and we are finding that we also have to meet people where they are in terms of vaccine hesitancy. last friday, we took our mobile vaccination unit from the health department to a community resource there. we will be taking the mobile vaccine units everywhere out where we can to meet people

where they are and offered them vaccines in communities they live. >> mayor, thank you for being with us. st. louis mayor thank you for being with us. >> more against the fight of the pandemic. stay with us. ay with us front desk. yes, hello... i'm so... please hold. ♪ those days are done. ♪ i got you. ♪ all by yourself. ♪ go with us and find millions of flexible options. all in our app. expedia. it matters who you travel with. the largest employer in the

country is the u.s. federal government, without including the military, the federal government employs more than 2 million people. tomorrow, president biden is reportedly going to add announce a new vaccination rule for all those employees. nothing is for certain until it comes from the president himself, but it would require all federal employees to get vaccinated or faced repeated covid testing. that comes after we learned monday that a little over 100,000 federal workers have their own new vaccine rules that go a step further. patients facing health care workers at the va, will have to get vaccinated or could lose their jobs. all of that comes in the same week that we got a number of

big guidance reversals from the cdc. the cdc is now recommending all people, regardless of their vaccination status wear masks indoors once again, if they live in one of the many areas where the u.s. virus is surging. in the u.s.. they're recommending staff, students, and visitors in school, regardless of vaccination status -- that news is coming before schools start back up. the cdc is warning that preliminary evidence shows, even fully vaccinated people can spread the delta variant of the covid virus to others. tough news to swallow. sometimes following the science means taking a step back though. joining us now, to talk about the new guidance is the dean of brown communities school. good to see you again. i have to start in the uk. things got so bad, that the u.s. issued a travel advisory

against child ruling to the uk. 69.3% of u.s. have one first dose of the vaccine, in the uk it's 88.3%. we have now seen the number of cases in the uk plummeting, even though they eliminated some social distance and -- distancing rules. what's going on that we don't understand? >> ali, thank you for having me. a short answer, nobody knows for sure. there are some theories. one is, obviously, kids are out of school, so that help slow down spread in schools. second is, the weather is terrific people are spending time outdoors. we know the virus largely does not spread outdoors. the third is what you just pointed out, which was this huge increase in vaccinations that's not been in the uk. lots more people vaccinated, and i don't want to use the term herd immunity, but they have a high level of population immunity. i think that's also helping them a lot. >> the israeli health panel in israel, is recommending a third

shot of covid for older people. oi'm skeptical about these things that pfizer came out with, saying the third dose would be good, if i were the company i would say it's good as well. what do you make of it? >> i'm looking at the data, we are still learning. it does appear that for some people, not everybody, maybe older people, people who are frail, nursing home residents, a third shot may end up being helpful because, we are really trying to ward off infections against this very, very contagious delta variant. i don't think it is a slam dunk. i want to see more data. that is what israel is relying on. i would not be surprised if we go down that road in a few weeks or a couple of months ahead. >> we were talking to doctor walensky yesterday, the director of the cdc. she said it's more of an update than a change. i get that. after watching the cdc all of

last year, a lot of americans were frustrated at guidance that seem to be inconsistent. maybe today cdc is suffering because of the reputation of damage that was done to it last year. what do you think of the new mandate guidance? the new mask mandate guidance that came from the cdc? >> i am totally sympathetic to people who say, this feels very different from what we were dealing with a few months ago. this is the reality of a pandemic when we are learning a lot about the virus. we are learning about new variants that show up. in may, when the cdc relaxed its guidance, we did not think vaccinated people were getting infected, we certainly did not think they were spreading. delta also wasn't around very much. what's the cdc did yesterday, i think it's fine. it's consistent with the science. it's reasonable for people in high risk areas to wear a mask. i don't think it will make a huge difference, stem the surge. but i think this is where the science is heading. i thought cdc made a good call.

>> ashish k. jha good to see you again. the dean of brown university in public health, keeping us informed for a long time. thank you for your time. we will be right back. ht back. [john legend's i can see clearly now] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ make your reunion happen with vrbo. your together awaits. vrbo do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster,

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show me the olympics. [ "bugler's dream" playing ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ so to keep an eye on tomorrow, we've been watching those texas democrats who left the state to avoid the passage of restrictive voting rights in legislation in texas, they will be testifying in front of the house oversight committee in d.c. tomorrow. they are of course staying out of texas until the session and

so that that law can be defeated. that does it for us tonight, will see you again tomorrow, it's time now for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening my friend. >> good evening hourly, and we have a very big news out of the senate tonight, the bipartisan vote was much bigger than any of us expected, many more republicans joined in. actually a total of 18 republicans supported the bill, the one absent senator was a republican who supports the bill. so 17 republican votes on the senate floor tonight, but 18 in reality. >> the old -- days >> including mitch mcconnell. >> you remember the days when there were big votes in the senate like that, but these days, i was talking to senator tester, and it's said unless you're naming a post office or doing something non-controversial, it's unheard of these days to get 18 people joining with democrats, so it's something. >> it really is. and i saw your interview with john tester and his conf