about all of that. jonathan lemire, though, you know, the old rfk stadium they used to put up those signs when the old washington redskins would play football and we'd say bring baseball back to d.c., they'll do that again this fall for the washington area football team or whatever they call themselves now. because, man, fire sale yesterday. while nobody was looking, they basically sold off the nationals. and red sox and the dodgers were benefici beneficiaries. >> this was a nationals team that won the world series two years ago. it's shocking how quickly they dismantled it yesterday. and they have the richest owner in major league baseball. it's always been a sore spots

among nats fans they they don't pay the way they should. but we'll take it, charles schwabber. he is on the injured list and probably will be for a couple more weeks. that's as seen by the sox as an effort to match what the yankees have done, picking up gal low and rizzo. but the big trade not official yet, but rumors the nats are close to sending max scherzer and tray turner both of them to an already loaded dodgers team. >> that's going to be tough. going to be very tough. we'll see what happens. hopefully the red sox will do better than last night. but the red sox, it was the red sox and the yankees last night, lost by a combined like 27-1, something like that. so better days ahead. >> let's hope. >> yeah, let's hope. let's get to the headlines this

morning. faced with a surging number of coronavirus cases, president biden has announced sweeping new requirements for millions of federal workers. under the new policy, federal government employees and members of the military will have to sign forms acknowledging that they've been vaccinated or else comply with new rules for masking, weekly testing, social media -- social distancing and more. the president is encouraging states to offer $100 for those willing to get a shot. biden delivered a sharp rebuke to those who are still unvaccinated. >> nearly all the cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to covid-19 today are from unvaccinated people. last month a study showed over

99% of covid-19 deaths have been among the unvaccinated. 99%. this is american tragedy. people are dying. and will die who don't have to die. if you're out there unvaccinated, you don't have to die. right now, too many people are dying. watching someone they love dying, and saying, if i just got vaccinated. america is divided between the majority of eligible people who are vaccinated and those who are not. and i understand that many of you in the majority are frustrated with the consequences of the failure of the minority to get vaccinated. but i want you to know, i'm going to continue to do everything i can to encourage the unvaccinated to get vaccinated. i know people talk about freedom. but i learned growing up, school, my parents, with freedom

comes responsibility. your decision to be unvaccinated impacts someone else. unvaccinated people spread the virus. they get sick and fill up our hospitals. and that means, if someone else has a heart attack or breaks hip, there may not be a hospital bed for them. it's an american blessing that we have vaccines for each and every american. we've made it our first and top priority to have available vaccines for every eligible american and that's never going to change as long as i'm here. it's a shame. it's just such a shame to squaunder that blessing. >> perhaps nowhere is the latest coronavirus surge more evidence than in missouri. the associated press was given access inside lake regional hospital there where 22 people died from the virus in the first 23 days of july. they report, darryl barker was

passionate against a covid-19 vaccination and so were his relatives. then ten of them got sick and so did he. i was strongly against getting the vaccine barker said, through labored breathing. just because we're a strong, conservative family. barker, at just 31 years old, ended up in the intensive care unit fighting for his life. but just finding a hospital bed proved unbelievably difficult. according to the a.p. with his local hospital maxed out with covid-19 patients, doctors contacted a dozen hospitals in all corners of the state. all were at capacity. he arrived critically ill, placed on a ventilator. barker was given a 20% chance of surviving. the doctor told me he was going to let my wife and kid in so i could say my good-byes, because he didn't think i was going to

pull through, he said. barker, who has been hospitalized for three weeks isn't out of the woods yet. in missouri, covid-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled since the start of june and the number of icu patients has more than tripled. according to the a.p. many patients now are younger, in their 20s, 30s or 40s, and sicker than ever before. nearly everyone hospitalized is unvaccinated. meanwhile, a significant number of american health care workers are among the millions of people still unvaccinated. nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez joins us now with a look at why. what did you find out? you would think these are the people that know the most. >> reporter: good morning, about one in four health care workers in this country still have not been vaccinated. this is bell view hospital in new york and health care workers rallied here last week against

so called vaccine mandates. we spoke with another group in north carolina yesterday. show of hands, how many of you have gotten a covid vaccine? these are four health care workers from different hospitals in north carolina. why not? >> we don't know what the long term side effects are. >> hasn't been proven to be effective. >> the cdc and many public health expers say it's more than 90% of effective. >> they do say that. that hasn't proven to me to be true. >> i'm not going to jump on a bandwagon with something that hasn't been tested. >> it has been tested, though. >> if you look at the normal year span of how long something is tested, it's usually 12 to 14 years before it comes to humans. >> reporter: across the country about one in four health care workers still isn't vaccinated against covid. and from north carolina to texas to new york, anti-mandate protests are mounting. >> i don't trust it right now. >> so is the push back.

>> this is in the category of give me a bleeping break. when did everyone get a medical degree. >> reporter: for weeks we've spoken with many overworked health care workers that practically begged americans to get the shot. >> what do you tell people that don't believe you. >> it's frustrating. >> reporter: not these. they say they're not anti-vaxx more antimandate. >> if and when i'm ready to get the vaccine i'll get it on my own accord. >> you do not trust the cdc? >> i do not trust the cdc. i do not. >> i have the right to question anybody in this country i want to question. >> you're entitled to your opinion but these are facts. >> are they, though? are they facts? >> reporter: and mika and joe, that answer, despite the fact that more than 40,000 people participated in the pfizer clinical trial alone, despite

those health care workers are not convinced. i should mention, overnight there's a report getting a lot of attention, an internal cdc document, first obtained and posted online overnight by "the washington post." says that the delta variant is as contagious as the chicken pox, much more than previously thought. mika. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you so much. >> thank you, gabe. >> such an important report. we appreciate you bringing it to us and being with us this morning. that -- are they, though? are they really facts? that's what i get when i have family members and friends sending me information from chinese religious cults, from their websites, and their conspiracy theories. and you send them back facts -- by the way i'm not sending them facts from an msnbc website, i'll send facts from a fox news website or the a.p. or "the wall

street journal". i'll say this is rupert murdoch's "wall street journal". are those really the facts? are those really the numbers? people they didn't die. all those people didn't die. doctors got paid for saying that somebody died of covid. i've just got to say the idiocy. and everybody is entitled in this country to be an idiot. if you want to be an idiot, it's not what i do, but if you choose to be an idiot about your personal health and the personal health of your children and the personal health of your family and the personal health of your mother and grandmother and father and grandfather, that's your business, your community, that's fine. that's your business. but hospitals don't have to hire you. "the washington post" doesn't have to hire you. news outlets don't have to hire you. banks don't have to hire you. restaurants don't have to hire you. so you have the right to be an

idiot. i want you to know that. you have a right to deny science. you have a right to practice voodoo medicine if you choose. that's your choice. but joe biden is right, jonathan lemire, at this point, where i'm going at least, and as i say i hang out in communities filled with trump supporters. at this point a lot of people are getting really pissed off, a lot of people getting angry with this hyper individualism that says i have a right to do this. but no personal responsibility going along with that hyper individualism, no concern for their country and what's in the best interest of their country. no understanding or recognition of jesus' words do unto others that which you would do unto yourself. it's all, i have a right to infect my house, to infect my

community, to kill everybody that might just come inside of me in a closed, tight room, i have that right. and i'm not going to -- that's fine. but at some point you know what, we have to say, you can't work for the federal government, if you don't have the vaccine. you can't teach school if you don't have a vaccine. you can't work in hospitals if you don't have a vaccine. you can't work with our parents and grandparents at long care term facilities if you don't have a vaccine. this is common sense. and i think, joe biden, is starting to finally pick up what americans are thinking, which is you know what, if they want to do that to themselves, that's their business. but we need to move on with our life. something i've been saying now for six months, they can do what they want to do. but we don't have to eat with them, send our parents and grandparents to hospitals with them.

like if they want to live, you know, in the darkness in the edge of town, that's their business. they're americans. but we don't have to let you go where we go. do what we do if private businesses don't want to hire you for being so reckless with your health and everybody else's. >> we heard from the president yesterday certainly sadness but real frustration as to what he deems an american tragedy, about these preventable deaths saying it's not just those vaccinated, those who are choosing to die because they're not taking the vaccine. he's saying to them, don't make that choice. but he is acknowledging the frustration of the vaccinated. those who have done the right thing all along, listened to public health officials, wore masks and are now putting them back on. who got vaccines, who had to change their lives because of people not doing the same, not vaccinated. in conversations i had yesterday with white house officials, yesterday was the start. there has not been yet a federal

vaccine mandate. the white house is reluctant to do that, certainly nationwide, even among the federal workforce so far. but yesterday was a step in the direction where they make it harder for federal workers to not be vaccinated and do their jobs still and do it effectively. watch the pentagon. officials said there's moves now sooner than later for the secretary of defense to add the covid-19 vaccine to the list of required inoculations for the military. those who serve in the military have to receive vaccinations. the covid-19 one could be added to that list before long. yes, we're hearing about cash incentives too. urging state and local officials to give $100 to do so. these are steps and they're leaning on private groups, business groups, and they want to set an example and have those groups do more so. the president hinted, he thinks before long you'll need to show proof of vaccinations to get on

an international flight. >> why not. >> this is the governments saying you need to get a shot. >> why not. those nurses they're going i don't think it's -- i don't think that it's -- >> is it a fact? >> -- been proven effective. really? 99% of the people in hospitals right now for covid, they didn't get the shot, is that not proof for you? 99 out of 100. i just don't know if those are the facts. this is the alternative fact world that we have lived in now for five years, and again, you have a god given right to be an idiot in the united states of america. and because i'm a capitalist, let me be very clear, small businesses have a god given right to not let you work for them, or not let you in their restaurants, in their buildings.

if you're going to come in coughing and wheezing and getting their children and everybody else's children sick. enough is enough. again, this hyper individualism, that comes with no personal responsibility, with no care for children. that comes from no care for community, no care for country, no care for what jesus said about doing unto others that will you would have them do unto you. that hyper individualism, yeah, you practice that inside your cabin. all right. because we don't want you getting our children sick and getting everybody else's children sick. one other thing that biden said yesterday, mika. so i guess the wing nuts who don't believe in science, i guess they were probably upset at joe biden yesterday for saying you need to get a

vaccine. on the other side, i bet you there's some teachers unions upset with joe biden yesterday saying we're starting back to school. we're going back to school this fall. by the way, teachers unions, you were whining. you were whining for months, we can't go back in without the vaccines. we got the vaccines. we've got the vaccines. if you want to work in public schools, get a vaccine. if you don't, then become a painter. do whatever you want to do. but you're not going to stop the rest of us from sending our children to school. you've got the vaccines now, and guess what, a lot of you, you're running out of excuses. i remember hearing leaked sound from a teachers unions conference i think it was, saying they just want baby sitters. no we don't want baby sitters.

we want teachers, we want classrooms. we want our children getting an education. and you are not going to be staying at home because you didn't get a vaccine. you're not going to continue being a teacher if you didn't get a vaccine. you asked for it, you got it. the vaccines are there for you. now get the vaccine and get ready for school. make your school plans for the new year. because our children need to be back in the classroom. >> okay. so -- i think to your point, joe, adults have every right to be stupid and if they want to risk their lives, that's fine. but it's -- it doesn't apply to our kids and that's why these vaccines are so important. joining us now, practicing internist dr. lucy mcbride and dr. dave campbell. also with us, columnist and

associate editor of "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. dr. dave, the delta variant and young people. what is your position on vaccine mandates in these hot zones, in southern states like for state schools and areas where they're going to be clusters of young people trying to live their lives? >> mika, we have seen this week that the information has been evolving, just like we knew the delta variant evolved from prior iterations of the virus. so now this week we start from the beginning of the week, we learned that the cdc, for some information that they learned, is recommending that masks are worn indoors in areas where there's a substantial rate of transmission. that's almost the entire country now. so the rules and guidance from the cdc evolved this week. the american academy of

pediatrics and the children's medical group for the hospitals also now has recommended that every person over 2 that goes to school is in a school wears a mask. i think the biggest news, however, is what is going to come out today, if the information in my reporting is correct, we're going to learn the data behind the cdc's recommendation to modify the mask wearing guidance. the concern now, and it speaks to everything joe you just said and mika you just said and jonathan. it speaks to the potential vaccinated people with this delta variant have such a high viral load that they may transmit the virus to others also. that's circulating this week in the scientific news. if that is, in fact, we know the

delta variant in vaccinated people creates a viral load equivalent to the unvaccinated people that are infected. we'll learn soon if that increases the transmission rate. >> lucy, let me ask you about "the washington post" report that they've got, cdc has information now about just how quickly this spreads. i think they compared it to chicken pox. that this is -- that this delta variant is extraordinarily dangerous, moves extraordinarily fast, and is really bad news if you or your children or your parents are still unvaccinated. >> that's exactly right. we have some concerning news that delta indeed is highly transmissible, highly contagious. we also however know well how to protect, for example, children the 11s and under who are unvaccinated and hopefully going

back to school, they need to be in school, kids need school like fish need water. we know how to protect kids. we protect kids, particularly the most vulnerable, those with underlying health conditions, we protect kids by surrounding them with people who are immune to covid-19, either from natural infection or from being vaccinated. this is arguably the most important reason for vaccine mandates, is in schools. kids need to be back in school. and when teachers are vaccinated. when we have good ventilation in schools, we have when access to rapid contagiousness tests to quickly make a diagnoses of delta and keep a child out of school, to allow knowledge of an exposed child, whether or not they are carrying delta

asymptomatically and we need to do everything we can to protect those vulnerable kids. remember, though, let's reassure parents who have healthy kids without underlying conditions that their risk is very low for severe consequences. a healthy average kid is going to get a common cold or mild flu. it's the high risk kids we need to protect the most. >> i tell you what, dr. dave you said that the mask requirement or the mask suggestion was for most of the country -- i want to show a map. i think it's very telling that it's not needed in most of maine, new hampshire, vermont, across new england, new york, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, wisconsin and minnesota. those are states that are obviously doing some things right. not a high chance of transmission. there's an example, of course,

in the deep south, all across my home region and the deep south trump country through and through, where, you know, mississippi, alabama maybe one out of three people got vaccinated. in florida where you have a governor who brags really more often than not about how he's thumbing his nose at science, red hot. red hot. so you actually see here, here's a great map that really shows what the impact of policy is. what the impact is of leadership. what the impact is for regions that actually decide to get the vaccines. >> yeah, that's true, joe. if you look at that map today, which we don't have in front of us, we're going to see that the red has spread and that the number of counties in the u.s. that do not have substantial or high rates of transmission will be around 1%. so this number looks like a

wildfire. and indeed, that's what this delta variant is doing. but the biggest news is, in my view, of the information coming out of cdc, american association of pediatrics and others, that this delta variant is making it far worse, even for those that are unvaccinated, than it was before. so if you can transmit this virus at a higher rate from vaccinated people that contract asymptomatic or mild symptomatic covid, that's a further game changer from what we've already learned about the delta variant being easily transmitted from those that are unvaccinated when they get sick to other people. so this has been literally a crazy week, joe. if we look back next week and see as the dust settles, we'll have to prepare for school even more, having every kid go back

to school, i agree with dr. mcbride, great idea it's critically important to be in school. doing everything possible to protect the teachers and students in school is on the plate and needs to be enacted. everything. >> all right. dr. dave campbell, dr. lucy mcbride, thank you very much. you're right, vaccines for all the teachers, the kids if they're in those infected regions, it's up to the school boards but the kids wearing masks and being separated out at least until we know what happens with this delta variant and how wide it gets. hopefully, gene robinson, the president's strong words the fact he's going to start paying people something to start the new people getting vaccines, maybe all of this together will work. i will say one thing, yesterday joe biden certainly connected not with the people that are always going to be against vaccines, always going to be against anything that makes

sense -- and by the way, this is the trump vaccine, right. they can call this the trump vaccine if they wanted to. if they didn't want to be ignorant about it. but, you know, enough is enough. and, you know, i know i was feeling this and a lot of my friends were feeling this over the past couple weeks, conservatives especially, personal responsibility conservatives saying, wait a second. if they're not going to take personal responsibility for themselves they're supposed to get my kid sick. i think biden touched a nerve yesterday. enough is enough. get your damn vaccination. i love what "the washington post" has done, you want to work here, that's awesome we want you to. get a vaccination. and i love what biden said about schools, we're going back to school. just don't even pretend that there's any question about our kids getting back in the classroom last fall. i thought yesterday was a good day for biden. >> well, i thought so too but, you know, it's -- the situation

is just really stupid, though. i mean, it's just really stupid -- >> it is stupid. >> -- that there's so many unvaccinated people. if the delta variant really can be transmitted by vaccinated people to each other or to unvaccinated people, it basically means that this virus, this variant of the virus is going to be with us for a while. unless there's another surprise that the virus has for us, and it somehow just goes away, which i don't see how that happens. it's going to be with us. but we have the tool that turns it into the common cold or less, right. that we have the tools. we have the vaccines. why on earth would people not take that and how on earth do people think they are safe or their children are safe or anybody's children are safe if

more people don't get vaccinated. i just don't understand that thinking. are they -- are these really facts? well, you know, there are a lot of people in hospitals right now who realize that they are facts. >> what do you think of that? you saw gabe gutierrez's package, talking to four nurses. and said well, this vaccine is effective. and they give the answer that all of these trump personality cult people. are those really the facts? were those really the number of votes that fox news is reporting? many were those really the number of votes that rupert murdoch's "wall street journal" was reporting because i have a website here run by a chinese cult that tells me separately. what world are we living in? and now it's getting real because, of course, there are a lot of people that didn't care when older people died in

america. and by the way, we have the clips. we have the clips from the pro-trump people saying that basically. : >> yeah. >> but now that it's their children, i'm wondering if it gets a little more real for them. >> i hope so. >> not their children, all of our children. the stupidity is affecting all of our children because the delta variant is filling up pediatrician wards aid are going to be infected as long as this thing is running rampant. first of all, those medical workers that gabe talked to. i just don't understand any hospital, hospital system, any medical facility that doesn't already have a vaccine mandate for employees, period. you know, we at "the washington post," you know, publisher after

a careful process and a lot of thought, announced that this vaccination is now a condition of employment. when we all go back into the office in september, everybody is expected to be vaccinated. and i am so happy about that. because it's going to make -- i mean, i am so happy. it's going to make everybody more comfortable, and and really make it possible for us to, you know, to get back together. and so, i just -- i'm pro-mandate. i think employers should have mandates, small businesses and large businesses should have mandates. >> yep. >> and right now, i mean, i'm back in the mask because i -- yes, i'm vaccinated but if i can get the virus and if i can transmit it, even though i don't get sick, it's irresponsible for

me to allow that to happen. and i shouldn't have to do that. people should get the damn vaccine. >> yeah, they really should. by the way, you're right. you go back to "the washington post" news room, you'll be comfortable. comfortable you're not going to get the virus from somebody and even though you're asymptomatic you're not going to pass it onon to a child or family member or somebody else who may be diabetic or have an underlying condition. and mika, again, gene said the words vaccine mandate, my god, for so many people that sounds so jarring. a vaccine mandate, why america has never done that before. why don't we take down the american flag. because that's a -- it happens every year. >> yeah. >> everybody watching this show, if you went to school in america, chances are extraordinarily good that you

got four, five, six vaccines that were mandated by the government before they let you learn your abcs. this is nothing new. the only thing knew about this is, there's a movement in america, started in large part by a reality tv host, that made smart people dumb and dumb people insane. so let's just study history. don't make us explain it to you. don't make us explain how america has worked for the past, 50, 60, 70 years as far as vaccines go. because you've tried to make me explain things to you before when you call me up and you know how they work. don't play dumb. you, your kids, everybody you know had to have five, six vaccines. there were vaccine mandates before any of us could go to public school and get educated. so that's where we are now.

we're going to move forward and save lives. and if you want to be stupid, please do that somewhere else. >> yeah. people can have a choice. so we're going to return to this. but for now, let's go to tokyo. we turn now to what was an already emotional week for team usa gymnastics. delivering another dramatic twist with a gold medal in the all around event that was expected to be dominated by simone biles. with biles still focussing on her mental health, it was the 18-year-old from minnesota, suni lee who stepped up to become the fifth american woman in a row to claim gold. nbc news senior correspondent tom yamas takes us through suni's big day in tokyo. >> reporter: the olympics has a story the world can cheer. suni lee reinvigorating team usa

after the shock of simone biles's exit. >> there are a lot of emotions but i'm proud of myself for sticking with it. >> reporter: she started in the same place biles stumbled earlier this week, nailing her vault and setting the tone. to bars, her routine the most difficult in the competition. maintaining her focus and poise on the beam, and when it mattered most and pressure was on, lee delivered on every corner of the mat. her dad giving his pep talk before the meet. >> he told me to go out and do my best because in his heart i was already a winner and they were proud of me no matter what. >> back in st. paul her family erupting in cheers, so proud of their girl. >> just amazing that she -- to end up on top. >> her dad reminiscing about the wooden beam he built for her in their front yard. >> she went from a wooden 2 by 4 beam to a golden 2 by 4.

>> biles also watching and cheering her on in the arena for the event she was expected to dominate. now the u.s. has a new gold medalist to celebrate. >> that's so exciting. he said it was hard but she's very proud that she stuck with it and she did stick with it. and what a great moment for the u.s. olympics gymnastics team. >> joining us live from tokyo is nbc news correspondent kier simmons. there are so many great narratives and story lines playing out in tokyo. what do you have for us this morning? >> reporter: mika, you know, just talking about suni lee. the psychologist of athletics has been the conversation for the past few days and one of the fascinating things was to see how the other women really stepped up without simone biles. simone biles has dominated for so many years and suddenly, yesterday, a gold medal was a

possibility. so it wasn't just the americans. you know, it was also the brazilians, russians, you really saw them reach for that opportunity. and just makes suni lee's achievement all the more stunning. talking of the psychology guys, we've been watching the canada/brazil game, women's soccer going through extra time. i don't know how you're feeling about team usa taking on the netherlands in just an hour or so's time, that's going to be a nail biter with the women's soccer. >> very excited about that. and keeping our fingers crossed. talk about swimmer ryan murphy taking second place in the 200 meter backstroke, losing to a russian and afterwards hinting that the race might not have been clean. i'm curious, you sense that these athletes have a growing frustration with the fact that the russians were supposedly

banned from the olympics for cheating, but the ioc has somehow allowed some of these russian athletes to participate during the games. frustration growing, at least among the u.s. athletes. talk about that. >> yeah, i mean, it's a head scratcher, isn't it, when you see so many athletes under this roc banner. so they're not under the russian flag but still russians competing and way up the medal list. look, the thing is, is that the olympics idea was that russians who haven't actually been found guilty of doping should still be allowed to compete, even if russia should be penalized but is russia being penalized? it underscores just how corrosive doping is. you saw the accusations against russia going back to sochi, that incredible state sponsored doping program and it just

undermines -- it's just bad for russians. it's bad for russian athletes, it undermines every single performance they have. the question is whether there is the evidence that russia is changing its ways if you like. there is -- there are plenty of suggestions that it's not. and even that the coronavirus has made it harder to find cases of doping. so it's understandable that other athletes are frustrated and questioning. you have to say, though, when it comes to the individuals, that allegations need to be proven. if they're not proven, you can't say that they're true, if you like. >> exactly. >> and there have been rising cases of the coronavirus all over the world. and we're seeing that at the olympics. what's the level of concern at this point? >> reporter: there is concern, mika. look, the numbers of infections are going up here. we've now seen the third straight day of record numbers of infections.

that's clearly a worry. that being said, there are lots of olympians here and officials and media and the number of positive tests have been a fraction of the numbers of people who have been here. just as a counter point, i think there is growing enthusiasm here in japan for the games. just to give you an example, there is a merchandise store not far from here in the mall when we were here four weeks ago initially it was empty. i was there today and lots of folks from tokyo, japanese people buying merchandise. so while there are still the worries about the coronavirus here, there's also a good deal of excitement. they love their sports here in japan. that's part of the tragedy of what's played out, there aren't spectators, because they really love their sports. >> kier simmons in tokyo. thank you very, very much we

appreciate it. still ahead on "morning joe," this week we saw the senate reach an agreement on infrastructure. now there's another glimmer of bipartisanship when it comes to capitol security. plus house republicans stage a protest over mask wearing rules. but what is the message they are sending to constituents. and british prime minister boris johnson loses a battle with an umbrella. >> i hate when that happens. >> you're watching "morning joe." >> it's just so frustrating. >> we'll be right back. >> i mean, come on. back. >> i mean, come on pool floaties are like whooping cough. amusement parks are like whooping cough. even ice cream is like whooping cough, it's not just for kids. whooping cough is highly contagious for people of any age. and it can cause violent uncontrollable coughing fits. sometimes followed by vomiting and exhaustion.

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there's nothing political about them. look at all the people who took a shot at it. we learned a lot of them have been vaccinated. from the start i have to compliment republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. he hasn't made it political. he encouraged people to get vaccinated and continued to do so and the state is in pretty good shape. alabama republican governor kay ivy recently spoke out to encourage vaccination and even the commentators on fox who have been belittling this for a long time, some haven't but most have, are encouraging people to get vaccinated. this is not about red states and blue states, it's literally about life and death. >> president biden praising some republicans' recent push to get more people vaccinate

preponderance of the evidence -- more people vaccinated. these are the people he will not be protesting. republicans protesting mask mandates in the house. speaking out against speaker nancy pelosi's push to mask up. >> that is not a speaker for america. that's a speaker only concerned about her own wealth, her own direction and her own control. this is the people's house. >> do we really want to listen to this? >> wow. >> do we seriously like the dumbest man in washington. >> is he really that dumb? that's my question. >> i don't know if he is or not. i don't know if he just plays dumb on tv or he's actually dumb. but the question is, how many of those house republicans are vaccinated? how many members of the house are vaccinated? i know most of the democrats are. we have been hearing that there are republicans who are still not vaccinated. how many of those house republicans that you saw right there are flying back to

districts that are still hot with infections, that are still dangerous with infections, because the infections are growing in their parts of the country? chances are pretty good if they're at a press conference like that, chances are really good just looking at that map that they're all from red hot districts, or most of them are from red hot districts. and finally you just got to ask. why aren't they following the example of governor kay ivy. why aren't they following the example of mitch mcconnell, who's actually spending campaign money to get the message out in his district. >> mitch mcconnell wears the mask. >> and mitch mcconnell has been wearing a mask ahead of all the other republicans, taking this seriously. so this isn't -- like joe biden said, this isn't a republican and democratic thing. this is an issue of life and death. >> and one of those republicans, joe, said this is tyranny what's happening to them with the

masks. tyranny. >> i wonder if they think it's tyranny that children have to get vaccinated before they go to kindergarten. again, why are we just starting to hear about this? you talk about this hyper individualism with no personal responsibility, you actually have people that are snow flakes that melt, that crumble, that collapse if they have to wear a mask inside, tyranny? you're in the house of representatives. you make laws for the united states of america. you have some personal responsibility to your constituents. do what mitch mcconnell is doing and stop making stupid political statements. and doing those stunts. >> i'd like to point out, joe, a couple of those republicans, some of them went and tried to

defy the mask mandate in the house and were trying to get arrested. they can't even keep a straight face. some of them, kevin mccarthy himself, can't even keep a straight face saying this stuff. it's a joke. >> this has been a joke for a lot of them from the time donald trump said that the coronavirus was just one person coming in from china and it was going to be gone. up to now, over 600,000 people >> making a joke about it. >> again, if they don't care about people dying and again, i'm sure a lot of them didn't care about older people dying. again we got the clips if you want us to play the clips, we'll be glad to play the clips of talk host types, they've lived a long life, why are we so worried about them. now it's at children. now it's their communities. and if they don't care about that even, it's the small business owners that run the

economy. it's the family businesses, the family hardware store, the family restaurant, the entrepreneurs that thousands of entrepreneurs that create millions of jobs and grow this economy. and a lot of them you know what, they didn't make it alone. these small business owners, family business owners sometimes passed down from generation to generation, whether it's a hardware store or that family restaurant you've been going to in your town for a long time, those people need your help. >> they do. >> they need to make sure they can keep their doors open. and if you're in one of those hot zones that the cdc said, help those small business owners out, help those entrepreneurs now, help that family business out. they've been with you shoulder to shoulder for the years. if you're in a hot, red zone, help them out, get a vaccination. when you go in there, don't be a

snowflake, help them out, wear a mask. if it's going to help them, if it's going to help the health of your community and yes, if the it's going to help your own family. let's bring in host of the podcast branding, donny deutsch, susan del percio, and mark. susan, you and i were republicans -- maybe you are still. >> i am. >> you can talk about your party. people have a right to be stupid but they shouldn't have a right to make our children and parents and grandparents sick. how long does this go with people like kevin mccarthy? when does he start following the lead of mitch mcconnell on vaccines, on masking? >> probably when he sees poll

numbers reflect it. don't forget he's probably -- mccarthy is getting a lot of pressure from donald trump to play a certain game. one of the reasons why they meet and talk. no doubt about it, all mccarthy is going to do is whatever donald trump wants. but, you know, i think when this starts to change, there's got to be a couple of things, the cdc has to do a better job of communicating. >> yes, they do. >> this is where we are today and things can change. there's nothing wrong that science has shown us that we have to now mask up because people are not getting vaccinated. that's okay. but they need to explain that can change yet again. the other thing we need to see is these states like arkansas which has a ban on wearing a mask. they need to lift that ban so people can stay healthy. finally, i don't think we start really seeing this break a lot until maybe this time next year when children, especially those,

you know, over the age of 12 probably will be required by their state to be vaccinated. something you talked about, joe, all of us had to be vaccinated to start kindergarten. once it's approved by the fda we'll see more of that happen which will, in fact, help us raise that rate of vaccinated people around the country. >> i agree with you. cdc has to do a better job of communicating. it's like they're scared of their own shadow right now. it's okay to say we lifted the mask mandate a couple months ago, guess what a lot of idiots didn't get the vaccination and because of that there's a new variant out there, kids are starting to fill up pediatric wards we have to save people's lives so this is our recommendation. if you live in areas with a lot of idiots around you that haven't been vaccinated that are going i don't know. when 99% of americans that are in hospital right now are unvaccinated. if you live in those states wear

a mask. save yourself, children, parents, small business owners, entrepreneurs, family businesses. do it for them, for everybody. this hyper individualism, donny, republicans used to talk about individual rights, liberties, what's what we were all about. but at the same time we talked about personal responsibility. you have a responsibility to yourself, your country, and yeah, you have a responsibility to your community as well. now it's all hyper individualism without any concern about your community, about your country, without any recognition, since so many of these people that are doing this are evangelicals based on surveys, without any recognition of what jesus said, do unto others that which you would have them do unto you. never mind the whole thing about the body is a temple, take care of it. i mean, all of these former

conservative beliefs that were once held by these former conservatives just thrown out and we have nurses, we have doctors -- well, not doctors so much but we have a lot of people going i don't know. that's what they say, covid is bad. but is it really? yes, it is. >> what's the solution to this, you guys have touched on a few things, first of all, mandate, that's it, 16% of americans basically say if they're mandated, they will get it. number two, private businesses starting to see more and more of it, danny mire took a step, the big restauranter, who said you can't come in my restaurant unless you show you're vaccinated. if i'm running my own agency, you can't come to work, certain things that need to happen. third thing, keep dragging mark

zuckerberg in front of congress. the people that get their news over facebook versus fox news is so much higher of people that won't get higher. people who get their news from facebook versus fox news, not the "the new york times," not msnbc are predominantly much more predisposed to get the vaccine -- to not want to get the vaccine. >> can i stop you there for a second? >> sure. >> i want to stop you there because i have people saying don't drag facebook around, talk about fox news. we can talk about both. it's not even a close comparison. facebook versus fox news. facebook spreads so much more disinformation to so many more people, i can tell you fox news -- >> it's two different stories. >> from "fox & friends" to hannity, they are encouraging people to get vaccinated. there are some who aren't. there are some saying things wild and crazy. but those people don't have the

reach -- none of us in cable news do -- of facebook. i had to tell family members 12 times that dr. kill people during the aids epidemic and covid wasn't a hoax because facebook kept spreading this plandemic thing. you're right, donny, they just keep churning disinformation that not only undermines american democracy but makes americans sick. joe biden shouldn't have backed down, the disinformation on facebook kills people every day. >> let's keep shaming. put faces. it's two people that can solve it. right now in this country, two people can keep americans alive, mark zuckerberg and cheryl sandberg. 50% of the people get their news from there. it's come from one mega phone, joe biden touched on this joe, you mentioned it, in one of the earlier blocks, i've been

talking about this a lot, let's call it the trump vaccine. let's basically give the guy credit. hey, everybody out there, all you qanon people, the people who will not get the vaccine, it's donald trump's vaccine. it's the big guy's vaccine. let's rebrand it, give him credit, whatever it takes to get people safe, shame facebook, call it the trump vaccine, national mandate and businesses getting behind it. four very direct solutions to solving the problem. >> mark, joe biden had a different tone yesterday, sounded more like americans i've been talking to, saying we're basically moving towards vaccine mandates one and two, your kids are going back to school in the fall. >> i think the president yesterday definitely captured a tenor of a changing mood in the country in the last week or so in which there's a lot of frustration, anger, and also i do think to pick up on one point

that donny was just talking about, he was very direct in giving credit to republicans, but also he didn't mention the word trump, i don't know if that's a subtle troll or not, maybe he did earlier in his remarks, i didn't see the entirety of them. but he said this was created in a republican administration he gave a shout out to mitch mcconnell, kay ivy. said kentucky was in good shape. i don't know if this was a conscious effort. but clearly they're elevating their republican allies on this, and there are a lot of them and a lot of them who are more quietly aligned than they had been. but i think it's important for as many republicans as possible. i know the white house has been saying this, to actually speak up and be proponents of the vaccine, whether you call it a trump vaccine ornot, i think it's going to be key to the effort in the next few weeks to gain the momentum.

>> yep. jonathan lemire, talk about the biden administration and where joe biden -- how he's gotten from where he was a week ago to where he is now. and also, as we move forward, let's talk about that mandate for members of our armed forces. as paul rieckhoff said, this is the lunacy of it, he said before i went to war, i got so many vaccines i can't even count the number of vaccines i got. again, this is nothing new. it's only new because you have a bunch of conspiracy theorists, a bunch of members of a personality cult running around. like when is biden going to force members of the armed forces to take one more vaccine that will keep them safe and keep their fellow service men and women safe? >> let's start there. you're right, military members have to get vaccines particularly if they have overseas deployments, not new at all.

the president yesterday said he was ordering the pentagon to do a study to see how soon a covid-19 vaccine could be required. and he said defense secretary austin was on board with this, he would be in favor of the mandatory covid-19 vaccine. they're not doing it yet but started down that path. look for that in the weeks and months ahead. we did get a different from the president yesterday. i think it's reflective of where we are as a nation. and the white house is aware and worried about the delta variant. they have touted, rightly over the last six months the progress the nation has made on vaccines. they noted the way the economy has bounced back. they understand the recovery here is fragile and it's all in danger even as they tout the bipartisan infrastructure deal even if they believe you come biep it with the reconciliation package it can transform the government's relationship with the citizens. all of that is in danger if the

virus comes back with another crushing wave. you saw the president more than ever before squarely point the finger at those unvaccinated and say you need to do your part. making it part of the patriotic duty saying you're endangering yourselves and others. right now they're staying away from the word mandate, they want businesses to enforce it, feel like that's a toxic word but each day making it harder and harder to not get the shot and recognize how the seriousness of this moment and all the recovery the united states has made could go away if people don't do it. >> gene robinson, final word to you. >> you know, one thing i think the cdc has to make clearer is that its guidance changes as the facts we know change. and that's the way science works when you get new facts you have to -- you have to adjust. you have to -- and you constantly look for new facts.

i think the cdc has to communicate that basic fact more clearly. so that people don't get frustrated by changing advice. the situation has changed. the delta variant is a game changer. and, therefore, we need to change the path that we thought we were on. >> i honestly -- i think joe biden has been clear as a bell, the cdc has been clear as a bell in a very difficult situation. a world pandemic. dr. fauci has been clear as a bell. and i hear this talking and talking about how we have to be more communicative. no. until the facebook problem is fixed. and i put a lot of other social media entities under the facebook umbrella but until the facebook problem is fixed, this continues. it continues. and at some point it has to stop where the disinformation is not allowed to fly around for free. and, you know, at fox it's a

different story because it's a tv news organization or a news network that you could question what's happening there and ask them about their standards, that's a different, smaller story and it's terrible in itself. but what's happening on facebook is literally destroying our democracy and spreading disinformation faster than actual credible organizations, universities and the federal government, can spread good information. >> i want to underline again, you have shows on fox -- in fact, i think most of the shows on fox now. again from "fox & friends" to hannity that are telling people, hannity was on a couple of weeks ago, i don't know. people said well, he said this and that -- i don't know what he said in the past. i just saw the clip where now he's telling people, i'm not anti-science. i'm pro-science, i'm pro-vaccine, get the shot.

right. same thing with "fox & friends," they're saying the same thing now in the morning as well. so again, the blurring of fox news and facebook just doesn't wash. yes, again i know, blah, blah, blah, there are a couple of people on there that are really reckless -- yes, they are. but again we're talking about reach here. over 50% of americans getting their news from facebook. >> it's not news. >> and the recklessness and the irresponsibility continues. because after all the talk they're still only interested in if making billions and billions of dollars. >> what if facebook was shutdown? >> and they still have the algorithms that encourage bad behavior. that's what facebook is about. they encourage bad behavior. let you go viral is -- if you say something stupid, crazy, whether it's about democracy, democracy across the world -- >> january 6th. >> -- january 6th or america's health.

anyway, thank you for being with us. with the virus spreading quickly across the nation people are wondering about the need for booster shots. i'll say, a couple weeks ago i was a skeptic. things are changing, though. even as a large number of people still have no protection. we have nbc's national correspondent miguel almaguer with the latest. >> reporter: israel becomes the first country to announce booster shots for anyone over 60 who was fully vaccinated at least five months ago. tonight at home new debate over if and when americans will need one of their own. >> no american needs a booster now. but if the science tells us there's a need for boosters, that's something we'll do. >> reporter: though pfizer's own new data says the efficacy wains only slightly after six months, the company suggests a third

dose strongly boosts against the delta variant. but for now the cdc and fda say there's still not enough evidence for boosters. that guidance expected to change as break-through infections are being reported at work places and hot spots. >> are there any concern about the efficacy of vaccines beginning to wain. >> the magic question is when we will need boosters, not if. it feels like right now with the majority of americans having been vaccinated at six months or less, now is not the time. >> with more than 80,000 americans testing positive for covid in recent days within two months that number of daily infections could balloon to 200,000 retired doctor brady allen who suffered a break-through infection while on vacation said a vaccine saved his life.

>> i got ill but i didn't have to go to the hospital. i'm here, speaking to you, i did not die. but if you're unvaccinated, the virus is so potent why risk the chance. >> that's what we're hearing. 100 times as potent in many ways as the original covid virus. so just want to again explain about the break through infections. it's important to remember, again, that the odds of you getting that break through infection is very rare. and the odds of dying after a vaccine is something like 0.0005. well, actually more -- you have a more of a chance of dying of a bee sting than you do dying of covid, if you've got the vaccination. so it's still, mika, again we've heard from the beginning, pfizer was going to be about 95% effective, its efficacy, moderna about 88, 89%.

and j&j 75%. people throwing their arms up in the air going this proves the vaccines don't work, not true. so many people, like that doctor, alive because they got the vaccine. >> the u.s. surgeon general says every death that happens right now from covid-19 is preventable. bottom line. let's bring in national affairs analyst host and executive producer of "the circus" john heileman. also co-chair of the racial justice organization color of change, heather mcgee joins us. also with us dr. vin gupta, he's a pulmonologist and an nbc news medical contributor and director of polling at the institute of politics john dellapolpa. what did you find out on the vaccine mandates, john?

>> we found out from the spring to the early summer in a survey of more than 20,000 americans across 50 states, the district of columbia, we've seen it across every single demographic and group we surveyed, increasing approval for mandating vaccines at the federal, state or local level. every single group increased two to three percentage points across the board. >> john heileman curious about what your thoughts are about joe biden moving yesterday toward more of a mandate. certainly certain areas but it sounds like he's preparing americans for that, preparing members of the armed forces for that. curious, how do you think the biden administration has handled this? how they have handled it in the last three or four months, back in july before the delta variant took over here, there was an

announcement of reopening, he and kamala harris had their masks off, they hugged each other, people were thinking thank god the worst is behind us. now the delta variant spreading like crazy across this country. >> joe, i think, you know -- look, if you think about the record of the administration, put aside the record of this administration compared to the last one which we all understand this one has been magnificent compared to the previous administration. you think about the way they've handled the totality of the challenge in terms of production, distribution of the vaccines and the messaging on it over the course of the whole first, you know, seven months of the administration, you know, the marks are extraordinarily high. they've done an incredibly job, incredibly complicated challenge and history, as of right now, will look kindly on them. i will say that i think, you know, i felt a certain amount of personal uneasiness and ambivalence about some of the

celebratory not quite mission accomplished but a little bit of that tone, you know, setting that kind of independence day, we'll be independent from the virus and on july fourth we'll all be back to normal. they issued some caveats to that and never went full mission accomplished, but there was, if you looked at the -- all the trend lines were in the right direction, but in absolute numbers still a lot of people getting infected in the country, even then compared to what we did last year when we had 500 cases when we basically shut the country down in march of 2020, you looked at the numbers in early july, the first, july 1st, there were still thousands of people getting infected. i just remember feeling a certain amount of unease and worrying we were maybe getting ahead of ourselves and the administration in its natural desire to not so much claim political credit but to have the

country feeling like it was making progress and wrap our arms around the optimism, that they might have gotten a little bit out over their skis. so i think again, the big picture here i think they've done an extraordinarily good job. there have that moment i think where a little bit of premature triumph crept into the rhetoric. and now they're trying to course correct. as jonathan lemire said in your first hour there's an acute awareness on the part of the people around president biden because this is the thing that could blow everything up in terms of all the things they accomplished so far and hoped to accomplish. if this gets really out of control again, it's all at stake. >> so i want to ask about the possibility of this getting out of control. dr. vin gupta, we aired interviews with four health care

workers who are unvaccinated, and refuse to be vaccinated because they don't believe the science. and they don't believe that it has been tested enough. could you please respond to that and to also explain what we know about how contagious the delta variant is, and how fatal it can be for younger people. >> of course, mika. good morning. first to your point about health care workers, openly using a national platform to say they're not going to get vaccinated. these are individuals that have taken an oath to protect their patients and i agree with mandates like we're seeing out of houston methodist, if you're not willing to get the vaccine you should be fired. that should apply to all health care workers across the country, no tolerance for anything otherwise. what we know from the cdc and the data they were presented in the preceding days, is the

following. it appears that the delta variant is at least 50% more ton -- contagious than the alpha variant. number two what we're seeing out of data out of scotland, unvaccinated young people four times more likely to end up in the hospital with severe symptoms from covid than the original version of the virus. still trying to figure that piece out, mika, but where are we headed to your last point. this is from the university of washington's forecast that comes, day other day we could see 8 to 900 deaths, only contributed those areas where vaccine rates are 40% or less. what is the information they saw a few days ago, it showed across israel, canada and england, two doses of pfizer, 95 to 100% eflkt i've at keeping people out

of the hospital. 88% effective at preventing symptomatic illness. we have vaccines that work. and president biden was clear, to your point, about what success looks like, keeping people out of the hospital. that's the message. >> so john, to sort of tee up the conversation, the next conversation with heather mcgee, you guys have some polling numbers on media consumption versus vaccine hesitancy, and what did you find? >> we found that americans who rely on facebook for their news mika are essentially twice as likely to have vaccine hesitancy to say they're not likely or interested in getting the vaccine, than folks who get their news from other sources. and regardless of your age, that's the case, in fact, it's not just social media it's facebook in particular because we don't see similar numbers looking at twitter, instagram and snap and other social media

platforms. it's a problem. >> so heather mcgee, again to my point earlier, the point joe has been making for years now on many issues, until the facebook problem is fixed, we have a huge problem with this virus. it's -- people are not going to get vaccinated if they're getting their news from facebook. >> that's exactly right, mika. we have a huge problem with the virus and with our democracy because a democracy depends on facts and information. and so, of course, does science and public health. so what we've seen, which for years has been one of the toughest tanglers with facebook is they have a system that may have been set up to rate classmates online in terms of their looks by a harvard freshman who wasn't that good at getting dates but right now it is doing mass destruction across

the globe. that is because the algorithm wants outrage. we call it the hate for profit machine and whether it's white supremacist outrage, antivaks outrage. the thing that makes money for facebook is the thing that tears societies apart. this is entirely known by the leadership of facebook. it's known by regulatory bodies, their own sort of self-regulating board and yet they have refused to take the serious action. that's why i think it's important for the united states government to diminish the power of facebook. you simply can't have that much power in one hand, basically, in the hands of mark zuckerberg. so we need to break up facebook. it is too large and too powerful and too unaccountable. >> heather, let's talk about vaccine hesitancy, usually on this program we talk about it because we see the republican

politicians coming out and fanning the flames of disinformation, a lot of them when it comes to the vaccine, when it comes to mask mandates. of course, people of color, blacks, hispanics, immigrants have had unfortunately a disproportionate impact from this whether you're talk about cases or death, but also enough we don't talk about enough on the show is the vaccine hesitancy among people of color and what we need to do with it, what the government needs to do. we say donald trump needs to come out and get his people to get the vaccine. what do you think -- >> i don't think so. >> it may not work for 15 trump supporters. but for people of color i'm sure you thought about this a lot, what do we do for vaccine hesitancy for blacks, hispanics, immigrants, others who may be vaccine hesitant? >> that's just a great question,

joe, i'm glad you ask it. it's not the vaccine. there's a vaccine refusal going on by people who sort of, it's now fit into their world view, their anti-government world view, it lines up with anti-climate change, anti-government, but -- so people of color generally speaking the polling shows that it's more about a combination of hesitancy, not wanting to be the first in line because for so often there's been this long history of racism in the medical system. whether we go back to tuskegee or just on monday i brought my mother to the doctor and we were absolutely sort of on our guard about whether we would face bias going to the eye doctor for a congenital glaucoma that she has. it's really every day in the sense you don't know if someone is going to treat you poorly

because of the color of your skin and so often it does happen. so there's that piece. what we've seen is that, in fact, the longer the vaccine is out in the world, the more eager people of color are to get it. in fact, that's why the gap right now is less about skepticism and hesitancy than about access. so, you know, in new york city, for example, there are places where it's being given out in public transit. and then there are parts of the country where there is no public transit, where people do not have access to a car or the thing we hear the most among our members at color of change so often is i can't afford to get sick for two days. i can't afford to take off work to get the vaccine twice and then i can't afford to get sick from the vaccine. so that's what we need to look at having door-to-door outreach. having employers say that you get time off, pto, paid time off, in order to get the vaccine

and wait and watch for symptoms. and then i think the places where, you know, nonprofit groups and states and localities are beginning to pay people 100 bucks to get the vaccine because it costs the that much in many instances to take a day off of work or more or to center. so i think all of the pieces of the vision that joe biden put out, door-to-door, last mile outreach, more community groups, more communities that know each other getting the vaccine and being able to put shots in arms that's what it's about more for people of color than it is about vaccine refusing republicans. >> yeah. so mark leibovich, how does joe biden break through the noise, talking about facebook, kevin mccarthy's press conferences, we talk about again the changing tide of this disease.

i mean, it is -- it is constantly moving forward and will continue to move forward until 90% of americans get vaccinated. how does biden break through that noise? >> i think he has started to. i think his tone has changed. i think the messaging has changed, especially over the last week or so. i think one of the subtleties of what we heard from the white house is, there's been encouragement of not so much private entities but big public sector entities like the military, like, you know, some of the agencies, like the state of alabama, like what the governor of alabama was saying and kentucky and so forth, i think a lot of the change is going to come from private businesses from communities from schools, from institutions that people are a part of, that are sort of, you know, underneath in the day-to-day to the bully pulpit that joe biden is using. i think obviously the incentive structure of places like facebook is not going to be --

to, you know, get people vaccinated. they don't make money from that. i mean, vaccine hesitancy is, as was said before, that's good for business for facebook, that's algorithm. so in some ways i think what you're hearing from the white house is, look, we -- this is a fight that everyone has to get involved with. they named their allies, but at the same time, i do think you're starting to hear some of the new urgency, some of the borderline, frustration, anger coming from the president and the surrogates that the white house has been using. >> dr. gupta there was reporting that broke last night about scientific papers from the cdc about the delta variant suggesting how contagious it is, comparing it to chicken pox. pretty sobering stark stuff in part they believe because of the increased amount of viral load this variant carries. so let me ask you, what have you

seen about this? what have you learn about the delta variant? knowing this now, does this change at all what you think how americans should protect themselves? an even the vaccinated, masks indoors is that appropriate? should masks be outdoors? how dangerous is this now that we know how contagious it is? >> jonathan, the president actually yesterday at the press briefing said he didn't wear a mask in philadelphia and delaware because those were counties that had high vaccination rates and he himself is, of course, fully vaccinated. so he felt safe in a place that was otherwise fully vaccinated. because places like philadelphia and delaware also have low rates of hospitalizations from covid. so what does this mean? this means in light of the most dangerous variant that exists, delta variant, that it's 50% more transmissible than the

alpha variant, people that are fully vaccinated rarely have breakthrough infections where they have as much virus in their nose than those unvaccinated. of course these things are concerning but places with low vaccine rates and high hospitalization rates that's what pandemic covid looks like. we're headed to rising case transmission. that's what the delta variant is going to look like, whatever future variant exists that's what it's going to look like. we have to get used to that fact. people in places with low vaccine rates and high levels of hospitalizations that's where i encourage everybody to wear a mask in an indoor setting. >> dr. vin gupta thank you. john, thank you for the polling numbers. and mark leibovich thank you for

your reporting. heather mcgee thank you as well. her best-seller is "the sum of us". we thank you very much. we turn now to an offer being bestowed this weekend on president biden's late son beau. mike memoli joins us now with the details. tell us about it. >> reporter: mika, as you know, during his time in the senate as a member of the foreign relations committee. president biden was deeply engaged in the military and the diplomatic efforts that led to kosovo's independence from the former yugoslavia. but this morning it's not the president but his late son being honored with the presidential medal for the rule of law. the honor is for his work in the military and the security and cooperation in europe.

in 2001 beau biden travelled there to help. president biden accepted the award in honor of his late son. >> we're forever grateful of the people of kosovo that beau fell in love with, so much so he believed in your independence and democracy. as a lawyer, he volunteered to go to the republic of kosovo to support your democracy and the rule of law. accepting this award on on behalf of our son, i want to recognize and applaud the incredible progress kosovo has made the past 20 years. i've been there a number of times and the people who have worked tirelessly to build a brighter future that beau believed in. >> we've talked in the past how for president biden, how much of

he conducts foreign relations is leveraging those personal relationships. so establishing this relationship with the president is important for them. this is the second time kosovo honored beau biden, a year after beau biden passed away, he and his family travelled there as the country renamed a major roadway near a military base in honor of his late son. guys? >> all right. nbc's mike memoli thank you for that report. coming up on "morning joe," in the 2020 election voters in fulton county helped joe biden win the state of georgia. now the republicans are eyeing a takeover of the county electoral process. also ahead we'll hear from three house democrats leading the push for new voting legislation. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe."

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this is bigger than any partisan discussion. this is about the integrity and the strength and equity of our democracy. that's what's under assault. we saw a violent assault on the united states capitol, and we saw that then metastasize in voter suppression bills across the country. we have to stand up. it's the moment. it's the responsibility of congress to provide baseline federal standards for voting. and i intend to do my job. >> democratic senator rafael

warnock of georgia who's leading the democrat's efforts to bring it before the senate before recess. there's also a renewed push where democrats elected in 2018 sent a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi and senate majority leader chuck schumer calling for a new tailored version of a voting bill to focus on reinstating protections under the voting rights act, while eliminating proposals not directly related to ballot access. and the members of congress behind this push join us now. representative alyssa slotkin of michigan, veronica escobar of texas and collin allred also from texas and with us for this conversation is author and poet caroline randall williams.

good to have you all on board. alyssa slotkin i'll start with you. what is it you would like to be included in the voting rights act to secure voting for all americans. >> we came together as a group of freshmen had 2018 who came in on an agenda of reform to say the most foundational thing we can do is voting rights and it's time to get serious to push and create that momentum and say to our leadership that we're willing to come back in august, whenever they call us back because it's so fundamental. that was the point. and, you know, we're open, of course, we support all the ideals that were in the original hr 1 but voting rights is essential and we need to start there. >> congresswoman, escobar, there's obviously been a lot of talk about hr-1, hr-4 and the need to make changes to hr-1. have you seen the changes that

joe manchin has made? are those the sort of changes that you all are looking at adopting as well? >> good morning, thanks so much for having us on. we have not yet seen the details from the senate. we know the general framework but we also know more importantly where the threats are and where they're coming from. in a state like my, texas, we are going to lose our democracy literally through texas unless we do something. in about a week, the texas house democrats that broke quorum in their state legislature and came here to washington d.c. to urge us to take action, they are going to have to make a decision, the special session ends for them and when they fly back or if they fly back, a new one will begin. there will be extreme gerrymandering. there will be limited access to the ballot box for the disabled, for people of color. and then in about two weeks,

that's when the extreme gerrymandering begins. so time is of the essence. the clock is running out. and we would like to see a bill and work on a bill and pass a bill in august that addresses what's happening in texas and other states that will disenfranchise millions of people. >> congressman -- susan del percio. >> why not reintroduce hr-4 instead of trying to revise hr-1 which has so many extras, if you will, and keep it to the voting rights act, i think a very stripped down piece of legislation could have a better chance of success. so i'm just curious about the decision there. >> we want to do both. we think that hr-4 is extremely important. i was a voting rights litigator, litigated under the voting rights act. i want to restore the voting rights act. you'll see hr-4 moving quickly

in the month of august but we also recognize this is a two-prong strategy. we need a sword in terms of the national standards that senator manchin said he could support but also the shield of hr-4 which would protect us against the discriminatory laws that they've been passing and giving us clearance particularly for late changes to election laws whether or not these are rolled into one bill eventually i think is a bill a discussion further along the line. but we're going to do both and i think we should. i don't think they're mutually exclusive. >> georgia republicans have reportedly begun the process of replacing one of the state's top election officials. two dozen state senators reportedly signed off on a performance review of fulton

county's election chief richard barren, fulton county played a key role in joe biden winning in november. under state law, they can replace officials following a performance review. in their place a temporary superintendent would full authority. democrats warn the attempt is a scheme to suppress the vote in georgia. republicans claimed repeated and systemic process failures despite those claims multiple recounts have discredited any allegations of voter fraud in the state. >> so carolyn, there are really two sort of baskets of threats to democracy. one is making it more difficult for people to vote, especially people of color. and that's the beginning of the

process. i think, actually, even far more dangerous than that are these types of pieces of legislation, these proposals where even after the vote you have legislatures -- republican legislatures that say, you know what, we're going to just take over the counting of the voting in georgia, texas, arizona, maybe up in michigan, and all of these swing states republicans want to take over, fire election officials, and then determine who gets the electoral votes from those states. >> right. and it's sort of this radical act of eraser that is a marked regression that is reminiscent of, to me, jim crow. i'm not remotely the first person to be talking about this. but i think that we should all be frightened by that. because it's an active step back

from our access to democracy, our access to the tools of suffrage that allow us to move america in the direction that is the will of the people. for example, the outcome of the 2020 election, and i think that this resistance to helping and allowing america to enact the laws that are the will of its people, is the danger inherent in those kind of choices is so stark. and i think that -- you know, i'm thinking about what happens if these bills don't pass. and i think that maybe we're just facing a moment when it's time to start marching across bridges again. and i think that we're facing a moment when we're looking at a country that doesn't want the will of the people to manifest itself. where the leadership is not enabling the will of the people to manifest itself. and i think we have to pick up our sword and our shield, and

figure out what we're going to do next. because i think there's some machinery that's been activated that's going to require other kinds of activism to navigate. >> it's been well defined just now the threats to democracy, the threats to the ballot, we heard from president biden, a week or so ago, i was there when he gave a fiery speech in philadelphia saying this was the greatest threat the nation has faced since the civil war. and we know that he has a number of meetings with lawmakers, civil rights leaders all focused on the same thing, it has to be a legislative solution and the filibuster has to go. could president biden be doing more? >> i think, listen, our letter and the point of our letter was to create real momentum and say we get it, there's a ton of priorities, we're all working on infrastructure, we're all caring

about the things that mean a lot to our districts but foundation is voting rights. there is no more important thing that making sure people have free and easy access to the ballot box. i think it's to add a little bit and say that lawmakers are ready to come back and do this. i think it is also pushing for a clear strategy. i feel like people are asking me all the time, what is the plan? we're watching this happen in slow motion and i don't want a year from now for us to be saying what more could we do? we need the sword and the shield, federal legislation and we need organization on the ground. we watched in georgia what voter registration and education did. it's a combination of what we do at the federal level and what people can do on the ground. we need both in order to do what we need to do this year. >> victoria, same question to you. what should joe biden do, the

biden administration do? are they taking all the steps that need to be taken right now? >> i think that the voice of the president, the vice president, and all of the resources available to the white house could really help continue to build that momentum but also help get us across the goal line. i know that joe manchin cares about voting rights. he has talked about it. and so now is the time to act with urgency and to realize that we are about to go off a cliff that will be very hard to come back from. and as elissa mentioned we cannot watch our democracy be taken from us. and the voices of some of the most vulnerable, people of color, the disabled, just completely silenced as we try to face major challenges going forward. we need every voice at the table, that means protecting them. and the voice of the president in this matter, this debate, this discussion, in this push would be enormous. >> you know, actually, veronica,

you've always been one of mika's favorites. she's also told me how wonderful you are -- >> and also elissa. >> -- how impressed she is by you. it's friday morning, been a long week, i call you victoria and you just go and answer the question. >> you know, i've been called a lot of things joe so that's okay. >> that's right. and it's say it with me, people can call me whatever they call me, i'll go. but anyway, thank you so much for that. great answer. john heileman i want to talk to you briefly about -- because i remember having a conversation with you before about what steve bannon, your reporting you have about steve bannon. we talk about the two baskets, baskets number one, the obstacle, the voting which is the republican legislatures trying to make it more difficult

for people of color to vote. that's basket number one. again, it's terrible. but some people believe that eventually that can be worked through. basket number two is far different, though. it is the basket where these republican legislatures are trying to take over, trying to seize, through i think improper legislation, the actual rooms where the votes are counted. that's the ball game and that's what they're trying to do here, in texas, in georgia, that's what they've been trying to do in arizona. so talk about that and how it's very calculated that they want to take over those voting rooms so they can rig, really rig, the vote count. >> sure. like it's the -- this is like one of the clearest things i've ever seen in my career of reporting.

last october this phrase joe, i think the phrase you're thinking of, i did an interview with steve bannon for "the circus" where he said this thing that will always stand out in my mind. it was october of 2020, he said, he was predicting what was going to happen after the election. he said it's going to be a very close election and what we'll have is knife fights in the counting rooms. and he thought that the president, republicans, would win those knife fights but it was clear, there's going to be a political fight after the election, he wouldn't say the phrase we're going to steel the election but the notion there would be post election conflict over what counted as a legal ballot, what didn't. he thought the republican dominance in some of the swing states meant that donald trump had a better chance of winning the knife fights and winning the presidency. we know what happened, they tried to have the knife fights

but because the president's lawyers were incompetent, the law wasn't on their side and the elections were run the way they were always run in those states, not in a partisan way, not by who controls the state legislature, the outcomes accorded with the actual vote totals in those states. so republicans took away from that the which was if we had controlled the counting rooms in 2020, we would be able key trump if office sochls a lot of the voter stregs e suppression laws, you are right. the more important, more insidious parts of these laws is what they now refer to as voter subversion laws. one of the things they're negotiating over on the hill now, is democrats woke up to the fact that a lot of the laws that they wanted to pass a year ago didn't have provisions to deal with electoral subversion, so now they're trying to get those things into the bill because that is the ball game, right?

it's bad, obviously, to try to suppress the vote. but it's worse if it doesn't matter. the white house, some people say, well, are you putting in all these ob tookles in voting. if we have enough get out to vote, we can overcome the hurdles to voting. but if the counting rooms are corrupt and controlled bipartisan state level republicans, it doesn't matter what happens on the front end. they're going to fix it on the other side. i think it is that blatant. that's what we have seen, these laws are aekt doctor response, how did we lose in 2020, it's the most important thing of what has to happen in the laws you have been arguing you for and going forward in these voter protection laws. they got to fix the electoral subversion questions and make sure the counting rooms stay fair and knot tral. >> that has always been my chief

concern. you saw the trump-appointed judges actually said no to trump. said no to rudy guiliani. you had republicans in michigan, you had republicans in georgia. you had some of the trumpiest governors in america actually saying no to rigging the election. congressman allred, we now have republican state legislators saying if trump supreme court won't do it, if trump's federal judges won't it do it, we will do it with a state legislature. we'll just kick out whoever we want to kick out by legislation and take over the voting rooms in fulton county, take over the voting rooms in maricopa county, take over the voting rooms in wayne county. how can you stop that? how can you stop this subversion of elections in the future? >> well, i'm so glad that you all raised it. because i don't want to get too far ahead of anything. but that will be in the modified

version that we're talking about. dealing with election subversion. i already have legislation that we've introduced to deal with this around state election board member, removing local election officials around harassment of election workers by the full launch and something they're trying to do inning the and have the same folks there on january 6th, poll watchers harass voters at polling places. are you absolutely right. this is my biggest concern as well along with gerrymandering. these are things that cannot be overcome. i led a voter protection effort inning the. i can tell you there is that lot we can do through hard work and organizing to help others get over some of these hurdles. there is nothing we can do about that subversion after the election or the drawing of lines that are so difficult that there is no way you can have the will of the people reflected in that. so this is really, really important. i'm glad it was discussed. it's something i don't want to get too far ahead of.

it's in there. look for it. we will have it in there. members of congress allred, alissa slotskin and veronica escobar, it is an honor to have you all on the show this morning. thank you very much. >> and carolyn, again, we have been taking about these barricades to voting, for people of color him but again as john hyman is talking about, members of congress is talking about, you have republicans talking about an actual subversion of the election by taking over the voting rooms and fixing the counts the way they want to fix the counts. it seems to me that this is audacious by any standard. by not only for our time, but going back, going back decades. >> yeah.

you know, i think, i spin a lot of time in the last year thinking of emmett till and how when the trail came after the men who killed him. the guys that voted them. the guys on the jury that exonerated them. they said after the fact, we just couldn't imagine sending a man to jail for killing, insert the word i won't use on television. we wouldn't send them to jail for that. america has a practice of ensuring that america has a long practice and precedent of not protecting the rights and will of its citizens of color, to citizens of different abilities, to citizens who are woman. i think we have to be on guard about the fact that an old practice is being reactivated and i think that we have to, what i take heart in, i am

getting to beyond the free time people working hard in washington, d.c. to figure out how to stop states, the federal government has to be able to intervene to stop state's rights from examiner suezing their right to be racist. we have to intervene on behalf of all the american sid who's occupy these states. because we do have a precedent of it. we had the unprecedented voting rights act that has been, that we're trying to, you know, reinstate. but i think that we are watching this wild intersection of the end of the term of an act that was so important coincide with this rise and the will to reactivate this sort of anti-democratic extremely racist practice that is totally familiar to how this country has always been and i think that when we are in denial about that, that's when we are in

danger post. because we have to just remember that we've done this forever. and that we have to remember that what we are doing now is new, it's reminding america to lean into its promise instead of regress into its past practices. >> caroline, brenda williams, thank you so much for joining us, susan del percio and john highman, thank you as well. coming up on morning joe, one of our next guests spent time abroad. 11 minutes after returning to the united states, he fell victim to america's crime wave. the atlantic joins us ahead with what happened. plus, we'll take a look at the new rules and incentives president biden is rolling out as a part of an aggressive new plan to ramp up coronavirus vaccinations. and a number of healthcare work, around the country still aren't

vaccinated? what's the reasoning behind that? we're going to dig into it when we come back in two minutes.

. i think you're going to find the patience of businesses and the patience of a lot of other people running thin because the fact is, if you had high vaccination rates, we wouldn't be in this spot right now. what i'm trying to do is keep people safe. i mean that sincerely. so, if, fact, you are unvaccinated you present a problem to yourself, to your family, and to those with whom you work. >> president biden pushes for

vaccines as speaker pelosi sets the tone on mask wearing. how do some republicans respond? with a show of defiance that can drive their supporters straight into a hospital bed. >> what do you got, fellas? what is it going to take to share the paranoia about the fight against consisted of? >> i don't know, they set violence on december, january, let me go through the entire calendar, i'm get there, on january 6th, the most jarring day for this country since 9/11. >> yeah. >> they basically defend the violence saying it was nothing but tourism on january 6th, for the most part, those house members do. on vaccines, they're practicing voodoo. i don't know what polls they're looking at, but not good for the republican party. so we will be talking about all

of. that jonathan lemire, laura k. stadium, they used to put up the signs when the old washington redskins would play football and it would say bring baseball back to d.c. they will be doing that again this fall for the washington area football team, whatever they calm themselves. fire sale yesterday. while nobody was looking, they basically sold off the nationals and red sox and the dodgers were all beneficiaries. >> this is the national team. they won two years ago, 20 nanny. it's shocking how quickly they dismantled it. the richest owner in major league baseball. it's always been a sore spot among nats fans, they don't always pay their players like

others should. we saw our red sox will take kyle schwerber. he had a home run streak. he, though, is on the injured list and probably will be for a couple weeks. that's seen by the sox' effort to match what the yarpg yankees. the big trade, not quite official yet, rumors, the nats are close to sending matt scherzer, their ace return both of them to an already loaded dodgers fan. >> yeah, that's going to be tough, very tough. we'll see what happens. we'll see. hopefully the red sox will do a little better than last night. the red sox and yankees lost by a combined like 27-to-1. something like that. better days ahead. >> let's hope. okay. let's get to the headlines this morning, faced with a surging

number of coronavirus cases, president biden has announced sweeping new requirements for millions of federal workers. under the new policy, federal government employees and members of the military will have to sign forms acknowledging that they have been vaccinated or else comply with new rules for masking, weekly testing, social distancing and more. the president is also urging state and local governments to offer $100 to anyone willing to get a shot voluntarily. speaking from the east room yesterday, biden delivered a sharp rebuke to those who are still unvaccinated. and emphasized that the fight is still far from over. >> nearly all of the cases, hospitalizations and deaths, due to covid-19 today are from unvaccinated people. last month, studies showedsoever 99% of covid-19 deaths have been among the unvaccinated.

99%. this is an american tragedy. people are dying and will die, who don't have to die. if are you out there unvaccinated, you don't have to die. right now, too many people are dying, watching someone they love dying and saying, if i had just got vaccinated. america's divided, between a majority of eligible people who are vaccinated and those who are not. and i understand that many of you in the majority are frustrated with the consequences of the failure of the minority to get vaccinated. but i. you to know, i'm going to continue everything i can to encourage the unvaccinated to get vaccinated. i know people talk about freedom. but i learned growing up, school and my parents, with freedom

comes responsibility. the decision to be unvaccinated impacts someone else. unvaccinated people spread the virus. they get sick and fill up our hospitals. and that means if someone else has a heart attack or bracks a hip, there may not be a hospital bed for you. it's an american blessing that we have vaccines for each and every american. we've made it our first and top priority to have available vaccines for every eligible american and that's never going to change as long as i'm here. it's a shame, because it's such a shame to squander that blessing. >> perhaps nowhere is the latest coronavirus surge more evident than in missouri. the associated press was given access inside lake regional hospital there, where 22 people died from the virus in the first 23 days of july. they report, darryl barker was passion natalie against the

covid-19 vaccination and so were his relatives. then ten of them got sick. and so did he. i was strongly against getting the vaccine, barker said, through labored breathing. just because we are a strong, conservative family, bark were at just 31 years old ended up in the intensive care unit fighting for his life. but just finding a hospital bed proved unbelievably difficult. according to a.p., with his local hospital maxed out with covid-19 patients, doctors contacted a dozen hospitals if all corners of the state. all were at capacity. he arrived critically ill, placed on a ventilator. barker was given a 20% chance of surviving. the doctor told me he was going to let my wife and kid in, so i could say my good-byes, because he didn't think i was going to pull through, he said, barker,

who has been hospitalized for three weeks isn't out of the woods yet. in missouri, covid-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled since the start of june and the number of icu patients has more than tripled. according to the a.p., many patients now are younger, in their 20s, 30s, or 40s and sicker than ever before. nearly everyone hospitalized is unvaccinated. meanwhile, a significant number of american healthcare workers are among the millions of people still unvaccinated. nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez joins us now with a look at why. what did you find out? you would think these are the people that know the most? >> reporter: yeah, good morning. about one in four healthcare workers in this country still have not been vaccinated. this is bellevue hospital in new york. healthcare workers actually rallied here last week against so-called vaccine mandates.

we spoke with another group in north carolina yesterday. a show of hands, how many of you have gotten a covid vaccine? these are four healthcare workers from different hospitals in north carolina. why not? >> we done know what the long-term side effects are. >> it also hasn't proven to be effective. >> the cdc and health experts say it's more than 99% effective. >> they do say that. that hasn't proven to me to be true. >> i'm not just jumping on a band wagon with something that hasn't been tested. right has tested, though. >> if you look at the normal year's span of how long something is tested, it's usually 12-to-14 years before it comes to humans. >> reporter: across country, one in four healthcare workers isn't vaccinated from new york, mandates are climbing. >> i don't trust it. >>. >> reporter: so is the pushback. >> this is in the category of

give me a bleeping break. when did everyone get a medical degree? >> reporter: for weeks, we've spoken with 'overworked healthcare workers who practically begged americans to get the shot. what do you tell people who just don't believe you? >> it's frustrating. >> reporter: not these. they say they're not anti-vaccine more maine anti-mandate. >> when i'm not comfortable putting something in my body until i am ready. if and when, i won't be forced. >> reporter: you do not trust the cdc? >> i do not trust the cdc, absolutely not. >> reporter: that fuels their skeptic. >> i have the right to question anybody in this country i want to question. >> reporter: you are entitled to opinions, these are facts. >> are they, though? are they facts? >> reporter: that answer, despite the fact that more than 40,000 people participated in the pfizer clinical trial alone, despite that, those healthcare workers you just saw are not

convinced. i should mention overnight there is a report getting a lot of itension, internal cdc do you mean first obtained and posted online overnight by "the washington post" said the delta variant is as contagious as the chicken pox. much more than previously thought. mika. >> nbc news' gabe gutierrez. thank you. it all begs the question. how do you help people one won't help themselves? we'll bring in two top health experts next on "morning joe." h experts next on "morning joe."

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. >> we have the chief medical correspondent, dr. campbell. the delta position, what is your position in the mandates in hot states like for state schools and areas where there will be clusters of young people trying to live their lives? >> mika, we have seen this week that the information has been evolving just like we knew the delta variant evolved from prior iterations of the virus. so, now this week, we start from the beginning of the week. we learned that the cdc through some information they learned is recommending that masks are worn indoors in areas where there is a substantial rate of transmission. that's almost the entire country now. so the rules and guidance from the cdc evolved this week.

the american academy of pediatrics and children's medical group for the hospitals also now has recommended that every person over 2 that goes to school, is in a school, wears a mask. i think the biggest news, however, is what is going to come out today if the information and my reporting is correct. we're going to learn the data behind the cdc's recommendation to modify the mask wearer guidance. the concern now in a speech that everything, joe, you just said and mika you just said and jonathan, it speaks to the potential that vaccinated people with this delta variant have such a high viral load that they may transmit the virus to others as that's circulating this week in the scientific news. if that is, in fact, we know that the delta variant in

vaccinated people creates a viral load equivalent to the viral load in unvaccinated people who are infected. we will learn soon if that also increases the transmission rate. >> yeah. lucy, let me ask you about "the washington post" report that they've got and cdc has some information now about just how quickly this spreads. i think they compared it to chicken pox, that this delta variant is extraordinarily dangerous, moves extraordinarily fast and is really bad news if you or your children or parents are still unvaccinated? >> that's exactly right. we have some concerning news that delta, indeed, is highly transmissible, highly contagious. we also, however, know well how to protect, for example, children the 11s and under who

are unvaccinated and hopefully going back to school. they need to be in school. kid need to be in school like we need water. we know how to protect kids, particularly the most vulnerable kids, those with underlying health conditions, diabetes, asthma, we protect kids by surrounding them with people who are immune to covid-19. either from natural infection or from being vaccinated. this is arguably the most important reason for a vaccine mandates is in schools. kids need to be back in school and when teachers are vaccinated. when we have good ventilation in schools, when we having a says to rapid antigen or contagious tests to keep a child out of school to quickly allow knowledge of an exposed child whether or not they are carrying

delta asim tomatically. and we need to do everything to protect those vulnerable kids. remember, though, let's reassure parents who have healthy kids without underlying conditions,er that rick is low a. healthy average kid will get a common cold. it's the high-risk kids we need to protect the most. >> doctors, thank you both very much. up next, president biden gives credit where credit is due. but will his praise of vaccine development under the previous administration help turn the tide? that's next on "morning joe." tie that's next on "morning joe.

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the vaccines are safe, highly effective. there is nothing political about them. look at all the people who took a shot at it. they later learned a lot have been vaccinated. from the start, i have to compliment republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell him he didn't make it political. he encouraged people to get vaccinated. he continues to do so his state is in pretty good shape. alabama republican governor kate ivy spoke out to encourage vaccination and commentators belittling this for a long time. some haven't, many have, are arguing get vaccinated. look, this is not about red states and blue states. it's literally about life and death. >> president biden praising some republicans' recent push to get more americans vaccinated. these, however, are the

republicans biden will not be praising. a number of house republicans ned marching over to the senate to protest reimposing mask mandates in the house. speaking out against speaker nancy pelosi's push to mask up. >> that is not a speaker for america. that's a speaker only concerned about her own wealth, her own direction and her own control. this is the people's house. >> do we really want to listen to this? do we seriously like the dumbest man in washington. >> is he really that dumb or? >> i don't know if he plays dumbing on tv or is actually dumb. the question is, how many of those house republicans are vaccinated? how many members of the house are vaccinated? i know most of the democrats r. we have been hearing the republicans are still not

vaccinated him how many of those house republicans you saw right there are flying back to districts that are still hot with infections? that are still dangerous with infections because the infections are growing in their parts of the country. chances are pretty good if they're at a press conference like that. chances are really good just looking at that map, that air all from red hot districts or most are from head hot districts, finally, you just got to ask, why are they following the example of governor kate ivy or mitch mcconnell who is actually spending campaign money to get the message out in his district. >> mitch mcconnell wears a mask. >> he has been wearing a sl so this isn't a republican or democratic thing. this is an issue of life and debt. >> one of those republicans,

joe, said, this is tyranny what's happening to them with masks. tyranny. >> so tyranny, i wonder if they've think it's tyranny that children have to get vaccinated before they go to kinder garten the. again. why are we just starting to hear about this? i mean you talk about this hyper individualism with no personal responsibility. you actually have people that are snowflakes that melt that crumble collapse if they have to wear a mask inside. oh, tyranny, you're in the house of representatives. you make laws for the united states of america. you have some personal responsibility to your constituents. do what mitch mcconnell is doing and stop packing stupid political statements in doing those stunts.

>> i have to point out, joe, a couple republicans went and tried to defy the mask mandate in the house and were trying to get arrested, they can't even keep a straight face. >> no. >> some of them and kevin mccarthy, himself, can't even keep a straight face when he is saying this, this is a joke. >> this has been a joke for a lot of them from the time donald trump said that the coronavirus was one person coming in from china. and it was going to be gone. up to now over 600,000 people dead ing at -- >> aim sure a lot of them didn't care about older people dying. again, we got the clips if you want us to play the clips. we'll be glad to play the clips, talk show host types, they've lived a long life, why are we worried so much about them? now the it's the children, it's in their communities. they don't care about that even.

it's the small business owners that run the economy. it's the family businesses, the family hardware store. the family restaurant. the entrepreneurs, the thousands of entrepreneurs that create millions of jobs and grow this economy and a lot of you, they didn't make it. these small business owners, family business owners. sometimes passed down from generation to generation, whether it's a hardware store or a family restaurant you have been going to in your found for a long time. those people need your help. they need to make sure they can keep tear doors opened. and if you are if one of those hot zones the cdc said, help those small business owners out. help those entrepreneurs out. help those families. they have been with you shoulder to shoulder. if you are in a hot red zone,

help them out. coming up, how private companies are taking the lead when it comes to fighting the pandemic. plus, black widow bites back. why marvel movie star scarlett johansson is suiting up for a different kind of battle. and tune in turn on and vote republican? our next guest says the american right is hitting its hippy phase. kevin d. williamson explains that just ahead on "morning joe." ains that just ahead on "morning joe.

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johnson. >> inadvertently provided by boris johnson and his umbrella. >> it's working. >> johnson struggles to opening it up. a lot of people behind him. >> it's spinning. c'mon, you can't make this up. this -- >> since this is england, we are mandated to play the bumbling scene again. [ music playing ] okay. that was if you were. now to a dramatic escalation of corporate america's approach to stopping the spread of the virus.

>> this abrupt turn. >> a hard turn. nbc news senior business correspondent stephanie ruhle has details. >> reporter: add uber to the fast-growing list. the ride hailing giant now making vaccinations mandatory for u.s. employees coming to the office and delaying their global return to office by a month. >> employers are responding to and reacting to colleagues in the workplace saying, i want you to provide as reasonably safe as a workplace as you can. >> reporter: uber joins netflix, google, facebook, morguele stanley, lyft, united, "the washington post" and sax fifth avenue requiring vaccines for employees. the nfl says it will hold teams financially responsible if a covid case cancels the game. >> i wouldn't have gotten the vaccine if protocols they are enforcing on us. >> reporter: restaurateur danny meyer going a step further. >> beginning the day after labor day, we will require 100% of our staff members be vaccinated and

any guest that wants to dine indoors will be vaccinated as well. >> reporter: how will you handle customers that challenge this? >> it's the same way we would challenge somebody who refused to show their i.d. if they were underage at a bar. we won't serve them. >> reporter: he says he will look via a cdc vaccination card or digital passport. for companies dealing with employees who say they're afraid to come back to work, is pan dating vaccines the clearest way to sort of help people who have those concerns? >> a mandate that explains to the employee why it's likely in their best interest as well as the best interest of their colleagues will go a long way. >> our thanks to stephanie ruhle for that report. let's move on to business now, although, it's all related. let's bring in the cnbc domenic chu. what are you looking at? >> reporter: first of all we're investing platform robinhood. it went public.

it wasn't a sparkleing debut. the company best known for its access to a free trading smartphone app fell 8% after pricing its stock at $38 bucks apiece. that valued them at $32 billion. robinhood, remember, regulatory wise and used a lot of complaints last years ago but during this meme and after they restricted companies from trading in volatile markets temperature. ceo says he is used to being doubted and wants to show everyone they can flourish. a big focus for investors, nichola chairman pleased not guilty, nikola, charging him with criminal fraud for lying about nearly all aspects of the business in an effort to boost the maker. milton's legal team he's he is

innocent of the charges and wrongfully accused following a competent investigations. by the way, the securities and exchange separately filed fraud charges of its own and asked a federal court to permanently ban milton from acting as an officer of any company that issues securities. by the way, milton was freed on a $100 million bond. and then disney says there is no merit to the lawsuit filed by scarlett johansson, the scar of marvel's latest blockbuster, black widow. she alleges they blocked the contract on streaming at the same time it was in theaters. disney says it complied with johanneson's contract and the movie significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20 million she's already been paid. now the lawsuit argues the dual release of black widow reduced her compensation, guys, partly based on box office receipts from what was originally

supposed to be an exclusive run in the theaters, back over to you. >> got it. cnbc's dom chu, thank you very much. we turn now to the national crisis of gun violence. an issue that is increasingly playing into a number of mayoral races. political coreports last year they may have hitched to slogans like de-fund the police. this year, they are running on platforms to put officers back on the streets. let's bring in national correspondent for the atlantic. graham wood, woes recent piece details how he recently fell victim to america's crime wave. a mere 11 minutes after returning to the states. so let's start right there. what happened? >> i was coming back from canada, which doesn't have a lot of gun violence, never has. and, yeah, 11 minutes after i crossed the border, i had to stop. i was traveling with family.

there was a baby in the car. dirty type,. crying, i looked around for a place to stop. i found a well-lit gas stakes, just closed. and maybe a couple minutes after i stopped, i noticed a person coming towards the car. a person who then ducked behind the gas station, came back with a mask, not just a covid mask but a stick-up mask and had a gun in his hand. we got out of there as fast as we could. he hit the accelerator before we hit the jackpot we didn't want to hit. it didn't take much time at all. it felt like the crime wave was kind of waiting for me. >> a fascinating piece on so many different levels. it wasn't really nothing idea lodgical about it. there were times where you were wondering whether the guy may have slowed down and given you a chance to get back if your car, because he wasn't sure if you had a gun or not. but just the idea of getting

back in the united states 11 minutes later, you are getting hit with this crime we've. it certainly is indicative of how many things have changed in this country over the last year, year-and-a-half. >> it was in niagara falls, new york. these are rust best e belt cities, increase in crimes, murder rates and people carrying guns around. it turns up that a recently-closed gas station in a bad neighborhood, someone might hear a crying baby and think there is a victim. and are you right, i actually don't though what the effect was of the possibility that i might have had a gun. i was on the passenger's side. i went toward the passenger's side. it looked like he hesitated. maybe because he thought i would come one a gun on my own. eighth different world that americans live in compared to say the other side of the border, where gups are less

common violence is less common, things like that don't happen very much. >> it's jonathan lemire, you just recently returned from the guantonomo bay and biden transferred and bringing the total down to just over three dozen or so. tell us what you saw there. it's not a place that many americans, journalists, get to visit. give us your reporting, what is the situation and what itself the future? >> reporter: it's interesting, the trump administration passed out one, biden transferred out one person. so they're even on that count. but what's happening is they're approaching an end game. you know, we have been waiting the better part of 20 years for something that looks like justice or something to come out of those commissions that tells us that justice is being served. what i saw there was the second-to-last step in the

commission for a pakistani national who is probably going to get out early next year. the government said we will cut a deal with you because what we want to avoid more than anything else is an inquiry into the torture practices, the enhanced interrogation and khan said, in effect, i'll cut a deal. let me out a bit earlier. in return, i'm not going to call witnesses to have the government be forced to say what they did to me. >> all right. graham wood, thank you so much. >> thank you so much. we'll be reading your reporting in the atlantic. now to a column in national review that's come up in conversation on our show a number of times this week. the piece is entitled the american right let's its hippy phase and its author, columnist kevin day williams joins us now.

also with us is author and host of the public radio program studio 360, curt anderson, his best selling book, evil geniuses is out on paperback next month. it's good to have you both on with us this morning. go ahead, joe. >> i was going to say, by the way, any national review piece that has the word "hippy" in its title, we are required by law to actually put the author of that piece on so thank god it was kevin. but i actually, i want to start with curt. i wanted you to be a part of this is i remember reading evil genius as you were talking about the rise of the right and what cause started the '70s. you talked about there were like left-wing bombings, almost weekly. and it would repel people like, for instance, my parents living in the suburbs of georgia in the late '60s. your dad as you've said in

nebraska. and now, it's crazy. i was explaining earlier this week talking about kevin's piece, my parents were life long democrats, because of chicago, '68. the chaos in the street and now here we are 40 years later and you've got republicans, former republicans in the suburbs of atlanta voting democratic electing two democratic senators and getting joe biden elected president of the united states, talk about this crazy turn of the left and the right that kevin writes about. >> well, i liked the piece very much it is a part of many role reversals that we've seen and really it was in the book before evil genius that i published fantasy land, in which i talk about many of the things kevin did in this piece in national review. you know, it was a long-time coming. it's not sudden.

like i said in fantasy land, you had the kind of hippy, new age, anti-reason, anti-science, mysticism. cultism. all that stuff was obviously rampant in the late '60s. you also at the same time had a certain amount of christianity in america going nuts as well in my view. and you had the academic. oh, there is no objective reality. there is no empirical reality. science is just another ideology. you had all of those things forming this river that here in the '90s now the right accepted and was influenced by much more than the left and the liberals who had abandoned this, as kevin said, thinking by 1980. so it's, you nope, you live long enough as i have and it gets insane. because there is this absolute

rollreversal. >> kevin, it is insane, like the very things that drove not only my parents, me, my friends, respect for institutions. respect for order. respect for you name it, go down the line. just for sort of the nostalgia, again the whole idea to conserve civilization, it's all changed. you write about it brilliantly in this peace. can you explain it to our viewers? >> i think you hit on it the authority and the institutions. in 1950, 1960s, the early conservative movement. it's focused on social order tradition, hierarchy and institution and authority and a counter colture broadly aligned with the political left or synonymous with it that is engaged if these ritual sensibility and over the years

you've seen that reversed. i think what is going here is the rest of the 1970s and 1980s have been very successful in their program of building power within the institutions. you know, we have media, universities, education, more generally, also big business places like that. you have a right that has reacted to that by denigrating these denigrating these institutions, perceiving them as enemies. they feel like the cultural norms are being imposed on them by people with values alien to theirs and so they have taken up this very similar kind of theater of making these ritual violations of the expectations of what is now polite society and institutional norms. >> kevin, as i said, i like the piece very much and i've said preach as i read it. but do you think that the people on the right, the rabble you're talking about as opposed to the

mitch mcconnells who are not behaving in any countercultural fashion, do they -- is it all about simply a kind of super individualist selfishness or is there actually an ideology involved. >> i don't think it's about individualism at all and i don't think the counterculture in the '60s and '70s was either. you look at the hippies, you look at the punks, they all dressed alike, listened to the same music, they all had the same politics. there was conformism. i think it's more tribalism than it has to do with individualism. so that kind of fits into republican politics in the sense that from the 1950s onward, republicans were very strongly anti-statist. you've got newt gingrich coming into office when he said rome wasn't burned in a day. so to that extent the anti-establishment, anti-authority, anti-institutional thinking on the right fits in with a natural part of its politics but i think

it has to do more with a shift in where power actually is located in society. a story i like to tell is the guy who works for that other magazine you were talking to earlier, i went to a seminar of theirs. it was a bunch of people talking about the evils of capitalism and how it's oppressing people and how people who work, white men, couldn't achieve any power in society and it was sponsored by facebook, google, chase bank and a few places like that. so you've really seen a change in where cultural power resides, including in areas that are traditionally thought of as being allies of conservatives, like big business, particularly banking and finance and now technology. >> you know, it's very interesting, kevin, you talked about how all hippies dressed the same, the punks all dressed the same. my son's theory the most punk song ever was "sweet home alabama" because it went so far against the tide of attacking neil young and everything else.

but that's just a sidebar. but talk about, though, culture, and i guess that song balances very well to this. i come from the south. i come from southern baptist church. and, you know, we growing up, the late '60s into the '70s felt constantly under siege. under siege and mocked and ridiculed, whether it was by sneering people on tv news or hollywood or academics. i went to the university of alabama and the university of florida in the '80s. the university of alabama in the age of reagan. i don't have a conservative professor in history, political science, you name it. i liked it that way. i mean it actually -- i got to challenge a lot of my beliefs and it was totally fine with me. but talk about because kurt was talking about this individualism. i wonder how much of this has to do with them just feeling like they're so under siege and have

been under siege for such a long time that this is the only way to strike back? >> yeah, i think you hit on it with "sweet home alabama" which is purely reactionary people responding to criticism and perceived condescension and that sort of thing. so you've got an element of people who feel like they have lost power to which they are entitled. when people feel like they don't have power, they will take extraordinary steps to seek it out, including embracing allies that they wouldn't normally, excusing things in public figures they wouldn't normally excuse. so i think that is really part of what describes and explains this radical change in expectations of the republican party about behavior of public figures, presidential candidates, things like that. about the acceptability of certain aspects of political discourse and those sorts of things. >> kevin, how -- i'm sorry, kurt. i was going to say, kurt, how bizarre is it also, though, that

these very same people who preached order and talked about democrats not respecting institutions are now striking out against institutions, even the flag. how much have we heard of the left disrespects the flag, and here you have certain people on television defending the beating and the abusing of police officers with american flags and accusing the cops -- accusing the cops of being actors. >> well, again, that's another one of the role reversals. imagine if what happened on january 6th had indeed been antifa, had been a left-wing thing. that was the cartoon caricature of what the socialist revolutionaries of the late '60s were supposed to do and of course never did anything of the sort. and as well, it goes on and on. that's why i thought this piece was so interesting and provocative. i mean who are the people who trust more than the right?

let's say the fbi and the cia these days. well, it's liberals, it's people on the left. you know, who are the cultural conservatives really who keep their families together and so forth. again, as kevin has written about in other pieces. it's liberals. it's the affluent, successful people who for a couple of years in the late '60s and early '70s perhaps had long hair and went to protests and got high. >> yeah. >> wow. >> it's really a fascinating turn. >> the piece is entitled "the american right hits its hippie phase." kevin williamson, thank you. >> thank you, kevin. kurt, thank you as well. yeah, i think -- i'd love to read a piece from one of you or both of you on "sweet home alabama" sometime. there's something about driving in a car in 1974 and hearing the line "watergate does not bother

me, does your conscience bother you" what? what did they say? >> kurt's best seller "evil geniuses" is out in paper back on august 10th. thank you both for joining us this morning. let's go to our resident scholar, jonathan. big series this week. >> big series against the rays. still a few hours away so we have got a chance to get ohtani before then. white house officials i can tell you this, as much as we're seeing the disturbing rise in cases, they're also seeing a correspondencing rise in vaccinations and they're hoping this weekend more and more people will go out there and get those shots, particularly in those areas where they don't have much in the way of vaccine coverage right now. >> i do think what's happened over the past two weeks may be a jarring wake-up call for a lot of people who are now going out

and doing what they need to do to protect themselves, protect their children, protect their families. >> i'm praying. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after a final quick break. ♪♪ i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. but my nunormal with nucala? fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection-site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala.

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hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle. it is a jam-packed friday this july 30th. we are following multiple breaking stories right now, including damning new details about the delta variant of the coronavirus. a new internal cdc document first obtained by "the washington post" paints a very frightening new picture of the pandemic. it is not behind us according to the document. preliminary data indicates the delta variant causes more severe illness, spreads as easily as chickenpox and