♪ give me some of that fire ♪ ♪ fire, fire, fire ♪ if it's wednesday, the latest on embattled new york governor andrew cuomo as more prosecutors are scrutinizing his conduct and more democrats are calling for him to resign. talk with one top u.s. lawmaker in what is next. plus more cases, more problems, more messaging issues for the white house with new coronavirus surges, new political pressure from progressives leaving president biden to take action he acknowledges is constitutionally questionable. u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy joins me ahead. later hot we learned in ohio about the power of progressives and the power of donald trump as visions of both parties were tested at the primary ballot box.

welcome to "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. we begin this hour with new inquiries. andrew cuomo's conduct and new calls for his resignation. in just the past several hours the district attorney's in manhattan and westchester county announced they are looking into cuomo's actions after requesting from the attorney general's office and algallegations. to the reporting of covid cases in nursing homes and amid the mounting legal scrutiny comes mounting political pressure on the governor to step down and do so quickly. including now pressure from president biden. who held off making that announcement when the allegations first surfaced against cuomo in march. >> will you now call on him to

resign given the investigator said the 11 women were credible? >> i stand by that statement. >> are you now calling on him to resign? >> yes. >> the president joins a growing list of democrats calling for cuomo's resignation. in fact, the question is who isn't inside the democratic party because this list of resignation callers includes not just the president, but house speaker nancy pelosi, new york's two u.s. senators, chuck schumer and gillibrand. the governor has no intention of stepping down and categorically denies the accusations laid out in the attorney general's report. it puts cuomo's fate in the hands of new york state lawmakers who were already in the midst of an impeachment hearing. declared that cuomo can no longer remain in office. so, where do we go from here? joining me we have our own

yasmin who is in albany and the managing editor of "times union" brendan lyons and chairman of the investigations and government oversight committee, james scoop. i appreciate all of you here. let me start with you and a far simpler question. yesterday we heard from governor cuomo on tape. do we expect to see him today? do we expect to see any remarks? is he going to, at all, take any questions from reporters? >> i wish i knew that answer, chuck, otherwise staked out at his mention. as of now, we don't know if we'll hear from the governor today. he issued a prerecorded statement yesterday. he also issued a statement from his attorney, as well. we're talking about 165-page report here, chuck. a far-reaching report. 11 allegations from 11 separate women. three of which were unreported until now based off of 179

separate witnesses corroborating this investigation. just astounding if you think about some of those numbers, chuck. the folks, the women that were hurt by some of these allegations being made. you talk about the process. the new york assembly meeting in a closed door meeting. i spoke to assembly member who was in that meeting yesterday. here's what she had to say. >> the strong sentiment is that, yes, we need to move on these proceedings. we need to wrap up the investigation and draw up the report from that, which will then move towards the resolution on the articles. >> so, chuck, let me just talk quickly about kind of the process of the whole thing. i know you'll speak to the state senator and he can elaborate more on this. they're in the midst of an investigation inside the assembly and then the articles of impeachment need to be drawn up by the judiciary and the assembly needs to vote if, in

fact, it's passed by a simple majority in which the assemblywoman told me she believes it will. it will then go to trial predicting that will be some time in september or october. when it goes to trial, chuck, this is different than some of the impeachment trials we've seen over the last four years or so. the governor actually has to step down during that impeachment period. i will also say the state assemblywoman told me this is a sad time for the state. she was on the call around gun sledgeilation when the report was issued. she remembers back when it put things at a standstill and she fears this will happen again when it comes to important legislation that needs to be passed during a very difficult time in this country still reeling from a pandemic. >> brendan lyons, i would put up a graphic of all the democrats holding off on calling for resignation in new york politics, but i don't have one. you tell me, is there an ally left for governor cuomo in

albany? >> hardly. and, in fact, in a really extraordinary move today, one of the commissioners for one of his state agencies put out the statement condemning his behavior as well and saying it was going to be very difficult period ahead for this agency. so, that is quite remarkable that somebody even within an agency would join lawmakers who are calling for his resignation. >> the lieutenant governor, it seems as if she maybe had some questions about that yesterday, brendan, you were with me. she seemed to make her point of view pretty clear even though she is one of the few democrats not calling for his designation just yet or impeachment. she is walking a line she would succeed him in office. but that seemed to be a pretty bright line she was trying to draw between herself and the person who picked her to be his running mate. >> indeed.

you know, the lieutenant governor is certainly in a pickle here because she can't call for him to resign at this point given the fact that she would then slide into the position as the number two in command in the state of new york. so, the real question here for the senate and the assembly is if this impeachment is going to move forward, will it be done swiftly enough that this doesn't spill into 2022 and begin to run into what potentially could be a colorful democratic gubernatorial primary. >> yesterday we speculated that perhaps president biden or some other statesmen inside the democratic party could be the, you know, i guess to borrow a parallel here for older viewers, the goldwater to richard ixon. who can have that telephone conversation and say are you going to put the entire new york democratic party, the entire state of new york and the entire

covid response on this, in this situation or are you going to step aside? is there anybody he might listen to on that front? >> you know, it would have to be somebody with great influence over him. i'm wondering, we all are, are his own aides having these conversations with him or standing by him. the rebuttal report they put out yesterday in advance of what the attorney general had released, it made it clear that they are digging in their heels and ready to go to war. i think as long as his closest aides and confidants are saying stand strong and chance he hunkers down and hopes for the best if there is an impeachment. >> have you gotten a whiff of his own staffers, you know, sometimes in situations like this, staffers walk away.

this is going to be terrible on my resume. i have to get out of here while the getting is good. have you gotten a whiff of that at all in the state capitol? >> as of yet, no. but i will say the sentiment is clear, even throughout the area in which i've been during this day. folks walking up to me and talking about enough is enough with this governor. different lawmakers that i have been speaking to throughout the day. this is a state capitol very much invested in its local culture and government. so, when you look at the local papers, chuck, and i have them sitting right by my foot all the front headlines say cuomo's got to go. it seems as if that is the sentiment. i think, you know, the answer to your question is maybe it's too soon to tell and we will just have to wait and see what happens over the next 24 to 48 as this all unfolds. >> yeah, brendan, really sort of similar question to you. you said there was that one

agency had you expect more folks who were appointed by cuomo who may be in the same way we saw a slew of people after january 6th in the trump white house get those resignation letters there because they want to be able to, hey, look, see, i was not onboard for that. do you get a sense we may see that in the next 24 to 48 hours? >> it's mixed, too. but there are also some that worry probably about the optics of jumping ship when things really get heated. how does that look for the next job that they may get that they might abandon the governor at this time of need. but there has been a steady exodus of employees from his administration and his inner circle over the past six months, even more. and i do think that the tenor in the office is not good right now either. morale is certainly low. there's still at least one woman in there actually harassed who is working in that office and the governor has not been a

frequent visitor to his capitol office for many, many of these months. he had been holed up in manhattan or stay at his mansion office and not come into the capitol. >> interesting. let me move on to the state senator chair of the investigations and government oversight committee. you've been doing some form of investigation. this is not where the impeachment would come out of, but where are we and i take it the legislature is hoper that he chooses resignation over this process. but are you prepared to go through with this process? >> we are. and, look, as far as being chair of investigation on this particular matter, the sexual harassment piece, there is nothing left to investigate. the attorney general did an incredibly thorough, fair, independent job. she interviewed her team and 200 individuals and reviewed over 70,000 documents. there is nothing left to investigate and they corroborated all 11 women and

found them credible. so here's the matter of fact. it is over for governor cuomo. it's no gray area and no path where he could ride this out. he will no longer be governor and it's only a matter of time before that happens. my hope, i think everyone's hope is that he resigns and he steps down willingly and spares the state and spares the democratic party from an ugly impeachment proceeding. but make no mistake, if he does not step down mrld and by immediately i don't mean in a month or a couple weeks, i mean like today or tomorrow. the legislature is prepared to move forward and the votes are there comfortably for impeachment. >> the timeline we've seen is september and october. you know, that may be.

it seems as if the governors had one goal in all of this as he's been under siege here over the last few months is to buy time. is there a path to expediting this given what you just pointed out. the investigation is done. not like you guys have to do a new investigation. or are there other items on the impeachment list that would be put on there over the next four to six weeks and that's why you would want time? >> well, look, the assembly judiciary committee has a meeting scheduled for this monday. i strongly suspect that you're going to see some action taken by the committee. i there will be some next step at that point. the writing is on the wall here. i do not believe it will come down to the legislature because i can't imagine the governor will want to go through the

further embarrassment and further shame of being actively removed and impeached by his own party. once he internalizes this is happening and no stopping it, i have to imagine he's going to step down willingly, but by the timeline, look, i think there's an appetite to move as quickly as possible. but there's basically no precedent here. this happened one time in new york state history over 100 years ago. there's no playbook. so, if we do move forward or if we're forced to move forward, i should say, we want to get it right. we want to be responsible about drafting the article or articles of impeachment and we're prepared to move as quickly but responsibly as possible. >> you seem to think that the governor, do you know something that the governor is, there are people around him urging this or are you just applying rationality to what you believe is going to happen? >> i think mostly the latter. but, look, i've been in the

legislature now for nine years and some pretty strong sense of how the governor operates and he's no dummy. he's a political animal, he understands government and vote counting and politics. he saw this morning's poll, i'm sure. prior to yesterday he could hang his hat on the fact that some base within the democratic party who was waiting for the attorney general's report before casting judgment. he has none of that. he can count the votes and knows what's going on and he knows, he must know if he doesn't already very soon that the end and he, look, he believes and wants to protect as much few shreds of legacy that he can at this point. and most of it is gone and if he's impeached and convicted by his own party in the legislature, it's even more tattered than it is right now. and, so, i suspect out of self-interest, if nothing else, once he internalizes that this

is, indeed, happening he is going to step down. >> senator skoofis, anybody made the case for you, hey, as long as he promises to not seek re-election is that enough to move on? has anybody attempted to make that case to you? >> literally no one. so, you know, i think we're past that point. we're using the governor's own standard by the way. i was on your show five months ago or so and i called for him to resign at that point. i caught flack from rank and file folks in my party. his standard at that time was, let's hit the pause button. let the attorney general's investigation play out. let's see the conclusion of that report. and then cast judgment. then the truth will come out. and, so, using his own standard we have now given him that due process. and now he's trying to move the goal posts because the truth in the report kid not jive with his false impression of what

happened with these 11 women and, so, so look using his own words from five months ago, he ought to be removed. he is not fit to continue serving as governor of new york state. >> yasmin on the ground for us in albany, brendan lyons our man in albany, the expert on new york politics and new york senator james skoufis, i appreciate all of you to get us started. thank you. up next, we'll head to the white house for the very latest in the administration's response to the surge in cases of the delta variant, includes action from the cdc that according to the president himself may be unconstitutional. one of the administration's top medical officials the surgeon general vivek murthy joins me next. allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily stops your body from overreacting to allergens all season long. psst! psst! all good

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welcome back. the pandemic is still worsening with more than half the country

reporting an increase in coronavirus-related deaths over the last two weeks. as we told you, deaths are the lagging indicator here. the surge has been going on a month so here we are. and the surge is still everywhere. all 50 state. the district of colombia seeing increase. the moratorium expired and that left millions of americans facing possible homelessness and the cdc issued a more targeted moratorium based on county transition rates. despite a supreme court ruling that any extension needed to come from the legislative branch, specifically congress, not the executive branch. in fact, even president biden isn't sure this extension he's attempting will hold up in court. >> i sought out constitutional scholars to determine what is the best possibility and would come from executive action or the cdc, what is most likely to

pass muster constitutionally. >> shannon is at the white house for us today. so, shannon, you know, when i heard the president talk about the concern he had for the constitutionality, it harkened back to me to the first time that then president obama did his executive order on daca. when he issued it, he was debating whether it would be pass constitutional muster here. do they expect this to at least stick for 30 or 60 days? is that why they did it? even if it's ruled unconstitutional, maybe it gets, maybe it gets drawn out in a court process that at least buys them 60 or 90 days? >> right, the president and his remarks there go on to say, well, maybe at least this could buy us some time. administration officials have been saying this is not a long-term solution.

the long-term solution they see is getting out some of this rental assistance to renters and landlords that they say is stuck at the state and local levels because the bureaucratic issues, essentially. press secretary jen psaki was defending this and saying they don't know what the courts are going to do and they went through a review process and in just the past couple days is the timeline and making a justification that it could potentially hold up in court because it is more targeted. it is just looking at places that have higher substantial spread of covid-19. but, of course, given how widespread the virus is right now, that really applies to 90% of the country. >> right. so, shannon, this is plan b. is there a plan c? >> as far as there is that

rental assistance and i would say plan c is getting this pandemic under control. so, people don't have to worry about losing their homes or if they lose their homes, spreading the virus to relatives who they might move in with or, unfortunately, at a homeless shelter potentially. so, the cdc says this is all to keep people out of the congruigate settings and stop the spread of the virus. but, of course longer, longer term the administration would like to see a situation where people aren't so afraid of losing their homes and don't have to fear getting covid if they do lose their homes. >> well, that's a nice segue that you just did for me. shannon pettypiece on the ground at the white house for me. thank you. so joining me now the u.s. surgeon general dr. vivek murthy. welcome back to the program. >> thank you so much, chuck. good to see you again. >> look, you are in many ways one of the more prominent spokes people who tried to help when it comes to messaging on anything

regarding the health of americans. obviously with covid. i want to play for you what happened to the governor of arkansas in a town hall. you may have seen a piece of it. but i want the audience to see it because i think it does underscore the challenge you and other public health officials have with messaging on this virus. take a listen. >> it's absolutely very real. i think what we agree on is that covid is real, people get sick from -- >> there was one person. >> what's in the vaccine? give me. if mr. doctor gives me a vial and says trust me. >> if doctors were about to tell the truth and treat their patients with these therapeutics we would not have hospitals full

of sick people dying, okay. don't snark at me, governor. what will save lives, governor. it's not the vaccine. >> dr. murthy, i imagine you may have seen this. you heard governor hutchinson already. he has been trying to go around the state, arkansas. how do you digest something like that if the conservative republican governor of arkansas can't convince his constituents, how does the biden administration do it? >> well, chuck, first, i think we should be applauding governors like governor hutchinson and others who are out there trying to make sure their communities have the facts about covid and i don't blame people for being confused about vaccine or covid. as i said two weeks ago as i issued a surgeon general addvisory, a lot of misinformation out there

circulating from sources that seem trustworthy and it is not. it ultimately cost people their lives. what we need to do is realize not one single messenger that will work to make sure we have the accurate information. we need trusted messengers all over our country and the local nurses and doctors and local faith leaders and ensuring that family members recognize that if they made the decision to get vaccinated and they looked at the facts, they can be a powerful force for their family and friends to make the same type of decision with accurate information. that's how we're going to beat this virus, a people power movement to make sure folks have the facts. >> well, but the problem is you may have these trusted messengers and they may go on different social media platforms like facebook and get drowned out. i mean, you know, facebook continues to sort of deny their role in spreading this misinformation. i know the administration has

had different tussles with facebook on this. is there any sort of sign that they have come up with a better way to black out this garbage that is basically circulating more so really on that social media network but plenty of other social networks that do it facebook, twitter, et cetera. but facebook particularly in these rural communities has been a conduit to this. explain your interactions with facebook on this issue. >> well, chuck, it is very clear that one of the critical factors that has been driving this speed, scale and sophistication with misinformation spreading is technology. technology platforms. my belief and what i stated very clearly in the adviory that i issued two weeks ago is technology companies have a moral responsibility to make sure that their platforms are not enabling the spread of misinformation and harming people's health. now, i will acknowledge that some of these companies have

taken steps to reduce the flow of misinformation, but they've not done nearly enough. we're seeing that play out day in and day out. so, i believe what we need from the companies is greater transparency about the measures they're taking and the actual impact that's having. we need companies to take responsibility for what's actually happening on their sites. we need to address super spreaders of misinformation and we need them to recognize that if they don't step up and do so quickly, that the cost will be measured in lives lost and people hospitalized. that is just too high a price for us to pay. >> want to talk about the issue of boosters. san francisco is allowing boosters for people who received the johnson & johnson vaccine. is that advisable from a medical standpoint? >> chuck, certainly when it comes to boosters, we have not made from the federal government side a formal recommendation for people to get boosters bought what we are doing is looking at several buckets of data, chuck.

groups of individuals and data from companies who are continuing to follow people in their clinical trials and data from other countries and specifically looking to see if evidence immunity is decreasing that is leading to a rise in infections. if and when we see that, we will make a recommendation on boosters. now, i recognize that individual doctors and their patients may make a decision, you know, around getting an extra dose and that may be as it is, but formally we cannot make that recommendation yet until we feel the data is clear and indicates boosters are required. but, chuck, one thing people should know -- >> let me ask you this. let me ask you this. from a medical standpoint, is it safe to do this? >> well, that's one of the issues that we want to look at, too, before we recommend boosters. we wanted to make sure that from a safety perspective, that there aren't any additional side effects or more frequent side effects that occur with the third dose. you know, i think we have good reason to believe based on

everything we've seen so far that it should be safe. but these things have to be evaluated thoroughly before a recommendation is made. >> look, i got to ask you one more question on boosters. a lot of folks that are hitting their six-month mark. a lot of good medical information and research out there that indicates six months is when the efficacy starts to wane in some of these. the w.h.o. is afraid that we're going to start doing boosters before some of the other world gets first doses. that's a tricky political situation. can you imagine the united states withholding booster shots because of the w.h.o. recommendation? >> well, look, i recognize why the w.h.o. raised this concern. they're concerned about the whole world. frankly, we are, too. because we will not get through this pandemic unless we make sure that countries around the world have enough vaccine, to make sure cases come down and stay down. if there's uncontrolled spread of the virus in another country,

variants can arise and arrive in the united states. we don't want that. i don't think we need to choose between vaccinating the rest of the world and providing the vaccinations, including potentially boosters be required that our country needs. and that's one of the reasons why the administration has really worked hard to not only donate supplies of doses to the rest of the world, but to more importantly work with other countries to increase and build up manufacturing capacity so they can produce enough vaccine to ensure that the rest of the world is protected. so, we've got to work on both fronts. we don't have to choose between our health and the health of the world. we have to protect both. >> look, dr. murthy, i appreciate you. i know we said we'll get you out at 1:30 and it's 1:32. i appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise with us. >> thank you, chuck. we are going to speak to one doctor from the latest covid hot spot louisiana. seeing a record influx of hospitalizations not record breaking since the last but just record breaking, sadly.

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mandate as he battles the surge in a state where many residents continue to be resistant to the vaccine. joined now by dr. catherine o'neil. the chief medical officer at our lady of the lake in baton rouge, louisiana. dr. o'neil, paint the picture for how things are right now in baton rouge at your hospital and i imagine you probably know the situation at other hospitals. what can you tell us? >> right now baton rouge is, we're out of beds. we have been out of beds for quite some time. to give you a sense, we reached our peak number of patients since the pandemic began last friday and our community hospital just down the road from us also just a leader in a number of covid patients in the state also reached their peak at about that time. we talk daily because we try to make sure we have enough medications and breathing equipment for patients and what we run into the last several

days is that we just don't have enough beds. what we mean by that is people are starting to stack up in the e.r. and stack up outside of the hospital waiting for a bed and a couple patients who changed statuses today meaning that they went from a floor patient to icu patient and we had no icu bed to put them in. they remained on the floor with nursing care that is not appropriate for an icu patient but not having anybody else to be capable of taking care of that patient. it is a day by day and hour-by-hour struggle. we are admitting one covid patients every 45 minutes. that's hard to keep up with. these patients require a lot of care. >> tell me about -- give me the census of these patients here, if you will. approximate age and vaccination status. >> everybody under 50 and this is held true for the last two weeks now, every patient under 50 is unvaccinated. we haven't seen a young patient be vaccinated and need admission. about 45% of our patients are

under 50 now, which is a huge difference from our previous surges in which most of our patients were over 50 years old. when you start to get into the over 50 category, especially the over 80 category is where we see most of our breakthrough cases. people who don't have a remember noal immune system, people on chemtherapy and that is our breakthrough cases. >> when you see the breakthrough patient cases and, look, maybe you don't want to go this far, those folks were among the first vaccinated. is there a concern that it's either not holding up against delta or the efficacy is starting to wear off a little bit for older folks? >> no, it's okay. i think it's a very interesting thing to look through breakthrough cases. not everybody was vaccinated six months ago. when you look at the breakthrough cases we haven't been able to pinpoint a particular trend in your vaccine was too long and that would be an easy solution. everybody who got it six months ago should get a booster.

we're not necessarily seeing that. breakthroughs are far more tied to the individual and not necessarily or at least right now tied to just longevity of the vaccine. so, if i'm 83, 93 years old, i don't know if i was ever going to respond to that vaccine. we don't have enough studies to say that if we gave a booster in that patient population that they would respond. our only protection for them is vaccinating everybody else. we know these patients don't respond to vaccines and whether boosters would help people with breakthrough cases has not been proven yet. >> tell me about the staffing issue and i'm curious, is the staffing issue you're running in to, is this a people just burned out and have left, you know, don't want to be in nursing or in the hospital work any more or is it just you have so many patients you don't have enough staff? >> it's a combination of everything. i think that in every state and every city in this country right

now, people are asking for contract labor. the medical field and hospitals in general are seeing high volumes. covid or not covid. that is the result of whole year of poor and sub standard care. people are sicker post-covid patients tend to get readmitted over and over again even though they don't get admitted for covid any more. the need is sky high and our workers are somewhere else. on top of that covid care needs more nursing care. you put two big pools on our volume patient right now and we just can't staff. >> it's kind of a bleak picture you're painting there, dr. o'neal. good luck. >> it's not a good one. >> hoping more people take these warnings and get the vaccine. >> get vaccinated. >> simple enough. thank you. new warnings from the house

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to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com welcome back. amid covid's resurgence and a debate over trillions of new spending packages democrats are sounding an alarm. they risk losing the house if they don't find a winning economic message. the congressional democratic chairman the person in charge of the house campaign side of things, sean patrick maloney delivered this message to democrats in vulnerable district showing new polling suggests if the midterms were held today they would likely lose control of congress. sahill, it's interesting, sometimes these leaks are done on purpose because it's about raising money. sometimes it's about getting people focused and sometimes it just is what it is and it accidentally leaked. where do you put this?

you know, three months ago the stance was remain calm. all is well. so where do things, where are things now and what was the point of this leak, do you think? >> chuck, this looks like it was an attempt to raise the alarm among democrats that they need to sharpen up their economic message heading into the 2022 midterm elections. now, democratic sources who are familiar with the polling say they've done a deep dive and they found several aspects of president biden's economic agenda are very popular not only among their base but wing voters. that includes infrastructure. the bill is moving through the senate and has not passed. that includes the child tax credit and interestingly enough the tax hike on the wealthy and corporations. they want democratic lawmakers to focus on that because there is a fear that message isn't breaking through. but, of course, that only emphasizes democrats being able to pass the president's economic agenda here on capitol hill because you can't brag about

infrastructure unless it becomes law and you can't brag about the child tax credit unless they extend it because as it those payments are set to stop next year before the midterms. of course, you have to tax the rich before you can sell that. if democrats are able to get this done, it gives them a message. but, if not, they are in trouble. >> you know, it's interesting, sahil, it seems to be the democratic party doesn't seem united on what the message is. look at gavin newsom and terry mcauliffe. they're running on the 2020 message of not trump or beware of trumpism or let's fight trumpism or whatever version. it sounds like maloney is saying, look, that certainly you can do some of that, but you need another message. is this part of the problem that there's a disagreement and how much to sort of bank on the trump messaging as being their get out of this box free card? >> well, of course, chuck, we have to keep in mind that gavin

newsom is running in deep blue california. virginia is also a blue trending state. those candidates are really looking at different electorates than the marginal democrat in the house who has to win in probably a suburban district, you know, upscale, affluent and a lot who flip to democrat. that is the marginal seat at the house at this point and that includes turning on their base and the voters that were held by donald trump in the last four to five years. of course, tying the party to trump and trumpism is start a part of democrat strategy but it is not going to be enough. democrats are also trying to tie republican candidates to the most unpopular elements of their party, including anti-vaxers and, you know, the attack on the capitol on january 6th. they need to press that message to hold on to swing voters. >> look, i think one of the most underrated issues is vaccine mandates. this has a huge majority in

favor of vaccine mandates, yet the politics makes it look like a 50/50 proposition. i have to leave it there, sahil. great reporting by you. coming up, we'll go even deeper into politics. by the way, what is the democratic base when we talk about turning that out. a little test of what that might look like in an akron, what these special elections in ohio tell us about what we could be expecting in the mid terms. that's next. t. still fresh unstopables in-wash scent booster

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welcome back. results are in from yesterday's special house primary elections in ohio and the big take away is that joe biden and donald trump is that one is more firmly in control of the respective parties but they exert control and the democratic party to fill marcia fudge's cleveland and akron seat. the democratic backed shontel brown had a data point to show that this is not bernie sanders' area, and across the board to start with joe biden and eric adams and now shontel brown. and now, trump's candidate mike carey won over a scattered

field, and donald trump will almost always come out on top if the field is crowded. so joining me is my partner in crime, the senior political editor here, mark murray. so mark, it is -- there's no doubt on the democratic side, it is looking like we have the rule of threes for 2021 is here, mccullough, terry and biden. >> yes, and at least the candidate that is trump-backed going to lose again, and the answer to that question is that the trump-backed candidate was going to win, but you can also

look at the percentage of 37% isn't an overwhelming one, and some of the other candidates were running on the local issues is backed by local candidates including steve stivers who was backing a candidate jeff lare who was 13% and his closest opponent in the contest. >> we were wondering about how we noted for now that all politics is national, but there has been some local flavor, and that is why jake elsie held off the trump-backed candidate in texas. but you could argue that shontel brown was a local win over national. >> yes, and as long as we have been covering politics the all politics is local is smaller and smallerment and while the

democratic race is that neither shontel brown could point to local issues or nina turner, and even looking at eric adams in new york city, this is just fighting the 2020 biden base all over again and the same issues and what we saw in 2020, that is a decisive victory for joe biden and his allies and brings to the question if you are coming from from the progressive left why do you want to fight 2020 or 2016 all over again, because it has not been successful. >> well, in fairness to the progressives they are getting the policy wins with the eviction moratorium and that, and so there is a tale of two movements here, and some success here in washington and struggling to break the 50% mark

in the democratic primary. and thank you, mark murray. and if you can't get enough of going deep on the house races and the recall and all of this, well, there is a new chuck todd cast out today with some of the smartest brains out, nathan gonzalez and jessica taylor and we will go deep and do some ohio senate and it is a junkie's dream. check it out and a new episode coming today and we will have more on friday. meanwhile, i will see you tomorrow. msnbc's coverage continues with geoff bennett right after this break. r this break. what is even in this? clinically-studied plant based ingredients passion flower, valerian root, and hops. new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance.

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it is great to be with you. i'm geoff bennett and we begin with breaking news on three new potential criminal inquiries being launched against governor andrew cuomo with that report of allegations of sexual harassment. msnbc has learned that the district attorney in manhattan