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and good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington as the covid crisis reaches another grim toll, topping more than 200 million cases globally. here in the u.s. cases of the delta variant are surging in every state especially among unvaccinated americans with seven-day average back up to more than 100,000 cases and hospitalizations on the rise. >> the seven-day average of hospital admissions is about 7,348 per day, an increase of about 41% from the prior seven-day period. a seven-day average daily deaths have also increased to 381 per day, an increase of more than 39% from the previous seven-day period. >> record hospitalizations are reported in states like louisiana and florida with health officials in mississippi sounding the alarm as the state runs out of hospital beds.

>> we've seen a phenomenal increase in the number of daily reported cases of covid and this is entirely attributable to the delta variant which is sweeping over mississippi, you know, like a tsunami. yesterday we reported 178 new hospitalizations in a single day, and this is on top of a hospital system that's already overburdened, over filled and nonexisting intensive care units. >> and more children are getting sick and hospitalized with covid as lawmakers refuse to reinstate mask mandates in some of the biggest hot spots. we'll get the latest from atlanta where children are returning to school today. in new york governor andrew cuomo remains out of sight today as more of his allies are calling for him to step down. cuomo is facing impeachment and widening allegations of sexual harassment. i'll speak to one congresswoman from new york who was the first to call him out months ago. and the olympic closing

ceremonies are just three days away. i'll be talking to u.n. ambassador linda thomas-greenfield who will represent the u.s. in tokyo this weekend on the olympics and of course, ail talk to her about afghanistan and a lot more. let's start with the latest on the covid pandemic. nbc news correspondent, catie beck is in atlanta where students are returning today. there is an indoor mask mandate, but it is not consistent across the state. what are you finding? >> reporter: that's right, andrea. there are a lot of mixed messages in georgia. a mandate in the city of atlanta which extends to atlanta public schools for indoor masking and you can go to the suburbs of cobb county and it is optional for students to have masks in school. the governor in georgia saying he opposes mask mandates and he will not put one in place. despite the mixed messaging today we did see parents and students headed in for the first day of school in metro atlanta

wearing masks and feeling relief. many parents say it's been 18 months since children have had real in-person education and to have them socialized in an environment where they have protections in place is a relief. we also spoke to the superintendent who says she feels positive headed into the school year that they have safeguards in place and that the masks are needed. she said one thing that has room for improvement is the vaccination rate among her staff. rate now it's hovering at 58% to 59% in schools and she wants to get that number up as the school year progresses and that is why she's put vaccination offerings in several campuses to get teachers and staff vaccinated to try to get parents who have eligible students. inside atlanta public school, right now only 18% of eligible students have gotten the vaccine. so she says, still room to grow, but feeling positive about heading in. here's what parents told us on

their way to school. >> it's an absolute necessity and being front line with a doc with the rate of delta and kids that we're seeing, it's an absolute necessity. >> do you feel good about them going back today or do you feel reservation? >> i would have kept them home if i could have, but given what we do for professions, we can't. >> they are expecting a fact that there is an inherent risk sending children with masks on and seeing covid cases rising among children and that is at the front of their mind and seeing the value of in-person education, andrea, and they see this as a tremendous opportunity. >> catie beck, thanks so much in atlanta. turning to alabama which has one of the lowest vaccination rates, cases have spiked in the last few weeks. joining me is stephen reid. thank you for being with us. let me talk about masks because

you are urging residents to mask up indoors and that is not a requirement. have you considered a requirement? >> thank you for having me. yes, we have considered a requirement given the numbers increasing locally and throughout the region. the first step is to issue an advisory and to jog the collective minds of our citizens who are still hesitant. we understand that there is a history that exists here in alabama in particular as it relates to the tuskegee syphilis experiment and their hesitation to the white and black and brown communities. so we have to continue to work to educate our community and educate those who are on the fence about why it's important to get vaccinated and why it is in our best interest in the long term for all of us to do so including those young people and those adults that will be going back to school in the next couple of weeks. >> are you seeing that vaccination rates are inching up

at least as people are getting the word about the variant and how contagious it is? >> yes. we are seeing that and to be quite honest we didn't have anywhere to go, but up and we weren't where we wanted to be after doing door to door campaigning and employing various efforts to social media and hosting virtual town halls, but what we've seen is an increase of people getting vaccinated. just over the weekend we had a mass vaccination clinic where hundreds of people were vaccinated and what we saw was 48% of those were between the ages of 12 and 17. so we want to continue to target young people in particular and to get them to get caught up with some of our elders in the community and get over some of the information that they may have that they can't be impacted as much or won't be as serious to them because of their age. it is very serious and we're changing our messaging and our approach to address that. >> you're absolutely right on

there because what we are finding nationally is that more children are ending up even hospitalized. that's more dangerous as this new variant is obviously a big -- much bigger problem than the original covid. as kids go back to school, what about the indoors guidance and the cdc recommendation for masking indoors. one alabama patient, very frustrated telling alabama online, quote, i am angry that i must choose between my child's mental health which would improve by being in school as well as their physical well-being that is in jeopardy by schools playing politics instead of following science. so is that what you're up against? >> we are, and i think that the more plain talk we have with parents, with students and our grassroots leaders the better off we'll be and we've done that in montgomery and we're continuing to do that and we

have to be mindful of the message that many people in alabama have heard from the trump administration initially all of the way through, others that shouldn't get vaccinated and there's a lot of buildup here now to try to dismember what some of the leaders in our state, political leadership and assisting in that endeavor and those are things that we've been doing in the local level since day one. so we have to go about this strategically and intentionally, and we have to make sure from our standpoint we're sharing information and we're listening to the concerns and then we're also trying to persuade those parents to not only get themselves vaccinated, but also their children as we go back to school to protect the teachers, the staff and everyone else that they may come in contact with so we can have a smooth transition to a start of the school year and one that is much more productive than the last year plus has been. >> as you are pointing out, you

had a way to go because in montgomery only 37% according to the numbers that we were given have been vaccinated and you're trying to reach people where they are. the governor is one of the few southern governors who has spoken out against the unvaccinated, though. >> i commend the governor for doing that. i think there has to be more of that. they have to be more consistent and it will take more than just her. it will take others throughout leadership. it will take faith leaders. it's going to take community leaders and the private sector to also, maybe encourage some of our community members to understand the seriousness of this and what we're up against. >> thanks so much to you for taking time out, mayor stephen reid from montgomery alabama, good luck to you in getting people to change their homes. >> and joining me now is dr. osterholm and a former covid-19

transition adviser for president biden. thank you, as always. dr. osterholm, first of all, the white house briefing announced 64,000 vaccinations have taken place in the last 24 hours. that's the highest in any single day since july 3rd. are you encouraged by that that maybe the message is getting through that delta is a serious threat. >> i am encouraged by that, but the challenge with that is that we still have 90 million americans who are not yet vaccinated who could be and that's the big challenge we have. making it up a couple of cases at a time, a thousand cases or a thousand vaccinations here and that's great news, but we have to understand we need much more to deal with this threat that we have right before us. >> by your calculations, where are we in the pandemic and where do you think we're headed? >> this is a bit of an unknown only in the sense that there may

be one of two different scenarios play out here. if you look at the delta variant as it's played out in other countries around the world, we saw a rapid increase in cases hitting a high peak and rapidly coming down in terms of case numbers. if that were to be the case i could see the scenario where the southern sunbelt case which is where it would have been and in the last, maybe three weeks at most hit the cases and they drop precipitously, and also dropping and not knowing hu quite to achieve the numbers, at least 40 per states, but they're at a much lower level which means we're doubling and if that happens where they have big increases eventually, we can see the surge go well into september and the numbers get much higher.

so i think it's one of those two. i had to claim the one most likely to happen is hopefully the first one. >> and why do you think that kids are getting sicker? we thought for so long that they would not suffer terribly from covid. now we're seeing children being hospitalized. >> well, what's happening here is that we're actually seeing much more transmission of the virus in all of our communities. as a result of that, kids who hadn't been nearly as infected in the past throughout last year and even into the early months here in this year, and so that they just weren't coming to the doctor's office. we don't have any evidence that there's a rate of more severe disease and a higher rate meaning that if now 3,000 kids are getting infected in the community instead of 500 you're just going to see more kids presenting to the hospital with more severe disease. y we don't know if that's the situation or if there is severe

disease and kids are at risk, please, if your child is 12 years of age or older get them vaccinated and we're seeing very, very low rates of vaccination in many communities and 12 to 18-year-olds it could be protected. if you're a parent, please be vaccinated if you're around your kids because you could be the source of the virus to them and that would be a horrible situation for them to have a serious illness because of something they caught from you. >> what about another possible mutation of this virus? dr. fauci has been concerned about that. >> i think wer all concern are concerned about it. they will keep spilling out and we seem to have the united states and there are a number of people vaccinated and unvaccinated and they could come from here. i would remind everyone that there are 4.6 billion people for whom they had access to the

vaccine and what's happening in those countries is where we're seeing the most transmission, the biggest problems and they surely serve as a major source for these variants to spin out. so don't be surprised by new ones coming out and ones that could have more transmissibility and they could cause more severe illness and they may even challenge the protection of the vaccines. we are in this for the long haul, and i hope people understand this isn't going to be a one and done. we are -- you know, if you're thinking about trying to run the clock out on this one and not get vaccinated. we're in this for a while yet. get vaccinated now. >> and the w.h.o. is also warning that people in the u.s. should not be considering booster shots while the rest of the world is so undervaccinated. do you agree with that assessment? >> i actually think it's a very important consideration. you know, i just laid out why we want to get the low and middle-income countries vaccinated because of the fact of the variants that could come out of those areas and affect

our vaccine capabilities, but also from a humanitarian standpoint and we have 1% or 2% of the world's population vaccinated and we are basically in a situation of riches with a vaccine and we can't get people to take it. so i understand where they're coming from. at the same time i'm a realist and in the high income countries that pay for the vaccines people need them. we have marshal plans in every country to figure out how to get it delivered to the people as quickly as possible. >> dr. michael osterholm, thanks so much as always. >> thank you. and raising the stakes. new york governor andrew cuomo is facing a new deadline to answer the charges against him. congresswoman kathleen rice of new york one of the first to call for his resignation joins us next. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. ♪ everywhere i go ♪ ♪ they bite my style ♪

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new york's governor andrew cuomo is not going to have a lot of time to push back against the sexual harassment allegations. he's only going to have one week until august 13th to produce evidence as they consider articles of impeachment. meanwhile, cuomo is politically isolated. longtime ally nearly every major new york politician calling for his resignation as well as governors of adjacent states.

joining me is congresswoman kathleen rice. she's one of the first democratic members of congress calling for governor cuomo to resign back in march after a woman accused him of unwanted advances. the governor has repeatedly deny good wrongdoing in that videotaped message two days ago, but do you see him surviving? can he avoid impeachment at this state? >> i don't think it's possible, andrea, for him to avoid it at this point. may hope was when this report came out and it was unequivocal in its findings that he was a serial sexual harasser and he created a hostile, toxic work environment for those who worked for him. i thought maybe at that point when his response that was given to the attorney general didn't really come up with anything, any legitimate defense, i

thought maybe he would have the conscience and step down, but he has shown he'll be defiant which is consistent with his personality and i don't think he's going to be able to avoid the assembly. more than one week is more than enough time to come up with a defense. he's had more than enough time leading up to this point, and i'm just glad that the assembly is choosing to act as they are because we have big things going on in new york and we need someone to lead us, and i just don't think that governor cuomo can do that at this time. >> the district attorneys in at least four new york counties including nassau counties where you used to be the d.a. are opening investigations into the governor. what do you see are the potential legal troubles he could face, not just civil cases, but criminal cases because other experts have said there really isn't any kind of

statute here beyond a misdemeanor. >> i don't want to preordain any of the potential criminal investigations. i didn't like it when people would tell me what to do when i was d.a. and they didn't know the facts. i think we have to give the individual district attorney who is looking into this the time it takes, and separate and apart from potential criminal charges there are civil actions that can be brought, violations of civil rights and any of the 11 brave women who came forward can decide they want to sue the governor civilly and those are potential legal consequences that he may face as well, so we'll have to see what happens at that time. >> the report indicated, "the washington post" lists that his staff had enlisted two to come to his aid and human rights

campaign, do you think they or some of the staff members have some answering to do? well, i think the report -- i hope everyone reads the report because i thought it was very well done and very comprehensive, but there's no question that the governor surrounds himself with people who was doing his bidding for him, and the reason why i am so happy that the assembly is moving as quickly as they are because every single day there are people going to work in the executive chamber in albany still facing a toxic, hostile work environment and that just cannot stand. so i'm glad that the -- that the assembly is taking this action and there's nothing to suggest that this toxic hostile work environment is not still continuing. he still has -- the governor still has the same people around him who pretty much aided and abetted his behavior as the report documents and so the faster we get the governor out

of office and all of those who worked for him and clean up the executive chamber, the better it's going to be for people who just want to work in government and work in public service. they shouldn't have to face going to a hostile, toxic work environment every day just to do their jobs. >> congresswoman kathleen rice from new york, thank you very much. and we have breaking news and this is very sad news. we've just confirmed and the president has just announced that the longtime aflcio richard trumka has died he was a close ally of the president's. trumka died of what was believed to be a heart attack. in the oval office moments ago the president called him a close friend. speaking on the house floor chuck schumer told colleagues we've just lost a giant. for me, this is personal. i first started covering him as a young labor leader in pittsburgh when i was a local

reporter, maybe 40 years ago. richard trumka was only 72 years old and this is very sudden and the labor movement has lost a great champion. and coming back -- coming up, soon the refugee team the men and women competing under the olympic flag getting ready to meet with the united states ambassador with the united nations. linda thomas-greenfield on that and a lot more including the vaccination effort and the growing crisis in afghanistan. stay with us, this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. heyt from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation.

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the u.s. ambassadors of the united nations linda thomas-greenfield is leaving to lead the u.s. delegation to the olympics' closing ceremony in tokyo. she will meet with the refugee olympic team which consists of

29 athletes from 11 countries competing in 12 different sports and that refugee team includes athletes like syrian refugee masso who realized his olympic dream in tokyo and prina originally from iran competed in the taekwondo. ambassador, it's great to see you again and thanks for squeezing us in before you leave. >> wonderful to see you, andrea. >> well, you will be meeting with athletes and refugees from 11 different countries from syria and afghanistan and they've escaped from wars, famine and other issues with training compared to other elite athletes there. what is your message to them and what do they represent to the world? >> well, i think they represent the best that the world has to offer. these are young people who have faced adversity. they have been forced to flee

their homes in under circumstances that none of us would want to have to experience and yet they've brought their grit to the olympics and i think they reflect, like so many young people, the commitment and -- the a strong efforts in competing and being prepared to compete. so i want to honor them. this is the second year that they've competed and this will be an opportunity to really encourage them and honor them, and let them know that the world is a part of -- the world is watching them, but i am also going, andrea to cheer on team america. team usa, to show them also our

strong support for them. president biden and the first lady wanted them to make sure that they had the backing and the support of the president and of the american people. so i will also be there to cheer on the extraordinary american team which has made us so proud as a country. >> indeed they have and they still are and can't go to sleep at night without watching the latest competitions. >> just today on the human rights watch, the olympian from belarus found exile in poland despite going early to belarus because of her criticism there. her grandmother on the call said the backlash in belarus was so fierce she should not go home. how is it for those facing

repercussions from totalitarian regimes? >> it is important that people who are facing persecution in their countries than they can request and get asylum in another country, so i do commend poland for granting her a siel asylum and protection and i encourage her to stay strong in the face of this adversity. >> with the crisis around the world, now afghanistan is facing just extraordinary threats against afghans. the taliban has been accused by the u.s. of massacring civilians and what the u.s. embassy in kabul said could be war crimes making it more critical that the afghan translators who work for the u.s. military get out and now also the secretary has said that afghans who work with human rights groups in american countries could get out, but the state department says that those who do not work for the military

have to find their way to third countries and wait for as long as 14 months before they can come to the u.s. shouldn't we be doing more to protect those who put their lives on the line for us? >> we are deeply concerned about the situation in afghanistan and we are doing everything possible to support those, and we are doing everything to speed up that process. we have brought in 400 sibs into the united states, and they've been processed into the program and we have others that applied for the program and we'll be working as expeditiously as possible to get them into the united states. as a refugee, a refugee has to

be outside of their country of -- of birth to apply for refugee status, and we will be building up our programs to support those individuals who reach out and apply for refugee status. the united nations high commission for human rights is an organization that is very much engaged on this and assisting those people who need protection and we will be working closely with them as well as other organizations to find ways of supporting those individuals who will need protection moving forward. >> of course, the danger is getting to pass the taliban if you can even get to those borders, but i know you are well aware of that. today this new president raissi, hardliner, each more hardliner than his predecessors and it is

becoming more aggressive at sea. the u.s. determined it's an iranian-sponsored drone attack killing a british sailor and romanian sailor. will the u.s. push the security council to condemn iran? >> absolutely. we have been working very, very closely with our partners, with the uk and others on the security council to address this issue. i've engaged with my israeli colleague, as well, and we will do the necessary to ensure that there's accountability on this and that iran is -- is identified and dealt with in the security council. the efforts are continuing, as i speak, but i can assure you we are working on moving this discussion forward. >> i'll ask you about covid because the biden administration

is touting its vaccine contributions to covax, the international agency, as you know, according to "the new york times" this week, as of early july, 22 nations many in africa and some with surging fatalities reported being entirely out of doses from this program and there's criticism that covax is not doing what it needs to do in this global surge. maybe largely because of the delta variant, but the shots are not getting into arms in many parts of the world. what can we do? >> well, this is why -- this is why president biden has announced that we are going to be an arsenal for covid vaccines. we have already gotten out 110 million doses across the world. i'm delighted that we delivered just this week, 1.5 million doses to thailand in a country where less than 2% of the population has been vaccinated.

we delivered just this week again, 1.5 million doses in south africa. we've given and the president announced over 580 million doses of vaccines will be provided by the united states. we've given $4 billion, already 2 billion, but an additional 2 billion to covax to help them in purchasing the doses that they need to get out, and we than covax has experienced some problems. part of the issue that they are experiencing is related to the lack of production, the production levels have not been as -- as robust as they had hoped they would be, but the point we want to make is this is a global issue and that we all have to work together to ensure that vaccines are distributed around the world.

we work in the united states and got as many vaccines as possible into the arms of americans and more vaccines are available for americans to take and we encourage americans to take those vaccines because there are people in parts of the world where they don't have access, but we're going to do everything in our power to ensure that we get vaccines out to these parts of the world where they've not had access and get them into the arms of people. >> i want to ask you about a u.n. panel of experts which is going to come to the state department as part of the u.n. investigation coming out of the george floyd killing and they will be looking at issues of systemic racism and policing against african-americans, racial profiling, police brutality among other issues. what do you think about the u.s. now coming under this international spotlight?

>> you know, this is a moment in the united states where we have recognized our short comings. we don't have anything to hide so people have seen and understand the experiences of racism in the united states, and what i expect that this investigation team will learn is the intense activities that have taken place in just a few months that this administration has been in power where we're dealing with issues of police brutality and police reform. we're working on gun control and we are dealing with issues of systemic racism and the issues of diversity inclusion is a major priority for this administration, and so we want to be an example to the world of openness, an example to the

world of how to deal with these -- and racism doesn't just exist in the united states. we've said that over and over again, and we want to show the world that you can address these issues in an open and transparent way, and the investigators will come away from this with a true understanding and commitment that this administration has made and give us the due credit that the administration deserves for tackling these issues head on. >> ambassador linda thomas-greenfield, it is a pleasure and we wish you safe travels representing the u.s. at the olympics. we thank you for being with us today. >> thank you very much, andrea. going forward, delta surging, but governors in some of the hot spots are refusing to put mandates in place. georgia senator jon ossoff weighs in on the disconnect. you are watching "andrea

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as the coronavirus surges particularly in states with lower vaccination rates, governors resisted masking and other requirements are trying to pin the political blame on president biden. >> so why don't you do your job? why don't you get this border secure and until you do that i don't want to hear a blip about covid from you. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> we don't need mandates to know what to do. we have mixed messages coming out of the white house, out of cdc. >> that's why the people don't trust the government anymore when it comes to covid guidance and mandates don't work. >> joining us now georgia democratic senator jon ossoff. thank you very much. you heard governor kent from your state and members of the public and county facilities

regardless of vaccination status. do you expect the governor will support that local order? >> i don't know what governor kemp intends to do and the government officials who lack the courage to level with their constituents about the steps that they need to take advised by public health experts to protect ourselves and our families. the american response to covid-19 has been impaired from the very beginning by donald trump's dismissal of scientific expertise and it became a partisan issue, and this defiance in the face of public health advice from peer-reviewed scholarship about how we can protect ourselves and slow the spread of this virus is one of the reasons that the united states still struggles to get this pandemic completely under control. >> you are also sending a letter requesting more federal funding for hard-hit rural funding in the state. how badly do you need that? >> that's an urgent need, and i am working with senator warnock

to secure more resources for hospitals in georgia as well as we safety for hospitals that serve lower income and underserved community. georgia is one of just a few states nationwide that refuses to expand the medicaid. so already our population has a weakened underlying health status and we need resources into rural communities and low income urban areas to ensure that we can accommodate the increased utilization of hospitals from the covid surge and to provide daily health care to our population. >> it doesn't look like voting rights is going to get to the senate floor before the recess, but i understand you have a new bill to establish the right to vote and justify states to justify voting restrictions and restrict access to the ballot. what are your hopes that this would pass when we haven't been able to see any action because of the republican opposition to

the other voting rights measures that have been proposed? >> well, andrea, this week, as you mentioned i introduced the right to vote act of 2021, and this builds upon the voting rights act of 1965 and would establish for the first time in federal statute an affirmative right to vote for every u.s. citizen, and my legislation would empower american citizens to challenge state laws that diminish their access to the ballot and empower americans to require that state governments prove why they are restricting ballot access and that the measured states are implementing and they're the least restrictive means of preceding some governmental purpose. this is a major rights bill and vitally necessary in states across the country and in my state of georgia to restrict ballot access and as you know, andrea. congressman john lewis gave me my job. it was half a century ago that

he had his skull fractured in selma, alabama, and the right to vote act is an important piece of legislation to secure the franchise for every american citizen. >> senator jon ossoff, thank you so much. >> thank you. beyond capacity. the surge in migrants. this is "andrea mitchell reports." julia will be reporting here next. g here next when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪

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210,000 apprehensions by border patrol in july, more than 20-year high. 19,000 unaccompanied children were picked up. the largest number ever recorded. here in del rio sector, officials say hundreds of migrants are packed under this bridge and are worried about spread of covid. i.c.e. is stepping in to provide tests and offer vaccines. in the rio grande valley, we saw a massive group of migrants kept under a bridge by trees. >> is this a breakdown of the system? >> this is not seasonal. i think that what we are dealing with is different than we dealt with in the past. >> reporter: the deputy patrol chief telling us the biden administration is now deporting more families who don't qualify for asylum. >> friday we had the first flight of central americans and northern triangle countries back to central america. these are family units. >> reporter: we met this one-year-old that slept under the bridge with his parents. they brought him here from nicaragua in hopes of a better

life. >> translator: we didn't have anywhere to sleep, had to sleep on dirt itself. put down a sweater, laid him down so he can sleep. >> reporter: they're headed to miami allowed to stay while applying for asylum. the biden administration faces growing backlash over border policies, including recent unprecedented step of releasing 50,000 migrants into the u.s. without court dates. >> it doesn't seem our officials in washington are listening to us and we all feel abandoned. we have a crisis down here. >> reporter: the mayor filing a disaster declaration. >> last night we had up to 1800 immigrants come in, and they can't handle it. >> reporter: immigration advocates are taking the administration to court for keeping covid-19 restrictions that send some migrants back. >> sending families with small children back to danger is not

authorized by law. >> reporter: and numbers continue to rise. border patrol now stopping more than 5,000 immigrants crossing the southern border each day. >> it is heartbreaking. joining us, julia ainsley back from del rio and mccallum, texas. you saw that family spending the night in the dirt under a bridge? >> i was just at the border a couple months ago in late may. we were talking about a surge then. what i saw this week was unlike anything i have seen in years of reporting. it used to be shelters they talked about that are full, used to be two or three buses of migrants a day. we saw two or three buses in an hour. we are talking about historic surge that's not over overwhelming what the federal response should be but people, the lawyers, the sheriffs, mayors of towns say they don't have the money to accommodate the people, add on covid

exposures they're worried about. they're reaching out for help as urgently as they can get it. >> can hhs, dhs bring in more people from health and human services to try to get shelter to the people? >> health and human services provides shelter for unaccompanied children. >> couldn't it be extended to families with these babies? >> those people go to i.c.e. i.c.e. is stepping in, doing something they've never done before. as of this weekend, they're coming in, taking families, processing them. that means welfare checks, giving covid tests, offering vaccines. it is a big step, but for those people at the border, officials wonder how to handle it in their towns, they say it is too little, too late. >> i.c.e. is a law enforcement agency, they're not equipped with social workers and the like. >> it has advocates concerned how it might go down, do they have training to do this. at this point there's so little

resources to go around, it looks like they're scrambling. >> thank you so much for staying on this. wonderful thing you're doing there. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. follow the show on facebook and twitter. chuck todd is next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. s next witp daily" only on msnbc balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan

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so you can watch in stunning 4k ultra hd. if it's thursday, president biden battles arising covid threat which is taking a toll on the white house politically, as the administration is about to roll out more efforts to get more people vaccinated, starting with kids in school. pandemic politics spreading far beyond washington as republican governors like ron desantis try to pin record setting surges on an all too common scapegoat for the right wing, migrants at the border. we are tracking another record breaking day in louisiana as the state sees a massive influx of covid hospitalizations. we speak with the state's top health official, that's also coming