breaking as we come on the air, a new vaccine mandate at a key federal department. we are now learning that hhs will be requiring the shots for all of its health care workforce, some 25,000 people. all of it as the fda today is

expected to green light a third dose for immunocompromised americans. that means millions of people are potentially eligible. the question, will everyone else need one, too? >> vaccine, at least not within this category, is going to have an indefinite amount of protection. inevitably, there will be a time when we'll have to give boosts. >> more on that in a second. a first on nbc news, new incoming governor of new york exclusively with nbc news on the "today" show. what kathy hochul says about andrew cuomo, running for governor in her own right next year and masking in schools. growing concern inside the pentagon, u.s. officials watching al qaeda trying to come back with a vengeance as the taliban keeps picking up territory. security concerns both inside and outside afghanistan. we've got a lot to get to. a lot of nbc news reporting this morning. i'm hallie jackson with you on

assignment this week. back home in washington, monica alba at the white house. john torres is joining us, along with former obama administration about a third dose. what do we know about why now, why this decision is being made today and how urgent it's going to be to get the people who are eligible that third shot. >> hallie, you're right. there's a lot of news coming out about covid vaccines in particular, amend the authorization for pfizer and moderna to authorize a third dose for those who are immunocompromised. we're talking about a third dose for immunocompromised not a third shot for those of us who

got pfizer or moderna or johnson & johnson vaccine. not for those of us who got a great response because we're worried that the vaccine might have worn off a little bit. we haven't seen that yet hallie. >> dr. patel, you worked at the white house under president obama. what does it say to you about where we are in the pandemic that this has to be recommended at all? >> yeah. the great news is that there were not conversations in the white house about this until the fda did give kind of the green light and we're waiting for the specific language, but what the white house has had to deal with are questions around boosters for everyone or boosters for none as well as the political intersection with the world health organization, which is asking major countries like the united states to stand down on these third doses even for select populations until we get the rest of the world

vaccinated. they don't want the white house to play in science, they do have to communicate in science. you see that every day in the press briefing and i'm sure the president will get questions about it today even though he's scheduled to talk about drug pricing. >> monica alba is posted outside the white house. we any there's a covid briefing in about 2 1/2 hours from now. we've got other news breaking this hour as we come on the air, four minutes ago, that hhs has this new vaccine for its workforce. talk to us about the new headlines coming out of the white house. >> reporter: it's notable because we're starting to see a pattern emerge here. hhs will require 25,000 of its health care workers to be vaccinated. this is not something where we're looking at to show proof of vaccination or submit to rigorous testing. this is going a step beyond that and saying you have to get the shots and show us, because these are health care workers.

it follows the department of veterans affairs a couple of weeks ago, which did the same for their health care workforce. as we saw in the last few days or so, the department of defense saying for all service members, vaccines will also be mandatory in about a month or so from now, depending on when the fda grants full approval to go from emergency use to the full green light to those initial vaccines of pfizer and moderna, hallie. the other thing we can look into and see where we meet be headed and what direction is the education secretary miguel cardona said yesterday he would be in favor of vaccine mandates for all teachers and staff in schools. >> right. >> reporter: that's another sign that maybe this is where this is going. the white house has long said there isn't going to be any kind of a federal vaccine or mask mandate at this point. clearly, they're relying on agencies, companies, businesses. yesterday, you saw here the leaders of united airlines,

howard university, for instance, talking about what they're doing for their employees. it's something that the president would like see more people model and mirror what we're seeing at some of these agencies but is not something that will be standardized federally at this point, hallie. >> monica, thank you. dr. patel, we heard fromd fauci this morning. he's go one step further. we talk about a third shot for immunocompromiseed people, a booster shot, a third shot as well. there say semantic difference depending what you're talking about. dr. fauci on the booster conversation, it seems potentially inevitable. can you talk about, number one, the difference between this third shot for immunocompromised people and a booster, and what you see coming down the pipeline? >> yeah, it is confusing. dr. torres pointed out appropriately what the fda will speak to is a third dose to give

immunity to people who probably did not mountain appropriate immunity response. over time our immunity is decreasing even if you started out with that 93, 94% efficacy. there's a third type of shot that is being discussed, not as publicly, but it's around tailored just another vaccine series, hallie, tailored for variants, which the manufacturers are also work on, different formulation than the first and second doses. once this gets to monica's point about full licensure. people can receive these shots off label. you will likely see unless there's clear guidance, doctors, pharmacists and others that could administer shots even to children, for example, in reduced doses, it's considered off label. it's a question of ethics, not

legal stance. that's something i think we should be talking about more once we get full licensure, which i should happen in a matter of weeks. >> that is where the conversation is going, dr. patel, as you rightly know. i hope you can help us understand the data that's come out from this medical study saying the risk of breakthrough infections for people who got moderna appear to be 60% lower than the risk for pfizer recipients. can you explain to me as a layperson shall i may not be getting when i see the headline what those numbers mean. does it mean we might see boosters recommended earlier for those who got pfizer versus moderna? how do you read this? >> overall when you start hearing about boosters is regardless of what vaccine you got, you would need a booster shot. not trying to specify which vaccine you had. the study is showing, as you mentioned, it's not peer reviewed. in this case, moderna seemed to be a little more effective than pfizer. you have to look at the details.

details are showing in a couple of instances some of the people they looked at ended up having pfizer for longer than they had moderna. it could be a time issue that the pfizer was in their body longer so it wore off, versus the moderna, which they didn't get quite early on during the pandemic. there's dosing issues, too. we're seeing in the data it's wearing off for people getting infections, meaning they tested positive but not necessarily for people getting serious illness, hospitalizations or death. it's still very effective at preventing that. >> dr. torres, dr. patel, it is invaluable to have your expertise. we'll be talking more about covid later on in the show with our reporters out across the country. make sure to tune in next hour for craig melvin's interview with health and human services secretary becerra.

big news out of hhs this hour. the secretary will be talking more about that. incoming new york governor kathy hochul laying the groundwork to clean house on day one after that state attorney general's report raised concerns not just about andrew cuomo's behavior but his enablers and the culture inside the governor's office. in her first live interview since cuomo announced her resignation, lieutenant governor, soon-to-be governor tells us how she plans to change that culture after she's sworn in. >> very first steps will be to ensure anyone named in the report involved in any unethical behavior will no longer be part of this administration. they're gone on day one. >> anne thompson joins us now with more on this. anne, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, hallie, governor cuomo's resignation means he will leave

office august 24th but does in the end many of the questions here in albany. first and foremost is will he be impeached? the impeachment proceedings are going on. we should find out more monday when the seam bhi's judiciary committee meets. today on the "today" show savannah guthrie asked kathy hochul if she would give any direction to the assembly about what they should do. here was her response. >> i don't believe it's my position to weigh in on that situation. but i have full confidence in the assembly judiciary committee as well as the full assembly to do what is right. i want that process to play out independently on day one. >> while she's not sharing her opinion on the impeachment proceedings, hochul is saying there's no agreement between her and governor cuomo, that he would be be pardoned if he was charged criminally.

the 14-day waiting period is something she didn't ask for. it was something that the governor's team requested and she said next year when there's an election, she intends to run for governor in 2022. hallie? >> nbc's anne thompson in albany, new york. thank you very much. appreciate it. coming up here on the show, new reporting on new concerns at the pentagon. what officials are telling our team about the growing threat and their concerns about it from al qaeda in afghanistan. donald trump's efforts to overturn the 2021 election picking up steam with acting ag are telling senators. real-life dangers of qanon conspiratorers. why a california man is now in custody for a double murder. s nn custody for a double murder.

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so this morning, multiple defense officials are telling our team here at nbc news they are actively worried about an al

qaeda resurgence in afghanistan. yes, the same al qaeda that prompted the u.s. invasion nearly 20 years ago. why? because they're keeping up their blitz across the country. even though al qaeda has a diminished presence there, it's creating a potential vacuum for the terrorist to maybe once again blossom and regroup. and that taliban march across afghanistan is accelerating almost every day with militants raising their flag over a tenth provincial capital overnight. this is a faster pace than u.s. military officials thought was realistic weeks ago. i want to bring in courtney kube who is joining us now. kelly cobiella is live on the ground there in afghanistan. let me start with you, courtney. tell us about how real these concerns are, what the u.s. is doing about in this new report you are break for us this morning. >> basically this is born out of the fact that, as you mentioned in the intro, taliban are

rolling through major parts of this country much faster than defense officials were concern ed about. in the peace agreement that the u.s. and taliban signed a year and a half ago, the taliban pledged that they would not allow al qaeda and other terror groups like isis to have a safe haven in afghanistan after the u.s. and international forces left. what's critical here is defense officials and u.s. government officials i've spoken to about this just don't believe the taliban will uphold their end of the bargain on that. the worry is as they're rolling through the country and if they were to take over the central government in the coming weeks and months, al qaeda would have safe haven to regrow. i posed this specific question to the new head of the u.s. command when i was with him a couple of weeks ago. here is what he had to say about it. do you think it's possible that the taliban will stop al qaeda from being able to reconstitute here? >> i've seen nothing that makes

me believe they're actually going to do that. i would like to believe that they will, but i always view the taliban to be governed not by what they say but what they do. >> reporter: the worry is that if the taliban take over, they have safe haven, more fighters will flee to or go to afghanistan and be able to regrow and regroup. you mentioned how they're rolling through the country right now. we have new reporting about what's going on, including in kandahar, a strategic stronghold in the south. we now know that the u.s. has conducted some air strikes there. but they have not conducted any in the last 48 hours. when they are striking down there, they're primarily hitting things like artillery humvees,

afghan equipment, some provided by the united states, that the taliban have been able to take over and they may be able to use against the afghan force down there, hallie. >> it is a serious situation, as you describe, a real concern on the part of defense officials. kelly, can you give us a sense of what it's like on the ground, what you're seeing in the last 24 hours? >> yeah. a major gain for the taliban just in the last 24 hours, hallie. they took control of the capital of gazni, the city, only 80 miles from the capital kabul. the reason this is so significant is because it's on the main highway connecting kabul to kandahar. as courtney was pointing out, kandahar has been an active fighting area for weeks now. a lot of forces have been put there. a lot of key areas they want to recapture. the south of this country is really the heartland for the taliban. it's a taliban stronghold. if you have these two cities now

connected and kabul as the last stand for government forces, obviously with the taliban in control of that long stretch of highway, and able to move their fighters farther north fairly easily, should they conquer kandahar, that obviously creates real problems for kabul. the other thing to note is that we're hearing there is increased fighting in kandahar today and in the west. if these two cities fall, that would leave just mazar, a commercial hub in the north and kabul, obviously the biggest city, home to 3 million, the capital city, in government hands. hallie? >> significant. kelly cobiella, please stay safe. i know you'll keep us updated. courtney kube, great reporting to you both. latest group of people now

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as mentioned, we are in los angeles on assignment all week long. here in this state you've got schools opening their doors this morning with people masked up and vax'd up after governor gavin newsom announced here all teachers and school employees have to be vaccinated by mid-october or face weekly testing. the governor sees thises a way to fight the level of rying cases here. watch. >> we think this is the right thing to do. we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open if we want to end this pandemic and disease, we could do it in a month. that's a choice. this disease is now a choice. one thing that could end this pandemic once and for all is available in abundance to everybody that wants it. >> then what's happening in

texas, where caseloads are at their highest since early february. hospitals really struggling to keep up. i want to bring in nbc's simone boyce and morgan chesky. you're not too far from where we are at our studio home. this delta variant with increased concern for parents, as they're sending their kids to schools. talk about how in this state you've got schools planning to host in-person classes and not try to have the case levels go up, too? >> reporter: well, hallie, one approach is exactly what governor gavin newsom laid out this week, requiring teachers, all school workers show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly covid testing. this is significant because it makes california the first state to implement something like this. not just in public schools but private schools as well. of course, it includes teachers, but also anyone who interacts with students on campus. everyone from janitors to

cafeteria workers, sports coaches to bus drivers. keep in mind this is a state that already has a high vaccination rate among educators at about 90%. let's talk about where we are right now in pasadena, right outside pasadena high school, where students and staff will be returning to school for the first time today. the vaccination rate in this school district is even higher. it's about 96% among educators here. of course, when we talk about vaccines and man at a times in the same sentence these days, controversy, polarization is sure to follow. the reactions that you're going to hear to this around the state of california, that's going to be mixed. that's going to vary, depending on where you are. here in this school district, educators are actually elated to see that governor gavin newsom is implementing a requirement like this. our affiliate spoke to a teacher in a nearby county and here is

his reaction. >> we want to do all that we can for as many people as we can, to make sure we stay safe. we don't want a repeat of last year. these are appropriate steps to go forward so if we can avoid it, it doesn't happen again next year. >> reporter: now hallie, several outstanding questions remain. governor new some is facing a recall election here in the next few months. and so his critics and supporters will be watching to see if there are any political consequences from this. when we talk about the educators themselves, they will have until mid october to fully comply with this. what happens if they don't comply? will they be terminated? that still remains to be seen. and what would that process look like? also just want to mention that governor new some did not rule out the possibility of a true vaccine mandate, which would require all educators in the state to be vaccinated. but he said that he would wait

for full fda approval of those vaccines for that. hallie? >> simone, thanks. morgan, over to you now. hospitals are seeing shortages, staffing shortages, bed shortages, equipment shortages, resource shortages, right? how they are trying to maintain? as i ask you that question, my god, we were talking about this a year ago, right? the same question, the same issue, at the height of the pandemic back in 2020. >> reporter: yeah, hallie. they're dealing with this however they can. unfortunately they had to get creative. one of the largest maternity wards in the entire country and he has said because of the shortage of staff, he has actually had to turn away pregnant women to go elsewhere. >> wow. >> reporter: something he has never had to do here. that's a snapshot of part of the problem here. the other part of the problem is that they've lost staff.

a lot of nurses who worked so hard inside these hospitals in specific cities took travel nurse jobs elsewhere because of higher pay. he has a depleted staff on top of a covid surge that leaves them in an incredibly bad spot. governor greg abbott announced yesterday more than 2,500 personnel will be distributed across the entire state of texas, but we don't know how much that will go for each particular hospital. especially when you look at the metropolitan areas, houston, austin. this week had only two icu beds available at one point before that number rose to about 12. so, there's still an incredibly dire straits. i want to hear the story of what one respiratory specialist had to say about this surge. take a listen. >> it's stressful because we know we can do more. we know we can do better. i wish that we could get past the political narrative and see that these people you trust with your lives are asking you to

trust in the system and i wish that could get through. >> reporter: there is an emergency room outside the houston area that had to close its doors because they had to reallocate their staff elsewhere. smaller clinics are having staff come from to these larger hospitals where the surge can best be handled. that leaves these ancillary medical centers unavailable to help those who need t hallie? >> morgan chesky, as always, great reporting. thank you for being with us this morning. big programming note. tomorrow on msnbc, answering your questions about going back to school. send us an email at talk @msnbc.com or on twitter #msnbcanswers. that's 11:00 eastern on msnbc reports. so just how intense was

donald trump's pressure on his own doj to overturn the results of a legitimate election? we're finding more about that with new details from the "new york times" overnight, a push to fire the former u.s. attorney in atlanta for supposedly not backing lies about georgia voter fraud in the 2020 election. from "the washington post" this morning, new details on what the former acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen, remember him, is telling congressional investigators. trying to pressure the department of justice to discredit election. donald trump's finances under scrutiny. democrats getting a partial win in their fight to get president trump's financial records. a federal judge ruled that the house oversight committee can subpoena a firm for documents related to the lease of that d.c. hotel but the same judge is stopping short of ordering

release of a much broader set of documents. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, along with msnbc contributor and friend of the show, josh jossey. let me go to you first, josh. take us inside the testimony of the former acting ag. what did he tell the senate committee? >> jeffrey rosen testified, former act willing attorney general. he said he applied persistent, repeated pressure to question the election results and that he was filled with misinformation and that he learned that the top official in the justice department was working not through proper channels meet with former president trump and work on helping him overturn the election. he said efforts by jeffrey carr were rogue. in a meeting three days before january 6th, former attorney general rosen said he had to persuade the president not to

take a path that was delineated by mr. carr that would have further challenged the election results from the department of justice. >> josh, you get the sense that jeffrey clark was more receptive to the president's claims? what's your reporting on that front? >> that's right, jeffrey clark was working with a republican congressman, as reported by the post, the times and others, and that he was the one who the president saw as a like-minded ally in this push. meanwhile jeffrey rosen, mr. donahue, former do skrchlt official were not. as rosen said repeatedly in his testimony, mr. clark's actions, in his mind, were inexplicable and doj did not do what the president wanted. the president asked over and over and over again. he also said, to be clear, hallie, the president never threatened him.

>> pete, let me go over to you on this. on the financial piece of this, it sounds like house democrats are getting some of what they want but not the whole kit and kaboodle, right? >> reporter: yes. trump's lawyer said his documents were beyond the reach of congress. the court said no, that's not right but some accommodations need to be made to a former president. that's what the judge did yesterday. the house oversight committee can get documents related to the president's ownership of the trump hotel, his lease of that space from the federal government. it can also get two years of records not as broad, as i said, as the committee wanted to look at whether he was violating the ban. the judge said this, he said the committee does not adequately explain why other sources of information outside the president's personal papers

could not reasonably provide congress the information it needs. the committee says it will now take this decision to heart and decide what to do next. >> pete williams, josh jossey, thanks for the reporting. why a california dad and qanon follower killed his own two children, citing a conspiracy theory that they grow into monsters, deadly disinformation. i'll report into that next. update into a story we've been following closely on this show. loudoun county, virginia, one of the suburbs outside of washington where you see these cultural wars play out, critical race theory to lgbtq rights. this morning, now a win for transgender students there after the school board voted to give them access to school facilities and groups like sports teams that match their gender identities. the new guidelines will require teachers to address trans students by the names and

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only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ so we talk aid lot about qanon and conspiracy theories on this show, how they've taken root online, worked their way through communities and even mainstream politics. we're about to share a story about horrific real-world consequences about these beliefs. matthew taylor coleman was charged with the murder of his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter. their bodies were found monday by a farm worker just over the border in mexico. so what could possibly possess a father to murder his own children? according to fbi officials, coleman was a follower of qanon and illuminati conspiracies. he allegedly told investigators

that he believed his wife passed down her, quote, serpent dna and so he thought his own children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them. good morning to you, ben. this is such a tough story to talk about because it's so awful and it is a demonstration, as we said on this show, of how deadly disinformation and conspiracy theories can be, right? the real-life consequences of this stuff. >> yeah. i think it is also a demonstration of how fast things can happen. if you look at coleman's instagram pages, facebook pages, you don't see anything about qanon on there. you don't see anything at all about this stuff. granted, he was running a business but you see what appears to be a very happy family there. >> right. >> when you hear him talk to the feds, this is a man who killed

his children with a spear fishing gun in mexico. drove them to mexico to do it. he said he did it because of some sort of ridiculous conspiracy theory that has picked up again because of qanon over the last few months, this idea that reptilians run the world. >> let me take it on the human front and conspiracy front. you make a point that on paper, right, this is a guy who was well educated. as you say, he ran a business. he's like on social media, not posting a bunch of crazy crap about q. there is no -- there's a stereotype among some folks of what a qanon conspiracy theorist is like and then there's the reality. >> yeah. this really is happen to pretty much anybody. i'm sure most of our viewers have seen it happen to someone in their lives. if you're a qanon believer it does not mean that you are a violent murderer inherently but

you can see how the radicalization happened very quickly. there's a guy named bucky wolf, member of the proud boys who killed his brother with a sword in 2019 in seattle. in december, there was warner, who blew up his van in nashville on christmas day. and he cited the lizard people and reptilian overlords as well. once you go down one path on social media you get served lots of other insane stuff. it doesn't have to start with q or lizard people. it can start with flat earth, silly stuff like that. you get lumped into a category, which will bring you the most violent and extreme versions of those conspiracy theories. >> ben, you're kind of getting there, the idea that, number one, one of these conspiracy theories have been around a long time. this whole lizard people. that's not new or in the last

few years. it's been around. once you fall into the swamp there's like 100 worse swamps that are waiting for you to get sucked in to. >> yeah. i'm sure qanon people are not happy with this, right? they think they're saving the children. they think they're saving the world. at the end of the day, this is what the algorithm does. liver people conspiracy theory is literally a century old. it has anti-semitic underpinnings. it ghot kicked back up recently with algorithmic targeting and ties into this global cobal that is not just killing and eating children but getting anti-vaccine showers. there are various different levels of this conspiracy theory but they all sort of make themselves into one big soup at the end of the day. this guy sounded very confused and very sick, frankly, in this

confession. and that can't be discounted either. >> that's a really good point and important one. i'm glad you're making it. ben collins doing the reporting on this with our colleague here in l.a. thank you, appreciate it. up next, exclusive interview here on msnbc. parents of american journalist austin tice, who disappeared nine years ago, their message to president biden on their son's 40th birthday. ssage to president biden on their son's 40th birthday. ♪ [band plays] ♪ a place where everyone lives life well-protected. ♪♪ and even when things go a bit wrong, we've got your back. here, things work the way you wish they would. and better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today.

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this morning and nbc news exclusive you will only see here on msnbc. a desperate plea from parents whose son disappeared in 2012. the parents say they will never give up hope. >> with all of my hope, austin, i hope you get this message. >> a mother's plea on the 40th birthday of her son, austin tice. the freelance journalist and former marine that disappeared nine years ago while on assignment in syria. >> august 11th will always be our special day.

i'm so grateful to be your mom, and i can hardly wait to hold you again. >> tice went missing in august of 2012 after being detained at a check point near demass -- demascus. this this video is the last time he was seen. >> when was the last time you saw him and you were together? >> the last time i saw him i was dropping him off at the airport and he was 30, and now we had it be really challenges. >> they never gave up hope for their son's safe return.

antony blinken saying we will continue to pursue all avenues to bring austin home. words are easy and we're measuring by action which is what we don't see, and the only thing lester that we have asked since 2012, nine years, three administrations, is direct diplomatic engagement with the syrian government. >> what do you think the obstacle is to seeing that happen? >> right now what we need president biden to do is to tell the national security council, the state department, that austin's freedom is a priority. >> state department officials say they believe that he is alive and that syria's president, assad, as the power to free him. but the syrian government never publicly acknowledged having

information on his whereabouts. >> stay strong and we're working really hard to bring you home. >> our thanks to lester holt for that exclusive interview this morning. coming up, inside rudy giuliani's newly obtained campaign. d campaign make emergency medicine possible at 40,000 feet. instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. we can create new ways to connect. rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. faster. vmware. welcome change. millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. that's why i started medhaul.

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have you seen this?

new comments surfacing from rudy julianny? you have "the washington post" on staining the transcript of an official where he said it's okay to throw a fake, or throw a lie. for more on this i'm joined by the reporter that broke this story. thank you for being on. this s is factually true, they did not always tell the truth. >> they are quizzing him about claims he made in 2016 that he had investigation information. there you have, people got very upset, and they wanted to

suspect that he was helping trump, but giuliani says i was not talking to anyone in the fbi and his law partner saying you're under no obligation to tell the truth in things like tv interviews. it's a real insight, i think, into how loose their relationship was with the truth. that problem has continued well into the 2020 election. >> i have about 30 seconds left, but why does it feel especially relevant right now. >> a lot of other lawyers under tight scrutiny for false claims they made in 2015. and it is interesting to think that if people had a better understanding in 2016 or before 2020, you know, maybe some of those claims would not have caught fire the way they did.

and lead to things like january 6th. >> thank you to all of you, we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. in the meantime you can find us on twitter. craig melvin picks up coverage right now. >> good thursday morning to you. craig melvin here, it is a big and busy hour. in about 15 minutes the president is going to talk about his plan to lower health care prices. we'll get a window into what that is going to look like with xavier becerra. i will ask him about his announcement that he will