we don't know exactly who these people were or where they were. all we know so far is it was very close movement. there was apparently no interaction with the taliban. but again, it's significant because it's the first time that we've heard that any u.s. military have left the wire. >> courtney kube at the pentagon, courtney, thank you. that wraps up the hour for me. "deadline white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. hi there, everyone. happy friday. it's 4:00 in the east. president biden today getting out in front of the crisis in afghanistan. and what is quickly turning into one of the largest airlifts in history, pledging a continued surge in resources to kabul while also defending the decision to withdraw from the country. >> let me be clear. any american who wants to come home, we will get you home. make no mistake, this evacuation mission is dangerous. it involves risks to our armed

forces. and it's being conducted under difficult circumstances. i cannot promise what the final outcome will be. or that it will be without risk of loss. but as commander in chief i can assure you that i will mobilize every resource necessary. the past week has been heartbreaking. we've seen gut-wrenching images of panicked people acting out of sheer desperation. you know, it's completely understandable. they're frightened, they're sad, uncertain what happens next. i don't think anyone, i don't think any one of us can see these pictures and not feel that pain on a human life. now we have a mission, a mission to complete in afghanistan. >> the president there taking stock of days of harrowing scenes outside the airport in kabul including this video of a baby being handed over a wall to a u.s. marine as well as taliban gunmen firing into the air and

resorting to other brutal measures to try and disperse the thousands of people trying desperately to leave the country. while the airlift has led to a steady stream of recriminations even from republicans who supported the former president's exact same policy, his plan to get out of afghanistan at any cost, a few former trump officials are now saying that their boss and former secretary of state mike pompeo should shoulder some of the blame. "the new york times" lays out the history of the agreement that led to the u.s. withdrawal, writing, quote, at mr. trump's direction, the state department had begun face-to-face talks with the taliban in qatar to negotiate an american exit. they culminated in a february 2020 deal under which the u.s. agreed to withdraw in return for taliban promises not to harbor terrorists and to engage in their first direct negotiations with the afghan government. "the times" says, quote, some former senior trump officials now call that agreement fatally flawed, saying it did little more than provide cover for a

pullout that trump was impatient to begin before his reelection bid. they also say it laid the groundwork for the chaos unfolding now in kabul. the critics include trump's former secretary of defense mark esper and former national security adviser h.r. mac master. >> my concern is that president trump, by continuing to want to withdraw american forces out of afghanistan, undermined the agreement, which is why in the fall, when he was calling for a return of u.s. forces by christmas, i objected and formally wrote a letter to him, a memo based on recommendations from the military chain of command and my senior civilian leadership that we not go further, that we not reduce below 4,500 troops unless and until conditions were met by the table. >> our secretary of state signed a surrender agreement to the taliban. >> you're talking about mike pompeo. >> yes. this crisis goes back to the

capitulation agreement of 2020. the taliban didn't defeat us. we defeated ourselves. >> "the new york times" notes neither trump nor pompeo has responded to such criticism with contrition, surprise, surprise. president biden's defense of the withdrawal from afghanistan and the reckoning over how we got here through multiple administrations is where we start at this hour. michael crowley, "new york times" diplomatic correspondent, joins us, also with us, susannah george, "washington post" afghanistan and pakistan bureau chief. let me start, susannah, with your latest reporting on what the president addressed today. i understand from courtney kube's reporting there was a pause in those flights, she explained some of the logistical challenges. but take us inside your understanding of what's happening on the ground in kabul. >> well, the day that we were able to escape kabul, we were lucky, because we were able to

use a window where uk troops were conducting their own evacuation. these troops had cleared a portion of the road outside one of these gates of the airport which now you see images of these gates and there's just hundreds of people piled up against them. these british forces had pushed these people back past a taliban check point and had cleared a portion of road that allowed us this small window of opportunity to use that bit of road to get inside the military airport and get to a flight that would get us outside of kabul. >> susannah, i want to play the president talking about all u.s. news organizations being able to get out. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> reporter: last month my colleague martha raddatz interviewed abdul, an

interpreter who was on the front line with american forces in afghanistan. overnight taliban forces were coming to his door literally hunting him down. he was able to escape but obviously still in mortal danger. what would be your message to abdul, his wife, and his three young daughters? >> we want you to be able to get to the airport. contact us, we'll see whatever we can do to get you there. we've got to get you out. we are committed to deal with you, your wife, and your child, to get all three of you out of afghanistan. that's the commitment. the united states stands by its commitment that we've made to these people. and it includes other vulnerable afghans such as women leaders and journalists. in fact working in close coordination with management of "the new york times," "the washington post," and "the wall street journal," we've successfully evacuated their

employees on u.s. military aircraft earlier this week. we've established the flow of flights and we've increased the number of people we're moving out of the country. >> susannah, no equivocation in the commitment to the mission, and obviously even former pentagon folks who started the week quite critical will acknowledge that it's going much better now. but can you just put into context the challenges that remain? >> yeah, i mean, we've heard a lot about the difficulty of getting to the airport. i mean, that cannot be understated. the only reason that i was able to get to the airport with my team first of all was because coincidentally there was this large british evacuation going on that cleared that space for us. and also it was because i was with my team of -- i was with two of my colleagues, afghan colleagues, and their families. and i am an american passport

holder. and that is what allowed us to get through the checkpoint and into the military side of the airport. and while there are statements, you know, from the united states embassy encouraging people to come to the airport, but then also saying, you know, we cannot ensure your safety as you go to the airport, it's really difficult to look at both of those statements together, because the danger of going to the airport is so incredibly high at the moment that i get messages and calls from people in afghanistan every single day, asking me, can you get an escort for me to the airport, is there some way that you can help me get into the military side of the airport, i want to get to the united states. and because the u.s. doesn't -- or there's no one that has control of the perimeter of that

facility, there are, you know, hundreds if not thousands of people who want to escape the country after the taliban have overrun it, who cannot even get to these planes that the pentagon has dispatched for their evacuation. >> susannah, i want to read some of your reporting, you write, the treacherous journey to the taliban airport to escape taliban-controlled afghanistan, we were traveling with eight small children, the youngest not even a year old, and were most concerned about their safety. two nights before, a "washington post" reporter and his young daughter were beaten by taliban fighters as they waited for a flight that never materialized, an experience, my colleagues later said, only hardened their resolve to escape, but left their families terrified of returning to the scene. he said i'll never forget them beating my daughter, my country is gone forever. they got out, right? tell us how they're doing now.

and tell us how that was, i mean, are you still shaken? >> they are doing very well. they're in the united states by now. some of the few very, very fortunate afghans who have made it out of the country. and that experience was definitely -- i was definitely shaken by that experience. and it wasn't because of the danger of the experience itself. i had never gone into a situation that was that dangerous with small children before. and i did feel partially responsible for the fate of their families because they were my colleagues. and i think that was probably for me the most difficult part

of that day, was knowing that there were these eight, you know, young kids who they're under the care of their parents, but ultimately i was the one who was making the decisions about what we were going to do and how we were going to get to these places. and that was something that i've never done in my journalism career before. it was something i took very seriously. and i think, you know, once we were all sat on that c-17 headed to qatar, it was just like probably one of the biggest feelings of relief i've ever felt. yeah, no, it's definitely something that's still -- is still with me. i'm just so happy that they're out. >> you did it, they're here now, right, they're in the united states, and are they doing okay so far?

>> so we haven't managed to make contact with them yet. we know their flight has touched down. there is a lot of processing and bureaucracy that goes through any sort of resettlement situation. but i spent the first night with them here in qatar in the airplane hangar, and they were doing okay. everybody was shaken by the journey there. it was a long day, to say the least. but i received a voice message from my colleague chasol, he had bought some internet minutes while he was on the plane on the way to dulles airport from doha. and i could just hear the change in his voice, he sounded so genuinely happy that he was finally on his way to the u.s.

and i'm just so happy for them, because they always reiterated to me that while they loved their work for "the washington post" and they loved their jobs, and they're fantastic at it, i'm sorry to lose such incredible colleagues, they wanted a brighter future for their children. that was something that i couldn't argue with. >> i will put you on the spot and ask you if and when he's ever ready to come and talk to us, i would love to meet him and maybe some time when it won't be so traumatic to talk about the journey. i want to bring michael crowley in and show you some reporting from my colleague richard engel of another family getting out of what is now taliban-controlled afghanistan. >> reporter: inside the base, afghans are processed for departure and moved to the

flight line. that's where we met this woman who moved back to afghanistan to teach six years ago. >> it was a dream come true for me. i had a house by the mountains. i couldn't imagine leaving. but it's time to go. >> reporter: you left the house? >> everything. everything. a small little suitcase with my laptop and that's it. >> reporter: she's bringing 25 members of her extended family. she didn't want to leave. we were just looking up at the afghan flag. >> i don't know how much longer it's going to be there. this is really sad. i don't know if i'm going to be back. i'm hoping. i don't know if i'm every going to be back. >> reporter: eventually a c-17 arrives and taxis into position for boarding. for gina, it sinks in. these are moments that change the trajectories of families for generations. >> michael crowley, you and i

both live in the world of sort of covering and trying to understand our very fractured politics, but you cannot listen to susannah's experience, you cannot watch richard engel's reporting, without thinking that america has kept its word at least to these two families. >> yeah, nicolle, first of all, it's so humbling, i have have such respect for our colleagues who are telling these stories and i'm so grateful to them giving us so much material back in the united states to try to make sense of what's happening in the bigger picture, at such a remove from it all. and as you say, there are positive outcomes here. the overall picture is incredibly grim and bleak, but increasingly people are leaving afghanistan. and i thought i detected some of that in president biden's

remarks today. you know, there is potentially a bit of an opportunity in this crisis to show it's not too late, to show the united states can do a big thing and do it well, do this airlift, get tons of people out of there, rescue people and save lives, and have stories that are even inspiring, of afghans who can start over in the united states. i'm not saying that this is a net positive situation. i am saying that there is a moment here where if the biden administration can pull this off, you know, it can be a demonstration that america is not completely incompetent. and the test is going to be in the next couple of weeks and the stakes are enormous. >> and the next test will be welcoming them here. i think that is already tainted with some politics in right wing media. but you're right, the whole thing is a really important and

powerful opportunity not just for the white house, of course for the white house, but for the whole country. is that disinformation already being pumped out about refugees and nasty tweets about large evacuations, can that be discarded by a majority of americans? that would say something very good if it can be. michael crowley, i want to get to your reporting on what i called sort of a political circular firing squad from the former trump team who dealt with this issue. i want to ask you one question. there is incredible reporting about the "times" team and their evacuation from the country. is there anything on that reporting that you can share with us about that effort, equally dramatic and powerful? >> well, you know, as you say, i encourage people to go and read the story. it's an incredible, gripping narrative that really -- but something that stands out in my mind, one of my colleagues, thomas gibbons-neff, who was in

the washington bureau for a long time when i was down there, and went to kabul several months ago, he actually got out of the country. i believe he might have gone to qatar. and then got back on a plane and came back. and t.m., as we call him in the bureau, he's a former marine who became a journalist. his story was already an amazing one. but he went back to hamid karzai airport having gotten out of the country, to make sure that afghans who had worked for "the new york times" and helped our reporting so crucially over many years were also able to get out. i have to say that is just, you know, valor, not to be too melodramatic about it, making bringing a military ethos to our journalistic word. he's an amazing reporter.

i encourage everybody to read those stories. >> it reads like a war novel, and the fact that you're involved, susannah, and your colleagues' efforts there and all the folks that got out and the administration's efforts to make sure that was the case, it is this bright spot in what's been a pretty challenging week of live events. i want to get to your reporting, michael crowley. i had seen the esper comments and i show h.r. mcmaster go even further. and i wonder why he doesn't extend support for an administration that is trying to sort of make the most of the situation that they handed him. >> well, why aren't they more supportive of biden, do you mean? >> well, if they can go so far as to acknowledge that trump put this in motion, these are longstanding figures in the

national security establishment. to be intellectually consistent, honest, you would make sure people understood the larger threat and lens through which all of this has transpired. that seems to be their point. >> so first of all, as you kindly recapped at the top, my story explains how even many trump officials say that they feel that the process that trump set in motion with the taliban laid the groundwork for this. and, you know, and i think -- you know, i think their view is it was a terrible deal, that it was basically providing political cover for the u.s. to withdraw without any, you know, real assurances from the taliban that we could count on or that meant much. they agreed to enter talks with the afghan government. we saw what became of that. the talks were kind of a joke. and they have promised not to harbor terrorists on their soil who threaten the u.s. or other

countries. we'll see. and i guess their view is that president biden should have thrown the brakes on this, that he inherited a terrible deal. their argument would be president biden could have said no, this was a bad deal, we've got to base it on conditions that we're seeing. the peace talks with the afghan government have to be making real progress, they can't just be blah blah blah, as the taliban advances militarily, and he should have said "i'm saying." as you know, nicolle, president biden says that was not practical because part of the agreement with the taliban, and i will say one condition the taliban did meet was that they stopped their attacks on u.s. forces, because i think clearly they wanted to see us leave. you know, bye-bye, thanks for coming, we're not going to shoot at you on the way out the door because we can't wait for you to be gone. so that was completely in their interests. president biden says if he stopped that withdrawal, that the attacks would resume, he would have to send more troops, and we would be reimmersed.

just to wrap this up, i think that those former trump officials are really, really angry with what they're seeing. they were invested in the u.s. project in afghanistan and they're not feeling conciliatory to anyone right now. >> let me add to our conversation congressman gregory meeks of new york. congressman, thank you very much for being with us. we've been talking about something the president underscored, the massive logistical operation under way, saying no american will be left behind, touting the evacuation as of today of many news organizations' entire teams in-country. obviously there are many more days of this. tell us what your understanding is of some of the challenges at the beginning of the week being ironed out by this point and what do you think the next several days look like. >> so there were plenty of challenges, because you had a panic that was going on by many of the afghans.

look, we've had a situation, and we're prepared and looking for, from what i understand from the biden administration, listening now to more of the reporting, the excellent reporting that you are doing here at msnbc and others, that we did not know that the afghan security forces would simply sit down, particularly as they were about to enter kabul. the fact of the matter is, we were prepared, and that's why i think general austin and others had ships come by so that if the taliban came in shooting and firing, we were prepared for that. but they did not come in that way, because there was no afghan security forces to even protect if there was fighting when we got to kabul. they were all gone, they disappeared. and then we saw the president of the afghan administration flee, without any notice to anyone

else. he was in washington, d.c. this past june and he said he would remain in kabul and that they would fight. so he fled. that left a panic on the street. so now all of a sudden you have a government that's fleeing, you have the taliban coming in, so you have no real enforcement or police force or anything else to have law and order in the street. and people are afraid of the taliban because they don't know whether or not they're going to live or die as a result of them coming in. so they rushed the airport. and those visions that we saw were absolutely horrible. and that's one of the things, you know, i think that we're going to continue to look at as the house foreign affairs committee. absolutely horrible. and so now what we've got to do, and what the president said today, now we have control of

the airport, and we have to reach out to the folks that we know are either sivs or american citizens and go get them and make sure they have access to the airport, put them on the planes and get them back home and we need to do it until everyone is taken care of. i think that's what our focus is. >> congressman, there is a lot of concern that if you don't fall neatly in one of those categories, i mean, the president has been unequivocal, no american citizen will be left behind who wants to leave. it seems like the reporting suggests that if you had an siv in process, you might be -- and you can get to the airport, you will be all right. there are a lot of people who don't fall in those categories. the new reality so the ground is some people don't have all their paperwork in, some people feel like they have to burn that paperwork because the taliban is

going door to door hunting these folks. what should the conversation be about adjusting to this new dynamic where maybe you don't fall into either of those two categories but you have stood shoulder to shoulder with the americans and the american military? >> i think maybe what we should do, and we are doing this to some degree, if we know of someone, sivs, ngos, interpreters who worked side by side with our american soldiers, there's many folks from the military telling us the names of individuals who were with them, that then we should let them get on. and what we should do is maybe, as is happening now, if we bring them, there should be some spots right here in the united states so we can further those examinations. but other spots, we're working with allies, i know that the president named a number of them, for example qatar, doing a

great job for us. we can then go through the paperwork there. we need to look, i know i will be doing this on the house foreign affairs committee, we need to look at maybe there's something else we can do, other legislation we can pull together, working with the president, that can reduce some of the burdensome paperwork, et cetera, and to make sure that we're getting individuals in in a short period of time. that's something that we have to work quickly on, figure out how to do just that given the circumstances we currently have. >> congressman gregory meeks, michael crowley, susannah george, an honor to speak to all three of you. susannah, i'll come back to you, hopefully some day we'll get to talk to you and your whole team, it would be an honor for us. thank you all so much for starting us off on a day like today. after the break, the congressman who cheered on the mob ahead of the january 6 insurrection is making his way back into the headlines today,

this time for appearing to sympathize with the suspect in yesterday's bomb threat in d.c. plus a legal setback for governor get abbott in his fight against lifesaving coronavirus precautions in the covid hotspot of texas. and a new report on new york's investigation. "deadline white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. t go anywhere. that's why i started medhaul. citi launched the impact fund to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything i've got to my company, and my community. i got you. for the love of people. for the love of community. for the love of progress. citi. we did it again. verizon has been named america's most reliable network by rootmetrics. and our customers rated us #1 for network quality in america according to j.d. power.

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like so many stories about republican lawmakers lately, today there's another example of shocking but not at all surprising behavior. it has to do with our lead story from yesterday, that hours-long

standoff between capitol police and a man who was charged this afternoon, who claimed his pickup truck was rigged to blow. shortly after he surrendered, focus turned to what he said on a facebook live stream before and during the ordeal, threatening language about health care and illegal immigration plus a demand that president biden resign. it appears to be an example of what the department of homeland security warned us about just last week, a possible uptick in incidents of domestic terrorism. and while you or i or anyone with a fully functioning moral compass for that matter would wholeheartedly and unequivocally denounce blazer like that, congressman mo brooks took a different path. the alabama lawmaker, the card carrying number of the sedition caucus who is currently seeking immunity in a court case having to do with his role inciting the january 6 insurrection, described the suspect with a bit of sympathy, the way you might

talk about a man who, i don't know, stole a loaf of bread or something. from his statement, quote, although his terrorist's motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, i understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial socialism and its threat to liberty, freedom, and the very fabric of american society. the way to stop socialism's march is for patriotic americans to fight back in the 2022 and 2024 election. his fellow republican congressman adam kinzinger called that part of the statement, quote, evil. he says, the gop has a decision to make. are we going to be the party that keeps stoking sympathy for domestic terrorists and pushes out truth or take a stand for the truth? i've made my decision. so has mo. now it's up to gop leadership to make theirs. joining me, a congressman who is member of the judiciary committee. it's nice, i'm sure, to welcome adam kinzinger to the fight

against political depravity on the right. kevin mccarthy, who still counts marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz as members of good standing is not going to take a harsh position against mo brooks. >> i think you're exactly right, nicolle. i certainly agree with adam, at the end of the day i think that decision was made long ago by the house republican leader, as you said, who has refused in the last 24 hours to condemn the remarks made by representative brooks, who as you astutely noted, is not just simply a member of the house republican caucus but is a front runner for republican senate nomination in the state of alabama. to see someone like mo brooks fan the flames yesterday literally as law enforcement was working to defuse this situation and to yet again deal with a profound threat to the capitol complex is just incredibly dangerous. it's outrageous and it should be condemned of this but of course

i doubt that kevin mccarthy will be condemning it anytime soon. this has become the norm as far as many of the members of the house republican congress are concerned. >> and i wonder, look, i mean, republicans have been brutal critics of the current president and the decision to withdraw from afghanistan, even though they were very muted, when the last president had the exact same position, actually cut the deal to leave with the taliban. but they're going to make, i would guess, having been in that party, they're going to make this about threats to the homeland from afghanistan and the taliban. how do you stand for that intellectual dishonesty when we have an existing threat to the homeland from domestic violent extremists like this gentleman yesterday who they seem to feel bad for? >> i agree, nicolle, i think it's completely intellectually dishonest. as you know, i'm the son of refugees, to see these images

from afghanistan are heartbreaking. i've always believed the united states is at its best when we're a beacon of hope and freedom and liberty to the world, that means honoring our promises and welcoming those who seek refuge. i'm not going to stand for those arguments, as you articulated them. i think i agree with adam, in the case of what happened yesterday, and obviously the bulletin that was issued by the department of homeland security just last week, it really is a binary choice. are you going to stand for ultimately ensuring that domestic terrorism does not metastasize here in the united states or are you not going to do that? i would hope that my colleagues would choose the former. it's a pretty clear choice to me and i think think most americans. >> speaker pelosi has announced that next week there will be a vote on voting rights legislation. the house has done its work, you passed voting rights legislation before. is there any sense that anything has shifted? have the texas democrats sort of

inspired any rethinking of the tools in the toolkit? where do you think that will -- what will happen when it makes its way to the senate? >> i think next week will be a giant step forward in ultimately defending and protecting the sacrosanct right in our constitution, the right to vote. i think it connects to the discussion we've been having this afternoon regarding yesterday's terrible incident on capitol hill. at the end of the day, i think what most troubles me and so many in congress is that so many on the other side of the aisle are really challenging and undermining these core sort of constitutional norms and in some cases rights that have governed our country for the better part of the last 232 years. that includes the right to vote. it also includes ensuring that we resolve our differences through peaceful means and not through violence. and i think the normalization of political violence as we saw on january 6 and the threats, as i said, that have metastasized

since then, are deeply concerning. so look, i think we'll make some headway next week. we'll passion the john lewis rights advancement act out of the house of representatives. i think public opinion has shifted dramatically over the last eight to 12 weeks. i suspect we'll get this across the finish line in the senate. there's still a lot left to do to get there. we're committed to doing that. >> you're so right too but where they've landed, this normalization of political violence is the umbrella under which january 6 and congressman brooks' statement reside. congressman joe neguse, thank you so much for making time for us today. after the break, legal challenges are piling up against the governors' banning masks in schools. that story is next.

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a win for kids' safety in texas. unvaccinated and largely unprotected from covid until today, the texas supreme court at least temporarily is allowing school mask mandates, dismissing republican governor greg abbott's latest attempt to keep the ban on mask mandates in classrooms, as gop-led states lose any control they would have had if they had put in place early mitigation measures.

in alabama, the least-vaccinated state in the entire country, hospital systems are just collapsing. there are no more icu beds available throughout the entire state. just behind alabama in vaccinations is the state of mississippi. that state has seven icu beds and 96 patients currently need them. joining us is dr. kavita patel, former obama white house health policy director, now an msnbc medical contributor. dr. patel, we've watched the map through the whole pandemic. in the very beginning i was watching my hometown of new york city as the hotspot, and then tragically other parts of the country became hotspots. then we watched the map as vaccinations seemed to happen in clusters. it wasn't clear at the beginning but they happened to be along party lines. now the map looks like death and illness in unvaccinated southern states. and if you have this bifurcation where kids can't go back to the classroom and stay in the classroom because they can't be protected, what is the sort of

public health future? you have hospital systems collapsing in alabama, near collapse in mississippi. what does that look like from a medical standpoint? >> yeah, nicolle, already, it's not just the south anymore, right? we're seeing now people in all states kind of struggling to balance cases increasing, especially pediatric cases, but you're right, in the south, the health system, by the way, just to kind of build on top of what you said, going into the pandemic, these were also the states that were the lowest in terms of outcomes. they were doing the worst on maternal health, the worst on some things we care about. so you see how it was disadvantaged to begin with. so coming out of this, we have not only kind of broken our generation of children who have had to be either learning remotely or not getting adequate support to do anything. but we've also compromised the very health infrastructure, broken the back of the nurses, the doctors, the pediatricians.

it breaks my heart to see doctors ridiculed and booed out of school board meetings all for advocating for health. i've never seen such division in communities. even beyond this, how do you repair that? how do you go forward to do anything in the health care system without bringing up all the tension, including the health care workers who are now getting resentful at what they're seeing from unvaccinated people? >> i just want to put up the seven states where there are the most hospitalizations per residents. it's florida, alabama, louisiana, mississippi, which we've been talking about, and georgia. why not -- you know, is there any way to do for them what they won't do for themselves and put in place a mask mandate for all kids until their rates go down? is there any power at a federal level to do that as a public safety measure? >> yeah, i think there is. i think you've seen now secretary cardona is literally

on the phone trying to reassure schools, who are, by the way, in florida, where they're now being told by the florida department of education that their funds will be withheld, talk about cruel, if they put in a mask mandate. so yes, there's federal leverage. i also think, nicolle, just from a health care standpoint, you remember, we still don't have enough masks for people. if you go on amazon or any store to try to buy masks for children, they're out. so there is leverage the federal government can place, i think the secretary of education is trying to do it, the secretary of hhs. but we needed help yesterday on these issues. and i think furthermore, all the excuses that are being given for allowing for these mandates to be reversed have to do with some notion on parents' bills of rights. i haven't seen a parents' bill of rights that compromises on health but that's happening. we still are in a public health emergency. i want to remind people, that gives a lot of latitude to help

do things at the federal level. >> simply to protect their families. it's an unbelievable moment. dr. kavita patel, thank you for spending some time with us. coming up for us, the fight behind closed doors in a new york city court over the investigation into donald trump's business. that's next.

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organization and manhattan prosecutors met at a secret court hearing last week to argue about documents subpoenaed by the da's office. while it is not clear what evidence was specifically at issue the journal reports it includes a broad swath of financial documents pertaining to the disgraced ex-president's company. the journal adds prosecutors have been talking with the lawyer of trump org executive to discuss whether his cooperation may be helpful. let's bring in joyce vance, professor at the university of alabama school of law and msnbc legal analyst, and nick confessore, political reporter as well as an msnbc contributor. remind folks who he is. i remember reading news accounts around him at the time it looked like mr. weisselberg was going to stay mum. talk about why they may be pursuing him as a witness.

>> calamari is an intriguing figure in the trump organization. he is the chief operating officers but he doesn't have the credentials you would usually expect someone in that position to have. he came to trump's attention because he was being a particularly effective bouncer at a tennis match. he went to work for trump in a capacity as a security guard, and he gained trump's confidence when he was working as trump's personal security guard. so one has a little bit of a sense here he may not have had involvement in the complex financial dealings, but there's the intriguing possibility that he has some insight into trump's mindset and how trump was talking about events as they occurred before they were under legal scrutiny. >> nick confessore, having covered now multiple investigations into the ex-president, there's a sense when things are opaque that they've quieted down. i think with the journal report,

it reveals they're very much humming along under the surface. >> yes, exactly. i don't think opacity should be thought of things as things slowing down. what we are seeing is the legal defense that we thought we would see. the lawyer that weisselberg hired are not lawyers you hire to do a plea deal. he is digging in. he is going to deploy every procedural and technical objection he can to slow things down and gain advantage. so this is one more fight in that longer war. i think we'll see more of this. it is going to be a long case, and he is girding to fight this. >> so, joyce, let me read a little bit more to follow up on the points both of you have made. the journal writes this. since the indictment prosecutors have continued to investigate cars and apartments given to other trump organization employees, including chief operating officer mr. calamari sr. and his son, matthew calamari j. m, the company's corporate director of security. nicholas gravante says he has

had a series of meetings and calls in recent week. the elder calamari has for years lived in an apartment at trump park avenue and has driven a mercedes leased through the trump org. what we understand from what they've charged is if any of those gifts were not reported or if taxes were not paid accordingly, they clearly have some exposure at least, no? >> that's right. you can't cheat the tax man by paying an employee with free rent on an apartment or the free lease of a car that he doesn't have to pay taxes on. that's a form of tax avoidance, although at a lower level when it is perhaps unintentional or limited. it could be handled civilly. with every particular individual in the trump organization who is added on as receiving benefits that could potentially run into millions of dollars, it strengthens the weight of this as a criminal case.

another interesting element of what is going on here, it is sort of a subtle nuance, is the fact that once you indict a case as a prosecutor, you can't continue to use grand jury subpoenas to investigate that defendant on those charges. so the fact that there's a continuance of the use of the grand jury suggests that new defendants or new charges are being pursued, and whereas other folks in the trump organization were brought in front of the grand jury to testify, which in new york state unlike in the federal system involves giving them a grant of immunity so that they can't be prosecuted, usually you won't do that with someone who you think you have got a strong case against. in this situation calamari has not been brought in front of the grand jury, and it looks like he is really trying to offer prosecutors something that will convince them to give him a little bit of a break here. >> you know, nick, all of these windows into trump's business, trump org, it is stunning to me

what a fraud trump was in terms of the vision of himself he pitched to republican primary voters in 2015. his company was a house of cards with a bunch of people paid with, you know, trump dorm rooms basically and leased cars from the company, and you peel back the curtain not very much and it is a very ugly picture. >> well, look, nicolle, i have been struck over the last two years how the trump org has been revealed as basically a small family business in its basic character. you know, kind of small time for all of its world ambitions. look, calamari, a former body guard who becomes the coo, as joyce said it is unusual. more than that, the details of the journal story, the car and the apartment that we saw with weisselberg, too, it is almost fuelled the way the place was run, this handing out of gifts and gratuities and, you know, how the people in his organization -- you know, people who are senior at the trump organization were kind of on his dime to having their cars

provided, their apartments. there is something interesting about that, and it also shows us how close knit this world was and how hard it may be to crack. >> joyce vance and nick confessore, who i think is going to have a big day on "room raider," thank you both for being a part of our coverage. after the break, the newest thing in texas that might jolt the democratic party in washington. the next hour of deadline washington starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere. we are just getting started. ar. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've honorably served. no matter their rank, or when they were in. a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids.

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certainty that my democratic colleagues have just hurt all of texas. i have no plans of returning because i went through an entire session dealing with my colleagues, and every time we would try to just make a logical argument or have a logical conversation, we couldn't get that done. >> hi again, everyone. it is 5:00 in the east. after fleeing to washington, d.c. for weeks and risking arrest, after halting the texas governor's special legislative sessions for 38 days, some texas democrats are today, as you saw there, devastated. because last night three of their colleagues returned to the house floor delivering the legislative body a quorum where now state republicans can proceed to pass the restrictive voting bill the democrats had tried so hard to prevent. on july 12th more than 50 texas democrats left their homes, flew to the nation's capital and lobbied democrats in washington to pass federal legislation that would protect the right to vote

in texas as well as all across this country. for them, the bill presented by their gop colleagues was not something to take lightly. to them democracy was on the line. the bill takes aim at practices like 24-hour and drive-through voting, initiatives implemented last year in harris county. harris county is texas's largest county and one that leans heavily democratic. those initiatives led to the state's record voter turnout in the 2020 election. in a statement explaining their decision, the three democrats who returned to the house floor last night acknowledge the work their party had done but cited a need to also fight the pandemic raging in their state now. quote, we are proud of the heroic work and commitment we and our fellow democratic caucus members have shown in breaking quorum in may and again over the summer. we took the fight for voting rights to d.c. and brought national attention to the partisan push in our state to weaken ballot access. our efforts were successful and they served as the primary

catalyst to push congress to take action on federal voting protection legislation. now, we continue the fight on the house floor. it is time to move past these partisan legislative calls and to come together to help our state mitigate the effects of the current covid-19 surge. about last night's development, the ap writes this. quote, it leaves democrats much in the same position as when the holdout started, unable to permanently stop the gop-controlled legislature from putting new limits and rules over how more than 16 million registered voters can cast a ballot. and federal voting rights protections that texas democrats lobbied for while in washington still face long odds of getting around gop opposition in congress. despite those long odds, calls for the passage of federal legislation persist. last night former texas congressman beto o'rourke tweeted this. i'm proud of the texas house democrats. they've done more than we ever could avenue asked to stop voter suppression and give congress time to act.

it is now time for the president and the senate to finish the job. pass the for the people act and the john lewis voting rights act. the end of texas's second longest quorum break in its history and the ongoing fight for voting rights is where we start this hour with some of our favorite reporters and friends. the reverend al sharpton is here, host of msnbc's "politics nation" and president of the national action network. also joining us, aaron haines, editor of large at "the 19th" and msnbc contributor. texas state representative ron reynolds is here. representative reynolds, let me start with you. how is it going and how do you feel about everything that you and your colleagues have been through over the last, i guess it is two-and-a-half months. >> nicolle, it is great to be on your show. i share the frustration articulated by representative crockett, my colleague, that we are extremely disappointed but we haven't finished what we started. we have a lot of momentum at our back. i want to thank reverend

sharpton. he was with us in d.c. we have been rallying. we will continue to rally and lead up through the march on washington on august the 28th. i'm going to be there with rev. so we haven't finished what we started. i'm disappointed. we had the momentum. there was no reason for us to go back. i'm going to be in d.c. for -- as the house brings forth hr-4, the john lewis voting rights advancement act. we know we have the votes in the house, and we believe it is going to pass on tuesday, but the real fight is going to be in the senate. that's why we need democrats to hold out, to continue to fight for democracy. so i share that frustration. we are down but we're hae not out. we will continue to press forward and get this federal legislation passed. >> i mean, rev, some of the calculation had to be that no one could have imagined that for all that, frankly, democrats got done voting rights wasn't going to be on the list. if it had been dealt with before any break, they might have gone home more victorious.

>> i think that, first of all, we must congratulate those texas democrats that really heightened the awareness of the nation of how abusive and in many ways i think illegal on a strictly federal level this whole texas move is. when you deal with the fact that on a federal level until 2013 they could not have even gotten this through pre-clearance at the justice department, and that is what the john lewis bill that representative reynolds referred to, that will pass the house this week, will restore. that is why it is important that we march next saturday, and reynolds is not only attending the march, he and the texas democrats who held out are going to lead the march with martin lugt inking iii and i. the senate must pass it. the president must speak to it again as he did in phillie.

we are talking about the basic right to vote. can you believe at a time we are talking about democracy in afghanistan that we are allowing states to go back into states' rights in terms of voting in the united states? this is as fundamental as it can get, and the heroes of this movement, like we give heroes of the '60s when i was a kid and some unborn, the heroes of this movement has to say to those texas democrats that stood and did not waver. you know, in the church we have a scripture that says the race isn't given to the swift or the strong, but those that hold out to the end. we are going to be honoring the holdouts because they're the stand-ups for democracy. >> well, erin, i mean we spend a lot of time with the texas democrats because they are doing something that is in really short order in washington. they were uncomfortable. they left small children. they left family members in the middle of a pandemic. they deprived republicans of a quorum to stop something they

believed would be terrible for the state and anti-democratic. i have asked you this over and over again, but i wonder if you see any increased interest in getting uncomfortable among senate democrats? >> well, you know, look, the thing about these texas democrats, nicolle, we know they bought federal lawmakers as much time as they could. you know, these three that went back to the texas legislature saying, you know, the fight now must continue in the house, but really, you know, nicolle, the question we also should be asking and we have to continue to ask both at the state and federal level is where are the republicans that are willing to reject this false threat of election integrity? you know, these three that have gone back, where are three republicans in the texas legislature that are ready to say, you know, no and to reject this because they know that there is no widespread election fraud, that there is no such thing as a rigged election, and that the 2020 election was one

of the safest and most secure in the country as declared by our own federal government. the same in congress. yes, you have democrats united, but that still is not being enough to overcome a filibuster, so, you know, why is more pressure not being put on republicans to also have to explain their vote just as, you know, we are asking people like joe manchin, kyrsten sinema to justify their position on the filibuster, why are we not asking republicans, you know, explain to me what election integrity is about in your mind. explain why you think it is a thing that needs to be addressed that is a priority in this country when we know that there is no proof of widespread voter election fraud. look, texas democrats gave federal lawmakers the time. american voters gave democrats the authority to act and the ball is now squarely in congress's court. the time is now. but, you know, imagine if congress hadn't acted after bloody sunday, nicolle, where we would be as a democracy today? there really is an expectation

born out of the civil rights movement that never again will the marginalized in our country go unprotected by our government. but out of that era also came the understanding that our democracy is in fragile, it is in need of constance vigilance by the forces waiting to undermine it in order to maintain power, and that's something that should not be bipartisan frankly when it comes to voting rights. >> i mean, representative reynolds, my sense is that republicans are awol because republicans are hostage to the big lie. republicans aren't going to be a part of the truthful and honest solution, which is that the more people that vote the closer we get to realizing the ideals of our imperfect democracy. they're pulling the other direction. if anything different is happening in texas, please illuminate me. >> nicolle, you are absolutely right. and it is so unamerican. it is so unpatriotic that no longer are we statesmen and doing what is best for the people. we are putting politics over people. republicans are no longer trying to win over people with great

ideas. they're trying to put their thumb on the scale to make it more difficult so that they can suppress the votes of people who are more likely to vote democrat. that is unamerican. that goes against everything that we stand for. so i am very ashamed of my colleagues who are promoting the big lie that know there's no voter fraud and yet and still they continue to perpetuate this deal of voter integrity which rudy giuliani has been disciplined from the bar, when former a.g. barr said there was no evidence, when donald trump's claims have been rejected by every court and people who he appointed to the u.s. supreme court. so let's get real. let's be truthful and let's call it what it is. this is voter suppression, jim crow 2.0, reenvisioned in 2021 to win elections at all costs. >> and, you know, there are some -- i don't want to call it good. there's some adjustments going on. there's some consideration to what the republicans are doing,

which is straight-up rigging the electorate. we talk a lot, rev, about the other half of it, which is straight-up putting the conditions in place for vote nullification. they're both in place in georgia. stacey abrams has sought to eye dress the first half of that. she has -- let me read this from the "ajc" which had great reporting on this. georgia now has one of the highest voter registration rates in the nation with 95% of its citizens over 18 years old signed up to vote according to federal election data released last week. that's the good news, rev. the bad news is that the georgia law, it also undoes the referee. it undoes the non-partisan election officials who count the vote, and there's already shenanigans underway in fulton county with republicans putting in motion a process to take over the largest democratic county in the state. >> it is absolute nullification. when martin luther king made that speech "i have a dream" he

talked about in the position of nullification. in his own state they are actually doing it by state law to be able to nullify and remove a county that would be able to decide its own votes and impose who they want and, therefore, nullify the outcome of the vote even if you have a huge turnout. this is as frightening as it can get. that's why this time martin luther king iii and i are not going to the lincoln memorial. we are going to march to the capitol from 15th and h, black lives matter plaza, because the focus must be on the senate, not remembering where we were in '63 but where we are at in '21, and that is the senate must get by this whole needing ten votes or the filibuster. they must deal with this legislation. just like we saw one of the leaders of this, who is martin's wife, heads the drum major

institute, she said something interesting on a zoom conference call. she said we have taken down the confederate statutes of robert lee and others but the legislative piece of the confederacy is the filibuster. why take down the statutes outside and leave the confederate, the segregationist relic inside the halls of the senate known as the filibuster. >> erin, i want to give you a chance. i think this is why the conversation focuses on one party. there's only one party interesting in governing in this moment. you have a member of the other party who expressed some sympathy for a wannabe-alleged truck bomber yesterday. they're so far gone that looking for them to come to the table to expand the right to vote is, of course, the right thing, but it is wrong for the moment that we find ourselves in with the other party. i guess my question for you is do you think that is a reality for senate democrats?

do you think they understand that there won't be -- you know, they can throw a bipartisan party. nobody will come. it is them or it doesn't happen. >> and i think to your point, nicolle, i think that's absolutely right, but it does not mean that these republicans who are bought into the big lie, who are dug in on the falsehood of election integrity do not need to be held accountable. i mean, look, i just want to go back to what we were saying about the very high voter registration in georgia, which was made possible largely by the motor voter act. 95% of people registered in georgia, and yet we know that those 95% of registered voters will have a harder time turning out. and even if they do turn out, their votes could still be negated in places like fulton county, the blackest county. >> yes. >> because you have this panel that is all white, it is bipartisan, but mostly republican and it is going to be looking at fulton county, which they have long been trying to label as corrupt which we know

is code language, you know, because that county has the most black residents in the state. so, you know, continuing to tell the big truths, frankly, in the face of the big lie i think is our obligation. it is our obligation as journalists. it is our obligation as citizens who are watching this and who don't want to see this done in our name. it is important to continue to speak up and speak out against this and, you know, even -- and to do even as so many of these texas democrats apparently are doing, which is to continue to fight even if it means going down fighting. >> i hope -- i hope they win fighting. representative reynolds, this happened in your state. your lieutenant governor said something which is not the kind of thing i ever amplify, but i do want to rebut and rebuke this. so let's play this. we'll deal with it on the other side. >> the covid is spreading, particularly, most of the numbers are with the

unvaccinated and the democrats like to blame republicans on that. well, the biggest group in most states are african-americans who have not been vaccinated. the last time i checked, over 90% of them vote for democrats in their major cities and major counties. >> so i don't know where to start here. i wish i had the map. the map tells a very different story. your reaction? >> nicolle, that's reprehensible. i am ashamed that a leader in texas, the lieutenant governor, would make such racist comments like that, that is founded on falsehoods. that is a misnomer. it is a flat-out lie. i'm just going to call it what it is. i am going to speak truth to power. lieutenant governor patrick needs to retract that statement and put the truth out there. the truth is that the majority of the people who are rejecting the vaccines are not african-american in this state. i don't know where he is getting his facts from, but maybe it is the fake news that donald trump talks about.

but certainly african-americans were initially skeptical for obvious reasons based on past practices, but many african-americans have believed in science. it is the republicans in the state that are pushing, making this political, not talking about masks, not talking about vaccines. so lieutenant governor patrick needs to retract that. that is a racist, reprehensible comment by a lieutenant governor that represents the largest african-american population in the country resides in texas. so i'm disgusted and i'm outraged and i have already called on the naacp, and we're going to push back against what he said. it is a shame that he would say that on national tv, but not surprising that it was on fox news. >> we'll break into our coverage if that comes to pass. texas state representative ron reynolds, thank you so much for spending some time with us. rev al sharpton, errin haines, thank you for being part of our coverage today. when we come back, republicans in arizona are finally getting

ready to release their report-ish on that phony ballot audit in the state's largest county. and today the so-called audit is getting blasted by officials from both sides of the aisle. arizona secretary of state is our next guest. plus, the viral video of the tennessee dad whose 5-year-old kid understands something way too many grown-ups in american and gop governors do not, that masks are for protecting people in our communities from covid. and the history of the american presidency told through the stories of the best friends of american presidents. the author of the new book "first friends" will join us later in the hour. "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. go anywhere. the financial watch out that gives you the options and extra time needed to help you avoid an overdraft fee. it's one way we're making a difference. low cash mode on virtual wallet from pnc bank. with less moderate-to-severe eczema why hide your skin

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in arizona, one of the state's at the forefront of the ex-president's big lie that the 2020 election was rigged and fraudulent, we are now nearing the end of the controversial so-called audit put on by that state's republican party in an attempt to overturn the election result there. the review isn't expected to be over until next week but there's fresh criticism of the flawed effort from officials on both sides of the aisle. in a pre-buttal arizona secretary of state katie hobbs slammed the arizona senate and those cyber ninjas -- they're the ones conducting the review -- saying that it, quote, fails to meet industry standards for any credible audit, much less for an election audit. meanwhile in an open letter to republicans, maricopa county recorder also blasted the audit and trump's election fraud claims saying, quote, i will keep fighting for conservatism,

and there are many things i would do for the republican candidate for president, but i won't lie about the election, and i will not unjustifiably turn my back on the employees of the board of supervisors, the recorder's office, and elections department. my colleagues and friends. joining us now is the arizona secretary of state katie hobbs. she is also running for governor there. secretary hobbs, tell me how this is ending. does it feel like a crescendo or is it a sort of a fizzle, fizzle? and you now have bipartisan condemnation of what you made clear was always a scam. >> right. i mean we've been condemning this all along certainly, but it does feel a little bit like a fizzle, and part of that is due to the fact that they repeatedly missed their own self-imposed deadlines and seemed like they were trying to continue to drag it on to raise money off of it. at the end of the day the report that we issued doesn't really provide new information. it just puts together all of the information that we have been

putting out there for the last several months about what a sham this exercise really is. >> so we know that the vote was audited multiple times, right, in arizona? the results in maricopa county? >> yes. we followed all of the laws and procedures about post-election verification of the election to ensure that it was accurate and fair, and it was. and there was no reason to do this additional exercise. >> so knowing that the result was fair and free from fraud because of the way it was administered and because multiple audits proved that out, certified by republican governor no less, what are the scenarios for what the cyber ninjas are going to find? >> well, i mean we know if they were doing a valid audit, which they're not, that there's nothing to find. there was no fraud. there was no -- you know, there were no issues or irregularities

or ballots flown in from asia or wherever. the bottom line is that's not what they're intending to do. they're intending to find fraud that doesn't exist, and so -- and they set up the exercise in a way that is ripe for either intentional or unintentional error to get the result that they want to get. >> so let me read this a little bit more from -- from sort of a republican critic of this effort, someone who is a proud conservative but is condemning what you are describing, something dishonest. more than any moral code, philosophical agenda, interest group or even team red versus team blue, many politicians will simply do whatever it takes to stay in office. right now, a lot of republican politicians have their fingers in the wind and think that conforming to stop the steal, or at least staying quiet about it, is necessary for reelection in their ruby red districts or a statewide republican primary. so that's what they'll do.

multiple elected are hoping to be elected republicans have told me this explicitly. it is disgusting. i will continue to tell the truth because it is the right thing to do. if it means i aggravate some fellow republicans or if it means my political career is very short, so be it. that's so perfect. i am just sad there aren't more people willing to say it. does that help enhance confidence among all citizens of arizona? >> well, i certainly think he's spot on with what he said. i mean it has become clear that this is not an issue of party anymore. it is loyalty to the former president and the lies that he continues to spout about the election, and if you are not on board with that, then there's not room for you in the republican party and they've shown over and over again that they're going to throw folks under the bus. i'm thankful for folks like steven richard who is standing up for the truth and, as you said, we do need more

republicans, especially those in elected office, who are willing to do the right thing and do that. >> i thought about the phony audit in maricopa county yesterday when i came on the air and covered the unsuccessful alleged bomb attempt at the capitol outside the library of congress yesterday. and when you put together what the suspect's alleged grievances are in this country, they include president biden, they include a somewhat garbled fantasy about ex-president trump being reinstated and they echo the department of homeland security's threat alert put on and they continue to be on alert for those motivated by these delusions. i wonder about your state of concern about safety in arizona as this conclude?

>> we are certainly continuing to be on high alert and working closely with our partners in law enforcement who are continuing to monitor this situation. we want to make sure that not only am i safe but the staff in my office, because the attacks are really, you know, coming from all direction towards my office. so, yes, certainly it is a concern. certainly we're remaining vigilant. >> arizona secretary of state katie hobbs, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. we'll stay on it. when we come back, the tennessee dad who is calling out republican leaders for not understanding something about covid than his own kindergartner understands. that story after a quick break. k millions of vulnerable americans struggle to get reliable transportation to their medical appointments. that's why i started medhaul. citi launched the impact fund to invest in both women and entrepreneurs of color like me, so i can realize my vision and give everything i've got to my company, and my community.

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at the end of the day it is a shockingly simple concept, putting a mask on is about taking care of yourself and taking care of other people. it is not a political concept at all. a kindergarten in tennessee understands that. here was her dad and the conversation he had with her about masks and the state's republican governor's order allowing parents to opt their kids out of school mask mandates, which is now facing push back from the country's top education official and thousands of health care workers around the state. watch. >> she went to school and was one of just a few kids in her class wearing a mask, which made her ask me why she had to. my answer was because we want to take care of other people.

she is 5 years old but she understood that concept, and it is disappointing that more adults around here can't seem to grasp it. avoiding masks is not in the bible, but taking care of others is. now today we have governor lee's executive order to allow opt-outs which is government overreach undercutting a local decision. if you only elect democracy when it goes your way, you don't actually like democracy. >> that was justin kanew, a dad in tennessee. let's bring in editorial member mara getaway and david jolly, national chairman of the serve america movement. lucky for us, they're both msnbc contributors. it is a sign of both how debased our political climate is and of how far gone the whole covid politics have become in states like his that it takes someone in kindergarten to offer more clarity than some republican politicians, but here we are, mara gaye. >> yeah, nicolle. you know, what that parent was

saying at this meeting reflects what many of us have seen on the ground in our own neighborhoods. i have often marvelled as i see three 2-year-old kids, 5-year-old kids, 10-year-old kids, teenagers take more care and show more care for one another than supposed leadership in public office. it is devastating but it is also i think a symbol of how this is actually not just a political crisis, it is really a moral crisis. i think we do have to have a conversation not just in political terms, right, but also about what has unravelled culturally the bonds that have kept us together over the years as a society, different as we may be. you know, seem to have really come apart. the lack of empathy. the lack of community, and it does seem like there are many americans who have decided to just think only of themselves, and even then they're not even acting rationally necessarily.

so i think this is a conversation not just for the hill. this is a conversation for all of us to have in our own communities, whether that be at a neighborhood group or in a church. >> i mean, david jolly, let's just -- these people didn't come up with the idea that masks are a political statement in a vacuum. of course they're responsible now, especially if they contaminate their children's views about masks as something to protect their teachers and their classmates, none of whom under 12 are vaccinated, but they were also led to that view. they were led to the position that an orange piece of cloth or paper is a political statement. >> yes, that's right. yeah, nicolle. we are long into the era of reflexive partisanship, the notion that if another party is for it we have to be against it. you would think in the moment of a national crisis, in the moment of a national pandemic that negative politics, reflexive

partisanship would be brushed aside. republicans didn't make that choice. what republicans have done, and i think it is important to understand why we seem to be at this crossroads we can't just get through. republicans have very deliberately pitted two fundamental american values against each other, the notion of personal freedom, right. should i have the choice to wear a mask or not? they have pitted personal freedom against the greater calling of patriotism, another great american value, the notion we will act for our compatriots, for our fellow americans, we will rise to put our nation's interest before our own personal interest. and in doing so republicans have created a paradigm that the nation just can't get out of. unfortunately, this is -- you know, to mara's point, a question of moral leadership more so than political leadership. why do national and state and local republicans continue to drive us down this road in which we cannot ultimately get through? they are doing it for their own political currency. this is a moment of a national

public health crisis, an international public health crisis. the calling in this moment is greater than politics. i think republicans fail to recognize that. >> david jolly, i don't even accept the freedom argument. you know, peewee football has a requirement that you put something much heavier than a mask on your head and shoulders. little league baseball requires that anyone older than 6 wear a cup. there are a lot of things more invasive than a mask that people are required to do and you don't see them physically and verbally abusing other parents at school board meetings. >> that's right. >> this was made toxic and political and hateful by donald trump, and he may be off the scene -- >> that's right. >> -- but, you know, your peacock of a governor made his way on to fox news and is, you know, showing off his pretty feathers as people and kids are dropping dead in his state. you know, it is the biggest scandal in the country what that governor is doing and he still finds safe harbor on fox news in prime time. what is happening? >> yeah, nicolle, and i think what you just said makes my

point, right. everything you just said a republican governor could have said. a republican governor could have said, this is not a moment to wrestle over questions of personal freedom. it is a moment to save the public health of our state, to save the public health of our country. if you look at florida, there's no other way to evaluate ron desantis's record in florida than an abject failure when it comes to the public health of the citizenry, over 20 million people in the state of florida. it is an abject failure by ron desantis to be the custodian of the state's public health, and you are seeing that. look, we knew the inevitability of schools opening last week and ron desantis saying, i am not going to let school boards say you must wear a mask. nicolle, you well know our children are not of school age, but if they were i would not put my kids in a school in the state of florida today, and that is because of the leadership of one person, ron desantis, who has always been enabled and elevated and protected by republican leaders around the state. he has created a public health

crisis in the state of florida, ron desantis has, by his failure to recognize this as a moment for something greater than the calling of selfishness, greater than the calling of personal freedom. this is a moment where we do good for the collective, for society and for the country. >> mara gay, there's another beauty over in texas. the pharmaceutical interventions and protections that have been reported for governor abbott, and i'm glad he has availed himself of at least two covid shots. i have read he has had a booster, so that would be three vaccines. he's on regeneron. he's protected by everything the world's pharmaceutical industry has to offer, and he is interested in banning a piece of cloth over the mouths of children. why? >> you know, the thing that is extremely frustrating about that story to me is it is difficult for some americans to get access to basic health care, and yet they are expected in his state

to trust that are they to fall ill, god forbid, with covid, ill enough to go to the hospital that they're going to get the first line treatment that so many americans including myself haven't been able to get. well, you know, i say god speed. i hope that they can get access to that, but i would not trust him clearly to secure that for me. it is really just a joke. i mean this is a man who is supposed to be in leadership and he's supposed to have the public interest in mind. you know, politics isn't a court of law so there's no law against acting like a fool, but it is really shameful. it is embarrassing. when you get into public service, this is exactly a case study in the opposite of what you do. it is clear that he is putting his own personal interests and hoping to be on fox news ahead of the people he is meant to serve. it doesn't get worse in public service. i cannot think of a bottom that is deeper than something like

that. >> it is unbelievable. mara gay, david jolly, thank you so much for spending some time to talk to us about it. when we come back, how american history has been shaped by the relationships between presidents and their best friends. gary ginsburg is the author of the new book "first friends." he is our guest after a short break. don't go anywhere. don't go anyw.

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20-year war in afghanistan facing this white house, we can all hope that president biden derives strength and comfort from friends. on the topic of friends, the american presidency is one of the most examined subjects in history, but until now we knew little about the figures behind the scenes that helped shape some of the most momentous our decisions that impact our world today, that of the president friend. arthur gary ginsburg has explored how president friends impacted the presidency in his book "first friends, the powerful unsung people who shaped our presidents." these friends played a critical role in history that shaped american we know of. there's the close friend of lincoln, joshua speed, who exerted his influence to keep kentucky from leaving the union during the war. ginsburg credits one friend in particular, david ormsby gore

for helping steer kennedy through the cuban missile crisis writing this, reable still is the fact that the man the president entrusted with such sensitive information during the cuban missile crisis was neater a member of his government nor even a citizen of the country he lead. he was a citizen of britain. joining us is gary ginsburg author of "first friends." we have been knocked off by breaking news, but it is great to see you today. >> thank you. it is great to be with you, nicolle. >> i want to get into everything you write about but i have to start with this president. who is president biden's best friend? >> i think if you asked 100 people the answer would be unanimous. it would be ted koffman who was his chief of staff for 22 years, from 1973 until 1995, when the average tenure of a chief of staff today is three years he

was his chief of staff, as i say, for 22. it wasn't just a work relationship. they also took the train every day back and forth from wilmington to washington, so they became very close personally as well as professionally. and in 2015 when the now president's son, beau, was dying, he relied on ted so much that he actually had him come down for a 120-day unpaid special government employee designation so that he could be around him when beau was dying and then after his death. they were that close and they remain that close today. >> the white house is such a of -- i mean you know this, such a weird and isolating experience for anyone, for a president, for a first lady, it can be if they have young kids. this is such an important topic, and you say that you came to write it because no one had ever looked at this before. how is that possible? >> well, it is true. i mean i was stunned. i had been witnessing this unique dynamic between a leader and his best friend or her best

friend since 1984 when i saw the unique relationship between the hollywood star warren beatty and his best friend gary hart. beatty would parachute in for the most important events and say to hart, stop talking and acting like a politician and it would jar hart in a way that no other staffer could speak to him that way. i saw the same dynamic in 1992 with vernon jordan during the clinton campaign and obviously during his presidency. i saw how his best friend could speak more bluntly or act more naturally than a staffer or aide could, even have a meaningful impact on important policy decisions. to my surprise, as you noted, there have been no books on first friends. there have been books about first butlers, first chefs, first decorators but nothing on the first friend. i saw the niche and decided to write this book. >> i want to know more about the

vernon jordan/clinton relationship, but i want to ask you one question, answer bot of them for me. it seems like from reading in the examples of truman, kennedy and clinton, they're always a good influence. they're always able to be more blunt about the things a president is screwing up. is i think you see with nixon that at a moment when bebe could have stopped his best friend of 15 years, richard nixon said, listen, dick, we are great friends, you do not need to act in such a nefarious way with your enemies. you don't need to resort off the books but appeal to your better angels. he didn't do any of that. he did in 1967 when he told nixon don't run for president. he saw the negative impact it had and his wife and two daughters. in 1969 when nixon starts his dirty tricks, he employed him right off the back and bebe

unfortunately could not play that role. no, dick, you don't need to do these. instead he was an enabler and led to nixon's impeachment and resignation. >> enabler hangs overall of us. >> talk about jordan and bill clinton. >> the most intriguing was how much clinton relied on jordan throughout his life. without vernon, i don't think we'll have a president clinton, when clinton lost his reelection for arkansas governor, he was thinking leaving public life for good. he was really distraught. now he's the youngest ex-governor in u.s. history. only a three hour breakfast of instant grit, he gave him a

stern talking that nobody else could that clinton decided to stay in the game. the governor and eight years later, ten years later he was the president-elect of the united states. what you see is the complete reliance clinton had on jordan throughout his life. clinton offered jordan the job, he was desperate to get him to be the first person of color in that job. he had 77 attorney generals before that opportunity to pick attorney general, all white men. he wanted to change that and he wanted to change with vernon. vernon says i can be more valuable as your first friend. any time clinton needed help, he would say call vernon and vernon was there. he helped. most importantly he was clinton's main source of relaxation whether on the golf course or anywhere else. jordan had the best judgment and

intelligence of anyone around including his staff. >> it is amazing and my window into this is their friends are most important to them when there is a crisis. they're also the people who never see them as someone who has to go clean something up with the press or fix something with a member of congress. ta see them as the whole human being and it is such an important perspective and it is so great to talk to you. the book is called "first friends," gary, thank you so much for spending some time with us. a quick break for us. >> thank you, gary. >> we'll be right back. , gary >> we'll be right back out of convenience, or necessity. we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware.

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♪ so it was a happy ending... someone once told me, that i should get used to people staring. so i did. it's okay, you can stare. when you're a two-time gold medalist, it comes with the territory. at usaa, we've been called too exclusive. because we were created for officers. but as we've evolved with the military, we've grown to serve all who've honorably served. no matter their rank, or when they were in.

a marine just out of basic, or a petty officer from '73. and even his kids. and their kids. usaa is made for all who've honorably served and their families. are we still exclusive? absolutely. and that's exactly why you should join. thank you so much for letting us into your home during these extraordinary times. "the beat" starts now with ari melber. welcome everyone, i am ari melber. pushing back the critic of a story in washington that we have been covering, biden's most force full defense yet of the policy, flights out of the country resumes today. white house officials think they do