friday night broadcast and for this week, with our thanks for being here with us. have a good weekend. stay safe out there. on behalf of all of our colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. there is a lot going on tonight, particularly for friday. a lot of news we are tracking. james look porsche, a u.s. marine, he was an infantry man who was a veteran of the war in afghanistan. he is also an excellent journalist. we've had him here on the show several times, featuring his reporting from, among other places, the military times. mr. look for that now works as a correspondent for the associated press. and tonight he was first to break the news that a new phase is underway, at least a new resources being brought to bear on the evacuation effort in

afghanistan. this is very interesting. mr. look the first to report at the ap today that u.s. forces in afghanistan, including intelligence agencies have started using helicopters to pick people up, to safely bring people to the kabul airport, so they can be airlifted out. he said today, i've been sitting on this -- as soon after james la port up posted that late this afternoon, zeke miller and three other reporters have this story. u.s. military helicopters were flew into taliban held kabul on friday to scoop up would be evacuees. american officials confirmed to

the ap today. the third brigade combat team of the armies 82nd airborne division airlifted the afghans from camp sullivan, which is quite near the kabul airport. the official said -- e official said -- now this is interesting. s interesting. again, that's outside of kabul.

the officials would not detail where these airlift sites were for security reasons. they spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing operations. let it be so, that these are ongoing operations. and that this reflects not just new ambition but new capability. let's hope this can work, to get more people safely out. as the situation outside the airport in kabul stays bad, as it seems to be getting, if anything, even more dangerous with each passing day. as of this evening the pentagon is only confirming some of the ap is reporting on the record, on helicopters being used to airlift people to safety. pentagon is only confirming some of that, but since some of this new reporting is about not just military operations but also what is being described as intelligence agency operations, it's perhaps not surprising

that the pentagon may be confirming it. not saying that because i know anything not reported, i'm just saying that based on what i know about pentagon not confirming anything on what intelligence agencies do. we shall see. we shall see. on the record, and out loud, the pentagon did say today that they greatly increase the number of people they were able to get out from the airport today. they announced at the beginning of this week, you may remember, that i thought the upper limit that the u.s. could get out, the number of seats on airplanes each day, would be between 5000 and 9000 per day. which meant 5000 and 9000 people per day could be evacuated. and we heard that number at the beginning of that week, and since then it's been disheartening each day, to hear them report to us that actually the total number of people who were able to be put on planes and were able to be taken out each day, has been way lower than that. at the beginning of the week it was less than 1000 people. by yesterday they had gotten up to 2000 people in one day. still way short of the

physicals capacity. but then today it seems like something started happening. today they said they flew out 5700 people, which means they are starting to fill the seats. if the maximum capacity per day is 5000 to 9000 seats, and today they got over 5000 people out, well that is what we have been hoping for. that every available sea will be filled. that's also reportedly wet president biden ordered military commanders to get done, to get the seats filled, you have no empty seats on any plane live in kabul. so a lot of interesting news. a lot of interesting -- not just interesting but potentially important news coming out today, including into this evening. we will have more live coming up with courting kobe, pentagon correspondent. stick with us, we have more updates. we will also be checking in with a pulmonologist, meaning a respiratory specialist, who is not only working in just the

right field, he's also working right in the bull's-eye of one of the most overwhelmed communities in the country in terms of hospital capacity running out statewide days ago. while the patient numbers in that state have been rising precipitously every day since then. going to be speaking with that doctor live, coming up in just a few minutes as well. i have to tell you, amazingly today, the state health officer for mississippi was asked to comment on -- asked to comment on we are, disturbing reports in that state, the hospitals are full, charitable groups are coming in to set up field hospitals in parking garage in the state medical center. low vaccine uptake seems to have doomed to states hospitals, as there is a huge number of new infections and sick people are swamping the system. in that state, that has enough

to deal with, they are facing a new challenge related to covid. the mississippi state department of health confirmed today that quote firmed today that quote i've remarked in. why are people taking livestock formulations of this drug in mississippi. that's a medicine for de worming horses. literally people won't take the vaccine because they are suspicious but they are taking horse de worming medication that they are buying at a feed store? for covid? when top of everything else mississippi has to deal with, are they dealing with this? i have a guess. >> we know that our fda has in many ways failed us by not

allowing for hydroxychloroquine, and another drug which are used around the world to prevent deaths. i pelted them with questions about covid-19 and the -- as well as other proactive treatments that are helping covid-19 patients across the country. weinstein discussed the benefits of an experimental drug, used around the world to treat coronavirus. you thought it was just hydroxychloroquine right? >> apparently they have been pushing this as well. it's curing covid all over the world. no it's not. there's been one significant study around the world, that that works for covid. that study has been withdrawn and it was apparently baked and

the introduction was plagiarized. nevertheless, fox news is busy saying don't take the vaccine but you take this horse the warming medication. trust us, it's proven. you could trust us or just the fda which says do not take ivermectin for covid. you could trust the nih which says do not take ivermectin for covid. the w.h.o. says do not take ivermectin for covid. even the company says seriously, my god, do not take ivermectin for covid. use it to de-worm your horses. this is not a covid drug. fox news says otherwise though. now, i made everything else, here's the state health department confirming to the mississippi free press today that yes -- that yes - storms ivermectin that they are buying it agricultural feed stores. you're taking a livestock formulation of it, because fox news didn't want them to do

that. for all the pressure on hospital beds in mississippi, the state health department confirming that at least one of the beds in the state is now being taken up by someone who had to be hospitalized for taking this drug that fox news channel told them to take. and then they pick to sum up at the feed store. here's the state health officer of mississippi today, exasperated having to talk people out of this. >> please work with your doctor. this is medical treatment. you wouldn't get your chemotherapy eta feed store. you wouldn't get your pneumonia treated with fewer animals medication. it can be dangerous to get the wrong doses of medication, especially something that for a horse or a cow. so we understand the environment we live in. but it's really important for medical needs to be gone through you provider or physician. >> i know we are in a crisis in multiple states now basically because of low vaccine uptake. i kind of thought we were past

the take other drugs instead that right-wing media and trump fans take. but i guess not. i didn't know we were still in the snake oil part of this. but i will tell you also, i went through some of the statements that former president trump has made since leaving office. and he actually has gone back to the hydroxychloroquine nonsense again. since leaving office. >> hydroxychloroquine actually works. remember? remember? i made a mistake on hydraulics-y. i should have said hydroxychloroquine is a disaster, please do not use it, they would have said. instead i said it works. and now reports are coming out that it works. >> no, there are not reports coming out that it works. it doesn't work. it's not a good covid drug. neither is your her stuff. that was his first big political rally post president in ohio, eight weeks ago.

going back to the hydroxychloroquine thing again. he's doing another rally tomorrow in rural alabama. hospitals in alabama are completely overrun with covid patients. the actual town he is appearing in literally just declared a covid emergency today and he will be there at a rally tomorrow. we'll see how that goes. but here's one other thing to see. in that same speech, that same rally where he goes back to the hydroxychloroquine nonsense, that was eight weeks ago. this was from that same speech. >> worse than afghanistan, how about that. we are, by the way, i started the process. all the troops are coming back home, they couldn't stop the process. 21 years is enough. don't we think? they couldn't stop the process. they wanted to but it was very tough to stop the process. by a government that wouldn't last. the only way they last as if we are there. what will we say? today for another 21 years, another 50.

the whole thing is ridiculous, so we are bringing our troops back home from iraq. bringing troops home from afghanistan. >> i started the process, all the troops coming back home, they couldn't stop the process once i started. it was very tough to stop the process. then he says the government there won't last, the only way they last as if we are there. it's ridiculous. so i started the process, they couldn't stop it, to bring all the troops home. the audience applauds. that was eight weeks ago. and whether or not you think it is a good idea or a bad idea to bring home u.s. troops from the war in afghanistan, here is the former president how he is the one who said that emotion. and he said it in motion in a way that could not be stopped, even though, even though he said the afghan government we definitely fall as soon as our troops left. he's bragging about that. getting applause about that from his supporters. and now it's actually less than eight weeks then he said that. u.s. in troops did leave, and

the government did fall. and now he's leading his supporters with unbridled chest pounding outrage that president biden must resign. that it's so terrible that the troops left and that the government fell. again, whether or not you are for or against u.s. troops leaving afghanistan, you can't before it, you can't create take credit for doing it, and for doing it in such a way that your successor could not reverse. you can't -- you can't say you are for it, take credit for doing it, take say that you made it so no one else had any choice. and then the against it when it happens. can you? i don't know. i don't know >> every effort should have

been made to evacuate americans, our allies and military equipment before rolling out. fair enough. every effort should have been made to evacuate our allies. every effort? every effort? three weeks before he put out that statement, congressman bill policy of florida was confronted with an actual thing on he could do on this actual subject. not theoretical. what some might call making an actual plan related to military operations. 22nd of july. house representatives voted on whether or not to expedite the processing of special immigrant these us for our afghan allies. for afghan interpreters, contractors and security personnel who work with u.s. forces in afghanistan. he says this week, every effort should have been made to evacuate our allies. literally three weeks before that, he got the opportunity to vote to make more of an effort to evacuate a horrific life. if you vote though on the. he voted more no undoing more

to evacuate our allies. and he says he's outraged. can you do that? kept president trump both take credit for withdrawing u.s. troops from both get a stand for, seven in motion in a way that cannot be reverse? can also be against the fact that it happened? can a congressman like bill policy in florida the outrage that more was not a ton to make sure our afghan allies were evacuated right after he voted against doing more to make sure we would evacuate our afghan allies? can you? can you do that? olivia olivia troye served as counter-terrorism and security adviser to vice president mike pence during the trump administration. she served as a key convenor of the white house to covid task force. and she quit that senior level job in the trump white house during the covid crisis. she became a whistleblower, basically, about the things she saw within the administration

that her conscience could no longer bill. and that she felt the public needed to know. today, miss troye broke new ground and explain some things publicly that had never been explained before. why it is, what explains, why our afghan allies, this valued as and high priority as they are. why afghans who had the special visa category created them because they worked as part of the security mission in afghanistan. they helped our forces there. why can't they get their visa applications processed? why is that process so broken and under resourced? why does it take so long? here's olivia troye earlier today. quote, i met with numerous external organizations during my white house tenure who advocated for refugees and pleaded for help and getting u.s. allies through the process. i got the phone calls and letters as a homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser to vice president mike pence. she said quote, the system wouldn't budge, regardless of how much this was argued about

a national security council meetings. the pentagon weighed in saying we need to get these allies through the process. mattis and others send memos. now, that is checkable, actually. and we checked and she is right about that. here is the defense secretary james mattis memo in september 2018 tell in the administration. advising the administration as secretary of defense, do not limit the numbers of people who are going to get in. we need to protect and prioritize these iraqis and afghans who aligned with our diplomats and fighters by prevented providing said essential sport. olivia troye saying today quote, mattis another sent memos. we all knew the urgency, but the resources had been depleted. what does that mean? why the resources depleted? well, she has the story. she was there. she says quote, there were cabinet meetings about this during the trump administration where stephen miller would peddle his racist history about

iraq and afghanistan. he and his enablers across government would undermine anyone who worked on solving the ice ivy issue by devastating the system at homeland security and state. a she says quote, i tracked this issue to personally in my role during my white house tenure. we got nowhere on it because trump and stephen miller had watchdogs in place at the justice department and homeland security, at state and security agencies, that made the already cumbersome siv process even more challenging. quote, the fear of people across the trump administration to counter these enablers with palpable. there were numerous behind closed doors meetings. strategizing about how to navigate this issues. she says quote, trump had four years while putting this plan in place, to evacuate these afghan allies with the lines lifelines for many of us who spent time in afghanistan. they've been waiting a long time. the process slow to trickle for

reviews, other priorities. then it came to a halt. now, to be clear, what olivia olivia troye is saying here, for the afghans who held u.s. troops and forces in afghanistan, who are now getting so much attention -- for all the right reasons. these are afghan allies of our forces. they are supposed to be able to get visas to come here with their families in thanks for what they did for our country. special visa category was created for them if, or just that purpose. she saying yes, that process of getting that visa was already conversant. she saying under the trump administration, while they were making over plans to end the war in afghanistan and bring all u.s. troops home from afghanistan like trump was bragging about. while trump was bragging that yes, certainly, he would bring home all the troops. and yet certainly the afghan government would collapse as soon as he did that. but he wanted the troops out anyway so that's what he was said in a motion. while they were setting all that emotion during the trump administration, they were also simultaneously deliberately

sabotaging the process. what does she say? she called it devastating the system. at homeland security and the state department on purpose. so that those visas for our afghan allies would get stuck in the system for ever. so those afghan allies wouldn't be able to get out. as they were planning to take out all u.s. troops, were up and they knew the afghan government would collapse. they deliberately sabotaged the process to make sure those afghan visas would not be processed in any timely manner. elizabeth newman was a senior homeland security official under trump. she today publicly confirmed olivia troye's account of how this happened inside the trump administration. at the highest levels the trump administration deliberately sabotaged visa process for these allies, which is why so many of them have been stuck all this time. some of this has been hiding in plain sight. in 2019, a federal judge ruled that the trump administration

actually broke the law by radically dragging out the process of administering these, and refusing to give answers to afghans and even members of congress who were inquiring on behalf of afghans who had worked with u.s. troops. and who had applied for the special visas. a federal judge ruled that they broke the law by breaking the system, so that these visas would never get processed. it was hiding in plain sight that the system was broken under the trump administration. but still, it is another thing altogether to have senior officials from inside the administration say yes, that process was broken. it was broken deliberately. it was broken deliberately deliberately. in order to strand the afghans who helped us. joining us now is olivia troye, who served in the white house as a top adviser to vice president mike pence. olivia, miss troye, it's nice to see you. thank you so much for being back with us tonight. >> thanks for having me. it's nice to see you again. >> let me just ask you -- we reported out what you wrote today as fast as we could, and

try to match it up with publicly available reporting and documents. obviously, you've been cooperated in your account by elizabeth newman today, who is at the homeland security department in a position to know. let me just ask if i got anything wrong? or from misunderstanding any of this? >> no. that's exactly it. it's been incredibly frustrating for me to watch some of these narratives being pushed now that if trump were in office, he would've rescued all of the translators and all of these interpreters. that will would be fine. and it's also awful to watch narratives saying that the afghan refugees and interpreters aren't welcome here. i've been thinking about this. it's been bothering me the entire week, as we watch the events enough against unfold. like many others, who had been there on the ground, traveled in afghanistan and gotten to know the afghan people. and know that the life lines that these interpreters and other u.s. allies provided to

us on the ground, it's hard to watch what is happening there. i guess my point a writing the thread was, watching what is happening here and watching president biden work now very hard to rescue all of these people while we still can, i just think about the thousands of people that were in this pipeline for several years. who should have been processed. who should have gotten through this pipeline. and i'm talking about afghans. and i'm talking about iraqis, to. right? we saw the withdrawal from syria where we know, my colleague elizabeth newman knows this week, talk about this all the time. many of these people did not make it out a life. and they were our allies there. so, watching this is incredibly angry and frustrating for me. because for four years, this administration under trump did nothing. and the decimated the process. they destroyed. and it was very challenging for those of us working on these

issues to really push the needle forward or get anything done. i know mike pence knows this. he knows that this fall fell under my portfolio. he would follow up with me. he would call me to check up on some of the applicants and find out what the process was. but it was a well-known think that stephen miller and allies were -- we had to meet with them. their heads of office. they were installed and purpose. some of these loyalists eventually were installed in the nfc were other public servants, career servants, who were dedicated to trying to figure this process out, were then removed from their roles and replaced with loyalists who only followed trump's orders. >> olivia, one of the things that emerged in the court case over this was a class action case brought in federal court on behalf of people who qualified for special immigrant visas, who weren't getting them. because the process got so broken.

one of the things that emerged in that court case where the trump administration was found have broken the law by breaking the process so much on processing these things, is that well as you say today, they started off as a cumbersome process, the number of siv visas that were issued overtime by the u.s. government dramatically declined under president trump. and that the process actually broke the law. there's a legal requirement in terms of how quickly people need to hear, one way or the other, about their application. and it ain't almost every single case, the law was broken because that timeframe, that nine month timeframe, was exceeded. was it clear to you within the trump administration, and these discussions about these things, that this was a deliberate thing? that there wasn't just something that had slowed down and gone wrong? that there was an and purpose effort to make sure these visas would never get cleared? ke sure these visa would nei >> think it was. for those who were of us who are working on this issue. we knew that the offices were

under resourced, that they were overwhelmed. that they were working at number of things. and the response would be like, there is a border crisis. and their asylum seekers. yes, these people it's, the same office that a lot of them handled the workload. and that's true. but why aren't we resourcing them? when we talk about the mattis letter -- and the reason i mentioned that letter is because we were going to a cabinet meeting that he could not attend. and i remember that so vividly because he wanted to be on record, via that mammal, that was delivered during that meeting, to really highlight the fact that we needed to figure out how we were going to get these translators, specifically in iraq, into the pipeline. when we are trying to basically reduce the refugee ceiling. and that pipeline falls under that processing system. and he knew that the system was being under resourced and it was being targeted by people like stephen miller and these people. so i use that as an example

because case in point, we navigated this issue very carefully. and i when i say closed door meetings, it was very hard to see department people that i worked with very closely, who went behind the scenes, have conversations with me. and there were certain sometimes situations where people come to me and say, you are our last hope. can you push this through your office? can you push this through the office of the vice president? maybe his voice will get through on some of these issues. >> olivia troye served in the white house as a top advisor and homeland security and counter-terrorism to vice president my spreads. a live your, thank you so much for your time that. i know after all this time, it's not easy to talk about these things. but it's a public service. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> all right, we've got much more ahead. tonight. stay with us. us >> sir, on afghanistan, are you afraid that once u.s. pulls out that the taliban will basically just overrun -- >> that's why countries have to

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they were able to get more people out of kabul than any previous day, they got 5700 people out in one day today. for one eight hour stretch today no planes took off from kabul at all. while that was worrying, the defense department later explained that it wasn't a problem on the ground. at least not on the runway at kabul. it was an issue on the ground where the flights were going. most of the flights have been ferrying people to qatar, that's where the state department has been processing visa applicants and holders and even american citizens before they are flown onward to their destination. today apparently, the site at cutter they've been flying to was full up. the defense department said they're landing site in qatar was at capacity.

and paused until they could make room for oncoming groups. the defense department said they are setting up additional locations at kabul to head to. another allied nation in the region will be next after qatar has done its part. they are hoping this backlog does not happen again. but flights did resume after that eight hour pause. and as i mentioned, biden announced today that 5700 people were successfully evacuated from afghanistan in one day today. those kinds of numbers were close to the 5 to 9000 capacity that the pentagon said at the beginning of the week was the physical capacity for this airlift operation. at least in the most basic terms of the sheer number of people they are able to fly out every day, it seems like maybe today was a mark toward hitting that's dried. joining us now is courtney kube pentagon correspondent. i know this has been an intense week for you, thank you for being here.

>> sure, thanks for having me. it feels like that 5700 number is a much better number than we have been seeing. is that getting close to what the defense department wants to be doing on a daily basis now until they clear all the people they want to clear? >> yes. and they actually -- if they were operating at their full capacity that they have the ability to do, they could get upwards of 9000 out today. what is difficult here is the numbers. they are just confusing, they always are in these cases. and how do you measure the 24 hours? so what we know is, they have really ramped up the evacuations up until late yesterday. and that was when there became the capacity issue at the next place where they were taking the evacuees, at doha, qatar. they were able to get thousands of people out through the week, but if you take them someplace, it takes several days to process and then move them onto another location. so they just got a backlog. they could only care for so

many people, and they're not going to take these refugees, many of them carrying a backpack and nothing else, they are not going to take them and not provide food, water, shelter, sanitation. so that's what we saw today. and basically led to what was really a scramble. a diplomatic scramble to find other locations where they could send these people. and this is both afghans, americans, there are some other third country nationals, some other nato allies. and there was a long stretch of time today, somewhere between six and eight hours, where there were no flights. and i should point out that when that first flight went out, there was another lag of several more hours before another flight, so there really was a slowdown. but defense department officials feel confident that they will be able to, now that they have identified other locations, that they will be able to get the flights coming and going back toward the pace where they were yesterday. >> and courtney in terms of the dangerous conditions outside the kabul airport, the gates in

the walls of the kabul airport, there was interesting reporting, somewhat contested by the pentagon, it seemed, this evening, that there have been at least a limited number of helicopter airlifts within kabul. and according to the ap, even beyond kabul, we are various u.s. government agencies, both military and intelligence, have been able to pick up people and ferry them by helicopter safely into the kabul airport where they get on to flights and get out. as i mentioned, it is a bit contested, it seems there is no on the record agreement as the what exactly is the extent of this. agreemenbut is it your sense ths is actually a resource that is being employed to get people over the wall? >> and we heard from president biden for the first time that this was a possibility. after asking this question all week. and being told, well, at one point secretary austin seem to indicate that the u.s. didn't have the capacity. the reality is that they have the capacity to do this.

but for the first time we heard today about some u.s. military action nook helicopters that went in and picked up 69 169 americans. so these types of planes are a people mover. it's depends on how they are configured on the inside. but what is interesting about this is that our viewers may not be familiar with kabul airport. but there is a hotel that is literally maybe 100 meters or two meters from the gate, called the abbey gate. they were able to pick these individuals up from there and literally hop them. it's a very short hop. via this sort of helicopter, into kabul airport. and the reason being, i guess these individuals had met at the hotel and they were going to get some sort of access into the abbey gate. and at the interim, before they were able to get to the gate, a large crowd of people, afghans

-- it's not really clear who it was but i guess there were some potential danger for them to walk that distance. and so the military came in and said helicopters. why this is significant is because it is this a harbinger of what could be coming? is it possible the u.s. military may decide to start picking up other people? at this point it doesn't seem. so it seems like this really is, was a case was where they were close to the airport, it was a relatively easy landing zone. it was a safe and quick flight. but it opens up the possibility, combined with the fact that president biden said today, that they were going to get every american out and he opened up the door to picking people up who may not be able to get to the airport on their own. >> courtney kube nbc's presenter concert correspondent who's been up approximately 40 hours per day for, the past seven days. courtney, thank you so much being here with us tonight. appreciate it. your reporting is in fantastic. thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> all right, more news ahead, stay with us.

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unvaccinated people continues. we have not had a particularly good week. we have seen increases in our hospitalizations again. as you know, our state has a negative capacity of icu beds at this time. which is extremely problematic. >> a net negative capacity. alabama state health officer dr. scott harris. today, the state of alabama has not had a particularly good week. as we reported last night, the things in alabama right now is not good in a simple and easy to understand where. as he said, they have negative icu capacity. they have no icu beds available at all. and the ones that are in existence of being used have a waitlist for them. hospital beds in the state are maxed out all over the city. and that is happening with the

statewide patient senses right now. patient numbers of 27, 2800. that's the crisis level for alabama. now, university of alabama birmingham are predicting by this month time next month is gonna be more like 5000 people who need to be hospitalized in the state. where are they going to go? and you can see the strain and individual communities all across the state. for example, in coleman, alabama, which is the city where president trump plans to hold what he's calling his, epic political rally, tomorrow. in advance of that rally, coleman today declared a covid state of emergency. today, a hospital down in southern alabama on the golf course announced that they are getting a deployment a federal medical staff. federal federal medical staff from the department of health and human services to come reinforce their staffing, because they are stretched beyond breaking. as alabama struggles, one of the thing the states is relying on heavily really trying to

pivot hard to is getting antibody treatments for people who have tested positive in order to try to keep them out of the hospital. monoclonal antibody treatments. doctors have a lot of experience with that is our next guest. doctor david thresher is the respiratory director of dr. jackson hospital. he's helping to manage all of the critical care patients across montgomery. doctor thresher, it's a pleasure to have you with us tonight. thank you for being here. >> glad to be here. >> i'm worried about that simple math in the state. where we've got between 27 and 2800 people in the hospital and it seems to be a tipping point. in terms of no icu beds and, most all hospitals having no beds at all. but this prediction that those numbers of people needing to be hospitalized my nearly double within a month. i don't understand how this state is going to cope with that stream. state is going to cope wit >> it is going to be very hard. we're already maxed out. i said a year ago, you can be a

good nurse and i can put you in a parking lot and have an icu. i've got a parking lot, i've got a ventilator, i don't have good nurses there out homesick. a lot of our health care providers are homesick. the last three days i've been notified that i'm treating nine providers right now. those providers are not taking care of patients. i had one entire family practice that went out wendy. it was tough. >> talk to me about the hope that you have around monoclonal antibody treatments. i saw your quote this week calling this antibody treatments the golden goose for treating covid. you said, everybody understands this is the answer. we've been talking about these treatments for a long time on the show. and the nih now says that it is very easy to qualify for these treatments. and they of course are free to the patients. the federal government will cover the cost of them. can you explain why you're hopeful about them and whether that might offer a way out? or at least a relief valve in your state? >> sure. i was contacted last november

by about five days after we got approval for a merge and see use authorization. i got educated on it, started using those. alabama at that time had more monoclonal antibodies given per capita than any state. we've been doing this for years. we develop infrastructure across the state, myself and dr. mike from university of alabama. that kept us from surging so bad last winter. we have a different drug now. the same thing that president trump got. we have broad eligibility. i've said, if you are 12 years old and you can walk and talk in alabama, you probably qualify. what i mean by that, you have to be -- a few other things to qualify. most people qualify. and if people get to us and let us know early within ten days of symptoms, not diagnosis, but

symptoms, we can keep you out of the hospital over 70% of the time. and mortality drops dramatically. if we can get people treated early, and that's what we're trying to do in alabama. expand capacity. and our problem here is so many of our good nurses and checks are out sick. >> doctor david thresher, respiratory directive jackson hospital, in montgomery, alabama. we're in the middle of a very difficult storm. but making really resourceful decision, sir. good luck to you and your team. come back, keep a surprise. while we think we've got alabama in our hearts night. >> thank you very much. >> all right, we'll be right back. .

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we were joined here live on the air from the kabul airport by a long time and the sea msnbc producer. he it made is a journalist, he's been working with other outlets and us throughout the years. he's not at all a stranger when it comes to dangerous reporting. even just this week since kabul fell, he's been great out of his way to track down and interview tele-matt fighters. but as much as we had ahmed on last night as a journalist to talk about what's going on in kabul, we also had him to talk about his foreign experience as a dad and a husband trying to get his wife and kids into the airport and out of the country. here's another piece of video that we have fake to ahmed. it shows the gigantic groups of people crowding up against the airport gates trying to get in. he is able to shoot that footage because he was in the middle of it. he and his family were cleared to leave, vouch for, and set up. but as he told us last night,

they still hadn't and intense physical struggle just to get through and into the airport. >> as of last night's show when we talk to him life, he was still with his family at the airport. they were not able yet to get on to a plane. i can now happily report that not only was ahmed's family able to get on a plane i. can report tonight that they are safely out of the country. they are out of afghanistan. and as we reported, ahmed himself was at the airport to make sure they got on a plane. but he did not get on a plane. he himself his team behind of his own volition. he wants to continue interviewing some of the most dangerous people in the world. to document what happens in afghanistan once western forces leave. at least he can do to that tonight that his family with peace of mind that his family is out of harm's way. there's been so much bad news out of afghanistan this week, that at least nice to get this little bit. ♪ tuesday, payday♪ ♪ wednesday, payday♪ ♪ thursday, payday♪ ♪ friday, payday♪

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with the great jonathan capehart, filling in for lawrence tonight. good evening, jonathan. it's nice to see you. >> it is great to see you, rachel. thank you very much. welcome back from your well earned vacation. >> thank you, my friend. thank you. god bless. >> have a good week. breaking news tonight. the pfizer vaccine could be fully fda approved as soon as monday. millions of people have received the two dose pfizer vaccine under emergency use authorization. the moderna vaccine is expected to be fully approved in the fall. experts believe full approval will make a difference and convincing some people to get vaccinated. but perhaps more importantly, it could lead to a surge in vaccine mandates. today, the cdc reported 135,494 new cases of coronavirus in the united states. across the nation, the weekly average for covid hospitalizations is 11,521. that's an increase of 14.2%