just so hard to learn the lessons of the past. also this hour, republicans in texas poised to pass their restrictive voting bill after some democrats returned to the state. is it a surrender or a tactical retreat in this fight? i will talk to one of the democrats who have returned to texas ahead. bu i do want to start with the latest on a hurricane that could impact more than 40 million americans. new york governor andrew cuomo has declared a state of emergency for long island as residents brace tore landfall sometime tomorrow morning. we just heard from the massachusetts governor a moment ago. we expect to hear from connecticut governor ned lamont shortly as well as new york city mayor bill de blasio. we will bring those to you as well. right now i want to bring in meteorologist michelle grossman who is tracking the storm for us at this hour. we talked to you 3:00 p.m. eastern, and we know these things update pretty quickly, every hour or so. what has changed? >> so, unfortunately, nothing

has changed. the good news is nothing has changed, but then that's the bad news, too, because we are looking at a category 1 form. we had the last advisory at 2:00. the next one comes in at 5:00 and that's where we will see changes. as we look at satellite, we notice it looks the same. it sort of looks diss organized, it doesn't look like the classical hurricane shape, but we know a lot of red and that's the thunderstorms. it is a category 1 and there will be many impacts with the storm. as we go throughout time it will be in warm weather it right now 75 miles per hour. it is moving north/northeast at 17 miles per hour. not a bad speed. it is not too slow or too fast, but once it makes the first landfall and then a second landfall, we will really see the brakes put on and that will cause a lot of problems. first let me show tu track as we go throughout the waters here. we are looking at very warm waters, bath water. that's is why we're maintaining the category 1 status and going through low wind shear and storms like that so it will

maintain the strength. the first landfall expected over the eastern portion of long island sometime tomorrow morning and then it will make a second landfall anywhere between the border of connecticut and rhode island, to be determined over the next hours but somewhere in new england and then it will slow down. when you see the white lines, it is 12 hours. you can see it doesn't go very far. that will give it a lot of time to drop a lot of rain. the biggest takeaway from henri i think at this time will be flooding rains. we are already saturated from what came through with fred, and we're going to add to that as we go throughout the next three days. then it sort of turns off to the east. it turns to the right, so still by monday at 8:00 we are talking 24 hours from sunday at 8:00 to monday at 8:00 p.m., not very far. so that's going to be the big takeaway with trees coming down, power outages. it is august, it is going to be hot. some could be without air conditioning so we have warning in place. the reason these issued because

you want to take heed now if you want to get everything in place. did difference between a watch and warning, a watch is that it is possible, a warning is that it is imminent, it is either happening or expected. that's what we're expecting. where you see the red, montauk, new haven, islip, if you haven't already prepared today you want to do it now because we are going to start to see things really deteriorating tonight into the early part of tomorrow, and then that landfall early, around 11:00 or noon. where you see the orange is your tropical storm warning extending from providence town to the jersey shore. this is a large area impacted. look at this, isolated rain amounts up to 10 inches. where you see the ma room color, those are the spots that will get the most rain. when you have a tropical system most of the rain tends to fall on the western side of the center and then on the eastern side you have the storm surge. >> michelle. michelle, stand by for us because we want to go to the connecticut governor, ned lamont, who is speaking now briefing the folks in his state. >> exacted on our state and our

region. this is particularly severe because it is going to be 8-plus inches of rainfall on top of tons of rainfall that we've had over the last week. that means our ground is saturated. that means our ground sitting on top of non- porous luring is like a flood. there's no more absorbing and that leads to flood in. combine it with the fact we will have an astronomical tide. i mean astronomical in the sense we have a very full moon, the highest tides you can have. that combined with the wind gives a risk along the coastline and interior flooding with the saturation of the soil. the saturation of the soil combined with the fact we could have 70, 80-mile-per-hour winds, that makes the trees a lot less secure. they go over, power goes out, and eversource and ui have

warned us there could be hundreds of thousands of outages over the next, you know, few days and beyond. that said, i'm standing here with some folks at the emergency operation center, and i want you to know that i don't think connecticut has ever been as well prepared for a storm as we are for hurricane henri. we work very closely, as you can imagine, with our utilities in particular, eversource, united illuminating, and they're assuring us they will have twice as many people on the ground pre-position as we had a year ago. that makes a big difference. we will be able to respond faster and respond in a way that does everything we can to keep you safe. the other thing we've work on very closely with the utilities as well as the telecom companies -- and if you go back here at the emergency operations center, the big round table with the boards in front, we've had all of the commissioners, and

that's d.o.t., transportation, d.e.e.p., we have the guard, we have 200 guard that have been activated, doing everything we can to make sure the lines of communication are clear. i do not want any confusion in terms of what is going on out there. you will be able to call any time you want 211, our emergency line, or even better go to the 211.org and you will get the current information of what is happening. they are plugged into each of the regional operation centers so they will be able to tell you by region what exactly is being remedied and how fast it can be remedied. along the way we just met with all of the mayors and others, remotely, of course, and made sure that they activate their emergency operation center town by town. each of those operation centers is going to have a representative of the utilities assigned to that so they get immediate response in terms of trees down. i can't promise you the trees will be back up and your power

is back up within 48 hours, but i can tell you we will be able to do the best we can to get you a response in order to keep you safe. look, i think we found out from hard way electricity is not nice to have, but electricity is an absolutely essential service. we know what it means in terms of medicine. we know what it means in terms of food. we know what it means in terms of the fact next week we could have 90-degree weather. we are tracking very closely those most at risk including, for example, our nursing homes, making sure if they're right in the eye of the storm, if they have to evacuate we know where they can be evacuated to. making sure we have the stand-by power so we can keep the cooling centers available and we can keep people safe. i just urge you on a personal note, as i have said before, two things. stay safe, stay home. get yourself a little extra gasoline, make sure you have your phones all charged. make sure you have three, four,

five days worth of food stored. make sure you have the phone number of some people that maybe are living alone and need a little extra assurance. so you can reach out to them and care for them and make sure they're taken care of. but i can tell you here on behalf of, you know, season and myself and all of the folks at the emergency operation center, we're prepared for what could be a tough storm. we are going to hold the utilities accountable, but right now we have the folks on the ground ready to hit the ground running and do everything we can to keep you safe. with that, any of us here -- >> all right, everybody. we were taking a listen to the connecticut governor, ned lamont, of course, briefing the folks in his state about hurricane henri which is barrelling toward his state, likely to make landfall tomorrow morning or so. want to bring back michelle grossman back as i had to cut her off for the governor there. you have heard the governor speaking about power outages which you have been talking

about all day, talking about the massive amount of rain we could feasibly get and the storm surge looking at the long island sound. talk me through the impact they could feasibly see when it comes over water, making landfall and then you have the long island sound and then connecticut, is there a potential the storm could feasibly weaken by the time it makes landfall in connecticut given it has a bit of land to make its way over? >> it is such a good question. you gave so many great tips and takeaways, too. it could feasibly. it is expected to decrease a tad, but you know what? it is so close, it is going to make land fall in long island as a category 1 and decrease to a tropical storm when it hits connecticut or rhode island. but you know what? the numbers don't really matter. the impact is going to be the same. >> got it. >> we are still going to get the heavy rainfall. he mentioned that sponge. that's what it is. it is like a soaking sponge that needs to spin itself out and it will be really slow. i showed you the graphic where

it is painfully moving slow, so it is going to go over the saturated grounds. really by that point it doesn't matter where the winds are. of course, you want the winds to be lower because the trees will be so weak. we will have leaves on the trees. still. they have full foliage and that will bring the trees down easier. assisted living, you know, your moms, dads, elderly neighbors, you may want to check on them. >> especially in the state of florida we have heard of nursing homes that have been overrun when the air conditioner has broken, they've been without after a storm, for shows vulnerable folks. michelle grossman, thank you for tracking this. appreciate it. we are going to pivot. we will continue to watch henri but i want to talk about

afghanistan and brand-new reporting we are getting from nbc news, learning that the u.s. is tracking specific threats from isis against kabul airport and against americans and others trying to get to the airport. this is coming amid warning from the u.s. embassy specifically telling americans to really stay away until instructed otherwise. back here at home you have lawmakers continuing to weigh in on this situation. one house democrat who originally opposed the withdrawal of the u.s. troops from the country penned and op-ed saying this, quote, catastrophe and taliban takeover of afghanistan is exactly what he was afraid of. joining me is that lawmaker, democratic congressman of rhode island, a member of the armed services and homeland security committees. thank you for joining us on this. appreciate it. also obviously a congressman of a state in the eye of the storm, that storm headed towards your state. so hopefully folks there preparing as well ahead for hurricane henri. let's talk about afghanistan and i first want to get your reaction to the new reporting

about a threat from isis to the kabul airport. >> well, i'm deeply concerned about any threats to american citizen has are trying to get to the airport so that we can ee eevacuate and get them home safely as well as afghan partners that put their lives on the line over the last 20 years. in afghanistan, these interpreters who helped u.s. troops, in terms of providing intelligence and other interpreting services and other support that ultimately, no doubt, kept our soldiers safe and really saved i'm sure countless lives. >> let me read a little bit from your op-ed in foreign policy magazine in which you write, this negligence was par for the course for the last u.s. administration. i am disappointed to see it now. at minimum, the biden administration owed our afghan allies of 20 years a real plan. congressman, what does a real plan look like to you?

>> well, a real plan would have been very thoughtful about withdrawing people in phases. certainly doing this in a thoughtful way so that you get u.s. personnel out and then our afghan partners and then ultimately our soldiers home safely. but i also would have preferred, and it would have been much smarter to withdraw people and troops during the winter months as opposed during the summer months when the taliban are at their high strength. usually this is kind of a cycle. in the winter months the taliban fighters, they hibernate in caves for the most part, they're a low level of activity, and then in the spring and summer months, that's when the taliban -- that's their fighting season, they're at their strongest. look, all of that being said right now my focus is on getting our american citizens home safely along with our afghan partners and their families.

if those people stay there, especially the afghans, it could very well be a death sentence for them and their families, most likely would be. we can't allow that to happen. they stood by us, we need to stand by them and get them out of there. >> what do you make of this appeal from president ghani who left his country over last weekend when he saw the taliban advancing towards kabul to president biden and saying, if you take the people out now it will seem as if there are no confidence in our government? >> yeah, and i would have like to have seen obviously a stronger presence so that we had sufficient support for our afghan partners. look, we all want our troops home safely, and we definitely want this war to come to an end. the problem is that, you know, we also have to remember why we

went there in the first place, which is to prevent a safe haven for al kield au or any organization that would plot and plan against us. and with relatively small numbers over the last -- especially the last year, the 2,500 or so soldiers that were there were really a force multiplier, they were training the afghan security forces. they were providing isr and, again, intelligence support and air cover. the afghan security forces were doing the fighting against the taliban and we were providing support, but with that not there anymore it is so disappointing to see that the afghan security forces collapsed so quickly. you know, general milley talked about that and, you know, i agree that, you know, you can't buy or train will or leadership, and it is really troubling to see that after 20 years where we gave the afghans and the afghan security forces every advantage

and every ability to train up and be ready to defend their own country that they collapsed so quickly. so, again, my focus right now is how do we get american citizens out safely, get them home, and then also our afghan partners and then, ultimately, our soldiers. that has to be our focus. >> congressman, before i let you go i want to get you on the record in saying whether you feel there should have been a u.s. security presence indefinitely to support afghan forces? >> i wouldn't say indefinitely but, again, remember what we are getting for that small number of our troops that were there. it prevented all of this bad stuff from happening in terms of afghanistan collapsing. but, again, right now -- and i believe that we owed a better plan to our men and women in uniform, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. i'm concerned.

plus, the afghan partners with us. now the new fate that is on women and girls in afghanistan as they face this new reality, but we have to go forward. there is going to have to be a stronger diplomatic effort now for some type of political solution there so hopefully we can protect human rights and prevent a resurge in al qaeda or environment where any organization can plot and plan against us. we have to be ready for that. that's my fear now, is that once again afghanistan becomes a safe haven for terrorists to plot and plan against us. we cannot allow that to happen either. >> congressman, thank you. appreciate it. so let's talk big picture here, right. the taliban's rapid takeover of afghanistan, it is not the first time the u.s. has failed in nation building efforts overseas in iran to iraq to north africa. the push to create stabilization where intervention has been questionable at best. almost two decades u.s. troops have been in afghanistan,

multiple presidents called for their removal from the country insisting the mission was successful enough if removed afghan forces could hold their own. >> we're starting this draw down from position of strength. al qaeda is under more pressure than at any time since 2011. >> our military mission in afghanistan will conclude on august 31st. the drawn down is proceeding in a secure and orderly way. >> so the question is were they just so focused on exiting without coming up with a plan of exactly how to exit and will, in fact, america ever learn its lessen. joining me editor and chief of foreign policy mag sky. and peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" and msnbc political analyst. ravi, i want to start with you on this one. i am sure you were listening to my interview with the u.s. congressman and he talked about the timing of the withdrawal and how even the timing of the withdrawal was not exactly en pointe in addition to

obviously the plan for this withdrawal. >> yeah, that's right. thank you for having me. that was an op-ed he wrote in "foreign policy" my magazine. he is right. there are many criticisms one could level at president biden right now about the way that the withdrawal took place but i think the one that sticks most is the timing is sort of the botched sense of the intelligence gathering, or at least listening to the intelligence that was coming in at various points. but the point that, you know, were this withdrawal to take place during the winter season when the taliban would be less likely to be mobile, that's very hard to disagree with. so it seems in that sense that there is some merit at least to the theory that this could have waited, and that working backwards from sort of the 9/11 self-imposed deadline in a sense ended up being self-defeating. >> let's try to answer, ravi, if we can this bigger question i posed, coming to the both of you, and that is has america, will america -- peter baker, i

would love you to weigh in on this as well -- learn its lesson when it comes to nation building and trying to democratize nations in the middle east. you talk about afghanistan, the long history the united states has with afghanistan, you look at what has happened in iraq, you think about the history with iran dating all the way back to the mid '50s and how that worked against them as well, putting the shah in power. will america at this point ever learn its lesson in understanding to a certain extent as to whether or not they should leave it up to the people of that nation if, in fact, they want to democratize? >> well, i think there's a growing movement now in the united states to sort of acknowledge that forever wars have been self-defeating. you know, this group is known as the restrainers, a nicer way of saying isolationists, people who are making exactly the argument you are making, which is that you can't nation build in countries that don't necessarily want democracy from within, and

in cases that sees the united states as unpopular or at worst around enemy. in those cases we have seen setbacks where it is the shah of iran, the withdrawal from somalia in '94, the occupation of iraq, there are so many examples to draw, not only from u.s. history but also going back further into british imperial history where it became very clear that there were many countries around the world that had strong anti-colonial impulses, and that simply because of that were more likely to fight western countries off over time. i mean we all have heard the great famous taliban line, you have the watches, we have the time, and the clock was ticking in a sense on afghanistan right from 20 years ago to this moment. given all of that i think a better way of looking at u.s. involvement is to see more

specifically what is in its strategic interest at the current moment. >> yeah. >> i think the biden administration will argue that afghanistan was simply not -- staying there was not in their strategic interest anymore. instead, it took attention away from china and from the fight against climate change. >> it is interesting, you use the word want, whether or not they want democracy. the question would be whether or not they can even sustain democracy in a place like afghanistan. peter baker, i can't help but wonder, and i know it is kind of more of a philosophical big picture kind of conversation we are having, and i know the white house is dealing with the immediacy of what is happening on the ground in kabul, which they very much should be. these are people that sacrificed their lives for americans for two decades now, but is it a conversation you foresee happening inside the walls of the white house going forward, especially when it comes to kind of strategically the benefits it has to the united states? >> yeah, look, i think there will be a hangover from this for years to come, long after this

administration is over in the same way that vietnam sort of, you know, framed our debate about the use of military force and the times when it makes sense or does not make sense to apply, you know, military pressure overseas for years after we got out. this is going to, you know, be something that presidents going into the future talk about for a decade or more i would guess. and there is a real question about the utility of nation building obviously. nation building right now is a term with a bad odor about it. it feels like it is a mistake on the part of america given the experiences and the failures that ravi just talked about. remember, america felt like there had been a time we actually did do this right. we helped germany rebuild itself and create a new nation after world war ii, the same with japan, the same with south korea. these are very different countries today than they were because of american efforts at nation building, but it hasn't been as successful in places in the middle east in recent years, particularly in afghanistan. afghanistan has its own peculiar

history as ravi alluded to. you ask the british from the 19th century, the soviets from the 20th century and we're the latest of the superpowers to experience what is called the graveyard of empires. it doesn't mean there's not a way of finding ways to help other countries build better societies, societies that are in tune with their own values as well as the values of, you know, freedom for all. i don't think that freedom or democracy are inherent to one particular type of people or one part of the world, but, you know, obviously there are going to be lessoned learned about how you are going to go about doing that, how you do it with a partner that wants that, how you do it in a way that is sustainable. one of the problems we have learned about afghanistan is that the taliban was not a foreign force, it was not an outside force, it was not al qaeda which was an arab group that insinuated itself in afghanistan. the taliban were a part of afghanistan. it is a significant part of the dna of that country that led to

the taliban's continued resilience over the years. i think that we've now seen the results of that. >> peter, let me read quickly from the piece that you wrote for "the new york times" kind of talking about what biden ran on and that was competence and empathy as you put it in the title of the piece. the tumultuous end gain of mr. biden's withdrawal has nonetheless undercut some of the most fundamental premises of mr. biden's presidency that unlike his erratic self-absorbed predecessor that he brought policy seasoning, adults-in-the-room judgment and surfeit of them. this could have been a slam dunk of what the president ran on but it hasn't been as well. >> right. >> here i am on national television having to say that. thank you s.a.t.s. >> you're right about that. what is surprising to a lot of

people is the idea that biden could be presiding over such a debacle is antithetical to what we thought we were getting in him. we have known him on the national stage in so many years. obviously you have not had a president come to the oval office in decades with as much experience in high levels of international affairs as joe biden has had, yet it seems like it has been so badly handled obviously. the empathy part is important. he expressed the feel-your-pain style of politics so well last year, especially in the year of covid, that it felt like a great contrast with donald trump who couldn't seem to connect to people's pain. this this case the president has come in front of the public a few times this week without ever really seeming to kind of share the suffering and understand the humanitarian tragedy happening on the ground, not just for afghans who work with americans who may, in fact, still manage to get out if they manage the operation better, but for the 38 million afghans who are going to remain behind who will be living

now under a regime that is about as brutal and about as vicious as any we have seen in modern times. you haven't heard him talk about that. >> right. >> in the way you would expect joe biden to do. >> yeah. peter, ravi, appreciate it. thank you, guys. still ahead, everybody. millions of people bracing for hun cain henri as it heads straight for new york and new england. preparations underway to keep people in the path safe. a live report coming up next. stay with us, everybody. ♪ ♪ and one we explore one that's been paved and one that's forever wild but freedom means you don't have to choose just one adventure ♪ ♪ you get both. introducing the all-new 3-row jeep grand cherokee l jeep. there's only one. age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein

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welcome back, everybody. we are moments away from a live briefing from new york city mayor de blasio as the nation's largest city takes precautions ahead of hurricane henri. when that happens we will bring it to you. right now they are beach communities from new jersey to new england preparing for the worse as hurricane henri tracks north, forecast to make landfall sometime tomorrow. i want to bring in nbc's cat park in new london, connecticut,

tracking the storm for us. at this moment, kathy, folks behind you playing at the beach, someone behind you giving us a wave knowing you are on live television. nonetheless, that community preparing for what is likely ahead. >> reporter: hey there, yasmin. good afternoon to you. i can pretty much say you have more people actually exiting the beach than coming in. typically on a saturday afternoon the weather is pretty nice outside. we are told the beach, the boardwalk would be pack, but obviously we have this hurricane that is looming, expected to potentially make landfall in this area tomorrow at some point. so people are heeding the warning. we spoke with an official in charge of ocean beach park where we are right now, and we are told that the beach will be closed tomorrow and his staff tonight for the duration of the evening will be picking up any loose items, anything that could potentially become a projectile once the storm enters this area. we also stopped by a local

hardware store. we spoke with a manager there. he said that it has been pretty much busy all day. take a listen. >> folks have been coming in pretty regularly, seemed to be taking it seriously. it is the first hurricane we are supposed to get in a few decades, but it seems like everybody is paying attention, getting ready well in advance. so, you know, hopefully everybody is able to stay safe through it. >> what seems to be flying off the shelves? >> batteries, flashlights, gas cans, generators, just all of the standard preparedness stuff. >> reporter: the governor of connecticut has also declared a state of emergency. the big concern in this area is the potential for the power outages, also inland and coastal flooding as well, yasmin. you know, the beach, once again, is thinning out. obviously people are starting to make their way out and make those preparations, but it kind of remains to be seen exactly where this storm will make landfall but people are starting to listen to the warning. they are on high alert, especially in this area as we

kind of hunker down and brace for what is to come tomorrow. >> all right. kathy park for us. thank you, kathy. good to see you. let's talk texas for a movement. after 38 days the quorum break that brought the texas legislature to a screeching halt has come to an end last night. three new democratic defectors joined colleagues on the floor. given the quorum, the major thin margin it needed to resume work on the restrictive voting rights is allowed to move forward. with me is texas representative nicole collier, one of texas democrats holding the line and refusing to return to the legislature. thank you for joining us on this. i appreciate it. you shared a joint statement from your colleagues who have yet to return, and they called the decision for some democrats to join the quorum a betrayal and heartbreaking. do you share that sentiment? >> absolutely. it is very disappointing. this is not -- this is not at

all how we envisioned this coming to an end. you know, the people who went back to the floor, these are senior members, and what we've been talking about is integrity this whole time. what we saw happen on the floor when they returned was nothing but. it was just a complete fiasco, and without them calling the question to verify strict enforcement or actually ask for verification of the call because clearly there was not a quorum. if we are talking about counting votes and having integrity in elections, there was nothing about that vote that happened on that floor on that day that was -- can be called integrity. >> let's talk a little bit more about the divide we are seeing in the democratic texas state legislature. you have the colleagues who returned calling the group's efforts, quote, unquote, successful. you have democratic representative michelle beckley tweeting that their decision to

return is how texas democrats, in fact, lose elections. what do you make of this? >> well, every member is entitled to their ono own opinion, of course. but going back is the only way we lose. the only way we can have some success is if we hold out. i think what the people who went back are saying and what i'm hearing them saying is success because we got this voting bill, the federal legislation on the front burner but it is not done. we still have more work to do. congress will be taking this up on tuesday, so we still have more work to do to fight for federal intervention, but the success was bringing it to the front burner for congress but it is not over. we are far from over. we can't throw in the towel. we must continue to take a stand and stand up for the freedom to vote for all texans and all of

america. >> what does it look like to you at this point? how do you move forward? what are you going to do? >> well, we're going to continue to hold the line and we're going to boycott the special session. there are still matters that are on that call that are very harmful to texans besides that election bill. we saw them move quickly. in fact, they tried to have a hearing on the same day that they had their so-called quorum. so we know that they're not interested in hearing from texans. so we're going to continue to raise awareness about the fraudulent way that the texas house is moving forward and make sure that we can get some federal oversight, some model legislation so we can at least get some type of protection at the federal level from our own state. >> i want to give you the opportunity, representative, to respond to your lieutenant governor who, in fact, blamed vaccine hesitancy on the african-american population in texas. here is what he said.

>> 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. >> your reaction? >> that's offensive and misinformation. that's how you spread hate. he needs to sit down and be quiet and not talk about things that he doesn't know about. people in the african-american community are doing our best, our level best to make sure that people -- we are vaccinated and practicing social distancing and following the guidelines of the centers for disease control. for him to make these blanket statements is only a way to spread hate and misinformation about a community that he's not connected with. >> texas state representative nicole collier. thank you so much. i appreciate you joining us on this. coming up, everybody, rethinking america's role in global affairs with a failure to form a sustainable democracy in

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welcome back, everyone. missy ryan, "washington post", pentagon reporter, joining me to talk about what she meant in the piece i just read. in talking about really america's position overseas, we see what is happening in afghanistan, but what does it mean for america and its allies, right? you mentioned, for instance, tobia elwood tweeting out, what happened to global britain and america is back? the largest high-tech military alliance ever defeated by an

insurgency armed with mines, rpgs and ak47s. we can and must do better. there's also sound from uk foreign secretary jeremy hunt. i want to take a listen to that, missy. >> president biden said this week that his only vital national interest in afghanistan was to prevent a terrorist attack. even if that is the case, both he and president trump should be deeply ashamed, and i say this with great sadness, because their actions have returned afghanistan to the very government that harbored the 9/11 bombers. >> you think, missy, about the g7, right, and there was a sense that, yes, in fact america was back after four years of donald trump in the white house with joe biden in the white house now, and yet you hear the sentiment from the uk parliament and think, what, in fact, will happen with the alliances america has forged because of

the withdrawal from afghanistan. >> yeah. thanks for having me. it is a very complicated moment for the biden administration. you know, they had been, as you say, seeking to stake a claim on, you know, leadership of the free world, returning to a new version of american leadership, albeit sort of adjusted for the times that we're facing and the challenges the united states is facing at home. but, you know, this -- the way this situation in afghanistan is unfolding is really creating questions and consternation not just among allies but countries that, you know, have sort of counted on the united states as fairly reliable partner despite the last four years. and so what we are seeing is a real questioning. i think, you know, sort of doubling down on the questions that were created under the trump administration, and it no longer is seeming as sort of an anomaly, the last four years, but now people i think are

asking themselves, these are european allied countries and other nations with whom the united states works around the world, is the united states going to remain a partner that people can't really rely on . >> and then there is the question of, you know, places like russia and china that will, in fact, fill this void. there is historical precedent, right, to support that argument, that that's exactly what they want to do. the chinese foreign ministry releasing a statement and saying they will forge a relationship with the taliban. >> that's right. and the irony is president biden, what he says he's trying to do is to provide the bandwidth and the resources the united states needs to actually face its greater strategic challenges, which are coming from these great power nations as they're called, russia and

china. but, you know, in essence, when it could be actually doing is creating a space for them to expand their influence, certainly in central asia, potentially throughout the world. and i think the european countries as we wrote about are questioning whether they themselves need a to play a greater role, but the european countries will also say they're constrained by the stories of their own populations, by their finances. so nobody expects the eu to step in and take the kind of military role that the united states has taken in the past. certainly nobody is suggesting that the biden administration is going to pull out of all the places where it has troops stationed overseas when it conducts everything from freedom of navigation operations, there's no suggestion it will do that on any broad scale. i think the question right now

what is the foreign policy approach of the biden administration going to be, and how does that rhetoric potentially differ from the actions and the decisions on the ground. >> thanks for rolling with us through the technical difficulties. my head-scratcher of the week, a decision that will make women in texas less safe, those who made the decision know it because doctors told them but they think didn't care. a frankly appeals court upholding a texas law that bans the most commonly used procedure to end second-trimester abortions. but the fifth circuit ruled the texas one can, in fact, stand for now. doctors must now use alternative methods in the rare cases after 15 weeks despite the fact they can result in serious complications and even death. this next story was almost my head-scratcher of the week, but it seems like everyone knew where this was headed, so i give

it the five five of the week. the new host of "jeopardy!" stepped down after criticism. mike richards was confronted with a series of controversies, including past sexist comments apologized for. i'll just choose myself, is what he said. i give it a high five because there is now another chance that fan favorite and"reading rainbow" icon levar burton could get it. burton tweeted out a subtle "happy friday." we'll be right back.

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welcome back. with wildfires continuing to ravage the west in a record-breaking hot and dry summer, a newly released draught forecast paints a bleak picture. the west is in for above-average temperatures a blow-normal rain and snow through november. water levels in california's reservoirs continue dropping to dangerously low levels. for more on this, with he go to scott cohen in los gatos, california. good to see you. how is this going to play into fighting some of those wildfires. >> reporter: they have enough water to fight the fires. that's not the issue. it's that the fires themselves so relenting because it's so

dry. we reported from here before. this is lexington reservoir, one of the reservoirs serving silicon valley. this reservoir is operating at about 22% of its capacity. and again, it's only august. they need to make this water last until the rains are supposed to come in the fall. and then look at the drought situation across the west. the dark areas on the map are exceptional drought. this is the worst two-year period in 130 years, and the longer this goes on, the greater the risk. >> the conditions are really dangerous because we have an accumulation of fuel. we have lots of buildup of fuels, lots of stuff to burn. with this drought, the fuels are extra dry. and so when there's a fire, it's burning much hotter than otherwise would be. >> reporter: and you can see what's happening across the west now. these fires are growing fast and

there are so many of them, nearly 100 fires across the west have burned some 2.7 million acres. and the concern is that this is early in fire season. we start to get wind events until the fall, the santa ana winds in the south and the north winds up here in the north that fan the flames. so everyone is bracing themselves and hoping the forecast for an even longer drought doesn't quite prove accurate. >> scott cohn, appreciate it. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm yasmin vossoughian. i'll be back tomorrow 3:00 p.m. eastern. "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. good evening, and welcome to "politicsnation." tonight's lead, for the people, take 2.

right now democrats are attempting a legislative end-around, pushing what they believe is their best chance to restore some voter protections amid a nationwide suppression campaign by republican lawmakers for the second time this year. democrats have introduced voting rights legislation named for the late john lewis, looking to surmount gop cynicism by focusing squarely on the voter protections that lewis lived, fought, and died for. it comes as the windows are tightening in several states to extract those restrictions before the end of the year and the beginning of the midterm election cycle begins in earnest. and the battle lines are growing clearer in each state, specifically those at the center of the fight as texas democrats ended their