"way too early" with me on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. let me be clear. the evacuation of thousands of people from kabul is going to be hard and painful, no matter when it started, when we began. it would have been true if we had started a month ago or a month from now. there is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss and heartbreaking images you see on television. it's just a fact. my heart aches for those people you see. we are proving that we can move thousands of people a day out of kabul. we're bringing our citizens, nato allies, afghanis who have helped us in the war effort, but we have a long way to go, and a lot could still go wrong. but to move out 30,000 people in just over a week, that's a great testament to the men and women on the ground in kabul and our armed services.

>> amid mounting criticism over his handling of the withdrawal from afghanistan, president biden yesterday arguing the exit from that country was always going to be difficult. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is monday, august 23rd. we will have full coverage of the situation in afghanistan, including a report from the ground in kabul in just a moment. but first, what could be a big day in the fight against covid. the fda is working to approve pfizer's two-dose vaccine as soon as today. according to "the new york times," the goal was to get the approval by friday but regulators are still getting through a substantial amount of paperwork and negotiation with the company. people familiar with the matter told me that some components of the review could possibly push the approval date beyond today. the times said a spokesperson

for the fda declined to comment. >> it could be very exciting news, mika p. we talked to people that are close to us that said they're not going to take the vaccine until they get fda approval. we're excited the fda approval is coming. and i'm sure their vaccines will be coming. maybe that will pump up the number of americans getting the vaccine and we won't have to spend as much time on this show talking about the terrible tragedies that continue to happen across this country because of unvaccinated americans. >> let's bring in physician dr. kavita patel, she's an msnbc medical contributor. so fda approval could put some people over the line when it comes to making the decision but i think fair to say, dr. patel, that people should get the vaccine either way that this approval is coming. >> yeah, mika, that's right. good morning to you all.

look, we now have a pretty unprecedented occurrence with hundreds of millions of people that have received the vaccines and now we're months into this and have of course been able to look at side effects, safety profiles ad nauseam, so i would not hesitate to recommend the vaccine to anybody regardless of their immune status, we now have data about that. as you and joe discussed, full approval will help not just individuals, we're already seeing increasing numbers of vaccinations, over a million in the last 24 hours and that's been sustained the last several days, that's great news. but that will pave the way for requirements or mandates that employers, schools or cities are looking at. >> we have about 190 americans that have been vaccinated. >> 189 million. >> 189 million that have been vaccinated, gotten shots. i'm wondering why is it that it's taken the fda so long to go

ahead and if they do, in fact, do this today, to approval it officially, if you have that large of a number of americans that have already used the drug without significant side effects? >> joe, it's a valid criticism. i think being a former government person what i can tell you is happening behind the scenes that americans aren't aware of is thousands of pages submitted in that full application that pfizer submitted, moderna submitted, and others, those thousands of pages get reviewed, scrutinized and studied regardless of how many people have received the vaccine. that's important because, as you point out, even some of our own close friends and colleagues are still reluctant because it doesn't have that full seal of approval. so that behind-the-scenes process, you don't want to rush it. but i will say you are spot on

to be critical to make sure the fda is working 24/7 on this, and we should keep the pressure, especially when it comes to the kids authorization because that's the next group we want to see safely vaccined. >> here's something else the fda is dealing with. on saturday it needed to issue a warning against using the veterinary drug ivermectent, from people were using a drug to deworm animals. >> look at that, it's straight out of the onion, except people are poisoning themselves. there's a consumer update

dealing why they -- there was a spike in poison control call following a number of personnel that the de-worming drugs for cows and horses -- let me say that again, there are people on television saying that a deworming product for cows and horses is a safe treatment for covid. >> we know that our fda has, in many ways failed us by not allowing for the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, both used around the world to reduce covid hospitalizations and deaths. >> i pelted them with questions about covid-19 and the vaccine and ivermectin as well as other proactive treatments that are

already helping covid-19 patients across the country. >> i just got to say, you look at the headings down at the bottom and when they're talking, when they're talking about getting americans to take deworming pills that are used for cows, they have the audacity to have their lower third say covid confusion. >> no. >> covid confusion? it has been coming from many of the same sources, including one who is now acting shocked and stunned that there is a medical cartel that doesn't want you, that doesn't want you to take deworming medication for cows and horses. let me -- i'm going to give it to you straight here, as i

always do. it is probably true, they probably have that right, that medical, quote, cartels do not want you or your loved ones to take deworming products for live stock. and making this all the more proospeer rouse, said and dangerous nbc learned that feed stores in alabama are selling out of the drugs. officials are having to put the warning out there, do not take deworming products that you would normally use on your cows or horses. >> joe, i -- i don't even know where to begin. i'll be the first person to tell you, if it worked, i would -- we've seen such devastation from

covid, i'd be willing to take that leap. we've seen trial after trial, international and national that looked at ivermectin that in humans can be used, but it doesn't work and does harm. i have been stunned at the number of doctors who prescribed it, feed stores are selling out of it, what universe have we been in where in 2020 i had to tell people not to drink bleach, i occasionally have to tell people not to do that, because they're worried that would work if they get covid or exposed to covid. now here we are talking about identify -- ivermectin. >> it is unbelievable. dr. patel, thank you so much. >> don't take deworming medicine. >> please don't. >> i can't believe we're even having to say it. >> what we see here is a

follow-up on the don't drink the bleach, fda had to put that out. >> don't inject it into your skin. >> hydroxychloroquine, it causes bad side effects don't take that. the fda had to put out a statement there. now we have to have people put out statements, please don't take your cow's deworming medicine. >> we can check these all off as noes. >> at the same time people are taking their cow's deworming medicine, they're not taking a vaccine that nearly 200 million americans have already taken. a vaccine that science shows, medicine shows will actually significantly cut the likelihood of you getting covid and getting bad side effects from covid down to like .00005. more of a chance to get struck by lightning, more of a chance to die from a tree falling on you than actually having a

negative side effect. serious negative side effect from this vaccine. but no, please, go ahead take the horse deworming. no, don't do that. what's wrong with you? tj, can you show us the fda --. >> tweet -- >> -- tweet again that looks like it's out of the onion. this tells you where we are in 2021, where we have people who are actually dying, whose loved ones they're watching dying, who aren't taking the vaccine, people who are -- we seem to have a new story every day, people who are tearing up and crying because they found out too late that, actually, the vaccine could have saved their life. and here we have the u.s. fda you are not a horse. you are not a cow. serious, y'all, stop it. >> god. >> speaking of alabama. >> yeah. so let's do that.

former president trump, who had the hydroxychloroquine and bleach ideas, held a rally over the weekend, where he encouraged his supporters to get vaccinated. >> that's very good. that's what we've been asking. he did have to modify his message, though -- >> just a dad. >> -- after dr. frankenstine got booed. >> i recommend take the vaccines, i did it, it's good. take the vaccines. no, that's okay. that's all right. you got your freedoms, but i happened to take the vaccine. if it doesn't work, you'll be the first to know, okay. >> let's bring in jonathan lemire and katty kay. he got booed. dr. frankenstein lets his monster out and it turns on him. that said, at the same time,

holding two different thoughts in your mind at the same time, jonathan lemire, this is what we've been asking donald trump to do, what health care providers have been asking donald trump to do. he said, you should take it. i took it, and when they -- some of them booed him, he went back and said, you got your freedoms but i took it. and then told a little joke at the end, people laughed. i actually glad he did it. hope he continues doing it. >> joe, this is good, but it might be too late. and that is the fear that a lot of people have. that even an endorsement from donald trump you won't change the minds of so many of his supporters who have heard now for a year and a half his doubts and doubts of people around him about science. it is good. we've been asking for this for a long time. he has done previous television interviews saying you should

take the vaccine but never gave a full-throated endorsement of the shots despite having taken it back in january, he did it back then behind closed doors as he was sulking about the results of the election. he has a few times now encouraged people to take it, this was the strongest take yet, you need to get this inoculation, it will keep you safe, he respected their freedoms, but he did get booed. he, of course, reacted to it. the man has always been able to read a room. he had to modulate his message but didn't withdraw. he said take a shot. but we're seeing a year and a half of the republican party and conservatives who follow donald trump turn their back on science, the virus itself, whether they believed it was real, last year and the doubts on the vaccine, it was that refusal to take it is what's fuelling the outbreak in the south, largely red states,

largely in communities that supported donald trump. as a final point, the white house, of course, is grateful any time a republican leader speaks out to say you should take the vaccine, whether that's mitch mcconnell, some of the southern governors and now even yes, donald trump, but they fear too many aren't going to listen to figures like that. that's why messages need to come from the communities, local doctors, pastors, whoever it might be, someone on the ground more than donald trump, it's someone in their community that might be more effective. >> katty kay i want to show you this again. please don't tell anybody in britain that we're having to send this out to americans. the united states food and drug administration had to send out a tweet on august 21st warning people against taking horse and cow deworming medicine. said you are not a horse, you are not a cow.

serious, y'all, stop it. we heard from mississippi that they were getting poison complaints, people fearing they were poisoned by cow deworming medication. who would have thought that. and, of course, you have people on other networks who were suggesting, i don't know, maybe there's a medical cartel that doesn't want you to take the same medicine for deworming that your cow takes. it's all bizarre, while again almost 200 million americans have be vaccinated and the numbers are overwhelmingly positive, safe, and the numbers of unvaccinated people cramming emergency rooms across america and stopping other people from getting life-saving treatments just keep going up. >> who knew the fda had a sense of humor, i'm glad they did. but this is bonkers, right. people taking horse worming medication when the indications are that it's harmful for you and the studies suggest this

does nothing to help covid. just because a few people on fox news have suggested this might be a good idea, a weird conspire covering up the fact that ivermectin may work against covid. this is the realm of the absurd. this happened last year when we had doctors and hospitals saying we had people coming in trying to drink clorox and bleach because this would be a good thing. as if doctors didn't have enough to deal with, now they're having to deal with people poisoning themselves from taking horse worming medication. this makes no sense. all the time, there is something they could be doing. why are they so resistant to taking something that has been proven to work, that millions of americans have taken, that is extremely safe and effective. they are so resistant to trying that, but clearly they want to try something so they're

prepared to try something that's unsafe, has not been proven and the studies say don't work. let's hope local doctors and pastors can convince people that the vaccine is safe and get people over the edge. that or more mandates are going to do it. >> from hydroxychloroquine to lights shoved in bodies, to bleach and now to cow worming medication, can't make this up. all to do everything they can to avoid taking what will be looked back upon 100 years from now as one of the most remarkable medical achievements in history. and that is a group of scientists across the world being able to get a vaccine in less than one year. and start delivering it into the arms of americans and people across the world.

that's just a monumental achievement, and yet here we have people deciding to listen to dunder heads that tell them -- i borrowed that phrase by the way, dunder heads telling them they need to take cow deworming medication. still ahead on "morning joe," the battle over school mask mandates escalates in florida with the state's department of education appearing to follow through with threats to cut funding for districts who defy bans against requiring kids to wear masks in school. are you kidding me? plus former president trump appears to be praising the taliban calling them, quote, great negotiators and tough fighters. there's been torrential flooding in tennessee. it got so terrible so quickly.

some areas saw up to 17 inches of rain. dozens of people have been reported missing. we'll have bill karins with us for the latest. not only on the northeast storms but also what in the world happened in tennessee yesterday, just terrible. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. (struggling vehicle sounds) ensure complete! think premium can't be capable? think again. ♪ (energetic music) ♪

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news correspondents from ron allen, kathy park, and vaughn hillyard. >> reporter: henri pounded the shores of long island, not the hurricane many expected but the rain and wind still extremely intense. >> pretty crazy. a lot stronger than i thought it would be. >> reporter: across the region, downpours caused flash flooding. in new jersey, nearly 100 motorists who ignored the warning rescued from vehicles. a huge concert in central park evacuated because of lightning. >> proceed to your vehicles. >> reporter: the park drenched by more than 4 inches of rain. warnings of more high water possible in soaked inland areas. >> now is not the time to say we are out of harm's way. we are not out of harm's way. >> reporter: from the tip of the furthest point out, the keeper of the lighthouse watching it all unfold. sounds like long island dodged a

bullet. >> we could have been worse. not to say it was all that good but it could have been a lot worse. >> reporter: with henri headed to massachusetts and expected to reach new hampshire and maine in the coming days, many in its wake breathing a sigh of relief. >> reporter: tropical storm henri tore through new england downgraded from a category 1 hurricane but still packing a powerful punch after landfall with damaging rain and heavy winds. in rhode island it knocked out power to thousands. >> the crews have people out across the state working on restoration. >> reporter: president biden saying federal support is standing by. >> fema has prepositioned resources in the region to speed our ability to respond. >> reporter: massive waves crashed the coastline. residents venturing out when it appeared the worst was over. >> we lost our power at home so

we came out to enjoy the waves here. >> reporter: in connecticut more problems with power. at least 24,000 customers losing electricity. kristen dal gren is there. flooding is an issue as some places breathe a sigh of relief, flash flooding could be a threat, especially to the west of where we are. in connecticut four nursing homes had to be evacuated 250 residents moved as the storm was approaching. >> reporter: with winds clocking over 50 miles per hour in massachusetts, trees didn't stand a chance. and inland, roads turning treacherous. a damaging blow from henri, as it winds down and moves out. >> reporter: heavy rains bared down in the heart of tennessee, 17 inches, causing floods that turned deadly. >> the water was -- it had such tremendous force. i've been white water rafting and i've never been down water

like that. that's how the water was coming down. >> reporter: at least 21 lives lost and dozens missing. among those killed 2 toddlers. the national guard and other state emergency teams trying to account for those missing. it knocked out cell service and mass power outages complicated efforts to find each other. >> there was a house here, the women and children were on top of the roof waiting for someone to come help them. >> reporter: homes, cars and roads wiped out as residents clung on for life. >> what did the storm look like to new. >> it was a river. >> through the town? >> yes. a river through the town. >> reporter: a community, including the county sheriff reckoning with the tragedy. >> they just went and got one of my best friends, recovered him. he drowned in this. >> let's go straight to bill

karins for the latest on all of this. where do we stand? >> let's talk about tennessee and what happened first. in middle tennessee they've never seen flooding like this before in anyone's lifetime. the record on that creek was 20 feet. when they hit that flood, they hit 30 feet. it was 10 feet higher than the highest anyone has ever seen. it's all because of 17 inches of rain that fell, a new state record for the state of tennessee, they never had that much rain anywhere else before. this all struck early saturday morning, some people were sleeping when the floodwaters came in, the thunderstorm was at night. so a lot of the reasons why it was so deadly and so destructive. let's get to henri. we were lucky with the storm, it lost a lot of punch at landfall. the tropical storm making landfall in new england, a densely populated area we'll take it any day. the storm is still lingering.

so today, because the ground is so saturated, we've had so much rain, central park up to 8 inches of rain in the last three days. we still have 30 million people under flash flood watches. the rain will be from new york city shifting to massachusetts and connecticut during the day. we could see heavy rain bands, harder than when the storm made landfall later today. here's the track of the storm. near boston late tonight into early tomorrow morning and we're done with the storm as henri is a tropical depression. noon today, 1:00, moving through central connecticut and the evening rush hour, the mass pike and i-95 from providence to boston dealing with heavy rainfall. we could see some additional flash flooding from henri today, the majority of the damage is over with. for the clean up efforts in tennessee, the weather is fine, it was okay yesterday, too. but, you know, looking at that

tragedy and that amount of rain in that short period of time, just eye opening and so sad. >> bill, thank you very much. we turn now to the latest on the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. speaking to reporters at the white house yesterday, president biden said the u.s. may extend the august 31st withdrawal deadline as evacuations in kabul continue. since august 14th, the military has evacuated 28,000 u.s. citizens, allies and afghans. but many more still remain. amid mounting criticism, president biden argued yesterday that the exit from afghanistan was always going to be difficult. nbc news white house correspondent monica alba has the latest. >> reporter: president biden conceding the evacuation from kabul has been hard and painful. >> we have a long way to go. and a lot could still go wrong. >> acknowledging military

discussions on whether to stay beyond the august 31st deadline. >> our hope is we will not have to extend. >> reporter: and expanding the safe zone around the environment. >> the environment is changing rapidly. >> reporter: as the situation outside the airfield continues to deteriorate. a state department memo revealing that 150 unauthorized individuals rushed through the gates whenever they're opened. senior officials concerned over a possible attack on crowds from isis. >> the threat is real, acute, persistent and something we're focused on with every tool in our arsenal. >> reporter: there are at least several thousand americans stranded in afghanistan. the white house not ruling out sending additional forces to help. with the president seeking input from his military commanders on the possibility of more troops. in a 30 hour period this weekend, the u.s. military helped air lift 11,000 people from kabul.

the biden administration negotiating agreements with two dozen countries on four continents to serve as transit points. military planes touching down regularly in germany. the pentagon activating emergency use of 18 commercial aircraft to fly evacuees to america saying it won't impact u.s. flights. once refugees arrive, many will be housed at the dulles expo center in virginia before being transported to army bases across the country. >> never has evacuating and getting 2,500 troops out of a country required so many troops. we're going to expand the perimeter around the base to try to get more americans and more afghans over to be evacuated. i will say, 28,000 people have been evacuated this week. i remember mika and i were saying after that first chaotic

day this is still a fluid situation and they need to establish the perimeter. and get these people out. and i've got to say, what we've seen, at least, has certainly moved in the right direction. they are getting, you know, 28, 30,000 people out and how high is their goal? where do they want to end up and what are they thinking of the operation right now? >> joe, this is a matter of when two things are indeed true at once. there's been marked improvement. the president said yesterday they got about 4,000 people out on saturday, 4,000 americans alone on saturday, expecting to hit that number, too. that's their goal, even higher, he thinks it could be 7, 8, 9,000 a day with the flights. the airport itself fairly secure. but the issue is, we just heard, is for people to get to the airport, how treacherous that travel is. there have been warnings from

the state department that americans should not attempt to make that trek. as desperate as they may be to get out of kabul, the journey is just too dangerous, in part of the new threat from islamic state fighters who might be targeting crowds. so we've seen americans push back that perimeter. the white house has confirmed they've used helicopters to evacuate americans from positions outside the airport. we know that commercial flights have been evacuated. once people are air lifted out of afghanistan go to third party countries then commercial airlines can be used to get them to their eventual destinations. but there's a long way to go, there are tens of thousands of people, especially those translators and people who helped the united states want to get out of the country. that's why we heard a little wiggle room about that august

31st deadline. this is something the president has told his aides inside the building that this was always going to deteriorate. they were going to lay down their arms. they were surprised how quickly but it was time for america to get out of there. he has shown no quorum changing his mind, drawing on his 40 years in the senate, many on the foreign relations committee, saying this is my decision and i'm sticking with it. indicating he's showing no signs of dismissing anyone, firing anyone on his staff in the wake of this, even though the administration itself has taken such criticism from both parties. >> he's extending the perimeter around the airport, the president is ordering that. also extending the deadline. this didn't go the way they expected, obviously. i'm curious, how convincing is that argument, there was going to be chaos no matter when we

left. especially you juxtapose that statement with the images of the first day, people chasing a plane, falling off of it, getting crushed, being dropped from it. does that argument work with the american people and the world? >> you know, i think part of the problem is the president's own words before the withdrawal, he said this was not going to be a saigon situation, the taliban is not taking over kabul in the short term so he had time. he boxed himself in, because he presented it as something the united states had under control and they were expecting something organized in terms of withdrawal. then as we saw the weekend before last, it really went very badly very quickly. that is what surprised the white house and what they were unprepared for. there's a nuanced argument to be had about whether the u.s. should have withdrawn totally, whether it should have left some troops there in the kind of capacity they had in order to

keep the situation stable. you can argue both sides of it. i can hear both sides of it and i can make a compelling argument for both of those cases. i understand it's a complicated argument and there are valid points on both sides. i don't think anyone in the white house can say what happened in the early days of this withdrawal was exactly what they had anticipated. even when the president told george stephanopoulos it was baked into it, there was going to be a certain amount of confusion. i cannot believe that anyone in the white house or the president himself believed you were going to have people clinging to the wheels of airplanes as they took off from kabul airport. nobody thought it was going to be as bad as it was in the early days and for the administration to try to say now, it's just what was expected, it doesn't ring true given the president's own comments. we're seeing some transparency, the president's remarks were acknowledging of the fact it's a really difficult situation on

the ground. they're less at odds with the facts on the ground. and that's a good thing. the president needed to be more candid and the white house needed to be a bit more candid on what was happening there and how it didn't match up with what they were saying was happening. >> it's such a great point, katty, there are nuanced arguments made on both sides. the argument i made is we should be kept the 2,500 troops there, like we should have kept the 3500 troops in syria. but if you have followed afghanistan as long as joe biden has, and you see the levels of corruption, you see the betrayal of afghanistan -- the people of afghanistan by the government there, you understand just how rotten to the core karzai has been before he came to power,

while he was in power and while americans were spending billions of dollars on that country, you can certainly understand an argument for the other side, let's get out, let's get out now, 20 years is too long. i am wondering, though, jonathan lemire, as we move forward, katty was talking about there seemed to be a bit of softening in the president's tone over the weekend, understanding that everything didn't go according to plan. i'm wondering if if we can expect more of that in the coming weeks, saying this is a thing that had to be done, yes, we were surprised. we're doing everything we can now to fix things up, fix the perimeter, bring americans home and to bring our allies home? >> katty is right. there was more squaring with the facts yesterday from the president. and also we've seen a little more display of empathy from him about the situation that so many americans in afghan were going through, which was absent at the beginning part of the crisis,

the first part of last week. there's no sense of a policy change beyond what we talked about already, perhaps extending the deadline slightly, moving out the perimeter. but there will be certainly there's an effort and president biden has promised any american who wants to come home can come home and made a similar promise to the afghans who helped us, although that will be a heavy undertaking in the weeks ahead. but this is something he does feel like still needs to happen. i think there's going to be a very painful internal review as to what went wrong. there is acknowledged even though they're not saying it publicly, white house officials i talked to, acknowledged the evacuation did not go according to plan. and while the president may not be looking to dismiss anyone in the near future, they acknowledged things won't wrong and figure out what happened. they are concerned about what the future of afghanistan will look like. i heard from a white house official who now says over

37,000 people have been air lifted out of kabul since the start of the evacuation began on august 14th. that is indeed good news but they have a long way to go. >> that is good news. 37,000 troops, there was the times and washington post reporting there were bottlenecks in qatar and getting people out of the airport in kabul and that the humanitarian situation was actually declining, so good to know they're picking up the pace today there. and now we're up to 37,000 evacuated. let's hope that number keeps go up. >> let's bring in max boot, columnist for "the washington post." one of your columns is entitled trump & co engineered the pullout from afghanistan and now they criticize it. to illustrate your point here's what former national security

adviser h.r. mcmaster said about the role former secretary of state mike pompeo played in what we're seeing now. >> our secretary of state signed a surrender agreement to the taliban. >> you're talking about mike pompeo? >> yes. this collapse goes back to the capitulation agreement of 2020. the taliban didn't defeat us, we defeated ourselves. >> so that's h.r. mcmaster, national security advisor for trump talking about trump's secretary of state just in real time that he saw this happening. and, max, now they do something that is so trump-y, which is now pretend they're on the other side of this. >> right. i mean, it's -- you know, we really define chutzpah for donald trump, mike pompeo to suddenly be claimed they're outraged by the horrors of the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan because they're the ones who set this in motion and made it far

worse than they needed to be. if we wanted to withdraw, we could have just withdrawn but trump and pompeo and the rest, they signed a surrender agreement as h.r. mcmaster described it, with the taliban, which involved not just the u.s. withdrawing, but also forcing our allies and the government of afghanistan to release 5,000 hardened taliban terrorists, most of whom took part in the offensive that toppled the government. simply by meeting with people and by dealing with the taliban but not involving the government of afghanistan in negotiations, the trump administration delegitimized our allies in afghanistan and badly undercut morale among the afghan forces so they set this in motion. and they have no right, no standing whatsoever right now, to criticize what is happening. and, you know, badly as it's been going, and it's improving a

little bit, but it's been, obviously, a badly bungled execution, but i don't think anybody who watched the incompetence of the trump administration over four years could have thought that trump would have handled it better. one of the few saving graces is that now the biden administration is making the effort to evacuate tens of thousands of people, not just u.s. citizens but afghans that helped us. i can't imagine trump going to that effort because already you see his base demonizing the afghan refugees. and you have people like tucker carl saying we're going to be invaded by afghans. >> you and i i think have said the same thing about biden, this was trump's plan but i think i heard you say the same thing, it was joe biden that went ahead

with it. so the buck stops with joe biden. and he is the one that was responsible for the chaotic pullout. but my point has been, and i guess the point you're making is, if you're a trump supporter and like a lot of my friends are who were sending me emails, i'd write back saying don't -- listen, there are a lot of republicans in congress that criticized donald trump for trying to make peace with the taliban. they have room to talk right now. but you as a 100% trump apologist, you have no room to talk because as you tick down the list, donald trump, of course, talked to the taliban. he was talking about the goofy idea of bringing the taliban to camp david -- >> oh my god! >> -- he sent his secretary of state over to negotiate the sur

-- surrender of the united states to the taliban. he cut out the afghanistan government, undermining them, making it known it was fait accompli. and then donald trump started criticizing joe biden in april for not getting the troops out fast enough. that is -- again, that is what's so laughable about people, donald trump apologists acting shocked. there were quite a few republicans, quite a few conservatives that were critical of donald trump, people like liz cheney who were critical of donald trump kowtowing to the taliban and mike pompeo signing, as h.r. mcmaster said, the surrender document to the taliban. >> right. and people like trump and pompeo just need to find a good opportunity right now to shut up and stop criticizing something they set in motion. now all of that said, joe, i will add and i think you will agree with me, this was not

ordained and ultimately the buck does stop with president biden, although i think trump left biden in a terrible situation, undermined the afghan government and made this catastrophe more likely, i don't think it was inevitable, i think joe biden still made a big mistake in agreeing to carry out the flawed agreement that the trump administration reached with the taliban. there's so many other issues where biden has repudiated the damage that trump has done. in this particular case he chose to carry through with it, even keeping the same negotiator that trump had, i think that was a major mistake and ultimately that's on biden. but again, as we're discussing, the trump fans and the people trumpeting this withdrawal as a major trump achievement have zero standing right now to criticize what's going on. these are the folks that sent the airplane into a nose dive and can't now be criticizing the

crash that occurred subsequently. >> columnist for "the washington post," max boot. thank you for being on this morning. coming up, dozens of doctors in florida are planning to stage what looks like a walk out today over the crush of covid patients they are seeing. we'll get a live report. plus covid case numbers are so bad in the sunshine state that one city says the water supply is in jeopardy. we'll explain that next on "morning joe." ext on "morning joe." trump wanted to meet the taliban at camp david. say what you want about obama's birthday party, the taliban wasn't there. re trading isn't just a hobby. it's your future. so you don't lose sight of the big picture, even when you're focused on what's happening right now.

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so, this is -- this is what political leaders are dealing with. >> that was one of the speakers. >> lies by the way, that are spread on facebook, that are spread online, that are spread from chinese cult conspiracy sites, religious cults from china. >> and i'm sorry, some fox news here. >> i don't think that -- >> no. >> she wasn't holding up deworming stuff. that was one of the speakers at the latest palm beach county

school board meeting as disinformation like that spreads throughout the country and hinders the effort to vaccinate americans i'm not sure why we showed that, some health care workers have had enough. >> this is why. >> just moments ago more than 75 doctors staged a walk out to protest the number of covid patients coming to the hospital who have not been vaccinated. let's bring in kerry sanders. you're in palm beach gardens, florida at this doctors' walk out. i know the area very well. what americans don't understand is for every unvaccinated person filling up an icu bed, that means with the hospitals jammed, somebody with a heart attack, i've known somebody in this position, goes there, has trouble getting in, can't get treatment, can't get a bed. it is a nightmare for the doctors, for the nurses. and to the doctors' point of view, it's worse yet for sick people that want help from them.

>> reporter: that is truly reflective of the frustration that you see behind me, these doctors have gathered, some coming off their shifts to come out here, gathering to tell people, please, first of all ignore the nonsense and absurd dys you're hearing people say at public meetings and recognize the value of what a vaccine will do. 85% of the icu beds in florida are full. now there are some hospitals that have no space in the icu. they've turned cafeterias, they turned conference centers over to beds to house patients because they are so overwhelmed. dr. jt snarsky is joining us here. first of all you hear the woman at the school board saying the absurdity, how does that make you feel, how do you combat it? >> it's frustrating. we know vaccines are safe and effective. it's people that talk against them go against physicians and

medicine and science. it's not the message we want to get across to people. vaccines are safe and we need to get our communities vaccinated. >> as i step out i can see white jackets, some coming off of their shifts. your thoughts why it's gotten to this point. >> we feel people think it's political, it's not. it's medical. i have my colleagues behind me. we're here as vaccines to say one message, vaccines work, it's safe, not political, it's medical. we're passionate about it because we're tired of seeing unvaccinated people being sick and they have to come in. >> you can them, are you vaccinated? >> every time. >> what do they say? >> a lot of them a shake of the head, are you vaccinated, no. they're already sick. they're there. the majority are unvaccinated. especially patients in the younger age groups between 18 and 65. these are now being hospitalized whereas if they were vaccinated,

they would not be hospitalized it's frustrating. >> reporter: the message is clear, you guys are frustrated and tired. i don't think i've seen doctors gathering in a simulated walk out like this. somebody comes in, they're unvaccinated, they didn't believe in the science. then they believe in the science. >> they have to. they're going to get medications that are antibodies we're getting. so it's frustrating they're going to beg for our help but we're going to give it no matter who walks in the doors we'll take care of it to the best of our ability. >> reporter: thank you for the work we're doing p. i think the numbers behind me at this early hour, these are doctors some coming off shift others going on shift who want to get the message out, simply get the vaccine. >> incredible. >> it is incredible. i love what the doctor said, people think it's political, it's not. it's medical. it's so straightforward.

>> reporter: kerry sanders you're on the big story of the day. that's incredible. this is what it's come to. nbc news correspondent kerry sanders, thank you very much. >> thank you. that's really something. >> yeah. >> it's a big move for doctors and health care workers who are so -- they take an oath, right. >> yeah. >> but they -- they are at the point where it is -- it's just -- it feels ridiculous, it feels stupid day after day they have these unvaccinated people coming in having to put them on ventilators, now children and young people and this variant spreading like wildfire to people who are not vaccinated still coming into the hospital. at some point when you're a doctor, you get fed up. >> they're flooding in. what it means is there are a lot of doctors, who are specialists, who are told they can't actually do operations for people who may

be in extreme duress, whether spinal injuries or heart procedure. there are, unfortunately, all the icu beds for a lot of hospitals are jam packed around that area. >> in orlando there's a water issue. a water shortage. >> yeah. a water shortage. the area you're seeing there, hospitals in that area that have cordoned off the entire hospitals, huge hospitals that have actually security outside to stop people from coming in because there's been such a crush. and again, it's -- the crisis is being caused now not by covid, it's being caused now by americans who are not getting vaccinated. >> what a message from those doctors. >> jonathan lemire, there was an ap poll that came out this past weekend that i thought was really illuminating. we elect to think of ourselves

being in like 50/50 nation. 50 for, 50 against, everything is so close. you start looking at that ap poll and you start going down the list of the number of providers to have a and bars to have a vaccine mandate. there's a majority, in some cases, an overwhelming majority that americans want the government to put vaccine mandates on americans, like we do for every child that goes to school, like our parents had to get us vaccinated to go to school. but overwhelming majority of americans want those vaccine mandates now, the percentages that don't hover in the low to mid 20s. this is not even a close call. should we expect, as we move

into the fall and all of this continues to get worse, that the biden administration will say, you know what, we can't allow 20, 25% of americans and their conspiracy theories to hold our health care system hostage any longer. >> you just hit most of the highlights of the poll. i'll mention a couple of others. there was overwhelming support for masks when needed. you have vaccines, you have mandates for schools, for hospitals, for members of the military, for public facing government employees. the list goes on and on. a little less for having to get into a bar and restaurants but a majority of americans supported that too.embraced. it's a reminder that those who don't want the vaccines are a loud minority, but minority all the same and certainly at times have done well for themselves generating headlines, but that is not the will of where the american people is and this poll

and others have reflected that. >> we have seen from the white house a slow embrace of more and more mandates, requirements to wear masks. and then to get the vaccine. this is from the president who has said this is something he's leery of doing because he knows how polarizing he himself is for the country, that 20, 25% or so. but they're not going to let those unvaccinated endanger the rest of the country in terms of health but also it's recovery, economic stability. we've heard from the president in the recent weeks calling this the pandemic of the unvaccinated making it clear those people who have not gotten the shots are to blame and the republican governors who enabled that behavior, they're to blame. we've seen the military working towards vaccine mandates we've seen departments in the federal government require vaccines even though they haven't required it yet are inching their way there. we'll see more support from the

federal government, as much as they can do, some of it, of course, is local jurisdictions, state and local level but they're going to push the vaccines, and hope that private companies and local governments and school districts and towns follow suit. >> the squeaky wheel gets the grease, here the squeaky wheel is 20 to 25% of the population if you look at the associated press poll that came out over the weekend. the overwhelming majority want people in the military, people in the government, health care workers to be vaccinated. the majority of americans want people to go out that work in restaurants bars, that go to bars, restaurants, go to large public events like concerts, sports events, et cetera, et cetera, americans want a vaccine mandate. the majority of americans want the vaccine mandate. and i'm just wondering at what point does the biden

administration stop listening to just 20, 25% of americans, at the most, that are against these vaccine mandates and just understand they're never going to be moved. just look at that picture from the palm beach school board. joe biden is not going to move that person. joe biden is not going to move people that get their news from facebook. he's not going to do that, not the conspiracy theorists. mandates work. when are they going to move to do that? >> yeah, i mean, you're not going to move those people taking horse deworming medication or want to believe any other conspiracy theory other than the vaccines work. we've seen what happens as various bits of society and the economy have started to institute mask mandates, guess what happened, the number of people getting vaccinated have picked up the last few days. we're starting to have higher numbers of people because they realized they can't take part in

the economy, in society, they can't do the things that their friends and neighbors are doing, if they don't get their vaccine. you'd hope it didn't have to come to this, hope you wouldn't have to force people to do it but there are countries around the world doing the same sort of thing, had to implement some kind of mandates and in those instances when you implement a mandate, more people get vaccinated. they realize they want to do those things. you're right, joe biden is never going to move the 25%, the die hards, maybe a mandate would do it. maybe when they realize they have no choice that's what's going to get them vaccinated. that's why the fda move of giving full approval is important because it's one more thing the white house can use in an effort to get mandates through. more now on the latest developments with the pandemic. "the new york times" is reporting the fda could give full approval to the pfizer vaccine as early as today.

>> reporter: exhaustion setting in as health care workers battle a fourth covid wave in a relentless pandemic. >> we're trying to do our best, but something has to give. >> reporter: florida topping 3 million cases. the third state to do so. jesse jackson and his wife hospitalized after testing positive for covid-19. the reverend vaccinated back in january. icu beds filling fast. five states within 10% of reaching capacity. mississippi experiencing the most hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. state health officials ordering people to home isolate on first knowledge of infection with covid-19. failure to do so could result in a $500 fine or even six months behind bars. mississippi is only second to alabama for lowest inoculation

rates. for many on the front lines of the pandemic, their patience is wearing thin. >> it's hard right now because you look at it and say this is preventable. >> but vaccine hesitancy there runs deep. even at the recommendation of former president trump at rally saturday. >> i recommend take the vaccines. i did it, it's good. take the vaccines. you got -- no, that's okay. >> reporter: still vaccination rates nationwide are ticking up, a trend that could see another boost by the fda's first full approval of a vaccine. >> full approval by the fda would mean that some of the things that have been holding people back from getting vaccinated will hopefully be reduced or removed. >> reporter: a rare glimmer of hope in an unforgiving pandemic. nbc news. so more on -- >> wait. that trump -- the more you hear the trump -- >> it's like a -- >> take the vaccine, it's good. i took it. and then he hears boos. oh, freedom, freedom.

whatever. >> it's just -- it's frankenstein. >> you mean he created a monster. >> he created a monster and now he can't control it. >> take the vaccine. all right, freedom, freedom. more on florida. orlando is urging residents to reduce their use of water because of a shortage of liquid oxygen used to purr fie water that is needed for covid patients. if they're unable to reduce water usage quickly the utility's commission may issue a system wide alert to boil water needed for drinking and cooking. see where we're at here? if reductions are not made soon, a wide alert may be issued within a week. orlando's mayor is asking residents to stop watering their lawns, washing their cars and using pressure washers for the time being. also in florida, another

development in the battle over school mask mandates. the state education of department issued a statement saying reverse universal mask mandates for students or face immediate financial punishment. on friday a letter was sent to two school districts saying if they don't comply within 48 hours, the department will begin the process of withholding salaries for all school board members who approve the mandates. joining us now, once again, is the superintendent of one of those two school districts that received a letter. dr. carlee simon. she's been a guest on our show a few times over the past few weeks as she and her district continues to push back against the ban on mask mandates. she's trying to protect children. >> so it's -- first of all, your county is not an isolated

county, obviously. you've got colleges, universities there, people come in, not only from across the state of florida but across the country, across the world and go to your county, through your county, there are no -- no doubt there are numerous variants moving through that community. talk about before we get to your letter, talk about how important it is for a county that has people moving in throughout the world to be able to make sure that kids are wearing a mask when they go to school? >> so what we have today is the university of florida classes are starting. and so our city gets incredibly large when college students show up. so during the fall and spring semester, we just have more people in our community. and we are -- we've been talking to our medical providers and they are concerned about how

this is going to impact pretty much our covid response. we know we're struggling with getting our test results in time, and that was before we had universities starting classes. so we're concerned how this is going to impact our response time as far as when we can test students when we understand if they are positive and need to be quarantined and how we manage all of our contact tracing. so with us having a city that really kind of grows and collapses based on the university's start date, this is going to impact us. we know we had last two weeks of positivity rates that are exponentially rising for our students and staff members and we're expecting this may impact us as well. we heard there's potential we could have two spikes associated with the students coming and we're really just doing everything that we can to mitigate the spread. and the masking is what we --

that's like a bare minimum to start to try to reduce the covid spread in some way. >> so dr. dimon,simon, let's rer latest response, quote our schools need to be open to provide instructional hours. due to the highly contagious nature of this virus, this is a high risk that more students and staff will have to be sent home due to exposure. like you, we are obligated to provide a safe and secure public education to all students. universally asking is the most effective strategy we currently have, besides vaccination, to meet this obligation. we currently have 273 positive student cases and 63 positive adult cases. the number is growing every day. we are using masks as a

protective device to reduce transmission of the virus. it kind of seems like you're just trying to explain to them the science. where does this go from here? >> well, so we are trying to explain the science. we're also trying to explain that masks are not a medical device. masks are preventative safety devices. it would be as if we're asking a student to wear a baseball helmet when they go up to bat at a baseball game. this is to protect the safety of our students. so we are trying to explain this to the commissioner of ed as well as the governor, this is something we need in order to have glasses run face-to-face. this week we are having a special board meeting where we'll be discussing the situation. but we are looking at legal counsel, it does look like this is the direction we will be going. but we want the board to discuss it and to vote on it.

but it appears that the commissioner of education and the governor have really put us in a place where that is our only alternative at this point. >> the superintendent of alachua county public schools, carlee simon, keep us posted. thank you for coming back on the show with us. to the latest on afghanistan. the pentagon has ordered u.s. commercial airlines to help speed up evacuation efforts. 18 different aircraft will not fly into kabul but instead are being used to transport those who have already been flown out of afghanistan to military bases or transit points around the world. the defense department activated the civil reserve air fleet. a nearly 70-year-old program created in the wait of the berlin air lift, provide a back up by commercial air carriers

for a major national defense emergency. this is the third time the program has been activated. previously it was used in the early 1990s and early 2000s during the iraq wars. we have more now on the situation on the ground. chief correspondent stuart ramsay is in kabul and filed this report. >> reporter: there's going to be discussion we know there is a lot of discussion taking place with the taliban. no doubt, it's confirmed, it's happening on the ground at a local level and understand it's happening at a much higher level. they say that you caused this problem in the first place, you didn't have a system in place, you didn't think we were going to be able to take over the country and capital so quickly so it is your problem and we have no intention of extending a deadline that has effectively been agreed perhaps tacitly with them. but the problem is the sheer

number of people that have to be taken out. it's a big problem because people are coming in thousands and there's a long jam but there's an exit point. at one point there was no exit either. you had people rejected, where the people who hadn't been rejected were staying. we were talking to a state department person who's working on the ground here. we heard these figures of 20, 30,000 americans and people who have a right to go to the united states being sort of the figure that was being worked on. the real figure we believe is actually nearer to 150,000 people minimum. that is an absolute huge task. there simply has to be an extension. and it really is going to come down to a discussion between the united states and the taliban as to whether that extension will happen. >> let's bring in the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass and u.s. national editor at the financial times ed luce. good to have you both.

>> richard, where are we a week later? obviously you and i concerned about the withdrawal, the chaos afterwards, talked about it for quite some time it wasn't the move to make but the move was made. i'm wondering a week later with 37,000 evacuated, the white house telling jonathan lemire this morning the number is going up. has the biden administration effectively stabilized the situation there. and is there a chance we may look back on this a few weeks from now and say, started off terribly but they managed to salvage the situation? >> good morning, joe, there's a chance but i call it a long shot. the reason is you still have tens of thousands, if not more, of people who have a strong claim to leave, not just the afghans who worked with us but the afghans who are vulnerable. and we're essentially dependent on the taliban permitting them to reach the airport. so if question isn't simply how many people we can fly out, how

many civilian airliners we can commandeer, the question is will the taliban let these people get there and if not what are we prepared to do? the bigger question isn't whether we extend the deadline, the question is whether it remains what's called a per miss sieve environment or an environment defined by friction. are you going to have u.s. soldiers go beyond the airport? what happens then? i don't think at the moment anyone can say because we had 37,000 people evacuated that the worst is behind us. i hope so, but i see no reason to believe it. plus you have terrorists there, who at any moment could go after these people who are a target, if you will, trying to get into the airports. so no, i'm as uneasy now as i've been all along. >> ed luce, i'll throw the same question your way. i am curious, though, if you

don't think the real problem here is isis and not the taliban so much. so there was an issue early on to the taliban, stay out of our way, we're going to bring stability to the airport and we will have a fierce response if get in our way. the taliban so far has, for the most part, done that. but even the taliban themselves were facing attacks from isis over the past six months, is that a growing concern for the united states? >> yes, it is. and jake sullivan, the national security advisor specifically mentioned the isis threat. remember, that the taliban is not a monolith. the taliban is a fairly scattered group. it has one leader but it's got different factions, it has hard lined factions aligned with

remnants of al qaeda, it has more moderate factions that want a more inclusive -- slightly more inclusive afghan government to be formed. we don't know the degree to which there is a central command there, with which we can do business. tomorrow the g7 are going to meet, boris johnson is hosting the g7. there's also going to be action at the united nations and the british and americans have been reaching out to the russians and the chinese in the belief that they hold sway with the taliban. but the fact is that although we've got this pretty successful, so far, mini berlin air lift as that sky correspondent described it, the fact is that as we approach that august 31st deadline and realize that we still got tens of thousands of more afghans to get out, the pressure on the taliban and from within the taliban to

hold america to that deadline is going to become acute. and the risk of suicide bombers, rockets departing planes, all of these things is going to increase. i would agree with richard, we're not out of the woods yet but it's considerably less bad than it was a week ago. biden has been stung by the criticism. he has responded. >> ed, what's your best case scenario? here we are sitting a week after the chaos. one month from now, two months from now, six months from now, what is the best we can hope for? that the biden administration can take out of this chaotic start? >> i think the best we can hope for is we get everybody out. and i include the tens of thousands, possibly hundred of thousand, afghans who believe quite credibly they are at risk

of reprisal. that's an enormous operation finding them, getting them out, and ensuring that they and their families are safe from the more radical elements of the taliban. if we can do that, if we can establish dialogue with the more moderate elements of the taliban and incentivize them with the money they're going to desperately need to establish a stable government in afghanistan, then you might see a much less bad scenario, three, six months from now. but there are a lot of trip wires in between now and then. and the role that pakistan and its intelligence agency, the isi is playing. and remember the taliban is essentially its creation. that's going to be something we're going to have to deal with directly. pakistan is the big elephant in this room. >> richard, one of the concerns that i've had about what we've seen over the last week is the

extent to which it's revealed flaws in the american national security apparatus, whether it's on the intelligence side or political side, something went wrong and we didn't perhaps know or they didn't know as much as they did, what are the implications going forward in terms of our ability to understand the threats from afghanistan, whether it's from al qaeda, isis, the volatile situation with pakistan as well. has this revealed a chink in the u.s. armor? >> two things, one is the ability to know what's going on on the ground in afghanistan is going down as the number of people on the ground in afghanistan goes down. so we're going to increasingly be flying blind what goes there. i think the more interesting question is what does this tell us about us? you go back in history, virtually every administration fumbles the first crisis. think of the kennedy

administration and the bay of pigs and how they did better with the cuban missile crisis. even bush 41, the initial crises in panama went badly and they did better with the panama war and gulf war. so to me what does the biden administration learn from this, what do they change procedurally, in terms of personnel. what lessons do they learn going forward? this is still, what, the first, six, seven, eight months of the administration. they have a long runway ahead of them. so in addition to trying to think of the lessons of afghanistan, of nation building, where they got that wrong, they look at themselves and start instituting procedural changes to how this national security council system works. if they need new people, maybe need fewer people. essentially this is their moment to take stock and then institute changes. >> richard, i'm just curious as

we look -- i'm talking about what the best case scenario is, there's so many worst case scenarios, but you look at what we did in syria, donald trump's retreat from syria back in '19 and how he actually allowed the russians into syria for the first time since 1973. since -- first time they've been in the middle east since 1973. and now we're hearing about the russians once again getting -- it's extraordinary, getting back in afghanistan, having influence possibly with the taliban. >> yeah. up to a point, that's not necessarily the worst thing in the world. the last russian experience as you know, joe, in afghanistan wasn't exactly sal toir for them. the question is what the russians or the chinese -- you know, the other five countries that border afghanistan in addition to china ultimately do.

look, but i think this could go south in lots of ways. i think one of the questions the united states has to ask, and ed mentioned part of it, what do we do to incentivize taliban behavior, potentially financially, but what do we to pressure the taliban and one of the questions we haven't talked about is you have pockets of resistance in afghanistan to the taliban. at some point what does the united states do with any of those forces? i don't think it's -- history hasn't stopped here, taliban is divided. it's under pressure. the neighbors have to decide what they do. it's potentially also a really maligned force in radicalizing pakistan further. the united states can't limit itself, as important as it is, to get lg people out. we have to think about afghanistan, the long run, the history here has not stopped moving. >> richard haass and ed luce, thank you both very much for being on this morning.

still ahead on "morning joe," as covid cases rise across the country, more state and local leaders are pointing fingers, and the lieutenant governor of texas is facing criticism for implying that black americans are to blame. just days after losing his wife to covid, a republican lawmaker in maine attends an anti-vaccination rally. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. usaa is made for the safe pilots. for mac. who can come to a stop with barely a bobble. lucia. who announces her intentions even if no one's there. and sgt moore. who leaves room for her room. with usaa safepilot, when you drive safe... ...you can save up to 30% on your auto insurance. get a quote and start saving. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for.

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a new study found that a third dose of the pfizer biontech vaccine provided four times as much protection against infection in people 60 and

older. a study by the israeli health ministry showed it was four times hire, it looked at protection provided ten days after a third dose. israel is the first country to offer a third shot of a pfizer vaccine in a nationwide booster campaign. and last week lowered the age of eligibility to 40. >> here's sad news out of tennessee. more sad news out of tennessee. radio host phil valentine died from covid-19 on saturday. the host out of nashville had been a skeptic of coronavirus vaccines but after he tested positive for the virus and and prior to his hospitalizations he told listeners to consider getting vaccinated. he said his choice not to was because he thought he probably wouldn't die from it. after he was moved to a critical care unit, his brother said phil

regretted not being a vocal advocate of the vaccination. i know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you go get vaccinated. quit worrying about the politics, quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories. phil valentine was only 61 years old. and out of maine, maine state representative chris johansson was seen at an anti-vaxx rally just days after his wife died. johansson and his wife had chronicled her battle with covid on facebook, writing posts such as quote, it's absolutely horrible to be alone, shortly before she died. the bangor news reports neither the republican lawmaker or his late wife got the vaccine. that's the thing we've heard and

i've heard from friends of mine that didn't get the vaccine and went in there, and understood when they were alone and were facing death, just the -- there's just this feeling of regret that came over them that this could have been taken care of. they didn't have to be in a position where they were about to get a ventilator put down their throat and afraid they were not going to live anymore. i think that's just -- it's just such a tragedy that all of this is so avoidable. let's go to hawaii. >> the lieutenant governor there, josh green, has become the target of anti-semitic protesters who opposed new state mandates designed to combat the surge of covid cases. since hawaii announced a mandate earlier this month that state and county workers would have to show proof of vaccination or face weekly tests, 50 to 100 unmasked vaccine opponents have

gathered almost nightly outside the downtown honolulu condominium building where green lives with his wife and two children. some yell into bull horns and shine strobe lights into apartment units. fliers with his photos and the word jew and fraud have been plastered around the neighborhood. he's been tearing them down and turning them over to the state attorney general's office. green, whose other job is emergency room doctor, added i will personally be taking care of these individuals in the hospital as their doctor when they get sick from refusing to wear masks and refusing to be vaccinated. >> i hate to keep repeating this. but i'm going to keep repeating it, maybe there's one person this will break through to and maybe it'll save their lives or save their children's lives.

there's a sign held up in that full screen, our kids are not your experiment. let me say again, there is not a child in america over the last half century that has gone to school without getting vaccines, unless they have some excuse. vaccine mandates have been what we have as americans have done over the last 50, 60 years to eradicate smallpox, polio, you can go down the list. this is nothing new. it's just not new. and you're acting so shocked and some of you send my emails saying my liberties are being taken. no, they're not. no more than your liberties were taken away when your parents were told you couldn't get a vaccination if you didn't have six vaccine passports. that's the crazy thing, this is the norm.

what's changed? the only thing that's changed has been the conspiracy theories that have been swirling around for the past year or two on facebook that people have actually sunk their teeth into. and now, i'll just tell you, be talking to somebody who's got a post graduate degree, who's intelligent. we can talk about any issue and you get them to this issue and it's like their iq goes down 100 points. you get them to the issue of the election and it's like their iq goes down 100 points. and you quickly move off the topic because you're embarrassed for them and they're suddenly smart again. not because they agree or disagree with me, because we have debates on things we disagree. but these conspiracy theories are not only making people stupid, they're making them sick

and causing them to die. >> it's not fda approved and we don't know what's in it. you know what happens when you go to the hospital with covid and get treatment, do you know what's in it? >> things that are not approved as well. we're about to see the fda most likely approve this vaccine. and i can't wait for all those people who told me they weren't getting a vaccine until it was fda approved, i can't wait to see what the next excuse is. these conspiracy theorists, you sit there, tell them it's a conspiracy theory, show the lie and their response is, what about this. it's whack-a-mole. all we're trying to do is keep you alive, protect you, your family, all we're trying to do is protect small business owners. all we're trying to do are protect families that have had restaurants and they've sweated and they've toiled and they've

struggled every two weeks to make payroll over a generation or two generations. we want those family restaurants to stay open. we want small business owners to be able to keep their businesses open. we want you to continue to keep your jobs with those small business owners. we want to be able to keep entrepreneurs that want to go out and grow this economy, create new businesses, create new jobs. we want them to have the ability to do that. and we want you to stay alive. and we want you to stop listening to all the stupid things that get into the way of a growing economy or get in the way of you staying healthy. and one of them came out of texas -- >> that's where the lieutenant governor governor, dan patrick, is facing criticism for comments he made last week, implying that the covid surge in his state is due to unvaccinated black americans. >> the covid is spreading,

particularly most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated and democrats like to blame republicans on that. well, the biggest group in most states are african-american who have not been vaccinated. last time i checked, 90% of them vote for democrats in major cities and major counties. >> patrick later issued a statement saying in part, not surprisingly, democrat social media trolls were up late fanning the lies. according to the texas tribune there are an estimated 5.6 million white people who are eligible and unvaccinated, while the same figure is 1.9 million for black people who make up a far smaller part of the overall population. >> let's bring in host of politics nation, reverend al sharpton and professor at the university of texas, victoria de-francisco soto. reverend al, i'll admit i'm not

good in math. >> let's try. >> i've never been good in math. i go into a math class or economics class at the university of alabama and i'd be sleeping in the back row after i goat through my "sports illustrated" issue. but i don't understand this lieutenant governor's numbers. he said he was misquoted. he said, quote, the biggest group in most states are black people. and yet in the state of texas, only one in ten covid deaths in texas, only 10%, are actually black people right now. his numbers are so off and they're so skewed, it's such a racist trope that he's using, i can say it, because he's trying to blame black people when it's not black people. and we're hearing the same thing again from the conspiracy theorists.

i talked to several the last couple weeks with, it's the southern border it's the immigrants making us sick in alabama, what nonsense. >> to racialize this is really telling because this is a lieutenant governor that comes out and out of no discussion about race he brings in scapegoating african-americans, saying that we're the majority of people unvaccinated in most states when clearly in his own states the numbers speak for themselves. it's curious to me, he's concerned about blacks falsely being disproportionately unvaccinated but he's not concerned about the voting law that is disproportionately impacting them in the state of texas right now in terms of the rally around voting rights. so he has selective terms when it comes to race. but i think again we're seeing

we cannot as a nation emphasize the need for a vaccination and not let those without our interest at hearts as scapegoats. i've used his statements to say to blacks not vaccinated. that's why you need to get vaccinated because you have people who will try, in an uninformed and certainly false way, try to use us as a scapegoat for their own bias and bigotry. and i don't think that we ought to volunteer to sign up for that. >> victoria, jonathan lemire has a question for you. but jonathan, first of all, let's get the numbers straight out of the texas department of state health services. black people make up 12% of the population in texas. right now they make up about 15% of the total covid-19 cases. and only 10% of the deaths. so 12% of the population, 10% of the deaths.

the lieutenant governor actually, to get to that racist trope it's the black people's fault he had to reach long and far. i think we both attended the same math classes in high school. >>. >> yeah, math was not my strong suit either, joe, but i'm fluent enough in arithmetic to note he's wrong, completely wrong, had to stretch for it. as noted, these comments offensive. victoria, why don't we talk about the state of play in texas right now, your home state. we had these remarks from the lieutenant governor, the governor himself came down with covid after -- even after receiving his third vaccine booster, he talked about that last week. to his credit, though, he said the vaccine helped him ward off the more serious side effects in an update over the weekend said he cleared the virus quickly and is feeling quickly. but we know there's battles over mask mandates, what are the

politics right now about covid in a state, of course, right now we're hearing so much about the politics over voting rights? >> jonathan let me take a step back and building off the comments of the lieutenant governor to racialize the issues of the vaccines but also politicized it, right. in the same interview he said it's up to democrats just as it's up to republicans to get their folks vaccinated. and it infuriates me, jonathan, because we should be talking about let's get texans vaccinated. it shouldn't be the democrats over here and the republicans over here. it should be for the good of all, this is a public health emergency. to what's happening on the ground, pick a bad scenario and you've got it. we have violence at schools, last week here in austin we had a parent attack a teacher, ripping off their mask. parents yelling at teachers. we have a handful of icu beds at

most. we have college students coming in across the state without the ability to have vaccine mandates, without the ability to mandate masks. it is just bad news all around. and what's trouble to me, at a very personal level, is the kids that are under-12. so we know that even though individual school districts have fought back that we see the state pressuring school districts to not mandate masks. our 12-year-olds and below are not eligible for the vaccines. we know that. they're also not eligible for the treatments that treat coronavirus. so we know our governor recently got infected with the coronavirus, luckily he was vaccinated, had the booster shot and was treated with regeneron. we can't treat our kids with that. it's maddening, there's no

public policy tools or limited ones to address what's going on in the larger contest of this partisan bickering. >> like the doctor at the press conference an hour ago in palm beach gardens, said this is not about politics. this is about medicine. it's what we've been saying here for a year, year and a half. the virus doesn't care if you're a republican, democrat, conservative or liberal. just doesn't care. it will kill you if it gets the opportunity. reverend al, i wanted to ask you about something we talked about, lieutenant governor's numbers are all wrong. still there is vaccine hesitancy in communities for people of color. i'm wondering the progress being made there and i'll ask you, if victoria wants to jump in, she can. what do we do as moving forward to get those numbers up in communities of color? >> there must be a concerted

effort, which there clearly has began to be all over black communities around the country, a concerted effort of those on the ground, church leaders or faith leaders, activist groups on the ground so this is not some message of people that are removed from the community saying these conspiracy theories are false. these are people that people engage every day, trust in parts of their lives in terms of what they need to depend on. we've got to have the courage to stand up and say, wait a minute. this is costing our lives. these conspiracy theories are not true. much of them are built on misinformation. yes, there is bad history with some of the things done to blacks in this country based on medical kinds of conspiracies. but this is not one of them. and this has clearly been

tested. let's remember that you had black women physicians that were involved in the beginnings of making this vaccine. so what are we talking about here? and when we look at the level of deaths in this counted, over 600,000 people dead, are we saying that they killed all these people just to get some of us? let's be logical and serious, but again, i think the messages much come from those that also stand up for them on other issues. why would we that fight against racism, fight against voting denial, fight against police misconduct, lie to you about a vaccine? >> we need trusted community brokers. this is to the reverend's point i'm going to speak specifically to the latino population where i do a lot of research. what we see is a community that doesn't have a lot of trust. think about the last couple of years and the distrust with the community, the latino community given the situation with

immigration. given the situation that the latino community does not have as many touch points with the medical community. here in texas we are the state -- if not the state with the lowest insurance coverage, one of the lowest states, and among that latinos being the lowest, so there isn't already an established relationship with health care providers many times. so you have this unknown and in order to bridge that divide between the community who may not be entirely trusting of government authorities, of state brokers, you need those people, church leaders, community leaders, trusted folks, elders in the community in order to let folks know this is what is right for you, for your family and this is what is going to save lives. >> victoria de francesco soto, thank you very much and reverend al sharpton, thank you as well.

you will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of politics nation this sunday! congratulations that's very exciting. >> we love it. >> thank you. reverend al we love you, thank you very much. still ahead after receiving multiple reports of patients being hospitalized, the fda ha had to issue an announcement that literally begins quote "you are not a horse." we'll explain that. >> you are not a horse ya all. don't take the dewormin' medication for horse. >> tropical storm henri makes landfall triggering flash flooding and knocking out power for thousands of americans. the latest on the storm's path and the damage left behind. >> before we go to break the rock and roll world lost don't everly over the weekend. he was incorporate of the duo of the everly brothers.

they were huge, huge rock and rollers. had a massive impact. he died on saturday morning at the age of 84 at his home in nashville. everly was born in kentucky in 1937 to a coal mining father and a mother who loved to sing. everly and his brother phil began making music with their parents originally singing as the everly family. they moved the nashville their first hit "bye-bye love." their career soared and toured with buddy holly in the 1950s and signed with warner brothers in 1960. soon their song "kathy's song,"

"crying in the rain" became hits. you look at paul mccarthy, john lennon so influenced by the everly brothers. they really did change face of not only rock and roll but popular music across the world. we'll be right back.

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and watch all the rewards float in. our thanks. your rewards. let's bring in our msnbc sports host. roger spent his entire weekend eating dewormin' medicine for

horse and cows. that's the secret sauce. that book right now number one, "new york times" best certainly. "reborn in the usa." i have to say, roger, last couple of years, even post-covid, pre-covid, some dreadful affairs, a mismatch. we've had a great start to this campaign the last couple of weeks, just some amazing shots, some amazing matches. >> indeed, indeed. the joy of football it makes you feel alive and connects you to the rest of the world and the premier league is back. let's take a look at the highlights. the greatest talent, played out live without a save haven knit. big game of the weekend. london darby. chelsea and arsenal. his team are in.

the story of the game chelsea returning $135 million, his first game back in the club. took him just 15 minutes to track his defender. and then finish strong. what sense of joy, vindication and relief must have played. arsenal fans, god love them, this game harder to watch, than the suitcase scene. a flowing chelsea move. one nerving accuracy. gave chelsea all of the points. chelsea football club, two games, two wins, no goals conceded. look at this. kid is 21. arsenal in 180 top flight season they have had a campaign with two defeats, no points, no goals for first time in their history. they are footballing great

gardens. in other games, the defending champion manchester city. he let's take a look at them. a nation state backed team owned by the riches of abu dhabi, hosted newcomers. owned by a british tv chef from the 1980s. pretty much reflected the imbalance of their finances. look at it. england's first football $100 million player. fingers in the ears like an anti-vaxer when fda gives full approval. throws the ball. you just heard the break down. excellent picks. he wants to win gold. look at that. >> wow. >> don't push me because i'm close to the edge. and i'll try not to lose my head. you know this team.

boston red sox and liverpool faced damage. swatted them aside. two new winners on the day. here's your winner. beautiful finish. liverpool unbeaten. faces chelsea next weekend. a clash for the ages which will tell us a lot about both teams title athe -- aumpire -- aexpirations. >> everything is built on van dyke. >> he's the justin fields of the premier league. right now in that premier league the finances separate the great from truly good. ultimately we're cheering for chelsea but a joy to watch him

week after week. >> all right. roger bennett, thank you very much. >> still ahead, health care workers in south florida staged a walk out this morning over the nonstop surge of covid patients that they say is preventable. we'll hear from one of those doctors. plus with evacuations ramping up, biden acknowledges the exit from afghanistan has been difficult and painful. but will the united states have to extend the deadline to withdraw troops? we're back in 90 seconds.

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♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ let me be clear, the evacuation of thousands of the people from kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we began. it would have been true if we start ad month ago or a month from now. there is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television. it's just a fact. my heart pains for those people you see. we're proving we can move thousands of people a day out of kabul. we're bringing our citizens, nato allies, afghanis who helped us in the war effort. but we have a long way to go and a lot can still go wrong. but to move out 30,000 people in just over a week, that's a great

testament to the men and women on the ground in kabul and our armed services. >> amid mounting criticism over his handling of the withdrawal from afghanistan, biden yesterday arguing the exit from that country was always going to be difficult. good morning and welcome to "morning joe". it is monday, august 23rd. we'll have full coverage of the situation in afghanistan but first what could be a big day in the fight against covid. the fda is working to approve pfizer's two dose vaccine as soon as today. according to the "new york times" the goal was to get the approval by friday but regulators are still going through a substantial amount of paper work and negotiation with the company. people familiar with the matter told me the outlet that some components of the review could possibly push the approval date beyond today. the "times" says a spokesperson for the fda declined to comment

about the report. >> very exciting news because we've talked to some people. >> absolutely. >> that are close to us and have said they are not going to take the vaccine until they get fda approval. we're very excited about fda approval. it's coming. i'm sure their vaccines will be coming. that will bump up the number, the percentage of americans who are getting a vaccine and we can gsh gosh we won't have to spend as much time on this show talking about the terrible tragedies that continue to happen across this country because of unvaccinated americans. >> let's bring in physician and fellow at the brookings institution, dr. patel. so, fda approval could put some people over the line when it comes to making the decision, but i think fair to say, dr. patel, that people should get the vaccine either way, that this approval is coming. >> yeah.

that's right. good morning to you all. look we now have a pretty unprecedented occurrence with hundreds of millions of people that have received these vaccines and now we're months into this and have, of course, been able to look at side effect, safety protocols. i would not hesitate to recommend the vaccine to anybody regardless of their immune status. we now have data about that. but as you and joe discussed full approval will help not just individuals, we're already seeing increasing number of vaccinations over a million in the last 24 hours and that's been sustained in the last couple of days. it will pave the way for requirements or mandates that employers or schools or cities are looking at. >> we have 190 americans that have been vaccinated, and i'm curious, 189 million that have been vaccinated. have gotten shots. i'm wondering why is it that

it's taken the fda so long to go ahead and if they do, in fact, do this today, to approve it officially, if you have that large of a number of americans that have already used the drug without significant side effects. >> joe, it's a valid criticism. i think being a former government person what i can tell sue happening behind-the-scenes is thousands of pages that are submitted in that full licensing application that pfizer submitted and moderna submitted and we expect to see from other manufacturers. those thousands of pages if it gives you any comfort is studied regardless of how many people have received the vaccine. that's important because as you point out, i think even some of our own close friends and colleagues are still reluctant to that have that final seal of approval. that behind-the-scenes process you don't want to rush it. i'll say you're absolutely spot on to be critical of making sure

the fda is working 24/7 on this and we should keep the pressure especially when it comes to kids' authorization because that's the next population we're all eager to see vaccinated safely. >> here's something else that the fda is now dealing with. on saturday it needed to issue a warning against using the veterinary drug to treat covid-19 after receiving multiple reports of people being hospitalized from ingesting the drug which is use to deworm animals. you're not a horse. you're not a cow. seriously ya all stop it read the tweet from fda's official account. it included a consumer -- >> hold on. look at that the for a second. straight out of the onion. except people are poisoning themselves. i mean there's a consumer update

detailing where the drug can be unsafe for humans. the agency received a spike in poison control calls from state of mississippi following ongoing reports by fox news personalities that the dewormin' drug for cows and horses. let me say that again. there are people going on television saying that a dewormin' product for cows and horses is a safe treatment for covid. >> we know that our fda has, in many ways failed us by not allow forge the use of two drugs used around the world to reduce covid hospitalizations and deaths. >> i pelted them with questions about covid-19 and the vaccine and therapeutics and other

proactive treatments helping covid-19 patients all across the country. >> so, i just got to say. you look at the headings down at the bottom and when they are talking -- when they are talking about getting americans to take dewormin' pills that are used for cows, they have the audacity to have the lower third say covid confusion. >> no. >> with covid confusion has been coming from many of the same sources, including one who is now acting shocked and stunned that there's a medical cartel that doesn't want you, that doesn't want you to take dewormin' medication for cows and horses.

let me -- i'm going to give it to you straight here as i always do. it is probably true, they probably have that right that medical quote cartels do not want you or your loved ones to take dewormin' products for livestock and nbc, by the way, dr. patel, making this all the more preposterous, sad and dangerous, nbc news has learned that feed stores in southern alabama are selling out of the drug, mississippi officials are having to actually put the warning out there, do not take dewormin' products that you would normally use on your cows or horses. >> joe, i don't even know where to begin. look i'll be the first person to tell you if it actually worked -- we've seen such

devastation from covid, willing to take that leap, facing trial after trial national and international they tried to look at it that can be used for para parasitic infections. feed stores are selling out of it. what universe have we been in where in 2021 i had to tell people not to drink bleach. i still have to tell patients not to do that because they worry that will still work if they get exposed to covid and now we're talking about harmful substances people are willing to take when we have helpful vaccines that people are not willing to take. >> dr. patel, thank you so much. >> don't take dewormin' medicine. >> thank you, dr. patel.

so what we sheer is a follow up on don't drink the bleach. fda had to put something on that. now we're having to have people put out statements please don't take your cow's dewormin' medicine. >> we can check that off. >> the at the same time people that are taking their cow's dewormin' medicine, they are not taking a vaccine that nearly 200 million americans have already taken. a vaccine that science shows, medicine shows will actually significantly cut the likelihood of you getting covid and getting bad side effects from covid down to like .005. more of a chance to get struck by lightning. more of a chance to die from a tree falling on you than

actually about having a negative side effect, serious negative side effect from this vaccine. now please, go ahead, take the horse dewormin' the. no, don't do that. what's wrong with you? can you show us the fda plea again that looks like it's straight out of the onion. this pretty much tells you where we are in 2021 where we have people who are dying, loved ones are watching dying, who aren't taking the vaccine, people who are -- we seem to have a new story every day, people tearing up and crying because they found out too late that actually a vaccine could have saved their life. and here we have the u.s. fda, you're not a horse, you are not a cow, serious ya all stop it. >> still ahead the latest on the u.s. exit from afghanistan as

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we turn now to the the latest with the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. speaking to reporters he at the white house yesterday, biden said the u.s. may extend the august 31st withdrawal deadline as evacuations in kabul continue. since august 14th the military has evacuated 28,000 u.s. citizens, allies and afghans but many more still remain. amid mounting criticism, biden

argued yesterday that the exit from afghanistan was always going to be difficult. nbc news, white house correspondent monica alba has the latest. >> reporter: biden conceding the evacuation from kabul has been hard and painful. >> we have a long way to go and a lot can still go wrong. >> reporter: acknowledging military discussions on whether to stay beyond the august 31st deadline. the >> our hope is we will not have to extend. >> reporter: and expanding the safe zone around the airport. >> is the security northwest is changing the. >> reporter: as situation outside of the airfield continues to deteriorate. a state department memo revealed 150 unauthorized individuals rushed through the gates whenever they are opened. senior officials concerned over a possible attack on crowds from isis. >> the threat is real. it's acute. it is persistent. it is something that we're focused on with every tool in our arsenal.

>> reporter: there are several thousands americans stranded in afghanistan the white house not ruling out sending additional force in to help. with the president seeking daily input from his military commanders on the possibility of more troops. in a 30 hour period this weekend, the u.s. military helped airlift 11,000 people from kabul. theed by administration negotiating agreements with two dozen countries on four continents to serve as transit points, military planes touching down regularly at an airbase in germany. the pentagon activating emergency use of 18 emergency aircraft to fly evacuees to america saying it won't impact u.s. flights. once refugees arrive many will be temporarily housed at the dulles expo center in chance lilly, virginia before being transferred to army bases across the country. >> evacuating and getting 2,500 troops out of a country required

so many troops. we obviously keep sending more troops in. now we'll expand the perimeter around the base. to try to get more americans and more afghans over to be evacuated. i'll say 28,000 have been evacuated this week. i remember mika and i were saying after that first chaotic day that this is still a fluid situation and they need to establish the perimeter and get these people out. and i got to say what we've seen at least has certainly moved in the right direction. they are getting, you know, 28, 30,000 people out and how high is their goal? where do they end up and what are they thinking about the operation right now? >> this is a matter of when, two things are indeed true. there's been marked improvement. the president said yesterday they got about 4,000 people out on saturday. 4,000 americans alone on

saturday. they are expecting to hit that number yesterday too. that's their goal even higher. he thinks it can be up to 7, 8, 9,000 a day. these flights fairly secure. the issue is and still in a deteriorating situation is for people to get to the airport. how treacherous that travel is. there have been periodic warnings from the state department that americans should not attempt to make that trek, that as desperate as they may be to get out of kabul the journey from their homes or from the countryside to the airport is too dangerous in part because of this new threat from islamic state fighters who may be targeting crowds outside the airport perimeter. americans are pushing back that perimeter. the white house confirmed these helicopters to evacuate americans from positions outside the airport, we now know that commercial flights have been activated, that once people are airlifted out of afghanistan and go to a third-party country, commercial airlines can be used

to get the home their eventually destinations. those are all steady signs of progress for this evacuation. but it's got a long way to go. there are tens of thousands of people especially afghan translators and especially those who are helpful to the united states who want to get out of that country. that's why we heard from the president yesterday, a little bit of wiggle room about that august 31st deadline. as a final point this is something that the president told his aides the situation proves he was right. the afghan forces, this was always going to deteriorate. they were going to lay down their arms. they were surprised how quickly. but time for america to get out of there. and he has shown no corner iran changing his mind drawing on his 40 years in the senate. many on the foreign relations committee. saying this is my decision and i'm stick with it. he's showing no signs ever dismissing anyone, firing anyone on the staff in the wake of this even though the evacuation has taken such criticism from both

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this morning thousands of people across new england are without power after tropical storm henri made landfall yesterday. the new york area narrowly avoided a direct hit but damaging winds and flooding rains were still felt throughout the city. meanwhile in tennessee, a heartbreaking situation after a huge rain storm saturday caused deadly flooding. we have reports now from nbc news correspondents ron allen characters think park, and vaughn hilliard.

>> reporter: not the hurricane many expected but through the day the rain and wind still extremely intense. >> a lot stronger. >> reporter: across the region henri downpours caused flash flooding. in new jersey 100 motorists ignored the warnings rescued from vehicles. a huge concert in central park evacuated because of lightning. >> proceed to your vehicles and protected areas. >> reporter: the park drenched by four inches of rain. now warnings of more high water possible in already soaked inland areas. >> now is not the time to say we're out of harm's way. we're not out of harm's way. >> reporter: from the type of new york's furthest point out to the the atlantic ocean the keeper of this lighthouse watching it all unfold. >> sound like long island dodged a bullet. >> we did. it could have been worse. it wasn't all that good but could have been all worse.

>> reporter: with henri moving into massachusetts and reaching new hampshire and maine in the coming days many here in its wake breathing a sigh of relief. >> reporter: tropical storm henri tore through new england downgraded from a category 1 hurricane but still packing a powerful punch after landfall. with heavy rains and damaging winds. >> oh, my gosh. >> reporter: as it moved through rhode island it knocked out foretens of thousands. >> i'm pleased to report the national grid has crews already out across the state working on restoration. >> reporter: biden saying federal support is standing by. >> fema has already pre-positioned resources in the region to speed our ability to respond. >> reporter: massive waves crashed the coastline, closing a beach. residents venturing out when it appeared the worse was over. >> we lost power at home so we came out to enjoy the weather. >> reporter: in connecticut more problems with power.

24,000 customers losing electricity. our kristen dahlgren is there. >> reporter: flood is an issue even as some places begin to breath a sigh of relief. flash flooding could be a threat tomorrow to the west. here in connecticut, four nursing homes had to be evacuated. 250 residents moved as the storm was approaching. >> reporter: with winds clock being over 50 miles per hour massachusetts trees didn't stand a chance. further inland roads turning treacherous. a damaging road from henri as it winds down and moves out. >> reporter: heavy rains beared down in the heart of tennessee, 17 inches, causing floods that turned deadly. >> the water had such tremendous force. it looked like -- i have been whitewater rafting and never been down water like that. that's how the water was coming down.

>> reporter: among those killed two doddlers. national guard in other state and emergency teams tried to account for those missing. knocked out cell service and mass power outages complicating loved ones efforts to find each other. >> there was a house right here. the woman and children were on top of the roof waiting for someone to come help them. >> reporter: homes, cars and roads wiped out as residents clung on for life. what did the storm look like to you? >> it was just a river is what it looked like. >> reporter: through the town? >> yes. a river straight through town. >> reporter: a community including the county sheriff reckoning with tragedy. >> just got one of my best friends and just recovered him. he drowned. >> coming up we'll go live to cnbc for a look at what's driving the day on wall street. plus more on a big story out of southern florida where some health care workers are so frustrated with the still

growing numbers of unvaccinated coronavirus patients in their hospitals, they staged a walk hospitals, they staged a walk out this morning in protest.

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pfizer. >> they are poised, joe, to your point to give that full approval to the vaccine important,ly by today. and that is for that vaccine jointly developed by pfizer and bioontec. that full approval will have a lot of ripple effects which is ratcheting up of vaccination rates among americans hesitant to take that shot. until now the vaccine has been given with emergency authorization from fda prompting some folks to question it's efficacy and save haven the at the. the full approval could give companies, schools and governments and those agencies more of a reason to look towards policies that mandate people get vaccinated. that's a big deal possibly by today. one thing the pandemic guys may have changed in terms of the long term in is dining out trends. restaurants have been replacing physical menus with qr codes.

you scan them on your phone. change many industry watchers say is a permanent one. downloads have soared. restaurants have realized how valuable technology is beyond just providing contactless service. they can change the menu on the fly. they can change the prices to account for inflation, whether those items are available or not and experts do see more opportunities like keeping track of customer data and trends on their order sos something to keep an eye on. lastly here general motors is expanding a recall to include all chevy bolt electric model vehicles sold worldwide to fix a battery problem that could cause fires potentially. the new recall adds about 73,000 bolts from the model years of 2019 to 2022 to a previous recall of 69,000 vehicles made from 2017 to 2019. that latest recall will cost

about $1 billion. the company said owners should limit charging to 90% of capacity and park those vehicles outdoors until that battery is replaced. back over to you. >> pretty massive recall. those qr codes, dom, their purpose is to make you look stupid. scan the code like scanning my eyes. it's quite an adjustment. just hand me a menu. they go old man we don't have a menu. but the codes -- they are pretty incredible. as you say, right, change the menus on the fly. be able to keep up with your customers and what they like and don't like. a lot of real positives to that as well. >> i would say this. have you found a spot -- there are a couple of times when i've been to dining establishments in certain areas where i don't get good cell phone reception so it takes me like three or four minutes to actually download the menu and then i have to ask them for their wi-fi password and

everything else and i get freaked out whether i should be on a public wi-fi network. i don't know. >> that's a problem wherever i go there doesn't seem to be cell phone service. if you're in a place that doesn't have good wi-fi or they don't want to handout their wi-fi password, you don't have good reception, you're sitting there fumbling with it for about 30 minutes. i guess we'll iron that out later on. dominic chu, thank you so much. we'll be seeing what happens with pfizer. will be fascinating. more on a story we brought you at 6:00. doctors in south florida are staging a walk out to call attention to treat the unvaccinated covid-19 patients the. we got kerry sanders. he's live from palm beach gardens. after your report, i got a lot of texts he and calls from doctors i know in the area who were so frustrated and were

really glad to see that. they are saying we're not able to perform basic surgeries that we need to perform on the people who desperately need them. >> reporter: absolutely. i mean the frustration reaching a level where you have about 100 doctors make being their way here for that simulated walk out. we put the drone up to give the visual so people can understand that this is incredibly rare where doctors, some coming off their shift from the covid wards, others getting ready to go on shift, gathering out here. among the drivers that drove an hour and a half here to union that gathering is dr. nelson. i'm curious, first of all, what's the message, the symbol jim of you all gathering. >> it's important for everybody to understand that this is a preventable condition that's running into disaster in health care because something that we have available for everybody, something that can be given, people can get, actually prevent these complications and they are not really going for it.

>> reporter: we see people using many reasons why they don't want to get the vaccine. it's possible today we believe the fda will give authorization for the pfizer vaccine. you're originally from panama. people here say they don't want it. give me the global picture. >> if you think about it, we have the resources to give this for everybody. we have the vaccine to prevent this from becoming a national emergency. yet there are people in the world that want the vaccine don't have it and here we are with this ability to have it and known wants to have it for reasons i don't understand the. >> reporter: explain to me the exhaustion. we've seen it. we one it. but in florida, texas, alabama, mississippi, the icus are just 10% shy of being completely full. what is your exhaustion, what is the exhaustion hike at your hospital? >> the problem is even though doctors and nurses they all want to do the right thing and we want to be there for our

patients. we're humans and we're getting exposed of this every day. we're tired of having to deal with this stress. it's a mental stress. it's the stress of day in and day out. >> reporter: there are doctors working double-shifts the. we're 18 months into this pandemic. >> correct. 18 months in this pandemic. and we still continue with the same situation. we're running short. sometimes you have to have double-shift, triple shifts or pull residents in training from other specialties to help cover the icus. >> reporter: how does this push people over the line, those who have said i'm not getting vaccinated. >> i wish i had the answer for that. it's very difficult to know why they don't want to get the vaccine. the science is there. this is a community issue. we need this commune. al collective immunity to stop it. need to have over 80% of people vaccinated to prevent this from going. we don't understand why there's so much resistance to it. >> reporter: thank you very much. i appreciate you.

i think that the symbolism, guys, of what we saw here today really does show something. i mean doing simulated walk out like this, more than a 100 coming from different areas with icus at near capacity and in some cases they turned over cafeterias, turned over conference rooms for patients and, joe, getting back to what you said, what this all compounds if somebody needs a hip replacement or another like they are in pain they can't get in to have their surgeries because so much of the icu is tied up and the doctor is tied up with people who were unvaccinated and are now they are with coronavirus. >> such an important story, nbc's kerry sanders as always we so appreciate you. thanks for bringing us the story. coming up next, beware the ides of august, that's the warning our next guest says u.s. officials failed to heed about america's expectations for the

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all forces out of the country. this deal had been struck by the taliban. so he had to very rapidly go through a detailed assessment and look at all options in terms of what, you know, what he could -- none of those options were good options. he went through a very rigorous process, a very detailed process. at the end of the day the president made his decision. but, again, he was faced with a situation where there were no good options. all were very tough. >> i think when this is over the american people have a clear understanding of what i did, why we did it. but look, that's job. my job is to make judgments. my job is to make judgments no one else can or will make. i made them. i'm convinced i'm absolutely correct and not deciding to send more young women and men to war, for a war, that, in fact, is no

longer warrant. >> that's biden. before that the defense secretary defending the administration's decision to pull troops out of afghanistan. as the mission don't get all americans and certain afghans out of the country. let's bring in former adviser of the joint chiefs of country. bring in sarah chayes, author of "on corruption in america" and what is at stake. sarah, i want friends watching to understand how uniquely qualified you are to be talking about afghanistan now because you really invested personally in that country, not only as a great reporter for npr, even after that you stayed there. can you give viewers a little background about what you did in afghanistan? >> yeah. briefly. i stayed. i decided it was time to try to do something instead of just talking about it. so he launched the first radio station in post taliban

afghanistan, then i was representing reconstruct, that's what you see there, helping reconstruct houses that u.s. forces bombed in the anti-taliban campaign. then a cooperative in which i made skin care products with afghan men and women for export. then toward about 2008 i began just providing counsel to incoming military headquarters as they were rotating into kandahar because they just didn't have that much access to the ordinary population and eventually i ended up working for two commanders of the international troops in kabul, and then the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mike mullen. and if you wouldn't mind, i would like to spend two seconds talking about some of the afghans you mentioned trying to get out of kabul and that i am trying if i can to help.

there's the former police chief of hellman prove i believe so in the south who is badly injured or his health is bad because of injuries. he has two widows of his brothers dead in fighting with him, they're trying to get out. there's a young man who helped me launch that radio station back in 2002 and he had an investigative program, he would go and look into complaints about public services that people were receiving under the post taliban government, then he would confront government officials when he found there were actually problems. boy, i wouldn't mind having a program like that on the u.s. media. this is the situation that we're trying to handle now. >> so sarah, when i read your piece, it was breathtaking, despite the fact that followed this story so closely 20 years, kind of file it under i knew it

was bad, i never knew it was that bad. i want to focus on two things. one, corruption. i understand joe biden going back to 2009, that dramatic scene where he throws the napkin down, so angry at karzai because of corruption, because they're not getting cooperation, and i read your piece and my god, the levels of corruption all over the place. even for those of us that thought it was bad, we never imagined it was as bad as laid out. can you describe that to viewers? >> basically it is any interaction with an afghan official, you would get shaken down. you know, joe, if you had come to me, i'm an afghan, you said look, sar a i'm a cop, you know how low our salaries are, i have a third daughter that just arrived, i don't have sandals for the feet of the second daughter, man, an afghan would take the shoes off his or her

own daughter's feet to give to you. but that's not how they shake people down, they shake them down con tem tuesdayly, they don't just lose their money, they lose their dignity. and that's about all they had. after awhile, you get so furious, you want to shoot a cop. in kanld a har, they were everywhere. it was hard for men in my cooperative not to join the taliban. so you get angry enough, you want to shoot some cops. that's part of the problem. i had elders tell me look, the taliban shake us down at night, the government shakes us down in the daytime. so the idea that we expected afghans to take, risk their lives to defend a government treating them that way was really wrong. and i have to say. yeah. go ahead. >> no, i'm sorry.

i was going to say we have this view of the taliban wearing the black hats and the government forces wearing white hats. you being there among them all, you write in the piece that for many afghans you interacted with, didn't see a big difference between the taliban and the corruption of the afghan government. >> that's right. that same gentleman that helped me found that radio, he ended up going to, back in 2010 or 2011, going to a taliban kind of court to settle an inheritance dispute, even though he is violently anti-taliban, because that was the only place he was really able to get a judgment that he didn't have to pay for. >> think in terms of corruption, the impact it might have had on how quickly the country fell to

the taliban, what was it like in terms of the military and levels. we hear soldiers were not being paid. how bad was it in terms of the daily life of soldiers in the afghan army? >> it was bad. it was bad, meaning both soldiers didn't have basic equipment and also there weren't as many soldiers as we often say there were because very often what you would have is ghost soldiers, meaning names on rolls but no actual bodies connected to names so that their commanders there, colonels or whatever, could collect their pay. so the numbers you hear about how many soldiers were fielded are incorrect meaning that's not

how many were actually fighting. >> can i ask you just a bit more of a regional question, sarah, where this leaves pakistan and u.s. relations with pakistan going forward now that the taliban are in control of afghanistan. they've been sort of fairly quiet since the taliban have taken over, but how much does this strengthen pakistan's hand at the moment? >> well, they haven't been all that quiet. in fact, the krogh amongst pakistani officials on social media is pretty transparent. let me step us back a second and explain another i think fable we have often been told, that the taliban arose inside the city of kandahar. i spent five years talking to people, both ordinary afghans

that lived in kandahar and across the border, and with a number of key actors who had been part of that drama back in 1994 and the truth is that the taliban did not spontaneously arise inside afghanistan. in fact, they were con koktd across the border in pakistan, probably with quite a bit of saudi arabia money as well. both countries were setting up these very strict and distorted version of islam. it was the pakistani agency that organized the taliban. i spoke to mujahideen controllers in part of kandahar who told how, get ready for this, president hamid karzai, america's first choice to be the first president of a post taliban afghanistan, he was the

very one who negotiated the entry of the taliban into afghanistan from pakistan at the behest of the pakistani military intelligence agency and we discovered again in kabul in the midst of a clearly negotiated defeat of afghanistan and handing of it over back to the isi influence, taliban. so pakistan is in a much better position than five years ago, and let's just remember that the pakistani military is also who provided nuclear secrets to north korea and to iran and is also the country that harbored osama bin laden in a safe house right next to the pakistani, sorry, military academy.

this is a country that's one of the most hostile to u.s. interests in the world and i just cannot understand why the u.s. government has persisted in considering it an ally. >> all right. sarah, thank you so much for being with us. we greatly appreciate it. that's the other part of the article, it is just worse than we even imagined when you look at the isi and pakistan's involvement in the rise and sustaining of the taliban. that does it for us this morning. chris jansing picks up coverage right now. hi there, i am chris jansing, in for stephanie ruhle. it is monday, august 23rd. this morning, we are following several major stories. extreme weather battering the east coast. in the northeast, henri leaving a path of destruction and thousands without power.