this sunday, a divided america. >> people are enraged on both sides of the issue. and it's completely tearing this community apart. >> the country split in two on multiple fronts. one battlefield, covid and masks. >> masks are not to stop the spread of this virus. they only stop the spread of friendship and learning. >> this is all smoke and mirrors. this is tyranny. >> even as the pandemic is again killing 1500 americans a day. >> i feel like i'm in some weird twilight zone, why we're still going over wearing masks and having safe schools for our kids. it's bananas. >> this morning i'll talk to two governors trying to bridge that divide. larry hogan, the republican governor of maryland, and andy beshear, the democratic governor

of red state kentucky. plus, the newly elevated fight over abortion. texas enacts the most restrictive abortion law in the country, dismaying abortion rights advocates. >> as a matter of reality, roe v waid is a dead letter in texas today. >> and the supreme court lets the law stand for now. >> a child is a child. this person is a person. >> my guests this morning, former democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri and former republican congresswoman barbara comstock of virginia. >> also, long term power outages in louisiana. record rainfall and flooding in the northeast. what hurricane ida tells us about the threat of climate change. joining me for insight and analysis are yamiche al alcindor from "the washington post"

columnist matt buy, betsy swan and brandon buck. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> and a good sunday morning. the u.s. enters this labor day weekend suffering from two viruses. covid and polarization. it is not an exaggeration to say we are more divided than at any time, perhaps since the 1960s and frankly maybe since the civil war. as one of our guests today put it, we used to be divided over issues like abortion and guns. we're kind of used to those divisions, and we still are divided on those two issues. now, we can't even agree about covid or january 6th. covid has become an mri of america's soul. who would have imagined that masks, wearing or refusing them, would become such a political statement? this morning, we're going to take a look at how and why we're so divided, primarily through the lens of two issues. one is covid where the seven-day average of infections has risen to more than 161,000, driven largely by vaccine hesitancy and refusal. the other is abortion. the supreme court letting stand

at least for now that restrictive texas law that has left abortion opponents believing roe could finally be overturned, and pro choice advocates fearing they might be right. with the country increasingly divided by geography, race, age, education, the question we're asking this morning, do we have the political leadership to meet this treacherous political moment? >> people are enraged. on both sides of the issue. and it's completely tearing this community apart. >> the political divide has become deadly with vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation and the politicizing of the virus leading to the harassment of health care workers, hospitalizations, and deaths. >> things are just escalating. the rhetoric, the bullying. >> i feel like i'm in some weird twilight zone why we're still going over wearing masks. >> just 53% of americans are fully vaccinated. despite the nation's early start, that rate trails more than 30 other countries. as covid hospitalizations and deaths rise, red states with the lowest vaccination rates are

driving the surge. >> you have to help me get the people vaccinated. >> we are suffering the most at a time when it is the most preventible. >> in a recent nbc news poll, just 55% of republicans said they were vaccinated compared to 88% of democrats. among republicans who said they support donald trump over the republican party, the number was even lower, 46%. 79% of democrats favor a vaccine requirement, 75% of republicans oppose it. >> do you regret not getting the vaccine? >> absolutely, i 100% regret it. >> what were some of the things you were hearing? >> that the vaccine was not a real vaccine, that it was like a tracking chip the government was trying to use on us. >> misinformation has spread rapidly on conservative media. >> a plan is now under way to use vaccine mandates to take your guns. >> virtually everything they

told us about the covid vaccine was wrong. >> and on social media. >> what's in the vaccine? give me the insert sheet. >> we literally have come up with an incredibly safe and efficacious vaccine. people are behind me screaming about how it's tyranny and it's communism. >> there are also sharp divisions between the two americas over the results of the election, the january 6th insurrection, the border, guns and abortion. now, likely to produce a national political battle leading up to the next election. the new texas law which bans abortion after six weeks provides at least a $10,000 reward to any individual who successfully sues someone for performing, aiding, or intending to aid in an abortion. including the driver who drops a woman off at a clinic. >> it's going to be nearly impossible for folks to access the care they need. >> thrilled we are celebrating this historic day for the pro-life movement. >> the texas law is by far the most restrictive in effect. 15 states have attempted to ban abortion before viability but have been stopped by court order.

54% of americans say abortion should always or mostly be legal, 42% say it should always or mostly be illegal. still, several states are already considering copycat legislation after the supreme court upheld the texas law. >> when the supreme court goes out and makes a decision like this, it clearly is going to send a signal to all the states that are interested in banning abortions. >> and joining me now are two governors who are living our political divide. andy beshear is the democratic governor of a very red kentucky where the ledge slaw -- legislature has a veto proof majority, and larry mow began is the republican governor of a very blue maryland where the democratic legislature has a veto-proof majority and in the spirit of bipartisanship, the two governors agreed to appear together today. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> good morning. >> governor bushear, let me start with you. i'm going to put up the case curve. you know this curve very well

with covid right now. it's astonishing how fast delta has surged in the state of kentucky. you're trying to deal with it, but you have been limited in your ability to do certain things by your republican legislature. what can you get done now to try to slow the surge in kentucky? >> well, our situation is dire. we're setting case records. we have a record number of kentuckians in the hospital battling covid, in the icu battling for their lives. we have a record number of families that are praying for their loved one who is on a ventilator, needing that assistance to breathe. recent supreme court case and our legislature limit my ability to do some things like masking. if i had the ability to do it right now, we would have a masking order when you are in public and indoors. we know that's a proven way to slow the spread of the virus, and ultimately help our health care capacity. but that doesn't mean there aren't things we can do. so i sent the national guard to our hardest hit hospitals. they do the logistics and free

up more clinicians. we have taken over the testing for those hospitals so those nurses, again, can be tending to patients. we brought in fema, who have sent some strike teams and now we deployed nursing students all over kentucky again to try to provide more staffable beds. it is a challenge. we are hit very, very hard. but we're going to continue to fight. when you're at war, you don't get to cry about what you can or can't do. you have to do your very best every day because this is a battle of life versus death. >> governor hogan, look, you lead a state that has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. but let's be frank. if two thirds of your electorate were republican, do you think you would be this successful? >> well, look, i think we're very proud of the fact that we're one of the most vaccinated states in the country, and as a result, our metrics are almost completely opposite of what

governor beshear is dealing with in kentucky. you know, we have vaccinated 81% of all the people that are eligible. everybody 12 and over, 95% of our seniors, and as a result, our hospitalizations are down 70 some percent from their peak, deaths are down, but we're still dealing with unvaccinated folks who account for most of our hospitalizations and deaths. some has to do with the fact there has been tremendous disinformation campaigns and people are believing things that are simply not true, but it's not just in the red areas where we're having difficulties. we're one of the states with the highest percentage of minority populations and some of our urban areas we have similar challenges but we're doing well and i'm pleased with the results of where we are. it's convincing those last 19% of our people that they've got to take action. that's where we're focused on. >> let's talk about this issue of misinformation. we have got this issue of the dewormer situation and i think kentucky poison control has had extra calls about this. governor, are there just certain

groups of people that aren't going to listen to you and you have to acknowledge that and find other spokespeople to try to convince the unvaccinated to listen to public health? >> when it comes to misinformation, i really don't think this is a red or a blue issue. it is a fact versus fiction or a sometimes sane versus insane issue. my first job in life was mucking stalls at a horse farm, taking a horse dewormer is crazy. under any circumstance. we are well past, i think, all across america the populations that are going to listen to a government official and take the vaccine because of it. we're probably past even the point where a local official, a pastor or others. where i think we're at is where people are going to have to break that thanksgiving dinner rule. they're going to have to call or go see that person they love and care about that is unvaccinated and they're going to have to put their relationship with that

person on the line because they have never been at greater risk. and i think it's that type of caring and the person who is willing to do that and to make that sacrifice that will finally get through to those that are not vaccinated. that's what we're seeing here in kentucky. and we need all americans to do it. yes, you might lose a friend because of that conversation, but that friend might lose their life if they don't get vaccinated. >> governor hogan, give some advice to the current covid task force and the biden administration. let's talk the issue of a third shot or a booster shot. you're a cancer survivor. you have gotten the booster shot. you have the former president out there saying he's not going to take it, and earlier he seemed to chalk up the idea to some sort of profiteering by pfizer. i think it's clear the biden administration can't speak to the folks who should be spoken to, and what's your advice on how to talk to the trump folks? >> well, i don't think it's just about the trump folks. you know, i was fairly critical

of president trump when i thought that they were battling messaging, when i thought they were doing things wrong and not providing the assistance that we needed in the states, and i have been the same thing with the biden administration. we're getting some mixed messaging out of the administration. out of the cdc, the fda and the white house. and we need clear guidance on these booster shots because it undermines the credibility of it. so they came out with, i guess they slipped and pre-leaked an announcement about booster shots with all three vaccines, and then had to backtrack it and say you can only use pfizer. what about the people who took johnson & johnson, what about the people who took moderna? they haven't messaged properly about how to take care of breakthrough infections. it does prevent hospitalizations and death, or greatly reduces it, but it's not stopping people from getting breakthrough infections. so i think the messaging was not clear with either administration. and i think that's one of the ways we have been successful in our state, is with clear, direct messaging that people can

believe in. and listen to. and that's been a problem all over the map. . >> governor beshear, i'm curious on your thoughts on the biden task force and your metric, if you hit the number, mask mandate triggers. if you're below the number of infection, no. why has it been hard to just create a statistical line here? we know when a tropical storm becomes a hurricane because you measure the wind speed. why has that been difficult with covid? >> well, it has been difficult, and it shouldn't be because it's just basic science. and our health care providers have been wearing masks for decades. why? to prevent infection in different areas. i think this is a test of our humanity. i believe that's what this pandemic is. remember, a pandemic isn't an issue. it's a virus trying to kill as many of us as possible. and so, i think it comes down to

are you willing to be selfless and wear that mask, loving your neighbor and protecting them? or is it more a question of selfish. i have the right to do whatever i want, even if it causes harm to others. you know, you can't walk into a crowded movie theater and yell "fire." your freedom of speech doesn't extend that far. let's remember that liberty is the right to live our lives, not to cause someone else's death. that should be pretty easy for people of faith, for people of values, and i hope that we can start living that faith and those values to protect one another once again. >> let me lift up and talk about the larger challenge of polarization and the abortion debate is only going to exasperate our divide. both of you, i could argue and you may disagree with me, i'm going to play political analyst. both of you have benefitted when the other party went too far.

right? i could argue that's why you're both governor today. certainly why you may have a second term, governor hogan and why, governor beshear, you're here. is that the only way to cut through polarization, when the other party goes too far and the voters create a check? is that about it because it doesn't seem the middle ground gets represented unless one party goes too far? >> well, that's an interesting -- interesting idea. i think that may be possible. certainly in our state, they had raised taxes 43 times in a row even though we're the most democratic state in america. even the democrats got frustrated with that. so i think right now in america, there are certainly people on both ends of the extremes on the left and the right who get all of the attention. the ones that are making the most noise, and that's what we hear about when we're watching television, but about 70% of the people actually are somewhere in the middle. they're moderate or right of center, left of center. they really want their elected officials to try to figure out a way to do something about this toxic politics and they want us to work together to come up with real bipartisan common sense solutions. it turns out that's the most popular thing in america with most voters. >> governor beshear, both you and governor hogan have also shared another thing in common. when you had some abortion bills

come from your legislature, you chose not to veto them but you chose not to sign them and they just became law. one had to do with medicaid funding with planned parenthood i believe on the maryland side of things. you with the current law that's there. how much do you expect abortion to divide your state going forward, and what is your -- do you have a plan on what to do in a post-roe world? >> well, i think it remains to be seen exactly what impact this texas decision will have, especially with another case coming before the supreme court here pretty soon. but as the state's former top prosecutor, i have seen the worst of the worst situations. young girls raped impregnated, sometimes by members of their own families. i hope whatever comes down the line provides those victims that have been harmed in ways most of us could never imagine the options that they deserve. >> governor hogan, do you believe the abortion issue, if it's going to be state by state,

you seem to basically say you know your electorate is perhaps pro choice. you may be pro life, and you have sort of taken a hands-off approach. do you believe it should be the sort of public sentiment that should dictate where we go on abortion laws? >> well, you know, i happen to be personally opposed to abortion, and i believe the states do have rights to pass some reasonable restrictions, but certainly in this case, this bill in texas seems to be a little bit extreme with this problem of bounties for people that turn in somebody that drove somebody to an abortion clinic. so look, i think the courts, the supreme court will take this up. they haven't made the final determination on it. legislatures have rights to pass bills. governors have a right to sign them into law or not. the court gets to make the ultimate decision. >> i understand, but do you think there should be something, if it's by the states, should it reflect the will of the people or the will of the elected officials?

>> well, you know, the way our system works is we elect officials and they make decisions for us. the people get to decide whether they want to keep them in office or not. in our state, the voters made this determination long before i became governor. my legislature is 70%, more than 70% democratic, and i chose not to try to over turn the will of the legislature or the voters. >> governor andy beshear, democrat from kentucky. larry hogan, republican from maryland. again, appreciate you both coming on. believe it or not, this used to be a very common practice here on "meet the press." it's hopefully something we can keep going. thank you both. >> thank you. when we come back, we're going to turn to the issue of abortion and whether the supreme court just signaled its ready to overturn roe v. wade. >> former democratic senator claire mccaskill and former republican congresswoman barbara comstock join me next. ndshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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no! no! that's why comcast works around the clock constantly improving america's largest gig-speed broadband network. and just doubled the capacity here. how do things look on your end? -perfect! because we're building a better network every single day. welcome back. the enactment of the texas abortion law is perhaps a game changing moment in the nearly 50-year battle over roe v. wade when the supreme court declined to block what is now the most

restrictive abortion law in the country, it sent a signal that the court's conservative majority may be ready to unwind or overturn roe. while abortion opponents cheered the move, abortion rights supporters are hoping the far-reaching law will energize the democratic voters in the next midterm election. joining me is former democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri and former republican congresswoman barbara comstock. of virginia. welcome to you both, i appreciate it. claire, let me start with you on this. and that is this -- how much of -- what should the biden administration be doing right now? and is there anything that democrats in congress or the biden administration should be doing that can be done before the next election? >> well, i'm not so sure there's a huge role for biden and/or congress right now other than shouting from the rooftops that this law that the supreme court

blessed -- and you can try to dress it up and put a bow on it, but they blessed a law that embraces vigilanteism, that embraces the most extreme position, no exception for a 13-year-old who has been repeatedly raped by her father who didn't know she was even pregnant until after six weeks. no exception for that. chuck, 63% of america supports roe v. wade. i guarantee you 80% of america does not want this law with vigilante embraced by the supreme court to become the way of life in america. i really think they've gone too far, and i will not accept both sides on this. this is one party that is doing this, not both parties. this is not the place for, oh, both sides are a problem. no. one side is a problem. i got re-elected because of an extreme position on abortion. i believe a lot of democrats

will get elected over this. >> former congresswoman barbara comstock, do you accept that, that this is being driven more by one party at this time, that you can't have the both sides conversation on this particular topic? >> well, this is obviously a polarizing issue and this is a polarizing bill. as someone who is pro life and has always wanted to change hearts and minds and focus on creating a culture of life and respecting the dignity of women and the children, i don't think this is a good bill and i agree with the "wall street journal" editorial board who said it was a blunder. i do think it's important to point out, i don't agree with claire, the majority and minority have said clearly this does not overturn roe v. wade. secondly, a texas county judge has already blocked the enforcement of it against planned parenthood who didn't have a good legislative strategy. this is a flawed bill. i expect because these similar bills have been blocked before and i think fairly quickly this will be. so i think neither side is going

to be pleased with where the court may come down. i think the key issue on abortion from the original roe decision is the viability issue. that's where you've had republicans usually focus, is on -- we had, i think it was in 2016, a bill on banning abortions after 20 weeks which is sort of the viability area now. the original roe decision highlighted viability as part of that. i think there's going to be -- there needs to be some calm conversation on this. i think the supreme court, when you look at whether it's bush v. gore or the trump election, these judges who got attacked as being -- they were going to be trump judges, they upheld the obamacare decision. let them take up these cases which they will i think shortly, and i think people will be pleasantly surprised where they end up. i don't think pro life or pro

choice are going to like the ultimate, where they come down, maybe where the people are in the middle. >> claire, this is something you brought up the fact that you got re-elected, because you had an opponent who had an extreme position on the idea of rape, legitimate rape is something that todd akin at the time called it. you look at this texas law. what is the slippery slope, if we go down this idea where you take enforcement and put it into the hands of the people? i mean, i've already seen some folks on the right who don't like what texas did fear that this could turn into some -- that a blue state could do this on gun issues. >> well, let's be clear about what the republican party is right now. it's a stewing pot of grievance. and what they have done with this law -- by the way, they've done it with other laws, too. republicans, not democrats. they've done it on what is taught in school. in my state they've done it on whether or not local law enforcement enforces federal gun laws. in other states they've done it

on what rights people have that are trans. so this vigilantism, our courts have always operated on a concept of standing, that you are in court because you have standing. what the republicans are doing, they're giving standing to anybody who has got a social grievance. they're taking culture wars to a place our country has never gone. it is dangerous. it is wrong. and the democratic legislatures are not doing this. these are just republicans doing this. i think this goes in the column of, they are only listening to their calcified circle of disinformation and conservative media. they think everybody agrees with them. it's only about 20% of the country. 80% of the country is not going to like this, and i do believe -- i don't want the democrats to start doing this kind of bs. it's wrong. we should not be empowering vigilant tees to support social

grievance, whether it's guns, climate or anything else. >> justice roberts pointed out in his dissent, he was in the minority, that this case of whether you can outsource to private parties is a very important issue. i am confident that will not stand. so that's where all the focus and the inflammation is here. as you had that discussion with those governors, we've had a lot of polarization on whether it's january 6th or covid. and these issues have always been polarizing. we need calm right now. we don't need another january 6th at the supreme court. the supreme court knows how to handle these issues and will be doing it quickly, i believe. then you're going to have -- ken paxton who is the attorney general who will be defending this, he lost in court on obamacare. he lost -- in three days the supreme court kicked him to the curb on his bogus trump things. remember, there were a lot of democrats saying these judges are going to uphold trump, trump even said it. what did they do? they kicked him to the curb. these are judges who follow the law. that's why they will take up these cases, look at what the

established law is and have them briefed. i think since the judge in texas has already said planned parenthood can go forward, this will go through the normal process. >> let me ask you a big question, though, in the republican party. can you have governor hogan's position, he's pro-life, but he essentially allowed pro-choice legislation to pass. can you have that position and be viable in a republican primary? >> i think governor hogan has been very pro life during the covid crisis. look at how he's brought people together, he's gotten the state vaccinated -- >> you get what i'm asking. >> i know. he understood his bill would be overridden. yes, i do believe -- everybody understands there are different positions on this which is why, instead of having extremes drive this from both -- whether it's a democrat -- claire was attacked by aoc in 2018 when she pointed out that abortion and guns were polarizing the country and that's why she lost. nancy pelosi was attacked by

planned parenthood in 2016 when she said i'm not for abortion on demand for the whole nine months, when we were discussing the 20 -- then she had to coming back and apologize to planned parenthood. we have to be able to discuss this. i got attacked for an over-the-counter birth control bill that republican women supported. it wasn't just opposed by right wing men, it was opposed by planned parenthood who didn't want the competition in the market. fortunately technology has taken that over and you can get it online. >> claire, is there a reasonable middle ground for the democratic party on -- it's hard to say sometimes there's a middle ground on abortion, but the public seems there is a middle ground there, which is they don't want it completely banned, and they don't want it without some limitations. what is the middle ground look like in a place like missouri? >> well, all the noise is going to be on the far extremes. and i -- listen, i have great respect for barbara comstock on

who she is and how she held office. but listen, women of america are not calm right now. the supreme court had an opportunity to stay this bill. and they didn't stay it. that is telling. that's why women are not calm right now. they are very upset over the idea that this is going to be allowed in any state in the united states. so is there middle ground? yeah. and the more extreme the republican party keeps becoming, and the next thing they're going to do -- missouri says they're going to copy it. they're going to probably do this on immigration. they'll have vigilantes, with a tip line, you can get $50,000 if you turn in an employer who hired someone who is illegal. that's going to happen unless we do something to stop the extremism in the name of vigilantism. this is the republican party that used to hate trial lawyers, used to hate the courts, and now they're using the courts. >> it's bad policy and it's bad law. if republicans are going to try to be todd akin republicans,

claire is right, they will not succeed. we have a lot more larry hogans, jamie herrera butler who is pro life and the leader on helping women with tough pregnancies and kids who have disabilities. that's the kind of pro life community i've always worked with, and i think that's the one that needs to stand up now. >> i will say this, in the spirit of our polarization broadcast, claire mccaskill and barbara comstock appearing together in a very high minded discussion. i appreciate both of you. thank you. >> thank you. when we come back, joe biden has just come off one of the worst weeks of his presidency and he has the sinking poll numbers to prove it. before we go to break, we want to note the pass of an nbc and "today" show legend. we learned that the weather man, funny man, and every man willard scott died this week. scott was the "today" show weatherman from 1980 to 2010. he was a big personality on and off screen. trust me, when you'd see him in the halls of the d.c. bureau, a big smile on his face.

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welcome back. the panel is here. yamiche alcindor moderator of "washington week" on pbs, washington post contributor matt bai, republican strategist brendan buck and politico's betsy woodruff swan. brendan being the only happy college football fan at the table this morning. congratulations to your bulldogs there. some day maybe mine will be

s.e.c. caliber. i want to start with joe biden and where things stand in the democratic party. yamiche, you cover the white house very closely. i want to put up his poll ratings, 43, 44, 46. we had him at 49. it was clear that two weeks ago he was still going down. he hadn't hit bottom. perhaps this is bottom here. does the white house think they have an afghanistan problem or covid problem? >> i'll say this. these numbers underscore a real fact which is that presidents try to create agendas, but real life events and circumstances actually define their agendas. here you had a president who took such fierce criticism over his withdrawal from afghanistan, plus the idea that he declared independence of the virus or something close to it, talking about the idea of a return to normalcy on july 4th only to then have americans say, we have to put our masks back on, we have to see children have surging rates of covid. this is a problem that the president is faced with, this idea that he's been talking about solving these problems.

he ran on the idea of being a clear-headed, experienced president. the white house is saying we're trying to do this. we understand our number one job is still covid. the american people are looking and saying, okay, all of this experience means what exactly for my lived experience? add to that, of course, the economics of this. we have to remember that the economy is the thing that is driving this. our original sin of this pandemic was polarization and lies, and that is leading people not to get the vaccine. that's also leading people to die of the virus and take dewormers. now the president and white house officials tell me it really is about explaining to people that science evolves, explaining to people that challenges are part of the job. these poll numbers are really challenging for him. >>, you know, it's interesting, i want to put up our poll of just the independent voters. betsy, this is who is moving. democrats don't move up or down. republicans don't move up or down. it's the color of their jersey. it's the small slice of independents, his approval rating sitting at 36% now. in april, it was over 50%.

and they're -- maybe call them the competency voters. they actually react to what's happening. they're not happy with how covid is going. whether it's biden's fault or not, he's the guy at the wheel. >> it's a nightmare number for the white house. i talked to a republican -- strike that. just about this whole situation yesterday, and what that person said, afghanistan, that horror in a vacuum probably would not have significantly damaged biden's poll numbers the way we've seen them change over the last few months. the point this particular strategist made, it's the totality of everything that's happened since april. it's covid, inflation. there's evidence voters are concerned about the immigration system. it gives republicans an opening to argue that things are spiraling out of control for the white house. whether or not that's accurate, this number tells you what you need to know at least in terms of the way that this administration and this white house are communicating to the american people and to these persuadable independents how exactly they're governing and their ability to shape circumstances rather than be shaped by them.

>> matt, biden's campaign was defined by -- speaking of chaos. trump was chaos. i'm not going to be chaos. we're going to be science focused, we'll be this. i wonder if -- and some might say that the expectations are too high that he could govern a polarized environment? >> he wasn't going to stay where he was. we've seen the last few administrations, independents will come back to their general skeptical outlook. i don't think it's a panic number. it's not a good number. it's not what they want. they've got a lot of time. things will change. i think it's important to your point, he was elected, given a very wide margin because he did represent a return to normalcy and dignity and directness and honest any in a presidency. that's what people wanted. he held himself out as a return to stability and candor. he has gone out throughout this and has spoken directly to the american people several times, taken responsibility. he's explaining things. i think that's going to stand him well over time. if that were eroding, then i think you might see a more permanent slide.

i don't think it's time to conclude the president is hobbled. >> brendan, is joe biden being hurt by the fact that donald trump is on mute? he's not there every day reminding people why they ended up supporting joe biden? >> actually there was a relatively low bar for joe biden. he was basically elected to end chaos, and things were supposed to be better by now. let's stop -- this poll was conducted during the afghanistan evacuations. it's not surprising necessarily that he took a hit right then. there is still a real level of anxiety in this country. i think a lot of it is from covid. when joe biden was elected, partisans on one side -- on both sides. the middle said, i just want to go back to feeling better about my life. and i think a lot of people -- you've got kids going back to school right now, covid spiking, and the anxiety is back. they thought things would be a lot better by now. >> and into this morass is going to be this fight for the rest of his agenda.

joe manchin -- let up. up what joe manchin said, yamiche. he wants to see a strategic pause on the $3.5 trillion build back better half of this proposal. bernie sanders, pretty blunt, no infrastructure bill without the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. the white house is going to have to be the leader here, not schumer, not pelosi, not pete defazio. it's going to have to be joe biden. are they ready to figure out how to get manchin and sanders together? >> based on my conversation at the white house, this is what they're going to be focused on in september. i think that we all can agree, august was an ugly month. there were so many different challenges, but september can be even worse because you'll have to have the president on the phone with his own party saying we need to get on the same page when it comes to this reconciliation bill. there is this idea of a climate change having come to the front door of the east and the west. fires on one side of the country, floods in new jersey, the idea that the more people died of the storm in new jersey than other parts of the country

really, i think, scares some people into saying, we need to be taking action in congress to deal with this. this is going to be joe biden. he ran on the idea that he could bring people together, he ran on the idea that i know these people, i've been three decades in congress, three decades in the government and public service, and as a result i can bring these people together. that's going to be a test for this. white house officials tell me he's going to be personally involved, calling folks and spending his time doing this. >> betsy, joe biden could use a signing ceremony right now. there's a bill that deals with infrastructure that's ready to go. you see what's happening. i get the strategy behind the scenes. but if you're a person with a flooded basement, you're like, we got to do something. >> if only there were a way. i talked about this with a democratic strategist, a hill aide who said part of the problem here is the tension within the house and senate democratic conferences, but also one reason that this person found optimism is that both progressives and moderates who are kind of at each other's throats right now, they both need both of these bills. progressives need to go back to their districts and say we got this spending bill done, we expanded the social safety net.

moderates need to go to their districts and say the two most wonderful words everyone wants to hear, bipartisan infrastructure. unless they both get done, it won't happen. that puts a lot of pressure on house dems, which in some ways is creating a bit of quiet optimism. >> very quickly. >> this is where the agenda hits the poll ratings. for democrats, there's this thought that more money solves problems. for voters there's a skepticism, a trust factor there. do i know you're going to spend that money well? do i know you'll solve the problem with that money? that's where the approval ratings and dissatisfaction with what the biden administration is doing right now may affect their ability to move that agenda. >> very quickly. >> new majorities get greedy. there's an infrastructure bill that the president could sign right now if they would take it. they need to take a win, take a half loaf if that's what it requires. >> score board. when we come back, scenes like these in the northeast, as we were just talking about last

week, is a sign of what is a changing climate, and what that climate has in store for us. after the break, we'll look at the fastest growing counties in america and how they're at the center of the climate change bull's eye. stick with us. welcome back. with us. welcome back former broker carl. carl, say hi to nina, our schwab financial consultant. hm... i know how difficult these calls can be. not with schwab. nina made it easier to set up our financial plan. we can check in on it anytime. it changes when our goals change. planning can't be that easy. actually, it can be, carl. look forward to planning with schwab. schwab! ♪♪ welcome to allstate. ♪ ♪ you already pay for car insurance, ♪ why not take your home along for the ride? ♪ allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less.

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♪ ayy, that's how we do, ♪ ♪ how we do, fancy like, oh ♪ welcome back. it's data download time. this week we saw once again the issue of climate change is not a hypothetical. it is here and it is deadly. with this year's new census numbers, we're learning where people are choosing to move is going to mean more and more americans are going to be in places where climate change is

having a pretty devastating impact. let me show you where our movements are. obviously the fastest growing cities in america, look at them, they're in the southwest and the west. you already can see where we're headed. the number one thing that brings up is the issue of water and drought issues, as you can see here. some of the fastest growing counties are in places that are basically water stressed. we already know with the colorado river and restrictions going there. yet the fastest growing areas are in phoenix. are they going to be able to have enough water? then you've got the issue of rising heat issues. well, guess what, some of the fastest growing places in the southwest are also going to be places where we're going to have some extreme heat. we already saw what happened with extreme cold weather in the texas power grid. that's going to have more implications there. then, of course, we saw this week what happens when you get extreme rainfall in the northeast and whether the infrastructure there is going to hold up, but where you have some fast growing populations in places that are also getting extreme rainfall, whether it's in the pacific northwest or down

here in the texas gulf coast. then, of course, where are we going to have more people in line for potentially devastating hurricanes. those fast growing areas in texas and the gulf coast mean more people in line for that. the bottom line is this, our population shifts in this country are going to places where we have a lot of climate-related problems. when we come back, could the abortion ban in texas, possibly followed by other states, energize the abortion right vote? stick with us. right vote stick with us.

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welcome back. all right. the politics of abortion. here's where the american public is. when should abortion be legal? the american public is in a mushy middle. 31% always legal, 23 most of the time, 34% illegal with some exceptions and 8% believe illegal without any exceptions. brendan, is the texas, if abortion is at the top of mind in a political campaign, is this good for bad for the republican party in 2022? >> absolutely bad. there has been in -- we have taken for granted for a number of years now abortion politics animates republicans and it's good for republicans. i don't know if that is true any more. look at the kavanaugh fight. lost in the midterms, lost the house. look at 2020. donald trump elected -- or nominated three supreme court justices. he lost. i don't know that we can assume

that republicans are going to get animated in the way that democrats are. you're seeing incredible energy among democrats saying that they are upset and i don't know that this is going to be a conversation that any republicans want to have and evidence of that. do you see any republicans talking about this right now? >> no one is celebrating this on the right. it's an uncomfortable conversation that they don't want to have. i think democrats are eager to take advantage of it. >> one thing i would add, is if you talk to the leaders of the conservative legal movement in washington, including leaders who want abortion laws in the country to be more restrictive. they'll tell you two things about this texas law. the first thing they'll say is they think it's clownish. and the second thing second thing they'll say is, it's strategically useful to them because the biggest long-term threat to roe v. wade is not this texas law, it's mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. that ban will be debated at the supreme court in the fall. they will rule next year. the fact that texas has this

six-week vigilante justice law makes mississippi's law look like the moderate compromise position and puts kavanaugh, amy coney barrett in a more comfortable spot than it would if texas hadn't come first. >> the other thing is that democratic women are horrified in particular, and woman who believe in some sort of abortion are horrified. and that is a -- at least based on numbers, that's the majority of women in this country. when this supreme court ruling came through, i got calls in the middle of the night from people who wanted to go on the record immediately to say how upset they were. that's not a regular sort of response to a supreme court ruling. what it tells you is that the democrats are going to get animated about the issue. that's not what republicans want. republicans, while they may not want to talk about it, this is the consequences of the gop working for decades to get to this moment. they took over state legislatures. they have the supreme court majority. so this is also while they don't want to talk about it, this is what republicans wanted. even if it's not this exact law, it is this idea that abortion

will somehow be curtailed in a real, real way and democrats, they feel as though this seems like the thing that could galvanize people on the midterms when they badly need to win the midterms. and gain seats. >> terry mcauliffe and gavin newsom, they grabbed on to this immediately in the virginia race. glenn youngkin was like, can we talk about something else? >> let's talk about base mobilization. what will gin up republicans, this is a party that lost women by 15 points, independents by nine, ten points. they can't afford -- this only helps them in places they are winning big. i agree with congresswoman comstock. i don't think the court has signaled they are going to overturn roe v. wade. they said it's a procedural issue, we're going to wait until there's a case in front of us. i would be shocked if this stood up. >> from looking at that ruling from the five justices where they declined to pause the texas law, one piece of that, one

thing that's missing from that very, very brief order that was -- that several legal folks noted to me is that it didn't say explicitly that the texas law was unconstitutional. those justices could have said this law is blatantly unconstitutional given current supreme court precedent. they could have said that while also pausing the law, but they didn't. and that's something that is ominous sign to folks who want to protect abortion right. >> legitimate rape became a sticky praise. sticky phrase. it took down not one republican candidate, but also a second in indiana. this bounty thing feels like no matter what -- it may make mississippi look reasonable to some people, but the bounty thing has this stickiness to it where even the average person is going to hear about it. >> it's an asinine way to set up a law. and you asked the right question of claire mccaskill. what stops a california from banning guns by saying you can sue anybody who owns one? there is nothing conservative about how this is set up. so i think it will end up failing. but there are going to be other challenges. if this ends up being the issue we are talking about in november, it's not just bad for

moderates, it's bad for everybody. claire mccaskill got collected in red state missouri on this issue. if this is the conversation we're having, it's going to be a bad midterm. >> this is the conversation the white house wants to be scrambling. they were scrambling and the president put out that statement saying we are going to have an immediate response to this, have a department of justice and the health and human services look at this. the president is standing up as a catholic saying i support roe v. wade. he doesn't want to talk about afghanistan and other things that are making august and september so challenging for him. but this is something he can say, i believe this and i will try my best to do something about it. >> every elected official is going to have to go on the record with specifics on their abortion position and they ducked that for 30 years. thank you. enjoy the rest of your labor day weekend. thanks for watching. we'll be back next week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ "meet the press."

good morning, and welcome to a special edition of "morning joe." we're on tape for the next couple of hours allowing for our hardworking staff not to have to labor on this labor day. this morning we're looking back at the more memorable conversations we've had on the show over the past few months. we're going to start with one of this year's most highly anticipated books about the final days of the trump administration. >> to the long-awaited book to the two out standing pulitzer prize journalists, "i alone can fix it" is out today. and it details the chaos that started