with republicans now brazenly traipsing into the arms of the most extreme elements of the gop base where the law that all but bans abortion in texas and turns neighbors and friends into bounty hunters, the question before us is this -- what are democrats going to do with their control of the u.s. house of representatives, the u.s. senate, and the white house to protect reproductive freedoms? not just for the women of texas but for all the women in this country. that is now the critical legacy making question for the party and for the biden administration, as we head into

the final months of 2021. reproductive freedom advocates and women's health care workers are grappling with how to protect women in the wake of the supreme court's audacious refusal to block a law that all but bans abortion in america's second largest state. late on friday, a texas judge granted a restraining order blocking the state's largest anti-abortion group, that would be texas right to life, from using the abortion ban to sue planned parenthood. but as "the new york times" is reporting, quote, the order's reach is narrow, and it is set to expire on september 17th. that is 11 days from today. it is a very small and a very temporary victory, as abortion rights advocates assess their limited options to fight back against the ban. one of the most effective strategies will no doubt be public opinion. and ads like this one from best-selling author and activist don winslow, are likely a

preview of what's to come motivating women and democratic voters to activism. >> if i'm beaten and raped in the state of texas, i have to give birth to the baby of my rapist. if i'm raped by my father, brother, or uncle and get pregnant in the state of texas, i have to give birth to the baby of my family abuser. this new law is so draconian that i can be prosecuted for having an abortion and so can my doctors, friends, and family who advise me. or even the uber driver who simply drives me to the clinic. this is madness. the same people who have been protesting and screaming my body my choice when it comes to the covid vaccine are now saying i don't have any control over my own body. shame on the men and women who passed this law. and shame on anyone who sits in silence while women suffer and die because of it. >> that ad you just saw a chunk of it, the whole ad has had more than 2 million views and is likely to represent the tip of the spear in terms of activating many of the same voices and people who spilled into the

streets of the nation's capital and cities all across the country in 2016 and 2017 after donald trump's election and inauguration. but so far, the silence from corporate america on the texas abortion law has been deafening. "the new york times" reached out to two dozen major companies, many of which have taken a stand on issues like racial justice and voting rights, that either declined to comment or refused to reply to them. the times adds, quote, among those that would not say something were mcdonald's, a sponsor of international women's day, pwc, a major supporter of diversity and inclusion efforts, and coca-cola and delta airlines, which led a corporate backlash last year against a restrictive voting bill in georgia where they have their headquarters. many of the biggest employers in texas, including at&t, oracle, mckesson, and philips 66, declined to comment. even companies that are quick to speak up on social issues,

including patagonia and levi's, did not say anything about the new law. and "the washington post" is reporting on the tiny handful of companies that have taken action in light of the texas abortion ban. quote, uber and lyft said they would cover legal fees for drivers sued under the law. meanwhile, the web hosting provider godaddy told texas right to life to find a different provider for pro-life whistleblower.com. a site that invites supporters of the law to report people who continue to help women obtain abortions. meanwhile, anti-abortion activists are seizing their momentum, saying the supreme court's refusal to block the texas law is a reason to launch a new wave of abortion bans all across this country. nbc news reports that, quote, the ripple effect after texas' highly restrictive anti-abortion law went into effect was immediate. within 24 hours, legislators in at least six states, florida,

arkansas, indiana, mississippi, north dakota, and south dakota expressed interest in introducing similar legislation. all of this bringing us back to our original question. what are democrats going to do to protect abortion rights? president biden has already promised a, quote, whole of government response to the law. and already some are laying out what that should look like. in an op-ed in "the washington post," law professor laurence tribe urges doj to prosecute vigilantes who use the law to sue thy neighbor clause to help anyone who gets an abortion. tribe writes, quote, the texas legislature and five supreme court justices have joined forces to eviscerate women's abortion rights. the legislature by creating and the justices by leaving in place a system of private bounties designed to intimidate all who would help women exercise the right to choose. but the federal government has and should use its own powers,

including criminal prosecution, to prevent the law from being enforced and to reduce its chilling effects. the fight to protect abortion rights in america and questions about the political potency of republicans beginning the process of overturning roe v. wade is where we start this hour. former senator claire mccaskill is here, also joining us, alexi mccammond, political reporter for axios, and matt miller is back, former chief spokesman for the justice department. lucky for us, all three msnbc contributors. claire, what do you make of the state of affairs here on this labor day? >> well, the supreme court has done something that is far beyond what i imagined they would do. i was very worried about roe v. wade standing in light of the case from mississippi that they're going to hear in a few weeks. but the notion that in the shadow docket, in the dark of night, they would bless this kind of statutory bs is really

startling. because make no mistake, they put a bow on a law that says you no longer have to have standing to bring a social grievance to court. all you have to do is think you've got some kind of proof that somebody intended to help somebody get an abortion. imagine a mother who is trying to help their 13-year-old daughter when she just found out that this daughter had been repeatedly raped by her boyfriend. imagine her being the one that is pulled into court and is asked to pay money that clearly she would not have and legal expenses she would not have, just for trying to help her daughter under those circumstances. it's very extreme. and i think it's politically very bad for the republicans that they have gone this far. and it appears there's no stopping this element of the republican party. now, what the democrats need to

do is, yes, fight back, but also make sure they elevate this issue so that every woman in america understands what these folks are doing. >> claire, you have lived the potency of this extreme element of the republican party in front of voters in missouri. i mean, can you talk a little bit more about where that line is for american voters, not just the folks we talk about, the right and the left, but in the middle. i mean, this is a majority issue. i think 60 plus percent of all americans support abortion in all or most cases. this is not just a ban on -- 85% of abortions happen after six weeks. this is a point where most women do not know they're pregnant yet, if anything, they have missed one period. and even if they do, two weeks is not really the amount of time, especially in the dire circumstances you're describing, to make a plan and find a provider. can you talk about both the

real-world politics of it and the real-world tragedy of what's going to start happening in texas? >> this is a direct symptom of what has happened in our politics in that everyone is only talking to, listening to, hearing from people they agree with. our media has become so stratified that you can go hang out in a corner of social media, a corner of the internet, a corner of cable news and just think everybody agrees with you. and the vast majority of americans would reject this law on its face. the extreme nature of this law is what would, i believe 80% or plus would say, of course there should be an exception for rape and incest. and that was in fact the issue that got me re-elected. you know, i had an opponent who was so extreme on this issue

that it frightened many republican women in the state to say, no, we're not going -- we're not crazy about her, but we're not going with this guy. he's too far extreme. this idea, this personhood, this is going to be a result of what texas has done. no, it's already happened. that's the law in my state. if roe falls, then immediately in missouri, it's a question of whether you can have an ininvet child, whether you can get a morning after pill. because the minute the law falls in missouri, life begins at the moment of conception. no morning after pill, no unused embryos and in vitro vertalization. think of all the families who would not have children if we make ivf illegal. >> claire, can i ask you a sensitive political question? why does it feel like republicans with control of

state legislatures and many governorships are having more and more malevolent impact on american life than democrats with control of the house, the senate, and the white house? >> well, i think it is because, nicolle, because the legislatures that are doing this are very lopsided. they are not anywhere near 50/50. they are dominated, most often in a veto-proof majority, with republicans. and so the fight in those states, for state legislative seats, is all about who wins a primary. it's not about those independent voters that you have to get in a general. and that is the problem. what we have in washington, yes, we control it, but just by a hair. so all of the democrats that are there from very red places, from purple places, they are careful about calibrating what they're doing based on who they

represent. now, is that frustrating? of course it is. are there things biden can do through doj? of course, there are. i think this law, which frankly was written to go after the ku klux klan, because right now, the right to choose is a constitutional right, according to roe v. wade. that is the law of the land. right now, anybody who is interfering with that right could be brought up under this law that tribe referenced in the op-ed you talked about in the opening. there are things doj can do. they need to bring up a codification of roe for a vote, to put people on the spot that are pro-choice and are republicans in democratic areas. so we naed to be aggressive, but we also need torealistic. this is about us winning elections. what they're doing in texas is going to help us win elections. >> i hope you're right. alexi, there are so many stories from the weekend i want to go through with all three of you. i first want to get your reaction. is this a wake-up call? is this a bridge too far?

tell me your thoughts in sort of digesting the news late last week. >> yeah, i think that claire is right. this is definitely an issue democrats want to feel energized by and motivate their base with in elections. historically, you all know very well, reproductive rights and the anti-abortion stance has been something that republicans have really relied on, even when it wasn't a mainstream issue to do get support from their base in state-wide senate races and battleground states. that's something they're going to try again, but democrats are seeing this idea we have all talked about for so long in practice now. even with former president donald trump gone, this idea of trumpism remains. these trumpian state lawmakers, these republicans who are pushing these really restrictive, as some have called them draconian abortion rights, as you played in that ad earlier that represents this kind of political style that isn't gone, even though donald trump isn't still at the helm, and claire just brought up a good point about putting pro-choice

republicans in democratic districts on the spot, on the record voting for this women's health protection act, which house democrats are going to bring up for a vote by the end of this month. but something i'm thinking about, nicolle, is these house democrats like conor lamb, val demings who are going to be running in state-wide senate races in pennsylvania and florida. if they're voting, which i'm sure they will, in favor of this act, it will be really curious to see how republicans try to go after them for that vote they're going to take in the house as they're running in what will be contentious state-wide races already now with the added dynamic of abortion. >> matt, i guess what must be exasperating for democrats is this is about republicans as counterconstitutional. they're the extremes. i think what republicans and pro-life activists have been successful at in the last two decades is turning choice into the radical position. there's no scenario where that

is plausible to anyone with a millimeter of sort of information about what's happened in texas. i have two questions for you. one, were all of the nominees for the supreme court lying when they said they viewed roe as settled law? two, what do you make of the small step that the justice department said it would take today? i'll put up the headline. basically saying it will not tolerate violence against anyone who is trying to obtain an abortion in texas. >> so with respect to the justices, lying is one way to look at it. being very careful in how they promise what they're going do is another. i suspect when we get to the end of not just this case but the mississippi case, i have never thought that the supreme court will come right out and reverse roe v. wade, but what they will do is gut it through a series of cases, this being the first one, the mississippi law being another, and you'll see a series and siri of cases that allow the court do the same thing unless

the court is reformed. with respect to the department of justice, the statement they put out today was a heartening one and an important one, but it really related to physical violence where people try to physically prevent people from accessing their constitutional right to an abortion by preventing them from going into a clinic. and it's important that the department said that because every time this issue is in the news, the threat of violence does unfortunately rise at clinics and the department has an obligation to police that. but it doesn't really promise any new action with respect to the courts. i think the problem that we have here is, the department does have limited ability here. i think what really needs to happen is, we need to see an increase in private litigants in texas operating under as many legal -- pursuing as many legal theories as possible in as many courts as possible, state and federal, so the department has a chance to come in both for legal reasons, to try to get this law enjoined and for political reasons to raise the s.e.a.l.

salience of this issue. we have been discussing it since your first question. abortion has always been an issue where americans support the right to choose. but the salience has been on the republican side. that needs to change. and a law that's this extreme has the potential to change it, and it has the potential to galvanize americans who support abortion rights because as claire said, i think very few people would support a law like this one that criminalizes abortion, even in the cases of rape and incest. >> i think it's just so disheartening for, first of all, the women of texas to wait for that process. i mean, what matt is describing is a process similar to the legal challenges to voting rights legislation, which as we know from the georgia law, could take years to wind its way through. i want to turn to the supreme court. claire, you and i were on for a couple confirmations. i want to show you something senator klobuchar said.

>> i believe if he is seriously considering retirement and he said he would do it based on not only his own health but also the future of the court, if this decision doesn't cry out for that, i don't know what does. i think if he's going to do it, sooner rather than later. and again, as you know, dana, that's not going to change the results necessarily, but at least it doesn't put it at 7-2. >> that was senator klobuchar, claire, when asked about justice breyer retiring while president biden is in office. i want to bring up sort of the third rail of all that is sacred not just to democrats but anyone who values their tenure. what are the feelings among democrats about justice ginsburg's decision not to retire during president obama's tenure? >> well, it would be -- you would have to do something seriously to threaten me to get me to say anything bad about justice ginsburg, first of all. >> i'm not asking you to say anything bad about her. she's revered.

but would we be in this position if she had retired? >> obviously, if she had retired under a democratic president, we would not be in this position. if we had the majority in the senate. and which we did for a period of time late in her life when she was struggling with some chronic illnesses. but like i said, i think what i would rather focus on right now is what mitch mcconnell did to block merrick garland and most importantly, what kennedy did with his very strategic retirement in order to stack the court for a more conservative view. and really what we ought to focus on is this ridiculous hypocrisy about respecting precedent. this is 50 years of precedent in the court. 50 years. so not only did these five justices throw out 50 years,

they did it in the dark. they did it with a couple paragraphs, and they did it for a law that not only decimates roe, it does it like with fireworks. it does it in a way that absolutely bastardizes, i don't know if that's a word, but it does bad stuff to our civil justice system because what they're doing is creating a new thing in american law. that is we're going to allow citizens to be vigilantes on social grievances. end of discussion. and that's the excuse they hid behind in not staying the law. it is nutso, and that was kavanaugh, and that was barrett. i'm sick of the federalist society giving me any of this load of crap about how they respect precedent and how you can't legislate from the bench. that's what these guys are doing right now. >> you know, alexi, to your point about trumpism, this

really is the twice impeached, disgraced ex-president sort of rising from the political grave and having his way with american life in 2021, because the reality is, whether we focus on the future and justice breyer, and i'm sure claire represents the vast majority of the views of democrats or pursue matt's path which is litigation, there are women in texas today who feel like their lives are over, and some men, too. not all women seeking abortion are victims of incest and rape. women have a right to an abortion even if those tragedies are not what has come to pass. that is no longer the case for 85% of women seeking abortions in texas. what happens here and now for them? >> it's a frightening reality, as you said, their lives have completely changed almost overnight. and i think that's an important point to underscore, nicolle. a lot of women who seek abortions aren't necessarily in these tragic, harrowing

situations as some are where it's a case of incest or rape. some women are trying to make what they consider to be a responsible, smart, financial decision, life decision, a decision with their partner and their doctor that they agonized over to get there. so it's not always these extreme situations where people are forced into these decisions to make, you know, to get an abortion. and i think your point is right, nicolle, that this is now treating abortion or access to health care as a crime. not as a fundamental right that women are afforded any longer in the state of texas, potentially moving forward in the state of mississippi and i think that's where you're going to see political fights play out, with a focus on health care. democrats have consistently tried to expand access to health care, to lower health care costs. while republicans, of course, have tried to strike down the aca, tried to leave folks with pre-existing conditions out to dry without any coverage, and we're seeing how they're restricting women from accessing

health care in a different way in states where they're made to feel less than. >> matt, what is opaque to us in terms of what might be going on at the justice department that might hearten folks who are feeling desperate and disheartened by this decision? >> you know, i think they have a lot of very smart people who have spent the weekend trying to find some creative answers here. but ultimately the problem is, any solution that you come up with to this ruling ultimately fails against the same challenge. when you have a supreme court majority that is hostile to a woman's constitutional right to choose what to do with her own body. that's where we exist today. look, we can pass -- congress could pass a law, it would be struck down. a lower court could come up with a ruling. it would be struck down. every other victory could be a pyrrhic one. i answer the question you asked to senator mccaskill. absolutely, justice ginsburg should have retired when democrats were urging her and when the white house wanted her

to. if she had, this decision would have gone another way. justice breyer should retire now while there's still a democratic majority in the senate, and democrats in the senate, either this term or the next time we have unified control of government, should look to reform the supreme court and reform the filibuster to guarantee that a woman's right to choose, which has been constitutional law for 50 years now, is upheld, because everything else that we talk about ultimately can be struck down by the supreme court majority, and i suspect will be unless we're not just principled but smart and strategic with how we approach the issue. >> i think that's the bottom line, and i just think we can't lose sight in our political analysis of the daily hell now that is any woman who doesn't have this choice available to her, and of course, most tragically, young victims of incest or rape. but every woman in texas is the victim of all that. alexi, matt, thank you so much for starting us off. claire is sticking around for the hour and then some. when we come back, it's been

exactly eight months since the insurrection at the united states capitol. and gop leader kevin mccarthy continues to try to thwart the investigation into, you know, just what led to that day. the committee is pressing on. the bipartisan leaders on that commission calling him out for what they say is his, quote, january 6th misinformation campaign. >> plus, experts warn of catastrophic harm to our health if washington does nothing about climate change. we'll ask a lawmaker how d.c. can finally get something done. >> and later in the show, everything is bigger, and it would turn out, scarier in texas. going all in, serving up red meat to the conservative base with a bevy of new and unpopular laws. all those stories and more when deadline white house continues after a quick break. don't go anywhere. introducing aleve x. it's fast, powerful long-lasting relief with a revolutionary, rollerball design. because with the right pain reliever...

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i think to turn around then and make ominous talk to these telecom companies that when we take over, it's going to be different or we'll have payback, that's not frankly the republican party i remember and the republican party i ever joined. if we're going to be in charge and pushing conspiracy and pushing division and pushing lies, then the republican party should not have the majority. >> who's going to tell him? with great power comes a great responsibility of putting truth over conspiracy. that was republican congressman adam kinzinger on his party's duty to openly and honestly resist the dismissal of truth and truth tellers. like house minority leader kevin mccarthy's retaliatory threats

against tech companies asked by the january 6th select committee to preserve relevant data, to which a group of 11 gop members, some targeted by the committee, are now seeking to double down with their own threats to these tech companies. and it's just the latest move from the gop and leader kevin mccarthy to block the investigation into what happened on the day of the deadly insurrection. over the weekend, committee vice chair republican liz cheney joined chairman and democratic member of congress bennie thompson in shooting down mccarthy's suggestion. last week that the doj found trump had, quote, no involvement in the insurrection. they both called it baseless, citing information they have received, and quote, inconsistent with mccarthy's own statements from the week following the january 6th insurrection. joining our coverage, betsy woodruff swan, national correspondent at politico, lucky for us also an msnbc contributor. claire is still here.

betsy, i don't like to ask where the line is for any house democrat, but i guess what i'll ask you is, it feels like it was an open secret for a while among chris wallace, who pushed kevin mccarthy, among liz cheney, who dangled this information about kevin mccarthy needing to be a fact witness, now among people covering jim jordan, who sort of hummed about how many times and when he talked to donald trump. what is sort of the operating thesis on what they're hiding, specifically, as it regards records? >> specifically, what the select committee is looking for is going to be any sort of phone records showing when and for how long these republican members of congress had calls or text messages with people in the white house or with anyone involved on the other side, any of the stop the steal organizers or activists who were in front of the capitol building at that time. these records will show when those phone calls happened,

phone companies collect records showing how long calls went on for, who received the calls, if there was a voice mail left, if there were missed calls. basically, the raw material of what type of communication occurred. they won't have the contents of those calls, of course, although they will have the contents of voice mails and the contents of text messages. but it will get a whole lot more clarity in terms of who was talking to who before, during, and after that horrific attack. >> and they have already coughed up so much of this. i guess my question is, how much more is there? i mean, mccarthy has detailed his call, congresswoman herrera butler has said what was said on that call that mccarthy was told by trump these insurrectionists care a lot more about the result than you do, kevin. jim jordan has talked about talking to him all day. he was hiding with other people. can guess my question is, if we know so much about how often they talked to him, what else do we think there is? is there hourly contact?

is there complicity? i mean, what else is there? >> that's a good question. i don't know what i don't know. what i can tell you is i spoke with a republican congressional source today about the backlash from these house republicans toward this preservation request that went out, and that source told me that republicans are freaking out about the fact that this select committee might be getting their phone records. what does that tell us about what's in the records? it's unclear. but it's certainly something that's generating an immense amount of stress and frustration in the house republican confrens. one other thing that's important to bear in mind is there's been a lot of discussion about what republicans may be able to do to retaliate against these phone and tech companies. but the person who i spoke with today said that it's more likely they'll just try to retaliate against democrats by doing the same thing next time republicans have control of the house. that source said that if the house flips to republican control in the midterm elections, there will be substantial pressure from the republican rank and file and

from these far right republican members who have more influence than ever on house republican leadership to find some sort of reason to try to scoop up the private phone records of democratic members of congress. >> i mean, claire, i hope that democrats can't be, you know, threatened and intimidated and misdirected in that way. the barr justice department sought the phone records of don mcgahn while he was white house council testifying against donald trump in the mueller investigation. they sought the phone records of eric swalwell and adam schiff and "the washington post." and "the new york times." i mean, i hope democrats' response is come get us. we're still looking for your records and your communications on the day of the insurrection at the u.s. capitol. >> yeah, who cares if they go after democrats' records? first of all, if you run for office, can i just, like, can i be a wince here? when you run for office, you realize that everything in your life, fair or unfair, even

everything in the lives of people you love, even things that happened way before you even met people you loved, all of it comes out in the public. i mean, it is -- so this notion that somehow the democrats are going to be afraid of trying to get to the truth because somebody might find out that they were texting an old boyfriend or something, who cares? i mean, the bottom line is this. i'll tell you what's on those records we haven't seen. imagine if you have a cell phone and you realize that people are trying to physically breach the capitol and shouting they want to hang the vice president. imagine that you have the text phone numbers of kushner or ivanka or kellyanne conway, or donald trump, you know what you're doing? you're texting them. you're saying stop it. stop the madness. this is dangerous. this is scary. we're frightened. they're after us. that's what they're worried

about. and there's going to be a whole bunch of them, i believe, i'm guessing, but i believe this from lindsey graham to mob boss kevin mccarthy and back that have all kinds of communications trying to get trump to call off the mob. and you know what, trump liked it. and they couldn't get him to say what he needed to say to stop it. so that police officers weren't in a situation where somebody was trying to gouge their eyes out with a flag pole. he liked it. and that's what kevin mccarthy has already admitted. that's what kevin mccarthy has already said, and his imitation of a mob boss is not going to make that go away. >> right. after all their pleading and what not, i'm sure you're right, claire. he sent out a message saying we love you. so that's how impactful they were. we'll stay on it. betsy woodruff swan, thank you for spending time with us. claire is sticking around.

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intensified so rapidly in the atlantic or in the gulf that emergency managers, emergency responders had even a shorter time to warn the public and help get them out of harm's way. this is going to be our new normal. last year was a record number of hurricanes and a record wildfire season. and it's only going to continue to get worse. this is the crisis of our generation, these impacts that we're seeing from climate change. we have to act now to protect against the future risks we're going to face. >> that was fema administrator dean crestwell yesterday talking about the impacts from hurricane ida and what we can continue to expect as climate change becomes our new normal. with louisiana still suffering from the storm, many residents there without power, and they will be for several more days, the biden administration today is also declaring a disaster in both new york city and the entire state of new jersey. authorizing federal funds after the devastating and deadly

floods from ida last week. president biden will be touring those hard-hit areas tomorrow afternoon. but there are calls to do more. there's cases of extreme weather showing no signs of slowing. three new wildfires emerging yesterday in california, and extreme heat and drought rapidly drying up the colorado river. threatening water access for 40 million people. more than 230 medical journals have come together to declare that, quote, the greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep global temperatures down. joining us now, congressman joe neguse of colorado, member of the judiciary committee as well as the house select committee on the climate crisis. his state has been hard hit this year, from fires and drought. i want to start talking about your state and then i want to turn to washington. this is something you wrote in the hill about climate change in colorado. quote, the american west is facing a devastating wildfire

season. it's only september and over 4.9 million acres have burned, surpassing the total acreage burned in all of 2019. our communities cannot wait for action. the 2020 wildfire season was the second most destructive in u.s. history and the worst in colorado history. three of the largest wildfires colorado has ever witnessed happened last year. the state also experienced some of the worst air quality in the world this summer. as well as fatal flash flooding within the cameron peak fire burn scar. the impacts of the climate crisis are at our doorstep, threatening lives, health, and property. a lot of people have been working on this issue for a long time, but it would appear everybody is paying attention now. i wonder from your view, what can be done not just in colorado but across this country now? >> well, it's good to be with you, nicolle. and you described the visceral impacts of climate change that we're certainly experiencing here in colorado but ultimately i think folks across our country

and indeed the world are experiencing every day. i really think we're at an inflection point. you see that with the hurricane in louisiana, the flash flooding in new york and new jersey and the historic unprecedented wildfires my community has experienced. two of the three largest wildfires in the history of colorado happening in my congressional district a mere 11 months ago. so i think ultimately what the scientists are telling us in the form of the ipcc report that was released a few weeks ago and in the article you mentioned just a few days ago released previously is that what we're seeing with our own eyes, that climate change is not some crisis that is going to occur at some unspecified date in the future. it's happening now. it is here now. it's impacting our lives each and every day. and it is critically important for policymakers in washington to muster the political will to do something. i'm grateful for the first time in a long way, we appear poised to do precisely that for the

reconciliation bill, the build back better plan that the congress is currently working on. >> can you play that forward for us? how does that work? what happens immediately, and what else would you like to see happen in the near term? >> sure. well, i think as i said, the ipcc report is really this red alert for humanity in terms of really motivating us to do everything we can on a very short runway to avoid the more catastrophic consequences of climate change. we have to meet the moment. the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill as has been outlined and is being marked up in the committees of jurisdiction in the house, i believe meets the moment. it includes a clean energy standard at the federal level. the first time in our country's history. it would include a conservation climate core, a program that emulates the 1930s era program, something that i have worked on for the better part of the last year and a half with ron wyden, senator from oregon, a state that is also experiencing devastating wildfires. it includes a herculean

investment in ev infrastructure across our country. were we to get the bill across the finish line to the president's desk for his signature, it would be transformational and go a long way in putting us on the path to moving the needle in the fight against climate change. >> this is another issue like voting rights, like reproductive freedoms that is so completely fractured along partisan lines. i wonder where one would live that they wouldn't be seeing the devastating impact to human life, to businesses, to the economy of climate change. do you have conversations that maybe we don't see with republicans? do they see this the same way you do? >> there are some republicans, nicolle, who i think are interested in ultimately working on this issue, but i must confess that the fact remains that there are many on the other side of the aisle who simply refuse to believe the science and are obstinant in terms of their opposition of doing anything about it. it's quite confounding because

many represent districts that are just as hard hit as my district in terms of flash flooding and wildfires and hurricanes, threats to our coastal areas and so forth. so one would hope they would be able to hopefully work with good faith with us to adapt, to adopt some of the solutions we're proposing. as you know from your time in washington, there's a tendency for policymakers to look at various policy problems, challenges, and sort of myopic way. of course, what distinguishes climate change from many other policy issues is it literally virtually impacts every aspect of our lives and our way of life and the world our children inherit. we'll keep pushing. we're not going to wait. we're going to insure we take decisive action in the next nine weeks. i suspect you'll see a bill signed by the president that is the most transformational when it comes to fighting climate change in our country's history. >> it's just amazing, under the umbrella of not believing the science, so many of these issues

fall with the republican party and the outside of that umbrella. congressman joe neguse, thank you for spending time with us on this holiday. >> when we come back, what we're witnessing in texas may be just the beginning. if washington democrats don't begin to aggressively use the power that voters have given them. that's next. >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple loves camping adventures and their suv is always there with them. so when their windshield got a chip,

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both in texas and united states supreme court have shown us despite democrats holding on to both the presidency and congress, republicans still wield a lot of power in this country. as "washington post" op-ed team writes, past few days have provided a vivid example of how the parties exercise political power. democrats hold congress and white house and put brakes on program, on the other, republicans hold only the supreme court but are closer than ever to fundamentally changing abortion laws. speak to director of the public policy program at roosevelt house. the editorial fair or not? >> incredibly fair. we as democrats have cultivated a base that is ideas oriented

and fair but for the majority of the disenfranchised and disadvantaged groups we represent, they don't want to see us have any power and not using it. i would love to get the merrick garland back, all of 2016 back. we are in this position where historically presidents have gotten a lot done. lbj passed antipoverty programs, bill clinton passed nafta, obama passed affordable care act proving for incredibly resilient piece of legislation. we can do this but may violate some of the principles we've tried to build on but we need to do it. >> look, obviously i spent my time with the republican party. i voted straight party line democratic since 2016 and all i

expect is y'all keep winning. all i see is president capable of blocking out the noise. what he did on covid relief was transformational. but in the senate i see paralysis and obsession with process. this texas ban happened with obsession with policies. democrats are wrapped around the axle of process and i wonder how you switch that. >> it is a problem because on the one hand we are -- i go back to earlier point in talking about fairness, we think about process. but at the same time i look at -- what's happened in texas, attempt to roll back voting rights in this country, already happened, and in post obama environment lot of folks were saying we don't have the infrastructure on the ground even to make sure these changes

that are positive for us stay in effect in our state houses. so there's a sort of broad infrastructure question that the party needs to address. there's this fight that we want our leaders to fight. we saw this when there were questions about accountability in the first trump impeachment. are we going to actually do this? i understand the need and desire to focus on process, but sometimes i look back and say why are we the only ones playing by the rules? we want to get anything done, we've got to force the change. >> if you take voting rights or reproductive freedoms, democrats feel like they're fighting on republicans' turf. have elias and garland file one lawsuit. why not pass a massive new voting rights legislation to deal with anything borne out of the big lie that led to the deadly insurrection, why not

codify what is already constitutionally protected right to choice? why not be bigger? >> absolutely right. if i think about the way that joe biden ran for president, there was this promise he would work across the aisle. nobody is interested in working with us from the other side of the aisle. they are focused on a massive cultural shift and change in this country and you're right, why can't we do the same, why can't we talk about it. fear we might be punished by it but i truth is i think the potential to gain more support, get more enthusiasm out of our base because we accomplished something will override and overcome what negative fallout there will be, i appreciate everything that joe biden and congress has done thus far. we still have a long way to go, particularly with respect to the pandemic. as gen xor, i don't know when

it's going to change in lifetime. that's scary. texas is not going to be isolated. it is important what power we have, we got to use it. >> if you look at chief roberts, it's a sign how radical the rest of them are. >> exactly right. >> how extreme the republican party has become. he was appointed for conservative bona fides but sees the rightness of the liberal judges. basil. thanks. don't go anywhere, we're just getting started. getting started.

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emergency planning for kids. we can't predict when an emergency will happen. so that's why it's important to make a plan with your parents. here are a few tips to stay safe. know how to get in touch with your family. write down phone numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbors. pick a place to meet your family if you are not together and can't go home. remind your parents to pack an emergency supply kit. making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency.

they choose to go to the far right, isolate the majority of what texas looks like. just to be clear gop, i know you know this, maybe the rest of the country doesn't, this is a majority minority state. it's time to pass policies to respect each and every texan instead of a select few. >> hi again, everybody. everything is bigger in texas, including the state's lurch to the far right with a wave of new

laws going into effect. "washington post" writes this, quote, texas is an example of the balkanization of the country as red and blue states push further and further apart in policies they embrace and enact. no state has gone as far in one direction as texas. in that way it's a model for those who cheer those policies. whether it's a political object lesson is question. let's examine the republican priorities in texas. most restrictive abortion law in country, outlawing abortions after six weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest and fellow citizens could receive $10,000 bounty for turning in anyone who performs or aids and abets an abortion. law allowing any texan, any texan above 21, to carry a hand gun in public without training

or a license. there's also a law that limits school discussions on country's history of race and racism. new law requiring professional sports teams to play the national anthem at home games. about that restrictive voting game which bans 24 hour and drive-through voting, empowering partisan vote watchers, will soon become law. most antichoice governor greg abbott, not pro-life be any shot. decidedly prodisease and death indifferent. for those living in texas including state's children. asking for help in overflowing icus, abbott is stridently opposed to life-saving measures

like vaccines and mask mandates, even as virus surges in the schools turning the children into latest victims of abbott's world view. from august 23rd to august 29th, more than 27,000 new positive covid cases among students in texas public schools. according to texas department of state health services. making it biggest one-week increase in entire pandemic. nearly 52,000 cases among students, 13,000 amongst the staff since the school year began. 45 school districts have had to temporarily stop in-person classes. one district in central texas closed until after labor day weekend after two teachers died of covid within a week of each other. all of this adding up to a state

whose governing policies don't match the will of its people. according to new survey from the texas politics project at university of texas at austin, first time in polling history majority of texans say the state is on the wrong track. echoed in editorial in the statesman, here abbott outflanking his right-wing rivals in gubernatorial primary thinks more important than serving needs and protecting lives of texans. here self-governance is not serving good of the community but bolstering ability of certain individuals to impose their will on others. governing for good of the majority isn't rocket science, it's whole idea of democracy in fact. too bad our governor doesn't see that. texas republican party is serving up a buffet of red meat for its base as we start with

some favorite friends. matt dowd is here, founder of country over party. also former senator claire mccaskill, msnbc political analyst and texas state representative ron reynolds is here. what is going on in texas? >> unfortunately it's a race to see who can outflank who in the next primary, appeasing the trumpites. it's not what is best for texans and good public policy but how to go to far extreme, don't believe in science or good public policy. what is far right? appeals to the base. we should be focusing on health care and covid recovery and medicaid expansion but focused on the red meat issues you laid out. they're putting politics over

the people and it's unpatriotic and certainly untexan. >> want to put up governor abbott's approval rating. 41% of texans approve, 50% disapprove. 41% strongly disapprove. in normal moment in country's politics, this is anything but that, leaving your state to fend for itself and power grid through political considerations and neglect, would be a political death knell. wonder if you could explain to our viewers what holds abbott up to 41%? >> frankly governor abbott is auditioning for potential president and he's in a race with the governor in race to the bottom when it comes to the covid recovery and response. pandering to the far right. all he seems to be concerned

about is not 39 million texans, majority of the state but small less than 10% of the population that votes in republican primaries. no longer concerned about being governor but concerned how he can win a primary. that is so disturbing because there are people dying literally every day, school children and he's fighting schools for mask mandates, fighting local governments and county commissioners for instituting vaccine mandates to appease a base that doesn't believe in science. he's not caring about majority of the texans but just the fringe of the far right to help him be reelected to governor and hopefully for him to win republican primary. this is the step he's looking at. he's not really looking at governance the way it should be, but the way it could help him win a primary. i hope that voters will wake up

and realize the importance of the vote and reason why elections matter. you have a governor out of touch with majority of the state and poll accurately reflects the disgust many texans, myself, democrats, independents and many republicans have of governor abbott right now. >> matt, if you could speak to this -- his policy priorities are loathsome but politically served by ramming through the voting restrictions, having abortion ban and being first to overturn roe v. wade. what do you make of the victims, the people and school kids in state of texas? >> it's great to be on from texas even though our name has been -- love the state, hate our

politics right now and failure of the gop politicians. give you three instances i'll describe. you're going to think it's ludicrous, but totally true. biggest turnout election in texas, most secure election described by all investigators. big lie develops from it, big insurrection in response to the big lie and gop in texas' response is lie about it and try to stop people from voting. make it harder to vote. another issue, guns, mass shooting after mass shooting after mass shooting in texas and around the country, walmart, road, church, what does gop leadership of texas respond to? make it easier to openly carry a gun without a permit or training. on abortion, think about this. texas has more uninsured women

without health care choices than any other state in the union by far. lack health care choice and response is roll over roe versus wade and take one of the final health care choices a woman has. when you look at panoply of this, across the board, you think this is a joke, can't be true. as representatives say, it's not 10% of the state, it's 5% of the state they're concerned about. i've said this before, texas is perfect example, they don't care about the common good. as you can see on voting, on choice, on health care, on covid. they don't care about the common good, they care about me and my 5% that i'm worried about in the republican primary. ultimately the only way that stops is if they begin losing elections in the general election. it's not just about people of color, not just women, not just

children. ultimately even the places that vote red are not going to be represented by what is going on in austin right now. even the people that vote for republicans in general election because they don't care. >> and i guess, matt, before they rushed to claim any sort of pro-life awards, they're so pro-disease, indifferent to death and suffering even among children. what's happening in the schools -- it is the biggest national scandal. i want to read what is happening in terms of pediatrics in the hospitals. houston public media, hospitals across the state running low on pediatric intensive care unit beds. texas department of state health services say 81 remain. couple hundred more regular icu beds available in state.

governor abbott and state legislature has failed us. that was doctor in texas. leaders should be held accountable and asked how they take actions to kill their fellow texans, that's a doctor, a cardiologyist's view. if pediatric icus are filled to capacity and that doesn't dent governor abbott, what are the chances of running callous people like him out of state government? >> you put up the poll numbers for governor abbott, saying 41%, why do they support? keep in mind that's lowest number he's ever polled at. usually 50% or higher, so he's won in the past. he's low point and i think will go lower. he's exceedingly vulnerable but has to be to the right candidate

with right message and good campaign. this is where i have tendency to get frustrated with democrats who i'm advocating for to win every office this can in texas to save our population and republic is that. but democrats often cede the messaging to republicans. talk policy points and process. and republicans talk value. and in debate like that, voters base on values. want policy, concerned about those things but want to know you share the same values. democrats have to start talking about all these issues, choice, covid, all these issues in broad value context and should not cede as you led in, the ground of pro-life. republicans are not pro-life. won't do anything about gun deaths, about covid, about health care. they won't even expand medicaid where 90% of the costs will be

borne by federal government. won't cost the state anything but dwoent it out of lack of compassion or caring for this. but democrats fundamentally have to talk about this better. you can be pro-choice as i am and pro-life as i am. believe that woman has right to choose, her moral choice with her doctor, but also can be pro-life, protecting women and children and people from guns and all other things. but democrats have to get much much much much better. even progressives on this, having a values based argument about what the republicans are doing, disconnected from american values and values us and majority of us in texas believe in. >> claire, want to show you something that escobar said on "face the nation" yesterday. on the other side. >> i'm really afraid because of

the senate's desire to hang on to a relic of the past, jim crow relic of the filibuster, that why the house will move expeditiously and protect women from states like texas and a supreme court that's activist court, my fear is some members of the senate will use the filibuster as excuse to not take action. in face of inaction we'll see more death in texas. texas is dangerous place now for women and children. going to see more states import this law and do everything possible to create most host ill conditions for women in our country. >> claire, are her concerns well founded? >> well, listen, you and i have circled this wagon a number of times and clearly we need filibuster reform. but we have members of senate

not from districts like -- from districts in red places, that makes it harder. i agree about the messaging, needs to be values base. but when you're extreme, you lose elections. i got a second term in the senate strictly because, i was strong candidate and worked my you know what off yes, but i ended up with opponent who was very extreme and freaked people out how extreme he was. that's what is going on in texas right now. so that's my big point of the segment, state legislative races matter. >> yeah. >> that's where democrats have dropped the ball. been so focused on senate races and congressional races and presidential races. donors all over the country are ignorant what is going on under their own noses in state

legislature. what is going on in texas is political malpractice because texas has gained prominence because they've attracted new business, and tech business and young workers, my daughter among them. she is freaked out. and they will not attract young workers with this kind of profile. this is not kind of state young people want to live in, everybody gets a gun no matter how crazy they are and if you're raped by mother's boyfriend couldn't have abortion without a private bounty hunter coming after your family. this is not what majority of the texans want. all we have to do is focus on right candidates, run strong campaigns and making sure donors are supporting them running for state or congress. i know we want to fixate on the

filibuster but this is bigger. this is winning elections. republicans are giving us opportunity now and we should not blow it. >> claire, matt, representative reynolds, thanks. after a summer that proved deadlier than expected, what do the next months hold for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic? plus the investigation heats up into the disgraced ex-president's attempt to get georgia's secretary of state to "find the votes" to overturn joe biden's victory there. historian jon meacham joins us later in the hour as president biden deals with crises ahead of major milestone for the country. don't go anywhere. nywhere.

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this summer caught a lot of us, including experts by surprise. highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus causing deaths and hospitalizations that are still rising in a lot of this country. today the "washington post" reports what experts are saying about the persistent question, ever-changing interpretation of covid end game. answers come in kaleidoscopic cavalcade of scenarios, some with humility, others with confidence. pandemic will end, deaths dropped to the level we're accustomed to seeing from the flu each year, or end because

children can be vaccinated or americans are exhausted from the restrictions on daily life. biggest question, pandemics do end, sort of. prominent epidemiologists and experts say we're there for different reasons. pulitzer prize winning journalist and msnbc science contributor. what do you make of the analysis and crystal ball gazing whether delta has peaked. >> been here before. one day everybody was writing in the past tense about the epidemic six months. in 2020, people claiming end is around the corner. can't buy into it. it's always wrong, well-intended but ill-informed and often driven by a kind of overarching

hopefulness from wall street desperate to see the economy back in predictable circumstances with everybody raring to go to movie theaters and jump on airplanes. we're not there, folks. i don't think anybody trying to imagine where we're going to be by halloween or christmas has a really strong sense where this delta variant is going and what variants lurk around the corner that will have an even perhaps worse effect on the united states' situation. one thing that is clear, nicole, as long as 20% of american adults refuse to get vaccinated, we remain vulnerable, the whole population does. most schools have only started opening. many states and localities, they don't open until after today, labor day.

and yet we're already seeing schools shutting down. giving up on classroom education, going back to virtual. over and over all over the place because of outbreaks. this means we keep overestimating our own capacity to -- well, i wouldn't say control it. we have the capacity to control it, we just don't have the capacity to get our fellow citizens to exercise what they need to exercise to control the spread of disease. >> laurie, i would add there's something more than hopefulness of wall street, anyone raising a child right now has to live with the hope. you look at your kid, tell them it will end. once all parents make the decision to vaccinate their children we can go back to most normal activities. what is the other side of the equation about return to something resembling normal for american families?

>> i heard a great quote some morning, i'm tired of being resilient, i just want to relax. who doesn't feel that way? gave me goosebumps when i heard it. in a nutshell it's what is going on in america today. what is the answer to that? ladies and gentlemen, we still have a tough road ahead of us. for all of you who are parents with kids, employers who need work force back on site, you're going to have to be prepared to tap dance around, try open, see infections, go back closed. you know, there's got to be agility here. i totally recognize what is going on with the kids. psychologically what we're doing to children is really tough. they need to be with other kids. a five-year-old only gets so much from 50-year-old grandma, they really need another

five-year-old. if we can't get them in the classroom, in the playgrounds, on the teams because their community refuses to vaccine, refuses to wear masks or governor bans mask wearing in the state, it's going to be consistently dangerous, going to be outbreaks. we're seeing more kids hospitalized across the country and subset of them experiencing severe disease. >> laurie, what do you -- what can you help us understand about where the fda is in terms of boosters, where approval process is in terms of vaccines for kids under 12? >> what a mess! my god. if there's anything that's been mishandled in last three or four months, this booster shot business, what a debacle. first of all, still don't have a person running the fda. i don't understand what is going on in the white house, why there hasn't been a sense of urgency

putting somebody in the driver's seat at fda. second of all, actual application from pfizer, my understanding, it's 100,000 pages long. you can't read that and come up with a detailed analysis of all the issues that you want to raise if you're one of the scientific unpaid advisers that are supposed to tell the fda yes or no, you can't read 100,000 pages in a few days. this is -- and then right behind them comes moderna, they're going to have another 100,000 pages, and so on. this is a huge process. and we don't have a reliable system in place for rapidly reviewing such proposals and reaching conclusions. so far the advisory group to the cdc that tells the fda yes or no for any particular drug

innovation, the acip has done a pretty darned good job so far, but this is over the top, where we are now. and the obvious next question everybody's going to ask. first you said five months, then eight months, then you said six months, how many months after second dose? then said everybody, then you roll it back to just pfizer recipients. so what do the moderna and johnson & johnson recipients supposed to do? so confusing. on top of everything else, we all know people well connected, well financed, and have already gotten their third dose because they had a little discussion with their doctor or pharmacist, boom, there it is. now we have a whole other layer of inequity built on top of already existing, deeply unequal distribution of all the benefits

of fighting off this disease, whether it's drugs or vaccines, and this is just terrible. i don't understand how they messed this up this badly, but this is really -- you know, bad news. >> we'll stay on it with your help. laurie garrett, thanks for spending time with us. when we come back, district attorney in atlanta is pressing ahead with her investigation into donald trump's attempts to overturn the election results in georgia. after a quick break. claritin-d improves nasal airflow two times more than the leading allergy spray at hour one. [ deep inhale ] claritin-d. get more airflow.

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the ballots are corrupt. and they're brand new and don't have seals, there's a whole thing with the ballots, they're corrupt. it's totally illegal. it's more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you're not reporting it. that's a criminal offense. and you can't let that happen. that's a big risk to you and to ryan, your lawyer. that's a big risk. >> that was the disgraced, twice impeached, insurrection inciting ex-press trying to extort georgia to sign votes to overturn president joe biden's

victory there. that call and many of the people on it could be now part of the investigation by fulton county d.a. fanny willis who has started interviewing state officials and is received documents related to georgia's 2020 election recount. have interviewed at least four officials at secretary of state's office, asking questions that show a particular interest in raffensperger's conversations with trump and with lindsey graham. two sources anonymously. d.a. investigators interviewed a number of people around may who of could have been influenced by plead to find votes. including state attorney ryan, communications director shaeffer, operations officer sterling and external affairs

director teasley. greg, what is going on? >> yeah, this is expected to be lengthy, always going to take a long time. even though seems they have evidence with the recorded phone call. it takes months to assemble evidence. people with the investigation tell me significant things have been discovered and coordinating with congressional investigators also probing the pressure put to the georgia officials to overturn the former president's defeat. we'll see something later this year in concrete developments. right now the gears turn behind the scenes as investigators are investigating their case. >> two pieces of news, big news

meaning charges potentially? >> potentially a special grand jury investigation. new developments, not sure if charges, sources were nondescript on that front but did say there will be tangible movement next few months. this is moving along. there's sense out there it's stalled out but the gears behind the scenes are moving. >> greg, on second bit of news there, the congressional investigators, the senate judiciary committee and house select committee investigating january 6th are two most obvious committees looking at these events. do you have any indication which one or both? >> i don't have any indication which of those committees but congressional investigators have sought documents not just from brad raffensperger but from kemp and other officials pressured by

trump to take action to reverse his election defeat. sense i got from d.a.'s office and people familiar, they've gotten some of the documents, can be coordination there in sharing the proceeds. >> harry, just take the call, close to 1 1/2 hours, not a lawyer, can't guess what crimes were committed but you are. tell me. >> first and foremost would be solicitation to commit election fraud, a felony in georgia law. what they're trying to get raffensperger to do is a felony. letter they sent out gave a flurry of other charges up to and including rico. for giuliani may be in the soup for false statements, lindsey graham for the same charge.

little filip you lifted in the beginning had the whiff of extortion but going for clean, simple, fantastic feature of all in the defendant's voice, thing that trump avoided all the time but raffensperger was smart and knew he might lie and he taped it, is the solicitation to commit election fraud and would be played 20 different times in different ways, it's what's involved here. they've been doing voluntary part, secretary of state folks, two grand juries assembled and next step would be subpoena other documents. >> harry, the lindsey graham call, since time it was first

reported, might have been by you gregory or colleagues, always seemed one step too far even for lindsey graham, not his state or role and potentially exposes him to criminal questions. what do you make -- what questions do you have about his conduct? >> check, check, check. around then he had put himself in small group with rudy giuliani and sidney powell. big difference, they don't have goods on tape but what he said, try to get -- can you get rid of the mail-in ballots that don't seem to be kosher. relative to trump, could say he wasn't trying to do anything untoward, and he's already denied it. it's separate case to make. on the other hand, we know the voluntary interviews they've done with the secretary of state's office focused very much on this call and graham as well as trump.

pointing in that direction. and he was certainly more than kibbutzing at the time, he was being trump's emissary as far as anyone can tell for asinine reasons but he was trying to propound the big lie. >> if you ever feel like you're losing grasp of just how bad donald trump was, just how corrupt he was, just how heinous he was in private phone calls he didn't think would be ever heard, listen to the whole call and thank god he didn't succeed. thanks for joining me. president biden campaigned to restore the soul of the country. this week he gets to show off the traits that propelled him to victory last career. that story is next. tory is next

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president joe biden campaigned for president as a leader who could steer the country through the twin crises of a deadly, largely unmanaged pandemic, as well as dangerous wave of tribalism and division in the u.s. his campaign to restore the soul of the country is prologue to the myriad crises he faces as president. coming weeks an opportunity to showcase the steadiness and empathy that helped him in november. tomorrow will survey the damage in new york and new jersey, hard

hit by deadly flash floods last week. coming up this weekend, 20th anniversary of the september 11th attacks, will attend ceremonies at all three sites, new york, pennsylvania and pentagon in virginia. joining us historian jon meacham, have you advised him what to say and do around the anniversary next saturday? >> i haven't. i'm suspecting it will be intuitive to him, honestly. what president bush called a day of fire is great inflection point in the life of 21st century america. it has shaped so much of what has happened, it continues to really be part of the channels of our lives, and i think that

work of 20th anniversary like this is to first and chiefly commemorate the deaths of innocents who died because they went to work or got on a plane, were going about their lives. i think always, i'm sure you do, about that remarkable story of flight 93 in the skies over pennsylvania, when those passengers lived out the gospel injunction that greater love has no man than this, lay down his life for a friend. they struck back, knowing they would die. all of that is blessedly and wonderfully a part of who the president is, and who at our best the country is. >> todd beemer was one of the people on that flight, the stories are familiar to those of us working in government at the

time. meet a lot of the family members of flight 93, but you're right, the stories are familiar to this president. what was fleeting but historic was the sense of patriotism and unity after 9/11. i wonder if you think this president is inclined to call on that echo, that memory, at this moment? >> i think so. i think in an hour like this, an american president in tune with what lincoln called better angels of our nature knows what to say. what you say is we were hit. evil attempted to shape and change the way we live. it was the result of a will to power by targeting the innocent, and what america does at its best, and what human beings do at their best is they stand up

against those who would persecute the innocent for some kind of political or theocratic agenda. it's interesting sign where we are as a country that this is even really something to note, right? i mean george w. bush knew what to say. he went down to that mass grave on friday after the remarkable speech at washington national cathedral, and he didn't have talking points. when he picked up the bullhorn. he respond and responded for a grieving and wounded country. and that's at their best what presidents do. i don't want to make presidents olympian figures, but they are in a way a mirror and maker of who we are, and what president

bush was on that friday was a mirror of the defiance he felt in that smoky pit. and i think what president biden has an opportunity to do next week or so is mirror the country that's reflective, hopefully, about the lessons of that day. again, honor the people who experienced it. the folks who are these amazing human stories, of what it's like when history and the unimaginable strike you. you're right about the generational thing. i was struck, students i'm teaching this semester were all born after the florida recount, which -- >> wow, i feel old. >> it made my late middle age seem even worse. it's like once -- knew what cut and paste meant. >> middle is generous to people

like us. >> true. true. but it's important work for the country and important week to think about what we've learned, what we haven't learned, in those 20 years, but chiefly this is an act of commemoration. >> jon meacham, thank you so much for spending time with us. we'll continue to call on you this week, important moments in the daily churn. hope you heed our calls to come back. >> yes, ma'am. >> when we come back, double dose of good news for pete buttigieg after the break. buttigieg after the break.

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before we go, simply cannot and will not pass up opportunity to share some really, really good news. last month we told you that pete buttigieg and his husband were about to become parents. this weekend got first photo. little surprise you will notice, not one but two bundles of joy in the picture. say hello to penelope rose and joseph august buttigieg, warmest and sincere congratulations to them. best of luck to the new parents who may find a full night's sleep very hard to come by. thank you so much for letting us into your homes in these extraordinary times.

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the following is encore presentation of emmy award winning program that aired november 19, 2020, "the promised land," a conversation with barack obama. it was a political rise for the ages from senate candidate. >> there is not a liberal america and conservative america, this is the united states of america. >> the presidential cabinet. >> yes, we can. >> to a t