have jeff daniels coming on the show. he's here monday. >> we get the dumb and dumber debate coming up. >> i'm going to watch it again this morning. >> no, you're not. >> yeah, i am. >> she'll watch it with me. >> she will not do that. >> that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. hi, there. i'm stephanie ruhle here in new york city. it is wednesday, september 8th. let's get smarter. this morning, communities across the northeast and southern u.s. are still picking up the pieces from what president biden calls a code red situation. the extreme weather caused by climate change. and to make matters worse, more bad weather is coming, specifically to the northeast where there is a risk of heavy rain, tornadoes and flash floods. the death toll from hurricane ida now stands at a total of 71.

the vast majority in louisiana, new york, and my home state of new jersey. over in connecticut, a funeral procession will get under way within this hour for a state trooper, sergeant brian mould, who died with his police cruiser was overwhelmed by floodwaters. hundreds of thousands of people are still without power. some might not get it back until the month of october. after touring the damage in both regions, president biden said the crisis demands an immediate response. >> climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, our economy. it's here and it's not going to get any better. this is code red. the nation and the world are in peril. that's not hyperbole. that is a fact. >> let's dig deeper into all of this and bring in allison barber and sam brock, in louisiana, and

kathleen miller in cranford, new jersey. she is the mayor there. sam, let's start with you. the numbers i am reading are crazy. 300,000 plus people without power, 3,000 in shelters, 25,000 displaced in hotel rooms. it's been ten days since this thing hit. what's going on? >> reporter: look, it's certainly not for lack of effort, stephanie. good morning. right now you're looking at a situation where there's almost 300,000 people without power, according to just entergy's number. as you walk around the streets, all you see are linemen and linewomen who have come in from all over the country trying to restore power. 75% of new orleans does have power back. om of the outlying parishes still have tens of thousands of people without power. just to give you context, the number of distribution poles that were destroyed during katrina was 17,000.

more ida, more than 35,000. it's an infrastructure issue. some folks may have to wait until early next month just to get their power back. the reason that i'm in louisiana this morning, i'm standing in front of one of the seven nursing homes that evacuated its residents to a warehouse in independence, louisiana. if you have seen the video, you understand the heartbreak. there were elderly residents on mattresses inside of that warehouse with filthy water surrounding them. seven people died in the aftermath of this catastrophe, and, as a result, the department of health in louisiana just revoked the license for seven nursing homes, all managed by the same man. we reached out to him. he declined to speak with nbc news, but i did talk with the health director yesterday who said it's not that there wasn't a plan in place, it wasn't executed and it wasn't executed humanely. she told me you would not want your grandparent inside of that

ware house for an hour, let alone seven days. >> seven licenses revoked. allison, we don't think about new jersey as a place that faces extreme weather, but there you are in manville. i know the president was there yesterday. "the new york times" ran a story that said that people in that region feel forgotten. they've been getting floods year after year. nobody thinks about them. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, i can't tell you how many people we talked to yesterday who referred to this area as either the forgotten valley or the lost valley. one person told us they feel like every time they've gone through a storm, and they say this was the worst, but all the other times they have difficulty getting any sort of aid, be it from the insurance companies or state or federal assistance, and they feel like really what happens after these big storms is that someone just takes chalk out and draws the flood zone even bigger. people need help here. i mean, just look around with me. you see just piles and piles of boxes, cars destroyed. nothing left of everything

people owned. i met one man this morning who lives just across the street here. he said that he appreciated officials being here, the president, senators, local leaders, but he also said that talk is cheap and what they need is help. he said he was frustrated that people keep saying, hey, what do you need. his answer was, just look, this is pretty obvious what i need. i need anything, any sort of financial assistance. we have nothing. and just to give you a sense of what this one family went through, his 7-year-old son, zachary, talked to me about that night. that window up top there, that's where they were rescued from. listen to what zachary told us. >> my mom has to unscrew the air condition so we could get out of my room. so we were saved by the rescue team. we climbed onto the roof and then the person picked and carried me up to the boat and

then they did it with the others. >> reporter: that little boy went out and actually gave a letter to president biden yesterday and met him, but he tw jersey. initial list for federal aid, even though you know firsthand you got hammered by this storm. the president just tweeted that he is committed to the recovery and he will not rest until the job is done. how does that make you feel? do you think you're going to get some of these federal dollars? >> well, i will tell you, stephanie, that i'm not going to rest until it's done. you know, people talk about 100 year storms. in this small town, this is the fourth major storm that has devastated our town in 25 years. so i was listening to allison

talk about manville and, you know, my heart was breaking all over again because we're facing the same thing. i know fema has been on the ground here. we have submitted all of our documentation. we need -- our community needs help. we're not the only one, but we need help and we need help immediately to help residents rebuild and get their lives back together. but we need long-term help. there's a federal flood control in washington for longer than i care to think about, and that has got to stop. that has got to get under way. i don't know how many more times towns like cranford, manville, can deal with this. >> do the fema maps need to be updated? if you look at the maps and pair them against the actual flooding, the storms you've seen over the last few years, are

those maps reflecting the impact of climate change? >> well, they're probably closer than they ever have been, but the point is you can have a storm like ida, and in cranford we had two flood emergencies. we had the river flooding, which the flood maps would be involved with. but we had that floosh flooding, which impacted a huge swath of our town, 90% of our town was impassable. and that had nothing to do with the river. it had to do with the flash floods. so we have people who didn't typically flood, and i'm looking at pictures, and this continues to break my heart. people who aren't usually affected, they were. if i can just tell you a quick story, when i listened to that little boy before, i was at the evacuation center overnight and they brought this family in. and they had a 5-year-old son,

who at least 20 times that night told me the story about how he saw his brother going under water, his mother going under water. heartbreaking is an understatement. >> heartbreaking, one of the reasons why the president calls this a code red. sahil, not only is the president trying to get traction for his infrastructure package off of the disaster we face, but he's also calling on congress to approve more than $20 billion immediately for disaster relief from ida. where does all this stand? it's a lot of money. >> reporter: it is a lot of money, stephanie. it's about $24 billion in total in disaster relief funding to address aid for the hurricane, for the flooding, and for wildfires out west. now, senate majority leader chuck schumer enthusiastically supported this request yesterday, said it's exactly what hard-hit communities across the country desperately need.

speaker nancy pelosi is speaking to reporters later this morning. congress can tinker with the numbers, but it should get it out. the problem is the process that this is roped up into. it's likely to go on the government funding bill which has a september 30th deadline. we know congress loves to brush up against deadlines and get really close to it and there are contentious matters on that bill. the debt limit, my sources tell me many democrats expect to put a debt extension on the bill and that is a red line that senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell has drawn. he said republicans will not support raising the debt limit now and the democrats in his view need to do that on their own. this is the political football that the disaster aid is going to be roped up into, completely separate issues heading up against this end of september deadline where congress has to fund the government, there's going to be a deadline to raise the debt limit. flood insurance is expiring, a

big problem with hurricane ida wreaking havoc the way it is, along with infrastructure and this multi-trillion dollar package disaster aid is a short-term solution. president biden emphasized yesterday the long-term solution is major investments in climate change mitigation, to limit the damage that these kinds of storms can do in the future, stephanie. >> sahil, mayor, sam, allison, thank you so much. in texas, one week after one of the nation's most restrictive abortion laws went into effect, clinics in less restricted bordering states are being inundated with phone calls from texans. texas governor greg abbott continues to defend the law. you've got to hear this. >> it doesn't require that at all because, obviously, it provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an

abortion. so, for one, it doesn't provide that. that said, however, let's make something very clear. rape is a crime. texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets. so goal number one in the state of texas is to eliminate rape so that no woman, no person will be a victim of rape. >> i need help because last i checked, rapists get arrested after they commit rape and it is currently a crime. if the governor was able to get all those people off the streets, why aren't they off the streets? i've got to bring in priscilla thompson and a college freshman who made national headlines earlier this year when she spoke out against the texas law during her valedictorian speech.

priscilla, you are outside a planned parenthood clinic. talk to us about the impact this law is having one week after it went into effect. >> reporter: stephanie, by law in the state of texas, this planned parenthood and other clinics like it cannot offer abortion services after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks, when many people may not know they are pregnant. so what planned parenthood has been doing, when they're getting calls from women who are beyond that point, they're working to refer them to neighboring states that do not have these types of laws in place. so places like colorado and new mexico specifically. at the same time, there are smaller clinics in these neighboring states that are also being inundated with phone calls. we've been in touch with clinics in oklahoma and they tell us that before this law went into effect, they were getting around three to five phone calls from texans per day. as it stands today since this law has been enacted, they've

booked more than 150 abortions. the majority of them people from texas who are going to be coming over to get those services. they are booking through the rest of this month. and i spoke with them about how they're working to address this influx. they're working to increase staffing, asking doctors to work extra hours. we're even seeing reports of some clinics in texas sending doctors to these neighboring states in order to accommodate this influx of patients coming from texas. stephanie? >> you knew this was coming, you warned us about it. you saw this as such a crisis, you made your high school valedictorian speech about it. now here it is and the rest of the country is waking up to it and we're in shock. what's your reaction? >> i'm incredibly update that a piece of legislation like this even went into effect in a place like america and a place where we value freedom and liberty. my state has decided to turn its

back on those principles and take away a fundamental basic human right from half of its population. >> not just a college freshman now. you are an advocate and activist. what are you doing next? >> well, as you know, i'm working on my book "a war on my body" and that book is going to focus on telling a lot of different perspectives that are often not taken into account when we talk about the abortion situation. we're going to talk about the racial disparities that people face when trying to access this health care. we're going to talk about the nonbinary perspective, what it's like as a member of the lgbtq community, and we're also going to take a trip back to pre-roe v. wade when people were literally dying on the streets trying to access health care. >> how do you feel? what is this like for young women in texas right now? >> it's a very scary time. >> priscilla, i know democrats are now calling on the justice department to get involved. what is that all about?

>> reporter: yeah, and they don't just want the justice department to get involved. they also want congress to do something about this. the texas democratic party released a statement saying they're grateful that the attorney general has said he's going to use federal laws to protect women and that he's looking at ways to challenge this texas law. but the reality is challenging this law is going to be tricky because it places the onus on private citizens to sue abortion providers or people who helped someone to get an abortion after that six-week timeframe. so there's no state official that the attorney general could go after. and so instead, texas democrats are saying the supreme court didn't do when they needed to do in this situation, at least according to democrats who feel that they should have blocked this law. now they're saying congress needs to act to provide federal protections for abortion rights. steph? >> thank you both for joining me this morning. moments ago, the biggest confederate monument in our

country was officially taken down, removed. we're going to go live to richmond next. later, pediatric cases of coronavirus are at their highest levels ever. we're going to explain why that is only part of the worry as we watch for a post-labor day covid surge. like the splash they create the entrance they make, the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you.

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in richmond, virginia, which is six stories tall and weighs 12 tons was just removed. it comes after virginia's governor ordered it gone more than a year ago when the state supreme court cleared the way for it to officially go just one week ago. shaquille brewster is on the ground in richmond. what is the community saying about this? what was it like to watch this? >> reporter: i'll tell you, there were celebrations, cheers, chants. there's not a large group of people all in one central location, they are scattered around this intersection. i'll let you see in the circle here, the statue right now, what has become iconic here in richmond, virginia, the statue is down and at grand level. and you have around the entire circle here different groups of people who are there watching it take place, watching the removal. there was a countdown before it was officially removed. the pedestal will remain there

until the community decides what they want to do with it and make of this circle now. i do have a conversation with the mayor of richmond. he was not in charge of the removal. this is a removal that happened by the order of the governor. but the mayor of this community described it as a healing moment. listen to how he put it to me. >> we get to close a chapter on a lost cause and begin the real healing process that we should have undergone a long time ago. now we can embrace a new title, not one of confederacy, but the capital or compassion, inclusivity and being more welcoming to equity. >> reporter: now, stephanie, this was not an easy process at all to get to this day. the governor officially ordered the statue to be removed more than a year ago, ten days after the murder of george floyd, but the process was held up, any action was held up because of an ongoing legal battle. after the state supreme court

just last week ruled from the governor could have the statue removed, that's when he started the process and scheduled this date, put this date on the calendar for when it will be removed. it's important to know how different what we saw happen this morning is from what we saw over the past year with other confederate monuments and statues, where in those instances you had protesters sometimes toppling people on their own. this was done in broad daylight by the order of the governor, and streamed so the world can see. i think bottom line now, based on the cheers and people who are still out here watching workers work on this statue, is that statue of the confederate general, robert e. lee, is now gone. >> wow, you cannot change history, but you can decide who we honor and what we do going forward. thank you so much. coming up, covid cases are up over 300% compared to this time last year, months before we had the vaccine. and with flu season just around the corner, how bad could the

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now to the coronavirus pandemic. president biden set to unveil a new strategy to fight the latest

wave of infection, including the delta variant. and it comes as more than three-fourths of adults have gotten at least one vaccine dose, which is very good news. but, unfortunately, the country is also on edge as we head toward a very uncertain fall. in the state of idaho, for the first time, health officials are now starting to ration care in several hospitals. across the nation, pediatric cases have reached the highest point of the pandemic just as our kids are heading back to in-person school. and if that isn't scary enough, in the state of kentucky, lawmakers are now considering ending the mask mandate in schools exactly as their cases are surging. so i am going to need this explained to me. i'm bringing in cal perry on the ground in kentucky, and the founder and ceo of a company that tries to stop the spread of disease by using data and that data of theirs has beat the cdc before. i want to know what he knows.

cal, explain this to me. one-fifth of kentucky schools had to close completely due to covid within a month of being opened. why would they even think of scrapping the mask mandate? >> reporter: yeah, 30 school districts are not in school today. you have a state legislature that is republican and a governor that is democratic and this is just part of kentucky politics here on the ground. it is as important to the state legislature to overturn what the governor has said the issues of masks are for them. that is clear on the ground. and when you talk to educators, they'll tell you masks are vitally important in getting kids back into school across the state. i had the chance to speak to the superintendent of hairson county public schools. take a listen to what he had to say. >> masks are absolutely necessary in schools. our quarantine rules determine who has exposure, so based on the distance and those things, absent masks we just simply don't have the social space within the schools in order to be able to operate safely and

efficiently without having numerous and just an unbelievable amount of quarantine. >> reporter: now, as a backdrop of schools closed and a special legislative session at the capital which will last through this week, you have hospitalizations at an all-time high, cases at an al-time high. 13 now, in one week. the governor says the situation is at a brink. hospitals are having to move patients around in icus that are full. last week was the first week since the pandemic began where kentucky fell below 100 available icu beds. that is not a place they want to be. certainly keeping the schools out, these 38 districts, is an attempt to lower the numbers before trying to get children back into the classroom. >> schools aren't even open and they're considering ending the mask mandate. i don't get it. we saw 300% more new cases on average during this labor day while we have the vaccine compared to last year. since then, we saw lots of packed football games and airports over this weekend.

how concerned are you about a labor day surge? >> i'm really concerned, not only about a labor day surge, but this overall illness season. what we're projecting is a severe level of illness, multiple circulating illnesses, not only covid and covid in the vaccinated will manifest itself like cold and flu, in the unvaccinated it will manifest itself with hospitalizations and deaths. but we're also expecting a severe cold season and we are expecting flu on top of that, too. >> okay, until a moment ago i had never even heard of the word multidemic, but i have the covid vaccine and i am going to get my flu shot. for those of us who are taking necessary precautions, how scared should we be? at this point, this is a pandemic by choice. >> i am concerned. the thing that i'm most concerned about is the chaos that will ensue from

uncertainty. and the weaponization, the political weaponization of this information. because the challenge is that all of those things, covid in the vaccinated, colds and flu will all start like cold and flu symptoms. you'll have fever, you'll have fatigue and you won't know what you have. you won't know what's circulating in your area. and going to the doctor is a challenging thing right now. people are trying to avoid that. so it's the uncertainty around what's going around i'm most concerned about. and the second thing i'm really, really concerned about, children cannot be vaccinated and we're also seeing in our data that children under 12 are seeing elevated levels of illness, higher than what would be typical for this time of year for september. that has been true for the past few months. starting august 15th, we saw a surge in children 10 to 17. so we're seeing back-to-school is creating a surge in illness. >> people are also freaking out about this new mu variant, the

idea that it could evade the vaccines. w.h.o. says, no, the delta variant is far more dangerous. what do you know? >> you know, the data is still coming out. we are very concerned about mu. the latest data suggests that it's prevalent in most states in the country and it's spreading. but i think the data is still coming out and i'll refer to the w.h.o. and cdc on more data on whether vaccines can actually stop it or not. but it is definitely very concerning. >> thank you both for joining us. you make us smarter every time you are here. look at the calendar. we are officially in september and if you thought you would be back in the office, well, there's a good chance you are still at home. covid cases are still soaring across the nation because, we just said it, of the delta variant. and for millions of office workers, their return to work plan is now the great wait and it is costing employers millions and millions of dollars. joining us now to discuss,

microsoft president brad smith. he is also the coauthor of "tools and weapons, the promise and peril of the digital age". always good to see you. i wish it was about better news. even if the delta variant didn't exist, we are seeing a huge push from workers in sort of every industry who have now said, i've been home for a year and a half, i don't want to go back to work. is this going to be a long-term reality? >> i think, stephanie, that we're going to see a future for the long term that gives many people, not everyone, but many people more flexibility and more choice. it is worth keeping in mind there's a large number of workers that have never had the ability to work from home. people who are in critical service jobs and the like. but for people in offices, as you point out, technology has sustained them, it has sustained all of us, and i think we have a future where people will be back in the office, they'll be back together in certain scenarios and many people will also want

to work more from home and it will be more of a hybrid future, if you will. >> but being so dependent on technology makes us vulnerable. now that less and less workers are physically in the same building, how vulnerable a position does that put companies in in terms of cybersecurity? >> well, it definitely makes cybersecurity a more important issue than ever. and, of course, all of this is at a time where over the last year we've seen an increase in various types of cybersecurity attacks. so this is absolutely a time when we all need to step up. i think we in the tech sector have the first responsibility. we're seeing the biden administration take new steps, welcome steps, to bring everybody together, to work together. i think we're going to need stronger laws, we're going to need stronger collaboration across borders in order to secure the future. >> your company said it would quadruple cybersecurity investments over the next five

years. that's $20 billion. not a lot of companies have that kind of money. for smaller businesses out there, is cyber the biggest threat? what can they do? >> well, i think the good news for a smaller business is, frankly, the more we spend at a company like microsoft, the more our customers should be able to rely on what we are creating for them. now, it doesn't mean that people get to close their eyes and then just take all of the protection for granted. it's a little bit like a seatbelt in a car, in part, you have to actually put it on, you have to turn on multi factor authentication and apply best practices. but one of our goals is to make it easier and easier for all of our customers, regardless of their size and sophistication, to take advantage of more cybersecurity protection. >> you mentioned the president. your ceo just met with him. cyber warfare is enormously

dangerous. more than telling companies they need to do more, does the government need to step in in a significant way? you mentioned laws and regulations. what does that look like? >> i think it means a number of things and i think the good news is we're starting to see things move in the right direction. one first step that this administration is taking is better coordination and the better aggregation of intelligence data across the government as a whole. i think a second step is closer collaboration with the private sector and this white house is bringing the private sector together for this. we need new legislation in congress. i do think we need certain reporting obligations, especially on tech companies, but more broadly, so that when we are seeing incidents, that information is flowing to the right places. i think we need stronger international laws, laws that put cyberattacks against health care providers, against schools, against the supply chain, off

limits, and then we need a coordinated response when we see governments violate these rules. and we're starting to see movement, but we need a lot more ahead. >> a coordinated response and collaboration, we certainly need it. easier said than done. brad, always good to see you. thank you for joining us. coming up, we are all remembering 9/11, 20 years later. i will be speaking to one man doing everything he can to make sure the heroes of that or lines for family members, you'll get great value on america's most reliable 5g network. like 2 lines of unlimited for just $27.50 a line.

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you booked a cozy vrbo mountain cabin. [laughs] with a kitchen where everyone can chef. [laughs] a family room where you can let your hair down. and a backyard that is a tree-lined living room. but the thing they'll remember forever? watching the game together once again. ♪♪ the time for getting back together is now. ♪♪ find it on vrbo.

growing up in a little red house, ♪♪ on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious.

be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort. that delicious omelet was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. paper money. it's the future! get outta here. i'm leaving with my gold. it's not crazy. help me, mother. it's an omelet. just crack an egg. believe it, will mark the 20th anniversary of the september 11th attacks. it's hard for me to even get the words out. a day that will forever be remembered for both its victims and its heroes.

fdny fire chief was nearby when the planes hit and he found himself calling the shots on that fateful day. he spoke to nbc's lester holt about what happened next. >> you immediately sent your firefighters into the north tower. did you know what you were sending them into? >> i knew that we had multiple floors on fire and i knew that thousands of people were trapped. >> he made critical decisions, ordering the south tower evacuated before it was hit, likely saving countless lives. among the firefighters who raced into the north tower was his younger brother and fellow firefighter, kevin. >> my brother, as he came in, we were able to look at each other and wondered if we were both going to be okay. >> and later as the conditions grew worse, the chief issued this ominous order. >> i got on the radio and said, command to all units in tower

one, evacuate the building. >> you were asking firefighters to leave a burning building, with full knowledge that there were people that you couldn't reach. >> perhaps the first time in history that a fire chief ordered the evacuation of firefighters with 1,000 people in the building. >> had his book "ordinary heroes", he doesn't describe supermen rushing into the tower, but ordinary, mortal men. >> i look at my hero firefighters and i think they would say the same thing, that they did ordinary things, but at an extraordinary time in history. >> including his brother. >> this is my brother. we lost the entire company that day. >> as we walk along, you see all these names, these are the people we lost that day. how much do you think about the

people that you and your firefighters saved that day? >> that day we saved 20,000 people, and i think that's what we have to remember. >> 20,000 people were saved by those heroes. right now i want to bring in the chairman and ceo of the tunnel to towers foundation. he created it to honor his late brother steven, an off-duty firefighter who responded on foot to the twin towers and he lost his life trying to save others. frank, i have seen you do this walk, this run, year after year. tell us about this brother and how he inspired you to do what you do. >> well, 20 years ago my brother was just on his way home from his night duty, squad one in brooklyn, and he heard the towers were hit. so he went back, got his gear, drove to the mouth of the brooklyn battery tunnel, it was closed for security reasons, so he strapped 60 pounds of gear on his back and ran through the

tunnel, which is almost two miles long, up west street into what we believe was the south tower because we never recovered him. but i will say that's where his other 11 firefighter brothers were from squad one that were recovered, and they all died. and while saving other people's lives, he gave up his own, and we were so inspired by what my brother did, we started the tunnel to towers foundation and now we do so much for our men and women in uniform, all the first responders that died in the line of duty that leave young kids behind. we're proud of the work. because of the actions of my brother, we've been helping so many thousands and thousands of families. >> frank, you're going a lot farther than the two miles through the tunnel. this never forget walk started in d.c. a few weeks ago, it's going to end on saturday at ground zero. during this journey i know you have met with tons and tons of people. as you talk to them, do you feel like they understand the sacrifices that were made that day, or are you concerned that memories are fading?

>> well, the people that have joined me on this walk, and i started at the pentagon on august 1st, i was at shanksville, pennsylvania, on august 21st, and i'll be retracing my brother's footsteps on the 20th anniversary on september 11th. i'm doing it with sneakers, he did it with his gear. i'm coming out of the tunnel and looking at the freedom tower. he saw two towers on fire with horrific scenes. but, yes, i have two concerns. one is that it is fading with a lot of americans and that's why i'm doing this walk, 537 miles, so people never forget. and as you said earlier before the break, we want to honor the sacrifice and we honor the sacrifice by doing good. so i've met so many americans that love america, that are waving the flag and say never forget. those people i'm not worried about. but there's so many young families that have been at different parades we've had and gatherings and i'm just in awe of these families that are telling their kids about what

happened 20 years ago. so the walk has done everything i hoped it to be and it has been a very spiritual journey for myself. >> what is your message to people in other parts of the country, other parts of the world? you were in staten island that day. you thought you were going to golf with your brother. i was in lower manhattan. for us, we're new yorkers. it was in our back yard. this event is permanently imprinted in us. for people in nebraska, in kansas, what do you want them to understand about 9/11? >> well, i think a lot of them do understand that it could happen again and that is my biggest fear as a 9/11 family member. i don't want to see other families go through this. and, you know, we've had 7,000 men and women that have given their lives for our country to keep us safe here in america and nebraska and everywhere else that you can think of. but new york is always the main target, for sure. it represents america and the greatness of america. but we're resilient, we've come

back. my family, we made a decision early on, we didn't want to stay in that dark space. just like my brother came out of the tunnel, came out the other side to help and save lives, we want to come out on the other side to help other families have this experienced the same thing. and we just lost 13 great americans recently, the last 13, hopefully, that died in afghanistan. and we're going to take care of any of those families that have young families. rest assured, we'll be helping that family. so our foundation is simple. we want to make a promise, this is the promise we made, that when you go to serve your country or your community and you give your kids a kiss good-bye and you don't come home, tunnel to towers foundation is going to take care of your family. we're going to deliver you a mortgage-free home and we ask people to join us on our mission and our journey. >> wow, what a way to honor your brother.

frank, thank you so much. i hope i get to see you on saturday down there at ground zero. >> tonight you are going to want to watch "memory box". this the story of september 11th through personal recollections, recorded from a video booth in the wake of the attacks, 20 years later those same eyewitnesses return to the booth and reflect on the last two decades. watch "memory box: echoes of 9/11" commercial free tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc and stream it exclusively on peacock. you don't want to miss this. those lives, they deserve to be honored. we'll be right back. get...get mom. [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning app with 24/7 support when you need it the most. don't get mad. get e*trade and start trading today. riders, the lone wolves of the great highway.

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national importance. california as you know, one of the top ten economies in the country -- in the world, 40 million people. what happens here affects the rest of the nation and the governor has all sorts of extraordinary powers. if for instance 88-year-old dianne feinstein were god forbid to fall into ill health and pass away the governor in place would name her replacement, just one of really a long list of things that a new governor could do if they were to step in and replace gavin newsom. that is why kamala harris returning here to alameda county, san leandro where she'll stand behind me in a few hours, once worked in the district attorney's office, began her career making her the local voice with huge national weight to talk about why the democratic party needs the recall effort to be shot down so that gavin newsom can finish out his term. at this point, stephanie, we're looking at a momentous junt

undertaking. this recall will cost the state about $276 million to get it done and again, the implications just go on and on. california has some of the most stringent environmental regulations in the country. it really sets the tone on all sorts of national policies, because once california sets a policy, everybody else has to follow it. that is why they're bringing out the big guns here in alameda county today. >> bringing out the big guns. we will be watching. september 1th is the date, jake, thank you. thank you for watching. that wraps up this busy hour. i'm stephanie ruehl. hallie jackson picks up breaking news coverage on the other side of the break.

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right now that back and forth over school mask mandates front and center in at least two states as we come on the air. right now in a florida courtroom you've got lawyers for governor ron desantis fighting to reinstate his executive order that bans schools from requiring students to mask up. then in kentucky, governor andy bashir trying to do the opposite with day two of a special session on covid, and lawmakers advancing a bill that would get rid of the governor's mask mandate for schools and day care centers. all of this as officials hope for a slowdown in the covid crisis but it's not happening in idaho, where they're rationing health care because of so many patients.