that's come out of this god awful crisis regarding covid is ordinary people who never thought about the technician at the drugstore, never thought about the grocery store worker, never thought about what that firefighter has to do when they go in. they don't ask, do you have covid or not? never thought about the people who keep this country running before. i really mean this sincerely, it's a reality, and i think people went, whoa! whoa! and instead of what was a good thing, banging pots and pans when people came back from rescuing other folks, make them begin to realize, you know, this is part of the deal and to use my dad's expression, and i mean it sincerely, and some of you knew my dad said everyone is

entitled to be treated with dignity. that's what labor unions are all about. they provide dignity for people who deserve to be treated differently, and i want to thank joslyn, and i want to thank president and madam president. i know you didn't expect to be in this role at this moment, but as i told you before i believe that the future of american labor is in very good hands. i really mean it. thank you. [ applause ] >> i want to welcome everyone to the white house. i really mean that. this is your house. it's not hyperbowl. this is a fact. this is your house. i wouldn't be here without you. in my white house you will always be welcome. you will always be welcome. labor will always be welcome. i intend to be the most

pro-union president, the most pro-union presidency in american history and one of the things i am able to do that is that the public has changed, too and you've educated the public. i want to thank the dues-paying members of the laborers -- marty. marty walsh who has helped me make sure that we keep the commitments across our entire government and before i go any further i'd like to pause for a moment of silence. hundreds of union workers and essential workers who have died from covid-19 and a buddy, john sweeney who we lost earlier this year and to honor a truly dear friend, rich chunk. a moment of silence, please.

>> thank you. this is real. one of the things i admired about rich is that he understood what people in this economy are facing and he felt it in his bones. he understood what had happened to workers in this country like you do. i got to know a lot of you really well. you taste it. you understand it. i get kidded by my staff for all these years and i say i trust the person most who arrives at the right decision when it starts in their gut and goes with their heart and then they have the ability to articulate it because it goes to the brain. they're the ones that never back down. they're the ones that stay with you. once you arrive at intellectually are the ones that i welcome that, but they're not the ones who will stay until the end, and you know, rich

understood the past and the challenges like so many of you who lived and led through these moments, but he also understood the future. i think he understood who built this country and the tools that are needed to build it back and build it back better. you've heard me say it 100 times and we're the only country in the world that has the crisis and when we come out of it, we build it back differently. we have to build back better. we have to. we must. we will because that's who we are. that's what america is. on labor day we honor the dignity of the american worker and every day we remember that america wasn't built by wall street. they're not all bad folks on wall street. i'm not suggesting that, but they didn't build america. it was built by the middle class and unions built the middle class. [ applause ]

>> he gave workers a voice for our great-gand father bullet who was an engineer. back in the days of the molly maguires and the way the folks were treated in northeast pennsylvania in the coal mines. he gave people a voice. molly maguires, they were a little tougher. he gave them a hard time and he ended up on the doorstep in a bag, but you know, think about it. what are the basic things. you have to give people the ability to be able to take a deep breath and have a little bit of breathing room, and what are those things?

well, health care. a pension, god willing. high are wages for the safer workplace and protections against discrimination and harassment. that's not asking too much. we fundamentally transformed how we live and how we work in this country. the reason we have is because of the victories won by labor. i'll be repetitive. the eight-hour day, the weekend, time and a half for safety standards, sick days, and victories for all of us because i might add, i notice when you all do that everybody benefits whether they belong to a union or not. [ applause ] whether they belong to a union or not. [ applause ] >> when unions win workers across the board win. that's a fact. families win. community wins.

america wins. we grow, despite this workers have been getting cut out of the deal for too long a time. from 1948 after the war until 1979 productivity in america increased by more than 100% while the pay for american workers grew by 100% and along came 1979 and everything began to change. productivity in the country has grown almost four times faster than pay in 1979. that means workers have been giving much more to the employers' bottom lines than they've gotten back in their paychecks, breaking the basic bargain of this country. the bargain was if you contributed to the welfare of the outfits you got to share in the benefits. well, that stopped for a long time. so you can carve out your piece

of the middle class and make it a possibility. that's what got taken away rom a lot of people and instead people started seeing the stock market and executive pay as the only measure for economic growth. by the way, the stock market's gone up exponentially since i've been president. you haven't heard me say a word about it. i'm glad it's gone up. no problem. look, let me tell you something. my measure of economic success is how families like mine growing up, working families busting their neck, how they're doing. whether they have a little breathing room. whether they have a job that delivers some dignity, a paycheck you can support a family on. in the economy my administration is building, instead of workers competing with each other for the jobs that are scarce, everybody's mad at me because now, guess what?

employers are competing to attract workers. having to raise pay. [ applause ] i'm serious, think about it. that kind of competition in the market helps workers earn higher wages and gives them the power to demand dignity in the workplace. worker power is essential for building our economy better back than before, to grow the corporate power and to grow the economy up from the middle out. i am so tired. when have the middle class done wealthy where the wealthy haven't done incredibly well. i can't think of a time when the middle class is booming and moving everybody does well, and to give workers even more power i also signed an executive order to improve competition in the economy including calling for a ban on non-compete agreements that deny workers the right to change the job in the same field

even when there's no real reason for a company to stop them. it's all about suppressing wages. that's what it's about. in congress, when congress passed the 1935 labor relations act, it didn't just say you can have union, and it shouldn't be allowed and viewed for a long time. it says we, the government should encourage unions of collective bargaining and making it easier. that's that's what it said. >> believe every worker should have a free and fare choice, that p/e longs to workers and the special interests, it's why creating, organizing and to facilitate that choice whenever

and wherever we can. i want to thank secretary walsh, marty, for leading that task force. that's why i want to see the congress pass the pro act and send it to my desk immediately. that's why i want to extend collective bargaining rights to state and local government employees and why transit workers, first responders, healthcare workers and other essential workers and guess what? the public seems to agree with that, as well. the government should never be a barrier to workers organizing. it's government's job to remove those barrier, but it is up to workers to make the choice whether to organizor not, whether to tomorrow a union or not, and we need to help them understand why that could be right choice for them. >> you know the economic races and wages like health insurance and paid leave and safe from the hell worker. >> there's another reason.

a basic unioned have. they gain power over the decision makers and the decision makers that change their lives. this simple word is that there is democracy. democracy. organizing and joining a union is democracy in action and it's about dignity on the job and creating good jobs. stop the economic bleeding and it was the worst bleeding since roosevelt. we passed the rescue plan and provided the extra breathing room for working families and it help states and cities keep essential workers on the job including educator, police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers and thanks to the part of rescue plan named for ohio labor under bush lewis, over a million retirees and

workers across the country. [ applause ] >> they can trust that the pensions they work for and sacrificed their cure, we'll be there for them. [ applause ] >> you know -- >> through the bipartisan agreement we reached to build america's infrastructure putting hundreds of thousands of people to work including plumbers, pipe fitters, electrical work e steelworkers and so many other workers, water am is, broadband system, capping a band on oil and gas wells making the same salary as digging that well and creates jobs for american workers and makes our cities and towns more resilient and better able to meet the climate crisis and to keep those jobs here at home, when your government spends the taxpayer's dollar it's going to buy american

goods, made in america by american workers. [ applause ] >> look, over the years the buy america act has been a hollow promise. it's been there for a long time. i'm going to make it a reality. the next stop, the next stop is dealing with the ability to pass the rest of my build back better agenda. once in a generation investments in our people, making housing more affordable, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs by bringing medicare the power to negotiate for lower prices. you ought to thank bernie sanders for a lot of this. making elder care and child care more affordable while improving the pay of home care workers and child care workers. providing paid family leave and medical leave so that no worker

is forced to choose between their job and their caregiver responsibilities. you've all fought for all these things. you've got to make them available, and provide two years of free university high-quality pre-k and high-quality pre-k and two years that are needed. it shows that if you send a kid to school at age 3, 4 and 5 they increase by 56% no matter what the background that they'll go through school all 12 years and you're good. >> when i asked the obama administration i was asked to find out that what was their greatest concern. 348 or 47 i can't remember the number i got to. the single most important thing is they needed a better educated public, but guess what? they weren't paying for it. and guess what?

does anybody think if we were starting off from scratch setting up public education we'd say 12 years was enough for the 21st century? so look, we have to invest in high-quality training and fast-growing sectors, compete to give middle-class families a well-deserved tax cut for day care and health care and provide a significant monthly tax cut for working family with children and everybody talks about my child tax credit, it is a tax cut for ordinary folks. that's what it is. [ applause ] in spite of that, i want us to see us finally, finally provide dreamers, tps recipient, farmers, essential workers and a pathway of citizenship, bringing them out of the shadows to receive the representation that our laws and our unions provide.

[ applause ] folks -- we're making progress. our economy is at its 750,000 jobs in a month on average during the past three months since i've been here. there are more than 4 million jobs since i took office. in the first half of this year our economy grew at the fastest rate in 40 years. unemployment is down. my build back better investments will allow us to keep and progress and move further in the years to come. i just want to add one more thought in closing. while the pandemic has prevented me from traveling as much as i'd like, i've had a chance to meet with many of your brothers and sisters and many of you. the proud uaw members bringing cars and trucks in pennsylvania and michigan and noting that the big three have decided that along with the support of those unions building, going electric so we own that market.

steelworkers in portsmouth, virginia, and ibw workers and iron workers and nurses and grocery store workers in cincinnati, plumbers and gas fitters in maryland, aft teachers in virginia, and by the way, of course, i sleep with a member every night. the same one. jill had her first day of full-time teaching yesterday, this year, back to school. look, i've talked with union transit workers, machinist and labor workers in wisconsin. we've had teamsters here in the white house and the teamsters have always had my back and last week i met with the first responders in new orleans, and on monday i dropped by some of the ibw linemen in delaware to

help them recover from hurricane ida. you know, in the last year has taught us anything, it's what's essential. what's essential is you. you and your union members. wall street can go on strike, but all of a sudden in the middle of ida every ibw member resigned we'd be in real trouble. i say that to make a generic point. i think we significantly underestimate, and i think even you guys sometimes underestimate, the incredible value you bring to the safety, security and growth of the economy. . you know, you're america's heart and america's soul and we all need to fight as hard for them and work as hard for them as we can, and i want to say the press was very, very -- not just the press, a lot of people were

very, very skeptical that when i was talking about that we had to deal with the environment that labor would never help. guess what? labor is the reason it's working. labor stepped up because you all understand, and i made a promise and i'll keep it that what we're talking about here is when you think of global warming, think of jobs. jobs. all of the jobs that we will create making us the fastest growing in the world. you do it all. i'm sorry to go on so long, but i can't thank you enough for all you've done for the country and what you've done for me over my career. you've educated me. you've brought me along and you've always been there. now i'm supposed to stop and walk out of the room here.

i'm going to stop, but with your permission i'm going to walk into the room because i want to say hello to you. thank you. [ applause ] >> and you've been watching president biden at a white house event in the east room, a couple of days after labor day as he digs into a critical month that can well-define his presidency and we begin with senior washington correspondent phil rucker, co-author of "i alone can fix it" and gerald cena, and eugene robinson. phil, you've watched this president for a long time. this is his happy place. he's with organized labor and this is his space. >> it certainly is, andrea. it's hard to think of a president who has had this deep of a connection to workers and

the blue collar working class of this country that joe biden has had and yet you heard there from him a real pitch for his build back better agenda which is very much hanging in the balance on capitol hill just up the road. this is a critical few weeks ahead to try to get not only that infrastructure deal through the house that has already passed the senate, but perhaps more importantly for biden that $3.5 trillion plan and a whole number of domestic agenda items designed to help people and families and very much in limbo because there's not universal support among the democrats and senate. >> jim messina, the future of this rests very much on the senate on senator manchin who has new bottom lines over the weekend, but it couldn't go anywhere without speaker of the house nancy pelosi. this is what she had to say and she's sticking to the plan of that $3.5 trillion.

>> we will have a great bill that honors the values of the president and his vision. i don't know what the number will be. we are marking at 3.5. we are not going above that. we have to talk about what does it take? what would you cut? i hope that as people are being looking at numbers that they're weighing the values. >> and she's talking about the mark-up. they are writing this bill right now with the house, ways and means with the congressmen. jim, you know what it's like. they can write when they want and they're keeping one eye, of course, on what can get past the senate. >> you're exactly right. washington understands two things, power and time. the democrats have the power and now they're starting to run out of time. when there's no better operator than nancy pelosi. she's a very small majority since world war ii and she's continued to get these big things through her house. now we're in a different game

where we'll have to compromise with the senate and figure out what the senate can do and the senate has no majority and they need the vice president to bring every tie vote and so these votes will be incredibly crucial and the clock is starting to tick. we only have so many legislative days before the end of the fall calendar and they've got to start moving here, but if there's anyone the democrats want in charge of getting this thing done it would be nancy pelosi. >> but eugene robinson, the challenges -- let's not even talk about the foreign policy, and i know you were a foreign editor and foreign correspondent for years and what's going on overseas and i'll be dealing with that later on in the program, but what about the voting rights bill and what about what happened in texas with greg abbot this week and what about the rape challenge, exactly when they said they'll have to do by codifying roe v. wade. how is that ever going to get anywhere? i didn't hear the president mention those priorities, by the way, to this labor audience.

>> right. those are very big and very good questions and unanswered questions. how in the world does congress move forward on voting rights? a crucial issue, i think, for the nation and certainly for the democratic party and how in the world do we deal with the texas abortion law which is going to be copied in other states or is it allowed to go into effect by the supreme court? it certainly bodes well for the future of roe v. wade, and so on the federal level there is going to be a need to do something about abortion yet not much ability to get that done. getting the infrastructure bill passed and whether it's 3.5 trillion in the reconciliation or some lesser number and jim and phil are rid. this is incredibly difficult.

however, it is at the bottom line arithmetic and democrats have to agree on the arithmetic. they already have republican agreement on hard infrastructure part and the rest they can do with democratic votes, so i think they will get this done, but those other issues of voting rights, abortion and other issues beyond, it's very difficult for me to see how ven nancy pelosi, the great financial wizard to get anything enacted on that. >> phil rucker, the midterms are just over the horizon and as much of a hit as the president may have taken over afghanistan and the way the afghanistan withdrawal took place, overall, withdrawing from afghanistan is popular. he's got the 9/11 commemorations coming up on saturday which will

be incredibly emotional, but covid is what they really feel has been an anchor weighing them down, the way the delta variant changed all of their plans. they confused messaging, of course, the booster shots and how that evolved and that's what he will be addressing tomorrow. >> that's exactly right, andrea, and we've seen the president's approval rating on his management of the coronavirus consistent through the year and it has started to fall in the last few weeks and the series of public polls that have come out in the past week or two show real signs of trouble and the washington post, abc news poll shows it down at 44% and that's not a good place for an incumbent president to be when he's trying to hang on to the house and there's concern for democrats although certainly

there's time for biden to turn that around. >> eugene robinson, what about abortion and the way the democrats are facing this issue? abortion is, of course, front and center with the texas law and the supreme court will be having oral arguments on the mississippi law which will be 15 weeks and that will be determinative. >> right. you can look at what the supreme court did or failed to do a few days ago on the texas law by letting it go into effect, and think that roe v. wade is going to survive very long. that just seems to be the worst of all possible moments for that decision, and without roe v. wade we're once again at the point of having these battles state by state. we could become a sharply divided nation on the question of abortion, almost two

different nations because it's very difficult for me to imagine how congress comes to some sort of consensus about a federal abortion law. it's never been able to do it before, and given the atmosphere right now, i just don't see that happening. i do see this, however, just in the pure, political sense in giving a boost to the democratic parties and i think people in the suburbs that joe biden took back will look at that texas law and say "whoa," and i think that's bad for republicans and can generally help democrats. >> and finally, jim messina, we don't even have to face the midterms to see an early test. at least in california we've got next week's voting on, of course, the recall of governor newsom. his margins aren't that great

right now. he had the vice president flying out there for a quick in and out trip to rally for him in her home state. she wouldn't be doing that, given how busy things are in washington if they weren't nervous about the potential of larry elder, a conservative show host, how do you game it? >> there should never be confidence. you need 50% of people say he shouldn't be recalled and then it goes to the next candidates and a conservative republican can win and just to make a quick point on the abortion issue, we saw it last night in bedford new hampshire and for the first time in 200 years democrats won a state house seat and it turned out to be a referendum. so eugene's exactly right. the supreme court in texas just threw a political bombshell in the middle of american politics

and we still don't know what's going to happen on that, so i think we are looking at very uncertain political times. >> thanks to all of you for starting us off. a very important month indeed for president biden and all of his agenda. thanks to phil rucker, of course, to jim messina and -- sorry about that, eugene. eugene. with the president still in the east room that's what we've been all focused on. he has just been shaking hands with his pals in the labor movement. thanks to all. >> and the secretary of state is pushing back on bipartisan criticism. the state department is responsible for the delay of getting the charter planes out of an airplane in northern afghanistan prepared to evacuate americans and at-risk afghans released from the tarmac, though, still delayed, and not released and both sides blaming each other. secretary blinken addressed the situation moments ago speaking

at ramstein air force base in germany. >> as of now, the taliban are not permitting the charter flights to depart. they claim some of the passengers do not have the required documentation. we are working to do everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground. >> he's been harshly criticized, of course, at the same time as relying on the taliban and the confusion as to who is responsible for those delays even as the taliban has been pummeling violently stopping protesters, women protesters largely around the country and especially in kabul and it was also announced a new interim government giving positions to two officials in the al qaeda-linked haqqani network who have been sanctioned by the u.s. they are on fbi wanted lists and now in the acting regime. those stranded in afghanistan also aren't able to get flights out, but they're resorting to

treacherous overland routes, some are. many are running into obstacles with documentation at the border. nbc's molly hunter is at a critical crossing between afghanistan and pakistan who filed this report for us. >> reporter: andrea, good afternoon from the border crossing. i am on the pakistani side. while secretary of state blinken speaking with regional allies after his visit to qatar. this is what's happening directly on the border. you have pakistani guards on this side and taliban guard, i would say two feet away right on the other side of the border. right there is afghanistan, andrea, and i just want to give you a sense. hundreds and hundreds of people are waiting over there. you have women and children, families over there and this is the pedestrian passage, we've been told. we have pakistani guides checking documents on the way in. we were able to speak with one of the taliban guards and they say they have about 20 people who have a serious medical issue and need medical care and need to come over and he also said

they're not letting anyone through the taliban side who pakistan won't let in. that is people with all of the correct documents, with siv visas and pakistani visas and papers to prove that they can cross. al already the host of several million refugees and they can't afford more refugees. we have spoken about the crossings here and it's been 200 to 300 people a day. you see trucks on this side and i'm just going to flip you around so you can see the trucks on that side. this is really what's been going back and forth through this border all morning. uhcr does say one of the other border cross, it's 350 miles south of where i am right now, much more active and right across from kandahar and the rough estimate 9,000 people crossed from afghanistan to

pakistan yesterday and once they get through, apparently, there are makeshift tents. what we are trying to figure out if there have been a lot of irregular crossings. so if people are coming across not at these formal crossings, but coming over this long, porous, mountainous, 1600-mile border and then trying to get into pakistan. andrea? >> molly hunter there at a critical crossing. joining me now is pentagon correspondent courtney kube and general mccaffrey. pakistan is the only exist strategy they've got. we don't believe that the russians are letting there be crossings and the continuous flow of crossings in the stands. china, similarly, another border. iran is not a great place for any americans to cross. upon there is no u.s. embassy support there, but in pakistan

there has been some u.s. embassy help. >> the reality is there are two ways for people to get out of afghanistan. over land or via air. we've seen just in the last couple of days how difficult it is for air right now what woo these reports of americans and others who are sitting on the tarmac in mazar-e-sharif trying to get on these charter flights and the taliban not allowing them to and keep in mind that not all of the airports are fully operational, and that presents a logistical hurdle in and of itself and as you rightly point out, andrea, there are only so many options for leaving via land and those are also not only fraught with peril to get through and getting to them can be difficult, as well and then they find an inhospitable when they are arriving and thousands arriving in countries like pakistan. the countries may not want to

take them in. the situation is definitely very difficult and very few options for particularly for the u.s. military where i'm standing right here. they will be diplomatic in nature and you will know, andrea, it will be the dip the mats working with the taliban most likely through an intermediary to get at-risk americans and afghans out of the country. >> i talked to aisha tanzeem. she got out and so many of her colleagues didn't, and i tried to clarify yesterday that voice of america is no longer part of the state department and totally an independent agency and it is funded by the u.s. government and a lot of these voice of america staff feel very much betrayed. they feel they should have gotten out along with other international media colleagues. >>a andrea, i wasn't sure if that was to me.

the military is out of the equation. we have very little leverage. the pakistanis and the chinese do. the hypocrisy inside the d.c. beltway is unbelievable. two presidents, trump and biden made legitimate decisions, political decisions to withdraw the military forces. we haven't had combat troops there and special ops in two years. it predictably collapsed. i don't think anyone who was aware of the situation on the ground thought it would do anything but that. the surprise is that it went under within a matter of days and week, but right now courtney's report is dead on the money. the military will not play a role. pakistan is not going to welcome millions of refugees through the crossing points and they'll cross through the thousand-mile border and they'll filter into iran which they're doing by the thousands. this will go on for years escaping this repressive and

rural pashtun taliban movement and that's where we are. >> and let's talk for a moment general about this new taliban acting government. so in this new regime none of the coalition partners abdullah or hamid karzai, surprisingly they've kept to their own including several members of the haqqani network. people with al qaeda links and on fbi wanted lists and have bounties on their heads and haqqani himself. how do we deal with them to help get our people out? why should they be recognized, but how do we alienate them when they're dealing with al qaeda, the very people that we defeated 20 years ago? >> you know, i dealt with hamid karzai in afghanistan and he is despicable. he is a significant part of the reason why there was no american

public support for this war. i also think that when we have an 18th century notion of diplomacy in the public dialogue right now. we already recognize the taliban and we're dealing with them in do happen. general don hugh in the military dealt with them day after day and we need to get an interest section back. and the haqqanis are terrorists more than jihadists and that's who they are. if we want to work deliberately on getting hundreds of thousands of afghans out who identify with democracy, freedom, individual rights and women's rights then we have to get on the ground. and courtney, you were just as we approach this 20th anniversary this weekend, you were just at fort drum in new york state with the tenth

mountain division. they were first in and last out. you talked to some of those soldiers. share that with us. >> that's right. so specifically, this was the 4th battalion 34th infantry regiment known as the polar bear unit. this was the first unit on the ground after the september 11th attacks and the last soldiers out and the last mission that they had there was the evacuation. these are infantry soldiers. this was outside of what they usually do when dealing with a humanitarian crisis and here's what they said. >> dealing with thousands of people coming on to an airport is something we've never seen and never specifically prepared for that. it was difficult. desperation especially. people are handing babies over or doing anything they could to try to get into the airport on to an aircraft. it was hard to see some of that stuff. >> about half of these soldiers too young to remember what drew

the u.s. into war in afghanistan, the september 11th attacks. >> it is surreal, growing up you hear things about the war in afghanistan and i find myself there. >> 140 soldiers returned on labor day and they were months behind when they were expecting to be home and andrea, about half of them don't even remember the september 11th attacks that drew the u.s. to war in afghanistan. >> well, as general mccaffrey knows better than anyone they're the best and the brightest. they are our true heroes, the men and women of the forces who went in 20 years ago and those who helped bring our people out. those that did get out. we got out because of our military. thank you both so much. courtney kube for everything you've done. coming up next, abortion law backlash. texas women fleeing the state searching for the medical treatment as the governor sets an unrealistic goal concerning

rape. what's that all about? and that new covid variant now here in the u.s. as delta still rages. what does it mean as more students are going back to school. you're watching andrea mitchell reports. this is msnbc. new customers get our best deals on all smartphones. that's right. but what if i'm already a customer? oh, no problem. hey, cam...? ah, same deal! yeah, it's kind of our thing. huh, that's a great deal... what if i'm new to at&t? cam, can you...? hey... but what about for existing customers? same deal. it's the same deal. is he ok? it's not complicated to open your possibilities. with at&t, everyone gets our best deals on every smartphone like a samsung galaxy z fold3 5g. usaa is made for the safe pilots. like mac.

who can come to a stop with barely a bobble. with usaa safepilot, when you drive safe... ...you can save up to 30% on your auto insurance. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. get a quote today. baaam. internet that doesn't miss a beat. that's cute, but my internet streams to my ride. adorable, but does yours block malware? nope. -it crushes it. pshh, mine's so fast, no one can catch me. big whoop! mine gives me a 4k streaming box. -for free!

that's because you all have the same internet. xfinity xfi. so powerful, it keeps one-upping itself. can your internet do that? turning to texas and that near ban on abortion in cases of rape and incest not excluded. governor greg abbot is being

accused of magical thinking after vowing to eliminate all rape in this state. >> why force a rape or incest victim to carry a pregnancy to term. >> 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. rape is a crime. goal number one in the state of texas is to eliminate rape. >> really? texas isn't doing that well at eliminating rape. fbi data shows state had the most reported cases of any state in the nation in 2019. joining me now nbc correspondent priscilla thompson at a planned parenthood site austin and former u.s. attorney joyce vance. first to you, you've been tracking neighboring states that have been getting calls from texas desperate for these services.

>> andrea, not just calls, but appointments and the majority of the appointments aren't residents of the state, but residents of texas. in the days immediately after this law went into effect they were receiving around 50 calls per day from women in texas, and since then to where we are today one week in, they have scheduled more than 150 abortion appointments. the majority of them for women from texas, and those women are a lot of them are under the age of 18 in their second trimester trying to figure out what to do here, and i want to play a bit of my conversation with rebecca tong, the co-executive director of the trust women's clinic in oklahoma. take a listen. >> for the state of texas to be telling their citizens to go out of state during a pandemic for a pill and for a five-minute

procedure is cruel, and i wish we could see everyone. i am not -- if we open the clinic 24/7 i'm not sure we would be able to see all of the people who need care. >> and that emotion that you're hearing there is matched by the reproductive justice advocates that i've been speaking to in the state who say they're also inundated with calls from women between 12 to 15 weeks pregnant trying to figure out what to do and in fear that they could be arrested or that something could happen to them if they moved forward with trying to have a procedure. andrea? >> thanks so much to priscilla thompson. >> joyce vance, let's get your reaction to the texas governor who was looking to eliminate rape. >> that's a fantastic goal. that should have been the goal for texas' governor and texas' leadership all along. the statistics you show, andrea,

indicate that they're not particularly successful at it and those numbers are replicated nationwide where rape and sexual violence are problems that we face that seem to be intractable. so this magical thinking of saying women won't need abortions because we're going to end rape. that's just window dressing and it's offensive and dangerous. it minimizes the denial of rights that texas is trying to visit on women in texas. >> and of course, as you know, better than anyone as a former prosecutor that when you come to issues like rape the statistics really lie because they underreport it because so many of those assaults go unchallenged, unmentioned and unprosecuted. joyce, you've also written a piece for msnbc documentary that this texas abortion law is just the start of a republican endgame. what do you see as the endgame? >> well, it is the endgame i suppose is the dobbs case from

mississippi that the supreme court will hear next term. that case would give the supreme court the opportunity that chooses to flat-out reverse row. right now roe versus wade is still the law in this country. what happened in texas was that asked the supreme court to take the modest step of preventing the law from going into effect while litigation on its constitutionality was ongoing. the supreme court denied to do that so that texas and the rights guaranteed by roe no longer exist in texas. what we'll learn with the supreme court next term is whether that will be expanded and will exist across the country rather than just in texas. >> thanks so much. in a speech tomorrow, president biden will explain how he plans to get the covid delta variant under control. his announcement will come amid concerns that the deadly virus is mutating yet again. joining us is the vice dean from

the johns hopkins bloomberg school of health. good to see you again. the president will have a six-part battle plan tomorrow stressing the need to vaccinate more americans, we understand. what do you want to hear from him beyond get those shots? >> i think that there will be several important policy elements including the approach to vaccine mandates where appropriate, what the federal government is doing to support safety in nursing homes and schools. but i also hope to hear a little bit of the why and the how, particularly if he can bridge to the groups that are really resistant to vaccination. you know, there are coaches doing videos. there are republican leaders doing videos. talking about vaccination. so it's really important at this moment to try and reduce the polarization that's happening because that is a major reason we're having such a problem with

covid this summer. >> to your very point, here's a video done by the university of kentucky men's basketball coach, a psa of sorts about getting the shots. >> i'm not telling anyone what to do with their body. i don't want to hear anybody died because they didn't do it. i'm just saying it doesn't say you'll never get it. but the chances of something severe happening are really, really low. i don't like shots either. when i see a needle, i about faint. you'll never see a tattoo on this body. you take the shot, you got a chance. >> this was not a psa, it was a press conference but he's making the point, you get tattoos, what are you so afraid of the shot about? >> it's a different messenger.

we need different people speaking to different audiences talking about the importance of vaccination, the importance of mask wearing when you're close to other people and why they do it, connecting in different ways. it's just -- you look at the math, you can see how politics has intruded into our response. i think the president is doing a great job leading and by bridging to some of these other messengers he can reach more people. >> i want to flag a shocking number. according to the american academy of pediatrics, more than 250,000 children have tested positive for covid in the last week as schools reopen. how do you deal with that? presumably these are a lot of younger children, below 12 years old. >> that's right. record number of kids are going into the hospital. i think 2,400 in the last week. this is a really challenging time for parents and kids. you know, the importance of school is still there. but caution and mitigation measures are also needed right

now. so the teachers being vaccinated, schools having ventilation, kids and teachers wearing masks, these things matter. they could be the difference between a school year where people are able to learn and have consistency and a year where just it's on and off so many different -- so many different kids being kept out of school. >> we all know the value of in-person education after that last year and a half. >> thank you very much. we'll all be watching the president's speech tomorrow. ethel kennedy, the widow of senator robert f. kennedy issuing a rare public statement about her husband's assassin, sirhan sirhan, who was accused of killing the senator in an l.a. ballroom moments after he won the primary 53 years ago. the california parole board recommended that he be freed

from prison, dividing the kennedy family on whether he should be released. ♪♪ >> reporter: 53 years after the assassination of robert f. kennedy that left a nation shattered, his widow, ethel, speaking out against the possible release from prison of his killer, sirhan sirhan writing our family and our country suffered an unspeakable loss due to the inhumanity of one man. we believe in the gentleness that spared his life, but in taming his act of violence he should not have the opportunity to terrorize again. adding simply in the handwritten note, he should not be paroled. along with her rare statement, the 93-year-old sharing a picture of her and rfk on their wedding day. in 1968, moments after the junior senator from new york won the california primary, sirhan sirhan fatally shot him at the l.a. ambassador's hotel. >> senator robert francis

kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. today, june 6, 1968. >> reporter: bobby's death coming five years after the assassination of his older brother. last month on his 16th attempt at parole, the parole board recommended sirhan, now 77, be released. two of rfk's surviving sons voiced their support for the gunman's release. six of their siblings spoke out against it writing in part as children of robert f. kennedy we are devastated that the man who murdered our father has been recommended for parole. it's a recommendation we intend to challenge every step of the way. one of the six, who was born six months after her father's death, writing in the "new york times" last week i never had the chance to see my father's face and he never had the chance to see

mine, adding what i do know is that mr. sirhan is not someone deserving of parole. a lawyer for sirhan says that under california law, parole will be granted unless the prisoner poses an unreasonable risk to the public if released. the parole board has several months to review its recommendation and then california's governor governor newsom has another 30 days to approve it, deny it or modify it. that does it for "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter. chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. what happens when we welcome change? we can transform our workforce overnight out of convenience, or necessity.

we can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. with app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change-- meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. faster. vmware. welcome change.

if it's wednesday, dozens of unanswered questions for the president and congress as democrats spar over the size, scope, messaging, timing and cost of a massive package of reforms. with the threat of a government shutdown just weeks away. president biden plans to lay out a new plan to fight the raging delta variant which is taking a toll on the economic recovery and his own party's fortunes. and growing fallout in texas where women are fleeing the state to get an abortion as governor abbott struggles to defend this controversial ban. ♪♪